Flip It And Reverse It

“MISSY ELLIOT’S “WORK IT” IS THE BEST SONG OF 2002″ – Um, no. Not at all. But it is pretty interesting and eccentric, and significantly better than her other recent singles. I can enjoy this song without having it mixed with Happy Mondays or George Michael, which is a nice change of pace on the Missy front for me. As an MC, she still strikes me as a one-trick pony, she really could be doing this rhyme over any of her beats and no one would really notice. Perhaps I’m just not meant to enjoy Missy and Timbaland…it’s so rare that they do something I genuinely enjoy rather than just respect. I think I’m still kind of bitter that the best Missy song I’ve ever heard that isn’t a bootleg mix, “Old Skool Joint”, was never released as a single, when it really, really should have been.

Haven’t been posting much – a bit busy. I’ve spent a lot of music-listening time lately revisiting R.E.M. and Grant Lee Buffalo, trying to will autumn weather into existence by listening to music I associate with that season obsessively.

Someone I went to school with is in the newest season of MTV’s The Real World. I didn’t know this girl very well, but I’m still interested in seeing how the person I knew from class relates to the person who’s going to be edited up and put on tv.

Do Me A Favor And Vote For “Hot Rock”

Sleater-Kinney are taking requests on their website for their upcoming fall tour. Go and vote, especially if you want to get them to put songs from The Hot Rock back in their set after having those songs be mostly absent from their live show over the past few years. Apparently, the band doesn’t think the fans like those songs as much as, say, the seven or eight songs they always play from Dig Me Out. Prove them wrong, okay?

When I Go Forwards You Go Backwards And Somewhere We Will Meet.

Don’t get me wrong, I quite like the song, but it’s pretty much impossible for me to hear Queens Of The Stoneage’s “No One Knows” without expecting them to launch into the chorus of Radiohead’s “Electioneering”. The new album is far better than I would ever have expected – I’m very much in debt to all of the folks on Barbelith who have been giving Songs For The Deaf glowing recommendations. I could really do without all of those fake radio transmissions, though…

WHA?

I just caught part of the rebroadcast of the MTV awards, and MTV has cut out all of parts with Eminem insulting Moby and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, as well as all of the resulting booing. I can’t understand why – Eminem should have to deal with what he did, so he has no right to having it cut to protect his interests. Also, isn’t airing that good for ratings?

More MTV Awards

You can find more amusing MTV awards write-ups on these blogs – Dilettantism, Vain Selfish And Lazy, and best of all, I Know My First Name Is Jim.

7:58
The guy who plays Tony Soprano opens the show by introducing Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, who start yowling “The Rising” in the rain. Pretty typical Bruce, take it or leave it. Very bombastic. Very SERIOUS. Very something-that-MTV-is-doing-cos-we-need-to-remember-9/11. There are millions of kids all over the United States who are eating snack chips and talking amongst themselves waiting for the real show to start, I’m sure. All of the people on Bruce’s stage look dour and pained, surely thinking to themselves “WE ARE DOING THIS FOR AMERICA! AMERICA NEEDS US!”

8:05
Jimmy Fallon enters in Eminem-as-Robin drag and does a parody of “Without Me”. Then he goes on and does similar parodies of The White Stripes, Avril Lavigne, Nelly, Enrique Iglesias, Dave Matthews, during which Jimmy gets tackled by a fat man in a red shirt. The skit ends with James Brown coming out on stage to help Jimmy out, and there are giant screens blinking the name “James Brown” for all the people who might not know who he is.

8:15
Britney Spears is in a dominatrix outfit! She introduces Michael Jackson, who appears to have joined a superhero team. He’s getting an “artist of the millenium” award for some reason. His voice has deepened a LOT. He does NOT sound himself. He’s gained weight. Maybe he’s not shed the weight from having his third child. This is deeply disturbing, like a scary dream. Everyone in the audience looks uncomfortable and confused, and so am I.

8:20
Brit-Dom gives No Doubt the first real award. I think Gwen is wearing a giant motorcycle seat as a dress.

9:26
A skanked-out Jennifer Love Hewitt introduces Pink, who performs her new single on a sofa. This song is like late 80s Cher. In fact, Pink is DRESSED like late 80s Cher, but without the g-string and gothed up considerably. It’s pretty dominatrix-y too – after Britney’s outfit and Gwen’s black leather, it seems like we might have a full-on new trend going on here.

8:30
Kylie and Enrique Iglesias give Mary J. Blige an award for “No More Drama”. Mary’s in leather too, but not very s+m – it’s more like ‘big game hunter’ or something. Mary brings up 9/11.

8:33
The Osbournes talk about the Viewer Choice Awards nominees. Sharon can’t pronounce “Iglesias” – “In-glaaaay-zee-aaaace”. It’s funny.

8:38
Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, the pedophile’s version of the Hilton sisters, give the “breakthrough video” award to The White Stripes, who are cute beyond all belief. They are easily the best dressed people in the building, Jack is in a white tux with a red shirt, and Meg’s in a simple red dress.

