Very soon now the end of the year will be upon us and that means The Truth will be telling you about his favorite records he bought this year. The Myth probably won't drop a list b/c he doesn't post anymore b/c he doesn't do anything that doesn't immediately lead to drinking Michelob Ultras with some skanky ass. But that's okay, I accept the sole responsibility of delivering the Year End List that accepts no payola, that suffers no NPR/Big Media/Big Indie list gladly, that isn't afraid to not include a single fucking record if every record sucks (almost happened last year), that is generally in with the out crowd. Before that happens though, I'm gonna do a soft open with the year's Honorary Mention: Small Black's Moon Killer 'Mixtape'
If you ever wondered what Slowdive/Chapterhouse would've sounded like had they worked with r&B superproducer The Dream, well, now you can find out by downloading the album below. It has quite a few gems inside, including this one that accomplishes the impossible feat of making a Nicki Minaj/Drake vocal actually listenable
This song obviously walks a thin line, even in 2011, and I applaud them for it. Seems like hip-hop is finally finding a way to weave itself into 'rock' in way that doesn't involve rap metal or trailer parks. So yeah, a few skinny white dudes from Brooklyn made a 'mixtape' that kind of rips off an aesthetic I had planned, but the combination is a little clumsy/too-obvious in places and that lets me know these whipsters don't really vibe to black culture in a non-ironic way like I do. Now if they start switching out the Heems verses for Birdman I might be worried. We'll see if they get enough balls to stop 'testing the market' and release this on a genuine recorded artifact. Until then, stay tuned for the best actual records of the year! Who knows, it might even inspire Drew to go plagiarize the Rolling Stone list of boring old man music again.
... it looks a lot like Youtube's LeanBack. Prognostication time: this will be the biggest thing to happen to the Internet since the original Google search engine. Expect the cookies to come out of the oven in T minus ~ 2 years.
Since roughly one quarter of all my posts involve Chairlift because I'm too lazy to compose original long-form content, and Drew's too lazy to even look at the blog... here we go with a C-lift b-side. The year has still got two solid months left in it but it doesn't look like much good shit is gonna get written, so if Chairlift EVER decides to release their album, it will surely appear on my best-of list.
Here's a jimmy jam with a sinuous new jack beat that sounds like Paula Abdul remixed the song beneath it. This will grow on you like 5 o'clock shadow...
Best played loud
Were they listening to this when they wrote the intro?
I'm not sure, I think I've heard those bells somewhere else. Like I fell asleep at the roller rink and hypnagogically recalled a Tony! Toni! Tone! song. That ever happen to you?
Drew just obtained what I guess will be a paid 'residency' at Tijuana Flats, a whimsical taqueria in Cary. Their nachos are quite good, as were moments of the last Drutones performance. Is he gonna push the envelope this time, though? Will he challenge people while they eat their burrito supremes with their kids after soccer practice? Will he amaze with audacious histrionics in an 'essential' solo performance that will be covered by the Cary News?
Will he show off his technical chops and diverse collection of guitars?
Drew likely has one of these instruments
Will he play an inspired set of seldom-heard classics?
This is rock 'n' roll, in case you were wondering
Or will we get another unnecessary double encore of 'Psychokiller', even though I repeatedly ask him not to play it?
The anticlimax of the previous show at Tijuana Flats.
As you can see, Drew has A LOT to live up to (or live down). Tomorrow's performance may determine whether he will ever escape the chlorinated confines of the Aquatics Center and get on the accelerated track to blog coverage, music festival bookings, and groupies out the wazoo.
Deep down, I know he can do it. It's not a matter of if- but when? Find out tomorrow, by going here HERE around 7 p.m. (and don't forget to leave a tip).
If I start a band called 'Laserdiscs', and release a cassingle with some artwork of Urkel and a faded palm tree, with songs that I recorded while twisting knobs at Guitar Center and crooning indecipherably, that sound vaguely like 'minimal disco', what are the odds I will get a glowing write-up in all the coolest music blogs? (95 - 99.5%)?
Since we've been on a music biz/physical media kick lately, I thought I'd direct your attention to this cheesy/predictable documentary I Need That Record** about the demise of record stores. It takes the standard tack of 'record stores saved my life', 'it's all about the community maaan', which at least from this record-addict's perspective, is a load of B.S. Most record stores went out of business because most record stores suck, plain & simple. They make you drive out of your way to crawl on some filthy floor, digging through a box to find some overpriced, shopworn 7-inch that's not what you really want because they don't have what you came for, while some totally jaded, glazed-eye clerk stares off into indiespace if you're naive enough to ask him for a 'recommendation', or you try to put in a special order for something and they're all "idk, bro. it might take like, 14 weeks for it to come in. we'll call you." 'Community' is also much overused term; who in their right mind would want to hang out at a store like I just described?
The best store I've ever been to, Camp Zama records in Norfolk, VA, within walking distance of my parents house, never had a single customer in it while I was there. Go figure. Usually though, good record stores like Amoeba in LA and the amazing collectors shops in SoHo are doing well, even in the face of probably-sky-high rents. As long as records/cds/whatever sound better than mp3s there will be record stores. If you're opening one, just follow this simple business strategy: stock plenty of cool, rare shit, sell online, hire just one helpful employee, don't waste people's time, and you'll do fine. The only store in the area currently following this model is All Day Records in Carrboro. Visit them. To all the half-ass shops who think they deserve to be in business b/c ppl just ♥ physical formats, hope ya'll have a sweet liquidation sale.
**the film does feature some cool bits, like Ian Mackaye alleging that he's never heard a Guns N' Roses song!
A quick heads up about a little virtual workshop I'm holding over at Turntable.fm - I'll be in channel Indie While You Work while I work on a lab report this evening. As the name suggests, it's populated by a lot of corporate indie types that probably watch Jimmy Fallon. Come by and help me smash their heads on the punk rock!
I'm under the temporary moniker EZ$ until I find the poser who is pretending to be The Truth...
Ok, so maybe the Counting Crows didn't fetch quite the $400 price tag I was projecting, but we're still in a bubble. And what should you do when you're in a bubble? Well, buy some lim. edyy vinyl of course! Like this, latest War On Drugs album:
One of the best albums (as in, a musical statement designed to be listened to as a whole) of the year so far, pressed on glorious 45 RPM translucent red wax, and yes it sounds divine. [Pro tip: translucent vinyl (of any color) is usually the best sounding. It's the 'marbled' colored stuff you kinda wanna be wary of. Good black vinyl is actually somewhat translucent if you shine a light on it.] There's only 75 of these puppies available worldwide, and you could put stuff like this in your daughter's dowry, so get like me h8rz!
