Sad and Lonely
2.02.2005
artist obsessions
Catherine Wheel
"Broken Head"
"God Inside My Head"
"Empty Head"
The Rapture
"House of Jealous Lovers"
"I Need Your Love"
"Love Is All"
all on one album...
Belle & Sebastian
"Don't Leave The Light On Baby"
"You're Just a Baby"
"Step Into My Office, Baby"
"Judy And The Dream Of Horses"
"You Made Me Forget My Dreams"
"A Spaceboy Dream"
"Dirty Dream #2"
"I Could Be Dreaming"
ABBA
"When All Is Said And Done"
"The Winner Takes It All"
"Lay All Your Love On Me"
The Magnetic Fields (aside from the obvious dance/love)
"If You Don't Cry"
"Don't Look Away"
"I Don't Believe You"
"Either You Don't Love Me Or I Don't Love You"
"I Don't Really Love You Anymore"
1.26.2005
Daft Punk is Playing at My iTunes
There's a duality to Daft Punk album titles, and the upcoming Human After
All is no exception. Their first album, Homework, comes with a
book full of evident study materials and a track (Teachers) reciting a list
of their influences. But there's also a home/work dichotomy in the music -
despite a slew of harsh moments on the album, there's no doubt it's been
listened to more at home than it has been at clubs. And if crates of albums
and lists of other DJs are their study materials, then the album is their
professional life, their work. There's a tradition of dancing as work
through Chicago House especially - from LNR's "Work It To The Bone" to
North/Clybourn's "We're Gonna Work It Out" to Frankie Knuckles (as Santos)
"Work Me Trax / Work The Box".
With their second album, Discovery, they moved to a much broader
sound, packing enough genres into their mixing bowl to break away from any
sort of contemporary dance genre on a few tracks. The alien and space-themed
videos reflected their sense of otherness from the dance music scene even as
the first single, "One More Time", became a huge dancefloor hit. Again,
though, the sense of discovery in the album breaks down to disco/very
components. Perhaps not coincidentally, Disco and Very are
both albums by the Pet Shop Boys, masters of effective titles. It's
certainly a more disco-based album, and it's very everything - it's
completely indulgent in all the best ways.
At first I was concerned by the title of their upcoming album, Human
After All - were they giving up a career of being robots? Going all
Pinocchio? Listening to it, I'm relieved. The vocals are the most
synthesized they've ever been (even Homework had its "WDPK" moment)
and even though there's more live-sounding samples, they're as robotic as
ever. Maybe they're using it the same way Goodz is on "Dangerous" where he
plays with the connotations of "overall", switching back and forth between
being "overall" and "over all". Maybe, even though they're acknowledging
they're human, they're reassuring us that it's the least important of their
qualities.
10.13.2004
Last night I went out to my first concert in a while, Aqueduct, Kandy Whales, and U.S.E. at DC9. I was planning on only catching U.S.E., so I got there a little after 10pm, but Aqueduct had only just started their set. So there was much waiting and sitting around and gnashing of teeth and drinking of beer. And then Kandy Whales played – and they were spectacular! Four members – singer, keyboard player, guitar/bassist, and drummer. The singer was definitely the focal point, and he came off as the unholy spawn of Peter Murphy and Prince. One-finger slinky keyboard squelching and ubergoth lyrics, maybe my perception’s colored due to impending Halloween festivities but they seemed pretty great. And they’re from Philly!
U.S.E. was a disaster. The stage of DC9 doesn’t seem that tiny, but things get a little cramped when what seems like half the people in the club run up on stage and start playing. Everybody’s instruments, bodies, and mics overlapped each other’s space. The sound balance was way off, mics went in and out of the mix, people sang and played off-key and started/stopped at the wrong points. It was fantastic. The good news about having eight people on stage is that only a few of them have to be doing the right thing at any one time in order for things to come out pretty well, and that was clearly the case here. If it hadn’t been for the drum machine keeping pace all would have been lost. “It Is On” and “Vamos A La Playa”, take a definite backseat to “Emerald City” and “Takin’ It All The Way” on the album but turned out to be the best songs of the night as performed.
