September 14, 2012

Buried Treasures & Divine Fits Review

Jim and Greg share some of their favorite music under the mainstream radar in the latest installment of Buried Treasures.

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Buried Treasures

After three months of "Call Me Maybe" and "Somebody That I Used to Know" playing non-stop on commercial radio, Jim and Greg figure Sound Opinions listeners are due for an aural cleansing. This week, they dip into the wealth of great new music beyond the FM dial and play you some Buried Treasures. These artists might not be household names, but they're definitely worth adding to your collection.

Greg

Chromatics, Kill For Love
THEESatisfaction, awE NaturalE
The Very Best, MTMTMK
Scott Lucas and the Married Men, Blood Half Moon

Jim

Bassnectar, Vava Voom
Lester Bangs, Infinite Stretch
The Black Belles, The Black Belles
Django Django, Django Django

A Thing Called Divine Fits Divine Fits

Jim and Greg are generally dubious of supergroups. Too often they're not the sum of their parts. But Off!'s visit last week had them feeling hopeful about the debut record from yet another indie supergroup, Divine Fits. Divine Fits is composed of songwriters Britt Daniel of Spoon, Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade (and Handsome Furs), and drummer Sam Brown of New Bomb Turks. The combination of Daniel and Boeckner, Greg notes, is an interesting and potentially troublesome one. Whereas Daniel is cool and reserved, Boeckner is intense and in your face. So does A Thing Called Divine Fits live up to its lofty pedigree? Greg says it does. Daniel and Boeckner might bring different personalities to this partnership, but the two are kindred spirits when it comes to production style. Both embrace a minimalist, stripped-back approach to recording that Greg says makes listeners hyper-aware of musical details like the occasional castanet or maraca. He gives A Thing Called Divine Fits a Buy It. Jim can't echo Greg's enthusiasm. He says Divine Fits fails by abandoning the most successful elements of its members' previous groups. Divine Fits has all the angularity of Spoon, for example, but none of its driving intensity. It has all Handsome Furs' electronic edifice, without any of the sensuality that made that group compelling. Jim gives A Thing Called Divine Fits a Trash It.

Greg

For his DIJ, Greg wants to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Los Lobos's Kiko. In 1992, grunge acts like Nirvana were shaking up the mainstream, and veteran acts like Los Lobos had to either reinvent or face irrelevance. Kiko, Greg says, was Los Lobos's answer to grunge's challenge. The group started out in the seventies playing a fusion of American roots rock and Mexican folk. Kiko saw main songwriters David Hidalgo and Louie Perez moving in a more trippy psychedelic direction, writing lyrics that were so concise, they were almost haiku-like. The band's new sound only really began to gel however when their label put them in the studio with producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. Froom and Blake pumped up the distortion and keyboard effects, and suddenly Los Lobos were walking into a new sonic world. Greg says the album's opening track, "Dream in Blue," represents the door opening onto that new world. Hidalgo and Perez's lyrics describe a sleeping child who, as she begins to dream, finds herself entering a realm of unprecedented freedom.

Featured Songs

Chromatics, "Kill for Love," Kill For Love, Italians Do It Better, 2012
Bassnectar, "Vava Voom," Vava Voom, Amorphous Music, 2012
THEEsatisfaction, "QueenS," AwE NaturalE, Sub Pop, 2012
Lester Bangs, "Almost," Infinite Stetch, self-released, 2012
DIIV, "(Druun)," Oshin, Captured Tracks, 2012
The Very Best, "Kondaine," MTMTMK, Moshi Moshi/Cooperative Music, 2012
The Very Best, "Adani," MTMTMK, Moshi Moshi/Cooperative Music, 2012
The Black Belles, "Howl at the Moon," the Black Belles, Third Man Records, 2012
Scott Lucas & The Married Men, "Lover The Lullaby," Blood Half Moon, The End Records, 2012
Django Django, "Default," Django Django, Because Music, 2012
The Album Leaf, "Low Down," Forward/Return, self-released, 2012
Divine Fits, "My Love Is Real," A Thing Called Divine Fits, Merge, 2012
Divine Fits, "Flaggin A Ride," A Thing Called Divine Fits, Merge, 2012
Los Lobos, "Dream in Blue," Kiko, Slash/WB, 1992
Electric Light Orchestra, "Telephone Line," A New World Record, Epic, 1976
The Pogues, "Tuesday Morning," Waiting For Herb, Chamelion, 1993
The Futureheads, "Thursday," News and Tributes, Vagrant, 2006
Dead Can Dance, "Anabasis," Anastasis, PIAS, 2012

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