Most Listened To Song On My iPod
Sky Ferreira "Everything is Embarassing"
This track is like a warm fuzzy blanket. Its not amazing but it gets 1 vibe right and stick with it throughout the entire song. The arena rock production on the snare sample was off-putting at first, but it turns out to be the only part of the song that dares reach the upper frequencies. Every single goddamn thing in it was squeezed through a low pass filter, and the result is a murky haze that sounds "80s", whatever people think the 80s sounded like (it was mostly tin can drums, harsh digital mixing, and producers trying to use equipment they didn't know how to).
Most Listened To Discography
Kid606
Dude's been doing this ultra-melodic synthesizer thing for a while, dropping the drum n bass but keeping the smartass song titles. Since I listen to music at work, it's gotta be fairly ambient stuff, and his last handful of records hit that sweet spot between disruptive and audio wallpaper.
Most Listened To Double Album Of Ambient Techno
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
After years of hemming and hawing (and hoping the deluxe edition would get a domestic release), I finally laid down my money for... a Columbia House copy. Amazon sent me the liner note-less, minimal packaging, cheaper-to-ship record club copy they must have had in the basement next to unsold Chris Gaines CDs.
Most Listened To Punk/Metal Album
Coalesce Give Them Rope
A couple years back the band had their whole discography up for super cheap (the singer owns Blue Collar Distro) and I snatched it up. They, along with the Dillinger Escape Plan & Converge, informed what little I knew about technical complicated metal back in high school. I'd say Coalesce is more of a hardcore band, at least in production and attitude, but those grinding riffs are just complicated enough to give them that dragged-across-broken-glass feeling.
Most Listened To In The Car
Propagandhi "Cognitive Suicide"
I slept on Failed States really bad. High school was all about Less Talk More Rock and How To Clean Everything, but after Today's Empires I kept buying them and rarely listening to them for more than a week. This song magically popped up on iTunes and listen: the bassist who used to bark can kind of sing now. The intro riff starts out simple enough then enters this seasick off-time place before snapping back into place. The lyrics are a lot of "you" and "they", but nobody said railing against the man was easy.
Most Sung Along To Song
Shearwater "This Year"
Yes its from their covers album (which is about 90% good) and yes its that Mountain Goats song that I'm sure people hate but they don't want to tell anyone. But get a guy who can really sing it, and it opens up all new dimensions to the song. Nobody will ever hear my bellowing, vibrato-laden attempt at singing along, because I only do it in the car alone, but trust that it's intense.
Most Involuntarily Listened To Song This Year
Jeremih ft YG "Don't Tell 'Em"
The car stereo is on a hip hop station when I don't have my iPod, and I swear to God this song was played at least once an hour. "Latch" may actually take this top spot, but I always changed the station when it came on. I hated this one at first too, but it grew on me, along with the ubiquitous DJ Mustard all over it (and the rest of radio).
Most Listened To Tape With A Picture Of A Sex Act On The Front That Took Me Months To Notice
Cex Manumit Me
This was on top of my stereo for a long time, facing me when I was on the computer, before I saw it and yup, there it is. Oh shit this came out this year? Whoops.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Friday, July 25, 2014
HateSong - "Jump" by Van Halen
Let me first say that my hatred of "Jump" by Van Halen has little to do with the song itself. It's a wacky, if competent, ode to... something. This is Roth in total Life Coach mode, showing how awesome life can be if you just toss off some vague shackles and embrace your inner superhero. I used to hate David Lee Roth, viewing him as a goofy, show-boating wannabe superstar when tortured, angst ridden geniuses were more my thing. In the years since, I've come to accept and even enjoy his brand of showbiz lunacy, which has resulted in more than a few hilarious interviews. His music still doesn't really speak to me, though Eat 'Em & Smile, if the vocals were removed, would be a classic in complex, prog-tinged, algebraically dense math rock.
Instead, my issue is with Eddie Van Halen's guitar tone. It never much occurred to me why anyone would be a fanatic for a musician simply because of their virtuosity. The player can be highly skilled, but you still have to listen to their songs. With "Eruption", Van Halen managed to take a solo electric guitar piece and couch it in ways the Heavy Metal Parking Lot crowd could dig: his considerable skill is on display, but in a form that has the kind of melodic structure to keep the listener interested.
The problem is, trying to balance a virtuoso performance with the other elements of a full-band song does a disservice to both. The final result is truly a mix: if the vocals are all over the place, they reduce the rest of the instruments to a bland backing track; if the drums are front-and-center, it may as well not have any harmonic content. Van Halen tried to have it both ways, trying to cram a solo guitar part into a standard song. They did this by recording the guitars "hot", that is, the sound wave just grazes into the territory where it becomes a blurry, distorted mess. Its all peaks and no valleys; the frequencies normally mixed lower are raised up, eliminating their support roles and making every sound across the audio spectrum have the same level of importance. For a solo guitar track, this is fine, if a little exhausting to listen to. The audience gets a peek into every facet of the guitars tone (all at once!) and the guitar commands all of the attention.
The thing is, there are 3 other guys in Van Halen vying for space in the mix. Michael Anthony's bass was always workmanlike and rarely showy, but Alex Van Halen's drum kit included so many pieces that only a Guitar Center employee could identify them all. Not to mention David Lee Roth's vocals, which, as most humans, resides in the same neighborhood of the spectrum as a guitar.
In order to make the vocals fit, but without losing any definition in the guitar tone, the guitar track was fed through another series of compressors and equalizers to surgically remove it from the frequencies that Roth's vocals, which would be much more noticeably altered with a lot of processing. The result is a guitar tone that is somehow bright yet flat, like when someone overuses the Dust & Scratches tool in Photoshop and the result makes the person look like a mannequin. It's oppressive, a fuck-you to the idea of anyone wanting to hear anything other than a coked out rock star's guitar. When it comes on the radio, I immediately change the station.
Instead, my issue is with Eddie Van Halen's guitar tone. It never much occurred to me why anyone would be a fanatic for a musician simply because of their virtuosity. The player can be highly skilled, but you still have to listen to their songs. With "Eruption", Van Halen managed to take a solo electric guitar piece and couch it in ways the Heavy Metal Parking Lot crowd could dig: his considerable skill is on display, but in a form that has the kind of melodic structure to keep the listener interested.
