September 2005 Archives

Sometimes I watch MTV and it makes me feel dirty. Not in the good, spank me, I’m a bad little boy, now cover me with that jam – dirty. No, dirty like rednecks with money. Or wearing too much cheap cologne. Or staring too long at the girl who can’t be 14 but looks 19.

Watching MTV makes me feel that way. Especially with all the “hip hop” they show. I was almost glad when Sean Paul’s ugly mug reappeared but it soon became apparent that Paul had fallen into the same trap as all the other American rappers, too much bling, too much jiggling, too much schmaltz and too much schtick.

And that’s sad, because I kind of like dance hall.

Fortunately, there is an answer (and it’s not Shaggy! BOOMBASSTIC!), get your fill of Damian “Gong Jr.” Marley before MTV gets their hooks into him and he starts dripping bling and stinking like Diddy (And MTV will try. Not only is he Bob’s youngest son, he’s got talent as well).

Marley has released three albums, his last, Halfway Tree, dropped on the worst day possible to do anything but watch CNN, 9/11/01, and despite being really good nobody paid attention to it (update: Nevermind, Halfway Tree won the best reggae album grammy. I guess I just wasn't paying attention)

Marley’s newest, Welcome To Jamrock just dropped this month. It’ll keep you warm this winter. You’re body will be moving too much to feel the cold and snow. Yeah, I said snow, you know it’s coming.

Stuff to Sample: From Damian Marley’s Welcome to Jamrock “All Night” and “Pimpass Paradise”

I’ve found a Monday album. It’s not so much Monday in sound as it is Monday in mood, at least my mood, anyway, on most given Mondays. This is what I need in a Monday album: bleak and apathetic soundscapes, big, thick bass and a steady beat to keep my head bobbing so I don’t fall asleep.

Timo Maas has released a fairly decent Monday album with Pictures, his second artist disc. It’s not a Friday album, this isn’t dance music, we are not in the club. This is music for machines. The living, breathing cogs in the intricate mechanisms that power Capitalism.

Pictures is a great exhibition of headphone electronica, if your name happens to be Tyler Durden.

You are not your web address. You are not your CSS, HTML and XML. You are not the number of comments you receive. You are not the contents of your blog. You are the all-seeing, all-knowing crap of the cyber-tronic world.

Stuff to Sample: From Timo Maas’ new album Pictures “Slip in Electrokid” and “Release”

Hey, new Strokes will be out soon. Their new song floating around the Internets is called "Juicebox." Sounds like the boys have been listening to a little bit of heavy metal, huh?

So what’s the best thing about this new song? It got me thinking. Jump abroad Fresh’s logic train and see where it takes you.

“Juicebox” is the Strokes new song --> the Strokes have a funny name, it makes me smile for obvious reasons (to a 12-year-old) --> the Strokes' name got me thinking about a song called “Strokin’” by Clarence Carter that was popular in the early 1990s --> I used to see the video for “Strokin’” all the time on channel 48 The Box (I think), a pay per request music video channel (remember those? Maybe I was the only one who didn’t have cable.) --> I hunt down “Strokin’” and have a hardy laugh --> Now, I will share it with you and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Wow, the early 1990s were great weren’t they?

Stuff to Sample: Off the Strokes’ upcoming album “Juicebox” and off Clarence Carters’ Dr. C.C. “Strokin’”

Do you have opinions? Do you feel ways, about stuff? Do you have the overwhelming need to tell others about the things you see in your head when you are supposed to be listening to what they are saying? If so, then you are a perfect candidate to join the eLarceny Family. This is serious, now. I'm giving away a blog, fully functional and at zero cost to you. You get a nifty design, fun little tutorials and the opportunity to blog like the big boys. There are, however, several small criteria that must be met.

1. You must be willing to learn. Not a whole lot, just a little.
2. You must be willing to make at least two posts a week.
3. You must be able to take withering criticism from the rest of the Family, including but not limited to improper use of grammar, poor spelling, body odor, lack of friends, poor fashion and/or music tastes, etc.
4. You must be willing to let your blog interfere with your daily life.

