Randomly Awesome Song of the Week: 'My Time (Has Come)', The Twilight Singers

Uh, holy shit. I sometimes forget how brilliant this song is, how much it kicks both you and me in the balls and tells us how to grab it and everything else by the balls and to live by the Code of Balls. 

Greg Dulli brings everything here: the guitar, the shouting, the drug use, the certainty of early death, the melodramatic oppression that comes with being awesome. Or whatever. Also, it rocketh. And so shall you, my sons. 

'Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. William Joel!'

Check this out. I occasionally come across hate for Billy Joel, and it is always worthy of my amusement. He's a fun guy to kick around because his music does blow, but he has a ton of money, so you don't feel quite as bad. Basically it is fact to say that he sucks. It is also fact that he seems like a really nice guy who can't catch a break (musically, anyway) and has never really been nasty to anyone, and who is worth of a Dan Barry article. 

I hate his music. But he did somehow convince Christie Brinkley not only to bang, but also to marry his ugly self. So the guy can't be all bad.

Review: The Jupiter Deluxe

Full disclosure: I know Mark Rinzel, one of the guys in the band. By 'know', I mean I saw him play a mutual friend's wedding, at which most of us had been boozing for a percentage of the daylight hours upwards of 75, at least one (1) person threw a beer into the air which landed on another guest during a Hold Steady cover and Mark & Co. played a ridiculous version of 'Rosalita'. 

He is a nice guy, and pleasingly alternative. I don't know what that means.

I will say this: before listening to them, I thought to myself, 'What if it blows? Will I be honest? Will I now avoid Mark? Will I compromise myself and say nice things even though it is horrible and the boys should give up the dream, get real(er) jobs (I don't know what that means) and pack it in to play guitar for the relatives and/or girls they bring home and would like to woo with tales of when they wuz fab?'

Thankfully, this became unnecessary upon listening, and their skills saved me from possible moral compromise. I don't mind lying to people, I just don't like lying to myself and the 5 people who actually read these reviews (It's more, but ... yeah).

I recommend 'Sleazy Thieves' if you want to hear the best of these guys. It rules. It's on my January 2009 playlist and that is a good thing. Except for the fact that January has been so incredibly shitty for good music. But they're good, and they're good guys, and if I'm biased, at least I'm honest. The rest of it is very worthy, and supporting up and coming acts will always lend you street cred with your friends if you recommend them first. So recommend the Jupiter Deluxe. 

Live Review: Animal Collective – 1/21/09 – Bowery Ballroom, NYC

She Hate Me is back with a new review. It's important to note that this review contains both Dickey Betts references and threats of violence, both of which are always appreciated here.

Have you guys heard that Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion is the best album of 2009?  No?  No, really, Stereogum and other like-minded blogs are giving this the “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” treatment.  The reviews are off the charts.  From a fan perspective, these guys are starting to feel a little like the indie rock version of Phish in the mid-90s – “They are so AMAZING, maaan”.  They also seem to be poised for the inevitable Strokes-style backlash.  No worries.  We like to think we are somewhat unaffected by the hype.  If it’s good, it’s good.  If not, you’ll see a post here deriding it as such, with a reference to ball-punching thrown in, though I’m not sure why this is a recurring theme.  Maybe because buying a Grizzly Bear record and having Luis Castillo as your 2^nd basemen are both as brutal as the pit you get in your solar plexes after being punched in the huevos.  But I digress.

Speaking of a kick to the ‘nads, some punk sold me counterfeit tickets, which made for a long and painfully freezing process of actually getting myself into this insanely hyped and sold out show. I did finally get in as the third song was coming to an end and basically was immediately engulfed by a huge wave of tribal beats, percussion, electronic blips, samples, fuzzy guitar and keyboard sounds.  And somewhere in the background there were all these sweet, Brian Wilson style pop melodies with two guys (Panda Bear singing as the smoove soprano and Avey Tare rocking the mic by using a more plain-spoken style) basically harmonizing with each other.  It’s a pretty wild sound that basically translates into a danceable and melodic trance that is not that different from dub or other types of world music.  But it has a lot more stuff than just that going on – elements of hip hop, indie pop and electronica are all thrown in.  