The problem is, trying to balance a virtuoso performance with the other elements of a full-band song does a disservice to both. The final result is truly a mix: if the vocals are all over the place, they reduce the rest of the instruments to a bland backing track; if the drums are front-and-center, it may as well not have any harmonic content. Van Halen tried to have it both ways, trying to cram a solo guitar part into a standard song. They did this by recording the guitars "hot", that is, the sound wave just grazes into the territory where it becomes a blurry, distorted mess. Its all peaks and no valleys; the frequencies normally mixed lower are raised up, eliminating their support roles and making every sound across the audio spectrum have the same level of importance. For a solo guitar track, this is fine, if a little exhausting to listen to. The audience gets a peek into every facet of the guitars tone (all at once!) and the guitar commands all of the attention.
The thing is, there are 3 other guys in Van Halen vying for space in the mix. Michael Anthony's bass was always workmanlike and rarely showy, but Alex Van Halen's drum kit included so many pieces that only a Guitar Center employee could identify them all. Not to mention David Lee Roth's vocals, which, as most humans, resides in the same neighborhood of the spectrum as a guitar.
In order to make the vocals fit, but without losing any definition in the guitar tone, the guitar track was fed through another series of compressors and equalizers to surgically remove it from the frequencies that Roth's vocals, which would be much more noticeably altered with a lot of processing. The result is a guitar tone that is somehow bright yet flat, like when someone overuses the Dust & Scratches tool in Photoshop and the result makes the person look like a mannequin. It's oppressive, a fuck-you to the idea of anyone wanting to hear anything other than a coked out rock star's guitar. When it comes on the radio, I immediately change the station.
A Better Ending to True Detective
SPOILERS ABOUND
Instead of the green paint leading the detectives to Childress, they instead follow a trail of missing documents and family birth records that hint at a connection between long-established families in Louisiana. Carcosa is on a property that pops up in enough records to point them in that direction.
Cohle and Hart not only find Childress in Carcosa, but undeniable proof that the cult is a vast conspiracy with ties to the highest levels of political office all along the Gulf. They are an ancient pagan cult that thrived in secret following the Civil War. Childress kills both of the detectives, continuing the pessimistic view of humanity that the show had already followed. Everything Rust & Cohle accomplished was for naught: the cult survived, Childress claimed 3 more victims, and the murders continue. The show is called True Detective, not True Justice.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
NASA
In 1988 I was living in San Antonio, Texas. My elementary school had a science club, and in hopes of scoring some points during show & tell, my Dad had a friend who worked at NASA mail me a packet of promotional sheets of planned NASA projects, like Space Station Freedom (whose plans were later turned into the International Space Station), a lunar base, and getting man to Mars by 2019 (!). The late '80s were a heady time for planned space exploration; Reagan's Star Wars program and the Cold War put a fire under NASA's seat, but a combination of budget restrictions, accidents (the Challenger tragedy was barely 3 years old), fall of the Berlin Wall and the USSR becoming the Russian Federation put a stop to most of them. I can't remember if anyone was impressed by my paintings (one of which is currently for sale on Allposters). Besides a pair of Mickey Mouse ears from my childhood, I think this are the oldest possessions I still have.
Alan B. Chinchar was an illustrator and ad executive who painted some of the most recognizable NASA space art. His website is still active, though hasn't been updated since 2008.
The booms extending from the solar array are the Canadarm system, used to move items around the outside of the station & payload from a supply vessel (later fitted with a camera to inspect the shuttle for damage). Judging by the back of this promo sheet, it is one of the few planned components of Space Station Freedom that was actually used in the ISS.
All I can find about Harold Smelcer is that he probably illustrated a children's book called Christopher's Little Airplane.
From what I know about life on the actual ISS, that is way too many people in 1 module, and the entire inside gets covered in bacteria before too long. In short, space stations are like living in a petri dish.
At least Harold didn't pull a Gravity and had the long hair look like it's in microgravity too. From what I've seen of the actual ISS, there is not enough crap floating around in this artist's rendition.
This is essentially a hodgepodge of potential living situations in a proposed lunar base. The thermal radiator looks a lot like a giant volleyball net.
Astronauts performing experiments on Mars while a freaking dust storm approaches. None of these promotional materials make any reference to sending a robot to Mars; y'know, the thing we actually ended up doing. From the back: President Bush set a goal for such a landing for the year 2019.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Jim Yoshii Pile-Up "Silver Sparkler"
While a good percentage of rock music dwells on depression, it rarely manages to zero in on the myriad problems it causes. The usual stock lyric is Me vs. Them and They Just Don’t Get Me. That’s self loathing, which tends to be more of a character flaw than a diagnosed problem. Think the world doesn't understand you? Great. Join the rest of the world in realizing you aren't a snowflake, all we have to do in life is live then die, etc etc. Actual depression is like a tidal wave you see coming but can’t do anything about. You’re under the waves, but still breathing, and with any luck you can make it to the surface. With simple, unadorned language, The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up encapsulated depression (and specifically bipolar disorder) in their 2005 track “Silver Sparklers”.
Jim Yoshii Pile-Up were around from 1997 til 2006; singer Paul Gozenbach regularly releases similar-sounding records on his bandcamp as a solo artist. Their records didn't make much of a dent outside indie rock circles in their lifetime, and not much has changed since then. They got a little bit of ink when indie music online retailer Insound released a split of them and Xiu Xiu as part of the Tour Support Series. I would never have even heard the band if Insound hadn’t incorrectly linked an MP3 of a Glenn Branca track I had tried to download, instead getting their track "Seattle, WA". Already a fan of Xiu Xiu, I dug deeper and found a handful of MP3s, including “Silver Sparkler”. Their record label, Absolutely Kosher, has gone on hiatus. While MP3s of all their albums are easily available, they seem to be out of print physically.
The title possibly refers to one of the side effects of Lithium, the mood stabilizing drug that can cause hallucinations, among a whole host of other side effects. The narrator seems to be looking back on his life before psychiatric medication, when a fraught relationship threatened to cause irreparable harm. Despite being under heavy medication, a bit of bitterness bubbles to the surface,
They say rats flee sinking ships / I think that you could learn something from rats / ask them in your traps
But maybe that’s just the scars of old bitterness. The song ends with a coda of apologies, taking stock of mistakes and realizing their toll. The old tidal wave is back. Would you rather feel everything or feel nothing?
