Idiot Pilot: The New Radiohead

Idiot Pilot – Strange We Should Meet Here
Review coming soon to a computer screen near you
Megha
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Update 1st Jan 2007

Okay, here is some quality work. Before I give you the low down on these Rock – Electronica prodigies I would like to say that if you haven’t already listened to their stuff then get off your ass and listen to it now. Just kidding. No pressure.

Idiot Pilot is a band from Washington (do they mix some sort of a music steroid in Washington’s water?). After you have heard their music, you’d be surprised to know that it is nothing but the genius of two soulful teenagers – Michael Harris and Daniel Anderson. Equipped with a laptop, guitar and lots of thoughtful ideas, these kids, who still legally can’t drink, have been able to create a highly inebriating variety of music. I won’t say they belong to the Indie genre but that is not because I know they prefer not to be called Indie, but because I know that it won’t be long before the music of these two fine lads climbs out of the reaches of obscurity and makes a big impression on more popular soundgrounds, where the likes of Radiohead and Deftones prevail. When I first heard their stuff I said to myself – Is that Radiohead experimenting with electronica and screams? I was glad to find out that many other music reviewers concurred on that point. So basically I am sharp, yeah.

You will know what I mean once you hear their songs from Strange We Should Meet Here. Spark Plug is probably the most impressive track from this album. It starts with mellow acoustic guitar riffs and anyone listening to it for the first time can never expect the sharp turn it takes twenty seconds into the play. Daniel Anderson who has landed the job of the “screamer” in this band does a good job. The screaming and shouting does not seem out of place like it normally does in most songs from grunge and metal genre. I can say that because despite being averse to the idea of vocal chord blaring in songs, I quite like it in their songs. The mellifluous voice of Michael Harris is the soothing factor without which this song would have been a yet another sad hardcore creation. The psychedelic electronica rock ambience that the incessant cash counter beep like sounds create is fantastic.

Moving on, the next best song from this album in my opinion is, Open Register. Just like Spark Plug, it starts with sweet, peaceful accoustics and vocals and then all of a sudden, a scream – “WE’RE TRYING TO HELP YOUUUU!!” I so totally love that. It is like playing a game of Peek-A-Boo. I want to play more, more and more. You ask me, okay then Megha, what is the tune like? One word – Brilliant.

Press next on random shuffle. The psychedelic track Les Lumieres has an intro typical of a dance track; let me rephrase, a fantastic dance track. The foggy music, the beats, the cash register beeps and not to forget the sound of someone chanting (Michael Harris or Daniel Anderson or both?) make this song something you can listen to at a club, in your car, at work (if the bosses allow), in your room or wherever. To top it all off, they have added subtle turn table effects to the song just like tiny bells on a Christmas tree.

Another track worth mentioning from Strange We Should… is Arrhythmia. I honestly don’t know what that means and I couldn’t be bothered to look that up in a dictionary. Actually I did but I couldn’t find it. Back to the song, this 4:36 minutes long track has a lot of electronica beeps to offer. The real fun does not begin until the second phase of the song starts, that would be somewhere around 2:54 minutes into the play. That is when the tune really escalates into another plane. If you don’t like the song at first, I would advice you to wait for the second phase to begin.

When A Day in the Life of a Poolshark starts, you imagine a Mario-esque video game, something like where you have to feed sharks or better still save yourself from them. I think that could be partly because of the song title and partly because of the way the song opens. It begins with a sound one would expect to come out of an eighty’s video game.

Other Idiot Pilot songs worth trying out are A Light at the End of The Tunnel, the title track Strange We Should Meet Here, To Buy a Gun(from To Buy A Gun EP), and Violent Tango. The reason why I haven’t mentioned the rest is because I am yet to hear them. I am sure the rest will be as cool as the ones mentioned above.

Don’t be surprised if after sometime you see every average Joe music lover talking about Idiot Pilot. Even if you don’t get surprised, don’t forget you first heard the prediction here on Laidbackness

Megha Kehar

P.S: If anyone understood what I meant when I said “cash register/cash machine/cash counter beeps” and knows what they are actually called then please do let me know. Thanks loads in advance!

P.P.S: Feel free to contact me if you can’t find their stuff. I might be able to help.

