Exec Files: Vol. VIII

by WRMC Middlebury College on December 1, 2014

Posted in: Eclectic, Funk, Music, Pop, Punk, R&B / Soul, Rock

The WRMC executive board presents their favorite tracks, albums, artists, and/or music videos of the week, old and new, but mostly new.

TRACK: Beyoncé – “7/11”

I woke up last Saturday morning thinking that I must have had a strange dream—Beyoncé and a bunch of girls in matching undies dancing around a messy hotel room? But no, it is real: last Friday night Queen Bee shared a video for 7/11, one of the two new tracks on the upcoming platinum edition of Beyoncé’s self-titled album. The music video is drastically different from her previous ones, which have typically been provocative, complex, and highly produced. In contrast, 7/11 has the feel of a home video, the type that a groups of teenage fans would record on photobooth at a slumber party… Except it is Beyoncé and a bunch of professional dancers, and the editing is nothing short of brilliant. What is her game here? Is she trying to show her fans the “real” Beyoncé, verified by the strategic pile of clothes on the floor, her casual outfits, and the bedsheets crumpled just so? Whatever it is, Bey, I’m loving it. –Julia Welsh, Programming Director

TRACK: Buffalo Springfield – “Expecting to Fly”

The most ethereal sounding track on Buffalo Springfield Again (1967), the band’s second of three albums, “Expecting to Fly,” written by Neil Young, also oozes with nostalgia. It’s a song that both ventures out of this world and conveys the highs and lows of reflecting on the past, as misleading respites of calm and stability are unsettled by rising and falling passages. Be forewarned, the track begins with drone meets feedback sounds, but once the guitar comes in, after about 40 seconds, it takes off. Basically, expect to fly with this one. -Halley Lamberson, General Manager

ALBUM: Supercar – Three Out Change (1998)

Genre: Alternative Rock // RIYL: Asobi Seksu, My Bloody Valentine, Weezer, Pinback, Slowdive, Built to Spill // Best Tracks:  1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 // Grade: A-

Japanese alternative rock band Supercar doesn’t really do “restraint.” Whether it’s including a whopping 19 songs on this this 1998 debut album, having the album-closer alone be nearly 13 minutes of blistering guitar soloing or indulging almost absurdly in late ’80s/early ’90s British indie rock-influenced guitar pop, Supercar always seem to be pushing some generally established limit of brashness. Yet they rarely cross over. Sure, the album is much too long, but each track is so blissfully enjoyable that each time a bouncy, angsty guitar riff ripped right from ’90s Pacific Northwest alt-rock hits home or some Asobi Seksu-like crooning shines through a haze of shoe-gazy reverb, you forget about the project’s tedious run time. Check out the unfiltered alt here: –Charlie Dulik, Concerts Committee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6G9LRyXOCA

TRACK: Parkay Quarts – “Content Nausea”

A few weeks ago I wrote about the new Parkay Quarts [sic] track “Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth,” in anticipation of their then forthcoming album Content Nausea.  A traditional rock ballad through and through, “Uncast Shadow” entered this world at the band’s slowest and most mellow extreme.  But “Content Nausea”, the album’s title track, falls at the complete opposite end of the spectrum.  If Quarts’ “Uncast Shadow” is to Dylan‘s “Ballad of A Thin Man,” then “Content Nausea” is their “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” A whiplash return to the group’s typical relentless pace of choice, “Content Nausea” starts with a rally-round-the-flag guitar hook and drumline combo that sets the stage for a the most amount of non-rap lyrics blurted within a one minute stint. It’s these very lyrics regarding our mounting obsessions and dependence on devices and the content they display that are the most compelling.   In the “digital age”, commentaries on social media and the seemingly infinite amount of faux-matter generated by the internet are done to death and tend to be clunky in that by definition they are just another piece of “content.” <–Ignore this part it’s an advertisement. But lead singer Andrew Savage’s voice doesn’t read like a rambling think piece, it resonates with authenticity like a beat poet of a bygone analog era.  He succinctly laments the entrapment of artists and poets within the “back padding dungeons of content and comments” and the “empty and vulgar broadcasting ritual.” As not to generate any additional superfluous content on the matter, just listen to the song and try to keep up with the lyrics–you’ll have Parkay Quarts to thank the for nausea induced the next time you start a-scrollin’.  -Kate Leib, Creative Director and Social Media Manager

https://soundcloud.com/krazypunx/02-content-nausea

TRACK: Animal Collective – “Winters Love”

When I stepped out of Baltimore’s Penn Station last Monday, it was a balmy seventy degrees, and Animal Collective’s “Winters Love” came pouring through my headphones. There was something both serendipitous and familiar about hearing my city’s most celebrated quartette upon arriving home, but when Noah Lennox crooned, “I love this life in the winter time”, I couldn’t help but chuckle: the passing on the streets wore t-shirts and sunglasses. It is with this same sort of humorous incongruity that Animal Collective approaches their music. They might sing of “frost cakes” and snow falls, but their sound is as bright and warm as Charles Street in the summertime. And in that way, in just a few minutes, they are able to capture at once the comfort of coming home, the surprise that comes with realizing your home is not quite how you knew it in high school, and the relief that hits when you realize that maybe so, and maybe that’s not all that bad. –Dylan Otterbein, Music Director

TRACK: Trails and Ways – “Nunca”

The perfect song for a rainy day, a sunny day, a snowy day, a cloudy day, any day. Their songwriter lived in Brazil and was inspired to combine the “hypnotic flow of bossanova and the ocean texture of noise pop” (last.fm). Nunca uses both English and Spanish in its lyrics and is extemely catchy. The video is a beautiful montage of graffiti, street dancing, surfing, rollerskating and just plain fun in Sao Paolo, Brazil. I’ve been obsessed with this song for weeks now and hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do. It leaves me feeling happy, a feeling we all need for the next 2 weeks. xoxo -Aashna Aggarwal, Business Director

• Julia Welsh loves Beyoncé and lanyards and Beyoncé.
• Chad Clemens cannot even describe how much he loves Taylor Swift’s new song “Blank Space.”
• Aashna Aggarwal is still not sari.
• Kate Leib was born in a mosh pit with a full head of hair and a sense of impending doom.
• In his youth, Charlie Dulik was an acclaimed poet.
• Halley Lamberson hosts WRMC’s longest running student show, Funk and Punk.
• Eric Hass and Aaron Slater are in a turkey coma this week.

You can find these people plus the rest of the WRMC general board in the station lounge every Monday at 5 pm.