That IS Rock and Roll

In case you were wondering, Stephen Kijak's "Stones in Exile" documentary about the making of Exile on Main St. is now on video. If you're a Netflix customer, head on over there to stream it... NOW. If we accept that Rock 'n' Roll is dead, this movie should be its fucking headstone. The summer the Stones spent at the Villa Nellcote in the south of France, making hit music, jamming with hangers on like Gram Parsons (above), and getting high all day with supermodels is probably the high water mark of rock history. It doesn't get any better or more stylish than this. My only complaints about the movie are that it's a little light on graphic details (which the guys probably didn't want to go into- they've got grandkids now 'n shit- or they just can't remember, equally likely), and the dorks they interview at the beginning and end: Kings of Leon guy, Sheryl Crow, Benecio del Toro, wtf?! Were these the only three losers hanging out near the soundstage or what? How about Andrew-fucking-Loog Oldham, get that geezer off his Sirius radio show and start telling some stories! Still, watching this documentary is time well spent. Check it out.

New Noise

Now that I schooled you all on some obvious shit with the last post, I'd like to talk about something semi-fresh and inspiring that's been happening - and is happening - right now. I've been following the 'new noise' sound (groups like Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never and probably a lot of others that I'm just unaware of) with passing interest for some time now; it seemed like a fad that was popular with the college-radio circuit, that could either pass away or start gaining momentum. From the outset, I knew that whoever was behind Oneohtrix Point Never knew what was up, and had serious style, but I kind of relegated it to the 'get around to listening when I have the time' pile, because enjoying this kind of music takes a lot of time and requires you to be in a certain mental/emotional state (i.e. really high). It's like Dark Side of The Moon with the Rock turned down to 0 and the Drugs turned up to 10. Anyway, seems that while I wasn't paying attention, everyone got hip to this sound and OPN is on the verge of 'blowing up', which apparently means selling 2000 copies (holy shit!) of their latest album Returnal. Maybe we'll all be listening to this in the mall before long, I don't know. What really caught my attention, though, is the series of 'music videos' (sort of audio-video mashup pieces) that OPN has on Youtube. These aren't mind-blowing, but they're in a way some of the coolest pieces of art I've seen in a long time. He's apparently released them along with others on a DVD (does anyone have a burn of this? HIT US UP!). They could definitely point the way to a new sound/aesthetic that is completely untapped, and for that, I am excited. Let's hope someone else comes along with as much vision as this guy has (Drutones, I'm looking at YOU baby!)

Stay Tuned

I'm trying to put some cool shit up for you guys, but having some trouble, so in the meantime I'll hit you with one of the best (and thankfully, least talked about) entries in last year's nü-emo phenomenon 'Chillwave', a genre that will probably cease to exist this year due to hipsters' extreme fear of seeming trendy.

Memory Cassette (aka Memory Tapes) - Call & Response

While you're groovin to that, and in honor of Arcade Fire's new, soon-to-be-celebrated turd of an album, you can read these wise words by Jon Savage (the guy behind stuff like this):

"Is there anything going on today in music that's interesting you?

It's difficult. It's definitely an age thing. Most modern rock I just cannot listen to; I think it sucks. People like Arcade Fire... suck. What are all these men doing with these old-guys' beards, and they're in their late-twenties, and they've got these horrible brown beards that are a different color from their hairdos? What is that all about? It's retarded. It's boys trying to be men. One huge major suckathon, I'm sorry. It just doesn't rock. Rock music has got to have that primal urge in it. It's gotta make you want to drive your car 130 miles per hour, take class-A drugs, have bad sex, and just be irresponsible and vile.

Pop music has become a victim of its own success. When I was a kid it was definitely marginal, it was for the weirdos and the freaks and the mutants and the people who wanted to be different. And now it's just the same as everything else. So I tend to listen to a lot of electronic music. Because it sounds modern. You know, like it was made in 2010."

See, motherfuckers? I'm not so 'out there'. Hell, we could take that as the TNRR manifesto. Vindication is sweet when it comes from guys like Savage and Green Gartside (of Scritti Politti, who writes nuanced and subtle music that most people can't understand - see below):

"People who enjoy this album [Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible"] may think I'm cloth-eared and unperceptive, and I accept it's the result of my personal shortcomings, but what I hear in Arcade Fire is an agglomeration of mannerisms, cliches and devices. I find it solidly unattractive, texturally nasty, a bit harmonically and melodically dull, bombastic and melodramatic, and the rhythms are pedestrian. It's monotonous in its textures and in the old-fashioned, nasty, clunky 80s rhythms and eighth-note basslines. It isn't, as people are suggesting, richly rewarding and inventive. The melodies stick too closely to the chord changes. Win Butler's voice uses certain stylistic devices - it goes wobbly and shouty, then whispery - and I guess people like wobbly and shouty going to whispery, they think it signifies real feeling. It's some people's idea of unmediated emotion. I can imagine Jeremy Clarkson liking it; it's for people in cars. It's rather flat and unlovely. The album and the response to it represent a bunch of beliefs about expression and truth that I don't share. The battle against unreconstructed rock music continues."

He gets it. Do you?

Scritti Politti - The Word Girl (Flesh & Blood)

I'd like to meet this guy

My point has nothing to do with the video other than the music that's playing. If somebody today put together a composition like this, we'd all be drooling at their hat's and shoe's. 80 years later and this sounds better than anything that will come out this year!



or not...its a cool video otherwise

Sunday Meddditation

this is more of what I was going for...

New Wack Swing

I'm gonna tackle the Hot Albums of July in today's post. And if you make it all the way through, there's a treat waiting for you, promise. First up, local faves The Love Language (allusion to Teddy Pendergrass doubtful) released their 2nd album yesterday, and sorry I'm behind all the dorito-pounding bloggers out there and doing this review a day late. You can still stream it on the Merge website if you're like me with a lot of time to waste. Because let me disagree with everyone on this, and say that's just what this album is - a waste of time. Does anyone not "love" this record? My initial glance at the reviews seems to indicate not (Pitchfork will probably have their review in by the time you read this, so we'll see), but other than their lead-off single 'Heart to Tell', which is just a big rip off of an Elvis song, there's exactly 2 other decent songs on this record. The rest are just a bunch of weak production gimmicks filled with lame white guy hollers drenched in slapback. I wanna help Phil Spector out of his leg irons just so he can come down here and slap these rookies. The thought of people bawling praise all over these dudes and even fathoming bandying the word 'genius' about makes me wanna put my dick in a pasta machine. I mean, I'm glad someone from the hometown is making some noise, but can we get some cooler representatives please? Next!

To the right of our local heroes is another civic representative of sorts, except from a town far, far away... on the - you guessed it - Best Coast. Somehow, when predicting the bands to watch in 2010 earlier in the year, I left this chick (Bethany somethingoruther) out. My bad. Her album isn't due out until later this month, but you can stream it here. It's going to be big, and thankfully I've pre-reviewed it for you, because yer gonna get mighty sick of the term "pop gems" used to describe these songs in the papers. To make one thing clear, I don't hate Best Coast*. This girl has one of the most unique styles in the underground right now, which isn't saying much, but it's saying something. She released a string of singles, EPs, cassettes, and polaroids of beachlife last year, and each one made me feel good. Her music is like candy; a bag of Laffy Taffy, let's say. They have slightly different flavors, but all of them taste basically the same. You could eat them forever, and be totally happy doing so, but then you'd get sick and die. Best Coast's songs give you that same tingly, unfulfilled feeling as a good Laffy Taffy. You eat one, you crave more, yet you don't really want any more. That said, Crazy For You will be one of the best albums released all year, which says something about the state of pop music, don't it? When candy is king... you'd be better off not wasting your time with any of it and just head straight to the links below and hear where Paul Simon gets his shit! (Hint: he's not listening to the Love Langauge!)


*We here at TNRR endorse you, Best Coast. We are your friends - provided you are a Lakers fan and you don't get ANY fatter, capice?


And now for something you busters totally DON'T deserve. These songs represent a cross-section of traditional Bolivian music. I was just going to post a couple of these tracks, but they're all so damn good I decided to wet you with the whole album.

Live It Up

Sunday Meditation

I like how Bowie is playing a Stratocaster!

A Band You Never Knew You Liked: Strawberry

Okay, so there's actually something of a story behind this one. The year is 1999, and I'm at the Record Exchange on Hillsborough St. I'm going through the used bin and I come upon a band I'd never heard of with an interesting name/album art combo. As is usual in such situations, I took the bait and plopped down $4 for the CD. I can't remember my first experience with the album, I probably wasn't blown away, but I remember liking the song 'Kiev Trains'. I recall listening a few times, but then the CD mysteriously disappeared and I quickly forgot about it. Fast forward 7 years and my friend Zack plays 'Kiev Trains' at a party. I ask him what was up with such a strange coincidence, and it turns out he's had the CD all these years, albeit without the case (which I still have; I'm looking at it right now). He laughs and then claims that this album, Brokeheart Audio, by the basically-unknown Canadian band Strawberry, is one of his favorite albums! I say, "well, ahh, shucks, can I have the CD back now? I haven't heard it in awhile." I never get it back... which was only a problem until earlier this year, when the dudes from Strawberry posted their discography for free on some website.

Strawberry was a band from Prince Edward Island, Canada, and other than some shows opening for Modest Mouse back in the day, are almost totally unknown. Turns out Brokeheart Audiois the only album that got released on a label, and I have no idea how it ended up in The Record Exchange. I'm still not blown away by any of their music, most of it is fairly diluted late-90s indie rock, and it hasn't aged well. But fuck, it's still as good as a lot of Modest Mouse! All said, I think these guys deserve their due, and they're finally getting the retrospective treatment from us here on the most world-wide of webs.

Strawberry - Kiev Trains

Strawberry - Strobelight

Drew Needs To Post More! Eernie Isley Needs To Teach Guitar Lessons! I Need A Life!

The world is a fucked up place, right kids? You bet your ass it is. From the moment you are first spanked for doing something original, to the time you learn Santa is a more of a fictitious marketing tool used to push merchandise than a benevolent, magical old man, to the indignity you feel when your lips make first, cold contact with your boss's ass cheek, to paying taxes on Social Security that you are told nearly every day you AREN'T going to get, you learn that life is a steady succession of bummers. I was reminded of all this earlier this year when I lost my girlfriend to the frontdouche of a local band. I eventually got her back, because I am The Truth after all, but still... made me appreciate those little things, you know? That's why there's TNRR; because life is too short and too shitty to go through it listening to bad music. TNRR: Giving you the tools to play loud!

On a different topic, does anyone have a scanner they can sell me? I'm tired of stealing stock pics from the internet. I have a much better picture of Stevie than the one above (more on that later), but I can't make it digital. Also, Drudrones - give me more control over the blog!

Band Of Susans - Hope Against Hope

Delegation - Oh Honey

Cruel Summer

I'd have to say that I've been feeling the way Spaceman looks in the picture below and therefore haven't takin the wheel of this blahg.....We can thank the Truth for revitalizing this site. But? Mr. Briggs, though the Spiritualized discography may be weak; if you had the opportunity to have a encounter with any 'cool' UK band members from the early 90's, I'd doubt you would decline...perhaps a jam with Mr Kember ??

http://www.blogotheque.net/Spectrum,3752


As for the hot temps that we've dealt with so far, here's some more hotness

A Field Guide to the Spiritualized Discography

I've had some free time lately after being put in the penalty box over at What, so I've been trimming the hedges of my music library, so to speak. And somewhere along the line, I listened to a lot of Spiritualized, and since their career trajectory is the most simple kind (one of steady decline), and their discography is uncomplicated, I decided to share my thoughts for those of you who may be new to these drug addicts and you completists alike. There really should be no room for argument here, you should just accept my word as fact and spend your time worrying about more interesting bands. Here's everything you ever needed to know about the Spiritualized albums:

1992 - Lazer Guided Melodies - Essential

1995 - Pure Phase - Great

1997 - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Good

2001 - Let It Come Down - Ok

2003 - Amazing Grace - Ok

2008 - Songs In A&E - Pretty Much Garbage

- As with any discography, each 'era' includes the associated EPs, singles, B-sides, video appearances, etc.

And incase you needed evidence, what is more convincing than the ol' Youtube video? This shit is from the way back - on MTV! If they played this tomorrow, you'd think there was some kind of armed coup going on at Viacom - and basically proves my point.