REVIEW: Tanlines - Mixed Emotions

Who doesn't like to dance? I mean I do, but with my bad back and all I don't get out as much as I used to. But man, do I love to turn on the Rdio and jam out to some sweet tunes. On most days when I am scrubbing through footage for my regular job I like to go through some of my friends' "heavy rotation." Last week I saw two white guys who appear better looking than me, so I can't help myself and put it on.

Brooklyn duo Tanlines' debut album, Mixed Emotions, starts out with a bang and makes me go grab the good headphones and get my dancing shorts on. Then it all starts to sink in, and I once again think about myself and my youth.

Yesterday, over on our Tumbler, I posted an article from the front page of the New York Times on how EDM (Electronic Dance Music) is becoming such a valuable thing. I mean I am not shocked. I have loved this stuff since I first heard a DJ at the State Palace Theater and heard Orbital and Photek. When I was being made fun of in High School for being a "raver" (that is the most polite thing I was called for listening to this music), I never understood how everyone didn't hear the music and instantly love it. Dance music is such a beautiful sound when done right.

Tanlines follows the trail of the likes of Junior Boys and Holy Ghost!, making what I believe is called "Indie Dance Music" or something of the sorts. Their debut album is a good example of what people usually complain about when it comes to dance music. The production is solid, and at points exceptional. The song writing fits the overall feel of the music. Tanlines' rhythms and percussion are strong and driving with some throwback 80s vibes. This duo has a strong since of what they are doing, and how to make music that post-college-years girls would love to dance to.

With a few exceptions in the middle, specifically Real Life (track below), the album for the most part just blends into itself. Not many of the tracks stand out and distinguish themselves and show the range I think they are capable of. What I loved about the drummer Jesse Cohn's previous project, Professor Murder, was that it had kind of a punkish soul to the music with it's feeling of unpredictability. It was a great mix of LCD Soundsystem and !!!. The music could have gone anywhere and I would have enjoyed the ride. This feeling is lost in Tanlines, and makes me believe that after the DJs stop spinning the few hits on their album it may get lost in the cloud.

Tanlines, at the end of the day, feels like a long day at the beach where you have enjoyed the day and your time away from rest of the world, but at the end you walk away slightly dehydrated and dazed. And maybe those mixed emotions were exactly what they were going for.

And now for some Professor Murder

REVIEW: The Shins - Port of Morrow

When you are young, you are so often judged by the company you keep. If you hang with the "cool" kids, you are than considered "cool". So, usually you spread your social wings. This in turn leads you to having a lot of friends, and usually people that you really don't enjoy being around. It used to be that you would go to college and get to never talk to them again. Really, an easy out of a bad relationship. Now a days, with Facebook and the likes, that is impossible. So, too often, you end up every once in a while having to hang out with some said person you should have never been friends with in the first place.

And then you get older and you start to realize who your real friends are and you start to cut out the Bull Shit. By this point you have just enough friends for a small nice dinner party. And these few old friends from your youth are a pure joy that you feel like will be with you forever.

The Shin's fourth album has been a long time coming. It has been five years since we last heard James Mercer's voice in this project. The time away has done him well, and I honestly believe this might be his strongest record yet. This latest project is with a brand new backing band of veteran musicians and a big time "indie" producer, Greg Kurstin. It feels like James has gotten closer to what feels like what James Mercer wants.

Back in 2001 when Oh, Inverted World was released, I was very much out of the rock world. It had broken my heart too much and I was listening to rap and what is now called "EDM." Music with bigger beats. Oh, Inverted World, along with others, pushed me to loving what was coming out of the rock world. And, since then, I have tried to take in as much as I could from bands that have followed in Mercer's harmonic footsteps, like Grizzly Bear and Bon Iver.

The Shins are like that good friend from High School you found a way to keep in your life. You may not hang out with them as much as you would like due to work or family, but you know what you will get every time you them, and that is a joyous experience.

