Frankie Rose - Interstellar (2012)

never heard of her but Johnny Fever put this in the album art thread:

http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/img/large/slr150-color.jpg

and i was intrigued.

the whole thing is streaming now on spin.com: http://www.spin.com/articles/first-spin-hear-frankie-roses-full-interstellar

feeling this!!!

She was formerly an original member of acclaimed garage rock acts Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls, and the Vivian Girls and now is on slumberland and is playing some of those chickfactor shows

damn i didnt know that. never heard crystal stilts, but this doesnt sound like dum dum girls or vivian girls at all.

nice! fondness for reverb is definitely imported from her previous projects.

tru

Loving this

Yeah, this album is crazy solid. So glad it's not a rehash of her last one, which sounded really pretty but had no songs at all.

good album.
gospel/grace sounds like Duran Duran's Ordinary World

damn i didnt know that. never heard crystal stilts, but this doesnt sound like dum dum girls or vivian girls at all.

― ⚓ (gr8080), Wednesday, February 8, 2012 12:55 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

her first album did. this one way better

although her first 7" was really good.

also she did "Soma" for the Strokes cover album, one of the few good things on there.

the guitar and synth sounds on "know me" sounds like it belongs on Kaputt

whoa sweet

haha

was resistant to this as i thought her last record was really goddamn dull but the single has won me over

Listening to it now -- pretty good!

Some of this reminds me of Lansing-Dreiden. Very retro, obviously, but somehow original songwriting come out of it and with some compositional depth, I think.

This is a great album!

^^^^^

Is that vinyl purchasable anywhere? Google only comes back with ILX and the Slumberland Tumblr pre-order page (where it's long gone!)...

Had similar opinions on her 1st album & single (i.e. album was kinda rubbish but the single was great) so had ignored this new one, maybe I'll check it out after all.

The single sounded incredibly flimsy to me, both in terms of songwriting and production - is the rest in that vein?

Which is the single?

Know Me.

The dark, deep cello undercurrent tangoing with synths in The Fall is so awesome

xpost Um, yes and no. Most of the album is a bit deeper? But to varying extents, like "Know Me" is at one end and "Interstellar" and "The Fall" are at the other. She's not really sure if she wants to be Laurie Anderson making shoegaze or Susanna Hoff making shoegaze or somewhere in between.

If you like "Interstellar" I think you should check the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIIgc9Cf_TY

i am not enjoying this album at all, it sounds like the kind of stuff careless talk costs lives writers swore up and down was "pop" (maybe even "perfect pop") a decade ago. dull arrangements, horrible sounding drums that feel really relentless by halfway through and ugh god the disinterested ba-ba-bas on "gospel/grace" elicited such a side-eye from me

stop recommending bad indie tim!

perhaps i should have noted that gr80 recommended it and avoided accordingly

and it's really really 80s and not in a good way

yeah i think this is kinda dull too... "pair of wings" is dope tho

haha i just came back to say i'd got to the first song i'd be willing to hear again and it was "pair of wings"

Is that vinyl purchasable anywhere? Google only comes back with ILX and the Slumberland Tumblr pre-order page (where it's long gone!)...

http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/catalog/show/205?ret=catalog

Oh dang! Glad I got one...

Notes: The color vinyl edition is SOLD OUT.

at its best this album is like a really rudimentary take on SVIIB

Uh, Frankie and SVIIB are each a different taking a different approach to emulating a 25 year-old sound. To say this record is a version of their sound is sorta ridiculous.

sorry for that cluttered syntax...thinking WHILE typing isn't my strong suit.

maybe it's because you constantly phrase this as "UGH YOU LIKE THEM? WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING TO ___?" it's pretty annoying and based on this weird concept that one band/artist can displace another band/artist.

Quoted from n/a in the Grimes thread, but I feel like lex is doing this exact same thing again today with Frankie Rose and SVIIB.

You are turning into a master of reading things that people never actually said, Jon.

