Sundowner - 'We Chase the Waves'

The Lawrence Arms’ last release, Buttsweat and Tears, was a tease. Yeah it was good, but it was just a seven-inch. Now the group’s members are again pursuing separate interests. Brendan Kelly dropped an acoustic split with Smoke or Fire’s Joe McMahon, and is now preparing a solo album. Until that TLA live DVD drops, the only way to get one’s fix is through We Chase the Waves, the sophomore effort from Chris McCaughan’s side project Sundowner.

While cellist Jenny Choi does not return this time around, We Chase the Waves is otherwise pretty similar to Sundowner’s debut, Four One Five Two. McCaughan still offers light acoustic jams that are just a shade too mellow to work as TLA tunes (with the fiery “Jewel of the Midwest” being the exception here). Larry Arms drummer Neil “Tennessee” Hennessy returns on bass, although to be honest his presence is barely felt on these recordings. McCaughan’s approach is awfully spare, though he does occasionally throw in an extra guitar part or backing vox. Otherwise, this is a one man show that would sound the same live.

This puts We Chase the Waves in an awkward place. The songs are generally good, and their aquatic themes couple with the easygoing pace to make for a pretty chill summer record. But that also means that Waves can get a little repetitive and clunky in spots. “Whales and Sharks” is pretty awesome for its stripped down sound and story about being married to the sea. But you’re still listening to a song about how algae are totally awesome. “As the Crow Flies” is pretty catchy, but its vague story about writing music leaves it seeming a little shallow.

McCaughan’s lyrics occasionally falter, and there are several times I suspect he was just trying to fill syllables. But the record is so damn relaxed and charming. “In the Flicker” is such a great, ominous opening track, complete with real, totally unplanned thunder. “Whales and Sharks” is about being married to the sea. Hell yes. “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” is the best ode to the Chicago Cubs since the Mountain Goats’ “Cubs in Five.” “Jewel in the Midwest” rocks.

The album isn’t perfect – a few of the songs meander – but it’s still a modest success all the same. Until the Larry Arms ride again, Sundowner is a fine alternative.

Vinyl Vednesday 5/5/2010

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. This week’s edition celebrates Cinco de Mustache, that one day of the year when having a mustache is not creepy. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Joe Jackson’s I’m the Man (1979) on black, The Lawrence Arms’ The Greatest Story Ever Told (2003) on black, and O Pioneers!!!/By the End of Tonight’s split (2007) on black.

Place of Purchase: Jackson came from Disc World (R.I.P.). TLA was an impromptu purchase from Hot Topic’s clearance bin. I bought the split when is saw O Pioneers!!! play at the Main Street Baptist Church in Doylestown. Good show.

Thoughts: A mustache can make or break one’s social standing. If it’s too patchy, one risks looking like a pedophile. Ah, but if it’s just right, BAM you’re Burt Reynolds and you are the coolest guy in all the dang world.

Also sometimes mustaches are just funny-lookin’.

Such is the case with Joe Jackson on the cover of his second album, I’m the Man. It’s meant to be funny, as the ’stache complements the grafter pose he strikes. While his later output got increasingly spotty, Joe Jackson’s first two albums are got-damn unimpeachable. Considering they came out the same year, it’s easy to think of them as one really awesome power pop double album. I’m the Man takes the nervous energy of Look Sharp! and keeps on rocking, although Jackson’s love of piano begins to creep into his songwriting, as tunes like “Kinda Kute” reveals. Still, though, songs like “On Your Radio” and “I’m the Man” rock hard.

The mustaches on the cover of The Greatest Story Ever Told (one of the best albums of the new millennium) are much more serious. Gordon Shumway, Ivan Nikolayevich, and Ferdinand Magellan adorn the cover with a variety of ’stachetude. Shumway’s looks a bit shaggy, while Nikolayevich clearly waxes. Magellan doesn’t shave at all, hence the beard. Truly majestic. And hey, the songs contained within are good too! The Lawrence Arms remain one of my favorite punk bands, and The Greatest Story Ever Told remains my favorite album by them. The way Brendan Kelly and Chris McCaughan intertwine songs about drankin’ and screaming into telephones still does it for me. And as we can see, the trio supports ’staches. Now excuse me while I listen to “The Disaster March” 30 times in a row…

…

…and I’m back! On the O Pioneers!!!/By the End of Tonight split, we a close-up of a pretty gross pedo-stache. I really do cringe every time I see this seven-inch. The tunes are good though. BTEOT delivers a nice post-rock tune, while OP!!! is still into the whole folk-punk thang. “Sweet Junk” is another ramshackle rabble rouser, and while it’s a wee bit sloppy, it’s sure got spirit.

So yeah… this one’s for you, people with hairy upper lips. Today… is your… INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Brendan Kelly and Joe McMahon - 'Wasted Potential'

You guys. YOU GUYS. There’s this new CD out called Wasted Potential being joint-released on Red Scare and Anchorless Records. It is an acoustic split CD between Brendan Kelly and Joe McMahon. Kelly is a guy from a band that is called the Lawrence Arms. They are a punk band from Chicago that writes songs about drunks. McMahon is in Smoke or Fire, a punk group that is secretly from Massachusetts but pretends to be from Virginia. They also write songs about drunks, but sometimes they also write songs about important issues like equal rights. Both of these bands are very good and I like them very much.

And, you guys, they have just delivered on to mine very ears an acoustic collection of sexcellent proportions. See, they took songs from their bands and played them all stripped down, with a cover concluding their respective sets. It’s like MTV Unplugged except it ups those emotionally fragile creatures, the punx. Kelly goes first and, by his own admission in the liner notes, his takes are rough. “Blood Meridian,” a revised version of “The Redness in the West” from last year’s succulent, juicy Buttsweat and Tears, sounds almost completely different. Perhaps because there’s no full band to contrast with the guitar/vox opening verse this time out, Kelly’s vocals sound a lot more ragged this time. It’s less dynamic, but it’s still TLA.

But while it’s cool to hear “Like a Record Player” or “Quincentuple Your Money,” the song that will probably get most folks stoked is Kelly’s cover of Jawbreaker’s “Kiss the Bottle.” I didn’t realize it was in the track listing until the album showed up in my mailbox. If you listen, late at night when the world we think we know is quiet, somewhere, blowing over hills and through trees and caressing the hair of the sleeping, you can hear the awesomegasm I had upon seeing this song listed. You might also hear me scream “Aw nah!” soon after, since Kelly questions the recording quality of the original in his notes. Sure, it’s the most overrated JB tune, but there are some things you just don’t say, man. You keep that between you and your blog.

That said, Kelly’s cover is good. In the interest of preserving Blake Schwarzenbach’s lyrics, he delivers a modest, melancholy arrangement that highlights the story’s hopelessness. Someone should use it in a montage sometime.

McMahon, by contrast, dazzles more with his originals than his cover. Part of this is because his take on Johnny Cash’s “Let the Train Whistle Blow” originally appeared on the Johnny Cash tribute album All Aboard, which I already own. It’s a solid rendition, but I could’ve used something different. His reinterpretations of SoF tunes is stellar, though. “Beauty Fades,” from the Worker’s Union EP which came out back when Smoke or Fire was still called Jericho RVA, starts off simple with just guitar/vox, but then light percussion and organ creeps into the margins near the end, delivering a stellar finish. “Filter” gets one-and-a-half performances, first on Kelly’s “Blood Meridian,” and again by McMahon. “What Separates Us All” was always a rousing up-with-the-people anthem, and this acoustic folky setting hammers that point home. “Irish Handcuffs” slows down the tempo to make the song’s tale of alcoholism sadder. It’s not a perfect take – McMahon fumbles the words at one point – but it still delivers, making the split a great listen from one side to the other.

