Majical Cloudz Release New Music Video "Downtown," Announce Tour

Following the music video for "Silver Car Crash," minimalist emoters Majical Cloudz have released a similarly DIY, black and white music video for the new second single from forthcoming sophomore album Are You Alone?, "Downtown."

The playful home video-esque production and the unusually optimistic nature of the track itself ("Is it really this fun when you're on my mind? / Is it really this cool to be in your life?") is in stark contrast to much of the Montreal duo's previous discography, though the gorgeous depth of synth and simple yet beyond powerful vocal deliveries that they've come to be known for are still there, if not even stronger than before.

Oh, and we finally get to see him blink, even if only briefly, around the 2:09 mark.

Are You Alone? comes out next Friday via Matador, and it can't come soon enough. Watch "Downtown" and check out the new tour dates below.

Majical Cloudz Tour Dates

10/17 – Toronto, ON @ Smiling Buddha
10/21 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust
10/22 – Halifax, NS @ Halifax Pop Explosion
10/23 – Montreal, QC @ Phi Centre
11/07 – Middlebury, VT @ Middlebury College
11/18 – London, UK @ St. John on Bethnal Green
11/20 – Paris, FR @ L’Archipel
11/23 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique Rotonde
11/25 – Berlin, DE @ ACUD
01/15 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
01/16 – Detroit, MI @ TBA
01/18 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
01/22 – Vancouver, BC @ Cobalt
01/23 – Seattle, WA @ TBA
01/24 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
01/26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
01/29 – Los Angeles, CA @ TBA

"The Knower" Is Elderly Arsonist in New Youth Lagoon Music Video

In what has become a growing string of ocularly stimulating and thematically fascinating visual companions for Youth Lagoon’s recent Savage Hills Ballroom LP, Trevor Powers has now followed up "Highway Patrol Stun Gun" with a new, Lucas Navarro-directed video for “The Knower."

The video follows a mystifying old woman wandering about what looks to be an animated nursing home filled with vibrant adornment that serve as purposeful symbolism or deliberate misdirect.

The video scans various parts of nursing home life– a bingo hall, a solarium walkway, someone’s hand sliding off of a cane – that eventually leads to the illumination of the building’s name as the “Savage Hills Retirement Home.” Could this video provide context to the origin Trevor Powers’ choice of album title?

More setting passes and then we’re met with the tired eyes of an elderly woman, meandering across a swimming pool deck, in total and complete solitude. Another shot of the cockatoo and then a match igniting into flame, and all of a sudden, the Savage Hills Retirement Home ballroom is set ablaze as the elderly woman turned arsonist watches in quiet tranquility.

The silent, lifeless shots seen at the beginning of the video are now disrupted with fits of flame and frenzy, when all the while, our favorite elderly arsonist ambles out of the ballroom with only the slightest sense of urgency. Amidst the tumult of the inferno, the cockatoo breaks out of its cage, perhaps symbolizing Powers’ coming to grips with the death of a friend, or maybe even utilizing the allegorical connection of a cockatoo being a sign of spiritual providence. Who knows?

Our favorite elderly arsonist is last seen dancing amongst the flames of the Savage Hills Retirement Home ballroom, with the cockatoo flying past in escape. “The Knower” certainly offers up some powerful imagery in its visual counterpart, but Powers’ true intention behind the video is shrouded I the same stimulating imagery, which makes the experience all the more lush.

Savage HIlls Ballroom is out now via Fat Possum Records

'The Martian': NASA’s Kickstarter Trailer

When you watch movies like Apollo 13, Lincoln, Argo, or any other movie based on a real event, you always end up thinking, “It’s pretty amazing that this actually happened.” Stories carry a grander emotional weight when you become aware that they’re a part of your own history. But as I watched Ridley Scott’s, The Martian -- a movie about a stranded astronaut who attempts to survive on Mars -- I had to repeatedly remind myself that this story is fictitious.

Thanks to the source novel by Andy Weir, the attention to accurate problem solving alone will have you feeling like you could survive on a foreign planet. But on a emotional level, Ridley Scott’s ensemble directing makes this story not just about isolation, but really a collective of humans working together to achieve impossible tasks. It’s a clear and bright vision of what our space program can become, provided that we continue to fund it. A depressing thought when you consider that we’ve only sent robots to the red planet.

While I enjoyed the emotional pacing of the piece, I thought the filmmakers could have done more with the Martian planet itself. Mars is a place that used to be flooded with water, and might have even harbored organic life. But now it’s clutching to the last of its atmosphere, as if someone left it behind like the stranded astronaut, Mark Watney (Matt Damon). The mix of practical and special effects to simulate Mars makes you feel as if you are there, but the editing during the scenic shots is too quick. The audience isn’t allowed enough time to let their eyes wander in a shot.

The story jumps through Sols (a day on Mars) fairly quickly too, so the pressure of Watney’s time in isolation is minimized. I think by extending these scenic shots, the audience would have more time to stare off into the Martian horizon and think about the planet, exactly as Watney does every Sol to plan his survival. Overall the editing was well executed, it’s just at certain points the planet feels more like a prop than an actual location where Watney is stuck.

I’ve seen this type of rushed editing a lot in recent sci-fi flicks, most popularly in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Every time they show a shot of Saturn, or any kind of space scenic, they cut to something else. It makes me long for the editing style in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, or the opening shots in The Coen Brother’s No Country For Old Men. I understand the need to keep the runtime low, but adding two minutes of Mars scenic shots would have done the trick. There actually could be an interesting way to link virtual reality (VR) headsets, and movies here. Imagine that every time the movie stops to show you a scenic shot of Mars, you could wander the planet in VR, as if you’re Mark Watney, and this is your free time to explore.

For a survival story that manages to stay light-hearted, Watney's ultimate fate is never made too obvious, which makes the movie extremely enjoyable to watch. The experience is similar to watching Apollo 13 as a kid before any one told you about the outcome of the mission. So go see it, or instead donate your $14 to NASA so you can see Mars with your own eyes in this lifetime. Either way, this movie will inspire you to become a fan of supporting the U.S. space program. #NASAKickstarter

Shot in a Single Take, 'Victoria' Will Send You Anxiously Exploring the Streets of Berlin

Here's the deal: your flatmate just killed himself by accident. The problem is that it doesn't look quite like an accident. He lies in the kitchen floor with a knife in his back. A knife that you just used a few seconds ago. Your fingerprints are all over the place. The fact that you two had a really big argument last night and that all of his friends (which absolutely don't like you) know about it just adds more fuel to the fire. 

Knock Knock. Someone is at the door. Apparently the neighbor, an old lady who loves drama, heard some screaming. Cops must be on their way. Fuck.

Quick, think of the implications: If you go to prison, you won't be able to be with the person you deeply love for decades. But there's more. You won't be able to hug your parents. To touch their hands. Or continue your life together with your best friends, or even see their cheeks move while they eat fried chicken.

Within seconds your entire life as you know it will completely change for the worst. The American justice system will hunt you down. The prosecutor will try as hard as she can to put you in jail. It's her job, and having no mercy pays well. The knocking on the door persists. It's time to make a decision.

But that's not exactly the premise of Victoria. For your best interest, I don't recommend watching the trailer, nor reading the synopsis. The less you know, the better you will enjoy the unexpected chain of events. This German independent film aspires to claustrophobically portray the process of someone's life – someone like you and I – falling down like a Jenga tower. And it does it well.

One of the factors that makes this film different from the rest is that it was shot in one single long take, which might sound like a banal filmmaking choice, but it is actually brilliant due to the nature of the story. It couldn't have been used any better, and here's why: nowadays, most psychological thrillers create tension by giving the audience information that the characters in the film don't know yet, an approach that Hitchcock pretty much forged back with the classics. However, in Victoria, the audience and the characters truly learn and progress along together. You will never know more than our protagonist. There are no cuts. You are constantly with her, living the present, and this provides a very refreshing experience.

Now, not everything is perfect about this film. Many might consider certain plot details and some character decisions in particular situations not very realistic, and the first half of the film might be slow for some, but taking into account the promise that things eventually do escalate quickly to a genuinely anxious climax – particularly during the last thirty minutes of the film– it is very much worth the wait.

