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Stuff I've Been Liking

Fiona Apple, "Red Red Red"

After listening to the Jon Brion version of Extraordinary Machine over & over, I was at first pretty wary of the Mike Elizondo production on the released version of the album. But after listening to it a number of times, I think it's even better than the Brion version: more nuanced, and less of a samey feel between the tracks.

The released version of "Red Red Red", in particular, sounds completely different from the earlier version. Where the latter was angry, this is resigned. Both versions are fantastic and work well together, but I think I prefer the released version. Or so I'm saying, today. [1]

The Clientele, "Since K Got Over Me"

I wish I'd listened/read more carefully when I first read about The Clientele 5 years ago on Freaky Trigger (in this review). I guess I'm just stubborn, really. It finally took a random visit to MySpace yesterday morning [2], where I clicked through to the Music section of the site, and happened to see a promotion for the new Clientele album at the bottom.

Anyway, this is wonderful, wonderful stuff, and it's off of their new album Strange Geometry. Reminds me a lot of my beloved Go-Betweens & their 60s-inspired jangle pop, but with a much more atmospheric/airy touch. So good!

Listen to "Since K Got Over Me" (and a bunch of other Clientele songs). Or, a direct link to the MP3, if you prefer.

Hey Willpower, "Uh-Uh-Uh"

I just read about Hey Willpower last week on Fluxblog. And then, after loving "Hundredaire," I started reading more, and realized that I had actually seen Hey Willpower open for the Scissor Sisters back in January of this year. This is the only song I remember from their set, but I distinctly remember at the time being, like, WTF is this? [3]

But now, after hearing them again, and buying the EP, I just love these songs. They remind me of a cross between Justin Timberlake, Phoenix, and Scritti Politti, and that just == brilliance.

[1] Matthew from Fluxblog has a great review here, along with an MP3 of "Red Red Red".

[2] Like, seriously random. I think this is the first time I've gone to MySpace in months, and the reason I went was to check out a track from the new Darkness album.

[3] The show was at the Warfield, and we were up in the seated area, and so we couldn't see the stage incredibly close-up or anything. So we could just see some people in shiny clothes dancing about onstage to a weirdly sexual pop song (some photos here). And seeing a band when you don't know their songs beforehand is always a bit odd, even if the songs are, admittedly, crazily catchy—but this was more odd than usual.

And I fashioned myself a Fiery Furnaces fan.

Tonight I was informed that Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand has been dating Eleanor Friedberger for, like, 2 years (or some long amount of time). And not only that, but that "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" (my favorite song off their new album) is about one Eleanor Friedberger. [1] Neither of which fact I knew previously, incidentally.

And then, then, she also told me that there's a free stream [2] of Rehearsing my Choir (the FF new album due October 25) on Amazon. Which I also didn't know about—I only have a couple of tracks on MP3, sort of intentionally, in that I like holding out until I can listen to the actual album—and which I'm now listening to.

[1] And I thought that the guy on the FF message board hoping that Eleanor would come out on stage when Franz Ferdinand played "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" was just a sad fanboy.

No—I'm the sad fanboy.

[2] If you're on a Mac, and Windows Media Player doesn't work for the stream (it didn't for me), try VLC.

Meditations on Guilt, or Two Songs (and One TV Show) That I'm Almost Ashamed About

If you've been reading my blog, you might have gotten the sense that I'll write about anything I'm watching or listening to, no matter how seemingly shameful. I mean, Criss Angel: Mindfreak? Fucking hell, I'll admit it—that show's pretty awful.

But nothing I've written about is something that I'd actually consider a guilty pleasure, per se. And I've always had a rather uncomfortable relationship with the concept of guilty pleasures, to be honest, because I believe that if you really enjoy something—whether it be music, or television, or films, etc—there's nothing shameful or guilt-inducing about that! Pride or guilt shouldn't enter into enjoyment of popular culture.

That said, though...

I'm actually perversely proud of listening to or watching certain things in my iTunes library, or our TiVo "Now Playing List." I think I may just like being contrary, in part, and consuming things that just really annoy people or make them mad.

And so those are what I tend to think of as my guilty pleasures, the guilt being my atonement for the pain that I'm purposely causing everyone else.

