Album Listening Party: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Pershing Album

Hawkes and I were up late the other night, and we thought it might be fun to listen/blog to an album we’ve never heard before as a Tag Team. So I asked Victor, ‘What is something good I should be listening to, but probably haven’t?”. He suggested Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (SSLYBY or I am warm and powerful for even more information about the band). So Hawkes and I figured it was time to check out their latest album Pershing. So for the next hour or so we chatted about the band, life, and things that came to mind while listening to them. Please join us after the jump. If you really want to get in the mood play them here while you read the blog.

The review after the Jump.

me: Hey there Hawkes – so are you ready for the first TagTeam album listening on PopTen?
You there?

Hawkes: Almost!I’m googling pershing square bc it sounds so familiar. I thought it was a tube stop, but I think it’s a restaurant I can order from at work.

me: No the band’s name is Somebody Still Love You Boris Yeltsin and the album is Pershing!
Hawkes: Oh that’s the album name – ah ok – anyway it’s the resturant under the overpass across from grand central sorry we can begin

me: okay – here goes – TRACK 1

Hawkes: Don’t put the volume on 13 it makes me nervous omg I love this so far!
it’s been 5 seconds

me: It reminds me a little bit of Beulah – driving in Los Angeles

Hawkes: I dont know what that is like actually driving in LA

me: Beluah’s a band, but driving in LA was what I was doing

Hawkes: ah yes totally fair, with the traffic and the hippies – hipsters

me: hah – I like the drums in this part. It’s starting to feel like a possible summer anthem I’ll have to save it up for June 2009 – TRACK 2

Hawkes: yeah I could totally dance to this and take it to coney island. Boring Fountain as opposed to the really entertaining ones hahaha – fell asleep in a boring fountain…

me: I like a band that makes peppy songs with sad lyrics there is something so much more truthful to me about that. Listening to the Beach Boys was always great for that

Hawkes: Totally, sloop john b = most depressing song of all time but catchy

me: You can almost get lost in the feeling, and later on revisit the lyrics at a much sadder time. Then suddenly the nostalgia for the happy moment with the song sparks, and makes it that much sadder when you’re already feeling down. Maybe that is too much a window in what happens every now and then with me.

Hawkes: this feels a lot like ipod music… mean for listening to alone and observing the world
like a soundtrack for your day

me: TRACK 3 – what’s the name of this one?

Hawkes: I’M ON IT hold your horses – Dead Right

me: oh i know this one – and love it – my brother plays this one all the time

Hawkes: I feel like it sounds like the beatles kind of

me: His voice is a little more melodic

Hawkes: It’s nice to hear a band that isn’t annoying – I’m talking to you pete wentz! – this isn’t whiny like I could almost see it in the 60s when people wern’t as greasy and dudes didn’t wear eyeliner. Aren’t the beatles super melodic? Like hey juuuuuuuuuuuuuuude…

me: Didn’t Pete Wentz become part of Cobra Starship, and make that song about Snakes on a Plane?

Hawkes: I have to check if these guys wear eyeliner I think so… but that doesn’t make him less lame

me: There album cover is actually pretty chill.

Hawkes: he writes poetry and married ashlee simpson so really

me: Wow Ashlee Simpson – Thats bad

Hawkes: for the recond, I really liked 3

me: TRACK 4

Hawkes: The Beach Song – This time I’m going to concentrate. I’m just starting to get used to his voice.

me: Lazy beach music, you’re friend just had the last Corona, and now you’re stuck with the Coors Light. But it’s summer and secretly you kind of wanted to drink the Coors Light anyways. Do you know anything about them?

Hawkes: I love coors light

me: TRACK 5

Hawkes: Modern mystery. They seem a lot younger than us holy crap I’m the oldest person alive

me: It’s starting to get a little scary with all that. All of my friend’s little sisters and interns are getting to that point where they’re just going to their study abroad programs

Hawkes: they look super cute in older pictures I feel a transition to D-bag.

me: Are they wearing cardigans?

Hawkes: I like this song. All of these songs so far I think would be perfect for the silent raves they have in union square.

me: What are those again? People gather and wear ipods and dance?

