My Week In Music: 16-20 September
Foxing drop one of my favourite albums of the year alongside new music from Dateline and Hinds, and I look back at a favourite BDO memory.
Monday:
Ben Harper - Burn To Shine (1999)
While I was aware of Ben Harper in the mid-late 1990s, thanks to extensive replays of his video for "Ground On Down" on the old Juice TV music channel, Burn To Shine was the first Ben Harper album I listened to in full after falling in love with "Please Bleed", the rockiest track on the album that doubles for the track least like everything else on the album, its clean verse/distorted chorus a rare moment of pandering to trends for Harper.
The thing is, while "Please Bleed" was the song that made me buy the record, opener "Alone" was the one that kept me coming back to it. As an aspiring bass player I fell in love with the work of Juan Nelson, and as an aspiring emo I loved the lyricism ('I promise, but I lie / I don't even know myself inside ', classic).
Listening back now, Nelson's bass playing is frequently the highlight of the album; it even saves mega-hit single "Steal My Kisses", a song completely out of step with Harper hits like "Excuse Me Mr" and "Burn One Down".
Ben Harper is still making and releasing music; his latest album came out last year. But like this album, Harper feels like a moment in time, the antithesis to the grunge and nu-metal of the 1990s and 2000s. He was the hero we needed. Maybe not the one we deserved.
Monday:
NEW: The Heavy Heavy - One Of A Kind (2024)
Self-described as a 'retro inspired rock band, making the music the sixties forgot' - though really its the project of Georgie Fuller and William Turner, presumably a pair of Jefferson Airplane super-fans.
Okay, that's a bit harsh: the 'retro' tag definitely suits though - its like if Oasis had a crack at the Forrest Gump soundtrack.
One Of A Kind is the groups debut album and its pretty good, for the most part. The pair obviously adore the music of the period they're aping, and the songs are high quality - well composed, well made, fun to listen to. "Because You're Mine" is an early highlight, evoking the Black Keys in its riffage.
Later, "Cherry" captures the imagination with its lush vocal harmonies - that vocal work shines again on closer "Salina", Fuller and Turner's voices intertwining throughout. Honestly, I got a bit tired of the schtick after a few listens, the retro effects applied to every track starting to grate on me a little. But I did enjoy this one. Good album.
Tuesday:
NEW: Foxing - Foxing (2024)
St Louis, Missouri, four piece (six piece on tour) Foxing are back this week with their brand new album; titled simply Foxing, the group famously announced the album with a mock press conference that lasted an hour and had the band sitting at a table in front of several rows of empty chairs, all labelled with music media outlet names, from the New York Times to The Needle Drop (and, hilariously, Animal Planet, who presumably thought it was about actual foxes).
The full conference was condensed into a nine minute version and released as the video for first single "Greyhound", a statement of intent for the band: this new album is experimental, but its also brutally heavy at times. Second single "Hell 99" and later album highlight "Looks Like Nothing" are as heavy and emotive as anything you'll hear this year.
Meanwhile, "Cleaning" is a gorgeous soundscape of a song, the vocal soaring over synths, and "Barking" tones things down with a wonderfully catchy vocal over an almost pop-rock musical arrangement.
Its no secret that post-rock is kind of my thing at the moment (well, one of my things) and this album absoltuely delivers: the group are throwing everything they can at their songs, mastering the dynamics between loud and soft, confronting and comforting, and after a half dozen listens, I reckon this is one of my favourite albums of the year.
Wednesday:
Dizzee Rascal - Tongue n'Cheek (2009)
My first ever Big Day Out was in 1997; I went along with my friend David - we dyed our hair, bought wallet chains and Vans, and generally thought we were hot shit. Soundgarden and the Offspring and the Prodigy headlined. My first moshpit was at that Big Day Out, for an Aussie band called You Am I. After a year off, the Big Day Out returned in 1999 (Hole! Marilyn Manson! Korn!) and I made a pilgrimage to Mt Smart Stadium every year from then until 2012, with the exception of 2005 and 2006. I went to 13 Big Day Outs in all.
So believe me when I tell you this: the biggest moshpit - as in the biggest area of people jumping up and down in time to the music - that I saw in all those years happened in 2010 when Dizzee Rascal was given a mainstage slot at 6.00pm.
