juvenile hearing

 Its so hard to find the silent type,
Someone shy who won’t spread the hype,
You’re so cold and you’re in this crowd,
I am on my way now

 

What If

With a month in Israel full of coach journeys ahead of me, I imagined discovering parts of my iPod that I didn’t even know about. I pictured myself getting to know tracks that had lingered amongst the thousands but I had never listened to before the trip, discovering lyrics that were yet to be heard. Yet one week of three and a half in, other than flirting with bands such as Kings of Leon and the Black Keys I had listened to very little besides Bombay Bicycle Club debut album ‘I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose’. Had I known I would have listened to almost nothing but one album one loop prior to the trip I would have been disappointed in myself; having not taken the opportunity of widening my musical pallet- yet from that point having listened to only a small selection of tracks felt like a satisfying choice.

What pulled me to press play each time was the varying use of guitar and maturity the band produced five years back. That range is shown in the difference between the stunning acoustic solo in the last couple of minutes of the song ‘The Giantess’ and the opening of ‘Evening/Morning’. The short intro to Evening/Morning gives us an idea of how much of the album is pieced together. However the Giantess solo brings the album to a grand close; the two contrasting styles displaying the band’s musical talent.

Prior to writing this post, I went through the album thinking of any particular endings or introductions worth mentioning before realising that besides the above two, the album is so full of them that I can’t narrow them down- which is reflected when I put two songs from this album into my post ‘Top Eleven Favourite Intros’. Before I end I think it’s worth mentioning that the band began in UCS, which is right next door to where I went to primary school- and that they are named after the Indian takeaway restaurant nearby. And the album cover? I’m pretty sure that’s taken in Hyde Park. I’ll be seeing BBC as one of the headliners of Latitude festival this weekend.

https://juvenilehearing.com/2013/01/19/my-top-eleven-favourite-intros/

Don’t talk about me, let’s talk about you
I know your type, I know exactly what you want to do
And if the money’s right, you think I’ll just agree?
  So sad to see you torn apart by all your selfish greed”

Sell Yourself from Thank You, Happy Birthday

Kentucky based Cage the Elephant arrived onto my music scene with their 2011 album Thank You Happy Birthday, their singles being Shake Me Down, Aberdeen and Around My Head. Bear in mind that Cage the Elephant are one of those bands whose fame doesn’t travel well Transatlantic. It took their biggest song, Shake Me Down, (the Nine-Million-YouTube-Hitter) for the other side of the Atlantic to find out what all the fuss was about. Let’s look at another band that haven’t travelled well transatlantic, but from this side. Two Door Cinema Club, huge in Britain, but as far as I know haven’t made it as big in North America. What is it the link? There isn’t one. That’s the link. We can see the link with there not being one, which is where we notice the huge contrasts: one are a fun Indie pop band that are refreshing to listen to in the summer from Northern Ireland (but feel a bit out of place on the cold bus home in January), and one remind you of the harsh reality that is the selfish and unrelenting human being. In this example, we see simply that it’s the more laid back, seasonal bands that make it big at home in Britain, but in (some parts) of North America it’s the intense group that attract interest.

As we’re on the topic of unrelenting and selfish human beings, I’ll be moving onto the Thank You, Happy Birthday track Sell Yourself (which has a quote in bold italics at the top). This is where we see front man Matt Schulz enter a psychedelic trance that merges the bands’ music with rap. This is the pinpoint moment I imagine fans at a concert, what I like to call, “completely and utterly losing their shit.”

Shake Me Down is Cage the Elephant’s most sought after song, which expresses the suppression and aftershock of loss. It’s this lyric that epitomises what I love about them. This is their niche; they aren’t here to talk about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, they’re here to analyse something else: loss. Complemented by a melancholy video we see the band telling the tale of a family losing its father.

“In my life, I have seen,
People walk into the sea,
Just to find memories,
Plagued by constant misery,
Their eyes cast down,
Fixed upon the ground,
Their eyes cast down”

The album cover has the words ‘Cage the Elephant’ etched over it in different colours, with the name of the album scribbled into the bottom right hand corner in orange. In the middle of the word ‘Elephant’, there is a mysterious purple blotch and a sort of lemniscates above the band’s name. The band have covered many songs, my favourite being their take on Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’, which I’ve left a link for below.

