review - timothy blackman and tono and the finance company, mighty mighty, 16 december

this review was partially published on word on the street but i reproduce the full review (including opening act) below. rejoice, dear reader, for i was too lazy to remove the capitals from my original piece of work.


timothy blackman

I sometimes kind of like it when the opening act outshines the headline act. This interesting, slightly eclectic set from former Dunedinite Timothy Blackman was a bit of a treat. Blackman (with band) experimented with a bunch of new songs, apparently ready for recording this summer. This allowed for a refreshing, laid back approach - very much in a jam style, including a couple of moments where Blackman seemingly forgot the words to his own songs, reached down to flip over the pages of a songbook, and picked up where he left off. Totally natural, uncontrived, and quite charming if I'm honest.

Earnest is one word that springs to mind to describe Blackman's style. Understated and unassuming are a couple of others. He writes pretty, eccentric songs, and he plays them well. The addition of the cello adds an unexpected, soulful dimension. Personally I find his lower vocal range more appealing than his mid range, but maybe that's partly a reflection of Mighty Mighty's questionable acoustics.

As he hit his stride, Blackman got into a nice groove and ended his set well - his last few numbers featured some excellent, eccentric rhythms, a nice use of his full vocal range, and interesting, well-structured songs. In fact I think I heard a couple of potential singles tucked away in there. Blackman is unique and understated - what you see is what you get, and I particularly like that honesty in an artist.

tono and the finance company

I was really looking forward to seeing Tono and the Finance Company because I remember seeing Tono some years ago in Dunedin and enjoying the amusing, tongue-in-cheek, ironic songs about economics. Something about that really appeals the nerd in me. But somewhere along the line, that lightheartedness appears to've been lost and Tono now seems to take himself seriously. Too seriously.

Tono and his backing band might have been more polished than their opening act, but were much less genuine. The best part about Tono is The Finance Company (including, for this tour, half of former Dunedin band The Tweeks.)  With a bunch of talented ring-ins, including a lead and rhythm guitar, and a tight rhythm section, the band actually created quite a nice sound - if we're honest, it's The Finance Company who were the ones worth listening to.

Anthonie Tonnon himself sings with a contrived Brit-pop accent, which really, really grated me. It's a shame because some of his lyrics are actually quite amusing - if he moved away from the contrived vocals and embraced the playful irony that I recall when I first saw him, he could actually be a decent, amusing lyricist. But as the night wore on, frankly I grew increasingly tired of the fake accent, formulaic songs, and Tono's consistently off-key vocals.

A bit of a downer way to end an evening that started out so promisingly, but by the end of the night I found myself wishing someone would put Tono and the Finance Company into receivership.

sexy 80s frontwomen

last night i had the great privilege of seeing the pretenders and blondie play a double-header in beautiful martinborough, new zealand. if you'd asked teenage ren how she felt about seeing either chrissie hynde or debbie harry in the flesh, i'm convinced teenage ren's reaction would have been some kind of unspeakable glee. these ladies epitomise rock n fricken roll, and i grew up loving them.

seeing these two female icons sharing the same stage within hours of each other was some kind of 80s pop dream come true. chrissie hynde is 59 years old and is still a raging hot babe, complete with rockin white electric guitar, and boots that were made for walkin'. personally i was surprised to find that my top moment was a pretenders moment (if we're honest it was blondie who was my main drawcard) - "hymn to her" was a moment of pure loveliness. check out chrissie's amazing, rich voice:

debbie harry is the rock icon to end all icons. i still can't quite believe that i saw her in the flesh. at 65, she owned the stage and gave us all the attitude we'd expect from blondie. i came with one great hope: the blondie would play 'heart of glass'. they didn't disappoint.

just look at her dominating that short little skirt. more importantly, how has her voice not deteriorated with age?! she is sounding simply amazing.

each set was a nicely measured balance of hits and classics mixed in with some less-known stuff. (to quote chrissie hynde: "for those of you who bought our last album... ah wait, i know none of you did.")

i'll never win any award for my terrible video skills, but these little clips were all i could take to illustrate the amazingness of the experience.

ren: in blondie bliss

all power to these iconic, sexy women. their bands may have enjoyed their prime in the 80s, but they are still rockin - and still sound great - into their sixties. that's definitely something to aspire to.

exciting news!

it was announced today that elton john will play a show in new zealand next year - woah woah woah! i am bouncing off the walls with excitement.

just yesterday my brother and i were grooving to this most excellent little tune. yes, we are super-hip.

T - there will be a light, ben harper and the blind boys of alabama (2004)

righto. i need to snap out of it. but i'm not going to 'snap' out of it, i'm going to ease, soothe, and groove my way out of it. and i'm starting this morning. with gospel.

i'm not a huge ben harper fan to be honest. or, i should say, i'm not a huge fan of the stoner upstrum ben harper stuff. i adore his later release "both sides of the gun" and think he has written some truly superb songs. but the better-known ben harper stuff doesn't do it for me so much. so when this album was first released and a friend who was a massive ben harper fan declared it "an album for the fans" you can imagine i wasn't rushed off my feet to buy it.

but this album makes me want to eat my words / grumpy anti-ben sentiments a squillion times over. this is a  superb album. this is an album that takes risks. it is totally different from the sound the ben harper built his massive fan base on, and it clearly follows his musical passion rather than his earlier, more conformist releases. it's non-formulaic - it just is what it is, and my god it is good... and excuse the pun, because this is pure, unadulterated gospel. it's committed and it's passionate and it's full of soul. the elements of funk that creep in, and of something sometimes resembling bluegrass, give it a way down home feel - and of course being recorded with the blind boys of alabama that's exactly what it is.

harper has always been a master of slide guitar, and this album still showcases that talent. but it's much more than that - bluesy and soulful, funky and creative, this is a diverse album but that never diverts from its core purpose. what you see is what you get, and what you get is cleverly written songs, and an album that loves life.

i'm back.

interlude:a review

i did this review of anna coddington at 3C about a month ago. she's ace.

S - some devil, dave matthews (2003)

i drafted this entry on my way home from an intense two weeks of travel. as anyone who read the 'r' entry may have gathered, i'm exhausted, which has left me reflective, emo and - let's be honest - kind of melodramatic. it's kind of hard to believe, given how much i bitch and moan about travel sometimes, but i think i've actually got post-meeting blues.

dave matthews is one of my favourite artists when i'm feeling reflective like this. and this is album in particular holds many memories - i listened to it relentlessly when i backpacked alone through eastern europe and the balkans back in 2006, which was a time of learning and challenges and happiness and lots of other things for me. it's a gentle album really; dave matthews has a rich, distinctive voice, and ventures occasionally into some fun alt rock that might not usually be my cup of tea, but that sometimes works. this is one of his more downbeat albums, and it reminds me of a boy i fell for in europe. i can pinpoint a number of exact life-moments around that time where I listened to it: on a train from prague to berlin, on the gallipoli peninsula in turkey, on a stoney beach on the south coast of france, and on an overnight bus through the albanian mountains from kosovo to tirana. and now i am listening to it at 18,000ft above the united states.

i'm not going to pretend this album doesn't occasionally venture over-the-top into cheesiness - 'save me' is a pretty good example of this, as are the two opening tracks 'dodo' and 'so darn lucky'. but life is full of moments where that seems strangely appropriate. and there are other, softer, and less obvious points of cleverness in this album: 'trouble' brings with it a gentle melancholy, and 'grey blue eyes' is a pretty little song.

but to me, right now - and actually this has always been the case - the stand-out song is 'stay or leave', a song that affords a gentle, understated treatment to notions of loss and separation, of feeling your way through something without really knowing how it'll turn out, and of dealing with the fall out when it all goes wrong. i'm always struck by the notion of "making plans to change the world, while the world is changing us..."

this is a simple, beautifully-written song full of delicate lyrics epitomising confusion, idealism, reflection, and wanting what can't be had. i found this lovely accoustic version - i dare you not to adore these lyrics.



so yea, perhaps a little melodramatic - but good right now.

R - recurring dream, crowded house (1996)

i am nearing the end of one of the most intensive periods of work i've ever experienced. i've spent something like ten nights at home in the last six weeks. i've been travelling relentlessly for work. my body clock has given up on trying to decipher which time zone we're in. last night i finished work at 4am, while my colleagues worked right through until 6am. i've slept six hours since wednesday. i'm exhausted and i'm homesick, and i've got an hour to kill. it's comfort music time.

 

once again, i hadn't listened to this album as a whole in years. there's always the traditional crowded house crowd-pleasers that make it onto party playlists, but the album as a whole is a nostalgic, perfect listen for my mood. it sounds like my childhood and teenage years - for some reason it sounds like an eternal new zealand summer. it's a straightforward album - it's just easy rock, with nothing particularly remarkable about it, except the memories it conjures. it's actually kind of perfect right now - it's a bit emo: 'fall at your feet', 'don't dream its over' and 'better be home soon' seem relatively apt somehow. my sleep-deprived brain also finds climate related songs ('weather with you', 'four seasons in one day') ironically amusing right now.

 

various songs remind me of various friends i have made along the way - most of them from overseas who knew crowded house as 'that new zealand band' well before we were known for flight of the conchords and lord of the rings. it's familiar and comfortable and a little bit senitmental. it doesn't challenge me or question me or tax my limited brain capacity. it's calm and relaxing and exactly what i need.

 

i can't wait to get home. meanwhile, i have to go to work.  

Q - quality control, jurassic 5 (2000)

i have to admit i'm not a big hip hop fan, and haven't listened to this album or any other hip hop in years. i listened to it a lot circa 2001-4, and coming back to it, i have to say it's actually a quality listen. it's definitely hip hop, but it's also a lot more: a little bit jazz (with some stellar jazz flute) and a lot bit funk. i listened to this the day i left for a couple of weeks on the road and it was a really excellent funky beat to pack to. i also forgot the extreme respect i have for the dextrous vocals on this album. glad i branched back out.

P - pablo honey, radiohead (1993)

it's been a bleak couple of days in new zealand. as i wrote the other day, this sad mood drove me to mel parsons, and i just couldn't move on from there. i realised this morning that i was slipping into my old habits, listening to mel parsons and anna coddington almost non-stop - it just hasn't felt right to listen to anything too upbeat, and instead i've relied on warm, enveloping comfort music.

i decided this morning that i was losing the spirit of this exercise, so forced myself to move on. i intended to listen to "parallel lines", best of blondie, but like i say, the upbeat thing didn't work for me. radiohead seemed like an apt choice. i haven't listened to radiohead in years because i have it in my head that they're "depressing". silly me! radiohead are great. this is probably my favourite radiohead album, and i found it strangely and remarkably comforting today. along with the well-known 'creep', i was heartened to be reminded of the gorgeous accoustic ballad 'thinking about you' a song i have long adored. but mostly, i was thrilled to reconnect with 'anyone can play guitar' a staple of my teenage years, but a song that i had actually forgotten existed. and it's really excellent.




on another note, (and i'm probably losing myself a few readers here) (not that i had them to spare) i'm not sure how i feel about the utterly sanctimonious bono "sharing our grief" in auckland last night. i suppose it'd be impossible not to make mention of the circumstances our country finds itself in, but i find his righteousness unbearable, and it's hard to find anything he says or does sincere anymore.

O - over my shoulder, mel parsons (2009)

there's a tragedy unfolding on the west coast of the south island, and it seemed somehow appropriate to listen to heartfelt west coast native mel parsons this morning. her website describes "over my shoulder" as a
"wee gem for the optimist in us all". optimism isn't enough for us anymore, but this morning it was all the west coast had. this album is an earnest offering, straighforward folk that tells an honest story - and i admit that 'far fetched idea', a sweet ditty clearly influenced by the simple coast life, took on a new meaning this morning. i dare anyone to listen to it now with dry eyes.

i wrote a lot about the musical quality of this album, but having just watched the news that feels hollow. suffice it to say this album is unpretentious, it's raw, it's honest, and what you see is what you get. not unlike the coast really. kia kaha.

N - nothing's shocking, jane's addiction (1988)

nothing's shocking. except for the fact that i haven't listened to this album in literally about four years. and oh my god what an album it is. it's. just. so. good. like all good children of the 80s, this was a teenage staple for me, and for many many years jane's addiction were, like, my favourite band everrrrrr.

i am so glad to've rediscovered this album. it's an unconventional classic; a little bit grunge-y, a little bit funk-y, a little bit ballad-y, and a little bit rock n roll. classic 80s stuff. as the name would imply, it's flamboyant and impertinent and reeks of perry farrell just sticking it to the man - one look at the cover (featuring naked siamese twins with their heads on fire) would indicate that the album was exactly out to shock. but at the same time it's full of cleverly written songs and an abundance of musical talent. 'summertime rolls' has always been one of my favourites - a slightly hypnotic, sublime understated love song. 'standing in the shower... thinking' is an excellent catchy tune contrasting the daily grind with some kind of deeper philosophical thoughts; kind of a weird combination but it's bang on the money lyrically, and totally underrated in my opinion. 'been caught stealing', 'mountain song', 'had a dad' ... all up there amongst my favorites. and for all its gritty junkie imagery, 'jane says' is a beautifully written guitar-driven ballad, poignant in all of its 2-chord-simplicity.



seeing jane's addiction live in 2003 was another of those life defining moments. i was young and hardcore. i remember anchoring myself against a rail in the front row, holding on for dear life, and refusing twice to be pulled out by the security guard, before finally acquiesing only after the show had finished. i'm pretty sure i cracked a rib. it was awesome. and i have dave navarro's pick as my battle souvenir.

it came as no surprise to me to learn that this album was produced by the same guy who produced a lot of david byrne and brian eno work, dave jerden. it's got that same slightly irreverent, off the wall feel to it. it's unmistakably farrell-driven - and trust me he is quite the showman - but it's an album that showcases the individual talents of all four band members. much as i love perry, back in the day jane's addiction for me was (and kind of still is) all about dave navarro. apart from being a bit of a babe, this guy is one seriously talented guitarist. for all of its musical complexity, this is a guitar-driven album, full of some outrageous solos and catchy riffs, and navarro was an absolute joy to watch live. flawless.

dave navarro: what's not to love?

ranging from dark to tender, this is a sometimes challenging album that can require the right mood. it strikes me that nothing about this band, or indeed the creation of this album, came particularly easily or naturally. in some respects, that flows on into the album - it's not always an easy listen. but it was one of my favourites for a very long time, and i can see why. it's clever, it's musically diverse, and it's driven by four extremely talented individuals. i still can't believe i left it sitting dormant in my ipod for as long as i did. shame on me.

M - midnight juggernauts, midnight juggernauts (2005)

an ethnomusicologist recommendation. a bit rocky, a bit poppy, and sporadically ever-so-slightly bowie-esque. interesting riffs, occasionally funn synth, solid vocals. risk lapsing into sounding a bit samey, but mostly manage to avoid that fate. they don't set me on fire, but for the most part quite a good listen -- worth checking out.

i found this intersting video of them live:

L - let it die, feist (2004)

i've always felt torn as to which is the superior feist album: 'let it die' or 'the reminder'. suffice it to say i adore them both, for quite different reasons.

this album has moments of pure gold, and one of the things i love about it is that it practises what it preaches. one of the standout tracks for me is the delicately jaunty french cover 'tout doucement' - a song about living life slowly and gently. take the almost lazy prettiness of the lyrics: "n'allez jamais trop vite / en aimant simplement / pour avoir de la reussite / soyez tres tres prudent / l'amour alors viendra / se blottir dans vos bras" (which sort of means never go too fast, love simply, to be successful be careful, then love will come and snuggle up in your arms... english is a bit clumsy, but it's a lovely image). i know it's a cover so feist can't take credit for the lyrics, but she does a lovely rendition of the song and was responsible for introducing me to it, so there.

the whole album has a delightful feeling of restrained gentleness about it, and i love it for that. the opener 'gatekeeper' is a pretty cataloguing of the passing of the seasons, and 'mushaboom' is an excellent upbeat song about home that invokes both a feeling of nostalgia and hope ("we'll collect the moments one by one / i guess that's how the future's done"). the title track is a perfectly written love song that balances - but never crosses - that delicate line between meaning and cheese. i can live without the loungey-ness of 'leisure suite', and have to be in the right mood to love the final track, 'now at last'. beyond 'tout doucement' if i only had time for one track on this album, it'd be 'secret heart' - like so much of feist's work, the lyrics of this song are completely genuine, relateable, and beautifully constructed.

feist is one of my all time favourites. apart from her stuning voice, she is frankly a lyrical genius. she writes clever, pretty songs that above everything else are real. this album is superb and i recommend it to everyone, ever.

K - konk, the kooks (2008)

i feel like a bit of a lightweight admitting this, but i still like this album. the kooks are classic cookie-cutter britpop, without an awful lot of depth; this album is all bubblegum and rainbows but y'know what? that's ok. this album will always sound like sunshine to me - i thrashed it to within an inch of its life (and my sanity) in the summer of 08/09, the year the kooks played rhythm and vines - and the cotton candy tracks make for a pretty summery vibe. so it was a good selection for my first morning back in perfect, sunnny wellington after a long trip away.

 

that said, i will admit that the kooks kind of irritate me. (i realise that's contrary, but i'm ok with that. a woman's prerogative and all.) their live set was ok, but i saw them immediately before the eternally brilliant, polished and professional franz ferdinand (oh joy and love!) so they will always kind of pale in comparison. you couldn't help but get the feeling the kooks were trying to be just a little bit too cool -- and again, in comparison with the seemingly effortlessly tight franz, they came off as kind of contrived. and don't even get me started on their screaming grommet fans. maybe i am just getting old, but it seemed to me that if you're gonna be wankily scene, you should probably back it up with some seriously talented music.... and here i return to words like "lightweight". konk is a light, fun album, but there's not much about it that i find wildly technically or musically impressive. you might find my comparison with franz ferdinand just ever-so-slightly unfair, and i wouldn't blame you for that, but for the fact that the kooks totally asked for it. take their song "do you wanna", just for example.... a fairly ballsy theiving of a franz ferdinand title from 2005's 'you could have it so much better'....

 

i realise i'm being a bit unpredictable with my warm-hearted enjoyment of happy-go-lucky tunes, combined with my scornful disdain of lightweight music. so i guess i'll just come back to my original premise, which is that i still like this album. there's a time and a place for everything, 'konk' included.

J - juno soundtrack, various (2008)

juno is one of my very favourite films. i can watch it over and over again, and always feel slightly heartwarmed at its unorthodox optimism. the title character herself reminds me of one of my dear friends, with her sharp wit, cool sarcasm, and ultimately affectionate edge.

the soundtrack manages to encompass these quirky, slightly offbeat characteristics while maintaining musical direction, integrity, and a delightfully unified sound. despite featuring a vast range of artists, it speaks with one voice: that mature-beyond-my-years-but-not-quite-ready-to-admit-it thing that juno does so well. it's totally and completely believable, and every time i listen to it, i feel an empathy with the character. one of the coolest things about this soundtrack is that the actress herself suggested that the soundtrack feature the moldy peaches (a band that the soundtrack inspired me to independently investigate, and who are great.) this basically makes me think ellen page is one rad girl.

my affection for belle and sebastian, and this album's influence thereon, has been catalogued previously. but this album is full of so many other little surprises, and has inspired my musical taste in a lot of ways. the opening track, barry louis polisar's "all i want is you" typifies that idiosyncratic but totally warm feel of the soundtrack - i adore the song, and the lyrics encapsulate something that just feels genuine.



i love the sonic youth cover of the carpenters, and i'm always going to enjoy anything that features buddy holly (who i swear is a musical genius). the album manages to span the well-known to the obscure; often chosing clightly eclectic songs from prominent artists, but also featuring some lesser-known musicians. it spans generations and musical tastes, but above all it adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the film - surely the ultimate objective of any soundtrack.

folksy, cutesy, and slightly edgy. beautiful.

I - know you're married but i've got feelings too, martha wainwright (2008)

daughter of loudon wainwright iii and younger sister of rufus, martha was surely always destined to be something of a musical genius. i own her first two releases (this and 2005's self-titled album) and was thrilled to see that the quebec native has also recently released "sans fusils, ni souliers, a paris" a tribute to edith piaf, recorded live in paris. i look forward to hearing it; what a lovely combination that will be.

this particular album is my ultimate catharsis album, so it was perfect timing for this morning after a couple of very stressful, grumpy, frustrated and ultimately sad days. it starts with martha's haunting, portentous voice. no matter what this woman was singing she could make it sound achingly beautiful. combine that with her desperately emotional lyrics ("you got a girlfriend and i can only talk about her / for so very long / then the mind turns into my heart and whispers / into the dark cave that i've been wrong / my heart was made / for bleeding all over you / and i know you're married but i've got feelings too / and i still love you"..... yea, you get the picture, somewhere along the line it seems someone done gone and smashed poor martha's heart...) it's topped off by well-written, wistful and complementary music - the forlorn cello, wailing electric guitars (contributed, in this instance, by the who's pete townshend) and there you have an album of pure beautiful anguish.

far from a couple of "obviously sad" tracks, it's am entire album chock full of poignant despair. martha, like her brother and father, is an excellent songwriter, using her medium to tell a meaningful story, full of depth and texture. this is the kind of album that grabs you inside and kind of twists things around a bit. it's wrenching and agonising and breathtakingly emotional - but at the same time it contains elements of optimism. "you cheated me" is a jaunty, almost pop song, with fresh-sounding acoustic guitar, mischevious lyrics, and notes of genuine cheekiness.  but martha's often cheerful melodies and striking vocal harmonies bring a lighter note to the album. and for all of the insecurity that comes through in some of the songs, martha clearly also displays strength - not just vocally, but intellectually and creatively. plus she does an exceptional cover of pink floyd's "see emily play".

as a listener, it's totally and completely self-indulgent - the kind of album you listen to when you need to a release and then almost feel a bit silly for getting so emotionally involved in it. i normally feel better after six or seven tracks. this morning i listened to the whole album, then repeated the first two songs.

H - heavenly pop hits, the chills (1995)

both born in dunedin in the '80s, the chills and i grew up together. or, more like, i grew up with them. because of this, they hold a special place in my heart and always have. may i one day have the privilege of seeing them live....

the chills grew out of the post-punk era, one of a number of bands in dunedin embracing the unconventional nature of punk, but growing those elements into a more mature, more technically talented sound. someone who can frame it much better than me, wade ronald churton in 'have you checked the children' (a book i read religiously as a teenager and which i thoroughly recommend to anyone with an interest in the new zealand punk and post-punk scene of the late-70s and early 80s) writes: "at a time when the echoes of punk were fading in a haze of violence and mutation elsewhere, in dunedin the ethics of punk and the character of the city had produced a fertile pool of musicians and songwriters which had ignored fleeting trends. in time, the fermentation in isolation of the city's punk-influenced alternative music would go on to produce a genuinely rich and influential indigenous new zealand movement."

...and so was born the dunedin sound. you can shun the dunedin sound all you want, but the point stands that dunedin is and long has been an incubator for talent, for creating music that doesn't conform to a particular trend, and that sounds different to that created in bigger centres. but I digress.

there was a time were the chills - and especially 'heavenly pop hit' were my happy place. so familiar, so all-encompassing and perfect, full of heart and soul, and the best intentions. like the warm hug of a best friend really. this is an album full of classics - kaleidoskope world, i love my leather jacket, pink frost, wet blanket, doledrums, never never go, to name but a few of my many, many favourites - that never fails to buoy my spirits. maybe it's a dunedin thing, maybe it's a familiarity thing, but listening to the chills is like coming home.

G - the gulag orkestar, beirut (2006)

it's taken me three days to get around to blogging about this album, because i'm still not entirely sure how i feel about it. unconventionally, i've listened to it in addition to other albums for the past 3 mornings in a row, trying to come to terms with what it delivers and how i receive it.

on morning one, i wasn't convinced by it. i distinctly recalled the notion that it was very similar to my first reaction to david byrne (now one of my favourites) i knew it was technically clever, but i just didn't get it. i thought it was a bit obvious - it reminded me of some bad movie soundtrack where our intrepid protagonist ventures into deep mysterious places of the unknown, totally condescending the listener or fictional viewer("look, we're in the east... they do things different here"). in fairness, i was in a pretty foul mood that morning of the first listen.

subsequent listens - and more considered thought - have revealed a different side. the comparison to david byrne is unavoidable to me, right down to the extent that i think zach condon's voice actually sounds very similar to byrne's in parts. but also in the "borrowing" from world music. beirut do it more obviously, but also in a more comprehensive, unified way. the album is fuelled by clear eastern european influences dominated by horns, jangly polka, wicked accordians, and eccentric strummed instruments (any number of them....) i think perhaps my initial feeling of being patronised was based on the fact that i really adore eastern europe and the balkans - areas that this album inextricably links itself to - and it seemed a bit of a "once over lightly" on an area so full of cultural, historical and musical depth.

that said, it's full of great, slightly eccentric sounds, and is a really good listen. like sufjan stevens, and david byrne before him, it's a slightly strange sound, but an intelligent one that has really grown on me.

F - the fame, lady gaga (2008)

f seems to be a popular letter - too many artists to choose from about a month ago, and ohhh so many albums to choose from this morning. i might even repeat f again tomorrow, since there are so many little treasures of musical goodness just sitting in there. but this morning, there was really only one choice: gaga's "the fame." oh yea, i went there, and i went there good.

once again, i confess being a latecomer to gaga fandom. i remember the exact moment i realised i loved gaga: sweating in a club in the middle of port moresby with my best friend (i don't think this was the kind of field work the ethnomusicologist had in mind, but there ya go.) you know an artist has transcended all kinds of boundaries when you hear 'pokerface' in the middle of papua new guinea.

i appreciate lady gaga not necessarily for her music - which can claim partial responsibility for my reintroduction to the world of pop, no small feat - but also for who she is(n't). clearly, lady gaga is an image, a character, a figure, as much as a singer. various articles rage as to the authenticity of lady gaga as both a musician and a personality. i confess not having enough of a background in pop to really refute some of the claims made e.g. gaga "stealing" from madonna, but it seems to me that musicians are always influenced by a range of sources - and to my mind gaga has used various influences to create a sound of her own. i'm satisfied enough that lady gaga really can sing (witness the stripped back vocals at the start of "again again"), and that she writes (yep) good songs. a quick look at any of her videos will confirm that she can dance, and reviews indicate epic live shows. so yea, musically i'm satisfied.

i'm more interested in the debate on gaga's personality, and i guess from a quasi-feminist perspective.

there can be little doubt camille paglia is correct in saying "lady gaga is a manufactured personality" but surely paglia must work harder than that to prove that a manufactured personality is a bad thing in and of itself. i fail to see a distinction between gaga and, for example, bart simpson, another icon who embodies a certain set of characteristics (albeit with much more limited reach). essentially, gaga is a character like any other, she just has greater reach, and unlike other (human) celebrities, appears to remain constantly in character (witness 'paparazzi'). i don't really see the issue with this. but what further infuriates me about paglia's attack on lady gaga is the argument that gaga isn't sexy, and therefore she can not be a generational icon: and this coming from a so-called feminist. what bollocks. to me the refreshing thing about lady gaga's boundary-pushing is precisely that: she's a bit off the wall, a bit weird looking, and yea, not what we'd traditionally define as sexy. but wait, maybe that's precisely why so many people identify with her. as alex needham argues in response to paglia, part of gaga's iconic appeal is that she's not selling sex - she's selling kookiness. and, well.... music.

so yes, paglia is quite right that gaga is a construct, but i fail to see what's wrong with that. i like the perfect irony of "the fame" as an album critiquing the ease with which anyone can achieve fame, but the fact that no one really cares who the artist stefanie whatsherface is, they know the character lady gaga. the anonomity that the individual playing the character of lady gaga somehow seems to retain in the face of international superstardom like we have never seen before fascinates and astounds me.

in the end, i'm not really saying anything new here, and all i can really come up with is "so what"? gaga is a construct that people, for whatever reason, identify with. and perhaps my experience of seeing her being adored in png really says something: the fact that lady gaga ranked seventh on forbes' list of one hundred most powerful women - rated for their ability to influence - illustrates just how global her reach is.

plus, she's got a good voice and makes music that makes me smile.

E - the el dorado e.p, anji sami (2006) and employment, kaiser chiefs (2005)

the el dorado e.p. is one of my favourites. i'm a committed sami fan (both of anji's solo work, and with her sisters as a trio). this softly country-tinged e.p. features jaunty drums, wistful slide guitar, clever, heartfelt lyrics and that haunting, distinctive anji sami voice. secretly my favourite of the sisters, anji has a knack for well-composed, intelligent songs with real emotion to boot.

i was surprised (and frankly, a little bit cross) to read a review critiquing this album as "fragile" - i see it as nothing of the sort. i know it's naughty to do so, but compared to hannah howes' offerings on 'candy', the el dorado e.p is streets ahead in confidence, in song structure, and in identity as an artist. and it's a debut e.p. it's by no means perfect - in fact part of the beauty of the e.p. is the honesty in its flaws (such as a slightly out of time guitar strum at the beginning of one of the songs), but it showcases sami's intelligent songwriting, clever use of harmonies, and rich voice.

i am one of the fifteen people desperately awaiting the sami sisters' debut album and my only complaint with anji is that she's not exactly what we might call prolific. the upside of that is that she creates beautiful, clever music; music to be taken seriously.

i first encountered kaiser chiefs in late 2005 / early 2006, during that excellent winter of british-style indie pop. think kaiser chiefs, hard-fi, franz ferdinand (in the 'you could have it so much better' era, such a good
album), and yes, the killers circa hot fuss. i was living in europe and that indie britpop style underwent a total revolution that winter - we used to go to particular bars every wednesday and thursday for their "indie nights", we wore skinny jeans and chucks, we listened to morrissey, and yea, we were totally too cool for school. but it was 2006, and we rocked it.

i still listen to employment occasionally. "every day i love you less and less" is a great song for running - it's got a great beat and harsh motivating lyrics. when i was student president i (oh so wittily) had the deliciously chav-ish "i predict a riot" as my cellphone ringtone - and i still can't quite hear the beginning of that song without immediately putting myself in media-mode. the album maintains the effusive energy of its opening two tracks throughout, and the exuberance is contagious. it's a high-energy album, and takes a lot of energy to listen to as well - something that worked out well for me on a monday morning walk to work, but that sometimes makes it difficult to maintain an interest right throughout the album.

D - dear catastophe waitress, belle and sebastian (2003)

i was a latecomer to belle and sebastian fandom, by virtue of the appearance of 'piazza, new york catcher' on the juno soundtrack. at face value an airy, cheerful song, with a restrained and delicate lyrical treatment on questions of love and confusion, the song attracted me. belle and sebastian seem to have a knack for taking sometimes complex, clever lyrics and making them fit. like almost everything about the juno soundtrack (perhaps the source of a separate entry at some later stage) the quirkiness of the song attracted me and more listening was clearly needed; the rest, as they say, is history, and i became a belle and sebastian convert.

this album combines aspects of twee '70s rock n roll (embodied in the upbeat, sugary sweet "if she wants me"), with idiosyncratic, cacophonic orchestral elements (such as throughout the title track). i like belle and sebastian's traditionally unconventional approach (can something be traditional and unconventional? i mean that traditionally b&s are unconventional) although i think this album is one of their more accessible. it's whimsical, unfalteringly happy (even when dealing with complex questions lyrically), and because of that one reviewer rates it as "the belle and sebastian album for people who never really liked belle and sebastian".

although i confess not having been a die-hard fan since their establishment, i do think our above reviewer is taking too hardline a viewpoint. i own two other b&s albums: the band's first album, the stripped-back, almost melancholic "tigermilk" (1996) and 2006's much more commercial effort, "the life pursuit". and i like these variants on the belle and sebastian sound as much as "dear catastophe waitress". to co-opt a b&s lyric ('you don't send me') "i'm a little bored" with reviewers who argue that a band's albums all need to sound the same. belle and sebastian have done what i think many bands struggle to do - matured, refined, and developed musically, while retaining their own unique sound. perhaps much of this can be credited to stuart murdoch's consistently charming voice and captivatingly complex lyrics. either way, i think it's interesting that 'juno' also features 'expectations' from "tigermilk" and the two tie together seamlessly.

i'm happy to stand behind dear catastrophe waitress as a refreshing little album, bubblegum and all. and i do really like belle and sebastian. so there.

they just don't write songs like this anymore

C - candy, hannah howes (2009)

hannah howes has a breathy, soulful voice, but this album failed to connect with me.  i like the jazzy, folky notes to her songs, but she lost me at "no surprises" and she didn't win me back. i am so over the reggae upstrum "new zealand sound" sound (although i feel this is a rant best reserved for a stand-alone post where i can really let rip) and i think it does hannah's clever voice lyrics a disservice.

oh my god it's love!

my brother in london just sent me this recommendation - mumford and sons. i love them already. give me more give me more give me more!

B - blood on the tracks, bob dylan (1975)

there was a time when i wouldn't travel without two essential items: a copy of paulo coelho's 'the alchemist' and my well-worn cd of 'blood on the tracks'. admittedly i was then a dreadlocked student, revelling in wandering about the place, and it's fair to say some of my tastes have changed since then. but the major point really is that i can credit this album, and dylan himself, with my introduction to and love of folk music.

ranked 16 on rolling stone's five hundred greatest albums of all time, this is one of dylan's finest pieces of work and still a joy to listen to.

it seems one of the major criticisms of this album is that it's too same-y, with many of the songs in the same key. but i think part of the reason it makes such a great album to travel with, though, is that the album itself is a journey, and a story of heartache and of fate. on closer inspection the lyrics of opening track 'tangled up in blue' are deeply sad, covering a non-chronological account of a failed relationship. conventional wisdom appears to be that, despite dylan's denial of this point, the song (and indeed the entire album) reference his own break up with wife sara. interesting allusion to romeo and juliet ("i lived them on montague street") in the song as well.

despite this apparent angst, i've always found it a soothing, crooning kind of album. it's contemplative, easy to listen to, makes excellent use of the banjo, and is full of clever, well-structured songs that hold the listener's interest. one of the many things i like about this album is the little surprises i continue to find in it. i've owned it for about ten years now and i listen to it often, yet there's always something new in the songs to pop out and surprise me.

although by all accounts it's a sad album, i've always found it rather cathartic, hopeful and redemptive.

how good is this song?!

A - almost famous soundtrack, various artists (2000)

two days ago we were casually discussing the greatest soundtracks of all time, and my immediate reaction was to name 'almost famous'. ok, granted, i'm not much of a movie buff, so my soundtrack experience isn't all that broad, but this grammy award-winning soundtrack has to be up there for masterfully traversing the music of the late sixites and seventies. and not the hits - the truly great music of the era. my copy of this cd is so well-loved that it's almost worn out, and full of skips scratches and glitches. but that somehow adds to the authenticity and i love it just the same.

 

it will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that this movie is one of my all-time favourites. i love this movie not because i identify with fifteen-year-old william miller (i don't really); more accurately, because i adore penny lane and her band-aides. and yes, to an extent i identify with them.  this is a movie about music lovers, for music lovers, and that's obvious in its soundtrack (which had a budget of $3.5 million, more than double the standard budget). it's semi-autobiographical, chonicling director cameron crowe's varied adventures with bands of the era, and the soundtrack reflects that - led zepp, lynyrd skynyrd, the allman brothers' band: all bands that crowe toured with, which also dominate the soundtrack. elton john's 'tiny dancer' was surely re-popularised by the iconic 'bus scene', immediately following the equally iconic "i am a golden god" scene (another nod to led zepp) . 

 

part of what i love about this soundtrack is the tracks included by fictional band "stillwater". frankly, penny was onto a good thing, and i couldn't help but fall a little in love with guitarist russell hammond in watching the film. even more so, i fell a little (more!) for billy cruddup in learning that the actors learnt the instruments, and played the songs themselves. a babe and a musician.... whoar!  in another lovely little twist, pearl jam guitarist (and possible musical genuis) mike mccready wrote the stillwater guitar track, and some of william's experiences with stillwater allude to crowe's own experiences with pearl jam. 

 

full of throwbacks to classic bands like led zepp, buddy holly, neil young, fleetwood mac, hendrix, and oh so many more, the almost famous soundtrack comprises about fifty iconic songs of the era. the album couldn't include all of them, and my only complaint is that it didn't include dr hook's "the cover of the rolling stone" - a crucial point in the movie and a wonderful song to boot. that point notwithstanding, this is one of my favourite ever albums: i dare you to put it on and not fall back in love with rock n'f*n' roll.

Z - the zutons, various

the zutons are the only 'z' artist i have on my ipod. they are there as part of bbc radio 1's "live lounge" compilation (vol 3, ) , in which bands do acoustic covers of their own or others' songs. the compilation is the source of some of my favourite quirky takes on various songs. the zutons' contribution to this particular album is a cover of christina aguilera's 'beautiful'. the original in itself is pretty cheesey, and i sort of expected a tongue-in-cheek version of it. there's something about male vocalists covering female originals which i kinda enjoy - the same live lounge album has a great cover of katy perry's 'i kissed a girl' by mcfly which fits this bill. the zutons' cover is good, although perhaps not as impertinent as i had hoped for. it was enough to make me want to hear a bit more of the zutons, though, enlisted the help of my beautiful assistant, myspace.

myspace led my nicely to 'valerie' - a song which on first listen i really enjoyed; funky guitars, rough man-vox, a nice take on what i thought was amy winehouse's song. i must've been in "cute zutons covers of female songstresses" mode, because little did i know, it turns out the zutons' version is actually the original (2006) and winehouse covered them... for a radio one live lounge session. full circle and all. to be honest i think the richness of her voice does it more justice, but i do really like the zutons' version.

either way, two good things have come out of today:

one: i thoroughly recommend this live lounge album, and i've been inspired to find myself volumes one, two and four.

two: i enjoyed album / compilation listening so much that i've now decided to go from a - z in albums. i may be getting lazy with weekend blogging, but i'm not ready to give up on this experiment just yet.

Y - yvonne elliman, i don't know how to love him (single), from andrew lloyd webber gold: the definitive hits collection (2001)

ummmm. it's fair to say this was the only artist on my ipod beginning with 'y'. i considered cheating and pretending that i had cat stevens' stuff listed as yusuf islam, but i don't, so instead i've elected to see the fun side of things and indulge myself in a lengthy discourse about  just how much i love show tunes.

if the popularity of 'glee' has taught us one thing, it's not some moralistic tale about being nice to geeky kids.  it's more important than that: glee has taught us how many of us deep down are show tune addicts. admit it, just as much as you love hearing gaga done by a bunch of nerdy high school kids you also love hearing them do tunes from les mis. and, while it may have taken rachel berry and co to illustrate just how many of us secretly love that shit, i have always embraced my intense enjoyment of show tunes.

i think my mother is responsible for this. i was an '80s kid, and grew up at a time when 'cats', 'starlight express' and the quintessentially lloyd-webber ''the phantom of the opera' were enjoying the height of their popularity. i recall mum having a double cassette tape (oh yes!) of the phantom of the opera, and playing it, well... regularly. as kids we saw productions of 'cats' and 'jesus christ superstar' by the dunedin operatic society - i loved that music then, and i unashamedly love it now. my love of show tunes is shared by a close friend and former flatmate, who sees it as utterly appropriate to include "mr mistoffelees", "any dream will do" and "the phantom" itself on a playlist for a party. in fact i'm convinced it is this friend who is responsible for the presence of these songs on my ipod.... many a happy hour has been spent youtubing cats on broadway with my flatmates and cackling with, well, glee, at how excellent the tunes are. you might argue that i need to get out more; i'd just laugh and suggest you need more show tune glory in your life.

and let us not limit our enjoyment of show tunes to sir andrew himself, oh no! i do recall once (okay maybe more than once) being wooed by a boy who sat down at a piano and began to play the entire score of 'chicago'. there was also a time where i believe the same boy pulled out the big guns with 'les mis'.  i used to belong to a facebook group entitled "and WHY can't my life be a musical?!"... perhaps these brief glory days of drunken show tune slurring were the closest i'm going to get. but given my propensity to sing and dance (both badly) at the drop of a hat, well..... watch this space.

tomorrow is 'z' day and rather than go off on some tangential rant i might see if i can arrange a guest post...

X - the xx, various and self-titled (2009)

unsurprisingly (or perhaps not?) i don't have any artists beginning with 'x' on my ipod, but a helpful heads up from a friend in the u.k. had alerted me to the existence of 'the xx'. another, new zealand-based, friend had also recently recommended them so that's, like, international hype, right? so i waited until 'x day' and gave them a go.

cue: rookie error. for some unfathomable reason i went to youtube rather than myspace - i.e. tracks listed by just anyone, not necessarily selected by the artist themselves as the best showcase of their sound. the first song i stumbled across was a cover of florence and the machine's 'you've got the love' - i dutifully clicked on it and hated. every. bit. of. it.  i think florence is just wonderful - it's ambitious in the extreme to try to cover her, especially when she's still enjoying huge popularity - and this was not a good cover. bland, repetitive, dull, and with none of that joie de vivre that comes through in the original. if the youtube comments are anything to go by, debate rages as to whether the strong female voice that comes in halfway through the song is a sample of florence herself, or just someone who sounds really, really like her -- either way, it was an island in a sea of nothingness - the best bit of the song by miles, although that's not saying much.

so it wasn't a good start between myself and 'the xx' but we persevered and i'm glad we did. in a world of "indie pop" - that truly amorphous genre that really could cover just about anything - 'the xx' produce a different take on pop. the keys are subtle, and do not dominate the sound in an obvious way like so many indie-synth-pop-insert-a-genre-here bands these days. early in my listen, the ethnomusicologist chipped in with his usual, ahem, considered critique </end sarcasm> calling them "scene and boring".... i thought perhaps he'd only heard their florence cover.

at first listen, it's a refreshingly unfussy approach - a kind of restrained sophistication that sets them apart from many of their more "obvious" contemporaries. the florence example highlights to me that they're not vocally strong, but the breathy, almost moody vocals seem to work in the context of their broader, understated sound. they're modest and minimalist, the kind of music i'd listen to over a dinner party with friends, but not the kind of music i'd dance around my lounge to on a saturday night. or even choose to listen to of a weekday morning. perhaps that is damning them with faint praise, but i don't necessarily mean it that way. the subtle sound obviously appeals to a broad audience, which might explain why they've featured in all number of tv shows - gossip girl, east enders, grey's anatomy, law & order, cold case, and even bbc and nbc news.

but while the difference in their sound is refreshing, i worry that in being so inoffensive they might have played it a bit safe - i don't get the feeling any risks are being taken here, and the fact that the songs almost uniformly take on the same mood is evidence of this. similarly, i was disappointed to note that the song that really made my ears perk up - the song that was going to be my proof of diversity in this exercise in restraint - "teardrops", with its interesting opening riff, is itself also a cover. boo. in fact, the longer i listen, the more it aggrieves me to admit i tend to agree with the ethnomusicologist. i wouldn't say they're "boring", but they are certainly same-y.

so, this is a long post for a reason: i still haven't quite figured out how i feel about them. if i had to sum up: i'll always have got off on the wrong foot with them by virtue of the awful cover. i like their minimalism, but think it will wear thin. i look forward to hearing more from them - i'd like to see them prove they're capable of mixing it up with something a bit more diverse.  possibly more damning than my dinner party comment is the fact that i would happily recommend this album to my mother, and i suspect that may be its enduring destiny: a brief flirtation in the spotlight, before longterm population of the cd racks of middle-aged hipsters the world over.

W - weezer, weezer (the blue album) (1994)

this was an album that received much bashing (as in, was played a lot, not heavily criticised) in my latter years of high school. iconic in so many ways, this debut album launched weezer into mainstream success. the album - and i think the band in general - is best summed by by 'allmusic' in its 5-star review: "what makes the band so enjoyable is their charming geekiness..." they're most traditionally listed as playing alt-rock or even sometimes pop-punk, but really they just play pop - and they do it in a refreshing, amusing, disarmingly cheeky kind of way.

the videos for two of the major singles on this album ('buddy holly', 'undone (the sweater song)') were both directed by spike jonze. and, although it doesn't appear on the blue album (coming instead on the later green album), i've included another jonze treasure below - the video for 'island in the sun'. there are puppies! and kittens! and lion cubs! and flying monkeys! and a baby grizzly bear! and a grown up big daddy grizzly bear!....and rivers cuomo, who is also adorable.

V - violent femmes, violent femmes deluxe edition (2002)

after briefly considering the veils and deeming them slightly too downbeat for a monday morning, i made one of the best decisions i've made in a long time - to play the violent femmes self-titled compliation, deluxe edition. released in 2002, this is an excellent album containing any number of hits, as well as rare demos, live / accoustic versions, and other delicious treats for the ears.

i unashamedly love the violent femmes; one of my enduring favourites, and their live show in dunedin in 2005 would definitely be in the top five gigs i've had the fortune to attend. famously discovered while busking on a street corner, they're wickedly impressive musicians, who play a fast and loose show. i managed to get myself in front of the security barrier, and was treated to a very jammy set and definitely one for the fans - i love that they slipped that pub-crowd anthem 'blister in the sun' right in the middle of their set, not giving it prominence and instead encoring with some of their more obscure material. they're a spontaneous band that is perfectly happy to just jam and have a good time - i recall them jamming one of their better known songs (i want to say 'kiss off'?) for about 20 minutes, just having a laugh. they also all switch around through an impressive array of instruments up to and including some kind of awesome one-stringed bass on a stick, that i'd never seen before nor seen one since. they make an awful lot of noise for three middle-aged men, and, of course, as their website attests "all three of them singing their hearts out for the entire show". bloody good stuff and one of my favourite nights ever.

i'm particularly enjoying offbeat versions of well-known songs at the moment. i'm rediscovering some excellent live bowie tracks, and radio 1 (of the u.k, not dunedin, variety) live lounge has produced some stunners too. in the same vein, it's refreshing to hear the likes of 'blister in the sun' in a rare, raw demo form, rather than the generic hit that it became. i admit a bit of a grudge with the song because the violent femmes have done soooooo much better stuff but everyone only seems to know that single - but hearing it in that slightly more unique form is enough to make me enjoy it all over again. similarly there are superb demo versions of 'kiss off', 'add it up' (the ultimate teen angst song) 'please do not go' and 'prove my love', among others - a great new way to rejuvenate your interest in old classic songs. my only complaint about this album would be that it doesn't contain the 1981 single 'i held her in my arms' - a raucous, gorgeous song, and quite possibly my favourite violent femmes song of all time. below gordon gano rocks it with the new pornographers. great combination.

U - the unicorns, tuff ghost (single, 2003), urge overkill, girl you'll be a woman soon (single, 1994) and WILCO

unusually, i have no full albums by artists beginning with 'u' - can anyone recommend any? i discharged my duty to the project this morning by listening to the two singles i have by 'u' artists. and i did it sulkily - i really don't like the unicorns, and i don't actually know why i have this song on my ipod. i find it a bit whiny and depressing. but to give it its due, when i gave it a critical listen this morning i spose there was some interesting synth bits happening in there, and it's not as bad as i'd built it up to be in my mind.

urge overkill's 'girl you'll be a woman soon' - what to say? to be honest i'd quite like to listen to some of urge overkill's stuff that hasn't been, y'know, overkilled, on the pulp fiction soundtrack... apparently they've opened for both nirvana and pearl jam, so they can't be too shabby. and yet i only know them for one song (a cover no less) that they did for a soundtrack. naughty me.

having discharged my 'u' duties, i was blissfully free to pick whatever band i wanted for a sunny friday morning. because i knew it would be highly contrary to the spirit of my muscial adventure to listen to wilco on 'w' day, but also because it's been twenty-something days without them and i'm starting to get the shakes from wilco-withdrawals, i put on wilco's 'kicking television: live in chicago' album. jeff tweedy is honestly my hero, and the live in chicago album is a fabulous set-list. 'heavy metal drummer'  is far from their best song, but it is one of my favourites so i've added some links to it here. i tried to find a decent live clip of it and was disappointed because the only one i could find was this one where tweedy looks to be (very uncharacteristically) just going through the motions. most unlike tweedy with his usual excellent crowd interaction, vibrant voice and guitars, and high energy performances. the night i saw wilco live was a truly awesome 'life-moment' - you know those moments that you kind of hope will happen and then they do and they're awesome? yea, it was one of them. in a total departure from my usual form, i did not fall in love with a drummer that night, nor even a lead guitarist. in a world first for me, i fell in love with a bassist. john stirrat is seriously talented - combining with glen kotche to form a tight and hard working rhythm section, but also chipping in with his superb backing vocals vocals. combined with keys player / multi-instrumentalist pat sansone, stirrat also formed the autumn defense another superb indie-folk duo that i highly recommend.

