Geek Diatribe

As always, thanks for visiting “Raging Against the Dying Light,” all dozen of you. ( : I have a lot of loose threads in this one, my main articles for November and December are in formation and so now’s the time to spew out what I refer to as a “Geek Diatribe” to touch on all the incomplete facets of interest I write about on this site. This time it’s all light too, no politics or religion!

First off, the 2009 Baseball season is over. I find it a very depressing of an end at that…I’m not a vehement Yankee hater, I have extreme love for the history of the team and readily admit the talents and watchability of most of the current Yank roster, but I always have a bit of anger over the unrestrained budget the team has to work with and the idea that they can “buy’ the championship…and the fact that A-Rod alone earns a higher salary than several combined teams. So, there’s always the hope that they will be shutdown and it will be proven that money can’t suppress the drive to overcome that thrives in the underdog teams; the Phillies would have been a much more satisfying win. But the whole thing got me thinking about the structure of the current season; it’s November, and Baseball is just now wrapping up. It’s cold, grey over much of the country and well on the way to winter. Now, I never thought I’d specify that the season should be shorter since Baseball is really the only sport for me, but the season should be shorter! It’s a spring and summer game, and the now extended season length drags it into competing too heavily with football broadcasts and ticket sales, and the game just doesn’t seem appropriate this time of year for whatever reasons. I say, start it in early spring as is done now, start the post-season in September and have the World Series the first week of October. Anyway, as many people thrive for the play-off season when things heat up, as fun as that can be I prefer two other key baseball phases—the opening game through the first two weeks of the season and the events of and games leading up to July’s all-star game and home-run derby. A lot of this ties in with many of the teams still having a shot, but just as much at factor is the time of the year and the way it perfectly fits with the game. I imagine football fanatics feel the same way about fall and February.

Item two on the geek docket is the best music of the 2000s. I’ve pretty much got the 50 picked out for albums and almost for songs, I just have to properly rank them which requires listening to them and making the call on order. It’s a compulsive geek trait for any type of list like this, but you can’t just arbitrarily throw them together. There’s a distinctive reason why item A is at 17 and item B is at 16…or at least there should be. As I was working on my list I noticed that “Paste” magazine already has their “50 albums of the 2000s” on their site. I really like “Paste” and they’ve turned me on to a lot of good music over the years, but their list was off (in my mind) on several accounts—for one thing, it’s early November, there’s still 2 months of music yet to be released. Related to that, their “Best of ‘09” list isn’t up yet—it seems fairly backward to sum up a decade before the last year of the decade. As to the selections, there’s the obvious nerd-centric private idols that the publication adores and will rank highly and mention continuously even if no one else does as highly—everyone does this, my lists are guilty of it as well. “Paste” is very noticeable for adoring a core 5 bands that can never do wrong, as is Rolling Stone and AMG and it’s interesting because these core 5 never overlap in the same regard between these publications. That’s a very signifying factor that when it comes to art and pop criticism, there is no great science. There may be general critical consensus that something new and groundbreaking is “excellent” but it often differs from group to group and certain styles and personalities latch on to certain sounds. I won’t ruin the article for you, but the #1 album of the decade for “Paste” sums up their stance and personality as a publication, and that’s not a bad thing. I’m pretty sure my “1 choice does the same thing for me, as will RS and AMG’s. Another observation on “Pastes” selections is that they was heavily eschewed towards music made by bands established in the ‘00s, with a few ‘90s bands new work thrown in but very little attention paid to career artists releasing very notable work in the decade. No mention of critically acclaimed and massively entertaining work by Dylan, Young, Springsteen, U2, etc. Jazz, Hip Hop and Blues were almost completely overlooked as well, and although Indie is a major focus for “Paste,” they’re an eclectic publication so I expected more variety. The 2000s, looking at them as a whole, may very well have produced the bulk of music that will stay with me the longest. I was a junior in High school at the beginning of the decade and as it draws to a close I’m a first year grad student working on a Masters. In between there was college, work, marriage. I’ve moved several times and grown a lot, and the music I’ve heard that’s stuck with me from each phase of this decade is formative and memorable. Granted, most of my all time favorite albums were made long before this time, but there’s something to be said for what was new and vibrant amidst the average, waiting just to be found.

