This is high energy 70's, ironic, arena rock, heavily influenced by Kiss, Grandfunk Railroad, MC5, Cheap Trick and especially AC/DC. They have toured with The Fucking Champs and Drunk Horse, which is so appropriete given the tight muscianship, crazy riffin', silly irony, and love of all things 70's rock. Some songs vary from the formentioned style sounding remarkably like the Jesus Lizard, which I didn't like nearly as much, but all in all an energetic and tight lil' record.
This 3 piece from Oakland CA play arty, chaotic somewhat dark noisy sort-of-punk-rock. Friends and musical allies of SF local scary ones The Vanishing, The Phantom Limbs, and Black Ice. Intense girl and boy vocals over confused, deranged sludgy noise.
Even though Jason Molina's songwriting seems endlessly weighted by deep melancholia, there still remain glimmers of hope in his music, and this is perhaps even more so the case on this new album. Yes, once again comparisons can easily be drawn to Will Oldham or classic Neil Young, however from the first song of this album, it's clear there's something else/more going on. Definitely as passionate as ever, but fully fleshed out and a bit more rocked up than 2002's Didn't It Rain. Magnolia Electric Co. features a full ten person band (including Jennie from the bluegrass group Jim & Jennie and the Pinetops) performing Molina's songs. Plus he stepped away from the microphone and enlisted a number of different vocalists to sing the lead on a number of songs. The results are quite splendid. It was all captured live on tape by Steve Albini.
Also keep your eyes/ears peeled for the companion album of sorts, the much more minimal solo vinyl-only release called Pyramid Electric Co.
We here at Aquarius have not been boycotting the French. I myself have been making an effort to drink nothing but Evian and Champagne while eating baguettes covered in brie and reading Foucault and Sartre while watching Gerard Depardieu films and singing Frere Jacques. Another good way to support the French is by listening to this here imported soundtrack to the newest Olivier Assayas film (he's best known for Irma Vep, an inquiry into the state of contemporary French cinema starring Maggie Cheung and Nouvelle-Vague veteran Jean-Pierre Leaud) which consists primarily of original music by Sonic Youth. Sonic Youth are obviously French sympathizers, as they have played with subversive gallic chanteuse Brigitte Fontaine and covered Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi." Didn't much care for either the last Sonic Youth album proper or the recent "In The Fishtank" improv collaboration with I.C.P. and the Ex, but this is nice. Treading a path somewhere in between their song-oriented albums and noisier improvisations, not unlike the SYR record with Jim O'Rourke, Invito Al Cielo, or the little feedbacky instrumental moments in between singing on their poppier songs taken and stretched out into languorous, occasionally dark full length instrumentals (Kim Gordon does lend vocals to the first track). Some of the prettiest Sonic Youth instrumentals I've heard for sure, very mellow and pleasant, even post-rocky but with a gentle, layered touch. The more abstract, "difficult" pieces come together in waves of soothing, textural drone accented by softly clattering percussion. The addition of very slick (and very marketable, I guess) songs by Goldfrapp, Death In Vegas, Dub Squad, and Soulfly at the very end serve to break down the mood established by SY's subtle (but, comparatively, raw) washes of sound-- I'd recommend tuning out after track 8.
2nd time reissued on CD, this was the amazing Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence's second album. Originally recorded in 1964, where this album excels over the first (recorded for Smithsonian Folkways in 1958) is that the producers had the prescience to load up with some great field recording gear. Important given that the dynamic range that Mr. Spence can coax out of his guitar is astounding. Though his repertoire consists almost entirely of traditional hymns and folk tunes that most all of us are familiar with, his renditions are hardly recognizable. Spence has a maniacally insane picking / plucking / slapping guitar style that would make Jaco Pastorius and Pete Seeger bow their heads in awe. To boot, Spence's singing, err... mumbling style is too lovable to resist. It's almost like hearing Captain Beefheart with his mouth wired shut. A cult classic!
AQ's favorite instrumental psychedelic space-rock prog-keyboard crust-metal outfit, San Diego's terrific Tarantula Hawk, has produced two great full-length albums (both of 'em self-titled), one on Life Is Abuse and this year's Neurot labels release. But, of course, fans like us want more. So, thankfully, there's also these two live, not-quite-tour-only cd-r releases, of which we've managed to acquire a few. TH's grind-drone music is a great live experience, dense and dark, and while you'd have to have a IMMENSE stereo system to replicate the loudness and power of their shows, it's still good home listening even at more moderate volume.
