tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59588458958596138912024-03-13T12:40:22.547-07:00Crispin KottCrispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-61139694948741494452013-12-12T06:26:00.001-08:002013-12-12T06:26:13.669-08:00My Favorite (and Least Favorite) Music of 2013<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Before going any further, I want to stress that the following is solely based on my stubborn, crotchety opinion. I wouldn't deign to call this a "best of" list, because with </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Yeezus</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"> on so many "best of" lists this year it's obvious I have no clue what "best of" even means anymore. So this is just stuff I really liked and stuff I really didn't like, and if you don't like it, well, make a goddamn list of your own. This isn't in any order, or anything, and I'm still not sure how many albums I'll even have on here, so I'm not numbering shit. Take that, Buzzfeed. <br /></span><br />
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<span class="fbUnderline"><strong><u>Albums I Really Liked This Year</u></strong></span></div>
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<strong>Parquet Courts - <em>Light Up Gold </em>/ <em>Tally All the Things That You Broke</em></strong> </div>
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Purists will say that <em>Light Up Gold</em> was originally released on Andrew Savage's own label in 2012, so even though it came out on the much larger What's Your Rupture? in early 2013 it shouldn't really count. To which I say, "Sorry, nerd, I stopped listening an hour ago," or maybe just "Shut up, putz!" Every year or two, us old indie farts who miss the likes of Pavement and Sonic Youth get treated to a bunch of whippersnappers with wacky lyrics and busted guitars, and Parquet Courts are this year's model (yes, nerd, <em>this year</em>!) And they're from Brooklyn, I think! As if the album wasn't totally dope, we also got the EP, which includes "You've Got me Wonderin' Now," one of my favorite songs of the year. <strong> </strong></div>
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<strong>Bleached - <em>Ride Your Heart</em></strong></div>
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I know they're a band, but Bleached is really about the (not Cliff) Clavin sisters and their awesomely catchy-but-also-scuzzy pop songs. Sort of like teenage love jams in beer-soaked denim, or a slower Ramones. I don't know, I love it, though. I was on board from their first couple of singles, so it was especially satisfying to see they had the goods over an entire album. <strong> </strong></div>
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<strong>OMD - <em>English Electric</em></strong></div>
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I thought maybe my love for this album was largely the result of OMD's super-fun set at Coachella, but it still sounds all bleepy and bloopy in the best possible way all these months later. Their return from the ash heap of an acid-washed bygone era a couple of years ago was no fluke. <strong> </strong></div>
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<strong>My Bloody Valentine - <em>m b v</em></strong></div>
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It's not as good as <em>Loveless</em>, though I suppose it doesn't really have to be. That I'm still listening to most of it months later and still loving it means it was more than just the thrill of new My Bloody Valentine. Half of it is classic, and none of is is inessential. What more could I ask for than that? <strong> </strong></div>
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<strong>Savages - <em>Silence Yourself</em></strong></div>
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Unlike Kanye's celebrated shitshow, here's a hyped album I can actually get with. I don't know what I could add that I haven't seen elsewhere, except this makes me want to jump around and maybe overthrow the government or something. I messed up and missed their set at Coachella because I saw their name and figured they were some dumb band I wouldn't like. I was wrong. This is post-punk glory. <strong> </strong></div>
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<strong>Exit Calm - <em>The Future Isn't What It Used to Be</em></strong></div>
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This band should be massive, but they're still just bubbling under the surface, ready to explode. Their sophomore album has the goods to make up the difference. Epic in the best sense, the songs are anthemic and breathtaking, the musicians right on fucking point. Like the best bits of the Verve with the best bits of U2. And while the debut was also brilliant, they've condensed their sound, un-muddied the way the drums were recorded, and absolutely killed it here. They need to pack a suitcase and come play NYC already, because I've been to England three times in the past two years and they haven't been playing shows during any of those visits. <strong> </strong></div>
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<strong>Daft Punk - <em>Random Access Memories</em></strong></div>
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I'm totally fine with admitting that part of the reason I love this album so much is that it was such a disappointment to people who expected more of the same. Heavy Chic, and I can dig that. <strong> </strong></div>
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<strong>Disclosure - <em>Settle</em></strong></div>
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I have very little use for genres, especially when it comes to electronic music. I only know that under that particularly massive umbrella, I either love it or hate it, and there's very little falling into the vast chasm between the extremes. The Lawrence brothers look like a couple of kewpie dolls, but the sound they make is absolutely irresistible to me. My pal Nick did sound for them at Central Park, and...Well, I'll leave that alone. Love the album, though. <strong> </strong></div>
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<strong>Toy - <em>Join the Dots</em></strong></div>
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The easiest comparison would be the Horrors, though they're less imposing, perhaps. Then again, their sophomore effort does begin with a seven-minute instrumental I'm likely to skip past every time I hear it come on from now until the end of time. But the rest of the album is good fun, satisfying some late-'80s/early '90s indie urge in my subconscious. Hoping the hirsute quintet gets their Visa issues sorted in 2014. </div>
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<strong>King Krule - <em>6 Feet Beneath the Moon</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em> </em></strong>Like Billy Bragg, minus the smirk. I was definitely late to the King Krule party, though I'd read about him well before the album actually came out. But as the weather started nosediving here in NYC, this wonderfully stark album with the haunting voice found its way into my limited radar, and I'm in love. Archy Marshall's music is like Jake Bugg filtered through Mike Skinner's filthy lens. I enjoy Bugg, but I think King Krule is going to stick with me for a lot longer. </div>
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<strong>Torres - <em>Torres</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em> </em></strong>Torres, a.k.a. Mackenzie Scott, is not dissimilar to King Krule in that the music clearly comes from a deeply personal, often uncomfortable place. I'd only casually listened a bit before my friends Chris and Angela were staying with us after our wedding and we all went to see Torres at Glasslands. "She looks like Eve," they told me more than once, and while I thought, okay, sure, a little after looking at the album cover, in person she really, really does. That's Eve, my wife, not Eve the actress/hip-hop artist. When she plays, Scott looks like she's tearing through some painful shit, and it is mesmerizing. The album took on a whole new meaning for me after that. </div>
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<strong>Toro Y Moi - <em>Anything in Return</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em> </em></strong>"Still Sound" was one of my favorite singles of 2011, and <em>Underneath the Pine</em> one of my favorite albums of the same year. <em>Anything in Return</em> is even heavier on the discount synths, and it's all the better for it. Like King Krule and Torres, Toro Y Moi is largely the work of a single musician plying his trade under a goofy moniker. Chaz Bundick is from South Carolina, and has been tagged as one of the forebears of chillwave. I don't know or care what any of that means, I only know I quite like Toro Y Moi, nearly enough to see him alongside all the jerky kids at the House of Vans when we still lived over in Greenpoint.<em>Anything in Return</em> is catchy as fuck in the best possible way.</div>
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<strong>Cate Le Bon - <em>Mug Museum</em></strong></div>
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Cate Le Bon is Welsh, which I only mention because I still crack up when I think of riding the city tram in Manchester a couple of months ago and hearing heavily-accented Welsh being spoken by two drunks: It sounded like a half-melted cassette tape being played in reverse. Cate Le Bon doesn't sound like that, though. She's been described as a modern-day Nico, and I can see the comparison, as there's a stark Velvet Underground sound to much of her music, and her voice is disarmingly sweet and haunting. <em>Cyrk</em> and <em>Cyrk II</em> were among my favorites of 2012, and <em>Mug Museum</em> is right up there in quality and weirdness. Le Bon lives in Los Angeles now, though the sunshine has yet to worm its way too far into her music. It's there, but it only serves to accent the shadows. </div>
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<strong>Suede - <em>Bloodsports</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em> </em></strong>That Suede released an album at all in 2013 was cause for celebration. They'd been touring again for a couple of years, and they likely could have carried on that way playing their deep, lush back catalogue. Instead they dropped their first full-length in 11 years, a collection abundant in their dramatic Brit-Pop sounds, epic choruses and chiming guitars. The album sags a bit here and there, but is a triumph as a whole. And having seen them at the Garage in London this past October, I can confirm that the new stuff blends in seamlessly with the old stuff. </div>
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<strong>Vampire Weekend - <em>Modern Vampires of the City</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em> </em></strong>I get the impression that the longer Vampire Weekend sticks around, the less cool it is to like them. Lucky for me I don't give a shit about that, because "Diane Young" is silly and ridiculous and irresistible. One of the things I enjoy most about them is that they seem totally shocked by how successful they've become, and they're making the most of it all. It helps that their music still explores the fringes of sounds from other parts of the world and filters them through a decidedly Ivy League perspective. Something about that just works for me. </div>
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<strong>Foals - <em>Holy Fire</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em> </em></strong>Foals grow more confident with each new album, and <em>Holy Fire</em> may yet be their best work, complicated indie anthems without sounding complicated. <em>Holy Fire</em> is probably the most natural approximation of their math-rock roots with a strong songwriting focus, and as a result it all sounds like they're having a good time. I can definitely get on board with that. </div>
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<strong>Charles Bradley - <em>Victim of Love</em></strong></div>
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Charles Bradley's success is undoubtedly heartwarming, but it wouldn't mean nearly as much if he and his Extraordinaires weren't so fucking good. On stage, Bradley is dynamic and emotional, and that all comes through beautifully on his second full-length, <em>Victim of Love</em>. One could argue, I suppose, that Bradley's retro sound is out of step with contemporary R&B, to which I would reply, "Thank fuck for that." I'm a big champion of Daptone, and Bradley is one of the many reasons why. </div>
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<strong>Matt Berry - <em>Kill the Wolf</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em> </em></strong>By now I'm past the shock of "This is Matt Berry? <em>That</em> Matt Berry?!?!? As in Douglas Reynholm from the IT Crowd? No fucking way!" I felt when I heard 2009's <em>Witchazel</em>. <em>Kill the Wolf</em> is another stunning album of weird pastoral pop tunes and psych-folk. I'd have put this on my much shorter list of albums which surprised me this year, but I love it too much for that. </div>
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<strong>Elvis Costello and the Roots - <em>Wise Up Ghost</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>It's possible I enjoy this as much as I do because I went into it really wanting to. That the pairing seemed so odd to some people doesn't hurt, either. I think it works, and I do like quite a bit of it. It's also a bit duller than it should be every now and again, but as with the Suede album, when it's good it's so good the shortcomings are forgivable. </div>
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<strong>Ghost & Goblin - <em>SUPERHORRORCASTLELAND</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>One half of Ghost & Goblin is a friend of mine, Nicholas DiMichele. Ordinarily that sort of thing makes it tough to integrate music into my regular rotation, so I consider it significant that I love this album as much as I do. It's a bit Black Moth Super Rainbow, a bit Gorillaz, but with considerably more drama. Nick is also an actor, and while I already knew he did voice work for Pokemon ("some guy off the street" is how he was described by some Pokemon devotee on a forum I just read, though moments later he's given mad props, so hooray!), I did not know that he was in an episode of 30 Rock until I looked at his resume this morning. Still not enough to get me to watch 30 Rock, but good for you, Nick. The album is great, and maybe we'll make good on our threats to jam together one day. </div>
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<strong>Everything Everything - Arc</strong></div>
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The music of Everything Everything is twitchy and jerky and lovely, and it's sometimes difficult to get comfortable when listening to it, and then suddenly it's not uncomfortable at all, as on "Armourland," when Jonathan Higgs croons about wanting to take you home. It's New Jack Math Rock or something, and I quite like it. </div>
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<strong>The Pastels - <em>Slow Summit</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>There's a hopelessly twee part of me, and thank goodness the legendary Pastels returned in 2013 to scratch that itch. </div>
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<strong>Jagwar Ma - <em>Howlin'</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>Effectively blends the future and past in an irresistible, psychedelic dance-friendly package. I think they're cut from the same cloth as Ghost & Goblin, which as I mentioned above is my kinda music. I dithered around and missed a chance to see them at Glasslands, but I still have the album to keep me happy. </div>
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<strong>Fuzz - <em>Fuzz</em> / <em>Sunderberry Dream</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>My favorite project in 2013 by the ridiculously prolific Ty Segall was the aptly-named Fuzz, a sludgy, grungy, glorious throwback on which Segall plays drums. When I listen to <em>Fuzz</em> and the "Sunderberry Dream" single, I want to play it loudly enough that I sustain permanent hearing damage. I want to wear flannel and drink cheap beer and yell a lot. I don't, though, because I live in an apartment. </div>
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<strong>Queens of the Stone Age - <em>...Like Clockwork</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>Rock & Roll sin't noise pollution, and few prove that maxim to be more true than Queens of the Stone Age. I had the great pleasure of hearing Josh Homme and the gang tear through much of this album, plus some golden oldies, earlier this year at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Man, oh, man. My favorite track off this killer album is "I Sat By the Ocean." </div>
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<span class="fbUnderline"><strong><u>Albums I Liked More Than I thought I Would</u></strong></span></div>
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<span class="fbUnderline"></span><strong><br />Beady Eye - <em>BE</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>I'm an Oasis fan from way, way back, but the post-Oasis output from both Gallagher brothers hasn't been much to get excited about. And as MOR dull as Noel's High Fying Birds album was, the Beady Eye debut was actively bad, with just a couple of songs worth revisiting. Which is why <em>BE</em> is such a surprise. Adventurous without going over the edge, with songs that are more than just re-written Beatles numbers, <em>BE</em> is genuinely good stuff. Much of the credit should go to TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek's production style, though the band should also receive praise for overcoming their stodgy ways to allow new influences to permeate the air. "Second Bite of the Apple" is probably my favorite track, though there's very little I don't care for. Well done, fellows. </div>
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<strong>Sky Ferreira - <em>Night Time, My Time</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>I really didn't want to like this album, what with Ferreira being so insufferable (she and her equally insufferable boyfriend were arrested on a drugs charge just a few days before my wedding in the same small New York town), and the creepy stalker porn cover photo by Gaspar Noé. So I was a little surprised I genuinely liked quite a bit of the record. I'm not sure it'll stick with me, but it will have been fun while it lasted. </div>
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<strong>David Bowie - <em>The Next Day</em></strong> </div>
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I still think a lot of this is pretty dull, though the songs that are good are surprisingly so. People seemed so shocked by his return that no one seemed to care that Bowie hadn't released a good album in three decades before this one. Compared to his work from the mid-'80s onward, <em>The Next Day</em> really is fantastic. But it's still not as great as I wanted it to be. </div>
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<strong>Primal Scream - <em>More Light</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>I love Primal Scream, but their past few albums have been pretty middling, inessential stuff.<em>More Light</em>'s lead single, "2013," didn't inspire a lot of hope as it sounded like they'd taken all their past works and put it in a blender. And then I listened to the rest of the album and was pleased to find it was their best work since <em>XTRMNTR</em>. Losing Mani back to the Stone Roses could have been Bobby Gillespie's group's death knell, but instead it seemed to back him into a corner with something to prove. </div>
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<span class="fbUnderline"><strong><u>My Favorite Reissues of the Year</u></strong></span></div>
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<strong><br />Beachwood Sparks - <em>Desert Skies</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>I was swept up in a wave of Cosmic American Music delight when I first heard Beachwood Sparks' eponymous debut for Sub Pop way back in the day, a wave I've been surfing ever since. I unabashedly love the music of this band, and 2012's <em>The Tarnished Gold</em> - the group's first full length in eleven years - was well worth the wait. But the history of Beachwood Sparks extended further back than I realized, as various early singles and other "Preflyte" tunes began circulating. This year, Beachwood Sparks' bass guitarist Brent Rademaker helped compile and polish up the band's lost debut recordings, including different versions of some of those earlier songs, on Desert Skies, a veritable treasure trove that showed the fledgling band in confident, psychedelic form. Everything I love about Beachwood Sparks was in the group's early DNA, with perhaps an even greater sense of urgency. It's a lost chapter that enhances the group's later output without taking anything away from it. Given it's chock full o' unreleased material it's odd to call it a reissue. But no matter where I'm meant to categorize <em>Desert Skies</em>, it's still some of my favorite music of the year.</div>
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<strong>The Breeders - <em>Last Splash LSXX</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>I always preferred the first couple Breeders albums to the last couple Pixies albums, and while I was already into them based on the terrific <em>Pod</em>, <em>Last Splash</em> and its associated singles and EP's - collected here - were absolutely essential. It's fantastic to hear the album alongside all those other great songs, which is how I was listening to them via all-Breeders mixtapes back then. </div>
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<strong>The Clash - <em>Sound System</em> / <em>The Clash Hits Back</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>The Clash are one of my all-time favorite groups, and the <em>Sound System</em> box set is an awesome tribute to their collected works (even as they again try to rewrite history by pretending <em>Cut the Crap</em> never happened), not only because of all the extra tracks, but the remastering of the studio albums as well. Mick Jones is a genius. Also great is the compilation, <em>The Clash Hits Back</em>, which approximates the setlist of what must have been a killer show, adding a handful of other essential tracks as well. It serves as a worthy hits collection, and I'm pretty stoked to have it in its triple-red-vinyl format in my record collection.</div>
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<strong>Sly & the Family Stone - <em>Higher</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>Box sets are often a mixed bag, with compilers making different choices than you might make were you handling it on your own. In the case of <em>Higher</em>, the tracklist works nicely, setting course on a logical, funky chronology. A couple of the albums - <em>There's a Riot Goin' On</em>, for example - are well worth having in their entirety, but this is a solid compilation for people who want more than just a single-disc hits collection, but don't necessarily want to be completists. </div>
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<strong>The Monkees - <em>The Monkees Present</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>Rhino's stellar deluxe album reissue series continued in 2013 with this 3-disc edition of the Monkees' second album of 1969, the last to feature Michael Nesmith for decades. Originally envisioned as a double album with each of the three remaining members (Tork left in late 1968) having a dedicated side of wax, with the fourth a full group effort. That never came to pass, but the album upon release did include particularly strong material from Nesmith and Micky Dolenz. Expanded to include demos, alternate takes and other material, <em>The Monkees Present</em> is the final word on the last time the band released new music that didn't make me cringe.<br /><b>The Velvet Underground - <i>White Light/White Heat</i></b><br />I love this album, but I rarely tab it as my favorite by the Velvet Underground. And yet it's quite possibly the perfect encapsulation of all the different elements that made the group so vital. The deluxe CD version comes with Live at the Gymnasium, and it sounds much crisper than all the bootlegs I've heard of the same show. The vinyl release includes some pretty stellar bonus material on a second record, as well. </div>
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<span class="fbUnderline"><strong>Artists I Ordinarily Enjoy Who Released Albums In 2013 I've Mostly Forgotten About</strong></span></div>
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<span class="fbUnderline"></span><br />Arctic Monkeys </div>
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Franz Ferdinand</div>
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Los Campesinos!</div>
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The Black Angels</div>
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The Strokes</div>
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<br />(Maybe I'll revisit these one of these days and try again...)</div>
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<span class="fbUnderline"><strong><u>My Favorite Musical Moments of 2013</u></strong></span></div>
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<span class="fbUnderline"></span><strong><br />Coachella (Weekend One) - April 12-14, Empire Polo Club, Indio, CA</strong></div>
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I wrote about this at length in a previous Facebook note, but this was probably my favorite year so far. Amazing sets (topped predictably by Blur) and good times with my wife (she was still my fiancee then!) and some incredible people. It'll be hard to beat. </div>
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<strong>The Charlatans and Friends' Tribute to Jon Brookes - October 13, Royal Albert Hall, London</strong></div>
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A moving tribute and some incredible music in one of the world's great venues.</div>
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<strong>Suede - October 16, The Garage, London</strong></div>
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The timing of our honeymoon was perfect, putting us in London not only for the Charlatans, but also Suede's small club gig in advance of their British tour. The room was unbearably hot, but the band was brilliant. </div>
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<strong>The Stone Roses - Made of Stone</strong></div>
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This documentary wasn't a warts and all expose, but rather a tribute to what makes people love the Stone Roses as much as they do. After their deflating Coachella performance, that's what I was looking for, and that's exactly what I got. I still play the debut album at least once a week, and hearing the four members of the group's only lineup that matters play those songs again - on massive stages and tiny rehearsal spaces - was thrilling.</div>
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<strong>The New York Rock & Roll Explorer Signs With MTV Books</strong></div>
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Yeah, this was a pretty fucking big deal for me. Go figure. </div>
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<span class="fbUnderline"><strong><u>My Least Favorite Music of 2013</u></strong></span></div>
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<span class="fbUnderline"></span><strong><br />Kanye West - <em>Yeezus</em></strong> </div>
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I didn't dislike <em>Yeezus</em> because I'm so repelled by Kanye's personality; I've almost always felt that way about him, but I love quite a bit of his prior work. No, I dislike <em>Yeezus</em> on its own merits. It's noise, and not the good kind of noise. I'm glad everyone loves it as much as they do, but man, I think it's just an awful racket. </div>
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<strong>Arcade Fire - <em>Reflektor</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>Look, everyone I know: If James Murphy can't get me into Arcade Fire, it ain't gonna happen. </div>
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<strong>TV Mania - <em>Bored With Prozac and the Internet?</em></strong></div>
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Unlike Beachwood Sparks, digging through the archives was not worth the efforts for Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes and bald 9/11-truther Warren Cuccurullo. The Devils (Rhodes and Stephen Duffy) was much, much more interesting. This just sounded like pointless noodling. </div>
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<strong>The Flaming Lips (and Friends) - <em>The Time Has Come To Shoot You Down…What A Sound</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>I was pretty stoked when I read that Wayne Coyne and a bunch of other psychedelic pals were recording a full cover of the Stone Roses' debut. The results, I was disappointed to hear, were a awful. It's the sound of overindulged stoners drinking bottle after bottle of codeine-heavy cough syrup and playing video games. One or two tracks are nearly alright, but man this sucks. </div>
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<strong>Broadcast - <em>Berberian Sound Studio</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong>I loved Broadcast like a giddy fanboy, and I was devastated by the sudden death of Trish Keenan in 2011. I'd hoped the soundtrack the group was working on prior to Keenan's passing would revisit some of what made them so eerily fascinating. It did, but only intermittently. This is more of a disappointment than anything. </div>
Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-81643110968979959602013-01-06T06:49:00.003-08:002013-01-06T06:49:49.831-08:00The Return of Sir Lucious Left Foot: Big Boi on World Domination<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/166418-the-return-of-sir-lucious-left-foot-big-boi-on-world-domination/">PopMatters</a> on January 4, 2013</i><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s clear something up: <i>Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors</i>, the provocatively titled new record by Big Boi should not be read as an attack on his partner in OutKast, André 3000.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s important to make that distinction because, as Big Boi noted during a telephone interview, this is his album and his alone. But more on OutKast in a minute, because for the first time, Big Boi is truly stepping out without his mercurial compadre, and the results are nothing if not dynamic.<br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“We’re just out here campaigning, shaking hands and kissing babies, you feel?” says Big Boi at the beginning of the conversation. The Atlanta-based raconteur has been all over the place, on chat shows both day and night, on the radio and the blogosphere, and on Instagram, because Big Boi is nothing if not current. He’s <a href="https://twitter.com/BigBoi" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial;">transmitting messages across the Twittersphere</a> as often as most people blink. Big Boi is taking it to the people because that’s how it’s done.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s just about bringing awareness to it,” he says. “You want as many people to hear it as possible. A certain amount of songs, I leak just to give people a taste of the record. And the response has been very, very, very good, you know? I’m just thankful and blessed to be able to still be here doing what I love to do and have people still receive it the way they have been.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Born Antwan André Patton, Big Boi spent much of his childhood in Savannah, Georgia before moving to Atlanta during high school. It was there that he met André Benjamin, the pair eventually morphing a love of hip-hop and performance into OutKast, innovators of sound and vision. On the surface, André 3000 was the eccentric sonic wanderer, Big Boi the urban purist. The truth, as <i>Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors</i> clearly proves, is a lot less simple to pin down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Technically, the new album is Big Boi’s second solo release, following 2010’s <i>Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty</i>. But in September 2003, OutKast released a critically acclaimed double-album, each half showcasing the talents and sometimes disparate interests of the duo. Big Boi’s half, <i>Speakerboxxx</i>, included the single “The Way You Move,” a #1 radio hit featuring a guest appearance by Sleepy Brown. But both <i>Speakerboxxx</i> and André 3000’s showcase <i>The Love Below</i>featured numerous performance and production crossovers between the pair. <i>Sir Lucious…</i> also included a track, “You Ain’t No DJ (featuring Yelawolf)” produced by André 3000.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, really, if you want to be a stickler about it, <i>Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors</i> is the first Big Boi record without any André 3000 at all. Which is why it’s understandable that Big Boi mostly wants to talk about the album and not his relationship with André 3000, what’s happening with OutKast, and all that extraneous stuff. But since Big Boi is shaking hands and kissing babies and André 3000 has been keeping a relatively lower public profile, he’s having to deal with those questions anyway. And he’s kind of tired of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s funny, me and Dre talk on the phone about this all the time,” says Big Boi. “We’re not going to keep explaining things; you know what I’m saying? This is my record, and my man wants me to shine on my own like I’m shining, you understand what I’m saying? It’s a Big Boi project, and he had nothing to do with this project at all. He produced a record on the last project and we did a song for it that didn’t make it. But it’s my time to shine right now.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s been more than six years since <i>Idlewild</i>, the soundtrack to the group’s film of the same name and the last official full-length release under the OutKast umbrella. Though some reports in the media speak of artistic and personal differences having driven a wedge between the longtime friends and musical partners, Big Boi claims that isn’t the case.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s not tense at all, man,” he says. “We talk, and we hang out, but it’s not for the world to know. We’ve been at the hip joined together since the 10th grade. Goddamn, can we get a break? That’s all it is, but people don’t know us. They don’t know that he comes to my house and my kids and his kids play together and play video games and stuff like that.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The absence is still there, though. Not on the new album, where Big Boi has deftly intertwined guest appearances by luminaries across the vast spectrum of music. André 3000’s absence is more pronounced in a live setting, when Big Boi performs OutKast songs without the familiar sound of his partner’s distinctive drawl in the mix. Such was the case last month at SOB’s, a small live music venue in New York City’s SoHo, which has seen some of hip-hop’s biggest stars grace the stage with special performances. According to Big Boi, the last time he was on that stage was with OutKast in celebration of the group’s 2000 album, <i>Stankonia</i>. This time around, it’s Big Boi’s show.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I have a full band complete with a horn section,” says Big Boi. “Being that I have a catalog that spans 20 years, the show is like a piece of every era of music that I’ve ever done. To fit all of that stuff into an hour-and-a-half, an hour-and-45 minutes is fairly easy. Nothing is missing at all.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Indeed, Big Boi’s set included songs from the earliest days of OutKast, complete with video accompaniment; André 3000 was there on screen, and perhaps in spirit, if not in person.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There were also guest appearances at SOB’s, including Phantogram and A$AP Rocky, both of whom appear on the new album. That sort of thing is likely to happen for the duration of the tour in support of the record, with different guest stars popping up from time to time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“When you’re in cities certain artists are in, they’ll come out and rock with you,” Big Boi says. “That makes the show special, too.