Radio Dingbat

The nerd rock genre is generally considered to begin with Daniel Johnston and end with Beck. Of course, to say the style is dead would be foolish – don’t forget about the not-at-all-one-hit-wonders They Might Be Giants. Despite folk turning in weird new directions since those late 90’s heydays, plenty of artists are content to keep their music stripped back to the bare essentials. The turn of the decade saw the emergence of a second wave of lo-fi rockers, and amongst them was New Yorker Jeffery Lewis. A dedicated comic artist and part-time musician, Lewis found himself signed to Rough Trade in 1998 and released his debut long player in 2002. In between a range of current projects, including a supposed illustrated biography of Barack Obama, and a 2008 spent almost entirely on the road, Lewis found the time to record yet another collection of idiosyncratic ditties.

Em Are I is his fourth original album, after his Crass tribute album 12 Crass Songs, and his first to officially include his touring band, brother Jack and drummer Dave Beauchamp, otherwise known as the Junkyard. It’s a fitting soubriquet, as most of the album feels as if it could have been written by a bitter version of Fat Albert’s musical crew, using anything nearby for percussion. Opener “Slogans” is a frenetic rock song perfectly setting the tone for the hi-lo-fi sprawl to follow. “Roll Bus Roll” and lead single “To Be Objectified” focus more on the lyric and seem almost incidental compared to other tracks which bust out of the gate with a sudden urge to rock. The main offender/exhibitor in this regard is the prancing Keef Richards-inspired “Broken Broken Broken Heart”.

Fuzzy genre-hopping oddities? Stadium sized harmonies built around one dude? Rich indie pedigree? Nonsensical moniker? Welcome to the latest in the batch of solo adventures from frontmen with some spare time in the studio. This time around we peck into the synapses of Michael Johnson, formerly of Lilys and Holypaw, operating as Ape School. His second solo work is sure to be lost amongst higher profile efforts doing essentially the same gimmick. Throughout the course of the self-titled menagerie Johnson mimics practically every sound that can be produced electronically, without sounding overly electronic. Simultaneously, his range of influences aren’t just worn on his sleeves, his entire outfit is coated in badges and/or patches. Or at least it would be, if his kind wore any clothing. I promise that’s the last monkey joke.

The many moods of Ape School are not unpleasant to the ear by any stretch. Hearing Paul McCartney and Wolf Parade together on the same album is something I’d appreciate more if the original incarnations were present, but Johnson manages to conjure several enjoyable tunes out of familiar elements. However the experience must be likened to viewing a surrealist film. Just when you think you have the plot sorted, something completely unexpected happens, like the appearance of a French chocolate monster. In this case, we hop from fuzzy indie rock to twisted-electro Beatles to upbeat industrial without warning or concern; “Floridian Grime” does deliver on its titular promise, but only for a few bars.

Not confirmed yet, so don’t count your chickens… but exciting rumours nonetheless.

Word is on the street for these dates:

12/10/09 Thu Tivoli Theatre Brisbane, AU
12/11/09 Fri Enmore Theatre Sydney, AU
12/12/09 Sat Meredith Festival Meredith, AU
12/17/09 Thu The Capitol Theatre Perth, AU

The inclusion of Perth makes the news all the more hard to believe. Will update when details are confirmed.

Welcome to the third installment of our somewhat ongoing series. For arguments sake, Radio Dingbat is reflecting on the last decade of music to find the one release worthy of the title Album Of The Decade. Although I doubt we’ll pick just one. We don’t need that kind of responsibility. This is mainly for your sake. Thus far, we have nominated two substantial rock albums from the very early part of the Naughties (*sigh*, we really need to find a better name), and now it’s time to turn to another reliable genre. Coming out of the 90’s, hip-hop still enjoyed most of its critical success underground. Then a white guy became the biggest MC on the planet, someone invented the term ‘urban’ and everything went global. In between all this, one duo outta Hotlanta hit their creative spark and unleashed what would be their true commercial breakout.

Break!

Beck, the ever impressive chameleon that he is has decided he’s keeping himself busy by learning other peoples songs - but in probably what could be considered the coolest way possible. Today he launched his ‘Record Club’ where he assembles friendly musicians, picks an album and covers each song over the course of one day (unprepared and unrehearsed) and then post it on the internet, one song at a time.

