Has it been a year already? Last summer, the staff and I put together this amazing piece celebrating the diverse array of record labels that we support and loved called “Happy Independents Day.” This year, we’ve revisit those that made the cut and mourn those that are no longer with us (R.I.P. TVT), so come join myself and the staff of Radio Exile as we celebrate “Independents” Day! …read full article…
This is fun (for me). In our old existence as part of Inside Pulse Music, we had a dictum to describe the albums we were reviewing as cross-breeds. You know, “Late Clash meets Wings” or whatever. These got old fast as we (or was it just me) started simply listing similar sounding bands, but for a while I had fun with it. I can still hear these blends forming in my ears to generate just the right textures.
But I might have been wrong. I have no prizes to offer (and let’s face it, this is an easily Googleable game, so prizes would not make it more likely I’d find out if you could you could guess who I mean), but keeping in mind that these albums are about two years old, see if you can pick out the bands and discs described after the jump. …read full article…
A little more than two years ago, I started a new column with a few words about music, politics and the birth of a child. The more things change… Broken Dial isn’t the only birth I am attending to this week. On Thursday, my son Henry was born.
I had already learned that soundtracking a birth is not a great idea. For the trip to the hospital when our daughter was born, I set up a play list with literally thousands of songs, any of which would have been fine for the birth of a child. Our intention was to bring the tyke into the world with music. Walk in, set us the tunes and allow fate in the form of a randomizer to dictate what song was the first to grace our progeny’s ears.
Of course the real world is not so cooperative. People need to work around us and working around our musical tastes might not be too much to ask, but why add to the distractions when something important was going on? Also, one of us was in serious, recurring pain and fumbling with cords and menus was not in the cards. Our daughter was born to the sound of me saying “it’s a girl” and that was, in the end, perfect.
Music is not the be all, end all, and it helps to remember that, even as we deliver the new born source of premium info and ideas on musical excellence (free of charge!).
In preparing for the coming of our second, I brought tunes for the recovery. I also had a couple trips to and from the hospital where I could choose my soundtrack. The first thing I did when we left for the hospital was turn the stereo off. I think the Cars were playing, and I like the Cars. We needed to be able to communicate and focus on the journey ahead. The delivery room was filled with the sounds of modern medicine thoughtfully executed until I said “it’s a boy.”
For those times when music was appropriate. such as visits from friends and family or the long hours of rest, did I go for indie darlings Magnetic Fields? To be fair, they come to mind because I did tune out the grocery store loudspeaker tunes with that particular decision last night, but no, generally not.
The two things I remember choosing in the hospital were Arthur Rubenstein playing Chopin and Corinne Bailey Rae. They fit. Not long ago, Broken Dial’s Kyle David Paul made the comment that once someone knows what you listen to, music becomes image. In trying to make sure my image is as truthful as possible, you can know when the chips are down, I go for what fits over what people need to hear to be complete music aficionados (though honestly, you’re denying yourself if you don’t have a little of all four artists above in your collection).
:::
.:More Soundtracking:.
Another soundtracking trend to keep an eye on: Broken Dial’s preview is 24 hours after the fifth anniversary of that day the sky fell. Three days after the event, I created a playlist of songs that were not offensive when so much seemed too light, too aggressive or too pointless. Some of the songs were “Boys, the Night Will Bury You” by Richard Buckner, “Spiritual” by John Coltrane, “Everything’s Not Lost” by Coldplay, “Even after All” by Finley Quaye, “What Do You Want Me to Do?” by Mike Scott, “Ruination Day, Part 2″ by Gillian Welch, “I Believe in You” by Talk Talk and “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake.
The computer that held that playlist is gone, and has been for four and a half years, so you know I listened to the playlist often in the months that followed to remember about half of it with minimal effort. Is was a blanket of solace for a guy who lived in New York and came too close to being at Windows on the World that morning for an event that now seems so silly that I won’t even name it (so fitting a name for that place as it turned out… my hopeless quest for fitting irony is now ended).
You’ll know before you read this what sort of music people used as a tribute or a frame for their video montages and ceremonies. Was it U2′s “One” like they used at the Superbowl that year (can’t say it was an awful choice) or “Proud to be an American” which, though I’m sure it was heartfelt at some point, seemed a pretty blatant money/sentiment grab some point later. How will other people have you remember the event and its fall out? Who will be the most likely to bend the rules of ceremony and create a musical platform for an agenda. I’ll be watching and my money’s on the those people who have a stake in the midterm elections coming up in under two months. Sometimes, like with the birth of a child, or remembering tragedy in public, silence is best.
:::
.:What’s in a Name, Part 2:.
I had a piece on the meaning of the name “Broken Dial,” but decided it was over-thought. Send what you think it means to me at gregwind@comcast.net and we’ll see if any of you have a better idea than I did after stretching a little too far. Thanks.
CMJ announced some rad-tastic new performers for this year’s CMJ Music Marathon (October 31-November 4 in New York City.) Some are names you might know (George Clinton, the Shins, Tapes ‘n Tapes, Clipse, the Black Keys), and others you might not, but really should GET to know (Magnolia Electric Co., Apples in Stereo, the Plastic Constellations, the Thermals, Blonde Redhead.)
Full lineup (with the latest additions first):
The Shins, Clipse, the Thermals, Girl Talk, Tapes ‘n Tapes, Magnolia Electric Co., George Clinton, Beach House, Figurines, Architecture in Helsinki, Cansei de Ser Sexy, Apples in Stereo, Peanut Butter Wolf, the Plastic Constellations, +/-, J Rocc, Oh No, Dudley Perkins, Roc C, Aloe Blacc, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Feathers, What Made Milwaukee Famous, the Ms, Parts & Labor, Ladyhawk, Get Him Eat Him, Aloha, the Album Leaf, Oxford Collapse, Forward, Russia!, the Annuals, Human Television, Cex, David Bazan, the Drones, Cale Parks, the Big Sleep, Call Me Lightning, Rahim, Pit er Pat, Excepter, Fog, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Tokyo Police Club, Land of Talk, Bobby Conn & the Glass Gypsies, Skeletons & the Girl Faced Boys, An Albatross, Mickey Avalon
Previously announced:
The Knife, Deerhoof, the Slits, Hot Chip, the Black Keys, Madlib, Califone, Jason Forrest Band, 120 Days, Portastatic, Oakley Hall, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Professor Murder, Blonde Redhead, Ben Lee, Erase Errata, Blue Cheer, Cold War Kids, Cloud Cult, Silversun Pickups, White Whale, Percee P, Dr. Dog, Archie Bronson Outfit, Keren Ann, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, These Arms Are Snakes, Micah P. Hinson, Extra Golden.
(credit: Pitchfork)
CMJ doesn’t disappoint when it comes to adding bands with big, big buzz. If you haven’t heard of ANY of these bands, you are a sad person or you still think that the bands on the radio are “hot.” Let me politely inform you that you are wrong.
Actually, just go to Google and check out some of the bands. There is something for everyone. You don’t like Tapes ‘n Tapes? Fine. Check out Rahim.
Something for everyone.
Stuff I Think and Shouldn’t Say 50: The More Things Change
…the more they stay the same.
Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” is stuck in my head all day, every day. If I hear any combination of the words “sexy” or “back” at any time, it instantly pops into my head. It’s crack.
It made me think about what it is, exactly, that creates a super-catchy pop tune? Everything is formulaic with music, but there is something distinct about that song. The Germans called it an “ear worm,” as it buries it’s way in your head without you having any knowledge.
Is it dangerous?
No.
But I almost ran over a man on a bicycle today while singing along…like a bitch. I was singing so hard that I almost ran over a grown man; a 250 pound hairy, dirty man on a dented red Schwinn almost got killed because I gave in to JT’s charms.
It wasn’t his fault. I forgot to bring Tracy’s iPod to work this afternoon and had to listen to the radio on the way in. It was a Saturday, so there were no “shows” on, just music. I heard this song on the way in, and was humming it up until I opened the door to my office.
I spent the better part of the day looking at the 50-inch TV on the wall while I made phone calls. My job entails a great number of phone calls, so I had lots to forget about Timberlake and Timbaland. It was quite easy, or so I thought.
Then, my boss’s phone rang. He, too, was “bringing sexy back.” I didn’t feel so alone or dirty anymore. My boss is a pretty cool guy, but he was hooked. We were both jonesing for the same thing.
The beat is retarded. Not “trainable” retarded, just really f*cking dope. It makes me want to punch myself in the groin four or five times. Why?
It’s punishment for not dancing every time it comes on. If I don’t dance, I get angry. If I get angry, for some reason, this song makes me want to punch groins. If mine is handy, I punch mine. I punched Salty in the dick two weeks ago because of this song. I even changed a line to fit with my groin-sault.
“I’m bringing sexy back“
(insert groin punch)
“I just gave you a cock attack!“
(stick punch #2 here)
“Please God kill me ‘fore I break my back“
(the third punch stings a bit more than the others)
“This effing song is musical crack“
I wonder if others are punching groins as well.
Let me know.
.::.Some Stuff I’m Thinking.::.
So, I am sure that you all checked out the Broken Dial preview, right? If you haven’t, I will let you do that for a second, then get back to me.
Now that you are back here, I wanted to let you know a few things:
1) I am not leaving Inside Pulse, so stop sending me emails about it.
2) That isn’t how the page is going to look. It’s a static sample on the V2 (version #2 of Inside Pulse) layout, and nothing will look like that. I have seen it, and it looks very cool. You will like it.
3) The things that I have changed in the column over the past few months were deliberate: I was acclimating the IP-SMS readers to the artists we will be covering in Broken Dial.
4) The name is not meant to be a slight or to sound pompous. In fact, I don’t know what it means, but it sounds cool to me. I could sit here and tell you that it was deliberate on my part, and that there are many things that made me choose it. That wouldn’t be true, as I put up my top ten names on the IP Super Secret Hush Hush Staff Boards and we all voted. That name won. The runner-up: Shawn’s Awesome and All of You Want His Jock. Dot com. It was too long a name. (Ssquared Note: I am only kidding. The runner-up sounded like a shed with vinyl in it. That’s all I am allowed to say, legally. Yes, I am serious.)
5) I got a job. Working. Yes, a job where I go and make money and it doesn’t involve retail sales or restaurant work. I might make good money, but I am not too sure. I haven’t been paid yet.
6) Jon Widro is a genius. This might be seen as hyperbole, but the guy lead another site to prominence, started his own, and instead of packing it in when things didn’t go as well as he would have liked, he evolved. The guy is a f*cking chameleon. You should see what his skin does when he is standing in front of a black leather coach. He turns into George Hamilton.
7) Life is good.
So, things are changing. Everyone is adapting really well, but there are those among us that won’t be around. Like Eric Katz. He won’t be helping out with V3. In fact, no one has any idea where the guy is. It’s been years, but if he tries to log into V3, I promise you that someone might have thought about kind of attempting to lock him out.
(Ssquared Note #2: Eric Katz was the “indie info” guy when I first started here at Inside Pulse. He disappeared, to my knowledge, but if anyone knows where he is, tell him that he is to me as Warren Woo is to Fernandez. If he doesn’t understand, slap the sandwich out of his hand and tell him that “love is all you need.” He’ll know it’s a message from me.)
I am also not allowed to tell you all that the fake Hyatt(e) was Trish Stratus. If you get neither of those jokes (as there are two equally bad jokes there for you to giggle at,) good. It means that you read my column and don’t come to Inside Pulse for wrestling coverage. That makes me smile.
Since I have joined Inside Pulse, the token music chick and our resident MC both were married, Greg Wind had another child (Hank!), Widro has had at least 50 girlfriends. Over 30,000 columns were created during that time, which equals the combined number or hits on every column Matthew Michaels ever wrote…ever! Daniels un-retired from writing and has two columns now, Cam left to write in Sports, Mathan told us how his name was really pronounced, Fernandez took a “hiatus,” D’Errico brought us new classics and KDP and I bickered over 100 times.
I moved to NYC. I moved out of my first and second apartments in NYC, and have finally settled on a location in the area I first moved into. I learned how to act like a New Yorker while I am behind the wheel, I know what Spumoni is and where the best place is to get it. I have bitched about the state of the music industry and interviewed a wrestler that I know my girlfriend has the hots for (while she was in the room!)
I started an improv comedy group that fell apart and forgot that I wanted to be a stand-up comedian while I earned shitty money handing people salads and bowls of pasta. I threw up on public transportation and almost died in the Caribbean.
