tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841832.post1088448036344759957..comments2024-01-29T00:32:58.074-05:00Comments on .: Be Prepared: Yuck | Self-titled | 15 FebruaryAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12517366671775704505noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841832.post-21274809077239073652011-01-27T12:33:31.531-05:002011-01-27T12:33:31.531-05:00I'm jealous you've heard this whole thing....I'm jealous you've heard this whole thing. I should pre-order this jawn. Wonderful band.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12517366671775704505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841832.post-51159194543692558492011-01-27T12:28:31.885-05:002011-01-27T12:28:31.885-05:00I have heard this whole Yuck record and I'm ho...I have heard this whole Yuck record and I'm hoping it will be dedicated to me because it seems made not just to my taste but to my current needs.<br /><br />Sociology would support the notion that I lost interest in new music years ago as a natural evolution of biology -- I'll be 44 in April. Yet, two things have worked against me toward this unfortunate situation.<br /><br />First, there has not been a hell of a lot of music by new artists that is consistent with my taste. This would necessitate opening my mind and pushing my boundaries further; intuitively not a problem for someone with my history as a music fan.<br /><br />But the second problem is that I've felt like I've burned out. If it's not that my mental hard drive is full then certainly my mental RAM is. Meaning I can handle more music by my favorites, but pushing out into new kinds of music seems like an impossible task.<br /><br />This is why the most welcome new acts are the revivalists. For me, Jack White is the most important musical innovator of the last ten years because he's got all of the talent of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant rolled into one person and he's got more enthusiasm in his chord-forming fingers than both of those guys put together.<br /><br />And now there's Yuck. I hate the name. Yuck, I say, both as exclamation and interjection. Their name sounds like the name of an act the teenager on a sitcom wants to go to a big concert by with her friends but the fat dad and the hot mom won't let her.<br /><br />"And just who is this rock and roll band that you want to get into a car with a bunch of strangers and drive all night to go see?" asks the hot mom.<br /><br />"Yuck," answers the teen girl.<br /><br />"I know you're frustrated, young lady," says the fat dad, "but answer your mother."<br /><br />"Ha ha ha," goes the laugh track.<br /><br />The magic of Yuck is great songwriting coupled with arrangements that are absurdly unoriginal and hyper-influenced by many of the best alt-rockers of the '90s. What we'd hope for next are more great songs and a more original sound a next release.<br /><br />For now, feel free to guess the influence song-by-song. "Get Away" is Dinosaur Jr. "Operation" had to have been borne of a rehearsal jam on Sonic Youth's "Teenage Riot." "Holing Out" would have made a serviceable Lemonheads album track. Both "Shook Down" and "Suck" sound uncannily like my beloved and tragically neglected Drop Nineteens. The most contemporary thing going on here is that over-modulated Strokes-ian vocal sound on a handful of cuts.<br /><br />My concern might be the England factor. When the recording careers and visibility of English bands that begin this strong aren't fleeting then their quality is. In which case, ultimately Yuck won't so much a celebrated act as this self-titled album will be.<br /><br />Because it will be.Ric Dubehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09240053845045627071noreply@blogger.com