Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Kate Nash “Merry Happy” – Kate Nash’s songs primarily deal with minor relationship drama, but more specifically, the way teenagers and young adults must learn to interpret these events in their lives when they haven’t got much first-hand experience, but are overly familiar with how these sort of things play out in books, television, and pop songs. Nash deliberately calls attention to the banality of her situations, but doesn’t ever discount her emotions, resulting in jaunty yet melancholy pop tunes like “Merry Happy” that are simultaneously self-effacing and self-absorbed, i.e., the typical mindset of a lovesick student. When Nash reaches an epiphany — “I can be alone” — it’s a little bit funny because it isn’t at all profound, but it’s also a bit sad and sympathetic, as most people can relate to having the same moment of self-revelation and feeling that sudden, somewhat illusory sensation of emotional strength. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Future of the Left “Manchasm” – A.K.A. McLusky with a new bass player and a different name. Andy Falkous continues to be Andy Falkous — witty, bitter, venomous and cryptic, kinda sorta like an aggressive Welsh punk rock version of Dan Bejar. The only major difference between the bands is the presence of a synthesizer, but even when that element is prominent, the songs play to Falkous and his partners strengths. “Manchasm” begins with a manic organ vamp, but it moves on to a series of abrasive, repetitive hooks, an eyebrow-raising reference to disgraced Republican paedo Mark Foley, and a creepy round at the end that recalls the brilliant finale of “She Will Only Bring You Happiness.” (Funny, if you watch that video, you can hear that they changed the “our old singer is a sex criminal” line to “our old singer is an ex-criminal” for the single version!) (Click here for the Future of the Left website.)

Elsewhere: Ben fucking Foster, ladies and gentlemen.

And: Mike Barthel has a (better) idea on how to commemorate 9/11 with car headlights.

I’ve been doing this MTV VMA “play by play” thing for five years, and though I don’t know why I keep doing it, I’m going to keep it going because it’s the closest thing this site has to any kind of tradition. I guess that’s the same reason MTV does it too — their identity has shifted so much over the years that it’s hard to say what the brand means to its hopelessly splintered target audience, or what it has to say about a pop cultural landscape that is increasingly driven by the internet yet requires television’s big-tent audience to actually sell records in quantities large enough to qualify for any reasonable claim of mainstream success. When I was a teenager, MTV more or less dictated what was popular and cool, and the ceremony actually seemed to be a meaningful thing, in as much as the Best Video category tended to stand for some sort of artistic achievement and cultural relevance. Nowadays, they seem passive, and this show is just an awkward game of catch-up for both the network, and an audience that cherry picks whatever interests them from the mainstream, and totally ignores the rest, so you get a lot of “Really? That’s popular?” and “Wait, what, those guys are still around?”

9:00 Britney Spears is trying pretty hard to remember her own choreography. Everything is slow and obviously half-hearted. She’s barely trying, every movement is like a shrug. Her body appears to be airbrushed, but in fairness, this is the best she’s looked in a long time. Rihanna just gave a reaction shot to the effect of “Ha ha, I can blow this shit off the stage!”

9:04 Wow, this is the best Sarah Silverman has been in five forevers! Great stuff.

9:09 Alicia Keys is looking slick. Like, coated in salad oil.

9:11 Best Single About A Monster goes to………”Umbrella,” with 9% of the vote. Fun fact: Rihanna has the same haircut as Storm from the X-Men circa the late 90s, but y’know, not all white and stuff.

9:17 “You just saw Britney phone in her new single on the VMAs, and now you can phone in and get it as a ring tone…”

9:23 Quadruple Threat = Sing, Dance, Fuck, and Snort Cocaine?

9:24 Hey, Justin Timberlake does all of those things! Good for him!

9:26 So I think the idea is that big stars like Kanye West, Foo Fighters, Timbaland, Fall Out Boy, and uh, Mark Ronson are doing all these little cutaway performances in lieu of one big appearance in order to have a more pervasive presence throughout the broadcast, and thus boosting the number of “impressions” on the audience. It’s the same idea as having a Pepsi ad every commercial break.

9:33 If 50 Cent and Kanye West kissed just now, America would have been a new nation overnight.

9:42 Chris Brown is aiming for Charlie Chaplin, but I’m afraid most people are just looking at this and thinking “spazzy black Hitler.”

9:47 And yes, Rihanna blew Britney (and honestly, everyone else) off the stage within 10 seconds of emerging from her Op Art vortex.

9:55 By staging the event at The Palms Casino in Las Vegas, the VMAs have showed not only a tremendous lack of creativity, but are fully giving into the consumerist American ideal that they once at least pretended to reject by proudly holding a carrot at length from their impressionable and primarily middle class audience. When I was a young teenager it seemed as though their message was “fuck the carrot,” but now they are decisively imploring, “you better get on that carrot.”