"Desert Solitaire" documents a show in August of 2000 at something, a festival I guess, called the One Gathering in San Diego's Madre Grande Sanctuary. 80 minutes, one track! Fuckin' epic and eerie. Godspeed You Black Emperor needs to get schooled by these three guys.
The title of the other cd-r, "Live At KFJC 07.15.01" is rather self-explanatory. Basically, last July the Hawk (space-)rocked the hell out of the studio of one of our favorite Bay Area college radio stations for 32 minutes. Both discs sound great, dynamic and heavy.
AQ's favorite instrumental psychedelic space-rock prog-keyboard crust-metal outfit, San Diego's terrific Tarantula Hawk, has produced two great full-length albums (both of 'em self-titled), one on Life Is Abuse and this year's Neurot labels release. But, of course, fans like us want more. So, thankfully, there's also these two live, not-quite-tour-only cd-r releases, of which we've managed to acquire a few. TH's grind-drone music is a great live experience, dense and dark, and while you'd have to have an IMMENSE stereo system to replicate the loudness and power of their shows, it's still good home listening even at more moderate volume.
"Desert Solitaire" documents a show in August of 2000 at something, a festival I guess, called the One Gathering in San Diego's Madre Grande Sanctuary. 80 minutes, one track! Fuckin' epic and eerie. Godspeed You Black Emperor needs to get schooled by these three guys.
The title of the other cd-r, "Live At KFJC 07.15.01" is rather self-explanatory. Basically, last July the Hawk (space-)rocked the hell out of the studio of one of our favorite Bay Area college radio stations for 32 minutes. Both discs sound great, dynamic and heavy.
Everybody who's been worshiping at the altar of the Strokes for the last year will be facing some serious theological choices with this, the debut from the Pacific Northwest's Thermals. A buzzing blast of white knuckle pop in punk rock's clothing. The Thermals sound like the Strokes cranked on crystal meth and recorded on a boom box in a sweaty smelly basement. The lazy jaded stoned jangle of the current crop of New York hipsters is rolled in dirt and piss and whiskey and handed a beat up old guitar. Thirteen songs, most barely reaching the two minute mark, of blasting fuzz and ramshackle rooooaaaaarrr with a whiny, snotty vocalist climbing all over your table and spilling drinks in your lap. Or think Guided By Voices if their drug of choice was speed instead of Pabst Blue Ribbon and their influences were the Stooges and the Feederz instead of the Beatles and 80's/90's college rock. So great!
Yay, the welcome return of the Throwing Muses! It's been over five years since they disbanded shortly after the release of their eighth full length, Limbo. We're happy to report that from the sounds of this, they're back up and running without skipping a beat. There's something so warm and comforting about the fuzzy crunch of their guitars and Hersh's distinct lilting voice. This album is no exception. In fact, it even recalls the vim and vigor of early Throwing Muses, but with more refined songcraft. For a counterbalance to this TM electric guitar pep and simply more of Ms Hersh in general, check out her beautiful acoustic solo album which was concurrently released with this group effort.
When Byram heard this, his first reaction was: Allan, dude, this has you written all over it! And it's true, *both* of AQ's resident prog-heads (proudly, Allan and Andee) are way into this band and this album -- that's why we ordered a few from overseas to share with our likeminded customers. On this, their 1974 debut album, Trettioariga Kriget (aka Thirty Years War) dish out jazzed-up but also kinda heavy '70s prog rock from Sweden, boasting some over-the-top falsetto vocals worthy of Amon Duul II's Renate Knaup or the guy from Flower Travellin' Band. Mathy, King Crimson-esque hard rock, that's also (in context of this sort of thing) quite catchy, actually. Vocal hooks coexist with the math jazz rock instrumental display and noisy skronk. Recommended, especially if you're among the many (?) AQ customers happy with our prior obscure prog suggestions (Il Balletto di Bronzo, Osanna, etc.)
This comp collects all those super limited, super fierce 7" released on the Broklyn Beats label over the last year or so. Features tracks from AQ fave DJ/Rupture, Godspeed side project 1-Speed Bike, as well as Doily, Criterion, Rotator, Broklyn Beast, I-Sound, and Donna Summer. All over the place and all of it great, from pummeling speaker shredding dancehall to sliced and diced collage-noise to big beats and beyond.
