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August 31, 2006

More Details on SpiralFrog, or If It Sounds Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is

Those silly record labels and their misguided attempts at giving the people what they want. From the Coolfer tip, more details on what looks to be a dead on arrival download service (DOADS?). This extracted from a KCRW interview with industry consultant Celia Hirschman:

"Have the major labels finally caved to the notion that illegal downloading cannot be stopped? Is this the beginning of the end of the record business as we know it?

Not at all. Rather, this is classic Record Business. Read the fine print of the Spira lFrog deal, and the hairs on the back of your neck will stand up. First of all, when consumers download the track, they'll be subjected to a 90 second audio advertisement embedded at the beginning of each track. That's 90 seconds of advertising for every song downloaded. And the downloads will only be available to the listener for six months, where upon the song will be erased from their libraries like a Mission Impossible espionage tape."

Is it time yet for a reality show on "building the next download service," a postmodern satire? The hilarity never ends. In a related note, Norwegian police recovered the stolen Edvard Munch painting, "The Scream."

Previously: SpiralFrog - Free Download Service , eMusic - Scrappiness pays in volume, Sony & DRM - It's All Gonna Break

Tags: SpiralFrog, Digital Music

Posted by Merry Swankster at 02:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 30, 2006

Retrohump - Rock and Roll Circus

In 1968 the Rolling Stones hosted an event called the Rock and Roll Circus and invited all their best buds. The show was taped for television, but never aired due to less than thrilling result. The eventoccurred prior to the YouTube times we so gloriously live in today, so most performances remained unseen until 1996 when a VHS version was released. The premise was a wild and crazy "circus" of music showcasing the era's brightest artists. The Who, John Lennon, Marianne Faithful, Jethro Tull, and of course the Rolling Stones. Brian Jones appears in what would be the final public performance with the band, he would die the following year.

Usually dubbed "ill-fated," the Rock and Roll circus was crippled with the logistics of planning. Almost forty years later, at a time when rock festivals are peaking in popularity and adjusting to concert-goers comfort we can understand the monumental task involved in achieving success for such a large scale event.

The performances began at around 2 p.m. on December 11, 1968, but setting up between acts took longer than planned and the cameras kept breaking down, which meant that the final performances took place at almost 5 a.m. the next morning. By that time the audience and most of the Stones were visibly exhausted, and only Jagger's sheer stamina managed to keep them going until the end.

Bad stuff aside, some highlights from the video release.

The Dirty Mac - "Yer Blues"

Though technically a Beatles song written by John Lennon, the fab four never performed it live (the same could be said about most of the Beatles' later work). This performance incarnation is by the truly super, supergroup by the name of The Dirty Mac, consisting of John, Eric Clapton (lead guitar), Keith Richards (bass), and Mitch Mitchell (drums). In other words a who's who of all time rock legends.

Rolling Stones - "Jumping Jack Flash"

Washed up rock bands and the summer amphitheater concert circuit are mutually beneficial entities that depend on each other for survival. The symbiotic relationship allows a perpetuation of caricatured skeletons that are merely a flash of former glory the chance to truck along until dying breath. Sometimes even dying breath(s) won't stop some of the hack job nostalgia acts from giving up the road life. Tossing jabs at wrinkly artists who are regurgitating a greatest hits show on stage is sorta tired. Disparagement comes too easy and really, what is left to be said on this? Let's avoid whining altogether. Look, I get it. People want to relive these classic songs live, both boomers and the younger generation. Lest I be called a hypocrite, I had a great time seeing the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney. Case in point.

Clearly, I felt the need to prelude with an apologetic digressionary statement prior to this Rolling Stones nugget. So what was my point again? The Rolling Stones may not escape the caricature of themselves, but any way you slice it the Rolling Stones are the Rolling Stones are the Rolling Stones. Jagger's mugging of the camera is probably much, but considering the subject, practically not evenworth mentioning. Oops, sympathy for the Devil indeed.

The Who - "A Quick One"

The strong show by The Who was said to be a contributing factor on why the show never made it to air. The story goes that the Stones were none too happy with what many deemed The Who's show stealing performance.

Jethro Tull - "Song For Jefferey"

The crazy eyes of Ian Anderson have nothing on the jazz flute prowess of Tony Snow and the band of nuts he speaks for. Current events and sorry attempts at cross linkage notwithstanding, all cylinders of the hard rocking Jethro Tull pistons are firing on this performance. The terrifying intro by weird looking carny (Mick Jagger) is probably the real reason it never made it to air.

//Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus - buy DVD
//Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus - IMDB

Tags: Rock and Roll Circus, The Dirty Mac, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell, Rolling Stones, Brian Jones, The Who, Jethro Tull

Posted by Merry Swankster at 12:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 29, 2006

SpiralFrog - Free Download Service

This just in (NYT):

A new online music company said today that it would make a huge catalog of songs from the world’s largest record company, the Universal Music Group, available for consumers to download free. The company, called SpiralFrog, said its intention was to wean music fans, especially young people, away from illegal downloads and pirate music sites by offering a legitimate source, supported by advertising instead of download fees.

Free legitimate music..wh..wh..what?!? There must be a catch...

SpiralFrog’s free downloads will come with many more strings attached than Apple’s paid ones do. Users of SpiralFrog will have to sit through advertisements, and will be prevented by special software from making copies of the songs they download or from sharing them with other people.

Why I think it will ultimately fail:

They will have to revisit the SpiralFrog web site regularly to keep access to the music they download. And the songs will be encoded in Microsoft’s WMA format, meaning they will probably not work on Apple iPod portable music players.

IPods dominate the hardware market for digital music market players, if this service caters to only non-iPod users, how earth shattering could it really be? No bold MS.com statement, just an honest question. I'll give them props for trying something new at least.

Universal is the only label for now, but other labels will be courted:

Neville Hobson, a spokesman for SpiralFrog, said the company hopes to pursue licensing deals with the other major record companies — Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music — to augment its deal with Universal Music, a unit of Vivendi.

When?

Expected to start testing its service in the United States and Canada by the end of the year, and would extend its service to Britain and other European markets next year.

//SpiralFrog - site

Tags: SpiralFrog, Universal, Digital Music

Posted by Merry Swankster at 03:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Postcards From Monteray

Vacation. Monteray Bay Aquarium. Jellyfish Exhibit. Zissou.

Mark Mothersbaugh - "Ping Island / Lightning Strike Resuce Op"

Tags: California, Mark Mothersbaugh, Team Zissou, Jellyfish

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 03:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sleater-Kinney Last Show | Janet & Eddie duet

Sleater-Kinney played their last show ever in Portland last night.

