Hard Like Algebra

HELLO!

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULARLY (UN)SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING TO POINT OUT THAT JOHN DARNIELLE IS BLOGGING AT POWELLS.COM ALL WEEK.

THAT IS ALL.

THANK YOU.

GOOD DAY.

Liz Phair: once an indie darling, she sells out to Hollywood (slamming Chicago in the process as she runs off and tarts herself up for a monstrosity of a major label album), then claims that it was all the label’s fault. I’m not buying it. [via]

Steve Hayden writes in defense of Stone Temple Pilots. [via]

My favorite one-stop internet-shop lately has been Fluxtumblr.

This iPod boom box, 80’s style, is pretty much the best thing ever.

What If Every Single Joel Silver Movie Took Place In The Same Universe?

With ‘Accelerate,’ R.E.M. Hits Top Speed Again (see what I mean about the R.E.M. story theme?)(Thanks to Erin for the link!)

You said that irony was the shackles of youth, uh-huh.

Much to my girlfriend Erin’s chagrin, all the talk about R.E.M.’s “return to the glory days of Monster” has prompted me to dig out the old REM and see what makes it tick (sorry, hon).

I especially have been thinking about the way that my opinion of them has shifted, the way that my view of Monster keeps changing, and how people can have completely different (and conflicting) views of the same band. What makes R.E.M. a band that I realized I love to my core the way that Erin was gushing about rediscovering Matthew Good Band this weekend?

And more than that, would R.E.M. be that band again?

We rented a car this weekend and when you’re a music nerd, that always translates to “holy shit I have a car in which to play CD’s again,” because wow, sometimes I wonder if I would ever have TRULY liked the Sunset Tree or Len as much as I did because I had a car back then.* Since my driving resides somewhere much closer to “over-cautious grandma” than “reckless speed demon” on the continuum, Erin always drives if we have the option, granting her musical power.**

It also means that when I put Monster on, I was gushing, but I had no idea how much I’d get to hear before she had too much Stipe. I bargained my way to five tracks, because seriously look at this list:

What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?
Crush With Eyeliner
King Of Comedy
I Don’t Sleep, I Dream
Star 69

The first two tracks made me especially giddy. I couldn’t believe that this album had been living in a random box somewhere in the living room. It felt like fate had decided to let me find this album in the pile, just to brighten an already fun day. From the cheesy, overdone D-to-G-perfection opening, to “oh man ‘Crush’ is about Courtney Love, but then, maybe not?” to the rockin’ out nonsense of “Star 69,” I was beaming. She and I got to talking, and I realized that this album came out when I was sixteen. Sixteen! And it was also one of the first albums that I bought the same day it came out.***

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I’m not so great with memorizing things, but somehow music makes such an impression on me that I’ve got a nearly savant-like ability to remember the dates when albums were released. It makes sense I suppose: I’m a musical learner after all, and so it checks that I could remember that that STP album was 1993 and that Soul Asylum one was 1992 and that Flaming Lips album was 2002.

This carries over to mean that I have to filter through what music was playing at the time in order to remember personal dates. So, I know that we were living in the house we built in Marengo because of the fact that I can remember listening to “Black Gold” while cleaning the garage. I know that 8th grade was 1991 because, hello Nirvana (plus Nate listening to Nine Inch Nails from the year before).

So, that means that songs get tied to relationships, of course, of course. There are albums or songs that just naturally end up solidly meaning that person at that time in that place, and there’s nothing I can do about that (nor would I want to, even). I remember how appalled I was when a friend said to me, “you can’t do that you know.” I can’t not do that — I can’t fathom memories not filtered in this way. Maybe that’s another reason why music just means so much.

I’m a veteran of a few long-distance relationships, too, and those songs mailed off to each other, postage to other countries or continents? Even more weight.

This also means, as you might imagine, when a relationship goes south, and stays there, whole albums or songs have to get deleted from the hard drive, figuratively and literally. This doesn’t happen often, though it can be pretty significant.

The Streets’ “Dry Your Eyes” loosely fits in this category.

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With the Muxtape phenomenon spreading like viral wildfire, this was bound to happen sooner or later. [via]

An overly bitter, shockingly honest list of 5 Karaoke Songs that Ladies Should Never Sing as an Attempt at Getting Attention. [via]

Darnielle posted a bit more about his illness; get well soon, eh?

The Sound Opinions South By Southwest wrap-up is always enlightening, plus it includes their take on the new REM.

Even livejournal is good for questions like Can anyone…recommend some more good music on the minimalist/ambient front? Soon, Casey, soon.

Finally, my good friend Zach (aka Crazy Purple People) and I started a twitter site to track our daily earworm conversations. Coming to a sidebar near you!

I’m trying to enter the world of CSS tweaking in order to make this place look a bit less boring than before.

A big thanks to Erin for putting up with me getting stuck on the desk for a few hours.

No love to the desk, though.

Anyway, if you know stuff about wordpress layouts, or have a good place to go to pick some up, let me know in the comments.
I might keep this theme for a while, or I might decide that I am annoyed and try another.

If you spend a lot of time reviewing local music, you hear a lot of the Chris Cornell guy singing over a “dunh dunh dunh!” guitar line, or those screamer-Kinney female vocalist clones, or the keyboard duos that Just! Want! Dancing!

