New Music: The Perms – Sofia Nights

Posted on February 2, 2012 by bgibs122

One of the many pitfalls that emerge when people think of indie music is thinking that it has to sound like Wavves, Sonic Youth, or Sleigh Bells: music where, even if you have a hook, the production can’t exist, the songs have to be loaded in feedback, or distorted in the harshest way possible. Heaven forbid you sound accessible.

Today’s band, The Perms, won’t hear any of that. Sofia Nights proudly embraces hooks without covering them in too-cool sludge or amateur no-fi production; it’s the kind of record that goes down smooth on the first listen, and only gets sharper after that. “High School High” is a bright slice of Weezer-like distortion matched with that band’s charm and some sweet Beach Boy harmonies. As a whole, Sofia Nights nails the sweet spot between indie rock, radio alternative rock, and power pop. It has power pop and indie’s enthusiasm without any of the contrived quirk of whoever’s trying to be Belle and Sebastian, but hits surprisingly heavy.

In fact, that was one of the more surprising elements of this album: it has riffs. Guitarist Chad Smith ([put your own Red Hot Chili Peppers/Will Ferrel joke here]) comes from the Rivers Cuomo school of alt rock guitar: just because you’re alternative doesn’t mean you should be afraid of solos. The band’s sole guitarist, Chad Smith tosses around bone-crunching riffs, grinding rhythms, and tasteful solos around the whole record. The classic rock stomp of “Mannheim” is particularly stellar.

Even if “alternative rock” became a nebulous term around 1995, it still sticks to The Perms pretty well. Most of the group’s strength comes from using the muscular band setup/pop songcraft dichotomy codified by Nirvana and carried on by the Foo Fighters. Of note, “Make It Through” and especially the attack-release riff of “Slipping Away” sound like the Foos in workout mode. But even more generally, the band’s able match rock energy and hooks to great effect on “Skin and Bones” and personal favorite “You I’m Thinking Of” (Sofia Nights has a particularly strong middle section).

What really saves Sofia Nights from being faceless, though, is the unabashed enthusiasm and happiness that these guys have for their music. It’s not like MGMT’s smirking delivery, or an Arcade Fire knockoff’s clumsy freewheeling, it’s just pure enjoyment. It shows up in extra snappy drum beats (another instrumental highlight), punchy basslines, and singalong choruses without the slightest trace of irony or detachment. These guys don’t make pop songs because it makes money, they make them because they want to.

Overall, Sofia Nights is a bouncy little record that cuts across the indie/pop/rock spectrum. At 10 songs, it’s pretty much filler free (“Live For Today” is a little unnecessary), but the album can sound a little stretched for ideas by the end. Anyone looking for deep thoughts is better served elsewhere, but if you’re looking for something fun, and a crowdpleaser at that, then The Perms and Sofia Nights deserve a listen.

Like The Perms on Facebook. Or follow them on Twitter, or check out their official site here.

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Radio Rant: Tyga – Rack City

Posted on January 24, 2012 by bgibs122

Hello, and welcome back to Radio Rants! Who do we have today, someone new?

Tyga is, for all intents and purposes, a new face here on Ranting About Music. He’s only come up in one song I’ve even mentioned here before (“Deuces”), and discounting that, I only know him from the Young Money collaboration mess that was “Bed Rock”. Based off those two tracks he seems like…a pretty nice guy, actually. His verse in “Bed Rock” is him and his girlfriend watching TV, and later having (notably faithful) fun together, and in “Deuces” he sounds more like an insecure, somewhat whiny guy who got broken up with for being too clingy. So, what’s dude sound like on his own?

“Rack city, bitch/Rack, rack city, bitch/ten ten ten twenties on your titties, bitch”

…the fuck can I do with this?

Well, it seems that shittyboasttrackitis has claimed another up and coming rapper’s first major single, just like it did with Wiz Khalifa. But while Wiz at least kind of had his city and his car to brag about, Tyga has…substantially less.

