Pearl Jam covering people.
All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan) (YSI)
So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star (The Byrds) (YSI)
Waiting On A Friend (Rolling Stones) (YSI)
People covering Pearl Jam
Here.
All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan) (YSI)
So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star (The Byrds) (YSI)
Waiting On A Friend (Rolling Stones) (YSI)
Here.
It’s great to be a blogger. A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the upcoming group of What If? titles, including a Hulk story written by Mike Raicht. I noted that I wasn’t very familiar with his work, and he was kind enough to contact me and tell him a little bit about himself. Turns out, he and Brian Smith have co-written a wonderful indie comic, The Stuff of Legends, a Third World comic about a boy in 1944 Brooklyn who is kidnapped by the boogieman and his favorite toys, who go to rescue him. The story is an unveiled allegory for the fact that the boy’s father has gone across the ocean to kill Nazis. The idea is original, but it feels somewhat familar–I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because the toys, a soldier, a teddy bear, a fragile pig, are so lifelike. We all had toys like this, and we all gave them similar personalities. The writers identify with their subjects in a deep and meaningful way, and as a reader, the experience is rewarding. You would expect a story like this to be child-focused, but this is an adult book as well (and probably not good for very young readers).
A child is kidnapped at the start of The Stuff of Legends
The art, exemplified above, tells much of the story as well. There are many wordless panels, with nothing but beautiful (and often frightening) sepia images.
The book sold out quickly, and has gone to reprint. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a comic book, yes, but you don’t have to love superheroes to love this work of art.
“You might return to me, you said/I should have seen this coming/I might return to you I guess/But you got me climbing the walls.” Blood Memory snags you immediatley with these four lines of tragic ambivalence that typify the Birdmonster experience. The song, “I Might Have Guessed (Mean Version),” begins with a drumstick clack clack clack count in, a power riff with more than a trace of Americana, and those words, crying, earnest, begging, and angry. Yes, this is a love song, but it could also be about Birdmonster the band. Zach, David, Peter and Justin exploded on to the scene in 2006 with their debut, No Midnight, and were instantly the subject of blog rage. It was kinda slutty, actually. Every blogger wanted to fuck these guys. And they deserved it. With production by Brad “Foo Fighters” Cook, the collection of edgy rock songs had bite, power, riffs and raw energy.
Their second release, From the Mountain to the Sea, failed to catch fire in the same way. I personally found that the songs on that album, although I enjoyed them, lacked the hunger behind No Midnight. According to Zach, though, who was kind enough to be interviewed for this piece, there was no difference between those two albums and their new EP, Blood Memory. “We just pull songs out of the ether around us and they sound however they want to, we don’t have a lot of control over that,” he says. “We just do what we do, and the rest is not something we have control over. We learned long ago that spending time thinking about how our music is being received only takes away from our craft.”
Production on the second album, and on this EP, were by a more mainstream producer, Tom Schick (“He is Batman, the world just doesn’t know yet,” Zach says). But on this last release, the production is more laid back. Birdmonster seems more confident. In fact, on the “Evening Version” of “Iditarod,” it’s just Dave Arcuni and a guitar, and yet the song fills the room. You may recognize this song from its earlier electric incarnation, but I didn’t. This one is killer–way better. I asked Zach about why they chose to release this version, and he said, “We liked it to much to not share.” I also asked him why this beautiful song named after an Alaskan dog race? His response: “Its a secret, all i can say is, we are just trying to point out that we are qualified in foreign relations due to our knowledge of Alaska and its proximity to Russia.” I’m sure he’s joking. But I want to strangle him until he tells me the secret.
Overall, Blood Memory doesn’t feel as . . . safe . . . as Mountain did. The band experiments with slow, sad ballads and still brings fire with indie rock anthems (“Forever Gone” kicks ass), and, throughout, they seem to be having fun. A lot more fun than before. Zach seems indifferent to fame and so-called success. When asked whether the internet fame of No Midnight translated into record or ticket sales, he answered, “I’m not sure. All I know is that two months in the studio translates into a beard.” By now, you can tell he’s a wiseass.
Anyway, Blood Memory will be available on Tuesday September 22nd as an iTunes exclusive. “The 8 song collection has a nifty $4.99 price tag,” the band says.
Indeed.
