Sometimes we hear albums before most, and occasionally when they are still pretty top secret. It's horribly unfair, we know. But in an attempt to at least soothe your curiosity, we are not averse to laying out these tantalizing near-future albums in extensive detail. You may remember our guide to the still(!) unreleased new Portishead record. Now, in regard to the successor to the site's favorite record of 2005, we turn to part-time music critic and occasional krautrocker John Motley. Take it away John...

As great as Wolf Parade's 2005 debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary, was, it showed a band democratically divided between two distinct personalities. Throughout the entire record, Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner politely flip-flopped between melodramatic prog tendencies and homespun Springsteen worship, respectively. In the three years since, the band has been seemingly drawn and quartered by myriad side projects. Most notably, Krug issued two albums and an EP as Sunset Rubdown; moonlit in Frog Eyes; and indulged a studio one-off as Swan Lake with Dan "Destroyer" Bejar and Frog Eyes' Carey Mercer. Boeckner, on the other hand, unveiled every trapper's delight: his own Handsome Furs, a drum machine-fueled duo with his wife Alexei Perry.

Recording this still-untitled second album (both Pardon My Blues and Kissing the Beehive were red herrings, apparently) must have been somewhat arduous. According to the band, early candidates for album number two were shelved for sounding like Apologies holdovers. To trigger fresh strategies, they began recording improvisational sessions to see if something spontaneous could be extracted and developed into a more structured composition. But how well did such a disjointed band reconnect? And did it manage to evolve creatively, rather than simply lapse into formula? Based on some rather compulsive listening, the answer is: not so easily. While the new album does reveal Wolf Parade to repeatedly play against its instincts and expand its sound, half the album sounds like Apologies-era paint-by-numbers. Yes, that's a slight, but remember: Wolf Parade still slay the competition.

Here's the breakdown:

1. "Soldier's Grin"

As an opening shot, this one's a little timid. The Boeckner-penned song is a tidy segue from Apologies' farewell, "This Heart's on Fire": steadily driving rhythms, Krug's bubbling budget synth tones, and Boeckner's keening, earnest vocals. But around the two-minute mark, the song slows to a looser, more ambling tempo for some necessary breathing room and a satisfyingly plodding climax.

2. "Call It a Ritual"

The rollicking ragtime noir piano riffing immediately announces that this is a Krug composition. While the jerky vamping conjures Apologies opener "You Are a Runner," "Call It a Ritual" gradually fills out with passages of teeth-clenching guitar scrawls. As Krug sings "while you turn your flower petals so slow," the song continually blossoms into something lovelier than Krug's scrawny sketch suggested at the beginning.

3. "Language City" (mp3 is live bootleg)

Back to Boeckner — and the first sign of the Wolf Parade we've missed so much. Here the band bang out a serviceable verse, but knock it out of the park on the restrained choruses, in which Boeckner sings, "All this work in, just to tear it down" over several complementary keyboard melodies. The song's coda drags more than it explodes, though, as Boeckner cribs lyrics from the last time he recorded an outgoing message: "We are not at home! We are not at home! We are not at hoooooooome!"

4. "Bang Your Drum"

With its creepy harpsichord, descending melody, and archaic lyrical tropes, "Bang Your Drum" sounds like a cameo by Sunset Rubdown to me. Here, Krug wonders over some character of ill repute: "Do they beat that drum to get you back home or do they beat it to keep you away?" He also shows how his friendship with Dan Bejar has paid off in musical collateral, ending the song with a beloved Bejar device: the song-within-a-song. Like the conclusions of "A Testament to Youth in Verse" (from the New Pornographers' Electric Version) or "Leopard of Honor" (from Destroyer's Trouble in Dreams), Krug leads a chorus of la-la-la's, ostensibly belted out by the "you" in this song.

5. "California Dreamer"

Here's where things start to get good. Yes, there's the unmistakably clichéd title, but Krug uses the Summer of Love connotations to craft something far more sinister. While the song retains the Mamas and the Papas' conceit of displacement and love lost (Krug laments a lover's departure for the Golden State, which strands him in Canada to make snow angels solo), it scrambles the rest of the signal. (Key lyric: "I thought I might have heard you on the radio/But the radio waves were like snow.") In spite of Krug's sunny, Supertramp keyboards, Wolf Parade detour through Los Angeles' ghettos with a bludgeoning caveman riff and honking sax passage that evokes the Stooges' Fun House.

Continue reading "The New Wolf Parade Album: A Track-by-Track Preview" »

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

For almost the entirety of his debut book The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture, author Andrew Keen comes across like a mom forbidding her children from watching MTV: old fashioned and bitter. But instead of attacking one of the more popular channels from the advent of cable television, Keen bemoans the advancement of the most popular trend of communication in the twenty-first century: the Web 2.0 phenomenon. By the time he claims to be “neither antitechnology nor antiprogress” (184), Keen* has already established himself as a jealous and elitist curmudgeon and a completely contradictory and misleading rhetor. Perhaps it’s fitting that the photo of Keen on his own Wikipedia entry makes him out to be a dead ringer for Walter Peck.

