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November 30, 2007
Best of the Best
This is my favorite time of the music calendar. And not just because of the ever-present holiday music. It’s “Best of” List Time!
Everybody has their own definition of “best”, and as a result, two lists will hardly ever look alike. Unless, of course, you’re comparing vertically, from one year to the next. Then patterns begin to emerge, sometimes drastically so. Comparing Spin’s 2006 list with Rolling Stone’s from the same year probably will only reveal some obvious similarities. However, when comparing Spin’s 2002 list with Spin’s 2003 list, you find that they are systematically similar. For instance, both have albums by the White Stripes at #1. (Kanye went back-to-back in ’04-’05.) I guess people’s individual tastes don’t change too drastically form year to year, so neither do magazines’.
That is why the Rolling Stones will always chart well in Rolling Stone. It’s why Pitchfork will always continue to hype bands they “broke”. And it’s why New Music Express finds the Best! Band! Ever! every single year. Year-to-year change isn’t that big of a deal. But that doesn’t make the listing season any less fun, so in the spirit of this – what the heck – holiday, let me present to you the First Annual Merry Swankster “Best of” List Time! Preview. Remember kids, this is for entertainment purposes only. MerrySwankster.com is not responsible for any losses incurred by gambling based on these predictions.
So how’d I do it? Well, I chose ten different magazines and websites, based primarily on the frequency that I read them. Each media outlet is graded, so to speak, using the following rubric:
Will Be: This is what I predict the particular website or magazine will name the best album of 2007.
Should Be: Contrary to what they will pick, this is the album that each source should pick, if all were fair and right in the world.
Sleeper: This pick might not seem logical, but don’t count it out. This space isn’t necessarily for something that will be #1, but the named album will chart higher than you probably expect.
Where’s?: At first, this would seem like a no-brainer inclusion, but it probably got over-thought, over-analyzed and, ultimately, left out.
O-VER-RAY-TED: This site or mag loves it, but most others don’t, and likely neither do I. In any event, this album will place higher than it really deserves.
Remember, these are not my selections, per say, rather what I think each of the following sources should and will name based on the tendencies, readerships and mission statements. Let’s start with a familiar one:
Pitchforkmedia
Will Be: Deerhunter, Cryptograms – There was a rumor goin’ ‘round the internets back in 2004 that the actual writer’s poll over at P4K voted Animal Collective’s Sung Tongs as the year’s best, but site creator/owner Ryan Schreiber wanted a more traditional indie rock album to take the top spot and used executive privilege to put Arcade Fire’s Funeral at number one. I have no idea if there is even an ounce of truth to that, but operating under the assumption that it’s legit, I can see a similar switch-a-roo taking place this year. Conspiracy theories aside, the selection of Deerhunter would follow suit for Pitchfork, which has three other times this decade picked a rock band’s debut album as number one (the Rapture, Arcade Fire and Interpol).
Should Be: M.I.A., Kala – The above selection would drop what is, in my mind, a quintessential Pitchfork album, into the number two slot. The same sort of thing happened last year, I think, when TV on the Radio, which was probably the more indicative pick, ended up at number two behind the Knife.
Sleeper: Jay-Z, American Gangster – The folks over at Pitchfork loves them some H.O.V.A., as evidenced by his albums occupying two spots in their top 35 of this decade (so far). After absolutely panning Kingdom Come, the two sides bounce back with a much better album and a greater, rightly placed appreciation.
Where’s?: Pig Destroyer, Phantom Limb – In their review of this album, Pitchfork suggested that this might be the metal album of the year. Even though it’s technically classified as grindcore, I wonder if the website will hold serve on this one, and at least give it a 41-50 spot as a nod to the genre.
O-VER-RAY-TED: James Blackshaw, The Cloud of Unknowing – Pitchfork frequently has some very nice things to say about experimental instrumentalists, I don’t really have much opinions on the matter, but this album was far too much of an outlier to warrant serious consideration.
Entertainment Weekly
Will Be: MIA, Kala – EW often chooses it’s albums of the year seemingly at random. (I was pleasantly surprised when New Pirate Material took the prize a few years ago.) I’m not suggesting that Kala would be at all undeserving, I just can’t imagine anyone at the magazine having actually listened to it.
Should Be: LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver – Since James Murphy essentially makes kick-ass commercial soundtracks, and EW is one big advertisement, this pick would make perfect sense to me.
Sleeper: Panda Bear, Person Pitch – It’s off-the-wall enough to fit the criteria outlined above, but a lack of sing-a-long-ability will hurt its ranking.
Where’s?: Kanye West, Graduation – EW loves stars that are bigger than their music, but the magazine really hated on West’s third album in their first crack at it.
O-VER-RAY-TED: Me’Shell NdegeOchello, The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams – This album got top grading from EW, and it hardly got mentioned anywhere else.
The Onion A.V. Club
Will Be: The National, Boxer – The OVAC knows their roots of modern American rock’n’roll, and they loved Boxer from hello.
Should Be: Caribou, Andorra – Digging even deeper into the American r’n’r canon, Caribou’s highly praised Beach Boys update has more of an artistic quality the AV Club cherishes to it than does the album that will win.
Sleeper: Band of Horses, Cease to Begin – This sort of powerful, guitar-heavy countyish rocker will chart well.
Where’s?: Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog – In their review, the AV Club called Sam Beam’s latest, “gimmicky.” That sort of slap doesn’t generally lead to year end recognition. It’s a shame because like the three albums listed above, Dog is one that ages well on the listener.
O-VER-RAY-TED: Oakley Hall, I’ll Follow You – The latest from the prolific Brooklyn-based alt-country band has its moments, but it loses flavor after only a few listens.
New Music Express
Will Be: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible – In their review of Bible, NME namedrops R.E.M., the Flaming Lips, Bright Eyes, Mercury Rev, Marvin Gaye and the Clash. Either they hold it in pretty high regard, or they didn’t actually listen to the album.
Should Be: Amy Winehouse, Back to Black – Is it wrong of me to lump Winehouse onto the same dungheap with Lilly Allen and that other English girl who “raps”?
Sleeper: Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare – For as long as A. Monkeys wishes to release albums, NME will keep a warm seat reserved near the top.
Where’s?: Burial, Untrue – Everywhere I turn, this evolved dubstepper is praised; don’t know if that translates into chart interest in the UK, though.
O-VER-RAY-TED: Killers, Sawdust – The British music press seems less disinclined to praise b-side compilations than is the prudish American press.
Rolling Stone
Will Be: Bruce Springsteen, Magic – For two reasons: 1. It’s a Bruce Springsteen album. 2. It’s Rolling Stone.
Should Be: The National, Boxer – RS loves newer bands that sound like combinations of older bands they already love. R.E.M., meet U2. This is assuming, of course, that Rolling Stone has any interest whatsoever in even appearing to give a shit anymore.
Sleeper: MIA, Kala – This album is such a juggernaut, I don’t believe even a moss-covered magazine like this one can deny it.
Where’s?: Frog Eyes, Tears of the Valedictorian – Sensing a theme yet? Tears contains some of the best crazy-ass Guitar Hero soloing I’ve ever heard come out of the indie world. Serious, Zeppelin-esque, classic rock stuff. If Carey Mercer didn’t sing like a blue-footed boobie, you’d be hearing “Bushels” for the rest of your life during the weekday drive at five.
O-VER-RAY-TED: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand – This is an excellent album title. It’s no Ride a Rock Horse, but still, awesome.
Spin
Will Be: MIA, Kala – Spin has a recent history of choosing the album after an artist’s breakout album as their yearly favorite. (See: Late Registration, White Blood Cells) On top of that, M.I.A. is an absolute world-killer, equal parts talent and image – which is an angle this magazine simply adores.
Should Be: Radiohead, In Rainbows – At the close of 2000, Spin chose “your computer” as the #1 album of the year, the rationale being something along the lines of, “you can make a playlist of your favorite songs on WinAmp (or whatever), and to you, that would be better than any other album.” I suppose “your computer” qualifies as an album the way Spin’s rationalization qualifies as logic. Left to sort it out in the lower numbers were Kid A, Ágætis byrjun and The Moon and Antarctica. By choosing In Rainbows, Spin can simultaneously compensate for that cop-out and stay true to quasi-rebellious form by picking an album of the year based solely on its tricky marketing ploy.