If you feel that you meet these qualifications, e-mail me a short proposal including a blog name, blog topic, sample post and any other ideas you may have to make this happy, little, dysfunctional corner of the internet that much weirder.

I was first introduced to Allison Goldfrapp almost exactly nine years ago via one of the greatest electronic acts to ever grace the face of this earth – Orbital.

Goldfrapp lent her vocals to, in my mind, Orbital’s seminal album, Insides. It was this album that would ultimately shape my musical tastes and, in those formative years, foster what has turned out to be a deep love of electronica.

Today, Orbital has disbanded and Goldfrapp is three albums into her solo career

Goldfrapp’s latest album, Supernature, is nowhere near the scope of Orbital (but what is?) however it is good, heartfelt electronica and shows a steady progression in her musical abilities. Her first album Felt Mountain was so slow and laid back it almost put me to sleep every time I listened to it. Her second effort Black Cherry was a prelude to Supernature as Goldfrapp’s sounds moved from ethereal crooning to a crunchy, electroclash stomp backing her sultry cooing. She is now completely entrenched is her world of hulking beats and strange dance panache.

I don’t know when this album will be out in the states. It doesn’t much matter anymore. “Release dates” have become meaningless to me, thus stripping Tuesdays of any significance. *Sigh*

Stuff to Sample: From Orbital’s Insides “Sad but New” and Middle of Nowhere “Nothing Left 1” and from Goldfrapp’s Supernature “No. 1” and “Slide In”

Summer is going to end soon. It happens. But with the changing of the seasons comes a changing of the guard in my musical preferences. Each season has its own soundtrack, as it were. Just in time for the resurgence of warm colors and earth tones comes the third full-length installment from the enigmatic duo that is Boards of Canada. The new opus is called Campfire Headphase and if you are familiar with this band's form of analog rich, nostalgic electronica, then this album will not disappoint. If you are new to the BoC, I invite, no, implore you to take a deeper look.

With this album I will take a slow drive through the country on a bright yet cool afternoon. I will sit on my porch in the early dusk and watch the leaves drop from my maple tree. I will lie on my living room floor in the evening as a cold rain falls outside. I will awake one bright morning to find that it has snowed and I will know that yet another season has passed, the guard has changed again and a new soundtrack will begin.

Stuff to Sample: From Boards of Canada’s Campfire Headphase “Satellite Anthem Icarus” and "Farewell Fire"

Oh sweet Jebus, I am so far behind. Even if I blogged twice a day for the next three weeks, I still wouldn’t catch up with all the great music that you all just have to know about. Check it right, I’m going to try to do it in one breath.

::Inhale:: Elysian Fields, Matt Pond PA, Paul McCartney (it doesn’t suck!), Black Mountain, the Magic Numbers, Boards of Canada, Goldfrapp, Grand Buffet, Ladytron, Radiohead mashups, Team Sleep, Richard Dorfmeister and Attacked By Wolves. ::Exhale::

And those are only the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Anybody have anything in particular they want to hear? I don’t even know where to start. Maybe I should get an intern. Unpaid, of course.

OK, two things: One, I’m totally poaching this post. And two, I don’t care, so why should you? The following treatise on the digital world was a column I wrote earlier this year. Viva La Revolution!

The song I’m posting is just for shits and giggles. I found it on blog by following a link from another rather large MP3 blog. I’d direct link but this is important and I want you all to hear it so I’m posting it myself. As for naming names, I might as well pass on the love. Check out Stereogum for great indie rock and pictures of Lindsay Lohan. And then look up Banana Nutrament for more interesting things

The Gap Widens: Being Analog in a Digital World

The world is changing. Technology is moving faster, erasing the analog features of our lives and replacing them with digital replicas. Living in a digital world makes it easy to forget that there are human beings behind those tiny bytes of information, those 1s and 0s.