Radiohead - "2+2=5 (The Lukewarm)"

Continue reading "Book Review: Cult of the Amateur" »

Posted by Randall Monty at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

With no drive or incentive from the Merry Swankster crew to write traditional record reviews, and the lack of any willingness on our part to join the uptick of music writers currently part of this amazing web 2.0 phenomenon, one which, even with the best intentions, dilutes the market of opinions, I will state we are not in the business of writing full on reviews (what business we are in is up for debate). We are well aware of the obvious hypocritical nature of such comments when it comes from opinionated authors of a music blog, but before we entertain accusations of undermining ourselves I must remind the narrow focus exclusively lies with album reviews of the established format.

Did the dramatized lead-in produce wagging tongues for our new album review feature, did it? In the spirit of the new theme I will utilize just one sentence for describing what this is all about:

These are reviews of new albums written by Merry Swankster.com staff using just one sentence.

We are cognizant of the importance of portion control. Enjoy. - M.S.

David Klein: Kala is nothing less than a feat: a rich sonic stew that incorporates
styles and sounds of the last three decades while managing to sound
completely up to the minute.

Yonah Korngold: Studies will soon show that hospitals are abandoning the
defibrillator and using Kala to restart patients' hearts.

Randall Monty: The flamboyant strings part on "Jimmy" is the most discotastic sound I have ever heard.

Jeff Klingman:Eclectic in the fullest sense, Kala throws the hippest parts of global pop culture into a trough and gorges omnivorously.

Merry Swankster: If Kala were candy, it would be an explosion of flavor in my mouth.

Keith O'Brien: Kala is the soundtrack for a Model UN conference, gone both awry and insane - or the pop equivalent of distractedly spinning the globe on an indolent, late-May school day

//M.I.A. - Kala - BUY!

Posted by Merry Swankster at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Continuum Books 33 1/3 series is a set of hand-held texts, each one focusing on a particular album. The official 33 1/3 blog can be found here.

The success and detriment of the 33 1/3 series of books is that they peel away the mythos surrounding our favorite albums, exposing them for what they largely are: impersonal, commercialized works of art. This is not to say that they take all of the mystery or pleasure out of listening to the particular albums, as not all questions are answered. But these books do answer enough of them as to make the albums seem just a little bit less interesting. So it was with great trepidation that I got Doolittle, the book detailing the story of my all-time favorite album. It sat on my shelf for a good six months before I opened it; I guess there are some stories we don't want to know.

According to author Ben Sisario, the main themes of Doolittle are the old staples of R'n'R: sex and violence. However, what makes the Pixies album particular to pop music is that it doesn't discriminate between the two. Instead, it approaches this taboo binary as a singular characteristic: sex is violence. For those of you that are familiar with the seminal '80's album, this analogy falls well short of a revelation, but the author is better for the focus.

Continue reading "MS Pick: Doolittle 33 1/3" »

Posted by Randall Monty at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

There are two predominant ways writers will use rock & roll in fiction. In the first case, the author will integrate music into the story, namedropping pertinent artists and songs and motifs to create an environment where the musical concepts become another set of characters just as important as the story’s plot and setting. Think Nick Hornby’s trend-setting High Fidelity. The other sort finds the author using music as a backdrop, something that helps develop the plot but makes no specific demands as to the rest of the story. Salty falls into that latter category.

Continue reading "Book Review: Salty" »

Posted by Randall Monty at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adopted Texan and MS pal Randall Monty drops in once again to prove that we're not a bunch of emotionally stunted dolts who only read in two sentence bursts about bands on the internet. Sometimes we manage hundreds of sentences. On paper. In a row. Alright, they're still about bands, but we're smart dammit! Anyway...

The Beatles and Philosophy: A Review
by Randall Monty

A quick Amazon.com search gives us some 22,000+ different books about the Fab Four, 273 of which fall under the “Gay and Lesbian” grouping and 435 categorized under “Science Fiction and Fantasy”. Included in this massive list is the Beatles and Philosophy: Nothing You Can Think That Can’t Be Thunk, one of Open Court’s newest additions to its ambitious-yet-ultimately-insatiable Pop Culture and Philosophy series.

Following the form of the series, this volume employs roughly 20 different writers, academics and, yes, philosophers, that address the titular topic from an allegedly philosophical perspective. However, rather than fully utilize the Beatles’ work as a vehicle for philosophical thought, most of the authors take an, “Aww, shucks, I sure do love the Beatles” approach to their essays. This is not to say they are poorly written or underdeveloped – they aren’t. My primary complaint with the PC&P series, and the Beatles edition in particular, is the collective writers’ trepidation; only one or two of the bunch will ever fully challenge the legitimacy of the selected artifact. Instead, the bulk of the writers tend to either focus too much, or not enough, on the subject. In this sense, most of the essays become about the Beatles or philosophy.

