Author Archive

I’ve Never Been So Happy And Full Of Beer

Good Shoes “Small Town Girl” – There are some weird leaps in the lyrics to this song. The first few times that I heard it, I just thought it was a sweet song about a local girl, but on closer inspection, it’s a bit stranger than that. In the first verse, the guy is talking about reading about this small town girl who ended up doing “oh so well” in Hollywood. Then, in the chorus, he seems to be with her, and she’s telling him that it’s not such a great life. In the second verse, she’s angry at him for just being a “shag,” but also annoyed that they are “just friends.” So he just cuts it off, then and there! On the outro, it’s not quite clear who is singing about their secrets. So, is this about a guy who read about a girl, and then went out of his way to find and have sex with her? Who is this guy? (Click here to buy it on a Rough Trade compilation, or here for Good Shoes’ official site.)

Marykate O’Neil “Things Are Too Good (They’re Bound To Go Bad)” – Remember when indie rock was synonymous with bleak humor, pragmatic pessimism, and noisy, off-kilter pop tunes, and not “punk-funk,” weepy sad sackery, cryptic Christianity, and “collectives” featuring anyone in the neighborhood who happened to still have their old high school marching band instruments? I do, and clearly, Marykate Olsen O’Neil does as well. I love the way this song takes a perverse kind of joy in its own paranoia, as though the singer is trying to bring on a negative self-fulfilling prophecy because she’s just way more comfortable in a bad situation. It’s a song about fearing success and hedging bets, and it speaks to terrible impulses, but it’s something most people deal with every day. I’m not sure if I’d trust someone who said that they didn’t. (Click here to buy it via Marykate O’Neil’s official site.)

A Patchwork Quilt Of Every Day We Spent Together

Nouveau Riche “Take Me Home” – A lot of the time when bands start mixing and matching genres, it can end up sounding contrived and obvious, but with Nouveau Riche (an offshoot of The Roots, if you are curious), it sounds like an organic, perhaps even accidental result of the members’ influences flowing into a seamless whole. There’s nothing tremendously radical going on in the composition, but inspired, somewhat unorthodox musical ideas pile up in the arrangement as the song progresses. The interlude with the string section in the middle of the song is especially brilliant. At first, it seems like a strange detour into an entirely different song, but as the vocals and drums return, it suddenly seems like a necessary lull between two emotional epiphanies. (Click here for Nouveau Riche’s official site.)

Elsewhere:

Tom Breihan reviews Cam’ron’s directorial debut Killa Season, which sounds like it could be the most hilariously awful film of 2006.

Nick Sylvester returns to the blog game with Riff Market.

Doctor Pop reviews tv shows, movies, comics, and junk food with the same level of seriousness and wit. The final paragraph of his review of Basic Instinct 2 is especially great.

If you didn’t already know, 20 Jazz Funk Greats has a brand new song from Fox N’ Wolf.

Edit: As it turns out, I did not actually double-book myself, and I will be going to the Pollard show. I seriously need to get a proper wall calendar.

Loser Assholes Suck All The Luck Out Of The World

Thurston Moore “Psychic Hearts” – Apropos of nothing in particular, there are some newly released reissues of some odds and ends from the Sonic Youth catalog, including Thurston Moore’s only “singer-songwriter” solo album, Psychic Hearts. Though much of that album still feels like a bunch of demos waiting to be fleshed out by his regular band, the best songs on the record make the most of their comparitively stark arrangements. It’s difficult to imagine Sonic Youth coming up with a superior arrangement for the title track, which settles into a ghostly groove that serves as an ideal backdrop for the best lyrics of Moore’s career. “Psychic Hearts” is about a cool, troubled girl from a small town, but it’s sung from the perspective of a kind-hearted and self-righteous indie boy who desperately wants to rescue her from the abusive men in her life. Both of them are sympathetic characters, but Moore allows for some ambiguity in the male character, who occasionally seems to lack some self-awareness about his hero fantasies, and appears to be projecting quite a bit on to this girl that he admits that he doesn’t even know very well. But nevermind that – he’s ultimately a good guy who wants the best for this girl, and has no desire to stand in the way of her freedom. It’s a remarkable lyric, not just for its detail and voice, but for how it balances a common straight dude fantasy with a total respect for the girl that the fantasy is being built around. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Mission of Burma “1,001 Pleasant Dreams” – For some reason, I keep getting Mission of Burma’s career confused with someone else’s (I think it’s Wire, to a certain extent), and so I was surprised to realize that their new album is actually the third LP in their career, not counting compilations, EPs, and live records. So that’s nothing like Wire at all, but they are alike in that they are rocking way harder as they get older, which is something that I think we’ve been conditioned to think of as being counterintuitive, but it definitely makes sense if you think about the fact that both bands are trying on some level to reassert primacy in the young man’s game of punk rock. If they didn’t come strong, they would most likely be written off and ignored. I’m definitely intrigued by aggressive, heavy music made by older musicians, especially punks and rappers – it’s almost always a very different feeling than similar music made by younger artists. Aggressive impulses mature in very curious ways. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