Here is a video of Janet Weiss dueting with Eddie Vedder on a tender little ditty.

Janet Weiss & Eddie Vedder - "You Belong To Me"
Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR - 08.28.06

Poignant.

Tags: Sleater Kinney, Janet Weiss, Eddie Vedder, Portland

Posted by Merry Swankster at 02:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 28, 2006

Drinking $4 bottles of water the hard way

Stereogum has been posting the ugly instances of collective stupidity at the Reading Festival. Fans have pelted bottles at performers. First Brendan Urie of Panic! at the Disco gets knocked in the face by a bottle and now it appears that My Chemical Romance have also been targeted for felling via bottle blows from irate (see: drunk) “fans.”

Without passing judgment on the quality of musical output of these groups, bands getting intimate with the wrong end of hostile Brits' flying missiles is all fairly idiotic and reminiscent of 1999’s ill-fated Woodstock debacle. While fires and rapes have not yet replaced “bottling” headlines, attacking artists performing onstage makes as much sense as throwing cream pies at the cunty, verbal diarrhea spewing Ann Coulter. Walk away people, just walk away.

All of this nonsense comes amid reports that crime is down at this years festie.

Maybe the true sign of a free society is not freedom of movement or freedom of speech, but the chance to be a complete jackass and aim your misguided anger at powerless figures while in a faceless mob. Pussies.

Here are some YouTube vids of "bottlings":

-50 Cent & G-Unit @ Reading (2004)
-Fightstar @ Reading (2005)
-Nickelback @ Portugal Fest

Switching gears from lobbing bottles in substitution for boos to tossing mud in place of hugs is this Green Day clip from the 1994 edition of Woodstock (the less rioty and fiery, but muddy one).

Green Day - "Not Becoming a Mud-Hippy" - Saugerties, NY - Woodstock 1994

Tags: Reading Festival, Panic! At the Disco, My Chemical Romance, Fightstar, 50 Cent, G Unit, Green Day

Posted by Merry Swankster at 01:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Criminally, critically underrated

Criminally, critically underrated is a new feature that will tackle some well-known (and some unknown) recording artists and make an argument that their artistic achievements have perhaps been unappreciated. It is wholly unscientific and slightly hyberbolic.

There are some universal truths in credible hip-hop historical analysis.

Most mainstream music lists on hip-hop are whack. Rakim is perhaps the greatest MC of all time. Nas’ Illmatic is perhaps the greatest album of all time, or, at the least, represented what a hip-hop album should feel or sound like. 2Pac should not be anywhere near the top of the list. Both Eminem and Jay-Z’s careers are like if Tiger Woods won that 2000-stretch of majors, but spent the rest of his career dominating regular tournament play, but only winning one or two more majors.

Lost in this commentary, I feel, is one MC who does not get as nearly enough critical props for his contribution to hip-hop. That man is Ice Cube.

Bursting on the scene with NWA, a super group that arguably only had one truly competent rapper (guess who?), NWA is a great study in music and the human condition. They had absolute very little to say redeeming to say about the plight of the inner city, but conveyed such a raw, emotional reaction to the environment that made everyone else overreact to think that NWA’s popularity portended a rise against the police and government. In reality, many people dug NWA the way that frat boys dug Rage Against the Machine: a form of amping oneself up. I don’t doubt there are plenty of Bush-supporting conservatives with RATM still in their stereo, despite its obvious anti-establishment pathos.

Ice Cube, as a neighborhood storyteller, is surprisingly unparalleled (save for Nas’ early work, Slick Rick, and Ghostface Killah). His evocations of a protagonist's thoughts of the day can seem as rich and realistic as any poet. Save for the few murderous daydream scenarios involving his Tech-9, Cube applies a sociologist approach to his rap craft. Unfortunately, Cube’s (and his narrators') viewpoints are incredibly misogynistic, racist, and anti-Semitic. As I am in the not putting myself in the position of critiquing the positive contribution of his overall world view, these facts, while important, do not apply much here. But what is most fascinating about Ice Cube is that he HAS that world view, devoid in a music community today where mainstream acts celebrate the spoils of the victors (all fine, in my opinion), but fail to contemplate what that means for anything (wasted effort).

If you listen to today’s rap, it is surprisingly collegial. Unidentified foes (haters) always lurk, but it’s oft “all good in the hood” and females are clean, sexy, and suppliant. Not so, in Cube’s world vision, where real enemies were the next block over, hos had mass sexual diseases, and the world was incorrect in its assumptions. Cube’s anthems were not salutary, but quite the opposite: his fear was that everyone would willingly accept the world as a Champagne-toting affair had he not speak.

Ice Cube hated (or feared) nearly everyone, but the Nation of Islam and ten percenters. He even hated (of feared) Ice Cube: some of his sharpest incisions felt Cube-ward. Many salute Enimen for his elucidating the confusion of the human condition in his songs, but his mea culpa seem too clean, too calculated, too non-freestyle. Cube was (no longer is) a crazy mutherfucker who said any and everything, and what it wrought was a muddled mess that holds no shape other than the human form. As if it wasn't clear before, much of what actually popped out of Ice Cube's mouth is indefensible. But it is art.

As Jeff Chang wrote in his inhumanly brilliant book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, “It was as if Cube had taken Public Enemy’s gunsight off the young Black male, and was waving the weapon from target to target, at each and all those lined up around and against him.”

Thanks to the Cornerstone Mixtape series, I will post some snippets of some tracks and an analysis.

Look Who’s Burnin’ – Ice Cube visits the free clinic and tells stories about the afflicted denizens.

How to Survive in South Central LA- The wordplay is just brilliant – “Rule number one: get yourself a gun; a nine in your ass will do fine.”

A bird in the hand - “Fresh out of school, cuz I was a high school grad; got to get a job because I was a high school dad.” Find any modern day rapper on Hot 97 speaking about out-of-wedlock children in the first person.

And, perhaps, the catchiest song about murderous rage: When Will They Shoot? So bouncy, it will have white men mouthing “White man is something I tried to study, but I got my hands bloody.”

You may not like you attraction to the song, but it's there nonetheless.

Ice Cube does not deserve to be in the top five MCs of all time, but a case could be made for top ten, if using the arguments above.

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 07:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 25, 2006

Works in Progress, vol. 2

Part two in our ongoing series looking at songs in their various states of being. To read the previous entry, go here.

The story of the Glove goes like this...

