Reviews (4)

A wonderful exploration of pop-like music
This cd is perhaps the most calming and excellent piece of pop music I have ever heard.

Every song on the cd is fairly emotionally charged, but light as far as the rhythm and volume. It's great to listen to if you're interested in deep lyrics and meaning above speed or simple loud, catchy tunes (not that there's anything wrong with loud, catchy tunes.)

Everything on this cd seems like it's a venture into the unknown, and out of all the music I've heard, nothing is quite the same as this. It's not different in a bad way, not at all, it's different in a profoundly good way. If emotion, witty lyrics, and calm pop are your thing, you can't go qrong with this piece of music.

try not to sing along, I dare you.
This is a great album. I would say it sounds like Guided by Voices covering Sebadoh songs(smash your head on the punk rock era)add just a dash of Palace/Will Oldham and then BAM! Kick it up a notch.

The more you listen to this album, the more you love this album. Buy 10 CD's and give them out to all your friends.

Dayton Rocks...again!!
Pound for pound Dave Doughman might be the hardest rocking/working man in indie rock. This is an amazing record for me in that it sounds great but somehow has the lo-fi heart of their earlier records. This record was just what I was looking for when I got it-Crunchy guitars and plenty of pop hooks and nice harmonies- and it rocks. Catch them live if you get the chance and watch Dave leave his heart on the stage everynight. What do they put in the water over there in Dayton?

This is a great short but sweat album. For NMH fans
I heard about this album on an E6 mailing list and decided to check it out. It's great. They (the band) recommend listening to it as loud as your stereo can handle. I whole heartedly agree. This is not to say that it's a heavy metal rock record but that the subtleties of the recording sound great when loud, It is one of the better to best lo-fi indie recordings that I've ever heard. Also at just around 30 minutes, you should take it in in one sitting. Check out the track 'Talking Pictures' I think it works as the centerpiece to the album.

Side note: I'm a huge Neutral Milk Hotel fan and this album brought that same grin to my face as when I first discovered NMH. PS the band is by no means good simply in that they have similarities to NMH, they are definatley in and of themselves and in thier own realm. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

CHECK OUT THE CAMELTOE WEBSITE
While your at it, check out the latest by Bob Pollard. This is as good as anything he has done as a solo project, although they are ALL stupefyingly brilliant.

SOme seriously orgasmic moments in this, particularly the stuttering rocker "Do it Paradise Style". THe opener, "RUn son Run" is also a winner, as is "Conspiracy of Owls" and "Its only Natural."

Cant get the tunes out of my head- as is always the case when new Pollard material comes out.

THis guy is just too damn good. Its ridiculous. He is a veritable fountain of tuneful goodness rocking your world and infecting your brain.

another pollard gem!!
I generally buy every thing Robert Pollard puts out, whether it is GBV, solo, or any of his many side projects or bands and numerous material he puts out. No person can write better melodies than him. He is simply the best. I don't know how he comes up with some of these songs. They are amazing. Fiction Man is just what you expect, lo-fi, rocking, crazy lyrics, strange song titles, etc. It is not easy being a GBV fan. Alot of his stuff is difficult to listen to. But he always manages to have a few gems out of the bunch. "I expect a kill", " The Louis Armstrong of Rock and Roll" are great and "it's only natural" is my favorite Pollard song since "Frequent Weaver Who Burns".Also, after a few listens, "Conspiracy Owls" will sound spectacular. It's sad GBV is putting out it's last album this coming August. But as long as Pollard keeps writing songs, solo, or other bands, I'll be happy. I'll give this album four stars. This is worth buying for any diehard GBV/Pollard fans.

This will get under your skin.
These songs require repeat listening. The gratification is a little slow but it sticks and gets under your skin. Stadard Pollard. Real good soundtrack for the summer. Standout out tracks: "The Louis Armstrong Of Rock And Roll" "I excpect a kill" "Their Biggest Win." Absolute must buy for those who dig GBV. Good buy for those who have not caught on yet.

It's no fiction- this record rocks!
The freshest and popiest Pollard solo project in a long while, Fiction Man is nothing less than astonishing. And, the record is another shining example of how much Guided By Voices only fans are missing by not plumming the depths of Pollard side, solo, and collaborative projects. Not only are the trademark hooks and stiring melodies of all Pollard penned tunes in evidence, but an incredibly dense sound layering and zesty musicianship is put forth by Todd Tobias, GBV producer and apparent rennaisance man, playing all the instruments and tweeking all the knobs. Especially shocking in its weird metal heaviness is "Trial Of Affliction And Light Sleeping", my personal favorite so far. If you love GBV, or are just curious about this prolific and gifted artist, give Fiction Man a try.

keep knockin em out
even with the breakup of gbv, these 31 and change minutes of music shows that pollard still has alot to offer. it won't strike you at the first listen, just like any other gbv/pollard release. but try it after 5 listens and it will scortch your soul. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Remarkable Beauty
The Microphones transport the listener into a theatrical (but not outrageous or pretentious) environment with their latest release, Mount Errie. This is not a CD for the multi-disc shuffle option. All five songs are inescapably tied together through white noise washes, a wonderful abstract philosophy, jolting chouses, off key harmonization and frantic lo-fi drumming. Anyone already experienced with the Microphone's intellectual brilliance will find this irresistible. Don't let the idea of a concept album discourage your purchase. The story is wonderfully constructed and focused like a momentous novel. It is the reluctant acceptance of death and the life affirming aspects of the acknowledgment. "Oh' Universe, I see your face looks just like mine, and we are opened wide." If you have never heard the Microphones before, this album may be a bit overwhelming for your first encounter (try The Glow pt. 2 instead). But, I think that any audacious or intellectual listener will soon perceive the beauty and strength of this recording. Tracks 2-5 are remarkable. Track 1 is a bit extensive, but the birth sequence ultimately leads the listener down the tributaries of the epoch. One can not hustle the primeval womb.

Microphones masterpiece--so far
Ever since I heard their seminal album The Glow Pt. 2, I've been following this band (which is composed mainly of Phil Elvrum, the mind behind it all, and a few of his musically-inclined friends) and their musical ventures into the previously unknown.

I immediately went in pursuit of more of that music. I have since bought the previous album It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, and the singles collection Song Islands, and have been consistently impressed with the ideas and musicianship that come from one man's mind and his relationship with the universe. (All the Microphones albums can be seen to have a nature-based thread running throughout them, except the singles collection, which is stunning in itself as a portrait of the tremendous growth Elvrum has experienced since his original flowering.)

After the tremendous success of The Glow Pt. 2 (its review page is one of the most popular on this site), where was there to go but up...and out. Mount Eerie is the Microphones' musical idea of the universe, from creation to the present--including a stunning visit with Death itself. It is a true concept album.

It's nothing if not ambitious. And that's the kind of stuff coming out of the independent music scene in Washington state, and that's the kind of stuff you have to be ready for if you're going to listen to the Microphones.

Don't get me wrong, it's melodic and sounds great through headphones. There's all the normal surface that we expect from our music, but there's more. That's all I'm saying.

Of course, I wouldn't recommend this as a first Microphones purchase. There's enough material here that it may be overwhelming to a new listener. Get into the Microphones state of mind first. Listen to It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, then go to The Glow Pt. 2, and if you "get" those, you'll be ready for a trip to Mount Eerie.

Their Best Record
The Microphones really did it with this album. Perhaps its not the most accessible, but if you take this cd and listen to it alone in a situation where it is your one and only focus, the cd paints a lucid picture of what the universe is, how man has evolved and where man will go. The track listing maps it out.

I. Sun - Takes the whole existence of man through its primal developement and brings us to the present.. I shouldn't continue with my interpretation, but it's all there, or perhaps I'm crediting Phil more than I should.

I do have qualms with certain aspects of the Microphones, such as Phil Evrum's matter-of-fact indie voice, but the recording production far outweighs any such details - The microphone is the main instrument in this band: you hear the drone of room recorded at high sensitivity several times, you here the near clipping of his voice singing so close and softly ino sensitive mics. Its good, purchase it.

don't read reviews
albums are good. albums are bad. don't let these reviews affect you good or bad.