This disc, originally released in 1989, is sort of a sequel to the "Golden Rain" title we listed last time. This one, also recorded by David Lewiston, was made on his first return to Bali in over 20 years. The changes that the island had undergone since his previous visit were somewhat of a shock (rampant tourism, noisy motorbikes everywhere, urban chaos) to Lewiston, who had previously been able to set up and record without so much as a thought to extraneous noise. This time round Lewiston rented out a local friend's art gallery and adjoining badminton court for most of these sessions in order to overcome the noise issue. And, for better or worse, he even went so far as to have the musicians rearrange their instruments in order to get a better stereo recording. What is really nice about this recording, hi-fidelity aside, is that it is a nice broad overview of some of the gamelan styles (and non-gamelan to boot) in Bali. The first track is a 12 minute recording of the opening parade of the Bali Arts Festival in 1987. Everyone loves a parade, and this one is no exception. You get to hear six different ensembles as they march past the recordist. This is followed by another recording of Gong Kebyar (that's the recording that required all the rearranging of the instruments), a recording of Balinese jew's-harp, and a really bizarre recording played on reedy instruments made from palm bark accompanied by percussion. Also included is a recording of gamelan salunding, which is an ancient Balinese gamelan made of iron. It sounds completely different than any other Balinese gamelan (almost like an ill-tuned gamelan), partly due to its being made of iron, but it's also a rather small ensemble with some of the most beautiful melodies in Balinese gamelan. The award for most eerie track has to go to Sadh Budaya Gamelan Gong Suling performing a piece for Semar Pegulingan entirely on flutes (with the addition of a few rhythmic instruments for structural purposes.) There's also an excerpt of Gender Wayang, which is the musical accompaniment to shadow play in Bali (see also the full disc also just reissued of this.) Plus another brief excerpt of Kecak and closed with one more Kebyar track. All on one disc!
This recording, made by Robert E. Brown in 1970, is a condensed version of the music (gender wayang) that usually accompanies Balinese shadow play (wayang kulit) performances. Normally lasting four hours (instead of the Javanese marathon of nine) the music here is some of that which one would most commonly hear during the unfolding of a play. Aside from the time differences between Javanese and Balinese shadow play, the next most striking difference is that the Balinese variant uses only four instruments (a few gongs and drums, which accentuate fight scenes, etc. are not included on this recording) instead of the complement of a full gamelan. The instruments are two pairs of gender (pronounced with a hard, not a soft "g"), one pair tuned an octave higher than the other. The gender has ten thin bronze keys suspended by strings over bamboo resonating tubes. Additionally, each pair of gender is tuned a small interval apart such that the same note played on both instruments simultaneously will produce a shimmering tone much like in Balinese gamelan. Each musician uses two wooded mallets in playing the gender, the part played in the right hand usually being the kotekan (intricate interlocking melodic part) and the left hand generally playing a slower, supportive role. Gender wayang is generally recognized as Balinese music at its most advanced and refined. Pioneering ethnomusicologist and Balinese music enthusiast Colin McPhee referred to gender wayang as the "perfect expression" of Balinese music. Along with the difficult kotekan parts, the players must also manage to dampen the keys of the instrument with the pads of their hands as they play the following note so the notes don't blend into one another. The timbre of the instruments is a bit like an unholy tack piano. The polyphony is quite remarkable to behold, and on this recording is quite distinctly captured, with one pair of gender to your left and one pair to your right.
Like volumes 2, 5, and 11, Ethiopiques 12 is a collection apart from the fuzzed out groove music of Amha and Kaifa records which make up much of the material in the series. This volume features the various traditional musics found in the Konso province in the Southeastern part of Ethiopia. Choruses, flute solos, and songs accompanied by various lutes and bells. Comes with 31 pages of liner notes in French and English.
Universal/Soul Jazz release of recordings from the influential second string father/son production team of Vincent and Clive Chin. Vincent was responsible for starting the labels Randy's and Impact in the late sixties and, with his son, subsequently started their own recording studio -- Randy's Recording Studio 17 -- which was so successful that other producers on the island often used it as well. This compilation gathers together 15 of the best reggae soul and funk tracks the pair produced between 1969 and 1975. Allan particularly likes the Skin Flesh And Bones' instrumental version of the BT Express's funk classic "Do It Til You're Satisfied". Booklet includes a several page interview with Clive Chin conducted in 2002 and several archival photos.