The incredible thing about the show was that, for both Kandy Whales and U.S.E., I never for a second wished I wasn’t there or that I was listening to the recorded versions instead, which is rare for me. There might be something to this live music thing, after all!
10.12.2004
Of the handful I’ve heard, I don’t think there’s any doubt that Lady Sovereign is the best female MC in the London scene. Her voice has amazing flexibility, but with a smoothness that cuts through the roughed up buzz of most grime production. She’s got that immediately recognizable quality to her vocals that’s helped Dizzee and Kano become successful, and, like Kano, she’s got an indirect way of addressing beats that plays well off of more off-kilter backing tracks. If she becomes a star it’ll be because (unlike Shystie) she so obviously gets a kick out of what she’s doing. I’m not sure she’s got it in her to reach that point, though – as much as her flow is unmistakably contemporary, her themes are right out of a mid-90’s rave MC’s playbook. We’ve heard that she’s really good, that she doesn’t much care for people who don’t care for her, that she’s short and young and white, and that’s about it. If she does have fifty things to say, I haven’t heard them. I certainly don’t want her to turn into Ms. Dynamite (although “Boo” and “Envy” era Dynamite beats anything Sovereign’s done yet), but it wouldn’t hurt to branch out a bit lyrically.
10.05.2004
SALT
Wednesday, October 6th
10pm-2am
Café Saint-Ex
14th & T St NW
WDC
Tom Waits Real Gone release party, with giveaways from Filter Media
+ all the usual suspects (but probably not Usual Suspects)
9.20.2004
The success of the Black Eyed Peas after adding Fergie to their lineup can only be attributed to the multiplatinum vacuum of the vast cultural void that exists in the wake of the Fugees.
dear Fugees: the world needs a credible permanent-lineup r&b/hip hop male/female group with visionary but timeless production!
dear Black Eyed Peas: you are not that group!
p.s. - dear Pras: I take back everything I said about you!
After 5 straight hours of listening to crunk it all becomes clear... the high hats, the elementary but ominous string chords, the muffled bass, the gruff voices... it's not the heavy metal of hip hop, it's Front Line Assembly. Wouldn't take much to imagine David Banner and Pastor Troy battling over instrumentals from Caustic Grip.
9.19.2004
There's something very important about Jose Andres being named Bon Apetite's chef of the year and Michel Richard making the cover of October's Gourmet. It means the Epicurious empire is throwing its weight behind DC in a way that's going to make it competitive with Chicago as a dining destination. With the increased attention, there’s a lot riding on the critical success or failure of CityZen. We’ll see how it goes.
I went out to see Jake Fairley on Wednesday night after work. Very nice to hear some proper live techno, first time I’ve done so in years. The room was small, the soundsystem was crisp, and the snare hits tore through the space like thunderclaps. Techno is now as mature of a genre as house – the music knows exactly what it needs to do and when it needs to do it, so now it can start to branch out without losing its effectiveness. Jake had a real textural mastery of his material, the thought and effort that goes into each element can really be savored in a minimal set. As good as it was, the crowd was pretty clearly split into two parts – the 4 to the floor techno fans, and the people like me who were waiting for the schaffel. It only came at the last 15 minutes of his set, but the payoff was exquisite as the offset high hats rose into the mix and the entire structure of the set acquired a loping funkiness, like a Teutonic “Lean Back”. By the time it led into the live vocals and glam grunge distortion, a monster had been born. Right alongside Dizzee’s acapellas as live moments of the year so far.
9.15.2004
So is "Stand Up Tall" is being hyped as Dizzee's first Showtime single for the US market? It's a question of which way XL's US division is pushing the record. As a more hip hop album, Showtime may have a better chance at cracking the outer fringes of the US hip hop market. If it's going to be marketed this way, though, there couldn't be a worse single choice than "Stand Up Tall", which is slightly less hip hop than the Chemical Brothers. But "Stand Up Tall" is a great single choice to appeal to the anglophile market, which is where I suspect most copies of BIDC ended up. It's got potential for uptempo club play and comes much more clearly out of a UK dance music lineage than the rest of the album.