The Lawrence Arms - 'Buttsweat and Tears'

The three years that separate Oh! Calcutta!, the 2006 Lawrence Arms full-length, and Buttsweat and Tears, the band’s recent seven-inch, shouldn’t feel like a huge gap. First of all, it has only been three got-dammed years. Plus, fans were treated to side projects the Falcon and Sundowner during the interim. And yet…and yet…the last time we heard from this Chicago three-piece, George W. Bush was president. The housing market hadn’t gone to crap. The seminal film The Marine starring John Cena was still months away from hitting theaters. The world as I understand it now did not exist. That lends a slight air of nostalgia in spinning this, a five-song EP whose name and cover are perfectly matched.

But nostalgia only goes so far. So yeah, it’s cool to hear Buttsweat pick right up where Calcutta left off. Fans still get Chicago punk at its best. Co-vocalists Brendan Kelly and Chris McCaughan are trading the mic a little more this time around (although still not as much as on The Greatest Story Ever Told, a record that lives up to its title). The guitars are crunchy, although the band does incorporate the occasional country/folk influence, like on the comparatively soft closer “The Redness in the West.” Oh yeah, and every song is totally awesome.

See, the Larry Arms write fast songs about getting drunk, juxtaposing high concepts (sadness, the changing of the seasons, existentialism) with low art (Saturday Night Live, Half Baked). They’ve been doing it well for 10 years now, and they do it well here. “Spit Shining Shit” kicks off the vinyl, and it’s clear that the Larry Arms are still one of the best punk bands around. It’s a thrilling three-minute burst about small-minded people and the need to get away from them, opening with guitar and vox before drummer Neil “Tennessee” Hennessey brings the rock. Improbably, follow-up “The Slowest Drink at the Saddest Bar on the Snowiest Day in the Greatest City” is even better. This time the guitar intro is snarling. The topic is in the title, and McCaughin’s lyrics effortlessly flow from him, bouncing off rhymes and scene description like it’s the easiest thing in the world. Lines like “I walk through the snow to a bar where there’s no one I know / Drink slow, drink slow with nowhere to go / And when I leave I’ll be singing this song / Summer’s gone / Carry on / I’m a ghost in the dawn” astound time and again.

“Them Angels Been Talkin’” hits on the flipside and it’s another rocker. Those who buy the digital version are then treated to a bonus track, “Demons,” although everyone and their mommas can get up ons this beauty via Spin.com. The fact that it’s free makes it even more of a must-hear – and makes me wonder how many more songs TLA has in storage. Can we score a full-length, please? But first I need to talk up “The Redness in the West.” It starts out somber, with Kelly talking again about feeling worn down and wasted before turning into a self-help mantra: “We’re gonna fuck ’em all when we get there.”

If there’s a complaint to be had with Buttsweat and Tears, it’s that it’s over too soon. It’s been three years and I could use 10, 20, even 30 new tunes. But that’s the beauty of the seven-inch; it’s a perfect salvo. Besides, it makes it easier to back up and put on “Slowest Drink” again. Welcome back boys. It’s been a while.

regarding the new Lawrence Arms.

Soya Milk Zine is streaming two tunes from the upcoming Lawrence Arms seven-inch Buttsweat and Tears. A few thoughts...

-My only real complaint is that these songs end before I'm ready. See, I kind of wish "The Slowest Drink at the Saddest Bar on the Snowiest Day in the Greatest City" lasted forever. Like, I'd wake up and BAM there's another kickass verse. And every time something good happens in my life, the chorus comes around. I WANT THIS SONG TO PLAY WHEN I HOLD MY FIRSTBORN FOR THE FIRST TIME.

-The vocals sound weird. Not bad, but different. Chris McCaughan sounds really clean, but then he always was the prettier singer in the band. Brendan Kelly sounds old/raspier.

-I can't wait for this to drop next Tuesday. Welcome back, guys. Please don't ever leave me again.