June 2005 Archives

I’ve been a passive Foo Fighters fan since the band’s inception. From their first album till now, Dave Grohl has transformed from “that dude from Nirvana” to a consummate rock and roll star, playing multiple instruments, writing great songs, releasing some of the better rock albums and even starting up a thrash-metal side project that I have no interest in listening to but respect him for doing it none-the-less.

And now, in what seems like their fifth decade, the Foo bring double disc goodness with In Your Honor.

There are some guest appearances on the new album, including some guy named John from some band called Led Zeppelin but most of In Your Honor is standard Foo. There are the rock scorchers and there are the slow acoustic ballads. The difference here is that they are separated onto their respective discs.

The album is not is great as Dave made it out to be. He had gone as far as to say it would be the Foo’s Physical Graffiti. It's not. If I were Dave Grohl, I would have taken the best of both CDs, combined them into a coherent whole and then released the rest of it as a special B-Sides disc later on down the road when album sales dipped ever so slightly.

Stuff to Sample: From the non-acoustic disc of In Your Honor “DOA” and from the acoustic disc “Over and Out”

Well, apparently I took a little vacation there. Why? I’m a lazy American, that’s why. And if you can’t get behind that, then you must be a Commie. But fear not comrade, let’s all gather next to warm glow of music and rejoice; I’ll look past your pinko bastard tendencies if you just take a listen to what I offer.

Coming soon, the White Stripes rip off Rush. Yes, I said Rush. Bossa Nova (Remixed) for any occasion, Norwegians do it better and a judgment handed down from nine folks who wouldn’t know what an .MP3 was if it bit them in the ass.

I’m on it. Don’t worry. In the meantime, go check out my boy ScottyOpAmp and his blog A Tree From The Forest. ScottyOpAmp tackles the tough political issues of our day including why Republicans love porn stars. He's like Lewis Black, catching stories that fall through the cracks but with out all that nervous finger waggling and jibber-jabbering.

Little Brazil – these guys amaze me. Not because they are great musicians or songwriters – no. What amazes me is how these guys can go from decent Midwest indie band to the heights of suckitude in the span of about five minutes. Do they even listen to the music before the release it? Damn.

Little Brazil is from Omaha, Nebraska, which sucks for them. They all have menial day jobs, one of them works at Cinnabons (Seriously, is that a joke?) and I think they listen to too much Death Cab For Cutie.

Somehow, I ended up with their EP You and Me and now I’m writing about it on my blog. The rest off the EP is good enough to keep bringing me back but makes me wonder why I’m still listening to it.
Well, you can’t win them all, I guess.

Stuff to Sample: Little Brazil doing some great progish indie rock with “The Way You Listen” and then doing a 180 and taking the express lane to What-The-Hell-Were-We-Thinking-Ville just past the God-This-Sucks exit with “You and Me”

Well, I’m disappointed, not terribly, but disappointed none-the-less. I got the new Redwalls record today and that made me happy, but then I listened to it and I was let down. I’m not saying it’s bad, most of De Nova is great it’s just not as great as Universal Blues.

The Redwalls still breeze through the by gone days of Brit rock with a stylized ease and they still sound like the hideous love child of a Bob Dylan and the Beatles' sloppy one night stand. So what’s different?

The difference between De Nova and Universal Blues is the polish. Universal Blues was rough and ragged and rocked. De Nova is slick and a tad over produced, the vocals fade into a wall of sound and a new horn section borders on overkill (don’t get me wrong, horn sections kick ass, but only when used properly).

The album is still great though, as fresh and different as anything being made today (with the exception of the White Stripes) and well worth the listen.

Stuff to Sample: From De Nova "Build A Bridge" and "Falling Down"

I think the golden age of electronic music has passed. Not that it was here for long, but while it was, baby that was great. Most of today’s electronic artists are just hold outs from a better time.

Take for instances the down tempo mavens Tosca. A collaboration between European super producers Rupert Huber and Richard Dorfmeister (of Kruder+Dorfmeister fame). Tosca, as well as K+D, hit their stride in the mid nineties and have sort of stuck around since the bottom fell out of the electronic music market. And that’s cool. Way to be unflappable Germans.

Tosca’s new album J.A.C. (I’ll skip the boring explanation about how they named the album after their kids) is out now. Personally, I always liked K+D more then Tosca or even Peter Kruder’s side project Peace Orchestra. But I’ll take a new Tosca release any day. The majority of J.A.C. is decent – good down tempo electronica and most importantly, it’s coherent.

Stuff to Sample: From J.A.C. "Heidi Bruehl" and "Forte"

Somewhere on the musical scale between Aphex Twin and RJD2 is Prefuse 73 aka Scott Heren. Honestly, I really want to like Prefuse. But he is making it increasingly difficult. Prefuse 73 could make some spectacular sample-happy down tempo/trip hop to rival RJD2. The only problem is Prefuse seems unable to concentrate on anything for more than a minute, minute and a half – tops. After 60 seconds pass on Prefuse’s new album Surrounded By Silence, the ADD kicks in and he’s all like, wanna go ride bikes?

It’s his untreated ADD and those glitchy, spastic beats that I get hung up on every time. Prefuse has some great samples but the beats behind them muck up the whole arrangement. (I never could get past the glitch of so called “IDM,” even Aphex Twin, who I profess to love - especially the Richard D. James Album, will make me insane pretty quickly).

Prefuse is lacking a coherence in his music and that is all I’m really looking for today. Coherence. I know some people like the glitch and sputter of Prefuse 73, and I can dig that . . . at least they are not listening to ABBA.

Stuff to Sample: A prime example of Prefuse’s ADD and glitch beat mentality comes shining through on "Pastel Assassins" and a tiny bit of coherence can be found on "Expressing Views is Obviously Illegal" both tracks are from his new album Surrounded By Silence.

