The song takes you by surprise, and it’s one of the more brilliant moments on the album. But then the wild, frantic drumming and looping synthesizers on “You Can Always Hear Birds” make it sound almost like a lo-fi indie pop tribute to Zach Hill, drummer of the experimental rap group Death Grips, among other projects-until the frenetic drums turn into ambient cymbal crashes and the synths become psychedelic and shoegazey, while Ray sings inaudible lyrics about birds through a heavily filtered vocoder. Ray’s passionate, half-screamed vocals on “ 25 days (may15)” are somewhat reminiscent of the tortured howls of Jamie Stewart from the experimental rock project Xiu Xiu, although the background to Ray’s vocals on “25 days” is much more subdued and lovely than anything Xiu Xiu would ever do, creating a unique contrast between vocals and background. There’s a lot of experimentation on Strawberries, and also a lot of pain hidden underneath the layers of sweetness. (Right) Stefan Burnett and Zach Hill from Death Grips, being very serious. Back in 2013, Ray made a telling Facebook post about Julia Brown, which has since been deleted but was quoted by Jayson Greene in Pitchfork’s review of Julia Brown’s debut EP to be close to you: “If you liked Teen Suicide ‘cause of pop songwriting you’ll probably like the new band but if you just liked the really over-dramatic drug addict depression catharsis stuff you’ll be disappointed and I’ll be glad.” An Abundance of Strawberries is Julia Brown’s only full-length album, and has been in public circulation on the internet for a long time, but had not been officially released until this past month. Ray also leads the ambient electronic project Ricky Eat Acid. Teen Suicide, as well as Ray’s acoustic project Starry Cat, preceded Julia Brown musically and chronologically and a few of the members of Teen Suicide, Caroline White and Alex Simke, were involved in Julia Brown as well. Aside from Julia Brown, Ray is also the singer-songwriter behind the lo-fi project Teen Suicide, a band which is depressive, melodramatic, and brilliant in its own way-and will apparently release a new album on April 1. Julia Brown was a short-lived project of Sam Ray, the namesake of the WRMC show “ sam ray’s other cool band,” hosted by Jackson Frons (Thanks for the edits, Jackson). But it’s what you are looking at through the lens that truly makes a difference. You can only look at my songs through the lens I give you. The songwriting is the main attraction, not the “lo-fi-ness.” The lo-fi aesthetic adds complexity to the finished product, and also makes an artistic statement: You are listening to this music on my terms, not yours. Good songwriting is what distinguishes The Mountain Goats, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Pavement, The Microphones, and Julia Brown as great lo-fi artists. Although distortion, fuzz, reverb, clipping, and tastefully out-of-tune vocals can lend a song beauty, they can also make a song worse if it’s just not a good song to begin with. That is to say, there’s a lot of shitty lo-fi out there. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.Īt the same time, the virtues of lo-fi production are not at all per se. 7:00-8:00 pm Playtime Luke Robins, Asha Williams.6:00-7:00 pm Showtunes Showcase Lauren Thomson, Eva Morgan.
5:00-6:00 pm B & B Sophie Hochman, Caroline Ritter.4:00-5:00 pm Dissociation Station Chase Winstead, Henry Terry.3:00-4:00 pm middlebury housing Audrey Peiker, Claire Shannon-Vermillion.2:00-3:00 pm Man, I Love Fall Bridget Ulian, Katherine Kenny.12:00-1:00 pm This Must Be the Place Halper, Alexa, Maggie Bryan.11:00-12:00 pm Soundtracks to my Life Jazzaray McClinton.10:00-11:00 am The Last Waltz Henry Ganey.9:00-10:00 am Tell Me What to Do!? Niamh Carty, Rachel Lu.8:00-9:00 am Democracy Now! Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez.1:00-2:00 am Triplicity Federico Gruson, Edwin Escobar, Newman, Francine (Frannie).12:00-1:00 am ProcHampton Mia Giaever, Catherine Goodrich.11:00-12:00 am music to dance to in your head Aliana Thomas-Adams.10:00-11:00 pm Pleasure Plateau Daphne Halley, Aukai Elkaslasy.8:00-9:00 pm Elven Technocracy Eli Biletch, Emily Kane.
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