End of the Month Music Bitchfest - October 2015

They Might be Giants

Dial-A-Song Round Up! pt. 10

Fantastic opening to the final quarter. Fans have been waiting for this punk version of "Black Ops" since before 2013's Nanobots dropped. Yes, I like this one better. That crazy monster sax is just more candy on top of a mountain of candy.

"Prepare" chases its own tail until it disappears. Feels a bit like "I'm All You Can Think About" or as if it could be a response/coda to "Older".

"To A Forest" is somewhat unsettling on its own, but throw in that video and it becomes seriously eerie. The inclusion of "hobo signs" is really the cherry on this nightmare sundae. And, seriously, Flans, you need to learn how to write more verses...

Oh good, another rambling account of something odd that probably didn't happen from yet another unreliable narrator. Something about "It Said Something" is reminiscent of Apollo 18. Good stuff.

This month will see the release of They Might Be Giants' 18th studio album, Why?. There will be a review.

Also, TMBG closed out the month with Horntoberfest, which, despite sounding...a bit under-rehearsed...blew my socks off my dick.
Review is forthcoming.


Furious gentleman, John Grant released his third album, the follow up to 2013's Pale, Green Ghosts, entitled Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, and it's the best thing he's done thus far.  The sqwampy fleep of "Snug Slacks" will make you explode out of your pants in a supernova of dancing. Here, Grant is channeling Frank Zappa so hard you could get pregnant. "Guess How I Know" and "You & Him" are dark, electronic, and hilarious. Amanda Palmer's broken smoke of a voice goes perfectly with Grant's mahogany on the latter. He's still so scathing, but, clearly one has to have an open heart for it to be hurt so much, like on "Voodoo Doll": he just wants to help. "Black Blizzard" is ominous and terrifying and "Disappointing" is a great twist on "My Favorite Things". The anger here is a lot more perceptible in the music rather than just the lyrics. But the juxtaposition of soft music and scalding lyrics is still there.

Just...go listen to the fucking thing.

Christ.

Here's a review of his October 17th show at Le Poisson Rouge.

Garbage released the 20th anniversary edition of their first album*. Typically, Garbage albums have this amazing ability to be half hit/half shit (although not, like, shitty shit, just not nearly as good or catchy as the rest, but "half hit/half not nearly as good or catchy as the rest" does not rhyme). Half are timeless pop jewels and the other half...the exact opposite, dusty remnants of whatever year they were released. On this reissue, which tauted endlessly how they went back to the original tapes, the shitty songs sound clearer and deeper, and the awesome songs sound EVEN MORE AWESOME....probably because they went back to the original tapes... The second disc of b-sides (or "g-sides" as Gorillaz coined the term about 15 years ago) are nothing new to fans who've been paying attention to the band and its web presence over the years, so that was kind of a disappointment. Then there's the additional forty one fucking tracks if you purchased the Super Deluxe digital version. These are mostly painfully 90's remixes and a half dozen demos, great for a true darkling, but not for an average human or even your average Garbage fan. The best and most interesting artifact on this epic uber deluxe edition is the very last track, an early demo of "Supervixen" on which the verse is completely different, changing the entire feel of the song and, kind of, the album, as the song sets the tone.

Here's a review of their October 24th "20 Years Queer" show at Kings Theatre.

Also working on reviews for ESKA's debut album and CocoRosie's new one, Heartache City. Thus far both of these are pretty spectacular. 

MORE SOON.

* 1995 was twenty years ago.