Get to know Now, Now

I have always been told that you find the one you love when you aren't looking. When you go out and try too hard to find that special someone it never works out. They will just find you one day at a bowling alley and than you will have a crazy night at a strip club together and than you move in together ;-) All that time you spent getting new clothes at H&M and trying on whatever the flavor of the month Axe Body Spray was all for not. What works is becoming comfortable with yourself and than you will find someone who is comfortable with that.

Sometimes this is true with other things in life too. I haven't been inspired by much music in the last few months, and in turn it made me not feel inspired to do anything with my Static Properties. And, yes, I speak like this in person. Than an unpretentious sound comes to your ears from whatever streaming site you use these days and inspires you to stay up at 2:30 in the morning and write a blog post.

And that is how I found out about Now, Now. This band from Minnesota that formed in High School in 2003 has just released their third album and may just yet be hitting their stride. I may not be as on top of things as I once was, but I still know a solid band when I hear it. And, I hope they have a great deal of more albums of this quality in the future.

The production itself is a solid rock record that brings me back to the early 2000s with it's distorted guitars and steady drum beats. The lead singer has a solid voice, but nothing that tremendously stands out. However, her subtle, whispery quality to her delivery suits the tone of the album and the message of the lyrics. Songs of young love and feelings of needing to be wanted.

Maybe this is something I am just feeling because of where I am in my life, but with so much on the web and television at times feeling like it is being screamed at us, it is nice to feel like someone is telling something to me in a clear way that connects right away. This is what I love about music and especially Now, Now. Music is still a great form of communication that allows the listener to decide how they want to interpret it.

All I know is that Now, Now sounds very comfortable in themselves and what they are doing and that translates beautifully on their record Threads.

Thank you Now, Now for getting me excited about music again.

VIDEO: Hot Chip - Flutes

Thank God Hot Chip is back. Hopefully, I can bring it as hard as they are in this song. Also a shout out for Sarah picking up the slack the last few weeks. I will try and bring more music stuff here in the coming weeks.

Elizabeth Olsen saving grace for real-time horror Silent House

You probably rolled your eyes when you heard about a horror film shot in real time. How does that make it scary? A slow movie like The Fog in real time would be simply unbearable. But Silent House is a game changer. It has Elizabeth Olsen. What did we learn about Elizabeth Olsen last year? She’s incredible. Furthermore, no one is scared like Elizabeth Olsen is scared. Her face is a layer cake of fear: nausea, trembling, and acute apprehension frosted with unspeakable terror. 

As 20-something Sarah helping her family clean up an old house before they sell it Olsen is right at home. The house is old, dusty, without electricity, and with all windows completely boarded up against “vandals.” Yes, even the second and third floor. The audience spends much of its time looking over her shoulder with bated breath. Olsen has a knack for making us afraid of the unseen just like her performance in thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene, in which she plays a young woman stalked by the cult she recently escaped from. In a quiet scene all by herself she manages to ratchet up tension with just the palpable emotion of her shakiness and wide eyes. While other characters do have lines in Silent House, thankfully, these are few.

A remake of a Uruguayan film, apparently, based on a true story from the 1940s, the movie is brought to us by directors Laura Lau and Chris Kentis, the duo behind Open Water. While they have a gift for zooming in close (literally and figuratively) on subjects, supplying an intimacy that wouldn’t have been earned otherwise, the unfolding of the movie in real time gets a bit tedious. One thing that can be said for shooting horror in one continuous shot for an hour and a half is that it allows everything to go terribly scary all at once. Unlike the other haunted-house thrillers, there aren’t a million moderately frightening incidents day after day that lead you to wonder why this idiot is still staying in the house anyway.

Much of the new work in the horror genre focuses on presentation over content. Apparently, it’s getting harder to scare audiences. Perhaps it has something to do with the recession or the GOP primary. New horror is nothing if it isn’t a “found footage” film where right off the bat they try to convince you of circumstances you know aren’t true: This is real footage of a family in Boise that magically showed up on our doorstep with little to no post-production required. Found films in part make an attempt upfront to forcefully do what all story-telling is supposed to do in the first place: Make you believe it’s real, forget where you are, and draw you in completely. But that requires some pretty great content.

