Ten Silver Drops

Today's Music That Kind Of Worries Jason is Ten Silver Drops, by The Secret Machines. This album is pretty good, I guess; its greatest fault is that it follows TSM's wonderful debut album, Now Here is Nowhere. TSD has some good songs, nothing too poppy, they're all definitely Secret Machines songs, but it's hard to say that anything really stands out in my mind. The last two songs are ballads, and don't really seem all that great. I do like the length of the songs on this album, and the fact that they aren't too self-aware, but these just seem to be more run-of-the-mill indie arena rock songs. They're maybe a little too polished and pretty. Some of the joy of was that the songs weren't that hard to predict, but the timing was wonderful; that is, the energetic choruses were always there but the build wasn't diagrammed every time. I don't know, exactly. Whereas NHiN seemed to draw on elements of U2, Pink Floyd, and The Who, TSN seems to be an updated Rush album. Not the gloriously nerdy and technically proficient Rush of the 1970s, no, more along the lines of the synth-driven rock anthem Rush of the 1980's. Not bad, but perhaps content.

In other news:
I haven't purchased any music for a while, and I'm getting itchy. There are Okkervil River albums out there just dying to be listened to, dammit!

Now Here is Nowhere

Today's Music That Jason Thinks You Should Like is Now Here is Nowhere, by The Secret Machines. This music, not surprisingly, was recommended to me by a fellow music dork. I guess the best way to describe it would be as indie arena rock. It's boisterous and unapologetic, certainly not as dumb as the music we'd describe as 'hair-rock' or 'rap-metal' or 'nu-metal' or even some 'alternative' but it has a little swagger to it. In this case, I think that's a good thing. The band rocks fairly hard, but doesn't feel the need to keep anything radio-friendly; the opening song ("First Wave Intact") clocks in at exactly 9 minutes, and probably half of that is drums over 16-measure guitar chords.

It's hard to listen to this album and not think of some other bands: Who's Next-era Who, pre-Joshua Tree-era U2, maybe even Billy Idol. Maybe not. Anyhow, I think they're more conscious than their predecessors; they might be pretentious about some things but the songs generally back up their beliefs. Many of their songs find their way into my workout music, but they stand up to dedicated listening just the same. The real standout track is "The Road Leads Where It's Led", as driving and poetic a rock anthem as anything released in the past ten years, but there isn't really a song on this album that draws my ire. I think this album might be too open about what it is and what it wants for some people, but there isn't anything wrong with being accessible. Who knows? Maybe Roger Waters would have written music like this if he wasn't so intent on proving how little everyone understood him.

Just listen to the album. It isn't quite far enough removed from popular rock standards to be considered post-rock, but it's too clever to lump in with the Limp Bizkits and the Puddle of Mudds and even the Strokeses of the world. Just listen to it and enjoy it. You used to be fun, you remember what it's like to rock.

I actually saw the Secret Machines when they came through Ames in February of 2005, they were all kinds of amazing. The drummer had lots of hair and made me think of Animal (from the Muppets).

In other news:
I made a wonderful smoothie last night and succeeded at making crepes this weekend! I like cooking, but it's always more fun when things don't go horribly wrong.