Eminent Domain

So now we have a tagboard where people can talk and say stuff if they want about our posts or just to say hi to us in general! Please remember to be nice and if anyone has any disagreements they want to speak about in length, take it up with me in person and don't be a douche and call be an idiot or a buttfrenzy or any other slanderous term and then list off 100 reasons why your crappy free health care system could be adopted in as short amount of time as it could take to pull out of Iraq. Because nothing takes that quick to establish. OOOOHHHHH DOUBLE ZING!!

Seriously though if anyone wants to say hi or a word or two about anything just pop by. Kelly and I will appreciate it and it makes her happy when people say hi! For me, just stay off my lawn.
- C

Scumbag Casanova

Monday, July 09, 2007

Pedestrian Deposit - Vestige

You know it's been a long time since I could actually say I heard music that made me want to start crying, write bad poetry, and sulk in my room. Grant it I have heard noise albums that have made me want to cry myself to sleep write bad poetry and destroy things, but never with the "emo" consequences that come as a result of my younger days. I think we can all agree that was a phase (although for some it's not *cuts wrists*). I think the last time an album or song made me want to do that was probably Saves the Day or the New Amsterdams in 8th grade.

Finally there comes an album that does its job in making you depressed or at least forelorn. Pedestrian Deposit's latest LP, Vestige is an example of when harsh and drone come together to make a perfect symphony of distress and hopelessness. Now when I say that I feel "emo", it doesn't mean that this is an "emo" album. In fact it's the direct opposite. Anyone who is familiar with Jon Borges knows that he is best known for blasting the ears of everyone in his path with his various projects, most notably Pedestrian Deposit. Capable of reaching mindblistering terrors as well as melancholic dissonance, Jon Borges has gained a reputation for being one of the most diverse acts in the harsh noise genre.

So when I say this album (Vestige) makes me feel "emo" I hope Jon knows that I mean this in the best sense of the word. I mean it as in it makes me want to start taking drugs again to numb the pain and take more leaps out of my dad's speeding car. That was emo for me, a little bit more extreme but I tend to be on the more extreme side.

When one turns over the album to side B, they will see the words, "I sincerely hope you can overcome" sprawled at the bottom. While these words reflect the personal touch to "Vestige" they also serve as words of warning and/or feigned encouragement to those who listen to this album. Because believe me, after you listen to this album you're going to need words of encouragement like that to help you.

Vestige starts off by fooling the listener into thinking this is going to be another romp through hell as the harsh blasts kick in on the first side with the tracks, "Angora, Ideal, and An Examination." That lasts for all but 20 seconds before the "sour times" kick in" what follows is a 3 minute loop-jaunt of droney depression straight out of a Larry Clark movie. The tracks continue this way before devolving back into harshland and finally ending on a perfect mix of brutal noise and opressive loops. Either way you slice it, you don't come out ahead and you'll either end up hitting your dog or hitting yourself.

As difficult as it is to fathom, the second side of this album is a lot darker than the first side. While "Angora" gave us vintage Borges and "Ideal" and "An Examination" through you on an emotional rollercoater, "Asphixyiate" and "Materialism", the last two tracks on the album, were meant to simply kill. There are no harsh blast beats of electronics. There is no brutal mindfuck of a pedal symphony. Instead there is just more dark ambient drone, more loops and much more depression or rather opression. This half of the album is what really made me fall in love with Vestige.

"Asphixyiate" loops continously until your senses are dulled and your pain is intensified. This track reminds me of every shitty town I've been in along the freeway on a rainy day when you're just looking for somewhere to say. The 5 second rest between this track and "Materialism" is almost unnoticeable as the album seemlessly weaves its way into another unsettling loop session. The aptly "Materialism" continues its depressing assault of hopelessness until the album simply runs out and before you've realized it, you've listened to the whole record wishing there was more.

And that's what Jon Borges is best at doing: giving you pain and making you want more. Pedestrian Deposit has a masochistic theme to it and indeed the music reflects this. The music inflicts mental, emotional and aural pain on the listener and afterwards, all you want to do is listen to more. Borges is a master of thematic cultivation with this project as even the artwork is brilliantly done to match the mood of the album and the music. The "modern" 50's profile of a woman on the front and the deviant sexual S&M truth to her on the inside is cleverly done. If there was an perfect "emo" album for noiseheads it would be "Vestige". Once again I'm not saying the Pedestrian Deposit is emo, or even really saying a genre or MUSICAL term "emo" even exists. I'm just saying our brand of "emo" tends to be more miserable, more nihilistic and more helpless--like "Vestige".