Jim Yoshii Pile-Up were around from 1997 til 2006; singer Paul Gozenbach regularly releases similar-sounding records on his bandcamp as a solo artist. Their records didn't make much of a dent outside indie rock circles in their lifetime, and not much has changed since then. They got a little bit of ink when indie music online retailer Insound released a split of them and Xiu Xiu as part of the Tour Support Series. I would never have even heard the band if Insound hadn’t incorrectly linked an MP3 of a Glenn Branca track I had tried to download, instead getting their track "Seattle, WA". Already a fan of Xiu Xiu, I dug deeper and found a handful of MP3s, including “Silver Sparkler”. Their record label, Absolutely Kosher, has gone on hiatus. While MP3s of all their albums are easily available, they seem to be out of print physically.
The title possibly refers to one of the side effects of Lithium, the mood stabilizing drug that can cause hallucinations, among a whole host of other side effects. The narrator seems to be looking back on his life before psychiatric medication, when a fraught relationship threatened to cause irreparable harm. Despite being under heavy medication, a bit of bitterness bubbles to the surface,
They say rats flee sinking ships / I think that you could learn something from rats / ask them in your traps
But maybe that’s just the scars of old bitterness. The song ends with a coda of apologies, taking stock of mistakes and realizing their toll. The old tidal wave is back. Would you rather feel everything or feel nothing?
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me
We finally got a working disc from Netflix and picked up where we left off: Leo slapping Shelly for not cleaning their half-constructed house correctly. Fire Walk With Me makes no sense if you haven't seen the series. It doesn't even make much sense if you have.
- The opening subtitle identifying Theresa Bank's body was unnecessary, since the events surrounding her death & disposal were taken care of in exposition. Was Lynch afraid that viewers would get confused on the timeline? I can see people maybe getting confused at that point in the movie, but later scenes clear up who died first.
- There are other subtitles in the movie, though besides the usual Black Lodge titles, the one identifying Ronette Pulaski is needed only because she's only in about 3 episodes of the show, and even in that case Laura could have just said "Hi Ronette".
- The entire timeline is screwed up, but in a way I find interesting. When David Bowie appears, was that before or after the events of the TV show? Was it the evil Cooper who could simultaneously appear on the security camera while looking at the monitor? No matter what, I loved that whole bit, which was low-tech while being totally creepy.
- The old lady & her son weren't explicitly evil in their single scene in the TV show (which also introduced the concept of the creamed corn), and really they're more like benign guides than BOB-level evil. They're seen in the convenience store sequence laughing with The Man From Another Place, BOB, and an assortment of other creatures. The room above the convenience store seems separate from the Black Lodge, maybe more of a benign meeting place for these supernatural beings than an expressly evil place.
- The opening sequence, with Chris Isaak and Kiefer Sutherland as FBI agents, is entirely forgettable and only serves to show a) what Lynch had to work with when Kyle MacLachlan refused to offer more than a cameo and b) introduce the jade ring. The scene with Lil the Dancer is interesting in its weirdness, though its odd that Cole would feel the need for covert briefing (couldn't they have just done it in a car or some other private place?)
- My biggest complaint was that Cooper's fate is left unknown. But I think that points to a fundamental flaw in the movie's structure: while it focuses almost exclusively on Laura Palmer, it leaves enough clues about the nature of the Black Lodge to lead viewers to expect some sort of explanation, especially with the late-game addition of the origin of MIKE's problem with BOB.
- Back to the subtitles: When BOB and Leland are in the Black Lodge after killing Laura, BOB is confronted by MIKE & the Man from Another Place and told to return their garmonbozia (pain and sorrow). That refers to the creamed corn that the old woman talked about in the show.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
NOW! That's What I Call Blog Rock
From about 2002-2008, broadband access, easy Wordpress templates, and third party file hosts contributed to the explosion of blogs posting MP3s of varying legality. P2P file sharing was gaining national attention, but there was a need for people to curate songs outside of the wild west of P2P. Many of the one-person operations disappeared around the time Mediafire deleted a ton of its content after copyright holders complained, but a few consolidated and became the publicity powerhouses like Brooklyn Vegan and Stereogum, becoming legitimate while losing their personalities in the process. Long-gone blogs like Domino Rally would post obscure noise one day and Steely Dan the next, opening doors for listeners to gain a foothold in music they used to only read about. Below is a list of songs I downloaded around that time; some of the songs are good, others I can't believe I ever liked.
Annuals - Bleary Eyed
Winter 2006 I was at my in-laws house without a laptop or iPod, and this song kept getting stuck in my head through pure imagination. They were on Conan's old Late Night show and the singer played a huge electric keyboard while sharing the mic with one of the other members. For some reason I can only find acoustic versions of this song online, the superior full band version is nowhere to be found. Their live videos are a good example of the problem with a lot of these bands that got too big too quick: they weren't very good performers.
Archie Bronson Outfit - Dead Funny
This band had a similar vibe to the DFA crew, using dance music arrangements, raw guitar sounds and an obsession with 80's post punk. If I remember right, they were part of Domino's sudden singing frenzy.
Tokyo Police Club - Tesselate
This one sounds like the one track the band let themselves just do whatever they wanted: The percussion finally sounds like it's listening to the rest of the song; the stop/start dynamics compliment the manic energry, and every bar is an excuse to squeeze in another hook.
Beirut - Postcards from Italy
I can see why people like Beirut. Their songs are catchy, nonthreatening and they predated the resurgence of old timey things that Mumford & Sons took to the bank. There was just this odd feeling that the media coverage they got was not indicative of their actual popularity: any buzz band can sell out the Music Hall of Williamsburg, but that doesn't mean they're selling thousands of records.
The Bird & The Bee - I Hate Camera
Lowell George's daughter & a guy who used to be in Geddy Tah made the kind of jazz- and electronic-inflected pop that would have come out on Grand Royal if they were around in the 90s. This is a good, spare song but the act is so entrenched in LA that I guarantee either of them has complained about The Grove in the last 24 hours.