On to the next one; I always cap up the year’s best in graphic art and prose– comics and graphic novels—with a top ten list at the end of each year as well. This year has been phenomenal with trend breaking literate work in Graphic Novels- – “Asterios Polyp” by David Mazuchelli, The illustrated book of Genesis by R. Crumb, pretty much the entire Vertigo monthly catalogue, creator owned and controlled titles by Jeff Smith and Terry Moore (“RASL” and “Echo,” respectively) and notable work from indie publishing houses IDW (“Locke and Keye“), Boom Studios (“The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh“), etc. As far as mainstream work, generally meaning the “big two” (Marvel and DC), it’s become clear that despite cornering 65 percent of the market and being host to millions of loyal fans who refuse to read books published by anyone else, Marvel is far inferior to almost every other publishing company, especially DC. It just hasn’t been Marvel’s year. They sell out to Disney for a big paycheck. They opt for raising the majority of their titles to a higher price point– an entire dollar more, making most of their mainstream titles 3.99, a price DC reserves for special events and “important” stories. Unlike Marvel, when DC charges 3.99 they provide ten additional pages of story as well as better paper and ink quality. Marvel heads (here’s looking at you, Joe Quesada—by the way, stay retired from penciling, your art is atrocious) originally stated that this was the result of a tighter economy and to combat mounting paper costs but later Quesada admitted in an interview that it was really because “this is a business” and they wanted to see how much profit they could make if the cost of the titles continued to go up and sales didn’t dip accordingly. To make matters worse for Marvel, their output hasn’t been good enough to justify such tactics anyway. The only really smart move they’ve done recently is re-tool “Amazing Spider Man” last year, shedding the excess titles, hiring a great staff of rotating writers and artists for it, releasing it thrice monthly and generally making it the best popcorn, fun-for-everyone-over-13 book as possible. They have even (thus far) kept it price-pointed at 2.99 and the stories from it all year have been great escapist fun. Other than that, they’ve consistently dropped the ball. Big tie-in events and mini-series? DC’s “Blackest Night” is far better than Marvel’s “The List” or whatever they’re calling it now (since it’s an ever continuing fall-out tale from last summers “Secret Invasion” which was far inferior to DC’s “Final Crisis” at that). Thor? An Eisner-winning surprisingly smart book by Stracinzski is now moving on without Stracinzki and staying at 3.99 (without the extra ten pages). Then there’s the it-just-won’t-die slew of “Marvel Zombies” mini’s that get worse with each sequel. Or dumb ideas like “Marvel Apes” or “X-Babies.” There’s the never-reveal-the-ending-to-the-mystery compost-heap “Hulk,” which gets ever more ridiculous and stopped being fun half a year ago. They were building up steam with “Uncanny X Men” each issue after 500 then lost it having each issue be part of an asinine tie in to an asinine concept series. The only other worthwhile Marvel title right now is “Fantastic 4,” while DC has been on a run with their mainstream work as well. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank are producing the best Superman mini in years, “Secret Origin,” and their entire run on “Action Comics” was terrific last year. Since Batman’s death, every tie-in Bat title has been excellent., notably, “Batman and Robin,” with Grant Morrison and initially Frank Quietely but “Detective Comics” as well if only for J.H. Williams III’ impressionistic and unconventional art. “Green Lantern” and every “Blackest Night” tie in has been great sci-fi and “Wednesday Comics” was a truly original and successful idea. Of course, “JSA” has fallen off and “JLA” seems to never work, but the point is that much of their mainstream work is great and most of it is approachable and more affordable than their competitions. Most importantly, where DC has it’s “Vertigo” imprint which puts out a lot of great, intelligent adult-geared work and DC utilizes that imprint heavily, Marvel’s “Icon” imprint which allows creator funded work to be released doesn’t get nearly enough emphasis. “Criminal” by Brubaker and Phillips is back again with another miniseries, and it’s great. “Kick Ass,” is always fun whenever Mark Millar bothers to get it out (he’s late on everything lately), but what else does Icon have? And why no funding from Marvel? Why not more emphasis?

Okay, last up (and briefly) is “The Wire.” Harvard recently announced a college course that will utilize “The Wire” in its curriculum. If any show has ever been worthy of this, it’s this one. The smartest, most important and best produced television show of all time. Five seasons, so check them all out. That’s all for now.

Prelude to the Best of the ’00s…Bands that Defined the Decade

The end of the year is a few months away but I always start ordering my top 10 albums, movies and the like about this time each year. I try to place everything in the spot it stands as of now and wait to see what upsets the list will have based on end of the year releases.

This year while starting on that, I’ve decided to also do a top 50 albums and top 50 singles for the entire decade of the 2000s, seeing as it’s over come January. In doing so I’ve noticed a lot of older, established artists from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s made seminal, career-worthy work over the past ten years across all genres and many of those will factor into the list. There are also plenty of great albums that popped up unexpectedly from bands who had never before and haven’t since managed to recreate the magic.

But thinking about artists who’ve come to the forefront during the 2000s, releasing all of their work in the new millennium or just the bulk of it, a few come to mind that simply define the decade in terms of consistently excellent album, songs and live performances.

Wilco- Wilco released three very entertaining alt-country albums in the ‘90s and then got extensively creative and genre abandoning in the 2000s. The best example of the bands melding of experimental and approachably warm is their decade defining “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” in 2002. From there they got weirder – “A Ghost is Born,” then scaled way down with “Sky Blue Sky” and followed that with this year’s “Wilco: (the album) the most straightforward folksy album they’ve released this decade.

Drive by Truckers-  Although DBT released a few independent, small press albums in the late ‘90s, they really didn’t emerge notably until 2001’s “Southern Rock Opera.” Released on Universal (and then dropped by Universal and left labeless until New West signed the band), SRO was a critically acclaimed yet initially low selling work but a masterpiece nonetheless.  They haven’t released a bad album since – ““Decoration Day,” The Dirty South,”  “A Blessing and a Curse” and “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark”  are all tremendous records and DBT was one of the best live shows you could catch this decade, which it was usually possible to do up close in a relatively small venue. If you’ve never been able to make a show, “Live at the 40 Watt Club” and “Live from Austin TX” are two wonderful rock concert DVDs you can catch.

Ryan Adams- Adams was an alt-country pioneer with Whiskeytown in the ‘90s. His first solo record, “Heartbreaker” from 2000 remains his best work. He’s a consummate songwriter, with the potential to be one of the greatest but despite his surplus of recordings his personal quirks and indulgences dampen that potential sometimes. But, with the exception of “29,” any of Adam’s 10 albums is a great listen.

Neko Case – From 2000s “Furnace Room Lullaby” to 2009s “Middle Cyclone,” Neko has put on record the decades best voice. A perfect singer capable of traditional country, blues, power-pop or gothic, none of her work is to be missed. The record on which her best lyrics and her best singing match up is “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” from 2006, but arguably her best single song is from “Deep Red Bells” from 2002’s “Blacklisted.”