It's easy to say that the record should appeal to the same market as A Grand Don't Come For Free, but there was half an hour and a world of difference between the bravado of Dizzee's acapella freestyles and the audience singing along to "Dry Your Eyes" at their July show here. As much as he'd claim to hate the idea, Skinner's turned into our Oasis while Dizzee's hasn't yet been pinned down.
Okay, to clarify my Annie comments: yes, “Greatest Hit” and “Heartbeat” both have a current of pathos, the first due to unfortunate real-life circumstances and the second in the lyrics. But the optimism is there in the potential for the heartfelt experience.
9.13.2004
Getting a new Annie track, “Me Plus One”, off of Fluxblog cemented my thoughts on “Chewing Gum”. I can recognize that “Chewing Gum” is a great track, but I think Annie was the wrong vocalist for it. Her best songs, “The Greatest Hit” and “Heartbeat”, both address the idea of going out and dancing with someone with an absolute optimism and euphoria that hasn’t been touched since “Join Our Club”/”People Get Real” era Saint Etienne. To hear her waxing cynical on “Chewing Gum” was like hearing Junior Senior do an a concept album about depression.
It seems a bit odd to talk about trusting a singer who’s never released an album, but I trusted Annie’s optimism. As much fun as her first couple of singles were, they were also very earnest. It was nice to believe that someone was actually having fun when they went out instead of just writing songs about having fun. “Me Plus One” is bright, but it’s a fame song, which automatically throws some distance and jadedness into the mix. As Richard X-produced pop stardom-hungry newcomer tracks go, it’s no “Some Girls”.
I’m beginning to resent Richard X. His metapop commentary tracks are getting a little old, as is the lack of a real low end on the production side of things (I get the whole summertime boombox/shoddy mp3 aspect of this, but it’s been quite a while since “Girls On Top”. He seems to be a little better when his singers are covering other lyrics rather than writing their own; maybe some of the recycled aspects of his music cast a shadow over any attempt to come up with a fresh set of lyrics (again, “Some Girls” is exempt – but that was channeling some greater power). Let him work with old singers who bring a similarly jaded perspective or new ones who don’t know what they’re getting into, but let the optimists keep Annie – we don’t have a lot on our side.
9.06.2004
5.13.2004
THE BUZZ : Worthwhile 90's compilation or rushed cicada cash-in?
90's US alt-rock nostalgia has finally kicked in with the release of The Buzz a television-advertised compilation of post grunge/pre nu-metal US modern rock radio staples. As most of these were released during my high school years, I'm going to comment on each from memory alone...
Sublime - "What I Got"
They irritate me much less now than they ever did then, but maybe that's because 311 showed how truly bad the formula could be. Sublime, though, is definitively a California band and I am simply not a California person.
REM - "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?"
A few minutes of flailing away to convince everyone they can rock. I still don't like it. They got a little more experimental with the next album with sometimes good results. It must have been hard to follow up Automatic..., but it's no excuse for Monster. It was their Zooropa, garish cover and everything, but without the benefit of a "Lemon". Though "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" was absolutely a radio staple in the mid-90's, I don't think it should have been included in this collection based on the length of REM's career - all the other bands here had their first (or only) hits at the time.
311 - "All Mixed Up"
Eew. Cultural tourism of the worst kind.
Cranberries - "Zombie"
I still look back on this and wonder what they were thinking. I guess it was, like REM's experiment above, an attempt to show that they could rock. Except that on the evidence of their first album, everyone knew that even The Sundays could probably take The Cranberries in a knife fight (Harriet Wheeler did, after all, kick a boy). I thought "Linger" was very good, a bit of floaty Cocteau-influenced radio sanctuary. "Dreams" was definitely their crowning achievement, a track with huge momentum that just got better as it built.
Eve 6 - "Inside Out"
I think this is underrated, but then again maybe I only liked the track because the lead singer looked like Renton in Trainspotting. It worked pretty well with a limited palette of guitar bursts and static vocal lines. I got into a car accident when this song was on the radio.
Filter - "Take A Picture"
Much like The Cranberries and "Zombie", nobody really expected this from Filter. An offshoot of NIN, they had a minor hit with "Hey Man Nice Shot" and then went quiet for a few years. They had processed Ministry-style guitar and big time shouting and rumbly bass, then came back with something that sounded like a poppier lighter version of "Silent Lucidity"?!? And it was a big hit for them, mostly because it made people not want to cover their ears like they used to.
