CD reviews

Freelance Whales
Weathervanes
(Frenchkiss)
*4.1*
Goes well with: New Pornographers, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Arcade Fire

If Freelance Whales had arrived 10 years ago, there’s a chance they could’ve felt fresh. The Elephant 6 collective had already churned out some similar-sounding, freaky pop bands, but none had broken big. The Jeff Mangum / Neutral Milk Hotel legend was just beginning to flourish and only a handful of people were really into Olivia Tremor Control. But in 2010, a bunch of kids fooling with old-timey instruments and making an album full of non-threatening pop songs feels tired. The Whales exist somewhere between The New Pornographers and The Arcade Fire, with the pop sensibilities of the former and the ramshackle feel of the latter. But on Weathervanes, they lack the energy, passion and songwriting that makes their forebears stand out. These days, that pack is big enough to give all the cookie-cutter pop-punk clones a run for their money.

Another problem: Weathervanes is drenched in synthesizers. Even their MySpace page says the band sounds like “somebody wired their heart to a synthesizer.” You know what that would sound like? A heart monitor beeping away in a hospital room. For the next album, they should shoot for sounding like “somebody wired their heart to a 747.” Now, that would be original.

Freelance Whales play Tuesday, March 23, at The Casbah.

Gonjasufi
A Sufi and A Killer
(Warp)
*9.0*
Goes well with: DJ Shadow, George Clinton, Love, Lee “Scratch” Perry

We’re not technically able to claim them as locals anymore, but Sumach Ecks (aka Gonjasufi) and William Bensussen (aka The Gaslamp Killer) each made separate paths through San Diego’s fledgling hip-hop underground. After years of enduring general public indifference, Ecks departed for Las Vegas to teach yoga, while Bensussen, tiring of closed-minded Downtown clubgoers, migrated north, where he’s now among the vanguard of L.A.’s burgeoning beat scene. Too bad San Diegans didn’t properly nurture these two, because A Sufi and A Killer isn’t just a mind-blowing fusion of futuristic and vintage sounds; it’s an instant cult classic, effortlessly eliminating genre boundaries with dusty genius.

Sufi might be the only album in history that recalls Village Green-era Kinks (“She Gone”) and The Stooges (“Suzieq”) as easily as international pop (“Kowboyz and Indians”), Portishead (“Change”) and squiggly electro-funk (“Candylane”). The 14 GLK-produced tracks display a depth of musical intuition only the most devoted crate-diggers possess, and the remaining cuts from L.A. all-stars Flying Lotus and Mainframe are phenomenal. With Gonjasufi’s warble levitating over the mix, the results simultaneously sound like everything and nothing you’ve ever heard, a defiantly idiosyncratic slab of brilliance at a time when most acts are merely content to please the party crowd.

Gonjasufi plays Friday, March 19, at The Wit’s End in Hillcrest.

Xiu Xiu
Dear God, I Hate Myself
(Kill Rock Stars)
*7.0*
Goes well with: Deerhoof, Frog Eyes, Bokusatu Shoujo Koubou

There’s nothing that better exemplifies the irascible Xiu Xiu sound than this verse from “Gray Death”: “If you are expecting consolation / I will become outrageous / If you expect me to be outrageous / I will be extra-outrageous.”

Indeed, Jamie Stewart and his collaborators—including Angela Seo, who replaces former bandmate Caralee McElroy—aren’t known to hold their feelings back. Their hideous avant-ballads overflow with gut-churning pain, and their orgiastic pop songs burn with desire. But fans expecting Dear God to be extra-outrageous may be surprised to find that the album is merely outrageous.

The songs’ lyrics have the same disturbing immediacy (“Beat beat me to deeeeeath,” Stewart sings in “Gray Death”), giving glorious pop tracks like “This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddy)” a dark underbelly. But Stewart, renowned as much for his crippled whispers as his sudden shrieks, sings with surprising restraint. And compared with previous albums, the electronics in “Secret Motel” and “Apple for a Brain” (made with the help of a Nintendo DS) are childlike and even a little silly.

Dear God’s lighter touch may leave some fans wanting more. But for a band capable of making people want to masturbate and cry at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with holding back a bit.

—Peter Holslin

Xiu Xiu play Wednesday, March 17, at The Casbah.