For the Record

This Week: Confessions

Akron/Family

"AKRON/FAMILY"

(Young God Records)

Akron/Family has a secret, and I think I have discovered it. Unfortunately, revealing the secret entails a great deal of personal sacrifice. It involves an embarrassing mutual past. It is only because I too have been guilty of the band's crime that I can point an accusatory finger: Akron/Family listens to Phish.

Maybe I'm being unkind, and maybe I'm completely wrong, but I do know that while listening to Akron/Family's self-titled debut, I racked my brain to figure out what it was that most of these songs sounded disconcertingly like. The fact that Phish is anywhere to be found in my memory bank of comparison bands may be embarrassing, but skeletons in closets can be useful tools. In this case, they have helped me determine that, however much Akron/Family members may try to hide it behind their stylishly bushy beards and the Young God Records imprint on their CD, they are more akin to the world's favorite jam band than to label-mate Devendra Banhart.

My accusations may give a wrong impression to those whose only notion of Phish consists of hour-long noodly guitar solos, big corduroy pants with patches down the sides, and hacky sacks: Akron/Family are, as far as I can tell, entirely devoid of any of these. They do, however, have a wealth of frustratingly bland acoustic guitar ditties about catching the next wave and waiting under the sun and such, and these songs share a considerable amount with the music of neo-hippie jam band culture.

This connection, beyond speaking poorly of Akron/Family, reveals the dangerous mutual ground between jam band-folk and freak-folk (the overused genre label that has been repeatedly attached to Akron/Family). There are two elements to freak-folk, the freak and the folk, and I tend to believe that it's the freak part that makes music like Banhart's so appealing; it is also, unfortunately, the element that is clearly lacking from Akron/Family's debut effort.

This is not to say that they don't try. There are, for instance, plenty of ambient electronic parts (described in the liner notes as "fruity computer twiddling" and "orchestral computer sentiments") that turn semi-noisy here and there, but they usually feel like awkward afterthoughts (as on "I'll Be On The Water" and "Sorrow Boy"). There are also some attempts at exploring looser song structures and arrangements, but these also feel surgically attached to pre-existing, ordinary compositions ("Italy" and "Lumen"). The album makes several honest attempts at separating itself from the normal and unimaginative, but they end up seeming more like mere honest attempts than genuine strokes of inspiration.

It would be foolish, however, to say that all that a folk-influenced band needs in order to be worthwhile is a large enough dose of weirdness. There are plenty of acts commonly lumped in the freak-folk genre-Vetiver comes to mind-that successfully dedicate their energies to solid songwriting rather than sonic experimentation and produce singular, moving music, though it may lack an element of innovation. Akron/Family's primary weakness is that it falls short in both the freak and the folk-its songwriting, in other words, is not quite stirring or sophisticated enough to make up for the unevenness of its forays into experimentation.

Having said all of this, Akron/Family does hide one or two genuinely affecting moments that show potential for growth. For instance, "Before and Again," the opening track, raised expectations for the rest of the album on the first listen. It is one of the few tracks in which simplicity works in favor of the songwriting, primarily because it actually leads somewhere: a sudden shift to a short, percussive end section keeps the song from disappointingly petering out. "Running, Returning" benefits similarly from a few shifts in dynamics, and "Afford" is perhaps the only track in which the "orchestral computer sentiments" are actually effective. But these infrequent gems hardly make up for Akron/Family's general mediocrity, as they are easily forgotten in the bland songs that engulf them.

And I still think it sounds like Phish.

-David Noriega

Caribou

"MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS"

(Domino Records)

dear diary. so incredibly excited right now. just got the new manitoba album, yeti. oh that's right, that dan snaith isn't manitoba anymore; he's called caribou, but whatever, fuck that, he's still manitoba in my <3. this is a pre-release version i'm listening to. supposedly, the new official title is called milk of human kindness, but that's cool. you're manitoba. you can name your album whatever cheesy name you want because you released one of my favorite albums of 2003, up in flames, an incredible psych-pop-electric masterpiece where you had these wonderfully reimagined beach boys-esque songs wrapped in a sheen of organically tasteful pseudo-dance music. so yeah, i'm so psyched:

1st play through: what? that it? but nothing cool happened? geoffrey, play that record one more time.