Uh, this is exactly what lex said itt:

at its best this album is like a really rudimentary take on SVIIB

can we not turn every thread into an analysis of how Lex reacts to music

Sure, if lex could just leave it at "I don't like this" for once.

i think there's a pretty clear difference between a general statement of "band x does this better" and the type of browbeating lex can get into, but who cares

"UGH YOU LIKE THEM? WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING TO ___?"

I was that guy for a long, long time. Then I realized it's more fun to let people find things on their own and too much work for me to be everyone's tourguide through the city of music.

Anyway, I really like the two tracks I've heard from this. Pretty encouraging after how disappointing her last one was.

Saying "this is a really rudimentary take on SVIIB" is clearly not the same as "why aren't you listening to SBIIV?", especially given that School of Seven Bells are much more popular on these boards.

can we also not turn every thread into "let's jump up and down on Jon"

I am v. excited about getting this record in the mail soon.

Matt, thats not what I was trying to say. I was pointing out how lex always seems to frame his dislike for one band through the frame of reference of another band.

who gives a shit, it's pretty common

I don't have a strong opinion on this album. I really liked "Interstellar" and everything since has been a pleasant indistinguishable smear. I wouldn't be mad if I bought this but I wouldn't feel particularly compelled to play it.

To clear things up, Frankie Rose is a pretty faithful take on Lush/etc. where SVIIB is a stylized and grand take on Lush/etc. with a bit more intricacy in the songwriting and arrangements. One thing is not better than the other and most people can appreciate both.

the kind of stuff careless talk costs lives writers swore up and down was "pop"

I have to say that while I probably have a much higher tolerance for such stuff than you, Lex, this tendency in indie folks to use "pop" to describe indie that's non-aggressive/has a few hooks/is generally in major keys has always driven me nuts

Being sung by girls and having vaguely Spectorish production tends to help too. Bonus points for including the Be My Baby drum intro.

but it's not really weird that vague meaningless genre names mean different things to different people in different contexts

no, but indie "pop"-ists always struck me as a little disingenuous about it. "pop" is "something that has a hope in hell of making the singles chart imo." OTOH that means that eg much hip hop is pop now - I guess I have a real problem with making "pop" mean "in a musical style" instead of "in accord with current popular taste." Hence the Association are more properly called "60s pop," etc

obThread, I listened to some of the Frankie Rose (I love the name "Frankie Rose" to pieces) and it seemed fine enough but in these times of reduced listening time for me I take a pretty cold "let's be honest, you don't care about this" attitude to anything that doesn't really grab the hell out of me

I guess I have a real problem with making "pop" mean "in a musical style" instead of "in accord with current popular taste."

ha you must spend a lot of time being irritated by this since that's basically the opposite of what "pop" means these days. a genre of stuff that's just "in accord with current popular taste" instead of being based on what the music sounds like is a pretty weird concept imo

but it's not really weird that vague meaningless genre names mean different things to different people in different contexts

Well firstly 'pop' isn't really meaningless or even particularly vague, although it can be all-encompassing. In this sort of context, especially with "perfect pop" the writer is usually making a value judgement that harks back to some kind of imagined golden era they weren't around for (usually 60s girl groups but it's being increasingly co-opted by the 'I only like 80s Madonna' crew).

http://991.com/newGallery/Nick-Lowe-Pure-Pop-For-Now-295792.jpg

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lh6i9sVoNi1qzado8o1_500.gif

XD

oh sorry it's not vague, just all-encompassing

pleasant indistinguishable smear

a couple maybe-standout songs on here but this is a good description.

To clear things up, Frankie Rose is a pretty faithful take on Lush/etc. where SVIIB is a stylized and grand take on Lush/etc. with a bit more intricacy in the songwriting and arrangements. One thing is not better than the other and most people can appreciate both.

I don't think this has the distinctiveness of Lush; the Susanna Hoffs reference upthread rings much truer to me (another thought I had during the more uptempo numbers was a murkier take on "Crash" by The Primitives).

