On this site I will rant incoherently about songs that have utterly consumed me for extended periods of time. There will be an embedded Youtube video at the bottom of each post where you can easily check out the song. This is not a review site, and I am not a musician, so let's set the bar really low, shall we? If you would like to weather the extended rationale for this wholly irrational site, it’s in the first post.
There are many drawbacks to being a music obsessive. Little things that really don't matter in the larger scheme of things really tend to annoy you. For instance, the fact that the "Corona" youtube says (Jackass theme) under the title. ACTUALLY, JACKASS, THIS SONG WAS WRITTEN ABOUT TWENTY YEARS BEFORE JACKASS, AND JACKASS DOESN'T EVEN PLAY D. BOON'S AMAZING VOCALS IN THE INTRO. See? Not really something I should be getting worked up about, but the caps almost lock by themselves.
Anyway, this is one of the greatest, most inspiring bands ever. Their documentary "We Jam Econo," is both the Rocky and Steel Magnolias of band documentaries. Inspiring and depressing at the same time. Makes me want to run to my Ipod dock and scream, "I can jog all the way to Texas and back, but D. Boon can't!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Corona" is obviously a brilliant track, and it's actually awesome that it got such great exposure through Jackass. But man, I love those vocals. Combine his voice with lyrics like: "The people will survive - In their environment - The dirt, scarcity, and the emptiness - Of our South - The injustice of our greed - The practice we inherit - The dirt, scarcity and the emptiness - Of our South - There on the beach -I could see it in her eyes - I only had a Corona - Five cent deposit." I don't know, if there's any band I could get truly emo about, it's this one.
"Anchor" and "Glory of Man" (listen to that guitar - sounds like a buzzsaw) are two more killers, but honestly this band was like what Guided by Voices was fifteen years later. They could crap out great songs. Double Nickels on the Dime has 44 tracks, and I usually skip two of them. I heart the Minutemen.
I first heard this Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (best name ever) song sans music video, and I fell in love instantly. I was driving and blaring it in my car, and I instantly started bobbing back and forth all cool like an '80s keyboard players. I was sure that once I did see the clip, it would completely live up to the coolness of this song.
Well, it did and it didn't. I'm not sure why they're separated by chain link partitions. Perhaps there are some federal regulations concerning the proximity of highly radioactive new wave awesomeness. The lead singer is so great, with his suit and Charades interpretations of the lyrics. When your video budget allows for an abandoned warehouse and a disassembled fence, all you really have are gesticulations and attitude.
The synth guy almost has the ultra-cool keyboard sway down. He's a little too herky-jerky to truly embody the detached, I'd rather be f*cking a supermodel look. He should have watched Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran for some tips. It's debatable whether Rhodes was actually a better keyboardist, but damn could he sway. I've posted "The Reflex," a criminally underrated Duran Duran track, as evidence of Rhodes' impeccable sway. The first glimpse is at 0:15.
It's kind of interesting to juxtapose OMD and Duran Duran. You see, OMD couldn't afford the fake wave that at 3:04 drenches the entire Duran Duran crowd caught in the rapture of Simon LeBon's completely unrealistic stage jumps and upon-closer-inspection-quite-mediocre dance moves. It really ends up looking more like a Sprite commercial than anything else, but the chorus is massive. And sweet fancy Moses does Andy Taylor, their guitarist, have a fierce mullet. Only in the '80s could a supposedly fashionable band like Duran Duran have a monstrosity like that in their music video.
Panda Bear is a member of the popular indie group Animal Collective. Try not to run screaming after that first sentence. Animal Collective has their moments, but can get grating if I listen to them for more than fifteen minutes at a time. This album, on the other hand, is pretty consistently amazing, and relies much less on dissonance and noises that make your ears bleed. My boy Panda is more about harmonies and really airy, uplifting (ascending uplifting, not Amy Grant uplifting) sounding music.
Bros is a really amazing song. Critics sometimes cite a Beach Boys influence, and it's pretty evident in this song. Unfortunately this is a shortened version of the track, but the only full version on Youtube has countless gaps in it. The guy who posted this video also added an apostrophe and made Bros possessive. It totally changes the meaning of the title! "Hey man. We're all bros here!" Feeling good, enjoying the music, relaxed vibe. "Hey man, get your hands off that! It's my bro's!" Woah! Step back! All of a sudden a little tension is creeping into this once tight-knit Animal Collective, and everyone's doing side projects. Looking for new "creative outlets." We all know how this story ends. All because of a damn apostrophe.
So it's Spring Break! I love teaching, but by the time the end of March rolls around, we all need a break. So on the Friday night kicking off Spring Break, we decided to go to a club. There was a hip hop dj spinning, but I didn't expect much. Most djs in San Francisco play danceable music, but nothing that gets me insanely excited. When I heard that the title of the night was "Golden Era of Hip Hop: 88-94," however, I got really intrigued. That was when I really got into hip hop, and though I dig some newer artists like Madvillain, Blackalicious, etc., the majority of rap I listen to is either from that era or originated from that era (IE Ghostface, Dr. Octagon).
Wow, this night totally went off. Not only was DJ Apollo a great dj, never letting a song get played out before he brought another one in, but every freaking song was a classic. Wu Tang, Gangstarr, Mobb Deep, Tribe, Beasties, De La Soul, Black Sheep, Snoop, Notorious B. I. G., Pharcyde, and even slightly more obscure stuff like Jeru the Damaja and Main Source. I was in heaven. Best way to kick off a much-needed Spring Break.
One absolute favorite of mine he played was 93 'Til Infinity by Souls of Mischief. I didn't grow up listening to a ton of West Coast rap, but this album has been a favorite since high school. Sometimes when an album has a "chill" vibe to it the beats are languid and the rapping is blah, but this album is the opposite. So good.
The Fugees were the Cream of rap. Cream were a "super-group" in the 60s with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce, and they were just better than everyone else. The Fugees were also, in a nutshell, better than everyone else. And even from inside that nutshell, Lauryn Hill's greatness was evident. That started off as a stupid joke ripped from Austin Powers, but now I'm thinking on this really deep level about her relationship with Wyclef. Anyway, she has an amazing voice, is a great rapper, and is so beautiful. No wonder she owned the world for a second there.
