Archive for 2004

It’s Me Against A Wardrobe



Phoenix @ Bowery Ballroom 12/2/2004

Too Young / Victim Of The Crime / Run Run Run / I’m An Actor / (You Can Blame It On) Anybody / Funky Squaredance (part three) / Honeymoon / If It’s Not With You / Everything Is Everything / If I Ever Feel Better / Love For Granted // Everything Is Everything (acoustic version) / Party Time

Phoenix “If It’s Not With You” – I have no way of measuring my listening habits, but I think that it would probably be a good guess that on a purely scientific level, this is my single favorite song from 2004. Repetition has done nothing to diminish my love of this song (or the entire Alphabetical album, for that matter) – in fact, increased familiarity only seems to intensify my enjoyment. Familiarity is a big part of comfort, of course, and it seems as though Phoenix have designed their music for maximum coziness. I mean, listen to those chords! I’m no music theory guy, so I don’t know exactly what they’re doing, but it feels so elegant and smooth, with very clever progressions that evoke exactly the right in-between emotions with remarkable precision and grace. More than any other song that I’ve heard this year, this song feels like my life right now: cautiously optimistic; inching towards emotional maturity; smiling through frustration.

I think that I broke a personal record last night for the longest sustained smile of my life, starting from the intro of “If It’s Not For You” up through the conclusion of “If I Ever Feel Better.” The entire show was a thrill, but that three-song combo was intense, and amped up considerably by an enthusiastic, dance-happy audience. Phoenix are a remarkably tight live band (which shouldn’t come as a surprise given the meticulous sound of the records) with a frontman far more charismatic and hammy than I ever would have expected. They faithfully recreated the sound of the studio recordings on stage, but added little jams and altered the structure of the songs to keep from sounding too sterile. “If I Ever Feel Better” was extended significantly – there wasn’t any instrumental jamming involved, just the repetition of the hooks for an extra three minutes or so. It was like a big disco singalong. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Ana Da Silva “The Lighthouse” – Normally, whenever I post music by an artist who has been involved in some other semi-famous band, I try to avoid mentioning it because I’d prefer that the music exist in its own context rather than in the shadow of another act’s body of work. Invariably, someone in the comments box will say “hey, did you know that ____ was in ________?” or something to that effect. So for today, I surrender. Ana Da Silva was in The Raincoats. This doesn’t sound very much like The Raincoats (it’s more like an incantation set to a minimal, repetitive electronic track), but there you have it. (Click here to buy it from Soul Seduction.)

Also: Over the next two weeks, I plan on posting some Christmas/Holiday themed songs. If you have anything odd, interesting, or obscure that you’d like to pass along for possible inclusion on the site, please send me an email.

Hands Of Steel Make Me Squeal

Gene Serene & John Downfall “I Can Do Anything” – Think of this as being song one, side A for 2005. Everything about this track feels like the beginning of something. Specifically, something quite good and exciting. It’s exactly the kind of reasonable optimism that all of us could use right now, whether it’s in the context of social trends and politics, or in a more personal, love life/career sort of way. I’ve been trying to figure out what I find so attractive about Gene Serene’s persona for a while, but now I think that it just comes down to that one line, “I can do anything.” She doesn’t seem cocky or arrogant, just supremely confident and self-assured. She’s seductive because she never has to resort to hyperbole – it’s all very matter of fact to her. (Click here for the official Gene Serene site, or email John Downfall: djdownfall @ hotmail.com)

Diamond Nights “Girls Attractive” – There is a lot to love about this song, but my favorite thing about it is how the guy starts it off by singing “she looks good / swiss cheese” and then seems to immediately realize that he ought to double back and explain himself. Next line: “Put your head full of holes.” Oh, right. Of course. She’s so hot that she burns little holes in your mind! And if you have little holes in your mind, it’s harder to connect your thoughts in a linear fashion. Pretty girls cause non-sequitors. There’s a lot of truth in this song. (Click here to visit the official Diamond Nights website.)

Elsewhere: “En förträfflig idé!” Max exclaims with joy, “Jag förmå skifta du till en arg sångerska rockmusik!” I heart PopText.

What’s It Look Like When You’re Choking?

The Tease “Ghost White Flowers” – I’d like to set this song up on a date with “Idioteque” by Radiohead. I think that they’d really hit it off. They could trade bunker decoration tips, and bond over conspiracy theories. She could tell him all about her gasmask and antibiotics collections, and he could offer her some evacuation advice. If everything continued to go well, maybe they’d get lucky and cower in a corner together for the rest of the night. It could be a beautiful thing. (The Tease are an unsigned band who do not have a proper website. If you’d like to get in touch with them, send them an email: TheTeaseMusic @ hotmail.com)

The Harvey Girls “The Monk And The Bug” – This song feels a bit too alert to qualify as being “hazy” or “dazed,” but it’s almost there. It’s kind of like being buzzed on caffeine when you’d really rather be sleeping in. This is the best song based around a keyboard harpsichord setting (correct me if I’m wrong…) that I’ve heard in a long time. (Click here to visit the Harvey Girls’ website.)