2nd time around: that was the most nondescript 40 minutes of my life.

3rd: what the fuck. maybe i'm just not in the mood. it'll sound better tomorrow, i'm sure of it.

(tomorrow)

4th: alright, well i guess it is my fault for listening to this in my room. music just can't be properly enjoyed unless you're in an empty room, pitch black, purified air, no distractions. because really, who could've resisted the temptation to alphabetize his cd collection while listening to any piece of music in a room like mine. it's not dan's fault that i ended up folding my laundry midway through the third track, "pelican narrows," because i got confused and thought i was listening to a tossed-off dj shadow b-side. and that place under my bed really needed a cleaning, and seeing as how nothing exciting or new was happens during track 5, "bees" it was a pretty opportune time. cuz serious, that slow build-up, that hushed guitar, that all-too familiar snare and endless hi-hat, the horns at the climax? didn't you use this same formula on up in flames?

5th: opener "yeti," "a final warning," "bees," track 8 "brahminy kites," and closer "barnowl" could easily make a nice ep sequel to up in flames; so what if songs on your new album sound like they were leftover tracks? they still sport tight melodies and that oh so pristine production. who am i to call you lazy for not coming up with something new so long as in the end it still puts a smile on my face?

(following week)

9th: hey diary, i take that back: those five songs i listed last week aren't as good as anything on up in flames. not even close. dan snaith has just dipped into the same well way too many times. formulaic retreads. i'm not smiling anymore; i'm wincing at how obvious, how predictable they are. there's no depth here, none of the playful samples which littered up in flames or the sudden breaks which made me laugh. come to think of it, the most memorable songs on this album are the very ones that are completely different from his other work. the dj shadow homage "pelican narrows" isn't especially innovative, but at least that haunting, tinkling piano line stays with me after i turn off the record. and the sweetly disquieting "hello hammerheads" eerily channels elliott smith, right down to the exasperated way the vocals trail off. definitely worth listening to for those days i'm having girl trouble.

10th: nope, the rest of the album still isn't any better.

11th: really, i need to stop torturing myself by listening to this. i should just give up and admit that this album just isn't that good.

(today)

47th: "brahminy kites": i feel like i'm at a really bad marching band practice.

48th: i spent one summer working on my uncle's farm. one day, a foal was giving birth. everyone gathered outside; for 40 minutes, we slowly watched a baby horse born. but when it came out, it didn't move. my uncle shot it, in the head, to put it out of its misery. we all cried.. listening to this album is exactly like watching that scene, except after 40 minutes, i don't cry when it's all over. actually, it's most like you wish milk of human kindness was that foal. so you could kick its limp body. and tell it how much it sucked. suckity suck sucked.

51st: dan, maybe now that you've lowered the bar for what we can expect from you, your next album will come out of left-field again and surprise us all again. because if you don't, if you pull this same shit on us, i'm gonna be angry. i might not even waste a week of my life trying to decide on whether its good or not, i'll just expect the worst from you. please don't hurt me like this again, dan, please don't. XOXO.

-Jason Ng

Take Me Out

This week in Providence music

Saturday, April 16

AS220

115 Empire Street

9pm-$8 bucks

Serotonin, Mono, Eluvium, Urdog, Architectural Metaphor

If drama is your thing, then.well, let's just assume drama is your thing. Dramatic post-rock laced with ambient melancholia and the specter of trans-Pacific metal? All of these bands probably utilize terms like 'pulsating walls of sound,' 'elegant solar melodies of deep space,' 'fragile elegies of tsunami proportions,' and 'ambient wastrel post-masculine disembodied butterfly burning star fuckfest' in press releases. Mono is from Japan. Urdog is a psych band from Providence. Architectural Metaphor's drummer used to swing sticks for Dinosaur Jr. Mellow/drama.

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