Foxes in Fiction - Ontario Gothic. Atmospheric indie harmonies. Pretty, moody music that worked well for me today as a cold front rolled in over downtown. Really nice, but I doubt I'll listen to this one again.
I have already talked about how awesome First Aid Kit is, but check out this video a friend sent around today. Such a perfect cover for them to tackle.
Lecrae - Anomaly. Christian rap. Which sounds horrible, but is actually well done. The beats and tone make it sound like any other rap album currently out. For that matter, if you listen to the lyrics, for the most part it sounds like any other rapper as well. I just heard him say "y'all must be high on that medical," so he's not above rapping about the weeds. But this is more of an empowerment anthem about how the rappers should stop bragging and leading kids down the wrong road and be something more. Not bad.
However, not bad isn't good enough to climb into my Keepers playlist.
John Mellencamp - Plain Spoken. Sister Susan first introduced me to the Cougar, way back in the day. Scarecrow was and is awesome. But this is not nearly so interesting and exciting. Tried it twice and have no recollection of anything.
Porter Robinson - Worlds. Indie electronics. Interesting tunes. Some with no lyrics, mainly just beats and samples, but others with simplistic choruses. Kind of like Passion Pit.
TV on the Radio - Seeds. I really like this album. I tried TVOTR a few albums ago (Dear Science) and recall being underwhelmed. Critics talk about these guys like they cured cancer, but parts of this album finally live up to some of that hype. It is complex music that rewards multiple listens, although Happy Idiot is a jam from the very first get-go.
"I'm gonna bang my head through the wall, until I feel like nothing at all." And Pee Wee Herman as the main character in a weird video. Cool all around. Snappy jams that belie the fact that this is kind of a sad song. Careful You is another great semi-love song about being unsure in love, with cool stereo effects that make the snares sound like they bounce between the speakers. The title track is also a cool one - love the chorus mantra: "rain comes down, like it always does, this time I've got seeds on ground." Cool album that you should check out.
My friend Joseph baited me on Monday to get me all riled up with an article arguing that Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters are fake and terrible. I hesitate to provide the link, because I think the whole thing was conceived as click-bait and I don't want to give it the benefit of the 4 clicks it might receive from here. Here is the old Foos video he mentions:
I couldn't help myself and I spent the next 20 minutes writing Joseph an e-mail back about how this article was full of crap and therefore he was also full of the brown. And then I spent my whole commute home stewing about it and coming up with even better arguments in my head. While I will not burden you with the entirety of that in-mind discussion, I thought it was interesting enough to add to the blog.
Summerlin's general argument is that he can't stand Dave Grohl because he makes rock and roll for the wrong reasons and is a fake rocker. The money quote:
"Music is pure and honest and reliable and otherworldly, and it’s jeopardized when people create it for all the wrong reasons. And what’s worse is if it’s shaped for an audience. Or a dollar. The musicians don’t create it because they are driven mad by the fire inside them that throws them towards the craft." He goes on to say "The Foo Fighters taste fake. They taste processed and soulless and repurposed. They try desperately to be something they’re not – real and raw and rock ‘n’ roll."
I have no problem with the portion of his article saying that he just doesn't like their music. Thankfully, we don't all like the same kind of music and that leads to a great buffet of music where everyone can select a choice they enjoy. I can dislike Lana Del Rey and Calvin Harris, but I get to go see the Avett Brothers and Pearl Jam instead. I have no issue with someone's taste being different and deciding the Foos musical style is not their bag. However, Summerlin argues that music is wrong (and "jeopardized!") if it is created for an audience or the performer will make money. That is super dumb. Every artist, even really aggressive noise art weirdos (looking at you, Tune-Yards) make their music “for an audience.” The
whole point is to make something that people will enjoy, or if not to enjoy, that will affect them in some way. You make music for it to be heard. Yes, people also
do it to make money, but to say that a band is "fake" because they try to make something people will enjoy is BS.
I totally get that Grohl can be annoyingly omnipresent, especially right now, with more than just this new Sonic Highways documentary and a movie a few years ago. This makes him fail the non-sell-out test championed by those who think they control the gates to rock and roll, but I don’t think you can
equate that to his music not being genuine. Bono is the biggest camera
hound around, and the lyrics to some of his recent songs (Put on your boots! Your sexy boots!) could easily be
laughed at if you wrote them out and made fun of them like this guy does, but I
don’t think that makes U2's music any less authentic or bad to enjoy. U2 rules.
There is a funny "sports" writer on Deadspin named Drew Magary who rips on ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook each week for writing obnoxious, pretentious crap about sports. One of the things that Magary most rips on is Easterbrook's concept of "Authentic Wins" and the great value of small conference athletes and undrafted players who end up being great at football and therefore more valuable than someone taken in the first round who ends up being an expensive bust. That is this Summerlin guy. He craps on Grohl for
being a big star and decides he is not authentic because he is making rock and roll that people will like instead of toiling away in his basement with a guitar made of a deck of cards and a jump rope, using the cries of an injured goat instead of boring human lyrics. I will absolutely agree that Grohl and the Foos got a career boost because of Nirvana. But I think that boost only lasts for a little while and then the music needs to stand on its own. Novoselic has done music since Nirvana and no one but his mom has any clue that it exists. Slash and Axl tried to make music after Guns n' Roses which got press because of who they were, but no one has been clamoring for more from those dudes now. Meanwhile, Jack White has gone on to kick ass after the White Stripes ended and Sting has 7 platinum albums stringing out over the years since the Police folded. Those guys are good. Likewise, the Foo Fighters have collected 15 Grammy Awards and have five platinum records and three gold records to their name. Some of that is the Nirvana boost, but I can't believe that they get twenty years of platinum-level goodwill from millions of "fake" fans just because of residual Nirvana love.
I used to rock this album before finals to get psyched up for crushing the Rule Against Perpetuities, and that one (Alone+Easy Target) was one of my favorites. Foo Fighters rant over. But this whole discussion with Joseph brought me to another realization. In trying to defend the fact that the Foo Fighters is authentic rock and roll, I determined that the world doesn't know what rock and roll is anymore.
rock and roll
noun
a type of popular dance music originating in the 1950s, characterized by a heavy beat and simple melodies. Rock and roll was an amalgam of black rhythm and blues and white country music, usually based on a twelve-bar structure and an instrumentation of guitar, bass, and drums.
Where to figure out how rock and roll is defined? How about Billboard, the national self-appointed arbiter of popularity in music?
The Billboard Rock chart top ten albums for 2013 was:
Mumford & Sons
Imagine Dragons
the Lumineers
Phillip Phillips
fun.
Kid Rock
The Great Gatsby soundtrack
Ed Sheeran
Of Monsters and
Men, and (wait for it...)
Lana Del Rey.
I would call two of those true rock and roll (Imagine Dragons and Kid Rock), with maybe .fun, Monsters and Men, and Lumineers coming in as well. But Lana Del Rey? Mumford? Those are not rock and roll. And those two who are "rock and roll," currently suck. Not a fan of Imagine Dragons.
How about rock station airplay instead of album sales? Billboard's top rock airplay songs for 2013 were:
Muse’s Madness
Imagine
Dragons’ Radioactive (for six freaking months)
Lorde’s Royals
Fitz & the
Tantrums' Out of My League (for one week, the underdog!)
Bastille’s Pompeii, and
Cage the Elephant’s Come a Little Closer.
Lorde and Bastille are absolutely not
rock and roll. Billboard's “Hot Rock Songs” from 2013 is only Lumineers’ Ho Hey,
Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive, and Lorde’s Royals. Royals is not a rock
and roll song. I can't succinctly quantify what makes a song "rock," but if an alien landed on earth right now and asked what was
rock and roll, no one would ever play Royals. Or probably Ho Hey, which
is a lovely little song, but is not very rockin’ at all. I'd play that alien Eruption/You've Really Got Me and BLOW THEIR MIND!
So maybe last year was an outlier and I should see what is currently listed as the top rock songs by Billboard. I listened to this week's top ten "Rock" songs according to Billboard, and, seriously, WTF.
Hozier - Take Me to Church. Yes. Solid blues rock.
Fall Out Boy - Centuries. Aren't these guys gone yet? So clever and heart on their sleeve. While this song does have a steady drum beat and I think I heard a guitar in there, it also has trap beats. Also bites Suzanne Vega's Tom's Diner. I think FOB does rock, but am not entirely sure this is it.
Vance Joy - Riptide. I don't think so. More folk pop than rock. Same vein as Lumineers and Head and the Heart.
Milky Chance - Stolen Dance. No. Drum machines do not rock and roll maketh. Not a bad song, but more like an electronic Jack Johnson pop nugget for Hawaiian stoners.
Coldplay - A Sky Full of Stars. Absolutely NOT rock and roll. This is EDM. All synths and tambourine with a build up and drop to bass bass bass? I enjoy Coldplay and I like this song, but zero rock and roll here.
KONGOS - Come With me Now. Yeah, I'll call this rock. The accordion is a weird addition, but sounds right to me.
Imagine Dragons - I Bet My Life. Maybe. I guess so, but this has more of a Mumford vibe than this band's other music. More like a hand-clapping hootenanny than rock. I don't know what I have against these guys, but I just don't like them at all.
Walk the Moon - Shut up and Dance. I actually dig this song, but have a hard time categorizing this as rock and roll. Has way more in common with dance pop from the 80's than a guitar and drums rock. Reminds me of old Fall Out Boy, which I guess was considered rock (emo), but I can't go there. The big solo is on a keyboard. Come on, man.
Paramore - Ain't It Fun. I'll go with R&R for this. The drums go a little disco during the chorus, but otherwise the guitar and drums take center stage.
Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat. Dude. Lorde is not rock and roll. What is wrong with you, Billboard?
(as an aside, the 13th top rock song is by a band called MisterWives, and it is straight disco. If you like disco, you should go listen to that song.)
I think we can all agree that Billboard has no clue. How
about the genius group-think at Wikipedia? Theirlist of rock albums(purportedly critically acclaimed rock albums from at least two
"sources") starts with AC/DC's Back in Black, which makes great
sense. But then it includes Johnny Cash, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin,
Lauren Hill, Tina Turner, and The Wailer's Catch a Fire. What is wrong
with you people? Lauren Hill is not rock and roll. Her album kicks
ass and is really fantastic, but there is zero rock and roll going on there.
The collective crowd mind is an idiot. What about the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame? They ought to know what rock and roll is all about. Let's check in with them. This year's class of
potential inductees includes Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joan Jett. Rock and
freaking roll, baby. Oh, but wait, it also includes N.W.A. and Chic.
Ummm, not at all rock and roll. I mean, you can argue that Sting's
solo music is rock, albeit soft rock long on caresses and tantric sex methods, but there
is no conceivable way that you could call N.W.A. rock. Is Mozart in the
Hall? No? Weird. What about Miles Davis? Oh, yeah, he's
in there, recognized as the "key figures in the history of jazz." Michael
Jackson, the King of Pop? Yep. Johnny Cash? Yessir.
Madonna is in. Public Enemy, Run D.M.C., Beastie Boys, and
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Jimmy Cliff's reggae is in.
What the hell? Don't get me wrong, all of those acts had a great
effect onmusic and
should be in a music hall of fame, but it makes zero sense for
Madonna to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Where does that put us? I think we end up going back to the laughable
wisdom of the Supreme Court when talking about pornography. You know it
when you see it. Or hear it in this case. I think Foo Fighters, Black Keys, Pearl Jam, Kings of
Leon, Springsteen, U2, and a few others are the huge rock
and roll acts that are still out there carrying the torch. I'm sure
Summerlin thinks they are all phonies who tarnish the esteemed name of rock and
roll by making good music that people actually enjoy.
If you drop down below those mega-star bands, rock is also alive and well in the lower-level bands out there making new music
right now. I'm sure these guys rate highly on the Summerlin Authentic Rock scale because they toil away in anonymity. Two of my favorites from this year's ACL line-up - Spanish
Gold and Benjamin Booker - are making awesome, new rock and roll that (God
forbid!) sounds great and is popular with an audience. Same with
Gaslight Anthem and the Hold Steady and Weezer and Queens of the Stone Age and a hundred other bands that
I've never even heard of. But somewhere, someone is a fan and it makes them want to rock out. Or, as Joseph said, a rock song you love should always make you "feel like you've got to go nuts." Right on.
The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers. I like this album. Fun pop mixed with interesting alternative and indie bits makes for a less obscure/more accessible Arcade Fire kind of sound. I saw the New Pornographers years ago at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Waterloo Park and thought they were pretty cool. Since then, I have come to love Neko Case and she definitely shines on this album. Her voice is really a great thing.
This tune, Champions of Red Wine, is the most listened to song on the album, and it is just odd enough (those skipping choral sounds and skittering waterfall synth) to escape a straightforward pop/rock chug and be something better. Interpol - El Pintor. I tried these guys a few times during the run up to ACL, but they just don't click for me. Reminds me of The National, where several people I know (who have good musical taste) dig them, but they just sound mopey and uninteresting to me. Johnny Winter - Essential Johnny Winter. This dude just died, and Rolling Stone wrote him up as a top-notch, greatest-guitarist-of-all-time conversation type talent. As an aside, Winter was also apparently an albino, which is a weird but awesome fact for some like me who is pigmentally challenged. And from Beaumont, which has so rarely produced anything of value. This music reminds me of the Allman Brothers, with a little ZZ Top, and a little old roadhouse blues. Winter is definitely skilled on the guitar, and can haul ass with major intensity. The start of this one sounds just like some Stevie Ray Vaughan (and his bassist looks like Stephen King in need of a beard):
Knowing that he was doing this stuff in the 60's makes it even more impressive to me, because hearing this for the first time makes it sound derivative of the blues guitarists who have so obviously cribbed his style over the decades. Cool look back into rock and roll history here. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There. The torchy feel of the Lana Del Rey songs. Timid voice over slinky tunes and lyrics about love. Not my cup of tea, but pretty. Body Count - Body Count. I remember buying this album when in came out back in high school and thinking I was a HUGE rebel. Cop Killer! Yeah! And then I listened to it a few times and took it back to Waterloo (do they still offer full money back on returns within 10 days? I would bet not in this day of mp3s, but that was awesome back then). It popped back into my head the other day and I listened again - kind of funny (well, darkly funny, the way Django Unchained might be funny) but really not all that good as far as the music goes. AND Cop Killer isn't actually on the album available on Spotify. I wonder if they just erased the memory of that song ever since Ice T became a TV cop? Nope, it is still out there:
Still makes me feel like a rebel. Duck Sauce - Quack. Electronic disco dance. And silly. Loads of dumb duck and quacking references, little boing sounds, and random snippets of talk on here in between the tail-feather-wagging beats. Fun music, but just not really something I want to hear while chilling at my desk. Here is the one "hit" I know of for them, Barbara Streisand:
Like I said, fun music, silly music, but not something I am going to seek out to jam all the time.
I love me some Foos. I still love Nirvana, but the Foo Fighters are, in their own right, a really great rock and roll band. Their first three albums are all really great, and when I saw them play ACL a few years ago the show was extremely fun (except for a 20 minute drum solo in the middle that made me want to punch someone). Anyway, they have put out their eighth album, Sonic Highways, that goes along with an HBO documentary about travelling the country to get regional flavoring into their songs. Each song was to be recorded in a different music-loving city (Chicago, D.C., Nashville, Austin, L.A., New Orleans, Seattle, and NY), and the Foos were highly excited that they would get a cool influence for each song that flavored the tune with a regional musical taste.
