It reminded me of when The Fiery Furnaces let their grandma sing on an entire album.
I was disappointed to find out grandma wasn't throwing down in the room.
I'm at least glad I TRIED to get into this band back in 2019. Even if it wasn't my cup of tea (I'm of the opinion Masterpiece is still their best), I did learn one important thing that anybody who has seen them live already knows: these four people are one living organism. The glowing praise had me watching them play on KEXP and you really don't see that level of band chemistry very often. As I told bloc, the comparison to 2000s Animal Collective works in so far as both bands have CLEARLY done a lot of psychedelics together. I guess Big Thief are also freaky folky to an extent as well.
Point is, I spent last night in the dark giving Dragon Whatever a proper spin. Sort of thankful I Howse'd it so the advance singles could operate as proper stand outs through the massive run time. Opening with "Change" feels so obviously purposeful when they pivot to "Time Escaping" to follow through on the aforementioned change. I sort of grinned when they did it again at the end of the album. "The Only Place" is an arresting penultimate that follows in the penny footsteps of songs that very well could have ended the album. But just like the beginning, they flip the script for closer "Blue Lightning" and circle back to that opening 1-2 punch of shifting styles. Of course the whole album does that, and as the Premie Eval mentioned (or was it p4k's review?), there are hits and misses on this thing. I was surprised to connect with the slower songs ("Change", "Wake Me Up To Drive", "Promise Is A Pendulum", "The Only Place") as I'd of figured they would be the moments where the album would lag. Credit to Big Thief that they do those slow songs very well. Though "Time Escaping" and "Little Things" prove they can still impress when they go all in.
Loved "Heavy Bend" and "Blurred View" for the mix up. All in all, this still isn't the type of music I'm going to come back to. Had to give it one proper listen and I'm glad I did. It's a massive achievement no doubt. There are going to be a lot of people that spend the year throwing this on in the background and letting it ride. Pretty cool that if you really like this band, you just got more than enough to keep you busy until their next one drops.
Didn't realize this anniversary was now! I discovered Boards late in 07/08 and eventually settled on Geogaddi being my favorite. I've always preferred music with a darkness in it, so naturally this one rose to the top.
It cemented my love of interludes. Because when the interludes are setting up behemoths like "Julie and Candy", "1969", "Alpha and Omega", you realize why they all deserve come up and come down tracks.
Maybe I've shared this story before, but it's worth sharing again because it is similar in vein to the ALL THE BEACHES IN THE HOUSE story of lore around here. Since I was late to the BoC party, I overcompensated hard in 2008 buying t-shirts for myself and friends. I proudly wore my BoC shirt to the first day of Lolla '08 and was wondering the grounds with my friends early in the day. There was an area with lounge chairs and some guy with his group of friends hollered at me: 'BOARDS OF CANADA!" We whooped and hollered along with them before the same guy yells, "NIIINNNEETEEEEEENNN SIXXXXTTYYYY NIIIIIIIIIIINNNEEE!"
Needless to say, it was not surprising when immediately after that he asked if we had any heroin. We did not.
Too much Red love for the man who performed a FLUTE SOLO on "The Court of the Crimson King"
“We were a good band, what can I say?” -- they do indeed have too many incredible albums in any incarnation, but I've always felt they were "a good band" on arrival. The variety of instruments Ian brought to the table pioneered their kaleidoscopic approach to music that I feel led the way to King Crimson being able to flex in any direction they pleased.
RIP IAN
Yellow cats are incredibly special creatures. Grew up with cats, so my sister and I adored Snacks from the jump. Crazy to think we've been sharing Snacks pictures for more than 10 years now.
RIP Snacks.
All you have to do is go back to the XXL Freshman Cypher of Kodak, Uzi, 21, Yachty and Denzel. Nearly 200 million views. That is quadruple the next most viewed XXL Freshman Cypher video. It's sort of Internet history at this point. I feel like that alone will keep Kodak relevant no matter what.
Though that twitter link to him reacting to his song is TERRIFYING. He is beyond fucked up. I fear this will not end well.
"...the songs were worked over and pared down yet also somehow left messy."
This has me amped. "Jonathan Fisk" has always been a strange, outlier (heh) favorite of mine for this exact reason. Always loved the story that they slaved over it for so long before saying, "fuck it, we'll do it live." But this line:
"...the first Spoon LP of the 2020s."
Hit me hard. Ryan Leas giving us something to look forward to, too.
Can confirm this works as well with a 7"
Lifted the needle and started it over. Everyone I've played "Wild" to has immediately been, "Oh, this is good," less than a minute in. Perfect song.
No Country was good but in a very different way. Clearly just an unfortunate coincidence they came out the same year (and were filmed down the street at the same time).
Was fun re-watching The Master recently knowing that Joaquin, Rami and Laura have Oscars now.
Why Amy Adams has not gotten hers yet is inexcusable, but I imagine it will happen eventually. Still, very cool to see so many people in that movie go on to get Oscars.
Licorice Pizza had me rewatching PTA films. Though I think this every time I watch There Will Be Blood, this most recent viewing had me wanting to call my congressman about a crime committed at the Oscars that year. (A great reminder to not take these award shows too seriously).
There Will Be Blood is an American masterpiece. I'll even crank it up to a hot take and say the best movie of the still young 21st century.
Licorice Pizza's greatest strength is the music budget. Not since Boogie Nights have we seen a PTA movie with damn near every scene having a music highlight. I got to witness my mom dancing in the theater to the credits music.
It's more of a slice of life of that time and place movie than a coming of age movie. It's definitely a love story at its core like Punch-Drunk Love or Phantom Thread (though both very different love stories). So I'd say avoid it if you don't want to see a love story. But the music goes in and even at my most critical, it's a cool music video.
But you see it wasn't my decision alone. A LOT of us all jumped on Spotify and, at the time, it had a messaging feature that really strengthened a lot of connections with people on this site. I wouldn't go back in time to undo that ever. (I mean shit, Blocland basically started through Spotify messenger).
So for me it was never which platform is the least nefarious, it was a matter of which platform are my fellow Gummers using. I can see them all right now and they still bop Spotify. It's fun to see what each other is listening to and that's the part that I don't want to leave behind.
So to circle back around, do we need to move en masse to another platform? I know I've got a 6+ year streak keeping that Party Playlist alive, but it can be recreated elsewhere I imagine. It was a really cool thing many years back when we all joined up and friended/followed each other and recreated a portion of the Gum community on Spotify. So this is sort of the Jerry Maguire part of the show of WHO'S COMING WITH ME. I think it'd be cool for this site's community to take a stand on this issue. I also think it would be hilarious if we all moved to Tidal.
(Just to get out ahead of anyone wanting to come in and say there is no good streaming platform yada yada, bandcamp, you realize most of us here are the greatest music supporters on all of the internet. We simply need a streaming service because we are all hyper music consumers. Trust, I could suffice off vinyl download codes alone. It's the community I'm looking to keep alive here.)
A lot of Gummers (myself included) went to Spotify en masse around the time Tidal and Apple were popping up in the mid 2010s.
Honest Question: Do we need to find a new platform?
I ended up listening today but found it funny I listened to Cocteau Twins last night. Felt like it prepped me for this album.
Love the whole album! The title track was a stand out for me and the penny was very good, but I don't think it's a blow you out of the water track. Mainly because the entire album is rock solid. Great closing track too!
Will play it this evening! Picked up Time Skiffs and Antidawn on vinyl this snowy day and been enjoying / re-enjoying those. Antidawn is another beast on vinyl.
The attention to detail on the outros of songs like "Car Keys", "Cherokee" and "Royal and Desire" is impressive. Some finely crafted songs and the whole album hits as a whole unit. They're still obsessed with water! Not sure if snow fits the bill but this record should be a nice chill album to put on come summertime.
"Cherokee" is incredible.
The ones that immediately jump out are "Derelict", "Earthquake Weather" and "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton"
Like all have said, too many to choose. I will say that even though we are all very hip music fans, "Where It's At" is one of those rare 90s popular songs that when I revisit it I think, "You know, this IS one of the better songs I've ever heard." It holds up and you can't say that about a lot of 90s singles.
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