April 24 Releases, 2012

By: Scott Smith, Reviews Editor

Well, I guess this is it--my last contribution to Drop It Like It's Hot. I’d take some time to reflect on my time as an ACRN editor, but this is not time for sentimentality and nostalgia. No, I’d rather stick to what this blog is about: new music, because it’s something I’m truly passionate about.

I’m also an avid film fan, in particular documentaries, and in this week’s music releases those two worlds are colliding for me. Two of the bigger releases this week were artists I discovered through two of my absolute favorite music documentaries.

The first would be the manic-depressive, schizophrenic singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas known as Daniel Johnston. The film The Devil and Daniel Johnston documents the artist's early life and career and also serves as an incredible insight into both. It’s hard not to be charmed and astonished by his whimsical lyrics, simple yet effective song structures and boyish vocals. His talent is undeniable and to see him perform, even on a movie screen, is captivating.

His newest album (I’ve lost count how many he has; dude is prolific) is titled Space Ducks: Soundtrack, and as usual, Johnston designed the album cover himself. The album features contributions from a number of new and emerging artists. I’d start listing off some of those bands, because some of them I quite like, but I fear if I do that I’ll be condoning this abomination of a collaboration.

You see, Daniel Johnston is at his most effective when he’s making bare-boned melodies at the piano or on an acoustic guitar. He’s a classic example of less is more (and I’m not the only one who thinks so). So all these bands working with Johnston, while coming at the project with the best intentions, can only harm the final product.

The Dandy Warhols, on the other hand, are a band of little consequence to me. They were a group that got big in Europe for a little while in the ‘90s and have been able to somehow continue making music today. The band was the subject of half of the documentary Dig!, which featured both them and the exponentially more bat-shit crazy band The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

The Dandys served to show the dark side of success as it relates to big record labels and their treatment of bands while BJM was the “musical genius who can’t get over heroin to take his band to new and exciting heights” side of the story. Over seven years of documentation, we see The Dandys go from unknown to overnight success to a washed-up, burnt-out, over-worked band on the verge of completely falling apart. That was eight years ago, so to see The Dandy Warhols still pumping out music is nothing short of remarkable, and a little terrifying to think about.

Diamond Rugs do not have a film about them, mostly because they are a newly-constructed “supergroup.” Compiled of two members of Deer Tick and one member of the Black Lips, this is one of the more peculiar and inexplicable supergroups in recent memory. I’ve seen both Deer Tick and the Black Lips live and I don’t really find much that relates the two. I also feel like the kind of music the other band makes will make the fans of one put off by the idea of the two groups working together; folkies aren’t much for punk and punks think folk is too slow and soft. I guess that’s part of a supergroup; it doesn’t have to make sense to work.

Last, but never, ever least, I always try to include some hip-hop in these entries. This week we get the newest entry from Sacramento noise rap group Death Grips. The Money Store is the first release on L.A. Reid's record label Epic Records. L.A. Reid is that guy on Simon Cowell’s "The Voice."  So I’m supposed to believe that in between judging the vocal range of 16-year-old teeny boppers, he’s bumping the group’s 2011 mixtape Exmilitary and decides that these guys were perfect for his label? Confused doesn’t begin to describe where my head's at right now.

It’s not like Death Grips couldn’t get signed anywhere. In fact, there was a time when their Zach Hill-produced, grimy, borderline frightening beats and punch-you-in-the-mouth lyrical spit was the going trend in hip-hop. But it’s not 1990 anymore and Flava Flav and Ice Cube are too busy contradicting everything they stood for back then to make a comeback for this genre to seem feasible.

But here we are, with Death Grips signed to Epic. I don’t think this is the massive revival of gangsta rap. Death Grips is making music unlike anyone else within a culture that is relying on 3D gimmicks to make their shows enjoyable at this point.

February 15 Releases, 2012

By: Kevin Rutherford, Editorial Director

After a relatively slow start, we're finally starting to get some buzzworthy album releases for the new year. Let us waste no time in discussing this week's.