It was decreed that the first album Beck and friends tackle be the classic The Velvet Underground and Nico, and true to his promise “Sunday Morning” was released a few hours ago - complete with old school, heartwarming chroma keyed yet eye pleasing video. Click below to watch, like myself you might be pleasantly surprised:

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico ‘Sunday Morning’ from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

You can stay up to date with the rest of the album, on Beck’s website presumably in the next couple of days we’ll hear him tackle such classics as ‘Heroin’ and ‘Venus in Furs.’ If they coming out sounding even half as good as their first attempt, we’re in for some awesome music.

In the video above we are witnessing the additional talents of actor Giovanni Ribisi, famed producer Nigel Godrich, drummer Joey Waronker and the nico channeling skills of Icelandic singer Thorunn Magnusdottir.

Antique Limb - Off ‘Midnight Believer’ Out now through Stomp

Myspace:   www.myspace.com/aleksandtheramps

Here’s a totally sweet bonus show that everyone should see.

To any readers who reside on the East Coast and can make their way to Redfern be sure to check out Atlas Sound aka Bradford Cox of Deerhunter perform a last minute show as a fundraiser for local radio station FBi.

Details:

Atlas Sound

Friday, June 19, 2009

Black & Blue Gallery (302 / 267-271 Cleveland Street, Redfern)
6pm $15. All proceeds go to FBi.

Thanks Polaroids of Androids.

Myspace: myspace.com/bradfordcox

Latest video from the excellent Merriweather Post Pavilion LP.

Myspace: myspace.com/animalcollectivetheband

Around the turn of the millenium Warp records took hold of the bolder new movements in experimental hip-hop with the signing of New York collaborative group ‘Antipop Consortium.’ After a series of releases, resulting in the excellent long player ‘Arrythymia‘ the group disbanded and splintered off before their success could be fully realised. Antipop MC ‘Beans‘ stuck with the record label and moved into more low-key production driven releases, steadily keeping the sound of the group alive, but the efforts of this awesome sound definitely peaked with the groups last album. Needless to say, appreciation for their twisted experimental beats and psyched out rhymes came a little too late.

Fast forward almost a decade to 2008 and the group finds itself reformed, supporting Public Enemy at an All Tomorrows Parties festival. Luckily for fans of Antipop Consortium, this was not just a one off cheque-clearing appearance, the band has since signed to Big Dada records and will now be releasing their first album since 2002 - ‘Flourescent Black.’

‘Flourescent Black‘ will be out on Big Dada on October 13.

Track listing and videos for those new to Antipop after the cut.

Its great when incredibly uplifting and lushly produced music seemingly comes out of nowhere, which definitely seemed the case with the latest release from Yppah, a ninja tune artist that has seemingly flown under the radar during the release of his debut in 2006. With any luck his second outing ‘They Know What Ghost Know‘ will catch the right ears and lend its wonderful sounds to the world, as it is an excellent blend of electro-acoustic mash-up with soulful beats is a great blast of bullshit free music. An entertaining listen from start to finish that acts as the soundtrack to any exciting summer excursion. Seriously, if you didn’t spot it already, his name is ‘Happy’ backwards - enough said.

Yppah, the project of sole producer Joe Corrales, Jr. draws heavily on the influence of psychedelic rock sounds and shoe gaze style compositional layering, but with a confident production style more represenative of the modern methods of sampling and composition. Its hard not to draw comparisons to popular solo artist Daniel Snaith (aka Caribou) when listening to this record, their mastery of sampled electronics and live instrumentation is very similar in execution. But where Snaith has progressed into more singer / songwriter style arrangements, Yppah delves more into the pure hip-hop, vocal free, instrumentally driven jams.

The songs on display here are, not surprisingly, uplifting, ‘happy’ numbers, but with an air of melancholy progressing through minor chord arrangements giving them weight and subtle progression. ‘Gumball Machine Weekend,’ dances on gentle electric guitar and xylophone over a hip-hop styled beat and smoothed out bass line, creating a intensely soothing free-floating groove. ‘Shutter Speed’ works off a short, repeated tremoloed cut that creates a cascade of noise for airy flute to create soothing melodies over. Each track experiments in just the right way to keep the ears tuned in but never irriated.