The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Every Tuesday, the Sounding Board is a space for a short-ish review of a recent-ish release and conversations about new-to-you music. I’ll get things started with a write-up about a newer, likely under-heard album, and invite you to share your music musings in the comments.
If Snõõper’s gleefully madcap music comes as a surprise, that’s really on you. Everything about the Nashville art-punks — their tilde-sporting band name; their cutely chaotic appearance; the lo-fi bombast of snooperonline.com; and especially the papier-mâché-headed mascots that orbit their shows, inspire merch and appear in promotional video games — communicates the oddball energy that powers Snõõper’s goofy yet propulsive sound.
Their songs tend to be short bursts of fast-twitch weirdness with some serious heft. That’s thanks to a double-guitar attack courtesy of Connor Cummins and Conner Sullivan and routinely beefy basslines from Happy Haugen. The music’s muscular hyperactivity contrasts with Blair Tramel’s vocals, which are often delivered with droll detachment.1 They’re bops that reward attentive listening, but don’t demand intense scrutiny. It’s a glitchy detonation of the candy store right at the intersection of Minutemen and Le Tigre, and it’s gotten some slight polish for Snõõper’s second full-length album, Worldwide.2
There isn’t a huger difference in terms of fidelity or quality between the band’s extremely fun 2023 debut and Worldwide, but they linked up with the omnipresent John Congleton for album No. 2, and that makes a difference.3 While Congleton’s touch seems relatively light, it provides Snõõper with a little extra oomph that accentuates the qualities that had already earned them fans. There’s all sorts of wild hissing feedback and surging electric noise on this album that adds texture and a sense of build-up to songs that often clock in at under two minutes. The instruments sound great, too. The fret-climbing fun of “Company Car” is a searing standout, and the sharp report Brad Barteau’s drumming is noticeably crisper throughout the album, too. Rather than sanding down rough edges, it’s a subtle choice that pushes Snõõper’s irrepressible hyper-activity a smidge further into the red.
Paradoxically, the qualities that make Snõõper and Worldwide uniquely off-kilter and fun might be most evident on the album’s ripping cover of “Come Together” by the Beatles. In Snõõper ‘s hands, the Lennon-penned classic is truncated by nearly three minutes and progresses in herky-jerky spasms of fury. Listeners who don’t know the song’s nonsense lyrics probably won’t clock the track as a cover until it reaches its undisguisable chorus. However, in hindsight, the stripped-down, sharpened version of an iconic riff seems obvious — even when it’s played at berserker speed.
It’s a delightfully unexpected approach to an oft-covered song, and it shares more than a little of its stilted angularity with Devo’s version of the Rolling Stone’s “Satisfaction.” For arty weirdoes who combine punk rock with visual artistry that’s equally arresting and confounding, there couldn’t be better company
About the writer
Ben Hohenstatt
Ben Hohenstatt is an Alaska-based dog owner who moonlights as a music writer and photographer.
For more information, consult your local library or with parental permission visit his website.
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Year of the Month
A new Iceage album is now treated like a Capital-E Event. That wouldn't be the case without Plowing into the Field of Love.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
The Kids In The Hall, Season Four, Episode Five
The guy who pranked himself to death was amusing but also disturbingly realistic.
“Gay white male.”
“Mmm.
“With own television show.”
“Yes.”
“Seeks uncommonly beautiful stud whom he could never have if it weren’t for the fact he’s a TV star.”
“God, I’d really like to help him out in his goal to fuck a celebrity, but–”
“Do you think you’re big enough to take the neck from your old man?!”
“I think we should take her shoes off and oil her feet.”
“Memories.. pulsing back.”
“Well thank you, it’s a very sexist film.”
“The computer is almost programmed.”
“And the nude is almost ready.”
Dead of Winter – Emma Thompson gets her “older person action movie”, sort of. She’s not quite Liam Neeson but she does get to perform surgery on herself and rescue a young woman. This is a pretty silly thriller but I had fun with it, Thompson is playing the lead as, basically, Marge Gunderson and the main villain is Judy Greer for some reason (she’s good, as usual!), the violence made me wince and the snowy cinematography looks nice. There are some pretty eye-rolly plot contrivances but I don’t mind that in the “ludicrous thriller” genre, this did mostly feel like something I should have seen buried on streaming rather than in an actual cinema though.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, “The Big Switch” – I really liked this one. Also it had a cat in it, which might have helped.
