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AUSTIN
#38 • march-april ’12
Built To Spill
The Big Pink•Strange Boys
brixton.com
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Music comes to us in all kinds of ways: CDs, the occasional cassette tape, digital watermarks…once we
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Managing Editor
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a promo copy of their new EP, What’s the Kim Deal?, in a hollowed out, personalized wooden box. We’re totally impressed at the effort
and handiwork, and now we’ve got the perfect hiding spot for, um, well…we’ll figure out what later. Thanks, Viva Viva, the box rocks!
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from the show’s musical guests, original compositions and his own personal music tastes. Also: We talk with Wet Hot American
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up with James Mercer about the rocky past and hopeful future of The Shins. Plus: the art of Dirty Three’s Mick Turner, Morrissey
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Thank You
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good music guide filter 6
COVER Photo by Mathias Sterner / MINK MGMT
WORLDS
Strange Boys’
Austin’s…
Guide TO Austin
By Breanna Murphy
Austin, we love you. Every March, you welcome us into
your Heartland of hearts and invite us next to thee ol’ fire pit for
some legit Southern brisket, too much good music to possibly
take in all at once and so, so many Lonestar brews. They don’t
call you the Live Music Capital of the World for nuthin’.
As we pack up our bags for yet another round and triple-
check the travel itinerary for the three B’s (Bands, BBQ and
Beers), we thought we’d actually ask a local what’s good in the
city of SXSW. Luckily, Phil Sambol, bassist for Austin-based
wailers Strange Boys, was available to play hometown host. Since
Finest cut of meat
Ruby’s BBQ [512 W.
favorite.
29th
Street] has the best meat; sliced brisket is my
Best spot for vegan/veggie grub
The Vegan Yacht is a food truck that is usually on East 6th; their fake chicken
wrap is excellent.
Best place to buy used music gear that may
have had a cool first or second life already
Club for In the Red back in 2007, the band has made sobering
Switched On [1111 E. 11th Street]. They have all sorts of amps, keyboards,
pedals and some unique guitars.
melodic strides “Over the River and Through the Woulds” to last
Most interesting and tasty alcoholic drink
their blissfully lazy skitter-rock debut The Strange Boys and Girls
year’s thankfully-still-sun-drunk third ’un, Live Music, for Rough
Trade. As if we needed further cred, the band’s recently used the
talents of White Fence psych-specialist Tim Presley and fellow
Austinite Jim Eno’s production as musical weapons in their
arsenal. Yeah, sounds like Strange Boys know just what we’d like.
Here, Sambol lends us some helpful how-tos to successfully
get around 6th Street and beyond this year. Check out his Guide
to Austin below for some grub recommendations, why nudity
is apparently embraced in Texas (not that we’re condoning it),
BEKAH COPE
Coolest old-school musician or band to go see
who play regularly around town
where to go after you crack your guitar neck over your amp and
why you should keep your eyes peeled toward the Colorado
A shot bought for you by a drunken out-of-towner.
Best way to keep your distance from SXSW, as
a local
Get a life.
Walter Daniels is a bluesman who’s played on a number of records and never
fails to remind all the young ’uns what real rock and roll is all about.
Most frustrating thing for a local
Californians, and bicyclists who don’t know how to ride on a street with cars
and pedestrians (who are probably from California).
Favorite weirdo
John Wesley Coleman III.
Best museum to get some learnin’ from
Hard to say, there’s probably something worth seeing in all of them. I’ve
been to the Blanton [200 E. Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard] the most.
Trendiest cliché that is actually kind of cool
Buying and actually listening to records.
Most endearing celebrity that you actually
see out on the town
Jim Eno [of Spoon].
Best way to take part in and enjoy SXSW, as
Most beloved bar bouncer/bartender
a local
Max at Beerland [711 Red River Street].
Forget you have a life.
Best Colorado River entertainment
A guy walked out of a bar completely naked and right into another bar where
he was served a drink. F
Alligator versus hippie.
Strangest thing you have ever seen in town
River for something simply called “alligator versus hippie.”
8 filter good music guide
good music guide filter 9
pill Analysis
By Kyle MacKinnel
PHOTOS BY KELLY BROICH
Seven seminal albums in with another on the way, Built to Spill
leader Doug Martsch is comfortable in his own skin. This much is
apparent over the course of a phone conversation from his longtime
home in Boise, Idaho. Martsch’s beacon guitar and daffy style of
songwriting have steered his band of indie elder statesmen clear of
toxic hazard for a wink shy of two decades now, though he would
undoubtedly downplay this. Martsch insists he leads “a regular life”
and that Built to Spill’s very finest guitar work has come instead
from the fingers of his cohort, Brett Netson. Though sonically he
has navigated a breadth of climes, Martsch comes off unflappably
affable, happy at home with his wife, son and dogs. He answers
questions dispassionately and with candor, as quick to shrug off
praise as he is to lend his peers their due.
