The Black Kids - Partie Traumatic
Maybe I'll use this blog to actually do what I originally thought I would do with it.
I have been listening a lot to The Black Kids. All the tracks on their Partie Traumatic album are very good.
Starting with Hit the Heartbreaks which is a great start given its grandious chord progression in the intro and shortly after introduces us to the gropus characteristic vocals and harmonies. The chorus is typical Black Kids with a contagious beat that stays with you for the rest of the song.
Track 2, same title as the album, has a bit more of keyboard components some of which have made my friends say that it sounds a bit like MGMT. After listening to all of the ablum, I actually think the "mysterious" keyboard melody use in the intro and throughout the song is more a reminder of how this band is out to have phone. The short guitar solo towards the end is melodic and reminds me of my attempts to create something similar with "Chela" when I played the guitar at "Monoaural" back in Mexico City.
With track 3 we get right to one of the most fun tracks in the album. "Listen to Your Body Tonight" The lyrics are hilarious and the music goes with them perfectly. Again a bit of synhesizers reminding us of MGMT. However the high pace of the verse and the bridge with the phone call to "your body" and the strong rythmical section is what I like to think very charactersitic Black Kids and part of what makes this band so unique.
Hurricane Jane continues in the rythmical tradition but with a much cleaner sound and melody. It is a very good representation of the broad range that Black Kids can cover. One of my favorite lines in the whole album: "It's Friday night and I ain't got nobody" is in the chorus of this song, and the transition back to the cleaner verse section makes me think maybe I have found the 2000's indie equivalent of "Creep" by "Radiohead" with respect to grunge in the 90's.
The mood goes down even one more notch with the intro to "I'm making eyes at you" which probably sounds closer to "The Cure" and "The Smiths", but quickly picks up the beat towards the middle without loosing the elements that makes us think of those older great bands.
"I've Underestimated My Charm" is another testament of the broad range of this band which I have mentioned before. With a more classic rythm structure reminding us of traditional punk or going even further back to the 60's with the back-up voices in harmony during the chorus and the bridge half way through the song. "Paaaa, paaa, paaa, paaa, peep, peep, uuuuuuuu" away!
And now we get to what I assume is the band's and album most popular song "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You". Like with "Listen to Your Body Tonight" the band does an awesome job with fun and interesting lyrics, but above and beyond what all the other songs in the album have to offer this one sounds like a combination of all the good things this band can do. Once again a strong, fresh and contagious rythimic section, very nice vocal and guitar melodies, an amazing use of back-up vocals and synthesizers for harmony. You'll want to play this several times after you hear it. I promise! Go to YouTube right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOV6I4fYnvQ but IGNORE the video just listen to the music and imagine a band who wouldn't look into the camera when singing...
And you'll want to quickly learn how to sing the bridge before the chorus: "One! I'm biting my tongue, Two! He's kissing on you, Three! Oh why can't you see, One, Two, Three, Four!" Full lyrics here: http://www.lyricsmania.com/im_not_gonna_teach_your_boyfriend_how_to_dance_with_you_lyrics_black_kids.html
To keep the post short I wont say much about the rest of the good songs that come after "I'm Not Gonna Teach..." including an electronic version of this song at the end of the album which would go perfect with ANY party mix, regardless of the music style preference of the crowd.
How can't this be an amazing record with so many references to classics of the time when music meant much more to fans (Radiohead, The Cure, The Smiths)? An epoque that I think even Bob Lesfetz (http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2010/07/17/e-mail-of-the-day-25/) would agree had real fans and a real following and was not instant success / instant decline. But not only that, The Black Kids also bring with them a lot of the good influences of the 2000's like those of MGMT and in my opinion many new components of their own manufacturing that make them worth following. As with so many new bands lately the challenge remains if they can continue to continuously produce good music of their own or if they'll remain a one album hit wonder.
The Black Kids in tour in July 2010: http://www.blackkidsmusic.com/
Album available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Partie-Traumatic-Black-Kids/dp/B001AZI1XC
I have been listening a lot to The Black Kids. All the tracks on their Partie Traumatic album are very good.