London in 1979 was a magical place where they held Throbbing Gristle concerts at the YMCA. Robert Smith shows up to this improbable event wearing a green checkered suit. Steve Severin, bassist for Siouxsie and the Banshees, sees Smith, mocks him. The two become instant friends. They hang out, talk about poetry, ear studs, pouting, etc. Rob and the Cure tour with Siouxsie, and he fills in occasionally as an emergency Banshee. The bond of the road cemented, the boys are itching to get into a studio together to make sweet goth. "Oh, not so fast" says Friction records head Chris Parry. "Robert Smith is under contract and can only bleat for us!" Incensed, Robert Smith demands his right to sing on this new band's album! At this point, there is no band, there is no album. A back room deal is struck, allowing Smith to sing on two tracks. Now, the pissing match completed, a hypothetical album now necessary, the boys do the concscientious thing, and take loads of acid and beginning playing with sitars. Kotos, dulcimers, and drum machines are also implicated. Songs emerge. But Robbo's bound up, who's to sing? "Hey" says Banshee drum-man Budgie, "How about my girlfriend Jeanette? She's never sung before, but she's a Top of the Pops dancer!"

...and there you have it.

Lost to time and out of print for ages, the resulting record, Blue Sunshine (named for a cult movie about acid that turns a man homicidal) has finally resurfaced. Only now, we get a bit of a glimpse into what might have been as a second disc is provided made up entirely of Rob Smith's forbidden vocal takes. A rather drastic difference, perfect for our compare/contrast steez.

the Glove - "Like an Animal"

the Glove - "Like an Animal" (Robert Smith vocal demo)

This track, about a schizo lady hiding in her high rise apartment dropping things on passersby, is the first single to have emerged from the Axis of Lipgloss. It's about as dark as you might expect from a Cure/Banshees hybrid with lyrics like "Tuesday in the sun/ nothing can be worse" bandied about freely. The track stands apart from the work of those groups with more exotic psych textures and an emphasis on drum machine rhythms. For a novice, Landray holds her own. I'm sure she was understandably pegged as a temp Siouxsie upon the record's initial release, but in modern terms her high/studio treated pipes sound vaguely like those used by Asobi Seksu. Her presence lends weight to the frazzled state of the detached female protagonist, her enunciated stiffness an asset. Robert Smith's take on his own vague lyrics is more sympathetic maybe, his urging of "Couldn't we just once leave her in bed," sounding like a defense of outsiders everywhere. Of course, he's got the better vocal chops but the direct contest between the two versions is basically a wash. Forgiving a thinner backing track for the demo the difference is between the sound of a great lost Banshees track or a great lost Cure track. The personal loyalties of the listener while likely determine which is preferred.

the Glove - "Punish Me With Kisses"

the Glove - "Punish Me With Kisses" (Robert Smith vocal demo)

On "Punish Me With Kisses" the disparity in vocal quality between Landray and Smith is more pronounced. The sound and structure for both are basically identical with only slight mixing tweaks differentiating them. Both open with gurgling synths that seem to suggest Mario wracking up on coins in a bonus level. Both have big bloody keyboard washes and echoed drum strikes that immediately recall Martin Hannett's soundscapes for Joy Division. Here though, the lyrics don't benefit much from gender reversal and are much more heavy handed than "...Animal" 's. The titular image alone, to "punish" someone with kisses, points out how ridiculous the Smith/Severin lyrics can sound occasionally. Like he's trying to find anything negative he can in the simple pleasures of life. The thing is though, Smith can pull this stuff off, and Landray can't. She gives it a go for sure and as a goth museum piece it works, but her delivery is sort of monotone and not wildly expressive. Smith on the other hand inventively stretches out syllables, or adds little vocal tics in all the right places. He shifts emphasis when necessary and gives the track a human center. It's hardly a fair comparison, as he's one of the most influential (and as of the 00's, most imitated) singers of his genre, and she dated drummers and danced around on Top of the Pops.

the Glove - "Punish Me With Kisses"

Here, you see the kids in action, and still poor Jeanette's mugging is sort of overshadowed by Robby just hanging back in his bright white suit. If he'd been allowed to step into the lead as originally intended, I suspect it this material wouldn't have been shelved so long and the Glove entity might have been more than a curious footnote. So it goes.

Tags: the Glove, the Cure, Robert Smith, Siouxsie and the Banshees

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 03:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

MS Pick - Colourmusic - Yes! | Video

Merry Swankster approved exports from Oklahoma City (and self proclaimed "boy band") - Colourmusic - recently YouTube'd a lo-fi kaleidoscope-y video for the song "Yes!" and posted on their MySpace page. Such confluence of web 2.0 (including this here blogging), enough to bring a tear to the eye. Have you taken to Colourmusic yet? Thrusting beats, poppy melodies aplenty in between chunks of delicious sonic density.

Colourmusic - Yes!

The thrusting march of elevating rhythms propels serious intensity on this track, so much so that you'll surely enlist in whatever cause is being trumpeted. Taming the bombastic pop sounds are unassuming kick-back response loops providing subtle touch to the front and center bigness. Quite a nice design trick for the sake of balance. "Yes!" was an early favorite from the The Red EP before realizing Colourmusic's full repertoire (including The Yellow EP) was very strong. Singer Ryan Hendrix confessed this song was his "baby" in confidence to me. I crossed my fingers and now pass this nugget to thee, oh awesome reader.

Colourmusic - "Yes!"

A post on "Yes!" had been planned before the Colourmusic boys one upped the Merry Swankser and preemptively released this video. I must thank them for the timely release though, allowing to complement what was going to be a lone MP3 with a truly multimedia offer. We like to think our content can be rich, even on lazy, late summer Fridays.

Previously: Colourmusic - Live @ Hi-Dive, Denver, CO, 7.27.06,
MS Pick - Colourmusic

//Colourmusic - Red EP & Yellow EP can be purchased through their MySpace.
//Colourmusic - site

Tags: Colourmusic

Posted by Merry Swankster at 12:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 24, 2006

Raconteurs Touring with Bob Dylan | Tour dates

See, Bob Dylan doesn't hate modern music.

Bob Dylan is taking the Raconteurs on the road with him for a 8 shows in the Northeast this fall.

11.9 - Portland, ME - Cumberland County Civic Center
11.11 - Boston, MA - Agganis Arena
11.12 - Boston MA - Agganis Arena
11.13 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau Coliseum
11.15 - Amherst, MA - Univ. of MA Mullins Center
11.16 - East Rutherford, NJ - Continental Airlines
11.17 - Fairfax, VA - Patriot Center
11.18 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Spectrum

Previously: Overreactions to Bob Dylan

Tags: Bob Dylan, raconteurs

Posted by Merry Swankster at 04:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Franz Ferdinand on How to Make a Hit Song

You guys may find this interesting. I did, but it also gave me a headache.

