Archive for 2004

This’ll Be The Last Time I Ever Do Your Hair!

Scissor Sisters @ Bowery Ballroom 1/10/2004

Take Your Mama Out / Better Luck Next Time / Laura / New Song (“Forever Right Now”?) / Tits On The Radio / New Song (no clue what the title for this could be – the words “skin” and “sin” came up a few times) / New Song (“Magnifique”?) / Mary / Comfortably Numb / Music Is The Victim // Rock My Spot (b-side to a forthcoming single) / Filthy & Gorgeous (with special guest Fred Schneider of the B52s!)

Oh wow. Now that’s how it’s done! It was an amazing show, and immediately one of my favorite concert experiences ever. The most obvious thing to comment on would be Jake Shears’ and Ana Matronic’s incredible starpower. They are the hottness personified. We’re talking Andre 3000-level charisma here, folks. I’m very impressed by Shears’ ability to completely own the stage without resorting to the same old “I’m pretending to be a rock star” choreography that lesser frontmen fall into these days – he seems utterly natural onstage, as does the rest of the band, in spite of their obvious stylistic excess. Ana Matronic’s role in the band is somewhat similar to that of Neko Case in the New Pornographers – she sings a lot of back up vocals, dances, nearly steals the show with her lone lead vocal number (“Tits on the Radio”), and charms the crowd with witty between-song banter.

As a band, they are tight and professional, but loose enough to not sound too karaoke. They clearly thrive on the energy of the audience, and last night’s crowd was one of the most attractive, dance-happy, and enthusiastic audiences that I’ve ever been a part of. In addition to songs from the forthcoming record, they played a few newer unreleased numbers which were all fantastic. The one which I suspect is called “Forever Right Now” is sort of like “Take Your Mama Out” gone cod-raggae, and the one I think is called “Magnifique” is a full-on disco floor-filler. They can’t release that one soon enough, really, but it’d be wasted if it weren’t an a-side. Fred Schneider’s guest appearance on “Filthy & Gorgeous” was a great surprise – he danced around, flirted with Jake and Ana, and sang on the chorus – “Fillll-THAY!” “Gorrr-JUSS!”

I’m sorry if this is all coming out like pure gush, but I feel as though I can’t overstate how great they were. If they come to your town, please make the effort to see them live. If you’re into them at all, your estimation of them will no doubt improve. I went into that show loving them, and now I feel like some kind of fanatic.

The opening acts were fabulous too – Opti-Grab were extremely entertaining, and pulled off their somewhat limited late-80s rap/booty music schtick as best as anyone possibly could have. For them, the key was that they were totally commited to what they were doing – absolutely nothing about their act was half-assed, and they clearly put in a great deal of work and practice. They were slick and polished entertainers rather than an amateurish joke band. Like the Scissor Sisters, they also completely own the stage during their set, especially the girl, T$, who seems as though she’s been at this her whole life. I meant to buy a copy of their album, but by the time I got to their merch table, it was all sold out. I did manage to get one song to share here, the somewhat atypical “Daddy,” which lacks rapping altogether, but was nonetheless a highlight of their show.

In between the Opti-Grab and Scissor Sisters sets, we were treated to a dance routine by two friends of the Scissor Sisters, Christie Love and a flamboyantly gay Korean dude called Tai Chi Alfonso, who just may be the best dancer I’ve ever seen. Their entire skit was prerecorded and all of their dialogue was lip synched, and they used a gigantic fake iPod as a prop. They were really funny, and suited the mood of the night rather well.

We Feel Each Others’ Bodies

Space Cowboy “Just Put Your Hand In Mine” – For those of you who loved the Heiko Voss tune from yesterday, here’s another (more house-y) euphoric disco song with a repetitive and catchy vocal line. It doesn’t stray far from Space Cowboy’s previous hit, which was pretty much the same trick but with Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” as the vocal line, but it hits the mark. I’m not sure, but I think that this song is using an Erasure sample, and I can’t seem to find any sites online which will corroborate that.

Mu “Let’s Get Sick” – This song, like most everything from the Afro Finger And Gel album, makes me feel as though I’m living in some kind of crazy post-apocalyptic world – one, perhaps, where ROBOTS ARE OUR MASTERS. But in kind of a cool way, you know? This is the music of the future, provided something terrible happens to all of us. It’s a very good album, though it took me a little while to warm up to it, because it is quite harsh at first.

Anyway, I caught Dial M For Murder in 3-D at the Film Forum last night. There was no discernable reason for this film to be presented in 3-D. I can only imagine that this gimmick was used in the 50s as a matter of bandwagon-jumping and perhaps an attempt to draw people to see an otherwise middling effort by Alfred Hitchcock. Or maybe I’m wrong, and I really should have been more amazed by that stationary table lamp popping into the foreground during that scene where Tony Wendice explains that he’s been stalking the guy he’s set up to murder his wife.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film with more exposition, by the way. It must have been at least 97% exposition! That just does not translate to 3-D at all. The plot was entertaining enough (if overly reliant on all of the characters but Wendice being extremely dim), but the most enjoyable thing about the film was its awkward (and occasionally unintentional?) humor. Now, if I ever get caught in a conspiracy to have someone killed, the first thing I’ll do after that revelation is offer everyone in the room drinks from my mini-bar. That’s class.

Baby, That Tongue’s Not Welcome Around Here

Rachel Stevens “Sweet Dreams (My L.A. Ex)” – How did I miss this? I really ought to pay more attention to the UK pop charts in the future. I wish that someone had tapped me on the shoulder and told me about this song earlier. (If you were curious, I sampled this song because it ranked highly on Troubled Diva’s year end list.) Anyway, this is a perfect pop song, and I loved it immediately after hearing the first three or four bars. Of course, it only gets better from there – the “what planet are you from…” pre-chorus, the chorus itself, and the middle-eight are all impeccable. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and this song will become a hit in the US too.

Heiko Voss “I Think About You (Original Mix)” – This is taken from Fabric 13, a compilation put together by Michael Mayer of Germany’s Kompakt dance label. This song is like dreamy disco bliss, basically. It’s one of those songs that just sounds like love.

There Will Be Violent Dramatics If You Don’t Pay My AMEX

Junior Boys “High Come Down” – This sounds sort of like a twitchy, uneasy slow jam, and the vocals have been somewhat accurately described as “Darryl Hall with a sore throat.” It makes me think of being in a nice comfortable bed with red silk sheets and heavy handed romantic lighting, shifting around restlessly trying to find a comfortable position.

White Trash “I Don’t Love You” – Ah, yes, I do love the sound of cartoonishly shallow emotional cruelty when it is set to a dance beat. RIYL: Emma Frost, Lindsay Bluth, most Heather Locklear characters.

Ryan Adams Whining Into Jim DeRogatis’ Answering Machine – Oh man. This recording is making the rounds right now, and you’ve got to hear this. It’s just too good. This is nearly three minutes of Ryan Adams whining about a bad review that DeRogatis wrote about one of his gigs from about three weeks ago. This almost sounds like a Jon Wurster or Andrew Earles character on the Best Show. Adams’ ego and petulance apparently has no limit. Highlight: “You obviously have like, a problem with me, not with the music, because you can’t refute it, obviously, because it’s too fucking good, and you know it is.”

Tom Scharpling Weighs In On The Ryan Adams/Jim DeRogatis Thing – Tom rips apart the answering machine message, as well as the (even crazier!) essay/journal entry that Adams posted on his website.

(Thanks to Milo and Nate!)

Also: If you are going to vote in that Bloggies thing, please this consider this blog, along with some of the others linked to the right. Judging by previous winners in this thing, the music category isn’t well served, and I find some of the previous nominees/winners to be somewhat….lacking. Anyone can vote in this thing, so let’s see some love for SFJ, Clap Clap (who can fit in a few different categories there, actually), NYPLM, Technicolor, Badger Minor, The Rub, Oh Manchester, Woebot, Enthusiastic But Mediocre, Flyboy, No Rock N’ Roll Fun, etc. There’s a lot of great music blogs to choose from, and this is definitely a way to get their names out there.

Be Cool, My Babies

Reuben Wilson “Hold On, I’m Comin’!” – I swear to God, if I ever had a radio or television show, I would have this be my theme song. If Conan O’Brien ever makes good on his threat about doing a surprise episode which is nothing but him, the audience, and his guests dancing awkwardly to the band for a full hour, the Max Weinberg Seven should definitely play this song sometime during that episode.

Method Man w/ Ol’ Dirty Bastard “Ain’t A Damn Thing Changed” – The backing track to this song sounds very very similar to another hip hop hit that was all over BET last year – I think it was the Young Gunz, but I’m not sure. I wasn’t too into that song, so I wasn’t paying attention, and either way, it sounds a lot better with Method Man. This may or may not be on the forthcoming Method Man lp. Ol’ Dirty Bastard is definitely wasted on the chanted chorus, but you take what you can get with that guy, I guess.

Just a note to my NYC-area readers – are any of you going to see the Scissor Sisters at the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night? I’ll be there, by myself, and I’d be happy to meet you if you’re going to be there. Just give me some advance notice.

Tell Me That Ain’t Insecurr

Kayne West w/ Lauryn Hill “Self Concious” – With this song, Kayne West singlehandedly redeems Lauryn Hill’s dire soul music-by-way-of-Jandek Unplugged 2.0 record by sampling a line from one of its songs into a catchy hook for this fine tune. Actually, if you only knew about that record from hearing this song, you may be left with the impression that the record may actually be quite good, but trust me, if you go back and listen to it, you will be quickly disabused of that notion. I haven’t spent enough time with Kanye’s College Dropout record to form any solid opinions about, but it sounds pretty good to me so far. I would guess that this song will be the next big single, after “Through The Wire” finally runs its course.

Lizzy Mercier Descloux “Funky Stuff” – RIYL: The Slits, basically. I really lack the knowledge of African and Latin music to make any kind of informed remarks about her music’s roots in that milieu, so when I say that she basically sounds like a funkier, more disco version of The Slits, you just have to chalk that up as being the best I can do given somewhat limited cultural reference points. This is taken from Mambo Nasau, which along with Press Color has recently been reissued on Ze Records. Both records are excellent, I highly recommend them.

There’s A “Patriotic American Undertone” Here?

Reader mail!

Hi – I have enjoyed reading your blog and generally I agree with what you have

to say. However it would be nice if I didn’t feel that everything had

such a bloody American patriotic undertone. I know this is a blog and

therefore freedom of opinion etc is what its all about. I just wanted to

express my disappointment in what I thought was an excellent blog. Oh

well. As regards to ‘The Triplets of Belville’ your comments just expose

your lack of intellect, you obviously didn’t ‘get’ the film at all, yet

you like ‘American Wedding’, please. Oh have you seen ‘Stuck on you’ bet

you’d love that. Anyway all the best with your site.

I love the idea that one kind of lowbrow comedy film is the “intellectual” one, apparently by virtue of it being a foreign film, or specifically, a French film. If anything, The Triplets Of Belleville is a more lowbrow and sophmoric movie than American Wedding. I’m totally baffled by the implication that there’s some kind of insidious American patriotism at work in my writing at all – is this coming from the fact that I rate two films with the word “American” in the title a B and an A+ respectively, but disliked the lone French film? The Frenchness of The Triplets Of Belleville was not the problem, really – I have no issue with the French.

I seriously do not think there was anything to “get” about the film – it’s plotted on the same level of a children’s cartoon or a bad newspaper comic strip, and the wit is base and rather mindless. It’s just not funny, man. If your idea of a cutting satire is the image of an obese Statue Of Liberty with a cheeseburger, then hey, go and love this movie. But please, don’t try to sell it to me as a great work of comedy. More than anything else, the film struck me as being very dumb, which is why I find the insult of my intellect to be particularly amusing.

I have fair expectations for comedy – I don’t expect everything to be as perfect as say, The Office or Arrested Development, but I can appreciate a lot of flawed mainstream work on its own merits. I went in to the Triplets Of Belleville wanting to like it – I wouldn’t spend $10 on it otherwise – but it utterly failed to entertain me, stimulate me, or make me laugh. I can find some worth in the worst films, but with this one, the best I can say is that the animation was alright, if a bit on the busy side.

I’m sorry, reader, but I’m going to have to chalk up your opinions to being more indicative of an anti-American mainstream bias/snobbishness on your part than as any kind of realistic indictment of kneejerk patriotism in my writing.