Athens66

No Age - Nouns

This review really troubled me for a while. I must have listened to No Age’s new album more than a dozen times during the last couple of weeks, yet I’ve been delaying the review constantly. I guess I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I definitely love it (no doubt about that), but whether it deserves more than that was troubling me.

No Age are basically a duo from Los Angeles, Dean Spunt and Randy Randall, both previous members of Wives. They are part of the new lo-fi punk scene, along with Times New Vikings and Jay Reatard. In other words, home-made punk with lots and lots of noise. With the current music scene leaning towards more mainstream sound (with more and more bands labeled as indie or alternative only to gather initial momentum, usually through myspace and other social networks), this resurrection of lo-fi punk sets me back to the indie rock scene of the late 80’s-early 90’s, with bands like Sonic Youth, Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. and Polvo producing noisy punchy rock and creating some of the best albums in years. However, the reference to such names is by no means a comparison to this new scene (this would just be so uneven for the new guys and plain foolish), but the sound and the influences are there; time will tell if this turns into something more.

Nouns is the first proper album for No Age, since their debut Weirdo Rippers was basically a collection of singles. This is evident through the album, with Nouns sounding more compelling and defiantly more complete (and better produced). At first, you mind find their sound too noisy to make any sense out of it, however, underneath all those guitar screams and white noise lie some beautiful tunes and guitar riffs. Give each track a second (and third) chance and you’ll start listening to a different album altogether. If however you are looking for something peaceful to listen while relaxing after a hard day’s work or are just accustomed to typical 4 minute songs with the usual heart-breaking lyrics and well-defined sections, please stay away! Then again, if you are able to mute the noise away, you’ll find some of the most satisfying glimpses of rock. So it’s really up to you to decide if it’s worth the effort. For me at least, this album was really worth all that noise!

Sleeper Hold and Ripped Knees (for which I had to make a video cause I just love it) are my favorite tracks.

Gisele summer breeze

On yet another boring journey back from work, I was pleasantly suprised by a huge billboard with Stefanel's new Spring/Summer collection for 2008. I'm no fan of fashion, but seeing Gisele Bundchen photographed by Mario Testino surely gets my thumbs up..

Scots at their own game (indie field)

Glasgow’s Rangers may not have been that lucky against Zenit yesterday but when it comes to music they are at the top of the indie cities leaderboard. Scottish bands are constantly popping out, especially from Glasgow. So, as a consolation prize for yesterday, here are two reviews of (almost) fresh Glasgow based bands.

The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters

The Twilight Sad have been around since 2003 with a number of EPs, but it wasn’t until last year that they released their first album. Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters is a set of song about adolescence, growing up and memories of moments in time that define us even if we never realize it. The album unrolls as a story with the music supporting Graham's heavy accent (reminding the likes of Arab Strap's Aiden Moffet) before exploding into guitar noise, along with Graham’s personal outburst. While the album doesn’t introduce any new elements to the Scottish scene, it instantly draws you in. And with track titles such as “That Summer At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy”, “Last Years Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard” and “And She Would Darken The Memory of Youth” you are bound to follow each track till the end. Another good debut from the north, proving that if you really put your soul into the writing process you can stand out without needing to differ.

Cold Days From The Birdhouse and I Am Taking The Train Home are my favorite tracks, but here is a fan video to That Summer At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy.

Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight

The Frightened Rabbit are another band with heavy accent (not as much as The Twilight Sad though). Their music can be described as pure indie, with guitar chores, anthem-style tracks and punchy drums. The Rabbits consist of two brothers (Scott and Grant Hutchison) and their friend Billy. The trio differs by absence, in other words you won’t hear any bass in their tracks cause they deliberately avoid getting a bass player and rather concentrate on guitars, drums and occasional piano.
After their debut back in 2007 with Sing the Greys, which made them popular also in the States, they quickly followed up (less than a year) with Midnight Organ Fight. The album continues the same path set by their debut, with less noise and more careful production (probably trying to mainstream their sound through more self control and less banging). Despite growing up (musically) in Glasgow’s pubs and venues, where they made a name for themselves, they sound more like a band from across the Atlantic rather than Scottish. The record is not bad at all and some of the tunes are really catchy, I’m not sure though if it has what it takes to stand out as a real gem. They’re still a relatively new band though, so I’ll keep them in mind cause it wouldn’t totally surprise me if their next album is a real treat. In the meantime, I’ll give them some more spins on my cd player (or queue them up in MediaMonkey to be more precise) as they are starting to grow on me..

The Modern Leper stands out as their single (opening the album and posted below) along with The Twist and some of their ballads such as Good Arms vs Bad Arms and Keep Yourself Warm.

Alien Spam

On seeing the 100% perfect girl @ Bob Theatre Festival

"One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl. Tell you the truth, she's not that good-looking. She doesn't stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn't young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a "girl," properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She's the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there's a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert"

I decided yesterday afternoon to head downtown and check out the Bob Theatre Festival held this week in Athens. It hosts some of the more alternative modern theatrical plays to be mounted the last couple of years in Athens (mainly by the AbOvo team). However, I decided to see the play/performance of "On seeing the 100% perfect girl" instead, which is based on the short story by Haruki Murakami. Murakami once again blends imagination with everyday living and sets the scene of a love story that could have been. Do we recognize true love when we stumble upon it or are we destined to reminisce past relationships? It's up to us to seek the answer.

Directed by Georgia Mavrogianni and with Antoni Douraki and Vaso Kavalieratou as the leading (sole) actors, it was a refreshing theatrical shot (since it only lasted something more than half an hour). Modern settings (the play was held in the theater's bar), beautiful music and sparks of comedy made the play a real joy. If only there was more..

The following Beirut song was dedicated by the actors to everyone seeking or already in love.

Zenit all the way

It was up to Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyrianov to set things straight and give the UEFA Cup to the team that actually deserved it. FC Zenit St. Petersburg won their first European title last night after defeating 2-0 the unbearable Rangers FC. The Scots tried to steal one more victory by playing their usual annihilation system but fortunately for most of us, it only got them as far as the 72nd minute. And to top it of, the Russians doubled their goals on the 92nd minute to give them a blazing victory. All eyes now on Chelsea to salvage the Champions League as well…

Put some soul into the Reaper

I’ve been keen to TV shows lately (probably due to the lack of any decent new movie or just my inability to focus for more than 40 minutes), especially comedy ones. Comedy shows however are usually in the form of short 20-minute episodes, which means I consume a couple of seasons in a week, leaving me constantly searching for replacements. As was the case, I run out of How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory episodes quite quickly and turned to CW’s new series The Reaper for comfort.
The Reaper is a mix of comedy and action, kind of My Name is Earl meets Heroes. The show is about Sam, whose soul was sold to the Devil by his parents and is obliged to work for him (catching souls that have escaped from hell). Along with his friends (who all work together at dead-end jobs in the local Work Bench home improvement store) he chases down and captures the escaped souls using a different vessel in each episode (provided by the Devil in a variety of forms ranging from vacuum cleaners to birds). As a co-plot, Sam is after his coworker Andi in a classic win-the-girl story.

While the series debut was quite promising, it has quickly started to repeat itself. Each episode follows the same basic storyline:

Observe new ability (related to the escaped soul)
Check out new vessel
Meet the devil and get some vague clues about the soul
Mix in some futile attempts to start something with Andi
First failed attempt to catch the soul
Chased / threatened / almost killed by escaped soul
Find way to use vessel in just the last minute
Drop off vessel and finish the episode reminiscing about Andi

When you are able to foresee the storyline of the upcoming episode so early in the series, believe me it is the worst sign (except if you have Isaac Mendez’s precognition abilities). Too bad, cause the idea of the show was quite good and Ray Wise (from the our beloved Twin Peeks) is perfect as the Devil. I only continue watching this show cause I have nothing else to watch (and the slight chance that it will actually improve).

Dreams on Wheels (California style)

While I do love cars, I've never been a real fan of Ferrari. Their style of producing chunky supercars in bright colors in order to show off before performing (which undoubtedly they do) always put me off. I was more into Porsche and especially the slick sporty British style of TVR and Aston Martin. The unveiling (not official, but the pictures were released by the Scuderia) of the new Ferrari California seems to change this with a sexy form and the usual goodies under the hood. Nicknamed as the "Baby Ferrari" due to its size, it also comes with a hard top for those winter drives!

PS. It's nice to be able to just dream sometimes...

SEGASSEM SDRAWKCAB TERCES - EGA ON

This should have been posted by BLR (who mailed it to me earlier today) but he is too lazy to write for the blog. So it was (once again) up to me to do the dirty work and post it for all. This is a track by No Age (which I will be reviewing soon) played backwords. It's been too long since bands recored these kinds of things in their albums (guess you can't play too many tracks backwards in an ipod). Lo-fi punk with more to their lyrics than you though...Leg it!!

Change of style

As you can obviously see, we decided to change the style (design) of Athens66. This will be followed by a number of additions in the sidebar columns (which we are still working on). Sorry for the mess that you may have encountered all day long (if you passed by), but it was unavoidable. It's back to the writing board (keyboard actually) from now on...