Perhaps it is this unassuming, liquid aspect of Martsch’s
personality that has helped Built to Spill sustain a longstanding
partnership with the behemoth Warner Bros., one that continues
still as his band prepares a follow-up to 2009’s terrific There
Is No Enemy. Indeed, it seems that no enemy is in sight. From
There’s Nothing Wrong With Love to Keep It Like a Secret to You
In Reverse, Built to Spill has accumulated one of the most vital
canons in the last 20 years, its runoff trickling down to innumerable
indebted younger bands. But Martsch doesn’t seem preoccupied
with any notion of legacy or hierarchy. He’s really just a dude
who loves to play music, who named his band by playing a freeassociation word game with his wife, who DJs a weekly radio show
at the community station, who is unafraid to simply speak his
mind. Tune in as we discuss the state of the Boise youth pool, a
certain prehistoric influence and the dark truth behind Martsch’s
10 filter good music guide
reputation as a “nice guy.” Careful, it’s deeper than it looks.
You’re no stranger to experimentation
with Built to Spill. Where on the
spectrum will this new album fall?
I think this should be pretty concise. For
the longest time, I’ve been listening to lots
of soul music and reggae music, and not
too much guitar music or experimental
music, so I’ve been more leaning towards
short pieces. There might be a little bit of
meandering stuff, but mostly it should be
more concise music.
Having been on a major label with
Warner Bros. for quite a long time, has
that been a relatively easy relationship,
or more of a give-and-take process?
It’s actually unreal how easy it’s been.
We just do things the way we want to do
them, and they let us do it and support
us in what we do. So, yeah, it’s really
unprecedented. We’ve got not only
creative control over our music, but
control over our career and everything
that we do. You know, no one’s getting
rich off of this, but we’re staying alive.
Living the dream, some would say.
Yeah, totally. Me too.
Do you find that there’s a healthy,
youthful music scene in Boise right now?
Yeah, there’re a lot of bands in Boise right
now. We’re doing a Boise showcase at South
by Southwest.
What advice would you have for such
a band—say, your countryman, Youth
Lagoon’s Trevor Powers?
I met him at the [radio] station a couple
of times. He co-DJs on the show before
my show. I don’t have any advice. I just
think that a person has to do, you know,
what their heart tells them to do because
anything that I did to get me to this point
has been based on luck. So, I don’t have any
concrete advice for anyone. But if you do
what you want to do then you’ll be satisfied
no matter how it ends up, I think.
If you had to cite one guitar player as
your biggest inspiration, who would it be?
I think J Mascis. He was a person whose
guitar style made me realize I could play
lead guitar. I’m not anything close to him,
and he’s gotten way, way better over the
years. But hearing the early Dinosaur [Jr.]
records, the way that he approached lead
guitar was really inspiring to me. It wasn’t
very technical; it was just really bold and
had a nice feel. It almost feels like he knew
where he was going.
You’re a pretty good guitar player
yourself.
I’m actually not that good. I’m not being
modest or anything, but I just have a few
little tricks, and maybe I just kind of go
for it, you know, more than most people
or something. But I barely know what I’m
doing. I’ve just learned how to play hard,
I guess.
It’s been said that you’re a pretty chill,
down-to-earth type of guy. Not to pry
too much into your psyche, but what
makes you uncomfortable or stressed?
I don’t think I’m that much of a mellow
person. No more mellow than most people.
I think a lot of performer people are highstrung, and maybe that’s why I have a
reputation for being mellow. I don’t know, I
think I’m friendly because I give people the
benefit of the doubt, but I don’t really like
people all that much. I like some of them
so much that I kind of feel I should give
everyone the benefit of the doubt. Overall,
I’m not that social of a person or a fan of
human beings… You delved pretty deeply
into my psyche there! [Laughs]
It was unintentional.
Nah, I needed to get that off of my chest. F
good music guide filter 11
R E A L IT Y BIT ES
Inside the Imagination of
MIIKE SNOW
By Loren Auda Poin
Photos by Mathias Sterner / MINK MGMT
You’re in Sweden. You and your band have just unleashed a new and ecstatically exciting album of your own personal,
home-brewed brand of musical medicine; it’s a powerful philter that can instantly dematerialize the room in which you’re
standing, replacing your previous boring world with a laughing, humming, twirling place with bright colors splashed all
around and bizarre yet plaintive thoughts invading your mind with poppy tenacity.
But, remember, you’re actually in Sweden. And your band, with this psychic weapon of sonic joy in hand, is preparing
to fly across the world to, of all places, Texas, where you will be demonstrating this new energy source in front of thousands
of blippy, crazed, probably tripping kids, journalists and sullen hipsters. The lights will be bright and the tacos will glisten
invitingly, and you’ve actually done it all before, but this time it’s...more complicated. A lot more complicated.
“It’s added a number of challenges...” That’s the group’s singer, New Yorker and exquisite beard-wearer Andrew
Wyatt, mulling the potential obstacles in the way of performing Miike Snow’s new opus, Happy to You. Pontus Winnberg—
who, along with fellow Swede Christian Karlsson, is one half of the interstellar synthpop writing team Bloodshy & Avant—
finishes Wyatt’s thought: “Parts of that we’re still trying to figure out. Also, we’re custom-building stuff this time, so it has
to work specifically for our purposes. There’s an engineering bit as well.”
Add “engineering” to the list of this band’s talents, a list that also includes globetrotting, studio wizardry, Phil Collins
connoisseurship, politeness and record-label creation. Oh, and music.
“We did that last time—built stuff,” Karlsson adds, “but this time around it’s 10 times more of it. Maybe a hundred.”
Wyatt adds a bit more detail. “Right now, we’re concentrating on particular technical ways of being able to maintain
the idea of us doing everything live,” he says. “In other words, we’re not running backing tracks, but we have a lot more
instruments on this album. So we have to create engineering tricks to pull off those parts without using canned elements.”
