Feb
14
Didn’t notice that Terminal Boredom reviewed this one until Strunk just told me. They seem to have liked it but recommend you buy the AIDS of Spades 7″ first. And maybe you should, we’ve still got copies of that in stock!
Life Partners “Music is Hard” LP
Life Partners have been at it for a half-dozen releases at least by now, grinding out records and carving out their little niche for the true believers. I don’t think anyone who hears a Life Partners record would ever say they’re a shitty band. They’re a smart outfit, perhaps too smart at times, reflecting the New England weirdo hippie-slash-punk DIY scenes of Forced Exposure/Twisted Village and whatnot. Clever music for clever people. Or something like that. Anyway, Life Partners do plenty of things well: goony Gulcher-esque proto-punk, burnout folk-rock, lo-fi metal-psych (“Are We Practicing Tonight?”) and honestly their best tunes come about when they just sound like a really really good bar-rock band playing some cooking originals. They do some bad shit too. The title track is a bit funny but almost becomes an SNL skit. The vocals get a little too wacky on a few of the tracks, but at least the lyrics are good enough to make you forget their few sins. It all gets a little snarky after a side’s worth, but they hit the target more often than not. Wayne Rogers twiddled the knobs for his Major Stars’ cohorts here, so it sounds fantastic for the duration. If you’ve never heard this band, get the “AIDS of Spades” 7″ and work from there.(RK)
(Ride the Snake // www.ridethesnakerecords.com)
Sep
20
from Stereo Sanctity, Sept. 18, 2011:
One day, when a combination of laziness, cynicism and endless PR emails from try-hard indie bands causes me to give up doing a music blog, I think I might take everything down and just leave a blank page with a link to this song in the middle of it. It’s pretty cathartic.
(Hopefully that won’t happen soon though.)
(And hopefully you’ll conveniently forget I posted this when I get ‘round to plugging my own stuff again.)
(Oh, and, you can download all this band’s stuff for free here if you like.)
Added later, elsewhere:
The genius thing about this song is it cuts both ways – there are people in whose faces I’d dearly love to yell it, but at the same time I know there are probably legions who’d want to yell it right back at every musical thing I’ve ever played in, liked or been associated with. Kind of a universal cycle of cleansing music-sceney anger.
Ironic that I think the great thing about pop music is that it’s really easy, but… I get what he means I s’pose. Not urging bands to “improve” in a technical sense (I hope), but just to please, please try to be, y’know… better?
http://stereosanctity.blogspot.com/2011/09/3.html
Sep
14
from Built on a Weak Spot, Sept. 14, 2011:
Life Partners have been kicking around Boston for awhile now, releasing what is now an impressive six albums with their latest Music is Hard. Their previous LP, Men Are Talking, got some praise on these pages a year or so ago with its unabashed bar rock/70’s riffage combined with the bands usual hard line wit. At that time I also professed my love for their sprawling ballad “Planet of the AIDS”, to which I am still waiting for a chance to bust out in a turntable.fm room without getting the boot, much to my dismay. However, they’ve topped themselves on this most recent effort…and by a significant amount. First and foremost, Music is Hard is littered with tracks that skewer the nether regions of the incestuous bar rock scene and the pitfalls that often come with the territory, along with some other rockers that dive into various other humorous scenarios. If you have acquaintances that are in bands, well you need to stop reading and just go ahead and scroll down and click on the MP3 below. The title track “Music is Hard” is an anthem that probably won’t be surpassed for awhile, if ever. While I was sitting spinning this record the sudden turn into blunt honesty after the first verse nearly made me ball up on the ground in tears due to laughter. And this is coming from someone who has never really had to deal with the awkwardness and constant dodging of having to see terrible bands that unfortunately have people you know in them. But I’ve been there, and this track says it all. And while it may be the best song on here, it shouldn’t overshadow other great numbers like “Make Out Party”, “Are We Practicing Tonight” and “Lyrics” where the band lays it out textbook style for you, with a bit of an extra jab for prog-rock fans. Absolutely loving this. Music is hard indeed…
Sep
13
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/10162797459/life-partners-music-is-hard-lp-ride-the-snake
Life Partners – Music is Hard LP (Ride the Snake)
“Music is Hard” = best song of 2011, 2010, and I’m adopting it as the official theme song of Still Single. You should just listen to it right now. There are no words now that this song exists. The rest of it is sublime, vacillating between confessional-style divorce pop (in this case, a divorce from liquor, as far as the story of “I Didn’t Get the Joke” is concerned), played straight in the way Ween might do it, but with a more obscurant sense of humor. There’s a reverence here for late ‘70s and early ‘80s MOR, and no one is ashamed. Life Partners’ ballads could’ve come from some heartbroken dudes in 1977 Halifax, but the pokerfaces they hold up to transgressions of sentiment on this album makes them somehow funnier through the sincerity, sketch comedy that’s really as truthful as it is funny. On the flip side, they do these KISS-style bar brawlers with completely literal and ridiculous sentiments (“Lyrics” for instance … Jesus, that song). Frontman Dave Dougan just calls ‘em like he sees ‘em, I suppose, from the frontlines of (the city) Boston’s live-in-a-dive musical mortuary. But the end result is massively entertaining, like (the band) Boston’s second album. Recorded with a muffled thud by working genius Wayne Rogers. “Music is hard. But it seems so much harder for you!” Truer words, amigos. 175 copies pressed, and free downloads at the link above. (http://www.ridethesnakerecords.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
