Tags: Messiah, Picture of the day, Zombies
Tags: Messiah, Picture of the day, Zombies
Brooklyn’s Eric Ronick and Than Luu played various instruments with some great indie artists (including M. Ward, Ambulance LTD, Rachael Yamagata, and Panic At The Disco) before teaming up for their debut album, “Rush.” It’s synth-drama like The Killers used to make, creeping along the edges of Emo, with more stylistic variation. It’s also radio-ready arena rock, dense and fast, full of crescendos and crashes and perfect vocals.
To sample the band, I’m posting “Breakdown” because I really like the way they take Kelly Clarkson pop and marry it to MGMT quick-beat falsetto. I mean, check the tune out and tell me you don’t hear shades of “Since U Been Gone” . . .
BONUS TUNAGE: COVERS OF AMERICAN IDOL’S GREATEST (ONLY) POP STAR!
If you haven’t heard of Weinland yet, you don’t read my blog closely enough. Back in September of ’08, I gave “La Lamentor” a huge thumbs up.
La Lamentor was a passionate, powerful, and heartbreaking second album from this Portland, Oregon, band, who have exploded into 2009 with something even better. “Something inside you will eat its way out,” Adam Shearer sings on, “I’m Sure It Helps,” and I get the sense that he’s talking about “Breaks in the Sun,” the band’s third album.
“Sunken Eyes,” the lead track and first single, is typically quiet and sad, with hints of Neil Young but enough swells and drama to avoid Young’s propensity to make me want to slit my own wrists. If you don’t like this song, you won’t like the rest of the album. You’re also an idiot, or, at least, you’re not giving it enough of a chance. It’s true that much of the folk-rock songs on the record blend together, with several sounding vaguely like “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” but that does more to set the mood than to sound redundant. For example, “Hardly Worth Saving,” showcases a lick that’s pretty close to “I’m Sure It Helps,” only this time it’s faster, with more energetic drums, and even a brief electric guitar solo. Overall, it’s got a ‘70s AM Radio feel, without being nostalgic (or silly, as so much in that decade could be). In fact, it’s that “sunny” ‘70s feel that makes this record Weinland’s best: Where the band’s first two records were somewhat overladen with pain, this one feels . . . Happy? Maybe that’s an overstatement. Let’s go with “optimistic,” at least.
The lyrics have a starring role on the record, mixing zen-like philosophy (sample lyric: “we are all worth what owe/it’s not who you know”) and broken-hearted laments (sample lyric: “Own up to what you’ve done/How can you do this/We both know that it’s wrong . . . It’s people like you that always look for someone else to blame”). Each word is chosen with precision and intent. There’s nothing extra, nothing to throw away, and it all fits neatly within skillfull, peaceful melodies. There’s five guys in this band, but you’d never know it. They play so well together that it all sounds like one, unstoppable force. According to their bio, the band “cashed out their 401(k)’s, emptied their bank accounts, and put everything they had into making sure Breaks In The Sun would see the light in 2009.” Weinland has triumphed, and all of you should listen. And buy the freakin’ thing. These guys are the real thing, which means you should support them with your money as well as your ears, praise, and love.
Sunken Eyes
Speaking of a joyous future . . . I noticed that white college funboy Asher Roth has been topping the Hype Machine charts lately. Shame on everyone! Not only is his song, “I Love College” ubiquitous on MTV, but it’s annoying and stupid. The Beastie Boys already did this, twenty five years ago, did it better, with better production, and much better musical chops. When I first heard Roth, it was on his DJ Cannon mixtape, where he rhymed about fucking cartoon chicks. One cut on the whole tape was good, called “The Lounge,” but the rest of it was an obvious attempt by corporate America to sell a product that looked somewhat like hip hop. But if Asher Roth is hip hop, then Chris Brown is R and B. And I have nothing against popular rap–I was a big fan of Nelly’s first record. But this puts the rap in Crap.
And anyway, since when are blogs supposed to be the source of free copies of top 40 songs?
Instead of using Hype’s top 40, why not go to these great pages and learn about something new or get reacquainted with someting even cooler than you ever thought it was . . .
See? There’s so much great stuff out there! Don’t choke on the popular, embrace the new!