So, examples:

Clay Aiken, "Solitaire"

Much more histrionic than the Carpenters' version, and with some rather dodgy additional lyrics, it sometimes sounds like Clay is getting a bit lost beneath the surging orchestration. But I still love it.

The thing about Clay, for me, is that I actually get the sense that he means it. There's something very honest & true about Clay Aiken, and that's always really, really important for me when it comes to music—I grew out of my college-era irony phase a long time ago. And, frankly, if there's one thing that I always associate with guilty pleasure music, it's music that actually seems sincere, perhaps sincere to the point that it's a bit uncomfortable.

"His eyes are closed / His heart is broken..." Truly. Poor, confused, Clay.

Take That, "Back for Good"

This song just can't help but remind me of the Office Special, at the end, at the Christmas party, when Tim says goodbye to Dawn, and then she comes back, etc. It was one of the most unexpectedly sentimental—and touching, because of that—scenes I've seen in a long time.

It may be partly the association with the Office Special, but there's just something so junior-high dance about this song—it's that slow song that comes on near the end of the dance, when everyone is milling about, thinking they're going to leave, but it pulls you back in, all excited, for that one last slow dance.

What I really wanted was to have it played at our holiday party last Christmas, because I figured it would at first piss everyone off, but then they'd see how great it was, and all just start loving the song, too. But alas I wasn't in charge of the music.

"Degrassi: The Next Generation"

I really love "Degrassi: TNG," and it's not a guilty pleasure in the sense that I actually feel embarrassed about watching it—it's that I feel a bit creepy & old about watching it, because these kids are just so recognizably young. Anyway, I'm not going to write much about this, because I have a feeling it could someday inspire a post in itself.

Suffice to say, though, that when friends come over to watch TV with me, and they look at the TiVo "Now Playing" list, and it contains 5 Degrassi episodes—well, I guess I'd admit to feeling just a little bit embarrassed, then.

"Get outta my jungle."

Oh, TV. You're just awesome. [1]

• Tyra Mail! "You should just keep making all those mistakes, and hope that we don't notice the ones you think we will." [2] That's, like, a life lesson.


• Oh Gary, don't lead the life that they made for you... "I'm totally gonna deny that I'm Gary Hogeboom." Hey: No one fucking cares that you're Gary Hogeboom!


• The Go-Betweens in general ("16 Lovers Lane" in particular). I guess that subconsciously I'm trying to set a record for the number of times I write about The Go-Betweens, both on this blog and on my LJ. But they're just amazing. The best band from to come out of Australia, ever. That's what I'm saying tonight, at least. [3]


• Dusty, Dusty, Dusty. You never cease to impress me. When I first heard you on "What Have I Done to Deserve This?", I basically said, that's a pretty fun & clever song, and it became my favorite PSB song. And then I bought your Best of, and there were some pretty incredible songs, but I worried that your voice was being drowned by the somewhat melodramatic production on some of the tracks. And then I heard Dusty in Memphis, and I thought, OMFG. So here's to "Breakfast in Bed."


• I'm so excited, because I'm getting a haircut tomorrow—I hate it when my hair's too long, & makes me feel all lethargic—and then I'm going to go to Amoeba, and there are so many albums I want. Yay!

[1] And music, I haven't forgotten about you! You're awesome, too.

[2] That's Tyra on disclaimers. And yes, this is probably far from an exact quote. In fact, it's a paraphrase, because I don't remember the exact quote, and we already deleted the episode from TiVo. But I think the sentiment is fairly accurate.

[3] Speaking of which. Every week on Rock Star: INXS (sorry, I'm not going to bother to make the "X" all red with a star in it), what got me was the fact that Tim Farriss would always say, "You're just not right for our band, INXS" (emphasis mine). Like, why the continual need to point that the band is INXS?

1. The show is called Rock Star: INXS.


2. You're obviously fucking Australian, and how many well-known bands from Australia, are there, anyway?

Really, it got rather ridiculous, to the point where it felt rather desperate, as if someone were continually saying, "don't forget to reinforce your brand!" And what I thought was basically, how sad that they felt that they needed to do that. If Michael Hutchence had been alive—well, sure, I understand that they wouldn't have been looking for another singer, but other than that—would they have still felt the need to continually remind us that they're INXS? Who do they assume has forgotten that fact while watching the show, over the course of an hour?

I LOVE YOU ELEANOR!!! [1]

It was a good music-filled night.

