A Year of Music

Stuck in my head this morning: Dan Deacon’s “Okie Dokie”, the fourth song to get stuck in my head from Spiderman of the Rings in the last couple weeks. Now that I’ve had a chance to hear his older work, I’m even more impressed by what a wide-spectrum achievement Spiderman of the Rings really is. I like his older stuff, albeit in a much calmer way, but it comes from a much more academic / heady place.

While showering, some sort of monster complicated techno song barged its way into my noggin, and it took me a few minutes to figure out it was something from the new Clark. It stayed stuck in my head, too, even after I put on Autechre’s Untilted. I kept wanting Untilted to be beatier, like the Clark, but it wasn’t. Listening to it did lead me to wonder, though: why do Autechre bury all the pretty tracks at the ends of their albums?

Stuck in my head this morning: “Wham City” by Dan Deacon. At least it’s a different song, and one that’s durable enouth to bear being in a fragmented, self-remixing loop in my head through showering and shaving and whatnot. Here’s a video on YouTube of Dan performing it live (skip past the first couple minutes of Videohippos footage).

Stuck in my head this morning: Second verse, same as the first. “I’m So Gay With the Boner” for Dan Deacon!

This year is shaping up to be a major trip, music-wise. Either it’s been a great year for new music, or writing this blog has made me hyperaware of what’s being released, but whichever it is, a bunch of my favorite bands either have new things out, or are about to:

• Season of Mist just released Anaal Nathrakh’s brutal, unrelenting and majestic latest, Hell is Empty, and All the Devils are Here in America, finally. The UK’s had it for four whole months already!
• The unpredictably brilliant grindcore / IDM hipster assault unit Genghis Tron have a new album out next month. Their first full-length was one of my favorite records of whatever year in which it originally was released. (H/T to Tomas.)
• Autechre have emerged from their laser cocoons, sound swords smoking, to unleash Quaristice, their latest bit of tortured Max/MSP mangling. Maybe it’ll be better than Confield and Untilted. Maybe. I think I’m gonna get that one on digital (which is available now – the physical edition’s out in a weekmonth or so, although if you wanted the laser-etched steel cased limited edition, too bad! You snoozed! You lost!).
• I was able to download my copy of Clark’s newest, Turning Dragon, finally. One of Bleep’s servers slipped a disk. I am very excited to finally have it. I was so excited about “Volcan Veins”, I bought it off iTunes to tide me over until I was able to get the album. It has not gotten old yet.

You know what would be awesome? If Autechre and Radiohead co-headlined a tour, with Dan Deacon opening. Dan could get the party started, and then Autechre and Radiohead could take turns confusing the shit out of everyone. I think that would be a lot of fun.

Stuck in my head this morning: Dan Deacon’s “Trippy Green Skull” and “Snake Mistakes”, both from his much-lauded Spiderman of the Rings. Both songs are incredibly poppy, bright and electronic, with childish Dada lyrics, and both have unexpected catchy bits near the end that get lodged in your head and just will not come out. I’m about six months late to be bringing up Mr. Deacon and Spiderman, but the album is just as fresh, charming and mildly brain-damaged now as it was when it was first released. Jess Harvell (whom I was abusing here just last week) wrote a great, perceptive review of Spiderman of the Rings over on Pitchfork that I endorse wholeheartedly.

Deacon’s faux naïf act works, paradoxically, because he’s got a master’s degree in composition and takes a deeply serious approach to his very silly songs. The dude can put together a 3-minute pop song like nobody’s business, but his command over his (sometimes self-made and often very primitive) gear is impressive, and – especially on longer, more elaborate songs like “Wham City” and “Jimmy Jay Roche” – there are obvious influences from the classic minimalists – Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass – as well as an odd kinship with new wave schmooptronica acts like M83 and Ulrich Schnauss, even as his lyrics ramble a lot closer to Devendra Banhart’s childlike psychedelia or a particularly gentle version of Ween. I find the combination of minimalist restraint and sugar-addled weirdo pop super charming.

UPDATE: I have got to see this guy live.