The Severed Cortex

More stuff. Looks like I won't be too far behind after these. Having a good two month lull in buying music helps in getting caught up. Well, not from a music listening standpoint I guess.

Oracular Spectacular by MGMT

Maybe you can pronounce it management. They used to be called that, but they changed the name to MGMT. Now I'm not sure if you can call them management. Now that we've cleared that mess up. I was absorbed in Vampire Weekend when this came out. In fact, sad to say, I heard Time to Pretend in a commercial recently and that's what prompted me to buy Oracular Spectacular. I should clarify a little. I'd heard the track several times before. I just never got around to listening to the rest of the CD more carefully. Strange, because Time to Pretend is a fantastic song. The commercial made me go back and listen, and that's when I realized I had missed the boat. Not the first time. Won't be the last. There's just too much music out there for one person to possibly listen to. This was one of the last bits of music I bought prior to the move. Fast forward to after the move and I've managed to listen to it end to end more than 20 times. You listen to a lot of iPod packing and unpacking boxes.
I found some music nuts at my new work, or we found each other, and a week into the new year the obligatory top 10 of 2008 question was bandied about. This release made it to number 5 on my list and was in the top 10 of several of my new co-workers. Vampire Weekend still topped my list, but that's only on pure appeal. Oracular Spectacular has way more depth. There is no weak song from end to end and two songs really, really stand out; the aforementioned commercial music and Electric Feel. The rest of the songs aren't bad by any stretch. They just aren't quite as accessible. That's really what gives this so much more depth than the much hyped Vampire Weekend. Everything on Vampire Weekend was accessible. You have to work your way past the two really good ones to get to the real heart of this, but the extra work is worth it. Here's how I'd suggest doing it. Buy the two pop songs and enjoy them. Then one day come back and sample some of the others. You'll be intrigued enough to buy the whole thing and wonder to yourself why you didn't do so to begin with.

Twilight by Baskervilles

Way back in 2003, Baskervilles had themselves a minor, critically acclaimed, eponymous release that slipped under the cracks pretty much everywhere. It sat on my Amazon wish list for years out of print. Now of course it is available on iTunes. This one is their 2008 release. As good? Maybe. Same critical acclaim? Not so much. This one is sticky sugar pop through and through, and is a little reminiscent of Apples in Stereo. If you are looking for rock and roll you needn't look here. These ain't the songs you're looking for. If you're looking for some happy pop you can get two scoops of it here. Replete with horns. It doesn't get much happier feeling when you throw some horns in. I think that's true with me at least and when the production is sometimes not quite there, as it is here from song to song, horns can really help improve it. I know that sounds like they were throwing in horns for the hell of it. Maybe a little here and there. Still, in the grand scheme of things, this is way better than any pop you'll hear on the radio. Who listens to radio anyway? Try Smash. If you like that one go for the lead track A Little More Time. If you like those two and you still aren't convinced, pick any of the remaining tracks in the first half. I don't think there's a one that would turn you against it. The second half of the release has a few stinkers. Not really bad stinkers, but in comparison to the rest of the CD they don't pass the sniff test. It's 14 tracks long which stretches your music dollar, but probably should have been 11 or maybe 12.

The High Decibels by The High Decibels

Just as all music is derivative, sometimes it makes no bones and returns to its roots. Often it fails. You need something more than just being a copycat. Occasionally someone does manage to figure out copying (easy) and innovation (much tougher) at the same time. The High Decibels may have the recipe. This is another one where I've been sitting on it for months and then I hear it in a commercial. In this case I had already purchased it the week it was released. I believe I heard it on an ESPN promo and I'm pretty sure it was That Dude I heard.
The High Decibels go back to the time when rap was much simpler. A day when it longed for mainstream approval. Summertime party music. Simpler looped beats, real cutting and scratching, and lyrics that by today's standards are considered candy ass. Believe it or not, there used to be a time when rap had nothing to do with bitches and ho's. I know, I know. I loves me some bitches and ho's too. We all do. But, sometimes I don't have to put my mind on my money and my money on my mind. And when that time comes, I want to listen to some good time rap. Can you be mad listening to Run-DMC? Or Beastie Boys? De La Soul? LL Cool J? Put the High Decibels in that group. Simple drum beats, blues guitar licks actually played, not looped, two turntables and a slam poet microphone. Seriously, he's a slam poet by trade. Get this, the blues guitar licks are done by a white guy. Trust me. It's from Oakland and it all works. Pick any song on here. They all sound the same. If you like one, you'll like them all. You know what the best part is? You don't have to put a Parental Advisory sticker on it and its still really good. Innovative.

Mega Breakfast by The Chap

I managed to stumble onto The Chap outside of my normal music discovery channels. I heard Proper Rock and said to myself, wtf? In the middle of a rush hour drive, I stopped the iPod, rewound it, and listened again. There was just so much going on that I couldn't take it in with just one listen. That doesn't happen to me very often. Like, pretty much never. I fired up the voice recorder and made a note to find out more about the song later. And the group. I found Mega Breakfast, listened to the tracks and bought it.
This is another one of those that you either love or hate. Obviously I love it. I think it's one of the most creative things I've heard in awhile. There's really nothing I can compare it to. Menomena might be close, but The Chap are clearly their own thing. What that thing is, I'm not really sure. Maybe you'll be able to figure it out better than me. They write songs with complex structures like prog rock, but without all that technical bullshit that prog rock fans love. Interestingly, it's the that love of technical bullshit that makes it impossible to actually like prog rock fans. And it's usually them espousing some band that in the grand sphere of musicians are probably the least technically adept players. I digress. So it's not really prog rock. It's not really electronica either. It's not really gay disco music. (Yes, saying gay disco is redundant, I know. I just like saying it) It's not really cabaret. It's not really emo. And yet, somehow, it is all these things. Truly unique. Or at least unique to me. I challenge you to find anything like it. There are songs that hit right between the eyes. There are some that I have no idea what they are. As a collective they make a bizarre collage. The aforementioned Proper Rock is great, as is Ethnic Instrument, Fun and Interesting, and a couple others. If you can make it past any one of these three and are still intrigued you should just buy the whole thing and judge it on its entirety, not individual songs. And if you listen to one of them and say no way, you have to at least admit that The Chap are the inventors of whatever it is that they do.