Lucky Stars In Your Eyes

Daniel Johnston “Like A Monkey In A Zoo” – The very best thing about Jeff Feuerzeig’s The Devil and Daniel Johnston is that, in spite of containing quite a bit of footage depicting Johnston in severe manic states, it never treats the man “like a monkey in a zoo.” Even when Daniel hits his lowest lows – beating his manager with a lead pipe, crashing a small aircraft piloted by his father, frightening an old woman into jumping out of a window – Feuerzeig consistently avoids sensationalism. If anything, he errs on the side of fan-ish reverence, making the film come off more like a sentimental history of Johnston’s art and struggles with mental illness rather than a critical documentary. I appreciate the fact that a film about Johnston would probably never be made unless it was created by a devoted fan, but I am disappointed that the movie rarely engages with what I would consider to be a major part of the Johnston phenomenon – the fetishization of his illness and “outsider” status by a large portion of his fanbase, either as evidence of his authenticity and purity, or as a voyeuristic selling point. But then again, maybe that’s a whole other film waiting to be made. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Kathy McCarty “Walking The Cow” – The Devil and Daniel Johnston does serve its subject well in terms of emphasizing the fact that his fascinating troubles are only a small part of Johnston’s eduring appeal, and that his music really has touched many people over the years. His own recordings can easily distract listeners with their shoddy lo-fi sound, shakey performances, and Daniel’s child-like, somewhat androgynous voice, but his catalog is perhaps best suited for interpretation by other artists. Johnston’s longtime friend Kathy McCarty’s album of his songs, Dead Dog’s Eyeball, is especially great; foregrounding his melodic sensibilities in elegant arrangements, and lending her skills as an interpretative vocalist to his surprisingly nuanced lyrics. In her hands, “Walking The Cow” becomes less of a curiosity, and more of an obvious alt-pop classic. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

The Situation’s Out Of Your Hands, Mama

A Sunny Day In Glasgow “The Best Summer Ever” – A Sunny Day In Glasgow’s MySpace page simply states their influences as being “college radio circa 1983 – 1992,” and that’s no joke. The music sounds like the work of a group fully immersed in the underground pop aesthetics of that period, intent on resuscitating musical traditions that have largely disappeared, and are only occasionally revisited in things like Hyped 2 Death‘s compilations and VH1 Classic’s The Alternative program. Interestingly, the members of this band are pretty young, so they aren’t updating the music of their youth so much as the music of their childhood. (Assuming that they were exceptionally cool kids in elementary school, of course.) (Click here to buy it from A Sunny Day In Glasgow.)

Adam Green “Nat King Cole” – It’s Adam Green, and as you can expect, the song is essentially a joke, but if you take it at face value, it’s a pretty fantastic track. He’s singing the entire thing in what I assume is meant to be a fat Elvis voice, but it comes a lot closer to sounding like Glenn Danzig playing a fake Johnny Cash song at a Las Vegas revue. It’s definitely a case of a so-so joke getting over on total commitment and high production values, and (accidentally?) transcending its roots in comedy. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Looking Sideways And Smiling

I’ve been doing this site for a little over four years now, and in all of that time, I’ve resisted the urge to post my own music. But you know, me and my band the Raptors have been doing some pretty good stuff lately, and I want to share some of it with you. I’m really proud of this music, and I hope that you like it even half as much as the stuff that I normally post.

Raptors “You Make Me Smile” – With this song, I was trying to update the he said/she said dynamic of “Don’t You Want Me” by the Human League, but give it sort of an everyman “Jack and Diane” quality. Everyone in the Raptors is from the suburbs, and we wanted to write a song about the lives and loves of the sort of authentic, hard working regular people from back home. Who says the suburbs can’t be sexy?

Raptors “My Infinity” – When I wrote this, I was thinking a lot about how when you’re in a new relationship, you can feel this burst of powerful energy within you, as though you’ve been granted special powers by your lover. So the scenario in the lyrics here is something like, what if I had a girlfriend and she was this hot chick version of Galactus, and she made me into her Silver Surfer of love? How would a relationship change on a cosmic scale? This is the kind of thing that really interests me, so I decided to explore that concept in this song.

(Click here for the Raptors MySpace page.)

You Never Really Knew For Sure

Maps “Lost My Soul” – My mind is already fast-forwarding to some point a year or two from now when this song is playing a thousand times a day as part of some tv ad aimed at the “indie yuppie” demographic. And I don’t mean to be snarky about this – this song is so incredibly effective at combining that sort of quietly melodramatic Mercury Rev-ish “I’m a man with a tiny voice singing about big emotions in the midst of a sweeping arrangement” thing with cool electronic textures and swelling strings that it’s almost impossible to resist if you have any love for that type of music at all, whatsoever. (Click here for Maps’ MySpace page.)

Umekichi & Otemoto Orchestra “Samisen Boogie Woogie” – Though the theatrics of Umekichi’s Geisha performance is lost on record, there’s still quite a lot to love on this bizarre little Japanese boogie number, which pulls off that wonderful trick of sounding comfortable, catchy, and slightly warped at the same time. (Click here to buy it (I think…) from Umekichi’s official site.)

We’re So In Love With Our Tears

Hockey Night “Who We Are” – For a song that comes off like something halfway between a pep talk and a stump speech, “Who We Are” is surprisingly modest in its aim and scope. Its “we”s and “our”s don’t seem to reach too far outside of the indie demographic, but that’s fine – it’s Hockey Night’s constinuency, and they are lobbying hard for your vote in 2006 by a pushing a message of cautious optimism in opposition to the dreary miserablism of the emo incumbancy! (Click here for the official Hockey Night site.)

Paavoharju “Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Läpi” – There’s something ever so slightly off about this track, almost as though its musical components are essentially unrelated, and it coheres into a composition as an act of random, natural beauty as if it were a pop song created by radio signals overlapping as they drift aimlessly into deep space. (Click here to buy it from Fonal.)

On Account Of Bad Chemistry

Richard McGraw “Natasha in High School” – There’s a moment about halfway through this little number about being obsessed with a girl from high school long after the point when that sort of thing would be remotely charming or sympathetic when the song briefly deviates from its jaunty indie pop for a bit of Meat Loaf-ish bombast. It’s absolutely wonderful, and though I’m fine with this song as it is, it does make me wish that McGraw went all the way with it, because you know, it might not be such a bad idea to borrow some ideas from Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. Maybe someone needs to write the indie pop version of “Paradise By The Dashboard Light.” As it is, the lyrics deal with very similar subject matter as Art Brut’s “Emily Kane,” but if that song is more like a feel-good romantic comedy, “Natasha In High School” is a droll, pessimistic indie dramedy. (Click here to buy it via McGraw’s official site.)

C-Mone “Catch Me If U Can” – Fans of The Streets (and apparently there’s a lot of them; I’m still getting lots of visitors looking for “When You Wasn’t Famous”) will recognize C-Mone from “Get Out My House” from A Grand Don’t Come For Free, but her own record isn’t much like Skinner’s in terms of style and performance. Her vocals remind me quite a bit of Martina Topley-Bird’s raps on the first few Tricky records, which is immensely appealing to me since I haven’t been pleased with Martina’s solo work, and welcome anything that comes close to her versions of “Bad Things” and “Lyrics of Fury.” C-Mone’s voice is similarly pretty, with a heavy British accent that thickens when she needs to sound dismissive or irritable, but her tracks tend toward a more wide open sound, rather than Tricky’s typically claustrophobic beats. (Click here to buy it from Bleep.)

The UFO Will Pick Us Up

X-Wife “Ping Pong” – Whereas previous X-Wife songs seemed aimed at big rooms and open air venues, “Ping Pong” feels more like it was calibrated for blowing up in small venues and danceclubs. The groove starts off cold and sinister, but it gradually builds up intensity until it goes white hot and flames out in the instrumental outro. (Click here for the official X-Wife page.)

Cortina “I Am Not An American” – It’s true, she isn’t an American. Cortina are from New Zealand, which is not anywhere near America. You may remember this band from the SXSW round-up last week – they were the ones who looked like New Wave supervillains and sounded like someone from the 80s’ idea of a futuristic band, which I guess is basically Le Tigre with heavier guitars and a dude who looks like Rick Rubin in a leopard print body suit singing on half of the songs. (Click here for the Cortina MySpace page.)

Help Wanted!

If you own/have access to digital video equipment and/or have skills in editing digital footage, please get in touch with me if you are interested in working with me on some projects that will be featured on this site in the months to come. Students, ex-students, amateurs, professionals with time on their hands – give me a shout! I would prefer it if you were located in the NYC area, but if you’re not maybe we can work something else out. Inquire at perpetua @ gmail.com

Be Nice To The Crackheads

Ghostface Killah featuring Cappadonna, Shawn Wigs & Trife “Jellyfish” – Fishscale is so overflowing with top drawer material that I’ve been frozen for days trying to figure out which song to post. Even with the best records, there’s usually an obvious choice or a quintessential track, but trying to boil this little masterpiece down to one song is tough work. “Jellyfish” is a bit of a dark horse – it doesn’t provide a catchy angle like “Whip You With A Strap” (the best song I’ve ever heard advocating the violent discipline of children) or “9 Milli Bros.” (the entire Wu-Tang Clan, together again for maybe the last time!), and it’s not Ghostface to the nth degree, as on “Shakey Dog,” “The Champ,” and “Dogs of War.” Comparitively, “Jellyfish” has a mellower charm, and with its nostalgic organ drone and lackadaisical vibe, it’s the closest thing the album has to a track like “Child’s Play” from Supreme Clientele. That organ is key – it’s so high up in the mix that it sounds like a ceiling or a sky high above the vocals, bass, and beat. (Click here to buy it for a ridiculously low price from Amazon. You really can’t go wrong with this record.)

Lavender Diamond “You Broke My Heart” – When I was in Texas last weekend, I heard from four or five trusted sources that I missed out on great performances by Lavender Diamond, a band that I’d never heard of prior to last Thursday. Now that I’ve acquired their EP, I’m kicking myself for not having been on top of this earlier. “You Broke My Heart” is my favorite so far, a quietly anthemic ballad that mixes the gentle, somewhat austere quality of Sandy Denny’s work with the Fairport Convention with a touch of warmness similar to that of Carole King on Tapestry and Joni Mitchell circa Blue. (Click here to buy it from Lavender Diamond.)

I’m Only Doing Just Fine

Phoenix “Long Distance Call” – It took Phoenix nearly four years to follow up their debut, so it comes as a very pleasant and extremely welcome surprise that they’ve already finished the successor to Alphabetical, which many of you may remember was one of my favorite albums from 2004 and remains one of my favorite records from this decade. “Long Distance Call” retains the immaculate pop aesthetic of their first two records, but it’s toughened up a bit with slightly ragged rock guitar parts on the chorus contrasting with smooth keyboards on the verses. Of course, “ragged” for Phoenix is a bit like brand new designer clothing that’s meant to seem old and worn. (Click here for the official Phoenix website.)

Barbara Morgenstern “The Operator” – There’s a keyboard refrain in this song that I swear reminds me of some fragment of a Sonic Youth song, and though I’m fairly certain it’s from Daydream Nation, I just can’t place it. (The part in question is just before the first shift into a faster tempo, about 30 seconds into the track.) Even if I’m wrong, there is a certain Daydream Nation-ness to this track, which I suppose is not something said of guitar-free synthpop songs sung mostly in German. It’s all in the lovely arpreggios and structural shifts, and in how it evokes a web of conflicting feelings that nearly translates into a disaffected emotional neutrality. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

A Heart So Slippery Love Slides Away

Spektrum “Horny Pony (Ed Laliq Dressage Mix)” – This starts off sounding almost like some bizarre, misguided Trojan radio ad featuring a stoned Macy Gray flirting with a horse, but it just keeps going and mutates into a perfect, disorienting groove with all kinds of hooks orbitting the beat like a solar system of funk. This is yet another perfect single from Spektrum, who totally killed it last year with “May Day,” and the year before with “Kinda New.” (Click here to buy it from Bleep.)

The Starlight Mints “Seventeen Devils” – Why is it that, with only a few exceptions, I almost always prefer songs that sound sort of like David Bowie to the ones actually written and performed by the man himself? It’s similar to how a lot of my favorite acts owe some stylistic debt to Bob Dylan, but I’d be hard pressed to fill out a cdr with Dylan songs that I kinda like, much less love. In the case of this song, it sort of falls into my Bowie sweet spot between The Man Who Sold The World and Hunky Dory, so it’s certainly playing to my bias against Ziggy Stardust, which I would never say is a bad album so much as it is one that I’d really rather not listen to again. (You know, kind of like Appetite For Destruction.)

If you’re a member of the Starlight Mints, I feel like I should apologize to you for spending all of my time in this review talking about David Bowie. But please keep in mind that I’m basically saying that you wrote a better David Bowie song than 95% of the ones that he actually composed himself, and on top of it, you pulled off a better string arrangement than any I’ve ever heard on one of his albums. In other words, you have pwned a rock icon. (Click here to pre-order it from Barsuk.)

Contest Winner!

Simon H’s fake Decemberists song is the winner! I’ve sent him an email, but if he doesn’t get that, I suppose that he’ll see it here. Get in touch, Simon!

SXSW Makes Me Want To Rock Out

This was my first SXSW, and as such, it was a very overwhelming experience for me. Unlike CMJ, which is spread out in venues all over NYC and requires a far greater amount of logistical planning, the absurd super-concentration of music venues in downtown Austin allows for the possibility of seeing so many more shows in rapid succession, and it can kinda make your head spin. Thankfully, I did not miss very many acts that I would have liked to have seen, and the good people at Pitchfork, The Fader, and Stereogum hosted day parties featuring a number of artists that I most wanted to see while at the festival.

SXSW was not only overwhelming in terms of music, but also in regards to social stimulation. I got to see a huge number of friends and acquaintances, as well as meet a lot of new people and folks that I’ve known from the internet but never met in person. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time with a lot of the people in the latter two categories, and if you’re one of them, I’m really sorry! Definitely drop me a line.

Thursday

Ted Leo + Pharmacists – It seems strange and maybe even factually incorrect to me that this was the first time that I’ve seen Ted Leo perform. (Did I see this band as an opening act at some point? I’m not quite sure.) Either way, this was a nice set focusing mainly on songs from their next album, plus a few old hits like “Me and Mia” and “Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone.” Midway through the show, Ted dropped a few Gorch references, which was pretty awesome, but was maybe lost on about 98% of the room.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They – The band’s noir circus punk comes off really well live, even if they don’t look anything like how I would have expected. (The singer/guitarist guy looks a bit like deranged prostitute murderer Francis Wolcott from Deadwood dressed down in indie clothing.) “Lowlife” was especially exciting for me, but the energy level was high for the entire set.

Dead Boy and the Elephantmen – No, not The Dead Boys and Elephant Man. That would have been interesting, but this duo just sounded like Blueshammer most of the time, except for when they slowed things down for some Nickelback-ish ballads.

The Noisettes – Aggravating and dull. In fairness to this and the previous band, I was really just waiting for the Fiery Furnaces and the Dresden Dolls, and they just happened to be on the same bill.

The Fiery Furnaces –

Live @ Stubb’s 3/16/2006
Crystal Clear / Chris Michaels / Straight Street / Asthma Attack / Police Sweater Blood Vow / Slavin’ Away / Rehearsing My Choir / Quay Cur / Waiting To Know You / My Dog Was Lost But Now He’s Found / Benton Harbor Blues / Single Again

Though I still prefer the keyboard-centric medley-crazed live version of The Fiery Furnaces, this was most certainly the best straight ahead rock show that I’ve ever seen them play. It’s still the same line-up as the Town Hall show from last year, but they’ve really come together in the time since, and it didn’t seem like a muddy, rushed mess at all. If anything, I just worry about people hearing them for the first time as a killer rock combo, and then picking up Rehearsing My Choir or Bitter Tea and being very disappointed and/or confused. It’s something of a bait and switch, and they know it.

The Dresden Dolls – Very impressive, extremely tight, and obviously super ambitious. They seemed hell-bent on putting on an exciting, dynamic show, and pulled it off like seasoned professionals. Frankly, if this band’s audience doesn’t increase tenfold by this time next year, I will be very surprised. This was definitely one of the best shows that I saw over my three days at the festival.

Friday

Death Vessel – To be honest, I barely paid attention to this because I was visiting with friends at the Pitchfork party. It was alright, I guess, but I don’t really remember much.

Jose Gonzalez – Sort of boring, really. Of course, his cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats” was lovely. You really can’t lose with that song.

Patton Oswalt “Steak” – Oswalt hosted the Pitchfork party, which came as the best surprise of the weekend for me since I’ve been wanting to see him perform for quite a while now. He was pretty hilarious the entire time, but he was absolutely killing it in the stretch between Gonzalez and The Juan MacLean’s DJ set. (Click here to buy it from Patton Oswalt’s official site.)

The Juan MacLean – Just a DJ set. There’s really not a lot to say.

Ladytron – Ditto. It was just one of the dudes playing pretty obvious DJ selections. I really wish that they would have played as a band.

Hot Chip – Poor Hot Chip were plagued by technical problems and only managed to play three songs, none of which were among the tracks I would have been excited to see live. But they did a pretty good job in spite of all the problems with the monitors. It sounded pretty good from where I was standing, anyway.

Spank Rock – Very fun, maybe a little too brief. They nailed “Rick Rubin,” and did a great new song with a chorus something like “shake that ass til my dick turns racist” which sounds a lot better in context than it reads in print.

Matthew Dear – Not bad, but the Pfork tent wasn’t exactly about to burst into a midday rave or anything.

Love Is All – I’ll come back to them a little later, okay?

RJD2 – I’ve heard some very conflicting reports about the quality of RJD2’s DJ sets, but I think this one came off pretty well. This was the best DJ set that I heard over the weekend aside from the Swishahouse-affiliated guy going between sets at the Fader party.

Art Brut “Modern Art” – I liked Art Brut coming into this set, but as soon as they started playing, they turned me into a hyperactive teenage boy at his first punk show. It was ridiculously fun all the way through, but they really blew me away with the ending trio of “Emily Kane,” “Modern Art,” and “Good Weekend.” Highly recommended!

Cortina – I stumbled into Cortina’s set, and I’m pretty glad that I did. They looked and sounded like an 80s sci-fi movie version of a rock band from the future, all decked out in insane outfits that made them look like new wave supervillains and playing heavy rock built around keyboards and drum machines. I regret not buying their $2 album since they don’t seem to have a proper website and the songs on their MySpace page do not include the songs that I really enjoyed live. (I definitely prefer the songs by the girl singer.)

Parts & Labor “A Great Divide” – Parts & Labor were the most intense act that I saw at the festival by far. As Dan Friel went at his array of electronic gadgets like an enthusiastic little boy, Chris Weingarten beat the shit out of his drum set as if they had killed his entire family line. Even with all the trebly noise and the rhythmic aggression, the band never abandoned melodies and hooks, resulting in a rather excellent and unique form of post-hardcore noise pop. (Click here to buy it from Parts & Labor’s official site.)

Au Revoir Simone – This was certainly the best show that I’ve ever seen this band play. The set was comprised almost entirely of brand new songs, almost all of which were a step up from the songs on their debut record. If you loved songs like “Through The Backyards Of Our Neighbors” and “Back In Time,” but not so much the twee, indie-ish tracks, I think you will be quite pleased. They’ve gone in a more ethereal, melodically sophisticated direction, and even came close to sounding a bit like The Knife towards the end of their set.

Tilly and the Wall – They were alright. Pretty decent indie pop songs, and the singing was pretty good. The whole “tap dancer providing syncopation to the rhythm” thing is cute, but doesn’t add very much to their sound.

Saturday

Devin The Dude – Devin was incredibly charming. I don’t think he ever stopped smiling during his set. He kept making these faces that seemed to say “Ha, I am such a rascal!” or “I love doing this!” A very smooth, laid back set.

TV on the Radio – Actually, this was just Kyp Malone playing a solo set. The band can be pretty good, but this was a pretty lousy show. It just sounded like the guy was playing “Glycerine” for a half hour without ever getting to the chorus.

Lupe Fiasco – This was a pretty satisfying set, though it ran a little short. He started off with a version of “Diamonds of Seirra Leone” and his verse from “Touch The Sky,” and then did some songs from his forthcoming debut that were all pretty instantly likeable. I’m looking forward to the record.

Love Is All – Okay, so I got to see Love Is All twice. It was exciting to see them live after all this time, and they certainly brought a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to both sets. Josephine Olausson is absolutely adorable, especially when she earnestly thanks the audience after every song. I would have liked for them to have played “Felt Tip” in either set, but maybe some other time.

Ghostface Killah – Ghostface pretty much blew my mind forever. I was up near the front, and the energy during this show from the stage and in the audience was fantastic, and well worth a seemingly interminable wait. Ghost did a lot of songs, and I don’t remember everything, but the set definitely included “Nutmeg,” “Ghost Deini,” “Apollo Kids,” “We Made It,” “Child’s Play,” “Cherchez La Ghost,” “Run,” “Holla,” “Ice Cream,” “Back Like That,” and “Be Easy.” Interestingly enough, about midway through the set, after doing a version of “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” in tribute to Ol’ Dirty Bastard, he and Trife performed “Reunited” and “Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ To Fuck Wit,” neither of which feature verses by Ghostface. It was sort of odd to hear Ghostface rapping the words of the GZA and Inspectah Deck, and Trife doing Method Man, but it worked. As a friend of mine often says, Ghostface is a beautiful person and his charisma levels are just off the charts. He went off on a monologue once or twice, and I would have been happy enough just to hear him do a speaking engagement, much less put on a high quality show as he did. I’m definitely going to try to buy some tickets for his show at the Nokia in April.

Cadence Weapon – I came into this set a little late about five minutes after Ghostface ended, but I was just in time for “Oliver Square.” Rollie was at a disadvantage coming so soon after the highlight of my weekend, but he held his own and put on an impressive show. He’s a natural performer, and played to a relatively sparse crowd as though it was a packed room, though he probably couldn’t have pulled off the running-into-the-crowd moves as easily. His voice is strong and confident, even moreso than on the LP, and he did about a half dozen new songs that were uniformly great, and pushed him in more of an electro/dance direction in terms of his beats and keyboard parts.

From this little hitch, I have become a superbitch

Remember those glorious days when there was an actual, honest-to-goodness, global pop phenomenon? Screaming tweens and pop dolls; branding oblivion and universal media assent; the long parade of surprisingly good number ones and all the frenzy an evil pop svengali could ever hope for. It was called SpiceWorld for a reason – it really was theirs. And then the end was nigh…

While their collective output was widely known, the Spice solo spin-offs eventually drifted into British chart obscurity. Times changed, tween audiences were fickle, and when it came to the material itself, the nuanced change in direction those girls fought for in order to step away – however far – from their legacy was too much. Or maybe it wasn’t enough; the solo identities progressing much as you’d expect the branding meetings to decree. Sporty as rock chick. Baby as flirty poplette. Hardly a revolution.

But there were a few pop gems for those who could look past the terrible lead singles. Mel C’s “Goin’ Down” bursts from the MOR schlock of her debut album with vitriolic power and biting rage. The riffs are slow with intensity, while her treble-heavy vocal is shrill and hypnotic. This is sharp angles and shattered glass; a wail of revenge and deadly intent from a pop puppet who has finally slashed her strings.

Baby, on the other hand, could never edge that far into an expression of anger even after she traded in her derogatory moniker for a real name. So she maintained herself not as an actual being, but as a concept (beloved of men who found real women a truly terrifying proposition) and thus Emma Bunton’s “Maybe” is a flirty, floaty, blissful little bubble of 60’s-style pop. Complete with ‘ba ba ba baba’s and a strange slowed bridge, it’s breezy with blonde charm and careful innocence.

(Click here to buy Emma Bunton’s album, and here to for the Mel C record, both from Amazon UK.)

ProTools all the way! Hey, hey, hey!

All hail the sugar-rush of mindless bubblepunk! Sounding exactly as you’d expect for an Australian Idol also-ran whose auditions weren’t so much marked by Good Charlotte covers as they were scrawled with fluorescent felt-tips to match his pink-streaked mullet (the likes of which hadn’t been witnessed since Kelly Osborne’s first forays into fugly consciousness), Lee Harding’s “Wasabi”ensures you’ll fall helpless at the altar of teenpop celebration, giving thanks to the Sum 41’s, Bowling for Soup’s and Something Corporate’s of the world that made this crazy child a reality (and my word, I never thought such a thing were possible).

See, despite the lack of any obvious substance, somehow Wasabi’s negative imprint strikes you down with the very wholehearted dedication to vapid, lowest-common-denominator Protooling that should see it banished to the BEP circle of the inferno. And when I say strike, I mean the kind of cartoon BAM! that leaves you reeling in a circle of fluffy tweeting chicklets, eyes dangling uselessly to your elbows and tongue halfway to the floor. It isn’t just an obnoxious, production-perfect bastardization of punkrock riffs and crescendo drum-crash, it’s a song dedicated to being the best damn bastardization of punkrock riffs and crescendo drum-crash you’ve guiltily set to repeat play this year.

This is where Skye Sweetnam’s “Hypocrite” comes flouncing in, dripping with tantrums, tears and detention. Taking Lee’s BAM! and raising him a KAPOW!, Skye delivers not merely thrumming, head-toss teen angst, but thrumming, head-toss teen angst with cheerleader yells. That drum loop! The drilling electro chords! Those neon mascara wink lyrics!

Because when it comes to bratpop endeavours, I give credit to the kids who step up and commit. No lurking on the fringe, hoping for credibility or authenticity gold stars. No ironic nods and half-assed sample winks, it’s all or nothing in the petulance stakes if you’re going to reach the requisite levels of joyful self-absorption to make me leap around like the fifteen year-old I never was.

(Click here to buy Sweetnam’s record, and here to buy the Lee Harding album, both from Amazon.)

Last Year’s Maps And MTA Delay Reports

The Vague Angels “The Vague Angels of Vagary” –

Art by Mike Allred, Philip Bond, and Laura Allred, with text by Steven T. Seagle. Excerpt from Vertical, published by DC/Vertigo, 2003.

Set to a musical backdrop that evokes the spring in full bloom, Chris Leo rambles on like a modern starry eyed hippie/hipster about the NYC subway system, the history of Brooklyn, falling asleep on the train, riding his bike and hanging out with his girlfriend; managing to make every little detail seem exotic and magical with his breathless delivery. (Click here to buy it via Pretty Activity.)

Also: I will be in Austin for SXSW tomorrow through Monday afternoon. In the meantime, Abby McDonald will be filling in on this site for the remainder of the week.

Elsewhere: If you are going to be at the SXSW festival, it would be lovely if you attended the “Blogs Gone Wild” panel on Saturday at noon. The panel will be moderated by Jason Gross of Perfect Sound Forever, and will feature Mark Willett, Brooklyn Vegan, Maria Sciarrino of Plain Parade, Pitchfork‘s Amy Phillips, and myself.

And: I’m going to keep this contest open until after I return to New York. Bring it on, people! There’s no clear winner just yet, so don’t be discouraged.

You Are Like Cookies And Like Cake In One

Eagle & Talon “Dropped Down” – Given that the singer grew up in Winnipeg and now lives in Los Angeles, it sort of makes sense that Eagle & Talon’s lyrics would be so fixated on differences in temperature, and that the music would come out feeling like the rock equivalent of a Finnish sauna. The band is at their best when they turn up the heat and launch into their hooks with a confidence and power that comes close to that of a young Sleater-Kinney. (Click here to buy it from the official Eagle & Talon site.)

The Pipettes “Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me” – Though it’s not quite as magical or as funny as “Dirty Mind,” this new single from the Pipettes keeps up their impressive run of singles. As with its predecessor, the craft in the songwriting and production remains strong enough to make the record seem more like a girl group hit that arrived several decades too late rather than just silly kitsch. Sure, the kitsch is there and cannot be denied, but that “and you might cry / for some time” hook is too gorgeous and heart-melting to be written off so easily. (Click here to buy it via the Pipettes’ official site.)

When It Hits You Feel No Pain

Dead Prez “Hip-Hop (Live in Brooklyn, 9/14/2004)” – There’s a lot of jaw-dropping musical highlights from Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, and I’m sad to say that many of them didn’t end up on the official soundtrack. Hopefully someday we’ll get the double/triple disc deluxe version that ought to exist, but for now, this will do. Without having to compete with showstoppers by Kanye West and the reunited Fugees, the underdogs in the film get to shine, and in the case of Jill Scott and Dead Prez, stand out as revelations in the context of a live show. I can’t remember if it is The Roots backing up Dead Prez on this cut, but whoever it is, they transform “Hip-Hop” into a stomping monster, especially when they come back in after stic.man’s a cappella verse so heavy that it ought to make a thousand rock bands resign in shame.

As for the film, I just can’t imagine that anyone is going to make a movie that I’m going to love as much in this year. It’s almost enough that it features Dave Chappelle and an all-star roster of performers working at the top of their game, but filmmaker Michel Gondry pulls it all together in a way that I think surpasses every other film based around live music that I’ve ever seen aside from Wattstax. Gondry weaves back and forth through the film between private and public performances, in every scene capturing the unique thrill of the situation. Though it can be frustrating when he cuts out of a performance before it’s over, the editing is generally top notch, and pitch perfect in its sense of timing and narrative impact. You don’t even need to know the backstory of The Roots’ “You Got Me” to pick up on the fact that Erykah Badu and Jill Scott’s shared performance of the song is a special occasion, and similarly, you probably could go your whole life without ever having heard of The Fugees and still have been sucked into the anticipation of the moment when Lauryn Hill starts in on her verse of “Nappy Heads.” Gondry and his team put you in the moment so well that it’s almost difficult to imagine that actually being there could be as good as the final product of the film. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Casey Dienel @ Piano’s 3/11/2006
Baby James / new song / Dr. Monroe / new song / The Coffee Beanery / Embroidery / new song / Everything / Tundra / Cut Your Hair / new song / The La La Song

Casey Dienel “Everything” – Somewhere in the time just after I posted “Dr. Monroe” at the end of February and before seeing her play live this past weekend, I read Dienel’s MySpace page, which revealed her to be a very big fan of Pavement. This was surprising for maybe two seconds, and then everything that I liked about her music sort of snapped into focus with that frame of reference. She has the same sort of effortless melodicism, and the lyrics are informed by a similar sense of humor and wordplay. I’d originally pegged it as a Steely Dan sort of thing, but no, it’s Pavement. Of course! Seeing her perform, it was all the more obvious – her stage presence is similarly casual and low key, and she even sort of looks like Stephen Malkmus as a 21 year old girl with a piano. (Please do not read that last sentence as “Malkmus in drag.” She’s a doll.) As you can see above, Dienel actually did play a Pavement cover, and it kinda kills me that I can’t share a recording of it with you right now because it’s definitely the best non-instrumental cover of a Pavement song that I’ve ever heard. In some ways, it’s rather similar to that Mark Ronson cover of “Just” – it makes no attempt to ape Malkmus’ miles and miles of style, and simply aims to emphasize the timeless qualities of the song by putting it in the context of a genre that the original was referencing, however indirectly or sideways.

As for “Everything,” it’s become my favorite song on her record, and I sort of regret not posting it straight away, but it’s really just one of those occasions when a recording sort of snuck up on me over the course of a few weeks. And those weeks were awful, by the way. As my worries piled up and my stress levels increased, this gentle, whimsical little song was there to calm me down and lift my spirits, and now I’m pretty much bonded with it forever. (Click here to buy it from Hush Records.)

Get Your Walkmen, iPods, Minidiscs, and Record Players

Portobella “Freakin’ In Stereo (A-side Mix)” – I had been putting this song off all week because I can’t seem to find accurate information about it anywhere. I’m not even 100% certain if this is the same Portobella that did Fluxblog favorites “Vive La Difference” and “Covered In Punk.” But you know what? It just doesn’t matter who it is, only that it’s this sort of mindblowing disco meltdown that offers both instant satisfaction every step of the way and delayed gratification by waiting nearly three minutes before dropping its second killer hook. Do you know more about this track? Please let me know in the comments box! (Click here for the Portobella website.)

Junior Bloomsday featuring Cadence Weapon “Your Perfect Gene” – No one should ever expect to hear a rap cameo turn up in a sweet shoegazing synthpop song like this, but Cadence Weapon materializes out of nowhere in the final third of this track and pulls it off as though it was the most normal thing in the world. More MBV hip hop, please! (Click here to buy it from Scratch Records.)

Also: NYC people really ought to go to the Maxi Geil & Playcolt / Soft / Heloise & The Savoir Faire Dancers show at North Six in Brooklyn on Sunday night. I’ve already made a commitment for that night (no, not The Sopranos – that’s being tivo’d for me), so I can’t make it. It’s very frustrating – I’m always thrilled to see Maxi Geil live, but I’ve also been wanting to see Heloise for a few years now, and one of the members of Soft is an old friend of mine, and I’d be happy to see them again.

It Happens In New York

Ursula 1000 featuring Cristina “Urgent/Anxious” – This is Cristina’s first new recording since she abandoned the record industry to become a full-time theatre critic following the release of her classic second album in 1984. Though she had apparently flirted with the possibility of working with some other producers on new material, nothing had actually materialized until she collaborated with Ursula 1000 last year. Judging by her performance on this track, time away from the recording studio has not done much to dull her wit or allure. She remains pop’s droll queen of high class decadence, and her voice still sounds remarkably youthful. On this track, she seems to be revisiting her bored, self-destructive character from “What’s A Girl To Do?” twenty-two years later as she’s putting on a confident front while she’s being eaten alive by her anxiety and narcissism. (Click here to buy the new song from Ursula 1000 and here to buy Sleep It Off from Ze Records.)

Elsewhere: NPR’s All Songs Considered has Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographer’s entire sets from their show in Washington, DC available for download right here. The New Pornographers set is a bit of an anomaly in that Kathryn Calder was too ill to sing on that night, forcing them to play an entire setlist of songs that did not feature lead female vocals.

Deep Down You Know I Wasn’t Fucking Around

Knife Skills “Our Summer of Teenage Lust” – Well, these people apparently had a much more exciting life as teenagers than I ever did. But somehow, it still rings very true to me, if just for details like “I skipped school just to ride in your car, listening to radio” are exactly the kind of mundane, potentially boring low-stakes rebellion that seems really exciting at that age if just because it breaks the routine of school. (Click here for Knife Skills’ official site.)

Mr. Lif “Long Distance” – It’s a sex rhyme, and a good one, but after all these years, it’s hard for a song like this to be particularly surprising. (Well, without being about male homosexuality, of course. A rap Brokeback would obviously be a big deal.) The sex rhyme is a classic hip hop archetype, and we can look at Mr. Lif’s lyrics and rate them against a wide range of similar songs by other rappers and go “well, it’s not as lewd as ____, or as misogynistic as _____, but the graphic descriptions of the sex acts are more creative than ______.” But can you even imagine the stars of other genres (especially white artists) doing something like this? I mean, songs that express sexuality are a dime a dozen, but can you imagine Paul McCartney or Thom Yorke singing unironically about exactly how they want to fuck you? It would be sort of mindblowing. Since Beck’s flirtations with the subgenre are PG-13 at best, and definitely laced with industrial-grade irony, the only high profile exceptions I can think of are “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails and “Flower” by Liz Phair, but it’s still not quite the same thing. (Click here for Mr. Lif’s official site.)

Sooooooooooooooooo. We’re going to have a little contest! I want you to come up with graphically sexual lyrics in the style of the indie/alternative icon of your choosing. Stephen Malkmus, Bono, Bob Pollard, Cat Power, Bjork, Billy Corgan, Sufjan Stevens, Eddie Vedder, Stuart Murdoch, Dan Bejar, Ian MacKaye – whoever you want. Just bring the raunch the way you think they would write it, and put it in the comments box for this post. (You should mention whose style you are aping along with the lyrics in the box – don’t make me guess.) A week from now, I’ll pick the one I like the most, and I’ll send an email to that person with a long list of promo cds, and they can pick five or six records from the list, and that’ll be the grand prize. Also, you can feel free to enter this contest more than once.

Update: Here’s the list of records up for grabs. I may add some more to this list later on.

It’s Not The Us And Them Or The You And Me

Irving “Jen, Nothing Matters To Me” – I have no idea how cynical the members of Irving may be, but if they wrote this song as a way to attract groupies, then they might be in for a very fun tour. The music evokes the sweetest, sunniest, poppiest swoon-alongs of The Cure, The Smiths, New Order and Pavement (well, “Gold Soundz,” anyway) while the lyrics are about being a “selfish boy” who is “emotionally unavailable” and unwilling to commit to anything. This is indie girl bait all the way. We’ve all met the guy in this song, and we know the kind of girls that he pulls. He’s aloof, apathetic, mildy self-loathing and painfully self-absorbed, but he knows it, and he’s warning this girl: “Please, no, don’t love me, go love someone who will treat you well!” But it’s reverse psychology! And she’s a goner, because it’s triggering the “oh, but I can fix him!” impulse, and she’s DOOMED DOOMED DOOMED. This song is a trap! (Click here to pre-order it from Eenie Meenie.)

DAT Politics “Turn My Brain Off” – It’s sort of hard to imagine that normal humans made this music, and not cartoon characters from some crazy postmodern kid’s show. But then, I haven’t seen any photos of this band, and the singers could very well be animated punk rock ducks. If not, they should look into it. It totally worked for Damon Albarn, after all. (Click here for the DAT Politics website.)

Also: Yo La Tengo’s annual covers-for-pledges marathon show will be on WFMU tonight from 8 – 11 PM EST. I will be one of the people answering the phones, so please do call in and request a song. I’m fairly certain that the minimum pledge for a song request is $70, which will also get you a WFMU t-shirt and several other goodies. If you want to get your request played by the band on the air, I strongly recommend getting your call in before the end of the first hour. Also, I would love it if one of you could get them to play “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp.”