Josh and Doug go to Rough Trade Records to avoid a baseball-bat wielding Lars Ulrich

Coldplay Strikes Again

2011-10-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ugh. I just tried to watch the Coldplay video and the music was so boring that I couldn't get past the two minute mark. The video was something about an elephant. Coldplay kills me because I really do like enough of their songs that I am interested in their new albums, but I never completely embrace an album. The best is Rush of Blood to the Head, but the others aren't uneven per se, just alternately great and sleepy.

I don't like Ezras

2011-10-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm just biased against Ezras, but I don't like that Ezra Furman fellow. He seems like he wants to be Bob Dylan, but his bandmates wish he was someone just a little more funky. And I agree with them. I also don't like Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend nor do I like Ezra Klein, the Washington Post blogger who is my age and thinks he knows everything about social policy. All Ezras I have been exposed to in the media are pretentious hipster types. There's a horrible pun of some sort lurking in here that has to do with Better Than Ezra but I don't think it should be exposed. If I was a headline editor, I'd work it in into the title of the post. (Why does every headline on ESPN or Sports Illustrated have to be some kind of wordplay/pun? I think every article in the most recent SI suffered that fate. The authors must be grinding their teeth as their strong stories are given headlines like Deja Brew.)

B+S

2011-10-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

"Why is this happening to you, you're not child." The song of champions...champion men.

I just downloaded Arab Strap. People seem to like If You're Feeling Sinister better.

I Wish I Was This Guy

2011-10-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

REM

2011-09-22T14:26:00.001-07:00

REM breaking up after 30 years feels to me like an old couple getting a divorce. Aftergoing through all the hard parts (Bill leaving the band, making albums without being in the studio together, not really talking to each other during the Around the Sun era), they suddenly get all chummy and happy again over the last three years. And now they break up? Why didn't you just split up after Reveal and spare us the last three albums? Now the kids are grown up and out of the house...BOOM! Your father and I are splitting up even though these last few years without you in the house are the best we've ever had. No, we will not be getting together with the family for festival season. In the winter of our lives, we will start new families across the country from each other, but we hope you still love us because we love you and we still love each other. A strange currency indeed.

I wore an REM hat every day junior year. Every five days I coupled it with my New Adventures in HiFi shirt. By the end of the year the shirt had pit stains and the black hat turned brown from the sun and dirt. I woke up for a month to How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us.

It was through REM that I learned about bands selling out from Jake Robertson. Apparently, they sold out when they signed with Warner Brothers before I even knew they existed. I had a hard time accepting that as it was all in the past for me and Green was my first REM album. I still don't understand how anyone can consider Green in its entirety as a sellout album. I can see maybe Stand as a sellout song and later Shiny Happy People.

I've never loved Out of Time. I don't know if I ever really loved an entire REM album front to back like I have a Radiohead or U2 album. No, that's no true, I loved Green fiercely. Even Automatic, I couldn't take Everybody Hurts and Man on the Moon soon bored me. But while their albums may have not been perfect, each album had perfect moments which is why I always returned to them. And they were usually just album tracks that killed me. Leave, Be Mine, Country Feedback, Sweetness Follows, Low, etc.

They always felt like a band that lived a double life. No ever played any of their early stuff in the radio like they did with U2 so when Eric Jacobson bought all of their early albums and played them for me, it rattled my bones. I was so used to the well-produced albums that I didn't know what to think. I felt old listening to Fables, like I was growing mold or moss on me as I listened. And that's why I love Fables more than any album save Green.

R.E.M.

2011-09-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

I guess this day was destined to come, but, honestly, I'd never thought about it. For that reason, I was sincerely shocked to read the announcement that REM is over. After the initial shock wore off after seven or eight seconds, my next thought was, "I guess it's time." My next thought was, "I'm glad they put out Collapse Into Now as their last album." I enjoy that album, as a whole, more than anything else they put out over the last 15 years. I honestly like every song on the album. They're not all great, but I like them all. "Me, Marlon Brandon, Marlon Brando and I" is a great song that rings through my mind on a regular basis. And the closer, "Blue," while not 100% unique from their 1990's work, is pretty awesome.

I love and hate REM. They're hands down the most boring band I listen to. But they're also one of the most thrilling. I fully recognize that a lot of that thrill is nostalgic, but that's fine. The cliche rings true: they're the band I grew up with. I saw them live twice. Not many, but ok for living in Idaho/Utah. At the last concert of theirs I went to, I really appreciated how they seem to have given themselves over to their fans these last few years by saying things like, "This song belongs to you..." and then launching into "The One I Love" or "Losing My Religion." It was a stark comparison to the first time I saw them. Someone yelled, "Play 'Stand'!" and Stipe said, "We're not a jukebox." I would've liked to have seen them play "Swan Swan H" and "Find the River" live at some time in my life. "Beachball" is their worst song ever; one of the worst songs ever recorded by an American band.

Some Thoughts: An REM Retrospective From the Life of Joshua L. Sorensen, MLIS.

I never really loved Automatic like everyone else did/does. Granted there are some awesome songs there. But, as a whole, it's boring. In fact, the strongest feeling I got from Automatic came from seeing a poster of REM during the Automatic era hanging on the bedroom wall of a girl name Amber that I had a huge crush on. I thought, "Hey, I can love this album if it helps me get this girl." Of course, I never loved the album and I never got the girl.

Holy crap, "Beachball" sucks.

"Electrolite" is the far and away the one song my wife and I have listened to the most in our 14 years of being together. Far and away.

"What's the Frequency Kenneth?" is totally freakin awesome.

I once sat on the curb outside of a movie theater with a really pretty girl and told her, "When I hear 'Strange Currencies' it reminds me of you." It still reminds me of her, of course. After that incident, how could it not?

Like any true REM fan, I once had all the lyrics to "It's the End of the World..." memorized.

Whenever the song "Fretless" came on when my friends and I were hanging out I'd yell out the lyric, "She comes easy!" and it'd always get a laugh. Seriously, it'd always kill.

My t-shirt from the Monster tour--the green shirt with the black star on the front--was the only real world shirt I took with me on my mission. I vowed to wear it every single P day. I made it one year.

The one cover I have always wanted to hear from REM is U2's "Van Diemen's Land." I've always thought Stipe's voice would be perfect for singing, "A day will come in this dawning age when an honest man sees an honest wage."

While I think Reveal is their worst album, the song "I've Been High" is one of my favorite REM songs ever. In fact, when that album came out, that song sent me into a two week study of every REM album. That study lead me to the conclusion that the song "I've Been High" was the culmination of REM's entire career. I don't even know what that means. Upon coming to that conclusion, I proceeded to write REM a five page letter about it. I sent REM a hand written, five page letter explaining my theory about how the song "I've Been High" was the culmination of their career.

I played and sang "Let Me In" on an acoustic guitar for some close friends right after my mission. It was, perhaps, the last time I was cool. The "Strange Currencies" girl referenced above was in attendance.

I once listened to "Undertow" over and over on my car stereo while I changed a flat tire out in the freezing cold in Ephraim, Utah in January 2000.

I used to think the starting line of "The Wake-up Bomb" was "I look good in glasses," instead of "I look good in a glass pack." For six or seven years I'd sing, "I look good in glasses," every night when I took my contacts out and put my glasses on. When I found out what the real lyric was, I felt foolish.

During 7th grade I wrote out the lyrics of "Stand" from memory in math class, instead of paying attention to what problems my teacher was doing on the overhead projector.

The first tapes I ever bought, I got all at the same time one Saturday afternoon at the mall in Dallas, Texas. They were REM Green, U2 The Joshua Tree and...Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet. I still have the Green and Joshua tapes.

I wrote, "It's time I had some time alone" in giant letters on my bedroom wall when I was 17. How little I knew then.

This one makes me laugh now, but I once cried--literally shed tears--during "Half a World Away." I'd just left my girlfriend's house the night before I left on my mission. Though I loved her deeply, the tears weren't for her. Luckily, I can listen to that song today and not think of that incident.

My favorite REM song is "Country Feedback." When I saw REM in SLC in 1995, Stipe said, "This is Bill's and my favorite song" and then they played "Country Feedback" with the video from "Nightswimming" showing above and behind them. It totally lit me up. I thought, "My favorite REM song is Bill Berry's and Michael Stipe's favorite REM song. I totally get REM."

The 17 REM Songs That Made the Biggest Impact On My Life (In No Particular Order)

1. Nightswimming

2. Find the River

3. Exhuming McCarthy

4. It's the End of the World

5. King of Birds

6. Stand

7. Orange Crush

8. Swan Swan H

9. Superman

10. What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

11. Strange Currencies

12. Country Feedback

13. Belong

14. Low

15. Let Me In

16. Electrolite

17. Half a World Away

2 4 B+S

2011-09-21T19:40:00.001-07:00

1. Listened to "Dirty Dream Number Two" again tonight. Went to YouTube and watched some live performances. It really changed my perception of them. Pretty cool, actually.

2. I absolutely cannot believe that "Dress Up In You" is not only NOT in the Top 10 B+S downloads on iTunes, it's not in the Top 20, 30, 40 or even 50. Kids, seriously, this is a phenomenal and a beautiful song. When I listen to it, I think, "Effortless." They make is sound so easy.

Great Lyric:

2011-09-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

"Well it's high time we step outside

Drop the gloves and settle this like a man
Well we might stall and hem and haw
We might not fight but we won't walk away
No, we won't walk away."

Menomena, "Rotten Hell"

Is The Best Song of 2005...

2011-09-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

The National's "Daughters of the Soho Riots"?

I think it may be.

D.F.R.o.t.M.C.D.

2011-07-08T17:46:00.001-07:00

Revisiting Doug's Friend's Run of the Mill CD. Some thoughts:

1. This collection changed my music life. I remember listening to it over and over thinking, "How is this possible? How have I missed this music all my life?"

2. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Radiohead's "Gagging Order" is frighteningly brilliant.

3. I love Okkervil River.

4. Sparklehorse's "Gold Days" is the soundtrack to every dream I've ever had and every dream I ever will have--from the terrifying to the sexy.

5. If Will Oldham can do it, I can do it.

6. Low: Almost thou persuadest me to love slow-core. "No more airplanes."

7. Two thoughts from "Los Angeles I'm Yours": 1) Colin Meloy=pervert ("I can see your undies..."), and 2) worst...harmonica...solo...ever. EVER. It makes me feel like I'm getting hit on by some guy named Bliss in the back of some side-street barber shop called Whisper Cuts in 1983; what I was doing there in the first place I'll never know.

8. "The Best of Jill Hives" is the best of GBV I've heard. I totally would've put this song on a mix tape for (name omitted for privacy) in the spring of 1995. It would've been even COOLER if her name would've been Jill.

Two Quick Notes

2011-05-21T22:24:00.001-07:00

1. The King is Dead Update: "January Hymn" is really killing me right now...in a good way. I'm totally in love with this song. I just listened to it 19 times in a row on repeat. "Maybe it will all come back to me," is the best line. What is it about the question of coming back? How can humanity be tied so ubiquitously to the concept of return?