I was just listening to an interview with Steve Albini where he talks about the heard-it-a-million-times-now 'shift in the music industry' away from records and towards live performance. This is significant for him, being a producer/engineer n' all. He seems positive about it, saying that records are now a 'service' for bands used to promote their live show. I'm of a totally different mind about this: I kind of hate live music, and always have. Sure, I've been to some unforgettable shows, but it's a completely different sort of sensation from experiencing recorded music. Occasionally you'll hear live versions that trump the recorded ones in some way, and rarely you may hear some mysterious unreleased song that never makes it to record. But mostly live shows are bland social affairs where you're scanning the room for single hauties and wondering what'll be at the merch table. I used to go see bands because because I wondered what the people making the cool sounds I heard on an album looked like, wondered what kind of personal vibes they were putting out, but now I can find all that kind of info on Fader TV, Facebook, etc. while I listen to their records. So what's the point of going to a show? I can't even scan for hauties anymore, I'm in a relaissh.
This is not my beautiful music industry. I miss the days when the shows were the promotional tool for the product. An infrequent, whimsical affair that was affordable (because tours usually broke even or lost money) and gave one some context about the making of the record, sorta like a book-signing. Will people stop buying books and instead opt for the 'experience' of listening to authors read them aloud? Maybe I feel that music doesn't deserve to be foregrounded. I know the few times I've played live I felt uncomfortable being scrutinized while playing my 2-note part on a synthesizer. Maybe I find the notion of 'watching music' to be vaguely ridiculous [just like I hate being forced by audiophiles to sit and watch the stereo while they emote along with the lyrics next to me on the couch]. That's what music videos are for! Maybe, in the end, I'm just selfish - I want music to be my soundtrack, something to accompany me while I explore drugs/sexuality/car rides, something to listen to at parties with my clique. I want recordings to be well-crafted sonic universes, with their own internal logic and aesthetic laws. And in most cases, I don't want to see the performers of the music, because they won't live up to my imaginary constructions that are the privilege of the listener.
Perhaps one day this will change course. Recordings will seem lame and live music will become some kind of virtuosic, improvisatory cabaret that I can't even imagine yet. But as far performance goes, musicians have some pretty big shoes to fill:
Are these dudes on bandcamp?
The corollary is that as people take recordings less seriously, demote them to the status of promotional devices, they start to take on a slipshoddy quality (to say nothing of the derivative, unfocused songwriting these days) that really distances me from the music, harshes my buzz, and basically forces me to live in the past. Am I gonna end up like this bro?
"The 1920's were the zenith of Western civilization."
Living in my basement, never having had a real job, just visiting random folk's houses demanding to let me buy their records? I hope not. I want a real life, one that involves quality recorded media. It's weird, because at the turn of last century, when the teenagers were making out by the gramophone, dudes like me were saying 'it'll never be like the live show'. But I'm a product of the hypermedia environment of the late 20th century and for me, the recorded sound captures the mystery, the eros, the ethos, the pathos of music. A magical displacement of time and space, experiencing sound far from its original creators and their intentions. Seeing dudes strap on outmoded instruments or push keys on a laptop in my presence usually leaves me flat.
That said, and vis-à-vis Hopscotch, I will be at the party AFTER the show. See you there.
The record is one of many currently being sold by 'depakh7' - who looks to be one of those very special Japanese dudes who obsessively collect every pseudo-mainstream record you kinda wish you had bought (that one James Iha solo LP on vinyl? check. the lead 12" single from that one James Iha solo LP? he's got that too), and keeps them all in great shape. These loyal and diligent acolytes of MTV culture are and have always been important archivists of Western ephemera, but this historic set of auctions unfolding over the next 2 weeks or so comes at a unique time for recorded music, and highlights the interesting turn record collecting in particular has taken in the last few years or so.
You probably remember the 'Housing Bubble', right? Well, it seems we've entered a Vinyl Bubble, wherein prices for used or even almost-new records take on exponential -even asymptotic- behavior. Here is a graphic that will familiarize you with the concept of bubbles:
Where are we on this curve? Seems like we're past 'Media attention' and well into 'Enthusiasm', no? Following auctions like the one above will give you an idea, but perhaps it's not representative, perhaps the vinyl copy of August and Everything After, the album that soundtracked my drive to middle-school (on CD, natch) every other day for 3 years, is actually the El Dorado of records. There is some merit to this idea - the record seems to only have been pressed in Europe, it's unequivocally their best album by a wide margin, and it looks tasty - full color inner sleeve with lyrics and that big photo of the band smiling and playing their brand of R.E.M-meets-Rusted Root in a dingy alley.
Did this photo ever =Music, for you?
The only thing better would've been a limited first run press on translucent yellow vinyl with one of Adam Duritz-bro's dreadlocks thrown in for good measure. Is it $400 tasty though?
This seems to be a good place to introduce my concept of the 'Danger Zone' of collecting anything. I'm sure sociologists have another term for it, but I call it the Danger Zone because it occurs after that interval of time between when someone was most likely to have positive associations with said media (in the case of pop-rock, we can safely assume 'teenager') and when they were most likely to have sold it because they were ashamed/needed money (college) and when they were first flush with both discretionary cash and free time (late 30's). So the Danger Zone is breached anywhere from 15-35 years after the item was first popular, and it causes significant upward price momentum on the most valuable of whatever the collected asset class happens to be. In the case of the Counting Crows, I imagine it's due to some middle manager at First Citizens bank who heard on NPR that "Vinyl is Back!!" and decided to spend some of his six-figure income on reclaiming misspent youth...
...which is an old story, and it's why sports cars and cosmetic surgery exist, but it's not the whole story. Vinyl itself going through something of an appreciation 'mania' lately. Presumably, people are realizing that the world and music especially are being qualitatively debased by digital technology and are in a mad scramble to grab the last 'authentic' experiences available, very accessible in neatly indexed form of course by same digital technology. Of course, getting a record by the Counting Crows on vinyl in NC in 1993 would've been quite a task in the first place, because the format was basically being dug a mass grave by the RIAA from the years '92 - 97, so that gives it a little added value. But why are new records being 'flipped', within 2 years of their release for 4-5x their purchase price, when they're still widely available on multiple formats? Should I save vinyl to pay for my children's college, or a down payment on a house?
No. I think there's a finite limit to the price people will pay for records and we're rapidly reaching that point. The only advantage that vinyl confers over modern, infinitely more convenient streamable, playlistable formats (besides its textural artifact qualities, kewl colors and the not-insignificant matter of terrible remastering jobs) is its undeniably superior sound quality, even for music that was recorded digitally, on a shitty laptop with a $12 mic. But here's another fact: 32-bit, 192 khz digital audio sounds indistinguishably as-good (better if you consider the zero noise and better dynamic range) as analog records. They only told you CDs sounded as good, but seriously, I'm a vinyl purist and I'm telling you, 2-channel 32/192 audio is perfect**. Why oh why can't we have Perfect Sound Now and Forever?
**this represents a drastic, irresponsible/delusional over-simplification. see this, this and this.
a) a 3 minute song in 32/192 format takes about 1 GB of space. (that means my iTunes library would currently take up about 100 TB in high-fidelity files. most people have access to 5-10 TB storage, tops)
fun fact: iTunes supports 24 bit/96 khz playback (but won't stream it via AirTunes). if you input a 32/192 file it will 'down-sample' (I have no idea how this works) to 24/96. still though, what a difference it makes. try it for yourself!
b) to disseminate (i.e. stream) such a song via the internet requires a ~50 Mbps connection (at the time of this writing, I am sucking wind on a 3 Mbps, although some parts of the country are getting 15-20 Mbps regularly)
c) at the rate things are going, we should see the necessary storage/transmission requirements met by decade's end.
