Principal's Office

It recently came to my attention that Q has not heard this track. I believe the conversation that tipped me off went as follows:
me: "'Lip Gloss' is the 'Principal's Office' for the new generation"
Q: "What's 'Principal's Office'?"
me: too shocked to speak



Download it here

Rising Down update: Rising Up

I just wanted to state for the record that, despite the questionable taste of the video I posted here a few weeks back, the new Roots album is very very good.

More Replacements

I am a big Replacements fan myself. My favorite record of theirs is Pleased To Meet Me and my favorite track on that is "Alex Chilton," which is doubly great since it concerns the impossibly awesome Big Star. The band had gotten somewhat more "mainstream" by the time they released this-- less screaming and bigger hooks-- but given that this came out in 1987, it sounds raw as all hell. Distinct memories of listening to this one in a rental car in Cape Town with Eric and two other friends.



I also can report that Paul Westerberg's solo career got off to a very promising start before derailing a third of the way into his second album. But his first one, 14 Songs is real solid and it served as my soundtrack to many a solitary walk through the deserted streets of west Evanston at dusk. The first song, "Knockin' On Mine," is a great, rowdy hit-the-road type of anthem. I still remember him playing it on Saturday Night Live in 1993 on his first solo tour. (This post is quickly turning into my personal nostalgia tour. Well that's kind of the Replacements for you.)




And then as far as blatant Replacements followers go, my personal favorite is Buffalo Tom. Much like the 'Mats, they've been cruelly denied the big-time success they rightfully deserve, but their fan base is very loyal. (Especially in Boston, where they're from.) Their new album, Three Easy Pieces, was way up on my Top 10 list from last year, but this track, "Mineral," is from Let Me Come Over, which almost everyone agrees is their apogee and perfect for those who appreciate the more tuneful side of the Replacements.




Finally, two pieces of 'Mats trivia for those who care. (Sure you could look the answers up online, but you could also switch around chess pieces while your opponent is in the bathroom.)

1. (easy one) The Replacements' bassist, Tommy Stinson, is now a member of what band? If you don't know this, you like Hannah Montana.

2. (harder) What New York (state) band was loudly trumpeted as the next Replacements, embraced by members of the band, and even released a single that was co-written with Paul Westerberg-- only to go on to an utterly unimpressive career devoted to selling out at all costs?

I'll post the answers in the comment section tomorrow. I think these are pretty easy-- if you cheat they're really easy-- especially the first one.

Tweedy and The Replacements

I've been on a Replacements kick the past week or so. They're a band that I've been aware of for a long time, of course, but I never bought any of their music, and can't say I'm all that familiar with their catalogue. Then with the recent reissue of a few of their earliest albums, I decided to give them a shot, and I've really been enjoying Let it Be. (Are they trying to say something by naming it after a Beatles album? I'm not sure what the story is with that.)

This may not sound intuitive at first, but the band they remind me of most on this album is Still Feel Gone era Uncle Tupelo. Some of the themes are similar, and you can even just barely detect a dash of country at the edges of some of the Let it Be tracks ("Unsatisfied" in particular strikes me as, at the very least, a song it would be very easy to do an alt-country version of). But the main thing that strikes me is how clearly influenced Jeff Tweedy was by Paul Westerberg's vocals. There's an mp3 floating around on the internet of Wilco covering "Color Me Impressed" live, and before playing it Tweedy jokingly says "Everything we do is based on The Replacements." But compare these two songs and tell me that there's not a grain of truth in that:

Here's "Answering Machine" from Let it Be:


And here's Uncle Tupelo doing "Gun":

Joanna Newsom Sounds Like Specific Cartoon Characters

Like many of you, I am a big Joanna Newsom fan. One of my great regrets was missing her show at BAM when I visited New York a few months back. (Had tickets but a death in the family forced me to skip the show.) But anyway, I often recommend her to friends regardless of their taste in music. When I do this, I usually have to offer the caveat: "She kind of sounds like Lisa Simpson when she sings." And this is generally true, as heard on "Sadie," the highlight from her first album The Milk-Eyed Mender.



But today I was listening to The Milk-Eyed Mender in my car (I've quickly learned that is is the medium by which music is heard in Los Angeles-- a car stereo), and I came to an important realization. (I hope you're sitting down as you read this.) On certain tracks, Joanna Newsom sounds much more like Butters from South Park. Check out "Inflammatory Writ."



I will of course be publishing these findings in a major academic journal this fall, but I wanted to give you all a sneak preview since my discovery is likely to send shock waves through the industry. At the very least, it will rival my 1994 treatise on the manifold similarities between the voices of J Mascis and Elmer Fudd.

Content vs. Taste

Sort of in response to the Pitchfork bashing that followed in the wake of the Rolling Stone bashing, and sort of to continue to trumpet The Dirty Projectors, I'd like to point out what I consider to be the distinction btw the two publications.
Pitchfork, despite it's often questionable taste, borderline offensive approach to hip hop and cocksure writing staff, continues to provide the most/best content anywhere.
Two cases in point -
1. The Pitchfork music festival has a ton of bands over 3 days in Grant Park and it's only $65 total. They have Public Enemy, Mission of Burma and Sebadoh all playing seminal albums in their entirety. If that's not putting their money where their mouth is I don't know what is.
2. Pitchfork.tv just launched, and tho it's clearly still a beta operation, they've blown any comparable website out of the water. Here's Dirty Projectors performing for them:

REM is back (again)!

I'm glad Drischord posted the below-- I wasn't sure if any of you even cared about REM anymore, since so few do. I posted this link in my comment (which is way longer) but it's so clever that I think it's worth a separate post:

LINK

It perfectly captures the PR bullshit relationship that rock zines like Rolling Stone have with the big rock bands, in particular, the tendency with each 3.5-4 star review of an established band's new album to point out how it was a response to the faults of their previous album.

REM Returns From A Trip Around The Sun

I'm sorry to post right on top of Eric's essay, but I can't contain my love for the new R.E.M. CD any longer. In summary, it's smart, it's catchy, it's succinct and it actually rocks really hard.

A little background on my personal relationship with R.E.M. I really love their earliest albums and their mid-90's work. Murmur, their first record, might still be their best, but who could argue with Reckoning or Automatic For The People? I also love Fables of the Reconstruction, Life's Rich Pageant, New Adventures in Hi-Fi and Up. (I know it's not cool to like Up, but Tex Plush can back me up on that one.) Really I love almost everything they've ever done (including Monster)... up until Reveal, which was disappointment personified, and Around the Sun, which was borderline horrendous.