I live in a funny place, straddling the gap between digital and analog, always hoping the gap won’t get much bigger because my body just doesn’t bend like that. Continued after the jump.

Stuff to Sample: Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" with a very special guest helping out on vocals. Can you guess who?

I have a massive collection of digital music, but I prefer to listen to vinyl. I keep tabs on the world through the net, but nothing beats the feel of newsprint. I’ve entered a new age of technology firmly entrenched in the past. I like digital, but I love analog.

But as much as I love old technology, I know it has its limitations and where analog fails, digital will succeed.

The Internet reigns supreme as the most important aspect of the new digital age, simultaneously transforming and democratizing old media.

News no longer has to come from conservative papers or liberal TV networks (or vice versa). Niche market news sites and Web logs (blogs) have become the answer to the watered-down national news media.

Where the advent of the 24-hour news channel failed to create a stronger media, choosing to focus on quantity rather then quality, the new digital age media is free to focus on quality and to take the long, hard look at some deserving issues.

The same principles hold true for the music industry. In the heyday of analog, the recording industry was a veritable oligopoly. Record labels chose the musicians and controlled the means of production and distribution, effectively holding the recording industry above the common man (not that there haven’t always been some great independent labels, but I’m speaking in the simplest of terms).

As technology began to improve and music enthusiasts or home musicians began to gain ground, the recording industry went to war.

The large labels did not like the dual cassette recorder (remember those things? Kids, go ask your parents) and they sure as hell do not like CD burners.

These innovations and many more like them have begun to level the playing field, tipping the balance of power away from industry toward the individual.

Even as the technology improves and the those with the power and money (i.e. the music industry), who could be exploiting the newest innovations, have fought tooth and nail to leave the analog system in place. That is, until they realize they can make money in the digital world too. Then the public is forced to sit and watch as these hapless executives awkwardly try to fit the square peg of analog consumerism into the round hole of digital freedom.

Digital freedom has changed the way music fans find new music, thanks to Web sites, free downloads, peer-to-peer (P2P) programs and MP3 blogs.

Production is no longer confined to expensive recording studios. The price for great sounding home recording has plummeted in recent years.

Distribution is as easy as burning a new CD or uploading new songs. Independent record labels can now operate in cyberspace, offering all digital music, reducing the amount of money needed for production of materials while increasing the amount of money available for the artists.

Yesterday, anyone could play guitar, while only a few guitar players ever made a record. Today, anyone who plays guitar can record their songs, package their music, promote themselves and even sign themselves and others to their very own record label.

Best of all, anyone can participate. Those who want to be musicians, record label owners or music critics can do it themselves because the digital age has afforded us that privilege.

As digital video technology continues to improve, the same full-scale democratization will hit the medium of motion pictures.

Digital technology has already opened the doors for some great directors who would never have had a chance to make the movies they wanted to make.

Yet, with all the freedom available at our fingertips, there are drawbacks. Don’t forget what it feels like to hold a newspaper. Don’t forget cassette tapes and what it was like to wind one back into the case after the stereo almost ate it. Don’t forget what vinyl really sounds like and its intoxicating smell.

Don’t forget that there are people behind those digital bits of information.

Franz Ferdinand will be releasing a new album in two weeks. And that’s cool. But I’m not so sure I even liked their first effort. I listened to Franz’ self-titled debut quite a bit, smiled inwardly when MTV and VH1 played the video for “Take Me Out” and then never wanted to hear that tune again after Sony bought it to use in their PSP commercials.

And now, I just don’t think I care. Franz Ferdinand’s new album You Could Have It So Much Better is alright. Alright in the sense that I didn’t hate it as soon as I hit play. They added some harmony here and there, went for a more expansive sound and generally improved on what they did the first time around. So . . . bully for them, eh?