Furthermore, most of the writers take the most obvious approaches to the task at hand, as the same tracks and stories are repeatedly mentioned. (I don’t know how may times I need to be told that John Lennon didn’t like the Maharishi. Apparently: a lot.) Even though the Beatles released over twenty albums between the years 1963 and 1970, (which are neatly catalogued, along with a list of the band’s cover songs, as an appendix of this book), and even though each article mentions many different songs, most of the writers contained within this text focus on only a small handful of the group’s tracks. If judging solely on number of mentions, the Beatles songs most suitable for philosophical discussion are as follows: “Across the Universe”, “All You Need is Love”, “A Day in the Life”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “Help”, “I Am the Walrus”, “I Me Mine”, “The Inner Light” (which I hardly know), “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”, “Nowhere Man” (#1, by far), “Piggies”, “Rain”, the various incarnations of “Revolution”, “She’s Leaving Home”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Within You Without You”. While these tracks would make one heck of a greatest hits album, it would have made for a better read if the collective writers had shown a bit more variety in their approaches. Unfortunately, this lack of daring and critical chutzpah has become a disappointing hallmark of this (conceptually fantastic) series.

the Beatles - "Across the Universe"
the Beatles - "Nowhere Man"

Continue reading "the Beatles and Philosophy: Book Review" »

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Listen to the album here…

And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.
-Langston Hughes “The Weary Blues”

Photograph by Matthew Rolston from Rolling Stone

I wonder how many musicians have been proclaimed by overzealous music critics that they are to be the next Bob Dylan. Turns out there is another one around, his name is Bob Dylan. He looks just like Bob Dylan but as a preemptive strike against subway graffiti artists, this one already wears a pencil thin mustache. The last time a box of new Dylan albums arrived by truckload into the shipping rooms of our favorite record stores it was five long years ago, the album was Love and Theft its release date was September 11, 2001.

Some would say the world has changed a bit since Dylan’s last release. As a result one would think an album called Modern Times would directly reflect this current world and would be an album full of Desolation Rows and Blowin in the Winds. Yet, Dylan strangely does the complete opposite. He stays the course and follows up on the album trilogy just as he had done before, crooning backward with a beautifully raucous sound, pairing songs full of driving rockabilly rhythms with mellow twilight strolls.

With the album being released on the date marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina it is certainly not far fetched to judge an album called Modern Times with a song called “The Levee’s Gonna Break” within this context.

There is no doubt that Dylan could have wrote a song about New Orleans that was so emotional, so gut retching that the radio couldn’t play it because the DJ 's tears made the electrical wires malfunction. Throughout his life Dylan has never made an attempt to hide his love affair with New Orleans. The city is even a main character of sorts in his autobiography Chronicles. In the book Dylan goes into great detail describing how New Orleans bled into his psyche while he struggled to record his 1989 album Oh Mercy within the city limits. If anyone understands the mysteries of the Crescent City it is Dylan. In a book where major events like his motorcycle accident barely get a fragment of a sentence, New Orleans gets a full chapter. Dylan doesn't even think twice before announcing that “There are a lot of places I like, but I like New Orleans’s better.”

Just take a look at some of my favorite Dylanisms on New Orleans from his autobiography:

Continue reading "Modern Times are Not a Changin'" »

Posted by Yonah Korngold at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Posted on behalf of MS.com contributor, Yonah Korngold]

It’s been three years, one month, and thirteen days since shock and awe. Three years since Toby Keith, Fox News, and the Texas Rangers banned the Dixie Chicks from radio play. Ever wonder what three years of jarred anger, frustration, and disappointment sound like when uncapped by an old singer, angst filled electric guitar, and 100 studio vocalists?

Living With War, a fiery yet reflective musical call to attention. An upbeat but angry Neil Young is able to capture the modern American emotion of being seesawed between coming to terms with the fact that roadside bombs have become a part of the daily routine and all the anger and rage that refuses to accept this very concept.

Many will compare this album to Ohio, realised only 10 days after the shootings at Kent State1970. But in the terms of protest songs, this album comes through with a much different sentiment. Neil tapped into Ohio on the spot after David Crosby revealed to him the cover of TIME magazine. Where as Ohio is a gut reaction, Guernica horse screeching, call for action, Living with War is something even more since it not only contains this rage but also holds something that the rock world has never before seen, a calculated, well thought out argument for change, based on three years of living in silent disgust with newspaper headlines.

