Hospitality: Hospitality - Album Review

Hospitality
Hospitality
Rating: Grrrr

As I push further into my 40s, I begin to look back at certain times of my life with fondness, sadness, and sometimes outright embarrassment. My 20s, just out of college, and far wetter behind my ears than I would like to admit, were awkward, exploratory, and full of so many mistakes I have lost count. Would I go back and change any of it? I think we all would like to alter certain things, but honestly, based on who I am today and where I am, I am ok with how things turned out. I certainly wouldn't want to go back and be 20 again, shudder. I am much more centered and at peace with myself now, that to go back would be almost too painful. Which makes me feel very paternal towards the debut album from Brooklyn three piece band Hospitality, which chronicles the day in day out goings on of twenty-somethings in New York, and all their yearnings, fumblings, and musings. You want to wrap these characters up in a blanket, serve them hot cocoa and tell them it will all be ok. The band itself, fronted by singer/guitarist Amber Papini, borrows liberally from a wide range of different bands, Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, and The Clientele for example, but what they lack for in originality they make up for it with superb song craft. Tight arrangements and interesting background flourishes mesh well with Papini's fragile voice and her insightful, wry lyrics.

"Friends of Friends" the girl wants to stay in alone and warm from the cold streets of New York, whose crowds and bustle only remind her that the guy she's seeing has a girlfriend coming back in town. The jaunty horns and sprightly beat hide the pain that is just beneath the surface.



"Liberal Arts" could be culled directly from the Stuart Murdoch songbook. The character ruminating about all "the trouble of a B.A. in English literature /instead of law or something more practical" and feeling aimless and adrift without benefit of a "trust fund, daddy, or doctor."



There is a wistfulness to the songs here, the characters thinking they know what they want, but changing their minds minute to minute, always in a hurry to get their life started. The dream pop of "Sleepover" perfectly suits the stars in her eyes narrator, who moves from lover, to pretend marriage, to imploring the mate to "Lock the door before you leave."



"Argonauts," one of the loveliest tracks on the record, feels like a quest to get out of a bad situation, "lock the key and throw the door away/something told me that I should leave right away/don't forget the bad, don't forget the bad."



"Eight Avenue" struts and bobs its head to a peppy beat and interlocking guitars, the song has the characters, older, but seldom wiser, looking back as I have on their 20s, but with a sweetness and fondness for their naivety.



None of these descriptions is meant to imply that the album is dour or far too serious. There are plenty of pure pop tracks. From the too brief guitar stomper "The Right Profession," the horn propelled "All Day Today," and the jangly ode to a former co-worker "Betty Wang" with the gloriously goofy way she sings "if you leave New York/I don't care/ I don't care."



But while the majority of songs on Hospitality keep a limited world and personal point of view, there are hints that the band should not be too easily pigeonholed. Papini shows a deep sense of mood and imagery in her lyrics. In "Julie," the haunting accordion, ukulele, and strummed guitars, builds slowly under Papini's whispered vocals, adding a ghostly wash of ambient synths, subtly underscores the impressionistic tale.



Hospitality is an auspicious debut for this band, showing that they already have the chops and hooks to make more than an indelible impression on listeners. There is plenty of room for their sound and vision to grow, along with what should soon be a sizable fan base.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Videos of the Week

Short work week, but felt long. Glad it is almost done. Here are the videos of the week that slapped me like a bitch:



First single from the upcoming album Skying from The Horrors. I am loving this song, and it's Simple Minds-like keyboards. I love this band, because you never really know what they are going to do next.



I am not a huge fan of the big technicolor sound that The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart adopted for their second album, but there are some really good tracks on it, "The Body" being one of them. And this video is just perfect, really making you miss childhood.


Get Real, Get Right from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Pretty incredible stop-motion animated video from Sufjan Stevens. Really love this song.



Cell-phone shot video from one of the standouts from Kurt Vile's new album Smoke Ring For My Halo.



Interesting video from LA dreamgazers Warpaint.


Handsome Furs - "What About Us" from stereogum on Vimeo.

NSFW video from Handsome Furs.

Coachella 2011 Day One

Coachella 2011 is now over and the post-Coachella depression is now kicking in. This was my second year in a row going and the experience was, if not necessarily better, different than last year, with a lot of highs and just a few lows. The better things about the festival this year were the bigger tents and the wider lanes between venues. It didn't feel like a Tokyo subway when you had to move quickly between stages. Also, the layout of the festival was much more conducive to quick travel. The lows, which honestly were few, were the difficulty with getting in to the festival. The security checkpoints were confusing and the staff didn't really seem to know what they were doing. The merchandise tent, which was really well stocked last year but crowded, was moved to the front entrance in a round kiosk that in theory seemed to be the way to work it; however, the quantity and quality of shirts was pretty low, and many bands didn't have shirts at all. Also, the crowds for the most part were nicer and well-behaved, but still, the amount of rude people who barrel through the crowds in the tent to get up front is annoying. These people don't care about the bands and really make things bad for the rest of it.

