I had the damnedest time finding anything on the radio last night for my drive home from work. On Sundays I usually listen to the old Radio Theatre broadcasts on NPR, but all the stories were Christmas related last night and I just wasn't in the mood. Even the Westerns, which just seemed really odd. So I scanned through a bunch of stations, finally landing on DC101. Apparently they do a new music show on Sunday nights.
They were playing an electronic-oriented rock song. With the heavy beat, programming, distorted guitars and the angry girl vocals, I was positive it was something new from Curve. After a couple more songs, the dj finally announced it as the new single from Prodigy. Tired of all the roster changes, I guess Liam opted this time to use a bunch of different vocalists for the new album. Looking on Amazon they have Juliette Lewis listed as a guest vocalist, so I'm guessing it was her on the song I heard. A fun track, I just find it funny that a project like Prodigy that critics always push as brilliant for their ability to reinvent themselves has put something out that sounds like its from 1991.
Yesterday I also found and bought a used copy of the Liars album They Were Wrong So We Drowned. The reviews I've seen have been really mixed, but the write-ups intriqued me. The critics seemed to have a hard time defining the album, and I was curious. Lyrically it seems to be exploring the history of witchcraft, although I'll need to listen a little more carefully to be sure. Musically it reminds me a little of old Killing Joke original lo-fi sound; it's strangely grating, driving and melodic all at the same time. So far I really like it; I'll have to see how well it holds up over the next few days.
Excelsior
3 comments:
That Liars album is the one I raved about a while back (like when you first started your blog, as I recall). God I love that album, and in fact pretty much forced a friend to burn it over the weekend. I'm curious what you (and he) have to say about it. Maybe everybody'll just say I'm on crack. There are a few weak songs (the last song downright annoys me), but overall, I love it. And yeah, it is totally about witches (or rather, in some cases, witch hysteria, like Salem). I've also got an album by both Liars and Oneida called "Atheists Reconsider," which is also good, but not as appealing to me as "They Were Wrong."
BTW, I did get my hands on an Interpol album and I love it. I'm not positive which one it is, b/c my roommate and I were playing with iTunes on her new computer, since I'm running too old of an OS to use iTunes, so she's the one who downloaded it and burned it...
So far I really like it. There are some obvious links to Sonic Youth and early punk/industrial but its unique enough that it doesn't feel derivative to me. Are all their albums along this line? I had the impression they were a little more straight punk, but I may be confusing them with something else.
I like Interpol, although they're very different. More 80's brit-pop influenced a la Cure, Echo and Bunnymen, Joy Division, etc. But I love the effecty guitars and the bass player does fun stuff. Pretty good live, too, although they seem play exactly like they do on the record.
Yeah, when I first listened to the Interpol album, what jumped out at me was the similarity to Joy Division -- some quality there.
As for Liars, well, I don't have the album that came just before "They Were Wrong," and apparently that was what caused the mainstream music press to pan it, at least according to an article by Salon. The author of that article had the theory that the mainstream music press didn't like "They Were Wrong" because it wasn't enough like the previous album, in fact, was a wide divergence. So I got the impression that the previous album was more pop, more dance-y, or something -- more mainstream palatable I guess.
The EP I have, with Oneida, is good, not so edgy as "They Were Wrong," IMHO.
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