Young and Restless - Self Titled album review

This is something that should be up on the Syn website by now, in a limited form, but alas. I'm sure it'll show it's face soon...

Young and Restless - "Young and Restless"
Self-Titled debut album

Over the past 12 months “noise” has well and truly established itself as a derivative of indie. A tag to separate the likes of Wolf and Cub, Kiosk and Bit By Bats from The Shins, The Grates and everything nice.

And while you could lump anything distorted, experimental or that contains undecipherable lyrics under the noise banner, the fact is some bands are successful at it while others, to use a friend’s delightful description, sound like “cats to the slaughter”.

Thankfully for my ears, and your budgets should you choose to spend the money, Melbourne-formerly-of-Canberra five piece Young And Restless fit the bill of the former.

What separates Young And Restless is their ability to make each song take on a distinct feel while existing within a genre that at times can sound very similar from band to band.

Having relentlessly toured after being Unearthed last year, Young And Restless have finally released their debut full length release. The 12 track album was recorded by Tom Larkin of Shihad at his Melbourne studios in early 2007 and features guest vocals from Peter Saladino (Brisk) and Tom Lyngcoln (The Nation Blue).

And there is much to like about it, despite it being a watered down version of their powerful live set.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the album is lead singer Karina Utomo. While thunder might come close to rattling windows, she certainly shatters them, and it is her vocals that form the basis for Young and Restless’ unique sound. She effortlessly sings and screams with an unmatched energy, saying “fuck you” to anyone who dares judge her.

The album’s opener, “Need A Hit”, showcases exactly what Young and Restless are about and gives you a sense of what is to come. A crunching bass drum leads into a driving guitar and deep bass lines, slowing down before tearing the room apart.

There is a certain beauty in distortion.

And you feel you are only just getting into it as it speeds up with the second track “I Pointed At You And You Burst Into Flames”.

The album weaves through elements of catchy, indie disco drum beats (Kapow!) to insane, window shattering vocals (I Pointed At You…). Heavy bass drums and relentless guitars (Need A Hit) back to carefully plucked guitar strings (Black).

At times all of 30 seconds can showcase all four elements at once. The tracks “Police, Police”, my favourite “Here It Comes (Lungs)” and the song that defines Young And Restless, first single “Satan” epitomise this exact sentiment.

It remains a shame that you must wait until track nine to hear “Satan”. It’s a song Utomo has described as being about peer pressure (“step right up and shake hands with the devil / listen to Satan, listen to him”).

Similarities can be drawn between the opening of “Black” and Refused’s “Deadly Rhythm” while “Police Police” displays unintentional hints of The Bravery.

And “Dirty Kicks” remains the low point of the ground breaking debut. Dominated by a dirty guitar feel, it’s a little repetitive and reverts to aspects of “noise” music that can be found in so many lesser artists in the genre – aimless thrashing and a relative (to other tracks) simplicity that doesn’t characterise Young And Restless.

But for the most part it’s an album that will leave you a mess but you’ll feel good about being this way. It’s delicate at times, brutal at others while being amazingly complex, incredibly diverse and full of raw energy. While Karina Utomo destroys any stereotypes in her path, this album destroys every idea of what music is supposed to be like.

a broken record spins in circles, she just can't listen anymore

They're lyrics by Finch. While they're a band I don't hugely like, I did like that song for a while.

The point of that is that the song is called "New Beginnings". And its relevence is that I've had my hand forced regarding this piece of citizen journalism and so I'm getting this blog up and running again. Yeah, cheers Jonty...I...uhhh...owe you one.

To coincide with this monumentous occasion, I'll write and tell you that one of my most anticipated albums was released today - Liam Finn's solo debut "I'll Be Lightning". And thanks to a certain uncle and aunty (not the ABC, unfortunately) and their Sanity voucher from last Christmas dug up during a spontaneous and infrequent tidy of my room, I bought myself this album while keeping my hard earnt in my pocket. (That hard earnt went towards a sub of the day barely 20 metres from the Sanity store).

Two-and-a-half years ago Kiwi band Betchadupa, that Finn fronts, played a free lunchtime gig at RMIT's Bowen St. All of 50 people watched it, most only for five minutes while walking to insignificant classes, particularly in week one. Especially when they could've seen an amazing band.

I doubt I could call it a life changing experience - Liamm Finn never has actually done anything that's changed the course of my life - however it did make me go out and investigate further. and off to JB Hifi I went.

I scored myself the cheaper of their two albums, The Alphabetchadupa, and it took a while to get into. But after several listens and 30 months later it easily sits in the top five albums that I own now, with the track "Lucy's Song" recognised in a similar fashion.

Liam Finn, for the ignorant few out there the son of Crowded House and Split Enz legend Neil, has the ability to say so much in so few words. It's self reflective, emotive music sung with a gentleness that evokes ideas of a guy being honest to himeslf, if not anything else. It's beautiful song writing, but ever so simple. It's about the most basic things in life that we often overlook or take for granted. It's about many things, but you wouldn't think so.