Like the first "Court Gamelan" disc, his collection of recordings comes from Yogyakarta, this time from the Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, the major court in Yogya. Originally the editor of the Court Gamelan series, Robert E. Brown, intended for their to be four albums altogether, with each disc representing one of the two courts of Yogya and and of Solo, but the fourth disc has yet to be released. This recording represents the Yogya style in its most "conservative" form as the greater court experienced much less influence from the Solonese style that the court at Paku Alaman (volume 1) did. The most striking difference between this and the previous is the very loud style of playing that is typical of classic Yogya gamelan. The tracks featured hear are divided into the pieces which feature the robust playing of the louder instruments -- large metallophones (bonang, demung and saron) -- and those that showcase the softer instruments -- rebab (two stringed fiddle), suling (flute), male and female singers, gender (metallophone with small, flat keys suspended with strings over resonators and played with padded mallets) and celampung (plucked zither). Basically the two forms are mutually exclusive given that the sheer volume of the combined loud instruments effectively drowns out any quieter instruments from being heard. The contrasting transitions between loud and soft sections can be stunning, as in "Gendhing Lung Gadhung". The piece begins with a raucous procession of loud instruments played so hard you can hear the keys buzzing as they vibrate against the pins that bind them to their wooden casings. Then, suddenly the loud instruments part like storm clouds to reveal the softer instruments and vocalists. The haunting melody sung by the vocal chorus of men and women is made eerier by the varying interpretations of their parts -- so that vocal entries and cadences are staggered. This disc presents a variety of traditional and ceremonial pieces associated specifically to this court and is appropriately book ended by a piece (Gendhing Prabu Mataram) which would accompany the sultan's entrance and one (Gendhing Tedhak Saking) for his departure. Also included a wonderful 26 minute suite (itself a reduction of a two hour event) for dance, Golek Lambangsari and two shorter pieces: "Gendhing Sumyar" and "Gendhing Rangu-rangu".
Originally released in 1969, "The Jasmine Isle" is a collection of several short pieces for gamelan interspersed with one likewise brief piece of solo gender and two of solo gambang. Not the best in the series, this one is still interesting for its inclusion of the solo recordings from both the gender and gambang, which -- despite their being two of the more subtle and refined components within the gamelan are pretty much masked by the din of the other instruments on the other recordings of Javanese gamelan in this series. The Javanese gender, with its thin bronze keys suspended by strings over metal resonators and played with padded mallets, has a strikingly different sound than the Balinese variant. The attack of the sounding notes is so soft and the sustain so long that the instrument sounds almost like an early Italian pipe organ. Like the Balinese gender, the technique is very difficult and requires simultaneous playing and damping of the keys with the pads of both hands to reduce the overlapping of tones. The gambang is a wooden instrument much like a xylophone or marimba which is also played with a pair of padded mallets. On this recording, the two gambang pieces are solo variants of two pieces also played by the entire gamelan of this disc. The pieces for gamelan here are a mix of Sundanese (West Java), Solonese (Surakarta) and Yogyanese styles.
Spanning 1969 to 1978, the newest volume of Love, Peace & Poetry brings to light totally rare gems from the Brazilian psychedelic rock movement. While we may all be relatively familiar with the giants of the Tropicalia scene -- Os Mutantes (Windy's favorite band ever), Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, etc -- this comp features far more obscure groups whose albums are sought-after treasures in the underground psych LP collecting community (you know who you are!). But less obsessive folk now too have the opportunity to enjoy these obscurities! Springing from the creatively fertile ground of an at the time politically oppressive society, this is a fantastic collection of songs ranging from sunny Beatles-esque, Byrds-y jangle pop to other harder stuff more explicitly influenced by the Doors, Hendrix, and other fuzzed out acidheads. Highlights include the latter type of thing from Modulo 1000, a track from Brazilian psych crown jewel Lula Cortes e Ze Ramalho, the Zep-worthy hard rock groove (with a touch of proto-new wave in one guitar break) of Terco, and a track by Spectrum (whose utterly brilliant film soundtrack album "Geracao Bendita" album has been reissued in its entirety, due for review soon in an upcoming New Arrivals list, although you can come buy it now if you want!). Some tracks pay allegiance to Tropicalia, others are straight-up freak rock, and all are pretty cool.