Well firstly 'pop' isn't really meaningless or even particularly vague, although it can be all-encompassing. In this sort of context, especially with "perfect pop" the writer is usually making a value judgement that harks back to some kind of imagined golden era they weren't around for (usually 60s girl groups but it's being increasingly co-opted by the 'I only like 80s Madonna' crew).

ooooh when they say "perfect pop" that is the worst. "Alphabet Street" is perfect pop not the Boo Radleys fcol

oh sorry it's not vague, just all-encompassing

What I was saying was that pop encompasses most genres by 'pop' has certain connotations - ie if you hear 'pop-metal' you know it's probably not going to sound like Slayer.

um these days that is probably exactly what pop metal is going to sound like

Haha forgive my metallic ignorance.

Is this album not significantly more experimental than School of Seven Bells? Not a virtue in itself, obviously, but that seems like a big part of the appeal in this case. It would take some doing to pin down exactly how this is so. Might even be more to do with the arrangements than with the compositions, but I feel like this album involves a pretty original framework for making music. Really like the drums and guitar, so there's a bit of a rock thing to it, definitely, but as Nitsuh said in his column last week, there is that "passing urge" again!

The new School of Seven Bells album is better than this album, but I feel it would be very inconsistent of me to apply some kind of "only one artist in this sub-genre at a time" rule given my general approach to (in particular) sub-genres of dance music.

i am not enjoying this album at all, it sounds like the kind of stuff careless talk costs lives writers swore up and down was "pop" (maybe even "perfect pop") a decade ago.

That kind of thing annoys me too - aerosmith and matt dc also generally otm on this issue.

However I haven't seen any claims made for Frankie Rose along these lines.

To put it another way: should I hate Raphael Saadiq because it's the kind of stuff careless talk costs lives writers (or maybe not them specifically, just stupid critics in general) praised for being "real R&B" a decade ago?

I get disgruntlement at wrongheaded judgment-laden critical approaches to music, and I also get how it bleeds over into to disguntlement towards the music itself but, like, what feels like a battle trench in one decade will often just look like a curious patch of earth in the next.

Ha, finding myself feeling a little rankled at the humanness of this album not being prized in the comparison to SVIIB's gauziness, I guess.

[this music] reminds me of [that music] ≠ judging frankie rose based on critical approaches, as i haven't seen any. plenty of other things i was annoyed about too.

Well then, what, in itself, was wrong with the music that ctcl swore up and down was perfect pop?

actually i'm not even sure what specific music this is now. I'm having a bit of a blank trying to remember what filled in the shoegaze-pop category in those years. BRMC were too (self-consciously) "rock" I would think.

though I guess frankie rose is like what I always vaguely imagined masonic boom projects must sound like.

it was just a vague handwavey reminder, i can't be bothered to flesh it out when i criticised frankie rose more specifically on several other counts already

something about how pat her melodies are and the bored-sounding smear of the vocals

my least favourite thing about this record are the drum sounds, easily, if they weren't so annoying it'd just be straight-up dull

DUDE. WTF?

i wish i liked this more cuz i wanna buy the fuck out of that vinyl damn

The wordless chorus on the title track strikes me as something that is very much not melodically pat occurring only about one minute into the album. Those are rock and roll chords that I don't hear much in this genre (again, since maybe Lansing-Dreiden) and she's singing in harmony over them, the harmony keeping things sufficiently sweet for the genre.

i did not expect lex of all ppl to exhume careless talk

And then there's that pretty modal guitar solo in the same song. Again, really does not strike me as being pat at all.

Pitchfork review referenced the Cure and surely you hear that in "Know Me," but are those Cure chords? I don't think they are (unless they're similar to some Cure songs I don't know).

And did the Cure, furthermore, ever have drums as tight as the ones on that song or a bass line as energetic as the one in the chorus?

I find things like this to be startling, frankly.

"My blood sugar is low / this music sucks / you guys suck" vs. "I just ate an orange / this music is awesome / you guys suck"

I'd have to call this music indie-pop or something cause it's better than "riyl The Knife"

lol an ilm thread about a record on slumberland 2012

"Night Swim" has a genuine Feelies groove, but it's a couple of other entirely different awesome things on top of that.

this is currently my favorite album of 2012.

Sorta sounds like the most restrained side of Stereolab minus the synths and communism

Pitchfork review referenced the Cure and surely you hear that in "Know Me," but are those Cure chords? I don't think they are (unless they're similar to some Cure songs I don't know).