Of course, I’m just going to feed into the whole Franz Ferdinand Love Fest that is going on in Hipster Nation right now. I’ll put on my shiny, better-than-thou, preaching shoes, write a positive review of You Could Have It So Much Better and have it printed in the monthly entertainment section of the paper I work for. Some people might read it and, mistaking my privileged place in the media for real, honest to goodness music knowledge, actually buy a CD that I would never dream of paying $16 for.

Stuff to Sample: From Franz Ferdinand’s You Could Have It So Much Better “Do You Want To” and “What You Meant”

I’m ready to die . . . now that some enterprising DJ has mixed Big Poppa with the Chairman of the Board. Yeah, Old Blue Eyes and Biggie, rubbing shoulders on wax. But when you get right down to it, Biggie and Sinatra are just one and the same, aren’t they? With all the shady underworld connections and boozing and whoring - those two would probably have been friends. Think of the things they would do! Instead, Frank got saddled with Dean-o and Biggie was stuck with Puffy.

So I guess it’s fitting that somebody finally put them together. And its much better then I could have imagined. DJ Cappel & Smitty brings the skills with Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy. Will it propel him to super star DJ-Mash-Up-Miester status like the Grey Album did for Dangermouse? I’m going to say no, just out of spite.

Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy is available from several different, independent retailers on the Internets for a nominal fee but, honestly, who wants to pay for some mash up? Albiet a very, very good one.

Stuff to Sample: From DJ Cappel & Smitty's Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy “Juicy – New York, New York” and “Nasty Boy – For Every Man There’s a Woman”

Today I hit a chipmunk with my sandal. *POW* Adidas slip-on straight to the head.

Seriously. Ok, let me back up. I didn’t give much thought to these little rodents until I purchased property. If you don’t own property in the suburbs or the country, you may never know the destructive force of a chipmunk. They like to tunnel, a lot. This tunneling ruins foundations, sidewalks, lawns, etc. All of which is expensive to repair. So, on several occasions, I've tried to get rid of him. I’ve filled his holes with concrete, tried to drown him - everything short of setting out a traps or using the trusty 12 gauge.

Anyway, I clocked him good with my sandal. Probably more luck then anything else. I either stunned or crippled him but as I was trying to coral him into a bucket, he up and disappeared. I’ve been thinking about this chipmunk all night . . . caught myself feeling bad once or twice for hurting the little SOB. But, them’s the brakes, I guess. Either smack with the sandal or be smacked yourself.

On a related note, and with out the slightest bit or irony, I would like to remind everybody of those suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And while the human toll is devastating, there are thousands of untold animals, nay – furry family members, who are suffering as well. I know many of you are pet owners or have had a pet at one time and can attest to the warmth and joy they bring into your life. If you would like to help, please consider donating to the Human Society.

I know, I know, before you get your panties in a bunch about me harming one of God’s creatures but asking you to help others, please let me remind you that 1) there is a very good possibility that I am a complete hypocrite 2) not all of God's creatures were created equal (just look at that messed up platypus) and 3) as far as I’m concerned all chipmunks can go to hell.

Stuff to Sample: In recognition of my botched assassination attempt, Echo and the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon"

Oh, the remix album - good, bad or ugly, they are a mainstay of the music industry. I approached the Bloc Party’s new remix album Silent Alarm Remixed with slight apprehension. I was happy, because I now had a “new” album from one of the best bands to emerge in the last five years. But I was still weary despite the lengthy list of all-star remixers like Ladytron, M83, Four Tet and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Silent Alarm Remixed is not the cool, coherent, nearly flawless post puck album I fell in love with earlier this year. Silent Alarm Remixed is a bit discombobulated. Taken separately, the remixes are superb, placed together in the format of an album, the extreme range of electronic styling from ambient noise to four-four dance floor, seems the bounce off one another, repelling like two magnets creating a jumbled, fragmented mix of rock and electronica.

It’s still good though, fans of Bloc Party will enjoy the reinterpretation for a minute or two and then resume the long wait for Bloc Party’s true follow up.

Stuff to Sample: From Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm Remixed, “Banquet (Phones Disco Edit)” and “The Pioneers (M83 Remix)”