Sleeper: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible. See above explanation for M.I.A. Of course, Win Butler just graced the mag’s December cover, so I wouldn’t bet on the back-to-back.
Where’s?: A Place to Bury Strangers, s/t – Spin loves the shoegazing, and frequently will name-drop artists like My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain, so I would think they’d hold these torch carriers in higher regard.
O-VER-RAY-TED: Against Me!, New Wave – Spin has been pimping this album since its release, even giving it a cover shout-out as “the best rock album of the year.” It’s better than most people would probably like to admit, a good punk album in a down year for the genre, but it doesn’t deserve the top-five spot it’ll likely receive.
eMusic
Will Be: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible – The world’s best pay music site has been riding the AF coattails since about two months before Bible even came out. Further, it has been one of eMusic’s better sellers for the entire year – the site isn’t going to just ignore that little caveat.
Should Be: The National, Boxer – Not only was this a bit hit for eMusic, but it even dragged Alligator (the National’s previous album) onto the most downloaded list. And besides, AF is a little too well known to truly embody eMusic’s m.o.
Sleeper: Paul McCartney, Memory Almost Full – It was kind of a surprise when the Walrus decided to release his album without a major. eMusic won’t leave this huge name off of their list.
Where’s?: the White Stripes, Icky Thump – The first Stripes album released on a major label, and thus not available on eMusic, got barely a mention from the website.
O-VER-RAY-TED: Taylor Swift, s/t – Contemporary country radio hitmaker that just so happened to not come from a traditional Nashville label. eMusic won’t ignore the chart and radio success.
Stereogum
Will Be: Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga – Of the sources on this list, this is the one I know the least about. But in the times I have visited over the past year, Spoon seems to always be around, especially in the “Heavy Rotation” section.
Should Be: Spoon – Since there are less people contributing to this list than any of the others here, I’m betting they get it right.
Sleeper: Wilco, Sky Blue Sky – I don’t know if anyone likes SBS quite as much as the Gummers.
Where’s?: Okkervil River, The Stage Names – While OR certainly seems like the sort of band that the folks at Stereogum would love, and in fact the site does serve as a sort of unofficial Will Sheff soapbox at times, there isn’t much direct praise for this album. Not sure why.
O-VER-RAY-TED: Kings of Leon, Because of the Times – I really, really want to like Kings of Leon. They’ve got at least two tracks that are verifiable country-rock stompers in “the Bucket” and “Red Morning Light”. It just seems that they can’t put it together for an entire album. Stereogum doesn’t seem to find that problem, however.
Popmatters
Will Be: Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga – It seems that most people I’ve talked to, as well as most of the outlets I’ve read, intimate that 5Ga represents Spoon's best work. I don’t agree with this claim – I find it a little uneven – but anytime a well respected band gets praise for newer work, you can count on them showing up high on year end lists. That, and for as long as I have read it, Popmatters has always been pretty open-faced when it comes to their appreciation of this band.
Should Be: Okkervil River, the Stage Names – No matter the specific subject matter (music, film, television, comics, video games, etc.) the reviews on Popmatters often tend to focus on the writing that is involved in the project. So what more logical choice for album of the year than a record that focuses so heavily on song writing? The metacognition that abounds in the Stage Names reflects this websites frequent emphasis.
Sleeper: New Pornographers, Challengers – Can’t really ever count out the Pornographers when it comes to this website.
Where’s?: The Federation, It’s Whateva – Just very recently, PM offered up some gushing praise for this unheralded Bay area hip-hop album. Sometimes with sites like these that have so many contributing writers you need a field guide just to keep abreast, you get rogue superlatives. I’m not sure if this album is one of those cases or not.
O-VER-RAY-TED: Miranda Lambert, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or Patty Griffin, Children Running Through – Liking to keep it’s list good and eclectic, I wouldn’t put it past Popmatters to overrate one of these albums in re-evaluation. It’s been a rather weak year in country music (ba-dump-bump!), but these two albums were fairly well received.
Merry Swankster
Will Be: MIA, Kala – In an alternate universe with alternate commercial radio, this album would be the Whitney of today, doling out charting hit after charting hit.
Should Be: Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna are You the Destroyer? – 2007 has been the year of Of, as far as the blogosphere seems to be concerned, and MS fell in line right at the onset. You don’t see wire-to-wire #1’s very often, but this one probably deserves it.
Sleeper: Anything done by Bradford Cox – Are you kidding me? Dude has been ALL OVER this site over the past 365.
Where’s?: Daft Punk, Alive 2007 – There has been much prime Friday afternoon webspace dedicated to this very band doing this very thing. But on second thought, I don’t even know if live albums are eligible, and I work here.
O-VER-RAY-TED: the National, Boxer – Carried by my votes, no doubt.
Posted by Randall Monty at 09:03 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
The #1 purchased video on iTunes
Nickelback - "Rockstar"
Commentary via IM:
Jeff: Good god is that shit awful
Merry Swankster: Isn't it though. Like everything horrendous you can think of put to song with recognizable cameos.
Jeff: People have some really bad fucking taste. in everything, really
Merry Swankster: I mean i recognize the populist appeal of it, but doesn't make it good. Its just an enormous piece of processed American cheese, easily digestible for a public with low quality control mechanisms
Jeff: Sooo bad. Like "we loved Seven Mary Three but I wish it were more like mainstream country"
Merry Swankster: Nickelback are the "she reminds me" people right?
Jeff: I have no idea. I haven't listened to the radio in a decade
Merry Swankster: Is it bad to post it with our commentary? i think its funny
Jeff: well, go ahead, but it's sort of like shooting fish in a barrel
Merry Swankster: Hey its late friday afternoon!
Posted by Merry Swankster at 06:29 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
Potpourri Catch Up
Been back in Brooklyn for the better part of a week, but only regaining my normal balance after the corrosive influence of clean air and lovingly prepared fresh foods now. So here's some stuff that's been dominating the iPod for a while, in one big blur. Good to get this new or novel material out of the way before we go all in for an orgiastic year-end blowout stuffed with crippling self-involvement. Priorities, and all that...
Nine Circles - "Twinkling Stars"
I have no real idea where the British bloggers behind the always good and newly glam, 20 Jazz Funk Greats track down these deeply out of print rarities, because I, uh, find mine over there. With no context clues to work from, I defy anyone to feel 100% certain in discerning the native land and home decade of this track from a band called Nine Circles. To ruin half of that mystery right away, it's from their self-titled 1982 album, of which I'm having trouble finding any concrete information. You can order a import re-issue if you are brave enough to laugh off an unfavorable Euro conversion, but that's really all I've got. It sounds timelessly awesome, a pessimistic vision of a future that will never arrive. With its deep and regal European ice queen vocal perfectly bound to excellent dark electro pulses that seem too well shaped to have sprung from the crude early eighties New Wave well, "Twinkling Stars" must have fallen in some kind of serious memory hole to remain this obscure for so long. Any reader information on this will be humbly appreciated.
Apache Beat - "Tropics" (CFCF remix)
When I fawned over this song's original jungle drum version back in the run-up to Apache Beat's Neon Lights appearance, it embarrassingly never occurred to me that Ilirjana's sultry post-punk vocals might be even better suited to a dance floor remake, cast in gilded neon. This is, like, wow.
Deerhunter - "Calvary Scars" (Daytrotter Session)
High Places - "New Grace"
Regular readers of the site probably just had a "Jesus, again?" reaction at those two names in tandem, but what can I say? My intense band infatuations unfairly skew towards the prolific. Coal + fire = burn. In brief: Deerhunter move into their second year of buzz by trading the stomping, wild menace of "Cryptograms" and "Wash Off" for a sustained and quiet creeping dread, epitomized by this Daytrotter Session highlight. High Places finally bring out the thudding percussion of their live show in the poppiest song they've yet released.
