Re: Stacks - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Re: Stacks - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by WGTB Blog

Catherine takes a look at the Wilco mega-hit Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in this first installment of 'Re: Stacks,' an article where we learn about the intimate relationships between listener and performer.

Review: 180° South: Conquerers of the Useless Soundtrack

180° South: Conquerers of the Useless Soundtrack
Various Artists
B

180° South: Conquerers of the Useless--just another regular movie about another bunch of regular guys, right? Not really. And it's not a soundtrack put together by a regular bunch of guys, either, but we'll get to that. To sum up, the plot of the movie consists of "adventurer*" Jeff Johnson deciding to venture off toPatagonia and retrace the steps of Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins, two regular guys who went to Patagonia in 1968, who had their lives "changed," and decided to put this "last wild place on earth" under protection. You'll have to take my word on this one, because I, too, have only seen the trailer, but I have the feeling Johnson's story will probably include beautiful nature shots, overcoming massive setbacks and finding his destiny along the 10,000 mile journey.

So what about the soundtrack, the one that you didn't get to listen to in the trailer because somebody decided to play Animal Collective instead? There's a little bit of Jack Johnson, a little bit of James Mercer, topped off by a whole lot of Ugly Casanova. Here's everything you'll need to know about Ugly Casanova, ever. In my professional opinion, that's a great backstory to a band if I've ever heard one. It is, however, unnecessary to read that the band is essentially Modest Mouse, because listening to just one song on this soundtrack will give that away--especially if it's not an instrumental and you can actually hear Isaac Brock's lisp. The Ugly Casanova tracks on the album sound like back-to-basics, performing-in-your-back-yard Modest Mouse, stripped down and a lot of twang. Jack Johnson has always been performingshirtless in your backyard (in Hawaii), with a lot of twang. James Mercer is harder to place--member of the Shins, and lately Broken Bells, what is he doing on this soundtrack? Let's take the fact that he was born in Hawaii as well--shirtless twang is, then, in his blood, as is protecting beautiful places, adventures, probably surfing, and definitely making soundtracks for movies about adventurers.

Essentially, these artists have written songs that will complement the film perfectly. Even listening to the soundtrack only once, it's easy to imagine where each of the stripped-down, restrained indie-rock tracks is going to fit into this movie--an adventure movie with a strong underlying environmental message. Take "Maybe We're Lost"--here's where the big plot setback will happen. It'll get really cold, and Jeff Johnson is going to lose a toe to frostbite, or his tent is going to blow away in the wind, or he'll be pummeled within an inch of his life by a monster wave. There's going to be a sweeping panorama shot that shows how small he really is, Man vs. Wilderness, while some muted guitar chords play and Isaac Brock mutters something existential into the microphone. Or take "Here's to Now"--here's how the movie will end, on a song that's probably about living in the moment (though I'm not quite sure), and in a broader sense about appreciating the things you can have in said moment, and trying to preserve them for the future. Man has the power todestroy, man has the power to save. After the thoroughly enjoyable yet predictable (don't these movies always end the same?) two hour ad made by Patagonia in support of environmental protection (and their clothing), we'll fade to black with a sense of urgency, impeding doom, and a modicum of hope.

"Man is alright, you can't beat him" --William Faulkner**

Highlight Tracks: "Here's to Now," "Maybe We're Lost"
When to Listen to the Album: While Napping on the Beach

-- Fiona Hanly

*first off, what kind of a career is "adventurer?!" and where can I sign up to be one??
**it must be something in the water, but Faulkner has been an inspiration to WGTB DJ's of late

Review: Band of Horses, Infinite Arms

Band of Horses

Infinite Arms

4.0 out of 10 disappointed fans

There it was, on display at the Whole Foods register, double-teamed by Jack Johnson and Michael Bublé: Infinite Arms, the latest release from Band of Horses. “Bwah?” No one around me would have known it, but I was immediately ashamed. How did my beloved band find themselves in the snoozer company of adult-contemporary all-stars who rhapsodize about banana pancakes (delicious, no doubt) and impersonate Frank Sinatra?