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Little Dragon, who also play on the album, performed with Big Boi on <i>Late Night with Jimmy Fallon</i>one night earlier. A few days after, Kelly Rowland turned up in support of the record’s lead single, “Mama Told Me,” on <i>The View</i>. <i>Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors</i> also features guest appearances by T.I., Ludacris, Killer Mike, Wavves, B.o.B., Kid Cudi, and more. It’s a collective spirit Big Boi equates to European radio, which he says is often much looser in format than the airwaves in America.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I guess overseas they really appreciate music more than we do here in the States,” he says. “On their radio stations over there, it’s not the same five songs played over and over and over. They might go from a hip-hop record to a rock record to a country record to a techno record. Their radio stations play all genres of music all day long. It’s much more diversified.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s not to say that same iPod shuffle scenarios isn’t seen in the United States, but Big Boi posits it’s not as prevalent on the radio as it is at music festivals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Here, you have the whole hipster crowd, the indie rock crowd,” Big Boi says. “The festivals are the same. Like, your Bonnaroos and your Camp Biscos, and things like that where they come out, you know what I’m saying? Even though the music is not being played on the radio, these people don’t listen to the radio, you know what I’m saying. Over here they rebel against the radio, which is good. I know my audience, and my audience is a wide array of all walks of life, all ages, and that’s the good thing about it, for sure.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Though the details are still being sorted out, Big Boi says a massive tour is likely, with festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza a possibility along the way.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“The bookings have been coming in for a minute now,” he says. “I’m going to probably do a House of Blues run first, then come back and do theaters. And then I’ll probably do festivals for the rest of the year. I toured 18 months off my last record. I’m just really having fun, man. Touring is really one of the best parts of making music, because you get to see the fans’ reaction to the songs that you created and you’ve just been wondering the whole time how they’re going to receive it.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A full-scale world tour is also likely, especially as the Big Boi experience has been rapturously received across the globe.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Europe, the whole shebang-a-boom,” Big Boi says, adding that the craziest crowd he saw while touring <i>Sir Lucious…</i> was in Europe.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“It might have been the Netherlands,” he says. “It was ridiculous over there. I think it was the Roskilde Festival. Bananas, know what I’m saying?”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The festival circuit is where Big Boi’s relationship with Phantogram, an indie-electronic outfit from upstate New York, was cemented. He first came across their music on the internet.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Phantogram, I like to say the music is organically created, never genetically modified,” says Big Boi. “How I discovered Phantogram, I was on my computer, and you know how they have pop-up videos when you’re closing screens out? And ‘Mouthful of Diamonds’ came on, on the screen and I Shazamed it, and after I Shazamed it I put it as my jam of the week on BigBoi.com. After I did that, Sarah (Barthel) from Phantogram contacted me and was like, ‘I appreciate it, we love your music, we need to do something,’ and she sent me some autographed vinyl to [OutKast’s Atlanta studio] Stankonia. We actually did a couple of festivals together, Outside Lands in San Francisco being one of them. From there, I invited them down to Stankonia. They came for a week and camped out and we made a lot of good music, man. That’s why you see they’re on the album more than one time; that’s like a week’s worth of recording. We done a ton of music.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Big Boi says Phantogram is currently in the process of recording their second full-length album at Stankonia.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“They’re trying to get some of them vibes,” he says.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Little Dragon also found their way onto Big Boi’s new record in a similarly organic way.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I was at Dre’s house a while back and we was sitting around talking and listening to music, and he was playing me some of the new stuff that he was into, and he was playing me some Little Dragon, some MGMT, and some old George Benson,” Big Boi says. “And my godbrother, Trevor Kane, was actually doing some work with some of the guys from Little Dragon, and he kind of hooked us up. I invited them down for a week and we did a ton of music, a shitload of music then. I have a gang of songs from Little Dragon as well that is not on the album. It’s kind of in the vault.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That collaborative approach is a hip-hop tradition, one which thanks to artists like Big Boi is continuing to expand into musical genres not often associated with hip-hop.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s really about trying to put down your ideas when you’re really in the groove of things,” he says. “When you’re in a group with somebody you kind of feed off each other. But being that, you know, I don’t want to hear a whole album of just my own voice. I just kind of sprinkle different artists in as ingredients to just kind of jam out with. I love feeding off other people’s energy, and it works. As long as the music is jamming, I’m open to it. It’s always about the search for that new sound, that new groove. This is how you keep music going. The art form, period. The craft of making the coldest shit on the planet. This is what I do, this is what I was put here to do, and I’m just getting started.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">To that end, Big Boi began work with indie rockers Modest Mouse on new material over a year ago. The sessions have yet to pick up again, though Big Boi says he’s ready to roll.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’m waiting on Isaac [Brock, Modest Mouse’s primary instigator],” Big Boi says. “They’ve still got to get some stuff together internally. We did like three songs with them, and I can’t wait for them to come out. They’re jamming like a motherfucker, too. I think the people are really going to love it. So, you know, as soon as they handle whatever they’re handling internally, I’m sure the people will get it. But the stuff sounds incredible.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the meantime, Big Boi has just one artist at the top of his list of dream collaborators.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Kate Bush is the only person I want to work with right now,” he says. “Kate Bush, hopefully when I get to London. I spoke to her a couple of times on the phone and sent her a few tracks. She was digging them, so you know, we want to sit down and have a cup of tea and catch up, and hopefully something can come from that.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How any material which came from that collaboration might surface is unclear, but it’s worth noting that Big Boi, while just beginning promo for <i>Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors</i>, is already 10 tracks deep into his next record.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s almost like stringing a pearl necklace together,” he says. “I just work on songs, and when you carve out certain records, they make a certain kind of sound together. I might have recorded maybe 40 records for this album and just took 17 of them and put them together to make this one sound. They’ll see the light of day, though. They’re in the vault, and as long as people keep supporting me, I’ll keep giving it to them.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s all about keeping busy, no matter where he is. And technology being what it is today, an artist like Big Boi can indulge his desire to constantly create at any given moment.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’m keeping my foot on the neck of the whole music game,” he says. “When I’m on tour, I’ll be writing this next record. I’m in the beat selection process of it now. It’s shaping up pretty nicely. I’ll probably have a studio on the bus, and any tools I need, a beat machine, I’ll just take it on the bus with me. As long as you’re in the groove, man, you got to keep it going.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">SOB’s has a listed capacity of around 400, and at times a great percentage of that total is on a small stage against a wall in the middle of the room. Big Boi’s live band is electrifying, and after Phantogram are introduced to perform on slinky versions of “Objectum Sexuality” and “CPU,” Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky steps into the mix for “Lines.” It’s as close an approximation as one might imagine a studio session would be, and Big Boi is clearly enjoying it. Clad in camouflage fatigues, Big Boi is as comfortable running through OutKast classics like “Rosa Parks” and “Player’s Ball” as he is with every inch of his new material. He’s a performer and band leader, and he seems both adept and happy with the dual roles.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The show begins with a painter reproducing the vivid artwork adorning the cover of <i>Vicious Lies and Dangerous Truths</i>, and video screens bring the colorful imagery of Big Boi’s entire recorded career to life over the course of the performance. In Big Boi’s world, it’s important to merge visual art with music in a symbiotic fashion.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“As an artist, to me, I want everything to look like how the music sounds,” he says. “For the visuals to be dynamic and off the wall, I want it to look surreal. It’s not the typical stand in front of a car rapping, or holding bottles of champagne and throwing money. It’s got to look like the music, and the music is all about emotion. The ‘Mama Told Me’ video is fun like the song. The colors, how the video pops makes you feel a certain way. I’m hypnotizing the public. I’m digging it, man.”</span></div>
<br />
Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-16679071273101108362012-11-04T04:26:00.001-08:002012-11-04T04:26:53.674-08:00A Record Collection Reduced to a Mixtape<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/afYe0qXAWLQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<i>In the basement event space at <a href="http://www.wordbrooklyn.com/">WORD</a> last night, I read a chapter from <b>A Record Collection Reduced to a Mixtape</b>, my work-in-progress novel about a music nerd with a busted heart. This has been a difficult week in NYC, and I wasn't sure we'd get anyone out for LOCAL ORGANIC: New Works by the Greenpoint Writers Group, a reading which was the culmination of a 12-week intensive with eight writers sharing their stuff with one another, providing feedback and becoming better for it. WORD was packed. We were grateful. Eve, my fiancee, shot video of my reading, and because the sound wasn't terribly good, I figured I ought to just put the chapter I read here in case anyone wanted to try and read along. </i><br /><b><i>A Record Collection Reduced to a Mixtape</i></b><i> tells the story of Sam, a playwright recently back in New York and staying with his parents after a tough breakup. Some of the novel goes as far back as his college days at UCLA and the time he spent living in Los Angeles in the years which followed. In this chapter, he's back in New York, trying to get over Renee, and is considering looking for love on the internet. </i><br /><br /><u style="font-weight: bold;">CHAPTER TBA</u><br />
<b>The Bees – “I Really Need Love”<br />
Vivian Girls – “Second Date”<br />
Peter Doherty – “New Love Grows on Trees”</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I filled out an online dating profile. I don’t know why I
did it, because I guess I did alright when I actively tried to hit on women, and
even when I've had a long dry spell I didn't much care. But my friend Diego
said it was working for him, and why shouldn't I get in on the action?</div>
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<br /></div>
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I checked it out, mostly so I could find something wrong
with it so I wouldn't have to create a profile. But it turns out Diego was
right. My objections were primarily based on the television commercials where
the blandest motherfuckers on the planet seemed perfectly happy now that a
website found their bland ideal. I've come across countless bland chicks
already, and I’m sure plenty of women have found me to be pretty vanilla too.
So I figured, why pay for disappointment and awkwardness when I get that shit
for free?</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Dude, this is different,” Diego said. “It’s like it was
made by a bunch of indie-rock bloggers. It’s called OK Cupid.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Immediately my hackles were raised. To say I have a
complicated relationship with Radiohead would be a vast understatement. It
would also be wildly inaccurate, of course, because there is no relationship.
The crown princes of dour indie obviously don’t know me at all, and as I’m
unlikely to visit any sullen hyperbaric chambers masquerading as beep-boop-blip
recording studios, it’ll probably remain that way. On my end, I sometimes enjoy
the music of Radiohead, but there’s always the din of fawning praise drowning
everything else out. So what then to think of a dating website named after <i>OK Computer</i>, Radiohead’s 1997
alt-prog-wank opus?</div>
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<br /></div>
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“That sounds fucking terrible, man. Seriously.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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“It’s free.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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So I gave it a shot. And much to my great disappointment, I
actually kind of liked the feel of it. I looked around, and there were plenty
of cool women with cool jobs and cool haircuts and cool ideas. I set up a
profile and began browsing. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>NAME<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Stereoblab</div>
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30/M/Straight/Single</div>
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New York, NY</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>MY SELF SUMMARY<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Music is the weapon of the future” – Fela Kuti</div>
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I am: Funk, punk and crunk</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>WHAT I’M DOING WITH
MY LIFE<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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(left blank)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>I’M REALLY GOOD AT<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Identifying the best orange in even the largest of grocery
store bins.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>THE FIRST THINGS
PEOPLE NOTICE ABOUT ME<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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My shoes and my awesomeness</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>MY FAVORITE BOOKS,
MUSIC, MOVIES AND FOOD<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Books </b>- Catcher
in the Rye, Psychotic Reactions & Carburetor Dung, Up in the Old Hotel,
Please Kill Me, Miss Lonelyhearts/Day of the Locust, London Fields, Money, The
Adventures of Augie March</div>
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<b>Movies</b> - Annie Hall,
Do the Right Thing, On the Waterfront, The Third Man, My Life as a Dog, Raiders
of the Lost Ark, Touch of Evil, The World of Henry Orient, Dig!, A Hard Days
Night, Double Indemnity, L.A. Confidential, Chinatown, Arsenic and Old Lace,
Star Wars, Philadelphia Story, Midnight Cowboy, Butch Cassidy & the
Sundance Kid, Rushmore, Manhattan, Strangers on a Train, West Side Story, A
Shot in the Dark</div>
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<b>Music</b> – Six songs
completely at random on my iPod…</div>
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Ty Segall – “Fuzzy Cat”</div>
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Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Zodiac Girls”</div>
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Tronics – “TV on in Bed”</div>
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Belle & Sebastian – “It Could Have Been a Brilliant
Career”</div>
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Field Music - “A House is Not a Home”</div>
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Jurassic 5 – “Quality Control”</div>
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<b>Food </b>– I enjoy
food, especially Indian, Japanese…Really, anything you like, I’m probably gonna
like.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>THE SIX THINGS I
COULD NEVER DO WITHOUT<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I’m taking the question to mean material things rather than
ideas or emotions. Mostly I just want to be incredibly shallow. </div>
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Thus…</div>
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iPod (though it is falling apart)</div>
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iPad (though it is falling apart)</div>
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iPhone (it won’t fall apart until my AppleCare expires)</div>
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Signed vinyl copies of <i>Plastic
Beach</i>; <i>Blank Generation</i>; <i>3 Feet High and Rising</i>; and <i>Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in
Space</i></div>
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Dogeared copy of <b>Psychotic
Reactions and Carburetor Dung</b></div>
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Uniball Micro pens and Moleskine notebooks (because it looks
cooler than entering shit into my iPhone)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>I SPEND A LOT OF TIME
THINKING ABOUT<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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(left blank)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ON A TYPICAL FRIDAY
NIGHT I AM <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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(left blank)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>THE MOST PRIVATE
THING I’M WILLING TO ADMIT<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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(left blank)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHNICITY<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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White</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>HEIGHT<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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6’0”</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>BODY TYPE<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Fit</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>SMOKES<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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No</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>DRINKS<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Socially</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>DRUGS<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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(left blank)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>RELIGION<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Agnosticism, but not too serious about it</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>SIGN<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Gemini, but it doesn't matter</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EDUCATION<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Graduated from college/university</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>JOB<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Artistic/musical/writer</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>INCOME<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Rather not say</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>CHILDREN<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Doesn’t want children</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>PETS<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Likes dogs and dislikes cats</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>SPEAKS <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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English, fluently</div>
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French, poorly</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>I’M LOOKING FOR<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Girls who like guys</div>
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Ages 21-35</div>
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Near me</div>
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New friends, Short-term dating, Long-term dating,
Long-distance penpals, Activity partners, Casual sex</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>YOU SHOULD MESSAGE ME
IF<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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(left blank)</div>
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<br /></div>
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I loaded up a few choice pictures – the one where I’m
coveting the “butcher” cover of the Beatles’ <i>Yesterday and Today</i> behind the counter at the Amoeba Records on
Haight in San Francisco; a black & white shot of me standing in front of
the Brill Building in Manhattan; a pretentious shot of me standing in front of
a far more erudite friend’s bookshelves while wearing my God Bless Brian Wilson
t-shirt – and put the fucker live. </div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s a dating profile, so naturally I fudged it just a bit.
I wasn't actually in New York City, but I was certainly willing to jump on a
commuter train if it meant I might meet someone. Besides, I didn't want my face
to show up if anyone did a search of the area where my parents lived. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I wasn’t “fit” either, though I figured I might actually get
there now that I was home with fuck all to do with my time. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I spent the first hour or so answering questions about
politics and how I’d handle myself in bullshit situations, like if I turned a
corner and found a stack of hundred dollar bills, what would I do? I’d fucking
take it, but even though I knew full well anyone would do the same, there were
four options, and I figured I’d take the sensitive route and pretend I’d donate
it to charity instead of blowing it all on vinyl. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I trolled profiles for the next 30 minutes, ranking women
based on their looks and anything else I was able to scan in roughly three
seconds, and I felt a little shitty and shallow and I kept on doing it anyway.
I saw red flags everywhere, and I saw Renee everywhere too, or rather the
absence of her, because no one on there was Renee. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was fumbling around, having a little fun but not really
allowing myself to take the next step and say hello to anyone. And that’s when
I realized I was already under the microscope. It’s not like I thought I wouldn't be looked up and down and judged like everyone else, but maybe I didn't think
it would happen so soon. I found the “visitors” link in a drop-down menu on my
homepage and saw every woman who’d looked at my profile. And even though I’d
only been signed up for maybe two hours, there were like 40 of them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By the next morning, I had seven messages in my profile
inbox. Two informed me that women I’d ranked either 4 or 5 stars had done the
same for me. One was from someone called “ToxyRoxy” who’d added me to her
favorites list, making me instantly suspicious of her motives, even though she
claimed to be bisexual, which I thought was pretty great. Another three were a
mixed bag, and after reading their messages and profiles I determined them to
be somewhere between irritating and borderline psychotic. Using this random
sampling, I’ll leave you to determine which end of the spectrum I put them on. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Slybootz11222: OMG you like Tame Impala too no way I love
them are you going to show at MHOW? Wanna buy me a drink? LOL</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GlitterFreezes: …I have three cats and they’re named
Mittens, Mittens II and Mittens IV. Please don’t ask about Mittens III when we
meet…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
BarrenToTheBone: …so I got out of the car, made sure no one
was around, and dropped the bag of dogshit into his mailbox…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The seventh message was from a woman called SignedBC, a play
on a song by Love, the seminal ‘60s Los Angeles group which only gained fame
years after half of them were dead or in prison and the other half in and out
of rehab: Street cred forever guaranteed. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our conversation began with promise…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SignedBC: …My apartment is small, though it’s my own fault
for being a completest record collector. I’ve got an entire shelf dedicated to
post-Big Band, pre-fusion jazz, for crying out loud…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stereoblab: …I’ve got more Impulse-era Coltrane than almost
anyone except the Beatles…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SignedBC: As well you might. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Predictably, we quickly moved to more intimate realms…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SignedBC: Top Five Best Make-Out Albums Not Featuring Marvin
Gaye…Go!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stereoblab: What song was playing when you lost your
virginity? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SignedBC: Have you ever gotten off at a live show? Which
band was it?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was something pure and beautiful and appealingly weird
about our conversation, and we weren't in a hurry to spoil it by moving it into
a different medium. Logging in to OK Cupid, I’d see that I had messages, and if
it was from someone other than her I’d ignore it completely, and if it was from
her I’d read it at least half a dozen times, trying to convince myself she was
for real. We didn't talk on the telephone, and even though it would have been
easy enough to arrange, we didn't try to meet in person. I didn't even know her
name. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SignedBC: What are your Desert Island Discs?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stereoblab: Have you ever worn a concert t-shirt so long it
fell apart? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SignedBC: I know he’s pushing 70 and collects knives, but I
totally have the dirtiest fantasies about Keith Richards. <br />
<br />
…but before long, cracks began to show…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SignedBC: I think Coldplay are pretty underrated. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Signed BC: Black people just smell different than the rest
of us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stereoblab: …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SignedBC: I have three cats and they’re named…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the next week messages continued to trickle in, and I
became more discouraged every time I clicked one open. They weren't all crazy
or boring or lousy with cats. Some of them were sexy, smart and sarcastic. They
were just the wrong sexy, smart and sarcastic. I didn't even know what I was
looking for, but that didn't stop me from trying, either. I’d scroll through
the recent visitors to my profile, click over to check them out and enjoy the
voyeuristic thrill of knowing they would know that I’d checked them out. But it didn't last. None of it lasted. I was chum in the water, and I didn't know what
to think of that. I thought about deleting my profile before it got out of
hand, and that’s when I heard from Ingrid.</div>
Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-85328450045122315632012-09-06T04:29:00.002-07:002012-09-06T04:29:33.130-07:00Today's Supernatural: PopMatters Interviews Animal Collective<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/162933-todays-supernatural-popmatters-interviews-animal-collective/">PopMatters</a> on September 6, 2012</i><br /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">They’re supposed to be difficult, as impenetrable and stubborn as the music they’ve created together or separately or whatever. It turns out not to be true, of course; the four guys who make up Animal Collective are normal dudes. Immensely talented, urbane and intellectually complicated dudes, but still. Panda Bear recognizes the logo of the former Las Vegas minor league baseball team on the cap I’m wearing because he’s seen it in a video game.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the tiny living room of a sweltering second-floor walkup on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, three members of Animal Collective – Noah Lennox, Brian Weitz and Josh Dibb - sit elbow to elbow on a small sofa, with the fourth – Dave Portner - on the other side of a coffee table perched on a chair. It’s early summer and they’re flipping through stacks of photographs. The intimacy of the room, the attention to detail, it all matters when talking about the Animal Collective story in 2012. But more on that in a minute.<br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Like a psilocybin Super Friends, the members of Animal Collective are known the world over by aliases: Panda Bear (Lennox), Geologist (Weitz), Deakin (Dibb) and Avey Tare (Portner), though since they referred to one another by their real names, that’s how it’s going to work here, too. But before I do, I just want to say how disappointed I was to find that there’s no Animal Collective name generator on the internet. Remember how much momentary fun it was to get your Wu-Tang name? Donald Glover certainly does. So get on that, random hipsters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Animal Collective have long been critical touchstones, a recording history stretching back to the turn of the 21st century with a series of densely assembled releases with sounds buried deep in the mix and sudden harmonies and, fuck, is that some lost Beach Boys track I’m listening to? Such is how many music journalists, perhaps robbed of the ability to think straight after deep contemplation of songs like “Peacebone” or “Grass,” have described Animal Collective, and maybe there’s a kernel of truth there: The perceived obsessive attention to minute detail; deceptively simple melodies and rushes of sheer vocal beauty; a sandbox in the living room? But to constantly reference the Beach Boys is missing the point, and it’s also lazy, and while Animal Collective seems wary of tags, there are far worse things to be compared to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“It has to be flattering,” said Weitz.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Definitely not irritating,” added Lennox. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“With the Beach Boys thing, from <i>Sung Tongs</i> on it’s been a band we’ve been associated with or a reference point,” said Portner. “And I think when it got down to making <i>Strawberry Jam</i> and people said, ‘Oh, it’s a Beach Boys thing again,’ and we were like, did you even listen to the record? I don’t get that in that at all. When it becomes this lightning rod to make people understand something, we’re not annoyed but we just don’t get it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There are degrees of perplexity with the reference, too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“You can tell when it’s a product of lazy journalism,” said Weitz. “You can usually tell from the publication, like if we’re not the kind of band they usually cover, it’s like, ‘Did you really listen or did you get that from a Google search?’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In early 2009, Animal Collective released <i>Merriweather Post Pavilion</i>, the album which made them as close to household names as they’re likely to ever get. The group’s most electronic-and-sample-based album, it was for many also its most approachable. Singles like “My Girls” and “Summertime Clothes” were all over college and internet radio stations, comparatively sparse and unabashedly lovely. The album was perhaps the year’s most critically-acclaimed, living up to the advance hype and somehow managing to transcend the buzz. It gained the group legions of new fans, which was something of a blessing and, if not a curse exactly then perhaps a new puzzle to solve.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Dave and I were just in France doing some DJing, and the guy who promotes our French shows came out,” said Weitz. “And he was like, ‘Your last show in Paris, a reviewer was talking about how you’d only played two songs from your first album,’ and we were like, what do you mean our first album, and they meant <i>Merriweather</i>.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The mistake almost feels unforgivable in the digital age, where a group’s entire history is merely a keystroke away. With Animal Collective, there’s not just a long history of complex musical exploration on record, but also on the stage. And as any fan of any band knows, some people want to hear their favorite songs exactly as they know them from the record. To paraphrase an apocryphal Beach Boys tale, when Brian Wilson abandoned the band’s girls/surf/cars themes in favor of comparably deeper intellectualism when creating <i>Pet Sounds</i>, the famously cantankerous Mike Love reportedly said, “Don’t fuck with the formula.” And if there’s one thing Animal Collective enjoys, it’s fucking with the formula.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“One comment I heard, or was talked about after we actually played at <i>Merriweather Post Pavilion</i>(in 2011), is even though it was three years after the record came out was how can these guys tour a record and not play and of the songs off that record” said Portner. “We weren’t touring the record, and for us it’s interesting to know that there are people that haven’t clued into that fact, because I feel like it’s pretty widely known.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is widely known, so much so that the group received a curious warning prior to playing the Maryland venue which bore the album’s name.<br /><br />“Even the promoter sent our booking agent a semi-threatening e-mail saying he heard we weren’t going to play a lot of songs from <i>Merriweather</i>, and we’d better behave like professionals and play the songs people were coming to hear as we recorded it,” Lennox said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And, let’s face it, that’s not something anyone should expect from Animal Collective. A festival set at Coachella last year was one such example, with countless people taking to the Twittersphere to call the set a disaster and just as many calling it a triumph.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s intense to play Coachella or a venue that large where there’s people for all different reasons coming to see you,” said Portner. “And for us, we feel like we’re throwing enough old stuff in there people will respond to, but we rework songs to the point where people don’t even recognize them. It can be scary, especially at this point where, in environments like Coachella where you’re playing for 30,000 people or even at Merriweather where we played for 8,000 people.