And the big black cloud will come....
Mt. Eerie is not a record to listen to in pieces. The record, more or less, is a song, a long piece that flows together quite beautifully in its own strange way. The opener, "The Sun" is a twenty-minute piece, with ten of those minutes devoted to tape hiss and pounding percussion and the other encompassing a fractured lament that builds into a terribly loud climax that ends in hiss. "Solar System" follows the storm, a nice acoustic reprieve from the hurricane of noise. "Universe" and "Mt. Eerie" are more or less one piece, with Phil Elvrum and Karl Blau taking turns with their grasp of lo-fi, minimalist mastery. And all comes to a conclusion with another track entitled "Universe" with Phil Elvrum's voice accompanied and later overtaken by the most ghostly of choirs, who sing a hypnotic vocal riff until all comes to a halt. A concept album about life and death, Mt. Eerie both begins quietly and ends suddenly, an apt metaphor for the living process. Sound a little pretentious? Perhaps, but there's always room for creativity and when it sounds this fully realized, there's nothing wrong with dabbling in indulgence. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential recording

Two smart young college guys with a bunch of catchy,cryptic songs and a taste for peculiar sonics go into a studio with a showboating older drummer and come out with one of the definitive indie-rock albums. Beneath its coils of raw distortion and screaming-for-the-hell-of-it, Pavement's first full-length disc gets over on the strength of stellar songwriting and ingenious melodicism. Sometimes Steve Malkmus's sly, evocative word-games reveal genuine emotion ("Here"), and sometimes they just pay tribute to his favorite bands ("Conduit For Sale!" is a nod to the Fall), but these songs are unconventional in a way that set the convention for bands that came after them. --Douglas Wolk ... Read more

Reviews (75)

there's no culture, there's no spies [apparently]
"most important album of the 90s" is thrown around a lot for this, which is maybe why I didn't end up getting it until early this year. I had heard a live version of Zurich Is Stained on the internet & loved it, all yelled out & distrorted & then I hear the lp version & it's sort of country-ish, laidback & I was a little bit disappointed. But there's certainly enough screaming & feedback throughout the album, 1 of the tracks Chesley's Little Wrists appears to be just that & probably if it was a single would not be considered too influential or whatever. I'd heard Brighten & Crooked Rain before this. After a few listens I could see why people liked it so much. It's not as lo-fi as people would have you believe, I know what lo-fi stuff sounds like & this isn't really it, [+ CR,CR is nowhere near it]. I like 2 States, In The Mouth a desert, ZIS, Trigger Cut, Our Singer, Fame Throwa & probably a few others the best. I love the sound.

Confused and aimless - fails to avoid the traps
When they first emerged in the 1990s, Pavement were seen as the antithesis of the heavily produced grunge sound coming from Seattle in 1991 (Nirvana and Pearl Jam).

They were labelled "lo-fi" because of the relatively primitive recording techniques the band used for its songs. However, "lo-fi" ought to suggest that Pavement were rough, tuneless and noisy.

In fact, it is fair to say that Pavement on "Slanted And Enchanted" really had no idea of where they were going. Whilst there are patches where the guitars are very harsh like grunge, most of the time the band was caught completely between wanting to be simple and rough, and the reality that they were making a record in the vein of R.E.M.'s 1987 masterpiece "Document". Only, unlike R.E.M., their songs have so little melody and so little eccentricity that they would sound like generic power pop had the band more patience. For example, on "Trigger Cut" one hears distorted guitars that the band seems to have either toned down or edited in an effort toi imitate R.E.M.

Moreover, the sheer bluntness of Steven Malkmus' vocals makes the songs painful upon first listen and rarely any less so after repeated listening. He does not know whether he wants to speak or sing, and he comes across as not really being part of the record.

This album, in many ways, is part of the period which caused me to believe anythign outside the mainstream was tuneless noise (a myth, I know, but in australia it is easy to believe).

Insanely overrated
I don't see what the hype is about. This doesn't compare to Nirvana, Radiohead, REM or even Sonic Youth. There are couple of cool songs and the laidback detached singing is enjoyable but I see no traces of genius, just quirky lyrics, lazy arrangements and unmemorable boring tracks. I wonder if anyone who claims this is the greatest album of the 90's has any technical knowledge of music or song writing. Not that that in and of itself makes you a musical expert but it can give you a perspective that you might not otherwise enjoy. I liked some of the songs on Wowee Zowee and I think Malkmus writes some cool stuff but it's insulting to put him in the category that he is put into. I think that this (like most indie underground music) is hipster posing disguising no real talent or innovation. If you want real songwriting genius buy "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys. There is the slight possibility that I haven't "gotten" it yet but I find that doubtful. Extremely overrated and I am disappointed.

Review
Yes, this album has been called one of the greatest of the '90s. Spin Magazine ranked it #5 of the decade. Pitchforkmedia.com has it at #3. You've heard all the hype, all the comparisons, all the great things about "Slanted & Enchanted." Believe it.

Looking through pitchforkmedia.com one day, I came across their list of the 100 best albums of the 90s. Looking through, there were several albums I could not believe were on there, and several that I agreed with wholly. But at #3 was this Pavement album, which I had never heard before. So, being the skeptic that I am, I downloaded a couple songs to see what was so great. A week later, I had the CD. Now, I'm not going the say this is the third best album of the 1990s. But it is an excellent CD, no doubt about it. I can't imagine what my life was like before I listened to Pavement. It is a fantastic work. Nearly every song is well written, catchy, and fun to listen to. Soft, slow, and mellow tunes such as "Here" are mixed in with fun, quick, and loud tracks with random screams thrown in because, well, why not?

The lyrics are some of the most clever I have heard in a long time. For those reviewers who don't get them, it's too bad. Unfortunately, some people like their lyrics to be straight-forward, unimaginitive, and tell-it-like-it-is. For those of you with more refined tastes, however, you will find the lyrics fun and insightful. If you can handle real good music, I suggest you buy this CD. For everyone else who wants easy to understand music that doesn't make you think, I believe Nickleback has a new album out.

abstract art
I enjoy going back and reading all of the mixed reviews of this album. Some proclaim it the greatest album of the 90s; others go on and on about how record critics are insane and only indie snobs could appreciate this. First of all, hearing this album for the first time and 2000 or 2001 is not the same as hearing it in 1992. An awful lot has happenend musically in the interim. When this album first came out, it was innovative and revolutionary. It reestablished underground indie music just as Nirvana was bringing its homogenized, radio-friendly offspring to the malls of America. Secondly, this album needs to be appreciated as an abstract painting would be. It's not a picture of a sailboat or a bowl of fruit before you but an acutal work of art. I think that a lot of people who are missing the point on this ablum can't appreciate its abstractness. They are fans who want their art to look like a recognizable image all of the time. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

12 Minutes of Pop Perfection
It may only be 12 minutes long but it is a perfect disc. Every song is a gem, none more so than the last song. Stephin Merritt writes better songs than anyone else even within the strict formal constraints of this disc(each song is built on a repeating chordal/rhythmic loop). Buy this and Holiday which is better than 69 Love Songs, as far as I'm concerned.

Id love to move in to the house of tomorrow
If you measure how good an album is by the play time, Im guessing your playlist is made up of ...Stairway to Heaven, Heard It Thru the Grapevine and American Pie. Dont get me wrong, these three amazingly long songs are SUPER , but there are some really tasty tunes out there under 10 minutes long. This CD is holding 5 prime examples.... At one time I lived in a really small town and the big treat would be to go to chapel hill and hang out for a few days with pals. So me and my pals would pile into the car with snacks and soda and mix tapes and books and just drive and drive in hopes that something fun and exciting would happen. My friend patty had sent me a copy of a seven inch single that contained most of the songs on this album, and when we heard the amazing sound of Stephin Merrit and his brood it just blew us away. The first track on this CD is Young and Insane, and it instantly became our theme song. We would rewind again and again to hear the haunting lyrics ... "We're young and insane and we're running away for the summer..." It was just perfect. The other songs have the same hauntingly fun sound that you have grown to love the Magnetic Fields for.

If you arent familiar with the magnetic fields, think of Cocteau Twins singing Phil Spector tunes. Its like a familiar warm blanket washed in a new sweet detergent. What could be better? Amazingly beautiful and fun stuff.

time is a concept by which we measure our pain
reviews of CDs that whine about playing time crack me up (see previous review below). that's not the point, kids. it's what the artists do with the time that's important. and what we have here is twelve minutes of pop magic. every song is a winner. this CD could be 4 minutes long and i'd still give it 5 stars. chew on that, clock-watchers.

all too brief
Despite this ep having 5 songs, the playing time barely manages 12 minutes - not good value at the price. The songs, of course, are up to the usual Merritt standard, but it would have been better value for money if he'd included them on another of his albums (stylistically, there's not much to differentiate them from his other works). For avid fans only. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Titan were huge in their native Mexico at the start of 2000 but little known elsewhere. Blending a mixture of horn-driven acid-jazz with the funkier end of big beat, Elevator is a kaleidoscopic foot-tapper just right for summer days and tequila-fueled nights. With production credits that include Craig Borrell and Ross Harris (Dust Brothers, Beck) as well as Michael Franti (Disposable Heroes), these are no ordinary grooves. Opener "1, 2, 3, 4" is B-52s for the chemical generation, while "Corazon" combines squelchy Hammond organs, vocals reminiscent of Sergio Mendes's "Brasil '66," and the head-nodding spirit of the Wiseguys onto one track. The album also includes Titan's signature piece, an inspired interpretation of the theme to the '70s cop show Starsky & Hutch. "Cum on Feel the Noize" is a more literal cover, but elsewhere on this retro-heavy collection, the ghost of Huggy Bear looms large and proud. --Paul Tierney ... Read more

Reviews (7)

C'mon Feel The Noise
White hot guitars, great samples, and a sound that goes from surf to funk by way of Tijuana and 70s cheese-rock while the beats crush you to a pulp. Plus almost nobody knows about them. I would love to see them live.

The Future
This album is great, after years of working in the undergorund area doing live-gigs, they decide to release an album, it has so many musical fusions It' just way too cool... It's a shame they haven't released a new one, don't know if they will since one of the members of the band is currently (jul/2002) working with a band called "Moderato", don't know what the future has in store for this band, but this CD is a proof of what could have been a great career for an excelent band.

Serious sounds of mexican electronica
I had the feeling that the group was carefully keeping an eye and ear on each and everyone of the tracks to make sure not to sound or make something that is already done, but, Plastilina Mosh was already there. The cd is fun to listen to and it deserves for you to give a try. I'm sure it will become one of favorites.

Promete, pero se queda corto
Este disco promete, de veras, pero se queda corto. Su momento mas interesante ocurre en la segunda cancion. Pero lo demas, aunque produce algo de disfrute, no emociona. No hay riesgos. Bajo la apariencia de desorden, todo sonido en este disco esta milimetricamente medido, que en principio no esta mal, pero no se, no provoca esa emocion que produce un album excelente. Espero que en su proximo disco -si no lo han hecho aun, este disco que reseno es del ano de 1999- me convenzan de que debo comprarlo.

Good Safe Music.
Staraight out of Mexico City's thriving club scene come the hugely popular Titan. You mostly cannot tell form their music that they are Mexican except from a few vocal samples here and there. Their music is pretty undark and well produced but i feel that its all been done before. Everything seems to be done by the book. Please dont get me wrong, this is not a bad cd...but i am afraid i only will be able to like it i will never love it. That being said this Cd does have its high points...."1 2 3 4" is a great track whth superfast sufer rock styled beats and catchy guitar samples. "Corazon" is another great track with a chorus that is quiet addictive...in fact this track is also on the soundtrack to "Amores Perros" (hope i spelt that right)..a Mexican film about underground dog fighting..very very cool film, watch it if you can get your hands on it. "Battle Love" is a fast pace big beat extravangaza ..the most interesting part about this tarck is the vocal sample that they used..its from a cheezy 80's indian bubblegum film. Thas is an excillent touch and that atleast for me is the high point of hte CD. Rest of the CD flows pretty smooth whithout any dissapointing moments but there are no extactic moments either. Titan have tried to capture the beauty of retro style which they have been pretty much successful in doing butin the process have pushed their music into the generic rather than the name brand section. This Cd is a great party Cd but i wont recomend for any other porpose. Plastillina Mosh (also form mexcico) make similar styled music but they are of a slightly higher order....check them out. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Nothing in Smog's previous output suggests the austere beauty presented here. Previously, Bill Callahan (who for all intents and purposes is Smog) recorded half-finished vignettes that were held down by an excess of low-fi studio mud. Here, he slows everything down to a trickle (except "Somewhere in the Night" which positively rollicks along by comparison) and the leaky faucet of this doom seems to be unfixable. The deadpan basso-profundo delivery gets deeper over time as the nails of failure from each relationship are hammered in. The opener is "You Moved In" and rests as a bad omen. By the time of "All Your Women Things," Callahan is constructing a dolly from his ex-girlfriend's accouterments. Spooky. --Rob O'Connor ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Pain and Suffering Never Felt This Good
Bill Callahan has created a masterpiece that is really beyond words. All I can say is that if you've recently had your heart torn out and stepped on with a pair of soccer cleats, THIS is the album for you. Tenderness and nostalgia, bitterness and despair, Doctor Came At Dawn is frighteningly accurate in its depiction of a breakup you can only relate to. Be prepared to reach for the Kleenex... Smog you're a genius.

Pretty Good
I will agree that Luke's review is ridiculous. BUT... this album is not quite as great as everyone says. Bill Callahan's guitar is always out of tune (this is especially apparent with doubled guitar passages), and all of the playing is very sloppy. It's almost as if Callahan is making up the music as he goes along, and is unsure of what note he's going to play until it's too late. This doesn't hurt all of the tracks, though. It gives a few of them the feeling of floating in and out of water (if you happen to be looking at the album cover while listening).
Those complaints aside, the songs on this CD are mostly very good. Callahan's simple, repetive, dark, and melancholy chord changes provide a perfect backing to his droning baritone voice. The lyrics are equally as dark and melancholy, and seem quite mysterious as well. It's as if they paint pictures of emotions (mainly sadness) rather than dealing with them in any direct sense. Most of the time, you don't really know what Callahan is talking about, but you feel his emotions.
"Doctor Came At Dawn" is Smog's darkest release to date. Highlights include "You Moved In", "Spread Your Bloody Wings", and "All Your Women Things". Personally, I prefer Callahan's partner Cindy Dall, Mark Eitzel, Ida, Red House Painters, Idaho, or Dakota Suite over Smog in the sadcore genre. But if you are a fan of lo-fi sadcore, this is still good stuff.

Luke doesn't know.
well first of all. this cd is a great, and powerful cd. in the review from Luke (which helped 5 out of 20 people) i think that some one who dosen't listen to smog should just keep their mouth shut. i guess all of the college drinking and smoking "dope" made all of the good taste pour itself from the pores of his skin only to be left behind on some cold and unused sidewalk. where it was left dying, but i don't think that it matters since apparently he didn't use it before. anyway in this cd you can hear (smog) coming to form. i can just read the lyrics to myself and hear the music, and think grace is the sound from which bill touches

The Bigger the Heart...the Bigger the Ache
I was given this album on the occasion of my 27th birthday. And this album feels like being twenty-seven. It is all new reflection and re-evaluation. It is all complicated minimalism and jagged shards of broken heart sliding around in your ribcage. This person Bill says the kinds of things you never hear on records from the mouths of males, the kinds of things your best bisexual boy friends say when you're sitting on the beach in the freezing cold in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, the words are set to slow and simple (sometimes dischordant) chords that whip around you insistently like that freezing ocean breeze. It is not well-ordered. It is atmospheric. And, though it is heartbroken and betrayed, you cannot feel lonely listening to this album because it is whimpering the human condition. You are comforted to be finally in a world you recognize, with your own kind. Or I was, anyway, for what it's worth.

