Archive for September, 2002

How Often Do You See A Hundred-Foot Tall Robot Having A Crisis Of Confidence?

Haus has written the most interesting thing I’ve ever read on the topic of the Transformers. This was originally part of his “Barbe-interview” thread on Barbelith. This is the closest I’ve come to having even the slightest bit of interest in this topic since I was about nine years old.

Also:

Has Jody Beth Rosen cracked the Mixerman code? It seems that way to me.

I’m Turning Into The Frank Quitely of Blogging…

…and so I’m going to challenge myself to post something five consecutive days this week. Starting tomorrow. I’m at a loss right now.

I’ll Try The Things You’ll Never Try

Thank you to Todd for pointing me in the direction of Nickel Creek’s version of Pavement’s “Spit On A Stranger”. It’s a super-glossy pop-bluegrass hybrid, and I like it a lot. I think the squeeky-clean sound really suits the song, I like how they’ve made it so cutesy and square. The harmonies sound lovely, and I like the strangely inhibited distortion towards the end, and how the lead singer really goes for those high notes where SM would just deliberately flatten them out. This is probably my favorite Pavement cover (and I’ve heard a lot of them), because it is the first one I’ve heard that really seems like a tribute to Stephen Malkmus’ incredible gift for pop songcraft and adds something to the song that wasn’t already there. I hope this becomes a hit for Nickel Creek, because this song really deserves to be a hit, and because Malkmus deserves those fat royalty checks.

Happy Birthday, Russ

Exactly what it says above: Happy birthday, Russ.

How I Learned To Like “Mr. Mob Boss”

Last night, I could barely contain my malicious glee when I saw that with the exception of a few technical awards, Six Feet Under had been shut out of every major award at the Emmy’s. I utterly loathe Six Feet Under, and it felt like some kind of righteous victory for me to see them lose, as silly as that sounds.

It’s not just Six Feet Under, really. I’ve got a problem with HBO. I think it’s mostly an irrational thing, it mostly has to do with the fact that I can’t shake off my impression that HBO’s original programming is essentially custom tailored television for yuppies and marketed entirely on snob appeal. I resent that so many people just go along with HBO’s ad copy, that what they are doing is Quality Television, so unlike the offerings of network and basic cable television. They market television shows to those effete people who are embarassed to admit that they own a tv set, and a little over a decade ago would be asserting in conversation that they only watch PBS.

When it comes to HBO’s line up, I’m amazed that the channel can sell itself so well on the platform of Quality Television when virtually everything it airs besides sporting events and the odd original movie is either totally irredeemable crap (Arliss, The Mind of the Married Man, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under), snobbed-up versions of the same old stuff you’d see on the networks (The Wire, Sex And The City), or exploitative sleaze (Taxi Cab Confessions, G-String Divas, Real Sex). What HBO has going for it, the way I see it, is Oz and The Sopranos. Both of these are shows that I’ve seen here and there and appreciated, but could not get into at all. This is in no small part due to the fact that I’ve never been the type to really enjoy prison movies or the gangster genre in general. I have nothing bad to say about either program, besides the way HBO markets them – something that can hardly be pinned on the makers of those programs, obviously.

I’ve seen more episodes of the Sopranos than Oz – from what I’ve seen, I certainly enjoy it more. Even when I was just watching it because it was late at night and nothing else was on, and couldn’t quite follow the storyline, I could not help but like the way the show is presented. There’s a very strong (but not overpowering) sense of aesthetic to the program, there’s no question that even in watching a quick scene without any famous actors in it, you are watching the Sopranos. I appreciate that. More than that, the man who plays Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini, is an unimpeachably great actor with a powerful charisma. I can’t imagine that this show would be nearly as successful without him.

Last night was the big turning point for me – I watched the brand new episode of the Sopranos, and for the first time, I cared. Finally, after just occasionally catching a bit here or there and nodding with vague approval, they sucked me in. I’m not sure what it was about the episode that did it for me, but I know that the subplot with the FBI undercover agent who has managed to infiltrate Tony’s Family, and the deep feelings of confusion and betrayal of the woman she used to sneak her way in was probably the clincher. The storyline with Tony’s troubled daughter trying to convince her parents to let her go away to Europe, her awful confrontation with Tony, and his subsequent complicated and nuanced reaction to her cursing him out as “Mr. Mob Boss” went a long way in convincing me too. Now I’ve got to know what will happen next. Now I’ve got to catch up on the earlier seasons. I’m a convert. Simple as that.