Thanks for reading, Ethan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIFQVvL-ioE#t=230

I’d like to commemorate our re-opening with a post on the 1994 album (The Blue Album) by Weezer. The album first came to my attention when their video ‘Buddy Holly’ appeared on the T.V- or rather it caught my mum’s eye, who felt nostalgic with the return of ‘Happy Days’, which she apparently watched every afternoon. This is my take on how influential the album was, especially its general image.

“I talked for hours to your wallet photograph
And you just listened
You  laughed enchanted by intellect
Or maybe you didn’t    
You remain turned away
Turning further  every day

“The world has turned and left me here
Just where I was  before you appeared
And in your place an empty space
Has filled the void  behind my face”

So, what does that mean? Weezer here are portraying the image of a loved one who has left, (which doesn’t necessarily mean that they have died). That could be a parent, sibling, spouse or friend. The band have done something unusual there: not discussing death, or what it’s like to be without the person who has left, but have been remarkable by not broadcasting an harsh and angry tune. This example could be far fetched, but one of the first links that comes to mind with death and music is thrash metal. The image that comes to mind is of men wearing black face paint, black clothes and black guitars. Pierced tongues, pierced belly buttons, pierced noses. Tattooed body, masks, spiked boots. You get the idea (essentially a description of Slipknot). Here, however, we find a gentler approach. The harshness is softened by the backing vocals to give a less painful harmony. (You won’t get many Slipknot comparisons with the video Island In The Sun)

Tracks Say It Ain’t So, In The Garage and Holiday sum up the album. In The Garage discovers the more introverted lead singer Rivers Cuomo talk about keeping safe in one place- which we assume he means physically, but really could too mean that he doesn’t feel safe mentally when he’s with other people. Holiday is the more adventurous, outgoing Weezer that’s concentration of tune to lyrics is heavier here on the tune, whilst Say It Ain’t So is a more aggressive song, with the more heart felt lyrics about relationships not lasting as long as they should. The darker side of Weezer.

What is Weezer’s image, music aside? Starting with the album cover, we get the idea of a more innocent, benign group. Even the sky blue background generates the sense that they are an exciting, witty band, who care about their image. We see this in the video Buddy Holly with the trickery of the band looking as if they’re on the show Happy Days and band members in two places at once. In the Say It Ain’t So video, the lyrics are reflected with the video set in a teenage boys’ bedroom and the general adolescent smell is there with the sunken shoulders and overall 20 years old body language.

The album in general is about adolescent feelings and emotions mixing with feelings about sex and disappointment. The image that’s projected is intellectual, introverted and occasionally we get some dry humour. However, later on in Weeper’s career, many of those traits change (which I’ll discuss another time). I hope you’ve enjoyed this first taste of Juvenile Hearing being open again.

Ethan.

One year ago today, I (Ethan), wrote my first ever post on what was known as ecsindiemusicblog. In this last year I’ve learnt about myself, the music I listen to and improved my literary skills, and I’m sure you will agree. I’m delighted to thank you for being here to be with us for a whole year.

Keep subscribing, commenting and following!

Thank you, Ethan.

Today I’m going to share with you a band who have come and gone, and why a bit of luck can come handy when you accidentally buy an album.

“Though when we’re running out of the drugs
and the conversation’s winding away.
I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision 
for another five years of lies.”

Those lyrics from All My Friends off the album Sound of Silver by the LCD Soundsystem

Slowly strolling across the village-like compact disc palace that is Camden Town, I find yet another stall selling someone’s journey of CD history and embark on an album I’ve been meaning to buy for a number of months. Take note that this CD is in fact not the one I was looking for, but one simply buy the same band. I had known who LCD Soundsystem were, I just only knew them for their one song ‘Drunk Girls’, which I had thought was on this album. Of course I had checked the back of the CD before buying it, but I thought to myself, ‘go on, take a gamble. You’ve heard one of their songs, so you could very well fall in love with this album.’

As the other albums I had just acquired were ones I knew well, this one was the first one I was going to listen to. The first thing I noticed about it was that each song was significantly longer than your average song on your average album. Each song was about five to seven minutes (with exceptions); but was that a good or bad thing? Quite frankly, until I had listened to it I didn’t know. I don’t mind taking a good eight and a half minutes to listen to one piece, but it would take a plentiful sense of concentration.

