Crib Notes

WITHIN THESE WALLS: Times New Viking gives Born Again Revisited the business.

Noise rock has never been mainstream; instead, it has historically targeted a narrow base of dogmatic fans and been released via small boutique labels on home-dubbed cassettes. In recent years, however, a larger crowd has taken notice, and as goes the crowd, so go those who want to sell ‘em stuff. In 2004, for example, indie giant Sub Pop released Burned Mind, a harsh, uncompromising record by Michigan trio Wolf Eyes. Concurrently, such tastemakers as Pitchfork began to pay closer attention. It all seemed to signify a paradigm shift: Noise, it would appear, was the new big thing.

Continue Reading “Noise innovators Times New Viking raise the roof”

(Photo Courtesy Michael O’Shaugnessy)

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Mission of Burma has nothing left to prove. The group’s first two post-reformation albums, 2004’s OnOffOn and ’06’s brilliant The Obliterati, trump their already timeless ’80s output in terms of production, songwriting and girth. The Sound, The Speed, The Light finds the original Boston post-punks playing in top form, but from the onset of “1, 2, 3, Partyy!” it’s clear that Burma isn’t throwing any surprise punches. “Possession” finds the formula of mangled tapes interfering with the group’s signature pop geometry, which perfectly disrupts the song’s cognitive flow. “Slow Faucet” and the album’s centerpiece “SSL 83” are classic Burma rockers, carrying the post-punk aesthetics and discordant/angelic harmonies to the nth degree. But the album holds no tension whatsoever. MoB has reached cruising altitude and is sailing smoothly, but a little more turbulence might make the ride more exciting. (Matador) 3 stars out of 5

“1, 2, 3, Partyy!” mp3

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TRAILER: Waiting For Something, a Jay Reatard documentary

This coming Tues., Aug. 4, MySpace will debut Waiting For Something, a short documentary film about Jay Reatard, directed by Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz.

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This morning Matador Records announced that they will release Mission of Burma’s 4th studio full-length, The Sound The Speed, The Light, on Oct. 6.

The album was recorded in Boston with Bob Weston and reportedly takes on a much more spacious sound and dynamic than the slurred but subtle fuzz that enveloped the group’s ‘06 album, The Obliterati.

A 7-inch featuring two non-LP tracks, “Innermost” and “Here It Comes” will be released on Aug. 18 via Matador as well.

In the meantime you can get a sneak peak at what the album has to offer with “1, 2, 3, Partyy!”

If the song’s, clean, clear pop intonations and production qualities are any indication of the album’s direction, than this looks to be a very refined offering that tidies up the noise, while giving a full body to Burma’s signature sound.

“1, 2, 3, Partyy!” mp3

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“See Saw” mp3

“Always Wanting More” mp3

Jay Reatard plays a free show at Emory Performing Arts Studio, 1804 N. Decatur Rd. 8 p.m. Fri., April 10. On Sat., April 11 Jay Reatard plays at Lenny’s with Gentleman Jesse, GG King and the Stolen Hearts. 9 p.m. $10. 486 Decatur St. 404-577-7721.

Chad Radford: Your MySpace headline says “New record almost finished.” Do you have a name for it yet?
Jay Reatard: Yeah, it’s Watch Me Fall. Pretty positive title … unless I change my mind in the next three days, that’s what it’s going to be called.

Is the line-up on the record the same one that you’ve been working with for a while?
Yeah, on the recording itself the majority of the songs are just acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass and drums. And then on a few other songs there is Farfisa and a little bit of piano and on two other songs there’s some cello and a couple mandolin parts. I’m not really going into like R.E.M. and “Losing My Religion” territory just yet, but I wanted to use some different kind of non typical rock instruments in the context of a rock song.

Is it going to be in the same kind of tone as Blood Visions?
No, it’s a drastically different record. On the surface it might appear really different. The content of the songs and the general aesthetics of the songs are the same, but the way that they are delivered is different. The songs are a lot longer, there are only 12 songs and I didn’t even know it until I threw it on the computer to start sequencing it and I was like ‘wow man, there are quite a few songs on here that are like four minutes long,’ which is twice the length of most of my songs, but there are still a lot of songs on there that are really short. I’d like to say that in theory it’s a punk record but it’s really not. It’s kind of like a dark pop record I think.

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