Tuesday's Recommended Release(s)

I have been listening to the new Fuck Buttons album, Street Horrrsing, on repeat for weeks. The droning, electronic sounds have completely hypnotized me and I no longer understand why I need pop melodies to get me through my day. It seems pointless to have a couple of humans singing in key together, when we can have electronic sounds rising and falling and creating the same sort of emotion, just in a different medium.

Consisting of only 6-songs some would label Street Horrrsing an EP, but those people would be fools who only look at the back of an album and then move on. Only one of the songs on this album is under 7-minutes long, pushing the album towards the hour long mark and certainly giving it the LP label. The songs themselves are impressive examples of how to use electronic sounds in songs. For the first three minutes of the opening track, "Sweet Love for Planet Earth", Fuck Buttons allow the music to build before hitting a grand plateau that last for the duration of the song. It's an epic climb, but once we get to the top we realize that there is an expansive amount of ground to cover there as well.

I could liken this to some other acts, but in doing so I would either put down Fuck Buttons or the other artists for the slight flaws. I have no desire to do that, so I will tell you that Street Horrrsing is a brilliant, ambient, electronic album that has no peers whatsoever. How you like dem apples?
Fuck Buttons - "Ribs Out"
Fuck Buttons - "Colours Move"

When Be Your Own Pet burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut album, it seemed that all people wanted to talk about was how young the band was. Everything you heard seemed to stem around the fact that people were surprised that young kids could rock so hard, but why should we be surprised about a bunch of teeneagers that channel all their angst and insecurities through a fast-paced brand of garage rock? On their second album, Get Awkward, the band are couple of years older, a couple years wiser, and I don't think anyone will have trouble focusing on their musical abilities rather then their age anymore.

The album is blistering right from the jump off. Fast paced guitars, driving rhythms, and of course Jemina Pearl's Karen O like wail soars through the songs. As whole the band sounds like they each have become more comfortable with each of their instruments producing a cleaner sounding, though not clean album. The song writing has grown up a bit, but their still not afraid to tackle the tough world of the late teenage years. The confidence is evidenced early on by an expansion in the sound of the group, with several songs taking on the sounds of surf rock and the classic 60's girl rock songs as well as their already powerful brand of garage rock. It's the expanded sound that really gives Get Awkward life and allows people to latch on to the songs here.

I've listened through the album countless times and each time I've gone to it I've found myself rocking out harder and harder, and even accidentally bumping someone on the subway when I got a little too into it (my apologies subway rider dude). The songs just rock my ears off and it gets me moving no matter how early in the morning it is. I'm glad to see Be Your Own Pet proving their debut wasn't a fluke and growing their sound proving what a lot of people had hoped for the nascent band when they first burst onto the scene, and that's that these guys have endless potential that they have only begun to tap.
Be Your Own Pet - "Becky"
Be Your Own Pet - "Food Fight"

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