The members of Miike Snow take this kind of care at every step in the process—only the freshest organic ingredients are
deemed fit to constitute the broth they’re serving up, and they are consummate chefs. The emphasis is always on doing
things themselves, directly, and with the utmost care and purity of intent. Not only is canning not an option, it’s blasphemy.
You may find yourself constantly asking the band why: Why all the vocal processing; why go deeper conceptually
with these songs; why does this album sound freer than the last; why does it sound so cinematic, so dynamic, so theatrical?
The answer will always be the same.
“It’s just what came out.”
12 filter good music guide
good music guide filter 13
answers on their own personal music tastes are viewed. It’s all about joy, and
not asking too many questions. Karlsson and Wyatt confirm that this is in fact
how they socialize—meeting fellow obsessives on tour and in the studio, and
forming relationships with them. Most other musicheads these days seem to
be planted in front of the computer, trolling for hidden gems and sounding
the abyssal depths of Internet music databases, practices which Miike Snow
seem largely to eschew.
“It’s just part of the experience,” says Pontus of forging these musical
relationships. “It’s a huge difference if it’s someone you know and respect
giving you something, rather than getting it somewhere else. It will affect
you differently.”
Perhaps counter-intuitively, this insistence on direct, real connections
with real people yields an immersion in the super-reality of music. “There
are parts of our album where we talk about personal, real things that have
happened to us,” says Wyatt. “But our band is about imagination. Our band
is about hating reality, rather than trying to live in reality. It’s about emotion,
rather than trying to tell our ‘real’ stories.”
“WE TRY TO CREATE AN EMOTIONAL UNIVERSE FOR PEOPLE TO LIVE IN.”
This is not to suggest reference only to the abstract, navel-gazing
creative action of the perfect, contemplative artiste—turns out, most of the
action is to be had in the company of those “in the know”…
Friends.
“Inspiration can come from anywhere,” Pontus says. “Mostly we’re
inspired by our friends. You bump into someone...it’s kind of like a collective,
where conversations with a friend cause you to check something out, which
leads to songs.”
Wyatt finishes his bandmate’s thought (something each of them seems
to do rather effectively), a talent easily acquired after playing 250 shows
with two already-like-minded people: “People you tour with, the elements of
those bands rub off on you. You get it so up-close. When you know people,
are friends with people who make music, the fact that you can see the person
and get to know the person just makes the music that much more either easy
to assimilate, or easy to understand why you like it. Liking that person makes
it easier to like the music, and be moved by it and see certain things about it
that are cool…just like that person.” He speaks from experience, with that
tone of voice and ease of articulation that comes from someone who has
given this quite a bit of thought.
The men of Miike Snow are not people who fret about what genre
someone might place their music in. They could care less about how their
14 filter good music guide
On the ground, day-to-day, the men of Miike Snow are happy to inhabit
our beautiful, imperfect world. But their crazed fidelity to the power and
importance of imagination is all over Happy to You, making it a sad, scary,
humorous and fun ride worthy of Mr. Willy Wonka himself. In the end, it’s
all about balance, as Karlsson reveals: “Before, we were in the studio 24/7,
year-round. Your creativity and ideas can get dried out. Being on tour makes
it so easy to go back into the studio. I feel like I’m always full of ideas, and
that’s really good.”
It’s that same sense of balance that allows the songs on Happy to You
to take equally from the unabashed giddiness of more familiar pop sources
and the alien sonic outbursts of yet-to-be-invented machines. It’s the same
balance of the bright lights of stage antics, the rowdy, transcontinental
caravansary and the grindstone hours in the studio, honing the craft. It’s
also the same balance in the lyrics between the common pangs of human
suffering and the grandiose, ethereal poetic devices that fling us out of the
mundane and into the unbelievable.
First and foremost, the men of Miike Snow are, as in the old adage,
true to themselves. “At some point, you just kind of have to be a slave to
what is in you,” says Wyatt. Whatever it is that masters these three fellows,
whatever it is that compels them to their fiendish, happy work, let’s hope it
keeps on coming. F
Hair and Make-up: Sophia Eriksen / Agent Bauer; Stylist: Elin Edlund / Link Details
With just two albums to their credit under the Miike Snow banner,
these three men have a deep and perhaps somewhat guarded understanding
of their creative process. They know what is inside them, and they know how
to bring it out, put it on tape and blare it to the willing masses. Everything
else is, well, fairly extraneous.
“We have an identity as a band now, and what we try to create with
our music, but I think we just try to create an emotional universe for people
to live in and figure out what it means, without us trying to describe it too
explicitly,” Wyatt says.
Like most true artists, these guys won’t look a gift muse in the mouth.
They seem only tenuously concerned with where this stuff is coming from;
surely they are aware of it, but they also know that a watched pot never rocks.
Rather than studying, questioning, inspecting too closely the mechanism
that transmits and receives creative wavelengths, the men of Miike Snow are
focused solely on its deft operation, ensuring that the tuning is exact and the
energy is continually flowing. They also know that getting bogged down in
thought only cripples action. And action is what they want.
good music guide filter 15
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A black-and-white photograph renders two guys sitting on the curb of a street that could be anywhere. Lines dripping down from
a thick, gray streak very nearly obscure their faces—almost as if someone took a can of spray paint to it, which is actually not too
far from the truth. “I liked the idea of a picture of us and then someone had come along and graffitied across it. It made sense,”
says The Big Pink’s Robbie Furze of the cover of Future This, the Londoners’ sophomore release, that was “krinked” by artist
Craig “KR” Costello in his signature drippy style. “It’s kind of a bold statement, this record. I think the visual reference is also
quite a bold statement.”
