Archive for October, 2003

I See Murals In Your Radio Static

I seem to be having some technical difficulties with the mp3s today… if you can’t download the songs right now, just check back later on.

Thanks to Gabriella, I now have two cd-rs jam-packed full of rare and out-of-print Squeeze material. I’ve been slowly going through it all, and I swear, I’m tempted to make this a special all-Squeeze week here on the blog, but I realize that most of you probably wouldn’t like that, so I’ll restrain myself. Today, however, we’re getting two sweet Squeeze rarities which are perfect for converting the lot of you Squeeze non-believers.

Squeeze “Squabs On The Forty Fab” – This medley of eight Squeeze singles (with two quick instrumental nods to a couple of album tracks) was the b-side of the 12″ single for “Labelled With Love.” It’s remarkable how well all of their classic early singles dovetail into one another, it sounds like it could just as well be one amazing super-song. The sequence of the medley goes like this: “Take Me, I’m Yours,” “Cool For Cats,” “Up The Junction,” “Is That Love?,” “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell),” “Separate Beds” (instrumental break), “Another Nail For My Heart,” “Slap & Tickle,” “Goodbye Girl,” and “Someone Else’s Heart” (instrumental break).

Squeeze “Vanity Fair” (Piano Version) – The East Side Story version of this Difford & Tilbrook classic is very nice, but it pales in comparison to this simpler, less schmaltzy solo piano arrangement which appeared on the b-side of the “If It’s Love” single.

And just for Gabriella, here’s Stephen Malkmus’s lost classic “Blue Arrangements”, which is taken from the otherwise dire Silver Jews album American Water. It’s really a shame that this song, which is among the finest songs Malkmus ever penned, had to end up on a Silver Jews record. At least he’s not with them anymore, and I’ll never have to buy another lousy record of lame David Berman songs to get a couple Malkmus gems.

Burn Bright Through The Night

R.E.M. @ Madison Square Garden, October 4th 2003

Finest Worksong / What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? / Driver 8 / Drive / Animal / Fall On Me / Daysleeper / Bad Day / The One I Love / World Leader Pretend / (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville [Mike Mills lead vocal] / The Great Beyond / Country Feedback / Losing My Religion / Find The River / She Just Wants To Be / Walk Unafraid / Man On The Moon // Life And How To Live It / NYC [Stipe solo on guitar, cover of the Interpol song] / Nightswimming / Final Straw / Imitation Of Life / Gardening At Night / It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Wow!

I definitely got my money’s worth last night. R.E.M. were really on, especially Michael Stipe, who had a very strong night on vocals. I say this mostly because if you’ve heard enough R.E.M. live shows, there are definitely a lot of shows where he struggles a bit. I didn’t get all of my requests, but I was extremely happy with what was played, and I enjoyed getting a lot of songs I wasn’t quite expecting, like “Driver 8,” “World Leader Pretend,” and “Gardening At Night.” “Drive” came off much better live in its Automatic For The People arrangement than I would have imagined, and though it’s never been particularly high on my list of favorites, I had a lot of fun with “Fall On Me.” “Animal” was a real revelation live – I’d heard some live versions of this one, but last night was the first time it really clicked with me.

“Country Feedback” was a very special surprise for me – I knew that it was frequently played on this tour, but I never really thought I’d get to see it, nor did I really think much about it in terms of songs that I wanted to see. It just hit me all at once when it came on that this was exactly the most perfect R.E.M. for me to hear this week. For most of this past week, its lyrics were my life.

Now, the big highlight of this show for me was “Life And How To Live It.” Oh my fucking God! It was just… perfect. I didn’t think I’d ever get to see this one, and it was better than I could have imagined. It was just a million times better than the album version; twice as fast and just amazingly, beautifully JOYCORE. I swear to God, it must have been four of the most joyful minutes I’ve ever experienced at a concert. The only thing in recent memory that comes close was seeing the New Pornographers perform “The Laws Have Changed” at the Bowery Ballroom. It was as though the song was mainlining government-grade Joycore while everyone on stage had just downed a half a bottle of Stoli Donut each, and the band were performing it on a stage in the Cotton Candy & Trampolines car of the Joycore Express, next stop ecstacy! It was just perfect. I’d do anything to get a recording of this. Please. Someone out there, help me!

Other notes: “Drive” was dedicated to Al Franken, who requested it (though they play it every night), presumably because of the “Bush whacked” lyric. Michael’s solo rendition of Interpol’s “NYC” was really quite beautiful. He sang it very well, but only performed the “New York cares” and “turn on the bright lights…” parts of the song. Remember, Michael can barely play the guitar, so it was great to just get as much of the song as we could get before he gave up. Michael clearly loves New York City, and said so over and over, and related a few anecdotes about New York for the crowd. “Rockville” was dedicated to June Carter Cash. According to Michael, “World Leader Pretend” was the most requested song of the night, followed by “Find The River.” “Gardening At Night” was a request of Sparklehorse, who opened up the show. Michael sang a little bit of a Patti Smith song just before “World Leader Pretend,” but I’m not sure which one. For what it’s worth, this was the only show from this year to not include “Everybody Hurts.”