There are no intentional walks or whispers on this album. No one will need to play anything backwards on the record player when “Let’s Impeach the President” is a song title. Even with all the anger the music somehow manages to be uplifting and inspirational enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two songs land on an intern’s ipod in the West Wing. The album can completely speak for itself the music is raw, lyrically straight forward, honest, and catchy all at the same time. In a period of a couple years Young has managed to make a rock opera, battle an aneurysm, make a beautiful country album, and now take on the President of the United States. I’m not one to keep score but I must say he has to be one up on Bono. I really do hope this album gets all the attention is deserves and is able to rile up feelings of people who are tired and frustrated. As for Young, my guess is that it goes without saying, the southern man do need him around anyhow.

[Yonah can now be had two delicious ways; with, or without.]

Listen to Neil Young's - Living With War [free stream]

Previously: Neil Young - Living With War Movie Review - Neil Young: Heart of Gold

Tags: Neil Young, Living With War, Iraq

Posted by Merry Swankster at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here is a short clip of the end of "Listen Up!" from last night. Enjoy.

Tags: The Gossip, Listen Up

Posted by Merry Swankster at 02:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Throw me in the fire and I won’t throw a fit

Last night I saw The Gossip perform an all ages 11pm show at Larimer lounge in Denver. For a band on their way to SXSW this show could have downshifted into an advanced respite before expunging energy in Austin. It was Monday night and they easily could have mailed it in. No A&Rs or NYC bloggerati to impress or worry about, just young kids crowding the (alcohol free) stage area of Larimer Lounge. Why not take it easy and save it for the festival?

Beth Ditto, the name attached to perhaps the most dynamically powerful female voice in rock, punk rock, R&B, etc. wouldn’t allow it. Following a restricted show described as difficult she was Grateful for the enthusiasm of the kids in the crowd.

To ignore the disproportionate number of young girls emboldened by the two-to-one grrl power to guy power rocking onstage would mean compromising the journalistic integrity that is not expected from a little blog like this, but nonetheless is my duty to report. It’s unambiguously embedded into the fabric of the Gossip’s connection with the audience. Ditto literally announcing the queer selections from the Gossip repertoire like “Coal to Diamonds” introduced as a “gay love jam.”

The playing for the other team gag continued when introducing blistering breakout “Standing in the Way of Control.” With a disguised snickering she joked how the song works equally at both frat parties and those of the gayer ilk. Drawing laughs when mentioning college fellas shaking their asses Groove Armada style only to awkwardly deny it all the next morning

Contrasting the spare (yet proper) instrumentation of “Coal to Diamonds,” the funky disco breaks elicited a fantastic frenzy among the crowd. The scorching cut was an intense four on the floor march suspending the facts that only two of the three people onstage had instruments. Such was the fire coming from the stage that a sweaty and clearly wiped Ditto “need[ed] to chill out” after completing it.

I did not recognize several songs that followed including one introduced “about survival and helping your friends out.” My notes say “Gospel/Punk.” Not a defined genre last I checked but apropos of the fusing of blues meets punk meets Mamma Cass.

The fun to play and unmistakable “Scentless Apprentice” beat was teased by Gossip drummer Hannah during a break and Beth Ditto mockingly sang with a heavy death metal growl. I wouldn’t have paired a snarling Nirvana track for the Gossip to cover, but her huge pipes could have produced an interesting version. The modern Cass imitating Cobain’s best Pantera, why not?

The Gossip’s encore began with the band returning to the stage bantering about tissues and snot. After most of the group blew their noses they tore into MS Pick and 2006 frontrunner candidate for an insane remix, “Listen Up!” (MP3) Kick drum volume maxed out and Ditto’s old time ohhs and countdowns rallied the congregation.

On the subject of bodily fluid tangents, a small cut on my finger opened up during the show and bloodied the pages of my notepad. Bloody show notes is the new punk rock.

Gospel punk is the Gossip.

Previously: MS Pick - The Gossip - Listen Up! - Lady 'House of Jealous Lovers', MS Daily Picks - Am I denigrating this by evoking Lady Rapture?

Tour dates after the jump.

//The Gossip - site
//The Gossip - myspace
//The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control - buy

Continue reading "The Gossip – Live @ Larimer Lounge, Denver, CO March 13, 2006" »

Posted by Merry Swankster at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While I still reserve my right to complain when concert reviews laser focus on the sway of the crowds, I do think it's worthwhile exhibit (Z) to get a first-hand perspective from the man in the band we paid to see.

YYY play and play and give and give, but the majority of the crowd is quite reserved. I think we have a problem where we get spoiled by amazing audiences. We know we have to deliver 100% plus every night , and always do such, but we are a very reactive band, needing that symbiotic interplay, even if its hostile.