That's right, 2020. By 2030, physical formats are going to seem seriously old-hat and I feel sorry for people laying down 3-4 figures for records that won't fetch that much even in inflation-adjusted dollars 20 years from now.
Is it time to sell, Sell, SELL? I think 'depakh7' is being a bit premature. Enjoy your records/tapes/cd's for another 5-7 years. We'll still be in the Danger Zone for people like me who sold their emo records only to see them appreciate 10x not even 10 years later, and would like to pretend they didn't. At which point, you can take their money and invest in S/S action figures from the 80's (the smart money's on Dino Riders and Boglins) or maybe a Jensen Healey.
I hope you've got your consumerist 'sights on', because September is shaping up to be a big month for media. We've got some grunge revival brewing, some great bloggaze (you like that?) records coming out, and I'm still waiting with bated breath for the first indie sex tape scandal. Here's the scoop:
-Neon IndianAlbum - surely the first album to come packaged with a working analog synthesizer **gimmick points**
-Big Troubles Album -Chairlift Album (?) - lead single already released on my ex-roommate Ethan Silverman's label
-Toro Y Moi EP - back by popular demand to his chillwave sound
-Mudhoney Documentary -Pearl Jam Documentary -St. Vincent Album (wasn't excited about this initially, esp. after her contrived attempt to get some weak ass twitter buzz going , but it sounds like it could be alright in a Feisty kind of way. more candy)
-For Locals: Hopscotch festival, Moog festival (October, technically, but is slated to feature retirement home legends Tangerine Dream, Roedelius, AND Eno, so you should plan in advance)
Now I'm mildly depressed b/c I realize that everything on the above list will likely be covered by NPR, and I am self-consciously NOT a part of the NPR demo. 'That's Not Public Radio' is NOT the name of this blog. So am I missing anything - Drew, 'Contributors'?? Preferably some underground shit that a shut-in like me doesn't have access to.
Below is one of my favorite hip-hop 'bangers' of the last few years. It's by a Winston Salem gent who goes by Lil Rise and the song is 'Come and Get It' [how's that for SEO?] Unfortunately, since I'm not in touch with the black community, it is completely unattainable - undownloadable, unpurchasable, not on any distributed physical format that I'm aware of (although it got plenty of airplay on 102 Jamz; such is the state of the music industry today...), and probably unknown outside of North Carolina - therefore, I'm forced to do a Myspace embed (file under: Stuff white people do not like). Hope you enjoy.
and Drew, re: your USB dongle - come and get it homeslice!
Ok, so finally a movie I'm stoked about. A documentary about Pearl Jam, the entity - along with Starbucks and Microsoft - most emblematic of the 'idea' of Seattle, and that moment in time, about 20 years ago, that I received secondhand a few years after the fact though mainstream commercial outlets in suburbia. Never been of fan of the aforementioned entities, but they do provoke a weird nostalgia, perhaps of the 'last days of old-America', before the amphetamine rush of the internet->post 9/11 axis of never-ending political dramedy via Bush/Bin Laden/Daily Show->massive banking fraud and quid pro quo by the ultrarich, for the ultrarich->massive anxiety over employment/inflation hidden under the Millenials' shallow positivism and a Real Simple glossy expanse of negativespace and soma-like tranquility. Back when America was confident enough to be sloppy, embrace chain restaurants and think Bill Gates was cool. Anyway, this movie is perfectly timed and looks well-executed. It also looks like a way for Cameron Crowe to revisit his Singles-era glory days after his recent 2 hour music-video flops, i.e. Elizabethtown. Or it could just be the season for grunge documentaries. Either way, sign me up for this one.
UPDATE: Slate confirms the 'season of grunge' thesis (as well as touching on a couple of my other suggestions) in an insightful article by Monsieur Reynolds.
As Drew continues his Summer of Lucking Into Good Music (capped by a Cinderella-like DJ spot at White Collar Crime this thursday! which should be can't miss) I'm going to take a different tack, since he seems to temporarily have 'blissed-out dance pop' on lockdown. You see, like the proverbial kid in the candy store, Drew is bingeing on all of these sugary pop confections and soon enough he's going to come crashing down with a tummy ache. At which point he'll see the value in some good old fashioned rock-n-roll. Enter Oasis.
Noel Gallagher's a minor genius. I'm always impressed by someone who can take something generic and make it seem unique; rather than someone who makes something unique seem generic (like Lady Gaga). The creative half of the Gallagher bros does just that - he takes guitar lines that, melodically and rhythmically, you would expect to come from some guitar-playing hippy bro at a keg party (they are mindlessly ordinary) and makes them immediately identifiable as Oasis songs. Part of that has to do with his voice, I realize, but it's also to do with the certain vocal lines he chooses, his guitar tone, and the imagery he's cultivated for his brand. Oasis are always said to 'sound like the Beatles', except that they don't really, the Beatles were never this plain. The Beatles didn't double as 'pro-England' soccer hooligans either, which Oasis certainly do. The point is, in pop, mystique is as important as the music itself, and Noel Gallagher is a genius because he understands that and edits his music and persona down to their most banal elements, going further than any other band was willing to go stripping away gimmicks, using the exact same guitar licks in every song, eventually reaching a pared down state of plainness that is called 'Oasis'. Here's a good example.
This will serve as the comedown music after this thursday's 'Drubiza'.
I've been a bit out of control lately to say anything coherent, but I still know where the Jams are!
Friday, July 29, 2011
I just came across this little vid on the Dorkcast. It's Washed Out, now with some compadres fleshing out his latest songs. I gotta say, I wasn't sure if/how these chillwavers could translate their one man laptop brand to a live setting successfully, but indie hunk Eernie Greene did, and the results are stunning. Movies are rarely better than books, and live versions of songs are almost never better than their recorded counterparts, but in this case... I'm feeling this version, and I don't even like this song on the record! Laid back, mature, classy, not even chillwavey. Impressive. (excuse the lame screen shot)
As of today I'm officially back and ready to enjoy what's left of my summer vacay, down to the last humid drop. who's up for BBQing? skinnydipping? hipster watermelon party in the backyard? ironic baby pools? chillbrave (chillwave for our troops)? seersucker suits? playing 'bones' on the porch with your bros? watching Eastbound and Down w/ your grandma? smoking dank? enjoying a summer concert series? bumpin Will Smith in your land cruiser? going down to the 'rock quarry'? listening to some Seal in your bathtub?
The only reason you may have heard of Tyler, the Creator is.....
I'm not sure why the Youtube Title calls it a Tyler track, but the video says Earl... but, I will say the only reason we haven't really heard this kid Earl yet, is because he's only 17 and in military school, and his moms won't release his music because of the vulgarity. So it's kinda like when Snoop was in Jail and when he got out he dropped Doggystyle....well, maybe..
