Archive for November, 2003

Getting To Know My Target Demo You

I'm not going to post anything new for another few days, til maybe Monday or Tuesday. Sorry.

In the meantime, out of curiosity, of all of the songs/mp3s that I've been posting over the past month or so, which ones have you enjoyed the most? What surprised you? What have you disliked?

Oh, What Can I Do?

The Aislers Set "Emotional Levy" - First off, thank you to my friend Jane who sent me a really ace cd of indie pop which I received in the mail yesterday. This song is taken from that disc, and is part of the reason why I haven't listened to most of the other songs more than once so far. I keep playing this beautiful song over and over again, and I love it more every time. I've never heard an Aislers Set song which I didn't like previous to hearing this tune, but now - this is love.

I'm not quite sure what it is about this song, but it makes me really wish that it was snowing right now.

Goat's Head In The Deli Case

I've decided to just post the alternate studio versions of the Fiery Furnaces songs that I mentioned yesterday. Why not, right?

The Fiery Furnaces "Tropical Iceland" (acoustic version)

The Fiery Furnaces "Bright Blue Tie" aka "Sweden" (piano version)

It's interesting how these songs have opposite differences from their album arrangements. This version of "Tropical Iceland" is nothing more than guitar and vocal without the layers of keyboards, sound effects, and light percussion of the finished version, whereas this version of "Bright Blue Tie" is lush and piano-driven while the album version is spare and acoustic.

In other news, the Barbelith Underground is being reopened to new members for a limited time starting today. I encourage anyone reading this blog who is not already a member to sign up. Barbelith can be a really amazing place full of very interesting, intelligent, and creative people, and discussion covers a wide range of topics including critical theory, politics/activism, art, music, pop, comics, film, science, collaborative projects, and um, goofing around. Due to some problems with trolling, we've been forced to close things off for a while until we figure out a way to deal with one person in particular who is apparently hell-bent on wrecking things for everyone else, but it's time for us to get some new blood, and we'd love to have you.

Sometimes The Signs From Heaven Are Vague

The Fiery Furnaces @ Mercury Lounge, 11/22/2003

Up In The North/ Crystal Clear/ I'm Gonna Run/ Tropical Iceland/ Bow Wow/ I Broke My Mind/ Spaniolated -> Single Again/ We Got Back The Plague -> Straight Street/ South Is Only A Home/ Don't Dance Her Down/ Chris Michaels / Leaky Tunnel / Blueberry Boat -> Asthma Attack/ I Lost My Dog/ Waiting To Know You

(Note: The new/unreleased songs in the set are listed here exactly as they appear on the setlist that I took from the stage after the show was over. The majority of the titles on the setlist were abbreviated, so it is unlikely that these are the proper titles.)

Wow. I really can't emphasize enough how different The Fiery Furnaces are live than on their album. The songs are still there, and their aesthetic is more or less entirely intact, but the arrangements of nearly every song is either subtly or drastically different from what you hear on the record. For example, "Tropical Iceland" was played as a keyboard-heavy upbeat pop song instead of a mellow art-folk number, and "Bow Wow" was played with a totally different (and far more harsh) keyboard sound. "We Got Back The Plague" was based more around the keyboard than the guitar, and Matt sang the verses, leaving Eleanor to sing the choruses. All of the songs were played much faster, especially "I'm Gonna Run," which was played nearly triple the speed of the album recording.

I enjoyed hearing the songs differently, and I appreciate that they treat their songs as living, changeable things. I've seen way too many artists who treat their studio arrangements with too much reverence and that can lead to rather dull and rote live performances. (I'm thinking specifically about Radiohead right now, who are certainly a great band to see live, but with few exceptions do everything they can to reproduce their album arrangements.) Playing the songs differently live also makes me think that they are more thoughtful and considered about how they make their albums, and that the consistency of quality and feeling on their album is no fluke. Everything about Gallowsbird's Bark seems much more deliberate now, and I like that.