Chief Rocka is another absolutely classic track. The combination of that sick horn sample, the great beat alternating between bassy and echoey, the scratching in the chorus, and the rhyming make this legendary. I love rappers like Grand Puba and ODB that have distinctive voices, and a couple of the guys in this group do too. I really hope DJ Apollo is based in SF, cause if he is then I'm basically gonna stalk him.
I need to make a bit more effort in finding new rap artists. I finally heard Cannibal Ox the other day, and I was digging him. I just LOVE the "Golden Era" so much, and most mainstream hip hop is so corny that I forget that you gotta dig pretty deep to find the great stuff in most genres anyway.
The first two things that came to mind when I heard the beginning of "Behind the Mask" were Jane Fonda's Workout and old Nintendo music. Then that melody at 0:33 came in and I got chills all over. The end is great too, when he vocodes, "is it me, is it you behind this mask i ask, is it me, is it you who wears another face." This song NEVER gets old and sometimes makes me a little verklempt. And how cool is the freaking stage setup in this video?
The second youtube is the music video for Rydeen, a really great song that is also on the album Solid State Survivor. Considering this video came out in 1979/1980, it is all kinds of amazing. My favorite video section is the breakdown at 2:33, when the group members mimic the synthesizer sounds with ray guns. My favorite song section is at 0:47 when the high-pitched synths lead into the 1:00 tunnel of awesomeness punctuated by the "DI DI LING DI DI LING!." It is really ridiculous how I describe music on this blog, huh? Love this group so much!
I was born in Paris, but only lived there for two years. Once I moved to the States, I only heard French being spoken sporadically. Still, to this day, whenever I hear French, my mind starts to melt. I'm like Jamie Lee Curtis with Italian in A Fish Called Wanda. Well, I don't exactly want to rip my clothes off, it's more of a crazy deja vu rush while simultaneously marveling at the beauty of the language.
The first clip, by Francoise Hardy, is just smooth. Her voice, the strings, the little trumpet "Bum bum bum bum bum" that plays off her vocals, It never breaks a sweat.
This Jacques Brel (he's actually Belgian, but he sings in French) clip is amazing because not only does he have an incredible voice and write great lyrics, he also emotes and gesticulates like a performance artist. The lyrics are a bit off in this translation: he is "hearing" the chief office "on" his ass, he "hears" the voice all the time, the voice is smelling "of" garlic and bad alcohol.
Finally, France Gall is just a lot of fun. She was a teen idol of sorts in France, but her songs are really good. Note: I'll deal with Serge Gainsbourg in another post, he can't be contained in this one.
Tonight is the Firestone reunion back in Florida. Firestone is a club my friends and i used to go to back in the day. I normally wouldn't have thought twice about the reunion, but I recently stumbled on a facebook group that has tons of old breakbeat mixes on it. Other than that Beach House record I've been completely obsessed with, these old mixes have been pretty much all I've been listening to lately.
I've become a little bit nostalgic about the ole rave days lately. Don't get me wrong, I love San Francisco and being in my 30s and an adult and all that, but man were those days fun. A combination of being completely carefree to the point of borderline idiocy, having a really tight group of friends that all lived within two hours of each other and were always down to party on the weekends, and a music scene that was pretty freaking exciting at the time.
I kinda wrote off that music after I stopped going to clubs. I started listening to tons of different genres, exploring more "sophisticated" electronic music, and just kind of forgot about breaks. But returning to these old records made me realize that some of these songs still hold up. Maybe some of them aren't exactly nuggets of musical genius, but the beats are great and I still totally get off on great mixes.
These are two of my favorite tracks of all time. The first one, Security, is from way back in '86, and it's really more of an old freestyle/electro track. That's one of the cool things about breaks djs, they'll thrown in songs like this all of the time. This song gets nuts at 1:04, when it breaks down and gets all funky. So good.
I can totally remember hearing A-1 Love at Firestone. It's one of those songs that sounds particularly insane at a club. Firestone is a big club, with great lights, and when this song blows up it sounds like the world is ending. The part at 3:37 is so psychotic, it sounds like some sort of apocalyptic science fiction natural disaster. I love it!
I had no idea who Sandy Denny was when I was a kid. Like 99.3% of the male pre-teen population of the universe I was a huge Led Zeppelin fan, so I only knew her from those random Lord of the Rings lyrics she sang on Battle of Evermore. Her vocals were great, but I had no inclination at that point to explore any music outside of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Who, the Doors, and Jimi Hendrix. I think when boys start getting acne and trying to score they also begin to realize that there is actually music outside of the 100 song classic rock radio rotation.
Fairport Convention is an amazing British folk group, and this song, with its sweeping tale of a servant lad who scores noble tail and eventually pays for it, is a gem. I heard a bluegrass tune with the same melody at a concert, so I'm assuming it is an old standard that has been passed down through the years. Denny's voice is so incredibly badass, especially when she sings lines like, "But if I am Lord Donald's wife, Lord Donald's not at home. He is out in the far cornfields bringing the yearlings home." The bass and drum set that great tempo, with the fiddle and guitar slinking around in the background. Love this song so much.
Everything I love about music is encapsulated in 1:22-2:22 of this song. The whole song (and album) is amazing, but this section makes me physically high. Keyboards out of an 80s song, Kim-Carnes-without-the-cigarettes vocals, lush sounding guitar, propulsive drums, and production that brings it all together into this mushy haze of dreaminess that I want to float around inside for a year or two. It's also unabashedly emotional, like Arcade Fire without all the deaths in the family. What a freaking voice Victoria Legrand has.
