Thursday, January 22, 2009

Volcano Suns and the poll to end polls

My review of the first two Volcano Suns albums is up today at Dusted. Volcano Suns was Peter Prescott’s first project after Burma went on hiatus…similar in a lot of ways to Burma, but rougher, funnier, more willing to pick a fight.

I put “Jak” on my mix a couple of weeks ago, but you can DL it from Merge if you missed it.


Here’s the paragraph where I struggle with exactly what is so great about this song.

“Very few bands get to kick off their careers with a song like ‘Jak.’ The first track on the first album by the Volcano Suns begins with a menacing bass line and a howl, then moves on through a defiant chorus, threading the needle between hardcore punk and jangling melodies. The final chorus – ‘Jack of all trades and master of none/how can a person get anything done/If you can live with yourself/you can fool anyone’ - is ferocious, it’s catchy and it’ll make you laugh if you let it – the holy trinity for this aggressive band of jesters.

The rest of the review is here.

Merge is also giving away “White Elephant”


Oh, and in exciting music writer news, the Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll went up yesterday and, shocker, TVOTR won. (Much worse, Vampire Weekend was second.) It’s a pretty solid way to waste a morning though, if you are so inclined…here’s a link to the main page.

4 comments:

cuddlefish said...

I was very glad to see that Experimental Aircraft came in at #1400 in the Jizz & Slop poll.

jenniferpkelly said...

That was me. Very proud of myself.

robp said...

White Elephant is a great gift. And I'm glad to see your music writing continues to be even timelier than mine.

Escovedo made the P&J top 40, not bad for a real album.

jenniferpkelly said...

Me and David Fricke both picked Alejandro for #1. This is probably the only sentence I'll ever write that begins "Me and David Fricke"...

And Rob, they're reissuing Volcano Suns. I was actually a little early.