Lupe Fiasco – So far we only have two official Lupe albums, 2006s “Food and Liquor” and 2007s “The Cool,” but one more is due by the end of the year. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Lupe’s not released a weak track yet, or a weak verse for that matter. He touches on every imaginable social issue in his songs and could very well be the best and brightest political commentator rap has had since Chuck D–and not nearly as suspect as some of D’s propositions. Lupe’s ethical intelligence is never suspect in his songs.

The Hold Steady – With 4 studio albums and 1 live album over the past 5 years and tremendous live shows to boot, The Hold Steady are the best bar band in America. The lyrics are consumed with parties, scripture, drugs, God, sex, death, Mass, angels, love, chill out tents and interesting characters. Like a punk Rock-Springsteen-Tom Waits milkshake, The Hold Steady get better every year.

Death Cab for Cutie – Sure, they’re a bit pretentious and a lot of those emo kids dug them a bit too much for comfort. Yet they’ve captured a lot of this entire decade in their sound. The use of the title track of “Transatlanticism” in Six Feet Under with the characters stonily singing along was a generational signifier. Every album they’ve released in the 2000s has been good, but their last three have been  classic – “Transatlanticism,” “Plans” and “Narrow Stairs.” Even on years without an album they’ve stayed present- this year with a great EP and nice singles.

Ghostface Killah – Okay, in the context of Wu Tang Clan, Ghost is very much a 90s rapper. But aside from his solo debut “Iron Man” in 1996, every solo albums he’s released has been in the 2000s, starting with “Supreme Clientele” in 2000. He’s been pumping out an album a year almost, and you won’t get any Lupe worthy socially conscious moments on any of it. Check all that at the door–there’s nothing morally redeeming in the lyrics, there’s just insanely killer flow. Ghost constructs rhymes that are so hilarious, sad, exciting, repulsive, and sensory observing that it’s a little miraculous. He can make a good agreeable point from time to time, but mostly you’re going to get urban poetry steeped in vivid detail– crime narratives more cinematic than any movie as well as jokes, double entendres and metaphors with a lot of tongue in cheek.

Sufjan Stevens – Stevens may be the decade’s best songwriter if only people could fully understand him without looking up the lyrics. That’s a turn off for many, but for the rest of us his hushed, frail and almost whisper like melodies backed by a slew of sounds uncommon in pop music (he’s a wildly talented multi-instrumentalist) are engaging, addicting and reveal just a bit more each time you hear them. Then there’s his ambitious project to make a concept album depicting the history and culture of every American State. “Greetings From Michigan” is his best overall work, followed by the close second “(Come on Feel the) Illinoise.” The “Illinois” track “Casimir Pulaski Day” may be the most heartbreaking yet beautiful song of the decade with lyrics about God, love and teenage loss by death and disease.

Kanye West- Hate him love him, or simply be sick of him due to his latest string of rude shenanigans, but some of the 2000s best hit singles were from ‘Ye. Three Grammy winning albums that actually deserved a grammy and one flop of an album that can’t be criticized in terms of ambition at least. Here’s hoping he takes a break and comes back down to earth a bit.
So, that’s the big ones. Some of the albums by these folks will rank high on the top 50 list when I post it toward the end of the year. Others by artists who managed just one great album, and albums by already established artists will all intermix with them.

2009’s Music So Far + DMB’s “GrooGrux King…”

It’s not yet August and I’ve already begun thinking about some of what will make my year end best of 2009 music list. The reason? There has been a surprisingly large amount of great new music this year already. If there is as much great material in the last half of the year it’s going to be hard to narrow and rank ten singles and ten albums. As for films, there’s plenty of room on my list for those since the greats usually hold out until the year’s almost up. But music? I’ve raved over Patterson Hoods “Murdering Oscar and Other Love Songs” as well as the new albums by Phoenix, Passion Pit and Morrissey.  Earlier in the year, two of my all-time favorite bands released albums that were okay for me then but have steadily grown better and better the more I hear them – U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Working on a Dream.” Two of my favorite ‘00 bands have released live album DVD combos– The Hold Steady and The Drive By Truckers. Green Day put out another great rock opera album. Neko Case released her second flawless album in a row. Steve Earle released a hauntingly good Townes Van Zandt covers record and his son Justin Townes Earl released a great county music album himself. The lead singer of My Morning Jacket, Yim Yames, took time from recording his first solo album to release a George Harrison covers album that is sheer beauty (not to mention the first ever George Harrison single disc career overview, “Let it Roll,” came out this year as well). Mos Def made his return to pure, low-key but high-talent hip hop with “The Ecstatic.” Jay Z and Lupe Fiasco released great hip hop singles to tease their up-coming fall and winter albums. I discovered the indie band “Grizzly Bear” through a performance they gave on David Letterman and found their pop-collage art rock album “Veckameist” to echo Steely Dan and Paul McCartney just enough to bring the listener in through familiarity to discover the most creative and original pop album in years. I’m still digging those Passion Pit and Phoenix albums as well.

You like James Brown? No one really makes jam-heavy, funked out R&B anymore, right? Wrong. “Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears” left Nashville and went national with their tight, funk rhythms’ and hardcore R&B in “Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is.”  On tour with my favorite current rock band The Gaslight Anthem is British folk rock and singer-songwriter Frank Turner, formerly of the punk band The Milkmen now his own solo act trying to prove modern male singer-songwriter acoustic music doesn’t have to suck. Death Cab for Cutie released “The Open Door”  EP with 4 new songs as good as anything that was on last years “Narrow Stairs.” Wilco, who have never make a bad album, made their most accessible and enjoyable album in ten years with “Wilco (The Album).” A columnist for Paste magazine said not voting for a Wilco album in a top ten list in the 00’s is like passing on a Stones or Beatles album in the late ‘60 and early ‘70s and she may be right.

