May 2004

Viva Scotland: Franz Ferdinand & The Beta Band
Also Reviewed: Erlend Oye and David Cross

This month I review two new albums from Scotland, among other things. If only The Boards of Canada had put out a new CD this month, I would have called it the Scottish Invasion and become famous for my ability to turn a phrase.

Heroes to Zeros
The Beta Band
This album, the Beta Band's third, is their best album since their debut. Which is to say that their second album wasn't that interesting. This one, though, reminds one of the brilliant The Three EPs of a few years back. The one that was all over the High Fidelity soundtrack and made everyone think that Radiohead had competition. Except that it sounded nothing like Radiohead except that it was good. Sometimes people are dumb.

Anyhow, Heroes to Zeros contains the kind of precise vocal harmonies that made The Three EPs rock like socks in a box. This album, I think, can be seen as either more mature or more restrained. The music is better conceived and there is less of a freak-out factor involved, which is pretty good. But it doesn't have the same raw energy. But it has those absolutely brilliant vocal harmonies over fairly splendid percussion. Basically, the Beta Band only needs to sing over drums to rock out.

Exceptional songs on this album include "Wonderful", which has some of the better harmonizing on the album, "Lion Thief", which seems to have clapping (which is always a plus), and "Troubles", which is a full on orchestrated, harmonized indie-prog rock masterpiece.

Also, the Beta Band should get props for an obnoxiously self-referential and self deprecating album title. "Heroes to Zeros" plays off well that their second album, Hot Shots II (also very clever) kind of sucked.

Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand
I know Grandpa reviewed this last month, but I felt I had to put my two cents in. To cut to the chase, this album rocks.

At first, it didn't impress me much. I was all, "what are those dorks over at Pitchfork so fucking excited about?" Then I gave it another listen. And another. And so on. See, I got hooked.

My first impression was that Franz Ferdinand sounded a lot like the Strokes, who are OK but only seem to know on or two songs in all reality. Then I decided that they were like the Strokes, but way, way better. My comparison to the Strokes is that both bands sound like they are from the Lower East Side, circa 1978. Or at least wish they were. So that's a good thing.

But Franz Ferdinand also reminds me of the Rolling Stones in the late 70's, but only in so much as it's a rock band experimenting with discoesque beats. Franz Ferdinand uses some really 70's sounding beats, and I think that's what won me over. I mean, there's no doubt that these guys rock like champs, but they kind of make me want to prance about a bit as I rock out.

Exceptional songs include, "Tell Her Tonight", "Take Me Out", and "The Dark of the Matinee". "The Dark of the Matinee" is super duper pop rock and a joy to listen to. Super ultra kick-ass rocking "Take Me Out" blows doors down and is in rotation on MTV (as is Modest Mouse with "Float On", finally), and I'm happy about that. I'm not going to be all Indie Rock Pete about it and suddenly hate this band because they got recognition. I'm going to be happy if it can get lame-ass teenagers listening to something better than Good Charlotte.

DJ Kicks
Erlend Oye
This is an interesting CD in a great series. There are many, many awesome DJ Kicks CD's out there, including one by Kruder and Dorfmeister, and a little piece of electronic perfection from Thievery Corportation. But this one is a little bit different.

Erlend Oye, of Kings of Convenience fame, is no technically dynamo. But, as the liner notes claim and he seems to show here, he knows how to work a room. His philiophy of being a very reactive DJ shows on this CD. He often, in fact, just starts singing over the tracks. You wouldn't even know it unless you knew his voice, either. I'd love to see that shit go down in a club.

This CD has a very electro sound, and seems to work well with Oye's style. But the tracks themselves are quiet varies. The run from Kings of Convenience remixes (there's never too much KoC) to some fairly housed-out tracks. There is also a brilliant KoC remix of Cornelius' "Drop", which is a brilliant song to begin with. Still, I think the best track on the CD is the first, Jurgen Pappe's "So Weit Wie Noch Nie".

It Isn't Funny
David Cross
David Cross is a comic genius. He's also one angry liberal. The combination is yet another hilarious and thought-provoking stand-up album touching on politics, race, religion, music, and so forth. All the good stuff. All the Cool Kids are listening to this, and you should be too.