 Victoria will be released in the US on October 9.

Athens Post-Punk Band Gláss Announce New Album 'Accent,' Share First Single

Athens, GA post-punk group Gláss have shared the first single, “Glass(-accent)”, from their debut LP Accent due out via Post-Echo early next year. The track features dark, monotone vocals brought to life by skittering guitar and rapid-fire percussion and anchored by driving bass.

“And I’ll go where I’m not so cold,” speak-sings Aaron Burke, while chilly reverb bounces around beneath the mix, as if the song were being performed inside a metal box. Burke told Transverso,

“The song is a feeling of being exposed. Being in an environment where you can’t control but act unnaturally. A place that is definitely more temperate than you are used to, and you had been so used to a place that is so much more comfortably chilling, and you had become so accustomed to getting used to it, that it I felt so naked not having to wrap up in warm clothing, that I just refused to. To the point where I was wearing tight jeans and a duffle coat in 100 degree weather. That was America to me. No friends, no local knowledge to back me up. No stories or experience to refer to. I felt transplanted from everything I knew when I moved to the states. I can’t help but write about that—my immediate emotions of living in the states. That pretty much sums up the topic of the record.”

While Gláss have not set a date for the LP release, they will be playing a few dates in the Southeast over the next couple of months. Check out said dates and the track below.

10/22 - Greenville, SC @ Soundbox Tavern
11/14 - Athens, GA @ Flicker Theatre and Bar
12/17 - Athens GA @ Flicker Theatre and Bar

Gláss "Glass(-accent)" "Accent" - out 2/5/2016 http://Post-Echo.com Find Gláss on Facebook- http://on.fb.me/1QHk02U Bandcamp- http://bit.ly/1FtcRmo

Man Man's Honus Honus Talks Mister Heavenly, Solo Record, and Writing Lyrics on the Walls

When I met him, Philadelphia-bred creative and Man Man frontman Honus Honus was wearing a denim vest with "Born Alone, Die Alone, No Tomorrow" emblazoned within the patchwork on the back. He tells me it's a quote from Mad Men, which is incidentally the name many people mishear his own group's to be; a commanding grunt in sharp contrast to the eloquence of his pen. It's easy to remember, he tells me.

An enigmatic bard spinning grandiose tales of doom and hope and everything in between, Honus is firmly cemented in a category of his own. Though not as severe as Samuel Herring or as psychedelic as Kevin Barnes, the many-costumed troubadour is as uniquely kinetic as the best of them, springing off of his seat almost as often as his fingers meet the keys.

You would be forgiven for thinking his personality might echo that of his music, though despite the off-kilter aggression of much of his repertoire, it's clear from the start of any live show he's more affable than most. It's not rare to hear a chuckle sneak its way into his growls, mirrored by a wry smile similarly peaking out from his mess of dark whiskers. And whether it be with Man Man or his supergroup sideproject Mister Heavenly, his songs are just the same: a menagerie maybe not for the masses, but a wild concoction of equal parts carnival and heart. 

Transverso Media sat down with Honus ahead of Man Man's show at Atlanta's Aisle 5, perched atop a crumbling block of graffiti behind the venue in the waning summer air.

TRANSVERSO: So traditionally bands will tour to support an album, but with the way the industry has been shifting a lot of people have been putting out albums to support the tour as their main source of income. On Oni Pond came out two years ago this week and you’re still on the road; is it safe to say you’ve felt that shift as well?

HONUS HONUS: Oh definitely. I mean we try out new stuff on the road, that’s why were touring right now, to road test some new songs and see how they feel live and just feed off the energy of a crowd and then adjust if we need to, but the last record we didn’t get to road test any of the songs which was fine. It’s the story of the record but we’re just trying to do it the way that we usually do it. 

How’s the new material coming along?

Slow and steady. Yeah, we’re taking our time with it. [The new songs] are different. I mean it’s a natural progression from our last record, but I don’t know.