I Want The World And I Want It Now – Can That Be Arranged For Me Somehow?

Kiiiii! “Brown Girl In The Ring” – This is a peculiar and mesmerizing adaptation of an old Jamaican folk song best known outside of folk circles for being covered by Boney M. Strangely, I did not notice that there were no other sounds aside from vocals and percussion in this song until at least the sixth time that I heard it. I know very little about Kiiiiii!, other than that they are two women from Japan who, according to their website, love Michael Jackson, Queen, Rage Against The Machine, Neu!, Rocko’s Modern Life, cosmetic products, spaghetti, and the Olsen twins. (Click here to visit the official Kiiiiii! website.)

Maxi Geil & Playcolt @ Joe’s Pub 11/29/2004

Here Comes Maxi…/ A Message To My Audience / Teenage Extreme / Strange Sensation / That’s How The Story… / Sunday Morning / Paying For Something New / The Love I Lose / Artist’s Lament / Please Remember Me // Saturday Night

Maxi Geil & Playcolt “Please Remember Me” – Maxi Geil and Playcolt should not be playing in small rooms to audiences made up mainly of friends and acquintances. It’s a great privilege to see them in that context, but it’s not at all appropriate. In a better world, they would be headlining one of those huge European festivals that seem to draw out one third of the population of whatever country is hosting the show. They should be in arenas. Or at least the Hammerstein Ballroom.

Guy Richards Smit is a natural performer, with a stage presence that falls somewhere on the rock star spectrum between David Byrne and Jarvis Cocker, with a bit of post-Monster Michael Stipe spazzy dancing thrown in for good measure. I never made the connection to David Byrne and the Talking Heads before seeing the band live, but they are an obvious antecedent in the sense that both Smit and Byrne are very successful in presenting art world ideas in the context of pop music rather than just being another inaccessable “arty” band.

This is a world-class pop band, and I find it endlessly frustrating that they end up consigned to the art world ghetto while far less engaging indie rock artists (have a guess) get all the attention and praise. I’m very bitter about this. Fuck you, emo world. You don’t know what you are missing. (Click here to buy it from the official Maxi Geil website. Click here for my interview with Guy Richards Smit aka Maxi Geil.)

Oh My God, You Can Change!

Gwen Stefani “Luxurious” – It’s probably not a coincidence that every negative review of Love Angel Music Baby that I’ve read has been written by a man. Though they never come out and actually say it, I think that the major problem that people have with this record is that it is intensely girly in a way that most people are conditioned to distrust. The music itself is a rockist’s nightmare; a collection of bright, shiny songs produced by big name producers, heavy on slow jams and dance pop. The album’s lyrics are fixated on money, high fashion, and the accoutrements of vast wealth to a degree rarely found outside of hip hop and contemporary r&b.

In other words, Gwen Stefani is playing the Veronica/Cordelia Chase role, whereas most music critics (who are predominately dorky whitebread Archie/Xander Harris types) would very much prefer their pop stars to be more like Betty or Willow Rosenberg – outwardly insecure, working class, girl-next-door types who are non-threatening, nerdy, and maybe just a little bit gay. Invariably, we are led to think of the Cordys and the Veronicas of the world as being nothing more than vain and shallow, and we write off their assertive, forthright nature as being just a by-product of their flaws. Ultimately we dislike the Cordy/Veronica type not because of their faults but for how they make us feel – insecure, inadequate, emasculated. We fear their judgement, so we shut them out of our lives as a preemptive strike.

The thing is, if you pay attention to the lyrics on the album, and on “Luxurious” in particular, it’s pretty clear that Gwen is a Willow/Betty type in Cordy/Veronica drag. She may be seduced by luxury and couture, but she never seems as though she feels entitled to those things. This record is just as much about high-end living as it is about the work ethic required for working class girls to attain (and maintain) that privilege. There’s a lot of rationalization going on here – she justifies this lifestyle as being the “payback” for “working so hard.” She has to convince herself that she deserves this. This is a song about wealth from the perspective of someone who is accutely aware of the price of everything in the room.

It’s notable that “Luxurious” has the audacity to be built around a sample from the Isley Brothers’ “Between The Sheets,” the basis for the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa,” a song which has become musical shorthand for nouveau-riche pop star decadence. The ubiquity of the sample is not an accident – she’s deliberately using both of those songs as a reference point, almost as though they are the soundtrack to her song rather than the accompaniment.

