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January 11, 2008
Four for Friday Evening
Not to be confused with 4:4 Friday evening...
the Magnetic Fields - "Zombie Boy"
The Magnetic Fields' impending album, Distortion has got its talking point right there in its title. While alot of the record is less skewed than you've been lead to believe, "Zombie Boy" is a right nasty piece of business. "Two roosters I slew/ and with all of my might/ I prayed hard for you/ In Haiti at night," starts the stellar macabre lyric sheet. Stephin Merritt is not one to let feedback take precedence over wit, after all. But if the cracked fuzz was announced and the sharp words expected, the real surprise is the ragged electric guitar solo Steve lets loose at around 2:20. Who knew he had those chops in his pocket? In the context of the horror movie piano and limping drumbeat, it's a thrilling and gory little burst.
This 1976 live Kinks cover from Brian Eno's prog pop supergroup 801 seems fraught with internal tension. The players are so accomplished that you can almost hear them dying to break out of the troglodyte riff that the young Davies brothers had to get by with. It's too basic to allow for erupting wankery, which is a net plus in my book. And all that unreasonable teenage lust is just drained bloodless by Eno's aloof singing. This version is cerebral and itchy, as opposed to the original's unkempt sexual id. It sounds like a bunch of scientists programming robots to be horny, failing to anticipate the horrifying results.
Valet is the current project of experimental Portland musician, Honey Owens. Honey's been a collaborator to the free wheeling noise troupe Jackie-O-Motherfucker, and has now joined the touring band for Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox's solo recording project, Atlas Sound. "Kehaar" is listed as a likely inclusion to a 2008 Valet album called Naked Acid (which is much sexier than regular acid). It's a slow, meandering piece, but one filled with gorgeous echo and surprisingly pretty double tracked vocals. I have a hard time accepting that the song is actually about the gruff seagull in Richard Adams' bunny epic Watership Down. Owen's drawn out delivery makes it tough to discern detail, but references to letting the wind carry you can be heard in support of that conclusion. A seagull just isn't regal enough for the swirling textures here though, let alone one with a comic relief Eastern European accent. I don't know what animal/nationality combo it conjures in my mind-eye...something graceful, deliberate, and mean. Maybe a North African mako shark--content from a recent buffet, but with violence never far from its focused mind.
Hercules & Love Affair - "Hercules Theme"
Man, 11 days into the New Year and already my resolution to get my recent disco addiction under control is struck dead. This time it comes from the seemingly infallible DFA label, as opposed to my normal dealer, Italians Do it Better (whose only '08 single I've heard sees them slinking into tastefully minimalist house). Brookyln DJ Andrew Butler tells the tale of his own non-de-plume, utilizing about ten different elements that start out slightly annoying and then become addictive through nagging force. The muted horn loops, the vintage cold water string shocks, those pushy diva vocals, and even the building sex groans are all eventually gold. If this jam was playing wherever the Hercules of Greek mythology went, he'd have no time to fight monsters due to the endless parade of concubines falling at his feet.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at January 11, 2008 06:40 PM
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Comments
This is going to sound disparaging because I don't think they are a horrifying result, and I'm not sure how horny they are, but do you think the robots designed by those scientists may have then created Hot Chip? It sounds like it.
Posted by: Sebastian at January 11, 2008 07:14 PM
Hadn't occurred to me, but it is a little Hot Chip-ish, I guess.
Posted by: Jeff K at January 11, 2008 07:42 PM
