Sky Bluesky: Music is Like Food

Sleater-Kinney - the End of the Road

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:54:20 GMT

Sleater-Kinney is breaking up. The website says it's an "indefinite hiatus," but I know a euphemism when I read it. They're done. Corin Tucker will move to widely acclaimed and occasionally misunderstood solo albums. Carrie will throw down as a guest artist on albums by Pearl Jam, the Gossip, and the Queens of the Stone Age. Janet Weiss will still play with Quasi, and some other group will have the good sense to sweep her up. She may be the only drummer strong enough to replace Matt Cameron, should he ever leave Pearl Jam.

Sleater-Kinney is breaking up. They released the most unexpected and devastating record of their career, the one that makes everything else look like an elementary school project. Then they folded up the tent. I'm left with a new sense of sadness every time I hear the blowtorch opening of "The Fox" or the vicious interplay of "Entertain." This was the last album by this band. This was the one that killed them.

I've been comforting myself with overload. I've been watching clips of them on the Henry Rollins show and live segments off the website. I'm listening to two live concerts from 2005 posted here (and my sincere gratitude goes out to the host. The cover of "Fortunate Son" is a gem, and the retooled versions of old songs are remarkable.) I've been reading their biography off the website, the birth I missed, even though I'm out in the land of evergreens and coffee. I didn't pick up on S-K until "The Hot Rock," and I didn't really hear them until "All Hands on the Bad One." And then I was hooked. I explored their catalog backwards, only recently hearing their remarkable debut album. I've only seen them once, during the AHOABO tour, playing a 1/3-full Key Arena and blowing the lid off it.

It's a week of transition here at Casa Bluesky, and it only hit me yesterday. This is the last week I'll be home with Oliver full time. Next week, Mrs. B comes home, and hopefully, I'll be working somewhere, either temping it or suddenly seizing a full-time gig. We have today and tomorrow, and then it's over. I'll talk more about this in a later posting. (I'm not ready yet.)

So what I'm doing today is project all of my emotions of loss and sadness about ending my stay-at-home tenure into my sadness about losing Sleater-Kinney. That's the only explanation for why I started getting weepy halfway through the (weird, foresty, blurry) video for "Entertain." That's gotta be it.

I saw something online that suggested that Le Tigre might be breaking up, too. If that's true, I'm just gonna fall apart.

Friday 5 + 5: Music Notes + What This is Not

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 03:31:41 GMT

P.S. To my old blog readers: the 5 + 5 thing is a new tradition of sorts I've started on the new blog. Be nice to me. It's a way to force myself to post at least once a week.)

New records sneak up on me. I don't know why. It should be fairly obvious that bands who release albums in 2004 or 2005 are obligated to follow with a new release sometime around this year. This rule doesn't always apply (David Gilmour took two decades between solo releases), but it generally works. So why, then, was I stunned when I heard about the new Drive-by Truckers release, "A Blessing and a Curse?" They were due. Their last record came out in mid-2004. What's the shock?

Ditto for Public Enemy's new release. PE, actually, has been recording like gangbusters, but every time I hear of a new album, I'm taken by surprise. Their new record, Rebirth of a Nation, is a fascinating project. The entire album's lyrics are written by Paris, who made my "Best of the '90s" list with his landmark "The Devil Made Me Do It." (Then he got the CIA on his back when he released "Bush Killa" about the first George Bush.) I'm not sure it always works, but it's sure an interesting concept.

So, I'm going to attempt to prepare myself for the new releases from a few artists that I love. These are the records I'm most looking forward to... eventually:

5 Albums Worth Looking Forward to:

1. Sleater-Kinney's follow-up to "The Woods." This is what I said about their last record:

This will be one of the albums they talk about in twenty years, along with "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and "Kid A" and the other great albums of the early 21st century. This is an unbelievably great album. Stop reading this. Go get it.

Go!

For their last record, they moved to a studio on the East Coast, hired Dave Fridmann, and blew up the original mold of S-K. The guitars were explosive, the vocals were full-on ferocious, and everything sounded grittier and sloppier. It was great. Here's hoping they can pull more surprises next time.

2. Hem's next studio record. I loved their first two albums, "Rabbitsongs" and "Eveningland." Their latest record, "No Word from Tom," is a collection of live tracks, odd covers, and unreleased tracks. The covers are intriguing, but in the live songs, you can hear that the band has found its heart as an actual band. Sally Ellyson's mystical voice sounds steadier and more grounded now, and the band spins new melodies and new takes on already-familiar tracks. "Eveningland" was a more confident record than the first, and the next album may be something amazing.

3. Kanye West's follow-up to "Late Registration." "The College Dropout" was brilliant. "Late Registration" was the multi-platinum hiphop record of the year. What's he going to do next?

4. The Go! Team's next record. Their first record was a revelation of frantic guitar, multilayered samples, and radical-cheerleader vocals. Can't wait to see what's up their sleeve next time.

5. Anything new, anything at all, by MF Doom. Yeah, I'm hooked. I have no idea what he's talking about half the time, but his flow is hypnotic and his musical choices are always surprising. After the madly inspired "Mouse and the Mask" collaboration with DJ Dangermouse, he is quite literally capable of doing anything.

Just because I've always wanted to do this, I'm now going to answer the inevitable question. The concept of a Friday 5 + 5 list is my own invention.

Friday 5 + 5 is not a tribute to:

1. Faith, the evil slayer on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," who often said "five by five" as an expression that all was well.

2. Chuck Woolery, who went to commercials on "Love Connection" by saying he'd be back in "two and two."

3. David Letterman's top ten lists.

4. Any am radio station that does traffic and weather on the fives.

5. The numerologically significant 5. Although I was born in May (5th month) on the 25th day (5 X 5), and you can add up the numbers of the year I was born to get 25 (still 5 x 5.) But no, it's not that.

The War Against Music

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 23:03:40 GMT

The music industry's acting like a bunch of thugs.

In New York, Patti Santangelo, a mother who's being sued for illegal file-sharing, has decided to fight back. The RIAA has offered to settle her suit for a few thousand dollars, but she's not taking the offer. Instead, she's gone public with her fight, and managed to raise enough cash from online supporters to hire a proper lawyer. (Go to www.fightgoliath.com to help the cause.) She is the first victim of a RIAA scaresuit to aggressively fight the RIAA's legal onslaught. But now it's getting ugly. The RIAA has apparently decided to go after her children - not directly, but by digging up personal information it plans to unveil in open court.

What kind of personal information? It's not specified in the article, but imagine your own personal history as it can be seen on the internet. Your Google searches. Your entries on bulletin boards. Every recipe, every photograph, every news item you've ever clicked on, shared in court for all to see. Now imagine you're a teenager, in the festering stew of hormones, peer pressure, and terror that we all remember too well.   This is character assassination and the threat of public humiliation wielded as a weapon.

The RIAA lawsuits are an amazing spectacle of the (big) music industry trying to burn down their fan base. They're ignoring the obvious problem (most music on the airwaves and in the mall record stores sucks) and have decided that downloading and filesharing are causing the decline in record sales.   Music labels are finally starting to splinter off from the monolith: Nettwerk, home to Barenaked Ladies, Sarah MacLachlan, and Bluesky favorite Hem, has decided to join a Texas man also fighting back against the RIAA. Nettwerk is paying the legal expenses of David Greubel, who is being sued for allegedly sharing the music of Nettwerk artist Avril Lavigne, among other tracks. Nettwerk executive Terry McBride is speaking out against the "crazy" behavior of the RIAA. "The fan is the future. Suing the fan is like shooting yourself in the foot."

Sharing music creates buzz, which makes artists. Witness the Arctic Monkeys, England's latest phenomenon, a literal file-sharing success story. The band's word-of-mouth groundswell of support is impossible to imagine without file-sharing, and the semi-old-fashioned way of sharing music, via home-burned CDs.

But we live in an era where the wild-eyed RIAA lawyers are saying that the simple act of burning your own CDs onto your own computer to use on your own MP3 player may be illegal.   This is no longer about protecting artists' rights. The lawyers are running amok, and they have lost their ability to be reasonable. They have lost the right to pretend that they representing anything good and decent about music. They represent nothing more than dollar signs. What ever happens next in this war, one can only think that the Goliath will get what it truly deserves.

Fair Warning

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 02:51:23 GMT

I try to be respectful of my son's delicate eardrums. I use the fader on our car stereo to play the music through the front speakers, and I usually keep it pretty low. After all, he's just a baby.

However, there's always a risk that I'll be playing the radio, and a song will come on the radio that throws my restraint out the window. One of those loud songs, the ones that make you sing at the top of your lungs, break out your best driving dance moves (all head, wrists, and shoulders), and turn up the volume before you realize you've done it. If one of those songs comes on the radio, I cannot take responsibilty for my actions. Oliver's just going to pull his little fuzzy hat over his ears until it's over.

This is the list, so far. Others may be added later, depending on the quality of Seattle radio.

Sly and the Family Stone - "Dance to the Music," "Stand!" "Thank You," "I Want to Take You Higher" (not including any version with will.i.am on it)
T. Rex - "20th Century Boy." "Bang a Gong (Get It On)"
Led Zeppelin - "Kashmir, " "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," "Communication Breakdown," "Whole Lotta Love"
Edited to add: "Misty Mountain Hop." Because, oh my God. That song just kills.
My Morning Jacket - "What a Wonderful Man." "Gideon"
Pearl Jam - "Do the Evolution," "Glorified G," "W.M.A.,""Not for You," "Given to Fly," "Go"
(Note: I live in Seattle, so hearing PJ on the radio is a real risk.)
Neil Young - "Like a Hurricane," "Rockin' in the Free World" (electric)
Derek and the Dominos - "Bell Bottom Blues," "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" "Layla" (not Eric Clapton's wet teabag acoustic version)
Santana - "Soul Sacrifice," "No One to Depend On"
Cream - "Crossroads," "I Feel Free"
Beatles - Everything, but especially "Paperback Writer," Revolution," "She Said She Said," "Helter Skelter," "Rain," and if they ever played it, "It's All Too Much"
U2 - Everything, but especially "Vertigo," "Bullet the Blue Sky," "Elevation," "Love and Peace or Else," and, if they ever played it, "Gloria"
Run-DMC - "It's Tricky" or anything else from "Raising Hell"
Chaka Khan - "I Feel 4 U," "Ain't Nobody"
Prince - "Let's Go Crazy," "When Doves Cry," "Alphabet St.," and if anyone ever played it, "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"

Boycott Sony and Their Love Monkey

Sat, 21 Jan 2006 15:59:12 GMT

"Love Monkey" is a front.

Sure, I almost got sucked in, too. The premise called to me - a young hipster who founds his own record label. It sounded tempting. And one of the real life indie tastemakers, Nic Harcourt, was signed on as music supervisor. This might be worth looking into, says I to myself.

But oh, no. Hell no. The beast that is "Love Monkey" will never illuminate my tv screen. Why? Because it's a goddamn front. A shill. A scam.