My bf Kurt, Mikey and Don waiting at the first checkpoint. It was warm all weekend, but only really hot one day.

My favorite time of the festival; right when it opens and the fields are sparsely crowded.

First band of the festival was New Pants from Beijing, China. They had a fun Devo/Cars kind of vibe to them, and for the most part their set was good, but they debuted a new song called "I'm Not Gay," which I assume was meant to be ironic since the singer said "I love the men, but I am not gay." But the song just seemed weird, so we left.

One of the other disappointments of the festival was the Sahara Tent this year. In 2010, there always seemed to be an amazing DJ or electronic act playing, but this year seemed to be a dearth of talent. We did check out 12th Planet for his dubstep set. Kurt is way more the dance music aficionado than I am, so I usually go with what he says to see.

Finally, my first real show of the festival. !!! was playing at the Outdoor Stage during the hottest part of the afternoon, and they turned up the intensity. The singer is in constant motion, and has some of the silliest, gayest dance moves I have ever seen. The groove was tight and driving and got the crowd worked up into a frenzy. I wish I had my camera out when the singer jumped into the crowd and came out to a point very close to us and got on a guy's shoulders. It was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, we had to skip out of !!! towards the end of their set to go catch Cold Cave at the Mojave Tent. We were able to get a nice spot right on the side rail. They put together a nice set of their cold, icy synth pop. Loved the synth player on the left. He was rocking some cool hair.

We were basically planted in the Mojave Tent for most of day one. Following Cold Cave was Brooklyn via Manchester, England 1982 band The Drums. I love their album a lot and was very excited to see them play. The band is really tight, but it took awhile to get used to the singer, who performs in a very mannered and effected way. Once I got over the fact he wasn't going to sing like he did on the album, I was able to enjoy the performance.

I wanted to race over and see part of Warpaint's set at the Outdoor Stage, but sometimes you just have to say no and stay put. It was hot, and there was a nice breeze in the Mojave, so I stuck with my friends for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. I loved their first album but was put off on the second by too much high polish production from Alan Moulder and Flood. Live, the songs seemed more organic and natural, and I must admit I enjoyed the set.

YACHT was a nice surprise of the festival. Coming off like Talking Heads circa Stop Making Sense, it was a quirky, high energy set that was exhilarating. The female singer was bonkers crazy and had the crowd in the palm of her hand.

The first minor disappointment of the festival was Interpol on the main stage. They were hyped beforehand regarding their collaboration with The Creator's Project, and it was supposed to be a "surveillance" theme, with individual cameras placed on the band and members of the audience. It was fairly lackluster. The only time the images became interesting was during the song "Lights" when a film made by David Lynch played. It was disturbing and Lynchian, so it was perfect to go with the song. The rest of the set was filled with the classics you would expect. But for some reason, as with most of the acts on such a huge stage, there was a disconnect between the performers and audience. It was a safe, good set, but nothing spectacular.

For me, the biggest disappointment of the festival was Cut Copy. Nothing to do with the band or performance, the tent was just overcrowded and full of pushy, rude douchetards, and I wasn't able to get close enough, so the sound was muddied and I couldn't see anything. They really have gotten big enough to where they should have been on the Outdoor or Main stage. I only lasted about 3 songs and had to get out of there before I ran amok. I was so mad, because they became my de facto must see band after Klaxons had to cancel.

Suffering the Cut Copy crowd no longer, I joined Kurt over in the Sahara Tent for Magnetic Man (Benga, Skream, and Artwork). I generally hate the crowd at Sahara. Usually a younger group of kids, all of whom are whacked out on some sort of illegal substance. I adore the Magnetic Man album though, and was willing to suffer the crackheads for some good music. Unfortunately, MM put on a fairly lackluster show. The visuals were really great and kept my attention, but the pacing of their set was schizophrenic and I never got a connection with them.

Final act of the night was Robyn. Again, the Mojave Tent was jam packed and we couldn't get a good spot to see her, as evidenced by the horrible pics I attempted to take. With Robyn, however, I would sit on hot coals to see her perform. She has boundless energy and would give the performance of her life even if there were only 10 people in the audience. And she did not disappoint. Running through her hits and deep tracks from her albums Robyn and Body Talk, she kept the pace up and the audience dancing and singing along. It was a brilliant way to close out my Friday.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart: "Heart In Your Heartbreak"

Yes, I know I gave The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's new album Belong a less than stellar review, however, I will say (and did in the review) that there are a couple of very strong songs on the record, "Heart In Your Heartbreak" being one of them. Here is their supremely silly video for the song (which you can also watch over at P4K).