I keep saying to myself, "I must not play this record out. I must not play this record out." But it's like when I accidently take a thirty minute shower. I just stand there, hot water pounding on my head, my mind in a haze, and there's really nowhere else I'd rather be. So I start a countdown to 50, and when I get to 50 I'm gonna get out of the shower. But then I get to 49 and I still don't want to get out. So at 49 I go to 49.1 and after 49.9 I still don't want to get out. So I go to 49.91 and I know I'm in trouble. That's how good this record is. Listen to it.
In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to write a song for my main squeeze.
Dunkin' My Dear
Dunkin Donuts, your coffee tastes like candy, Dunky Donuts, my heart is so randy For the sweet sweet loving that you always bring, Our love affair is no brief fling, But you’re so far away, 3,000 long miles, Why do you torment me, and silence my smiles,
I’ve never been a fan of long distance loves Other coffee suitors, they come to me in droves, But I push them away, too mainstream, too snobby, They’re a passing fancy but you’re my real hobby, But these West Coast fools don’t know coffee from Adam, When I bring you to my lips, my eyelashes I bat ‘em.
Oh Dunkin Donuts, you got me forever, If you wanted me to, I would dress up in leather, Put a ball gag in my mouth and drink you through a drip, Soak up your greatness, intravenous sip by sip.
Oh Dunkin Donuts, I surrender to you. Pot after pot, I wish I could brew. But I just can’t seem to get it right on my own. Oh pretty baby, can’t find my way home.
Dunkin Donnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnutttttssss (repeat ad infinitum with some random “doo doo doo doo doo, come on and lick it up!”s thrown in here and there).
Btw i know loves doesn't rhyme with droves, I'm going for the Eno China-Regina thing there. :p Wait, now this seems like I put a lot of forethought and effort into this, which will screw me in the likely event that this blows. Forget what I just said.
In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I would post about a song bemoaning the torturous end of a relationship! Suck on that, Kay Jewelers! For cereal, though, what a song. Stephen Merritt (Magnetic Fields is him and some musicians he works with) made a triple album called 69 Love Songs (omg, get it?), and at least 45 of them are drop dead gorgeous. His lyrics are clever in a really unique way. Nobody writes like him. Sure, he throws some cliches into this song, but he can write a song that's completely earnest and tongue-in-cheek at the same time.
On another note, why do people make Youtube videos like this? I don't want to see the Beaver getting run over by a Studebaker while I'm enjoying this sweet tune. It totally distracts me. People need to ease back on the Youtube artsiness, especially when it directly conflicts with a song that is about 75,000 rungs higher on the creative ladder. That sounds snobby, but so be it!
Badass is a much-maligned term. If you say it, it's corny, and if you try to embody it, you usually end up looking like a tool. An over the hill accountant wearing a pristine leather jacket and straddling a twenty thousand dollar Harley is probably not badass. A scrawny nineteen year old with a silver chain, brand new kicks, and jeans five sizes too large is probably not badass, either (that was me, btw). Badass cannot be found on an episode of Jersey Shore. Though perhaps badass is in the eye of the beholder, and as ridiculous as Ronnie D and The Situation look to some, maybe the fact that they are so convinced that they are badass makes them badass. I can't believe I said that word so many times in one paragraph.
If the word badass was in the dictionary, an audioclip of this performance would play. From the old horror movie organ as theremin intro, to the massive beat that drops out of nowhere, to the DJ's stuttering scratching, to Beth Gibbons' haunted vocals, to the insane acoustics of that venue, to the horns, bass, and strings that add to the creepiness. The bass especially, that complements the beat with the "DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM!"
The section at 4:10 is great, with the beat cutting out, Gibbons' piling on strindbergandhelium.com adjectives like unresolved and unredeemed, and the orchestra enhancing the morbidity. The beat kicks back in, we get a great shot of Gibbons singing, and the dj doubles up on the beat and starts scratching again. Basically, give me weird sounds, beats, and female vocals, and I'm good to go.
Dummy is my favorite Portishead album, but they're all great. They FINALLY came out with a new record a couple of years ago, and they've still got it! P. S. Is it ironic that the week after I post about Salinger I go on what basically amounts to a rant about phonies? I promise it was just a vehicle to discuss this song.
As everyone knows, J. D. Salinger died this week. Catcher in the Rye was always my favorite book growing up, and I loved some of his other writing as well. I taught Catcher this year for the first time in a while, and it was really great seeing some of my students also connect with his writing. True, Holden is annoying and jaded, but there is so much love in that book, and most of Salinger's other writing. You can really tell how much he loved kids.
If I had a gun to my head, I would probably also say that Pet Sounds is my favorite album (though the person holding the gun would probably ask for money instead of my favorite album). There's a lot of sadness in the Beach Boys music, but there's also a lot of love. "You Still Believe in Me" has always been one of my favorites. It's so lush, the harmonies are of course brilliant, and Brian Wilson makes it sound like a kid's song by adding in the bike bell and horn. Wilson was only 24 when this album was made! All but two songs on this album are absolutely knock-you-on-your-ass spectacular, and the other two are very good.
"Surf's Up" might be the saddest Beach Boys song, along with "Caroline, No." But wow, so amazing. My favorite part is at 3:12, the "Child is the father of the man" section. Gives me gigantic chills every time. Also don't forget how amazing their early songs are, like "Warmth of the Sun," "Don't Worry, Baby," and "Please Let Me Wonder."
There aren't many songs and books that can bring me to tears, but dammit, I'm man enough to admit when they do! Salinger and the Beach Boys both can do this. I have so many favorite parts in Catcher in the Rye, one of them being when Phoebe insists on keeping the broken pieces of the Little Shirley Beans record Holden bought for her. But I'm gonna post an excerpt towards the end of the book, because it sums up how listening to the Beach Boys sometimes makes me feel. Happy, sad, and completely in awe.