In my memory, Dizzee finishes his set with "Bonkers", the outrageously fun opener from this album. I'm halfway up the West Stand eating some dinner and watching the crowd. The drop comes up - 'b-b-b-b-b-BONKERS' - and the entire field explodes, every spare patch of ground full of jumping, joyful punters. It was an insane thing to see in person.
And it's my favourite memory of the Big Day Out; in that moment, we were all Dizzee Rascal fans. And we were all bon- ... well, you get it.
Edit: Boiler Room’s Chris Schulz alerted me to the fact that there is video!
Wednesday:
NEW: Hinds - Viva Hinds (2024)
So what do you do after your entire rhythm section leaves the band? If you're Hinds - the Spanish indie rock band fronted by Carlotta Cosials and Ana Garcia Perrote - you recruit Beck and Fontaines DC's Grian Chatten, and you make the most kickarse record you can.
Viva Hinds is an absolute delight. Its upbeat and catchy and quirky and joyful, it bounces around the room, it has you tapping your feet without even meaning to. Beck and Chatten are cool, but the best songs here are just the sound of Cosials and Perrote having fun together and inviting you to have fun too.
"Coffee" is a highlight, the simple rhythm belying a clever lyric, as is "On My Own", a more emotive offering with a surf rock base. Both tracks - as well as stellar Spanish language tracks "Mala Vista" and "En Forma" - show up in the second half of the album, keeping this strong offering from the Madrid pair rocking until the very end.
I'm interested to see where they head next, once they get a new bass player and drummer bedded in.
Thursday:
NEW: Awolnation - The Phantom Five (2024)
If I make a statement like 'Awolnation is the thinking music fan's Imagine Dragons', do we think that is a bigger insult to Awolnation or Imagine Dragons?
Friday:
NEW: Dateline - It's All Downhill From Here (2024)
Dateline are a new discovery for me: the band is ostensibly the project of singer, songwriter and guitarist Katie Everingham, who fronts the group and steers the ship amid a revolving crew of talented musicians.
Honestly, its a pretty nice ship. Produced by The Beths' guitarist Jonathan Pearce, this sophomore album has a cool indie-rock vibe which, combined with the can-do-ness of Kiwi independent music evokes early Fur Patrol.
Opener "Please Knock Me Out" catches the attention immediately, Everingham's lyrical delivery; 'why do I feel like I'm gonna die,' she sings, panickedly adding 'Am I gonna die?'. "Broken Knees" and "Choose Me" are a pair of highlights, but I think my favourite track here is "Hands", its off-kilter 7-8 time signature (or 3-4/4-4 maybe, I can never tell) keeping you on your toes as it rocks out hard.
Like Mystery Witness a couple weeks ago, Dateline are another sign that there is some supreme talent around the motu, and our indie scene is in good shape. If you need me, I'll be listening to It's All Downhill From Here again and googling Dateline tour dates.
Friday:
NEW: Sabrina Carpenter - Short n Sweet (2024)
My first taste (see what I did there) of the new Sabrina Carpenter came a few weeks ago when, driving in to the library, my youngest daughter - aged 5 years old - asked me if I'd play the 'don't embarrass me [giggles]' song, giggling to herself for some reason. I said I didn't know what she meant.
She asked me if she could say a swear word and I said yes. She told me the words were 'don't embarrass me motherfucker' and started giggling again.
I still had no idea what it was.
For whatever reason, I've been (blissfully?) unaware of Sabrina Carpenter, the pint-size Pennsylvania singer who rose to fame on Disney's Girl Meets World and has six albums already. Short n Sweet is the latest of those six albums and debuted at #1 in the USA, while three of its singles ("Taste", "Espresso", "Please, Please, Please") were in the Top 5 of the singles chart. It debuted at #1 here too.
And its ... fine? I mean, its vapid pop music, devoid of the kind of creativity that marks the best of the genre. The fact that I was so out of the loop on Carpenter is a sign that this music isn't made for me. And that's fine with me.
(The full line from "Please, Please, Please" is 'Heartbreak is one thing, my ego's another / I beg you, don't embarrass me, motherfucker'.)
Thanks for reading this week, whanau!
Have a great weekend,
Chris