Pitchfork Reviews 6/27/08

Girl Talk
Feed the Animals
[Illegal Art; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it an 8.0.

As much as I want to write some breathless diatribe about how Girl Talk is the fourth rider of the apocalypse as far as indie music going all the way up it's own ass until it got puked out of pop music's mouth in the 2000's, A. I can't really get it up to do so on any kind of intuitive level, and B. I kind of just did.

Listening to this now, I'm not sure what it's supposed to make me do. Dance? Yeah, I don't think so. I think it wants me to "not JUST dance." Like it wants me to also go "wooooo" because I can't believe I'm listening to Sinead O'Connor and T.I. at the same time. Well here in 2010, not only can I believe it, I can't fucking stand it. I feel like Girl Talk is like the Weird Al of DJ's. He doesn't even have to make up parody lyrics, he just drops references and you're like "Allman Brothers and David Banner, ha ha ha." Really, it's dance music for the Jerky Boys set. And his records stand the test of time just as well as "Amish Paradise" does, which is to say it's a parody of a thing that probably never should have happened.

Other than that, though, great. Oh man "Hotstepper" and "Woo Ha" just transitioned into "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" and "Bonita Applebum" and "It Is It" and "Criminal Minded." This is like being ear-raped by a pop music-themed New York Times crossword puzzle. It's making me nauseous in the same way as trying to read on a long car trip. I get that I'm supposed to let go, but the second I do, I find my legs carry me out the door.


Kleerup
Kleerup
[EMI; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 7.7.

Sometimes you read just enough to say to yourself "oh no, I am gonna haaaaaaate this." Well, I don't hate this. It's a minor victory. I don't love it, either, but what are you gonna do? My ears are deaf to Swedish techno pop. I'm wrong about hating it, but right about the deafness. I think (?) this is good Swedish techno pop, but I probably wouldn't know the difference. It sure is... shiny.


Nurse With Wound
Huffin' Rag Blues
[Jnana; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 4.9.

There was a time in the early-ish internet when Brainwashed was my source of choice for music news, reviews, and opinion. I'm kind of glad to see they're still chugging along (means they care), even though I couldn't be less interested in their news, reviews, and opinions. They really hitched their wagons to glitch and didn't ever let go, and the tone has never stopped being hyperserious, like "something important is happening here, and it's important that we know about it." I think there's a healthy dose of musicianship "I understand the history of composition" snobbery in there too. It's a weird subgenre of music fan. The John Cage type. Culture dupes.

Nurse With Wound makes me think of this stuff. They're annoying in a way that makes you think, "Maybe I should like this, it sounds like it's supposed to be for smart people, I'm a smart person, therefore I like this." Well, I'm a smart person and I hate this because I'm a smart person. On an intuitive level where life's too short.


Bobby Womack
The Best of Bobby Womack: The Soul Years
[Capitol; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 6.2.

Pitchfork says Bobby Womack isn't all that great. Suspicion confirmed. Thanks guys.


Pwrfl Power
Pwrfl Power
[Slender Means Society; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 4.9.

How is this working on me in any way? There are so many wrongs here (cuteness, that name, a commercial), how does it make anything resembling a right? I'm not knocked out or anything, I'm just tolerating this against all odds. It's cute, quirky, "I'm damaged" songwriting by a Japanese guy who's a great guitarist but who apparently wants to make silly songs in a Daniel Johnston meets Moldy Peaches mode. And everybody knows that the Moldy Peaches singlehandedly destroyed rock, but of course that wasn't their fault really. They were just kind of charming without particularly being charmers, so it worked. And despite wanting to hate, that Juno song is actually cute, not the fake kind where it's cute by numbers.

This guy, though? How is he getting away with this? Is it because he's Japanese and Japan is a whole country that's built on not being afraid to come off as cute even when you're borrowing something not inherently cute where you're supposed to be tough? (Notice the complete lack of girls, that was the whole point of the American version of rockabilly--getting girls) What's that about? Are the Japanese predisposed to cuteness in some endemic way we'll never be able to catch up to? Should we be worried?

As much as I'm fond of cultural reductionism, I think Pwrfl Power comes out a winner simply because the guy is evidently a great guitarist, and he could probably go and get plenty of recognition for that in "we care about great guitarist" circles, but instead he chooses to do cute goofs. It's even a little disingenuous, because I don't think he's as addled as Daniel Johnston or as big of a goofball as those Moldy Peaches kids, but still it's a lot better of an "I'm emulating this" choice than this would be, especially since nobody would blame him. That's Leo Kottke at the Nugget in Starke, NV! You have any idea how much a gig like that pays? And it's just one guy, he doesn't even need a roadie!

Actually, maybe he didn't have a choice. Maybe the Japanese, beneath all those layers of cute, are really deadly serious all the time 100% of the time.