Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

MINE

Boring.  Largely unintelligible.  The lead singer had a whiny voice.  Some of the songs had a repetitive loop-style sound that's akin to Chinese water torture.  I have mentioned I'm sensitive to sounds?

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

YOURZ

Yeah, I brought this on a whim.  I used to do this a lot, back in the days of vinyl.  I'd skim through the new releases, check the covers out and if something on it caught my eye, I'd take a chance and buy it.  But sometimes, forewarned is forearmed, so I would also scour the pages of my favourite music mags and ensure I was, at least, partially armed.

If I'd taken the time and read up about Deerhunter, I would probably have pretty much ignored it as another is the swag of post-rock (or post-hardcore or whatever the fuck it supposed to mean).  And when I got it home and listened to the first track, Earthquake, I wondered if I'd made a mistake.  This is an opening track that should have been buried at the back of the album somewhere.

Thankfully, the next few tracks redeemed them, particularly the Pixie-ish Revival.  I particularly liked the use of banjo in this track.  This is followed by my favourite track of the album, Sailing.  The starkly simply guitar and ambient sounds behind it perfectly set off the beautiful vocal line.  What a gorgeous track.

The album yields a a few more surprises, like the ambient-fuelled Helicopter and Coronado, a retro-sounding throwback.  And given this all came about because of whimsy, of wanting to relive those good old days, when vinyl was cheap and plentiful.  Thankfully, the experience was a good one as this turned out to be a chance well-taken.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For further information go www.myspace.com/deerhunter

The Pixies - Death To The Pixies

YOURZ

The first Pixies song I ever heard was the their single Here Comes Your Man off the album Doolittle.  In fact, what I saw was the video for the track, where the band mimes with their mouths wide open.  The track itself has such a classic feel about it, I was surprised to find out it was an original composition.  The second song I ever heard was Tame, from the same album.  I remember being absolutely smitten with the song but unable to believe it was made by the same band. 

But the reality is the Pixies were able to pull off great pop and blistering punk rock, sometimes in the same song.  Their soft/loud formula became the template for myriad bands that followed, most notably and widely discussed among them being Nirvana.  Kurt Cobain professed his love of this band numerous times but also indicated they played a big part in the development of his band's sound.

What they did for me was show me, as both a songwriter and fan of both pop music melody and rock aesthetics, that I could write songs combining these two loves and make them into a bigger, better whole.  Of course, my music career never took the same high roads as Nirvana's but nevertheless, the influence was the same.  The band I was in around this time even covered one of their songs, U-Mass, such was our love of the Pixies.

The other thing I remember this band doing is uniting previously disparate groups of people under the single flag of indie rock, with both the American grunge and British music fans falling for this band.  What is mostly amazing to me listening back to this great collection is why the rest of the world didn't see the genius of the Pixies like we did.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

I was never much of a Pixies fan.  I mean, I liked Here Comes Your Man and Monkey Gone To Heaven, but I never owned an album.  So it was interesting to listen to this best-of compilation -  and it's mostly well-put together rock.  Of course my indie-band complaint surfaced pretty quickly - what's the point of having lyrics for songs if you can't hear what's being sung?  But those tunes were thankfully in the minority. 

I have to say, I don't like Debaser even though some might say it's the quintessential Pixies song.  But I did like Caribou and I always appreciate a bite of girl-styled rawk.  I can also appreciate the production - these songs sound like they're almost recorded live.  There's a rawness and an urgency that you generally don't get with a studio sound.  But that's no excuse for unintelligible lyrics.  Not at all. 

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.pixiesmusic.com/

In our collection we also have Come On Pilgrim

The Breeders - Pod

YOURZ

There was a time when Pod was never filed away because it was always the next choice to be played.  It was one of THE must have CDs if you wanted your collection to have any sort of indie credibility.  Mind you, this was 20 years ago when things like 'indie credibility' meant a lot more to me than it probably should have.  But then, acceptance from my peers was also very high on my list of 'must haves'.  The older we get, the less we give a shit about small stuff like this.

I'm really glad Pod has stayed in my collection for all those years, though.  Listening back to it reminds me of some fantastic days, particularly of making music and hanging out with a great bunch of creative, talented and generally awesome people.  The Steve Albini-produced track list includes quite possibly the best Beatles cover ever in 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun'.  And while the production could only be described as minimal, at best, it also served as a no-nonsense template for the great swathe of bands who took this ideal and ran with it.  Of the 12 tracks, 9 come in under the 3 minute mark and a third of these under the 2 minutes.

It was head Breeder Kim Deal's links to her day job as The Pixies bass player that got this side-project noticed.  This could have been a bit of a disaster if Deal's song writing hadn't stood up.  But thankfully it did and still does.  And while history will record their more commercial followup, the mega-selling Last Splash, as the best this band has to offer.  But for me, it will always be Pod.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

I wonder how Steve Albini feels about having this on his CV now?  When I read those words - "Engineered by Steve Albini" - before listening to Pod I thought, well, it'll have to sound good at least.  How wrong I was.

