April 12th, 2009

This blog post courtesy of the road between San Antonio and Austin, with special thanks to patient, automotively inclined fathers.

Peter Bjorn and John, Living Thing
Am I the only one on board for calling Peter Bjorn & John this generation's Dream Academy? Yeah, that's a weird assertion, I'm aware. I may be the only person who's even thought about Dream Academy in 2009. (Well, except maybe [frontman]) But think about it: very catchy singles deceive fans into disappointment on LPs where weird artistic leanings mask a core melodicism.
Okay, I was born in 1990, so maybe that was just MY experience with Dream Academy. And maybe it's just the accents. But it seems like the same experience we're all getting duped into with PB&J. Their singles are all catchy and melodic, but the albums are thornier, rougher, and dare I say more confusing. Honestly? I wish every band working in popular music was pulling the same trick.
Teaser bits "Nothing to Worry About" and "Lay It Down" were weird, sure - a fact emphasized in the surreal videos for the respective tracks. But they're nowhere near the heights of odd achieved on the album, some of which work perfectly (the smokey organ solo in "Stay This Way") and some of which fall a little short. (The title track seems like a grower, but remains eternally undercooked)
But even the shortcomings are refreshing, because paradoxically, they fall short by setting the sights too high. Post-"Young Folks," PB&J could have cruised along as sweet pop confectioners, or maybe even survived vampirically on licensing from their big hit, like more than a few one-hit-weirdos. (What a poignant observation, given Mix-A-Lot's square-butt McDonalds travesty) Indeed, the path ahead for this trio held no inherent challenges, so the fact that they've put out an album this challenging, unabashedly weird, truly surprising and simultaneously listenable, well, it's something we should all be impressed by.


Röyksopp, Junior
I won't lie: I've already missed two Röyksopp boats. Both of their LPs escaped my high school musicscape. Hence, I'm not coming into this review with the same degree of critical baggage - no questioning of whether [second LP] was a disappointing turn after [first LP]. No fretting about which vocalists do or don't appear. I've got a pretty clean slate, and you know what? I like what I hear.
Powerhouse single "The Girl And The Robot," which justifies the price of admission all its own, is the tale of the shittiest boyfriend ever, belted out over churning electro beats with aching honesty by Robyn, who really steps up to the plate on this one. That will be what draws most people in here, and while some of the rest of the album borders on electrofiller - I'm looking at you, "Silver Cruiser" - there are plenty of highlights. "Royksopp Forever" (where's the umlaut, boys?) skids along on dub beats until its strings reach a fever, at which point a pitch shift takes it all to the next level. Speaking of fevers, Karin Dreijer is a fantastic presence on record, where her patented dark sense of mystery is free to do basically what it did in The Knife - flourish - but with a glossier production to back it up. Lykke Li takes a different tack, getting a bit lost inside the Röyksopp beats rather than taking charge; supplementing instead of dominating.
With vocal skills this good, it's already a strong purchase, but Röyksopp isn't just a duo with good taste in female voice talent. Their beats slide, skip, and pound; their melodies arch and dip into territories at turns glitzy and tragic. Maybe Discodust has just been converting me, but this is solid, solid work. It's a great, addictive little package. Expect the playcount to get disconcertingly astronomical; be wary of your other MP3s getting jealous.


Editorial

To tweet or not to - oh fuck it.
Anyway.
This hubbub over Twitter's value doesn't seem to want to die down. People are still digging in their heels, claiming it's reductive, or foolish, or promotes less thought, or whatever the complaint of the week is. You'd think that after it played a key role in, you know, that election thing we had a few months ago, people would be a little easier on the little guy.
Well, not really a little guy, I guess. Twitter is pretty ubiquitous at this point; it seems like ages past when I was confused by the odd little box popping up alongside my favorite webcomics; now I'm pretty sure everyone from the Dalai Lama to Dick Cheney has participated in "follow fridays," tweeted about their weekend plans, started following a meme account, and rued the technical bumps and glitches along the way.
Everybody except me, that is. That's right: I've just now got one. I wasn't anti-twitter or anything, I just never took the time to start following people and set the whole enterprise up. I've got to say, I like it so far. I follow Aziz Anzari - who wouldn't, after his great Observe and Report Chik-Fil-A quote? And I follow Rob Corddry, whose comedy links and parental insights are oddly rewarding. And I follow the New York Times and Democracy Now, and I follow some friends too, just to keep up with whatever's up.
Like I said, I was never anti-Twitter. I don't understand this backlash against networking. Many of my friends have disavowed Facebook; my roommate even deleted his account. His reasons? "Facebook is inaccurate." He says the profile information on his account was all misleading. I asked him why he didn't just change it. Cue debate.
It's the same with Twitter. Critics say it's all pointless minutia, but it's only pointless if you can't utilize the tech. To wear out a tired cliche, garbage in, garbage out. Twitter is brief, sure, but brevity and idiocy hardly go hand in hand. If a Twitter account you follow just spews pointless trivia, you can, y'know, unfollow it.
It seems like this far out of the 1800's we ought to have figured out the simple lesson: technology isn't inherently anything. Twitter's not inherently trivia, Facebook isn't inherently inaccurate, the internet isn't inherently for pornography and piracy, etc. It's how you use technology that counts, and if you loathe the way it's used, well, you could always do it better yourself.
Oh well, I won't get too pissed. If I need to vent, I can just tweet about this later.