After work, per Krissy's recommendation, I headed over to the outer Sunset/West Portal to see Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley. I'm a fairly recent Jeff Buckley convert, but in the end, I don't know that it mattered—the movie was so incredible, so amazing, & so emotional that I can't imagine anyone walking away from it not a rabid Jeff Buckley fan.

What impressed me the most was how effectively the filmmakers used music in the film. It's somewhat obvious, of course—making a documentary about Jeff Buckley without heavily featuring his music would be, oh, sort of pointless—but it always amazes me how few films/television shows use music as effectively as it can be used: to enforce a point, to manipulate (in a good of bad way) emotions, etc. [2] And from start to finish, with AM:JB, the combination of music & the story made it one of the more emotional things I've seen in a while. Just, wow. [3]

Anyway: fantastic movie, and highly recommended.

So then, later tonight, I went to the Fiery Furnaces show at Cafe du Nord. This was my second FF show (we went to a show back in April 2005), and it was completely different—they didn't do their usual mashup of half of their songs into 45 minutes [4], and instead played a lot of their songs in full. They also played 5-6 songs from Rehearsing my Choir, including "Seven Silver Curses", which was great. [5]

They played an incredible version of "Chris Michaels" to end the show. They actually played the full song, in serial, rather than cut up into chunks throughout the show. And it was fucking amazing.

And then, when they came back on for an "encore" (does it actually count as an encore if they don't really leave the stage?), just Eleanor (singing) and Matthew (keyboard) played "Chief Inspector Blancheflower". And then the rest of the band came back for "Two Fat Feet," which closed it out. It was so, so great.

[1] A footnote in the title: a new low.

But seriously, I tried really hard to get a great closeup picture of Eleanor Friedberger, but just wasn't close enough. I think I'm in love with Eleanor. She's been my desktop wallpaper for about 4 months now, and I don't see that ending anytime soon.

BTW, I didn't actually scream "I LOVE YOU ELEANOR!!!" myself, at the show, though I did hear it a number of times from other people.

[2] "Freaks and Geeks" was one of the greatest examples (for me) of a television show that really used music well.

[3] This movie was pretty seriously sad.

But it was also really funny, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point out this (to me) really funny part that almost made me laugh at a completely inappropriate time. So, after Jeff has (presumably) gone missing, they showed a news clipping from (I think) a local newspaper with a headline that said something like, "Musician missing - liked 'mystery'" (I don't remember the exact headline). And I was like, WTF? "Liked 'mystery'"?

It seemed kind of flippant; but then, after thinking about it, it sort of made sense, because it seemed to capture what was (at least, based on the film) the hope at the time: that Jeff needed to get away, & had just disappeared, and had staged it all. Which, in some sense, makes it all the sadder and more macabre to read "Liked 'mystery'" in the newspaper clipping.

But so anyway, I thought that was funny in a really absurd way, and almost laughed, but am kind of glad that I didn't, because then I would've felt really bad.

[4] Which is what we saw when we saw them in April, and which is captured fantastically well in this recording of one of their shows in Toronto, which I listen to all the time.

[5] Though it struck me that their shows, in the end, are pretty terrifically insider: they really only seem to make a lot of sense if you actually know the songs that they're playing. As opposed to some bands, which try for mass appeal even if you only know one song, for example. This is even more true of their medley-esque shows, but even in a show like tonight's, where they played full versions of a lot of the Rehearsing my Choir tracks, the versions they play are still vastly different than the album versions.

Frankly, I love it, because there's always something new to hear & experience. But it's a really interesting approach, because with a lot of bands, the more times you hear them in concert, the more boring the concert is; whereas with the FF, hearing them multiple times only deepens your enjoyment, because you're hearing a new, different version of a song that you know well.

Which sort of presupposes that you know the songs really well to begin with, I guess, & which just illustrates the perversity of their approach, to me.

We Don't Want Your Fucking Love!

I have a habit of believing that anything I'm listening to at the moment is the best album in the world, ever. And so as I was listening to the Manic Street Preachers' "Gold Against the Soul" this morning, that thought crossed my mind.

I first heard the Manics on "Everything Must Go," and I didn't know quite what to think. I really, really wanted to love them—after all, all of the music wonks I was reading on alt.music.alternative [1] were in love with them, as were all of the people on the Suede mailing list—but I was kind of like, well, they sound like a fucking standard rock band!