Tags: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 07:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chan Marshall - marvel or blanch at this fact: I managed to sneak the playing of your entire CD on an O'Brien tri-generational SUV trip to New Hampshire. At the time, Sue O'Brien claimed to like the melodic Nashville-insipred sounds, but changed her mind after soaking it through.

Without further ado, a terse, Sue's first negative review.

Okay - I listened again, and there is not one song that I really liked. The music all sounds the same. I could feel myself floating in the air with nothing in my brain…I really couldn't get into any of the songs... I will probably never listen to it again.

Sue Addendum:

"Guess what - I saw another CD from Cat Power in the newspaper - I wouldn't have know about her if you hadn't given me the cd........keep them coming...........I am on the cutting edge!!!!"

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The showmanship, drum staccato helmed by Brian Chase as Nick Zimmer and, after some delay, campy Cleopatra-attired Karen O sauntered to the stage to start with Cheated Hearts let the audience in on two bits of important information.

One: the YYY’s have not moved on without us – they remain as fervently devoted to their unique sound as before.

Two: they reaffirmed that they know how to put on a show.

The prevailing thought I had during the YYY’s show at Bowery Ballroom – from the delayed arrival of Karen O to begin Cheated Hearts to the glacial pace of Modern Romance – is that this is the band I want to represent our generation.

I want to listen to Black Tongue before while driving to pick up my children from futuristic school and listen to Maps as I’m sweeping my futuristic apartment floor with my futuristic broom.

No other band, I feel, represents what I would hope is the summation of our talents, our pageantry, and our energy.

While it may have been safer, with internet negative-buzz fretting about new directions, to open up with Bang or Date with the Night, they went with a new – and YYY-unprecedented anthemic – track Cheated Hearts, with the equally inspirational refrain “Sometimes I believe I’m bigger than the sound.”

Continue reading "Swarm Coverage! Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Live @ the Bowery Ballroom, 2-24-2006 part deux" »

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 09:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To come straight to the point and acknowledge the elephant in the chat room immediately, Show Your Bones should be awesome. Any lingering doubts of that were smashed the moment the Yeah Yeah Yeahs took stage to face an especially buzz filled room and launched into what is likely to be their new album's biggest hit, "Cheated Hearts." A funny, tongue in cheek lyric in which Karen addresses fan fears of a Gwen-ish caterpillar to boring/glossy butterfly transformation head-on goes:

"I'm taking, taking, taking, taking, off/ Sometimes I think I'm bigger than the sound/ I think that I'm bigger than the sound."

Alot of the instant internet reaction to the show focused on the supposed apathetic nature of the crowd, but from where I was standing I didn't get that at all. I'm not ready to build the stone throwing porch on my glass house by deriding the fact that the crowd make-up was at least 40 percent blogger, but if you were constantly glancing around to notice if fellow attendees were having a good time only to notice the others glancing around, I'm sorry that you missed what was happening on stage.

Which was Karen O in peak form with an audience mainly situated in the palm of her hand. Getting a hyper-critical NYC audience half hoping for a newsworthy crash and burn to not only sing and clap along, but to instantly belt out a "Happy Birthday" to your beaming Mom in the balcony can't be easy. Sure maybe there was no Vice magazine, slam dance, beer in the air anarchy, but thank God for that. I'll take enthusiastic cheering and head nodding over forced debauchery 10 times out of 10. As the also brand new "Way Out" jacked up the intensity level from the dizzy heights of the opener, all was fairly golden in my little slice of the Bowery Ballroom for the rest of the evening.

Continue reading "Swarm Coverage! Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Live @ the Bowery Ballroom, 2-24-2006" »

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Oh mocktastic Web 2.0, a milieu where your father is IM’ing you at work and your mother is reviewing Ben Gibbard side projects for your web-based publication. Mother, while she picked up her prolificacy (next review to come tomorrow) and has become an autodidact reviewer, she is an editor’s nightmare for failing to conform to the agreed upon-structure of reviews. But since this is the Internet, we can let it slide and let Mother’s review be posted, unfiltered.

Today, she reviews The Postal Service’s Give Up, which soared to the advertised level, placing 17th in the 2003 Pazz and Jop Poll and 29th in Pitchfork Media’s Top Albums of 2003.

With out further ado, super reviewer Sue O’Brien

The Postal Service CD is not in the real world – all the songs seem to be either in his head (dreams) like [he is] sleeping in. He could accomplish a lot in his dreams, he just didn't apply it when he was awake. He liked being in his dreams, everything always looked better from afar, but not actually in real life. I don't think he could handle real life so he made believe everything was perfect.

The first couple of songs seemed to move slowly in their music and then [the album] got a lift with Clark Gable, he was trying to make out that he still had his girlfriend and everything was great and rosy, then he went back to morose with This Place is a Prison.