I guess the best way to sum it up is by saying it's exactly like the (environmentally friendly) booklet that it comes with. There is no words in the booklet. Just photos. Of nothing special either: a green paddock that looks like somewhere in England (where he now calls home); a destroyed computer screen on a footpath; a street of terrace houses with leafless trees in the middle of Winter; the front of a hotel dimly lit by a fading street light.

Perhaps two of the most nothing photos of them all show a rusting clothes line in a suburban backyard with an overgrown weed spiralling up the side of a brick house, and an image of Finn behind a table with a blank expression and a similarly blank black t-shirt.

They are images of nothing, but yet you feel like you've completed a journey.

there was feasting and dancing in Richmond last night

I'll get my resentment out of the way first: they didn't play Dilaudid, Lion's Teeth, Up The Wolves or the beautiful Pale Green Things, a song about how simple life can really be.

My resentment ends there. The Mountain Goats were amazing.

After last night it's my thinking that a good show isn't just what goes on on stage. It's the crowd, the venue, but most importantly the approach the act takes: are they up there to just put on a show, or are they happy to make everyone in the venue feel a part of what's going on. I've never seen anyone enjoy themselves on stage as much as John Darnielle, which made you think that he was amazed at what he was seeing as much as the near-full Corner Hotel was. It was an intimate affair.

They opened with Wild Sage, a low tempo song with a crunching chorus. The Mountain Goats would be one of the few acts that could open with a lack of melody and have the crowd marveling at proceedings, grinning insanely at what would be coming. On Darnielle's behalf you couldn't tell if he was crying, laughing or acting. Eccentric twitches accompanied a dark and beautiful voice and an intense opening performance. I lent over to Andy and said "well, this is awkward". You didn't know how to react, but you undoubtedly loved it.

By the second song You or Your Memory it was evident at how big The Sunset Tree had become in Australia, largely driven by the catchy anthem This Year and Triple J's whoring of it. The gentle album opener had the biggest sing-a-long since Rise Against's Swing Life Away, much to the unexpected pleasure of Darnielle who stood back and exclaimed "wow". The second indication of this was when the first two chords of Song For Dennis Brown were strung and the subsequent cheer that went up for the simple song about watching life at its most basic:

on the day that dennis brown's lung collapsed, spring rain was misting down on kingston.
and down at the harbor, local cops were intercepting an inbound shipment.
and for a while there it was chaos
as they handcuffed and then roughed up some sailors.

on the day that dennis brown's habits caught up with him, school children sang in choirs.
and out behind the Chinese restaurants
guys were jumping into dumpsters.

One of the highlights for me was Magpie, an upbeat song full of sharp chords that forced Darnielle to use a cheat sheet. Before starting the song he acknowledged "and I know I'm on the wrong side of town to play this". The song is lyrically full of metaphors and is over in two minutes, but has a delicate, string plucking melody combined with faster, bolder chords that you can't help but admire.

He even stopped the gig midway to announce that he would be stopping the party to play Get Lonely, a song that barely rises above a whimper but the one that Darnielle had the most to say about (and there was a lot of talking about the inspiration for each song in the set). Hughes on bass barely did anything bar plucking at three strings every other minute, and you could sense that this was John's song, and that he had to play it. As if anyone minded. On the contrary rather you appreciated the level at which he felt his music.

Catchy as all fuck, The Mountain Goats have songs that are lyrically brilliant, telling stories about every day happenings as well as visiting experiences from Darnielle's past. No acoustic band would talk about death as much as Darnielle and even the songs I didn't know - No Children (a favourite for a small pocket of the crowd), The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton, Half Dead and a few more - were instantly recognisable and songs you couldn't help but smiling at, even if that smile was at how much Darnielle appreciated what he had written.

Despite only owning one album and a handful of songs, it was one of most inclusive, amazing experiences I've had at a gig.

tomorrow, this year

So tomorrow I am seeing The Mountain Goats, an accoustic folk duo made up primarily of singer/songwriter John Darnielle, with Peter Hughes on bass.

There's a certain serenity with Darnielle's lyrics, and acoustic in general. Like a lot of punk is political, and pop punk seems fascinated with ex-girlfriends and girls in general, acoustic seems intent on telling stories, relying on the simpler things in life to provide laid back sounds.

I'd happily tell anyone they are a band I seriously rate, but it's hard to really pinpoint what it is about them. What does stand out though is that Darnielle's experiences that shine through on 2005's "The Sunset Tree" aren't exactly what you would expect from an infectiously catchy acoustic band - subjects such as domestic violence, death and bane existence in uninspiring lives are all touched on in The Sunset Tree. I guess he succeeds by effortlessly changing the tone of his unique, but oh so American, voice.

I found this article intriguing about Darnielle's approach to his lyrics - while his past albums would feature characters, talking about his life through a third, distant person, The Sunset Tree, and one assumes Get Lonely (his latest offering) as well, saw him change direction and speak from a first person narrative.

I'll say I'm heaps looking forward to tomorrow night. It's bound to be an intimate affair with a much older crowd than me, but I can tell you now it'll be one of the most honest shows I'll see this year (Mountain Goats pun intended).

a picture tattoo says 1000 words

Dropkick Murphys 2007 tour

So at the Melbourne show