The Awkward World

I have a cold, or a cold-like thing. I am told that my tonsils are ripe for picking, but I don’t have much in the way of insurance right now, so it’s a cold.

While I haven’t been leaving my apartment or making any sudden movements the last few days, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to some new music, as well as to some of the submissions from my previous post. Something else I have discovered: did you know there’s a super-weird redux of “Let’s Make a Deal” (not to be confused with “Deal or No Deal,” where dignity goes to die) that comes on before “The Price Is Right”? Even better: it’s hosted by Wayne Brady. Consider it a companion piece to another delightfully terrible 2009 game show, “Trivial Pursuit: America Plays,” starring Christopher Knight. That one comes on before the new “Family Feud.”

Anyway, on to the music reviews. First up is an album I expect to see on a few of the more open-minded critics’ top ten lists, Brand New’s terrific new LP, Daisy. Brand New has charted a strange course since their 2001 pop-punk-tastic, Your Favorite Weapon. If you can remember that far back to the golden age before Good Charlotte and Simple Plan, pop punk was a halfway respectable genre. You had your early Blink-182, your mid-period MxPx, and a few truly awesome outings from Reel Big Fish and Goldfinger. You also had Brand New, who were a little snarkier and cleverer than the pack, but otherwise not much different.

Then 2003’s Deja Entendu (French for “already heard”), which had nothing at all in common with Weapon — a thundering art-rock manifesto that showcased vocalist Jesse Lacey’s haunting songwriting as much as his emotive pipes. I think I heard Deja Entendu at exactly the right time in my life; it’s a prickly, mean-spirited, and deceptively sensitive testament to what it’s like to be a young man of a certain age and temperament. Deja Entendu said all the things I never knew I thought in those years, and it’s still one of my favorite albums. Top ten material, all the way.

2006’s The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me was a purposely divisive album. It’s a downer, and it introduced the element of heavy metal to its sound. The album took its title from a conversation Lacey had with friend and iconic/schizophrenic rocker Daniel Johnston, and the album is a bit like the kind of metal the reformed Smashing Pumpkins have been putting out: grinding, loud, matured, nihilistic, kind of annoying to listen to. I remember someone saying they were the American Radiohead, and Devil was their The Bends. The implication, then, was that OK, Computer was next.

So now we have Daisy. I haven’t actually heard any reviews of Daisy so far, but I’m going to tentatively say it’s terrific. Is it the American OK, Computer? Er, probably not. Give it a few years and ask me again. What it is is a dense, careful study of solitude and loss, spare on the clever lyrics, heavy on the Hemingway-style simplicity. And screaming. Oh, the screaming. “Vice” and “Gasoline” sound like Glassjaw b-sides. “Sink” and “In a Jar” have a significant Modest Mouse influence, and the first single, “At the Bottom,” could have been written by Built to Spill or Pavement. This is certainly the most we’ve seen Lacey wearing his influences on his sleeve, which isn’t a bad thing when his influences are as varied and esteemed as these. And as usual, the slow songs are fucking devastating.

Like Devil, I didn’t care for Daisy on first listen, but it’s an album that invites contemplation and adoption, and in that way I think Brand New is absolutely the American Radiohead. Pretty much all 1990s Radiohead and Brand New’s last three records seem designed to have personal meaning assigned to them. Do you have a specific point of your life you associate with Kid A? I have a Deja Entendu year (2004) and a Devil and God fall (2006). Now I have a Daisy fall.

Brand New – Seventy Times Seven (from Your Favorite Weapon, 2001)

Brand New – Me Vs. Maradona Vs. Elvis (from Deja Entendu, 2003)

Brand New – Sowing Season (from The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, 2006)

Brand New – Bought a Bride (from Daisy, 2009)

That was much, much longer than I intended it to be. I’ll compensate by writing an anemic, frustratingly uninformative review of Kill Hannah’s new record, Wake Up the Sleepers:

Kill Hannah is a band from Chicago, and this is their sixth album. I feel strongly about it.

Kill Hannah – Radio

Finally, we have The Cloud I’m Under, a synthpop producer and musician from New York who is giving away his new EP, There’s More to Life Than Indie Rock and Roll, for free on his website. Not unlike Kill Hannah (whose new album I feel very strongly about), The Cloud I’m Under records an odd marriage of 1980s electronic pop and 1990s lo-fi noise. It’s a solid EP from an artist that wasn’t previously on my radar, but he’s firmly on there now, and he should be on yours too. The lyrics can be a bit smug for my tastes, but inspired, Bowie-esque arrangements more than make up for a few lyrical missteps. There’s nothing necessarily new here (M83 kind of has the market cornered on this type of sweet electro-pop), but it’s five free songs, and “Saturdays Are Better Without You” has been on repeat for me for the last few weeks. Gotta love those hand claps too.

The Cloud I’m Under – Saturdays Are Better Without You

(P.S. – Just kidding about Kill Hannah. I’ve heard Sleepers, and it’s too heavy on the glam, too light on the substance. I’m indifferent about it, as I was their largely uninspired previous album, Until There’s Nothing Left of Us. A band that’s been around this long should know better. But get your hands on For Never and Ever or American Jet Set, and you’re going to be in glam/grunge heaven.)

I was talking about crappy TV earlier, and I have one last television observation: when did “Scrubs” become terrible? It’s a show I’ve always felt was best enjoyed on DVD or reruns on Comedy Central, but now that Comedy Central is airing the 2009 episodes… somebody be straight with me. Was it always this lazily sentimental? Didn’t this show have some genuine sincerity at one point?

Anyway, there’s a lot of good music and TV out there. “Sons of Anarchy” and “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” are back (with free full episodes on the FX website!), and “Top Chef” is my new best friend. A.V. Club’s excellent T.V. Club section always has informative and thought-provoking recaps if you missed an episode (or the whole first season, as I imagine there are lots of new SAMCRO fans as of late) for these and for many, many other shows. As always, thanks for listening and keep sending me those albums. Happy fall!

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