Category: modern rock

Speed Suit – Evidence (This Party Is A Time Machine, 2008)

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My friend Dan Beyer is a member of the duo known as ‘Speed Suit‘ (Nathanial Oester is the other player). After his first show in a basement somewhere in NE Portland, Dan hooked me up with a sweet bootleg CD of the tracks they performed. The second track is easily my favorite.

So compare the beginning to ‘Map of the Problematique‘ by Muse off of their album ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ – hot, totally danceable percussion right up front, an explosive stand-in for a splash cymbal, and then nearly the same grinding electric guitar sounding synth. The expertly-clipped drum samples and winding synth line drive the whole thing forward.

At 0:36 we get a short little ‘one two three four’ moment where the highhat counts us into the first verse: breathy vocals, the same punchy drums, and a great echoey synth on the off-beat.

show me some evidence, don’t give me lies
when left in the darkness we’re led by our hearts
and our hearts are so easily carried away

this isn’t a carousel ride this is life
so if youre feeling lucky and brave take the reigns

The coupling of the syncopated vocals with the kick at 0:50 doesn’t give us any time to catch our breath – it’s almost impossible to relax, because the song just keeps moving forward. The breathy sigh and vamps into the chorus at 1:10 is another bit of Muse-like sensability, while the break at 1:24 keeps things pretty solidly focused on the dancey percussion.

hey
is passion just a weakness
when were acting out on impulse

Another verse at 1:43, this time with an extra distorted synth lead atop the rest of the instruments, and a neat little bendy break at 1:58, which we didn’t get the first time around. I don’t even know what the lyrics are at this point, and I’m not really sure that it matters – enough words sneak through to give you a sort of general good feeling about things. Everything drops down for another great break at 2:14 – and back into the chorus again, and that Muse-esque bassline.

so take back the heresy unless you’ve got spite
meet me at dusk and we’ll settle this
lets bury the hatchet youre using as if its an axe

Short and sweet, things cut right off at 3:00. After talking to Dan and Nate, both Justice and Muse gave some  cues when they were hashing out the instrumentation for these tracks. If you’re into it, feel free to download and listen to the other Speed Suit tracks- I uploaded a .zip of the show for your listening pleasure. And if you’re interested in the group, check out Speed Suit on Myspace.

update july ’09 – check out Speed Suit’s website on thehinge.net for some sweet new tracks!

The New Pornographers – All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth (Challengers, 2007)

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This songs starts out fast and never slows down – the driving percussion, heavy with sizzle and loose handclaps, couples with the piano and occasional flute lines to make it almost impossible to stop bobbing your head to the beat.

And that’s just the first part – after a couple of verses, the flute falls downards at 1:08, and some toms kick in for the chorus:

All of the things that go to make heaven and earth are here.
All of the things that go to make heaven and earth.
Put your new weight in gold and see what its worth.
All of the things that go to make heaven and earth are here.
All of the things that go to make heaven and this.
Success was survival and, kid, it still is.

The play between the female and male vocalists makes this part incredibly catchy, and dramatic – the words ‘heaven and earth’, and ‘success was survival’ contribute too.

Also, it’s got a great line in the last verse:

Crashing into horizons, on the brink of…success! Hurrah!
Success which was survival gone too far.

Just in that line, you get a deffinte feel for a story – all they were trying to do is survive, and they somehow ended up with success, not just in survival, but in life.

My all-time favorite album by The New Pornographers is “Twin Cinema” (2005), but “Challengers” (2007), featuring this song, is a close second.

MGMT – Electric Feel (Oracular Spectacular, 2007)

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The haunting upper synth line at the beginning of this track is what it’s all about – and it’s woven amongst the no-nonsense drums and bassline, a declarative establishing first few bars, easily sliding into the first verse:

All along the western front
People line up to receive
She got the power in her hand
To shock you like you won’t believe

It’s epic sounding, and has enough funk/disco to make you think of disco balls, fog machines, flashing floor tiles, and brooding bass players. The apex of the song at 3:15, “Do what you feel now, electric feel now!” is almost a relief, as if you’ve been waiting all that time for a storm, and the rain has finally broken – just in time for the song to fade out.

The lyrics are about a girl, obviously, one so good that she’s like electricity. It’s not ground-breaking, but the words fit perfectly:

All along the eastern shore
Put your circuits in the sea
This is what the world is for
Making electricity
You can feel it in your mind
Oh, you can do it all the time
Plug it in and change the world
You are my electric girl

The mention of the western front and the eastern short, the ocean, the amazon, all of it makes the song seem somehow bigger and more encompassing, as if everyone were dancing in a blissfull trance, turned on by the electric feel.

edit: I just realized that the distinctive open synthline and chorus are in 6/8 time, while the verses and rest of the song are 4/4. Crazy! It’s the percussion in the intro that tipped me off – the stereotypical drum pattern would be ‘kick – snare – kick – snare’ in a 4/4 measure, but instead we get ‘kick – snare – kick kick – snare snare’, which fits perfectly into 6/8. I wonder if that’s part of the appeal?