Starting with Hit the Heartbreaks which is a great start given its grandious chord progression in the intro and shortly after introduces us to the gropus characteristic vocals and harmonies. The chorus is typical Black Kids with a contagious beat that stays with you for the rest of the song.
Track 2, same title as the album, has a bit more of keyboard components some of which have made my friends say that it sounds a bit like MGMT. After listening to all of the ablum, I actually think the "mysterious" keyboard melody use in the intro and throughout the song is more a reminder of how this band is out to have phone. The short guitar solo towards the end is melodic and reminds me of my attempts to create something similar with "Chela" when I played the guitar at "Monoaural" back in Mexico City.
With track 3 we get right to one of the most fun tracks in the album. "Listen to Your Body Tonight" The lyrics are hilarious and the music goes with them perfectly. Again a bit of synhesizers reminding us of MGMT. However the high pace of the verse and the bridge with the phone call to "your body" and the strong rythmical section is what I like to think very charactersitic Black Kids and part of what makes this band so unique.
Hurricane Jane continues in the rythmical tradition but with a much cleaner sound and melody. It is a very good representation of the broad range that Black Kids can cover. One of my favorite lines in the whole album: "It's Friday night and I ain't got nobody" is in the chorus of this song, and the transition back to the cleaner verse section makes me think maybe I have found the 2000's indie equivalent of "Creep" by "Radiohead" with respect to grunge in the 90's.
The mood goes down even one more notch with the intro to "I'm making eyes at you" which probably sounds closer to "The Cure" and "The Smiths", but quickly picks up the beat towards the middle without loosing the elements that makes us think of those older great bands.
"I've Underestimated My Charm" is another testament of the broad range of this band which I have mentioned before. With a more classic rythm structure reminding us of traditional punk or going even further back to the 60's with the back-up voices in harmony during the chorus and the bridge half way through the song. "Paaaa, paaa, paaa, paaa, peep, peep, uuuuuuuu" away!
And now we get to what I assume is the band's and album most popular song "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You". Like with "Listen to Your Body Tonight" the band does an awesome job with fun and interesting lyrics, but above and beyond what all the other songs in the album have to offer this one sounds like a combination of all the good things this band can do. Once again a strong, fresh and contagious rythimic section, very nice vocal and guitar melodies, an amazing use of back-up vocals and synthesizers for harmony. You'll want to play this several times after you hear it. I promise! Go to YouTube right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOV6I4fYnvQ but IGNORE the video just listen to the music and imagine a band who wouldn't look into the camera when singing...
And you'll want to quickly learn how to sing the bridge before the chorus: "One! I'm biting my tongue, Two! He's kissing on you, Three! Oh why can't you see, One, Two, Three, Four!" Full lyrics here: http://www.lyricsmania.com/im_not_gonna_teach_your_boyfriend_how_to_dance_with_you_lyrics_black_kids.html
To keep the post short I wont say much about the rest of the good songs that come after "I'm Not Gonna Teach..." including an electronic version of this song at the end of the album which would go perfect with ANY party mix, regardless of the music style preference of the crowd.
How can't this be an amazing record with so many references to classics of the time when music meant much more to fans (Radiohead, The Cure, The Smiths)? An epoque that I think even Bob Lesfetz (http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2010/07/17/e-mail-of-the-day-25/) would agree had real fans and a real following and was not instant success / instant decline. But not only that, The Black Kids also bring with them a lot of the good influences of the 2000's like those of MGMT and in my opinion many new components of their own manufacturing that make them worth following. As with so many new bands lately the challenge remains if they can continue to continuously produce good music of their own or if they'll remain a one album hit wonder.
The Black Kids in tour in July 2010: http://www.blackkidsmusic.com/
Album available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Partie-Traumatic-Black-Kids/dp/B001AZI1XC
Labels: Album review, Black Kids, Bob Lesfetz, I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You, MGMT, Partie Traumaic, Radiohead, The Cure, The Smiths, tour July 2010
posted by Pepe Rodriguez at 11:29 PM
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