All posts by owl and bear staff
The Dreadful Yawns – Take Shape
2008, Exit Stencil
Cleveland’s The Dreadful Yawns are back.
Take Shape, The Dreadful Yawns’ second album, has been described as more psychedelic than their first release; this might be a worry if the Dreadful Yawns hadn’t awed us last time.
They’ve always have a retro sound, and it’s sometimes more prevalent this time ’round, but it’s largely a relaxing affair. The album’s first track, “Like Song,” starts out as a stripped and countrified Jim O’Rourke rhyme and ends with full-on Loose Fur loveliness–the kind of thing that the Yawns do best. The next song, “The Queen and the Jokester” is a Kinks-style stomp.
Thank You – Terrible Two
2008, Thrill Jockey
Terrible Two by Thank You grabs the listener—but not gently: by the shirt collar.
At five songs and a cumulative 35 minutes, Terrible Two is a mishmash of noise, intense drumming, strange interludes, and howling vocals. It’s a prickly kind of record that is at times almost religious (title track) but rarely harmonious (any given track).
New Man Man Video, More (Links)
Your guide to the WALL-E controversy – This is an amazing article about WALL-E’s latent fascism that everyone should read.
Review: Frightened Rabbit; June 23, 2008; Casbah, San Diego
Frightened Rabbit is one of the best bands out there that you can still see in a small club. They’re comprised of two brothers and two multi-instrumentalists: singer/songwriter/guitarist/whisky sipper Scott Hutchison, his brother Grant (who destroys drumsticks and provides vocal harmonies), and Billy Kennedy and Andy “Medusa” Monaghan who both alternate on keys, guitar, and bass.
Legend has it that as a kid, Scott was compared to a Frightened Rabbit for his lack of social skills, but you wouldn’t know it from this show. Hutchison’s between-song banter was often hilarious and he showed no shortage of the fabled Scottish charm; he even exuded silliness as he discussed a “plectrum” (pick) that someone had given him.