I’m Not Sure Who’s Fooling Who Here As I’m Watching Your Decay

The good news: the six new Tori Amos songs that have been leaked prior to the release of Scarlet’s Walk in late October are a very pleasant surprise. They are all solid songs, and quite a lot better than her past few albums, with the exception of “The Glory Of The 80s” and “Suede” from the otherwise dire To Venus And Back. The best of these six songs, “Amber Waves” and “Pancake”, are pretty damn wonderful, as good as her best material. The songs are organic, but she doesn’t compromise her flirtations with electronic keyboards on the past two albums to return to the straight piano formula that suited her much better on her first three albums, which is admirable. There’s a nice balance of old Tori and new Tori, which makes up for the painful awkwardness of Strange Little Girls and To Venus And Back. She sounds confident, selfassured.

The bad news: even the best songs are kind of bland. It’s not hard to imagine bits of these songs, particularly “Taxi Ride”, in a WB promo. There’s a slick, sanitary, safe sound on these songs that lack the quirks, bile, wit, and overall personality of her pre-Choirgirl Hotel albums. The musical difference between Amos’ recent work and her mainstream pop impersonators, most notably Vanessa Carlton, is becoming harder to notice. That’s not entirely fair to Tori – Carlton is so calculated, banal, and hamfisted that I realize that it is more than a little insulting for me to compare Amos’ obviously mature craft to Carlton’s recent schlock-pop hits. Still, I do think to the layperson, the most notable difference between the two is 2002 model Tori’s refusal to go for the bombastic big money choruses that Carlton embraces. Though I think that Amos’ tasteful restraint is greatly preferable, it’s just a bit too much on these songs. I know that this is a woman who has a lot better to offer the world than just pleasant, inoffensive, vaguely cool adult-contemporary background music for vegetarian cafes.

More good news: one of my favorite Barbelith posters, Moriarty, has decided to write a weekly blog about comics and animation called Flat Earth. He’s already got a few entries up, and it’s looking pretty good so far. Check him out.

I’ll Tell You What The 80’s Like

It’s sort of frustrating right now for me, because I’ve stumbled upon a lot of songs this week that I like a lot, but I really have nothing to say about them other than “they’re really good and they make me happy”. “Young Boy” by Clipse (w/ The Neptunes) is full of joy and swagger. It’s sort of self-explanatory. “I Can’t Wait” by Jaguar Wright and Bilal is one of the more creative and inspired Prince impressions that I’ve heard in a long while. I said a few weeks back that I was surprised that so few people imitate Prince songs like “Forever In My Life” and “The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker”, and this song successfully pulls that off. “Good Times” by Styles is a lot like the best bits of Jay-Z’s The Blueprint album musically, even though the MCs on the track aren’t nearly as talented as Jay Hov.

Still, “Hey Ma” by Cam’ron is the song that is making me the most happy this week. I wish I had more to say about it, something clever, something more convincing than “it makes me happy”. But that’s the truth. Everytime I hear it, I smile.

I Think I’ve Done A Lot For Civil Rights

There’s an interesting and revealing feature about Conan O’Brien in today’s New York Observer. I think it is the first time I’ve ever read anything that gives me a sense of what Conan is like outside of his career. I find myself relating to him a lot. There’s a few good laughs in there, especially the bit about Lyndon Johnson towards the beginning.

Ollie’s Majoring In Neo-Fascism At Columbia

I strongly recommend the film Igby Goes Down . I wish I had something more interesting to say about it right now other than that I really liked it a lot, it’s very witty, and it can’t come out on DVD soon enough so that I can go back and enjoy all of its clever one-liners again. It’s a fine dark comedy, and probably the best new film I’ve seen since The Royal Tenenbaums came out last year. It shares a lot of that film’s Sallinger-derived aesthetic, but unlike The Royal Tenenbaums, its characters are entirely unsympathetic bastards through and through, and this film’s NYC is very contemporary as opposed to the romantic storybook New York of the Tenenbaums. The cast is excellent, especially Kieran Culkin as the title character, Ryan Phillipe as his drole older brother Oliver, and Jeff Goldblum as Igby’s godfather D.H. I’m looking foward to seeing this film again.

I’m Tired And Distracted

There are a lot of things that I’d like to mention on this blog, but thanks to a pretty bad case of blogger’s block, I really can’t think of any good way to write about them. Trust me, Igby Goes Down deserves a far better write up than the one I gave it. I tried. I’m not feeling well. Anyway, here’s some things I’d want to talk about, and hopefully will elaborate on later in the week:

I very much enjoyed reading The Bush Dyslexicon by Mark Crispin Miller. I recommend it for anyone with a strong interest in the Bush administration, spin, propaganda, and in sussing out just who George W. Bush really is.