2. Anyone out there remember Nirvana? I listened to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" today for the first time in maybe five years. Epic. Freakin epic. I wanted to round up my daughters and mosh. Nevermind kills.

The Decemberists: The King is Dead...and I wish I was, too, when I listen to this album (man, that's lame).

2011-05-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

Here’s how I see it going down:

The Decemberists are driving in a van somewhere in Missouri when the engine throws a rod. The band members walk to the nearest establishment—Randy’s Roadhouse—to use the telephone to call a tow truck (because none of their cell phones are charged, obviously). While they wait for the truck, they throw a few back. And then a few more. And then a few more. And then someone puts a Willie Nelson song on the jukebox. In a drunken slur Colin Meloy yells, “What’s so special about this guy? He’s no better than me. I can do that!”

And so it began.

The King is Dead is a painful experiment by the most popular anglophiles in America. It makes me wonder: At some point in our lives do we all rear our heads and attack our starting places like the snake eating its tail? I’ll never know why The Decemberists took this turn; frankly, I don’t care. I’ve never liked more than two or three of their songs; one—“Red Right Ankle”—if I’m being completely straight. And the thing that kills me is, there’s not much difference between “Red Right Ankle” and these songs. However, I think if they’d stuck to their MO and done their thing they could’ve slipped some (two) of these songs on their albums and they would’ve been amazing. But, all together they suck. It’s like, you think it’d be so awesome to have a box of doughnuts for dinner. But, you do and instead it makes you sick to your stomach and hate the doughnuts. If you just had spaghetti and salad and then had one doughnut, your dining experience would’ve been awesome.

The Songs:

“Don’t Carry it All.” Best song on the album, I guess.

“Calamity Song.” Let’s say someone sat your best friend down on a chair across the table from you and said, “You can have this (pointing to your best friend)…OR (and they get this gimmicky smile on their face)…you can have this…” and they set down some other guy who's dressed in similar clothes as your friend, and kind of looks like him, but is a total stranger. Which would you chose? Your best friend. Every freakin time. Not the look-alike stranger. I mean, he’s your best friend and he’s sitting right there!

“Rise To Me.” Last summer I visited a friend in Colorado. He and his wife took us to this dinner-and-a-show place set on a ranch. We had bad steak and listened to four guys play country western music for an hour. As individuals they weren’t bad musicians. But the songs were utterly forgettable. And the whole time I was thinking, “This is so sad. These guys need to get real jobs.” That’s how I feel about this song. Utterly forgettable.

“Rox in the Box.” Meloy channels Linda Ronstadt circa 1975. Worst song on the album.

“January Hymn.” I started out hating this song; it was just one of the doughnuts in the “box of doughnuts for dinner” scenario. But, it’s better now.

“Down By the Water.” This sounds like an outtake from their first album. Even though I’ve never heard their first album, nor do I know the title.

“All Arise!” I want to burn this song down. More dinner theater. Very bad dinner theater. Sounds like Kenny Rogers on a bender. And I hate that stupid violin.

“June Hymn.” This one is like a photograph I stumble across from my high school days. It reminds me of my Simon & Garfunkel period. Naïve, wide-eyed, trying-so-hard-to-be-poetic. I like the chorus up until, “panoply” then it just collapses under the weight of its own pretension.

“This is Why.” This song is the theme song for the new CW television series based on Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The part (at 3:46 in the track) where he sings “So come to me…come to me now. Lay your arms around me” is played over and over during the slow motion climax of every episode. And every time the credits rolls. And on every commercial for the show.

“Dear Avery.” This is a song NBC hired James Taylor to write and sing on the season finale of 30 Rock over an ironic video montage of Jack Donaghy’s missing his wife, Avery, who’s been taken by the North Koreans.

Intangibles:

Two songs mentioned above that could’ve been successful on other Decemberists albums? “Don’t Carry it All” and “January Hymn."
Random thought: Country western isn’t Americana.
How does the album make me feel? Like I’m about to do the Boot Scootin’ Boogie with a bunch of 50 year old drunk folks dressed in jeans with red and blue checkered handkerchiefs around their necks. I hate that feeling.
Who would like this album? My mom. She’d put it into the mix with Jim Croce, Kris Kristofferson and Gordon Lightfoot. Seriously. She totally would.
If this would’ve been The Decemberists first album would they have made it? NO.
How did this album influence my opinion of Conor Oberst? It made me realize the man’s a genius. He’s not perfect but he does what he does incredibly well.
What did I learn from listening to this album? Snakes shouldn’t eat their tails.

Grades:

Tone: 1/5 I like a little less polished sound.

Voices: 2/5 Am I the only person who thinks Meloy sounds like a kindergartener?

Music: 4/5 There’s never been a doubt that The Decemberists have a lot of talent in this area.

Lyrics: 1/5 PP&P (Painfully precious and pretentious.)

Intangibles: 2/5

Final: 10/25 Not good.

Screamadelica - Primal Scream

2009-06-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

Remember how we were going to review this album and then you decided that what you really wanted to do was quit doing anything and started going to raves and demanding E from all the other librarians? Remember that?

Well, that's basically the only way for me to figure out why Screamadelica is such a seminal album (according to Allmusic and others). I think you have to be at raves and high on Ecstasy to really "get it" (and probably have to be from Manchester, too, which is so horribly depressing that dancing in a warehouse is actually a huge step above actual life.) Not being an E doer, nor a raver, I decided to do something that would be somewhat similar. I ate a lot of sugar and turned on the visualizer on iTunes. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

"It's full of stars!"

Building a collection like you would build a basketball team

2009-06-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

I was having an inner tussle the other day when I was pondering if I was a tool for still sticking with U2, REM, and Radiohead. The adventerous thing to do would be to ditch those bands for something newer and edgier. Say, "Hey, I think the four cornerstones of my collection are Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, No Age, and Bat for Lashes." But, I couldn't allow myself. Quality is quality no matter how popular, right? So, I shouldn't be ashamed. But how can I justify it?

The Lakers help me justify it. How? Well, not from the fan perspective. From the general manager perspective. If you are going to build a championship team, you need unequivocal superstars on the team. Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, people like that. If you don't have those players, you aren't going to win. Simple as that. Look at the roster of teams before the season starts and you can just cross some of them off the list from the get go, because they don't have that star power. As a fan, it's cool to root for the nondescript guys playing together as a team. But you don't win championships with only nondescript guys. You might make the playoffs, but you won't win. no matter how distasteful it might seem on the outside, you need the superstar. Once you have the two or three superstars, you can bring on the role players. You can have tons of role players! As many and as weird as you want because their inconsistencies will be overshadowed by the superstars.

Whenever I think, "Sheesh, things are getting a little weird for me" I throw the ball into my superstars. I play the Bends, I play Achtung, I play Green. Reset the offense. Without the superstars, the team drifts, you rely on the draft (new bands/albums) and you're stuck in rebuilding mode. (Of course, you could be like the Knicks under Isiah Thomas, bringing in a bunch of pseudo-superstars and rotting the team with them. You know, like the Black Eye Peas or something...)

And that's how I justify saying, "Yes, my favorite bands are U2, REM, and Radiohead."

Oxford Collapse collapses

2009-06-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

Too bad really. That album that we reviewed gets better and better with each spin. (Yes, I still say "spin" even though it doesn't actually spin on a turntable or a CD player.) Thoughts on the Collapse?

You and Me - The Walkmen

2008-11-04T19:41:00.000-08:00

I least have to give the Delgadoes credit. I listened intently to them, trying to figure out if I loved them or hated them. And with Oxford Collapse, the first listen may not have done it for me, but I had that feeling that continued listens would be worthwhile. All this is a nice introduction for my feelings about You and Me by the Walkmen. After about the fifth listen, I realized that the marginal utility for each subsequent listen would be nil. Not only was I getting nothing out of it, it was preventing me from exploring other, more interesting music. So, I stopped listening to it. I can't even comment on individual tracks because they all sounded the same. What did they sound like? They sounded like a NYC band trying to be arty at different tempos. I'm sure there are editors of hipster magazines that are working themselves into a lather describing the detached vocals or the guitars that just rip right through each song. Yawn. Blah. So orchestrated arty, but without any redeeming quality.

The intangible with this album is simple. Would I rather listen to anything else? If it was Jack Johnson, I would rather listen to the Walkmen's You and Me. Other than that, I think I'd try the other band.

Final Rating: D.

Okkervil River - The Stand Ins

2008-10-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here's the thesis for my review: After listening to this album for, oh, five minutes, it was already better than the previous two we chose. I think that means I need to downgrade Oxford Collapse a half-step. Then again, the first real song of the album is Lost Coastlines which might be the best thing Okkervil River has ever done and considering how I consider Okkervil River to one of the premier indie bands of our time, that's saying something. Everything about the song is great...the melody, the bassline, the banjo, the Meiburg singing parts, everything. It really sets such a high bar that the rest of the album can't match. Too bad. I do think the rest of the album's pretty good, but I just can't stop listening to Lost Coastlines. I know, it's a completely unfair review. There are a couple of other tracks that I do really like namely Starry Stairs and the Ex-Girlfriend one. I'm just having ahard time listening to the rest of the album without a nagging voice in my head urging me to flip back to Lost Coastlines.

Intanglible for this album: Does it make me wanna be a rock star? The answer to that is a resounding, "Yes." From the moment I heard Lost Coastlines, I wanted to form a band and play a church talent show or something. Seriously.

Final Grade: I'm giving it an A-. I really should give it an I for incomplete because I haven't given the other songs their proper due. but from the couple of times I have heard the other songs, they are pretty good, so I think a prelim A- is fine, with an open reservation to the A area. That's right. It might become an A album for me. (I hope I'm not guilty of grade inflation. The more of these we do, the more likely I am to realize how I keep overrating albums.)

Hate Revisited

2008-09-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

I can't stand this cd.

Nice review. I think you sum it up by saying something just seems off. I think a lot of the effort was lost on me. I feel like everything The Delgados were trying to do on Hate was pulled off successfully by Belle and Sebastian. And I'm not even a B+S fan but that's what it seems to me.

Worst comparison ever

2008-09-12T19:25:00.001-07:00

I'm going to say that your "Guns 'N Roses meets the Carpenters" description is the most misleading, inaccurate description of a band...of all time. Hilarious.