I’m at a loss here, actually. I wish that hip-hop would follow a simple rule: unless you have something special to boast about, don’t. Otherwise you get lukewarm, generic tracks like “Rack City” that we’ve heard a dozen times before. Khalifa has a shiny car and a city? Sure. Jay-Z has more money and power than I can comprehend? Awesome. I’m even sold on boast tracks that don’t say anything in particular, but are really well written, like “Stronger” and “Six Foot Seven Foot”.

So what does Tyga brag about?

“100 deep VIP, no guest list” A bit demanding, but hey, he gets in the VIP. Just like Trey Songz, Newboyz, LMFAO, and a bunch of other B-listers.

“Got my other bitch fuckin’ with my other bitch” I think this line might have a denser swear-to-whole ratio than Samuel L. Jackson’s body of work. It also strikes me as a much more dickish and less amusing play on Kanye’s “other, other Benz” line from Otis.

“Y-Young Money, Young Money, yeah we gettin’ rich” If you’re signed to Young Money and not Lil Wayne, Nicki, or Drake, don’t brag, because you’re still a benchwarmer.

“Got your grandma on my dick” …huh? “You know what it is” Black and yellow, black and yellow–oops, sorry. Hard to keep my attention on something this dull.

“Too much rim make the ride go hard/Tell that bitch hop out, walk the boulevard” So he’s either telling the girl “Get out, your weighing the car down and making this less enjoyable for me”, or prostituting her out. Either way, fuck you, Tyga. Oh, and apparently “Tyga” stands for “Thank You God Always” so, y’know, just something to keep in mind.

The chorus/name of the song doesn’t lend itself to much deeper meaning. “Rack City” either refers to the idea that you can get racks of cash in Las Vegas, or titties, since both are mentioned beyond the song’s titular phrase. But really, the video makes “Rack City” look more like something out of Grand Theft Auto, and I find that more believable.

In addition to the bad and bland lyrics, Tyga’s mush-mouthed and dirge-y flow, and the utter lack of a hook, what makes “Rack City” so weak is that a cash/money/hoes song from Tyga just doesn’t sound convincing. He sounds too much like he’s trying to emulate Chris Brown’s faux-tough guy grumble without the energy, or Snoop Dogg’s monotone drawl without any of the smoothness. He doesn’t go with the sinister beat of the song. I know that when Rick Ross writes a self-fic about being a drug king, it’s probably just as bullshit as this, but Ross can at least sound like he’d kick your ass. Tyga just…doesn’t.

“Rack City” rubs me the wrong way. The beat’s nice for what it does, but if Tyga isn’t being bland or failing at bragging, he’s being misogynist, which curdles the song from boring into unlikable. Stick with Wheezy, Nicki, and Drake, Young Money. Actually, doesn’t Nicki have a new song out? Why don’t we listen to that?

Oh God, no.

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Radio Rant: Jason Mraz – I Won’t Give Up

Posted on January 15, 2012 by bgibs122

Hello, and welcome to Radio Rants. Who is it today?

I’ve never really like Jason Mraz, but “The Remedy” was at least kind of entertaining. That was all I’d heard by him until “I’m Yours”, which I never liked. Before then, I’d always thought he was a kind of goofy guy, but “I’m Yours” seemed so insincere and joyless. What really rubbed me the wrong about it, though, was that it felt so phoned in, like Mraz didn’t want to be arsed to write something other than uninspired bro-rock.

“I Won’t Give Up” is cut from that same cloth, and essentially feels like a winter version of
I’m Yours”. Summery acoustic upstrokes are replaced by acoustic guitar picking patterns. For the carefree vocals of “I’m Yours”, “I Won’t Give Up” has “somber” hushed vocals. If “I’m Yours” was being played on a beach by some jackass in a distressed t-shirt, khaki shorts, and leather sandals trying to pick up chicks, “I Won’t Give Up” is that same bastard  wearing a wool cap, American Eagle flannel, jeans, and moccasins trying to impress girls at a coffee shop open mic night.

