aaawwwwesoome!

(Source: lunch-at-tiffanys)

bigfuckingexplosions:

SCANNERS - David Cronenberg

PARTY TIMES.

I love you Kickball Katy.

Vivian Girls - Share The Joy

I first discovered Vivian Girls in the weeks leading up to their first Australian tour in ‘09. At the time they were promoting their newly released second album Everything Goes Wrong. After a friend asked if I wanted to come with him to see them play, I decided I had better get acquainted with the Vivians, so I downloaded (kill me) said second album. I thought it was good, very good. But not great. I could see that they were on to a good thing - combining noisy, thrashy garage punk with the sweet harmonies and pop hooks of the 60’s girl group glory days. However, the thing holding it back upon the first few listens was the degree to which those pop hooks were obscured by the surrounding noise.

Fast forward to 2011 and the release of the Vivian Girls’ new album Share The Joy. Whilst this is still a quintessential Vivian Girls album, one notices there are a few small, yet striking differences. The first few frantic seconds of the opening track “The Other Girls” seems to resemble a ”previously, on the Vivian Girls…” type recap of where they left off with Everything Goes Wrong. Then suddenly, the noise lets up and gives way to a dreamy soundscape of lush vocal harmonies and meandering guitar solos. This more refined and restrained sound is a welcome addition to the Vivian’s repertoire, especially if it leads to more songs like my personal favourite “I Heard You Say”, a strangely entrancing tune which sees the Vivian’s flexing their melodic muscle more than ever before. 

Another strong point of this album is it’s variety, something where previous Vivian Girls albums have always fallen short. From those previously mentioned dreamy soundscapes, rich with harmony and floating guitar, to more upbeat numbers “Dance If You Wanna” and “Take It As It Comes”, the exploration of different musical ideas is much more evident than it has been in the past. Throwing in just the right amount of nostalgia, the aforementioned ”Take It As It Comes”  even throws in a delightfully obvious nod of the head to The Shangri-Las, in the form of a conversational spoken word section in which Cassie Ramone (vocals/guitar) give Kickball Katy (bass/vocals) some valuable advice in regards to her boy dilemma. About midway through the album we are hit with a healthy dose of classic Vivian Girls in the form of “Lake House”, a short and not so sweet two minute punk rocker, just in case you thought they’d gone soft.

Listening to this album, one gets the sense that the Vivian Girls have a lot more to offer than their early material might have first suggested (as good as it is, in it’s own way). Perhaps then it would not be too farfetched to liken the Vivians to bands such as The Replacements or Husker Du, in the way that these bands have managed to evolve from their punk rock beginnings and gradually find a talent for writing brilliant pop songs, as well as thrilling two minute thrashers. I guess I’ll just have to wait for the next record to see if I’m right about the Vivian Girls.

ihavecake:

Can’t start a fire…..