The Breeders - Last Splash

For me the Breeders are an act cursed by their contemporaries. Formed by Kim Deal of The Pixies, their most successful era saw them open for Nirvana and become darlings of what was then known as the alternative scene. This was also, it should be noted, the time when “Alternative” implied some form of avant reaction against the mainstream, and not chick folk for chick folk people.

In many ways this is my problem with them. That period in indie/ alternative has contained some really fascinating, important, challenging music; music that revolutionized what it meant to write music. And a lot of it is really hard to listen to. Don’t get me wrong; compared to acts like Husker Du and The Minutemen, The Pixies were a study in making crazy music palatable for sane people. Their combination of the lessons of the 80s indie scene with song structure and pop hooks has ensured their place in history, and my record collection. On the other hand there are some really hard edges and intentionally grating sonic choices, and as much as The Pixies captured a lot of the energy of punk they do have some slower songs that, well, bore me. None of them are on Surfer Rosa, which is perfect in every way, and I WILL FIGHT YOU, but yeah.

It is much worse for Nirvana. I have talked previously on this blog about how I hate musical sludge, and Nirvana being something of a fusion of punk and underground metal in an 80s indie rock context, has it in boatloads. To their credit they balance it with shining melodies and pop hooks in a way that creates a wonderful framework, a kind of gothic cathedral of poorly tuned bass decorations hanging depressingly from a noble, vaulting framework. They are not responsible for the fact that their disciples kept the sludge, lost the punk hooks, and forgot about technical merit. Nonetheless I rarely turn to Nirvana for fun time listening, saving them instead for moments of more careful, challenging sonic exploration.

Having an album by someone who is not just a contemporary of these acts but a band member is not a great way to make me come running. To make it worse, most people’s reaction to The Breeders is some variation of “oh yeah, they’re good too.” So I am not running to The Breeders as fun music, and when I am in a serious music mood I tend to go to the stuff that is more widely recognized. The thing that really saves this album from total obscurity in my record collection is that it is brightly colored, and I have just enough ADD for that to matter. So it is that every couple of months I get into a Serious Music Mood, forget who The Breeders are, and get taken in by the album art. The result is always complete and total enthusiasm.
            Its not that The Breeders are without musical sludge, nor are they free of the influence of their times/ outside bands. Indeed the first track, New Year, is kind of a wonderful example of what you get when you combine influences from The Pixies and Nirvana. When Cannonball’s intro starts you think you are in for more of the same- until the bass comes in. That iconic, absurdly simple, slide from the first to the sixth frets on the A string was freaking ubiquitous in 1993, but in retrospect it was way before its time. Some tonal elements foretold Alternative’s slide into one-hit-wonditry and chick folk mediocrity, but the song itself sounds absurdly modern. The subsequent songs on the album can only be described as the foundation of the 90s indie scene. Songs like No Aloha and Divine Hammer foretell the mad energy and musical craftsmanship that, in my oh-so-humble opinion characterizes what works about modern indie rock.
            So yeah, give The Breeders a try. I think they get too lost in the shadows of their contemporaries, whom they surpassed in many ways. The bright side of this is that their cds are usually pretty cheap. Good times.  

Whale - All Disco Dance Must End in Broken Bones

All Disco Dance Must End in Broken Bones is a great name for an album, if somewhat ungrammatical. I thought for a very long time it was the name of the band, which would be even better. It did set me some mistaken expectations. With a name that long I figured it was probably an indie band in the vein of …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. It’s not the name though so I excuse them for not living up to my expectations, though the world would be better with more …Trail Of Dead. This confusion also explains why a band named Whale is being reviewed at the beginning of the alphabet, although admittedly my adherence to the strict ABCs has been somewhat scattershot as a result of the move.

What Wale is, is as interesting as a …Trail Of Dead clone that does not exist. They are a Swedish pop band in the alternative genre that had some success in the 90s. “Disco Dance…”  was one of their successful albums, which shows what I know about the European pop charts. Musically it is not what you would expect from Swedish Pop. Although in our post-Hives era this assumption may be incorrect, I think most people associate all Scandinavian countries with Death Metal, and Sweden in particular with overly cheerful ABBA clones, such as Ace of Base. Though there is somehow a black dude who will insert raps, the rest of the band sounds like Massive Attack. They are more energetic, and they have a kind of a Grime edge, but they have the same ethereal vocals and melodies floating over subtly complex rhythms that occasionally swell to a high energy foreground. They do depart from this formula with some regularity, and the results are often spectacular. For example, the Pixiesesque “Puma Gym,” and the dance pop “Deliver the Juice” which in many ways predicted a lot of the tools in the Gorillaz musical handbook. Overall the biggest difference between Whale and Massive Attack is much better rapping. I say this without any malice towards Massive Attack, but Whale’s rapper is pretty great. It’s a shame they only trot him out on one or two songs. Whale’s lyrics are also quite good, though Massive Attacks may have a bit more of a biting edge.

There are some weird things here. Firstly, I don’t know how many black rappers there are in Sweden, but they must all be in pop bands. There must be a fucking industry where the three black guys in Sweden cycle between bands, with a running pool on whether anyone will notice they are different between sets. This is not the weirdest thing. The weirdest thing is that this is a Swedish Pop group that sings in EXTREMELY articulate English, sounds like a British pop group, had most of their success on the continent, and shows some solid American influence. There are bigger examples out there but this is globalization gone batshit crazy. It must be really weird to be a Swedish teenager, turn on the radio, and hear your countrymen and women in bands that sing in a foreign language. And a language that is native to none of your neighboring countries, but which has become a lingua franca for the pop scenes of all of them. I wonder if this is why they made the title slightly off grammatically, because all their songs are spot on.

So bottom line, if you hate Massive Attack, you may not have much to like about this band. If you do like Massive Attack, this is an album that definitely will reward your patience. The more you listen to it the more they deviate from the formula, play with it, and make it their own. One really gets the feeling that they are pushing the boundaries of what they can do as a band, which may explain why this was their last album. Bottom line, these guys are more than a Massive Attack clone, though it’s kind of impossible to discuss them without the reference.

The Blues Masters - Slide Guitar Classics

To understand this album you need to understand Rhino Records. Started out of a physical store in the 1970s, the label specialized in re-releasing singles from the 1950s and 60s and pressing recordings of the best of the stand up comedy underground. The philosophy of the company rests upon making sure pop classics are fun and accessible to new generations. As such their business model was built on acquiring copyrights for undervalued, important works and repackaging them in a fun and accessible way.
            The original owner was eventually bought out by Time Warner, and the current iteration can no longer be said to represent this in its purest form, but even the modern incarnation specializes in re-pressings of the critically acclaimed classics of their parent company’s vast holdings. For example, many modern repressing of The Ramones are Rhino products, as are any and all pressings of The Monkees.
            So a best-of compilation by Rhino is going to be less an album than a curation: music selected, organized, and vetted with an eye for high quality recording and song writing, crystallized in tracks that represent an artist at their best, in context, but also in a way the listener maybe hasn’t heard before. The track listing has everyone you could want, from Muddy Waters to the Alman Brothers, and nary a boring moment in site. The tracks are clear enough to be understandable, but rough enough to preserve that gravely, spontaneous feel that gives blues its soul. The songs are about things blues songs should be about. Lust, love, social injustice, pain. The song I am currently listening to, “Dark Was the Night,” has been going on for a minute and a half and all that Blind Willie Johnston has said was a series of inarticulate moans. I approve.

And yet, it is still a best-of album. If you are already a huge blues aficionado, there is probably no reason to buy this, since the tracks are probably available on other albums. As someone who is Blues literate but still has an awful lot to learn i would usually try to figure out what artists are important on the internet, and then go to a store for their album. Having to wade through someone else's choices, especially since that someone is usually motivated by taking what is on hand and cheaply repackaging it, tends to strike me as dumb. 

But this is kind of great! The liner notes have all kinds of information on each artist, and a really fascinating description of slide guitar’s birth in Hawaii and subsequent wholehearted adoption by itinerant delta bluesmen. This is obviously the point of these albums. Begun in an era when albums were expensive, musical history hard to find, and radio often unhelpful, best-of albums served to help people find out what they should be listening to. Though subsequent generations of best-of producers have focused more on low costs, high quality products like this album once served to introduce music lovers to the history and context of new genres. Indeed, samplers and mix tapes, which are really just best-ofs by amateurs, were what gave punk rock and essentially all of its children their odd ability to self promote without the internet and without mass media support.
            But that was then. Nowadays we have the internet. I discovered the punk and ska movements from fan pages on Geocities. I sampled music by The Clash on Real Video streams posted on fan sites, and got into The Mighty Mighty Bosstones from songs they posted on their own site. Nowadays we get into scenes that are being created in foreign cities in nearly real time, and have an accurate record of the events for subsequent generations to follow if they chose. If you want an example i draw your attention to the explosion of Canadian indie bands and say good day.
            Perhaps we really have been missing out. I don’t see myself dropping a ton of money on best-ofs any time soon, and I will never be so déclassé as to describe one as a favorite album, but there is definitely something to be said for curation. Though we in this internet age often resent having other people press their views on us, a well done curation can help a viewer understand a subject with the kind of richness that could take a person years to acquire by trial and error or even through careful research. I have had the temerity to describe myself as a punk rocker for over a decade, and despite all the effort I have put into familiarizing myself with the genre there are still albums I kick myself for not owning. Though one could suggest that a person who can use the word “temerity” in a sentence is probably not that punk rock to begin with, there is a definite advantage to guided instruction, and I see no reason recent music history should be any different.

So yeah I guess I have to recommend this album. It does seem a bit like homework, as the album is 18 tracks long, each of which is by an artist whose albums I now have to buy, but I am glad I now know what to look for, and the liner notes will give me something to read in the bathroom. Cheers!

The Birthdays – A Spirited Rendition

 This album is pretty much what I needed. I spent 7 hours on my feet today in the box factory, picking things up, putting them down, and occasionally slashing them with poorly designed box cutters. My feet hurt, as do my legs and back, but its all ok, because this album in the sonic equivalent of weed. 

Its folk pop. Nothing really out of the ordinary for that genre, though certainly lush and well written. The production quality is quite good, and the album art is whimsically inoffensive. It’s a bunch of guys with hanglebar moustaches and top hats. The back is a song listing with a pile of top hats. I think everyone secretly loves top hats, so that’s a plus. Lets return to the song writing.

So theres definitely some Beatles in here. Bliss in a basket has this flute breakdown/ trumpet filler background that is pretty much right off of Abbey Road somewhere, but they definitely bring their own spin to the work. They use tempo changes and breaks to bring a fusion jazz feel to the song that clearly makes it much more tribute than rip off. The album is full of fun little hooks like that, things that sound familiar but are warped by other influences to create pop hooks that are addictive and comforting at the same time. The music demands nothing from you, but will reward any listening you may do. The lyrics are well done and the vocals are clear, but if you just want to kind of coast on the music you will still have a good time.

I feel good. I just ate a really big dinner and I feel hungry again. I am worried that my sister gave me this album and is angry that I never thanked her. See, she’s living in Seattle and we don’t get to talk much anymore. I feel like when we do we end up talking shop since she’s all into Landscape Architecture and I’m into Urban Planning and that’s like if she were Leia and I was Luke and she was like I don’t understand why you just cant plant a garden to foil the emperor’s evil plans and I was like well you need a law to make people keep the garden. I worry everyone is disappointed in me. I don’t see even my friends as much as I would like and I moved to Massachusetts specifically so I could hang out with them more, but I still don’t have any money and I feel like any attempt to go out will be more expensive than I can afford. I am bad at being a grown up but it’s not my fault. If only someone would give me a job in garden related law making everything would be ok, and everyone would have to have gardens, and the emperor’s evil plans would be for naught. Oh also the band is from Seattle, that’s why I think she might have given it to me. Anyway its good go buy it. You guys have any fun-yuns you could email to my web zone? 

Arcade Fire – Self Titled EP

Remember a world without Arcade Fire?

Back in 2002 when this EP came out Franz Ferdinand had yet to come out, Modest Mouse had yet to sell out, and people were still willing to shell out money for boy bands and numetal. The thought that a Canadian music collective was going to lead the Indies into prominence for the internet generation would have sounded ridiculous, the fact that several made it to underground god-hood is basically a result of the Arcade Fire.

For us now, looking back, it is hard to see this album without reference to their subsequent work, especially since several of the songs were revived on later albums. Most people did not hear of this EP until after the band’s career took off, but such is the nature of EPs: they serve to introduce a band to a core following that they can build on. This core following then gets to tell subsequent fans “yeah, Funeral was good, but I still like the initial EP best.” I would look down my nose at these people but it took me a very long time to get into Neon Bible, given how different it was from Funeral. This occasionally happens with bands whose subsequent work is legitimately garbage but we will be talking about State Radio another time. Just trust me and buy Flag of the Shiners, and not a god damn other thing by Chad Urmston

In the context of their wider body of work, this EP is actually pretty similar to their work in The Suburbs and Neon Bible, which incidentally contains a remake of the song “No Cars Go.” Like many I bought this in the post-Funeral era, but I found it somewhat jarring. Funeral emerged in a period of indie dance music and was apparently lucky in that it happened to capture this moment perfectly. Emerging the same year as Franz Ferdinand, The Postal Service, and The Killers, Funeral is certainly more folksy and introspective than its fellows, but in retrospect still contains the energetic dance numbers and generous techno sensibilities that defined the 2004 class of indie. If there has been one trend in indie since 2004 it has been the mainstream’s appropriation of these techno sensibilities, even as indie rock shied away from pop hooks and dancability. This has certainly been the case with Arcade Fire and in this context Funeral stands next to other Arcade Fire albums as an oddly popular child in a family of anti-social eccentrics.

This is not to say I find Arcade Fire’s other work bad, but it is way less relatable on first listen. Listening to songs from Funeral in the context of Neon Bible, The Suburbs, and the EP, it’s like a different band. I honestly have no way to deal with this. They self produce all their work, so there was no Evil Label interference going on. Funeral had to have been an organic eruption. In some of the songs on the EP you can even feel it coming on. No Cars Go and Headlights Look Like Diamonds are full the pop sensibilities that make The Suburbs such a great album, and the latter even has the dace beat that completely infected Funeral. When listening to Headlights Look Like Diamonds you can see how this band produced Funeral. But then Vampire/Forrest Fire starts and you feel lost and confused.

The recording quality here is good. While you can tell it was a first effort and recorded quickly, especially in the context of songs like No Cars Go which were later re-recorded, this album could be taken to mark the era where cheap home recording equipment made it entirely possible for bands to record lush, professional sounding albums in their basement, and still have money for booze. Or in this band’s case yoga pants I guess. Anyway the album sounds great. It only comes off as a bit spare in comparison to the other albums.

The song quality is honestly top notch. Even as they are clearly building up themes to be dealt with more fully on other albums, these songs are fully realized works, well instrumentalized and beautiful. Even the album art is wonderful, featuring the naïve colorized pattern collages that they returned to on Funeral.

This is a great EP. If you are a fan of Arcade Fire you should get it. It has none of the coherence of the albums and for the most part lacks the fun of Funeral or even The Suburbs…but it has the DNA of both embedded within its form. Listening to the EP you can hear the artistic sensibilities that unify all three albums, but oddly recombine; pieces of The Suburbs will coexist with pieces of Funeral in a stereotypical folk song structure, and then the next song with have the exploded, meandering song structures of Neon Bible in a song full of pop hooks. Not their best album, but a fascinating portrait of a band getting their musical legs and finding their muse. A work fans could probably argue about for hours.

For those who are not yet fans of Arcade Fire, or want some sort of unbiased review of its actual attributes, perish the thought, this EP is a bit tougher. Like all of Arcade Fire’s works the EP rewards repeated listens, but like Neon Bible, and unlike Funeral and The Suburbs, the EP gives the listener few early pop hooks. For those not used to the rigors of indie rock (lolz) this kind of rigor may be a chore, and if you don’t already have a commitment to the band I would forgive you for not finding it within yourself to do so. If, on the other hand, you are a fan of esoteric folk music you might find my critiques invalid. There is no deadwood here, though I feel the slowest songs are stacked to the front. Someone wanting to get into a really weird band and willing to expend a bit of energy to do so could well start here and easily segue into any of their other albums. For those who don’t view music as a kissing cousin of homework, I would really recommend you go get a copy of The Suburbs. It has a slew of great, poppy, fun songs while being less of a redheaded stepchild than Funeral. Goddamnit  I am talking about the other albums again. Ahh feck. Just go buy it. It’s fun.

Burning London: The Clash Tribute

This album is a wonder. A tower of bad ideas and bold attempts blended evenly with the kind of slick toadyism that exemplifies tributes. I bought this many years ago and it has always been one of the albums that most exemplifies what I love in b movies. You can see what they were going for, and it was a bold attempt, and their failure is less tragic than hilariously over the top.

The Clash are one of my favorite bands, and in many ways they exemplify these b movie virtues as well. They made a career out of always pushing the boundaries of what was expected, whether or not they were actually skilled enough to achieve it. The fact that they were extremely hard working and very talented made their attempts neither tragic nor hilarious but completely inspiring to me, an overly intelligent kid from middle class New Jersey.

The best album to listen to in order to understand this aspect of them is Sandanista! It is sprawling. On vinyl it is three records, even on cd it is an excruciatingly long double album. When initially released it was sold at the same price as a single record, at the insistence of the band and at significant financial loss on their parts. The album was recorded over a year in three studios with a handful of outside collaborators, a small army of engineers, and more genres than sense. They seriously had everything from Celtic folk to dancehall, and pretty much everything in between. Of particular note was the song  Magnificent 7, which was such a good proto-rap track that it got heavy airplay on New York City’s increasingly important urban music stations. None of the above means the album is 100% successful. Far from it. It can be really boring, though there are really great songs on there. It is a towering tribute to effort and open mindedness, even if there are better Clash albums out there.

An album attempting to pay tribute to The Clash, made in 1999, could have easily just called in all the punk bands that claimed them as inspiration at the time, collected the money, and taken the bonus to Rio. To the producers credit they seem to have made a serious attempt to pull in artists from all the genres that The Clash either inspired or drew inspiration from. The artists on the album represent a wide swath of styles and, while punk is represented, it is hardly dominant. Though most of the artists will certainly claim a punk influence, it might be hard to discern at first in their music.

That said, a number of these tracks are hilarious failures. Some artists seemed to not be sure why they were there, others just are terrible artists. To parse this out I think I need to go track by track. This will also be a lot of fun I think. So enjoy.

1: No Doubt – Hateful

Holy crap, remember when No Doubt was a Ska band? This came out even before Return of Saturn, so you know it’s good. Holy crap is it nice to hear them do ska. Even on Tragic Kingdom they were diluting their ska with I guess you’d have to call it chick rock. That basically took over on Return of Saturn. Even if you liked Return of Saturn (I did), the ska tracks on that album were the best parts. I had hoped an album called “Rock Steady would be a return to form, given that Rock Stead is a reggae subgenre. I was wrong. And sad.

But yeah this track rules. It is funny and energetic and bubbly and everything that was awesome about No Doubt.

2. The Urge – This Is Radio Clash

This is the definitive version of this song. Seriously. The Urge kill this. The Clash version is great and all, but the third wave ska treatment it is fun and funky and the vocals are well done, and then it gets to the bridge and fucks you in the ear. And you like it. You want to get ear fucked more. If there is any one reason to buy this album it is this song. When this song comes on, I turn back into a high school kid, blaring music out the window and screaming the lyrics.

3. Ice Cube ft. Mack 10 – Should I Stay or Should I Go.  

What the fuck is this? This has nothing to do with the original except the line “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and the guitar sample, which gets super annoying. The lyrics are…fucking insane? Everything I hate about hip hop? Not the original song?

Ok, I really get what the producers were trying to do here. Its part of that whole leftist white dude things I was talking about with Black 47. To a large extent the impoverished areas in the United States have been, until recently, dominated by African Americans. Any leftist discussion of class thus also needed to address race. The Clash did this with Magnificent 7, which it would have made sense for some rapper to sample, except I guess that they did that when the song came out. So instead of using the song from back then, or something, they had Ice Cube come in and make a song based on Should I Stay…? And it is about deciding whether to get high, make money, or do a show? And then there’s a verse where he is telling his baby mama to get off his back about how he is raising their child since she dumped the kid on his doorstep? And…?

Choosing this song made no sense, and the lyrics had nothing to do with the original, and while it’s not really a bad song as far as hip hop goes, using it like this on a tribute is odd and bizarre. It’s like Ice Cube didn’t know what it was going to be used for? But he went to the trouble of making this a really good track, were it standing on its own. So clearly he cares enough about the Clash to try hard to make the track good. But then why not pay more homage to the original? And it’s just kind of hilarious. You’re listening to these great punk and ska covers and then all of a sudden you hear the guitar, the “whoo” and you are listening to Ice Cube rap about his ho.

4. Rancid – Cheat

Of all the bands on this album Rancid was the reason I bought it. Every punk band that could give themselves a bad mohawk said they loved The Clash, but Rancid was the only one that kind of incorporated their musical teachings as it where. Though not as musically experimental as The Clash, Rancid brought ska and punk together in a volatile blend of leftist politics and listen-ability. They wore their love for The Clash on their sleeve, and eventually Tim Armstrong’s Hellcat Records would take the financial risk to put out Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros second and third albums. Them being here was both necessary for me to take this album seriously, and a case of serious hero worship on their part and I expected great things.

The track isn’t bad, in fact it’s great, but it’ a safe choice. Among Clash fans, those who consider themselves True Punx, or ever did so, usually say the first album is the best, because it is the most punk. Cheat was one of the tracks on the UK version of the first album that was omitted from the US version and subsequent releases in favor of “White Man in Hammersmith Palais,” “I Fought The Law,” and a number of their other classic tracks that served to make The Clash more inventive and experimental and less punx. As a result Cheat is somewhat less well known. It is certainly the most punk. Rancid choosing Cheat, a song from the first version of the first album, was akin to them holding up a big banner that said “WE ARE NOT FUCKING POSERS,” which of course does a lot to convince everyone that they are total fucking posers.

What’s worse is it’s not really a good song for Rancid’s style. Rancid brought the fusion of punk and ska to such perfection that their style was seamless. They don’t have songs that are more funky or more punky. They just have Rancid songs. That is kind of what rules about most of their work. Cheat is just a punk song, and Rancid plays it as a punk song. They don’t change anything. The engineering and tone color is different, but really the biggest change is that it is Tim Armstrong slurring his way through the vocals instead of Joe Strummer. It’s a good track, and if you aren’t a Rancid fan it is a lot of fun, but if you are, it’s as disappointing as their career was from here on out. The band was clearly more interested in proving their fan credentials than adding anything. Which was, of course, the problem with most of the punk scene in this era. Ah well.

5. Third Eye Blind – Train in Vain

Fuck dude. As much as I expected Rancid to destroy I expected this to be mediocre, and I was wrong about both. I am still floored by how well Third Eye Blind did with this. It is really funky while staying true to the emotion and artisanship that went into the original. It is really a perfect track, and everything one hopes for in a cover. It adds something while staying true to the original. It’s like they poured all the not sucking from their entire career, post first album, into this one song. Fucking epic.

6. Indigo Girls – Clampdown

I don’t think a lot of people understand The Indigo Girls. Sure they play folksy chick rock, but this isn’t some Melissa Ethridge, I’m-vaguely-pissed-at-men, kind of act. The Indigo Girls are fucking angry at everything, from ancient religious persecution to having an odd day. They write really beautiful songs, with wonderful intertwining melodies, about being completely and totally pissed off. These ladies have balls of pig iron and they use them like chain flails.

This track is a perfect example of their style and a wonderful contribution to the album despite being as un-punk as possible (without singing about hoes). They are so fucking pissed at that Clampdown. I wouldn’t want to be The Clampdown when I listen to this song. It is a lovely song with some really nice instrumentation and vocal harmonies and my god, if I was The Clampdown, I would probably leave the country.

7. Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Rudie Can’t Fail

Dickie Barrett is a god among man, the single person most responsible for me first listening to The Clash, and a very very talented musician, and the reason I attended college in Massachusetts. This track is tits and I will sodomize you with a cat if you disagree with me. I will take a living animal, possibly one with fleas and/ or mange, and shove it in your behind. Fuck you. What is your problem? This is why we can’t have nice things.

8. 311 – (White Man) in Hammersmith Palais

Ok now is where I talk about how much I fucking hate 311. It is a mixture of many factors. Part of it is their douche bag fans. Part of it is that they are overplayed, but I actually liked their singles when they came out. It is a many splendored hate that has grown in me over the years. Much of it has to do with how much I should like them. They make funky music with great technical skill, folding in numerous genres as influences to create music that discusses philosophy and the world with a Buddhist twist. It’s like they described my background and made it into a band.

But they do it with this infuriating smugness, and with a lack of soul that is intensely alarming. I once met a 311 fan who did not understand my indifference to the band. He explained that they were very technically talented, and that when he had seen them live, they had preformed all their songs exactly as they were on the album. I was kind of appalled. I asked why he would want that. He seemed confused, and explained how very hard it is to sound exactly the same as one does on the album. I suspect he left that room convinced that I was a cretin who did not value technical skill. To the contrary, I understand the challenge of what he described, but mere technical challenge does nothing for me. I want a band that plays with passion as well as skill. If you play the song the same way every night there is nothing there.

I have the same problem with bands and artists that have coordinated jumps throughout their set. Not that jumping is bad, I’m all for stage shows, but having it go on for the entire set, beyond the fact that it is incredibly goofy, shows that someone, probably in their management, told them it was a good idea to be active on stage if they wanted to interact with their audience, and then hired them a choreographer, and had them fucking practice jumping. This is no longer a spontaneous act of communal emotion, this is a song and dance number, a mass produced simulation of caring created to earn money.

311’s music gives the distinct impression of simulation. Funky and complex as it undoubtedly is, the wide ranging genre inclusion feels more like a ploy to incite a cross over and take advantage of trends that were big at the time (rap rock, sublime-esque dub reggae, sludgy nu-metal). This lack of passion undermines their whole philosophical rock musician image in a way that smacks of hypocrisy. They love to trot out the Buddhist crap, but if there was one thing The Buddah was not in favor of it was empty ritual. He reached enlightenment when he realized the rituals of the Hindu priests, while important in some ways, were mechanical and without joy. While important if it forces the observer to examine themselves, ritual for the sake of ritual is just another avenue for suffering created by a desire to avoid suffering. And here’s 311, mechanically trotting out the same songs that they have practiced to the point of complete perfection, ritualistically doing the same stage show every night, collecting the money at the gate, and then flying to their fucking island. They owned an island. I shit you not.

Their song on this album is everything I hate about 311. It is only one of two songs I skip on this record, and we haven’t gotten to the second yet. Like the Rancid song they have changed nothing except the vocals here. There is no difference between their version of (White Man) and The Clash version except the tone color of the singer’s voice. But I won’t say that they didn’t put their own spin on it. They managed to suck all the energy and life out of one of my favorite early Clash songs.

Also, cheap shot, being a sublime rip off and doing the reggae song. Way to stretch, asshole.

9. Afghan Wigs – Lost in the Supermarket

 What an odd choice of band, but it works. Considered by many to be the most influential of the early 90s post punk alternative bands, the Whigs bring what we would now call something of an indie sensibility to the album. I was at first a bit put off by how twee this one is, but upon repeated listens I’ve found it really works, especially with this song, which is probably Joe’s most emo song ever. Also one of my favorites and one that becomes more vital all the time. A good track.

10. Cracker – White Riot

Formed by a former front man of Camper Von Betthoven, Cracker is a country band in the vein of Wilco and Johnny Cash. I have nothing but respect for this band. All of which makes me confused and appalled by their choice to do White Riot as a honky tonk country tune. Was it a joke? It’s in poor taste if it is, and makes me wonder about Ice Cube’s track, which would be and even worse joke. I mean. Ok. You may be confused, let me back up.

White Riot is a song where the band bemoans the fact that black people seem to not be afraid to go out and demand what they need from the government, while white people toe the line and do what they are told. During a time when race riots were still occurring, a call for white people to join in was both inflammatory and racially progressive. Many took this song as racist, I guess because it mentions race at all, but it really is more of a call to arms. That said, given the historic associations of racism in the American South, homeland of country music, doing White Riot as a knee slappin, line dancin, dude lynchin humdinger of a good time is out and out inviting misinterpretation. Come on white people, we can go riot and get our money back from those welfare queens! Yi haw!

Or else the track is a joke; poking fun at the historic misinterpretation of the song with something that sarcastically makes the misinterpretation worse. I guess that is kind of funny, and makes more sense coming from a band whose big single was about trying to find a Eurotrash Girl. Except if that was intentionally stereotypical and uncomfortable, what was the deal with the Ice Cube track? Did the producers tell him to take these samples and go sing some songs for the urban market? Or were the artists given complete freedom, in which case why did Ice Cube choose to do it that way? And leaving that whole thing aside, isn’t the whole joke about racist assumptions being made at the expense of being racist against white folks? THE LEVELS! THEY HURT MY BRAIN PARTS!

11. Silverchair – London’s Burning

This song is grade A bullshit. It is nearly unlistenable. This is the other song I skip. I have many friends who love Silverchair, and not having listened to much I won’t make any critiques of the artist as a whole, but this track blows. The song starts with the singer wailing “London’s Burniiiing” over a completely pointless, mostly feedback and bass, noise jam. For like fourty-five seconds. Then they sing the song and that’s pretty good. Then there is fifty more seconds of him bleating out about London and the Burning and feedback and oh god I don’t care about London. This is a minute and fifteen seconds out of a three minute fifteen second song. A full third of this song is completely pointless and boring and fuck what is your problem you anorexic shit please go get mauled by a koala you worthless human being get out get out get out get out get out get out get out.

12. Moby and Heather Nova – Straight to Hell

I don’t know who Heather Nova is, but she has a really pretty voice. This track is mostly her voice. If you’ve listened to Moby, you know he does that kind of atmospheric techno thing. Techno that isn’t for dancing. It’s really slow and has no beat. It’s so slow that they only got through one verse before I guess heather fell asleep or something. I dunno. This is one of my favorite Clash songs and they don’t do it justice, but they also don’t ruin it. They definitely bring their own spin to it, which I definitely prefer to the alternative. It’s also very pretty, which is nice.

So all in all this is a fun album. If you are a Clash fan this is a nice thing to own. I’m not sure why you would want a tribute to the Clash if you’re not a fan but hey, there’s probably something on here you’d like if not. Go for it. A lot of the producer’s choices were odd to the extreme, but they are usually hilariously so. There’s some great performances here, sometimes where you do not expect them. Overall not the complete waste of time usual for tribute albums.

The Brainless Wonders - Plloyd Lumpstead

I forget if it was my junior or my senior year. I was attending a show at the Worcester Art Gallery, a somewhat hodgepodge affair as such places will be in Worcester. As the name implies it was an art gallery that let musicians use the space for shows whenever someone got around to making it happen. There was no PA, but the space was so small it hardly mattered. If your amp was half decent people would hear you.

My friend and I showed up on time and proceeded to wait around in this industrial area for 20 minutes for someone to find the key and open the place up. Also there were some local kids who looked like they probably weren’t even in high school. One of them had a broken leg, was clearly hyperactive, and the type of person the others would dare to do stupid things for their amusement.

They proceeded to pry up a sidewalk grate and dare him to jump down. He looked at them. They looked at him. He looked at them holding the grate up, and not placing it on the ground. We all knew if he jumped down they would close it on him. He shrugged, jumped down, and they closed the grate. He stayed down for 15 minutes or so. every few minutes he would say "so, can I come up yet?" Good times.

One inside we found a small room with art on the walls and in the middle of the floor. The exhibit on that day had some kind of media theme because everything involved tvs and cameras. The piece in the middle of the floor was a woman made of tvs, with a tripod above her holding a camera that projected video of the tvs onto the screens. As the first ones in, my friend and I naturally gravitated to this piece as it was in the middle of the floor.

We walked up to it, followed by the kid with the broken leg and one of his friends, united in trying to decipher what the fuck the artist was thinking. Already being an over-educated intellectual elitist, I proceeded to contemplate how the media portrays us as we attempt to imitate media; the role of the feminine in wider culture; whether my assumption that the arranged tvs were depicting a woman was not itself a bold assumption given the lack of details. Then the kid with the broken leg leaned over to his friend.

“Dude, its your mom.”

“fuck you that’s your mom.”

I cracked up.

That show was my first time seeing the Brainless Wonders. they were opening tor another well regarded Worcester staple, the Numbskulls, which many were busy calling the second coming of the Queers at the time.I always liked the Brainless Wonders more. Their music was more effortless and fun. None of those kids were in the band, but their exploits pretty well summed up the show, complete with the kid with the broken leg disinterestedly perusing a girlie mag during the Numbskulls set.

For a variety of reasons I have not listened to this album in a number of years. One of the big ones is the jewel case has no labels on the sides, so I never notice it in my cd collection. The Worcester music scene can also be very incestuous, and some of the band's fellow travelers are less than savory. It should also be noted that I have cooled quite a bit on pop punk in the years since 2004, and this album is as pop punk as they come. With all that noted, I really was not sure if I wanted to keep this album. I was ready for a very painful experience. In many respects the album is all I feared. It is a pop punk album with songs about how all the adults in the singer's his life are alcoholic and lazy, and how he likes to drink and drive, and how there are a number of people he dislikes. and its...a lot of fun. Ramones preserve us. 

 The music is pretty much what you would expect: three chords, fast, basic blues rhythms. On the other hand it is not boring, and at least avoids the song structure that every pop punk band from the late 90s used over and over. Definitely more Ramones than Blink 182. The lyrics are not high poetry, but they are well constructed, avoid all but the most broad clichés, flow well, and are right for the music.Stupid and juvenile maybe, but really fucking fun nonetheless.

The album is probably hard to find. The band is still together but I can't tell how often they play. The fact that the image on the cover of the album is still plastered across their web zones indicates a certain malaise in the band, but I suppose I shouldn't be throwing rocks in the malaise department. Whatever the band's story is, this a fun album. I'd pay a couple bucks for it. Its not gonna change your life but its some good fun. Empty calories maybe, but fun.

Bears of Blue River - The Killer Bee Scare

Hello all, it has been some weeks; I have quit my job and been depressed. Its time to take a shower and do something productive that doesn’t involve my x-box. Obviously that means working on my free music blog.

Bears of Blue River are an indie-folk pop sextet from Chicago. Or maybe I should classify them as indie-pop-country. They are definitely indie, but they are country they way Lady Antebellum is country. They have the twang, there are some melodic sensibilities, but don’t go into this looking for stories of outlaws murdering their cheatin’ wives. Unlike the latest crop of pop-country acts The Bears of Blue River are not laden with clichés and dead end melodies, but soaring slideshows on fondly remembered youth, relationships that end amicably, and other things that are pretty nice. Their world is hardly perfect, but it’s nothing to get crazy over.

There are other bands like this out there. They have the requisite guy with the nine foot beard a-la Samuel Beam, the perky lady with the 50s stylings, several nondescript guys with stubbly bears and short haircuts that look like they’d be up for a game of Mario Cart at a given time. But these guys do a good job. If you’ve been reading this blog at all you know I am hardly a person who demands a dark outlook. Given how bad things are right now, a band of nice guys (and gals) making nice music isn’t exactly unwelcome. And the music in question is intelligent and well written. They are more Roy Orbison than Johnny Cash but we can’t listen to Iron and Wine all the time, so I would definitely check them out. It’s a 5 song ep so don’t pay a ton for it, but I would say to go so far as to track it down on Amazon or their website and pay money for it if you have to. It’s a gem of an album, a fun little thing and definitely a good time.

Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash

So, this entry is pretty lo-cal. But I guess that’s appropriate for the music. Maybe not Shakespeare but holy shit is this a fun album. It is funky and insane and frenetic and substantive. Which is not unheard of in non-American dance music, but still quite refreshing in our Will I Am Era. Everything about the music is lush and well constructed. The Beats? Are, I think it is fair to say, Phat. The melodies are well constructed and rewarding. Excellent bass lines. The lyrics are really good ini that kind of calorie free yet not a love song kind of way that dance music lyrics are. The  vocals are really well done by a variety of talented artists, including the amazing Lisa Kekaula from The Bellrays who is awesome, and Siouxie Sioux, who is pretty much in everything. Seriously. She is the musical equivalent of Samuel Jackson. I think she was on the Star Wars Episode 1 Soundtrack. That’s not true but you can tell people you heard it somewhere.

So yeah there’s not many tracks on here I am even luke-warm on. The energy goes pretty well from the beginning through track 10, Cish Cash. Which is maybe the title track, but maybe not? But then I don’t know what cish cash, or kish kash, or whatever, even means. Actually the internet is a bit thin on info about Basement Jaxx as a whole. I really only know about them from a reference in a Blur song. Which seems weird, they are a pretty successful act. I mean “Where’s Your Head At?” was huge, even if it is apparently most famous for being in Tomb Raider. Really? Tomb Raider? A lot cooler is the fact that “Good Luck” was the title track for the Appleseed movie. That movie wasn’t great, but it sure was pretty.

So this album rules and you should buy it if you want some high energy dance music. The one thing that annoys me about this genre is that, because the songs “Feat: Soand So” the songs never come up in the right order in playlists or mp3 players. This bugs me. And it seems really genre specific. I mean, I know other bands that have guest vocalists, but they rarely bother with the Feat thing unless they are in dance or hip hop. That’s lame. And stupid. 

Boxharp - Loam Arcane

"I cash my checks and face the facts:

that some producer with computers

fixes all my shitty tracks, 

these days"

In the modern music context there is a basic underlying reality that has begun to overtake the creative model of the music industry. Ever since Les Paul invented overdubbing in the 1950s there has been a gradual recognition that the way music is recorded and presented in the recorded format is as important as the writing of the music itself. At first this knowledge was the behind the scenes knowledge of record executives. Good engineers and producers are the real hit-makers of the record industry, and since their talents are rarely recognized by the general public, it is rarer that they become prey to the pitfalls of fame. This has led to some ridiculously long and storied careers in individuals who, quietly and behind the scenes, have worked on every major hit in a several decade period. 

Recognition of the value of producers began to filter into the mainstream in a number of ways. The rise of Jamaican music made local producers very wealthy, turning them into superstars in their own right. Similarly, the success of Motown records is largely accepted to have come down to the talents of a handful of very talented producers. With the rise of electronic music the distinction between a producer and an artist has become very blurred, though most members of the general public are still unclear on the role they fill. The reaction of those in the bizz to these developments can be somewhat poorly summarized by two conflicting notes in modern indie music culture, the first being the above quote by Ben Folds from "Rockin the Suburbs, and the second being the career of Danger Mouse.

On the one hand, most of us really like the myth of The Artist, who suffers for his/her art and is all emotional and has this natural talent and passion that comes out in music that is spontaneous and moving. All of which is bullshit, all musicians know you need to work like a dog in order to get good enough to sound like you aren't trying. But the idea that a producer can come in and Frankenstein these tracks into a hit is offensive and disturbing in many ways. 

On the other hand, you have an increasing number of producers who are getting recognition for the fact that they have a pivotal creative role in the creation of music. I think this is kind of exemplified by Danger Mouse. Though he is notoriously shy of the spotlight, he is a dynamic creative force, and is not shy about putting his creative imprint on things in the studio. The result has been a mess of absurdly good music, from Gnarles Barkley to the second Gorillaz album. 

Scott Solter ain't no Danger Mouse. But Boxharp is kind of like an Enya-ish, new age equivalent of Gnarles Barkley. Solter is a producer who has worked with an absurd laundry list of talented hippie indie acts, including the Mountain Goats. Wendy Allen is his SO I guess, and provides the vocal talent. She has a nice voice and has been in a number of indie acts I haven't heard of and don't care enough to look up. 

So this is a little 4 song EP that I think portrays a pretty good range, from quiet and interesting, to quiet and uninteresting. The first track or two are pretty good, interesting percussion and song structures. They would make great album tracks on a much better album. Most of the album is very very limited in its use of percussion, instead opting for atmospheric backgrounds to frame Allen's pretty but meandering vocals. Multiple points on this album remind me of video game background tracks, but not the stuff from exciting fight scenes. I am pretty sure "The Postcard" was inspired by the theme music used for the Flood in Halo. 

None of this is terrible, it’s just not terribly interesting. It’s all very pretty and that is nice, but its more atmosphere than anything else. My life being the clusterfuck that it is, I don’t seem to have much time for music listening, and I’m definitely not making time in my day for this. If I saw this in the store I would probably not pay for it. If I saw it on the street I might pick it up. It is nice, and I don't wish them ill, but I am probably selling this. Definitely not interesting enough to keep. 

Beloved Binge - Blender Theory

Beloved Binge consists of Eleni Binge and Rob beloved, from Seattle originally, now they hail from North Carolina. They say that they are “Rubble pop rooted in a punk pot with a hint of old Greek mountain village uprising.” I dunno what they mean by most of that but to me they sound like the lead singers from the Squirrel Nut Zippers started a Punk Rock Duo.

For a certain type of person, the term “Punk Rock Duo” is as depressing as being told “we had seafood two nights ago and you have to take out the trash.” I know what they mean. The immediate image is yet another indie group using varied antiquated influences, giving them a modern spin, and putting together some kind of rudimentary, DIY stage show. Its not that I’m against Doing IY, its just that there's a lot of people out there, and the fact that you couldn’t get one of them to play bass for you indicates that you would rather jump through numerous technological, logistical, and sonic hurdles rather than have one. Or else you can’t think of a new way to use your varied antiquated influences in the context of a band with, you know, a full sound. In other words, being a punk rock duo indicates that you either have a huge ego, or a lack of songwriting ability, or both.

Except they are so often so very good. Cat Power, the White Stripes, Eye Whiteness, all very good punk rock duos. The level of artistic control implied by only two actors allows, I suppose, a more clarified artistic vision to emerge. It certainly makes the resulting compositions more streamlined, if not a little thin. And I definitely appreciate the need to have limitations to overcome in a songwriting process. Much as the structure of a sonnet can lead to exciting poetry, needing to spend time trying to figure out how to realize ideas in a live show, and add flesh to the drum n guitar bones of a song must be very interesting.

             Beloved Binge are pretty awesome. Like most PRDs they lack the buzz saw energy that I love in true punk, but the songs are energetic enough to keep a solid toe-tapping rhythm. Of hooks there are plenty, and the melodies are complex enough to be interesting and simple enough to avoid noodliness. The lyrics well constructed and interesting, running the usual indie band gamut from MySpace Weddings to how awesome being vegan is.* Oddly the male/ female vocals are not really harmonized, but it doesn’t bother me. It’s quite interesting actually. It gives both vocalists a clear and present voice, allowing each to deliver a slightly different message to the listener while still helping the composition of the song as a whole. There is a definite thinness in the sound without the bassist, but this is actually played up to great effect by the vocals, resulting in the Squirrel Nut Zipper effect I opened with.

            God help me I like their sound. They are a bit thin at times without the bassist, but the awesome composition, interesting rhythms, and fascinating vocal oddities make them a really killer unit. I would definitely check them out if you can. If you are looking for something new I would even say to go Amazon the album. A fascinating, really well done little number.

* ok see? Im not anti-vegan. I know I went off on The Smiths for like four pages but that is because Morrissey is an asshole and not because I have any special problem with vegans. I have lots of vegan friends. I lived with one for years. We’re totally cool, too, sometimes we hang out. And I’m cool with these guys, right? So, I’m ok right? No one is offended? I’ll donate money to the humane society or whatever. Just don’t ask me to donate to PETA, those guys kind of piss me off. OH GOD DON’T LEAVE I’M SORRY I WILL CUT OFF MY COCK AND SEND IT TO PAUL MCARTNEY** JUST DON’T BE MAD AT ME.

 **i will not send my severed penis to Morrissey. If that fucker wants a peice he knows where i live.

Big Audio Dynamite II – The Globe

Many people know the thing with The Beatles  where John was the smart one, Ringo was the dumb one, Paul was the Pretty one, and George was the quiet one. This became a stereotype for all Boy bands. I think a similar effect occurred with The Clash that has become the stereotype for all critical darling bands that start indie and then get huge. In this setup, Joe Strummer was the political one, Paul Simonon was the pretty one (those Pauls I tell ya), Mic Jones was the ugly one, and Topper Hedon was the one that will break up the band. In this setup I have always kind of felt bad for Mic Jones. He is also the one whose considerable talents will always be overlooked because he is neither pretty nor political, but did a lot of the groundwork that made the band function.

An anecdote to illustrate. Before Joe strummer joined the band it had already existed for a few years, consisting of the rump of the late great London SS, and seeking new direction. In this time Mic Jones had written many of the songs that would end up on the self titled first album. One of these songs was about his ex girlfriend. By itself it was a mean spirited it largely unpretentious little punk song. After Joe Strummer joined he listened to the song and said ‘forget all that, we are rewriting “I’m So Bored With You” as “I’m So Bored With The USA.” In one fell swoop Joe Strummer gave the band direction, political purpose, and energy. And so everyone reveres him. But it was Mic Jones song, and it was his melodies, rhythms, and arrangements that made it a good song. Joe Strummer just did the lyrics attitude and energy.

Which is most important? I can‘t tell you. I think most great bands are at their core made up of such great songwriting teams who are able to work together, realizing that ego isn‘t as important and creating something great, and both parties bring something special to the table. The band falls apart when egos get in the way of this dynamic. Ultimately, with The Clash, Mic Jones started becoming a bit of a premadonna, which I think was a bit of ego getting in his way, and a bit of the machinations of The Clash’s admittedly evil manager, Bernie Rhodes, the Al Gore of punk rock.

Less well known is that both Strummer and Jones had important pre and post Clash careers. Pre Clash, both were in influential proto punk or pub rock bands. Jones in the aforementioned London SS, and Strummer in the 101ers. After The Clash, Strummer made a few abortive attempts at forming bands, but mostly focused on soundtracks and raising his family until 1999 when he formed The Mescaleros, which is one of my favorite things about reality. Jones went strait from the Clash to form General Public, which rules, and then Big Audio Dynamite with former Clash collaborator Don Letts, who is kind of a god in his own right. Inevitably, Big Audio Dynamite broke up and was reformed by Jones as Big Audio Dynamite II. This was kind of a lame thing to do I guess, but the first album under the new lineup broke immediately, gave Jones his biggest post Clash hits, and was then more or less forgotten by everyone. Poor Mic Jones.

I can kind of see why when I listen to it. The album came out in 1991, and more or less consisted of Jones taking the band back away from the sample heavy dance music which had been their calling card, back into a more rock focused direction. In so doing he, perhaps inadvertently,  bridged the gap between the increasingly important electro scene of England and the more conventional tastes of the international (American) pop chart.

The result is hardly unique, inspiring, or brilliant. But Mic Jones is a brilliant arranger, and can write catchy tunes that people will enjoy. I don’t think this is a bad thing, and the album is decidedly fun. Its definitely an early experiment in fusing electro with rock, and so contains some bubblegum and cello tape song structures. Perfect example: in the breakout hit Rush, about two thirds of the way through the song, the music stops so a serious toned announcer can deliver a snippet of a lecture on music theory. Its an…odd choice. More fun for music nerds, you can sometimes hear pops where samples were spliced using old overdubbing equipment. Definitely an album best enjoyed through a good sound system.

So that’s basically the album. It’s definitely a good album considering the time period, way more listenable than, say, that Black Grape crap fest from a few weeks back. Mic Jones is a talented songwriter and it shows, though this is maybe not startlingly original. It is fun, engaging, and full of Easter eggs for fans of his, including a remix of “Should I Stay or Should I Go” as the title track. A fun little album. As a side note, the album art contains several images which serve to show Mic Jones slide from being the ugly member

Blackmarket - St. Vincent Decor

So, what do you do when you find a band that is overtly similar to another one? But still good? Blackmarket are awesome, I’ve listened to this album like thirty times in the last four days. Lots of pop hooks, huge energy, totally awesome, guitar driven Baroque punk kinda thing. Very much in the vein of the Arctic Monkeys. Like, super in the vein. Same accent and everything. And these guys are from Arizona. Its just kind of a shame. They really have everything the Arctic Monkeys have, just not the originality to do it themselves.

Whatever. This album is fun. If you find it for cheap I’d recommend it if for some reason you can’t get your hands on an Arctic Monkeys record. Maybe you have listened to all your Arctic Monkey records. Maybe you buy your music at random and are in the middle of a systematic record collection cleanup. Whatever.

Brick Mower - Floors

Brick Mower are awesome.

What, you wanted more of an entry than that? Ok, they are a punk band from New Brunswick, which is near enough to being my home town as to not matter. They play some pretty badass music, but they also make a great use of melody and shit. This ep has six songs, all of them are pretty rocktastic. They actually remind me in some instances of some of my favorite late 90s emo bands like Anniversary, or indie bands like Nineteen Fourty-Five, but in a totally punk way I promise. They also have an awesome name. Brick Mower. Are they a mower that mulches bricks? Or a lawn mower that is mowing a bricked area, in which case they are not mowing anything. Either way super awesome and very punk. Punx. Ssssssssssssss. Go listen to them. Buy  their music. Keep their lead singer in plaid shirts and nerdy glasses. He kind of looks like a younger Sean Nelson. There's also a cute chick bassist but haven't we all moved past thinking that is cool? I mean come on. Punks, as a genre, we need to deal with our gender issues, and part of that is not making a fuss whenever there's a girl in a band. shes a good bassist. move on guys. sheesh. 

But yeah, Brick Mower, buy them hard. 

Bob Marley - Chant Down Babylon

Everything that can possibly go wrong with the purchase of a greatest hits collection went wrong here. I don’t remember if I purchased this or if it was a gift, but the sequence of thoughts probably went along these lines, either in the mind of a gifter or in my own head. “Ben likes Ska, but he’s never gotten into Bob Marley. He would probably appreciate a Bob Marley Greatest Hits collection! Here’s one!” The album sat, unopened, in my collection for years until a year or two ago when my wife Friday decided to rip all my music to her computer. We listened to this and discovered it is more of a conceptual tribute album, and was pretty terrible.

Its not that I don’t think any tribute albums can be good, but it depends heavily on who you get. And since I hate most popular artists, nine times out of ten I hate the artists recruited. More importantly, the artists involved need to be into the project and put effort into creating a good arrangement of the song they are covering, and for which they may not see much financial reward. Instead, these projects are usually conceived by record companies trying to milk a valued property on the cheap. Its another way to repackage preexisting material. So bring in the hot new artists, give them a day in the studio to cut a cover, and never speak of it again.

This album isn’t quite as bad as the stereotype, and upon a few more listens there’s some interesting things going on here. For one thing, the album was put together by Steven Marley, who is a dj and producer. The tracks are actually not covers; they are remix mash-up... things. Marley remixed his father’s songs, while hot new artists (circa 1999) contribute rapped passages which are interspersed into the songs. To their credit these passages actually relate to the song for the most part. Guru’s dedication to “my man Biggie and my man Pac” during Johnny Was is kind of embarrassing, but for the most part Marley and the artists come at this with a air of hero worship that ensures the content of the music is appropriate and emotionally rich.

At the same time these passages make it painfully obvious how much mainstream hip-hop has gotten away from its socially conscious roots. The passages feel forced and unfamiliar. Busta Rhymes take on Rastaman Chant was particularly uncomfortable. It’s like Marley and Rhymes were unfamiliar with each other’s work. Marley stuck Rhymes, who is values for his adrenaline fueled high speed rapping, on the slowest song on the album. At least he was able to maintain his flow. Other rappers on the album stumbled over words. And Steven Tyler is on here too.

A note about the liner notes. When you pull the booklet out it feels thick and looks well designed. I thought “ok good I’ll get some background on the project.” The book contains pages and pages of recording information of the type that is interesting to no one, lots of pictures of weed, one page describing the project, and then fouor pages of t-shirt ads. While the layout and design are stylish and artistic, this self aggrandizement couched in an artistic worship for the senior Marley and concealing obvious money grab kind of characterizes the album as a whole. The sad part is that this isn’t without promise.  Maybe if the rappers had been given more time to work on their lyrics this would have turned out better, but I would really have liked the younger Marleys to get out of their dad’s shadow and work on something new. All in all, not a painful album, some nice hooks, but there is definitely better music out there more worth your time and space on my shelf.  

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Xtra Acme

Today I am discussing an album that I have listened to many times over the years that I have owned it, and I still don’t know how I feel about it. Formed in 1991, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are credited with starting the whole Garage punk thing, while simultaneously never getting credit for their hard work. All through the 90s, while everyone else was playing alternative or some breed of hardcore, Jon Spencer and his cavalcade of awesome were plugging away, making punk music that owed more to classic blues and soul than it did to the Ramones. When this genre was eventually picked up by the mainstream, it was newcomers like the White Stripes, The Hives, the Strokes, and The Vines that made a name for themselves. Jon Spencer doesn’t seem to have said much about this injustice, the band took a short hiatus for a few years and are now exploding the blues much as they always have.

When I first bought this album, I really didn’t know what to do with it. I kind of still don’t. It is all over the place. Spencer delivers his vocals in a classic southern ministerial style, Russell Simms pounds the most crazy drum lines into the ground, moving easily from a vicious funk to an almost gentle blues. The guitar work from Judah Bauer and Spencer are competent and clean, intricate without tripping over itself. The song is the goal and it is delivered with skill and power.

At the same time the band never takes this seriously. The music is delivered as if it is the most important thing ever, while the lyrics are almost nonsensical in their profound discussion of the mundane. An example:

And then, at the end of our beautiful date,

Maybe we’ll take in a movie

Maybe we’ll go get a hot dog

Baby, you ever had a hot dog?

Onion?

Mustard?

Sauerkraut?

I’d like to eat a hot dog with you baby

I’d like to hang out on the corner with you

Maybe at the top of the empire state building

Anything that you want

So long as we’re together.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?! This kind of in your face tongue in cheek really differentiates the explosion from their more popular disciples. Jack white has his moments of levity, but the White Stripes are mostly characterized by an artistic focus that verges on creepy, crosses the line, and takes a dump in the line’s mom’s china cabinet. By contrast the explosion mocks the very idea of artistic integrity, while exemplifying it to a ridiculous degree. Think Little Richard meets Frank Zappa. 

While awesome at times, the songs often feel like inside jokes that leave me out. This is kind of disconcerting, and can take me out of the action. In particular Soul Trance, while a lovely collaboration with Dub Narcotic Sound System, is a five minute long joke track that really breaks up the album’s flow. Lap Dance has a similar effect, and is only a few tracks before Soul Trance, which makes the album really come screeching to a halt. The album is also super long, and some of the tracks really drag. 

These may seem like quibbles but they got in the way of my ability to enjoy the band for years. Its not that I don't like bands that refuse to take themselves seriously, on the contrary, but the effect was like listening to humorous tape someone made in college. There are moments of brilliance, separated by hours of giggling and the sounds of lighters. 

All the negatives were set against some great performances and tracks that would get stuck in my head. even the aforementioned Lap Dance is kind of a bizarre ear worm. So I really didn’t know how I was going to fall on this, but i did finally 'get' this album. I was making yet another five hour drive to New Jersey from Massachusetts and put the album on around the time I hit I-84. By the time it ended two odd hours later in upstate New York, I was totally sold. Obviously the focus is the music, where all the positives are. The intentionally uninteresting lyrics serve to force a distractable public to pay attention to what has always been the most fun in music: the music itself. 

oh right. duh. 

Billy Bragg - Don't Try This at Home

Billy Bragg, you luscious Mynx. I had a bit of a Smiths type problem with Bragg, wherin I was so obsessed with “Talking with the Tax Man About Poetry” that I had trouble getting into his other albums. I’ve bought a number of them and I’m going to end up reviewing them here, but this one had a hand up on the others.

First of all it contains the single “Sexuality,” which I think is kind of awesome. Beyond the fact that I happen to like his message of openness, and beyond the fact that this was kind of ahead of its time at the time, the song is hilarious. If you haven’t heard it you should go watch the music video on YouTube. He is so freaking British. The bumbling, nerdy attempts to assure the audience he is straight before talking about how he is ok with gay people is heartwarming in its ineptness.  After being told “I’ve had relations with girls from many nations,” I believe in Bragg’s prowess less than I did previously, but that’s cool. And the rest of the lyrics are kind of a mess. Halfway through he gets to talking about nuclear submarines, which seem to have nothing to do with anything, and then there’s the verse about his, uh, performance anxiety…I just love this song. The man is the Hugh Grant of ultra-liberal British folk.

Nonetheless I had trouble getting into the album. It’s really long, and folk music has trouble holding my attention at the best of times. But I found my entry point at the song ‘Everywhere.’ The song tells the story of two friends, one Asian and one Caucasian, who join the army hoping to fight the Germans, just in time for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The white kid is killed at Battan and the Asian kid is sent to a detention center and eventually shoots himself. Musically beautiful, lyrically aching, a wonderful song, although from a narrative standpoint I might have changed the ending but whatever, I didn’t write it. Just saying suicide is not the only answer to survivor’s guilt. Moving on.

The album has a massive bredth, though it definitely feels a bit over long. There are only 16 songs on the album, and all of them are excellent as stand along compositions, but the album lacks a lot of the coherence that made “Talking with the Tax Man…” so awesome. It may grow on me more as I keep listening. In the mean time I can’t say I would cut any of these songs. they are all excellent pop-folk songs that take fascinating and intelligent stances on everything from love to topics of the day. Obviously this is a keeper. Swoot.