"Aren't you gonna ride, too?" she asked me. She was looking at me sort of funny. You could tell she wasn't too sore at me any more. "Maybe I will the next time. I'll watch ya," I said. "Got your ticket?" "Yes." "Go ahead, then--I'll be on this bench right over here. I'll watch ya." I went over and sat down on this bench, and she went and got on the carrousel. She walked all around it. I mean she walked once all the way around it. Then she sat down on this big, brown, beat-up-looking old horse. Then the carrousel started, and I watched her go around and around. There were only about five or six other kids on the ride, and the song the carrousel was playing was "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." It was playing it very jazzy and funny. All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them. When the ride was over she got off her horse and came over to me. "You ride once, too, this time," she said. "No, I'll just watch ya. I think I'll just watch," I said. I gave her some more of her dough. "Here. Get some more tickets." She took the dough off me. "I'm not mad at you any more," she said. "I know. Hurry up--the thing's gonna start again." Then all of a sudden she gave me a kiss. Then she held her hand out, and said, "It's raining. It's starting to rain." "I know." Then what she did--it damn near killed me--she reached in my coat pocket and took out my red hunting hat and put it on my head. "Don't you want it?" I said. "You can wear it a while." "Okay. Hurry up, though, now. You're gonna miss your ride. You won't get your own horse or anything." She kept hanging around, though. "Did you mean it what you said? You really aren't going away anywhere? Are you really going home afterwards?" she asked me. "Yeah," I said. I meant it, too. I wasn't lying to her. I really did go home afterwards. "Hurry up, now," I said. "The thing's starting." She ran and bought her ticket and got back on the goddam carrousel just in time. Then she walked all the way around it till she got her own horse back. Then she got on it. She waved to me and I waved back. Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God. All the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel, so they wouldn't get soaked to the skin or anything, but I stuck around on the bench for quite a while. I got pretty soaking wet, especially my neck and my pants. My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way; but I got soaked anyway. I didn't care, though. I felt so damn happy all of sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don't know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could've been there.
(Sorry for the blob - I got it online and there were no paragraph breaks)
I could blog about any song on this album, because it is immaculate. Prince is to music what macaroni and cheese is to irrational late night food cravings. I don't know if that works, but I'm going with it. This is the first album i got into as a really young kid that I still worship to this day, and that speaks to just how amazing it is. His music appeals to kids, to critics, to rock fans, to funk fans, to Midwesterners (who aren't Tipper Gore), to New Yorkers. It speaks to the brain, it speaks to the hips, it speaks to the crotch. Even my Dad, who was about as into music as he was into sports (read: not at all - he was an art guy), loved this record.
My favorite part is 1:38, when Prince starts shredding on the solo. Then it works up to the climax, and at 2:10 it smooooooooooooooooooooooooths out. Aw yeeeeeeeeeeeeeah. That's a whole lot of puddin. So good. Then there's the whole nebulous lesbian (omg!) bath scene at the very beginning. I'm sure that made Tipper nervous. Personally, I had no idea what the hell that was about when I first heard the record. I was 10 years old and probably thought it part of some groundbreaking new recording process. "Wow, they sound like they're really in the zone!!!!!"
Prince has made so much amazing music. Dirty Mind is such an incredible record, and if you thought Purple Rain was racy, umm... haha. I personally think the Under the Cherry Moon soundtrack, which everybody shat on when it came out, is really great. Mountains (ugh, what a song!) Girls and Boys, etc. Sign of the Times is an incredible double album, packed with amazing songs. Etc., etc., etc.
I was lucky enough to see Prince live at the Filmore in San Francisco. It was the best concert I have ever seen. He might be doing slightly embarrassing things now like writing ill-advised songs for the Minnesota Vikings, but absolutely nothing can tarnish the amazing legacy he has created. I'm gonna stop now.
Last night I saw Crazy Heart, a film in which Jeff Bridges plays a burnt-out country legend as effectively as he played the Dude in The Big Lebowski. In other words, he is amazing. In it, a journalist asks him if there are any "real" country music artists around anymore. I wish he'd given a more direct answer, because while I love some old country like Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash, I haven't heard much new stuff that grabs me. I'm sure it's out there somewhere.
I don't know if I'd go so far as to call Neko Case a country artist, but there's definitely some elements of country in her music. One thing I can say is, DAMN, can Neko Case sing. Something about her voice reminds me of Patsy Cline. I also like how she has the kind of voice that you'd expect to sing love songs, but her songs usually only deal peripherally with love. One lyric from this album is, "The next time you say forever, I will punch you in the face." My favorite (probably... I think... right now) song by her, "Star Witness," is about a murder.
I first fell in love with her solo work (she used to be in a great "power-pop" band called The New Pornographers) on her last album, "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood." I was lucky enough to see her live on that tour, and it was amazing. Overall I think I prefer that album, but they're both very good. See her live if you ever have the chance!
Now that I'm freed from my somewhat self-imposed "nothing but new music" Florida stint, I'm back to mixing the "old" music with the newer stuff. I had fun trying out some new albums on the trip, but I missed the classics. There are a lot of interesting bands out today, but I have yet to hear anyone these days that can bring it quite like Funkadelic.
Parliament and Funkadelic were "sister" bands in the 70s. Both were amazing, but Parliament was more of a singles band, so they received more attention. But they never came out with a full album that could rival Maggot Brain. One of the greatest things about this album is how much musical territory it covers. The first song, the title track, is a ten minute long instrumental, featuring one of the best and most emotional guitar solos ever (seriously, listen to it, it's amazing). And then this song kicks in and the mood of the album gets flipped on its head. The rest of the album is an amazing mix of rock, funk, r & b, soul, etc.
And talk about a freaking album cover. Doesn't get much better than that.
In an attempt to fully utilize my endless driving time on this vacation, I burned some CDs that I've been meaning to check out. My natural instinct on road trips is to listen to music I'm familiar with, but I really wanted to hear something new and interesting. Out of the seven or so CDs I've listened to thus far, the only one that's really stuck is this St. Vincent album.
I've long been enamored with eccentric female artists (Kate Bush [see a few posts below], Bjork, PJ Harvey, etc.). St. Vincent doesn't seem to be quite as "out there" as those three, but she's definitely got something interesting going on. I've only fully absorbed the first half or so of the album "Actor," and I haven't even listened to "Marry Me," her previous album that received a ton of praise, so there is much more to explore!
