Hooray The Blues Of Everyone

Interpol @ Jones Beach Theater 6/14/2005
Next Exit / Slow Hands / Say Hello to the Angels / Narc / Not Even Jail / Leif Erikson / Evil / Take You On A Cruise / Obstacle 1 / PDA

Pixies @ Jones Beach Theater 6/14/2005
Is She Weird? / Subbacultcha / Dead / Wave of Mutilation / I Bleed / Broken Face / Monkey Gone To Heaven / No. 13 Baby / In Heaven / Where Is My Mind? / La La Love You / Nimrod’s Son / Mr. Grieves / The Holiday Song / Vamos / Here Comes Your Man / Bone Machine / Stormy Weather / The Sad Punk / Something Against You / Isla De Encanta / Allison / Cactus / Gouge Away / Tame / Debaser / Hey / Gigantic // Caribou

Unfortunately, I missed LCD Soundsystem’s set. I’m not very happy about this, but it was beyond my control and certainly not my fault. I have seen them before and will definitely see them again, so it’s no great tragedy, though I’m told that they’ve recently added “Disco Infiltrator” and a Carl Craig cover to their setlist, so if I missed that, it really sucks.

It’s becoming apparent that Interpol are getting bored by playing the 20 songs in their repertoire. Their performance often felt a bit rote, and several of the songs were padded out with devices like bass drone intros and drum solos that were obviously added to keep the songs interesting for the band. Interpol began their set at dusk, and it was not completely dark until “Evil” (clearly their big hit based on audience response). I don’t think it was any coincidence that their set got better as the sun went down – I suspect that they may actually draw their power from the night. The best thing about Interpol’s set was looking around and watching little pockets of people dancing. There was one girl off to the side who was doing that hippy twirl dance, and this really skinny dude in a tank top in front of me who was doing some variation on the Axl Rose snake shimmy. Very charming, yes, but neither of these people had anything on the group of three (presumably teenage or young college age) girls in matching white homemade “Not As Cool As Kim Deal” t-shirts who did girly bedroom dances for every single song in Interpol and the Pixies’ sets. You know what kind of dances I’m talking about – it’s all in the neck, shoulders, and arms, with frequent hair twirls and vaguely awkward (but cute!) hip movements. Their intense, unironic enthusiasm was so endearing; I wish that they would come to every show that I see.

Apartment “Everyone Thinks I’m Paranoid” – It’s too bad that Interpol didn’t play this song last night. Sure, it’s not theirs, but it definitely sounds like it could be. In fact, if this was in the set, it would’ve been one of the three or four best songs. I mean no disrespect to Apartment at all – I certainly like this guy’s voice a lot more, and they are obviously a pretty good band, but the resemblence is too strong not to note. It’s a very specific thing, and it goes beyond shared influences – I certainly wouldn’t say that this song sounds all that much like Joy Division, for example. I’m speaking from the part of me that wishes that loads of 80s UK rock hits (like, say, “Melt With You,” “Always Something There To Remind Me,” “The Promise,” “Something About You,” and “Head Over Heels”) were all by the same band, if just as a matter of convenience. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

There isn’t a lot to say about the Pixies, actually. I would rate this show a bit higher than the Hammerstein show that I saw this past December, but really, they were both about equally awesome, though I think Black Francis’ vocals may have been stronger last night. Really, there’s not a lot of room for them to go wrong with their body of work and musical chemistry, though in both cases I would have happy to have heard a bit more from Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde. I got a few really good selections from those records last night, and I was thrilled to hear them, but I was pretty let down to see that I was probably the only person in the entire amphitheatre who was totally psyched to hear them play “The Sad Punk” and “Stormy Weather,” so it was a lonely sort of joy. I just don’t get it – people were acting as though they’ve never even heard those songs before, but then flipping out to “Isla De Encanta.” That song is alright, but c’mon, it’s no “The Sad Punk.” At least a few people seemed to get into “Allison,” which was the song I had wanted to hear the most aside from “Planet of Sound.”

The Sound Of Guitars Never Meant Anything To Me Before You

Tiefschwarz featuring Matty Safer “Warning Siren” – I mean this in the best possible way, but this really doesn’t sound much different from what I’d expect from Safer’s full-time band, The Rapture. If this song had ended up on the next Rapture record, I think pretty much everyone would be thrilled – it sticks to the strengths of songs like “Sister Savior” (particularly the DFA remix) and “I Need Your Love,” while pushing the music a bit further into full-on electronic dance music. Maybe I’ve only been hearing the wrong Tiefschwarz singles and remixes for the past couple years, but this strikes me as a far more subtle and less overbearing track than what I’m used to hearing from them. The intensity builds up as the song progresses, but I’m most fond of the keyboard part on the intro before the bass and guitars enter the mix. (Click here for more info from Fine Records.)

The Nanobot Auxiliary Ballet… “More” – I’ll be a bit of a pedant and note that this is actually credited to The Nanobot Auxiliary Ballet and Insect Art with the Office of Woodland Security, and the Evil House of Handshakes, Present: Tylenolandadida – the Deadly Ballerina – Featuring: Thechillbotslider, Thepushbuttonmaster, and the Whitehotfunkbot – and Introducing: The Doodads of Doom and the Recipe Box of Spells. With a name like that, it’s really not so surprising that they would end up singing the mantra “more is not what I need more of” over a fairly minimal electro track. You’ve got to get your balance somewhere, right? (Click here to buy/acquire it from Dark Beloved Cloud.)

These Foolish Hearts Keep On Pumping

Maxi Geil & Playcolt @ Tonic 6/12/2005
Here Comes Maxi / A Message To My Audience / Teenage Extreme / That’s How The Story Goes… / Paying For Something New / Sunday Morning / The Love I Lose / Artist’s Lament / Making Love in the Sunshine

Maxi Geil & Playcolt “That’s How The Story Goes…” – The first two Maxi Geil shows that I attended were at Joe’s Pub (if you’ve never been, it’s this very posh seated club with flawless sound and very expensive drinks) and an auditorium at the Museum of Modern Art, so it was a pleasant change of pace to see them play in a proper rock club environment. It seems that the band conciously tailor their sound to suit the space where they are playing – the Joe’s Pub set came off like an arena show being played for thirty people, and the MoMA set included a cellist and a sax player, so it had this classy vibe that certainly made sense for the venue. This show was raw and dirty, with the band placing a heavy emphasis on the disco aspects of the songs and inspiring a crowd made up mainly of Britpop fans who had never heard them before to dance and move. (A minor success in and of itself, really.) The band, and most certainly Maxi himself, project an aura of total confidence and control, and generally seem more like seasoned road veterans rather than a largely unknown group who only occasionally play out.

“That’s How The Story Goes…” has been a highlight of the band’s recent shows and is being released as a non-album single by the end of the summer, backed up by the dance rock sequel to “Now The Music Stops” from the first album, “Making Love in the Sunshine” (key lyric: “this kind of love is like Das Kapital / I often quote it / know who wrote it / never read it all”). “That’s How The Story Goes…” captures all of the romance and bombast of the debut album in one song, starting off as a gentle new wave ballad before effortlessly transitioning into a smooth glam-disco number with a breakdown that easily ranks among the best pop moments of 2005.

British readers should note that Maxi Geil & Playcolt will be playing their first two European shows in London on June 24th and 25th. (More info.) You really should not miss this. (Click here for the official Maxi Geil & Playcolt site.)

Dragonette “Competition” – Ah, poor Dragonette – they’ve written the perfect single for an imaginary radio format that is just as sympathetic to glammy Scissor Sisters-ish rock as it is to modern r&b chart pop. It could work with Top 40 or VH1, but still, it’s a close call. I’d really rather live in a world where this is an actual pop hit. (Click here for the Dragonette website.)

Elsewhere: Today is my final day filling in on Stereogum.

I Need A Mind To Blow

Art Brut “Good Weekend” – I don’t know why, but the first few Art Brut singles didn’t immediately work for me, but since I’ve heard the full album I just wonder what the hell I was thinking. “Good Weekend” is the song that sold the band for me, mainly because I don’t believe that I’ve ever heard any other band totally nail the vain enthusiasm at the core of a dude bragging about having a new girlfriend before, much less capture that feeling with such vivid intensity. The vocalist speak-sings in a thick British accent like a bubblegum version of Mark E Smith, and sells crucial lines like “I’ve seen her naked, TWICE!” with a stunning degree of commitment and urgency. As for the lusty lyrics, Louis XIV really ought to be taking notes – this is how it’s done. Less smarm, more vulnerable charm, thank you. (Click here to buy it from Fierce Panda.)

Catlow “Iamloved” – There’s no getting around this song’s obvious resemblence to Goldfrapp’s “Train,” but really, if we’re going to have so many lousy clones of far lesser songs, I really don’t mind having some really well executed variations on music that actually rules. Surely we all have a LOT more sexy vampy shufflepop numbers to write before that style is even remotely as ubiquitous as, say, garage rockers, faux-Dylan troubadour crap, post-Green Day pop-punk, or anything involving heavy metal. (Click here to buy it from Boompa.)

Elsewhere: I am filling for Scott on Stereogum while he’s off at the Bonnaroo festival. Yesterday I posted a bunch of links to mp3s from around the web, and today I’ll be putting up a bunch of my own mp3 selections (R.E.M., Doleful Lions, Styrofoam & Sarah Shannon, Iron Hero) and assorted links.

Bringing About The Apocalypse Is Not Considered Cool

Spoon @ Webster Hall 6/8/2005
The Beast and Dragon, Adored / The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine / Someone Something / Lines in the Suit / Sister Jack / The Delicate Place / The Fitted Shirt / Anything You Want / Back to the Life / Paper Tiger / Small Stakes / Everything Hits At Once / I Turn My Camera On / I Summon You / The Infinite Pet / The Way We Get By / Me and the Bean / My Mathematical Mind // Metal Detektor / Take A Walk / Jonathon Fisk

Spoon “My Mathematical Mind (Live @ Austin 1/9/2005)” – I’ve been trying to figure out what I like so much about Spoon, or even just find a way to reduce my thoughts down to a pithy line or two that scratches the surface, and the one adjective that I keep coming back to is “classy.” And oh my God, I don’t even really know what that is supposed to mean, other than that it implies impeccable taste and timeless elegance, both of which certainly apply to the band since Girls Can Tell. I often wish that there was a band that felt like Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out” all of the time, and I’m beginning to realize that Spoon come rather close to that ideal, but with added elements of Motown, Squeeze, The Clash, and late period Beatles. Some musicians may make a play at sophistication and meticulous craft, but Spoon achieve that end without seeming as though they are expending a great deal of effort in pursuit of their goals. The band are obvious perfectionists, but the art itself is seamlessly constructed and concerned mainly with evoking an emotional response and an immediate physical reaction.

The band was in top form last night, playing from a perfectly selected setlist that emphasized the best material (barring maybe three or four songs) from their past three albums with a focus and intensity that matched, and in some cases surpassed, the studio performances. It’s fairly common for rock bands to improve on their material in a live setting, but it is particularly impressive that Spoon can do this given that their self-produced albums are (with the possible exception of some Steve Albini productions) the best sounding rock records being made in the world today. The urgency and soul of those recordings is no fluke; the band clearly track most of the music on the albums live in the studio. For some reason, I had convinced myself that the crisp, visceral sound of the percussion on the albums was the result of clever studio micing (and yeah, it kinda is), but it translated perfectly live, in part due to some more intelligent mic placement, but mostly because of the raw talent of Jim Eno.

“My Mathematical Mind” was a highlight of the show, and is arguably the best song from the new album. The song is built around a portentous groove anchored by a tense piano figure. At some moments, the song seems to flirt with the notion of release, but the band never give in to the impulse, instead letting the song continue to escalate until it eventually collapses into itself. (Click here to buy this live recording on a charity album benefiting tsunami victims, and here to buy the studio version.)

Elsewhere: Here’s an excellent review of Gimme Fiction by Jessica Hopper.

It’s The Old Fruit That Makes Wine

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks @ Irving Plaza 6/7/2005
Mama / Pencil Rot / Water and a Seat / Loud Cloud Crowd / No More Shoes / Dynamic Calories / I’ve Hardly Been / Freeze the Saints / Dark Wave / It Kills / Jenny and the Ess Dog / Grace / Baby C’mon / Carl the Clod // Malediction / (John Moen sings some song, I have no idea)

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks “Grace (Live @ Sonic Boom, 5/24/2005)” – Though I suspect my feelings have something to with not having seen him play since 2003 (absence makes the heart grow fonder, etc), I’m reasonably certain that this was the best show I’ve ever seen SM play with the Jicks. A lot of it had to do with the band seeming more confident in their identity than ever before, and playing to their strengths (chops, improvisation, sardonic banter) rather than keeping it loose and goofy like Pavement. John Moen was particularly great, providing crisp, powerful drumming that energized the songs and sparked some impressive improvised jams in “No More Shoes,” “It Kills,” and “Carl the Clod.” The guy did amazing work with the songs from Face The Truth, adding fills to “Pencil Rot” and “Baby C’mon” that made the album versions seem static in comparison, and a brisk dynamic shift from verse to chorus in “Loud Cloud Crowd” that would have made the song an obvious single if it had been recorded that way. Despite his MVP status during the rest of the gig, the show’s only misstep was when Moen switched to guitar and vocals for the final song of the night. It’s not the first time I’ve seen him do this at a Jicks show, but in this particular set it was a terrible anticlimax, and would have come off a lot better if it had been anything other than the finale.

Stephen Malkmus “Carl the Clod (Live @ Buenos Aires 10/23/2004)” – One of the show’s obvious highlights was the inclusion of a full band version of “Carl the Clod,” a lovely little song that was written for Face The Truth but was not finished in time for its release and will likely turn up on the next album. (Ditto for “Grace,” by the way.) The song is considerably perkier in the band arrangement, and sounds almost like Thin Lizzy towards the end before the outro jam kicks in. (You can’t buy copies of either of these songs, but you can download different recordings of them and other rare Malkmus goodies here.)

PS: Stephen wore a grey t-shirt with the word ‘Malktastic’ on the back.

For Hours and Hours and Hours

Armand Van Helden (featuring Spalding Rockwell) “Jenny” – Though Armand Van Helden’s previous collaboration with Spalding Rockwell was a euphoric electropop single, this new track is more like high energy goth disco. The vocals on the verses are spooky and vacant like A Certain Ratio and the snarled choruses are reminiscent of Garbage, but that’s all just a lead up to a gorgeous breakdown that sounds like it could be the Suicide Girls version of the Go-Gos. (Click here for more about the new Armand Van Helden album at the Southern Fried Records site.)

Neil Hamburger – excerpt from “Great Moments at Di Pressa’s Pizza House” – The latest Neil Hamburger album embraces the mockumentary format and moves away from the stand-up comedy routine established on previous releases. The premise of the record is that Neil is narrating an audio documentary about the pizza parlor where he has been a featured attraction for several years, and most of humor is derived from the characters’ po-faced seriousness regarding ridiculous details and the escalation of their desperation and misfortune. The jokes often hit their mark, but the project seems rather misguided and overly obvious. The mockumentary format is being done to death lately, and the overwhelming majority of them (including this record) are extremely formulaic. Most actors take on the familiar cadences of the characters from Christopher Guest’s movies; often mistaking dry delivery and an air of delusion for actual punchlines. There is almost always a casual contempt for the characters that reveals little more than the creators’ own glib misanthropy. Thanks to some inspired moments of absurdity, Great Moments at Di Pressa’s Pizza House is above average, but it suffers in comparison to the nuanced dark comedy on older Neil Hamburger records like Left For Dead In Malaysia and Laugh Out Lord. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

It’s So Much Better Now

Basement Jaxx “U Don’t Know Me (Jaxx Houz Club Mix)” – The version of “U Don’t Know Me” on Basement Jaxx’s singles compilation seems so lethargic compared to this hyperkinetic remix. The melody and structure was all right there, but it lacked the visceral power of this mix, which seems to be overflowing with physical energy and raw sexuality like all of the best Jaxx tracks. There’s not a lot more to say about it, though. It’s pretty much a force of nature. (Click here to buy it from Amazon and here to see the very amusing music video.)

John Vanderslice “crc7173, Affectionately” – Hammond B-3 organs can be so tricky. The sound of the instrument can be lovely and wonderfully effective, but if you’re going to use them on a mid-tempo rock ballad, you’ve got to accept that on some level, you’re going to sound like The Wallflowers, Counting Crows or any number of similar cheesy 90s bands who have used the instrument as a signifier for mild country and/or gospel flavor. John Vanderslice manages to keep the comforting sound of the organ without dipping too heavily into nostalgia, and keep the arrangement spare and sparkly enough to avoid sounding soggy or particularly nostalgic. (Click here to pre-order it from Barsuk.)

It Drove Me Mad In A Good Way

Chad VanGaalen “Chronograph #1” – Most of this song passes by in a slo-mo haze, as though the narrator is attempting to force time to stand still through sheer force of will. VanGaalen maintains the effect for a few verses, pushing his voice to its physcial limits with a tremulous falsetto and extending a moment of sentimental nostalgia until he seems to shrug it off and shifts into a gentle instrumental outro. (Click here to visit the Chad VanGaalen page at the Flemish Eye Records site. The album will be released domestically in August on Sub Pop.)

Cocorosie “Noah’s Ark” – This seems to be Cocorosie’s version of a modern pop song, at least in the sense that it has a strong, steady 4/4 beat and an obvious, catchy chorus. The conventional structure suits them well by grounding their old-timey affectations in something more immediate and accessable, thus placing the emphasis on the gorgeous melodies rather than distracting the listener with stylistic excess. (Click here to pre-order it from No Karma.)

When Fantasies Are Bad They Are Humiliating

Brian Eno “This” – Brian Eno is like the Mr. Spock of pop music. His voice can convey a sort of inhuman lucidity and aloofness, as though he’s found a way to separate his intellect from his emotions without sacrificing his soul. Given his inclination to create ambient music, it is not so surprising that he would go so long without recording his voice (the most recent Eno vocal track that I am aware of is “A Different Kind of Blue” from his Passengers album with U2 in 1995), but it’s certainly a welcome return. Several of the songs on his new record are clearly influenced by gospel music, but the passion and ardor essential to that genre is filtered through Eno’s aesthetics, resulting in something quite different. “This” retains the spirituality of gospel but shifts the scale of the sentiment from the conventional emphatic declaration of faith to a smaller, more personal epiphany. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

The Rogers Sisters “Les Fantaisies Sont Bien” – On their new single, the Rogers Sisters revisit a long lost pop tradition: translating a song into another language and rerecording it to meet the economic and cultural demands of another country. However, unless the band is massively popular in France and I just don’t know about it, it seems clear that this alternate take on “Fantasies Are Nice” was recorded entirely for artistic purposes rather than made to satisfy the demands of the French marketplace. It’s difficult to suss out just why they would choose to record this particular song au francais, but the result is very entertaining. The vocals seem brattier and more perverse, and the music somehow feels twice as spazzy without being noticeably different from the backing track on the original recording. (Click here to buy it from Troubleman United.)

Your Beautiful Body Filling Up With Water

Electric Six “Jimmy Carter” – At first, this song seemed like a silly joke, but the longer I live with it, the more it seems deadly serious. After the initial novelty of a grunge ballad filled with strange references to the Backstreet Boys, gory celebrity deaths, electric underwear, and former American presidents wears off, the emotional resonance kicks in. The refrain “this is who you are” carries the most dramatic weight; implying the tragic, undeniable notion that we are all shaped by our absurd culture of celebrities, politicians, inescapable surveillance, consumer novelties, and the constant vague threat of random violence and atomic annihilation. It’s essentially a song about powerlessness, and the realization that you owe so much of who you think you are to a collection of cultural factors that seem so stupid, random, and meaningless when considered in abstract terms. But this is who we are, and we can be made to feel weepy when the singer turns the catchphrase “Backstreet’s back, alright” into a mournful lament by placing it in the context of sentimental nostalgia because even if you never cared about the Backstreet Boys, it’s at least a reference point we can all understand. Sometimes that’s all you need to feel less alone. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Tom Scharpling & Jon Wurster “Timmy von Trimble” – This is a selection from the forthcoming Hippy Justice: The Best of the Best Show On WFMU Vol. 3, a collection of fairly recent radio call-in skits by Scharpling & Wurster chronicling what I consider to be an experimental period for the duo. The basic elements of their comedy remains the same – ie, good guy Tom struggles to remain civil while dealing with one of Jon’s selfish, deluded, opportunistic, and hateful characters – but some of the bits on this compilation find them trying out new ways of framing their comedy routines. On “Kid eBay,” moments of extreme absurdity punctuate an otherwise mundane conversation about rare collectables; “Old Skull” and “Rock n’ Roll Car Dealership” integrate real-life characters into the show’s elaborate mythology; and “Hippy Johnny” and “Timmy von Trimble” both start out with seemingly sympathetic characters who reveal themselves to be utterly despicable over the course of a phone call. The latter is quite possibly the most surreal bit to ever air on the program, starting out with an entirely unbelievable premise that is eventually trumped by the disturbing turn the conversation takes once we get to know little Timmy. (Please note that the sound quality on this mp3 is fairly low because I wanted to keep the file size small and manageable. The sound on the actual cd is much better than this.) (Click here for the official Scharpling & Wurster site and here for the Best Show On WFMU archives.)

All Your Pretty Faces Are Smiling At Me

Kevin Blechdom “Invisible ROCK” – Kevin Blechdom’s new album Eat My Heart Out sounds like an off-off-off broadway one woman show marrying cheesy, homemade electropop showtunes with a startling personal narrative dealing with clinical depression and crippling self-awareness. Though the music is often awash in a sea of extreme irony, the lyrics are grounded and highly relatable, most of them detailing Blechdom’s struggle to overcome her issues. Though most music on the topic of depression wallows in sorrow and self-pity, Blechdom has written an admirable set of self-help anthems. (Click here to buy it from Boomkat.)

Richard Reagh & wwnb2 “Friends” – Richard Reagh’s music is like a peculiar cross between Built To Spill at their most mellow and the fractured, amorphous laptop compositions of Joan Of Arc and The Dirty Projectors. As Reagh attempts to repair a rift in a relationship that appears to be on the verge of total collapse in the lyrics, the arrangement seems to reflect his emotional state by feeling hollow, passive, and vaguely tense. (Click here to visit the official Richard Reagh site.)

Deeper Down to the Sleepy Glow

Gorillaz “Every Planet We Reach Is Dead” – On the first Gorillaz album, it was easy to see how the music could have been the work of a cartoon band. Though the record mostly sounded like a collection of Blur outtakes, the general tone corresponded well Jamie Hewlett’s design/animation aesthetic, enough so that it convinced a hell of a lot of people who wouldn’t ordinarily care about Damon Albarn’s regular band to buy the album and make it an unexpected hit. Demon Days is a strange follow-up to that record, mostly because it seems to be more of a continuation of the gloomy, groovy sound of Blur’s last record Think Tank than a proper sequel to a generally peppy party album. That is, unless they had intended for this to be like their version of The Empire Strikes Back, and intentionally went for a darker, bleaker tone. That may be their explanation in hindsight, but I would think that it is obvious that Albarn is just writing music for himself and getting it out on records however he can. This could just as well be a Blur record or a solo album that would be quickly dismissed by both critics and the public, but he’s clever enough to smuggle his most self-indulgent material on to a record that isn’t fully tied in with his identity, letting him off the hook in more ways than one. All that, and he gets to bring in Ike Turner for a keyboard solo on this song. Pretty sneaky, sis. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Sensational “Money Maker” – Sensational makes stoned lo-fi hip hop that straddles the line between oblivious amateurism and inspired artiness. His beats are generally canned and simplistic, but he’s fond of eerie keyboard textures that drone like cheap horror film soundtracks, mixing his vocals so loud that they seem like he’s broadcasting them into your skull telepathically, and distorting his vocal tracks to the point of rendering his lyrics incomprehensible. On this track, he runs two raps together simultaneously, derailing his flow and resulting in a disorienting abstraction. (Click here to buy it from Forced Exposure.)

Gifted, All Natural, and Splitting the Seams

Robyn “Konichiwa Bitches” – One does not reasonably expect much from token hip hop tracks on the albums of Scandinavian pop stars, but with this song, Robyn defies the odds and makes me wonder if she ought to be doing this sort of thing on a full-time basis. The beats and keyboards are minimal and perfectly composed, flowing smoothly and changing up consistently throughout the song without distracting attention from her vocals, which sound like an adorable anime version of Missy Elliott. There’s a very delicate balance being maintained here, keeping it from tipping too far into tweeness, and I suspect that it is kept mainly because it’s so clear that Robyn isn’t totally kidding around. The lyrics are certainly meant to be humorous, but the love for hip hop is very earnest, and it’s clear that she has a musical understanding of the genre that many cutesy hip hop dilettantes lack. (Click here to buy it from CDON.)

The Chap “Baby I’m Hurt’n'” – Ah ha, an energetic song about being tired! The Chap chug along for a few minutes on a simple groove, building up to a clangy climax before almost entirely dropping out the percussion and transposing the central guitar riff to a scratchy, out of tune cello for the outro. The vocals and lyrics are playful and silly, though not quite as clever and witty as other songs on their new record. It’s a bit hard for this to compete with lyrics like “I met you at the post-glitch laptop show / I was impressed, I was impressed / your take on the post-Parka look stood out / I told you about my studio setup.” (Click here to visit the official Chap site.)

Everybody Waits So Long

M83 “Teen Angst (Luciano Remix)” – This is nearly twelve minutes of delicate beauty, cutting in two lines of vocals from the M83 original with an expressive but minimal track that develops gradually, but is never at any point dull or unimaginative. If this sounds like anything, it’s almost as though Luciano has fused the sound of Arthur Russell’s ambient pop and disco tracks into one perfect song. (Click here to visit the official M83 site.)

The Concretes “Miss You” – Though they have changed the arrangement significantly, I wouldn’t quite say that The Concretes have made this Rolling Stones song their own so much as they have claimed it to the spirit of the Velvet Underground. In full-on Velvet Underground With Nico/Loaded drag, the essential NYC-in-the-late 60s/70s vibe of the song is intensified. The music fills my head with images from books, magazines, and films from that era of the city, and it somehow manages to make a place where I’ve spent a significant portion of my life seem like some exotic fictional locale. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Is Darth Vader Gonna Have To Choke A Bitch?

Fellini “Rock Europeu” – The liner notes to the new Soul Jazz compilation The Sexual Life of the Savages tells me that this song is an “ironic comment on European music,” but since I don’t understand a word of Portuguese, I’ll just have to take their word for it. The Sexual Life of the Savages is the second collection of Brazillian post-punk to be released this year, following the excellent Nao Wave compilation released by Man Recordings last month. Fellini’s music is a highlight of both records. Their bass and guitar sound is obviously heavily influenced by post-Joy Division/New Order Euro rock, but their integration of Latin rhythms and horns keep their music from sounding like a rote impression and more like a regional adaptation. (Click here to buy it from Soul Jazz.)

Teen Anthems “I Hate Oasis (And I Hate The Beatles)” – Teen Anthems is the most common alias of John Williams Davies, a DIY songwriter from Wales who specializes in bouncey pop tunes that critique the insular pop culture of the UK. His songs are packed full of references to obscure British television personalities, tabloid celebrities, and music that barely exists outside the context of the UK, but this song about the stifling influence of Beatles worship is lyrically accessable to most anyone on either side of the Atlantic. (For what it’s worth, I love The Beatles and I like a bunch of Oasis songs.) (Click here to buy it from the Teen Anthems website.)

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – The Star Wars prequel trilogy did not have to be bad. On a basic level, the story of Anakin Skywalker’s descent has the potential to be a compelling cautionary tale, even if the drama is diminished somewhat by the fact that the audience is already aware of his ultimate fate. The problem with the prequels lies entirely in George Lucas’ extremely misguided execution. I place a lot of the blame for this on the fact that Lucas spent more than a decade after the release of Return of the Jedi on the merchandizing end of his enterprise, immersed in the iconography of his saga but entirely cut off from the mythic themes and recognizably human characters at the core of the Star Wars phenomenon. It’s easy to understand how he may have come to think that the audience responded more to the signifiers of his movies rather than the characterization or the allegory. To a certain extent, he may not be entirely wrong. Even if the new trilogy is unsatisfying in terms of content, most people can at least have some superficial fun with the lightsaber duels, droid armies, crazy aliens, and action setpieces.

For the prequel storyline to be entirely effective, it is crucial for the audience to be on Anakin Skywalker’s side. Lucas almost entirely fails to make the character even remotely sympathetic, even though you could make a bullet point list of things that are meant to make his seem that way – he was a slave; his mom died; his marriage must be kept a secret; he gets his hand chopped off; he is basically a superhero. Nevertheless, it’s hard to like Anakin. Though he’s more or less blameless as a little kid in The Phantom Menace, it’s difficult to really care about him in that film other than in a “aww, cute” sort of way. Hayden Christensen plays Anakin as a sullen charisma-free dick even when he ought to seem affectionate or valiant. Ideally, Anakin’s story in the prequels should have followed Luke Skywalker’s arc in the original series, but with Anakin succumbing to the dark side at the end of the second film rather than rejecting it, as Luke did at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.

Emperor Palpatine is the best thing about Revenge of the Sith, full stop. Ian McDiarmid plays the character with a hammy glee that outdoes his performance in the same role in Return of the Jedi. He seems to be the only actor who had a good time working on the movie, but that could be because he’s the only one asked to cut loose or show any sign of complexity. Palpatine is the one character from the original films who is actually improved by the existence of the prequel trilogy. The character was very effective as a representation of ultimate evil in Return, but in Revenge, we actually get to see what makes him so terrible aside from being a creepy old dude in a black robe. I loved the character as a kid, and at least in terms of how he was represented in this film, I think I got what I had really wanted from the prequels when I was young. I am sure that if I saw this movie before puberty, it might have been my favorite Star Wars episode if just because there is so much Palpatine and the heroes get thoroughly trounced. This is a theme that I really responded to as a kid – half of the reason I loved (and still enjoy) Star Wars and the X-Men so much is because the heroes routinely lost their battles and always faced desperate odds.

Though Palpatine and Anakin’s scenes together are among the best reasons to see Revenge of the Sith, Lucas misses a great opportunity by not including a sequence of scenes in which the Emperor shows Vader the ways of the Sith, mirroring Luke’s Jedi training with Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. That could have been wonderfully creepy, but it also could have shed more light on the differences between the two sides of the Force. In the new context of the prequel trilogy, the morality of Star Wars is maddeningly vague. Before, we could just assume that the Jedi were these really great people, but in these films they just seem like a bunch of beaurocratic self-righteous douchebags who are only interested in preserving a self-serving status quo. The original films hinted at a noble spirituality, but as it turns out, they are just cops with dogma. The only Jedi who seems at all heroic is Obi-Wan Kenobi, though I suspect that if a lesser actor than Ewan McGregor had been cast in the role, the character’s grace, humility, and selflessness would have never emerged from subtext.

Though I respect Lucas’ clumsy attempts to bring complexity to the morality of his story, it does the series as a whole few favors. Back when the Jedi/Sith conflict was black and white, the integrity of Luke Skywalker and the redemption of Darth Vader was far more powerful and resonant, enough so that I definitely feel that the end of Return of the Jedi had a pivotal influence on the deve

lopment of my own code of ethics as a child. Now it just seems like the moral of Star Wars is that it’s better to be a passive-aggressive smug turdodouche like Yoda than to be an aggressive, domineering asshole like Palpatine. Ech, you know? (For an elaboration on this concept, I refer you to The Face Knife)

In spite of its considerable flaws, I definitely enjoyed Revenge of the Sith more than I disliked it. It’s certainly more like the original trilogy in terms of tone and general aesthetics, and the majority of the mistakes in the first two prequels (poor pacing, Jar Jar Binks, space diners, nebulous political intrigue) are jetisonned in favor of a fairly streamlined storyline that remains focused on the central conflict of Anakin and his two mentors. The plot occasionally seems more like a history lesson than a movie, but the action sequences are mostly quite fun and engaging. My kid brain liked it, and since this is a series aimed at little boys, I can assume that this film at least met its objective goals even if it was held back by the baggage of its immediate predecessors.