Honestly, I’m not sure why I’m so surprised by a lot of the negative reaction to this album. I’m pretty familiar with the biases of most critics, and this record seems as though it was designed to aggravate most of them. I’m most amused by David Browne’s review in Entertainment Weekly, in which he compares the album to a “magalog you can dance to” (yeah, cos fashion is for yucky girls and dancing is ewwww gross) and launches into a bizarre diatribe against the 80s:

Travis Morrison “Change” – Poor Travis Morrison. The dude goes out and makes the best record of his career by a million miles (let’s face it, the Dismemberment Plan weren’t that hot aside from “A Life Of Possibilities,” “Memory Machine,” “Sentimental Man,” and “Ellen & Ben”), and he ends up stuck with the typical “how dare you break up my favorite indie rock band and go solo!” backlash and a 0.0 review from Pitchfork. But really, any 0.0 review from Pitchfork should be worn as a badge of honor – if you can inspire that kind of reactionary bile from the indie orthodoxy, you clearly must be doing something interesting. In Morrison’s case, he a) got poppier b) got funnier and c) became more political without becoming strident or abstract. His lyrics have a conversational, personal-essay quality which I find very entertaining and engaging (it almost seems like a good blog set to music), but I suspect that is the root of most of the haters’ disdain.

The common complaint about Travistan is that it’s indulgent, but I don’t think that’s really the problem. It’s more that these songs aren’t necessarily intended to last forever – many of them are highly specific, and no doubt, this record will sound very dated in a decade or so. But who cares? Too many people are hung up on music being timeless, when the records which belong to a specific time and place end up being more fascinating down the road. Music is not like consumer goods. You might buy a washing machine with the hope that it will last for a very long time, but it’s misguided to think that art should be the same way. Art and music is all about communication and pleasure, and it’s important to accept that those things can be very ephemeral. That said, these songs aren’t going to stop being catchy. Most of the ideas and opinions expressed of this record aren’t ever going to stop being valid. “Change” is never going to stop being good advice. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Also: Maxi Geil is playing a show tonight at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan. Highly recommended. It’s only $10 at the door, so if you don’t have plans, you really ought to come out for this.

I’m Just A Shot Away From You

For those of you who were interested, this is what I played last night. We had to change the schedule at the last minute, so I ended up playing one long set instead of two shorter sets.

Annie “Chewing Gum” / Lo Fi FNK “Unighted” / Futon “Gay Boy” / Plus-Tech Squeeze Box “The Martin Show!!” / Superthriller “Ahjustwannadance” / Cristina “What’s A Girl To Do?” / Cousin Cole “Yeah Me Out” / The Knife “Heartbeats” / Fox “Sssingle Bed”/M.I.A. “URAQT (Diplo Mix)”/ Fox & Wolf “Youth Alcoholic” / United State Of Electronica “La Discoteca” / The Go Team “The Power Is On” / Kylie & Scissor Sisters “I Know” / Johnny Boy “You Are The Generation…(remix)” / Morningwood “Take Off Your Clothes” / Erasure “Stop” / David Wrench “World War IV” / Mousse T “Is It Cos I’m Cool?” / X-Wife “Rockin’ Rio” / Dizzee Rascal “Stand Up Tall” / Plastic Operator “Folder” / ESG “My Love For You” / Puffy “Asia No Junshin (Malcolm McLaren mix)” / Smash TV “Queen Of Man” / Bugz In The Attic “Booty (La La)” / Ce’cile “Hot Like We” / Freeform Five “Electromagnetic” / Heloise & The Savoir Faire Dancers “Odyle” / Gene Serene “Electric Dreams” / Girls Aloud “Love Machine” / Primal Scream “Shoot Speed/Kill Lights”

It was a pretty good crowd given that it was a weekday night just before a major holiday. I totally understand why a lot of folks couldn’t make it out – hopefully I can get some kind of full-on dance party/event going in the near future that will work out for everyone. (If you’ve got something in mind, please send me an email.) Thanks to everyone who came out, I really appreciate it.

Cousin Cole “Yeah Me Out” – In case you were wondering what this was on the playlist, it’s the year’s biggest crunk-pop and dance-rock hits fused together far more seamlessly than one might reasonably expect. You know which songs I’m talking about. I don’t need to spell this out for you. I only feel lukewarm about these songs individually, but hearing them both weave in and out of one another and merge together is a bit of a thrill. (Click here to visit Cousin Cole’s website.)

There will be no post tomorrow, since it will be Thanksgiving here in the United States. There might be something on Friday, but I’m not sure. Things will definitely be back to normal on Monday. It’s been a busy week, and I haven’t had a lot of time to go through the new records that I have or seek out anything new. I hope that you understand. Enjoy your turkey/tofurkey/frantic Christmas shopping.