Bishop Allen - Rain
Bishop Allen is the perfect band to encapsulate the rush to monetize the buzz created by blog attention. In 2006 they recorded an EP for every month of the year, the kind of novelty trick that was easy for blogs to latch onto and have at least one piece of news to post in a month. Their songs started appearing in TV commercials and network dramas, though the eventual full-length Bishop Allen and the Broken String didn't capitalize on their attention, consisting mostly of polished re-recordings of the charmingly raw songs on the EPs. They've since disappeared, but don't work: band member Christian Rudder was one of the founders of OKcupid, which was bought by Match.com in 2011 for $50 million.
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
Weirdo country that oscillated between AOR rock and Pavement-isms, it's a shame the title track to their 2007 record didn't become a rock radio staple. It's not really a good indicator of their sound, though to think of it most one hit wonders get big on a fluke song.
Have Gun Will Travel - Sons and Daughters of the Gilded Age
This is a relatively recent discovery of mine, and probably the kind of band that would have been snatched up post-Lumineers if record companies were still on spending sprees. I like this song but there's something a desperate about the lyric's obsession with the ills of modern culture and the cornpone backing track. Wordy verses that only add up to a vague picture of modern consumerism has been around at least since Bright Eyes.
Loney Dear - I Am John
I'm noticing a pattern, clearly not a new one: when a genre gets some indie groundswell, in this case wimpy acoustic singer-songwriters with a deep collection of Belle & Sebastian EPs, major record labels start looking for an act that's willing to play ball. Loney, Dear is still churning out records on Polyvinyl after a brief moment on Sub Pop, while the bowler-hatted/suspender dorks are getting their songs on Grey's Anatomy before disappearing into obscurity.
Muscles - Chocolate Raspberry Lemon and Lime
Blog house! Remember that? I'm not even sure what it means; I guess big melodies, a closer adherence to the three minute pop structure than dance music repetition, and Garage Band plugins. Muscles was huge in his native Australia but sank without a trace in the US, despite shiny production, catchy songs and an idiosyncratic voice.
Be Your Own Pet - Becky
How could a band be on the verge of getting huge then suddenly disappear? Blog attention does not equal a payday for these bands. It does lead to a booking agent and quickie record deal that requires constant travel and pressure to live up to their buzz, which breaks even the strongest band.
International Pony - Gothic Girl
It's great that 20jazzfunkgreats is still around, but does anyone read the write-ups that come with the MP3s they post? I respect the post-apocalyptic weirdness but they're so hard to follow. Maybe that's the point. This is a song that reminds me of the goth girls I knew in college.
Brenden Benson - Iron Woman
This should be in the Great American Songbook. Rod Stewart should be mutilating it on one of his innumerable covers CDs. Instead we get one record released in 2005 and a website that doesn't work.
Street Smart Cyclist - Hoods Up
Clean guitars playing complicated melody lines is catnip to midwest kids who still miss Braid, and the posi core lyrics connected with 30 somethings not ready to give up on punk. I can't find anything about this band online.
The Sound of Arrows - Danger
This is a Scandanavian duo mostly known for remixing corny pop songs. The EP this is on was released free and probably appealed to blog editors looking to post something they wouldn't get a cease and desist letter about.
Pacific - Sunset Blvd
The only thing I can say about this song is that the band name and song title are very clear indicators of what the song is about.
Thrust Lab - Dance Sweet Dracula
Another 25JFG track that turns out to be the work of two MICA students over in Baltimore. This track isn't on YouTube but you can download all their stuff on their website.
Yelle - Ce Jeu
I don't speak French so this song could be France's take on teen pop, but my inability to understand the words forces focus on the melody, which kind of floats just out of reach of the tonic. This gives the song a weird forward momentum that US radio pop usually doesn't attempt.
Pop Levi - Never Never Love
This guy makes really good synth pop so I'm not sure why he based his image on being a garage rocker. Embrace the keyboards dude. The Pink Enemy remix cuts out all the ratty guitars and turns it into a sleek torpedo of a track.
The XYZ Affair - All My Friends
In middle school, when students were talking too much, I had a teacher who called it diarrhea of the mouth. This song has diarrhea of the mouth but a sophisticated melody and constantly developing arrangement make it OK, even with the Confederacy of Dunces reference. Stocking the video with mid-90s Nickelodeon stars was all blogs needed to hear.
Winterkids - Tape It
Winterkids are the reason bands think it's ok to play a dozen unpaid shows at SXSW. They got some attention and a record deal out of it, but things fell apart as they do. I respect keeping their accents & having lyrics so UK-centric that I barely understand most of the references.
A Weather - Spiders Snakes (mix)
This un-Googleable band has 1 song I've heard and it's a good example of chamber pop that doesn't try anything outside it's wheelhouse. If it wasn't played over the credits of an episode of a teen drama then I'd be surprised.
The Veils - Advice for Young Mothers
Finally a band that attempted at least a little bit of nasty swagger! It's Nick Cave-lite but stood out among the Animal Collective clones.
Unlovables - Leave Me Alone
Sometimes pop-punk would bubble to the surface if I was reading the right blogs. This is not a punk band trying to do dream pop or whatever.
Two Gallants - Nothing To You
It came down to The Black Keys and Two Gallants in the major label white boy blues duo; Two Gallants were such strict adherents that they dropped an n-bomb when covering a traditional slave song.
Sybris - Hurt Hawk
A gossamer folk song. Either you'll like it or think it's insufferably boring.
Math and Physics Club - Weekends Away
Pretty sure I got this song via Skatterbrain, which has a lock on 80s twee indie pop (and its contemporary adherents). Not something I can get into all the time, but every once in a while I need that pastoral wash.
Ridley Bent - Nine Inch Nails
I spent 3rd-7th grade in Texas, which is the prime time for a child to be inoculated against the cornier aspects of modern country. Ridley Bent doesn't embrace country as an ironic pose, which I appreciate. This is a simple ballad about ex-lovers mixing up their record collections.
Ruby Isle - Final Cut
A project that could have only existed in the mp3 blog era (they also did a song with Tay Zonday), two guys from Kindercore records (and ex-I Am the World Trade Center) make electronic dance covers of whatever hit the top spot on aggregator elbo.ws (RIP). This Pink Floyd cover was done for blog project Buffet Libre Rewind and is much more listenable than the groaning, miserable original.