So, how was it? If you’re wandering whether an eight and a half minute song was too long, I can tell you, as  I expected, it was enjoyable. It even let me discover the song for longer, it stretched out the timespan I had to ponder thoughts I had throughout the song rather than bunching them into (what seems molecular after listening to this song) two or three minutes.  The band pull off a magnificent concoction of electro-indie like Hot Chip and mellow lyrics like Yuck. Something else that stands out in the album is the amount that the USA is talked about, including the two songs ‘North American Scum’, and ‘New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down’.

The track I’d recommend you listen to most is ‘New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down’. It starts off with lead singer James Murphy playing a solo part on the piano, and eventually the drums and bass come in and the song lifts from a very melancholy vibe into a more vivacious and exciting movement. Suddenly we come across an effervescent climax and what we think is the end, but only those of us that wait until the very end of the piece, like that feeling of when we find the hidden track in an album, find one last explosion of sound.

If you’d like to subscribe to Juvenile Hearing, you can by clicking on the handy grey button in the bottom right hand corner and entering your email address, or alternatively you could comment on this piece by filling in this form below.

Thanks for reading!

Ethan.

Before August came around, I would search for eccentric items on eBay with an eager hand on my full purse. But alas, September’s dog ear is poking out from my Schnauzer calender, the end (of Summer) is nigh; and my wallet has been wrung dry. I’m back from Berlin, and a week on a canal boat round the ‘soft parts’ of backstreet Birmingham left me worse for wear. So now, dreading the return to a 9 to 5 norm, I look down at my shopping bags. Now, I’m not a shopaholic, all I bought was a few Cd’s, a T-shirt and some vintage finds; but all my money is GONE!

Not to worry, because this is my holiday scrapbook. Now I have souvenirs of a great Summer, and there’s no forgetting the ‘struggling musician’s camp out’  by the Schönefeld U-Bahn when I can look down to my ‘You are leaving the American Sector’ t-Shirt (in reference to the Berlin wall).

So here’s to the Summer’s past, the Summer’s to come, and the Summer departing, the Summer of Music.

All the Cd’s I bought, clockwise from left,

• Muse – Absolution                                                                      I adore Roy Orbision, wanna know why?
• Ludovico Einaudi – Nightbook                                                   Because he drove all night! If you don’t know
• Little Green Cars – Absolute Zero                                              I’m going on about, the video’s down below.
• The Real Elvis Ultimate Collection
• Of Monsters And Men – My Head Is And Animal

What I love about Everything Everything’s lyrics is that they seem nonsensical, ridiculous. It’s only when we delve into songs like Photoshop Handsome and read the opening verse that we can find something else in this four piece from England.

“Airbrush!
What have you done with my father?
Why does he look like a carving?
How do I live in the present?
I make my own density?”-

From ‘Photoshop Handsome’ off the album ‘Man Alive’

I’ll show you why I see Everything Everything as such an engaging group even though they bring such a new style to their audience 

These words literally talk about tools in the Apple photography editing software Photoshop and their effects. Is that the message that was intended to be sent out? Or is there another meaning behind these odd words, like Yuck talking about getting over a wall when we know that there’s more to them than this. They don’t quite go as far as disguising their feelings for drugs with a woman, something a band like Radiohead would do.

What Everything Everything are trying to say is that we can’t trust anyone any more, that nothing is what it first turns out to be, like the documentary Catfish, where a man is enticed into a relationship with a woman he meets on-line only to then find that his whole relationship was forged. Perhaps the song is a reminder that there are people out there who could be looking at our private virtual conversations, like our emails, calls and text messages.

The way that you portray yourself as a band is not purely through lyrics, or music, but can also be through the artwork in the CD. The image of a fox in a pink liquid facing the moon facing what looks like the image on a television breaking up. The artwork suits the band perfectly, a completely strange and pretty much meaningless picture (not that Everything Everything are meaningless).

What catches the ear about Everything Everything is their work on the keyboard and the lead singer, J0nathan Higgs’s almost permanent full setto voice. What you’d also notice quickly is how romantic their music is (not as in ‘roses are red’ romantic, but as in musically romantic), they range their tempo, dynamics and their feel from charismatic and energetic to when they perfect those melancholy endings.

Tell me, what do you prefer, a band who portray their feelings in another form, like Radiohead, or the straightforward way of telling people how you feel through music?

You can leave a comment here, or subscribe to Juvenile Hearing via email by clicking on the little ‘follow’ button in the bottom right corner.

Ethan.