Tuesday, November 1, 2005

MMJ #3 - Great Openings Esquire Magazine recently wrote that the first three songs of My Morning Jacket's Z - "Wordless Chorus," "It Beats 4U," and "Gideon" - were the "most satisfying 12 minutes of the year." It's an amazing opening for an album. The first song is like a statement of purpose, complete with the mind-blowingly beautiful chorus of the title, and the declaration "we are the innovators, they are the imitators." "It Beats 4U" is a complicated, tight, sexy song that is simply mesmerizing. But the keynote, the reason for buying the record, is "Gideon." This song is just astounding. The crushing guitars that swoop in after the second verse. The persistence of the guitars, driving the song along, pushing toward that amazing crescendo where James jumps an octave and the hairs on your neck stand straight up. I loved this image so much that I started thinking of more perfect beginnings. I started a list of the best introductions - three songs only - that have the same kind of effect, whether it's stating a purpose, sounding the alarm, or just erasing the world so nothing remains except you and the music in your ear. I'll keep my comments short. Public Enemy: Nation of Millions. The siren blast, both literally and figuratively, of the introduction. The explosive blast of "Bring the Noize." And then the stuttering, squealing braggadocio of "Don't Believe the Hype," raising the bar while seeming to want to tamp down expectations. The band had nothing to lose and the entire world of hiphop that it wanted to lay claim to. They almost did it. Radiohead: Kid A. "Everything In Its Right Place" set the tone: bewilderment, disorientation, and fear, coupled with an unexpected swirl of effects that chopped Thom Yorke's voice into a dizzy Greek chorus. "Kid A" explained everything and nothing, and then "The National Anthem" drove the point home: all is not well. The house is on fire, the children all alone and maybe not what they seem after all. Three songs, full of musical experiments, from the schizoid horn section on "Anthem" to the muffled distorted vocals on "Kid A." The Beatles: Sergeant Pepper. "Sgt Pepper," "With a Little Help from My Friends," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Who needs drugs? The Beatles showed everyone how to create an entire musical world in less than 10 minutes. Sleater-Kinney: The Woods. This album signified that S-K was willing to throw out the rules, and maybe half of their fan base, in order to move themselves out of their self-diagnosed rut. From the first pounding notes of "The Fox," to the nightmare parable and roaring stomp of "Wilderness," they sounded harder, blurrier, and more aggressive than ever before. Then "What's Mine is Yours" comes on, and then grinds to a halt as Carrie kicks her guitar across the stage, and you realize that this a band that you've never even seen before, or even suspected to exist. Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet. PE does it again. The intro, "Contract on the World Love Jam," sets the scene of PE, rap music, and the world as a whole. Then each MC takes his turn: Chuck D, with "Brothers Gonna Work it Out," one of the most musically and verbally complex rap songs ever recorded, Chuck sounds simultaneous notes of hope and dread, and Flavor Flav, with "911 is a Joke," moves from slapstick comedy to semi-serious political digs with a wildly funny and yet still tragic tirade. This was back in the days when Flav was tragic for his subject matter,and not for his drug busts and love life. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Really, all you need to hear is the eight-minute "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" to get into the world of this album. But that magnificent song is followed by two equally mysterious and murky songs, "Camera," and "Radio Cure." I find myself continually hypnotized by this record. R.E.M.: Reckoning. "Harborcoat." "7 Chinese Brothers." "So. Central Rain." Every one a classic. Every one, a moment in time. One of the best openings on one of the best R.E.M. records. What else? Give me your favorite album intro - three killer tracks all in a row. 5:45:23 PM     Speak up!  []

MMJ #2 - Space Rock? Southern Rock? I had a list in my mind of the bands that might be compared to My Morning Jacket.  The list included, in part:  The Allman Brothers Phish Wilco (at some of their harder-rocking moments) Bright Eyes The Black Crowes and so on.  I expected to hear Southern rock, long-hair-flowing party rock, and some folky influences (maybe add Crosby, Stills and Nash to the above list.) I didn't expect to hear such a similarity to Radiohead.  I'm talking about the Radiohead of "The Bends" and "OK Computer."  The songs are complex and widely varied, and they certainly don't have much of a common theme besides Jim James' oddball echoplexed voice.  The intricacy, the clever details, the unexpected and nearly neglected details, all remind me of the way Radiohead crafts its songs.  Let me say a word here about the term "space rock" that gets bandied about so much in reviews MMJ's work.  I don't understand what it means.  What the hell is "space rock?"  Esquire said that the guitar riffs in "Gideon" were "interplanetary."  WTF?  They're not interplanetary.  The lead riff is intricate and interlocked, and certainly suggests continuity or infinity or something grand, but I don't think it sounds "interplanetary."  It seems like a copout term.  It's music review shorthand, one of those meaningless and ubiquitous terms that critics resort to when they don't know how to approach their subject. "Space rock" to me implies space, and I have certain pieces of music that I think invoke space.  "Echoes" by Pink Floyd.  Parts of "Electric Ladyland" by Jimi Hendrix.  The entire "2001" soundtrack. Space to me sounds vast, echoey, empty, and somewhat frightening.  and there's other stuff that sounds not spacey, but alien.  Like "Ok Computer."  Like anything by Sigur Ros - now that's music that sounds like it came from outer space.  But what the hell are does MMJ have to do with space?  The only spacey thing about their music is the echo on James' voice, and if that make them "space rock," then so does Duane Eddy's use of tremolo.  And Bo Diddley's, for that matter.  4:15:56 PM     Speak up!  []

MMJ # 1 - Rock 'n Roll Deathmatch I have many, many thoughts after purchasing My Morning Jacket's new album, Z.  I'm going to post them as a series, starting here. I bought Z at the same time as Death Cab for Cutie's new album, Plans.  The pairing was completely unfair.  Imagine, if you will, Tyra Banks standing on the same stage as Al Franken.  Imagine the Rolling Stones opening for Elliott Smith.  Imagine Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees - or worse yet, Hendrix opening for Donovan.  Or Townes Van Zandt.  Or Tim Buckley.  I tried to listen to Plans several times, every time after listening to Z.  It was totally unfair and a little cruel to put these two albums side-by-side.  DCFC is gentle, often acoustic, with carefully crafted lyrics delivered with impeccable enunciation. MMJ is wild, raucous, and spontaneous.  They're loud.  Their lead singer has a habit of going "Whoo!" in the middle of songs, something that Ben Gibbard has never attempted to my knowledge.  You can headbang to My Morning Jacket.  You can watch the rain sliding down your window and listen to Death Cab.  The two albums are staggeringly dissimilar, and a record like Z is bound to blow away nearly any other album up against it, but a quiet, introspective, gentle album like Plans never really stood a chance. This is not a slam.  I love Plans, but I had to put away Z for a while before I could really listen to it, and give it its due.  But as much as I appreciate Plans and am impressed by it and value it, I love, love, love Z.  Love.  2:00:20 PM     Speak up!  []

Alito - Here's One Question Bush tried time and again to convince people that Harriet Miers was the most qualified person for the Supreme Court.  Or, as he put it, "the best person I could find."  So my question is this - which rock was Samuel Alito hiding under, that he never turned up until Harriet Miers pulled her nomination? To put it another way - if Sam Alito is so perfectly qualified for the Supreme Court, how come he was Bush's second choice?  That's the big question.  Everything else comes after.  What was wrong with Samuel Alito's resume that caused Miers to be picked up before him?  What does Bush know about him that the American people don't - yet? 8:37:45 AM     Speak up!  []