Swing South: Paper Operator

Paper The Operator: "The Pendulum"

Oh man. Sometimes I get random stuff. Sometimes I open it, sometimes I don't. But oh man, I'm glad I opened Paper The Operator.

Stream their new album, Goodbye God, here.

Paper The Operator has all the vox up front, with a little spacey-melody backing up the singer/songwriter anxieties (listen to "Left Lucy") and then hopeful grunge turned quick shoegaze (listen to "Rock Dreams). Very simple, but excellent. I want to say the Paper The Operator is like The Rocket Summer for some reason, but I have no compunction to make fun of Paper The Operator.

Again, stream the new one here. Definitely will have to work a review.

Still a few GA/Carolina dates left, after the jump...


Jan 5, 2010 8:00P Wonderroot Atlanta, GA
Jan 6, 2010 9:00P Oasis Charleston, SC
Jan 7, 2010 8:00P New Brookland Tavern Columbia, SC
Jan 8, 2010 9:30P Tipsy Teapot Greenville, NC

More after the jump...

review: Capgun Coup - Maudlin

Capgun Coup

Maudlin

Team Love, 2009

Review by Andrew Jones

Capgun Coup: "Sitting on the Sidewalk"
Capgun Coup: "Bad Bands"


I vividly remember the fall day in 2005 when I purchased Tournament of Hearts, the third LP from the Constantines. I'd just graduated from college, was living back at home, and working a horrible job that sometimes required that I go 13 or so days without a day off. It was, in short, a bad time, but I remember reading about the Constantines one night around this time. The reviewer said they sounded kind of like Fugazi, which convinced me to buy the record. This description wasn't exactly fitting, but I digress. Anyway, I was out running errands on one of my rare days off of work, and I stopped at the record store first thing to pick up Tournament. I paid the guy for the album, went out to my car and started it up before unwrapping the CD and putting it in the player. The first measures of the opening track, “Draw Us Lines,” started up and I felt like this would be the song I would write if I could write songs. I didn't even put the car in gear while the song played on, just sat in the driver's seat and listened. When the song ended, I pushed the button to skip back to the beginning of the track, and merged into traffic feeling pretty good about things.

I relate this story of finding opening track bliss because it's similar to my recent experience with Capgun Coup's new record, Maudlin. I've often thought that it would be cool to make a mixed CD of the best opening tracks on albums, and if I ever do that, “Computer Screens and TVs” will certainly be on the playlist.



The song blows up from the start with lo-fi, fuzzed out vocals that sound like a teenager yelling at his parents before he storms off and slams the door to his room. The whole song is frantic, filled with angst for our technology saturated, televisual culture, and is as brief as a Tweet, clocking in at just over two minutes. His tongue is obviously planted firmly in cheek when singer/guitarist Sam ends the tune singing, “What a beautiful time to be born in.” I only put this album on my computer the other day, but the iTunes play count on this opening number has already gotten out of control.

It would be wrong to say that Capgun Coup is breaking totally new musical ground. The influence of 60s psychedelia is writ large on these songs, as are folk and punk. After listening to the album a few times through, I was struck by how appropriate the band's name is, as a coup with cap guns sounds to me like an overthrow of the established order that fails to foster a full blown change to the status quo.

In other words, the songs on Maudlin don't always sound new or unfamiliar, but there are vocal lines and guitar riffs scattered throughout that demonstrate the freshness of the band's sound.

The hard rocking instrumentation and rough yell-sing vocals of songs like “Bad Bands” and “Only the Times Are Changing”—two personal favorites—are nicely counterpointed by some of the album's acoustic tracks. “Now That I'm Home” is a wistful take on the pros and cons of being home versus those that come with life out on the road. It's a mostly upbeat track with brushes slapping out a beat on a snare as bells jingle along. Though the final line of the song—“I want to leave”—suggests which way the song's narrator is leaning, Sam's aloof delivery of these words weighs them down with doubt. It sounds like he might go, but that he doesn't care much either way.

As much as I like loud and aggressive rock music—and Capgun's take on how to make such music—I think my favorite track is the final one, “It Breaks No Heart of Mine,” a really beautiful banjo ballad. The vocals on the song are not as distorted as on other tracks, which makes them sound especially fragile and awkward, a sound that is well-matched to the brutally honest and wounded lyrics. It's a typical unrequited love ditty, but the vulnerability in the vocals suggest that the narrator is less Lloyd Dobbler in the yard with the boom box blasting “In Your Eyes,” but more the best guy friend of the girl with the boyfriend who has repeatedly rehearsed but never delivered his love speech.