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s highlighted at festivals, because presumably you have a lot of people who are like, ‘I’ve heard of that band, let’s see what they’re about,’ and you don’t have that crush of people who say, ‘I know this song, it’s my jam,’” said Lennox. “You have tons of people who say, ‘I’ve never heard this before.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“There are some fans who are like that, who would only be satisfied if you played ‘My Girls,’ ‘Fireworks,’ ‘Banshee Beat,’ ‘Brother Sport,’ ‘Summertime Clothes,’” said Dibb. “If they heard that set, they’d be psyched, and otherwise they’re like, ‘What the fuck?’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s enough to make even the famously adventurous Animal Collective admit to the odd bouts of second-guessing themselves, but only a bit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“It affects me more in club shows,” said Portner. “To me, these are people who are Animal Collective fans, and to see someone with that bored kind of, ‘What are they doing?’ kind of look. That’s the most disheartening thing. The thing is, you can’t be like…if you’re going to get into a wormhole where you start thinking about that stuff it’s going to be no fun. And there are definitely some nights where I’m like, ‘Why do I do this anymore?’ Usually more because I didn’t think we sounded that good. But it’s too easy to get wrapped up into thinking, ‘Is this person enjoying it?’ ‘Is that person enjoying it?’ And the reality of it is, like at Coachella, there’s going to be 30 percent people there that hate it. Not everybody is there to see Animal Collective, and it’s cool to think we can turn people on to something different and we can have this new way of doing it, but there are also people there that just want the typical festival band who just goes out there and plays the hits. But I think that’s why festivals are cool, too. They’re supposed to offer this wide array of music, and it’s exciting as a fan of music.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Dibb sees a clear connection between Animal Collective live and Animal Collective on record.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I think that also goes in line with the way we release records, and it’s ultimately what’s exciting to me,” he said. “Releasing a record like <i>Merriweather</i> and then releasing a record like this (<i>Centipede Hz</i>, the group’s new album out this week). Or going back to <i>Feels</i> or <i>Sung Tongs</i>. They’re all different. There are always going to be people just into one of those sounds and that’s all they’re going to want to hear, and then there are people who are like, ‘I’m really into all these different angles of what you guys can be,’ and I feel the same about the live experience. I want it to be unifying so all the people there can connect to it, but there’s also a part of me that wants the music to be challenging, in the same way that I expect people coming into this who were introduced to us through <i>Merriweather</i> and it’s the only experience they had: You’re either going to be up for this being something new, or you’re going to listen hoping to hear more of the<i>Merriweather</i> sound.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The success of <i>Merriweather Post Pavilion</i> gave the group some new pressure, though not externally. The album, recorded in Oxford, Mississippi during Dibb’s hiatus from the band, wasn’t just a critical and commercial smash: It was also a high water mark for Weitz, Lennox and Portner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Noah has used the golf analogy of trying to beat your personal best,” said Weitz. “For the three of us, <i>Merriweather</i> was really special, and having that feeling like when we finished it and feeling we’d made something we were really, really proud of. I know what that feeling is, so now I know more when I’m settling or compromising myself. But I don’t think commercially, it’s too difficult to anticipate what anybody wants.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Dibb rejoined Animal Collective in 2010, heralding something of a return to their roots, as the group headed back to Baltimore to write and record in a room together for the first time in…well, a long time. “I would say it was integral to the way the songs turned out,” said Lennox.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“We always throw some words around to get the inspiration, and we had some melodies going in,” said Portner. “Josh, Noah and I had written between the three of us five songs when we went in with the idea that we would keep jamming and write as we went. The three months there was kind of like a workshop and we also had time to work individually and produce stuff as we were writing.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Though the move was deliberate, the group said it wasn’t because they felt a particular need to tap into what made Animal Collective so special all those years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I don’t think we ever lost that,” said Weitz. “I don’t think this was so much about needing to recapture something, so, ‘Let’s go back to Baltimore.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Instead, it was more about wanting to take a different approach, one which was less about technology and more about the immediacy of smashing the shit out of one’s instruments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“It was a bit reactionary maybe to the sort of sample-based nature of <i>Merriweather</i>,” said Weitz.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“That manner of interacting with music and performing music, we felt like we had taken that with <i>Merriweather</i> where we wanted to. We needed a change, and with that change we needed to bring energy back into playing music as just a contrast. And the four of us playing live together with this instrumentation seemed like it would accomplish that. Baltimore was chosen more as a convenience than an attempt to recapture something, because I don’t feel like we’d really lost all that much.”<br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The members of Animal Collective grew up in and around Baltimore, playing music together in various incarnations. But it wasn’t until after high school that the group began to come together as we know them now. Lennox and Dibb headed to Boston for college, while Portner and Weitz went to school in New York City. After working long distance and traveling back to Baltimore to record for a few years, the group turned New York into their home base in 2000, with Portner and Lennox working in one of the city’s still-surviving independent record stores, Other Music. It gave them a chance to both fulfill and destroy their dreams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“My big goal as a musician was the have a barcode and a really official-looking package,” Lennox laughed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I always wanted to find my music in a section of a store I’d usually shop in,” said Weitz. “And at first you’re just in ‘Miscellaneous A.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“The first record Noah and I worked on (<i>Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished</i>), that getting a write-up in Time Out and it was featured in Other (Music), it was like, ‘Alright, that’s it!’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But getting what you want isn’t always a blessing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Actually, working in a record store made me hate music for a long time,” Portner said. “Having access to everything all the time, I was like, ‘I can’t even decide what I like anymore.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Initial reports of the music on Centipede HZ were often based on live performances of the songs played around the world last year, though as we’ve already established, with Animal Collective that doesn’t exactly give on much to go on. It was believed that the album would be a severe and unapproachable departure from Merriweather Post Pavilion, though that’s proved not to be the case. As PopMatters’ <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/162814-animal-collective-centipede-hz/" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Arnold Pan pointed out</a> in his album review (8-out-of-10), “<i>Centipede Hz</i> is an album that’ll get a hold on you as all its arms grab on and don’t let go.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I think there’s something very inherently Animal Collective about it,” said Lennox of the new album. “Compared to <i>Merriweather</i>, there’s a lot more going on and a lot more to navigate. But I don’t think that makes it a difficult record, because some of my favorite records have been like that and you hear more with repeated listens.”<br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Dibb agreed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I think <i>Merriweather</i> was one, and some of our other records have been like this, that it’s an instant thing,” he said. “At least that was my experience listening to it as a fan, that it immediately struck a chord and took off. Not that it wasn’t challenging, but it didn’t take a lot of work to get there. And I don’t think this is an instant record. You have to think about this for a second and take it in.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s worth noting that the group released music between <i>Merriweather Post Pavilion</i> and <i>Centipede Hz</i>: <i>ODDSAC</i>, an experimental visual album collaboration with filmmaker Danny Perez which took four years from inception to completion, was released in early 2010. And a few months prior to the release of <i>Centipede Hz</i>, the group released a double-sided single with “Honeycomb” and “Gotham” an admitted red herring they acknowledged would probably make some fans incorrectly feel like they knew how the album was going to sound.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Those songs didn’t really fit on the record, and we thought they’d be a good introduction to the band stuff,” said Weitz.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Visuals are also an important part of the Animal Collective experience, from their stage show to <i>ODDSAC</i>. While all four members of the group have had a hand in how their record sleeves are designed, Portner is the most connected to that, often working with his sister, Abby Portner, an artist and musician, to create the final product.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s varied from record to record,” Portner said. “For <i>Merriweather</i> when we were on the way to one of the studios we found that optical illusion and we were all like, ‘Oh, wow.’ For (<i>Centipede Hz</i>) it was more like collecting and we were all involved. Sometimes I have this idea in my mind and ask my sister Abby. Something else I might do on my own or we might all contribute something.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Asked whether he felt as though any particular Animal Collective record sleeve had visually captured the sound of the music, Portner said it wasn’t that easy to define.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“People react to that kind of thing so differently and it’s so specific to the experience of listening to music,” he said. “With <i>Strawberry Jam</i> there are lots of people who think it’s just disgusting, but for me, it’s a really pretty colorful way of presenting something, and you start to realize the more you do something…Like <i>ODDSAC</i>, which I think is the perfect combination of music and visuals that people are just not always going to get what you’re trying to push out there. But I think there’s something to be said for a really sweet record cover. I really like the cover to <i>Feels</i> a lot, that’s one of my favorites, but I wouldn’t necessarily think that you can listen to the music and stare at the cover and think, ‘That’s perfect.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“The cover is just an added flavor to the music,” Lennox said. “It doesn’t affect how the music sounds.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Animal Collective begin a three-week North American tour later this month, with European dates to follow. They’ll make stops in New York and London, two cities they admit to being among the most difficult to play.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“With cities like London or New York, on any given night there might be four great shows and the people in the audience go to music all the time,” said Dibb. “If you play places that are a little more afield, there’s pure appreciation of the experience of having us show up that can be really gratifying. There’s less pressure in this weird way. In Zagreb, Croatia people are just psyched. We played Moscow for the first time and people were psyched. Those are places where it’s special for bands like us to come through.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Portner admitted that it’s not always easy to know from the stage whether they’re playing a good show or not, and they don’t always agree with the crowd.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“There are some rooms that are great to play in and some that are tough,” said Portner. “But then I met this guy last night who found out I was in Animal Collective, and he was like, ‘Man, remember that one warehouse show and I DJ’d after you guys,’ and I thought, ‘That show was a nightmare,’ and he said he thought it was amazing. We played this show in New York where I basically just stopped because the bass frequencies were too intense, and for me it ruined the show, but for a lot of people they were like, ‘You guys were playing great.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Television provides its own difficulties for a group accustomed to experimentation, and much more so than in festivals the studio is not filled with partisan fans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I think the audience in those TV studios is completely irrelevant,” said Weitz. “The times we’ve played shows like that we’ve never even looked at the audience. They’re told with an applause sign to clap. I think more about what it’s going to translate into on the other side of the TV.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s the furthest away, especially in the live situation, of what we would do, take one song and play it,” said Portner. “Based on our history of how we feed off of live energy is to get this thing going and going and going, and then you’re put into that situation and it’s like, ‘Okay, guys: 4 ½ minutes. Do it!’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The regimented time slot of a TV appearance isn’t the only hurdle for the group in using the medium.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s difficult for us because they ask what we’ve got that’s four minutes long, and it’s not much,” said Weitz. “And we give them this one or this one, and they’re like, ‘You can’t play that.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2009, the group played “Summertime Clothes” on Late Show with David Letterman, a clear reminder that Animal Collective exists on the periphery of the entertainment industry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Paul Schaffer was really nice to us and acted like he listens and cared,” said Portner. “And David Letterman just made fun of our record cover.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Things were even worse two years earlier when the group made its national television debut on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, where they remember switching gears at the last minute and performing “#1.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Conan O’Brien we’d heard was a really big music fan, and I’m friendly with the guys in Yeasayer, I’ve known them for forever,” said Weitz. “And they said, ‘He was really psyched to have us on the show, he loved our record.’ And I was like, ‘Really? He talked to us about how the Amtrak went through Baltimore, and that was it.’ We changed the song at the last minute, and I think he got word of it and was pretty bummed.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Dibb remembered almost no direct communication from the lanky host following their performance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“He actually didn’t say anything to us at all, but after we played he walked through and as he was shaking my hand, he said to the camera, ‘Baltimore, huh? I went through there on Amtrak once,’” Dibb recalled. “Cool. Nice to meet you.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The sense of relative alienation doesn’t just apply to the world of television; they also feel it within the music industry. Collaboration outside of the group dynamic isn’t a natural fit for Animal Collective.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“There are certain people, especially in New York, where we’re not part of this fraternity who gets the stamp of approval from, like, David Bowie or David Byrne,” said Weitz. “We don’t make records with those people, but everybody else seems to. Not that we don’t like those people. For us it just doesn’t feel like our thing. Like with Arcade Fire backing up Bruce Springsteen just feels like it would be so far off from anything we’d do. And not even just those people, because I remember when Damo Suzuki was on tour, and in every city he said he wanted a different backing band. And for me, I just couldn’t imagine us sitting around the practice space and saying, ‘Damo Suzuki wants a backing band: Let’s do it!’ I just can’t see us making that decision.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For a group so closely associated with dense sonic experimentation, they’re also acutely aware that not every journey is a good fit for them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“There’s many different ways you can mix certain songs, and you can take a song like ‘Also Frightened’ and make a crazy mix out of it, and then you sit back and think, ‘Are people going to be into this? Am I even into this?’” said Portner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“And it’s the same thing with an instrument, too. There have been times where it’s been like, let’s try that and then we realize it’s just not right for us.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Weitz picked up the thread.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Pedal steel is a good example,” he said. “I love pedal steel, and before we made the record I thought it would be great to have a pedal steel, because I lived in Arizona for a while and fell in love with that sound, and there’s this record, <i>Chill Out</i> by the KLF, and I wanted to incorporate that into this record. But the notes played in a lot of those country songs might not work with what we’re doing. So we thought maybe about having it played live and we invited Dave Scher who plays in a lot of bands and plays lap steel. And a lot of his stuff stayed on the record, but sometimes when it was too far up in the mix it was just like, ‘That doesn’t sound like Animal Collective.’ The closest thing it sounds like is maybe <i>Wowie Zowie</i> by Pavement or something, but it just takes you out of our world.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">While the musical world of Animal Collective is always evolving, so too are the personal lives of its members. They live in different cities living different lives; two of them, Weitz and Lennox are fathers. For Weitz, the latter in particular represents a big change.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“My work ethic I think is a bit stronger,” he said about fatherhood. “I feel like I can push past exhaustion more. Being a musician can sometimes be a cushiony lifestyle, and I have to think, ‘You know, for the next two weeks I’m not just going to smoke pot.’ And I think that’s necessary – not smoking pot, per se, but recharging – and the idea of sort of having someone to observe your work ethic a bit more, there’s just no excuse for laziness.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“’I’ve got three hours to sit around and smoke pot and listen to records…Go!’” joked Dibb.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“The writing session we did was probably the most exhausted I’ve ever seen these guys,” added Portner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But it’s a good change, not just personally but in what it brings to the music, both in its sound and its creation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I used to work on Capitol Hill and you don’t get a lot of sleep but you’re psyched,” Weitz said. “I loved my job there, and you’re happy to almost be exhausted. Work is your life, and that’s what this record is like. And the idea that there’s a child observing that, you should love what you do and put your all into it.”</span></div>
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Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-29101663164600069002012-09-06T04:24:00.004-07:002012-09-06T04:24:57.641-07:00Godspeed You! Black Emperor<i>Published by <a href="http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2012/9/Music/Godspeed-You-Black-Emperor">Chronogram</a> online on August 30, 2013 and in print shortly thereafter</i><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Godspeed You! Black Emperor has always been something of an enigma, the band’s music a complex triumph of sonic, mind-melting exploration, haunting samples, and inspired composition. After a seven-year hiatus, GYBE reunited two years ago for a series of shows, and on Thursday, September 20, they’ll perform at Basilica Hudson, a venue ideally suited for the group’s epic vibe.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">GYBE has been hailed as champions of a genre called post-rock, but whatever post-rock means is anyone’s guess; it’s an application most often bestowed on groups for whom no other location in a record shop’s filing system would make sense. There are traditional rock ‘n’ roll instruments in GYBE, though the guitars and drums are often used in a darkly classical milieu. And with albums like the stunning </span><em style="background-color: white;">Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven </em><span style="background-color: white;">unfolding like a film soundtrack, or movements in an epic symphonic piece, where the hell else other than the chin-stroking, intellectually stimulating post rock section would a record shop keep it?</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Rumors abound that GYBE has been recording new material, though at present their last album remains </span><em style="background-color: white;">Yanqui U.X.O.</em><span style="background-color: white;">, the group’s politically charged 2002 full-length that featured a cover photograph of bombs tumbling out of a military plane, samples of then-President George W. Bush, and artwork linking major record labels to arms manufacturers. Heady stuff, but the music has always been grandiose and emotional, the stuff of fantasy and nightmares. Think the darkness and odd swathes of light in the music of the Velvet Underground, John Cage, and Swans. And, thanks to Karl Lemieux, a member of the group whose primary responsibility at live shows is bathing the stage in abstract experimental film projections, a GYBE performance is a totally immersive, singular affair.<br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">They may not have a new album on the way, but it’s not unusual to hear new material at a GYBE show. Just don’t expect the crowd to sing along, whether they know the songs or not, because aside from the aforementioned samples, GYBE’s music is strictly instrumental.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Since regrouping, GYBE have rekindled a relationship with All Tomorrow’s Parties, the UK-based promoter behind I’ll Be Your Mirror, a worldwide series of small festivals with days curated by musicians. The group’s date in Hudson was planned as something of a warm-up to an appearance at the annual US version of I’ll Be Your Mirror, originally planned to be held in Asbury Park, NJ. But last month it was announced that the festival had been moved to New York City, and, with the exception of a few artists, would keep its lineup intact. After performing in Hudson and New York City, GYBE will continue their tour through the South and Midwest until mid-October, when they’ll presumably steal away into the night refusing to confirm whether a new album will ever materialize.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Basilica Hudson, a hollowed out 19th-century factory on Front Street, is a few dark turns off of Hudson’s main hub, Warren, on the waterfront next to the train station. The mammoth stone-faced industrial building, which has been the site of performances by such art-rock luminaries as Patti Smith and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, is dimly lit and unheated, giving it a sense of the medieval. The various anterooms and vaulted gothic ceilings with intricately laced beams provide the perfect acoustics for GYBE’s atmospheric ebbs and echoes.</span></span>
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<br /><br />Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-10427672724547551072012-08-23T05:44:00.002-07:002012-08-23T05:44:53.925-07:00'Blur 21': The Best of the RaritiesOriginally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/162087-blur-21-the-best-of-the-rarities/">PopMatters</a> on August 22, 2012<br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: none; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Calling the new Blur box set (named <i>Blur 21</i>, honoring the 21 years since their first official release) a treasure trove is, if not a bit hyperbolic, certainly not inaccurate. If, like many of my fellow music nerds, you’ve all but abandoned the compact disc in favor of the tried and true vinyl option, there’s a version of the box set just right for you. While including all seven of the band’s studio albums in thick vinyl cut from oak trees (probably), the collection is lacking many of the bonuses which made the CD version too tempting to resist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Each of Blur’s albums—from 1991’s <i>Leisure</i> to 2003’s <i>Think Tank</i>—is given the double-disc treatment in the CD set, with most of the associated b-sides and non-album singles chronologically placed, allowing the listener to effectively trace the development of one of England’s greatest bands, one which transcended its assigned genre (Britpop) to become something greater, even while celebrating its own inherent Englishness. The CD box set also includes a handsome hardbound book featuring recording information and what one hopes is merely an abridged version of a much longer and more comprehensive oral history. There are three DVD’s included as well, rounding out the promo clips for anyone who already has <i>Blur: The Best Of</i>, and featuring a live performance from the “Singles Night” tour in 1999, a brief run through of 13-era songs from earlier that year and <i>Showtime</i>, a 1994 performance at Alexandra Palace previously only available on VHS. For completists, there’s also a one-sided vinyl single recorded in 1989 when the band was still called Seymour.<br /> <br />But really, the most compelling reason to opt for the CD version of the box set (assuming you’re not simply downloading everything off of torrent sites) is the inclusion of four rarities discs covering the span of the group’s history, from the Seymour-era right up through their 2010 Record Store Day single “Fools Day” and “Under the Westway”, one of two songs recorded in anticipation of Blur’s headline performance in London’s Hyde Park last weekend, a show in celebration of the Olympics and British music of the non-Spice Girls variety.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The rarities discs, arranged like the rest of the box set in chronological order, are fascinating, with many demos and alternate versions of familiar songs, jam sessions, and unfinished thoughts (including the unfortunately-titled “Sir Elton John’s Cock”, a too-brief bit of piano-led melancholy which sadly never developed into anything more). It’s moments like those which make the set like Blur’s career since reuniting with guitarist Graham Coxon (absent from <i>Think Tank</i>, except on the gorgeous “Battery in Your Leg”) in 2009 so goddamned frustrating; Blur should record a new album and tour the entire world, and their inability to commit to anything beyond brief joyful blasts like their handful of Hyde Park warmup dates across England (and a pair of festival appearances in Denmark and Sweden) is difficult for anyone not in Blur (and maybe a couple of the guys actually in Blur, too) to fathom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s partly why my girlfriend—fiancé, now, because I put a ring on her finger in Hyde Park a little over a week ago and she said yes—and I made the trip over in the middle of the Olympics. Yes, we had a wonderful time in my favorite city other than New York, and we spent time with friends and hit museums and record shops and regretted not having arranged for tickets to see any Olympic event. But what we also did was take a two-hour train trip to Margate for the first of the warmup shows at the Winter Gardens, an old music hall which hosted the Beatles nearly 40 years ago. Because I’m still almost completely incapable of conveying what the night meant to me, I’ll say in brief that it was one of the greatest gigs I’ve ever seen. The band was all smiles, and even when they messed up “Trimm Trabb” or “Sing”, or Damon Albarn couldn’t remember which line came where in “Coffee and TV” it was absolutely a celebration. Sure, Graham teetered on the verge of inconsolability when his amp wilted in the oppressive heat, but a hug and kiss from his old friend Damon set it all straight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And maybe we’re meant to enjoy these moments as they come and file them away and not long for more, but with all the joy on that stage that night, it’s natural to want them to do it all over again, but in New York this time (or wherever you happen to be from). If they never play again, I will be satisfied because I shared this moment with Blur and around 2,000 of their fans. It’s a version of a mantra I’ve repeated again and again as a fan of Blur: If they never release another song again, I’ll still be happy. If they never play another show together, I’ll still be happy. If Alex James continues devoting his energies to cheese-making and having interestingly-named children rather than picking up a bass guitar, I’ll be happy. I love Blur, probably as much as but in a different way to my other favorite bands, the Beatles and the Clash. I’m grateful Damon and Graham have both continued making music outside of Blur that I genuinely enjoy, but even if I thought they totally sucked I’d still be just as happy with what they’ve done in Blur. Fandom is confusing sometimes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A cynic might consider Blur’s pulling out the stops when compiling their setlists for the recent shows as a craven attempt to illustrate how deep their back catalog is. “Young & Lovely”, a b-side to 1993 single “Chemical World” has always been a beautiful, Beatlesque gem, but they’d never played it live before. At Margate, Albarn self-consciously noted that it would have felt too corny to air it on stage before, but now that most of them have kids of their own it felt right. “Caramel”, a lengthy, atmospheric track from the William Orbit-produced <i>13</i> (released in 1999), is another song which was played live for the first time this year. But the cynics can go fuck themselves, because what Blur has proven is that their singles, while unbelievably catchy and wonderful, are not all that the band is about. The knees-up Englishness of “Sunday Sunday” and “Country House” are a key element to Blur’s sound, but so are sonic blasts of weirdness like “Trimm Trabb” and “Bugman” .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And so the rarities, four discs of material predictably varying in quality which, depending upon your perspective, may or may not be essential listening. “Red Necks”, a b-side to 1994’s “End of the Century”, is bad enough on its own, so the addition of two alternate takes seems a waste. And while Damon has all but dismissed Blur’s first album <i>Leisure</i>, the demos included show the band was on the right track with the finished product. “Wear Me Down”, for example, is a bit sludgy and slow in demo form, but its crunchy guitars and harmonies are partly why<i>Leisure</i> is much more valid than Damon gives it credit for being. Remove the bad feelings Blur had about record company interference around that time (which included forcing the band to come up with “Bang”, a single they’ve tried desperately to forget in spite of it not being all that bad; and the removal of “Sing”, one of the band’s best early tracks, from the initial US release).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There are other missteps, though even if they don’t wind up in circulation on your iPod (purchasing any of the reissues and box sets comes with a download code), they’re still worth a listen. <i>Modern Life Is Rubbish</i>, released in 1993, has become something of a tentpole for Britpop fans, signaling a culture shift for Blur into a celebration of British music inspired by the over-Americanization of English society and the popularity of grunge. The album was produced by a number of people, including Stephen Street, who would go on to work with the band on their next three full lengths, but they had actually previously recorded some material with XTC’s Andy Partridge. Three of the songs from those sessions are included here, and while the early version of “Sunday Sunday” (called “Sunday Sleep” here) is an interesting listen, there’s nothing to suggest they hadn’t made the right decision in moving on.<br />But for all the tracks one might spin a few times for the sake of curiosity, there are some genuinely thrilling moments among the rarities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Compiling lists is rarely a good idea, because no matter how strongly I might feel about a song or a band, it’s unlikely anyone will entirely agree with me. That can lead to some intriguing debate, but ultimately whether a Blur fan finds anything (or everything) on the rarities discs indispensable is up to that Blur fan. That said, I’ve made a list!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Those are by no means the only songs worth seeking out over the four discs of rarities, and even with the fairly hefty price tag, <i>Blur 21</i> is worth picking up for fans. And maybe if more of us buy it, Damon, Graham, Alex and Dave will feel inspired to hit the studio and the road next year. Maybe . . .</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1. “Death of a Party (Demo)”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Death of a Party” turned up as a spooky organ-fuelled, full-band performance on Blur’s eponymous 1997 album, but the demo version of the song (recorded in 1992) was given to fans who subscribed to <i>Blurb</i>, the official fanzine, in 1996. The song was fairly complete in demo form, an acoustic run through with chilling harmonies, but it wasn’t until their post-Britpop comedown that the time was right to unleash the finished product.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2. “Far Out (Electric Version)”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Alex James’ spacy Syd Barrett-pastiche appeared in abbreviated form on 1994’s <i>Parklife</i>, but here the guitars and energy are turned up. It’s not necessarily a better version, but is every bit as intriguing.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3. “1”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Of the two tracks recorded in 2000 with Bill Laswell included on the box set, “1” is the most fully-formed, full of weird noises and chimes, and a laconic vocal from Albarn. It bears the sense of dread which pervades much of Blur’s later work, but in the best possible way.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4. “Dizzy”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One could argue which of the band’s earliest recordings best typifies what they were like when they were still called Seymour, but my money is on “Dizzy”, a song alternating between gently picked passages and spasms of kinetic energy. While Britain was in thrall to the Stone Roses and the Madchester scene, Seymour seemed completely oblivious (though later they’d adopt a few shuffle-beats in a half-hearted effort to latch on, their songs were never fully immersed in the ubiquitous sound of the day.)</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">5. “Seven Days”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Of the three songs here from the Andy Partridge sessions, “Seven Days” is the only one the band never re-recorded and re-released. It’s a testament to the strength of their material at the time that they could leave what could have at least been a quality album track or b-side with harmonies and a chorus which builds upon itself bit-by-bit from beginning to end.</span></div>
Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-54549765013739480042012-08-17T14:04:00.001-07:002012-08-17T14:59:05.938-07:00A Cold Day in Springtime... Damon Albarn Is My Hero<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/124222-a-cold-day-in-springtime-damon-albarn-is-my-hero/">PopMatters</a> on April 20, 2010</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Credibility is apparently a big deal in the music journo biz. I get that, at least in theory. I mean, I know why I’m supposed to take shit at face value and not let myself fall in love. But the whole reason I got into this mess in the first place was because I’m a fan and I get all emotional about music, and then I get all verbose and that just leads to trouble.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I love Damon Albarn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There, I said it. It feels kind of good to get it out there, like therapy. Or exorcism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I know it’s uncool or whatever to admit to having a musical crush on someone, but screw it. I love Damon Albarn. I love his vocals, both languid and falsetto, his enthusiasm for music of all shapes and sizes. I love that ridiculous gold tooth.<br /><br />It started as most love stories do, with a blur. Only this was Blur, Albarn’s first exhilarating whiff of success, both as a songwriter and musician. I was an avid reader of the NME then, having first taken the plunge in college as I kept up with all the various Madchester groups and looked for wide-legged jeans in thrift shops. Blur came along with boasts that they were going to kill off baggy, but the first couple of tracks I heard retained the genre’s “Funky Drummer” beat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But of course there was something else there, some link to either a past or future not even the Stone Roses could envision or hope to navigate. And if they didn’t actually kill off baggy, Blur outlived it. They outlived shoegaze, though songs like “Oily Water” off their second album, <i>Modern Life is Rubbish</i>, and later b-side “Bustin’ + Dronin’” traipsed through its effects-rich fields. They outlived for years each new scene cooked up weekly by the British music press. And, most fittingly, they outlived BritPop, a movement they spearheaded, one which utterly destroyed their chief rivals, Oasis, who hid behind gargantuan egos and refried Beatle-riffs and stadium-shaking concerts for 15 more years, before finally going out with a whimper, unable to ever achieve the same level of dominance they’d shown during the scene’s all-too-brief run.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Blur themselves nearly succumbed, releasing a critically inferior follow-up to Britpop’s celebrated masterstroke, <i>Parklife</i>. It’s not that <i>The Great Escape</i> wasn’t any good. But in a world that moved impossibly fast, Blur didn’t move quickly enough to shed their skin and re-emerge dressed in some other finery. That would come later, but their misstep nearly cost them their credibility, and more significantly, their guitarist, Graham Coxon, a legendary partier who made the tabloids by being hit by a car and living to tell the tale. His decision to not bail on Blur in spite of his clear discomfort in their chart-annihilating “Country House” video would save the band, not just allowing them to reinvigorate <i>The Great Escape</i>by giving it untold texture while touring the shit out of the album, but also pointing them in their new direction with his fondness for American indie rock.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">References were made to Pavement, though the self-titled <i>Blur</i> really only shared a distant kinship with the Stockton, California band’s music in its comparative refusal to smooth out the edges with a glossy production sheen. Still, the album was a triumph, finally breaking the band in America with the “WooHoo”-heavy “Song 2”, thus putting the band alongside everyone from the Ramones to Gary Glitter in becoming clipped sports arena staples. There was much more to <i>Blur</i> than the album’s first frenetic salvo. “Death of a Party” and “I’m Just a Killer for Your Love”, for example, still retained the band’s songwriting skills, but the tunes were also kinda weird. The follow-up, <i>13</i>, was both more experimental and romantic, teaming lush ballads to love longing and love lost with often impenetrable exercises in artistic tomfoolery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Blur released one more album in 2003, the underrated <i>Think Tank,</i> which incorporated elements of Albarn’s now-complete transformation into the world music-touting Sting it was okay to admit liking. The album, at least back then, also marked what felt like the permanent departure of Coxon. The guitarist, who himself had turned his love of the lo-fi indie aesthetic into a series of fine solo albums, appeared on just one track on <i>Think Tank</i>, peeling off a guitar line in the already mournful “Battery in Your Leg” that channeled all the pain and tension and heartache they must all have been feeling as they said goodbye.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On the surface, Albarn seemed alright with the split. After touring <i>Think Tank</i>, he focused his attention on a host of other musical projects, releasing a second collaborative album under the Gorillaz umbrella, joining forces with Clash bass guitarist Paul Simonon and Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen in the Good, the Bad and the Queen and touring An Honest Jon’s Chop Up with a host of artists on the venerable London-based record label he helped kick-start. Blur was gone, and I told myself I was alright with it as long as Albarn and Coxon kept on releasing good music. And they really did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">See, here’s the thing about Albarn – It sounds ridiculous saying it in my own head, so I’ve no doubt it’ll sound completely insane to naysayers and pooh-poohers alike, but Damon Albarn is the closest thing we’ve got to a renaissance man. Not everything he touches is the purest of gold. There have been duds, for sure. But if a guy can put a song like Gorillaz’ lush “Hong Kong” on a benefit compilation instead of as the centerpiece of his own album, well that’s pretty special. The majestic “Sunset Coming On” closed out the Honest Jon’s shows in splendid fashion, and it was buried on the little-heard <i>Mali Music</i> album.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And then Blur weren’t dead after all, performing a handful of shows, both small and massive, including a pair of headline gigs in London’s Hyde Park last July, the latter of which I’d bought a ticket to, yet regrettably could not attend. And then they were gone again, with members of the band sounding as though they’d have liked to see more of the same and maybe some new material too, why not? But Albarn killed that hope, instead pushing a third Gorillaz album, which finally dropped over a month ago to great hype and acclaim</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Make no mistake, because everyone’s a critic; <i>Plastic Beach</i> may not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially those who’d hoped it would more closely echo Gorillaz’ sophomore effort, <i>Demon Days</i>. But while the album did share its predecessor’s grand thematic drive and collaborative esprit de corps, it’s something altogether different. The first full track features Snoop Dogg in George Clinton mode, giving “Welcome to the Plastic Beach” its “P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)” smooth. And it rolls on from there, with everyone from Lou Reed to Mark E. Smith to, once again, De La Soul all jumping on board.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On the surface, Gorillaz is a cartoon band, with an elaborately expanding story arc to cover its four characters. But while that piece of the puzzle might appeal to some, what really makes Gorillaz special is Albarn, not only in his grand musical vision and melting pot approach to making it happen, but also his canny understanding of how and when to keep his massive ego in check because the music really is the message.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s true, my musical hero doesn’t lack in confidence. People I know who’ve met him have described everything from a sweetheart to a Scrooge, and there’s footage all over the internet to support all points between the two extremes. Maybe Albarn is a real asshole. But so are a lot of geniuses, and if we can’t separate what art from the artist, we’re left with nothing but a pile of dreary detritus, and that’s not a whole lot of fun to listen to at full volume soaring down the motorway with the windows open. “Stylo”, the first single from the futuristic/apocalyptic<i>Plastic Beach</i>, on the other hand, is perfect for such road-based outings, and its video sure sells that point nicely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And as I listened to “Rhinestone Eyes” and “White Flag” and – especially – “Empire Ants” for the millionth time, I knew I had my summer soundtrack, felt the warmth of the pavement breaking through the bitter, fleeting cold of winter. And then came the news that Blur maybe weren’t really dead after all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It started as a rumor, or at least appeared to be. Did Blur suddenly get together in a studio to record a track for a very limited run 7-inch single in celebration of Record Store Day, the annual event designed to keep the little guy from getting dragged into oblivion by the murky undertow of technological progress. Was Blur really about to release its first single with Coxon back in the fold since 2000’s “Music is My Radar”? Thankfully, yes. That’s exactly what happened, and after the 1,000 copies of the single sold out on Saturday, the band put the thing up for free on their official website as a download. And, yeah, I’ve crippled my objectivity by falling prostrate at Albarn’s well-heeled feet, but gee whiz, “Fool’s Day” is really, really good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s hard to know what goes on in a man’s head. Did Blur reunite last year because they felt like they had unfinished business? Was it the promise of truckloads of cash being dumped at their front doors? Was their bond with each other and their fans so strong that the pull proved to be too difficult to ignore? It was probably a bit of each, with a dash of whatever enigmatic folderol Albarn had coursing through his veins on that particular day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But when it was all over, when the tents were folded up and the footage for the documentary and concert film shot, why didn’t Blur just let goodbye be goodbye? The answer, or at least part of it, might be found in the lyrics to “Fool’s Day.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s a day in the life for Albarn, as he covers what happens from the moment he wakes, interspersing mundane images like eating breakfast and dropping his kid off at school with marginally existential side roads thrown in. And part of this day’s journey, April 1, 2010, is a trip to the recording studio, and most gloriously for Blur fans, “A love of all sweet music. We just can’t let go.” Whether this is a new beginning or the end through an admission that these four men mean more to one another than they knew is unclear. If this really, REALLY is the end, it’s a beautiful goodbye.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">That lyrical itinerary recalls “Busy Doin’ Nothin’”, a song on the Beach Boys’ 1968 album <i>Friends</i>. The album comes in at just under 30 minutes, and was almost forgotten upon arrival. But I’ve always really loved it, in part because it’s got a warmth and intimacy and, well, friendliness. It was probably therapeutic for Brian Wilson to work on albums like <i>Friends</i>and its predecessor Wild Honey after the whole <i>SMiLE</i>/<i>Smiley Smile</i>fiasco sent him over the edge. And while I appreciate that gentle vibe, there’s one song that just takes the comfort level a bit too far. “Busy Doin’ Nothin’” is essentially a list of shit Brian’s planning to do that day. And it’s a boring day, too. But the Beach Boys, like Blur, somehow manage to make it sound way more interesting than our own boring days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And so on to the music. Dave Rowntree is as solid as ever on drums, and Alex James’ bass seems to have shelved its debt to Duran Duran’s John Taylor for the Romantics’ “Talking in Your Sleep” by way of Simonon. And the harmonies… and the guitar… Much as I convinced myself that <i>Think Tank</i> was alright without more than a brief Coxon cameo, his guitar on “Fool’s Day”, especially that riff as the song fades, with hints of sweeping harmonies in its wake. This is what always made Blur so brilliant, all of it together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Albarn’s other band, Gorillaz, closed Coachella on Sunday, bereft of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, who were grounded by volcanic death dust. If the water cooler disappointment on the festival’s official message board is any indication, there was too little cartoons, too little energy, too little when a festival closing slot needed much too much. I wouldn’t know. I spent the night with the <b>Blur: Live at Hyde Park</b> film, comforting myself over missing one Albarn concert by watching another one I’d missed. Such is often the way with fandom; the missed opportunities so often pile up toward the sky while the good stuff can fit in a tiny box on your dresser. But it’s those moments, and the music what it does to us that makes it all so meaningful.</span></div>
<br />Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-4562029877861117862012-08-17T13:56:00.001-07:002012-08-17T14:02:15.399-07:00Lost on Me: One Man's Attempt to Survive the 'Lost' FinaleOriginally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/126088-lost-on-me-one-mans-attempt-to-survive-the-lost-finale/">PopMatters</a> on May 24, 2010<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Like millions of other television junkies, I bought the hype; I was reeled in by the ruthlessly compelling commercials and well-placed print ads, and on September 22, 2004, I tuned in for the premiere episode of <i>Lost</i>.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><i><br />Lost</i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">, with its water-cooler plot-twists and world’s sexiest flight manifest quickly became a pop culture phenomenon, burning up internet chat rooms (when they were still around), blogs (they’re still around, right?) and even the print media (which at least the time of this writing is still around.)</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />I remember saying to myself as the pilot unfolded, “I think I’m hooked.” It happened right around the time the plane crashed, as terrifyingly visceral a scene as I’ve ever seen on the small screen, in spite of my already knowing it was coming. I wondered what would become of the survivors, how they’d turn coconuts into wine, how they’d get along or not get along. I wondered who might take off their shirt first.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />And then, well before the final credits sped by, I changed the channel. Something inside me aggressively spurned the show like I’d rejected a baboon heart. It wasn’t snob’s natural aversion to the cultural zeitgeist, because even if I’d instinctively known that was coming, I’m okay with that sort of thing… most of the time, anyway. Yes, I’ve recoiled against hype before, turned my nose up at everything from </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">No Country for Old Men</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> to Radiohead to Pinkberry. But this was different, as I hadn’t yet been inundated with an avalanche of “OMG!!!” praise for </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> when I bailed. That would come later, of course. But when I decided to watch almost anything else, it was just me and my remote and a storyline and cast which failed to keep my attention. Not when there’s probably a cake battle on the Food Network, </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">. Not by a long shot.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />So, I got my ass off the island much quicker, apparently, than anyone else who’d either starred in or watched </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">. Because like the pull that island seems to have had on those poor schmucks, so too did that show have a pull on pretty much everyone I know, pretty much everyone you know and pretty much everyone else with even the most tenuous connection to network television.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />I stayed away, too, sinking my TV teeth into less befuddling fare like</span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Psych</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> and </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Flight of the Conchords</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> and </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">The Biggest Loser</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">. But with the finale upon us this week, I thought I ought to give </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> one more shot.<br /><br />My research such as it was consisted of years of ignoring Facebook status updates friends made about the show, loud commercials I’d managed to tune out and the last 45 minutes or so of ABC’s two hour pre-game celebration before last night’s final episode. I must also confess to having not entirely paid attention to the latter, as there was a </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Sex & the City II</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> cake challenge on the Food Network, and while I have also managed to avoid that particular cultural phenomenon (with much more bile), a cake-off if a cake-off, and that means Kerry Vincent is gonna be bitchy from beneath her Ren-Faire headband.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />I guess a bit of </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> sunk in over the years, in spite of my efforts to keep it out. I’d heard of Locke, for example. And also something happened to that guy who used to be a Hobbit, right? What I’ve heard most about</span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> since it premiered nearly six years ago was how good it was. And what I heard second-most was how goddamn confusing it was. Given I knew almost nothing about </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">, I figured I was in the right frame of mind to catch the finale. Boy, was I wrong.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />Even if I hadn’t caught a bit about the alternate worlds stuff, I’d have probably worked it out pretty quickly. I might have assumed one of the two threads was some sort of dream, though once the touchy feely déjà vu flashes began happening, I’d have seen the light. (I just found out producer Damon Lindelof calls these plot devices “flash-sideways” – Thanks, Wikipedia!)</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />Because I haven’t actually watched the series unfold, the questions I have are fairly mundane, and for all I know they were answered ages ago. How come none of the dudes on the island have crazy hermit beards instead of seductive stubble? And while some of the castaways had sufficiently unkempt hair, most looked salon-friendly. And, at the risk of sounding indelicate, why didn’t the fat dude who says “Dude” all the time lose a little weight?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />So, I watched the finale. Not all at once, of course, because like I did nearly six years ago with the pilot episode, I petered out before the finale did. I stuck it out, though, finishing it on Hulu this morning. And admittedly I’m probably a bit more confused than your average fan. Didn’t the guy from </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Party of Five</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> (another show I never watched) open the series looking up from a jungle floor? Nice one!</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />Despite the soundtrack trying to force me into action, I didn’t feel the tension on the edge of the cliff the way a regular viewer might have. I also didn’t shed any tears when characters who’d hooked up on the island had flash-sideways walks of shame in hospitals, alleys or piano-heavy benefit concerts. But those of you who’d watched every second of every episode and are now wondering what the heck you’re gonna do with yourselves on whatever night the show regularly aired, maybe you bawled like babies. Maybe your couches are still moist with tears and sadness snot at this moment. And that is ultimately how I closed out</span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">; not by hoping for loose ends to be tied up in a satisfying way, but by wondering if that’s how the fans felt about it.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />Some beloved TV shows end on a sour note (I’m looking at you, </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Seinfeld </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">and </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">The Sopranos</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">). Others, like </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">The Shield</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">, manage to make the inevitable seem revelatory. Still more, such as </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Arrested Development</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">, fall somewhere in between, unable to say goodbye because those involved in making the show are as bewildered as those who watched it.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />How was Lost for you? If you loved the show, did that bit in the church seem less mawkish than it did to a cynic like me? Did you find the tying up of loose ends satisfying and natural or rushed and convenient? Are you bummed there’s no Drive Shaft tour on the cards?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />Because of all the mythological hokum, the smoke monster poppycock and the supernatural rigmarole woven through the fabric of </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">, it was already likely bound to become a televised sci-fi tent pole for years to come. The romance and intrigue and – at least what I’ve been told – humanity of the characters helped it cross out of what is often perceived as the narrow scope of that genre and into the mainstream. </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> was hugely successful, and not in retrospect like the original </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Star Trek</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> series, either. </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> was a phenomenon in its present, and that’s not likely to change. And I guess I can say I was there at the beginning and end of it all, even if the middle is something of a blur.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /><br />I wanted to come away from the finale having realized the folly of having had such an itchy remote finger all those years ago. I thought I might feel inclined to start </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> from the beginning, something I could do for free on Hulu, apparently. I thought I’d want to dissect the pilot and see if there were any clues more than 100 episodes ago to point to what happened last night. Instead, I think I’m as finished with </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> as it is with the rest of us. What happened on that fictional island is no more my concern than what led those four wretched </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Sex & the City</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> shrews to Morocco for their new flick. I’m free of </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Lost</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">, a show which never really had me to begin with.</span></div>
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Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-23154380850664112312012-08-17T13:46:00.001-07:002012-08-17T13:46:29.740-07:00Hey, Hey, etc... Why I Love the Monkees<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/121814-hey-hey-etc...why-i-love-the-monkees/">PopMatters</a> on March 9, 2010</i><br /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I’m used to catching grief from friends for some of the quirky stuff I listen to, so whenever the Monkees come up in conversation, I’m always prepared for a lively debate. I’m not naive enough to pretend they were one of rock’s great bands, though I do feel as though their music has been a bit shortchanged by history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Their groundbreaking series lasted just two seasons, and was followed by a delicious stream-of-consciousness feature film (Head) and an even more bizarre TV special (<i>33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee</i>), which had the lousy fortune of airing opposite the Academy Awards. By this point, of course, the Monkees were hellbent on blowing themselves up from within. Scornful of the ridicule they faced from much of the “serious” rock cognoscenti, the pre-Fab Four made every attempt to shed their bubblegum image and strike out on their own.<br /> <br />It began somewhere around the time they recorded their third album. After playing sparingly on tunes for the first two Monkees’ records, the band took over for themselves. With the assistance of Chip Douglas on bass, the Monkees turned into a semi-actual band on <em>Headquarters</em>. It wasn’t a virtuoso collection by any means, especially when compared to many of other rock albums released in 1967. Never mind the Beatles’<em>Sgt. Pepper</em>; that year also saw seminal works drop from Love (<em>Forever Changes</em>), Captain Beefheart (<em>Safe As Milk</em>), the Velvet Underground (<em>The Velvet Underground & Nico</em>), Pink Floyd (<em>Piper at the Gates of Dawn</em>), 13th Floor Elevators (<em>Easter Everywhere</em>), the Doors (<em>The Doors</em>) and the Jimi Hendrix Experience (<em>Are You Experienced?</em>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Still, <em>Headquarters</em> is the work of a pretty alright garage rock band, one with a keen interest in experimentation. That thread would follow on the band’s second album of the year, <em>Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.</em>, which featured forays into country rock, vaudeville pop and psychedelia, the latter including what has often been regarded as among the first uses of the Moog synthesizer on a rock song (both on “Daily Nightly” and “Star Collector”).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1968’s <em>Head</em> may be the Monkees’ creative zenith, both on film and vinyl. The script, such as it was, was written over a drug-fuelled weekend in a cabin in the woods with Jack Nicholson. Yes, THAT Jack Nicholson. Nicholson makes a brief cameo in the film as does Dennis Hopper (the two worked together on <em>Easy Rider</em> the following year, a film financed, in part, on Monkee money), Frank Zappa, a very young Teri Garr, a very puffy Sonny Liston, Annette Funicello, Victor Mature, Carol Doda, Toni Basil and American football great Ray Nitschke.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Opening with Micky Dolenz jumping from a bridge to certain doom, the movie sunk like a stone in limited theatrical release, but went on to become something of a cult classic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The soundtrack features just a handful of original Monkees’ material, but what’s there is among the very best music they ever recorded. “Porpoise Song” is a swirling epic, and “As We Go Along” (with guitar by Neil Young), is a love song of fragile beauty. The oft-marginalized Peter Tork has two songs on the album, including the Indian-influenced “Can You Dig It?” (with vocals by Dolenz) and the sprawling stomp of “Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?” Even the sometimes schmaltzy Davy Jones is in fine form, on the Harry Nillson-penned “Daddy’s Song”. Nicholson compiled the album, gluing the songs together with dialogue and sound effects from the film. The only misstep—replacing the incendiary live version of Mike Nesmith’s “Circle Sky” shown in the film with a flaccid studio recording—was undone when Rhino Records remasted the album for CD release over a decade ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Following the disastrous results for <em>33 1/3…</em>,Tork wriggled his way out of his contract and split. As a trio, the Monkees released two more albums in 1969, much of which included songs recorded as early as 1966 that had just been sitting in a Colgems vault collecting dust. Nesmith’s “Listen to the Band” (originally given a psychedelic freak-out paint job with Tork still on board for <em>33 1/3…</em>) was the last great Monkees song. The last “musician” in the band, Nesmith left to form his own country rock pioneering outfit, the First National Band. Dolenz and Jones put out one last album under the Monkees’ name before finally pulling the plug.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There’s no question the Monkees were fabricated. But so was the cast of your favorite film, and they made great art together. And when the Byrds or the Beach Boys used studio musicians on some of their now-classic tracks, no one blinked an eye.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">While stuffy critics like <em>Rolling Stone</em>‘s Jann Wenner have always pooh-poohed the musical relevance of the Monkees, perhaps their greatest detractors of all have been themselves. Both Nesmith and Dolenz have frequently said in inteviews they didn’t think much of their music, with the former especially dismissive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">However, because they actually sorta gave a crap at the time, it’s impossible to objectively lump the Monkees in with other teenybopper acts of the day. Even if one doesn’t think much of them, they’ve got to at least fall somewhere in the chasm between the era’s rock and pop rather than at one end or the other.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I love the Monkees. Not just because I enjoy watching them on DVD with my eight-year old daughter (her fave rave is Nesmith, though she’s got bobblehead dolls of the whole group), but because I actually do enjoy their music. Some of it is simple to the point of hardly being there at all. And a few of their attempts to create art flamed out when they tried to fly too close to the sun, like Dolenz’ “Shorty Blackwell” (which is a total mess) and Nesmith’s “Writing Wrongs” (which is also a mess, but a curiously satisfying one). Yet there are gems to be unearthed far beyond the confines of a hits compilation. You may even find it’s worth doing a bit of exploring.</span></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-72789490464978592512012-08-16T06:13:00.000-07:002012-08-16T13:42:05.894-07:00Resident Punk (Work in Progress)<i>For a little over a year, I worked with Legs McNeil, co-author of <a href="http://pleasekillme.squarespace.com/">Please Kill Me</a> and legendary writer who was part of the New York City punk scene in the '70s. I've known Legs since I was a teenager, though it wasn't until I'd written a birthday message to him on PopMatters in early 2011 that we cooked up the idea of working together on a project. That project, Resident Punk, was Legs' autobiography, combining his own writing about his life with my biographical passages. The project is currently on hold, though I'm hopeful we'll pick it up again soon.<br /><br />Shortly after we took a break from working on Resident Punk, I debuted an excerpt from my portion of the sample chapter at a reading of the Greenpoint Writers Group. The reading, on May 5, 2012 at <a href="http://wordbrooklyn.com/">WORD Bookstore</a> in Brooklyn (located at the end of my block, conveniently), was the culmination of a months'-long intensive session where I joined other talented local writers in offering critique of works-in-progress while drinking booze. I'm currently at the beginning of my fourth GWG intensive, working on my novel this time, as I've found the process and camaraderie absolutely invaluable.<br /><br />The sample chapter was about Legs' relationship with the late Norman Mailer, and the draft from which I read was the culmination of months of interviews, research, writing and exhilarating back-and-forth edits with Legs via e-mail and in person in his home office. The excerpt below is what I read at WORD, and it was enthusiastically received by the crowd. The excerpt opens at the tail end
of a party in 1979 following Mailer’s first up-close experience with the punk
scene, a benefit for bullet-proof vests for the NYPD. Held at CBGB’s, the show
was headlined by the Ramones and also featured Shrapnel, the band Legs was
managing at the time.</i><br />
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“We were so drunk we were huddled together on some chairs or
the bed, kind of swaying because the room was about to start spinning,” Legs
remembered. “Norman finally said, ‘You have to interview me, you have to
interview me…’” </div>
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Norman
might have indeed been drunk that night, but he really had meant for Legs to
interview him, clearing time the following day to make it work. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Legs
didn’t show up. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Norman’s
office called Martha Thomases and said, ‘Where’s Legs?’” Legs remembered. “I
thought, ‘I didn’t think Norman wanted to really have me interview him, I
thought he was just saying that to be nice...’”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Legs got
it together and made it out to Mailer’s nautically-themed Brooklyn Heights
apartment the next day. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I was
really hung over,” Legs said. “And Norman wanted me to climb around in his big
apartment, he had all these catwalks to get to the third floor, and you know me
and heights. And I was like, ‘No, fuck that, no! I need a drink!’ And Norman
got me like gin or vodka, and I was like, ‘No I need beer!’ </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With the
drink order settled, the pair retreated to Mailer’s tiny office at the end of
the hall and turned on the tape recorder. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
interview covered a lot of territory, including Mailer’s thoughts on the
Ramones and Shrapnel show, his distaste for television (“I think the American
disease is TV”), existential paranoia and regret. The transcript shows the pair
veering wildly and perhaps politically incorrectly into murky waters like gay
rights and the Battle of the Sexes. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I was
railing against gays,” Legs said. “I was young and cute and they were all
hitting on me. This was a time when you’d walk down Christopher Street and
there’d be hundreds of gays along the sidewalk, three or four deep, dressed in
the most outrageous clothing, making catcalls and snide remarks as you passed.
Basically they were sexually harassing me, ha, ha, ha!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Norman
Mailer interview was published in the September 1979 issue of High Times. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“High
Times was offering me more money,” Legs remembered, “Doing it for Punk
Magazine, it just seemed like it would never come out.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though
Roberta Bayley took the official photographs for the High Times piece, author
Victor Bockris was also on hand to shoot the pair. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“When I
did the photo session for them, there was clearly a real affection from Mailer
to Legs,” Bockris said. “Mailer would like a guy like Legs. He loves
anti-heroes. And Legs was kind of like an anti-hero. It makes a lot of sense.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Legs soon
became a fairly regular fixture in the Mailer household. According to Mary V.
