Post 1b: MODERN CLASSIC REVIEW 1: Halcyon Digest - Deerhunter

Modern Classic Review: Halcyon Digest - Deerhunter

9.5/10

Background: Time to restore all the hipster cred (yes that is my intended audience) I lost by writing a Led Zeppelin review right out of the gate. Anyways. Deehunter is an indie/experimental rock band from Atlanta, Georgia that has been putting out hipster-worshiped music since 2001. Deerhunter's music has strong influences from shoegaze, punk, post-punk, dream pop, 50s/60s girl group pop, folk, alternative rock, and new wave music. The primary force behind Deerhunter (as well as the leader of the cherished indie act Atlas Sound) is Bradford Cox, the band's vocalist, secondary guitarist, and primary lyricist (for the most part). Other than their inconsequential debut album, their discography includes five albums and two EPs. Those albums include the brilliant but, well, cryptic Cryptograms (one of those albums everybody says is their favorite despite not understanding it at all), the double album Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. (this album is the one that actually got every fake-fan of Cryptograms into Deerhunter), Halcyon Digest (see below), the heavy, noisy departure Monomania, and their most recently album, Fading Frontier. As far as my personal history with Deerhunter goes, I thoroughly enjoyed Cryptograms once I understood it (I still do not "get" a decent portion of the first half), loved Microcastle/Weird Era Cont., am currently writing a review about how much I adore Halcyon Digest, found Monomania to be great in theory and ultimately disappointing (to be fair, how does one even follow up Halcyon Digest?) and am not sure how I feel about Fading Frontier. 

Review: When I first heard about Deerhunter, before I had even heard their music, it was because somebody told me "Bradford Cox is one weird dude." I was thinking he was strange in more of a George Costanza way, and boy was I wrong. A self described asexual, not that there's anything wrong with that (that's right two Seinfeld references in one paragraph. I'm starting to get arrogant), a sufferer of Marfan's Syndrome, holder of an eccentric personality (Almost NSFW due to minor language in text format), and a genuinely unique individual, This eclecticism is important to Deerhunter's music, especially this particular album. The album is intended to play like a short series of radio blips, like breaks in the static of a dead radio channel. Many of the songs reflect Cox's feelings of melancholy, isolation, and resignation. Random/eventually connected aside/pity party: It seems fitting that as I write this I currently have a 102 degree fever (as well as all the fun side effects) and feel like death (what a chilling video), as this fever is how I imagine Bradford Cox has felt his entire life, judging by his music. Themes of death and loneliness cover this album like a blanket, as well as plenty of Southern Gothic and religious imagery, no doubt a product of the band's southern upbringing. They are then contrasted to the catchy melodies and beautiful effects and songwriting present behind the macabre lyrics. Cox, who is infamously outspoken (NSFW language) and extroverted to a creepy fault yet simultaneously vulnerable and damaged beyond repair, seems to be a fitting vessel for the themes presented on this album. Cox, understandably, has some serious inner demons, and they are made readily apparent over the course of Halcyon Digest's run time. 

The album opens with the song "Earthquake." The song begins with a series of synthesized whispers and cracks, as an acoustic guitar plays delicately over the intentionally fake percussion. Cox then begins singing his typically cryptic lyrics in a voice nearly drowned out in effects. The lyrics discuss the false memories Cox created in his head during a rough period in his life, such as his non existent friendship with fellow musician Ricky Wilson (guitarist for the B-52s, AIDS casualty in 1985), or his memories of living in an abandoned harp factory. Like I said, Cox is a strange individual.  

Deerhunter then launches into the next two tracks, the surprisingly heavy "Don't Cry" and the snakelike "Revival." Both tracks clock in at less than three minutes, and are loud, distorted affairs. Both tracks have helped Deerhunter further gain notoriety in the indie rock world for their "savage" live performance, where the hidden volume and aggression of their music is heavily amplified. While Deerhunter is not an inherently heavy band on record, some of their more aggressive album tracks can be made into punk-like jams if need be. Also to note on both tracks is the drumming of Moses Archuleta. Like most of the band, his talents are better showcased in a live format (check out the ridiculously talented bass playing by a barely conscious Joshua Fauver in that video in addition to the machine like precision of Archuleta during the more complicated passages), but even on record his precise and economical playing helps drive these two heavier songs forward. 