I played fair, I took cheap shots, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
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.:.Columns from the Week that Was!.:.
Kyle David Paul: Let’s Rave On
Gloomchen: Summertime Blues, News and Views
Mathan Erhardt: More Reasons Why Being Deaf Sucks/Rocks
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M. Ward – Chinese Translation
M. Ward is a fantastic songwriter that seemingly doesn’t get much mainstream coverage. For fans of Jack Johnson or John Mayer, his new album, Post-War (out today!) blends the elements you love about those artists with the subtle bluegrass element that you don’t find on Pop Radio. If you loved Uncle Tupelo or Whiskeytown, please, please, please check Post-War out.
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brought to you by
.:.It’s a Motley World.:.
Pre-production has started on the Motley Crue bio-pic based on their outrageous biography ‘The Dirt’.
The movie, which takes the same name, promises to be a cracker if it’s anything like Neil Strauss’ book – which candily details the poodle-rockers’ raucous behaviour as they live out all their Spinal Tap fantasies.
‘Borat’ director Larry Charles will helm the movie, which will shoot in Los Angeles, according to Production Weekly.
The movie had been put on hold last year after David Fincher pulled out to do another project.
(Credit: Gigwise.com)
My biggest regret is that Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars won’t be around to see…wait, they’re still alive? Who the hell would have known!
Did you guys actually know that?
See, Tommy’s doing that Rockstar show, Vince did a Remaking episode on VH1, but I just figured that the other guys died. Maybe that’s cruel, but I don’t care.
I loved Motley Crue as a child. I didn’t get a chance to check out this book, but if they have tons of boobies in the flick, I am there. It’s a rule I have.
If you make a biographic movie about a debaucherous band, there has to be hot groupie action. I also want them to include the scene where Tommy gets a woman’s lips tattoed around his asshole.
That’s the coolest thing ever.
.:.Lawsuits? They’re Tricky!.:.
80s rock band The Knack takes on Run DMC for unauthorized sampling.
Los Angeles – September 15, 2006 – Members of the 80s rock band The Knack today filed a lawsuit against the members of Run DMC, and Run DMC’s producers, distributors, publishers and record companies, over Run DMC’s use of an unlicensed sample of The Knack ‘s 1979 platinum hit “My Sharona” in Run DMC’s song, “It’s Tricky.”
(credit: Rolling Stone.com)
It only took 20 years to remember to file this lawsuit. In the two decades it took the Knack’s STELLAR attorney’s to sue for the royalties, DMC lost his voice, Jam Master Jay was murdered, and Run had his own TV show on MTV. My baby sister has graduated grade school, high school, college, bought a house, got engaged and received her Masters before the Knack “thought” about doing something? That’s pathetic.
The Knack?
Yeah, they are still around, I guess. “My Sharona” was the song I used to sing to my mom to annoy her as a kid. Her name is Sharon, and I wasn’t “technically” saying her name when I was singing it, so I did it to drive her nuts. It worked. My mom should be in some sort of crazy house after all the shit I put her through, but this has nothing to do with the news.
Back on topic: if this lawsuit takes even ONE penny from Jay’s family, I will personally punch someone in the face. There, apparently, isn’t a statute of limitations for this type of case, but I think that one decade should be the standard from here on out.
Stupid, greedy motherf*ckers!
.:.New Yorkers LOVE Blonde Redhead!.:.
CMJ announced some rad-tastic new performers for this year’s CMJ Music Marathon (October 31-November 4 in New York City.) Some are names you might know (George Clinton, the Shins, Tapes ‘n Tapes, Clipse, the Black Keys), and others you might not, but really should GET to know (Magnolia Electric Co., Apples in Stereo, the Plastic Constellations, the Thermals, Blonde Redhead.)
Full lineup (with the latest additions first):
The Shins, Clipse, the Thermals, Girl Talk, Tapes ‘n Tapes, Magnolia Electric Co., George Clinton, Beach House, Figurines, Architecture in Helsinki, Cansei de Ser Sexy, Apples in Stereo, Peanut Butter Wolf, the Plastic Constellations, +/-, J Rocc, Oh No, Dudley Perkins, Roc C, Aloe Blacc, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Feathers, What Made Milwaukee Famous, the Ms, Parts & Labor, Ladyhawk, Get Him Eat Him, Aloha, the Album Leaf, Oxford Collapse, Forward, Russia!, the Annuals, Human Television, Cex, David Bazan, the Drones, Cale Parks, the Big Sleep, Call Me Lightning, Rahim, Pit er Pat, Excepter, Fog, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Tokyo Police Club, Land of Talk, Bobby Conn & the Glass Gypsies, Skeletons & the Girl Faced Boys, An Albatross, Mickey Avalon
Previously announced:
The Knife, Deerhoof, the Slits, Hot Chip, the Black Keys, Madlib, Califone, Jason Forrest Band, 120 Days, Portastatic, Oakley Hall, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Professor Murder, Blonde Redhead, Ben Lee, Erase Errata, Blue Cheer, Cold War Kids, Cloud Cult, Silversun Pickups, White Whale, Percee P, Dr. Dog, Archie Bronson Outfit, Keren Ann, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, These Arms Are Snakes, Micah P. Hinson, Extra Golden.
(credit: Pitchfork)
CMJ doesn’t disappoint when it comes to adding bands with big, big buzz. If you haven’t heard of ANY of these bands, you are a sad person or you still think that the bands on the radio are “hot.” Let me politely inform you that you are wrong.
Actually, just go to Google and check out some of the bands. There is something for everyone. You don’t like Tapes ‘n Tapes? Fine. Check out Rahim.
Something for everyone.
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Check out the Archive or you can just click the individual reviews below:
Mahavatar – From the Sun, the Rain, the Wind, the Soil
Everclear – Welcome to the Drama Club
Ima Robot – Monument to the Masses
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Top Ten Things Ssquared Loves About Broken Dial:
10) It has a super cute logo.
9) The free stuff he gets, he wants to listen to.
Exposing Inside Pulse fans to new artists and turning new readers into IP fans.
7) The t-shirt ideas are endless.
6) Our zone color isn’t orange (which SMS hates because he is a redhead, remember?)
5) Greg Wind.
4) Kyle David Paul
3) Salty and Toby.
2) Less Time-Consuming to Write Stuff.
1) Any opportunity to keep writing about music is good while getting to interact with readers around the world who love what you love and listen to bands you listen to or at least try to.
I made it to 50 columns. I started out without pictures, then I had too many in different sizes. Then I learned how to make our links the appropriate colors of each section. I added the YouTube Video Feature (which will be there in Broken Dial as well!) and received more feedback for that than over any other thing I had done or said.
Thank you for reading. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have agonized over columns, felt badly about missing deadlines when things went really badly for me, but your support over the shoulder nonsense and the like was rad.
Sure, I never beat Cam for writer of the year, but I won the May Madness tournament in one of JF2K6′s final columns. It meant a lot to win such a stupid little thing, as it was voted on by IP writers…my peers.
I want to thank Matthew Michaels for bringing me into the fold during V1, to Widro for letting me know that I didn’t suck by handing me the reins in V3, and to everyone who has ever read any part of Stuff I Think and Shouldn’t Say in the past year and a half. If I made you laugh (or groan because the jokes weren’t any good) or made the day a little less annoying, every second was worth it and it was fun.
Check out Broken Dial when we launch on Monday. Buy independent music. Support MachineGunFunk and Beyond the Threshold. They’re good people as well.
Keep it real!
Ssquared
Ssquared @ MySpace
Due to the success of the Dead Can Dance reunion tour, 4AD will release a two-disk retrospective on October 10th.
Self-proclaimed “greatest band in the world,” Oasis, have chosen the tracks that will be featured on their greatest hits album, Stop the Clocks. The album comes out in late November and there is no word on whether anyone has, in fact, found them “caught beneath a landslide.”
Tracklist: (according to NME.com)
01 Rock n Roll Star
02 Some Might Say
03 Talk Tonight
04 Lyla
05 The Importance of Being Idle
06 Wonderwall
07 Slide Away
08 Cigarettes & Alcohol
09 The Masterplan
10 Live Forever
11 Acquiesce
12 Supersonic
13 Half the World Away
14 Go Let It Out
15 Songbird
16 Morning Glory
17 Champagne Supernova
18 Don’t Look Back in Anger
Equal Vision’s Chiodos will be releasing a deluxe version of their latest release, All’s Well That Ends Well, on October 17th. In a “par for the course” music moment, a DVD (contents: unknown) will be included in the release, to go along with 15 tracks (with 3 acoustic numbers!) A perfect Halloween gift (Great Pumpkin!) for the Coheed and Cambria fan in your life!
I finally got my stereo back in my place, and while the FM chord is nowhere to be found, all that does is remind me that FM is pretty much dead at this juncture anyhow. With the last broadcast of WOXY this Friday, I can’t imagine there’s much reason to venture into the radio at all. Welcome to the world of mp3 for the official beginning of the new age. At least I’ve got a head start.
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Cassette Tapes From Crushed Lovers
Volume 9 of my infinite mixtape series is a jumper. These mp3s are free to listen and sample for seven days. If there’s an artist out there who has a problem with it, the mp3′s will come down immediately. Until then, devour and love.
***
What I’m Reading When I Should Be Finding a Way Into V Fest
Speaking of V Fest, Murtz gives us a press release about it.
Mathan gives us something about Liberace that I pretty well completely disagree with, if only on the basis that Liberace has about as much credibility as Celine Dion.
And, of course, Eric, the only wrestling report worth reading anymore.
***
Let’s Rave On
I’ve never been the type to go to a show simply to say I’ve been to a show. If you don’t know about this idea, it’s quite possible you don’t have a lot of communication with the scenester lifestyle. That’s okay. Hell, you might be better off. But I’ve known way too many people who will go to either be seen or to say who they saw. The equation never has anything to do with music, and that’s because being a scenester never, ever has anything to do with enjoying music.
So it’s refreshing when I go to a show where there is a huge chance of snobby attitude killing the mood and find a room full of scarfed, skirted, and aviator’d scenesters all listening intently, some of them with their eyes closed!
So I joined them, having a ticket to the show and all. I found my friend, I bought an LP, and I snaked my way to the front of the show (nobody scoffed! Nobody cared!) where I was about six feet away from the shoeless feet of Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power. We’d all come for that coo of hers, and for once we were all going to behave and act like the audience we could be.
I remember back to several months ago when I wrote an article about how indie scenester kids were generally an awful crowd that had the ability to kill live shows with their pomposity and loafing (dance to Bloc Party? Whatever, square). I talked about the metal scene, who take the often mediocre and meandering genre that is their gravy train and turn another day at the office into a memorable spectacle of not only positivity but also friendship and acceptance. It was an interesting comparison, two attitudes to two genres, but the night of the Cat Power show I was comforted to know that sometimes in the world of the scenester, it’s okay to close your eyes and slowly tap your foot. It’s okay to hug the one you love in public (genuine pda tends to be one of those faux pas in the scene).
Maybe it was Chan, who, as a captivating lone performer, had us all wanting to take her home. At one point early in the set, the microphone she was using near the piano began to droop, and she couldn’t figure out how to tighten it. Her attempts lasted around five minutes, and she eventually asked the crowd for advice, prompting someone in the back to yell “I’ll hold it for you!”
This show got me thinking about the aspect of the audience in the whole art of it. Countless articles have been written on the subject of audience etiquette and importance. It’s common knowledge now the proper ways to act at a show. But has anyone ever simply watched the audience when it’s working exactly as it should be and felt kind of in awe of how all the pieces came together for that to happen?
Think about the idea of Cat Power for a second. For the most part, Chan works alone. All she needs is two or three chords and a simple strum to assist her balladry. This music is simple. It’s elegant and powerful and gorgeous and anyone who doesn’t know this girl would do well to take an evening field trip to the record store. It’s sparse. Cat Power’s music feels like an empty room slowly filled with candles and lovers, only to slowly wind itself out the window into the open air for all of us to breath in as we dream. It’s quite possibly the best cuddle music ever written.
How does this incredibly intimate sound fill a room with not only ambience and reluctance, but also audience members? Lee’s Palace fills up easy enough, sure, but it felt like people were hanging from the ceiling last Monday evening. What about Chan’s coo that makes all these people want to show up and hug their significant other? Part of it has to be the scene. It’s an unavoidable aspect of indie culture. Some people undoubtedly went to this show for the same reasons all scenesters go to showsâ€â€they are definitionless without always having a show to get to that night.