Die Regenbogen Jugend - "With a Name Like Yoko"
Portland's newest hitmakers/my old chums DR J are starting to flesh out the Germanic glory of the impending Mit Schlag. Shifting their focus to another Axis Power, we get a glimpse into the aristocratic childhood of Ms. Ono. I'm assuming from Karen Lynn's steely line readings that this insider info is coming from a biography of some sort? I guess I don't want to know either way, as the image of servants hiding from sight while young Yoko sips her morning tea is too good to ruin with petty fact-checking. Check their MySpace here.
Also:
Tonight at the Cake Shop I get to see the Clean! THE CLEAN, people!! It saddens me that the NYC blogosphere has not exploded in rapture...
The Clean - "Anything Could Happen"
the Clean - "Anything Could Happen"
The Clean - "Tally Ho!"
...report soon.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 02:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 29, 2007
Atlas Sound - "Cobwebs"
It very rare that my interpretations of the songs I post goes beyond my own (hopefully) insightful speculations and a bit of skill as a Google ninja. I may get it right by accident or I might be wildly off-base, and really there's no way for me to know for sure. But today, I stand before you as a man with actual first-hand knowledge of what he speaks! Do not get used to it, for it will not last long.
On Tuesday, I talked to Deerhunter/Atlas Sound man Bradford Cox for about an hour at a travel writer's apartment in the East Village (yeah, I'm not sure why it was there either). The full interview, plus a video document of said conversation, will eventually show up on Prefix closer to the February release of the Atlas Sound's debut record, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See, But Cannot Feel. We covered alot of ground, pretty much all relating to the way Bradford works and why specific musical obsessions continue to follow him from his solo Atlas Sound songs to his more (in)famous band Deerhunter and back again. One of the things that most interested me, as a forward thinking denizen of our new media landscape, was the form and function of the Deerhunter blog. Though it gained notoriety in sort of a sensationalist tabloid manner, the site has been much more fascinating for its refusal to treat new, unreleased music as a commodity to be cunningly doled out to high impact traffic depots.
Take for example, "Cobwebs," posted by Bradford maybe five minutes before I walked into the room. The song was recorded on Monday in a Greenpoint, Brooklyn church balcony that also serves as the practice space for the critically adored band Grizzly Bear, by their member/producer Chris Taylor. If ever a breathless Pitchfork or Stereogum lead paragraph was made ready to order, it's that one. But instead of sending it on through a PR agent, and milking the song for another few minutes of name saturation and press awareness for the forthcoming album, it goes up on the DH blog with little fanfare and nary a related e-mail blast. The singer explained that the whole purpose of the site was to capture ephemeral moments of music that aren't predestined or even well remembered after the fact. If this gives quality music the appearance of being slightly disposable, then so be it. That's sort of the point, even.
But the song itself is hardly forgettable. Despite his general reluctance to attach exalted worth to a momentary snapshot, Bradford couldn't help but be excited by the end result. He claims that he doesn't write lyrics ahead of time when conjuring songs for Atlas Sound; that the resulting words and even the chord changes of the mainly spontaneous music is a surprise in retrospect, even to him. "Cobwebs" ' lyrics seem to bear that out, as references to spiderwebs and peeling paint make it seem that he was staring at the old church's ceiling while strumming his guitar. But damned if the whole thing isn't unbearably lovely, blanketing sixties' melodic bliss with downy white noise. It almost makes you wish that he would value the songs more as pieces to be honed, rather than raw extemporaneous snapshots. Because if this was completely off the cuff, then what would it sound like after a few days of polish?
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 28, 2007
Video: A Place to Bury Strangers "I Know I'll See You"
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 04:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Numerology: Remembering Thirty-Five (or Trying to)
Reaching 35 in this column feels like an accomplishment, and maybe that’s because society itself sees reaching 35 that way. After all, once you reach the age of 35 (if you were born in the U.S.A. and a non-felon) you can hold the highest office in this great nation of ours. If you’ve been married for 35 years, tradition holds that well-wishers festoon you with coral as an anniversary gift, and you don’t have to be a clownfish or a sea anemone to know that coral is pretty special. Speaking of reefs, the winning 35 song has been closely linked to marijuana use, but upon closer inspection, to paraphrase Bill Clinton, it depends on what the meaning of “stoned” is.
Thirty-five is well represented in the jazz milieu as a location, with the great Jelly Roll Morton (“35th Street Blues”), boogie-woogie pianist Jimmy Yancey (“35th & Dearborn”) and multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter (“35th and Calumet”) all taking the street address angle. For those who desire a more modern, and shitty, take on this theme, check out “The F-35” from Marco Beltrami’s dynamic score to Live Free or Die Hard. If you listen really closely you can hear Bruce Willis (channeling his Bruno persona) laying down backward-masked harmonica licks. Or maybe that’s just a smokin’ synth.
“At exactly 11:35 PM on January 21st some shit went down…” raps Aesop Rock on “11:35,” and after about 11 listens I still don’t know what that shit is. In terms of subject matter, “11:35” has a good deal in common with Jim Carroll’s immortal list song “People Who Died,” but it’s such a sprawl that the notion of the simultaneity of these events, proclaimed so deliberately at the outset, is abandoned. Still, as far as songs that deal with prison rape go, it’s ahead of the curve.
I hope you won’t hold it against me when I say I know next to nothing about Against Me!, the Gainsville, Florida, punk outfit that, apparently, many people dig. Sometimes things just fall through the cracks. The band just released its fourth LP, on Sire Records, produced by ‘90s studio god Butch Vig. “Tonight I’m Gonna Give it 35%” is a pleasingly gruff anthem that I can totally get behind, not least for lines like “It’s got me on my knees in a bathroom/praying to a god I don’t even believe in.”
The Slow Wonder, the solo outing by New Pornographers kingpin AC Newman, is a consistently strong collection that, at its best, rivals and even surpasses the power pop glories of his main outfit. “35 in the Shade” makes for a rousing closer, but to these ears, this head-banger lacks the subtlety, the velvet-glove-cast-in-iron appeal of Mr. Newman’s finest work.
The minimalist “Bit 35” from Broadcast’s fine Tender Buttons is a muted instrumental that evokes nothing so much as the slow lane of the Autobahn. It’s a slight but sublime trifle that passes from view too quickly. For the sake of thirty-fivular competists out there, I’ll mention the lachrymose “$35” by the sometimes-transporting Aluminum Group, “I Die at 35” by Boston death metalists Beyond the Sixth Seal, and “35 Years From Alpha,” the title track from a 1999 release by Jamaican sax man “Deadly” Headley Bennett. And then there’s the pensive atmospheric “Poem 35 & 36” by Penny Rimbaud, a member of the UK anarcho-punk outfit Crass. Led by the vocal trio of Steve Ignorant, Eve Libertine and Joy de Vivre, Crass churned out several LPs beginning in the first wave of punk, including Stations of the Crass and Christ the Album. If the band had had a hit in the ‘90s, they would have been Chumbawumba, but Crass broke up, according to plan, in 1984.
It may sound crass, but none of these songs holds a candle to our winning song. Bob Dylan has already come close to claiming a spot on this list, first with “Positively 4th Street,” which would have made a dandy no. 4 winner, but in the early rounds, to winnow the field down a bit, I restricted winners to songs in which the number is actually sung, and true to form, the often inscrutable Dylan never mentions “4th” (or “Positively” or “Street,” for that matter). His “Seven Days” just wasn’t quite up to snuff to win that fiercely contested slot, and “Rainy Day Woman 12 & 35” was, at that point, out of contention. But a wise numerologist hedges his bets, rewrites the rules when necessary, and repeats what Pee-Wee Herman said after tumbling off his bike ass over teakettle: “I meant to do that.”
I’ll admit that “Rainy Day Woman” is not one of my favorite Dylan songs, not by a long shot, but all the signs point to it being the definitive 35 song. The recent release of the heavily anticipated Todd Haynes anti-biopic I’m Not There certainly tells me we are experiencing yet another collective Dylan moment, and besides, it’s a major song by any definition. In 1966, a single by the biggest singer in the world, with the refrain “Everybody must get stoned!” was just the kind of thing to give broadcasters fits, and while the song wasn’t nearly as explicit as “Eight Miles High,” it created a stir and no doubt fueled many a pot party in its heyday. It’s also for notable for being the lead track on the landmark Blonde on Blonde LP, and for being the only Dylan song to employ a brass band. Beyond that, RDW12&35 is a glorious goof and certainly one of the best of Dylan’s overtly comedic songs. In a few years the Funny Dylan (Todd Haynes flirted with a Funny Dylan sequence, but apparently Bobcat Goldthwait was unavailable) was all but gone, replaced by Grouchy Dylan (Brian Dennehey).