This album is easily the best pure noise album I've heard all year so far. It's original, deceptive, unsettling, unnerving and one of the best if not the best effort by Borges so far. I cannot stress how much I fucking love this album and how much the noise genre still surprises me by taking my misery index to new levels and finding new ways to leave me in despair.
- Topher

Scumbag Casanova

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Record Review (It's been a long time):
Panda Bear - Person Pitch

I realize I've been remiss with this blog. I promised some people I would update and sadly I just have no time, or rather no will. I wanted to get this damn thing off the ground and I have like 4 entries since its inception. Still, rather than be a vagabond correspondent, I would prefer to be a regular contributor. Hopefully this is the start of something to progress. And I will start by making up for some of the record reviews I've missed. Once again I only review albums that I deem reviewable. They have to really capture my attention which means they have to be really fucking good or really fucking bad, that it's so funny you have to listen to this shit. So with that said, yeah.

Noise music is all about deconstruction of the artform. When I think of awesome noise artist and awesome noise albums I think of men like Masami Akita, Sutclife Jugend, or Dominick Fernow whose album THE HISTORY OF AIDS still remains one of the most vicious recordings I've ever heard (I'm blasting that shit right now). Yet what seems to be forgotten is the fact that noise can come out of any outlet. Because of the fact that most of the famous noise musicians specialize in harsh or brutal noise, subtleties of the genre can get lost or generalized, which is why the Animal Collective save the genre from being written off as another primitive form of expression.

Anyone who knows me knows I like brutality, however the first time I ever heard an Animal Collective album, I wanted to drop acid and start touching things. If that's not deconstruction, I don't know what is. Their lead man, Panda Bear has had a pair of nice recordings ranging from electronic minimalism to unarranged acoustic ballads, all the while staying true to the credo that music or art in general, does not have to be wrapped up in a nice package, which is what makes what he's done with a recent album, PERSON PITCH such a delightful surprise.

Up until now, Panda Bear has done okay keeping it minimal, but he really never rocked anyone's socks off, that was until he recorded PERSON PITCH. This album is such an awesome surprise because of the fact that it is so layered and obviously structured. What results is an unabashed sense of freedom and a delighfully sweet chaos that I as well as the rest of music world can get behind.

The first track "Comfy in Nautica" plays itself out like a drug induced PET SOUNDS outtake. With a distinct similarity, Panda Bear creates a song that gives us a glimpse into what music of Brian Wilson might have sounded like if he had spent one more month in the sandbox. The next song "Take Pills" starts off as a delightful romp through nostalgia before devolving into a giddy plea for help. I know it sounds retarded and it sounds preteniously journalistic but at the risk of looking like an elitst prick, when I hear the lyric "I don't want for us to take pills anymore...we're stronger if we don't need them" I can't help but think of Brian Wilson's subtle cry for help when he says, "Help me Rhonda, get her out of my head". Both of cries for help and both are set to beautiful music. Misplaced yet perfect in their juxtaposition, once again sorry for using that word.

The next track is definitely my favorite and the opus of the album, "Bros" at over ten minutes long is the main focal point of the album and a lesser man could have mad a trippy, drug-happy, wandering, track as a song, but instead we can see the effort put into the song. It is by far the most beautiful and lingering track on the album and if this was the only thing released on the album, it would still be a success.

The second half of the album does not let up as the melodies keep on coming to the delight of the listener. "Good Girl/Carrots" is a wonderful romp through your childhood while "Search for Delicous" gives us the typical meandering style we've grown accustomed to from Panda Bear and his buddies at the Animal Collective.

"Ponytail" finishes up the album perfectly. It is only two minutes long and it is the shortest of all tracks on the album but in a way, there could be no other way to end the album. It is the most minimal song on the album, yet one of the most poignant as only Panda Bear is able to do. And while being a simple song, it still conveys the message perfectly for anyone listening to this album and that is that destructive art can somtimes come from the most layered of places.

Grade: A-