The Russian Futurists - Tripping Horses
Russian Futurists have another song called "Paul Simon" that follows the same structure, namely repeating the same melody over and over. The cut & paste editing style comes from dance music, but the lack of structural development means the track lives and dies depending on how catchy that one melody is. Kind of odd I can't find a video or MP3 online but there are plenty of lyrics websites that list it.
S - Falling
Ben Bridwell wasn't the only former member of Carissa's Wierd to keep making music; Jean Ghetto has released a handful of minimal, experimental records as S. A spooky verse explodes into a soaring chorus of "you know that's the only way to hurt me... all I can do is hurt you"; intense stuff.
Sambassadeur - Between the Lines
Another Skatterbrain find, the awkward pause before the chorus is charming. Since broken up, their discography was naturally on Labrador records.
The Second Band - Wild is the Wind
Like Sambassadeur, The Second Band were a Swedish indie pop band that gained a bunch of short-lived blog attention in the early 00s before disappearing. How come compact, catchy as hell guitar-based pop comes so easy to the Swedish?
Annuals - Bleary Eyed
Winter 2006 I was at my in-laws house without a laptop or iPod, and this song kept getting stuck in my head through pure imagination. They were on Conan's old Late Night show and the singer played a huge electric keyboard while sharing the mic with one of the other members. For some reason I can only find acoustic versions of this song online, the superior full band version is nowhere to be found. Their live videos are a good example of the problem with a lot of these bands that got too big too quick: they weren't very good performers.
Archie Bronson Outfit - Dead Funny
This band had a similar vibe to the DFA crew, using dance music arrangements, raw guitar sounds and an obsession with 80's post punk. If I remember right, they were part of Domino's sudden singing frenzy.
Tokyo Police Club - Tesselate
This one sounds like the one track the band let themselves just do whatever they wanted: The percussion finally sounds like it's listening to the rest of the song; the stop/start dynamics compliment the manic energry, and every bar is an excuse to squeeze in another hook.
Beirut - Postcards from Italy
I can see why people like Beirut. Their songs are catchy, nonthreatening and they predated the resurgence of old timey things that Mumford & Sons took to the bank. There was just this odd feeling that the media coverage they got was not indicative of their actual popularity: any buzz band can sell out the Music Hall of Williamsburg, but that doesn't mean they're selling thousands of records.
The Bird & The Bee - I Hate Camera
Lowell George's daughter & a guy who used to be in Geddy Tah made the kind of jazz- and electronic-inflected pop that would have come out on Grand Royal if they were around in the 90s. This is a good, spare song but the act is so entrenched in LA that I guarantee either of them has complained about The Grove in the last 24 hours.
Bishop Allen - Rain
Bishop Allen is the perfect band to encapsulate the rush to monetize the buzz created by blog attention. In 2006 they recorded an EP for every month of the year, the kind of novelty trick that was easy for blogs to latch onto and have at least one piece of news to post in a month. Their songs started appearing in TV commercials and network dramas, though the eventual full-length Bishop Allen and the Broken String didn't capitalize on their attention, consisting mostly of polished re-recordings of the charmingly raw songs on the EPs. They've since disappeared, but don't work: band member Christian Rudder was one of the founders of OKcupid, which was bought by Match.com in 2011 for $50 million.
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
Weirdo country that oscillated between AOR rock and Pavement-isms, it's a shame the title track to their 2007 record didn't become a rock radio staple. It's not really a good indicator of their sound, though to think of it most one hit wonders get big on a fluke song.
Have Gun Will Travel - Sons and Daughters of the Gilded Age
This is a relatively recent discovery of mine, and probably the kind of band that would have been snatched up post-Lumineers if record companies were still on spending sprees. I like this song but there's something a desperate about the lyric's obsession with the ills of modern culture and the cornpone backing track. Wordy verses that only add up to a vague picture of modern consumerism has been around at least since Bright Eyes.
Loney Dear - I Am John
I'm noticing a pattern, clearly not a new one: when a genre gets some indie groundswell, in this case wimpy acoustic singer-songwriters with a deep collection of Belle & Sebastian EPs, major record labels start looking for an act that's willing to play ball. Loney, Dear is still churning out records on Polyvinyl after a brief moment on Sub Pop, while the bowler-hatted/suspender dorks are getting their songs on Grey's Anatomy before disappearing into obscurity.
Muscles - Chocolate Raspberry Lemon and Lime
Blog house! Remember that? I'm not even sure what it means; I guess big melodies, a closer adherence to the three minute pop structure than dance music repetition, and Garage Band plugins. Muscles was huge in his native Australia but sank without a trace in the US, despite shiny production, catchy songs and an idiosyncratic voice.
Be Your Own Pet - Becky
How could a band be on the verge of getting huge then suddenly disappear? Blog attention does not equal a payday for these bands. It does lead to a booking agent and quickie record deal that requires constant travel and pressure to live up to their buzz, which breaks even the strongest band.
International Pony - Gothic Girl
It's great that 20jazzfunkgreats is still around, but does anyone read the write-ups that come with the MP3s they post? I respect the post-apocalyptic weirdness but they're so hard to follow. Maybe that's the point. This is a song that reminds me of the goth girls I knew in college.
Brenden Benson - Iron Woman
This should be in the Great American Songbook. Rod Stewart should be mutilating it on one of his innumerable covers CDs. Instead we get one record released in 2005 and a website that doesn't work.
Street Smart Cyclist - Hoods Up
Clean guitars playing complicated melody lines is catnip to midwest kids who still miss Braid, and the posi core lyrics connected with 30 somethings not ready to give up on punk. I can't find anything about this band online.
The Sound of Arrows - Danger
This is a Scandanavian duo mostly known for remixing corny pop songs. The EP this is on was released free and probably appealed to blog editors looking to post something they wouldn't get a cease and desist letter about.
Pacific - Sunset Blvd
The only thing I can say about this song is that the band name and song title are very clear indicators of what the song is about.
Thrust Lab - Dance Sweet Dracula
Another 25JFG track that turns out to be the work of two MICA students over in Baltimore. This track isn't on YouTube but you can download all their stuff on their website.
Yelle - Ce Jeu
I don't speak French so this song could be France's take on teen pop, but my inability to understand the words forces focus on the melody, which kind of floats just out of reach of the tonic. This gives the song a weird forward momentum that US radio pop usually doesn't attempt.