8:42
B2K introduce Nas, Ashanti, and Ja Rule, who perform “Always On Time” with a 20s motif. Ja Rule looks very handsome in a tux, but still seems like he’s just sexually harassing Ashanti on the street. Nas performs “One Mic”, and it’s really great, very intense. “We need peace in hip hop music!”, he shouts at the end.

8:48
Anthony Kiedis and Brittany Murphy give Dashboard fucking Confessional the MTV2 viewer’s choice award. I hate these guys.

8:56
The Jackass guys (in fake hipster white trash clothes/facial hair) present best rap video to Eminem. Nas was robbed!

9:04
Two guys each from P.O.D. and Linkin Park come out and give the best hip hop video (which is now distinct from ‘best rap’ for some reason) award to J. Lo and Ja Rule for “I’m Real”. J. Lo is dressed surprisingly conservatively, but has had something terrible done to her hair – it’s like she had a perm, slept on it, and then put on the dress.

9:09
Kate Hudson and Heath Ledger introduce Shakira, who does what can only be called an “ass dance”, and then does a rocking song which is really crazy and wild. She’s pretty nutty onstage. Kinda savage, really, like if you went up to her, she might bite your fingers.

9:10
Jimmy Fallon does a simultaneous Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkelman impression, and introduces Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson. Paula makes a fool of herself. Justin “Bobo” Guarini and Kelly “Pure Unholy Evil” Clarkson present the best new artist award to Avril Lavigne, who apparently only has one pair of clothes, like a cartoon character.

9:30
David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, who are both painful to watch, present the best rock video to Linkin Park. Linkin Park lack charisma entirely.

9:34
Mike Meyers introduces Eminem, who performs a big theatrical version of “White America” as a President giving a State of the Union Address, with an entire Senate and Congress of old white guy actors. Unfortunately, he rips off his clothes and performs his awful new single “Cleaning Out My Closet”. Does Eminem have any idea what the implications that title phrase has, especially in the context of “I’m sorry, mama”; or is he intentionally playing with the “is he gay or isn’t he” angle?

9:47
Carson Daly does a little tribute to Lisa Lopes. After many tears from the surviving members of TLC, Carson presents the best group video award to No Doubt. It’s a very disturbing shift, frankly. Looking at Gwen again, it seems like her skirt is far more complex than I had thought – it’s like motorcycle leather, all in bows, buckled to her crotch. Very peculiar.

9:58
Run DMC, who seem to have a career based entirely on appearing on this show every year, introduce P. Diddy who performs an over-the-top stage production of every recent Bad Boy hit he can squeeze into a four minutes. The weirdest part is when he does “Pass The Courvosier” with Busta Rhymes and back up dancers who are apparently outfitted with shin guards and laser-tag vests. Then Pharell comes out, and there’s a million guys jumping around on bungee cords. It’s pretty out of control, it looked like a playstation game on stage.

10:05
Avril Lavigne and Lisa Marie Presley present best female video to Pink, which let me down because I was hoping to see more of either Brit-Dom or that crazy Shakira. Pink proclaims onstage that she’s “too drunk for this”, and looks like she’s going to pass out. Pink makes 1995-era Courtney Love seem really with-it and lucid.

10:15
J. Lo brings out Rudy Guiliani to applause, and some boos. Rudy talks about NYC and 9/11, and introduces Sheryl Crow. She performs a ballad with NYC/patriotic post-9/11 imagery on screens behind her. The song is an over-serious bombastic dirge, with a full string section. It’s very tasteless, I think.

10:28
Triumph, The Insult Comic Dog torments Moby and Eminem.

10:30
Christina Aguilera is apparently dressed up as a deceased 80s Lower East Side whore, with a nose ring. It’s amazing how she is able to make herself look trashier and trashier, by now this just shouldn’t be possible, you know? She presents the best male award to Eminem, who is obviously reluctant to go onstage with her. It looks like he’s being forced to talk to a drunk ex-girlfriend at a party. A large portion of the audience starts to boo at him, because he is threatening to attack Moby from the podium. Eminem is a very humorless man when he is not rapping.

10:34
Kirsten Dunst and Jimmy Fallon introduce the Hives, who do a good Monkees vs. Stones vs Stooges three-way impression with “Main Offender”. They’ve got the “The Hives Are Law. You Are Crime” slogan on screens in the background, which is cool.

10:37
The Vines come out right after the Hives finish and perform “Get Free”, which is catchier than the Hives song, but is pretty much just Silverch

air Part II. They trash their equipment as they finish, just like good ol’ Kurt would have.

10:46
Brandy introduces Justin Timberlake, who premieres his new single with a live band performing on a giant boom box. It starts out with acoustic guitars and that Neptunes beat. I already like this song, it’s very appealing. It’s the Michael Jackson that people want, not the monstrosity from the first hour. Clipse comes out and rhymes with an “I’m Your Pusha” t-shirt. Justin is far more sexual onstage than he usually is. The beat changes up, this really nice hypnotic beat, and Justin exits.

10:52
Jimmy Fallon does a skit as Lance Bass in space, but get this – he’s actually doing a Will Ferrell-as-sleazy-bastard impression. It’s really strange. The remainder of N’Sync (including Justin, who’s clearly trying to make it known that he’s still with them, even though he shouldn’t be) present the viewer’s choice award to Michelle Branch.

