In my last CCoB post, I likened the way they built their compositions to a game of Jenga–elements are added then removed and placed elsewhere until they can go no higher (higher in terms of form, not in terms of emotional climax, which they don’t trouble themselves with).
On GIVING (their first release after being brought to a wider audience by Volcano Choir, the band they’re in with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon) the game is a little more direct.
The pieces aren’t as oddly shaped as on Birds, nor do they shy away from sudden dynamic shifts like their brothers on the other end of post rock, Explosions in the Sky. In fact, the end of “Lawns” might even find a place in a movie trailer some day—but for an art house indie drama rather than a football movie.
That’s not to suggest (as some have) that GIVING finds CCoB taking the easy way out. There’s still plenty avant-garde textures: “Lawns” itself has a strange vocal part created on a sampler. “Vorms” features an interlude of no fewer than a dozen looped instrument).
In the end, GIVING is just as masterfully crafted as Birds, deciding instead to use combine that experimentation with more immediacy.
Month: June 2013
Record #202: Collections of Colonies of Bees – Birds (2005)
Genre classification is an imperfect science.
And nowhere is that quite as apparent as within post rock. It is a beast with many heads, with some of the heads so disparate that their inclusion in the same section in the record store (or subfolder in iTunes) seems like an anomaly in the Pandora database. After all, what fellowship can Stereolab have with Godspeed You! Black Emperor? Russian Circles with Tortoise? Continue reading
Record #201 – Collections of Colonies of Bees – Customer (2004)
I got through about ten minutes of this record without realizing it was playing at the wrong speed.
Record #200: Grouper – The Man Who Died In His Boat (2013)
The Man Who Died In His Boat is a collection of outtakes from 2008’s Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill, which saw Grouper setting aside electronics for acoustic instruments and reverb. But none of that really matters, because knowing who Grouper is or hearing Dragging… aren’t prerequisites for enjoying this record.
Record #199: Grizzly Bear – Shields (2012)
So how exactly do you follow up a record that should go down in history as one of the greatest of all time? If you’re Grizzly Bear, you double down. Shields digs deeper into the elements that made Veckatimest great, with stellar results.
Record #198: Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest (2009)
If the future is kind to Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest will be remembered alongside Pet Sounds and Abbey Road as one of the most perfect records of all time.
Record #197: Graham Parker and the Rumour – The Up Escalator (1980)
I bought this record when I first started my collection in college for two reasons: it was twenty-five cents, and the cover was cool.
And after a disappointing listen, I kept it on the merit of its artwork and never listened to it again. But now, six years later, the record doesn’t sound as terrible as it did when I first heard it.
Record #196: Gorillaz – Plastic Beach (2010)
Somewhere after Demon Days was released, Blur essentially disbanded. So without another outfit, all of Damon Albarn’s creative outlet was directed to Gorillaz.
And that’s where the whole cartoon thing kind of shattered. Continue reading
Record #195: Gorillaz – Demon Days (2005)
When “Clint Eastwood” hit airwaves in 2001, Gorllaz were immediately pigeonholed as “that cartoon rap group.”
Four years later, “Feel Good Inc.” dropped, surprising everyone with just how good a cartoon rap group could be. But even the strength of that single couldn’t prepare us for the genius of the complete Demon Days.