New releases, Tuesday, October 6
While it’s not a musical release, I’d really like to mention the fact that the long-delayed Trick ‘r Treat is finally seeing DVD release this week. Currently pulling in a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s a return to anthology horror like Twilight Zone: the Movie or Creepshow. I’ve seen nothing more than the trailer and a couple of clips, but I’m going to be buying this today, in hopes that the studios will stop churning out remakes and crap like the Saw series in favor of quality genre fare.
Built to Spill‘s There Is No Enemy sounds like Built to Spill. I know it’s lazy to say a band sound like itself, but much like Yo La Tengo, they’ve become an indie band touchstone. Using Built To Spill as shorthand usually means that a band is laconic, melodic, and somewhat sleepy. Their new album is no different than anything they’ve released since There’s Nothing Wrong with Love. It’s fairly safe to say that if you dig their brand of indie, you’ll like this one. Somebody out there does not however, as this Wiki preview pulled up on Google (the actual Built to Spill wiki does not have this line):
Much in the same vein, the Raveonettes‘ releases tend to blend into one long album when played in sequence. The difference from album to album seem to be the extent to which the band plays up the inherent darkness of their sound. In and Out of Control is a lighter album than past releases. Lust Lust Lust, their last release, was fucking dark. The lightness of this release is more in the instrumentation, much like a Cure album — you’ve got these jangly, Beach Boys songs with bleak words. Case in point: “Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed),” which has a “Barbara Ann” finish to a song that is definitively downbeat.
MP3: the Raveonettes, “Last Dance”
Live From Axis Mundi is the first DVD from Gogol Bordello, as well as a collection of their b-sides and demos. I’d pretty much stepped away from the Gogol Bordello phenomenon after Super Taranta! came out. Their earlier releases like Multi Kontra Culti vs. Irony had the band taking itself far less seriously, and I just couldn’t stomach the constant self-referential “all one world” statements. I understand the band is pan-ethnic, and multi-cultural, and drawing from all genres of music. I just don’t want to hear about it. The band is a massive live force, however, and I await the DVD with eager eyes and ears.
