Two way Monologues

Portastatic: Bright Ideas

I'm going through a very prolific period in terms of music reviews. I haven't felt this charged to review albums in a while. I think it mainly has to do with how close we are to launching the dot-com, andwith how relieved I am that the archiving is more-or-less finished.

So today we are going to look at "Bright Ideas" by Portastatic. The album has been out a touch over two months. Portastatic originally started as Superchunk's Mac McCaughan's side project. However, in recent years Portastatic has became the main project while Superchunk simmers on the backburner.

This is the first album Mac has recorded with Portastatic that features an entire band. Superchunk's guitarist Jim Wilbur is the bassist here, and Mac's brother Matt takes on the drums. The result is a sound more fitting of something that has become a lot more than a casual side project at this point.

"Bright Ideas" is an endearing album that harkens back to a early to mid-nineties sound without living in the past. The album takes that old sound and revitalizes and renews it with what works in 2005. At times the songs are fun and introspective, and at other times they are dark and atmospheric. Mac has a way of bringing the listener into his music so that instead of just listening it you are experiencing and feeling it.

It is these changes of pace and style that keep the album remarkably fresh throughout. It is also why the replay value stands up after multiple listens. These changes occur with a much larger sound, and in turn a more enticing groove. This is a pleasant and very soothing listen. It's good late night music, or if you are a stoner it likely would also work very well for a chill session. Onwards to the songs.

The lead song is also the title track and the best track on the album hands down. How good is it? Well -- I played it when Brandon was here and although the style of music is nothing like what he would normally listen to he made a comment about how good a song it is. This song works a dark, hypnotic trance vibe. The percussion is really quiet but rythmic, and is the driving force behind the trance the song can put you under. Guitar and bass are part of the song but really just to hard to the atmosphere. Vocally, the lyrics are sung in short abrupt sentences that are delivered rather slowly. Everything about this song is subtle. It seems to be doing everything but try to be catchy, and before you know it you are rocking back and forth like a zombie muttering the lyrics along with it. Mac has written some quality lyrics here: "Every step I take is part of my path/but none of my jokes ever make me laugh/Sometimes you want to put the past in the past/but every generation gets bit in the ass." The song is 5-plus minutes and you'll hardly think it more than three.

As is more and more frequent in my reviews we now will talk about a Track-fu loser. "White Wave" didn't actually get labelled the loser loser, but it didn't win either, and for all intents and purposes I consider that a loss. This is more of a straightforward throwback early 90s rock song. It reminds me of bands like Age of Electric, Soul Asylum or Local H, except it is better than any of the aforementioned bands by far because it updates the sound. It even has the trademark transition guitar riff/band rock-out segment before the next verse. Pure early 90s.

This style of music has been all but forgotten which licks. Seriously, what has it been replaced by? Bands like fucking Default? Give me a break. This song is ultra-fun; nothing more and nothing less. It isn't as big of a musical achievment as "Bright Ideas" but not every song has to be; sometimes you just want something like this.

More of this style of music continues on "I Wanna Know Girls" which is currently available as a free download over at Amazon.com. On first listen you might write this off as another song about a guy longing for a certain type of girl, and on the most minimal levels, yeah, that is what it is. But really, it is much more clever, a tongue-in-cheek positive/negative evaulation of whether it actually is better to have more or less knowledge when it comes to knowing girls. Musically it again hops in the time machine to the early 90s, even using the do-doo-doo-doo background vocals that so many songs used to rock back in the day. And it is two-sided as well. He even waxes intellectual about how, for the most part, men ruin everything in most relationships. Too many people in 2005 hear a band like Fountains of Wayne or Ween and appreciate it as being this style of music. Those bands are brutal in comparison to this, take a listen and hear for yourself.

Back to the more serious stuff. Portastatic has a really adorable tune on this called "Little Fern", which is a song written by Mac about his little daughter. It has a countrified jangle to it, and is a rather playful but obviously heartfelt song confessing his feelings toward getting used to having a daughter. You can tell that he doesn't get to see his daughter as much as he would like. I get the feeling that he isn't with the mother anymore and that is part of why. And you can tell that he doesn't feel so hot about that. This is the more serious heartfelt ying to the more bubblegum mindless yang that I was talking about earlier. A good album has both.

Lastly, we'll wrap this up with "The Soft Rewind". This is a much more rocking song that actually has me thinking of Limblifter every time I hear it. Mac's vocals are never going to be as fragile and different as those found on a Limblifter album but just the style reminds me. This is somewhat of a combination of both the ying and the yang. If you want you can just listen to the song and have fun rocking out too it, and enjoying the infectious vocals and guitar. Or, if you prefer you can listen to the lyrics, which are very impressive. The song -- and I'm just guessing -- is about time moving too fast and always feeling like he and his girl are missing out on things. And it talks a lot about the sun going down and it opportunities being lost, and waiting for the second chance (soft rewind). Or something like that. Far too indie to find out for certain what it means. I like to think I am right.

Like so many other albums it could use a touch more consistency, but "Bright Ideas" really does prosper. Recording the album with an entire band really allowed these songs to flourish and for the band itself to take a step out of the sheltered obscure solo recorded indie pop scene towards the rest of the world. And no, you aren't about to flip on your top 40 radio station and hear "Bright Ideas", but this is inevitably going to reach more ears than it would have otherwise. So if you are in the mood for some fresh new music that will also satisfy your yearning for some early 90's nostalgia then I prescribe Portastatic. Trust me, it will be just what the doctor ordered.

Tracks to download: "Bright Ideas", "Through With People", "White Wave", "Little Fern", "I Wanna Know Girls", "The Soft Rewind"

SCORE: 8.1 (Let's just say if all the songs flourished like the above mentioned songs this score would be higher. But I'm not really complaining.)

posted by Daysthatareover @ 7:45 PM