State Of The Pretzel Logic: November

Well, November didn’t exactly go as planned. My non-music-writing life caught up to me in a big way this past month and I’ve had the rabid, academic monster known as college breathing down my neck. I’m still quite wrapped up in schoolwork, but hopefully I’ll find some time in the coming weeks to review a few albums before posting my Best Music of 2009 feature. I’m really looking forward to boiling an entire year’s worth of music down to a few key highlights.

In keeping with that theme, there’s one small change I want to make to album grades. The Mars Volta’s Octahedron is losing half a pretzel, dropping it down to a still respectable 4 pretzels. Octahedron is the album I’ve listened to the least among my overall favorites from the year and upon further listens, it doesn’t quite have the spark I thought I heard when I first listened to the album. These things happen.

There are only a few albums I know I want to review in December. The Portishead offshoot Beak>’s debut album is one of them, as is Clipse’s Til The Casket Drops. Despite being released months ago, Dark Night Of The Soul deserves some coverage as well. Devendra Banhart, Them Crooked Vultures and 50 Cent round out the list of intriguing albums that are coming in during these closing moments of the decade. Finally, should Lil Wayne’s Rebirth actually be released this month, you can be sure I’ll have lots to write about it.

I want to thank everyone who’s been reading Pretzel Logic thus far. 2009 (and the 2000s) are almost over, meaning there’s going to be a lot of music talk going on. I enjoy adding my own voice to that mix.

Bookends

Artist: Animal Collective

Album: Fall Be Kind EP

Year: 2009

Grade: 4.5 pretzels

It feels appropriate that Animal Collective, who turned the world on end at the beginning of the year with their masterful Merriweather Post Pavilion, are closing this year out for us music listeners with the Fall Be Kind EP. In many ways, this has been the Year of Animal Collective. Their music has been great and their expansive, lush sound has been creeping into many of the other major indie releases of the year (Atlas Sound’s Logos is just the tip of the iceburg). I started this year as one of their biggest skeptics, but (almost) twelve months later, I’ve been converted into a believer. Fall Be Kind is just the cherry on the top of a banner year for the Baltimore band.

Fall Be Kind is definitely an outgrowth of Merriweather’s soupy, organic sound. The opening track, “Graze”, is all cinematic, widescreen electronic textures, with Avey Tare’s voice languidly stretching all over the music. The song itself “wakes up” over the course of its five-and-a-half minutes, eventually morphing into a flute-led energetic romp. However, this bright, upbeat song is somewhat unrepresentative of the rest of the music on the EP.

The most audible change in Animal Collective’s music is an emerging sense of darkness, seeping into the frame behind all the squelches and harmonized vocals. “On A Highway” is flag-bearer for this new sound and, in keeping with that role, has already begun polarizing AC fans. Personally, I wholeheartedly support the band following these moodier inclinations even further. “On A Highway” pairs a distant, eerie keyboard riff with a miasma of atmospheric sounds, abstractly conjuring up the noise blur of actual highway driving. The lyrics never quite synch up with the song’s rhythm, resulting in a disorienting and slightly uncomfortable song. Coming from a band that has built its reputation on hyper-colorful, whimsical electronics, I can see why older fans might be thrown for a bit of a loop.

The best intersection of these converging styles is the closing “I Think I Can”, with its insidiously catchy main riff and echoing percussion. Spread across seven minutes, “I Think I Can” really showcases the new ways the band members are using space. While Merriweather felt comfortingly dense, Fall Be Kind sounds like it was recorded in a cathedral. These songs have lots of air and room to breathe, but with that space comes a certain ominous feeling. This EP is clearly the next step in Animal Collective’s continuing evolution, retaining enough of the past to keep fans from going crazy, but determinedly looking forward. It’s becoming almost unthinkable that I basically hated this band a year ago. Their body of work over the past twelve months is virtually peerless.

