Photography by Elle

Well… The weather outside is frightful, but the fire’s soooo delightful.  I wish there was no place to go today, but alas & alas, here we are and here we must be, no snuggling in a bed all day for us today.  As the French say, “kest le vye, kest le vye”, that’s life man.

One thing about the snow, it’s keeping me indoors on the various stationary bikes.  Not cool.  BUT, made the most of it and did my first product review yesterday on a spinning video for cyclists!  So, for all you hardcore mammer-jammers out there looking for a distracting motivator while spinning your wheels in futility in your basement, check it out.

Yeah, yeah, enough about cycling, I know what you are here for, I’m here for the exact same reason!  And today, I was very pleasantly surprised to find floating around on this super information intertubal river system of love The Desert of Shallow Effects by Miles Kurosky, who is the lead guy from Beulah who’s name I can’t seem to remember (which explains why I was pleasantly surprised).

I read about this album coming about a year ago, I think.  Certainly a while back.  I think there were issues causing the delay of the album, including some hospital time by either Miles or someone important to the album.  I was following along for a while, but ultimately other interests took my attention away.   So much so, that I forgot the guy’s name is Miles Kurosky.  So, when I saw this thing floating around, it was by happenstance that I looked inside and saw that it was Beulah.

HOORAY!

I’m very curious how the hype machine (not The Hype Machine website, I mean, the actual hype machine that is you, me, and the rest of this blog-eat-blog universe) will treat this album.  I mean, according to Amazon, this is “sure to be one of the most talked-about indie-rock records of 2010″

Apparently, one of the songs, “An Apple For An Apple” was already myspace-released back in 2008 and granted, I don’t always have my finger on the pulse of the blogosphere, I completely missed it.  WHIFF!

So…. how is it?  Does it live up to the hype that I’m apparently completely oblivious to??  Does it meet the lofty expectations Amazon and “Pitchfork & other influential blogs” have set upon it???  I don’t know.  Probably not.  When you go out on top, you can’t come back and just keep on going, I don’t think the brains of a music lover work like that.  If Neutral Milk Hotel put out an album right now, I’d imagine they’d have a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of “meeting expectations”.

Maybe that’s why this is a Miles Kurosky album, eventhough Beulah was pretty much Miles already, and let me tell ya, this album’s chocked full o’ Beulah (it even has old members on it)?  Does going solo 6 years after the demise of a beloved band give you a fighting chance or an excuse not to match the vision of Beulah that bounces around in our tiny little noggins?  These arequestions for wiser people than myself.

Me?  I just have 10 songs sitting on my mp3 player of necessity, 10 relatively tiny clumps of time that represent the 6 years of work by Miles that may or may not involve an owl.

I’ll say it again….. and again… and again.  I’m so glad I’m not a musician, or more specifically, a recording artist.  Don’t know how you guys do it.  But I’m so glad you do.   I think I’ll just stick to photography, thank you.

So, yeah, the album. Well, it’s today’s feature, so obviously I like it.  The more I listen, the more I like it.  It’s got elements that are immediately enjoyable, but I think there’s more here, more nuggets to enjoy later as well as the shine fades and it all settles in properly.  In all honesty, if you told me this was Beulah and not Miles Kurosky, I’d say, “yeah, that sounds about right”, because, it DOES sound like what I imagine a 2010 Beulah to sound like, that is, evolved, moved on, but still “Beulah-y”.  If that makes any sense (probably not).

Will it be one of the most talked-about indie-rock albums of 2010?  Personally, I don’t think so… In this day, it seems the most talked-about albums are trendy genres (like maybe the weird-electronic-pop trend going on) and a few really hyped up bands like Vampire Weekend.  But, man, I’ve been wrong before.  More often than not.

But who cares?  It’s up to you and me, i.e. the music listener, to like or dislike something, not Pitchfork or whatever the hell makes up the list of “other influential blogs”.  So, listen and figure it out for yourself!

Enjoy!

1. Notes From The Polish Underground
2. An Apple For An Apple
3. Dead Language Blues
4. I Can?t Swim
5. She Was My Dresden
6. Pink Lips, Black Lungs
7. The World Won?t Last The Night
8. Housewives And Their Knives
9. Dog In The Burning Building
10. West Memphis Skyline

Some Miles linkage: Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru