TV on the Radio and the Whore of Babylon

Simply put, Return to Cookie Mountain is one of the best musical compositions recorded in the last decade. So how on Earth do you follow up a modern-day masterpiece? You don’t try. You reinvent your sound and do what you do best: challenge the ears of convention and explore new sounds. TV on the Radio doesn’t write songs. They compose pulsing soundscapes with melodic hooks and falsetto wordplay. And on their latest LP, Dear Science, the Brooklyn natives have upped the antie on what music can mean to fans in a time of greed, corruption and environmental devastation. TV on the Radio can now be mentioned, along with Radiohead, in the conversation about the most talented bands on the planet.

The apocalypse is here, and TV on the Radio are your tour guides. The release of Dear Science, couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. In the midst of environmental decay, the collapse of an eroding financial system, and a presidential election that will change the world forever, TV on the Radio choose their fights carefully. In a time where uncertainty awaits us at every turn, music can be our solace. To put it bluntly, these factors put Dear Science, up there with Of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping for album of the year.

The album is all about its lyrics, and they have never been better. The themes have not changed much, but the words are harsh and thrashing. Guitarist Kip Malone’s presence is more pronounced, as he’s credited with the lyrics on five of eleven tracks. Malone leaves no stone unturned with his accusations, “Fuck your war | Cause I’m fat and in love and no bombs are falling on me for sure | But I’m scared to death that I’m living a life not worth dying for.” His tone is unapproving and thwarting, yet his voice remains soulful and euphonic.

Tunde Adebimpe, Malone’s lyrical counterpart and liaison, is equally up to task. His vocal styles are fresh and add depth to each track. On the album’s third track, Dancing Choose, Adebimpe rap/sings/talks for extended verses, rhyming off-beat melodies and never losing breath. His style doesn’t overshadow the content of his words. His lyrics require more analysis of meaning than do Malone’s, but it doesn’t take long to figure out his gripes and warnings: “And the half-hearted hologram, posed for the party | now he gloss full bleed on a deaf dumb tree | cod liver dollar signs, credit card autograph down for the record but not for freedom.”

Dave Sitek’s production is somewhat minimalist here compared to Return. The electronic blips and beeps and are still here, but the songs are more straightforward. There is less noise (see “Staring at the Sun” from the album Desparate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes) than on previous releases. You can almost say this is TV on the Radio’s attempt at going mainstream. Before the mudslinging and accusations of “selling out” are aimed at TVOTR, recognize the beauty in these compositions. The band incorporates more instruments than ever, and the tracks are more complex and layered. For example, on the album’s first single, Golden Age, one can hear a sax, trumpet, trombone, cello, conga, viola, and two violins. The result is musical euphoria wrapped in a political conscience.

Early on, there was a perception that TV on the Radio was not a great live band. I’m not sure where that came from, but it has since been dismissed twofold. The greatest concert I’ve ever attended was a TVOTR gig in Philadelphia two years ago. The band is currently on tour again, and a Fishpork review of their last Philly show is coming shortly. The band has already made videos for two of the album’s tracks (Golden Age and Dancing Choose), and both can be seen here:

The entire album is being streamed on the band’s MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/tvotr

Mike Patton and Serj Tankian Collaborate on Film

Avant garde superhero, Mike Patton, and System of a Down frontman, Serj Tankian, have collaborated on a track for the soundtrack to the upcoming major motion picture, Body of Lies. The film stars box office giants Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe and is directed by 70-year old Ridley Scott. Marc Streitenfeld (world famous film composer) was also involved in the writing process for the song, which will appear throughout the film, as well as the end credits. Body of Lies hits theaters tomorrow and is practically a shoe-in to reach blockbuster status.  The track is called Bird’s Eye and can be heard on Serj Tankian’s MySpace page. The trailer can be seen here:

Christmas on Mars Gets Theater Run

The long-awaited film and psychedelic freak out, Christmas on Mars, by the always weird and unpredictable Flaming Lips is being released to select theaters (maybe in your area). The band started making the film back in 2001 and has teased fans with a number of trailers since then. The first trailer appeared on the band’s 2003 Fight Test EP. The newest trailer was officially released by Warner Brothers Records and can be seen here:

After years of anticipated release dates, Christmas on Mars has finally seen the light of day. Although filming completed in 2005, the film was first showcased on a live festival tour where the band members played live music with the movie acting as a visual backdrop. Although Christmas on Mars was originally intended to follow the band’s The Soft Bulletin album, the DVD is set to release on November 11. Lead singer, Wayne Coyne shared the film’s synopsis with MTV:

“Against a background of descending madness, Major Syrtis is trying to use the pageant to provide hope amongst the colonists, and the film tells the story of his struggle. You see his humiliation and his self-doubt because there are all these haphazard things that keep getting in the way of his determination to celebrate this first Christmas on Mars. A lot of the people are committing suicide, and one of them is this sort of Santa Claus that’s supposed to preside over this big celebration. He dies right at the beginning and this presents Steven’s character with several problems. A Martian lands, but the Martian isn’t really perceived as a Martian. People just sort of think he’s another crazy guy who’s flipped and turned himself green. They can’t find a quick replacement for Santa so they just use this Martian guy. So the Martian guy becomes the Martian and Santa Claus at the same time.”

An interview with Wayne about his inspiration for the film can be viewed here:

Several notables appear in the film, along with the band members, including Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse, Steve Burns of Blue’s Clues fame, Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live, Adam Goldberg, and Frodo himself, Elijah Wood. A behind-the-scenes clip was posted by the film’s 1st assistant cameraman, Peter Hermes:

According the band’s MySpace page, there are showings of the movie in the following cities:

Playing now until the end of the year if not the end of time:
New York, New York: The KGB Complex’s Kraine Theater
From October till the end of the year:
San Antonio, Texas: Alamo Drafthouse, starts October 19

Limited Engagements:
Des Moines, Iowa: Nova 10 Cinemas, October 1
Columbia, South Carolina: The Nickelodeon, October 3-5
Moline, Illinois: Nova 6 Cinemas, October 5
Atlanta, Georgia: Plaza Theatre, October 8
Peoria, Illinois: Reynold’s Cinemas at Landmark, October 10
Naperville, Illinois: Nova 8 Cinemas, October 11
Nashville, Tennessee: The Belcourt, October 17
Dallas, Texas: Landmark Inwood Theater, October 17-18
Whitewater, Wisconsin: Theatres of Whitewater, October 17
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: Geneva 4, October 18
West Bend, Wisconsin: Paradise Theatre, October 19
Madison, Wisconsin: The Orpheum, October 21-24
Waterville, Maine: Railroad Square Cinema, October 23
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Brattle, October 31-November 9
Omaha, Nebraska: Film Streams / Ruth Sokolof Theater, October 31
Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Cinematheque, November 8-9
Columbus, Ohio: Landmark Gateway Theater, November 14-15
Denver, Colorado: Landmark Esquire Theatre, November 14-15
Hartford, Connecticut: Real Art Ways, November 21-23
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Landmark Uptown Theatre, November 22

To be announced soon:
Seattle, Washington
Austin, Texas
Los Angeles, California

The Flaming Lips are currently working on the follow-up album to At War With the Mystics. The new album  is currently scheduled for a June 2009 release. Coyne describes the new material as groundbreaking:

“Some of it sounds like John Lennon but if he got together with Miles Davis and they went back in time, but there was a supercomputer that they could figure out how to work!”

http://www.flaminglips.com
http://www.myspace.com/flaminglips

Dear Science, Leaks

The anticipated follow-up to TV on the Radio’s 2006 masterwork Return to Cookie Mountain has leaked to torrent and file sharing sites everywhere. TV on the Radio has complete creative control over their music, which is extremely rare for a band with a major label record contract. It will be intresting to find out how the band feels about the leak. Obviously, we know what Interscope thinks. The leak comes a full two weeks before its scheduled September 23 release. TV on the Radio has announed a Fall tour, which is listed on their web site and MySpace page. If their last album and tour is any indication of what to expect in the new material, fans should look forward to another genre-bending offering from one of the best bands around. A full album review will be posted on Fishpork in the coming weeks.