Where's the glam? Where's the eye shadow? Where are the fey, androgynous band members?

Oh, right. He disappeared. [2]

"Gold Against the Soul" was one of the last of their albums that I bought, partly just because I couldn't find it anywhere. This was in 1997 or so, and CDNow just wasn't cutting it for finding out-of-print CDs. I would scour the record stores down in San Jose & Santa Clara for this impossible-to-find album.

And then finally, one lovely day down in Los Angeles, after at least a year of searching, I found it used at Moby Disc. Best. Day. EVAR.

So the funny thing about "Gold Against the Soul" is that, at first listen, it sounds like a very traditional hard-rock album. It doesn't have the punk/metal influences of Generation Terrorists, nor does it have the really dark post-punk sound of The Holy Bible.

But I think it's their best album, and absolutely their most underrated. For a lot of fans—at least, back when I was reading the mailing lists, and the album was just referred to in shorthand as GATS—this semed to be the album that the fans were kind of embarrassed to admit existed.

And the album definitely has its flaws. In fact, frankly, 4 out of 5 tracks on the second half of the album—excepting Roses in the Hospital—are kind of subpar. But the first 5 tracks are incredible. And you know how Manics fans are always going on about Richey's tortured lyrics? These are some of his best: they're just as dark as those on "The Holy Bible," but they're humane rather than nihilistic, (relatively) personal rather than (completely) detached.

And because of that, for me, the album has aged much better than THB. It's one of the few albums I still listen to regularly from my college years. And you should listen to it, too!

[1] A set of people who then moved on to I Love Music and Freaky Trigger.

[2] Or, more likely, he killed himself, thus spawning a whole subgenre of pre-LJ emo fan fiction & Richey spottings ("my cousin's daughter's best friend saw Richey in the Canary Islands, and he looked so happy & relaxed! I wish I could just hug him," etc.).

Know what happened to him? He died!

So I decided tonight to watch the pilot and the final episode of "Freaks & Geeks," one of my favorite shows ever, as evidenced by the fact that we own the special yearbook version of the DVD set. Fuck, what an incredible show this was.

I had planned to watch "Purple Rain" again tonight. But then, I decided on "Freaks & Geeks."

It wasn't really such a whim—it was in part because I'd watched the first episode of Kitchen Confidential tonight, in which John Frances Daley co-stars, and which I feel kind of ambivalent about. I really liked Anthony Bourdain's book, and overall I didn't dislike the show—it didn't completely blow me away, but it had its moments, and I'll watch it again.

But so the other reason why I got into the "Freaks & Geeks" mood was because a couple of weeks ago, we bought the "Undeclared" Season 1 (and only) DVD set at Amoeba. We were really into "Undeclared" while it was actually on TV, but I don't think they ever aired the final 3 episodes (or, probably quite a few others). So as part of buying the DVD set, we got to finally see the last 3 episodes of the show, which were amazing, particularly the last episode, with Ben Stiller. I honestly don't know why this show wasn't more popular. I guess for partly the same reason as "Freaks and Geeks."

I think "Undeclared" suffered from not being able to find the right demographic—i.e. there's a demographic that likes high school shows, & a different demographic that likes, um, old people shows. And the college students, or people who'd appreciate a fucking awesome show about college freshmen, just spend the whole 4+ years getting drunk & watching unfunny SNL episodes. Or maybe that's just bitterness about my college experience. [1]

But back to "Freaks & Geeks," which was one of the great tragedies of modern television programming. It first aired on a Saturday night, spent about 6 weeks there or so, then moved to (I think) Monday night? I don't even remember. Then it was off for about 3 weeks, while the NFL playoffs, or the stupid March Madness tournament, took over the television. And then finally, it underwent the mercy killing that we all knew it would endure from the beginning—better to burn out, etc.

I really remember watching the pilot, on some Saturday night in 1999, and just being completely blown away. And frankly, I still am. I loved "Freaks & Geeks" so much that I flew down to LA for the Museum of Television and Radio interview with the cast, along with the showing of one of the episodes that never aired. In some sense it was one of the weirder things I've done—as much as I love TV, I honestly can't imagine taking a plane flight just to see an episode & an interview with the cast and the creators.

But that was the thing about Freaks & Geeks—it put the fanatic in fan, for people who liked it. Or the other way round, maybe.

I realize I've said actually nothing about the show itself, but that's because you just have to see it. The incredible cast; the romantically nostalgic & realistic look at high school life; and the absolutely most perfect use of music ever in a TV series. [2] I'm sorry, I just can't do it justice.

I think the greatest testament for this show is that the pilot, in its final scene, made me a lifelong fan of Styx's "Come Sail Away," and it takes a pretty fucking amazing show to do that.

[1] But so then there are people like me, who will watch almost any reality show on television. No judgment!

[2] According to Paul Feig & Judd Apatow, the creators, they originally imagined a show that was completely filled with music the entire time. That proved difficult for licensing reasons, but even so, this show uses music better than any other I've ever seen, and better than most movies I've seen.

Je suis la mouche

My love for Serge Gainsbourg's 1971 masterpiece "Histoire de Melody Nelson" is immortalized forever in the default username and password for Movable Type ("Melody" and "Nelson," respectively). I can't state enough how amazing "Histoire" [1] is.

But of course, the only bad thing about "Histoire" is that there's only one such album. Gainsbourg's entire catalog is incredible, of course, but for that mix of psychedelic guitar, deep funky bass, and spooky choirs, there's nothing quite like "Histoire".

Or... maybe not!

Because just last weekend at Amoeba, I picked up the recently-reissued "L'Enfant Assasin Des Mouches" [2] by Jean-Claude Vannier, who arranged and produced "Histoire de Melody Nelson." And it's even more fucked-up and psychedelic than the Gainsbourg album! The story (written by Gainsbourg), basically, is about a child who tortures flies, & who then descends into a fly kingdom where he's tortured and eventually killed by the flies.

Of course, it doesn't have Serge's louche vocals or the lyrical narrative, but musically, it sounds like a mix of "Histoire" and Gainsbourg's 1970 score to the film "Cannabis," in which he also starred along with Jane Birkin (and which Vannier also had a hand in, incidentally). Lots of guitar, strings, and spooky choirs. Very much recommended!

[1] Which I'll call the album throughout the rest of this post, BTW, because it takes too long to write the entire album name, and it's too confusing if I were just to write "Melody Nelson", because there are a number of songs on the album named that or something like it.

[2] "The Child Fly-Killer"

"I'm married! I'm beautiful!": A Scientific Proof for Saturday Night

Observations:

1. Muriel's Wedding is a really depressing movie. Though, to be more specific, it has a lot of really depressing scenes, but in the end, it's actually moderately uplifting & hopeful.


2. As a general rule, any ABBA song can be both depressing and uplifting, but in a certain context, even Dancing Queen is depressing (this may be a corollary of #1, actually).


3. Contrast that to the Go Betweens' 16 Lovers Lane, which is an incredible, incredible album, but is actually depressing all the way through.


4. Hey, it's Saturday night!

Conclusion:

Saturday nights are good for sitting around, watching depressing movies, and listening to depressing music.

Q.E.D.

Breaking update: Counterpoint!

Watching Brain Candy is a much better way to spend Saturday night! "That's not a gift! You freakin' stoled it!" Best movie ever.

New conclusion:

Brain Candy is the Gleemonex for any Saturday night.

Time you put behind you

I know that I'm always writing about Scritti Politti, but I'd love everyone to realize the brilliance that is Green Gartside. Everyone needs a little Scritti Politti in their lives!

Take today, for example. I'm listening to Anomie & Bonhomie, which is one of the unlikeliest candidates for best album of the 90s EVAR. And it's making me so happy.

You wouldn't think that this—a fey popstar from Wales like Green Gartside, teaming up with Me'shell Ndegeocello, Mos Def, & others, in a rock/pop/hip-hop collaboration—could possibly work. But if there's one thing you can say consistently about Scritti Politti, it's that they've always surprised—and the surprise here, for me, is that this could have been a disaster (as most other rock/hip-hop collaborations inevitably have been), and it isn't. At all.

And so I've listened to Anomie & Bonhomie hundreds of times, and amazingly, it does work. In fact, it's in some sense Scritti's most consistently good album. It's also consistently cheap in used & clearance bins, so you should pick it up. And then pick up all of the other albums, too.