Fluxblog Weekly #153: Guided by Voices, Alison Wonderland, Smoke DZA, King Tuff
Good news for fans of passionate, thoughtful, iconoclastic music criticism: Chris Ott has revived his Shallow Rewards video essay series on YouTube. Here's a brand new episode about the culture - or lack thereof - of television music supervisors. If you are not familiar with this series, I strongly recommend watching older videos on the channel, particularly his fresh takes on Boy George and Duran Duran, and his video about goth, which clarifies its history and questions the way the music has been misunderstood and incorrectly categorized for a generation.
March 25th, 2018
The Middle Of A Cold Premonition
Guided by Voices “Colonel Paper”
I’ve been following Bob Pollard and Guided by Voices since my conversion to Pollard fandom in the late ’90s, but over the past five or six years, I’ve had a hard time keeping up with Bob’s pace. I check in with pretty much every record, but I don’t always find the connection I’m looking for. I don’t want to say that Bob has been uninspired, but I will say that some of what he’s been up to hasn’t really inspired me.
So it’s nice to find some straight-up GBV gems on Space Gun, a record that really takes advantage of the fact that Doug Gillard is back in the band. Gillard is by far my favorite Pollard collaborator, and his guitar playing brings both swagger and harmonic grace to his songs. “Colonel Paper” is more on the swagger end of things, with a big chunky riff that reminds of what Pollard and Gillard were up to during the Speak Kindly/Isolation Drills/Universal Truths era – inarguably a high point of the sprawling GBV discography. The lyrics are good, too: It’s a bit of surreal gross-out humor from Pollard, as he describes some weirdo eating cigarettes and trash straight out of the can.
Buy it from Amazon.
March 27th, 2018
Late Night Games
Alison Wonderland “No”
This is what Alison Wonderland said about this song when she debuted it on Twitter a few weeks ago: “NO IS ABOUT FAKE PEOPLE WHO ENABLE, TELLING U YES ALL THE TIME BUT I WILL ALWAYS BE REAL W U”
It’s just funny to me to think about how there’s a whole generation of people for whom a major running theme of popular music is dealing with “fake friends.” And like, hey, this is a real thing, especially when you’re young and attractive and people want a piece of you. But it’s also a narrative that’s very appealing to narcissists, and a sentiment that feels petty and defensive even when it’s straining for sincerity – or as Wonderland put it there “I WILL ALWAYS BE REAL W U.” But hey, I grew up with a disproportionate number of popular songs about washing pain away and I doubt anyone my age has unrealistic expectations of showers today.
At least in terms of composition and sound, “No” is very much of its moment, and clearly designed for maximum radio play. But that’s fine, as it’s a particularly strong specimen of post-EDM pop, right on down to its quasi tropical vibe and chopped up wordless vocal hook. And as much as I goofed on the lyrical premise of this song, Alison Wonderland sounds sincere and genuinely wounded by people who’ve betrayed her trust. There’s a solemnity to this chorus, the sort of intense oath you make when you’re extremely young and earnest, and there’s a beauty in that even if someone my age can’t help but be cynical about it.
Buy it from Amazon.
March 29th, 2018
Fifth-Dimensional Views
Smoke DZA featuring Joey Bada$$ “The Mood”
This song could stop cold after 7 seconds and still be great just for the incredibly deadpan way Smoke DZA says “It’s a really fucking cool era we in” in the intro. The verse itself is not quite so bitter and ironic – he’s mostly just having fun with wordplay and referencing other rappers. (He graciously nods to Scarface, whose “Guess Who’s Back” is the basis for this track.) The Joey Bada$$ verse is where this song really kicks in. Bada$$ has always been a guy who wears his ’90s NYC rap influences on his sleeve, but this is a good example of how he’s evolved. I mean, he’s still very rooted in that aesthetic, but his voice has a more lived-in quality to it and he sounds much more relaxed and far less self-conscious.
Buy it from Amazon.
March 30th, 2018
Shower Me In Symphonies
King Tuff “Raindrop Blue”
It’s kinda interesting that King Tuff and Ty Segall somehow both landed on the same specific vibe at about the same time: groovy strut rock with horns and a sharp contrast of dry sounds and bits of unnatural reverb. Great garage rock minds think alike, I suppose. “Raindrop Blue” sounds huge and signals enormous confidence – he’s singing about falling in love with someone in extremely bombastic terms, but he sounds entirely serious and earnest about it. I’m particularly fond of the drum fills in this track, and the way it busts out of a crisp pocket beat for these highly emotive deviations. That’s the song in a nutshell, really – controlled and self-assured enough to put it all out on the line and be unapologetically fabulous.
Buy it from Amazon.