Random 10 for November 20, 2008
1. Ben Folds, “Jesusland.” Songs for Silverman was far more low-key than the comparatively boisterous Way to Normal, but there’s no denying the pastoral beauty and kick-in-the-eye sentiment of “Jesusland.”
2. Art Brut, “Post Soothing Out.”
3. Antibalas, “War Hero.”
4. Weezer, “Pork and Beans.”
5. Wet Willie, “Grits Ain’t Groceries.” A great Southern rock and soul band puts on a big show for the noodle dancers and dixie hippies in Macon, Ga. back in 1973. These are some of the best people in the world, and I can hardly wait to see them again.
6. Evangelicals, “Here in the Deadlights.”
7. Bebel Gilberto, “Summer Samba.”
8. Menomena, “Muscle n’ Flo.”
9. Ween, “Dr. Rock.”
10. Daft Punk, “One More Time.” Actual Daft Punk shows are slightly more realistic than this sparkly anime clip, but only slightly.
Guestroom Records Chart, Week of Nov. 7-14
1. The Flaming Lips
“Christmas on Mars”
(Warner Bros.)
2. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
“Cardinalogy”
(Lost Highway)
3. Girl Talk
“Feed the Animals”
(Illegal Art)
4. MGMT
“Oracular Spectacular”
(Columbia)
5. The Shins
“Wincing the Night Away”
(Sub Pop)
6. MF Doom
“Operation: Doomsday”
(Nature Sounds)
7. Department of Eagles
“In Ear Park”
(4AD)
8. Ray LaMontagne
“Gossip in the Grain”
(RCA)
9. Kings of Leon
“Only by the Night”
(RCA)
10. Coldplay
“Viva La Vida”
(Virgin)
Video of the Day: Ladyhawke, “My Delirium”
Staticblog’s ’80s Redux death march continues, with Pip Brown coming on like the second coming of Kim Wylde. Mother, make it stop!
Random 10 for November 19, 2008
1. Keane, “Spiralling.” A great new single from Perfect Symmetry, a deeply guilty pleasure considering that more than half of the disc sounds almost nothing like the Keane of a few years ago, and everything like, oh, Simple Minds or Icehouse. Icehouse (!) – holy crap, that’s an odd reference!
2. Otis Redding, “Shake.”
3. Death Cab For Cutie, “Long Division.”
4. Devo, “Head Like a Hole.”
5. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, “Rise Up With Fists!!” In which our heroine cops style tips from Donna Fargo or Lynn Anderson or Dottie West for a “Hee Haw” parody, begun with characteristic good taste by Great Schlep mastermind Sarah Silverman. All hail Sarah for getting the bubbies out, which as Chase can explain, is not as dirty as it sounds and doesn’t mean what you want it to mean.
6. The Flaming Lips, “It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big, I Am So Small… Do I Stand a Chance?”
7. M.I.A., “XR2.”
8. The Kooks, “Always Where I Need to Be.”
9. Zero 7, “Out of Town.”
10. Echo & the Bunnymen, “Seven Seas.” From one of my all-time favorites, Ocean Rain, which the Bunnies recently performed in its entirety with an orchestra at Radio City Music Hall — one of those shows I would have taken out a small loan for if I’d known in advance. As for the video, Ian is disturbingly convincing in drag. The same cannot be said of the guys dressed as fish and penguins.
DVD Review: “Encounters at the End of the World”
Rating: 88
William Jirsa, a linguist living on a continent without language, aptly describes the people who Werner Herzog follows in his nervy documentary, “Encounters at the End of the World.” He says of his fellow campers at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, “If you take everybody who’s not tied down, they all sort of fall down to the bottom of the planet.” Herzog hates what he sees of McMurdo, a place that looks like a frozen mining camp with yoga and aerobics classes, but he’s fascinated by the untied people he finds there.
McMurdo is where residents train for whiteout conditions by walking with buckets on their heads, where scientists watch apocalyptic science fiction flicks for comfort, where researchers play guitars on top of the station when they find a frightening new sea creature under the ice. They listen to underwater sea lion calls that sound like Pink Floyd. They grow hydroponic tomatoes.
Featuring underwater photography and music by guitarist/research diver Henry Kaiser, “Encounters at the End of the World” is at turns beautiful and harrowing — it’s “not another penguin movie.” When Herzog, ever the slash-and-burn realist, asks a scientist if there is “such a thing as insanity among penguins?” he gets his answer as we see a penguin become disoriented and waddle toward the faraway mountains — and its certain death. As this film indicates, we all might be following that bird: a giant volcanic force under Antarctica could destroy all life at any time. “End of the World” indeed.
Music Review: John Legend, “Evolver” (G.O.O.D. Music/Columbia)
Rating: 51
Too breezy and disconnected for its own good, “Evolver” is the sound of John Legend betraying the musical promise he showed on “Get Lifted” and the substance he displays when talking politics with Bill Maher. Beginning with the Moog baubles backing him on the featherweight single “Green Light,” Legend flits from reggae-lite to sambas without elevating many of his tracks beyond supper-club soul.
Strange that Legend would choose to call the disc “Evolver,” since it only evinces stylistic and substantial growth in fleeting instances. “If You’re Out There,” the closing track, is a stirring, Peter Gabriel-like ballad that the singer premiered at the Democratic National Convention, and “I Love, You Love” is ingeniously built on a sample of Dire Straits’ “Tunnel of Love,” but much of “Evolver” feels disappointingly retrograde.
Sure, there’s the slick, Rodeo Drive R&B of “It’s Over,” featuring an auto-tuned vocal assist from Kanye West, or Gary Numan-like synth noodling on “Satisfaction” that could offer some mild diversions, but nothing as powerful as “Ordinary People” or even “Save Room” can be found. Just a few years ago, John Legend seemed destined to live up to his name, but “Evolver” is anything but legendary.