As with all the Love, Peace and Poetry comps, this is highly recommended not only because it's good listening, but also because it's damn hard to find full lengths from most of these groups, not 'til someone reissues 'em! The liner notes are again by our pal Stan Denski, cover art is again a cheesecake blond go go girl courtesy famed photog Bunny Yeager.
The term "counter-culture" seems to be Rough Trade's catch-all tag for this extremely eclectic compilation. This two disc set features a total of 41 tracks from around the world - many familiar artists (Bright Eyes, the Breeders, ESG, Bis, Johnny Dowd, Melt Banana, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cabaret Voltaire, Mountain Goats, Tom Waits, Prefuse 73, Tracy And The Plastics, Glass Candy And The Shattered Theatre, James Yorkston, Dempsey, The Bug Vs The Rootsman, Joy Zipper, Langley Schools Music Project) as well as many you may not yet be familiar with (Rubicks, The Be Good Tanyas, Trash Money, Akufen, Baxter Dury, The Bug Vs The Rootsman, My Robot Friend, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Crossover, The Books and Pink Grease). A genuine musical cornucopia!
Smalltown Supersound is a Norwegian label that defines itself by the artists on the label and not through a unifying aesthetic; yet, they've decided to release a sampler of all of their artists, from the minimalistic and pulsing sounds of Elektro Nova/Electro Nova, to the melancholic beauty of Continental Fruit, to the abstract electronics of Lasse Marhaug, to Jazzkammer's glitch electronica, to Kim Hiorthoy's wonderful and warm mixture of the organic and the electronic, and to the slow, beautiful and hypnotic sound of Monopot. ----* ----* Nonesuch Explorer Titles! : ----*
The second and only other disc in the Explorer series to feature the music of the South Pacific focuses on Tahiti. While -- unlike the previous South Pacific disc -- there are hulas on this collection, the author of the liner notes aims to inform that the music of Tahiti is not so much about love and easy living as the stereotypes would have everyone believe, but about war and death and a history of war and death that goes back centuries. Before the Europeans came with their diseases (not to mention their "god" and tourism) to control the island's overpopulation problems, the islanders themselves used to stage battles periodically when population problems became overwhelming. This is part of the wonderfully biting liner notes that are included with this collection. The music is just plain wonderful though, and without knowing what the people are singing about (and unfortunately the documentation for each song is lacking) you would think that all the songs are about love and easy lifestyles, fast European sports cars and scantily clad beautiful young women (see album cover.) About half of the tracks here are choruses, mostly mixed choruses of men and women, another 25% are hula or other guitar / ukulele songs and the other 25% are either a capella voice or percussion and then there's one lonesome nose flute track aptly titled "I Am Alone" (at least I think it's a nose flute.) Recorded in 1968 by Jane Sarnoff.
Now here's a nice idea for a tribute, and so lovingly executed to boot. Berkeley resident Filippo Salvadori so loved the cult film Two Lane Blacktop that he had always searched out the soundtrack to this "definitive road movie", only to find one had never been released. So this man of gumption put together his own, commissioning brand new songs from Sonic Youth (gorgeous, echoey soundscape), Will Oldham & Alan Licht, Calexico, Alvarius B, Steffan Basho Junghans, Mark Eitzel & Marc Capelle (doing a totally outta left field throbbing electronic thing), Giant Sand, Charalambides, Roy Montgomery (avec drum machine!) and more. He also got busy licensing previously released tracks from classic solo guitarist Sandy Bull, Village Voice crit faves Wilco, high lonesome Roscoe Holcomb, Leadbelly, and Cat Power (doing "I Can't Get No Satisfaction").
The only low point is the Oldham / Licht track which is weighed down with a sadly unevocative spoken narrative. But the rest of this comp is quite good -- ranging from dusty instrumentals to walls of gentle noise.