I call B.S. That song in the background of that trailer is the "Chicago" song. Huh? And the preview makes it sound like there was a hip hop influence on the album. Not to my ears. On the one hand, I like these songs - the disc is good. But, it sounds like any other Foo Fighters album I have ever heard. The "Austin" song, What Did I Do?/God as my Witness, purportedly guest starring Gary Clark Jr., sounds like the Foo Fighters without Gary Clark Jr. Maybe the barroom piano is the Austin touch? You definitely don't hear a non-Foo-style guitar on the track. You can maybe hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on the "New Orleans" song, but they just play backing horns to the normal guitar sounds that the Foo Fighters use on every album.
Maybe this is just some big META commentary about the homogenization of America - that you can just find the exact same stuff in any part of the country. The Foo Fighters are universal, man. They could have done something much more extreme, truly reflecting the sound of each city, and it would have been awesome. Do a song in the zydeco style of New Orleans. Go full county for Nashville. Make a Laurel Canyon harmony in L.A. Get bluesy in Chicago. Go hip hop in New York. Let Gary Clark Jr. or Willie Nelson be heard and make a cool mashup of the Foos with real Austin. But as the album stands right now, you would never know that I Am a River is based on New York. Or at least I wouldn't - maybe you are a connoisseur of regional New York sounds. Good album, but a missed chance to really do what they claimed they were going to do. I also have to beef with the cover art. I think the concept is super cool - the cover is separated into nine squares, with eight of them depicting iconic portions of the eight cities represented on the album. Austin's portion (lower left) has the Frost Bank tower, the Pennybacker bridge, and some grass (?) separated by low concrete walls (?): Did Frost Bank bankroll this album or something? How is a ten year old building that looks like a nose clipper the most iconic thing they could come up with in Austin? I honestly have little problem with that building by now - it actually is pretty cool - but the best thing to exemplify Austin? How about the pink granite capitol building? Zilker Park? (which may be what they are trying to do with the green spaces?) Memorial Stadium? The UT Tower? Hell, why not Sixth Street with some inaccurate signage to include Stubb's, Continental Club, Threadgill's, Antone's, etc? A huge BBQ pit? I feel like someone should answer for this.
I got started on a post adding this to another Quick Hits entry, and realized that it is just too damn good to be tucked away with my thoughts on some boring rapper or Primus weirdout.
Go listen to this album right now. I know the title of the album is weird. I know that some of you may not love old school country. But you have to appreciate the pinpoint perfect homage this guy pays to the Waylon Jennings and friends who came before him. Turtles All the Way Down:
But if you listen to the lyrics, he has updated the old stories to modern times. Would Waylon have name checked Seattle? Would Willie have sung about reptile aliens cutting you open? Well, maybe he would have. Drugs do scary things to the brain. And during the breakdown later in this song, Simpson adds a little psychedelic reverb in there to see if you are still paying attention. But the sounds in this tune easily could have been a classic country nugget from 1968.
And then, there's this:
The first time I listened through the album, I thought this one sounded vaguely familiar. The second time I listened through, I sat there staring out my office window, trying to recall where I knew that song from. OH YEAH, flashback to When in Rome and 1988 and the pop charts of my childhood. And yet this reinterpretation of the song is so bad ass. Take a 80's pop dance classic confessional and set it over a country slow burn - genius.
Spend some time running through this one today and you'll thank me later.
I'm going to need to come up with a snappier name for these, I think, since they have evolved into a constant stream of writing. I shall consult the great Band Name Generator oracle and see what is handed down from on high.
The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams. This is another band that was included in the American Championship Belt article that I needed to go check out. It is a very American rock sound, kind of a gentler Gaslight Anthem with some Ryan Adams, Husker Du/Bob Mould, and Replacements influences. I smell some Phish in here sometimes as well. Yes! I just went and checked the Wikipedia page, and the lead singer (Craig Finn) explains that Husker Du and Bob Mould were influences! My ears work! The first song on this album (I Hope this Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You) really sounds like Bob Mould. Here is the second song from the album:
My first run through the album was unimpressive, but I just fired it up again and it is growing on me. I think this is music meant to be played louder - the tunes are good, but the lyrics are full and ought to be heard and dissected. Springsteen-esque imagery of people in here.
