Category: Rock (Page 198 of 241)

Notes from the Orphanage, Part Deux

October 25, 2006 / Will Harris

Like Herr Medsker, my history as a music critic can be tied directly back to one concept: getting free music. I went to a high school journalism conference in 1987, and one of the speakers assured his audience that if you sent a copy of your publication to a record label and told them that you wanted to review one of their albums, they’d send you a free copy. It’s still true today…except in our case, we send them a link to our site, and more often than not, we don’t have to request this stuff; it’s sent to us whether we have any interest in it or not. So here are a few rapid fire critiques of discs that I never really wanted in the first place, but, hey, they were free…

The 1900s, Plume Delivery (Parasol): These Chicago-based popsters are a little bit Belle and Sebastian, a little bit New Pornographers, and are influenced a hell of a lot by late ’60 pop and early ’70s bubblegum. This, their debut EP, is full of lots of pop goodness. Even the 7+ minutes of “Patron Saint of the Mediocre” are full enough of enough musical diversity to keep things interesting throughout.

Doleful Lions, Song Cyclops Volume Two (Parasol): This album was recorded in the home of Jonathan Scott – who is, for all practical purposes, the Doleful Lions – in 1999, and there’s never a moment when you aren’t completely aware that it’s a bedroom production. I admit it, the songs – originals sitting alongside covers of the Beach Boys, the Misfits, and the Close Lobsters, among others – are all catchy as hell…but, damn, never before have I wished that I was Phil Spector, just so I could clean this shit up!

Jonny Lives!, Get Steady (Eleven Seven): There are way too many punk-pop bands out there who sound approximately the same for me to be able to write anything other than approximately the same review. These guys warrant at least a few extra words, though, because frontman / songwriter Jonny Dubowski seems to be interested in having his band be more than being just the next Jimmy Eat World. They’re not Sugarcult, but they’re certainly better than average…and lord knows that most of their peers are terribly, terribly average.

Alternative, Artists, Pop, Rock, Songs

Riki, please lose that number

October 25, 2006 / John Paulsen

First they skewered Owen Wilson in an open letter to his brother, Luke. Now the guys from Steely Dan (Donald Fagen and Walter Becker) have set their sites on Wes Anderson, writer/director of “Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” Apparently, Steely Dan is a big fan of Anderson’s first film, “Bottle Rocket,” but they feel that his subsequent films have been progressively worse.

These follow-ups have all concerned themselves with the theme we like to call “the enervated family of origin”©, from which springs diverse subplots also largely concerned with the failure to fulfill early promise. Again, each film increasingly relies on eccentric visual detail, period wardrobe, idiosyncratic and overwrought set design, and music supervision that leans heavily on somewhat obscure 60’s “British Invasion” tracks a-jangle with twelve-string guitars, harpsichords and mandolins. The company of players, while excellent, retains pretty much the same tone and function from film to film. Indeed, you must be aware that your career as an auteur is mirrored in the lives of your beloved characters as they struggle in vain to duplicate early glories.

Steely Dan goes on to outline two strategies to “help” Anderson get back on track, providing lyrics to two separate songs that they’ve written for his next project. But before they agree to work with Anderson, there are a few conditions…

Same thing for the mandolins and the twelve-string stuff and the harpsichord, they’re out. You yourself may be partial to those particular instruments. We’re not. Remember, we saw “Tom Jones” in its original theatrical release when we were still in high school, we had to listen to “Walk Away Renee” all through college and we fucking opened for Roger McGuinn in the seventies, so all that “jingle-jangle morning” shit is no big thrill for us, OK?

I find these letters fascinating, not so much for their flowery words or content, but for the simple fact that these guys from Steely Dan actually think that anyone gives a fuck what they think about a movie.

The only explanation I can come up with is that somewhere in this universe, there is a tear in the space/time continuum, which leads to a parallel universe where the guys in Steely Dan are highly respected film critics. And somehow these letters got through…damn wi-fi.

Artists, External Music, Rock

Kurt pries the crown from the King’s cold, dead hand

October 24, 2006 / Will Harris

Did you realize when you woke up this morning that it was in a whole new rock and roll era? Probably not. But we’re definitely in a new world, now that it’s been confirmed that Kurt Cobain has dethroned Elvis Presley as the top-earning dead rock star, having pulled in $50 million from October 2005 to October 2006.

Actually, I say “top-earning dead rock star,” but, in fact, he’s the top-earning dead celebrity, period; coming in second is Presley, followed by Charles Schulz (creator of “Peanuts”), John Lennon, and Albert Einstein. (Funnily enough, much of Albert’s bucks came courtesy of his name being attached to the “Baby Einstein” series.)