The Complete Idiot Pilot Discography

Strange We Should Meet Here
1. Losing Color
2. Day in The Life Of A Poolshark, A
3. Open Register
4. Les Lumieres
5. Violent Tango, The
6. Nightlife Sparkplug
7. Moerae (The Locust)
8. Strange We Should Meet Here
9. Militance Prom
10. To Buy a Gun
11. Light at the End of the Tunnel, A
12. Arrhythmia
13. Lucid

To Buy A Gun
1. To Buy A Gun
2. To Buy A Gun (Her Space Holiday Remix)
3. Morae (The Locust)
4. Morae (The Locust) (Jel Remix)

Laidbackness’s Indie/Alt/Underground playlist

Laidbackness says:

Okay, so it had indeed been a long time since the last post (see: The Arctic Monkeys doing covers by Pradster). I honestly wanted to wait a while (or at least have an article about some other band) before posting another Arctic Monkeys article right after the first one about them. But then I thought, “what the deuce”, I’ll do it anyway! We have the usual excuses – work, studies, blah, and blah. Seriously, I would rather have my time and listen to stuff and write about it than do anything that falls a degree below all that on my scale of “Laidbackness like-o-meter”. On second thought, that was an awful name for a scale.

Anyway, so what have I been listening to lately? Umm, Indie/underground of course! The songs have been listed below (in case you are interested). These aren’t brand new tracks but in my opinion the best thing about underground songs is that no matter how long it has been after their release, they always remain fresh. Maybe, that is because most sloppy RJs (who play a song over and over again, until they kill it, grr…) probably never find out about these songs. Good thing. The last thing you want to hear on radio is some junkie toggling between pop and indie. Yes, that happens. At least here in India. That totally kills it. Okay, enough of the rant. Here’s my play list:

1. Heady Like a Kite – Noisy At the Circus

2. OK Go – Here We Go

3. Modest Mouse – Float On (one of the more popular ones, really)

4. My Vitriol – Always Your Way

5. Appleseed cast – Fishing the Sky

6. Arcade Fire – Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)

7. Arctic Monkeys, The – All You People Are Vampires

8. PJ Harvey – Good Fortune

9. The Shins – Kissing The Lipless (will review this song later. This song deserves it.)

10. The Subways – Oh Yeah (Laidbackness recommends)

11. Mojave 3 – Breaking The Ice

12. Sonic Youth – Incinerate

13. Be Your Own Pet- October, First Account

14. Nine Black Alps – Unsatisfied

15. 22-20’s – Shoot Your Gun (Laidbackness recommends)

That is it for now. I would love to know what you think about the songs (in case you get a chance to listen to any of the songs mentioned above)!

Megha needs to go now and find nice trousers to go with black jacket.

Laters

The Arctic Monkeys Doing What Monkeys Do Best – Monkeying!

Hmm, so what is it that we know about The Arctic Monkeys?

1) They have a certain affinity towards electro pop from 1984.
2) They are simply awesome.
3) People here at Laidbackness totally dig the monkeys (this being the second post about them).
4) They do some real fab covers!

What? Arctic Monkeys doing covers?
It seems the guys from Sheffield woke up one day with a song writer’s/musician’s block and thought of doing a cover. Not a bad decision, me thinks.

So here’s the low down: The Arctic Monkeys have done a wicked job at covering the Girls Aloud song Love Machine, and they have made it their own. It’s a union of electro pop certain, country hooks, good ol’ Brit humour and the lack of understanding that we guys wield for the women in our lives (and suffer consequently). It might irk some of us to find out that it’s a cover but the truth is in fact is that when you catch The Arctic Monkeys singing, “We’re gift wrapped kitty cats”, it pays to put in a disclaimer.

The song is tight, brisk and there is no moment where it slacks. There is more to the song, it’s The Arctic Monkeys biting back at pop or mainstream as you might reckon. Whatever the reasons, here’s a great song. Go check it out and thank the folks here at Laidbackness for providing info on the best stuff.

Laidbackness rating *****

This is your friendly neighbourhood Pradster, out!

All You People Are Vampires, so say The Arctic Monkeys

Now then, The Arctic Monkeys, the primates with the saucy Yorkshire accent (something = sum un). The notorious, media shy, TV snubbing band from Sheffield, England is everything a Brit rock band should be. Honestly. If you like your guitar riffs cooked in sarcasm and humour then Arctic Monkeys is the chef’s special for the whole year. They have something to say about everyone, right from chavs to meretricious women to “scummy men” to robots from nineteen eighty four.

The Arctic Monkeys are Alex Turner (Lead vocals, guitar), Nick O’Malley (bass guitar), Jamie Cook (rhythm guitar) and Matt Helders (drums, backing vocals). I have to confess that I am mildly smitten by Alex Turner but only in a fan – rock star sort of a way. His cheeky voice wrapped in that accent is one of the many factors that sets this band apart from the other contemporaries.

