[AllHandsOnTheBigOne]

Originally Posted by Decayed Rhapsody

Deerhunter usually bores me to tits as well, but I find myself enjoying a few songs from the new one. They actually have some good hooks and the mix isn't too soupy.

Heh. Yeah, I agree. Still, not something I want to listen to on a regular basis.

[noisereductions]

love Deerhunter.

[atsonicpark]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

I'm excited. I love Deerhunter.

Originally Posted by noisereductions

love Deerhunter.

Heh. Well, anyway, I share the love for Deer Hunter -- the movie, at least. The movie is so fucking good! The band is usually quite boring. I downloaded the new album like I said I would, though, and listened. Like, um, I dunno. I just don't understand the appeal, I guess, every song sounds the same, doesn't it? Okay, glossy swirling guitar stuff, simple one note bass stuff, over and over, hooks that don't really do anything particularly interesting. None of it catches my ear in any meaningful way. Having said that, some of the production is interesting. Like the farty clangy guitar noises over the drums in Helicopter before the silly twee part, haha. Some of the guitar in Primitive 3D is pretty, and it goes into a weird ambient part, kinda like how a lot of my songs do -- I liked that! It's just not a very compelling record, the constant guitar and vocal effects and weird production is easy to appreciate, but the actual songwriting is horrid. I mean, Helicopter is barely even a song. I will say, DESIRE LINES is actually an okay little track, just way too long of course.. it actually kinda sounds like Sonic Youth at times (Diamond Sea ish). I like the drums -- which are awkward in a good way. The vocals, however, are awkward in a bad way, and dominate too much of the track. There's a nice guitar break at about 3:20 in where the guitarist just plays a scale over and over and over again, haha. That part's cool. All in all, it doesn't do much, just kinda boring indie rock, I guess the same could be said for the whole album, but if you're into that stuff it's not as offensively bad as Microcastle and such. Some songs, like "Coronado" are just bad, though. That saxophone is HORRID.

Honestly, this album sounds like music that'd be played in a party scene in Gilmore Girls or something.

[noisereductions]

they just always sound so awesome to me. Shrug.

[noisereductions]

BTW, you think Turn It Up, Cryptograms and Microcastle sound the same? They each seem like pretty different albums to me.

[atsonicpark]

Well, first of all, Turn It up Faggot is the only album I'd ever want to listen to by them again, so not really that one, but they disowned it, anyway, I guess it wasn't dull, glossy, and predictable enough...And yeah, I mean, all their albums are differnet sides of the same coin, even though they've clearly just gotten glossier since Crpytograms.. all their songs are kinda just that one-note bass robotic simple boring overglossy overproduced crap that doesn't do much, has some little guitar things swirling around (messing with equalizers and whatever), and all seem to exist in some weird vaccum where you can listen to the song 10 times and not really remember anything about the song when it was over, all the songs are so uneventful, usually just resting on some tired, samey arpeggios and all pretty much sound the same. Delay pedal, chorus pedal, one note bass, robotic drums, overloud vocals moaning softly and pleasantly but not ever bothering to create a memorable hook or melody. No interesting or memorable riffs whatsoever, also, that's a big one. It's almost like the worst of Radiohead meets Terror Twilight or something. It's hard to hate since nothing they do is OFFENSIVELY bad -- besides posting pictures of their shit on their blog a while back an the lead singer being a huge dick when I saw them live. I guess FLUORESCENT GREY is their best work, actually, not just because it's their shortest, but also because it perfectly encapsulates the things they do that work. Cryptograms is a pleasant enough record, I'd give it a 5/10 or something. I hate Microcastle. I think it's worthless. I think it's nearly unlistenable -- I can't sit through it ever again. It's like "oh, some nice guitar tones, oh... yeah, hmm... yeah... okay, this is boring as fuck." Their new one is pretty samey. Just not a very interesting band. Easy to ignore.

[noisereductions]

hmm. I don't know. We all hear stuff differently I guess.

[atsonicpark]

I guess, in general, I just find them too clean, too simple, too light, too shallow -- music with absolutely no depth (despite being called "art rock" at first -- hah). I mean, I've spent hours listening to this band and saw them live, and I can't tell you much about them. It's just so forgettable. It communicates nothing. As soon as the album is not playing, all I can really remember was "lots of delay and kinda this soupy murkiness." And, like, I really pay close attention to music, so that's weird to me. Their music is like one big drone to me -- not drone music, mind you, just some glossy drone. I just don't see the appeal, but since a lot of people don't HATE them, it's easy for them to be popular enough to sustain a career. It just seems like such a weird band to listen to -- like, I can put on a Hot Snakes record and it's creative as hell and ROCKS and it has songs I want to listen to a thousand times and learn on guitar and stuff, and it manages to rock while being interesting and not having guitar solos or anything. And with this band, I put it on and I just feel... it's so cold and dead-sounding, despite them piling on all these layers and layers of them fucking with some equalizer...

But, yeah, for those who haven't heard the new album, it is their glossiest and cleanest yet, so um... yeah. Enjoy.

[noisereductions]

I don't know. I can remember a lot of their songs. But I like it. So I guess it's different. I'll let you know what I think of the new one once I get it.

[Derek]

I have to agree with Adam. Deerhunter is total banality.

[noisereductions]

I guess I'm a fan of the banal.