Hawkes: yeah they dance to their own music it sounds awesome. I always want to dance to my ipod.

me: I really like the lyrics to this song. ‘There is no modern mystery’ – reminds me of reading guns, germs, and steel. There was this one moment where a population moved to another island, and then 500 years later the original island goes out to get them. Neither of them remember there heritage, and so the original group enslaves the others who became a more gentile people

Hawkes: You know I was thinking of reading that, but I can’t commit to that long of a book

me: TRACK 6

Hawkes: some constellation because it’s my first listen these are all sounding the same but they’re all really good

me: This sounds more like a fluid album that you just listen to all the way through. More like one where you ideas just float around in your head, sometimes you tune in and sometimes you don’t. You don’t quite remember what track it is, but you end up being able to hum along in general
TRACK 7

Hawkes: This is ‘I wanna die’ I think

me: I think this guy had his heart broken

Hawkes: that’s really the only way to write an album. Hello ‘Tragic Kingdom’
no singers have good relationships

me: I was wondering how long it would take you to bring No Doubt into the conversation

Hawkes: it took bon jovi leaving his hs sweetheart for diane lane and diane lane leaving him for him to write “you give love a bad name”

me: (for those who don’t know Hawkes LOVES No Doubt)

Hawkes: I love no doubt

me: Thats all true – I have a confession about Bon Jovi, and that is not knowing enough about his life

Hawkes: but you are BON JOVIIIIIII no Italiano? That was a very cheerful tune about suicide

me: I like that line about carrying a torch and letting it burn – sometimes you want to just hate life – TRACK 8

Hawkes: You could write a book

me: you could write a book, nerd

Hawkes: um probably dont have the attention span for that. This sounds like something else
that I know. I spent a few weeks in the company of a bunch of Irish people and this girl Linda who I just loved told me about this Irish band Bell X1. Sounds similar.

me: Hm – never heard of them – I’ll have to check it out

Hawkes: We have the cd – fyi

me: hahaha – ok – TRACK 9. I like the intro and the title

Hawkes: Oceanographer

me: oh all the grapher professions – stenographer, photographer, etc. Why have I never given that a second thought until this song.

Hawkes: Wow – I dont think that I ever thought that an oceanographer makes maps of oceans
is that true? What the hell did I think it was?

me: really? REALLY?

Hawkes: I guess I thought that they just like study it

me: Reallahhhh

Hawkes: and look at it and stuff

me: i think you’re right about that

Hawkes: whatever like it was ever a career option for me! I dont lke being cold, wearing tight things, being around things that could possibly eat me, not touching earth

me: You think the ocean has turned against you whenever you go into the ocean

Hawkes: it’s salty – ick. I’m going to say that this one is not my favorite. I hate needless rhyming – oceanographer, court stenographer, unnecessary.

me: Agreed about TRACK 9, and onto TRACK 10

Hawkes: Heers

me: a little repetitive

Hawkes: i love clapping – a la little pink houses

me: what about doing the triangle? This reminds me a little of disco 2000 by Pulp. In just the smallest of ways though. I like this one though maybe the sleeper hit of the album for me. TRACK 11.

Hawkes: I still think it sounds too much like the first ones Doris Tailspin (Boring Fountain) – I love putting boring in front of inanimate objects. This is the last song
ummm nothings happening

me: I think you have to give the benefit of the doubt to the fact that we’re paying such close attention to the music. Yeah that was weird nothing happened.

Hawkes: was that just the end of the last song?

me: I guess it’s over

Hawkes: ummmmm – weird

me: Not with a bang but a whisper I suppose… Wow I can’t believe I just wrote that. I feel like D-bag .

Hawkes: ugh I Hate going out with a whisper

me: Maybe they’re converting me into one. Just kidding – They seem like nice upstanding citizens on patrol.

Hawkes: Remember in the 90s when the last song on an album had like a 2 min break of nothing
then like an instrumental for NO REASON. Maybe that’s happening.I’m still willing to sit here and wait.

me: We’ll see that one Weird Al Yankovic cd had 12 minutes of silence before the last hit. I just said a mouthful about what I was listening to in the 90s.