But what about those numbers? In fittingly Dylanesque fashion, the numbers in the title are open to interpretation. When he sings the refrain, his pronouncement is greeted by what I imagine to be a Tom Waits-ian crew of colorfully frocked revelers, reacting with the kind of enthusiasm that greets Neil Young when he warbles “And I felt like getting high” in “After the Gold Rush,” Roger Daltrey when he wails, “We’re all wasted” in “Baba O’Reilly,” and Tom Petty in that “let’s smoke another joint” song. But the sound of song—the stumbling tempo, ramshackle instrumentation, and impromptu shouts, hoots, laughs, and catcalls—is more suggestive of a barroom sing-along than a bacchanalian smoke-out. The verses certainly don’t paint a stoned scenario; they allude to a certain inevitability, but of what? Being found out? Misunderstood? Screwed over? Who is the “they” he keeps referring to? Is it The Man? Rapacious women? The increasingly intrusive public? Adherents to the marijuana theory point to the numbers in the title—12 and 35—which multiplied together equal 420. You may not know this, I certainly didn’t, but 420 is a certifiable slangy reference to pot use. According to Michael Horowitz of Flashback Books, a repository of rare books, periodicals, and artifacts related to the drug experience, “the phrase was first used by a group of pot-smoking teens at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California c. 1975 to denote the time they would meet to share a joint after classes.” Dylan’s song predates this usage by almost a decade. Who’s right? If anyone out there has anything to add about this cannabis-related conundrum, please don’t bogart it. Pass it on to me.
Bob Dylan - "Rainy Day Woman 12 & 35"
Numerology is our pal Dave's ill advised quest to find the definitive song for every number from one to a hundred. It's starting to get a bit tricky.
Previously: No. 1, 2-4, 5-7, 7 (counterpoint), 8, 9, 10/11, 12/13. 13 (counterpoint), 14/15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26/27, 28 , 29 , 30, 30 (counterpoint), 31, 32, 33, 34
Posted by David Klein at 12:50 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Retrohump: Disco Stones and a Misguided Ramone
I trolled around You Tube for a bit, chasing my latest obscurities du jour, but sometimes you really just want some well worn tight pants action.
the Rolling Stones - "Miss You"
"Well worn" has at least a couple meanings in this particular case. Even back in 1978, the Rolling Stones were looking a bit rough, on a sliding scale that went from proto-craggly Mick Jagger to perpetually ghastly Ron Wood. Mick makes it clear that his primary interest in the Studio 54 set was their lovin' spoonfuls by jumping, twitching, and grinding (his teeth) more than usual. Long close-up shots of his eyes darting around in his head do not ease this impression. Keef has probably had whatever Mick's done plus twelve, yet remains completely zen. I also think the decision to film this take with live vocals does a slightly baffling disservice to one of the Stones' final finest. Some punks saw this as a bunch of irrelevant millionaires embarrassing themselves to try to stay hip. Well, lads, who sounds more dated now?
I mean, there's adapting to new trends gracefully, and there's, well...
Dee Dee Ramone (aka Dee Dee King) - "Funky Man" (excerpt)
(from the documentary, End of the Century)
"Great. I'm a Negro too." - Dee Dee Ramone
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 01:22 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
November 27, 2007
Of Montreal - Live @ Ogden Theatre, Denver 11.17.07
George Fruit - from hermit to glam-hero.
Of Montreal's elaborate set pieces looked like the menacing front grill of a souped up big rig to my easily excited imagination. Just one observation that came to mind during the long exploratory opus of opener, "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal". I patiently waited for a violent, head-on impact from that specific symbolism, but it never came.
Few victims of a proverbial mind blowing could be counted among the amped crowd at the Ogden two Saturday nights ago. Lets just say things didn't pan out as expected. Most post-show exit polling focused on the extended noodling sessions and not, surprisingly, what was definitely the splashiest set design of any show I've seen this year. Not that the competition was especially fierce, so might as well go out and say it was vastly more interesting than Arcade Fire's netherworld pulpit.
Of Montreal's meteoric rise to the relative heights of modest indie stardom is a testament to the stupendous success of Kevin Barnes' heady work with Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Taking on severe glam rock treatment is nothing new for Barnes. However with Hissing Fauna Barnes triumphs in creating a fold in time allowing Ziggy Stardust a new path to walk on instead of Rock 'N' Roll Suicide. It's only natural to expect a meaty live show.
Expectations being what they are anything short of an over the top visual spectacle would have been a letdown as compliment to the extravagance of Hissing Fauna. As if to purposefully mock the up-for-it party throngs, Of Montreal spotlighted long jams rather than glitzy production elements to set tongues wagging. Setting the table with an eleven minute song to start a show can obviously accelerate such focal shifts.
Choosing "Grotesque" as opener is further made curious when you learn it is the longest song in the Of Montreal coffers. While I hesitate to second guess any artist's decision in regards to song placement, it would behoove my review efforts to ignore the head scratching from others in attendance. It seemed very much like the band was making a conscious show of defiance by supplanting succinct pop songs with episodes of stretched out jamming. Defiance of whom, however, is anyone's guess.
Continued with setlist, more photos + MP3...after the jump.
It wasn't all eye-glazing jams though, Barnes wicked weirdness was a constant. On the new "Exquisite Confessions" Barnes steps into his alter ego where he communicates like an unhinged, unfiltered version of Elton John. His made up character, George Fruit, is the breakout star of Hissing Fauna. If I was a betting man (I am) I'd say Mr. Fruit's story is not done being told in the closing notes of Hissing Fauna. Put me down for fifty. "Exquisite Confessions" starts off in a falsetto rendition convincingly proclaiming exhaustion from "sucking too much dick." Oh Kevin Barnes and your androgyny! You stay so edgy and the kids love you! Later in the song he peppered the new track with equally frightening lyrics and dance moves for good measure. "Alicia Keys" - grunt + pelvic thrust - "FANTASIES!"
**Live video of "Exquisite Confessions" from a different show**
Naturally, there were costume changes. Including a memorable number anchored with blue smurf booties and gray tights stemming to a green blouse supporting a pair of enormous shoulder pads. One large red bow literally tied the fabulous linebacker ensemble into what could reasonably be called a color coordinated yuletide gag. If memory serves they were performing a new song that sounded like a condensed version of everything demented from the 70s and 80s. Potentially awesome, but I'll hedge my bet. Keep me in for a fiver.
Later the noodling resurfaced for a twenty minute improvisational exploration tagged to the outro of "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse", which was notably introduced by the ever playful Kevin Barnes as "the last song". Choosing a meandering route to jam on they bounced from dancey house themes to pointless trips into nowhere land. At times lost and looking for a way back into meaningful musical structure. It wasn't amazing and it wasn't terrible. It sorta just was, and ultimately that is the best way I can describe it. Detractors of improvised music will claim 'gotcha' and build their case against the school of jam, also, win a coveted trophy from the 'it doesn't matter anyway' organization. Hey, congrats.
I'm all ears to anyone who can refute my theory of how this was not just a convoluted ploy to fuck with the audience. Obviously harmless though, nothing more than a game of tease with the crowd. Yanking them around in one instance and holding them in the controlling palm of rhythm and beats like the deadly toying of a killer funk band. When Barnes' asked the eager Saturday night crowd if he can "hang out after the show" he received a riotous, presumably affirmative answer in cheered response and deadpanned back with a lisping boystown dialect, "ok, we'll go to your house."
Looking like he had just woken up from a dream, Barnes along with co. returned to the stage for a three song encore by acknowledging the previous wayward drift and declaring, "I don't know what happened". I'm quite certain I heard him say something about a long strange trip while emphasizing his point. Actions that simultaneously fan excitement with fans of drawn out experimental music while inducing mild shock-waves from the collective eye roll of most squatters within indie rock's big tent. At the very least I imagine hippie hating hipsters getting pissed.