Nothing’s Going To Change If You Keep On Whispering

Lo-Fi-FNK “What’s Mind?” – The sweet boys of Lo-Fi-FNK try to a pull a shy, stoic person out of their shell through kind-hearted browbeating, and though it makes for a great pop song, I can only imagine that they’d be annoying the hell out of this person, and sort of insulting them when they say things like “it’s no reason to be all that boring.” This guy is probably clinically depressed, Lo-Fi-FNK! That’s really not the same thing as being boring! (Click here to buy it via Lo-Fi-FNK’s official site.)

Ladyfuzz “Staple Gun” – Hey ho ho, ha ha. Most of Ladyfuzz’s album stays in the twitchy, up-tempo mode of the singles I have posted here in the past, but when they bring it down, they don’t soften up as much as they strip down to bare essentials. “Staple Gun” is all a cappella vocals and minimal percussion, and comes out sounding like a punk glee club. (Click here to buy it from HMV UK.)

Smash What’s Left Of Yourself With A Brick

San Serac “Tyrant” – I’m having a hard time trying to figure out if this song is an extended metaphor/hypothetical situation (probably) or if this guy really does have a friend/associate from his past who is now an “exiled former autocrat.” (Much less likely, but an interesting story.) The production shamelessly apes some questionable keyboard/drum machine sounds from the 80s, but with refreshingly non-awful results. Even with the synth-horn solos, it somehow dodges the kitsch bullet (okay, maybe the song gets grazed a bit, but it’s a very minor wound, like that shot to the shoulder that Twan receives in “Trapped In The Closet”) and it mostly just sounds like an earnest art-pop song from the era that happened to be made in this decade. (Click here to buy it from Bleep.)

Uffie “Pop The Glock” – It might be a bit of an understatement to say that Uffie isn’t a particularly good rapper. There’s a certain charm to her vocals, but it’s essentially the kind of amateurish rapping that you can’t get away with unless you happen to be a very pretty girl. But really, the rapping on this track is a total MacGuffin. It’s there to carry the song along and provide context, but the appeal of the track lies in the way the time-lagged vocoder ghosts her vocals, and how the woozy beat is entirely at odds with her party-centric lyrics. It all comes together to sound roughly like listening to a pop song on the radio while you are thoroughly zoned out. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

I Must Have Been Born Hanging Out

I-Robots “Frau (Boysnoize Mix)” – Throughout this entire track, there’s this great balance of exhiliration and terror, and it’s often difficult to tell where one feeling ends and the other begins. The song feels like a chase scene, as though you’re playing a game of hide and seek with a squad of Germanic death machines. The music slows down here and there for moments of tension and suspense, but it is never, ever calm. (Click here to buy it from Nuloop.)

Cex “Chicago” – You know that party sequence in Boogie Nights right before the story jumps into the 80s after William H. Macy’s character kills himself, his wife, and whoever it was she was having sex with at that moment? This song makes me imagine a new version of that horrific party, but instead of 70s porn stars, it’s a bunch of bottoming-out Vice Magazine types at the end of this decade. I’m not sure if they’d pick a song that sounds sort of like Modest Mouse collaborating with Nine Inch Nails as the soundtrack for their inevitable downfall, but it works as the sound of an ugly aesthetic eating itself alive. (Click here to buy it from Automation Records.)