I find it ironic that the song’s called “I Won’t Give Up”, because it really sounds like Mraz did. When I heard this song for the first time, I thought the same thing that I thought when I heard “Moves Like Jagger” or “You Make Me Feel…”: here’s someone who’s been around for awhile officially throwing in the towel, and knowingly making a more superficial, marketable product. And, like those songs, not only did the music become more predictable, but the effort in the lyrics is missing, too.

For example, here are the opening lyrics: “When I look into your eyes/It’s like watching the night sky/Or a beautiful sunrise”. Apparently Jason Mraz uses the same strategy as Dr. Cox. Hell, I was actually surprised and kind of let down that Mraz never brings up the ocean in this song.

“‘Cause even the stars, they burn” Well…yeah. Nuclear fusion, or “burning” if you will, is what keeps a star going. If it doesn’t happen, then there’s some sort of fault in our stars. Also, the song picks up with Mraz’s belting, a backing vocal, and overall more volume here in a way that’s distracting and annoying.

“Some even fall to earth/We’ve got a lot to learn/God knows we’re worth it/No, I won’t give up” These lines, with the star line above, make up a whole stanza that summarizes the lyrics to me: clunky, cliche imagery with vague love song lyrics. The chorus is basically the same, only with a weird sky line instead of the star one (“Even though the skies get rough”, I guess Mraz and his significant other travel exclusively via plane), and the bridge is a motor-mouth run through more “We’re tough, let’s get through this” lyrics that are more or less skippable.

Really, in terms of music, “I Won’t Give Up” goes so far into acoustic ballad that the end result flirts with country. Most of this comes from the chorus, which is all big notes and grandstanding, including a backing gang vocal on the last minute of the song. Admittedly, on the final chorus where the backing vocals do a counterpoint against the main melody, it is really effective. And it’s not so much that “I Won’t Give Up” has any real bad features as much as it does nothing to justify listening to it.

Some other reviews say that this song is similar to Adele’s “Someone Like You”, which isn’t really a valid comparison. I guess they’re the same in that they both cover romantic troubles, but that’s about it. Actually, this comparison really made me realize what rubs me the wrong way about not only this song, but other bro-dude acoustic love songs like “I’m Yours” and “Hey, Soul Sister”. Love songs like these should, on some level, make you remember or imagine what being in love is like; even if love isn’t big, it’s risky, and these songs aren’t. In “Someone Like You”, we all know that that guy ain’t coming back. No matter how hurt Adele sounds, or how well she sings, he’s not going to break down and come running for her.

In “I Won’t Give Up”, we know from the moment that Mraz sings some bullshit about her eyes that the song’s building up to their reunion. The lyric video even does this; by the final chorus, everyone’s back together and happy. Between the triumphant music and the fact that Mraz never sounds unsure of himself, failure is not a potential outcome to this song. And when I put those two together, I realized something else: never in the song does Mraz ever say or imply anything about him being hurt or worried or anything about a potential break-up. Without anything from his side, the song’s overall message is reduced to a douche-tastic: “Well, I’ll wait for you to get yourself together and realize that you should be with me”. Bite me.

“I Won’t Give Up”: coming to predictable TV and movie romance scenes near you.

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Screw It, Let’s Write About Lana Del Rey

Posted on January 12, 2012 by bgibs122

With her album coming out in a few weeks, I wanted to take some time out to get the typical Lana Del Rey Thinkpiece out so this stuff doesn’t clutter up the review. And, while I’m at it, I’ll look at a few of her songs today.