Newsweek said "there's nothing else like it on tv," and they didn't know the half of it. In the ultimate example of cross-pollination and secret product placement, Sony BMG is calling the musical shots at "Love Monkey." As Thomas Bartlett pointed out on Audiofile, they're promoting their own artists through the show, putting up their new acts to be the new signees at the new "indie" record label. So all of those people who are supposedly new and unsigned and being "discovered" by Mr. Indie Hipster Lovemonkey are really part of the giant monstrosity that is SonyBMG.

I'm sure there are those who might defend the creators of this commercial chimera. It's a show about rock bands, they might whine. How are you supposed to find good bands now without the help of a label? Oh, let's see. "Square Pegs" was able to get Devo on their show and the Waitresses to do their theme song back in the day - they sure weren't owned by any goddamn music label. Shows like "The O.C.," "Joan of Arcadia," and "Gilmore Girls" are able to come up with lots of good, compelling, occasionally indie artists, and they aren't owned by any goddamn music labels. (I'm willing to believe that there's a little bit of product placement fees going on there, but I can overlook that. It's a difference of degree. The above-mentioned shows exists as shows first, and have music as an incidental part of the show. LoveMonkey is looking to be a music promotion machine disguised as a tv show.)

Y'all might remember that I've got a bit of antipathy towards Sony for hating their customers. They hate their customers so much that they planted rootkits surreptitiously on millions of CDs to keep them from doing things with "their" CDs that Sony didn't want them to do. The rootkits have destroyed computers, allowed viruses to seep in, pissed off the world in general and set Sony up for lawsuits by the score.

So now unsuspecting millions are going to watch what they think is a tv show, but it turns out to only be an infomercial for the SonyBMG beast. Don't be taken in. Fuck Sony.

If you end up watching it, then you only have yourself to blame. You've been had. You've been took. You been hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Led astray. Run amok.

Google Humor

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 13:31:51 GMT

(I'm not talking about that Justice Department subpeona that Google's resisting. Because that shit ain't funny.)

You know how, if you're looking for multiple words in a search, Google will show the text from a website that contains those words? Usually, they excise huge portions of text in order to show the searched words. Someone was doing a search and found my blog, and Google showed the following excerpt. Note: the first part of this refers to Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, which makes it even funnier.

... The lyrics are up to Jeff's standard of excellence: paranoid, wistful, wishful poems ... "I don't know what you heard about me...but I'm a motherfuckin' PIMP."

Hey, Boycott Sony! Still! Again!

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:06:54 GMT

There's been entirely too much news about the Sony DRM debacle for my l'il old blog to cover. Also, BoingBoing, Rolling Stone, and the MSM have been doing a fine job of covering the fiasco. But here's the basics.

Boycott Sony. They're evil and have no respect for music fans.
Even if you didn't buy a Sony CD with the rootkit on it, you're still in trouble. There's another DRM scheme on other CDs, including My Morning Jacket's Z, that will install itself on your computer even if you hit "decline" when asked if you want to install it. (Because "no" means "yes.")
Sony was incredibly slow in even admitting they had a problem, even as viruses were taking advantage of the secret rootkit to launch on thousands of computers. At its worst, Sony BMG's president Thomas Hesse offered the amazingly tone-deaf comment, "Most people don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"At first, they claimed to have an uninstaller available which didn't really uninstall the software. Then they started offering replacement CDs - um, hello, you poisoned my computer? I really don't think I want another CD from you. Finally, they made MP3s available to those who bought the poison CDs, MP3s which are doubtlessly being traded all up and down the Internet as revenge.
MMJ (and other bands) have been nice enough to short-circuit Sony's neanderthal
reaction by offering their own solution. They're sending fans burned, unprotected copies of the offending CDs. (Speaking of unprotected MP3s, ATO Records - which is owned/distributed by Sony - has just started making their catalog available on EMusic as mp3s with no DRM protection whatsoever. Highlights include two Patty Griffin albums and Mike Doughty's latest, as well as his previous releases. Coincidence?)
The backlash is large, vast, and growing. Libraries are refusing to buy Sony discs. Lawsuits are flying at a breathtaking pace.

Summary? Digital rights management doesn't work. In the old days, you bought a record or a cassette and it was free - you could tape it, make mix tapes or whatever, and you owned all of it. Now Sony (and others!) are trying to put ridiculous limitations on HOW you own the music you buy. Their latest scheme only exposes the fallacy of needing customers and yet not trusting them. Sony still deserves to be punished for their assault on their customer base. Don't buy Sony CDs for presents - if you must have some of these artists, download the songs from iTunes or EMusic. At least that way, you know what you're getting.

Rocking OUT!

Sat, 10 Dec 2005 14:45:37 GMT

I'm just digging the new Go! Team record like crazy. I love the feel of this record - it's loud, crazy, exuberant, and you just want to jump up and down when you hear music like this. The tambourine and wild-eyed horn section on "Junior Kickstart," the playground chant of "We Just Won't Be Defeated," the kooky cut-and-paste boogie of "Bottle Rocket," all of it. It's wild, silly fun.

The drums are just joyous. The horns are over the top and crazy. The vocals all seem like playground taunts or cheerleaders with bad attitudes. (Apparently, there's samples aplenty here, but there's lots of live music, too, and it's hard to separate one from the other.) And I don't think there's any grand message behind these songs - I can't even make out the lyrics most of the time. But it's fun and silly music, and that's all you need sometimes, right?