My determination to stick to new music has already shown cracks. I got so desperate that I stopped off at Atlantic Sounds in Daytona and bought used copies of Liz Phair and Devo albums for the drive up to Jacksonville. First time I'd been in a music store in a long time! It felt good, I must say. I should be able to make it up to Savannah with these CDs. Sometimes getting into new music can be a challenge when the old reliables are over there just staring at you, but inevitably an album like this comes out of the fog and makes it all worthwhile.
This is one of my favorite times of the year. School's out for two weeks, and along with all the usual holiday goodness of reacquainting myself with half the airports in the country, spending ridiculous amounts of time in rental cars, and trying to cram a year's worth of qt with family and friends into three day chunks, it's also fun to look at all the year-end music lists. As much as I try to keep up with new music, it is completely impossible to hear it all. Now that I have a little time off, I can check out a few of the albums I missed.
I couldn't really get into this band's first album. Granted I didn't try that hard, but it just seemed so sparse that at times it didn't even seem to be there at all. This album, however, is really good. This song is groovy from the get-go, and the languorous vocals add to the dreamy vibe. The vocal melody that kicks in at 1:25 is so great.
2 NOTES: I'm not happy with the fact that the first two seconds of this song are cut off in this Youtube! It might not seem like a big deal, but it's a damn good two seconds! Also, I know this is a music blog, but I'm so excited to (hopefully) read two books for pleasure over break! I'm reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to get pumped for my Savannah excursion, and then I want to try to squeeze in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Somehow I also have to read 140 portfolio letters, a few portfolio pieces, and re-read MacBeth in that time too. Anything is possible! Happy Holidays and enjoy your loved ones. They're good people.
The B-52s are so freaking cool. Cool is an inherently silly term, but in this case it totally applies. They had something going on in the late 70s and early 80s that nobody else did. Totally unique style, attitude, and sound. And while a lot of people, myself included, associate them with cornier songs like Love Shack, this first album is so dark, with Spy Hunter guitar and such bad-ass rhythms and vocals. It's a perfect album.
There really aren't any studio versions of tracks from their first album on youtube (just get the whole thing!!), but maybe that's for the best. Their live performances were so great, and I'll just point out a few chunks of awesomeness that stand out to me on this one. At 1:21 , when Cindy Wilson sings "When you held my hand" and extends her hand directly to the camera, and then a few seconds later she screams "Why don't you dance with me?!?! I'm not no Limberger!" Her vocals are borderline tortured-sounding, but the mood of the song changes fairly quickly.
The song absolutely blows up at 3:03. Fred Schneider yells, "DANCE THIS MESS AROUND!" and they all start doing psychotic 50s dances, the guitarist and drummer totally rock out, and Kate Pierson just stands there, the foil to the two tweakers with her strident, steady vocals. The call and response vocals are also hysterical. "WHAT'D YOU SAY?!??!" "I'M JUST ASKIN!" But maybe the best thing about the B-52s is the stuttering starts and stops. "Shake!" dur, dur,dur, "Woah oh oh oh oh oh." All the stops and starts and angles to their songs make them feel more like dance music than rock.
If you want a fun, smart, accessible, danceable album at a price you and your family can afford, run, don't walk to your nearest retail outlet or electronic device and grab yourself a copy of the B-52s self-titled debut. It rules.
Robert Pollard, the lead singer/songwriter of Guided by Voices, writes tons of songs. TONS. A lot of them are great, but some of them are crap. Nature of the game, I suppose. I recommended Bee Thousand to one of my music-crazed students the other day, and instead of listening to the album he just checked out a random Pollard/GBV song on Pandora or some other site. He wasn't crazy about it, and considering the sheer number of songs Pollard has released, I wasn't overly surprised. Most people in "the internet generation" (I'm talking ages 18 and below, wi-fi in the womb here) don't listen to an album to initially check out a band, but I think in this case they really should.
Bee Thousand has purposefully sh*tty production, abbreviated tracks, and is absolutely crammed with amazing song after amazing song. "Smothered in Hugs" might as well be called "Vocals Smothered in Guitars," but that amazing vocal hook at 1:26 can't be submerged. "But I believed you. No need for further questioning. I'm gonna leave with you. You can teach me all you know. Which way will we go now on our trip to taller windows. I really don't know now. I really don't know." So great!
This album is like Double Nickels on the Dime by the Minutemen. You can kind of get an idea of how great a band this is by one song, but you should really start at the beginning of the album and just hit play. By the time I got to the 7th or 8th song it started to seem like this guy could just sh*t out a great song. And I was only halfway through the album. :)
I would take out Kate Bush's garbage. I would sweep her floors. I would walk her Hounds of Love and tend to their droppings. In fact, I'm not quite sure why there aren't monuments erected in her honor spanning the four corners of the globe. She is a goddess in every sense of the word. She's an amazing singer, dancer (the Wuthering Heights dance is a bit out there, but check out the "Running up that Hill" video for some incredible dancing), performance artist, and of course she's head-explodingly beautiful. (I love being really annoying with useless adverbs on this blog. It's fun!)
It's impossible for me to choose a song to post here, so I put three that I think highlight some of her most appealing attributes. Some people get a little scared off by "Wuthering Heights." These people are deranged, for it is fabulous. She wrote the song when she was 18 (!), and it's just magical. My favorite part is the second verse when the strings come in in the background. Added to her vocals and the Bronte-inspired lyrics, it makes the song so melodramatic and perfect. This video also showcases her half-dancing, half-performance art skillz.
"Hounds of Love" shows how innovative her music was from a production standpoint. I love the off-kilter drums and the choppy violins. And of course her exquisite, melodramatic voice rising and falling with the "Doo doo doo doo doo!" vocals in the background. I'm sure Bjork was taking notes in her little pixie palace in Iceland.
"The Big Sky" is just a really fun song and video. Ms. Bush (I don't feel particularly worthy of referring to her as anything else) comes off a bit serious at times, but I get the feeling it's just due to the roles she's playing at the time. In this video she's just, ummm... taking the piss? I think that's what they refer to it as over there. It's also a great corny 80's video!