Then, biggest of all for me so far this year has to be “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King” by the Dave Matthews Band. Now, I’m not a DMB fanatic. I don’t swap bootlegs and jam to 11 minute alternate takes of “Rapunzel” or anything. In fact, although I’ve always recognized them as good I’ve sometimes thought maybe they were a bit over-rated as to how hardcore of a following they seem to have, like Phish or something. I take it back. I loved “Broken Stuff” back in 2001 because the lyrics and songwriting were so fantastic and the religious observations are always a sell for me. I love some of their live albums for the great multi-layered band Matthews has to show off. But I love every thing about “GrooGrux.” Every song. From the sad sax notes that lead in on the intro (sad in that great DMB sax player LeRoi Moore died in an ATV accident before this album came out) to the sax outro at the end of the very last song.  “Shake Me Like a Monkey” is the best pure, energetic rock song DMB has ever released. “Funny the Way it Is,” and “Dive In” (among others) offer biting, relevant social commentary. The religious observations are back and poignant in “Lying in the Hands of God,” and “Time Bomb.” “Alligator Pie” is pure funk and fun. Every single song is good. I actually had a stack of coupons (I know, I’m cheap) while I was on vacation at a record store and stocked up on a few physical CDs (instead of free or discount downloads per usual) and I’m glad this was one of those because I love the artwork and the booklet/liner notes. I stared at the art and listened to the entire thing through at least twice and it’s been years since I’ve done that with any album. Get this album. There’s not a single wasted moment on it. It’s currently my front runner, but who knows what can happen musically in 5 months.

That’s all for now.

Summer Plugs

On a more trivial note, I suppose, I have to plug a few things. I haven’t posted on new albums and things in awhile, so I’ll take a few lines to spread the word on some notable releases.

First of all, if you’re a Drive By Truckers fan (and if you aren’t you should be), it’s a pretty good time to be one. Patterson Hood, co-founder and one of the lead singers/guitarists for DBT released his second solo album two weeks ago, “Murdering Oscar (and other love songs)” and CNN is already calling it the best record of the year so far. It’s a great album, backed by a full band on most tracks (unlike the at home solo recordings of Hood’s last non DBT outing). All are great sounding fully formed songs that are lyrical character studies of a wide range of humanity. Great music with good lyrics. Pick this one up the old-fashioned way (you know, at a record store), because the packaging is nice and the liner notes are very insightful. The record should hold you off until July’s CD/DVD combo release of DBT’s “Austin City Limits” live show and the upcoming fall release of a DBT B-sides, rarities and outtakes compilation

Also noteworthy recent music albums are the great power pop rock songs from French rockers Phoenix’ third album, “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.” Also, for seriously bouncy perfect pop music check out “Manners” by the band “Passion Pit,” a throwback to 80s synth pop that remains sounding fresh. And, Morrissey’s latest album “Years of Refusal” may very well be the best and most cohesive work he’s put out since leaving the Smiths almost two decades ago.

In other mediums, if you are even a casual comic or graphic novel fan and you aren’t reading writer Jason Aaron and artist R.M. Guera’s excellent “Scalped” series from Vertigo/DC, you are sorely missing out. It’s available in 4 collected volumes (Indian Country, Casino Boogie, Dead Mothers, Gravel in Your Guts) and new single issues come out every month. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever read, a completely new and wholly American noir tale. The only thing giving “Scalped” a run for it’s money on intensity, depth and originality is the relatively new “Unknown Soldier,” another Vertigo title by writer Joshua Dysart and artist Alberto Ponticelli. “Soldier” is a thoroughly researched and eerily visceral take on Uganda and Congo political, war and civilian issues complete with child soldiers, violent civil wars and the re-imagining of the old DC character, the soldier clothed in full bandages. It’s available monthly, the first collected trade is scheduled to come out on September 1st, so mark your calendar and earmark your ten bucks because it’s more than worth it.

Last of all, with movies like “Star Trek,” “Wolverine,” “Angels and Demons,” “The Hangover” and “Transformers 2” raking in dough hand over fist, (good as some of them may be) it’s evident that the months of big, dumb, summer movies are upon us as the critical darlings are held back for the fall and winter. These big flicks are usually fun popcorn fare (Wolverine and Hangover were, I can’t speak for the others I haven’t yet seen them), but if you’re an indie, old-school horror or ‘80s underground film fan don’t forget to show director Sam Raimi a little love for “Drag Me to Hell,” his messy grand return to B horror schlock. I’m catching it this weekend hopefully, we owe him a bit of support for the “Evil Dead” films (even if he did drop the ball on a few aspects of the Spider Man films when he went big budget).

That’s all for now.

What Happened to the Freaking Radio?

So as an avid music fan, a reader of popular music history and the sociology and culture that surrounds it, I’m quite aware that for decades the recurring theme was for youth to hate the music of their parents generation, and for parents to not understand or approve of the music of their children’s generation. It was simplified into the idea that if you don’t understand it, if you don’t get it, or if it shocks and offends you, you’re just too old. Now for serious music fans, for those folks who scratch much deeper than a love of music that offends and “defines a generation,” this has always been a shallow view. Of course it’s rooted in truth – bebop scared the be-Jesus out of older adults when it roared into play in the ‘40s, rock n roll scared middle class suburbia in the ‘50s by breaking down racial, social and sexual barriers, psychedelic music in the ‘60s with connotations of free love, drugs and peace blasted the Elvis generation into shock, Heavy metal, sleaze, glam and androgyny did it again in the 70s, hip hop and death metal in the 80s, more explicit rap and metal and their bastard fusion amongst a whole other slew of experimental genres that confused many over 30 repeated the trick in the ’90s.

Now we’re nearing the end of the first decade of the 2000s. Sitting comfortably back and looking at the best of the past quarter century plus of popular music, a music fan with a wide taste for variety and an open mind can find true art from each movement, and a lot of great music from the underground that ran through that entire time as well.

So near the end of this decade, what do we have to show musically? Was there any strong emergent genres, even a new strong subgenre from 2000+? Any new musical movements of note even? If there are any examples I am unaware of them, and if so this is really a new thing, because the 2000s are the first decade to not produce a unique, original or even slightly new form of popular music.

This is not to say there hasn’t been any good music over the past decade, there certainly has. Much of it has been later career work of already established greats – Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, Tom Petty, Prince, U2 and others released top notch and in some cases career best work. Some acts who first gained popularity in the ‘90s stepped up in creative and successful artistic ways – Outkast, Eminem, Radiohead, Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails, The Drive by Truckers, Wilco and a slew of others proved they weren’t just ‘90s acts by making their best work. College Radio, Indie Rock and underground music were s great sources – Spoon, Neko Case, Ween, the Roots, the Spooks, Starsailor, Lupe Fiasco, the Hold Steady, Ryan Adams, The White Stripes, The Black Keys, Tom Waits and plenty others made great records, great songs, and played great live shows.

Now, we have the gift of being able to enjoy an entire history of popular music taking multiple variations – bebop to avant garde jazz to fusion, rockabilly to metal to punk, outlaw country to alt country to cowpunk, delta blues to funk to hip hop, gospel to soul to coffeehouse pop.

Yet the striking sadness concerning the path popular music has taken in recent years is the almost complete disappearance of quality music from the radio. Most of us album loving folks who still spin vinyl and view albums as cohesive works bemoan the so-called “death of the album,” but with continued strong songs and albums we can deal with digital and still get triple pressed 180 gram remastered vinyl for our turntables and high quality CD for our cars on certain albums if we desire. No, the real sadness is the overwhelming abundance of absolute irredeemable garbage that pumps its way onto the airwaves, in the videos and to the top of the billboard charts, music that is beyond questionable in quality and substance. Asher Roth’s despicable “I love college.” Lady GaGa’s recycled Brittany Spears puke. The second-rate Paula Abdul wannabe Ciarra. Nickleback. TI. Souljah Boy. Toby Keith, Gretchen Wilson, Big and Rich. I could go on ad nausea but I won’t. If you look at what was actually popular in the 50s—Elvis, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, Miles Davis; in the ‘60s-The Beatles, Rolling Stones, John Coltrane, James Brown,; the ‘70s- Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, Willie Nelson, Black Sabbath; the 80s- Public Enemy, U2, REM, Michael Jackson, Guns N Roses; the ‘90s – Nirvana, 2pac, Nine Inch Nails. Now of course I’m listing highlights. As you progress through the decades it becomes a matter of cherry picking the best of the popular, because from the ‘70s on each decade has yielded a lot of popular radio hits that are just trash. By the time we get to the nineties it’s very noticeable (Limp Bizkit, Creed, Master P) but by the time we get to today, try turning on the radio and hearing anything that isn’t about a strip club (pop station), a boot in the ass of a foreign country (country station) or the desire to rawk and/or go home and/or slit wrist (hard rock station) and you’ve hit the jackpot. Of course there are good popular acts that still remain “good” in the artistic sense. Of course there’s a place for big, dumb or cheesy, mindless fun in music as well. And yes, there’s a ton of under the radar beautiful music being made today as well. Yet whether because of the conglomeration of power, the absolute control and standardization of radio by companies like Clear Channel who are McDonaldizing pop music, because of tastes that are formed to like what the big dogs want the people to like and expose them to, because of a desire to not “think” because there’s enough troubling information on the news, because of the move from books to handheld techno gadgets that have to some degree “dumbed down” what is entertainment, because of reality TV and shock jocks, I really don’t know but there is an obvious change now and it’s not just a case of a new generation “just not getting it.”

Popular and critically acclaimed have historically occasionally overlapped. The Beatles are the biggest example of that, perhaps the only band that ever managed to be simultaneously the most popular band with the biggest hits as well as the best reviewed and revered amongst music journalists. Today, the gap between acclaim and popularity is a virtual gulf. What’s sad is that those of us who love music still can find it in many, many places with a bit of work, but many great artists will never have the chance to continue in their field because they simply lack adequate exposure. Many songs of great quality will languish and never reach their potential by never being heard and loved by the people that would love them and be positively affected by them. Yet such is the case, and I know there’s bigger issues to worry about–but music helps get through those other issues quite often.

Why Neko Case Should Teach Pop Stars How to Sing

Kelly Clarkson was the musical guest on SNL this past Saturday night. She’s not a terrible performer, and although I’m not a fan, I can tell she does have a bit of musical talent. Yet I couldn’t help thinking that SNL should have picked Neko Case to be their musical guest instead. Both Clarkson and Case have new albums to promote. Not to be overly mean to Clarkson, but the difference between these two is quite simple, and the reason  Neko’s  new “Middle Cyclone” is probably far artistically superior to Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted”  is because Neko sings very more authentically and creatively than Kelly.

