Clinic “Animal Human” – Though they are still generally lacking the manic spark that made their first three records some of the most compelling art-punk of the past twenty years, Clinic sound far more focused and inspired on their forthcoming LP Visitations. Of course, this is all relative to their previous record, Winchester Cathedral, the only dud in their discography, though not actually a bad album so much as a document of a band in an awkward creative holding pattern. They are still cannibalizing their own back catalog on the new album (the opening track’s vocal melody is extremely similar to that of “Welcome” from Walking With Thee, for example), but Visitations has a tone that is both subtly and obviously different from their previous work.

When Winchester Cathedral was released, I suggested that their approach to music was to deliberately treat elements of their style as a limited set of modular variables that can be taken apart and recombined with new textures, and I’m even more confident about that theory now. It’s not tremendously different from Jack White’s approach to his songwriting and visual presentation in The White Stripes, though Clinic’s taste and execution is far more obscure and abstract. One of the most exciting things about Clinic for me has been in the way Ade Blackburn often sings without enunciating recognizable words, and sometimes alternates between phonetic mutterings, adenoidal yelps and cryptic lyrics containing ambiguous references to religion and spirituality.

There are more lyrics than ever on Visitations, but that doesn’t make the record any easier to understand. In fact, somehow the record feels even more dense and oblique, and I’m uncomfortable making too many observations about its content just yet, as I feel that it is only just now beginning to reveal itself to me after getting through it about eight times as of this writing. I am especially impressed by “Animal Human,” a track that starts off as an eerie prayer, and ends with a scratchy funk guitar groove that is unlike anything the group has ever written before while also sounding like no one else but Clinic. (Click here for Domino Records’ Visitations site.)

Robert Pollard “Serious Bird Woman (You Turn Me On)” – Bob Pollard simply would not be Bob Pollard if he wasn’t doing everything he could to sabotage his own pop songs, and that is just something you have to decide to either dislike (along with most of the rest of the world), or embrace, if you’re willing to find charm in his quirks and often questionable creative decisions. “Serious Bird Woman” is essentially a catchy power ballad with largely straightforward lyrics for a love song, albeit one addressed to an, um, Serious Bird Woman. Pollard has written so many tunes with sincerely heartfelt lyrics existing side by side with odd jokes and bizarre imagery that the Bird Woman thing is almost a non-issue, but his choice to sing the song as…weirdly…as he does on the album recording is just puzzling to me, especially since he’s capable of singing it so much better live. Is this deliberate, or is it just evidence of carelessness? It’s hard to tell, especially when I’m starting to think that the awkward singing on the studio recording actually works. (Click here to pre-order it via Pollard’s official site.)

Elsewhere: My review of The Quiet is up on The Movie Binge.

Stephen Malkmus “Kindling For The Master (Major Swellings mix)” – There are many strange things about this double 12″ of “Kindling For The Master” remixes, but chief among them is the fact that it seems to be released on a random whim quite some time after Face The Truth came out last year, and that all of the remixers somehow agreed to make sure that SM’s original recording was still the perkiest and most danceable version available. I am fairly certain that “Kindling” (easily one of my favorites from FTT, by the way) would make for much peppier remixes than what’s on offer — was MSTRKRFT too busy, too expensive, or too ’00s to deal with the Malk? The Major Swellings mix by Prins Thomas does alright by the song by keeping the structure and key instrumental components intact and extends the track into a bleak, sinister groove that kills a lot of the fun in the song, but at least sounds pretty cool. (Click here to buy it from Domino.)

Young and Restless “Satan” – This cut may not be long on ideas, but is a nearly perfect specimen of a particular sort of punk song from this period, and may actually sound better in a few years when no one is doing this sort of thing, or doing it quite like this, anymore. The screamo bits are a nice touch, but the singer doesn’t go too overboard, or maybe I just say that because I’ve been giving that new Blood Brothers record a shot a few times recently, and I find myself really going for the songs until I invariably reach the moment when I just can’t take the gratuitous shrieking that comes up in every single song. Is it a total lack of imagination on their part, or are they just trying to please their audience, or are they actively attempting to devalue their own currency? (Click here for Young & Restless’ official page.)

There’s not going to be a regular post here today, but my new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site, and features songs from The Loud Family, Space Cowboy, and Rocketship. If you have access to MTV’s Urge service (um, basically, if you have a current version of Windows Media Player on your computer, you can read it), you may want to check out my review of the surprisingly listenable Paris Hilton record on the Pop Informer blog. Also, my review of the absolutely dreadful movie Accepted is up on the The Movie Binge.

Rifle Nice “Bubble Trouble” – “Bubble Trouble” is surprisingly graceful for a song with some bits of very goofy singing and a general low-budget sci-fi soundtrack vibe, but the quality comes through in the group’s craft and control. The song has a strong center in its rhythm section, but all other elements in the track casually float around as though they were in a gravity-free environment. (Click here to buy it from Rifle Nice’s official site.)

The God Damn Doo Wop Band “Talk Too Much” – It’s really too bad that indie audiences generally treat even top quality non-rock pop pastiches with a condescension normally reserved for Civil War reenactors and cosplay enthusiasts, because there’s really no good reason for there not to be new songs written in appealing old traditions. Relative to the number of lame-ass trad-rock retreads out there (not to mention the sheer number of mindblowingly bad acoustic singer-songwriters, GAH), I don’t feel like there’s nearly enough girl-group pop stuff being written these days. The God Damn Doo Wop pull off their song with minimal irony, full commitment, and loads of melody, so let’s hope that God blesses rather than damns them. (Click here to buy it via the God Damn Doo Wop Band’s MySpace page.)

Marit Bergman “No Party” – If you’re getting confused, this is the Marit from Sweden who did “Adios Amigos” and that track with her singing the Pet Shop Boys’ “Rent” over the top of Justus Köhncke’s “Timecode,” not the Marit who did “Only A Fool” and “Don’t Save Me.” (That’s Marit Larsen, who is from Norway.) Bergman’s latest single begins as an unassuming acoustic ballad, but by the time its chorus hits, the arrangement grows lush and a flood of bittersweet emotion overtakes the song. “No Party” absolutely nails a particular sort of angst and loneliness, especially in how it captures the perverse sort of romanticism that goes hand in hand with feeling alienated and confused in a strange place. (Click here to buy it from Marit Bergman’s official site.)

Beastellabeast “The Final Mistake” – The song is slick and slippery, with its rubber band bassline, bumpy beats, and lead vocals that seem to be sliding in and out of the groove. If the Slits were more inclined to fuss around in the studio, they may have arrived at something like this. Alternately, this could be like the sound of Le Tigre loosening up to the point that they could barely stand erect. (Click here for the Beastellabeast MySpace page.)

Stereolab “Metronomic Underground / John Cage Bubblegum (Peel session)” – Inspired mainly by seeing the tracklisting for their forthcoming “hits” anthology (which is pretty decent as an introduction to the Groop in spite of inexplicably omitting some key singles such as “Lo Boob Oscillator,” “The Noise of Carpet,” “The Free Design,” and “Captain Easychord”) on Stereogum last week, I’ve spent a majority of my listening time over this past weekend revisiting the Stereolab catalog, focusing mainly on their peak period from about 1993 on through 1996. It’s been an interesting thing, because perhaps more so than any other top-drawer indie act of the 90s, none is more hopelessly out of sync with the indie music of this decade than Stereolab. Whereas even the artiest of 00s acts place a premium on emotion, mood, or visceral rush, Stereolab were almost entirely cerebral, choosing instead to create music that meditated on philosophy, criticism, art, and economics within sonic structures that were like the pop manifestations of epiphanies and extended trains of thought. We have music for all sorts of things, but Stereolab were essentially exploring a largely unknown territory of pop compositions that expressed keen intellectual interest and fascination with obscure reference points from art, music, and academia.

It’s hard to imagine that it’s been so long already, but this year marks the tenth anniversary of the band’s masterpiece Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Nearly every track on the record is a stone classic, most especially the opening epic “Metronomic Underground,” which is arguably the single best song in the Stereolab discography. Built on a foundation of a genuinely funky (though characteristically asexual) bass groove, the track’s gradual layering of musical elements and graceful tangents seems to imply both a sense of architectural space and the gradual arc of a rational argument. This remarkable Peel session recording moves at a slightly brisker tempo than the original album version, and the rawness of the production allows for more bite in the keyboard tones, resulting in a more physical and aggressive take on the composition. As the song reaches its climax in its seventh minute, the leads dissolve into a brilliant mess of sputtering electronic noises before transitioning into a particularly raucous rendition of “John Cage Bubblegum” from the Refried Ectoplasm compilation. The genius of Stereolab’s best work is very well represented in this recording, mainly in the way that they were able to approach their brainy, somewhat austere subject matter with the same sort of passion that Prince would reserve for sexuality, or Metallica would embrace in articulating rage. Though the band is still capable of writing strong material here and there, that sort of spark and energy is largely missing from their work following Emperor Tomato Ketchup, meaning that even the catchiest tunes from Dots and Loops onward tend to seem less dynamic in comparison. (Click here to pre-order Serene Velocity from Rhino, and here to buy Emperor Tomato Ketchup from Insound.)

My DJ set @ Skinny 8/17/2006
Harry Nilsson “Jump Into The Fire” / Sonic Youth “Jams Run Free” / Peter Bjorn and John “Young Folks” / Squeeze “Squabs on Forty Fab” / Stevie Wonder “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” / Phoenix “Long Distance Call” / Electric Six “Infected Girls” / Maxi Geil & Playcolt “Makin’ Love in the Sunshine” / The Make Up “Born on the Floor” / Elvis Costello “You Belong To Me” / Erasure “Chains of Love” / Wide Boy Awake “Slang Teacher” / New Young Pony Club “Get Dancey” / Of Montreal “The Party’s Crashing Us (I Am The World Trade Center mix)” / Bonde do Role “Ma’quina de Ricota” / CSS “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above” / Death From Above 1979 “Blood On Our Hands (Justice mix)” / Muscles “One Inch Badge Pin” / MSTRKRFT “She’s Good For Business” / Andrew WK “Don’t Call Me Andy” / Led Zeppelin “The Ocean” / Zalatnay Sarolta “Hadd Mondjam El” / Can “Mushroom” / The Rolling Stones “Monkey Man” / The Rogers Sisters “Money Matters” / Art Brut “Modern Art” / Space Cowboy “I Know What Girls Like”

This was easily the weirdest, least cohesive DJ set that I’ve ever done, largely because I was pretty much just playing songs in a bar and improvising most of it off the top of my head. Honestly, the dancey part of this set was an uninspired indulgence; it worked much better when it was in a mid-tempo rock zone. Big thanks to the lovely Lady Byrd from Who Needs Radio for setting this all up.

Squeeze “Squabs On Forty Fab” – When you don’t know which Squeeze song to play, you always have the option of putting on this fantastic medley containing many of their finest compositions. In order: “Take Me I’m Yours,” “Cool For Cats,” “Up The Junction,” “Is That Love?,” “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell),” “Separate Beds,” “Another Nail In My Heart,” “Slap & Tickle,” “Goodbye Girl,” and “Someone Else’s Heart.” (Out of print, but click here to buy it from Amazon Marketplace.)

Zalatnay Sarolta “Hadd Mondjam El” – This works very well coming after Led Zeppelin, mostly because it sounds so much like their riff-rock style taken in a more deliberately funky R&B-centric direction without losing the heaviness, lithe rhythm section, or emotive wailing. It’s really a shame Zalatnay’s music is so incredibly obscure, I can imagine that quite a few people would love this stuff, regardless of the Hungarian lyrics. (Out of print.)

The new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site, and features tracks from Lo-Fi-Fnk, Chad VanGaalen, and Girl Talk. I regret never featuring anything from the latter’s Night Ripper here, so if you haven’t heard that, please do go check that out.

Peter Bjorn and John featuring Victoria Bergsman “Young Folks” – The Concretes In Colour could very well be the most disappointing follow-ups in recent years. It’s a drab, lifeless record that doesn’t come anywhere close to the woozy, wintery sparkle of the best tracks from the Concretes’ self-titled record, and did little to stimulate listeners or the musicians themselves, who seem almost completely uninspired by their own material, most especially singer Victoria Bergsman. Unsurprisingly, Bergsman recently left the Concretes, who are now stuck in the unenviable position of having to replace the single best thing about their band. Peter Bjorn and John (the folks who brought you the brilliant song “Money,” which I featured here last October, and is one of my favorite songs from last year, though I get the impression that none of you really cared about it one way or another) have lucked out, even if just temporarily, by tapping Bergsman for their latest single, a charming duet that makes excellent use of her endearing Nico-by-way-of-Bjork singing voice. Aside from the vocals, the production on the track is excellent, with its whistled hook fitting in nicely along with the contrast of a mellow bass groove and busy, frantic tablas. (Click here to buy it from It’s A Trap.)

Elsewhere: My review of Step Up is up on The Movie Binge.

Of Montreal “The Party’s Crashing Us (I Am The World Trade Center mix)” – With this cut from the largely unnecessary but mostly quite pleasant Of Montreal remix album, I Am The World Trade Center unlock the full potential of a song that was already pretty good. Whereas the original recording was bogged down in a groove that was a bit too clumsy and slow, I Am The World Trade Center give the song a full Eurodisco makeover that sounds far more natural for its vocal melody and lyrical themes. Everything in the remix is smoother, snappier, catchier, and vastly more confident, not to mention more functional and efficient as a song for dancing. Lyrically, there’s some wonderful stuff going on here, especially in the final verse, which is simultaneously outrageously weird (“we made love like a pair of black wizards”) and totally heartfelt in its sentiment (“you freed me from the past, you fucked the suburbs out of me”), and basically sounds like something out of a Grant Morrison comic. After all, accessing hidden power within and without yourself in order to escape the dreariness of the “real world” is one of his major themes. It’s not hard to imagine this being one of the songs that Lord Fanny and Jack were shaking it to when they were dancing for the Harlequinade in my favorite issue of his Invisibles series. (Click here to buy it from Polyvinyl.)

Keith “Mona Lisa’s Child (Jack Built mix)” – Similarly, the original version of Keith’s “Mona Lisa’s Child” sounds like a promising yet unfinished rough draft for its eventual remixes, of which this Jack Built mix is by far my favorite. (Sorry, Alan Braxe and Fred Falke.) Interestingly, if you go listen to the original on their MySpace page, it actually sounds more like a remix than this version, which has the feeling of a great lost late 80s Brit indie dance song. There’s something a bit awkward and gawky about the spareness in the Keith version, whereas Jack Built’s arrangement gels nicely, and brings out the best in the chorus. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Christina Aguilera “Candyman” – Christina Aguilera’s new 2 cd set isn’t much of a double album in the traditional sense (Physical Graffiti, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Wu-Tang Forever, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness) so much as two distinct albums packaged together, a la Winter Women / Holy Ghost Language School or Speakerboxx / The Love Below. In terms of quality, they are both relatively equal in that they both lack anything egregiously unlistenable, and have about the same number of gems per disc. The individual albums do not have their own names, but are broken apart thematically — the first cd is mostly produced by DJ Premier and largely focuses on Christina’s intense desire to become part of the canon, and the second is primarily comprised of ersatz big band pop that is sure to thrill every show tunes loving, jazz hands twirling theatre dork in America.

In a pleasing, though not at all historically inappropriate reversal of expectations, the jazzy disc is the one where Aguilera’s horny id runs wild. The best songs on either record, or really anything else in her catalog, are focused on overwhelming lust. For one thing, it’s a subject perfectly suited to Aguilera’s commanding, industrial-strength voice, but it also seems to be her area of intense interest. Though I have no doubt that she’s fully invested in proving herself as a serious musician and is not kidding around when she sings about loving her fans and needing to be her own person, she’s at her most passionate (and most entertaining) when she’s belting out songs about how much she loves to fuck her new husband. It’s obviously sincere, and the sentiment is a lot more relatable than the vain egotism of much of the Premier material. (Click here to buy the new double album for nearly 50% off on Amazon.)

Sonic Youth @ McCarren Park Pool 8/11/2006
Incinerate / Reena / Catholic Block / What A Waste / Mote / Do You Believe In Rapture? / Turquoise Boy / Rats / Jams Run Free / Pink Steam // The World Looks Red / Shaking Hell

Sonic Youth “The World Looks Red” –

Pros:

1. McCarren Park Pool is a fantastic venue, especially when the weather is as ideal as it was in New York this weekend. The sound is surprisingly good, as are the sight lines, and it seems like the venue undersold the show to limit overcrowding, which was awfully considerate of them.

2. After a decade of seeing Sonic Youth at a rate of about once or twice per year, I finally got to see them play “Mote,” which is an incredibly common song on most tours, though they normally opted for “Eric’s Trip” whenever I was around. It ruled, as did the subsequent performance of “Do You Believe In Rapture?,” which was the prettiest, most delicate thing I’ve ever seen the band play live.

3. Also, oh my God, “The World Looks Red”! I was thinking not too long ago that they ought to bring that one back, and I’m so glad that they did. I’m not totally sure if this was the first time they played it on this tour, but either way, it’s been missing from setlists since the Washing Machine era, and it totally destroyed the original album recording, though that’s probably not too shocking.

4. Mark Ibold! Dude hasn’t aged a day since the Terror Twilight tour, apparently. (Though he has thankfully abandoned the little goatee from that period.) Mark still looks totally beatific whenever he’s on stage, as though he’s fully aware that he somehow lucked into playing in two of the five or six greatest bands to ever exist on the planet and he’s not sure how that happened.

5. “Jams Run Free”! See the previous entry.

(Click here to buy it from Insound.)

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ McCarren Park Pool 8/11/2006
Fancy / Rich / Honeybear / Machine / Gold Lion / Phenomenon / Art Star / Mysteries / Cheated Hearts / Miles Away / The Sweets / Maps / Turn Into // Y-Control / Poor Song / Date With The Night

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Maps (Live at the Roseland Ballroom 2006)” –

Cons:

1. Thanks to the effing Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sonic Youth played about 30-40 minutes less than their normal set time in their long-awaited hometown shows. On top of that, the tickets were more expensive than usual, and Sonic Youth fans basically paid 30% more for 30% less. Hopefully SY will book some proper headlining shows in NYC in the fall so that their hardcore base can get a full gig.

2. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were wildly inconsistent and played a very poorly paced setlist that cut out too many of their good songs (“Way Out,” “Our Time,” “Mystery Girl,” “Bang,” “Modern Romance”) in favor of unlistenable duds from the new album, and shunted most of the better songs to the final third of the set rather than spreading them out through the show. They played far too many dirges, which were especially grating when you were forced into realizing that had essentially stole the time from Sonic Youth, and were making you sit through crap like “Fancy” when you should have been hearing “Schizophrenia” or something.

3. I’m never going to stop hating that song “Art Star.” Oh my God, so dreadful. (On the bright side, “Y-Control” and “Maps” were pretty awesome.)

4. Going on immediately after one of the best bands in history did not flatter the YYYs at all — if they knew what was good for them, they would have insisted on going on before Sonic Youth both nights rather than alternating the headline slot. Whereas bands like Wilco, The Flaming Lips, Pearl Jam, and R.E.M. have the fanbase, history, chops, and general gravitas to relegate Sonic Youth to a subordinate or co-headlining role on a bill, the YYYs simply do not, and almost certainly will not ever. This is not to say that they suck — they definitely have a handful of great songs and Nick Zinner and Brian Chase are both very good musicians — but they were hopelessly outclassed, and playing after a bunch of geniuses still going strong in their third decade together just made their set seem unnecessarily flimsy and amateurish, whereas if they were playing with most any random band from their own generation, they would have looked more like the rock stars that they so desperately want to be, and not like a so-so group with an annoying lead singer.

5. Unrelated to the YYYs, but opening act Blood On The Wall were pretty decent, but inexplicably opted not to play “Mary Susan,” their best song by a considerable distance. Why do small bands like that so often make these sort of boneheaded decisions, especially when they are playing in front of a very large audience and have a lot to prove?

(Click here to buy it from CD Universe.)

Sonic Youth “Jams Run Free” (Live in Washington DC, June 15 2006) – For the first two months that I knew this song, I couldn’t quite figure out exactly why its chorus hit me so hard, especially when Kim Gordon sings the words “I hope it’s not too late for me” over Steve Shelley’s signature gallop and this gorgeous lead guitar figure that sounds like a more wistful version of the theme from “Bull In The Heather.” Shortly after the record was formally released, I stumbled into this post on fansofsoft which speculated that the lyrics of the chorus refer to a rare optical phenomenon known as the “green ray.” Basically, if you have a perfect, unobstructed view of the horizon, most likely on the ocean under perfect weather conditions, you can observe a brief flash of green light on the edge of the horizon moments before the sun rises or sets.

Here are the full lyrics to the chorus:

I love the way you move
I hope it’s not too late for me
it’s too good on the sea
where the light is green
the light is green

The “green ray” thing cracks the song open for me, particularly in light of some of the cryptic throwaway lines in the verses. As I see it now, the song is essentially about being aware of all the incredible, beautiful things in the world, and being forced to recognize that you can’t possibly experience them all, even if you are a person of incredible means. Emotionally, the song is riding a thin line separating self-pitying melancholy and peaceful acceptance of the way things are, ultimately striking a balance where the feelings of regret are not diminished and brushed aside, or allowed to consume the singer. It’s one of the most mature songs you could ever hope to hear about thwarted desires, and I desperately hope that they play the song tonight when I see them. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Elsewhere: Carrie Brownstein + Fred Armisen = SO CLASSIC. The best part is when he does the PSAs at the end.

My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site. This week: Matthew Friedberger, Ratatat, and a selection from Rio Baile Funk: More Favela Booty Beats. Also, my review of Talladega Nights is up on The Movie Binge, though that site seems to be down as of this writing.

Be Your Own Pet “October, First Account” – For better or worse, most of Be Your Own Pet’s first proper album sounds like the work of excited teenagers, which is exactly what they are. Fair enough. A lot of the more wild tracks are fun and above average, but they really shine on this raggedy alt-rock/punk semi-ballad, which hints at the fantastic band that Be Your Own Pet has the potential to become. Better yet, it presents almost all of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs best moves without any of that band’s extremely obnoxious tics, basically making Karen O & Co. look like the Chump Chump Chumps without even trying that hard. Let’s just hope and pray that BYOP singer Jemina Pearl doesn’t end up like Karen O, who came off like a severely retarded PJ Harvey in a hideous superhero costume on Conan the other night, and has basically made me dread seeing her band on tomorrow night’s bill with Sonic Youth. (Click here to buy it very cheap from Insound.)

The Loud Family “Total Mass Destruction” – It’s been nearly seven years since Scott Miller recorded a new album of songs, and so What If It Works? arrives with a odd mixture of anticipation and diminished expectations, given that he’s been out of practice for ages and there were only two very good songs on 2000’s Attractive Nuisance. Sadly, I’m probably one of 400 people in the world that actually cares about Miller, which is unfortunate, since he’s written an impressive number of clever, catchy postmodern rock songs in the 80s with Game Theory and with The Loud Family in the 90s. He’s been in semi-retirement since the beginning of this decade at least in part due to the increasing indifference of the indie marketplace and a desire to focus on his dayjob and family. Easily the least cohesive album in the Loud Family discography, What If It Works? is a piecemeal collection of covers, mediocre songs written and sung by Hyde from That 70s Show Anton Barbeau (the album is actually credited to The Loud Family & Anton Barbeau), and an EP’s worth of Miller originals. “Total Mass Destruction” is the album’s best cut, though the fact that it’s not actually a very new song makes me slightly nervous. Still, it’s an amiable, catchy tune that articulates Miller’s difficulties in rationalizing putting in the effort of making a new album when few people even care about the existing records. (Click here to buy it from 125 Records.)

The Similou “All This Love (Original Mix)” – When I hear songs like this, that make the singer’s life sound like some kind of nonstop carefree joyride, I wonder if they are writing fiction/fantasy, or if these people actually do have astonishingly great lives. I suppose that if you’re going to write something that sounds as incredibly happy as this track, you’d want to match the lyrics to it, but still. I like the song, but if this is in any way non-fiction, I kinda resent them! (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Clark “Vengeance Drools” – This track reminds me so much of Sonic Ciccone Youth’s “MacBeth,” both in terms of the creepy, dense sound of the recording, but also in how it implies horror in this sideways, knowing sort of way. David Markey’s video for “MacBeth” is among my favorite clips of all time, mainly for the way that he makes a virtue of his total lack of budget and has the tossed-off lo-fi footage work to his advantage by seeming somehow far more scary and weird than something with high production values, if just because it looks like it was made by someone who might actually be insane. (Click here to buy it from Warp.)

Electric Six “Infected Girls” – It’s really no wonder that the Electric Six’s records are packed top to bottom with ridiculous, over the top lyrics. Dick Valentine’s voice is so confident and authoritative that he can get away with singing most anything, be it an excited invitation to a gay bar in a surf rock tune, a Backstreet Boys lyric presented as a solemn remembrence in a modern rock ballad, or highly detailed instructions on how to order drugs by sending a S.A.S.E. to the band’s P.O. box in a rollicking glam number. The great thing about the Electric Six is that the tunes are as good as the jokes, and the jokes nearly always contain some kind of interesting, thoughtful subtext, usually involving a self-reflexive critique of male sexuality. “Infected Girls” is a dark twist on Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls,” celebrating ladies with vd with a bumper-sticker ready slogan in the chorus, while also presenting a vague feeling of dread in its Robert Palmer-ish groove. Everything about the song signals the character’s conflicted feelings about the “infected girls,” vacillating back and forth between disrespect and admiration, and desire and fear. (Click here to buy it from Metropolis Records.)

My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site. This week: The Big Sleep, Justice, and Page France.

The Rogers Sisters “Money Matters” – The Rogers Sisters are a brave band, willfully jumping into the fire by opening up for Sleater-Kinney on their final tour, playing to audiences who are practically melting in overheated rooms while anxiously waiting for the headliner, and no matter how well they play, their set is a distant memory by the time S-K finishes their encore. They definitely put on a strong show in NYC, or at least played well enough for me to reconsider The Invisible Deck yesterday. I’m sort of baffled as to why I originally took a pass on that album; at least half of the songs are exactly the sort of 90s-style indie rock that I normally go for — strong hooks and harmonies, punky spirit, guitar noise that errs on the side of impressionism, singing that falls somewhere between Kristen Hersh and Kathleen Hanna on the indie girl vocal spectrum. It’s true that I’d definitely prefer the band if the guy never sang at all, but he’s not that bad, and Jennifer Rogers is especially great, both as a guitarist and as a vocalist. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Space Cowboy “That’s What Dreams Are Made Of (MTV) (Alan Braxe remix)” – Extended to nearly 400% of its original length by Alan Braxe to the point that it actually better resembles Space Cowboy’s previous singles, this mix drifts along in a blissful haze for several minutes before getting to its first verse. The lyrics are sung from the perspective of an aspiring pop singer, and addressed to an older pop star that inspired them when they were watching MTV back in 1993. It’s almost too sweet and naive, but it’s so incredibly true in how the sentiment is verbalized. There’s this weird mixture of awe and ego and ambition and vulnerability, and the song gets totally lost in those emotions. It’s as though they made a song out of some stray soundbite from American Idol, but weren’t trying to make fun of the earnest contestants. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Elsewhere: NPR’s All Songs Considered has the entire Sleater-Kinney show from last night in Washington, DC as one big downloadable mp3 on their site. It’s a good show, but nothing on the previous night in terms of energy and song selection. But hey, “Burn, Don’t Freeze!,” “Buy Her Candy,” and “Little Babies” were played, so that’s pretty cool.

Sleater-Kinney @ Webster Hall 8/2/2006
Start Together / The Fox / The Drama You’ve Been Craving / Wilderness / Jumpers / Light Rail Coyote / Night Light / Ironclad / Rollercoaster / Hot Rock / What’s Mine Is Yours / Youth Decay / Modern Girl / Let’s Call It Love / Entertain / Sympathy / Dig Me Out // Ballad of a Ladyman / Oh! / Call The Doctor / Get Up / Words + Guitar /// Turn It On / One More Hour

Okay, no fucking around. Just look over that setlist a few times. Count your lucky stars that this show was filmed for a forthcoming dvd, because this was probably one of the best Sleater-Kinney shows ever. And really, maybe one of the best rock shows of all time. There’s no doubt in my mind that this was one of the four or five best concerts that I’ve ever attended.

That said, let’s move on.

Before getting into Webster Hall, I was chatting with a girl on line outside who was seeing them for the very first time. She had wanted to go to the Roseland show last June, but it happened to fall on the day of her high school graduation. Though I’m sure she would have loved it, I think she sorta lucked out because that show was really not that hot, and this was pretty much the best possible S-K set that you could hope for if you’re only ever going to see them once, assuming that you’re fine with only one song from Call The Doctor.

This girl was exactly the right person for me to speak with before this show. She had the sort of intense enthusiasm that comes from wide-eyed teenage fandom, which is exactly where I started out with this band back when I was a senior in high school. I’m not a big fan of “full circle” as a narrative device (seriously, Joss Whedon, you’ve got to stop with it), but it was ideal for this occasion. Thinking back on my review of that Roseland show, I was just so bitchy and annoyed, and though a lot of my criticisms at that point were valid and sincere, I think it was mostly me grappling with the band drifting away from what I wanted them to be/become. Now that I accept The Woods as the end point of their career (at least for now; they’ve never said anything about breaking up) I enjoy it so much more as a whole LP. Even “Let’s Call It Love,” which was tedious when I saw them last summer, was mindblowing tonight. Maybe the Roseland show was uninspired; maybe I was being a dick. It doesn’t really matter now.

Sleater-Kinney “Hot Rock” – When I saw that they played this song in Philadelphia over the weekend, I was overcome with this odd mixture of joy that I might see them play one of my all-time favorites again for the first time in years, and dread, because the song is tied to extremely painful memories, and I wasn’t sure how I’d react to it. I mean, as much as I totally adore this song, I normally avoid it because the “it’s not real / you don’t need to tell me that it’s not real” part on the bridge hits me like a truck (a truck of…emotion? with wheels made of…memories?) just about every time that I hear it. One of the most visceral moments of any show that I’ve ever seen came when they did this part at the only other time I’ve seen it before tonight, back in 1999. But somehow, tonight, it was like a bloodletting. It was empowering and therapeutic. Not to get back to the full circle thing, but it felt like closure. There’s another song on The Hot Rock (which is my favorite S-K album; it would be an understatement to say that I was overjoyed when they did “Get Up” towards the end of this show) that starts with the line “don’t talk like you’re 19, you’re 35 if you’re a day,” and though I’m actually going to be 27 on Saturday, it’s still a good thing to fully let go of all that bad late-teenage emotion.

I’m not old at all, but I think this show does mark a clean ending to my weird, weird youth. I started on this band when I was about to turn 17! They aren’t just tied to angst, their songs are connected to so much of my life, good and bad, from the past decade that I can barely get into it; it’s just too personal. (To steal a line from Whit Stillman: I never confide anything in you, and so I guess you’re forced to extrapolate.) I’m sure a lot of you can say a lot of the same things about them, and might even end up missing them more than I will. But I’m grateful, and I don’t plan on ever not listening to their music, and I had so much fun tonight that I’m still awed two and a half hours after the show ended. Thank you, Sleater-Kinney. Have a nice time being moms, students, solo artists, studio musicians, senators, astronauts, scientists, or whatever it is you all plan on doing for the forseeable future.

(Click here to buy The Hot Rock and a whole bunch of other Sleater-Kinney albums and merchandise from Buy Olympia.)

Elsewhere: Brooklyn Vegan has some great photos from the show. He must have put them up like ten minutes after it ended or something! That guy is incredible.

The Dirty Projectors “Fucked For Life” – The new Dirty Projectors EP lacks the warped high concept of The Getty Address, but refines the sound of that record, resulting in a set of bizarre, off-center stunners that do not fit comfortably in any pre-existing genres. Dave Longstreth’s voice recalls Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside’s timbre and specific type of soul affectations, but there’s something a little off about his phrasing and melodies, which extends to the rest of the arrangement. “Fucked For Life” is essentially all about the bass, which bumps along throughout the track, serving as the focal point which all the other elements orbit. The track grooves, but it’s not exactly a groover; it’s catchy, but is only pop by the loosest definition; it’s jazzy, but it is only informed by jazz. If rock implies something solid, this music is a vapor. (Click here for the Marriage Records’ Dirty Projectors site.)

Guther “Many Frames Per Moment” – Video treatment: Julia Guther is walking around ar large airport terminal looking zoned out and moving passively through a place filled with people moving briskly and appearing busy and rushed. For most of the clip, she should appear to be passively moving along with the tide, at other times washing out to quieter hallways and corridors where she appears even more directionless. We see her pace around inside of shops, barely even looking at things, and getting some food that she barely eats. At the instrumental break, she picks up her pace and appears more deliberate in her movements. As the song reaches it climax, she walks out of the structure into the morning sun, and onto a bus that disappears into the glare of light. (Click here to pre-order it from Boomkat.)

Elsewhere: My review of Scoop is up on The Movie Binge.

Jeffrey & Jack Lewis “Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror” – If you’ve ever been on the L train, or walked around Williamsburg and its vicinity, you can see a lot of people who clearly have some variation of this song’s lyrics running through their mind. It starts out as self-deprecation and a mixture of pride and revulsion for the lifestyle that they’ve attained. The next step is getting sucked into an undertow of fear and doubt about the inherent lack of pragmatism in pursuing the arts as a career, and then the art itself is torn apart after the ego has been fully eviscerated. Then, at the lowest low in this moment between subway stops, there’s a crazy nightmare scenerio played out in the imagination. In the case of this song, it involves Will Oldham mercilessly attacking the singer of this song on an abandoned subway platform. There’s a moment of realization at the conclusion, and that’s about the time when the person gets off the train, goes about their day, and maybe cycles through another permutation of this set of thoughts five more times before getting to bed at night with their cute boyfriend or girlfriend, who is covered in bad tattoos, has a questionable haircut, and has also thought the same thing through a half dozen times over in the previous 24 hours. (Click here for the Jeffrey Lewis site.)

Once again, the good folks at Pitchfork were successful in putting on what has got to be the most intelligently run music festival in the United States. Here’s a rundown of what I saw over the weekend.

Edit: I recommend reading Marathon Packs’ posts about the festival. Eric put a lot of time and thought into his posts, unlike me — I dashed this post out as quickly as I possibly could at an internet cafe in Wicker Park, and left out quite a bit of what I wanted to say.

The Mountain Goats – John Darnielle came off well, but I’m not sure if this was the right setting for his songs, which gain a lot from intimate venues which are more conducive to hearing his lyrics. I know that acoustic guitar is Darnielle’s thing, but my mild allergy to the instrument when it is strummed keeps me from really bonding with his music, aside from “Dance Music,” which he played and I love without reservations.

Destroyer
Crystal Country / European Oils / Your Blood / Painter In Your Pocket / Modern Painters / It’s Gonna Take An Airplane / Rubies / Looters’ Follies

Destroyer “Looters’ Follies” – Destroyer’s set was an early peak for my experience at the festival. Though I would have most enjoyed a set of nothing but songs from Destroyer’s Rubies, Dan Bejar at least treated us to the entire first side of that record, along with a few solid oldies. I was especially excited for “Painter In Your Pocket” and “Looters’ Follies,” which were both gorgeous and rate as two of the four of five most memorable performances of my weekend. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Art Brut – I might be wrong, but I don’t think anyone on either day had as much of the audience as completely psyched as Art Brut, who tore through pretty much all of their first album as well as a handful of new songs, some of them apparently only half-finished. I wish that some people weren’t so hung up on the humorous, novelty elements of the band and would just embrace them as one of the most fun and consistently catchy punk bands in the world today. And seriously, if you can’t immediately tap into the raw, specific emotions of “Rusted Gun of Milan,” “Emily Kane,” and “Good Weekend,” then perhaps we should just consider that you may be an unfeeling turbodouche.

Ted Leo/Pharmacists – I missed the first half of this set, but arrived just in time for a really, really good new song with a rocksteady sort of sound to it, and a fantastic performance of my favorite Ted Leo song, “The Ballad of the Sin Eater,” that closed out the set. People were totally flipping out for Ted, as well they should.

The Walkmen – The new songs were a droney, non-melodic bust, but at least they played a bunch of solid oldies — “Stop Talking,” “The Rat,” “Wake Up,” “We’ve Been Had,” “Little House of Savages.” Those were great. Hugh McIntosh from the Childballads filled in on drums, which was…well, worthy of some extrapolation, I suppose.

The Futureheads
Decent Days and Nights / Area / Cope / Meantime / Back to the Sea / A to B / Favours For Favours / Return of the Beserker / Skip to the End / He Knows / Hounds of Love / Carnival Kids / Man Ray

They were alright. I’m just not that into them aside from “Decent Days and Nights” and “Skip to the End,” which were both great. I was impressed by the group’s harmonies, which were as crisp and clean as on the studio recordings.

Silver Jews – Not good at all. I’m fairly certain that every song was in the same key, which only made the sameness of the material that much more dull. Much of the set sounded like they were headlining the Pitchfork County Fair.

Bonde do Rolê

Bonde do Rolê “Ma´quina de Ricota” – I enjoyed them a bit more than I did at the Warsaw, though I had trouble seeing them from where I was in the tent. The sound was much better for this show, allowing their weird sort of Baille punk to have a greater visceral punch. Unfortunately Marina took a bad fall after crowd surfing in the penultimate song, and had to be sent to the hospital. The girls from CSS filled in on the final song, and it was great, though, you know, it would have been a lot better if Marina wasn’t injured. (Click here for the Bonde do Rolê MySpace page.)

CSS
CSS Suxxx / Patins / Alala / Fuckoff Is Not The Only Thing – Work It / Meeting Paris Hilton / This Month, Day 10 / Alcohol / Off The Hook / Art Bitch / Music Is My Hot Hot Sex / Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above

I’ve written so much about CSS lately, so I’m just going to leave it at this: CSS was rad, and they totally got the audience that they deserved.

Cage – I wasn’t very familiar with Cage before this set, but he was very convincing live, in spite of, or maybe because of, his odd mix of emo and Def Jux-style rap. Not bad.

Aesop Rock & Mr. Lif – I lost interest in this about halfway through, but it’s more of a comment on the overbearing heat and my desire to hang out for a bit than anything to do with the quality of their performance, which was pretty tight and entertaining.

Mission of Burma – They lost me on a few songs, but this was mostly quite good, and well worth standing around in intense sunlight for, especially on the old punk anthems. It was a thrill to look around and see all the fists banging to “Academy Fight Song” and “Photograph,” and I really enjoyed seeing them play “1001 Pleasant Dreams” from the new album.

Yo La Tengo
Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind / I Should Have Known Better / Mr. Tough / The Weakest Part / Watch Out For Me, Ronnie / Beanbag Chair / I Feel Like Going Home / The Story of Yo La Tango

If they ever release a cd of this set, it should be titled Yo La Tengo Is Murdering Your Attention Span. They played no hits whatsoever, and focused almost excusively on the long, droning songs from the forthcoming record. I’ve got nothing against those songs, per se, but it was just the wrong thing to play at this festival, where people had been baking in the sun for hours and maybe were up for something a little less boring. “Mr. Tough” sounded wonderful, though. Pretty much everything else that they played was very unengaging. Would it have killed them to throw in a few hits?

Spoon
Don’t Make Me A Target / The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine / Stay Don’t Go / Jonothon Fisk / The Beast and Dragon, Adored / I Turn My Camera On / Someone Something / Paper Tiger / Rhthm and Soul / They Never Got You / I Summon You / My Mathematical Mind

Spoon never disappoints me. After that passive-aggressive performance from Yo La Tengo, it was good to see the most pop

ular band at the festival bring their A game. Spoon are nothing if not a tight band, but they did seem a bit out of practice, or at least Britt did, as he botched a few lyrics here and there. The two new songs were promising, but the big thrills came from the familiar classics. “The Beast and Dragon, Adored” never seemed as anthemic as it did last night, and “I Summon You” revealed itself to be a major hit with the audience.

Os Mutantes – I really wish that Os Mutantes had gone on before Spoon, because as good as they were, I was pretty much done after Spoon’s set ended, and I suspect that was also the case for a lot of the audience. Never the less, they were a fine come down after a rather intense weekend, and concluded the festival on a rather spirited note.