Not enough of the cat, though. (But I really liked the one too.)
Sinners — Even as someone who doesn’t like horror movies, this is a great flick. Like everybody, I liked the first part better than the horror stuff, but even knowing that that was a common reaction going in, I appreciated how the horror section moved between different modes. In a movie that’s just a horror movie, you might have expected the part where they’re trapped and full of dread to go on forever, but here it lasted just long enough to establish the mood before things escalated. The most interesting thing, though, is how Remmick really was making an honest promise with his offer; the people he turned really did come together in fellowship. Which serves as a critique of white liberalism but also recognizes the promise in it.
Jordan of course is astounding in this, making the two brothers easily distinct characters but not just opposites, as is often the conceit when one actor plays twins.
As we’ve discussed here, Remmick is an interesting villain because he fits into that paradigm of white appropriation but he doesn’t actually have a concept of race because he’s so old. He literally remembers when that wasn’t a thing!
I get what you’re saying here, but he was performing mind control on them. Like, that was a thing – they were thralls with him at the top.
Altered States – Look, sometimes the asshole is right, and Ken Russell was correct to kick Paddy Chayefsky out of the set. The weakest parts of this movie are in the script, with a lot of the actors delivering strong WRITING instead of dialogue and sometimes only scratching the surface of the ideas played around with here. (Edward’s ending conclusion feels pretty trite especially.) The strongest elements are in the famous visuals and the emotions Russell seems to have found in the editing process, namely making Blair Brown the real focal point of the story. Where Chayefsky doesn’t do enough to justify why this successful scientist and mother would adore this jerk, Russell takes on Brown’s POV at multiple points, like the first time she sees Eddie and the camera seems to highlight his face like a comic book panel, and gives her the closing shot of the film, and Brown delivers. (Also great as Nina in Fringe.) Mixed bag of a movie, however, though I’d have adored it at 17.
Altered States is a prime example of scientific camp: strip away the razzle dazzle, and what you have is an extended riff on reincarnation, which fits with the film’s traditional depiction of the scientist as a solitary white male genius who has an awfully hard time with this thing called love.
Although Chayefsky left the production (both due to conflicts with Russell (both physical and creative) and health issues, he still exercised the rare privilege given a writer of having approval to changes in the script; meaning that what happens, and what is said, is all Chayefsky. This makes ALTERED STATES a terrific study in auteur theory, since all aspects of production and post production fell under Russell’s responsibility.
Although Arthur Penn was originally hired to direct (and considering his background in television and the theater, a better suited partner in the script’s development, in theory at least), I’m curious if Bob Fosse might have been considered for the director’s chair, considering his close friendship with the writer and a greater willingness to embrace more experimental photographic and editing techniques.
Fosse could have been interesting! There’s more than a touch of the demonic and even psychedelic to his movies and productions, though I don’t know if he’d have gone as gonzo as Russell. The proto-Cronenbergian Hurt near the end and the rotoscoping (the rare computer effect that has aged amazingly well because it looks so cartoonish but is very physical, like Hurt smashing the wall) still look amazing.
Adolescence, “Episode 3”
Powerful episode, extraordinarily well-scripted and well-performed. This is enough to make me think that in some ways, this particular section of the story is in the wrong format, because as good as it is on TV, it would be even more of an unbearable knockout on stage: the audience trapped in this hothouse of real-time escalation and unpredictable swings. But then not every production could have Owen Cooper, so it’s probably best as it is. This kid is phenomenal: sometimes terrifying, sometimes heartbreaking, always convincing.
I’ve seen this show discussed as tackling online radicalization, and maybe we’ll get more of that later on, but I actually like that so far, while incel culture and “the manosphere” have come up, the story here feels tragically timeless. Some fucker with a YouTube channel could make a cause out of Jamie in this universe, but both Cooper and the script keep him movingly, frighteningly human, not just a bad example or proof in an argument, and while the exact circumstances of him killing Katie are entangled in the new–the online sharing of her topless photo without her consent, the Instagram comments–feeling sad and pitiful and letting that twist you into entitlement, fury, and violence isn’t.