You Saw Blue Sky When Sky Was Gray

A Frames “Eva Braun” – I have no idea how the A Frames’ Black Forest became my “default” record for 2005. I didn’t even like it the first two times that I heard it, but something about it keeps pulling me back in, compelling me put it on every time I can’t figure out what I want to hear. Every time I listen, I find more to love, and every week the songs burrow deeper into my unconcious mind, playing back in my head on loop at strangely random occasions. At this point, I’ve entirely let go of any of my initial qualms about the record. I thought that I could resist something so dour and nihilistic, but I surrender. I love the way that their harsh riffs sound like razors tearing holes in my speakers. Every time I hear the discordant guitar solo on “Eva Braun,” I feel like it is dissecting my heart with shards of glass. I didn’t realize that I needed something as intensely bleak as this record in my life right now, but obviously I do. Congratulations, A Frames – I am owned by your dark, menacing beauty. (Click here to buy it from Sub Pop.)

Chok Rock “Happy Man” – A day in the life of a happy man: Get up; strut around to a funky but low key groove; launch into a sudden and somewhat incongruous noisy indie-rock style guitar solo; take it to the bedroom for a slow jam; get some sleep. (Click here to buy it from Warp.)

You Can’t Get These Nutrients From A Blow-Pop

Bob Mould “(Shine Your) Light Love Hope” – It’s easy to understand why some artists go off in radical new directions after building up a body of work that practically defines who they are. Most any artist eventually has to come to terms with the question of whether their artistic identity and methods are a true expression of who they are, or simply the result of their technical limitations, habits, and fears. Bob Mould’s previous album Modulate was a very risky endeavor, but I think that this track is proof that his experimentation with electronic music was the right decision even if that record was not among his best work. “(Shine Your) Light Love Hope” splits the difference between the classic Mould alt-rock sound and his immersion in electronic dance music. Experimentation with unfamiliar sounds and styles is usually most successful when a musician plays to their strengths as writers and performers, and that’s exactly what Mould does on this track. Instead of going full-on electronic as he did on Modulate, he’s taken what he’s learned and applied his influences to his signature style so that the song seems less like a formal excercise and more like a compelling pop song that feels both new and familiar. Given that United State of Electronica‘s debut album was one of Mould’s favorite records from 2004 and this record was written and produced last year, it seems very likely that their synthesis of Daft Punk-style vocodered disco pop and live rock band aesthetics was a key inspiration for this song’s arrangement. (Click here to pre-order it from Yep Rock, and here to visit Bob Mould’s blog.)

Ed Shepp “Partydance” – This track starts off as an extremely cheerful and dorky pop tune encouraging good health and dance parties, but as the song progresses, the message becomes increasingly harsh and judgmental before finally devolving into absurd scare tactics. (Click here to visit the official Ed Shepp website.)

Spanish Panthers Gored By Antlers

Doleful Lions “Strange Vibrations” – Now that it’s easy and affordable for DIY and indie musicians to make their own studio quality recordings on mass market equipment, the old lo-fi production style of the late 80s and early 90s has become more of an aesthetic decision than an option predetermined by economic factors. The Doleful Lions are certainly using the lo-fi sound to their advantage, as they bring their odd folk songs about magic, D&D-style fantasy, and satanic rituals to life with evocative bits of noise and carefully manipulated distortions as though it was the musical equivalent of cgi special effects. It’s such a small detail, but the thing that puts this particular song over the top for me is their clever use of distorted breath sounds on the microphone as a percussive element in the arrangement. (Click here to buy it from Darla.)

The Planet The “Please Don’t Kill Myself” – Memo to System of a Down, The Mars Volta, Coheed & Cambria, et al: Now that your nu-prog style has undeniably achieved mainstream success in the United States, it has become increasingly difficult for me to avoid your awful, awful music. Would you please consider following The Planet The’s example so that I can at least tolerate your music when I have to, say, watch you play on tv chat shows or hear you on the stereo when I pick up my comic books at the local Dork Shack? Here are five things you all can learn from them:

1) Just because you are prog, it doesn’t mean you can’t have hooks and catchy bits. The Planet The can do it; it is not impossible that you can too. You don’t have to be this glam and flamboyant, but it wouldn’t hurt.
2) Hey, this song is less than three minutes long! What a great idea!
3) Heavy metal guitars: boring, cliched, the musical equivalent of flogging a dead horse. Heavy metal keyboards: interesting, rare, so much potential.
4) The constant shifts in rhythm in this song create a feeling of nervous tension and drama, as opposed to just sounding overblown or scattered.
5) The Planet The do not have embarassing facial hair or ridiculous haircuts. Seriously, System of a Down. You are not wizards, pirates, or from outer space; please cut your hair!

(Click here to buy it from Buy Olympia.)

Yoko Kanno / Seatbelts “Tank (TV Edit)”

Yoko Kanno / Seatbelts “What Planet Is This?!?”

Endnotes and Digressions:

1.The comparison of “The Imperial March” to “Spoonful of Sugar” was totally
stolen from The DVD Journal’s review of the “Star Wars Trilogy” DVD set.

2. Writer/cartoonist M.E. Russell has website, and so does colorist/poker geek Chris Hanel.

(Click here to buy it from Amazon.)