The rad thing about the band is their confidence in their music. Good thing they did not bother signing up with a record label or else we would have ended up listening to musically bowdlerised versions of their songs. The reason for their phenomenal success (overnight success really) can be attributed to their fans. Rather than having record labels do the marketing and campaigning, they allowed free downloads of their music. So whenever they performed at gigs they had their massive fan base singing along to their songs. Name the number one Arctic Monkeys sing along song? When The Sun Goes Down. They normally kick start their gig with this song and the fans sing along the entire song. Oh how I would love to see them perform. I definitely qualify as a fan. I even have that song memorized. The song was originally titled Scummy Man. (And what a scummy man/Give him half a chance/ And he will rob you if he can/ And he’s got a driving ban among some other offences).

Every song of the Arctic Monkeys has so many high points that it is impossible for me to list all of them here. Take for example, The View from the Afternoon. Do I talk about the sensational beats of the song (which have been very nicely highlighted in the song’s music video as well) or do I talk about the lyrics (For disappointment in evening entertainment/but tonight there will be some lurrrrrve) or the way Turner says the word “but” in “but tonight there will be some lurrrrrve”? Think Mardy Bum and think primer on UK slang (now then mardy bum/I see you’re frowning/It’s like looking down the barrel of a gun).

I find their first single I Bet You Look Good on the Dance floor very fascinating. I keep wondering what the dreams o nortiness consist of. The I Bet You…video is nothing more than an amateur gig vid and yet watching the band take it from the top is nothing less than enthralling. Check them out working their way across the entire length of the fret board, applying pressure across the various points along the neck of the poor guitar. Result, needless to say, is awesome. Translate that into Billboard lingo and you’d know that I Bet You Look Good on the Dance floor went straight to UK#1.

With so many straight rocket number ones to their credit little wonder their album Whatever People Say I am, that’s What I Am Not won the Grammy Best Alternative Music Album this year.

Just one album and two EPs old The Arctic Monkeys have achieved what the other contemporaries could not achieve even with their flashy gigs and jazzy vids.
Time for me to go now. Megha signing out now, dancing to electro pop like a robot from nineteen eighty fourrrr….

Rating: *****

Discography:

Album
2006 Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

1. The View from the Afternoon
2. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
3. Fake Tales of San Francisco
4. Dancing Shoes
5. You Probably Couldn’t See For the Lights But You Were Staring Straight at Me
6. Still Take You Home
7. Riot Van
8. Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured
9. Mardy
10. Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But All You People Are Vampires
11. When the Sun Goes Down
12. From the Ritz to the Rubble
13. A Certain Romance!

EP

2005 Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys
2006 Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys

How to love and relate through slight malfunction: Silversun Pickups – Lazy Eye

It’s a journey. A big throbbing wall of noise greets you, as you pack your bags with wonder. Leave your bags behind, abandon all thoughts for, that big wall will soon be shredded and before you know it you will be submerged in the melody.

Silversuns pickups or SSPS as they like to be called weave an aural web; you can wander around for hours at a stretch, unraveling the many layers of sound. What you look for determines what you find. There you are on your way, lost in the steady tempo preparing for the time ahead and so you should buckle up, for it’s a long ride, stretching to nearly seven and a half minutes.

The song slacks and drags in parts. This journey could have been and honestly should have been tighter, taut and shorter (considering this era of 2 minute sagas!). The Silversuns sound too much like The Smashing Pumpkins for their own good; Brian Aubert’s vocal resembling a certain Boy Scout version of Billy Corgan.

Back to the ride, where the steady melody, which is the hallmark of the song degenerates into guttural wailing shakes you out of your cocoon. The melody fades into the background so if you were on an airplane…this would have been your pocket of turbulence. But then somebody takes control and lands it …before running it into another wall of noise!

The redeeming feature is the melody, that’s why you hopped on in the first place. Don’t bother looking out of the windows for the lyrics just don’t make much sense. Melancholy sounds and strange lyrics aren’t great bedfellows especially when you are looking for an escape!

Lazy eye is not a great song but it is a good song, like a trip which is good while it lasts but which you will forget as soon as it is over, Lazy Eye is good while it lasts but it will certainly not leave any lasting impressions on you.

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Pradster

The Charlatans

Question: Name the best song in the World?

The answer:

The Charlatans – How High

Now that you have had a load of it you’d concur that it is indeed one of the best tunes ever! Don’t tell me the electrifying guitars don’t do anything for you.