From Blood Memory:
I Might Have Guessed (Mean Version) (YSI)
Not from Blood Memory:
No Midnight (acoustic version) (YSI)
Zach wouldn’t share any covers or demos with me, but he did offer this, Birdmonster’s cover of Billy Joel’s Movin’ Out . . .
If you haven’t checked out Matthew “Girlfriend” Sweet and Susannah “The Bangles” Hoff’s Under the Covers 2 yet, you’re missing out on an album that gets better with each listen. Their harmonies have turned them into a single being–a Hoffsweet, or a Sweethoof, something. Truly great record.
And now you can hear just about all of it, LIVE!
A few tastes and a zip. Y’all know the deal.
If you like it, please heart me on Hype Machine, Digg Me, Stumble Me . . . I’m lonely.
1. I See the Rain
2. And Your Bird Can Sing
3. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
4. Who Knows Where the Time Goes
5. Cinnamon Girl
6. Alone Again Or
7. Different Drum
8. The Kids Are Alright
9. Sunday Morning
10. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
11. Care of Cell #44
12. Rain
13. She May Call You Up Tonight
14. Run to Me
15. Manic Monday > I’m Wating for the Man
16. BBC
17. Girlfriend
I’m just throwing this up, based on the press release . . .
“WARM HEART OF AFRICA”
THE NEW 7IN SINGLE FROM THE VERY BEST feat EZRA KOENIG
GREEN OWL presents the song of the summer “Warm Heart of Africa” now as a vinyl 7in!!!
SIDE A is “WARM HEART OF AFRICA” a party record playlist shot of Afropop with vocals from THE VERY BEST’s ESAU MWAMWAYA and a surprise appearance from EZRA KOENIG of VAMPIRE WEEKEND!
SIDE B is “YALIRA” a previously unreleased song from THE VERY BEST’s debut LP available digitally AUGUST 25th / Physical October 6th on GREEN OWL.
Cover is an exclusive commission from master painter BP KONAN of the IVORY COAST. Printed proudly in Brooklyn with vegetable-based ink using windpower on 100% post-consumer paper.
Limited release of 500 pieces.
Purchase online: http://greenowl.com/album/warm-heart-of-africa-7inch
The Very Best’s–European production duo Radioclit and Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya–debut full-length Warm Heart of Africa will be released October 6th on Green Owl (available digitally August 25). The album follows the surprising global success of Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit Are The Very Best, a free mixtape made available online late last year. Without promotional assistance or financial support, the collection of well-known pop, dance, afro and indie tracks remixed by Radioclit featuring Mwamwaya’s singing in Chichewa, Swahili, Portuguese and English charted more than 200,000 downloads and was hailed by tastemakers including Pitchfork, FADER, and Gorilla vs. Bear, among many others.
“Warm Heart Of Africa” Tracklisting:
1. Yalira
2. Chalo
3. Warm Heart Of Africa Ft. Ezra Koenig (YSI)
4. Mwazi
5. Nsokoto
6. Angonde
7. Julia
8. Mfumu
9. Ntende Uli
10. Rain Dance ft. M.I.A. (YSI)
11. Kamphopo
12. Kada Manja
13. Zan’dziko
Diacon Panthers’ “Make It Feel Better” was the 16th best album of 2008. An extraordinary debut, and there’s no use arguing with me. Just ask my wife.
The band is back, with the aptly titled, “Ride Again,” recorded over just three days back in December 2008. It is (or will be soon) available on Bandcamp as a pay-what-you-want download, and all of you should show the guys some love. Seriously. You won’t regret it.
The Diacon-Panthers need a big break. I hereby call upon all my fellow bloggers to write about this band. They are very friendly. If you need it, I’ll send you their e-mail address. These guys have rocked me to my core, in a way few band submissions ever do. Truly.
I’ve done a brief interview, but before we get started, let me introduce you to who they are and give you a few tastes of their music:
Natan Diacon-Furtado – vocals, guitar
Greg Given – guitar
Jeremy Given – bass, Fender Rhodes (Jeremy and Greg are brothers)
Charlie Henschen – drums
From “Ride Again”:
From their debut, “Make it Feel Better”
Tennessee Dancing Nights (yousendit)
Now, let’s talk . . .