After "Revival" the album reaches its first climax with the song "Sailing." The song is not the explosive climax that the earlier two songs might point towards. "Sailing" is a beautiful, quiet jam that features just Cox's voice and delicate guitar playing, plus some watery effects and subtle percussion towards the end. It paints a beautiful picture of simply wanting to sit on a boat and play guitar all day, with no worries, no pressure, nobody to judge, etc. Here Cox begins to develop his theme of isolation, but in this context it is by choice. Cox just wishes to get away from it all, to hop on a boat and go sailing. The song comes as a sharp contrast to the previous few tracks and sounds particularly poignant when contrasted. 

The next three tracks, "Memory Boy," "Desire Lines" and "Basement Scene" show Deerhunter flexing some pop songwriting muscle. All three are upbeat, catchy, fast, and simultaneously dark. Their melodies draw from 50s and 60s girl group pop (especially the melody line of "Basement Scene"), post punk, and psychedelia. "Desire Lines" could just have easily been written Joy Division as "Basement Scene" could have been written by The Ronettes (minus the lyrics about getting high, but then again maybe not). These are the album's catchiest songs, and contain very little of the malice or depression found earlier in the album. Things are just beginning to look up for Cox's mental state. 

Suddenly, all the progress made towards Cox's improvement is torn down by the album's true climax, the song "Helicopter." Cox paints the picture of himself in a vegetative state, on his deathbed. It is here that Cox decides to give into his demise, and lets the relief of death wash over him like a wave. The song features bubbling underwater effects, and the guitar that comes in for the chorus feels like a wave washing to shore. Cox's lyrics are beautiful and grim, and feature more of the religious imagery present on tracks like "Revival." The song features multiple peaks and has a wide dynamic range due to the delicate acoustic verses and and massive underwater chorus. 

After "Helicopter" the album features the poppy "Fountain Stairs," the explosive, saxophone filled "Coronado" and the album's closer "He Would Have Laughed." Both "Fountain Stairs" and "Coronado" make use of horns in an unexpectedly brilliant way and are two great tracks that ultimately add little to the theme of the album. The closer is dedicated to the late garage rock legend Jay Reatard and features a delicate acoustic guitar and an interesting stop/start drum pattern. Cox puts on his best Jay Reatard impression by adding a bit of rasp and attitude to his voice, and the song switches speeds often over its seven minute run time. 

As far as influence goes, it is hard to tell what impact Halcyon Digest will have. It is still a young album (released in 2010), and not one with a distinct or easy to imitate sound. However, it is still a very important album in the cannon of indie rock. It established Deerhunter as one of the more popular faces of indie and alternative music, and has done much to further the spread of dream pop and shoegaze influences in modern rock. Deerhunter's noise pop opus remains to this day their most popular and acclaimed album, as well as their easiest to understand because they were able to take the avant-garde nature of Cryptograms and fuse it with the pop of Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. in order to make an album that is so much more than either of those two. 

Highlights: "Don't Cry' "Revival" "Sailing" "Memory Boy" "Desire Lines" "Helicopter"

Lowpoints: "Earthquake" (It feels like more of an experimental introduction than a song) 

Recommended Albums: Parallax - Atlas Sound, Bloom - Beach House, Shields - Grizzly Bear, Here and Nowhere Else - Cloud Nothings 

Blog Post 1b: CLASSIC REVIEW 1: Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin

Classic Review: Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin

 