Rather than shake off the gimmicks, horror filmmakers seem to be looking for new ones to bring to the genre. But if there’s anything to be learned from Olsen’s performance, the key to inciting real fear and entertainment in audiences is solid acting.

Sarah Rae is a freelance writer and editor-in-chief of Poydras Review. She lives and writes in Brooklyn.

Multi-Tasking Experiment: Utilizing the Intermissions of Kubrick's Spartacus

The Stanley Kubrick Essential Collection has made its way into my apartment. Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001:A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut. I now feel obligated to watch those movies in the Kubrickian catalog I have neglected, which would be:

1. Barry Lyndon
2. Lolita
3. Spartacus

Now I've tried to watch Barry Lyndon before and found it utterly insufferable. So, I'll start on the other end, work my way forward chronologically, and hopefully I'll have so much momentum I'll get through Barry Lyndon this time. We'll see...

Spartacus: First thing I realized when putting on the DVD is the amount of blank space with swelling, overly dramatic orchestration. Great, let's make a long movie longer. Intermissions. Well, isn't that absurd? Why is this on the DVD? This isn't a theater, it's a living room. No concessions. No late-comers. But there's not just intermissions. The beginning is just a whole lot of blankety blank, too. One thing you didn't count on, Stanley, is that you're dealing with a text-book multi-tasking addict. This lady right here and about to show you how much I can tool around during each film lull.

The Overture: 4 minutes and 6 seconds (00:04:06) of nothing but orchestra, THEN the opening credit reel begins. Jesus Christ.

1. Go pee.
2. Send my iPad Sims to work (they all work at City Hall, highest salary there).
3. Tweet my favorite articles from Zite to my twitter, my journal's twitter, and my work's twitter.
4. Upload blog post of the day, tweet it.
5. Light candle to stifle smell of French bulldog farts.
6. Reheat my coffee in the microwave for 30 seconds because I don't drink it fast enough.

The movie actually begins 8 minutes in (00:07:50). I put the iPad aside and settle in on the couch. The Frenchie snores. Hey, what's with this aspect ratio? There's a letterbox in my letterbox.

The rest is all right for a public spectacle in Rome, but here in Capua we expect more than just simple butchery, and we get it.

Remember that part in The Time That Remains (2011) when the Palestinian class watches Spartacus and the teacher pauses it during the scene when Varinia and Spartacus finally kiss to tell them, "Like a brother, class, she loves him like a brother." No? Well, you should. It's on Watch Instantly.

I'm going to start giving my boyfriend the thumb-down like Helena when I don't want him to introduce me to whoever he's talking to across the room. At 01:47:35, End Part 1, Intermission:

1. Feed the dog a biscuit.
2. Check my email.
3. Get a water.
4. Begin Mah-Jong Puzzle of the Day
5. Restart puzzle (In order to get 3 stars, you can't use a shuffle).
6. Quit puzzle (Too hard).
7. Lunch! Reheated risotto. Yeah, some people won't eat nuked risotto, but I'm just classy like that.

Woh, no dialogue. Almost missed it! 01:50:23 Begin Part 2. Woody Strode should have killed him. He would have made for a more handsome protag.

So nothing I did was particularly important, but it was all performed to a wonderfully melodramatic soundtrack. It sounded very important. Maybe they should reinstate intermissions, if only for DVD. I likely would have paused this 3-hour monster anyway. 

Sarah Rae is a freelance writer and editor-in-chief of Poydras Review. She lives and writes in Brooklyn.

New from Andrew Bird: Break It Yourself

After hearing those beautiful songs from his breakthrough album Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs in Residence Inn commercials, I though it might be over for the Chicago-born violinist. He made numerous TV and NPR appearance for Armchair Apocrypha and I would assume this is when a lot of people heard him for the first time. But the sound wasn't the same. Talented, but not playful. Strings, but no heart. Then I didn't even bat an eye when he released Noble Beast. So it was with a sigh that I pressed play on his new album Break It Yourself. Finally, a return to his roots, pensiveness punched through by the whimsical folk reveries.