11:03
Nelly and Kelly Osbourne present video of the year, and Eminem beats out the White Stripes who rightfully deserve the award. (Well, actually, no – Weezer deserves it for “Keep Fishin'”) Eminem is solemn and succinct.

11:07
Jimmy Fallon introduces Guns N’ Roses with incredible, contagious enthusiasm. Axl and his new hired hands perform “Welcome To The Jungle”. Axl looks terrible, he’s got braids, his old voice is gone. They break into what I think must be a brand new song, and it’s very, very lame. It’s vaguely industrial, the keyboard riff reminds me of some of the worst Eminem backing tracks. It’s really sad how poor his voice has become – it’s like he’s an Axl impersonator with half of the old Axl’s range. Finally, they end the show with “Paradise City”, which is probably a better way to go out than with that lousy new tune. Axl’s new band is really embarassing to watch, by the way – it’s like a whole band of that robot fella who was fired from Limp Bizkit for liking Radiohead too much.

11:16
Kurt Loder post-show interviews Jimmy Fallon, who is jumping around in glee after seeing GNR, who he clearly loves. Then Axl tells Kurt that Chinese Democracy STILL isn’t done, and probably won’t be out for a while because they are STILL recording.

Gleefully, I Went To Tell My Friends

I found Indie MP3 archives yesterday while checking out The Minor Fall, The Major Lift’s link section. The purpose of the site is to post MP3s of obscure 80s UK indie singles, which is particularly intriguing for me since that is an area of music which I know very little about, so it’s a good education.

Not everything in the archive is particularly good, and it seems like some of these bands were falling all over themselves to nick both Johnny Marr’s guitar style AND Morrissey’s deliverary. However, I do begin to wonder whether The Smiths were as amazingly seminal as I assume they were, or if they were in fact borrowing crucial elements of their sound from their peers in the UK scene at the time. The songs that aren’t very Smiths-y at all are still pretty typical of the 80s UK indie that I have heard, which is to say there’s nothing here that doesn’t sound dated.

The songs that I like the most that are currently in the archive are We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It’s “Rules And Regulations”, which is fun and catchy girl-punk number; Age Of Chance’s frantic “Bible Of The Beats”; Mighty Mighty’s “Everybody Knows The Monkey”, which is sort of like Morrissey singing with Unrest; Room’s mellow “Here Comes The Floor”; the June Brides’ peppy “No Place Called Home”; and both Shop Assistants songs.

Recommended Radio Realaudio

Joseph Epstien, author of Snobbery: The American Version is interviewed on this week’s episode of WFMU’s Speakeasy. Randy Cohen, New York Times Magazine’s ‘The Ethicist’ was also interviewed on the show a few weeks back promoting his new book. Both are very interesting and entertaining interviews.

Democracy Now has a very depressing story about the LAPD “accidentally” destroying biological evidence in over a thousand sexual assault cases since 1995, and a case in which a man was jailed for eleven years after being incorrectly identified as one woman’s rapist.

“The Air Is Heavy….um, Heavy As A TRUCK?

Those interested in hearing U2’s new single “Electrical Storm” should try out this site, which has three mirrors to download the song from, as well as the lyrics. I’ve heard it, and I just think it’s mediocre, competant but uninspired. It reminds me a lot of “Staring At The Sun” from Pop, but with some leftover All That You Can’t Leave Behind bombast on the choruses. They can do a lot better than this, but it’s not awful. It’s at least a lot better and a great measure more subtle than the over-the-top saccharine on most of All That You Can’t Leave Behind, so I’m grateful for that. Oh, and judging by the transcript, Bono’s lyrics aren’t getting any better… (Note: this link is no longer working as of late this afternoon – I guess this, and all the other sites hosting the song got hit with cease and desist orders from Interscope – sorry. Check your favorite file sharing service, I’m sure you’ll be able to find it easily.)

All I’ve Got Inside Is Vacancy

I’m guessing that today’s sudden burst of search engine referrals looking for Redd Blood Cells mp3s might have something to do with the small article about that project in yesterday’s New York Times. If you’ve come here looking for them, I’m sorry, but I can’t really help you unless you go on Soulseek. You can download them from me there…

My Heart Is Drenched In Wine

I’d only ever read about Norah Jones in two ways – either in frivolous industry shill “new faces in pop” fluff magazine pieces, or as a person maligned in other publications for being a shiny, packaged “new face in pop”. I remember a Wall Street Journal article about her, in which the writer was going on about how she’s on Blue Note and how that’s bothering a lot of people cos she’s not really a jazz performer so much as a lite adult pop singer and that the label’s future might have more to do with folks like her than with traditional jazz. I’m not too concerned about Blue Note, so I don’t really care what new artists the label wants to promote so long as they keep their back catalog in print. The point is, I think that from what I’d read, I had made up my mind that I didn’t care about actually hearing Norah Jones, not even enough to form a positive or negative feeling about her. This goes for a lot of new artists on major labels – I’ve come to distrust those labels so much that if the artist isn’t imposed on me somehow, I don’t feel particularly motivated to hear their artists at all.