Franz Ferdinand songwriters singer Alex Kapranos and guitarist Nick McCarthy revealed how they went about writing a hit record...With the help of a guitar and piano, they talked the audience through how they wrote their first song, fans' favourite Auf Asche. [They also gave] tips for aspiring pop stars, there were plenty of revelations for the fans of the double-Brit-winning group.

Revelation #1:

Kapranos: "When it comes to song writing, there are not any distinct rules - there isn't any right of wrong way to go about it. Some of the best things you do are mistakes. I didn't have any music training - most of song writing is messing about 'til it sounds good."

The article is titled, "Franz Ferdinand reveal hit secrets." Young rockers, you now have the tools needed to be as big as Franz. Please be careful though, as Ben Parker once said to a different type of superstar, "With great power comes great responsibility."

Tags: Franz Ferdinand

Posted by Merry Swankster at 12:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 23, 2006

Overreactions to Bob Dylan

A seemingly cantankerous Bob Dylan lashed out at modern music and drew all the witty net-tards* to do what they do best, react disproportionately to a headline. The amusing, drolling comments on some blogs makes me wonder if people do more than just scan headlines these days rather than reading articles.

Reuters Headline:

Bob Dylan says modern music is worthless

Most sites took this to mean that Bob Dylan is just an old man complaining about the state of contemporary music while reminiscing about the alleged "good ol days." I'm not sure why the conventional wisdom was such when the first line of this article (taken from a longer Rolling Stone interview) began as such, "Bob Dylan says modern recordings sound "atrocious," and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc." Then again, by definition conventional wisdom pertains to "ideas that are familiar, predictable, and therefore accepted by the general public." I'll splurge two cents to pay for a finishing thought including, but not necessarily true.

Sundog gets it:

"If you read Bob Dylan's rant about modern music today, he sounds unhinged. He isn't; he just isn't describing what he means very well, or it went over the reporter's head and didn't get on paper." (link via TPMCafe)

File Under: Everyone else misses the point.

-Brooklyn Vegan: Bob Dylan says modern music is worthless
-Stereogum: Bob Dylan Hates Modern Times
-Surly's Soap Box: Modern Music Declares Bob Dylan "Obsolete"

Ouch.

* I don't mean to disparage fellow bloggers as net-tards, its mostly reserved for the reactionary flocks in the comment sections.

Yours always,
-Merry Swankster

Tags: Bob Dylan, Music Recording

Posted by Merry Swankster at 03:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Retrohump Extra - Dr. Retarded

Mr. Show - "Monster Parties: Fact or Fiction?"

In which Bob Odenkirk makes Dr. Demento cry. Plus you get a few seconds of Bob as Robert Evans as God in the beginning.

Oh Mr. Show, our nation turns it's lonely eyes to you...

Tags: Dr. Demento, Dr. Retarded, Mr. Show, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Monster Parties

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Retrohump Day - Dr. Demento

From the tortured memory banks of a forgotten past MS goes the silly and unpretentious route of novelty videos popularized by Dr. Demento. Rolly polly fish heads have been messing with my head since I first watched the Dr. Demento specials on MTV God knows how many years ago. With modern technology now allowing for wrinkles in time via a newfangled series of tubes that we refer simply as The Internet, the collectively repressed ghosts of a generation return from backroom obscurity to special star on our popular weekly Retrohump roundup.

Enjoy as lack of sleep transforms our Wednesday feature reserved for "classic performances" to instead become immersed in a bath of disorder. Or maybe the high pitched fish heads chorus drove me mad.

Fish Heads

Party in My Pants

We are organizing a pool on how long it takes for a Williamsburg DJ to remix this horror into an ironic hit. I for one have lost my head entirely.

Tags: Dr Demento, Retrohump

Posted by Merry Swankster at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 22, 2006

Get MP3s of all Pitchfork's 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s

Crazy bloggers are always up to trouble, or providing indispensable value. Blogsarefordogs.com has made all 200 selections from Pitchfork's list available for download. Though they are not straightforward MP3s, and require just enough software know-how that many people will find downloading too much of a hassle, it has been done nonetheless.

Get it here: Pitchfork’s Greatest Songs of the 60’s - The Complete Mp3 Collection

Previously: Songs Left off Pitchfork's 60's List (part 1, part 2)
Tags: Pitchfork, 1960s

Posted by Merry Swankster at 06:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Songs Left off the Pitchfork 60's List (part 2 of 2)

Our hyper picky parsing of Pitchfork's recent 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960's feature continues today as promised with the final two categories; Artists who were underrepresented by the epic list, and pet obscurities that we might have fought for if given the chance.

Read part 1 here.

Shafted:

One of the strongest singer/songwriters in any decade, Leonard Cohen might have suffered for his longevity in the compiling of the list. His best song not included, "Famous Blue Raincoat", came from the seventies, after all. The two songs that did make the cut, "So Long, Marianne" (#190) and "Suzanne" (#41) get no dispute, but Cohen deserves at least to tie Pasty Cline (3 entries) and beat out the Monkees (2 entries) as far as I'm concerned. A worthy third prize goes to the beautiful and surprisingly bouncy "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye." I love that in contrast to alot of the forlorn lovesick tracks in the Canuck's arsenal, this is basically a cheer-up song. It's so eloquent and convincing that at the end his crying lady friend is sweetly chiming in behind him.

Leonard Cohen - "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye"

Dusty Springfield is one of my absolute favorite vocalists of the sixties, and almost certainly the finest British female pop star of that decade. Her voice is huge, crystal clear, and evocatively sensual. While I agree that if you could only give her one song it'd be stupid for it not to be "Son of a Preacher Man" (#45), I think she deserved a bit more credit. Quite a few other tracks could have been pulled from the immortal Dusty in Memphis album, but since it did get a tiny bit of love, we'll go with an earlier single. While the lyrics under a microscope almost amount to the troubling advice of "Hey girls, put out!", her delivery is all so joyous and filled with hope that you have to think a few thankful Sixties teen boys had to benefit from Dusty's powers of persuasion.

