Well the Grammys came and went, I didn't watch and I didn't much care. The PLUG awards don't get me much more excited--see if you agree with the winners, here. Many seem a little off to me, but I guess that's what happens when you don't vote.

Actually what I'm concerned with at the moment is that our boys of Interpol seem to be getting neglected by their new big label. What with all that's going on at Capitol lately, and all their efforts with the likes of Lily Allen, they haven't even had time to add them to the online roster. Add to that Interpol's own near non-functioning site and still just vague plans of a release later this year after a whole year of talk, and we have so many unanswered questions. Are you being dropped? Is recording done? Will Carlos D. be able to enforce proper action with his steel toes?

What got me thinking about this in the first place was listening to the Contriva song "Unhelpful" which has some good tremolo (is that what it's even called?) going on with the guitar which made me think of how I just love the tremolo (?) in the last minute of Interpol's "Next Exit" which made me think "Where the hell is that third album?" (Listen to that song on really good headphones. Oh man.)

mp3: Contriva - Unhelpful
mp3: Interpol - Next Exit


Now that you know the details of this stream of consciousness, Contriva deserves a proper introduction. This Berlin band released the album Separate Chambers on Morr Records last year. They layer simple clean sounds, usually instrumental but sometimes with perfectly complementary vocals. Here's what they remind me of so far: the beach on a cold day, old Sesame Street video clips of parks or factories. That's the thing about instrumentals, you really get to make up your own stories, so get to it.