Collective Soul - "Shine"
The most mediocre of all mediocre bands, Collective Soul sounded like a group of studio musicians given 20 minutes to make a grunge song for a commercial. The odd thing was that each of their subsequent efforts had its own really distinct character and mediocrity, they weren't turning out the same thing each time. I always got the sense that they were a band that could sell a million albums but not have anyone come to an appearance to have their CD signed.
Semisonic - "Closing Time"
It's the anthem! A decent track far overexposed. A little odd that a song about hanging out at bars became a huge hit for 16-year olds? The sad thing is that their follow-up single, "Singing In My Sleep", was outstanding and got nowhere. It was a euphoric track about mixtapes, just the kind of thing that every music geek would love, but every music geek hates Semisonic because every non-music geek knows the words to "Closing Time".
Better Than Ezra - "Good"
This is a great song! It's got a real economy to it; there's no time wasted and it doesn't wear out its welcome. I love pop songs that that get the job done and make way for the next track. Great chunky bassline, slightly annoying vocal modulation.
Candlebox - "Far Behind"
I like the way the high clean guitar intro sounds, but other than that it's hard to say nice things about this song or about Candlebox in general. They were the first real second generation grunge band, the one that gave the impression that they saw grunge as a path to popularity.
New Radicals - "You Get What You Give"
A noticeable break from the competition, this sounds more like Simple Minds than it does like anything else on this compilation. The lyrics couldn't be less grunge/slacker - the idea of being excited about a 100% return on your energy investment couldn't be farther from the apathetic view ascribed to Gen X. It's a fantastic track, I'm glad Greg Alexander went on to some success as a songwriter after this.
Everlast - "What It's Like"
I don't remember this one, but I remember not liking it. Everlast was the proto-Bubba Sparxx, the white rapper working in his own cultural vernacular. This may have been his really blatant crossover appeal track, can't recall.
Seven Mary Three - "Cumbersome"
A footnote to a footnote. They mined the same heavy 1970's rock as Screaming Tress, but did so much less effectively. The self-pity in this sing is unbelievable, I imagine I was never able to sit through the whole thing. At the time I thought it was surely the death knell of grunge, but that was before Creed.
Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"
It was fun while it lasted, which was about as long as the title implies. I can't believe there's anyone who would want to hear this song ever again. Some kid's going to play this at a 90's DJ night in 2023 and I'll cry into my beer as everyone runs up to find out who it is.
Counting Crows - "Mr. Jones"
Ah, the nation's first glance at He Who Would Be Robert Smith. Duritz comes out swinging on the first big Counting Crows single as the anti-Cobain with his "When I look at the television, I wanna see me staring right back at me" grab for fame through music. He wants to be Bob Dylan. He lifts the backing chorus "sha la la" from Van Morrison. Overall, though, still pretty catchy, and certainly better than their later string of hit dirges. This album sold something like 8 million copies?!?
Gin Blossoms - "Hey Jealousy"
Melodically not too far off from "Mr. Jones", but it's working on a much smaller scale and ends up sounding much better for it. Simple Matthew Sweet type pop song, their later singles played out with diminishing returns. This song would probably be considered some sort of lost classic if it had never gotten popular.
Marcy Playground - "Sex And Candy"
Sort of an odd song in the pop landscape of the time, it plays like a Violent Femmes song at half speed. Notable for some nice chord shifts from the titular chorus bit to the "dream" bit. I was never a fan of this track, but I never minded hearing it. I don't remember them ever doing anything else.
Deep Blue Something - "Breakfast At Tiffany's"
Catchy. Well produced. Very awkward chorus that kind of drills itself into your head, but it's far too full of itself to enjoy it. I remember seeing an interview with them (VH-1, maybe?) in which they claimed that their live show got a lot of Bauhaus comparisons. I find this a little bit hard to believe - maybe they had themselves confused with Peter Murphy?
