Page 27 - the NOISE February 2013

El ten Eleven; Foxygen; Spider Bags; Beach Fossils
REViEW’D
Guest writer: Bobby Carlson Frank Chipotel took a NYE vaca-
tion to Mexico. No one has heard from him since. All reviews by our fine
reverse carpetbagging editor, BC Jr.
El Ten Eleven
Transitions
Fake Record Label
jjj
Some folks have the audacity to call it post-rock, after a Tortoise or Bardo Pond song [that’s not true at all –MFTM ed.] and some might just call it prog rock, but the thing that El Ten Eleven do so well is, well, rock. I’m not sure what the post is, or what it’s supposed to be, but to give you an idea of the general aesthetic, the first track on Tran- sitions is over ten minutes and it’s essentially a drum solo with lots of sampled guitar noo- dling for the sake of it and some heavy riffs thrown in. There are no vocals. Forgotten bands like Rumah Sakit and the last two Don Caballero records helped define the sound that Explosions in the Sky would later take to the Friday Night Lights bank.
It seems like for a while there, El Ten Elev- en were gracing the Flagstaff music scene with their guitar and drum shredding at least once a year, but I’ve generally been bored of guitar noodles since the early 21st Century, so I never paid them much mind. That’s some bonehead behavior on my part. It’s never been impressive to me that it’s two people making this improbable sound. However, I do realize that it is. Not on record, of course, where one can literally do anything. So El Ten Eleven’s bread and butter is very much their live show. Not that this fine album isn’t a good document of that, but I’ll still take Minibosses’ 8-bit four-piece Nintendo prog any day of the week.
Foxygen
to it, what’s that got to do with anything? “On Blue Mountain” apes both “Under My Thumb” and something else I can’t quite put
my thumb on, like fully just lifts it, no shame. Oh, wait, it’s “Suspicious Minds.” Amazing! And it’s gorgeous. Actually, these guys steal wholesale like all the great artists. My favor- ite lyrics at time of deadline: “No need to be an asshole/You’re not in Brooklyn anymore.” These guys are the Beatles and MGMT are the Monkees? Oh, god bless Ray Davies. God bless “San Francisco.” Easily the best record I’ve heard in 2013. Possibly 2012 too. Are these two ridiculously young LA kids ge- niuses? Time will tell, I suppose. Tony B, if I haven’t told you about this already, get on it. Even the one minute forty seven second throw away instrumental, “Bowling Trophies” is worth at least a listen or two. “If you be- lieve in yourself, you can free your soul.” The break in the track I lifted that nice lyric from is called “Shuggie.” Shuggie Otis? I don’t know, don’t care too much, but the break in that song put the first two gray hairs in my beard. The one misstep could be the tell-tale titled, “Oh Yeah,” which attempts funk, like Paul McCartney attempting funk, and the Beatles are channeled heavily. It’s not awful, it just seems like perhaps it should’ve been a B-side down the line somewhere. If it is the weakest track, which it almost surely is, the title track puts the album right back online. If James Chance fronted the Rolling Stones? I don’t really get those “Keep Calm and [do some random thing]” logos that seem hot as hula hoops and Slinkies these days; where did those come from? But stay calm and Fox- ygen anyway. The album ends with “Oh No 2” which is like Sgt. Pepper and Brian Wilson, and maybe Prince, (and Daniel Johnston?) having the hottest sex ever. Did I hype this enough? Might’ve even ruined for you.
Spider Bags
Shake Your Head
Odessa
jjjj
The name of the game is Fun, kids. A few chords, some good lyrics, and reverb don’t hurt. God, well, this might be my favorite record of 2013, so far. Possibly 2012 too. “Si- mona la Ramona,” the second track is great, followed by “Friday Night” which has a Titus Andronicus sing along, drink along qual-
ity that is cheesy, but perfectly so. A clas- sic. “Shape I Was In” is totally (Van Morrison’s) Them slash Credence slash Television. Are you kidding me? I want to be in that band! Well, I know what to do with my life now. And these dorks are Velvet Underground fans. I can tell from a few of the more off- kilter instrumental passages and the great lyric, “I’m running on my rounds/I look just like Jesus sounds.” Not one bad song on this record. And I’ve been spinning it over and over. And if that’s not a sweet record cover...
Beach Fossils
Clash the Truth
Captured Tracks
jjj
I like your sound, boys. It has that instantly recognizable quality any band worth a salt craves. “Careless” is a nice little anthemic three minute hit. Synthesizer-guitar rock? Some of the kids are calling it new wave, or maybe that’s the old folks. The album is like one big song it’s so cohesive. “Shallow” has nice guitar sounds. It rocks hard. Some of the other ones on here are great too. (Did I just write the best/worst line in any review, ever?) All in all though, when it comes down to it, kind of boring and forgettable. I really hate to take it to that, sum it all up and break someone’s heart, if they happen upon a copy, when it’s audible how much passion and ef- fort went into this full length record from a band that really perked my ears the first time I heard them. But what else is there? My most honest thoughts amount to: the sound is very similar to Flagstaff’s darling Dragons, but without any pop sensibility, and by ‘pop sensibility’ I mean, man, that makes me want to shake my unshapely ass and groove like I’ve been drinking joy juice all day. That’s what NY’s Beach Fossils seriously lack. At least on this record.
| Keep Calm and Stay Warm and Send Me Stuff. Be like Mark Szopinski and write something. Start a band. Have fun. music@thenoise.us
We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic
Jagjaguwar
jjjj
This is big. I hate the band name and the name of the album, but when it comes down
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news
• FEBRUARY 2013 • 27
The Quest For Community Radio: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
by John Abrahamsen
Back on January 10th, we at Radio Free Flagstaff rolled up our sleeves and got ready to do an FM frequency search in the Flagstaff market for our community-access radio station, and discovered that there are 13 pending translator applications in the Flag- staff area from the last filing window in 2003. The fate of those applica- tions may change what’s available on the local FM dial, so we decided to push back our frequency search to March 15.
(Translators are broadcast relay stations that commercial FMs use to expand their broadcast range—they are in direct competition with low- power community-access FMs for secondary frequencies.)
Right now the Federal Commu- nications Commission is in the process of winnowing out multiple translator applications from the same groups. Some of these applications may be approved—our source at the FCC tells us they hope to have the dismissed applications out of the da- tabase within a month or two.
The good news for us is that many of these translator applications are likely to be dismissed in the near fu- ture. But we must be patient—if we do a frequency search before this process is over, we may have to pay for another search once the dust settles.
Radio Free Flagstaff will check the status of these local applications on a regular basis. Until we know for sure what is available on the FM spectrum, we’ll hold off on the search and focus our energies on fundraising—we’re planning a big show to promote the latest Flagstaff Music Festival CD, Sounds From 7000 Feet Volume 3, tentatively set for March 15 at the Green Room.
For the sake of cosmic connect- edness, we’re also making March 15 the target date for our frequency search—by then, we should have a clearer picture of the local radio landscape. We’ll keep you posted on all these developments right here in these pages, and at www.radio- freeflag.org .
b Ugh
bb Eh
bbb Solid
bbbb Gold bbbbb Total Classic