CLASSIC/10

Background: Led Zeppelin is/was/will forever be a hard rock/heavy metal/blues band from London, England. Zeppelin was formed from the ashes of The Yardbirds, the band with arguably (but nobody is going to fight you on it) the most ridiculously talented guitarist line-up of any band ever. Eventually that ship sunk due to in fighting and gave birth to Led Zeppelin, trading one overly skilled blues band for another overly skilled blues band that is actually listenable. Led Zeppelin's early sound was rooted in blues, but drew influences from psychedelia, early heavy metal, folk, and more blues. They eventually evolved to include influences from progressive rock, Americana, reggae, funk, mythology/fantasy, Eastern music, and, quite regrettably, something that came close to resembling disco (don't get me wrong I enjoy disco, especially post-disco, but it was not a good sound for a band whose unofficial and largely fabricated biography is titled Hammer of the Gods). They are typically regarded as the most influential band to inhabit the post-Beatles musical universe, and are the second highest selling artist in the USA. Their discography includes 6 definitive classic albums, one decent album, and two pieces of hot garbage. Outside of music, they were infamous for their debauchery and general idiocy (slightly NSFW due to brief language and descriptions of hedonism) and really helped to create the wonderful trope of the excessive rock star.  

Review: It is fairly undeniable (unlike the majority of the people in your life, the numbers don't lie) that Led Zeppelin reached their commercial peak with their untitled album aka Led Zeppelin IV to anybody that isn't a pretentious loser. Their artistic peak, however, was reached with Physical Graffiti, and anybody that disagrees is wrong because I say so and I have a blog and they don't. Ha. Anyways. Physical Graffiti features some of the longest songs of any Zeppelin album, as well as some of the most complex (not that song length inherently equals complexity, a lesson that the majority of progressive rock needs to learn). The musicianship and songwriting skills shown on this album, especially on longer tracks such as "In My Time Dying", "Ten Years Gone", and "In The Light" are among the best ever put to vinyl. Equally impressive are shorter tracks such as the interlude "Bron-Yr-Aur," which features some dazzling acoustic guitar playing from Jimmy Page, and "The Wanton Song," a jerky, off beat rocker that alternates blazing fast playing with sudden stops and starts. It may not sound too impressive to the average person, but believe me, having to coordinate those sudden stops and starts with a full band is nearly impossible for mere mortals. This album is the sound incredibly skilled individuals (every member has been voted to be the best singer/guitarist/bassist/drummer of all time in multiple polls) at the absolute peak of their musicianship. 

I would be lying to you if I said Physical Graffiti is an easy album. Some of the songs are excessively long and at times just boring. It's eighty two minutes long. Not everybody appreciates raw musicianship in the same way they enjoy a happy vibe or a catchy hook, and there's nothing wrong with that. If you listen carefully, however, these more conventional aspects are plentiful across the album. There is a reason this unwieldy behemoth is 16x platinum in the USA, and it's not because Billy working down at the Topeka Wal Mart  really gets off to nice string arrangements, ten minute blues songs about dying, and lyrics that reference The Lord of the Rings. Zep's main commercial draw comes from the way the music makes the listener feel. "The Rover" and "Trampled Underfoot" both feature aggressive guitar playing and grooves that could make even your grandmother feel like the coolest person on the planet. "Houses of the Holy," "Down by the Seaside" and "Boogie with Stu" are all short, easy, catchy songs that still feature Led Zeppelin's typical complexity. (Fun fact: "Boogie with Stu" features one Mrs. Valens in its writing credits, added when the band realized that the mother of the deceased Ritchie Valens never received any royalties from her son's tragic eight month recording career.) The epic "Kashmir" might just be the greatest driving song ever written, especially in the desert. Despite this, while there certainly are some more conventional things to enjoy about this album, the primary way, in my opinion, to listen to Physical Graffiti is to let the album take you on a journey, maaaaaaan, and absorb you into its huge world of fantasy, excess, and gloriously sloppy guitar solos. 