Last night, I saw Jones’ video for “Don’t Know Why” while channel surfing, and I was very pleasantly surprised – it’s a really nice little song. It’s not going to change the world, it’s not original, it’s just a good little song sung by a girl with a pleasant voice. It seemed really out of place on MTV2, too – it’s slow, quiet, understated. I’m not used to hearing anything this gentle and calm on music television either, so that’s a plus. It’s also extremely unhip in a way that appeals to me a lot right now, after spending half of the past year hearing far too much music that in spite of its quality still seems a little too selfconciously “now”. The song was worth downloading, and I’ll probably try out the rest of the record too. If nothing, it’s a good substitute for Fiona Apple until she ever makes another record.

Yeah, I like Fiona Apple. Fuck off. I like a lot of square music.

Can’t Hear The Revolution

Here’s a very interesting post re: mainstream vs. underground hip hop from Dead Pirate Crunchy on Barbelith:

if the argument is about lyrical politics, i would much rather listen to and think about the complex politics of ‘apolitical’ commercial pop than the semipolitical liberal posturings of self-consciously ‘conscious’ pop intellectuals – i.e. bootylicious is every bit as political as sarah jones, but since it doesn’t try to resolve its contradictions into a polemic it leaves more room for thought. classic example of this is the abysmal ‘we need a revolution’ by dead prez, where they attempt to ‘improve’ aaliyah’s ‘we need a resolution’ by dropping her (soft, feminine, emotive) lyrics and replacing them with their own (hard, masculine, political). the result is little more than whinging socialists with patently dubious sexual politics telling us we need revolution – a terrific insight, sure, but nothing on the way aaliyah’s voice combined with timbaland’s faltering beats on the original to evoke the tensions and doubts of a failing relationship (which has more application in my political projects than ‘one solution, revolution’ leninist crap). moreover, aaliyah says more to me about revolution than anyone who actually says ‘revolution’ ever has.

Corny, I Know, But You Had Better Believe It

I know that this isn’t exactly high quality blog fare, but I do feel a need to express this – I really hope that I get a chance to talk to Jarvis Cocker someday, so that I can thank him for having written the song “I Love Life” with Pulp. I love the way the song feels like a gentle, sincere hug when I feel uncertain, depressed, or confused. I appreciate the way that the song embraces pure unconditional love of the whole of life, not just the good parts. I love how earnest and sincere the song is, even if it feels the need to sort of apologize about it by admitting that its sentiments are ‘corny’ halfway through. Everything about the song seems brave and defiant to me, and it means a lot to me. This is easily one of my favorites songs from the past few years.

Nobody Listens To Hear Intelligent Callers

After finding very little in the way of information about Bob Lassiter, who had been featured on a series of episodes of WFMU’s Aircheck, I decided to contact WFMU to ask for more information. After being referred to a few different folks there, I got the information from The Audio Kitchen’s host, The Professor. Here’s what the Professor has to say –

…Bob Lassiter is NOT on the air now. And according to

him, he may never be back on the air. He was canned back in 1999 from

WFLA in Tampa. Actually, they didn’t renew his contract. He started

bitching about how management wasn’t dealing with him fairly, and then

they let him go.

As far as recordings, there are aircheck collectors out there who have

some. In fact, I’ve traded with one of them. He’s here –

http://www.webpost.net/ai/Airchecks/index.html

The Professor was also kind enough to send along a biographical article about Lassiter from six years ago. Here’s a few choice excerpts:

I’m a bit disappointed in some ways – for some reason, I wasn’t expecting Lassiter to be so extremely cynical, though I can’t quite understand why. Listening to the tapes played on Aircheck, I had the impression that he was a brainy left-leaning, pro-equality guy who had somehow found his way on the air in a town full of people who just didn’t get him at all, and it was more about him reacting to them and not vice versa. I feel a bit naive, but it doesn’t make what I’ve heard any less interesting, or make him any less intelligent and talented.

Thanks again to The Professor!

How’s This For A Compromise?

I think an ideal music venue would be smoke-free in the main room/stage area, and there could be a dedicated smoking lounge somewhere else in the building, where the people in the room can watch the show on closed-circuit big-screen tv until they come back to the main room. This is not unreasonable, and it is respectful of smokers and non-smokers alike. There is no good reason why non-smokers should be at the mercy of smokers because they want to see live entertainment. There’s also no good reason why non-smoking entertainers should be forced to do their job in smokey rooms because of a horrible status quo.

So Hurry Up And Bring Yr Jukebox Money

ASCAP are suing a small bar for playing records by their artists (in this case, Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi) without paying their annual $2,818 fee. Russ is right on about this – why should free advertising and exposure be subject to fines and fees, especially in the case of artists who clearly aren’t having any trouble moving records and selling concert tickets? The article doesn’t make it clear whether or not the songs are being played on a jukebox or not – if it is being played on a jukebox, I can see how the artists might deserve royalties since the proprieter of the business is profitting from their music, but if it’s just being played over a stereo, that’s just unfair.