I wouldn't say that the live versions were better than the album versions, though they were all quite good in their alternate arrangements. I'd love to get some live recordings of their shows so that I could get to know the songs this way, because when I was watching them last night, I couldn't stop thinking about the differences between the arrangements, particularly when they were so drastic that the music behind the vocal melodies were almost entirely different, as in "Leaky Tunnel" or "Asthma Attack." Almost all of the songs lost some of their subtlety and charm in their looser, more rocking live arrangements. I wish that they would slow down and take their time, if just a little bit. I can appreciate that they up the energy for their live performance - that makes perfect sense - but in the case of "I'm Gonna Run," it seemed like they were just a bit too frantic and shambolic for their own good.

The three opening acts were entertaining, which was a nice surprise for me. Franz Ferdinand were my least favorite of the bands on the bill, but they weren't bad, just very repetitive. They seemed to exist as if to dare music writers to use the word "angular" to describe them. But that's what they sound like! They sound like every English post-punk band which has ever been described as angular. Angles, angles, everywhere. The singer even had angular features!

Gary Dream & Gene Sincere were a cute novelty band who played twee, melodic pop songs about girls. Their schtick was that they announced that they had recently come out of the closet when they got out on stage, and that they were stuck with all of these yearning songs about girls and were going to play them anyway, even if they lacked conviction in the lyrics entirely. They made funny deadpan remarks in this vein throughout their set. I liked them.

I Love Lucy were very fun and endearing. They are unsigned band from Glasgow who played fun pop-punk songs which sounded like equal parts Elastica and Life Without Buildings. I'm hoping that they get to put out a record soon, because they sounded very promising.

(Oh, yeah...as far as I know, that song "Lost Dog" has not been officially released. I found that studio recording on soulseek, and I have no idea where it comes from. I found some alternate versions of "Bright Blue Tie" and "Tropical Iceland" too, and I may post them sometime in the near future. The version of "Tropical Iceland" isn't anything like the live version, by the way. It's a simple voice-and-acoustic guitar version, which may be a demo or from a radio session. If you know anything about these leaked songs (or have more of them) please let me know.)

I Had Opinions That Didn't Matter

The White Stripes "The Hardest Button To Button" (Live in Boston, 2003)

The White Stripes @ Roseland Ballroom, NYC 11/20/2003

The Hardest Button To Button/ Hotel Yorba/ Let's Shake Hands/ Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground/ I Think I Smell A Rat/ I Want To Be The Boy/ Death Letter/ Seven Nation Army/ In The Cold Cold Night/ I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman/ Why Can't You Be Nicer To Me?/ Look Me Over Closely/ We're Going To Be Friends/ (song my friend and I did not recognize, very rocking)/ Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine/ (song we didn't know with Jack telling a story over Meg's drumming, no guitar)/ Wasting My Time/ The Same Boy You've Always Known/ Ball And Biscuit // Black Math/ Fell In Love With A Girl (new version, played in a style similar to that of the album version of "Dead Leaves...")/ I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself/ Boll Weevil

(Note: In addition to the two songs which I didn't recognize, there is a possibility I may be forgetting a song or two somewhere in there. I'm pretty sure that's all of it. It is in the proper order, though.)

I don't have much to say about the White Stripes set - they were great, basically. They bring the rock. They played most everything that I wanted to hear with the notable exception of "Apple Blossom." I was more impressed with Meg's voice on "In The Cold Cold Night" last night than her performance on the album. Meg was pretty good on the drums, too. She gets such a bad rap, but she's at least as good a drummer as half the bands I see. She gets the job done, and she has a wonderful chemistry with Jack. I think there's a lot of sexism involved in how a lot of people judge her drumming. I was talking to some dude while I was waiting outside before the show, and he was just ripping on her left and right. She's not Neil Peart, but c'mon. Give her some credit. Jack has the hot riffs, but let's face it, he's kind of a messy player too. They suit each other very well.

Whirlwind Heat were just pathetic and tedious. They beat the same song/gimmick/fuzz bass tone into the ground for a half hour, getting worse and more obnoxious as the show went on. Well, they did break things up by pulling out the old GVSB double-bass thing, but that didn't make things any better. They did their little rock star moves, but there was nothing going on. I'm just sick to death of all of these shaggy haired twig men who think that just because they can jump around and pose, they are rock stars. This is total bullshit. All good rock stars exist on their own terms, and create their own unique persona. They impose themselves on the rock star paradigm rather than submitting to it. Just copping other people's moves and embracing an image/cliche that people (and especially style magazine photographers/writers/editors) expect is entirely lacking in imagination and power. It's just dress-up and make believe. It's not exactly a shock that this band seems to have something to do with the ultimate in brainless, tasteless, shallow lifestyle photography, Terry Richardson. They were introduced as Richardson's favorite band, all of them wore t-shirts with Richardson's face, and they played in front of a projected photo of themselves hanging out with him. Maybe they are supposed to the be the shitty, talentless Velvet Underground to Richardson's shitty, talentless Andy Warhol. Ugh. It all just made me feel bad for them. They seemed so pitiful and sad.