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart: Belong

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Belong
Rating: Meh

The self-titled debut by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart was one of my top albums of 2009. It was the perfect mix of late 80s early 90s alternative guitar bands like MBV, Lush, Ride, coupled with snarky Smithsian/Belle and Sebastian-esque lyrics, full of wry observations and black humor. Their sound was admittedly raw and unpolished, but this only added to their charm. When I heard news that the band enlisted the help of uber-producers Flood and Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, PJ Harvey) to work on the follow up, I was worried that it would alter their sound too much, however, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and let the finished product speak for itself. So, here we have Belong.

It starts out promising with lead single and title track "Belong," which still has the same, twisted lyrical sense of humor, but the music is notably thicker, denser and more polished. It wasn't as striking a contrast as I initially imagined, but it was certainly different.



The song has more crunch, and the individual sounds are all crystal clear and mixed perfectly. And it is clearly evident that a lot of money and time was spent getting this sound down. In fact, probably too much time was spent on the production, as each song ends up bleeding into one another. Their debut was so rough around the edges and ramshackle, and gave the band a distinct sound. Each song separate from each other but coalescing into a marvelous whole. On Belong, what made the band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart so special is practically erased. Instead, we get a group of 10 extremely buffed and glossy alt-rock tunes, that have almost no character of their own. Furthermore, the vocals are so buried in the mix, you can barely understand any of the lyrics, which is one of the key reasons to enjoy the band.

Individually, there are several good to ok songs lurking within the album. I enjoyed the crunchy title track, and "Heart In Your Heartbreak," is propelled by a tight rhythm section, and a killer chorus:



"My Terrible Friend," is a terrific rush of whooshing Disintegration-era Cure synths, and bright acoustic guitars:



The remaining tracks all begin to blur into one another, lacking texture and differentiation. Moulder and Flood have buffed and shined the band out of any distinct personality. The songs start to follow a formula, directly opposite from their debut. Each song contains ethereal keyboards, sparkling guitars, and hushed vocals. The generic 80s-like synths and guitars of "The Body" sound like an outtake from Jesus and Mary Chain's Automatic:



It all begins to sound like something you would hear late into the second hour of 120 Minutes back in the day on MTV. "Even In Dreams," just meanders on a bland beat and crunched up guitars:



"Too Tough," sounds like it could fit squarely on any Lemonheads album:



Even when the band attempts to punch things up, the results are only slightly more successful. "Heaven's Gonna Happen Now," has a bouncy step and gorgeous guitars, but by the time of the chorus, and the expected crunch of guitars, it becomes predictable and bland:



"Girls of 1000 Dreams" falls into the same trap, luring you in with fuzzed out guitars and messier production, but it is just a little too late in the album to rescue what has become a slog; but it does somewhat hint at what the album should have sounded like:



As a general rule, I have no issue with a band wanting to change or improve their sound, however, it's difficult when the band messes up what drew interest to them in the first place. By relying on Flood and Alan Moulder to beef up their sound, they unfortunately went too far, becoming so generic that the songs lose any character. I listen to Belong and I "like" every song; they have good melodies and the sound is impeccable. The problem is the songs are not very memorable. Once the album is done playing I can hardly remember which songs are which. Belong is a slight misstep for this band. I hope on their next release they remember what makes them special to begin with and use that as a base in which to climb higher.

Rating Guide

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top albums of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Non-Sequiturs

Lately I have become obsessed with Colin Stetson's album New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges. It's a really complex album of experimental jazz, but hits all the right notes for me. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he is completely sexy.

And who is Michael Fassbinder? Apparently he is some up and coming British actor. But all I have to say is, damn!

I am not trying to be sexist, but I think women would do a lot better if they got rid of those damn, big ass purses. They are a mess, takes you hours to find something in them, and you hit everything and everyone with them as you go by.

Kurt and I just finished watching all of the Alien movies. I bought the 4 DVD Blu-Ray collection the other day. Unfortunately, the quality of the movies went down after the second one, but there are still things to recommend in each of the subsequent films. Kurt even got me watching the Alien v. Predator movie, which was surprisingly good.