Soul Asylum - "Runaway Train"
Dave Pirner, out to save the world. Now, I imagine, he pretty much sits around waiting for Kevin Smith to call him for more soundtrack work. This is probably my favorite Soul Asylum track, but that's saying very very little.
Toad The Wet Sprocket - "All I Want"
Pleasant. I liked it well enough, along with most of their other similar singles. It was the American radio-friendly face of shoegaze, sans distortion and sped up. A Toad The Wet Sprocket screwed and chopped remix collection, then, would be pretty great. Though the lyrics were never any good, the lead singer's voice was notable for not having any of that grunge scratch to it, a bit more of an 80's voice.
Spin Doctors - "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong"
It's no "Two Princes", certainly. Poor poor Spin Doctors, they'll always be the butt of 90's jokes. The odd thing was that everyone knew this at the time, so their popularity was something of a mystery. I don't think anyone who ever bought their album thought for a minute it wouldn't end up in a used bin next to another 15 copies of the same.
Ben Folds Five - "Brick"
I remember that this track was around, but it's left my head after I had a slight grasp on it earlier. Pretty sad that Ben Folds would take himself as the most serious songwriter of the group here and I can't recall it. I think the Maroon 5 song is a better version of what he was shooting for. A couple of years ago, Neil Hannon was opening for Ben Folds on a US tour - the indignity!
Dog's Eye View - "Everything Falls Apart"
This one took a while to come back to me, at first all I remembered is that they were awful. But now I've got it, and they were a second-wave 90's jam band. The poor man's Blues Traveler, if that tells you anything.
The Presidents Of The United States Of America - "Lump"
Stupid isn't always good. But most of the time, it works pretty well. Everything that POTUSA had to offer was showcased in this track, it was kind of embarrassing for everyone when they released a follow-up single.
Verve Pipe - "The Freshmen"
Without a doubt, the worst track on this list. All the Verve Pipe's singles rode the down side of mediocre, but this one was just horrific. More bombastic than Live's "Lightning Crashes", it told the story of a young girl who... I forget, I think it was probably about date rape or something. If I recall correctly, though, the Verve Pipe's lead singer was waaaay too old to be singing about freshmen, regardless of whether it was about high school or college.
Blind Melon - "No Rain"
Shannon Hoon. Life cut short by drugs. Don't expect him on the cover of Spin on the 10-year anniversary of his death. Not a horrible song, though. The rest of album wasn't bad either (let the record show I didn't own, copy, or borrow it at any point, though).
Porno For Pyros - "Pets"
Perry Farrell looks so scary now. I remember this song being very popular, but I sort of shut it out, even at the time. I still can't bring myself to like or dislike it.
Butthole Surfers - "Pepper"
Phased trip-hoppy verses, good wall of sound chorus, bad personal associations. I don't think anyone, least of all the Butthole Surfers, expected the Butthole Surfers to have a substantial radio hit.
Len - "Steal My Sunshine"
100% Gold. I think it fits with the New Radicals song as something that came along a little too late and is too upbeat to be considered part of The Buzz. Big reverbed woodblocks, recorded conversation in the beginning ala "The Sweater Song", male and female vocals, refreshing non-testosterone driven.
Mazzy Star - "Fade Into You"
How did this opiate of a track end up on playlists? A gorgeous song, and it turned more people than I can count onto 4AD/Galaxie 500 stuff, but it's hard for me to imagine putting it in rotation. If I were to own anything that appears on Buzz Bin, it would be this CD. Also, am I the only person who thinks the duet Hope did with the Jesus and Mary Chain was the best thing JaMC ever did? It had that great New Order lazy insistence to it.
Tracy Bonham - "Mother Mother"
No, can't remember this one either. I keep getting her confused with Merideth Brooks. The collection's really missing a Bush track, or something by The Toadies.
Eagle-Eye Cherry - "Save Tonight"
Who's that gigolo on the street? I'm sure Neneh must have excommunicated from the family after he released the kind of track that 1990's VH-1 was made for. Not only did I dislike it, but it was one of those rare hits that crosses over to just about every format. Inescapable. It hit the soft rock stations a long time after it initially broke, too, so it was in heavy rotation somewhere on the radio for the better part of a couple years.
Aw damn, now I've got the itch to do another 90's night...