BP: First,congratulations on a great second album. Often, a sophmore release shows off a band’s weaknesses, but this one is a tremendous improvement over “Make It Feel Better” which was, itself, awesome. Any Lennon/McCartney type feuds going on? If not, are there at least a few Takei/Shatner feuds?
Greg: Well, as Natan is the principle songwriter, there really isn’t an opportunity for a Lennon/McCartney kind of thing. However, we are starting to work in some of Jeremy’s songs, so this could emerge…
Natan: If we have any feud, it probably looks something like the feud between Jared and Michael Phelps. (Attaches link.)
BP: Overall, this second album seems more primal—and far more emotional—than your first. Your first was basically a collection of strong songs, but this feels like an album. Did you conceive “Ride Again” as Big Idea, or were the songs written individually?
Natan: These songs did all come about during an emotionally intense period for me which resulted in (what I thought at the time was) really crippling writer’s block where I would just work on one line of one song for months at a time. In the end though, it seems like that payed off as I think you can feel every hour in every line. That being said, this block resulted in us going into the studio with really compressed, thoroughly worked out bits that the rest of the boys helped expand. In that way, I hope you hear just as much looseness as intense detail.
BP: There is definitely an improvised feel, in addition to the precision. That probably comes from you guys being a well-knit band. How did you record it?
Greg: Natan basically presented us with the main line to each song 3 days before we began recording, and the rest of us worked with Natan on fleshing out these lines into complete songs. With the exception of “My Friends,” which we had begun working on while we were on tour in support of “Make it Feel Better,” this EP was built from basic ideas, rehearsed, recorded, and done in about 6 days. So, in a sense, while Natan spent a long time conceiving these songs, each came into its own all at the same time, as we were there in the studio, putting the tracks on tape. I suspect this incredibly compressed writing and recording process results in the unity of the record.
BP: The jammy end of “Curses” almost sounds like you were making it up as you went along. Until the magnificent bridge into “My Friends.” Did you construct the songs as a pair, or did you just found that they fit that way?
Natan: That was all Scott in the studio–he paired the songs like that. But again, I was already a guy who sticks to keys and progressions he knows. I think this record does that to an extreme in a way that works. But yeah, total accident, which I hope we can promise more of.
BP: Are any of you fans of the Grateful Dead, or any other “jam” bands?
Natan: I am a huge fan of American Beauty, but an even bigger fan of Anthem of the Sun. Growing up, my dad had pretty much every Dead record on Vinyl and I slowly began to steal them from him. Besides that, I have an undying love for bands that are ok with devolving into ambiance, where there’s a certain comfort in allowing a constant pulse to form from which the listener can fade away. Bands like Codeine, and styles like Chopped n’ Skrewed. I think they’re much closer to the work the Grateful Dead did than “modern” Jam bands– that I can’t really handle.
Greg: Man, you have an ear. Natan neglects to mention that the rest of us in the band were in a jam band for 4 years through high school. While most kids our age were putting together shitty pop-punk and hardcore bands, we were trying to decide which Widespread Panic song to cover. I think we’re all glad that we moved on from that phase in our lives long ago, but it did teach us a thing or two about improvisation. Most importantly, how to hide the fact that you’ve screwed up when you’re playing live. Natan has yet to develop that, as he normally just says “Oops, I messed up” into the microphone. But in all seriousness, I think we’re really influenced by Crazy Horse-era Neil Young, which could get pretty damn jammy at times.
Natan: I think it adds character… Though we’ve discovered that when I’m drunk I just rattle off a whole paragraph and then ask Jeremy to play whatever I messed up on Keys.
BP: Theh album almost seems to tell a story, but I’m not sure about what . . .
Natan: It’s all in the frustration of knowing what needs to happen and only being able to get your one line out for each song (or in the workings of my day to day life). If the record sounds frightened by itself and/or concerned for its future I’m right there with you. Hot Gray Lips is a good example, it’s a song that’s afraid of everything it’s made of.
BP: Speaking of that song . . . What made you name a funereal marching song “Hot Gray Lips?”
Natan: Well, I like ghosts.
BP: Natan, your vocals are more Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-sy than the last one—rawer and more impassioned. Did you study anyone in particular, or were you going for a specific sound?