Tags: Hip Hop, Picture of the day
Am I a full-blooded comic book nerd who can understand the prose of Grant Morrison and reiterate every nuance of the recent Skrull invasion? Absolutely not. I boycotted the whole Skrull thing because it was just too complicated a story spread out over too many books, and, frankly, too expensive and too much like Battlestar Galactica for me to get interested. The entire Marvel Universe has descended into the paranoia that was novel and biting when it was just Chris Claremont doing it to mutants, and every book seems dark and forbidding, and D.C. seems intent on following that trend. I tried to slog through Final Crisis, but got increasingly irritated by the entire, nonsensical, purposeless story. Before my attempt, I didn’t think it was possible to perpetrate a worse series than Batman R.I.P. Boy was I wrong. The only books I’m regularly reading these days are the New Krypton story, Batman/Superman (off and on good), Red Hulk,
Avengers/Invaders, the X-Men First Class books, Spider-Man Brand New Day, The Titans (Teen Titans got weird and full of C-Listers), and anything with Franklin Richards (though that series is wearing thin). In other words: I read the stuff that “real” fans call junk. I read stuff that I can read with my kids. I like stories that help me escape, not ones that leave me confused. If you’re gonna charge me almost as much for a comic as I pay for a movie ticket, I expect a lot of bang for the buck.
Which brings me to Watchmen. The above notwithstanding, I read books geared for adults as well, like All Star Superman, All Star Batman, anything by Frank Miller, and, of course, The Watchmen, which was the second-greatest comic book of the 1980s. I tell you about my current tastes just to let you know that I’m not a full-blooded nerd. I’m more of a nerdatto, part superhero geek, part busy person who wants to share in the joy with his kids.
I’ll say first off that my expectations for the film could not have been lower. Zack Snyder turned the interesting blend of myth, legend, and history that was Frank Millers’ 300 and turned it into a joke. But The Watchmen did not follow suit (which may be why it made about 30% less on its opening weekend than 300—but that could also have been due to the fact that Watchmen is nearly 3 hours long). I also knew that Alan Moore and several fansites had condemned the movie before it was released, and Moore’s name is glaringly missing from the credits, so let’s just say was very skeptical.
Did I like it? That question can be answered in two ways: Was it a good film, and was it a good adaptation of a multi-layered, oppressively dark maxi-series? The answers, surprisingly, are yes and yes. As a film, The Watchmen has three acts, several sympathetic characters, great plot twists, flawed-but-heroic centerpieces, and enough of a human element to reach even those who are not fans of the tights-and-spandex genre. As an adaptation, the film is dense and retains many of the complexities of the primary two storylines from the comic, which are the mystery of who killed The Comedian and the overarching drama of whether Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandius can stop Nixon from starting a nuclear war.
Although it was simply not possible to include all of the backstories, Snyder solved some of this by producing a brilliant montage under the opening credits, showing the history of the first superheroes (The Minutemen), their rises and falls, and the coming of the new breed (The Watchmen), so that by the time Rorschach begins delving into the murder of Comedian, we already understand that the two “heroes” are similar representations of the eras in which they lived: As Comedian himself later explains, in flashbacks, he was a living satire of society—it’s reflection in a funhouse mirror. We come to understand later that Rorschach, like his name and mask, is also a rendering of society’s unconscious prejudices and deep psychological scars.
Are there changes from book to screen? Of course. Many storylines are abbreviated, and we never get a full sense of Sally Jupiter’s relationship with The Comedian (or Night Owl’s partnership with him), but much is faithfully reproduced as well. In the book, Alan Moore uses Comedian’s funeral as the means to show us the impact he had on all those around him—and as a tool to confuse us as to who the real killer could be. Each main character recalls their resentments, and we come to a deeper understanding of the deceased antihero. These scenes done very well in the film, with several shot-by-shot reproductions of the comic. We also come to understand the level of Dr. Manhatta’s power through his single-handed victory in Vietnam, and to see big blue as a symbol for America itself, whose power grew faster than it, as a country, could understand and adapt. It’s a timely message, as our country today struggles to find our footing as we move
from our role as a world leader in success and inspiration to our role as the leader of the world’s faltering economy. Again, all very true to the book, albeit told in a more compressed fashion. Even though the pirate comic-within-the-comic is gone, we see a pirate flag over a young child’s bed, reminding us that even kids of the time are disillusioned by superheroes, preferring the simpler black-and-whites of swashbucklers.
The overall look of the film is also fairly true to the comic. Certainly the characters are all easily recognizable . . .