Maybe the long fall into the rabbit hole marking the end of the set was a way for the band to ape the celebrated narrative of Hissing Fauna's tortured protagonist in a live performance setting. If so, yeah for me and theories. What matters is it flipped the focus from the uneven flow of the first half of the show to a more consistent, legitimate dance party during the encore slot.
Of Montreal - "The Party's Crashing Us"
Final send off was "The Party's Crashing Us Now" off the excellent Sunlandic Twins. Preceding the opening of exit doors with one of my favorite lines from any Of Montreal song: "You Fucked the suburbs out of me." In other words, Good night Denver - hugs and kisses from Of Montreal.
Setlist
The Past Is A Grotesque Animal
She's a Rejector
Oslo In the Summertime
Forecast Fascist Future
Exquisite Confessions (new)
Don't Disconnect the Dots
Crushed the Egg I Was Born In (new?)
unknown/new?
My British Tour Diary
Gronlandic Edit
Sink the Seine
Cato as a Pun
Suffer For Fashion
Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse > Jam
Encore:
Requiem For O.M.M.2
Faberge Falls for Shuggie
The Party's Crashing Us
Posted by Merry Swankster at 02:12 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 26, 2007
Denver/Boulder: Shows this week | 11.26 - 12.02
Monday, November 26
Adam Pedersen @ Larimer Lounge
Die Mannequin @ Hi-Dive
Tuesday, November 27
Buck 65 @ Fox Theatre
The Elders @ Soiled Dove
Solemn Empire @ Larimer Lounge
Wednesday, November 28
Before Rome @ Larimer Lounge
Chicago Afrobeat Project @ Fox Theatre
Enslaved @ Bluebird Theater
Envy On The Coast @ Marquis Theater
Stephen Pearcy @ Soiled Dove
Thursday, November 29
Carbon Choir @ Larimer Lounge
CU West African Highlife Ensemble @ Bluebird Theater
Dan Walker @ Swallow Hill
Dirty Sweet @ Fox Theatre
Machine Gun Blues @ Walnut Room
Mustangs & Madras @ Lion's Lair
P-Nuckle @ Gothic Theatre
The Pirate Signal @ Hi-Dive
Verbal Terrorists @ Pasquini's
Friday, November 30
Blue Angels @ Lion's Lair
Boulder Acoustic Society @ Swallow Hill
Cat-A-Tac @ Hi-Dive
Dogs In The Yard @ Walnut Room
Frontside Five @ Bluebird Theater
Hellzyeah! @ Larimer Lounge
Killbox @ Gothic Theatre
Nina Storey @ Fox Theatre
Soul School @ Soiled Dove
The Tossers @ Marquis Theater
Saturday, December 1
Asphodel @ Larimer Lounge
Bad Weather California @ Hi-Dive
Deborah Harry @ Bluebird Theater
Groove Hawgs @ Soiled Dove
Jonathan Davis (Korn) @ Ogden Theatre
Lannie Garrett's Platforms & Polyester Disco Revue @ Fox Theatre
Lords Of Fuzz @ Lion's Lair
Skeleton Witch @ Marquis Theater
Winter Rockfest @ Gothic Theatre
Sunday, December 2
Goodbye Timebomb @ Larimer Lounge
Jackie Greene @ Bluebird Theater
Youssou N'Dour @ Boulder Theater
Schedule appears courtesy of Mystik Spiral.
Posted by Merry Swankster at 09:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 24, 2007
SPIN interviews Win Butler & Bruce Springsteen
RE: SPIN Magazine: December 2007
The obvious conclusion of a natural progression that started with the opening bars of "Intervention" has revealed itself. Win Butler & Bruce Springsteen interviewed together. [Excerpt]
Springsteen on AF:
SPRINGSTEEN: "Pop records are fun -- [Rihanna's] "Umbrella" I can enjoy tremendously -- but what I'm drawn to are bands where there's an active collective imagination going on between them and their audience. That's what I love about Arcade Fire -- the first time I saw you guys, I thought, "There's a whole town going on up there, a whole village onstage." There's an imagined world you've made visual in front of your fans' eyes, and it's a really lovely thing.
Win on Springsteen, populist rock:
WIN BUTLER: "My Grandpa led a big band, and if you look at Irving Berlin or that type of songwriting, it's so much more sophisticated than rock, which offered physicality and an opportunity to express visceral, raw emotion. He hated rock - he even thought jazz combos were a cop-out, musically - but I remember being at his house when I was 16, and you [Springsteen] were on TV and he said, "I don't like the music, but I get why people do." Here's this 90-year-old dude, set in his ways, and he's like, "You know what, I totally get it." Your music becomes a bridge.
-- -- --
After the interview Bruce asked if Win & Regine would join the E Street Band for a cover of "Keep the Car Running". It was the end of the AF tour and a flight home to a neglected Montreal bed trumped all. Five days later it happened anyway in Ottawa.
Bruce Springsteen w/ Win and Regine of Arcade Fire - "State Trooper" - Live in Ottawa
Bruce Springsteen w/ Win and Regine of Arcade Fire - "Keep the Car Running" - Live in Ottawa
[Video via]
Posted by Merry Swankster at 04:38 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
November 22, 2007
Retrohump: Thanksgiving
In New York it's a no. Texas hasn't seemed to have heard of it. But in Massachusetts and most of New England, Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" is as ubiquitous on Thanksgiving as turkey, football and working at the shelter. "Restaurant" is a song of war protest "based on true events" that allegedly took place on Thanksgiving day, 1965. It's comparable to the narrative songs often heard on country radio in the 1960s, and true to that form, it's pretty darn funny. The song was such a hit that it spawned it's own film, which was released in 1969.
But isn't it a little out dated? Isn't it time for a new Thanksgiving song, one that can combine the nostalgia of a familial get together with the appreciative aesthetic of our nations first holiday? I think so. Retrohump is here to help.
American holidays and the television shows associated with them have become an insuperable combination. So why not go to that well for our first song:
Vince Guaraldi Tio - "Peanuts Thanksgiving Theme"
(Not actually a video, just the song)
I'm not sure what the actual number is, it's not approaching "Yesterday", but it seems that many, many acts have unironically covered Led Zeppelin's "Thank You". I guess this one is technically a half cover.
Pearl Jam and Robert Plant - "Thank You (live at the House of Blues 10.05.05)"
Not necessarily having to do with Thanksgiving itself, but elongated post rock tracks possess what I always felt was an autumnal vibe, here is a small helping.
Tortoise - Live at Werchter (full set) 2007
Finally, on a day like this, it's easy to buy into the myth that the settlers and Native Americans were good 'ole buddies that sat around eating, sharing learned skills and praying. Not so much the case.
Iron Maiden - "Run to the Hills"
Enjoy the long weekend.
Posted by Randall Monty at 09:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 21, 2007
Music Criticism vs David Brooks vs Music Criticism
It would be overtly hypocritical of me to viciously criticize David Brooks' recent op-ed piece on "fragmentation" in popular music (not to be confused with the technical, classical definition of the term): I, too, enjoy argument for argument's sake. Still, I always find it fun when prominent, public personalities decide to comment on things they don't really seem to care (or know) about.
Bemoaning an era when everything was apparently classified as "rock", his primary target is his own concept of fragmentation, which he imaginatively defines as the increasing specialization of genres within music. Brooks's main point floats from one crotchety cliche to another. There are no more major rock bands. Rock music was better when I was a teenager. Kids today don't know anything about history. Get off my lawn.
Where as the bands of his youth, such as the oft-cited the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, were genuine in their aping of African-American music (mainly the blues), for modern day acts, "It's considered inappropriate or even immoral for white musicians to appropriate African-American styles." For those of us that have ever talked shop with a member of the '60s generation, this sort of swooping, denouncing generalization is nothing new. Taking it one step further, Brooks claims that rock music has become nothing short of elitist from both racial and social standpoints.
As a result of this false premise, the rock music of today, particularly indie rock, is a whitewash of artists and fans that have no understanding or appreciation of the music and musicians that came before them. Furthermore, these nefarious means are a result of an intentional move by the fans of indie rock to fragment rock music into so many specific subgenres that a sort of caste system is created, separating the educated from the uninformed. This is purposefully set up in contrast to the music fans of his generation, who allegedly like music for all the right reasons.