Oh You Look So Beautiful Tonight

10:00 Stereogum

11:00 Fluxblog (pop set)

12:00 Stereogum

1:15 Fluxblog (disco meltdown)

U2 @ Empire Fulton Ferry State Park, Brooklyn 11/22/2004

Vertigo / All Because Of You / Miracle Drug / Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own / City Of Blinding Lights / Original Of The Species / She’s A Mystery To Me / Beautiful Day / I Will Follow // Out Of Control / Vertigo

For a full, detailed review of the show, I recommend checking out Chris Conroy’s post on U2log. (For photos, you should check out Brooklyn Vegan.) It was quite a spectacle, and most definitely worth the four hour wait. It was great to be within 20 feet of the stage at a U2 show for a change, and even better to be surrounded by highly enthusiastic U2 fanatics. Normally, I end up in the cheap seats next to the bored 40somethings who clap for “Pride” and “Where The Streets Have No Name” and run off for hot dogs and beer through the rest of the set.

Also: Fiery Furnaces fans should note that Eppy has posted his analyses of “Chief Inspector Blancheflower” and “Spaniolated.”

I Thought Something Good Could Be Starting

The Blow “Hey Boy” – This would be a #1 single in an alternate universe where Olympia, Washington is the center of the R&B universe. (Which, I imagine, might be some people’s idea of hell on earth, and I’m not inclined to disagree.) Still, this is a lovely twee pop song set to a drum track which I think is meant to imply a spare Neptunes beat or something like that Lumidee hit from last year, though it actually ends up sounding a bit more dated than that. I’d hate to sound as though I’m damning this tune with faint praise – I really do love this song. (Click here to buy it from K Records.)

White Hole “Piano Again” – Video treatment: A clunky, Star Wars droid-like robot sits at a piano, playing the keys with its spindly little robot appendages and “singing” the lead synth line. Other robots join in, playing the other parts as they enter the arrangement. Ideally, these would be real robots, very similar to the Captured By Robots! set up. (Click here to buy it from Kitty-Yo.)

X-Wife @ Rothko 11/19/2004

The Sound of You / New Old City / Fall / Hot Shot / Eno / Second Best / Feel Connected / Clinic / Action Plan / Taking Control

If you’re in the NYC area and didn’t see X-Wife this weekend, you really missed out. I caught the set at Rothko on Friday, and they were extremely impressive, playing to a small crowd of thirty as though they were rocking Madison Square Garden. They played almost everything from the album (though no “Rockin’ Rio,” since they were missing the keyboard for that number) plus a few very promising new songs. They have one last show in NYC before they head back to Portugal – Wednesday at Piano’s at 7:30. You won’t regret it.

Big Word Girls With Secret Codes

Haunted House “Dramatic Beachouse” – Have you ever been right next to someone listening to music on very loud headphones, and the sound bleeds out so that you can hear the music, but only the high end is audible? For some strange reason, Haunted House recorded their entire album to sound a bit like that; obscuring their catchy, jaunty little songs by turning the treble waaaaaaaay up and nearly eliminating the bass altogether. It’s a bit offputting, but the results have a unique charm. The record reminds me a bit of Andrew WK and his attempts to make all of the sounds on his records seem as though they are all coming from a single source rather than a variety of instruments. There’s a similar intensity and focus here, as well as a shared love of rapid-attack piano plinking. (Click here to buy it from Adonis Music.)

Elsewhere: In today’s Utopia Burns column on Stylus Magazine’s Stypod blog, Todd Burns takes an Ira Glass-esque approach to mp3 blogging – he talks over the songs, commenting on the sounds as they happen. It’s a pretty intriguing experiment, and I think he kinda pulls it off. It’s a bit like sitting in on a very cool college lecture.

Also Elsewhere: Please don’t sleep on The International House Of Pussy. Anfunny is one of my top tipsters, directly responsible for hooking me up with some of the very best songs that have appeared on this site in 2004. At the moment, he has assembled a compilation of rare disco and pop songs from the late 70s and early 80s, including some excellent tracks by Noel, Brix Smith, and Miss Piggy, plus a Cristina song that I’ve been obsessed with for the past two weeks.

Not Buildings And Numbers

Klang “Help Is On It’s Way” – Video treatment: The screen starts out entirely white. Soon we realize that the camera is scanning over a field of snow, gradually revealing more detail and visual elements as the moments pass. Time moves rapidly, though the images barely change, though more elements are introduced as the film progresses (trees, houses, people – all from a distance.) The light dims as the day passes, and as the video concludes, it is night. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Eugene Mirman “Fleet” – It’s a bit difficult to set up a comedy routine in the same way that I would write about a song. I don’t want to give away any of the jokes, or explain to you why you should think it’s funny. Comedy doesn’t really work that way. In this bit from his new cd/dvd, Eugene Mirman tells a story about being fucked over by Fleet bank, complete with a recording of his conversation with a Fleet representative and his angry, absurd letter in response. There’s something about Mirman’s voice and inflections that I really love, especially when he sounds mock-incredulous and accusatory. (Click here to buy it from Suicide Squeeze.)

Also: If any of you can either a) fix one of the old Livejournal feeds so that it now syndicates from http://www.fluxblog.org/atom.xml or b) set up a brand new one, please let me know.

And: Just an FYI, but it’s profoundly uncool to leave a message in my comments box claiming that a friend of mine has died suddenly when they have not. That’s just tasteless and cruel. Seriously, “Chad”: Fuck off.

I’m Fascinated By Your Rhythm

Portobella “Vive La Difference” – Much like “Some Girls” and “Heartbeats,” this song occupies the the middle distance between the arena and the dancefloor, combining a solid groove and an anthemic chorus so irresistable that it nearly overloads your pleasure centers. There have been a lot of bands that have attempted to pull off a song like this, but I think that Portobella absolutely nails it. Though this does not officially come out until 2005, this is definitely one of my favorite songs of the year. (Click here to visit the official Portobella site.)

Stephen Malkmus “Malediction (live in Buenos Aires, 10/23/2004)” – As another Malkmus album cycle begins, Fluxblog shall inevitably become a part-time Jicks fansite. I can’t help it. This selection is taken from SM’s recent solo (ie, no Jicks) show in Buenos Aires where he debuted a few new Jicks songs in addition to playing at least one song from every LP he’s ever made. (Westing doesn’t count, it’s a compilation.) “Malediction” is apparently a lock for the forthcoming album, and that’s a good thing. Like the best latter-day Malkmus material, it has a gentle, relaxed melody and surprisingly straightforward lyrics. I’m not entirely clear whether this song is being addressed to himself or another person, but either way, there’s some good advice in these lyrics. Maybe this is going to be his “motivational speaker” album.

PLEASE CHANGE YOUR BOOKMARKS AND LINKS!

We’re On A Mission To Rock And Roll



Justus Boyz “Uh-Oh” – In a lot of ways, all the context you really need for this song is supplied by the cover of the Justus Boyz album. This is camp, but it’s very earnest camp. This is synthpop so light and fey that it makes Erasure seem like a bunch of street thugs. This may end up being your “guilty pleasure,” but I am unashamed., and neither are the Justus Boyz. It takes some real courage and conviction to make music like this when virtually everyone is conditioned to think of this kind of pop as being painfully uncool, and your target demo doesn’t even know who you are because you don’t have Girls Aloud or Justin Timberlake’s promotional budget. (Click here to buy it from Amazon. Click here to read an interview with the Justus Boyz on Arjan Writes.)

X-Wife “Rockin’ Rio” – After months of waiting, X-Wife is finally making its live American debut in NYC this weekend, playing shows at Rothko on Friday and Sin-E on Sunday. It should be very interesting to see how they pull off their live show, given that they get a pretty huge playing-to-the-cheap-seats sound on record without the benefit of a live drummer. Feeding The Machine is easily one of the best, most slept-on rock records of the year, and hopefully these NYC shows will attract enough attention to at least get a domestic release for the album. (Click here to buy it from the official X-Wife site.)

I Guess Intuition Has Spoken

Freaks “The Creeps (You Are Giving Me)” – That’s a pretty accurate title for this song. Lyrically, the song seems to be about being stalked, but even if it was an instrumental, the title would work given the eerie, somewhat pervy electro-funk sound of the track. If you’re not immediately into this song, I’d recommend giving it a few more chances – I didn’t realize how much I liked this song until the fifth time that I heard it. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Detroit Cobras “Mean Man” – Maybe it’s a reaction to the overabundance of scuzzy faux-garage rockers who’ve copped their shtick in the past few years, or it could be the logical arc of their career, but either way, hats off to The Detroit Cobras for adding several coats of poppy gloss to their new album. It suits them well. Lo-fi Nuggets wannabes are a dime a dozen, but there aren’t nearly enough bands that sound like The Pretenders fucking the J Geils Band. (Click here to buy it from Rough Trade.)

Ol’ Dirty Bastard “Brooklyn Zoo (live in San Bernardino, 2004)” – John has already said just about everything that I wanted to say about Ol’ Dirty Bastard over at The Tofu Hut with a greater eloquence than I could probably pull off, so I’m going to keep this brief. A lot of people throw around the word “genius,” but I think that ODB actually was one. There has never been another performer even remotely like him in any genre, and I don’t think that it could be possible to replicate his unique style, charisma, and skills. I think that there are a lot of casual listeners who have written him off as a ridiculous cartoon character, but anyone who has ever seriously listened to his music and lyrics would be keenly aware of the strange, compelling mixture of rage, desperation, wit, intelligence, uninhibited lust, and madness that informed all of his recorded work. ODB was clearly and unfortunately mentally ill, but that insanity was key to his art – at his most unhinged, we could see a reflection of the creepiest, darkest corners of our ids. He revelled in the stuff that we all attempt to keep hidden. For a person who spent a sizeable chunk of his life locked away, ODB was a very free man.

This recording of “Brooklyn Zoo” is from Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s final live performance with the Wu-Tang Clan earlier this year, which is now available on cd and dvd. He spent most of the show calmly sitting on top of a monitor sipping from a water bottle, looking very serene and childlike until he’d get up and instantly shift into full-on ODB mode to drop a verse or engage in some bizarre stage banter. He was there in the moment, but he seemed removed and aloof. Maybe he was drugged. Maybe he was tired. Maybe that’s what he was like all of the time. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

A Life Spent With No Cell Mate

Some Girls “Necessito” – I was going to say that this song is the best thing that I’ve heard by Julianna Hatfield since “Universal Heartbeat” (you know, the one that goes “a heaaaaaaaart, a heart that hurts is a heaaaaaart, a heart that works”), but then I realized that this is probably the best Julianna Hatfield song that I’ve heard other than “Universal Heartbeat.” Please understand that I’m not trying to dis Ms. Hatfield – it’s just true. This is a particularly strong bit of glossy indie rock with some charmingly paranoid lyrics and as pretty a reading of the line “putting on my bug spray” as you’re likely to hear anywhere. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Interpol @ Hammerstein Ballroom 11/11/2004

Next Exit / Evil / Length Of Love / Obstacle 1 / Public Pervert / Say Hello To The Angels / Not Even Jail / Hands Away / NYC / Slow Hands / Narc / PDA // Leif Erikson / Roland /// Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down

There isn’t very much to say about Interpol’s live show. They aren’t much to look at, given that their stage show seemed like a visual exploration of all the ways that a mostly motionless band can be backlit. They are very tight and perform the songs almost exactly as they sound on record, though Paul Banks’ voice seems more cartoonishly nasal and the bass and percussion sound more dynamic and urgent in person. Though they played every song that I wanted to hear, I question the judgement of playing the dullest, least essential songs of the night as encores. I suppose that if you look at encores as being bonus material supplemental to the regular show, then it’s actually quite considerate of the audience, but realistically, they opted to end the show with an anticlimax. Personally, I can’t fathom why they wouldn’t choose to close out the night with “NYC,” which is one of their biggest hits and has a particularly satisfying conclusion.

The Secret Machines began and ended their set very well, but lagged through the middle mostly due to their repetitive sense of dynamics. Someone needs to explain to the drummer that though it can be kinda awesome, not every song needs to sound like “When The Levvee Breaks.” Also, I don’t remember the singer sounding quite so much like Geddy Lee on the album. Weird.

Plush “I’ve Changed My #” – This is a selection from Underfed, the newly released demo version of Plush’s 2002 album Fed. Due to extremely high production costs, no American or European label was willing to pay for the record, so Fed was only released by the After Hours label in Japan. The prohibitive cost of the Fed sessions came as a direct result of Plush leader Liam Hayes’ fondness for highly detailed arrangements and obsession with the minutae of sound recording. Though Underfed can hardly be described as “stripped-down,” the songs are presented in earlier, less fussy incarnations that reveal a greater degree of warmth and spontaneity than the slicker, more dynamic final recordings. The Underfed versions sound much older, bearing a striking resemblence to early 70s AM rock to the point that you could probably fool a layperson into believing that “I’ve Changed My #” is an old Todd Rundgren track. (Click here to buy it from Other Music.)

Scala & Kolacny Brothers “Sexy Boy” – The girls of the Scala Choir are back, this time augmented by a string section as they reinterpret Air’s classic “Sexy Boy” as a mournful dirge. Though this isn’t quite as amazing as their recordings of “I Touch Myself” and “Bittersweet Symphony,” this arrangement brings out a sort of bombastic melancholy which was only hinted at in the original. (Click here to buy it from Amazon France.)

There Is A Brain Inside My Head

Chicks On Speed w/ The No Heads “The Household Song” – If you read the press release accompanying the new Chicks On Speed record, it seems that the band is somehow quite embarassed by the pop records that they have recorded in the past few years, and are now going out of their way to distance themselves from the “synthetic electroclash approach,” eager to prove themselves as “experimental” artistes. This is very disappointing. Last winter’s 99 Cents remains one of my favorite albums from the past year. On that record CoS were a revelation, playing full-on modern pop arrangements in the style of producers like Richard X and Timbaland, but spiked with political commentary which was alternately strident and sardonic. Though I understand their desire to try new things and work with new collaborators, Press The Spacebar seems more like a retreat than an experiment. Most of the album feels rote and joyless, and very few of the songs seem like complete compositions. “The Household Song” is the only track on the record which plays to the band’s pop strengths, even if the lyrics err on the side of smugness and condescension. (Click here to buy it from Chicks On Speed Records.)

Christian Harder “Grady” – I wouldn’t normally expect a lyric like “welcome to my nightmare palace” to be a big singalong hook in anything other than an industrial goth song, but I suppose that German electronic pop is close enough in spirit. Strangely, this sounds more like a cross between Depeche Mode and Marilyn Manson than Manson’s recent cover of “Personal Jesus.” (Well, it is if you pretend that Marilyn Manson only ever did stomping glam tunes like “The Dope Show.”) (Click here to buy it from Amazon Germany.)

I’m Gonna Kill Me A Cupid

The Brunettes “Loopy Loopy Love” – I’m always a sucker for a song engaged in a dialogue with itself. Though the lyrics attempt to fight off the irrational joy of love for fear of inevitable disappointment and pain, the winsome, dulcet melodies make a far more convincing case in the favor of swooning lovesickness. This is rather elegantly constructed pop song, above and beyond what I’d normally expect from most contemporary indie pop bands. (Click here to buy it from Smoke CDs.)

Mercury Rev “Across Yer Ocean” – Anyone who may have been hoping for a change of direction on Mercury Rev’s forthcoming The Secret Migration is in for a disappointment. Though this album is slighty more dreamy and psychedelic than their last two records, the band is still exploring the possibilities of their distinctly rural brand of space rock. “Across Yer Ocean” is a fine example of Mercury Rev’s best trick; an ability to craft songs which play out on a melodramatic, epic scale but at the same time feel low key and intimate. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon UK.)

Is Your Dad A Dealer, Cos You’re Dope To Me

M.I.A. “URAQT (Diplo Mix)” – Similar to how Sideways is now my favorite wine connoisseur road trip buddy movie, this is the best pop song about infidelity via cell phone text messaging that I’ve ever heard. The entirety of the Piracy Funds Terrorism mix by Diplo is hot, but this is the highest high, tucked away at the end of the cd just before the “Big Pimpin'” mash-up. I’ve had this tune stuck in my head all weekend, only partially due to the fact that I’ve been playing it endlessly on repeat. (Click here to buy it from Turntable Lab.)

S. “I’m So Bored I’m Going To Sleep” – I’m sure that S. is probably very tired of being compared to Cat Power, but the singer really does sound a bit like Chan Marshall. Basically, this sounds like a Cat Power song trapped inside of the machinery of a giant killer robot. (Click here to buy it from Suicide Squeeze.)

Also: The Fluxblog Vs. Stereogum night at APT is coming up on Tuesday, November 23rd. If you’re in the NYC area, please do come out. I’ve got some special stuff planned for the night, including a few songs so secret and so hot that I cannot post them on the blog. I don’t want to give too much away, but here’s one hint: KMSS.

The Only Vote That Matters

R.E.M. @ Madison Square Garden 11/04/2004

It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) / Begin The Begin / So Fast, So Numb / Animal / Boy In The Well / Welcome To The Occupation / The Outsiders / Get Up / High Speed Train / Cuyahoga / Sweetness Follows / The One I Love / I Wanted To Be Wrong / Imitation Of Life / Final Straw / Losing My Religion / Walk Unafraid / Life And How To Live It // What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? / Drive / Leaving New York / Electrolite / Permanent Vacation / I’m Gonna DJ (new song, “death is pretty final, I’m collecting vinyl, I’m gonna DJ at the end of the world!”) / Man On The Moon

R.E.M. “I Wanted To Be Wrong” – R.E.M. has become my stock answer whenever anyone asks me to name the least cool band that I love. It seems that no one wants to admit that they like them anymore, and if they do, they feel the need to qualify themselves: “They were good up until ________.” I don’t think that R.E.M. has ever stopped being a great band, though the post-Bill Berry material has been the least consistent period of their career to date.

There’s a few good reasons for this. For one, their sense of quality control has diminished, resulting in overlong records padded out with filler. Up would have been more successful if it ended after 40 minutes, and Around The Sun could’ve been a very tight record if trimmed back to nine cuts. Reveal, the weakest album in their catalog, could’ve been an excellent EP.

The second big problem, which is made tremendously obvious when the newer songs are performed live, is that they’ve been producing their records very badly. They strip away the physical immediacy of the songs and bury everything under the icy gloss of infinite overdubs. “The Outsiders” and “High Speed Train” sound bland and uninspired on record, but come alive with percussive oomph and Sonic Youth-worthy guitar noise in their live incarnations. Not much can keep either song from rising above competant mediocrity, but at least they aren’t neutered and cringe-inducing. If I could pick the producer for the next record, it would be Spoon’s Britt Daniel and Jim Eno, who are extremely gifted at recording dynamic, clean, unfussy rock records. In particular, the sound that they get on their percussion is exactly what R.E.M. need post-Berry – a backbeat that feels urgent and alive.

The third problem is less obvious, and somewhat theoretical. Though I’m not sure if I even agree with this idea anymore, a strong case can be made that Michael Stipe’s lyrical narrative has played itself out. It’s not hard to trace the evolution of Stipe’s character over the course of his career, even if he (somewhat accurately) insists that he rarely writes from a confessional point of view. He begins as a shy young man prone to mumbling obtuse lyrics and suffering from “conversation fear”, but over the course of the IRS period, he transforms himself into a bombastic sloganeering political activist. He gradually develops the courage to write proper love songs, confront his mortality, express his sexuality, and openly examine his personal relationships. The progress seems to come to a natural conclusion with “Walk Unafraid”, in which Stipe emerges as a confident, emotionally mature adult who accepts himself and is finally “prepared to look you in the eye.” That song earns its sense of triumph – I have no doubt that it is the very real culmination of the arc of one man’s progress in dealing with his insecurity. The problem is, if part of the appeal of R.E.M. is based on the cult of personality surrounding Michael Stipe, the dramatic tension is lost somewhat if we’re dealing with this charming, plain spoken metrosexual rather than the earnest if incoherant persona which characterized the band’s classic material. Though present day Stipe is affable and inspiring, his current lyrics seem as though he’s writing his own fan fic – The Further Adventures Of R.E.M., as it were.

This is why it’s a good thing that R.E.M. are returning to writing overtly political music – they can enter into a context that doesn’t have to involve Michael the persona, but can capitalize on Stipe’s new fondness for clear, declarative language. When Stipe introduced “I Wanted To Be Wrong” last night at Madison Square Garden, he said that it was one of the few songs that he’s ever written sung directly from his point of view. Though I tend to distrust that statement, I believe that bit of information lends some extra power to the song, in which the singer attempts to understand the perspective and culture of the “red states,” but is frustrated when he cannot. It’s probably the best expression of an idea which is both personal and political in his entire career, and hints at a direction which does in fact move beyond the emotional resolution of “Walk Unafraid.” (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

R.E.M. “Begin The Begin (live in Germany, 2003)” – The show last night was both fun (a lot of upbeat numbers, fewer ballads and mid-tempo tracks than on previous tours) and cathartic. Stipe barely talked at all over the course of the show (which is sort of amazing if you’ve seen them play at all in the past five years), later explaining that he didn’t know what to say, and was electing to let the music do the talking. As a result, the setlist was very lyrically driven, focusing on material relevant to recent events. “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” seemed to express the band’s mission statement for the night and was an excellent and truly surprising opener (in the sense that the song had not yet been played on this tour and is traditionally the final song of the night). In terms of the song’s prescient lyrics and the band’s raw enthusiasm, “Begin The Begin” sounded as though it could’ve been written yesterday.

The audience were mostly quite lame. Most of the people in my section opted to hit the bathrooms and the concession stands whenever they played a song from Around The Sun (I don’t understand why people like this go to see music events, especially expensive ones at big venues.) Almost everyone flipped out when they played “The One I Love,” “Losing My Religion,” and “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?,” yet classics like “Get Up” and “Life And How To Live It” were met with only small pockets of enthusiasm. Stipe introduced “Cuyahoga” as a song taking place in Ohio, which resulted in loud booing from all over the arena. Still, there was loud applause every time he sang the line “let’s put our heads together and start a new country up,” which was more reassuring. On my way out of the arena, I overheard two guys who looked like ex-frat dudes talk about how great it was that Michael didn’t talk much because they can’t stand “liberal whining.” Sigh. A few minutes later, I saw a cute girl in a bright orange t-shirt with homemade lettering which read “I’ve got my spine, I’ve got my Orange Crush,” which kinda sorta cancelled out those goons. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Also: If you happen to be in the NYC area this weekend, I strongly encourage you to go to the WFMU Record Fair, which is at the Metropolitan Pavilion, located at 125 West 18th Street, just off of 6th Avenue. The Fair is open for regular admission ($5) on Friday from 7-10 PM, and on Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM – 7 PM.

Baby Steps To Euphoria

Plus-Tech Squeeze Box “The Martin Show!!” – Like the singer says, don’t let it get you down. There’s a lot of very good reasons to feel pessimistic about the future of the United States and the world at large, but we cannot let our fear and anger consume us. If we can’t let ourselves enjoy our lives, there isn’t much of a point in living them or working to make things better. Rend unto Caesar, etc. There’s still plenty of room in our lives for joy, and J-Pop Jackson 5 (or is that Hanson?) pastiches that sound like a better, more ecstatic version of the world. (Click here to buy it from HMV Japan or here to visit the official Plus-Tech Squeeze Box site.)

Pavan “Panik Mix” – Of course, the nagging panic just doesn’t go away, especially for those of us most likely to suffer as a direct result of the Bush agenda. Perhaps we could learn a trick from this song, which transforms a series of nervous clicks and stutters into a calm, meditative groove. (Click here to buy it from Mitek.)