As bad as they'd been recently, Accelerate is near total redemption. I'm particularly thrilled with the punk-like energy on tracks like "Living Well Is The Best Revenge," "I'm Gonna DJ" and "Horse to Water," the latter of which can be heard below.



And where there isn't punk energy, there's awesome melodies and appropriately political lyrics, like on "Mr. Richards."




Yeah, the album isn't perfect. "Hollow Man," "Houston," and "Until the Day Is Done" are all fine but unremarkable. But there isn't any jaw-droppingly bad song wrought with self-righteousness a la "I'll Take The Rain" or "I Wanted To Be Wrong"-- lowlights from their two prior releases. The worst songs on this album are merely good.

To conclude, I've been listening to this album non-stop since I got it, so much so that I haven't even had time to listen to the new Sun Kil Moon, which I bought on the same day. Check it out.

You asked for it...

Ok, this is super long, but if you are as committed to navel-gazing time travel movie analysis, you will get through it. Basically, my college has this sort of internal blog-like network that I still sometimes post on, and I posted this. Then some people responded on their own pages. I don't have the responses handy but I've included my two main posts:

Ok, so the Onion article brought up a thought I had about the massive plot hole in Back to the Future. And I'm not even talking about the alternate reality stuff from Back to the Future II, which was awesome and blew my fourth grade mind, even if it probably doesn't stand up to logic.

Instead, I'm talking about the ending of the first movie. In the beginning of the film, the McFly family is a bunch of losers-- the mother is depressed and overweight, the father is a wimpy nerd who accomplished nothing and his brother and sister are lazy and worthless. Marty, perhaps to escape his dreary family life, hangs out a lot with an eccentric local inventor, who one night calls him up to go test out his new time machine before (SPOILER ALERT) getting shot by Libyan terrorists. At that point, Marty goes back in time and the movie as we know it plays out. While in the past, Marty shows no concern for the "Butterfly Effect" and, in fact, dramatically changes the future of his family life.

Then when he goes back to the future/present, he finds that his family life has changed-- his father is a successful science fiction writer, his mother is confident and attractive (not unlike how she was in 1955- va va va voom!) and his brother is gainfully employed ("What? I always wear a suit to the office!"). Now, I'm going to put aside the implausibility that with all those changes the exact same sperm/egg combos would have resulted at the same times, producing Marty and his siblings exactly as they were before, genetically speaking. And he even had the exact same girlfriend (and had made the same plans to go to the lake that weekend-- only this time he's got a kickass truck!). There will of course be problems when his family's like, "hey remember that time last year when you did such and such." And he won't, because he had a completely different upbringing.

But here's the weird thing-- when he returns to 1985, he goes back to the parking lot to find the scene from the beginning of the movie play out exactly as it did the first time (except of course that (MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT) the Doc is now wearing a bullet proof vest). Except the Marty who he watches go back in time had a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SET OF LIFE EXPERIENCES. I'll accept that to protect the space time continuum, Doc Brown made sure that he still became friends with Marty and he still sent him back to the past at the exact same moment as before (he had seen the video footage of same). But here's what I'm wondering-- and this would have been an interesting additional sequel. What exactly did the alternate, better-1985 version of Marty do when he went back in time. He would have, of course, heard about his parents' meeting and falling in love, all thanks to their mysterious friend Calvin Klein who was never heard from again after totally rocking the dance with his Chuck Berry/Pete Townshend/Eddie Van Halen-like guitar heroics. So he would have had a different set of priorities while back there, and moreover would have been especially taken aback that the meek, deferential Biff with whom he had grown up, was a bullying asshole who pushed his dad around. I wonder what that movie would be like....

Well, here's the thing-- I don't have to wonder! In Back to the Future II, Marty goes back to the past from the future (in order to get the sports almanac back from Biff). And he sees the exact version of himself that I was just talking about and, as he sees, that Marty does the EXACT SAME THING HE DOES IN THE FIRST MOVIE!! That's weird!

As I think about it, maybe that's not a fundamental flaw, as much as it is overwhelmingly unlikely. On the other hand, maybe it raises some interesting questions about fate and free will.

[As a sidenote, while you can come up with plausible explanations how this would happen, I feel like the filmmakers weren't expecting the audience to think about these issues. We were just expected not to question the concept of Marty basically revisiting the first movie because, on a meta-level, that's just really cool (which it was)].

Anyway, so I posted that and then some people responded and I responded to them:

I think that's the paradox I was getting at. One answer, sent to me via email by [redacted] is that time travelers are constant, like the speed of light. Truth be told I'm not sure I understand that from a physics perspective, but it does sort of explain the answer to your question, which is why his own memories didn't change immediately upon his father kissing his mother at the dance.

So then, yes, the space time continuum trumps. And that leads to the exact thing I was musing about-- what were the life experiences of Marty 2? (Marty 2= the one who Marty 1 sees escape the Libyans at the end of the first movie). We know that he basically reenacts the first movie, because Marty 1 sees him in Back to the Future II. But what happens to him after that? I think he's stuck in some kind of feedback loop-- bc think about it. For whatever reason he finds himself in the exact same circumstances as Marty 1, having performed the exact same actions too (ie, calling himself Calvin Klein, getting his parents to kiss, and finally playing Johnny B. Good at the dance). We also know that he gets sent back to 1985 via the lightning storm. When he gets back to 1985, he is in the exact same position he always knew. His parents are cool, his siblings are cool, Biff is a wuss. That's how he grew up, thanks to Marty 1, and he goes right back to it and continues on his way. Now, of course, his story is much less compelling because he doesn't go through that same emotional journey that Marty 1 went on-- his family was always ok, so he didn't have that same existential dissatisfaction that Marty 1 originally had.

BUT, meanwhile, we also know that Biff went back to 1985, gave himself the sports almanac and ended up becoming rich, creating the dystopian 1985 from the middle section of the second movie. At that point, i could be wrong, but there should be three Marties existing in the same place and time (at least).

Marty 1- the one we all know and love

Marty 2- he should have gone back there too, because Biff gave himself the almanac the same night.

Marty 3- the one who GREW UP in that alternate reality. To get around this last one, the writers concocted the idea that he was away at school in Switzerland (which incidentally would really screw up him going back in time in the first place-- especially now that Doc Brown, as we know, is committed to an asylum in that reality).

UNLESS-- Marty 1's actions in the second movie (retrieving the sports almanac and burning it) insured that Marty 2 never saw that dystopian 1985 because by the time he went back there, Marty had already fixed everything. Thus Marty 2 can continue to exist happily ever after in the happy Marty 2 loop.

What's also weird to wonder is which set of memories and experiences does the Marty of 2015 have. He of course is a bitter, failed man because he drag raced with Needles (Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers!), and hurt his hand, thus runing his very promising music career playing instrumental versions of Huey Lewis hits. But which set of time travelling experiences does he have?

I think at some point the story definitely collapses in on itself. All I know is this: only seven more years until we have HOVERBOARDS!!!

And that's it. Two final thoughts:

1) While I was home last week I watched part 2 on demand, and it's still awesome, though it's hilarious how futuristic they expected the world to be by only 2015. On the other hand, I was in Grand Central the other day and they had these weird ads projected up on the pillars there and it totally reminded me of the kind of constant advertising they often put in movies set in the future (I think Minority Report had a lot of stuff about that).

2) The best resources for all of this are

• http://www.bttf.com/film_faq.htm
  A FAQ written by the filmmakers-- shows that they were well aware of these issues. It's actually really fastinating
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future_timeline
  Wikipedia, as always, comes through. The graphic showing the various time lines is especially useful. It also links to the entry on "The Grandfather Paradox," which is interesting too.
  

Thoughts?

Chuck Berry Revelation

Rock and Roll history is finally set straight!

Concert Ticket Prices = Out Of Control

I just paid $100 for 2 tickets to see Wilco at McCarren Park Pool. This is getting crazy. For one thing, this show will probably be annoying because of the hipsters, but really- how is anyone supposed to afford that?
McCarren Pool holds an insane amount of people - JellyNYC (who is NOT producing this show, but do selflessly and brilliantly produce the greatest free live concerts ever known to man) claims that capacity is 5000+, which means that all told they (by 'they' I in no way mean JellyNYC, the producers of entirely separate yet incredible free live shows) stand to make at least $250,000 for this show, not including beer, etc.
wow.
I don't have enough fingers on my hands to count the amount of shows i've not purchased tix to for this summer because of the excessive cost. Wilco is probably the only band I would do this for (okay, Led Zeppelin too), but I'm forgoing seeing them multiple times this year because every single show is so expensive.
Just goes to show how the industry to trying to make up for the lost revenue of CD sales. Prepare to start paying much much more for every concert, except for the free shows put on by JellyNYC. Those shows will be free. And well produced. By 5 hard-working people that have 1 over-exuberant friend.

Come out and pla-ay

I'm in the midst of an accidental film festival of movies set and shot in the gritty New York City of the 1970s that are either about, or prominently feature, the subway. So far that's included:
-The Warriors
-The French Connection
-The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3

Anyone know others? Ridiculously enough, I've never seen Taxi Driver or Mean Streets, so those will probably have to come soon. But any others? (I've already seen Dog Day Afternoon, but that's the same idea. Midnight Cowboy maybe?)

Lick the Rapper Update

This morning I was awakened by a car outside my window blasting Lil' Wayne's "Lollipop" song. I have a sinking feeling it's going to be the hit of the summer.

Corona

Calexico gives a cool Tex/Mex flavor to this classic Minutemen song. Yesterday I was doing my taxes with a Corona in my hand and really feeling it.



"I only had a Corona/5 cent deposit!"

The Internet is Amazing

Pretty low quality, but still...

A Dr. Kittybrains Mixtape

ELO, "Laredo Tornado"

Download 'Laredo Tornado'

ELO, "Sweet Is The Night"

Download 'Sweet Is The Night'

Alice Clark, "I Keep It Hid"

Download 'I Keep It Hid'

John Sebastian, "What She Thinks About"

Download 'What She Thinks About'

This Song is Floating My Boat Right Now

I've been lazy about getting a divshare account (and since I tend to read/post to this blog from work, it's been kind of irrelevant anyway), but I'm now testing out posting a link to a song:



Echo & the Bunnymen - The Cutter

This is the first track off of Echo & the Bunnymen's Porcupine album and was a single. I first was curious about them after hearing about how much the last Arcade Fire album rips them off (answer, as it turns out: a lot!) and then I heard "Killing Moon" in a bar and loved it and that was that. Anyway, for people disinclined towards the kind of anthemic semi-dancey British New Wave/Post-Punk that the Bunnymen traffic in, this song might not do it (i.e., Drischord probably needs not apply) but as for me, I can't get enough of it. The bridge sections especially (starting at 1:45, and coming in again at 2:53 or so) kicks my ass every time.


PS Ok, that's annoying-- apparently to embed it, it has to be in mp3 form. I rip almost all of my music in .m4A form, which has slightly better quality at lower bit rates than mp3. I have an mp3 version of this song anyway, but still, that's a silly feature.

Prog beats Jam, Zappa beats Prog

This series of posts has reminded me of the time when I was a sophomore in high school, and I was on a school bus on the way back from a school chorus trip, sitting next to a senior who knew a lot more about music (and did a lot more drugs) than me. At one point during the ride, he gave me his headphones and said "Check this shit out", and played me "Toads of the Short Forest" from Frank Zappa's Weasels Ripped My Flesh.



I can't say I listen to much Frank Zappa anymore (and as with Labyrinth, probably wouldn't be that impressed if I heard this song for the first time today), but at the time this song completely blew my mind. By the time Frank came on the track and started explaining the different time signatures each instrument is playing in, my conception of music would never be the same.

Addendum

Since my posts are always inordinately long, I'm going to try out writing a short one, which is that I forgot to mention the converse of my theory from my last email, which is that I often don't care for stuff that you kinda have to have seen when you were a kid. So, when my roommates put on Labrynth during college, I was like, "What the fuck is this shit?" and hated it. Similarly, I can usually cause people to throw things at me with my blithe dismissal of the quality of Lord of the Rings (books and films), though I'm confident that had I read about Frodo's adventures when I was really into swords and dungeons and sometimes dragons, it would be some of my favorite shit ever.