Hawkes: oh cds! oh old timey ways of listening to music now I”m more willing to accept that it’s probably over it’s been like 3 minutes

me: So what is the verdict on Somebody Still Loves You Boris? Pershing the Album

Hawkes: wait! amazon does say the last song is 56 seconds. I REALLY THINK THAT MIGHT HAVE RUINED IT FOR ME. That is lame – sooooo lame – it makes me want to say “humph!!”

me: Hmmm – well barring the ending I’d give it – how are we going to rate these things Hawkes?

Hawkes: And it’s still 99 cents! Why would you pay 99 cents for a 56 second song! grrrrr… Anyway – What’s our scale?

me: It aint nothing but a tricked out hyundai? $50 PBJ? I dunno, but we should probably think of one on the spot.

Hawkes: on a scale of 7 – 45. I’d say this is a 35. Really fun to listen to, very nicely crafted
but also very seasonal. Like you’d feel like a tool listening to “blue christmas” in june. I feel like the winter isn’t ready for this or it has to be snowing those big fat slow ones. That might be ok.

me: I would say that if I saw the CD at a store I wouldn’t have even glanced at it because of the cover art. The album is pretty damn solid though. I thought the breakdowns were really nice actually, and the guy’s voice was actually melodic. That’s pretty rare.

Hawkes: Yeah I liked his voice a lot, and could the name of the band be any longer? It’s SSLYBY… SRSLY?

me: People are running out of names to call themselves! What are bands supposed to do? Pearl Jam 2?

Hawkes: Eleven! – Birthday – Champagne Thursday – coffee table – look that was four off the top of my head… Matchbox 30!

me: hahaha – what an abomination of a band

Hawkes: i love them – FULL DISCLOSURE I LOVE MATCHBOX 20. I’m not even going to apologize for it!

me: alright so – I’m going to go with a hot dog equation for my rating method. Two hot dogs is just right, and no hot dogs is horrible, 5 hot dogs is way too many hot dogs, and 10 is throw up time.

Hawkes: I love it

me: 7 is probably unconscious, and 10 could be fatal if I don’t throw up because that is way too much mystery meat (that’s a good band name I call dibs, just kidding) Are there five of them called that already?

Hawkes: I mean a human could eart well into the 60s. A champion hot dog eater can down 66 dogs in 10 minutes.

me: Hot Dog eating champions are not human. They are eating Gods, er at least demi gods.

Hawkes: Full gods

me: three hot dogs is probably perfect. Alright so I am going to go with 1 and 1/2 hot dogs
I ate well – had a little soda – got a little too full off the fries, and ended up wishing i had saved space for more hot dog.

Hawkes: haha – couldn’t agree more. Although I think eating half a hot dog is physically impossible

me: you’re impossible

Hawkes: except for the time a pidgeon stole half my hot dog out of my hand at the statue of liberty

me: Really? what happened?

Hawkes: I was eating a hot dog in line for the statue and all of a sudden it felt like someone hit me in the head, and I was with my friend Jasen, and I was like ‘what did Jasen just hit me?’, and as I turned around I realized that I was no longer holding a hot dog – And the woman in front of me was covered in mustard. Rogue mustard. The pigeon ran into my head and took it OUT of my hand when I was distracted. Those assholes are smart!

me: maybe that is the ultimate insult for our rating scale – you’re really excited to eat hot dogs, but then a pigeon takes half of it away, and you’re left wondering for the rest of your life why it took it away… and what that delicious half a hot dog must have tasted like to that thieving pigeon

Hawkes: hahaha – yes

me: OK! That’s all folks for Hawkes and Juan Carlos on our first Tag Team journey! Hope you enjoyed – I know that I did.

Hawkes: I promise we’ll get better at this and make actual conclusions someday!

Well that about does it, and if you stuck around until the end I am seriously impressed. I hope you liked our album listening party, and I hope you enjoyed the music of SSLYBY. Go holler about them somewhere on the internet. I’m sure they would appreciate it. Also, if you can guess the two wrestlers names in the photograph for the Tag Team I owe you a coke.

Hint: They were my favorite wrestlers in the world growing up.