and just while i'm struggling to hold it all together with all of the musical goodness in the world, check out this most spectacular combination of loveliness: wilco feat. feist:

T - talking heads, the best of talking heads (2004) and the black keys, attack & release (2008)

i'm ashamed to admit that i found myself uninspired this morning. with one of the widest selections of artists available to me, perhaps i was spoilt for choice. in celebration of the recent big day out announcement, i flirted with the idea of tool, but i wasn't really in a tool kinda mood this morning. so to make up for missing david byrne on 'd', i went with the talking heads.

this is a great album, packed to the brim with hit after hit. if this album doesn't evoke childhood memories then you clearly had a shit childhood, bereft of good music. unlike some 'best ofs' it spans the band's entire back-catalogue from 1977 through to 1988, and does so chronologically which is simple, but i think pretty cool. in fact i don't know why more 'best ofs' don't do it.

the problem is, though, that listening to talking heads because you want a david byrne fix is a bit like listening to the chilis because you want a frusciante fix (see what i did there..) i wanted that esoteric, eclectic thing that david byrne exudes; i wanted a guy who makes buildings sing, and what i got was love being a building on fire. don't get me wrong, talking heads are great. i love them, i love what they do, they just.... didn't quite do it for me this morning.

technically, the black keys are in my ipod under 'b' not 't', but i was frustrated with the restrictions of the experiment, so i listened to them anyway. it was my way of embracing my big day out excitement. and it was so worth it. these guys are most often described as blues, but they are so much more than that as well. they traverse rock, folk and jazz, all with heavily bluesy guitars. they create a huge and detailed sound for two guys, some drums and a guitar. i can't even begin to express how excited i am to see them. very glad i broke the mould and chose to listen to them this morning, they reminded me of the pure, unadulterated joy that good compositions and a guitar can evoke.

can't get this out of my head today....

it's not like i had credibility to spare... but i can't help loving this today:

S - sufjan stevens, the avalanche (2006), and sex pistols, never mind the bollocks here's the sex pistols (1977)

'the avalanche' came about as the spin-off from an unusual concept, namely stevens' intent to write an album for each of the fifty american states. beginning with michigan, he then moved on to illinois, and several songs that didn't make the cut for the illinois album became 'the avalanche'. although it's an album of out-takes and b-sides - and received plenty of unfavourable reviews comparing it to its elder brother 'illinois' - i think it's an excellent album in its own right.

it's definitely quirky. if the enthnomusicologist thought paul mccartney's 'live and let die' sounded like a bad high school orchestra, this album takes that, and raises an epileptic conductor. on speed. but i love his peculiar, eclectic arrangements. i also like the sense that stevens doesn't take himself too seriously - from coining his backing vocalists 'the illinoisemaking band' to the cover promoting the album as being 'shamelessly compiled by sufjan stevens', you get the sense that he's having fun doing this.

i'm enjoying the revival of folk. this album, like most of his work, is notable for its use of the banjo, but also incorporates more wind instruments than a fourth form music class, wild percussion, strings, breathy flutes, glockenspeils, horns and i swear i can hear the occasional sitar hidden in there. it's a cacophony of sound. it puts the 'mental' in instrumental, but it all comes together in an offbeat, multifarious way. contrasting with, and laid over, the instrumental noise is a beautiful, delicate voice, as evidenced in the title track, and on the superb accoustic version of 'chicago'.

for all its unpredictable quirk, i couldn't listen to all 75 minutes of 'the avalanche', and decided to mix it up for my walk to work. so from one extreme to another, i headed over to the sex pistols.

'never mind the bollocks, here's the sex pistols' was one of the first albums i owned. characterised by crude key changes, a bassist who couldn't play bass, and aggressive, in-your-face riffs, this was punk at the pioneering end of the wedge. ranking forty-first on rolling stone's five hundred greatest albums of all time this album changed lives, and the course of musical history.

i have to say there was something deliciously ironic about walking in my pencil skirt, tailored blouse, and high heels to my government job, while listening to 'anarchy in the uk' and 'god save the queen', two songs filled with teen anger at the establishment. rolling stone describes it as an album "packed with disgust, nihilism and raw guitars". and so it is.

R - red hot chili peppers, blood sugar sex magik (1991) and live in hyde park (2004)

for those complaining of a lack of recognisable bands on here, this is for you. but actually it's more for me: i couldn't resist. last night after a few wines i got a little ahead of myself on the ol' listening front, and we ate cake and cranked 'blood sugar sex magik' which, if i had to pick one, is my favourite chilis album.

this morning i could have chosen diversity, but instead i chose more chilis. 'live in hyde park' is one of my favourites - mostly because it really makes the most of my favourite chili pepper (see 'j') and his striking voice. it's also fun cos it's a bit like a 'best of' but with different (better?) songs (tracks from 'bssm', 'californication', 'by the way' - 'one hot minute' and 'mother's milk' omitted due to various frusciante hang ups...) and a number of other little treats thrown in including drum medleys, trumpet solos, and covers, such as this adorable little ditty:


one of my absolute favourites of all time. i tried to find a live in hyde park version, but instead found one from some german rock festival. i would add quick postcript here: does this video maybe illustrate that john is a better singer than anthony? (woah, controversial ren.) either way, this is glorious.

Q - queens of the stone age, songs for the deaf (2002)

one thing i've discovered through this little experiment is how much pleasure i take in the basics; in solid, well-structured songs, in guitar-driven rock, in good old fashioned drumming. just yesterday we were discussing the often quite formulaic nature of metal (in relation to metallica's black album) and although i wouldn't call them 'metal' per se, it rings true with queens of the stone age too - catchy but repetitive riffs, and dependable, clever songs.  but the best songs are often the most straightforward, and in this album's case the basic song structure is complemented by interesting diversions (horns, strings) and if it ain't broke... anyway, at the end of the day, in my mind this is an album for the drums. queens have always been a bit of a rent-a-band with a constantly changing line up, but i think it's the addition of dave grohl on this album that makes it something special.

 

i've seen these guys live, twice as it happens, at big day out 2003 (along with jane's addiction, foo fighters, wilco, damn that was a good year... and for the record no, dave grohl did not make a guest appearance on drums, contrary to all earlier speculation). their first, scheduled, set suffered severe technical faults, fans ranted and yelled, but those smart enough to stick around were treated to a loose, improv, semi-accoustic show dominated by bass and powerful energetic drums. very clever, and not something you get to see every day. they then played a full set (complete with excellent sound) on a much smaller stage, giving fans the full queens of the stone age noise blast, in a more intimate setting. dream result.

 

everyone will know and recognise the two big singles from this album 'know one knows' and 'go with the flow'. excellent songs the both of them, but the album is good beyond its singles. designed as a concept album, it's designed to take the listener through a range of radio stations through southern california. as the album name implies, it's self-referential, and heavily critical of the music industry. last word goes to then-bassist nick oliveri: "a lot of stations play the same thing over and over. we don't get played on the radio, so i figure we should talk shit about them."

Charlie ASH 'Wake Up (You're Not Asleep Now)'

a couple of weeks ago i wrote that i couldn't find a version of charlie ash's "wake up". it is here:

P - paul mccartney, wingspan: hits and history (2001)

lying exhausted on the ethnomusicologist's couch in dunedin's lovely afternoon sun, i insisted that whichever cd he put on start with p. paul mccartney's 'wingspan' was the first one he picked up, and so our afternoon was made. the first couple of tracks were a cute little musical jaunt with that distinctive mccartney voice. said the ethnomusicologist: "how many hits did wings have? i spose it is paul mccartney, he is a bit of a legend." from here, though, we're probably bordering on the sacreligious, but it was a lazy afternoon and our brains weren't really working.

we came to 'live and let die'. after briefly wondering aloud who covered whom (answer: gunners covered wings) we got a little critical - in fact the enthnomusicologist let rip. some of my favourite quotable quotes:

"i'm a little bit worried about this arrangement - it's fucking terrible"
"it's like a circus orchestra, I can imagine a little monkey riding round on a motorbike"
"it sounds like a bad high school orchestra"

(so, uh, it turns out gunners did a much better job)

rather than prolong these circumstances we put on the smashing pumpkins, real loud, and played backyard cricket in the sun. then as the ethnomusicologist dropped me at the airport we listened to metallica's black album, real loud, and out-boganed the most bogany of bogans. it was bloody perfect in every way.

