Medications
CD/EP
(Dischord Records, 2004)

I’m not sure if every Dischord release is recorded at Inner Ear Studio, but enough of them have been that I’ve noticed. And Brendan Canty of Fugazi fame and glory mixed this one down. Not being in touch with the newest of the new Dischord acts, I have to take for granted that Medications fit into that sound. Ya know the press release says so anyway. Regardless of that, there’s a little Minutemen influence on the guitar, which some how is sung along to almost note for note on a few tracks. Going back to the Dischord family idea; even though I was able to buy the Minor Threat discography ten years ago for the price of this cd/ep, the tracks on here all clock in at about four minutes, so at least I get twenty minutes of new music. As for the notes that come outta your stereo, most of them are good ones, occasionally the band begins to sound like Weezer, but more talented and with louder instruments. So, simultaneously that’s endearing and aggravating. The cowbell rears its’ ugly head on “Excersie Your Futility” while the track somehow maintains the sound of urgency that not too many groups can achieve. Departing from the frenetic pace of other tracks, “Reconcile Awake” is served with smooth drumming becoming tense without the track being overbearing. Unfortunately, someone decided to stick a clunker on at the end of this slab. “The Perfect Target” sounds similar to most average rock songs, only adding in some dissonant chords during the chorus for good measure. I don’t think there’s anything bad about this band or this release, but let us refrain from canonization until a full length comes out.

Of Montreal
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
(Polyvinyl Record Company)

To start off with, Kevin Barnes has been able to create an astonishing body of work over a career that hasn’t been all that long and still has a ways to go. However, if I say that on this album, his band at times recalls The Cardigans, it doesn’t seem to be going all that well. Barnes, does still sound adamant about what it is that he sings about in the high pitched, pleasant voice. But after the affable surprise of Satanic Panic in the Attic a few years back, Hissing Fauna seems indulgent in a more electronic and more difficult manner. While “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal” will most likely get referred to as experimental psychedelia, when compared to other Elephant 6 related groups effort’s, or even Barnes’ from previous albums, the song just sounds like a B-52’s song played four times in a row. Not that the B-52’s aren’t a viable influence or a bad place to start, it’s just that Barnes decides to please himself, perhaps without considering the listening audience. Is that the ear mark of a genius? Maybe it is. At least the geek funk of “Faberge Falls for Shuggie” brings a bit of soul to an otherwise electronically inclined incursion into experimentation that may only please a few long time die-hards.