Destroyer - Kaputt (2011)

this is kindof precise and clear where the gayngs thing is woozy and hazy and lets smoke some weed man

I will say that of the three albums (Destroyer, Gayngs, and Ariel Pink), Kaputt is the best of them. It contains all the things I usually like about Bejar, just mixed with awfulness. It feels like less of a cheeky joke - rather, just something Bejar wanted to do. I can respect that even if I don't like it. Gayngs and AP, to my ears, sound like they're just having a laugh by playing this kind of music, which only makes me hate them more.

tbf gayngs do seem like major cunts

don't see how this sound is a 2011 "trend", I was calling bejar postyacht back in 2006 yo

Why does it have to be a "cheeky joke," though? Do saxophones have to be employed ironically? What I like about Kaputt is that the saxophones, and the guitars, the beats, is that they're actually good... the saxophone runs are just well, dope-sounding.

yeah if you watch the videos of gayngs live they do this totes gross winky "look at us in our white tux jackets" thing

ariel pink seems really weird to lump in w/ this and hes been doing this shampoo commercial fuzz pop for like ten years or more right?

I said Bejar specifically sounds like LESS of a cheeky joke, more earnest. Still hate the sound though.

Plax I'm not familiar with Ariel Pink beyond his most recent album.

Right, didn't mean to suggest you stated otherwise. I'm just asking the question in general, really.

idk i take a kinda quiet storm radio approach to all this which is 'does it sound aesthetically like other shit i like?' yes -> its dope, no -> its not

the songs are there, i dont detect a half-assedness, all three of these records sound great (gayngs most intermittently) ... i love how much (esp w/ the bass parts) that ariel pink sounds like steely dan

this isn't really r&b at all to me, way more like uh prefab sprout and shit like that tho

i think whats key w/ this & esp Pink (which is my fav of the three) is that the songs are there & the atmosphere doesnt feel as much like an affect ... its like w/ chromeo, where their first lp is wack to me for being this half-assed pastiche, but on the 2nd one they really brought it in the songwriting dept

this isn't really r&b at all to me, way more like uh prefab sprout and shit like that tho

― mekka lekka hi mega-hiney hoes (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, January 14, 2011 4:38 PM (26 seconds ago) Bookmark

but loggins n messina arent *technically* r&b either

quiet storm playlists are totally indiscriminant abt genre, pre-balearic-style

but then i have a longstanding <3 for this style ... my dad played avalon a lot, & sade has been one of my like top 5 dead or alive artists for years now

i like this album a lot actually but i guess i don't see *that* much of a comparison to gayngs

tbh i only like 3-4 songs off the gayngs lp but i really like them

Also I think this sound really sands some of the rough surfaces of Bejar's idiosyncrasies, too. As much as I love Destroyer, sometimes Streethawk Bejar is just too much to handle, and this retains all that's good about him with less abrasiveness.

i never heard any destroyer stuff before this and i think it's great

same

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV75zugzPJc&feature=player_embedded#!

This is what I mean by the above statement. It's a little much to swallow at times, for me. I'm a fan of the less-theatrical and autistic Bejar.

yeah ren's otm though i totally wouldn't be surprised if a lot of ppl who are new to him & into this record found his vocal affect and way w/ words grating at first on his older stuff, because it's def toned down a bit here

nb i love this abt destroyer

ok that song rennavate posted is pretty good too, more of a hunky-dory era bowie pastiche. reminds me of velvet goldmine.

does he have a particular schtick on each album?

Yeah, obvs that older style of singing/delivery wouldn't work on this smooth free-jazz disco shit.

And yeah, it's a good song, but there's only so much I can listen to it before I need a break ha.

Uhm yes and no. He's definitely the kind of artist that "grows" with each album, but it's not as like programmed as "this is my Bowie record," "this is my ____ record." I think it's taken him some time to grow into his own artist.