Hate - The Delgados

2008-09-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

Could I have been more excited to listen to this album after you had to go and say, "Dude, you're going to freaking love this album!" after you listened to the initial 13 seconds? I was completely unprepared for what followed. The only way I can truly describe the sound of this album is a musical hybrid of the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev with singers that sing on-key and don't whine. Actually, the female vocalist sounds like...I dunno, a cross between Dubstar's lead singer or the female vocalist of Stars or something like that. The guy sounds generic. He's just kinda there. So, the initial challenge that this album presented is the age old question about copycat bands...if it sounds just like a band you like, should you detest them or should you embrace them? I usually dislike sound alike bands if they sound like a band I really really like, especially if it seems really obvious that they are imitating. So, I'm okay with the Editors and Interpol sounding exactly the same, but, I was not okay with I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business sounding exactly like Dashboard Confessional (because I'm a sensitive girl, I guess). The most heinous of all imitators is, of course, Camouflage and the Great Commandment. I would guess 95% of the human race thinks that The Great Commandment was written and performed by Depeche Mode. I bet DM could play it at their concerts and everyone would say, "Oh yeah! What album is this off again?" Anyway, I kept thinking to myself, "Should I like this because they have better voices than FL or MR?" Every time I got passed it, I would relisten to the album and it would come flooding back. So, I sat there and struggled with it before it finally really got to me. The difference between the Flaming Lips (who I'm ok with) and Mercury Rev (who I really like), and the Delgados seems to reside in the ol' sincercity basket. FL and MR are sincere. The Delgados do not seem sincere. If Jonathan Donahue was singing All You Need is Hate or the Light Before We Land (the two tracks most like Mercury Rev), I would be putting them on a mix CD. And the bad part for the Delgados is that those are the two best tracks (except for the horribly named Child Killers which lyrics have nothing to do with the title). Pretty much this is my review. Not very technical, I can't really put my finger on it, but there's something about it that strikes me as off. Trying too hard to be critically acclaimed. I think that's it. There's nice stuff here. Maybe if I listen more, I'll appreciate the juxtoposition of baroque music and utterly depressing lyrics. But right now, the depressing lyrics just seem to be depressing to try and be cool. And that sucks.

Pulling a Camouflage, I'm ripping off your concept of intangibles, because it hit me as I was walking home today from work. As of now, would I put any one of the songs off this album on a mix CD? And the answer is, "No." Maybe I might send All You Need is Hate to someone as a joke. But, I can't see it making the cut against 20 other songs I might choose.

Overall grade: C- (that seems so low, but it just doesn't register. So, yes, a C-).

The Delgados: Hate

2008-09-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Even though I try not to, I always end up comparing the music I hear from new bands I find to two other bands whose music I’m familiar with. For example, I always end up saying, “They’re like a cross between Band X and Band Y.” I hate that I do it but that doesn’t stop me from doing it every time without fail. To help you understand just how fallible this method is you have to understand that I am by no conceivable means a music scholar. I’m very much a generalist. I see myself and knowing a little bit about a lot of bands; I don’t know everything about every band. Most of the time, I’m not able to put a song I hear from any given band into the context of their career. It’s like I hear a song and that song represents that band in my mind. I know that’s not fair whatsoever but I don’t have time to go back and do a thorough study of the band. So as I got into this album and listened to it more and more the thought that kept coming to my mind was: “This music is like a cross between The Carpenters and Guns N’ Roses.” (Mind you, I wouldn’t be considered a fan of either of those bands [I don’t own an album of either of theirs] so take my statement how you will.)

Tone: The tone of this album is, what I call, the Triple S: shiny, slick and smooth. It’s pretty much everything that I don’t like to see in an album, but that’s fine. I personally prefer some bite to my albums; some banter between band and engineer in the background; some sounds of instruments being shuffled around on the studio floor; footsteps; breathing; coughing; band members cursing under their breath at missing some note; some lo-fi goodness. However, I respect there are bands out there that ride the Triple S wave.

Voice: I think the voices on this album are great. I like there’s a man and a woman and they share the singing duties. And I like the woman’s voice! I wouldn’t run out and get her autograph if I saw her walking down the street but that’s okay. They do have a way of sounding super conceited but what UK band doesn’t so I guess it’s a moot point.

Music: The music is pretty good. I know that sound super lame but there wasn’t much that stood out for me on this one. I’ve got to be honest here. I would never have listened to this album all the way through once—let alone six or seven times—if it hadn’t been for this review thing we’ve got going on. It’s just not my cup of tea. However, I firmly believe that just because I don’t like a particular album that doesn’t mean it isn’t music that is well written and well performed. “Child Killers” is kind of a sweet lullaby (it totally sounds like Obi!); it’s connected in my mind to “All Rise.” There are several spots on this album where the drummer really steals the show—or is the show. I like that. Drums are cool. Although very good advice, the song “Never Look at the Sun” is boring. “Coming In From the Cold” is really the best song on the album. It’s the kind of song you want to take home and share a meal with. There are times when—in the music—I feel the stormy Scottish coastal weather on my face—which is pretty amazing since I’ve never been to Scotland. There are times I feel a sense of their national history. (Never Look At the Sun.) There are times—“Woke From Dreaming”—when the music makes me visualize a black grand piano rising out of the center of a huge concert hall stage lit by thousands of battery-powered candles, surrounded by a full orchestra, and Slash is standing on the piano madly torquing his guitar and Axl is sitting on the piano bench, hunched over the keys, long mess of red hair flipping so awesomely about his head and shoulders (obviously this image is before he went to corn rows). That’s right, “Woke From Dreaming” is the song that makes me most feel this album is a mix of The Carpenters and Guns N’ Roses (although it’s not the only song that makes me feel that way). I think it’s probably a mix of the fact G N’ R were (is, maybe?) so dramatic—like The Delgados—and the fact that Axl seemed to wear a lot of plaid back in the day. (Is there a Scottish “kind” of plaid?) Anyway, it just reminds me of the live video for “November Rain.” Just a word concerning songs that have foreign languages in them i.e. “Woke From Dreaming.” If the entire song in is a foreign language, it’s cool. If you start off in English and then have parts of the song in a foreign language, it pretentious. And if you have back-up singers chanting in a foreign language like medieval christian nymphs, it’s pretty much just weird.

Lyrics. Nothing interesting to report. Except any irony or whatever must be lost on me because I can’t really stand “All You Need is Hate.”

The Intangibles for this week:

• How does the album make me feel? Bored—except for “Coming In From the Cold” which is awesome.
• How does this album compare to fellow Scots Camera Obscura’s Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi? Not. Even. Close. We’re talking Northern and Southern Hemisphere here.
• Had my friend’s wife who is really into bands like this (foreign, women singers, ride the Triple S wave, etc.) heard about The Delgados? No.
• Did listening to this album make you appreciate Oxford Collapse’s Bits from last week more than I initially did? Very, very much so.
• How do you envision The Delgados spending their Sunday mornings off? Playing Phase 10 and getting really serious about playing by the rules.
• What song off this cd would I play if I was giving Britt Daniel a ride to Six Flags? It has to be “Woke From Dreaming.” “Dude, you gotta hear how much this song sounds like a mix between The Carpenters and Guns N’ Roses! Oh, and, Britt, are you, uh, going to pay for parking or what?”

Grades:
Tone: 1/5
Voices: 2/5
Music: 2/5 (Mostly because of “Coming In From the Cold.”)
Lyrics: 1/5
Intangibles: 2/5

Total: 8/25

Reply

2008-09-05T20:16:00.001-07:00

I think you kicked my trash in relation to the overall awesomeness of the review. Wow. I wish I had thought of the John Darnielle/Whole Foods thing. It might be the single greatest judgement tool a music reviewer could have. You're like a poor man's King Solomon.

Review: Oxford Collapse, Bits--REVISED!

2008-09-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

All I could really think to say about this album is: I like it.

I know, I know, there has to be more than that. There has to be quantified evidence: stats and numbers and pie charts and bar graphs and 3-D graphics that demonstrate why I like this record. Problem is I’ve never been about numbers. Or graphs. Or proof. I never debated in high school because I can’t do that. I literally cannot do it. I don’t think like that. I don’t think quickly or aggressively or analytically. For me, thinking analytically is like being forced to put on stainless steel underwear. I like something because I like something and if you disagree that’s totally fine but I have no desire to discuss it with you. Let’s shake hands and be on our separate ways and never talk of it again, Pumpkin.

So when Doug suggested we do this weekly album review on one hand I was pumped to have a reason to listen to new music. On the other hand, I was utterly deflated because I’d have to demonstrate why I like music. But, as I listened to this album all week I found that it’s not a bad thing to know why I like music. It was enlightening to me to be able to pinpoint what makes me like music. So, here goes.

First of all: tone. The music on Bits feels light and whimsical and unserious and unpolished; lo-fi. It doesn’t sound like they spent months in the studio which pretty much equates death for an album to me. There’s probably a graph I can draw that shows the longer a band is in the studio the more the album sucks. Bands get bogged down by time in the studio. Creativity withers. Great albums are similar to what I remember about light particles from Physical Science 101—the more you try to pin them down the more they elude you. And conversely, the less you try to pin them down the more you know about them (or in the case of songs, the better they are). I have no idea if that analogy would stand up scientifically but I think it would so there you go.

Next: voice(s). I really like the voices. I’m pretty sure the singer’s voice is the first thing I judge when listening to any new band. I don’t care if the voice is a crappy voice. I'm not looking for any American Idols in my music. I’ll take a voice with limited clarity and smoothness and talent over a perfect but pretentious voice any day of the year. I cannot stand a voice that says, “I’m freakin awesome” regardless of the lyric it is singing. From the initial “I can’t remember things…I can’t remember things. I just don’t know what to do…oo…oo,” and in the elevated, harmonizing yelps on “The Birthday Wars” and the distant, marching choruses of “Children’s Crusade” I knew I liked these guys’ voices. And I like there’s more than one singer. Matching scratchy, squeaky, yelling, stretching voices make me cheer for a band. I can connect with that. I can’t connect with perfect voices. Oh, and I like the funny-voiced female background singer on “John Blood.”

Music is next. There’s nothing moving about the music on this album. Not that it’s not catchy. I’ve been whistling the cello hook from “A Wedding” all week. I think the transition between “A Wedding” and “Featherbeds” is one of my favorite moments on the album. It moves from the organic simplicity of human voice and strings to a brassy-cymbols-almost-fuzzy-bass-and-canned-drums-sounding splash. And I love the yelling chorus on “Young Love Delivers.” I think it totally redeems the lame beginning of that song (more on that to follow). “Children’s Crusade” is a pretty little spot for me, although I don’t know how it will stand up against the test of time. For now it's certainly pretty but it could be fleeting. However, I love the little interludes in that song that make it sound like they’re going to break into “La Bamba” by Los Lobos. I get all excited to sing, “La la la la La Bamba!” and then it goes back to the pretty little march. But that’s fine.

Lyrics. In general I'm torn when it comes to lyrics. One part of me says I really couldn’t care less about the meaning of lyrics. I don’t care what bands are saying these days. I don’t care what issues are swelling in their precious little hearts. Who cares. I certainly don’t. The other part of me, though, being an English major, certainly likes to hear--and look for--creatively worded lyrics. So that division is a challenge to reconcile when I listen to music. The major concern I have about lyrics is this: Don’t write sentimental lyrics. That’s it. I won't tolerate it. As long as they're not sentimental I don't care. And I don't care what they mean. So, lyrically on Bits, I haven’t really found any sentimental lyrics. I tried to look the lyrics up on the internet but couldn’t find any. I do like the line, “In your presence, we’ll acquiesce,” from “For the Winter Coats.” The only lyric that really bothers me for some reason is the first line of “Young Love Delivers”: “My love came back from China, brought me a pocket camera.” I don’t know why but it just pisses me off. Like I said above, though, the chorus totally redeems that song: I want to pull over to the side of the road, raise my arms and yell, “You’re so sweet, thanks for asking! We’re doing fine for our steady slow decline!” (if that’s even what they say). Who knows. I don’t. And, frankly, I don’t care.

