Spring Breakers (Music From the Motion Picture) - Cliff Martinez & Skrillex

Aggressively dumb ("Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" sets the tone), Spring Breakers (Music From the Motion Picture) sometimes lets the loud tracks fall back to reveal Skrillex and Martinez's ambient score ("Pretend It's a Video Game", "Park Smoke"). That's when this soundtrack, also featuring contributions from Waka Flocka Flame and Gucci Mane, is at its pensive best.



I'll admit I was late on this one.

The Microphones - Mount Eerie

The Microphones do not make easy records, nor does Phil Elverum; you can't separate the band from the principal songwriter and producer, so you shouldn't try. But that's fitting for a group whose four albums argue for, and I'm paraphrasing here, nothing less than "the united theory of everything."



The Microphones' last record, Mount Eerie, is their most ambitious.  While vestiges of their indie folk origins are present, especially on the lovely "II. Solar System," elsewhere the music's grown wooly and unruly. Album opener "I. The Sun" features snippets of Microphones past, a throbbing low E string heartbeat, several minutes of manic percussion and stuttering guitar. Over 17 minutes long and packed with references spanning The Microphones' labyrinthine catalog, it establishes Mount Eerie's uncompromising vision: spin K Record's dinky instrumentation and low fidelity into massive, sprawling song cycles.

At its best, Mount Eerie is every bit as majestic as Elverum's vision, but occasionally its too-clever references to Elverum's band and label leave the music perched precariously on the edge of self-conscious parody. Case in point: according to his movement-by-movement explanation of the record, Elverum found inspiration for "IV. Mt. Eerie" in a Bubba Sparxxx song.

This is a needy record, cantankerous in its contradictions. A lo-fi album for headphones. A deeply personal meditation on isolation and mortality that features an entire cast of characters, among them K Records founder Calvin Johnson. Those unfamiliar with Elverum's handmade cosmos might find scaling Mount Eerie an onerous task, but it's worth it. The view from the top is breathtaking.

The Triumphant Return of Tributaries

Today I Googled myself to see what my online presence looked like, and I came across this old blog with a single post I'd written about a year and a half ago. That post outlined a weekly column in which I had planned to write blurbs for CDs I'd ripped but hadn't yet heard. Imagine, speed dating for albums. Consumer advice in ten sentences or less. Needless to say, I never followed through on that plan, but the post had an idea and a voice that I still like.

2017 is upon us. New year, new goals. Let's see if I can do it this time. Nothing like the end of college to jumpstart your dreams and opinions.

Lazy Sunday: Hanae's Pick for 8/30/2015

Who: Multiple Artists

What: The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains

When: This week

Why: For those of us still in school, it’s time to get back to the grindstone and most of us here at Tributaries are seniors. My classes started this last Wednesday (the 26^th) and I’ve been dreading this semester; I have a hard time buckling down and getting work done. Once I start working I’m good to go, but the actual starting part? That’s REALLY hard for me. For you folks who also have a hard time getting motivated to work, I present to you The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains. 

             Several artists contributed to this CD, including The Apples in Stereo, Shonen Knife, and bis, to name a few; the album is an episode told entirely in songs written specifically for everyone’s favorite ass-kicking kindergarteners, the Powerpuff Girls! . “B.L.O.S.S.O.M.” reminds you to do the right thing (aka your homework), “Buttercup (I’m A Super Girl)” is a rock anthem that keeps you fired up about whatever you’re doing (because you’re a badass doing it), and “Bubbles” is a good soundtrack for those easy, but necessary tasks that need to be done (responding to emails, putting away laundry, etc.). Frustrated with a large assignment or other setback? “Fight The Power” is your answer. Worried about an upcoming assignment or getting a test back? “Don’t Look Down.” I’m telling you, this is a superhero album; it’s got a tune for everything this year could possibly throw at you.

           Even when you feel like your workload seems more daunting than facing Mojo Jojo, you’ve got a professor as demanding as Princess Morbucks, you have to listen to questions that even Fuzzy Lumpkins would think are dumb, and you’d rather pick a fight with HIM than write your thesis, just remember that in the end, “Friends Win.” We may not be dedicating our lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil, but I think even the Powerpuff Girls would agree that together we can get through it.

Happy Listening!

Hanae

Lazy Sunday: Hanae's Pick for 7/12/15

Welcome, friends, to the first installment of the Lazy Sunday series! Basically, we’re gonna give you something short and sweet to read every Sunday about what we’ve been grooving to that week. It’s a nice way to get a quick music fix and a little peek into our lives. Anyway, without further ado, let’s get to it!

Who: Lucy Schwartz

What: Keep Me -EP

When: Basically the last month and a half

Why: I’m an English major and a music minor- literally the worst kind of humanities student. Why? I’m doomed to wanting to be profound in everything I do, especially writing. Unfortunately, my best attempts at sounding thoughtful, inspiring, and ultimately Tumblr reblog-able, come out sounding more pretentious than that one kid in every Literature class who finds sexual undertones in literally every scene of every book on the curriculum (there’s always one). Anyway, I’ve been really nostalgic lately, thinking about my time at Oxford University and the friends I left in Britain as well as some recent changes in my life that have given me several little epiphanies and thoughts about life. It all sounds so wistful and pretty in my head… then I write it down aaaannnndddd it just sounds pretentious and forced. It’s like the enchanted objects in Cinderella: it sounds awesome in theory, but you just end up with a pile of random junk and no idea why you ever thought it was anything but.

Keep Me is the pretty, well-written, unassuming version of my thoughts. Lucy Schwartz masters the art of bewitching incredibly deep emotions into simple but poetic words. This EP is a journey, my friends. Sit down and listen to it all at once, and enjoy some extraordinary phrasing set to some truly clever music (I’ve listened to it at least five times through this week alone and there are still new things I’ve noticed in the lyrics and songwriting). It’s the “Happily Ever After” to a long search for profound thoughts in a humble setting.

Happy listening!

-Hanae

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