My Low Xylophone

Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto

When they were on The Colbert Report a little while ago, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin was asked about comparing his band to Radiohead. His reply? “They’re more talented musically, but we’re more handsome.” And that’s it, really. Radiohead has gone on to put out albums that challenge the music industry, genres and even their fans. Coldplay made one Radiohead-esque album and then blew up to be one of the biggest bands in the world. And, in a year with new releases from bands like Radiohead and My Morning Jacket that require a little effort to get into, it’s nice to have something as easy as a new Coldplay album.

I know a lot of people really don’t like Chris Martin, but I appreciate the guy’s earnestness. When I read stuff like the album is inspired by old school American graffiti, the White Rose movement and The Wire, I pay it much mind. Similarly, I don’t spend much time paying attention to his lyrics about love and happiness and whatever. Let the man have his fun. He’s the headman of one of the biggest bands in the world. You should know the vibe Coldplay is going for already, don’t worry about the specifics.

The thing that stands out on Mylo Xyloto is the beats. I feel like the band really kicked up the bass and drums this time around, I mean, just listen to a song like “Paradise.” That shit is deep. Coldplay has definitely taken some inspiration from popular R&B music, I mean they even got Rihanna to sing on a song. Which is perhaps not the direction I expected them to go in, after all I thought Jay-Z’s appearance on the last album more weird than cool, but I’ll allow it. This is a band that sells out stadiums, and that’s the kind of music that does the same.

In the end, the musicianship is as tight as ever, the songs as catchy. No, there’s absolutely no obvious breakouts this time, no “Fix You.” This is more a consistently solid, but never amazing, album. And yes, Coldplay does continue to get farther away from the Parachutes/Rush of Blood sound that made them great in the first place. But it’s easy to get most of this album stuck in your head. I like easy.

Favorite Tracks: “Hurts Like Heaven,” “Charlie Brown,” “Major Minus”

The Dark Knight Returns

Batman: Arkham City

After a summer of Marvel, I’ve recently descended into the depths of DC. And it would be hard not to, with all the new material they’ve been putting out lately. As part of the New 52 initiative, every single DC comic has been relaunched in the past month or so, which, you’ve got to admit, is a bold move. There was the Batman: Year One animated film starring Bryan Cranston – I thought it was OK. DC Universe Online, an MMO that launched earlier this year, just went free to play. And at the center of it all, for gamers like me, that is, there’s Arkham City, the sequel to the surprisingly great 2009 release Arkham Asylum. So needless to say I’ve started watching the Justice League cartoon that I never really paid attention to and spending a lot of time thinking about the DC Universe. Was Arkham City a worthy lightning rod for my DC fascination, or is it a disappointing sequel to the game that proved super hero games need not be disappointing?

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Something Wild

Wild Flag – Wild Flag

Olympia’s Sleater-Kinney had always been a band that I liked, but kind of had a hard time really getting into. I guess I just always found myself hoping they had more songs like One Beat’s “Oh!”, which is considerably more, well fun, than their more overtly political and feminist material. So it’s nice that an album like Wild Flag’s debut exists, since it basically sounds like that song spread out over 40 minutes of hooky guitar-driven girl rock.

Now the reason I bring up Sleater-Kinney is pretty obvious, since Wild Flag is made up of Sleater-Kinney’s guitarist/singer (and Portlandia co-star) Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss, as well as members of the bands Helium and The Minders. So yeah, Wild Flag is more or a less an “indie supergroup”, but unlike something like Monsters Of Folk, the band’s sound is a bit more cohesive. This is probably due to the fact that Brownstein obviously serves as the band’s guiding force, as her blistering guitar and vocals are really what drive the band’s sound. Still, keyboardist Rebecca Cole adds a nice texture that wasn’t there in Sleater-Kinney, while Janet Weiss’s thunderous drumming proves once again that she can pretty much make any band sound huge.

For the most part the songs exude a more poppy approach to punk rock, often wavering between jaunty singalongs and more foreboding material. And since they are after all a supergroup, Wild Flag does occasionaly delve into classic rock histrionics on the somewhat psychedelic “Glass Tambourine” and the sprawling “Race Horse”. But for the most part, this is just a refreshingly energetic little rock album in a year that maybe could’ve used a few more albums like this.

Favorite Tracks: “Romance”, “Electric Band”, “Racehorse”

Will Comply

Wilco – The Whole Love

It seems like it’s been ages since I did that Wilco Retrospecticus, doesn’t it? Well despite the fact that this album’s been out for a while, I don’t feel like I have a ton to say about it since I don’t really find Wilco to be the funnest band to write about. Still, The Whole Love does mark a noteable point in Wilco’s career, as it sees the band coming full circle in more ways than one.

The Whole Love marks the first release on Wilco’s own label, dBpm, which kind of just seems like a logical step in Wilco’s career considering their well-known disputes with record labels. So with this new sense of freedom, does that mean that Wilco have vied to go in the more radical and experimental direction that marked their earlier music? Well for the most part, yeah. The Whole Love features quite a bit of the more unpredictable moments that made albums like Being There and Summerteeth so enjoyable.

And though there is a considerable amount of sonic noodling on The Whole Love, at the same time Wilco often seems like it’s still in that same breezy comfort zone that it was in on Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (The Album). For the most part that totally works in the album’s favor, as the more upbeat songs like “I Might” and “Standing” are among the most infectious songs the band has done in a while. And even some of ballads have that great Americana-inspired quality that captures a lot of that old Wilco magic. So who knows, maybe the band will continue to pursue their more eclectic roots, but for now it’s just nice to hear a veteran band challenging themselves while still sounding comfortable in their own skin.

