Yesterday saw Flatted Third reach its highest pageviews per day since I started this thing, so I thought I would continue the trend of "Seasonal Music." There are only four shifts from season to season each year; I have to take advantage of it.
This list concerns saying goodbye to summer with some of my favorite tracks from the summer of 2012. Not all of these songs have been released this year, but they certainly will remind me of this past summer. I've decided to break them up into zany, wacky, crazy, bats in the belfry categories for fun, so I hope you guys enjoy!
Wait, Is This Still Metal: Baroness - "Little Things"
Yes, I guess it is - either way, I really enjoyed this track. There is little to no distortion on the guitars, coherent lyrics, and vocal harmonies, but it is definitely still metal - I don't know how else you could classify it. When I first heard Yellow & Green, I was confounded by it. I had no idea what to make of it, drawing me closer and warranting more and more listens. Gerry even wrote an excellent article about the state of metal concerning this record. By the end of the summer I had purchased the double LP and can say with confidence it will breach my year end list somewhere around the top 25. And man, oh man, that guitar solo at the end...
That Girl/Boy Won't Stop Bothering Me - I Told Her I Was Drunk: Joyce Manor - "Constant Headache"
Yeah, I know the self-titled album came out last year, but Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired came out this year and that's what drew my attention to the earlier release, so I don't know, suck a brick or something - the latter Joyce Manor record was mentioned in my "Albums You May Have Missed" article. "Constant Headache" is a great one night stand song, and it will hopefully send the message to that girl or boy who keeps bothering you. Summer flings are often volatile and misguided by hormones, so make sure you use protection!
Super Sped Up Party Montage: Dan Deacon - "True Thrush"
This song is just so much fun. I reviewed America and found it Deacon's most ambitious album so far. The video is a load of fun, too, so make sure you don't just play the song and open another tab. It feels like a party in fast forward, an overload of instruments and chants flooding the ears. It's only fitting that I got the drunkest on the Fourth of July this summer and this is off of an album called America...or is that irony? I don't even know anymore.
The Best Rap Chatter: Danny Brown - "Bruiser Brigade feat. Dopehead"
This song is just straight shit-talking. I fucking love it. It's crass, hysterical, and features the best chatter in a song, maybe ever: "If you ain't pulling a nigga dick out, slapping yo' face wit' it, throwing this bitch in yo' mouth, sucking dicks with bubbles, fucking all night, and drinking protein shakes in the morning, get the fuck outta here!" I have screamed that countless times this summer. It is the perfect song to roll up to a random house party where most of you are already drunk, only because you didn't "forget the brew."
I Don't Have Any Plans, So I Think I'll Just Cruise: Das Racist - "Luv It Mayne (Featuring Fat Tony & Bo P)
With an infectious hook, excellent production and features, and the expected weird raps from Das Racist, "Luv It Mayne" is perfect to bump through your car speakers as you roll through the center of town. And the best part is screaming out "If gonna baaalllllllllooooooo" at random pedestrians - believe me, you have to try it.
Drunken Party Anthem: Chief Keef - "I Don't Like (feat. Lil' Reese)"
Let's face it, there's not much to this song. I do believe my friend thought the first thing Chief Keef doesn't like, in a litany of don't likeable things, was a "fart nigga." I don't care what he's saying because it's a lot more fun to make up what the two incoherent rappers don't like - A SHIP NIGGA THAT'S THAT SHIT I DON'T LIKE. The beat's pretty good, I guess; well, Kanye liked it enough to make a remix.
The Beach at Night, and Shit: Beach House - "Lazuli"
It's easy to pass off Beach House as the band that made the same album three times, but they're not bad albums, especially both Teen Dream and Bloom. You can practically hear the moonlight splash off the ocean in "Lazuli". I guess this song would also work as a companion on a rainy day you had beach plans on too, if you're into that sort of thing.
I Had Beach Plans, but Now It's Raining Out: Bear vs. Shark - "Baraga Embankment"
Yeah, I know it specifically says "pouring rain" in the song, but that doesn't discredit the dreary disappointment in the song. It also sounds like you were so upset your beach plans where cancelled that you lost faith and killed everyone in your house, but hey, we've all had those days, especially during the summer of 2012.
The Ninth Summer Song on This Playlist: Sonic Youth - "Plastic Sun"
The first live video, ruining what I had going on here, "Plastic Sun" is the quintessential anti-summer song. It's anything but poppy, which is perfect for those days where you want to just stay inside and brood. It's also a scathing comment on the pop acts of the early 2000s: always something I'm down to bump.
The Quintessential Anti-Summer Song: Andrew Jackson Jihad - "Hate, Rain on Me"
If you think I'm lying, then listen to the damn song. It opens with a beer cracking open and embraces hate. Sometimes, you just want to shoot the sun, ending all summer songs. And with the changing of seasons -- Emo is coming! -- it's perfect to say, "Fuck you, summer. Go away until I cannot bear the cold anymore. I'm emotional, and stuff."
So there it is: a farewell to summer. Goodbye, summer 2012, you have been nothing short of low expectations and mistakes.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow places self-actualization at the top of his hierarchy of needs, the ability to accept one's own being for what it is. It is not until we are placed outside of our comfort zones that this is tested most, and also given a comparative entity. Dan Deacon prefaces his newest release, America, with a beautiful tale of how he never really identified as "American" until he left the country on a world tour. What he sets out to do on America is provide his own definition of what it is to be "American," challenging both the world view and personal self-reflection.
America debuts with "Guilford Avenue Bridge", a sprawling, complex track that seems to lift itself languidly out of a static caul. At about the three minute point, the static comes back but molded into a colorful mass, undulating engagingly. From that point, the album continues Deacon's "HOLY SHIT, LET'S PARTY" music, right up until "Prettyboy", a veiled slow jam much like Spiderman of the Rings' "Big Milk". Deacon is completely aware of the song's effect on the album flow, as he follows it with the crescendoing "Crash Jam", a track so aptly named and paced. But it is what comes after "Crash Jam" that makes America such a noteworthy release from the Maryland-based artist.
"Crash Jam" is followed by a suite in four parts, each title starting with "USA." The first of which, "USA I: Is a Monster", starts out with symphonic strings followed by the over-torqued electronics Deacon has made his trademark. These saliently evoke the dichotomy between organic and digital instruments Deacon mentions in his cathartic tale most. By introducing what sound like Native American tribal chants, he begins his direct narrative of American history. "USA II: The Great American Desert" takes over where "Is a Monster" deposits all its dial tone feedback and frantic loops, finally taking shape at about the 1:30 mark. The seven minute track reintroduces Deacon's vocals, which have been heavily coded in digital artifacts throughout the album, now coated with a shining layer of reverb, an ethereal result. It drags on a little toward the five minute mark, for a whole minute, until almost all the digital instruments give way to xylophones and drums, eventually flowing over into pizzicato strings that transition into "USA III: Rail", the most beautiful of the four part suite. By the end of "Rail", I am reminded of what Sufjan Stevens was doing on Illinois, with its sweeping instrumentation and arrangements. Where we end, "USA IV: Manifest", has Deacon going back to the overcrowded digital realm he's from, ostensibly the America he most identifies with. It combines different elements from the first three parts into a track that appropriately evokes the strong song title. "Manifest" breaches into clarity at 2:25 and resolves accordingly; finally, the journey of self-actualization is complete and Deacon has found an America he can identify with: his own.
What we're left with at the end of America is an album that struggles with as much as it accomplishes. If you're a fan of Dan Deacon, the release should find you pleased with the growing pains. If you're just a dabbler in electronic music, America may confound you. But the album is dense, rewarding, and challenging, as most great albums are, so be sure not to sleep on this one.
Grade: B+
P.S. Be sure to check out the super fun video for "True Thrush"
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