Premature Evaluation: Friend Opportunity

Another from this weekend's leak folder. When Deerhoof's awesome "+81" was made available on a European magazine comp last week, we got really excited really quickly (we know, how un-bloglike!) and tried giving you a taste but were politely asked not to; so if you can't dig up the record on the world wide web, you may just have to wait until its formal release. Either way, Friend Opportunity really is a must listen. Those who've been turned off by the band's deconstructionist, no-wave stylings won't find much to latch onto beyond "+81" and "Believe E.S.P.," but make no mistake -- this record is gonna knock some heads off.

Guitarist Chris Cohen left the SF outfit in May of this year, but the band came back with an inspired record -- ever challenging, restlessly moving through each song's possibilities, but always coated with Satomi's sugary sweet voice. (See: the brilliant "The Galaxist.") But we know how polarizing Deerhoof is, and we don't expect this record to be any different. Did you manage to snatch it? Are they better or worse sans Cohen? The McCarren show this summer may have been disparately received, but we heard CMJ had 'em guns blazing. Can't wait for the Opportunity (pun!) to see this stuff live.

Friend Opportunity is out 1/23/07.

A Weekend In The City Watercooler

High Profile Leak weekend was capped with an unexpected treat: Bloc Party! The highly anticipated follow-up to the Brit band's much-adored debut Silent Alarm surfaced yesterday, and if you pinned it down in cyberspace, you probably spent your rainy Monday listening and thinking the same, hyphenated two words: Front-loaded! Even if this is a pre-master (or early, unfinished mix) that the band is inconsolably devestated about leaking (which they are), it's tough not to feel some disappointment with what our iPods are singing.

The question you have to ask going into A Weekend In The City: What element do you wanna see the band play up this time around? Silent Alarm was so loved 'cause it wasn't just a marriage of the "sound of the day" post-punk with OK Computer art guitars; the band pulled off moods as diverse as their looks -- tough, stylish, vulnerable, lovelorn, infuriated, and surreptitiously mushy. But this time around, aside from the opening tracks, the mush factor is high, and the "formula" is becoming more apparent than they'd like.

Wincing The Night Away Watercooler

Oh, leaking interweb. Thanks for dripping the new Shins record! Before listening, we feared that the band either would turn in a complete retread of their awesome to-date output, or offer up a total snoozer. (Anyone who's been to a Shins show knows what we're talking about.) Instead, the album is another step in the crystallization of The Shins' studio sound (via ever-enhanced production) with some minor departures and some great tunes, all of it enough to earn from us a resounding "very good!"

The first Wincing tracks are among its finest; "Sleeping Lessons" moves forward on the strength of Mercer's melody and some spacey textures, but the crashing dance-beat guits at 2:25 (ala the outro to Arcade Fire's "Une Annee Sans Lumiere") have a full-and-forceful urgency that's very new for The Shins. Follow that up with "Australia" -- which has the band in full command of pop craft, toying with dynamics via shifting drum patterns and spiced with nostalgic '50s melodies -- and you'll think that those Sub Pop bastards have done it again.

And they sorta have.

Ys Watercooler

If you too have heard Ys, what do you think of orchestral Joanna? How does it stack up to Milk-Eyed? Hypothetically, you know, 'cause it's not in stores yet.

P.S. It's enchanting, poetic, and everything you'd expect. Basically, the audio equivalent of the album cover.

The Crane Wife Watercooler

Decemberists' The Crane Wife (out 10/3 on that hot new indie Capitol) gets its name from a Japanese folk tale for children. The press release says: "The instruments chart a far-flung course through multiple musical genres into a full-blown masterpiece."

No joke. The Crane Wife is a masterpiece.

The epic 12-minute "The Island" kicks off with two-minute Pink Floyd space jam, then alternates between organ freakout and finger-picked madrigal. So prog, so awesome and unexpected. "Perfect Crime #2" rips the riff from Steely Dan's "Do It Again," but, you know, of course it's about rape and murder. And "Summersong" is not summery so much as a nautical tale of doomed love punctuated by an accordian hook and Colin's sing-song inflections. Stereogum fave Laura Veirs guests on "Yankee Bayonet," a gorgeous duet suited to two poets: "Oh my love though our bodies may be parted / Though our skin may not touch skin / Look for me with the sun bright sparrow / I will come on the breath of the wind," they croon in unison. Elsewhere, the Mozisms and morbidity one expects from Mr. Meloy abound. Overall, less poppy than Picaresque (no obvious "Sixteen Military Wives" single), but Crane Wife is as classic if not moreso.

We know how Colin feels about P2P leaks, so no MP3s for you! But thirty second samples are streaming at number of online retailers. Windows Media links:

1. The Crane Wife 3
2. The Island, Come and See, The Landlord's Daughter, You'll Not Feel the Drowning
3. Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
4. O Valencia!
5. The Perfect Crime #2
6. When the War Came
7. Shankhill Butchers
8. Summersong
9. The Crane Wife 1 & 2
10. Sons & Daughters

Let's say, hypothetically, you heard the album. Is not it so fucking awesome?

Holy Ghost Language School/Winter Women Watercooler

On 8/8, Fiery Furnaceman Matthew Friedberger delivers two solo records, Holy Ghost Language School and Winter Women. If you're thinking "concept album!" you're half right.

Matty told Pitchfork:

"[Holy Ghost] is a story record, [about] a guy from Chicago [who] goes and starts a business school for English in Japan that operates by xenolalia, you know, to do the business transactions. So they get the Holy Ghost and start speaking in tongues to negotiate."

"There's a lot of guitar solos, I guess."

Matthew Friedberger - "Do You Like Blondes?" (MP3)
From Holy Ghost Language School

When it comes to Friedberger, I suspect a lot of indie snobs confuse "eccentric" with "genius," but on these solo discs there is some accessible pop to be found. I agree with Fluxblog's instructions:

Winter Women is actually a pretty good record for people who aren't that into the Furnaces. It's a lot milder for the most part, closer to being normal.

I really really really recommend listening to one album at a time - if you try to absorb both simultaneously like I did it's a mess and a chore and not nearly as fun/rewarding. Seriously, just spend some time with Winter Women and come back to Holy Ghost in a couple months.

The Eraser Watercooler

Yesterday I boarded JetBlue Flight 107 to Oakland when I was hit with two pieces of bad news. 1. I realized I left my iPod at home! 2. Thom Yorke's "not-a-solo-album" The Eraser had leaked. Six hours later I'd watched Behind The Music: Ratt twice ... but hadn't heard a studio recording of "Cymbal Rush." I'm borrowing a computer at the moment (a Mac, which I barely know how to use), and elbo.ws is taunting me. Tell me what I'm missing.