Genre: haHA Emo. This is an old rant for me now and increasingly pointless, but there was a time when people got really fucking pissy about Emo. I think in retrospect it is one of those genre labels that is, by its nature, going to cause a strong negative reaction in am american male population before they have heard a note of the music. What is interesting is that the genre got little or no attention until it in some way matched the assumptions its name conjured. Then the record industry could market it. Except that Emo never represented the thing that the industry tried to push, and when they started pushing it all its adherents ran like cockroaches startles by a light.
I guess I should back up a bit. Emo is defined as "Emotionally driven punk rock." It emerged from the hardcore punk scene in the late 80s, early 90s. Some credit Fugazi as the first, though most reject that assertion, possibly because Fugazi talked about other things than emotion and most likely because real punx like Fugazi and they can't possibly like Emo.
The first band everyone agrees on (for the most part) is a DC hardcore band called Rites of Spring. like many hardcore bands they are hard to listen to, partly because of their anti-mainstream ethic, and partly because of the shitty recording equipment available for a band that was essentially only together long enough for the members to discuss the possibility of real recording before breaking up. But their performances are legendary. The lyrics would have emotional intensity born of writing about topics of personal importance to the singer, who would thrash around stage, often finding himself too far from the mic to make his singing cues. So he would scream the lines at the the mic, lending further intensity.
From these beginnings the genre built in the punk underground, which became, over the course of the 90s, the main spiritual counterpoint to the mainstream. By the late 90s this underground had emerged repeatedly under various genred guises to thrust artistic integrity into the spotlight, only for the Industry to coopt and discredit the superficial aspects of whatever genre gained attention. Punk itself became a victim, as by 1999 the pop charts contained a strong contingent of shitty pop punk bands what had as much to do with Minor Threat as they did with Liberance.
Within the underground world of punk Emo represented something that stood against the hard, ideological lines of the genre, and by its nature stood against the macho posturing of much of the hardcore movement from whence it came. Emo became an incubator for a variety of strains of punk that were more interested in artistic expression than meeting some random mob's definition of Punx. The genre included everything from old hardcore style bands, to bands working with synthesizers and exploring melody in a way that was kind of verbotten outside what remained of the pop punk scene. These bands had nothing to do with each other musically other than that they sang with emotional intensity and they did not conform the the increasingly archaic and rigid confines of punk.
Of course, having handsom young men sing sweetly about emotions is, to a record producer, a great way to break into the tingly panties of the teenage girl market, and so that is what happened eventually, and so the Dashboard Confessionals came to define the genre in the public mind, despite having little in common with most acts labeled Emo. Acts which, for the most part, forswore the name by 2001 or so. After that, most bands calling themselves Emo were of corporate manufacture.
So Atom and His Package. Most of the music is about topics that pertain specifically to Adam Goren, the spectacled, slightly doughy Jewish kid from Philly who was for most of the band's existence its sole member. Like songs wishing his best friend's two year old a happy birthday. Or about how he wishes his room mate would quit smoking. Or about how he wishes he could start a private high school for punk kids. The Package is a bunch of music processors and synthesizers that Adam bought so that he could keep preforming music after his last band broke up. As such Adam was one of the early pioneers of the notion that, by the late 90s, the classic rock guitair band setup was actually pretty expensive, and it was way more subversive to cheaply make music on a computer than shell out thousands of dollars for guitars that you will mistreat.
Despite previous membership in a hardcore band, and very clear devotion to the punk lifestyle and aesthetic, the music is very very different from classic punk. It tends to be major key and funny and not all that angry. It is decidedly populist, high energy, and intentionally DIY, but this often results in songs that get halfway through, and then finish out the last verse by quoting a particularly catch 80s pop song. The lifestyle advocated is less live fast and die young, and more crunchy gutterpunk, living in a downtown, eating Vegan, and trying to steer clear of tourists.
Where would I have heard of them: If the above sounds like it is not a recipe for pop stardom you get a doughnut. Atom and His Package toured relentlessly, and gained a large and devoted following in punk and later indie circles, but never ever desired mainstream success. So, you wouldn't have, unless you were a punk or an indie kid in the late 90s, early 2000s.
Anything of Note: I guess that the title of the album is a pretty funny little dig at himself.
Is it good: Atom and His Package can be an acquired taste. The intentional low fidelity and lack of interest in quality songwriting are obviously a turn off. I, however, fucking love Atom and his Package. I have a few of his albums and as he went along each became more catch and fun. I think it helps that Adam Goren seems like a genuinely humble and likable person, and only gets moreso as he stops making fun of his weight as much and focuses on stuff about his life. it also helps that, as technology got better, the fidelity improved, possibly by accident. At its best, AAHP deliver fun, funny, catchy songs with lovable charm. At its worst it is barely listenable, but there are always enough of the good songs to get you through the album. The stand out on this album is "If You Own the Washington Redskins You Are A Cock," but this is a pretty good album overall. It falls in the middle of his career with The Package and is a pretty even split between meh songs and fun catchy music. I don't think there's any really terrible ones on this installment, which is nice.
So, I think this is a good album. I dunno if you will but AAHP is worth a look.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Billy Bragg and Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
Genre: Modern Folk, Old School Folk
Where would I have heard of them: Well a few entries back I jizzed all over your computer talking about Billy Bragg, and a few years back the indie scene couldn't shut up about Wilco. They are one of the bands various people were addicted to in 2004. I should also include Woody Guthrie here because these are his lyrics, the music and arrangement are by the other two. Woody Guthrie wrote all the crypto-socialist nursery rhymes you learned in elementary school, like "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma, and was one of the tens of thousands of people who emigrated to California as a result of the Dust Bowl. When he saw the atrotious way the police in California treated the poor, we began a career writing protest music and singing folk songs that became widely successful due to the rise of the radio as a form of mass communication. He also happened to be on hand in New York City in time to participate in the burgeoning folk scene there that began in the 40s and burst into national relevance in the 60s. The songs contained in this disc were written by Woody Guthrie but never clearly set to music. His widow approached Billy Bragg after his death, and Bragg approached Wilco to help him do justice to the material, because of their capacity as a full band, because they were fellow modern folk artists with proven recording experience, and because they were talented musicians who would bring increasing levels of fame to the project that would help ensure a decent return on the investment.
Anything of note: I held off on getting this for a long time. I was not immediately enamored of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the Wilco album everyone went Beatles Fangirl over. The second Billy Bragg album I purchased was Internationale, an album he made singing well known protest songs, and it is alright. Honestly the latter fact made me a bit hesitant about Billy Bragg for a while. After finding that most of Bragg's other material was solid gold, including the recent Tooth and Nail, I figured I needed to give Bragg a chance with this one. After all, I also respect Guthrie, so it couldn't be terrible.
Is it any good: It is, in fact, not terrible. To the contrary, it is excellent. The three artistic poles here meld spectacularly to form a really excellent whole, though Billy Bragg clearly shines through maybe more than anyone else. Which is fine by me. Billy Bragg is the balls.
As we are accustomed to hearing from Bragg, there is a really confident mixture of humor and earnestness here. The fact that these are Guthrie's lyrics makes this rather special. One sometimes has to stop and remember that Guthrie had a sense of humor as scintillating as Bragg's, and the fact that these are the songs he left unrecorded because they were not important enough compared with his political music may help explain how well the two men's styles were able to meld so well, beyond the grave as it were. The fact that there are apparently several thousand of these songs, and Bragg and Wilco were free to hand pick the ones that got recorded, can't have hurt.
That said, I think Bragg and Wilco do a great job painting a picture of Guthrie as a whole person with their song selections. There are the requisite political songs (Unwelcome Guest), but the vast majority are personal and even romantic. I think Walt Whitman's Niece is a great way to start the album for this reason. It is more a humorous diary entry about a flirty, bohemian night spent with a friend and a woman reading poetry out of sight of the causes they may have championed. The fact that the song's structure is avowedly adrift from the standard rock song structure is a bonus, as is the way that the structure is consciously played for laughs. I think the first time I heard Wilco's background vocals, especially at the end of the first, uh, verse I guess you could call it, I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard.
This is an important point. I think it is easy to lose Wilco in this album. Much of this album is definitely an interplay between Bragg as vocalist and producer, and Guthrie, as respected artist and man. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy gets a few songs but mostly this is the Bragg Show from a vocal perspective. But Wilco's musical contributions shouldn't be ignored. Not that Bragg is a slouch musically, but there is definitely a note of Americana in the folk on tap here that speaks more of Wilco than Bragg, and is completely necessary in this context since, you know, this is Guthrie, the Oklahoma Cowboy we are memorializing here. More broadly, i think their wide open style plays well with Bragg's more intimate one. The result is an album full of songs that contain both broad scope and a rewarding richness.
Unfortunately Wilco seem to have also felt that this was a bit too much The Bragg Show and, though there is a Mermaid Ave II, these two artistic poles ended up parting ways before that album was fully in the bag, and Bragg finished it up himself. Which is fine, I plan on buying it. Just a good thing to be aware of here.
Anyway, this is a great album. go buy it. It is very rewarding.
Where would I have heard of them: Well a few entries back I jizzed all over your computer talking about Billy Bragg, and a few years back the indie scene couldn't shut up about Wilco. They are one of the bands various people were addicted to in 2004. I should also include Woody Guthrie here because these are his lyrics, the music and arrangement are by the other two. Woody Guthrie wrote all the crypto-socialist nursery rhymes you learned in elementary school, like "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma, and was one of the tens of thousands of people who emigrated to California as a result of the Dust Bowl. When he saw the atrotious way the police in California treated the poor, we began a career writing protest music and singing folk songs that became widely successful due to the rise of the radio as a form of mass communication. He also happened to be on hand in New York City in time to participate in the burgeoning folk scene there that began in the 40s and burst into national relevance in the 60s. The songs contained in this disc were written by Woody Guthrie but never clearly set to music. His widow approached Billy Bragg after his death, and Bragg approached Wilco to help him do justice to the material, because of their capacity as a full band, because they were fellow modern folk artists with proven recording experience, and because they were talented musicians who would bring increasing levels of fame to the project that would help ensure a decent return on the investment.
Anything of note: I held off on getting this for a long time. I was not immediately enamored of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the Wilco album everyone went Beatles Fangirl over. The second Billy Bragg album I purchased was Internationale, an album he made singing well known protest songs, and it is alright. Honestly the latter fact made me a bit hesitant about Billy Bragg for a while. After finding that most of Bragg's other material was solid gold, including the recent Tooth and Nail, I figured I needed to give Bragg a chance with this one. After all, I also respect Guthrie, so it couldn't be terrible.
Is it any good: It is, in fact, not terrible. To the contrary, it is excellent. The three artistic poles here meld spectacularly to form a really excellent whole, though Billy Bragg clearly shines through maybe more than anyone else. Which is fine by me. Billy Bragg is the balls.
As we are accustomed to hearing from Bragg, there is a really confident mixture of humor and earnestness here. The fact that these are Guthrie's lyrics makes this rather special. One sometimes has to stop and remember that Guthrie had a sense of humor as scintillating as Bragg's, and the fact that these are the songs he left unrecorded because they were not important enough compared with his political music may help explain how well the two men's styles were able to meld so well, beyond the grave as it were. The fact that there are apparently several thousand of these songs, and Bragg and Wilco were free to hand pick the ones that got recorded, can't have hurt.
That said, I think Bragg and Wilco do a great job painting a picture of Guthrie as a whole person with their song selections. There are the requisite political songs (Unwelcome Guest), but the vast majority are personal and even romantic. I think Walt Whitman's Niece is a great way to start the album for this reason. It is more a humorous diary entry about a flirty, bohemian night spent with a friend and a woman reading poetry out of sight of the causes they may have championed. The fact that the song's structure is avowedly adrift from the standard rock song structure is a bonus, as is the way that the structure is consciously played for laughs. I think the first time I heard Wilco's background vocals, especially at the end of the first, uh, verse I guess you could call it, I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard.
This is an important point. I think it is easy to lose Wilco in this album. Much of this album is definitely an interplay between Bragg as vocalist and producer, and Guthrie, as respected artist and man. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy gets a few songs but mostly this is the Bragg Show from a vocal perspective. But Wilco's musical contributions shouldn't be ignored. Not that Bragg is a slouch musically, but there is definitely a note of Americana in the folk on tap here that speaks more of Wilco than Bragg, and is completely necessary in this context since, you know, this is Guthrie, the Oklahoma Cowboy we are memorializing here. More broadly, i think their wide open style plays well with Bragg's more intimate one. The result is an album full of songs that contain both broad scope and a rewarding richness.
Unfortunately Wilco seem to have also felt that this was a bit too much The Bragg Show and, though there is a Mermaid Ave II, these two artistic poles ended up parting ways before that album was fully in the bag, and Bragg finished it up himself. Which is fine, I plan on buying it. Just a good thing to be aware of here.
Anyway, this is a great album. go buy it. It is very rewarding.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Blues Explosion – Damage
Genre: John Spencer Blues Explosion are awesome and also way
less fun then they ought to be. They attack retro 70s rock n blues with punk
energy and have been doing so for an absurdly long time without mainstream success.
Somehow their music manages to be intensely fun and completely lacking in any
kind of hook. Their albums are also usually a million hours long. Listening to
them can be kind of exhausting, but it is usually fun either in small doses or
when you feel like being all intellectual and unpacking an album. Honestly I
think this approach to the blues is kind of backwards and may explain why they
never got the kind of chart success achieved by similar blues retro groups,
though maybe saying so will call down the indie inquisition on my head. Anyway
they are a lot of fun and I think this album is more accessible than some of
the others I have listened to, though the rap rock on “Hot Gossip” is, uh,
suspicious. All their albums are good for long drives.
Where would I have heard of them: JSBE has had an absurdly
long career in that long and splendid indie twilight where all your peers love
you and start bands but you never get money or true fame. At some point maybe
you heard of them. Or maybe one of your cooler relatives heard of them. Ask
around.
Anything of note: This was the only album they release under
the name “Blues Explosion,” which sparked some elaborate conspiracy theories
that the band was ousting Jon Spencer. Oh also? Jon Spencer is the brother of
that chick from Brassy. So that’s a pretty fun fact.
Is it any good: Yup. Not on my regular rotation list but I
like the band and this album is pretty fun.
Birdland - Birdland
Genre: Punk in the most genre-less way. They don’t sound
like ’77 punk, they don’t sound like Cali punk, they don’t sound like pop punk.
They just sound like someone distilled all these things into one thing. Which is
kind of an achievement though it kind of teeters on the ends of bland if you
look at it too hard. Not that they are bland, they have high energy and good
songs. Just, think Billy Idol: a lot of concern with looking striking and
writing catchy pop tunes without too much wider social impact. Sure Billy Idol
wrote songs that challenged social assumptions about marriage or whatever, and
Birdland wrote songs about cocaine and feeling disrespected by society, but
there is no hint at a wider synthesis or stance on anything other than wanting
to do one’s own thing. Comparing this album to, say “Rocket to Russia” is like
comparing angsty high school poetry to the memoires of a holocaust survivor.
Where would I have heard of them: When this album came out
they were the darling of the nascent British musical press. That said they
broke up shortly thereafter and, though they seem to have an ongoing core of fans,
I don’t think anyone outside of late 80s England would be able to tell you much
about them. That said I guess they were bound up with the Madchester thing and
I guess a lot of people study that like it’s some kind of biblical period. Oh! They
wrote a song called “Rock ‘n Roll Nigger” that people talk about as if it is
important.
Anything of note: I’m going to assume the name of the band
was an intentional reference to the seminal Jazz club partially founded by and
named for Charlie Parker, pioneer of highly experimental Bebop Jazz. Talk about
shooting high. Also worth noting: oddly huge in Japan.
Is it good: yeah it is. If you see it buy it, or if you are
in the market for some straight up punk n roll try to track it down. It is fun.
Just don’t expect the huge religious experience some people are going to try to
sell you.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Billy Bragg - Tooth and Nail
Genre: American Folk, as played by an ageing British independent musician.Bragg started out as a punk, broke up his band, almost joined the Navy, but started busking on the streets instead. His music combines direct and relate-able storytelling with punchy hooks and inviting melodies. Also he is liberal as hell. This is the man the estate of Woody Guthrie chose to bring the great man's last unfinished songs to the public. The result was a well received collaboration with Indie Folk wunderkinds, Wilco.
Where would I have heard of it: Well it's Billy Bragg? He got a few singles on the British pop charts in the late 80s and early 90s, the most successful being the wonderfully silly "Sexulatiy" off Don't Trty This At Home. Never got much traction in the states though, possibly because of lines like
"The cities of Europe have burned before
and they may yet burn again,
and if they do, I hope you understand
that Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los Alamos will burn with them
But he's really just one of those people who are famous because he has had a long, critic friendly career. Imagine if the 10,000 maniacs had never had another hit, but were still putting out albums that just get better and better. More importantly, I think, he is beloved of musicians, and his fans include punk rockers and folk acts. I won't say his output is perfect, but he has more hits than misses and the hits are religious experiences. I heard of him from a name drop in Chixdiggit's song "Folks Are Gone" off their amazing From Scene to Shining Scene, which led me to pick up Bragg's Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, one of his first albums.
Anything of note: I don't have my physical copy of this yet. It's on the way from the amazon but I got it on the cloud, natch. Its fun to enjoy the convenience of new technologies while listening to songs about the possible hollowness of scientific inquiry.
Is it good: It is hard to describe how good Bragg is without sounding obsessive. what he does is extraordinarily simple. Spare instrumentation with an emphasis on vocals, but what is there is warm and full, providing pop hooks, exquisite playing, and jovial, thumping rhythms. The result is an intimate musical space, the closest thing I have heard in a recording to a session in a small, smoky pub. At the heart of this setting are Bragg's vocals: clever, kind songs about all the problems we face in the world that are beautifully sung with humor and sensitivity. As with all his good albums, there is nothing here I would add or subtract. this is the perfect form of these songs and listening to them is a joy. Bragg is now 56, certainly touch wiser than he was in 1977, but the energy he brings to his music has only improved. The more you listen to Bragg the more you want, and if he keeps making albums like this we will all be able to feed our ravenous habits for years to come. Buy this album. you will not be sorry.
Where would I have heard of it: Well it's Billy Bragg? He got a few singles on the British pop charts in the late 80s and early 90s, the most successful being the wonderfully silly "Sexulatiy" off Don't Trty This At Home. Never got much traction in the states though, possibly because of lines like
"The cities of Europe have burned before
and they may yet burn again,
and if they do, I hope you understand
that Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los Alamos will burn with them
But he's really just one of those people who are famous because he has had a long, critic friendly career. Imagine if the 10,000 maniacs had never had another hit, but were still putting out albums that just get better and better. More importantly, I think, he is beloved of musicians, and his fans include punk rockers and folk acts. I won't say his output is perfect, but he has more hits than misses and the hits are religious experiences. I heard of him from a name drop in Chixdiggit's song "Folks Are Gone" off their amazing From Scene to Shining Scene, which led me to pick up Bragg's Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, one of his first albums.
Anything of note: I don't have my physical copy of this yet. It's on the way from the amazon but I got it on the cloud, natch. Its fun to enjoy the convenience of new technologies while listening to songs about the possible hollowness of scientific inquiry.
Is it good: It is hard to describe how good Bragg is without sounding obsessive. what he does is extraordinarily simple. Spare instrumentation with an emphasis on vocals, but what is there is warm and full, providing pop hooks, exquisite playing, and jovial, thumping rhythms. The result is an intimate musical space, the closest thing I have heard in a recording to a session in a small, smoky pub. At the heart of this setting are Bragg's vocals: clever, kind songs about all the problems we face in the world that are beautifully sung with humor and sensitivity. As with all his good albums, there is nothing here I would add or subtract. this is the perfect form of these songs and listening to them is a joy. Bragg is now 56, certainly touch wiser than he was in 1977, but the energy he brings to his music has only improved. The more you listen to Bragg the more you want, and if he keeps making albums like this we will all be able to feed our ravenous habits for years to come. Buy this album. you will not be sorry.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Blessed Union of Souls
Genre: Cowpunk. Apparently cowpunk was a thing and it is responsible for "alternative" going from Nirvana to Train in less than a decade. Other notable cowpunk acts include Everclear. To be fair, it was more the slide of the "scene" onto the pop charts that morphed it into alternative country. Cowpunk also includes The Cramps and The Violent Femmes if you go by Wikipedia, and alternative country also includes Calexico, so once again I can't get away with a blanket condemnation of a genre. but fuck, man. This album just sounds like the part of 1995 that you neither actively hated nor ignored.
Where would I have heard of them: They got some serious mainstream success with the single "I Believe," off this album, and "Leonardo (She likes me for me)," the song that is not about Leonardo, New Jersey.
Anything of note: This is one of those bands. I thought they had done "Counting Blue Cars." Turns out that was Dishwalla. Dishwalla is famous as that band that did "Counting Blue Cars," not that band that made the music video with the girl with the bee. That was Blind Melon. So no. Absolutely nothing of note. this band is fucking boring. Their wikipedia page is just a list of albums. Not for lack of trying. someone tried to dig up interesting things. all they got is that a band member toured with Ozzy once.
Are they any good: Good is such a relative term. I often find myself in a store, listening to such of the modern top 40 that whatever corporate entity felt they could sanitize enough to make into an official corporate playlist. And it is horrible. It either sounds like kids bop or like something that was put together in an hour on fruity loops between interviews. It makes me miss stuff like this I grew up listening to stuff like Blessed Union of Souls. And boy did I hate it. Except for the odd single, this is meaningless garbage. There is some feel-good racial politics thrown in, but this is the most sanitary crap ever. On the other hand, this is recognizable as music. I don't mean that they played instruments, I mean that this has both rhythm AND melody, both, at the same time! there's even some pop hooks. In the pop music. That don't even make you want to die. Like somehow now? What passes for a hook is a noise that just gets your attention. Like we are so addled by ADD and the omnipresence of free music that anything that can make us pay attention to the background noise for more than five seconds counts as a success. But back then? a hook required an interesting lyric, or an unexpected melodic development, possibly both. Wow. they don't make uninteresting crap like this anymore. Like sure, this is boring. But it doesn't sound like it is trying to come out of the stereo to hurt me, while also being boring. So that is a plus. This is pretty pleasant, all told.
So there you go. If you take modern top 40 as your threshold, this is like fucking Bach. Otherwise it is boring as hell. I hope they got laid a lot for this but I bet they didn't. I bet they just had wheat-grass flavored yogurt and went to bed early.
Where would I have heard of them: They got some serious mainstream success with the single "I Believe," off this album, and "Leonardo (She likes me for me)," the song that is not about Leonardo, New Jersey.
Anything of note: This is one of those bands. I thought they had done "Counting Blue Cars." Turns out that was Dishwalla. Dishwalla is famous as that band that did "Counting Blue Cars," not that band that made the music video with the girl with the bee. That was Blind Melon. So no. Absolutely nothing of note. this band is fucking boring. Their wikipedia page is just a list of albums. Not for lack of trying. someone tried to dig up interesting things. all they got is that a band member toured with Ozzy once.
Are they any good: Good is such a relative term. I often find myself in a store, listening to such of the modern top 40 that whatever corporate entity felt they could sanitize enough to make into an official corporate playlist. And it is horrible. It either sounds like kids bop or like something that was put together in an hour on fruity loops between interviews. It makes me miss stuff like this I grew up listening to stuff like Blessed Union of Souls. And boy did I hate it. Except for the odd single, this is meaningless garbage. There is some feel-good racial politics thrown in, but this is the most sanitary crap ever. On the other hand, this is recognizable as music. I don't mean that they played instruments, I mean that this has both rhythm AND melody, both, at the same time! there's even some pop hooks. In the pop music. That don't even make you want to die. Like somehow now? What passes for a hook is a noise that just gets your attention. Like we are so addled by ADD and the omnipresence of free music that anything that can make us pay attention to the background noise for more than five seconds counts as a success. But back then? a hook required an interesting lyric, or an unexpected melodic development, possibly both. Wow. they don't make uninteresting crap like this anymore. Like sure, this is boring. But it doesn't sound like it is trying to come out of the stereo to hurt me, while also being boring. So that is a plus. This is pretty pleasant, all told.
So there you go. If you take modern top 40 as your threshold, this is like fucking Bach. Otherwise it is boring as hell. I hope they got laid a lot for this but I bet they didn't. I bet they just had wheat-grass flavored yogurt and went to bed early.
Autopilot Off - Looking Up
Genre: late 90s/ early 00 pop punk. Think New Found Glory meets Fenix TX and you are basically there.
Where would I have heard of it: If you are like me you bought it because you confused the original band name, Cooter, with Custom, a band with some notoriety at the time. They started to get some buzz on the back of touring with Sum 41, MXPX, Goldfinger...everyone from that time period really. Then they got involved with a lawsuit with another pop punk band with the same name and a similar amount of fame. This pretty much killed their career, as it took a long time to resolve and by the time it had pop punk was over. They went on indefinite hiatus in 2005, reformed in 2011, put out an album, and went on hiatus again in 2012.
Anything of note: nah.
Are they any good: Yeah they're fine. I mean, if like me you still own baggy jean shorts because you don't know what else to wear during the summer, this band will probably make you feel happy. On the other hand there is literally nothing to distinguish them from anyone else from this genre and time period. I really feel like I am listening to an album by a different band when I listen to this. I can't put my finger on who, but I sure liked them a lot at one time. Listening to them is an odd act of nostalgia, listening to music from your youth that you never actually listened to at the time.
I'm not sure if i am keeping this. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I just know some day I am going to want to go on a pop punk binge and I will get through all my standards and wish I had more. That is when I will pull this one out.
Where would I have heard of it: If you are like me you bought it because you confused the original band name, Cooter, with Custom, a band with some notoriety at the time. They started to get some buzz on the back of touring with Sum 41, MXPX, Goldfinger...everyone from that time period really. Then they got involved with a lawsuit with another pop punk band with the same name and a similar amount of fame. This pretty much killed their career, as it took a long time to resolve and by the time it had pop punk was over. They went on indefinite hiatus in 2005, reformed in 2011, put out an album, and went on hiatus again in 2012.
Anything of note: nah.
Are they any good: Yeah they're fine. I mean, if like me you still own baggy jean shorts because you don't know what else to wear during the summer, this band will probably make you feel happy. On the other hand there is literally nothing to distinguish them from anyone else from this genre and time period. I really feel like I am listening to an album by a different band when I listen to this. I can't put my finger on who, but I sure liked them a lot at one time. Listening to them is an odd act of nostalgia, listening to music from your youth that you never actually listened to at the time.
I'm not sure if i am keeping this. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I just know some day I am going to want to go on a pop punk binge and I will get through all my standards and wish I had more. That is when I will pull this one out.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Custom - Fast
This is the first of a three part mega entry. Y'see I bought this album without cover art. For some reason I confused Custom with Cooter and bought a new copy for the cover art...but then it was Cooter instead of Custom. Except that the band Whose album I bought was involved in a long legal dispute with another band named Cooter, a suit that they lost. So now they are called "Autopilot Off." Got it? Well I'm going to review an album by each band, but it stated here and I really cant get to the other two without getting a long list of thoughts about this band off my chest.
Genre: Kind of a borderline late 90s singer songwriter/Numetal/Alternative. It is a single man outfit, namely one Duane Lavold, a Canadian who started out with a bio pic of the lead singer of INXS which was shelved upon the latter's suicide. He fled to New York and set himself up as a member of an artist collective in the mid 90s, pursuing a career in music. He seems to have imbibed every pop influence of the time, and the decade previous. Again, this seems to be a gift of the Canadians. He has the perceptive lyrics and melodic sensitivity of singer songwriter alternative, which will break down, at least once per song, into heavy anthemic Numetal sludge. The occasional rap or DJ scratching is thrown in just to remind you that, though the album was released in 2002, for some people the late 90s will never die. What a horrible thought.
Much like the rest of his music, the lyrics are an odd blend of Alt and Numetal. At times very clever and insightful in its perception of human nature, it is often simultaneously terrifying in its lack of self awareness and broishness. A great example is "Morning Spank," a song full of funny moments and clever songwriting but ultimately a rather sexist "bros before hos" song.
The oddest thing about this duality is that he affects a very skaterpunk attitude, which really is not existent at all in the music beyond his oddly California vocal delivery and attitude. The goes so far as to result in a regular name dropping of LA, even though he lived in Manhattan.
Where would I have heard of it: Custom was the center of a controversy when the self directed video for the break-through single "Hey Mister" was banned by MTV's standards and practices. This was a sad moment, both for Custom and for MTV. This song was big and growing, and would have made the top ten. Without that last push from the then-still-relevant TRL crowd the single, and his career, stalled.
MTV, on the other hand, showed the world what it had become: no longer the subversive force of youth rebellion, willing to sponsor a drawn out fight on the floor of congress with Tipper Gore, MTV had become a peddler of safe, intellectually bankrupt pedantry. That is, it was that way on the one show that they still ran that had anything to do with music. Custom was hardly an intellectual powerhouse, and the video was intentionally offensive, but it is for a song about a dude sleeping with your daughter. And it is a good song, the type of thing that would have brought some energy and controversy back to the network. If the song had come out five years before MTV would have played it, and the controversy would have fueled their relevance. They did not, and despite increasingly shrill protests that youth is no longer interested in music culture, it becomes more obvious every year that the youth are also no longer interested in MTV.
Anything of note: I think it is worth noting that this album was recorded in a studio this guy built with his dad. in Manhattan. I think that really fits a final piece into this puzzle. Duane Lavold is an intelligent and talented guy who is taken with American pop culture and desperate to get his bite of fame. His parents fund his dream, through multiple failures, and he is good enough to almost make it. Very nearly.
Is it any good: The album is a mix of things he is honestly enthusiastic about, while also being a designed product, intended to sell well. Any specificity is replaced by a generalized, generic anger. This is the Numetal part, the part that is intentionally shocking just to show them, just to get their attention. Despite this a valuable energy and personality come through. There is humor and really some clever songwriting. This is what pop music is supposed to be: a commercial product that its makers actually believe in. Sure it has problems and rough edges, and god it is pretty sexist. But it is really good, somehow. Which is a real shame.
Much like the rest of his music, the lyrics are an odd blend of Alt and Numetal. At times very clever and insightful in its perception of human nature, it is often simultaneously terrifying in its lack of self awareness and broishness. A great example is "Morning Spank," a song full of funny moments and clever songwriting but ultimately a rather sexist "bros before hos" song.
The oddest thing about this duality is that he affects a very skaterpunk attitude, which really is not existent at all in the music beyond his oddly California vocal delivery and attitude. The goes so far as to result in a regular name dropping of LA, even though he lived in Manhattan.
Where would I have heard of it: Custom was the center of a controversy when the self directed video for the break-through single "Hey Mister" was banned by MTV's standards and practices. This was a sad moment, both for Custom and for MTV. This song was big and growing, and would have made the top ten. Without that last push from the then-still-relevant TRL crowd the single, and his career, stalled.
MTV, on the other hand, showed the world what it had become: no longer the subversive force of youth rebellion, willing to sponsor a drawn out fight on the floor of congress with Tipper Gore, MTV had become a peddler of safe, intellectually bankrupt pedantry. That is, it was that way on the one show that they still ran that had anything to do with music. Custom was hardly an intellectual powerhouse, and the video was intentionally offensive, but it is for a song about a dude sleeping with your daughter. And it is a good song, the type of thing that would have brought some energy and controversy back to the network. If the song had come out five years before MTV would have played it, and the controversy would have fueled their relevance. They did not, and despite increasingly shrill protests that youth is no longer interested in music culture, it becomes more obvious every year that the youth are also no longer interested in MTV.
Anything of note: I think it is worth noting that this album was recorded in a studio this guy built with his dad. in Manhattan. I think that really fits a final piece into this puzzle. Duane Lavold is an intelligent and talented guy who is taken with American pop culture and desperate to get his bite of fame. His parents fund his dream, through multiple failures, and he is good enough to almost make it. Very nearly.
Is it any good: The album is a mix of things he is honestly enthusiastic about, while also being a designed product, intended to sell well. Any specificity is replaced by a generalized, generic anger. This is the Numetal part, the part that is intentionally shocking just to show them, just to get their attention. Despite this a valuable energy and personality come through. There is humor and really some clever songwriting. This is what pop music is supposed to be: a commercial product that its makers actually believe in. Sure it has problems and rough edges, and god it is pretty sexist. But it is really good, somehow. Which is a real shame.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Bikini Kill - The CD Version of the First Two Albums
Genre: Punk. I think we can all agree on that part. Also Riot Grrl, in the sense that Jesus was Christian. According to the media this is the music that started the genre, even though Bratmobile coined the term. They were very influential, both musically and as ladies who started a zine that acted as one of the organizing cores of the movement.
Where would I have heard of it: They had a ton of mostly clueless media attention in the early 90s. Almost no radio play, of course. I'm sure "Rebel Girl" has been in a few soundtracks or whatever.
Anything of note: Oh god where to start. I am listening to this album as a 30 year old dude in the post-oughts, not as a young 20s girl in the early 90s. I couldn't be less the audience for this if you listen to the band. And yet, I grew up as an aspiring punk in that era and, ok lets start from a different point here.
According to the band, the point was to create a female dialogue in punk rock, a safe place for women within a punk context. The point was by women, for women. But of course this was not within a vacuum. The dudes could hear what was going on. Or, more importantly, the rest of society could. And because they were musicians recording music I can hear part of the dialogue now, 20 years later. But so much of this is context specific. Much of the meat of Riot Grrl was in those fan zines, and it was reacting to a very specific set of social, sub-cultural, national and even local political contexts. The term Riot Grrl was itself a response to the Mount Pleasant Race Riots, much as early punk music was a reaction to late 70s London and the Notting Hill Carnival Riot of 1978.
Unlike punk, whose largest influences were political and economic, the biggest influence on Riot Grrl (other than punk subculture I suppose) was third wave feminism. To sum up a very complex concept, Third Wave feminism started when second wave feminism realized it had ignored everyone who wasn't a white middle class woman, and integrating those concerns would require theorists to interact and discuss with those of different backgrounds. In this context Riot Grrl ended up being a valuable part of the Third wave discussion, as it brought women who were not part of the ivory tower of feminism into the discussion, while lending it a lot of street toughness and energy. It did not bring that many black people in, and it may have scared off a lot of moderate women.
With or without Riot Grrl the result was chaos. Feminism splintered into a thousand sub-strains. With the benefit of hindsight I think it is fairly obvious that fitting the needs and desires of every woman into one blanket term was a somewhat doomed endeavor if you are hoping to come up with a coherent policy conception, and indeed the current policy net being pushed by traditional feminist groups includes things like opposing prostitution and also decriminalizing prostitution. Understanding how groups that seem to be on the same side can be violently advocating opposed policies requires research most people, men and women, are not willing to invest, leading most to just walk away from the topic all together, or cling to third hand concepts that let them believe whatever they want to believe. This gets back to what I was saying about the rest of society being able to hear what was going on. If feminism is an ism, and exists to push women's issues for a result, the other is going to have to be dealt with as something other than the oppressor.
Anyway, rock had long since begun its slide into becoming a boys club. I mean Elvis was not fronting a mixed gender band but he was popular with the ladies. By the 90s there were a lot of musical alternatives, and rock was already becoming somewhat parochial. Punk was stridently parochial, eschewing both Avant Guard affectation as well as anything that might attract a mainstream audience. Within its sub-cultural arena there were obviously women, and there had always been women, but as punk fractured into competing, sometimes violent strains the purists walked a tightrope between traditional leftist but also populist politics. Part of the appeal of the non-specific anarchism of punk is that it has no single doctrine, beyond a generalized DIY energy and a Take What You Want ethos. This let in a lot of pigs. It also let a lot of genuinely nice people who were stepping up because no one else was. And with the benefit of Third Wave Feminism we know that often in these situations, where the person who steps forward to take the mic gets the mic, men tend to get it because women have been conditioned not to. Once that is the context all you need are the pigs in the back to shout down any women to do step up.
So Riot Grrl needed to happen. And it was good for punk, because it provided a whole lot of energy and excitement and brought forward some names that went on to really help carry punk forward through the 90s. Hell they helped start Grunge for crissakes. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was named by a member of Bikini Kill. Look it up bro.
But you will note that none of this has anything to do with musical acumen or desires. Punk stuff so rarely does. It is worth asking at a certain point if there is any reason to listen to this stuff outside of that context. Is Riot Grrl the zeitgeist equivalent of a journal entry? Is listening to it now just like visiting a museum of artifacts, divorced from their use and context other than a few notes on a card? Did it have any sonic additions of its own?
Is it any good: Yes it is good. It is good like all the other good punk bands of the era, in just the same ways. Which is frustrating. I mean it is good. Is it better than Minor Threat or Black Flag? I dunno. Probably not. They have a lot of good tunes though, good energy which is punk's big thing. Without making a musical point beyond what was already there, by just being another hardcore punk band except with chicks, isn't that kind of like Riot Grrl just being the token chick on the cartoon show? The Princess Peach of punk rock?
I think there are two parts to this. First, there are some annoying things, but the music holds up and I wouldn't even be able to make these complaints coherently if they hadn't pushed the political intelligence of punk forward by a decade.
Second, this came out 20 years ago and in a time of rapid change it may as well have been a century. I think that, as a society, many of us have reached a point summarized by Lewis Black in this clip. We just want breakfast. I am not saying Feminism is over or has no more work to do. We just have lives to live and can't keep abreast of every issue ever. I am not saying we shouldn't think for ourselves but we have a division of labor in our society. Activists should get their shit together and come back to us with what they want. Otherwise we are going to do the political equivalent of what America has done with its nutritional advice: throw its hands up in the air and go to McDonalds.
Divorced of the political context? They are a great punk band, if very of their time. The recording is extremely lo-fi, from a time where that meant you couldn't understand the lyrics. The music is rhythmically interesting and very energetic. Not a ton of hooks but enough to keep it interesting. On the other hand, since the point of the music is in the lyrics it kind of undermines the whole thing if you don't have the lyric sheets immediately on hand. Overall they have the sarcastic, angry punk vocals down, and the lyrics that can be understood are pretty funny, if a sometimes bit preachy in their delivery. Still, this is good punk music.
As for the philosophical stuff, I dunno. Rock is dead lets all go listen to EDM and pretend music has value.
Where would I have heard of it: They had a ton of mostly clueless media attention in the early 90s. Almost no radio play, of course. I'm sure "Rebel Girl" has been in a few soundtracks or whatever.
Anything of note: Oh god where to start. I am listening to this album as a 30 year old dude in the post-oughts, not as a young 20s girl in the early 90s. I couldn't be less the audience for this if you listen to the band. And yet, I grew up as an aspiring punk in that era and, ok lets start from a different point here.
According to the band, the point was to create a female dialogue in punk rock, a safe place for women within a punk context. The point was by women, for women. But of course this was not within a vacuum. The dudes could hear what was going on. Or, more importantly, the rest of society could. And because they were musicians recording music I can hear part of the dialogue now, 20 years later. But so much of this is context specific. Much of the meat of Riot Grrl was in those fan zines, and it was reacting to a very specific set of social, sub-cultural, national and even local political contexts. The term Riot Grrl was itself a response to the Mount Pleasant Race Riots, much as early punk music was a reaction to late 70s London and the Notting Hill Carnival Riot of 1978.
Unlike punk, whose largest influences were political and economic, the biggest influence on Riot Grrl (other than punk subculture I suppose) was third wave feminism. To sum up a very complex concept, Third Wave feminism started when second wave feminism realized it had ignored everyone who wasn't a white middle class woman, and integrating those concerns would require theorists to interact and discuss with those of different backgrounds. In this context Riot Grrl ended up being a valuable part of the Third wave discussion, as it brought women who were not part of the ivory tower of feminism into the discussion, while lending it a lot of street toughness and energy. It did not bring that many black people in, and it may have scared off a lot of moderate women.
With or without Riot Grrl the result was chaos. Feminism splintered into a thousand sub-strains. With the benefit of hindsight I think it is fairly obvious that fitting the needs and desires of every woman into one blanket term was a somewhat doomed endeavor if you are hoping to come up with a coherent policy conception, and indeed the current policy net being pushed by traditional feminist groups includes things like opposing prostitution and also decriminalizing prostitution. Understanding how groups that seem to be on the same side can be violently advocating opposed policies requires research most people, men and women, are not willing to invest, leading most to just walk away from the topic all together, or cling to third hand concepts that let them believe whatever they want to believe. This gets back to what I was saying about the rest of society being able to hear what was going on. If feminism is an ism, and exists to push women's issues for a result, the other is going to have to be dealt with as something other than the oppressor.
Anyway, rock had long since begun its slide into becoming a boys club. I mean Elvis was not fronting a mixed gender band but he was popular with the ladies. By the 90s there were a lot of musical alternatives, and rock was already becoming somewhat parochial. Punk was stridently parochial, eschewing both Avant Guard affectation as well as anything that might attract a mainstream audience. Within its sub-cultural arena there were obviously women, and there had always been women, but as punk fractured into competing, sometimes violent strains the purists walked a tightrope between traditional leftist but also populist politics. Part of the appeal of the non-specific anarchism of punk is that it has no single doctrine, beyond a generalized DIY energy and a Take What You Want ethos. This let in a lot of pigs. It also let a lot of genuinely nice people who were stepping up because no one else was. And with the benefit of Third Wave Feminism we know that often in these situations, where the person who steps forward to take the mic gets the mic, men tend to get it because women have been conditioned not to. Once that is the context all you need are the pigs in the back to shout down any women to do step up.
So Riot Grrl needed to happen. And it was good for punk, because it provided a whole lot of energy and excitement and brought forward some names that went on to really help carry punk forward through the 90s. Hell they helped start Grunge for crissakes. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was named by a member of Bikini Kill. Look it up bro.
But you will note that none of this has anything to do with musical acumen or desires. Punk stuff so rarely does. It is worth asking at a certain point if there is any reason to listen to this stuff outside of that context. Is Riot Grrl the zeitgeist equivalent of a journal entry? Is listening to it now just like visiting a museum of artifacts, divorced from their use and context other than a few notes on a card? Did it have any sonic additions of its own?
Is it any good: Yes it is good. It is good like all the other good punk bands of the era, in just the same ways. Which is frustrating. I mean it is good. Is it better than Minor Threat or Black Flag? I dunno. Probably not. They have a lot of good tunes though, good energy which is punk's big thing. Without making a musical point beyond what was already there, by just being another hardcore punk band except with chicks, isn't that kind of like Riot Grrl just being the token chick on the cartoon show? The Princess Peach of punk rock?
I think there are two parts to this. First, there are some annoying things, but the music holds up and I wouldn't even be able to make these complaints coherently if they hadn't pushed the political intelligence of punk forward by a decade.
Second, this came out 20 years ago and in a time of rapid change it may as well have been a century. I think that, as a society, many of us have reached a point summarized by Lewis Black in this clip. We just want breakfast. I am not saying Feminism is over or has no more work to do. We just have lives to live and can't keep abreast of every issue ever. I am not saying we shouldn't think for ourselves but we have a division of labor in our society. Activists should get their shit together and come back to us with what they want. Otherwise we are going to do the political equivalent of what America has done with its nutritional advice: throw its hands up in the air and go to McDonalds.
Divorced of the political context? They are a great punk band, if very of their time. The recording is extremely lo-fi, from a time where that meant you couldn't understand the lyrics. The music is rhythmically interesting and very energetic. Not a ton of hooks but enough to keep it interesting. On the other hand, since the point of the music is in the lyrics it kind of undermines the whole thing if you don't have the lyric sheets immediately on hand. Overall they have the sarcastic, angry punk vocals down, and the lyrics that can be understood are pretty funny, if a sometimes bit preachy in their delivery. Still, this is good punk music.
As for the philosophical stuff, I dunno. Rock is dead lets all go listen to EDM and pretend music has value.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Bjork - Post
Genre: Bjork. If you don't know Bjork very well, her sound changes a lot, but on this album you should probably imagine Nine Inch Nails if it were fronted by Obaba from "Nausica of the Valley of the Wind." With just a touch of Rogers and Hammerstein.
Where would I have heard of it: Bjork has a tendency to get more attention for her videos than her music, which seems to be a sad side effect of working with Michele Gondry. Still, she had wide airplay on MTV in the mid 90s and was huge even on the radio in Europe. This was her second solo album after the breakup of Sugarcube, the Anarcho-gothpunk collective she helped found in Iceland and with whom she first toured the world. Also this album is well loved by critics, probably the only thing Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and NME agree on.
Anything of note: This album is a pretty decent intro to Bjork: airy, beautiful vocals punctuated by childish screams and a wide variety of musical influences. This is a woman who broke up her first band, a Riot Grrl punk band, to start a jazz fusion band. She exhibits a cheeky and playful sexuality on the album that probably felt like a bold third wave feminist rebellion after her anarcho-punk background. It certainly is massively endearing, but it ended up getting her in trouble. An obsessed fan filmed an 18 hour video of himself making an acid spraying letter bomb while talking about his obsession with her, his views on the world, and making racist comments about her boyfriend. he ended by covering himself in war paint and shooting himself. After this event Bjork began to distance herself from the cuteness portrayed here.
Is it good: My first listen, several years ago, was a bit rough but when I listened to it recently I was blown away. This is overall a positive album, despite the thudding industrial background music. The variety of influences is fascinating and the songs are really enjoyable, full of pop hooks and amazing vocals. really just amazing. Bjork is another figure whose work was familiar but whom I had not fully dug into. I now have a lot of albums to buy.
Where would I have heard of it: Bjork has a tendency to get more attention for her videos than her music, which seems to be a sad side effect of working with Michele Gondry. Still, she had wide airplay on MTV in the mid 90s and was huge even on the radio in Europe. This was her second solo album after the breakup of Sugarcube, the Anarcho-gothpunk collective she helped found in Iceland and with whom she first toured the world. Also this album is well loved by critics, probably the only thing Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and NME agree on.
Anything of note: This album is a pretty decent intro to Bjork: airy, beautiful vocals punctuated by childish screams and a wide variety of musical influences. This is a woman who broke up her first band, a Riot Grrl punk band, to start a jazz fusion band. She exhibits a cheeky and playful sexuality on the album that probably felt like a bold third wave feminist rebellion after her anarcho-punk background. It certainly is massively endearing, but it ended up getting her in trouble. An obsessed fan filmed an 18 hour video of himself making an acid spraying letter bomb while talking about his obsession with her, his views on the world, and making racist comments about her boyfriend. he ended by covering himself in war paint and shooting himself. After this event Bjork began to distance herself from the cuteness portrayed here.
Is it good: My first listen, several years ago, was a bit rough but when I listened to it recently I was blown away. This is overall a positive album, despite the thudding industrial background music. The variety of influences is fascinating and the songs are really enjoyable, full of pop hooks and amazing vocals. really just amazing. Bjork is another figure whose work was familiar but whom I had not fully dug into. I now have a lot of albums to buy.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Beck - Sea Change
Genre: Sad guy with an acoustic guitar.
Where would I have heard of it: It's Beck.
Anything of note: I know little or nothing about Beck. I like his singles I guess, and he's on Futurama a fair amount. That's about it. Apparently this album was a departure? I dunno. I never feel right talking about albums like this without career context that I just don't have. You have to start on a career somewhere I guess.
Is it good: Yeah I guess. Its fucking boring though. There are no hooks for most of the album. it is beautiful, but not super interesting. It is good music for a rainy day when you are reading or for trying to go to sleep. These are important times and we need music for them. This is that album. It took me a long time to get to that point, where I was ok with not all music being brilliantly interesting all the time. But this album kind of sets me back a bit. I dunno. people think Beck is so awesome and this is really nice, just boring. Not even like Belle and Sebastian boring, that I can deal with because they have hooks and a rhythm section. Songs on this album just happen and you maybe don't notice. There's some really nice music here. Meh.
Where would I have heard of it: It's Beck.
Anything of note: I know little or nothing about Beck. I like his singles I guess, and he's on Futurama a fair amount. That's about it. Apparently this album was a departure? I dunno. I never feel right talking about albums like this without career context that I just don't have. You have to start on a career somewhere I guess.
Is it good: Yeah I guess. Its fucking boring though. There are no hooks for most of the album. it is beautiful, but not super interesting. It is good music for a rainy day when you are reading or for trying to go to sleep. These are important times and we need music for them. This is that album. It took me a long time to get to that point, where I was ok with not all music being brilliantly interesting all the time. But this album kind of sets me back a bit. I dunno. people think Beck is so awesome and this is really nice, just boring. Not even like Belle and Sebastian boring, that I can deal with because they have hooks and a rhythm section. Songs on this album just happen and you maybe don't notice. There's some really nice music here. Meh.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Top 10 Albums of 2013
I may be a little late on this but fuck you. I wanted to do a Top 5 Albums for 2013 and a Top 5 Albums I
Got Into This Year but, uh, it was a really bad year, new music wise, both for me and for the world. I had a lot going on and missed out on a lot of stuff that I would have liked to get and on the other hand most of what happened to music this year was terrible. So instead I'm going to try to do a top Top 10 Albums I
Got Into This Year and will note their release date.
10. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - A Call to Arms - 2001
Saying "I have been listening to a lot of ska recently" is no longer cool, but it really was never cool. Not really. There were times when it would get you laid, but it would never be cool. The reasons are multifaceted but suffice it to say that, even during its heydays, Ska was too obscure for mainstream people to understand and too different for the indie scene to adopt. Indie, in all its forms, is a underground alternative to the mainstream. A genre that completely ignores the mainstream, even or perhaps especially if it does so while still maintaining the listen-ability and pop hooks prized by it, is somehow too close to home for the underground to be comfortable with. So it is often tarred as overly simple, often phrased as "it all sounds the same." Similar things were said about jazz and hip-hop.
Nonetheless it is clear that ska has fallen far in popularity since the 90s. One man who has consistently stood for quality composition in ska, as well as its continued existence as a genre, is Tomas Kalnoky. This is the guy who wrote all of the first Catch 22 album and then left the band because it was becoming too commercial. After a break of a few years the first thing anyone heard out of him was this album, and it is pretty spectacular, even if it is just an EP. It took me a while to get to but it was worth the wait. Born of a brief desire to get back to his roots as a classically trained Eastern European musician, the group fuses ska and Slavic music in a way that is very natural. In many ways the album is a transition point between his work with Catch 22 and his later work with Streetlight Manifesto. There are a lot of rough edges here but the listener is left wanting a full length very badly. One has been in the works ever since and Kalnoky assures people, whenever he is asked, that it is on the cusp of release. Rumors that his perfectionism being a reason for his leaving Catch 22 are totally unsubstantiated and tangential to this topic and you were very irresponsible to bring them up.
9. Lou Reed - Transformer - 1972
So I got into Lou Reed's solo work after he died. So what. Shut up.
8. Passion Pit - Gossamer - 2012
This is that album with that song that was in commercials about taking a walk. That song is actually a sensitive look at the American Experience in the modern world. The album is catchy and fun and full of similarly insightful looks at modernity. Fun fact: looking at modernity drove the lead singer mad.
The album is very good, but as an indie techno album from a year of indie techno it lacks a certain novelty. This is way better than the albums produced by peers Fun, Owl City, and Foster The People. It's just that after listening to all of them one is wary of the genre.
7. About E - Bongo - ??!! (Probably the early oughts?)
About E is the best thing to come out of this project. A band fronted by Arnold de Boer, who also apparently fronts every other rock band in Holland, manages intensive creative output while also being absurdly difficult to Google. His music is frantically energetic dance punk that makes the most of its lo fidelity and dutch mispronunciation of English to make catchy, clever songs.
6. Bears of Blue River - Remember the Killer Bee Scare - 2009
Oh My God this album. Another happy discovery of this project, I really cannot stop listening to this album. It is really a 4 song EP, which makes its addictive hooks, sweet melodies, and clever song writing just that much harder to walk away from. Work, the needs of family, personal hygiene, none will compare to the draw of this album. Please send help.
Got Into This Year but, uh, it was a really bad year, new music wise, both for me and for the world. I had a lot going on and missed out on a lot of stuff that I would have liked to get and on the other hand most of what happened to music this year was terrible. So instead I'm going to try to do a top Top 10 Albums I
Got Into This Year and will note their release date.
10. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - A Call to Arms - 2001
Saying "I have been listening to a lot of ska recently" is no longer cool, but it really was never cool. Not really. There were times when it would get you laid, but it would never be cool. The reasons are multifaceted but suffice it to say that, even during its heydays, Ska was too obscure for mainstream people to understand and too different for the indie scene to adopt. Indie, in all its forms, is a underground alternative to the mainstream. A genre that completely ignores the mainstream, even or perhaps especially if it does so while still maintaining the listen-ability and pop hooks prized by it, is somehow too close to home for the underground to be comfortable with. So it is often tarred as overly simple, often phrased as "it all sounds the same." Similar things were said about jazz and hip-hop.
Nonetheless it is clear that ska has fallen far in popularity since the 90s. One man who has consistently stood for quality composition in ska, as well as its continued existence as a genre, is Tomas Kalnoky. This is the guy who wrote all of the first Catch 22 album and then left the band because it was becoming too commercial. After a break of a few years the first thing anyone heard out of him was this album, and it is pretty spectacular, even if it is just an EP. It took me a while to get to but it was worth the wait. Born of a brief desire to get back to his roots as a classically trained Eastern European musician, the group fuses ska and Slavic music in a way that is very natural. In many ways the album is a transition point between his work with Catch 22 and his later work with Streetlight Manifesto. There are a lot of rough edges here but the listener is left wanting a full length very badly. One has been in the works ever since and Kalnoky assures people, whenever he is asked, that it is on the cusp of release. Rumors that his perfectionism being a reason for his leaving Catch 22 are totally unsubstantiated and tangential to this topic and you were very irresponsible to bring them up.
So I got into Lou Reed's solo work after he died. So what. Shut up.
8. Passion Pit - Gossamer - 2012
This is that album with that song that was in commercials about taking a walk. That song is actually a sensitive look at the American Experience in the modern world. The album is catchy and fun and full of similarly insightful looks at modernity. Fun fact: looking at modernity drove the lead singer mad.
The album is very good, but as an indie techno album from a year of indie techno it lacks a certain novelty. This is way better than the albums produced by peers Fun, Owl City, and Foster The People. It's just that after listening to all of them one is wary of the genre.
7. About E - Bongo - ??!! (Probably the early oughts?)
About E is the best thing to come out of this project. A band fronted by Arnold de Boer, who also apparently fronts every other rock band in Holland, manages intensive creative output while also being absurdly difficult to Google. His music is frantically energetic dance punk that makes the most of its lo fidelity and dutch mispronunciation of English to make catchy, clever songs.
6. Bears of Blue River - Remember the Killer Bee Scare - 2009
Oh My God this album. Another happy discovery of this project, I really cannot stop listening to this album. It is really a 4 song EP, which makes its addictive hooks, sweet melodies, and clever song writing just that much harder to walk away from. Work, the needs of family, personal hygiene, none will compare to the draw of this album. Please send help.
5. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories - 2013
This album's quality serves to show how terrible the rest of modern music is. Daft Punk uses the same technology as everyone else on the top 40: sampling. their music sounds lush and immerseive, even when it is being minimalistic. Everyone else on the Top 40 uses music like an inconventient thing they have to do between nip slips and getting high. If you don't want to make music star in a reality show. Otherwise I want some fucking attention to detail. If you are going to make music with samples, get enough to make music. Otherwise learn the fucking guitar. Or the piano. Or the Fucking hurdy gurdy. Arcade Fire did. fuck you. In fact the only issue I have with the album is the collaborations. Not because they are bad, in fact I think this is another area where Daft Punk showed the rest of Music how collaborations are supposed to work, its just a huge fucking pain in the ass for me to find the album on my iPod. I don't care that some tracks featured collaborations, I can read the liner notes, or read wikipedia. I know they want credit but I think that info should be stripped out when on MP3 playlists. Oh, you think I should search by album? Fuck you. Your mom is an album. That's a whole different menu. And don't get me started on random play. Fuck you. I'LL KILL YOU.
4. Arcade Fire - Reflector - 2013
Depending on who you are, Arcade Fire may or may not have raised a lot of questions with this album. One sort might listen to this album and find it spectacular, a masterpiece standing on its own, a painting in a dark warehouse, illuminated by a single spotlight. No questions in that case, it just IS, man. If you are of another sort, you might listen to this album and think "How is it that a band which brought the hurdy gurdy back to relevance sound so modern? Is it even possible for Arcade Fire to make a bad album? How can the modern pop charts be drowning in people claiming to draw influence from Caribbean music, but only a bunch of Canadians can get it right?" Yet another sort has never listened to the Arcade Fire, and reacts with increasingly angry bewilderment at their continued pop chart success. A forth sort had listened to this album and disliked it, but they were sadly hunted to extinction.
3. Sean Nelson - Make Good Choices - 2013
Heartbreaking, wonderful, punchy pop country songs with witty lyrics and a collaborator list to make Bob Geldoff weep. I am going to do a full review later, and I ranted about how amazing it was at the time. Of course it got no press, let alone chart success; that wasn't even on the radar. Despite a few rough patches and shaky production, a spectacular album about everything that is wrong, mostly it is you. Oh yeah this is the guy from Harvey Danger. If you know me you know that I love Harvey Danger, and I was fanatical about this album. What could knock it so low?
2. Kimbra - Vows - 2011
I think most people who got into Gotye followed up on Somebody I Used to Know by looking up his other work. Some of them bought his albums, and that is fine. Like most people I liked the song but wasn't super impressed by his other work. I will probably buy his album at some point. But I am one of those who also looked up Kimbra, his featured vocalist. And. fuck. This girl is 23 right now, and she was 17 when she wrote this album. And. Dude I fucking tear up when I think about this album. It is so fucking good. She is a way better composer than I will ever be at anything I ever try to be. Even things like combing my mustache. no matter how good I get at it, Kimbra will be better at composing.
True, she had some good producers, and with pop tunes it is tough to tell how much is her until we get a second album, but she is the sole songwriter on all her songs except two, and those songs realy stand out. She is an amazingly talented artists and I really want to see the next thing she does. That said, this has to have been an insane trip for her, and I am fine with her taking her time. Some of her best songs are the singles, and the music videos are REALLY well done, so check them out on youtube.
1. Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full of Holes - 2011
This is one of the most perfect albums ever, certainly this band's best. All the songs are tight and there is little dead weight on the album. The lyrics are meaningful and rich and, as you would expect, extremely clever. The title comes from the last song, Cemetery Guns, which will melt your face. Just, clean off.
Depending on who you are, Arcade Fire may or may not have raised a lot of questions with this album. One sort might listen to this album and find it spectacular, a masterpiece standing on its own, a painting in a dark warehouse, illuminated by a single spotlight. No questions in that case, it just IS, man. If you are of another sort, you might listen to this album and think "How is it that a band which brought the hurdy gurdy back to relevance sound so modern? Is it even possible for Arcade Fire to make a bad album? How can the modern pop charts be drowning in people claiming to draw influence from Caribbean music, but only a bunch of Canadians can get it right?" Yet another sort has never listened to the Arcade Fire, and reacts with increasingly angry bewilderment at their continued pop chart success. A forth sort had listened to this album and disliked it, but they were sadly hunted to extinction.
3. Sean Nelson - Make Good Choices - 2013
Heartbreaking, wonderful, punchy pop country songs with witty lyrics and a collaborator list to make Bob Geldoff weep. I am going to do a full review later, and I ranted about how amazing it was at the time. Of course it got no press, let alone chart success; that wasn't even on the radar. Despite a few rough patches and shaky production, a spectacular album about everything that is wrong, mostly it is you. Oh yeah this is the guy from Harvey Danger. If you know me you know that I love Harvey Danger, and I was fanatical about this album. What could knock it so low?
2. Kimbra - Vows - 2011
I think most people who got into Gotye followed up on Somebody I Used to Know by looking up his other work. Some of them bought his albums, and that is fine. Like most people I liked the song but wasn't super impressed by his other work. I will probably buy his album at some point. But I am one of those who also looked up Kimbra, his featured vocalist. And. fuck. This girl is 23 right now, and she was 17 when she wrote this album. And. Dude I fucking tear up when I think about this album. It is so fucking good. She is a way better composer than I will ever be at anything I ever try to be. Even things like combing my mustache. no matter how good I get at it, Kimbra will be better at composing.
True, she had some good producers, and with pop tunes it is tough to tell how much is her until we get a second album, but she is the sole songwriter on all her songs except two, and those songs realy stand out. She is an amazingly talented artists and I really want to see the next thing she does. That said, this has to have been an insane trip for her, and I am fine with her taking her time. Some of her best songs are the singles, and the music videos are REALLY well done, so check them out on youtube.
This is one of the most perfect albums ever, certainly this band's best. All the songs are tight and there is little dead weight on the album. The lyrics are meaningful and rich and, as you would expect, extremely clever. The title comes from the last song, Cemetery Guns, which will melt your face. Just, clean off.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Amsterdam Calling
Genre: Compilation. Usually I do not buy compilations. I am
not sure why I bought this one except it has a band I already liked on it. It
is a compilation of Dutch rock bands put together by the Dutch Rock and Pop
Institute.
Where would I have heard of it? The DR&PI was apparently
handing them out as a promotional item at the 2004 CMJ festival in New York. In
terms of the bands on the album, do you like Dutch rock music? I think that’s about
it.
Anything of note: I had entirely forgotten about this album.
So finding it ripped on my iPod was like finding lost treasure. The bands on
the comp are the best of the Dutch rock scene, circa 2004. The music is intensely
indie in flavor. It wanders between neo new wave and indie folk, but with a
strong indie punk lean throughout.
Usually I avoid comps. Most comps that you find in stores
are promotional materials put together by record labels. I will let you in on a
secret: marketing materials tend not to make me super excited. Also, most
labels stock a variety of artists to suit a variety of tastes. Since most
people who do not share my opinion are at least blithering idiots and at worst
rabid animals, it stands to reason the majority of a given comp will feel, to
me, the way showering regularly or not giving my child a cigarette would
feel to the quivering flesh piles
considered the core audience of the average record label.
This album was created as promotional materials for a
government agency that sponsors and promotes rock music in Holland. Americans
may not think government sponsored art programs would be exciting, but thats where we got Jackson Pollack and that guy was a hoot. Anyway it works
really well here because the bands are fucking awesome.
Voict was the band
that convinced me to buy it, And their tracks here are awesome even if I
already owned them. It turned out that the lead singer of About E, a band I
reviewed and enjoyed early in the blog, was on the album with 2 of his new
bands. Apparently the guy changes bands like a man with a serious VD sheds dick
skin. Both tracks are spectacular and new for me, so this was a really pleasant
surprise. The song “We Buried Indie Rock Years Ago” is particularly awesome. One
of the bands is still around, so check out Zea, they are fucking awesome. There
are also several tracks by Betty Seveert who is also really really good.
Is it good: This album is amazing. You can get it on Amazon,
but I might as well just tell you to buy albums by these artists:
Seedling
zZz
Zea
Caesar
Voicst
Bettie Serveert
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Arrested Development - 3 years, 5 months, and 2 days in the life of
Genre: Early to mid 90s Hip-Hop
Where would I have heard of them: They had a career of note
in the early 90s, won a bunch of awards, They contributed original songs to the
soundtrack for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. They broke up by 1996, but have reformed
a few times, most notably in order to sue NBC for copy write infringement of
the name. The show laughed it off but, uh, these guys weren’t nobody. NBC’s
lawyers really should have found them. They started doing the odd show or tour
with increasing frequency in the oughts, culminating in a new album recorded
entirely on a laptop which was released in 2012. This album was their first,
the one that won all the awards.
Anything of note: The group was founded as a “positive, Afrocentric alternative
to the gangsta rap popular in the early 1990s.” I have to say, my
genre of comfort is the rock underground, so finding what is essentially
underground rap is both immensely exciting and somewhat unnerving. I know the
basics of the background history but am hardly an authority. But here goes.
As early rap became popular
it was scary to white people because black folks. The record companies got the
most inoffensive, radio friendly acts and pushed them. Hip Hop evolved as a
reaction to these saccharine type acts, and in a period of loose record company
oversight, new technology, and new composition techniques a period of intense
creativity followed. The sampling lawsuit against DelaSoul effectively closed
this down by making samples expensive, meaning anyone aiming at mainstream success
would need record company approval and monetary outlay for each sample. This
made high quality production expensive. At the same time early Gansta Rap had
found that it could make up for its low-fi shortcomings by combining fight for
the underdog lyrics with an intentionally confrontational attitude. The record
industry latched onto Gangsta Rap as a way to capitalize on the emerging market
without the extensive legal fees inherent in the lush productions and artistic
compromises of the other Hip Hop artists. Those who objected to the increasingly
spare nature of the actual music were branded as out of touch crypto racists.
Alternative Hip Hop has
existed since the very beginning, and ultimately began achieving mainstream
recognition in the oughts via groups like OutKast and Kanye West, but
ultimately these acts have not changed the fact that mainstream hip-hop has
been more or less the continuous domain of the Gangsta since NWA. Arrested
Development helped found this alternative tradition, combining some of the
lushness of Golden Age Hip-Hop, the confrontational social commentary hijacked
by Gangsta Rap, and acting as a voice of the Afrocentric middle class liberal
black community.
Is it good: Yeah, it really
is, warts and all. There are lyrics here that sound like they might come from
the Cosby show, but there are others that are progressive without being conspiratorial, and all are
well delivered. I guess they call that flow. I think I heard that one time. There
is really good flow. More importantly this is recognizable as music, made from
a diversity of samples. This is not music put together in ten minutes on fruity
loops before the guest vocalist came in for a chorus. There is a diversity of
influences here, and they are layered into music that is enjoyable on its own
without the lyrics. Thank fucking god.
Monday, January 20, 2014
bis - Sweetshop Heroes
Ok that worked pretty well so I am sticking to this format
Genre/Home Town: Britpop although you wouldn’t know it. When
I purchased the album I figured that they were some kind of wanna be J-pop
band, as the front cover looks like something drawn by a person who bought one
of those “draw your own manga!” books but who only read half of it. My first
thought when I heard them was that they sounded like a weird, British version
of Five Iron Frenzy, except without horns or Jesus. Essentially they sound like
a kids-bop rendition of Op-Ivy. They are from Glasgow.
Why would I have heard of them: Uh. They had some minor hits in Australia and
they had some notoriety in the late 90s as the first unsigned band on The Top
of the Pops since the 70s which is guess is nice and interesting if you live in
England. They are one of those bands that were famous to famous people.
Apparently they toured with every good band that formed between 1994 and 2001.
Their big break in the US was writing the closing credits of the Powerpuff
Girls. They had a bizarrely long, self made career which amounted to nothing in
terms of the US market. Which is rather
admirable and also tragic.
Anything of note: They seem to have pulled something into
their music from everywhere they went, and they went everywhere.
Are they good: Man I have no idea and I've been listening to
this album for months. They are fucking fascinating though. They are a Britpop
band with serious ska influences, and avid proponents of a DIY ethos and scene
loyalty. The results are unfortunately subdued. In line with second wave Ska’s emphasis
on rejecting the barbarous antics of the punk scene and embracing intelligence,
and in line with their desire to remain true to the scene and “the youth,” they
don’t curse and maintain a positive attitude. Outside the listed influences one
should add J-pop, Eurotrash/house. Given their influences they stick to
up-tempo, well produced music. The result is overly slick, but behind the bland
production there is some really good writing. They make good use of the Britpop
tool kit and add some tricks of their own, including dual male female vocals to
give a energetic feeling of crowd participation.
Unfortunately the result
sounds oddly Nickelodeon. The sad thing is that this is a band that did things
their own way, worked really hard, toured incessantly, and made some good music
that just happens to sound like kids-bob. Essentially my problems with them are
the result of the things that happened to rock and pop after they broke up,
which is hardly fair. On the other hand the production on the album is obnoxiously
smooth, and the emphasis on youth power throughout the album is really dated
for someone who grew up to that kind of sloganeering as a marketing tool on
Nick.
As a side note I've decided that 90s nostalgia is dead for
me, backdated to when I started listening to this album in September. I still
hold a fondness for Ren and Stimpy but most of Nickelodeon can kiss my ass. Presumably
as soon as I post this a child will emerge from my wife fully formed, and I will
spend the next 10 years of my life subjected to incessant children’s programming
as karmic retribution for that ugly incident with the nun and the boll weevil. I
suppose I should get it over with.
Chinese Stars - Turbo Mattress
Hey all, my creative process has been kind of stymied, and
this has really handicapped my ability to deal with the sheer mass of cds I
have to get through. The two things may be related. So I am going to try to
move to a more streamlined way of doing these entries to get through them
without having to reinvent the wheel every time.
Genre: Noise Rock
Why might I have heard of them: The Chinese Stars were
founded by some of the core members of Arab on Radar, a highly influential but
short lived Providence based band that is widely credited with reinvigorating
noise rock, kick-starting the moribund No-Wave movement, putting out one album,
and then breaking up. Some of the acts they helped inspire and get started,
including The Locusts, have gone on the get national attention, at least
amongst a small but dedicated audience of former hardcore fans. They also had a
tendency to perform nude, and when they opened for Marilyn Manson they so
antagonized the audience that they were ejected. They also played Clark
University, which is where I got this EP. The show was, in fact, awesome.
Anything of note: in line with their antagonistic ethos and
name, the four song EP was put out on a disc shaped like a four pointed shuriken.
This was during the period when some people thought mini-discs had a future for
some reason. The resulting disc was functionally a mini-disc, but could not
play in a mini-disc player. Nor could it be played in a slide-in CD player. It could
only be played in a top- load CD player. I consider this a fantastic fuck you
to the audience. Especially since this probably cost more to print.
Are they good: Fuck yeah they are good. They manage the
hypnotic drone of noise rock while presenting clear, intelligent vocals and avoiding
the blank wall of noise affect all too common in third rate entrants in the
genre. They certainly have the attitude down.
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