Let me paint you a picture.  YourZ and I live in a small apartment building (four apartments, two up, two down) on a dual-carriageway road in a beachside suburb of Sydney.  We live on a hill, and therefore the garages are underneath the apartments - a good way underneath, in fact, dug into the hill.  The buildings on either side of us are the same, and that means a proliferation of garage bands.  YourZ has rocked the suburbs on many an occasion, there's a sort of heavy-metalish band next door and I think in the mansion a few doors down there's a bit of a vanity band (I've heard them do Roxanne by the Police and Madonna's Like A Virgin and both really not that well so you get my drift).

The sound produced by the Breeders on Pod reminds me of listening to a garage band through the doors.  The vocals are unintelligible, there's always someone off-key because there's no fold-back, and what you can mostly hear is the drums, which sound strangely flat.  I've read they recorded it in a week, and had money left over to do other stuff.  And it sounds like it, with the exception of their version of Happiness Is A Warm Gun which I don't think would have upset John Lennon too much.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/thebreeders

Custard - Wisenheimer and Wahootie Fandango (double album special)

MINE

Listening to Custard today I was struck by how much of a Britpop band this strictly Aussie act sounds like.  Some of the songs have a Blur flavour, others remind me of Supergrass.  And given the bands were doing their thing at much the same time, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

What is a surprise to me is that I don't believe I've ever seen Custard.  But that's probably because they were touring at a time when i didn't do too much band-seeing, as I was preparing myself for a career change into radio by spending a lot of my time on a community radio station.  And not one that played music, but one that read printed material for the print handicapped.

Whatever the reason, I wish I had seen them.  They sound fun and bright and just damn good at what they do.  I did pick up Wisenheimer when I was at radio school in '96, and Apartment has been a firm favourite on my gymPod ever since I got it.  Just what you need to power you through the next set of weights...

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

The last time I saw Custard live was when they were supporting Weezer on a national tour.  I remember thinking at the time it was completely appropriate these two bands should share a bill as they both write wonderfully skewed pop songs and feature enigmatic, idiosyncratic frontmen.  Residing in the musical territory somewhere between the aforementioned Weezer and the weird pop of The Pixies, Custard were a highlight of the Australian scene during the 90s.

I first heard them on a compilation called Youngblood, which featured unsigned Australian bands.  Their track, Rockfish Anna, showed their knack for writing pop gems full of clever riffs.  As later releases would show, the band could shift stylistically, often within the construct of a single song.  Instead of confusing the listener, this added  to overwhelming sense of fun this band projected and proved hard to resist.

Wisenhiemer/Wahootie Fandango is a special edition packaging of their first two major label albums.  Both are stylistically diverse and were seemingly at odds with the grunge movement of the time.  This, however, did not affect the popularity of the band, who became a firm live and festival favourites.  Despite this, the band had a hard time finding mainstream success.  This, more than anything else, led to them breaking up after a decade of hard work.

Listening back to both albums, I was reminded just how good they were but also of how they were a band out of their time.  I am sure if they were starting out today, their ironic sense of lyric and ability to construct simple-sounding, beautifully arranged pop songs would almost guarantee success.  It is unfortunate the powers that be at the time failed to see what a large part of the general public could.  But it is hardly so surprising.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.davidmccormack.com.au/

Sugar - Copper Blue

MINE

What a surprise!  I knew absolutely nothing about this band before pressing Play this morning, and it's shown me my husband can still astonish me after eight years.  This album is (whisper this so he doesn't get offended) positively pure pop-rock.  My only criticism is the band obviously didn't pay any attention to the tracklisting, as the opening number is quite lack-lustre.

I vaguely recall hearing Helpless before but it was If I Can't Change Your Mind that really got me hopping about in the car this morning.  Top tune, good album, why haven't you played it to me before?  Hmmm?  Could it be it's just a little too MOR for your street cred, honey?  (YourZ sez: first of all: what street cred?  The fact is I had all but forgotten about this album but not again).  The close harmonies and great arrangements actually reminded me of Lush and the Bangles, so there.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

See, this is why this project is so fucking good because it's putting me back in touch with albums like Copper Blue and the songwriting of guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould - and whose existence in our collection had been all but forgotten.  When it came out, it was such an influential piece on me  - more than just about anything else around at the time, with the only possible exception being The Pixies (who openly acknowledge Mould's former band, Husker Du, as being a big influence).

Copper Blue is a stunning pop record, thinly disguised with abrasive guitars and a tough rhythm section.  But listening back, there's no doubting Mould's intentions.  The statement is clear in tracks like If I Can't Change Your Mind, for instance, which is just about the most perfect guitar pop song ever recorded.  Then there's A Good Idea, the best song The Pixies never wrote.  The rest of the track listing is similarly brilliant.

I really don't know why I forgot about this album.  Probably got distracted by too many shiny objects (yes, it happens).  Copper Blue is not like a long lost friend, but more like a close relative who appears on the doorstep after years, maybe looking a little care-worn but still very much a member of the family and whose appearance is cause for much celebration.  And this album is so worth celebrating.

Copper Blue, without a doubt, is the first Forgotten Gem for May (and a contender for the best Forgotten Gem of the year).

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/bobmould