Perhaps my favorite aspect of Physical Graffiti is the way it plays with dynamic range, or basically the way some parts of songs are quiet and then suddenly get loud. Many of the songs on this album feature a member of the band playing in a more quiet register only to have the rest of the group pop up like Gene Parmesan and form an explosive climax for the song. What Physical Graffiti lacks in regard to Zep's earlier, heavier albums it makes up for in its epic scope and contrasting sounds. Quiet/loud passages are more common in the previously mentioned longer songs, such as "In the Light" and "Ten Years Gone." This use of quiet/loud contrast would later be imitated by The Pixies (although nobody ever acknowledges that The Pixies took it from Zeppelin), who were the primary influence on a little band called Nirvana. This use of contrasting song elements was innovative at the time, and has found influence in genres as diverse as grunge, EDM/IDM, rap, metal, and even punk (more than a few punks had an outspoken hatred for the cheesiness and ridiculous song length of Led Zeppelin, and some punk tropes were subtle jabs at the conventions of metal set by Zeppelin). 

If I had to pick an album that truly represents Led Zeppelin, it would be Physical Graffiti. It features all of the elements that come to mind when I picture the high points of the band's career. However, I would not start somebody new to Zeppelin here (I would have them listen in chronological order starting with Led Zeppelin I in order to give them a full grasp of the evolution Zeppelin's sound underwent during the course of their career). This is a complex and lengthy record, one that rewards multiple listens, yet can be enjoyed upon first listen as well. It is an album of beautiful, delicate subtlety and dark heaviness. Some songs deal with love, both in the physical and mental sense, and some deal with death. Contrasts run amok through the album as well as in Led Zeppelin's career, and I feel that is important to keep in mind while listening. As far as influence, this album, as well as all of the band's albums, can be heard in heavy metal and its sub-genres, including the monstrosity that became hair metal, progressive rock, post-rock, and even some areas of folk rock. Truly a monumental album for a truly monumental band. 

Highlights: "The Rover" "In My Time of Dying" "Trampled Underfoot" "Kashmir" "In the Light" "Ten Years Gone" "The Wanton Song"

Lowpoints (if I had to pick): "Sick Again" "Custard Pie" (seriously the central metaphor and last verse of this song is just uncomfortable)

Recommended albums: Literally anything in Zeppelin's discography that was released before this one (albums after Physical Graffiti took a steep nosedive in quality), Paranoid -Black Sabbath, Machine Head - Deep Purple, Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd (yeah I just did that)

Blog Post #1a: Introduction, or How You Will Know What This Blog Is About And Why I Would Attempt Such A Thing As This (Not Voluntarily)

Introduction (If you are going to skip this introduction like I know you want to do, please at least read the disclaimer in the last paragraph)
This is a blog that has been created to fulfill the requirements of my 20% time project. Whether or not it does that is to be seen, and if we are being honest with ourselves, seems unlikely. For those unfamiliar, 20% time is an idea my beloved instructor blatantly stole from Google (to be fair, he did credit them when introducing this project), who blatantly stole the idea from 3M's 15% project. In a typical Google move, Google had to kick things up a notch and changed it to 20% time, thus popularizing this phenomenon in a format 5% better than it previously existed. So it goes. Nothing is original anymore, and as you will soon see from my blog's unabashed and shameless idea stealing from overrated publications like Pitchfork.com and theneedledrop.com, I just don't care. Anyways. The question my glorious instructor has posed to us is "How will you enhance your world?" That question initially staggered me, as it has essentially been the goal of mankind since the beginning of humanity, and I really didn't know the answer. I then decided to give up on saving the ENTIRE world and began trying to improve my own world, which is how every happy man since the beginning of mankind has answered that question. I began thinking, and then realized that most of my day consists of listening to music, talking about music, thinking about music, and making music. I don't do a whole lot with my time. My 20% time is to write a series of music reviews. I'm not changing the world, walking old ladies across the street, or pulling a third world country out of poverty like many of my classmates. I chose to write music reviews because I genuinely care about the music I listen to. I am one of the few people that can say music has changed my life and helped me find who I am as a person, and not in the cheesy, basic way that every "deeper than thou" stoner claims music has affected him. On top of that, I feel that many of my friends and peers do not listen to music "properly." I put this word in quotes, as music is a completely subjective experience and to say that there is a best way to listen to music is among the stupidest things I've ever heard in my life. What I mean by this is that many people do not listen to music by the album, the format the artist usually intends it to be listened to in. Many do not search for a deeper meaning in their music, appreciate the effort or artistry put into even the most simplistic music, and simply enjoy music in its most simplistic form. While there is nothing wrong with that, it is somewhat akin to eating only cheese pizza for one's entire life. Cheese pizza is more than a solid option, but to never experience the joys of a vastly superior sausage pizza is just a shame. I personally feel that one of the best ways to learn how to appreciate music for what it is intended to do is to read things from the perspective of another person who is analyzing the music for them. I also have inherit issues with most of the other music publications. Pitchfork has generally become a pretentious mess and, to make things worse/better, has sold out to the man, maaaaan.  Consequence of Sound has been lying to us now about something that is so far from a joking matter that it offends me on a personal level that they would even pretend to have the inside scoop on something like this (expect a doting modern classic review of at least one, possibly two, LCD Soundsystem albums in future blog posts). The Needle Drop is... well, fine, I guess, but I still have yet to find anybody that agrees with Anthony Fantano more than 60% of the time on his scores, and I'm not sure if I would want to take musical advice from somebody who so strikingly resembles a cantaloupe. I also do not believe that most music publications are easily readable for the average person, as most of them are publications devoid of any humor (save The Needle Drop), and usually just try to impress the reader with pretentious writing and music jargon that means absolutely nothing to anybody.

My biweekly goals for this assignment are as follows:

As this is an assignment with an objective sense of complete/incomplete, the required question asking me how I intend to measure my progress doesn't even warrant a response in my book.

The final requirement of my introduction is listed as "establish your voice." I feel that I have properly done this, so now is the time to issue my disclaimer. My voice is one of sarcasm, irony, satire, mocking, exaggeration, and occasionally formality. I like to poke fun at things. I like to be dramatic about issues. Yes, I know my hyperlinks barely make sense and are usually irrelevant. I get sidetracked often, and it is usually intentional rather than the product of poor writing. I don't need organizational issues to prove to my readers that I am not a professional writer. I have my prose for that. Doing these things for the sake of humor makes my posts much more readable and entertaining (at least to me), and is a style of writing that I personally enjoy. As a person, I rarely feel as strongly on issues as I appear to here. When I poke fun at things like my teacher, other sites, artists, albums, etc. it is nearly always for the sake of a joke and in good humor. I mean no offense to anybody. Creating an album, be it good or bad, is an immense undertaking and is to always be respected. Also to keep in mind is that these are the writings of a single human being. Music is very subjective, possibly the most subjective of any of the art forms. My opinion is not the right or wrong answer, and neither is any opinion that is not your own. I am simply here to share how I interpret music in a humorous and entertaining way that hopefully inspires you to think a little more about the piece of art playing in your headphones. I do minimal proofreading and revisions, and thus this blog is already undoubtedly filled with errors already. Expect me to contradict myself multiple times throughout this project. I just don't really care. You'll find that is a common theme with me. Anyways. Any images, videos, songs, or other media used in this blog are not my own unless designated otherwise, and are used fairly.

NOTE: My blog posts will come in sections designated by numbers and letters. I cannot write 5-6 album reviews in a single blog post, as that is inefficient and far too much writing in one block for the average person's attention span. This post is designated as Blog Post 1a. My first classic review will be designated as Blog Post 1b, the next review will be Blog Post 1c, so on and so forth until I finish what I feel is enough work to feel good about, and enough for my teacher to properly grade. Any random blog posts that I am doing purely for my own entertainment and that I do not wish to be graded will not be assigned to one of my six blog posts. They will just have a title, but no number.