Featuring former Q and Not U drummer John Davis and singer Laura Burhenn, this duo’s Saddle Creek debut, “Places,” is packed with smart, sparkling power-pop. Check out “Need Your Needs” for a perfect summer song in December.
November 2007
Monthly Archive
Edward Van Halen, left, with David Lee Roth in New York City, Nov. 13.
The world offers an enormous cavalcade of things that can scare you to the core, and you know all the hits.
For instance, I should be worried about buying Christmas gifts for my son and making certain they don’t have more lead in them than a Victorian fixer-upper. I should concern myself with any number of global crises, or if I’m feeling especially superficial, I should ponder whether the Writer’s Guild will end its strike in time for “Lost” to have more than six episodes this season.
But no, that’s not what is weighing heavily at this moment. Right now, I’m worried that I might be just a little too excited about Van Halen performing at the Ford Center on Jan. 22, and what that says about me.
I’m not alone. I know dyed-in-the-wool-shepherd’s-sweater Belle and Sebastian fans who love Boston’s first album just a little too much, and there’s a local alt-pop marvel who, if the subject of Rush’s “2112” surfaces, might not shut up for a week. There is photographic evidence of one of my best friends, Phil Bacharach, destroying his hearing at the legendary OKC punk club, The Bowery, and yet he wants to go see the Halen with me because our wives would probably rather gargle glass than suffer through a single second of “Jamie’s Cryin’.”
We all have our big arena rock skeletons in the closet, and while I’d managed to suppress this one, the success of Van Halen’s current reunion tour brought the demon out of the shadows.
Though I discovered the music that truly matters fairly early in life — thank you, MTV, for introducing The Jam to my ears in 1981 — the original Van Halen was an undeniable and towering presence among kids growing up in the late-’70s and early ’80s. The group ruled because Van Halen was a band that perfectly combined musical wizardry with boneheaded adolescence: It could blow half your face off with its sheer rocking prowess and make you laugh off the rest of it with its skits and sketches.
It helped that Edward Van Halen was the Andres Segovia of the Sunset Strip, a guitarist who could shred faster than the Nixon administration, and he chose to pair up with a former honor roll student who was an astute combination of Dionysus and Henny Youngman. It all worked beautifully for about a decade, if you count the time they spent as the kings of the L.A. rock scene before being signed to Warners. Then David Lee Roth split from the band in 1985, and both sides of the fence delivered rapidly diminishing returns for the next 22 years.
For whatever reason, I cared about Van Halen longer than any rational person, let alone any music critic, should. I continued to pay attention when the band released albums with Sammy Hagar, but each successive effort sounded sloppier, less committed and increasingly irrelevant.
Roth became tiresome and pathetic — the drunk uncle of rock ’n’ roll. When he imploded during a brief stint replacing Howard Stern on New York radio two years ago, it looked like the end. Then he showed up on “The Tonight Show” singing a bluegrass version of “Jump,” and people wondered if there was a bottom to his fall.
Now, with the reunion few believed would happen, Van Halen is getting its first great reviews in years. Billboard magazine’s Jonathan Cohen summarized the band’s Nov. 13 performance in New York City, writing that “on this crisp fall night, Van Halen was, if only for two hours, once again the greatest rock band in the world. And that was the greatest surprise of all.”
Van Halen never really was “the greatest rock band in the world,” but it was a hard-rock band that a music snob could love. Lobbying to review the concert is embarrassing, but sometimes that 13-year-old kid who lives in the converted attic of your brain just won’t grow up and move out.
1. Lavender Diamond, “Like a Prayer.” Okay then, three covers straight out of the gate. If you recall, John Wesley Harding did a nice acoustic version of my favorite Madge song (best song she recorded, best production even though it was 1989, best video, best she ever looked in a video, et cetera), but the new version is a little more faithful, and let’s face it: this is a song that demands drama. Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark possesses a perfect soprano, and the band surrounds her with pounding piano, toms and a choir — it sounds big even if it’s really a fairly simple arrangement. It’s certainly not as busy as Stephen Bray’s production on the original, but just a few people are doing a lot here. Superb and immaculate.
2. Tahiti 80, “Happy Together.”
3. Grizzly Bear, “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss).”
4. Patrick Wolf, “The Magic Position.”
5. Minutemen, “Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda, Son.”
6. Kanye West, “Big Brother.” The final song from “Graduation,” this is West discussing his complicated relationship with Jay-Z. The Roc-A-Fella magnate brought West in to produce tracks on 2000’s “Dynasty Roc La Famiglia,” then West was the main beatmaker on 2001’s “The Blueprint” and went on to his current fame as a solo artist on the Roc-A-Fella roster, but West said he’s been kept at a distance and claims that Jay-Z pilfered ideas from him — such as working with Chris Martin on “Kingdom Come.” (For the record, the Coldplay-infused “Homecoming” from “Graduation” is far better than “Beach Chair”) These kind of tracks can be insufferable — check The Game’s whining about his estrangement from Dr. Dre on 2006’s “Doctor’s Advocate,” but this works because of the tangled gratitude and frustration in West’s lyrics and the blaxploitation grooves under them.
7. Human League, “The Lebanon.”
8. Lavender Diamond, “When You Wake For Certain.”
9. The Autumn Defense, “Canyon Arrow.”
10. Vampire Weekend, “Ladies of Cambridge.” Of all the things that indie rock could co-opt in 2007, I sincerely never thought that the Township Jive/Unstoppable Beat of Soweto thing would be it. But these New York City preps have it down. Vampire Weekend’s debut disc comes out next month. Meanwhile, Paul Simon plans his next trip to Johannesburg.
Before taking her stateside bow as an immensely talented retro-soul vixen and self-destructive tabloid train wreck with “Back to Black,” Amy Winehouse won over her native England with 2003’s “Frank.” Now released domestically in an expanded form, “Frank” displays a jazzier, less disheveled Winehouse vamping to torch songs and embracing modern R&B instead of the Shirley Bassey spy music of her sophomore disc.
Winehouse begins “Frank” with the electro-jazz “Stronger Than Me,” a vicious takedown of a submissive suitor, in which Winehouse’s voice lilts while Steely Dan-style horns and electronic bass hum in the background. She displays wider range here than on “Black” — “Cherry” is a great acoustic jazz ballad, and “In My Bed” turns the same Incredible Bongo Band sample that powered Nas’ “Made You Look” into suitable backing for a killer ballad.
Knock Winehouse for her bad behavior, but it’s worth hoping that the “Rehab” she abhors will eventually do the trick. “Frank” is further evidence that Winehouse has talent worth saving.
Michael Caine, left, and Jude Law in “Sleuth.”
A great actor by any measure, Michael Caine has the unfortunate habit of sullying his classic performances by appearing as elder characters in inferior remakes. He did it seven years ago in the awful Sylvester Stallone version of his 1971 classic, “Get Carter,” and now he does it in director Kenneth Branagh and playwright Harold Pinter’s wan version of “Sleuth.”
In Joseph Mankiewicz’ 1972 original, Lawrence Olivier played Andrew Wyke, a posh novelist living in a gadget-filled manse and engaging in a wily battle of wills with Milo Tindle (Caine), a young hairdresser having an affair with his wife.
This new “Sleuth” should be a killer. Branagh’s remake is lean and mean — it’s about two-thirds the length of Mankiewicz’ original, and Pinter streamlined this one into a two-character, two-actor affair. But all parties involved lost the beat, and while there is nasty fun to be had watching Caine and Jude Law tackle this material, they barely seem to be taking it seriously.
In this one, Wyke lives in an icy techno-castle, surrounded by the latest in plasma screens and efficiency gadgets. When Tindle (Law) answers Wyke’s invitation to a meeting, the clever novelist offers a deal: He can keep his wife if Tindle will steal some jewels from a safe in the mansion. Then Wyke can cash a $1 million insurance claim, and everyone will be happy.
What follows is a cat-and-mouse game in which Wyke and Tindle take turns playing the cat. But to both actors and especially Law (who has a habit of following Caine’s career around like a lost puppy: He played “Alfie” in the desultory remake), there never seems to be any real commitment or sense of danger.
To top it off, Branagh is having too much of a laugh with odd angles and pointless staging. Then Pinter tacks on a new third act that was not in Anthony Shaffer’s original play, and “Sleuth” starts to resemble Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap,” which Sidney Lumet filmed in 1982 starring — who else? — Michael Caine.