New Of Montreal LP Leaks

Skeletal Lamping, one of the most anticipated indie records set to release this Fall, has leaked to torrent sites all over the Internet. Of Montreal falls under the extended family of Jeff Mangum’s Elephant 6 music collective from Georgia. Led by pretentious indie pop maestro Kevin Barnes and his inner demons, Of Montreal reached unanimous critical acclaim with their last effort, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? That album contained some of the catchiest indie pop hooks ever recorded. More interesting were its lyrics. Barnes had just separated from his wife and was overcome by antidepressant medication and suicidal thoughts. The concept album was the first citing of his glam rock alter ego, Georgie Fruit. This guy’s the most pretentious artist working today, but he does put out great records. He described the new album on his MySpace page recently:

it is possible to view this album as one long composition, with lots of different movements, or just as a collection of pop songs. i wanted to make an album that was unpredictable and, at times,startling, yet always hummable and catchy. some of the transitions are intentionally awkward. i did this to keep the listener off guard and to dismantle people’s perception of how an album is supposed to be constructed. i am so bored with art that makes sense and “works”. i wanted to do somethings that didn’t “work”. very few things pique our interest while they are working as we expect them to, things are far more interesting when they are not working. shocking people though, just for the sake of it, is so mundane. nothing on Skeletal Lamping was intended to shock. i just feel that,in most contemporary songs, you can basically finish the artist’s sentences,musically and lyrically. i wanted to make an album where that was not possible.

Due in October, Skeletal Lamping has leaked almost two months early. You can find it on almost any torrent or file sharing site you look. Full review coming in the next few weeks.

http://myspace.com/ofmontreal

Failure Gets “Undone”

Pop Up Records is releasing a Failure tribute album, which sees the light of day on September 9, 2008.  The only source of information is a random MySpace page that popped up recently providing all the details (don’t worry — it’s also listed on the record company’s official release schedule). The album will be titled The Nurse Who Loved Me and will feature covers of well-known and obscure tracks from Failure by bands who cite an influence. Notable contributors include Paramore (“Stuck on You”) and ORION (“Another Space Song”).

An additional note: the drummer from ORION did the artwork for the album, as well as t-shirts that will be available upon release.

Here’s the full tracklisting (minus Paramore):

ORION “Another Space Song”
Stemage “Undone”
Evangelos “Saturday Savior”
B.L. Barakus “Pro-Catastrophe”
Tablets Of Orion “Petting The Carpet”
30 Fathom Grave “Wet Gravity”
Solare “Daylight”
The Revolution Smile “Wake Up”
Ambulance Shotgun “The Nurse Who Loved Me”
Planet ID “Muffled Snaps”
Exeter “Smoking Umbrellas”
Catch The Sun “Blank”
Offender “Heliotropic”
Sex Club Reject “Solaris”
Beta Lyrae “Pillowhead”
Cave In “Magnified”

http://www.myspace.com/failuretribute

Unanswered: Local Hardcore Legends

Matt and Brian, ex-Unanswered brain trust, took a moment with Fishpork to reminisce about a local hardcore scene from the 90s that they tore in half.

You guys are local legends when it comes to the hardcore scene in South Jersey in the 90s. What was that time like for you?

The early 90’s to me seem very different than how hardcore music is perceived today. Especially in small towns like Lacey. At that time there was a transition going on between traditional hardcore bands of the 80’s like Gorilla Biscuits, and Murphy’s Law, to the heavier screamo bands like Rorschach, Converge, and pretty much anything out of New Brunswick or Syracuse. There were (and pretty much still are) two types of scenes going on. There was the New York club scene, and then there were the rest of us that put on and played basement and VFW hall shows. Unanswered pretty much fell into the second category. We played wherever we could, whenever we could. It was an exciting time, although we didn’t really realize it until much later. We thought nothing of loading up our 20 year old van that barely ran, and driving to places like North Carolina, or Massachusetts, to play a show in some hall or basement

Matt, how did you get started in music? When did you meet Brian?

I’ve been playing some sort of instrument since I was little whether it was drums in school band or whatever else. I started playing bass in early 1993. I had known Brian, and the other members of the band for a few years skateboarding around town which at that time also wasn’t the most popular thing to do in town. That kind of bonded us all together. Out of our circle no one knew what the hell we were talking about with music or skateboarding and that includes girls!

