never have i ever UPDATED WITH SUPPORTING FOOTAGE

Never have I ever in my life seen a more ludicrous television program than CSI Miami. That show brings "over the top" to a whole new level.

I blame Belle & Sebastian

Just for you, Serge, some babbling I jotted down a couple weeks ago and never finished, or edited. But better than nothing, right?

(Incidentally, most New Yorker content is now available on their website without subscription.)

Sasha Frere-Jones' recent article in the New Yorker about indie rock's lost soul is mostly spot-on, despite the usual music critic pretensions. And he makes some interesting connections (or tries to) between the splintering of pop music and the post-civil rights, p.c.-era "new segregation" or whatever you want to call it. But there is one thing I'd love to chime in on, strictly on the musical side of the discussion. Let me be totally blunt.

I blame Belle & Sebastian.

Sasha puts a lot of blame on Pavement and their early-90s ilk for the cerebral, back-beatless tendencies of present-day "indie" rock, but at least (and never mind here that I was a huge fan) at least they had energy, and yes, emotion. Sure, the lyrics were nonsense, but the tone of voice made clear what it really meant that you were a cigar stand, and I, a blue incandescent guillotine. And as the 90s wore on, at least we had some bands - I'm thinking mostly of the "math-rock" genre now, and specifically the more raw style of Unwound, rather than the too-carefully orchestrated sound of Don Caballero - some bands that despite their inscrutable vocals and downright alienating music, were LOUD for chrissakes. We also had the early Weezer, the early Radiohead, the Foo Fighters, bands that may have had no "soul" in the motown sense but had clearly recognizable emotions in their lyrics and their driving, urgent music. Then I guess two things happened. First (and here's where we blame the Scots, of all people): Belle and Sebastian, at least for me, ushered in the wimpification of indie rock. Where's the fucking distortion pedal!?!? Where's the ENERGY? I guess it probably started long before, with the Smiths or the Cure or whoever, but all of a sudden indie rock was goddamn BORING. Lullabies, for crying out loud!

Sorry, end of rant. (Also, what about punk, Sasha? The Sex Pistols lost their soul long before Pavement ever did.)

In honesty, I guess I sort of stopped paying attention for a few years there, so I might have missed some good indie ROCK (as opposed to INDIE rock - Stella, anyone?). But now that I've started paying attention again, I see the second event, and this gets back (finally) to what Sasha's talking about. When the indie kids wanted to put the soul back in, they couldn't figure it out. Arcade Fire are great, but Sasha's friend hit the nail on the head when (s)he asked, "Do they play every song in this end-of-the-world style?" Akron/Family and the neo-folk stuff are another great example of white hipsters trying to sound soulful, this time by using lots of voices in harmony (and then freaking out for twelve boring minutes). The other manifestation is the Killers/Franz Ferdinand/eighteen million other bands, who just want to make the disco of this decade. (It's straight dance music, right?) The Hold Steady are good, but that's because he actually IS Bruce Springsteen (at least that's my pet conspiracy theory), and the garage rock revival was a fine flash in the pan, but really just a rehash (nothing there the Monks didn't do better 40 - yes, 40 - years ago, and that REALLY includes the White Stripes, sorry). The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are lots of fun. They may have something there, actually. (Is Karen O. a 21st century Janis Joplin? Is that possible without the black music influence?)

The new indie ROCK may have some great songwriters, and some great performers even. But rock and roll had soul. And at least the mid-90s indie rock had something else, even if it was just noisily expressed angst. (Emo was the too-whiny dead end of the angsty branch of indie rock. I suppose you could call Weezer "proto-emo.") The new indie rock needs to find a way to express something that feels real, rather than like calculated emotion or, even worse, just plain calculated.

A Heartbreak Showdown

And now it's time for a showdown!
It Should Have Been Me - Gladys Knight and the Pips
versus
All I Could Do Was Cry - Etta James
Two great songs with a common theme. Vote in the comments.

Miscellaneous Musical Musings:

- Reason #141 to get around to ripping some vinyl: Deodato - Very Together (1976). Side two features not only I Shot the Sherrif and the Theme from Star Trek, but best of all the wonderfully named track Univac Loves You, on which one Rubens Bassini is credited with playing "Holiday Inn room keys."

- I recieved my Cake: B-sides and Rarities CD in the mail today. If you're a Cake fan, I think you have to have it. Preview and order it here.

- The R&B/soul binge continues. Check out the Lost In Tyme blog. I highly recommend Lorraine Ellison - Stay With Me (1969), especially her version of Try, and the scorcher You Don't Know Nothing About Love.


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Now playing: Nina Simone - To Be Young Gifted And Black
via FoxyTunes

Beware the neocon encore

Read this blog, (especially posts 1, 2, 3) by Barnett R. Rubin, and keep an eye out for a reprise of the same arguments that got us into Iraq five years ago. This is madness.

Stax documentary on PBS

I was very lucky the other night to catch by chance Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story on PBS. The traditional montage of interviews, vintage footage, and (minimal) narration by Samuel L. Jackson served very well, as the music, and even more so the old concert footage, stand strong all on their own. I'm considering ordering the DVD, because I'd easily watch this several more times. So many great moments, from concert performances by Otis Redding, or the Staple Singers, or Sam and Dave on the European tour of '67; to Jesse Jackson in a dashiki raising his fist to a crowd of 100,000 in Watts, before introducing Isaac Hayes; to the old session player explaining that Stax at its height replaced cotton as the biggest industry in Memphis, Tennessee. Check your local listings, as this is a musical and cultural treat not to be missed. Not to mention the simple fact that the classic rise-and-fall storyline puts any hair band Behind the Music episode to shame. (See: auctioning off of Isaac Hayes' custom gold plated Cadillac to skeptical white southern businessmen.)

What, no opening band to warm up the crowd?

When I first heard about the "Live Earth" concept, of concerts on all seven continents on 07/07/07, I swear it was the first thought into my head: who the hell's going to play on Antarctica in the middle of winter?! Bono may just be that committed/conceited, but I'm pretty sure the rest of U2 would finally balk. (Although the Edge already has his winter hat on; maybe he's good to go...)

So who do you get for a gig too extreme even for rock stars? The only people more badass than rock stars of course: scientists! We're not talking about these posers either, we're talking actual nerds, far geekier than any horn-rimmed-glasses faux-dweeb record store clerk. Their name is Nunatak, and they earned the gig by having more satellite bandwidth than the other research stations (who also apparently have resident bands). Take that, Fossil Bluff Forward Logistics Facility! Read all about it at Nature News, and if that link doesn't work for you here's a pdf version.

YouTube post.

I don't even want to think about how many hours went into this.



As for music, you can listen to the new Smashing Pumpkins album at AOL. I am pleasantly surprised at both the rockingness of the album and the minimum hassle installing yet another plugin, from AOL no less. Perhaps they have grown less evil of late?

pterodactyl, in color

pterodactyl have made a fun fun "music video."

Animal Collective?

Animal Collective "rarities" are here. Found via SeeqPod (which is like Hype Machine but better).

Do you guys like Animal Collective? I'm giving them a second chance, and suspect they may grow on me. Alternatively, I may get bored quickly and leave like I did before the end of the Akron Family show.

I'm getting bored...


SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search

a political aside

"When he was approached near the House floor by a reporter, Mr. Young responded with an obscene gesture."
NY Times, 7 June 2007

Rep. Don Young (R-AL) may be trying to set a record for longest-distance pork. NY Times article here. Key funny bit:

Asked in a telephone interview who had organized the fund-raiser, Mr. Mazurkiewicz, the consultant, said he was then at another fund-raiser with a member of Mr. Mack’s staff who would know.

“Aronoff,” the staff member told Mr. Mazurkiewicz, within earshot of his mobile phone.

“Just some local businessmen,” Mr. Mazurkiewicz said into the phone.