Dusty Springfield - "Wishin' and Hopin' "

Until the rise of 90's electronic artists Air and Daft Punk, Serge Gainsbourg was pretty much the only French import to have any impact at all in the American consciousness (discounting a couple drops in the post punk bucket). To this day, the "next Serge Gainsbourg" tag is a blessing and a curse for surly unshaven French singers the way that "next Dylan" is for any midwestern kid with a guitar and some political consciousness. So basically, the dominant figure in the music of a whole country in the midst of its last great decade of pop music gets one measly performance slot ("Bonnie et Clyde" #56) and one writing nod (France Gall's "Laisse Tomber les Filles", #181). Worse, his greatest, most enduringly relevant song ("Reqiuem for a jerk" in English) is nowhere to be found. The air of sleaze, the Gallic bongo rhythm, and the choked/ strangely sexual electric guitar line are all so casually cool. It's as if it were possible for a piece of music to dangle a cigarette from its lips. Probably the number one song I'd like to have seen on the list that wasn't.

Serge Gainsbourg - "Requiem Pour un Con"

Donovan is not seen as a real cool dude. Singing about "eee-lek-tric-al banana"s, doing long spoken word pieces about the nation of Atlantis, and being a huge ass hippy will do that for you. Pitchfork only gave in to the Scot's charm once, with the unusually dark "Season of the Witch" (#140) being the one you could safely hang your cred on. I love that one too, but I think the more undeniably memorable track comes here, in all it's psychedelic, comic book name checking, nerd glory. I love that big exotic guitar part at the beginning, the "you've got to be joking" drug repudiation of the first line, and the disconcertingly agressive "You're GO-ing to be mine" chorus. It's fucking far out, man.

Donovan - "Sunshine Superman"

Obscurity Wrangling:

One of the most striking aspect of the list was the dominance of pop singles from relatively obscure girl groups. I suspect if this undertaking had been attempted a few years ago this might not have been the case. Here, in a post One Kiss Leads to Another box set world, the floodgates are open. There's nothing inherently wrong with using knowledge gained from key re-issues to re-evaluate a decade's output. I mean you can't un-hear something and guide your choices by feigned ignorance. You have to think though, that when dealing with a trove of singles so obscure that they are unlikely to have been very truly influential at all, it all comes down to highly subjective pick and choose.

So, I give you my pick, "I'm Afraid They're All Talking About Me" by Dawn. Maybe the most supremely paranoid single I've ever heard, this track glides along like a building nervous breakdown. There's no respite, ever. Even at the chorus it's all just pleading for help. I can understand how something this harrowing might not have broken out on radio of the time, but as long as we're playing revisionist history, you don't get much more sophisticated girl-pop than this.

Dawn - "I'm Afraid They're All Talkin' About Me"

From intense paranoia to whiplash confidence, my second choice comes from lady rockers the What Four. Displaying a shockingly forward for the time wish "to make that boy my lover", the WF level the sexual playing field in a way that makes the Pipettes sound both timid and redundant in comparison. Long before women were given any measure of genuine respect in the rock field, here lies this rarity, kicking ass unashamed.

the What Four - "I'm Gonna Destroy That Boy"

In the zero-sum game of list dominance, probably the greatest loser stemming from the increase in girl-groups is garage rock. The less current thrill of discovery coming from the Nuggets anthology can't compare to the still recent crush of One Kiss it seems. My choice for a great gem from the diminished in stature form is this mid-tempo melody bomb from the lost to time Beau Brummels.

the Beau Brummels - "Laugh, Laugh"

A last trend of note was the inclusion of many not typically considered pieces of film and television music. With "Linus and Lucy" (#43), "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (#32), and "Dr.Who" (#76) all getting props, I wish there was a bit of shelf space cleared for my favorite, Krystof Komeda's haunting theme to Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby". I recently wrote about this one at length, so I'll save my breath (fingers), and quote this one's charm in it's own words. La La La La. (dread) La La La La. (dread).

Krystof Komeda f. Mia Farrow - "Rosemary's Baby" (main title)

...and scene.

Tags: Pitchfork, Leonard Cohen, Dusty Springfield, Serge Gainsbourg, Donovan, Dawn, the What Four, the Beau Brummels, Krystof Komeda, Mia Farrow

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 02:29 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 21, 2006

So about that Flaming Lips Spaceship

Last month I wrote this, "If Flaming Lips leader Wayne Coyne ever decides to make good on his dreams of reaching the cosmos for a jaunt to Mars (say for Christmas), I think he'd pick Red Rocks as the launch for the spaceship." I was off with the venue, the spaceship is being launched in Oklahoma City. This is the test run video.

Flaming Lips - UFO Test Run

Previously: Flaming Lips - Live @ Red Rocks, Flaming Lips - Live @ Penn's Landing, Philadelphia, PA

Tags: Flaming Lips, UFO

Posted by Merry Swankster at 01:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Songs Left off Pitchfork's 60's List (part 1 of 2)

We had the weekend to let Pitchfork's Greatest 200 Songs of the 1960's list sink in. Now, friends, is the time for the nitpicking to begin in earnest. For the most part I think it was a pretty good effort by the 'forkers. There were clearly great pains taken to expand the usual Rolling Stone magazine conventional wisdom, include underrespected genres, and oust some terrible Doors songs. Any attempt to assign rank and number to a decade's worth of music is going to be imcomplete, however. In calling to light some material that didn't make the cut, the intention isn't to be some kind of scolding corrective, just a continuation of the discussion.

Sub-dividing our topics of inspection, we have: Songs by titanic artists left off due to editorial limits, token entries for cult artists that could have been better selected, underrepresented artists, and obscure choices that may or may not actually be "the greatest". The first two categories tackled below;

Sophie's Choice:

The most innovative editorial decision of the Pitchfork list was putting a cap on the number of entries a single artist was allowed to have. While this definitely made for a more interesting and eclectic read, it also strips some of the weight from figures who towered over the decade, and robbed the list of some classic songs that were easily better than what finally made the cut. Maxing out at five we had: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Supremes, the Kinks, the Beach Boys, and the Velvet Underground. The five Supremes singles chosen are pretty set in stone, and I'm no Beach Boys scholar, so we'll leave that round of second guessing to others.

The Beatles inclusions are really hard to take issue with. You have the masterpiece ("A Day in the Life" #5), the character study ("Eleanor Rigby" #47), the evil psych monster ("I am the Walrus" #26), the traditional ("I Want to Hold Your Hand" #58) and the dive into the deep end ("Tomorrow Never Knows" #19). A well rounded bunch. For our sixth place alternate pick, I'd go with Rubber Soul's "Norwegian Wood".