One of the things that I noticed with On Oni Pond is that it was more accessible than some prior works like Six Demon Bag. Do you see yourself moving in that direction, have you maybe mellowed with age? 

Mellowed with age, yeah, it’s like when you have a fine wine and you keep it for a long time and you’re like, oh, this will be great in 30 years, and you crack it open and it tastes like vinegar. That’s how we’re mellowing with age! [Laughs] As a creative person you don’t want to keep trying to repeat yourself, so we just tried to make something that’s true to where we are in our lives at the time, and that’s kind of how every records been, you know? I don’t want to keep making Six Demon Bag. I’m very proud of it, but I’m not the same person. I mean, that record will be out 10 years next year, which is pretty crazy. We might do a tour of just that record, we’re discussing that right now.

Start to finish?

Yeah, start to finish. It’ll be interesting. But yeah, you know you just have to try to evolve or it just gets boring. There’s a line on the last record on “End Boss” where, what is the line, “If you don’t reinvent yourself / You cant circumvent yourself,” and I think that’s true, you have to keep on challenging yourself. That’s my answer. [Laughs]

I’ve heard you discuss how hard it is being in a band, whether it be financial difficulties or housing issues. With Mister Heavenly, what made you want to do it all over again? Is it less pressure being in a side project or is it twice as much work?

It was just fun. I mean, it was just the time and place was right for Nick [Thorburn (Islands, The Unicorns)] and I to collaborate on that, and then Joe [Plummer (Modest Mouse, The Shins, Cold War Kids)] was free so he was able to be pulled into the fold. When you make stuff everything kind of has its own pacing, and we’ve spent the life of Man Man thus far hustling to make another record, hustling to make another record, because we’re a cult band, that’s how we [work. We] haven’t really been able to break out of that. 

So you feel hindered by the cult band label?

Well I think it’s a strange thing, I feel like we got tagged as just a weird band early on and I think it might have kept people away. I mean sure we do some different things but I think its just off-kilter pop music. I mean, that’s how I see it, but you know as long as new people keep leaking in we’re lucky.

You know, full disclosure, unfortunately I’m not finding the cure for cancer. I’m lucky I get to write songs and people come out and can enjoy them and I enjoy playing them, so I’m very fortunate. We’d like to have more people come to our shows, we’re very fortunate people come to our shows and we’re psyched about it, but it’s a constant hustle because if you don’t have a new record you can’t tour and yadda yadda yadda.

So we’re just trying to let this next record evolve as it evolves without feeling the need to just crush it immediately [and] put something out, you know? We don’t want to do a disservice to the songs we’ve been working on. I mean, I wrote a solo record. I just finished that, I’ve been working on that all year, so.

Is your creative process different between those three outlets? If you think of a new melody or lyric how do you know which project you want to slot that into?

Well I never wanted to make a solo record, it seemed like a good time to just try it. My process of writing’s not any different than writing for Man Man. Mister Heavenly its easier because there’s another songwriter there with me, you know? If I hit a wall lyrically Nick can pick up the slack and vice versa. In Man Man if I hit a wall lyrically I gotta pick up the slack [laughs] and it becomes a little bit more arduous. It’s one of those things where I don’t feel like I’m unique in this, but after I finish a record I forget how to write songs and then it’s a process of relearning how to write songs, and then the double-edged nature of that is relearning to write songs but trying not to rewrite the same songs you’ve already written. I would think it would get easier as I get older but it just gets harder.

What can you tell us about the solo record? How does it differ from Man Man?

Well I’ve been living in LA now for a couple years so that definitely seeps in. Wherever I live and what’s going on in my life always filters its way somehow into the music so it’s definitely an LA-vibing record.

Any idea of a release date?

No, I just finished recording it so now its getting mixed and my buddy Cyrus produced it and it sounds amazing. I’m psyched about it but now I have to go through the whole rigmarole of do I find a label, does a label even give a shit, do kids give a shit, do I self release it, does it even matter anymore, you know? Gotta put together a band for it, so we’ll see.

Will there be a tour for that?

Oh yeah, [but] I wouldn’t play those songs with Man Man.