My Top Drummers, Pt. 5

#2
Name: Stewart Copeland
Associated Bands: The Police

While all three members of the Police don’t get enough credit for the instrumental skills, Stewart Copeland’s flowing, complicated drum patterns deserve the most praise. Finding a middle-ground between rock’s force, jazz’s subtlety and reggae’s emphasis of off-beats, Copeland’s work as a member of the Police is exquisitely intricate and smooth. His snare hits always have a startling crack to them, giving songs some energy, but his crisp cymbal-playing recalls the steady beats of jazz. To top it all off, you’ve got the drum breakdown in the middle of “Walking On The Moon”, which threatens to fly off the rhythmic rails entirely but still somehow works.

Required Listening: “Walking On The Moon”, “Driven To Tears”, “Spirits In The Material World”

#1
Name: Phil Selway
Associated Bands: Radiohead

Most of the drummers on this list play in rock bands, but few really play in that heavy, forceful style usually associated with rock music. Those that do (McNeilly, Dailor, Carey) are noteworthy for their intricacy or unearthly sharpness. Phil Selway is amazing because he can do both. To this day, I’ve never heard as drummer as versatile as this bald, mild-mannered Englishman. As Radiohead has warped and evolved creatively over the years, Selway has been there all along, contributing whatever types of rhythm the band needs at the time. He can play smash-your-face-in-rock, or he can dial it way back and play funereal jazz. He has even sampled and programmed drum tracks on Radiohead’s more techno-influenced material. Phil Selway is the Swiss Army knife of drummers, ready and willing to supply the perfect rhythm for every musical problem imaginable.

Required Listening: “My Iron Lung”, “Climbing Up The Walls”, “Dollars & Cents”

My Top Drummers, Pt. 4

#4
Name: Danny Carey
Associated Bands: Tool

My high school-era love for Tool has faded greatly, but my respect and appreciation for Danny Carey’s mind-warpingly intricate drummer remains. Most metal drummers favor speed and soul-crushing power, but Carey’s brilliance lies in his subtly and overall restraint. While he can certainly shift into higher gears when a song demands it, his best moments are when he unleashes nuanced, detailed drum patterns that twist and squirm. He has an unpredictable, technically demanding style that suits Tool’s music perfectly. Even with all myths about his supposed “unicursal hexagram” patterns, Carey’s is one impressive drummer.

Required Listening: “Prison Sex”, “Schism”, “Vicarious”

#3
Name: Pete de Freitas
Associated Bands: Echo & The Bunnymen

The postpunk years contained many incredible, unique drummers, but none stand as high as the late, great Pete de Freitas. His playing in Echo & The Bunnymen is veritable whirlwind of percussion, surging forward with more energy than any of his peers. While he shared his precise sound with drummers such as Joy Division’s Stephen Morris, de Freitas never became one of those human drum machines, devoid of primal, rhythmic energy. His drumming always sounded wonderfully, thrillingly alive, which made his death in a motorcycle accident 1989 all the more tragic.

Required Listening: “Crocodiles”, “All My Colours”, “Back Of Love”

My Top Drummers, Pt. 3

#6
Name: Stephen Morris
Associated Bands: Joy Division, New Order

Drums are usually associated with a certain raw, primal energy and drummers are expected to tap into that with an appropriate passion. However, there are those drummers, like Stephen Morris, who seem perfectly content to play like a human drum machine. Steady as a metronome and often utilizing odd combinations of drums and electronic percussion, Morris’ work in both Joy Division and New Order formed unrelenting musical bedrock. There’s not much soul or power in his drumming, but that stark, mechanical coldness proves to be just as compelling.

Required Listening: “She’s Lost Control”, “Atrocity Exhibition”, “A Means To An End”

#5
Name: Brann Dailor
Associated Bands: Mastodon

Metal has long been the natural habit for insanely virtuosic drumming. The speed and sheer heaviness of the music lets drummers really showcase their dexterity and chops. However, the first metal drummer to really separate himself from the rest of the double-bass-drum-pounding pack was Mastodon’s Brann Dailor. On one level, he’s just ridiculously fast. Dailor’s drumsticks whip around that kit faster than the human eye can really track. At the same time, however, there’s a weird and not-always identifiable oddness to his drum patterns that really makes them stick in your mind. His stuttering, off-rhythm snare hits and ominously skipping cymbals help Mastodon create their uniquely masterful sound.

Required Listening: “March Of The Fire Ants”, “Seabeast”, “Crystal Skull”