{"id":370,"date":"2012-09-12T15:35:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T14:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/douglascowie.com\/?p=370"},"modified":"2012-09-12T15:35:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T14:35:00","slug":"music-review-north-elementary-soft-couch-tremolo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/?p=370","title":{"rendered":"Music Review: North Elementary &#8220;Soft Couch Tremolo&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.northelementary.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"packageart.img_0\" src=\"http:\/\/f0.bcbits.com\/z\/23\/18\/2318047005-1.jpg\" alt=\"package image\" width=\"119\" height=\"94\" \/>North Elementary<\/a> <em>Soft Couch Tremolo<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/potluckfoundation.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Potluck Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The terrible thing about this album is that it only lasts a little over seventeen minutes, and you really want it to go on for twice as long.\u00a0 North Elementary often sounds like a big and ballsy hard rock band trying to sound like pop geniuses, or maybe pop geniuses trying to sound like a big and ballsy hard rock band; either way, the result is magical.\u00a0 The lead guitar parts often sound like J Mascis on quaaludes, which I mean entirely as a compliment.\u00a0 They also play big riffs that strut and swagger, but have such a friendly smile on their faces that you know they won\u2019t piss in your beer unless you\u2019re the sort of jerk who had it coming anyway.\u00a0 Listen to \u201cEvery Good Aim\u201d, the second song on the record: a nimble and pretty melody develops over 2:43 into a big crescendo that stops just a wee bit short of where you think it will head, avoiding a big dumb clich\u00e9 payoff and dropping you back into that sweet melody before it ends.\u00a0 Or what about \u201cBattle the Fortress\u201d?\u00a0 Who the hell cares what it\u2019s supposed to mean when that louche lead guitar, steady drumbeat, melodic and rambling baseline, burbling organ and vocal harmonies lead you into and then back out of a swaggery middle section, and then repeat the trick?\u00a0 Does your devil wear slippers?\u00a0 North Elementary\u2019s does, and they like the party and the romance.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the South and East and West Elementaries have real good kickball teams or whatever, but I know which school I\u2019m backing in the battle of the bands.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"DouglasCowie\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Music%20Review%3A%20North%20Elementary%20%22Soft%20Couch%20Tremolo%22\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Elementary Soft Couch Tremolo Potluck Foundation &nbsp; The terrible thing about this album is that it only lasts a little over seventeen minutes, and you really want it to go on for twice as long.\u00a0 North Elementary often sounds like a big and ballsy hard rock band trying to sound like pop geniuses, or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"DouglasCowie\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Music%20Review%3A%20North%20Elementary%20%22Soft%20Couch%20Tremolo%22\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-reviews","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":372,"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions\/372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.douglascowie.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}