The Latest From Ralph Nader

I'm an unapologetic Ralph Nader supporter (yeah I voted for him in 2000) so was quite interested to see this interview with him in the AV Club.

Good read and most defintelyworth your time, but be warned - Ralph makes a pretty rational argument for why Obama is screwed, so it's not exactly happy fun time reading.

Thoughts?

New TV on the Radio?

So every time TV on the Radio release a new album, it gets ecstatically good reviews-- in every publication from Pitchfork to Time Magazine-- and all kinds of hype. I usually resist the hype for a while (as I do with basically every new album everyone gets excited about that I don't really care about because I'm too busy listening to Prince bootlegs or whatever) and then finally bite the bullet and get it. I usually find it sonically interesting (though often harsh to my ears) with a few solid songs, but mostly not that great and I usually only listen to it a few times. My favorite song of theirs is still the hidden-track doo-wop cover of the Pixies' Mr. Grieves.

So, my question to you all: Have you checked out the new one? It's getting the same boatloads of hype and near-unanimous great reviews, but will I like it any more than the last one?

Wilco and Fleet Foxes - "I Shall Be Released"

Download it for free here

DMX weighs in

Back in March, DMX shared his thoughts on the presidential election with XXL magazine. It's certainly a fresh perspective.

Paul Westerberg's 49:00

This is now unavailable so get it while it's hot. Totally great. Best thing Westerberg's done in years. And it's like a cassette! Meaning: it's a whole album on just one mp3 so you can't skip tracks. AND it has the feel of a demo tape that's been recorded over several times, so there are a lot of snippets of songs. The overall effect is perfect.
49:00

David Foster Wallace

Well, it's pretty sad about David Foster Wallace. I wasn't always his biggest fan, but he was certainly a talented and influential writer, someone you couldn't avoid dealing with in some way if you were interested in the state of literature, and it's too bad things ended up the way they did. For those who are interested, check out this story from the New Yorker last year. It's not an example of DFW at his full-on, mind-bending, greatest intensity, to be sure, but I think it's beautiful, and a good example of why he could sometimes be very worth reading.

Wilco and Obama

Continuing the political talk, check it out - here's Wilco (or a mini-Wilco) performing at an Obama fundraiser in Chicago earlier this summer. Nice little fluff piece:

So... Metallica?

Alright, so there's a new Metallica album out, and there's a very good chance this post will fall on completely deaf ears, but as an ex-Metallica fan who still loves their first 4 albums (and, grudgingly, The Black Album), puts cuts from S&M on my mixes all the time, and laments the pathetic shell of the band that now exists, I feel compelled to check it out.

So I've heard two songs from the new album and they're not at all bad. In particular, here's "The Day That Never Comes". It's long (8 minutes) and the first half is like an above average song from Load, but the back half is pretty impressive. If you have any interest in seeing how Metallica is doing as a band these days (and I fully realize you may not) then check this out:



Hetfield's singing sucks, but am I wrong for thinking this is kind of good? Certainly better then St. Anger, that's for sure. I do find the video a kind of fascinating snapshot of how the band has traveled - I mean, cotrast this to the video for One (which I assume you've seen). One: Super dark, depressing, and quite creepy take on war. This: A sort of feel good piece about how, despite being attacked and in constant danger, American soldiers sure are helpful!

Letterman, however...

has seen enough.

Meanwhile, it's more of the same....

with Lil' Wayne.

British Sea Power

I've been listening off and on to the new Britsih Sea Power album that came out earlier this year ("Do You Like Rock Music?") and it consistently leaves me perplexed.

On the one hand, it's got a lot of great, very straight ahead, epicly rocking songs in that Arcade Fire sort of tradition (and as a quick aside, I've been REALLY into those guys lately. I think in retrospect I should have made Neon Bible my #1 last year). But since they're Brits, they also mix in some My Bloody Valentine sound, which is just fine by me.

But on the other hand, there's something very - I don't know - calculated about the sound. Part of what makes Arcade Fire so appealing (and, to some people, UNappealing) is their earnestness. I think if you're going to go all epic about the plight of our modern world you've got to at least sound like you believe it, man. British Sea Power have a lot of times where the songs are great songs, but you can almost feel them conciously trying to capture that kind of sound. That's not to say Arcade Fire don't put a lot into capturing that sound - but they make it sound natural, which is, to me, key.

So I'm torn. I like the songs, and think it could be one of the best albums of the year. But sometimes I feel like the influences are so powerful and so evident that it almost makes me wonder if there's really any point in even listening to this. I just recently got over listening exclusively to noise rock for a few months, and I think the derivative nature of albums like this partly drove me there.

This is getting pretty rambling, so I leave you with two questions and a song:

1) Anyone here have this album and have thoughts?
2) If a band is so clearly copying a sound, what's the use?
3) "Waving Flags":



I feel like I'm stacking the deck unfairly against them by including the most Arcade Fire-y song there, so here is "Atom" - undoubtedly the highlight from the album and a great straight ahead rocker:

Theory: One Beat is the best Sleater-Kinney Album

Evidence in favor:
-Janet Weiss's always amazing drumming reaches epic heights of complexity and rock-itude.
-Corin Tucker's vocals find the balance between overwraught wailing and indie girl cuteness that had heretofore eluded her.
-Carrie Brownstein sings a lot more and is awesome and has a good blog on npr where she writes about music etc.
-It addresses 9/11 in a way that sounds real and does not feel dated even hearing it for the first time way later.
-The songs rock ferociously in a kind of punk way but are also complicated and interesting in their song structures. There are interesting instrumental fluorishes that never detract from the central power trio sound.
-Dig Me Out is great, and gives it a run for its money, but doesn't have the maturity or pop sophistication as this one. The Hot Rock and All Hands on the Bad One sound relatively aimless by comparison.

Weaknesses in my argument:
-I have never heard Call the Doctor or The Woods.


Once again, god bless Brooklyn stoop sales! I picked up this and The Hot Rock for (I think) two bucks each a couple weeks ago and I can't stop listening to it. I had never been that into S-K (despite Drischord's playing All Hands... (among others) on various road trips and whatnot), but this album just nails it. Corin Tucker's got an amazing voice but Dig Me Out always grated me just a little because her voice was so warbly. But it's more reined in (though not as much as on The Hot Rock) and the ineterplay with Carrie Brownstein's contrapuntal vocals is amazing. You can basically always win me over with contrapuntal vocals.

Also, seeing clips of them live on youtube makes me regret very much that I didn't take the opportunity to see them live when they still existed.

The Mixtape About Nothing

I've been really enjoying this free internet mixtape from DC rapper Wale, who first appeared on my radar earlier this year with his excellent guest spot on my favorite track from the Roots' Rising Down. His Mixtape About Nothing is a sort of concept album which uses samples from Seinfeld as the basis for a number of the songs...he's not rapping about Seinfeld, but he uses some of the themes from Seinfeld as a starting point and then lets his flow take him where it will. That may very well sound lame when you first hear about it, but in practice Wale puts together a thoroughly enjoyable, smart, funny and unpredictable mixtape that makes me very excited to hear a real album from him, whenever he can get one together.

I apologize for my continued inability to make divshare stream anything, but download this song if you want to hear a good example of what I'm talking about. And since it's a free internet release that doesn't have to worry about sampling issues, there's even a nice Stevie Wonder sample on the song:

The Grown Up

And if you liked it, the whole thing can be downloaded for free here.

Wow...

Last week's cover story for The Onion:

Obama's Hillbilly Half-Brother Threatening To Derail Campaign



Today's cover of the Sun Times:

Obama's half-brother to Vanity Fair: 'No one knows I exist'

Kittybrains Convention?

Neil Young with Wilco opening at Madison Square Garden, December 15. What do you say?

"White" Music

Via Chicago just responded to the last post by declaring (on behalf of Tex Plush and himself) just how "white" Billy Joel's music is. Relative to the groups that get praised on here-- Andrew Bird (solo), Radiohead, New Pornographers, Bonnie "Prince" Billy-- that's just absolutely flat wrong.

Now look, I just finished my 2 and half year education at Berklee, and while I'm not dropping that as any sort of superiority thing, it was very illuminating because-- at least in ensembles-- I played predominantly black-written music there. And I many took classes that focused almost exclusively on the work of black people. And I learned how to write in a lot of "black" styles. I'm not claiming to know more about black music than any of you (certainly not more than Quinapalus), but I do know a heck of a lot more about it than I used to know.

And here's what I can tell you: Relative to most white musicians, Billy Joel ain't all that "white." Listen to Little Richard or Ray Charles play the piano. Now compare the piano styles of Billy Joel and, say, Stephen Drozd of Flaming Lips. Or Thom Yorke. Or Neil Young. Or the Sigur Ros guy. Or Panda Bear/Animal Collective. Or The National. Or Mikael Jorgenssen/Pat Sansone. So who sounds more like Ray Charles and Little Richard?

You can hear it in songs like Big Shot, Movin' Out, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Only The Good Die Young, etc. And then listen to "New York State of Mind," which is an homage to "Georgia On My Mind." Tell me how that song makes you feel white.

Look, I feel a little weird propping up Billy Joel, because I hardly listen to him anymore. But I do have those "Greatest Hits Vol. I & II" in my iTunes and I stand by the vast majority-- except for wussy stuff like "Just The Way You Are."

But using the "he's too white" argument against Billy Joel is just inaccurate. If anything, you could say too many of his best songs are simply derivative of black artists. (Musically at least. I'll concede that singing about Long Island all day is pretty white.) But the guy is simply too rhythmically attuned to get the "whitey" tag.

Theory

Every single song on Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Vol. I and II is amazing.

And I know every word and note even though I probably haven't listened to it more than a handful of times in the past fifteen or twenty years.

It's really strange to listen to it actually, because it seeped very deep into my consciousness at a time when I didn't really think about music in a self-conscious way. I just loved the Storm Front album with We Didn't Start the Fire and my friend Ben made me a tape copy of his earlier greatest hits. When I just listened to it now (on a random nostalgia kick after hearing a couple of the songs in a cab the other night), I couldn't help but hear everything in context-- how he moved from Prog Epics (Captain Jack), to New Wave Mimicry (Still Rock and Roll to Me) to shameless nostalgia (Uptown Girl), all while indulging in sensitively wussy singer-songwriter balladry (Just the Way You Are, Always a Woman). But back when I first got into it was just about the myuuusic, man-- I liked the way he spoke-sang "Biiiig shooot, deeeedja" and the awesome synth hook in Pressure and the "BrenderandEddie" section of Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.

To return to my theory: Seriously, every single song is great!

Zumpano for a Buck

Like Eric, I've been enjoying the general devaluation of the compact disc in the mp3 age. This past week, for instance, I was able to purchase Zumpano: "Look What The Rookie Did" for one measly dollar. Now admittedly, this may have owed more to the fact that the store didn't know what they had on their hands rather than worldwide downturn in CD value.



This leads me to mention that Zumpano, if you didn't already know this, was Carl Newman's band before New Pornographers. I'm pretty sure that the CD/Game Exchange up the street from my old high school in DC did not know this. They're much more of a hip hop store anyway, which leads to frequent mis-assessments of used rock stuff that comes their way.

Anyway, check out Zumpano. They lack the undeniable choruses of New Pornographers, but they've still got that classic Carl Newman craftsmanship and overall quality. I think they also had a looser vibe-- fewer fans to please-- which makes them pretty fun. Worth far more than a dollar.

Extra Golden

Here is an afrobeat update for those of you following that train with me:
I am REALLY into this band Extra Golden. They are a collaboration btw African and American musicians and they have basically created the cock rock of Fela-style afrobeat groovalicious guitar-heavy music. They are great. I saw them today at the prospect park African guitar festival, though I have been into their albums for a month or so.


Ok-Oyot System
To my inexperienced ears, the first record, OK-Oyot System, sounds more traditional. You can definitely hear African pop sounds - the kind that Paul Simon lovingly ripped off, and you can hear straight-up Fela worship too. You also hear a blend of American soul singing and traditional African singing in the space of the same number. It's refreshing and familiar at the same time. It'll make your hips move.


Night Runners
The second album has some different musicians on it due to the untimely death of a major force from the first record. Hera Ma Nono has more of a funk and soul edge to it. The drums are bigger and there are more guitars. Drischord, who was visiting me from out of town recently, thought it sounded like Phish. He was hilariously off the mark, but I must admit there is a slight resemblance there, at least in the sense that this is joyous, rocking and unsubtle. But unlike Phish, Extra Golden does not need to fake the funk.

New Wilco

So some good comes out of Lollapalooza - behold the glory of a new Wilco track.

Wilco - One Wing

For my money, this is pretty great. The final freak-out at the end is awesome and makes me want a new live album with the Nels version of Wilco so bad.