Worth first mention is a Texas band that has roots in our area.

Heartless Bastards are headed by Erika Wennerstrom, who formed the band in Cincinnati. The bluesy, garage-y rock quartet releases their fourth studio album on Tuesday, giving it the title Arrow. Spoon drummer Jim Eno is the album's producer, and given his own band's recent stab at mainstream success, it isn't much of a stretch to see the Bastards do the same. That said, this will be the band's first release on indie label Partisan Records. It's tough, therefore, to predict what kind of success Arrow might achieve.

English rockers Band of Skulls return this week with Sweet Sour, the band's first LP since 2009's acclaimed Baby Darling Doll Face Honey. The album's lead single, "The Devil Takes Care of His Own," has already reached No. 20 on the Canadian charts, and seems poised to break in both native England and in America.

Montreal's Islands return for the band's third release on ANTI- Records, and its first since 2009. A Sleep & a Forgetting is its name, and bandleader Nick Thorburn calls it "far more personal than any I’ve made before.” Exciting! Keep an eye out on ACRN.com for an interview with Islands, to be posted this weekend.

Punch Brothers are a progressive bluegrass act that I love very, very much. The band's style is not specifically bluegrass, having roots in classical music, which accentuates the quintet's quirkiness. Also setting the act apart from more conventional bluegrass bands is the vocal from mandolin player Chris Thile, whose voice is far departed from what one might expect from the genre. Check out the band's new record Who's Feeling Young Now? and enjoy the five-piece's unconventional take on rootsy Americana.

Last, but certainly not least, let's mention The Explorers Club. The six-man South Carolina band releases its second album, Grand Hotel, which is its first LP since 2008. Check out this band if you're into pop-rock and surf rock slightly in the vein of The Beach Boys -- which, I promise you, is not a poor comparison. At least, frequent Beach Boys collaborator Mark Linett doesn't think so -- he mixed Grand Hotel.

There's plenty more dropping next week, including new releases from Sleigh Bells, Cheap Girls, the Chieftains and more. Keep it locked to ACRN.com's Drop It Like It's Hot, and perhaps we'll talk a bit about them next week.

January 31 Releases, 2012

By: Scott Smith, Album Reviews Editor

It’s the first big week in music releases, but apparently no one told me. January is typically the slowest month for new albums—nobody wants to be forgotten about at the end of the year when it’s time for the Grammy nominations and end of the year picks and lists—but this last Tuesday of the month marks the first set of releases anticipated by more than just the band’s parents. Thing is, from a personal standpoint, I’ve either missed the bus, was never exposed to, or simply don’t care about any of these supposed “big releases” this week. So I figured I would delve deeper into what these releases really are, why I don’t know about them and if I really should.

The best place to start would be the artist I seem to have the most knowledge on, and because I get most of my information these days on the internet like most of you, that artist is of course Lana Del Rey and her much anticipated major label debut Born to Die.

Lana hit the internet last year with her single “Video Games” which can be found on the album along with the new single “Born to Die.” She’s been in the news recently for stinking it up on Saturday Night Live, but we’re concerned with her album here, not how much she can’t sing live (or really, to her defense, how poor the sound equipment at Saturday Night Live is.)

Lana is a new persona of Elizabeth Grant who released some material to little fanfare in previous years, went into hiding, and re-emerged with a new marketing strategy and possibly some new lips.

Her songs rely pretty heavily on nostalgia, something that can bore me, quite frankly, when not handled appropriately. Her songs feature lush instrumentation and strings with Lana singing a sort of half-seductive half-hazy middle register, sort of like a more traditional version of Victoria Legrand of Beach House. Unfortunately, unlike Beach House, Lana’s songs tend to float around for three or four minutes without going anywhere before quietly fading back out of existence. There’s such a lack of presence that a song could be over for 10 or 15 minutes without you evening noticing.

