“It Was So Worth Those Two Nights In Jail, Throwing That Motorcycle At His Head…”

After several weeks nearly devoid of inspiration and humor, Jon Wurster made his triumphant return to the Best Show On WFMU this past Tuesday. (Advance to the 23 minute mark for the skit to begin.) The new character, Ron Templeton, is classic Wurster – a pathetic, creepy weasal who starts off as a liar, then plots a criminal conspiracy against Tom, and finally spirals off into delusion and homicidal threats. It may be somewhat formulaic, but it’s easily the funniest thing on The Best Show since Wurster’s performance as corporate rock loser Cory, from the band Mother 13, way back in July. Hopefully this is a sign that the Best Show is back on track – the past few months have been depressingly awful, I was beginning to lose hope in the show. I was starting to think that Tom was deliberately making the show obnoxious by beating the characters of “Petey”, “Philly Boy Roy”, and “Kevin” into the ground; and stuffing the show up with filler like “Smash Or Trash”, the search for the new call screener, and any appearances by “Officer Tom”. I dearly hope that that is all behind us now.

“This is not a play, this is scary time!”

Not A Lot To Say, So…More Recommended Songs Without Explanations!

Eve “Satisfaction”

MC Paul Barman “Cock Mobster”

Zero Zero “D Minus”

The Creepers “Baby’s On Fire”

Ladytron “He Took Her To A Movie”

Muddy Waters “Tomcat”

And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead “Source Tags And Codes”

Eminem “Infinite”

Slick Rick “Teenage Love”

…and the four songs Jody has up today are quite good too.

DUDE, ARE YOU ON CRACK?

This is horribly depressing, even if you have no sympathy for the worst kind of hipster. Crack is such a damaging drug that it’s just so hard to imagine that any sane person would do it IRONICALLY. There’s just no fucking irony about that stuff, man. I suppose this is social Darwinism in effect…

(Link found via our friends at The Minor Fall, The Major Lift)

Sopranos Spoilers…But Don’t Worry. I Don’t Actually Say Who It Is.

That was one hell of an episode of The Sopranos tonight. It left me with this horrible, sick feeling inside for most of the episode, and a half hour later I still feel about the same. I knew right away from when that stovetop burner go on that something horrible was going to happen, but I never saw that coming. I can’t believe that guy is dead now. He was easily one of my favorites, the bastard that he was. That second half of the episode, with them disposing of the body – I still feel nervous, paranoid, and disturbed. Absolutely brilliant storytelling, on every level. I’m still sort of shaking my head, in a state of shock. It’s good to see that I’m not alone.

Recommended Songs With No Explanations

Har Mar Superstar “Power Lunch”

Anita Ward “Ring My Bell (disco version)”

Go Home Productions “I’m A Slave 4 Daft Britney”

Josie Cotton “School Is In”

Celi Bee “Superman”

Missy Elliot “Bring The Pain”

The Yummy Fur “Documentary Of A Kid”

The Clean “Whatever I Do It’s…”

The Rolling Stones “Moonlight Mile”

Fun Company “Zambezi”

Nathaniel Mayer and the Fabulous Twilights “Village Of Love”

The Clovers “Lovey Dovey”

Len Barry “1, 2, 3”

Taylor Savvy w/ Mignon “She’s Got It”

Peaches “Cassanova”

The Only Thing We Have In Common Is That None Of Them Can Tell The Difference Between Us

Joan Of Arc are going to have a new record out in February! When I saw this news item I was thrilled because they’d apparently broken up in early 2001, but once I heard those two new MP3s on the site, my enthusiasm dipped quite a bit. “Perfect Need And Perfect Completion” barely even registers for me, it’s so quietly bland and dull. “The Infinite Blessed Yes” starts out about the same way, but the ending with what sounds like free jazz horn samples is sublime, and closer to what I want from Joan Of Arc. Of course, Joan Of Arc aren’t a consistent band by any stretch – each record from Live In Chicago 1999 on has a few songs which are jaw-droppingly brilliant in the middle of record which is otherwise pretty terrible. So, here’s hoping that these two songs are the dross this time around, because if they are, it is the best dross to date. All I ask is for one more song as great as “Me And America (or) The United Colours Of The Gap”, “Me (Plural)”, “Ne Mosquitos Pass”, or “As Black Pants Make Cats Hairs Appear”. Please don’t let me down, Kinsellas.

Deeper Into Movies

Flyboy says: Hey, and you saw Donnie Darko! Isn’t it great?

Flux says: Yes, I still have it here. I’m probably going to watch it again tonight. I really loved it. I’ve seen it twice now – and I’ve gone through most of the extras on the DVD.

Flyboy says: There’s so much to notice… I saw it for the 2nd time on Sunday

Flux says: I didn’t feel that I’d properly watched the movie til the second time. the first time, I was mostly trying to figure out where the movie was going. I remember how amazed I was with the ending, how it went above and beyond every expectation I had.

Flyboy says: Yes. It’s uplifting in the best, least saccharine way. I also think it’s tailor-made for a very specific generation.

Flux says: Right.

Flyboy says: People have pointed out the obvious references to films like ET but I think it goes beyond that in the way it references those movies… it’s quite subtle. The clothes, the way the family talk/interact.

Flux says: There’s a lot of political and social commentary in there too – that really ridiculous cringe-inducing naive know-it-all kind of conservatism in some of the characters, especially Mrs. Farmer. I really love all the bits with Patrick Swayze and her.

Flyboy says: “You’re right… I am troubled, and I am confused… but I think you’re the fucking antichrist.” That’s a punch-the-air moment.

Flux says: My favorite scene is probably the one with the FEAR —- LOVE line in class.

Flyboy says: “Vote Dukakis!”

Flux says: Ah! I love that scene with Donnie’s dad grumbling under his breath watching Dukakis on tv. There’s a lot to love in that movie. Little things like that scene with Donnie’s friends talking about Smurfette, which is just brilliant. I like how upset and stressed Donnie gets when he’s trying to explain how ridiculous their Smurfette theory is. He’s genuinely flustered.

Flyboy says: Yeah, I like the way his friends are assholes but you sorta see that they’re not total assholes, just teenagers – much like his dad isn’t just some republican asshole… I watched that film again, and I thought “hey, I like his sister”. Then I twigged, “that’s Maggie Gyllenhaal. as in the girl who’s in that film with James Spader… whoo-hoo!”

Flux says: Yes. Has Secretary opened in the UK yet?

Flyboy says: No. I have no idea when it’ll be out here.

Flux says: When it does, you’ve got to see it. You’ll be into it. Todd and I seem to feel the same way about the movie…just go in bearing in mind that the last half hour of the film betrays the first hour, and you’ll be alright.

Flyboy says: So I hear.

Flux says: But that first hour is fantastic.

Flyboy says: But jeez, I just watched some really crap brit comedy in which bdsm is yet again scary/wrong/sick/humourous, so…

Flux says: Right. I can already predict what your frustrations will be with the movie… You should probably see Bowling For Columbine when it’s out in the UK too.

It’s also quite good, but with some annoying flaws.

Flyboy says: Yeah, Michael Moore bugs me sometimes. Sometimes he doesn’t, but sometimes he does.

Flux says: Right. I think you’ll probably feel about the same as I did.

Flyboy says: Isn’t he LaurenceLBIMG’s idea of what all lefty liberals are like?

Flux says: Yeah, I think so. Moore is a really bad representative, I hate that he’s Mr. Liberal in American culture.

Flyboy says: He’s tolerated because he’s not too dangerous, I’d say if I was a conspiracy theorist…

Flux says: Moore acts very smug most of the time, he tends to be very lazy in his rhetoric, he’s prone to going for low blows and bully tactics.

Flyboy says: Yeah, he’s been on tv talk things here, and he’s a terrible panelist, he interrupts people all the time

Flux says: He’s very rude, yeah. I think Moore is the kind of guy that Conservatives secretly like because he’s exactly the kind of Liberal buffoon they want to argue, cos he’s not much of a challenge.

Flyboy says: We have a guy a bit like him, Mark Thomas. he’s smarter, I think, but falls into the same trap.

Flux says: On the plus side, he can be funny, he’s not an idiot, there’s a lot of good things in his documentaries.

Flyboy says: It’s telling that the ‘serious’ but essentially establishment tv shows get Thomas Friedman on one side, and to oppose him they get Thomas or Moore, not, say, Chomsky.

Flux says: The thing is, Moore’s stuff is always set up so that smug lefties can get a cheap laugh out of their opposition and feel great about their ideals. I don’t think it challenges people who generally agree with him to think very much at all. Most of Bowling For Columbine is made so that if you’re even slightly liberal, you’ll just nod your head and agree a lot and then laugh at the silly rednecks.

Flyboy says: I can imagine.

Flux says: There are some seriously cringe-inducing sequences in this film, the most egregious example would be the finale with Moore interviewing Charlton Heston, which starts off well enough before Moore impatiently goes for Heston’s jugular in a sloppy and unprofessional way. I think if Moore were a better interviewer, he actually could have gotten much more out of Heston, and we could have either understood his perspective better, or he could have let his own words reveal the flaws of his argument. No, instead we get Moore pulling out a picture of a little girl who was killed in Michigan, which is just lame, lame, lame. What the hell was Moore thinking? Did he expect anything more than what happened, Heston ending the interview? God, what else was Heston supposed to do? At that point, Moore had effectively ended any kind of serious, reasonable, and respectful debate. It was cynical and crass – it was done so Moore had a big finale scene for his movie where he stands down the big bad guy and shows that unlike this Stupid White Man, he CARES about poor black girls. It was cheap grandstanding, and very transparently so.

A Note To The Readers

Would anyone mind sending me some information on the easiest, cheapest (preferably free) method of hosting a few MP3s to post on this blog every few days? A lot of other blogs I read have been doing this lately, and it’s a nice added bonus that I’d like to get in on.

A Note To Miguel, In Specific

Miguel, you’re absolutely right – the intro to Los Gatos “La Chica Del Paraguas” does sound a LOT like a garage rock version of Radiohead’s “Just”. And God bless you for introducing me to Los Gatos. They’re one of the best 60s garage bands I’ve ever heard.

Gift Or A Curse?

I still haven’t heard the new Jay-Z yet, and probably won’t for a week maybe. I can’t seem to get “’03 Bonnie and Clyde” out of my head though, which I must emphasize IS NOT A GOOD THING. It just loops around all day long, and it’s there when I wake up, it’s beginning to really grate on me. Jay’s verses are fine, it’s that chorus and obnoxious faux-Santana Cinemax soft porn guitar that bug me. Thing is, I really do want to like the song. I want to like Beyonce, I want to like Jay-Z, I enjoy so much of their previous material that growing to dislike one of their songs bothers this very loyal part of me that wants everyone’s artistic hot streaks to last forever. I’ve heard two more songs from The Blueprint 2, and I can’t say I like those songs much more. Jay-Z’s song with Lenny Kravitz is brought down by Kravitz’s flaws – ie, lame retro 70s rawk riffs, a typically weak Lenny chorus. I’ve got an mp3 of “Hovi Baby”, which I just don’t like very much, mostly because the backing track sounds like really bad 80s arcade video game music. Based on these three songs, I can’t begin to understand how this is a real sequel to The Blueprint, because in so many ways it’s the opposite of that record. The Blueprint is notable for its lack of guests (barring that one extraneous song with Eminem), its concision, and its musical cohesion – the whole thing save for the Eminem track is all Motown redux, these three songs are all over the place and there’s nothing to suggest that these are the three oddballs on a two disc set. My gut feeling is that we’ve got another Wu-Tang Forever on our hands, and I’m nervous about hearing this thing and hating it. Anyone want to write me and tell me what they think of it? I’d appreciate it. Especially if your name is Fred Solinger.

Is It Getting Better, Or Do You Feel The Same?

I think Chris Conroy is mostly right on the money in his analysis of the new U2 Best Of 1990-2000 collection, and that’s not just because he’s agreeing with me about that awful remix of “Numb”. I’m not sure if I share the same distaste for the new version of “Discotheque”, though I can’t say I’ve ever felt a particular affection for any version of that song that I’ve heard. I especially think Conroy nails it in this paragraph:

Why have they chosen to alienate every potential buyer? Fans want the band to release an album that accurately portrays them; the general public wants an album of appealing songs. Neither camp gets everything they want, which is, of course, how life is — but the bizarre thing is, they both easily could have! The single remix of “Elevation” and the radio edit of “Walk On” would have both fit onto this compilation right now, without deleting anything from the current tracklisting — the CD only runs 71-something minutes at the present moment, and 80 minutes are possible. Presumably the band want to keep catalogue sales for ATYCLB high by leaving it tantalizingly unanthologized; but (a.) they could’ve had the same effect by leaving the singles off The Best Of… entirely, and (b.) they’ve instead alienated customers by leaving them cheated by a technicality. The public affection for those songs won’t be as strong 10 years from now, when the next Best Of is released, as it is at this moment. (And of course, the question of sales figures reveals another curious decision — they’re putting the album on sale the same week as new releases from Jay-Z, who has trounced them in opening week sales before, and Justin Timberlake, practically guaranteeing themselves a #3-or-lower chart position.)

Me, I think they should’ve just save all four of those All That You Can’t Leave Behind hits for the next compilation, and not have forced themselves into such an awkward position of having those newer songs (along with the two new singles) sound so out of place among the more sophisticated 90s material, and having pretty much everyone scratch their heads wondering where “Walk On” and “Elevation” are. Chris’ ideal tracklisting is fine, in spite of inexplicably leaving out the enormous hit “Even Better Than The Real Thing” (this is a HITS album, right?); I obviously like the running order I’ve written in his response section a lot more. The thing is, most anyone could’ve come up with a more logical tracklisting that what the band did. It’s just ridiculous – in trying to rewrite their history, they make that era look a lot more uncommercial than it really was.

Won’t You Please Let Me Raunch You Cuz I’m Just A Boy With Not Much To Do

Courtesy of Vic, here is a Sonic Youth.com message board thread about ‘free love’ which just makes me guffaw in disbelief. It starts off pretty wacky, but then it really goes off into the deep end with this:

I don’t think AIDS is the thing that everyone should be afraid of. I believe the government puts out all of these fucking romance movies and romance sitcoms to make people believe that there’s something great about it, as someone said earlier.

You see, it’s a lot easier to control couples, as opposed to independent individuals. Remember the time you tried calling your best friend to get together and see a movie, but they worryingly declined because his/her partner was “upset with them.” Yeah. People in relationships are so involved in them that they don’t concentrate on anything else (ie MAKING THEMSELVES HAPPY) it’s much easier to think that someone else is responsible for your life, that way you don’t ever have to take any blame.

It’s off the charts, isn’t it? I didn’t realize that there were so many dumb SY fans…

Recommended Songs With No Explanations

Pharoah Sanders “The Gathering”

The Rolling Stones “Jigsaw Puzzle”

Minus The Bear “Spritz!!! Spritz!!!”

The Walkmen “Look Out The Window”

Justin Timberlake “Senorita”

Kylie Minogue “Burning Up”

David Bowie “TVC-15”

Archers Of Loaf “Acromegaly”

Imperial Teen “Our Time”

The Groundhogs “Strange Town”

Los Gatos “Corriendo en la Oscuridad”

You’re Not Qualified, You’re Not What I Employ!

I just saw Imperial Teen. It was a fun show, but very brief, only a half hour of songs. They didn’t play “The Beginning”, but they didn’t have all that much time to play a song like that, I guess. I really wish that I had the time and money to see them play tonight or one of the next few days, but it’s just not going to work out. Patty Schemel, who used to be the drummer for Hole, was filling on drums today, and apparently all of this current tour because Lynn Perko had to take some time off. I was very happy with what they did play, which was pretty much all songs that I really like a lot. Setlist: Ivanka/ You’re One / Sugar / Yoo Hoo / Baby / Million Dollar Man / Waterboy

The Music They Were Playing Really Blew My Mind

I’ve come to really love Kylie’s newest singles, “Love At First Sight” and “Come Into My World”, particularly the single remix of the former and the Fischerspooner remix of the latter. “Love At First Sight” is so deliriously happy and bouncey, I get so sucked up into it that I have to be really careful of where I listen to it on my headphones, because the chances of me looking really ridiculous while listening to the song is so high. This song is everything I could want from perky radio disco – it’s just perfect top to bottom. The album version is about 30% less perky and the beat drops out over a couple verses, and is generally inferior to the single mix I have, but it’s still pretty great.

The Fischerspooner reworking of “Come Into My World” is superior to the album version is just about every conceivable way – it’s very intense, and actually sort of rocks, it’s kind of like the best Nine Inch Nails songs (think: “Closer”, “Heresy”, “Into The Void”, “The Perfect Drug”), or Garbage if they were any good. I doubt this will be a hit in the US, it’s just a bit too dark for pop radio as it is right now; but it’s an amazing record and I highly recommend it, particularly if you liked “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” a lot or if you are a sullen stalker type. I haven’t heard any recent singles sound as convincingly desperate and creepy as when the song just explodes into fits of robotic sexual panting, heavily distorted keyboards which sound like overdriven guitars (or vice versa?) and Kylie repeating over and over, “I need your looooooove”. Great stuff.

We Played A Show And No One Came, We Came And Played It Just The Same

I actually bought a cd today, which is becoming increasingly rare (though in all honesty, that’s mostly because I have less and less money to spend, not so much because I’m spoiled by SoulSeek). I found a copy of a live Imperial Teen album that had just been released on the Digital Club Network label, something I didn’t even realize existed. I couldn’t say no to the record considering its low price tag, its excellent tracklisting, and the money burning a hole in my wallet. It’s a great setlist, very well chosen – it’s good to see that they are a band that seems to agree with me on which songs are its best, because there’s just too many bands out there who don’t seem to know what their own strengths are, the way I see it. The only thing I’d change about the setlist of this show would be that I would trade “Baloon” for “Water Boy”, but that’s a minor quibble. It was very good timing that I found this today because I just found out that tomorrow they will be playing a free show at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square, and I can finally see them live with a minimum of hassle. I’m hoping they play a similar setlist, or at least just play “The Beginning”. Oh, the joy it would bring me if they played “The Beginning”…

Every Minute Neverending Unrelenting All Around Us Without Pausing Endless Endless

I downloaded a few of the songs off the new Elf Power covers album, not so much because I particularly like Elf Power (they’ve never been one of my favorite Elephant 6 groups), but because as it turns out, Elf Power and I happen to share a few all-time favorite songs and I wanted to hear their take on them.

I’m not too thrilled with their version of Sonic Youth’s “Kotton Krown”, which they’ve remade as a chirpy twee pop ditty, with a particularly annoying female harmony vocal. I guess it’s okay if you like this sort of thing, but it grates on me and I can’t get over why they would cover the song but remove the beautiful main guitar riff and the best verse of the song. “New York City is forever kitty / I’m wasted in time and you’re never ready” – come on! That part of the song melts me to goo every time. Did they cut that verse because it was too provincial or something? Bah.

The version of the Buzzcock’s “Why Can’t I Touch It?” is better, and is very faithful to the original. Perhaps a little too faithful though; it sounds at best like a talented Buzzcocks tribute band, or the real thing on an uninspired take. Still, I love this song so much that even a second rate performance of the song is a joy to hear. A lot of people talk about the Buzzcocks, but I never see much talk about “Why Can’t I Touch It?” and “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”, which baffles me because that’s got to be one of the best a-side/b-side singles of all time, certainly the best of that band’s career.

Finally, the song that gives the Elf Power album its title, the Tall Dwarfs’ “Nothing’s Gonna Happen”, is more what I want to hear from a cover of a song that I love – it’s urgent, faithful but not rote, it captures the essence of the original while retaining the personality of the band playing the song. This version is totally convincing, it hits me right in the gut, especially when he nails the “b! c! d! e! f! g! h! I think nothing’s gonna happen!” climax. If you love the Tall Dwarfs original, find this version. If you haven’t heard either, get on it.

Meeting People Is Easy

During Kim Gordon’s commentary on the ‘video’ for “Perfume-V” on the Slow Century DVD, she talks about how she was very nervous about meeting Stephen Malkmus, that she was convinced that he was going to be too smart and cool for her. This just blows me away, because I’ve always thought of Kim Gordon as being one of the most intimidating and standoffish characters in indie rock – to think that she’d be so cowed by Malkmus is kind of astounding, really. I did get to meet Malkmus once – I was introduced, said hello, shook his hand, and quietly/nervously kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t so scary, but I certainly was too afraid to attempt to communicate with the guy. I think I am a lot more nervous about the prospect of meeting Gordon – I’m sure she’s a very nice lady, but I don’t think I would know what to say at all. The only things I can think of to talk to some of my favorite musicians about are all extremely geeky trivia questions, and most people really hate being asked that kind of stuff. Especially since a lot of my questions are about why people chose NOT to do things – “Stephen, why did you re-write ‘The Hexx’ for Terror Twilight?”, “Bono, what’s up with that awful Mike Hedges mix of “Numb”?”, “Lee, why don’t you sing on more Sonic Youth songs?”. It’s hard to work questions like that into conversations without seeming insulting…

Recommended Songs With No Explanations

The Fall “Repetition”

Wire “I Don’t Understand”

(bootleg mix) Nine Inch Nails (“Closer”) Vs. The Beegees (“Stayin’ Alive”)

Tages “I Read You Like An Open Book”

Easybeats “Sorry”

The Scissor Girls “New Tactical Plan”

(not to be confused with The Scissor Sisters, they of the very good electro “Comfortably Numb” cover)

Jonathan Fire*Eater “Everybody Plays The Mime”

Shampoo “Viva La Megababes”

Oneida “Number Nine”

Helium “I’m Going To Get You, I Mean It”

Don’t Read This If Yr Allergic To Undiluted Geekiness

Former NXM penciller Ethan Van Sciver is teasing us with clues (and probable red herrings) as to which NXM cast member will die by the end of the Riot At Xavier’s storyline over on Barbelith. My gut instinct is that Xavier himself is getting the ax, but there’s a strong case to be made for Jean’s umpteenth demise. I’m not buying Ethan’s hint that Henry might get killed, though. That may just be because I like Henry more than the other characters – wishful thinking.

What I’ve Learned The Past Few Weeks

That one should never order anything to be sent via Media Mail, no matter how much money it will save you. I’m currently on day 19 of waiting for a book that I ordered via Half.com. It’s aggravating, and not worth the small amount of money that I saved. Also, if you have any sense of courtesy for the people that you may be sending packages to, never use Media Mail, because it’s just not a very nice thing to do to someone.

It’ll Be A Good High This Year

As it turns out, the “K-Rock” guy from the Slow Century dvd is Rian Murphy. I had sort of guessed that it was either him or Dan Koretsky, since the humor of that bit was so similar to the jokes in the “Cut Your Hair” and “Painted Soldiers” commentary, but I wasn’t confident in the guess not being too familiar with Drag City and there being no credit listed anywhere. Thanks to Tim O Thompson for the heads up. Tim also mentioned that Lance Bangs at some point on one of the Matador bulletin boards stated that there were technical problems with “U R A Light” and “Summer Babe” from that Seattle show, which explains why those two songs are absent from that setlist. Still no explanation for the double shot of “Date With IKEA”, though. Not that I mind two “Date With IKEA”s all that much, since I’ve come to like that song more than I ever had before lately.

I Ripped The Pea Out Of The Pod

Don’t be fooled by Matador’s claims that Slow Century contains two full concerts – it doesn’t even contain one. I had thought that the Seattle set was complete, but alas, I’ve found the full audio of the show (not from the DVD source, but an audience recording) which reveals that “U R A Light” and “Summer Babe” were cut from the running order, they were just after “Stereo” in the setlist. Now, I can completely understand why “Summer Babe” was cut – the version at the Manchester show is superior, and even that is made redundant by the 1992 performance that’s in the documentary. “U R A Light”‘s absence really bothers me, it’s one of the best songs from Terror Twilight, and this version of the song is pretty damn great. My only guess is that there may have been problems with the film during the song, something like that – after all, why cut that song and have two versions of “Date With IKEA”? Or, if you’re going to cut a Terror Twilight song, why not the limp version of “Major Leagues” from that show?

Don’t Hope For Too Much

If you have an interest in hearing U2 completely butcher one of the finest songs of their career, you may want to download the new Mike Hedges remix of “Numb” that was recorded to inexplicably replace the original on the upcoming Best of 1990-2000 record. I’m listening to it right now for the fourth time in a row, and I’m just stunned by how much they’ve botched the job, and I’m trying to work it out in my mind why on earth any sane person would think that this is an improvement over the album version of the song. This recording is entirely lacking in grace, it’s just stumbling around, it’s a fucking mess. The pacing of the song has been made extremely awkward, all of the lush harmonies and sounds of the original either excised from the mix or awkardly jumbled together all at once. Bono recorded a new vocal for the middle of the track, and it sounds okay, and would be a perfectly acceptable adlib during a live performance, but his new vocal pales in comparison to the rather inspired original vocal take. The absolute worst thing about this version is that Hedges has decided to re-record Larry Mullen Jr.’s “I feel numb” refrain so that he’s speaking it in a monotone rather than singing it in falsetto, and to make matters worse, it’s placed so high in the mix that it nearly drowns out the Edge and Bono. There’s no subtlety to this whatsoever, and it makes little to no musical sense – the original sounded smooth, natural, and clever. The original “Numb” is one of U2’s best songs precisely because it’s so well arranged – why replace it with a cluttered wreck like this? This is depressing to me, because it just confirms my suspicions that U2 really have no concept of how great the Zooropa album is. After all, these are people from Europe who feel the need to apologize for how “European” the album sounds, in spite of the record getting some of the best reviews of their career and selling a very healthy number of copies worldwide. I wish they’d wake up and realize that they are at their best when they are “arty” (as Bono would put it), and that it would be in their best interests to age gracefully making records more along the lines of Achtung Baby/Zooropa/Passengers than by shamelessly tossing off tired power ballads like “Walk On”.

Things That Are Great About Slow Century

– There’s video of “Black Walls”, and it opens the documentary.

– You can hear a snippet of Spiral and SM performing “Home” on KDVS.

– You get to hear a snippet of SM hosting his radio show at the U of VA

– They included a full performance of the original version of “The Hexx”, and it’s the really great one from the Bizarre Festival in 97, from German television.

– The version of “Forklift” in the outtakes section is very inspired and fun.

– You can watch SM struggling to remember the lyrics to “Frontwards” backstage before a performance.

– There’s footage of the band practicing “Flux = Rad” at Doug Easley’s studio, as well as giving an early version of “Discretion Grove” a try during rehearsals for the Terror Twilight sessions.

– An incredibly sloppy performance of “Box Elder” with Gary Young at a Philadelphia record store circa 1991

– An even sloppier version of “Shoot The Singer” a few minutes later.

– If you click on the “P” in Pavement on the documentary menu, there’s more extra footage including SM’s infamous handcuffs comment at the final show, and performances of “Unseen Power of the Picket Fence”, “Camera” and “Conduit For Sale!” in Athens in 1994.

– Bob telling the story of Gary Young’s departure from the band.

– Performances of “Silent Kid” and “Range Life” with a very enthusiastic and animated guy with a backwards red cap in the audience, circa 1994.

– A full live performance of an early version of “Fight This Generation”, with the “I’m an animal” chant at the end.

– The story of Pavement’s experience at the West Virginia stop on the Lollapalooza tour.

– Footage of the second half of “Half A Canyon” on the Lollapalooza tour.

– Footage of SM performing “Expressway To Yr Skull” with Sonic Youth.

– SM talking to the weird German guy at the Bizarre festival, who asks them if they will save rock and roll. SM: “It’s a hard burden, but we’ll save it.”

– Footage from the Lesson In Songwriting on VPRO – “For Sale – The Preston School of Industry”!

– SM kicking Scott Baio out the band.

– Bob on why “Farewell Horizontal” is a terrible name for an album.

– A very strong live version of “Cut Your Hair” on the Terror Twilight tour, easily one of the best performances on either disc.

– Bob talking about why he’s no longer the tour manager.

– A teenager proclaiming that the Pavement show he just saw was “so much better than the Deftones concert!”

– A live version of “She Believes” with Gary Young.

– The final three songs they ever played live (“Stop Breathin'”, “Conduit For Sale!”, and “Here”), which makes me misty-eyed. The version of “Here” is more similar to the album version than the typical heavy live version, by the way.

– The very funny, very bitter computer-read comments from Tom Surgal for the “Rattled By La Rush” video.

– Dan Koretsky and Rian Murphy’s wry commentaries for the “Cut Your Hair” and “Painted Soldiers” videos.

– The hilarious “K-Rock” guy footage at the El Ray. Can someone please let me know who that guy is?

– “Trigger Cut” performed on the very first Pavement tour at Coney Island High

– A snippet of Malkmus playing R.E.M.’s “7 Chinese Bros.”

– The inclusion of Bob and Westy’s cute little “Cymbal Stand” song.

Minor complaints:

* Why are there two versions of “Date With IKEA” on the second disc? Couldn’t we have had a different song, maybe “Kennel D” instead? You only hear “Kennel D” in passing in the documentary, which is a shame because it was a set staple for three tours, and Spiral’s most popular Pavement tune. “You Are A Light” would have been a nice addition too, since it was the best live song from the Terror Twilight era besides “The Hexx”.

* Though I can understand why it was glossed over, I feel that some of the reasons why Pavement ended should’ve been addressed in the documentary. In fact, they never actually say Pavement is over at any point – it’s as if they wanted to leave it open so if the band did eventually reform, the DVD wouldn’t look silly.

* Was there a good reason why the entire Manchester show wasn’t included? It seems like that was a better show than the Seattle concert which is presented in its entirety.

Ten Million Brilliant Thoughts Per Second

Here’s an excerpt of Joe’s remarks on Barbelith about Quentin Quire from the forthcoming New X-Men #135, which can be previewed here. I really like what Joe has to say about this…he’s right on the money, I think.

…I’d just like to rant a bit more about why Quentin’s outfit/’look’ rocks so much. Quite aside from the reference to obscure X-history, it’s subtly evocative of other things: as someone mentioned, it’s a bit straight-edge, a bit emo… but it’s also parodically geeky (which is arguably what being a mutant has always really stood for), and more than a little dykey, actually – almost transboi-ish (look at his hair!). These elements have to be deliberate, I think, especially when you consider how well his name suggests these sort of themes as well – ‘Quentin’ is real spod-who-gets-kicked-in-the-playground stuff, his surname is almost ‘queer’. QQ’s look also reminds me of Grant Morrison’s predictions for fashion around the time of the Invisibles – that everything was going to get tighter and more repressed… It’s just perfect, really.

I like the suggestion that Xavier may be a bit out of touch with mutant youth culture: it stands to reason that there are kids into thinkers/artists who he’s never even heard of, kids who probably think Magneto is an irrevelant (not to mention dead) old fart as well. Also good is the way that Quentin’s class aren’t all that impressed with his weirdo theories and confrontational grand-standing distracting them from, specifically, more red-blooded pursuits. I wonder what he makes of Beast’s experiments with language, species and gender?

Strung Out On Heaven’s High

The commentary for the songs on David Bowie’s new greatest hits package that are up on David Bowie.com are kind of charming in how incredibly audacious and contentious they’re willing to be. I especially love the commentary for “Ashes To Ashes”:

Arguably the most perfect pop record ever released (though a devil to nail live), this catchy, haunting, and beautiful song, with its peculiar beat, boasts the finest video ever made, with Bowie as Pierrot, madman and the astronaut, three potent symbols of alienation, the queasiness of the music and the song’s singalong denouement making for nursery-rhyme pop music, New Romantic-style.

(They went a little crazy with the commas in there – don’t they have anyone proofreading this stuff? Run-on sentences are one of the easier grammatical errors to catch, I’d imagine.)

I’m also fond of the commentary for “I’m Afraid Of Americans”, which wistfully notes that the song should be an anthem for all anti-globalization protestors. But it’s not. Maybe they’re all too busy singing along to “Changes”, which they declare “the greatest pop anthem ever recorded”.

What I Learned This Weekend:

That I’m never going anywhere for an extended period of time without a book or two ever again.

Download These Songs (If You Can)

Sonic Youth “I Know There’s An Answer”. Unreleased Beach Boys cover, Lee Ranaldo on lead vocals, very enjoyable. [WRONG! Vic Funk corrects me: It’s not unreleased; it’s from the “Smiles, Vibes and Harmonies: A Tribute to the Beach Boys” LP.] This song was recorded at some point in between the Goo and Dirty sessions, and may appear on the upcoming Dirty reissue.

Pavement “Nothing Ever Happens”. From the new Pavement Slanted And Enchanted Luxe + Redux set. The credits say that this song was recorded during the S+E sessions and remixed in 2002, but it sounds suspiciously new to my ears, like a Preston School Of Industry song built on the “Wounded Kite” riff, with Malkmus on backing vocals. If nothing, I suspect that perhaps part of mixing the song involved Spiral recording a new vocal take. Nevertheless, a good song and worth checking out if you’re not planning on buying the reissue.

Bono and the Million Dollar Hotel Band “Jump Start My Heart” – One of the most pleasant and charmingly off-center songs I’ve ever heard Bono sing. The vocals are faux-soul Bono (think: the majority of Rattle And Hum, “In A Little While”, “The Sweetest Thing”), the music is muted and minimal (think: The Passengers LP, the production on some of Achtung Baby, especially “Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World”). It works very well, I can’t even begin to understand why it was never released since virtually everything on the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack album is bloodless and awful. Are we to believe that “Stateless” or songs with Milla Jonavich on vocals are better than this? Please.

Scarce “All Sideways” – The sole great song of a rather obscure Rhode Island band from the early 90s. They were clearly influenced by the Pixies, but unlike most bands who knock off the Pixies, they are one of the few that ran with the “deranged-sounding male singer with somewhat ethereal female foil” formula. Very good song, some strong guitar playing, too. For more about Scarce, go here.

Baader Meinhof “Baader Meinhof, version 2”. From the album, Baader Meinhof, no less. It’s a concept album about terrorism by Luke Haines, and the song in particular is a dark little folk-pop number with a great recurring evil keyboard riff. Pretty much everything about this song is wonderful, and the record itself is pretty good too.

Also, a friend of mine gave me a copy of a cd with Lil Wayne rhyming over the backing tracks of other people’s hits – Jay-Z’s “Girls Girls Girls”, Raekwon’s “Incarcerated Scarfaces”, some other songs. Most of them are terrible, but their version of “Pass The Courvosier” is pretty good, even if Lil Wayne and his friends are abysmal MCs. I have no idea how this song may be labelled or titled, it’s a bootleg being circulated by Lil Wayne’s people, but keep a look out for it. It’s worth checking out.

Like A Party That’s Over Before It’s Begun

I experienced entertainment saturation yesterday – I saw two films (Secretary and Bowling For Columbine), bought five comics, saw Sleater-Kinney and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and listened quite attentively to a lot of music while on the train. I’m still digesting it all right now, so I might put off writing about the movies for a bit, especially Bowling For Columbine.

The S-K/YYY show was okay, nothing too exciting. A girl named Mirah opened up, she did a pleasant but not particularly memorable solo set of diary-entry folk pop. She was amiable, had a nice voice, and played decent non-strummy guitar, but her songs all sounded the same. I don’t feel compelled to ever hear Mirah again, but I didn’t mind sitting through her set.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were a mixed bag – they played “Maps” and “Y-Control”, which made me very happy, but they didn’t play “Mystery Girl” or “Our Time”, which annoyed me. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that those are the two best songs off of their EP, what were they thinking? Sometimes I just don’t understand some bands. They did play “Art Star”, which is an extremely obnoxious novelty song, and a few of the new songs they played just aren’t very good. I already knew a few of them from their WMFU session – there’s no convincing me that “Machine” and “Tick” are good songs. They’re just not. I wish that they were more consistent, because when they are good, they’re very good. I can’t say I’m big on Karen O’s live shtick, by the way. It’s charming here and there, but she’s mostly just preening and mugging. It’s tiresome.

I wish I could’ve stayed through the whole Sleater-Kinney show, but I had to leave about halfway through to catch my train. They were playing a fairly surprising set, peforming one of my all-time favorites “Burn, Don’t Freeze” early on, which for me was enough to justify the price of admission. I was also quite happy to hear “Oh!” from One Beat, and a particularly good version of “Turn It On”. It seems I jinxed myself the other day, because all three songs I mentioned that I did not want to hear were played while I was there. It wasn’t that bad, but I can name about 30 Sleater-Kinney songs I would have rather heard. Oh – if you were at this show, and they happened to have played “Hot Rock” after I left, please don’t write and tell me, alright? Ignorance is blissful.

This is what they played up til I left – Far Away / Oh! / O2 / #1 Must Have / Burn, Don’t Freeze / One Beat / Turn It On / The Remainder / Youth Decay / Light Rail Coyote / You’re No Rock N’ Roll Fun

Only One More Non-Frank Issue To Go…

One of the comics I bought yesterday was New X-Men #133. Odd issue, I think. I can’t help but feel that this and the past few issues have been intentionally treading water til Frank Quitely comes back in December, biding time planting some important things that will become more significant later on. Some of it is just boring me, though – surely I’m not alone in finding the whole Fantomex/Weapon Plus thing not compelling in the least?

I’m getting very tired of seeing the bargain basement 90s reject characters trotted out as part of the X-Corporation, it seems like a blatant concession to the fanboy element, and they are little more than the X-equivalent of those guys in the red shirts on Star Trek. Wasn’t part of the idea behind pushing the franchise foward getting rid of all the dead weight characters? I feel sort of cheated, cos we haven’t seen most of the cast since May, with the exception of #131. I miss Henry and Xorn. I miss Scott and Emma. I am bored with Jean and Charles. Wolverine is even more boring – all of his scenes in this issue are typical Wolverine formula. Zzzzz.

I thought the whole Lilandra-tries-to-assassinate-Charles scene to be a bit much, and it just kind of came from nowhere. I know Grant wanted to shoehorn the Shi’ar into the issue for that last page, but surely it could’ve been handled a bit better than that. Since the letter column says next issue is the “prelude” to Riot At Xavier’s, maybe we can look foward to having the plot move foward a bit more next month. This is getting really tedious. I expect better from Grant Morrison.

They Don’t Love You Like I Love You

If you’ve got access to a filesharing network, I recommend seeking out the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ songs “Maps” and “Y-Control”, both of which they recorded for a recent Peel Session. Both songs took me by surprise, because I wasn’t expecting much from the band. I had sort of written them off prematurely as a one-hit wonder band, and this proves that they can write solid music that can be geniunely emotional rather than just the sort of glib party rock on their EP. The songs also reveal who the real star of the band is – it’s not Karen O, but the guitarist Nick Zinner, who kind of marries the aesthetics of early 80s U2 and Dirty Of Luck-era Helium. “Maps” also reminds me of post-Slanted & Enchanted, pre-Crooked Rain Pavement. There’s a recurring bit of harmonics in “Maps” that sounds a little like the intro to “Texas Never Whispers” from the Watery, Domestic EP. I can’t imagine the Yeah Yeah Yeahs lasting for more than a couple more years, but I forsee a bright future for Zinner. He’s got style for miles and miles.

I’m seeing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs tomorrow night, they’re opening up for Sleater-Kinney. As of this writing, I have almost no enthusiasm for seeing Sleater-Kinney at all, but I’m mildly excited about the YYY set. It’s nothing against Sleater-Kinney, but they’re just about the last band I feel like seeing right now, though hopefully that will change by tomorrow evening. My interest in the One Beat songs has worn off quite a bit, and so I’m not exactly thrilled by the notion of sitting through the more tedious songs on that record, especially “Far Away”, “The Remainder”, and “O2”. I hope that the request-a-song survey on their website yielded a lot of response for the Hot Rock songs – that would be a nice surprise.

I’m Not The Man They Think I Am At Home, Oh No, No, No.

Also worth checking out is the cover version of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” that was recorded by a group of musicians assembled by The Mekon’s John Langford for This American Life. Landford found each musician through the classifieds, in an experiment to see if a real workable band could be created just by looking at one week’s listings. It went surprisingly well, in spite of the intentionally eclectic mix of musicians – a soul singer, an indie-punk drummer, an eccentric theramin player, a Christian rock guitarist, and an electric violin player who’s just started attending anger management classes. The song comes together in a very interesting way – the drummer and tablas players place a much stronger emphasis on rhythm than in the original, which compliments the reverb-heavy guitar nicely. It’s the violin and theramin that steal the show, though – it’s enough to make me wish that there were more songs in the world that paired those two instruments. To hear the radio segment, you can listen to the show in real audio here. (Advance to the 22 minute mark.)

…We Sure Do Need Him Now

I’ve been meaning to mention how much I love Harpers Bizarre’s version of “If We Ever Needed The Lord Before”, but I haven’t really had the words. I still don’t, but if you can find yourself a copy, I hope that it makes you feel as warm and happy as it makes me feel every time I hear it. There’s just something about it, it’s a wonderful recording. I especially recommend it for fans of the Beach Boys.