Briony being unable to handle the sandwich at the end is such a great detail. It’s easy to concentrate all the praise on Cooper, because goodness knows he deserves it, but Erin Doherty is excellent too: friendly and glowing when she needs to be, but always with that iron sense of purpose underneath, coming out more and more as she needs it (she feels like a force of nature when she keeps strategically accepting Jamie’s perceptions, his mental bruises, and then pushing on them to see what happens) … which makes her being so visibly shaken at the end even more powerful.
Thinking of The Stand when you say this feels timeless, given how Harold is also this resentful proto-incel who is offered a second chance in the post-apocalyptic world to become a different, more respected person, even knows he could let go of his bullshit, and cannot do it. Same with Taxi Driver and how Travis is lonely and sad, yet this life would be so much better for him if he wasn’t racist or took women to porn theaters. This kind of person seems to occur throughout American history given the history of presidential assassins.
That bit where Harold realizes that he could be happy and have a new life in Boulder if he just gave up on his hate and chooses not to is one of my favorite parts of The Stand.
PEKING OPERA BLUES. With the exception of a few Jackie Chan films, this film was my introduction to pre-reconciliation Hong Kong action cinema when these came to the U.S. in 1992, and for the most part its still a frantically paced mixture of period espionage melodrama and farce. On this viewing, at home and without audience involvement, the energy seems a bit dissipated by direction that lets the performances go too over the top (except for Bridget Lin, whose costuming and repour with the rest of the female cast emanates heavy Dietrich vibes), but I also detect more cynicism in its depiction of the pre-communist republic, as well as a pronounced fusion of queerness in its socio-political content. A fascinating and enjoyable romp.
What did we listen to?
The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift
About as interesting as most Taylor Swift music (although “CANCELLED!” may be her worst song ever). I do detect a lot of influence from Sabrina Carpenter, who guests on the title track; delving heavier into sexual content (including a song about her husband’s big dick).
1001 Albums, etc.:
Finishing up the 1970s!
Public Image Ltd – Metal Box: enjoyed this a lot more than PiL’s debut, it’s still abrasive but more experimental and I appreciated the dubby weirdness more than the straightforwardly nasty post-punk.
Michael Jackson – Off the Wall: I think Thriller might be the only MJ album I’d heard in full before this, although obviously I’m very familiar with the singles. This is right up there with the best disco albums on the list to the point that it actually feels a little odd that Nile Rodgers wasn’t involved. Obviously there are major disclaimers involved when talking about Jackson but on a purely musical level I enjoyed this very much.
The Damned – Machine Gun Etiquette: listened to a bunch of Damned stuff after enjoying that podcast with the laughing guy about them, No Dogs in Space or whatever it was called. Found them annoyingly patchy then and going back to this one hasn’t changed matters, there are a few great songs here but unlike some of their contemporaries I don’t find the lesser tracks particularly enjoyable.
Gary Numan – The Pleasure Principle: hell yeah! This is the only Numan album on the list I think, I’d have been tempted to include a Tubeway Army one too because I think his early stuff is absolutely fucking great. But this album is a good choice and one of my favourites of the decade for sure.
The Specials – Specials: another band where I only really know the singles. This was a solidly fun listen with some nicely bouncy rhythms and potent lyrics. I do think “Too Much Too Young” is about twice as long as it should be, but otherwise, thumbs up. Will get into the 80s this week!
Blank Check, Burn After Reading – a fairly straightforward episode, Ben was missed.
Screen Drafts, “70s Comedy” – this was a blast, really fun discussion of the era’s comedy greats and I was mostly pleased with the selections, especially how well Elaine May did. I guess I understand that Rock ‘n’ Roll High School isn’t really one of the BEST comedy films of the decade but I’m still a little disappointed that it only got briefly mentioned in trivia because I love it so much.
You might want to check out the influences for Metal Box: Can, and Yoko Ono.
I’ve heard plenty of Can but it was the first Holger Czukay solo album that popped up on the list and really surprised me with how much I liked it.
Metal Box rules, boo on this Machine Gun Etiquette opinion, I agree with Henry Rollins re: being able to listen to it every day.
Apologies for my poor Etiquette!
Forgiven considering the reply.
This draft is why I watched A New Leaf on Sunday! I mean to check out everything else, too: I’d only seen American Graffiti, The Bad News Bears, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and crème de la crème Blazing Saddles.
I’m so happy that A New Leaf did so well, it’s an incredible film and probably would be my #1.
