Weekly Whiskey Episode 11 (For Realz)

Well, it finally worked. Hope it was worth all the trouble! I have just had one of the worst 24 hour periods of my life, as if the universe wants to make surviving til my vacation as difficult and painful as possible. Such is life.

No Age- Everything In Between

No Age's Nouns has only grown better with time, its unique DNA pulling together strands of noise-pop, shoegazing, punk, and psychedelic dream-pop. Yet my expectations for their sophomore effort have been muted at best. Nouns seemed to breed the band out of any possible development, since every move they could make from there was already predicted on it and related singles/EP's. But Everything In Between is an incredibly apt title that helps describe what No Age have achieved. It sounds different and yet the same by exploring the cracks between the aforementioned DNA strands. In other words, everything in between, thus extending the band's sound to its next logical step, if not conclusion. It's by turns noisier, more accessible, more dreamy, more direct, and catchier than Nouns, but most importantly, it's just as good.

Two of the crucial elements of Everything In Between's sound are the singer's expanded range and the increasing variety of guitar tones. Nouns had Randy Randall moving between the strained shouts of 'Sleeper Hold' and the more contemplative, druggy delivery of 'Things I Did When I Was Dead.' The new album adds a more studied tenor, often done in speak-singing, as heard on 'Glitter' and 'Sorts.' As for those guitar tones, there's something about the production and overall sound of Everything In Between that reminds me of Boces-era Mercury Rev and early Flaming Lips. Check the pealing buzz-saw guitars of 'Glitter' or the rushing noise-punk rave-up 'Shred And Transcend.' Moreover, the lyrics are a bit easier to pick out and understand this time out, meaning that some of the songs sound like genuine punk rock anthems crossed with noise-pop instead of strangely catchy noise-rock with words you couldn't really discern.

There isn't much unoccupied space in this music. Barring a breath-catcher like the subdued 'Common Heat', Everything In Between is coming at you all the time. Since No Age are only a duo, the fullness and depth of sound on the album is due to either it being a studio album or the band using more loops and electronics than they did before. Most tracks on Everything seem to have at least two guitars carousing around at any given time, coated with different effects, while the drums are a deceptively natural sounding mix of a traditional drum kit with drum machines and samples. In fact, the mix of fresh modern sounds with retro throwbacks reminds me a bit of MGMT's Congratulations.

At the same time, No Age's shoegazing/dream pop side is expanded upon. The album's second half in particular harkens back to 'Keechie' and 'Impossible Bouquet' from their debut. 'Katerpillar' and 'Dusted' run with this, bringing the My Bloody Valentine comparisons I noted in my Nouns review to fullest bloom. Had Kevin Shields ever delivered the goods when he promised a new album from MBV the last 154 times someone asked him about it, it might've sounded like the loping, modular 'Dusted' and the piano-lost-in-a-sea-of-beautiful-noise on 'Positive Amputation.'

'Chem Trails' closes the album with call-and-response vocals and a deceptively catchy melody in tow. Something about it and the other moments onEverything In Between where extreme sonics meet poppy elements reminds me of Sisterworld by Liars. It's not difficult to imagine No Age covering tracks like 'Too Much, Too Much' or 'Here Comes All The People.' Liars, however, focus on variety and the detailed juxtaposition of sounds in their experimental world, while No Age are about sheer force and maximalism even in their quieter/dreamier reveries. But like Sisterworld did for Liars, Everything In Betweenproved that No Age had some great music left in them and places yet to explore. Whether those places were just the spaces in between the strands of their already established DNA or avenues to new things...well, we'll have to wait for the next one to find out.

5 Poorly Drawn Stars Out Of 5

The Best Albums of 2008 Part 1

16) Beck - Modern Guilt
While he hasn't been releasing flat out bad music, Beck's cache has been muddled in recent years by a series of merely good albums with few surprises. Though it wasn't on the same level of the return of Portishead, Modern Guilt was one of my main surprises of 2008. The album sounds fresh and new, borrowing from modern day hip hop and 60s pop/rock and producing a concise, polished album of great songs.

15) and 14) Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster.../We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
While I haven't gotten around to reviewing these yet, Los Campesinos have, with the two albums they released this year, proven themselves to be as consistent and catchy as indie pop bands twice their age. The band deftly walk the indie rock line between sincerity and irony: song titles like '...And We Roll Our Eyes In Unison' may read more like titles of bad MySpace poetry but in actuality are damn good songs crammed with ideas and hooks. Fans of Belle & Sebastian and Architecture In Helsinki need apply.

13) The Dodos - Visiter
You initial point of reference for this album will probably be Animal Collective circa Sung Tongs, but The Dodos are much less psychedelic and drone-y and much more energetic and buoyant. The songs match intricate acoustic guitar to spastic, flailing percussion that recalls all sorts of exotic African/non-Western influences. All of this is more impressive because The Dodos are only a duo yet produce full bodied music ripe with dense production.

12) Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who See But Cannot Feel
While Deerhunter gave their noise/pop a restraint and polish with their album from 2008, Bradford Cox explored the electronic, ambient, and dream-pop headspaces with his 'solo' work under the Atlas Sound moniker. Let The Blind... makes for a hell of a headphones album, all glistening synthesizers, looped guitars, and longing, pained vocals. While not as immediately impressive as most of the albums on my list from this year, this one has been a return pleasure for me since its release very early in 2008.

11) Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Deerhoof get better with time just as much as they stay good. Offend Maggie wisely adds a second guitarist to the line-up after an album with only one, bringing the band back to their 'classic' sound circa Milk Man and Runner's Four while still adding new wrinkles and twists to their now established sound. I suspect this new line-up have something even better ahead of them, but Offend Maggie is a damn good new beginning.

10) No Age - Nouns
Bands like No Age are the reason I haven't given up on music or hung myself. What I mean is, if you had asked me who No Age were at the start of 2008 I wouldn't have had a clue. Yet here I am, a few days before 2009 begins, and a band I had never heard of is on my list of best albums of 2008. This is why I love music: that endless discovery of new, great bands. That rush of new-ness coupled with excellence. Nouns is such a succinct, effortless slab of noise-pop that it's easy to underrate it in the grand scheme of things. My Bloody Valentine may never release another album or if they do it might be crap, but that's OK. Bands like No Age ensure that noise-pop will always have a future. And, err, a present.

9) Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
It's odd to revisit this music in the middle of winter because it's so quintessentially made for the warmer months, when you hear about breezes instead of wind chill factors and at the very worst you might have to wear jeans instead of shorts. Nevermind that this was one of the most hyped up and talked about releases of the first part of 2008. Nevermind all the comparisons to Afro-pop and Paul Simon's Graceland. Mind, though, how infectious and addictive this album is.

Album of the Week: No Age- Nouns

There's a phenomenon for cases of moderate to severe hypothermia known as "paradoxical undressing." There are theories as to why it happens (maybe the intense cold affects the part of the brain that regulates body temperature or maybe blood vessels give out from exertion and thus a surge of blood reaches the limbs and warms them) but since it doesn't happen to every victim and it's dangerous to test, scientists still aren't sure. The first time I heard about this I was reminded of how you're actually more in danger in the desert with less clothing on because lots of light clothing will shield your skin from the sun and keep you from getting sunstroke and sunburn as quickly as you would otherwise. I bring both of these up because it reminds me of the strange phenomenon of listening to noise-y music: you get so used to the ugliness of it that it wraps around to pretty. I don't know why it happens, but I think some immoral parent should raise their children on atonal noise and then expose them to pretty harmonies and see what the results are.

Anyway, this very notion lies at the heart of the noise pop masterpiece Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, an album that is every bit as loud and piercing as the Velvet Underground's best but is somehow incredibly beautiful and warm. I suppose noise and feedback themselves aren't inherently cold or warm, ugly or pretty. It's all in how it's used. This is a lesson that the band No Age have taken to heart.

Nouns is interesting and successful in the way that all the best noise-pop is: it plays with the borders between the inherent dichotomy of the genre itself while maintaining a unique, singular sound. Though only a duo, No Age recall bigger, better-known bands like the aforementioned My Bloody Valentine and noise-pop elder statesmen like Sonic Youth. Where they differentiate themselves is with their use of noise, electronics, and the dynamics of a two-person band. Unlike the less successful noise-pop of Times New Viking, No Age understand that you don't need awful production to make your songs seem experimental and dense. Even with the poppier moments like 'Here Should Be My Home' the album shows an understanding of what makes this kind of music fascinating and timeless; as I alluded to earlier, the best noise-pop concerns itself with the borders between things like noise and pop (duh), warmth and coldness, loud and quiet, ugly and pretty, machine and natural. The instrumentals of Nouns are perhaps the best place to note this, particularly 'Impossible Bouquet' which has an Animal Collective-circa-Sung Tongs acoustic guitar buried in a hive of guitar loops and electronic noise. And while I don't know the words too well, I find the songs with vocals surprisingly catchy despite being buried in fuzz or distortion. Again, Times New Viking are the opposite of the spectrum, a place where I can't really hear their songs and what little comes through doesn't leave an impression.

Nouns is one of those great albums that improves with each listen while giving you the notion that the best is still ahead. I like to call this 'The Bends effect', named after the second album by Radiohead. I loved The Bends but in the context of the rest of that band's discography it comes off like an engagement ring rather than the wedding, honeymoon, or marriage. Wherever No Age end up from here, Nouns will remain an excellent piece of beautiful noise-pop and one of 2008's best "unexpected, from out of left field" releases.