Finally, for me, are The Intangibles—a series of five short answer, unquantifiable responses to the album. The Intangibles are: 1) How does the album make me feel? 2) Is this music unique? 3) Would I go see the band? 4) How would I recommend the album to someone? And, finally, 5) What song off this CD would I want playing in my car if I was giving John Darnielle a ride to Whole Foods Market?

How does the album make me feel? Bits happens to make me feel young. Like I’m kicking it in the basement of my best friend’s house after school and we’re talking about sports and scoring chicks. It makes me feel like, “Hey this isn’t the greatest thing in the world but it’s cool and I’m young and there’ll be plenty of time for that stuff later.” I would’ve loved this album when I was 17 and that's fine with me. It’s carefree and loud in parts and there’s yelling and some pretty great guitar and drum parts and even some feedback which totally reminded me of the early 90’s.
Is this album unique? Honestly, there’s a lot of influence from many other bands in this music. For that it doesn’t really stand out as unique. Entertaining? Yeah. Thrilling and moving and the only place on the face of the earth to find just this exact music? No.
Would I go see the band? If they played my hometown, yeah, I think so. If I had to travel? No.
How would I recommend the album? “Hey have you heard Bits from Oxford Collapse? It’s alright. If you get a chance to hear it, you may want to.”
What song off this CD would I want playing in my car if I was giving John Darnielle a ride to Whole Foods Market? Probably "Featherbeds" or "John Blood."

Grades:

Tone—4

Voices—3

Music—3

Lyrics—3

Intangibles—3

Total: 16

For the purpose of setting the standard: Zero is the lowest possible score on both the individual components and the total. Two is an average score on the individual components for a total score of 10 for a straightforward, average album. Five is the highest score possible for the individual components adding up to a score of 25 for the perfect album. Albums that are twenty-fives are (for example): The National Alligator, The Unicorns Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?, AMFM Mutilate Us and Possum Dixon Possum Dixon.

Weekly Review

2008-08-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

Band: Oxford Collapse

Album: Bits

Note to other readers: Inspired by my wife's book club, I contacted Josh this week and said that we should independently review an album this week. We decided to choose a band we had never heard of that had been positively reviewed in Paste magazine. In the most recent issue of Paste, they had reviewed this band Oxford Collapse, giving it an 86 out of 100 which was the second highest of the reviews. The only thing I had remembered about the review was that they said something about it being college rockish.

Review: So, I didn't check out anything about this band, just listened to the music, much like how one was forced to do so in the early internet days when you could not instantly find out all the silly peripheral things about the band that so often affect my listen but really shouldn't.

My overall impression of the album is that it's very good. Not great, not horrible, but very good. The sound is schizoid. The opener "Electric Arc" has some great indie guitar which more than makes up for the repetitive lyrics. Vocals are clear and up front in the mix (as if I even know what that means). However, the sounds of Birthday Wars is completely different. Fuzzy guitars, vocals buried in the mix and completely unintelligible. It sounds like 90s indie-rock stuff like early Mineral or early Promise Ring (without the lisp) or something like that. Just a rougher sound. Both sound great. And then! Track 3 (Vernon-Jackson) welcomes a new vocalist and I still can't tell if I hate his voice. Less of a rock voice and more of a slimey croon or something. After first three tracks, I was thinking "I could love this album." However, track four has idiotic lyrics with emo-styling singing from both vocalists (I hate the "so absurd" line. Just hate it more than anything. Worst part of the album.) and track 5 is a hideous speak-sing thing that sounds like the Hold Steady (and you know I loathe the Hold Steady).

Track 6 (a Wedding) is a real shocker as it is only a cello and singing. I thought it too emoey/gooey dumb at first, but slowly grew to really like it, thought the risk was worthwhile. The next two songs I was convinced were the heart of the album: Featherbeds and For the Winter Coats are great songs (I'm not sure why I love the line "got jacked up playing leapfrog" but I do) with great lyrics and rockish. But then Men and Their Ideas is another Hold Steady/Brand New hybrid thing that really killed the momentum...until Children's Crusade knocks it out of the park. Best song on the album, awesome marching, military type drumming and lyrics that I can't quite make out but I think might be really cool (and I don't want to look them up because it might kill the effect). The next three tracks are all up in the air for me: They contain great elements, and terrible elements, whether it be off-mic singing like Brand New (which doesn't work well) or strange references to the South when OC sounds like nothing from the South to a guest female vocalist that sucks out the energy, to good melodies, catchy riffs, etc. Just hard to really get a hold of.

Overall, I would say I loved the variation of the album. Too often I stop listening to an album because the sound never varies between songs (see all bearded acoustic sensitive men and their albums). These guys really try hard to mix it up, and sometimes it's terrible, but usually they hit the mark. Really saves the album for me. If I were giving it a grade, I'd probably go for a B (where The Bends is an A+ Parachutes is a C and Yourself or Someone Like You is an F.)

The top ten American Indie songs of the 2000s

2008-07-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

All right sir. I'll match your top ten+1. Let me make a clear distinction between your top ten and my top ten. First, when I say American, I mean red-white-and-blue, US of A, apple pie eating, corn-fed Americans. None of this Canadian business. Which means you! You, Arcade Fire are not even considered in this list, even though you would have made it if you had been American. (For all of you nauseating pansies out there who weakly cough "But Doug, Win Butler is from Texas!" I say, "He don't want to live in America no more. And they say they're from Montreal. So that settles it.") Also you Stars and you Unicorns are not up for consideration except I don't think that you would have made it. (Except Sea Ghost is pretty awesome...)

So, here we go. I don't think they are in any order except for the number one song. I purposely do this because my boss always requires me to arrange things in a logical order and I cannot stand the thought of doing that here, in this blog.

Number one song: (There's never really a reason to do the whole countdown business except to build anticipation. As far as I can tell, there is no anticipation whatsoever associated with this list, so I shall eschew the countdown format)

Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake - Grandaddy. That's right. Infectious, bouncy, goofy, hilarious, and downright awesome. It embodies the best aspects of indie which are: that there are no set aspects as to what indie should be. Pretty much a song about futuristic Modesto from what I can tell. This is the moment where everything Grandaddy strived to be over the course of four albums coalesced into perfection. It's a song about the future, the mundane, and the weird. Every time I listen to it, it reminds me of growing up in Orem in the 1980s with all the dirt and the heat and the bugs and the brown foothills and the things in the beds of rusted out dirty trucks. I've used the synth line to describe a vacation driving down Highway One from Seattle to San Francisco. Oh, and the boys love it. Every night, Stray Dog is requested and they both shout out "It's magic!" and "A little trick" at the appropriate times. Anyway, this is it, the top song of the last decade.

Now the remaining nine...

Styrafoam Plates - Death Cab for Cutie. From the opening stanza of Ben Gibbard's father's ashes being blown back into his face, stinging his eyes, and his saying that this was par for the course, I was hooked. It's the ultimate indie confessional track. Bitter, jaded, and best of all, real. I've mentioned before that I would pay full price for a DCFC concert just to see Gibbard sing this live with all the bitterness and resentment as represented in the recording. Even better, the band really bangs and clatters well at the right moments, specifically when Gibbard is fuming and saying things like "You're a disgrace to the concept of family" which the preacher certainly is not discussing at the funeral. Best DCFC track and it kinda makes you wish they were a little more aggressive and a little less coy.

The Late Greats (live) - Wilco. Only the live version of this song is in the top ten. The recorded version is somewhat muffled and lifeless. Which is what makes the live version of this song so stunning. I always think I can sing along with the lyrics, and then I realize I don't know the lyrics, and I'm not sure I even know what he's talking about except some sort of lament that the greatest songs and bands are not the ones that are well known. But it's a great driving song, and the brief instrumental part where the bass and the piano and the guitar all hit perfectly together is just one of those transcendental music moments, the appeal to the non-thinking part of my brain.

The Dark is Rising - Mercury Rev. I had never thought that the music I listened to (I cannot call it rock, nor can I call it popular) could be like this. A huge orchestral swell to begin, fading to a piano, and an off-key meek sad voice singing a sad sad song. And it wasn't the guitars that thrilled me...it was when the violin came in sweetly in one verse and then a french horn in another. The lyrics were so simple and so sad. Not bitter and raging just sad and lost. So, this song represents the best of the chamber/orchestral/baroque aspect of the indie scene.

Even Numbers - The Standard. There is a scene from a Tiny Toons where Buster Bunny is pretending to be a ghost and he is playing a Bach piece on the harp that is high, ethereal, and haunting. It always gave me chills. It felt eternal, in a weird way. My mother-in-law has the piece of music for piano in Nevada, and I found it and tried playing it and I gave myself the chills but I was playing so badly that I stopped. Anyway, the high piano line in Even Numbers does this to me every time. Just gives me that same hair-raising feeling. And it had movements! Movements professor! It's like a classical piano piece with guitars and vocals that sound like the guy is a sheep. Which brings me to the next song...

Leif Erikson - Interpol. As with Even Numbers, this song has that ethereal, haunted feel, which is amplified by the baritone of the lead singer. It's so much in the same vein as Even Numbers, that I don't think I need to say much more beyond it's one of those songs that I would sing in a haunted house full of non-menacing but slightly creepy ghosts.

Same Boy You've Always Known - White Stripes. I'm not sure why but this song absolutely thrills me. It's like one of those songs that seems to have always existed that Jack White pulled from the ether and recorded it. Just a song that seemed so familiar when I heard it that I felt like I had been born with that tune inside me.

The War Criminal Rises and Speaks - Okkervil River. This represents the brilliant songwriter section of the indie universe. There are people like Conor Oberst who write silly banter about "When the President Talked to God" and think they are deep. And then there's the harrowing story spun by Will Sheff about cruising through a town full of strip malls and big box shops and then finding out about the capture of an old war criminal who's being tried for his bloody crimes. And while he recognizes he's done something horrible, he can't believe it happened to him, that he fell out of his boring life and did something like that. And how the person driving in soul-sucking middle America refuses to imagine that something like that could happen to him. Which makes you think, what would I do in that situation? Would I also fall prey to the demons insides, the worst instincts? How do you prevent it? I find it thought provoking. Which is why I keep listening. Oh, and it represents that strain of music that realizes that there's more to life than picking apart each emotion from a break-up years earlier to mine more music.

Okay I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don't - Brand New. It's ironic and brash. It's rocking. It's kinda emo. But it's really smart and cool.

And finally....The Mariner's Revenge Song - The Decemberists. Once again, this song represents the peak of a certain kind of indie song, the multi-instrumental weird narrative. As a fan of the old Pirates computer game, as a fan of all things old and nautical, this song is incredibly awesome. It's one of those songs that I wish I had written. And it's one of those songs I always hoped someone would make, but I never thought would ever come to light.

That's it.

Top 10+1 Songs of the 2000's. And No I'm Not Going To Listen to Another New Song Until the End of the Decade.

2008-07-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

In chronological order by release year:

1. "Hotel Yorba" (2001) The White Stripes
2. "Radio Cure" (2002) Wilco
3. "The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion" (2003) Okkervil River
4. "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" (2003) The Postal Service
5. "Glenn Tipton" (2003) Sun Kil Moon
6. "Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)" (2004) The Arcade Fire
7. "Tuff Luff" (2004) The Unicorns
8. "Land Locked Blues" (2005) Bright Eyes
9. "Trance Manual" (2005) John Vanderslice
10. "The Geese of Beverly Road" (2005) The National
11. "The Beast and Dragon, Adored" (2005) Spoon

Most Confident/Arrogant Lead Singers

2008-02-13T08:25:00.000-08:00

Who are the most confident and/or arrogant lead singers you listen to?

+ Britt Daniel--Spoon. Hands down the baddest, most in your face arrogant mo-fo in American rock today. That guy could sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and make my mother blush.

+Brandon Flowers--The Killers. Kind of like the kid in high school who thought they were the king of the world and knew everything before they even had a chance to learn that there's a massive world outside the halls of high school that's waiting to completely obliterate his soul.

+Nick Thorburn--The Unicorns, Islands. The kind of arrogance that makes a person believe that the world is holding their breath to hear every word or idea that comes out of their mouth.

+John Darnielle--The Mountain Goats. The kind of arrogance that says, "I've read every book in the world and can reference any sentence or concept from any of those books at any given time so BOW TO ME!"

+Matt Berninger--The National. The quiet, brooding arrogance. "I don't know you, I don't need or want to know you. This is my gig. So #$@ off. No more questions."

+Jack White--The White Stripes. "I used to re-upholster furniture now I rock. I'm from Detroit. I'm an enigma and I play the marimba and I don't let my drummer who's my exwife practice because our sound is really my sound. And you have no idea what I'm going to do next!" Magician arrogance.

+Sufjan Stevens--Sufjan Stevens. Kind of like John Darnielle but with instruments instead of literature. He's kind of like the Chinese water torture of music. You know the one where you're tied down and a drop of water falls on your forehead until you go mad? He'll throw so many different stringed instruments at you you'll love it at first and then after three songs (three songs max!) you'll wish an Asthmatic Kitty would come gnaw your heart out.

+Ted Leo--Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. "Let's kick this @#$% out! #$%@ the establishment! #@$%@ meat eaters! Is that blood seeping out of my tear ducts?! @#$% tear ducts!"

+Jeff Tweedy--Wilco. "Yeah? You don't like our album? Well I'll sue you for my tapes, take my tapes elsewhere and then release the biggest record of the new century. Then I'll put out a string of amazingly solid, tight groundbreaking work that'll be nominated for and win Grammy's. And I'll do it all with massive migraine headaches. Step aside."

My Top Five R.E.M. Songs (Almost a month later) And Two Great, Great Albums I Recently Had Written Off and Vending with the Von Trapps.

2008-02-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

My Top 5 (6, actually--there's a three way tie for 4th) R.E.M. songs based on iTunes play count*:

Exhuming McCarthy
Country Feedback
I've Been High
Fall On Me
What's the Frequency Kenneth?
How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us

I'm always surprised when I look at play counts. Two songs I would've thought would have been on the list: Nightswimming and Swan Swan H.

*I loaded my songs onto this computer 5/16/07 so it's been counting since then.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There are two albums that were released last year that are quickly becoming two of my favorites: Sky Blue Sky and Boxer. I know I totally wrote both of them off at the end of 2007 but I never write anything completely off. It's a good thing too. I think SBS (Sky Blue Sky) is Wilco's strongest album to date. I love YHF but SBS is so tight and stong and concrete it's just magical. They make it sound so so so so so easy. In fact, it pisses me off how easy they make it sound. It just taunts me whenever I listen to it. "Hey, freaker, look what I can do. Ha. You're sitting there at a desk, and I'm making magic! Look how easy it is to be me! Look how easy! And people love me! I was nominated for best Rock album! I didn't win but no one can take that nomination away from me! NO ONE!"

Boxer is different. Boxer kills me with subtleties. It's a chord change or a word or a phrase or the way he sings something or the timing of the percussion or the string arrangements of a particular song. There are moments I listen for. Fractions of songs. And the sentiments at the foundations of the songs devastate me--distance, loss, space, how one relates to the world outside oneself. But the songs are so striking. So poignant. They resonate.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I ordered an AMFM cd from Austria. It cost me $11. Total. Eleven dollars. Pretty cheap, right? The cd was $8 and shipping to the U.S. was $3. Well that was two and a half weeks ago. I'm thinking shipping was so cheap because they sent the cd on a freakin helium filled balloon. Or carrier pigeon. Or Austrian gypsy. Or basal wood airplane. Or newspaper boat. Or remote controlled car. Or worse yet--I got ripped off by some corrupt Von Trapp who had no intention of sending me my cheap-yet-difficult-to-find cd. I'm cursing you Austria. I'm cursing!

Top 5 REM songs

2008-01-22T17:31:00.000-08:00

What are they? I saw some interview with Michael Stipe and Rufus Wainwright and all of Rufus's top 5 REM songs were singles. It was as if he only knew 5 REM songs. From that moment (a week or so ago), I declared war on Rufus Wainwright.

For the record, I have officially declared war on:
Nickleback
Jack Johnson
Rufus Wainwright
The Living Things
Cowboy Mouth

I am currently allied with:
British Sea Power
Idlewild

I have declared a ceasefire with:
Matchbox 20 (in effect since 2002)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (in effect since the By the Way video came out)

The Clinic, Baby!

2008-01-11T15:28:00.000-08:00

Baltimore, MD: May 29, 2008!!!

Man, I wish I liked The Clinic. I need more crazy, psychotic rock music in my life.

Snow Day

2008-01-09T09:27:00.002-08:00

One Word For You, Man:

2007-12-19T07:21:00.000-08:00

Beirut.

You should check out their latest album: The Flying Club Cup.

It's like Neutral Milk Hotel, Devotchka, Andrew Bird and some one else I'll remember in a little while all got thrown in a room and were told to work something out. Anything. Any little something. But they came out with a big something. An important something. I should really try their first album now.

The Levs

2007-12-06T17:59:00.000-08:00

Dude, I don't get it. The Levellers are so freaking awesome. And yet you can't even get mildly excited about them. It drives me up various walls in various venues. I just got Levelling the Land from Lala and it is my Album of the Year for 1992 (check LOWAG, I'll make the announcement). So, why do you hate them? WHY WHY WHY?

Plural of Serum

2007-12-06T17:58:00.001-08:00

That Plural of Serum Cahoone is really great. That Couch Song, especially when done live on KEXP, is a real hearttugger. I recommend her highly. The Call Stamp of Approval. Too bad's she's from 2006. It would be nice to include her on the best of 2007 list. Alas.

5 men whose voices I would rob

2007-12-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

I love the idea of someone calling me up and saying, "Would you like to exchange your voice with someone who actually has a cool voice that doesn't squeak when excited?" I would go fer that.

1. David Gahan. No brainer. He's got a voice deeper than mine and it sounds pretty awesome. Of course, if Deep Throat on the phone gave me Gahan's fey-lisp voice from 1979, I'd never talk again.
2. Eddie Vedder. It's funny, I'm not wild about Pearl Jam, but Eddie's voice is raspy and tough, but pretty strong, like in Black. He sounds tough and manly. I would like to sound tough and manly.
3. Kevin Griffin (BTE). Chicks dig Kevin Griffin's voice. I doubt any girl I ever called was like "Awesome, I get to just hear his voice for between 2-20 minutes." I bet every girl thought, "I may hate Kevin Griffin, but he can talk to me for hours and hours."
4. Matt Bellamy (Muse). I want to be able to do Micro Cuts without any problems. Just to be able to bray and bellow like he can.
5. Peter Garrett (Midnight Oil). Okay, I would just like to be Peter Garrett. 7 feet tall, bald as an egg with a glare that would melt an Exxon executive if he could ever get him in the same room with him. And then the weird voice that is strangely awesome.

As for your other question, you bet I would reference other bands if I was actually talented enough to record a CD. I would reference all sorts of stuff. I would be a copyright nightmare.

Copy Cat

2007-12-05T08:28:00.000-08:00

If you were in a band would you deliberately put things in your songs that corresponded to or resembled songs or parts of songs from artists you like?

I totally would!

Let's say...

2007-11-29T08:04:00.000-08:00

...you get a call one day and someone on the other end of the line informs you that you can take over the voice of any singer of any band. All you have to do is choose the artist and away you go.

My top three or so contemporary artists who's voices I'd steal if I could and why:

1. James Mercer So clear. Such great range. So unpretentious. So simple.
2. Timothy Booth Pretty much the British version of James Mercer in my mind. If I was much of an expatriot Timothy would be number one. Booth was the first guy I heard sing where I consiously thought, "Dude's got a really great voice."
3. Rob Zabrecky (Possum Dixon) Like James Mercer but on amphetamines.
4. Britt Daniel He sings every song in such a kick a**, f*** you! way. If I had that voice I'd strut around town like the fate of everything awesome was riding on my shoulders.
5. Nick Diamonds (The Unicorns, Islands) Young, fresh, jovial. Pretty much everything I'm not.

My top three or so artist from the past I'd steal if I could:

1. Paul McCartney Great. So great.
2. Paul Simon See: James Mercer. Only 50 years ago.
3. Frank Sinatra "The Voice"--even if he was a mobster. Who knew?

Depeche Mode is King

2007-11-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

I mentioned this to you earlier...I spent a good six hours with Depeche Mode's music over two nights. It was a make or break time for us. I came out of this six hour discussion with one clear thought ringing in my head: Depeche Mode is still awesome (except for the cuts off Speak and Spell where David has a really bad lisp...how did that get past the producer and let's all thank Vince Clarke for leaving the band and taking his terrible sunny pop with him). So, I'd like to publicly apologize to Depeche Mode for ever doubting them and I will not ignore them like I have for the past 4 years. I still think the concert I saw in SLC when I was 18 was the worst concert I've ever seen, if only for the fact that it lasted about an hour and a half when they still had a good 15 great songs in them. My expectations were so high and they were cruelly crushed. Adrienne would disagree as she thought the Happy Birthday to Martin was off the charts brilliant. I believe Mike vowed to never see another concert again after that one.

Album(s) of the Year: Dos Mil Siete

2007-11-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

In times like this I go to iTunes and check the stats. The numbers are don't lie, my friend. They tell me exactly what I've listened to the most this year and, therefore, what the album or albums of the year should be.

Okay, so I just checked the stats and maybe I need to do a bit of interpreting here. The album with the most listens isn't necessarily the album of the year, I realize. So first I'll do it by stats and then by what I think is album of the year.

Most listened to albums of 2007

The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Okkervil River: The Stage Names
LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
Battles: Mirrored
Iron & Wine: Shepherd's Dog
The National: Boxer
Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Living With the Living
The White Stripes: Icky Thump
Wilco: Sky Blue Sky

So. Those are the cold, hard stats. Do they lie? No. Isn't that great?! The numbers just can't lie! The part where I morph from statistician to clairvoyant, though, is when I look at that list and determine what should be the top album of the year.

Album(s) of the Year: 2007

Okkervil River: The Stage Names
Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (Was held back from Number One by the ridiculously indulgent 12 minute "The Past is a Grotesque Animal.")
Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Was held back from Number One by scattered moments through out the album that returned to sound and style from Gimme Fiction.)

The biggest blindside was Battles. Oh, and LCD Soundsystem. I'm not into math rock or electronica but their albums really lit me up.
The biggest I-don't-want-to-say-let-down-but-I-can't-think-of-another-term was The National Boxer. I know people love it and there are times I really, really do, too, but just not overwhelmingly as a whole.
The album I listened to a lot at first but not very much the rest of the year was Wincing the Night Away.
The album I really, really need to listen to more of is Sky Blue Sky. There. I've said it. I need to listen to it more. But you've got to understand it bores me, okay? Bores me.

As I do every year I feel like I've forgotten some amazingly awesome album and someone's going to say, "Dude, you totally forgot about the amazingly awesome album!!" I did sort my iTunes by year so there may be some that slipped through by not having a year listed in their information. So there's that excuse if I've forgotten anything.

Now that that end of the year stuff is over I wanted say a thing or two about BSP. "Atom" is a great song. Very great. An I-feel-I-should-write-a-movie-just-so-I-could-put-this-song-into-a-
crucial-scene good song. And concerning the rest of Krankenhause--I'm surprised at the big-sounding guitars. And BSP remind me of Pink Floyd. There you go: three things about BSP.

It's November which means...

2007-11-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

What are your top albums of the year? I sadly have not listened to many new albums this year, even though others have hailed this as a year of wonderful music. So, pretty much I'm stuck haveing to decide between Wilco, Radiohead, and British Sea Power.

In listening to the Editors, I'm struck by how they've managed to push two of their best tracks to B-Sides while leaving obviously more inferior tracks on the album The Back Room. What makes it all the more striking is that if these tracks had been placed on the album, they would have provided variety for an album where my main criticism is that it sounds the same.

I'm plugging the song "Let Your Good Heart Lead You Home" as one of the saddest, most haunting songs on record. Yes, that's right. Let's see it opens with the bleak lines of

You let the dark in, somehow
I feel the winter more now, more now

And then ends on this note:

Once you've gone girl, you can't come back
I am worried about you

It's quite a song. A song to shout about. "You Are Fading" is quit the corker as well. You should really like the Editors. I wonder if I made a Interpol/Editors mix if anyone who had never heard them could tell the difference. The funny thing is I don't care. If two talented bands make music that sound similar, that's great. I often find a sound I like and then search in vain for someone who sounds similar.

Krankenhaus: An Omen?

2007-10-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

If the new BSP album next year is an extension of the Krankenhaus? EP, then it will not only be the best of the year, but it could be legendary. This is a good chance to go legendary. Two solid albums in the books, excellent live performances, it just feels like they are ready to launch into the stratosphere. I've been eagerly awaiting anything new from them because of this potential. The Krankenhaus? EP shows it. They're ready. I haven't had such giddy anticipation for an album in years. Really. Think about if you knew that one of your Nine was going to be released in February. That's what I'm feeling right now.

Music Here and There

2007-10-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

I don't branch out very much in my music listening. I know that's really jacked up, though, because when I do I always find something I like. i.e. LCD Soundsystem. I'd listened to them before I saw them open for Arcade Fire but I'd written them off quick as lightening. Then I saw them and was impressed. I came home and started listening to them and, hey, what do you know? I really like LCD Soundsystem. Shame on me.

I don't know how music critics do it. The folks at Pitchfork must listen to hundreds of bands a week. Do they get to the point where it's easy to know what is good and what isn't without spending a week or a month on an album? Do they ever write a review that cans an album only to realize a year or two later that they were completely wrong? I mean most of the time it takes me a good five or six listen-throughs of an album to even begin getting a feel for it--let alone if I like it or think it's good. Of course, there are the magic albums where I immediately know I love them (Alligator, Hissing Fauna, Who Will Cut Our Hair, Chutes, Gimme Fiction, ). Usually I have to listen and listen and listen and listen. And I guess, after looking at that last sentence, maybe I just don't put in the time to get to know new music.

I've never listened to more music in my life than I did in 2005. I listened to everything that came out. I listened to everything than anyone would recommend. The fact of the matter is I just don't have the time to live my whole life like that. I was listening nearly every minute at work and maybe an hour or two at home at night. Now I don't listen at work very closely (my music plays in the background--no headphones). And when I get home I want to listen to the stuff I know I like; I don't want to have to work through an album, you know? I just want the release of familiarity.

But what would I be missing out on if I didn't put in the time? Okkervil River. Ted Leo. Spoon. Sufjan. AMFM. Wilco (who I know I'm still missing out on because I haven't put in the necessary listening time). Those are some of my favorite bands. And the ones I've had to work the hardest at getting to know. And the bands I listen to now instead of listening to new music. They've risen to that place. Maybe I've gotten to a point where I know what I like and I don't have to pressure myself to listen to everything like I did in 2005. Maybe I can let the music come to me instead of going out and searching every corner for it. That'd be great. I could put on Islands and not worry about what else I should be listening to instead of Islands.

Recent music I've been listening to

2007-10-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

I think I've mentioned I've been trying to go through a lot of music that I have that I don't know to well to see if I really like it or not.

So far:

Like: Rainer Maria, Midlake, Dismemberment Plan. I listened to "Change" the other day and felt this weird excitement. I felt as if I KNEW I was going to like them, but I couldn't until I listened to the album a few more times. But I could just tell that a future listen was going to be awesome, when I finally got it.

Ne feelings: Andrew Bird, Pedro the Lion. Both drifted by. I was most disappointed by Bird ebcause I thought I liked his album last I listened to it. Not so much, I guess.

In other news, I still love Sam's Town

Okkervil River @ Kilby Court, SLC, 9/12/2007

2007-09-21T09:29:00.001-07:00

Setlist:

Plus Ones
Lady Liberty
No Key, No Plan
The Latest Toughs
Red
Song of Our So-Called Friend
Hand To Take Hold of the Scene
Unless It's Kicks
Black
A Girl in Port
Our Life is Not a Movie, Or Maybe
A Glow
For Real
Westfall
Encore:
The President's Dead
Last Love Song For Now

RE: Tough Songs To Listen To

2007-09-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

I agree with "John Wayne Gacy, Jr" and "Black" and I think the ones I'd add are:

"New Slang"--"Turn me back into the pet I was when we met. I was happier then with no mindset." That line devastates me. Probably the saddest all around song for me.
"Fake Plastic Trees"--"It wears her out," "It wears him out," "It wears me out."
"Palmcorder Yajna"--"If anybody comes into our room while we're asleep I hope they incinerate everybody in it." Yikes.
"The War Criminal Rises and Speaks"--"They found a lieutenant who killed a village of kids. After finishing off the wives he wiped off his knife and that's what he did." "How did I climb out of a life so boring into that moment?" Morally devastating.
"Glenn Tipton"--"I buried my first victim when I was nineteen...." Double yikes.

There are also some songs that give me a desolate feeling but I couldn't really pinpoint why: "Red Right Ankle," "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot," "Lullaby" by James, " "Country Feedback" by REM and "Radio Cure" by Wilco.

OR and BSP

2007-08-31T17:53:00.000-07:00

Way to corrupt your kid, man. I will say that I'm jealous about you being able to go see OR. Bring back some good stories. I wish I could see them but what with them playing on Sunday here, I don't see that happening. So, when you go, at least sing along to the end of John Smyth Allen Sails. At least go that far. If you don't, you'll know you're a tired old man awaiting retirement and valium pills to sleep through the pain.

As for me, I believe I'm going to learn about British Sea Power. Yes, they are coming to America to a small club in DC. Should be fantastic. 13 bucks. That's worth it just to see Please Stand Up, which I will most graciously do when they play the song (I plan on sitting on the fetid floor up until they sing the lyric "Please Stand Up" and then I'll leap to my feet).

I mentioned this to you before, but what Conor Oberst is to others, Will Sheff is to me. Will's such a storyteller. Look at those lyrics. I think I thought this as I was listening to Down the River of Golden Dreams and then it was reinforced with a day of listening to The Stage Names. There are some songs I can't get over, namely the one track that no one, not the blogs, not the message boards talks about, that track being Savannah Smiles. It rips me apart every time I hear it. It's difficult to listen to. This is why Sheff excels, singing from the perspective of a middle-aged woman whose daughter has either become estranged or committed suicide (it's not quite clear). But it breaks you apart. There's something so sad about her husband going and watching TV with the lights out, and her turning off the radio.

Which brings me to the List of Tough Songs to Listen To That Are Great:
I don't have them in any order yet, but they exist. You could really put anything here...like Lord Anthony is a tough song on a day when you're remembering junior high.
John Wayne Gacy Jr - Sufjan Stevens.
The Chalet Lines - Belle and Sebastian
Savannah Smiles - Okkervil River
Black - Okkervil River

I forgot the other one I was thinking about! How awful.

My Cool Kid

2007-08-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

I watched this video a few minutes ago:

Emily (who's playing Wii at the time) says, "Who sings that song, Dad?"

"Their name is Okkervil River. Do you like this song?"

"Yeah!"

The video finished and Emily paused the game and looked over at me. "Can you play another song by that band, Dad?"

I smiled. "Sure thing, Em." I played this:

"Thanks, Dad," she smiled and said.

On a similar note, I'm buying my OR ticket tomorrow. I'm pumped, man. I'm really pumped.

On the New Blog Name and Sundry

2007-08-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

Awesome new blog name. Definitely my favorite so far.

So my last post where I talked about my lost "One" t-shirt drove me to listen to Achtung Baby today. Man what an album. One of my favorite parts on that album is on "Zoo Station" where Bono sings, "Alright. Alright. Alright, alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright. Hey Babe. Hey Babe. Hey Baby, hey baby, hey baby, it's alright, it's alright." I don't know why I like it so much. Bono just sings like such a bad dude.

Other listening today:

Depeche Mode--Songs of Faith and Devotion
Mates of State--Bring It Back

I fell asleep to Portishead last night. Usually that means "I was listening to music when I fell asleep last night." But last night it meant "They put me to sleep." Nice one, Dummy.

Post Mission Fury

2007-08-16T09:20:00.001-07:00

Here's what my mission president told me in my final interview:

--Stay busy when you get home. Get a job, go to school--something.
--Get married. "Three months after getting home is too soon. Three years is too late."
--Go to the temple often (i.e. monthly).
--Serve in the church.

And that's it. Nothing about the RM re-acclimatization into society. Nothing about real life. Nothing about what's going to happen and what to look for. Nothing about not selling off or giving away the awesome things you had before your mission. (I had this really great U2 "One" t-shirt...

...and I gave it to my ex-girlfriend's roommate. I flipping kick myself for that one. MY EX-GIRLFRIEND'S ROOMMATE! AAGGHHHH! And I had that awesome R.E.M. t-shirt from the Monster tour like the one Stipe's wearing in the "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" video:

That one went to DI. D freakin I. AAGGHHHH! All in all I dumped about 15 really great band t-shirts. Damn you, 1997 Josh. Damn you to hell.) Nothing about not thinking spiritual things were pretty much going to stay the same as they were on the mission. Nothing about not selling your music collection for pittance. Pittance!

I may have told you this but I dated a sister from my mission for awhile after I got home. I had actually been her zone leader. I saw her out of the blue one day at UVSC and then she called me up asking for a ride the next day and then it's like we were on the fast track to marriage. I even went to the freakin opera with her. Ugh. The things I did in that first year. Except getting married to Dana. That was great, obviously. I mean the stuff I did under the skewed mission vision is what kills me.

MGs

2007-08-15T10:06:00.000-07:00

I tried listening to Get Lonely yesterday and it felt like a rehash of Tallahassee. I was so disappointed. Even the lyrics sounded the same. Maybe this is because Darnielle was coming off of Sunset Tree which is a perfect album. Maybe it's because I will compare all of his new work to Sunset Tree. I'm not sure. I'll have to listen to it again. Maybe I can make a compilation album "Tallahassee Lonely" that combines the best versions of the same songs on the two albums.

I am absolutely eagerly awaiting any moment I have to listen to new Okkervil River. And to think that you can just drive up north to see them play at Kilby. Incredible.

I'm still baffled that you lived 21 years and never EVER heard one story about a man returning from his mission and selling all his CDs only to regret it three days later. I thought that was a given. Wasn't that the subject of one of the devotionals in the MTC? Didn't your mission president give you two pieces of advice...1) Get married ASAP and 2) Don't sell your CDs"?

Okay, I Finally Have My Five

2007-08-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

After very much thought and deliberation I finally have my albums narrowed down. Not that I wasn't thinking about it but there were hundreds of discs I sold so it was hard to narrow it down. I could've even made the list based on discographies instead of single discs. Here they are:

1) The Cure Disintegration. Everyone knows Disintegration is great but I was so eager to get away from goth I fire sold it and everything else Cure I had.

2) Depeche Mode Violator. Perfect album.

3) INXS Kick. What a great album. I thought I was too cool for it. I was wrong. Warning: the stupid skateboard on the cover is totally deceiving.

4) Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream. I was trying to decide between this and Nirvana Nevermind which I also sold. It was really, really close but SP won out. "Cherub Rock." Cherub freakin Rock.

5) Crash Test Dummies The Ghosts That Haunt Me. I know, I know, "CTD?" This album was great. So different. So strange and awesome. CTD should go down as the progenitors of The Decemberists and Arcade Fire.

Some notable discography* sells: The Cure, Nirvana, U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Violent Femmes discography save Why Do Birds Sing?, Pearl Jam, The Doors, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and more.

*Discographies as of 1995

Tegan and Sara eat at Teriyaki Bowl

2007-08-06T09:56:00.000-07:00

I only listened to the first three tracks, and I thought tracks 2 and 3 were excellent. Track 1 was a throw away track. I mean, who puts time and effort into making a 1:30 minute track? Should we list the great sub 2:30 minutes songs? I can think of one: Song 2 by Blur (2:02 I believe).

Worst CD sales you ever made

2007-08-06T09:47:00.001-07:00

What were the 5 best CDs that you sold for 2 bucks at a place like Disc-Go-Round?
My list:

1) Definitely Maybe - Oasis. Seriously, I cannot believe I sold this. I ended up buying it back

2) Superunknown - Soundgarden. I sold my teenage years when I sold this album

3) Dookie - Green Day. Okay, so it had a lot of cursing in it. But the cursing on certain songs that I didn't listen to doesn't compare to the joys of She, Welcome to Paradise and When I Come Around. I can't believe I don't have Welcome to Paradise any more. It should be my theme song out here. Once again, I sold my teenage memories by selling this.

4) Throwing Copper - Live. I want to hear Pillars of Davidson again. I want to hear White, Discussion again. What was I thinking?

5) Under the Table and Dreaming - Dave Matthews Band. This was actually a decent album. I really liked it. But I hated how popular they had become by the third album, that I wanted nothing to do with them. There was nothing worse than hearing Emily Howe singing the wrong lyrics to Ants Marching during Channel One in Health class in 10th grade. Maybe that's why I sold it

I'm Taking a Sick Day Today

2007-08-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

I've had a head cold brewing all week that finally took over last night so I'm home for the day. But I was wondering if you listened to the Tegan and Sara album and what you thought. I had a dream last night I was working at Teriyaki Bowl thanks to our conversation yesterday. Stupid TB.

Super Cool Possible Band Name

2007-07-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Spoken Like a True (Fill In The Blank)

I Need To Send a Letter

2007-07-27T07:50:00.001-07:00

Dear AT&T:

Nice commercial featuring Mates of State.

I'm still a Verizon customer, though.

Many thanks,

Josh

"Sharry, Can I Borrow Your Smallville CD? Thanks. I'll Get It Right Back After I Rip It To My Computer."

2007-07-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I can't imagine you borrowing a cd from Sharry. That's the tops, man.

That song/video is money. I love the "Guided By Voices" sign hanging above the band. Minimalist bliss. Does that singer look like Sir Paul McCartney or is it just me? That song is on Buffy? No way. Say it ain't so. Oh well. I think I may just have to revisit GBV. I'm sure I'm in the indie minority for not already loving those guys. Whatever. You can't push me around, you pretentious hipsters.

Someone tell me why.

GBV

2007-07-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

I really can't say to myself, "why didn't I find these guys sooner?" because I've tried listening to them before and I only liked Best of Jill Hives. So, I was stunned when I launched this the other day. Just stunned. The live version is really different from the album version, but I can't find the album version that isn't accompanied by a lame YouTube video, so this will have to do. Besides, this encapsulates what I like about looking back at 90s Indie Rock. They look like a bunch of squares, but they aren't really trying to. They have no image. I might like these guys forever now. I might like them another week. I'm fascinated with how my taste in badns can shift in a manner of moments. The other day I realized that my like for the Flaming Lips has peaked and is now on a downhill slope. I expect it to level out with me liking Do You Realize??, Yoshimi, Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell and a couple off of the Soft Bulletin. But the rest of the stuff is beginning to grate. I'm sure somewhere, Sufjan Stevens (Seth the Peruvian) is crying. Well, I'm sure Sufjan is crying because he made a song so delicate that it broke and he'll never have that recipe again.

It's almost shameful to like this song because it was on Buffy, I guess. How embarrassing is that? It was like when I found out that Sharry Wadham the Music Librarian also liked Remy Zero because they sang the theme song to Smallville. I had no idea that Save Me was the theme song. My moment of utmost musical shame came when I asked Sharry if I could borrow her CD, because she was hipper than I.

Here's What I think About Stiff Kittens

2007-07-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

I've always liked wearing hats. Especially baseball hats. And to me the perfect hat--indeed any hat worth wearing--is a pro fit hat, none of this one-size-fits-all crap. I want to wear what the pros wear and you've never seen them wearing a one-size-fits-all hat. The worst of the worst hats are the ones that have the mesh on all of it but the front panel and are adjustable to top it off. In the 90's I felt like my fellow hat enthusiasts and I fought against those stupid mesh hats with the adjustable straps. And it worked. We got professional quality fitted hats and no one wore the stupid mesh hats with the adjustable straps. So guess what becomes popular in the mid-2000's? Stupid mesh hats with the adjustable straps.

So. How does this relate to Stiff Kittens? We talked earlier about how I despise the time in my life where I thought Depeche Mode and The Cure were the greatest things in the world. I hate that pseudo-goth, superficial, romanticized crap. And now there is a part of me that cringes every time I head Dave Gahan's or Robert Smith's voice even though I know they and their bands made some good stuff (see Violator and Disintegration). So, that DM/Cure sound is the flippin hidious trucker hat on my soul. And when I hear a song like "Stiff Kittens" that I've never heard before but has even the hint of DM/Cure to it I fight it. Like I said earlier in the IM the song was growing on me. And it's not like it was bad. I just have some barriers I have to escort it through before I can enjoy it. Meanwhile, I'm still collecting awesome music and wearing professionally fit baseball hats.

I Hate Crap Like This

2007-07-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

That Photo of Charles is Classic

2007-07-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

What's HMV?

And you've got to be right in the idea that Russians are smiling their way into American culture. One of these days it's going to be Red Dawn all over again.You don't erase 50 years of Cold War angst overnight.

Follow-up

2007-07-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

This would be a good time to mention that in 2003, my friend BJ and I signed Charles up for a Russian mail-order bride website. I think we used this solemn viola picture that's on his website and he got a couple of responses. They really respected his viola playing or something. Anywho, it was great fun. I think he turned off a lot of women by saying he was religious, but he got a couple that were like "I very religious and will make wonderful wife to priest".

The man who

Harry and Regina walk into a bar...

2007-07-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter's chewing on my soul. I think he opened up a link between his mind and mine, because today at work, every word that began with a D turned into "dementor" and I started writing something and it came out Harry Potterish (about memories or something, certainly not TANF-related). Christina think I got Imperiused. I think I shouldn't have stopped at page 500 last night and should have just plowed through until the end. But seeing how I woke up at 3:50 AM yesterday morning to drive to the Shenendoah Valley, I thought it best to go to stop at 2:00 AM last night.

So, every girl loves Regina Spektor. It's just how it is. Once I found out she was Russian, I knew something was suspect. What Russian women have been imported to the US? There was that Russian woman in "From Russia With Love" who really got James Bond into a spot of trouble and then there were the 14 year-old lesbians in T.A.T.U driving 200 K/HR IN THE WRONG LANE!!! So, I distrust Russian women. It's got to be some Putinish plot, this whole Regina Spektor thing. I'm glad I went to elementary school during the Cold War to get the fear of Russians instilled in me. The kids nowadays grab up Russian stuff like cursed chocolate cauldrons. I guarantee that Regina Spektor's next album will have all the girls singing "I love Lenin I love Stalin, they're better better better better bettter bettteeeeerrrrrr!"

Harry Potter / The Darkness In My Life That is Regina Spektor

2007-07-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

Remember when I said I was going to post last night? Well, Harry Potter stuck again. We went to Order of the Phoenix. Such a cool movie. I like that they're getting so dark, now. I don't know if you've seen it but the battle scenes in the Ministry at the end were awesome. And Sirius Black is awesome. He's probably my favorite character in the entire series. Him and Snape. It was cool to see Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange. I think HBC could be the leading woman in every movie I see for the rest of my life and that'd be okay with me. She's money.

As per music, I've been thinking about Regina Spektor. My wife and girls love her. I mean l-o-v-e love her. They have all the songs memorized and they all sing along. I feel like an idiot and I sit there and curse her in my mind. The lone ray of light that pierces the darkness in my life that is Regina Spektor is the fact that she's a classically trained pianist. I think that's awesome. Makes she seem more legit. Which at the same time undermines pretty much 100% of the bands I listen to.

Yet I listen.

You and Guster: Mortal Enemies

2007-07-20T07:34:00.001-07:00

In a similar vein, you and Guster should be great pals, especially their earlier work on acoustic guitar and no-stick drumming. How organic can you get, Whole Foods? And yet, you can't swallow them. So strange to me. It's like when I had a home teaching companion in my first married ward that was the embodiment of me and yet we couldn't have a decent conversation beyond, "Oh, you like everything I like and are the same as me in every way? Cool".

Oh, believe me, I've tried

2007-07-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

I have tried for years to like the Smiths because of all the things that you've mentioned. Wavering between wussy and awesome, literate cool lyrics, and ultimately, the clincher, being British should really put them at the top of the list. And yet, I struggle. I have their "Singles" purchased specifically for Panic and There is a Light That Never Goes Out. I return to them once a year and once a year I sit through 50 minutes of *shrug* "Eh" and 20 minutes of "Niiiiiiiice". I keep trying to put my finger on it and I think this last time I finally realized why they don't do it for me. All their songs sound the same to me. Same dynamics, same rhythms, same Morrisey blabbing his way around bizarre lyrics that seem fresh at first but on repeat are merely annoying. When How Soon is Now? comes on you, it's arresting because it sounds so different compared to the rest of it. There is a Light...is really the same as all other Smiths songs, it's just the best version of the same song they did fifty times over on four albums. That's what I think of them. I also think I lack the historical context to appreciate what were for non-new wave fans in 1980s Britain. I've read a million times about Johnny Marr's guitarwork. I never blown away with it, but I guess if you were listening in the 1980s and you compared Johnny Marr to say, Duran Duran, I'm sure he looked brilliant.

Here's What I Don't Get:

2007-07-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

You should be the world's biggest fan of The Smiths. I mean, really. They're British, they waver between wussy and awesome, the lead singer has such a unique voice and no one really listens to them. It's like the perfect storm for you.

Seth the Peruvian is Sufjan Stevens Only I Don't Have the Photos to Prove It

2007-07-19T12:42:00.001-07:00

Evidence #1: They look the same. Same hair, face, build. They're the same.

Evidence #2: I never saw them together in the same place.

Evidence #3: Seth and Sufjan both start with the letter "S."

Evidence #4: Seth the Peruvian always talked about Sufjan.

Evidence #5: They're both of ethnic decent.

Evidence #6: They're both religious. Seth was always talking about his mission and about church. It's well known that Sufjan sings about religious themes.

Evidence #7: Seth wanted to work in the music biz as a producer. Sufjan worked in the music biz as an artist/producer.

Evidence #8: Seth played the piano in a band. Sufjan is a multi-instrumental genius.

Evidence #9: Seth introduced me to Pitchfork Media. The day he did the top news story was about Sufjan performing somewhere. Seth told me to "check him out."

Evidence # 10: Seth was always wearing those butterfly wing things around:

Conclusion: Seth the Peruvian and Sufjan Stevens are one in the same.

Man Cannot Live By Bread Alone

2007-07-19T12:40:00.001-07:00

I can see that similarity. Bread is great. They have great guitar work. The guy's femmy voice gets a little too femmy for me to listen for any extended period of time, though. But "Everything I Own" totally rocks. And "Aubrey" is great, too. Great enough to name your daughter Aubrey.

White Stripes and Fathers / Bread is all right by me

2007-07-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

I once thought that my dad would like the White Stripes, so I sent him Apple Blossom. I received an e-mail the next day saying, "It sounds like they are trying to imitate this band". He had attached a song by the Beatles. I had never thought the White Stripes sounded like the Beatles or were trying to sound like the Beatles for that matter. My dad did listen to a couple off of Wilco's latest album and thought that Jeff Tweedy was trying to channel John Lennon. You might think that my dad is stuck on the Beatles and both he and my mom will probably admit that they have liked no band better than the Beatles. But one time I played Radiohead for him and he said they sounded like Bread and lent me his Bread cassette. The horrible thing...Thom Yorke DOES sound like the lead singer of Bread with an English accent. Facing a crisis, being at risk of having the image of one of my favorite bands destroyed, I made a command decision. Bread was all right. I had to say they were all right. If I made fun of them, I made fun of Radiohead. So, Bread is all right. Just like the kids.

My Dad Rocks To The White Stripes and Doesn't Care Who Knows

2007-07-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

My father is great. We've had a good relationship most of my life. We talk about sports and books and movies and our families. We've hiked and fished together. We've re-roofed several homes together. We've traveled to New York, California, Canada and Texas together. When I was a teenager he even told me that if I was going to experiment with drugs or alcohol to come to him and we'd do it together. I'm still not sure what that means but it was cool that he said it. However, there's one thing we have never agreed upon: music. He likes classical and religious music. I like a different kind. So, I'm blown away last year when he asks me to make him a cd of my indie bands. And I'm blown away again when, two weeks later, he asks detailed questions about the songs and the bands. And I'm blown away six months later when he asks me to make him another cd with more music that I listen to. And I was blown away again last month when he sends me an email saying, "Have you heard of The White Strip[es]? I just listened to some and thought they were pretty good. Sounds like something you'd like." Yeah, I know, blown away. So I told him I know the Stripes and that I'm actually going to their show this fall. He asks me to make him a cd with their music. I do. Then last Saturday we went hiking to the top of Y Mountain. I pick him up at 7:00 a.m. He gets in my car, ejects my cd out of my cd player and puts in the White Stripes cd I made him. "These are some of my favorite songs." He went through, "Pretty Good Lookin," "Hello Operator," "Apple Blossom," and "Dead Leaves" before we got to the trail head. We hiked. When we got back to the car he continued on to "Hotel Yorba," "We're Going to be Friends," "Little Ghost," and "My Doorbell," until we got back to his house. Blown away. And just when I didn't think I could get blown away any further or more or whatever we sit down at his computer at his house a couple days ago and he buys a ticket so we can go to The White Stripes together.

My dad and me. Going to The White Stripes. Together. Crazy.

"I gotta tell you dad I'm a little surprised. Of all the bands I've ever listened to I can't believe we're going to see The White Stripes together."

"Well, I haven't listened to very many of your bands."

Blown away.

On a similar note I've been listening to Icky Thump. I love the track but don't have much love (yet?) for the album. I'm pumped to see them, though. Rock me Jack and Meg. Rock me hard.

On a not so similar note, the hike to the top of Y Mountain is freakin awesome. I mean it. The hike to the Y is hell. I hate it. But then the trail goes south into Slade Canyon and through some really cool rock formations. Then it goes through some very nice aspen groves. Then pine groves. Then some beautiful, lush meadows as it leads to the summit. One of my favorite hikes I've ever been on. I took this on my cell coming around the edge of the canyon from the Y.

I had a goal to hike Timp on my birthday next month but I'm not sure I'm going to make it. I had some trouble completing a couple hikes because my diabetic limbs failed me. Oh well. I've already hiked more this year than I have in 12 years. Yippee.

What has happened to Live?

2007-07-18T11:40:00.001-07:00

Remember when they were releasing dark albums featuring such gloomy tracks as The Dam at Otter Creek or Lakini's Juice? Those were some great days for Live. But what's this latest drivel? Just heard this track Nobody Knows, thought you should see some of the killer couplets

I was on a street with a common name/i prayed for love yeah i even begged

This is repeated twice

like so much rain it fell/and pierced my brains

Love piercing brains. And he was singing it all sappy. It was terrible. He's so mystical that Ed Kowalchtryrghk or whatever his last name is.

On a completely positive note, I heard an All-American Rejects song, Night Drive (acoustic) which really surprised me. It didn't have the same feel as all other AAR songs, which was good. I know you claim I love them, but I really don't. Honest. Well, okay so I kind of like them. I didn't think I liked anything off their second album because it sounded like a bad retread of the first, but then this little song appeared. Maybe there's hope for the Rejects. We must all pray for hope for the Rejects.

Micro Cuts

2007-07-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

I still remember the moment I first heard this track. I was sitting in our apartment in London listening to Origin of Symmetry for the first time reading some book when suddenly these unworldly vocals burst out of the headphones. I sat transfixed. Then I grabbed my sister and said, "Listen to this! It's amazing!" She just said, "Weird" and moved along. I felt like I had just uncovered one of man's great accomplishments and no one would acknowledge it. And no one did until I got home and played it for Charles T. Martin who loved it. We would listen to it loudly and try to sing along with it. In my Miata. With the top down. People in the cars next to us would laugh. I thought they were laughing with us. In retrospect, they probably just thought we were gay (two men in a Miata singing a song in falsetto???!!! What was I thinking????)

Begrudingly, I accept that Muse might sound like Radiohead once in a while. But it's only the vocals in the first couple of albums. The musical structure itself is very different in my mind. Much more metal-influenced. The bass and piano play much more prominent roles in Muse's music and they haven't wrapped themselves in a disgusting cloak of technology like Radiohead has. Thus, to me, Radiohead's later albums feel ice cold, whereas Muse feels warmer.

Micro Cuts is so odd too, what with the strange little outro at the end with the bass bouncing between speakers. It really is totally different from the rest of the song. I will say that the two loud guitar jabs pre-chorus do seem lifted from Creep now that I think about it.

Ticket to Ride Europe is where it's at. It's so much more fun to butcher the names (I'm building to Effluvium).

Micro Cuts and Mickey Mouse Ears

2007-07-18T07:34:00.001-07:00

So I'm listening to Micro Cuts right now. I don't know why but I think it sounds like a cross between Rush and Queen (aside from the fact they sound like Radiohead's sibling). But I don't listen to either one of those bands so I don't know how I came to that conclusion.
You're right, though, regardless if I like it or not, I've never heard a song quite like that. Sometimes I wonder about how much you love Muse. I mean they sound so much like Radiohead. I'm sorry. I'm sure you get so tired of hearing that--especially from me.

I had this funny dream last night that stemmed from our IM yesterday. It started when my family came over to your house. And when I say family I mean not just me and Dana and the girls but my folks and my sisters and their families. The whole Sorensen clan. And we'd just gotten back from our trip to California so we all had on Mickey Mouse ears. We were all squished into your old apartment here in Provo. And I was asking you about the differences between the American and European versions of Ticket to Ride. Christina and the boys were no where to be seen. I'm not sure what that means but there you go.