From the trendiest, trend-setting, trending thing on Twitter to the oldest of old-school songwriters still pumping out material, we move to Leonard Cohen. 2012 marks the 45th year that the man has been recording music, a feat very few people will ever achieve, and the fact that his music has remained relevant to some sort of fan-base the whole time is nothing short of astonishing. Old Ideas marks his twelfth studio album, and you can find the entire thing streaming over at NPR right now if you’d like.

This is one of those guys I missed out on. Music from the ‘60s and ‘70s are easy to miss out on primarily because most of the music we hear from this era comes from our parents, and Leonard Cohen wasn’t in the Zeppelin, or Floyd categories dad was into nor the Beatles or Bowie of my mother.

Leonard is different from all these in that he’s a singular artist and lyrical content is without a shred of doubt the most important aspect of his music much like a James Taylor or Paul Simon. It’s a style that came right out of Bob Dylan and the folk movement of the late ‘60s, and while it’s not a style I’m well-versed in (I prefer Dylan after he went electric and got a full band), it’s nevertheless an important and meaningful way to make art and music to share with the world.

Next is the new import from overseas, Gotye. Don’t ask me how to pronounce his name, I go with “got-ya,” completely disregarding my knowledge of the English language. Anyway, this guy seems to be gaining steam with his duet “Somebody That I Used To Know” featuring Kimbra, and by gaining steam I mean it has over 57 million hits on YouTube. Okay, so this guy is more-or-less an internet sensation, but what’s his music about? And more importantly, should I care?

Well his lyrics are rather ambiguous and his melodies soft and beautiful. It’s music that can definitely take one on an introspective journey through their own subconscious, which is good if you’re asking me. It might even be labeled as music to fall asleep to, which to me really isn’t a bad thing, there’s a place and a time for music like that, and it just so happens to be when you’re trying to fall asleep (go figure). I think of all the releases, Gotye’s is the most polarizing. He has the least to lose (Lana by comparison, has the most) and the most to gain (what more can Leonard Cohen really achieve?). Safe to say we should keep our eyes on the Belgian-Australian multi-instrumentalist; his path looks to be the most intriguing.

Finally, Ringo Starr is putting out a solo record this week. Some of you are now finding out that Ringo Starr has a solo career, seeing as how he’s never been known for being a songwriter with The Beatles (he wasn’t even known as the best drummer in The Beatles), this can most likely be chalked up to Ringo Starr being bored with retirement and wanting to jam, and no one's having the nuts to tell a Beatle “no.”

January 10 Releases, 2012

By: Hannah Cook, Managing Editor

Excuse me and the ACRN editors in how long it's been since the last Drop it Like It's Hot post. Forgive me even more for the lifeless, uninformed update about to come from me. It's a slow week in music, which isn't weird for January, and so I don't recognize a lot of the albums that came out, which isn't weird for me.

Is there a bandwagon out there that I keep missing? I feel like every time I've done one of these, I don't know anything I'm talking about. Maybe I'll discover a new band to love in this process. Let us hope so.

Anyway, here goes nothing.

Keepaway, from Brooklyn, NY (Everyone is from Brooklyn, so it seems) released their first full-length titled Black Flute. I've never heard this band, so what I envisioned was some sort of morose, theatrical, indie sound, but that is not what I got when I listened to their single "Cake." Take Animal Collective, hip-hop and Prussia and you've got yourself Keepaway. And so, naturally, I like them a lot. No other songs were legally available on the web, from what I could find, but I might just like this band enough already to buy (maybe "borrow" from the Internet) the album.

And for the cutest name in country history, The Little Willies (dawwwwww!!) released For the Good Times, seven years after their first release. The songs are as classic country as they come, no less honky-tonk than Willie Nelson or Dolly Parton.

The band, which includes the lovely Norah Jones, implements harmonies that are both delightful and sad. Jones sounds so unlike her "easy listening" self that I didn't even realize it was her until after some research. Though there's nothing extraordinary about The Little Willies and their newest feat, they've still got a flare that comes few and far between in country these days.

