Pitchfork Reviews 5/23/08

Free Kitten
Inherit
[Ecstatic Peace!; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 5.7.

Kim Gordon is the least talented member of Sonic Youth. I don't think that's a particularly awful thing to say. It's pretty far beside the point. Her lack of talent is as much a part of that band as weirdly tuned guitars and feedback. That's just her deal: she's not super talented, she moans things in a distinctive way, she plays bass, and she at least has pretty impeccable taste, which is a lot better than a tasteless but super talented musician like the drummer from the Dave Matthews Band, unless of course she's writing atrocious high school poetry (still at age 50 or however old). But whatever. Think of it as a goof and it works. "Talent" has always been a bullshit mirage anyway.

I'm less familiar with Julie Cafritz, but Pussy Galore is also a "talent: moot" band. And a great one at that.

So these two do Free Kitten together. And I guess it's always had a tossed-off side project quality to it. Good thing too, because if it were a result of years of serious dedication, you'd be like, "what?" Instead of just being like, "oh yeah, a toss-off in the tradition of The Fugs but with a fuzzguitar girl-power vibe, ok!" This one goes in a slow, meandering, turgid repetitive psyche direction that's generally the kind of thing you hear in a record store on a rainy day and you're glad somebody put it on but you're not going to buy it because you don't really need to. Talent level moot.


HEALTH
DISCO
[Lovepump United; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it an 8.0.

If somebody wanted to, and I don't want to, they could argue that modern techno and dance music is the last original form of psychedelic music. It certainly replicates a certain drug experience. It also straddles the intersection between lame and fun and so-lame-it's-fun in a way that jam bands are never going to pull off. Sure. You could say a lot of musicologist shit about this stuff. If you wanted to.

You could also theorize about how the 2000's were all about the merging of previously disparate music genres, among them techno and punk. The Rapture and DFA and !!! and Out Hud started us out, and then otherwise-would-be-into-punk kids fell into some kind of a weird rabbit hole where for some reason (fear, George W. Bush, another reason I can't think of now) they liked the techno stuff more than the fact that it was super in-your-face, and now we're stuck with stuff like Cut Copy and this HEALTH. Which might be goofs on techno where everybody has a blast joke dancing but then to their own complete lack of horror finds that the joke dancing has turned into real dancing and then joke making out with a girl who might be a dude turns into a big mistake later but who cares ah ha ha aren't we fun? I guess that's still a kind of punk rock attitude to have, but the fact remains: it's fucking techno. To a certain point, that's our soundtrack of the decade. Sucks. Sucks, guys.

Oh right: the drug experience that techno replicates is cocaine. You know, the drug that makes you talk like a fucking idiot all night long? It's the drug that makes everything interesting except you. Techno is the proof. And ironic technopunk like this is just the last remnants of the cocaine comeback. We need to ditch it for weed. Those California weed law changes came not a moment too soon. Maybe even heroin would be better. Musically speaking. And wouldn't it be great if it weren't so hard to score some acid?


Crystal Stilts
Crystal Stilts
[eMusic Select / Woodsist; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it an 8.0.

Despite overwhelming odds related to the fact that this band is called "Crystal Stilts" and is a lo-fi pop band with a record out on low-fi pop powerhouse label Woodsist, I like this. I don't know that I like it a lot or would listen to it a whole bunch of times, but some is enough these days. Crystal Stilts gets a mental bullet point if I see their stuff in the bargain bin some day.


The Drift
Memory Drawings
[Temporary Residence; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 7.0.

I heard about this online. It's good. It's really pretty good. I mean, it's got like long, slow instrumental rock but also there's horns in there. I'm having a hard time cracking it, but that's just because it's "challenging."


Neva Dinova
You May Already Be Dreaming
[Saddle Creek; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 3.9.

I got nothing today. Sorry guys. Trying to think about anything that this makes me think of is giving me a headache. It makes me think of listening to something else. That's the God's honest truth. It's simple-lyric singer songwriter stuff with a low, spare croon. Throw a rock at your own music collection, you'll hit it. Don't worry if it breaks. It's no big loss.