Pitchfork Reviews 4/29/08

The Roots
Rising Down
[Def Jam; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 7.8.

Here's a strange thing to do: put out a "straight-to-the-jugular beats and rhymes about everything that's wrong with the world" album and then less than a year later become Jimmy Fallon's house band, and then later accompany him while he raps/sings a Christmas Carol medley from the top of a giant Gibson guitar at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

It's jarring, even if the "everything that's wrong with the world" album features a lot of bitching and moaning about how even great rappers (and presumably their bands) don't make as much money as they think they should. (Uhhh... yeah guys, sorry it's tough to have a job that EVERYBODY WANTS). Has anybody ever watched the Jimmy Fallon show? Coming in and out of commercials, do they rap about abortions and/or the greenhouse effect? If so, I might have to watch it.

Confession time: I was never a big fan of The Roots. The live band always seemed gimmicky to me, kind of a holdover from the Digable Planets/Cantaloop/Arrested Development era. Is that unfair? Maybe. But: they did first come out in that era. And: they were pretty much like "the thing with us is we have a live band" back then. They signed to Geffen. They played Lollapalooza. I vaguely associate them with G. Love and Special Sauce (live band, rapping, Philadelphia, college kids, the 90's). Unfair? MAYBE. IT CAN REALLY GO EITHER WAY.

But: to have these guys come out with a(nother) fuck-the-world album in 2008 is kind of confusing. If it really is straight-ahead anger at all of the ills of the world, great, unleash it. If, as I suspect, it's just honest (?) bitterness about how you never got the respect you feel you deserve as one of the greatest living MCs, well, that's not my problem, bud. Show don't tell. As for the band, I don't know enough about their collaborative process to tell if they're actually also mad or if they're just sharp as a diamond on their cues and could do anything they feel like by this point in their careers, and they might as well do rough stuff to help Black Thought out with his angry man thing. They know what side their bread is buttered on.

This would all just be conjecture but, you know, then the Jimmy Fallon thing happened and it was like "oh yeah, money talks with these guys." Maybe that's also unfair, but they did play fucking Lollapalooza in the 90's. They weren't always so serious. So maybe this whole album is less righteous anger about the ills of the world and more just a bunch of frustrated careerists advertising their availability to late night talk shows, and all the ills of the world have been lanced now that they're getting a regular paycheck. Who knows?

We'll know for sure if they put out another record and it's about somebody's baby having sauce.


Constantines
Kensington Heights
[Arts & Crafts; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 6.6.

You know how you'll listen to something sight unseen and you have a very short fuse? Like as soon as one thing kicks in that you don't like, it's over. You don't like this, why waste time? This one lasts about 12 seconds of "ok, maybe I can tolerate this top-40 rock with synths, but it's on thin ice" and then... shut it down. The culprit is the vocals. Like Peter Gabriel yelling.

Yes, I am telling you that I didn't even listen to this. I'd be shocked if you could look me square in the eye and tell me that you did or that I should.


Karl Blau
AM
[Whistler; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 7.8.

Is it just being through a previous overindulged era of similar stuff? Is it because I accidentally saw The Rachel's live once and vowed that I'd never again be this bored by music almost too gentle to count as a thing that somebody did? Do I already have a favorite perfect record for relaxing and I just don't feel like I will ever need another one?

Yes to all. And the result is I just don't hear this stuff. Even if it's great. It might be great. For somebody. I kind of doubt it, but for now I'm set in this department. And I have a feeling that if and when something like this grabs me again, it will not be Karl Blau. Just a guess.


Neptune
Gong Lake
[Table of the Elements; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 7.0.

Jason Crock of Pitchfork says that Neptune is more vital and important live than on records because their whole thing is they make their own instruments out of junk and wail away on all these crazy metal inventions and it's really something to see. Ok. Thanks to the magic of You Tube, we can test that theory.

Nope. Better on record. But not by much.


Antietam
Opus Mixtum
[Carrot Top; 2008]

Pitchfork gave it a 6.4.

You know those free label samplers you get at college orientation? This band is from that.