Washed Out - Within and Without

I've been anticipating this album for a very long time and now that it's here, I'm slightly disappointed. That could be because the "Life of Leisure EP" was so captivating and lively that it was impossible to top but "Within and Without" definitely seems to lack a certain life even when judged as a standalone. It's not God-awful by any means but it lacks the excitement and immersion of its predecessor.

Although short, "Life of Leisure" spanned many different moods and tempos from the joyful "New Theory" to the foreboding "Hold Out". However "Within and Without" seems to settle on a single mood of quiet melancholy which makes for a few beautiful songs but leaves the whole album feeling sort of flat on the whole.

The songs to look for on this album are the relatively peppy "Amor Fati", the majestic title track "Within and Without", and the sad "Far Away".

Overall: B-

They Might Be Giants releases good new shit, skips Houston

I'm not bitter when good bands neglect to tour through Houston. I know the mechanics of making promises and greasing palms in the music industry makes it hard for bands to come through every city but I'm kind of sad though. They Might Be Giants is going on a long ass US tour and Houston isn't on the docket.

On the more positive end of things, the single off their newly released album ("Join Us") is fantastic though. The song is called "Judy is your Viet Nam" and compares a shitty relationship to the 60s political quagmire. Funny stuff with nice driving guitars. I'd link to it but the record co has been pulling down links all day from Youtube (probably just because it came out yesterday). It's out everywhere now though, including Rhapsody. I'll post my review of the whole thing later this week.

Iceage interview

Elias Ronnenfelt is the frontman of Danish punk band Iceage, and at only 19 years old him and his bandmates have been making some serious waves, on both sides of the Atlantic. Winning acclaim from places like the New York Times and Pitchfork, the band is developing a strong cult following. Their debut “New Brigade” has been out since March and is the one of most raw releases, this year. It clocks in around 24 minutes but says more in that time than a lot of bands say in two albums. The band will be playing with Balaclavas and The Energy at The Mink on July 15.

PostPunkd: For a while you guys weren't on my radar for some reason and I'm really happy that the band is coming to Houston.

Elias: Thank you.

PP: Since you're mid-tour right now, how's it going?

E: The tour is going great.

PP: Now I'm not actually much older than you are but-

E: Oh ok, how old are you?

PP: I'm 21 so I'm only a couple years older than you guys and -

E: I'm 19

PP: Yeah, that's what I heard. That's amazing. So what is it like touring the world at such a young age?

E: People are treating us really well. We met a lot of people who's been over our expectation, just treating us really well. The only thing that's annoying is that we can't drink.

PP: [laughter] Yeah, I was going to ask about that.

E: We manage to do it sometimes but it's hard.

PP: Yeah, I'll bet. You'll learn that the US is still a really puritan country in some ways. Sort of in the same vein, do you think people underestimate you because you're younger or are you getting the respect you deserve?

E: Uh- I don't know. People haven't really been- can you ask the question again?

PP: Yeah sure. Since you guys are younger how have you treated by older musicians and do you feel like you've been getting credit.

E: Yeah, well a lot of the bands we've been playing with have been very nice and bought us beer and stuff. We met a lot of great people so far.

PP: I really like the record, what are some of your influences? Who are some people who inspire you, music-wise?

E: I'm not sure because it comes from a lot of different places and I think like you unconsciously use all of the music you listen to. So I'm not sure how to address it.

PP: This is the band's first LP but have you recorded any singles before it?

E: Yeah, we did a 7 inch before the record.

PP: Are those available anywhere?

E: I think they're all sold out now but our Danish label might have some left.

PP: Could you tell me a little about “New Brigade” and what it was like recording it?

E: We recorded it in like 3 or 4 days. We didn't really use overdubs. Like we played all the music together and we did vocals after that but there wasn't really any overdubs. We just played the songs a couple times till they were right. That's kind of the recording process. We didn't have a producer or anything.

PP: 3 or 4 days is a short recording time. You guys must have been working really hard to get that.

E: Yeah, I guess it was just the method of naming the songs. We didn't need that many attempts.

PP: Can you tell me about the name of the band, Iceage. This might just be me interpreting things but I hear a lot of Joy Division in your guys' music and some of the energy of it and the band name has always reminded me of the Joy Division song “Ice Age” but where do you think the band name from?

E: As for the Joy Division thing, yeah I really like Joy Division -we seem to get compared to them a lot but I don't think we really sound like Joy Division. But we didn't take the name of their song. We just kind of brainstormed words and then it became that.

PP: You don't sound just like Joy Division. You sound like all sorts of things. I appreciate how experimental the music is. It's not just straight punk or straight anything. Did it take you guys a long time to write songs?

E: Yeah it did. We can't just like- just write a song in ten minutes. We spend a lot of time like finding the right parts and melodies and stuff. They are written over time. The ideas are pretty spontaneous but -what can I say- we use a fair amount of time to get the songs right.

