Spoon - Transference (Merge Records 2010)

I literally watched this band grow up. I was at their first gig. My shitty band played several shows with them. Does that make me important? No. Will it allow me to present an unbiased opinion? No fucking way.





I dug that up cleaning out our extra room the other day. What does it have to do with Tranference, Spoon's latest offering? Nothing. I just thought it was cool.

Tranference has a mellower style to it than Spoon's 2007 offering Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but that's not to say the music has lost any edge. Daniel's songs have always been edgy, even the mellower cuts, with a feeling that the tension and release could fall out of sync at any moment and result in almost visceral disaster. That Daniel takes such pleasure and is so adept at fucking with tension and release pop music paradigms only serves to take it up a notch.

Sound experimental? Spoon has gotten more so with each progressive release, and Transference takes Daniel's odd combinations of minimalist post-punk, krautrock, world beat, and just plain wierdness to the highest level yet. There's just no pigeonhole for this band. Nor should there be. They exist in Britt Daniel's own unique musical vision.

Album opener "Before Destruction" and "Written in Reverse" are the two big winners here, but there aren't any losers. It's also going to make the wait to see what Britt Daniel and Spoon come up with next practically unbearable.

4 out of 4 Can records

Vampire Weekend - Contra (XL Recordings 2010)

Ever listened to "Graceland" by Paul Simon? Well, if not, he took a bunch of musicians from Africa and made a pop world beat record. People went nuts for it. It shipped gold and was Paul Simon's most successful record in years. The fact that Peter Gabriel had already done this and even started his own record label, which he operated at a loss, to record and distribute the artists who had helped him out when he made his own Afro-pop album seemed entirely overlooked by all but a few, myself and my sanctimonious friends among them.

What does this have to do with Vampire Weekend's latest release?

Imagine Paul Simon making "Graceland" but having to substitute samples, electronic rhythms, and poorly layered production to make up for the fact that he didn't have some 150 actual African musicians and vocalists to back him up. Imagine that he also didn't have 30 years of experience writing pop songs. Well, there you have "Contra" by NYC foursome Vampire Weekend.

Many might admire their chutzpah and ambition in attempting to recreate this blend of Afro-beat and Western pop, and I sure do. Unfortunately, they have neither the experience nor the resources to pull it off. The record sounds weak, thin, WAY too electronic, and primary vocalist Ezra Koenig tries WAY too hard to sound EXACTLY like Paul Simon.

I didn't like "Graceland" with the stunning, orchestral production and the real Paul Simon at the helm, but I admired him for doing it (even though Peter Gabriel did it first), and I don't like "Contra" with its (deliberately?) poor production and a Paul Simon wannabe at the helm.

People love this band. I do admire what they're trying to do. I just wish they were better at it. Maybe someday.

1 out of 4 vampires

Lou Barlow - Goodnight Unknown (Merge 2009) / Sons of Hercules - A Different Kind of Ugly (Saustex Media 2009)

Well, I said I'd be less prolific, so here's your first post on records that have already been reviewed endlessly elsewhere.











Lou Barlow - Goodnight Unknown (Merge 2009)

One of the things I've always loved about Barlow is his ability to embrace his own myth. The testimonial sticker on the front of this record, usually a quote from Pitchfork or Rolling Stone or some other piece of shit, reads, "A cross between my later work with Folk Implosion and my earlier work with Sebadoh to my ears, anyway." The quote is attributed to Lou Barlow. Cracks me up.

His dsecription isn't far from the truth in many places, but the record contains a liberal dose of the cleaned up acoustica of his last album "Emoh". No problem, here. Fuck the fan backlash - it was a damn good record, even it it wasn't "lo-fi". Get your heads out Sebadoh's ass, idiots.

That being said, this record has something for every Barlow fan. The strongest track is the opener, "Goodnight Unknown", but there's really not a bad cut on here in spite of its ups and downs.

3.5 out 4 mopey kids

Sons of Hercules - A Different Kind of Ugly (Saustex Media 2009)

I love garage rock, and The Sons of Hercules are VERY good at garage rock. By the same token, there's something like going to a renaissance festival when listening to a garage rock record or going to a garage rock show in 2010. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, it gets the blood pumping. Yeah, it's been riding a revival wave since the mid 1990's. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just getting old. But there are currently 10 bands out there doing more interesting stuff than garage rock for every 1 good garage rock band, and there are literally hundreds of garage rock bands in every burg that can be called a "city" in this country. Mostly really bad ones.

