Tynan's Anger

Among the new lessons I learned through my most recent swing through the Midwest were the following: The culture of Midwestern cities is even richer than I thought, Republicans without a college education still have great stories, and while meat & potatoes is and always will be great, most people will eat filet mignon if given the chance.

The latter lesson applies to my biggest musical discovery of the trip: Minneapolis's The Mood Swings, who have come out with a fantastic if limited third album Recessionista. There's little point in classifying the Mood Swings as anything more specific than a rock band, with all the riffs of the Knack without any of the misogyny and half the originality. The Mood Swings are the kind of band meant to rock the Twin Cities, Madison, Chicago, and St. Louis. If they were smart, they'd stay as far away from the coasts as possible.

The Mood Swings' lack of musical originality will no doubt turn them off from scenesters in New York and L.A. While the main perks of scenesterism has always been to scour for new trends in music, the failures of coasties have made the pure rock of the Mood Swings something of a relief.

What's more interesting about the Mood Swings on Recessionista is their honest, to-the-point, and, some would say, obvious lyrics. Songs about going to thrift shops, false assumptions about love, and Generation Y malaise are nothing new, but they're issues that haven't really gone away. Of course, they're backed by such jaunty power chords that the lyrical obviousness is easy to overlook for those who'd prefer to stay blind.
 
Between bands like The Hold Steady, Mannequin Men, and Wilco, the Midwest has become something of a hotbed this decade for sincere, socially conscious songwriting, whereas New York bands have been more interested in faux-No Wave innovation. So yes, the music and lyrics of Recessionista are old hat; They're also the kind of things that will never grow old.

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Speaking of Brooklyn and innovation, I have been eagerly awaiting the second album of A Place To Bury Strangers, without a doubt the most exciting new live band I have seen in the past year, who have released their first album on Mute with Exploding Head . Mute is famous for helping facilitate the fledgling careers of artists like Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, and Throbbing Gristle-all clear influences on A Place To Bury Strangers-and I was hoping that Exploding Head would fulfill the promise of their live shows and self-titled debut. APTBS was possibly the first shoegaze band to return guitar rock to its hard rock/noise rock roots, and at their live show, they have instantly kicked out the riffraff better suited for Tanglewood.

While the songs are all there, Exploding Head has been butchered by a terrible production job, emphasizing the digital over the raw to the extent that, no matter what system you listen to (and I've tried everything I own), it sounds like you're listening to a band in a glass box. Shoegaze has been the most fascinating development in guitar rock for the past 20 years because it allows smart bands to experiment with a seemingly endless amount of peddles and effects. It can also be a commercial nightmare: The tendency to experiment with technology of unpredictable costs for a generally non-commercial genre generally makes label heads quiver (My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, of course, being the most famous example of commercial sacrifice).

So with a band that is doing something so new as A Place To Bury Strangers—still working with all those petals and fun effects while producing old-fashioned massive riffs—has suffered from a cynical hedging of bets from guitarist/vocalist/producer Oliver Ackermann. Ackermann, as the founder of Death by Audio, really should know better than to sell himself so short. Songs like "In Your Heart," "Keep Slipping Away," and closer "I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of You," all of which are fantastic, wild fun live, sound like hollow shells of their former selves coming out of the studio. If there's any justice, Exploding Head will someday get be remastered to properly play to its strengths. But don’t let this record fool you; A Place To Bury Strangers have a long future ahead of them if they keep this up.

Labels: a place to bury strangers, album reviews, exploding head, midwest, mood swings, recessionista, shoegaze