Why Is “Fifth Member” In Quotations? He IS The Fifth Member! It’s Not Like He’s Murray The K Or Something!

I fail to see how Badger can describe this hateful, ingnorant, personal diatribe against Jim O’Rourke as being ‘rational’. Honest, maybe. Articulate, possibly. But certainly not rational – it’s all vicious hyperbole, mindless bile aimed at a person who I really don’t think is worth getting worked up about. I don’t trust this guy at all, and his willingness to go along with the ridiculous notion that Sonic Youth are in an “obvious decline”, or worse, that their work (or the simple fact that O’Rourke is now a member of the band) must be ‘groundbreaking’ is little more than sub-Amy Phillips anti-music drivel. For me, that would have automatically destroyed the writer’s credibility, but the title “Jim O’Rourke: Fat, Soulless Fuck” already did that before I read the first sentence, especially since Jim O’Rourke is not a particularly fat man. I have no time for childish, fatphobic, bitter former music students, and I’m very irritated that I just wasted my time reading that article.

Some blog notes – first, I added a new set of recommended songs for this week. Second, I decided to drop the comments service I was using because it was disrupting the load time of this page, and was acting sort of flakey when it wasn’t. If you feel compelled to respond, either write something in the guestbook area (“Tell Me Nice Things”), or email me.

Disturbing Toy That I Found In The Mall Today:

A Tusken Raider Female and Child set of Star Wars action figures, which I presume is meant so that small children can reenact the “Anakin Skywalker on a genocidal rampage” scene from Attack Of The Clones. It doesn’t really console me much to think that maybe it’s just guys over 20 buying this particular toy, either.

Rolling My Eyes

In one sentence, Michael Sangiacomo destroys what little journalistic credibility that he and Newsarama ever had:

In his classic, powerful yet understated style, writer Mark Millar says more about battered relationships in one story than I learned in my college psychology courses.

I really do hope that Mr. Sangiacomo went to a terrible college…

For those who haven’t seen it – he’s talking about the scene in the new issue of The Ultimates (aka The Avengers updated for new audiences) in which Giant Man beats up and psychologically tortures his wife, The Wasp. It’s ham fisted, it feels tacked-on, it’s typical Millar sensationalism. In the context of his recent work, which involves all sorts of severe (often sexual) torture of women and gay men for the sake of shock value, I think that this scene reveals to me more about Millar’s faux-liberal denial about his own misogynistic and homophobic tendencies than it does about Giant Man being a horrible prick. If there’s any real depth to Millar’s writing it is accidental – the man writes without grace, it only ever becomes really interesting when you read his work with several layers of detachment.

I Think “Luxe + Reduxe” Is A Cute Name For It, Honestly

Hey, it looks like I got what I was hoping for with the Pavement S+E reissue – it will be a double disc, presumably with the album on one disc, and the bonuses on another. That’s great. What’s better is that if you act now, and order it from Matador’s direct mail order you’ll still get it for single-disc price rather than double-disc pricing. I’m assuming the material that “has been available on bootlegs” probably means that Matador got the rights to the early Peel Sessions that were on the Stuff Up The Cracks cd, which would be great. I’d like to have nice, clean hi-fi versions of “Circa 1762”, “Kentucky Cocktail”, and “Ed Aims”, myself.

This news comes courtesy of Dr. Funk, and I’ve got to say I agree with him about the way this is being sold:

You know, I’ve never understood when labels have done these two disc sets of the hits+rareties. Presumably, the hardcore fans already have the commercially availble stuff, yet are forced to pay a higher price than they should for the rare stuff they want. Any newcomer who wants to see what all the fuss was aboot will skip it, because they’re not gonna want to pay a higher price for something they’re unfamiliar with. Thus, you’ve lost most of yr audience. I’m using the idea of a greatest hits package in this case, but I think most Pavement fans would rather fork over for a single disc of rare stuff, rather that re-pay for the first LP, the EP and two early singles, and anyone who’d like to hear S&E will just buy the mid-price version, wouldn’t they?

Right. I think Matador is just planning on milking the Pavement catalog for a long time, and starting off with re-packaging the albums with extras, and then later on they’ll get around to releasing separate compilations of b-sides/rarities. The Pavement catalog of non-album material is pretty big, and I know that there is a deep well of unreleased material out there as well. They can be putting out a new Pavement (re)release every year for a decade and a half before officially running out of material.

Flyboy, I Came To Party

Joe “Flyboy” Macare (who has recently started up a new blog, though he hasn’t written much in it just yet), is responsible for starting up a very promising new thread on Barbelith challenging many people’s blanket disdain for mainstream hip hop and examining just how misogynistic it really is. I’m looking foward to seeing how some of the more conversative backbacker members respond to Joe’s very contentious opinions on the matter…

Some Might Call It A Loophole, I Call It An “Opportunity Clause”

Yes! After several weeks of being depressed and lethargic, Tom Scharpling was back in good form last night, accompanied by Jon Wurster, who’d also been missing from the show. To hear Wurster’s new character sparring with Scharpling, listen to this archive and advance to the 36 minute mark. It’s very funny, but not quite as great as when in an episode from a few weeks ago (advance to 1’34), Tom’s other collaborator (the man responsible for the incredibly depressed office worker, Paul Crenshaw) called in leaving a very miserable response to a personals ad. That character, Samson, is a classic. I’m hoping that Scharpling releases the Paul Crenshaw epic and the Samson skit on a cd sometime soon, a la Rock Rot And Rule.