It's more like Cocteau Twins or "This Charming Man" than The Cure, but you can hear similarities all over Seventeen Seconds and Faith.

And did the Cure, furthermore, ever have drums as tight as the ones on that song or a bass line as energetic as the one in the chorus?

"Primary" has TWO basslines that are just as energetic throughout the entire song, and the Boris Williams era of the band is pretty much defined by the precision of his drumming and the crispness with which it was recorded. Also, the beat pattern of "Know Me" is almost identical to "Close To Me".

Album just showed up in today's mail...this thing looks 100x as sweet irl.

It's more like Cocteau Twins or "This Charming Man"

You know, what the chords remind me of on that song is Felt.

did any fans of this rec get into the Blouse album from last year?

The Blouse album was okay imo, but it was never in constant rotation. However, I think I'll give it another go now.

Yeah, I thought the Blouse album was best in small doses. I've only given this Frankie Rose record one listen so far, but it hits my sweet spot.

I only have one song from that Blouse album - "Videotapes," which I loved. What are the best songs?

If anyone sees the pretty vinyl anywhere, can you send up a flare? It's not even on Discogs or eBay or anything.

this thread got me jazzed up for the album, but the few songs i've heard have been quite dull :(

it's a pretty dull album

I still like it, so whatevs. But it's no secret that I'm dull too.

This is pretty nice actually, like most of it more than the single.

Pulled this out for the first time in a few months. Nice.

Underrated as fuck

It holds up well as oppose to some other 2012 albums.

New album out in September, feeling this: https://soundcloud.com/fatpossum/frankie-rose-sorrow

thanks 4 resoure

nice

nothing's changed

Interstellar pt 2?
Fine with me

tighter tunes. really feels like something i would have really latched onto in early college

Make you feel young again?

yeah, you could say that :D

I like the new one so far

new one is really, really good

i love it

bummed my only chance to see her live this year was as franz ferdinand's opening act

I was mostly neutral on the previous album but I'm totally on board for this one.

This album is fantastic. Sorrow was one of my big discoveries on the Spotify playlist but there's probably a couple of songs on here I like even more. Didn't really get into Interstellar when it came out but only played it once, should probably go back and give it another chance.

I love this album so, so much, but that's not really a surprise considering how much I loved the last one. Definitely a progression between the two, this latest one strays less into pretty confectionary (not that I have anything against pretty confectionary textures!) and adds a slight "spooky goth" element which is like catnip to me. Less Smiths, more Pornography-era Cure, which can only be a good thing.

She reminds me a lot of ways of my sisX0r, so there is a lot of that kind of nostalgia thing going on.

But, alas, I love her... so she's dooooooomed to be underrated forever.

she's dooooooomed to be underrated forever.

with her hook-y, poppy, goth-y retro-80s sound, i actually think she could be someone who breaks-out of the indie ghetto, with the right song.

I really hope so!

But I also know from experience School of Seven Bells things that tend to be so tightly and closely aligned to "OMG, this was *made* for meeeeee!" tend to end up with a cult appeal.

Please let me be wrong, though, because this stuff is wonderful.

This album!

We don't sleeeep we dreeeeeeaaaaaaaaammmmmmm...

she is terrific.

No, no, no, my favourite song is actually falling from Cliffs As High... those bitter sweet strings!

But yeah. She is amazing.

I have never heard clouds of cotton candy guitar sound quite so edge-of-menacing.

I saw her live a few weeks ago and she was delightful. I bought a tie-dye tshirt from her at the merch table after.

I should give this another go. I was quite unimpressed by this when I first heard it though. I found it too overtly retro perhaps.

Oh, it is very very retro, but the only way you could possibly make "wibbling spacerock with super girly harmony vox" any better at all, would be "add Pornography era Cure basslines."

(I have never and will never wear tie-dye but I would *almost* make an exception for Frankie Rose.)

anyone seen her play live? she's here on Friday. didn't even know about the new album, thought it would be on Slumberland.

it's a very subtle grey/light-grey tie dye

with the album art from the new one screen printed over it in black

I probably should have read this thread to the end, huh.

