SOUNDTRACK: BORIS-New Album (2011).
In 2011, Boris released three albums at roughly the same time. The three albums are linked because they share tracks (usually very different versions, sometimes radically different). And, of course, the CD and LP feature different versions of several tracks (but none seem to have a different cover).
New Album shares the songs “Hope,” “Party Boy” and “Spoon” with Attention Please.
New Album shares the tracks “Jackson Head” and “Tu, La La” with Heavy Rocks.
Heavy Rocks shares the tracks “Aileron” with Attention Please, although it is radically different.
Sargent House CD (Total length: 50:10). Interestingly, this American release is longer than the other two. It is quite poppy with some heavier elements. There’s a lot of songs that could even be considered dancey (!).
“Flare” 5:04 opens with sirens blaring and a gentle electronic introduction a song bursts forth that feels like total J-pop. A little heavy (in parts) but this is really dancey. There’s a great Wata solo in the middle and a rather heavy ending. The percussion throughout is very mechanical sounding like ea car engine sputtering. It’s a remarkable sound for Boris.
“Hope” 3:43 is a poppy / shoegazey song sung by Wata. It’s synthy (with trippy synth sound effects throughout). It’s slick and catchy. The version of Attention Please is a more organic, with strings instead of electronics.
“Party Boy” 3:48 opens with a synthy riff and thumping bass drums. It is the catchiest thing they’re released with a really poppy chorus and interesting swirling synths around the vocals. There’s even a harp in the middle of the song. The version on Attention Please is much heavier with a buzzy bass guitar and almost no synths.
“Luna” 8:29 has fast electronic drums and processed Wata backing vocals. It is super techno sounding. The middle section is an instrumental with electronics that sound very Eastern (sped up, but that kind of scale). It’s followed by some heavy guitars and pounding drums. A ripping staccato guitar solo follows. There’s even a few moments that sound like Sigur Rós. Why the song “Black Original” didn’t make this album but is on the Japanese versions is a mystery to me.
“Spoon” 4:29 Opening with single keyboard notes over a pounding drums and distorted guitars, this song sung by Wata is fluid and catchy. It’s the most shoegazey thing they’ve done so far. There’s a total Stereolab vibe in this song. The ending features a series of intense ascending chords. The version on Attention Please has no synths, just shoegaze guitars.
“Pardon?” 6:00 The song opens with woozy electronic but soon changes to very gentle guitars and an almost jazzy bassline. The whispered vocals are downright soothing. There’s a trippy almost delicate guitar solo that runs through until the end.
“Jackson Head” 3:11 This is the most punk song on the record, but it’s electronic punk with very dark synths. The lyrics are shouted with a repeated chant of “Jackson Head.” The solo sounds like single, distorted snyth notes under the pulsing of the rhythm. The version on Heavy Rocks is less synth menace, although it does sprinkle trippy synths throughout the song.
“Les Paul Custom ’86” 4:10 A whispered vocal over a thumping potential dance beat. When Wata takes over vocals the song changes style, but only slightly. Distant synths enter the song and try to install a melody on it, but it seems to be fighting everything else. Wata’s spoken “echo” echos around your heads in a cool swirl (if you wear headphones).
“Tu, La La” 4:15 “Tu La La” has the best riff of any Boris song, It is fast and catchy and really interesting. This version has strings that kind of overwhelm the greatness of the riff. (I prefer the version on Heavy Rocks) The end of this version has an intense buildup of staccato strings.
“Looprider” 7:01 is a quiet song with a slow bassline and interesting guitar lines. The last minute or so is fast synths, building and building with a siren effect that echoes the start of the album.
This is a pretty unexpected release from the band who created Heavy Rocks and Amplifier Worship, but I think it’s a great addition to their catalog.
For comparison sake:
Daymare LP Total length: 45:40
- “フレア (Vinyl Version)” (“Flare”; features introduction quoting the end of “Looprider”) 5:02
- “希望 -Hope-” 3:40
- “Party Boy (Vinyl Version)” 3:43
- “Black Original (Vinyl Version)” 4:33
- “Pardon?” 5:54
- “Spoon” 4:23
- “ジャクソンヘッド” (“Jackson Head”) 3:09
- “黒っぽいギター (Vinyl Version)” (“Dark Guitar”; English title “Les Paul Custom ’86”) 4:06
- “Tu, la la” 4:11
- “Looprider (Vinyl Version)” 6:59
Tearbridge CD Total length: 45:39
- “Party Boy” 3:49
- “希望 -Hope-” 3:43
- “フレア” (“Flare”) 4:21
- “Black Original” 4:27
- “Pardon?” 5:59
- “Spoon” 4:28
- “ジャクソンヘッド” (“Jackson Head”) 3:12
- “黒っぽいギター” (“Dark Guitar”; English title “Les Paul Custom ’86”) 4:09
- “Tu, la la” 4:15
- “Looprider” 7:13
[READ: February 5, 2016] “Fall River”
This was the 2015 New Yorker fiction issue. It featured several stories and several one-page essays from writers I like. The subject this time was “Time Travel.”
For this essay McGuane travels back to 1955 to his grandmother’s house in Fall River section of Boston.
He says there is little compassion between the duchies of this town. The Irish Catholics dominate every neighborhood, with each having its own church. But eventually Irish Catholic men like his uncles started showing interest in the Italian, French Canadian and Jewish girls–going so far as to marry some of them.
He wants to go back there to 1955 when there were half as many people and each town had its own personality. The ragman is known as “the sheeny” and he imagines that the sheeny is a soon-to-be-famous sculptor. He brings up a lot of other single incidents, like the “Portagee” boy who came to exact revenge on the author;s brother for breaking his arm. Or how Emeril Lagasse comes from “up the Flint.” There’s Cockney immigrants Down Almy Street who are known as “jicks” (a one-size-fits-all Irish insult). (more…)
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I was unfamiliar with Mal Blum before this show. Mal Blum is a songwriter who plays both solo shows and with the backing band The Blums. Mal’s songs are great–catchy melodies and darkly comic self-reflective lyrics. But I am particularly glad to have seen The Blums because the backing band was great and really seemed to infuse the show with a lot of fun (I suppose the solo shows are fun as well, but this is all I have to go on).
SOUNDTRACK: ROY AYERS-Tiny Desk Concert #712 (March 1, 2018).