Pop Levi - Never Never Love
This guy makes really good synth pop so I'm not sure why he based his image on being a garage rocker. Embrace the keyboards dude. The Pink Enemy remix cuts out all the ratty guitars and turns it into a sleek torpedo of a track.
The XYZ Affair - All My Friends
In middle school, when students were talking too much, I had a teacher who called it diarrhea of the mouth. This song has diarrhea of the mouth but a sophisticated melody and constantly developing arrangement make it OK, even with the Confederacy of Dunces reference. Stocking the video with mid-90s Nickelodeon stars was all blogs needed to hear.
Winterkids - Tape It
Winterkids are the reason bands think it's ok to play a dozen unpaid shows at SXSW. They got some attention and a record deal out of it, but things fell apart as they do. I respect keeping their accents & having lyrics so UK-centric that I barely understand most of the references.
A Weather - Spiders Snakes (mix)
This un-Googleable band has 1 song I've heard and it's a good example of chamber pop that doesn't try anything outside it's wheelhouse. If it wasn't played over the credits of an episode of a teen drama then I'd be surprised.
The Veils - Advice for Young Mothers
Finally a band that attempted at least a little bit of nasty swagger! It's Nick Cave-lite but stood out among the Animal Collective clones.
Unlovables - Leave Me Alone
Sometimes pop-punk would bubble to the surface if I was reading the right blogs. This is not a punk band trying to do dream pop or whatever.
Two Gallants - Nothing To You
It came down to The Black Keys and Two Gallants in the major label white boy blues duo; Two Gallants were such strict adherents that they dropped an n-bomb when covering a traditional slave song.
Sybris - Hurt Hawk
A gossamer folk song. Either you'll like it or think it's insufferably boring.
Math and Physics Club - Weekends Away
Pretty sure I got this song via Skatterbrain, which has a lock on 80s twee indie pop (and its contemporary adherents). Not something I can get into all the time, but every once in a while I need that pastoral wash.
Ridley Bent - Nine Inch Nails
I spent 3rd-7th grade in Texas, which is the prime time for a child to be inoculated against the cornier aspects of modern country. Ridley Bent doesn't embrace country as an ironic pose, which I appreciate. This is a simple ballad about ex-lovers mixing up their record collections.
Ruby Isle - Final Cut
A project that could have only existed in the mp3 blog era (they also did a song with Tay Zonday), two guys from Kindercore records (and ex-I Am the World Trade Center) make electronic dance covers of whatever hit the top spot on aggregator elbo.ws (RIP). This Pink Floyd cover was done for blog project Buffet Libre Rewind and is much more listenable than the groaning, miserable original.
The Russian Futurists - Tripping Horses
Russian Futurists have another song called "Paul Simon" that follows the same structure, namely repeating the same melody over and over. The cut & paste editing style comes from dance music, but the lack of structural development means the track lives and dies depending on how catchy that one melody is. Kind of odd I can't find a video or MP3 online but there are plenty of lyrics websites that list it.
S - Falling
Ben Bridwell wasn't the only former member of Carissa's Wierd to keep making music; Jean Ghetto has released a handful of minimal, experimental records as S. A spooky verse explodes into a soaring chorus of "you know that's the only way to hurt me... all I can do is hurt you"; intense stuff.
Sambassadeur - Between the Lines
Another Skatterbrain find, the awkward pause before the chorus is charming. Since broken up, their discography was naturally on Labrador records.
The Second Band - Wild is the Wind
Like Sambassadeur, The Second Band were a Swedish indie pop band that gained a bunch of short-lived blog attention in the early 00s before disappearing. How come compact, catchy as hell guitar-based pop comes so easy to the Swedish?
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a heroin overdose on Super Bowl Sunday, 2014. He was a great actor and about as close to the archetypal tortured artist that Hollywood has nowadays. He was open in his past with drugs and his recent, final relapse. Perhaps that relapse is why America got to see Paul Thomas Anderson fumble through an interview with Jon Stewart to promote The Master instead of the star of the movie.
Twister was my introduction to him, but the first one I remember him being in was Happiness. It should be noted that I did not finish that Todd Solondz movie (I gave up during the scene where one of the characters masturbates to teen boy magazines in the back seat of his car) but I still remember Hoffman's tortuously painful scenes making obscene phone calls to a woman he's obsessed with. I still haven't finished that movie, though the synopsis says his character gets at least a little bit of a redemption.
The funniest film I saw him in was State & Main, a satire where he plays a screenwriter realizing his vision is going to be chewed up and spit out by the Hollywood machine. He gets help from Rebecca Pidgeon's local bookstore owner, who is presented as an almost literal Greek muse. The film is very inside-baseball but not so much as to alienate viewers; the characters are barely hanging on to the belief that they're making art, but the film itself knows it's all bullshit.
Most recently I saw him in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, though his performance seemed like a sleepy, check-cashing exercise than an attempt to elevate the material. It was interesting to see him in a movie that relied almost completely on franchise appeal, but he didn't have much to work with, and what he did have was merely a set-up for the politically-minded finale.
Synecdoche, New York may live on as his masterpiece, though I was lukewarm on it after the first viewing. Its so self-consciously a tour-de-force, written and directed by a guy whose entire oeuvre is about looking inward, usually literally (the hole in the wall in Being John Malkovich, the tricky memory in Eternal Sunshine). Hoffman was so actor-y, so up front with displaying the techniques he employed to move an audience, yet they rarely verged into parody. Paul Thomas Anderson may have called these idiosyncrasies "business", but they were an integral part of his toolkit as an actor.
Seeing him act was a lot like watching the original version of The Blob. Steve McQueen's Method chops put him on such a different level than the rest of the old school actors that it's like he's in a completely different movie. Maybe that's what's so disappointing about his role in Catching Fire. Surrounded by one Oscar winner and another respected veteran*, he decided to merely bend down to the level of the material. He was under no obligation to do so, but seeing him work his magic in a tentpole blockbuster would have been an amazing thing to experience.
*Typing that out, I just realized Jennifer Lawrence has one Oscar and Donald Sutherland has never even been nominated.