Haha, OK, grey tie-dye is probably the most ~Frankie Rose~ thing I have ever heard of, so now I am super jealous not just of your show experience, but your shirt, too, Gr80.

f.hazel, yes, it's very good, you should go.

(She played in London but she was supporting someone terrible so I didn't go.)

there's nothing extraordinary about her live show but she sounds great and plays the hits and is very warm and friendly and jokey. if you like the last 2 albums you should def go.

Xp she played in december at the lexington

Shit, I missed that. :(

I will go then! And possibly buy a grey tie-dye t-shirt! She is opening for White Lies, who I haven't really listened to but their description sounds interesting. Or at least up my street.

Not to go neg on this thread because I love Frankie Rose, but don't get your hopes up for White Lies. You know the whole thing about further and further Xerox copies getting worse and worse? That's White Lies, who are already like a couple copies removed from Interpol.

I worded that terribly, but much like Interpol was a very faded copy of Joy Division, White Lies is a very faded copy of the copy of Interpol (I forget who that intermediate step was now though).

jvc2 is otm

LOL @ Interpol just turning up on this thread & I didn't even raise them!

p.s. Interpol don't even sound like Joy Division, gtfo (oh fuck when did I become an *actual* Interpol fangril what even is my life)

Oh I know they don't really, just trying to set up the "watered down post-punk" false equivalency thing to explain how boring and tepid White Lies is.

Interpol don't even sound like Joy Division

they did, on the first album.

*breaks into manic, slightly hysterical laughter*

Dude, I have listened to that first album more times than is either sane or reasonable this week. Really, it does not sound like Joy Division. But let's drop it, please.

no worries.

hahaha, I will not get my hopes up then. The alternative is going with a friend to see Sebadoh, and I really do not want to do that.

Frankie Rose was really good! They sounded great and she has a sort of E.G. Daily presence and I swooned a little. I have to get up early tomorrow, so I didn't even stick around for White Lies.

also very pleased with not only a damned cover, but one from phantasmagoria!

Actually, ha, you remind me, sometimes seeing only the support band is good if you want an early night. That Damned cover sounds so good on the album.

Did you see these black tie-dye t-shirts?

yeah, I was in and out in about an hour! they had a sort of grey tie-dye patterned shirt with the new album cover printed on the front of it? I got a black moon calendar one since they were only $10 and I want them to make some money.

my head said to get the lunar calendar on solid black but my heart said tie-dye

also i was wearing a pretty loud shirt and frankie said "you look like a guy who can handle tie-dye" and i am pretty sure i blushed, i was so smitten

You guys are so cuet with your Frankie-smit.

she was wearing a robert smith t-shirt! not a cure t-shirt, but robert smith! that is adorable. I chose black moon because if most of my band t-shirts are black, it keeps casual acquaintances from realizing how many I really have.

Are we into this song by her new band Beverly? I am.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXh8Utm7aJU

JF are you in to AVAN LAVA?

Drew Citron (who plays w/ Frankie and is the frontwoman in Beverly) is in them and i still don't get shambahala but i feel like its your style

I heard some early Avan Lava (three or so years ago), but nothing since. I will investigate.

Hmmm, not really feeling Beverly. It's just kinda flatly produced and garagey, when what I liked about Frankie Rose was the sparkley and ~space~ of it. This could be one of a million other Girls In The Garage type bands.

I dunno. I like that it's got such a chunky riff with the airy melodies/harmonies still on top of it.

i'm into this single. is this a one-off project, or will a beverly album or ep follow?

It reminds of 90s Simple Machine bands

er, Simple Machines

Misread that as "Secret Machines" for a second and my heart skipped a beat...

There's a Beverly album in the works for sometime this year.

beverly is drew's thing, frankie just plays in it. the way drew plays in frankie's solo thing

Oh, those wacky incestuous bands!

Yeah, it seems like two sides of a coin.

I wonder if they'd start a third band...with me in it!

No way, man. I'm first in the queue!

this song is on a loop for me now. it's fantastic, for exactly the reasons dr. fever set forth above, see, e.g., Sect. II(B).

