Skip to main contentThe Exploding Hearts Shattered (Dirtnap Records)
Three years after a fatal end, the Exploding Hearts help you forget about it.
[POWER-POP PUNK] Exploding Hearts vocalist Adam Cox slowly loses his composure with each chorus of "Shattered (You Left Me)," the previously unreleased title track from the band's posthumous collection that finds a lover not only "dumped," but, as a result, also Dumpster diving—"Eating out of spraypainted garbage cans." After a staccato instrumental section of knocking quarter notes near the end, Cox sings "You left me stranded" as "stradahahahed," and his heartbroken disbelief shines through as his voice wavers on the final appearance of a line that sounds like, "You just flipped that switch on me."
The gradual loosening of the chorus is in perfect pop form, but the kicker is what follows it. Immediately after the final choked-up chorus comes a loud, upbeat, tambourine-heavy—and otherwise happy—instrumental coda. This switch reflects how we're to listen to this 16-track collection of rare, unreleased and remixed Hearts tracks. Songs such as "So Bored," a whimsical celebration of tangential love with an instrumental dead-stop on the lines "You're just a waste of time/ But I don't mind," demand a lighthearted mood. But like the ending of "Shattered," that mood is preceded by, or laced with, sorrow. These pop songs take on new poignancy with the knowledge that three of the four members of the band died in a car accident not long after recording them between 2001 and 2003.
But Shattered isn't all pop and love songs. The Hearts' 2002 LP, Guitar Romantic, will remain the definitive recording of the band, but among these "new" tracks are some stylistic excursions fans of Guitar Romantic will appreciate. "Your Shadow" finds the Hearts at their quickest, with a fiery opening guitar lead and half-snarl punk vocal delivery that sonically recalls later Dwarves material, if the first-person stalker narrative somehow fails to. The well-written and extensive liner notes by Vinyl Warning Records' Fred "The Barber" Landeen claim that "Shadow" was recorded only because Landeen coaxed the band into it after falling in love with the song on an old live recording. We're in his debt for that act of coercion because hearing the Hearts sound a little angsty, a little creepy and full-on rocking out makes for one of the best moments on Shattered, and one in which it's easy to forget any sorrows that you bring to the album or that the album brings to you.
—JASON SIMMS.
Corrina Repp The Absent And The Distant (Caldo Verde)
Corrina Repp gets friendly with collaborators and the listener.
[LULLABIES] There was never anything wrong with the slow-moving, quiet stars that are Corrina Repp's first three albums. They rely heavily on the incomparable instrument of the Portland singer-songwriter's voice, distinct in both its distance and warmth, to turn them. The sparse arrangements of 2001's I Take On Your Days, and the minimalist electronic accompaniment of 2004's It's Only the Future, though, always seemed to yearn for the brushstrokes of a great collaborator. And indeed, The Absent and the Distant finds Repp in good company on what proves to be her most revealing and complete record yet.
On songs like "Anyone's It" and "Afloat," Repp's voice becomes the luminescent crest of a much larger wave, with layers of warm ambience and distorted percussion propelling her along. While this new depth could be attributed to the bravely intuitive production style of 31 Knots frontman Joel Haege, or to the album's all-star lineup of musicians, which includes Haege as well as Norfolk and Western's Adam Selzer and the Minders' Rachel Blumberg, Repp's lyrics and song construction are also more inspired than ever.
While the songwriter keeps her characteristic sense of mystery, there is also a newfound vulnerability, concision and warmth. On "Safe Place in the World," Repp admits, "I always knew/ I wouldn't stay/ too long/ It just wasn't you/ It just wasn't me," and while it's clear that she's describing a collapsed relationship, the song sounds like a reintroduction to the singer herself.
On "Anyone's It," Repp continues to speak directly to the listener. She sings, "I can't be anyone's it except mine" over Haege's humming, organic-sounding production, which gives the song—and the better part of the album—an oceanic quality also found in the recordings of ex-Portlander M. Ward (which isn't entirely surprising considering that Selzer and Blumberg are also frequent M. Ward band members). It's a sound that's mindful of Repp's unique and melancholy delivery, giving her the space she needs to build herself a comfortable nest. After all, there was never anything wrong with Corrina Repp, she's just surrounded herself with people who make her even better.
—CASEY JARMAN.
Corrina Repp plays Friday, Nov. 3, at Holocene with the Retribution Gospel Choir. 9 pm. 8 pm advance, $10 day of show. 21+.
Grouper Saturday, Nov. 4
Grouper's haunting introduction to the post-lyrical world.
[HAUNTED AMBIENCE] "Lyrics are very important to me, in terms of emotion and content. They have to have a purpose, and mean what they mean...though you can't really hear the words all the time." Grouper's Elizabeth Harris—a recent Portland import from Oakland—explained this to me last week without skipping a beat, nor digressing into an extended explanation. That line is plenty—and surprising. The ghostly, delayed and effected voices that swirl through Grouper's recordings are as disembodied as they are indecipherable. The voices gorgeously intertwine with echoing electronics until each becomes the other, but the lyrics are generally lost to all but Harris, a rare artist who is making music for herself first.
Her thoughts on her lyrics return me to an interview I did with Harris' recent collab partner Jamie Stewart, of Xiu Xiu. I asked him if the audience deserves to know the background of the stories his songs seem to tell. For, in so many Xiu Xiu songs, all we have is a horrific passing glimpse of...something, told through ambiguous words and a clattering noise freak-out. It's like gazing at a highway accident through the rain-streaked window of a passing car: All we have is a sense of things, and the conjecture we pass around from behind our seatbelts. Stewart told me that was enough: Those imaginings are worth more than the real story. Listening to Grouper, I'm inclined to agree. There's a story in these distorted ghost voices, but we already have plenty of our own to translate into music this drifting and ethereal. Take it as constellations.
