Music Update (Musical Nostalgia)

Aside from watching the Serge Gainsbourg collection Serge Gainsbourg: D'autres nouvelles des etoiles, compiling vintage televised performances from the famed French chanteur. As with our attraction to Gainsbourg, who became noted for his Left Bank Beatnik jazz sense of wordplay, and later as something of a bad boy ladies' man, most of our musical selections this week seem decidely focused on the past.

First off, we After Our Misspent Youth by Ontario's The Machines. Like the Strokes on Is This It?, the Machines are in love with the early 1970s New York sound with guitar work echoing that of Johnny Thunders, albeit with far more polish. The band even goes so far as plucking a song title ("Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory") from a chapter heading out of Punk journalist Legs McNeil's account of the New York scene, Please Kill Me. Unfortunately, whereas the Strokes managed to make their highly studied approach seem fresh, the Machines are very much like their namesake and one gets the feeling of going through the motions.

The Thermals meanwhile, have are well-positioned to have a critical hit on their hands with The Body, The Blood, The Machine. While the Portland, Oregon band's sound may be more Chapell Hill than East Village, the rambling, chaotic, lurching noise that the band conjures up easily evokes the earnest energy of the early punk scene. Appearing on numerous Best of 2006 lists, we picked this up last week and it's been on the stereo nearly non-stop.

Speaking of the East Village, we are in the midst of a two-part retrospective on the New York Dolls. Having recently acquired two DVD documentaries on the subject, we have watched the first, All Dolled Up, filmed by Bob Gruen during the 1970s, and are looking forward to viewing New York Doll, about the quiet Arthur Kane. Watch this space for our emerging thoughts.