Fluxcast #10 – MTV Video Music Awards Special

Instead of doing a live blogging post as I’ve done in the previous six years of Fluxblog, I opted to do a podcast about this year’s MTV awards show along with a few of my friends Chris Conroy and Todd Serencha. We discuss the show, the artists featured in the broadcast, and some general themes of this year’s event. To break it up a bit, there’s also some music, and about half of that is tangentally related to the discussion.

Be warned: At some points, the language and subject matter gets a bit not-safe-for-work. Also, I apologize that my voice is the loudest — I was nearest to the computer; that’s just how it worked out. It’s not some insane ego thing.

The full playlist for the podcast will be available on the Fluxcast site later in the week, but you can find that information in the metadata if you’re feeling desperate. (Check the “lyrics” section.)

Tricky @ Irving Plaza 9/4/2008

Brightblack Morning Light “Hologram Buffalo” – Brightblack Morning Light’s debut album feels a bit like watching  moonlight shimmer on water in slow motion, and it sounds best when you can get some kind of overlap in your mind between focused attention and zoned-out bliss. (This state might otherwise be known as “being stoned,” but I never get stoned.) Their second record Motion To Return has a similar effect and utility, but the tone is much darker, and the style leans heavily on what could best be described as “tranq dart gospel.” The duo obsess over the most atmospheric elements of old gospel records, to the point that the genre becomes abstracted in their context, melted down into essential textures, moody haze, and a reassuring swell of harmony. “Hologram Buffalo” is especially effective in evoking the aural iconography of gospel without taking on its actual form, making it an illusion just like the one suggested in its title.  (Click here to buy it from Matador Records.)

Little Pictures “I Wish I Could Keep You” – In my day to day life, I don’t have the greatest appreciation for codependency, or patience for people with a crippling fear of loneliness. Maybe I’m an insensitive dick; I have a hard time relating. I feel a bit different about music and art. Whereas the sentiment of “I Wish I Could Keep You” could be cringe-inducing if, say, overheard in a public space or read on some oversharing blog, it’s kinda adorable when set to a catchy synthpop song with a spare, brisk beat. The music keeps the tone from getting too serious, and the relatively affectless delivery allows the singer to overstate her emotions in a way that is deadpan without downplaying the fact that she really does miss the person she is addressing in the lyrics. The result is playful, sweet, and extremely tuneful. (Click here to buy it via Little Pictures’ MySpace page.)

Big Dipper “Loch Ness Monster” – The conceit of this song is very thin, but I think that’s half the point, and that we’re meant to see right through the character’s flimsy metaphor for his obsession with some elusive woman. The song and the character are not full-on creepy, but there’s certainly an indication that the protagonist is being a bit pathetic, and that he’s sinking too much of himself into a pursuit he understands to be futile. Big Dipper pull off a rather delicate balance here, with the humor of the song coming with an equal measure of bittersweet emotion, keeping the piece from getting either overly goofy or too serious and intense. (Click here to buy it from Merge.)

Sonic Youth @ McCarren Pool 8/30/2008
No Way / Calming The Snake / The Burning Spear / The Sprawl / Cross The Breeze / Hey Joni / Silver Rocket / The Wonder / Hyperstation / Mote / Jams Run Free / Pink Steam // Making The Nature Scene / Brother James /// Expressway To Yr Skull

Sonic Youth “Brother James” (Live in Bremen, 8/27/1991) – When Sonic Youth tour, they normally play most or all of their most recent album, and about half or one-third of the set will be oldies. The band have a large back catalog, but only certain songs make it beyond an album’s initial touring cycle. For example, you can hope and wish for “Dirty Boots” or “Mary-Christ” all you want, but they aren’t going to play those — the only songs from Goo that have performed live by the band since the early 90s are “Mote” and “Kool Thing,” and they have no apparent intention of rehearsing anything else. But hey, at least they’ll play something from Goo — God help you if you’re hoping to hear something from Bad Moon Rising or A Thousand Leaves these days. 

of Montreal “Nonpareil of Favor” – Right at the end of the first phase of “Nonpareil of Favor,” Kevin Barnes sings something so earnest and thoughtful that it makes me feel extraordinarily envious: “It’s like you were always there, just on the tip of my tongue / and I needed you to happen / and now that you’ve happened / and it really really really came true / I feel like I ought to thank somebody / and so I’m gonna thank you / thank you thank you thank you / thank you, thank you.” It doesn’t matter that he’s coming from a place of vulnerability and neediness; if anything that’s what makes the sentiment so potent — it acknowledges his weakness, and credits someone with helping him build the framework to be happier, stronger, and more stable. It’s a lovely expression of gratitude; you could call it Kevin’s personal version of “Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin).” 

Nine Inch Nails @ Izod Center, 8/27/2008
999,999 / 1,000,000 / Letting You / Discipline / March of the Pigs / Head Down / The Frail / Reptile / Closer (with a bit of The Only Time) / Gave Up / The Warning / Vessel / 5 Ghosts I / 17 Ghosts II / 19 Ghosts III / Piggy / The Greater Good / Pinion / Wish / Terrible Lie / Survivalism / The Big Come Down / 31 Ghosts IV / Only / The Hand That Feeds / Head Like A Hole // Echoplex / God Given / The Good Soldier / Hurt / In This Twilight (with Zero Sum outro)

This concert was astonishing. I went in expecting it to rock, and to look cool, but they went much further than that. The performance was a balance of precision and passion; the lighting design was sophisticated and, at times, unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. It’s impossible to come away from this show without feeling this incredible awe for Trent Reznor and his level of craft. The band could’ve shown up and rocked out with standard lighting, and we’d all go home extremely happy, but he is compelled to go well beyond simple expectations, and likely bleed an enormous amount of his own money to stage an event that is itself a remarkable and complicated work of art. Reznor has nothing to prove; the motivation is entirely driven by his own pride and eagerness to blow the minds of his loyal fan base. I’ve seen a lot of incredible shows by great musicians, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything where the artist seemed to care as much about every conceivable detail. It’s enough to make me wonder why it seems that so few people work anywhere near as hard as this Reznor.

Nine Inch Nails “Discipline” – So, yes, “Discipline” is the keyword for this show. Ironically, the song itself is about craving some form of enforced control, but I suppose that’s not at all removed from the psychology that yields this sort of perfectionist work ethic. Taken as a whole, the NIN discography is mainly concerned with a struggle between focus and control vs. decay and apathy, and that conflict is dramatized from without as much as within. In some cases, outside control is a fascist nightmare, but in the case of “Discipline,” it’s more about desiring the structure imposed by people who actually care about your well-being. It’s a little vague — it could be about work, or about staying sober, or it could just be sexual, but it’s benign. It comes from the same place as “Closer,” i.e. “I am a mess, but you make me better.” The groove is sexy, with a taut disco beat and a lean yet muscular sound that neatly echoes the lyrical sentiment. It’s an obvious hit; I can’t help but imagine that everyone who worked with Reznor at Interscope over the past several years heard the song and wanted to punch him in the face for giving it away for free. (Click here to get The Slip for free from NIN’s official site.)

Nine Inch Nails “God Given” – Though half of The Slip was played in this show, the emphasis was placed on material from Year Zero. I enjoy The Slip well enough, but I’m a Year Zero fan, in part because it is the record in which Reznor focuses on my favorite aspects of his music: groove and electronic texture. It’s very impressive to watch his band nail these sounds in live performance; it’s the sort of thing that makes me wonder why more bands aren’t fully integrating these electronic elements without sacrificing the rawness of a standard guitar-centric rock performance. There’s no either/or in NIN’s live show — the band are fully capable of nailing whatever arrangement and aesthetic demanded of them, whether it’s a broken video game review, ersatz disco, metal, or the delicate acoustic textures of the Ghosts interlude midway through the concert. (I’m sure the roadies are thrilled to move around Trent’s enormous vibraphone every night.) (Click here to buy Year Zero from Amazon.)

Solange “Would’ve Been The One” – Solange has a great, powerful voice, but she’s not Beyonce. They’re in the same genre, and in the same family, but they have very different strengths. Whereas Beyonce is a ultra-capitalist pop super-hero, Solange is a fairly normal girl who can slip easily into the sort of material and emotional niches too delicate for her sister’s cumbersome, supremely confident persona. Solange leans heavily on the post-Mark Ronson soul aesthetic — nearly every track is a glimmering modern simulacrum of Motown magic, whether the music is actually produced by Ronson (only one song on the album, and not one of the best) or she’s singing over a Neptunes track that openly pilfers the room-sound of one of the Supremes’ best-known hits. If Beyonce sang any of these songs, it’d be overkill on par with bringing a hydrogen bomb to a water gun fight, but Solange sells her material with the just the right balance of style and down-to-earth humanity. 

The Mummers “March of the Dawn” – There are some people who live their lives as if it were a story, and their obsession with their personal narrative more often than not gives them permission to behave selfishly, reinforces the very worst aspects of their character, and they gradually degrade into toxic narcissists. There are others who invest their life with the spirit of fiction, and that’s what we have in “March of the Dawn”: A woman embracing the possibility of romance, whimsy, and adventure rather than demanding drama or expecting another hum-drum day of whatever. The music has both the grandeur and humor of musical theater, and the singer sells the song like an eager ingenue, full of passion, curiosity, and courage. There’s a great deal of self-awareness, but also a firm belief that we have the opportunity to shape our reality, and to make it just as magical as what we see on the stage and screen. (Click here to buy it via the Mummers’ MySpace page.)

Yo La Tengo @ McCarren Pool 8/24/2008

Yo La Tengo “Moby Octopad” – Even though it seems that they have settled into a familiar set-building pattern in the past few years, it can be hard to know what to expect from a Yo La Tengo show. So much of what they do depends upon their collective mood, and there’s always a chance they may want to be a bit withholding. Not yesterday, though — as you can see, they were being quite generous with their “hits,” and came to play a fun show for a large audience mainly comprised of people who…well, I’ll just say they weren’t hardcore Yo La Tengo fans and leave it at that, okay? As per usual, the main attraction of a Yo La Tengo gig is watching Ira Kaplan smack, strangle, beat and otherwise manhandle his guitars, but this set had the added bonus of featuring a brass section. The horns brought out the best in “Mr. Tough,” which can seem a bit hollow without them, and added a steamy, humid touch to “Moby Octopad.” I can’t tell you how pleased I was that they played the latter — it’s been my favorite YLT song for ten years now, and it never crossed my mind that I’d ever get to see it performed in concert. Its groove comes across very well live, but I was especially impressed by how well James McNew pulled off the high harmonies. (Click here to buy it from Matador Records.)

Fluxcast #8 – Time for a new episode. This one features music from Blur, Wu-Tang Clan, Clinic, and Lee “Scratch” Perry, among others. The tracklisting can be found in the metadata, or on the Fluxcast site later in the week.

Empire of the Sun “Walking On A Dream” – The groove is gentle, and the tones are clean, cool, and relaxed, but there’s a bit of reckless, fiery passion in “Walking On A Dream.” It’s in the voice, and it’s in the way the piece gradually gathers momentum, but it’s all held in check. It’s a bottled id, repressed just enough to serve as fuel for the singer’s ambition. The song is all anticipation and reflection, but the real thrill of it is the feeling of casual confidence that permeates the track. It’s a real “what, me worry?” sort of thing, and it’s easy to pick up a bit of that by osmosis. I don’t think this song is about feeling as though the future is guaranteed, but more that it’s there for the taking. (Click here for the Empire of the Sun MySpace page.)

Gang Gang Dance “House Jam” – It’s probably a good idea for the Gang Gang Dance to tighten up. Their previous records have had interesting moments, but generally suffered from sounding a bit too much like a drunk Siouxsie Sioux fucking around with an even more inebriated Banshees at soundcheck. The voice and the aesthetic was there, but the discipline was not. “House Jam,” despite its annoyingly generic title, finds the group embracing hooks and stronger grooves, but not at the expense of their loose, quasi-mystical vibe. It’s almost as if they remembered that the word “dance” was in the name of their band and decided to make good on that promise. (Click here for the official Gang Gang Dance site.)

Parenthetical Girls “A Song For Ellie Greenwich” – Aside from the hollow, airy silence at the core of the arrangement, the vocals are the calmest element in this composition. Suitably, they are written with some perspective on the past, whereas the rest of the music taps into the fraught emotions that the singer only now understands in hindsight. I’m especially fond of the instrumental bridge, which eases up on the doomed romanticism momentarily for a few breaths of relief, and a gorgeous sparkly glockenspiel (?) figure offset by clunky (yet gracefully arranged) percussive noise. (Click here to buy it from Tomlab.)

Elsewhere: When my friend Heather D’Angelo is not writing music and touring the world with her band, she studies Astrophysics at Columbia University. Her new blog Hello Poindexter covers both sides of her professional life, and the occasions when the two overlap. She also interviews scientists and other interesting people. Please check it out.

James Rabbit “She Speaks, Rings, and Chimes” – The really lovely thing about “She Speaks, Rings, and Chimes” is how when the band sing “closer, closer, closer!” on the chorus, it actually feels as though they are actually approaching their destination. So what is the destination? Well, it’s a song about infatuation, so transitioning from courtship to a relationship is a goal, for sure. But it’s also a song about finding the best way to communicate, and attempting to articulate positive emotions in a way that does justice to their nuance and grace. In either scenario, the song finds us at a moment just before the breakthrough, and so each second buzzes with excitement, anticipation, and courage. (Click here to buy it from the James Rabbit website.)

Monkey “Heavenly Peach Banquet” – Although the man is a stylistic chameleon with few peers, this is nevertheless nearly unrecognizable as a Damon Albarn composition. His gift for melody is apparent, but there’s a stillness and fragility to the piece that sets it apart from his previous work. Obviously, the Chinese vocals and lyrics are a factor, but more than anything, the difference is the overwhelming femininity of the song and its arrangement, and the way it marries its Chinese influences to an ethereal European pop sensibility not too far removed from, say, Kate Bush. (Click here to buy it from the Monkey – Journey To The West website.)

Electric Six @ The Temptress (A BOAT!) 8/14/2008
We Were Witchy Witchy White Women / Gay Bar / Down At McDonnelzzzz / Be My Dark Angel / Dance Pattern / Heavy Woman / Improper Dancing / Danger! High Voltage / Future Boys / Rock and Roll Evacuation / Dance Epidemic / The Future Is In The Future / Lenny Kravitz / I Buy The Drugs / Formula 409 / Germans In Mexico // Synthesizer

Believe it or not, but this show was even more rowdy than the one on the same boat last summer. Though things were relatively mellow on the upper deck, the floor was a total madhouse, with nonstop dancing, moshing, and crowd surfing from the beginning until the very end of the set. (Things were kinda wild for the opening act too — Tragedy, a heavy metal tribute to the Bee Gees. Yes, of course they were amazing.) I often feel isolated in my love for the band, but when I see them live, the fans are so passionate and out of control. I don’t know where Electric Six fans come from, but they bring it HARD, and their gigs are as fun as a rock show can get on land or at sea.

Electric Six “The Future Is In The Future” – There’s a lot of desperation in this song, but a bit of salvation too. It starts off with this sort of loose tension — the lyrics are about poverty, failure, and the ticking clock of mortality and/or commercial/sexual viability, but there’s a feeling of resignation in Dick Valentine’s words, and in the groove of the music. As it moves along, it becomes more clear that he just doesn’t care anymore, and so he embraces cheap pleasures: “We’ll karaoke all night long, Macarena til the break of dawn, and drive around til the morning light.” There’s boredom and kitsch, but it’s all okay — the important thing is the connection to other people, and the magic moments with friends and strangers that keep him from feeling isolated, distract him from the past, and keep him focused on what lies ahead.  (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Wilco @ McCarren Pool 8/13/2008

Fujiya & Miyagi “Knickerbocker” – “Knickerbocker” plays out like the sort of inscrutable, confounding dream that knocks you of sleep in the morning, and resonates in your head for the rest of the day. As the day moves on, the internal logic of the dream disappears, and you’re just left with a handful of vivid, seemingly meaningful images that make little sense out of context. Though it can be something of a chore to hear some people talk about their dreams, Fugiya & Miyagi’s music has a fluidity and urgency that allows the song’s disconnected imagery — ice cream sundaes, rows of light bulbs, the apparition of an anorexic former child star — to come together in a way that feels intuitive, and emulates the peculiar logic of dreaming. Instead of describing what the images mean, the band put the listener inside their vision, and the result is as spooky as it is groovy. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Marit Larsen “If A Song Could Get Me You” – Marit Larsen specializes in modern fairy tale ballads; songs that renders simple, relatable emotions and experiences in the magical tones of musical theater, big screen romance, and girly fantasy. Her new single may be far too sugary for some listeners, but if you can appreciate it for what it is — gorgeous, achingly sincere, and immaculately produced — you’ll have no choice but to fall in love. “If A Song Could Get Me You” is not a far cry from what Larsen was doing on her previous album, but whereas the songs on that record leaned either in the direction of country-pop or classic Disney, this number lands someplace in the space between those aesthetics. (Click here for Marit Larsen’s MySpace page.)

Fluxcast #6 – I’m pretty sure this is going to be a regular Tuesday thing now, or pretty close to it. (Maybe Mondays sometimes?) Anyway, the full playlist for this podcast will be up on the Fluxcast site later this week, but if you’re feeling impatient and/or cannot understand what I am saying, you can check the “lyrics” section of the mp3’s metadata. This episode features music from Cam’ron, Reuben Wilson, Faust, and, uh, Marit Larsen.

Rox “My Baby Left Me” – Rox is part of the Mark Ronson-verse, and so you know what you’re getting here: Strong, assertive vocals; a direct, immediately ingratiating melody; an approach to soul music that marries the aesthetics of 60s/70s Motown and Stax to modern post-hip hop chart pop. I’m not 100% certain whether or not Ronson is responsible for “My Baby Left Me” — it definitely sounds like one of his productions — but either way, I’m pretty sure that it’s the best song to come out of his aesthetic since “Rehab.” Rox’s song may not have the TMZ zeitgeist factor going for it, but the tune certainly comes across with an uncommon blend of urgency and stylish grace. A lot of the piece’s appeal comes from its comfy nostalgia factor, but much like Lauryn Hill’s Miseduction album, the familiarity is there to evoke a sort of post-modern romanticism, and imply a state of mind that is sentimental about every moment of beauty, whether it was fifty years or five minutes ago. (Click here for the Rox MySpace page.)