Produced by Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence and The Machine) and mixed by Alan Moulder (Depeche Mode, My Bloody
Valentine), Furze and Milo Cordell’s follow-up to 2009’s acclaimed A Brief History of Love easily moves from one electro-pop
epic to the next; boasting lyrics just calling out for the listener to sing along to (“Hit the Ground [Superman]”), an assortment of
interestingly intertwined samples and synths (“Give It Up”) and a moving touch of pensiveness (“77”). The day before The Big
Pink began rehearsing for their tour, the Guide talked to Furze about their time in the studio, the main misconception about the
band and what he envisions for them down the line.
It’s not unusual for an electronic band to be two
people. What do you think are the strengths and
weaknesses of being a duo?
Robbie Furze: I think it’s good when you’re working
because you never have the problem of [there being]
too many cooks. We work pretty well together, in that
kind of respect, because we can work really quickly. It’s
nice to have a band…we do have a touring band. So, I
guess we have the best of both worlds. We’re very lucky.
With sophomore follow-ups in particular, bands
usually make more of an effort to mix it up.
How did you go about writing and recording for
Future This?
By Clare R. Lopez
PHOTO BY TOM BEARD
18 filter good music guide
From the touring of the first record, we had an idea
about where we wanted to take the second record.
We wanted to put loads of ideas together. On the
road, that’s what we were doing: just coming up with
ideas. Then we bought software, borrowed pedals for
guitar effects and Milo did a lot of work with keyboard
sounds and played some synths. I did a lot of guitar
work and tried to develop my voice. We wanted to
get all our tools together, get our weaponry before we
went into the studio to bash out some demos.
Then, it was just based on the things we were
vibing off the most, depending on how songs really
came out. We were working a lot with [music
sequencing software] Ableton this time and it was
much easier to stretch and manipulate cool songs that
we liked. So, we started doing that and it inspired us
to keep the samples in. It was really exciting for us
to work in a different way. You have a song you love,
but then you have a different take. It was almost like
remixing, which we love doing anyway. That process
was just like stumbling across things because we were
playing with our toys. Songs got written in that way.
What did heavyweights Paul Epworth and Alan
Moulder bring to the album?
Paul Epworth is an amazing producer. He really got
us, and he knows how to present the idea of your
song in the best way that he thinks he can. He does
it in a good way. He’s very good at putting together
a pop song, and he has that kind of blend between
more obscure, weirder stuff and pop stuff. I think this
record is a weird pop record, and that is exactly what
we wanted. Alan Moulder is just such a creative mixer.
I love the guy—he’s become a friend over the years.
He turns your songs into these blanket tapestries of
noise and intricacies. There’s so much detail in his
mixing, it’s amazing.
What would you say is the biggest misconception
about your band?
Sometimes, people don’t really take us that seriously
as musicians. Me and Milo are pretty much geeks
most of the time in the studio. All we do is create
music. We just progress, and we’re trying to refine
our sound. I think some people think we lost some of
the wildness of what we were doing. But I think it’s far
more wild, this record, than the first record because
we’re sticking our necks out. We’re trying to present
ourselves in a more naked way. We’re not hiding
behind distortion and that kind of thing.
You’re touring Europe and will also be making
stops at SXSW and Coachella. How are you
getting ready for this run?
There’s a lot of preparation because we’re creating all
the visuals ourselves. We can manipulate them live and
they all work off triggers—they’re all pulsing to music
or lights. We’ve done cuts from the “Velvet” video,
split-screen things, and the guy who did that video, Rob
Hawkins, had a bank of different visuals that he collects.
He’s one of our best friends—I actually live with him—
so we go through his bank of images and we do what
works. He and the other guy in our band, Zan Lyons,
will be putting it together. It’s like doing an hour-and-50minute music video. It’s quite a lot of work.
It’s probably too early to be thinking about your
next move, but what do you think the future
holds for The Big Pink?
We were quite quiet over the recording of the last
record, I think this time around we’re gonna be
releasing stuff. Even if it’s just like on SoundCloud
or our website, I think we’re going to constantly
have stuff coming out. It’s important to keep people
listening to what we’re doing. When we reach a point
where we’re gonna commit to make another record,
I think we’ll be so far along and I want to show the
development from where this record finishes and
where the next record starts. F
good music guide filter 19
One-Liners:
a miniature take on selected Filter Magazine reviews
........................................................................................................................................
(Go to FILTERmagazine.com or pick up Filter Magazine’s Winter Issue for full reviews of these albums)
AIR
91%
Le Voyage Dans La Lune
ASTRALWERKS
Anytime Air wants to start colonizing the moon,
we’ll be first in line to get onboard (sorry, Newt).
THE MEN
85%
Open Your Heart
SACRED BONES
This solid sophomore album reminds us that it
was The Men who discovered the wheel, and
built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn!
OF MONTREAL
80%
Paralytic Stalks
POLYVINYL
Of Montreal has slowed things down a bit and
pushed its signature grooves further down the
spiral of Kevin Barnes’ mind—always a confusing
and funky place.