A Hauntingly Beautiful Album
Simply stated, this is an excellent and consistant album, and is my favortie Smog release. When I first bought it, I just listened to it over and over. It isn't complex, and it isn't ground-breaking, but it has an almost indescribable uniqueness. "All Your Women Things" is one of the best tracks, as is the opening track. Enjoy. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

4 stars for Natural One
Natural one is a great song alone and good song to go with the movie kids, fits it perfectly. This single only has 2 songs on it and the second Song Cabride is just a instrumental, reminds me of new york and the movie- goes good with it. So i recomend this if you like the music from the movie kids or I recomend the whole soundtrack. Natural one 4 stars-cabride, 2 and half-3 stars.

Great single, but the b-side disappoints
"Natural One" is one of my favorite songs. I hadn't previously heard anything else by Folk Implosion, however, so I expected the b-side to be stylistically similar to "Natural One." "Cabride," the b-side, is rather discordant, with some odd instrumentation. I'm pretty sure I heard a recorder in there somewhere. I've listened to it a few times but I just can't seem to get into it.
So, overall: 3 stars. As I said, I love "Natural One" and would have given the single 5 except for the weirdness (for lack of a better term) of "Cabride." ... Read more

Amazon.com

Few bands have come to single-handedly rule a genre as well as Stereolab. The only question remaining is which genre. The band's machine-funky grooves, oddball synthetic washes, and disturbingly flat vocals suggest a futuristic disco where the survivors of nuclear war have settled for alienation anthems that recall the "space-age bachelor pad" music of the distant innocent past. But this is all conjecture. No one knows what the music of the future will sound like. (Heck, we once thought by the year 2000 we'd all be walking around in Lost in Space outfits.) Stereolab, however, are certainly what we think of.

Microbe Hunters is both compact and expansive: only seven cuts but taken over 40 minutes. It begins with the lengthy Can-inspired instrumental "Outer Bongolia," which uses a circular rhythm and hook to layer the special effects. "Intervals" is the ballad form delivered in icy female tones to rob it of all sentiment. "Retrograde Mirror Form" ends things with a trippy tape loop. Beginners should start with Emperor Tomato Ketchup as Microbe Hunters works best as an addition to the Stereolab catalog and not as an introduction. --Rob O'Connor ... Read more

Reviews (30)

it's a new stereolab disc alright
the songs on this disc are a lot like "cobra phases" but without so much production or a horn section. the disc is comprised of 6 new songs recorded with sean o'hagan (high llamas) and produced by fulton dingley (who helped with one of the songs on cobra) and a seventh track resurrected from 1997 and produced by john mcintyre. the songs on this album are more groove oriented (outer bongolia, i feel the air) in the keyboard-heavy vein of "metronomic underground" and "brakhage" but also feature a healthy amount of tim gane and mary hansen's guitars. they continue in the jazzy vein opened up by "cobra" but also harken back to earlier albums like "transient random-noise bursts." as always, the interplay of laetitia sadier and mary hansen's vocals complement the complex instrumentations fully.

stereolab is the sort of band that inspires rabid fandom or indifference... if you are among the former, "microbe hunters" is worth picking up. if you are among the latter, i agree with amazon's reviewer, pick up "emperor tomato ketchup," "dots and loops," or "cobra phases" before this disc to fully appreciate the band.

my only quibble is that 40 minutes now seems short for a stereolab release.

p.s. go see this band live. i was lucky enough to see them perform some of the songs at the first show of their current us tour before i got the disc, and seeing the songs played so well live only made me enjoy the disc more.

Not as inspired as the others...
Of all the Stereolab releases I own, this one seems to be the least inspired. On the other albums, the same tone seems to carry throughout the album, and that's how they hold together. But this is more like a hodgepodge of leftovers from the past few albums.

The songs themselves are great: "Outer Bongolia" and "Barock-Plastik" are their funkiest tunes since Metronomic Underground; "I Feel The Air" recalls Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" and has a D&L Twist; "Nomus Et Phusis" and "Retrograde Mirror Forms" are pure bliss, ripe for use in a Island Adventure movie; perhaps they should go in this direction for their next album. "Intervals" sounds like it would fit nicely into the "Aluminum Tunes" collection, as "Household Names" would have fit nicely into "Cobra". The latter song is an energetic, mid-tempo, housework song. But there's nothing to link them together.

I'm not one of the 'Lab fans nostalgic for the "Peng!" era either; my first album was "Dots and Loops". I was first into their recent stuff. But this release is for Lab completists only. If you're going to start with the Lab, check out the last three albums first.

BEST THING S"LAB EVER DID: spacelab lullaby lounge music
perhaps greater songs scattered thruOUT there cosmosii but this is too perfect...especially songs 2-thru-6: the nuclear core of this incredible ep. too many bad reviews of this, too many crusty old lab fans (i WAS one)...but this slicks out past the future and the present...ya know, i think the best song ever done is certainly from COBRA: permutations........but this is the ep that interfaces with IT and makes the whole gel slide whole and edgy and groovy without nary a hipster in the room. if you are a hipster, you will painfully atomize. "become one...hold your thoughts to the Present".........ETC.

blah blah blah...
i read above somewhere that this is more of an addition to a stereolab collection rather than an introduction. i, however, stumbled upon this album with no previous knowledge of stereolab and fell in love. but i guess everyone is entitled...

One of the Groop's best
I should begin by saying that I've been a huge Stereolab fan since 1992; I own nearly all of their releases (with the exception of some of the vinyl-only releases).

The funny thing is, I usually don't care that much for a new Stereolab release the first few listens. They reinvent themselves a bit on each release, so I suppose I need a few listens to get "oriented." First of the Microbe Hunters was no exception. I didn't get into much at first, but it's become one of my favorites. About half of the tracks on this would be candidates for a personal best-of compilation ("Household Names" would be a shoo-in).

Is this the best CD to start with if you're new to Stereolab? Probably not. Go for Mars Audiac Quintet or Emporer Tomato Ketchup. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A step below "Memories Of Love," but still very enjoyable.
Perusing some of the other reviews of this EP, I wonder if the other reviewers are even aware that FBH came out with a brilliant full length LP, "Memories of Love," in 1997. Additionally, I feel other have been unduly harsh on this EP release. "Memories" was one of a scant few recordings that almost instantly entered my top ten of all time after hearing it. I've called it a "perfect album": adventurous synth pop with incredible lyrics and fitting vocals (Stephin Merritt's mellow...baritone and Claudia Gonson's breathy alto trappings). It's no wonder then that as soon as this EP was released I had to have it. I see it as merely a teaser for great things to come from FBH; almost like a promo more than a proper EP release. It took me a bit to get used to the subtly different approach from "Memories" (a bit more dancy), but I ended up loving it all the same. The title track is a breezy synth pop tour de force - a perfect break up song. "My Blue Hawaii" grated on me at first, but after a bit I found I couldn't get it out of my head. The lyrics may be trite, but it's camp fun (and sounds exactly what you'd imagine a synth pop song about Hawaii to sound like). "Cafe Hong Kong" just knocked me right out. A slow, swaggering piece of night time alleyway synth jazz, anchored by Gonson's desperate, gentle cherubic vocals. "Good Thing I Don't Have Any Feelings" sounds as if it could have been an outtake from the "Memories" LP, thereby making it my favorite track. A concise three-minute synth pop nugget, again returning to the theme of breakups (Stephin seems to be at his best when using "brevity" as his watchword). The "Hopeless (remix)" marks the *third* occasion the song has been released by the group, so they're obviously fond of it, but it does little to improve on the already fabulous "Memories" LP version. If you're a Merritt addict, this is definitely a required purchase (aren't they all?). If my review has piqued your interest, I'd suggest starting with the LP "Memories Of Love," or perhaps delving into Stephin's amazing main musical vehicle, The Magnetic Fields ("Get Lost" makes an excellent starting point).

ditto to below
Although the production and intention is excellent - Giorgio Moroder meets Leonard Cohen - this isn't really satisfying stuff. Stephen Merritt's aesthetic is admirable but suffers from an over-emphatic delivery ("I'm an artist, dammit! And I will realise my vision!"), resulting in beautifully melodious and incisive songs that ultimately become unbearable because of his foghorn voice. Please, Stephin, give a really good singer a chance!