How was the band formed?

Brian, Seth, Chuck, and I started trying to jam in Fall 1993 in Brian’s garage in Lanoka Harbor with our friend Sean on vocals. Sean is pretty much credited with starting what would become Unanswered although he left after a year. The band went through many incarnations and finally settled on the name Unanswered in the summer of 1994 with Brian-vocals, Chuck-guitar, Seth-drums, and me on bass

Where does the name Unanswered come from?

There were a few theories we tried to justify for this, but our favorite was that while trying to get shows, a lot of our calls went “unanswered”

What inspired your lyrics on these songs?

Most of the lyrics dealt with insecurity, frustration, failed relationships, working shit jobs, and just observing everyday jerk off’s in the world that would somehow inspire us. Our favorites at the time were the born-again Christians that we would encounter around town or on the boardwalk who would hand us the little born-again comic book pamphlets. We used these to make t-shirts, stickers, everything!

How did Brian manage to get that scream out?

I’m jealous. Well, to be honest I have no idea how that came out of such a quiet guy. He inspired me later to do the same thing so I guess I can thank him for that.

What advice would you give to these young kids trying to develop vocally?

All I can say is if you have the fire in you than let it out. There are far worse ways you could channel your energy into than starting a loud screaming band. It kept us from going insane. Don’t worry if you can’t play that well at first. Its not about that. Practice will get you there eventually. Its about releasing your inner self to the world and saying “hey I have something to say, and I don’t care if you want to hear it or not”!

You guys were also involved in the skating scene. What’s the relationship between skating and hardcore music?

This has gone on since the 70’s or probably even before. The same artistic entity that inspires music and art, seems to inspire surfers and skaters as well. The need or inspiration to express oneself seems to be shared by the two mediums on some level. Punk and hardcore was always in the skate videos and magazines that we saw watched and read. For me personally, I loved skating to punk and hardcore music, as It got my adrenaline pumping.

What hardcore acts inspired you to make music?

We liked a lot of stuff: new and old. Between us there was Black Flag, Drop Dead, Burn, Born Against, Black Sabbath, Rorschach, Human Remains, Today is the Day, Ressurection, Lifetime, and Converge. There’s probably more I’m not thinking of. I’d say in the beginning though Rorschach was our biggest influence. We used to watch the Decline of Western Civilization all the time too so we could rock like the Germs or Black Flag!

How much music did you guys record back in the day?

We were in the studio I think 4 or 5 times. We recorded a cassette demo at first, and then two 7” records, two split 7” records and a comp between 1994 and 1998.

Did you record with any notable bands?

One of our splits was with a band called Charles Bronson who were and, from what I hear, are still very popular today.

What was touring like?

Our little mini tours were usually a mess, but we had some fun times on the road up and down the East Coast. We met and played with some good bands and people like 97A, Hogans Heroes, Entropy, Human Remains, Times Up, Major Burns, Kurbjaw, Huasipungo, Mouthpiece, MonsterX, Devoid of Faith, You and I, and a lot of others that I’m probably forgetting

I heard you guys were straight edge. Is that true? Were there really no drugs or alcohol involved while recording or playing live?

Well, here’s the deal. Three out of four members of the band were straight-edge at that time. Later when we were down to 3 members, we all were until the end of the band. We weren’t really a “straight-edge” band. We didn’t really have the look and the feel of other straight edge bands of the time. If you ask me now, I don’t really know why we were. It was probably because most of the bands and skaters we looked up to were at that time. I can say it was a positive thing though as it did keep us out of a lot of trouble for a long time (for the most part anyway). I personally think “straight edge” itself is a good thing, but just like everything else, too many idiots in the scene caused us to not even want to be associated with the term or later on even the scene for that matter.

I noticed that you guys finally got a MySpace page up. Does this mean there’s a reunion planned?

Well, I dunno. Three of the four original members (Brian, Chuck, and myself) are back living in Lacey. The fourth member (Seth) is living somewhere in North Jersey and we kind of lost contact with him. I put the MySpace page up as a way to remind the other guys and friends of ours from that time period how much fun we had then.

www.myspace.com/unansweredhopedelusion