“Sleuth” is engaging at times, but one cannot help but wish for something better from this team. Instead, it’s 86 minutes of watching four towering talents whiffing on what should have been a grand slam.
Insider Trading: For all the advances made in online content, sometimes you get these glaring disasters emanating from generally reputable quarters. For instance, if you go to TVGuide.com to check out the listings for “Inside Man” (7 p.m. HBO-300), the pop-up offers a link to a godawful movie from 1984 called “The Inside Man,” a Swedish-British Cold War melodrama that advertises Dennis Hopper as the main player on the cover, though he’s secondary or tertiary at best. You know the type — copies for $1.99 in a big vat of wrestling compilations and forgotten TV flicks starring Meredith Baxter next to the checkout at Wal-Mart. And they’re VHS, no less.
“Inside Man,” by comparison or by any measure, is top shelf: a Spike Lee-helmed suspense film with Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster. As hostage negotiation films go, it’s unusually twisty, and Lee proves he can do a great mainstreamer without pushing hot buttons. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
“Rock” and Reruns: In basic cable/broadcast world, things are a tad sketchy: sweeps have ended, people are supposedly spending their evenings shopping or guzzling eggnog in front of a roaring fireplace or whatnot, so it’s rerunsville for “Ugly Betty,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Office.” Yes TiVo, you go hungry tonight on season passes except for “30 Rock” (7:30 p.m. NBC/KFOR-4), which involves Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) spending his community service hours coaching Little League — somehow, all those kids are going to end up at a strip club, I’m telling you. Meanwhile, Lemon (Tina Fey) gets hot and bothered with a barrista who is 17 years younger than she is. There’s a reason why they call this episode “Cougars,” and it’s not just the name of the Little League team.
1. Alice Smith, “Do I.” Alice Smith is a soul singer, but most of her songs fall more within classic Beatles structures — that’s soul based on how you sing it, not on expected conventions. Her debut disc, “For Lovers, Dreamers and Me” — sorry, no Kermit covers there — is a strong beginning, but my prediction is that it will be her second disc that sets the world on fire. She has about a seven-octave range — Kate Bush territory — but her vocal timbre is more along the lines of Alicia Keys. By all means, watch Alice Smith: she will be huge.
2. Miles Davis, “Moon Dreams.”
3. Kunek, “The Swell.”
4. Interpol, “Mammoth.”
5. The Hold Steady, “Take Me Out To the Ball Game.” For all his slurry Asbury Park-isms, you’d think The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn was born barreling down an endless Jersey freeway, speeding past life’s offramps, but while the Hold Steady now make their home back east, they are Minneapolis guys, and super-faithful Twins fans. This takes the old seventh-inning stretch favorite and makes it sound as drunk as a face-painter behind home plate at the bottom of the ninth.
6. Dixie Chicks, “Silent House.”
7. Happy Chichester, “Artificial Fanfare (Music in My Head)”
8. Ghostface Killah, “Be Easy.”
9. Langley Schools Music Project, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft.”
10. Os Mutantes, “Panis Et Circenses.” Bread and circuses! This is what our life is in the here and now, right? Staticblog is just one of those circuses, keeping you in the center ring of pop culture’s big top when you really should be watching the world markets or keeping tabs on the Sudan. But no, you’re here reading about Brazilian psychedelia and looking at pictures of Lily Allen. Shame!
Sorry, no bread yet. I’m not really a baking kind of guy — I cook like a talented Parisian rat, but I can’t bake worth anything. I used to make my own pizza crust, but it was like trying to bite your way out of a straitjacket.
Fah Who For-Aze: Go green tonight with another Christmas classic from the mid-’60s, the Chuck Jones-directed 1966 favorite, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (7:30 p.m. ABC/KOCO-5). Boris Karloff narrates and voices the high-altitude Who hater with the put-upon puppy, and you know that outclasses Jim Carrey’s version by a long shot. If you don’t get into this, your heart must be three sizes too small. There are also green Christmas opportunities prior to “Grinch” with “Shrek the Halls” (7 p.m. ABC/KOCO-5), but after the last “Shrek” film, I’m thinking this is one earwax candle that needs to be blown out.
Life’s What You Make It: In a just world, “Life” (9 p.m. NBC/KFOR-4) would be the breakout hit of the year, but how do you sell a story about a cop convicted of murder who is sent to prison, where he becomes a Zen master and fresh fruit enthusiast and is sprung 12 years later on DNA evidence, is given a massive settlement and returns to the force? Sounds like a high-concept fever dream suffered by a TV writer after too much time on the picket line, right?
But it’s great — along with “Journeyman,” this is one of my favorite new shows of this abbreviated season. So it doesn’t become a huge hit, but it should appeal to HBO habitues. Damien Lewis (”Band of Brothers”) stars as Det. Charlie Crews, the eccentric in question; Robin Weigert (Calamity Jane in “Deadwood”) is his captain, and the show is filled with strong, interesting characters who develop with each episode. Like many current hour-long dramas, this one has a subplot arc involving Crews’ continuing investigation of his frame-up, and the show has some great supporting players, especially Sarah Shahi (who played the Vegas stripper who shared Tony’s post-Moltisanti ’shroom-fueled vision quest in the final season of “The Sopranos”) as his partner, Dani Reece, Adam Arkin as Ted Earley, the white collar criminal who now serves as Crews’ financial adviser, and the great character actor Garret Dillahunt (played both Jack McCall and Francis Wolcott on “Deadwood”) as a Russian mobster.
1. Common, “I Want You.” This track has the best mellow hip-hop groove of 2007 this side of Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights,” but on “Finding Forever,” Common has the nasty habit of letting his A-list hobnobbery influence his rhymes — how is the breakup of Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn relevant to anybody? This happens a few times on “Forever,” and the effect is a little like setting InTouch magazine to a breakbeat. The disc is otherwise strong, but it’s sprinkled with random seconds of “Bleccch.”
2. The Dears, “Hate Then Love.”
3. The Shins, “Fighting in a Sack.”
4. Kate Earl, “Anything.”
5. Fujiya & Miyagi, “Reeboks in Heaven.”
6. Lily Allen, “Smile (Mark Ronson remix).” Nice Motown-spiced remix of Allen’s shoulda-been-huge-on-these-shores single. Right about now, we need some new Lily — her stateside label was being restructured when “Alright, Still” came out here, and we can only hope that Staticblog’s favorite will get the promotion she deserves on the next one. However, she is biding her time on delivery despite official pressure from her U.K. label to deliver a pronto follow-up.
7. Curtis Mayfield, “Militant March.”
8. Silversun Pickups, “Well Thought Out Twinkles.”
9. The Starlight Mints, “Eyes of the Night.”
10. Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, “Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?” This is the song that Camera Obscura “answered” with “Lloyd, I Am Ready to Be Heartbroken,” only about 22 years after the release of Cole’s “Rattlesnakes.” Cole wrote some of the coolest meditative pop of the late-’80s and early ’90s, including his spellbinding but criminally overlooked 1991 CD, “Don’t Get Weird On Me, Babe,” an album that pre-saged today’s current wave of orchestral pop by 15 years. He released a new CD last year, “Anti-Depressant,” and it’s proof that after some frustrating fallow periods, Cole is on his game again.
Butch Walker, the talented songwriter and producer who first hit big with the Marvelous Three in the late 90s and went on to craft big hits for Avril Lavigne, got slammed by the current wave of Malibu fires — really hard. He had just moved his studio into a home he was renting from Flea.
Here’s his statement:
I had just consolidated my entire recording studio and house from Atlanta into the one house In Malibu. I lost everything I’ve ever owned. Every master of every song I’ve ever recorded, every piece of recording equipment, guitars, drums and things I’ve collected over the years, cars, motorcycles, every family memorial, heirloom, picture, and document we ever had… Gone. I feel like I finally know the difference between ‘going back’ and ‘going home’.”
Television coverage of the fires doesn’t really do it justice. I was out there during the October fires, and it nearly blots out the sun. I arrived in Los Angeles at about 4 p.m. during Daylight Saving Time, and it felt like it was about 7:30. You could almost look directly at the sun, but always remember what your 9th grade science teacher told you, boys and girls.
I know it’s hard to worry too much about the rich, but they lose things of sentimental value, too.