O - odessa, the prize (2007)

this weekend has been an exercise in nostalgia - a mini reunion tour of a band i spent many a fun year with, including one particularly wonderful summer. it was a beautiful carefree time and, as we observed this weekend, i wore a lot of flowy dresses then (less so the skinny jeans and biker boots).




flowy, happy ren. summer 2006/7

around the same time, odessa were touring their first album, 'oak park avenue', and i recall seeing their infectiously foot-tapping brand of funk live a few times in dunedin. a little later, they released 'the prize' and played a couple of shows with the band with whom i had spent the previous summer. 'the prize', as i recall, didn't receive critical acclaim, but i loved it then and i love it now. critical acclaim or otherwise, one thing these bands had in common was the ability to fill a dancefloor - with a high-energy, hardworking frontman, odessa groove, and they groove hard. funky tunes complemented by the soppier 'all your tears' and 'be patient with me' which are sweet at the best of times, but particularly at a time of happy reminscing.

odessa as we know them have sadly broken up, but their albums are still available for purchase, and they are excellent.

N - the naked and famous, this machine (2008) and no light (2008)

let me be clear from the outset. my mission here is not to bag new zealand artists, especially emerging new zealand bands. so here are the reasons i really like the naked and famous: i own and regularly listen to both e.ps, 'no light' and 'this machine'. they're both really good e.ps. i once almost put myself in the dogbox by going to see n&f live instead of a certain other band (see 'k'.) they're good musicians, who play a great live show. the two early e.ps demonstrate an exciting sound, dominated by throbbing baselines and interesting synth hooks. they're catchy, well-executed, interesting songs - vocally light, but musically interesting. i'm a fan, always have been.

here is why i will not be buying the naked and famous' new album 'passive me, aggresive you': i just don't think 'young blood' is a very good song. yea yea i know they just won the silver scroll... but to me the song is bland, it's whiney, it's completely self-indulgent, it's uninteresting, and it doesn't go anywhere. if we're completely honest, n&f have never had much vocal depth, but it's never mattered because it's been complemented by a rich and multi-faceted instrumental sound. i don't even get that from 'young blood'. it's timid. it's meek. it's boring and it's (yep, i'm going there...) a sell-out.

so, i can hate a single and not let that put me off a band, right? sure. i'm just disturbed at the lengths n&f are going to to publicly disassociate the rest of their album from 'young blood'. it's like an admission that 'yb' is a (bad) diversion from their otherwise excellent sound. it feels like an apology to their fans and a "please still buy our album cos we still sound like ourselves really". it probably does still sound like them. i'll probably love the album. but my question is this: why make the shit song that doesn't sound like you the first single off your album? especially when you then have to publicly justify it, by continually stating that the album will sound different?? perhaps i'm too cynical but it seems like a bit of a ploy to me. and it's obviously paid off because i'm apparently the only person in the whole world who hates this song (or at least is brave enough to admit it.)

M - the mint chicks, f**k the golden youth (2005)

wikipedia tells me that the mint chicks refer to their style of music as 'troublegum'. cute! they were a loud fast face full of noise this morning, and while it took me a while to get back into them, their first full-length album was actually a bloody good listen. for some reason i was convinced this morning that the very pop-end of pop-punk tune 'i don't want to grow old' was a cover. treacherous whench indeed, turns out it's an original. but i think it was used in an ad campaign which makes it seem altogether too familiar.

 

i deliberately chose their earliest album as the roughest and readiest, and it didn't disappoint. reminiscent of the music i grew up on - the deconstructed mildly agressive sounds of the ramones, the sex pistols, the buzzcocks, the dead kennedys: that glorious, harsh noise.  released on the flying nun label, it's little wonder this album made me nostalgic for loud hard nights on cheap crap beer in dunedin.

L - lucinda williams, self-titled (1988)

i only have three full albums on my ipod by artists beginning with l - lada gaga, ladyhawke, and lucinda williams. i listen to the other two... umm... fairly regularly... so in the interests of diversity i went with lucinda this morning. the opening track 'i just wanted to see you so bad' (see below, live in austin, texas) is the kind of upbeat country music i like. unfortunately i find the rest of this album falls into something of a whiney love-lost-heartbreak kind of mire. she's collaborated, toured with, and received critical acclaim from a number of heavy hitters in the folk / country world (incl bob dylan, steve earle, elvis costello, emmylou harris) and i'm not sure what it was about the album that irritated me this morning - although on reflection i realise i've never been able to listen to more than seven or eight tracks in a row, and that's why i didn't see her live when she toured here last year. i usually reserve this album for sunday afternoon listening; perhaps i need something a bit more energising for wednesday mornings.



meanwhile i've just read this review of metallica live in christchurch last night.... severely tempted to release my inner bogan again for 'm' tomorrow....

K - knives at noon, glitter guts e.p (2010)

i totally cheated this morning. the whole aim of this exercise is to listen to albums i sometimes overlook, but this morning i listened to a favourite. there's no way i can write anything objective about this band, and i can't stand bullshit groupie drivel or sycophantic fan reviews. suffice it to say that over the years i have been both
their harshest critic and their biggest fan, and i intend to remain so for a very long time. i am really proud of them for this piece of work, having seen the songs grow through the various stages of their development to their pioneering doom pop glory.

these are four supremely talented individuals who work really hard and who just write great songs. my favourite track on this album changes every time i listen to it. i can't wait for a full-length album, (and a tour to wellington please...) and i'm already looking forward to settling in for the long haul to watch some of my favourite people achieve a heap more success. meanwhile, you can and should buy their e.p here

an interlude on sunshine

i subscribe to the inimitable paul o'connell's 'poem of the day'. the below was poem of the day on may 12 this year. i saved it because it struck a chord with me. today reminded me of it, because sunshine is just so awesome. wellington is rocking the spring sunshine today, complete with equinoxial winds of course. 

  

 The Word

Down near the bottom

of the crossed-out list

of things you have to do today,

between "green thread"

and "broccoli" you find

that you have penciled "sunlight."

Resting on the page, the word

is as beautiful, it touches you

as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present

he had sent you from some place distant

as this morning -- to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,

among your duties, pleasure

is a thing,

that also needs accomplishing

Do you remember?

that time and light are kinds

of love, and love

is no less practical

than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?

Tomorrow you may be utterly

without a clue

but today you get a telegram,

from the heart in exile

proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,

the king and queen alive,

still speaking to their children,

- to any one among them

who can find the time,

to sit out in the sun and listen.

-- Tony Hoagland

J - john frusciante, to record only water for ten days (2001)

so, when i said i'm a sucker for a guy with a guitar, i should have said i am a sucker for a tortured soul with a guitar. recorded after a month-long stint in rehab, kind-of-reformed-but-still-messed-up sometime-heroin-addict frusciante uses this album, like all of his solo work, as an outward expression of some of the crazy stuff going on in his head. that said, this album is actually the most accessible of his stuff that i've heard. he draws on a range of new wave sounds including synth-pop and electronica, to complement his often dark, experimental style.

as seems to be becoming a theme with me, this album is remarkable in its entirety as a journey, and tracks don't necessarily jump out to me individually. i almost always listen to it as a whole, and the only track i have ever listened to in isolation is the final, 'moments have you', a song to which i am mildly attached for various reasons.

part of the beauty of this album is its flaws. there are moments of not-quite-in-tune guitars and vocal imperfections. but john frusciante really can sing. evidence of this is offered in his backing vocals on a number of chilis albums. his haunting, striking voice is employed to full effect on 'to record only water for ten days'.

as you'd expect, this album is driven by a range of guitar techniques, but is also notable for his experiementation with synthesisers, mostly to good effect. as a guitarist, this guy is mesmerising. i saw him with the red hot chili peppers in 2007, and could not tear my eyes away from him. ranked eighteenth in rolling stone's hundred greatest guitarists of all time (2003), he is incredibly deft and technically talented, yet at the same time an understated anti-hero. he commands attention precisely because of his awkwardness, his need not to be in the limelight. watch him here, nonchalantly playing one of the world's most instantly-recognised songs. i love this video. shit he is beautiful.

 i'd love to see him live with an accoustic. below he covers bowie's 'modern love'.