Gary Clark Jr. - Gary Clark Jr. Live. Holy crap, this is hot fire. I dug his EP and album, but he cranks it up and just plain makes kick as music right here. Blues guitar attack mode, with some Stevie Ray and some BB and a little bit of funky funk thrown in for good measure. He came to ACL last year and my buddy wanted to go watch some lame band so we split up and I went to get close to GCJr., and it was freaking so great. I was super bummed that Jason hadn't gotten to witness it with me. But the cover art for this album looks like it was taken that morning.
If you squint your eyes and have a good imagination, you can see me right there next to that other guy, just to the right of that guy with the thing.
King Tuff - Black Moon Spell. Psych guitar rock. I dig it. Serious seventies sound - makes me think of the music on the Juno soundtrack where weird homemade tunes were mixed in with classic 70's sounds. Kind of punky, old David Bowie, freakout rock with loads of distortion.
Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams. How in the world can this guy not already have an album named after himself? he's put out like 85 albums in the past ten years, so it seems amazing that he only just now thought to do an eponymous one. Whatever. This one is another good one. I like Ryan Adams (Gold was excellent, and Easy Tiger was pretty good too) but I feel Ryan Adams fatigue whenever I think about his music. There is just too much of it out there to deal with. But if you just take this one on its own, it is good.
Jeezy - Seen it All: The Autobiography. What is it with rappers and their extended album titles? Jeezy (used to be Young Jeezy, but I guess he grew up) has five solo albums since he became popular, and three of those five album titles involve a colon. I also have to note that He apparently skipped the second course in his "Thug Motivation" coursework, seeing as he released "Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101" in 2005, then "TM: 103 Hustlerz Ambition" in 2011, with no mention of how he got the course credits to just skip right over the 102 level class.
Maybe the lack of that class in Thug Motivation theory is why I am unimpressed with this new album, but pretty uninteresting stuff. Seen It All is the single, which likely gains significant popularity by having Jay Z on the track, but Jay Z isn't going to save this song from being boring. More likely, the opposite. Try it out for yourself:
Yawn. You two are super rich and you used to sell drugs and still know more than anyone else who has ever sold drugs. Good work.
I have had a good amount of work and other crappy non-fun activity this week, so I have been remiss in listening to new music and thinking my thoughts about it. In fact, horror of horrors, I spent about 3 hours on Monday afternoon without any music on at my desk. When I'm so stressed and/or busy that I don't notice silence, something is very wrong.
Anyway, to make up for that, today we rock.
First, I present to you the band with the worst dang name in all of music-dom. Maybe you know of a worse band name, if so, please present it to me. But my friend Chad took me to go see Diarrhea Planet at the Longbranch Saloon two or three years ago during SXSW, and they freaking rocked. Their new(ish) album is called I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams, and it is actually really good. In a live show, they had about 38 guitarists jammed into the smallest stage on the planet and they just absolutely destroyed people for about 45 minutes. So, watch this and get psyched for your weekend by washing yourself in the weirdness of anime and rock and roll:
Second, I bring you the badass power of Red Fang singing Wires. I think my friend Joseph sent me this video a
while back, and I have since showed it to my son and we both thoroughly enjoyed
the ridiculousness awesomeness of the final few minutes. Well, he was a little confused why they were
breaking things and spilling milk, but trust me, it is an excellent good time. If you need to
hurry, go to about 3:50 in the video for the huge metal crush in the music and
to see them go HAM on some stuff.
Awesome video, and I really dig the song too. The album this song came off of is still in
pretty heavy rotation for me (Murder the Mountains), it is more heavy rock
goodness.
Make it a rock and roll Friday and have a good weekend.
Wait, one more bonus because I think this will also bring you great happiness this Friday. This show looks like Amy's version of hell and a darn fun time for me:
