SOUNDTRACK: DO MAKE SAY THINK-Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord Is Dead [CST010] (2000).
After their debut album, Do Make Say Think made this second album which sonically fits together perfectly and really explores instrumental post-rock. Most of the songs were recorded in a barn giving it a very big sound (complete with insects chirping). While there were horns in the debut, they seem to be punched up a bit more on this record, and they really seem to help the record rock more.
“When Day Chokes the Night” song is 6 minutes long and I love the way the opening is a simple guitar melody slowly picked and strummed for 3 or so minutes. Then at 3:30 there’s a noisy “drum solo” that sets you up for the second half of the song which introduces wailing saxophone and it all really rocks out.
“Minmin” is 8 minutes long. It opens slower but adds a steadily propulsive bass and drum pattern. Around 5 minutes the drums become martial and a new rhythm and bass pattern enters as the song gets bigger. The riff is a solid rock riff and there’s some interesting feedback behind it. It’s some of a classic construct of a slow building song that shifts gears midway through.
“The Landlord is Dead” (at a brief 5 and a half minutes). opens with a similar echoing riff, this one is more catchy than the others. Some horns fill out the background. The song builds properly to a screaming guitar soloing wild ending. It’s easily my favorite song on the record.
“The Apartment Song” is slower, with echoing guitars and a more trippy feel. I love the way the really noisy guitars blast out for 8 notes and then recede again. It’s the first of two songs under four minutes
“All of This is True” starts out with a noisy drum beat, open chords and a distant horn. This song slowly builds for about two minutes before pausing entirely and then resuming as something else—more slow horns layering on each other the horns drift away and guitars take over again. There’s something of a dancey beat on the drums all along. The song ends with crowd noises and someone shouting “Merry Christmas Everybody” before seguing into “Bruce E Kinesis.” “Kinesis” opens with a heavy bass line and insistent drum beat before the interesting guitar counterpoint plays over the riff. For the first time, really, a keyboard riff takes over It feels slightly sinister. This song has a kind of claustrophobic feel, but with a kind of funky drum all the way through. At only 3:40 this song feels compact and efficient, and as something of a lead in to the 12 minute album closer “Goodbye Enemy Airship”
The final takes a while to get where it’s going. After some introductory drumming there’s plenty of one-note guitar and horns which keep growing louder and more insistent for the first 4 minutes. It turns into a very bright guitar melody–bouncy and fun. (This is one of the two songs not recorded in the barn). It develops a distinctly jazzy feel. The song gets bigger with some great bass chords alongside the repeating riff on the guitar. At around 9 minutes the song morphs into the third part of this exploration of similar riffs and textures. This one is a bit trippier. The disc ends with some mildly dissonant keyboard notes as the guitar echoes to halt.
While I do enjoy their debut, this album feel like a giant stride forward in terms of composition and cohesion.
[READ: February 3, 2015] Moomin Volume 6
Moomin Book 6 is composed entirely of strips written and drawn by Lars Jansson. Lars was 12 years younger than Tove. He was a writer, translator and gold-miner (!). He wrote his first novel at fifteen and then proceeded to write 8 more. Lars translated the earlier strips into English as Tove wrote them in Swedish. Tove’s contract was to expire in 1959, so he began teaching himself how to draw Moomins (Tove didn’t know). Tove’s creative fatigue set in and so Lars wrote his first comic in 1956 and by 1960, he was ready to take over. The newspaper syndicate approved the switch and so these final strips all belong to him. He created Moomin for fifteen years–twice as long as Tove worked on it. These stories originally ran in the Evening News, London 1960-1975.
I love that they must have agreed that each strip would open with a big Moomin behind as well.
The chapters are “Moomin’s Lamp” “Moomin and the Railway and “Moominpappa and the Spies” “Moomin and the Circus”
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SOUNDTRACK: ADAM SCHLESINGER (October 31, 1967 – April 1, 2020).
Adam Schlesinger was best known as the co-founder of Fountains of Wayne. I always appreciated the band because I was familiar withe the store Fountains of Wayne (in Wayne, NJ). But I was never a big fan of the band.
I Just Read About That... 