Merge Records

Telekinesis’ power over pop

Monday, February 21st, 2011 | musiX | No Comments

Michael Benjamin Lerner broke up with his girlfriend. Then he bought a new bass. The presence of both is all over Telekinesis‘ latest full-length12 Desperate Straight Lines, a record jam-packed with prickly power pop songs with a soft center.

The Seattle singer/songwriter/skin-basher takes the tried-and-true approach of making his songs sound like a clear spring day, while his lyrics call for torrential downpour. The tone is set in the record’s first two lines: “We fell in love in the summer, by the springtime we were done / Is it any wonder that I didn’t run?” Oh, and that new bass is the weapon of choice here—cranked high and fuzzed out to the nth degree. It’s this, combined with the buzzing guitars and Lerner’s terse lyrics, that make Telekinesis’ sophomore record weightier than 2009’s Merge debut Telekinesis!. Pure pop meets marked mope.

Of course, music of the pop variety typically has a short shelf life. And while Lerner is far from reinventing the wheel, 12 Desperate Straight Lines is holding up so far—catchy, but not obvious; lyrics are universal without being too cliché—like (dare I say it) early Weezer records. Bottom (desperate, straight) line: This is power pop done right.

“Car Crash” - Telekinesis

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Polvo en las orejas

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | musiX | No Comments

You’ve got to ease out of something like KISS WEEK. I can’t just drop some Canadian twee-pop duo on you … I’ve got to keep the guitar rock going.

Much like Mission of Burma, Polvo returned after a long hiatus—10 years to be exact—and have done so without missing a step. Still loud. Still strange. As the band’s new video will attest. “Right the Relation” comes off Polvo’s latest record In Prism (Merge Records). You’ll find closeup string bends (my favorite part) and puke-y black pasta. Oh, and you’ll hear freaky, angular guitars. Basically, all is right in the world.

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