They remind me of the jubilantly childlike debut record by Call and Response. Call and Response was more bubblegummy, though - this has scratching and weird samples and a few raps here and there. And beats. Oh, man, the drums! I'm listening to "Bottle Rocket" right now, and the drums are pushed way up front. It sounds like two drummers playing in almost-but-not-quite time with each other. Oddly, the drum style sounds like marching band drumming, especially the riffs on "Ladyflash." (Do I hear a glockenspiel?)

Pitchfork tried to get all analytical and say that these guys were hearkening back to the theme songs of early '80s tv. I don't know about all that, but this is the perfect soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist yet.

Go get this album now. If you're cheap, get "Bottle Rocket," "Junior Kickstart," "Ladyflash" and, oh, "The Power is On," which thumps like the best tracks by Gorillaz or Timbaland or maybe both put together. And if you're really cheap, or if you just want to hear these cats live, go to KEXP's website to hear their live performance. Wowee wow wow wow.

P.S. Not only is the album fun, but it's bringing out the best in critics trying to explain the sound. A sampling:

The album-opening "Panther Dash" begins in noise that gives way to clacking drumsticks, a surf guitar, a hopscotch-style count-off, and a winsome Midnight Cowboy-inspired harmonica part, then squeals out into noise again...A challenge to even the most hardened depressive, Thunder, Lightning, Strike finds one way after another to shake new pleasures out of old material. (The Onion A.V. Club)

It's pin the tail on the donkey where everywhere you stick the pin gets you a prize. The Go! Team is widescreen in a pan-and-scan world, a sparkling rejoinder to purists and spoilsports everywhere and more fun than recess on the last day of school. Cinematic, fantastic, and essential to all who want their music larger than life and rambunctious, Thunder, Lightning, Strike is the kind of record that makes you glad to be alive. What could be better than that? (Allmusic.com)

Thunder, Lightning, Strike is for people who love music that hits them over the head with the sheer enjoyment of the human ability to rock. (Prefix Magazine)

It's all dusky reds and yellows, shag-headed battle royales, exploding tanks, and getting up the next day to relive it on the playground. ( Pitchfork Media. Blogger's note: Um, okay, but what have you been smoking?)

...the party-ready rhythm and summer's day melodies rise above the ruckus. This is probably how infants hear music, overwhelmed by sensation and oblivious to language.
(PopMatters)

Talking around the "Campfire"

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 02:21:39 GMT

I'm so late to everything now. If you're reading this blog to catch breaking news and stuff, you'd be better going to blogs that actually post more than once per week.

Sorry. Apologies. Baby. Etc etc, blah, blah blah.

Anyway, I was all excited to find this fascinating interview with the boys (brothers, as it turns out!) from Boards of Canada. (It's not a new interview - it was posted in September. Sigh.) They offer tempting tidbits about projects in the works, or on hold (an acoustic version of Geodaddi!), some insight on the making of The Campfire Headphase and talk about some of their favorite bands. Among the list of influences: My Bloody Valentine, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, and Cocteau Twins. That's an odd kettle of fish to draw from, but I guess it works. Anyway, go here to find out more about the ~~cult~~ band.

Boycott Sony.

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 19:36:45 GMT

Remember when boycotts used to take months, even years, to organize? Now it takes a week.

But yes. Boycott Sony. Boycott them for loading up CDs by respectable artists (Celine Dion not included) with evil software that could destroy your computer. Boycott them for trying to push a license agreement (for a CD?!) that declares that the music on your CD is only yours as long as you stay in the country, as long as you don't burn it on your work computer, as long as you don't file for bankruptcy, and as long as you don't get robbed. Seriously.

So protect yourself. Don't buy any of the CDs that have evil copy-protection (i.e. customer-spying) software. Better yet, don't buy any Sony CDs. Demand they that change their evil, paranoid, pirate-fearing, devious software-planting, RIAA-shilling ways.

And don't forget the most important part of any boycott - tell Sony why you're boycotting their giant evil corporation asses. (My suggestion: call their toll-free number, tell them you have defective CDs, and demand a refund.) Tell them it's not good enough to apologize for this incredible violation of trust with its customers. They need to recall the DEFECTIVE product (every CD infected with copy-protection software), create a way to remove the crap off people's computers, and promise to never do it again.

(As it turns out, my MMJ CD doesn't have the evil rootkit software on it, but I still don't like copy-protection schemes.)

Sony needs to be punished for this. Even Microsoft (fellow evil corporation) isn't standing by them. This is an opportunity for consumers like us to strike a real blow, not against Sony, but against every music company and every company that decides it's all right to spy on the very customers that keep them in business.

Extra Special Surprise ... of Doom

Sat, 12 Nov 2005 03:37:26 GMT

Little did I know when I bought My Morning Jacket's latest CD that I was bringing a loaded weapon into the house.

You probably know by now that Sony has a nasty little surprise on thousands of CDs, including many released by imprint label ATO (MMJ's label.) The surprise was "extended copy protection" that loaded itself innocuously onto your computer, making itself nearly invisible by the same cloaking techniques that hackers and virus makers like to use. First of all, I don't like programs that sit like silent spies on my computer, reporting how many times I burn a CD or who knows what else. From here, it's not a far stretch to imagine Sony scanning ALL music files on your computer to verify legitimate ownership, and suing you RIAA-style if they find pirated versions of their music.

But the real kicker is what happens if you try to delete the program. Your CD burner stops working. That's right - people like me paid good money to bring home a CD that just might permanently disable their computer. Thank you very f@#%ing much.