Bird's sound is a spiritual one. It borders on sleepy, but is interwoven with swells of symphonic vibrato.  He doesn't break down a song into full-on orchestration a la Owen Pallett. Instead it builds and tinkers throughout. Considering his bachelors in violin performance, you expect a heady dose of strings, plucky tangos and Balkin trots, but this is no Beirut. Reliably, you can expect Bird to lead you down the introspective path. Listening you'll find yourself sad, lonely amid "Sifters" and "Fatal Shore", and then excited, joyful "Belles" and "Danse Caribe".

Despite Bird's continuous backslide on Pitchfork, they still must like something because his lowest rating was a 7.5. That number isn't thoroughly unimpressed. Maybe they just aren't fans of whistling. To each his own. One thing Bird will be is a strangely handsome fellow.

Sarah Rae is a freelance writer and editor-in-chief of Poydras Review. She lives and writes in Brooklyn.

Justin Stens of Dr Dog Fame needs your help!

An old friend from Dr. Dog, Justin Stens, is trying to make a record by traveling on his motorcycle across the country and recording with a few of his famous friends. Our dear friend Drew is also a long for the ride to document the whole thing (we at Static are very proud to be supporting this doc as well on many levels). However, they have hit some road bumps along the way, as I am sure many of us have in these financial times, and they are looking for a little help to finish this project. Here is there message:

Hi friends,

This August I embarked on my most creative and ambitious project yet. I have been riding my motorcycle across the US visiting friends/musicians for a few days at a time to co-write and record one song at each stop using only the gear/instruments that are available, ultimately creating an album. I have been collaborating with some of my favorite song writers and musicians and meeting more along the way. I left Philadelphia with a batch of tunes in my head, but I have discovered new things at each step of the journey and continue to write new songs as I go.

I travel on my 1972 Triumph motorcycle and have been accompanied by a small documentary film crew led by Drew Stubbs to capture this writing/recording process as well as a rare American road trip.

This is more than just an album, it's an interesting journey and a sonic and visual documentation of an experiment in collaboration, including a network of talented musicians spanning the continent...

So far I have visited and recorded with:

Do send any help if you can. I mean IT IS the holidays and all!

Cambridge,MA - DRUG RUG, Sue Bell, Jesse Gallagher of APOLLO SUNSHINE

Harrisburg,PA - Rebecca Marie Miller of MYNABIRDS

Akron,OH - JESSICA LEA Mayfield, Bob Cesare

Chicago,IL - John Stirrat of WILCO / AUTUMN DEFENSE

Nashville,TN - DAVID VANDERVELDE, Courtney Jaye

Murfreesboro,TN - THOSE DARLINS

Black Mt., NC - FLOATING ACTION

New Orleans, LA - GENERATIONALS, Julie Odell of GIANT CLOUD

Lafayette,LA - BRASS BED

SanAntonio, TX - HACIENDA / HAWKS of holy rosary

Austin, TX - Bill Baird of SUNSET / Jim Eno of SPOON

December:

Tucson, AZ - BRADFORD TROJAN

Long Beach, CA - DELTA SPIRIT

Santa Barbara, CA - GARDENS AND VILLA

SanFrancisco, CA - Jeremy Black of APOLLO SUNSHINE

I am excited and grateful to have the opportunity to work with so many talented musicians. Please look them up to have a listen to their work. In conjunction with the release of this album, Drew Stubbs plans to screen the finished documentary in the Spring of 2012 at music and film festivals. I have been working hard all year planning and saving up for an adventure like this and I will match all donations up to $5000 to ensure a safe and happy trip. This is an independently funded project and is not financially backed or associated with any record label. ( yet ) Your donations will be used to help with the post production of documentary, video equipment rental, editing, promotion/publicity efforts, and emergency motorcycle repair, final mix and mastering of album, and to help me get home by the holidays.

I invite you to take part and give a helpful hand in something that has never been done before. I know it's not a moon landing or climbing Mt.Everest but I think it's a pretty special project and I have invested my heart and soul.

Please spread the word to friends and music lovers and please come along for the ride.

Kickstarter link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1371951659/along-for-the-ride-a-musical-journey-0

Do send any help if you can. I mean IT IS the holidays and all!

