| Both of these guys have worked with bands, but also alone |
[Dec. 4th, 2008|10:11 am] |
Or
I mostly used hit songs
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Tom Petty (& the Heartbreakers)
Are you female or male: "The Man Who Loves Women"
Describe yourself: "Even the Losers"
How do some people feel about you: "You Got Lucky"
How do you feel about yourself: "A Face in the Crowd"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "The Best of Everything"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "American Girl"
Describe where you want to be: "Into the Great Wide Open"
Describe what you want to be: "Zombie Zoo"
Describe how you live: "I Need To Know"
Describe how you love: "I Won't Back Down"
Share a few words of wisdom: "You Can Still Change Your Mind"
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Neil Young (& Crazy Horse)
Are you female or male: "Mr. Soul"
Describe yourself: "Piece of Crap"
How do some people feel about you: "Differently"
How do you feel about yourself: "I Got a Problem"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "Sunny Inside"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Long May You Run"
Describe where you want to be: "Down By The River"
Describe what you want to be: "Rockin' In The Free World"
Describe how you live: "Over and Over"
Describe how you love: "Are You Passionate?"
Share a few words of wisdom: "A Man Needs a Maid" |
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| These are two bands I've liked for a long time |
[Dec. 4th, 2008|09:42 am] |
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Calexico
Are you female or male: "Old Man Waltz"
Describe yourself: "Fade"
How do some people feel about you: "Low Expectations"
How do you feel about yourself: "The Black Light"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "Lucky Dime"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Sirena"
Describe where you want to be: "Where Water Flows"
Describe what you want to be: "Inspiracion"
Describe how you live: "Sonic Wind"
Describe how you love: "Hot Rail"
Share a few words of wisdom: "Burn That Broken Bed"
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: June of 44
Are you female or male: "Henry's Revenge"
Describe yourself: "Lawn Bowler"
How do some people feel about you: "Take It With a Grain of Salt"
How do you feel about yourself: "Seemingly Endless Steamer"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "I Get My Kicks for You"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Does Your Heart Beat Slower?"
Describe where you want to be: "Rivers and Plains"
Describe what you want to be: "Shadow Pugilist"
Describe how you live: "Of Information & Belief"
Describe how you love: "The Dexterity of Luck"
Share a few words of wisdom: "Every Free Day A Good Day" |
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| This one comes with three headlines (or four, if you include this one) |
[Dec. 3rd, 2008|05:12 pm] |
Special Pacific Northwest version
Or
This is the first time I've used two songs for one question. I did it twice. Sorry.
Or
Be thankful I didn't use the second "All Apologies" b-side for any of the questions. Look it up.
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Built to Spill
Are you female or male: "The Host"
Describe yourself: "I Would Hurt a Fly"
How do some people feel about you: "Strange"
How do you feel about yourself: "Center of the Universe"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "She's Real" (option two: "Freebird")
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Distopian Dream Girl"
Describe where you want to be: "Twin Falls"
Describe what you want to be: "The Plan"
Describe how you live: "Mess With Time"
Describe how you love: "You Were Right"
Share a few words of wisdom: "Some Things Last A Long Time"
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Nirvana
Are you female or male: "Been A Son"
Describe yourself: "Oh, Me"
How do some people feel about you: "Negative Creep" (option two: "Curmudgeon")
How do you feel about yourself: "Big Cheese"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "Marigold"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "About A Girl"
Describe where you want to be: "School"
Describe what you want to be: "The Man Who Sold The World"
Describe how you live: "All Apologies"
Describe how you love: "Coms As You Are"
Share a few words of wisdom: "You Know You're Right" |
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| Metal bands are hard to do |
[Dec. 3rd, 2008|04:56 pm] |
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Mastodon
Are you female or male: "Elephant Man"
Describe yourself: "I Am Ahab"
How do some people feel about you: "Hand of Stone"
How do you feel about yourself: "Island"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "Hearts Alive"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Thank You For This"
Describe where you want to be: "Where Strides The Behemoth"
Describe what you want to be: "Hunters of The Sky"
Describe how you live: "Mother Puncher"
Describe how you love: "Naked Burn"
Share a few words of wisdom: "We Built This Come Death"
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Soundgarden
Are you female or male: "He Didn't"
Describe yourself: "No Attention"
How do some people feel about you: "Nothing To Say"
How do you feel about yourself: "Superunknown"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "My Wave"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Flower"
Describe where you want to be: "Somewhere"
Describe what you want to be: "Hand of God"
Describe how you live: "No Wrong, No Right"
Describe how you love: "Hands All Over"
Share a few words of wisdom: "Blow Up The Outside World" |
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| That first question is really a pain in the ass for some bands |