If you want to hear some of Scharpling, Wurster, and the other guy’s best recent work, here’s some recommendations:

The Paul Crenshaw Saga:

Part One Advance to the 2 hour, 11 minute mark.

Part Two Advance to the 2 hour, 24 minute mark.

Part Three Advance to the one hour, 3 minute mark.

Part Four, the best of the set. Advance to the 2 hour, 25 minute mark

Tony Torgvoort, aka Mr. Loophole

Advance to 1’29 mark.

Tom’s Daddy

Advance to the one hour mark.

Philly Boy Roy

Part One Advance to the 44 minute mark.

Part Two Advance to the 1’25 mark.

Barry Dworkin and “Rock N’ Roll Dreams’ll Come Through”

Advance to the 1 hour, 14 minute mark.

Slap You On The Face, And Enjoy The Show

Courtesy of Badger, how is this for head-scratching revisionist history? I don’t think this guy really gets Weezer. I think a suprising number of people don’t. They’re not an ‘indie’ band, they’re not an ’emo’ band, they’re a pop singles band. Stop thinking about the albums – think about the singles, how each one of them is catchy, fully formed, distinct from one another but similar enough to be familiar immediately as Weezer. Think about how this band is going to have a very solid greatest hits album someday – “Undone – The Sweater Song”, “Buddy Holly”, “Say It Ain’t So”, “El Scorcho”, “The Good Life”, “Hash Pipe”, “Island In The Sun”, “Photograph”, “Dope Nose”, “Keep Fishin'”. I can’t think of any other American band of the same vintage who’ve had a solid string of quality mainstream hits – even if you think the band is sort of generic, you’ve got to admit to the quality of their hits.

I think that Weezer’s obvious desire to be liked by the people is what betrays the wrong-headed notion that they were embracing some kind of nebbishy indie attitude on Pinkerton – Weezer themselves never at any point tried to ditch their audience, and there’s several songs on Pinkerton which could have been big pop hits (“Why Bother” immediately comes to mind), it was all in the timing. People who think that a few creepy lyrics on Pinkerton were the main reason for its initial commercial failure are deluding themselves and insulting the tastes and sensibilities of millions of people. The marketplace killed Pinkerton, it was all corporate politics. The other thing about this guy’s writing is the notion that indie people in the mid-90s had anything other than antipathy for Weezer. C’mon, man, I was there. They were a punchline! At best, they were considered a guilty pleasure by indie rock elitists. At this time in their career, “Pavement Lite” was practically synonymous with their name!

The secret of Weezer’s success, and why they kept so much of their audience intact after five years of absence, is that they have never at any point said or implied anything that would exclude anyone from their audience. I maintain that a lot of people are scared of indie rock because they are nervous that the indie rock people don’t like them, that they’re being judged by indie people when they step into their shops – people don’t like rejection. Weezer are there for all those people who feel alienated by most everything else on tv and on the radio, but feel too uncool for indie. Their songs are accessable, relatable, fun. They strike a nice balance between being goofy and being earnest. There’s nothing indie, in the perjoritive sense of what the guy was implying, about that at all.

I Hate You And It Never Ends!

Does Kim Gordon really hate Britney Spears, or is she just being silly and ironic when she slips her name into “Plastic Sun”? According to Josh, yeah, she does. This makes me completely re-think the nature of the Ciccone Youth album…

I Want You To Know

Flaming Lips fans should check out their live session/interview on Morning Becomes Eclectic, which you can listen to in the real audio archive linked. The interview is very good; they talk about titles, how Yoshimi was written, cover versions, and death. Wayne Coyne and Steve Drozdz are nice, articulate guys who say the word ‘gal’ a lot.

The Lips’ cover of “Knives Out” is really great, I think it improves upon Radiohead’s original. Their arrangement drops the Marr-ish guitars, and is mostly piano and drums. It’s not that far off from the arrangement Radiohead used for “Life In A Glass House” and “Pyramid Song”, and I’d be interested in hearing Radiohead performing this version themselves. Maybe it’s just the fact that Wayne Coyne has a much warmer voice than Thom Yorke, but the solemnity of the lyrics come out more in the Flaming Lips version, and the song sounds much more sad to my ears, rather than just dark and gloomy as it is in the Radiohead original.

They also do Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” as a slow, brooding dirge, which I don’t think works quite as well as the original. Wayne said before they played it that they wanted to show how sad the song is, how it’s a well-written song about obsessive longing; and on those terms I think their version is a success. They played “Do You Realize” and “In The Morning Of The Magicians” with arrangements fairly close to the album versions, but those aren’t nearly as great as the piano-ballad renditions of “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1” and “One More Robot”, both of which I need to find copies of online.