DIRTY THREE
89%
Toward the Low Sun
DRAG CITY
Free-form jazz solos, violin virtuosity and
lengthy instrumentals seem as far away from a
great rock album as possible; let this Aussie trio
correct your thinking.
PORCELAIN RAFT
84%
Strange Weekend
SECRETLY CANADIAN
An album of beautifully woozy bedroom
pop—spending two months in a basement
never sounded so good.
ALEX WINSTON
79%
King Con
V2/COOPERATIVE
The songstress finally releases her first full length
album: not disappointing, but nothing inspired.
CHAIRLIFT
87%
Something
COLUMBIA
Something takes a retro road frequently traveled
these days, invoking spacey synths and steady
beats primed for cardio training (legwarmers
optional).
SPIRITUALIZED
83%
Sweet Heart Sweet Light
FAT POSSUM
While Sweet Heart Sweet Light sounds like
Mr. J. Spaceman has grounded all flights, it’s
always nice to be reminded that we are all
human.
THE TWILIGHT SAD
77%
No One Can Ever Know
FAT CAT
The Scots take a leap of faith and turn down their
amps on their third album, but it makes us think
about turning the volume all the way off.
GRIMES
86%
Visions
4AD
Grimes throws her musical influences from
Animal Collective to Janet Jackson into a
blender: the result is a delicious pop smoothie…
probably tasting like Razzmatazz.
PATRICK WOLF
Lupercalia
82%
SUB POP
Wolf wants to tell the world that he is a man in
love; miraculously, he does it without making
our eyes roll into the back of our heads.
CURSIVE
75%
I Am Gemini
SADDLE CREEK
The seventh Cursive release features an elaborate
narrative of twins separated at birth; it’s better
than that time Devito and Schwarzenegger reconjoined, but not by much.
FILTER
ALBUM
RATINGS
20 filter good music guide
91-100%
81-90%
71-80%
61-70%
below 60%
8
8
8
8
8
a great album
above par, below genius
respectable, but flawed
not in my CD player
please God, tell us why
listen out loud
STREAM ALL THE MUSIC ON EARTH WIRELESSLY IN EVERY ROOM
sonos.com
Music,
etc.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
The Shins
Port of Morrow
AURAL APOTHECARY/COLUMBIA
82%
Port of Morrow is transition time for The Shins.
This fourth album from the jangling, arch-pop
Portland-based “ensemble” is their first in five years, their first
away from their longtime home at Sub Pop, their first featuring
keyboardist Richard Swift (among other new members)
and their first after the main Shin, vocalist-composer James
Mercer, went on the spacey soul excursion of Broken Bells
with producer Danger Mouse. Mercer has brought some of
the open airiness and percussive clanging from Broken Bells
into Port of Morrow, but not enough to tear The Shins from
their slick indie-guitar tangle. There’s still the wistful lyricism
and sad-eyed singing, but it’s infused with bristling electric
energy (the deceptively titled “Simple Song”) as well as a new
sense of scale (most apparent on the insular “September”).
Mercer’s lyrics may occasionally be cryptic, but there’s no
mistaking the depths of emotional intent throughout the irked
elegance of “It’s Only Life.” A.D. AMOROSI
The Magnetic Fields
Love at the Bottom of the Sea
MERGE
85%
The Magnetic Fields may be destined to
forever live under the shadow of their iconic
album 69 Love Songs; their last few albums consciously tried
to do something different in concept and sound, and listeners’
opinions varied as to how successful those records were. With
Love at the Bottom of the Sea, Stephin Merritt seems to have
stopped thinking so much and focused on what he does best—
writing infectiously catchy pop songs—while returning to the
synth-laden sound that the band is well known for. It’s not
so far from under The Shadow, but that doesn’t hinder this
album a bit. JEFFREY BROWN
Bear In Heaven
I Love You, It’s Cool
DEAD OCEANS/HOMETAPES
88%
Another outstanding entry from the electroenclave, Brooklyn-based Bear in Heaven’s
I Love You, It’s Cool is a slick ride—harder to brush off
22 filter good music guide
than the “aw, shucks” title suggests. A tug towards the
dancefloor, “The Reflection of You” pairs a towering wall of
percussion with ’80s-influenced synths, crashing like waves
against the shore. What are we to make of the album’s
oversized ambitions? “Freak out!” leadman Jon Philpot
demands on “World of Freakout.” Don’t mind if I do.
LAURA STUDARUS
Lee Ranaldo Between the Times & the Tides
MATADOR
86%
Between the Times & the Tides, Sonic Youth
strummer Lee Ranaldo’s latest, was made by a
guitarhead—but you won’t hear your garden-variety six-string
here. At times sounding like Hendrix operating a theremin,
and elsewhere resembling the mournful cries of lonesome
satellites, Ranaldo and his fellow freakazoids emit frenzied
chirps and peals zip-lining through the cloudy atmosphere
wrought by the incredible band. The songs are accomplished
and take surprising turns, shot through with a mellow fury
that’s endlessly appealing. LOREN AUDA POIN
dvd
Melancholia
MAGNOLIA
92%
“Sometimes, I hate you so much, Justine.”
Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Claire rebukes
her younger sister (Cannes Best Actress
prize winner Kirsten Dunst) twice in
Lars Von Trier’s newest cinematic masterpiece, in two
very different moments. Melancholia, a rumination on
Von Trier’s own bout with depression, is split into many
moments of duality with very separate—albeit bonded—
modes, clashes particularly between nature versus
nurture, rationality versus irrationality, beginnings versus
endings, men versus women, women versus women,
and ecstasy versus, well, melancholia. The horrors aren’t
as perverted or guilt-ridden as his previous venture,
Antichrist, but they do deal with perhaps that most
terrifying and beautiful of all things: existence. Chaos
reigns! LYNN STAFFORD
Sidi Touré
Koïma
THRILL JOCKEY
77%
You can almost hear the dry desert winds of
Mali in Sidi Touré’s music. 2010’s Sahel Folk
was comprised of minimal duets, committed to tape in one
take at his sister’s home in Gao. This one, Koïma, is a lush
affair in comparison—Touré is wonderfully accompanied here
by guitar, calabash and soukou (a one-string violin) players—
and his dynamic osmosis of blues, soul and folk are fitfully
solid within a studio environment. KYLE LEMMON
video game
Mass Effect 3
PS3/XBOX 360/PC
EA
87%
ME3’s combat and story systems feel
thrust ahead with the inclusion of more
advanced combat—notably, picking up
grenades and weapon customizations,
the ability to dash, cover and blind-fire and singlehit melee kill. These elements don’t detract from the
deep story, whose outcome can be affected heavily by
importing your ME1 and 2 data. Optional multiplayer
co-op can also affect the game’s outcome, too. ME3’s
focus on solid single-player storytelling and action is
commendable and effective. ZACH ROSENBERG
Yann Tiersen
Skyline
ANTI-
82%
During his diverse career, Yann Tiersen has
provided the unforgettable atmospherics to
Amélie and collaborated on his solo records with icons like
Jane Birkin and Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser. The Frenchman’s
new album Skyline finds him in a très existential state of mind,
and its tracks are beautiful storms for restless times (“Another
Shore,” “The Gutter”). Sigur Rós producer Ken Thomas’
mixing works magic with Tiersen’s dense aural layering,
making every song like a journey through a forest of emotions.
KEN SCRUDATO
23 filter good music guide
Delta Spirit
Delta Spirit
ROUNDER
85%
On its self-titled third album, San Diego quintet
Delta Spirit takes the vibrant energy of its rousing
rock to a whole other level. Ascendant four-part harmonies on
top of drum-machine samples and soaring guitars make for an
earnest, ragged attack that’s at once familiar and timeless. There’s
some Springsteen in the sing-along choruses, some Neil Young
in the quieter moments. If these are supposed to be feel-good
songs, they sure do work just fine. ANDREA BUSSELL
Great Lake Swimmers
New Wild Everywhere
NETTWERK
74%
Since their formation in 2003, Toronto-based
folk-rockers Great Lake Swimmers have
made four full-length albums, none of which were recorded
in an actual studio (opting instead for abandoned grain silos,
churches, historic music venues and renovated castles). For
their fifth LP, the band finally broke tradition. The result is an
album that is altogether pleasant, but just doesn’t do enough
to distinguish itself on the map from the rest in its genre.
Location, location, location. MIKE HILLEARY
Races
Year of the Witch
FRENCHKISS
83%
The debut of the Los Angeles-native sextet
Races is better than many bands’ third or
fourth records. Year of the Witch beautifully chronicles
the heartbreak of both sides of a failing relationship, an
emotionally broken individual and the death of a brother.
Through the whimsical vocals and fantastic use of organ and
percussion, Races has brought us something that is universally
relatable. Maybe that is what makes it so tragic and brilliant all
at the same time. BAILEY PENNICK
Ty Segall and White Fence
Hair
DRAG CITY
85%
At the frontline of California’s buzzing garage
renaissance stand Ty Segall and Tim Presley of
24 filter good music guide
White Fence, both fresh off two of last year’s most stirring
albums in Goodbye Bread and Is Growing Faith, respectively.
Should we all perish before 2012 is through, these guys won’t
be fading away by damn sight. Their unholy powers combined,
they give us Hair, a raucous, psychedelic guitar skirmish that
transcends descriptions of its creators’ individual works. How
’bout this: Syd Barrett’s newfound feral tomcats lapping up
saucersful of dosed milk. Let it down, baby. KYLE M acKINNEL
book
The Lowbrow Reader Reader
Edited by Jay Ruttenberg
DRAG CITY BOOKS
87%
In 2001, Jay Ruttenberg started The
Lowbrow Reader—a project that inspired
him, made him happy and, obviously, made
him no money. Thankfully, that changed when the incredibly
well-written periodical about “dumb humor” gained a
devout following and continued to grow. The best result?
The release of The Lowbrow Reader Reader, a collection
of the greatest pieces (written and illustrated) of the journal
including gems such as “Billy Madison: A Love Letter,”
contributions by Neil Michael Hagerty, David Berman and
Shelley Berman (no relation), and, naturally, a gallery of
every “sophisticated” toilet gag cover. I’d love to end this by
saying “it’s perfect for any bookshelf,” but who am I kidding?
