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Various
Artists: Kill Rock Stars Compilation_2
With 41 songs on the new Kill Rock Stars compilation Tracks and Fields, youll be pleased to know that I intend to repress urges to include unnecessary witty/ignorant diatribes during this review today. So lets just get straight to business and describe as many songs as we can before I have to take a nap, and before you have to pretend that youre actually doing something productive at work. Five bucks says I wont even mention Morrissey this week! Kicking things off is a band called The Legend! who sound pretty cool with their kind-of goth-rock vocals and stripped down production. It makes a great lead up to This Lush Life by Antietam, which Im pretty found of. A little Interpol-styled guitar and a violin mix together quite well here. The mood of this comp is all over the place though, so just because its mixed well doesnt mean it is limited to any musical genre. His Name is Alive comes in smoothly with Peace In Detroit to add a bit of Dusty Springfield flare before youre provided with the inevitable indie rock track. But its Superchunks Everyone Gets Crushed, so Im certainly not complaining here. John Wilkes Booze kicks in with a nice little song that evokes memories of The Makeup for me with the frantic vocals endearingly inviting you to leave Planet Earth for a bit. Yay! Then we get The Capricorns track Steve and Tiffanie! Im not doing a google search on the band, but if that isnt the lead singer of Sleater-Kinney, I must be suffering from some major acute alcohol-related brain damage this morning. I love the simple synth beats and radical wind sound effects that this song has. You know, Whhhoooooshhh! I think theres some organ in there too that evokes subtle memories of the Go Gos You Thought in me, which is a song that evokes other memories of me going to church as a toddler. Fabulous, I probably gave my most thorough review on this compilation to the only Kill Rock Stars artist that doesnt really need the exposure. Whoever the Capricorns are though, I like them. But other songs are just as good or better. Take the band Lovers and their song Birds and the Sky. The girl singing here has a crackle in her voice that gives the song a Bright Eyes mood. This actually conflicts in a pleasant way with the more upbeat guitar melodies to create quite a gem of a song. Xiu Xiu brings in a live version of Clowne Towne which certainly has the stripped down energetics of something Tim Kasher would write for Cursive or The Good Life. But we dont stay in Nebraska for too long here... Ghost Boobs by Gravy Train!!! proves that the band is at least three times as spastic as The Legend!. They give us a bit of an Elecrto-ey Yeah Yeah Yeahs-like change of pace with the precious line I thought I was fat, so I went on a diet, if I knew they would split, I would never have tried it. Im sure The Charades would be offended if they knew that I wanted to describe them to you as a kick-ass indie rock version of Kylie Minogue, so Ive decided no to tell you that even though its one of my favorite tracks here. But I love Brooke too! Their track has sweet little Juliana Hatfield-like vocals that start off with nothing but an acoustic guitar to back them up. Then some drums kick in and it builds a little electric guitar to reinforce the charm of the song. Despite my tired mood today, it would be almost impossible to ignore Gas Huffers Release the Robots, which isnt really much of a song, but its certainly more amusing than Radioheads and Airs feeble attempts at forcing robotic vocoders to say stupid things. And yes, that is The King Cobra covering Sparks near the end of disc one! They certainly had their fun with the interpretation of This Town Aint Big Enough for the Both of Us. Search and Seizure by Semiautomatic proves that the Faint arent the only band that can distort their guitars in a retro-futuristic way, and Radio Berlin adds another kickass song in the vein of goth here with Bright Things. Theres a bit of an electronica interlude on disc two featuring Measles Mumps Rubella and Slumber Party. In fact things get a bit experimental around these tracks with some discordant selections of jazzy noise like Need New Bodys ggaannkk and Male Sluts Industrial Noise Blues, two tracks that sound pretty much like the titles. To my personal relief, things settle a bit for tracks by Thanksgiving and Nedelle. Of these two quiet acoustic tracks, I prefer Nedelles less abrasive vocals, but Im usually biased a bit in the pop direction so Im sure some folks would enjoy the more unique and experimental stuff that disc two has to offer. A more obvious choice of cover versions is offered here when Sahara Hotnights tackles The Ramones Rockaway Beach. It certainly isnt better than the original, but the freaking acapella group at my school could do Rockaway Beach, and Id still love it. Disc two actually closes off pretty strong with a punchy little garage track from Sweet Heat and an uncharacteristically acoustic song by Dead Meadow which is still characteristically over seven minutes long. This version of Golden Cloud is pretty cool with the vocals buried deep under the meandering wall of acoustic sounds. The Decembrists end our excursion through the Tracks and Fields with another introspective-styled track that displays a bit of sincerity by means of the singers casual observations on daily-life. I might be overlooking a track or two, but its tough to dissect a compilation this diverse without cutting a few corners here and there, and the idea of this album is to expose you to a lot of new and unfamiliar songs that prefer to sneak up and surprise you when you least expect it. Im already quite a fan of Tracks (disc one) and Im sure most of Fields (disc two) will grow on me. By the way, this compilation is not all Kill Rock Stars artists; its just a collection of groups that the label likes. If you find it tough to dig up new bands that are doing interesting things, this may be a good purchase to consider. Im sure youll find a couple bands that flick your switch, and none of them sound even remotely like Morrissey. So this is the perfect album to complement your shopping trip when you go to pick up You Are the Quarry. Sorry about that. Lets just say that I owe you a drink.
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