Cruise Lee
by R.C. Avellanosa
I only have the compilation East Jesus from Lee and it proved surreal. Noise and all, made me stare blank on a wall and to the trees, like you were stoned or something. Made one think he's zipped to a highly industrialized zone. Sadly, following Moore and Gordon's divorce, Lee comes forever mighty. Though Sonic Youth still remains, Lee Ranaldo stepping out from the shadows and recently released his ninth solo album. Two months ago, I've heard the single "Off The Wall" from sonicyouth.com. And the video from a set at Glasslands, sounded and looked so pure, so lovely and colorful with two videos 'opacitied', for lack of a better word. Needless to say the song was great and I ended playing it over and over. The other songs speaks for itself.
I wonder why Lee never named this band on a different name rather than his own. Perhaps it's clear that he had some songs written and arranged alone. Ranaldo is backed by old friends, all-star cast including Nels Cline, Alan Licht, John Medeski, bassist Irwin Menken and longtime associate Steve Shelley (and cameos from old friends Jim O?Rourke and Bob Bert). Their styles is distinctly served as their own. It was pointed out that the collaboration wasn't made to make Ranaldo's songs better as they are. The downside is that a pitchfork review says that it is an album badly in need of editing, and rebuilding. "Some acrimony within Sonic Youth lately; maybe they could have helped?" But I don't mind. It is what it is. Lee is what it is.
Highlight: Off The Wall
"Watch me as I fall
Then scrape me off the wall
And take me home
See me as I am
Just half a man
Trying to get home"
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He Wants To Go Home
by R.C. Avellanosa
You know it's hard to comment about an artist or a band that resides far from where you are. It brings one a vague or wrong grasp of the artist or the music. One can't know what's happening on their perspective. All you have are reviews written on paper or on the web. On the other hand, it is still the music that counts. It is the music that blinds one's taste away from the maker. It could bring him to disregard the writer. Rather focusing on the production and the genius of it. It is at times good to just appreciate the music played. It doesn't matter where or who had it made. It is the spirit of having the music played for you and for everyone who heeds.
Indie Pop and melancholic piano would best describe the Perfume Genius. Perfume Genius is Mike Hadreas. A solo artist that hailed from New York, Mike Hadreas' music stems from different emotional experiences expressed methaporically. Deep, heartbreaking and passionate like a bird in grief inside a church. For those who love music with the likes of Stephin Merrit and The Magnetic Fields, or even Drugstore, REM, and Radiohead, you should take heed. It is a revelation.
give heed to: Take Me Home
lyrics:
take me home
tend to me
baby, lay me down easy
for I have grown weary on my own
all alone
I wither and I bruise
I run my mouth like a fool
About TAKE ME HOME by Mike Hadreas
"It’s about that old feeling where you are out of money and options and just combing the streets for anybody that will take you wherever and you will do and be whatever they want and completely annihilate yourself as long as they keep feeding you drugs and you never have to move. Also I was just trying to write about in relationships when you are willing to give up everything and erase yourself for the other person, because you are so scared of being alone."
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I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is among the most critically acclaimed albums by Yo La Tengo, placing 5th in the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1997. The album has continued to earn acclaim since its release, ranking at #25 on the list of the Top 100 albums of the 1990s by Pitchfork Media, and #78 on Spin Magazine's Top 90 albums of the 1990s. Robert Christgau, in his review for Spin, called the first nine songs "perfect" and called out the song "Autumn Sweater" as the "very peak" of the album. He referred to the album as one of his "favorite albums of the year, easy," alongside those by Pavement, Sleater-Kinney, and Arto Lindsay, and his review of the band's 2003 album Summer Sun praised I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One as Yo La Tengo's "career album."
No Pocky for Kitty is Superchunk's second studio album. It was recorded April 21-23, 1991, at the Chicago Recording Company by Steve Albini and released on Matador Records in 1991. Pocky is a popular Japanese snack food.