Certainly The Sons have earned their place in the pantheon of great American garage rock bands that kicked off as a response to The British Invasion. But at the end of the day it's still just garage rock. Don't hate me too much - I've been in almost nothing but garage bands for 25 years.

On a final, probably unnecessary point - it's hard for me to like this band. Frontman Frank Pugliese has been nothing but a dismissive prick to me since we met when my band opened for the Sons at Liberty Lunch way back in the mid-1990's. I've met four musicians that were in bands that opened for The Sex Pistols on their ill fated American tour - Alejandro Escovedo, T. Tex Edwards, Penelope Houston, and Frank Pugliese. Frank's the only one who seems to think such a distinction matters for shit. Call me a petty fuck. Call him one. I really don't care.

2 out 4 Frank Puglieses

Until next time,

MC

Well, I guess I'm back

Since it seems more people are stopping by this blog recently than were a year ago when I basically gave up on it, I suppose I’ll give it another whirl. I just put my old band back together so, what the fuck, here’s to new beginnings.

I doubt I’ll be quite so prolific as in the previous incarnation, but I’m going to try and maintain a steady output, comment on pop culture bullshit, note passings, and review the occasional popular release and every release sent my way by record labels and professional working bands.

A couple of items of note to kick things off:

McDonalds Rap – 18 year old Spenser Dauwalder and three of his 17 year old friends (names withheld) were cited by Salt Lake City police with disorderly conduct for rapping, rather than speaking, their order at a McDonalds drive through window. The window clerk claims she felt “threatened” (makes you wonder at the color of her skin, the four teens in question being black) and store manager Conny Kramer claimed the teens were “holding up the line”. The teens claim there was no line to be held up and ultimately left empty handed after being asked a few times to do so.

Teens pull pranks. They can be harmless, amusing, irritating, irresponsible, dangerous, and/or criminal in nature. I think Spenser Dauwalder and his friends could have been up to some much more serious shit than fucking with a McDonalds drive through clerk. I feel comfortable making this judgment stemming from the fact that the teenage pranks I indulged in tended toward the last three on the list above.

It seems to me that the response of the SLCPD and the McDonalds manager in question was disproportionately draconian. I’m no fan of rap, but gimme a fucking break. As irritating as this episode certainly was to the drive through clerk there is no implied or inherent threat in the rap music genre. What an easy collar for the cops – why go after teens carrying firearms and selling drugs when you can bust four teenagers who were just out cruising for a good time and didn’t really commit a crime at all. I wonder what would have happened if the four culprits had sung their order in a genre the clerk appreciated.

Also

Drummer Chuck Biscuits, alum of such classic American punk bands as Black Flag, The Misfits, Samhain, and Social Distortion was reported as having died of throat cancer on October 24th yesterday. This news quickly went viral and was all over the internet within hours. Chuck Biscuits is very much alive and well and continuing to live and work in Southern California. Who starts this shit? Why? If it was some self important prick like Scott Weiland then it would be understandable and even funny. But Chuck Biscuits? Who did he piss off?

Finally

73 year old actor/director Dennis Hopper, the man who went from making brilliant left-wing counter cultural films in the late 60’s to inexplicably switching sides to neoconservative Republicanism (while remaining a brilliant actor the whole time – gotta give him that) has placed his career on hold after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. His prognosis in uncertain. Political differences aside, all my hopes and concerns go out to Hopper, still one of my favorite actors.

Nothing you couldn’t pick up from a quick scan of internet news, I know, but I’m just getting back into the swing of things. Maybe I’ll review Lou Barlow’s new release next. After seeing him live the other night I have a feeling it’ll be a good one.

Mitch Mitchell RIP

Eric Clapton, John Lennon and, most famously, Jimi Hendrix Experience (among an impressive array of others) drummer Mitch Mitchell was found dead in his hotel room yesterday. He was 61.