I haven’t seen Heaven Can Wait, The In-Laws or The Out-of-Towners which are all definitely going on the list (plus the Pink Panther and Woody Allen picks which I’m less enthused about) but many of the ones I have seen are long overdue a rewatch too, especially Blazing Saddles!
Allen’s 70s comedies, running from BANANAS through ANNIE HALL, constitutes a pretty strong run of stringing satirical gags along a throughline of romantic disillusionment. If I would be hesitant about revisiting his work, in light of subsequent events, is realizing how his neuroticism warped my adolescent expectations of heterosexual norms.
The 70s run of Pink Panther films are cinematic comfort food for me, and despite their triteness Edwards directs comedy with a precision and clarity that harkens back to a more traditional Hollywood style that makes the slapstick gags land with a surprising impact.
I’ve seen enough Allen to know that his comedic sensibilities don’t really overlap with mine, and given all the other baggage associated with his work, I’ve no plan to try any harder.
Yeah, those later PP movies are fun, like the whole extended gag of assassins trying to kill Clouseau and either just missing or killing themselves. I had this beautiful box set of the series and it’s out there somewhere in storage.
I have nothing in particular against the Pink Panther franchise, I just can’t imagine them ever making it to the top of my priorities. The general consensus on the podcast was that most of them (bar this one and A Shot in the Dark) are pretty bad which isn’t exactly encouraging, haha.
A predictable boy right now so the rotation is Parade, Little Shop of Horrors, and the recent Sweeney Todd, though I might listen to the 2007 recording of the latter today, which really leans into the diabolical nature of the music by cutting it down to a few instruments. Major problem with musicals is that they are not written by horror nerds or depressed perverts, so people are not writing things as eldritch and deeply terrifying as “Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd/ATTEND THE TALE OF SWEENEY TODD (emphasis mine)/he served a dark and a hungry god/HE SERVED A DARK AND A HUNGRY GOD”. It’s as close as any musical songwriter gets to cosmic horror.
Oh, and Assassins, which always feels relevant to my country because when you tell millions of people they can get literally whatever they want if they do things right, some of them will go batshit insane. “What is a wonder is a gun/what a versatile invention/first of all, when you’ve a gun/…everybody pays attention!”
Castaways and Cutouts, The Decemberists
I’ve already talked a lot about my Decemberists love, so I’ll just add that “Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect” is a long-time favorite, but “The Legionnaire’s Lament,” “July, July!”, and “A Cautionary Song” have instantly engraved themselves on my heart as well. I’m so glad this list finally prompted me to listen to full albums again.
Poses, Rufus Wainwright
I know so little about music that I never get to pick this kind of thing out, but “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” had to be a direct influence on “You’re Too Sweet for Me,” right? Either way, it’s such a sweet, funny, likable way to open up an album, in addition to being catchy as hell. “California” is right up there with it–all the same pluses, but a little cleverer and a little bit more stinging.
How to Kill the DJ (Part Two), Optimo
One of my favorites of the list so far, especially for the vintage feel: it’s so tonally and stylistically different than the rest of the line-up. That gives it a nice pop of contrast to what I’ve been listening to lately–although obviously I’m still really digging the more general texture of the list–but I think it would be a standout on its own. Just a superb mix with some killer picks: Arthur Russell’s “Another Thought,” the Balanescu Quartet’s “Model,” Andre Williams’s “Bacon Fat,” and Nouvelle Vague’s “Guns of Brixton” were my favorites.
The Meadowlands, The Wrens
Cannot tell if there was actually a sharp cutoff at the end of “Everybody Chooses Sides” or if my Tidal was being buggy. If the former, then it’s a cool move that really works. If the latter–dammit, Tidal. I chose you over Apple Music!
Favorites are “Boys, You Won’t” and “She Sends Kisses.”
The Slow Wonder, A.C. Newman
A lovely, colorful album. “Pleasant” feels like I’m damning it with faint praise, and I don’t mean that at all, but it’s easy to settle into this, even when you get tenser bops like “Secretarial.” “On the Table” is especially hooky. My favorite song construction comes in the sincere and often quiet “Come Crash,” where the softeness then gets swept up into noise and stronger (crashing, appropriately) music.
Screen Drafts, “’70s Comedy Mini-Mega” and “Martin Scorsese Super Draft Part II”
Hopped on to vomas’s comment to discuss the first one, so I’ll just say that I’m still enjoying the Scorsese draft, even as it’s brought home the sad fact that I’ve seen comparatively few of these. Need to correct that.