Lucky Stars In Your Eyes

Daniel Johnston “Like A Monkey In A Zoo” – The very best thing about Jeff Feuerzeig’s The Devil and Daniel Johnston is that, in spite of containing quite a bit of footage depicting Johnston in severe manic states, it never treats the man “like a monkey in a zoo.” Even when Daniel hits his lowest lows – beating his manager with a lead pipe, crashing a small aircraft piloted by his father, frightening an old woman into jumping out of a window – Feuerzeig consistently avoids sensationalism. If anything, he errs on the side of fan-ish reverence, making the film come off more like a sentimental history of Johnston’s art and struggles with mental illness rather than a critical documentary. I appreciate the fact that a film about Johnston would probably never be made unless it was created by a devoted fan, but I am disappointed that the movie rarely engages with what I would consider to be a major part of the Johnston phenomenon – the fetishization of his illness and “outsider” status by a large portion of his fanbase, either as evidence of his authenticity and purity, or as a voyeuristic selling point. But then again, maybe that’s a whole other film waiting to be made. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Kathy McCarty “Walking The Cow” – The Devil and Daniel Johnston does serve its subject well in terms of emphasizing the fact that his fascinating troubles are only a small part of Johnston’s eduring appeal, and that his music really has touched many people over the years. His own recordings can easily distract listeners with their shoddy lo-fi sound, shakey performances, and Daniel’s child-like, somewhat androgynous voice, but his catalog is perhaps best suited for interpretation by other artists. Johnston’s longtime friend Kathy McCarty’s album of his songs, Dead Dog’s Eyeball, is especially great; foregrounding his melodic sensibilities in elegant arrangements, and lending her skills as an interpretative vocalist to his surprisingly nuanced lyrics. In her hands, “Walking The Cow” becomes less of a curiosity, and more of an obvious alt-pop classic. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

The Situation’s Out Of Your Hands, Mama

A Sunny Day In Glasgow “The Best Summer Ever” – A Sunny Day In Glasgow’s MySpace page simply states their influences as being “college radio circa 1983 – 1992,” and that’s no joke. The music sounds like the work of a group fully immersed in the underground pop aesthetics of that period, intent on resuscitating musical traditions that have largely disappeared, and are only occasionally revisited in things like Hyped 2 Death‘s compilations and VH1 Classic’s The Alternative program. Interestingly, the members of this band are pretty young, so they aren’t updating the music of their youth so much as the music of their childhood. (Assuming that they were exceptionally cool kids in elementary school, of course.) (Click here to buy it from A Sunny Day In Glasgow.)

Adam Green “Nat King Cole” – It’s Adam Green, and as you can expect, the song is essentially a joke, but if you take it at face value, it’s a pretty fantastic track. He’s singing the entire thing in what I assume is meant to be a fat Elvis voice, but it comes a lot closer to sounding like Glenn Danzig playing a fake Johnny Cash song at a Las Vegas revue. It’s definitely a case of a so-so joke getting over on total commitment and high production values, and (accidentally?) transcending its roots in comedy. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Looking Sideways And Smiling

I’ve been doing this site for a little over four years now, and in all of that time, I’ve resisted the urge to post my own music. But you know, me and my band the Raptors have been doing some pretty good stuff lately, and I want to share some of it with you. I’m really proud of this music, and I hope that you like it even half as much as the stuff that I normally post.

Raptors “You Make Me Smile” – With this song, I was trying to update the he said/she said dynamic of “Don’t You Want Me” by the Human League, but give it sort of an everyman “Jack and Diane” quality. Everyone in the Raptors is from the suburbs, and we wanted to write a song about the lives and loves of the sort of authentic, hard working regular people from back home. Who says the suburbs can’t be sexy?

Raptors “My Infinity” – When I wrote this, I was thinking a lot about how when you’re in a new relationship, you can feel this burst of powerful energy within you, as though you’ve been granted special powers by your lover. So the scenario in the lyrics here is something like, what if I had a girlfriend and she was this hot chick version of Galactus, and she made me into her Silver Surfer of love? How would a relationship change on a cosmic scale? This is the kind of thing that really interests me, so I decided to explore that concept in this song.

(Click here for the Raptors MySpace page.)

You Never Really Knew For Sure

Maps “Lost My Soul” – My mind is already fast-forwarding to some point a year or two from now when this song is playing a thousand times a day as part of some tv ad aimed at the “indie yuppie” demographic. And I don’t mean to be snarky about this – this song is so incredibly effective at combining that sort of quietly melodramatic Mercury Rev-ish “I’m a man with a tiny voice singing about big emotions in the midst of a sweeping arrangement” thing with cool electronic textures and swelling strings that it’s almost impossible to resist if you have any love for that type of music at all, whatsoever. (Click here for Maps’ MySpace page.)

Umekichi & Otemoto Orchestra “Samisen Boogie Woogie” – Though the theatrics of Umekichi’s Geisha performance is lost on record, there’s still quite a lot to love on this bizarre little Japanese boogie number, which pulls off that wonderful trick of sounding comfortable, catchy, and slightly warped at the same time. (Click here to buy it (I think…) from Umekichi’s official site.)

We’re So In Love With Our Tears

Hockey Night “Who We Are” – For a song that comes off like something halfway between a pep talk and a stump speech, “Who We Are” is surprisingly modest in its aim and scope. Its “we”s and “our”s don’t seem to reach too far outside of the indie demographic, but that’s fine – it’s Hockey Night’s constinuency, and they are lobbying hard for your vote in 2006 by a pushing a message of cautious optimism in opposition to the dreary miserablism of the emo incumbancy! (Click here for the official Hockey Night site.)

Paavoharju “Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Läpi” – There’s something ever so slightly off about this track, almost as though its musical components are essentially unrelated, and it coheres into a composition as an act of random, natural beauty as if it were a pop song created by radio signals overlapping as they drift aimlessly into deep space. (Click here to buy it from Fonal.)

On Account Of Bad Chemistry

Richard McGraw “Natasha in High School” – There’s a moment about halfway through this little number about being obsessed with a girl from high school long after the point when that sort of thing would be remotely charming or sympathetic when the song briefly deviates from its jaunty indie pop for a bit of Meat Loaf-ish bombast. It’s absolutely wonderful, and though I’m fine with this song as it is, it does make me wish that McGraw went all the way with it, because you know, it might not be such a bad idea to borrow some ideas from Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. Maybe someone needs to write the indie pop version of “Paradise By The Dashboard Light.” As it is, the lyrics deal with very similar subject matter as Art Brut’s “Emily Kane,” but if that song is more like a feel-good romantic comedy, “Natasha In High School” is a droll, pessimistic indie dramedy. (Click here to buy it via McGraw’s official site.)

C-Mone “Catch Me If U Can” – Fans of The Streets (and apparently there’s a lot of them; I’m still getting lots of visitors looking for “When You Wasn’t Famous”) will recognize C-Mone from “Get Out My House” from A Grand Don’t Come For Free, but her own record isn’t much like Skinner’s in terms of style and performance. Her vocals remind me quite a bit of Martina Topley-Bird’s raps on the first few Tricky records, which is immensely appealing to me since I haven’t been pleased with Martina’s solo work, and welcome anything that comes close to her versions of “Bad Things” and “Lyrics of Fury.” C-Mone’s voice is similarly pretty, with a heavy British accent that thickens when she needs to sound dismissive or irritable, but her tracks tend toward a more wide open sound, rather than Tricky’s typically claustrophobic beats. (Click here to buy it from Bleep.)

The UFO Will Pick Us Up

X-Wife “Ping Pong” – Whereas previous X-Wife songs seemed aimed at big rooms and open air venues, “Ping Pong” feels more like it was calibrated for blowing up in small venues and danceclubs. The groove starts off cold and sinister, but it gradually builds up intensity until it goes white hot and flames out in the instrumental outro. (Click here for the official X-Wife page.)

Cortina “I Am Not An American” – It’s true, she isn’t an American. Cortina are from New Zealand, which is not anywhere near America. You may remember this band from the SXSW round-up last week – they were the ones who looked like New Wave supervillains and sounded like someone from the 80s’ idea of a futuristic band, which I guess is basically Le Tigre with heavier guitars and a dude who looks like Rick Rubin in a leopard print body suit singing on half of the songs. (Click here for the Cortina MySpace page.)

Help Wanted!

If you own/have access to digital video equipment and/or have skills in editing digital footage, please get in touch with me if you are interested in working with me on some projects that will be featured on this site in the months to come. Students, ex-students, amateurs, professionals with time on their hands – give me a shout! I would prefer it if you were located in the NYC area, but if you’re not maybe we can work something else out. Inquire at perpetua @ gmail.com

Be Nice To The Crackheads

Ghostface Killah featuring Cappadonna, Shawn Wigs & Trife “Jellyfish” – Fishscale is so overflowing with top drawer material that I’ve been frozen for days trying to figure out which song to post. Even with the best records, there’s usually an obvious choice or a quintessential track, but trying to boil this little masterpiece down to one song is tough work. “Jellyfish” is a bit of a dark horse – it doesn’t provide a catchy angle like “Whip You With A Strap” (the best song I’ve ever heard advocating the violent discipline of children) or “9 Milli Bros.” (the entire Wu-Tang Clan, together again for maybe the last time!), and it’s not Ghostface to the nth degree, as on “Shakey Dog,” “The Champ,” and “Dogs of War.” Comparitively, “Jellyfish” has a mellower charm, and with its nostalgic organ drone and lackadaisical vibe, it’s the closest thing the album has to a track like “Child’s Play” from Supreme Clientele. That organ is key – it’s so high up in the mix that it sounds like a ceiling or a sky high above the vocals, bass, and beat. (Click here to buy it for a ridiculously low price from Amazon. You really can’t go wrong with this record.)

Lavender Diamond “You Broke My Heart” – When I was in Texas last weekend, I heard from four or five trusted sources that I missed out on great performances by Lavender Diamond, a band that I’d never heard of prior to last Thursday. Now that I’ve acquired their EP, I’m kicking myself for not having been on top of this earlier. “You Broke My Heart” is my favorite so far, a quietly anthemic ballad that mixes the gentle, somewhat austere quality of Sandy Denny’s work with the Fairport Convention with a touch of warmness similar to that of Carole King on Tapestry and Joni Mitchell circa Blue. (Click here to buy it from Lavender Diamond.)

I’m Only Doing Just Fine

Phoenix “Long Distance Call” – It took Phoenix nearly four years to follow up their debut, so it comes as a very pleasant and extremely welcome surprise that they’ve already finished the successor to Alphabetical, which many of you may remember was one of my favorite albums from 2004 and remains one of my favorite records from this decade. “Long Distance Call” retains the immaculate pop aesthetic of their first two records, but it’s toughened up a bit with slightly ragged rock guitar parts on the chorus contrasting with smooth keyboards on the verses. Of course, “ragged” for Phoenix is a bit like brand new designer clothing that’s meant to seem old and worn. (Click here for the official Phoenix website.)

Barbara Morgenstern “The Operator” – There’s a keyboard refrain in this song that I swear reminds me of some fragment of a Sonic Youth song, and though I’m fairly certain it’s from Daydream Nation, I just can’t place it. (The part in question is just before the first shift into a faster tempo, about 30 seconds into the track.) Even if I’m wrong, there is a certain Daydream Nation-ness to this track, which I suppose is not something said of guitar-free synthpop songs sung mostly in German. It’s all in the lovely arpreggios and structural shifts, and in how it evokes a web of conflicting feelings that nearly translates into a disaffected emotional neutrality. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

A Heart So Slippery Love Slides Away

Spektrum “Horny Pony (Ed Laliq Dressage Mix)” – This starts off sounding almost like some bizarre, misguided Trojan radio ad featuring a stoned Macy Gray flirting with a horse, but it just keeps going and mutates into a perfect, disorienting groove with all kinds of hooks orbitting the beat like a solar system of funk. This is yet another perfect single from Spektrum, who totally killed it last year with “May Day,” and the year before with “Kinda New.” (Click here to buy it from Bleep.)

The Starlight Mints “Seventeen Devils” – Why is it that, with only a few exceptions, I almost always prefer songs that sound sort of like David Bowie to the ones actually written and performed by the man himself? It’s similar to how a lot of my favorite acts owe some stylistic debt to Bob Dylan, but I’d be hard pressed to fill out a cdr with Dylan songs that I kinda like, much less love. In the case of this song, it sort of falls into my Bowie sweet spot between The Man Who Sold The World and Hunky Dory, so it’s certainly playing to my bias against Ziggy Stardust, which I would never say is a bad album so much as it is one that I’d really rather not listen to again. (You know, kind of like Appetite For Destruction.)

If you’re a member of the Starlight Mints, I feel like I should apologize to you for spending all of my time in this review talking about David Bowie. But please keep in mind that I’m basically saying that you wrote a better David Bowie song than 95% of the ones that he actually composed himself, and on top of it, you pulled off a better string arrangement than any I’ve ever heard on one of his albums. In other words, you have pwned a rock icon. (Click here to pre-order it from Barsuk.)

Contest Winner!

Simon H’s fake Decemberists song is the winner! I’ve sent him an email, but if he doesn’t get that, I suppose that he’ll see it here. Get in touch, Simon!

SXSW Makes Me Want To Rock Out

This was my first SXSW, and as such, it was a very overwhelming experience for me. Unlike CMJ, which is spread out in venues all over NYC and requires a far greater amount of logistical planning, the absurd super-concentration of music venues in downtown Austin allows for the possibility of seeing so many more shows in rapid succession, and it can kinda make your head spin. Thankfully, I did not miss very many acts that I would have liked to have seen, and the good people at Pitchfork, The Fader, and Stereogum hosted day parties featuring a number of artists that I most wanted to see while at the festival.

SXSW was not only overwhelming in terms of music, but also in regards to social stimulation. I got to see a huge number of friends and acquaintances, as well as meet a lot of new people and folks that I’ve known from the internet but never met in person. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time with a lot of the people in the latter two categories, and if you’re one of them, I’m really sorry! Definitely drop me a line.

Thursday

Ted Leo + Pharmacists – It seems strange and maybe even factually incorrect to me that this was the first time that I’ve seen Ted Leo perform. (Did I see this band as an opening act at some point? I’m not quite sure.) Either way, this was a nice set focusing mainly on songs from their next album, plus a few old hits like “Me and Mia” and “Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone.” Midway through the show, Ted dropped a few Gorch references, which was pretty awesome, but was maybe lost on about 98% of the room.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They – The band’s noir circus punk comes off really well live, even if they don’t look anything like how I would have expected. (The singer/guitarist guy looks a bit like deranged prostitute murderer Francis Wolcott from Deadwood dressed down in indie clothing.) “Lowlife” was especially exciting for me, but the energy level was high for the entire set.

Dead Boy and the Elephantmen – No, not The Dead Boys and Elephant Man. That would have been interesting, but this duo just sounded like Blueshammer most of the time, except for when they slowed things down for some Nickelback-ish ballads.

The Noisettes – Aggravating and dull. In fairness to this and the previous band, I was really just waiting for the Fiery Furnaces and the Dresden Dolls, and they just happened to be on the same bill.

The Fiery Furnaces –

Live @ Stubb’s 3/16/2006
Crystal Clear / Chris Michaels / Straight Street / Asthma Attack / Police Sweater Blood Vow / Slavin’ Away / Rehearsing My Choir / Quay Cur / Waiting To Know You / My Dog Was Lost But Now He’s Found / Benton Harbor Blues / Single Again

Though I still prefer the keyboard-centric medley-crazed live version of The Fiery Furnaces, this was most certainly the best straight ahead rock show that I’ve ever seen them play. It’s still the same line-up as the Town Hall show from last year, but they’ve really come together in the time since, and it didn’t seem like a muddy, rushed mess at all. If anything, I just worry about people hearing them for the first time as a killer rock combo, and then picking up Rehearsing My Choir or Bitter Tea and being very disappointed and/or confused. It’s something of a bait and switch, and they know it.

The Dresden Dolls – Very impressive, extremely tight, and obviously super ambitious. They seemed hell-bent on putting on an exciting, dynamic show, and pulled it off like seasoned professionals. Frankly, if this band’s audience doesn’t increase tenfold by this time next year, I will be very surprised. This was definitely one of the best shows that I saw over my three days at the festival.

Friday

Death Vessel – To be honest, I barely paid attention to this because I was visiting with friends at the Pitchfork party. It was alright, I guess, but I don’t really remember much.

Jose Gonzalez – Sort of boring, really. Of course, his cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats” was lovely. You really can’t lose with that song.

Patton Oswalt “Steak” – Oswalt hosted the Pitchfork party, which came as the best surprise of the weekend for me since I’ve been wanting to see him perform for quite a while now. He was pretty hilarious the entire time, but he was absolutely killing it in the stretch between Gonzalez and The Juan MacLean’s DJ set. (Click here to buy it from Patton Oswalt’s official site.)

The Juan MacLean – Just a DJ set. There’s really not a lot to say.

Ladytron – Ditto. It was just one of the dudes playing pretty obvious DJ selections. I really wish that they would have played as a band.

Hot Chip – Poor Hot Chip were plagued by technical problems and only managed to play three songs, none of which were among the tracks I would have been excited to see live. But they did a pretty good job in spite of all the problems with the monitors. It sounded pretty good from where I was standing, anyway.

Spank Rock – Very fun, maybe a little too brief. They nailed “Rick Rubin,” and did a great new song with a chorus something like “shake that ass til my dick turns racist” which sounds a lot better in context than it reads in print.

Matthew Dear – Not bad, but the Pfork tent wasn’t exactly about to burst into a midday rave or anything.

Love Is All – I’ll come back to them a little later, okay?

RJD2 – I’ve heard some very conflicting reports about the quality of RJD2’s DJ sets, but I think this one came off pretty well. This was the best DJ set that I heard over the weekend aside from the Swishahouse-affiliated guy going between sets at the Fader party.

Art Brut “Modern Art” – I liked Art Brut coming into this set, but as soon as they started playing, they turned me into a hyperactive teenage boy at his first punk show. It was ridiculously fun all the way through, but they really blew me away with the ending trio of “Emily Kane,” “Modern Art,” and “Good Weekend.” Highly recommended!

Cortina – I stumbled into Cortina’s set, and I’m pretty glad that I did. They looked and sounded like an 80s sci-fi movie version of a rock band from the future, all decked out in insane outfits that made them look like new wave supervillains and playing heavy rock built around keyboards and drum machines. I regret not buying their $2 album since they don’t seem to have a proper website and the songs on their MySpace page do not include the songs that I really enjoyed live. (I definitely prefer the songs by the girl singer.)

Parts & Labor “A Great Divide” – Parts & Labor were the most intense act that I saw at the festival by far. As Dan Friel went at his array of electronic gadgets like an enthusiastic little boy, Chris Weingarten beat the shit out of his drum set as if they had killed his entire family line. Even with all the trebly noise and the rhythmic aggression, the band never abandoned melodies and hooks, resulting in a rather excellent and unique form of post-hardcore noise pop. (Click here to buy it from Parts & Labor’s official site.)

Au Revoir Simone – This was certainly the best show that I’ve ever seen this band play. The set was comprised almost entirely of brand new songs, almost all of which were a step up from the songs on their debut record. If you loved songs like “Through The Backyards Of Our Neighbors” and “Back In Time,” but not so much the twee, indie-ish tracks, I think you will be quite pleased. They’ve gone in a more ethereal, melodically sophisticated direction, and even came close to sounding a bit like The Knife towards the end of their set.

Tilly and the Wall – They were alright. Pretty decent indie pop songs, and the singing was pretty good. The whole “tap dancer providing syncopation to the rhythm” thing is cute, but doesn’t add very much to their sound.

Saturday

Devin The Dude – Devin was incredibly charming. I don’t think he ever stopped smiling during his set. He kept making these faces that seemed to say “Ha, I am such a rascal!” or “I love doing this!” A very smooth, laid back set.

TV on the Radio – Actually, this was just Kyp Malone playing a solo set. The band can be pretty good, but this was a pretty lousy show. It just sounded like the guy was playing “Glycerine” for a half hour without ever getting to the chorus.

Lupe Fiasco – This was a pretty satisfying set, though it ran a little short. He started off with a version of “Diamonds of Seirra Leone” and his verse from “Touch The Sky,” and then did some songs from his forthcoming debut that were all pretty instantly likeable. I’m looking forward to the record.

Love Is All – Okay, so I got to see Love Is All twice. It was exciting to see them live after all this time, and they certainly brought a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to both sets. Josephine Olausson is absolutely adorable, especially when she earnestly thanks the audience after every song. I would have liked for them to have played “Felt Tip” in either set, but maybe some other time.

Ghostface Killah – Ghostface pretty much blew my mind forever. I was up near the front, and the energy during this show from the stage and in the audience was fantastic, and well worth a seemingly interminable wait. Ghost did a lot of songs, and I don’t remember everything, but the set definitely included “Nutmeg,” “Ghost Deini,” “Apollo Kids,” “We Made It,” “Child’s Play,” “Cherchez La Ghost,” “Run,” “Holla,” “Ice Cream,” “Back Like That,” and “Be Easy.” Interestingly enough, about midway through the set, after doing a version of “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” in tribute to Ol’ Dirty Bastard, he and Trife performed “Reunited” and “Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ To Fuck Wit,” neither of which feature verses by Ghostface. It was sort of odd to hear Ghostface rapping the words of the GZA and Inspectah Deck, and Trife doing Method Man, but it worked. As a friend of mine often says, Ghostface is a beautiful person and his charisma levels are just off the charts. He went off on a monologue once or twice, and I would have been happy enough just to hear him do a speaking engagement, much less put on a high quality show as he did. I’m definitely going to try to buy some tickets for his show at the Nokia in April.

Cadence Weapon – I came into this set a little late about five minutes after Ghostface ended, but I was just in time for “Oliver Square.” Rollie was at a disadvantage coming so soon after the highlight of my weekend, but he held his own and put on an impressive show. He’s a natural performer, and played to a relatively sparse crowd as though it was a packed room, though he probably couldn’t have pulled off the running-into-the-crowd moves as easily. His voice is strong and confident, even moreso than on the LP, and he did about a half dozen new songs that were uniformly great, and pushed him in more of an electro/dance direction in terms of his beats and keyboard parts.

From this little hitch, I have become a superbitch

Remember those glorious days when there was an actual, honest-to-goodness, global pop phenomenon? Screaming tweens and pop dolls; branding oblivion and universal media assent; the long parade of surprisingly good number ones and all the frenzy an evil pop svengali could ever hope for. It was called SpiceWorld for a reason – it really was theirs. And then the end was nigh…

While their collective output was widely known, the Spice solo spin-offs eventually drifted into British chart obscurity. Times changed, tween audiences were fickle, and when it came to the material itself, the nuanced change in direction those girls fought for in order to step away – however far – from their legacy was too much. Or maybe it wasn’t enough; the solo identities progressing much as you’d expect the branding meetings to decree. Sporty as rock chick. Baby as flirty poplette. Hardly a revolution.