Either way, it’s clear that anyone who thought that Cobain’s popularity would dwindle within a few years of his suicide was, in a word, wrong.

Alternative, Artists, News, Pop, Rock

Smokin’, indeed

October 23, 2006 / David Medsker

The drummer/guitarist/keyboardist in this video interned at the office of a friend of mine. God, I’m so glad that this stuff didn’t exist when I was in college…

Rock, Videos

Mix Disc Monday: This Is Halloween

October 22, 2006 / David Medsker

Welcome to the debut of our newest installment, Mix Disc Monday. It is exactly what you think it is. We won’t even bother to insult your intelligence by explaining the concept to you. In this age of iTunes playlists and podcasts, we know that you’re a step ahead of us. Fifteen songs about…well, whatever inspires us that day.

It therefore seemed fitting that we kick off this weekly event with a timely list of songs whose titles evoke images of All Hallow’s Eve. Most of the songs aren’t dark or scary, but do they have to be? If that’s what you want, listen to the main theme to “Requiem for a Dream” over and over again, if you have the guts. Oh, and feel free to pepper the proceedings with “Bring out your dead” quotes from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

Ministry: “Everyday Is Halloween” (Early Trax)
Mmm-mmm bop mmm bop bop. Mmm-mmm bop mmm bop bop. Al Jourgensen says he hates this song now. Fool.

The Jazz Butcher: “The Devil Is My Friend” (Bloody Nonsense)
This long lost B-side (I won’t lie, you’re gonna have a hell of a time finding this one) is still the only song I know by the Jazz Butcher. But any band that’s friends with Frank Sinatra, Love & Rockets and the devil is a friend of mine.

Bow Wow Wow: “I Want Candy” (We Are the ‘80s)
Not everything about Halloween involves scaring people, you know.

Squirrel Nut Zippers: “Hell” (Hot)
I found a version of this on Napster back in the day that was filled with quotes from “The Simpsons.” Innnnnn the afterlife (“D’oh!”), you could be headed for the serious strife (“D’oh!”). Now you make the scene all day (Buuuuuurp), but tomorrow there’ll be hell to pay. Best, mash-up, ever.

The Killers: “Bones” (Sam’s Town)
Tim Burton was the perfect person to direct this video. If only he could have done something about the rest of the album…

Oingo Boingo: “Dead Man’s Party” (Dead Man’s Party)
While we’re talking about Tim Burton, we may as well give a shout-out to his composer’s former day job.

L7: “Pretend We’re Dead” (Bricks Are Heavy)
Girls can do grunge too, you know. Come on, come on, come on.

Concrete Blonde: “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)” (Bloodletting)
How a lazy cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” by Guns ‘n Roses played over the credits of “Interview with a Vampire” instead of this is not just a mystery but a crime.

Dead or Alive: “Something in My House” (Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know)
Here’s the thing that people forget about Dead or Alive: their guitarist could shred, dude. For extra creep factor, find the 12” mixes, which have quotes from “The Exorcist” in them.

Book of Love: “Witchcraft” (Lullaby)
There’s something about the sound of Samantha wiggling her nose that gets me every time. That, and Susan Ottaviano’s voice, which my wife once described as “beautifully bored.” Yep, that sounds about right.

B-52’s: “Devil in My Car” (Wild Planet)
Heeeeeeelp!

Jellyfish: “The Ghost at Number One” (Spilt Milk)
It was a tossup between this and “The Ghost in You” from the Psychedelic Furs, but in the interest of keeping the energy levels up, we chose this mash note to Queen about a dead rock star who still dominates the pop charts. Awfully prescient, since this predates the deaths of Tupac and Biggie. Jellyfish were prophets.

Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.: “Creepie People” (The Land of Pure Imagination)
I probably should have put David Bowie’s “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps” in this slot instead of back to back Jellyfish-related tunes (Manning played keys for the’Fish). But hot damn, I just love this new record of his. And you should, too.

Gnarls Barkley: “The Boogie Monster” (St. Elsewhere)
You either love or hate this one. I’m in the former group, if only because it reminds me of Mike Wazowski, Sully and Boo from “Monsters Inc.” Kitty!

Divine Comedy: “The Happy Goth” (Absent Friends)
And on what day would Goths be happier than Halloween? The chorus to this is just money: “Well, her clothes are blacker than the blackest cloth / And her face is whiter than the snows of Hoth / She wears Doctor Martens and heavy cross / But on the inside, she’s a happy Goth.” The snows of Hoth? God, I love Neil Hannon.

P.S. To see the most unintentionally funny Goth clip ever on YouTube, click here.

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