#dcdecibel

New Order is coming to Merriweather Post Pavilion July 28th and we have two tickets up for grabs! Not only that, but DFA Records sweethearts Holy Ghost! are opening! 

For a chance at the tickets, send a link of your favorite Joy Division/New Order or Holy Ghost! song to [email protected].

I'm not sure I know anyone who doesn't consider The Postal Service's first and last album "Give Up" a seminal music moment of their awkward high school years. I was not all that informed and thought Death Cab for Cutie did an electronic album. It was not until I started to pay more attention to the details of the project and realized everyone who contributed to the project that I realized how special seeing them in a live setting would be. This of course was not until some time in 2006 or so, a point at which no one believed The Postal Service would ever play together or release any new music. This is all to say, it is incredible that they'll be coming to Merriweather this summer, and it is even more incredible that we have two tickets to give away to their show. For your chance to win, email [email protected] with your oh-my-god-these-lyrics-are-about-me moment. Winner will be announced tomorrow at 5 PM.

We have two tickets to give away to the Akron/Family show at U-Hall April 26! Email [email protected] with your favorite A/F lyrics for a chance to win! Tickets are still available, doors are at 6!

Below is my amateur review of their new album Sub Verses, out April 30th! Sub Verses is streaming in its entirety over at Pitchfork, so check it out! 

I think The Men might be trolling us with the unsearchability of both the band name and the title of their new LP New Moon. After accidentally looking through a bunch of pages regarding the fashion choices of "the men" of the Oscars, I attempted to search for "New Moon" and ended up scrolling through a bunch of really creepy Twihard pages. 

Anyway, if you’d like to skip the tireless surfing you can listen to the album via Pitchfork Advance. It's definitely not what I was expecting. I put it on during an excruciatingly slow part of my paper-pushing 9-5 with the intention of listening to an approximation of post-punk/noise-rock/garage (whatever dude) and ended up checking several times to make sure I hadn’t accidentally thrown on some kind of grunge/alt-country compilation CD from the ‘90s. Side I of this LP is absolutely chaotic in terms of style, tempo, and focus.  My confusion mostly laid in how slow the pacing is compared to Open Your Heart and the increased emphasis on Nick Chiericozzi’s vocals. It’s almost like a doom country vibe, which is hit or miss depending on the embellishments of the supporting vocals and the complexity of the chord progressions/fills. “I Saw Her Face” is the most, if not only, successful of the first 6 songs. I was really close to turning it off, mostly because I felt duped and was getting sleepy. Side II, however, pivots back to a more familiar noise rock sound with “The Brass” and “Electric” (which sounds like the sluggish, but more thoughtful, cousin of “Animal”) bringing some much needed speed and fullness to the table, and concluding with the epic “Supermoon”. One of the rare consistencies of the album is the inclusion of conversational snippets before and after recordings. Their discussions, however, might bring more light to what exactly they were thinking with each song in the context of such a jumbled effort.

As I sat here mulling over this album and the trajectory of the band, New Moon started to fit together. The Men want to subvert the listeners expectations, or at least they've said as much in interviews leading up to the album's release. They progressed from true-to-the-bone noise rock on Leaving Home to post-noise rock on Open Your Heart which was at the time considered an unexpected step. And now on the first half of “New Moon” you  can almost draw the line through these three albums, as the trajectory moves from noise, to post-noise, to post-post-noise (STFU) and then suddenly they throw the whole mess into reverse and your back where you (and they) started. I’m not positive this makes for good discorgraphy, but it definitely makes for interesting music. 

My friend Kevin, who normally only listens to Swedish death metal and artists with <50 Facebook likes, wrote a review of the new Jim James solo album Regions of Light and the Sound of God because I am far too biased! Enjoy and I'll keep my ear to the ground for extra tickets to his 9:30 club for ya'll!

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As a disclaimer before I get into the review and you start wondering why I’m not making any My Morning Jacket references—I never really got into MMJ. Some might see this as a handicap in reviewing Jim James, but I view it as an advantage because I can judge the album by itself and not in a context that I believe would be inherently unfair. Now, on to Regions of Light and the Sound of God. The first thing that is going to hit you are Jim James’ vocals. They are front and center throughout the album and have a wonderful soulfulness to them. This is truest on the first track “State of Art (A.E.I.O.U.)” that starts off with just James and a piano before layering in percussion, bass, and guitar to hit a 70s funk feel that permeates the album (all the way to the artwork and music videos). “Know Til Now” rides on that vibe, bumping up the energy until breaking down into an ambling sax solo at the end of the song. The last minute and a half of “Know Til Now” represents the less than stellar parts of this album, although it is very interesting and you have to wonder “what is this doing here?” It almost seems as if he played with the idea of writing an entirely new song before giving up. The problem here is not the sax solo, but whether or not “Know Til Now” really needed a sax solo. For the most part the instrumental breakdowns on this album are splendid, particularly in the song “All is Forgiven”, which is a more overtly jazz influenced track. “A New Life” stands out as the catchiest song on the album with a retro 60s feel that accentuates James’ brilliant songwriting. One of the best lyrics of the album is in the song “Actress”, a transparent/honest song about love being tricky:

  You're good at making everyone believe that they love you

A little wink of the eye a little glimpse of the thigh and we're in heaven

Whether or not it's true

I believe in the concept of you

With personality

Destructing reality

Overall, James does a great job of putting together some very soulful music, while only occasionally getting lost and grappling with song endings and mismatched instrumentals. The only real problem with the album is that nothing sticks out to me. Everything is good, but nothing is outstanding. The vocals keep you listening, but I’m not sure if they’ll keep me listening again and again. Also, just turn it off before “God’s Love to Deliver” (his ode to MLK).