Word to your Mother Mother: new NP thread

[Antero]

Weezy.  Top 5 DOA. 

"Make harm on you, bomb you in public / hit you with the straight-arm no warning, nothin'"

[ellaguru]

It's been too long since I've put this album on. It's great.

[Nick Ink]

Junior Boys - It's All True

I do love Junior Boys, but at the same time I've loved each of their four albums slightly less than the one before.

Haven't made up my mind about this year's yet. I think they're a band whose albums always need 7 or 8 listens to settle.

Okay, I just wanted to come back to this, because I've been listening to it every day since I posted this, and with the benefit of repeated listens, I definitely think it's a big return to form after the slightly disappointing 'Begone Dull Care'. The main differences are that there are more hooks and memorable melodies this time, and also that the complexity of the arrangements and production is even higher than ever. The actual synthesiser sounds on this disc are incredible - brilliant stuff. I would say that 6 of the 9 tracks are excellent, and the other 3 are very good.

[davy]

Heard this band on turntable the other day and I've been listening to them on Spotify ever since. I really like it, particularly the second album O My Heart and the one pictured above, their 2007 debut. It's really hyper stuff, super-melodic, really well-produced...and the contrastingly dark lyrics give the whole thing an ominous Steely Dan-ishness.

It reminds me a bit of Self, but it's bigger than Self, more ambitious, and yet not quite as consistent.

Anyway, I'm into it.

And as for Spotify, Jesus Christ, what's the use of paying for any more music ever?

[narlus]

np:


This is making my afternoon pretty damn fun.

that record rules.

[Javan]

And as for Spotify, Jesus Christ, what's the use of paying for any more music ever?

I'm so glad that you USAians finally have Spotify! It's been my major source of music since it first came out in the UK, and I happily pay the £10 a month to avoid ads and get offline streaming. The only downside are the odd few albums that aren't on there, but there's so much that is!

[davy]

I'm listening to Dr. Dog for the first time. I like it!

[Killdozersnakeboy]

Bobby Womack - I Can Understand It


From the wonderful comp

The Gallery - The Story of the Legendary New York Disco 1972-77

So many great tracks on here.

[auto-da-fey]

I'm listening to Dr. Dog for the first time. I like it!

I've been meaning to listen to them forever because they're local, but their stupid hippie name always makes me conflate them with Phish-y nonsense even though I know that's not their jam. I would play them right now, but I'm working in a coffee shop so no dice.

[davy]

I'd been putting them off for a while, too...mostly because of the name, yeah, and the cover art, which isn't bad, necessarily, just gave me a weird vibe.

Anyway, I dig the tunes.

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

I've been listening to the first Angels & Airwaves record and would really like to find the initial LPTJ discussion of it in which Greg Nog discovered "IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS"

I like the record, though. It's not nearly as ridiculous as I want it to be but hey.

[RavingLunatic]

Haley Bonar - Golder

Somewhat disappointed with this one. I'm an enormous fan of her first two albums and a pretty big fan of her third album too, but this new one doesn't quite match up. It does have some good songs though. I like 6 or 7 out of the 13 songs pretty well, but there's no one track that blows me away the way, say, "Better Half" did from her last album, Big Star.

[Nick Ink]

Bruno Pronsato - Lovers Do

Been playing this a lot this week and it's fantastic - Killdozer, I'm looking at you.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

Bruno Pronsato - Lovers Do

Been playing this a lot this week and it's fantastic - Killdozer, I'm looking at you.

I've only played this a couple of times. Not sure yet. There's some things I like but there's also a lot that rubs me up the wrong way on early listening.

[Nick Ink]

Bruno Pronsato - Lovers Do

Been playing this a lot this week and it's fantastic - Killdozer, I'm looking at you.

I've only played this a couple of times. Not sure yet. There's some things I like but there's also a lot that rubs me up the wrong way on early listening.

Oh really? It reminds me a lot of Villalobos best stuff, and I love the long, strung out looseness of it. Needs a proper headphone listen though.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

I'll have to give it another go when I'm in the right mood I think.

In the meantime:

[Good Intentions]

I seem to be playing the Bathory discography in chronological order.

[davy]

Seriously dudes, in Mother Mother, I have found the 21st century's answer to Split Enz.

They jam their songs so full of incredible little details you can be thinking of a dozen different bands all at once. This one song I was listening to on the way to work this morning reminded me of nothing so much as Opeth doing 90s alternative. So many things jump out at you -- Sonic the Hedgehog keyboards in this bridge, Fleetwood Mac lead guitar on that song, etc -- that it really is hard to pin them down. But in almost every song, there is that restless creativity and stubborn unwillingness to let a pop song sit around doing what you expect it to. You know how Split Enz always sounded so restless & unpredictable? Mother Mother is the same way. Clearly, the male vocalist has taken cues from the Finn brothers, and the instrumentation is so varied and rooted in 80s-aesthetics ... this is truly the 2nd coming of the greatest New Zealand pop band of all time.

Only they're from Vancouver.

I did a Spotify megamix featuring highlights from all three of their albums, so if anybody wants in on that, I can figure out how to share it...

[ellaguru]

Listened to Eureka twice today. It's pretty great, and from what I read, Mother Mother's earlier ones are even better, so that's exciting.

[Thermofusion]

Davy for some reason I have the feeling you're pulling my leg with that bold declaration, but I'll bite. Split Enz is one of my favorite bands. What are we talking about here, early Split Enz, post-Dizrhythmia, 80s Split Enz, what? Surely this Mother Mother group don't sound like all of it.

[davy]

If I had to pick one, I'd go for 80s Split Enz, but they actually do kinda sound like all of it. They sound like just about EVERYBODY, in fact, but a little more like Split Enz than anything else. You'll forgive me if I'm not as well-versed in album specifics as I should be. The first Split Enz release I bought was the two-disc compilation, Spellbound, which boasts an awesome track listing that is anything but chronological. And it's still what I reach for when I'm in the mood. (Though if pressed I'll tell you my favorite LP is Frenzy.) What I mean is, I don't think of Split Enz as having separate phases ... I think of them as being all these different kinds of awesome all the time.

When I really started to fall for Mother Mother, I actually kept a written list of bands they reminded me of -- Pixies, Self, Fleetwood Mac, Bangles, Queen, etc -- and it was only after about a week of intensive jamming that Split Enz occurred to me, and now I can pick it up in almost every song.

My favorite Mother Mother album is O My Heart, the 2nd one, but plenty of people vouch for the debut, and nearly everyone is excited about Eureka, too. Such creativity, such good solid pop songwriting, such exciting production. I'm totally smitten.

You can stream almost all of their music at their website: http://mothermothersite.com/music/

But, a warning: there's a lot to assimilate with their music. If you go into it trying to pick out the Split Enz influence right off the bat, I don't know what you'll hear.

[davy]

Thermo, here: http://youtu.be/OErojM4sIxQ

This one strikes me as one of the more Split Enzy ones.

[reebty]

Sadly forgotten in the decade and change since its release, but one of my favourite Australian albums ever.

[Thermofusion]

Thermo, here: http://youtu.be/OErojM4sIxQ

This one strikes me as one of the more Split Enzy ones.

This is a fun damn song! I could see how you could hear Split Enz in that, or even a couple other bouncy new wave bands. I'll check their stuff out!

[davy]

Awesome. They do make for insanely fun listening. I burned the mix I made to disc and it's been in my car stereo for a week solid. I actually look forward to driving places just so I can listen to more Mother Mother. And then I hate to get out of the car.