Nothing Better was a favorite.
He still wanted another chance with his girlfriend and she wanted to show him graphs and charts showing him how many times he wanted another chance. I loved it. Men seem to feel that if they say they are sorry, the woman will always forgive, there comes a time when that just doesn't cut it anymore [ed. note: did I open Pandora’s box?]

Natural Anthem
The beginning sounded like his brain going in all directions; he didn't know where to turn. Everything was breaking down; maybe he was going to actually try to stay in the real world and make decisions and take responsibility and actually face everything, bad and good without slipping off to dream world again.

Such Great Heights
He missed her because she was away. Once she came back home, he probably wouldn't remember that he missed her.

Sue O’Brien’s, channeling Oprah, “I think Postal Service needs to get a reality check and come back to the real world. It wasn't the most uplifting CD.”

Previous matriarch musical express

Have a CD suggestion my mother should review, e-mail keithobrien@merryswankster.com

Tags: Postal Service, Give Up,

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight, fellow MS.com'er Jeff and I see the YYYs perform live in NYC. We are angling to pick up at least half of the Blood on the Wall set.

And, tomorrow, I finally get internet delivered to my apt (no more spotty wife piggybacking for me, neighbors), and I will make some long-overdue postings about SxSW, specifically what showcases and day shows I will attempt to push my way into. Perhaps you don't care; but I do. That's dedication, Holmes.

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Neil Young: Heart of Gold
Directed by Jonathan Demme

A Review - by Yonah Korngold

It seems that the movie camera and Neil Young have had a bit of an up and down relationship through the years. They had a rocky beginning when Young refused to be filmed during CSN&Y’s Woodstock performance in Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary. The next image that comes to mind is the way the camera captured Young’s astonished gawks at Dylan’s performance during the last scene of Scorsese’s The Last Waltz. Since then Neil Young has become the subject of many film cameras all seemingly trying to catch a glimpse of the musician that could costume change from a moonlight serenade to one of the fathers of Hard Rock all within a single chord change.

Continue reading "Movie Review - Neil Young: Heart of Gold" »

Posted by Merry Swankster at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everytime you -- in your mid-twenties -- return home for a quick jaunt, something changes. I am no different. About three spells ago, I learned that my mother -- a Catholic in heritage only -- was listening to Christian music.

My mother, a passive, but nonetheless eclectic music listener, has always had a peculiar interaction with music. She often drove to work listening to WSOU, which any proper New Jerseyian knows to be (or, perhaps, was) a haven for Pantera and other heavy metal, thrash music.

During my inevitable foray into house/trance music in college, my mother listened with a keen ear to Paul Van Dyk. My most recent return home -- and the revelation of her Christian music affinity -- coincided with my devout listening to Sufjan Stevens' Come On, Feel the Illinoise (KO MS #1 pick.

So, for Christmas, I purchased her the same album, and we proceeded to rock-out, as it were, to Illinoise during our co-preparation of Christmas dinner. She dug it, as well as demanded I become her personal DJ. Given the wonderfully vague template of MS, I decided to make my mother an unknowing blogger. I think I mentioned it to her, but her grasp of blogging is probably rudimentary at best. So, in order for her to receive two new CDs (CDRs mind you, I'm not made of money), she has to review what I previously gave her. The arbitrary rules I initially created were that she needed to give each CD a five-word review, 1 to 5 stars, and name her favorite song and why. Well, that didn't work so well.

But she did give her enthusiastic approval and her comments, dictated to me, will appear below.

This will be a semi-regular feature here at MS. The next two CDs in the queue are Cat Power's The Greatest and Postal Service's Such Great Heights.

The overall album evoked a "country bumpkin trying to escape his mundane life," who "thinks the outside world is much better than what he has now."

Song highlights: Chicago: "He keeps saying, I made a lot of mistakes, like he's sleeping in the car or something" Casimir Pulaski Day: "Soothing", and John Wayne Gacy Jr.: "Chilling."

Despite Stevens' wonderfully exploratory lyrics and her recalling of the more chilling of the Gacy lyrics, she loved the music, which was slow and soothing, and allowed her to work without thinking much about what he was singing.

Have a CD suggestion my mother should review, e-mail keithobrien@merryswankster.com

Tags: Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 05:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A lot of the appeal of Serena Maneesh so far has been the mystery. Norweigan band that no one's heard of because they're, you know, Norweigan drops out of the sky with a glowing and very vague Pitchfork review. MBV and Sonic Youth as hip reference points. As the rest of the indie world plays catch up and negotiates with various retailers to hear the band, info starts to drip out about details that would normally dominate early album press. Cameos brought from connections romantic and otherwise with hip Christians Daniel Smith (Danielson Famile) and Sufjan Stevens. Light Steve Albini involvement. Enough to sell out a couple NYC venues for sure even if the album wasn't any good.

It was good.