Scarface’s The Fix, Shakedown’s “At Night”, GusGus’s “Unnecessary”, Slum Village’s “Tainted” and especially Cam’Ron’s “Hey Ma” are all albums/songs which have been making me very happy the past few days.

Grant Morrison’s New X-Men #132 was a let down, but #131 was definitely one of the best issues so far. The Frank Quitely-drawn cover to December’s #135 has brought me a lot of child-like joy. It’s probably the single best cover I’ve ever seen on an X-comic, and it has a wonderful Abbey Road quality to it, in that it seems to invite speculation about what’s happening between the characters and what every little gesture and detail might mean. In design terms, it’s great. In terms of draftsmanship, it’s tight. In giving fans something to talk about before the issue hits the stands, it is ahead of its time in embracing the current message board-speculation-on-early-solitations status quo. I’m very excited about this issue, and the four subsequent issues – five straight months of Morrison/Quitely. It’s going to be sweet.

I haven’t enjoyed Morrison’s The Filth nearly as much, but I continue to read it mostly out of a combination of loyalty and curiosity. It’s such a stark contrast with NXM – the characters in the Filth are so dull, drab, lifeless whereas he’s done a wonderful job of making his NXM characters vibrant and complex. The Filth is just so lacking in charisma – four issues in, it still has yet to capture my interest, even with a foul-mouthed Communist commando chimp. I’m hoping there might be a payoff later on, since it is still early on in a 13 issue series.

I recommend reading Russell’s Flaming Lips interview, and the ongoing studio diary of Mixerman, who is an audio engineer working on recording the debut album of an anonymous band with an unnamed major producer. Jody, who introduced me to the Mixerman saga, thinks that it’s probably Rick Rubin, and I’m inclined to agree with her.

I found this to be rather amusing. I found it thanks to The Minor Fall, The Major Lift, which I think is one of the best blogs currently going these days. I’m with the Minor Fall guy, the Guardian article about Morrissey with the baffling assertion that there were “beef-fed cowboys” at a Colorado Morrissey concert ready to storm the stage while he sang “Meat Is Murder” is just ridiculous. It’s also pretty typical of Brit pop journalism, which isn’t to say US journalists are any great shakes either.

“Paid My Dues”? To The Mickey Mouse Club?

Thanks to Luke, for fowarding this explanation, straight from Nelly himself about the double r thing, which found from the Popbitch newsletter:

>> The double rr explanation <<

It is verry simple

Christina Aguilera on the other hand is from

Staten Island, New York. The reason her new

single is called Dirrty is because she’s a

bandwagon-jumping little ex-Mouseketeer wannabe.

I finally got to hear the song – it sounds like Dangerous-era Michael Jackson, which is pretty good, but not particularly amazing. A lot of people are saying that Usher and Justin Timberlake are trying to sound like Michael Jackson, but I think they are just tapping into his spirit, whereas this actually sounds like something he’d actually record. She sings that she’s “sweating til (her) clothes come off”, which is another nod to Nelly’s “Hot In Herre”, but also suggests that she must sweat ALL. THE. TIME. It must have been realllllllly hot at the MTV awards…

Get Your Hair Did

A note to my ILM-posting, indie-loathing, Missy-worshipping readers: I’ve come to like “Work It” more since last week. It doesn’t seem quite so shambling anymore, and it’s got a few pretty funny lyrics in there, too. I can’t really imagine people dancing to this with any kind of grace, it seems more like headphone music to my ears. Not really a problem at all, though.

Plug:

Cameron Stewart, a person I’m very proud to call a friendly acquaintance of mine, has a lovely new website, with lots of nice drawings to see. Go look at it, and make sure you check out the Royal Tenenbaums drawing in the sketchbook section.

A Note To Paul Cox:

I imagine that between 1975 and 1990, there were thousands upon thousands of songs from around the world recorded for 7″ records and self-released cassettes that deserve to be heard by larger audiences for the first time. The real obstacle is the actual collecting of the material. How thrilling it would be to undertake such a task; combing the singles racks of small record stores all around the world hoping to find those special, unheard releases.

Paul, you don’t need to. You should check out Hyped2Death’s compilation series covering obscure DIY from the late 70s-80s. This guy is way ahead of you. I’ve found quite a few great songs from buying a bunch of those Homework compilations, in particular.