Just get it for your bathroom. BAILEY PENNICK
Bright Eyes
Letting Off the Happiness [reissue]
SADDLE CREEK
84%
Now 14 years old, Conor Oberst’s first
official release under the Bright Eyes
moniker has aged surprisingly well. The songcraft of
Letting Off the Happiness is elementary compared to
future releases; Oberst sings about his “sad and simple
chords” on stripped-down, lo-fi highlight “June on the
West Coast.” The recording is rudimentary—echoes
from Oberst’s makeshift recording studio and the voices
of friends woven throughout the album’s 10 tracks. But
his ennui-drenched howl and self-deprecating, selfdestructive poetry continues to cut to the quick, reminding
us all that there might still be something to all those “next
Bob Dylan” accolades. LAURA STUDARUS
Lissy Trullie
Lissy Trullie
DOWNTOWN
Carly Simon
Peter Frampton
Jonny Lang
Dan Wilson
The Smeezingtons
(Bruno Mars, Ari Levine, Philip Lawrence)
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68%
Lissy Trullie’s opening “Rules We Obey”
is as promising as her name is a mouthful:
hear her scale an ever-mounting wall of guitars, horns, and
probably lichen to get over, wearied and proud. Remember
The National’s “Fake Empire”? Just as awesome, “Rules”
is an unfinished idea glimpsing mightiness to grasp it, if
briefly. But the rest? A faceless debut; a din of the same
guitars, horns and urbane 20-something tropes—and
lichen—as “Rules,” but immobile and, sadly, ambitionless.
The ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO puts you in the heart of
ASCAP’s community of today’s most successful music creators
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DOM SINACOLA
Screaming Females
Ugly
DON GIOVANNI
78%
On Ugly, the Jersey trio strikes an expert
balance between grandiose metal riffage
and brain-searing, infectious punk. There are urging headnodders (“Rotten Apple,” “Expire”; the latter containing
a particularly tasty touch of surf-rock swing), while others
(“Doom 84,” “High”) lean on expanded bits of muddy guitar
and much darker vocals from Marissa Paternoster. Opener
“It All Means Nothing” swings the door wide open and closer
“It’s Nice” is a rare quiet spot that brings Ugly to a real pretty
close. ERIN HALL
Patrick Watson
Adventures in Your Own Backyard
DOMINO/SECRET CITY
REGISTER NOW AT WWW.ASCAP.COM/EXPO
79%
If Jeff Buckley had been given the time to
shine more of his jazz, off-kilter leanings,
the late singer-songwriter might have sounded like the
brave, bold Patrick Watson does at this moment. Not that
the Canadian Watson and his stalwart ensemble (bassist
Mishka Stein, guitarist Simon Angell, drummer Robbie
Kuster) bebop until they drop—there’s simply a gentle
swing to Watson’s woeful, unavoidably Buckley-esque
warble, containing an epic elegance worthy of the most
intimate of adventures. A.D. AMOROSI
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Mirel Wagner
Mirel Wagner
FRIENDLY FIRE
82%
Twenty-three-year-old, Ethiopian-born Mirel
Wagner plays grim and creepy acoustic ballads
about necrophilia, love, loss and bike riding. With a voice like
Martina Topley Bird doing Leonard Cohen, Wagner seduces
with a ghostly, whispered-in-your-ear intimacy on these sparse
and haunting folk songs. At once stoic and graceful, her brief
debut is as chilling as it is hypnotic, her lonely, minimalist
guitar reeling you in as her hushed, unflinching vocals sing of
all the things you’d rather not know. ANDREA BUSSELL
M. Ward
A Wasteland Companion
MERGE
83%
After playing modest collaborator as a part of
She & Him and Monsters of Folk, M. Ward
takes the reins of creativity back with A Wasteland Companion.
Ward’s first solo effort since 2009’s Hold Time, the record feels
its finest when the finger-picking guitarist keeps things simple
and mellow on the acoustic, filling the remaining space with his
warm, husked vocals. Those are the songs you want with you
when you’re shown fear in a handful of dust. MIKE HILLEARY
The Mars Volta
Noctourniquet
WARNER BROS.
Tanlines
Mixed Emotions
TRUE PANTHER
blu-ray
75%
If something to dance to is what you’re after,
listen no further than Tanlines—though the
results are a little, well, mixed. Eric Emm and Professor
Murder’s Jesse Cohen’s debut LP makes great tunes for an
aggressive, exhaustive dance party (or a cruise), but though the
production value is exquisite at the hands of its creators and
mixer Jimmy Douglass (Timbaland, Aaliyah), it’s hard to say
what it all amounts to apart from a collection of partly-cloudylate-afternoon-sunshine, on-and-off ’80s jams. KENDAH EL-ALI
Robert Pollard Mouseman Cloud
GUIDED BY VOICES INC.
85%
On Mouseman Cloud, Guided By Voices
frontman Robert Pollard is up to his same old
genius. Lyrics and hooks circle and lend each other energy
as the songs move forward—strange ones with clunky titles
like “Picnic Drums” and “Obvious #1” gain fluid sense in the
confident trill of Pollard’s unique voice. The guitars could gut
a pachyderm, or make it head-bang anyway, the afterwash
sneaking around its ears and into its heart. LOREN AUDA POIN
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
SONY
85%
Yes, David Fincher’s version of Stieg
Larsson’s 2005 smash bestseller Men
Who Hate Women probably runs
way too close to the 2009 Swedish
film versions of the Millennium trilogy. But one
can’t exactly fault the director for reveling in prime
Fincherian material; here, he delves darkly into
the intertwining lives of blacklisted investigative
journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and
abused, brilliant hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney
Mara) as they together try to unravel an endlessly
intriguing, decades-old murder surrounding a wellconnected family (patriarch Christopher Plummer
and heir-apparent Stellan Skarsgård). The audience
comes right along in the suspense, but take solace:
The bonuses of director’s commentary and four
hours of behind-the-scenes footage might be
enough to cleanse the more traumatic scenes from
your eyes and ears. One thing’s for sure: you’ll never
listen to Enya the same way again. LYNN STAFFORD
video game
67%
Anticipating At the Drive-In’s reunion, it’s best
to think about The Mars Volta’s sixth album as
a last purge before singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist
Omar Rodríguez-López rejoin their former band. Or maybe
it’s best to not think about it much at all. Like its predecessors,
Noctourniquet is a concept album of kitchen-sink noodling
and lousy portmanteaus that makes absolutely no sense. It’s a
mess—not without some tidy bits (“The Malkin Jewel” is duly
grim; the title track tightly writhing, restrained even)—but
what’s better: these songs could be the death throes, finally, of
these guys’ unfettered id. DOM SINACOLA
Street Fighter Tekken
PS3/XBOX 360/PC
CAPCOM
71%
In the latest crossover fighting game,
Capcom
mashes
together
unlikely
opponents from the Street Fighter and
Tekken universes. The art style follows that of the beautiful
Street Fighter IV, but the combat gets overly hectic with
the addition of tag-teams, gem powerups and “Pandora
mode”—which is essentially a buff for a dying fighter. Fun
for both novices and experts, but flawed in complication,
this might be a crossover that could have gone uncrossed.
ZACH ROSENBERG
Yellow Ostrich
Strange Land
BARSUK
80%
Alex Schaaf’s musical project Yellow
Ostrich (which most recently added
bass/horns player Jon Natchez to the mix) breaks out
gorgeous harmonies and clean instrumentals on each of
the 10 tracks of Strange Land. “Elephant King” begins
the sophomore album with a short, yet interesting series
of playbacks and overdubs before completely falling
right into the pleasant rut of indie-pop rock. While the
lyrics are a little repetitive, the catchy rhythms make
this a solid album for spring. BAILEY PENNICK
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26 filter good music guide
opening 2012 cancun . panama megapolis . vallarta . riviera maya
good music guide filter 27
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Orcas
Orcas
MORR
the future of artist management software
84%
Bordeaux’s Dune du Pilat is an unlikely, yet stunning mix of nature’s
sublime forces: One smells fir from the forest behind it and sees
the Atlantic coast, trees or a desert from its peak. Orcas is like the dune, but the
strangely juxtaposed elements are instead classical, pop and ambient music. A
collaboration between Benoît Pioulard and Rafael Anton Irisarri (of The Sight
Below), Orcas find a space that floats between velvet vocals and Pioulard’s field
recordings in a time frozen between dreams and a reality beautifully faded by the
sun. KENDAH EL-ALI
Young Prisms
In Between
KANINE
83%
Several voices are at play on San Francisco quintet Young Prisms’
second album, yet all find proportion evenly awash in its blurred
shoegaze swirl. Forgoing some degree of exploration, In Between maintains
a palette in the realm of strangled-rainbow indigo. The result is a record that
establishes an identity well, and is able to bottle its ethers for successful
consumption. While the output feels a bit restrained at times, there is much here
to suggest that In Between’s transition will deliver in Technicolor before long.
KYLE MacKINNEL
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28 filter good music guide
book
128 Beats Per Minute: Diplo’s Visual Guide to Music,
Culture and Everything In Between
Thomas Wesley Pentz + Photos by Shane McCauley 82%
UNIVERSE
Wes Pentz is known to the kids as Diplo—the mashup DJ king, a half of the dancehall outfit Major Lazer
and M.I.A.’s ex-boyfriend. But in reality, he’s become a
street-savvy, multicultural attaché for the 21st century. Diplo soaks up all
worlds around him—real and imagined—like a sponge and spits out an
alchemical mess whose reconstructed deconstructed sensibilities make
you forget their point of origin. 128 Beats Per Minute portrays Dip’s role
as a lit-conscious lodger by replacing weird rhythms and wonky chants
with dusky images from his travels and a wizened lyrical sensibility honed
by years of cultural exploration (and a stint as an online columnist for
Vanity Fair). It’s stuff as complicated to look at as his music is to dance
to. A.D. AMOROSI
CONVERSE
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AMERICAN RAG FOR MACY'S
V-Neck Pocket Shirt
$29.50
Macys.com
Women’s short-sleeved coverall
$100
Men’s skinny straight-fit work pant
$44
Dickies.COM
T-MOBILE
Samsung Galaxy S II
$149.99
T-Mobile.com
SOTERIK
T*Rant-Chil*LA vest with Peace Is A Verb
$75
SOTerik.com
FENDER
Johnny Marr Jaguar®
$2,419
Fender.com
johnny
marr
jaguar
signature model
CHINATOWN
Blu-ray
Paramount Home Media Distribution
Special features include commentary by screenwriter
Robert Towne and David Fincher, a three-part documentary,
personal reflections from leading filmmakers and more
Photo: Carl Lyttle
®
®
$24.99
fender.com/johnnymarrjaguar
© 2012 FMIC. Fender®, Jaguar® and the distinctive headstock designs commonly found on these guitars are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.