74 Love Songs
Stephen Merritt, mastermind behind The Magnetic Fields, Gothic Archies, the 6ths, and Future Bible Heroes, is certainly prolific. Consistent, too, as the 69 Love Songs box set will attest. Due to the heft of 69 Love Songs, it comes as no surprise that FBH's I'm Lonely (And I Love It) EP feels tossed off. Could it also be the retro-80s cast of these 5 tunes? The title track and "Hopeless (Remix)" are gay bar phenomenons that've already happened; "Good Thing I Don't Have Any Feelings" sounds like Pet Shop Boys fronted by Leonard Cohen; "Café Hong Kong" an OMD construct featuring Anna Domino. Only "My Blue Hawaii" has the fresh perspective that makes Merritt's 80's tributes take flight. After the long haul of 69 Love Songs, Merritt probably needed the respite of this mini-LP. Whether or not you need it is up to you.

You just can't stop the hits (I guess)
One would think Stephen Merritt would be too exhausted to punch out a melody on his Yamaha after last year's expansive and moody cabaret epic, 69 Love Songs, yet here are 5 more for the inevitable future box set.

This project expands on Mr. Merritt's love affair with new wave music and all things ABBA, and the production is so well-done compared to the Memories of Love LP. Drum machines boom over layer after catchy layer of synthetic melodies, while Stephen drones about lost love, Martin Denny, and (of course) the moon.

Don't get me wrong, this is by no means brilliant, but it will satisfy the average Merritt fan, and wet your appetite for the long awaited 6ths album (to be honest I might be the only one waiting, but don't let my obsessive compulsive disorder deter you). ... Read more

Album Description

This 10 track collection offers up vinyl only tracks, UKB-sides, and previously unissued recordings. Digipak.Recordhead. 2002. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

not the best by guided by voices
got 23 minutes? thats all you need to hear this EP by guided
by voices. when i bought this in the store i did not know it
was an EP, once i saw their was only 10 songs( which for guided
by voices is short) and its also limited. some of this album
is pointless and it wasent even like they were trying. two songs
are 50 seconds, and whats the deal with some of these song titles? beg for a wheelbarrow?
stronger lizards? but there are good songs.
the last song sounds like an anthem for an irish pub.
i like the first song and second, and
i think that stonger lizards has very cool
chord progression, but it would have been
better if it were longer, some songs are meant to be short and
some really arent. this isn't a bad album, it s good, but if
you are just getting into this group, dont buy this album.
universal truths and cycles is a very good album, with the
absoulutley great song " pretty bombs". i am going to go out
and buy alien lanes by them which is from 95, because it has
28 songs and is 41 minutes. how cool is that?

One of GBV's best eps.
The only fault I can find with this cd is that it is overpriced for how short an album it is. But the songs on here are very high quality. Visit This Place and Dig Through My Window show GBV's more pop-oriented side. Beg For A Wheelbarrow will have you raising your beer and chanting along with Pollard next time the band comes to your town. The title track is remeniscent of older GBV, circa Alien Lanes. The rest of the tracks are no filler either. It's often hard to know what you're going to get with GBV's side releases, but this one is top knotch, even better than the quality Hold On Hope ep. If you love GBV, you need this cd. If you're only mildly interested in the band, or just thinking about picking up your first GBV record, start with another release that will give you more for your money.

This is one of the good ones
_
Though a GBV completist, I recommend on musical merits -- this is a good one.

The New Old Sound
First off, this is NOT the place to start. Unless you enjoy obtuse snippets and brief flashes of crypto-pop, Prince Whippet is a confusing cul-de-sac of prog impulses and post punk florishes. Sure there is rock here but it is all filtered through that Ohio outsider vibe that has been going since the 70s. So if you are looking to brainlessly shake your booty to power pop punk, you will not even get past the door.

But if you are someone who has long been a citizen of this Wallace Stevens goes punk alternate earth, this is a veritable feast of Pollard powered indie pop. From the near textbook example of Townsend-Punk that is "Visit This Place" through the sludgy anthem of "Action Speaks Volumes" to the subtle orchestral (how often do these two words get put together?) sweep of "Dig Through My Window", you cover the many flavors of this crucial indie rock group. Like so much of the GBV catalogue, other mixed metaphor gems ("Swooping Energies, Instant Prince Whippet, Beg For A Wheelbarrow.") come to your attention with multiple listens. Coming somewhere in terms of quality between "Sunfish Holy Breakfast" and "Hold on Hope" eps, the Prince holds its title as a fantastic continuation of the long standing GBV adventure. Does what an ep is supposed to do, keep us psyched for the next long player. Not great on its own but certainly a worthwhile addition to that GBV collection you have growing in your rock'n'roll closet.

Best GBV EP Yet (of modern era GBV)
This Ep is much better than I expected considering that eight out of its ten tracks were outtakes culled from the 19 track UTAC, which I felt had its weaker moments. Naturally, I didn't think that there would be much left over to offer the listener. I thought that I would be hearing a hodgepodge of leftovers, of interest only to completists. At first this expectation held true, as I wasn't too impressed with any of the songs. But as with anything released by Sir Robert Pollard, this food takes time to digest (I think that I have been at first disappointed at with pretty much everything that he puts out). But then after the requisite period of time (needed to properly judge albums) had passed, I felt that this was indeed the best GBV EP put out of late.
This is surprising given that I am still not blown away by very many of the songs here (I would only say that Dig through my Window,and Beg for a Wheelbarrow do that for me). What makes this EP so great in my opinion is the fact that unlike other recent GBV Ep's, I can listen to this one from beginning to end repeatedly without having to skip tracks. This was not the case for me with, say the Hold on Hope Ep or Sunfish Holy Breakfast. With Hold on Hope I found that the first two tracks were decent, the next 3 (Fly into Ashes, Tropical Robots, and A Crick Uphill) were as good as anything that Sir Robert has ever done before. But after that it felt that every song was an outtake for a reason. Even Sunfish Holy Breakfast had If we Wait, Cocksoldiers, and Heavy Metal Country, but it never fullfilled me as a listener and it always lost my attention. I guess that except for the aforementioned songs, Sunfish actually does feel like a bunch of leftovers thrown haphazardly together.
But not so with the Prince Whippet Ep where the songs are strung together in such a fashion that it feels like they've always existed next to one another in the organic whole that is the EP, where the total sum is greater than its individual parts. This is a great CD to listen to at night, especially while driving. It kind of feels like hanging out with an old friend. I never feel tempted to skip over any of the tracks, and nor should you. Just don't expect many of the songs to blow you out of the water. This is a Jackie Brown in the GBV catalogue, to the Reservoir Dogs of Isolation Drills, or the Pulp Fiction of Bee Thousand. Though it may never blow you off of your seat, its great to hang out with these characters every once in a while.
P.S. Univeral Truths and Cycles was True Romance (because it takes you on one hell of a ride). ... Read more

Album Details

Taken from her 2003 Self Titled Album "Liz Phair" and Includes Two NON-LP Tracks Exclusive to this Single. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good Single, as a CD, may be for fans
Liz Phair produced the best pop album of 2003 with her release of "Liz Phair."Although that is a great feat, she may have dissapointed some fans with the more mainstream glossiness of her newest album."Why can't I?" is definetly a Liz Phair song, it has just been polished up a bit.What really made the album worth it to those snobby indie purists and even casual fans was the hidden comeandgetit internet EP.Basically buying Liz Phair gave you rights to your own downloadable copy of "comeandgetit"."comeandgetit" contains 5 songs
1. Jeremy Engle
2. Bouncer's Conversation
3. Hurricane Cindy
4. Fine Again
5. Shallow Opportunites.

It is a gem of an "album," maybe these songs weren't deemed worthy by the capitol records staff, but thank god it was released.It is some of Liz Phair's best work yet.Quirky, thoughtful, intelligent, and interesting; if not mainstream. Buying "Liz Phair" for "comeandgetit" is definetly worth it.

Now for this single Cd.Basically it is an ultra rare single released in certain places blah blah blah.What counts now is that you get two songs from "comeandgetit" pressed onto an album.
For fans, it is cool to have these songs on a real cd instead of a burned copy, plus you get alternate cover art.For casual fans
you get a great single and some very rare materiel.