9:57 I would stop hating Timbaland for five minutes if he and Justin Timberlake announced that they just got back from getting married in Massachusetts.

9:58 Justin Timberlake is getting old, you guys. He’s part of the Older Generation On MTV.

10:06 Shia Le Beauf. Do we all like this guy? Or do we just like saying “La Buff”? Okay, no we don’t like him cos he’s shilling for George effing Lucas. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — Indiana Jones has to infiltrate a ring of LARPers?

10:09 Unlike Britney Spears, Kanye West can rock a stairwell.

10:13 Kanye West would win if he had arrived at this wearing a t-shirt reading “George Bush doesn’t care about the VMAs.”

10:16 Can we talk about fucking offensive these Chevy ads are? “If you want to save the environment, you can smoke pot and eat granola and practice free love you FUCKING FAGGOT HIPPIE? WHY DON’T YOU GO COMPOST YOUR TOILET, HUH?” Ending with the assertion “Chevy: We’re thinking about making a hybrid, someday, once we find that legal pad with all our notes on it. We’ve got something called ‘wireless crapability.’ You’ll love it.”

10:18 “Who is Eugene Montross?” Sorry bro, but I’m not Googling that!

10:19 Here’s our “maestro,” Timbaland. I cringe so hard whenever I see people refer to Timbaland as being ahead of his time or whatever because that’s so not true! No one is more OF HIS TIME than him, and frankly, that time was in the late 90s/early 00s and he’s been coasting ever since. The reason he can get anything remotely weird on the airwaves is simply because his formula became mainstream and now it’s just something expected, the way the shitty post-grunge stuff like Nickelback and Daughtry is expected on rock radio.

10:23 You know, Linkin Park, this is the VMAs. You definitely want to bring your A-game. This isn’t the VMB or C’s.

10:24 Here are the guys from Entourage. You know, I’ve seen every single episode of Entourage, and I don’t even know why. I have HBO, and I watch it. It’s not even a guilty pleasure, it’s just a guilty…thing I do.

10:31 Rihanna is doing “Shut Up and Drive” with Fall Out Boy in a hotel suite. It’s cool despite the obvs lip-synching gaff. I like Rihanna a lot more than usual tonight!

10:37 I was totally zzzzzing through this Alicia Keys performance, and then she started singing “Freedom 90,” and though it’s not that great or anything, it’s a step up for sure.

10:45 Jamie Foxx just spit in Jennifer Garner’s eye, ladies and gentlemen!

10:46 Wow, I thought they were just about to play the severely coked-up Foxx off the stage just now with that beat! Unfortunately, no.

10:47 Listen Jamie, when you’re being called out on your unprofessionalism by Jennifer Garner, it’s time to really take stock!

10:49 Note to New York Times ombudsman: Now that 50 Cent has made the vast majority of his fortune from Vitamin Water, please delete all references to “hip hop star 50 Cent” and replace them with “beverage magnate 50 Cent.” Thank you.

10:57 Dr. Dre is either really effing strong, or wearing a heavy kevlar Batman suit under his shirt.

11:00 Rihanna wins Video of the Year, and Kanye West is already pouting about it. One of the Daft Punk robots is knocking at Kanye’s bathroom door with a message scrolling along its LED visor: KANYE…NOT COOL…PARTY WAITING.

Okay, so a few hours later, it’s pretty obvious that the definitive moment of this year’s show came within the first two minutes.

In this still, a limp Britney Spears is being helped up a small flight of stairs by one of her back-up dancers. From this moment, there was no saving her performance, or her career. In this moment of tragically forseeable laziness, Britney set the tone for a night that was two parts apathy and one part toxic entitlement.

Beverage magnate 50 Cent is stunned!!!

Rihanna’s friend: “Can you believe this shit?”

Rihanna: I WIN

This post was co-written with Chris Conroy, Erik Bryan, and Heather Rasley.

A Place To Bury Strangers “I Know I’ll See You” – If you think the A Place To Bury Strangers album is loud, then I’ve got to warn you — its most abrasive moments are just a shadow of what they sound like in person. However, as impressive as they are with insane volume and inescapable physical sensation, the endearing mixture of shoegazer guitar tone, industrial beats, goth gloom, and new wave melodies evident on their studio recordings gets lost in the din. At their best, the group sounds like the contents of a mopey college kid from 1989’s record collection pureed, poured into a cup, and served with a bowl of broken jewel boxes. If there was any justice in the world, there would be a maxi-single for “I Know I’ll See You” backed up with a bunch of cheesy late 80s/early 90s style dance mixes, just like the Cure or Nine Inch Nails. (Click here to buy it from Brainwashed.)