It's easy (and tempting) to simply cry "bullshit" on Mr. Brooks and call it a day, but that would drastically cheapen the few legitimate points he actually makes (at least the ones left standing after he's done sabotaging his own article).
While Brooks certainly suggests as much, he never actually explains why fragmentation is a bad thing. Is it because it makes people feel left out? Is it because it's so constantly changing that only the uber-connected can keep up? The answers to these questions do not seem to interest Brooks, but by positioning these unsaid questions with claims like, "There are many bands that can fill 5,000 seat theaters, but there are almost no new groups with the broad following or longevity of the Rolling Stones, Springsteen or U2," Brooks utilizes the "we report, you decide" approach to journalism: toss around a bunch of unsubstantiated comments and questions, let the readers jump to their own conclusions.
But then, believe it or not, things get worse. Saddling-up alongside the equally-bitter Steven Van Zandt, Brooks rides his high horse all the way to the nursing home, and instead of offering any insight into the implied (by him at least) racial and social ramifications of fragmentation, he comes across as the worst kind of aging hipster, nasally complaining that the bands he likes aren't popular anymore. Don't worry though, when Silvio Dante is involved, you can be sure it's really all about the children.
Apparently, when he's not pretending to run a strip club, one of Little Stevie's pet projects has been to create a sort of canon of American rock'n'roll, like what already exists for literature, poetry, classical music and other things. This collection could be used to educate future generations, "that they are inheritors of a long conversation." I guess Brooks believes that bands like the White Stripes, the Black Keys and My Morning Jacket (and their fans) are completely ignorant to the influence (black) blues and gospel musicians have on their music. That, again, cries for simply brushing off Brooks's entire article as junk, but it's the support of Van Zandt's canon that is beyond ironical: somehow Brooks manages to miss the fact that the generation whose music he so adamantly lifts up is the same generation that completely denounced, and almost rendered meaningless, the Western literary canon.
Posted by Randall Monty at 10:32 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Video: Complicated Drumming Technique
Presented by Fred Armisen:
//Jens Hannemann - Complicated Drumming Technique - buy
Posted by Merry Swankster at 10:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Annuals played the Hi-Dive 11.19.07
Raleigh's own Annuals brought their brand of rich melodramatic hooks to Denver on Monday night for the penultimate show of this latest tour. The young band appears posed for a hard jamming, road weary future from the looks of things. From what I could tell its unclear on what exactly that will end up sounding like.
Annuals wrapped their November outing with a final, chops sharpening performance at the Bottleneck in Lawrence, KS the following evening. No word yet whether nearby KU students passed on the show in lieu of homeward defections in preparation for tomorrow's turkey gorging.
With that, happy Thanksgiving from all of us at MerrySwankster.com!
[More pics after the jump.]
Posted by Merry Swankster at 01:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 20, 2007
Pylon, Live @ the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11.08.07
photos by Devon Banks
Rushing off for a Thanksgiving getaway, but it felt sinful to leave Devon's notably lovely photos languishing in publishing queue for yet another week. When we strolled into the Music Hall on the night in question, shortly after the Oxford Collapse had finished, the room was sparsely populated enough for us to stroll right up to the very front, quickly establishing prime photographic real estate. From the depths of the DJ booth, Gang of Four drummer Hugo Burnham (cheekily billing himself as Gang of One) was unspooling tattered post-punk that was new even to me. Which is why you bring the man in, obviously. The crowd slowly expanded, and he creeped into this decade with some spastic Klaxons remixes. Despite his best efforts, it was one of those incorrigible set up waits, where spontaneously synchronized foot stomping erupts.
When the band finally took the stage, in their matching red tees, the eruption from the faithful (skewing a bit older than your usual Billyburg gig) seemed to cause a bit of a collective Pylon blush. Their predictable opener, "Cool," was a but rougher than you might expect. Michael Lachowski's bass seemed to be wrongly wired, despite the deliberate set up, so the song became a chopped pile of its conglomerate parts. As a deconstructionist curtain pull-back, this was actually, forgive me, pretty cool. A slash of guitar from the right, a disconnected bassline isolated at the end. It's all about the drums, anyway, apparently. They followed that with the single's original b-side, "Dub." Vanessa Briscoe, (now Briscoe Hay), improbable screams and frenetic dancing haven't softened with age.
Due to the cruel whims of fate, I've only just been able to get rightly acquainted with the band's wondrous first album, Gyrate. It's DFA re-issue comes on the heels of a five year span where half of our fine boroughs bands were borrowing from these Georgians, whether they were conscious of the connection or not. A driving rhythym section coupled with violent guitar outbursts has been an aesthtic staple. Punctuated by Vanessa's playful shrieks, Pylon had a light, joyous touch that has eluded most contemporary disciples. You got the sense of band thrilled to be given not just a second, but a third go round. There was no apparent bitterness at being a group of mainly unsung heroes, just a genuine joy that people still cared enough to show up and get down. The gratitude from both sides of the stage was infectious. Vanessa played conquering hero all night, getting increasingly comfortable in her spastic dancing and even pulling out the trusty traffic whistle a time or two.
They played most all of Gyrate througout the night, but the unquestioned set climax was a blistering version of track 2, "Feast on My Heart." The isolated wildfires of dancing that had sprung up during the show consolidated and intensified, with stationary members at least putting forth the effort to clap along to the stop start beat. Though evidence of this sort of unbridled crowd enthusiasm is easily accessible in You Tubed footage from the band's heyday, you rarely see it outside of a current LCD Soundsystem show. Whether the record further material, or simply let their old stuff continue to trickle out, they've a spiritual home on DFA. For an hour an half, in one room, in one borough of New York City, Pylon mattered, alot.
More terrific shots after the jump...
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 10:00 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
November 19, 2007
Denver/Boulder: Shows this week | 11.19 - 11.25
Monday, November 19
Annuals @ Hi-Dive
Spindrift @ Larimer Lounge
Spitalfield @ Marquis Theater
Tuesday, November 20
Juliette And The Licks @ Marquis Theater
Straylight Run @ Bluebird Theater
Thunder Malloy @ Larimer Lounge
Wednesday, November 21
Attack Of The Eddie B @ Hi-Dive
Everything Absent Or Distorted @ Bluebird Theater
Great American Taxi @ Fox Theatre
Opie Gone Bad @ Soiled Dove
Red Stinger @ Larimer Lounge
Suzanne Vega @ Boulder Theater
Thursday, November 22
Trans Am @ Larimer Lounge
Friday, November 23
Across Tundras @ Hi-Dive
As I Lay Dying @ Gothic Theatre
The Axe That Chopped The Cherry Tree @ Marquis Theater
Chris Voth @ Soiled Dove
Desol @ Fox Theatre
The Dropskots @ Bluebird Theater
Jett Black @ Larimer Lounge
John Butler Trio @ Ogden Theatre
Saturday, November 24
Bayside @ Gothic Theatre
Diecast @ Marquis Theater
Eplilogues @ Bluebird Theater
The Gold Medalists @ Hi-Dive
John Butler Trio @ Ogden Theatre
Silverchair @ Fox Theatre
Valio Mierda @ Larimer Lounge
Sunday, November 25
Cafe Tacuba @ Gothic Theatre
Greasehead @ Larimer Lounge
Schedule appears courtesy of Mystik Spiral.
Posted by Merry Swankster at 11:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Realising Our Commitment to Public Service
My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise EP
So much of the My Bloody Valentine legend is caught up with the band’s crowning achievement, the indie rock touchstone Loveless, which according to legend, nearly destroyed Creation Records due to the perfectionist Kevin Shields taking so long to finish the thing. Many people consider the record one of the greatest, or even, the greatest, but it’s odd that many of these Loveless worshippers are not even unaware of the two EPs, both released in ’88, which preceded Loveless by three years. And it’s not simply in a geeky completist manner that I consider the lack of availability of this music something to lament; it’s essential listening. I find the EPs to be the band’s most accomplished non-Loveless work. If I’m not feeling ethereal, I will definitely listen to songs from the EPs, like “Slow” or “Drive it All Over Me” over Loveless. A brawny mix of noise and hooks, these songs retain the band’s trademark sensuality while incorporating its initial embrace of pop—demonstrated on the first singles like “Sunny Sundae Smile.”—as well as rap. According to Shields, the vocals on “Slow” were inspired by hip-hop, along with the Jesus & Mary Chain single “Sidewalkin.’”