Although all three songs are great, the Cd may only be for "hardcore" fans who want a "real" copy, or fans who do not have access to a computer with CD/r burning abilities; as the songs are free for download after you buy "Liz Phair"

Enjoy!

A CD alternative
There a few Liz Phair songs that I can only listen to when my computer is on.Having bought the 2003 "Liz Phair" CD with access to the internet EP "comeandgetit" whenever I have that CD in my computer's CD-ROM drive, there are five songs that I only listen to by streaming after downloading the most up-to-date player that was available last year.This single has the hit "Why Can't I?" from the CD with two songs from the internet EP.I like the song "Jeremy Engle" for its wry picture of a dining room full of people arguing at dinner with mocking surprise like a stain on his tie, heading for the conclusion, "Sometimes all you need is a napkin."The song "Fine Again" does not seem to be as strong to me, but if you heard it sometime, you might remember something about it's "good to be back."There would be few opportunities in my life to listen to music when I would want to hear these three songs and not get the rest of the 14 songs on the "Liz Phair" CD or the five songs of the internet EP "comeandgetit," but if three songs are all you want, and a CD player is all you can use to listen to music, you might listen to this a lot more than I would.I sympathize with people who would pay so much for a few songs because they think that one of them was a big hit, but I don't know how many people in 2004 could tell you if any of these three songs were.Has anyone ever had a hit song about someone getting a stain on his necktie? ... Read more

Album Description

Recorded in the spring of 2004, during the final months of Parker Noon and Lily Wolfe 's decade-long romance, "The Low Lows" is a set-piece of heartbreak songs, couched in a series of five and six-minute lo-fi mini-symphonies. Heavily reverbed, tube-and-tape based (sounding something like a worn-out 7-inch of Phil Spector producing My Morning Jacket), it's a labyrinthine album--easier to get into than out of. Farfisa, strings, Rhodes, steel guitar, horns, and feedback struggle to balance each other as Parker stutters and mumbles his signature brand of unhappy harmony. Sad southern tints give way unexpectedly to bright walls of melody. The songs are, on average, twice as long as on their previous albums, and dynamics are of the essence this time out, as each song swells from minimalist beginnings toward sweeping choruses. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

When I am feeling way down low

Parker and Lily are a band from Athens, Georgia and who have spent some time in Brooklyn, NY. Parker Noon and Lily Wolfe have been a couple for ten years too. This album was so intense in the making that they broke up afterwards. The band still survives though. They have retreated to their neutral corners. Parker and Lily have played with Interpol and Future Bible Heroes. Their music has a lot in common with those bands. They are romantic and tragic. Parker's signature vocals have a lot of echo on them. Lily Wolfe plays the organ and makes a lot of noise. It is very intimate music. This album is much better than the previous ones. Before they were like a lot of New York bands who grew up on David Lynch and Nick Cave and wore suits. Now they incorporate more American roots music. Maybe before they sounded like this weird atmospheric band. Now they are like an American Arab Strap, very personal and very original.

... Read more

Reviews (5)

Never Too Far From the CD Player
I've been a big GBV fan since Vampire on Titus and was embarassingly upset when Sprout left the fold and Pollard fired the band. This cd righted the ship for me. Without the shadow of Pollard over his shoulder, it seems like Sprout could write some non-self conscious songs that really resonate. I love the vibe of this whole cd and listen to it every couple months. If you like Bee Thousand cut with a little Belle & S style acoustics, toss it on. It's like soul, man.

Friday, June 23rd, The Troubador
The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin, with lyrics that seem to merely consist of the text from handbills for old psychedelic rock club shows, is, quite simply, one of the most transcendent and exhilirating pop songs ever recorded. A fitting cap to a nearly perfect record that, like the best pop, is both meaningless and monumental in equal measures. The cover art (a detail from one of multi-talented Sprout's lovely photorealist paintings) succinctly says it all.

Time for a beer
How on earth this got a rating above one star is beyond me. With a comendable and highly respectable pedigree of Guided by Voices one would at least expect some good songs. I find this cd weak, incipid and unlistenable, this being particularly applicable to the irritating Natural Alarm and Gas Daddy Gas. Anyone need a beer mat?

Tobin's first (and possibly finest)
Sprout's most GBV-like album is a gem of low- to mid-fi pop craftsmanship. His melodies aren't as original as former fellow bandmember Robert Pollard's, but that cuts two ways. Where Pollard's tunes occasionally meander fecklessly, Sprout's are always direct and appealing. Varied, tuneful and engaging eccentric pop.

Tobin Sprout is a genius
For all you Guided by Voices fans out there, this album is simply the best one ever put out by anyone associated with the band. Tobin Sprout was always "that other guy besides Robert Pollard" when he was in Guided by Voices, but he absolutely shines here. The songs all have a definite pop quality, but they differ from regular GBV in that Sprout doesn't take himself as seriously as Robert Pollard does. His songs float along like a summer breeze. The best in my opinion are "Natural Alarm", a great first tune, and "Gas Daddy Gas", a melancholy acoustic tune. This album will blow you away. ... Read more

Album Description

1999 album from leader of Guided By Voices, recorded in fivedays and featuring appearances by former GBV members. 15 tracks. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Insert Witty Quip Here
Thank GOD for Robert Pollard solo records- This in one tasty record. Mr. Pollard- I loved every bit of it. Make GBV records as big and clean as you want as long as you keep these nuggets droppin' along the trail. You sir know how to ROCK.

Difficult but rewarding.
This LP meant nothing to me on the first few listens, I couldn't hear any tunes or find any redeeming features in the music.I thought that finally Pollard has released one album too many. But it crept up on me slowly and after a dozen spins it opened up and bloomed. Songs such as Enjoy Jerusalem!, Town of Mirrors and Flings of the Waistcoat Crowd have a complex and haunting structure that rank as high as anything in Pollard's career so far. Powerblessings stops me in my tracks with its beauty every time I hear it. When is this man going to stop making wonderful music? Not for a long time I hope.

Pollard's Basic Structure
Simply put, this album is only fair. Pollard seems to slip into his usual solo album structure by stacking all the great tunes in the front and filling the rear three quarters with filler. With the exception of "far out crops" the above is true. However, the good stuff is great. Submarine Teams is new ground for Pollard's appearant desire to actually start producing songs. Great intro includes an interesting use of "looped pollard voice chunks" I find particularly groovy. Gone is the low fi, true, but how long can you expect Pollard to be entertained by drinking 14 beers and attacking a 4-track in his basement. OK, maybe forever, but you can't blame him for trying something different.

What got lost along the way? Lo-fi perhaps
My first impression now :) is that the albums was not good at all; GbV evolved from good old lo-fi to, well i can't put a name tag on it but it's just some kind of studio hi-fi rock album, probabely made to sell. If they start with keyboards the whole thing turns out wrong. It started with Mag Earwigh! and it just got worse. The sort of 4/4 straight to the head kinda heavy wall of sound stuff just is nothing compared to there old albums like the brilliant Under the Bushes or Self inflected Areal Nostalgia or Same place the fly got smashed. There is missing something, perhapes it is Toby Sprout??? Conclusion: lo-fi turns in to hi-fi.