PP: It definitely sounds like that. While I would call Iceage punk it seems a lot more thoughtful than a lot of the punk I'm used to hearing in the past couple years. It's a shorter record but it seems like every note is more thought out than a lot of punk bands I know can just sit down and write a song. And that's not always good [laughter]. It's good you spend a lot of time.

E: We don't want anything there that doesn't have to be there.

PP: That's a great quote. One of things that the bands does that made me think 'oh this must have taken a lot of time' is how the band uses lots dissonant tones, lots of noise, in a very calculated way. I love that.

E: Thanks.

PP: On your tour, how many cities in the US have you been to so far? -and Canada too.

E: So far we played two shows in New York, one in Philadelphia, one in Baltimore. Now we're playing one in Pittsburgh tonight.

PP: This is something I've been wondering, after doing some internet homework and listening to the album a couple of time-

E: Thanks, we appreciate that.

PP: How long has the band been together?

E: We started doing Iceage in late 2008 -but we've known each other since we were small kids.

PP: What's the band's plans for the future? Have you started recording or thinking about recording your next album?

E: We've been recording- and we are writing. We've written over half the songs for the next album so it won't be too long.

PP: Since you guys had a major taste of the music industry and touring, definitely more than most bands with members of your age, is there anything in particular that pisses you off about the music community in general?

E: Yeah. I've felt a lot of things but there's a lot of people interested just because a lot of people talk about it, not because they actually relate to the music. That's what I don't like. A lot of business people want to- want to lick our asses because they want to work with us or whatever.

PP: Yeah, I'm sure you're encountering a lot of that now.

E: It can be annoying but it's also good because like- a lot of people get to know about it. That's good. Like I wasn't expecting that people would sing along the lyrics for songs so far away from where I live but that's amazing because it happens.

Jack White in the hizzy

Months after ditching The White Stripes, Jack White is committing himself to an unlikely project. Third Man Records recently announced that they have signed rapper Black Milk and that Jack White will be doing more than just producing.

This news scared the shit out of me at first because it made me think of washed up musicians/celebrities trying to revitalize their careers as hip-hop upstarts ala Dee Dee Ramone or Joaquin Phoenix. Luckily though, Jack has not jumped the shark and percussion and guitar will be the extent of his contributions to the project.

Get a taste here courtesy of Some Kind of Awesome.

The Girls are back in town

I have no idea what happened with this one but hopefully one of my readers can help me out. The fantastic indie rock band Girls was supposed to be one of the headliners at Free Press Summer Fest but dropped out since they recently "broke up". However, not a month later they announce a new album with no explanation of why they are now suddenly again a fully functioning band. I can't seem to find an article on it anywhere.

While I'm psyched Girls is still around, I feel like we might have gotten fucked out of seeing them for some stupid publicity stunt. Whatever. Fans like me have a new album to look forward to in the fall. That's enough to distract me from this conundrum for now -I guess.

Bundle up for the Iceage

This band has somehow succeeded in remaining under my radar for the past few months and now I'm playing catchup. The young Copenhagen punk band Iceage released its first LP this March and since then it's made some serious waves in places like the New York Times and Pitchfork. I'm listening to it for the first time all the way through as I write.

The music successfully straddles the line between raucous no-wave, noisiness and headbanging punk beats. The short "New Brigade" track "Intro" starts off with minimalistic metallic clanging and transitions sharply into track two "White Rune" which is driven by booming floor toms, doomy vocals, and sinister click clacking guitars. There is an undeniable Joy Division energy to the music.

"Broken Bone" alternates back and forth between melodic bellowing punk vocals and crunchy dissonant guitar work. Tracks like "Remember" are almost fully harmonic and once again remind me of Joy Division. There's a great amount of experimentation of the album but the material still feels unified.

Hopefully I'll be able to get an interview with some of the band members for FPH. They're coming to The Mink here in Houston on their short US summer tour. They'll be joined by fantastic Houston acts like The Energy and Balaclavas.

You can get their latest record on iTunes.

Come and "Listen to the King of the Surf Guitar"

The venerable Dick Dale is visiting H-town tonight, once again, but this time he's playing at a far less annoying venue: The Continental Club. The last time Dale visited was about a year and a half ago at the House of Blues which was a hard sell, even to a diehard fan like myself.

There will be the inevitable question from some of, "who is Dick Dale?" and to that I answer, an American, surf-rock, treasure, paralleled by none. To those people ignorant of Dick Dale's greatness, I usually pose the question, "Have you seen Pulp Fiction?" and they'll normally nod yes. I'll continue, "Remember that bad ass opening song right after the robbery starts?" and then the mental gears will start to turn and there will be an unmistakable look upon his or her face of, "Oh yeah, I see, he's the shit."

Dale has a varied history of rockabilly, gypsy, and proto-metal music that goes back as far as 1959. He started off playing catchy pop ditties about drag racing and cars but eventually became known more for his scorching tremolo picking and reverb-laden guitar work. You can still get tickets here. I hope I can still shred that hard at 74.