But there were a few pop gems for those who could look past the terrible lead singles. Mel C’s “Goin’ Down” bursts from the MOR schlock of her debut album with vitriolic power and biting rage. The riffs are slow with intensity, while her treble-heavy vocal is shrill and hypnotic. This is sharp angles and shattered glass; a wail of revenge and deadly intent from a pop puppet who has finally slashed her strings.

Baby, on the other hand, could never edge that far into an expression of anger even after she traded in her derogatory moniker for a real name. So she maintained herself not as an actual being, but as a concept (beloved of men who found real women a truly terrifying proposition) and thus Emma Bunton’s “Maybe” is a flirty, floaty, blissful little bubble of 60’s-style pop. Complete with ‘ba ba ba baba’s and a strange slowed bridge, it’s breezy with blonde charm and careful innocence.

(Click here to buy Emma Bunton’s album, and here to for the Mel C record, both from Amazon UK.)

ProTools all the way! Hey, hey, hey!

All hail the sugar-rush of mindless bubblepunk! Sounding exactly as you’d expect for an Australian Idol also-ran whose auditions weren’t so much marked by Good Charlotte covers as they were scrawled with fluorescent felt-tips to match his pink-streaked mullet (the likes of which hadn’t been witnessed since Kelly Osborne’s first forays into fugly consciousness), Lee Harding’s “Wasabi”ensures you’ll fall helpless at the altar of teenpop celebration, giving thanks to the Sum 41’s, Bowling for Soup’s and Something Corporate’s of the world that made this crazy child a reality (and my word, I never thought such a thing were possible).

See, despite the lack of any obvious substance, somehow Wasabi’s negative imprint strikes you down with the very wholehearted dedication to vapid, lowest-common-denominator Protooling that should see it banished to the BEP circle of the inferno. And when I say strike, I mean the kind of cartoon BAM! that leaves you reeling in a circle of fluffy tweeting chicklets, eyes dangling uselessly to your elbows and tongue halfway to the floor. It isn’t just an obnoxious, production-perfect bastardization of punkrock riffs and crescendo drum-crash, it’s a song dedicated to being the best damn bastardization of punkrock riffs and crescendo drum-crash you’ve guiltily set to repeat play this year.

This is where Skye Sweetnam’s “Hypocrite” comes flouncing in, dripping with tantrums, tears and detention. Taking Lee’s BAM! and raising him a KAPOW!, Skye delivers not merely thrumming, head-toss teen angst, but thrumming, head-toss teen angst with cheerleader yells. That drum loop! The drilling electro chords! Those neon mascara wink lyrics!

Because when it comes to bratpop endeavours, I give credit to the kids who step up and commit. No lurking on the fringe, hoping for credibility or authenticity gold stars. No ironic nods and half-assed sample winks, it’s all or nothing in the petulance stakes if you’re going to reach the requisite levels of joyful self-absorption to make me leap around like the fifteen year-old I never was.

(Click here to buy Sweetnam’s record, and here to buy the Lee Harding album, both from Amazon.)

Last Year’s Maps And MTA Delay Reports

The Vague Angels “The Vague Angels of Vagary” –

Art by Mike Allred, Philip Bond, and Laura Allred, with text by Steven T. Seagle. Excerpt from Vertical, published by DC/Vertigo, 2003.

Set to a musical backdrop that evokes the spring in full bloom, Chris Leo rambles on like a modern starry eyed hippie/hipster about the NYC subway system, the history of Brooklyn, falling asleep on the train, riding his bike and hanging out with his girlfriend; managing to make every little detail seem exotic and magical with his breathless delivery. (Click here to buy it via Pretty Activity.)

Also: I will be in Austin for SXSW tomorrow through Monday afternoon. In the meantime, Abby McDonald will be filling in on this site for the remainder of the week.

Elsewhere: If you are going to be at the SXSW festival, it would be lovely if you attended the “Blogs Gone Wild” panel on Saturday at noon. The panel will be moderated by Jason Gross of Perfect Sound Forever, and will feature Mark Willett, Brooklyn Vegan, Maria Sciarrino of Plain Parade, Pitchfork‘s Amy Phillips, and myself.

And: I’m going to keep this contest open until after I return to New York. Bring it on, people! There’s no clear winner just yet, so don’t be discouraged.