Album Review: The Future Kings of Nowhere – The Future Kings of Nowhere

Posted on July 4, 2011 by bgibs122

Alright, Wikipedia, what big new albums came out this week?

…

So I’ve been listening to this indie record a lot lately.

The Future Kings of Nowhere are a North Carolina acoustic punk band. Most of the punch on their self-titled album comes from a basic drums, bass, and acoustic guitar setup, although plenty of horns and occasional piano make an appearance. The Future Kings of Nowhere hits the ground running with “Lather, Rinse, Repeat”, which excels thanks to the gang vocals and harmonies on the chorus. Next song “10 Simple Murders” almost sounds like slightly stripped down Flogging Molly with rapid fire drums, aggressive acoustic strumming, and a rise-and-fall bassline.

Outside of “10 Simple Murders”, the lyrical content on The Future Kings of Nowhere centers on tried and true lyrical themes of self-deprecation, adolescent/early adult frustration, and girls. Thankfully, Future Kings of Nowhere have strong enough lyrics that instead of being the usual cliche drivel, it actually works. Look at “I Want You”, for example. A usual “boy likes girl” number, half smirking lyrics like “On the off-chance that you hear this song, I’ll try and make it quick. I know I ramble on and your attention’s limited.So I’ll skip the metaphor and head right for the heart of it: I want you.” handle familiar topics with a refreshing sense of poetry. That same poetry saves the sparse “Emily” from becoming too hum-drum, but damn if it ain’t a sad song.

Another interesting aspect of The Future Kings of Nowhere isn’t just their instrumentation, but how they use it. Most of these songs (save “Song for Catherine”) are built around acoustic guitar, but it’s almost played like an electric. If the band used an electric guitar, the record would probably sound like your usual pop-punk fair, but using an acoustic actually makes for livelier songs in this case. One such song is “Never”, which keeps a breakneck pace for three cathartic minutes.

A large part of the band’s instrumental success comes from how tight they sound. With the guitar putting down basic chords most of the time, the bass steps forward as a lead instrument, and manages to do a solid job. And the drum work is pretty top notch, too; hitting hard in just the right places. Frequently, a horn section comes in to add some flourishes, such as on closer “Paper Napkins”. The unpolished but clear production definitely helps instruments come through, too.

Overall, The Future Kings of Nowhere is a solid record. There are plenty of hooks and energy to draw you in, as well as harmonies and melodies that command attention, and end up staying in your head hours later. The lead vocals can be a little rough at times, and anyone without patience for slightly neurotic lyrics might roll their eyes at a line or two, but the pros far outweigh the cons. Four and a half stars.

tl;dr: The Future Kings of Nowhere should go somewhere. 4.5/5

Download the album for free here.

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Radio Rant: Katy Perry – Last Friday Night

Posted on June 27, 2011 by bgibs122

Hello, and welcome to Radio Rants. Guess who’s back today?

More. Katy. Perry. Apparently, she’s the singer America can’t get enough of. And she just made history last month by staying in the Top 10 for a year. Now, to be fair, she’s at least kinda kept the quality up. Out of her four singles thus far, I’ve only really hated one (“Firework”), I genuinely liked “E.T.”, and even though they weren’t my favorite songs, “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream” were tolerable (besides the overplay).

Which is more than I can say for “Last Friday Night”.

Given that “Peacock” exists, “Last Friday Night” can’t be Katy Perry’s worst song, but it’s not far behind. I’m filled with such dread at hearing those opening strums of overproduced electric guitar that it might as well be The Imperial March.

“Last Friday Night”‘s pop rock (ish) musical set-up and post-party lyrics call to mind Perry’s previous hit, “Waking Up in Vegas” (my favorite song of hers), but with a major difference: “Vegas” honestly sounded fun while “Last Friday Night” sounds like a committee’s idea of fun.

And it’s a poorly written idea of fun at that. “Last Friday Night” skims over one night stands, blackouts, glitter, and streaking in just the fashion that tells me it’s all complete bullshit. Doesn’t this sound like someone lying about their weekend using Texts From Last Night to anyone else? “Seriously, there were flamingos everywhere, and we got drunk, and everyone hooked up, and just wait until the pictures go up on Facebook!” PS, Katy, it’s not a “Blacked out blur” if you can write a whole song about what happened. And it’s not like I have something against party songs, it’s just that these lyrics are terrible. They’re the most banal ways of describing a party (“There’s a stranger in my bed/There’s a pounding in my head”) at best, and at worst…here’s the second verse.

“Trying to connect the dots
Don’t know what to tell my boss
Think the city towed my car
Chandelier is on the floor”

Halfway in, and we have one of the worst rhyme abandonments I’ve ever heard. There were four writers on this song, and none of them could come up something to rhyme with “car”? And barring that, they couldn’t have just ditched the car line and tried again? But hell, what happens next makes me wish they didn’t keep the rhyme going.

“Ripped my favorite party dress
Warrant’s out for my arrest
Think I need a ginger ale
That was such an epic fail“

Congratulations, Katy Perry. You took one of the dumbest web-culture catchphrases and turned it into a truly cringe worthy lyric. I’ve heard bad lyrics before, but “Last Friday Night”‘s second verse is a lyrical blackhole.

In terms of sound, “Last Friday Night” is pretty New Wave inspired with a few extra synths over the chorus. The overwhelming majority of the music comes from a fairly standard dance/pop rock beat, a repetitive 4-chord guitar strum, and occasional bass pops. The only variety comes on the chorus, where the same siren-y synth from “Tik Tok”‘s chorus comes in. The sax solo on the bridge is, I assume, meant to liven things up, but it’s basically the audio equivalent of a Big Mac: supposed to resemble something real, but way too processed to fool anybody into thinking it’s alive. “Last Friday Night” also scrapes the bottom of the barrel melodically; there’s barely a melody to speak of, and the bridge is nothing but eerily robotic chant of “T. G. I. F.”.

In fact, lifelessness might be what pushes “Last Friday Night” from shallow to horrible. Look at “Take It Off” by Ke$ha. I hate that song, I really do. But I do have to admit, Ke$ha sounds excited about the party going on, and makes it sound like fun. Meanwhile, Katy Perry is way too bored for the subject matter, and comes off conceited and kind of bitchy for it.

In the year that I’ve been doing Radio Rants, “Last Friday Night” may not be the worst song I’ve reviewed, but it easily makes the top 5. There’s nothing to like about this song; the lyrics describe partying in a borderline impossible way, it’s repetitive as hell, and it’s not catchy. If Ke$ha songs are the self-aware-don’t-care trainwrecks of pop music, “Last Friday Night” is the unlikable party girl that everyone wishes they could forget about the next morning.

“Next Friday night, do it all again”? How about never again, Katy.

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Album Review: Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Posted on June 27, 2011 by bgibs122

One of the archetypal characters in modern indie is the bearded folkie. Lumberjack or poet, we don’t know, but regardless of location or season, this gent won’t take the stage without his wool cap, flannel shirt, acoustic guitar, and impressive beard. And when you imagined this individual, you either thought of Iron and Wine’s Samuel Bean, or Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. And that’s totally fair, Bon Iver’s debut album For Emma, Forever Ago was written and recorded alone by Vernon in a cabin in Wisconsin while Vernon was recovering from major illness and a break-up, perfectly capturing the bearded folkie archetype.

But, thankfully, Bon Iver’s expanded since then, and Bon Iver, Bon Iver is a full-scale production. And it announces its arrival with the wonderful opener “Perth”: an intricate guitar line opens the album before a military snare drum and Vernon’s familiar layered army of voices come in. But it isn’t until the two and a half minute mark that the song lifts off thanks to pounding drums and a triumphant horn section that lets you know that yes, this is not a rehash of For Emma.

While that album felt very much like it was recorded in a cabin, Bon Iver, Bon Iver puts much more emphasis on production values and atmosphere. Instruments drift in and out of songs, and as a whole, the album feels if not quite other-worldly, at least somewhere calm and quiet. This is best shown on “Holocene”, where the fingerpicked guitar, light drums, and carefully arranged instruments surround a fantastic melody.

One of Bon Iver’s more distinct elements is Vernon’s approach to vocals and lyrics. Vernon stacks numerous falsettos on top of each other to form his own one man choir may not click with you right away (and sound odd on faster numbers, like “Towers”), but his harmonies are top-notch, and even with so many voices, he’s expressive. Vernon also uses his voice(s) as an instrument more than a, uh, voice; how he’s singing isn’t quite as important as what he’s singing. Not that Vernon’s lyrics are subpar, but they do have a tendency to be vague.

And in a way, vagueness haunts this album, especially some of the later songs. It’s the same problem I had with The King of Limbs earlier this year: the music is certainly pretty and well put together, but it also doesn’t go anywhere. “Hinnom, TX” is bad about this, and “Wash.” doesn’t do enough to justify the song’s five-minute run time. “Wash.” is too big for itself; the song is built around a simple piano loop, and other instruments enter, but there’s never any development or tension. As a result, there’s nothing to follow.

