Just watch.
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Here’s how it’s done, kids. Futureheads, “Heartbeat Song” from The Chaos.
h/t Heated Steve.
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Amanda Fucking Palmer in Cabaret (American Repertory Theater). The first time I’ve wanted to see a musical in decades. Rehearsals have begun. One show sold out already. If I was cool I’d start saying I didn’t want to see it right about now.
(The video above is for “Leeds United” from Who Killed Amanda Palmer.)
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Something new in something old. Here The Rifles give us a standard indie-rock hammer on the eighth note song and a two-chord progression to build tension toward the chorus (think Foo Fighters “Everlong” and you’ll hear the song before you hear it). It’s a formula that is still the easiest way to generate an energetic rock tune, but I still like it.
The Rifles – “The Great Escape”
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Above is the wonderful Joe Centeno-created video for the last taste of new music from The Wrens, now 18 months old. You can still download “Marked Up” for free from Stereogum, right here.
The Wrens are one of my favorite bands. They make the debate for the Desert Island/Trapped in an Elevator list. They take forever between albums, but when they deliver, it’s worth it. (Their web site tag line reads “Keeping folks waiting… since 1989.”) The Wrens have been “in the studio” for seven years since the band’s last release, 2003′s The Meadowlands. I have three scenarios forecasting the likelihood of a new release from the band. (The consequences of reading market research: you pay with me.)
Scenario 1, Hopeful: Seven years was the length of time between 1996′s Secaucus and 2003′s The Meadowlands, so we’re due for another soon. The boys are in the studio for real and cranking something out. Even if it takes forever to get “released,” someone will leak it and we’ll be hearing most/all/some of it by Christmas.
Scenario 2, Realistic: Yeah, it was seven years between Secaucus and The Meadowlands, but it was only two years between Silver and Secaucus. Seven years is three-and-a-half times longer than two years, the exponential theory says we have to wait 25 years total for the next full-length; it’s due out in 2028. That’s probably a bit extreme, but common sense (actually, the additive theory, 7+2=9) tells me the next LP ships in 2012.
Scenario 3, Dire: It’s time to start trading bootleg live recordings. I bet I can find a cassette copy of Budapest Cocktail Lounge 1998, but probably not Bowl-A-Drome 1994.
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Got two for you today. I’m procrastinating when I shouldn’t be, but isn’t that the definition? Do me a favor and listen to these so I can claim it was worth it in the thin ether of weightless justifications.
Rather than avoid the fact that The Gaslight Anthem are constantly compared to Springsteen, let’s take it apart. The “New Jersey” sound of Springsteen is really a rock-blues sound based in the intersection of the electric folk pioneered by Dylan and the bluesier end of ’60s R&B. There are many successful bands who have mined this rich and well-plumbed (plundered?) vein. The sound is more American than it is Jerseyan, but we’re happy to own it here in the Garden State. This is the sound I hear in The Gaslight Anthem, whatever their “punk” Warped Tour roots. And rather than most artists clearly influence by The Boss, singer/guitar player Brian Fallon has far more John Fogerty and Van Morrison in him than Johns Mellencamp and Eddie.
The Gaslight Anthem hail from New Brunswick, NJ. A town almost as responsible as my heart for the blood in my veins. On The Diamond Church Street Choir from American Slang, Fallon brings the nostalgia for the Hub City and church choirs (anyone who has ever sung in choir can tell you about that feeling but it’s impossible to explain; from the outside it seems a bit ridiculous) and recalls the influence of Motown on rock n roll and the power of a song to make everything better for three minutes.
The Gaslight Anthem – “The Diamond Church Street Choir”
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of Montreal help feed my need for smart pop music. A friend once pointed out vehemently during an argument we were having over a band I’ve forgotten that “rock n roll is not about intelligence.” (You hear that, Declan McManus?) I think that’s true, but forgive me if I love the brainier/artier/weirder end of making noise. I find it hard to put together a party set without an of Montreal track. They’ve learned all the right lessons from Jeff Lynne. Here’s one for tonight while you’re grilling by the pool or dropping into the city after dark.
of Montreal – “Coquet Coquette”
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I haven’t posted for a few days because I’ve had better things to do. Mostly. Also, I’ve picked up a large freelance project with a tight deadline. So between that, watching my sons (18 mo old twins), and the other thing, I haven’t had anything to put here. If I were British I might say I’m knackered. Since I’m from New Jersey I say I’m fucking tired. That’s “tahrd” for those of you from parts of the country where speech is slower. That doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about the five of you who read this or what I might put in this space, it just means you’re down the list. Go blow your nose; the truth builds character.
My favorite bands tend to be ones that I don’t “get” the first couple of times I hear them. Usually there’s a song I like or something about the music that keeps returning them to my internal playlist. Currently that applies to The National.
With The National it was the song “Mistaken for Strangers” released as a teaser for Boxer. That one clicked, just as the flacks wanted it to. It took some time, but gradually the rest of the album has lodged itself in my head. When this year’s release of High Violet came around, it took one-and-a-half listens to insinuate into my mood and establish a repeating consciousness desire to hear it again.
If you choose to trust my taste in music, give these a listen. If you find yourself liking them, go buy the music and support the artists.
The National – “Brainy” (from Boxer)
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The National – “Sorrow” (from High Violet)
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Family Band is based in Brooklyn, but you can feel the cabin in the Catskills where they record right through the sound of their first album, Miller Path. I haven’t listened to it enough for it to fully take hold, but I have a feeling it will. My wife got me into this track and the rest of it is seeping in. The video embedded above is for the track, “Children,” and it will give you a good idea of what they mean when they say their music is “heavy mellow.”
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Please, go read about them, and buy the album, either in digital format or on vinyl.
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Here are two from Wolf Parade off the brand new third album, Expo ’86.
Wolf Parade – “Ghost Pressure”
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Wolf Parade – “What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had To Go This Way)”
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I’m addicted to mp3 blogs because I’m a new music junkie. Like Iggy Pop, I need more.
Before my kids were born 18 months ago, I was listening to several hundred new tracks every week, combing through them to put together sets for a weekly streaming new music podcast. I never could have managed without a little app called Peel. The best $15 I’ve spent on software. Now it takes me longer to get the time to sort through them, but Peel keeps it all there, a click away. I went through nearly 1,000 tracks this afternoon before I wrote this post.
Full disclosure: I have no connection to Peel and am not being compensated in any way for this plug. I’m just a Mac geek/music fiend enthralled with a piece of software. Yes, it’s for Mac OS X only. Sorry Linux and Windows people.
Peel allows you to subscribe to your favorite mp3 blogs in an iTunes interface. It loads all of the posted tracks so that you can preview or automatically download the music. This allows you to scroll through many blogs and check out the tracks you want as quickly as possible. Downloading is a click away, and all downloads are automatically loaded into iTunes in playlists named for the blog you got the track from. You can also set Peel to auto-download from blogs you are certain you want to grab everything from. Want to know more about the track? A keystroke opens the blog page in your browser. (That’s actually the only drawback for me, I’d love it if the blog pages were preloaded in another window or tab and could be viewed in parallel. There’s a slight disconnect from the blogs in Peel because you just see the tracks listed and not what has been written about them unless you open the blog in your browser.)
I won’t claim Peel gives me more time, but it does help me manage my time better. I don’t spend as much time reading about music I’m not interested in because I preview it first. I see less advertising. Technically those things could permit me to spend less time surfing, but in reality it only means I multitask more effectively during whatever time I spend surfing.
Here’s a good morning track I came across from Four Tet today:
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