“You Know What I Did? I BALLED Her!”

“I Treat Your Coochie Like A Maze” by Gold Chains has got to be the most disturbing pop song I’ve heard in a long time. It’s techno pop, with Gold Chains shouting in his drill sergeant voice “get that coochie over here, I want to fuck it all year/ see that coochie looking tight, I wanna lick it all night” over and over before rapping through the middle of the song. Now, the guy’s voice is scary enough as it is, but he saw fit to add some distortion to his voice, making him sound like Cookie Monster on a rape spree. It’s just awful – I can’t imagine any woman on earth finding this song even remotely sexy, and I’m quite sure that Gold Chains intended this song to be that way. It makes me think of the part of Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster’s “The Gorch” sketch in which the title character, a thug from the 50s, insists that women love it when you “holler at ’em”.

Note: I added new ‘recommended songs of the week’ yesterday, and a ‘comments’ option today. I do this because I love you.

Fading, Fading, Celebrating.

Sonic Youth could do no wrong today. They were tight, they were on, they put on the best show I’d ever seen them play. (I’ve seen them 11 times as of today) The intense sunlight in Central Park where they played was very punishing for the most of the time, but by the time SY got on stage, the sun had set and it wasn’t so bad. Yes, they did play “Kotton Krown”, along with some other favorites which I’d never seen live before. Here’s the setlist:

Kotton Krown/ Bull In The Heather/ The Empty Page/ Rain On Tin/ Eric’s Trip/ Plastic Sun/ Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style/ Shadow Of A Doubt/ Karen Revisited/ Tom Violence/ Candle/ Sympathy For The Strawberry/ Kool Thing. (encore#1) Disconnection Notice/ Making The Nature Scene. (encore#2) Drunken Butterfly.

Some notes:

* “Karen Revisited” (aka “Karenology”) seems to be the most popular song from Murray Street, based on published/blog reviews and this audience’s reaction. I’m glad, cos it’s my favorite too. I really do wish that Lee was allowed to sing more, both in concert and album. I get the feeling that it’s his decision to hold back, but I wish it weren’t that way. I know “Skip Tracer” is also in their current repetoire, and I would have loved to have seen that. Why do Thurston and Kim get seven songs each for Lee’s two? Lee’s great, we need more Lee in this world. The instrumental second part of this song was very well executed, and well recieved by the audience, which is a bit of a suprise to me actually, especially since it was at least half of a ‘free concert’ crowd.

* “Candle” was added to the setlist halfway through, cos Thurston heard a request for it and convinced the rest of the band to add it in, for which I am eternally grateful. The song was beautiful, and it felt good to finally get to see them perform it after all this time of it being one of my sentimental favorites. Even better, they didn’t cut anything out of the setlist – the audience got a bonus song out of the band’s generosity.

* “Rain On Tin” is so perfect for outdoor afternoon performances – so sprawling and mellow, it’s an ideal song for baking in the afternoon sun, surrounded by trees and a thousand people.

* “Plastic Sun” is a revelation when performed live. On the album, it doesn’t quite stand out for me; but on stage, the song’s arrangement makes more sense and Kim Gordon is far more forceful and charismatic. The same goes for today’s versions of “Kool Thing”, “Drunken Butterfly”, and “Making The Nature Scene”. I remember when Kim was a lot more icy and reserved on stage, it’s really cool to see her blossoming into a very rocking showwoman. I loved her white shirt/black tie/pink skirt/sunglasses outfit, by the way.

* “Kotton Krown” was absolutely beautiful. It made me miss someone specific very, very much.

Down Will Go Back Up Forevermore

Guided By Voices were typically Guided By Voices last night – they played for over two hours, they did 50+ songs, the audience was crazy, and most everyone in the room was drunk. I’m not sure what happened, but after about an hour and a half, my energy level dropped off significantly, so I had to move to the back a bit to avoid all the people jumping around. The crowd was moshing more than usual, but I didn’t mind – it wasn’t particularly violent, and I’m happy to see so much positive reaction to the band. It was really cool to see a lot of the songs from Universal Truth & Cycles recieved with the same excitement and energy as many of the older hits – “Back To The Lake”, “Everywhere With Helicopter”, and “Cheyenne” in particular are huge crowd pleasers.

The band played all nineteen songs from Universal Truths, plus: Skills Like This, The Brides Have Hit The Glass, The Enemy, Glad Girls, Chasing Heather Crazy, Twilight Campfighter, I Drove A Tank, Instrument Beetle, Alone Stinking And Unafraid, Teenage FBI, Tight Globes, Do Something Real, Pop Zeus, Things That I Will Keep, Steeple of Knives, Get Under It, Submarine Teams, Cut-Out Witch (with Acorns & Orioles sung over the bridge, like in the Peel Session version!), The Official Ironmen Rally Song, Shocker In Gloomtown, Motor Away, My Valuable Hunting Knife, Game of Pricks, Watch Me Jumpstart, Hardcore UFOs, Buzzards and Dreadful Crows, Tractor Rape Chain, Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory, I Am A Scientist, Peephole, Baba O’Riley, A Hard Day’s Night

Note: I’d only heard a few songs online that didn’t really grab me, but I absolutely must get more songs by the French Kicks. They were fabulous last night, one of the best opening acts I’ve seen in a long time.