Here you get the boys starting to expand their sonic palette into other cultural sounds and themes a little deeper and more complex than dancing and holding hands (some hints of infidelity, and some darkness with the lyrical finish). It's all still reigned in and in the service of a nicely effective melody. Call it the sleeper.

the Beatles - "Norwegian Wood"

Pitchforkers know their Kinks too, although the relatively low placement for their most perfect track ("Waterloo Sunset" #29 ), just gives more weight to their younger brother status behind the Beatles and Stones. While the Kinks tunes might be tastefully picked, on their own they fail to represent the super goofy playful side of the band that made them more lovable than the countrymen overshadowing them. This song, from perhaps their silliest Sixties album, the Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, is concentrated fun.

the Kinks - "Starstruck"

For all the love that the Stones get for their evil junk phase, I find their earlier R&B pop incarnation to be more (sorry) satisfying. Hindsight historians are careful to apologize for the Stones theft and resale of songs from lesser known black artists. While that's a fair criticism, it should also be pointed out that their own original songs from the same formative period frequently matched or topped the purloined tracks in quality.

the Rolling Stones - "Heart of Stone"

The song limit seems a bit crueler when we get to Dylan. His post-folk rock albums are so littered with brilliance that summing them up in five tracks is too limiting a proposition. Gone for instance is much sense of Dylan as performer. Room was made in the ranks for James Brown's live sweatshow, so it's a shame that Dylan's baby faced prophet act was a rule casualty. Here, from the infamous 1966 Royal Albert Hall acoustic/ electric performance, we get Dylan, a guitar, and a harmonica. That's it. The harmonica has slways been my least favorite aspect of the early Dylan mystique, but I have to make an exception for this. With Bob stripped alone on stage it's a raw, bleeding release valve for its otherwise subdued master. A performance so stark in its power, that when the sound is amped up in the subsequent set, he's literally called a "Judas" for building on it.

Bob Dylan - "4th Time Around"(live @ the Royal Albert Hall, 1966)

Which is not to say that I was sorry to see the mouth organ go. On "Queen Jane Approximately", fleshed out rock-Dylan reigns supreme. While the myth of the man usually rests on righteous fury or surreal charm, "QJA" gives us a warmer Robby Z. The track is commonly used as a stand in for carefree rememberance in many a self-aggrandizing baby boomer produced 60's drama. How passionate we were, how carefree, and all that shit. But you can't blame Bob for making typical teen naivety seem awfully romantantic when remembered with this as a soundtrack.

Bob Dylan -"Queen Jane Approximately"

One would suspect that the top of many a Pitchfork staffer's list would be real heavy on VU, but when all was tallied they failed to crack the top 25. I'd like a look at those ballots, frankly, because no one band has as much genetic material passed down to the spectrum of music the Fork typically embraces as Lou and his goons. The song limit sets the focus almost entirely on the first, monumental Velvet Underground and Nico album, with four of that record's songs included (making it the most honored album of the decade). The sole induction from the rest of their discography is the deranged "Sister Ray" (#148). While as an "anything goes" statement that song makes sense, the better choice is the title track from the same album, White Light/ White Heat. In its tattered catchiness, simplicity, and brevity, "WL/WH" is the easiest place to see punk stumble from the ocean and begin to take some steps.

the Velvet Underground - "White Light/ White Heat"

The focus on the roots of the Underground also robs the list of Lou Reed's most empathic, human material, the third Velvet Underground album. Here, in a calmer, prettier set of songs he shows a gift for straightforward melody that is shocking when listened to immediately following the raw WL/WH set. Listening to his elegy for Warhol drag icon Candy Darling, it's hard to imagine the depiction being so rich and well rounded if it had been written in the decadent haze of VU and Nico. "Pale Blue Eyes" follows up with the Velvets' most sincere love song. Sure it's about adultery, but that's only a briefly mentioned detail, not a shock value focus. The early Factory soundtrack might be more glamorous an image, but to forget this material is to lose the heart behind the somewhat ghoulish facade.

the Velvet Underground - "Candy Says"

the Velvet Underground - "Pale Blue Eyes"

Cult Representation Quibble:

With their spot as ressurrected headliners for this year's Pitchfork Music Festival, you knew there had to be room set aside for Brazilian weirdos, the Mutants. Although that token selection "A Minha Menina" (#160) might be the most easily digestible rocker to be found, a pick more representative of the group's lasting influence is "Panis et Circenses." Melding indigenous Brazilian music to folk-y strum and adding a deep Nico-esque vocal, it holds up to the most affecting world music of the decade. The real thrill lies in the fearless invention of the song's latter part, shrugging off simple beauty for odder, more inventive terrain. Echoes of the fearless exploration can be found almost forty years on in the compositions of Matthew Friedberger, although here it's much more cohesive than some of Matty's more half-baked moments.

Os Mutantes - "Panis et Circenses"

Our favorite Germany based ex-pat method actor Army brats, the Monks, cracked the list in a token spot as well. While the Pitchfork selection "Monk Time" (#165) might be useful as a self-mythologizing mission statement, it's got nothing on this one. The catchiest song laid to tape by the Friar punks, it sports the delighful call and response, "I hate you baby, with a passion/ But call me! But call me!" More importantly, it loses none of its stomp and bile for the added wit.

the Monks - "I Hate You"

In appropriately Pitchforkian drawn-out cocktease fashion, the second part of this post comes at you tomorrow. Until then, discuss.

Tags: Pitchfork, the Beatles, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground, Os Mutantes, the Monks

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 10:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 18, 2006

Beg Yr Pardon # 6 @ the Delancey, New York City. 08.15.2006

photos by Devon Banks

The sixth edition of Beg Yr. Pardon was clearly the most fun I've had there yet, and not just because I've let myself be enveloped in its loving embrace in my role as 1st half DJ. A sort of hanging energy was present at the Delancey on Tuesday that has only peeked in previously. There was an almost rowdy edge to the room by the time we headed into the beer frame around 11, but it was always relaxed and fun. It came closest to fulfilling its initial mission statement of a party without pose. Just a bunch of kids hanging out, checking out uniformly enjoyable local bands, and chatting it up. If the bi-weekly night can keep up the momentum it seems to be generating...well I guess I don't know what will happen actually. Let's come back and find out, huh?

