SOUNDTRACK: CLUES-Endless Forever 7″ [CST064] (2009).
Clues was a band who played rock songs that fused a lot of different styles–often within one song. They released one album which was fantastic and then basically went on hiatus (that was six years ago). This 7″ was a tour artifact that Constellation has made available.
It has two songs–a band-made remix of one song from the album and a demo of another album track..
“Ledmonton (Endless Forever Version)” is an unusual but fun song with lots of different sections. All of them sound unrelated to each other and yet each part is quite catchy and it works wonderfully as a whole. This remix doesn’t change the song all that much. It makes it a little softer and fuzzier. “You Have My Eyes Now (Demonstration Version)” feels like a demo compared to the final version, but it’s really full sounding–just not as full as the album.
This release is more for completists of the band or, since they put out one album and disbanded, any fan of their recorded output might just enjoy this.
[READ: October 1, 2016] Secret Coders
Beloved artist/author Gene Luen Yang came back in 2015 with a new series called Secret Coders.
There is a kind of introductory section that implies the whole story is a lot more meta than it might at first seem–but it is not resolved yet so it’s hard to be sure of that.
The story opens on middle-schooler Hopper. She is very unhappy to have moved to this new town and a new school. In addition to missing everyone back home, the sh cool is decidedly weirdo. There are birds with four eyes, the groundskeeper’s doors are locked and the custodian Mr Bee is really mean. Plus the whole place looks haunted and there are huge numbers painted all over the buildings (but not in any actual order).
Hopper is pretty abrasive. In fact I’d say she’s downright unlikable–I find her rather offputting, myself. Of course, she’s also unhappy and the first people that she meets make fun of her (and throw pudding at her), so she is quite snippy with people. But she’s also not afraid to stand up for herself, which is cool. When she learns who threw the pudding at her, she fights back–not realizing that the guy is a huge basketball player. But he doesn’t fight her. Rather, he chooses to walk away. (more…)
This is another of my favorite recent Constellation Records CDs. Clues remind me of Mercury Rev, if they had remained a more indie/underpolished band instead of their more recent orchestrated pop. The lead singer sounds a but like Jonathan Donahue (and sometimes Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips) and the band in general plays the sort of unusual pop that these bands have made common.
I Just Read About That... 