The Aquarian Weekly » Josh Frank

The Melloncollies: Goodbye Cruel World

Josh Frank — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:05:51 +0000

The Melloncollies may share their name with a Smashing Pumpkins album, but their bouncy optimism is as far from Chicago’s alt-heroes as Tuvan throat-singing. With a sound inspired by the punk-flavored crooning of the early ‘70s, The Melloncollies bring us Goodbye Cruel World, with lyrics worthy a teenage girl’s diary, but none of the fuzzy covers or cheap locks. It’s an endearing, but ultimately charmless, attempt at summarizing epic teenage angst.

Goodbye Cruel World is a short album, with songs that, true to punk form, are short on length and even shorter on chord changes. Unfortunately, this solid start is…

Boredoms: Exciting Ennui

Josh Frank — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:00:54 +0000

Legendary for their confrontational and bizarre music, Osaka’s own Boredoms are a cult phenomenon, and deservedly so. Over the span of their 20-year career, they’ve created a highly fluid and original combination of noise, psychedelia, and electronic music that’s influenced artists like Sonic Youth, John Zorn, and the Flaming Lips, who named a song after their drummer, Yoshimi.

Recently, the band has embarked on a project where they collect massive amounts of drummers for their performances, influenced by African tribal drum songs. Their latest spectacle, featuring 99 drummers in honor of the date 09/09/09, will unfold at Terminal 5 on…

Vandaveer: Divide & Conquer

Josh Frank — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:01:17 +0000

Vandaveer is the project of Mark Charles Hedinger, a singer and multi-instrumentalist. Influenced by his long family history and a love for folk, his music is expansive, sparse, minimalist, and challenging to listen to. While it doesn’t always work at its full potential, his vision is nonetheless inspiring, and the music on Divide & Conquer is an impressive narrative of love and loss.

Tinges of gospel and religious fervor are what sets Vandaveer apart from many other neo-folk projects. Many of his songs feature a wavering gospel choir hovering just in the background, behind the instruments, and it works…

Still Life Still: Girls Come Too

Josh Frank — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:00:41 +0000

Toronto’s latest contribution to indie-rock is the puzzlingly-named Still Life Still, who’ve delivered an ambitious debut album with gentle melodies and a huge, reverb-drenched sound. Are these gentlemen harkening the Canadian Invasion? Not with this record. But Girls Come Too is a worthy first album that makes up in audacity for what it lacks in clarity.

Still Life Still are sometimes too loose for their own good. Their improvisational and haphazard instrumentation creates an airy spaciousness to their music, but it also makes the whole record sound a bit rushed, as if all the band members are always trying to…

Vulture Whale: Vulture Whale

Josh Frank — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:38:36 +0000

The dirty South has never sounded quite as dirty as on Vulture Whale’s basic and vicious eponymous debut. With British Invasion spunk mixed into their story-driven lyrics of such diverse topics as days at the beach and politicians on the run from police, Vulture Whale has rock energy in spades, with plenty of imagination to spare.

Clocking in at only 40 minutes, Vulture Whale is brief and loud, like all good punk. It doesn’t have the edge of must punk, however—although singer Wes McDonald has an angry and whiny tenor that cuts through the distortion like a chainsaw, it’s tempered…

Starfucker: Jupiter

Josh Frank — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:00:56 +0000

Short but sweet, Jupiter is the second album from the shockingly prolific Starfucker. In a world inundated with harsh and distorted dance music, inspired by the success of Daft Punk and, more recently, Justice, Starfucker’s music is sweet and agreeable, with bouncy disco rhythms that gently flow between sampled voices and cymbal crashes like a ball in a pinball machine. These songs rarely stray from fast drum machines and squeaky synthesizers, but for such a comparatively simple record, there’s enough weirdness and interesting detail to make it an adventurous and completely engaging album of music.

Starfucker’s major-key ballads are cheerful…

None More Black: Hometown Punk

Josh Frank — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:33:35 +0000

Jersey punk outfit None More Black took their name from a line in This Is Spinal Tap, and, at times, their career has seemed like it was borrowed from a music documentary. With internal drama and personal problems dissolving the band’s original line-up in 2007, the band has recently reformed for a new album, with a short tour that includes a stop at Webster Hall on Aug. 20. Also look for them on Aug. 22 playing at The Trocadero in Philadelphia.
$22. All ages. myspace.com/nonemoreblack.

The Penelope(s): Priceless Concrete Echoes

Josh Frank — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:00:51 +0000

In the grand tradition of alternative bands humping New Order’s leg, The Penelope(s) have struck with an album that sounds, from top to bottom, ripped straight from a late-night radio show in Manchester, circa 1987. I’m as big a fan of New Order as you’ll ever find, but on this album, the formula is stretched dangerously thin. With few exceptions, The Penelope(s), a Parisian duo obsessed with digital synthesizers, are so painfully derivative that it’s impossible to avoid comparisons to other (far better) electronic bands.

It’s not as if Priceless Concrete Echoes is the product of laziness or lack of…

Emiliana Torrini: Italian Ice

Josh Frank — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:30:52 +0000

Half-Icelandic and half-Italian, singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini is all soul. Everyone’s heard bands from Iceland, but influences reach far beyond the music her country is known for, with influences from folk, hip-hop, and psychedelia. Catch her at Highline Ballroom on Aug. 14 for a show in support of her third album, Me And Armini. With its experimental title track gathering steam as a single, her show is guaranteed to silence all your Björk jokes.

$25. All ages. emilianatorrini.com.

Chris & Thomas: Chopped Liverpool

Josh Frank — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:55:39 +0000

Chopped Liverpool

By Josh Frank

Much like Matt & Kim and Tim & Eric, Chris & Thomas are two wayward souls, connected only by music, soul, and an ampersand. Hailing from Liverpool, England, their music is nevertheless as American as roots-based music gets, with intricate melodies clearly inspired by the folk revival of

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