Music: Cymbals Eat a Soft Pack of Guitars on our Saturday Mixtape
- 1. Remember 2004, when the Von Bondies’ “C’Mon C’Mon” became an unavoidable hit after singer Jason Stollsteimer kicked Jack White’s ass? Yeah, neither do we. Anyway, six years later, we have The Soft Pack, who lose a “C’Mon” but keep the basic elements of what made that song pretty cool. But disinterested vocals push it over the edge.
- 2. “I think we need more post-coital, and less post-rock.” It’s a dirty joke, sure, but a good one. And in the hands of Los Campesinos! (on track “Straight in at 101”), it comes off as a little funny and a little sad, like an Art Brut song. OK, more funny than sad.
- 3. Back in September, we saw up-and-coming indie rockers Cymbals Eat Guitars open up for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and were super-impressed. Their somewhat traditional take on indie rock is nonetheless exhilarating, as “Some Trees (Merrit Moon)” shows. It has at least five clumps of songs mixed into two minutes, yet somehow they all work.
- 4. Speaking of somewhat traditional indie rock, Lou Barlow is kind of the king of that, and “Ocean” is the closest his baby Sebadoh got to a hit. (Granted, Barlow is a former-and-current member of Dinosaur Jr. and side project Folk Implosion did pull off a hit of its own.) But it’s got a killer hook on it and it’s done in three minutes. You should love it.
- 5. Keeping with our trend of of guitar-driven indie rock on this week’s mixtape, we present you with Sonic Youth’s “Teen Age Riot” – perhaps the best guitar-driven indie rock song of the last 25 years. Makes sense. Think of it as a love letter to noisy electric guitars.
