Issue #5 - Direct Hit! And Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
Two albums we found thanks to an algorithm
Every other week, Ryan🇺🇸and Dan🇬🇧give each other an album to listen to and then talk about it. Most of these albums will probably be some form of emo (at least to start). Yes, we are aware this would probably work better as a podcast.
Dan: Greetings from the lockdown.
Ryan: My state is “on pause” but the UK is on full lockdown now right? Boris Johnson really wanted to make sure you were home to work on your emo newsletter.
Dan: As of about 4 hours ago, but I turned 37 last week and I've been self isolating for most of that time, so it's business as usual in my house.
Ryan: 37! Wait, Dan when was your birthday wtf. Happy birthday!
Dan: My birthday was last Sunday Ryan, my best friend.
Ryan: Oh no.
Dan: The 15th. Every year.
Ryan: Hmm I’m going to blame this one on the pandemic.
Dan: No sweat, I spent it inside listening to records and doing a jigsaw puzzle, it was a good time. Speaking of records, here's a seamless transition. This week we gave each other albums we found on Spotify Discover. How did you like Casiotone for the Painfully Alone?
Ryan: CPA, as I will refer to them from here on out, is like discovering Bigfoot. It’s like they’re the missing evolutionary link.
Dan: Yes I too felt like I'd found a missing part of not just music, but myself, you know?
Ryan: So I don’t know if you know this about me but I went through a humungous emotronica phase in college.
Dan: 1) I did not know that 2) It does not surprise me.
Ryan: (And was briefly in a band signed to a MySpace only emotionica “record label” lol)
Dan: You contain multitudes Ryan.
Ryan: Anyways, a lot of that stuff is tremendously hit or miss but CPA is lofi in the right ways but hip in the right ways too. It’s walking a very tough line to walk.
Dan: And you hadn't heard them before?
Ryan: I had always heard about them but never actually sat down and listened.
Dan: I feel very good about that. That's what we're here for, friendship and musical discovery. The birthday forgetting puts the friendship back a bit but the musical discovery is going strong.
Ryan: Speaking of which. Direct Hit! Tell me tell me. Did it feel like you were inside my brain?
Dan: Okay so Direct Hit!, the second band in a row with an exclamation mark, were a good time. It was almost exactly like hanging out with you. fun, fast-paced, and almost entirely forgettable.
Ryan: Owned. It’s definitely one of those albums that is An Album without many standout tracks.
Dan: But not in a bad way, it's pure pop punk, and they do it well. They've been around a while, surprised you didn't bump into them at warped tour or similar.
Ryan: Me too tbh. Which actually I wanted to talk about, the weird way Spotify Discover bands always to me fill like a very specific thing: Sounds like a band I love but probably not a band I’ll fall totally in love with. It’s like the algorithm can definitely give me good stuff to jam out to while on writing at work but like not exactly stuff that makes a serious emotional connection which I assume requires more secret sauce.
Dan: Yeah it's like taste adjacent. Elevator music for the brain. i think Spotify discover works best when you're into niche sub-genres where the bands don't really tour or made one record 15 years ago. So many times I've found bands via discover weekly only to discover, on a near weekly basis, that those bands already imploded.
Ryan: I actually like that. It has an archeological feeling to it.
Dan: But Casiotone are a rare find, they went straight into heavy rotation and are a firm favourite now. So when it works it really works.
Ryan: That’s true. And Casiotone actually is kind of a perfect band for an algorithm to sort. Are they the lofi Postal Service, are they sad Cake, are they GarageBand Modest Mouse?
Dan: Sad Cake is the name of my next emotronica venture. We should team up and record that.
Ryan: Alright let’s make a band. Fuck it. This newsletter is a band now.
Dan: We're not busy.
Ryan’s album for Dan:
Wasted Mind by Direct Hit!
TL;DR: It sounds like Sum 41 stopped doing drugs
Tell me more: Wasted Mind is the fourth LP from Wisconsin's very own Direct Hit! and it's 33 minutes of pure pop punk, and proud of it.
