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09.25.06 I've been meaning to post something from The Rakes since seeing them at Coachella earlier this year. While I was kicking myself for missing the much-talked-about Daft Punk show in order to catch these guys, it was worthwhile in the context of my appreciation for them. Just listening to the (large) collection of songs on their debut album, Capture/Release, gives an impression of swaggering punk machismo. Songs about partying, songs about sleeping with girls, songs about partying and sleeping with girls; the content of the songs almost turned me off from these guys all together. But seeing them live gave the lie to all of that swagger — these are a bunch of nerdy, skinny, dweeby guys. Now, I'm not saying that their songs are all tongue-in-cheek satires of portrait of the Modern Rocker. But taking them down a peg or two certainly helps me get over some of my hangups. The album, at 19 tracks (18 probably, since one's just a remix) is as much valleys as it is peaks. A lot of the songs are just silly, a lot are just catchy hooks (with little of real interest) laced over a very primary punk sound. But there are some really standout tracks (even when they do decent into a kind of template-punk), like Retreat, Open Book, Binary Love (a truly great track that sounds like it belongs on another album entirely), Work, Work, Work and Ausland Mission, which you can download here and sample. The latter has found it's way onto all of my recent workout mixes, if only for the driving rhythm section and high energy. It's a little mindless but quite delightful. All in all, I'm no less mixed about these guys than I was on first listen. Some songs are really smart, but the rest of it falls into a bit of a pile behind other, similar sounding bands as this kind of hodgepodge of revival early 80's punk (Art Brut, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, Futureheads, Bloc Party). If The Rakes want to earn a place in that lineup, they've got a lot of catching up to do. # 09.21.06 I don't check the mailbox very often. Once, maybe twice a week. There's no good reason, either. It's across the courtyard from the back gate of my building (the entrance I always use, closest to the subway station and to my unit). When I come home from work, I think about checking it, then talk myself out of it on the grounds that my hands are full or I'm tired or I'm in a hurry. Then by the time I force myself to check (bills will go unpaid if I don't!), it's stuffed to overflowing. With all of the exciting letters I get from friends? No. It's stuffed with junkmail. Credit card offers, catalogs, promotional materials, advo. I throw three quarters or more of it away on my walk back to my apartment. I've been a part of the junkmail system before, so I should be more attuned to this stuff. I know why I get it all — I have a few credit cards and good credit; I buy stuff online; I subscribe to magazines; I make donations to charitable groups (they're the worst! Give $5 to the Red Cross and you're screwed for life!). But as much as I've cursed all the garbage, all the wasted paper, all the genuine mail that's crumpled and trashed because the junk is just stuffed down in there, I've never taken the time to do anything about it. I just cower in fear of my own mailbox. No more! I'm taking back my mailbox. Below is a list of links you can use to get yourself off the junkmail cycle. It's not a cure-all, and it's not immediate. It's not super-simple like the Do Not Call Registery. But it's available to you through a few avenues, and it takes about 10 minutes. (Plus another 3-4 months while the delete lists make the rounds; trust me, it can't happen any faster and I know all too well why not.)
# 09.13.06 This is probably old news, but the Chron has a great neighborhood guide to my side of the Mission, the Mission Dolores/Valencia Corridor area. I love it and never want to leave. At least not until Duboce Park Cafe opens on October 1. # 09.12.06 In spite of my weeping over the absence of a fancy flashy new wide-screen, all-screen video iPod, I'm kind of impressed by the upgrade to iTunes. Not that I care a whole ton about the incorporation of coverflow or the ability to buy movies (until I can get a full-screen video iPod and the "iTV" box, that is). But in general, this feels like the first well-thought out evolution of the iTunes app. You know, little things. From the re-organization of the source list to the retrieval of artwork to the new "back up to disc" function (automatically backs up your increasingly valuable iTunes library). Nothing Earth-shattering (except movies, I guess), but still the first upgrade to the app I've been interested in for a while. Update: Maybe this is more Earth-shattering than I thought. I entirely missed the hullabaloo about two way syncing. Between up to 5 computers. Smart! # 09.01.06 What's so wrong with wanting to be loved? The Rapture wants to be loved. It's the first thing you hear on the new album, Pieces Of The People We Love (see below for a sample track). First thing you hear after the cowbell, that is. I'm in like with this album. Extreme like. I want to ask it to go steady with me. But it's a departure from the dark post-punk of their previous album, and it's sure to alienate some. One of the most impressive things about their last album was it's scratchy, muscular production. The sound was angular, hard and sudden. Transitions arrived sharp and unannounced. The music was densely layered. Lots of cymbal crashes, snare and screaming. Not so on this record. The new album sounds like laser disco. It riffs endlessly on a kind of late 70's, early 80's dance aesthetic. And it's beautiful. The band has never played this nice. Melody, even harmony, play a recurring role throughout the album. It says something important about the band's new direction that the most brash track on the whole album is The Sound which earns the title with a repeating wall-of-sound feedback builds up that plays the part of a chorus. The song is a great example of what the album represents: a band that's found focus. The focus seems to be on pleasing more people than ever before. Part of this might be explained in the chorus to the first leaked track Whoo! Alright-Yeah...Uh Huh, when Luke Jenner sings "people don't dance no more / they just stand there like this / they cross their arms and stare you down / and drink and moan and dis" With all of that said, I still love this album. Lyrically, it's a little goofy. Lines like "purple dragons fly into your eye" or "my my my-my-my-my mustang ford" or "a cynic told me the best is yet to come" (that one sunk into the opener of Down For So Long which echos a U2 song that I can't put my finger on) pop up every so often. But...they do it all so well. It's a fun album. It sounds like an album that was fun to make. Maybe it's not the timeless classic that Echoes was. What's so wrong about that, if we're all having a good time? When it hits the streets on September 12, pick up a copy. I think you'll enjoy it. Tracks to check out include: almost everything. The Devil may surprise you. And you can possibly avoid Down For So Long, for the U2 thing, and First Gear, because if sounds like it was commissioned by the Ford Motor Company. Both have uniquely likable qualities though, and are worth at least 1 listen all the way through. # « August 2006 | archive index | October 2006 » built with movabletype |
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