Twister was my introduction to him, but the first one I remember him being in was Happiness. It should be noted that I did not finish that Todd Solondz movie (I gave up during the scene where one of the characters masturbates to teen boy magazines in the back seat of his car) but I still remember Hoffman's tortuously painful scenes making obscene phone calls to a woman he's obsessed with. I still haven't finished that movie, though the synopsis says his character gets at least a little bit of a redemption.
The funniest film I saw him in was State & Main, a satire where he plays a screenwriter realizing his vision is going to be chewed up and spit out by the Hollywood machine. He gets help from Rebecca Pidgeon's local bookstore owner, who is presented as an almost literal Greek muse. The film is very inside-baseball but not so much as to alienate viewers; the characters are barely hanging on to the belief that they're making art, but the film itself knows it's all bullshit.
Most recently I saw him in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, though his performance seemed like a sleepy, check-cashing exercise than an attempt to elevate the material. It was interesting to see him in a movie that relied almost completely on franchise appeal, but he didn't have much to work with, and what he did have was merely a set-up for the politically-minded finale.
Synecdoche, New York may live on as his masterpiece, though I was lukewarm on it after the first viewing. Its so self-consciously a tour-de-force, written and directed by a guy whose entire oeuvre is about looking inward, usually literally (the hole in the wall in Being John Malkovich, the tricky memory in Eternal Sunshine). Hoffman was so actor-y, so up front with displaying the techniques he employed to move an audience, yet they rarely verged into parody. Paul Thomas Anderson may have called these idiosyncrasies "business", but they were an integral part of his toolkit as an actor.
Seeing him act was a lot like watching the original version of The Blob. Steve McQueen's Method chops put him on such a different level than the rest of the old school actors that it's like he's in a completely different movie. Maybe that's what's so disappointing about his role in Catching Fire. Surrounded by one Oscar winner and another respected veteran*, he decided to merely bend down to the level of the material. He was under no obligation to do so, but seeing him work his magic in a tentpole blockbuster would have been an amazing thing to experience.
*Typing that out, I just realized Jennifer Lawrence has one Oscar and Donald Sutherland has never even been nominated.
Monday, January 20, 2014
The Beatles Anthology
The Beatles Anthology is a weird beast: as a documentary, it takes a narrow view of the Beatles, seen strictly through the member's eyes (and what they chose to remember), tiptoeing around their massive egos and the less than complimentary aspects of their personal lives. The accompanying CDs are even stranger, more of a vault clearing exercise than a true anthologized collection of their best tracks. To its credit, the CDs include thorough liner notes that take fans through the band's songwriting process in almost excruciating detail. Evidently there was also a book, though it came out five years after the documentary and I wasn't even aware of it until recently.
I recently re-watched the documentary for the first time since it originally aired on PBS, among the excitement of a "new" Beatles track, "Free as a Bird", the video for which got a prime time network television airing. I had forgotten how on-the-nose the video was with populating the screen with references to their songs. The track itself was a John Lennon demo that the rest of the band, along with ELO's Jeff Lynne, overdubbed to completion. Given Jeff Lynne's instantly identifiable production techniques, and the surviving members entrenched solo tendencies, it comes off as a hodgepodge of styles, though given its origins that's not a big revelation.
What struck me the most about the documentary is how chronologically unbalanced it is, spending most of the 10 hours focusing on the Beatles beginnings and pre-Sgt Pepper period. It's a long slog to the era-defining concert at Shea Stadium, which is treated like a cliffhanger, despite the band still having another American tour ahead of them (though it was hampered by controversy and low ticket sales). After the band decides to stop touring, their last 4 records are covered in the final two 70-minute episodes. Perhaps it was the lack of in-studio footage, but the band's studio years are as worthy of dissection as their live years, when they played the same 30 minute set for several years. Sgt Pepper's gets screen time, mostly to show how the band changed their recording approach, though besides Let It Be it was the worst recording experience they had. Oddly enough, while some of the songs on the White Album are discussed, the actual iconic cover is never once shown on screen. Let It Be takes up most of the last episode, though it's also the one that’s well-documented despite basically being the record of their breakup. It was a bit funny that Phil Spector got zero mention, perhaps as retaliation for his bizarre behavior and the general consensus that he ruined the record with his signature overdubs. Remember this documentary came out almost 20 years ago, when Spector was a crazy has-been, not a convicted murderer.
The second surprising thing is how often entire songs are played, when most modern music documentaries will play about 30 seconds then cut to a talking head. Curious to see uncut footage of the band on Swedish TV, being awkward with the host? It's all there. Ever wanted to know what it was like to try and hear the band over the screams of 50,000 fans? The barely-audible video is there in its entirety. Oddly enough, there are at least 2 instances of the members discussing the difficulty in playing live in the era before stage monitors, then showing footage of a sloppy performance where they barely kept it together. That goes along with the entire project's odd insistence on showing the band struggling musically, either with flubbed takes on the CDs or their increasingly poor live performances at the end of their touring career.
There's an odd bit during a press conference (again, a large portion of it is shown for some reason) where the interviewer mentions John's wife at the time. He's clearly unprepared for it, and manages to ad-lib a bit about not knowing who she is to get a laugh, but it's telling that they decided to keep that bit in. The rest of the band's significant others, besides Yoko Ono, barely get a mention. There's no talk about their early girlfriends, John Lennon's secret marriage to Cynthia Lennon, or the tension between George Harrison and Eric Clapton over Patti Boyd, who would eventually leave the Beatle and inspire "Layla". But why should they include any of that? It's none of our business, though they've lived the majority of their lives in the public eye and prying into their personal lives in a bit of a national pastime. It seems like maybe there was an early edit that did include more personal information, thought the living member's used their power to excise those parts from the film.
John Lennon's absence, though he was presumably represented by Yoko Ono behind the scenes, meant that he was shown in the least flattering light. One of the oddest, most incongruous parts of the whole thing was a sequence where the band remembered John's habit of mimicking the stereotypical movements of a retarded person for a laugh. It's absolutely horrible to watch, and not only do they mention it for some reason, there is even high quality footage of him acting out on stage in front of an audience. Why was this included at all, if only for the surviving members to get back at a member they clearly were irritated with much of the time?