Mark Russinovich (much respect is due) first blew the whistle on this malware on his blog,
dissecting its behavior and cloaking in devastatingly minute detail. From there came the outrage, the mockery, and the inevitable reversal. Or was it? Sony has made it possible to reveal where this little piece of malware was hidden, but as of this post, it's still not safe to actually disable or remove it.

One other unfortunate, but totally predictable, side effect of running silent and invisible programs on a computer is that it opens your computer up to virus attacks. Today the first word broke of a virus that uses Sony's mysterious program to launch itself.

And today the first of many many lawsuits was filed.   Apparently Sony has decided to stop putting XCP on their discs, but the damage has been done.

I was undamaged (as far as I know) by this nasty thing, because I burned the CD with my Mac so I could play it on my iPod.   This has only strengthened my resolve to never, ever, ever let go of my Mac - so far, it's been the only successful way to avoid almost all of the dumbass DRM software out there.

This also made me think very seriously about downloading every new album directly from iTunes. I don't like their DRM very much, but at least I know what I'm getting.

(Irony here is that ATO is the home to many pro-taping artists such as Gov't Mule, Mike Doughty, and co-founder Dave Matthews. So, the same bands who happily allow fans to tape and share their concerts are cursed with CDs that might destroy their fans' computers. For the record, ATO has disavowed any involvement with the DRM scheme, or any DRM scheme.)

The Campfire Headphase

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 17:56:29 GMT

I had listened to this new Boards of Canada record a time or two on the stereo, and wasn't sure I was getting it. It's obviously a slightly different approach than the previous records - there are guitars on it, fercrissake, and discernible drums, but it still has that amazingly organic sound of disintegrating 1/4" tape.

Boards of Canada do ambient music. That's my word - I think normally it applies to "invisible" music like Music for Airports. BoC's music is near invisible, but it's surprisingly moving. I love working to their music, because it both fades into the background and makes me smile.

Anyway, I wasn't sure I was getting the real experience of the record, since I was listening to it at hushed tones while the boy was either playing or asleep. Then I put on the iPod and hit "shuffle." The song "Dayvan Cowboy" came on and ...

and ...

Ohhh wow.

The song starts out with choppy, fragmented keyboards playing a lovely melody, with some atmospheric weirdness in the background. Fine enough, and typical enough for BoC. But then, little kiddies, something magical happens. The song switches itself halfway through, and does a Moebius strip thing where it turns itself inside-out to the cue of guitar chords. The second half of the song is breathtakingly beautiful, with Moogy whooshing sounds in the background, and digitally altered drums and cymbals. I nearly cried.

Then I reset the iPod to play it again.

And again.

This is what Boards of Canada do to you. You don't quite realize whether you like it or even register that it's playing, and suddenly something happens and you dissolve into it. They remind me, oddly, of Sigur Rós - the way their melodies don't seem structured so much as fully formed, fully structured as a whole. The chord changes seem so obvious that you can't imagine that musicians wrote and perform this - it must be some natural song that comes from the heart of the world itself, like David's secret chord in "Hallelujah." It's some of the most seductive music I know - not sexy seductive, but literally music that seduces you.

MMJ #4 - Not Coldplay

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:48:42 GMT

Coldplay has this one trick they do, which is taking a guitar or piano riff or a lyrical theme, and repeating it and repeating it and repeating it until their arms fall off. Every once in a blue moon, like in "Clocks," this repeating thing works. (Insert your favorite metaphor about monkeys and typewriters here.)

"Gideon" by My Morning Jacket has the kind of effect that Coldplay always wished they could create. The repeating guitar lead builds familiarity and tension simultaneously, and by the time the song explodes (after the second verse), it's so startling and emotionally fulfilling that it's nearly orgasmic. I've never ever heard a Coldplay song that made me want to jump up and down.

It's also got more feeling in it, both in the music and the vocals, than Coldplay's music-box productions. The guitars go from rhythmic to pounding, the vocals from hypnotic to howling. They know how to use both repitition and dynamic tension to drive their songs home. MMJ uses what might be a standard songwriting move and turn it into something ferocious and majestic. "Gideon" is one of those perfect songs, a three-minute opera (as Roy Orbison described his songs) and one of the best songs of the year. Chris Martin and company should take notes.

MMJ #3 - Great Openings

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 00:45:23 GMT

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.

MMJ #2 - Space Rock? Southern Rock?

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 23:15:56 GMT

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.

MMJ # 1 - Rock 'n Roll Deathmatch

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 21:00:20 GMT

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.

Ecstasy... Agony

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 02:45:21 GMT

The laudable New West Records just debuted on eMusic this week. This small, feisty label with Austin roots hosts head-turning artists like Delbert McClinton, Ben Lee, Buddy Miller, Vic Chesnutt, Dwight Yoakum, and the Drive-by Truckers.

So what fine album do they choose to make their big splash on eMusic?

"Dirty Diamonds" by Alice Cooper.

Feh.

(Paste Magazine reluctantly gave this album one star, and calls it a "lifeless collection of rubber-stamp rock tunes." And I had so much hope for Alice...)

Nelly Must Be Stopped

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 23:26:32 GMT

Below is the letter I sent off to Ellen Degeneres this morning.

Ellen, Ellen, Ellen,

I watch your show religiously. I'm a stay-at-home dad of a four-month-old boy, Oliver. And my wife and I love your show, with one little exception:

your music has to change.

How else can I put it? Su musica necessita que cambiar. It's tired. It's getting old. And if I hear Nelly one more time, I may just start weeping right there in front of the television.

