General Ratings:
Rating: 7
Breadth of Appeal: 4
Consistency of Quality: 6
RIYL: early Modest Mouse, The Dismemberment Plan, The Microphones
Further Listening: Electric President, The Cadets, Tres Camisados
Place of Origin: Jacksonville, FL
Instrument/Sounds List: electric and acoustic guitar, synthesizers, drums, drum machine, multi-tracked vocals, bass, hand claps, jingling keys, whistling, laptop blips, found recordings, (a probably synthesized) harpsichord
Mood Tones: Sunrise approaches and you’ve allowed your bedtime to slip later and later and you’re considering staying up all day in order to reset.
Song Highlights: Raytrancer, Edgeless, Right to the Rails
Favorite Lyrics:
“That’s fine, I’m going home to fail.” (from Raytrancer)
“And all five hundred thousand citizens of Wichita /
tried to get a piece of your beautiful face, /
drooling on themselves in the Methodist parking lots. /
Throw your shoes in the Arkansas and watch ‘em get erased."
and
"Is there no community college in your county?” (from The Citizens of Wichita)
Other Thoughts:
Chad Matheny has been involved with The Cadets, Tres Camisados, Thee Harmonious Fists, Beatcancel, and Neosporin (though the latter three don’t have much of an internet presence). His solo project, Emperor X, is by far the most interesting (and widely known) of these. It’s clear that he knows his way around a four/eight-track, but one imagines too that he’s the sort of musician that could fall into a two-hour conversation about his bag of effects pedals. In combination, these characteristics lead to a surprising complexity and depth of sound for a (non-Pro-Tools) homemade recording. The album has a steady aesthetic conjoining lo-fi with high-tech, but throws all kinds of songs at you (despite the title, it is an album, not a collection of EPs). There are punkers in “Shut Shut Up” and “Right to the Rails,” which ends with Matheny shouting “go” over a hundred times in forty seconds. “Sfearion” is a song to either drive or advertise cars to (let’s not talk here about whether these feelings are distinguishable). And “Raytrancer,” “The Citizens of Wichita,” and “Ainseley” are really just sweet little ballads dressed up in more or less electronic gadgetry.
The Downside:
If you find Isaac Brock’s less polished moments, Travis Morrison’s use of a-melodic verses to sell his choruses, or Phil Elvrum’s fascination with manipulating stretches of static off-putting, this probably isn’t for you. Matheny’s voice is both nasal and cutting, and he revels in it, pushing it to the breaking point in the “go”s and “shut shut up”s of the opening tracks and into a caustic screech on “Use Your Hands.” But there’s something fascinating in his multi-tracking of his own bad voice, a production tactic usually reserved for the Chan Marshalls of the world.
[Bonus points: On The Cadets’ “Gville as Rare Factions,” is that Bill Callahan singing?]
Rating: 7
Breadth of Appeal: 4
Consistency of Quality: 6
RIYL: early Modest Mouse, The Dismemberment Plan, The Microphones
Further Listening: Electric President, The Cadets, Tres Camisados
Place of Origin: Jacksonville, FL
Instrument/Sounds List: electric and acoustic guitar, synthesizers, drums, drum machine, multi-tracked vocals, bass, hand claps, jingling keys, whistling, laptop blips, found recordings, (a probably synthesized) harpsichord
Mood Tones: Sunrise approaches and you’ve allowed your bedtime to slip later and later and you’re considering staying up all day in order to reset.
Song Highlights: Raytrancer, Edgeless, Right to the Rails
Favorite Lyrics:
“That’s fine, I’m going home to fail.” (from Raytrancer)
“And all five hundred thousand citizens of Wichita /
tried to get a piece of your beautiful face, /
drooling on themselves in the Methodist parking lots. /
Throw your shoes in the Arkansas and watch ‘em get erased."
and
"Is there no community college in your county?” (from The Citizens of Wichita)
Other Thoughts:
Chad Matheny has been involved with The Cadets, Tres Camisados, Thee Harmonious Fists, Beatcancel, and Neosporin (though the latter three don’t have much of an internet presence). His solo project, Emperor X, is by far the most interesting (and widely known) of these. It’s clear that he knows his way around a four/eight-track, but one imagines too that he’s the sort of musician that could fall into a two-hour conversation about his bag of effects pedals. In combination, these characteristics lead to a surprising complexity and depth of sound for a (non-Pro-Tools) homemade recording. The album has a steady aesthetic conjoining lo-fi with high-tech, but throws all kinds of songs at you (despite the title, it is an album, not a collection of EPs). There are punkers in “Shut Shut Up” and “Right to the Rails,” which ends with Matheny shouting “go” over a hundred times in forty seconds. “Sfearion” is a song to either drive or advertise cars to (let’s not talk here about whether these feelings are distinguishable). And “Raytrancer,” “The Citizens of Wichita,” and “Ainseley” are really just sweet little ballads dressed up in more or less electronic gadgetry.
The Downside:
If you find Isaac Brock’s less polished moments, Travis Morrison’s use of a-melodic verses to sell his choruses, or Phil Elvrum’s fascination with manipulating stretches of static off-putting, this probably isn’t for you. Matheny’s voice is both nasal and cutting, and he revels in it, pushing it to the breaking point in the “go”s and “shut shut up”s of the opening tracks and into a caustic screech on “Use Your Hands.” But there’s something fascinating in his multi-tracking of his own bad voice, a production tactic usually reserved for the Chan Marshalls of the world.
[Bonus points: On The Cadets’ “Gville as Rare Factions,” is that Bill Callahan singing?]
3 comments:
Welcome aboard, good sir.
As to you last question, the singer certainly has Mr. Callahan's cadence down, but his voice is a little too high-pitched to be contemporary BC. I'd be more likely to put money on that being him if it were recorded ~2001, let's say Rain On Lens vintage.
Do you know for a fact that it's him?
No evidence whatsoever. Has Callahan's voice gotten deeper over time? I suppose I only know "Knock Knock" very well.
Much deeper. Circa Julius Caesar or Wild Love he was a tenor. The change starts to become noticeable on Dongs of Sevotion and is fully manifest by Supper.
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