October 2011 Playlist

Hey y'all. Once again I have left you in the dark as far as posts and shows. No more appoliogies, just content.

Twin Sister - Bad Street

I feel like I might have been in a more soulful mood then usual. This song is a great way to start any playlist.

Mayer Hawthorne - A Long Time

In the class of Jamie Lidell where you scratch your head and say, is that voice really coming out of his mouth? Really love this album.

Class Actress - Weekend

Sexy and danceable. Totally a more mature look at that Rebecca Black song.

Tycho - A Walk

This album brings me back to the early 2000s. So much to love about this album. It sets a tone and mood better than most works I have heard this year.

Feist - Caught A Long Wind

So happy to have her voice back in my life. This album is a lot less poppy and more rocking than her highly succesful sopmore work, The Reminder. Don't let that scare you off from it though. There is a lot of heart and emotion that went into this record and it resinates throughout.

Deer Tick - The Bump

Love these guys, probably too much. I have a feeling many a person sitting next to me on the train would appreciate me turn down their tracks.

Weekend - Hazel

It seemed like all their work was trending this month on my Rdio page. Very 80s and very rocking.

J Cole - Mr Nice Watch

Now, how could I go a month without one rap song on the playlist? I love the beats that rappers are using these days. This is by far my favorite track on the album, though the whole album has a lot of solid tunes and many are surprising uplifting.

I didn't have time to make a Spotify version of this playlist this month, but here is the Rdio playlist for those who dabble in that.

Review: M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.

M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. officially redefines their genre into more than space-synth or dreampop. I'm not going to call it shoegazing because that name is stupid and people only "gaze" at their shoes when they're in trouble. And who's the idiot who didn't come up with stargazing? After all they are named for a spiral galaxy. Uplifting, reflective and motivational---maybe we could call it church. No, it's too dancey for that. How about transcendental electronica? Gonzales did say that this album was influenced by numerous trips to Joshua Tree National Park. I think Emerson would be proud.

French frontman Anthony Gonzalez called the album "very, very, very epic." Sounds pretentious, but it is in fact epic x3. Apparently the best M83 album yet. Because Pitchfork says so. Despite the fact that they've given every M83 album high marks. For the most part, the extra attention from Pitchfork means this album is receiving a wider audience many of whom are listening to the back-catalogue, Before the Dawn Heals Us or maybe Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, for the first time.

M83 has been making music for 10 years and over time the sound has evolved from melodrama to pitch-perfect introspection. I can't get over it. It makes me swoon every time:

Why does the single "Midnight City" sound so familiar? My boyfriend made the connection: Drive. It's like Kavinsky with far more depth - like the lovechild of Kavinsky and Noam Chomsky. In-song progressions shift so dramatically you're left wondering if you're listening to the same song. There's the same heady dreamscapes vibrating between morose and uplifting, but with some other unexpected additions. For instance, the child narrator in "Raconte-moi une histoire"is reminiscent of The Books and their playful use of obscure reading samples. For the first time there's also acoustic guitar and saxophone (giving it the added feel of 80s throwback) on this album.

Something that consistently surprises me about M83 is that their more uplifting, inspiring work never gets old and somehow Gonzales keeps making more of it. I'm stuck on this one right now:

Buy/Spotify Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. Use it to conquer the world.

For the latecomers here's a Brief History of M83:
Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003). The song "Run Into Flowers" sold me on M83, although today it sounds a little too ambient to be true.

M83 - Run Into Flowers

There was more palpable inspiration and torment in Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005). "Teen Angst" and "Don't Save Us From the Flames" turned out to be much more mature than their emotionally taut names.

Digital Shades Vol. 2 (2007) showed a more somber side of mellow dreaminess. The band has a way of pulling you down into a lonely place and then building you back up into hopefulness.

And of course Saturdays = Youth (2008) included probably the most fully realized culmination of both M83's energy and meditativeness. The shining star:  "We Own the Sky."

Sarah Rae is a freelance writer and editor-in-chief of Poydras Review. She lives and writes in Brooklyn.