Pollard throws out anything but a throw away
When I heard that Pollard was releasing his, like, 500'th album on internet/mail order only, I was suspicious. Hey, this is the format used by most artists to throw away ideas and b-sides, and Pollard's solo albums have always been about 1/2 experimentation anyway. But I relinquished and was delighted at the results. First of all, "Kid Marine" stands as the most solid solo by Pollard yet...no whack 30 second experiments, but rather a bundle of noisy, introspective pieces. To be honest, the album lacks any single track as great as "Waved Out's" "Make Use" or "Not in my Airforce"'s "Maggie Turns to Flies", but it doesn't matter. The key here is a solid work that is consistent start to finish and keeps you coming back to it. In that manner, "Kid Marine" works like a charm, and damn if "Television Prison" hasn't started creeping up in my head when I least expected it. If you're a Guided by Voices fan, you must have this. Not a toss off, but a splendid, well put together collection of Pollard's perfection. ... Read more

Amazon.com

His work in Sebadoh might have endeared him to a generation of mopey hipsters, but it took the Folk Implosion's left-field Top 40 hit "Natural One" to raise Lou Barlow's profile in Middle America. If you're looking for nothing more challenging than the pop propensity of that song (which does not appear here), this much headier disc may make for uneasy listening--but only at first. Barlow and partner John Davis have an uncanny knack for crafting ambient tunes--like the reverb-laden "Blossom"--that insinuate themselves into your skull after a few listens. The duo takes plenty of chances, building rickety sound-collages ("Sputnik's Down") and donning Mod duds (for the punchy title track), and by cramming 14 songs into just over 22 minutes, they insure that the disc contains a little something for everyone. --David Sprague ... Read more

Reviews (5)

perfect pop with a lo-fi heart but a hi-fi soul.
Good things come in small packages. At only 22 minutes long, "Take a look inside..." sounds as complete as any 75 minute long album. Often regarded as lou barlow's "other" band, the folk implosion's first album is a short, firey, lo fi dream. Ditching the negativity from his previous Sebadoh albums, Lou Barlow and John Davis (ex-Palace Music) have crafted a gem. The opening "Blossom" well, blossoms and the closing "Start again" stumbles and jolts around like a runaway rollercoaster. The focus appears to be more towards a fun recording. Lou and John sing in unison without a care in the world (see the sleazy "Slap Me" or the urgent "Sputnik's Down") while the guitars intertwine and caress the beautifully sloppy drums and smooth basslines. Only when they get a little self indulgent does the album veer towards the niggling side. "Winter's Day" is the guilty party here. However, with some startlingly fresh tracks like "Butterfly-Spiderweb" and the title track along with a sneaky cover ("Waltzin with yr ego"), "Take a look inside" is refreshing and well worth seeking.

Pure-pop
This is a great album. If you like Sebadoh I'm not sure if I would recommend this because it is very very different. These are like early Beatles pop songs. They're fun. They're great. And you can dance with your kids!

best folk implosion yet
I bought this record when it first came out in the early 90's and I loved all 25 minutes of it. I can't tell you how many times I have jigged to Sputnik's Down and wiggled to Slap Me. Would love to hear more of this from Mr. Barlow and Mr. Davis.

More credit
Lou Barlow is one of the greatest song writers ever. He has PLENTY of experience writing songs. I think the sound they went for with Folk Implosion is great!

WIERD
this cd truly encompases the alternative genre. it sucks but it's great at the same time. my favorite track is slap me. although these boys are a little inexperienced when it comes to songwriting, they will keep you on the edge of your seat by testing the limits of how much the human brain can take. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Look At This
Length - 12:12
The Apples in Stereo are one of my favorite bands around today. So many groups are always looking for the big breakthrough sound or the brand new cool, but so much new music just sounds dull, not groundbreaking at all. Many bands should take notes from the Apples. Their albums are all brief, but packed full of some amazing music. It's nothing special really, just refined pop music with an injection of psychedelia. But this band makes albums the right way. They're not fake at all, just true-to-life happy songs, and they all end up being shimmering gems as a result of the band's admirable authenticity. If you're reading this and you haven't heard any Apples songs yet, their sound is a striking hybrid of Beach Boy harmonies, Beatlesque whimsy and Big Star powerpop. Track 4, Her Pretty Face, is reminiscent of Bert Bacharach too. My favorite tracks on this ep are the catchy opener Look Away and the aforementioned number, Her Pretty Face. Everything by The Apples is great. I recommend this and all their other albums to everyone.

cheesethunder
I gave this E.P. four stars for the simple reason that all of the tracks already appear on the Australian edition of "Her Wallpaper Reverie". I am not sure if the price of the American E.P. and album are commensurate with the price of the import but it could be something worthwhile for American Apples fans to check out. I thought that the final two songs had a real B-side feel to them and were not as interesting as the opening three. However, this E.P., with the traditional E-6 reliance on the canons of the Beatles and Beach Boys, is still miles ahead of many other albums released this year.

I left toothmarks in the side of it...
5 crisp and juicy new apples fallen from the applesinstereo tree, slick and sonic as you'd expect from them. "Behind the Waterfall" is the loveliest/trippiest of the batch. They're not breaking any new ground or anything, but I certainly don't regret having bought it. Come play in Georgia again, Apples, and save us -- they just added two more nights to Springsteen!

Tasty Little Treat
This may be just a short ep but its a good one. The Song "Look Away" is very good indeed, and makes a strong case for their upcoming album. Full of vibrant catchy pop filled to the brim with harmonies you don't often hear anymore. The other songs are also very good. The second to last song with the female vocals being the standout track. All in all this ep is short and sweet, and makes a yummy appetizer.

Keep it coming!
This disc contains the single "Look Away" from the anticipated next album and four songs from the Apple's Japanese release of Her Wallpaper Reverie. The single is great, a catchy retro rocker. The other songs are nice, but you won't flip over 'em. Still, this is a must buy for any Apples fan. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Pure class by an all round genius !
There is not a single fault with Stephen Jones' song-writing ability. He is the sort of man who twists words into an almost parable-esque form and leaves the listener wondering at the depths of both his mind and his despair. Every title conjures up a new image, a form of almost cinematic intensity. From the darkly sad hidden tracks to the essential work from his first five albums, these are beautiful tunes with emotion stamped all over their sleeve. The tunes worm their way into your head and bounce uneasily, yet effectively, until you become obsessed and begin to consider litening to nothing else. Find the first five albums (and the subsequent larger label releases) and see the full picture...or buy his book "The Bad Book" and see a totally new side to this all-round genius.

Big yellow M, good night, and everything in between
Have you ever gotten the feeling that a lunatic was making fun of you? You know, their words don't quite fit their tone, they take you 'round a verbal curve too fast, and make you feel an odd shade of uncomfortable? You want to react, either by walking away or confronting the source, but you're just too damn entertained by it?

Me, too.

One of the finest song writing doodles ever.
This is a stunning collection of songs written with such imagination and intensity that you can easily overlook the 'basement quality of the recording. Checkout 'Aluminium Beach" on disk 1; and virtually every song on disk 2. An almost perfect album.

Bedroom based lunatic warblings gone chunky
Steven Jones is undoubtedly a lunatic, and it doesn't matter that he produces some less than sparkling tunes because when he gets really depressed then it's time for lift off. Be on the look out for single parent mothers with the hong kong blues, he is. ... Read more

Amazon.com

A gifted songwriter with a knack for sad, ethereal countrysongs, Edith Frost stands apart from the No Depression pack withher willingness to experiment. Her first album, Calling over Time,suspended her tender melodies and drawling vocals in an oddly detachedcelestial haze; 1998's Telescopic replacedthe haze with a thick layer of electric fuzz. On Wonder Wonder,the fog lifts, and what emerges is Frost's most straightforward andfocused album to date. It's tempting to call this a return to basics,but that's not entirely accurate; indeed, with more than a dozensupporting players, it's certainly her most ambitious production(thanks to Rian Murphy). Frost's songwriting is as reliably strong asever, with a noticeably lighter touch to even the most melancholysongs. The title track has a nicely jaunty feel (complete with aclarinet break), and the upbeat, ornate "Cars and Parties" sounds likea hit single for a better world. Edith Frost has long occupied her ownunique space somewhere between the country and indie-rock worlds, andWonder Wonder is another worthwhile addition to her impressivecatalog. --Mike Applestein ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Melancholy music from a voice aweary.
When I was reading press writings on Shannon Wright, Edith Frost's name came up repeatedly, so I made a blind stab and grabbed two of her records off the shelf.

As it turns out, Frost's music is only close to Wright's quietest music on her first record Flightsafety. Edith Frost's voice is actually more like Julie Doiron or Lisa Germano's, with loose pitch and a distinct flavour, and her songwriting remains in a dreamy, melancholic blur, gorgeous in a tired way. The feeling is that of an artist who feels no need to show off, letting a soft bed of instruments and whisper-soft vocals speak her mind.

Forst never scales the dizzying heights of Shannon Wright's more ferocious material or baroque song structures and melodies, but there's a quiet power in the mournful cello parts, tinkling piano and drawn-out vocal murmurs of "True", the wry percussion and sarcastic vibrato singing of "Wonder Wonder", the sparsely apocalyptic, guitar distortion-coloured "The Fear", country rock in "Further", and a buoyant garage-rock romper in "Cars and Parties", which is very atypical of this record.