[Trasher02]

The new Swans album is amazing, I only had to hear it once to realise it was my AOTY. (Closely followed by the Three Trapped Tigers EP)

[SYRFox]

I like Deerhunter. Especially Cryptograms - I love this record. Adam, don't you even like that song "Heatherwood" ? I find it hard to believe anyone would actually dislike this song. Simple but great melody, fitting vocals, super catchiness. Haven't heard this new album though and for some reason I'm not super excited about hearing it but I'll probably check it out.

[TheFoxBen]

I can't decide which one is my favorite Deerhunter record but I think they're all quite amazing (haven't heard Turn It Up Faggot though) but one sure thing is that I've been listening on repeat to Halcyon Digest and it's just SO good. I love how they change their sound with each album: Cryptograms was really hypnotic, Microcastle had this incredible shoegaze-like atmosphere and the new one has some kind of a 60's feel to it, that's something I REALLY dig.

[RdTv]

Oh well.....

Master Musicians Of Bukkake - Totem Two
yU - Before Taxes
Chicago Underground Duo - Boca Negra
Blacastan - Black Sabbath
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
Univers Zero - Climages
Cee Lo Green - Stray Bullets
Omar Kharshid - Guitar El Chark
Group Inerane - Guitars From Agadez Vol. III
Budos Band - III
Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
Aloe Blacc -Good Things
Ariel Pink - Before Today
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
Strong Arm Steady - In Search Of Stoney Jackson
The Whitefield Brothers - Earthology
Gil Scott Heron - I'm New Here
Sir Luscious Left Foot - The Son Of Chico Dusty
The Roots - How I Got Over
Yellow Swans - Going Places
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Oh No - Ethiopium
Michael Yonkers - Lovely Gold

Hell Razah - Heaven Razah


There are tons more I'm forgetting but, I'm tired of lurking this thread and seeing a slug of terrible rappers being mentioned. For those who like hip hop and havent heard the albums I listed, then check them out....

[atsonicpark]

Originally Posted by SYRFox

I like Deerhunter. Especially Cryptograms - I love this record. Adam, don't you even like that song "Heatherwood" ? I find it hard to believe anyone would actually dislike this song. Simple but great melody, fitting vocals, super catchiness. Haven't heard this new album though and for some reason I'm not super excited about hearing it but I'll probably check it out.

It's alright. They're okay to put on and kinda ignore, just pretty bland when you bother to pay attention to them. Their music just kinda exists, and not much more, I called it "vaccuum rock". It just kinda is there, doesn't really affect anything. I actually just thought that they were just some boring uninspired indie rock band until I saw them live and it was the worst show I've ever seen in my life. The band came off as huge rockstar wannabe assholes, as they played their simple one note shit that was annoying as hell. It just confuses me that there are literally hundreds of creative brilliant rock bands pumping out album after album of awesome melodic rifftastic stuff, and ... well ... yeah... I dunno. They just confuse me, I just don't understand the appeal beyond "oh, this is pleasant enough hmm hmm." But, as I said, therein lies their appeal: even if they don't inspire too much fanaticism, they also don't inspire too much hatred -- just enough people going, "Yeah, this is okay." Hence their popularity.

[atsonicpark]

...But it's nice to see someone else repping GUITARS FROM AGADEZ VOLUME 3 and MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE,.. Rdtv, I highly reccomend you should out that new Michael Yonkers disc, it's amazing!

[atsonicpark]

I might actually take that James Blackshaw album off my list. I listened to it 5 times and it's.. yeah. It's disappointing. The new BIG BLOOD, "DEAD SONGS", just feels like it's going through the motions, compared to their last few brilliant effforts. Not sure why people prefer this band over Fire on Fire? I guess because it's simpler?

My friend came down a few days ago and I made him a mix cd of some of my favorite songs from my favorite albums of the year and he just emailed me and said "DUDE, you inspired me to go to the record store and pick up that Ikonika cd. I'm addicted, I listened to it 5 times in one day!" Chalk up another victory for Ikonika. It's all about how the songs build... those insane rising beautiful synths from out of nowhere. Always creating new melodies. It's predictable now, since I've gushed so mcuh about it, but I won't hear a better cd this year, I'm sure. A masterpiece. Even my girlfriend -- who hates electronic music -- says Ikonika is awesome.

IKONIKA!

I wrote Ikonika a really pleasant email the other day, and she wrote me back, she is sweet as hell. Has anyone heard her new single DICKHEADBITCH? It rules of course.

[RdTv]

Originally Posted by atsonicpark

...But it's nice to see someone else repping GUITARS FROM AGADEZ VOLUME 3 and MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE,.. Rdtv, I highly reccomend you should out that new Michael Yonkers disc, it's amazing!

I'll check it out.....The Master Musicians album is by definetly one of my top contenders for album of the year, and Guitars from Agadez is just more quality from sublime frequencies.

[fugazifan]

Originally Posted by atsonicpark

...But it's nice to see someone else repping GUITARS FROM AGADEZ VOLUME 3 and MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE,.. Rdtv, I highly reccomend you should out that new Michael Yonkers disc, it's amazing!

i havent heard too many albums this year, but the MMOB is incredible, as usual. definitely one of my favorite bands. i am now listening to the new gorup inerane and its so far so good.
i am curious aobut the michael yonkers cd, will check it out.