Also introduced another friend to the podcast, so I love that I’m now getting texts that are deservedly irate about Straw Dogs being left off the Rural Horror draft. Being outraged by this kind of thing feels like a rite of Screen Drafts passage.
We Hate Movies, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”
A We Love Movies from the Patreon feed. Their vision of a futuristic TCM where a Texas family–ruined by businesses shopping everything off to AI–cries, “Grandpa was always the best with the emails!” has been making me laugh every time I think of it.
Listened to their Needful Things episode this morning! And Poses is a past and present favorite. “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” as a kid I thought was pretty and fun to sing along with and now is joyful and devastating.
Looking forward to the Needful Things episode! That’s a fun, shaggy movie, and then I find that last Max von Sydow speech gets some genuine chills, so I’m curious if they feel the same way.
I need to remember that I owe you like three weeks of album replies at this point.
Okay, after being very sad that there were no list albums Tuesday, I’m gonna try to catch up on where I forgot to add my own thoughts.
Not much to add to Castaways and Cutouts that I haven’t said already, particularly those first three you mentioned being favorites, though I also quite like “Odalisque” and “California One / Youth and Beauty Brigade” (which might actually be my favorite on the album).
I first saw Rufus Wainwright on 120 Minutes of all things. Poses is my favorite album, but his first album is also really good, and has my favorite song, “April Fools.” I also love closer “Imaginary Love” and opener “Foolish Love.” I have a much harder time picking favorites from Poses, which probably explains my preference– it’s so consistently good. Like, I can find a reason that the first six (maybe seven) tracks could be my favorite on a given day.
Did you listen to both discs of the Optimo set? The second one, the mixtape, is my favorite, but the first is a darn good club set. “Another Thought” is top three for me on there, along with “Some Velvet Morning” and “Another Girl, Another Planet.” (Maybe “White Mice” is next? I dunno, there are so many good songs that I feel like ranking them would depend on the mood I’m in.) Also, a surprising number of covers– “The Model” (Kraftwerk), “The Guns of Brixton” (The Clash), “Baby’s on Fire” (Brian Eno).
The Meadowlands is one that really can benefit from having a lyrics sheet– the feelings come across in the music, but the specificity of the storytelling deserves to be highlighted, too. Those three you mentioned were long my favorites, with “Boys, You Won’t” at #1. But when I started spinning it again more regularly seven years ago or so, “Ex-Girl Collection” won a big place in my heart.
Carl “A.C.” Newman is also the main songwriter and lead singer for the New Pornographers, if you didn’t know, and if that helps explain his gift for pop hooks. My favorite has shuffled a lot over the years; it was probably “Drink to Me Babe, Then” at first, maybe “The Town Halo,” then I came around to “Miracle Drug” and “On the Table,” and now it’s probably “35 in the Shade.” (which in Canadian temperature is really hot.) Not a bad track on the album, though.
There will be more notes forthcoming! I just wasn’t feeling well on Tuesday, so posting took a backseat. (Have not been sleeping well lately, in short.)
I listened to the Optimo playlist you’d linked in the article, I think, which may have only been the second disc: I certainly liked it enough that I should seek out more.
The Beaches, No Hard Feelings
Gotta get prepped for the concert Friday! Nothing on here is as immediately catchy or anthemic as “Blame Brett,” but it’s still a good album. I’d say more about my favorites from it, but that may be influenced by what I’ve already heard from the radio, and, well, if you want to hear about my favorite songs, December isn’t too far away.
I’m excited for the December list, although I’ll have to try to catch up with my playlist familiarity before then, since I’ve been concentrating on the album. (Looking forward to the big TV round-up too.)
Year of the Month update!
Here’s a primer on some of the movies, albums, books and TV we’ll be covering for 1973 in October!
TBD: Patrick Mio Llaguno – The Long Goodbye
Oct. 14th: Bridgett Taylor: Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road
Oct. 15th: Lauren James: Working
Oct. 16th: John Bruni: Shotgun Willie/Sweet Revenge
Oct. 22nd: Lauren James: The Wicker Man
Oct. 20th: Sam Scott: János Vitéz
Oct. 29th: Lauren James: Don’t Look Now
And this November, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al from 2018!
Nov. 10th: Bridgett Taylor: Aquaman
Nov. 24th: Sam Scott: Ice Cream Man