Natan: On a technical level, all the vocals were recorded with truly amazing microphones that really did their job. On my side, “did their job” meant I thought I sounded like a gravely mess the whole time this record was in progress. I’d be lying if I was going for a real sound. After going on tour for “Make it Feel Better” I found my voice getting more comfortable in a range that sounds more aggressive. However, I didn’t really feel comfortable in that range until we finished this record and went out to play again. To me, that hesitance shows a lot in the way I chose my wording and movement in maneuvering through the songs. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. However, I also think the vocals show that they know their way around every line of these songs, another happy accident of terrible writer’s block.
BP: Who are your dream bands to tour with?
Natan: I can’t imagine a better show than us and Antlers on tour. An amazing band with an amazing record that I think treads around the same ground as ours.
Greg: Well if I’m dreaming big, it would have to be “Second Helping”-era Skynyrd. As for bands that actually exist, I’d really love to tour with Lucero, Low, or Magnolia Electric Company. Don’t know how that would ultimately sound back-to-back, but whatever. Good bands.
BP: They are good. I was thinking you’d do well to open for Pearl Jam. You know, Adam Duritz just did an amazing show where he toured with two other bands and they all played together for the whole night. I’d love to see you guys doing something like that. And speaking of touring, any chance you’ll be out in Virginia ay time soon?
Natan: In my dreams, at night.
Greg: Unfortunately, as we spend most of the time on opposite ends of the country, we only get a chance to tour once or twice a year. It could well be next summer before we make it back to Virginia country again, but you’ll be the first to know if we book a show out there.
BP: Can’t wait. Now, dear readers, GO FIND THIS BAND’S ALBUM AND BUY IT! They deserve your support, big time.
Here’s the public history of the Hulk:
1. A pretty-lame-but-cool-at-the-time-because-there-was-no-competition-around live TV show.
2. Several bad-to-not-so-bad cartoon iterations
3. One major motion picture by an Academy Award winning director that was a good film but wasn’t really about Hulk
4. Another major movie with an Academy Award winning 
actor that was a spin off of the TV show and didn’t really have any depth.
5. And, what started it all, a comic book that has been around forever but is rarely worth reading
Hulk has rarely been a well-delivered character. So, why should you care about World War Hulks?
The answer is, I’m not sure you should.
First, just to catch up: You all know Hulk. “Doc Bruce Banner, pelted by gamma rays, turned into the Hulk, ain’t he unglamour-rays!”
He was a founding member of, and comedy relief for, The Avengers. He got mad a lot and kept wrecking stuff, yet for some reason nobody ever killed him or buried him under a mountain. Then he shrunk and hooked up with this chick and had a kid. Of course, nobody knew about it. Including Hulk. Then he came back to Earth and blew more things up. This basically covers his history before the first very good Hulk series, the first one that I would recommend without hesitation.
Interior art from Planet Hulk
Planet Hulk. Planet Hulk started when the genius superdudes of Earth finally decided to get rid of Hulk by rocketing him into space. It’s not really important why it took them so long to get fed up with Hulk destroying major cities and putting Iron Man into the hospital. He landed, accidentally, on a gladiator planet and became their Moses, freeing the slaves and liberating the oppressed. I know this sounds stupid, but it was handled extremely well. For the first time, a Hulk book had a supporting cast that mattered. Hulk was relatively smart, too. Not a scientific genius or anything, but capable of speech, military tactics, and basic emotional communication. (Another reason the Hulk series has been so difficult to follow: Sometimes, he’s a brute, sometimes he has Banner-brain . . . It seems to depend on the writer of the series less than the continuity of the character.) This is a spoiler for Planet Hulk, but it doesn’t ruin the series for you: He hooks up, has a kid, and then most of the planet is wiped out by a huge explosion. I won’t give away how or why, but Hulk blames the Illuminati who cast him out of Earth and goes to get revenge on his exilers. Which brings us to the second-best Hulk story ever (Planet Hulk being the first).
World War Hulk. This was an event—every Marvel book took a little time, or had a spin-off series—to fight Hulk. And only the fogiest of fogeys didn’t love seeing Hulk beat the snot out of just about everyone. The constant battling was a little tiring, but if you stuck to the Hulk books (collected in “World War Hulk”), the story kept going and you really didn’t need the spin-offs and cross-overs.
