Archive for 2003

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!”

He Leaves Behind Him A Thousand Laughs

Nirvana “Everybody Loves The Clown” – No, this is not Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana, but the British psychedelic band from the ’60s. I think that the most amazing thing about this song is that it so perfectly captures the grotesque happiness and unintentional creepiness of clowns. It’s just a little too happy sounding, you know? The adult voice in the right speaker sounds sort of crazed, and the child’s voice sounds slightly detached, as if s/he were singing under duress. It’s a very unique combination of joyous pop and the mildly unnerving and vaguely sinister. (For Deric!)

Okay. Here’s a question for all of you who like to post comments: Do you think Andre 3000 realized how ridiculous, overindulgent and unnecessary the drum and bass cover of “My Favorite Things” on The Love Below was, but included it anyway because he has an agenda to push, or perhaps more perversely, he wanted to have a song on the record that would put off and confuse a lot of the audience? I think Eppy’s on to something here:

…Andre seems to have, on this album, done a nice job of solving the problem of audience and race that sent Prince spinning into the art-jazz abyss of late–albeit an abyss that’s well-deserved, since we’ll still be figuring out his 80’s output in 20 years, most likely. But from what I understand of the Prince mythos, he began rebelling against his almost universal pop appeal (exemplified, perhaps, by the lack of any bass in some of his best songs) by making what he perceived as “black” music, first with the Black album and now more or less continually with NEWS etc. But Andre has, I think, figured out a way around this, one that’s actually rooted in Outkast’s appeal: genre-hopping/melding. And one of the genres he’s aiming toward is Coltrane-y jazz, but if this album is any indication, he wants to fuck with it and mix it with other shit. And that’s not white or black but just musical. It’s interesting, anyway.

What do you think?

You’re The Fishy Queen

Starlight Mints “Submarine #3” – What do I say about this song that Eppy hasn’t already said, better than I probably could? He’s right on about the technical aspects of the song; but what endears this song to me is mostly how the guy sings “what can I do? what do we do?” and “if you pull me apart, don’t swallow my heart” with this kind of cheerful, well-adjusted resignation. He’s not miserable, but he doesn’t know what to do about this, and all he asks is that this girl doesn’t hurt him too badly. He knows what’s coming, he just wants mercy. (It is definitely possible that I’m projecting way to much on a song with a silly psychedelic aquatic theme.) Also: you’ve just gotta love how he sings the phrase “holy Shazam!” like a lovelorn Billy Batson in the first verse.

Tommy Roe “Dizzy” – Highly addictive bubblegum, basically. Pop song crack. Put it on repeat and let it melt your brain, in a good way.

An Accident Sits Down With You For Breakfast

Mekons “Now We Have The Bomb” It’s trivia time! Q: What do the Mekons have in common with the Wu-Tang Clan? A: The lyric “cash rules everything around me,” which is repeated a few times over in this song, which I believe may be an intentional reference to the Wu. Dollar dollar bill, y’all!

I wrote this about J-Lo’s “Baby I Love U” elsewhere:

That particular J-Lo song seems sort of creepy to me. It seems aimed specifically at emotionally needy, clingy people in the worst way – it doesn’t sound like she’s really in touch with reality when she sings it, or particularly cares about how the other person feels because she’s so wrapped up in her emotions and needs. So it seems to lack empathy while demanding it. (This is true of entirely too many songs.) It may be the most emotionally honest J-Lo song that I’ve heard, at least in terms of how I understand her personality. The rest of her big hits have a sentiment which comes across as totally disingenuous (“Jenny From The Block,” “I’m Real,” “My Love Don’t Cost A Thing”), but that one song sounds as though it could really be coming from a very real place within her. (Of course, I say this because I don’t like her public persona.)

Nothing’s Gonna Stop The Flow

Folk Implosion “Nothing Gonna Stop” – Don’t get me wrong, I like a fair few Sebadoh tunes, but I get the impression from the Kids soundtrack that Lou Barlow may really be a lot better off pretending to be other people. It would seem to me that to Barlow, a lot of the music he recorded for that record were just piss-takes to suit the characters and the vibe of the film, but I think it’s actually some of the most inspired music of his career. Whether or not a song like “Nothing Gonna Stop” was meant to be ironic is irrelevant – playing stylistic dress-up suited him well, and it would seem that most people would agree, considering that the man’s only real hit (“Natural One”) was a product of this soundtrack experiment. Judging by the musical sameness of the overwhelming majority of his arrangements, Barlow doesn’t seem like much of a risk-taker, and so pretending to be someone else was probably a very liberating thing, to get away from this monumental sense of artistic self that he had created through all of his other records. It’s too bad that he more or less returned to form after this experiment, even though it was by far the most successful record of his career.

Barlow’s written a lot better songs than “Nothing Gonna Stop” (at least a quarter of Harmacy and half of Bakesale, and that song “Flame” off of that final Sebadoh record are all better in terms of being well-written pop songs), it would be interesting to see how much better those songs could be if he was less uptight about keeping the arrangements focused on the classic guitar/bass/drums formula. Bob Pollard is the same way – here’s a guy who has literally written about a hundred of my favorite songs, but I still get frustrated by the fact that he almost never strays from that basic guitar/bass/drums arrangement, or even changes the emphasis of the instruments in that arrangement, as Barlow does on most of the Kids songs. Why just settle for writing great songs when you can play with how they sound, and play with how different sounds change what they mean and how they feel? It seems like a lot of folks just give up before getting to the really fun part.

Two more notes about the Kids soundtrack while I’m on it – I’ve always assumed that the emphasis on bass and drums on the record was Barlow’s attempt at mimicking hip hop, but it’s really amazing how similar a lot of the drums and bass parts sound as if they are outtakes from Can recording sessions. “Simean Groove” in particular may as well just have Damo Suzuki on guest vocals. (To be more accurate, this is more of a Silver Apples homage, though that didn’t become obvious to me until Jack pointed out that the verse lyrics to “Nothing Gonna Stop” are a string of Silver Apples song titles, and it suddenly occurred to me that a) the title “Simean Groove” is a direct reference to the name of the homemade instrument that the Silver Apples used on their recordings, and b) its beat is nearly indentical to that of the Silver Apples song “Lovefingers.” Thanks, Jack. I still think there’s a bit of Can there – the song still reminds me a bit of “Mushroom” from Can’s Tago Mago album.)

Aside from Barlow’s material on the record, it also includes the song “Good Morning, Captain” by Slint at the end, though it is not included in the film and has no obvious reason for being on the record in terms of lyrical theme. I imagine that Barlow just included the song because he liked it and wanted other people to hear it, which is a pretty cool thing considering that by doing this he makes it so that no one who owns this record should ever feel a need to buy an actual Slint record now that they own the single amazing song in their catalog. Nevertheless, as a teenage record buyer eager to buy “classic” records by bands I didn’t really know, I still went off and bought Spiderland. What a disappointment. Honestly, if you really like that song and want to hear more stuff like it, you’re probably way better off buying Red Medicine and End Hits by Fugazi. It’s a very similar kind of sound, and trust me, Fugazi never fails to deliver, and they never meander into lame “spooky” soundtrack music. However, if you’re really into Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mogwai, and the rest of the legion of gloomy soundtrack-y indie bands out there, then you’ll probably love Spiderland and think I’m an idiot. Yeah, well. Fine.

Call Me Up Whenever U Want 2 Grind

Silver Apples “You & I” – For those who don’t know, the Silver Apples were an NYC duo from the late 60s who paired elaborate homemade electronic instruments with live percussion and had a sound which I think to this day is still ahead of their time. “You And I” is from their second LP Contact, and it is their masterpiece, as far as I’m concerned. Few songs that I’ve encountered sound quite as frantic and nervous, or communicate a deep frustration with the circumstances of a busy life as effectively as this. There’s a real sadness to this song that is only made more poignant by the obvious rationalization and resignation of the lyrics – “you and I could love each other … life is full of important things, life is full of necessary things … and there just ain’t room for the little things” – the narrator has just given up on love entirely. He’s utterly hopeless. It’s a pretty tragic song.

The Foo Fighters “Darling Nikki” – According to the official Foo Fighters website, this was recorded during the sessions of their most recent album One By One, and it will probably end up being a b-side for one of their future singles. It’s a pretty good version of the song – it doesn’t touch the Prince original, but Dave Grohl pulls off a faithful version, and the rocking out at the end is very impressive without getting all “haw haw, we’re a rock band doing a pop song, let’s rock extra hard to overcompensate” about it.

Just Can’t Decide!

In the All Music Guide’s entry for Can, they list the following ‘tones’ which describe the band’s sound: Reflective, Fiery, Complex, Freewheeling, Playful, Rollicking, Gentle, Brash, Acerbic, Hypnotic, Quirky, Detached, Literate, Cerebral, Eerie. One can only assume that they did not include “adorable” because they were not familiar with “Turtles Have Short Legs”, from the relatively obscure Radio Waves album. It’s just so damn cute! It’s like Euro-hippie art rock for little kids.

Ice Cream Smoothe

Enon “Daughter In The House Of Fools” – This is a pleasant surprise! For a variety of reasons, not the least of which being the fact that I saw them play a live show in which they butchered their own songs, I had given up on Enon. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t crazy about the addition of the Asian girl to the line up – I liked John Schmersal just fine by himself on vocals. But this proves me wrong, and I’m very glad about that. This song is just fabulous; the melody is top shelf and the arrangement is inspired. All told, it’s exactly what I liked about all of other Enon songs I’ve ever loved. Now I’m fighting the desire to see them live, because I’d hate to see them botch this song the way they stumbled through “Conjugate The Verbs” when I saw them a few years ago. It’d break my heart.

I Understand The Sun, And I Don’t Go Out In The Sun

“The Specious Moment” – This is taken from the one of the old Audio Kitchen archives which is no longer available online. This is a homemade recording of a very mentally ill guy pretending to do his own radio station, which he sent to a local college radio station as a way of harassing them. The guy isn’t scary-crazy, but just far-out weird crazy. The drill bits ad is priceless, by the way. “Aww, fiddlesticks!”

“Taco Bell Romance” – Here’s another gem from the Audio Kitchen. This is an audio letter created by a lovesick young woman working for a Taco Bell somewhere in the south. She’s in love with some creep named Travis who is married but messing around with her while his wife is pregnant with a child he swears is not his own. It’s a slice of life, I suppose.

Hold On, I’m Hacking Into Your Computer

Today we have some selections from Matt Besser of the Upright Citizens Brigade‘s cd May I Help You (Dumbass). The story of the record goes like this: In 2000, Besser found his home phone number inundated with calls from people seeking technical support for free internet software given out for free at Costco and Barnes & Noble stores in Manhattan. The customer service hotline on the free cd-rom did not include a 1 before the area code (which was the area code for Houston), and so every call made that did not include the 1 dialed before the number went to his 212 number by default. Besser recieved these calls day and night for months on end, and he began to record himself playing pranks on these callers. In all of the calls, he pretends to actually be a tech support hotline, and with different characters and strategies, he fucks with the caller until they finally give up on him. One of the most amazing things about this record is how desperately the callers seem to want to believe that Besser’s characters are legitimate, no matter how ridiculous and over-the-top they may get. They just refuse to believe that they are being suckered, even when he’s doing the worst Jimmy Stewart and Bjork impressions imaginable.

Matt Besser “Lesbian Download”

Matt Besser “Car Wreck”

Matt Besser “Last Day On The Job”

Matt Besser “Jimmy Stewart”

Talk About Elvis’s Cock

Vanilla Bean – “Elvis Phone Sex” – This is another selection from the new Radio Archival Oddities compilation, which includes a full cd of airchecks from WFMU. This is a recording of the late Frank Balesteri, aka Vanilla Bean, dating back to the early 80s. I’m amazed that this ever got on the air, it breaks a host of FCC decency rules, and I can’t imagine that anyone on the station could get away with anything remotely like this now. In this clip, Balesteri calls up a phone sex hotline and messes around with the operator, who has one of the thickest Southern accents that I’ve ever heard. His frantic demands for this poor girl to talk about Elvis Presley are hilarious and become more absurd as the call progresses.

“Where’s Elvis now?”

“C’mon! That’s IMPORTANT to me!”

(This is obviously not work safe.)

Also: Hot on the heels of that Magneto Was Right t-shirt, Anti-Popper is offering a brand new Marxist/Britneyist design.

Cold As Ice Cream But Still As Sweet

Family Fodder “Sunday Girl” – This is great; it’s this catchy little new wave pop number, but it sounds as though the band tried every wacky studio idea that they could come up with, and ended up deciding to keep every one of them in the arrangement at once. The song was kind of surprising for me on first listen, and it becomes more endearing every subsequent time that I hear it, especially when the song completely falls apart at the end.

Gotta Have Some Of Your Attention

Billy Murray (as Bob Harris) “More Than This”

I would like to have the entire karaoke sequence from Lost In Translation tattooed on my soul. Especially the part with Scarlett Johansson in a pink wig singing “Brass In Pocket” with Bill Murray doing the “special” back up vocals, looking as though he’s going to start giggling at any moment, and only vaguely masking the fact that he totally means it.

You need to go see this movie. It’s beautiful, it’s funny, it’s got a lot of heart. It’s really well observed. If I say any more about it, I’ll just start gushing, and I need to keep up my ‘air of cool.’ Just go see it when it opens in your town, okay?

Also, you know that you want one of Anti-popper’s Magneto Was Right t-shirts. Go buy one.

We Were Partying When We Heard The News, And We’re All Pretty Depressed Right Now

Big Boi “The Rooster”– This is from the new Outkast album. I only just got the record, so I don’t have fully formed opinions about it just yet, but wow wow wow that Big Boi disc is great, he didn’t let me down at all. The Andre 3000 cd – hmmm. My first impression isn’t so good. I’ll be listening to this quite a lot for the next few weeks, so let’s see what happens.

The next two mp3s are taken from the new Radio Archival Oddities compilation put together by WFMU’s The Professor. They speak for themselves.

NYC radio – Turning The Radio Dial The Night John Lennon Died

Los Angeles radio – Turning The Radio Dial The Night John Lennon Died

Can someone explain to me why that one caller would want Lennon’s murderer’s name never to be made public? That doesn’t make much sense to me.

You Make The Wrong Things Right

Rachel Sweet “B-A-B-Y” – If someone ever asks you what a joycore love song is like, you need to play this song for them. It’s so giddy, it’s quite possibly even more crazy in love than Beyonce. This was Sweet’s biggest hit back in the late 70s on the Stiff label, when she was only 14 years old. It’s pretty amazing how confident and mature she sounds on this record for her age.

My friend Emily is awesome. Here she is hanging out with Carl Newman.

Something To Remember, Something To Forget

Quarks “I Walk” – I can’t tell you too much about Quarks. This is mostly because virtually everything written about them online is in German, and when I translate the pages, it always comes out to awkward prose that doesn’t make much sense.

For example:

The result sounds professional to in any case. German and English-language Songs with cleanly arranged sound of electronics. When first hearing one feels immediately automatically reminded of 2raumwohnung . But the quarks have already their own style from in-usual sounds without many Schnoerkel, clear woman voices and sensitively direct texts.

The quarks will surely have a meaning for the German electronics music also in the future. But to it more experiments and innovations will have to belong. It does not hand evenly to have and produce these in often cloned variants completely few samples.

Right. I get the gist of it, I guess, but it’s not very helpful. As you may have gleaned from this excerpt, they are just a very good German electro-pop group. The record is very solid, I had some difficulty choosing which song to post here – I nearly went for the ballad “How Can You Say You Love Me?,” but “I Walk” is the single and probably the most immediately likeable song from the LP. (Thank to K for the tip!)

Mandy Moore “One Way Or Another” – This is from her upcoming Coverage album. You’d think it would just be lame karaoke, but it’s actually really exciting and super pop, and rocks harder than most every other faux-new wave rock band currently going. It’s very cute in how it’s going for breathy-sexy but ends up kinda ironic-spunky instead, which is about exactly right. For a person Mandy’s age (or my age, for that matter) this is just another radio song that you might remember from being a kid, and then you grow up a bit and notice that the lyrics are suddenly relevant to you, giving it a new life. This recording sort of captures that rush of enjoying the type of song a little kid would like (and for whom the lyrics may as well be about hide-and-seek), and having that kind of ‘ah-ha!’ moment where you get the song on an adult level. To put things over the top, just as it starts, you hear the drummer say “1, 2, c’mon Mandy!” How can you not love that?

Some May Call It A Loophole, I Call It An “Opportunity Clause”

Here’s another classic from the Best Show On WFMU.

Roderick J. Martinez, Esq. – A lawyer calls in to inform Tom that he is being sued by The Band’s Robbie Robertson, but it turns out that the lawyer is in fact a highly ambitious scam artist with a bizarre and complicated scheme which involves elaborate costumes, “com-drama-edy,” and “high school law students.”