We all know you've got great musical tastes, that run toward '70s funk, r & b, and hiphop with a good beat. I promise you, Ellen, there's a wealth of music out there that is going unexplored, not only by you, but certainly by the rest of daytime television. (I have never once seen Tony Danza getting down to P Funk. On the other hand, I have never actually seen Tony Danza's show, so maybe that's unfair.)

So here's a few suggestions to expand your musical horizons. Please share this with Tony as well, since I'm sure you folks collaborate on picking the music for the show.

1) The Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc." I know you heard this song over the summer - it was even in an iPod commercial. It's got a good driving beat and a "Low Rider"-style bass line that's unforgettable, and the rap is sharp-edged and clever.

2) De La Soul - "Me Myself and I." This is a classic from "back in the day" - which, for me, means the early 90's. Another great beat, and the organ riff is unforgettable. If you've heard this song, you've probably got it playing in your head right now.

3) Prince. Yes, Prince! Whatever happened to Prince? His last album was great, but what about the old stuff - "Kiss," "Mountains," "Raspberry Beret," "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," "Hot Thing," "New Position," "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man." All of them are worth a listen and maybe a dance. Granted, you might have to edit a couple of these songs, but they're still classics.

4) Speaking of Prince, have you heard the Art of Noise and Tom Jones covering "Kiss?" It's classic - a little edgier beat than the original, and Tom Jones is his swaggering self all throughout the song. There's a great moment before the bridge where Tom goes, "I think I wanna dance now!" that would be perfect for one of your dance breaks.

5) "Touch the Sky" - Kanye West. this is off the new album. Kayne's thoughtful and has put together some unforgettable tracks on the new record. This one, especially, is worth a shot.

I wanted to make a point about the hip-hop that you've been playing. While most of it is very popular, and while artists like Nelly and Chingy put together some memorable songs, the lyrical content leaves lots to be desired. I'm sure you realize that the majority of your audience only hears rap music once during the day - on your show. So t frustrates me when the only rap they're being exposed to is stuff like "Right Thurr" (sample lyric: "Look at her hips, look at her legs, ain't she stacked?, I sure wouldn't mind hittin' that from the back, I like it when I touch it cuz she moan a l'il bit, Jeans saggin' so I can see her thong a l'il bit"), "Flap Your Wings" (sample lyrics: "Now, what's next to transcend up in this party, OPP time, now let's get naughty, You take babygirl, and I'ma take shorty, With the sweat drippin' all over her body" and "In Da Club" by 50 Cent (sample lyrics: When I pull out up front, you see the Benz on dubs, When I roll 20 deep, it's 20 knives in the club, Niggas heard I f**k with Dre, now they wanna show me love, When you sell like Eminem, and the hoes they wanna f**k"). There's good hip-hop music out there with lyrics that don't address thongs, booty poppin', or hos, and I truly wish that you would spotlight more of the positive hip-hop instead of, or in addition to, the current rotation.

Okay. I'm getting off the soapbox. Back to the music.

6) "Scenario" by a Tribe Called Quest. "Here we go yo, here we go yo, so what's the what's the what's the scenario?" Lots of guest stars, but Busta Rhymes delivers the best cameo in the entire history of rap music. A pulsing beat, and lots of fun lyrics.

7) Anything by M.I.A. Particularly "Galang," "Bucky Done Gun," or "10 $." This was one of the most talked-about albums of the year. M.I.A. is from London, by way of Sri Lanka, and does crazy electronic hip-hop-influenced dance music. Great party music. Why hasn't she been on the show?

8) "Your Move" or "World of Vibrations" by Blackalicious. both off their new album, "The Craft." Gift of Gab is one of the most gifted rappers in the business today. Good positive and complicated lyrical content.

9) Sly and the Family Stone. You're a big fan of '70s music, like Aretha's "Rock Steady" and Earth Wind and Fire. How about some Sly? There's so much to choose from. "Stand," "I Want to Take You Higher," "Sing a Simple Song, "Thank You."

10) While we're on the subject, how about more Chaka Khan? I've heard "Ain't Nobody" on your show. Songs like "At Midnight" or "Dance Wit Me" would fit in perfectly.

11) "Brick House." The Commodores. I'm just saying.

What I'm Not Listening To

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 21:38:28 GMT

There are entirely too many good albums coming out right now. Here's my running list of the records I have to buy, post-haste. (Tragically, we don't have much disposable income right now, so I'll have to spread these out.)

My Morning Jacket - Z
Kanye West - Late Registration (I was ambivalent about this until I heard "Touch the Sky" on Saturday Night Live.)
The Rolling Stones - a Bigger Bang (I was really disinterested in this one until I heard "Rough Justice" seventeen or eighteen times.)
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans (not to mention Transatlanticism)
David Gray - Life in Slow Motion

I'm not counting these records, which are available on EMusic:

Aimee Mann - the Forgotten Arm
Blackalicious - The Craft
Bettye LaVette - I've Got My Own Hell to Raise
Big Star - In Space
Dar Williams - My Better Self
A Guy Called Gerald - Essence
Juliana Hatfield - Made in China

What am I missing? What's the best record you've heard this year, or the one record you can't wait to pick up?

New Music

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 20:29:14 GMT

I picked up a few CDs from BMG recently. They are:

"Bachelor No. 2" - Aimee Mann
"Tambourine" - Tift Merritt
"These Are the Vistas" - the Bad Plus
"Living with Ghosts" - Patty Griffin

I had a bootlegged copy of "Living with Ghosts," but now I have a legit version. This means that now I own every Patty Griffin record, including a bootleg of "Silver Bell."

Will I warp my baby's mind if I play "These Are the Vistas" to him? Those melodies are a little wobbly and angular. He might start to hear music wrong.

Will I warp the baby's mind if I continue to sing him the Kingston Trio's "Merry Minuet"?

What about "Political Science" by Randy Newman? It's gotta be bad to sing to a baby about pulverizing the rest of the world. Of course, the melody's fun and bouncy, so maybe it's not so bad.

Beignets for All

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 01:12:11 GMT

Love to all who've found this blog looking for updates on the Café du Monde. Good news - the Café still stands.

I'm tired of raging about the hurricane, and grateful that the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers across the country have started raging about it instead. Oh, and while I'm on the subject of raging in public...

The L.A. Times posted a beautiful defense of Kanye, and a blistering critique of the splashy self-promoting feelgood-a-thon, today. Maybe I'll buy his album just for the sake of solidarity.

The Torrents I Don't Have

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 05:03:47 GMT

Let me try to respond to all of the people who come here looking for torrents.

I don't have a torrent for M.I.A.'s new album, or for the bootleg "Piracy Supports Terrorism." Go look somewhere else.

I don't have a torrent for Zuco 103's new album, "Whaa!"

I don't have a torrent for Andrea Echeverri's new album.

I don't have a torrent for anything by Bebel Gilberto. Nor, for that matter, do I have torrents for the Arcade Fire, Nortec Collective, Laura Cantrell, the Decemberists, Surfjan Stevens, L'il Jon, the New Pornographers, or anything at all by They Might Be Giants.

You're cheap, and you're trying to get torrents of good independent music. Go legit and go to EMusic. They even give you a 50 track trial account, you cheapskate. This blog does not host torrents or link to them. (Unless I linked to torrents in the past. In which case, I'm not doing it anymore. Unless I see a really cool torrent.) If you want me to get you a freebie, send me an email. I'll hook you up, as the kids say.

Rationing Music

Wed, 10 Aug 2005 13:30:52 GMT

EMusic, as mentioned before, has a dazzling array of children's music. After Neal Pollack's blistering breakdown of the choices available, I've been trying a few different choices (read: songs not by Dan Zanes.) Then suddenly I realized I was getting lots and lots of children's music and no music for grown-ups. I gotta save some downloads for me, too.

Downloaded this month:

Laura Cantrell - Humming by the Flowered Vine
Zuco 103 - Whaa!
Jason Ringenberg - A Day at the Farm with Farmer Jason
Matthew Shipp - Matthew Shipp's New Orbit
Woody Guthrie - Nursery Days (selected songs)

The best (or most intriguing) albums on EMusic that I haven't gotten yet:

Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
M. Ward - Transistor Radio
Death from Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Picaresque - the Decemberists
(I can't make up my mind about these guys. Can someone please tell me what is the deal with the Decemberists? Are they good? Are they cloying? Will I love them, or want to throw myself out a window?)
Brian Eno-Another Day on Earth
Bob Mould - Body of Song (and "The Last Dog and Pony Show" and "Bob Mould," not to mention all those Sugar albums)
The Mountain Goats - the Sunset Tree
Xiu Xiu - La Foret

I might have to do one of those booster packs, just to snatch these up before they disappear. EMusic has been known to get deals with labels only to lose them (example: Six Degrees.) I don't want to miss out of any of these.

Note: EMusic also just got a deal with Smithsonian Folkways. It seems like it's new, anyway. So they just took a big bag filled with Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy, and other American legends, and dumped it out all over the website. Woo-hoo!

Bedtime with the Beatles

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:20:03 GMT

We recently picked up a lullaby album called "Bedtime with the Beatles," by an artist named Jason Falkner. It's a good idea that actually lives up to the concept. I dreaded hearing it for the first time - I was afraid it would be filled with treacly strings, annoying Teletubbie keyboards, the same crap versions of lullabies that you get of most babies' toys.

Much to my amazement, it's a great album.

The concept is simple. Take Beatles' songs, and change them into lullabies without messing around with them too much. He picks obvious choices ("Blackbird,""In My Life,""he Long and Winding Road") and some completely unexpected lullabies ("Across the Universe, The Fool on the Hill," "Michelle"). Falkner is touchingly faithful to the original, and uses as much of the original as possible: the repeated guitar theme in "Michelle," the complex instrumentation of "Here, There and Everywhere," the bass line that follows John Lennon every time he says "I'm only sleeping," in the song of the same name. My favorite track, strangely, is "The Fool on the Hill." It's such a great singalong song, and it has the right repeated melodies and simple structure that marks most great lullabies. Plus, it's fun to sing the "wo-o-o-o" part, especially if Oliver's awake.

The lyrics are included in case you didn't memorize every single Beatles song growing up. (Oddly enough, I seem to know almost all of the lyrics to every song.) Jason Falkner is a journeyman musician in the best sense. He came up with seminal 80's bands the Three O'Clock and Jellyfish, and went on to play with and produce everyone from Beck to Aimee Mann to Weezer. He's even gotten to play with Paul McCartney, using this album as a demo tape of sorts. Word is that Sir Paul quite enjoys the album. Anyway, if you have a little one, and you don't want to scar them with Raffi and Kidz Bop, go get this.

Land Ho!

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 05:23:53 GMT

When is Mariah Carey going to put out her punk-rock Joan Jett record and freak out all her fans?

When is Jay-Z going to put together his own Body Count metal band and go out on the road? (And no, Linkin Park doesn't count.)

Or what about Maroon 5? Will they just do four-minute pop gems all their lives, or are they going to get all crazy, start doing ten-minute anthems and songs with glockenspiels and marching bands and backwards guitar solos?

Here's my point. The best albums by bands are often the albums where they stretch themselves in every possible way, whether or not their fan base comes along with them. The best bands break themselves into pieces and rise up out of the dust, stronger and better for the experience. Radiohead did this, to some extent, with "OK Computer," and all the way with "Kid A." Wilco didn't just freak out their record company with "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." More than a few of their fans were put off by the ambient space and sonic experiments. Not to mention the classic-rock guitar breakdowns on "A Ghost is Born." But how many other bands really decide to go full-out and let the music push them beyond even their own limits, and come out alive on the other side?

Case in point: Sleater-Kinney's "The Woods."

Sleater-Kinney went into the studio with a producer (Dave Fridmann) who said all of their studio records sounded the same. He tried to capture the energy and raw buzz of their live shows. They came out with an astonishing album, something that is completely in line with everything they've ever done and yet still unbelievably out there. It is beyond any expectations I had.

All the elements were there. The power trio structure was lightning in a box: a fierce drummer in Janet Weiss, two voices that clashed and screamed with/at each other, two guitars that held each other up and ran into each other like near-accidents on the freeway. Carrie Brownstein has been a rock star in waiting since the early jagged riffs of "Anonymous" and "Dig Me Out." They've always had the screaming vocals: Corin's warbling, trembling battle cries, Carrie's flatter voice that sometimes turned into that freaky blood-curdling shriek (see "Call the Doctor" and "Heart Attack".)

"The Fox" is the first indication that something's different. The first sound is not chiming guitars or a polite drumbeat introducing itself. It's a squeal of feedback, followed by dirty, dirty guitar chords spiraling into themselves like drunken birds, and then spiraling up again like awakened beasts. Everything's wrong here. The guitars are too loud. The drums sound like mud. (This is where I realized that if I set my EQ on anything besides "flat," this entire album was going to sound like an out-of-tune radio.) Janet unleases one Keith Moon flurry for no apparent reason except fun punctuation. At the end, in case you're not off your game yet, Corin shrieks that last verse at the absolute top of her lungs. It's like ... no, forget it. I've never heard moments like this on an album before.

There are lots of moments like that, where I thought, "Have I ever heard anyone do this before?" It happens on "What's Mine is Yours," a sexy, taunting rocker, a fight song for destroying the world and everyone in it. It's swinging along fine, there are jaunty little chords and the beat's rocking along, and then Carrie comes out of nowhere and bludgeons the song into submission with a slurring, subterranean guitar solo that sounds completely out of sync with the song. It's not on beat. There is no beat - the drums have run for cover behind the curtain. The guitar skronks on, slipping backwards and then forwards again, and then bass notes come tiptoeing back in. Plunk plunk plunk. Is this another song? No, it's the same one, but they've misplaced the beat, and Corin sounds like she's declaring war. On someone. Maybe on me. By the time the song's over, I'm looking over my shoulder.

Who does that? The last time I heard a song that turned tail like that in the middle, it was "Are You Experienced?" and at least the drumbeat sorta continued through that mindfuck of a solo.

"Rollercoaster" just stops in the middle of a beat. Stops. Just out of nowhere. What the fuck - where'd they go? There's a whooshing sound - did they fall off a cliff? Then they start up again, the same riff, the same beat, like nothing happened. There's a little laughter at the end, like they know they're fucking with us.

I love this album. I love the impatience of it. Everything is turned up so high, and every moment is filled with action. The vocals are full-volume. The guitars and drums are unhinged. It's full-force rock and roll. Even "Rollercoaster" starts out with sounds like standard S-K chords, a jaunty little riff, but while Corin sings, Carrie fills in every spare second with slidey snarling guitar fills. This is an album with not a second of wasted space.

I love the bravado of this album. S-K has been identified before as a band that wants to take over the world. They may not do it this time, but they're playing like it's already happened. The twelve-minute track that everyone's talking about, "Let's Call This Love?" Please. Six-minute guitar solos? Corin bellowing into the infinite like a woman possessed? They don't care who's listening anymore. They are all they need. Which is what makes this such a compelling record.

Carrie did an interview with the Onion (have you noticed that the ladies are in every alt-rock magazine on the shelves this month?) where she described the wild-eyed vocals at the end of "Entertain."

Dave [Fridmann] was just like, "God, it's intense," and Corin heard it and was like, "Are you sure you want to sound like that? Are you sure you want to sound like you're losing it?" And Dave was like, "Why would we try to get something else? We've captured that. Why would we want to tame it down?"

They took the hint. There is nothing tamed down on this album. Nothing is sweetened, nothing is prettified, nothing is held back. Everything is all-out.

I love the menace of this album. They've done songs before that talked about threats and talked about instability. The whole record is unstable. "Jumpers," a first-person suicide song, is terrifying, and thrilling in the oddly life-affirming bridge, and then even more terrifying in its final moments. "Modern Girl" starts out as a lullaby for domestic tranquility and then decays, goes all fuzzy and blurry, the way you imagine Dorian Gray went when his portrait went up in smoke.

The entire album is disarming, disquieting, disturbing. I love that in an album. I love albums that you can't not listen to. I find it hard to work when I'm playing this record. I can't write, I can't read, I can't do much more than just be enraptured. I have been listening to this album and very little else for the last week. I could rave on and on, but they say it all on the record, and for Christ's sake, there are a million other articles talking about how great this record is. You will not believe what you're hearing. Go get it. Now.

This will be one of the albums they talk about in twenty years, along with "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and "Kid A" and the other great albums of the early 21st century. This is an unbelievably great album. Stop reading this. Go get it.

Go!