It's on spotify, so I just hit play and set it to repeat. I think I've gone about 10 times in a row at present.

I'm not really feeling it, but listening to the new Frankie Rose did make me give the new Dum Dum Girls album a spin, and I quite like that.

Listening to the Beverly album now & am feeling it so far.

What was the song that JF posted?

waht is the beverly connection to FR? i have been enjoying it too

xp Oh, I am guessing it was "Honey Do"?

Beverly = Drew Citron + Frankie Rose. But:

beverly is drew's thing, frankie just plays in it. the way drew plays in frankie's solo thing

― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Tuesday, February 18, 2014 4:23 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

beverly is drew's thing, frankie just plays in it. the way drew plays in frankie's solo thing

You wouldn't know that from how the album gets capsuled in the press, which is a total shame.

"Honey Do" is still one of my favorite singles of the year.

New album coming next month.

https://www.agreymarket.com/collections/new-releases/products/frankie-rose-cage-tropical-lp-limited-edition-white-gold-splatter-pre-order

Can't believe it's already been four years since Herein Wild. That was a great album.

Indeed, unjustly maligned upon release. Looking forward to the new one! Ordered through your link, thanks.

looking forward to this, new song is pretty groovy. hope she comes to austin and plays again, it was a fun little show last time dragged down by a shitty venue

also I am crushing on her ongoing commitment to splatter vinyl releases which are beautiful

The new album definitely isn't as instant as the last two.

Anyone else heard it yet?

I've listened to it three or four times -- none of it has made an impression yet, but will give it time. I've only been playing it on my morning train commute, which it doesn't seem suited for. I've got it on now and am liking "Trouble" but already can't even remember what the song before sounded like. "Art Bell" on now and I don't much care for it.

Yeah, I'm on my fifth listen now and nothing has really made any impression yet. I'm really disappointed.

I'm just listening to it for the first time now. I don't know if I'll have any takeaways, but it sure is a glorious sound.

i think it's good

as good as interstellar? prob not, but it's very early and that's a very high bar

Just digging into this, liking it so far, less rock than the other two, more of an 80s throwback sound. First song sounds like Cocteau Twins, second like "A Forest", etc.

this sounds amazing texturally - some great guitar sounds - but I agree it's a bit underwritten

it's up on Spotify now... reminds me very much of the first Wild Swans album

I like her. Herein Wild is my favorite. This one is growing on me, but I don't like how the vocals are recorded.

Is it common knowledge that Frankie Rose has covered The Cure's 17 Seconds in its entirety? I just found out about this -- it's from a monthly vinyl subscription series called Sounds Delicious (turntablekitchen.com/sounds-delicious/) where artists cover classic albums. Wasn't crazy about her last record but looking forward to checking this out if I can find a way to.

"At Night" and "A Forest" available to stream here:
soundcloud.com/matthew-tk

Sounds maybe a bit too faithful on first listen.

her cover of a forest sounds great! yes because it does not stray far from the original. still. but I would buy this in a second if it wasn't one of those obnoxious vinyl subscription services.

She even played "A Forest" when I saw her a few months ago. Possible highlight of the set.

I found "Cage Tropical" to be plenty immediate, surprised it didn't get much of a response. She tweaks her formula in a more compelling way than on "Herein Wild," which felt like a song-for-song rewrite of "Interstellar." Title track through "Red Museum" is glorious.

All of the other releases are available individually on their shop page (turntablekitchen.com/shop/); this one isn't listed by itself for some reason but you can buy it as part of the record+"Sounds Delicious" t-shirt bundle for $40.

Cool. I'll wait until somebody is selling it for $15 on Discogs.

All these years I haven't paid that much attention to Rose but I'm listening to an advance of the new album and rather enjoying it.

I play Frankie Rose (the first two albums) pretty regularly on my “new wave & synth-pop” radio show. Does very nicely mixed in with 70s and 80s stuff. https://wayofm.org/shows/are-friends-electric

really enjoyed the start of the new record, quite samey as the previous stuff but not in an overly bad way
second half was less memorable but will give it more time