Why Rushmore Is So Expensive On DVD

Russell explains:

Criterion discs are expensive, as you’ve seen. The result of being a boutique specialty label that has to license film content from studios and produce bonus content on their own dime. Buena Vista or Touchstone or whoever holds the rights to Rushmore already had a disc out when Criterion did theirs. So they paid for everything, and it’s expensive. BV/Touchstone decided not to put out their own Tenenbaums disc, instead cedeing all the duties to Criterion, and sharing the distribution cost with them. So rather than being priced at Criterion’s typical boutique point, the Tenenbaums disc, backed by a huge studio (Disney) is as cheap as most major studio 2-disc sets.

Thank you! Now I’m wondering if the Criterion special edition is really worth the extra money – even looking on used websites, the disc is still in the $25-30 range. My ideal price would be as close to $20 as could be considered reasonable.

I Won’t Settle For Less….Wooo-hoo! Baby It’s The Best!

E Randy Dupre from Barbelith has a new blog, which he just started yesterday. It’s called Eye Rainbow Dinosaur, and in his first post he talks a bit about the new Weird War (Ian Svenonious + Michelle Mae + Neil Haggerty + A Guy I Went To School With In My Freshman Year Of College) album, which I downloaded yesterday. I only have a very superficial impression of the album, but it sounds pretty much like Ian Svenonious singing on a Royal Trux record, as you’d expect. I guess that this is Ian’s stoner rock period. A lot of the songs sound like Ian should be dressed up in some flamboyant 70’s pimp outfit, doing Steven Tyler moves on stage with loads of sexy back up singers. It’s pretty good, but so far it doesn’t really move me the way that the best of Royal Trux and The Make-Up/Nation of Ulysses does.

A Prayer To Sonic Youth

Oh Sonic Youth, when I see you on Sunday in Central Park, please, won’t you play “Kotton Krown”?

I have purchased at least 15 of yr records, I have bought videos, I have bought t-shirts, I have convinced others to buy yr records. All that I ask is that you play a sentimental favorite of mine when I’m in attendance. C’mon, wouldn’t it just make sense to play a song with the line “New York City is forever kitty” when yr actually in NYC?

Please, Sonic Youth – do not forsake me!

Honey I’m A Prize And You’re A Catch And We’re A Perfect Match

No way, Badger! While I’m glad to see someone give Brighten The Corners some well deserved respect, you’re just wrong about Terror Twilight. The only song I’ve never really liked on that album is “Cream Of Gold”, which has always seemed very second rate to me – everything else is great stuff, from the spazzy fits of “Platform Blues” to the pretty balladry on “Spit on a Stranger” and “U R A Lite” to the gloomy “The Hexx”, the album’s a winner. Problem is, unlike the previous Pavement records, it’s a Malkmus album with Pavement as sidemen. It might have been better off as a Malkmus solo album, and not the final Pavement record. All the same, I think it’s a much better Final Pavement Record than Brighten The Corners would have been. There’s something very ‘end of an era’ about Terror Twilight – Malkmus knew it was over with this one, and you can tell by listening to it.

I don’t think it’s an easy record, and I think for me it helped to have heard early works-in-progress versions of these songs before the album came out. The songs on Terror Twilight are really well crafted, I think – Malkmus spent a lot of time on them, and it shows. I think in some spots, the album can sound a bit labored – “Cream Of Gold”, “Anne, Don’t Cry”, and “Major Leagues” are a bit forced – but when the songs work, they really work. “Spit On A Stranger” is perfect pop to me, “The Hexx” even in de-fanged mellow VU ballad form is still fantastic though I prefer the big rawk version, and “Speak, See, Remember” is cleverly constructed and has some really well executed dynamic shifts. C’mon, how can you deny the part at the end of that song when SM’s singing “stand back/ expansion is what we do the best/ I don’t see the grass and fields/ I see an epicenter with agendas/ and you are aware/ they must be met”, it’s so golden! Pretty much every moment of “U R A Lite” glistens, it’s such a dreamy and romantic song, even if the lyrics aren’t.

Badger, give Terror Twilight a better chance. Trust me.

A Tangerine And A Side Order Of Ham

I’m still trying to figure out a way to write about how much I love Prince lately without sounding silly. Can someone tell me why when people steal from Prince, they never seem to want to copy songs like “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”, “Starfish & Coffee”, and “Forever In My Life”? Or even songs like “U Got The Look”? Most everything on the Sign O’ The Times record sounds like a subgenre unto itself, and very far ahead of its time in spite of the album’s title.

One of the things that I really love about Prince’s voice is how he’s so effortlessly soulful, he sings with feeling without ever being too much. He knows exactly how to express every line, his restraint and control is amazing. I love how Prince is so deliberate, in total control of every aspect of his music. I wonder how much work Prince put into this music – how much is off the cuff, how much is improvised, how much is practically scientific in how precise it is. I know the man is a virtuoso, but just how easy it for him?