Joke Time:

Q: How many kids with ADD does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Wanna go ride bikes?

Jack Johnson (not the boxer) is everywhere. Everywhere I tells ya! I never paid him much mind, kind of pegged him as a guitar playing surfer dude with no real talent off the board. But, the best thing about not being a Republican is I can admit I was wrong and flip-flop, as it were. It may cost me the presidency of the blog-a-sphere, but so what, I’ll just kick back and live off my woman’s condiment fortune while the Repubs run amuck.

But condiments are not the topic here. What is important is I have decided to flip-flop. Jack Johnson is not as bad as I first thought, in fact, I likes what he does.

He may have first made a name for himself as a surfer but I think his lasting legacy will be his body of musical work. Jack is adept at writing chilled out, beach bumming, pina colda sippin’ little ditties with the slightest hint of pop sensibility that melt as they hit my eardrums. His new album, In Between Dreams is full of acoustic beach banter and ballads. Then there are his other appearances in the recent months, including showing up on the new Handsome Boy Modeling School disc White People and a guest spot on the Black Eyed Peas’ new one, Monkey Business.

As a side note: I would love to hear Jack Johnson play the blues. Yeah, Hawaiian blues. Not like blue Hawaiian punch, but a little bit of distortion and a little bit of crunch. There’s always the next album, I guess

Stuff to Sample: From In Between Dreams “Good People,” Handsome Boy Modeling School’s “Breakdown featuring Jack Johnson” and the Black Eyed Peas’ “Gone Going featuring Jack Johnson”

Oh, I love rock and roll. Especially when it’s dirty, gritty, blues-soaked rock and roll. And when I don’t have to leave town to see it, that's even better. And that’s saying a lot, because I usually have to drive at least an hour for something as great as the Black Keys. But when they set up shop in my backyard, it doesn’t get much better.

So the Black Keys came, saw and probably left immediately afterward. There was an after party that I didn’t stay for because the band that was booked to play didn’t pique my interest. I had heard rumors of the Heartless Bastards but it was all for not. So I left, but not with out ringing ears and a warm feeling in my belly.

To tell the truth, Patrick and Dan looked a little road weary. I can only imagine how tired they felt after such a long tour and being so close to home but having to play one last freak-show in the culture backwater that is Northwest Ohio. But tired or not, the boys ripped through a nearly flawless set in front of a packed house that included material from all of their albums plus a cover of Iggy and the Stooges “No Fun” from the Black Keys' little heard The Moan EP.

Released between Thickfreakness and Rubber Factory, The Moan EP has alternate and decidedly dirtier versions of “Have Love Will Travel” and “Heavy Soul” as well as the title track “The Moan” and the Stooges cover “No Fun.”

It’s worth having for three reasons. 1) It’s the Black Keys 2) It’s rock and roll 3) I love it.

Stuff to Sample: From The Moan EP “No Fun” and “Have Love Will Travel”

I have a question. Where would we be without the Clash? Still wearing polyester and doing the hustle? No, probably not. But we wouldn’t have any of those annoying pop/punk bands, Ska may have never taken off and then died suddenly and the members of a band called the Dead 60s would all still be working minimum wage jobs in Liverpool.

I’m only semi interested in this band because nobody has ripped off the Clash lately with such shameless abandon as these guys manage to do. Even the imagery they use on their web site is a total Clash rip off.

The Dead 60s chose their name as a slight to all of the 1960 British rock acts, especially one group in particular who also hailed from Liverpool.

These poor, misguided youth, don’t they know that all modern music can be traced, at least in some part, back to the Beatles and their influences? The Clash played punk but also incorporated elements of soul, R&B and straight rock and roll into their music, all of the same influences that drove the Beatles. The Clash picked up on the international sound of Reggae the same way the Beatles pulled from any musical culture they felt necessary.

The Dead 60s don’t understand their heritage as Liverpoolians, and putting down the Beatles while emulating another band, who were most likely influenced by the Beatles or at the very least used the mold the Beatles made to create great music, is dumb.

Which just goes to prove my theory that punks are stupid, stupid people. Show me a smart punk and I’ll show you some one who will be wearing a suit and working in a cubicle in five years.

Stuff to Sample: the Dead 60s' "Riot Radio" and "We Get Low"

In real life, I don’t like my job all that much. It's nice and all but I work with a couple of tool bags and a lunch box. I’m usually thinking about something else or wishing I was somewhere else, not working. When, I feel this way, which is often, I put on my headphones and try to find something to brighten my mood and speed the day.

This week, I’ve been using Architecture in Helsinki to drown out the mindless drone and inane chatter that flows like verbal diarrhea from some of my co-worker's mouths. And to tell the truth, this practice has made me a better person. Not in any real sense of the word, I just feel better after listening to AiH’s new album In Case We Die.

AiH are a collective out of Austrailia. They have a horn section and have been described on many occasions as “twee.” What is this “twee” you may ask? Well, I asked too, and this is what I got. Twee is British slang meaning wimpy, quaint or tiny. The Internet told me it is derived from a child’s attempt to say “sweet.” “Twee” usually carries a negative connotation but in music it can be used to describe a pop sound found in indie groups (See Zolof).

And while this is all very interesting and AiH does have some undeniable pop elements, I would assert that even calling them “twee” would be ignoring the incredible range of this band. At points AiH sounds like a rock band and then a pop group and then an electronic outfit (usually all at once) and then I hear traces of the Flaming Lips followed by traces of the Talking Heads and so much more.

AiH are about to embark on a tour of the United States. Go see them if they come to your town, they will make you forget about the tool bags you work with.

Stuff to Sample: Architecture in Helsinki’s “It’s 5!” and “Maybe You Can Owe Me”