Dearborn’s book <b>Mailer: A Biography</b>, Legs made an impression on Mailer’s sons.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Shrapnel
and Legs McNeil were big hits with fourteen-year old Michael and twelve-year
old Stephen Mailer,” wrote Dearborn. “When Legs told them to watch Gilligan’s
Island, a show he much admired, they did, over and over. The two boys began
talking like Legs and parroting his enthusiasms.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With Legs
entrenched in the inner circle, Shrapnel began playing at parties thrown by
Mailer; one was covered in the Random Notes section of the April 17, 1980 issue
of Rolling Stone. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“It
figures that author Norman Mailer would go for Shrapnel, a New York punk band
whose act is derived from endless reruns of the old Combat series,” reads the
opening of the Rolling Stone blurb, written by Kurt Loder. Legs brought him to
the party, along with Alice Cooper guitarist Glen Buxton, Tom Hearn, Arturo
Vega, and his girlfriend, Lori K. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shrapnel
began life as Heart Attack before meeting Legs at CBGB’s. According to
guitarist Daniel Rey, it took several months and countless beers before the
idea of Legs managing the band was even considered. Devising a collective
persona based on military games they used to play in the hinterlands of New
Jersey, Heart Attack donned modified army uniforms and morphed into Shrapnel. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We
thought we needed a shtick and were really into Alice Cooper and the stage
show,” Rey said. “We were sort of anti-hippie. Hippies were peace and love, and
we were like, ‘Screw that! Let’s blow shit up!’ So I guess in that way we were
political, though it wasn’t anything more than comic book politics.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those
comic book politics extended to their stage show, which often featured a
character called “the Gook.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“You’ve
got to remember, this was a long time ago and political correctness was not on
anyone’s mind,” said Peter “Ropeburns” Russell, another Cheshire friend of
Legs, who played the Gook. “It was basically an anti-communist rant which had a
lot of good features to it but also had a lot of really heavy racist elements.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I was
very interested in using all the slang terms from Viet Nam and World War II,”
Legs explained, “And re-defining them. I was very influenced by Arturo Vega’s
day-glo swastika paintings that were hung in the Ramones loft. I think we
thought we could use all that old propaganda and imagery and give it new
meaning. And, of course, rightly so, everyone thought we were racists, but we
were actually a bunch of white liberals, ha, ha, ha! ”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I would
write appropriate political slogans on my chest,” Ropeburns recalled, “I
remember ‘Thanks for the Canal’ because Jimmy Carter had just signed away the
Panama Canal.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Punk’s
reputation for being aggressively user friendly meant Shrapnel’s live shows
were frequently a harrowing experience. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Sometimes
the crowd got a hold of me and that would get ugly because I couldn’t see
anything out of the damn Gook mask,” Ropeburns remembered. “If I got too close
to the edge of the stage they’d seize me and pull me into the crowd. Look a lot
of drugs were being taken back then and a couple of times I got beaten up
pretty badly. But because of the mask thing, my head was okay.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shrapnel
arrived early in Brooklyn Heights for the party covered by Rolling Stone,
giving them their first look at Mailer’s place.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“It was
wacky,” said Rey. “The apartment looked like a big ship with all these rope
ladders. We had to climb up in this loft and set up our amps.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ropeburns
remembered Mailer working on a giant Lego model of a future city. The complex
cityscape had appeared on the cover of a paperback edition of Mailer’s 1966
collection of essays, <b>Cannibals and
Christians.</b> By 1980, the utopian construction had fallen into disrepair,
covered in dust and left to ruin. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“He was
going to order everybody’s life with it, which was a little strange considering
how his was,” Ropeburns said. “The different colors were all like different
sectors. It was all very kind of ‘50s modern. He and I talked a lot about that,
and we were both drinking pretty heavily.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among the
party guests that night were Woody Allen, Shelly Winters, Kurt Vonnegut and
former light heavyweight fighter José Torres. Shrapnel was unmoved by the heavy
dose of celebrity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Woody
Allen hid in the bathroom all night,” Legs remembered, “And people keep
knocking on the door because they had to pee or do coke or whatever, but Woody
wouldn’t open the door. Finally, he opened the door a little and peeked out,
and Arturo Vega opened the bathroom door all the way and said to Woody, ‘Boy,
you really are shy, aren’t you?’ Then Arturo closed the bathroom door on him,
in disgust.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The punks
weren’t just unimpressed with Woody Allen’s fame, but also their host’s. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We were
pretty young, so we weren’t starstruck by this famous author,” said Rey. “He
was just this cool old guy who could hold his liquor, was pretty funny and had
a hot young wife. It was the kind of thing we’d mention to our parents and
they’d go, ‘WHAT?!?!?’ We’d be like, ‘Yeah, but David Johansen was there too,’
and they’d say, ‘Who…?’”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hearn
remembers being far more starstruck at the time by Alice Cooper lead guitarist,
Glen Buxton, than he was by Mailer. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“That to
me was really cooler than Norman Mailer, you know?” Hearn said. “We rode around
in Glen Buxton’s Trans Am with the t-top off, and he was flying down, whatever
downtown avenue it is, going to the Mudd Club, when you get all green lights.
‘Wow, now this is fun!’”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According
to Rey, a wrestling match between Legs and Mailer mentioned by Rolling Stone
actually began as a scrap between Legs and Glen Buxton. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Norman
couldn’t just stand by and watch someone wrestling in his house without getting
involved,” Rey remembered. “He grabbed Legs and they went flying over and Glen
Buxton went flying on the ground. Someone was bleeding, but it was all in good
fun.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Legs
remembered opening up a cut on Mailer’s ear, though he believed it had recently
been lanced in a doctor’s office and there was a fresh scab which came off
while they grappled. Hearn recalled the fight getting a bit more serious once
the blood began flowing. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Legs was
getting the worst of it because Norman was way bigger,” Hearn said. “But
they’re both about equally drunk, I would say. Legs is very slippery, and at
the time, well, we were in our 20’s, so he must have had 25 or 30 years on
Norman. But, yeah, he was getting the worst of it. No question. And that was
standard. When Legs was in a fight, Legs was losing a fight: That’s all there
was to that.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shrapnel
singer Dave Wyndorf remembered the party getting even weirder as it wound down.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We
started to mingle, and I’m getting drunk and the crowd is melting away,”
Wyndorf said in a 2012 interview with Tom Scharpling of Low Times, “And finally
it was just Norman – Mr. Mailer – and us-- the people that would never leave.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According
to Wyndorf, Mailer decided to impart some existential cake-based wisdom on his
young guests, returning from the refrigerator with a cheesecake. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“‘I’m
gonna teach you how to eat cheesecake,’” Wyndorf remembered Mailer saying.
“‘It’s important to eat cheesecake and fuck. You eat cheesecake, you fuck a
little…’ And we were like, ‘Yeah, who can we fuck? There’s no one here!’”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Glen
Buxton might have gotten off relatively easy in the wrestling match earlier,
but that was about to change. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Buxton is
looking around and he sees a picture of Norris Church, Mailer’s wife,” said
Wyndorf. “And he says, ‘Man, who’s what girl? She’s fucking hot! I’d like to
fuck her!’ And Norman goes, ‘It’s my wife!’ and headbutts him like a goat, like
a billy goat. Knocks him out.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Rolling Stone report mentioned Mailer
giving the guys in Shrapnel the rest of the booze from the party, but Rey said
it didn’t leave with them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We drank
beer at that time, you know, so we didn’t know what to do with it all,” Rey
said. “Glen Buxton took it all home.”</div>
Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-24170773767813046912012-08-16T05:51:00.000-07:002012-08-16T05:51:10.909-07:00Popblerd's bLISTerd Presents: The 100 Best Albums of the Eighties<i>Originally published by <a href="http://popblerd.com/2012/06/04/blisterd-presents-the-100-best-albums-of-the-eighties-100-91/">Popblerd</a> in June 2012 in the series bLISTerd Presents: The 100 Best Albums of the Eighties</i><br /><br />I was asked by my friend Big Money at Popblerd to contribute to a list of the best albums of the decade of my lean teen years, the '80s. If there's one thing us music nerds love it's making lists, discussing lists, obsessing over lists, and revising lists until we can scarcely remember what we were listing in the first place. After the votes were tallied, I was given the chance to write about five of the albums form the final cut. I'd included all five in my initial list, and below you'll find my blurbs as well as where the album fell when the votes were counted.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>#58: The Stone Roses - <i>The Stone Roses</i></b></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Though its initial reach in the United States was largely contained to college dormitories, in the United Kingdom, the Stone Roses’ eponymous debut signaled a youth revolution. Masterfully weaving classic rock guitars with an acid house sensibility, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Stone Roses</em> was about so much more than bellbottoms and bucket hats.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Stone Roses</em> is deceptively DIY; Ian Brown’s vocal range is indeed something of a musical liability in a live setting, though on album it works perfectly. But he’s also the coolest motherfucker on the planet. In John Squire, the Roses had their own guitar hero, and in Reni the greatest drummer since…well, since anyone, and with Mani’s soulful bass guitar, the band had a rhythm section for the ages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But without the songs – those songs, my <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">God</em>… – <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Stone Roses</em> would have been a flash in the pan. The soaring chorus of “Made of Stone” (“Sometimes I fantasize when the streets are cold and lonely, and the cars they burn below me”) still sends shivers down the spine, and the 8-minute-plus closer, “I Am the Resurrection”, with its dismissive lyrics (“I don’t care where you’ve been or what you plan to do”) and churning instrumental section is an exhaustively perfect finish to one of rock’s few perfect albums.<br /><br /><b>#21: Sonic Youth - <i>Daydream Nation</i></b></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />Having already established themselves as indie’s premiere downtown art-rockers, Sonic Youth’s fifth album,</span><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Daydream Nation</em><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, saw the group consistently hit what for some has been their greatest strength: Superior songwriting buried under an avalanche of sound.</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s fitting that on their first double album Sonic Youth would include a song called “The Sprawl,” a Kim Gordon-sung epic with lyrics (“Are you for sale? Does ‘fuck you’ sound simple enough?”) to match the fury of the guitars. “Teen Age Riot” opens the proceedings with more than a minute of gentle guitars and hypnotic singing from Gordon before everything explodes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Bassist Gordon and guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo share vocal duties throughout, with the latter pair’s standout tracks “Teen Age Riot” and “Eric’s Trip” respectively. Even Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, the Stooges) gets in on the vocal action on “Providence” (though his contribution is through a pair of answering machine messages). The album closes with “Trilogy,” a three-part journey which predictably ends in measured chaos and unbridled energy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Daydream Nation</em> convinced the music industry that Sonic Youth was ready to destroy the world, and despite a subsequent move to a major label, they never shed their commitment to experimentation and sonic songwriting perfected here.<br /><br /><b>#19: Talking Heads - <i>Speaking in Tongues</i></b></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />If not exactly famous, the Talking Heads were certainly well-known by 1983. With four terrific albums under their belt, the New York punk scene’s most artistically enduring act was about to enter the upper reaches of the pop charts. The album’s lead single, “Burning Down the House” hit #9 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and thanks to a quirky video that matched the band’s quirky sensibility, Talking Heads were everywhere.</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks to the hypnotic rhythms, a greater reliance on synthesizers, collaborators like Parliament-Funkadelic co-founder Bernie Worrell, David Byrne’s spazzy art school vocals, Jerry Harrison’s understated guitars and the criminally underrated bass guitar of Tina Weymouth and drums of Chris Frantz, everything seemed to come together at just the right time on <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Speaking in Tongues</em>.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Songs like “Burning Down the House,” “Making Flippy Floppy” and “Girlfriend is Better” still move butts on the dance floor, but for truly lasting brilliance one must turn to “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)”. Byrne’s description of the album’s second single made it sound like something of a reluctant love song, though “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” certainly feels unabashedly and genuinely romantic. It’s a love song even a cynic could love.<br /><br /><b>#6: Public Enemy - <i>It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back</i></b></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />Released in 1988, a year when the world was in thrall to the likes of Phil Collins’ “A Groovy Kind of Love” and Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth,” Public Enemy’s second album hit like an atom bomb-propelled freight train.</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Socially-conscious hip-hop was nothing new by the late ‘80s thanks to pioneers of the form like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. But with the syncopated steps of the S1W and the bombastic beats of the Bomb Squad, the stage was set for the group’s celebrated vocalists to unfurl calls to action not heard since the early ‘70s heyday of Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets. Chuck D was Public Enemy’s intellectual center, a gruff storyteller balanced by his comedic foil, Flavor Flav. In 2012, with the reality shows and the failed business ventures in our collective consciousness, it might be difficult to believe there was a time when Flavor Flav was an absolute essential piece of the puzzle, but one listen to “Cold Lampin’ With Flavor” or any other track on which he emerges from the furor should help set the record straight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Even its sleeve – with Chuck D and Flavor Flav behind bars – is provocative, and coupled with classic songs of anarchic angst like “Bring the Noise” and “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back </em>isn’t just one of the finest hip-hop albums of the ‘80s, but is one of the best albums by anyone in any genre of any era. Public Enemy nearly matched it in quality with their next album, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fear of a Black Planet</em>, but they never had so much shocking power as on <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back</em>.<br /><br /><b>#5: Beastie Boys - <i>Paul's Boutique</i></b></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />If the Clash’s</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">London Calling</em><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">had the power to singlehandedly destroy everything lame from the entire decade that preceded it in 1979, then perhaps the same can be said of</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Paul’s Boutique</em><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. Released in the summer of 1989, the Beastie Boys’ sophomore album may not have fully abandoned the sophomoric wordplay of</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Licensed to Ill</em><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(“I stay up all night, I go to sleep watching</span><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Dragnet</em><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">/Never sleep alone because jimmy is a magnet”), but there was an undeniable maturity in its meticulously constructed grooves.</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Paul’s Boutique</em> is as compelling a case for the art of the sample as anything ever recorded, with easily recognizable sounds (Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman” on “Egg Man”) effortlessly mixed with decidedly less so (the beat from “Egg Man” was lifted from Lightnin’ Rod’s “Sport”). Many of the album’s backing tracks had already been built by the Dust Brothers before the Beastie Boys found them, but together the collaboration – along with co-producer Mario Caldato, Jr. – created a masterpiece.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Though one might feel compelled to attach a sense of the maudlin to the music of the Beastie Boys with the recent passing of Adam “MCA” Yauch, all these years later it is impossible to listen to <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Paul’s Boutique</em> without being overcome with joy. They would go on to record more classic material, but the Beastie Boys were never better than on <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Paul’s Boutique</em>, an album which perfectly captures the curious comfort of the musical schizophrenia of city life.</span></div>
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Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-88504595985637436792012-08-13T10:22:00.002-07:002012-08-16T05:52:31.507-07:00Mountain Jam: May 31 - June 3<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/160716-mountain-jam-may-31-june-3/">PopMatters</a> on July 13, 2012, with photographs by <a href="http://wagesoffear.tumblr.com/">Mike Katz</a></i><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s been called “little Bonnaroo” and with some of the key acts heading off from upstate New York to rural Tennessee the following week, it’s not an entirely unfair claim. But while the pair share a hazy hippie vibe and even – I learned later – some of the same food vendors, Mountain Jam is an entity all its own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This year’s incarnation of the annual Mountain Jam festival was the eighth. The first Mountain Jam was a one-day concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of WDST, a Woodstock-based independent radio station whose eclectic format is indicative of what the festival eventually became. Govt. Mule headlined the inaugural Mountain Jam and they’ve been the sole musical constant ever since. Warren Haynes, Govt. Mule’s guitarist and leader, co-produces the festival with WDST, and his considerable fanbase comprises much of the several thousand in attendance. So dedicated to Govt. Mule are these fans that they dutifully stood in a torrential downpour on Friday night; their slick ponchos glowing in the night with each flash of light from the stage.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />If Govt. Mule is an annual constant for Mountain Jam, rain (or the threat of rain) was a constant for the four days of the 2012 festival. The threat was there through most of Friday, though it didn’t really come down until that night, just prior to Govt. Mule’s four hour set on the East Stage. James Murphy, former lynchpin of LCD Soundsystem and one of Mountain Jam’s most intriguing bookings, carried on with his late night DJ set on the West Stage that evening, though the rain kept many of the revelers cowering in their tents while hoping they wouldn’t slide down the mountain and into the tiny village surrounding the ski resort.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, is one of the country’s most renowned open-air concert settings. The gorgeous scenery and natural acoustics provide a unique experience for those wishing to commune with nature while they have their synapses shredded by music. Hunter Mountain during Mountain Jam should also be mentioned in that conversation. With the two primary stages (the larger East and smaller West) sitting side-by-side at the bottom of a verdant stretch of peaks, the natural setting carries the sound up the hillside and, presumably, into the heavens above. I learned this while on a long ride up the ski lift, one of the best ways to really get a sense of the surroundings as it carries riders over the crowd and beyond the RV and premier campsites, halfway up the mountain to the base camp of a zip line. I also learned it as I eventually got tired of being cold and wet during Murphy’s set and listened to the second hour shivering in a tent I feared would be obliterated by the volume and awesomeness of the beats.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />The longer the weekend went on, the muddier the hill became, and even with the best efforts of the festival’s organizers by laying down shitloads of hay, people still slipped and fell in the mud. Of course the longer the weekend went on, the less people actually seemed to care whether they were covered in mud anyway. Yes, there were showers (three narrow stalls per gender for $5 a wash) but their lines never matched the length of the lines for coffee in the morning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Mountain Jam is billed as a child-friendly festival, and I suppose if you’re cool with your kid inhaling lots of pot smoke, it’s not the worst place in the world. There was face-painting and a couple of kid-specific tents for kid-specific activities. Even some of the music was geared towards kids: Ratboy Jr., a local act in the wry tradition of They Might Be Giants who drop the Jr. when they play for grownups, was one of the musical highlights on the small stage in the Awareness Village, playing late-morning sets on Saturday and Sunday. I also saw four kids that were maybe in the 5th or 6th grade in the tall grass halfway up the mountain, perhaps bent on escape or on a hopeful Stand By Me-style search for adventure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Did you go to college at any time between 1968 and…well, now, I guess? Picture the hippies. I’ll do it too: I was in college in the early ‘90s and I played drums in a funk band. A lot of the kids who came to see us play were contemporary hippies with long flowing robes and matted blonde dreadlocks. They wore hemp necklaces and corduroy pants with long quilted panels running down the sides. If that sounds familiar to you, guess what? They still look like that! Mountain Jam in many ways felt like college, though fortunately the comparison ended there and I wasn’t subsisting exclusively on ramen noodles so I could spend what little money I had on records, pot, and beer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Though the name smacks of jam bands, Mountain Jam’s lineup is considerably more eclectic. Not that one shouldn’t expect lengthy guitar solos over meandering musical passages, because there is plenty. But this year also featured a stellar performance by the Roots, a band who, while not uncomfortable with the concept of jamming, are decidedly crisper and on point than the term “jam” might indicate. The Roots were one of the weekend’s highlights, a blast of electric energy just before the rains came down on Friday night. How they do what they do – house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, jetting off to destinations unknown for weekend gigs, ?uestlove’s weekly DJ set at Brooklyn Bowl, and steady stream of Twitter commentary nearly every minute of every day – is a mystery. Keeping up with their itinerary is exhausting enough, so imagine what it must be like to actually be in the Roots. But none of that matters once they hit the stage, because it’s pure bliss. The Roots even found the time to work in tributes to the recently departed, opening with a go-go-infused take on the Beastie Boys’ “Paul Revere”, simultaneously honoring Adam Yauch and Chuck Brown.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Mountain Jam also paid tribute as a whole to Levon Helm, a friend of the festival and a musical legend with deep roots in the area; Helm passed away earlier this year, and renditions of his solo material and songs made famous by the Band were heard (with encouragement by producers) from many of the artists during the weekend. Govt. Mule brought out the surviving members of the Levon Helm Band for the second half of their Saturday night set for an emotional, celebratory performance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Mountain Jam was also the first official reunion show of the Ben Folds Five, who ran through their greatest hits in front of fans who’d traveled far and wide to see it happen. Folds was in predictably gregarious form, regaling the crowd with wry stories between even wryer songs from the group’s staggeringly catchy back catalogue. While the North Carolina-bred band is in the midst of recording a new album, they stuck strictly to the classics, only letting up long enough for Folds to throw his stool at his piano - a decidedly punk move for a guy who used to earn a paycheck as a judge on an NBC singing competition show. Of course, if you haven’t heard “Army” or “Song for the Dumped”, you might not know he had it in him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the festival’s breakout acts, Gary Clark, Jr., had already lain waste to the kids at Coachella, and was one week away from doing the same at Bonnaroo when he unleashed his guitar fury at Mountain Jam. Clark, who grew up in Austin, Texas, has already made a name for himself in the blues community, but has lately expanded his reach thanks to incendiary live sets like the one on Friday afternoon at Mountain Jam. If he’s uncomfortable with the comparisons to Jimi Hendrix, Clark sure isn’t showing it, as evidenced by his blistering instrumental run through “Third Stone from the Sun”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Another breakout performance came from Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, a Daptone Records-affiliated soul outfit and one of the all-time feel-good stories in the history of music. Bradley, a singer in his mid-‘60s with a heartbreaking-but-triumphant life story, was discovered singing as a James Brown impersonator named Black Velvet by Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth. Bradley, a.k.a. the Screaming Eagle of Soul, has since recorded a debut of all-original material, which he showcased at Mountain Jam along with crowd-wowing dance moves possibly honed during his Black Velvet days. Bradley’s sincerity and humility are as genuine as his absolute love of performing, and his voice – and his band – killer. Even if you ignore how totally fucking gratifying it is to be able to celebrate Bradley’s rise, the guy is just dynamite.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The festival’s final headline slot went to Steve Winwood, a dynamic performer since his teen years in the Spencer Davis Group. Though his performance came at the end of a lengthy stateside tour, Winwood was in fine voice and spirit, running through classic material spanning his long history, up to and including cuts from <i>Nine Lives</i>, his 2008 album. Winwood brought out Haynes for “Gimme Some Lovin’” – a singular highlight from an exceptional festival-closing set.<br /><br />Despite often dismal weather and an abundance of exceedingly over-patchouli’d patrons, Mountain Jam was a pretty terrific festival. In its eighth year, it shows no signs of faltering. With a clear dedication to offering a wide range of musical options to its audience, one can only hope it carries on for many years to come. With great local acts like blues of the Connor Kennedy Band, hotly-tipped indie artists like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Simone Felice Band, genre-defying outfits like Break Science and EOTO, and jam legends like the Tedeschi Trucks Band, there really is something for everyone at Mountain Jam. Now, about all that rain…</span>
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<br />Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-22085035510474593122012-08-13T10:18:00.002-07:002012-08-16T05:51:49.019-07:00Paul Weller: 18 May 2012 - New York<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/159165-paul-weller-best-buy-theater-new-york/">PopMatters</a> on June 1, 2012</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In 1982, fresh off the buzz of his band’s first number one album in the U.K., Paul Weller broke up the Jam. That he moved on to further commercial success with the blue-eye soul of the Style Council is hardly the point, at least in this context: Paul Weller is unafraid of shaking things up and going against the grain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Best Buy Theater in New York City is a deceptively large space in a terrible part of town for live music. Leaving a show is like getting knocked off a surfboard by a massive wave, the sea of tourists moving in all directions in the heart of Times Square, and if you want to avoid being pulled by the undertow into Madame Tussaud’s or Toys R’ Us, you’d better steel yourself for a struggle. Outside, it seems as unlikely a place on earth as any you might find for an artist to perform his latest album in full, especially when that album is <i>Sonik Kicks</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Paul Weller has been around a long time, and if you’re a fan from the Jam through the Style Council on up through his many years as a solo artist, you know in your heart that his generally accepted title – the Modfather – is more an honorary degree than a testament to his having stayed in one place for all this time. Weller may be known for writing classic songs, but they’re hardly all cut from the same cloth. Even so, <i>Sonik Kicks</i>, if not a difficult album, is possibly one of the most sonically adventurous of Weller’s entire career. And while it reached the toppermost of the poppermost in the U.K., it’s not exactly tearing up the charts over here. So opening a 2 ½ hour concert by running through the album from start to finish, while not a revolutionary concept, is still a daring proposition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Up front, on the rail, the fans were out in full force. Weller performed just two shows in the U.S. on this visit, both at the Best Buy Theater on consecutive nights one weekend in mid-May. As such, Weller-heads (or whatever they call themselves) have traveled for the show. They might have done that anyway, but then again maybe not. Would the fan from Boston who claims to have seen the Jam and Style Council way back when, who aggressively bellows “Oi!!!” and “Are you ready?!?!?” in a phony Cockney accent have made the trip down if Weller was playing a little closer to home? Maybe. But with the tour really more of a two-night stand, there is the air among the fandom of something special, something worth riding the rails in a t-shirt from some past Weller tour or other.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If Weller was going to play all of <i>Sonik Kicks</i> in this manner, he at least had two things going for him. There was a fairly partisan crowd on Friday, May 18, at least in the first pit closest to the stage. It also helped that Sonik Kicks is so fucking good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If he has any interest in shaking off the Modfather mantle, Weller shows no signs on the surface. He’s still sporting a mod hairstyle and is still dressing to the nines, his suit a sharp number that might have been crafted for a nearby production of <b>Guys & Dolls</b>. Weller’s band – some of whom have been with him for years, including Ocean Colour Scene guitarist Steve Cradock – is also sharply dressed, but it’s clear from the moment he hits the stage that the Modfather is the coolest motherfucker in the room.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The <i>Sonik Kicks</i> set was killer, and while I went in familiar with the material, I still got the feeling that those who hadn’t yet found their way to the album were captivated, especially by the high-energy numbers like “Kling I Klang” and “Dragonfly”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The band returned for an acoustic run through some of Weller’s back catalogue, taking the front of the stage on a row of stools like a sharper, less hirsute, Crosby, Stills & Nash along with a string section. It opened with a rapturously received “English Rose”, the first sign that the Jam were not off limits in Weller’s repertoire, and closed six songs later with a stunning “You Do Something to Me”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Weller plugged back in for a final run through more of his timeless tunes, with “22 Dreams”, “Stanley Road” and “Wake Up the Nation” highlights in the first run through. One fan who’d yelled “Town Called Malice!” at least 100 times over the course of the night was rewarded in the encore, which also included the Jam’s “In the City” and “Art School”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On the street, actually in the city, fighting through a million people craning their necks to figure out where the ball drops each New Year’s Eve, the air was still crackling. Weller is more than just an institution, but an active genius still capable of creating vital music. On one night in May in New York City, Weller’s sense of adventure was more than matched by a terrific performance with his band.</span></div>
Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-25936545323701320782012-08-13T10:16:00.003-07:002012-08-16T05:52:10.919-07:00The Sklar Brothers: The Hardest-Working Twins in Showbiz<i>Published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/155691-the-sklar-brothers-the-hardest-working-twins-in-showbiz/">PopMatters</a> on April 27, 2012</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If it’s true comedians are narcissists, imagine what it’s like to be Randy and Jason Sklar. It’s not just because they’re identical twins, though they most certainly are that. It’s because they’re brothers who work – and travel, and perform, and hang out—together, and the banter is so innate in their live performances that it’s only natural it spills over into their post-show conversations. Perhaps a funk over how a recent performance went might have lasted half as long if there weren’t two of them volleying it back and forth. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />Last spring, the Sklar Brothers came to New York for a handful of shows as they prepped material for their latest album,</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Hendersons and Daughters</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">. On a Friday night, they performed a pair of shows at Gotham Comedy Club, a wide room set up like a carpet-covered coliseum, with overly intimate tables and overpriced drinks.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />The Sklars’ journey to becoming standup comics began in St. Louis, Missouri, where they grew up as fans of local teams like the Cardinals. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />The first show was dynamic, with the brothers hitting a rhythm early and riding it to the end. The second show, by their own account in its immediate aftermath, was a mess. It was late and the crowd was a combination of drunk and disconnected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“It kind of bummed me out, I hate to say it,” Jason admitted. “Sometimes certain jokes go over better, but I felt like it was fucking work. It was so brutal. We were battling up there and it was not fun.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“The mics were way too low,” added Randy. “Your mic should be powerful so you can make it hard for people to have a conversation, period. That’s the way it should be, to the point where if they’re rude enough to want to talk to each other, they’ll have to talk as loud, and then they get spotted and they’re fucking gone. Why did you come to a comedy show if you wanted to have a conversation? There’s a great bar downstairs.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Later, in a sorta-okay-but-not-great bar next door, the Sklars held court with a few friends and a few fans. They’re really nice guys, Randy and Jason. I met their former accountant, maybe. Also a nice guy. The Sklars surround themselves with impenetrable niceness, perhaps, because it shields them from lunatics and assholes, from people shoving a business card in their hands, or giving them the vague celebrity recognition patter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“I know you, don’t I?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />This was more slur than statement, and it came from a woman who leaned over a bar stool putting her frosted hair between Jason and I. She was in a group of two couples, the dudes growing increasingly hostile as she struggled in vain to put a name to the face.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“I know you … you’re from ...”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“That happens all the time,” Jason said later, and I’m sure he’s right. Earlier I’d told him a story about visiting my father’s apartment in Chelsea in the brief months-long window when the Sklars starred in their short-lived MTV series <i>Apartment 2F</i>. On our way to a since-shuttered Cuban diner, I spotted the brothers coming out of a building and realized I’d seen them before. Unlike our new friend in the bar, I hadn’t bugged them at the time. I did later, though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />The Sklar Brothers as they’re collectively known on comedy albums and in comedy clubs recognize the value of being cool to their fans. I crossed that threshold during the first season of <i>Cheap Seats</i>, a sports comedy show on ESPN Classic. The show, which ran for four seasons between 2004-06, starred Randy and Jason as network tape archivists commenting on clips from old sports broadcasts (with a very loose interpretation of “sports,” as evidenced by episodes on spelling bees and poker tournaments. If it sounds a bit like <i>Mystery Science Theater 3000</i>, the Sklars acknowledged that, and the stars of that show appeared in an episode of <i>Cheap Seats</i>, evoking some sort of comedic M.C, Escher painting (a reference point familiar to fans of the Sklars as well.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />In the third season of <i>Cheap Seats</i>, the show held a contest with the winner having an episode of the show shot in their home. I entered, but didn’t win. I did receive a signed photo and a t-shirt, both of which I still have somewhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Right around that same time, I sent them an e-mail asking them if they’d wish my then-wife a happy birthday. She’d become a fan through <i>Cheap Seats</i>, and I figured maybe there was an outside chance they’d hit her up with a MySpace comment, which should at least tell you how long ago that was. Instead, the Sklars sent her an e-mail, two or three paragraphs of the most hilarious shit I’d ever seen. That’s how cool these dudes are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Randy and Jason talk about their fans a lot on their podcast. They read letters they receive in a segment which used to open the show but has since been moved; the advice came from a fan. They talk about the fans who come to their standup performances and shout out “Henderson!” and “Osbaldiston!”, both of which have their origins in hyper-enthusiastic sports play-by-play calls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />With <i>Sklarbro Country</i>, the brothers’ weekly podcast devoted to sports, comedy, and indie rock, Randy and Jason are fulfilling a destiny hinted at by the Beastie Boys, circa <i>Check Your Head</i>/<i>Ill Communication</i>, when the hip-hop/punk collective rocked vintage Knicks tees, built a basketball court in their recording studio and sporadically published a magazine devoted to music, comedy, sports and popular culture called Grand Royal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“This is the dichotomy that lives inside of us and has always lived inside of us,” said Randy. “We are at once kids who grew up playing catch in the front yard for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. And we are also perfectly at home watching Mel Brooks on TV and learning every line to <i>Airplane!</i> and loving standup comedy, and loving musicals and Broadway shows. That’s who we are.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Jason said he sees that dichotomy as part of their bigger picture goal of dealing with perceptions and misperceptions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“Our career has been spent deconstructing what people’s assumptions are of twins,” he said. “We have spent a career trying to mold a different perspective on twin-ness and a more nuanced, real perspective on twins that isn’t just for show, joke and what we all sort of know. And I feel like we’ve applied that to everything we do. Why does a sports show have to have Joe Satriani as the opening guitar riff for it? It doesn’t at all. In fact, it could start with a Belle and Sebastian song that makes you sad. Or a Best Coast song, or a Mazzy Star song, or something that makes you sit down and go, ‘Huh, that’s really thoughtful. That’s really neat.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“When we look at [Phoenix Suns point guard and raconteur] Steve Nash, I bet there are friends in Steve Nash’s life who don’t even know he plays basketball,” said Randy. “I like that. I like when guys say, ‘This sport is not my entire life.’ And that’s what we’re trying to get people to do.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“It was high school,” said Jason, before citing an early inspiration. “Richard Lewis; loved that special with the piano and the brick wall. It was at the Improv I think. He was so good that special, and showed what comedy could be.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“[Jerry] Seinfeld, [Garry] Shandling,” Randy added. “We loved Shandling. We just were into that stuff, so we would do people’s bits not knowing that’s not what you’re supposed to do. We would just do it for our friends in high school and whatnot and get huge laughs because these are phenomenal bits that people came up with. And then there was a talent show in the school. A lot of it was material which we just stole, which is just terrible. We didn’t know that wasn’t what you were supposed to do. But some of it was stuff that we wrote and we were encouraged by it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Soon, the Sklars were comfortable enough with their act to put it on videotape, a recording which they sent to the Disney Channel in the hopes of making it on to a young comedians’ special.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“I remember Skippy from <i>Family Ties</i> was going to be the host of the show, Marc Price,” said Jason. “The production company called us back and I’ll never forget talking on the phone with them. They didn’t talk to our parents, they talked to us. And they were like, ‘We’ve looked at thousands of tapes and you guys were in the top ten of tapes we saw.’ I think that stands to reason. How many kids are doing standup?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />The show was never produced, but it was enough to get Randy and Jason interested in taking it further. Though on course to become attorneys, the brothers continued honing their act during their time as undergraduates at the University of Michigan. After graduation, they were accepted to law schools but instead moved to New York to pursue standup. Which, in a very roundabout way, brings us to the present.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />The Sklars are the hardest working twins in showbiz. They regularly travel the country performing standup and have three albums to their credit, the most recent—<i>Hendersons and Daughters</i>— released in 2011. In addition to their own forays into television (<i>Apt. 2F</i>, <i>Cheap Seats</i>), they’ve appeared on <i>Law & Order</i>, <i>CSI</i>, <i>Grey’s Anatomy</i>, <i>Entourage</i>, <i>It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia</i> and plenty of other scripted TV shows. They’ve been regulars on Chelsea Lately and on radio on the Jim Rome Show. They’ve done a handful of films, though the less said about most of them the better. They’ve done internet series (<i>Back on Topps</i>, <i>Held Up</i>), been on cartoons (<i>The Oblongs</i>) and guested on podcasts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />An upcoming History Channel series, <i>The United Stats of America</i>, will see Randy and Jason using statistics (and, presumably, comedy) to figure out where the country has been and how it got to where it is today. Six episodes have been produced, though there’s no indication on the network’s website as to when they might air.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Outside of semaphore and puppetry, there are few avenues they haven’t traveled down as performers. And, I don’t know: Maybe they actually have done puppetry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br />Sklarbro Country</i>, the weekly podcast, is perhaps the twins’ greatest labor of creative love. It shows in the comfortable rhythm they have, not only with one another but also their guests, often a fellow comedian, sometimes one from their close circle of friends. But there’s also a lot of hard work that goes into producing an episode of <i>Sklarbro Country</i>, and perhaps larger ambitions than one might realize.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“What we’re trying to do as well is extrapolating the human story, and what is it saying in a larger theme, and how can we attack a larger theme so it’s not totally based in the story,” Randy said. “Like where does all the championship memorabilia go for the team that loses? That’s an interesting concept for us, and how is that deceiving for the people who live in villages around the world?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">They also understand that it wouldn’t be an easy transition, melding the material in the podcast with their standup performances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“<br />I think we’re even kind of afraid to do some of the stuff we do in the podcast on stage with a regular crowd, but I would love to,” said Jason. “We would love to figure that out.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />What you hear when you download an episode of <i>Sklarbro Country</i>—which is free, by the way—is the result of a lot of hard work behind-the-scenes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“The first 20 minutes of that show, we write,” said Randy. “That’s super rare. It’s written based off of us improvising. First we’ll start talking about the story and say, ‘What’s the angle?’ And we start talking and coming up with jokes and write them down. And then we’ll tighten it and make it a little clearer. We write a very detailed outline, which a lot of times has fully written out jokes. But we also go off it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />No matter how hard they work, though, they still have to deal with what every performer faces: Negative feedback.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“I’ve heard criticism where people say like, ‘These guys don’t disagree with each other,’ but I don’t know that we have to,” said Randy. “There’s enough of that shit on the air right now. There’s <i>Around the Horn</i> if you want disagreement, and sometimes <i>PTI</i>. But that’s not necessarily what we do. Maybe there is some merit to what people are saying. We take every little criticism as though there’s some truth behind it and we’ve got to figure it all out. I think it’s who we are.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />The criticism may have directly yielded another sport-comedy endeavor with <i>Point/Point</i>, a series of video shorts on Jockular.com where Randy and Jason spoof the standard charged patter of sports shows by vehemently agreeing with one another.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In an effort to bring their many worlds together, Randy and Jason have dipped their toe in the water with the odd live performance of <i>Sklarbro Country</i>, including an appearance at this year’s SXSW. Festivals, they explained are a lot of fun. But for responsible family men, they’re also tough to justify.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“What’s hard for us is that we have families, and it’s hard for us to be like, ‘We’re going away this weekend. We are going to make a total combined $50. They’re paying all our expenses, though,’” Randy said. “That doesn’t mean anything in a marriage. ‘You take care of the kids. What I’m going to do is hang out, listen to music, smoke some pot, hang out with all my really fun comedy friends. You deal with the kids and I’ll talk to you periodically, but it’ll probably be too loud because bands will be playing and you’ll feel completely alone.’ You can’t do that unless you have the most understanding spouse ever or unless … unless nothing. It’s just too much to heap on somebody, and we have to ask ourselves what does it do, to what end. Yes, it’s super fucking fun. There is no more fun than performing at a festival in front of a thousand people who are psyched.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Jason picked up the thread.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“You go to a festival, and they’re like, ‘The car is ready for you,’ and you hop in the car with Tig Notaro and Kyle Dunnigan and Rich Fulcher and we sit there and we fucking gag around and we just honestly do Carson impressions and joke around and just are so silly and laugh our asses off,” he said. “It’s so much fun, it’s what we love. There’s something about that that I miss. So we’ve got to do one every once in a while.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Connecting with other comics is important to the Sklars. On the night of their appearance at Gotham Comedy Club, Jay Mohr—in town to film an episode of <i>Law & Order: Criminal Intent</i>—turned up between sets and staying for much of the second performance. It meant a lot to Randy and Jason.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“Richard Lewis is up at Caroline’s tonight, and he could have easily gone up there and hung out,” Jason said. “He could have done nothing, he could have just hung out with people from the set, from his crew. He came here and hung out and gagged around with us and made fun of us while we were selling t-shirts from the table. And it was fucking great. That’s part of this business that we truly love. We feel like we’ve worked hard in this business to achieve a certain level of respect from our peers. And I think we’ve got it for the most part. I mean, there are always going to be people who don’t like what we do or think we’re funny.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“I think that’s diminished a lot, because we’ve hung around and kept making stuff,” Randy said, and to prove a point, the Sklars talked about a work-in-progress idea, the practice of constant consideration of material that could both make them laugh and move their careers forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“The <i>Jersey Shore</i> people went in and negotiated their contracts for a lot more money, and I would have just loved to have been a fly on the wall for that negotiation,” Jason said. “They’re saying like, ‘Snooki wants $50,000-per-episode, she wants a percentage of international sales and back end DVD stuff.’ And the business affairs person from MTV is like, ‘Alright, well there’s got to be conditions.’ And the lawyer is like, ‘Fine, what are the conditions?’ and she’s like, ‘Seven drunken hookups.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘Obviously, fine. She’ll do that in one night.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘One condom-rip pregnancy scare.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘Who rips the condom?’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘Producer. Pre-ripped.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘Fine. What else?’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘She’s got to take a shit in the bed.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘No, she’s not going to shit in the bed.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘Fart in the minifridge?’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘On camera?’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />‘Off mic.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />“We’re just beginning to work that out,” said Randy. “I think there’s something funny in that, but we don’t know what the answer is yet.”</span></div>
<br />Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-82632158078146722982012-04-20T19:12:00.007-07:002012-04-20T19:14:45.245-07:00Kraftwerk at the Museum of Modern Art on 10 April 2012<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/157323-kraftwerk-at-the-museum-of-modern-art-on-april-10-2012/">PopMatters</a> on April 20, 2012</i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">In recent years, as Hollywood has been bitten once again by the gimmick of 3-D, legendary critic Roger Ebert has routinely taken to Facebook and other corners of the internet to lambast the film industry for its craven efforts to wring more money out of cinema-goers. I tend to side with Ebert on the topic though. As the parent of a 4th grader, I’ve certainly given in and donned silly glasses for 90 minutes in the pursuit of entertainment. I wonder what Ebert might think of Kraftwerk using a vast 3-D screen as part of their eight-night audio-visual series at the Museum of Modern Art.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The conceit with Kraftwerk is that while they’re undeniably futuristic, there’s a certain level of classic kitsch in the mix. It must have blown people’s minds when they first heard “The Robots” or “The Man-Machine”, for example, though much of the imagery of that time period was based on a Modernist movement which was already 40 years old. It’s within this dichotomy of retro-futurism that Kraftwerk initially found its relevance, and it’s there where they remain relevant today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a fad, 3-D film made its biggest initial splash in the early 1950’s, giving audiences “Astounding! Astonishing! Amazing!” experiences with schlocky flicks like</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Mad Magician</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It Came from Outer Space</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, in an age of cinema gimmickry where theatergoers found their seats vibrating and 30 different syncopated smells sprayed in their faces. The experience, we’re told, is different today than it was even in recent years past, and I suppose there’s some truth to that because we no longer have to wear glasses with one red lens and one blue (though as another throwback, those old timey glasses are on the cover of a fancy Kraftwerk book sold in the MoMA gift shop).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perhaps it’s because I’m jaded, but 3-D in the modern age isn’t packing much more of a punch than it ever has. Which brings us back to Kraftwerk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The MoMA retrospective is billed as a complete run-through of Kraftwerk’s entire back catalogue, providing one ignores their first few albums and begins with 1974’s digital travelogue,</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Autobahn</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. Over eight consecutive nights, Kraftwerk is performing an album in its entirety, though each show also contains highlights from other releases. The residency’s opening night (Tuesday, April 10) kicked with “The Robots,” a single from 1978’s</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Man-Machine</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, before</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Autobahn</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">was tackled in full. It was a shrewd opening salvo, introducing the longstanding half-gimmick of the members of Kraftwerk being robots themselves (a point actually first made in the lobby where robot versions of the four current members of the group slowly moved…well…robotically in glass cases. It was as though Disneyland’s Hall of Presidents had been overrun by the aliens in</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This Island Earth</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To the credit of Kraftwerk and MoMA, the Marron Atrium could have probably held twice as many people as they let in, but in the spirit of the immersive experience they allowed attendees to have a bit of breathing room. And honestly, if you’re speeding down the vast expanse of the Autobahn wearing cardboard 3-D glasses, the last thing you want upsetting the fantasy is being packed like sardines on the L train during the morning commute. The 3-D was great about half the time, and the other half it wasn’t particularly necessary. Whether 3-D added anything to the experience of seeing the sleek lines of the “Trans-Europe Express” come reasonably to life on the large screen behind the group is hardly the point. The evening included 3-D because 3-D is very Kraftwerk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There they stood, nearly perfectly still, for just shy of two hours, resplendent in black bodysuits that were equal parts</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tron</b><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(the original, ‘natch) and Spider-Man’s symbiotic Venom costume. Ralf Hütter is the sole remaining founding member of Kraftwerk, with his longtime co-conspirator Florian Schneider having left the fold in 2008. If it’s possible for a group largely modeled after barely animate robots that hasn’t released new music in nearly a decade to have an essential member, Hütter certainly fills the bill. Most of the lead vocals—often monotone, but with a vulnerable humanity—on the group’s classic tracks came from Hütter, and it remains so on stage in New York; he wears the only headset microphone, and any other voice heard comes via loops or outer space or wherever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The future-past theme only holds water until the music comes into the conversation; nearly 40 years ago, Kraftwerk must have seemed as though they’d beamed in from another dimension, a window into a clean, emotionless yet oddly sexy future. And they still sound like that today, because for all the shit they influenced, and all the iPad apps that can create music on the fly, we still haven’t caught up to what Kraftwerk were doing as far back as</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Autobahn</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in 1974. I thought perhaps it was a trick of the eight-channel video and sound installation developed solely for this series of performances, but listening to the music now on my tiny laptop speakers it still brings me back to the future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tickets for the retrospective quickly sold out, adding to the exclusivity of the event, though the entire affair was as civilized as one might expect given the venue. Besides a guy in a wizard hat and sandals playing a harmonica, no one prowled the line outside hoping for a spare ticket. Inside, personal space was respected, and no one rushed the stage or craned their necks in vain to see over the group’s lecterns to find out how they made all those wonderful sounds. The crowd looked like something out of a Kraftwerk song, sharply dressed, all with the same goofy white cardboard 3-D glasses. A few danced, but most were struck with awe at a legendary group bringing their aesthetic to life in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Whether you made any of the performances or not, it’s worth heading across the East River to Queens for a presentation of Kraftwerk’s historical audio and visual material at the MoMA PS1 Performance Dome through May 14. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/tools/print/www.moma.org" style="border-bottom-style: dotted; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; text-decoration: none;">www.moma.org</a>.</span></div>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-30799527154022588992012-04-20T19:08:00.006-07:002012-04-20T19:14:23.294-07:00Our Favorite Record Stores: PopMatters Picks<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/tools/full/157494">PopMatters</a> on April 20, 2012 as part of their coverage of Record Store Day</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://permanentrecords.info/">Permanent Records</a> - Brooklyn, NY</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Even in New York City, there’s no longer any guarantee that you can simply walk out your front door and find yourself within spitting distance of a record store, rad or otherwise. Fortunately for urban denizens in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood, there’s Permanent Records. Warm and inviting, Permanent Records combines the rare with the recent, and the staff is knowledgeable without ever coming off as elitist snobs. In other words, this is where you want to be whether you’re a music neophyte dipping his toe in the water or a sophisticate looking for the perfect fix. </span></span>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-37949946623740593132012-03-11T05:22:00.000-07:002012-03-11T05:22:40.422-07:00Van Halen: 1 March 2012 - Live at Madison Square Garden, New York<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/155635-van-halen-2012-march-01-live-at-madison-square-garden-new-york-ny/">PopMatters</a> on March 9, 2012 with photographs by Sachyn Mital</i><br />
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<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you want to be annoyed by David Lee Roth, there’s plenty to work with. The mincing, preening, gurning original and most recent frontman for Van Halen is one of rock’s most mercurial figures, a court jester in a fallen kingdom. But for all the hits of the Sammy Hagar era – a period Van Halen circa 2012 would rather pretend never happened, thank you – there is no one more perfectly suited to serve as a foil to Eddie Van Halen’s legendary guitar pyrotechnics than Diamond Dave.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At a sold out Madison Square Garden on Thursday, March 1 – the band’s second such show on their tour in support of <i>A Different Kind of Truth</i> – Van Halen blasted through many of the touchpoints of their golden era, weaving in seamlessly four songs from the new album, their first with Roth back in the fold.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The tension between Roth and the Van Halen brothers, Eddie and drummer Alex, has become a long, cautionary folktale, an awkward and terrible period stretching over two decades that’s only worth bringing up again for the umpteenth time because of its total absence on the stage at Madison Square Garden. Eddie always smiled on stage anyway, but he’s positively beaming these days. It can’t hurt that the band’s new album – its first since 1998’s grim <i>Van Halen III</i>, with vocals by Extreme’s Gary Cherone – has been heralded as a genuine return to form. And, sure, it’s hard to imagine anyone not grinning like a loon playing a second sold out show at “the world’s most famous arena” in the early stages of what promises to be a very profitable tour. But there’s also genuine warmth on the stage, so much so that it even manages to break through old stone face Alex.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another awkward truth which can’t be overlooked is that for all the esprit de corps in the Van Halen camp these days, they’re still trolling through the past without the mystical mullet of Michael Anthony, the band’s original bass guitarist whose vocal harmonies were an integral part of their signature sound for all those years. As with almost anything involving the history of Van Halen, the relationship was fraught with acrimony, and Anthony is nowhere to be seen or heard. Filling in on bass and backing vocals for the past few years is Eddie’s son Wolfgang, an official member of the band. Wolfgang clearly has the chops to perform with Van Halen, and he appeared comfortable in front of nearly 20,000 fans in New York City. Weeks shy of his 21st birthday, Wolfgang has been an official member of Van Halen since his mid-teens, a time when most fledgling rock musicians are fumbling in the garage through a haze of low grade weed and acne medication. To Wolfgang’s credit, he’s not only in his element on stage, but does nothing to deserve any criticism from Anthony purists longing for a “true” reunion.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Being a support act at Madison Square Garden is no picnic, as the vast arena looks empty until it’s close to full. Kool & the Gang, performing without singer James “J.T.” Taylor, might seem a curious choice as a tour opener, but aside from a few ardent rock fans who sit, arms crossed, in protest, they do their job by getting the crowd in a celebratory mood.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then came Van Halen, with a performance that mostly sounded like it might have back in 1978 or 1984. But let’s get the bad news out of the way first. After a night where proficiency matched energy, they closed with “Jump”, which topped the charts in 1984. It’s hard to imagine a more ideal choice for a finale, and after mostly killing all night it was a total mess, with none of the musicians able to secure a toehold with the song’s signature keyboards, played here as a backing track. It was a disappointing end to a terrific show, and all the confetti and grand prix flag waving couldn’t obscure it.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There were also three solo moments for the band’s old timers. It was inevitable, of course, but also unnecessary. Midway through the set, the rest of Van Halen left the stage so Alex could prove he’s still got it. There is no greater primal thrill in rock & roll than his tribal drums in “Hot For Teacher”, and as he demonstrated later, he’s still more than capable of pulling its complexities off on stage.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Eddie’s solo, incorporating elements of “Eruption” and “Cathedral”, was also undeniably skilled, and probably even more appreciated by the crowd. But at the risk of committing heresy, it would have been perfectly fine being passed over, especially with his incendiary work on songs like “Runnin’ With the Devil” and “Everybody Wants Some” still hanging in the air.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Diamond Dave’s solo bit was predictably more puzzling, an acoustic run through of “Ice Cream Man” with pauses to narrate home movies about his dogs playing on the massive HD movie screen at the back of the stage.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But in the end, these are minor gripes, and what the night was really about was those fantastic songs and the performance. Van Halen was always about blending style and substance, and even as they’re older now than they were then, they’ve still got it. Eddie still shreds, Alex still destroys and Dave…Dave is still Dave. His voice is terrific and he’s in unbelievable shape, not only wearing his ass-hugging fancy pants with his version of dignity and grace, but also capably, acrobatically performing every strut, spin, split and kick we all remember from the “Jump” video.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The crowd ate it up with a spoon. Women with overly frosted hair and the dudes evenly split between old rockers, guys who want to be low-level mob enforcers and guys who consider Jason Statham a fashion and lifestyle template. Everybody wants some, indeed. And even 40 years after they first got together in Pasadena, California, Van Halen can still give it to them.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The tour winds across the U.S. and Canada through the end of June.</span></div>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-73283128373732446412012-03-07T12:04:00.000-08:002012-03-07T12:04:48.766-08:00Kaiser Chiefs: Start the Revolution Without Me<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/155553-kaiser-chiefs-start-the-revolution-without-me/">PopMatters</a> on March 7, 2012</i><br />