. . . even if Laurie should have been far more busty. The special effects are so seamless and extraordinary, in fact, that it is easy to take them for granted. Much like Tim Burton’s Batman, Snyder has created a world stage that has little in common with today’s reality, but is wholly believable and organic.
Are there weaknesses? Yes. The film, like 300, often feels sterile and bleak. But this is similar to the source material. The third act doesn’t really build to a conclusion, and the punchline at the very end is unsatisfying in its subtlety. But these are problems with standard movie formats, and Alan Moore’s tale was an intentional subversion of those expectations, so the fact that the movie just kind of trails off feels right. Dr. Manhattan is exactly like I always imagined him, almost like a version of The Watcher, a part of the story but also apart from it, a man whose power forces a Zen-like detachment upon while but whose former life as a human being keeps him emotionally vested in goals and outcomes. But this character will be hard for most moviegoers to feel for, I expect, given that he is so far above (literally) the struggle. The biggest weakness is the villain. Matthew Goode is too gentle as Veidt, and we never understand his
sinister nature (or his ability at the end of the film to predict every hero’s move). We should be afraid of him, and we should not believe in his vision for world peace, but the film does not guide us in that direction.
Overall, though, these are minor quibbles when one considers the sheer vastness of the film. Nolan’s Batman films and the last Spider Man movie were long. But The Watchmen is the first real superhero “epic,” with a grand narration and a big, historical feel. I am happy to say that the film defied my expectations, and was a very good supermovie.
Tags: Movies, Superheroes
I rip open at least one stuffed envelope a day, so it takes quite a bit to immediately grab my attention. The submission from Micachu and the Shapes does just that for two reasons. First, “Jewelry” is misspelled and I’m wondering why. Second, my kids are, much to my dismay, Pokemon addicts and I’m wondering if Micachu is some new cutesy plastic creature that I’ll be stepping on in the early hours when the house is dark.
After reading and listening, I still don’t know the answer to the first question, but I’m clear on the second. Micachu and the Shapes are an East London band that fall somewhere between M.I.A., Lily Allen, Hot Chip, and Tegan & Sara. And yes, that’s a wide area.
Mica Levi is a 21-year-old DJ and songwriter who makes electronic-based soft hip-hop/pop. What makes her unique is that her layered blending is neither forced nor busy—each song is full and complex, but never overdone. I’ve read that she wrote a symphony that was actually performed by The Royal Philharmonic, and I’m not surprised. In fact, if I were to criticize anything about “Jewellery” it would be that the songs stop and start too quickly, giving the record the feel of an unfinished mixtape, where many of them have beats that are too thick to understand in less than three minutes. A particular favorite of mine is “Just in Case,” which does what The Go! Team never could for me: It takes a chant, goes low/loud/low/loud, and inserts a mechanical break in the middle, but remains articulate. It gets grimey without getting muddy. Micachu clearly has a talent behind the boards.
The band utilizes a series of bizarre instruments like a xylophone made of light bulbs, vacuum cleaners, and assorted stringed things (like a guitar played with a hammer), which gives them a sound all their own. Does this make for something you’d want to hear all the time? Of course not. But when you have the time and want to be surrounded by sounds you’ve never heard, but which somehow manage to maintain pop sense, this is the album you should check out.
Lips Video
So, I just found that Hype Machine has changed their front page default setting to show only the top 100 music blogs, as measured by the number of people in Hype Machine who register the blog as a favorite (I think). Although I’d love it if you made me one of your favorites, I have to join with some of my fellow indie-only and small-time we-post-no-leaks bloggers to resist this change. It’s stupid. Now, if you want to see twenty blogs that all post a leaked Britney track or who only publicize TV on the Radio, Hype Machine will be for you. But if you want to see a steady stream of strange covers, lesser-known artists, and retrospectives, you’ll have to go to Elbows.
I should also say that this probably won’t hurt me personally all that much. I get very little traffic from Hype Machine, and have often been irritated at how I’ll post a song and nobody picks it up, but when the bigger bloggers post the same track, they get in the top 10. Whatever. I’m not in this for popularity, and I’m not in it for ad sales. Both are nice benefits, of course, but a loss of either will not drive me out of the blogosphere. I’ve got about 600 regular readers who like what I do because it’s indie, not mainstream, and not being in the Hype 100 is part of not being mainstream.
