Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Nothing More, Nothing Less

>> Featured Artist: Sprites

While the The Toaster stumbled onto the Sprites, we were mildly amused, especially by the "true story" of the lead singer Jason Korzen's failed attempts to become a blogger, "I Started a Blog Nobody Read" from the latest LP, Modern Gameplay. For him, we suggest this WikiHow.

We're still fairly amused and somehow feel a strange draw to the indie dorkiness of the whole outfit, which we understand is mostly just Korzen. Perhaps it's cameraderie. Nothing more, nothing less.

>> Album Lookout: The Lemonheads
The Lemonheads - Released: September 26, 2006 Vagrant

There's an adage we like: When life names you Evan Dando, make Lemonheads. As much as we like saying "Dan-doooo," we also can't blame Evan for abandoing the solo project after one album to go back to band that gave us things like "The Great Big No" and a decent cover of "Mrs. Robinson."

"No Backbone" is the first single from the long-avoided (and perhaps also long-awaited) self-titled Lemonheads album. Our first thought: someone needs to tell the lead guitar to stop taking all those uppers. Half of what he does is absolutely unnecessary and it gets in the way a bit. (The rest of the stuff is good. Nice work).

With Dan-doooo's catchy and seemingly effortless songwriting, the Lemonheads don't miss a beat from where they left off. This is both good and bad, though, because it sounds a lot like a outtake from Come On Feel the Lemonheads. NM, NL.


>> Reverting to: 1985

File this under "formative years" in Mister Toaster's Hall of Fame. We're not (that) proud.

It's pure Starship. Glorious synths, 'verbed out harmonicas and tasty melodramatically beefy guitar riffs. It's "Sara." NM, NL.

No comments: