Back!

Posted on March 23, 2011 by admin

So this is just a short post to share what I experienced in my time away. I visited Egypt, and the two highlights for me were the trips to the White Desert and Mt. Sinai. Watching the sun set in the desert and sleeping under the stars is no less than amazing. As for Mt. Sinai, that was a workout and a half. My Bedouin guide and I were the first to reach the top, actually! The four plus mile hike, with a close to half-mile change in altitude made it one hell of an experience. I could have cheated and ridden a camel, but what’s the point? Seeing the sun come up from over 7,000 feet above sea level at a place so revered by so many was worth the chilly weather and strain on my muscles.

That said, what I saw overseas made me also understand how destructive we are. Not to the planet. The planet will survive long after we’re gone. It’s the destructive nature that will wipe out our ability to stay here which is bothersome. Think of the movie “Wall-E”. The amount of trash everywhere was incredibly sad. Regardless of our level of thought and ability to change, there will always be a species here that undergoes this fight to survive. It’s how I feel about our own fight which is what I worry about. It magnified to me our problems here in the US. We wantonly create pollution and ills that we – with all of our technical know-how – can work to eradicate. Using that rare trait of conscious thought to help each other by taking care of our surroundings.

I don’t want to be a total downer, though. I purposely recorded some video and took plenty of pictures because I honestly felt the need to share with others what I saw. Almost make them feel like they were also there. Here are two videos I made with songs I felt fit the mood. The songs are then posted below.

Click to Play Mogwai – Auto Rock

Click to Play Animal Collective – Daily Routine

for the love of Pete

Posted on March 20, 2011 by admin

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
-John Lennon

Sometimes you get busy. Too busy to really focus on what you’re supposed to. Like the awesome blog you write for. Work gets in the way, family gets in the way, general need for sleep seems to get in the way. It happens to everyone, and it happened to me this week.

Rather than post about any of the new albums I took five minutes to preview but couldn’t quite follow through on, let me throw another oldie at you. For some reason I’ve been really been drawn back to the 1994 Peter Gabriel concert DVD Secret World Live lately. It’s a 15-song concert featuring elaborate presentations and some of the best musicians you’ve ever seen. Yeah, I know it’s almost a decade old now but it holds up amazingly. This was Peter Gabriel at his very best, and that rivals pretty much anyone out there.

Here’s the opening song, “Come Talk To Me.” It’s a perfect way to set the mood and draw you into the rest of the concert. It also happens to feature a singer named Paula Cole, who went on to make a name for herself a few years later.

This is what music on the stage should be: art. It’s one of the best concert videos you’ll ever see. It also has an amazingly moving version of “Washing Of The Water,” probably my favorite Peter Gabriel song. If you haven’t had the opportunity to see this DVD I highly recommend you check it out. Maybe it will help you get through the busy times in life, like it’s done for me.

You Get Taken All The Time For A Fool

Posted on March 18, 2011 by admin

Rolling Stone said we would want to slit our wrists if we missed The Strokes. Well, they said something like that. If a band whose shit you like takes a five year hiatus, and then is performing in only one spot on your continent for the foreseeable future, would you not try to go to that show?
And if that show was scheduled in YOUR TOWN in a BRAND NEW SWANK-ASS PLACE… You would buy the tickets. Or tell your boyfriend to buy the tickets, if that’s how you roll.

It appeared at the time that they were taking off for Europe and Asia after playing one show at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. Was it planned that way to build hysteria for Vegas’ newest super-resort? Here I find out they just played SXSW. Fuck them. Now they are scheduled for Coachella, Bonnaroo, and a bunch of other shit. Great. I hope the entire western hemisphere is happy they crowded into a HOTEL BALLROOM to make my first experience seeing The Strokes live as shitty as humanly possible.

Yes. It sucked.

I think a few years ago I tweeted that “If I ever go on Dancing With the Housewives I want to dance the quickstep to “Last Night” by The Strokes.” I used to love their music that much. The rest of their fans have made me hate them.
And I don’t say that lightly. I do not claim to be the original fan shitting on the nouveau fans. I am like the 25-year-old Emo kid who shows up to a Fall Out Boy concert without realizing that 96% of their fans are screaming teenage girls. Decibel-shattering screaming teenage girls. Oh, my bad. I didn’t know this was your thing. I’m out.

The shattered decibels at this show were due to bad sound mixing, rather than fans. Maybe the fans were screaming. I don’t know. Mostly they looked like they were trying too hard to get into an exclusive club. You had diversity and then some at that show. Girls in ridiculous sequinned craziness. Boys who looked like inner-city drug dealers. Emo boys. Douchebag boys. Jersey Shore wannabes. Punks. Middle-aged music snobs. Everything. But with no crowd unity. I am a tribe runner. I go to a lot of shows. I enjoy my fellow crowd mates. This was awful.

And so we waited with these assholes. And waited. And waited. The ballroom’s box office has no idea what they are doing. You’re supposed to know set times a couple of hours before the show starts. The girl on the phone basically guessed at set times for me. And guessed wrong. The Strokes finally took the stage at 11 PM at a one-opener event with doors at 8 PM. Tell me just how the fuck that happens. Perhaps it’s because the bathrooms are half a block away? Perhaps it’s because they need to make sure you load up on as many twelve dollar drinks as possible?

Until The Chelsea ballroom is actually turned into The Chelsea Theater, SKIP any event held there. I am serious. You see those crystal things hanging? Yes. They are BALLROOM CHANDELIERS. The bodies you see before you are the General Admission patrons, and behind them are risers with chairs. God. Awful. We can stand loud music. We can stand face-meltingly loud music. We can stand floor shaking. This was just bad, bad mixing. Apparently they played 19 songs. We had to leave after two and a half. Then as we drove The Strip in front of the hotel, we were treated to perfect sound and a big screen of the show live. Shit. Settle for the sidewalk show if your favorite band is insane enough to play here.

The album is OK. I like the song “Taken For A Fool”. Everything else sounds just like it was recorded, and practically like that live show felt: in pieces. Scattered. Uncoordinated.

Click to Enjoy The Strokes – Taken For A Fool

another elbow drop

Posted on March 13, 2011 by admin

There are five things I love about Elbow:

1. Asleep In The Back (2001)
2. Cast Of Thousands (2003)
3. Leaders Of The Free World (2005)
4. The Seldom Seen Kid (2008)
5. Build A Rocket Boys (2011)

Well actually, there are quite a few more. The band makes excellent music, chooses great songs to cover, and is generally a class act. I wrote about them here before so use the search feature before you read ahead if you’re not familiar.

Elbow’s new release, Build A Rocket Boys does nothing to tarnish their reputation. After a few listens it falls around the same place as Leaders Of The Free World on the Kilter Lists Elbow’s Profundity To Order (KLEPTO) scale. That’s actually on the low end of the scale, but let me qualify that statement: A) It’s still new to me and it generally takes me a while to really digest an album by these guys, and B) that’s like being on the low end of the Times I Had Awesome Sex With A Supermodel scale. When you’ve been as consistent as Elbow has over the years it’s not a question of whether the album is good. It’s just a new chance to see what these guys have been up to and remember how touching they can be.

Click to play Elbow – Lippy Kids

I won’t gush about this release. I’ll just post a couple more songs for you. This one reminds me of something Erik Satie would have whipped up.

Click to play Elbow – The River

Here’s one of the more upbeat songs, which was also the first single:

Click to play Elbow – Neat Little Rows

On an unrelated note, other than they’re another of my favorite bands, Veto released their new album in late February. It’s called Everything Is Amplified . I haven’t been able to find it for sale in the US yet, so I’ll admit to checking it out via other methods. It’s very interesting, as they’re going in a more experimental direction. Once I find a copy that doesn’t require me to use babelfish to purchase it I’ll write a full review. All I can say is that if you find it out there you need to buy it and support this band. They’re one of the freshest things out there, if you ask me.

If You Pull Me Apart Don’t Swallow My Heart

Posted on March 11, 2011 by admin

Early one morning (read: as in, the gaudy tramp stamp *above* the butt-crack of dawn), I was seized with a desire to listen to some music that was going to make me happy.
I reached one hand out from under the covers and grabbed for my iTouch. I opened the “Remote” app and started my computer’s iTunes from bed. I played some Starlight Mints for what I thought was the first time. I thought I had never heard of them before.

The name of the album was what was so intriguing to me, since it’s inspired by perhaps my favorite Shakespeare quote. The Dream That Stuff Was Made Of is the first album from Oklahoma indie/psych pop band Starlight Mints. This album makes me happy from beginning to end. Beginning to end! I curled up all nice and content and listened with a smile on my face.
I don’t know if I’ve heard it before. It’s ten years old, after all. It feels like home. Yes, it’s full of synth, full of clanging, a mix of Pixies and Violent Femmes-style vocalizing, and various forms of crafting and tweaking. And orchestra music. And cartoon music. I love it so.
I think one of the songs on this 2000 album that best represents what they’re doing here, but still ventures further out from any “mold” they might have created, is super-deep in: Track 11, “Margarita.”

Click to Enjoy Starlight Mints – Margarita

Listen. There’s no tour scheduled. There’s no new album. They haven’t logged in to MySpace since December. Maybe I shouldn’t be promoting them to you. But this is good stuff, and if you haven’t heard it, you need to.
They aren’t a one-hit show. After Dreams, they recorded three more albums every few years. By all accounts, they are currently just relocating and taking care of other life kind of stuff right now. You have to truly appreciate that in a good artist. So when they return, or when you see them on the OutsideLands or FrollaChella lineup, you will know who they are and you can tell all your friends how you totally have to go see them.
The last album released was 2009’s Change Remains, still full of surprises and experiments. Check out “40 Fingers”, then buy the stuff and get ready.

Click to Enjoy Starlight Mints – 40 Fingers

Set My Soul At Ease

Posted on March 5, 2011 by admin

It was during season 14 of Saturday Night Live that I first heard of Edie Brickell. I watched every episode religiously that year, so that I could return on Monday to the first of many Algebra classes I had failed and re-hash the entire episode with Mike Popowski. We would roll in the aisles laughing about Giant Business Man, Church Chat, Girl Watchers, Sweeney Sisters, The Anal Retentive Chef, Hans and Franz, Pat Stevens, eventually Wayne’s World, then to close out the season the sketch that would absolutely kill – Toonces! Then there were the “commercials.” The Change Bank. I have always loved this one. We can handle requests like that; usually the same day.

Back to Edie Brickell. I watched SNL in the TV in my teenage bedroom. I didn’t have a DVR. There was no such thing. I didn’t have a VCR. Never mind what that is. There was no pause, no rewind, no let’s go look that up online. I had one shot to remember these sketches and one shot to be introduced to some of these artists.

So when this mousy girl from Texas got up and started singing strung-together existential silliness in the song “What I Am”, I just wasn’t sure how to react at first! I joked about it at school. But I looked further and I kind of got into folk sensation Edie Brickell and New Bohemians.

SNL has played a major role in Brickell’s life, since it was during her performance on the show two years later that she met her future husband, Paul Simon. Literally, she was performing a song, he got in the way of the camera, she flubbed her lyric, and then the two were married two years later in 1992. Following this union, they had three children, Brickell released two solo albums, and then reunited with the New Bohemians to record another album. After that Edie and Paul’s son from his first marriage formed a band called The Heavy Circles with a few other famous children. She formed another band with yet more artists last year. The indie and folk flow and creativity that must be going through this woman’s life at all times… Speaking of Bohemian!

So here we are in 2011, and we have a new album not only from Edie Brickell but also from The Gaddabouts, her most recent formation. Brickell writes a lot of songs on the fly – some get written and recorded the same day – and to keep the sound of her latest solo album pure and organic, she has included several live tracks. It’s not that she tours, but she does perform live shows here and there. She opened for one of our favorites, Iron and Wine.

Maybe one of the cleanest, sweetest songs on Brickell’s latest release (self titled) is Track 3, “Been So Good.”

Click to Enjoy Edie Brickell – Been So Good

Don’t forget you’re the best one that I’ve ever known.

Grab the album. Edie Brickell is a talented musician who isn’t always around when you expect her.

Charlie Sheen Is An Asshole, But Let’s Learn From It

Posted on March 2, 2011 by admin

“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” – Marcus Aurelius

Watching the one-man circus sideshow known only as Charlie Sheen gave me some fits of anger. Why? Well, his comments on AA are what really made my blood boil. The insinuation that the ideas behind AA were “written for normal people” and that there was a specific path to go by is just disingenuous. Yes, there are the 12 steps. It doesn’t mean that one has to have rigidity in how they practice and follow through on those 12 steps. Anyhow, that wasn’t really what made me upset. It’s the fact that I’ve personally witnessed a life change positively – due to the help they provided – makes me a bit angry. My own mother hit rock bottom from alcoholism almost 20 years ago, and hit the point where she tried to take her own life.

Now, it’s my understanding that the teachings of AA are inspired by Christian teachings. Personally, I’m an atheist. My own mother grew up in a strict Irish-Catholic home, but doesn’t practice, now. She still stays with her mission to stay sober, so it does do some good. The fact that we now have a celebrity slamming a program that helps millions that have nowhere else to go is honestly showing how out of touch he is. His comments about how “special” he was only stoke those flames and show the true amount of disconnect.

His unfortunate path is his own, but he’s now acting out in a manner that affects people in society. The everyday people that he called “losers” that are addicts and know nothing else, for example. It’s sad, really. The anger I originally felt has actually turned into pity. The ranting while talking about how underpaid he was also struck a nerve, as I was an education major in college, and watch as the governors of Wisconsin and New Jersey are openly battling teachers’ unions. Teachers are underpaid. Not Charlie Sheen. This sad arrogance is 100% anger, which he denies.

So what should I do? Do I lash out? I seriously thought about it. The media does play a large role in this, as they keep giving Sheen a podium to stand on. That role is what will likely end up being Sheen’s downfall, as people will quickly tire of the pity he’s asking for. When one out of ten people in our country are without a job, you’d find nary a few that would feel for a man that spent his money irresponsibly by snorting it up his nose. The media will have to take a large part of the blame for joyously allowing one man’s self-destructive behavior to simply worsen and hit a low.

Instead of lashing out, I hit a point where I simply now want to refuse to add gasoline to the fire. The decisions he’s made serve well to teach us all. He really is right in that his kids will learn from him. However, they won’t learn the lessons he thinks. His father, Martin Sheen, has already had enough, and is simply saying that he would be there for his son. There really isn’t shame in it. I can’t say I would be a bigger or better person for wagging my finger at him, though. It’s a natural reaction, of course. My willingness to understand the wrong in being angry is part of how he instead teaches me more about myself and how I could be a better person on my own, as I hope many with drug and alcohol addictions learn to do, too.

To find an AA chapter near you – visit here.
For help with drug addiction – visit here.

Click to Play Daft Punk – Teachers

crooning from the darkness

Posted on February 27, 2011 by admin

What do you do after you’ve nailed multiple genres and been in highly-respected bands like Murder City Devils and Pretty Girls Make Graves? You change it up again, of course.

Derek Fudesco, of the previously mentioned bands, is now a member of The Cave Singers. Their third album No Witch dropped this week. It’s a folksy romp of an album full of understated guitars and melodies that could bring the Hatfields and McCoys together for an afternoon luncheon. It made me want to drink a bottle of moonshine and dance around in bare feet. In other words, it’s got a downhome swagger that you just can’t avoid. Here’s the opening track as an example.

Click to play The Cave Singers – Gifts And The Raft

The key is the album’s simplicity. The production is very clean but there’s never too much going on. These guys aren’t trying to overwhelm you with a ton of music, they just want to overwhelm you with GOOD music. It works. I’m particularly hooked on the slinkly track “Falls” right now.

Click to play The Cave Singers – Falls

I’d put this album right up with some of the better folk/blues albums around right now. The Cave Singers can hang with The Black Keys, sure. Just let me know so I can be around to listen in.

Click to play The Cave Singers – Haystacks

Spare Bricks Can Be Dead Weight

Posted on February 25, 2011 by admin

It’s that time again. One of my favorite bands has released another album, and it’s time for me to snot and slobber on and on about how great it is.
Enter antithetic sentence here – wait, no. I was being completely genuine. I am about to snot and slobber over how great Bayside’s fifth major album, Killing Time, is. It’s sick, sick, sick.

Click to Enjoy Bayside – Sick, Sick, Sick

Anthony Raneri’s viciously self-aware lyrics have absolutely never failed to create the sharpest possible framework for each song, each album, each live performance. The combination of guitar sounds between Nick, Jack, and Anthony make sure that no matter how complicated the issue these lyrics skillfully dissect, the track will still melt your face. And then there is the skinny little fireball drummer, Chris, who picked up after the devastating death of the band’s previous drummer and lead them right through multiple successful albums. Watching him live is inspiring.

You need a map to see how far I was sticking out my neck

Whether it is in a club setting, a dive bar, or a huge outdoor stage – the Bayside live show is amazing and not to be missed. Record store acoustic performances ain’t terrible either. It may be a lot of emo/punk/uncategorized kids who are into this band, but this can’t possibly be a bad thing. Let’s hope some of Ant’s expert wordsmithery makes it into their vocabs sometime soon.

But can a person make a difference if he never makes a sound?

You can’t define this sub-genre. It is rock. This is rock music. These are working-class guys. They speak to everyone. You are guilty of committing the crimes these songs have called out. You have felt the pain and loss that they’ve so eloquently lamented. You’ve felt as doe-eyed in love. You’ve felt as murderously wronged. You don’t have to be Emo to feel these things. It’s rock and roll music (any old way you choose it.)

So buy Killing Time, and buy it for your friends too. I mean buy it. And buy a ticket to their show. I promise you, one will come nearby. These guys tour like a… rock band.

So stand for something cause something’s overdue
And I don’t ask for much, but this could define a lifetime.

Put A Ring On It, As Well As A Twist To It

Posted on February 23, 2011 by admin

This one just defies words. Seriously. Our house music pal Derrick Carter shared this video on his wall on Facebook last night.

I was in full scale shock. Was this real? It is, in fact, real. The Cleverlys are for real. And making a DVD. The above really just defies words. But even better? Is their cover of a terrible Black Eyed Peas song. And they made it sound great. Well, it sounds great, to me.