- For the curious, a note about my DJ sets*. I went a tad obscure (but up-tempo), because I figured, "Hey, it's a pretty hip room right?" Well, it was. The influx of people sadly picked up when I was winding down and for most of the time it was a close cousin to playing records for your pals hanging out pre-painting the town, but I got no problems with that. There were a few head and leg nods during "Fred Vom Jupiter", "Autonomy Boy", and "Pillars Were Hollow..." in the second set (list in it's chronological place), so I was pleased enough. When I make my triumphant return in a later slot, or in the dreaded cage match format, watch out! -

DJ Set # 1
Holy Shit - "Written All Over Your Face" / Peter Bjorn & John - "Young Folks" / Serge Gainsbourg - "Requiem Pour un Con" / Tom Tom Club - "On, On, On, On..." / Fire Engines - "Candyskin" (John Peel session) / Orange Juice - "Poor Old Soul, pt. 2" / TV on the Radio - "Wolf Like Me" / LCD Soundsystem - "Jump into the Fire" / Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Young Shields" / Neu! - "Lila Engel (Lilac Angel)" / Televsion Personalities - "...and Don't the Kids Just Love it?" / the What Four - "I'm Gonna Destory That Boy" / Delta 5 - "Mind Your Own Business" /
Erase Errata - "Ca. Viewing"

Animandible

Animandible screamed along to goofy, trashed electro aided by live guitar and the occasional haphazard drum and cowbell shot. Less grim than Suicide, less clever than LCD, but both were obvious touchpoints. The room at this point was pretty sparse, but the boys played for the photogs in the front, and the lurkers in the back with alot of enthusiasm. I think they crossed the line into totally ridiculous one or fourteen times, going out into the "crowd" writhing on the floor, etc., but they really committed. Swinging for the fences is an admirable move for an opening band, and it was an entertaining set in the end.

DJ Set # 2
Malaria! - "Your Turn to Run" / the Long Blondes - "Autonomy Boy" / Elastica - "Ba Ba Ba" (BBC session) / Cristina - "Ticket to the Tropics" / the Knife - "You Take My Breath Away" / Charles de Goale - "Synchro" / Andreas Dorau & die Marinas - "Fred Vom Jupiter" / Liars - "Pillars Were Hollow and Filled With Candy So We Knocked Them Down..." / James White & the Blacks - "Contort Yourself"

My Teenage Stride

My Teenage Stride were a really tight, poppy rock group making them the odd man out on this mostly electro-fied bill. I liked pretty much everything they played, but if I had one reservation it'd be that their set was all over the place, in way that made it seem like the work of several different bands. One minute they did angular, sort of like a less nervous Feelies. Next thing you know, you'd have super crisp power-pop. Then we'd be in for a feel good retro 70's AM radio jam, followed by a neo-new wave up-tempo Clap Your Hands-ish one. I mean the range was impressive, and they were never boring certainly, but you didn't get a real sense of the band's identity. On a night focused on crazy antics and outsized performances, that might not have been enough to wow. But, I did like it.

1 Song DJ encore/ time for Mathilda von Crumbcake to set up
Talking Heads - "Love > Building on Fire" (live)

EZ Machine

Weirdly, these guys one me over with a Don Henley cover. At the beginning of the set, the two man EZ Machine were obviously amusing, but hard to take seriously. Heavy vocoder, pantomiming as if synth bleeps and bloops were being sung a capella (unless they have some serious next level software), a future shock light show, prominent key-tar, and a guy named "DJ Law School" (which wins points with me as I was unable to think of anything close to as good for my night's duties) add up to a larf. But then out of the neon-salted darkness, strumming lightly on guitar, whispering earnest vocals, and adorned with only a tasteful sprinkling of electro tinsel, "Boys of Summer" became somehow palatable. Sure, the lyrics are still nostalgic crap, but they grated the cheese right off in a way that made it modest and pretty. My newfound attention was rewarded with another cover of Prince's "When U Were Mine" in the beloved Cristina style. Respect.

Cassettes Won't Listen

The Cassettes Won't Listen audio-visual spectacular started with the first airing of the new CWL remix of Asobi Seksu's "Strawberries" soon to be topping the elbo.ws chart. With crowd hyped, our man Jay (and to be perfectly transparent, he is a friend of ours) invited some lovely ladies to the stage for back up. Not only with voice but with flute! That's an instrumental gauntlet thrown down right there, future BYP'ers. With the ladies silking up the slow turntable beats and keyboard, the result had sort of a Tricky/ Massive Attack trip hop feel (I think we're about due for a revivial on that front, no?). It was one of many sonic facets displayed in an eclectic and impressive show.

For all the times we've shot the shit, I'd never seen Jay Drake perform, so I had no idea what to expect really. This element of surprise was key to the enjoyment. An ever changing light show livened up what was necessarily a stationary keyboard bound show. The popular synth pop makeover of Pavement's "Cut Your Hair" won fans with it's warm bounce, before meeting the original on it's own terms with an unexpected electric guitar breakdown. This polyamorous music love was on display all night as JD proved equally comfortable with a hopping beat showcase or a bedroom indie strum along. My usual indifference to all things rap was also momentarily shelved as the obviously free styling guest MC, Bisc One, made short work of the surrounding enviroment in cobbling together his flow. He then slid back into the sudience like it was nothing, and I had to admit it was a cool moment.

The songs had so many places that they could possibly go, but always felt pretty organic in their course. The audience couldn't help but be a bit electric, caught guessing at what sonic element was going to come from within the swirling lights. Color me impressed, man.

More pictures after the jump...

* anybody who wishes to inquire as to my availability for future DJ services, can reach me at my MS e-mail address, jeffklingman@merryswankster.com.

Tags: Beg Yr Pardon, Cassettes Won't Listen, EZ Machine, My Teenage Stride, Animandible, the Delancey, Free Beer

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 01:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The Internets are the new MTV, pt. 3 through 1,000,000

BBC: YouTube co-founder Steve Chen told Reuters news agency it was hoped that within 18 months the site would "have every music video ever created."

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 08:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Beirut-Deerhoof addendum

I will say this about Beirut: I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it quite immensely. It caught me, sometime in the middle of the set, that I was still (relatively) young and enjoying a beer and a (definitely) young band in the sun while the world seemed to be erupting elsewhere. There was no shade of gray; enjoyment is easy to detect.

I'm not one to castigate those who wish to exert their freedom of speech in lambasting Beirut on some other blog's comment thread, but... but... but... really?

beirut suck! i left because i couldnt deal with their obnoxious songs that all sounded exactlty the fucking same. i wanted to see deerhoof, but i just HAD to leave.

You left a hipster amusement park – before a band you truly wanted to see – because you couldn’t withstand forty or fifty minutes of a band you didn’t dig? Well, you’re your irrational behavior undermines the value of any music criticism you might offer.

