RIFF MARKET

Spectral/Ghostly: Getting Awesome

My love-hate with Ghostly International is now about 70/30 after this Death Is Nothing To Fear Vol. 1 EP. Audion's "I Gave You Away" is "Mouth To Mouth" but with a better keyboard riff, just a notch down atonally from Melchior's "Different Places," and with better variations too. I know I'm in the minority of people who dig this one over "Mouth" but holy shit. I used to think Ghostly was like the Ultra Records of the Midwest but worse because of all the bad synthpop LPs, plus I didn't like the labelhead implying to me in a Voice elevator once that me not liking his records was me not supporting dance music in America, plus there was that really asinine Osborne record they released, Afrika, the one that ripped CK Mann's "Asafo Beson" entirely, no credit and no justified "transformative" use, which all is to say that Death is borderline salvation-level awesome at times. Even the Bodycode track at the end, this reconfigured filter-house low-key job with potentially annoying vocal snippets and one extended monologue halfway through, is really strong, really freaky towards the finish too.

78 RIFFS

Labels: 2007, techno

CRAZY CARL MENTIONED ON SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
Riff Market "Back on the Market" Edition

The SNL sketch above namedrops Philadelphia comedian Crazy Carl, who figured prominently in the previous RM post "Crazy Carl Weekend Adventure." Needless to say this is pretty awesome. 88 RIFFS

But the Other Thing Is

I actually got to see Saturday Night Live, live, Saturday night, and watch that post-show Arcade Fire set, during which something occurred to me about this band, and said thing has brought me back out of a weeklong hiatus. Shtick or cliche or not or neither, these guys are still pretty amped about being a rock&roll band. Like imagine you're in a rock&roll band, and your rock&roll band has been asked to play some of your new songs live on television--you'd probably be really psyched about that. These guys play their new songs live on television pretty much every couple of days anymore and they're still psyched about it. When Win smashed his guitar at the end of "Intervention," it didn't seem to me about [failing to be] doing something fuck-it-all punk, more just about smashing a guitar at the end of "Intervention." I've seen a lot of bands play music and smash stuff afterwards, and there's never been a moment when I've said to myself "actually, this concert would be more awesome if these guys weren't smashing all this stuff." If being cool means I have to pretend that smashing stuff isn't awesome, count me out and meet me for drinks at Odessa.

Plus we're talking about "Intervention," which is this pretty fraught and hopeless song, this swell of anger after being misled so hard. Win was probably pretty psyched to smash that guitar! He was probably pretty angry, at least a little. Plus have you ever smashed a guitar? Destroyed anything for that matter, maybe like the time Assman shoved a metal pole through my windshield when we were trying to steal a "No Right Turns" sign? Cliches become cliches for reasons, and I'm really starting to love this band if only because they're not afraid to be a little cliche from time to time, to just fucking go for it, the rest of you be damned. 88 RIFFS

Labels: indie, live