Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged here. Not that we have too many regular readers anyhow, but damned if I haven't been a bit busy since starting the new job in LA. A resolution for the new year is to keep a little more present here, so here goes.
To begin with, here' s a record I reviewed recently that was pretty good. Some young Australian lads, big on the punk ethos and throw-back without biting the vibe too hard. You should check this out if you can. Enjoi.
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Yellowbird
More or Less the Same - LP
Reviewer: Reed Burnam
Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5)
More or Less the Same, the newest outing from Melbourne, Australia’s own electric punks Yellowbird, is eleven tracks of pure goodness. And not in your Sunday morning pew and hymnal kinda way goodness, though if you’re into communing at the sonic altar and like your records to have a little substance along with the ability to get you moving, then this one is for you. Filled to the rafters with barnstorming electroclash, snarling post-punk guitars, anthemic and gritty dancefloor synths, and a playful/snotty/pissed off vocal attack that’s shipwrecked somewhere between Lydon and Adrock, More or Less the Same sounds good and looks great, courtesy of a lot of cool hand-drawn art and some smart/minimalist design choices that go hand in hand with the underlying body politic herein. Throw into the mix that this album’s got a true-blue DIY message, some agitprop politics and a whole lot of heart, and it would be safe to say that perhaps dubbing the record a tour de force might not be too far off the mark. And all this from a couple of young punkers from Melbourne barely out of their teens: Let it be proclaimed that the beat is alive and well and still attempting to pierce the side of the commercial, mainstream behemoth known as modern pop culture. Fighting the good fight.
Taking cues from a long history of confrontational sound and lyric that need not be regurgitated here (if you’re looking to flesh out your set and setting, a weekend spent with Lester Bangs while Metal Box and This Nation’s Saving Grace spin on your turntable ought to do the trick), Yellowbird’s sound pulls from a host of disparate sources that are well-ensconced in the now-legendary yet still breathing secret history of the twentieth (and now twenty-first) century. However, to simply riff on influence and nods would be to trample an overarching message here, which seems to be “The past is dead, long live the past, fuck the past and let’s move on already!” Which is a sentiment that this reviewer couldn’t sympathize more with. There’s a constructive thread throughout More or Less the Same which is heartening and well taken, and the joys of lampooning fakery, shallowness, hollow rhetoric, and general reactionary nuttiness are perennial and all the time more necessary. And we could go on and on. But the music demands attention.
The album comes on big right out of the box. “Serena” kicks off the fray with a classic attack formation that builds on successive counts to the serious head-bobber of a riff that’s big and gritty and powerful. The vox are a welcome surprise, coming off quite playful at first but with an unpredictability and a snotty lilt that sounds like PiL vs. that dude from Ghostland Observatory. Good track, entertaining lyrics. “PeoPeoMoxMox” starts up with the rabble-rousing and the addition of the synths which work to pleasing effect across the whole album, and the song’s got a fist-pumper of a chorus. “Capital Idea” is a short and sweet rant on wanton consumerism replete with some fat bass, and “The Dancing Proletariat” is a coarse new-wave inspired call for the listener to wake up out of the industrio-corporatocracy matrix, with added flatlining effects for high drama (extra points for printing lyrics in the liner notes here).
“I Like Your Hair” has a great intro piece and is a stand-out track generally, laying an electro backbeat down before the collected simmer-tracks put a boot to its neck (without messing up the hair of course). To further the irony machine, “Teddy” adds to the one-upmanship by telling a story of someone who covers up his insecurities with his fists, while the track uses the melody line from Air’s “Sexy Boy” (from their French Sexy/Cool Guy album Moon Patrol) to push the metaphor a little further for effect, which is downright hilarious. “Thick Skin”, “This Sound”, and “One More” all push further into the 80’s/90’s grit-techno Skinny Puppy/Pigface/Clock DVA/earlier Ministry bag of tricks to good effect (“Thick Skin” is right on politically and “One More” is one of the better tracks on the album musically). The beats are mechanical and the atmosphere is metallic, as Ty Rigby’s vocals shimmer and sliver their way through it all and Guy Fenech’s (along with Rigby’s) guitar work remains slice’n’dice. To finish it out, “Messages From the Right” is, well, what one would think, though it must be said that the targets of scorn are predictable at points, but all is still appreciated and appropriately comical and depressing. And clocking in at 12:20 (with the hidden track attached), “Electric Aesthetic Pt. 2” is New Order-ed and one of this reviewer’s favorite tracks on the album, especially given the completely unexpected nod to an Eno-esque piece that starts up around 8:45 or so, and really sends the album out on a peaceful, hopeful note. Nice.
In all, More or Less the Same is a damn fine album, with plenty of substance to back up the musical offerings. It’s got memorable sounds, politics, energy, and most of all: heart. This reviewer hopes that the Yellowbird is landing a local, affordable, all-ages venue near you soon. Check them out. Talk constructive. Get inspired and off of that infernal couch and go build a real scene instead of crying about the ones that came before. On the cover of More or Less the Same, two people sit surveying the ruins of what was perhaps a home or a city, or a civilization, one of them saying “Well…what are we supposed to do now?” Time to build on that wreckage, it seems, and venture forth into frontiers unfettered by the mistakes of the past.