Shooby Lives!

This is fantastic – I just read that Shooby Taylor has been found and was recently interviewed by Irwin Chusid and Ken Freedman on WFMU. They broadcasted some of Shooby’s home recordings too, which is pretty neat.

RR

I have no idea why Nelly put the extra “r” in the title “Hot In Herre”, but I’m fairly sure it’s not a bit of slang that had existed before Nelly released that single. I’m on shaky ground, definitely – if someone wants to educate me about this, by all means, email me. Nevertheless, I’m very confident that Christina Aguilera’s new single “Dirrty” is just cashing in on Nelly’s liberal use of the letter, a way of forcing a connection to a great summer hit. It’s not the only recent hit it’s borrowing from, either. Here’s an excerpt from an article about Aguilera in yesterday’s New York Times:

…”Dirrty”, the collaboration with Redman…If It sounds a bit like the recent Redman hit “Let’s Get Dirty (I Can’t Get In Da Club)”, that’s no coincidence. Ms. Aguilera says she called Rockwilder, who produced “Let’s Get Dirty”, and told him how much she liked the beat. “He made me a track that was very similar,” she said. “I almost thought it was too similar.” Then she decided to play up the similarity: she brought in Redman, who delivered a rap that made reference to “Let’s Get Dirty” — he even recreated the ape sounds he had made on the original track.

Sounds very promising, I think – kinda Boom Selection, a litte bit “appropriationist pop”/”plagiarhythm”. The article also solicits Aguilera’s opinion about Freelance Hellraiser’s “Stroke Of Genius”, and she gives the answer that I was hoping that she would give: “I really, really loved it. I thought it was dope. That should’ve been how I came out with it in the first place.”

I’ve been thinking about this a bit more, spurred on by Martin’s comments, particularly “…the grace period a single can go through before its remade just got a whole lot shorter.” I think Martin is on to the real truth of the matter, though I don’t share his feeling that bootlegs/bastard pop/whatever you want to call it is a ‘fading novelty’. Really, if anything, that the turnover rate in which one song can be appropriated and made into another has accelerated and has been embraced by the mainstream record industry suggests that while the underground phase may be ending, the overground pop cultural phase is only beginning.

It’s interesting, and I have no idea what’s going to happen. None of this will be very clear for a long time, anyway. If the crassness of the pop idol machine and the corporate record industry somehow allows some very progressive ideas about artistic appropriation and genre mutation to thrive, I’m okay with that so long as it results in something worthwhile. I’m optimistic.

Flip It And Reverse It

“MISSY ELLIOT’S “WORK IT” IS THE BEST SONG OF 2002″ – Um, no. Not at all. But it is pretty interesting and eccentric, and significantly better than her other recent singles. I can enjoy this song without having it mixed with Happy Mondays or George Michael, which is a nice change of pace on the Missy front for me. As an MC, she still strikes me as a one-trick pony, she really could be doing this rhyme over any of her beats and no one would really notice. Perhaps I’m just not meant to enjoy Missy and Timbaland…it’s so rare that they do something I genuinely enjoy rather than just respect. I think I’m still kind of bitter that the best Missy song I’ve ever heard that isn’t a bootleg mix, “Old Skool Joint”, was never released as a single, when it really, really should have been.

Haven’t been posting much – a bit busy. I’ve spent a lot of music-listening time lately revisiting R.E.M. and Grant Lee Buffalo, trying to will autumn weather into existence by listening to music I associate with that season obsessively.

Someone I went to school with is in the newest season of MTV’s The Real World. I didn’t know this girl very well, but I’m still interested in seeing how the person I knew from class relates to the person who’s going to be edited up and put on tv.

Do Me A Favor And Vote For “Hot Rock”

Sleater-Kinney are taking requests on their website for their upcoming fall tour. Go and vote, especially if you want to get them to put songs from The Hot Rock back in their set after having those songs be mostly absent from their live show over the past few years. Apparently, the band doesn’t think the fans like those songs as much as, say, the seven or eight songs they always play from Dig Me Out. Prove them wrong, okay?

When I Go Forwards You Go Backwards And Somewhere We Will Meet.

Don’t get me wrong, I quite like the song, but it’s pretty much impossible for me to hear Queens Of The Stoneage’s “No One Knows” without expecting them to launch into the chorus of Radiohead’s “Electioneering”. The new album is far better than I would ever have expected – I’m very much in debt to all of the folks on Barbelith who have been giving Songs For The Deaf glowing recommendations. I could really do without all of those fake radio transmissions, though…