After 24 years and 10 albums, we’re still trying to figure out Trans Am. A statement of misguided complication or exaggeration? Maybe. But the trio—guitarist Phil Manley, bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Nathan Means, drummer Sebastian Thomson—hasn’t exactly made comprehension easy considering its non-linear progression, lack of canned press statements and refusal to submit to expectation. Trans Am’s throw-at-a-dartboard-and-see-what-sticks approach notwithstanding, the band finds itself with a 10th album in its laps. Volume X (Thrill Jockey) leans toward the streamlined sensibility of 2007’s Sex Change, snidely and playfully existing somewhere between krautrock, post-rock, electro-rock, punk rock and other prefix-rock. Trans Am will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on them.
Means: It is fashionable to bash Vlad these days. Probably cause he is a ruthless egomaniac who was planning an invasion of Ukraine for the day after the Olympics. That was probably the tipping point. The moment when he went from slightly scary/funny short guy parasailing with snow geese or whatever to total demon. Is this necessary? Sure, Vlad can annex parts of neighboring countries without anyone else being able to do anything about it. But why do you really care? Did you even know that Crimea was part of Ukraine a couple months ago? Didn’t Russia basically give it to Ukraine, then just take it back? Aren’t the people on both sides scary, nationalist, anti-gay anti-Semitic pricks who play up to Western sympathies by claiming that the other side are anti-gay, anti-Semitic pricks? Doesn’t this kind of stuff happen all the time without ruffling the feathers of anyone at the New York Times or Fox News? And isn’t Hollywood probably psyched because they can use Russians as the baddies again? Fixating on North Koreans or Godzilla or aliens or Loki is only good for, like, four or five movies a year max.
