Sunday, April 20, 2014

The Knix Pick for Best New Album: Liars Mess

Mess is dance-punk veterans Liars seventh full length album since the release of They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top in 2001. The Los Angeles based trio, consisting of Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill and Julian Gross, has undergone a number of paradigm shifts since their early years as an art punk band. Mess is a synthesizer album to be sure, but unlike the 2012 WIXIW, Liars first foray into heavy electronic instrumentation, they know what they're doing. Recording WIXIW (pronounced 'wish you') involved a steep learning curve and the prolonged reading of manuals, but the pay off of their prior labor was that the recording of Mess was a more spontaneous and immediate process. And most of all, the band wanted to get back to the place where making music was just plain fun.
Mess focuses on the theme of duality:  a mess as beauty to some, disaster to others; choice as possibility or consequence; look to the past or toss it out, art as a cerebral exercise or a fun pursuit. And, as Angus unambiguously declares in the track "Mess on a Mission," the concrete paradox that 'fact is fact and fiction's fiction.' The concept for the album cover art makes this duality stylistically clear with simple yarn in bold colors forming a pseudo wig. The yarn makes appearances in other images such as stuffed down a pair of tighty whities and as accessory to the band's white suits. In a well played move, Liars carries the concept to physical form by producing vinyl with string embedded into it, as well as a limited edition run of 500 vacuum-sealed 2xLP's with string stuck on them by hand. The artistry, or alternatively the mess, is in the perception of the beholder.
The album starts off with the up tempo intensity of the track 'Mask Maker." Angus Andrew's voice, masked through a voice manipulator, implores the listener to "take my pants off," "smell my socks," and "eat my face." The ploy is both innocuous and vaguely disturbing but gives the listener an early clue that Liars are as eccentric as ever. The second track is the danceable "Vox Tuned D.E.D." that has more of a darkly moody electro industrial sound. "Mess On A Mission," the album's frenetic lead single, is all quirky synths and catchy lyrics. (The official video for "Mess on a Mission" is done on a green screen and ridiculously watchable for all its simplicity.) "Pro Anti Anti" (See, even the song titles are ripe with dualism.) is Liars at their most dance worthy.
Though as much as the beginning of the album is intently up tempo, it can't really be called a dance album. The sequence of songs, according to frontman Angus Andrew, was chosen to pound the listener through the first half of the record and move to more ambient, abstract songs on the second half. Songs like "Dress Walker" and the 9 minute "Perpetual Village" have a decidedly more minimalist vibe, but there are still plenty of the experimental electronic elements that define the earlier tracks. Everything slows way down for the surprisingly beautiful "Left Speakers Blown" that concludes the album.
I think that one of the reasons I like Liars so much is that, despite their American homeland, they have the keenly idiosyncratic and detached demeanor of the Euro electro bands that I love so much. Maybe this has something to do with the art school beginnings of Andrew and Gross, or the fact that the band spent time in Berlin, having recorded their third album Drum's Not Dead there in 2004.  Germany produced the iconic Kraftwerk after all.




Saturday, April 5, 2014

Anna Rose at Port City Music Hall

I had a chance to speak with rock songstress Anna Rose on The Knix Mix prior to her opening for former Live lead singer, Ed Kowalczyk, at Port City Music Hall on March 23rd.  Anna is touring in support of her sophomore album Behold a Pale Horse.  Anna's name may be sweet, but the New York based performer is a self described "old soul," and she channels the edgier blues tinged rock sound of a Janis Joplin or Stevie Nicks.  Anna worked with producer Kevin Salem on the album, and she credits him with helping her to grow as a songwriter.  Of the eleven songs she wrote or co-wrote for the album, her 5 year stint in Los Angeles and subsequent return to New York influenced a number of them' including "Los Angeles" and "Beautiful World."  Anna likens the title track, "Behold a Pale Horse," to the legacy one leaves behind.  And Anna hopes that Behold a Pale Horse is a real and authentic representation of the kind of rock music she wants to leave as her musical legacy.
Listen to the entire interview on SoundCloud. Anna Rose Interview with DJ Knix