Still, nobody snickered. Nobody seemed to be posing to act cool. Something about Cat Power transcended the attitude and let the music become the center of the room for once. Traditional manners seemed to hold, but that was all. One guy yelled, “it’s my birthday!” but it was perfectly in context.
I’m not trying to paint the indie scene in some devilish manner, but it’s no secret that in Toronto especially, the attitudes amongst audiences aren’t nearly as enthusiastically as other scenetropoli (not even Montreal! Not even Omaha!) and it’s pretty damn frustrating at times, because it really should be the best city in the world. It really shouldn’t be so rare for a crowd to be so completely wonderful that they elevate the show’s transcendence, like they were this night. I think I saw one dude cry. Maybe someday we’ll all have the guts to cry.
Cassette Tapes From Crushed Lovers
And we’re back from a single week hiatus. Here’s the track listing for this week. Hope you enjoy it.
Stuff I’m Reading When I Should Be Getting Some Sleep After Last Night
Shawn is totally right about both the MTV Video Awards and his own abilities as a writer.
I’ve done the exact same thing Mathan has. It sucks to have to deal with idiots.
Eric made a good point to contrast my theory of permanence last week, but it wasn’t quite what I was aiming at. As I said, it’s at least halfway about image, and if an mp3 disappears then the image disappears as well. If a record is used past the point of listenability, at least the image of the record is still in place.
***
Let’s Rave On
It’s becoming clearer and clearer lately that the essence of popular culture has to be studied beyond the rudimentary standards. It has to be quantified as to exactly what it’s doing to us, because it so very much is. To quote John Cusack from High Fidelity;
“Call me shallow. Books, movies, music, these things matter.” Fact is; they’re mattering to a point where we have to re-evaluate what’s important to us as a people.
For instance, the new Apple Mac Book, the replacement model for the ibook that I so cherish, advertises itself as a pop culture creator. The “Superfast, Blogging, Photocasting, do everything out of the box Mac Book” advertises itself with so many pop culture buzzwords, people who don’t spend half their lives on the internet might have little idea as to what it does. It’s “Superfast”, which is almost as quick as the Gen Y movement likes to go. It “Blogs” and “Photocasts,” which are two things done solely by people plugged into this culture. Finally, it does “everything out of the box” which doesn’t sound like a big deal at all until you’ve ever tried to unpack a full PC desktop, which makes it easy enough for an idiot (re; most of those devoted to pop culture) to understand. This is the world we now live in. We have radio to blame for this.
Radio was the first instance where there was another world outside our own that directly influenced the way we saw our reality. Before radio, everything was on the ground. Music was local, as was news and entertainment. There was just about no way to tell people in two different places the exact same thing at the exact same time. There isn’t any point in recounting the romantic visage of the effect radio had on all of us. We all have memories of waiting for the radio to play our favorite songs. Most of us remember coming home and tuning in to hear particular DJ’s, import sets, rare live acts and studio sessions that gave us an intimate glimpse of the music we loved. All of us know that this was better than TV. A concert heard on the radio had an esoteric construct that was never possible on broadcast television. In nobody’s mind was a TV program build solely for them. With radio, that illusion was inherent.
The pop culture media trifecta (Radio, TV, Internet) allows imagination only in the world given by Radio. This is why when radio stations die, it’s diehard listeners cry and mourn. This doesn’t happen with television. While people will lament the losses of certain programs, nobody really stops their watch when networks go under. It’s pretty impossible to love a network, but a radio station, well, that can become part of the family.
This week, I was hit with the blunt foreclosure of WOXY, an independent radio station that’s been under operation for more than twenty years. I’ve been an avid listener for the last four years. To me, WOXY was the pulse of music. I trusted the taste of their four DJ’s more than any other person or organization. They are, quite simply, wholly responsible for my current taste and attitude for music.
WOXY did three things that kept me listening. First, they were abrasively independent. After 97X¬-the Cincinnati radio station that WOXY inhabited-was bought out by a syndicate, they went web-only so they wouldn’t have to buckle under corporate pressure. I have a t-shirt from WOXY that reads “Corporate Radio Sucks” and I wear it proudly. It was this attitude that gave me the crimson to write about music in the first place.
Secondly, they were constantly introducing me to something new. Listening to WOXY is akin to walking into an indie record shop and being curious about what’s on the speakers every single time. From Ryan Adams to The Ass Ponys to TV On The Radio to Tom Waits and The Jesus & Mary Chain, WOXY always had something interesting. Their add rate was ten times higher than any corporate station. While local stations add a half dozen songs a week to the roster, WOXY would add several dozen albums. You know how some stations will say “And here’s the brand new Red Hot Chili Peppers track”, even though the album came out six months ago? WOXY never does that. They’ll put out three or four songs off an album and play them all in the same week, so listeners never get sick of singles.
Lastly, I trusted the DJ’s. Mike, Shiv, Bryan and Barb are absolutely the most honest DJ’s I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to. If they don’t like a song, they’ll say so. If they really dig something, they’ll sing its praises. Listening to WOXY feels like being given your older brother’s record collection with an appended map for the road. It’s raw, real, and oh yeah, commercial free, too.
Do yourself a favor and head on over to www.woxy.com right now and listen for a while. They will be shutting down for good on September 15th, so that two weeks will offer you a glimpse of what radio really can be like. Browse their studio acts, where you can stream essentially live and unplugged concerts from Editors, Forget Cassettes, Gomez, Murder By Death, Neko Case, The Crimea, Fiery Furnaces, The Kills, and a ton more. Browse their lists of top songs and records from years’ past. You simply won’t find a better collective taste in modern rock. Click on WOXY Vintage, a classic/retro station that won’t make you cringe for once, because they don’t play “Black Betty” every three hours.
Also, if you happen to have a few million dollars around, save them. You’ll be saving all of us, too. I don’t think people realize what will happen when consistently good independent radio finally dies. For your own good, listen to the final broadcast on September 15th and cry with the rest of us. At the very least, give yourself one evening to be joined with a great community by the one medium that can really get the job done.
Stuff I Think and Shouldn’t Say 49: The Part Where the Band Breaks Up
In every major motion picture involving the life and times of ANY rock group, we inevitably get that scene where the group has a “serious talk.” Some members are starting families, and though they love touring with the single folks, married life isn’t conducive to groupie-shagging. The band, as they say, goes “on an indefinite break.”
This Monday was my last morning in the old Astoria apartment that I shared with Tracy and Jon (Salty) Sevastra. 17 months.
That’s a long time (if you are talking about a high school relationship) but it’s a drop in the bucket of my soon-to-be 28 years of living here on Planet Earth. We’ve since split into two distinct groups: 1) Tracy and I and 2) Salty. Jon and I will always be tight, and he will be working with me extensively in future plans here at Inside Pulse, but sitting with him in the ol’ Grace Chateau this past Thursday made me smile.
We both took turns bailing the other’s ass out, and now fate had put us in a place to do great things for ourselves. We’re both working on “solo projects,” but his is based in Brooklyn and S & T (Tracy and I haven’t decided on a name and “SuperDudes” is taken, apparently) have gotten a new place in Queens.
I thought about naming this section: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, but I thought the name would convince my mother that I had, in fact, left Tracy when, in fact, I was moving out of 33rd Street and coming to a place for just us. The big, scary move-in with a girl.
I am many things, but confident that I can annoy one person to the point that they want to kill me is one of those traits I wish I had lost like most people, in middle school. I am a big kid, but I am intensely loyal. I am going to miss the old neighborhood with it’s flashy lights and sucky parking and the convenience of 100s of shops within a block or two. I will miss my short walk to the train, and I will have to relearn the quickest route to every place in Manhattan.
I will miss is the fact that I developed some funny acquaintances in the neighborhood. The guys at the bodega a block over knew me by name. Okay, ” Buddy-Man” isn’t really my name, but since my mother calls me “Bud,” I let it slide and pretended we were tight. The Pizza Guys all knew me as “Hey…” and I feel rather badly that they will no longer be receiving $5 weekly for the two Sicilian slices I ate. I hope they don’t lose their lease because of it. New York is expensive.
No, I think the thing I am going to miss most is the family I built for myself. Salty is one of my closest friends in the world. We spent a great deal of time arguing and talking about music over the years, and if we weren’t DJ-ing, we were talking about the perfect 3-song sets for weddings: “At Last”, “Wonderful Tonight,” “Eternal Flame” are my three choices. Etta James will be my first dance with Tracy. Wonderful Tonight should be the second. When the Bangles come on, the ironic smiles are worth it. I think laughter is a good way to start a marriage.
Anyway, this isn’t about marriage. This is about me “breaking up the band.” The “Shawn, Tracy and Jon” Band. I liked how it worked for the three of us; Jon was asleep when Tray left for work, I woke him up, he left for work, she came home, she went to bed, he came home, and all the while, I was sitting on my ass trying to decide if I was going to be hired by any of the 10 interviews I had a month.
(The short answer was ‘no,’ but you might have assumed that by now, or I wouldn’t always be online, now would I?)
When I first got hurt at work, there were a lot of issues and doctors appointments that kept me from writing for a bit. I was getting really depressed for a while, and I won’t lie, Jon and Tracy did their best to get my head out of my ass.
Feeling sorry for myself, I actually started WRITING. Not just cut-and-pasting my way to the top of InsidePulse’s front page, no no no, I actually started writing my thoughts and feelings on a wide variety of topics. Music Retail, Touring Revenues, just stuff to make people stop and think for a second of our impact on the music industry. To inspect the viral aspect of marketing today (they used to just call it “grass roots” or “word-of-mouth promotion” when I first started pulling back the layers to take a peek at the beast underneath.
Getting back on track, I never realized how much my writing affected people until I received an email from someone who claimed to have never bought a CD in their life. They asked me not to reprint the message, so I respect that wish, but the fact that this 21-year-old woman had NEVER purchased any album with her own money really intrigued me. She knew her whole life that it was all a scam to get money, and that the artist’s didn’t see much of the cash that was forked over by fans, so she supported them at shows by purchasing merch, but NEVER gave a cent to the labels.
This started to resonate through my life a bit, as when I realized that someone who obviously cared about music like I do had the strength to not buy into the crap that was put out on the radio, well that said quite a bit about me. I admit that I have been duped in many, many times, but that is probably just my trusting nature.
Hell, PR people write us all the time and talk about their “hottest release.” You know, the one that I “cannot live without?” I usually laugh at their attempts to shove even more crap into my mailbox, but I realized that if I cared about ANYTHING, I had to start showing it.
While totally down in the dumps, with my shoulder frequently dislocating, I made a small schedule change. I focused more and made sure to eat, write, get lots of sleep and focus on going in a direction as a writer, so I could look back later and be proud of what I had done. If I couldn’t impress anyone with my resume, my body of work at IP would be here for me, and I could look back and say I was proud of what I had done.
Sure, there were typos and bad punctuation that I missed, but I was still sitting here do what I needed to do: bring people into my favorite website in the world. Those that have come and enjoyed what I have written, thanks. You guys make it worthwhile.
Just like the guys at the bodega and the people at Rite-Aid and my grocery store, you made my day sometimes without even realizing it. It’s funny how something so simple and courteous can make me smile, but I once again see the good in the industry and don’t see all the folks working in it as sleazy carnival-barkers looking for their next “mark.” They don’t always love the stuff they have to work with, but they love music and appreciate their ability to open people up to new stuff every day.
(Side note: You’ve always been genuine, Salty. Thanks for the good memories and here’s to millions more.)
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.:.Columns from the Week that Was!.:.
Greg Wind: Between the Notes
Kyle David Paul: Let’s Rave On
Gloomchen: Totally True Tune Tales
Mathan Erhardt: More Reasons Why Being Deaf Sucks/Rocks
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Metric – Poster Of A Girl
I selected this video for a reason: Emily Haines is mentioned in The Quicky-Fast News this week (for those that don’t know better, that is the news that I cover ever week) and I thought that this was as good a time as any for those of you who have never heard Metric get a chance to do just that. It’s garage-rock mixed with electronica, it’s fun and infectious, so my readers should really dig it.
If you don’t, I owe you a cupcake.
Enjoy.
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brought to you by
.:.Go Elton, It’s Your Birthday.:.