So no Six Demon Bag / solo tour?

No, fuck that! [Laughs] I wouldn’t be able to speak ever again, it’s hard enough singing Man Man songs! 

Yeah I noticed you have that in your Twitter bio, “Destroying my Throat One Album at a Time.” Is that a real concern? 

Well, I mean the first two Man Man records I didn’t know how to sing at all. I didn’t think there would be more than one or two records, so all the songs I wrote on those albums are just pipe shredders, so it destroyed my range and those songs are the hardest to sing as I got older with a band, you know? Your body starts to figure out how not to do it so the songs from, like, Rabbit Habits-on are just more catered to not destroying your voice.

I understand you started out as a screenwriter. Would you ever consider scoring film?

Yeah, I’ve scored films. I scored a feature a couple of summers ago with Joe from Mister Heavenly. My buddy just hooked me up and I’ve been scoring plays now. I scored a play a great play by this British playwright named Suzanne Heathcote called “I Saw My Neighbor on the Train and I Didn’t Even Smile." and that premiered in July; I just wrote pretty piano music. I’m scoring another play off Broadway, I start this November, and that play’s called “Avalanche,” and that’s my buddy Cyrus who produced my solo record, he and I have to write basically an album for this play – it’s not a musical either. I got back into screenwriting too, I wrote a feature last summer. I’m trying to do something with it and I’m working on a couple other projects; Cyrus – he’s like my writing foil in LA - we wrote a fucked up kids’ record last winter and we’re trying to do something with that. We teamed up with a really talented illustrator and director and we’re trying to put that together.

What kind of kids’ music?

It’s like if Ween made a kids’ record [laughs], so it’s not educational. I never in a million years wanted to write a fucking kids’ record, it was just a writing exercise. Cyrus and I justified it to ourselves; if we had to listen to a fucking kids’ record everyday when we drove our kids to school or something (neither one of us have kids by the way, but hypothetically) what would I not mind listening to and not get tired listening to? So that’s what we wrote. 

So if you’re called Honus Honus, what would your kid be called?

Oh god, what would my son be called? “Good luck!” [Laughs] “Mad Max!” So in conclusion, I’m working on a lot of other shit other than Man Man and music. You gotta stay busy or you go crazy. You gotta have outlets. 

Is being prolific the secret to not losing your mind?

Yeah, [but] I don’t know, I don’t even feel that prolific. Nick from Mister Heavenly, that motherfucker’s prolific. Joe too. You just gotta stay busy and creative.

Tell us a favorite backstory behind a song that most people wouldn’t know.

So I wrote “Shameless” for this girl I fell head-over-heels in love with and it didn’t really work, but I felt like I still needed to write her a song, which I’m sure she hates. When I was working on that song I was subletting in Philly and was being audited. The room I was subletting in was on a slant, which I didn’t realize, so if you laid a ball on the floor it would roll all the way to the other side of the room. I’m pretty sure that fucks up your equilibrium.

So all that was in the room was an Ikea mattress that I bought, all this tax paperwork everywhere, all these bottles of Wild Turkey because for some reason I started drinking Wild Turkey, I don’t know why, I had like this Wurlitzer piano that I was writing everything on, and I was just like writing all the lyrics on the walls. An electrician came over to check out the electricity in that room and I was downstairs and he walked from my room back down the stairs with, like, a ghosted look on his face, and I go back up in the room and I saw clearly for the first time how insane it looked! [Laughs] It looked like a crazy person lived there, there are lyrics on the wall, mattress on the floor, only thing there is piano mattress, booze bottles, papers, and lyrics scrawled on the walls. So I was like, oh, maybe this isn’t a healthy way to live. So “Shameless” came out of that, I’m very happy with that song.

Speaking of subletting, I’ve read how you had to live out of all these bizarre places like a storage unit. One line of yours that really stands out to me is “Home is where the bullet lands / As it travels through your head,” so I wonder, if you settled down one day what’s one thing that you would really want to have in that house that represents home for you?