The recording these two artists created together presents a "stable" Xiu Xiu, and for that we can likely credit Harris' eerie droning style, as well as a shared love of old horror films and a desire to communicate that through music. The record's title, Creepshow, represents a concept simple enough to put into lyrics, but one that is also accomplished tremendously here in spare ambience. Fear and suspense come on the record in subtle accelerations and slowly darkening tones, rather than Stewart's frantic yelps and telltale waver.
Harris explains, "[Stewart] was wanting to try out something non-drum machine, and didn't want to do the vocals, as a way of trying something new for this specific release." So Creepshow finds Stewart laying down subtle, chiming soundscapes and deferring to Grouper's haunted ambient style and fogged lyricism. One wonders if, in the studio, he could even make out her words, or if he was just playing along to his sense of them.
—MICHAEL BYRNE.
Grouper (w/Ilyas Ahmed) plays with Xiu Xiu, the Dirty Projectors and Congs for Brums at Disjecta. 8 pm. $10. 21+. See also listing page 35.
Wet Confetti Laughing Gasping (Pampelmoose)
Wet Confetti bends the post-punk rules without breaking them. Shame.
[POST-PUNK] Portland could do far worse than Wet Confetti as far as "it" bands go. "It" band, you ask? Of course. They're cute as hell, intelligent, young and are backed by the Dave Allen of Gang of Four. The only thing that could make the trio's case better would be if they were or had been married at some point (so much better). Add to it a 2-year-old eighth-place ranking in WW's "Best New Band" poll and a healthy dose of press lovin', and yeah, that makes Wet Confetti an "it" band.
Better would have been the old Wet Confetti of their 2004 relesase, This Is So Illegal (Do It Fast), which is a snotty, barbed and reckless homage to Erase Errata and Sonic Youth. While their new album, Laughing Gasping, isn't altogether gray, it lacks that spike. The above-mentioned "press lovin'" that Illegal garnered made frequent use of the tag "no wave," and though WC didn't quite achieve the freak-out crush of the Magik Markers or the animalism of SY's "Kill Yr. Idols," it came pretty damn close to the off-the-rails aesthetic that characterizes the great moments of that (anti-)genre.
But Laughing Gasping reverts to mere post-punk residue (no-wave's crowd-friendly cousin), and that's too bad because I'm over driving, dance-ready bass lines, jittery high-hats and "angular" guitars: I get plenty of that with my weekly Deerhoof injection. Jeez.
But given the overall softening, there are glimmers of grandness on this record. The straight-up rock breakdowns of "Donuts and Old People"—if not entirely clever—are an unexpected break from the formula. Moreover, singer Alberta Poon's got her breathless vocals down, even if the content is indiscernible, utterly buried beneath a trio of power instruments. The absolute highlight is drummer Mike McKinnon, who can craft a beat better than most anyone I can think of in Portland. And, goddamn if I'm not compulsively bobbing my head as the title cut comes on with floor drum crescendos and filthy-dirty synth lines. It's the rule of this album taken to its most exceptional, but, sorry to say, that doesn't make up for the rules that aren't broken.
—MICHAEL BYRNE.
Laughing Gasping will be released at Satyricon on Saturday, Nov. 4, with Swan Island and John Weinland. See also album review, page 45, and listing, page 35. 7:30 pm. $6. All-ages (bar w/ID).
Swan Island The Centre Will Hold (Holocene Music)
What's the buzz? Just part of Swan Island's unlikely, original sound.
[REVOLUTION ROCK] With an undeniable buzz and third place in this year's WW Best New Band Poll, Swan Island has something to prove with its debut full-length, and the first guitar tone on The Centre Will Hold has me pretty worried. The buzzing sounds like it's coming through an amplified Sega Game Gear.
The entire opening track ("Crumble") seems off-balance, because while each of Swan Island's five members plays an integral part in its disco-metal-fantasy-rock-opera, no one instrument takes charge. But at the bridge of the second track, "Night Owl," where vocalist Brisa Gonzalez sings, "Bone by bone/ Vein by vein/ Cell by cell/ Here we go" with all the Swan Islanders slowly increasing in volume together, it hits me. I've been listening for Iron Maiden or Heart, two bands hinted at by the thick, dark sound of Swan Island's live shows, but when I finally start listening for Swan Island, I realize that the distant buzzing of reverb-drenched guitar and bright, playful bass lines are parts of Swan Island's sound—which is pretty fucking cool when listened to on its own terms.
Despite the fact that she's still developing her vocal confidence, Gonzales has amazing range and her vibrato-filled voice is front and center, with Vera Domini's never-ending, scampering, disco-funk drum work close behind. Bob Kendrick's bass lines are downright genius, often taking the place of a rhythm guitar while guitarists Aubree Bernier-Clarke and Torrence Stratton noisily set the otherworldly mood. But when the two guitarists rock out, as on "Junk Parade," the band's new wave influences bleed through its hard-rock shell to get your ass moving (my particular dance involves a lot of running in place).
I hate to make the predictable Sleater-Kinney comparison, but that band also had a sound very much its own that one learned to love on its own merits, and Swan Island, with its unlikely mix of New Agey lyrics and rock-and-roll firepower, shouldn't have to sound like anything but Swan Island. And that's something the band is doing quite well.
—CASEY JARMAN.
Swan Island will celebrate the release of The Centre Will Hold on Saturday, Nov. 4, with Wet Confetti (see album review, page 39), Twin and Plasmic Stallion at Satyricon. 7:30 pm. $6. All ages/21+.
WWeek 2015