Rapper 50 Cent has revealed he is desperate to work with pop star Elton John. Fiddy was scheduled to collaborate with Elton in 2001, but the whole thing fell through and was never reorganized. The rapper is now hoping that he and Elton can make beautiful music together in the near future. 50 Cent said: “Elton has incredible talent. He was meant to come out and record some stuff with me but it didn’t happen.” However, with Elton reportedly planning on recording a hip hop album maybe these two stars will finally get their collaborative wish.
(credit: Gigwise.com)
I knew that 50 Cent was desperate about a lot of things, but I was unaware that collaborating with an aging and super-flamboyant Elton John was a dream of his. I always assumed that he was more likely to pray for a special talent (he loves Table Tennis, and refuses to call it “ping pong”) or that the person whose next beat he steals won’t shoot him in the face. Evidently I was wrong. I can admit that. Secretly, it appears, Fiddy longs to sample “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” with Sir Elton’s permission. It’s either that, or Elton likes dark meat so much that 50 Cent’s inherent lack of recognizable talent won’t scare John away from 50′s embrace.. If you look at Fiddy REALLY hard, you can tell that he loves showtunes and Clay Aiken. He might think Liza is “just another fat bitch,” but Elton is his holy grail.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
He just has to keep up the appearance that he doesn’t “kiss the bishop.” He’s a top, not a bottom. Why pretend otherwise, Curtis? What self-respecting thug hasn’t had his “shit pushed in” while doing time? At least you, Fiddy, have the strength and moral resolve to admit that it did something for you. Sure, it hurts for a bit, but stretch the rectal walls long enough and experience the ecstasy, right?
Milk that prostate, Fiddy. If Lloyd or Yayo won’t “kiss you where you pee out of,” go find someone who will.
.:.I Can’t Believe There’s Still Video Music Awards.:.
Panic! At The Disco took home the top prize at this year’s MTV’s Video Music Awards winning the Video of the Year award.
The Las Vegan quartet beat off the likes of Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to win the coveted gong.
Elsewhere, James Blunt won Best Male Video and Best Cinematography for ‘You’re Beautiful’ and Kelly Clarkson won Best Female for ‘Because Of You’.
Best Pop video went to Pink’s ‘Stupid Girl’, Best R&B was won by ‘Check On It’ by Beyonce Knowles and AFI won Best Rock for ‘Miss Murder’.
Best Group was won by The All American Rejects.
Despite being nominated for seven awards Madonna went home empty handed.
(credit: Gigwise.com)
Wow.
Last time, I talked about image being important. Part of the package is videos, but to trust MTV to still have their finger on the pulse of what’s hip and cool is about the same as asking my grandmother to pick new releases for me to review for this site.
(Ssquared Note: Nan doesn’t buy music. She tells me what she likes, I find similar artists for her and pray she likes them. I guess at a certain age, you just accept that you have no clue as to what is good. If you see or hear someone on American Idol or Good Morning America, that’s the limited exposure that you get. Nan’s doing just fine in that regard. Plus, she thinks Justin Timberlake is cute as hell.)
Pink’s new video was funny, as it was an indictment of all things sucky and bleached in Hollywood. She lambasted Paris and Lindsay Lohan and I am quite fine with that. They both need to be punched in the throat. I can’t do that, so at least she is comfortable taking that role.
AFI sucks. They drive me nuts. The only good thing they have contributed to the world was “Miseria Cantare,” and that was CM Punk’s theme music in Ring of Honor. When the best thing you have going for you is that you are the entrance music for a pro-wrestler, it’s time to fix something.
The only thing the VMAs were remotely right about was Madonna. She got a closet-worth of sympathy nominations and walked home with not a single award. Thank you to whomever voted. Madonna sucks and the less I have to hear her fake British accent, the better.
(Ssquared Note #2: All American Rejects were the best group? Sweet Jesus. I could have stomached a win by OK Go, but All American Rejects? I take back what I just said. Fuck you, MTV Voters. You have no clue. Seriously. Thanks for making music suck.)
.:.Haines Bringing Knives Out.:.
Metric lead singer Emily Haines will release her first solo album, Knives Don’t Have Your Back, Sept. 26 via Last Gang Records. The 11-track set was recorded over a four-year span in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Montreal.
“I mostly wrote these when I’d come off the road with Metric,” Haines told Billboard.com. “I played some of them for the [Metric] guys, but what emerged I liked. It was nice to finally acknowledge that I have more in me than I thought I did.”
The band backing Haines is dubbed The Soft Skeleton and consists of multi-instrumentalists Scott Minor (Sparklehorse) and James Shaw (Metic), plus drummer Justin Peroff (Broken Social Scene). Also featured Evan Cranley (Broken Social Scene, Stars) on trombone and Chris Seligman (Stars) on the French horn.
Haines describes Knives as “a record about taking stock — stopping for a minute. I’d say it was written in a time of a lot of activity, [when] what was my ‘earlier life’ ended and all those relationships ended.”
Haines is the daughter of jazz poet Paul Haines, who recorded two landmark albums in the early 1970s with avant-garde pianist Carla Bley. “I grew up with her music as a strong role model,” Haines says. “She’s one of those people who leads by example, and I’d be very happy if her work showed up in any form in my compositions.”
Later this month, Haines will play a handful of solo shows in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, and San Francisco. Afterward, she’ll resume touring and recording with Metric. “We’re going to do Iceland in November and then I think we’ll disappear into the mountains and start to make another record,” she says.
Here is the track list for Knives Don’t Have Your Back:
“Our Hell”
“Doctor Blind”
“Crowd Surf Off a Cliff”
“Detective Daughter”
“The Lottery”
“The Maid Needs a Maid”
“Mostly Waving”
“Reading in Bed”
“Nothing and Nowhere”
“The Last Page”
“Winning”
(credit: Billboard.com)
Metric is one of those bands that I feel everyone should have to own. 2005′s Live It Out is a fun experience for anyone looking for a new artist to fall in love with, or to find something to turn on while you cook. Emily is also very cute and with a father as a jazz poet, you know she has learned how to construct a lyrical masterpiece.
For people who don’t know Metric all that well, here’s a link: I Love Metric: Official Site. If you don’t enjoy what you hear there, drop me an email and I will suggest 6-10 other bands to check out instead.
I am good like that, homies.
.:.Grenades Will Be Thrown.:.
Incubus dabbles in a variety of styles on its first album in two years, Light Grenades, due Nov. 28 via Epic. The 13-track set will be led by the riffy first single “Anna Molly,” which describes a woman who may or may not exist in real life. The track will hit U.S. radio outlets in October.
Several tracks stay true to the band’s more hard rock-oriented side, particularly the gnarly lead riff and pounding, punk-ish pace of the two-minute title track, the overdriven chorus of “A Kiss To Send Us Off” and the punchy “Rogues,” which approximates a bizarre cross between latter-day Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ted Leo.
Beyond the hazy, effects-drenched opener “Quicksand,” the band conjures Led Zeppelin III-esque acoustic riffs on “Paper Shoes,” spaces out on the atmospheric “Dig,” burrows into a simple mid tempo ballad on “Love Hurts” and jams out with abandon during the outtro of “Pendulous Threads.”
“Light Grenades” also includes the two-part “Earth to Bella,” one version of which divides the track list in half, the other of which closes the album.
Incubus has yet to announce tour plans in support of the project, but will perform Sept. 30 at Edgefest in Tempe, Ariz., alongside Rise Against, Jack’s Mannequin, 30 Seconds To Mars and She Wants Revenge
Here is the track list for Light Grenades:
“Quicksand”
“A Kiss To Send Us Off”
“Dig”
“Anna Molly”
“Love Hurts”
“Light Grenades”
“Earth to Bella Part 1″
“Oil and Water”
“Diamonds and Coal”
“Rogues”
“Paper Shoes”
“Pendulous Threads”
“Earth to Bella Part 2″
(credit: Billboard.com)
Okay, Incubus, we get it.
Everyone forgot about you while Brandon was off drinking and doing groupies at other band’s shows. In fact, while you were away, Audiovent (the band with two brothers of guys from your band) well they disappeared off the face of the Earth. Your buddies in the band Hoobastank finally showed the world what I already knew: Doug Robb is a huge touchhole.
(Ssquared Note #3: I threatened to light his midget ass on fire behind Northern Lights in Clifton Park, NY. No band that had less than 80,000 debut albums sold should be that f*cking rude to anyone, especially people who paid their hard-earned money to come see your sucky stage show.)
So, since you’ve been off recording new songs for so long, I really was expecting a third Elvis Greatest Hits (NEW! With remixed classics over a techno beat!) before you returned to remind me why I stopped buying your music.
“Pardon Me” was a great song with a cool concept video. I tolerated “Stellar,” but soon after all your shenanigans, more Incubus-like acts arrived on the scene to suck the life out of modern rock radio. It was bad enough that I have to listen to old Creed songs, but I know that since I had the audacity to buy two of their albums, I cannot complain that radio still has a hard-on for them. It’s my fault, in some way. I should have pushed Scott Stapp into that oncoming traffic when I received a chance, but I didn’t.
Anyhow, good luck with the rest of your recording and practicing before you go on the road. Your tour looks like it will suck, but everyone will get laid that night. 90% of your audience is ladies, mind you, so whatever scummers Brandon doesn’t want, the rhythm section can tag team.
Good luck with the Herpes.
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Check out the Archive or you can just click the individual reviews below:
MEW – And The Glass Handed Kites
Jessica Simpson – A Public Affair
Funky Nashville – Hitch a Ride
The Grates – Gravity Won’t Get You High
Darker My Love – Darker My Love
Dream Theater – Score
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Top Ten Things Ssquared Wrote For InsidePulse (as ranked by readers who write him feedback):
10) The Inside Pulse Interview with Austin Aries
9) The One After I Officially Lost My Mind
The Submarines – Declare a New State! Review
7) Kancho vs. Pee Pee Tag!
6) Creed Ruined My Life
5) Death of Music Retail: Part One and Part Two
4) A Story, Yah?
3) The One with the Musical NeelDown
2) The Kanye Party
1) The Sea Booger?
A long time ago, I was told that none of my readers cared who I was by a fellow writer. Sure, I was too “bloggy” at the very beginning for some people’s taste, but I was around and helpful. I filled in when needed (taking over the Weekly Music Pulse when real-life got in JF2K6′s way.) I was here when Cam left Music and focused on Sports instead.
The assumed “collapse” within the Music Zone never happened, as while there may have been fewer of us, I still believe that we have some super-talented writers here; maybe the best on the ‘net. If there were places to get “Intraweb” Awards, we would win (at least one.)
Thank you all for reading this week. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve for next time.
Peace. Love. Moe. (see Fingers, people DO remember when you had a Music Column!)
Keep it real!
Ssquared
Ssquared @ MySpace
The Inside Pulse:
On MEW’s second release, they’ve created an album in the truest sense. Every track flows naturally into the next, making it fairly impossible to listen to single tracks or even sections. Few records are produced with this direction anymore, and it’s a refreshing change. The depending factor here is on the listener. Does one need another full length album in the vein of ambient space pop that, although the influences are bright-blue-clear, create a sound all their own? Well, that’s up to you.
Positives:
This album fills a room without even trying. There’s something about MEW’s rhythm that is quite hypnotizing in its heavy-yet-blissful texturing. They also take some fun risks that pay off in the best songs; “Special” would fit wonderfully on radios of the future (you know, the ones that don’t play bad music all day), and “Why Are You Looking Grave” contains the best chorus crescendo this side of “Airbag.”
Negatives:
The last track, Shiroi Kuchibiruno Izanai, is a Japanese cover of “White Lips Kissed”, another track on the record. This was an interesting move, as if the band was thinking that their pretty pop music could transcend language (or perhaps they are simply Big In Japan) but when it comes to listening to a full ‘album’ (and this is certainly an album worth listening to straight through) it makes for a bitter conclusion.
Cross-breed:
Sigur Ros mixed with Death Cab For Cutie, peppered with Dinosaur Jr.
Reason To Buy:
The ads for it are all over Pitchfork, so you know it’s a scenester move. Be careful containing the hype to the back britches and you’ll be able to enjoy an hour of beautiful pop.
The Inside Pulse:
Could this band really be named after a TSOL song from the soundtrack of the 1984 Flea acting vehicle “Suburbia?” If so the band isn’t saying. This side project-turned tight sounding psychedelic rock band has all of the earmarks of a pet project including a less than marketable name, two high school friends as leaders, a oddball genre and influences riding high in the mix. Funny thing, though. This band is really very good.
Take the bass and guitar from Screaming Trees, the drums and vocals of Inspiral Carpets and the production values of My Bloody Valentine and you have a pretty good idea of what’s going on here. It may be the kiss of death to compare a band to two bands that never found market success despite being key players in the hopping local Seattle and Manchester scenes in the 90′s — and then add that they also sound like a band that kicked off a short-lived fad in British alternative pop acts. I’m willing to take that risk, though, because they take the best from each and it’s a sound that’s time might have come.
Positives:
- I caught myself several times forgetting who I was listening to and thinking this is the best song Screaming Trees or Inspiral Carpets ever recorded. I know that makes them sound derivative, but if you’re better than the original, I’m willing to hand out hall passes all day.
- This band sounds way too good together to be a mere side project. They rock in the purest sense.
- While it’s most definitely psychedelic rock, the songs are never overlong or noodly.
Negatives:
- If you never liked a psychedelic rock band (and don’t for a second think I mean jam band) this will not be the one that sells you on the genre.
- There are a few indulgences you’ll find on any side project. They don’t have to cut anything to fit the needs of a label or audience because, hell, they have jobs with known acts that pay them well enough.
Cross-breed:
Inspiral Carpets with Screaming Trees and My Bloody Valentine
Reason to buy:
You like spacey music that doesn’t go to far afield and rocks hard.
Website: La Rocca
The Inside Pulse:
Maybe I’m jaded. Maybe I expect too much from my rock. I want it to be groundbreaking. I want it to be different. I want it to mean something to me. That’s why I thought the Gin Blossoms were disposable. That’s why I could do without Matchbox 20. The label on this CD says “Produced and mixed by Tony Hoffer (Belle and Sebastian, Beck, Supergrass)†For this, I expected some production masterpiece. The collage-style cover had my mind imagining some surreal mix of Midnite Vultures and “Pumping on the Radioâ€Â. My expectations were too high.
Positives:Pleasant enough. Catchy tunes, cute cat on the back of the CD. Reminds me a little of the Replacements, which is always nice.
Negatives:You have heard this before. Maybe not this year, maybe not this decade, but it really is nothing new. The high quantity of pretend profundity is alarming. I expect it from Bono. It’s actually quite endearing from U2. Here, it’s grating.
Cross-breed: The Walkmen meet the Replacements?
Reason To Buy:Not sure. With so much else on the market, a better bet would be an Alarm or Replacements hits collection .
Due to my laptop being magnefried earlier this week, there’ll be no comic to go along with this week’s ramble. Unfortunately, there’ll also be no mixtape. I had a few new albums in the ready to be reviewed, and most of this week’s mixtape was from those mp3s, so I’ll either have to really rework it or skip this week. It’s just going to have to be one of those days.
I wanted to offer a rebuttal for last week’s article. I received a few comments about my choices of pop stars to illuminate my point about the similarities between the pop charts of 2000 and the pop charts of last week. Some people had problems with me including Outkast in that list, citing the fact that they in fact write their own songs and are technically ‘hip hop’, not Pop. Well, I also included the Red Hot Chili Peppers in that list, a ‘rock’ band who also writes their own songs. The discrepency here isn’t in the chart lists (look up the billboard lists and you’ll find the similarities) it’s in our different definitions of what a ‘pop’ song is. What gets me in trouble is that my definition is played fairly loose. Just about any song that follows the verse-chorus-verse, under 5 minutes, easy to study set of rules to me qualify as pop. Genre never really comes into play, and neither does the source of songwriting.
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What I’m Reading When I Should Be Picking My Laptop Up From The Apple Store
Eric has the wrestling covered, and has become the only guy I ever read anymore. I kind of want to write a column about how pro wrestling journalism in general hurts the rep of the stage as much as the stage itself sometimes, because there are so few writers capable of real wit and prose anymore.
Greg‘s point is a little obtuse, but fair enough. I would like to add to his argument that although these second comers have probably made more money and are seen as larger forces in mainstream retrospectives, the first set of artists in your list are in no way in lesser regard, and often given a respect now that their followers (if one could really call The Clash a wannabe Sex Pistols. I personally think they were doing very different things, but ANYWAY) don’t have in as much abundance.
Mathan has something really interesting this week, as he compares “Dancer in the Dark” to “Dancing In The Dark”. The results will surprise you.
Gloomchen does a lot, but most importantly bemoans the lack of individual voices in rock music these last few years. She should listen to Canadian rock radio for a half an hour. There, she will find constant reminders of Nickleback, Theory of a Deadman, Big Wreck, lesser Pearl Jam singles, and Matthew Good Band songs that are chosen, I swear, because they sound like Big Wreck songs.
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Let’s Rave On
I have 357 favorite songs. At least, I do according to my ipod’s smart playlist for five-star songs. This number is in no way accurate. I probably have at least twice as many songs that I’d peg as ‘favorites’. Also, the ‘star’ rating system on an ipod is immaculately flawed. I mostly give 5 stars to songs I like a lot when I’m listening to the thing on random, songs I think I’d like to hear again at some point. But giving a song a five star rating doesn’t particularly mean anything. It’s just a label, much like how itunes will automatically call Green Day’s last album ‘punk.’ I’m sure a few of those 357 songs are pretty good, but it has no bearing on the number of times I’ll listen to them. Essentially, the star rating system is like the clock tower at the Calgary Stampede. Everyone tells everyone to go there if you get lost, but all that ends up happening is that all the lost losers end up in one place.
I’m moving in a few days, and my Grandparents are kindly unloading some of their stuff onto me. Possibly most valuably is I got to rifle through their record collection and snag whatever I liked. My Grandparents are giant country fans, and they have a lot of records with really pasty white guys (and a few really pasty black guys) posing with their acoustic guitar, always with one leg hoisted by a log of some kind. In between these, however, are first editions of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, and George Jones records (and, auspiciously, Tommy by The Who). Seeing as these were sitting at the bottom of a closet collecting dust (they do not own a record player, and have no inclination to purchase one) they knew I would put them to better use. And I will, oh don’t you worry about that.
Carrying roughly forty new records around while listening to my ipod caused a jarring collision of ideas to surface. The first is that I probably uploading forty CD’s to this little black rectangle in the last month and have devoured them at lightning speed. Mp3 culture (and I think we can fairly call it that at this point) hasn’t so much killed the album as much as it has ruined it’s frame of time. An album is usually an hour long, but it never feels like I spend an hour listening to one anymore, even if that’s all I’m listening to all day. The second thought I had is that, even though these records have been hiding underneath linens for ten years, I will be listening to them long after I drop my ipod on the sidewalk.
The fact is, I have forty gigs of mp3s on that thing that aren’t backed up anywhere. Maybe half of those songs are from CD’s. I know I am not the only person out there with this situation. There are likely thousands of people who have stationed every piece of music they own on something that can die at just about any moment.
If the soundtrack to your life suddenly disappears, what do you do?
Last week, a magnet fell out of a box I was packing and landed on my laptop. It seized the hard drive and fried it. I lost hundreds of amazing pictures and several really important documents. All it takes is one moment devoid of perfect sense and it’s all gone. Technology can make us work faster and enjoy our toys at great heights, but it’s also just about the most fragile thing imaginable.
A music collection is less a brick house and more a house of cards than ever before. If it crumbles, you’ve got to rebuild (or stop listening to music). The question is, how do you about doing it? Do you go for replication, or do you reinvent your tastes? Would you replace your essential core and start fresh on the periphery, or would you erase the fact that Barenaked Ladies’ Stunt was your first purchase? It’s like the conclusion of Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke; after your house has collapsed, what will you use to rebuild it?
These are the kinds of things that would never, ever come up if we never moved past vinyl. Sometimes, I wish we hadn’t. Even for someone like myself who has never owned a turntable (though I worked with several), vinyl feels like music the way a CD or an mp3 player never will. People have stated this before, but perhaps not for the reasons of constancy. Sure, Vinyl feels cooler and is way more of an investment, but it’s also permanent. Even if the record gets scratched up to the point of no return, you can still hang it up somewhere. And yes, this says more about music ownership than music enjoyment, but that’s sort of my point. Music is audio only so long as you don’t tell anyone what you’re listening to. As soon as someone knows about you and you’re perverse musical tastes, it’s all image.
.:Between the Notes: The Second Shall Be First:.
I know. I quote a lot. Sorry, but this one had me thinking all week: in citing a David Bowie adage I can’t find anywhere else, the Boston Phoenix said “it’s not who gets there first, it’s who gets there second.” That’s been a long held belief of mine — and to see it so plainly in black and white, attributed to one of the great second-placers (T. Rex was the original hippie turned ambisexual glam rock star) made me think I had better get my column out on the topic before everyone and their brother started accepting this as pure fact (even if the Phoenix was only making fun of David Bowie, which is entirely possible).
Just in the rock and roll era, you can easily point to six or seven “second placers” that out distanced their forbearers. Off the top of my head, I’ll cite Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, Mr. Bowie, The Clash, Pearl Jam and the White Stripes. In each case, someone else solidified the audience, but either by longevity or artistic resonance, these acts made better use of that audience. For clarity’s sake here’s the run down:
Elvis Presley followed Bill Haley
The Rolling Stones followed the Beatles
The Grateful Dead followed the Byrds
David Bowie followed T. Rex
The Clash followed the Sex Pistols
Pearl Jam followed Nirvana
The White Stripes followed the Strokes
I know people will argue with bits and pieces of this list, but I feel the following points are beyond debate: one act popularized a previously non-commercial sound. Another act went on to out-produce the first act, largely by playing to the audience solidified by the first. So you don’t think glam rock was a legitimate movement? The Byrds didn’t start anything worthwhile? The White Stripes came out before the Strokes? Semantics. This happens too often to be a figment of my imagination.
There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. Bob Dylan is still the folk rock standard bearer after nearly a lifetime, though he did almost purchase Maggie’s farm on his motorcycle when things got hairy. Black Sabbath held the metal throne for a long time before others took pieces of it for their own. It seems vaguely racist to call the Beastie Boys the heirs to Run DMC’s mantle, but I’ll let you make that call. Maybe LL Cool J is a better answer, but there are guys I know who might hate me for that one, too.
The really awful part is that if you found yourself a fan of any of the second placers (especially if you discovered them after their run of success) finding the band that opened the door for them might not even be satisfying. This is other than the Beatles, of course, who created a far more diverse catalogue than the Rolling Stones. The Stones are considered more successful in this exercise only because their run lasted far longer and they ended up far richer that the Beatles. Could you make an argument that a fan of Elvis would find heaven in Bill Haley? Would you say T. Rex expands in any great way on a pre-exisitng knowledge of David Bowie, or even a few choice Bowie albums?
I’m going to really annoy some of my fellow writers here and say that Nirvana is not all that compelling once you’ve absorbed Pearl Jam, and that the Strokes are a lightweight afterthought if you already know the White Stripes intimately. The shallow pools of top-grade output left by T. Rex, the Sex Pistols, the Strokes, Bill Haley and Nirvana mean that even if you found love all over again, you run out of material almost as fast as you found it. (I’m assuming the Strokes are by and large done. This might be wrong.) Why didn’t they keep innovating if they were so great?
Could there be something to the idea that the iconoclast that kills the idols and starts something new is exactly the kind of person or act that is not meant to live with fame? Well, the Strokes, for one, weren’t exactly world beaters by nature… they seemed to be a bunch of well adjusted guys that wanted to be in a successful rock band, but found themsleves with only one interesting idea (if grabbing a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers lick and singing through a distortion filter is an interesting idea). I wouldn’t say the spotlight was their problem, but the lack of anything meaningful to say.
Everyone else from the above list fell to the side because of rich person struggles like artistic differences or the appearance of enough drugs to really end the parade (though Haley continued to record in irrelevence). So maybe the spotlight is in fact the problem in some cases, but not all. Is it the artistic challenge of starting something new?
The truth is it’s hard to be an innovator. It’s much easier to be a credible band people find because they loved someone else and wanted to find more stuff like that. But let’s go ahead and agree that everyone follows someone.
To say that Nirvana created a sound out of its own imagination is as wrong as to assume that Elvis started rock and roll. Raise your hand if the first time you heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” you thought the Pixies had a new album out (or was that just me). The point is that one band doesn’t create the sound for the other to follow, but collects an audience, attracts the media and labels and creates an appetite for more. What’s curious to me is how “more” often becomes “bigger” and surprisingly often “better.”
So is innovation overrated? The movements started by the innovators above are largely excellent responses to eras of pop stagnation that creep into American culture between rock revolutions (or movements, anyway — still can’t call glam or the garage revival revolutions really). It makes me think of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In some ways, the innovators are like a kid with nothing to lose that brings a hammer over and starts banging away at the wall until the Secret Police comes to stomp him into a bloody pulp. It happens almost every day, but then one day the Secret Police doesn’t come to stomp that day’s guy. The next day someone comes with a drill, jackhammer and blowtorch.
Having nothing to lose isn’t a qualification for stardom, it just means you’re more likely to be in the right place at the right time when people are ready for the walls to come down. Having the tools to really succeed means you have something to lose and you’re more likely to pick your moment, which is right after someone gets away with the thing you intend to do. So, no, innovation isn’t overrated — even if it is only there to give us vision into the magic of others.
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.:On a Separate Note:.
I’ve been addicted to FameTracker lately and while I’d love to take credit for the following music debate, it was inspired by (stolen from) their “2 Stars 1 Slot” series (and a little from their “Celebrity vs. Thing” series). For ripping them off wholesale, I will encourage you to visit their site if you enjoy movies and dismissive commentary on famous people. Also, I will start with the intersection of movies and music.
Two Theoretical Soundtrack Cover Songs – One Theoretical Scene
You’ve just finished your John Hughes-ish “Lucas”-alike high school dramedy and you need to pick the song that goes with the scene where “sort of dorky girl” gets denied by “not evil prom king” who to this point had sort of led her on by being her best friend despite the lust in her eyes.
Luckily you have Ryan Adams covering OMD’s “If You Leave” from the “Pretty In Pink” Ducky-gets-denied moment. But that Rihanna dance floor cover of “Since You’re Gone” by the Cars is going to be huge when it hits the street, plus that high heel click/rimshot sample from the intro to the Cars version will go great with the actual walking away.
The Case for Ryan Adams/OMD:
You thought he was done with 80′s and 90′s alternative references after the “Wonderwall” cover and that argument about Morrissey he included on Heartbreaker. But here is a gem and he’s really nailed it. There’s depth and you can really feel the pain in that line “If you leave, don’t leave now” which OMD completely missed in the original. He’s got the indie and country rock cred that might pull in a male audience you would entirely miss without making a big deal of this song in the commercial, and he’s a rebel, which gets the girls all excited.
The Case for Rihanna/Cars:
So it turns out that the success of the Soft Cell sample in “SOS” got the brains behind Rihanna thinking “maybe a full-blown 80′s new wave cover would be a huge crossover smash.” Summer beach dances for tweens and teens will be swamped with requests, and isn’t that exactly who we’re going after? The sensitive girl/girl power dichotomy works perfectly and she didn’t over think the ironically dumb lines like “since you’re gone the moonlight ain’t so great.” Who knew Rik Ocasek wrote great dance tunes. Note to self: get started on the “Shake It Up” scene with the overweight best friend learning to dance. Get, let’s seeee… Lit! Put them in the studio, stat.
The decision:
Rihanna will let us put clips from the movie in the video while Ryan Adams will likely come to the studio and cuss out the co-star while refusing to shoot a video unless it’s an unadorned live version from his next Austin City Limits. But really, will Rihanna’s song still be worth hearing when we’re in international markets, never mind the DVD release? Wait, which one actually sounds better over the video? What? Of course I’m kidding, you idiot. The point is we can’t be wrong on this one. This is the song everyone will remember when they leave the theater.
Outcome:
Rihanna in a land slide. Have you seen Ryan Adams lately?
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.:Notable Readings:.
Ssquared (S^2 to friends) sort of thinks image matters but please give him some thing else to love, too. And, yes, he still loves/hates the music industry. For the record, I don’t think you can blame a taste blind spot in your music appreciation history on anything, but especially not alcohol. Alcohol is how I found several bands I wouldn’t have listened to otherwise.
KDP comes back from Korea and finds he’s unstuck in pop time. Well, when you put it that way, I … guess, well, I was totally going to blow the whistle on that but I’ve got this kid coming and … damn. You got me. I wasn’t paying attention to the charts.
Must read of the week: Gloomchen wants the pop queens to expect more from themselves. Well, yeah, but I thought that Christina thing was supposed to be good. I mean she ripped up Letterman and I totally called her next move (sort of) in my second ever Between the Notes.
Music Mathan, and for that matter white Mathan who might not care about the above LL Cool J reference, pulls a “two singer, one dance/dark reference” comparison and I don’t know that he even knows who FameTracker is. Movie Mathan probably does though, and I think the two of them are tight.
Michaelangelo loves the new DVD release of “Apocalypse Now” which I hear quoted more than “Caddyshack” and “Spinal Tap” combined these days. Every generation has their comedy touchstones, I guess.
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.:Beyond the Notes:.
:::
I love MP3 players that aren’t iPods (sorry, KDP). But there are new iPod killers out every week. This week’s is the Meizu Mini, which looks pretty fantastic, but, honestly, will anyone ditch their Nano? My view is there are people who know/care what Ogg Vorbis means and people who don’t and until you can capture the non-Ogg Vorbis-aware audience, you won’t kill anything but the last iPod killer. For the record, Ogg Vorbis is a lossless open source codec. Does that sound cool or what? I though not.
:::
And finally:
At one point I loved Foreigner. I was a lost tween on the road to more challenging fare like Canada’s own Triumph when I discovered “Jukebox Hero.” I probably still know all of the words. Yes, I also loved the Clash and Cars, but “Jukebox Hero” offered something the others didn’t. It was a path to the AOR format that was preferred by the cool kids in the late 70′s and early 80′s. I had grown up on Bob Segar, the Eagles, the Beatles and Billy Joel, but this was not my babysitter’s AOR. This was my own. For two glorious years I had something in common with, well, almost all of the white kids in White Plains, New York. Then came Synchronicity, Learning to Crawl, Reckoning and Unforgettable Fire. That time was over.
:::
Website: Sam Roberts
The Inside Pulse:
A much more ambitious album than the Sam Roberts band’s debut, Chemical City blends classic psych rock, incorporating Beatles-esque twists, crafting a modern classic rock album. The influence of psych goes beyond the sound, permeating the album art to songs which incorporate mystical themes and futuristic worlds. The first two tracks, “The Gate” and “Bridge to Nowhere” are a fantastic one-two punch that set the mood for the album; these are clearly the most memorable tracks, and while the quality remains consistent throughout, the later songs do not compare to this opening salvo.
Positives:From a “rockist” point of view, it’s always great to hear a solid, rock album. Since the resurgence of “real” rock in the early 00s, there has been little outside of the garage and post-punk influence. With albums such as this that clearly and unironically give the nod to classic psych, it’s reassuring that rock isn’t as dead as some might believe.
Negatives:If you’re looking for groundbreaking, this isn’t it. This isn’t one that will make you think, or that you will remember from start to finish, though it certainly has its highlights.
Cross-breed: Somewhere between Elliot Smith and Badfinger or Klaatu.
Reason To Buy: If you’re yearning for some modern psych, this is the way to go.
The Inside Pulse:
When I saw this in the most recent mailing of things to review — oh, you noticed the up tick; nice of you to say so — I felt that pause of recognition that had me racking my brain for the connection. I think I’ve seen these guys on Letterman or SNL or something, and the “Kill” and the “Boy” in the band name is kind of a giveaway to the style, and wait a second, are these guys a Mercury Award nominee!?!
Well, no. Or I should say “not yet?” And I’ve made a vow to not automatically discount a band for that as recently as the Hard Fi review. But there’s a reson I covered most of the others first.
Really, and I mean this, I like this album. Not enough to drop it in heavy rotation, or call it a top ten of the year, but if this is your thing (i.e.: 80′s influenced British pop) it is definitely in the top ten of that, and that’s a big pool of product these days.
Positives:
- The band plays with the passion of 100 Hard Fis or Kaiser Chiefs. And that’s not just thrashing guitars and emotive lyrics, but a willingness to swagger like the 80′s icons all of these bands aim to emulate.
- The one thing I really admire about the sustained Brit pop movement is the precision with which these guys play. There are one to two more layers here than usual but the band is still tight as you might hope for.
- The band doesn’t over play it’s hand. This is a pop album pure and simple and there aren’t any politics or religion or veganism hanging over your enjoyment of the noise.
Negatives:
- The attempts at tempo shifts are admirable I guess, and they might set up future album length expositions in to milder territory, but we aren’t paying you guys to mellow out just yet.
- I can’t help thinking that this might have been a dance pop band ten years ago or a Strokes knock off five years ago. Not that it matters a ton since I don’t really give anyone bonus points for being Brit pop, but these guys are not afraid of just doing what’s popular without adding much.
- Good or just good by comparison?
Cross breed:
Franz Ferdinand with a pinch of… let’s call it Duran Duran
reason to buy:
You like Brit pop and you haven’t been totally burned by the avalanche of so so product released this year.
Link: Silversun Pickups
The Inside Pulse:
I’m still trying to figure out why this isn’t a bigger band. They hail from LA, which not only boasts a huge media engine to promote a hometown band, but an excellent track record for raising and launching legitimate indie giants. You’d think if a band from LA can remind you of good Smashing Pumpkins, the Distillers, Tegan and Sara and any number of respectable and popular indie bands, you’d be insanely sick of hearing about them. Not Silversun Pickups. It’s a head scratcher.
Positives:
- The band manages to remind you of great bands without exactly sounding like anyone else. An EP and an LP into it and the band has a sound that while young, is distinct.
- There are moments that force you to take notice. Many of them, actually.
- The band is growing from even the EP to the LP, and you get the feeling (or the hope at least) this is the start of something bigger.
Negatives:
- OK, maybe it does sound a little too much like a couple previous acts, but damned if I can narrow it down to one — you’ll see references to the Pumpkins, Distillers, My Bloody Valentine and others if you do your research, and while you’ll see them consistently, they can’t sound like all of them at the same time, can they?
- There is no single. Not really a knock, but it would help this sell better than the 35th hottest independent release tracked by Billboard.
- Though capable of searing moments, the band is also capable of some dry patches that might turn into skippable moments after a couple listens.
Cross-breed:
My Bloody Valentine, the Distillers and Smashing Pumpkins
Reason to buy:
You’re into guitar-based indie of the aggressive, but not too arty or suicidal variety
Link: Brian Vander Ark
The Inside Pulse:
Look, I own my fair share of solo albums from the lead singer of bands I like. I understand that often they will have the over written songs that the band rightly refused to get behind. I know they will feature studio musicians or best friends that sacrifice the band feel. I know they will include the track about the singer’s relationship with Jesus Christ (suprisingly many of them do).
I just kind of hope that beyond these granted flaws they will offer something worthwhile. I’m not sure if this effort brings anything much more than you’d get from previous Verve Pipe offerings or even the chart topping single “the Freshmen.”
Positives:
- The songs sound good enough. If it wasn’t for the excess drama in his voice, I could listen to this for a good long time, but the Michgander is putting his earnestness at the fore and for some reason that means singing like a musical theater performer.
- As he says in his “diary” online, he puts it all right out there with the christianity and bitterness on the first track, and you have to respect his willingness to sacrifice the casual listener for the people who will care.
- Another tip of the hat for self-releasing (as far as I can tell) and not using it as an excuse to explore every single musical idea that comes to his head. The restraint is refreshing.
Negatives:
- The singing is overdone, the writing is overdone, if the production were overdone, this album would be a late Goo Goo Dolls-esque disaster.
- The market for this is unknown. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would like this, but with the lack of muscle to score airplay and get into stores, it’ll take a myspace revolution for this music to reach the masses (note the “coming soon” under “Fan Tribute Section” — that’s a little sad).
- Over all, I’d put this at unique but not special. It’s not quite anything to care about despite having several interesting associations. I might buy it for someone who really likes the Verve Pipe (not sure I know anyone who does) or the Triple A format, but it would be an empty gesture.
Cross-breed:
Late Goo Goo Dolls with Mike Doughty
Reason to buy:
You’re christian and like adult album alternative.
In the space of one week, I’ve gone from being homeless and unemployed to having just about the best job one could get in my field and a room in a house filled with some of my coolest friends.
Everything’s coming up Milhouse.
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Cassette Tapes From Crushed Lovers
We are on our seventh volume of this mixtape series, which is something that I still have never seen anyone do in a particularly successful fashion. You know the drill; I’m putting up 10 mp3s for the next seven days. You are free to listen and download these mp3s and do what you like with them. But after seven days, they’ll be taken down and replaced with seven more, since that’s the unwritten law of online file sharing. It’s all about promotion. If you love one of these songs, play it loud from your ipod Hi-fi in the middle of a very important office meeting and make everyone dance.
Also, the mixtape page is now a bona fide blog, which means you can click on the RSS button and subscribe to it, so you’ll always be aware of new updates. See Brad, Brad the Bartender, I told you I’d treat you well.
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What I’m reading now that I found a job and an apartment and I have nothing to do until I move in/begin work
Gloomchen writes about a few albums that are so good that even their lesser songs get on the radio. That will never, ever happen to most of the bands I listen to.
Mathan gets all Sesame Street on us. Nobody believes me when I say the website I write for covers everything. Anyone else get that?
Tom never links anyone else and I never see anyone ever link him, but I’m feeling good about what he wrote about European Metal this week.
Shawn once got high with Willie Nelson. If he had said that the first time I read his stuff, I would have thought he was the coolest guy ever. Now, I’m impressed that we’re both always talking about the same thing while looking at it in two completely different and interesting perspectives.
Eric is pretty much my hero.
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Let’s Rave On
I’ve got a few articles that could have been published at almost any period of time. They go beyond the news and gossip of the day, and talk more about obtuse ideas and recipes for musical enjoyment. This column isn’t going to be one of those. This column is firmly rooted in the summer of 2006…and the summer of 2000.
Being away in Korea for three months gave me a reprieve from what was going on in the pop world. I was unplugged for the first time in my life, and while it was a nice feeling, I can’t help but think I’ve missed an incredibly interesting musical summer, if only to be part of the déjàvu. The chart toppers right now are Beyonce, Pink, Nelly Furtado, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Christina Aguilera, Outkast, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Fergie, and Pharrell. It’s undoubtedly the strongest showing of full frontal pop since the summer of 2000, when a near identical lineup owned the charts.
Music runs in cycles, and it was just a matter of time before these singers came out with new material. I find it interesting, however, that a near identical set of singers all come out with new albums at exactly the same time. If I was a conspiracy guy, I might be getting suspicious. A quick look at the MTV download video charts shows that none of these singers are on the list (Avenged Sevenfold, 30 Seconds to Mars, and Taking Back Sunday top this one). Over at NME, the only band on their top 10 that existed before 2000 is Oasis. But the ‘official’ lists, such as the Billboard charts, are swamped with these Y2k pop stars. Tell me this isn’t interesting.
This isn’t based on anything but my own intuition, but I would like to hazard a guess that a few major label heads were getting kind of scared for a minute. They saw the international success of left field acts like Gnarles Barkley, the acclaim of giant-band jammers The Arcade Fire, and the sexy abilities of Regina Spektor and they became uneasy. Suddenly, genuine artists were blatantly outdoing the best efforts of the pop scene. Sure, this isn’t new. Plastic pop hasn’t really held any aspect of the airwaves since ‘Hey Ya’, and never as a collective genre since 2001, but these alternative artists had never dominated sales and charts as much as they have this last spring. The majors were losing it.
So here we are at the end of the biggest pop explosion in six years. Christina is back on the cover of Rolling Stone. Justin’s tune is on everyone’s cell phone. Nelly Furtado is the queen of the billboard mountain. The Red Hot Chili Peppers released Californication under a different name. In the process, the indies have been balled over by mainstream media. There are simply too many ‘hot’ acts happening right now to focus on the little guys. To hell with The Pipettes, we’ve got to play “Buttons” fifteen times today.
This is just conspiracy theory, but feel free to run scared of the pop behemoth coming right at you if you wish. “Now that’s what I call music volume 22″ is sitting pretty at the top of the MTV album charts. If that’s not a warning sign, I don’t know what is.
I thought we were past this. I mean, Internet downloading (and public exhaustion) is what killed the pop movement in 2001. The acceleration of music intake that we’ve all experienced over the last five years should have let us stop this from happening. But years after people can steal, rip, and burn to their hearts content, there is a mixtape of veritable pop songs selling more than any other record in the United States right now.
It’s possible that Timberlake, Aguilera, Furtado, Outkast, Madonna, and Beyonce all just happened to finish their records at the same time (that they’ve all spent 3-5 years working on, way longer than any pop star should survive outside of direct spotlight), but this is the major’s we’re talking about. They gave us a three-week countdown for Justin’s new single. Maybe that kind of thing flew back in 2000, but three weeks is an eternity in pop music now.
Or is it simply the opposite? Can it be that in six years, we really haven’t learned a damn thing about pop music? Are we still so newborn about it all that we’re completely fine with them feeding us a regurgitation of a nostalgic run of boy and girl band pap? Or, when faced with this idea, do we simply go “well, Sexy Back is a really catchy song. I don’t care who it’s by?”
This opens up the idea that lots of people out there really don’t care where their music comes from so long as they can bounce to it. There’s currency to this idea. Does it really matter that Gnarls Barkley write their songs and Jessica Simpson doesn’t? They’re both being judged by the same set of criteria (ie – how much money they give to the radio station for airplay). Take covers out of this mix, because covers were at least at one point written by another artist. These pop stars are using writing monkeys to create their hits. It’s a completely different game.
Nobody else has written this, perhaps because maybe one doesn’t notice this kind of thing if they’re imbued in it everyday. But leaving for three months can definitely open one’s eyes to how much and, at the same time, how little things can change.
Stuff I Think and Shouldn’t Say 48
“It’s not about the music anymore. You need an image.” – Anonymous Music P.R. Guru
“Image. It’s everything.“
Name 3 female pop artists from the last decade.
Remember the first time you saw them? Usually, they fit into a very cute “niche,” in that they were all a variation of the “high school girl clique”: the jock, the sassy one, the cutesy virgin, the hot chick, or the crazy one. Sometimes, they are a little of each, right? Who doesn’t love jocky, crazy virgins? Personally…uh, never mind.
The Spice Girls had every one of these stereotypes represented, and both Britney and Christina’s first videos had them in sports bras and track pants. They were sexy AND athletic. It also doesn’t help that America is full of huge perverts that gawk at young girls at the mall or while they head to school in those creepy plaid skirts. I would be willing to put money down (if I had a penny to my name) that 2/3s of Britney’s sales were to men in their twenties. If I am wrong, what do I have to lose? I got tons of hate mail over my assessment that college guys bought ‘N Sync to impress college girls. I still feel that way.
The same guys who wrote in also forget to mention whether or not they owned either of the pop tarts albums, as either you are a Britney or Christina man. You can’t love both, and if you say you do, someone should just punch you, preferably in your miserable, lying mouth.
Those images, the manufactured “pop goodness,” helped to move over 15 million units in a year. Sure, the industry didn’t suck big ass like it does now, but that is still a crazy amount of records moved by first-timers. I know plenty of people who would love to move 10,000, but this isn’t about what they want. This is about how stupid people fall for manufactured crap.
I know that is quite a harsh statement, as I am well aware that I am not stupid, but I have fallen for it as well. I owned Limp Bizkit’s album based on their “edgy” cover of “Faith.” I was also drunk a lot through that period of my life, so I am not willing to fully accept blame for that.
(I blame the people who make Grain Alcohol. It’s relatively tasteless and odorless, and it knocks you on your ass. It’s their fault. I just liked Kool-Aid!)
Look at the nu-metal movement for a minute. Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park didn’t start the trend (as I still blame White Zombie for making the rap(ish)-rock fad) but they are still considered two of the bands responsible for this crap. Creed just plain sucks, but it took us all 5-6 years to figure that out.
My Own Prison was great. It was a nice blast in the face; it had every type of riff a rock fan could hope for. Their lead singer did the best Eddie Vedder impression since the guy from Seven Mary Three. Look how it turned out for them. If someone that appears to be reputable tells you that something is good, you might give them a listen because of that.
That’s why it is so disturbing for me that Sony and Universal have been slapped with HUGE fines for their involvement in a “playola” scandal. Simply put, Clear Channel played their crappy music for a fee. Whether they paid by the spin or buy the month, we won’t know until the full results are released to the general public.
Basically, I now know why I had crappy taste in music for 3 years. I went to a small college in Connecticut and the only radio stations we received were Urban or Pop, with a small smattering of Alternative. Every hit was played TWICE an hour, even when no one liked the song or requested it. “The Thong Song,” by Sisqo, is one such example. That song blew. MTV played it like crazy. Radio loved it, because stupid people called in and asked to hear a stupid song.
Sisqo sold 5 million albums that year. 4 million were sold back used when major chains started offering that service.
It’s nauseating that people fall for it, but even with this scandal being talked about, teenagers are STILL falling for it. Pick up the latest copy of “Alternative Press.” Guessing by the title, you would think that it should be, you know, an alternative to what’s being played on pop radio and MTV. 20 years ago, it was. Today, it blows.
The bands on the cover are always the same: AFI, Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, Panic! At The Disco, My Chemical Romance…lather, rinse, repeat. If they aren’t one of these smashing lads, they might toss in The Academy Is… just to make some girls squeal when the see it. Honestly, there is much more to the scene than those guys, and AP does a sufficient job of covering all genres inside their magazine, but I feel sort of dirty reading the magazine on the train because a too skinny boy with weird hair is on the cover. I could be reading about Murder by Death, or a crazy piece on Norwegian Hate Metal, but those people on my commute, they think I live an “alternative lifestyle” that involves very skinny boys in eyeliner.
That’s just wrong.
To top off all of this tomfoolery, kids all cut their hair funny. Short in the back with diagonal bangs. Not just any bangs, if you can grow smooth, silky shimmering black hair down past your mouth, you too can be emo.
(For the record, I hate the word “emo.” It’s ridiculous.)
If the style of the band works, and they sound similar to other artists, “bingo” says the labels. “Hey, we can market this act. They sound like…(insert either: Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Midtown, maybe even Jawbreaker and don’t try to convince me they don’t sound alike. They do. They are just variations on the same theme. It’s pop/power punk. If they want to get “gloomy” and feel dark, dark, dark, they have strings and they look more like women.)
Panic! at the Disco got signed out of high school even though they hadn’t even played a gig in their lives. Based on some song samples submitted on a blog, they were signed. They didn’t have a style. They were high school kids. What’s the best way to make a band appear sincere in their antics? Stick them with something, right big-time A&R guys? Skinny ties and velour jackets are in, right?
Wrong.
The guys in Panic have done alright by me, as while they aren’t the best musicians I have ever heard, they appear pretty genuine. They got lucky. They know it. So, while their audience consists of ten thousand screaming 14-year-old girls, they have to have music hooky enough for Mom to listen to. Got to win the Mothers to succeed. If she has to listen to it in the car on the way to soccer or cheerleading, it has to be catchy and non-offensive. Double entendres need to be buried deeply enough for unsophisticated ears, but might bring a smile to the MILF in the front seat.
If anyone insists that it isn’t about the image, they are liars. Tell me now if you have never seen a great musician who is fat and sloppy playing at the local bar. You know why he didn’t get signed to a major-label deal: he looks like crap. If he hits the gym and does something nice with his performance wardrobe, he has a shot. If he looks like Bon Jovi, and sings like Bon Jovi, 20 years ago everyone and their mother would be after this guy. If he still looks like Jon Bon Jovi circa-Slippery When Wet today, I think a bunch of people might take a pass.
“It’s the total package, baby!”
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.:.Columns from the Week that Was!.:.
Greg Wind: Between the Notes
Kyle David Paul: Let’s Rave On
Gloomchen: Totally True Tune Tales
Mathan Erhardt: More Reasons Why Being Deaf Sucks/Rocks
Tom D’Errico: The New Classics
I <3 Grut. Sure, it appears to most that we are just linking each other out of necessity, but that assumption is wrong. I link Grut because he is funny. If you don’t “get it,” that’s okay. Most people that come to the wrestling section barely read above a 7th grade level. Huzzah!
Over in the Comics Nexus, “Starman” Matt Morrison interviewed Monkey Woman from SciFi’s “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?” I thought she was robbed. There is no way that she goes, but “Fat Momma” sticks around. Maybe I just hate fat people.
(Ssquared Note: That’s not really true. I love all people equally. Some of my best friends are fat and lazy. Some smell like they bathe in cooking oil and lard, but I don’t hang out with them much.)
If you haven’t watched the show at all, you are missing out on something pretty awesome. The winner gets a comic and their own SciFi Original Movie. I thought about entering/auditioning, but the idea of Ssquared in Spandex made me want to vomit.
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Cobra Starship – Snakes On A Plane (Bring It)
Yeah, that song is musical crack. A supergroup of sorts, Cobra Starship is the side project of Gabe Saporta (Midtown Lead Singer) and his friends Maja Ivarsson (the Sounds), William Beckett (The Academy Is), and Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes perform the title track from the recently opened Snakes on a Plane. I just bitched about the over-exposure of one of these acts, yet here I am applauding him. I can take some of this crap in doses, it just happens that this song is well-written and hooky.
There are quite a few reasons to like this song, but I recommend the shot of Maja’s side boob.
Side boob is the new “butt cleavage.” Cover yo’ asses ladies. It’s time for you to show off the sides of them milk jugs.
Ugh, I am a despicable human being. Don’t listen to me. Side boob is nothing new. It’s been around as long as “front boob” and “nip slips.” Just purchase the proper bra for your “girls,” and the problem is eliminated.
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brought to you by
.:.Yorke Had Some Splainin’ To Do.:.
Thom Yorke has explained the reasoning behind the lyrics of his new single ‘Harrowdown Hill’.
It’s well known that the track is about former government weapons expert Dr David Kelly and Yorke says the song is a response to the mysterious death.
He told the Daily Record: “He was the chief expert on chemical weapons who went into Iraq, twice, the whistleblower. He’s believed to have committed suicide, but the circumstances surrounding it were certainly painful and horrible, and there was an inquiry where they wanted to get to the bottom of it.”
He added: “Yet it being an inquiry in Britain, all those who were found responsible were not held responsible and remained blameless. The song was my response to it. I have never been so upset and angry with my country. I was upset with the Ministry of Defence in how they dealt with this man, and I think they should all rot.”
(credit: Gigwise.com)
NEWSFLASH! Thom Yorke is crazy. I love that little dude.
He gets pissed about an election in a country he doesn’t even live in, so he writes Hail to the Thief.
Thom is going to be the name of my first pet at my new apartment.
.:.So Long Astoria?.:.
Music fans have come together to try and save London’s Astoria venue from closure.
Singer 50ft Woman and music business contacts website The Rock Star Lottery have combined their efforts and set up the Save The Astoria Myspace Account.
As previously reported, The Astoria was sold for £24 million, and there are now fears the building could be re-developed.
Derwent Valley, who describe themselves as a “commercial property investor”, have bought the concert hall.
The Save the Astoria website posts: “OK, we all know that the Astoria needs a damn good overhaul as a venue, but if we lose this, that’s yet another legendary venue lost forever.
“The Marquee may still exist in name, but the legend has been lost twice. Once again the corporates will think of money before music.
“What venue are bands going to dream about playing now, if we lose the Astoria? If we want to save it, we need to act, and we need to act now. According to press sources, the Mean Fiddler holds the lease until Dec 2008, but what happens after that.”
They add that The Astoria is also threatened due to transport improvements in the area.
“The venue is also under threat of a compulsory purchase order from the London Crossrail link,” they explain, “but hopefully if we get enough support, then we can keep the Astoria as it should be – the top Central London venue!!”
The website urges visitors to: “Add yourself as a friend and then post this as a bulletin and pass on the message! And if you add a comment I may use it as a quote in the letters we are going to send to relevant parties … “
Currently The Astoria is being let to promoters Mean Fiddler for £1 million a year until 2008 under terms agreed by previous owner Compco (a subsidiary of Clear Channel Entertainment UK).
While not directly commenting on the building’s future as a music venue, Derwent Valley John Burns Managing Director explained there could be changes.
“The Astoria is a valuable addition and a strategic acquisition, which adjoins our existing holdings in the area and will form a potential development site for the future,” he said “We are committed to the regeneration of key areas London and are looking forward to the opportunities afforded by such a prominent location.”
The Astoria has played host to a number of gigs by a variety artists including Nirvana, The White Stripes and U2.
It has also been home to the ShockWaves NME Awards shows and hosts the influential club night G.A.Y.
(credit:NME.com)
I live in Astoria, Queens. If you look me up in the phone book, there are only 3 other Smiths, so I am quite easy to find.
(I am lying. I don’t have a phone.)
I heard of this venue back when Oasis was first getting big here in the States. People kept telling me about this remarkable place that tons of artists have played. I started to look into the details of this building, and on my first trip to the U.K., I took a picture under the awning.
No one cared.
When it comes down to it, for all the bitching and moaning the poor people like myself do, we can’t really save something that we can’t buy. CBGBs? Yeah, that’s re-locating to Vegas. Glad I spent all that time helping those asses out.
It comes down to money. If they can afford to run shows there that turn a profit, the Astoria stays open. If not, another landmark closes. Three months later, the people of London get another Starbucks, and maybe some lofts upstairs.
I don’t trust owners anymore. They are all scumbags with no sense of history. If no rich London residents step up to save this place, I am cutting all the British music from my collection. No Ocean Colour Scene for me. Not if the Brits let the Astoria die.
.:.Lollapalooza Makes $$$.:.
The numbers are in on the Aug. 4-6 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago’s Grant Park, and they blow last year’s event out of the park. The event grossed nearly $8 million in ticket sales, with total paid attendance of more than 166,000. Last year’s Lolla, its first as a one-off festival, had a total paid attendance 60,000 from a two-day event.
Charles Attal, president of Charles Attal Presents, talent buyer and co-producer of Lollapalooza with Capital Sports & Entertainment, describes this year’s Lollapalooza as “very smooth. There were no major incidents [and] the weather was awesome. It was remarkable.”
Attendance was 52,000 the first day, 56,000 the second day and 59,000 the third day when headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers closed the event.
Lollapalooza had an uneven history as a touring festival, but ended on a negative note when the 2004 tour failed to ever get off the ground due to dismal ticket sales. Attal and CSE resurrected the brand last summer as a festival.
Asked why the Chicago Lollapalooza has exploded, Attal cites several reasons. “The brand, it’s the park, it’s the bands we have,” he says. “I think it’s only going to get bigger and better.”
(credit: Billboard.com)
I tried to go this year, but I wanted to stay with JF2k6 in Chicago. Evidently, he doesn’t like returning phone calls.
So, the next time I see Jeff, I will slap him with my unused tickets.
(Just kidding, Jeff. I never tried to call you. I only call Fingers, Widro, Hevia, Grut, Cam, Greg Wind, Mathan, Mike Eagle, Steve Murray, Toby Bonagura, Eric Katz, and some people at Pitchfork. Seeing that you tend to disappear, I never figured out if you were, in fact, White Mathan. Let’s sort this out. Call me…)
(Readers, those were all people that write here at IP. If you don’t know ANY of those names, you must refresh this page seven times. It’s the rules!)
.:.Some Day You Will Find Me.:.
An Orange County rock band is singing stop in the name of copyright infringement. Supernova, perhaps best known for contributing the song “Chewbacca” to the cult movie “Clerks,” has filed for a preliminary injunction to prevent the use of its name by a new supergroup involved in the CBS/Mark Burnett Prods. TV show “Rock Star: Supernova.”
Attorneys for the group filed for the injunction Friday in U.S. District Court in San Diego after the collapse of settlement talks, which had followed the filing of a lawsuit in the matter in June.
“Our client has taken legal action in order to preserve its rights to the name the band has worked so long and hard to establish,” said John Mizhir Jr., an attorney with the San Diego law firm of Fish & Richardson. “We tried to settle the matter quickly and fairly, but after lengthy negotiations with CBS, Mark Burnett Prods. and others, they left us with no options but to seek the preliminary injunction.”
Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Supernova, founded in 1989 by Jodey Lawrence, Art Mitchell and David Collins, has released three albums. Most recently, the group has been touring in California, Arizona and Nevada, with plans for a new album “in the works,” according to a spokesperson.
“Rock Star: Supernova” involves the search for a vocalist to join a new rock band being formed by ex-Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted and one-time Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. The Burnett-produced show began airing last month on CBS.
(credit: Billboard.com)
I guess that Dave Navarro didn’t think to give CBS a heads-up right? Dave knows these guys exist: he had “adult relations” with two of them in a Denny’s bathroom. Seriously, I read it online somewhere.
A simple Amazon search would have helped prevent this lawsuit. When Amazon is the barometer of musical legality, I have officially run out of jokes.
.:.Willie Will Always Love You…Ryan Adams .:.
Ryan Adams has produced the new album by country legend Willie Nelson. Adams’ band, The Cardinals, have also backed the country legend on every track of ‘Songbird.’ Nelson has covered several tracks for his new album, including a version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’, subsequently recorded by John Cale and Jeff Buckley, and a version of the traditional song ‘Amazing Grace.’
‘Songbird’ is released on October 30, while Adams is also due to perform with Nelson at the Hollywood Bowl on September 10.
(credit: NME.com)
Yes, my favorite person ever is Willie Nelson. Here’s why:
1) I smoked weed with him once during a Tom Petty concert.
2) He helped me get my car unstuck from the SPAC parking lot when I lost control and ran over Dave Coulier. True story.
3) Willie Nelson gave the shirt off his back…and it smelled like piss AND vinegar.
4) Willie Nelson made Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne look super talented with the Travelling Wilburys. He also taught them how to braid human hair.
5) Willie is actually a thousand year old vampire. His birth name is Vrolok, and he dabbled in pro-wrestling in 1789 until he tore his back up while wrestling Marcellus Henry.
6) Willie Nelson is the only man Ryan Adams has ever loved.
.:.My Boyfriend’s Back.:.
The Boyfriends, Morrissey’s support choice for his 2006 European tour, have announced details of their debut album. The Boyfriends’ is out on October 2 and includes new single ‘Once Upon A Time’ and former releases ‘I Love You’ and ‘Adult Acne.’
Other songs included on the album include ‘Remember’ which is, according to singer Martin Wallace, about “how affection can transcend physical proximity” and ‘Wonders Never Cease’, written about “people who make their own entertainment.”
Speaking about album track ‘British Summer Time’, Wallace said: “I like to see young people enjoying themselves as long as they don’t do it too near to where I’m standing and I find that parks are one of the best places to observe such goings on at a safe distance. I wrote this song sat in Regents Park one sunny afternoon and simply made a note of everything I saw.”
The album’s full tracklisting is:
‘Brave Little Soldiers’
‘Speak Less And Listen’
‘British Summer Time’
‘A Fearless Heart’
‘Remember’
‘Adult Acne’
‘Once Upon A Time’
‘Wonders Never Cease’
‘No Tomorrow’
‘I Love You’
‘There Is Always Hope’
(credit: NME.com)
You know what? If Morrissey loves someone, I should love them too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts touring as their lead singer after his former Smith, Johnny Marr, joined Modest Mouse. That was the best news of the year for me, and I couldn’t care about the rest of the “music news.” There is lots of it, I am aware. It mostly sucks, so I don’t quite care.
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Check out the Archive or you can just click the individual reviews below:
Venus Hum – The Colors in the Wheel
Towers of London – Blood Sweat and Towers
Sinkin’ Ships – All Signs Are Wrong
The Pipettes – We Are The Pipettes
The Hourly Radio – History Will Never Hold Me
Christina Aguilera – Back to Basics
Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man OST
Kaki King – …Until We Felt Red
Tierra Santa – Mejor Morir en Pie
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Oh, and before I go, I have a helpful video for you all. In a band? Need tour support? Here’s the easiest way to get on Pitchfork’s radar:
“Persistence is the key. You really gotta push it sometimes.“
Indeed it is, fair readers. Go find some good music. Play it too loud and annoy the neighbors. Tell them that it was my idea. They have no clue who I am, so I think we’ll be safe. Send me nudes of your sisters and girlfriends in self-addressed stamped envelopes. I will send them back when I am done.
I will see you all in a fortnight.
Keep it real!
Ssquared
Ssquared @ MySpace
Dead Meadow on Dirty Laundry TV
Video Hook-Up: Hostage - "Roll"
Wendy's "Always Serves It Right Away" 
Video Hook-Up: The Sword - "Tres Brujas"
Futureheads Announce West Coast Fall Tour
TENNIS w/ Night Manager, Cool Runnings, Family Portrait, Magic Bullets (Glasslands Gallery, 8/26/10, Brooklyn) 
Video Hook-Up: MGMT - "Congratulations"
Video Hook-Up: Cee Lo Green - "F*ck You" [NSFW]
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