Keith Fullerton Whitman gets the honors of launching a new series of manipulated field recordings to be released by Locust Music. Keeping to the theme of the series in which one raw recording is paired with a processed 'response,' Whitman (who has also recorded as Hrvatski) offers an evironmental recording from a tunnel near a subway station in Boston. He explains that glass walls line the tunnel which provide an unusual acoustic situation which accentuates a naturally occurring reverb. Along with screeching breaks of the subway and the occasional dialogue from passersby, Whitman captures an eerie buzzing, possibly from halogen street lights. Despite the thick reverb, some of the voices are a little distracting from the phenomenology intrinsic to that space. Altogether a great field recording.
For the processed response, Whitman pulls a sample from that buzzing and amplifies it into irridescent mass of electric field disturbances. In subtly shifting all of the parameters, Whitman unravels a lovely piece of Minimalism.
I hate to gush, but gush I must. This is my (Andee's) RECORD OF THE YEAR. Done deal. It doesn't matter what happens for the rest of the year. Kurt Kobain could come back from the grave and record a new Nirvana record. Laddio Bollocko could get back together. Earth reunion. It doesn't matter. This is it. THE ONE. It's magical, dark, mysterious, sinister, gorgeous and moves me like very few records do. But I digress.
Woven Hand is David Eugene Edwards from Sixteen Horsepower's solo project. If you're anything like me, you're always wondering why people have solo projects that sound just like their 'actual' band, and often not nearly as good. But fear not. While Edwards' Woven Hand is similar in many ways to 16HP, it takes things in a direction even darker, dreamier, creepier, and more religious (more on that later) ending up sounding EVEN BETTER than 16HP. Hard to believe, especially if you loved 16HP's 'Folklore' that we made record of the week a few weeks back as much as we did! Woven Hand is like a Cormac McCarthy novel put to music. "Blood Meridian" arranged for rock band. "All The Pretty Horses" sung by wandering minstrels. Desolate and dreary, violent and cathartic, but not obviously so, more like a creeping seeping sickness, death and destruction and human sin as it swallows souls and destroys lives. The instrumentation is similar to 16HP, a dark and dreamy gypsy swamp-folk, but more lush, with thicker, richer atmospheres, and murky, almost impenetrable instrumental backdrops, underpinning Edwards' tales of redemption and forgiveness, sorrow and apocalypse. The lyrics are way more blatantly religious, biblically themed, and aimed at touching our souls. Which for some reason doesn't bother me as much as you think it would. The words are poetic and symbolic, simple and timeless, just beautiful stories and poems, like much of the Bible. Removed from the Christian tradition (thousands of years of hypocrisy and murder and keeping people from thinking for themselves), Edwards' biblical testifying almost has me bowing prostrate hoping to appease a stern but ultimately forgiving God. It helps that Edwards delivers these parables in a rich, throaty rasp, a gorgeous gruff tenor, like a mix of Mark Lanegan, Chris Grigoroff (Souled American) and Nick Cave, that sounds like it has the power to make men sob and women swoon. It all comes together, sound and fury, voice and instrument, in a rich tapestry of fear and hope and death and the cycle of life and desperate dreams of an afterlife. It's rare to really hear music so powerful and so evocative that it manages to become more than just 'rock music' or 'that pretty cool band.' This record brings me to the verge of tears, makes me shiver...I feel it in my brain and in my heart and in my soul. Seriously. This is what music should be to me. Intense and emotional and heartfelt and brutally powerful. There's a creepy crawly version of Bill Withers' 'Ain't No Sunshine' that manages to be even better than the original, due in no small part to the dark, funereal treatment it gets from Woven Hand, that under the right circumstances (or wrong circumstances) could crush me into a weeping, sobbing heap, with my heart broken into a thousand pieces. I wish all music could do that...
Zwan is the supergroup that Billy Corgan put together after the inevitable dissolution of the Smashing Pumpkins. The biggest surprise to us was that the line-up included indie-rock stalwarts Dave Pajo (Slint, Tortoise, Papa M, etc.) and Matt Sweeney (of Matador's former signees Chavez and one of Andee's all time favorite bands Skunk), whose albums were the antithesis to the overblown production that has polished all of the Smashing Pumpkins albums into MTV fodder throughout the '90s. Quite simply there's little in the music of Zwan that stands above Corgan's sensibilities which obviously carry over from the Smashing Pumpkins. So Slint and Chavez fans shouldn't get all that excited about Zwan. The only difference that Pumpkins fans will notice is the manifestation of Corgan's newfound optimistic world view in the form of more uptempo numbers, less caustic distortion, and a friendlier quality to the songwriting.