This doesn't even sound like a rap song. It starts all smooth-like, and you expect Patti LaBelle or Gladys Knight to start singing. All of a sudden Doom starts rapping, but his delivery is so smooth that it doesn't even sound out of place.
My favorite part is when that "dee dee dee dee dee dee dun dun dun dun dun" comes in and the female vocals sing "And the lights went down and hey!" Then the beat slows back down, and yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah.
MF Doom also has a great album as Madvillain, the creatively titled Madvillainy. Listen to "Curls" or "Money Folder" if you want a taste.
I wonder who Doom really is behind the mask. Maybe it's Eric Stoltz from that movie with Cher and Sam Elliott! Love that movie.
Note: Please disregard the Victoria's Secret fashion show in the beginning of this video (if it offends your sensibilities). This video has by far the best sound quality of the ones I found, so I had to use it. It also says "alternate version" because there's a version where the lyrics are in German.
If you've heard of this group, you know that they're pioneers of electro-pop, forefathers of electro-funk, trailblazers of electro-tweak, whatever. But what really matters are these freaking harmonies. Their music is just so beautiful, not many people have been able to replicate that side of the equation.
My Dad had their Tour de France album on cassette when I was a kid. I didn't hear it again from about the age of ten to twenty-two. When I first randomly heard it again, I almost fell over. The bullet beats that ended up in half the hip hop and techno songs out there were cool, but the synthesizer harmonies are what blew my mind.
"The Model" is just perfect. The beat is a little more basic than a lot of Kraftwerk songs, but the synths are just insane. There are a lot of vocalists and groups who can harmonize beautifully. The Mamas and the Papas, the Beach Boys, etc. Kraftwerk is up there with all of them.
Note: Killing me with the Frankenstein scene at the end. People need to be a little less artsy with some of these Youtube videos.
The first thing I noticed about this band is that they're really really young. They look somewhere between sixteen and nineteen. I watched a video of one of their performances, and it's painfully evident that at this point they have the stage presence of oak trees. But who cares! I'M SURE IT'S JUST A PHASE.
This album is a really great debut. There's a lot of white space in their sound, like Spoon with an added female vocalist. The songs are short, catchy, and have yet to get old despite repeated listens. The lyrics are a bit corny at times, but that's understandable. Go back and read your high school diary. Cringe city, amirite?
Thanks Dave for pointing this band out. Finding fun new bands can be challenging, like sifting through brackish water for nuggets of gold 150 years after the Gold Rush ended. The bands are out there. We must never give up hope. *sniffle*
I teach high school, and we're considering moving to block schedule. This essentially means that instead of having 50 minutes with a class, I'd have around an hour and a half. Some people say "How can you possibly keep a high school kid's attention for an hour and a half?!" The same way that Godspeed you Black Emperor keeps my attention for a 22 minute long song: by switching it up!
Since it's the day after Halloween, I figured I'd write about a scary song. Well, a song with a scary section. There are also some soft and luminous parts in this song. Godspeed you Black Emperor is an instrumental group from Montreal. The instruments consist of three guitars, two basses, French horn, violin, viola, cello, and percussion. Some of their songs have found-sound pieces inserted into them, including monologues by some very interesting characters. It all adds to the atmosphere of the music.
This whole song is great, but where it gets spine-tinglingly incredible is at 6:12 into the first youtube. It's after the first extended loud section, and everything gets very quiet and atmospheric. All of the instruments slowly come in, and the pulsing groundswell builds up to this insanely beautiful crescendo. Note: The youtube is sacrilegiously broken up in the middle of this crescendo, but just click on part two of the video, it's the top video that immediately shows up on the black screen.
THEN IT GETS FREAKY. 2:34 into the second video, the song suddenly gets trapped in this psychotic wind tunnel. It's like the part in the sci-fi movie where a hole gets blasted in the spaceship, everybody's getting sucked out, and the hero is desperately clinging to the edge of a wall. Inevitably some little kid presses a button to close the door and Connor Spacestrutter gets saved. But not in this song! At 4:22 Spacestrutter gets his comeuppance. Sounds to me like the stampede of a ghost army, but it's sounded like approximately twenty different things at various times I've listened to it. The rest of the song is basically the denouement, but it's interesting as well, with an intriguing found-sound recording and a plaintive piano outro.
I listen to different music at different times for different reasons. When I'm driving to school at 6:30 in the morning and I want to wake up, instead of drinking coffee I'll blast Sonic Youth or Souls of Mischief (I would never subject anyone else to my early morning loud music, I'd be liable to get a tire iron to the side of the head). When I'm in a hyper, happy mood I'll blare the Slits or the Talking Heads and get exponentially more hyper, sometimes to the detriment of my driving record. Then there are times when I need music that calms me down, wraps its arms around me and makes me feel reassured in some way. This song does that for me.
It seems like George had it kinda rough in the Beatles. He had all these great songs, but couldn't get many of them on albums cause John and Paul were such songwriting machines. This double album shows just how many amazing ideas he had. It's such a warm, spiritual sounding album, it's does my soul good to listen to it every once in a while. Phil Spector went a little over the top with the production (and killing that blonde B-movie actress), but it works for most of the songs.
Liz Phair is pretty bad right now. Has been for a while. She made a conscious decision to make more mainstream, top 40-sounding music, and some fans who considered her the "indie queen" freaked out. People need to get a life. I'm just happy to have this great album. Plenty of musicians (Stone Roses) only make one great album.
It's hard to pick a favorite track on here. 6" 1', Dance of the Seven Veils, Soap Star Joe, Explain it to Me, the Divorce Song, and Stratford-on-Guy are all solid. I probably listen to Help Me Mary the most. This song is about awful roommates, and the lyrics are pretty clever:
Help me, Mary, please I've lost my home to your thieves They bully the stereo and drink They leave suspicious stains in the sink
They make rude remarks about me They wonder just how wild I would be As they egg me on and keep me mad They play me like a pit bull in a basement, and for that...