UMS — not exactly a 1:1 schtick:album ratio, but a couple of broad styles he moves between — the glam-rock style from Streethawk, reworked w/less transparent Bowie-biting, becomes sort of his 'default' setting up thru this album, but Your Blues was completely different and sounded a bit more like this one

Your Blues is his MIDI record.

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/36747/walker-on-the-wild-side-dan-bejar-on-his-musical-collaboration-with-artist-kara-walker/

man this is so much better than the Gayngs record. Bejar's just so much more of a compelling presence on this album and in general. but i'm a lyrics guy so... he's easily top 5 rock lyricist working today.

the glam-rock style from Streethawk, reworked w/less transparent Bowie-biting, becomes sort of his 'default' setting up thru this album

as Ed III said upthread there's more of a slacker Neil Young vibe happening on This Night and Rubies ("Sick Priest Learns to Last Forever" starts off like something from Tonight's the Night)

but yeah Streethawk and everything before that (Thief, City of Daughters) are in that wordy glam indie rock style

This Night has some Velvets-y moments too imo (like "Hey Snow White")

Quatrain etched on a turnstile
Just set the loop and then go wild

not exactly a review, just kinda riffing on this album:
http://givefascistshell.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/political-pseudo-review-for-destroyer-to-sing/

That was a good post

is the band all that different? i was hoping it was mostly the same -- i guess fisher rose's sax playing didn't really sound much like that, though

nope, pretty much all change. hum

AD: The last two records, Destroyer’s Rubies and Trouble in Dreams, had you working with a consistent lineup for one of the first times in your career as Destroyer. Is the same group on board this time and how has that stability worked on these records?

DB: Actually the only two records that involve a consistent line-up are Thief and Streethawk. Trouble In Dreams had a different drummer than Rubies, but sometimes a different drummer is like having a different singer. This was one of those cases. I see very few similarities between those two records, aside from maybe “Introducing Angels.” And maybe “Leopard of Honor” sounds a bit like “A Dangerous Woman Up To A Point,” if you were to look at those two songs stripped of their performances…though they mean completely different things (there’s the rub!). Nic Bragg is the only person from those records who plays on Kaputt (unless you’re talking about the vinyl version of Kaputt, in which case Ted Bois pretty much composed, performed and recorded the entirety of Side 3!). He also played lead guitar on This Night.

http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2011/01/17/destroyer-the-ad-interview/

I've really grown into this album. It totally gives me these decadent Gaucho vibes. I still think he's trying to sound like Al Stewart, much more than Bowie.

gaucho and al steward flourises are building my excitement for this album.

flourishes.

http://towerofsleep.tumblr.com/post/2817579667/interviewing-dan-bejar

the idea of Bejar singing along with Neil Tennant makes me a little bit giddy

oh my god, the great namechecks continue....I KNEW Sylvian and Isham were in the Kaputt mix!

off topic by "email interviews" should be banned

i think a lot maybe most? interviews are done by email nowadays you'd be surprised maybe some of them are ones you have loved

No one’s mentioned Jamiroquoi, which is nice of them.
hahaha, wtf! I never heard any jamiroquoi beyond that one single — did the album actually sound like this?
(saw someone compare this to ween on facebook today, too... weird)

off topic by "email interviews" should be banned

― gr8080, Tuesday, January 18, 2011 8:58 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

why?

i mean surprise surprise no one is paying me $$ to pick up & fly across the country to interview unknown rappers like roach gigz but if u want to buy me a couple tixx i can stop in HI on the way back & watch yr dog lol

no one uses a phone anymore? i pay $120 a month for mine.

i dont really see the advantage of a phone over email tbh. its not like the guys im talking to are getting censored by their agents or something afai can tell.

i see numerous disadvantages -- including some ive had to deal w/ that include tapes not recording properly, volume being too low, danger of mistranscription, the pain in the ass of transcription, etc

i guess you lose the element of 'natural conversation' to it. im sure interviewees love it for being able to allow for nuance etc

ban e-mail "interviews"