There's quite a few "what were they thinking" moments in the documentary, but the most pointless, and the one that me & my wife are still laughing about, is a montage of the group visiting some islands they were looking at buying, set to the tune of "Baby You're a Rich Man". It goes like this: The band says they thought about buying an island together for privacy from the outside world. There are home movies of them on boats. And that's it. Remember, the White Album is barely mentioned, but the band's holiday gets three minutes of screen time. It's one of several misguided attempts to turn it into an odds 'n sods collection for obsessive fans.
Brian Epstein's death is treated to a fitting montage, though his homosexuality (and its effect on his lifestyle and eventual death) isn't mentioned once. Maybe it was the tenor of the times in the mid-90s, but it would have been eye opening to hear that both his job as a the manager of the biggest band in the world, and the fact that his lifestyle was against the law at the time, would lead him to use drugs to cope with the constant stress and fear of arrest. It would have been difficult to balance that revelation without seeming like he was a tortured gay man who killed himself (I agree with the popular theory that it was an accidental overdose), but to completely ignore it turns Epstein into a one-dimensional figure.
The entire project ends up being exactly what it seems, an exercise by three guys with monumental egos to create a new product to feed the Beatles machine. Isn't it odd that the first volume of Live at the BBC came out about the same time, but the sequel was only released recently to extend it's copyright? Though it’s much more interesting and culturally relevant than Beatles toys or other collectibles, in the end the Anthology is yet another Beatles product for the masses.
I recently re-watched the documentary for the first time since it originally aired on PBS, among the excitement of a "new" Beatles track, "Free as a Bird", the video for which got a prime time network television airing. I had forgotten how on-the-nose the video was with populating the screen with references to their songs. The track itself was a John Lennon demo that the rest of the band, along with ELO's Jeff Lynne, overdubbed to completion. Given Jeff Lynne's instantly identifiable production techniques, and the surviving members entrenched solo tendencies, it comes off as a hodgepodge of styles, though given its origins that's not a big revelation.
What struck me the most about the documentary is how chronologically unbalanced it is, spending most of the 10 hours focusing on the Beatles beginnings and pre-Sgt Pepper period. It's a long slog to the era-defining concert at Shea Stadium, which is treated like a cliffhanger, despite the band still having another American tour ahead of them (though it was hampered by controversy and low ticket sales). After the band decides to stop touring, their last 4 records are covered in the final two 70-minute episodes. Perhaps it was the lack of in-studio footage, but the band's studio years are as worthy of dissection as their live years, when they played the same 30 minute set for several years. Sgt Pepper's gets screen time, mostly to show how the band changed their recording approach, though besides Let It Be it was the worst recording experience they had. Oddly enough, while some of the songs on the White Album are discussed, the actual iconic cover is never once shown on screen. Let It Be takes up most of the last episode, though it's also the one that’s well-documented despite basically being the record of their breakup. It was a bit funny that Phil Spector got zero mention, perhaps as retaliation for his bizarre behavior and the general consensus that he ruined the record with his signature overdubs. Remember this documentary came out almost 20 years ago, when Spector was a crazy has-been, not a convicted murderer.
The second surprising thing is how often entire songs are played, when most modern music documentaries will play about 30 seconds then cut to a talking head. Curious to see uncut footage of the band on Swedish TV, being awkward with the host? It's all there. Ever wanted to know what it was like to try and hear the band over the screams of 50,000 fans? The barely-audible video is there in its entirety. Oddly enough, there are at least 2 instances of the members discussing the difficulty in playing live in the era before stage monitors, then showing footage of a sloppy performance where they barely kept it together. That goes along with the entire project's odd insistence on showing the band struggling musically, either with flubbed takes on the CDs or their increasingly poor live performances at the end of their touring career.
There's an odd bit during a press conference (again, a large portion of it is shown for some reason) where the interviewer mentions John's wife at the time. He's clearly unprepared for it, and manages to ad-lib a bit about not knowing who she is to get a laugh, but it's telling that they decided to keep that bit in. The rest of the band's significant others, besides Yoko Ono, barely get a mention. There's no talk about their early girlfriends, John Lennon's secret marriage to Cynthia Lennon, or the tension between George Harrison and Eric Clapton over Patti Boyd, who would eventually leave the Beatle and inspire "Layla". But why should they include any of that? It's none of our business, though they've lived the majority of their lives in the public eye and prying into their personal lives in a bit of a national pastime. It seems like maybe there was an early edit that did include more personal information, thought the living member's used their power to excise those parts from the film.
John Lennon's absence, though he was presumably represented by Yoko Ono behind the scenes, meant that he was shown in the least flattering light. One of the oddest, most incongruous parts of the whole thing was a sequence where the band remembered John's habit of mimicking the stereotypical movements of a retarded person for a laugh. It's absolutely horrible to watch, and not only do they mention it for some reason, there is even high quality footage of him acting out on stage in front of an audience. Why was this included at all, if only for the surviving members to get back at a member they clearly were irritated with much of the time?
There's quite a few "what were they thinking" moments in the documentary, but the most pointless, and the one that me & my wife are still laughing about, is a montage of the group visiting some islands they were looking at buying, set to the tune of "Baby You're a Rich Man". It goes like this: The band says they thought about buying an island together for privacy from the outside world. There are home movies of them on boats. And that's it. Remember, the White Album is barely mentioned, but the band's holiday gets three minutes of screen time. It's one of several misguided attempts to turn it into an odds 'n sods collection for obsessive fans.
Brian Epstein's death is treated to a fitting montage, though his homosexuality (and its effect on his lifestyle and eventual death) isn't mentioned once. Maybe it was the tenor of the times in the mid-90s, but it would have been eye opening to hear that both his job as a the manager of the biggest band in the world, and the fact that his lifestyle was against the law at the time, would lead him to use drugs to cope with the constant stress and fear of arrest. It would have been difficult to balance that revelation without seeming like he was a tortured gay man who killed himself (I agree with the popular theory that it was an accidental overdose), but to completely ignore it turns Epstein into a one-dimensional figure.
The entire project ends up being exactly what it seems, an exercise by three guys with monumental egos to create a new product to feed the Beatles machine. Isn't it odd that the first volume of Live at the BBC came out about the same time, but the sequel was only released recently to extend it's copyright? Though it’s much more interesting and culturally relevant than Beatles toys or other collectibles, in the end the Anthology is yet another Beatles product for the masses.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)