Most of her other lyrics deal with relationships, and because she uses the "c word", and mentions hourly rental and sex, some reviewers say that guys listen to this album because they find these taboo topics exciting! Well, I can listen to Peaches if I want to hear someone spout off about sex. These lyrics are actually insightful and interesting. Even when they're clunkers, at least she seems to have some thought and genuine feeling behind them. Some favorite sections of mine are:
Johnny my love, get out of the business It makes me want to rough you up so badly Makes me want to roll you up in plastic Toss you up and pump you full of lead. ------------------------------- He's just a hero In a long line of heroes Looking for some lonely billboard to grace They say he sprung from the skull of Athena Think about your own head And the headache he gave. -------------------------------- But if I'd known how that would sound to you I would have stayed in your bed For the rest of my life just to prove I was right That it's harder to be friends than lovers And you shouldn't try to mix the two Cause if you do it and you're still unhappy Then you know that the problem is you. ---------------------------------
This is one of the albums I most consistently come back to through the years. It's very accessible, and while she doesn't have the greatest singing voice in the world, it totally works for this album. So go Liz! You keep making that sh*tty music!
Warning: this song might seem boring for a while, but the end is so epic that it completely warrants sitting through the beginning (which is fine, in my humble opinion).
I went through a huge, pathetic Radiohead obsession phase. Seriously bad. Like reading books about the band, keeping up with their every move, joining message boards, etc. It's kinda good, though, cause Radiohead is the marijuana of bands. They're a gateway band. I got into tons of interesting music by becoming obsessed with them. Almost all the bands they've worshipped and emulated have been amazing, so that's gotten me into a lot of other great music. Pixies, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Can, etc.
If you're ever maniacally obsessed with a song or band, never play them for a friend and expect the same reaction. It never works out well. I used to drive around and listen to this song, just waiting for the 3:00 mark when that fuzz bass kicks in and absolutely EATS the entire song. If there was ever a menacing portion of a song, this is it. It was written for the new version of Romeo & Juliet, and these lyrics reference the suffocating pressure the Ms and Cs put on R & J, driving them to suicide. (it's good that this video uses clips from the Zeffirelli version, cause let's be real, it's better. Basel Expedition plays Tybalt, for one thing.)
You can laugh A spineless laugh We hope your rules and wisdom choke you Now we are one (Backing vocals!!!!!!!!!!) In everlasting peace
We hope that you choke.. that you choke We hope that you choke.. that you choke We hope that you choke.. that you choke
I played this for my friend, and he told me it sounded like Phil Collins. OH MY GOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW AMAZING THIS SONG IS HOW COULD YOU SAY SUCH A THING?!?!?!?!?!? Very traumatic experience for me. Then my cousin told me that Joanna Newsom sang like she was deaf. WHAT?!?! IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE WHO UNDERSTANDS?!?!?!
I've grown a bit the last ten years or so, I've got a job and all now, so I don't get quite so worked up. I still love Radiohead, but they don't quite have the vise grip on me they used to. Some of their new stuff is actually slightly boring. But this album, Ok Computer, is still one of the best ever. The transition between this song and the next is so sublime. So I'm posting both Youtubes! If you want slightly less "mopey" (blargh) songs, try Lucky, (2nd verse, omg) Airbag (the guitar sounds and drum loops are amazing) There There, (the end of that freaking song, oh boy) or Just (it rocks). I need to slow down on the parentheses, huh?
David Bowie is the best thing ever. And of his seemingly endless supply of amazing songs, this might be my favorite. Might, dammit. Five Years, Queen Bitch, V-2 Schnieder, Station to Station, Heroes, they just never end. What a champ.
So I've been reading all sorts of unintended meanings into this song for years now. My favorite interpretation was that he kept making the same mistake twice, or kept making the same types of mistakes. Turns out he wasn't speaking in metaphors, he was just totally hopped up on drugs, had just gone through a bad break-up, and was trying to off himself by racing his car round and round a parking garage. Like McNulty in that Wire episode (I've been waiting for so long to work a Wire reference in!).
The songs on Low and Heroes sound so super-charged, like the musicians' instruments are being electrocuted while they play them. And his enunciation in the second verse is so great! Especially when he sings, "Must have been touching close to 94". So amazing.
It's hard for me to write this post without mentioning Kraftwerk. So I will mention Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk! Anyways, Boards of Canada is one of the one best electronic acts out there today. But Boards of Canada is actually the name of a Scottish show. Tricky! That''s the name of another electronic artist. Autechre! Uggh... that doesn't work.
Whenever I hear this song I think of Darth Vader's family on a summer vacation. Mechanical and angular, but beautiful and joyful at the same time. You can just see little Darth Junior splashing in the waves!
This is one of the bands that directly influenced Radiohead when they moved into their "electronic" phase. I love Radiohead, but if it wasn't for Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, and the like, Johnny Greenwood wouldn't be twisting near as many knobs.
There's so much mythology attached to Joy Division, and absolutely none of it matters. It's a cliche, but the only thing that matters is this music. Every instrument in this song absolutely blasts its way into the track. The bass enters like a monster poking its head around my closet door at three in the morning. The drums land like steel-gloved jabs, jarring at first, then keeping the nervous energy up throughout the song. The guitar comes in like a buzzsaw, scalping the song like a Nazi in Inglorious Basterds. Finally, Ian Curtis' voice booms down more malevolent and assured than ever before: "I travelled far and wide through many different times, What did you see there?"
It always seems like the focus with this band is on Ian Curtis' suicide, or the Manchester mythology, or poring over some hidden meaning in the dark lyrics. All of this is just window dressing for a band that needs none. Their playing on the entire album is so ridiculously tight, and that's what really stands out. You don't need to be sitting huddled in a darkened room, having an adolescent existential crisis and cursing the heavens, to worship this record. Nestle it in between your copy of Abba's Greatest Hits and Madonna's Immaculate Collection.
