Saturday, September 20, 2008

the optimists were right/wrong

If you have a problem with feet, you should probably fast forward the first twenty seconds of Takka Takka's video for "Silence".



I'm not an antifootite (unlike some people around ponygirl hq) but just looking at that shit makes me ticklish, and fuck all if I don't hate tickling.

"Silence" is off of Takka Takka's sophomore release Migration. If I had to condense my review into a single pithy quip I would say, this is a long drive for someone with a lot of spiritual shit to think about. If I had a paragraph or so, I might call it the lonesome, crowded East and babble about the Eastern influences mixed up with dashes of Brian Eno seventies shit and what I'm obviously getting at, Modest Mouse. Takka Takka doesn't reach the same kind of climaxes as old MM used to but they definitely know how to get a steady groove going. For example, a song like "Homebreaker" that starts slow and thoughtful with a far-East twang to it but suddenly breaks into a solid hipster shuffle.

I have unlimited space but I like to cut to the chase, kids. Migration is a meditative rock record and I don't say "meditative" as a euphemism for relaxing, nap-time shit. There is a tension, a spiritual anxiety underlying the songs that I find rather compelling. I bought their first album because I loved a live recording I heard of "They Built You Up Too Fast". There are some good songs on that record but I felt kind of let down by some of the songs. Migration is a giant step forward, and to be perfectly honest, I think it's because they have more interesting things to talk about now. My favorite track is "Lion in the Waves" because singing rounds is an easy yet oft overlooked way to get on my good side. Take note! Okay, so I have other reasons too, but it's time for me to go. I gotta get me a fancy cocktail, a big god damn girly drank with umbrellas in it and shit. Tomorrow is my birthday!

I leave you with what the band has to say for themselves and a video of them from back in the day.

"Sometimes this record is about existing in a place you don’t belong. Conversely, it is about where you came from and how you got there.

Sometimes this record is about my mother. She recently decided to become a Pamanku, a Balinese holy person. This has brought us do a fair amount of talking lately, more than I have ever had chance to do before. Some of those conversations made their way into these songs—myth, prayer, offerings, gamelan music (oh such sweet music), poverty, volcanic eruptions, Communist purges, cultural misunderstanding, racism, family and abandonment.

Sometimes this record is about a band experimenting with sound and form, trying to honestly say things in song it has never said before.

Sometimes this record is about not going back and staying in the place you don’t belong."



It's hard to say from this video but I think someone might have a little case of the nerdy hot.
-megan elizabeth

1 comment:

'stina said...

You are mistaken.

Honestly, with that many dudes in a band I think at least one of them would be a hottie. On the other hand, there's not hottie in Thee More Shallows.