Beirut was a pleasure, and an act befitting a languid day of Brooklyn Pilsner and sun. That album, Gulag Orkestar, is a treat. It was exciting to catch the band try to emulate the sound live, and any missteps were made up for by pluck and a total dedication evoking a feeling, rather than trying to fatuously reach the audience (which, with or without a blog publishing platform, gave the band heavy applause).

Deerhoof was great, but you probably already knew that.

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 07:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Internets are the new MTV, pt. 2

Because you might be able to see this video on Subterranean, but is it really worth suffering through Jim Shearer?

Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 07:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 17, 2006

Deerhoof, Live @ McCarren Pool, Brooklyn. 08.13.06

photos by Devon Banks

I'll keep my thoughts short since this show has been so thoroughly covered from all corners of the media, electronic or no. I looked at the attendance sheet in Heart on a Stick's post mortem today, and it made me tired. The crowd at this mob scene made me tired too, what with ironically (although in fairness, probably legitimately) fun activities like dodgeball and slip and slide always seeming a bit too clever. Also sort of disheartening to see how hipsters conglomerated in big numbers turn immediately into hippies when left unchecked. Hacky sacking. Caucasion dreadlocks. Man overalls. At least three confirmed sightings of man overalls.

Focusing on the music and not anti-social petty annoyances, Deerhoof were an excellently odd choice to entertain the gathered thousands. The only time in the day when a performer followed ?uestlove's DJ set without seeming completely mismatched, Deerhoof's Satomi came in with beats still hanging in the air chirping "Bunny, Bunny, Bunny" to the rhythm. Her confidence and charisma pulled off the oddity well. I mean, why should twee vocals have a harder time co-mingling with thumping beats than they do with noise rock freakouts?

About those freakouts, maybe it was just the sun-shine day, but they seemed more inviting here than they do sometimes on record. Dealing with the recent departure of their fouth man, the arrangements were more streamlined, but no less powerful. Satomi's vocal and playful demeanor drew more lenses but John Deiterich's guitar squalls are what makes them some of the most interesting rock composers around, sure to gain in stature among hypothetical future types long after they've disbanded.

Singling out John is not to belittle the input of drummer Greg Saunier, playing what looks like a bar mitzvah gift drum kit that he towers over. Shattered cymbal and duct tape a plenty were tell tale sings of the punishment inflected by the tall man. His comically meek stage banter suggests a Hulk-like sublimated rage channelling when behind the kit, and he was a great anchor for the strange co-mingling of fragile melody and feedback wrangling.

For a casual 'Hoof fan, I couldn't have really asked for much more. The set relied heavily on the melodic Runners' Four album. They trotted out back catalog pinnacles like "Milk Man" and "This Magnificent Bird Will Rise". Also, they rocked and it was free.

Folks grumbling in various comment threads about this set being too abrasive must not have dipped more than a toe into the pool of non-conventionally structured rock music. Also, they hate art. Possibly, they wear manveralls.

More photos after the slide...

Tags: Deerhoof, McCarren Pool, hipsters, manveralls

Bunny, Bunny, Bunny

I've Seen Joly from Punkcast.com at roughly 90% of all concerts that I've been to this summer. So, he obviously has impeccable taste, but he always seems semi-sad and confused

Come see the duckface

kicking out the jams

the horror, the horror...

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 05:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 16, 2006

More Adventures in Suspect Video: Beirut, Deerhoof

While I'm feeling half-assed, why not raid the cupboard for more footage from the base of the new camera learning curve? I haven't gotten around to a full write up on last Sunday's free show at the renovated McCarren Pool in Brookyln, but I was there!

Beirut - "Scenic World"

Beirut have opened for half the bands playing New York this year (see here and here), and I'm not sure I have anything left to say about them. They looked a little scared shitless by the thousands of people standing in front of them, and sent out their red shirted designated clown to bomb badly in the banter department, but they did well for themselves in general. Here is "Scenic World", only recently added to the band's arsenal. Transposed to xylophone and violin it has sort of a bouncy feel akin to some of the Islands' material. The drum sound is a little crunchy, and we're working on it, but it doesn't detract too much. Cuts off towards the end because it was just too much for the Tube to handle.

Deerhoof - "Twin Killers"

I do have much more to say about Deerhoof and we'll get to that soon, but for now this is what you get. We tried something different and the sound is better, but haven't cracked the mystery of how to film in zoom without losing resolution and making it all fuzzy. The huge riffs are pretty clear.

Tags: Beirut, Deerhoof, McCarren Pool

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 03:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Beg Yr Pardon #6: Cassettes Won't Listen VIDEO

Last night's edition of the Beg Yr Pardon party at the Delancey in New York City was a real good time. Too good. Sitting at work today is no country drive, let me tell you.

Now, our digital snapshot camera gets some great photos, but it's clearly not designed for high quality sound + vision. With that caveat, we give you a taste of Cassettes Won't Listen.

Cassettes Won't Listen - "Lunch for Breakfast"

To give this song the more respectful, high quality audio listen (that Cassettes continue to refuse to do!), please head over to CWL's MySpace page.

Reviews and pictures of all the bands on the roster (as well as a self indulgent playlist from my Dj sets) are forthcoming, with our usual exhaustive flair, but man it sure isn't gonna be today. I feel double plus ungood.

Previously: Cassettes Won't Listen, the Merry Swankster interview.

Tags: Beg Yr Pardon, Cassettes Won't Listen, the Delancey, Free Beer

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 01:00 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Retrohump: Revenge of 106.3

This is homage to the late, great 106.3, which boomed from the Jersey Shore in the late 90s, weakening signal every mile, until it reached my home in New Providence, NJ and was accessible only in a remote corner of MS.com contributor Jeff O’Brien’s bedroom.

In a period of eclecticism rarely experienced, music lovers were inundated with such disparate choice on the radio. And nowhere was this more apparent than on 106.3, where Tori Amos might pop up next to Eric B. and Rakim, followed by a triumvirate of Massive Attack, Pixies, and Pavement. Granted, at that age (15-17), my music tastes were not impeccable (or rather the breadth of my music knowledge was par, at best), but even if I didn’t know who Stereolab was, the radio station stood for more than just the songs. With podcasts, playlists, and Internet and satellite radio, I may not even appreciate such a thing today, but its presence, before Napster and iPods, made that corner of the room magical (sometimes you had to balance the stereo outside the window) and made each mile on the trip to the shore more exciting as you were coming closer and closer to uninterrupted and unparalleled radio goodness.

Eric B. and Rakim: I Ain't No Joke

Tori Amos: Silent All These Years

Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend

Tags: 106.1, New Jersey, Radio, Eric B, Rakim, Tori Amos, Matthew Sweet

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 11:28 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack