Author Archive

Secret Origins

I’m currently working on putting together a feature article about The Best Show On WMFU, and so I’m going to be posting some excerpts from the interviews that I conducted with Tom Scharpling, Jon Wurster, and Andrew Earles over the course of the week. The article is being geared towards an audience who probably aren’t familiar with the show, but a lot of the questions that I asked in the interviews are mainly of interest to hardcore Best Show fans. I’d like for that sort of information to be available to those who would be interested.

I’m going to start at the beginning, with Tom Scharpling telling the story of how the Best Show started out.

Matthew Perpetua: How did the show start?

Tom Scharpling: I got involved with WFMU back in ’94 when I first started doing a show, and it was a straight music show at that point.

MP Late at night?

TS Yeah, everyone at the station kinda does the overnight first, so I did an overnight, and then I worked my way up to 11-2 AM, then I got to an 8-11 PM show, but it was still music. Then I starting talking a little more, and got comfortable with that. I was always kinda comfortable talking, but I started spreading the music out a little bit and talking about stuff and not feeling like I had to be chained to the music as much.

MP At that point, what were you talking about?

TS Oh, just kinda taking calls and random stuff, sorta like the more unstructured parts of the show now.

MP Open call Tuesday?

TS Yeah, stuff like that. I guess it would all dovetail at “Rock, Rot, and Rule.” I was friends with Jon Wurster of Superchunk. I was always friends with the band, I was friends with them before he was in the band. I remember meeting him at the first show they did in this area and we kinda hit it off. We were interested in similar things. And then we just decided to do something on the radio which would be this kinda fake show, a fake guest that was kinda based on something Oprah Winfrey said when she was getting sued by the cattle industry in 1997. When she won her case, she said “freedom doesn’t only rule, freedom rocks.” And it became this thing, rule and rock, and we started going back and forth on the phone, just goofing around. It’s the weirdest friendship in a way, because he’s got to be my best friend, and I’m here and he’s in North Carolina. I don’t think I ever really call him anymore, the conversations just start. We almost just go through twenty minutes of just running stuff when either one calls the other one. I’ll call him as a character, and that’ll often turn into something.

MP I’m curious what your characters are like, because you always play the straight man on the show.

TS That’s a funny thing because a lot of the time, with Jon Wurster, it’s a 50/50 thing. The characters half the time start with me starting them and doing them for him, and then he’ll become the character when it is time for the show. And we’ll take turns on who is the character on the calls. You’ve just got to keep it open for the ideas, the ideas are the most important part of it. You can tell when something’s building towards something that’s going to work.

So, with “Rock, Rot, and Rule,” we were just kicking this guy around, this rock critic. And we thought, “let’s just do it on the show,” and we did it on the show. Before I did it on the show, a couple people who I told what we were doing to do were just like “that’s not gonna work, that’s funny for two minutes, that’s going to be a disaster.” But then we started getting real calls, which we never could have counted on in a million years, getting really angry. We never could have counted on getting that kind of anger out of the audience. It was just like the biggest high ever, I just remember calling Jon as soon as the show was over, and it was like being on crack or something. It’s like a dream come true to just trick people. I don’t know about you, but all the stuff I like, that seems to be a component of it. Whether it’s like Andy Kaufman or Bob & Ray, you know, anything that plays with reality like that. Being able to fool a lot of people in one fell swoop, it was just the greatest feeling ever.

We did it one more time, we did another one, this conventions thing. It was called “Conventions Inc.”, about this guy who puts together conventions. We’re going to put it out soon, we’re going to do these limited edition cd-r things on the website. We’re doing a new Stereolaffs website, it’s going to be completely retooled. It’ll be new and improved and will actually make sense to people as opposed to the last site which made sense to about 14 people who were hooked on it and terrifying obsessed with this world we created.

Then I had a bunch of stuff going on in my life when I quit the station, and I wanted to get my career going a little bit. I had a retail job, and I was writing as a second job at night. I would go home from running this music store to writing at night knowing that I was trying to pave a way for the future. I was writing screenplays, I’ve written screenplays with a couple of other people, but nothing’s been made yet. We had one thing optioned a few times, it was just optioned again a few weeks ago. We got hired to write a studio job, and that crashed and burned.

MP How did you get into comedy writing?

TS It was just kinda like something that, I felt it was something I was meant to do. It’s like, I found this stuff I did when I was six, and it was just insane how the only difference is now, my penmanship is better. It’s the same path, it’s the path I was always on. I didn’t realize, but it’s the path I’m on. It’s kinda nice to be on the path that I guess you were kinda meant to be on.

I never thought I’d come back to WFMU, you know, I thought “I’m not gonna come back and do records,” it just wasn’t the most interesting thing to me, to come back and play records and talk a little bit. It was the fall of 2000 when the show started. One of the DJs said to me, “when are you gonna come back, when come back”, and I said that I didn’t know, and he said “you should just do the show you wanna do.” And that made sense all of a sudden. I was at the UCB Theatre, and just seeing them do their thing the way they want, their theatre was the way they wanted it to be. And I just thought, why can’t I just do a radio show that’s on my terms, and it’s the show that I want to show up and do every week? And then I ran it by Brian Turner, who is a great guy, the program director, and he got what it was going to be. It was like, we’re going to do “Rock, Rot And Rule” every night, that was the goal. That cd is the show now, with music there to give a breather for 15 minutes. We started the show, and Jon was completely on board, and by that point the cd had been released and it made the rounds, and a lot of people liked it.

Wicker Basket For Bread

The Malkmus media watch continues!

In the new issue of SPIN, there is a feature article in which ten celebrities are asked to create an online personal ad for Nerve.com just to see what kind of responses the ads would get. Stephen Malkmus was one of the celebrities who participated in this experiment, and here is his ad, along with a few responses.

Musician
Portland, Oregon

Profile nickname: stevie_stevie
age: 35
I am interested in: dating
Last great book I read: Independent People by Haldor Laxness
Favorite on-screen sex scene: Anything in Todd Solondz’s Happiness
Celebrity I most resemble: Richard Ashcroft
Best (or worst) lie I ever told: “You’re so normal.”
Music that puts me in th

e mood: “TV Party,” Black Flag
I can’t live without: Hormones, ice cream, wicker basket for bread, tonic water, stereo
In my bedroom you’ll find: bed, dresser, computer, homework
Why you should get to know me: I’ve got so much to give you
Who I’m looking for: The best of the rest

—-

To: stevie_stevie
From: chairmanmeowww
I Googled Richard Ashcroft and saw what he looked like. You don’t look like him at al. He seems like a cheeseball.

To: stevie_stevie
From: mediumbrow
Hot damn! I like your adorable haircut! But I’m a little nervous about your occupation. Most people who say they’re musicians actually work at Kinko’s and live in someone’s basement.

To: stevie_stevie
From: intotheswim
I wanted to tell you that you are the first person I have seen that had Happiness as their favorite sex scene! P.S.: Is that Steven with a “V” or Stephen with a “P-H”? I’m wary of the “V” kind. Please advise.

Malkmus Says: Props to these ladies for even responding at all. Sure, I’d date you all, but Elimidate style, so I can do it all in one night and on national TV. You can tell a lot about a person by how they act on national TV.

More Hail To The Thief Notes

* Is Thom Yorke chanting “it should be Reagan” on “The Gloaming”? If he isn’t, what the hell is he saying?

* I am genuinely puzzled by the inclusion of “I Will”. It’s such a dull neither-here-nor-there kind of song, and I can’t see what this song adds to the record. They rejected “Lift” and “Big Ideas” and “Big Boots” to revive this dud? Did they really feel that the album really needed one more lulling quiet song? I don’t get it. I’m blaming Ed O’Brien for this. I’m blaming all of the mediocre parts of this album on him. He’s been lobbying for this since 1997, after all.

Silence Is A Rhythm Too!

More MP3s for you:

“Bearings” – The “lost” Best Show skit! Tom takes a call from someone who thinks that they are a leaving a message on a co-worker’s answering machine.

James Brown “Cottage For Sale”

The Moving Sidewalks “I Want To Hold Your Hand”

The Slits “In The Beginning There Was Rhythm” – for Joe.

Can “Oh Yeah” – I wish that contemporary “jam bands” sounded more like this and less like Smooth Jazz Lite FM. I was listening to this late last night, and it never occured to me just how essential the keyboards are to this song. It’s the least obvious thing about the arrangement, particularly given the virtuoso performances by Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit on guitar and drums, but just try to imagine the song without Irmin Schmidt’s drones. It’s that extra bit that puts the song over the top, I think.

We Will Probably Crumble

Hail To The Thief is on Soulseek now. It’s way too early for me to say much about the record, but these are my early impressions:

1) Even though I knew the songs before hearing the recorded versions, I can’t help but feel vaguely let down by the more straight ahead “rocking out” parts of “2+2=5” and “Go To Sleep”. That said, they’re okay songs. I like the intro part of “2+2=5” quite a bit.

2) Though I’ve only heard it twice as of this writing, I’m pretty sure that “Backdrifts” is one of the best things Radiohead have ever recorded. I’m in awe of that song. I felt this great rush of euphoria hearing it for the first time, if just because it sounded so much like a song I think I’ve always wished I could listen to, but hadn’t found.

God Don’t Want No Part Time Soldiers

Since I’ve mentioned Radiohead, I may as well go ahead and scare off the rest of the snob audience by bringing up the fact that I saw Zwan on Friday night. I was very impressed, they were a lot tighter and had a lot more stage presence than I was anticipating. I’ve been meaning to see Billy Corgan play live for a decade now, so it was good to finally please the teenager inside of me. I’ve heard enough live recordings of the man playing on good and bad nights to be fairly confident that this was probably a pretty good night for the band.

The highlights of the show defied my expectations – I’d been expecting to be bored by the longer jammy songs, but as it turned out, “Jesus, I/God’s Gonna Set This World On Fire”, “Mary Star of the Sea”, and “Spilled Milk” (or as I like to call it, “X.Y.2”) stood out as the most consistently engaging songs of the night. The “God’s Gonna Set This World On Fire” section of “Jesus, I” was fabulous, and sounded sort of like The Smashing Pumpkins born again as a sinister psychedelic gospel outfit. I was also surprised by the live versions of “Desire” and “Of A Broken Heart”, which both benefited greatly from starker arrangements and a decreased schmaltz factor.

Similarly, Jimmy Chamberlain’s drumming was a revelation. I had grown so used to hearing his performances buried under a wall of suffocating treble in his studio recordings with Corgan that hearing/feeling his drumming in a live setting made me understand what so many people have been raving about for years. The guy is powerful – he’s easily one of the hardest-hitting drummers that I’ve seen live.

I’m not so sure that the talents of Dave Pajo are being fully utilized in Zwan. It seemed to me that Pajo was mostly playing lead and effects parts while he played guitar, and he only switched to keyboard for a couple of songs. I don’t know what else the guy could do given the material, but I can’t help but feel that Corgan is missing an opportunity to capitalize on the fact that this guy is one of his sidemen. I don’t get that impression regarding Matt Sweeney or Paz Lenchantin’s roles in the band – they both play their supporting parts well, supply appealing backing vocals, and have a reasonable degree of second-banana charisma.

Here’s the setlist, for those who may be interested.

Jesus, I / God’s Gonna Set This World On Fire / Endless Summer / For Your Love / Lyric / El Sol / Honestly / Desire / Ride A Black Swan / Mary Star Of The Sea / Heartsong / Of A Broken Heart / Declarations of Faith / Settle Down // A New Poetry /// Spilled Milk

Unfortunately for me, “Baby Let’s Rock” was not performed, which probably would have been a lot more disappointing for me if I hadn’t already known that the likelihood of it being played was so low.

The Conspiracy Of Silence Ought To Revolutionize My Thought

Four songs for you. Have a nice weekend.

Magazine “The Light Pours Out Of Me” – Jack Fear, wrote this about the song on Barbelith: “Best bass hook ever: one note, over and over, with the accents moving around in incredibly driving manner—and a guitar line that reinvents Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part II” as something deeply sinister. It’s a great song—a masterpiece of tension and release… Pete Shelley has a co-writing credit on the tune. The great Buzzcocks song that never was, then.

The Slits “Love Und Romance”

Yoko Ono “Mind Train”

Echoboy “Telstar Recovery”

Something To Look Forward To

From Fantagraphics:

We’re pleased to be able to report that United Artists has signed a first-look deal with GHOST WORLD production company Mr. Mudd for future films the company develops, and the first flick on the slate will reunite EIGHTBALL creator DANIEL CLOWES and GHOST WORLD director TERRY ZWIGOFF. Ghost World producer and actor JOHN MALKOVICH will star in ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, inspired by the acclaimed Clowes short story from Eightball #7. United Artists will release the film domestically, with Miramax Films co-financing the picture and handling foreign distribution. The black comedy takes a satirical look at the modern art world with the story of a young man who goes to art school with the intention of becoming the Greatest Artist in the World. Contrary to some inexplicable Hollywood reports, the protagonist is not a cop and Drew Barrymore is not attached to the film. Clowes is currently polishing the screenplay and with any luck, the movie will begin filming in 2003.

Malkmus In Low SAT Score Shocker!

Here’s another amusing Malkmus interview. This time, it’s SM being interviewed by Playboy while preparing a batch of brownies.

The best part:

PB: Do you bristle at your reputation for being one of the smartest people in music?

SM: I feel like a politician. You can’t be that smart in order to win. Like George Bush. If you’re too clever, it’s bad. For Hollywood movie stars it’s true, too. The ones that are really clever, they’re never going to be like Julia Roberts, or J.Lo or Ben Affleck. People don’t want to support a complete hotshot know-it-all.

(thank you Tina)

Now You Know I’m Ready, Can’t You See I’m Ready?

Roooooooyaaaaaaalllllll Truuuuuuuux. I’ve been listening to Royal Trux constantly since Friday night. On one hand, I keep thinking “why haven’t I been listening to Royal Trux for all of this time?”, and on the other, I’m glad that I saved it til now. I’m ready for Royal Trux now. I needed a new body of work to obsess over, a new musical language to decipher. It’s exciting; I still feel like I’m figuring them out, which is always a fun feeling for me.

This morning “Yo Se!” clicked for me in a big way, which at least one person who may or may not be reading this blog might be very happy about, since she put it on so many tapes for me a few years ago. I never disliked the song, but I think in retrospect, I definitely needed more context for it than I had at the time.

Putting Up A Fight

R.E.M. weighs in on the war with “The Final Straw”. It’s certainly not their best work, but it is a reasonably good old-school folk protest song. If the Zack de la Rocha/DJ Shadow song captures the righteous rage of the opposition to the war and the Bush administration, this R.E.M. song articulates the empathy and humanity that informs that rage.

Personal Whiney Stuff

I just can’t catch a break lately. Stomach flu-like sickness late last week, a severe head cold now. I’m not a healthy boy. There’s too much fluid in my head, it’s interfering with basic thought processes, all of my thoughts feel sluggish and awkward.

In a related story, I’ve probably imbibed more Gatorade in the past seven days than I have cumulatively in my entire lifetime. Something that I’ve discovered: the pastel-colored Gatorade varieties tend to have a vaguely soapy flavor.

Also: Hail To The Thief is a very lame title for an album. I’m not too crazy about “The Gloaming” either. In my mind, that’s about one step away from naming a song “Goblinquest”.

Hey Hey My My

Excellent quote from Royal Trux’s Jennifer Herrema, taken from this interview:

As far as rock n roll goes, the way I think of it, it could never die. It’s not possible. Cos all rock n roll has ever been is just like raping and pillaging and stealing from other sources and turning it inside out and making it your own. Everyone says everything has already been done. But I’m talking to you on the phone right now, and this conversation has never been put into a song. As far as rock n roll being dead, no, I don’t see that happening.

I just don’t want to talk to anyone who would disagree with her about this, not just about rock n roll, but about all kinds of art. I don’t have time for those who would project their own lack of ideas, playfulness, or creativity on the rest of the world.

In Many Rich Directions

I’m very impressed by the review of Pig Lib in this week’s Village Voice. Not only is it one of the best written reviews I’ve read in the frequently obnoxious Village Voice music section, but it’s also one of the most intelligent and well-observed reviews I’ve ever read about Malkmus’s work. Way to go, Joe Gross. I’m glad someone is willing to write about Malkmus’s discography without dismissing any of his past work, particularly his more recent material. I’m also pleased that Gross plays up the emotional aspects of Pig Lib, along with the rest of SM’s catalog, because I think that’s something most people either ignore or write off.

(thanks Ray!)

Also: There are new interviews with Malkmus on Pitchfork and Nerve’s website.

Way-Down-In-The-Delta

I’ve been trying to find a more clever way of saying this, but since I haven’t, and Todd thought of the same thing, I’ll just put it as bluntly as I possibly can: The Black Keys are Blueshammer. I haven’t seen pictures of them, but I’m pretty sure they probably resemble Sean William Scott too. Still, I can enjoy their cover of “She Said, She Said” for the novelty factor, but that’s not much of a recommendation.

Voice Of A Riot

Zack de la Rocha and DJ Shadow have released a new song called “March Of Death” which could possibly be the first truly successful pop song written by an established artist about post 9/11 politics. The lyrics are a step up from what de le Rocha was writing in Rage Against The Machine, and he delivers them with the appropriate level of toxic anger. However, the main appeal of the song for me is DJ Shadow’s backing track, which I think is the finest thing he’s turned out in quite a while. It’s a return to his pre-1995 one-man-Bomb Squad sound, and if there’s ever been an appropriate song/time to update the old PE sound, this is it. It sounds brutal and unruly, I’m very excited by the possibility that this song will likely be playlisted by Clearchannel rock stations all over the US on the strength of de la Rocha’s fanbase. I never particularly liked Rage Against The Machine, but I can definitely support this.

Is That A Question? Is That A Fucking Question?

For Todd and Joe:

Royal Trux “The Banana Question”

Royal Trux “Sunshine & Grease”

Royal Trux “Back To School”

Royal Trux “Juicy Juicy Juice”

Royal Trux “Dirty Headline”

Royal Trux “Blue Is The Frequency”

Royal Trux “You’re Gonna Lose”

A part of the reason why I’m posting these Royal Trux songs is in reaction to The Kills. I like The Kills just fine, they’ve got about five very good tunes, but it is almost impossible for me to hear them without a little voice in my mind chanting “Trux Lite! Trux Lite!” That’s sort of unfair, I know – The Kills actually sound a lot more like a bizarre hybrid of late 80s LA pop metal and late period Velvet Underground, and the Trux resemblence is fairly superficial. The Trux have an originality of sound and persona that I don’t think anyone could ever ape, so it would be sort of miraculous if there ever were actual Royal Trux soundalike bands out there.

Shocking And Awing

There’s some new Get Yur War On strips on MFFTIU. Bless David Rees. We’re all lucky to have him.

Also: there’s a new TV Go Home, featuring a particularly brilliant program titled ‘The Third World War In Sepia’. Plus: Nathan “Cunt” Barley. (Thank you Jack.)

I’ve been avoiding writing about current events here and on Barbelith. It comes up in regular conversation quite enough, and it is very exhausting. I don’t know what to say anymore. The war is bad enough, but the ridiculousness of the propaganda in virtually all of the mainstream media is depressing me beyond all belief. I can’t believe this is really happening. It’s like the Bush administration and all of their complicit pals have been working overtime for the past four years to make some kind of dreary sci-fi dystopian future a reality within the next decade. I don’t want to live in a world in which Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan is eerily prophetic, you know? I’m barely holding it together watching ‘news’ coverage of the war on tv which closely resembles my brother’s Playstation games and reading about people seriously suggesting that anti-war celebrities be blacklisted in the New York Post.

Anyway, I’m going to try to go back into my cocoon of pop culture. I hope that you understand and do not think less of me.

We’re All Disgusting

Interesting bit of Blur information from a recent Blur concert review written by a fan:

When I asked Damon to play ‘My White Noise’ I was given the reply “We cant, Phil Daniels isn’t here” I didn’t argue, just remained baffled, had I said ‘Parklife’? “We were gonna call that song something like ‘Darklife’ but didn’t coz people would’ve attacked us”

Later on in the pub I found out that Phil Daniels does the voice for ‘My White Noise’, so for those few of us who have the rare version amongst us (with Damon’s vocals), hang on to it!

You can download the Damon Albarn-on-vocals version of “My White Noise” right here.

This Is Not A Good Day.

I feel sick, and I’m extremely depressed because of the war. I don’t really have much to say here today, maybe later, I don’t know. I’m sorry this blog has been so dull this week, my heart just hasn’t been in it the past several days. I’m sure you understand.

Yesterday was a fine day, though – I went down to WFMU and interviewed Tom Scharpling for an article about the Best Show that I’m putting together, and that went very well. I also bought the new issue of New X-Men which was quite good, and somewhat surprising. The story sort of zigged when I thought it was going to zag, you know what I mean? I also picked up the new David Rees comic, My New Filing Technique Is Unstoppable In: “Horse Races”, which is pretty good so far, I’ve only read about ten pages into it. It’s very funny, and manages to be even weirder than the first Filing Technique comic. I love Rees’ Get Yur War On strips, but the Filing Technique comics are a lot closer to my heart.

I picked up a copy of Pig Lib yesterday too, the limited-edition version with the bonus EP. Be careful – some stores aren’t carrying that version. If it’s in a plastic jewelbox, it is not the special edition, and you really ought to get the special edition because it’s worth going out of your way just to get it so that you can hear the studio version of “Old Jerry”. It’s very melancholy and beautiful, and better than half of the songs on the proper album. I really wish that Malkmus had put that song on the record, I would have preferred it to “Dark Wave” or “Animal Midnight”, but then I can understand why he didn’t, because it would’ve been one more slow jammy number and it might’ve made the album a little too same-y sounding.

I would offer an MP3 of “Old Jerry”, but I do want to encourage people to actually buy this record, and most people already have the full album proper.

The Interactive Bloggy

I’m not feeling very inspired to write bloggy things today, but I do have a bunch of notes that I scribbled down on the train while listening to the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Kills albums, so I’ll try to write them into a post sometime later on today or tomorrow morning. I’m just not feeling it right now.

I’m curious about what some of you regular readers thought of the Andy Earles/Failed Pilot comedy MP3s that I posted a couple weeks ago. Did any of you download them? What did you think of them? The MP3s are still there, if you haven’t tried them yet.

I Want To Believe That I’ve Got The Key In Me

I’ll write more about these songs a little later. If you can only download one, I strongly recommend the Graham Coxon number.

Graham Coxon “Locked Doors”

The Kills “Kissy Kissy”

The New Pornographers “Chump Change”

The Aislers Set “Catherine Says”

Close Calls With Brick Walls

Well, god bless the Dixie Chicks, who prove that even though the majority of their audience are jingoistic right wing fuckheads, they aren’t afraid to speak their minds and piss them off. That takes a lot of guts, especially when you read that article and realize that there are actually people in their audience who are so reactionary that they’re actually going to try to boycott them.

Also linked from that article is a news item about Andrew WK titling his next album Blow Your Bone. That’s funny enough, but the best part is that Andrew insists that it’s not sexual, but about blowing up a chicken (or cow) bone with dynamite. If you take him at his word, I do believe that this may be the most bizarre unintended double-entendre of all time. Of course, there’s a song slated to appear on the album called “I Am Totally Stupid,” so maybe he’s hoping people will just take his word for it.

(thanks to ILM for the tip-off)

Layin’ On The Syrup Thick

Can someone please tell me why it seems that no one can write an intelligent, clever protest song these days? When Sleater-Kinney’s hamfisted “Combat Rock” is the best post-9/11 protest song currently making the rounds, it’s a rather depressing commentary on the state of political pop music. Surely someone out there can write something witty and lacking in both preciousness and bombast, right?

The Beastie Boys have posted a new anti-war song on their website, but jeezy creezy, it’s AWFUL. I’ve never thought of them as being brilliant lyricists, but they are certainly capable of something a little better than this doggeral. It’s almost not worth it to criticize it too much – it’s just too trite to take seriously. As Kenan says, they’ve gone right past mediocrity to actively sucking. Can someone please tap them on the shoulder and tell them to knock it off with the annoying old school homages? It was getting really obnoxious on half of Hello Nasty, but this new song is just grating and amateurish.

Across The Bloggyverse

Let’s face it, I’m very boring today. What are all the other bloggy kids up to?

* Flyboy and Big Sunny D have written interesting things about Adaptation.

* The Secret Origin of Jody Beth Rosen!

* Daniel Frank indulges in some nitpicking about Bringin’ Down The House, which he hated. I can’t believe he actually paid to see it! I probably wouldn’t even watch the thing on tv for free on a boring day.

* Jack Fear has posted an article that he wrote about the political songwriting of Bruce Cockburn which was originally intended for the currently-on-hiatus Barbelith Webzine. It’s very interesting, I’ve never heard Cockburn, but I’m very eager to now.

Dance, Oh Sons And Daughters

Blur “All Your Life” – This has always been one of my favorite Blur songs, it’s an outtake from the Blur album and appears as a b-side on one of the “Beetlebum” singles. As wonderful as it is, I completely understand why it didn’t make the album – it’s maybe a little too similar to “On Your Own”, and the melody on the verses was perhaps a little too close to David Bowie’s “Oh! You Pretty Things” for Blur’s legal department’s comfort.

Brian Jonestown Massacre “Cold To The Touch”

Frank Black with They Might Be Giants “Ten Percenter” (live)

We Can Find New Ways Of Living

Matador Records co-founder Gerard Cosloy was kind enough to answer a question that I asked him over on ILM about their decision to initially sell Interpol’s debut album with an artificially lower list price, which has been a strategy that some other labels have been trying lately to introduce new artists. This is precisely what I asked him: Out of curiosity, would you consider trying the ‘reduced list price’ trick again? How much of that album’s success at retail do you chalk up to the low introduction price?

This is Gerard’s response:

re: reduced list price for Interpol.

Hard for us to determine for sure just how much or how little this had to do with the album’s success at retail. The cheap price made it easier for people to check out the band and certainly made it easier for stores to take a bigger initial quantity of the album than they might’ve otherwise. On the other hand, were it not for other things happening in concert with this cheap price campaign (ie. strong press, well received gigs, lotsa college play, good word of mouth in advance of the album, good reactions to the pre-album EP, etc.) the reduced list might’ve been meaningless. We did this once before with another band’s debut album and struggled to sell a couple of thousand.

Since ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’ went up to full price in January, the sales have actually increased. Would we have seen similarly strong sales had the album gone out with a standard price last year? We’ll never know.

I’m very curious about what folks from other record labels trying this tactic would respond to the same question, particularly the major labels. For example, RCA tried this with The Strokes album, and Virgin did the same with the N.E.R.D. record. Was it entirely necessary, considering the fact that MTV et al embraced those artists rather quickly, especially in the case of N.E.R.D. who were already technically superstars in the industry? Also, I wonder about how much of a budget deficit this strategy creates, since in addition to the small fortune being spent on advertising and store shelfspace, they’re probably not making any money off the record itself til they increase the list price and even then it may take longer than usual to break even, much less make a profit. This business model seems like it could screw the artist over even worse than the average record contract, even if the idea of decreasing list prices is a very appealing one. It’s such a gamble.

In The Next World War…

You know, I think Badger has an interesting point here:

So when is Radiohead going to raise their head? I just remembered with all of this anti-war stuff spewed by Massive Attack and Blur comes with the release of new albums. Radiohead’s album will be due this summer. They are missing their chance to declare the impending war immoral just because their release date is too late.

To Hear My Words, And They’re Diamond Sharp

Malkmus’ EW dis frenzy has landed him in the New York Post’s Page Six gossip column! (Thanks Todd!)

Destroy Your Record Collection, It’s For Your Own Protection

The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower “Attached To The Hip”

Black Box Recorder “The School Song” – Oh my God! It’s like Grant Morrison’s Emma Frost with a disco beat!

Beach Boys “Til I Die” (extended alternate version)

A Friendly Reminder

It’s not too late to donate to WFMU’s marathon pledge drive. You don’t have to pay right away if you don’t have the money right now, and you don’t have to break your bank to support freeform radio. Even a small $5-10 donation would be helpful, and if you donate during one of your favorite programs, that shows the people at WFMU that you support that show and what they’re doing. If you’re not already listening to WFMU, you really ought to check out their program playlists and realaudio archives, which go back a few years now and continue to build up each week. It’s a wealth of information, music, and culture that is just waiting for you to discover it, and your donation helps to keep this valuable audio resource online.

The Frenzy Continues!

There’s another dis-packed interview with Malkmus in today’s Sunday Times.

On Kate Bush: “It seemed to be like it’s the 19th century, like she was an aristocrat riding her horse to the studio, but they weren’t doing that now, it’s the Seventies and she’s like, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll make an album’ and ‘Oh, she’s so artistic’, all this baggage attached to it, it’s like an E. M. Forster novel.”

On Pink Floyd: “Hmm, let’s add some bells. Erase it. OK, let’s do it again, little slower, speed the tape up, put those tapes away, don’t worry I’ve got one year, it doesn’t matter. Let’s take the Rolls to London and go see that Nicolas Roeg movie. Oh no, let’s not. I’m going to fix this guitar tone for a couple of days . . . I’ll do this guitar solo. Beeoowwng! There, that guitar solo took a week to do.”

On Kurt Cobain: “Was Kurt the Messiah? Naaaoo! He was, like, a spoilt, cute, little guy, a good yeller who made that big, overproduced album that got huge. People have been feeding off that carcass for a long time.”

Other than those quotes, the article is almost completely pointless.

Malkmus Dis Frenzy!

There’s a very entertaining Stephen Malkmus interview in this week’s Entertainment Weekly, they seem to caught him in either a very silly or very cranky mood. Here’s the best part, cutting out the first half of the interview which isn’t nearly as interesting:

If your new album were a movie, what would it be?

Aliens. Sigourney Weaver comes back with short hair and all’s well at the box office.

You’ve cut your hair?

Yes, I have. It’s shorter than on the last album’s cover. It’s, like, parent-supported length. It’s a pretty massive move. Like if Eminem came back with dreadlocks for the next album.

If the album is Aliens, who is the alien?

Joe Piscopo. I think he represents mediocrity on Saturday Night Live, and I want to take him out. And I want to take out that Jimmy Fallon antitalent. I’m mad at Jimmy Fallon for being average and getting so much credit just because he’s cute. He better not show up backstage.

You’re starting a rap feud.

A beef! They’re called beefs!

Can you write a rap couplet about Jimmy Fallon?

I’ll only do so much to get in EW.

What’s the last terrible movie you’ve seen?

James Bond. Die Another Day. Tired premise, awful sexual-innuendo banter that’s not funny, and no sexy girls. Halle Berry is so in love with herself that you can’t even get a piece of her, you know? When you see the previews, you think “Well, this is gonna be junk entertainment, but it’s gonnna be okay. I’ll get my junk here.” But you didn’t even get that. It was just, like, so awful.

Your old band’s early records are getting deluxe reissues, and you’ve embarked on a solo career. Does that make you the indie-rock Sting?

Yeah, Sting and I are often mentioned in the same breath. (laughs) No, I’m not much like him. He’s one of my least favorite guys. He grosses me out. I hate that world music he makes. He’s just so successful. It’s like he’s got hovercraft shoes, blowing through the world without any problems. He’s Mr. Good Life. If there’s ever a movie, and he needs, like, an evil anti-Sting that he fights, I’ll be that guy. I’ll take him and Jimmy Fallon out.

Actually, you have a song on Pig Lib called “Us.” Maybe you’re the indie-rock Peter Gabriel.

I’d rather be him. He dresses up like a flower. Though he’s kinda weak too, you’ve got to admit. He also has a sort of English-rock-aristocracy attitude that has no underdog in it. I can’t really support him.

I Know It’s Hard For You, My Baby

I fear that I may have waited a little too long to write about Morvern Callar. Though a lot of memorable scenes and images are still fairly fresh in my mind, my initial flush of excitement about it has fallen off. Most of the things I would have wanted to say about the way the film looks and sounds have already been articulated far better than I probably would have written them by Todd here and here.

One of the things that I find very remarkable about Morvern Callar is the way the story’s tone subtly shifts about halfway through from being quiet, brooding, and morbid to becoming something of a dark comedy in the third act. Thinking about it right now, I can’t think of anything else I’ve seen or read that pulls that off without ever seeming disjointed. I’m also quite impressed by Lynne Ramsey’s visual storytelling skill in addition to her eye for composition and framing. Much of the first half hour is wordless, but is told with a flair for style and narrative economy that stood in stark contrast with the narrative mess of All The Real Girls, which I had seen earlier in the day. I’m sort of glad that I saw those two films in the same day, to see the difference between how an aspiring amateur and an inspired professional differ in telling a story on film.

Of course, one of the major draws of Morvern Callar is the superb soundtrack and the way it is integrated into the film. Since Todd has already discussed this, I’ll just note that it felt really…cool, for a lack of a better word, to hear a lot of songs which I already loved in the film. I was aware that the film had a number of Can/Holger Czukay songs on its soundtrack before I saw it, but I didn’t know which songs. When Can’s “I Want More” was played very briefly early in the film, I got a nice jolt of joy since that has always been one of my favorite Can songs, and I’ve always thought it was very underrated and neglected. It was also fantastic to hear one of my favorite Broadcast songs, “You Can Fall”, halfway through, even though I must admit that I didn’t immediately recognize it. The soundtrack album is quite good and very listenable as an album in its own right, but it does unfortunately lack The Mamas and the Papas’ “Dedicated To The One I Love”, which plays over the end titles to very good effect.

Girl, I’m Not A Piece Of Meat. Stimulate My Brain!

If you’re a fan of The Best Show On WFMU, you’re probably familiar with the comedy of Andy Earles. Andy is the man behind characters such as The Depressed Office Worker, Kevin, Samson, and Tanner Wildgrass. In comparison to the more flamboyant and sleazy characters of Jon Wurster, Earles’ comedy is considerably more subtle, drawing humor from pathos, depression, and very lowbrow culture. In addition to what he does on The Best Show, Andy is one half of the comedy team which created Just Farr A Laugh: The Greatest Prank Phone Calls Ever, one of the few comedy records genuinely worth paying for and unquestionably the finest prank call disc ever made. Well, actually, it might be the only good prank call disc ever made.

One thing you need to know before listening to these clips from the album is that you probably won’t appreciate them right away. You need to hear them a few times to get the full effect, and it certainly does help if you understand the numerous obscure cultural references being made. I can’t promise you that you’ll enjoy it, but I can promise you that if you do like it, you’ll love the whole record. And if you want the record, you really ought to buy it directly from Failed Pilot, because a) they deserve your money and b) the liner notes really are half the fun.

These first two are a set – you need to hear “Barbara: A Realistic Portrait” first before you move on to “Barbara’s Husband Clears The Air”

“Bedroom ETA” – This call is notable for the fact that Andy manages to sing about half of Jermaine Stewart’s “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes” off in an obnoxious falsetto without any interruption from the guy on the other line.

“Just Farr A Laugh: The Yogurt Machine” This one is jam-packed full of quotable bits. I will only spoil one of them for you: “Ice cream is a whole ‘nother sonuvabitch…I’m serious. Night and day.”

“Tim Butler, An Old Flatmate Of David J’s” – Featuring the worst fake British accent of all time, and a victim who remains strangely passive in spite of Butler’s belligerance.

In other Best Show news, a photo gallery full of shots taken by the webcam at last night’s special WFMU fundraising marathon is up on Friends Of Tom. The most exciting thing about the gallery is that you get to see plenty of images of special in-studio guest Philly Boy Roy!

I Was In A Three Piece Band, And There Were No Strings. Only Wings.

I don’t understand it. Why does nearly every band on the Everything Is Ending Here: A Tribute To Pavement record slow down and mellow out the song that they are covering? And why do more than half of the songs sound as if they are being sung by the same guy doing a Dean Wareham impression? I can’t understand why all of these bands feel the need to suck the joy out of a lot of these songs, and make them sound like drab Will Oldham-style depresso indie folk. Not even the most boring version by the most boring band can take away the essential quality of the songs themselves, but it’s not for lack of trying for some of these folks.

By far the most frustrating version on the record for me is Silkworm’s take on “And Then (The Hexx)”. They chose to record the original version of the song which I prefer, and they made the song more folky and far less stoner metal which is fine by me. The guitar performance is stunning – they really nail the song from start to finish. Unfortunately, the singing is terrible. Just pathetic, really. Flat, passionless, and dull like that Crash Test Dummies guy on tranquilizers. I cringe just thinking about it. And they get the lyrics all wrong! I just want to grab the guy and shake him, correcting him that the big vocal climax of the song goes “she knows what it’s like to be 45 and 53” NOT “he know why I let you be 45th and 53rd”! In print that may not look like a huge difference, but say it out loud. The second version just rips the melody out of it completely. Maybe I’m thoroughly unreasonable about this. Maybe I’m just very uptight about people recording really halfassed versions of my favorite songs. But this just isn’t right. Someone needs to tap some of these people on the shoulder and remind them that they will likely never write anything in their careers half as good as the weakest Pavement song. They need to show more reverence to the source material, if just by getting the fucking melody and the words right.

Also, did all of these bands just choose to ignore the fact that Pavement rocked fairly often and were almost always very fun? I mean, even the band who did “Unfair” slowed it down to a mid-tempo ballad! It’s cute, but it’s still all wrong. One of the few songs that is allowed to rock at least half as much as the original is Magoo’s cover of “Perfume-V”, but they mess around with the tempo by drastically slowing the song down before launching into the chorus, which completely wrecks the accelerating effect of the original. By the time they get to the “like a docent’s lisp…” outro, the song sounds like it’s about to nod off. This just isn’t right! “Perfume-V” should zoom right by you!

All three versions of “Here” sound as if they were performed by people in various states of exhaustion. Number One Cup’s take is the best, but it sounds like a James ballad, which maybe isn’t the best thing that could’ve been done with the song. Lunchbox’s version is just an uninteresting mess, and I can barely contain my deep loathing of the Tindersticks version of the song, which was already commercially released prior to this compilation. There is nothing good about the Tindersticks version. Nothing. It is perhaps the worst recording of a great song that I’ve ever heard. Malkmus should sue.

It’s not all bad, though. Plenty of obscure little indie bands do a serviceable job of playing the songs as straight as they can while lacking in charisma or energy. El Goodo’s “Trigger Cut”, Airport Girl’s “Cut Your Hair”, Saloon’s “Shoot The Singer”, Oranger’s “Winner Of The”, Micevice’s “Feed ‘Em To The (Linden) Lions”, Lenola’s “Kennel District”, Panty Lion’s “Baby Yeah” – they’re all okay, if a bit uninspired. Other bands who recorded misery-pop versions of the songs have some limited success with that formula. Tiger Wood’s version of “Ell Ess Two” sounds like the best Toad The Wet Sprocket song that was never written; Appendix Out’s version of “Frontwards” is true to the spirit of the original in spite of sounding far more ordinary; and Fuck’s “Heaven Is A Truck” is perfectly acceptable.

The bands who try to experiment with the songs are mostly hit or miss. Solex tries to write entirely new music for “Shady Lane”, but the vocal melody just sounds forced and awkward. Future Pilot AKA Vs. Colditz’s version of “Range Life” is drastically slowed and features what I believe are Japanese lyrics, but it just sounds like a dreary mess devoid of the song’s spirit entirely. C-Kid’s dark electropop version of “In The Mouth A Desert” works for me though, mostly because the song lends itself to that style fairly well.

There are a few unqualified successes on the record, such as Bardo Pond’s version of “Home”, which is the only song on the compilation that I think could really come close to matching the original in terms of quality. Of all the songs in the Pavement catalog, they chose the perfect song for themselves to play, it suits them so well. Quickspace’s cover of “We Are Underused” is very interesting, and adapts the song into their unique sound without sacrificing much of the original besides altering the deliverary of the chorus. Fivehead’s version of “Circa 1762” at the end of the second disc works well mostly because they stay so faithful to the original, which really ought to be a lesson to the rest of these bands. There’s nothing particularly special about Fivehead, but they surrender themselves so completely to the spirit of the song that it works nearly as well as the Pavement original.