Wolf Parade & Fearless Freaks

Wolf Parade - "apologies to the queen"

This morning's cd - finally hearing more than the one song i had on the ipod for months. It's good. The mood is like guided by voices cooked up individualism with a taste for experimentation in sounds (the timbre/charater of sounds). lots of stylistic clashing - goofy casio keyboard moments, alt-rock (almost cheesy) guitars at points, a lot of different stuff going on, but definitely rooted in low-fi, 'granddaddy', psychedelia, indie rock. the vocals are reminiscent of earlier modest mouse - the rhythmns and guitar parts borrow from this also. guitars licks are impetus to the songs in many cases. so-so melodic, but not really catchy. The combo of moods and sounds were unexpected at the best moments, and the way the sometimes confessional/psychological lyrics are sung are at odds with their meaning. One lyric repeats "modern world i'm not pleased to meet you. you just bring me down" but the singing of such lyrics is sort of distant, the vocals are messed up, one step away, which saves it i think. another lyric "nobody knows you and nobody gives a damn." this is an ambitious record. (i have only listened to it one and half times so far so we'll see how it holds up) i can say that it doesn't have that exact something - maybe beauty of the guilty pleasure-chewy variety that makes me want to listen to the record again and again. i'm thinking about what this means regarding art - mine and my response to all....hmmm.

The Flaming Lips documentary Fearless Freaks

a & I watched the other night as perfect antidote to life-confusion. If you were/are a fan as I am it is definitely worth seeing. I loved that record "oh my gawd" so much in high school and remember seeing them as a senior. thinking that maybe the world had stuff to offer - that there was a way out of the bland.

The docu is more about the personal lives of the band - their histories (ie - working at long john silvers for years and eating only mac and cheese, growing up and staying in the "ghetto" of Oklahoma city), and how the band came up with the freaky side of hardcore (butthole surfers, black flag) . Wayne Coyne seems like a great guy - such dedication and enthusiasm, optimistic, just not giving a damn what the world thinks. there was one point when he talked about never giving up - could sound lame but coming from this guy i could listen. Also hearing about the many incarnations of the band - how "the soft bulletin" changed things for them. The film itself is kind of random, why it focuses on this or that i don't know - it kind of meanders about, and there is an icky drug scene near the end, which sort of counters a lot of the cheerleaderesque stuff in the film. I knew that one member had heroin issues and was kind of waiting for the shit to hit the fan in the film. the way his addiciton was handled (in light of the culture they grew up in, and in being a band) is interesting to hear about. so overall i highly recommend the fearless freaks.