Which brings us to a very sold out Mercury Lounge on a Saturday night. I think the opening band was still on stage at the posted start time of 11:30. 12 o'clock came and went. Alot of tall folks flooded the stage to set up equipment. 12:15 and the nervous crowd chatter began to take an annoyed edge. By 12:30 as the band and crew disappeared back stage, catcalls began in earnest. When they reconvened at around quarter to one, we were all ready to be blown away.

It sorta happened.

Continue reading "Serena Maneesh - Live @ the Mercury Lounge, New York City, 1.21.2006" »

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Approaching with fairness and possibly even some balancing, the Merry Swankster checked out Wolf Parade at the El Rey theatre in LA last night. I was confident that the band would be either less drunk than their October show in New York, or as drunk but more tolerant to the hooch with a show following the reveling and tolerance fortifying New Years Eve holiday.

Conclusion? Beers were definitely onstage, though additional empirical data was lacking to conclude drunkenness to the levels reported in New York. It is obvious that Jeff Klingman’s review changed the band for the better.

The show was great and seeing Wolf Parade is so far one of the best things I’ve done in 2006. Apologies for being short on details, but transcontinental travel is catching up to me.

Remaining Wolf Parade tour dates:

1/4/06 – San Francisco - The Independent
1/5/06 – San Francisco - The Independent

Tags: Wolf Parade, El Rey

Posted by Merry Swankster at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Joy Division: “Here are the Young Men” DVD-R Bootleg

While record companies struggle to find their footing in the DVD market, the unending surge of technology threatens to undermine their status as exclusive gatekeepers of content. Rather than suffer the whims of audience and funding driven re-issue schedules as our fore fathers, the paleo-hipsters, might have, the technology surge of the last five years has put the means of production in the pasty hands of any kid who stumbles upon something cool and wants to get it out there. It was this convergence of DVD-R burner, cord, VCR, and love that delivered unto me, the much sought after 1982 concert film Joy Division: Here are the Young Men. By that, I mean I bought it at Jackpot Records in Portland.

<em>Here are the Young Men is the most complete visual document of Joy Division’s short performing career. Culled from four club shows around Europe in late 1979 and early 1980, the collection documents the wake of debut album Unknown Pleasures. Five of the disc’s fourteen featured songs come from that album, rounded out by monumental singles “Transmission” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” a smattering of non-album tracks, and an embryonic version of “Decades” from JD’s second record, Closer. As lead singer Ian Curtis took drastic steps to ensure the band would not drop off in quality as the years progressed, this is all the footage available/ not available to the sobbing Joy Division enthusiast.

Continue reading "The Rock DVD: Type 3: DVD as Self-Distributed Archive" »

Posted by Merry Swankster at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Trey introducing his bassist:

"For all you motherfuckers in love."

Because the bass brings the funk and the funk brings the groove and the groove leads to...

UPDATE: Stewart Copeland of The Police joined Trey's band for a cover of Can't Stand Losing You by The Police.

Tags: Trey Anastasio, Funk, Stewart Copeland

Posted by Merry Swankster at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeff Klingman brings us a field report from the Islands show last night in NYC.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this band’s name printed without being immediately followed by (ex-Unicorns). Every internet headline, every concert listing, every passing mention, even the ticket for Tuesday’s show was branded "Islands (ex-Unicorns)." I half expected to walk into the Knitting Factory to find a stall of (ex-Unicorns) t-shirts. So, its not surprising that I went to the show expecting Islands to be a practical extension of the Unicorns. Singer Nick Diamonds and drummer J’aime Tambeur are still there, and if the other guy flaked out, then so what? They added some friends, some instruments, formed a "collective" in fashionable Canadian style but they wouldn’t totally turn their backs on the sound of a beloved young band disbanded prematurely, right?

Continue reading "Islands – Live @ the Knitting Factory, New York City. 12.6.2005" »

Posted by Merry Swankster at 08:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night I attended the final night of Paul McCartney's US tour at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Thanks to the never ending generosity of a friend's parents, I was lucky enough to be sitting 13 rows from the stage, floor level and one row behind Paul Stanley of KISS who was accompanied by standard rock and roll (and LA) arm candy - a statuesque, blonde bombshell. My friends and I were practically sitting on Sir Paul's lap. Big thanks to Jigga-Ira and Rendogg for the nod on the (very) expensive tickets.

The timeless music of the Beatles will always be popular and its influence will continue to bridge generations, but not surprising, the crowd was overwhelmingly middle aged. If median age rises then entertainment budgets increase therefore $300 tickets are justified. Classic modus tollens, but this is about the music, not high school trig. As I was saying, the Beatles were and continue to be a force in music that is unparalleled, unprecedented and include every other synonym for brilliance and genius that a thesaurus can provide. The amount of work the Fab Four produced in their relatively short career is astonishing. The Beatles songbook is a maddening showcase of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting tandem. If in two hundred years rock and roll becomes the new “classical music” these two will be the Bach and Mozart of rock. Except they were in the same band.