Athens locals Mind Fish apparently came out with an album called Watch Out! Staff Writer Matt Bemer had some pretty silly things to say about it, both positive and negative. Check it out his review.

Other names that came out this week include Snow Patrol (I didn't know they were from Ireland!), Charlie Haden and Hank Jones (I don't know).

Like I said, a slow week, and a lack of knowledge.

Keep an eye and ear out for albums released in weeks to come, though, brought to you by the one and only ACRN.

November 1 Releases, 2011

By: Cassie Whitt, Blogs Editor

In this installment of ACRN's Drop It Like It's Hot, blogs editor Cassie will check out some things she's never given a chance in the past.

First on the testing table is Hit The Lights: a band known in my mind as one of the "highlighter generation." One whose fans could be found in neon-splattered clothes scrawled with large, block lettering journeying across Warped Tour parking lots over the past couple years.

Some would argue that my propensity toward black drives me away from such bands, but I argue this: These newer pop-punk bands, for me, offer nothing that is actually new. I can point to examples in the past which they echo, and I just can't get into a re-hashing of the same thing that I liked and perceived as better then.

Perhaps, if I hadn't grown up with bands like The Starting Line and Brand New (circa 2001), I could have a better appreciation for something like Hit The Lights' new EP, Invicta.

Still, it was not an unpleasant listen and I'm glad I gave it a chance. It has everything a good pop-punk EP should have: catchy choruses, a higher-than-usual male vocal, a couple mellow breakdowns and sing-along quality.

I may give Hit The Lights more chances after getting a taste through the Invicta EP.

The second chance I gave this week was to The Decemberists, because I know they hold a special place in editorial director Kevin Rutherford's heart. This week, they release Long Live The King, yet another EP, this one of b-sides from The King Is Dead, which came out earlier this year.

Immediately, I was struck by the title of the first track: "E. Watson." I could only hope it meant beloved Hermione Granger actress and fashionista Emma Watson. My hopes were naïve, I suppose.

The Decemberists reak of PBR, teardrops in dirty beards, slow-motion civil war reenactments and mountainsides: a strangely comforting combination. I get the appeal, but I don't want it for myself. I just wouldn't mind being surrounded by it from time to time when I need a nap.

Chance three of the week goes to Girl in a Coma because they are on Blackheart Records, so I assume they have to be at least a little bad-ass. Exits And All The Rest is a tad on the sleepy side for me, though more up-beat than the aforementioned EP.

The album, with its old-fashioned feeling and smooth alto lady vocals, does nothing remarkable for me. It just kind of makes me want to start a rad, more exciting band of my own here in Athens.

Who's down?

October 25 Releases, 2011

By: Chris Dobstaff, News Editor

It’s almost time for Halloween; so, let’s see what’s in the goodie bag of new releases this week. There’s definitely a mixture of tricks, as well as some stellar treats.

Let’s start with one of the tastiest of treats of the year. Justice, an electronic duo from France, just released its second studio album Audio, Video, Disco. I’ve only tasted a brief sample of the album, but even I, more a fan of straight rock, cannot deny that this album has some serious kick. Everyone get ready to hear Audio, Video, Disco at house parties for the remainder of the year.

We also saw the release of the new Coldplay album, Mylo Xyloto. Is it true that Coldplay is one of the lamest bands on Earth? Probably. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some “Clocks” every now and then.

How will the band’s fifth album stand up? The first single, “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall,” not only is home to a classic cheesy Coldplay title, but is also utterly unexciting. Overall, reviews have been a mixed bag, but we should all indulge ourselves in “Princess of China,” just to hear Coldplay and Rihanna together at last. Cause that’s really what we’ve always wanted, right?

The legendary Tom Waits also returned with his first batch of studio material since 2004 with Bad As Me. The 61-year-old singer-songwriter has backed up his 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction with another great album. Just go listen to “Get Lost” and try to fight the urge to listen to the rest of the album. Stay on the look out for Amanda Norris’ upcoming review of the record. That girl loves her some Tom Waits.