The blueprint is every other punk trio you've heard, mostly early Blink and Sum41 without the same sly sense of humour. But that's not necessarily a criticism. This is a fun, easy listen, with plenty of pace and power chords galore.
If you walked into a bar and this band was playing you'd have a hella good time. You might not remember the songs or the lyrics or even the name of the band, but you'd be entertained. I might not play this album again but I'd watch them live. Sometimes that's the best compliment an album can get: It inspired me to leave the house.
So if this pandemic ever ends and you get chance to see Direct Hit! at a festival, saloon, or bar mitzvah, you should go. Tell them Transatlanticism sent you. The email, not the album.
Favourite song(s): “Paid in Brains,” “Hospital for Heroes,” and “Do the Sick,” a pandemic anthem I can keep respectful distance from.
Emoji rating: 🎸💥🎳 /5
Dan’s album for Ryan:
Etiquette by Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
TL;DR: A weeping thrift store synthesizer
Tell Me More: Over the years, I've tried to put my finger on exactly when the combination of emo, indie rock, and electronica works and when it doesn't. At first glance, something raw and earnest shouldn't really work jammed up against the automated, always clicking-in-time nature of electronic music. Which doesn't mean tons of bands don’t try to get it right! You could argue it's the defining musical sound of our era, even if a lot of it doesn't always gel.
The best I can come up for why it’s good when it’s good is that the human elements of the music should always been in conflict with the electronic sides of it. This human vs non-human conflict is something Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, the solo-project of musician Owen Ashworth, gets completely it right. On Ashworth's 2007 album Etiquette, the synths, washed out pianos, and clicky drums plod along as Ashworth's almost monotone vocal struggles to keep up. It's an incredibly captivating tension running through the album.
The album also works as a time capsule of an era. 2007, in many ways, feels like the exact moment where every part of society — including art — was trying to find a way to keep up with the machines and though Etiquette's songs are deeply personal, it's hard not to also listen to it and hear the alienation and loneliness of our newly automated century.
I was curious to hear what Ashworth's newer music sounds like. He currently records under the name Advance Base. It's a lot like Casiotone, but the sounds he's working with are slicker, better produced. Which makes sense. Nowadays, the machines are a lot better at feeling human, and humans are a lot better at feeling like machines. And the deep unease and isolation bands like Casiotone were exploring have become so normal now that it almost feels like the background static of daily life.
Favorite Song(s): “I Love Creedence,” “Scattered Pearls,” “Bobby Malone Moves Home,” “Love Connection”
Emoji Rating: 🎹😢/5
Ryan: Track time. You admittedly have the harder job this week. Direct Hit! basically just writes on album length song for each record.
Dan: I do, but they made it slightly easier by recording a pandemic anthem 4 years ago. And I don't hate it, like many of the current efforts. So I'm going with “Do the Sick”.
Ryan: They have a good mix between the political and personal.
Dan: You might forget it once you've heard it, but you won't hate it while it's on. What did you go with?
Ryan: They’re all good but different in such subtle ways that it’s tricky. Also I love “Scattered Pearls” but I think it’s cheating.
Dan: Cos it's not him on vocals.
Ryan: Because it’s like one of those weird mid-00s “the girl sings” tracks yeah. I think I’ve gotta do “Bobby Malone Moves Home”. That piano riff does things to my brain.
Dan: Oh yeah, it's heavy. There isn't a wrong answer. I love his storytelling.
Ryan: “Bobby Malone” has an extreme “last scene of a teen movie as the main character drives off” vibe that makes my heart ache. It sounds the way wet leaves smell lol.
Dan: Yeah like the best emo songs.
Ryan: Yeah! God I miss going outside. Remember leaves?
Dan: I can see leaves, but I can't smell them. My favourite is “I Love Creedence,” btw. Like it was written about every relationship I've ever thought I was having with a woman. My life has a very wet leaves vibe.
Ryan: I mean you’re British, you do always seem a bit damp.
Dan: It's always raining in my mind.