For train rides, dance music is just too perfect. Ninety percent of
my commutes on the subway chug along on a Kraftwerky autobahn
soundtrack of nu-Moroder disco like Lindstrom, DFA dance-rock like
the Juan Maclean — basically anything where that repetitive pulse
mixes with the left-field hipster hybrid weirdness factor, like, uh,
Lindstrom remixing the Juan Maclean. It's strange, then, that one of
the only rock records to break through my electro matrix and become a
subway soundtrack for almost a month is Blood on the Wall's
Awesomer, an album that essentially has zero "2005 content" —
more like SST 1986 meets Matador 1992 — but still sounds great in
'05. At a little over 30 minutes,
Awesomer lasts about as long
as my ride to work, and tracks like "Reunite on Ice" function as
hyper-caffeinated jolts in the mornings and a time-for-happy-hour
blast-off at night (sometimes on the same day). Hasn't gotten old yet.
Blood on the Wall are a three-piece from Brooklyn: brother and sister
Brad and Courtney Shanks and drummer Miggy Littleton. Their first,
self-titled album wasn't so hot (they told
Time Out New York
they "forgot how to play the songs" when they were recording it), but
this follow-up kills. It gives off heat lightning — the energy that
gets in the air in the late summer, when everyone's back from their
trips and the chill in the air shakes off that humid haze so they're
ready to DO IT DO IT DO IT (whatever it may be). To me
Awesomer sounds like college — like '90s college rock, sure, but also like
keg beer, sweat, and ringing eardrums after a show in some kid's
basement. "Out in the air, drunk as shit in the streets/ Your mind
takes off, you're left with just your teeth/ And the steam! the heat!"
About a third of the songs on
Awesomer fit the general
unhinged mood of that quote, which comes from "Get the Fuck Off My
Cloud." (Note: Not a Stones cover.) Another third call down hazy love
vibes and heat-shimmery city lights. And, might as well admit it, a
third sound like the Pixies. Spot-the-influence is a low-degree-of-
difficulty sport here; "I'd Like to Take You Out Tonight" is quiet Yo
La Tengo, "Mary Susan" is a Breeders bass line plus Weezer's catchy,
crunchy guitars plus the "chunka!-chunka!-chunka!" rev-up maneuver
from Radiohead's "Creep." "Mary Susan" is one of my favorite songs of
the year, but one of my friends heard it and commented that the bass
line "should be retired." Fair enough — a few months ago I wouldn't
have thought I'd be ready for the indie-rock version of "I Love the
'90s," but this is it and I'm 100% on board. If you see me on the
subway tomorrow don't even ask, you know what I'll be listening to.
I'll have it turned way up so I probably wouldn't hear you anyway.
(Download "Mary Susan" and "Reunite on Ice" from
The Social Registry.)