A phenomenal debut and an excellent sophomore album raised expectations for this third LP from the Seattle-turned-Carolina rockers. However, what should have cemented of Band of Horses’ place as one of the most satisfying acts in indie rock instead represented a dive into a limbo of lazily meandering melodies. I probably should have seen the writing on the wall, as lead singer Ben Bridwell remains the sole original member of the band. Even when the video for the first single, “Compliments,” previewed in early April, with its bizarre montage of nature photos, I refused to believe that more of this risk-averse music would come on the album. Of course, I was wrong.

If Cease to Begin was one totally acceptable step from Everything All the Time into more accessible song-craft, then Infinite Arms is a leap into substanceless tunes. From start to finish, not one song truly stands out from the rest, an absolutely glaring change from their previous efforts that reverberated indefinitely in my head for days and weeks at a time. Multiple-part harmony with a Southern-rock tinge reigns the day on this record, usually accompanied by a daintily strummed acoustic guitar and nominally tapped drums. The wondrous reverb is gone, as this album relies completely on the pleasant but lackluster vocals that constitute the foundation for each and every track.

The only remaining constants of today’s Band of Horses are Bridwell’s lovely and expansive voice, and an abundance of beards. Despite the nature motifs of this LP, the songs fail to reach into the infinite abyss as they once did; the vocals are altogether contained and restrained. Bridwell’s pipes no longer haunt nor unsettle, but instead breeze past the listener without taking root. Lyrics like “If there’s a God up in the air/Someone looking over everyone/At least you got something to fall back on” are straightforward and uninspired, with a sense of contentedness to just have someone listen to the singers’ musings. Songs such as “Blue Beard” resemble dated 1970s love-ballads, and don’t elicit more than an unimpressed sigh. Ironically, even with tunes that spill over with affections and aches, this record lacks heart.

And I don’t strive to be overly harsh, but I can’t help but discuss at length my disappointment with a band that I once held dear. It just seems that with the well-deserved success of their first two albums, Band of Horses, and Bridwell more specifically, made an indulgent record that they knew could ride on the coattails of fan loyalty. While Whole Foods’ prominent recognition of the group is not a damning sign in and of itself, it is certainly an indication that the band had lost its creative and compelling identity. Let’s hope that, somehow, Band of Horses regain their unshakable sound on the next effort..

Meh…: “On My Way Back Home” and “For Annabelle”

-Scott Lensing

Synesthesia: Eat, Pray, Love Trailer

Eat, Pray, Love

I don't know how anyone could have missed Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir Eat Pray Love when it came out in 2006––literally every single person (female) I knew on Earth had read it by the end of summer 2007, myself included, and half of those people again had made vows to attempt a similar experiment--to throwing the shackles off! A quick summary of the memoir's plot: "[Eat, Pray, Love] chronicles [Gilbert's] trip around the world after her divorce and what she discovered during her travels." Let me jump in and give away the ending: she discovers herself, and how to be happy. Classic plot twist! It took the movie industry exactly three seconds to capitalize on the book's unprecedented success and make a movie adaptation.

Review: The Drums, The Drums

The Drums
The Drums

7.4/10

If The Strokes, The Cure, The Smiths, and the Beach Boys all got together had a baby (science is close!), they would name it The Drums. Well, actually, first they’d name it Goat Explosion, and then change their minds to Elkland, before finally settling on The Drums. Despite their apparent indecision in the name department, the band now known as The Drums consciously borrowed elements from several new-wave indie pop giants and beach bums of yore to spawn a band that looks and sounds like a little bit of all of them.

The simple surfer riffs and beachy beats of The Drums’s second album, The Drums, closely follows up the sound introduced in their September 2009 debut, Summertime!. Singles like “Best Friend” and “Let’s Go Surfing” are fun, familiar, and super catchy—perfect staples to any summer playlist. On their website, The Drums explain that they “only write about two feelings: one is the first day of summer when you and all of your friends are standing on the edge of a cliff watching the sun set and being overcome with all of your hopes and dreams at once. The other is when you're walking alone in the rain and realize you will be alone forever."

With tried and true (and all alliterations aside, maybe a little trite) 60s beats, 80s emotion, and earnest, repetitive lyrics, almost every song from The Drums is practically guaranteed to end up stuck in your head. How long it’ll stick around when September rolls around, though, is another question. If The Drums amp up their creativity level and branch out from their cozy cove of well-curated influences, they could potentially be around long enough to inspire the next pretty-boy surfer-pop band.

Recommendations: “Best Friend”, “Let’s Go Surfing”, “Me and the Moon” (not because I especially love it but because it is at least a little bit different sounding.)

-- Emma Forster

How Kanye West Broke the Internets

Did you know that Kanye West likes this chair? Or that his shoes are Dries? Or that he thinks you should keep good friends around? What about that he needs a flight to Brazil as soon as possible? How about that Skal means 'toast' in Swedish?

This collection of random-synapse-firing-manifest-in-text are extracted from Kanye West’s newly established Twitter feed. They all came within a 12 hour time frame, some only seconds after the other, and are only a small sample of his general activity. What’s most surprising here, though, is that it took so long for this union to develop.

Twitter is a platform for people who like to see their imaginary audiences come to life. Kanye West is a person whose imaginary audience is so endless, so grandeur, that platinum records, arenas filled with fans, and the mishap-hungry media outlets aren’t enough to sate his desire to be paid attention to. So, he turns to the only other place where people are willing to listen- all day long – to his shameless flaunting and hardly insightful commentary on, well, nothing.

Synesthesia #1: Charlie St. Cloud (New Column!)

Welcome to the first installment of SYNESTHESIA, in which DJ Fiona Hanly does a close-read of upcoming movie trailers, evaluating them based on (what else?) but the soundtrack. Better make those two minutes count, people who make movie trailers!

"Charlie St. Cloud" Trailer

Here's a look at the music used in the Charlie St. Cloud trailer, which is otherwise rubbish as it is compiled of scenes cut from a rubbish film.There are so many reasons that this will be the worst movie of all time, and this is only a two-and-a-half minute preview of them. Boo, Charlie St. Cloud!

First up, we have Electric Owls with "Magic Show." For anyone who missed it, this song was on Urban Outfitters compilation LSTN#3. It's lighthearted and poppy and acoustic guitars and xylophones and fun, appropriate for the thirty seconds in the movie in which we, the audience, will think Zac Efron's life is rife with sailing, baseball, and really intense blue eyes.

Plot twist! Car crash! (Everyone was surprised). Cue one of my personal favorite songs of all time, The National's "So Far Around the Bend." Apparently Zac Efron's startlingly blue-eyed character heads down the rabbit hole after the death of his equally blue-eyed baby brother. The National's song is perfect for the plot turn. I hate to say it, but "nobody knows where you are livin' / nobody knows where you are / you're so far around the bend" are perfect lyrics to describe this vein of character development. Nobody knows what Ol' Sky Eyes is going through, nobody. Nobody knows where to find his beautiful, albeit lost soul.

Except the girl! (Everyone was surprised, again). And now we cue Snow Patrol's mediocre "Run." I hate Snow Patrol, and as a side effect of this bias I suddenly become disinterested in the trailer. From what I can remember while not paying attention: Zac Efron falls in love, something else about the girl sailing around the world and getting lost, Zac Efron dives into the ocean, Zac Efron is ridiculous and not to be taken seriously. Barf end to a decent trailer audio-wise about a terrible movie nobody will like because it will be The Worst.

Final Evaluation: 2/3. Well done, movie industry. But your clever use of a mainly obscure band employed by a trendy clothing store to sell trendy clothes and accessories, even combined with your use of a well-respected and appropriately-lauded indie rock band--they still won't get the people who either wear those clothes or listen to those albums to your theaters. Maybe if the movie was going to turn out like this, but only maybe.

Next Week's Preview: Will I be able to get over my hatred for the insipid Julia Roberts if the trailer for her new movie uses Florence + the Machine?!

-- Fiona Hanly