CD reviews
People send us CDs. We listen to them then write what we think. This week: Nerf Herder, No Age and M83.
Nerf Herder
IV
(Oglio)
6.9
Goes well with: Weezer, NOFX minus the
politics, pocket protectors
Remember that “Van Halen” song from, like, 1997? You know, the one with the four dorky guys in a garage vowing never to listen to Sammy Hagar again after “I Can’t Drive 55”? That was Nerf Herder.
Yes, they’re still around, and, yes, they still sound the same on IV, the (surprise!) fourth album from the Santa Barbara nerdcore quartet (there’s really no other genre for a band named after an insult Princess Leia hurled at Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back).
IV is 12 quick tracks packed with happily formulaic pop-punk and lyrics about pretty girls, high-school dances, the brilliance of Led Zeppelin and the love that can only blossom between a woman and a manatee.
Handclaps, keyboards and lines like “Don’t you act like a stranger even though I am endangered / Your lid is gonna flip with a kiss from my prehensile lip” make “Stand by Your Manatee” the hands-down standout. But the hook-laced chorus of “WTC#7” also has a way of nestling into your gray matter. And while it’s laugh-out-loud funny when geeky expletives like “great Caesar’s ghost” and “Jiminy Crickets” are invoked in a rock chorus (on “Oh Me, Oh My”), Nerf Herder’s schtick eventually gets tiresome. But keep the album around anyway, if only so you can throw a track on the next CD mix you make for that geek-babe from science class.
—Maya Kroth
No Age
Nouns
(Sub Pop)
8.9
Goes well with: Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine
Seldom does a band reveal its influences by including photos of a record collection in the liner notes. But Nouns, No Age’s debut full-length for Sub Pop, does exactly that with a 68-page color booklet revealing eclectic tastes ranging from Public Enemy to Public Image, Ltd. It would seem difficult to pay homage to such disparate influences, but No Age manages to harness an enduring energy by offering a relentless album that sounds experimental and coherent all at once.
And it’s hard to separate the album art from the music—the duo that comprises No Age also curates art shows and produces films—as the visuals help the music make a succinct statement that explores textures and harmonies amid a strident vigor.
“Sleeper Hold” and “Miner” hammer pop hooks over an incensed crash of drums and cymbals, as riotous and infectious as Black Flag’s Damaged delivered with the pace and panache of The Nerves. Ambient loops and samples throughout the record offer depth to the album in spite of the minimal amount of musicians involved. It’s easy to believe Dean Spunt when (on “Cappo”) the drummer/vocalist sings, “It’s our duty to feel overwhelmed.” In this case, No Age has put those duties to good use.
—Richie Lauridsen
M83
Saturdays = Youth
(Mute)
8.2
Goes well with: Boards of Canada, Sigur Rós, “What happens in a field at sunset?”
Within the first 30 seconds of album opener “You, Appearing,” it’s quite obvious that this is not the usual M83.
Saturdays = Youth is simultaneously more ambitious and sparser (relatively speaking) than previous M83 releases.
And, instead of numerous layers of gauzy rhythms, mastermind Anthony Gonzalez is strategic, calculated and deliberate to a startling degree.
Any new M83 album is going to become an event subject to heady analysis by music critics. In fact, many have already noted ad nauseum the heavy-handed reliance on John Hughes films (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink) as primary source material. But while a lot of hullabaloo has been made of this, M83’s body of work has always focused on familiar adolescent feelings (alienation and fear, death and uncertainty), and so the co-opting of Hughes’ canon fits. In fact, Gonzalez has always reveled in teenage pathos, and by doing so publicly and deliberately (like a shoegazing Andy Warhol), he seems to be appropriating teen angst as a self-referential inside joke for public consumption (the liner notes cite “all the friends, music, movies, joints and crazy teachers that made my teenage years so great!”).
In the end, Gonzalez is conceptually limited by the cultural touchstones he intends to interpret, forcing him to essentially paint teenagers in color-by-numbers shades of gray. In the hands of the less capable, the result would be trite and uninteresting. However, in the care of M83, the album merely achieves excellence instead of greatness.
—Dave Tow
Published: 05/06/2008
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