Elsewhere: I’m looking for some rooftop brooding advice.

Celebration “Tame The Savage” – The first few times I heard Celebration, I did not realize that the singer was a woman. This is not to say that Katrina Ford has a particularly butch and masculine voice, but rather that she sings more like a hard rock guy with feminine affectations, and aside from a few Karen O-ish moments, she barely resembles any of her female contemporaries. She reminds me a lot of Robert Plant in particular, especially on this track from their new album, which basically filters the aesthetic of Led Zeppelin through their sultry, organ-based indie psychedelia. “Tame The Savage” is a lusty slow-motion stomper with a grand, sprawling chorus and a slowly ascending guitar riff sounds as though it’s climbing up the first few flights of the “Stairway To Heaven.” It’s sort of amazing, really. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from St. Vincent, Aesop Rock, and International Pony.

Also: My review of the Nanny Diaries is up on the Movie Binge.

Girls Aloud “Sexy! No No No…” – If this is the first Girls Aloud song you’ve ever heard, you need to know right away that it’s not even the best, or even the most intense. While most mainstream and indie rock bands are busy mewling and meowing in this decade, Xenomania has been crafting loads of pumped-up pop songs for Girls Aloud and other UK pop acts that drastically exaggerate the dynamics of both rock and dance-pop to such extremes that it makes most everything else seem relatively flat and lifeless. Xenomania isn’t just trying to do a catchy tune — they want to hijack your body and throw you around, and keep pushing you to new levels of manic elation over the course of a three minute song. Girls Aloud may seem a bit blank on the surface, but the singers are ideally suited to Xenomania’s material, especially in the way they convey catty contemptuousness and a creepy sort of chick-lit nihilism. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Excepter “OP #2” “Stairwells” – John Fell Ryan mumbles through Excepter songs as though he’s unaware that anyone can hear his tone-deaf quasi-melodies. It’s expressive, but not at all communicative, and so tracks that would already come across a bit like some stranger’s brain turned inside-out seem even more alien and aloof. This piece seems slightly chaotic, but its textures are brilliant, and its lateral progression and recurring rhythmic and melodic motifs reveal a knack for detailed composition that is often obscured by their penchant for shapeless longform improvisations. (Click here for the Excepter website.)

Edit:

Matthew,
Your review of “OP#2” is of an intra-band demo ripped from a stolen iPod
an not intended for release. The “official” version of the track is
“Stairwells” on disc 2 of STREAMS 01. The “real” version of “OP” is a
double 7″ coming soon on iDeal Recordings and is fairly different than the
bootleg circulating. You don’t need to take the mp3 down, but maybe you
could properly identify it as an “unreleased demo/outtake bootleg” of
“Stairwells.” Thanks.
Yours,
John Fell Ryan
Excepter

Elsewhere: Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox wrote a really good blog entry about Stereolab’s song “Blue Milk.”

Charlotte Hatherley “I Want You To Know (Acoustic Version)” – Even in this simplified, percussion-free arrangement, Charlotte Hatherley’s “I Want You To Know” overflows with sugary spite and vicious verve. If anything, the streamlined version emphasizes the song’s sharp edges by foregrounding the quick, elegant dynamic shifts of her rhythm guitar part. Whereas the proper album recording aims for a thicker, more overwhelming sound, this version is slim, nimble, and arguably much better in getting across its playful yet bitter lyrics. (Click here to buy it from Charlotte Hatherley’s official site.)

Meneguar “Bury A Flower” – “You get what you want when you don’t want it anymore.” Is that true? It sounds true, at least in the moments when your desire for someone or something is so great that it becomes impossible to imagine ever getting what you want, or knowing how to attain it, or even admitting to anyone else that you have any desire at all. “Bury A Flower” is super-charged with nervous energy, but the band seem hell-bent on keeping it contained, even when it seems like the natural, healthy thing to do would be to let it all out. The singer sounds like a guy doing everything he can to hold back his own id, but with every passing moment, he’s forgetting the reason why. (Click here to buy it from CD Universe.)

Elsewhere: I have two new (but late!) reviews up on The Movie Binge — Hannah Takes The Stairs and 2 Days In Paris. Of the two films, one is mediocre, and the other is quite good. Can you guess which is which?

Also: El Baile Moderno has an interview with me en Español! (It was translated, I don’t speak any Spanish at all.)

And: As I suspected, St. Vincent actually did name her album Marry Me after the running joke from Arrested Development.

Pleasure “Out Of Love” – You know that point in some songs (most especially new wave tunes) when the sentiment of the lyric overcomes the singer and they reflexively close their eyes for a moment and swoon as they hit a higher note? It’s a glorious thing, and most good songs about new infatuation tend to do this at least once, if not a few times over. This new single by Pleasure sounds as though it was engineered to maximize the impact of these swooning moments, and so when they come, the rush is exhilarating and sorta exhausting. “Out Of Love” is a sublime mix of gleeful synthpop bounce and sad-eyed melancholy, and though there are some echoes of Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass,” it tosses out that song’s cynicism and wounded pride in favor of an entirely earnest sweetness. (Click here for the Pleasure MySpace page.) (Originally posted 3/5/2007)

Hilary Duff “Danger” – If Hilary Duff is correct, and the dude she’s singing about was indeed born in ’74, that would make him about 33 right now. Given that she’s 20 years old, she’s probably not wrong to sense a bit of danger in this pairing — it’s not an outlandish or uncommon age gap, but it is a bit inappropriate. The song is most likely being sung about a handsome teacher, boss, or celebrity, but for some reason the harsh, sleazy Eurodisco sound of the track makes me imagine some filthy creep with the most hideous mustache in the world. Like, a coked-up hipster mutant dripping with 22 strains of VD. The type of guy who would make Terry Richardson (NSFW link!) seem like a classy hunk. I’d like to think that every line of this song is a staggering understatement, and that the former Lizzy McGuire is in for a reallllllllllllllly dark year. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) (Originally posted 4/17/2007)

Muscles “Chocolate, Raspberry, Lemon & Lime” – This one’s a bit of an electro-pop Rorschach test — hyper-twee declaration of new love, or possessive, regressive creep-out? It mostly depends on how you would feel if someone told you that they wished that they could shrink you down to pocket-size so they could “play with you all the time.” Either way, the synths are about as fruity as the title suggests, and it’s a good time even if you’re freaked out by the lyrics. (Click here for Muscles’ MySpace page.) (Originally posted 12/5/2006)

James Rabbit “The Whole World Sleeps In Your Bed” – Whereas pretty much every other indie band of their generation is out working a tiresome hustle, James Rabbit display a refreshing lack of careerism. There’s no James Rabbit MySpace page, they barely tour, and they have no record label, much less a PR company. They just churn out a few albums every year, gradually building up an extensive discography for no one in particular, sort of like Bob Pollard in his pre-Bee Thousand days. Each James Rabbit record is better than the last, with incremental improvements in every aspect of its conception, performance, and production. “The Whole World Sleeps In Your Bed” may be their finest song to date, rocking merrily along with a memorable Beatlesque guitar hook and a typically exuberant lead vocal that careens from one killer lyric to the next. The song eventually drifts off from its hyperactive main body into a gentle reverie, but unlike other James Rabbit tunes that follow a similar trajectory, the song crashes in its final moments, tripling its angst as if to make up for the brief period of calmness. (Click here to get a free copy of James Rabbit’s new album Colossuses.) (Originally posted 2/2/2007)

Citizen Helene “‘Til Tomorrow” – It’s only one guitar and one voice overdubbed into a gorgeous harmony, but it’s enough to build this perfect image in my mind. It’s a small apartment, a walk up in some old building with a gray stone facade. There are books in piles, too many to fit on the shelves. There’s empty tea cups on a coffee table, and a newspaper from three days ago folded out of shape. The decor is a bit scattered, but there’s a lot of browns and oranges — curtains, rug, pillows. The window is open, and rain drizzles in fits and starts. It’s a bit too humid, but there’s no fan, no air conditioner. There’s a couch and chairs, but you’re sitting on the floor by the window, and when a bit of breeze drifts in on the 1:13 mark, it might just be the best thing you feel all day. (Click here for the Citizen Helene MySpace page.) (Originally posted 6/12/2007)

Tom Scharpling & Jon Wurster “The Millionaire” – In this semi-recent bit from The Best Show On WFMU, Tom takes a call from a strange man who suddenly became a millionaire, but refuses to spend any of his money lest his bank balance drop below one million dollars. Needless to say, this has put the guy in some very awkward situations. Aside from its strong premise, this skit is particularly great for its clever usage of the show’s increasingly elaborate Newbridge mythology, and its bizarre yet casually tossed-off references to a dog zoo, Colonel Jessup’s Salad Plantation, Footlocker Grey, and something called “Lake Muck.” (Click here for the official Best Show website.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from Thrushes, Celebration, and Monarch.

Linfinity “Chu Chu Train To Venice” – I’m imagining this guy as a frazzled old prospector, and that he’s playing the crude, manic piano part by jogging in place on the keyboard. Ideally, a video for this song would feature grainy, sepia-toned footage of a punk band comprised entirely of hobos kicking out this jam on a freight train. (Click here to buy it via Linfinity’s MySpace page.)

International Pony “Gothic Girl” – Ha, okay, so the lyrics to this song? It’s basically some goofy dude “negging” a cute goth girl. He teases her in the lamest ways imaginable (“watch out, you might get a sun tan”), but it seems rather good-natured and silly all the same, thanks in large part to the bouncy, easy-going mood of the track. (Click here for the International Pony website.)

Lil’ Wayne “I Feel Like Dying” – Okay, so, whether he intended it or not, this is basically Lil’ Wayne approximating the style of Tricky circa the mid-90s, but without all that complicated sexual tension that I wrote about a couple weeks ago. Really, aside from the fairly straightforward beat, the total absence of sexuality is the one major difference between this and a classic Tricky cut — Wayne’s gravelly yet puckish voice sounds remarkably similar at some points, and the hypnotic female vocal hook sounds as though it could be an outtake from Pre-Millennium Tension. The subject matter is rather familiar as well: The song is essentially a meditation on self-medication that vacillates between dark humor and total despair, and the sampled voice is playing the part of a siren calling Wayne towards oblivion. (Click here for the Lil Wayne MySpace page.)

Grouper “Everyone In Turn” – If you put this on repeat, you may not notice the track beginning and ending. There’s a pause, of course, and a crackle of surface noise, but all the sound just hangs in the air like a dense, slow-moving cloud. The arrangement is not at all static, but its mournful mood and spectral aura is sustained until you shut it off. (Click here to buy it from Type Records.)

The Fiery Furnaces @ Socrates Sculpture Park, 8/26/2007
Restorative Beer (soundcheck) …. Nevers (instrumental intro) / In My Little Thatched Hut / I’m In No Mood / Black-Hearted Boy / Bitter Tea / Waiting To Know You / The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry / Oh Sweet Woods / Borneo / Benton Harbor Blues / Nevers (instrumental interlude) / Whistle Rhapsody / Teach Me Sweetheart / Bitter Tea (outro) / Single Again / Wicker Whatnots / Quay Cur / I’m Gonna Run / Here Comes The Summer / Blueberry Boat / Tropical Iceland / Spaniolated / Name Game / Birdie Brain / 1917

Aside from the wonderful novelty of seeing a show in my neighborhood, this was a very bad gig, and certainly the worst set I’ve ever seen the Fiery Furnaces play. Seriously, it seemed as though the band was trying very hard to get me to dislike some of my favorite songs, or at least lose respect for them as performers.

It was that bad.

The current live incarnation of the Fiery Furnaces has Eleanor Friedberger on vocals, Matthew Friedberger on keyboards, Jason Loewenstein on guitar, Bob D’Amico on drums, and Michael Goodman on percussion. They play the music in a style that can best be described as prog calypso, but with the clumsy, impatient dynamics of a shitty hardcore band. The arrangements kept or reworked some instrumental motifs, and completely threw out others, often resulting in performances that arbitrarily honored or exaggerated certain emphatic moments of the songs while completely steamrolling over other parts. Eleanor warped, mutilated, or otherwise eliminated the melodies from the songs, and mainly recited a steady flow of words as though she was doing an impression of an auctioneer.

I appreciate their desire to experiment, and I don’t doubt that they were having a good time, but the approach to this show displays an alarming lack of self-awareness regarding their strengths as musicians and songwriters, a disrespect for their own material, and a fundamental misunderstanding of how people connect with music. In previous versions of their live show, they rearranged their material to great effect, resulting in sets that delivered familiar songs in ways that were different from the recordings but very faithful to the essence of the material, but this band gutted the work in such a way that, at very best, the alternative arrangement was an uncomfortable novelty. At worst, and really, that’s about 90% of the set, anything that could cause a listener to feel any sort of sentimentality toward a piece of music was excised, to the point that I could hear songs that I love very deeply and kinda hate them.

Do they actually dislike their own material, or do they just despise the ritual of people going to concerts to hear songs that they love played in a way that is familiar to them? I support their desire to avoid the fast-food predictability of most shows, but their apparent disdain for the audience-artist bond seems increasingly misanthropic and self-defeating. It’s becoming very difficult for me to reconcile the careful, deliberate artistry of their albums with the lazy, thoughtless agitation of their current show. I’m not asking for them to slavishly replicate the recordings on stage, but I think they really ought to consider why their songs work, and apply that to the stage show. Basically, they need to slow things down to a reasonable pace, differentiate the tempos so that’s its not all one big indecipherable blur, and respect the melodies of the songs so that people can, you know, connect emotionally and maybe even sing along.

I’m not asking for anything they haven’t done before. If you’ve only seen the current version of the band, these songs are for you. I hate to be constantly apologizing for this band, but you should know that they are capable of being a wonderful live act.

The Fiery Furnaces “I Broke My Mind/Spaniolated/Single Again” (Live @ London Calling, 2003) – When I first saw the band live, they were just beginning to experiment with medleys, and so the set was mostly divided into seamless chunks of three or four songs. Between 2003 and early 2005, they really had it figured out perfectly — the songs were obviously different, but instantly recognizable, and the energy was upbeat but unrushed. Despite the fact that five Furnaces records have been completed since this period, “I Broke My Mind” remains unreleased, which is a bit odd given that it’s such a strong and instantly ingratiating tune.

Eleanor Friedberger “Quay Cur” (Live on East Village Radio, 6/26/2004) – I’m very fond of this rare Eleanor solo performance — her skills as a guitarist are limited enough so that she boils the songs down to their essence rather than erring on the side of over-complicating the arrangements like her brother, and she’s so comfortable with the host that she allows herself to be very playful and cute.

The Fiery Furnaces “South Is Only A Home / Blueberry Boat / Bow Wow / Birdie Brain / Inca Rag” (Live @ the Mod Club in Toronto, 9/12/2004) – The medley tour from late 2004 and early 2005 may be the greatest achievement of the band to date. The medley blended most of the songs from Gallowsbird’s Bark and Blueberry Boat into a 45 minute suite that retained the appeal of its components while having its own dynamics and internal logic. It’s a remarkable piece of work that in many ways improves on the source material (I often anticipate the medley changes when I hear the studio versions), and disrupts the typical concert format without eliminating the audience’s pleasure.

The Fiery Furnaces “Teach Me Sweetheart” (Live on KEXP, 4/6/2005) – Can it be all so simple? I must admit that I appreciate that they avoid the earnest, straightforward acoustic approach, but when they do it, it’s always so perfect and sweet.

The Fiery Furnaces “Waiting To Know You” (Live @ the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC 6/30/06) – I was especially dismayed by yesterday’s performance of “Waiting To Know You.” It’s a rather beautiful and sentimental song, but they went out of their way to make it blunt and ugly, and it just seemed like an insult to anyone who ever liked it. This version of the song from the previous rock-centric incarnation of the live band avoids the softness of the album version, but keeps the sweetness in a power-pop arrangement that reminds me of late-period Guided By Voices.

Elsewhere: Of Montreal recorded a cover of my favorite Royal Trux song and put it up their MySpace page. It’s a really pleasant surprise!

Also: The Gramophone guys went out for a nice dinner.

The Society of Rockets “Guess My Name” – This is life now — everything you do is monitored via some form of surveillance, but you try to keep it out of your mind because if you dwell on it, you start to go crazy, and then the people who can watch you might start to actually pay attention. For a song about the impossibility of becoming invisible to The Man, “Guess My Name” is remarkably calm and relaxed, though maybe I’m just getting that mixed up with a feeling of resignation. (Click here for the Society of Rockets’ MySpace page.)

The Birds of Prey “Love Gone Again” – In 1966, a bunch of teenagers recorded a demo with Joe Meek, but it was never released. They broke up, disappeared, no one noticed. But here it is, this perfectly formed song, a classic oldie that almost no one has ever heard. The fidelity is crap, but the performance is jittery and angst-ridden, and the singer fully commits to his R&B affectations while still sounding like a geeky underdog. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Magik Markers “Last of the Lemach Line” – When I first encountered the Magik Markers, they were opening up for Sonic Youth, and burning through a set that sounded a great deal like that band’s earliest recordings, but with less aggression, and a charismatic vocalist who “shouted the poetic truths of high school journal keepers” like the punk rock girl from “Skip Tracer.” They’ve released a few records in the time since, and though they were interesting, they weren’t very successful in translating their improv-centric aesthetic to a proper studio recording until just recently. On the forthcoming album Boss, they’ve managed to develop discrete, structured compositions without sacrificing the spark of their performances. They dabble in punk and at least two cuts recall the grim atmosphere and gentle, cracked piano-based balladry of Cat Power circa Moon Pix and the Covers Record, but most of the songs are turbulent, gloomy dirges that showcase Elisa Ambrogio’s cryptic lyrics and urgent, emotionally potent vocals. “Last of the Lemach Line” is the most sprawling track on the record, and though it seems to build up to a grand release, it consistently turns sideways or slows to a crawl whenever it feels as though it is about to reach its climax. (Click here for Ecstatic Peace’s Magik Markers page.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from Imperial Teen, Home Blitz, and the New Pornographers.

Swizz Beatz “Take A Picture” – Swizz Beatz has always made a point of avoiding samples in lieu of writing his own tracks from scratch, so it’s kinda funny that the best track on his debut as a solo artist features a prominent sample from Bill Withers’ 1979 hit “Lovely Day.” Despite self-consciously veering from his established formula, the song is still instantly recognizable as a Swizz Beatz production, mainly for the way he fills out the arrangement’s abundant negative space with ecstatic shouts and hollers that pump up the energy level without derailing the mellow, syrupy groove borrowed from the Withers tune. Like most of his best work, the composition feels simultaneously giddy and relaxed, simulating a state of blissful, unworried confidence. Beatz isn’t much of a rapper, but he’s competent, and his words simply elaborate on the feeling of the track while playing up his vanity, and hinting at a concern that his days of glory are numbered. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

On A Professional Note: My gigs for MTV and the Associated Press are ending soon, and I’m available for freelance and contract work. If any Fluxblog readers have a line on a suitable job – preferably one with benefits – hit the comments or give me a shout at perpetua @ gmail.com. Thanks!

M.I.A. “Bamboo Banga” – “Bamboo Banga” has an intense beat, but a thin sound that makes the track seem a bit crude and makeshift. It rumbles and shakes, and leaves most of its space open for M.I.A.’s flattened voice, which is so harshly stylized that it sounds as though she’s sharpened it up like a shiv. She often seemed venomous on Arular, but she kicks off Kala with an anthem so acrid and aggressive that it makes the old stuff seem quaint and benign. On the opposite end of the record, she drops her violent front to reveal a compelling blend of vulnerability, desperation, and antagonism on “Paper Planes,” a bittersweet ballad with a chorus mainly comprised of gun shots and cash register sound effects, but the blank-eyed nihilism of “Bamboo Banga” is only intensified, and mutated into a particularly hopeless strain of sorrow. (The most gutting moment of Kala comes when she delivers the line “everyone’s a winner, we’re making our name” like a depressed teenage girl trying to force an enthusiastic smile.) The album finds some small pleasures between these two bookends, but it mostly comes across like a guided tour of our post-globalized planet conducted by an especially bitter and droll docent. Some of it is fun, some of it is sexy, some of it is extraordinarily vicious, and all of it is exciting, erudite, and on point. (Well, maybe not that Timbaland cameo — he sounds so incredibly cheesy contrasted with her caustic rhymes.) (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Uffie “First Love (Demo Version) – The sweetness that Uffie reveals on “First Love” doesn’t contradict her party princess persona, or keep her from indulging in her tendency to contrast the cuteness of her voice with a put-on toughness, but it does make her seem more like a human being and less like a cartoon character. It’s an incredibly sugary song, but it’s also a bit tense and ambivalent, with a track that keeps trying to shrug off its most vulnerable moments by warping either the music or Uffie’s voice. (Click here for Uffie’s MySpace page.)

Monarch “Obituary” – It’s a little early for this song, maybe. It’s chilly and gray and feels a bit like October in New York today, but this is a song for the deep autumn or the early winter, and we’re just not there yet. Very few things make me want to be in school these days, but I can’t shake the feeling that this music would be slightly improved by the context of hearing it on the way to class. It’s all dead wet leaves, fresh new pens and paper, the subtle stress of obligations, and the faint excitement of a new semester. (Click here to buy it from Morphius.)

Elsewhere: Does anyone out there happen to have a bootleg recording of this wedding reception? YSI?

Marnie Stern “Put All Your Eggs In One Basket And Then Watch That Basket!!!” – It sounds like a band tumbling down a flight of stairs or a girly punk band fighting a wind storm, but lately, this is the song I put on when I want to feel calm. It’s like being in the eye of a hurricane, maybe. Stern’s arrangements are like meticulously crafted chaos — it spins around you, pulls you in every direction, but even when it feels like disorienting madness, there’s comfort and safety in the knowledge that every moment is organized and under control. (Click here to buy it from Kill Rock Stars.)

These Are Powers “Little Sisters Of Beijing” – The singing is passionate and intense, but it’s nearly overpowered by an incessant grayish electronic tone that sounds less like a proper instrument and more like the ambient hum of office machines and fluorescent lights. She sounds desperate and trapped, but also powerless and overwhelmed. The thing is, her voice is the one thing keeping that grim, oppressive tone from feeling like a source of strange comfort. (Click here for the These Are Powers MySpace page.)

Elsewhere: People playing chess on rollercoasters.