I don't play this record often, but it's well crafted, with good songwriting and a dark detached mood that's fascinating. Recommended for fans of brainy, unusual music.

Hands down, this is the best Frost album to date
Edith Frost's latest release, "Wonder Wonder", her third full album, marks her debut as a singer/songwriter with a immense talent and style all her own. Although Calling over Time and Telescopic are highly notable and may eventually well be considered "standards" by sad-core enthusiasts, they stand in the shadows of other musicians in the Sad-core genre, namely Palace Brothers (in mood) and Bettie Sievert (in vocal style).

But Wonder Wonder stands independently, rising from the sky blue of her Texas home and reaching into the bleak cityscapes which are defined by pavement rather than greenness. Her vocals are more challenging than ever, and her voice soars and dips, taking us right to the edge of safety and revealing it's edges, before bringing us back to center. Less difficult tonal passages could have been taken, but the vocal stays true to the emotional range of her beautifully crafted material.

Wonder Wonder also stands alone in it's aural moodiness as the first album by Frost that has a truly upbeat tone. (I found it the perfect party album during a low-key holiday gathering.) This isn't to say that the numbers aren't at times sorrowful. "Blue," the first track on Wonder Wonder, is as classic a Frost tune as any you will find, but the step into the upbeat 2nd track ("Cars and Parties") lets the listener know that this album is going someplace new. It's like a breath of fresh air, and with creative instrumentation and a real sense of humor, Frost sounds liberated as she sings about the subject that she frequents most often: meditations on the nature of love.

As a songwriter Frost has always been ahead of the pack, composing songs with enough complexity to hook the listener early on, and enough lyrical mystery to keep our minds filling in the blanks as we replay them over and over in our heads. Somewhere between the Beatles and Elliott Smith is the zone that Frost inhabits musically, and she's never let us down when it comes to musical composition.

However, there have been times on prior releases when the guest musicians were not as polished as Frost's songs deserved. This is not the case with Wonder Wonder, which sounds more complete and full than any other Frost album to date. And yet, unlike some of Elliott Smith and the Beatles works, Wonder Wonder does not get bogged down in overproduction. Just enough boost is provided by the guest musicians to allow the songs on Wonder Wonder to really pop.

How long Edith Frost will remain exclusively a college radio queen is unknown. Her talent equals if not surpasses that of Carly Simon and Phoebe Snow, and Frost has already written more truly great songs than both of them combined. Too bad commercial radio today is so lifeless that an artist with talent as vast as Ms. Frost's has to remain an underground phenomenon. I am certain that the world at large would appreciate her music, lyrics, and her vocal delivery.

As a resident of New York City, I relish the line in the Wonder Wonder track, "Further," where she sings of the "brave fireman" who "reaches out" - it's comforting to be able to sing heartfully about firemen these days. It just feels right.

Alt. Country Plus
This album combines an authentic country/folk twang with honest modern angst over love and relationships in general. I truly hope that this is one of the directions alt. contry/"no depression" music will take in its development. I can't wait for her next album!

Is she a bit off or is it me?
Edith Frost is a talented and refreshing songwriter. Her melodies and lyrics are fantastic. But...why do the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I listen to this CD? Her voice is quirky, and that is OK, hey, I love Leonard Cohen. But she hits so many what sound like "sour" notes that after a while I think I am listening to my little sister at a school recital. In the mid-high range she is great...a very beautiful and natural voice. But on the way down she wobbles like a kid on a two-wheeler for the first time. I will give it another try but this one might be destined for the "rarely played" bin. A voice lesson or two would help. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

awesome
Apples In Stereo are one of my favorite elephant 6 bands, and this album did not dissapoint me at all. I was a little thrown off by the sacharine single "please", but the rest of the record is great. To be honest, I was completely appalled by reviewers here who claimed that The Apples are trying to "sound like the strokes" without pulling it off because they're not "grungy enough". This is completely ludicrous. The Apples In Stereo have been perfecting an original garage rock sound for years, and only recently have trendy well-dressed bands ripped THEM off with FAR INFERIOR music and lyrics. It's true,The Apples did make an upbeat album, but that doesn't mean it doesn't rock! I guess these reviewers couldn't get over the fact that not everyone in the mall is wearing their shirts and watching them talk about what good 'style' they have on MTV.

prepare yourselves for the coming sonic tidal wave
Are you ready to rock? If you're not, then you shouldn't buy this album, because it rocks. Imagine if you threw the Apples in Stereo into a giant blender and recorded them through a huge fuzz box, then you'd get the sound of this new record.

I have the impression that Elephant 6 is coming to an end (when was the last time you saw that little stamp?) but if this means we get consistent new pop albums (see also "Creatures" by Elf Power) then I can live with that. If ever an album would unexpectedly catapult a band to stardom, this should be it. Fortunately people are slavering over the White Stripes so we still get to see the Apples in small venues, hurray for us. What an exclusive club we are.

"Velocity of Sound" lacks sweet little nuggets like "Avril En Mai" and "She's Just Like Me," it's just a relentless fuzz rock pounding which might turn you off (or really excite you depending on what you're looking for). I think it's great. I need this kind of kick in the behind sometimes, and I'm willing to take it from the Apples. Are you?

Man, This Sucks...
Dude, what is this man? It's like, all happy and stuff. That's crap man. I'll admit, these guys used to kinda catchy, but now they sound like the Beach Boys molested by the Jesus And Mary Chains' Psychocandy. I mean, those guitars! They don't even do anything except play some chords again and again. And it keeps going and going. I mean, alright, I guess if you danced to it would be kinda fun. But real music is about feeling. There aren't any feelings on this record. It makes me all smiley, and I really don't like being smiley. There's so much pain out there, how can you just ignore it? Velocity Of Sound? I don't get it. It's too simple, it's too jolly, the lyrics don't mean anything. Okay, I'm done. Now where's that Ramones record...

Rotten apples
Before we get started here, I have a guilty confession: I like pop music. The really bouncy kind, the kind that's so sugary it could rot teeth. Or, to use another metaphor, music that sounds like someone stuffing prozac in your ears.
As such, it was love at first listen the first time I heard the Apples in Stereo. On earlier albums, I pictured Robert Schneider (the lead singer and primary songwriter) as something like Brian Wilson's hyperactive kid brother, compensating for his lack of musical or lyical depth and his tendency toward repetition with a boundless energy and optimism. And while I'm not placing, say, "Tone Soul Evolution" up there next to "Pet Sounds", I loved it.
So like the mindless consumer I am, "Velocity of Sound" came out and I skipped all the way to the record store and slapped my $15 or so on the counter without hearing a single track, popped the CD in my CD player and cried all the way home.

Okay, that's an exaggeration. But not by much. I know they couldn't be shiny and happy forever, and it's good that they tried to climb out of the musical niche they had carved for themselves. But I've listened to it ten times, in good moods and bad, and I just can't force myself to like it. Change is good, but changing into a generic clone of The Strokes is bad, and that's what they did. They added a distorted guitar or so and tried to sing/shout over it (I'll admit here that the resulting vocals are occasionally less abrasive than the nasally ones we've come to know and tolerate), and decided that if they couldn't have good lyrics, they'd have lyrics that were harder to understand. In this confusion, they lost their melodies, which before were the selling point of their songs, leaving the bouncy listener humming it under her breath all day. What remains just sounds kind of tone-deaf.

Given the recent "returning to the roots of rock" movement (whatever the name for it is I'm sure it's equally stupid), I can't help but feel like the Apples are attempting to gain a bigger fan base by riding in the wake of The Stokes/Hives/Vines. The result is something that manages to completely miss both the original Apples sound and the sound of the bands they seek to imitate. Here's hoping the next time they try to expand their style, they do it in a way that's a little more true to them.

Welcome back Mitch!
Well, we`ve waited 15 years for the next Let`s Active / Mitch Easter record---and here it is!! It was well worth the wait. FABULOUS!! Welcome back Mitch! ... Read more