It’s gotten to the point that the difference between obscurity and fame can be as simple as one YouTube video. Such is the case with Lana Del Rey (Lizzy Grant); she started as a failure-to-launch pop star in 2010, underwent an extensive image makeover, released the song “Video Games”. That song caught on, and since then, she’s done interviews, released other videos, and made TV appearances (including a U.S. debut on SNL this weekend). It’s not something that we’re used to when it comes to internet stars. We’re used to politely tolerating their existence until they wear themselves out (I could see this happening with Karmin), or watching them dick around with their new-found fame without doing much until they peter out, like Kreayshawn. Lana, meanwhile, seems like she’s doing everything in her power to become a real pop star.

And right about there is where things get controversial. Much like how Kreayshawn sparked a lot of talk about color and gender in rap, Del Rey’s ignited discussion around authenticity and what’s pop versus what’s indie. Realistically, if you just hear her songs, she sounds like a not fully constructed pop star; it’s only once you get to her image that she starts drifting more and more towards the Pitchfork/Stereogum crowd. What seems to frustrate a lot of people and generate so much discussion is that she’s essentially a pop artist whose chosen portrayal smacks of indie. Last year, I mentioned in a post that pop is starting to be able to mimic indie, and that’s what seems to piss most people off with Lana Del Rey: she’s proof that you don’t have to be indie to sell indie.

Regardless, her Old Hollywood glamour fashion, darkly romantic music, and drawing lyrics have gotten Del Rey a fanbase that, at its most intense, is somewhat more fanatic than Ron Paul supporters, but not quite as far gone as Beliebers. At least, that’s what her millions of views and thousands of YouTube comments have led me to believe. It’s actually kind of fascinating; here we have an artist whose album has been tagged as one of the most anticipated of 2012, but doesn’t have much of a real world/video/song airplay presence. The controversy may have given her more exposure, but it’s still limited to mostly online. And part of me thinks she really needed that controversy.

Because at the heart of it, Lana Del Rey isn’t really a compelling artist. Yet.

Alright, I’m not saying she’s bad artist. Whenever I hear one of her songs, I’m generally ok to leave it on for the next four to five minutes. Of the four “real” releases I’ve caught so far (“Video Games”, “Blue Jeans”, “Born to Die”, and “Off to the Races”), “Video Games” is the clear favorite; the lyrics are poignant, and Lana’s navel-gazing actually has a point. How the other three fall really depends on my mood that day: “Blue Jeans” is probably the most consistently enjoyable of the bunch with a head-tilting beat, while “Born to Die” feels like a slightly more ornate “Video Games”. I still can’t make my mind up on “Off to the Races”, though. On one hand, Lana sounds awake for the first time, but on the other, something about her verbal tics in the song gets annoying, and some of the lyrics strikeout (“Fire of my loins”).

So far, what’s really hurt Del Rey (but not critically) is that there’s just not enough to her yet. In terms of actual music, her songs drift through sparse, repetitive string and piano arrangements wrapped up in dense production. It doesn’t make for bad listening, but the songs feel very inert, and drag on repeated listenings. “Video Games” in particular squeezes four and a half minutes out of a seldom changing arrangement, and “Off to the Races” has a clunky and unnecessary bridge that makes the song about a minute too long. As a performer, Del Rey doesn’t have a lot of stage presence, either; she ends up blending in uninterestingly with the music. Sounding like she was recorded in an echo chamber doesn’t help.

But there’s plenty of positives, too. Aside from the odd misstep, the songwriting’s really sharp, and probably the biggest draw. As mentioned, “Video Games” is the strongest of the bunch, but “Blue Jeans” does a bang up job as well, and “Off to the Races” has some killer stream-of-consciousness lines. And even though they are repetitive, the arrangements are pretty good, and make good “stare out the window at the rain” music.

I think her Born to Die album’s so anticipated because people want to see if she can actually pull it off. What we’ve heard so far tells us who she is and what she does, but I’m curious to see if she can sustain the “sad girl next door” image for a whole record. I’ve listened to these 4 songs a bunch, and the only real conclusion I can come to is that her output so far has been promising, but I can’t make a real call until I get to hear a full album.  Should be entertaining, either way.

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