They Won't Understand, So They Kill It

Liars "There's Always Room On The Broom" - I'm not sure what to think of the forthcoming Liars album They Were Wrong So We Drowned. On one hand, there's about three (maybe four) songs like this one here which are pretty good, and sound a lot like the best songs from their previous record. On the other, the rest of the record is by-the-numbers avant/art-indie. I'm just not convinced by tracks like "Broken Witch" - it sounds like they aren't even trying. They may be having fun, and they may think it sounds cool, but it's just so boring and uninspiring. Maybe I'm not giving enough respect to the craft of just fucking around and making creepy soundtrack-y noises, but in my experience that stuff is just so easy to toss off. Maybe I'm being totally off base and unfair, but it sounds like half of this record was recorded in one afternoon when they realized that they had to finish the record by a deadline or something. They can do a lot better than most of the songs on this record. "There's Always Room On The Broom" is proof of that, but even still, I think they have the potential to do better than this too. Maybe next time.

You're Always Up To No Good

Phantom Planet "Big Brat" - As recommended/requested by Sam in the comments box of this very entry, here is the brand new single from Phantom Planet. It's really, really good! I hadn't thought much of them before, but this song just kicks a lot of ass, and I'm impressed that they are making this a single. It always think it's cool when popular bands do something which has even a passing resemblence to The Fall, and I definitely detect some Mark E Smith influence on the singing on the verses of this song. Nice drums, too - apparently the production was done by Dave Fridmann, so I guess that shouldn't be a big surprise.

Four Used To Be The Funky Four Corners

Arthur Conley "Funky Street" - Arthur Conley, a 1960s soul singer and protege of Otis Redding, died Monday at his home in the town of Ruurlo, in the eastern Netherlands. He was 57....Conley was born in Atlanta and started his recording career in 1959 as leader of the group Arthur and the Corvets. He was best known for his 1967 hit, Sweet Soul Music, which he co-wrote with Redding based on a number by Sam Cooke, Yeah, Man. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart. R.I.P., Arthur. (See also: Joe's take on Conley and "Sweet Soul Music" in particular.)

My Boyfriend, He's My Punk

Ping Pong Bitches "Beat You Up" - Much like Relaxed Muscle's "Rod Of Iron," this is an ironic song about domestic violence set to somewhat dated electro/industrial dance music. The PC part of me feels weird about liking both songs, but eh. They are good songs, and I don't think anything about embracing a host of hip hop songs which feature very questionable lyrics, so maybe it's for the best that I steer clear of an obvious double-standard. And either way, this song seems more BDSM than anything else.

Forever There'll Be A Heaven In Your Kiss

Ginger Ale "Happy House (D Funked RMX by Dexter)" - I cannot find any information about this group and this song which is not in French. I can't tell you much about this, other than that it's title describes the sound of it perfectly. I'm so glad that I found this song, it feels perfect for me today.

The Droyds "Take Me, I'm Yours" - Yes, it's a cover of the classic Squeeze single. It's not as good as the original, but it's cute and fun, and that's enough for me.

I Hear You Singing In The Wires

The Meters "Wichita Lineman" - I only heard this version of "Wichita Lineman" for the first time a few weeks ago, and when I did I didn't know what to make of how the Meters shift into something of a shuffle beat on the second part of each verse. (In case I'm not articulating myself well due to a lack of proper musical terminology, just pay attention to how the bass/drums shift around :45 into the song.) It sounded very awkward to me at first, as though they were suddenly playing the wrong song, but now it sounds smooth and natural to me, and I'm not sure why. I suppose I'm just used to it and expect it, but now I don't really want to hear the song without that dynamic shift. I listened to a few other versions of the song that I have, and now those are the ones which don't sound quite right.