I like that Maudlin starts on such an upbeat and manic note with “Computer Screens and TVs,” then ends so calmly with “It Breaks No Heart of Mine.” It's as though the band has taken listeners from thinking about the artificiality of modern life, to putting on a clinic on how to buck these current trends and wear your heart on your sleeve. With this in mind, much of what makes this album enjoyable is the depth of feeling in each of these songs. This band has strong feelings on things and they're not holding them back. Ultimately, Maudlin is proof that Capgun Coup has keen ears for the hooks of yore, while also possessing some unique ideas of their own, ones that will hopefully have the chance to be explored and developed by the band for some years to come.

More after the jump...

Lit Randomness Returns!

We're back on the other side of the decade. Here are a few interesting lit matters from the past few wks:

The Unlimited Story Deck gives you characters, you make the story. Play with friends and colleagues or use it as a last-minute solution to the class you forgot to prep for! Takes structuralism to a new level: At Jacket Copy.

Cornelius Vanderbilt (whom my alma mater is named for) knew how to fight: At NPR.

McNulty loves Chekhov & doesn't sound like he's from Baltimore at all: At Faster Times. Oh yeah, I got The Wire box set for Christmas.

"I Am a Writer" checklist: At HTML Giant.

Book ads: At Maud Newton

And...Lit Randomness will just appear on Mondays now in a rockin' expanded edition.

More after the jump...

Deckfight's 2009 Recap

Bye, bye 2009, don't think it was too much of a disaster. But if you want to rubberneck some more we won't be back until 2010. In the meantime, here's some essential Deckfight reading from the past year:

Favorite Deckfight stories of 2009:

1) Mike Fretto of Rosa Loves & Leo McGovern of Antigravity Mag.
2) Corndogorama
3) Michael Jackson is a Thriller
4) John Wray
5) I Was Totally Destroying It
6) 5 Favorite Southern Novels
7) 5 Most Important Brand New Songs
8) Red Collar
9) 5 Favorite Indie Rock Songs for College Football
10) Duncan's 5 Favorite Albums from Merge Records


Favorite Deckfight Book Reviews

1) The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno
2) Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
3) Shake The Devil Off by Ethan Brown
4) Sunlight at Midnight, Darkness at Noon by Hosho McCreesh and Chris Cunningham
5) Arkansas by John Brandon

Favorite Deckfight Album Reviews

1) DD/MM/YYYY: Black Square
2) Jeff The Brotherhood: Heavy Days
3) Brand New: Daisy
4) Nathan Oliver: Cloud Animals
5) Midtown Dickens: Lanterns

And in case you forgot---

Favorite Albums of the Decade
Favorite Books of the Decade
Favorite Albums of 2009
Favorite Books Read in 2009

Technically, 2009 was not Deckfight's first year but it definitely was its most active. It's been on a regular basis since April of this year and we came over to this site in June. 2010 looks to be wonderful. I'm going to be changing some of the posting schedule and I've had some recent talks about a site redesign. Let's make this thing look sharp.

It's been an awesome learning experience with more ups than downs. A lot of stuff I didn't get to, and probably won't get to, as that is the blogging dilemma. But it's been great connecting with a lot of different people. And those people I'd like to thank:

Thanks to all the blogs in the Albums of The Decade Tour. Thanks to those 10 guys who had never heard really heard of Deckfight before and decided screw it, let's do it.

Thanks to all the random sites and blogs that have linked to us in the past year, but especially to Vol. 1 Brooklyn and The Lawn Chair Boys for being super supportive for no apparent reason.

Thanks to Dave at Largehearted Boy for randomly linking to my stuff and answering random emails from me even though he's an indie-blog superstar.

Thanks to Josh R. & Andrew J. for writing and contributing and my wife for being so kind to me in this extra-writing endeavor.

Thanks to you for reading.


More after the jump...

Merry Christmas

We'll be taking a short break for Christmas. We'll probably be back next week in some form or another, I kind of want to recap & highlight some of the cool stuff Deckfight put out this year as well as pre-cap (just made that up) some of the stuff for 2010.

I have a long list of thanks that I'll give next week.

If you're looking for an awesome selection of indie/punk Christmas songs, Can You See The Sunset has an awesome list going.

But in the meantime---Merry Christmas.

"God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again." (John 3:17, The Message) More after the jump...