In the Key of Your Favorite Alphabet Letter (Chromatic) Music, Random.

[Andrew_TSKS]

So basically, they're taking all the stuff they brought in on their last record that sucked, and expanding that stuff to become their entire sound? So basically they bear no resemblance at this point to the pop-punk band that had a hit record three years ago? They should be ashamed at how flagrantly they're turning to shit.

[jebreject]

They should be ashamed at how flagrantly they're turning into millionaire popstars.

Fixed

[Andrew_TSKS]

Shit, millionaire popstars, what's the difference?

[diesel_powered]

It's hard to record with all that money rustling around?

[Andrew_TSKS]

If it was hard to record, that'd apparently be good. What I guess it's actually hard to do is write good songs.

[Nick Ink]

Okay - listened to Akron/Family's Love Is Simple on the bus home today - it had been a while.

I kind of think this is their weakest record, and there are some strangely dull sections on it, but man when this band hit the heights they do it better than anyone. For the record, the heights on this album are:

Ed Is A Portal
I've Got Some Friends
The middle 'sunrise/sunset' part of There's So Many Colors
Phenomena (apart from the dodgy Jesus/rice lyric

Am I right, jeb?

[davy]

i'm of the opinion that the jesus/rice bit is most certainly a highlight.

[jebreject]

I do think it's their weakest record so far--really nothing can even come close to their side of the AoL split, which is just fucking phenomenal--but I dunno, the only song that I don't really like at all is "Lake Song/New Ceremonial Music for Moms." Which I think is just plain not good. "Crickets" and "Pony's OG" don't really stick with me after listening, but during I always enjoy them well enough. The latter moreso than the former. "Love, Love, Love," its reprise and the title track could maybe be more substantial but they still feel like more than just filler. "Of all the Things," which you didn't mention, is one of my favorites. I think my favorite bit on the whole record though is the Neil Young-sounding solo in "There's So Many Colors."

[Nick Ink]

i'm of the opinion that the jesus/rice bit is most certainly a highlight.

Well, the song definitely suggests that there is widespread disagreement, even conflict over the colour of rice. My position is that most people accept that both brown and white varieties can be commonly found.

[Nick Ink]

I do think it's their weakest record so far--really nothing can even come close to their side of the AoL split, which is just fucking phenomenal--but I dunno, the only song that I don't really like at all is "Lake Song/New Ceremonial Music for Moms." Which I think is just plain not good. "Crickets" and "Pony's OG" don't really stick with me after listening, but during I always enjoy them well enough. The latter moreso than the former. "Love, Love, Love," its reprise and the title track could maybe be more substantial but they still feel like more than just filler. "Of all the Things," which you didn't mention, is one of my favorites. I think my favorite bit on the whole record though is the Neil Young-sounding solo in "There's So Many Colors."

We are 90% in agreement. Although I think the s/t is quite close to the split, and Meek Warrior 75% outstanding too. I think a great next record would somehow leave Love Is Simple in a more sympathetic light as part of their continuing experimentation. Plus, you know, the late-Beatlesisms, sentiment and lyrics of the album are cool with me.

[jebreject]

I guess they've been doing Afro-Beat type stuff? And trying to make their music sound like what they hear out their windows in Brooklyn?

[davy]

i guess i shouldn't have seen them live because now i never want to listen to the album!

[Maaik]

We are 90% in agreement. Although I think the s/t is quite close to the split, and Meek Warrior 75% outstanding too.

The only thing I like on Meek Warrior is "Blessing Force."

[jebreject]

WHAT

[jebreject]

Oh by the by I guess Akron Family was on Daytrotter on Tuesday.

What a terrible write-up.

[Nick Ink]

This is unusual. I always had a bit of a soft spot for Leeds band, Hood, especially during their anticon-hook-up on Cold House, but I really didn't care too much for the Bracken side-project album a year or two ago. I mean it was okay, but not that exciting.

But I've just been reading about the newest Bracken release on boomkat, and I am intrigued:

*500 hand-packaged copies only, sublime album from Hood frontman Chris Adams* If you think this run of 500 CD copies for Bracken's 'Eno About The Need' is a bit too limited for its own good, try the original vinyl edition for size: there was just one copy made. That LP version made its way across the globe, being passed from Bracken fan to Bracken fan, each wearing down the grooves with every play, and even going so far as to contribute to the record's ever-evolving artwork. Finally, after months of wear and tear, the LP made it back home to Bracken HQ, by which point the already rather hazy audio (salvaged from decaying tape loops, Basinski-style) had mutated into a markedly different listening experience thanks to the dust, scratches and warping it had been subjected to over the course of its travels. It was this nth generation version of the album that was eventually transferred to the CD edition for sale here, leaving you with an authentically aged and well-worn document that's not so much a Bracken record as it is a collaboration between Chris Adams and the lucky erstwhile owners of that pummelled vinyl copy. The end result at times sounds like a Grouper record that's been freshly exhumed from some grubby crypt, experimenting with semi-erased electrical hum signals and distant, profoundly obfuscated songs. It's not only a thoroughly beautiful listening experience, but it's one of those rare concept albums that holds a genuine resonance and tells quite a story. Followers of Hood, Bracken, Belong, or indeed the aforementioned William Basinski and Grouper will want to snap one of these up as soon as possible. Highly Recommended.

[coldforge]

Assuming it's not fucking terrible, that actually sounds pretty god.

[Nick Ink]

Could be! I'm unashamedly interested in concepts and form in their own right anyway, but also Grouper and William Basinski make nice sounds too, so it's all pointing in the right direction for me.

[coldforge]

Yeah, I wouldn't mind another 30 hours or so of Disintegration Loops-style material, to be honest.

[Nick Ink]

That does seem like his definitive work, doesn't it? Although, I'd also recommend Garden Of Brokenness and El Camino Real , both crumbling the same kind of antiseptic beauty, as the two longer pieces most of the same cloth. Melancholia is nice too, but lots of shorter loops, rather than one continuous hour of music.

[jebreject]

Nick did you listen to that new AK stuff? I wasn't super into it at all.

[Nick Ink]

Nick did you listen to that new AK stuff? I wasn't super into it at all.

New stuff? I may have missed something?

[Nick Ink]

This daytrotter link, dyou mean?

I'm checking it as we type

[jebreject]

The daytrotter link, yeah

[davy]

robyn hitchcock's drummer was pretty outstanding.