Further Thoughts on Paul Simon

As I think about it, I actually do have some more thoughts on Paul Simon and Graceland, as I sit here finishing up some work (being a lawyer rules!) before I go out and the album plays in the background.

There's something that amuses me about our generation's recent re-appraisal/appreciation for Graceland (Vampire Weekend, obv, but also other bands now not being embarassed to namecheck the album, including, if I recall, Travis Morrison from Dismemberment Plan in an interview a couple years ago, et al). For people who are our age (that is mid-late twenties/early thirties), Graceland came out when we were at the perfect age to sort of passively and subconsciously absorb music that was being played by our parents (1986). Though everyone goes through a period where the music they want to listen to is the exact opposite of what their parents listen to, I have a feeling that many of us retain an affection for stuff we listened to as kids before we really had the opportunity to form our own taste. Although I can now listen to Graceland and appreciate the fluidity of the playing, the seamless integration of genres, and the effortless-seeming hooks, etc, when I was a kid I just loved the horn riff from "You Can Call Me Al."

I feel the same way about lots of things-- movies I loved as a kid will always make me happier than any movie I saw later and think is objectively "better" (Back to the Future-4-Life). And with other types of music-- as a kid, I was exposed through a variety of means to a handful of musicals, the cast albums to which are still some of my favorite music ever. While I generally have a soft spot for watching (and sometimes performing) musical theater, I'll never enjoy the ones I see now as much as the ones I saw/committed to memory back then. So, while I love Pirates of Penzance because I watched the Kevin Kline/Linda Ronstadt*/Angela Lansbury movie version literally hundreds of times, I've never seen HMS Pinafore and I can't imagine I'd like it that much. And for that matter, while I appreciate other Paul Simon albums (and actually grew up in a similar way with the Simon & Garfunkel albums, though at a slightly older age), I don't get nearly as much joy from them as I get from Graceland.

I wonder if there are any other pieces of culture (musical in particular) that were as ubiquitous and widely acclaimed as Graceland was at the time that can/will be re-appraised by our generation because we basically have an almost Pavlovian response to it.



*Incidentally that was another gateway into Graceland for me-- I already knew Linda Ronstadt as "Mabel" so I was really psyched to hear her duetting on "Under African Skies."

On King Crimson

Eric asked and I oblige. A post about King Crimson.

I'm far from an expert on them and really only know two eras of theirs - their first album and their "return" in the mid 90s. First album is obviously pre-Belew and back then, yeah, they were one of the wankiest prog bands to ever wank. But they kind of rocked a bit too. Their first album is something of a guilty pleasure. In searching YouTube for a good video of the original band playing live, I found, uh, this. It's "In the Court of the Crimson King" (which was used spectacularly in Children of Men) set to a Tom & Jerry cartoon. This may be best viewed while hanging out with your favorite talking towel.



As for Belew's involvement - I actually have not heard that first album with him. By the time I pick them back up in the 90s they are firmly in the mode of "old guys showing off their virtuosity". Which I guess is what they always were, but at least when they were younger they had some ambition and gusto. Now they're just... well, judge for yourself. Here's "Elephant Talk" from, I don't know, some album with Belew. VROOM maybe?

Paul Simon at BAM

As the internet commenters say, "First!" After a sighting of one "T. Plush" (no wait, that's too obvious-- it was "Tex. P."), last night, there has been a feverish battle to be the first one to blog the living shit out of the show we saw last night. So here I am.

Paul Simon's got a monthlong residency at BAM with three sets of concerts, each of which is basically a hybrid concert and tribute. This one was "Under African Skies," so it was entirely songs from Graceland and the intermittently awesome/weak Rhythm of the Saints. Ladysmith Black Mambazo was there in full force, as were several African (and one Brazilian) singers who sometimes sang lead on the various tunes. All in all it was fantastic-- the backing band was phenomenal. He still has the same bass player from Graceland (who plays those awesomely rubbery fretless bass licks, as well as the Seinfeld theme-esque slap breakdown in "You Can Call Me Al") , and guitarist from Saints. And there were something like five percussionists who played various and sundry instruments. The groove was airtight-- something the boys in Vampire Weekend (who were in attendance, "predictably," per Tex) could learn from (not that i'm hating).

By far the highlight for me was David Byrne, who first danced awkwardly and tall-ly while he sang backup during "Born at the Right Time." That was awesome because it reminded me of what I would do if I were in his position.
But then he took the lead on "I Know What I Know," and even more awesomely, "You Can Call Me Al." I do hope some enterprising soul managed to film this and puts it up on youtube, because it was fantastic. Imagine what it would sound like if David Byrne sang "You Can Call Me Al." Amazingly, that's exactly what it sounded like! Though that seems redundant, it doesn't quite capture how much it sounded like a perfect mash-up of "Once in a Lifetime" and "You Can Call Me Al." I kept expecting him to segue straight through "Who will be my role model? Now that my role model is gone. And you may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful house! And you will tell yourself, this is not by beautiful wife! But if you'll be my bodyguard..." It was great. Afterwards he got on his bike.

Related question: Adrian Belew played guitar on Talking Heads' Remain in Light. (Amusingly, I believe he also did some session work on Graceland). After playing with Bowie and the Heads, Adrian Below joined Robert Fripp in King Crimson. I have always written off King Crimson as proggy wanking (without having heard it, in fairness), but apparently the first album they put out as the revamped King Crimson, Discipline, is not proggy at all, and actually continues in the new wave worldfunk vein of Talking Heads, et al. Does anyone have it? How is it? I'm looking your way Dr. Kittybrains...

Lick the Rapper

His drooling superfans over at Pitchfork are having a difficult time getting the hard-on they were hoping for over this new pop song from Lil' Wayne.



Personally, I take this song as an encouraging sign that Wayne is leaving his thug pose at the door with his new album, and is trying to cross over into the 14-year-old girl demographic (which I have to assume is at least part of the marketing plan with this video). This may just be a mediocre sex song, but I'd certainly take it any day over the songs he used to write about shooting snitches.

But what I find amusing about the video is this: in the recent tradition of such lamentable pop hitmakers as 50 Cent, Lil' Wayne has chosen to base an entire song around the idea that eating candy can be a metaphor for oral sex, and in particular that a "lollipop" is like a penis. In this context, Wayne seems to spend an awful lot of time in this video with a lollipop hanging out of his mouth. And granted, most of the time he's just holding the lollipop in his hand and waving it around at the camera, but periodically it's definitely in his mouth. It seems like a strange oversight for an industry as homophobic as mainstream rap.

Of course, he also spends a lot of time sitting on the roof of a car playing an electric guitar...in a song that to my ear has a total absence of guitar. So it seems as if nobody put a lot of thought into the subtleties of this video.

In Hopes of Riling Up Quinapalus

Can you believe that Hillary Clinton actually released another 3 am advertisement? It's like her version of "Cheaper By The Dozen 2."

Nick Cave

So Nick Cave has a new album out - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! with 3 exclamation points mind you. Cave is a guy who I don't listen to a ton, but I always am interested in. He's just such a fascinating presence to me - the kind of rock star that you don't get very many of, and even less of these days. Rock has always been a young man's game, and I almost feel like it's moving more and more in that direction. In the glossy Rolling Stone (the magazine, not the band) world there's less room for cranky, gnarly old men in rock. I mean, where is Lou Reed anyway? Or Frank Black? Or countless others who could still be making music but are off on the sidelines. And yet, here's Nick Cave. He's 50, he looks like he's from a totally different era, and he really only sings about 3 things: 1. Dirty sex. 2. The Bible. 3. Murdering people. He's an intense man, and the fact that I don't listen to him every day is no indication that he's not amazing - just that his music can get a bit intense - as Q and Tex will perhaps recall from my forcing them to listen to Murder Ballads back in the day.

Anyway, this is mostly just a rambling excuse to post some videos, but I do think it's a shame that the kind of individuality from a guy like Cave is so often bred out of rock. Or maybe I'm just becoming a cranky old man myself.

Here's a classic from Mr. Cave which you really must watch:



And the new single:

Remembering Charlton Heston

His greatest role?

I see that you're enticed by my daughter's awesome rocking tits.

Awful South Park

I need to vent about one of the worst South Park episodes I've ever seen, which aired this week. My annoyance is two-fold. One is that this episode-- a not-even-veiled metaphor about the writers guild strike-- appears to fully take the side of the fat cat studio executives and mock the writers for wanting a bigger share of the pie they created. While Parker and Stone put their money where their collective mouth is (note that I linked to a free internet download of their show), they totally oversimplify the larger issue and put their tired, predictable libertarian slant on it.

My second complaint is that, while their commitment to contemporary issues makes them unique, they often whittle down an issue to a mere fraction of itself and thereby distort what actually happened. I still like the show, but I feel like Parker and Stone haven't matured alongside their fans who discovered them as teenagers. Too often they just end up playing to a new generation of teenagers.

Now I need to admit that the show may have taken a crazy left turn in the last 5-6 minutes and I wouldn't know because I turned it off. But that's my feeling based on what I saw.

More Bjork

There's a good chance you've already seen this video, but if not, you must. And if you have, why not watch it again? Bjork has tons and tons of amazing videos, but this one may be her finest.

Wanderlust

Everyone should stop what they're doing and watch this high-res version of Bjork's new video: Wanderlust. It is absolutely stunning. Too big to embed here. Follow the link if you want to live.

[ed: link fixed]

Hitchens on Hillary

He's talked a lot of bullshit about Iraq, and last week I was annoyed by the shallowness of his anti-Obama screed, but I still can't get enough of Christopher Hitchens when he's trashing the Clintons.

Rising Down

The Roots have a new album coming out next month! Check out the first video, in which they....brutally murder some white guy. Not sure what that's about, but I'm sure they had a good reason. It definitely sounds like they're further exploring the dark, driven, rock sound that they brought to a new level on their last album.



PS. Despite the glibness of my above remark, if I really put some thought into it, I'd say that they're brutally murdering the white guy as a metaphor for black people taking revenge for all the historical wrongs done to them, and choosing to become the oppressors themselves, in a sort of a reverse-apartheid fantasy. Maybe not the most sophisticated political statement, but rather than step into a HUGE pile of shit by analyzing it further, I'm just going to stop there for this morning.

Revisiting Roxy Music

In the spirit of revisiting ELO, I've decided this blog is the perfect place for me to finally begin preaching about the glory of Roxy Music. Not crappy Bryan Ferry as lounge singer/Avalon era Roxy Music. Screw that band. No, I'm talking about Roxy Music when they first started - when it was all about Brin Eno and a crazy group of musicians playing this insane mash-up of Bowie-esque glam and old school rock, all while being Elton John-sized showmen. They were great. Sadly, that version of the band only last one album (their eponymous debut), but man what an album. I highly doubt anyone other then possible Dr. Kittybrains is into this album, but you really should listen to it.

To whet your appetite, here is a brilliant live performance of the opening track. For reasons unknown to me I can't embed the video, so you'll have to settle for clicking on this link. Enjoy:

Remake/Remodel

A Reconsideration: Revisited

True to my word, I did pick up ELO's Out of the Blue used the other day (that makes two CD's I've purchased entirely because of this blog, which makes it a success for the music industry!). It was funny to listen to it because now this kind of shit is so up my alley-- lush, totally over the top arrangements and ear-candy melodies-- but when I was younger and just getting into music for real, I would have thrown it out because it had - *gasp* synthesizers and *shudder* sessions musicians and *horror* platinum success. (I was really into the "authenticity" of self contained bands that wrote and played everything like The Beatles, of course, or The Clash (on their first album, which was my favorite at the time) or The Band's Music from Big Pink where even the horns were played by the band.

ANYWAY, I'm kind of loving this ELO album (though it's still sort of a guilty pleasure), and I now want to buy all their big albums. I'm especially fond of the song "Telephone Line," (not on this album-- from the one before), which was used to great effect in Billy Madison when Steve Buscemi crosses Billy off of his "People to Kill" list before incongruously applying dark red lipstick to his face.



But in answer to Dr. K's question about when someone's going to bring this sound back, I think that the Apples in Stereo (and to a lesser extent of Montreal) were right in this pocket on their last album:


Down to the vocodered-vocals. No vibra-slap though.

The Space Monkey

I think you guys are mostly unfamiliar with them, so I want to recommend the Ricky Gervais Show podcasts, of which I'm a pretty big fan. It's a very simple format: Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (creators of The Office and Extras) sit around with their friend Karl Pilkington; Karl speaks about various topics, and they make fun of him for being an idiot. One of their funniest regular segments is called "Monkey News", in which Karl reads news items he's found on the internet about monkeys. Below is a fan-video animation of a Monkey News segment, which Ricky loved and is plugging on his website.

Andrew Bird's New EP - Soldier On

I assume a few of you already have this, but here it is anyway. This is the first, and best, track off of Solider On, which as far as I can tell is only available online or mailorder from France. I highly recommend.

The Trees Were Mistaken


I love the drum loop. So much more dynamic percussively than Dosh's work on Armchair. Or at least much higher in the mix than most of the drums on that album.
Soldier On also contains a Bird track from the Janet Reno-currated Songs of America compilation!

Obama's Speech

I'm ready to say that this speech was better than any I can remember hearing from a mainstream politician in my lifetime, and contained a more nuanced, bold, accurate discussion of race than I ever expected to hear from a politician in my lifetime. One of the main criticisms I've heard voiced about it so far is that perhaps it's too nuanced, too brave for many voters to take, and too complicated to be digested in our crass, soundbite-and-spin oriented media-industrial complex. I don't want to believe that that's the case. I'd like to think that a politician this thoughtful, nuanced, and principled is exactly the sort of candidate who ought to do well in a country that is surely hungry for a change from the last eight terrible years. All I can say is: I supported Obama before today, but this was the moment when I started to truly believe that he had it in him to be a historically momentous president. And not because of the color of his skin, (and I can't really speak to the true content of his character) but because he's ready to talk about real, divisive, historic problems like race with a depth and seriousness that no other major politician seems to be able or willing to do. He's not pandering to anybody, and he's not ready to throw his longtime friend and pastor under the train for political expedience (the way I have to imagine the Clintons would do in a second), but instead tries to give us a real explanation of his relationship to his pastor, even if that explanation is possibly too complicated to play well on the 24-hour news stations.

If the Clintons somehow manage to wring the nomination out of the next few primaries, we'll be fools for electing them over this guy. If the Clintons manage to get the nomination through back-room shenanigans even after losing the popular vote, then the Democratic party is very possibly going to lose me forever, and it may indeed risk losing a whole generation of younger voters.

"Dedicated to Johnny Cash, A Real American Gangster"

Who would have guessed that even Snoop Dogg would one day cut a Honky Hop track? Drischord, I'm afraid that ship has sailed without us.



"Girl my love's gonna last just as long as my high...and I'm high all day, every day."

A Reconsideration

All right, without telling you guys who this is, or when it's from, I'm curious as to whether it's insanely obvious or not. No looking it up. Listening to this yesterday made me think - shit, I think somebody's going to bring this sound back sooner rather than later. What do you guys think?

(And does anyone know who/what/when this is just from listening? I purposely went for a deep cut.)

Following Up On The Dirty Projectors

I thought I'd go ahead and post a couple of tracks from my favorite album of 2007. I'm curious to hear what ya'll think.
The gimmick of the record is that they took the lyrics from Black Flag's Damaged and wrote new music. New GREAT music, I say.
These two are a couple of the mellower songs on the record, but two of my favorites.

Rise Above - Dirty Projectors

download 'Rise Above'

Thirsty and Miserable - Dirty Projectors

download 'Thirsty and Miserable'

Malkmus

Funny that Drischord mentioned the new Malkmus album as I just picked it up and was coming here to discuss. I have never listened to his solo stuff for some reason. But as of late I've been listening to a lot of Pavement, and I liked the song the AV Club included in their review, so I decided to give it a shot.

So, first things first, this is most defnitely NOT Pavement. I'm with D on that. It seems that Malkmus has really established his own thing with the Jicks now, and that thing is distinctly different from Pavement. Although his voice and guitar style is so distinct that it can't ever get 100% separated from Pavement. But purely on it's own merits I think the album is pretty fantastic. It's very jammy - there are a bunch of songs that clock in over 5 minutes (and one 10 minute one) and usually that's because the songs end in a giant rock out. So if you're looking for the tight little songs from Slanted, or the weird experiments of Wowee Zowee they're not here. What replaces them are these crazy freak out jams. Here's the first track, which is suitably odd, but then finds this great groove at the end that Ijust love. Check out the guitar stuff around the 4 minute mark that sounds more like Queens of the Stone Age then Pavement.



So this makes me curious to check out his other 3 solo albums to see if this is a new rock out style or if this is what he's been doing ever since Pavement.

Anyone else pick this up yet? Do you like it, or is it too over-indulgent, which, I'll be the first to admit, is something that defintely does not scare me away.

Blitzen Trapper

Saw these guys live a week ago. I can't say they put on such a great show, but they have a few good tunes and this is one of them. (How's that for tepid?)

Tweedy On Migraines

Jeff Tweedy posted on the New York Times' Migraine blog:

http://migraine.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/shaking-it-off/

That New Gnarls Barkley Thing

I'm not sure what the general take is from you folk on Gnarls Barkley. I liked Crazy enough, but didn't think it was that amazing. I only heard that album once, and had the same basic reaction - good but not enough to inspire me to buy it (but then again, few hip hop albums do get me in that way). But I'm kind of in love with the new single. Here's the video.

As an added bonus, the video may causes seizures in those who are prone to that sort of thing, so, you know, be careful.

Bon Iver

This is the album of the moment for me. Stunningly gorgeous acoustic music made in the woods.

Dungeons and Dragons

Wilco on SNL

For those of you that missed it, here is Wilco on SNL doing my least favorite song from SBS, 'Hate It Here'.
Suprisingly, I actually thought this came off better than the second song they did, the far superior 'Walken'. Or maybe I was just distracted by Tweedy's hideous jacket.

Rainbow Stew

Hey all you tree-hugging hippies, take heart! Merle Haggard really does want to believe in your utopian visions, and he'd drink your hippie kool-aid if he could. It's just that no matter how hard he tries, he can't get beyond a tongue-in-cheek endorsement.

Rakim

For any of you interested in hearing some remarkably good new tracks from the legendary MC Rakim, a couple of them are streaming on Soulbounce.

I just downloaded the whole of his new "archive" collection from iTunes, and I'm pretty psyched about it. It's a collection of unreleased tracks, rare tracks, and live cuts of a bunch of his classics. I'm especially enthused about the quality of the newer, unreleased material...for a hip hop pioneer who's only been heard from rarely in recent years, I hope it bodes well for his long-awaited new album, possibly to be released later in the year.

More Airplane Gazing

The previous post about airplane related songs gave me an excuse to post this, my personal favorite song abouit airplane flight, which just so happens to be from a band I'm currently really digging on. "Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair" by The Flaming Lips. This was originally on Zaireeka, here in a normal stereo mode courtesy of the Waiting for a Superman single. Listening to this makes me wish that any band, including the Flaming Lips themselves, would be gutsy enough and weird enough to put out something as ridiculous as Zaireeka again. I mean seriously, that thing is insane to even contemplate releasing as an album, but they did it, and it blew my mind. I wish to have my mind blown in that same manner again, but until then, this will have to do:

No, Really: Re-Thinking The Pointer Sisters

I'm re-editing this post because I feel like you guys might have just taken a pass at this. Whatever you think the Pointer Sisters are, this isn't it. This is them young (1974), 4 of them (not 3), combining earthy funk and vocal jazz - totally organic, with virtually no resemblance to the 80s hits you know them for. Watch to the end for some truly thrilling vocal improvisation.

More Logan

That Jack Logan has been endorsed by Dr. Kittybrains himself speaks volumes. Buy his albums! They're undoubtedly (and unfortunately) available used in most CD stores and various web sites. I'm guessing "Bulk" is practically free from a reseller on Amazon. It only takes the slightest of encouragement to get me going, so here are 3 more tracks.

First, by request, "Female Jesus" from Bulk.


Then, "Teach Me The Rules" from his first album in an actual recording studio, which is called
Mood Elevator.


Finally, "Marching With The Saints," from his first album with Bob Kimbell (another great musician, based in Logan's former state of Indiana.) The record is Little Private Angel.

Jack Logan

Partly for the amusement of Eric, I'm going to share a true chestnut from the ol' Drischord vaults: Jack Logan. This guy is an auto mechanic from Winder, Georgia (adjacent to Athens) who was discovered by Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Peter Jesperson, who ran Twin/Tone Records. His initial release was called "Bulk," a 2-CD set culled from a decade's worth of home recordings with his buddies. Most of it was recorded in living rooms. I love many of Jack Logan's subsequent albums, but the rough-hewn charm of "Bulk" could never really be duplicated. He'd go on to write better songs, but none sounded as organic as these ones. Here are three tracks from the album. Blaze Foley fans might find a similar charm, although Logan isn't half the tragic drunk that Blaze was.

"New Used Car and a Plate of Barbecue"


"Giant City, Tiny Town"


"Shit For Brains"

Airplane Gazing

Here are two little songs I really like, which I'm posting together because they're both about staring down at cities from airplanes. Hope you enjoy.

First is an old gem from The Flatlanders, called "Dallas". I'd nominate this as one of the greatest songs ever written about a kid from the country contemplating the big city.



"Dallas is a rich man with a death wish in his eye...a rich man who tends to believe in his own lies."

And second is "Stratford on Guy", one of my favorite Liz Phair songs, from back in her Exile in Guyville days. She's contemplating Chicago, but in the end she's really more interested in herself than anything else.



"I had on my headphones, along with those eyes that you get when your circumstance is movie-sized."

This is so freaking cute it's ridiculous

I like the scream and the bow the best.

Tell them you're going 2 the crystal ball...

I love when I get really obsessively into a particular artist where I listen to nothing but that artist for days on end. It makes me feel justified in having a large CD collection. Even if I haven't listened to an REM album in a couple years, when their new one (rumored to be a return to form) comes out, I'll be glad I have their full catalogue to immerse myself in.

Anyway, right now I'm into Prince. Specifically late early period Prince. Or maybe early middle period Prince. Basically, Sign 'O' the Times, which was his first album after the Revolution broke up, but before he formed the New Power Generation and became kind of not as good.

Sign is awesome. Double albums tend to be the critical favorite (London Calling, Exile on Main St., etc), I guess just because on some level the more of that artist, the better (though for some, a triple album like Sandinista! probably goes too far). But I tend to love double albums because, like Texplush, who mentioned this in some top ten rundown in a past year, I love albums that jump all over all styles. That's why I love The White Album so much; it was almost a catalogue of all the musical styles the Beatles had worked with-- and then some!

So too with Sign 'O' the Times. It's got everything that made Prince great-- hard, spare funk workouts, falsetto-laden ballads, shiny dance-pop, crazy guitar solos and lots of gender bending lyrics. Several of the songs actually feature him using an androgynous pitch-shifted higher voice that he called "Camille" (as in, Camille is credited with the vocals on "If I was Your Girlfriend" and other songs). The 80's production is kind of thin and it's in need of a cremastering, but it's also kind of timeless, with some of the harder funk songs especially sounding almost like Timbaland productions with their harder beats and stabbing horn and keyboard hooks ("It," "Housequake").

The crazy thing is that the double album was actually a cut down version of a TRIPLE album (Crystal Ball-- not to be confused with multi-disc compilation of the same name). And that triple album was the combination of two previous aborted albums: one was a whole album (only a single though) of songs using the Camille voice, and the other was a double album with the Revolution made just before they broke up (Dream Factory). It was going to be the most collaborative Revolution album yet, with extensive contributions from Wendy and Lisa.

That's actually what got me in this phase-- I found links on a blog to both the Camille album and the Dream Factory album and they're both awesome. Dream Factory is all over the place, both in sound and style, but there are some really great tracks on it. Camille is in some ways even better, just because it's such a tight, focused album. The song are all that James Brown-style funk with great horn lines, as in "Housequake."

It's crazy what a creatively fertile period that was for him.

If you like Prince-- or rather, if you like music-- you should definitely check them both out:

Camille:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JTC2FB6E

Dream Factory:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1LJOP2TK

Further Nels Reading

Via Chicago, my answer to your questions is an emphatic "yes." Nels is the best guitarist rock n' roll has to offer.

For those so inclined, I highly recommend the following Nels solo LP's:

Nels Cline Trio- Chest
Nels Cline Singers- Instrumentals
Nels Cline- The Inkling

Also highly recommended is Mike Watt's self-described "punk rock opera," which is called Contemplating The Engine Room. It's a trio effort with Watt on bass and vox, Stephen Hodges on drums and Nels playing some totally brilliant guitar. I know some of you are familiar with this record to varying degrees, but go back and revisit it today... great playing, great narrative, great people too-- I met 'em freshman year at NU.

I'm embedding the first track, "In the Engine Room." There's a bookend introduction, but you'll hear the song's awesomeness in due time.

Wilco and Nels Cline

Just got back from the Wilco concert, which was unbelievably amazing. I'm so sorry all of you could not have been there to join me. It's been said many times, but this version of the band is just so good live it's scary. I can't even remember what they sounded like lice before this.

Anyway, here's my question for you: Is Nels Cline the best guitarist in rock right now? I say yes. If you disagree, prove me wrong.

Here's some fun footage to help back my point, and yes, I do see the irony in posting this not long after the fantastic guitar wankery videos.

Hard Sun

I've been kind of obsessed with this song for the past few days, from Eddie Vedder's Into the Wild soundtrack.

"I Love Every Little Thing About You"

You guys may already be familiar with the Stevie Wonder version of this song, which is of course utterly fantastic and catchy and joyous and typically delightfully Stevie, but here it is anyway, in case you don't know it:



HOWEVER, here is the version Stevie arranged and produced for his soon-to-be ex-wife's first album 'Syreeta' - it's clear from the tracks that Stevie is, as on the previous version - playing everything that we hear, from the burbling synths to the sweet hi-hat clicking away in the left channel.

Not only is this a version of the same song written, produced and performed instrumentally by the same dude, but it's completely different from the better known Stevie version, and in my opinion KICKS ITS ASS. On top of it all, Syreeta's vocals (not unlike Beyonce's, except much more... um... 'real' might be the word I'm looking for) are sublime honeyed perfection.

Here's the proof:



(Allison just told me that she thinks Syreeta doesn't sound like Beyonce at all, but more like Mya. What do you guys think?)

ADDENDUM: upon further listening, the major distinction between the two is that Stevie's performance is really sincere - you believe he honestly loves everything about her. But Syreeta's is coquettish (Allison's word) - she might just be saying those things to get something. It's definitely an interesting contrast.

Shredding

This will probably be most appreciated by Drischord, but in case he hadn't seen it, I figure we can be the umpteenth music-geek blog to post about this.

I saw it at the AV Club but the videos are at the Wired Magazine site.

Basically this guy (who is an actual guitarist) took videos of "guitar gods" wanking away on their axes, and overdubbed his own playing, which is basically a more horrible (though in some cases only slightly less so (See Malmsteen, Y.)) version of that wanking. At first I didn't get it, but by the time I got to the Santana one, I was laughing so hard I was crying. I'm not sure if it was the eerily impressive way he tracks their hand movements with his own playing, or the fact that the accompanying instruments are only filled in when they're actually on screen (especially Ozzy Osbourne's clapping), but something about it is hilarious. I think it's because of the faces and exaggerated body motions the guitarists make. Having that accompanied by awful playing just makes me laugh.

Definitely worth checking out, especially the aforementioned Santana, the Yngwie Malmsteen (and orchestra) one, the Van Halen one, and the Slash one.

The postscript is that these were on youtube but of course someone had them taken down because of copyright violations (it's their policy to just take something down when given notice, which places the burden on the original contributor to show that it's not a violation, which probably makes sense from youtube's perspective, but it's still shitty).

Fred Rogers: Poet and Sage

I think it was Drischord who first alerted me to the existence of this old footage, although I feel like he told me about it in the days before YouTube, so I don't know where he would have originally seen it. I remember that when YouTube was first becoming prominent it was the fact that I was able to search for this very clip and find it immediately which first made me realize YouTube was going to be a very big deal.

Anyway, for no particular reason I thought I'd post it now. Fred Rogers may have been a very soft spoken man, but watching this made me appreciate the power he had behind his mild mannered outward demeanor. He was a tough customer, in the most unassuming way imaginable.



"The gentlest thing in the world overcomes the hardest thing in the world"
- Lao-Tzu

Hot Chip?

So who has an opinion on this Hot Chip band I hear about these days? I know little about them, but I love the new single (which can be found in the AV Club review here). Anyone a fan? Or a hater?

Jackson Reaction

You know, upon further perusal of Rhymefest's Michael Jackson tributes, I can't help but recall this classic Onion headline.

Call me a hater if you must.

Finally A Post

Sorry to have taken this long to post something on the blog. My grandma died, the dog ate my homework, the power went out.... no seriously, my grandma did die, and I've been accordingly preoccupied until just now.

While the Michael Jackson references certainly take me back to the day, I feel compelled to share one of the few insightful Pitchfork reviews I've read in months. I probably feel this way because they're praising an album that was on my Top 10 list, but whatever. It's Bottomless Pit-- risen from the ashes of Silkworm-- and I'll warn you: they are infinitely less funky/dance-able than anything posted here thus far.

Here's the first track, "The Cardinal Movements," in all it's dour glory.



Now resume the discussion of fun music.

Build Me Up

More Rhymefest, as requested by Dr. Kittybrains.



"You ever seen When Harry Met Sally? It's kinda like what I'm going through."

Man in the Mirror

Here's one for those of you who are more hip-hop oriented then I...

I was recently pointed to the new Rhymefest album, which is available for free download here

The basic deal is that it's a "dedication" album to Michael Jackson, using almost all Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 samples, plus some great interview clips to make it sound like Jackson and Rhymefest are recording it together. For someone like myself who really loved Jackson back in the day, and is still sad that he's so crazy now, it's kind of great. Anyway, this is my favorite track from it:



Thoughts?

Zombie

In response to Quinapalus' post on political art, here's my first post on Fela Kuti.

"[Zombie] ignited the nation to follow Fela's lead and antagonize the military zombies that had the population by the throat. Fela is direct and humorous in his attack as he barks out commands to the soldiers like: "Attention! Double up! Fall In! Fall out! Fall down! Get ready!" Meanwhile, his choir responds with "Zombie!" in between each statement. Since the groove was so absolutely contagious, it took the nation by storm: People in the street would put on a blank stare and walk with hands affront proclaiming "Zombie!" whenever they would see soldiers. If "Zombie" caught the attention of the populous it also caught the attention of the authority figures -- this would cause devastating personal and professional effects as the Nigerian government came down on him with absolute brute force not long after the release of this record."
- All Music Guide