I really think Neko Case is a good point of reference for any modern aspiring singer. She has one of the absolute best voices in modern music– indie or popular. Of course, that can’t be taught. She can hit any range it seems, soaring highs and rumbling lows and she twists through each phrase and stamps it in a unique and original way. What can be taught by Neko to folks like Clarkson, Katy Perry and other numerous pop stars, who sing with good enough voices but quite often make sub-par quality songs and albums, is her conviction. She sings it like she means it. She puts herself into her songs. You know that pesky thing, lyrics? Well, that’s more than a little important. Sure, the occasional mindless tune can be fun and often even classic, but if everything you sing lacks any sort of substance whatsoever, it doesn’t matter how well you sing it, it will be forgotten. Case is fearless at approaching any topic or tone, be it straightforward autobiographical narrative or metaphorical abstract art, God, sex, death she can cover it all.  Another lesson she exemplifies in song is that it’s not always about showing off your skills at the expense of the song. Remember Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”? She almost destroyed the song, her version may have been a hit but it’s of very lower quality than the original simply because she goes out of her way to over-sing it, hitting each note at full throttle. Most modern pop, country and R & B singers tend to follow in that tradition, thinking that by showing off that they can hit high notes and that they have traditionally “good voices” they may have a hit…and they may, but they aren’t making art. Neko Case knows how to be both subtle and excited. She knows how to approach each word on its own terms. She knows when not to overdo something. Take “That Teenage Feeling” in which she has a perfect chorus that she builds to carefully…she only sings that chorus once, so you have to keep re-listening to the song to hear it again. Speaking of conviction in her subject, listen to “Deep Red Bells”, where Case recalls her personal teenage fears of the serial killer who stalked the interstates at that time–her fear and emotion pour into one of the most essential noir songs ever. Case is like a meld of ‘40s era jazz and blues singers, ‘50s era country stars and ‘60s era rockers, with more intensity than any modern female singer of any genre. Where comparisons display the failures of her contemporaries the most are on the most country songs of Case. “Set  Out Running” is pure Patsy Cline/Loretta Lynn-tinged Country-Soul that makes any latest hit by folks like Carrie Underwood look like complete drivel. Even in the abstract Case appears more poignant than others when they are blunt– “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” is a faith and doubt tale that cuts to the bone. Socially conscious ? Check out “The Tigers Have Spoken” for the most heartbreaking animal rights song ever written. And if you say that her conviction is due only to her writing her own lyrics, check out some of her work with the power-pop alt-rock group The New Pornographers in which she sings other peoples songs, and sings them with feeling– “Letter From an Occupant” and “Mass Romantic,” for example.

I guess I just can’t help but think two things here. SNL, with it’s past history of showcasing great indie bands, ranging from Kings of Leon to Arcade Fire or even recently Ray Lamogntaine, well, Case should have out-ranked Kelly Clarkson, who will sell enough albums on her own. Two, someone like Neko Case deserves more widespread recognition. Her last album, 2006’s “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” only moved 200,000 copies despite being critically hailed and beloved. Her new this month album “Middle Cyclone” is expected to move more. Being that Clarkson’s new album will move a lot of copies at places like Wal-Mart and Case’s new album will move lots of copies at the remaining small indie shops, most copies that aren’t illegally downloaded will be bought digitally through places like i-tunes. So, if you’re reading this and want real, soulful, heartfelt and convincing music, please PAY FOR and download the new “Middle Cyclone” Neko Case album and consider how great it would be if she could teach these radio fillers to actually sing. Then go back and get her past 4 albums. Peace.

Underrated and Overlooked #4: “Beautiful Midnight” by Matthew Good Band

I haven’t done this thread in awhile, so I’ll start with a quick recap of the past few albums I’ve mentioned here. In case you want to read them and missed them the first time around, the date I posted each article is in parenthesis with each one, so scroll through my archives and you can read them:

1)    Billy Joel- The Stranger (posted on Nov. 21st, 2008)
2)    Johnny Cash – Blood, Sweat and Tears ( posted on Nov. 29th, 2008)
3)    Cee Lo – Cee Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections (posted on Dec. 6, 2008)

Okay, here’s the review of “Underrated and Overlooked Albums #4,”
“Beautiful Midnight” by The Matthew Good Band

“Beautiful Midnight” is a flawless and original rock album. The Matthew Good Band made several great songs before that album, and finally they built up enough credibility to book an American deal for distribution of “Midnight.” Unfortunately, MGB hasn’t followed it up with what could have been further great albums.
“Midnight” stands out for its great lyrics and their perfect delivery. Topically it’s primarly an address towards consumerism and superficiality.

“Beautiful Midnight” sets its track order up as each labeled an hour of the day—track 1, “Giant” is also 5:00 PM going through to 5:00 AM at track 13 which is “Born to Kill,“ followed by the haunting ballad  “Running for Home” which is labeled “Sun Up.”
Each song is good, with great singing, great guitar chords but what really sends each over the top is its lyrics. A deceptively beautiful seemingly love song like Giant contains somewhat dark and deep lyrics. The centerpiece of the album is “The Future is X Rated,” with it’s lyrics about a dying culture that stops seeking to explore creativity, interspersed with a bored and hardly trying adult phone line operator muffled in the background. Explorations of school violence and loss of personal accountability precede and follow “X rated” in “A Boy and His—” and “Born to Kill,” respectively.

Musically, it’s heavily post-grunge, which is hardly ever an area that provides room for much creativity, but it takes from that a solid musical rock base and adds enough Canadian alt-rock energy (think of a more vibrant and intelligent “Spiritual Machines” era Our Lady Peace) to come up with a fresh sound.

Of all albums that I loved as a senior in high school, this is one of the few that stands up today. I can take it down at least once a year and it ends up in heavy rotation for a month or two each time.
I only wish MGB had been able to follow up such an excellent album with another effort that at least came close. Yet one perfect album is better than most bands are capable of these days.

They Got to the Part about “The Cattle and the Creeping Things”

So I don’t have anything wrapped up to post just yet, but I recently heard this song again and I had forgotten how much I really dig the lyrics. Once again, if you’ve never heard The Hold Steady please run out and buy “Boys and Girls in America,” “Separation Sunday,” and “Stay Positive” in that order and then go and see them in concert-ASAP. Anyway, Spring Training for MLB kicked off today, the Oscar’s are coming up and I’m wrapping up a ton of reading for various articles I’m working on so I’m sure I’ll have my own material for this site soon enough. Enjoy the odd druggy religious lyrics from a Dylanesque Replacement’s style Punk with a penchant for parties and a large vocabulary, Craig Finn.

They got to the part with the cattle and the creeping things. They said I’m pretty sure we’ve heard this one before. Don’t it all end up in some revelation? With 4 guys on horses, and violent red visions famine and death and pestilence and war. I’m pretty sure I heard this one before. You in the corner with a good looking drifter. Two cups of coffee and ten packs of sugar. I heard gideon saw you in denver. He said you’re contagious. Silly rabbit. Tripping is for teenagers. Murder is for murderers. And hard drugs are for bartenders. I think I might have mentioned that before. He’s got the pages in his pockets that he ripped out of the bible from his bedstand in the motel. He likes the part where the traders get chased out from the temple. I guess I heard about original sin. I heard the dude blamed the chick. I heard the chick blamed the snake. I heard they were naked when they got busted. I heard things ain’t been the same since. You on the streets with a tendency to preach to the choir. Wired for sound and down with whatever. I heard gideon did you in denver. She’s got a cross around her neck that she ripped off from a schoolgirl in the subway on a visit to the city. She likes how it looks on her chest with three open buttons. She likes the part where one brother kills the other. She has to wonder if the the world ever will recover. Because cain and abel seem to still be causing trouble. She said: I was seeing double for 3 straight days after I got born again it felt strange but it was nice and peaceful. It really pleased me to be around so many people. Of course half were just visions but half of them were friend from going thru the program with me. Later on we did some sexy things. Took a couple photographs and carved them into wood reliefs. But that’s enough about me. Tell me how you got down here into ybor city. He said: I got thru the part about the exodus. Up to then I only knew it was a movement of the people. But if small town cops are like swarms of flies and if blackened foil is like boils and hail. Then I’m pretty sure we’ve been thru this before. And it seemed like a simple place to score. Then some old lady came to the door and said mckenzie phillips doesn’t live here anymore.

By the way, these are even better in song form so download it from i-tunes right about now.

The 2009 Grammy Awards Recap

So I’m actually doing an article about the 2009 Grammy Awards Show. A bit odd, I suppose, since the Grammy’s try their hardest to lose credibility and this year had plenty of moments to reinforce that position. Yet, compared to the MTV Awards or the Peoples Choice Awards, the Grammy’s are gospel. I guess they’re actually the only official televised music awards program even approaching credibility, yet they still fall miles short of a simple year end round-up article in Rolling Stone, Paste, Mojo, Spin or even Entertainment Weekly.
Yet there were quite a few entertaining and worthwhile moments during the broadcast Sunday night. Of course for every terrific moment there was an equally horrendous moment– – and as for the actual results? Ha. Well, I’ll deal with a little of all of it briefly.
First off, great moments. U2 opened the show with the live premiere of their new single, “Get on Your Boots.” A great performance and fairly exciting. Paul McCartney performed the early Beatles hit, “I Saw Her Standing There” backed by Dave Grohl on drums– – great time, but why does McCartney get limited to a 2 and a half minute Beatles classic and not get to play a single song off of his new acclaimed solo album while Kid Rock performs sections of 3 crap songs during his performance? Hmm. Well, Coldplay gave a nice performance with a dazzling cameo by Jay Z.. Due-that-day Mother to be M.I.A. accompanied the Queen Latifah proclaimed “Hip Hop summit” of Jay Z, Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West for their performance of “Swagga Like Us,” a truly electrifying performance. Adele gave a notable performance of “Chasing Pavements,” and I will sheepishly admit to truly digging the Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus performance of “15,” a song that I am far too old to relate to yet can’t help but find oddly beautiful. Lil Wayne performed “Tie My Hands Down” with Robin Thicke and it segued into a performance by Herbie Hancock in a tribute to New Orleans which was great. But….there were some bad performances as well. The above-mentioned Kid Rock set was far too long, Carrie Underwood vomited up her “Don’t Even Know My Last Name,” in which she gave us her best Reba McEntire in a truly unoriginal pop country performance,” and call Kenny Chesney the best selling artist of any genre and a poet all you want but every song he sings sounds the same and lays sadly in the middle of the road to challenge absolutely nothing. The Jonas Brothers did just fine, yet sharing the stage with Stevie Wonder isn’t quite where they should be yet. T.I. has no stage presence, which he showed by choking in ‘Swagga’ when compared with the other 3, yet he did regain a bit of cred with his Justin Timberlake duo track. Sugarland won an award and performed a very skipable “Stay.”
On to the awards, where the show really dropped the ball on several occasions. First of all, the Grammy’s plays by its own rules. Whereas every 2008 best of music recap from every credible critical review considered every album released in the 2008 calendar year, the Grammy’s judges albums released from fall 2007 to fall 2008. So, great albums released since September in 2008 are ignored and great albums released before January 2008 are available to complicate things long after they’ve received their credit elsewhere. The first upset was that Jennifer Hudson beat out Al Green for best R & B album. Apparently Rev. Green won oddball awards for two excellent “Lay it Down’ tracks, “”You’ve Got the Love I Need,” and “Stay With Me (By the Sea)” yet viewers wouldn’t know it because those awards were given out before the broadcast began. Yet when it came down to the award he rightfully deserved for one of the best soul and R&B albums released in years he missed out. He did give a tremendous performance later on, but he deserved the Grammy. Later, Coldplay won “Best Rock Album” for a low-key World Pop album, beating Kings of Leon who delivered the most consistently great pure Rock album up for nomination from 2008 with “By the Night.” When it came time for best Rap Album, surprisingly the best were up for consideration. Since 2007 fall albums were up for consideration the excellent “American Gangster” by Jay Z and the perfect “The Cool” by Lupe Fiasco were up against 2008s best rap discs from Nas and Lil Wayne; T.I.s sub par “Paper Tail was up as well. Here the voters truly dropped the ball. If we were going just by 2008 released albums, Nas’ untitled was the unquestionable best. Lil Wayne wasn’t too far behind. But, Jay-Z’s 2007 album beat out Wayne’s in quality terms, and better than all combined was “The Cool” by Lupe Fiasco. Lupe was simply too hip and intelligent to win, I suppose. Lil Wayne did release a great album with “The Carter III,” but when compared with the socially conscious and boundary pushing Lupe disc, it should have had been no contest and the fact that it won tells me the voters really didn’t actually fully listen to and digest the complete albums before casting their votes. Other mistakes? Adele has a great voice but M.I.A. should have beaten her in terms of originality, talent, hip-ness and credibility. The best album of the year went to Robert Plant and Allison Kraus’ “Rising Sand,” a very good album yet it’s questionable that it was the absolute best album of the year.
Oh well, what can we expect. It did entertain for a few hours, and it was better than the average radio hour from Clear Channel. But did we really need to hear “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry again? Or did we really need to hear the embarrassingly flat and cheesy monologue by the actor formerly known as The Rock, aka Duane Johnson? I actually felt sorry for him for being so bad and cracking a joke about the Beatles in which Paul McCartney failed to even fake a smile too.
That’s all, next time I’ll be back to intelligent subject matter…hopefully.

Celebrating Mediocrity

My brother commented on one of my articles recently suggesting I make a list of hit films, books and songs that, although very popular, are not good in the artistic or critical sense; in other words, what’s my top ten hit media items that I feel are really just crap?

Well, this isn’t really that. This isn’t a countdown of what’s the worst popular junk in systematic dissection, this is more an article about the enthusiasm for mediocrity as a whole.

There’s a recent TV commercial for McDonald’s, a company I loathe almost as much as Wal Mart. In the commercial two young guys are in a traditionally “trendy” looking coffee shop. Both are wearing glasses, one is reading a book. Both speak in low, stereotypical “pretentious” voices. One says to the other “did you know McDonald’s sells coffee now?” The other says “well what are we doing here then?” He whips his glasses off saying he doesn’t really need them. He says he’s tired of sitting in coffee shops and talking about “films” and that he really just enjoys “sitting and watching football.” The other agrees but concedes he actually does need his glasses.

So really, this commercial is showing that there is no need to go to a trendy independent coffee shop where poetry readings and acoustic open mic sessions are  held and where people discuss art, film and philosophy. No, now you can go to McDonald’s and get a dollar cappuccino and take it home to sit on your couch and watch football till your brain drips out your ear from the numbness of average, ordinary mediocrity.

I’m not going to get into a criticism of football. I’ve written about baseball often on this site, if you click on “baseball” at the bottom of the page and read back at all of my baseball articles from last year you’ll even see at least two that comment on why I feel baseball is a superior sport to football on various levels. That’s not something to get into yet again here. I don’t loath football, I’m just not a fan. Perhaps it’s somewhat silly for me to equate baseball as a symbol of positive American values and football as a symbol of negative American values, but it’s mainly just for fun in my case. No, I’ve been known to watch a super bowl occasionally (I’ll definitely tune in to the halftime show this year because Bruce Springsteen is my favorite musician of all time). Not everyone who watches football is a symbol of mediocrity, but the idea that there’s nothing better for the average guy than to sit on his couch and watch football all day, possibly eating fast-food, is a bit of mediocrity celebration.

On a smaller scale, much of what is incredibly popular is insanely mediocre. Your typical active rock radio station plays the most uninspiring new rock imaginable (Nickleback anyone?). Hip Hop stations play the same club jam and pop rap hit like “Live Your Live,” “Apple Bottom Jeans” (Re-Remix), or a mash up between Justin Timberlake, Akon and Bow Wow. Country stations wallow in mediocrity. Alt-country, classic country or even slightly edgy country will not be on the radio–instead get ready for Toby Keith, Big & Rich or any number of other brain numbing works. A slew of mediocre books were turned into mediocre films over the past months ( Marley and Me, He’s Just Not That Into You, Confessions of a Shopaholic). I’ve mentioned authors that churn out sub-par work on a regular basis that manage to sell truckloads worth of books (James Patterson post-the first five Cross novels, Nicholas Sparks, many would say “Twilight” ).

The point is, quite often very unintelligent, unoriginal, and utterly crappy material becomes very successful, be it music, movie or book. I can list a lot but there’s really no point. Why do such things appeal to so many people? Many would say that they are safe, middle of the road affairs that appeal to the lowest common denominator so that they can reach the widest group of people. Typically such things don’t require too much thought, too much absorption and concentration or any measure of taste cultivation. Really, the best of any medium quite often requires the reader, listener or viewer to participate in the process a bit by thinking, involving themselves in the field to better understand the author or artist. So what makes this troublesome is not that people like “crap.” People are different, they can like anything they want to. What’s problematic is that the better work is too often buried underneath mediocrity, pushed out of stores to make room for the top selling garbage, and ignored by the radio stations, TV stations and book stores.