DON'T MEAN MUCH

New Secret Machines LP is out today (in real-life stores). Ten Silver Drops is their second LP. As usual, these guys are very much about digital promotion, so you can listen to the whole album (and more) at their website. I'm also pretty sure there's some kind of single/EP release for "Lightning Blue Eyes" coming up soon.


Definitely in my top 10 of the year so far. A bit of a slow-grower because of lengthier and more repetitive songs, but their krautrock influences come off a lot clearer this time around and make the record extremely enjoyable to listen to straight through. That said, the single-sounding songs are great too ("Lightning Blue Eyes", "Faded Lines").

I saw the band for the second time a few months ago, with Kings of Leon. It was a somewhat frustrating experience. The band played too loud, literally. First Ave was ringing and feeding back in ways I've never heard before. The new songs were longer and slower, and standing around listening to that for an hour is not a huge amount of fun.

But in retrospect, the concert grows better in my memory. I love hearing new songs live, and not knowing what the hell is going on, wondering if I'll even remember any of what I'm hearing; and then sitting down with the record when it comes out, having pieces of songs, riffs and beats and breakdowns and bridges, flood back to me. It's like deciphering some kind of code... a big "Ohhhhh I get it". Definitely happened with this record, especially the monumental riff shift in "Daddy's in the Doldrums" and the building up of the looped guitar riff in "Faded Lines".

They play Conan tonight and that Ferguson person a few nights later.

I will hopefully be seeing these guys when they play First Ave again. This time I will definitely bring earplugs.

On a somewhat odd note, Patrick Daughters directed another video for the band for "Lightning Blue Eyes". I really love Daughters' video work for the Futureheads' "Hounds of Love", Feist's "Mushaboom", KOL's "The Bucket" and YYYs "Date with the Night" (he also did "Gold Lion", "Maps", more), all of which are great fucking videos.

This video for the Secret Machines revolves around the band playing a gig, but follows a few characters at the venue, and as they move in and around the venue the sound changes accordingly. Strangely, on Subterranean last night, they played the regular mix of the song over the video, pretty much killing off anything interesting about it. Awesome, MTV2.