Contrary to complaints from countless musical curmudgeons, there are many bands attempting to make interesting music nowadays. Some of them fall under the category of "indie bands that sound like extremely precocious twelve year olds putting on a school play." Think Rushmore on mp3. One example that springs to mind is Sufjan Stevens. I once fell in love with his song "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders." It was so jubilant! So different sounding! Yay Sufjan! Then I listened to it in my car two weeks later and it sounded like really over the top circus music. I couldn't even relate to the person who had once blared this song in his car, rising and falling with every bassoon flare and kazoo splort. (I don't know if those instruments are in the song or if splort is a word, but I'm sticking with it. I decree that splort is now a word!)
Fortunately, I don't think I'll ever hate myself for loving this song, or this album. Sure the lead singer's voice is a bit out there, but it's GOOD, and the trills and quivers fit perfectly with the music. The female backing vocals are really great, especially when they come in at 3:10 after he yells "Bitte Orca, Orca Bitte!" (these lyrics toe the line of willful indie obtuseness, but he's forgiven because he picked the words cause he liked how they sound [how Eno-ish], and they actually kinda sound great).
This band is so interesting musically! I love how each instrument (including voices) comes in separately, each element adding something new and beautiful to the song. The soft-loud alternations make the loud guitar parts sound more badass, and the vocals and soft acoustic sound prettier. Love this song, love this album, can't wait to explore more music by this band!
Missy and Timbaland are definitely the greatest thing to happen to hip hop since the Wu Tang Clan. Timbaland's beats are ridiculous. Off-kilter, urgent-sounding, totally creative and unique. 99% of all other producers must be embarrassed at themselves when a Timbaland song comes out.
Missy's songs have gotten even more complex and crazy since this album, but I still hold a special place in my heart for "Supa Dupa Fly". My friends and I always loved making strange noises and speaking nonsensically, so when Missy busted out with the "I'll hit you with the BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!", and the "vroooooooooooooom," and the "reeeeeeeeer," I connected with it on a very deep level.
The beats in this song stutter, sputter, and slide like a madman, with that awesome little whinny whinny whinny whinny whistle sound in the background. Missy can rap, sing, write great songs (she was a songwriter before she was a solo artist), and she has more charisma and personality than basically anyone. And then there's the videos! Totally twisted and visually arresting. I love how glossy, exaggerated, and tweeked out they all look. Like Alice in Wonderland with two 10s in the back.
On a completely unrelated note, I hope she's losing all this weight for the right reasons. She's the perfect example of TALENT trumping music industry superficiality and BS. Who cares what she looks like. She owns the industry.
My thoughts on the Friday and Sunday Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco:
Ween: AMAZING. I've liked them for a while now, but this was the first time I truly realized how great they are. Every time I'd say, "It'd be great if they played _______________," they immediately played "__________________"! They even played the So-So Def Jermaine Dupris "_________________" remix! Their set included Bananas and Blow, Mutilated Lips, Exactly Where I'm At, Johnny on the Spot, Take Me Away, and my favorite song of theirs, Flutes of Chi. They had great energy and musicianship, and the humor on their records translated perfectly onto the stage. The horrendous mistake we made was leaving their set early because we were intrigued to see the next artist...
MIA: AWFUL. Ugggh. I've read the articles where everyone gives Diplo and her other producers all the credit for her success, and she freaks out and screams about sexism, racism, supply-side economics, and the poor quality of the new Happy Meal. I was on her side before I was actually subjected to her live show. Of course the beats were good, they have computers for that. But her vocals were so bad. At first I didn't understand why she was passing out all these silly plastic horns to people in the audience. Then as the show went on I realized she was probably hoping that they would make enough noise to drown out her alley-cat-being-strangled vocals.
Tom Jones: Somehow inertia kept us at this stage when he performed. To me he sounds like a drunken child molester. He totally freaks me out. I needed a cold shower after this. Very traumatic.
Built to Spill: I love this band, but they kinda seemed to be going through the motions. I heard that their lead singer Doug Martsch said they were basically a nostalgia act at this point, and that lack of excitement and expectations came through. Worth seeing, but not inspired.
Band of Horses: Not spectacular, but really good! Unfortunately the lead singer kept yelling, "Woooooo!" between songs. Sounded like a frat boy after a particularly exhilarating keg stand.
The National: See above. Nothing mind-bending, but good songs and a solid performance. Thumbs up.
Modest Mouse: Used to really like this band, saw them live once before, was kinda bored. But the fact that I hadn't listened to them in so long made this a fun performance to watch. Dramamine sounded really great.
Pearl Jam: We meant to go see Thievery Corporation, but once again inertia won out. This was a more exaggerated instance of not having listened to a band's music in eons, and having fun reminiscing with some pretty good songs. One song I still love is Corduroy. Unfortunately, old Eddie's voice is shot to hell. I mean it kinda was to begin with, that's his shtick, but there's gravelly voice, and then there's no voice. He's closer to the latter.
We missed Dead Weather, Jack White's new band. I can't keep up with this dude's side projects. He's an amazing guitar player, but apparently he's developing serious commitment issues. Poor Meg is probably all by her lonesome now, still taking drum lessons from Bamm-Bamm. Anyway, I heard from a bunch of people that Dead Weather was great.
About Flutes of Chi: it isn't really indicative of Ween's sound. Most of their other songs are stranger and less polished-sounding (but equally great). To me this song just shows that this band can do absolutely anything they want to. They can play country, hard rock, prog, calypso, Irish folk songs, easy listening, and in this case they can do a Beatles song just about as good as the Beatles could.
There are many drawbacks to being a music obsessive. Little things that really don't matter in the larger scheme of things really tend to annoy you. For instance, the fact that the "Corona" youtube says (Jackass theme) under the title. ACTUALLY, JACKASS, THIS SONG WAS WRITTEN ABOUT TWENTY YEARS BEFORE JACKASS, AND JACKASS DOESN'T EVEN PLAY D. BOON'S AMAZING VOCALS IN THE INTRO. See? Not really something I should be getting worked up about, but the caps almost lock by themselves. 
