Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Album Reviews: October 2013 Week 4

Thee Oh Sees - "Putrifiers II" 2012
I got a chance to see these guys in concert last week and their performance blew me away. It's a great feeling to be excited about rock n roll again. It's amazing to me how this band has about 6-7 albums that are all from the last 3-4 years, and all of them are great. This was one of the records I purchased at the show. I don't like it quite as much as their newest full length, "Floating Coffins", but it's still very high quality. They have a relatively unique sound, but if I was to compare to them to other bands, I would recommend them to fans of The Pixies, L7, The White Stripes, and Ween. Check out this surreal video for the surfy sounding "Lupine Dominus". Also check out "Putrifiers II""Hang A Picture", and this cool little fan-made video for "So Nice".

Thee Oh Sees - "Carrion Crawler/The Dream" 2011
So, this was another record I bought at their show, and hot damn, this might be my favorite release by them that i've heard so far. This record has barely left my turntable this week. Nice, upbeat, and rockin. This album instantly puts me in a good mood. Highly recommended. Check out "The Dream""Robber Barons""Carrion Crawler", and "Crack In Your Eye".

Ryan Hemsworth - "Still Awake" 2013
I ended up catching a DJ set by him a couple weeks ago, and when I heard he was coming to town I was excited about it, because I enjoy a great deal of the songs i've heard from him so far, but his set was pretty uneventful and lackluster and actually seemed pre-recorded. Disappointing. In any event, this EP is pretty good. Definitely more mellow and soft than i'm used to hearing from him, but I like when people expand their horizons and don't let themselves get put into boxes. Most of these tracks remind me of 90's RPG video games for some reason. Maybe it's just me. Either way, this is 7 songs of upbeat audio relaxation, perfect to zone out to. Check out "Empty Thoughts Over A Shallow Ocean""I Want To Stare At Your Face Until I Die", and "Track 5 (Crashed)".

Mac Miller - "Watching Movies With The Sound Off" 2013
Mac Miller is such a strange artist to me. On one hand, he represents a lot of things that I hate, not only about the music world, but the whole world in general. A rich kid who was probably given everything he ever wanted growing up, and therefore had all the free time and resources in the world to develop his craft. There's tons of poor people with way more natural skills who will never get the chance to show the world that, and that's just the way the world works. On the other hand, I have to respect Mac Miller for the direction he seems to be trying to take his career now that's he's got a sizeable fanbase. He's basically reached the highest amount of popularity he could possibly achieve at a very early point in his life, and the only place to go is more progressive and experimental. You can hear the influences of the substances he's on while writing and recording, and this album sounds like the end result of a person in their early 20's discovering a lot of the psychedelic non-hip hop music out there and attempting to distill it for the pop world. As an example, there's a beat that samples Black Moth Super Rainbow and a song produced by Flying Lotus. There's points on this album where his lyrics are cringe-worthy and corny (no, Mac Miller, you do not look like David Duchovny, you look like a real life version of the cartoon kid from The Fairly-Odd Parents with the personality of the "retarded" rapper character from Always Sunny In Philadelphia), but then there's a lot of songs where his lyricism and rhyme structures really impress me, and show why he's lauded as being great by some people. He definitely has a really good live show, as evidenced by his performance at Soundset earlier this year, so it's not like he's one of those rappers that only can sound good in the studio. I think he's here to stay at this point and is not the Johnny-Come-Lately that I previously looked at him as. Check out the videos for "S.D.S.""Gees" featuring Schoolboy Q"Watching Movies""I Am Who Am (Killin Time)" featuring Niki Randa, and "The Star Room". All of these videos are pretty well done, if you can get past how annoying he looks. Also check out "Someone Like You" and "Suplexes Inside Of Complexes & Duplexes".

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