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<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The path that led to the new Kaiser Chiefs album, <i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i> might not have been fraught with the same corporate tension as Wilco’s <i>Yankee Hotel Foxtrot</i> or the threats of legal action and long periods of lethargy as the Stone Roses’ <i>Second Coming</i>, but it’s still every bit as winding.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kaiser Chiefs have lived inside a Britpop bubble since their debut album, <i>Employment</i>, arrived on the scene in 2005. It wasn’t the first go-round for the Kaiser Chiefs, of course. They began life as Parva, a short-lived incarnation given a quick burial after their record label folded. The band regrouped with a host of impossibly catchy terrace anthems and found themselves the heroes of those who either missed or lamented the loss of the mid-‘90s English aesthetic.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The band has stuck with the formula ever since, tweaking it here and there but ultimately relying on the strengths and weaknesses of their wry pop-craft. In the UK, the plan has seen relatively diminishing commercial returns come the Kaiser Chiefs’ way: 2007’s <i>Yours Truly, Angry Mob</i> was the high water mark on the charts, with both the album and its lead single (“Ruby”) hitting the toppermost of the poppermost. But it sold fewer than a third the amount of <i>Employment</i>. <i>Off With Their Heads</i>, the band’s 2008 album was produced by Mark Ronson, but did little to stop the precipitous slide.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And so the Kaiser Chiefs responded with a hiatus of sorts; as with many young bands who settle into a record-tour-record-tour rhythm, they found themselves in need of a breather. It lasted more than two years, but was over before anyone realized it might be. Which brings us to mid-2011 and the beginning of the <i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i>saga.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With little advance fanfare, the Kaiser Chiefs returned with a grand scheme, uploading 20 new songs to their website in early June of that year and allowing fans to create their own albums comprising 10. Other fans would be allowed to peruse those creations, and if purchased, the initial compiler would receive a royalty of one British Pound Note. Members of the band contributed their own compilations, with their royalty going to charity. A few weeks later, an official 13-track release was issued as <i>The Future Is Medieval</i>.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Kaiser Chiefs had attempted to make inroads in the U.S. before their break, hoping a tour supporting Green Day would bring them legions of new fans. But then they disappeared and the momentum failed.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The Future Is Medieval</i> wasn’t released on this side of the Atlantic, and so with a North American tour looming – including high profile appearances at SXSW and Coachella – the Kaiser Chiefs reassembled some of the 20 songs from 2011 again, added one new one and called the album<i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i>.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If your album is going to share its name with a film, you could do worse than the 1970 historical parody starring Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland. Loosely based on events surrounding the French Revolution, <i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i> predated the ‘80s rash of switched-at-birth flicks by over a decade and in addition to giving a boost to the powdered wig industry also gave Orson Welles a chance to flex his narration muscles. Whether we’re meant to draw a connection between the film and the album is unclear; it’s tricky enough to consider the songs here without comparing them to prior releases, so contemplating where Charles and Claude Coupé fit into the picture is unlikely to yield rewards.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Listening to <i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i> and forgetting <i>The Future Is Medieval</i> is easy enough because it has the feel of an album proper. The Kaiser Chiefs have sometimes been dismissed as lightweight pop wusses, to which I’d reply, “So what?” Though the radio often tries to convince us otherwise, pop songs don’t necessarily have to feature vocal histrionics or lazy guest appearances from Busta Rhymes. And that’s where the value in a band like the Kaiser Chiefs really lies. Their songs, for the most part, are difficult to not sing along to, no matter how unpopular that might make you during the morning commute.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i> draws its title from a lyric to “Cousin in the Bronx”, a song which opens like the Charlatans’ Clash-lite ode to the city before it, “N.Y.C. (There’s No Need to Stop)”, with the sounds of the streets and police sirens. The song arrives midway through <i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i>, often the refuge to space fillers on other albums. Here, it’s one of the album’s strongest tracks, with the sort of chorus one can imagine a stadium full of faithful fans singing along with, and with a slinky guitar possibly turned up to entice the U.S. market.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On previous efforts, the music of Kaiser Chiefs has seen the message delivered with the smirking vocals of Ricky Wilson and the quirky keyboards of Nick “Peanut” Baines. <i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i> doesn’t get rid of those features, though the guitars of Andrew “Whitey” White and the drums of Nick Hodgson are generally higher in the mix than before. It’s not an unpleasing result, as on “Problem Solved” or “Little Shocks”, which served as the first official taste of the<i>Future Is Medieval</i> material last year.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hodgson also emerges here as a lead vocalist, singing the anthemic “Man on Mars” and the heartachy “If You Will Have Me” with enough weedy Lennonesque pathos that the notion of a solo album by a drummer wouldn’t be the worst idea ever. The newest track, “On the Run,” was worth waiting around for, a Frankenstein’s monster created from all the strengths of the Kaiser Chiefs.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If they can’t make a dent in the U.S. market in 2012, the Kaiser Chiefs can’t blame the quality of<i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i>, a collection that manages to overcome the cobbled-together history of the material to become one of the band’s most complete-sounding collections since<i>Employment</i>. It’s very British with enough American influence in the grooves that it’s worthy of comparisons to other bands who wore that mantle in the past like the Kinks and Blur.<br />
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8 out of 10</span></div>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-52336767682474820162012-03-07T12:00:00.003-08:002012-03-07T12:02:49.163-08:00Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/154241-paul-mccartney-kisses-on-the-bottom/">PopMatters</a> on February 7, 2012</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Let’s get the good news out of the way first: Paul McCartney’s new album of old standards isn’t quite as disappointing as Rod Stewart’s “Songbook” series.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><i>Kisses on the Bottom</i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">, a… well… cheeky title taken from the lyric of the collection’s opening number, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter”, originally popularized by Fats Waller and possibly a song which made the young McCartney giggle like a loon when he was a wee lad in Liverpool.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">To his credit and sometimes also to his detriment, McCartney has been unafraid in the past of publicly flogging his personal playlists. Never mind that the Beatles often covered rock ‘n’ roll, soul and show tunes alike, but Macca’s solo canon includes two albums of raucous versions of tunes that supposedly made him put grease in his hair and pick up a guitar as a teenager. Here, McCartney is in crooner mode, backed by Diana Krall and her capable band and sticking almost exclusively to the microphone, pictured in the album’s artwork as one of those old-timey models that hangs upside-down and is encircled by a fancy bit of metal wire and was probably caked with Dean Martin’s booze breath.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">McCartney has often been tagged as a purveyor of schmaltz, a reputation that he’s at least partly responsible for earning with numbers like “My Love” and “Ebony and Ivory”, the latter a duet with Stevie Wonder so corny it makes Macca’s “Pipes of Peace” seem like a work of great insight and importance by comparison. Wonder is here as well on “Only Our Hearts”, one of just two McCartney originals on the album; the Motown legend doesn’t sing, but instead plays a harmonica solo so uncharacteristically abrasive, I almost used it to file my nails.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">Elsewhere, the music is so inoffensive and gently wrought that it’s difficult to generate any enthusiasm in either direction. It proved challenging to accentuate the positive in the cover of “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”, because it sounds as though it was hastily performed to test the mics and was accidentally included in the final mix. “My Friend the Milkman” has McCartney doing a probably-unintentional Carol Channing impersonation and is possibly even weirder than that looks in print.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">It’s hard to completely knock </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">Kisses on the Bottom</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"> because McCartney is in love and as history will tell us, McCartney in love makes for a flowery broth. Indeed, some of the songs themselves are quite good. “My Valentine”, a McCartney original featuring tasteful guitar from Eric Clapton, is one of the album’s genuinely captivating tunes. “We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)” is also quite good, a lush orchestral number arranged by Johnny Mandel with a breathy McCartney vocal that’s just about as perfect as it’s likely to get here.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">McCartney is clearly enthusiastic for the project, wearing the velvet lapels and smoky ambience with a natural comfort. And maybe he saw what Stewart’s done over the past decade-plus and thought he might as well take a crack at it and move a few units in the process. If there’s even a whisper of commercial ambition here, it’s at least a toned-down version. The guest stars are few—Wonder and Clapton, but most importantly Krall—and their contributions seem less a sales gimmick than they could. Yes, the intentions seem mostly pure, and if buoyed by love of the music and of how it expresses McCartney’s own fondness for romance, and if that all sounds way too saccharine sweet for your tastes, it probably is.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">As musical interpretations of romance go, </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">Kisses on the Bottom</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"> may only get you about halfway there, flowers in hand wondering whether a second date is on the cards, unsure if that’s even what you want at all.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">6 out of 10</span>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-87858710984727984142012-01-28T05:00:00.000-08:002012-01-28T05:00:56.452-08:00Different Flavored Skulls: An Intimate Conversation with the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" id="twttrHubFrame" name="twttrHubFrame" scrolling="no" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1326407570.html" style="height: 10px; position: absolute; top: -9999em; width: 10px;" tabindex="0"></iframe><em>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/151445-different-flavored-skulls-intimate-chat-wayne-coyne/">PopMatters</a> on January 27, 2012</em><br />
<br />
Talking to Wayne Coyne is exhausting. <br />
<br />
It’s not that the enigmatic frontman of the Flaming Lips doesn’t have anything interesting to say, but rather the opposite. Ideas come quickly, like an enthusiastic machine gun. There are many reasons why so many people love the Flaming Lips—their unhinged pop aesthetic; the sheer massiveness of their sound; their theatrical live performances; their weirdness—but if not for Coyne, none of that would even exist. He’s an otherworldly motivational speaker, a psychedelic soothsayer, a court jester who felled the king and took the throne for himself. <br />
<br />
I could say that it’s an interesting time to be a fan of the Flaming Lips, but that’s always the case. Their history includes explorations in sound (the four-disc <i>Zaireeka</i> and its associated parking lot and boom box experiments), B-movies (<i>Christmas on Mars</i>), and the exhilarating day-glo expansion of the tent revival approach to building a collective experience (pretty much every live show they’ve ever played).<br />
<br />
But in the age of the digital download, when artists and record labels are scrambling to figure out how to get music fans to actually pay for music, the Flaming Lips just did what they always do: they got weirder. <br />
<br />
Early this year, the Flaming Lips released “Two Blobs Fucking”, a descendant of the <i>Zaireeka</i> days that was a single song divided into 12 separate YouTube videos meant to be played simultaneously. It signified, at least in part, the coming year of odd releases. And when you’re as odd as the Flaming Lips, that’s really saying something. <br />
<br />
They’ve released an EP with Neon Indian, performed shows paying tribute to their own classic albums and put four songs on a USB inside a novelty item called the <i>Gummy Song Skull</i>. They’ve rarely let a wild idea go unchecked, unrecorded or unreleased. And they did it all on a major label. <br />
<br />
If Warner Brothers isn’t always an active conspirator in the bizarre shenanigans undertaken by Coyne and his fellow Lips, they’re certainly willing cosigners. In fact, Coyne says, his experience with Warner Brothers is considerably different than the stuffed shirt shitstorm indie hopefuls are always scornful of. <br />
<br />
“I think a lot of major labels get a bad rap from unknowing portion of bands who have, I guess, had a bad experience with them,” says Coyne. “But most of the people that we’ve dealt with at Warner Brothers, even previous to being signed there, were all about being creative and being unpredictable and doing new things and being, you know, absurd and being unique. All these myths about major labels wanting to take you and normalize you and put you in a mold, I mean we’ve never experienced that, otherwise we would not want to be at Warner Brothers. The people that signed us ... the woman that signed us signed Van Halen, signed Dire Straits, signed KD Lang, signed Devo. You know, the people that we signed the deal with, there was a guy that signed Jimi Hendrix and the Sex Pistols. I mean, that’s pretty extraordinary. These are not conservative money-oriented people. These are people that loved music, and when they brought the Flaming Lips to the label, they were like, ‘We found another part of our story. We have another Frank Zappa. We have another Captain Beefheart. We have another Jimi Hendrix here,’ and I was like, ‘Wow, amazing!’”<br />
<br />
Coyne added that the relationship between the Flaming Lips and Warner Brothers has reached the point where the label will often allow the band to follow their own path outside of the artistic realm. <br />
<br />
“Warner Brothers is arguably one of the biggest corporations on the planet, you know, and they deal with in-depth, to my liking, sometimes bullshit entertainment strategies,” Coyne says. “They’re a big bureaucracy, and something I can do in ten minutes, sometimes when they get involved—and they know this—will sometimes take ten months, simply because there’s a lot of people who have to sign off on something. Back in the day, if we wanted to do something that had a budget of half-a-million dollars, well you’d have to get 200 people to say, ‘This is cool,’ and that takes a long time. That’s a lot of bureaucracy and a lot of desks things have to go through. Lucky for me, they have a lot of money, and if I’m patient enough, I can make that work for me.”<br />
<br />
That goes beyond the decision-making process, as well. According to Coyne, many of the Flaming Lips’ projects are completed with almost no label involvement at all. <br />
<br />
“Nowadays we don’t really need them to give us money,” Coyne says. “We just can say, ‘We know how this shit works, and we are going to move ahead on this.’ When we made that Neon Indian record that, I believe it was March when that came out, we recorded it and in six days actually had a record in our hands. When I asked (Warner Brothers) how long it would take, they were like, ‘Well, if you can get the music to us, we can get you maybe a demo, a master that you can listen to in six weeks,’ and I can’t take six weeks. I just started to say, ‘Well, I’m going to find somebody who can help me do it quicker and better and not so much bureaucracy.’ And I didn’t know if it would be three weeks or if it would be four weeks. I tried to get it overnight. And so I found places that can do what we want them to do quicker. And they wanted that. <br />
<br />
“We’ve been doing this for almost 30 years now. We made our very first record ourselves back in 1983/1984. It would be difficult for someone young who was just getting into it to do what I’m doing. I have a lot of people that want to help me do cool shit that have been doing cool shit for a long time. That being said, some of it is that we can just move a lot faster without the giant machine of Warner Brothers being dragged along with us, you know? So they want to find ways to be more immediate and to be more current and to be more spontaneous. But it’s difficult for them, because they’ve got thousands of people that have to sign off on shit, for better or worse.”<br />
<br />
The <i>Gummy Song Skull</i> was devised in a similarly independent way. <br />
<br />
“We knew that we were going to do these objects, and I’ll give you the quick, you know, fast-forward version,” Coyne explains. “Our very first record that we made had these versions of these skulls on them, and when we knew that we were going to get into this self-imposed indie version of ourselves here ... we never have any fucking ideas, and so we fucking panic and say, ‘We’ll use the skull again! That’s what we did in 1984!’ So I bought some skulls, some plastic skulls at Urban Outfitters, and we just started to play with them in my shop. <br />
<br />
“We started to think of like objects that would represent whatever the Flaming Lips represent. And we were dipping them in rubber and plastic and doing shit with them. I ended up with this pink rubber skull, and my wife has some pretty exotic perfumes and has a perfume that smells like bubblegum. So I sprayed a pink rubber skull with some bubblegum perfume. I have parties at my house all the time, so people are over here doing drugs and shit, and they were fucking with this skull, and they said, ‘Wayne, this skull is made out of bubblegum, can we eat it?’ And I said, ‘No, you can’t. It’s made out of rubber even if it smells like bubblegum,’ but it gave me the idea to make them out of bubblegum. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a fucking bubblegum skull?’ Well, we tried to get it made out of bubblegum, and no bubblegum company could figure out a way to do it. But in this process of trying to find a bubblegum place, we stumbled upon this gummy guy who’s out of North Carolina who makes giant gummies. We called him and said, ‘Would you like to make a skull out of gummy with this?’ He was a Flaming Lips fan, so bam! You can fast-forward to where we are now with these things that are so elaborate. But without him being a fan, and without him being a freak and without him being ambitious and without him wanting to try new things, this could take a year. We made the first skull ourselves; we believed it could be done. Having a lot of experience and just being lucky to find likeminded people with skill who have a great thing they’re doing that can sort of enhance what we’re doing, you’ve just got to get lucky.”<br />
<br />
There’s also room in Coyne’s world for mistakes, especially as they often lead somewhere unintended with the end result something potentially more special than the original idea. It all stems from Coyne’s unabashed optimism. <br />
<br />
“To me everything is an opportunity, from the size of the box that it’s going to be in to the way it’s going to smell,” Coyne said. “It’s not just, ‘What is the music going to be?’ All dimensions of things are an opportunity for you to say, ‘Here’s what it could be.’ So when we started to think about flavors, part of me was saying, ‘Can we make a brain that’s marijuana-flavored?’ and your imagination just goes wherever it goes. When I said that to (the North Carolina gummy guy), he said, ‘Yeah, let me try that.’ He sent me samples of his hemp-oil experiments and some of them failed miserably and were too oily. When people are willing to try, especially in the realm of art ... you’ve got to know that if you can’t do weird shit in the Flaming Lips, it’s going to be a bad world. We are willing to try and see what happens. Part of it, too, is aesthetic. When you see a skull that’s red, you’ve got to think, ‘Is that strawberry? Is that cherry? Is that blood-flavored?’ There’s a lot of things it could be. But you kind of want it to be, not an obvious experience, but to play along with it. So, I don’t know. All that stuff to me is another opportunity to insert your will of the world on it.”<br />
<br />
The malleability of a Gummy Skull could well represent Coyne’s own flexibility when hurdles suddenly pop up. <br />
<br />
“If I’d have been stuck on saying, ‘It must be bubblegum, godammit,’ we would really be in a pickle,” Coyne said. “Part of it is that you’re not rigid with your ideas anyway. Our movie that took seven years to make, <b>Christmas on Mars</b>, I think in the beginning you have a lot of ideas of what you want to do, and some of them work and some of them don’t. And I would say even the very first scene that I shot, I was using the cement factory that’s on the south side of town here, and I spent months getting this scene ready. It was in an abandoned cellar of the cement factory, and it was filled up with water, and I was going to have this space guy emerge from this water, and we were going to add computer effects to it and it was going to be a big hallucinogenic thing. And the day that I went down to film it, the motherfucker who owned the place didn’t tell me, he had it pumped out. I went down there and all the water was out of it, just kind of like out of nowhere. And I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And he said, ‘Well, I knew you wanted to use this place so I’m getting it ready for you,’ and I said, ‘Dude, I’ve been getting ready for a month with this water.’ We just had to fix up whatever we could do now that the water wasn’t in there, and fill it up with smoke and lights. But I would say that it turned out a thousand times better than if the water had been in there. I think for me it’s just this idea that you cannot be set. You can say, ‘I always have ideas, and they’re good if they turn out good,’ and that’s all you can say. Your ideas are always failing and exploding and turning into another one all the time.”<br />
<br />
But when your brain is firing full speed every minute of every day, the realities involved in making your dreams come true can sometimes be a bit of a bother, too. <br />
<br />
“These devices that kind of take some manufacturing, you kind of have to get a little bit ahead of the game, which to me is just a mindfuck,” Coyne said. “You’re always living in the moment, but you have to project ahead and think, ‘Fuck, we’ve got to get that thing going.’ It’s kind of like planting grass. It’s like, ‘I want that hill to be green.’ Well, you have to plant the grass now so a year from now it’ll be green. It’s always those types of dilemmas.”<br />
<br />
But for all the Technicolor imagery and sensationalism surrounding the Flaming Lips, it all stems from the music. For Coyne, that means tapping into a feeling he experienced nearly 35 years ago. <br />
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“It’s hard for people to relate to this now, but when I saw The Who in 1977, they were to a lot of people not at the peak of their power,” Coyne recalled. “But I think the night that they played in Oklahoma City, they were having an extraordinary night. And they had giant laser beams and they had their great energetic freak out show. Pete Townsend was probably at the peak of his peakness. Moon was playing, and they were loud. I mean, I was only 15, and it was like a religious experience where you feel like, ‘They’re speaking to me, and they’re speaking everybody, and we’re all feeling this love and this energy all at the same time.’ And it was extraordinary. Everybody that was there came away feeling like we got to peek at some other life. I’d seen plenty of bands before that, and I didn’t know that much about The Who—I was pretty young, and I was experiencing a lot of new music. But I was like, ‘Fuck, why doesn’t every band play like The Who?’ And my older brothers would say, ‘Dude, it’s ‘cos they’re The Who.’”<br />
<br />
Coyne couldn’t be in The Who, but he didn’t have to be. Because for the Flaming Lips, a big part of their collective goal is to knock the crowd the fuck out, to have someone’s older brother tell him, “Dude, it’s ‘cos they’re the Flaming Lips.” <br />
<br />
“Having experienced that sort of power, it was like, ‘Fuck, that’s what I want to do,’” Coyne said. “I didn’t want to do music. I mean, I know it’s about music. But I wanted to be in a band that got to do that, that did that sort of thing. Not in a band because we’d be popular, and not in a band because we’d be famous. I wanted to be in a band that did that thing. And I’m sure it’s connected to that, seeing and experiencing it from the other side. And I’m always putting myself in the audience, saying, ‘What are they getting out of this? Does it sound right? Does it look right? Is it powerful? Are we building this momentum? Does it work?’ I want the audience to have that thing. When they respond, we feel it too. And I think that’s exactly what The Who was feeling that night. They were feeling that energy and that love regenerating itself in the room. That’s why they played so fearlessly and so confidently, because they knew as they did it was going to work and make it better.”<br />
<br />
But Coyne also recognizes that experience is a two way street, noting that much of the energy and excitement comes from even the furthest corners of wherever the band happens to be playing on any given night. <br />
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“I don’t always feel like we’re the ones responsible for it,” he said. “I feel like music has such an impact on people that they give it this epic meaning, because it’s a personal thing to them so it has no limits of what the meaning can be. You could see where it would be impossible for me to create exactly the meaning that it has. I kind of make the song and you kind of make it special to yourself. I think the more people think that about our shows, the more people are drawn to our shows. They think, ‘This will be a special experience.’ Our audiences get filled up with people who are willing to have this kind of over the top experience with us, and so when that happens ... if you’re kind of a casual person in our audience, if you think, ‘I’m just here to get high and listen to music,’ and if you’re standing next to ten people who are completely overwhelmed by this show, you’ll probably be overwhelmed as well because it’s just kind of this group thing, this kind of contagiousness that happens when you’re in a group. Not to put a negative twist on it, but that’s why people are always concerned about riots, because once they start it’s very difficult to resist. And that’s true in the other sense as well, that we all become one and love each other and can get taken away by something. That’s contagious as well. I’m not saying that I’m doing that. I just know that once that starts to happen in the audience, it’s easy with the way our music works and the live show and there are so many visuals and all that, that by the end of it, you could have walked in and, you know, ‘Fuck, I’m just here to listen to music and get laid,’ and then you’re like, ‘I love everybody, man!’”<br />
<br />
And for all the laser beams and gigantic Hulk hands, the Flaming Lips make the greatest impact because of the music. The excitement of recording new music is as tangible for the band in 2011 as it was back in the ‘80s when they weren’t sure anyone was ever going to hear it. <br />
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“In the beginning, we always are in a panic and struggling with what we can just to make one song any good, you know?” Coyne said. “And we think, ‘Well, if we get one song that’s good, in that process it usually would turn into a fucklot of things just because you’re being immersed in ideas. I don’t know if it helps. If you’re working on something and everybody is excited in that time, that’s all you can ask. Sometimes we do something we love, and then six months later you hear it and go, ‘Oh, that’s just kind of ridiculous. Why did we do that?’ But you just kind of have to believe in the moment you are wanting to do it. But, yeah, it sometimes gives you a lot of freedom to think, ‘We’re doing four songs as opposed to one.’ And then you think, ‘Well, one can suck and it won’t matter.’ We really do think like that.”<br />
<br />
That renegade swashbuckling vibe is part of the reason the Flaming Lips veer so effortlessly between pure pop confection and sonic exploration, often within the same song. <br />
<br />
“When we made <i>Embryonic</i>, the record that came out a couple years ago, the fact that it was a double-record changed everything for us,” Coyne said. “You don’t realize how rigid you are. We were thinking in terms of songs, and then we thought since it was going to be a double record, we knew we were going to have this abstract, avant-garde side of it. We’d do a song, and then we would kind of relish the freedom of doing the freaky stuff, you know? After we did that three or four times, I said, ‘Why are we fucking with these songs? Why don’t we just do the freaky stuff, because that’s what we want to do anyway?’ And we ended up making a record that was all the other dimension of the record. You don’t know what tricks your mind is playing on you, because it’s all done in your subconscious. Occasionally you get this insight where you realize, ‘We’re retarded. Why can’t we just do things this way? Why can’t we do things like this all the time and not worry.’ <br />
<br />
“But it’s hard, because you’re always looking for a system to work on, and there is no system. But if you realize there’s no system, you’ll go insane. So you always build one no matter what. It’s the music as well. Sometimes we make this music, and we forget, ‘Dude, this is going to come out in three weeks. We’re not just sitting on this.’ And to me that’s where the real freaky joy is. We’re not mulling over 100 songs here and releasing four that we think are great. We’re literally making them and releasing them. And it’s a wonderful, spontaneous time to be creative. And it’s exhausting. Everybody around me is fucking sick of making music and candy and all this shit. But fuck, it’s cool.”Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-22955119200766479122012-01-28T04:52:00.000-08:002012-01-28T04:53:53.340-08:00The Lemonheads Bring 'It's a Shame About Ray' to Brooklyn<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" id="twttrHubFrame" name="twttrHubFrame" scrolling="no" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1326407570.html" style="height: 10px; position: absolute; top: -9999em; width: 10px;" tabindex="0"></iframe><em>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/153208-the-lemonheads-bring-its-a-shame-about-ray-to-brooklyn/">PopMatters</a> on January 17, 2012</em><br />
<br />
It’s 1992 all over again. The Lemonheads played a sold out show at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory on Wednesday night, the conceit being a run through <i>It’s a Shame About Ray</i> – the breakout album which put Lemon-leader Evan Dando’s lustrous locks squarely in the hearts and minds of neophyte hipsters from sea to shining sea. The gig was the first of a lengthy tour which sees the band give its regards to the Deep South and Midwest, flirt with the West Coast and ultimately return to the NYC-metropolitan area for a pair of mid-March shows at Hoboken’s legendary venue, Maxwell’s.<br />
<br />
I say “band” despite the common knowledge that the Lemonheads have effectively served as a Dando solo venture since even before <i>It’s a Shame About Ray</i> introduced Generation X to timeless pop songwriting, albeit viewed through a grimy slacker lens. Anyway, finding offense in Dando touring as the Lemonheads is an absurd notion, since even in the busiest of times he never had the same musicians around him for more than a couple of years at best. The Lemonheads, for better or worse, are all about Evan Dando. <br />
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The guys on stage with Dando at the Knitting Factory, and in all likelihood the entirety of the tour to follow, sound great. The drums are sometimes overly flashy for performances which otherwise stick close to the original arrangements, but that’s a minor quibble at best. What’s perhaps most apparent on the stage with the current incarnation of the Lemonheads is this: Everyone is clearly having a very good time. And as long as you’re taking a trip through the past, you might as well enjoy it. <br />
<br />