I keep forgetting that my cat Ms. C ("Missy") is as old as she is. She is getting crankier and sleeps a lot more than she did before. But every once in awhile she'll show bursts of energy that are shockingly funny. I adopted her from a friend back in 2004 and she was guesstimated to be about 4 at the time. Because I have no idea what her actual age or birthdate is, I have given her May 25 as her birthday, as that was the day I adopted her.

Kurt's dog Tater is so cute. She's still basically a puppy, and has so much energy. She can spend hours running around the backyard digging holes, chasing squirrels and chipmunks, chewing sticks, and terrorizing her brother Nico. Of course, when she does crash out, she crashes out hard. The above pic is her right before she sacked out for a nap.

Lyrics Rattling Around My Head

"We got the righteous advice to use it
Got everything if you can just choose it
I won't just be a puppet on a string

Don't go that way
I'll wait for you"

The Strokes
"Under Cover Of Darkness"

"She was the heart in your heartbreak
She was the miss in your mistake
And no matter what you take,
you're never going to forget
She was the tear in a rainstorm
She was the promise that you would've sworn
And no matter what you say,
it's never gonna come back"

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
"Heart In Your Heartbreak"

"This trail that you're treading
Is one flicked switch awaiting many
The coils the echoes rattling
I hope the fears are buried beneath my love

My love
Love is the everchanging spectrum of a lie,
A lie to hide behind when nothings right
You take form with ink and blood
Can't you see I'm good

Nothing outside will care enough
Nothing outside of you"

The Joy Formidable
"The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie"

"Smoke ring for my halo
Human angel demon
Under as the maiden
Right under the moon over your house
Thought you could see it then

Sippin' from the sewer can
It's the size of my hand
Pacifies the land
Makes the most out of your jizzatown man
I feel like laying down
Yeah and I wanna do it again
Over the miss I kiss again"

Kurt Vile
"Smoke Ring For My Halo"

"We were epitomes of flesh and blood
We were luminescent
Half-aware and self-involved
We've lost our essence

Can't you see
We fell rain black from the stars above
When will we
Take an axe to the frozen seasons"

Young Galaxy
"The Angels Are Surely Weeping"

Appealing Things

Less than a month until Coachella
Biscoff spread
Vondelpark
Spring weather coming
Possibility of Sunday alcohol sales in GA

Annoying Things

Having to sit through an all-day CLE on E-Discovery
People with no manners, who never say thank you and expect you to be at their service
People who can't be quiet, ever; silence is golden sometimes, douche
Dealing with the accounting department at my firm

Videos of the Week

Once again the weekend is mercifully upon us and we are supposed to have incredibly unseasonable warm temps for at least another week. So, to get things started out right, here is the roundup of the videos this week that made my spring sprung:



The shock surprise of the week was the announcement that Radiohead was releasing their new album this week via download. Another surprise was them moving up the download date from tomorrow to today. Of course, I left home before finding out and won't get to download until later. To whet my appetite, they've released the first single and video for "Lotus Flower." Sounds very minimal and beat heavy. I like it so far. Not so sure about Thom Yorke's dancing though.



My friend and Coachella buddy Dan introduced me to this band, and their album Eyelid Movies keeps getting better with each listen. This is the second single/video from the album, and I hate to say I never noticed how hot Josh Carter is. I might have to get on the rail at their show at Coachella.



If you have ever been around enough hipsters, you will understand how true this video almost is.



Tremendously silly first video from Cut Copy's new album.



Bouncing and buoyant song from Daedelus; with a really cute, sweet animated video.



I think Adele has one of the best voices in music today; unfortunately, I think she needs to stretch the boundaries of the songs and music she sings. This remix from Jamie Smith of The xx shows how, in the hands of the right musicians/producers, she could really stand out.



This is another remix from Jamie Smith, taking a stark and almost impenetrable track from Gil Scott-Heron and making something wonderful out of it.



Kele, the lead singer of Bloc Party, released a solo album this year of really cool electronica. The album is a definite grower. This is one of my favorite songs.



Really well done commercial that takes a long time getting to what it is about, but makes you immediately want to watch it again to see how you could have missed it.



PJ Harvey commissioned Seamus Murphy to direct videos for a majority of tracks for her brilliant new album Let England Shake. This is one for the title track.



Arcade Fire won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Here is the amazing video directed by Spike Jonze for the title track.



Flood and Alan Moulder produced the new album from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and you can definitely tell they have given their sound some extra muscle.



Duran Duran is playing Coachella this year in support of their phenomenal new album. This is probably my favorite song by them. If they do not play it I am going slap a bitch.



I was lucky enough to see Baths at this show. He has some boundless energy.



This Kraut-rock inspired track is one of my favorites off Mogwai's latest album, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will.