This is why seeing Paul McCartney live is not like seeing other rock pioneers/dinosaurs of the ‘60s and ‘70s who still tour/need a buck. The sad caricatured performances that often lie below the surface of those shows take away from the spirit of the original incarnations. For someone my age who was born twenty years after the venerable decade of love, it’s a godsend, but to think for one minute that seeing the Allman Brothers Band play in 2005 is the same as seeing them play in the sixties is simply foolish.

Here we’re talking about a Beatle. A real Beatle, one who sounds remarkably similar to the one in those cherished classic albums. Last night he was 30 feet from me performing with four hired guns making them the best Beatle cover band in the world. There was silly scripted banter that normally would draw scoffs, rants and plenty of high marks in the lame category, but sometimes the contemptuousness must be curbed to enjoy these moments without the need to drown in hipsterdom. No time to waste the cynicism when there is plenty of scorn to be directed towards the farce that INXS has become with their reality show winner new lead singer.

Continue reading "Paul McCartney - 11/30/05 - Staples Center, Los Angeles" »

Posted by Merry Swankster at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Take some time off from demonstrating how thankful you are today by momentarily pausing the binging and gorging and sit back, unbutton your pants and let yourself spread.

Presenting Part 2 of Jeff Klingman’s continuing analysis of The Rock DVD. A terrific match for the pumpkin pie cheesecake.

The Rock DVD: Variations on a Theme :: Type 2: DVD as Independent Product

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow DVD

For all the marketing muscle dedicated to alerting the wayward music connoisseur of upcoming releases, most of the effort is firmly directed towards the album. Albums generate the most pre-release buzz and the most tortured post-release dissection, and any other product a band might put out is treated as a marginal supplement lucky to get any discussion at all. So it was that late last year I stumbled across the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ DVD "Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow” with, get this, no idea that such a thing even existed!

Somewhere an Interscope PR suit’s blood just ran cold.

It’s unfortunate, and a tad ironic, that a band who gets attacked for the amount of press they receive should release such a well produced DVD with such little fanfare. To the surprise of no one, Lance Bangs is the man behind the disc. As opposed to the somewhat sloppy assembly of the Sleater-Kinney disc I discussed in my last post, Tell me What Rockers to Swallow looks great and is bursting with more content than one would think such a young band could muster. In addition to a full concert at San Francisco’s Fillmore Theater, the DVD is fleshed out with six songs from a separate live performance, all the band’s uniformly neat videos, two behind the scenes type featurettes, and a MTV performance. There’s even funny menu art by Liars drummer Julian Gross depicting Karen O as a pizza loving mummy and a cameo appearance by a nonsensical vampire piece of toast.

Continue reading "The Rock DVD: Type 2: DVD as Independent Product" »

Posted by Merry Swankster at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This site aims to shine light on the local scenes of different cities around the country, and someday perhaps the world. The Merry Swankster is just one man and with the cost of private jets, and that annoying full time job thing, he cannot be in all places at all times. To ensure diverse postulation, Swankster allies from points far and wide will be contributing show reviews, their own m.s. style track breakdowns, and other excellent dispatches from their corner of the world. Perhaps you'll feel like you just had a great nights sleep, with clean sheets! Or maybe you'd wish the band should do so and get on the wagon before a big show.

Old friend of the Merry Swankster, scholar of the obscure, and fellow quasi-bicoastal resident I present Jeff Klingman and his take on last weeks Wolf Parade show in Manhattan.

Wolf Parade 10.25.2005 - Bowery Ballroom, New York City

I love Wolf Parade’s album Apologies to the Queen Mary. Since they are currently walking the tightrope between rapturously received debut album and inevitable “too much press” backlash this is hardly an earth-shattering opinion, but it really is terrific. I’m hard pressed to think of another rock album released in the 00’s that is as consistently filler free.

Continue reading "Wolf Parade – Live @ Bowery Ballroom, New York City. October 24, 2005" »

Posted by Merry Swankster at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

Whether it’s a stolen glimpse of a beautiful stranger across the room, a déjà vu double take, or that split-second realization that your car door is closing with the keys still inside, there are moments in life that stop you dead in your tracks. It’s an unnamed human feeling that simultaneously moves in slow motion and light speed. You are awed at the moment, see a glimpse of the future, and really wish you didn't lock the door before slamming it shut.

A few years ago I had a similar moment while driving my car in Generic Suburb, USA. I flipped to Generic Rock station and from the speakers I heard a raw, kinetic sound that I hadn't heard in years. A dirty, distorted guitar screeched over a simple beat while dynamic vocals sheared indifferently with punk’s intensity.

Continue reading "Truth Doesn't Make a Noise" »

Posted by Merry Swankster at 07:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)