Our very own Editorial Director Kevin Rutherford reviewed My Brightest Diamond’s All Things Will Unwind this week. The guy generally picks everything to pieces, but he actually gave the disc a positive review. I’d say that just about gives me reason to check it out.

She & Him took on some classic holiday tunes with A Very She & Him Christmas. I have to be honest with you guys, though. I’m about fed up with Zooey Deschanel’s cuteness. I just can’t take it anymore! Am I the only one here? Also, Christmas albums are generally boring, and seeing as the band’s second studio album bored me to tears, I can’t imagine this little collection of songs to be much different.

Michael Bublé also released a Christmas album! Skip that one too.

In fact, here’s a little piece of advice: Unless the Christmas album is by Elvis or Fats Domino, steer clear of it. (Fats Domino has the greatest holiday collection of all time. Real talk, you guys.)

Brian Wilson released In The Key of Disney, an album of the Beach-Boys-legend's singing songs from “You Got a Friend in Me” to “Heigh-Ho.” I haven’t heard any of Wilson’s newer material, but I’m a sucker for some Disney classics. Count me in.

Lastly, Deer Tick released Divine Providence. Though they sound like a dirty southern band, the group actually hails from Rhode Island. Lead singer John McCauley’s raspy-yet-powerful voice is just what one want at the head of one's rock band. Deer Tick gives you the southern rock the Kings of Leon did prior to recording “Use Somebody.” It’s nothing you haven’t heard before, but it’s still a lot of fun to get down and dirty with some root-sy rock.

That’s about it. No real spooktacular albums coming out, but for the love of God can we stop releasing Christmas albums before we trick-or-treat?

October 18 Releases, 2011

By: Kevin Rutherford

If you've followed this blog for more than a few weeks, you know that when it comes to new music, there are good weeks and there are not-so-good weeks.

This week could probably be considered one of the latter; though, it's not due to the quality of the music presented, per se. The main issue is the selection.

Some weeks are crazy in terms of releases. Intense. Much to choose from. Like when three or four blockbuster films release on the same weekend. You just don't know where to begin.

This week, the path to take is quite clear. Start with M83.

The electronic dream pop act from France returns with their first record since 2008's acclaimed Saturdays = Youth. In fact, off that record, the song "Kim & Jessie" was ranked at No. 256 on Pitchfork's 500 Best Songs of the 2000s. High expectations? You bet. Did it live up to them? Check back with ACRN.com later in the week to find out.

The next stop is with Jane's Addiction. Yeah, right, that Jane's Addiction. Who on earth knows how it happened, but the '90s icons are back with a new record, The Great Escape Artist. For those keeping score at home, it's their first record since 2003 and only their second since 1990.

Let's just say that the reception to the new album hasn't been too positive. Check out Staff Writer Sam Boyer's review of the album for further details. And she's a '90s freak, so you know you have an expert on the genre talking here.

Everlast, formerly of '90s rap act House of Pain, continues to try to reclaim the success of "What It's Like" with Songs of the Ungrateful Living. When Everlast is the third largest artist I mention this week, you know things aren't going well.

Family Force 5 keeps trying to make crunk rock happen with III. If the first single, "Wobble," is any indication, you'll be listening to this record purely to have something to laugh at for your next party. Any song that takes a term commonly used in American dubstep and applies it to music that is decidedly not dubstep is just asking for it. Granted, the term "wobble" has other connotations, but let's think in terms of the modern day here.

Plus, these lyrics:
"Scenie babies/ Throwback 'cedes/ Bleach-blonde hair and your neon shadies/ Skinny jeans/ Know what I mean/ Roll the red carpet out the limousine."

What the actual fuck?

No, you know what, that's it. I'm done. Humanity is over. I just can't deal with music anymore.

I'm sorry, Kentucky Headhunters, Casting Crowns, Bond, Kimya Dawson, My Brightest Diamond and Patrick Stump. I just... I can't do this anymore. I quit.