The atmospherics work on “Calgray”, but the album closes on a baffling note. “Lisbon, OH” borders unnecessary (imagine any “playing with my synth” interlude track you’ve ever heard), and “Beth/Rest” sounds like it was cut straight from 80’s soft-rock. That alone doesn’t sink the track, but the production is too dense and bloated; Vernon drowns in his own synth and sax sea.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver is a tough album to call. First of all, it’s a grower, there’s plenty to listen to, but it takes a few times to see how good the better tracks are. The sheer epic feeling of “Perth” and the hypnotizing beauty of “Holocene” put them above the rest of the album, but there are other enjoyable listens, too (particularly in the top half of the record). But at the same time, Bon Iver, Bon Iver is plagued by pacing issues, and not all of the experiments work or demand attention. Even so, there’s plenty of potential, three out of five stars.

tl;dr: With a little focus, Bon Iver, Bon Iver could have reached its full potential. 3/5.

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Radio Rant: Nicki Minaj – Super Bass

Posted on June 21, 2011 by bgibs122

Well, Radio Runts, who are we looking at today?

I’ve never really handled Nicki Minaj head on. Part of it was that her singles peaked during booming periods on the charts, and part of it was that none of other singles were really that good. While Lil Wayne’s become an entity of weirdness unto himself and Drake knows he will always be cooler than you, Nicki’s still struggling to balance her many sides and distill them into a solid hit. Her innate weirdness allowed her to spice up other artists’ work (see: “Monster”), but this seems to be largely reactionary, seeing that her own songs have been toothless pop rap.

Immediately, Kane Beatz’s electronic drip-drops and ringing electric guitar production mark “Super Bass” as doing something different. Between the electronics and the strong beat on the chorus, I’m perfectly ready to call this one of Minaj’s best produced songs; it manages to stay sweet and cute with an R&B bump, but without any of the lameness of “Right Thru Me” or “Moment 4 Life”.

Of course, Minaj makes this song herself. On the verses, she finally seems to have found her sweet spot; she’s quick, she’s inventive, and she’s witty. She also sounds like she’s not trying to be different or stand out, she just sounds natural. Even her vocal tics sound graceful.

And that chorus. Right away, it’s danceable, and the “Boom da boom boom da boom” hook puts Beyonce’s last couple singles to shame. Ester Dean’s backing vocals don’t hurt, either. It’s sweet, breezy…hell, the whole song is a perfect choice for the a summer hit. I don’t know where she got the idea of having a “Super bass” from, though. Is that like a big bass system in a car? A 1957 Fender P-bass? Wait…if you take “super bass”, move that b over…”Superb Ass”? Might be incidental, but that’s the kind of thing I could see Nicki Minaj doing, and that makes me chuckle.

Normally this is where I’d point out some lyrics, or the message to the song, but “Super Bass” is a lyrically tight crush song. Not quite devoted enough to be a love song, but definitely an “I like you” affair. There’s no real defining lyric here, but that’s not a bad thing; Minaj tends to miss when she tries for quotable lyrics (ok, outside of “You was hot when? Ricki Lake!” which might be one of the great WTF lyrics of the year). But her lyrics here aren’t bland, either, and thanks to her varied delivery, it’s incredibly easy to get them stuck in your head.

Any of the unique quirk that fuels the rest of the song seems to have gone off looking for something shiny during the bridge. It’s almost like the writers said, “Look, we know it’s been a surprisingly solid song so far. Take five and collect yourselves”. Not that it’s a bad bridge, but it sounds like Minaj’s less interesting singles, and in comparison to the rest of the song it doesn’t feel fleshed out. But thankfully, the chorus kicks back in to keep the song interesting before you’re able to zone too far out.

I really don’t have much to say on this one. “Super Bass” is kind of weird for me in that I wish I liked it more than I did; maybe I just need to listen to it more, but so far it hasn’t clicked with me after some two dozen listens already. The chorus is strong, the production is unique and enjoyable, and Minaj puts in some of her best solo work, but I still can’t love this song like I feel I should. But I must say, it’s great to hear Minaj sound like she’s not trying to prove herself. At the very least, I’m perfectly ok to hear this again, and I probably will since it’s no great stretch to see “Super Bass” being one of those songs that you’ll hear all summer.

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