As such, when something different comes along, it merits a further look.

So, what exactly is this warbling-but-better-than-that beautiful thing that has landed in my mailbox today?

Why, it’s Rachel Taylor Brown’s new album, Half Hours With the Lower Creatures!

It all starts off with with a sound collage full of clanks and bells, Brown’s wordless singing setting the atmosphere before she pounds away singing about maniacs and radios in the third track, “Stagg Field.” The vampy piano, quiet-loud dynamics, and bass instrumentation on recalls Ben Folds Five, especially in the beginning and ending sections of “Mette in Madagascar,” when the band bounces along, propelling the song.

The layers of background vocals peppered throughout definitely continue the BF5 comparison, but where he often offered slices of life and tales full of characters, Brown dabbles throughout her album in religious imagery. It slows her down a bit, in that you start to wonder if she’s a one-subject pony–though this album talks about God in Tori Amos way, not a god rock way.

All in all, I have to admit, Half Hours has got a bit of the same-y-itis, but I don’t see that as a sign of weakness–I see it as a decent album from someone who has potential to make some great stuff happen on future releases. I bet her music will fill the room at Mississippi Studios, and I hope I can make it out.

Rachel Taylor Brown plays that official CD Release party on April 5th.

“Mette in Madagascar,” from Half Hours With the Lower Creatures:

Some songs really do just fix everything, always.

This is one of them.

Around and about the fall of 2001, I subscribed to CMJ New Music Monthly, based on two things that I knew to be true:

1. The first issue I ever got, back in December 1994, contained a compilation that I still rank as one of the best, if not the best, compilations ever.
2. The issue I got before deciding to subscribe also kicked a ton of ass, introducing me to a lot of singles (including a Marilyn Manson song I actually liked, and “Weekend,” by the Black-Eyed Peas, pre-hype) and bands I thought that perhaps I might want to check out further.

I kept my subscription for a while but eventually felt like the samplers–the biggest reason I subscribed at all–were increasingly off the mark for me.

This is a long way of saying that all the way back when, I discovered a great song called “Lines in the Suit,” by a band no one really seemed to know named Spoon. I loved the way the guy sang–almost talky, a bit raspy–and somehow the weird tromp-glomp of the guitar-drums-and-sometimes-piano stuck in my brain. I started including it on mix CDs left and right, and Girls Can Tell was one of those albums that I would watch for whenever I browsed at record shops. Eventually, when the next album came out and everyone was very very Spoon-smitten, finding their albums became easier, but I never bought any of them, for some reason.

Soon my lack of Spoon become comical–almost embarrassing. Here was a band that was seemingly adored by every critic, and even some of my internet pals(still a new thing to have just a few years ago). Their album covers (especially for Gimme Fiction) seemed nearly ubiquitous in all the publications I read, and even most record stores (note to self: figure out who their publicist is if I ever want to “make it big”). My lack of (much) caring about the fact that their intriguing singer (named Britt. Britt!) lived in my new home of Portland was odd, too.

By the time 2007 was coming to a close, it was clear that Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was another critical success, and I had, predictably, been intrigued to the point of curiosity but not to the point of purchasing. I also had decided that no, I wanted to be all chronological about it, and get the album I should have gotten years before, start with that awesome song “Lines in the Suit,” and work forward. No, I would not bow down to (Ga)5–I would experience it all in order, diligently, methodically.

And then my girlfriend got way into that song “The Underdog,” I started hearing it on the radio, and it was great, in all its Billy-Joel-but-fresh sounding glory.

So, yesterday, I gave up. I used a bunch of eMusic downloads, downloaded both Cinco Ga’s* and Girls Can Tell, and I plan to enroll in Spoon School. So far Ga was too much for a post nature-walking day, but “Lines in the Suit” was still crispy as just poured cereal wth lyrics like “It could have been good by now–it could have been more than a wage, yeah” and that repeated use of “At such a tender age now.”

Brilliant stuff.

*I know I know, it’s just too much fun.

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Related:

Video for “The Underdog”

Britt Daniel so totally sings “Veronica,” on Veronica Mars

Radiohead remixes for free (and it’s legal!). [via]

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I was first introduced to largehearted boy because some smart ass made a tracker that listed how often he posted about the Mountain Goats (short answer: often). So, it comes as no surprise that he would have a great interview on the site with Mr. Darnielle, the day Heretic Pride comes out. I had to avoid reading all of it because I want to have a mostly unsullied-by-reviews reaction to it, but I surely will come back to it later. A favorite part:

SM: “In the Craters on the Moon” talks about “the end of a long war,” but it’s not a political song…

JD: THANK YOU SAM DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY INTERVIEWERS THINK THIS IS A POLITICAL SONG BECAUSE IT HAS THE WORD “WAR” IN IT. I love everybody but seriously people a signpost doesn’t always indicate a road.

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Rosemary posted about the free Mobius Band covers album, and proved that you can capture the personal meaning of a song in far fewer words than I usually do.

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Maxim reviews Black Crowes album; doesn’t actually listen to it.

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David Byrne on yet another music distribution model.

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Great shots of the two Doug Fir Mountain goats shows from flickr member xXxBrianxXx.