Oh god. The internet! A piano. [Laughs] That’s the thing, I grew up and my dad was in the Air Force, so we moved every three years, so I just kind of had this restlessness instilled in me. Even when I move someplace it never feels like there’s permanence. I wish there was, I wish I didn’t have to move all the time, but I like having a piano and the internet [laughs], and the ability to make as much noise as I want. I’m most productive from 6:30 in the morning to about 5:00 in the afternoon. I don’t work at night, but people don’t want to hear people working on songs at 6:30 in the morning.

Is there a memorable time you were practicing and really pissed someone off?

Oh yeah, like my entire life! [Laughs] I mean this is the first place I’ve lived, this house that I moved into in June, where I can just play and it seems okay. I mean, I have a roommate and I’m sure it bums him out but he knew going into this situation what it would be like. [Laughs] I mean, I had this cool practice space that a buddy of mine let me use in LA, but the downside of it was I would go in the mornings because it was all rock bands around us. Most “rock and rollers” don’t start “rocking out” until like 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon or even later because they’re like sobering up from their partying, so it was perfect for me because I’m super productive in the morning.

So I go in there and at 7:00 and be out of there by 5:00 and it was cake, the only problem was our room is right next to the bathroom on one side and then right to the other side was some like terrible electronic band that wants to sound like FKA Twigs but they can’t seem to write a fucking song so they just keep looping the same part, and behind us was a band that was just trying to learn Bruce Springsteen covers but were tone deaf. So I was kind of sandwiched between some FKA Twigs knockoff band some really bad cover band and then the bathroom, so I was always constantly aware of working out all the bad ideas. I’d hear, like, shitty rock dudes taking rock dumps all day long all day long and I know when I’m in the bathroom next door that it’s just as loud in there as it is in our practice space, so it was awful.

How did you manage to stay impervious to being influenced by that? 

I would just sing under my breath so they couldn’t hear all my bad ideas, and so consequently the solo record I wrote is a lot more croon-y and singing-y because that’s how the songs got written because I wasn’t really screaming or yelling. So it was influenced by dudes taking rock and roll shits next door. 

Last thing, I noticed you haven’t done one of your #DeadAgain photos in a while. Have you figured out your mortality issue?

No, it’s just like with anything else I just got bored doing it. I was thinking about that today actually, like oh, we haven’t done any #DeadAgains for a while, but I don’t know, just kind of got bored with it.

Do you mind if we take one?

Yeah, we can take one.

Autre Ne Veut Flies Under the Radar With 'Age of Transparency'

James Blake, SOHN, Rhye, How To Dress Well, and JMSN serve as the current stalwarts of the nouveau amalgamation genre best known by joke-portmanteau-turned-legitimate-label PBR&B. A relatively young genre in the mainstream, PBR&B’s rise to popularity has left some artists within its classification unjustly understated, and none more so than Arthur Ashin, AKA Autre Ne Veut.

The journey of Autre Ne Veut has not gone totally unrecognized – sophomore record Anxiety enjoyed its fair share of critical success as one of the best albums of 2013, but Autre Ne Veut still couldn’t quite breach the surface of the zeitgeist. Because of his atypical approach to the genre, Ashin’s foray into PBR&B has been a bit of an exercise in futility. With third album, Age of Transparency, the unabashed nature of Ashin’s vocal and musical deconstructions suggests that mainstream success within PBR&B was never his aim.

Opening track, “On and On,” showcases Ashin’s warbling vocals atop airy piano that never quite reaches a true coda, and hysteric percussion that writhes and jolts with the increasing fury his voice. 

Second track, “Panic Room,” corrals itself and sets the tone for what the rest of Age of Transparency will actually turn into. More akin to a light 80s power ballad than PBR&B pillow whispers, Ashin continues to utilize his clamorous vocals to plead “I don’t want to feel like you are not here with me;” setting a more vulnerable lyrical tone, more apparent than earlier Autre Ne Veut endeavors.

The musicality is much more involved in Age of Transparency, with tracks like “Cold Winds” mixing bedroom bass and industrial rock ala Nine Inch Nails, the title track adding a little bit of St. Elmo’s Fire style jazz, and the final two tracks – “Over Now” and “Get Out” – both feature tinges of folk and gospel within their depths.