If you wanna see Juggernaut get his head kicked in, buy the three X-Men/WWH issues. If you wanna see mean green go at it with Spidey, buy those. Etc. The only one really worth getting was Incredible Hercules, because it began a pretty good run for that Olympian—a character who hadn’t been used well since Bob Layton’s two miniserieses in the 1980s.
In short, Hulk beat an apology out of the entire State of New York . But after this, things started to break down. At around the same time, we saw a new Hulk book spring up, but where it stood in the continuity was unclear.
Hulk, a.k.a. Red Hulk, a.k.a. Rulk. Red Hulk had terrific, muscular art and not many words. This big red dude appears out of nowhere and starts beating on Hulk. For some reason, a bunch of superheroes tried to stop Rulk from killing Hulk. I think that during World War Hulk, Hulk beat them all in the heads so that they got amnesia. Forgot that killing Hulk might actually benefit society.
The thing that made Red Hulk exciting was that it was a mystery—we didn’t know who he was—and it was unpredictable and hilarious. Dude even used a massively big gun at one point. But then the series suddenly went south, the creative team changed, the art got bad, and they started making fragmented stories. I’d go to the comic shop and ask, “What the fuck?” and they, who usually could answer all my questions, would scratch their heads and say, “Fucked if I know.”
Hulk #300. The Rulk book did a terrible little side-story ripping off of the Contest of Champions (that lame series from the 1980s that introduced Israel ’s first superheroine, Sabra). They pitted a random Hulk team (with Doc Strange, Sub Mariner, and Silver Surfer picked out of the time stream just so Strange could have his lame full-face-mask costume from long ago) against a random Rulk team that included Tiger Shark—an underwater dude who, inexplicably, wears spandex (doesn’t that block his gills?). Forget about all this, though, because then Marvel suddenly decided to make sense of Hulk again and explain this whole thing and reveal, once and for all, who is Red Hulk. In Hulk #300. And when you found out the answer, if you were like me, you wanted to beat the living shit out of editor-in-chief Joe Queseda. I invested over 50 bucks in the Rulk series, and stuck with it through all of its lame dips, because I really wanted the answer. And it turns out, Rulk isn’t anyone. It’s all a MODOK scheme. Arrrrggghhh! Me smash!
But putting all my frustration aside, the Rulk/Hulk story in Hulk #300 wasn’t all that bad. Of course, it was a double sized book that was then filled up with a ton of bullshit I could care less about. She Hulk. Grey Hulk. Banner cured of Hulk but still having adventures. They’re calling this The Hulk Family of comic books. And I never thought I’d be able to say this, but this family is actually lamer than The Marvel Family.
Which brings us to World War Hulks. Hulk’s kid from the Planet Hulk storyline got his own comic: Skaar, Son of Hulk. It’s not a terrible book, but it’s not very interesting. But Skaar is no baby—he’s like a teen-aged hulk. So when Galactus eats his planet, he decides to go get daddy. Abandonment issues and all. He’s coming to get Hulk, but (spoiler alert!) Banner was cured in Hulk #300, so it’s not going to be much of a fight. Then there’s this other son-of-Hulk (possibly) named Hiro-Kala, also from Planet Hulk. Then there’s Lyra, a new She-Hulk created by a genetic experiment from Hulk’s DNA. The Jerry Springer daughter. Oh, and there’s She-Rulk now, too. For crissake. With all this nonsense and, let’s be real, stupid soap-opera crap, we’re supposed to care about WWHs? Well, despite all of the above, here’s a few reasons you might care:
1. Dave Finch did a great cover, featuring a MODOK Hulk.
2. All these Hulks are bound do to a lot of damage, which can be fun. In a mindless kinda way.
3. The creative team doesn’t suck. It’ll be Jeff Parker (“Agents of Atlas”) and Paul Pelletier (“War of Kings”).
4. It’ll have a good villain. Or villains. The Intelligentsia—the evil version of the Illuminati who sent Hulk to outer space: The Leader. Dr. Doom. Modok. Red Ghost. Egghead. Wizard. Mad Thinker
Is this enough to overcome Hulk’s convoluted missteps post-WWH? No. The verdict is, I will NOT be buying World War Hulks. At least not until the trades come out. I’ll be damned if they another $50 out of me before proving they have something worth buying.
Tags: Superheroes