Rilo Kiley “Give A Little Love” – The most appealing thing about Rilo Kiley’s new album is that they’ve totally surrendered to their least cool influences in a way that seems totally natural and sincere, and not even a little bit glib or ironic. The production is immaculate, and every track, whether it’s a nod to Linda Ronstadt-esque country pop, gooey teen drama balladry, cheesy riff rock, or the whole late 70s coke-fueled “California” aesthetic sounds silky, smooth, and set to impress the sort of people indie rock types usually loathe the most — you know, like “tampon rock” fans and moms. Though some of the numbers hew closer to the (actually quite square) sound of their previous record, the best cuts dive into the deep end and come out stronger because it’s just so clear that the group is either living out some sort of fantasy, or simply being themselves. “Give A Little Love” sounds like a sparkly synth ballad from a late 80s teen pop record that’s been given a slight make-over by Jenny Lewis. The song can’t help but feel a bit dorky, but she plays it very straight, and fully embraces the direct, unguarded sentimentality of the style to great effect, while also drawing on the warm, soupy quasi-R&B backing vocals that complemented her well on her solo album. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from the Thai Pop Spectacular, Who Needs Tomorrow, and Joe Meek Freakbeat compilations.

Prints “Easy Magic” – I’m not exactly against people putting their music in ads. It’s tacky, but people have got to make a living, you know? It’s exceptionally rare that an advertisement taints a song that I already love — I’m kinda stubborn that way, if I like something it’s almost impossible for me to change my mind about it — and so I only really hate it when songs I dislike end up in ads that I end up hearing all the time. (Perfect example: Remember when “One Week” by the Barenaked Ladies was in that car ad, and it’d be on all the time, pretty much every episode of Conan O’Brien for a year back when no one had tivo? That was very painful.) I also dislike how a large chunk of music now is either music from ads, or music that will eventually be in an ad. This song by Prints has a hook that is incredibly crisp, lovely and instantly ingratiating, and so it’s hard to imagine that it won’t be featured in an ad campaign for something or other within a year, especially since it has this sound that sorta quietly whispers “I am smart, stylish, and casual.” Maybe it won’t, maybe no one will be interested, or maybe Prints would refuse, but either way, it still has that vibe, and it’s not even their fault. This is probably how the big companies win — eventually everything we hear will in some way make us think of some totally unrelated product. (Click here for the Prints MySpace page.)

Home Blitz “Hey!” – How’s this for a perfect, brilliant punk rock moment: The band is playing this immediately catchy power pop tune, and the lyrics are very silly but right on. Just after he admits that his guitar cannot “express many different emotions,” the singer stops the song abruptly so that he can “get some gum.” A few seconds later, they kick right back into the tune, but not exactly at the point where they left off. And then — a sweet, sentimental guitar solo that sharply contrasts with the shambling quality of everything else on the track. I don’t exactly endorse everyone taking gum breaks in the middle of their studio recordings, but man, if only every band could sound this alive and present on their albums. (Click here to buy it from Gulcher Records.)

Junior Senior @ High Line Ballroom 8/13/2007
Go Junior Go Senior / Chicks and Dicks / Dynamite / Good Girl, Bad Guy / Rhythm Bandits / Happy Rap / Itch U Can’t Scratch / We R The Handclaps / Can I Get Get Get (with JD from Le Tigre) / Move Your Feet / Shake Me Baby / Shake Your Coconuts / Hip Hop A Lula // You Cannot Trust… / White Trash

Junior Senior “We R The Handclaps” – Okay, so here’s the thing. Junior Senior came out and played a great set — high energy, great crowd, wonderful songs. I really want to emphasize that last one, because it seems to me that people get so overwhelmed by their kitsch and extreme cheeriness that they tend to overlook that they are rather fantastic songwriters with an amazing gift for melody and elegant arrangements that are probably very carefully crafted, but sound totally natural. But the thing is…they kinda dropped the ball on the encore. Instead of coming out and ending the show with the best song from each of their records — “Take My Time” and “Boy Meets Girl” — they played a sorta repetitive new tune and the weakest track from their debut album. (Insert frowny face here.) The encore didn’t totally suck, and it didn’t exactly ruin the show, but yeeeee, that was no way to end a gig! They should’ve at least saved “Move Your Feet” or “Shake Your Coconuts” til the very end! Also, the fact that Cindy and Kate from the B52s were not on hand was no excuse not to do “Take My Time,” by the way — the girl who sang lead on “We R The Handclaps” was absolutely amazing, and she would’ve totally killed it on that song!

But don’t get me wrong, this was a really fun show. Also, don’t get me started about Gravy Train, who opened up and may be the single most puerile band on the face of the earth. Take that as a complaint or as a compliment, and either way you’re right. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)