12.01.2015

End of the Month Music Bitchfest - November 2015

They Might Be Giants


Dial-A-Song Round Up! pt. 11

"Elephants"
First, a cautionary tale about the dangers of elephants from Why?. Thank you, Danny Weinkauf, I will try not to let my children get trampled by elephants.

"College Town"
Next, we get a defeatist anthem. It gets even worse when Flans drops that last line on you. Jesus. But how about that incongruous yet awesome optical illusion video?

"Daylight"
Something different from Flans, sweet and sad with brilliant harmonies.  Really startling and evocative video. Could be a nice album closer for the follow up to Glean...

"Apophenia"
You know? For as solid as "Apophenia" is, it's almost too TMBG. That is an awful goddamn thing to say, but, there you go. Dig that bass though. And Miller's guitar feels a bit Phish-y. Neither good nor bad, just a note. Throw this in with "Contrecoup" and "Brain Problem Situation" and you've got yourself a themed EP.

"I Am Alone"
And, finally, TMBG try their hand at a Bond theme on "I Am Alone", with a fantastic video accompaniment.

Jeez...the next one of these will be the last one of these...I think I'm shaking...

In other esoteric, They Might Be Giants news, the band released their 18th studio album, Why?, a follow up to 2002's kids album, No!. And it was reviewed favorable...by me.

And, lastly, in the world of TMBG of which you want no part...this month: the Duo Show...review coming soon.

Nine Inch Nails

For Record Store Day, whoever owns the rights to the first four NIN releases (the "Down In It" single, Pretty Hate Machine, the "Head Like A Hole" single, and the "Sin" sIngle) decided to cash in on all true NIN fans' need to own all things even considered semi-official bearing the NIN logo. For that reason, the first four halos have been put out on vinyl in completely unaltered format from their original releases. Big whoop.
Yes, I fucking bought it.

Also, in more personal NIN-related news...I was watching Mr. Robot and snark-tweeted how Mac Quayle's score is so Reznor is hurts...and Reznor liked my tweet. How genuinely depressing is it that I consider this some sort of achievement?



This month, thanks to Terry, a "top bloke" from Cannonball PR over in the UK, I was introduced to the work of ESKA, specifically, her amazing self-titled debut. It's a blend of eerie spirituality, slightly detuned soul, Prince, CeeLo Green, and Tori Amos.
You aren't ready for this.

And, finally, David Bowie debuts "Blackstar", which blew my fucking mind*; I literally had it on loop for two days, just turning up the volume when there was a silent moment in my room, but, after the revelation of the rest of the tracklist, I'm kind of bummed. "Sue"** and "Tis A Pity She Was A Whore" are both kind of awful, the kind of shitty, experimental jazz that people pretend to like but that no one actually does. Those three tracks make up half of the seven track, forty-three minute album. Then there's "Lazarus", which was written for the stage play of the same name. There are three tracks left and I'm wondering if those are also going to be in that stage play. Nutshell: this is feeling less like some amazing new Bowie concept album to rival Diamond Dogs or Outside, and more like a "here's what Bowie's been up to since 2013" album. Here's hoping those last four tracks are a quarter as mind-blowing as the title track.

* Here's a Q&A that the director did at the Brooklyn screening of the video.

** By the way, this is the EDITED version, the album version will be a needless seven and a half minutes long.