stick a needle in my eye...

Just read that Ariel Pink is on tour with Cass McCombs right now... It seems like a great pairing. Both genre stylists have that vague punk edge despite their more melodic tendencies. Cass McCombs has been a favorite for a while now. He's had a couple of great albums out there from years back. Lyrically dense, harmonically sound, simple tunes. "What isn't nature" is prime example of what I like so much about Cass McCombs... The song's simplistic, repetitive structure evokes an appealing, somewhat nihilistic, philosophical stance. I can't figure out many of the verse lyrics, but I'm pretty sure he's explaining who killed JFK and redefining the theory of relativity. In other places, McCombs tackles subjects in mythology and the spiritual universe. Oh no, am I raising just another singer-songwriter to demigod status? What, you say he doesn't deserve a gold-plated pedestal? Maybe not. I wish I was going to the show, though.


Check out his new CD before it hits the shelves at a Starbucks near you.

ariel pink - interesting results

this track is really cool. ariel pink has been around for a while now. i saw him a while back when he opened for grizzly bear at spaceland. i thought his live show sucked, and he was a prick. i bought one of his self-made, one-of-a-kind t-shirts because i thought it was cool and had to talk him down from an asking price of $75 to $15. it wasn't that hard... also, the shirt is pretty weak. i must have been drunk. and it was dark. and this hot girl behind the counter with subtle arm tats told me it would look good on me.

anyway, the guy has a whole lot of really cool tapes that sound like he recorded them live with a full band in a bathroom. i just stumbled on this one the other day. i'm pretty sure he's signed to animal collective's label paw tracks. he manages a lot with this track. the production style is really cool.. it sounds like he's working with an analog 8-track to give it that late-60s/early 70s sound. his deadpan vocals flow in the same lyrical vein as jonathan richman. but where richman obviates his irony and cynicism, ariel pink cloaks it with meta-narrative. and that driving funk beat. the vamp at the end makes me tap my foot. i rarely tap my foot. cool track. listen up...

the desk-sitter's privilege

every time i close my door, i sit at my desk, facing the door. every time i close my door, after thirty seconds it eases open, because it won't stay shut. my door won't stay shut because it is slightly too large for its frame. i almost asked the workers to shave it down, slightly, but i forgot. i forget every time because it really doesn't bother me much. except when i sit down at my desk and it eases open, unexpectedly, every time.

the wind-tunnel effect

related to, but distinguishable from the aforementioned song-sound dialectic, this is the result of being repeatedly slapped in the face by mass media and other meaningless catch-phrases, in addition to the abstract consequence of spam, pop-ups, and non-mahalo-generated web searches. the wind-tunnel effect is akin to standing in a large cylindrical room surrounded by ten large speakers which play a different form of sound for a matter of seconds before they alternate and one stops when another begins, for example it all begins with this group of twenty kids laughing really loud and having fun but then it switches to the sound of a bomb exploding and the transition is so seamless that it sounds like it never switched, except in reality the transition is one where the mixed sounds don't gain or lose meaning through some trite juxtaposition. or like having the small end of a huge funnel stuck down your throat and this old italian grandma shoves some food in there and then an old greek grandma shoves some food in there and then some old grandma of another nationality gets up there and does the same thing until every type of food has been shoved down your throat and it all tastes so good because only grandmas cooked it. or like having your eyes peeled open all kubrick style and watching the best scenes from every best movie ever made but only the best scenes so they are totally out of context and you don't know what they mean but they are so beautiful and painful and sublime like standing on top of a cliff and feeling like you're about to fall. and it's so good that you almost cry but you don't because the aura evolves so fast that you forgot what you were feeling five minutes ago or thirty seconds ago, and time has become a series of tiny pin pricks coming at you from all directions. and then at the end of the day you realize that you've seen so much good stuff, and eaten so much good food, and heard so much rad shit, but you don't even know where it came from or what it means, but it was all so good and you want more and more and you want to be all of it at once, and in a way you are all of it at once, just like pinocchio was always somewhat human.

the song-sound dialectic

the beginning of an exploration of pop music theory, pitting the best elements of song composition against the most unique forms of sound production, fusing the two with a force greater than the collision of opposite polarities, with the boomerang effect of a black-hole whipping you around and then making you forget everything that happened like those memory-erasers in men in black, and then your mind is blown like that ground mixture inside a sausage wrapper that tastes sooo good if you boil it and serve it with worcestershire sauce and maybe some grilled peppers and onions over egg noodles, and then, like, you spread some blueberry jam over all of it and it just doesn't make sense anymore but you still like it so much

Live Review of "In Rainbows"

Right now, I'm pretty sure I'm the first person in the world to hear the new Radiohead album "In Rainbows." The only thing that is more certain than this is the influence that this record will have on the music world. I can say that even though I haven't heard the whole thing yet. I could have said that a week ago, too. After all, it's a Radiohead record, and it's already shaken up the music industry pretty substantially. The marketing/distribution scheme behind this record has been the subject of every major news stream since the band announced it only ten days ago. Already two tracks in, there's no doubt that this is a Radiohead record. First of all, Thom Yorke's voice is front and center, virtually unmanipulated, though unsurprisingly indecipherable. Then there's the unconventional metrical structures and the seamless blend of electronic and acoustic instrumentation that is a staple of Godrich's production on former Radiohead records. "Nude" is the fifth track on the record, but there is little that is naked about Godrich's lush production. The guitar picking of the following track, "Reckoner," immediately recalls earlier Radiohead "Knives Out." Yorke's voice is heavily layered. It's a chorus of Yorkes, and they all have that distinct falsetto warble. This is cool. The track takes its time, embellishing a repetitive guitar riff with layer after layer of strings and vocals. I've heard the essential elements of "Arpeggi" back when it was recorded at a live performance backed by flowing orchestral movements. This version throws in a beat and a looping guitar melody that almost stumbles over itself. Structurally, it is a more sound song, but I miss the unstable, spontaneous feeling of the leaked live recording. "Bodysnatchers" is a ripper of a song. This one will probably be fun to see live, and I bet Yorke will do that thing where he's all impulsively bouncing around the stage. There'll probably a light show, too...

Just like that, it's over. No epic denouement. Just an ending. I'm not sure what I expected from the record. Considering only the title and the graphic design preceding the record's release, I guess I expected a sonic blend of colors - something that maintained variety through the blending of separate and complimentary tonal qualities. After hearing the record, that's pretty arguable. The majority of the record has a constant mood. Above all, it sounds like a Radiohead record. Maybe that's a little disappointing. Granted, I've placed this band on a pretty high pedestal, but I don't think I'm wrong in expecting groundbreaking sounds from them. These expectations were supported last week when I first heard about how the band was going to release the record. In the end, though, it's a pretty unsurprising record. That's OK, I guess. It's still good. It's still fun to listen to. But it lacks the moments that made earlier Radiohead records so exciting - "gucci little piggy" moments, moments of pure undeniable beauty, moments like the chills I got in the first moments of "2+2=5." Maybe I'm too old to be surprised by anything this band does anymore. Or maybe the whole time I was expecting something unexpectable.

p.s. I still think Radiohead did something amazingly cool by releasing this record as they did. I shudder at the thought of saying anything less than stellar about them. But whatever. Maybe it's a grower...