Evan Dando’s past is nothing if not notorious, an often grim bacchanalia of drugs, excess and hanging out with the likes of Oasis and Courtney Love. That he survived at all would be worthy of note on its own, but the sobering truth is that he’s not only survived, but he still looks fantastic. This superhero has been through wringer after wringer and still looks as though he stepped off a surfboard and onto the stage. He’s in trim fighting shape, still has a full head of messy, sexy hair and is still the handsomest guy in any room he’ll ever enter. For those of us who awake looking like a pile of broken dreams after a night where, “Okay, but just one more beer” is the exception rather than the norm, this will either come as welcome news or as sure a sign as any that life just isn’t fair. <br />
<br />
But we want the Evan Dando we remember from back when we first fell for the scamp, and if he’s had to arrange some sort of <i>Picture of Dorian Gray</i> deal with the devil to preserve that, well that’s cool with us. Whatever he’s done, its working. I didn’t have to squint my eyes and pretend or con myself or whatever, because the perfectly disheveled guy on stage looks like he stepped out of a time machine from one of those extremely ‘90s videos the band made, right down to the same guitar, the same t-shirt, the same knowing smirk. He’s also come armed with the same songs, which in case it’s been a while since you’ve heard them, are bona fide classics. <br />
<br />
The first sign of trouble for the original Lemonheads, or so the legend goes, was partly ego-based, but perhaps more tellingly was down to the fact that Dando’s growth as a songwriter was pushing him into the spotlight. It’s why the Lemonheads can tour <i>It’s a Shame About Ray</i> and from stem to stern, there’s no waste, no moment where the concept falls flat. Okay, so the album clocks in at just shy of thirty minutes, but the songs are so perfectly written, so beautifully wrought that nothing is inessential. <br />
<br />
But before the full-band run through the album, Dando hits the stage for a brisk run through a few songs on acoustic guitar, beginning with “Being Around” from <i>Come on Feel the Lemonheads</i>, as charming a song with the word “booger” in it as you’re ever likely to hear. Dando performed solo again after the sequential run through <i>It’s a Shame About Ray</i>, as well, playing songs of his own as well as the odd cover, such as “Streets of Baltimore”, a tune most closely associated with the late Gram Parsons.<br />
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Whether the night’s most effective sing-a-long strikes the same chord on the road remains to be seen. “Frank Mills”, the song from the musical <i>Hair</i> which closes <i>It’s a Shame About Ray</i>, is rife with local references: “He lives in Brooklyn somewhere” got a predictably huge cheer, as did Dando wryly observing mid-song that the Waverly was now called the IFC Center. <br />
<br />
The crowd was largely comprised of fans who remember what the Lemonheads sounded like when “college rock” morphed into “alternative rock”, but that’s hardly a prerequisite for attending a Lemonheads show. The songs are truly timeless, and if Dando is going to keep delivering them with geniality, good humor and gusto, it’s worth putting away your CD’s for the night and enjoying them live.<br />
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<div class="ClearingDiv"></div>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-42175654571215476232011-11-16T14:06:00.000-08:002011-11-16T14:06:21.509-08:00Duran Duran Releases New Video for "Girl Panic!"<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/151051-duran-duran-girl-panic/">PopMatters</a> on November 8, 2011</i><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For a band who helped build their reputation on music video, it’s been a long time since Duran Duran made a promotional film worthy of their classic clips from the ‘80s, which repeatedly cast the band as a hedonistic, futuristic, slightly effeminate gang of pirates.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some of those videos - “Girls on Film,” “Rio” and “The Chauffeur” among them - turn up in a jarring montage midway through “Girl Panic!”, the new Duran Duran film directed by Jonas Åkerlund. I say film, because it’s nearly 10 minutes long, though it could also just as easily be called an infomercial. More on that in a minute.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is a plot, a sort of loose one which is ultimately meant to tug at memories of an era when the guys in Duran Duran were young and pretty and supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Eva Herzigova, Helena Christensen and Yasmin Le Bon were even younger and prettier. Those models appear in “Girl Panic!” and to the surprise of almost no one, they still look incredible. In fact, the only shock of all is that being married to swarthy Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon for a few decades has only served to make Yasmin Le Bon get even better as the years pass. Surely Oscar Wilde would have had an explanation for that.<br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So the plot, such as it is, is one of rock & roll decadence: Waking up in a fancy hotel (in this case London’s Savoy) surrounded by hot chicks, clearly having overdone it the night before with the booze and blow, but still looking like a god among wastrels. The rock stars in this case, however, are the supermodels, which I suppose qualifies as a twist if you can’t remember who Robert Palmer is.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Campbell plays the role of Simon Le Bon in the video, while the rest of the Fab 4/5 are portrayed by Crawford (bass guitarist John Taylor), Herzigova (keyboardist Nick Rhodes) and Christensen (drummer Roger Taylor). Yasmin Le Bon turns up as an unnamed guitarist in a sort of tongue-in-cheek gag which may or may not sit well with the band’s long time axeman, Dom Brown, an unofficial member who has been a crucial piece of the puzzle over the past few years, both in the recording studio and on stage.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are other in-jokes as well, with the actual members of Duran Duran serving as photographers, journalists and hotel staff: Le Bon is a clumsy room service waiter; Rhodes a patient bellhop; Roger Taylor an elevator operator who may be the victim of sexual harassment or at least the makings of a letter for Penthouse Forum; and John Taylor as a chauffeur (get it?!?!?!?)</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the first <b>Wayne’s World</b> film, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey broke the fourth wall in a memorable bit about how products like Doritos can appear on screen as a sort-of-subtle means of advertising. Swarovski Crystals are no Doritos, and their appearance in “Girl Panic!” isn’t meant to be remotely subtle, either. It’s splashed across the screen both in word and deed. So is the UK edition of Harper’s Bazaar, which not coincidentally has a cover feature about the video and the supermodels in its current issue.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In fact, the only thing I was left asking at the end of “Girl Panic!” was whether the video had done a good job of advertising “Girl Panic!” itself. After far too much consideration far too early in the morning, the answer is an emphatic yes.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Girl Panic!” is just one song on an album Taylor-made (haw haw!) to harken back to an era when Duran Duran mattered most: The ‘80s! <i>All You Need is Now</i>, produced by Mark Ronson, was a deliberately crafted time capsule, one which blended the Duran Duran of 2010/2011 with the sounds of 1981/1982. It’s splashy and sugary and, thanks to a rash of terrific songs and terrifically energized performances, it works from start to finish.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a single, “Girl Panic!” dipped its toe in the water with a Record Store Day single, which included an exclusive David Lynch mix of the song on the b-side. Good fun, but where was the video?</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Several months later, the video effectively captures the hedonism of the song’s grooves in scenes of young, barely clothed models touching tongues on four-poster beds, though “Girl Panic!” ebbs and flows like waves of cocaine and champagne crashing on a crystalline shoreline. The first time through the video, I wasn’t sure it had worked. But the song is like an earworm, catchy and clever, and it’s still there much later.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Girl Panic!” works because it’s the first time since 1985’s “A View to a Kill” that a Duran Duran video effectively captures the band’s essential modus operandi: Booze, babes and bling.</span></div>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-44659519635885507632011-11-16T14:04:00.000-08:002011-11-16T14:04:13.835-08:00Duran Duran: 25 October 2011, New York<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/150546-duran-duran-at-madison-square-garden-october-25-2011/">PopMatters</a> on November 4, 2011</i><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With all the other venues on their North American tour of a considerably smaller nature, when Duran Duran announced their date at Madison Square Garden for October 25, it seemed a bit out of step. Sure, it was done in conjunction with some anniversary of a pair of popular NYC septuagenarian radio hosts, and as some cynic nearby said, they probably gave away a shit ton of tickets. But to poorly paraphrase a quote that may or may not have come from another aged New Yorker with a fondness for Madison Square Garden, Woody Allen: 80% of pop icon success is getting people to show up.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A lot of people turned up at the venerable arena on Tuesday night, skipping out on whatever else people do on a Tuesday night in and around NYC to hear the long list of hits in Duran Duran’s extensive back catalogue. And let’s face it: the hits are what much of the crowd turned up for. The faithful in the GA pit in front of the stage would have probably preferred to see a show with no hits at all, though they dutifully sang along with “Ordinary World” and “Hungry Like the Wolf” as they have countless times in the past. But those golden oldies saw the greatest number of iPhone lighter apps held aloft throughout the lower and upper bowls. The new songs? Well, that was something of a mixed bag, especially as far as audience participation goes.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Back in April, Duran Duran hit the US on a short tour which included what could have been something of a game changer for them, a sunset performance on the big stage on the last night of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival. For reasons they’re only partly responsible for, Duran Duran has spent much of their career marginalized by so-called serious music fans. Frequent spreads in <i>16</i> Magazine did little for their legitimacy in the ‘80s, though in their defense, if you were young, beautiful and stuffed stem to stern with cocaine, you might have pouted your lips for the camera and accepted the pre-pubescent shrieks of stadiums full of little girls as your lot too.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At Coachella, none of that mattered. Sure, there were dour musos who slouched their shoulders and bitched on their blogs about having to hear “Rio” in the desert, conveniently ignoring the fact that many of the other acts spread out over the three days of the festival had been influenced themselves by Duran Duran.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maybe it was feeling like they had something to prove, or it was refreshing to tap into the art-rock side aesthetic that was such a part of their earliest work, but Duran Duran killed. Perhaps the stage was still likely buzzing with the unbridled energy of Death From Above 1979’s set, or it’s possible there’s more magic in the air at Coachella than all the piles of drugs consumed by some of the kids who go there. Whatever it was, from the moment they built the Euro-disco majesty of “Planet Earth” from the ground up to the closing crash of “Girls on Film”, it was an absolute, unequivocal victory.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As has often been the case with Duran Duran since the mid-‘80s, they failed to capitalize on that momentum. In this particular case, everything went quiet, as frontman Simon Le Bon suffered a summer of vocal rehabilitation.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And now they’re touring North America in support of an album that was digitally released 10 months ago. The Mark Ronson-produced <i>All You Need is Now</i> is one of the finest collections of Duran Duran’s career, but beyond its nearly universal critical acclaim, it didn’t make much of a sales impact.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Duran Duran belongs in arenas like Madison Square Garden. They did back in March 1984, when they played a pair of sold out shows there, and they have in the handful of times they’ve returned over the years. They play well to the back of the house and are still handsome enough to get squeals of delight out of their fans up front and those elsewhere in the house who saw them on the big screens that were part of the band’s fairly flashy stage setup.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The screens were mostly engaging, and the constantly shifting Twitter feed was fun to see. Also kind of cool was the presence of four giant plastic faces high above the stage, on which film that included the faces of Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bass guitarist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor were broadcast in a way that would be familiar to anyone who’s ever hit the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But then we were also treated to clips showcasing the band’s inexplicable continued support for Second Life, the online World of Warcraft-style community for people who would rather pretend they’re thin and can dance. Duran Duran first became involved with Second Life around the time of their 2007 album, <i>Red Carpet Massacre</i>, and even then it already felt hopelessly out of fashion.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The music was also not without its peaks and valleys, especially if you gauge such things on how the crowd responds. Most people stood and swayed and even got some of the lyrics right during the chart-toppers from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and most of those same people sat during the other songs. There was an audible groan from someone in Section 108 when the lush semi-ballad “Leave a Light On” was introduced with the standard “here’s our new single” line. But that sort of behavior wasn’t just reserved for the new stuff: “Tiger Tiger”, an instrumental from the 1983 album <i>Seven and the Ragged Tiger</i> likely aired mid-set to give Le Bon a chance to rest his voice, sounded great, but for many in the crowd, its moody vibe just didn’t mean anything.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The prospect of a night of vast chasms between ebbs and flows was established with the first two songs; the opening number was “Before the Rain”, a solemn gem which either closed or turned up midway through the second half of the new album depending upon whether you prefer the initial digital version or the overstuffed CD/vinyl. As a means of beginning a concert – at least one in a vast arena – it didn’t have the feel of a party-starting jam, and the dour black and white footage on the screens that might as well have come from <b>The Sorrow and the Pity</b> didn’t change that. And then they played “Planet Earth”, which was really where the show began.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It would be disingenuous to say all the new stuff fell completely short with the people in the crowd who don’t give a shit that Duran Duran recorded anything after 1985, though the vibe was definitely not happening during “Blame the Machines” or “The Man Who Stole a Leopard”. Aside from having the stones to play those absolutely terrific songs in an arena at least partly packed with people who’ve never heard them, the fault can’t lie with Duran Duran. They played it like they meant it from start to finish, and they sounded terrific. Le Bon’s voice was strong through most of the set, and when it wasn’t it’s probably because he’s always sounded like that. He’s a swashbuckler on stage, not a sophisticate.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In addition to the album’s eponymous lead single, the two <i>All You Need is Now</i> songs which got the best response from the greatest number of people were “Girl Panic!” and “Safe (In the Heat of the Moment)”, which saw guest appearances by Ronson and Scissor Sisters’ Ana Matronic respectively. The former is slated to make some sort of splash next month with a video that harkens back to Duran Duran’s prolific early years, especially as it’s loaded with supermodels. Matronic has only appeared live on stage with Duran Duran to perform the duet on two occasions, with the first being Coachella.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Duran Duran’s tour rolled on through the northeast after hitting New York City, and they’ll pick it up again in Europe in a month or so, appearing on dates initially canceled when Le Bon’s voice bottomed out. They’ve good reason to be proud of the songs on <i>All You Need is Now</i> and despite the world tour happening so late in the game, it’s hard to blame them for wanting to try and support that music. But in Madison Square Garden on a Tuesday night, that noble mission statement only mattered to some of the people there. The rest were perfectly happy to sing along to the oldies.</span></div>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-25407154677937401172011-11-16T14:01:00.000-08:002011-11-16T14:01:39.693-08:00All Tomorrow's Parties: 30 Sep - 2 Oct 2011 - Asbury Park, NJ<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/150372-all-tomorrows-parties-30-sep-2-oct-2011-asbury-park-nj/">PopMatters</a> on October 25, 2011 with photographs by <a href="http://courtneybiggs.com/">Courtney Biggs</a></i><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">I’ve never been to an All Tomorrow’s Parties event in the United Kingdom, so maybe I’m way off base here, but it sure felt like Asbury Park gave it the old English try when the coastal community played host to its first ever I’ll Be Your Mirror event between September 30 and October 2. On Friday, the first night of the festival, the temperatures dipped and the skies opened up and any time spent fussing with one’s deliberately tousled indie-approved hair on the way into town was rendered pointless.<br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Thankfully, none of that mattered. Any discomfort or fumbling virgin hiccups in Joisey—and there were a few, some more notable than others—was ultimately relegated to an afterthought when the sheer magnitude of what was about to unfold was three days of jaw-dropping, life-defining moments. I mean, where else are you going to see various members of Portishead riding bicycles along a boardwalk? Where else might you share an elevator with Flavor Flav, Bob Weston and Bill Murray all in the same day?<br />
</span></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Where else are you going to randomly run into granny-sweatered troubadour Jeff Mangum? Well, everywhere actually. The enigmatic nerve center of Neutral Milk Hotel was spotted all over the place: In the lobby of the Berkeley Hotel; eating an Asia Dog in the Brooklyn Flea food court; standing five feet away from me for half of Public Enemy’s Sunday evening set.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mangum was on hand to play Friday and Sunday night sets at the Paramount Theater, one of three official venues where music was scheduled. It’s Asbury Park, so there’s live music all over the place. The Stone Pony was a stone’s throw from much of the ATP scene. The Wonder Bar had big burgers, cheap beer and a lousy band on Friday night that covered Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy”.<br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These are the weird moments that will last with people after a festival like ATP; odd little vignettes that will pop up in your dreams and remind you that you once had the best festival experience of your life in New Jersey.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Let’s get the problems out of the way first, because while they matter—some more than others—it’s much more preferable to end on a high. The security was overenthusiastic at various times, with a number of attendees at Swans’ Saturday night set at the Paramount complaining that they’d been shoved, grabbed and generally mistreated. Others said they experienced loudly chatting security and other non-ATP staffers ruining the atmosphere during Mangum’s acoustic Friday night performance at the Paramount.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Though press was given access to Mangum’s Sunday afternoon show, a friend had a spare ticket for Friday night, and down in the lower orchestra seating the mood was far more appropriate. Mangum, seated at center stage and surrounded by guitars, opened with “Oh Comely”, the 8-plus minute epic in the middle of Neutral Milk Hotel’s recognized high water mark, <i>In the Aeroplane Over the Sea</i>. It was a bold move, one he wouldn’t repeat two days later. And that’s a shame, because it was stunning. But truth be told, every second of that 75-minute set was stunning, and was still just one of the slackjawed “I can’t believe this is happening!!!” moments that are par for the course with ATP. It’s a music fan’s festival, but also an experience for people who revel in experience.<br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sorry, I got sidetracked. Much like when you’re actually in the middle of the festival itself, ATP gripes are often quickly forgotten when remembering something wonderful. The all-weekend Criterion Cinema was a fantastic idea, and organizers did the best they could with the available options, but the large conference room on the first floor of the Berkeley that served as a theater was less than ideal. Daytime screenings like <i>Putney Swope</i> and <i>Rushmore</i>, were marred by sunlight streaming in over the tall curtains surrounding the room’s interior. For those two films in particular, the crowds were large, as they features Q&A sessions with director Robert Downey, Sr. and music supervisor Randall Poster respectively. Those guys were great, and Downey was especially generous when someone asked which of the Iron Man movies was his favorite (for the record, it’s the first – he thought the second stunk).</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nighttime films weren’t without their issues either, as a midnight screening of <i>Quadrophenia</i> on Friday jumped back a chapter on the Blu-ray player, so the same lengthy scene was shown twice.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But even looking back at everything I’ve typed suddenly seems so petty, because on Sunday night in the Convention Hall, Portishead had both Chuck D and Simeon of Silver Apples on stage, and as cool as that was, the band was already so monumentally brilliant it was almost too much to handle.<br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Asbury Lanes was the third and smallest of the official live music venues, but was also maybe the most fun once Friday night was over and the attention to capacity wasn’t so severe. Lines were long throughout the weekend, so brilliant sets by the likes of Factory Floor and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 might not have gotten the attention they deserved. But maybe that’s also part of the ATP experience: Swooning over stuff you were there for and gnashing your teeth over the stuff your friends told you later you fucked up because you missed.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It seemed like the schedule was put together perfectly, with little possibility of overlap. The splendid booklets with all the festival info handed out upon arrival made it all look so cut & dry, and of course there was still just no way to take it all in. Even before they wound up coming on 15 minutes late, it was either to see the Horrors and Battles in Convention Hall or the Pop Group in the Paramount. Or, as many did, just jump back and forth between the two. And in truth, that wasn’t such an unreasonable option, because they were only 20 feet from one another.<br />
<br />
I could go into best sets or disappointments, but honestly, who cares? The great thing about ATP is that it’s a collective experience, but also one tailor-made for having it however you see fit. During a Public Enemy set that began with one song followed by 10-minutes of Flavor Flav sounding like a remix of someone reading his IMDB page, I turned to a friend and mentioned how disappointed I was that they’d screwed around with “Welcome to the Terrordome”. He very magnanimously shrugged his shoulders, said he liked it anyway, and then I was crushed under the sheer brilliance of “Bring the Noise” and “Fight the Power” and it didn’t matter what I thought about their skilled-but-who-cares live band taking solos. I hadn’t really given occupying Wall Street any serious thought until Chuck D mentioned it, and by then I’d have done anything for the guy because he’s so goddamn cool, even his lone stage maneuver that involved tossing his microphone a few feet into the air like a kid with a Nerf football in the yard pretending he was in the Super Bowl didn’t seem nearly as dorky as it should have.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
Look, I got a birthday hug from Flavor Flav in the lobby of the Berkeley late on Sunday night, so maybe I’m not in a position to offer an unbiased opinion. But really, forget those other festivals where the bands are a thousand miles away and the beer is seven bucks and the dust gets so deep in the crack of your ass you’ll think it’s a new tattoo. ATP is where it’s at. It’s a music lover’s festival, curated by musicians with (mostly) impeccable taste. And if it comes back to Asbury Park next year and you’re not there to have some “I can’t believe this is happening!!!” moments of your own, you deserve the regret you feel when your Facebook news feed is filled to the gills with constant frothy updates from your pals who had the good sense to jump on the train and make the scene.</span></div>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958845895859613891.post-80840390275724536712011-11-16T13:54:00.000-08:002011-11-16T13:54:05.422-08:00ATP America Presents: I'll Be Your Mirror Curated By Portishead & ATP<i>Originally published by <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/149016-atp-america-presents-ill-be-your-mirror-curated-by-portishead-atp/">PopMatters</a> on September 26, 2011</i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After three years in the middle of the former playground of Borscht Belt comedy, All Tomorrow’s Parties America is bringing its annual I’ll Be Your Mirror event to the beach. From Friday, September 30 through Sunday, October 2, Asbury Park will play host to one of the world’s most unique festival experiences. PopMatters spoke with the festival’s founder Barry Hogan about where ATP has been and where it’s going.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ATP America Presents I’ll Be Your Mirror boasts a lineup curated by Portishead and ATP this year, with performances on tap from Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel), Public Enemy (performing <i>Fear of a Black Planet</i>), Swans, the Horrors, Mogwai, Battles, the Pop Group, Ultramagnetic MC’s, Company Flow, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and many, many more. There’s Criterion Cinema featuring screenings of films from their vast collection, comedy, DJ sets, rock & roll bingo and trivia and so much other one-off cool shit, it’s no wonder past ATP attendees are so dedicated to the festival, traveling from all over the world for its intimate and friendly atmosphere.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fittingly, the locations for the past four years have come on the recommendation of friends and colleagues, with both Kutsher’s and Asbury Park coming into play thanks to childhood memories.<br />
“The manager of Dinosaur Jr., Brian Schwartz, he said to me, ‘If you’re doing this in the States, you’ve got to come look at this place I used to go to when I was a kid in the Catskills called Kutsher’s,’” Hogan recalled. “We went to look at it and went, ‘Wow, this place is amazing.’ We fell in love with it and decided to do the event there”.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Though the Asbury Park iteration is on the threshold of its inaugural weekend, the town actually came into the picture well before the Catskills.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Before Kutsher’s, we looked at the Paramount and Convention Hall (in Asbury Park),” Hogan said. “There’s a guy from Other Music in New York called Josh Madell, and he used to go there as a kid, and he said, ‘If you ever do it in America, you have to go to this place.’ He took us out there, showed us the Hotel Berkeley, where Johnny Cash used to live and owned and what have you”.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The idea of Asbury Park cemented itself in Hogan’s mind after a visit to Asbury Lanes for a birthday party a few years ago. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“I thought, ‘I love this: This is magical,’” Hogan said. “We had so many people saying to us, ‘You’ve got to do it here,’ so we made the decision to come down and check it out”.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The decision to move ATP from the Catskills wasn’t an easy one to make, but Hogan said it was important to maintaining the integrity of the festival.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“We did three events there and they were great, and we were very happy with how everything went with Kutsher’s, but we found it financially restrictive to make it work without raising the ticket price to sort of an insane amount which would put people off,” he said. That comes not only from years as a music promoter, but also years as a music fan, something which puts the promoters of ATP squarely in the company with the people who come to their events.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Myself and Deborah (Higgins), who is my wife and helps run the festival, we’re just passionate about music and we’re passionate about presentation,” Hogan said. “We’re kind of like an alternative to other festivals. You go to a festival, and they’re trying to charge you for everything. They charge you for the program with the schedule inside, and to walk into certain areas. It’s crazy. The whole thing with ATP is, yeah the ticket is not the cheapest thing in the world, but it’s good value for your money when you look at it and think about what you receive. We give away free booklets, and the quality is great. Seeing Jeff Mangum and Public Enemy in a space like Convention and Paramount, that’s kind of unheard of.”</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This brings the conversation around to the sometimes uncomfortable topic of money, and the underlying internet buzz that a festival like ATP might not be able to make it work in the U.S. on a consistent basis without making compromises that would sully what they’re all about. Hogan said that while things are going well for the first visit to Asbury Park, there are always questions about whether it’s something that can be sustained.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Obviously they’re expensive projects to put together,” he said. “It’s hard to say with the economy so up and down whether people will have enough money to come out to things like this, but this year has sold more tickets than Kutsher’s had ever done, so we’re really pleased. We want to keep doing it, of course, and we’re hoping to be able to continue coming to Asbury Park. And if it works there, we hope to be able to expand it to other locations. But before we start trying to turn it into a Starbucks, I want to make it so that Asbury is kind of the crowning jewel and starting point so everybody always refers to it as the place where it really began and expand from there, if it does”.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hogan said the temptation to go for some craven money grab isn’t something that’s ever even entered his mind.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Obviously, we could have veered off the track and gotten someone like Limp Bizkit to curate or somebody like that, and that’s when things would go horribly wrong. Fred Durst would probably turn Asbury Lanes into a nudie bar or something”.<br />
Though the lineup is set in stone, Hogan did make an allowance for the possibility of an impromptu set by one of the area’s most celebrated native sons: Bruce Springsteen.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“I’ve heard that if you walk around the boardwalk you might see him,” Hogan said. “If he wants to come down to the Paramount, he’s more than welcome. We’ll give him a guitar and he can perform <i>Nebraska</i> for us, and we’ll be very happy”.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Whether Springsteen shows or not, Hogan said ATP has always been quite lucky, and this year is no exception.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“It’s like we’ve taken our records and put them on the floor and said, ‘I want this person and that person,” he said. “And I guess over the course of time we’ve worked with a lot of these artists, so we’ve been really fortunate”.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Still, Hogan has a wish list.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Dream curators? I don’t know if they necessarily would want to curate, but someone I’d love to see would be Kraftwerk play ATP,” he said. “And we’ve also been quite vocal about the fact that we love Wes Anderson films and the music in his films we’ve always liked, so we thought he would be a good curator if he’s available and interested. The list is kind of endless, I guess”.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The future of the festival could be in Asbury Park, provided things continue going in the right direction. Makes sense to its founder.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“So much musical history has taken place here,” Hogan said. “It’s a perfect place for us and it will open people up for people who maybe live in New York but have never been to Asbury Park and are curious about it. Hopefully it will ignite their interests. I hope people will enjoy the event enough that we’ll be back”.</span></div><div><br />
</div>Crispinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676841622502529574noreply@blogger.com