When Barbara Holds My Pride, I Have Always Risen To The Occasion

For those of you enjoying the new Osymyso “Bushwhacked” mp3s, I’m putting up mp3s of the original “Bushwhacked” and a similar cut-up made out of George H.W. Bush speach fragments. I acquired both of these from the Boom Selection_Issue 01 compilation.

Explain This To Me:

In tonight’s episode of SNL, they managed to not only get Christopher Walken to host, but also have Will Ferrell in two sketches, extended cameos from both Britney Spears and Steve Martin, and a walk-on from Jim Carey. However, two weeks ago we were stuck with the Matthew “Dipshit” McConaughey as a host, and two weeks from now we have to watch them attempt to make Salma Hayek funny. Couldn’t they have spread tonight’s talent out a bit? Martin hasn’t hosted in at least six years, Britney’s surprisingly good, Will is a god, Carey’s a funny guy, and hell, Dave Grohl would probably have been a great host himself. Someone needs to slap the booking agent at SNL. McConaughey, Hayek, Nia Vardalos, a race car driver, John McCain — is this meant to be some kind of demented challenge for the cast and writers? I’m being unfair to the race car driver, he did alright; and having Al Gore on was a risk that paid off (who knew that he had a flair for dry humor?); but this is just ridiculous.

Despite All My Rage

I saw Old School today, which isn’t really much to write about – it’s funny but formulaic. Will Ferrell is great in it. It’s got a lot of very funny bits in it, but nothing that made me laugh quite as hard as the trailer for Willard.

You see, Willard is a creepy guy who lashes out at those who have wronged him by commanding an army of rats to do his evil bidding. Full stop, that’s the story – a twisted man and his evil rats. And for most of the trailer, the chorus of The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” is looped as the soundtrack. “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage!” Seriously. I was cracking up – they just couldn’t get more obvious and over the top. Well, I guess they could, if the lyrics were instead “despite all my rage, I am still gonna sic my army of evil rats on you!”, but thank God they chose to hold back a little bit.

I’m not dismissing the possibility that Willard may be a good movie, even though the concept seems thoroughly ridiculous. I remember the trailers for Donnie Darko being awful too; I was convinced for a very long time that it wasn’t worth seeing. There’s a very good chance that there’s a lot of intelligence in this film that isn’t coming through in the trailer, which is perfectly understandable. Still, it’s a movie about a scary unsympathetic guy and his rats. It seems like there’s only two possible ways it could turn out: a spectacular failure, or a cult classic. Since it is being released in March, a major studio dumping ground for bad films, I’m wary that it may be the former.

I am now informed that this is a remake of a film from the 70s, which really makes a lot of sense. I did not realize that the Michael Jackson song “Ben” was in fact from a soundtrack to a film about rats. It just never seemed weird to me that Michael Jackson would sing a love song to a rat, he’s a kooky guy. Thanks to Steven for the heads up.

Go Home And Die

This is absolutely necessary listening/viewing. Osymyso strikes again.

It’s barely even an exaggeration of the truth, really. That’s the most painful part of it.

Mocking The Earnest Is Unfair

“At one time, Peter might have only been remembered for his ability to transform his body tissue into an organic, steel-like substance. But after his final selfless act he was remembered as something even greater: a hero to all of mutantkind.”

Susan Snorts And Has Hallucinations

Here’s an excellent interview with Meryl Streep from the Wall Street Journal. (Via the Adaptation blog on Susan Orlean’s site.)

Here’s the best bit, also quoted on that blog:

“What we do now is withhold films from most of America, which is shocking. And what do we withhold? The best films. If you live somewhere 30 miles out in mall-land, you can’t see all the great movies. Same with the rest of the world: We export the crap. And then we wonder why everybody hates us and has a distorted picture of what Americans are. We should export the best movies we make.”

This is one of my personal bugbears lately; I can’t stand that most of the nation is subject to this system of film distribution which is an insult to the intelligence of the average American. I think that it is a big problem that most of the best films are withheld from the majority of theatres. It’s crass, it’s elitist, it’s bad business, and it’s ultimately very damaging to the culture. When most people go to the movies, they usually just pick a movie from the handful on offer, and if you only offer people junk, they’ve got no choice. A film like Adaptation isn’t for everyone, but it does have a large niche audience that is dispersed throughout the nation. Every film doesn’t have to be in every cineplex, but there are smaller movie theatres nationwide which really should not have to wait months on end for the chance to show a film that’s by then old news in NYC and LA. I hate that when I consider moving to other parts of the country, one of the things that goes through my mind is “well, if I go away from NY, I won’t get to see new movies anymore.” That’s very unfair.

There’s A New Thing Going Around

For Brandon and Russ:

Otis Redding “Shake!”

Otis Redding “Try A Little Tenderness”

Harness The Beauty And Power

Excellent/entertaining posts on other people’s blogs that you really should read if you haven’t already:

* Amy’s tragic love letter to 50 Cent on Lot Vogue.

* All of Andrew Earles’ recent entries on Failed Pilot, especially 2/13, 2/11, and 2/05.

* 30 concise movie reviews written by some guy named Hoffman, presented as a blog-within-a-blog on Freezing To Death in the Nuclear Bunker. Jody’s review of Rosemary’s Baby is a must-read too.

* Phantroll discusses The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” over on Waking Ear.

* Paul writes about Shudder To Think’s Pony Express Record in the 2/18 post on The Rub.

* Jack Fear writes about Blue Crush, of all things, in his 2/14 entry.

* Kevin explains why Ted Leo and Loose Fur are good so that I don’t have to over on Deviated Septum.

* Dan mocks the thoroughly witless Tom DeLay.

* No Rock And Roll Fun on Avril’s trouble with big words.

They Can’t Get You At 11:01

New MP3s.

Aimee Mann (featuring Tom Scharpling) “Wise Up” (recorded live on last night’s Best Show.)

Loose Fur “You Were Wrong”

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists “Ballad of the Sin Eater”

A Very Special Request!

Please head on over to Friends Of Tom and vote against Officer Tom in the poll on the bottom! Even if you don’t listen to the Best Show, do it!

My Most Obnoxious Post Ever

Oh my gosh! ILM in snobby hipster shockah!

Remember how when Wowee Zowee came out in 1995, and Pavement were getting their first real backlash, and everyone was trashing the album? And now, eight years later, it’s quite popular to say that Wowee Zowee was the best Pavement album? (And of course, it is!)

Well, I think it’s probably a good bet that people in eight years time will be falling all over themselves to say how much they love Pig Lib.

History is a circle, my friends.

Timelessness = Better than timeliness.

Edited to say – I can’t believe that I’ve posted so much to ILM today, under my own name, no less! I chalk it up to being snowed in, bored by an unusually dull Barbelith, and a desire to interact with a board full of people who aren’t so willing to agree with or defer to me. I hope that this doesn’t become a habit, though. There are some very aggravating people over there, and the macho pissing contest vibe that some of the posters have really puts me off.

Pazz & Jop Update

This is one of the reasons why I think Glenn McDonald is a cool guy. He is capable of making the Pazz & Jop poll vaguely interesting, which isn’t the easiest thing to do.

This thread on I Love Music about Glenn’s statistical findings is pretty much a distillation of everything that I dislike about that message board, particularly the remarks by Sterling Clover.

Also, I’ve since been filled on how the Pazz & Jop polling is conducted, so I have to take back some of my remarks about the selection of those being polled from my earlier post.

My Bloggy Valentine

Here’s two dreamy, mellow instrumentals for you all to enjoy. The Yo La Tengo song is taken from their upcoming Summer Sun LP, and the Shimmer Kids Underpop Association tune is taken from last year’s The Natural Riot.

Yo La Tengo, “Let’s Be Still”

Shimmer Kids Underpop Association, “October Century”

…and for Grant:

The Carpenters, “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft”

You Eat It With A Chocolate Fudge Spoon

If you’re looking for some hilarity, I strongly recommend the newest Jon Wurster skit from this past Tuesday’s Best Show, which you can listen to here in realaudio. To get right to the bit, you’ll need to advance to the 29 minute mark. Wurster calls in as Jarrett “the weight loss kid” from Dessert Town, a “weight-loss themed” restaurant with an all-dessert menu. Wurster’s hilarious as per usual, but I’m more impressed by Tom Scharpling’s performance as the straight man in this sketch, especially when he’s digging into The Mighty Chocolategeddon with joyous abandon. I don’t want to spoil the skit for anyone by giving away any more of the jokes, but the sketch does tie in with a previous Wurster routine in a very clever way that will be amusing for hardcore Best Show fans.

It’s A Fact That I’m The Seventh Son

Soulseek’s back up, folks.

I downloaded a copy of a vinyl rip of the forthcoming White Stripes record, and from what I’ve heard so far, it’s pretty good. However, I’m not quite sure what I think about “There’s No Room For You Here”, which is apparently just a rewritten version of “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” from the previous LP. It’s the same chord progressions in a different order, and with completely new lyrics/vocals. It’s a pretty audacious thing – are they attempting to plagiarize themselves? Are they remixing their own song? It’s not uncommon in blues or raggae for many different songs to come from the same riffs and progressions; are they trying to make some kind of point about this? Is this just a selfreferential game? I’m genuinely intrigued. If anyone knows anything about this, please email me.

Hear the song for yourself here.

Good News: The Axis Of Evil Will Be Destroyed!

Thanks to ace Sun reporter/Barbelith mainstay Grant Balfour, I have been written into the cover article of this week’s (Feb. 18th) issue of The Sun. I really wish that I could scan the article, but I just don’t have tech. The cover article is about Nostradamus’ war prophecies, and here’s an excerpt:

According to Dr. Matthew Perpetua, a historian and Nostradamus scholar with the Malkmus Prophecy Institute in Paris, France, the showdown between George W. Bush and the twin threats of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il is more than just saber-rattling.

It’s a prelude to the greatest war ever seen.

“I” go on to explain Nostradamus’ vague prophecies, which predict an incredibly bloody and devastating 27 year war.

“Of all the bloody prophecies in Nostradamus – who foresaw the Nazi holocaust and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – this is by far the most threatening, the most filled with death,” says Perpetua. “It’s impossible to say what the ‘red hail’ will be, but it is definitely a weapon of mass destruction, quite likely biological in nature, and capable of reaching every corner of the globe.”

However, we shouldn’t give in to despair. There is a happy ending, according to Dr. Perpetua:

“Significant in this quatrain – and possibly, hopeful – is the reference to the left hand,” says Perpetua. “The left side, in Latin, is the ‘sinister’ side, or the side of evil and betrayal. It appears that Nostradamus is here reassuring us that the worst damage of the conflict will fall upon the aggressors, those who make the evil choice of striking against the innocent. The Axis Of Evil referred to by President Bush will be destroyed forever.”

I Killed The Village Voice With My Big Fucking Dick

I realize that the Pazz And Jop poll is an excercise in bland concensus by definition, but jeezy creezy, it’s boring this year. The only records on the albums list that even slightly surprise me are the relatively high placings of Elvis Costello and Solomon Burke, and the not-shocking-but-slightly-unpredictable inclusions of Linda Thompson, The Mekons, and Orchestra Baobab.

Thankfully the web version of the P+J poll includes the full ballots of each contributing writer, which helps to break up the stifling monotony of the poll results. Many of the writers who were involved are pretty awful by my standards, but there are some bright lights in there. Here are some links to ballots by some people whom I like and/or respect:

Andrew Earles (Who managed to slip a Best Show in-joke into his list, god bless him!)

Nate Patrin

Tom Ewing

Douglas Wolk

Stephen Thompson

Keith Phipps

Nathan Rabin

Glenn McDonald

One thing that really bugs me about the critics chosen for the poll is that the selection of critics who are primarily bloggers seems so incredibly arbitrary. Why exactly is Josh Kortbein chosen over, say, Paul Cox or Kenan Hebert? If you’re going to include a writer like Glenn McDonald who has no desire to be published outside of his own website, why not include Thomas Inskeep, Fred Solinger, Badger Minor, or Joe Macare? Gosh, why not even throw in the folks from Spizzazzz? As horrible as the majority of them are, where are all of the Pitchfork writers? I fail to see why any club that would let a writer as annoying and lacking in talent as Amy Phillips have a vote would reject a guy like Ryan Schreiber.

Tomorrow And Tomorrow

Given that the majority of what I have read in the press about the fourth season of The Sopranos has been mindless drivel written by lazy people who were wondering why the show wasn’t pandering to them with cheap shocks and pointless violence; it is always nice when I stumble upon the odd article written by someone who understood the story and paid attention to the details. Matt Feeney definitely ‘gets it’ in this analysis of season four from The National Review.

Sweeney links to some weak analysis written on Slate, and there’s a lot of talk there about the show being in decline, which is obviously a popular opinion. I just can’t wrap my head around that concept – I think that the first two seasons of The Sopranos are adequete exposition and set up for the meat of the story but are generally lacking in comparison to seasons three and four, which I think are much more exciting, subtle, and thoughtful. HBO has begun rerunning the first season, and watching those episodes feels awkward to me – it’s very high quality, but it is so obvious that the writers were still feeling things out and hadn’t found the voice of the show yet. The first two seasons are also more typical of what people expect from television drama – the storyarcs are clear and have tidy resolutions, Tony and his captains are portrayed more like anti-heroes who are in conflict with obvious villains (Uncle Junior, Livia, Mikey Palmice, Richie Aprile), and the ethnicity of the characters is played up occasionally for novelty. I think the first season is far more populist in that it can function as a working class fantasy: Tony outwits his elders, rises from middle-management to leadership, he triumphs over his enemies, and has some success in dealing with his neuroses. The third and fourth seasons aren’t exactly the stuff of romantic daydreams. Carmella becomes more defined as a character and creates greater conflicts for Tony which become irreconcilable differences which cannot be dealt with in any of the ways which come easily to him, and all of his nemeses from his work life are valuable to his livelihood. The story becomes significantly more complicated, and resembles all the bits of life that I think most people do not want to be confronted with in entertainment.

One guy from the Slate article has it right:

We expect the characters to follow “arcs” that are programmed in our brains from years of television, film, and theater, and the writers repeatedly defy these expectations. In a New York Times interview, David Chase made the point that he attempted to create an atmosphere that resembled the way people actually interact: They talk past each other; they don’t listen to one another; conflicts are not resolved; forces of inertia and entropy triumph over our desire to tie up loose plot ends. The fourth season has been stellar, for the most part, far better than anything else we have seen or probably ever will see on television. The marriage held together, like many marriages, through a concerted effort at self-deception on the part of both spouses. The final episode was about the ultimate fate of that form of self-deception.

They Wuz Robbed

I try not to concern myself with industry awards too much, but it really does annoys me that Adaptation and About Schmidt have been snubbed for the Oscar for Best Picture category while two mediocre films (Gangs Of New York and The Hours) and an incredibly awful one (The Two Towers) are nominated in their place. Were it up to me, these are who I would pick to win the major categories given what the Academy has nominated this year:

BEST PICTURE

Chicago

Gangs Of New York

The Hours

The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers

The Pianist

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Adrien Brody, The Pianist

Nicolas Cage, Adaptation

Michael Caine, The Quiet American

Daniel Day-Lewis, The Gangs Of New York

Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Chris Cooper, Adaptation

Ed Harris, The Hours (note: I feel the need to mention that I believe Ed Harris to be the single worst ‘serious’ actor in the world. I loathe the guy.)

Paul Newman, The Road To Perdition

John C. Reilly, Chicago

Christopher Walken, Catch Me If You Can

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Salma Hayek, Frida

Nicole Kidman, The Hours

Diane Lane, Unfaithful

Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven

Renée Zellweger, Chicago

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kathy Bates, About Schmidt

Julianne Moore, The Hours

Queen Latifah, Chicago

Meryl Streep, Adaptation

Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago

DIRECTING

CHICAGO – Rob Marshall

GANGS OF NEW YORK – Martin Scorcese

THE HOURS – Stephen Daldry

THE PIANIST – Roman Polanski

TALK TO HER – Pedro Almodóvar

MUSIC (SONG)

CHICAGO – “I Move On”, John Kander and Fred Ebb

8 MILE – “Lose Yourself”, Eminem

FRIDA – “Burn It Blue”, Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor

GANGS OF NEW YORK – “The Hands That Built America”, U2

THE WILD THORNBERRYS MOVIE – “Father And Daughter”, Paul Simon

The War Against Paranoid Schizophrenic Pop Bloggers Is A Just One

Nate Patrin perfectly articulates the problem with Popjustice (and also, Spizzazzz’s) mindboggling “we’re in a holy war against ‘indie'” stance in this Hipster Detritus post from yesterday. God bless you, Nate.

Bacon Just Got A New Best Friend…..Fudge!

Here are some MP3s for you all to try out til I write up a proper entry. I’ve got a few different topics that I’d like to write about this week, but I’m still thinking about things before I write them. I’ll definitely write something about Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway sometime this week, and possibly something about the film Human Nature as well.

This MP3 of a Bob Lassiter monologue from 1996 about fake mandated ‘friendliness’ in radio is for the people who’ve been hitting this site looking for information about Lassiter in the past few days. I wrote about Lassiter a few times over the summer, and you can read more about him here.

This MP3 of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps”, taken from their 2002 Peel session, is for all of the folks on Barbelith who haven’t heard it yet. I’ve also put up an MP3 of Helium’s “Trixie’s Star” because in the Barbelith thread that I linked, I compared The Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Helium because I think that the guitar player sort of sounds like a more bombastic Mary Timony. “Trixies’ Star” is an excellent bit of 90s indie rock from one of the best albums from that period, The Dirt Of Luck.

Finally, you can hear one of Guided By Voices’ lost classics, “Back To Saturn X”. The song has never been properly released, which is quite absurd considering just how many GBV songs are released every year. A snippet of the tune is included in a mash-up of demo tunes on the Propellor LP, but a proper recorded version has yet to surface. The band was playing the song live frequently for a few months out of 2001; and when I saw the band play at the Warsaw in Brooklyn last year they played a studio recording of the song over the PA before the band hit the stage. Aside from that, the song remains unheard by all but the most obsessive Pollard fanatics. It’s such a shame too, since this is one of the most instantly likable and accessable songs in the Pollard songbook.

Feel What I Feel Today

Power pop fans take note – Matador has an mp3 of a new New Pornographers song called “The Laws Have Changed” available in their music section. If you liked the first album, particularly the tunes with Neko Case on vocals, you’ll dig this song. It’s too bad the album won’t be out for a while, but releasing this sort of sunny pop music in mid-spring is good timing, I think.

Fairly Straight And Thoughtful

If you go visit WMFU’s Speakeasy archive, you can listen to host Dorian Devins’ interview with The Onion’s AV Club editor Stephen Thompson from this past Monday. I think that The Onion AV Club is probably the best arts/entertainment publication currently being published in the United States, there’s a level of quality in their interviews and reviews which I find very rare elsewhere, particularly in the film section. The interview primarily concerns the publication of The Tenacity of the Cockroach, a compilation of The AV Club’s interviews.

There’s also a good interview with photographer Gregory Crewdson from early January which I quite like, but it’s pretty dry and quite possibly a huge bore to anyone who doesn’t have an interest in photography.

She’s Got The Radio Active And It Makes Me Feel Okay (I Don’t Feel Okay)

I received a copy of Sarah Vowell’s Radio On yesterday as a gift, and I’ve been reading through it in brief little stops and starts since it arrived yesterday afternoon. The book is basically Vowell keeping a diary about what she was hearing every day on the radio between 1994 and 1995; and though I do like Vowell quite a bit, and I am very interested in radio, the book is mostly interesting just for how very dated it is. This is never more apparent than when she writes about rock radio, still in the midst of the mid-90s alt-rock revolution. It’s amazing how quaint it all seems now, that the worst things she can complain about on the radio are the Spin Doctors and Weezer. I remember being frustrated back then, but compared to the way things are now in this Clearchannel world, it sounds as though she’s describing experimental freeform. When was the last time you heard Pavement or Sonic Youth on your local edge station? On the first page of the book she writes about hearing songs by the both of them on the radio as being a rather ho-hum experience. In 2003, it’s almost inconcievable to imagine bands one fourth as great or unique getting airplay.

I miss the mid-90s. Things really did seem a lot more optimistic back then, and at least some parts of mainstream culture were making some attempt at being progressive, for whatever that’s worth. All the big rock stars from my youth were (at least in public) sensitive folks with a healthy distrust of corporations and a sense of social conciousness. God help the teens of the 00s, you know?

Sarah Vowell also writes a lot about conservative daytime radio in the book, with a similar naive tone of disbelief and polite indignation. We all know how that all worked out since 95, but I can feel where she’s coming from very well. Everything that she writes in the book is tinged with this sense of impending doom; she can see where it’s all going but is trying to convince herself that it won’t really turn out so badly. I know what that’s like; that’s how I was for all those years; I’m still like that now. It’s the same kind of thinking that allows earnest young left-leaning people to rationalize the outcome of the 2000 election by saying “well, once Bush wrecks the country, people will be lining up around the block to vote against him!” Well, no. Optimism can be a wonderful thing, but boy does it ever set a person up for a huge disappointment. Reading Radio On in 2003, the book seems less about its subject matter and more about a beautiful, idealistic optimism, the kind of optimism that led to the inevitable disappointments of the years since the book was published.

Best Kept Secretions

Soulseek users should note that Soulseek is switching providers and will be offline for another day or two. (Thanks to The Rub)

I’ve Got To Give Myself One More Chance To Be The Man That I Know I Am

I just don’t know what to do with this blog these days. The standard of writing here has been on a steady downhill slide for at least the past two months, and I’m starting to feel that this blog is in danger of turning into an MP3-of-the-week site and little else. I’ve got no one to blame but myself – I’ve just been too lazy to write anything worthwhile for this blog. I’m finding it harder and harder to write outside of the context of a discussion; I have no problem writing thousands of words a day over on Barbelith, but when I sit down and try to type something to the blogger template, I’m at a loss.

I’m starting to get the impression that my writing is a lot more entertaining when I’m angry about something, but the last thing I want this to be is just another blog full of stupid rants. My primary objective since the beginning has always been for this blog to be about advocacy, to enthusiastically endorse things that I enjoy. I don’t want that to change, but I would like to find a way to make this a little less repetitive – it’s getting awfully boring finding new ways to say that I really enjoy something.

Also, I seem to be unintentionally making the range of topics written about here more and more narrow, and I don’t know why I’ve been doing that. Reading back on this blog, I realize that I’ve not mentioned at least 80% of all of the media that I’ve been immersed in for months now. I’ve barely touched on the films I’ve seen lately, though I did at least acknowledge that I saw Chicago and Adaptation, even if I more or less glossed over the both of them. I almost never mention any of the comics that I read, I never talk about television, and I only sometimes write about my obsession with The Best Show On WFMU or This American Life. I obsess over comedy quite a bit lately, but you’d never really know that by reading this blog. I think part of this is because I have outlets for discussing these things in my regular life, but I feel like I really ought to be working them into this blog.

So, by posting this, I suppose I am trying to make it clear to the people who read this blog that a) I know this place has been sucking a lot lately, and b) I’m going to try to do better, even though I’m going to have a lot less free time pretty soon.

Actually, you know what? I think the abundance of free time might be the problem itself.

I Want You To Know There Ain’t Nothing Too Good For You

I’ve very sorry about my laziness with this blog lately – I didn’t even get around to writing about the songs from the last set, which I think I’ll just take a pass on now. I’ve been meaning to write about Max Tundra in particular, but it occured to me yesterday that maybe it is a better idea that I don’t, since I can pretty much sum up my feelings about the Mastered By Guy At The Exchange album in one, terrible and inarticulate sentence: It’s really wacky, original, weirdo pop stuff and it RULES! I’m keeping the two Max Tundra songs, “Labial” and “Lysine”, up for a little while longer, just to make sure as many people get to try them out as possible.

Anyway, the new MP3s are all soul favorites of mine. You can hear Spanky Wilson and Otis Redding blow Cream and The Rolling Stones out of the water, and have yourself a little dance party with the lot of them. Enjoy.

Spanky Wilson “Sunshine Of Your Love”

Otis Redding “Satisfaction”

Lee Rogers “I Want You To Have Everything”

Syl Johnson “Dresses Too Short”

Big Ella “Too Hot To Hold”

Bobby Byrd “I Know You Got Soul”

Genius + Love

Matador has an MP3 of a song from Yo La Tengo’s next album Summer Sun available in their MP3 section. It’s called “Don’t Have To Be So Sad” and it sounds really great; quite a lot like the music on last year’s instrumental The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science but with Ira Kaplan mumbling pleasantly over the top. I’m very excited to hear the rest of this album if this song is any indicator of what to expect.

Take A Cue From Crazy USA

Check out this rather interesting interview with David Rees from last week’s issue of the New York Press. I had meant to post this yesterday, but it slipped my mind. It’s not much of a surprise that Rees is as articulate and clever in interview as he is in his Get Yur War On strips, but I did raise my eyebrow when I read that his dayjob is at Maxim. The print version of the article includes a photo of Rees, who turns out to be a pretty handsome guy. The illustration at the top of the article as linked really doesn’t do him justice.

Oh, and there’s a (relatively) new page of Get Yur War On up now, as of January 19th.

I Only Sing About Things That Happen To Me

More new songs for you all. I’ll write about the last four later on. “Roxie”, “Laura”, “Oyster”, and “Water And A Seat” from previous entries will stay up a little while longer.

David Byrne “Everyone’s In Love With You” – This is taken from Byrne’s most recent solo album, Look Into The Eyeball, which I think is the finest record of his career, even better than Remain In Light. No, seriously. I’m not kidding around. “Everyone’s In Love With You” may not be the best song on the album, but it is a very sweet little tune; it’s sort of like a modest indie romantic comedy compressed into a melodic two-and-a-half minute long pop song.

Ween “(Extra) Cheese” – I made this extended mix of the two 30 second Ween Pizza Hut jingles with Acoustica, so it can be enjoyed as a full length song, or more easily used as song in MP3 DJing. Pass it around.

Metro Area “Miura”

Max Tundra “Labial”

Max Tundra “Lysine”

Human League “Mirror Man”

Who Says That Murder’s Not An Art?

I saw Chicago yesterday, and I’ve got to say that it blew away every expectation that I could’ve had for the film. It’s fantastic, it’s one of the most inspired and well crafted pieces of cinema I’ve ever seen. Rob Marshall’s direction is nearly flawless, and the cinematography and set design is top notch. Even Richard Gere, who I otherwise dislike, was great in this film. Catherine Zeta-Jones was obviously made for her role, and Renée Zellweger is a revelation as the leading lady of this production. My favorite scene in the film is her performance of “Roxie”, just as much for the song as for the stunning visual design of this setpiece in the film. I strongly recommend seeing the film, even if you are not a fan of musicals.

Well then. The preceding paragraph could very well be one of the least critical reviews ever penned. The thing of it is, I really have nothing bad to say about Chicago, and nothing particularly analytical to say about it either. It’s just a big, fun, pretty, sexy spectacle. It’s great, and made with real passion and intelligence. Take my word for it.

Here’s a few more MP3s, which will remain up til Thursday morning. I’m keeping the two Malkmus songs from Pig Lib up a little while longer too.

Scissor Sisters “Laura (Simone)”

Max Tundra “Lights”

Broadcast “Echo’s Answer (live at All Tomorrow’s Parties 2001)”

Sonic Youth “Skip Tracer (live in Tilburg, Holland 1996)”

First Moog Quartet “Hey, Hey” – Taken from the Best Of Moog: Electronic Pop Hits From The 60’s and 70’s compilation.

Tangerine Roof “Back In My Arms” – Taken from the Sixties Rebellion #4: The Go Go compilation.

And for the folks at Barbelith who missed it the first time around, I offer Eminem Vs. Scott Joplin, aka “Marshall’s Been Snookered” by the Freelance Hairdresser.

The Beginning Stages

Supplemental to Deviated Septum’s ongoing ‘Sellout Watch’: This morning I saw a tv ad for HP featuring the instrumental intro to the Polyphonic Spree’s “Section 9 (Reach For The Sun)”.

The Son And The Heir

I *heart* Dan Emerson. Dan wrote this about Tatu on Friday, and I think he’s got them exactly right.

Their cover of “How Soon Is Now”, though, is actually interesting on its own terms. What first catches my attention is when they sing “of a shyness that is criminally vulgar”, possibly the most glaring and incomprehensible incongruity between band and lyric that there has ever been….The point of the song is completely missed; the most notable thing about Tatu’s music is that they don’t seem to have any clue what they’re singing, there’s no connection whatsoever to the lyrics, and this is terrifyingly true here…The problem is this: if the girls themselves have no discernable personality and are basically automatons, if there’s no sense that they’re even pretending to believe or even understand what they’re singing, what’s the point?

Did You See The Drummer’s Hair?

There’s nice bit of juicy Pavement news that has surfaced in an interview with Spiral Stairs on the Toronto magazine NOW’s website. Spiral, talking about the S+E reissue, mentions that he wants to reissue all five Pavement albums with the same treatment S+E was given. Yeah, yeah…we all saw that coming. But check this out:

“There’s tons of stuff for the other records that I’d like to get out,” he says. “We tried to record Crooked Rain with our old drummer, Gary, and there’s a bunch of songs from that session that no one’s ever heard before, plus lots more outtakes and Peel Sessions. I want it all to be out there.”

Ah! Now that’s something I’ve got to hear. I wonder which songs they tried him out on – I can’t imagine a lot of those songs performed with Gary’s rather distinctive drumming style, much less imagine that they would be nearly as good. Hopefully Matador will get this project moving sooner than later, and that one of the songs included will be Gary butchering “Stop Breathin'”.

Tying You Is Fine, And Whipping You Is Grand

Here’s another batch of songs. These will stay up til Tuesday, I suppose.

Steely Dan “Through With Buzz” – Seriously, don’t be scared off by Steely Dan’s reputation; give this song a shot. I’m not a very big fan of Steely Dan, and yeah, a lot of their music is awful; but “Through With Buzz” is a great concise piece of pop music that you shouldn’t pass over. Many thanks to Jody Beth for introducing me to this song over the summer. She gave me a homemade Steely Dan best-of compilation, and though I only really liked about three songs on it, they were all fabulous tunes.

United States Of America “I Won’t Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar” – Here’s a great psychedelic gem from songwriter Joseph Byrd, who produced this song as part of a one-off record with the band United States of America at UCLA in 1967. For more about the United States Of America, I’d recommend checking out this site, which was written by a professed ‘fanatic’ about the band.

Harper’s Bizzare “If We Ever Needed The Lord Before” – This is taken from the expanded cd reissue of Harper Bizarre’s IV, and is simply a beautiful, earnest rendition of the gospel standard, with some really gorgeous vocal harmonies.

Guided By Voices “Beg For A Wheelbarrow” – In my experience with Guided By Voices, it seems that Bob Pollard makes sure that there’s at least one excellent song on every record he puts out, meaning that even the most tossed-off GBV side project releases have at least one bona fide GBV classic for the faithful and obsessive. This song is the keeper off of the recent compilation of Universal Truths And Cycles outtakes, The Pipedreams Of Instant Prince Whippit, and is currently a staple in the band’s live show.

Shudder To Think “Hop On One Foot” – I’ve decided to offer another selection from Shudder To Think, this time the closing number from their final non-soundtrack album, 50,000 BC. Like I said earlier in the week, Shudder To Think were very underrated, and suffered commercially for what made them so special. They were too prog for the punks, too pop to be fully prog, and entirely too weird for radio and MTV. Singer Craig Wedren is now involved in a new project called Baby, and guitarist Nathan Larson is now scoring films.

Latyrx “Lady Don’t Tek No”

Sensational “Sewin’ Up Avenues”