Favorite Tracks: “I Might”, “Dawned On Me”, “The Whole Love”

Recap: Zombcon 2011

I know it was like two weeks ago but I just realized I never wrote about Zombcon 2011. I was waiting for Paul to post pictures on Facebook but seeing as he is still yet to do so I might as well write about it before I forget anymore details. For those who aren’t familiar with Zombcon I’ll fill ya in. Zombcon is Seattle’s premier Zombie convention held every October since…. You know I’m not sure, for all I know last year was the first one ever. This year the convention was moved from the Seattle Science Center Convention Hall to the SeaTac Hilton. Although I preferred the previous setting and last year’s setup (guests, events, layout) Zombcon 2011 was still a great opportunity to meet some of my favorite B-movie horror stars.

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C.A.T.: Flip Your Wig

Hüsker Dü – Flip Your Wig (1985)

I’m just gonna guess that we’re not doing Whovember for another week or two, so I’ll just go ahead and return to our year-by-year CAT’s for at least this week. I pretty much knew I had to do a Husker Du album for 1985 since they managed to put out two unbelievable albums that year with New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig. Really I could’ve gone with either album, but since Flip Your Wig doesn’t usually get quite as much attention I’m going with that one, as you probably already figured out.

So the story of Husker Du is one that is pretty similar to that of their Minnesota brethren, The Replacements. The Huskers started off as an earsplitting hardcore punk band, but with 1984’s Zen Arcade, they started to incorporate melody more and more into their loud, fast, and uncompromising sound. New Day Rising saw songwriters Grant Hart and Bob Mould delving even deeper into more melodic songs, and Flip Your Wig sees the band sounding even more like a pop group while still maintaining that punk rock edge.

It’s almost kind of shocking to hear how ahead of their time Husker Du sound on this album. With their signature brand of ragged vocals and fuzz-drenched guitars enveloping these pop songs, they completely sound like the kinds of alternative rock bands that would come to dominate the early to mid-’90s. Songs like “Makes No Sense At All” and “Flexible Flyer” have that great hazy guitar sound, and for the first time you can actually understand most of the lyrics on the album. So in many ways Flip Your Wig is probably the most accessable album in the Husker’s discography. Of course, this interest in more accessable material simply wasn’t enough to lift Husker Du out of indie rock’s underground despite signing to a major label after Flip Your Wig. Instead, the music world would have to wait a few more years for three dudes from Aberdeen to finally bring this kind of music onto the national stage.

Favorite Tracks: “Makes No Sense At All”, “Divide And Conquer”, “Flexible Flyer”

The Future of Fear: An Opinion Piece

Well Shocktober is winding down so I thought I’d take a minute to discuss a question that’s been on my mind lately “Is the age of good horror movies over?” So often I hear horror fans speaking fearfully about the decline of horror movies but have the screams really become that much fainter? As the times have changed so has the landscape of the genre but despite what some may say I think it’s clear that there’s just as much potential for good horror movies as there has ever been.

Horror fans may romanticize the mid 70s or early 80s with such classics as; The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street, but that doesn’t mean the 70s and 80s didn’t have it’s fair share of bad films. For every good horror movie there has ALWAYS been about ten bad ones at any given time. There may have been a great horror film released last year but these things take time, you have to wait and reflect on these films in the passing years.

As I just mentioned, many horror fans looks back quite fondly at the 70s and 80s, but that’s because they tend to only remember the good movies. People romanticize the past because they often choose to only remember the good things, really today is just as good as back then. If there ever truly was a golden age of horror it was probably the 30s (just as it was for most of cinema) and that was great while it lasted but times and trends change, things go in and out of style, and thus the genre is ever evolving.

Let’s take a look at genre today, I mean what’s really eating away at the fans? One of the most common complaints I see is a stronger focus on gore over other aspects. I don’t think anyone would argue that movies today are pretty bloody, but why is that? I’d say it has something to do with audiences becoming more desensitized to violence, and thus gory movies have become more commercially viable. People are used to gore now so it’s become common in many horror movies, but in a way hasn’t it always been? Herschell Gordon Lewis has been making blood soaked films since the 60s and don’t get me started with the kind of visceral imagery that Lucio Fulci put to film in the decade after that. So really gory movies aren’t anything new, people are just less shocked by them as they should be. So now you see filmmakers trying to push what we’ve already seen in the disgusting department to new levels. That may be good for some, but I’ll bet you a plump christmas goose that’s not the main reason most moviegoers go to horror movies. Plain and simple people want to be scared and I don’t think they care how it happens, as long as it’s done well.

Seeing that your typical horror fan is fairly open to anything they’ll see these hashed out gory movies, I mean there are only so many horror movies released in theaters each year. So this doesn’t mean that audiences aren’t open to different kinds of horror movies. Take for example Paranormal Activity; it’s low budget, not gory, not flashy, and yet it was a huge success that’s launched a popular franchise. On top of all this it even beat Saw VI on it’s own opening weekend. This shows that audiences aren’t simply drawn to the gore in the genre but to the act of being surprised and excited.

I’ve seen many of great horror movies come out of the 2000s. Just look at all the crazy shit Japan has cooked up since then? If you ask me some of the best foreign horror movies I’ve ever seen came out of the last ten years. Films like; The Host from South Korea, Rec from Spain, Shaun of the Dead from the UK, Let the Right One In from Sweden… and the list goes on. Of course there’s always been a thriving indie scene for any genre as well and that’s no exception within horror. There’s some great stuff out of there you just got to look for it, be brave, be experimental, that’s what it’s all about. I love horror movies but I refuse to live in the past when there’s so much I could be missing out on. I’m not sure why I wrote this post, I suppose I’m just annoyed by people online always complaining about \how bad modern entertainment has become, and so I decided to apply it to horror movies. Always look ahead monster movie fans, you might be surprised with what you’ll find.