Video: No Age - "Eraser" (Live on "Late Late Night With Craig Ferguson")

(Via)

Yes, this is the performance where CBS forced No Age member Randy Randall to cover a t-shirt with a positive image of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, invoking the fairness doctrine--which, incidentally, was repealed in the mid-1980s. Oh, corporations. Is there anything you won't obscure? The band performs "Eraser", a standout track from Nouns.

In other No Age news, their label Sub Pop released a second MP3 from Nouns. "Teen Creeps" is below for your enjoyment.

Download: No Age - "Teen Creeps"
Download: No Age - "Eraser

No Age MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)
jon@minneapolisfuckingrocks.com

Top Ten Tracks on Elbo.Ws Reviewed in 50 Words or Less: 4/16/08--4/30/08

Bi-monthly, MFR reviews the top ten tracks on music blog aggregator Elbo.ws. Here are the songs that were most popular amongst music blogs from April 16th through April 30th. Kids sure do love them some Last Shadow Puppets, don't they?

1. My Morning Jacket - "Evil Urges"

The title track from the Louisville-based My Morning Jacket's upcoming fifth record begins as a space-rock pastiche before blasting off into the group's more familiar indie-jam territory, all done underneath Jim James' best Curtis Mayfield impression. A departure, for sure, but a successful one, for the most part. Never has the band sounded so soulful.

Grade: B+

2. Wolf Parade - "Call It a Ritual"

The mournful, piano-driven jauntiness of "Call It a Ritual" doesn't really differentiate itself from the Canadian quintet's past material in terms of feel. Of course, when your first album knocked the indie world's socks off their asses, you probably don't feel so compelled to change things up. However, am I complaining? No.

Grade: B+

3. The Last Shadow Puppets - "The Age of the Understatement"

A live rendition of the Arctic Monkey's offshoot title track, there's a little bit of a locomotive pace to this song. Turner's croon and a fuzzy, echo-y guitar line prove to be the focal points of the track. The harmonizing is a little off at times, but all in all, this is a solid performance.

Grade: B

4. My Brightest Diamond - "Inside a Boy"

The odd flaw of My Brightest Diamond's debut record was that it was a little too well-crafted. As a rock album, it could have used more shambolic energy. "Inside a Boy", doesn't quite kick out the jams, but it does make effective use of vocals and guitar to create an anxious atmosphere reminiscent of Radiohead.

Grade: B

5. Lykke Li - "Dance Dance Dance"

Before releasing her debut album, Swedish songstress Lykke Li gives listeners a foretaste of the feast to come by releasing an EP of material, from which "Dance Dance Dance" is taken. From the first impression given by this single, "Dance Dance Dance" should be one of many solid, sugary pop numbers.

Grade: B

6. Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal"

Though Fleet Foxes may modestly claim that they're "not much of a rock band", they sure do know how to coalesce its ancestors (country, gospel, and choral music) into songs that are hopelessly harmonic. "White Winter Hymnal" sounds like the future of the music they supposedly are not much of. How's that for irony?

Grade: A-

7. M83 - "Graveyard Girl"

Download: M83 - "Graveyard Girl"

If The Jesus And Mary Chain (who picked up where your precious Echo left off) ever wrote an anthemic prom song, this would probably be it. M83 perfectly captures the emotional experience of adolescence, where being enamored of love is as equally important as actually being in love. Shoegazer and synth-pop never sounded so grandiose.

Grade: A

8. The Last Shadow Puppets - "My Mistakes Were Made For You"

Who knew that Alex Turner was a fan of Sinatra's Frank and Nancy? This elegant pop song, a tale of regret about how innocence and arrogance intertwine, bears a musical resemblance to the latter's orchestral pop songs with Burt Bacharach, but delivered with the croon of the former. Surprisingly well-done.

Grade: B+

9. Weezer - "Pork And Beans"

The best Weezer single to come from this decade. Granted, in the context of "Beverly Hills", that's not saying a whole lot. But by revisiting old glories (a little "Buddy Holly" in the chorus, a little "El Scorcho" in the verse), Weezer have finally started to recaptur the essence of what made them expert pop-smiths to begin with.

Grade: B

10. No Age - "Eraser"

"Eraser" may not be the most groundbreaking song written (indeed, Deerhunter and Liars have beaten No Age to the 21st-century noise-recontextualized-as-pop punch), but as far as marrying the ambient guitar collages of My Bloody Valentine with the off-kilter melodic sensibilities of late 90s Modest Mouse, this track is tops.

Grade: A-

(Jonathan Graef)

New No Age - "Eraser"

Download: No Age - "Eraser"
Download: No Age - "It's Oh So Quiet"

Along with their contemporaries in Liars and Deerhunter, ambient punk duo No Age aren't so much interested in emancipating dissonance from its art-noise chains so much as dressing it up real nice like and showing it a good time by recontextualizing it as a pop song. Not just any old pop song about a girl you loves you (yeah, yeah, yeah...), but, rather, "the most beautiful noise pop song", presumably ever.

Their last effort, the compilation album Weirdo Rippers (comprised of 5 different EPs), certainly had enough tracks that went for the aesthetically-pleasing-yet-artfully-damaged best song EVAH prize. Songs like "Every Artist Needs A Tragedy", "I Wanna Sleep" and "Sun Spots" successfully combined MBV-style atmospheric soundscapes with tribal drum sounds, lo-fi production, and drone-y melodies, while others, such as "Boy Void" are more forceful about their chaotic roots in punk and noise.

For their first batch of all new material since the original EPs, a record called Nouns (their first for Sub Pop), the cover of which is the image for this post, the direction that band seems to be heading in is all about how "bands should be fun and exciting and they should push all the buttons at the same time. They should make you feel like you are going to explode and make you utterly confused and inspired at the same time." So sayth drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt on the band's Sub Pop page.

So now that the venerable indie label has revealed the track-listing for Nouns (check it below), as well as its first single, what are we as listeners to make of "Eraser"? Will minds be blown? Will we be reduced to stuttering, stammering Grandpa Simpsons as new sounds and music patterns form before our very ears?

The answer just might be both yes and no.

"Eraser" (made available yesterday by Sub Pop) may not necessarily be groundbreaking, but it's the absolute pinnacle of what a pop song with ambient undertakings can be. After a sweetly melodic two-chord vamp (doubled by heavily fuzzed-out guitar buried way in the background) starts the track off, swirling waves of feedback echo which carry on from here til who knows when enter the sonic picture and create a tapestry of whirling distortion. This motif picks up some speed until the minute-and-a-half mark, when the levees break and a full-on song emerges. For the remaining minute-and-change, No Age don't quite create the most beautiful noise-pop song, but instead pen something akin to Lonesome Crowded West-era Modest Mouse undertaking a Loveless influenced sonic makeover.

Yes, that's as awesome as it sounds, and consider my mind blown.

Listen to "Eraser" at the top of the post, as well as their cover of Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet".

Here's the Nouns track-listing I promised earlier:

1. Miner
2. Eraser
3. Teen Creeps
4. Things I Did When I Was Dead
5. Cappo
6. Keechie
7. Sleeper Hold
8. Errand Boy
9. Here Should Be My Home
10. Impossible Bouquet
11. Ripped Knees
12. Brain Burner

Nouns is out on May 6th.

No Age MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)