[Dec. 1st, 2008|05:50 pm] |
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Polvo
Are you female or male: "Titan Up"
Describe yourself: "Fractured (Like Chandeliers)"
How do some people feel about you: "Everything in Flames"
How do you feel about yourself: "Crumbling Down"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "City Spirit"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Light of the Moon"
Describe where you want to be: "Downtown Dedication"
Describe what you want to be: "Bombs That Fall From Your Eyes"
Describe how you live: "Virtual Cold"
Describe how you love: "Everything in Flames"
Share a few words of wisdom: "Time Isn't On My Side"
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: The Dirty Three
Are you female or male: "Lordy"
Describe yourself: "I Remember A Time When Once You Used To Love Me"
How do some people feel about you: "Some Things I Just Don't Want to Know"
How do you feel about yourself: "Warren's Lament"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "Flutter"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "She Passed Through"
Describe where you want to be: "Distant Shore"
Describe what you want to be: "The Zither Player"
Describe how you live: "I Really Should've Gone Out Last Night"
Describe how you love: "Too Soon, Too Late"
Share a few words of wisdom: "Everything's Fucked" |
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| I'm almost sure I did Braid already, but I'll do it again for shits and giggles |
[Nov. 25th, 2008|09:32 am] |
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Magnetic Fields
Are you female or male: "Railroad Boy"
Describe yourself: "How Fucking Romantic"
How do some people feel about you: "All You Ever Do Is Walk Away"
How do you feel about yourself: "Meaninglyess"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "A Pretty Girls Is Like..."
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Promises of Eternity"
Describe where you want to be: "Washington, D.C."
Describe what you want to be: "Very Funny"
Describe how you live: "The Things We Did And Didn't Do"
Describe how you love: "I Don't Want To Get Over You"
Share a few words of wisdom: "Love Is Lighter Than Air"
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Braid
Are you female or male: "This Charming Man"
Describe yourself: "I'm Afraid Of Everything"
How do some people feel about you: "You're Lucky To Be Alive"
How do you feel about yourself: "Autobiography"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "I'm Glowing And You're The Reason"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Forever Got Shorter"
Describe where you want to be: "Urbana's Too Dark"
Describe what you want to be: "The Consolation Prizefighter"
Describe how you live: "Always Something There To Remind Me"
Describe how you love: "Now I'm Exhausted"
Share a few words of wisdom: "Fire Makes The House Grow" |
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| Oh. I have more. |
[Nov. 25th, 2008|09:13 am] |
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Yo La Tengo
Are you female or male: "The Evil That Men Do"
Describe yourself: "A Worrying Thing"
How do some people feel about you: "The Weakest Part"
How do you feel about yourself: "Tired Hippo"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "Deeper into Movies"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "You Can Have It All"
Describe where you want to be: "Beach Party Tonight"
Describe what you want to be: "Barnaby, Hardly Working"
Describe how you live: "I Feel Like Going Home"
Describe how you love: "Attack on Love"
Share a few words of wisdom: "I Was The Fool Beside You For Too Long"
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Explosions in the Sky
Are you female or male: "A Poor Man's Memory"
Describe yourself: "The Moon is Down"
How do some people feel about you: "Catastrophe And The Cure"
How do you feel about yourself: "So Long, Lonesome"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "Your Hand In Mine"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Remember Me As A Time of Day"
Describe where you want to be: "What Do You Go Home To?"
Describe what you want to be: "First Breath After Coma"
Describe how you live: "Look Into The Air"
Describe how you love: "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept"
Share a few words of wisdom: "It's Natural To Be Afraid" |
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| I am almost six weeks early |
[Nov. 24th, 2008|05:14 pm] |
This is taken from here.
Here's what's up: Because of my general contemplative state, a lot of this is going to be pretty depressing. I'm writing this approximately six weeks before the new year, which is probably stupid. I am also writing this on a day in which I haven't gotten a lot of sleep. I'm also writing this while listening to Elliott Smith at work.
So, I'm probably not in top shape to do this, but, you know. That's life.
( Read more ) |
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| And another |
[Oct. 20th, 2008|02:31 pm] |
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Sufjan Stevens
Are you female or male: "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts"
Describe yourself: "We Are What You Say"
How do some people feel about you: "Dumb I Sound"
How do you feel about yourself: "You Are the Rake"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "A Loverless Bed (w/out remission)"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "The Dress Looks Nice On You"
Describe where you want to be: "Chicago"
Describe what you want to be: "Abraham"
Describe how you live: "In the Devil's Territory"
Describe how you love: "A Good Man Is Hard To Find"
Share a few words of wisdom: "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!"
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Dianogah
Are you female or male: "Dreams of Being King"
Describe yourself: "Song You Hate"
How do some people feel about you: "Mongrel"
How do you feel about yourself: " I Like Juice in A Shark Suit"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "Lone Tree Point"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Seeing Stars"
Describe where you want to be: "Eucalyptus"
Describe what you want to be: "Spiral Bound"
Describe how you live: "Between the Ship and the Land"
Describe how you love: "Oneone"
Share a few words of wisdom: "They Have Monkeys Like We Have Squirrels" |
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| You thought I was done. I am not. |
[Oct. 20th, 2008|02:13 pm] |
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band:Nine Inch Nails
Are you female or male: "Big Man With a Gun"
Describe yourself: "Head Like a Hole"
How do some people feel about you: "Mr. Self Destruct"
How do you feel about yourself: "HYPERPOWER!"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "Gave Up"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "Only"
Describe where you want to be: "A Warm Place"
Describe what you want to be: "Just Like You Imagined"
Describe how you live: "Every Day Is Exactly The Same"
Describe how you love: "We're In This Together”
Share a few words of wisdom: "Love Is Not Enough"
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: The Beatles
Are you female or male: "Nowhere Man"
Describe yourself: "I'm a Loser"
How do some people feel about you: "I'm So Tired"
How do you feel about yourself: "I Feel Fine"
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: "No Reply"
Describe your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend: "She's a Woman"
Describe where you want to be: "Across the Universe"
Describe what you want to be: "Paperback Writer"
Describe how you live: "I Me Mine"
Describe how you love: "Don't Let Me Down"
Share a few words of wisdom: "We Can Work It Out" |
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| Friends only |
[Mar. 13th, 2007|09:51 pm] |
|
Um, you probably notice that it looks like I'm not posting much if you're not on my friends list. This journal is now "friends-only" because I'm actually writing about my life now, not about music (not that anyone cares about either). Still, if you want to read it, you'd better be my friend on livejournal. You can comment to ask to be my friend and I can add you, but I bet that's not going to happen. |
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| "Where I am paralyzed by emptiness" |
[Jul. 16th, 2006|08:20 am] |
| [ | music |
| | "Blue Factory Flame" - Songs:Ohia | ] |
The music we enjoy usually reflects our mood in some way. When I'm feeling happy, there is The Shins. When I'm feeling anxious, there is Songs of Zarathustra. Contentness calls for Curtis Mayfield. Other moods call for other types of music.
Lately, I've been eating junk food and listening to Songs:Ohia. Take that for what it is.
I'm not talking about the Magnolia Electric Co. Jason Molina, now that he's changed the name of his band, seems to fancy himself the modern day indie lovechild of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Instead of doing depressing songs using strange analogies from the animal kingdom ("Coxcomb Red," "The Lioness," etc.), Molina has decided to write about the industrial north. Granted, the records still sound desperate, but there a certain lack of angst there that I sorely miss.
That's probably why, when I felt like eating junk food and listening to depressing music, I busted out my copy of "Didn't it Rain." Like the Magnolia Electric Co. album (the one with "Farewell Transmission" on it), it is Molina at his finest. Those two records have Molins using the Young/Springsteen model (driving rhytmns, slide guitars, etc) with his own lyrical suicide notes. "I've Been Riding With The Ghost" is an excellent example, as is "Farewell Transmission." Each has the lyrics elements of death while actually building on a musical theme (as opposed to "The Lioness," the pinnacle of Molina's driving, one riff repeated musical model).
Along with "Farewell Transmission," I'd say "Blue Factory Flame" is my favorite of Molina's songs. From the opening line ("When i die put my bones in an empty street to remind me of how it used to be"), the song is clearly a Molina special in that the first verse is all about dank, dark funeral arrangements. Similarly, the lyrics reflect a very industrial frontier ("and by the oil that they bleed the crew and crows fly the skulls and bones/they fly the colors of their homes i fly the cross of the blue factory flame") that is similarly dank and dark.
I wrote about six months ago about the angst-ridden lyrics of Trent Reznor and why I have some trouble sharing my angst with Reznor. I have no such problems with Molina. Because his music is so steeped in imagery -- certainly more than "this is the first day/of my last life" -- it is much easier to take it to heart. Quite simply, "I am paralyzed by emptiness" or "Never say to come home" aren't hugely different from "Wish there was something real/wish there was something true" or "This is the first day of my last life." Both songs reflect a level of unhappiness that is overly melodramatic.
But, as in music, delivery is everything. Instead of the flaming, youthful arrogance/screaming that Reznor perfected, Molina clearly has the hopelessness of a dead ended adult. It's the same difference between grown man music and teenage music; The difference between "you're ruining my life!" and "I need to fix my life." Nine Inch Nails is for teenagers who are mad about math tests. Songs:Ohia is for adults in crappy situations, who don't know how to get out of them.
Those, as it were, "paralyzed by emptiness." |
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| "There must be some misunderstanding/The must be some kind of mistake." |
[Jun. 14th, 2006|08:30 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Genesis - "Misunderstanding" | ] |
Yesterday's "Featured article" on Wikipedia was "Phil Collins." I think I may be taking an opinion that is impossible to defend, but I think Phil Collins is a pretty good songwriter. Not a good singer, not a fantastic drummer (or musician, in general), but a pretty good songwriter, if only on the strength of a few top-notch songs.
It's not the best song ever, but "Misunderstanding" is a pretty cool song. It's horribly dated (what songs from the '80s don't sound dated?), but the actual sentiment and rythymns are pretty cool.
Everyone knows my love for Gabriel-era Genesis; They were an excellent prog band. My friend Tehft said to me, upon my telling him how much I like some of Collins' songs, "Phil Collins ruined Genesis."
That's not true. He changed Genesis into a pop band, and they weren't very good at that. Outside of some stray singles and one good album ("Invisible Touch"), Genesis wasn't very good at being a pop band. Considering they ended up doing songs like "I Can't Dance," it is pretty hard to defend the Collins-era Genesis.
That's not what I'm writing to do. I'm trying to defend Collins as a songwriter.
Let's get one thing clear: Phil Collins isn't a great songwriter. He's not John Lennon. Few people are. Hell, he's not even Sting, who wrote a ton of great songs for The Police. But, he's not Crap-Face Magee, either.
Again, because he did a lot of his best work in the early 80s, those songs sound pretty dated right now. They were released in the heyday of cheesy synths, bad production and strange bridges.
Of course, his best two songs are ones that have been covered in the last 5-10 years. "Against All Odds" has been done by both Mariah Carey (not so good) and The Postal Service (excellent). The "Take a look at me now" chorus line is pretty amazing as a singular melody and the sentiment is wonderful. In the same line as "Say Yes" (yeah, I compared Phil Collins to Elliott Smith), Collins picks up the classic desperation breakup feelings. It's the perfect "I hate you, I love you" song in the same way "Say Yes" is a great "I miss you, I love you, I can't hate you" song. I suspect most of us have been in both of those places.
Of course, his best song never really sounds dated. The Miami Heat use the original version of "In the Air Tonight" as a pump up song for their crown, Ray Lewis listens to it before games and I imagine it'll make an appearance in the new "Miami Vice" movie (it was used in one of the more memorable scenes in the TV show). As good as the original version is, GodHeadSilo's cover is even better. The darkness of the song is a little tough to digest with Phil "No Jacket Required" Collins singing it. Drums or not, the song desn't always work great with him singing. Not so with GHS. The true deepeness of the lyrics kind of growls through in that cover. However dark the song is by Collins, it's ten times worse from GHS. Another song written as a "fuck-off" to his ex-wife, "In the Air Tonight" is a really cool breakup song.
"Invisible Touch" is catchy, though it's not a particularly good song. "Land of Confusion" is a great video and a pretty interesting protest song from the '80s (an era in which non-rap protest songs sucked). But, "Against All Odds" and "In the Air Tonight" are great. "Misunderstanding" is, like those two, a great breakup song. The jilted lover's lines in it are superficial ("I was waiting in the rain for hours/You were late"), but the sentiment of despertation is pretty good.
Look, I like breakup songs; They're a lot more real than the dopey Paul McCartney-esque nonsense that dopes like Maroon 5, Jack Johnson and the like put out (Hell, "Invisible Touch" is one of those). Phil Collins did these great at the time of his divorce. I'm not saying he's John Lennon. I'm just saying he doesn't totally suck. |
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| "Stop washing me away/Stop washing me away" |
[Mar. 19th, 2006|10:17 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Superchunk - "Watery Hands" | ] |
One of the things that inevitably comes up at a newspaper (even the community paper where I work) is the idea of new words, new slang, etc. Questions inevitably arise about whether we should use "Web blog" or "blog" or some similar new technological term.
I also err on the side of liberalism in those situations because of a professor I had. Fred Vultee, the main copy person at the University of Missouri's vaunted j-school always used to tell us that the English language is "alive." "Language evolves," he used to say.
Most would agree with the overriding theory, although they might have problems with specifics (most people don't feel comfortable, for example, with the newest, non-dictionary-recognized definition of "skeet"). But, the point is clear: E-mail didn't exist thirty years ago, so no one should expect the AP Stylebook or Webster to know how to spell it or its usage.
Evolution/change is a very natural thing, and I think there's a great deal to be said about it in everyday life. Even the most strident literalist would agree that the Framers of the United States Constitution would agree that, no, there was no radio in the 18th century, so we must take a serious look at free speech in regards to 21st-century telecommunications.
So, the idea of "language evolves" translated to me as "everything evolves." Only the truly nostalgic or ignorant can idealize the past to the point of hurting the future. I try to be on the train for new technology as much as possible. The future, to me, is very attractive. "The way things used to be" isn't.
With that said, why do I lament the end of the indie record store so much?
***
"The end is here!" say the signs. The stats are staggering. (I'm quoting directly from Prefix' Dave Park's blog entry)
- "This year alone, 200 independent record stores have closed nationwide."
- "While 97 percent of all music is sold at retail stores..."
- "That 8-foot rap section pays for two thirds of the store to be here."
- "1,380 music stores have closed nationwide since 2003. Most of them were independent retailers."
- "470 music stores have closed in 2005 alone. "
- "One in five major-label albums is bought at Wal-Mart."
- "Half of all major-label music is sold at Wal-Mart, Target or Best Buy."
The "record-store-as-soley-selling-records" concept is dead. A whole fucking lot of people buy their Nickelback records with their hamburger, VCR and shirts at Wal-Mart. A lot of people buy their computer software alongside their Gwen Stefani records.
Is this a big surprise? I mean, after all, the independent hardware store is nearly gone in the D.C.-area; All we've got is Lowe's and Home Depot. Replace "hardware" with "book" and "Lowe's and Home Depot" with "Borders and Barnes & Noble" and you get the idea.
Hell, even more prevalent is the superstore replacing all the available small stores. In the midst of having a computer place, a TV/stereo place, a record store and a video game place, we've got Circuit City. Add in a supermarket, a sporting goods store and a clothing/department store (and take out computers), we have Wal-Mart. Add some yuppies and an ugly red logo and we've got Target.
Hell, this trend started about a million years ago with the supermarket's combination of a pharmacy and a grocer. As a consumer, it's pretty nice to be able to have one-stop shopping. Not everyone has the time to get their prescriptions filled at one place, their fruit at a fruit stand and their bread at a bakery.
Similarly, Wal-Mart was a huge hit in Columbia, Mo, as it gives the students a place to get everything, from motor oil to pears to underwear to the new Madden game to Fruit Loops to a new basketball to the Evanescance CD. Also, beer.
So, why does the demise of the independent record store seem so scary to me?
***
One of my biggest fears in life is to stop having any semblance of connection to underground culture. I never want to be caught not knowing who the bands are when they come to the local indie clubs. I may not be a fan of the records (For example, I can entirely do without the Go! Team), but I want to at least have a working knowledge of the bands. Similarly, that I know who Jim Jarmusch is, despite not being a huge fan of his movies, is important to me.
I don't want to be hit upside the head with an "out-of-nowhere" cultural thing. That's part of being a journalist ( William Powers explains as such in National Journal), but it's also being a music snob/college radio person/etc. There's an air of pretentiousness that's undeniable to it, and that's something I'm totally comfortable with.
Which brings me to 7"s. I have a decent collection of 7"s and I even recently scored two interesting finds (The Half-handed Cloud/Sufjan Stevens split and the famously out-of-print Coctails' "Songs for Children," which includes their wonderful version of "Frere Jacques").
Maybe it's just my place in life (outside any sense of interesting rock snob culture, working in a yuppie community for a family-centric community newspaper), but it seems like 7"s have gone the way of the dinosaur. My two and a half years of being PD at KCOU invovled a lot of writing and re-editing our music training manual, and writing the "R's" section with a yearly increase of the explanation of 7"s. By my senior year, it just seemed that most people didn't know what a 7" was.
Personally, I used to peruse the 7"s rack at Dr. Wax, an awesome record store near where I grew up (and one I go to whenever I visit Chicago). At the time, 7"s were a great way for fanboys to get the rare and unreleased stuff. I spent many an hour at Wax and on eBay looking for the original Tortoise/Stereolab "Vaus" 7", Elliott Smith's "Ballad of Big Nothing" 7" (complete with über-rare "Division Day" as the b-side) and the Dianogah "Hannibal" single.
They were also a great introduction to new music. The vinyl singles were a quick, easy way to get acquainted with an unfmailiar band. After meting my friend Fern (who is/was a huge Braid fan), I then went to Wax and bought "Fire Makes the House Grow" for $1.99.
Kinda like an Mp3.
***
It goes without saying that Napster changed everything. In addition to inciting about a million debates in my life about the nature of cultural ownership, it brought the digital information reproduction problems into the open. While a lot of people expected something like the Google Scholar thing to be the tipping point (you know, not having to pay for "The Inferno" or any of the works of Shakespeare), when the nature of digital ownership ended up revolving around music (and porn, I guess).
Moreover, it brought about the Mp3. The music format is now the aggressive/up-and-coming way for people to get (notice I didn't specify the verb "buy") music. Despite the format's relatively (in comparison to CDs) low sound quality, the ease of getting music through legal (like Rhapsody and the iTunes store) and illegal (LimeWire, the original Napster, etc.) venues made Mp3s an alternative to CDs for the music consumer.
Just like vinyl used to be.
***
I have a friend who does not claim to be much of a music fan.I can vouch that she's not a big music fan, but one intersting thing about her is her reliance on vinyl as her music source. Coming from a family of musicians (her father is a music professor/scholar and her uncle plays piano quite well), she's inherited a great deal of jazz records and has bought just as many. Her vinyl collection, while not massive, is very interesting and varied, spanning Tribe Called Quest, Al Bloomfeld and Monk. She is anything but indie rock (in fact, she finds indie rock to be largely pretentious and dissonant [good example: the only 'indie' band she has any interest in is the Postal Service, who just happen to be the poppiest of the indie bands]).
Contrast that with another friend of mine. He is really into undergroud rock; he likes a lot of metal and electronica. He has a huge CD/Mp3 collection and owns no record player. He bought a CD from Insound (or some similar online record store) and received an exclusive 7" with it. He has nothing to play it on.
So, it's not like vinyl is specifically an indie/underground rock thing. Many claim that lot of old records sound better on vinyl (I mean, we all know Steve Albini's thoughts on vinyl). For years, vinyl had its place.
Just like independent record stores.
***
The sociological implications of the digital information age (as opposed to the digital age) are striking. As society gets more and more global, we as Americans seem to have moved within ourselves just as much. The sense of communal anything seems to have disappeared as more and more Americans jump into SUVs and ride to the exurbs in search of a big house with a big refridgerator, a grand green lawn and a big TV.
We all live in our own homes, which double as our own castles, our own islands. I don't know my neighbors at all and I've lived in the same apartment for more than two years (although, in my own defense, a language barrier exists [on the other hand, it wouldn't hurt me to say hello to my neighbors when I walk by]).
I hate to drive and take the Metro nearly everywhere other than work and the grocery store. Whenever I go downtown, I take the Metro; a 60-some seated tube that seats many other humans stuck in the same situation (trying to travel a crowded, pompous city). We come back from bars, movies, galleries, shopping, touristy stuff. We're all going out to the suburbs from the city (or going into the city from the suburbs or traveling around the city). Hell, I've seen people I stood near at a show on the train after the show.
I don't talk to any of them. I've got an iPod and a cellphone with 'Bowling' on it. I listen to my music and bowl away. The headphones suggest a certain "get away from me" vibe.
***
The main rack at CDepot in College Park, Md. is the hip hop rap, so I understand the state that hip hop drives the bus that is independent record stores. Rap is one of the dominant genres in music today and certainly is the best-selling. Any check of the iTunes top 10 tracks list or the Billboard lists would tell you that.
I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that hip hop isn’t the most important music genre. It drives the bus from the suburbs (Lil’ Jon)to the country (Bubba Sparxx) to the inner city (most of hip hop). I listen to a lot of hip hop.
So, I don’t blame the indie record stores for specializing in hip hop; It is the genre that’ll make the most money. It’s just sad when they don’t carry any of the indie records I want and I have to revert to insound, iTunes and eMusic.
***
Dr. Wax no longer has a 7" box to peruse. The store has lost a lot of business to iTunes, Circuit City and a recently-opened Target. I still go there whenever I'm in the Chicago area to look around the CD racks; I check to see if I missed any new Kadane-related project or some new noodling that Geoff Farina has decided to put to tape.
If not, it was always fun to chat a bit with Jason and Kyle and the other people who worked there that I knew somewhat, but not enough to actually know. A question about a Tortoise show or a Rainer Maria CD was always met with some semblance of an answer. While not a huge communal thing (remember, I'm only 24 and an introvert), it was nice to be able to chat up music a bit.
I don't think you get that at the Target music department. You certainly don't get it at Wal-Mart, where they won't even stock something that says "Motherfucker" in it.
***
A good example of the inroads Mp3s have made into the indie rock snob market would be Ben Gibbard-related stuff. While not the definition of an indie/underground band, Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service are popular indie bands; They've bands that a lot of fucking people like. DCFC used to be on Barsuk, a very small label, while the Postal Service is on Sub Pop (if not the king of the indies, certainly in the royal court).
Anyway, while still a DCFC fanboy in college, I search high and low for three 7"s from the band. One was a split with Fiver, one was the single for "Wait" (a cover of a Secret Stars song) and the third was the "Army Corps of Architects" Sub Pop Singles Club single. I never got the "Army Corps" one, but was able to get the other two.
Now I can get them all on iTunes.
***
As evolution goes, the world turns. In the stead of talking with the erstwhile record-store employee, I've got message boards on a ton of places (myspace, etc.). In my own personal life, I have a few friends at work who introduce me to new music. In lieu of having a decent college radio station, I read Pitchfork.com nearly daily and get the gist of the underground from the site. I listen to XMU.
It’s a changing world. Sometimes, it is kind of hard to deal with that.
***
I’ve gone on too long and you’ve tired of me. The point is that my I got into Superchunk largely after a purchase of the Superchunk “Watery Hands” 7” many years ago (my sophomore year of high school, I believe). I already had “Here's Where the Strings Come In,” but barely listened to it. I saw the video for “Watery Hands” and wanted a copy of the song.
Remember, this was at the infancy of mp3s and when file sharing only existed on college campuses. So, the only way I was going to get a copy of the single song “Watery Hands” was to either call in a request to WNUR and tape the song from the radio or buy it on a 7” (or, I could’ve just bought the whole album). Because I thought 7”s to be “indie” in some way, I went to Wax, asked the guy for the 7” for the “song with the video that has the Mr. Show guy and Janeane Garofalo in it,” and picked it up. The indie record store and vinyl were the two things that made that possible. That was something that happened a few times and was a sizeable part of my high school years.
That is why I lament the passing of the indie record store. |
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| "it's just that everyone's interest is stronger than mine" |
[Feb. 16th, 2006|10:18 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Sexton Blake - "Rose Parade" | ] |
(Quick plug, I am now on MySpace.com, because I was just that bored. Mark Shelley is my only friend so far, so please add me or look for me or whatever it is you do on MySpace.com)
One of these days, I'm going to go through and write something about what I consider to be my three favorite songs. Today is not that day, but it it time to discuss one of those responsible for one of those songs.
I imagine Elliott Smith would've sold a lot more records had he been properly marketed. Considering that he worked with KRS (a big indie, but still an indie) for his two major albums and a lackluster PR staff at Dreamworks (I used to work with them. They sucked), I think it speaks volumes that he's had the impact he has.
(It also didn't help that he struggled with addiction throughout his whole life and that -- let's be frank here -- was not an attractive man. Give him looks like that doof from Dashboard Confessional, and Smith sells millions of records.)
Nevertheless, Smith is, in some ways, considered quite the deity among indie rockers. I have yet to meet a woman of that bent who isn't, at least, a little into Smith. His voice is amazing and women's reaction to his music reinforces, unfortunately, a lot of stereotypes we have about women in our society (they want a man who is troubled, so they can "fix" him).
In my opinion, "Either/Or" is a flawless album, one constructed to be majestically personal and sparkingly mundane (not mundane in a boring sense, but mundane in an everyday sense). In the same way that "Spiderland" is the soundtrack to a great noir detective movie, "Either/Or" is the soundtrack to everything else. It's the soundtrack to real life.
But, I'm not writing about Elliott Smith'sversion of "Rose Parade," one of his best-written songs. Emblematic of "Either/Or," it's a simple, yet finely crafted piece about a day in the life of a Portlander. And like everything he wrote, it's beautifully sad (the melancholy seeps through the line "I'd say it's a sight that's quite worth seeing/it's just that everyone's interest is stronger than mine").
I'm writing about the Elliott Smith tribute record, specifically Sexton Blake's version of "Rose Parade." I can sum it up in seven words: As good as the original. But different.
One of the things I always had trouble with was that Smith never really had a good producer to work with. Jon Brion is great, but I've thing there's a lot more melody in those songs than ever came out of a record (the only examples of perfect production of an Elliott Smith song, in my opinion, are "Miss Misery" and "Happiness"). In lieu of actually accenting the songs, all of the major-label stuff is simply production for the sake of production. "Waltz #2" sounds like something from a ridiculous Billy Joel record and "Baby Britain" has a honky-tonk piano. Why?
(Again, I still think he's the best songwriter of the last however many years. The songs always remain and make up for the production to be great records. It's kind of like the White Album. The White Album has too many songs, but it's still the White Album. Elliott Smith's records are overproduced, but they're still great fucking records)
But, it's the KRS records that confuse me. On one hand, the intimacy is what makes Smith what he is. (I imagine the reason chicks like him so much is because those accoustic/voice numbers he did always seemed like he was singing directly to you, the listener.) Barely singing about a whisper, Smith barely used any instrumentation other than just a guitar and a voice. It sounds strained a lot of the time, but part of the draw is that lo-fi-ness of it. Again, there is a vulnerability there that is very attractive.
But, sometimes, there is something missing.
The only time I ever saw Elliott Smith live, he played "Needle in the Hay" as a sped-up rocker. Instead of a single accoustic guitar, his band added electric guitar, bass and drums. His voice lost a bit of the sadness that permeates that record and gained a bit of an edge, as though he was singing about, say, heroin addiction. Considering that's what the song is about, it always seemed more apt.
(I'm sure there are versions of this song, but they're probably some ass-bad concert bootleg record that'll make me want to burn my speakers, so I haven't heard it yet)
The version of "Needle in the Hay" is like that. Portlander and all-around hasbeen Eric Matthews does a rocked out version of the classic song and it doesn't totally suck. Yes, Matthews' voice sounds like he's trying to imitate Smith while still rocking out (not possible) and, yes, the ridiculous keyboard melody thing sounds idiotic. Still, it's nice to hear "Needle" in a venue that gives some edge to a song (I hate to harp on this point) about heroin addiction.
Back to the song I'd actually like to write about: Sexton Blake's cover of "Rose Parade." I love the songwriting on it and I still find the original to be one of my favorite songs of all time.
But, in Sexton Blake's (no, I don't know who he is, either) version, the bells and full band accent the excellent melody like Smith's version never did. The Sexton Blake version lacks Smith's vocal, but whoever Sexton Blake is, he does a reasonable facisimile of Smith's voice.
More importantly, the loud/soft dynamic that is so effective at evoking movement in a song rules here, with the reverting back to guitar/voice on the verses, emulating Smith's original. It's a novel move and really helps the song.
One of things the Pitchfork review points out that I agree with is that no one is going to be happy with the tribute record:
One has to assume that the target demo for an Elliott Smith tribute is Elliott Smith's fanbase, which contains a significant contingent aligned around the belief that any attempt to cover the perfection of an Elliott Smith song is to utterly ruin it.
I suspect that is true, on some level, and it's sad. There are some great songs on this tribute record, starting with Sexton Blake's cover of "Rose Parade." It does the original justice and more. |
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| "You can hide 'neath your covers/And study your pain/Make crosses from your lovers/Throw roses in th |
[Jan. 29th, 2006|03:48 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Tortoise & Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "Thunder Road" | ] |
As anyone reading this knows, I love Tortoise. They're probably my favorite band and I buy just about anything they put out.
While I like Will Oldham, I have never been a huge, overwhelming fanboy for his music. I have always tended to enjoy Jason Molina's versions of that stuff. On the softer stuff, I tend to find Oldham's voice a little grating. I've "Lost Blues" and "Master and Everyone" and I feel like that is quite enough Will Oldham for me.
So, upon getting the Oldham/Tortoise collaboration, I had some level of trepidation. Luckily, I love cover songs, specifically covers of songs I don't care for in the first place (perfect examples being GodHeadSilo's version of "In the Air Tonight" and Macha/Bedhead's cover of "Believe").
So, naturally, my favorite song on "The Brave and the Bold" is the Springsteen cover.
I don't like Springsteen at all. I think his mainstream stuff is largely populist crap and his more heralded-by-the-underground stuff is spotty and irritating. In an attempt to try and be Dylan by painting portraits of a desolate West, I find Springsteen to be annoying.
(And don't get me started on his post-9/11 mumbo jumbo. How that is different from Lee Greenwood is beyond me.)
So, I don't like Springsteen's version of "Thunder Road." But, Tortoise's start-and-stop rhytymns work for the song in a way smoothness probably wouldn't. In the place of stomping piano and normal instrumentation, Tortoise constructs a melody line that's memorable, yet desperate. Using a keyboard and guitar combo, the band strikes you upside the head with this constructed melody. It's the best part of the record.
While Springsteen's version relies on his hardened wannabe countryish vocals, this version doesn't fuck around with hope. Oldham, as is his way, sounds beaten and defeated when he sings "We can hide beneath your cover, study your pain." His voice cracks and he sounds more hurt than optimistic as he harmonizes the lines "Except roll down the window/And let the wind blow/Back your hair/Well the night's busting open/These two lanes will take us anywhere." With Springsteen, those lyrics sound like commands, with Oldham, they are pleas for something (forgiveness, maybe).
In the place of a road trip song, Oldham makes "Thunder Road" into an apology of sorts, a brooding version of the old country standard of "drivin' and cryin'." But, again, instead of being a standard cover, Tortoise rips up the forumla and uses their mastery of rhytymn and creates something new. It's exceptional.
The album -- despite the great concept -- isn't anything spectacular, but it does have its highlights. The Lungfish cover is cool, as is the Nascimento track. I love their version of "Daniel," a spectacular Elton John song in the first place.
But, "Thunder Road"is by far the highlight of the record. |
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