Still, music blogs are traditionally a community of cheerleaders and friendly tastemakers, not an adversarial group of competitors. Now, we’ll have to fight for readers if we want to get bigger numbers (which drives ad sales). Again, I won’t be doing that, but many people will. So, this change is sad. It is clearly an attempt to corporatize music blogs, and is evidence that Hype Machine has become too big for its britches. I wonder if I should stop linking to it?
I suggest that all of you who truly love music blogging as an independent, non-corporate means of learning about music, go to Hype Machine and tell them why what they’re doing is wrong.
I’m also calling on small-timers, like me, to more actively promote each other. I’ve tried to do that over the years by writing shout-out posts once a month or so with all the cool stuff other folks are doing. Let’s do more of this!
Thanks to Cover Lay Down for breaking this story.
Tags: Bestiality, Picture of the day
Haven’t spread Clash love recently, so I thought I’d throw this one up. It’s from a show in Stockholm, Sweden, from February 17, 1984. Audience recording, not great quality but not terrible either. What makes it cool is some of the song choices are ones I haven’t heard often. A few tastes then a zip. Dig it.
London Calling
Safe European Home
Know Your Rights
Are You Ready For War
Rock the Casbah
Sex Mad World
Clampdown
The Guns of Brixton
The Dictator
Complete Control
White Man in Hammersmith
This is England
Police and Thieves
Three Card Trick
Garageland
This is Radio Clash
Janie Jones
I Fought the Law
Glue Zombie
Tommy Gun
We are the Clash
Brand New Cadilac
Armagideaon Time
I’m so bored with the USA
English Civil War
White Riot
Tags: Clash
As a tremendous fan of The Clash, I don’t believe in the genre labeled “postpunk.” It cuts through my denial that Joe Strummer is actually dead. Instead, I prefer the term “modern punk,” which seems to fit your Franz Ferdinands and Yeah Yeah Yeahs as easily as it does the two band’s I’m writing about today.
First, Vulture Whale. I get so much music mailed to me that I almost never have to buy any and, even if I did, I’d never have time to listen to it. But when I read that Wes McDonald had a new project, I knew I had to go get it. Fortunately for me, it’s on iTunes.
I’m familiar with McDonald from his solo album, “1:50 in the Furnace,” which remains one of the best albums ever submitted to this blog for review. It was basically The Replacements with a little more of a country flavor, much like Big Mountain or Birdmonster’s first album. Genius-level Americana, it was.
With Vulture Whale, McDonald basically took his band and became a member, taking his name (“Wes McDonald and the . . .”) off the moniker and revamping the collective as Vulture Whale. Apparently, they had a self-titled debut back in ’07, but I completely missed it. So I’m coming on board with their second record, which finds their sound still close to Westerberg, now lying somewhere between Iggy Pop and Kings of Leon. There’s more noise here (the joyful deconstructive destruction of “The Waves”) than McDonald’s solo work, and more punky snarls in the vocals. There’s still the faint odor of Bob Dylan in McDonald’s uniquely ragged vocal swagger, the guitar work is nice and gritty, and the drumming is freakin’ fantastic. “Head Turner,” about an older woman who “looks as good as she did in the ‘80s”, is a standout track, one that’s equally perfect for jukebox drinking, barroom dancing, or driving with the windows down
and the speedometer in the danger zone. A fabulously fun, well-written record.
Video for sugar:
Ultimate Power Duo, the second band on the menu today is far punkier and much less familiar.
I’m writing about both bands together, though, because both have an Iggy Pop feel in the vocals: Both McDonald and The Riz (who I believe is the frontman for Saskatoon’s Ultimate Power Duo) have voices that sound slightly uncomfortable. Rather than blend with the music, their vocals stand out in opposition to it. This works well for Ultimate Power Duo, who seem to be trying to channel Black Flag and every other band on The Repo Man soundtrack, with retro punk (sample lyrics include a shouted “God hates fags!” chant and the line, “I’ll savor the experience of killing your kids”), anger and irreverence. They call themselves “the masters and perveyours of Demolition Rock,” and I guess that’s as good a name as any for their sound. It’s hard to love “New Normal,” their second full-length album, because it seems to dare you to get close and then spit in your eye. I’m offering you the single, Jack The Space/Time Continuum Ripper, and the strangest cut on the record, “Doot,” as samples. The former because it’s pretty much what they’re about, the latter because it shows how they can stretch into Scary Monsters territory. A fascinating album.