Random 10 for November 18, 2008
1. El Perro Del Mar, “Glory To the World.” Sweden’s Sarah Assbring (yes, you’d use a pseudonym, too) uses a magic telescope to peer into her fellow scientists’ psyches while serenading us with child-like rhymes that make Jonathan Richman sound like Slayer.
2. The Lovely Feathers, “In the Valley.”
3. Radiohead, “Electioneering.”
4. The Ark, “This Piece of Poetry is Meant to Do Harm.”
5. The Long Blondes, “Guilt.” (clap. clap. clap-clap-clap. clap-clap-clap. clap.) Dog Show! Sadly, Couples, which was released in April, is likely to be it for the Long Blondes. The band’s guitarist, Dorian Cox, suffered a stroke last summer, has had a difficult recovery and announced three weeks ago the band was packing it in as a result. A sad end to a promising band.
6. Lewis Black, “The Fall, Hurricanes and Weather.”
7. The Dirtbombs, “Sherlock Holmes.”
8. Todd Rundgren, “Mighty Love.”
9. St. Vincent, “Your Lips Are Red.”
10. The Brand New Heavies, “Dream On Dreamer.” A classic case of Band, Interrupted. An interracial British group that came up through the acid jazz scene in the ’80s, the Heavies joined up with American R&B singer N’dea Davenport in the early ’90s, only to see her leave after the band’s 1994 breakthrough, Brother Sister, truly one of the greatest collections of neo-soul to come out of that period. She was replaced by session singer Siedah Garrett for ’97′s Shelter, but the chemistry was off. In 1998, Davenport put out an extraordinarily sexy album of bedroom funk, Underneath the Red Moon, while the Brand New Heavies drifted into “big in Japan” obscurity. They reunited with Davenport in 2006 with Get Used to It, and stylistically had not skipped a beat, but commercially, this strong band had lost momentum.
President Bush Appoints Lee Greenwood to the National Arts Council
God Bless This Shirt
No, this is not The Onion. This is real life:
Lee Greenwood, known for writing and performing the most recognized patriotic song of our time – “God Bless the U.S.A.” – will soon be garnering air miles to and from the nation’s capitol. Greenwood has accepted a Presidential appointment to the National Endowment for the Arts council and will serve a six-year term.
Appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate, the Nashville-based country singer is scheduled to be sworn in today, Nov. 17, as one of the 14 regular members of the National Council on the Arts. Council members advise the NEA chairman, and their portfolio includes reviewing and making recommendations on applications for grants from the $145-million-a-year federal agency.
“My appointment to the council of the National Endowment of the Arts is a great opportunity for me to be involved in searching out the best in art in our American culture & to lend a hand to help develop talented artists & artistic programs that would otherwise go unnoticed,” adds Greenwood.
Yes, I’m an elitist. You knew that. I guess this will keep all of us latte-sipping Volvo pilots in our place for the next four to eight.
Random 10 for November 17, 2008
1. John Legend, “Green Light.” The Sound Opinions guys hit the bullseye on this one, and their assessment is an unfortunate one: John Legend seemed poised to be the great hope for modern soul, and yet he seems to be drifting away on his inappropriately titled new disc, Evolver. It’s pleasant enough, but Legend has lost his edge and is making by-the-numbers lurve man music.
2. Camille, “Ta Douleur.”
3. Modest Mouse, “Other People’s Lives.”
4. Neutral Milk Hotel, “Ghost.”
5. Original Cast, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, “Midnight Radio.” A truly perfect power ballad/showtune, and that might be the first time I’ve written that in my life.
6. Kate Bush, “Bertie.”
7. Forward Russia, “Twelve.”
8. Ivy, “Digging Your Scene.”
9. Keane, “You Haven’t Told Me Anything.”
10. The Postmarks, “11:59.” I fell in love with this Miami trio when I first heard their sweet-sad debut in early 2007, and the band led by the very female and extremely marketable Tim Yehezkely has followed up that disc with a great covers disc featuring inspired versions of Jesus and Mary Chain, Cure, Ramones and Antonio Carlos Jobim songs, as well as this great Blondie cover. 1-12 By the Numbers is out now, and since Ivy hasn’t put out anything in a few years, the Postmarks are here to take the pain away.
Random 10 for Nov. 13, 2008
1. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, “You Could Die (or This Might End)”
2. Sugar, “Hoover Dam”
3. Kiss, “Detroit Rock City”
Like the Seann William Scott character in Role Models, I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for Paul, Peter, Gene and Ace. The band was my second-ever rock ‘n’ roll concert (the first, dear God, were the Bay City Rollers), as well as my third … and fourth. This 1976 TV clip of “Detroit Rock City” features, for whatever reason, a quick glimpse of Paul Lynde, obviously befuddled at being outside his comfort zone of the Center Square.
4. Tom Waits, “Temptation”
5. The Replacements, “Nightclub Jitters”
6. Devo, “Whip It”
7. The Fabulous Thunderbirds, “Wrap It Up”
Yeah, it’s certainly a cheesy Eighties relic of a video, but the 1986 song itself — penned by the late, great Isaac Hayes — is a straightforward blast of blues-based rock, well-served by the hearty vocals of Kim Wilson.
8. Green Day, “Geek Stink Breath”
Forget those old “this is your brain on drugs” PSAs from yesteryear. This Green Day power-pop gem from 1995 gets to the essence of methamphetamine: “Every hour my blood is turning sour / And my pulse is beating out of time / I found a treasure, filled with sick pleasure / And it sits on a thin white line.”
9. Esquivel, “Brazil”
10. BR5-49, “Lifetime to Prove”
– Chase
