|
If you’re like me, multi-lingual pop music kind of begins with Stereolab and ends with Stereo Total, and there’s not a whole heck of a lot in between. Part of the appeal of those bands was that they were, well, European, where everybody has to speak a whole alphabet stew anyways. “How sophisticated they are!,” you’d say, as you heard Laeticia Sadier intone communist-party slogans in French, in “French Disko.” “How funny she sounds!,” you’d go, as Francoise Cactus sang “I Love You ONO” in her silly French-German accent. And, of course, you’d also be thinking about how cosmopolitan and continental you yourself were, as you appreciated such stuff. Mais oui!
How refreshing, then, to encounter East Austin’s own multi-lingual experimental pop practitioners Many Birthdays, whose Days of Beat/Days Of Hollow EP brings it all back home, and which is a masterpiece of restraint, intelligence, and, well, musical border-crossing. Sung in a mixture of English and Japanese, Many Birthdays’ tunes are passionate and whimsical constructions of drum machine, guitar, and synthesizer, all put forward with a remarkably dark and earnest edge. Think of Bowie’s “It’s No Game,” but updated with beats and humor for the 00’s, or maybe Vangelis mixed with Cibo Matto, and you’ll get the idea. The “hit” of the EP, “Days Like Turtles,” is far more eerie than you might imagine from the title, with goofy, free-associative English lyrics, a remarkably garage-punky keyboard interlude, and a propulsive techno groove. “Handful of Zeros,” with a disembodied Japanese refrain and some New Order-ish guitar driving the whole thing, is like some unholy marriage of 80’s dance music and seventies Krautrock. “Yume no Sekai” drinks from the same well, but adds in a bit of Aphex Twin to produce a concoction that puts Euro-trash musical polymaths out to pasture.
Andrei Codrescu once said of New Orleans that the city had the main prerequisite for a decent arts scene—cheap rents. Austin’s rents are more than they should be, but the city seems to have another important requirement, which is bands with deep record collections, and with no fear of mixing and matching otherwise incompatible styles to produce something new. Something’s going on in Austin these days, no doubt, what with the continued brilliance of techno-pop instrumentalists Octopus Project, and the emergence of like-minded acts such as Many Birthdays. Maybe it’s something in the water, or maybe global warming is disrupting the earth’s temperatures just enough to cause Austin to spin on a more—how you say—“global,” axis. I don’t know, but pretty soon this town’s music is gonna sound like the goddamn United Nations, mark my words, and Many Birthdays will be Secretary General.
Video - “Days Like Turtles”:
Websites:
www.manybirthdays.net
Myspace