It goes on and on.  These guys have a sound that’s hard to categorize, so I will spare you the tired Rolling Stone-style comparisons, like “Kraftwerk meets the Beach Boys in an open field”.  You get the idea.  Point is:  these guys are the real deal.  Go see them.  The music really draws you in and doesn’t let you out.  They have sing-along verses (“I want to walk around with you…” from “Summertime Clothes" immediately comes to mind) that then veer off into this wild electronic interlude and then back into the verse and chorus, like Dickey Betts does with his blues guitar on “Whipping Post”.  Only there’s no blues here.  It’s all basically electronic, yet it still manages to have a warm, improvisational vibe to it.  You can see why people call them a jam band, you can see why the indie kids love them and you can definitely see them being a huge attraction on the festival circuits in the late-night tents. 

Aside from the wild sound, one of the coolest aspects of the live show is the fact that 3 guys are all basically sitting in front of samplers, keyboards and drum kits, switching from one to the other while harmonizing over the rhythm tracks.  Avey Tare sometimes takes the mic and dances around and sometimes he plays guitar (like he did throughout “Fireworks”, which is one of the better live songs I have seen since Arcade Fire rocked out “Wake Up”), Panda Bear stands in front of his keyboard / sampler and sings throughout and Geologist just mans the sampler and lays down the beats while rocking a sweet head lamp.  Sometimes they use their voices as instruments, sometimes they are very much lost in the mix (as was the case on “Lost in a Coma”), blending in as just another weird sound.  Half way through each song you start to wonder how they even arrive at the overall sound, and then the song switches and goes off in another direction.

This is all along-winded way of saying that: (1) the guy that sold me the fake tickets is a complete asshole, (2) the new album is indeed awesome, and (3) you need to check these guys out at some point real soon. 

Setlist:

Also Frightened

My Girls

Blue Sky

Slippi

Leaf House

Summertime Clothes

Guy’s Eyes

Fireworks

Lion in a Coma

Brothersport

--------

Winter’s Love

Comfy In Nautica (Panda Bear)

Arnocorps: Greatest Band of All Time

Kudos to reader Timothy von Bonesenstein for alerting me to the awesomeness that is Arnocorps. You have to check out their website, which provides a full description of their action-rock hero status, as well as their genre of music, described as live action-adventure audio assault. Their bios are fucking awesome, and they sing with fake Austrian accents. Of course.

Randomly Awesome Song of the Week: 'Conquer Me', Blues Traveller

What can one say? I never bought into Fatso & Co. ever, and they were almost as annoying as Dave Mathews, who single-handedly ruined many college parties for me. HOWEVER, this song is a seven on the ruling scale. Fat guy can't get a date, starts a rock band, thusly woos chicks, confesses loser-dom, and dares some broad to embrace his big fat gun-loving ass. Kudos, lardass. I dig it.

Web Sheriff Sort of a Self Promoting Punk

I'm not really down on stealing music. But how much of a pain in the ass does this guy sound like?

Review: 'This Album Will Make You Kill Yourself', Glasvegas

That's not the real title of this album, but listen to this and tell me you're not Googling 'noose tying lessons' by the time you get halfway through. This album is just so insanely embarrassing, it gives indie music a horrible name, it is an affront to manhood, and it made me consider slashing my wrists with my own iPod.

These guys are actually popular. They were on David Letterman. They're Scottish. Usually this could add up to something. This adds up to nothing. 

Honestly, not since Bright Eyes' recording of 'Silent Night' have you been more easily able to picture a guy sitting in a hotel room with a loaded gun and a bottle of whiskey, trying to decide which to put in his mouth next. Visualize this scenario when you listen these guys sing 'Flowers and Football Tops', about the cops telling a mom her son is dead ... OH MY. They actually sing 'You Are My Sunshine' at the end of this song. I am not kidding. I am still stunned. I am so embarrassed for them. They do not care. 

Consider the song 'Stabbed'. The guy repeats over and over 'I'm gonna get stabbed'. Over and over. Until you are rooting for the people coming to get him, like the stupid people in horror movies running around a house screaming so they give the killer a perfect idea of where they are.

You almost have to wonder if you're listening to a parody album put out to mock mopey emo guys. I am going to throw this out there: This band is a joke, not figuratively (although that is also true), but literally. This is a group of guys who are literally trying to see how much melodramatic, over-emotive crap people will buy before anyone calls Bullshit.

I could go on. I can't go on. I will go on. I'm not even rating these songs. They're all bad. I wish iTunes had some sort of reverse billing where bands like this could pay me money for the time wasted listening to them (Grizzly Bear, yes you, Grizzly Bear). Don't buy this. Especially if you've had a bad day and keep sharp things around the house. 

Top 25 of 2008

Without further explanation or fanfare, behold the Top 25:

#25 ‘Strange Overtones’, David Byrne and Brian Eno

I saw David Byrne at a Pixies show in Manhattan a few years ago. He was in a red sweatsuit and came off like a very likeable guy for the 20 seconds I was around him, and since I tend to make snap judgments about people, I decided he was a good person. ‘This groove is out of fashion, these beats are 20 years old’, I can’t help but be impressed when a guy like this comes out and says ‘This is all I have, I hope it’s enough’. It definitely is.

#24 ‘Art Isn’t Real (City of Sin)’, Deer Tick

So now that the names Deer Tick and Deerhoof have been taken, I am hopeful we have seen the last of them. These guys take the award for Album Cover of the Year (booze, babes, firearms) and it is solid throughout. His monotone singing style combined with the ceaseless rocking makes this one easy.

#23 ‘Angels of Destruction’, Marah

These guys should be 73.4% more popular than they are. Fact. They bring it regularly and are great live. They’ve written some of my favorite songs, and if it weren’t poor form, I’d nominate ‘Faraway You’ for my Top 25 every year. True.

#22 ‘Long Coastlines’, Okkervil River

These guys are hilariously consistently good. You feel like they put a lot of work into it, and that has to count for something. Also, they once threw a bit of ‘Sloop John B’ into a song, and that is never against the Rules of Awesome.

#21 ‘Drive On, Driver’, The Magnetic Fields

So depressingly good, this song about some poor schmuck getting stood up with a ring in his pocket. Anyone who has ever popped the question will attest to the fact that there is a little voice in the back of your head acknowledging the possibility that she could say no.

#20 ‘Manhattan’, Kings of Leon

The guitar on this song is my favorite thing about it. I imagine this would be very crazy played live, although given their current level of popularity, I may never get another ticket to see them again.

The Kings they are a-changin’, I notice that the hair is styled, the clothes look like they were at least not free, and people are filming them in slow-mo back and white. This is semi-depressing, as was my 13 year-old cousin telling me how much she loved them. The cognitive dissonance here is astounding and may cause my head to explode.

#19 ‘Fine Young Cannibals’, Wolf Parade

This album lacked the insane rocking of ‘I’ll Believe In Anything’ or ‘Grounds for Divorce’, both of which I air-guitar to regularly and with the skill that only the truly musically clueless can bring to the performance.

Still, these guys get it right throughout the entire album, and I really get into a band that follows the cardinal rule of ‘Thou Shalt Not Pack Thine Album With Filler’.

Ridiculous aside: When their last album came out, we were all out one night talking about it. Someone mentioned we really needed to see these guys. Someone else mentioned that we already HAD, only they had opened up for Modest Mouse at a show we went to featuring free Sierra Nevada for about seven hours. Five of the six people who were there had no memory of this. Sad.

#18 ‘Victor Jara’s Hands’, Calexico

These guys are serious about the whole Southwest rock thing, that’s for damn sure. This song makes me want to crack into a few Dos Equis, but so many things do and the song features many of the things I feel help to add up to something great: a horn section, a tribute to Chilean political activism, and repeated shouts of ‘Ole!'

#17 ‘So He Won’t Break’, The Black Keys

The Black Keys bringeth the rock. This song moves all over, and has this excellent, funky bass and drum line running through it. These guys are getting better with every album, at some point they will be voted the Ayatollahs of Rocknrollah.

#16 ‘Tessellate’, Tokyo Police Club

‘Cause dire times call for dire faaaaaces’. These guys delivered the goods on this records, every song is at least listenable and many are really, really good. Hard to choose which one I liked best, but I did it based on that line.

#15 ‘Sec Walkin’, My Morning Jacket

Love this song. I immediately put it on my Very Awesome Quieter Shit playlist, which is what I rock when I’m reading the paper on weekends. I’m telling you this because it sort of lets you know the threshold of awesomeness that this song cleared very quickly.

#14 ‘I Won’t Be Found’, Tallest Man On Earth

This man is supposedly some sort of Swede or something. Swedes, right? Who knew. I highly recommend this record, the guy is a great songwriter, the lyrics are very well done, and more than likely, some asshole will compare him to Bob Dylan because he writes songs and plays a guitar.

I did have this thought for no particular reason: whenever Big Head Todd and the Monsters were on David Letterman, Dave would always introduce them by saying ‘Have you seen the size of this guy’s head?’ I can only imagine the fun we would all have if this guy ever ended up on Dave’s show.

#13 ‘Oxford Comma’, Vampire Weekend

What a stupid name for a band. I dig this song, mainly because the meaning I took away from it was that it was a middle finger to snooty types who care about things like punctuation. And since you asked, Mr. Weekend, I do not give a fuck about an Oxford comma.

#12 ‘Aretha, Sing One For Me’, Cat Power

Her EP late in the year was shockingly bad, and I’m very much over the whole ‘I’m too nervous and too beautiful and too drugged to put on a full show that people fucking paid to see’, but you can’t deny the talent here.

#11 ‘Love That Girl’, Raphael Saadiq

This record will get you laid. It also sounds like classic Motown, you’ll swear you’ve heard these songs before. Also, IT WILL GET YOU LAID.

#10 ‘Tokyo Moon’, Windmill

This was a real find off of the Indiefeed podcast for me. Kind of a weird song, but it works, and there’s a Youtube clip with some guy dressed up as a mad scientist singing the backing vocals here, which you’d think more bands would have the sense to do. The rest of the album is great and I was tempted to put in ‘Plastic Pre-Flight Seats’ here instead, but She Hate Me had it on his list, so we’re done here.

#9 ‘White Winter Hymnal’, Fleet Foxes

It seems like a memo went out sometime around December 1^st that everyone had to make this their number one song of the year. It wasn’t THAT great, but it is pretty great. These guys sound like Crosby Stills & Nash with more hair and less balls.

One outstanding question: Can this be included in my Christmas playlist due to the repeated references to snow? Santa says yes.

#8 ‘I Thought I Saw Your Face Today’, She & Him

The first time I heard this album, I thought it was a record full of covers.  I assumed this because so many of the songs sounded like classics I’d heard before, maybe something my Mom was playing when I was a kid. I’d fumble for the lyrics in my head and come up with nothing.

Probably if you’re ever dating a girl this is a good present, for the next 25 years or so. Dudes can still like it. It has this old sound and it’s one of the few times where an actor thought they could transition into music and they were absolutely 100% right. Kudos to M. Ward for being a part of it, I’m increasingly of the mind that he is possessed of an odd genius, and a bag of shit and a lighter to the front doorstep of Keanu Reeves. Dogstar? Please.

#7 ‘You! Me! Dancing!’, Los Campesinos

Some of this band’s songs are really annoying and they need some friends to say ‘Stop. Stop with the shouting.’ But the opening guitar is incredibly rocking and the lyrics are there for anyone who jumped around their room with a tennis racket. I did so, and I was usually Pete Townshend, until I saw the cover of The Who’s ‘It’s Hard’ and that sort of ruined things for me. Great single, worth more than 99 cents, so look at it as an investment.

#6 ‘Self Destructive Zones’, Drive By Truckers

With all of the incredibly annoying shit that Congress is always investigating, may I humbly submit that there be some sort of Commerce Committee investigation into how these guys were left completely off of so many top 50 lists after this album? Not to mention that Patterson Hood sounds like a) a very cool name for a Civil War general or b) an action hero known to slap dogs around? No? No one with me here?

In 4:12 Patterson takes us through the recent history of music in his own special all-balls, no-bullshit sort of way. It should be played at a phenomenal decibel level, and that is my advice for 2009.

#5 ‘Fake Empire (Live)’, The National

Every song means something different to everyone, and to me the Fake Empire was always NYC, but maybe it’s not. It probably is. Anyway.

Saw these guys open up for Arcade Fire awhile back with Matt Berninger limping around and this annoying girl spilling beer everywhere behind us. They made it work and were worthy of the main act, which is a huge compliment when you’re preceding the happy Montrealers.

What a take on an already terrific song for twilight. The end of this song, the end of this goddamn song, it moves to this crescendo and it should be in a movie or something. I listen to this whenever I’m getting ready to go out somewhere, half awake, no way I’m picking apples or making pie, but you can bet we’re putting a little something in our lemonade, and take it with us.

#4 ‘El Paso’, Jason Anderson

A few reviews I saw of this album called the Wolf Colonel naïve and easy to make fun of, but they can go screw, because this was one of the best albums of the year. We had this music teacher in the 3^rd grade who was single-handedly responsible for my inability to sing a note for the rest of my life because she insisted we ‘sing it from our souls’, which made me want to hit someone with a guitar because it was so corny.

Anderson was the guy in class who listened to her, and he carries through on every song. This guy means what he says. The comparisons to Spingsteen are inevitable and believable and you should buy all his records. He sounds like the kind of guy you’d have over to play in your house and he wouldn’t be at all embarrassed to rock out a room full of you and your friends. 

#3 ‘The Rabbit, the Bat and the Reindeer’, Dr. Dog

It is with deep embarrassment that I did not acknowledge my love for Dog, MD until this year. The harmonies, the weird little asides during songs, the way voices fade in and out, the start and stop of the songs, they’re perfect.

I also submit this as ‘Wrap-up of the Year’ for the part from ‘I’m getting it back with that terrible feeling …’ onwards. Fuck yeah, Senor Dog.

#2 ‘Frankie’s Gun’, The Felice Brothers

Bang bang bang went Frankie’s gun, and so the guy singing the song is probably not doing so hot. Or so I would imagine. We can safely assume this is being sung in a rehab facility of some sort or another, and that a colostomy bag does not affect one’s vocal chords.

The Brothers Felice garner a lot of comparisons to The Band, and that’s fair, but whatever, they’re awesome. The song lets you know immediately that this is a band you absolutely want to see live while incredibly drunk.

#1 ‘Constructive Summer’, The Hold Steady

How could anyone listen to the opening chords of this song and not pump their fist, high five the neighbor, slam a beer and punch their nemesis in the face? Fucking right we’re gonna build something this summer, Craig Finn.

Before I listened to this, it had never occurred to me to drink on top of water towers, and it still seems really, really dangerous, but I’m kind of up for it now, and if the Hold Steady brings the ladder, I’m totally down for climbing.

Thirty years ago, Scott Muni would have been wheezing down a microphone at WNEW and proclaiming that this band was saving rock n roll all over again, and it does need saving every so often.

I love this song, I love this band and so what if I’m a recently married thirtysomething guy who’s friends are all having kids and leaving the city and maybe we don’t hang out and drink so much anymore, and that happens to be EXACTLY what this band sings about? This song was my number one from the first time I heard the opening chords. Well done, Hold Steady.

 

 

Thoughts on Criteria for the 2008 Top 25

Let's be clear about something. We have a theory about everything, and one of them is this: there should be no rules attached to what you like or why you like it. If you like Beyonce's 'Crazy in Love' (and we DO), you can like that, there's no reason to be ashamed. You don't have to tell people that Jay Z sings on it in order to justify it, you can just go ahead and LIKE it. We won't judge (yes, we will). 

So despite a lack of rules, there should be a few guidelines when it comes to best of lists, shouldn't there? 'Tis the fucking season for this type of thing, and the more we've read, the more we've become convinced that people either aren't taking this seriously (see the Rolling Stone post below, we are still seething about their picks) or don't know what the hell they're talking about. 

Forthwith, ergo, and thusly, a few thoughts:

a) Your picks should be music you would REALLY listen to. It should not be stuff you picked to seem musically literate to your friends. It should not be shit that 'breaks new ground' but is essentially noise. It should not be unlistenable to a group of people at a party. If you like it because it reminds you of some intense personal experience that you have somehow projected onto the music and it's what you put on when it rains or something, remember: no one fucking cares. 

b) You should run these picks by some normal people. If you live in a cocoon of people who all listen to exactly what you listen to, claim to be 'so bored' with music today or feign total hipster coolness all weekend (ie, you work at NPR, you listen exclusively to NPR, you are from New Jersey but never tell anyone), you need to branch out and ask other people 'Does this suck?' I'm not talking your little sister who digs boy bands, just someone normal. Noise is noise, know the difference. 

c) It is OK to put really unknown shit in your Top 50 because you really like it and you'd like other people to know about it, buy it, support the band, whatever. It is NOT AT ALL OK to put ten of these bands in your Top 10 for any reason at all. I suspect some people throw the most obscure stuff they can think of in their top picks so that we'll all feel like ... like I don't even know why people still do this. I feel such loathing towards the whole 'You've never heard of Pregnant Dolphin? Jeez, man, they'll blow you away, if you've never heard the sound of a ceiling fan being shoved up a lion's ass played backwards, you're not really hearing music' crowd. 

Listen to NPR's All Songs Considered podcast from 12/29/08 to see exactly what I mean. Just listen to it. You'll vomit from the pretension. Vikings Choice, my ass. 

d) Why does everyone's Top 25 come out in December? January sucks so bad, it is the Monday of months, it is the worst month ever, it's the month when too many people say 'Oh, I can't go out all month, I need to dry out from Christmas and New Years', it's the month when it's balls cold out and it's dark at 5pm, so shouldn't there be something to look forward to? 

There is. A punch in your balls is on the way. The General Theory Top 25 is nearly here.