Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Sweet Apple: The Golden Age of Glitter / Beer'd: Hobbit Juice / SexCriminals: Vol. 1

I'm feeling like the warm weather is coming. I need something lighter and happier and fun. This trio ought to do the trick.



Sweet Apple - The Golden Age of Glitter
TeePee Records


While it's true that I have tendency to enjoy the heavier things in life, a good pop song cannot be denied. Songs about girls and drunken nights are bound to reach more people than those of satan, dragons and ancient battles. Sweet Apple are writing far and away the best pop rock songs since the 70's. Thoroughly steeped in the melodies of the the greats like Cheap Trick and Roxy Music, Sweet Apple blend their glam and power pop stylings with a bit of 90's melancholy and angst and late 60's psychedelic folk. You may know the drummer of Sweet Apple, J. Mascis, from his work as guitar player and lead singer of Dinosaur Jr. - the other members have played various roles in Witch, Guided by Voices and Cobra Verde. A supergroup would be a bit of a stretch due to the very underground nature of their previous bands but there is a shitload of talent on this album. Simple song structures and catchy choruses abound here. 

The opening track "Wish You Could Stay (A Little Longer)", with it's slowish tempo, heartfelt lyrics and it's incessant hooks, is straight out of the final scene of a romantic comedy. Guest starring Mark Lannegan (Screaming Trees) on vocals, the song has a steady back and forth between him and Sweet Apple vocalist John Petkovic. The song is slower than most albums probably start out but the song writing is also stronger than most. At it's core it's a rock ballad, but it's a little more oomph and a lot less pomp than most things you could call ballads these days. The record picks up speed with a couple of straight forward rock songs that could be played in any stadium world wide. "Reunion" and "Boys in Her Fanclub" is Sweet Apple at their most brash and forceful, which isn't much in terms of force but they are punching harder here. After those 2 songs, the album comes down further than it will on the rest of the record. "Lets Take the Same Plane" is a all acoustic tune that features backing vocals from Rachel Haden (The Rentals) and again from Mark Lannegan. While it may seem kinda early on the record for an accoustic number it's not overly jarring a change and allows the album not to get ahead of itself. 

Yes Sweet Apple is a rock band but they're a poppy rock band and if they threw too many straight forward 4 chord jams in a row then they'll start to draw pop-punk comparisons from the knuckleheads in the media. There is far too much 70's arena rock and psychedelia in the mix to let people do that. The song "We Are Ruins" displays a sort of Moby Grape/Byrds style psychadelia with it's acoustic guitar out front, super reverbed vocals and percussion. The synthesized horn pops are am nice touch as well giving your ear something new to grasp. "I Surrender" has touches of early R.E.M. run through the garagey filter of Exploding Hearts. I could go through this entire album trying to tell you all the different pop devices they blend together to create what will undoubtedly be one of my top 10 albums of 2014 but I feel like I'm already getting lazy about it. This album is just incredibly easy to enjoy especially with beer, which brings us to our next piece.




Beer'd Brewing Company - Hobbit Juice
Double IPA
9.2% ABV

Beer'd Brewing Co. is from Stonington Borough in my home state of CT. They're a nano brewery and only do growler fills and tastings. So you basically go in there, taste everything and leave with what you like the most. Last time we were there we left with 3 growlers. What? They do good work and we're indecisive. Today's selection of the 3 is one of their Double IPAs called Hobbit Juice. Why is it called that? I didn't ask, but as far as I know, no hobbits were juiced to brew this beer. Anyway... on to the task at hand. 

Are you a hop-head that feels like you've tasted every incarnation of bitter there is and IPAs are no longer interesting and or surprising? Well it's Hobbit Juice to the rescue. The nose on this puppy is huge with floral and tart fruit scents. This isn't different for Double IPAs necessarily but it's still a wonderful smell and very strong. The cloudy orangey-amber color isn't different either but still a nice color. The first thing that will hit you about the flavor is that it's slightly sweet. Not sugary or malty sweet but kind of a mango sweet. The body of the beer is fairly light for 9.2% alcohol and the mouth-feel is slightly oily but not syrupy. This could be from the amount or type of hops they use, again I didn't ask but it's nice. Oily might not be at the top of what you would like for mouth-feel but to me, the carbonation breaks it up enough and it simply adds another layer to the many that this beer has. If it went down like water it would still be a good beer but a different mouth-feel makes your brain work a little bit more. At the swallow you get a very dank bitterness. It's not the standard bright, kick to the teeth bite of most Double IPAs, it's more subtle and rounder tasting than that. There is a little bit of a grapefruit twinge in the aftertaste but instead of making you pucker it's just enough to level your taste buds off and bring everything full circle. The depth of the musty hop flavor that takes up the center of this taste is truly what sets it apart but the different book ending fruit flavors allow it to pop on every sip.




Sex Criminals: Volume 1 "One Wierd Trick"
Author: Matt Fraction
Artist: Chip Zdarsky
Image Comics

Yes the comic is called sex criminals. Laugh, go ahead, I'll wait. Ok... good. The comic book is not about pedophiles and rapists, let's get that out of the way right now. It's a about a guy and a girl and how when they orgasm, time stops, (literally, not in the way you and I know), and how they find each other and what happens afterwards. So it's a love story with orgasms and bank robberies. You may know the writer Matt Fraction from his groundbreaking work on Hawkeye but I think this book is really going to be what starts his legacy. 

First of all it's completely original, no characters with back story he didn't write. Two, it's completely original, I mean seriously I dare you to find this story line anywhere else in literature and or cinema. While the concept is a bit silly, it's silly in a completely adult way. Yes there is some completely juvenile jokes but that's part of the charm. Crude sex jokes are part of adult life and if you space them out and make them clever than you don't come off like a hormone addled teenager snickering in the back of health class. Fraction splices the crude humor into a wonderful spontaneous love story between to normal people that happen to have a "super power" triggered by sex and or self gratification. All this with a little bit of Robin Hood sprinkled on top. Think of the best romantic comedy you've ever seen, it's probably something with John Cusak, and then throw it into a comic book realm. Written with completely believable 20 something dialogue and thought process. It's the kind of shit you say to a person you just met that you subconsciously already know you're in love with and they get it. It's not beautiful and lovey-dovey... it's honest and it's funny and it's you at your best/worst. Yeah there's doubt and an agonizing sense that you're way too far ahead of yourself but you can't help it and it's better that you don't. 
 
Fraction captures these feelings and thoughts perfectly while folding in the nonrealistic aspects that make the story more than just that great romantic comedy. The art is also spot-on. It's cartoony in a Venture Bros. or Archer sort of way. Photorealism is really a crap way to go about doing comics in my opinion so trying to draw a story aimed at an adult audience and is based in the real world is a tightrope. Too artsy and you lose reality, too cartoony and you lose the adult audience and if it's photorealistic than you might as well not be doing comics anyway. Chip Zdarsky walks the tightrope without a net and without a single wobble or back peddle. The time spent in "the quiet" is filled with psychedelic color and swirls but still sharp enough to retain all the action and detail.You know you're in an altered state without having to then decipher the landscape. Take the leap on this comic, you will not be disappointed, it's going to be a big part of what will be seen as a great age for Image and you don't want to miss out.