But maybe this Earl kid (the higher voice and clearly the better rapper), has a chance, his flow kills, especially amongst the sea Odd Future crap.
Why can't I just keep my word and stay the fuck away from the blog?! I don't know, but to celebrate finally obtaining an un-crippled version of Ableton, I decided I just had to do what you all didn't know you've been waiting for, and drop an EXCLUSIVE REMIX. Don't let your pee pee get too tingly, it's just a slowed version of the best remix of Lloyd's "Lay It Down", released earlier this year. Lloyd (last name withheld to my knowledge) is my favorite R&B crooner of the past decade, and probably the only one that deserves the distinction of being the 'R. Kelly of his generation'. This remix actually features said legend, along with Young Jeezy, produced by Polow Da Don (my favorite producer of the past decade). The 'screwed' treatment so in vogue with mcwhitey hipsters lately improves this song a lot, cause the original is pitched uncomfortably high, I guess to keep the wonderful Patti LaBelle sample in the right key. Modern R&B doesn't get any better than this.
Somethin' to bump in your trunk + bedroom this summer!
Real life keeps on beckoning me to join its unhappy ranks, and although I've tried valiantly to resist, I must now oblige it for a few weeks; which means, for you, dear reader(s), I will be away from the blogue. Yes, Me & Drew, we may write like children, but we are in fact old ass men with shit to do. But nary a despairing word slips from my fingers - it's summer time, after all - we old men still have got the life left in us, and The Myth will surely entertain you with wholly inaccurate reviews of recent albums (that new Bon Iver was kinda alright, dude) while I'm gone.
And now, in honor of their recent documentary 'streaming event' (you missed it), with a few uplifting stanzas for summer, a group that knows a thing or two about real life and the aging process - The Traveling Wilburys.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather watch the Golden Girls series in its entirety in one sitting than go to a movie theater right now. It seems as if Hollywood is consolidating into only 3 genres: Comic Book/Pixar/Apatow, which I guess defines the three remaining demographics of the moviegoing public: Idiots, Children, and Bros. Everyone else just streams shit on the internet, which is exactly what you should do right now. Watch the above short-doc about the making of Screamadelica.
Primal Scream have an interesting career arc. They spent the 80s as a kind of middling, jangly throwback band, and then, practically from nowhere, did a stylistic pirouette and delivered the transcendent pan-genre workout that is Screamadelica, then spent the rest of the 90s making incoherent drug albums, and now they're basically old and reminisce and play festivals. So their creative highpoint was a one-off curio, delivered in the middle of their career. Quite unusual, but it sort of makes sense, because it is the kind album that can only happen once, like Dark Side of the Moon, you can't reasonably expect to put out 5-10 Screamadelicas.
I become less and less enamored with Creation Records all the time. Back in high school, they seemed like the mysterious, exotic label dedicated to quality product: cutting edge bands, beautiful packaging, English provenance (this matters when you are an American suburban tweenster). After all, they were the guys that introduced us to the Jesus and Mary Chain, gave us My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, the better shoegaze acts, Oasis. What could be wrong with that? But over time, as I wised up, Alan McGee & Co. just seems like a bunch of rockists. Rockism, for those who don't know, is an ideology usually espoused by white men of all ages, that aims to view the world and its events "through the lens of Rock". Remember "The Week in Rock" on MTV? Rockist idea. Nick Hornby? Rockist writer. In rockism, sideline genres such as Soul or Hip Hop just serve to emphasize the centrality of Rock in modern existence. Because of this shameless ethno/musico centrism, rockism is reviled on college campuses, and which is why you never here things which could be associated with mainline rockism on *certain* radio stations. I guess it's my buddha-nature that compels me to find the middle path - I'm certainly no rockist, but a good BTO/ELO/Moody Blues/et. al song has its charms and place. Which brings us to Screamadelica, and why it was so extraordinary. You might not pick this up from the movie, but Primal Scream are a bunch of rockists. And speaking from my limited experience in bands, its fucking hard to get one of these guys to step out of their comfort zones, let alone explore uncharted musical territory. But that's what producer Andy Weatherall seems to have done, and it takes a mind operating on a whole 'nother level to sequence such disparate-sounding songs like 'Come Together' (UK version)-->'Loaded'-->'Damaged' which don't even sound like the same band, on the same album and make it feel not just 'right', but perfect. Yeah, I like Screamadelica.javascript:void(0)
What's odd is that I wouldn't call this an influential album. No one's attempted such a sublime fusion of rock/dance styles since. The only group that comes to mind is maybe Gang Gang Dance, but they're albums are too diverse, to the point where even though I've heard most of them, I couldn't begin to describe what they sound like. The important thing about Screamadelica is that it keeps its eclecticism unified, somehow, where all the songs sound 'of a piece', even though they shouldn't.
Well kids, that's todays lesson. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, so no big deal. Leave any tips on Screamadelica-esque albums in the comments, either as precedents or antecedents. As a parting gift, here's a B-side, apparently not quite up to par for the album. If you want to hear it live, bring some drugs over to The Truth's house!
Maybe this site will get some recognition with the ads I'm about to post.
Let's get something straight, Bon Iver SUCKS! Who let this guy in the room? Normally I would dismiss any argument for or against Mr. Vernon as it is not hardly even palatable music. His first release was huge success among the kids and critics, but hardly a hit in my neck of the woods. That's cause where the airwaves aren't clouded by the watered down bullshit that we get daily you can actually hear something different, or diverse, or long forgotten; not the highly anticipated release of some brah that gets mono and takes a Walden dream break at his pappy's cabin to create the new 'album of the week'
Is that all it takes today, cold temps, some shitty bug from being a slut, and a rich family that has a place out in the woods. I'm sure that's what McCartney was thinking when he revolutionized home recording. "Damn I'm just not sick enough, Linda bring the animals in here, I have a RAM idea"!!
I wish America would wake up. But it's hard when so many follow Mr. Colbert, and if he says it's cool, then it's cool. Just watch the interview, at least he throws a few jabs in there about this joker's EGO. How many people are on the stage with him, you're doing 2 songs on the Colbert Report with a full band and it you made this whole project off in the woods alone??
I'll apologize for the ads you'll have to sit through to experience this garbage, but I will not say anything apologetic for this guy Justin.. Boo and Boo..
Instead of the same old negative, derivative BS from me today, why not read about one of the best bands after making one of the best albums of all time (Rumours), presented in the crisp writing of Cameron Crowe...
Since we "criticize almost everything" around here, I thought I'd take a break from the usual invective and share something I'm genuinely stoked about for a change. And since there's almost nothing to be stoked about in contemporary music, that 'something' always seems to be related to a little band called... Chairlift. Who have a new album coming out soon. And who now have an album preview video up, which I think was posted less than a day ago - news so fresh, Huffington's got nothing on us citizen d-bags here at TNRR!
Anyhow, Polachek and Wimberly seem to be holding shit together now that Pfenning's gone, despite some of my earlier apprehensiveness. The video shows the two walking around some sort of hyperreal VRML webpage of new construction in Brooklyn [note: this is probably not new construction nor does it appear to be in Brooklyn]. You know, the typical fresh, offbeat thinking that I love about this band, and with the tunes to match. The sonics sound f*cking tasty, and although there aren't many vocals, I'm left with a lingering sensation of wanting more. I can generally say I'm pretty well PSYCHED for this release. So without any further adieu...
With all of this talk about how the hip hop scene has "Sucked a Fat one" since the early 2000's and every year or so a new Eminem album dropping with another slow beat for some white guy to think it s clever...The "real" heads keep working hard to find something meaningful of good.
This guy Big Ooh! is unsigned, unknown, and has TONS of videos on youtube! I think the problem with most of the crap coming out today isn't just the integrity of the rapper. But it's the production quality. Most music is watered down we know, but the newer post 2000 rap music "mainstream" beat is outright annoying. Im a less is more kinda person, so if jacking 90's R&B songs is what it takes, then let it happen.
I'm not going to give any examples of this shitty music here, that's for you to listen to on your way to the beach this weekend, but I will give a fresh taste of a chillwave(ish) rapper!
and in the meantime....is there a new Avalanches album coming out?
I'm kinda tired of dissing or even thinking about Odd Future at this point, but I think this video disses itself. When I first saw it, I watched the first 10 seconds, pressed pause and complained to my gf, "I'm sick of all these goddamn ads in front of Youtube videos!". But then it slowly dawned on me - 'this isn't a brief commercial for the new Acura Integra playing in front of an Odd Future video... it's actually an Odd Future song called Acura Integurl! I'll admit, my mind was blown a little. But not in a good way. The only good thing about this song is that it's over very quickly.
The most mind-blowing thing, though, is that this video has 63,000+ views, and only 2 'dislikes'!! TWO. Despite having some of the worst lyrics of any R&B song I've heard in quite some time (the only good lyrics are quotes from Lil Wayne songs). If this isn't a sterling example of 'groupthink' I don't know what is. Advertisers: we haven't seen this much popular support for a potential pitchman since the 'Be Like Mike' Gatorade campaign.
Wow, it sure has been a weak year for movies when I'm practically praying for The Hangover 2 to come out. What the fuck is going on, are there really no good movies out this year, or do I just not read the papers anymore? Finally there's one: a Mudhoney documentary coming out late summer, which, lacking a decent trailer, I'll just post some old live footage instead. Here's them in their prime (1988):
Remind you of anyone? Kinda seems exactly like Nirvana three years later. Mudhoney have always been one of the most overrated bands in my opinion (although they certainly get gold medals for style), but that's probably because they were so 'influential'. Without Mudhoney there would be no Nirvana as we knew it. Without Nirvana.... what would there be? I feel like Nirvana was more anti-influential than anything else, though. They effectively killed the grunge aesthetic by being so good at it, and really have prevented (and will prevent) grunge-y vibes from being relevant again for 20-__ years after the fact. It's still so uncool that the current Dali Lama of hipness, Ariel Pink has predicted that it (along with all cultural artifacts from the 90's) will never come back, that we'll oscillate back and forth imitating the 70's and 80's for e t e r n i t y. Has anyone made such a ludicrous claim before, or could it indeed be true?
ANYway, all this rambling about Mudhoney got me thinking about another overrated but highly influential group: The MC5. Here's an excerpt from a documentary about them from 2002 that never was released. What a bummer it is that the fuckin 'suits' couldn't free their minds & wallets to put this movie out (not even straight to DVD?!):
I've never explored garage rock as thoroughly as I probably should, mostly because of the quasi-conservative old white guy vibe surrounding that subculture. Very aggravating how those types refuse to admit any new musical innovation since 'Some young workin' class kids got together and just started makin noise in the garage man! Wooh!' [tune to Sirius XM channel 25 for a non-stop, commercial-free example of this phenomenon] Me and Drew were at the pool yesterday, choppin it up about how similarly annoying hip hop 'headz' are (our boy J. Strader naturally excluded of course) Which got me thinking: what's the most annoying musical subculture?
[rate the following from 'Extremely Disagree - Love that Shizz' to 'Extremely Agree - Nuke those F***s]
- Jazz purists
- Beatlemania!
- 60's Garage Rock revivalists
- Soul boys (esp. 'Southern Soul' boys)
- Anglophiles
- Ravers (i.e. ppl who can name more than 1 artist that exemplifies the 'breaks' genre)
- Hip Hop headz (includes 'backpackers', Southern Rap apologists, Wu Tang disciples, and anyone who listens to pre-1985 rap regularly)
- White Blues Rock connoisseurs (have u evr been cornered by one these types in the living room of an affluent American suburb?)
- Classical 'lovers'
- Effing Hipsters (musical emphasis changes every 18 months)
- The Proletariat (considered as a single genre by intelligent ppl, includes: Juggalos, adults who listen to Mall punk/emo, purveyors of Christian acoustic music, ardent fans of Kid Rock or Eminem, rap/techno metal hybrids, Mainstream Rock Radio rockers.... and every possible combination therein)
- Moms with large Celtic music cd collections
- Metalheads (ppl who, every time you have a conversation with them, hit you with a genre of metal you never knew existed - e.g. 'Finnish satanic metal')
- Goths
- XXX ers (includes 'Abercrombie' hardcore, gas-station attendant hardcore, and 'classic' hardcore)
- IDM nerds
- '____ Is God'
- Psych/Krautrock/Beefheart/Zappa scholars
- Aged Hipsters (like a wine you've had for too long and are now scared to drink, these ppl are visibly stuck in the past, at the exact moment of last relevance. see Molly Ringwald. at the time of this writing, they are mostly 80's Jangle Poppers)
- Rednecks
- Funk fascists
- Library Science majors (used as an excuse to 'learn about' a lot more shit than you ever will. love 'archival recordings', field recordings, 78s, wax cylinders, the Dust-to-Digital and Sublime Frequencies labels)
- Elvis crazies (an older subset of The Proletariat)
- Cassette exclusivists (ppl in the 21st century who collect music only released on cassette as a way to escape the Tyranny Of Blogspots - anyone who is familiar with the words 'Belgian Minimal House' is likely one of these)
- Asshole bloggers (...)
I think that about covers it. I'm sure you've chanced an encounter with many of these archetypes - did they enrich your life? Did they teach you to appreciate many musical genres to the point where you sit on your computer 24 hrs a day engaged in cultural arbitrage limited only by the speed of your broadband, like myself? Or did they make you say, 'nope, I'm good. I'll just listen to Pandora and take up a physical hobby, like rock-climbing'?
Please, share your thoughts. Drew insists we have a lot of readers...
I used to hate Dave Matthews. I still hate the idea of Dave Matthews... but I gotta admit, when it reaches that certain point in the year, and the weather starts changing.... I become very amenable to a little vintage 'Dave'. Maybe it's the recording quality of those early albums (which is flawless, of course), maybe it's the Not Rock N' Roll concept of musicianship, which turns fairly complicated music into the most ordinary-sounding shit you've ever heard, I don't know. But sometimes, when the weather's just right, I find myself 'lost in the jam'. One of my biggest regrets from highest school is turning my back on the $35/ticket Dave Matthews Summer Amphitheatre Experience, when he was so obviously at his peak (even I knew it at the time). Would it have spawned an unforgettable teen romance with a girl who played field hockey? Or would it have been a 'gateway' experience that led to episodes of hard drug use, following 'Widespread' around on tour, and eventually dropping out of school? Guess I'll never know... What I would give, though, to turn back the clock to 1997/8 and sit on the lawn at Walnut Creek at sunset, with a d00b, some beer in a red cup, just vibin' to this song.
Sometimes it pays to not be such a bloggin' snob, so critical of everything. As REM once said, 'these things they go away' [via Nightswimming]. So True. Have a chill Cinco de Mayo ya'll... and don't be afraid to listen to some jam bands.
Been stalking Drew's facebook, and it looks like he finished his tenure helping 6 yr. old Asian girls float in the pool. And since we both recently had birthdays that officially branded us as old ass men, I say this marks a new beginning. It's time to make something of ourselves. To make something of the blog. No longer accepting staid concepts like 'new urbanism', '(computer generated) lo-fi', 'mixed use retail/condo developments', or 'cassette-only releases' as an answer. We gotta make something new, something real. We gotta do it for our consort, who've been down since day 1. We gotta do it for the 'hood, because the suburbs aren't that much different from the streets [via spiritual ghettos]. In the spirit of the come up, I leave you, the reader, with this blessing: wherever you're going, whatever you're planning on doing - Win this week.
It's a war. And it's on. -Charlie Sheen
This track will not be appearing on the Golden Age comp (it technically falls outside the timeframe)... but hip hop never really got better than this, did it?
As if Odd Future needed to be smacked any further out the frame, apparently the LOX reunited and have a new album coming out this year (?!?!), their first in over a decade. This never happens in hip hop. Pray that it doesn't turn out like most rock reunions (see Guns N' Roses)
I'm working on like, 3 ambitious posts that may or may not see the light of the blog (the title of this one is a clue), but in the meantime, I'm just gonna fire off these youtube clips from Memoryhouse. These tracks struck me as a good example of stuff from 2010 that was 'not that good, but not that bad either', of which there was an abundance. Not 'best of' material, but deserves its spot here due to the choice Jon Brion sample (c.f. Eternal Sunshine soundtrack) used in the latter.
So I dig pop music, its a place in our sound memory bank when we think of the "catchy" songs you like that we hear on the radio or see on the screen. If they make it that far. But for me when I think pop, I think Dance music or electronica.
Too bad here in America we have terrible exposure to this. Whatever nonpublic radio station is playing or what the Television has to offer....hardly anything of it is worth noticing. Not here in the U.S.A. To enjoy good music you really have to dig and go searching for it, because playing those records that we took song long to find will wear down if we play them, so we're not playing those...
Anyway, I feel like I slept on some shit... c
and there is more where he's coming from. Now I've been onto this Mark Ronson cat for some time now, but I didn't realize this guy is planning a take over Prince style! Fuck some Black Eyed Pea's shit, this guy recruits mawfuckin Q-tip Go ahead and start comparing to American musicians from our era....nope. Nobody is near this far gone.... Mark Ronson | Somebody To Love Me by Jawhar dunno where I was with my thoughts on music last JUNE!! But due to our poor communications from the external sources, us Americans will never be as cool as Europeans
Every once in awhile, something starts trending, like a storm cloud on the horizon, and I think to myself "please don't come here and ruin this beautiful day at the golf course". Well, one of those trends is upon us here in the Indie Kingdom of Suburbia, in the form of a bunch of middle class black kids from LA called Odd Future. You might've seen them on Jim Fallon recently.
They're wild, they're miscreants, they're reprobates, they're getting tons of press. In the Galaxie of Trends, they're in the constellation Lil B. In the opinion of this blogger, their antics are transparent and tiresome. They're obviously just semi-pampered teens with too much time on their hands to come up with 'shocking' memes. They have a (frequently updated) tumblr.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, if you're a middle class black person from a Huxtable-wave family - do not rap. Do not try and have a hip-hop career. Try to win a Nobel prize, which none of your people have won yet (besides the Peace prize). Become a billionaire so Oprah doesn't get too lonely as the only black person in Palm Springs. Make your people proud. Stop trying to shock honky ass white people into taking pictures of you on their smartphones.
Why do I not like Odd Future? Well, it's basically because they take the whole architecture of 'indie culture', which rap is normally exempt from, and transfer it squarely to rap. They have a labyrinthine crew structure (even containing 'crews within crews' - a gimmick they stole from Junior M.A.F.I.A. probably, but white journalists don't usually catch that), use lots of 'imagery' a la Wu-Tang or Three 6 Mafia [note: I'm not comparing Odd Future to any of these groups musically/quality-wise. They're actually more akin to Matsiyahu but that's another story.], and create lots of 'hype' for the media to process and disseminate. And what keeps media-people busy, makes media-people happy. Dig?
Here's a video that a serious music critic guy compares to 'Nuthin But a G Thang' and calls it "history in the making"
Really? Kinda felt like I just listened to that shitty group Atmospheres or whoever they were hyping 10 years ago, accompanied by a straight-to-youtube music video made by high school kids. I think Snoop was like, the same age as these kids when 'G Thang' dropped... whose team would you rather be on?
Okay, so some of Odd Future is promising. I think this guy 'Mellowhype' (or is it 2 guys?) might be the zany/creative one in the group [via ODB]. Some compelling production on this one...
[This will be the last racially-motivated paragraph I write on here for a while, guys. promise.] Wonder what this Tyler bro thinks about 90% of his fans being white?
is this the Insane Clown Posse for ppl with 4 year degrees? Or is it just a rehash of Insane Poetry with skateboards, writ large?
Definitely a good sales formula (or is it? think about all those broadband connections, wi-fi broadband connections...), good formula for press, seeing as mainstream journalists HATE writing about 'bling' as some sort of artistic motive/muse. C'mon, white ppl treat bling as a foregone conclusion... college --> bling --> kids --> inheritance --> college --> bling --> governmental influence --> mega bling... nothing out of the ordinary there. No, what white ppl want is what they can't have - talk about fucking your girlfriends corpse after you murdered her, eating your grandparents eyeballs, or similar free-associative nonsense [via Beat Poets] the collective spits out. Really feel like this is manufactured, Lil B formula copy/paste, endorsed by the Jimmy of Fallons and other liberal pressure groups nationwide. That's why I'm taking a stand as the voice of TNRR and calling bullshit on their 2578 mp3s spread across 523 mixtapes.
"Odd Future can eat a big fat dick. Don't add us to your tumblr blog roll." - real OGs
Normally not a promoter of real violence in the hip hop world, but fuck, it's been 15 since the Biggie/Tubac debacle, let's call up Jadakiss, 50 Cent, and a handful of other 'real niggas' to pack up the tools "with the infrared beams" and do a 187 on the entirety of Odd Future. The block is about to get real hot. I'll drive.
little preview of the forthcoming Golden Age hip hop mixtape produced by yourstruly
P.S: If you google 'Junior Mafia' + 'Odd Future', we are #1! Could the Truth be the first to identify that rip? Or have I just lost my mind?
One of my biggest gripes with the vinyl format has always been it's lack of high-frequency performance. The low-mids are perfect. CD doesn't come close in that respect. I mean, that's why you can't get stoned to digital music, amirite? But CD consistently wins on the high end, even though I know that 'theoretically' LPs are supposed to have this 'super high frequency' information, well into the 40-60 kHz range, that you can't 'hear' but can only 'feel' (ever have that experience?). But usually, LPs sound rolled-off on the high end, subdued. That's not only because I have a shitty turntable that isn't set-up properly, but because I think the records themselves are slightly destroyed. Turns out that you shouldn't play a record more than once every 24 hrs, because the pressure from the needle actually melts the groove and reduces the high-frequency response in the process. In my experience, this is true! A new record loses its 'crispiness' after a while, when I play it a lot, whereas a CD never does [via Perfect Sound Forever]. Obviously, if your turntable isn't setup right (if the tracking force on the tonearm is too high, not straight, etc.) it will cause additional wear on the groove. This is bad news, cause unlike dust, which just adds noise, this actually ruins your record, and is the reason most used records I buy have a sort of 'muted' sound to them. At least, that's what I think [haven't verified any of the science behind this].
Here's the piece from Wired, referencing another magazine:
This particularly esoteric -- and vital -- piece of vinyl lore came from High Fidelity Magazine (which originally ran complete with electron microscope illustrations) explaining why you need to wait 24 hours before replaying a record to prevent high wear. At the one-millionth of a square inch point of the needle (1000th X 1000th inch) the one and one-half gram weight on the record groove is magnified to 18,000 pounds per square inch! This pressure liquefies the vinyl -- which in does flow back into proper shape BUT the vinyl is now brittle and playing the needle over again will rub groove off. It takes 24 hours for vinyl to regain its elasticity. You may play a record every day for 20 years and it will sound like new. But if you play it twice in a row it will lose significant fidelity. I once replayed twice in a row the first 30 seconds of Elton-John's Funeral for a Friend (I had made a mistake timing a recording). I figured just once would not hurt. Wrong: that first 30 seconds lost a sparkle that the rest of the record permanently retained.
What do yall think? Is the Kid A lim. ed. 10" vinyl on Capitol the 'perfect record' - does it somehow never wear out, even though you've play 'Everything In Its Right Place' 1,500x in a row? Should High Fidelity merge with High Times for a special double issue?
The inimitable Simon Reynolds (he coined the term post-rock) has had a long meme on guitar solos going over at his blog, and was cool enough to post some of my suggestions. I'm not identified as 'The Truth' (that's not how they roll over there), but as 'ajb' (one of my email accounts), and I appear towards the end of the March 13th post. For those of you who like books, read some of his, they will make you a better person. How do you think I became The Truth in the first place?
Some more thoughts on Chairlift...
(Caroline at least) has been appearing on a lot of other artists' songs over the past year or so. Most of them are boring indie tunes made in Brooklyn, but I forgot about this one I enjoyed with white-person-approved rapper Das Racist, called 'Fashion Party'. It highlights one of the elements of the band I like - the fact that they embrace luxury, the high-roller scene, and aren't afraid to 'be okay with money' (i.e. that time they modeled Marc Jacobs), unlike the majority of hipsters who conceal their offshore trust fund accounts, and pretend like the gig at the coffee shop is their life's work. Reminds me of say, Roxy Music in that way...
Caroline is apparently on this This Mortal Coil-sounding track, although I think all she does is add some 'woos' and noises.
People familiar with this blog know that Chairlift is my one modern major label indulgence. Us 'true fans' were racked with some bad news last Fall when it was quietly announced that co-founder/songwriter Aaron Pfenning left to do his own thing (a decent sounding Cure-Depeche Modey band with one of those stupid ___s type names, called 'Rewards'). My hunch is that the split was romantically motivated, seeing as former gf/co-songwriter Caroline Polachek (above) is now living with the dude from Violens. Anyway, this presents a real problem for the band, both sonically, as one can tell that Chairlift's songs are a mélange of Pfenning and Polachek's influences, and logistically, because now the lineup has been reduced to a lame 'boy-girl combo' (multi-instrumentalist Patrick Wimberly).
So what the fuck is the new album gonna sound like? I have no idea... Caroline describes it as 'more acidic, and faster', which is surprising to me. I don't know how many songs Aaron wrote before he left, so who knows if the 'balance' is still there or not. I DO know that the album is schedule to be released June-ish, so we can expect a whole nother round of 'album cycle' promotion, which in fact, has already begun. Caroline collabed with hipster lingerie line 'The Lake & Stars' for the Fall '11 show, providing the soundtrack for the catwalk, and modeling (I couldn't find any shots of her in panties, but when I do you know TNRR is getting the hookup! All I could find was this so far).
Apparently the inspiration was 'Italian neo-classicism' meets '70s minimalism', so Caroline mashed up 60s electronica, classical pieces, with some of her own synth treatments. Here's a video of her 'collabing' in her apartment, playing Terry Riley's A Rainbow In Curved Air (because she's that kind of chick):
Could 2011 be the Year of Caroline? Will she do Playboy? (she would if asked I bet) Should I send her a mixtape pronto before she marries a subpar indie star?
So instead of posting on a regular basis these days I spend my time defiling the town I live in with shiny spray paint or watching old rock docs...and so I come to Harry Nilsson. Now he isn't some one that I've never heard of before (we've all heard this one)
But as I venture further into the life of Harry Nilsson and learn how he was a 'one upper to John Lennon' and putting aside all the bias that I neglect from my roommate Brad..(he saw the same doc a year ago and tried pushing this singer guy at me, but like most music Brad finds, I tend to ignore) I'm not gonna say he was on to something, because I think the guys at RCA long ago were the ones onto it.
What really really intrigued me was when I heard two songs in the film that caught my attention.
1st:
A nice Jam featuring some Beatles and others jamming away with Nillson, but hmmm...this is the 70's and the Infamous Cee-Lo Green has yet to hardly exist..
Nowadays you can't hardly go anywhere without hearing "Fuck You"....sure its a cool song, every dude wants to have his day with the hotter chick looking back at the older chick (also hot) and give her a good...well you know the song.
But now the real catch, where I'm gonna need your help Briggsy...this one is short, sweet, catchy and from a kids film made by Nillson, but its been sampled, reworked, stolen and turned into a dance mix or something....help me find where we know this track:
The sun is pouring down. Cats are spaced on 'nip, tackling each other and clawing away at my Bobby Brown LPs. All indicators of a good day. And lo and behold, an e-olive branch extended at TNRR, with nary a cage match necessary.
And of all the days to come in hot with
Mr. Truth also elects this moment to touch on how chillwave has started to nudge the sonic aesthetic toward the gloss and style of 80's synth-driven sounds. And I couldn't agree more.
Not only do I see the trend continuing, I embrace it. Sure, most of the new bands that tout Dazzle Ships (!) as influential will sound closer to Chromeo than Junior Boys, but less copies of Lament in a dollar bin is better for everyone.
(homage-wise, this is getting it right)
I had been considering a regular-esque foray into the criminally underrated and unfairly dismissed realm of 80's pop, so this is all quite fortuitous.
Stay tuned, intrepid reader(s?) .. as the post title suggests, first up will be Japan's 1980 masterpiece Gentlemen Take Polaroids.
Felt a real bit of encouragement the other day when I learned that Martin Hannett, famed Factory Records producer, was a chemistry major! He started his production career at 28, as well. You see, just nigh of my 28th birthday (and graduation, with a chemistry degree), I'm at a bit of an impasse about what to do with my life. Obviously I can't be writer. I've always held out a slight dream of producing music - it was what I originally intended to go to college for, after all. I suspect that's where my talents lie (if I in fact have any)... writing little riffs, sculpting the big picture, ridding the world of boring-sounding records. Will I become a producer this year? Should I produce records as 'The Truth', like Flood or The Matrix?
Flood Bro
Here's one of the best scenes about producing ever in a movie, from 24 Hour Party People. Thanks be to whoever had the good taste to upload the entire scene.
Did Martin Hannett invent sipping syzzurp in the studio?
Faster, but slower. It always amazes me how many people can't understand this simple artistic maxim. It's about Impact; something very few recordings have. The reason recorded music is so transformative, is about 50% to do with the production. The vibe is as important as the song itself - it's the world the song pulls you into. Take 'She's Lost Control' - not that great of a song, really, yet Tony Wilson's right on the money when he says "there's nothing else out there that sounds like this, and that's the best thing about it". The song basically invented post-punk. Joy Division were miles ahead of everyone else, vibe-wise (they would sound futuristic today) and Hannett definitely was a big part of it.
He's also responsible for possibly my favorite production ever, New Order's 'Ceremony' (esp. the early 3-piece version below). Youtube doesn't really do it justice, you need to hear it on 45 rpm vinyl. (Drew was gentleman enough to let me buy it back from him after I sold it, setting a good example for us all.)
When the record starts spinning, and you hear the kick drum, perfectly isolated and centered in the mix, with an assuring 4/4 thump while the Doppler-ed bass lines weave in and out, jagged guitars pierce the vast space around the song, and the haunted vocal issues forth, totally out of place sonically, yet just right, you feel genuinely excited; you get the sense that you're listening to Art, a singular experience, captured somehow on a 12" plastic disc. Real lightning-in-a-bottle type shit.
A nice puff piece about the real Martin, in the studio, twiddling knobs. For fans of 'practical' Youtube videos:
Here's a couple more tasty productions by Hannett.
Can't find the original Hannett version of this OMD song, but the version the band remixed is very, very close to his.
Did you know? The Stone Rosies recorded their first album years before their debut finally came out... with Marty Hanny. They canned the project at the demo stage bc they got into a fight or something (they would probably call it a 'kerfuffle') bc they couldn't handle the 'far out' sound Hannett was bringing (he was getting wild - and obese - at this point). They released the tapes some years later when they realized their careers weren't coming back [via burning out, then fading away].
Gnarly sounding version of 'I Wanna Get Around'
Was this song ever on Guitar Hero?
Not too many other producers captured sounds with as much focus and clarity as old MH. The few that come to mind are Steve Albini, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, and SST's man Spot, who gave us my 2nd favorite production of all time:
You think Kevin Shields liked this record?
That IS Rock and Roll. It basically proves that rock is as much the sound as it is the song. All you need is one chord, and one lyric. New Day Rising! New Day Rising! New Day Rising! Play it with enough feeling and you WILL win your local talent show. I remember back in the day, me and my roommate bought that record for our dorm room, and when we brought it to the counter the owner of the shop (Bull City Records, RIP) said, with a seriousness straight outta High Fidelity, "I listened to this every morning on the way to high-school". You don't say that about shittily produced music!!
So, just start a one-chord band for now. Stick to maybe... one lyric. Hire me as your producer. I can't guarantee success, but I promise our records won't sound like this (i.e. successful):
Kinda feel like building a studio with a fireplace in it, so I can use PRS guitars as firewood. Has a good song ever been written on a PRS?
I'm glad to The Sound took time out to demonstrate his sense of humor [India Arie] and his desire to be like everybody else [Arthur Russell - the preeminent credibility drop since his 2004 retrospectives]. Arthur Russell is another one of those white guys (from Iowa, by way of San Francisco) who is somehow semi-branded as black. Journalists usually throw in little descriptors like 'downtown art scene' [via Basquiat], 'afro-beat', and never mentioning he's from Iowa. Retro-hype kept building until that shitty movie about Arthur Russell's imagined life, starring Jamie Foxx.
Joanna Newsom is like this, too. Remember when she was supposed to be 'all freaky'/not-some-average-white-chick b/c she played the harp and sang in that silly affected voice? But here she is rockin a Chanel bag (same one that Cam Diaz and Emma Stone have)
Here she is at a hockey game, again with the frat bro from SNL.
John Cage also falls into this category, although for more subtle reasons. Interestingly, the frontman of Love (also named Arthur) usually isn't billed as a black person, except possibly when trying to draw comparisons to Arthur Russell's alleged blackness. Hipster credibility dynamics are very confusing...
Anyway, hope we can leave our friendly feud at that. I'll drop the Carles appropriations [riding copycat waves], although some terms (like Overgrounders) are public domain since there's not a word that better describes that concept. I just hope we don't have an 'angry' contributor (I don't know how such a nice guy like Drew can have so many angry-bro friends)
Now, some random thoughts.
Who likes the Walkmen? Are the only people who buy Walkmen albums coffee shop owners who want to drive out their loitering patrons? I had my afternoon ruined today by the Walkmen discography being on shuffle in a cafe. Annoying voice, undistinguished guitars, shrill trebly sound, for hours. I don't care if that guy has deep lyrics. Publish your poetry, spare us any more recordings. Are the Walkmen the american Muse?
File under: 'I'd Rather Be Dead'
(These are two different bands)
Something I have been feeling recently, is this video from Matrix Metals.
I think everyone should embrace the fact that 'chillwave' is the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended), and we're headed, I believe, into at least a decade-long shift towards this aesthetic. I'm personally excited about a return to synthy futurism in music/culture, the vibe of the 80s overground, when everything was slightly dark and full of possibilities. Ironically, this will entail a few more years of 'rehashing the 80s', asking questions like "wasn't Family Ties actually an awesome show?", throwing Yacht-rock theme parties, etc. before we break new ground.
I'm thinking about changing the format of my posts soon. Be on the look out. Don't forget to pick up the goodie below, as a sort of cure for the 'Walkmen blues'.