Especially pleasing on these songs are the fierce, Keith Moon-influenced chops of drummer Colm O’Ciosoig, which is to say they feature a live drummer, something all but two songs on Loveless lack. I also find the music much more compelling than the transitional LP Isn’t Anything (1988). Beyond the power of the songs, Mike McGonigal, author of the excellent 33 1/3 book about Loveless, posits that the title track of the You Made Me Realise EP was directly responsible for the types of sounds Shields would pursue on that magenta-hued classic record of his. Not the song on the EP, so much as what the band did when they played it in concert.
I can actually say that I know whereof he speaks. I witnessed the song played live, on a frigid New York night, at a venue no longer there in the west 20s. The gig also featured Screaming Trees and Dinosaur Jr. In retrospect, I’m surprised I can still hear at all. The volume of the show was plenty loud throughout, but toward the end of MBV’s set, the band unleashed a sustained segment of sheer, shrieking, earsplitting noise, six or eight minutes’ worth, that was shocking even to a room full of pretty jaded NYC listeners. Coming at the end of the stutter-step phrase before the title words are sung, the squall of noise constituted a provocative gesture far beyond anything that could be done by flipping the bird or acting snotty. It was almost frightening. Scores of people headed out to the lobby until it stopped, and I might have been one of them. What McGonigal says is that halfway through this assault, something weird would happen: it started to sound like this beautiful otherworldly music you’d never heard before. Perhaps it was only the sound that our ear cells make when they die, but he theorizes that this otherworldly noise became the inspiration for the never-to-be duplicated sounds of Loveless, the sound Shields pursued with obsessive deliberateness on a record that he did virtually everything on.
The version that leads off the EP features a very small slice of “the noise,” so you just have to imagine it 100 times louder and about seven minutes longer. It’s still an audacious head-banger. Next comes the aforementioned “Slow,” a big fat sigh of sex, with a bass as tumescent as Missy Elliott’s badunka-dunk dunk. The guitars have a bit of the smeared sound that the Queens-born (you read that right) Shields exploited fully on Loveless. Side 2 of this vinyl fetish object features three songs. Perhaps the band’s most radio-ready pop song, “Thorn” is a giddy delight, featuring an almost Byrdsian guitar sound and punctuated by some lovely “ooohs.” The guitars are searing but still a touch jangly, and the melody is a real grabber. In heaven, this is what you hear when you turn on the radio. Things slow down and get a bit introspective with “Cigarette in Your Bed” featuring Blinda Butcher’s haunting solo vocals, backed by waves of controlled chaos that ebbs and flows in a way that seems to presage the watery quality of the sound yet to come. Even though the band did not dabble much in the drugs for which their music seems tailor-made, this one feels like heroin to me. Still, dig those drum fills, and the way the guitars seem to threaten to get huge, only to back down beneath the ennui-ridden sound of Blinda’s “doot-doot-doot” melody. And then, a stunning, killer final track, “Drive it All Over Me,” a sublime mix of shimmering chords and melodic thrash. “Get in your car and drive it all over me.” Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
Note: the second EP, Feed Me with Your Kiss, released later that same year, is heavier and denser, and will be the subject of an upcoming column. Hey world, this is your bloody valentine, don’t let this one get away.
Ed. note: Normally, we would draw the line against posting an entire EP, let alone a full album. Taking the wind out of a band's potential revenue like that is too much. During the recent L'Affair d'Oink we were of the mind that no site that blatantly illegal could escape notice forever. The only argument for its existence that held any water whatsoever was that, in this digital age, there is no real reason for treasured musical artifacts to fall out of print. (Not that an out of print record appreciation society was Oink's main purpose, that being a pipeline to the newest leaked goods.) Now, I can understand a record label sitting on curios from the vaults whose sales aren't likely to make up prohibitive physical production costs, but what does it cost them to throw something up on iTunes? And if that logic counts for any number of one off 45s and post-punk also-rans, it goes triple for something like My Bloody Valentine's You Made Me Realise. Is there any reason for these songs to be held from interested listeners? We can fret that the blog world has decreased the value of music, but I think we can all also agree that the Amazon asking price for a milestone 5 song EP should not be in the 74 to 90 dollar range? The cost of discovery should never be that prohibitive. So here, for a while at least, is a .zip file of the EP in question, for all to hear in preparation for the impending MBV reunion. If you're a record exec. fuming because we're blowing up the spot of your imminent re-release, let us know. -JK
Posted by David Klein at 08:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 18, 2007
Music Criticism vs Jeff Pearlman
Jeff Pearlman is most well known (and beloved) for his infamous article that (rightly) painted then Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker as a racist buffoon. But he's also made waves for calling out his alma mater, the University of Delaware, for its possibly-racially motivated reluctance to play Delaware State in football and for leading the national media charge on doing away with Native American sports team nicknames. Even though his articles tend to strike nerves, they are always well researched and full of credible sources. He's also a nice guy who seems down to earth, somewhat of an anomaly among sports writers. These are all known. What's not so known is that, to boot, Pearlman is apparently a pretty avid runner. Enough so that he (or his editors, or whoever), saw it fit for him to create the "ultimate" running playlist and to post said list on ESPN's Page 2.
Pearlman's article begins by bashing what is quite possibly the most referenced work out/running song, Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger". I have a great hearsay anecdote about that song, told to me by a reporter from The McAllen Monitor who was backstage covering the show: About five years ago, Survivor played a concert in the Rio Grande Valley, I believe it was one of the Borderfests. So the emcee of the show was attempting to hype the crowd and said something along the lines of, "Rio Grande Valley, are you ready for Survivor!?!" At which point, a dejected Robin McAuley (the singer) turned down his head and muttered, "I don't think I'm ready for Survivor," before heading on stage to presumably play "Eye of the Tiger" five or six times.
But this post isn't about Survivor (anymore), it's about running playlists. For the most part, I think Pearlman did a pretty good job, although I'm sure Jeff would have something to say about the track-to-track transitions. To see his choices, and for my track-by-track critique there of, read on. Oh, and We've done this before.
1. "Lose Yourself" by Eminem
This song seems to warrant mandatory inclusion for any runner's playlist in the 20th Century, and it's difficult for me to argue beyond personal preference. The "story of a kid trying to make it" angle gets played up a little too much for my liking, and it's difficult for me to get too enthused about the lyric that name drops Mekhi Phifer.
2. "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West
I whole-heartedly agree with this selection, but I'll nit-pick on one point that Pearlman makes: it's not merely a moralistic social commentary that West is making, it's a straight-laced denouncement of the anti-Christian hypocrisy in pop music that is condemning.
3. "King of the Nighttime World" by Kiss
Calling this thing an "unappreciated classic" is wrong on two accounts, and if you're looking for a disco-era hard rock song to get the blood firing, why not go with "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin. The only downfall to that track is that it's so intense, you might pop and artery.
4. "I Try" by Talib Kweli with Mary J. Blige
You won't find a bigger Talib fan on this site outside of yours truly, but I'll take "Get By", with it's bouncier rhythm over this track- the MJ soften things up a little too much, and it might slow your pace.
5. "Layin' it on the Line" by Jefferson Starship
Jefferson... Star? Ship? This song wouldn't inspire me to run, it'd only motivate me throw my iPod into the Rio Grande. You want inspirational '80s cheese? Do you love America?
6. "Scenario" by A Tribe Called Quest
Can't speak ill of this group, or this song. For a '90s hip-hop alternative, I'll take "Protact Ya Neck" by the Wu-Tang Clan, so long as you cut out the jabber-jawing at that track's onset.
7. "Enter Sandman" by Metallica
The only place where Metallica is more ubiquitous than the gym is at the pool hall. But we're not hear to pump iron and we're not here to drink, so I'll go with some driving metal, like Wolfmother's "Dimension", Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" or some earlier, faster-tempoed, Metallica ("Master of Puppets", most of Kill 'Em All).
8. "Jump Around" by House of Pain
I'll have to categorically disagree with Pearlman's claim that this song is "sadly ... played out"; it still brings the house down at closing time in almost any Boston bar. My personal running playlist, too, is speckled with Irish-influenced music: Dropkick Murphy's "Tessie" and the Pogue's "Sick Bed of Cuchulainn."
9. "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC
I like me some AC, but most of there stuff is a bit too bluesy (read: slow) to really keep a good running pace. So here, I'm taking a cue from Nike's "Awake" commercial, which utilizes "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" and it's "get ready to get ready" tempo.
10. "Crazy in Love" by Beyonce with Jay-Z
Totally missed the pun opportunity with Destiny Child's "Survivor" at this spot. For a similarly Jay-Z-intruding cut, I'll take "Umbrella" by Rihanna. "Breakin' Dishes", "Shut Up and Drive" and "99 Problems" are all on my list, too.
11. "Harder to Breath" by Maroon 5
I don't even know where to start with this snoozer. Let's just move on.
12. "Too Cold" by Vanilla Ice
I get it. Let's go out and pick something so decidedly horrible that its kitsch value alone will make it worth it. Why not "Rollin'"? Why not "She Hates Me"? See, I can do this, too. Better yet, if rap-metal is necessary, how 'bout some Rage Against the Machine? If, "to run angrily is to run successfully," as Pearlman writes in a very Confucian manner, then why not at least have that anger based on something that has real world meaning? "Take the Power Back" and "Renegades of Funk", for instance.
13. "Panama" by Van Halen
"Panama" would be the VH song of choice for prancing, or perhaps skipping, but for a workout? Not so much. "Runnin' with the Devil" is one of the slowest songs ever to include the words "running", "devil" or both in its title. But their cover of "Aint Talkin' 'Bout Love" is fantastic and appropriate in terms of meter.
14. "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne
In the mid-to-late '90s, the Wareham High School Viking hockey team would enter onto the ice with "Crazy Train" blaring over the crude skating rink loudspeakers. I always found that a little odd, because this song is so ridiculously fast that unless you're absolutely flying around the ice, you will always look comparatively slow when "Train" is playing. "No More Tears" is a bit more my speed. (On skates, I'm closer to "Mama, I'm Coming Home.")
15. "Hot In Herre" by Nelly
Pearlman credits Nelly with the lyrics and "fast beats" of this track, even though the Neptunes are the real brains of the operation. But that's an immaterial criticism. This is a better club track than a running one. How 'bout Three 6 Mafia's "Stay Fly" instead?
16. "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" by Public Enemy
I'm pretty sure Keith will revoke my posting privileges if I badmouth PE in any way. I'd prefer, "Welcome to the Terrordome" and it's Marcus Camby approved opening.
17. "All These Things That I've Done" by the Killers
Even though the Killers have one of the best names in rock and roll history, musically they're a boring New Order. There are some better running spots on Hot Fuss than what Pearlman suggests, such as "Mr. Brightside". Or even better, why not go straight to the source then? Pretty much any song by New Order would be great, one personal running choice is, "Regret".
18. "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim
I suppose this track is meant to represent all techno, electronica and all subgenres there in. Truth is, in the summer after my senior year of high school, this (along with "Rockafeller Skank") was probably on my running playlist. But upon further inspection, the slow down on "Praise You" would be so detrimental to your flow. It's probably redundant to pick LCD Soundsystem's "45:33", but it is perfect for running. So would LCD's "Tribulations", and it would transition perfectly from the New Order track before it.
19. "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns 'n' Roses
Professional sports stadiums play this song ad nauseum, ranging from the fitting (Cincinnati Bengals), to the nonsensical (Boston Celtics), and everyone in between. For good reason, too! This track is a blistering assault, both lyrically and musically. If you're too lazy to put together a playlist, just pop on Appetite for Destruction in its entirety.
20. "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock
This is where Pearlman begins to add in songs that were on his running mix cassette tape in college. I don't know a single person that even owns this song.
21. "Son's Gonna Rise" by Citizen Cope
Don't know much about this track, but Pearlman describes it as a "magical mixture of folk, blues, reggae and R&B," and that sounds like G. Love or maybe Everlast. And wouldn't want to run to either one of those guys.
22. "Walk This Way" by Run D.M.C.
This influential track certainly fits the purposes of this assignment, but I've really got to question Pearlman when he writes, "[Run D.M.C] wanted to change all the lyrics. Thank God they didn't." Really? Thank God that they didn't change "Singin' hey diddle diddle /With your kitty in the middle"? That's even bad for an Aerosmith lyric, which is kind of like being unhealthy for a McDonald's hamburger.
23. "New Sensation" by INXS
INXS is kind of a poor man's U2, so why not go with "Where the Streets Have No Name" (which Pearlman gives an honorable mention nod to) or "Beautiful Day", both of which are good running playlist openers.
24. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" by Michael Jackson
It's good to see someone in the national media who is still willing to stand up for MJ. There was a time, not to long ago, when Michael was the baddest motha' on the planet (except maybe Eddie Murphy). Sadly, these kids today only know him as some plastic-faced, child-molesting freak. "Beat It" would work well here, too.
25. "Spin Around" by Kay Hanley
Holy darkhorse, Batman! Is this Pearlman's attempt at indie cred? "Here and Now", by Hanley's band Letters to Cleo is much, much better than this forgettable track This begs the question, though: Can something be forgettable if no one know it to begin with? Got a hankerin' for some early '90s alterna-chick rock? Go with the Breeders' "Cannonball".
26. "WAR" by Edwin Starr
Interesting choice to end the playlist with. I usually go with a mellower track, something to cool down to, to walk it off with. If this were the last thing blaring into your headphones, you'd likely punch your roommate once you got home.
++++++++++
If I've learned one thing through this exercise, it's that choosing the best running playlist for yourself has less to do with BPM and everything to do with what moves you, so to speak. Because of that, running music should not be weighted with traditional music criticism. Not to get all "feelings" here, running music is a lot like driving music: at its best, it's something that you can sing along to and gets your blood working is better than anything any professional (or amateur) runner could suggest.
Here are some of those tracks that I run (slowly) to:
"Take Ecstasy with Me" by !!!
"My Coco" by stellastarr*
"Ex-Lion Tamer" by Wire
"The Quiet Things That No One Knows" by Brand New
"I'm Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" by Black Kids
"Copy Cats" by DM + Jemini featuring Prince Po
"The Swish" by the Hold Steady
"Ocean Breathes Salty" by Modest Mouse
"You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve" by Johnny Boy
"Woolly Bully" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
"Time for Heroes" by the Libertines
"Sweet Talk" by Spankrock
"Song 2" by Blur
"Let There Be Rock" by Drive-by Truckers
"From Here to Eternity" by Giorgio Moroder
"Sunshowers" by M.I.A.
"Where's Your Head At?" by Basement Jaxx
"Sidewalk Surfer Girl" by Super Furry Animals
"Miss Me" by the Wrens
The entire Thunder, Lightning, Strike by the Go Team!
"Burn Piano Island, Burn" by the Blood Brothers (for the ending sprint)
"Farmhouse" by Phish (for the cool down)
Posted by Randall Monty at 06:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 16, 2007
Video: French Kids These Days
the Teenagers - "Starlett Johansson"
In light of our Francophone Friday, we'll note the most posted French band of the minute. The song is kinda infectiously goofy, bordering on dumb. It still makes me grin, though, and the Lost in Translation aping visuals are easy enough to palette.
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Bulletin: The non convoluted version of this is that D. Klein and I will be DJing along a few other folks tonight at the Southside lounge in Williamsburg between Kent and Wythe. It is an Irish funeral of sorts for our old stomping grounds, the Lotus Lounge on the Lower East Side. It would make more sense to have it there, of course, but little things like electricity have gotten in the way. It's also sort of a birthday party. Anyway, if you want to drink and listen to music in Williamsburg, that's where we'll be.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 04:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Best Faux French band
Flight of the Conchords - "Foux De Fa Fa"
Basic travel book French + New Zealand's greatest fake band = oui.
Posted by Merry Swankster at