Dear R.E.M.,

When I see you play tomorrow night, would you mind playing the song “Feeling Gravity’s Pull”? I requested it on your website a few times, if that means anything to you. It’d also be cool if you guys did “Get Up.” And “Exhuming McCarthy.” And “So. Central Rain.” And “I Believe.” And “Life And How To Live It.” And “Pilgrimage.” And “Binky The Doormat” – oh forget it, I know that’s definitely not going to happen. I did figure out that since you rotate “Finest Worksong” and “Begin The Begin” every other show, I’m in for a “Finest Worksong” night, which is fantastic. Thanks.

Your fan,

Matthew

PS: It was really cool that you did “Get Up” on the Today Show just now. I was convinced that you’d do “Man On The Moon” for the umpteenth time.

Hammers For The Happy Couple

Kylie Minogue “Slow” – Kylie is back! Return Of The Queen! This is right up there with the best Kylie material, and it is a logical progression from the Fischerspooner remix of “Come Into My World.” It’s less ecstatic than most of the Fever songs, but not too far off from the moody intensity of “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.” Top notch electropop.

McLusky “Undress For Success” – Let me tell you, I love their song “Whiteliberalonwhiteliberalaction,” but most everything from their two albums hasn’t done much for me. This new single is much more like what I loved about that song, while moving the band foward in an appealing way. Superficially, it’s Guy Picciotto-like vocals mixed with circular, riffy Fall-esque guitars. Big Sunny D is probably otm for noting that it’s a bit like mid-90s Blur and Elastica too. Mmmm. Maybe it’s more like ’97 Blur-era Blur, though – this is more like “Chinese Bombs” or “M.O.R.” than anything on Parklife or The Great Escape.

When Swiveling That Hip Doesn’t Do The Trick

Thanks to Chris’s post about Tori Amos’s new best-of/compilation over on Do You Feel Loved?, I’ve been going back through my old Tori Amos records, basically checking to see how they hold up after I haven’t listened to them for at least a year and a half.

Tori Amos “In The Springtime Of His Voodoo” – This is my favorite track off of Boys For Pele, which I think is by far her finest record. It’s Amos at her weirdest, and at the peak of her powers as a songwriter. The songs from the first two albums may mean more to the type of fans who do so much to make Tori Amos something most sane people would like to keep a distance from, but Pele is where the real creativity and craft are let loose full force. If we’re comparing her to other piano-playing pop stars, I’d say it’s her Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It’s this defining burst of creativity that is experimental in style and masterful in substance, and slightly overwhelming too because there’s just so much of it. The unfortunate thing is while Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is widely regarded as Elton’s masterpiece, Boys For Pele is usually just cast off as being Tori’s “weird” long album.

“In The Springtime Of His Voodoo,” like a lot of the best songs from the album, sounds as though she is channeling Led Zeppelin. She nails the lusty vocals, the clever song structures, the heavy blues and folk influences. If you transpose the piano lines from “…Voodoo,” “Professional Widow,” “Little Amsterdam,” and “Blood Roses” to heavy metal guitar, you’ll find that you get something nearly as great as anything off of Houses Of The Holy or Physical Graffiti. Though I could do without the smugness of the “honey, we’re recovering Christians” line, I’ll adore that opening bit where she sets the scene before realizing that “I’m quite sure I’m in the wrong song…” forever.

Tori Amos “She’s Your Cocaine” – If we’re judging Amos’s career as it stands right now, it would seem that From The Choir Girl Hotel is the end of her run of great records. (I’m not such a big fan of her first two records, Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink, but I’ll definitely concede their status as classics.) It’s something of a logical conclusion following Boys For Pele, since it continues with her experimentation with arrangement and writing songs on something other than a piano. Too much of the album already sounds a little dated to me – the treatments on the guitars and drums in particular scream “late 90s alt-rock/trip hop,” and I can’t help but wonder how this will sound much later on when it may seem more quaint and old-fashioned rather than five-minutes-ago. It’s not that bad, it could be a lot worse, but whenever I hear post-Pele Amos, I’m almost always fixated on the production and engineering since most of her last three records are somewhat lacking in solid tunes and sound very same-y to me.

“She’s Your Cocaine” is the Tori Amos version of a stomping glam number, right down to the lyrics about gender-bending. This sort of thing is usually rote and tedious when other folks try it, but since Tori is basically bat-shit insane, most obvious influences get filtered through her mind and end up coming out sounding sort of strange and reconfigured (see: above paragraph referring to Led Zeppelin), which is exactly what I think a good artist should do with their influences. As with “…Voodoo,” there’s one great amusing lyric in this one – “I”m writing good checks / you sign “Prince Of Darkness” / try “Squire Of Dimness” / please don’t help me with this!”