The Cure - "4:13 Dream" (Geffen Records 2008)

It’s been four years since The Cure released the remarkably lackluster eponymously titled The Cure, continuing with Robert Smith’s stated intent beginning with 1989’s brilliant Disintegration to release a new Cure record every four years. Well, in spite of truckload of accolades, awards, and recognitions it’s been a rough couple of decades musically for the band. Wish, the 1992 follow-up to Disintegration, was spotty at best. It certainly had its fair share of moments but an equal weight in phoned in, weak material. 1996’s Wild Mood Swings continued this directionless direction and was an aptly titled record that didn’t know what it wanted to be. Bloodflowers, released in 2000, returned to the more familiar, melancholic ground The Cure operates most comfortably on. Smith hired nu-metal producer Ross Robinson and gave us 2004’s The Cure, referred to by Smith as “Cure heavy”. Whether an attempt to update their sound or simply an uninspired exercise in order to maintain the four year interval, or both, the record was a fucking disaster. I can think of two listenable songs on the whole thing, and that’s being generous. With longtime keyboardist and collaborator Roger O’Donnell’s departure in May 2005 and Smith’s stated intention not to replace him my hopes dimmed for the future of a band I once considered one of the best in the world.

They say high expectations can lead to disappointment, and that the inverse is true. I had pretty low expectations for 4:13 Dream, but after listening to the thing ten or more times I’ve gotta say that this is strongest Cure record since Disintegration. Not that it bears much sonic or mood resemblance to that record, but in its tight focus. Finally, after all this time, a record with a solid vision behind it. That vision is guitar drenched pop, and it turns out they’re pretty good at it.

With the stripped down lineup of Smith, Simon Gallup, Porl Thompson, and Jason Cooper, whatever keyboard is in there (Smith is credited with “keys”) is strictly backdrop. Anyone familiar with the band’s body of work knows that by 1985’s Head on the Door Smith had forsaken minimalism for lush production, and this record is no exception. Working with producer Keith Uddin (Bjork, Nick Cave, Oasis, and about a thousand others) the two produce a sonic landscape of layered guitars and subtle rhythms that just sounds fucking great.

Opening with “Underneath the Stars”, a song bearing the most familiar Cure hallmarks of the record, 4:13 Dream abruptly veers into the overtly sexual “The Only One” – both terrific pop songs but stylistically very different. The record proceeds to move around through mid to up tempo hooky numbers, almost all catchy as hell and displaying a satisfying range of the lyrical subject matter that Smith is so good at. From the bouncy, tongue in cheek “Freak Show” to the more melancholic longing of The Hungry Ghost”, it’s all in there.

While this all may give the impression of disjointedness, it’s the confidence of this record that ties everything together and really makes it work. It seems Smith has found his way to remain contemporary without resorting to ill-considered plays like “Cure heavy”. The Cure reportedly recorded 33 songs for this record, initially intended as a double record, but decided instead to pick and choose, and they really hit the mark as far as how well these songs fit together as a whole (there are band propagated rumors of a second release of “darker material” before Robert Smith’s birthday (April 21st) – something I think would be only fair considering this album’s release was delayed by seven months).

Complaints? Of course. All five of you who actually read this blog know my opinion of Jason Cooper’s drumming. There’s no way it was going to be easy to replace Boris Williams but it’s difficult to credit that Cooper was the best they could do. While a serviceable timekeeper, his uninspired electronic drum fills and general lack of creativity serve only to diminish the superb bass skills of Simon Gallup. The one song on which there is some semblance of the bass/drums interplay that was such a hallmark of The Cure prior to Cooper is “Sleep When I’m Dead”, a song apparently composed by Smith and Gallup during The Head on the Door sessions.

Also, while the intentions of a song like “Freak Show” are good, it’s a little bit much. Its jerky arrangement and almost spoken lyric make it stand out, and not in a good way. That being said, I have no doubt that it’s the big hit in all the dance clubs as I type this.

So, is 4:13 Dream a brilliant record? No. Does it give an indication that Smith has another masterpiece along the lines of Pornography or Disintegration in him? Not necessarily. But what it does show is that Robert Smith still has it in him to produce great pop records that adapt with the times without compromising that distinctly Cure essence. For me, anyway, that’s enough.

3.5 out of 4 dreams

John Daly RIP

Chairman of Film and Music Entertainment Inc. John Daly died Fridy at the age of 71. He produced flicks like Platoon and The Last Emporer. There's a lot more interesting shit about his early career if you want to look it up, but I'm too sick of writing about the recently deceased to research it and cast it into my own poetic prose.