Ultimately, where Autre Ne Veut’s unorthodox modus operandi has failed to meet mainstream standards of PBR&B, the “mainstays” of the melded genre have failed to develop and come into their own the way that Ashin has. Age of Transparency is a triumph of continued development and understanding of a personal representation that will serve its producer better than any conventional approach possibly could, and its culmination is one of the most underrated albums of 2015.

Age of Transparency available now via Downtown Records.

The Dead Weather Are Resurrected on 'Dodge and Burn'

Five years removed from the release of The Dead Weather’s second album, Sea of Cowards, the scrappy indie-supergroup relegated (or elevated, depending on your perspective) to Jack White side project, released their third album, Dodge and Burn.

Following some haphazard research (Google search: “Dead Weather new album promotion”), it has become increasingly apparent that the majority of music/lifestyle blogs and brands covering the Dodge and Burn release are under the impression that The Dead Weather is a project only signified by Jack White's presence and his growing relevance in pop culture.

For the sake of uniqueness, Transverso has elected to avoid diverting the reader with the ongoing and over-saturated melodrama of Jack White vs. Dan Auerbach, Jack White-Hates-Life memes, and the enigma that is TIDAL music streaming, and instead focus solely on his collaborative combination with Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita, and (the apparently eleven-fingered) “Little” Jack Lawrence.

Dodge and Burn opens with the Zeppelin-leaning “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles),” with Mosshart caterwauling with a warped joy throughout the track. Fertita’s guitar stands out as the song’s flair piece, while White’s drums leads the track every which way, further extending the Bonham-esque nature of the song.

“Buzzkill(er)” and “Let Me Through” follow “I Feel Love” on Dodge and Burn, and both tracks fit the more “classic” Dead Weather sound – sonic allusions to Captain Beefhart, crunchy bass, unkempt drums, and the unhinged pacing. Both are solid tracks, but don’t necessarily offer as playful a tone as “I Feel Love.”

While the second and third tracks on Dodge and Burn maintain what’s familiar, “Three Dollar Hat” heightens the album’s diversity (and overall bad-assery) with a romp of a track. Batting cleanup, the song sounds like Kurt Cobain and The Mad Hatter got together to record an industrial rock track and blow it up one minute in. With only White’s vocals leading the track along, it only helps extend the screwball nature that has become The Dead Weather.

The middle part of Dodge and Burn hearkens back with sounds more reminiscent of Horehound and Sea of Cowards, though “Rough Detective” begins with a brief (but intriguing) sort of skuzzball jazz beat, eventually diving right into the scrappy rock and roll the band cut their teeth with. “Open Up” probably acts as the most archetypal Dead Weather song on the album, with a ravaging opening and the eventual swell into a massive crescendo that lays waste to any expectation of anything else.

Dodge and Burn closes out with a three-track cacophony of rock and roll blitzkrieg – a tight manifesto in “Mile Markers,” a vociferous unraveling with “Cop and Go,” and a triumphant exclamation point in “Too Bad” – and ends with a curious, almost Raconteurs-ish ballad in “Impossible Winner” that acts as a departure from the standoff nature of Dodge and Burn and instead offers the affirmation that The Dead Weather are not just another Jack White side-project, but in fact a full-fledged band that looks to continue for years to come.

'You're The Worst' S02E03 "Born Dead"

It’s your typical “nice guy wears down oblivious girl” story, but “Born Dead” takes it to its logical conclusion as Paul brings his new girlfriend Amy to the party, by actually showing how that goes down in real life. 

Sure, Edgar and Lindsay kiss, but instead of her realizing the right guy was in front of her the whole time and running away into the sunset together, it’s presented here as what it is; a nice guy taking advantage of the vulnerability so very apparent in Lindsay, and the kiss resonates in a bad way. Luckily, Desmin Borges’ earnestness as Edgar means it’s not outright creepy, but had you been abandoned by your parents as a baby and been raised solely by wolves and romantic comedies, this exchange would make you go “Huh?” before you went back to hunting rabbits or something. (If wolves and romantic comedies have, in fact, raised you, thank you very much for reading this review. I’m not sure how you get Internet deep in wolf territory, but kudos to you.) This subversion of romantic tropes is where You’re the Worst really comes into its own, and its effect here is more of a blunt clubbing than a rapier-like evisceration.

On the other side, we see Gretchen’s innate reluctance to grow up, and a stronger insight into what makes Jimmy our surly, cynical protagonist. Jimmy is spurred on by a near crippling sense of loneliness and rejection (that hit ever so slightly close to home) – it’s elaborated on here as he recounts the story of “Shitty Jimmy” to an inexplicably emotional Vernon, and it explains a great deal why it took Becca’s initial rejection to get his creative juices really flowing. What has become apparent, though, is that Sullen-Writer Jimmy is completely at odds with Likeable-Human-Being Jimmy. In the end, it takes the aforementioned quote from Vernon to put him right, but for Gretchen, it takes a reminder of her past to spur her to look toward a future. Her friends show up, all right, but at past 30 years old, they’ve grown up and moved on from her. Except for one, who offers an insight into staying the same all your life. She ends up stealing Gretchen’s stereo, and it should provide the kick Gretchen needs to grow up a little. 

There’s no rush, however – You’re The Worst makes no excuses for any of its four central characters, and their open flaws are part of what makes the show and its comedy work. Part of that is down to Stephen Falk’s fantastic writing, too. What we’re seeing here is hopefully the beginning of the end pertaining to this Edgar and Lindsay storyline (though the kiss at the end makes me doubt it slightly), and the beginning of a development that allows Jimmy and Gretchen to move that much closer to being in an adult relationship with one another. 

Living together is only f*cked up if you stop getting f*cked up. Watch the TRAILER for the all new season of You're The Worst. SUBSCRIBE to FXX https://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=FXXNetwork ABOUT YOU'RE THE WORST An original comedy from writer and executive producer Stephen Falk, You're The Worstputs a dark twist on the romantic comedy genre.

'You’re The Worst' S02E02 “Crevasses”

You’re The Worst continues to follow the fallout from the awesome season finale, and we see the first set of consequences from “Fists and Feet and Stuff” in “Crevasses”. Gretchen’s upset that Jimmy doesn’t seem to want to make room for her in their place together, making her live “in the crevasses”, which is where episode two gets its name. They take a trip to the mall, where Gretchen has multiple breakdowns buying basic stuff for her place after it emerges she has the inventory of a 19 year-old university student, culminating in a tirade that starts off as a rant against the patriarchy and the perils of visible panty lines, and ends with the phrase, “I’m an irresponsible monster who burned down her apartment with a vibrator”. 

Jimmy appears to take a backseat in this episode (and in the one after this) but what we’re seeing here is Jimmy and Gretchen in their natural habitats, and a little bit of an insight into why these two are truly considered the “worst”. In episode three, “Born Dead”, Gretchen holds a party to reconnect with her old friends, while Jimmy is forced to hang out with Vernon after an Instagram mishap. Vernon actually gives us our episode’s title, explaining the futility of human life without connection by explaining his still-birth. It’s a harrowing tale, but only the second-most harrowing one of the episode, as Paul describes the death of his friend’s wife in stuttering, visceral (though completely, sadistically hilarious) detail.

He’s explaining it to Edgar, who in these last two episodes has made good on his pursuit of Lindsay. “Crevasses” involves him accompanying Lindsay to a bar, and acting as her wingman as she looks to get back on the saddle after Paul’s departure in episode one. Luckily, he runs into a gay fellow, who seemingly sets him on the right path, by setting him up with the bartender. It works for about half a day, before Lindsay pulls him back in by having him take pictures of her. Racy pictures, with an uncomfortable amount of barbecue sauce in uncomfortable places. 

Living together is only f*cked up if you stop getting f*cked up. Watch the TRAILER for the all new season of You're The Worst. SUBSCRIBE to FXX https://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=FXXNetwork ABOUT YOU'RE THE WORST An original comedy from writer and executive producer Stephen Falk, You're The Worstputs a dark twist on the romantic comedy genre.