Five Alive! (No. 5)

The Download These Songs Edition

1. Souls of Mischief - "93 'til Infinity"; Mos Def - "Umi Says": I had completely forgotten about these songs for a few years. The first: I was floating around on my computer and I ran across Modest Mouse's celebrity playlist on iTunes. On it there is a Tribe song and Isaac Brock (I assume) says my favorite is not this Tribe song but SOM's "93 'til Infinity". Undoubtedly, this is one of the best hip-hop songs of all time. Laid back and smooth like A Tribe Called Quest and sooo smooth. This is a perfect jam for the summertime. The second: I was at Buffalo Billiards in Philly with my brother playing some pool. We decided to play some music on the jukebox and I ran into Mr. Def's Black on Both Sides. I don't know much about the rest of the album, but I did really love this song (you may remember it from the Nike commercial). There's not much rapping going on--in fact, it's more of a jazzy/funky song. Another summertime hit--the vocals float like a cool summer breeze, smooth and easy.

2. DJ Shadow - "Midnight in a Perfect World": An absolutely unbelievable and essential track. This is a documentation of a man perfecting his art: it is a distinct possibility it is a documentation of a man perfecting the art of DJ-ing. (I can hear the X heads groan.) I'm slightly unfamiliar with the rest of Shadow's Endtroducing..., but I'm pretty sure most of the downtempo tracks on The Private Press were trying to grasp what this track fully realized. The slowly lumbering pace is perfect, the title is perfect, the creepy vocals are perfect, the orchestrated build-up is perfect, the vocal cuts ("Now-n-n-n-n-ow approaching midnight!") are perfect. This is, quite possibly, the untouchable pinnacle of (downtempo) instrumental hip-hop because, well, it's perfect.

3. Jackie Wilson - "(Your Love Keep Lifting Me) Higher and Higher": Who the hell is this Jackie Wilson character and how did he sneak so swiftly into my playlists? I've never heard another track by him (maybe I'm uninformed), but goddammit, this is right up there with the best of them: Green, Gaye, Mayfeild, whoever. I can see why some wouldn't like it: after all, it is kind of the optimist's anthem. But holy shit! I get fucking goosebumps when I hear this shit! "Com'on, sock it to me!" Once that bass gets rolling, man, everything just fits right into place. Smooth Soul strings and horns, smooth yet powerful vocals, and that addicting tambourine. Even if you don't like this song, put it on a mixtape. She'll love it.

4. Bob Marley - "Could You Be Loved": One of my favorite Marley tracks. Instead of starting out with the requisite Marley intro ("Pop! Puka, Puka.) of drums, this track (off of his last, Uprising) starts with that sexy little guitar line that ends up following the song wherever it goes. It gives the song that bouncy, I-know-your-swinging feeling. But then, as good as the verses are, the chorus comes. Music doesn't get much more life-affirming than this. One of the most pleasing parts to any song. I prefer the 12" version because its 1:30 longer.

5. The Clash - "Police and Theives": One of their best tracks, without a doubt. I first heard it in The Royal Tenenbaums (I think its when Eli Cash goes to score drugs with Margot in the car) and it immediately sounds like something you've heard before. But it isn't. It's a pretty perfect mixture of punk and dub. Another track whose 6 minutes do not seem long enough, I could listen this over and over.

Five Alive! (No. 4)

It's been a long time since I've done this, I know. But I've now graduated school and can devote some more time to it. Until, I get bored, that is.

1. Family Guy: This show is so damn clever. I know it's pretty typical to like it as every frat boy will tell you, but really it's one of the most entertaining things I've ever seen on television. I have the first two seasons on DVD, and I watch them almost every night before sleeping. Just hearing Quagmire's "All Right!" is worth the admission price alone.

2. Beans - Now Soon Someday: The hotness. I saw Beans with Prefuse 73 back in the fall of 2003 and I thought he was pretty good, but had a weird rhyming style that was hard to follow. He still mumbles his enormous vocabulary, but on record, I must say he sounds a lot tighter. The mix is much better than it was live and his production is much better than I could have expected. I got this after I saw the "Mutescreamer" video which freaked me out in a real great way. Only problem is, I neglected to see that the version I heard was not on this record. In its place are two remix versions by El-P and Prefuse 73. Let me tell you, these two songs alone are worth the price (a scant 8 dollars for 9 songs!). Really a great hip-hop record that doesn't overstay its welcome.

3. Religion in art: Been really getting into stuff that crosses the two boundaries. In particular, I've been reading Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory and listening to Pedro the Lion. Graham Greene is an incredibly masterful writer who depicts a "whiskey priest" in southern Mexico during a time of Communist rule when Christianity is forbidden. Ironically, Communism simply makes the country poor and limp while Christian goodwill strengthens a person's outlook and is more successful in creating a communist state than communism is. Pedro the Lion (like The Power... before it) uses religion not only as a source for salvation but of frustration. Control is a great album for this. (I haven't really absorbed Achilles Heel yet.)

4. Philadelphia: I really love my home. I've been with my girlfriend and we've been going in and out of the city. I must say, there are so many fun things to do and see here and not nearly enough time to do it. The city really has an energy all to itself that cannot be found anywhere else. The architecture is not particularly sexy, the people are sort of ugly, but somehow the city is really fun to be in. That and the people are ridiculous. And the accents. Ask a Philadelphian to say "street" or "oh yeah". They come out so dirty: "Oah yeh, it's oaver on fifth shtreet."

5. America's "A Horse With No Name": Even though it may be a complete rip-off of Neil Young this song is pretty hot on its own. The "La da da da da da da" chorus sends me for a loop every time, like I'm floating through space. Man, I can only imagine what this song was like in the early 70's...

Five Alive! (No. 3)

1. Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day: I picked this up on a trip to San Fransisco and have been really getting into it recently. She's got a really soft, mystical sound to her songs along the lines of Fairport Convention or the Incredible String Band. The thing I really like about her sound is that it's so stripped down, yet it still sounds incredibly full and orchestrated.

2. Television: Not the band, but the device. In the past couple of weeks, I have been watching a lot and enjoying every bit of it. I know it's not good for you, it adds little to my life, and all that, but there is nothing better than watching The Fifth Wheel or Elimidate.

3. Jefferson Airplane - "Volunteers": I absolutely love this song. I really wish that I had the chance to live in the '60s to be a part of a revolution that never happened because the time made some of the greatest music that these ears have ever seen. "Volunteers" isn't the most mindblowing song, but a great radio anthem. I could imagine tons of high-schoolers loving this song.

4. Faces - "Ooh La La": I love iTunes. I was downloading some music and I couldn't figure out the name of the song I wanted, but I knew it was on the Rushmore soundtrack. (This song is at the ending credits, and one of the best uses of a song in a movie ever.) I clicked through the songs they had, and eventually got a 30 second clip of this. As soon as I heard it I got chills all over my body. So good.

5. The Election Year - Aren't elections exciting? I really can't wait to see all the coverage the presidental candidates are going to be getting in the next few months. Regardless of who you want to vote for, the sense of power the people are given through voting is awesome. Isn't democracy great?

Five Alive! (No. 2)

1. Dirty Pretty Things: I saw this one sometime last summer. At the time, I thought it was pretty good, nothing all that special. On the second (and third), times around, this movie really starts to fully reveal itself as an incredible multi-layered work of art. The story is based around a human organ trading ring, that is owned an operated in London's The Baltic Hotel. The movie slowly unfolds two characters lives and how organ trading is seen as an entrance in to the Western world by the means of acquiring a passport. This one is truly interesting (no matter if its false) and, with fantastic acting, very entertaining to watch.

2. A fresh tuna sandwich with provolone, lettuce and tomato: The tuna was unbelievably fresh, cooked just the right amount, so it was a nice soft pink in the center. The cheese was melted over top. This sandwich was so fucking delicious. Like a tuna melt, but a thousand times better.

3. Hunter S. Thompson: This writer is so fun to read. Most of his early stuff is not only entertaining but actually has the stuff good, well-informed journalism should have. I don't think I've ever been able to start one of Thompson's articles and have an idea of where he was going to take it.

4. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Greatest Palace Music: So what's wrong with this? Pitchforkmedia.com, the indie superstore gave this one a bad rating for really no reason at all. What's bad about it? Bascially, Will Oldham has taken his back catalogue (that was under the name of Palace Music) and has recorded some fans' favorite songs in a very Nashville way. The songs are well planned and more orchestrated, only ocassionally sounding too slick. For the most part, the disc is very solid and any emotional impact is not lost in the rerecorded versions.

5. Sleep: I need some, and I haven't been getting it well lately. So everytime I do, its fantastic.

Five Alive! (No. 1)

1. Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days: I still haven’t stopped listening to this one yet. Everything, from start to finish, on this record is great. Soft and soothing, yet intricate and artistically developed. Like having a tall glass of lemonade with Bob Dylan (see #3).

2. Misery: I had forgotten how great this movie is. Kathy Bates plays the most disturbing role I’ve ever seen so perfectly—she definitely deserved that Oscar. The film does a really good job examining celebrity, middle-America ideals, and one’s reluctance to change. It’s certainly not the best movie I’ve ever seen, but you could do a lot worse.

3. Bob Dylan – “Lay, Lady, Lay”: Holy smokes. This song is so damn good. Simple, yet so classic. I listened to this about 15 times on today—I was trying to figure it out for the guitar, but I just got sucked into it over and over again. I hadn’t really heard this song before last weekend when I spent Easter in San Francisco. My family and I had just hiked a bit in Muir Woods, looking at some tall Sequoias and beautiful lush greenery. We were coming back in our rented silver Mustang, and it came on. I recommend listening to this song in that environment—crusing on a windy Californian road, about 60 degrees, overcast, the faint smell of burning wood in the air.

4. The Flamingos – “I Only Have Eyes For You”: Another one that I heard in San Fran. This time I was in a throwback diner, eating eggs benedict. There’s an incredibly huge sound to this song even though it’s not much more than a few drums, guitar, bass, and voice. Phil Spector must have produced this one—that watery reverb is spattered all over this song. It makes me want ice cream sundaes.

5. Kill Bill Vol. 1: I saw this on Wednesday night for the second time. It was so god damn good. Some of the most exciting action sequences I’ve ever seen, plus really great writing by Tarantino. Lots of really cool gender dialogue going on here (i.e. women’s roles, male sexuality, etc.). I cannot wait to see the next one tomorrow.

Note

Hi.

Starting tomorrow, Thursday (and, most likely, every Thursday thereafter), I will be creating lists of five things that are currently grabbing my attention. The focus will be music as always, but will not be limited to just that. I will quite possibly discuss films, books, magazines, and foods.

Until then, I remain your hopeful informant and entertainer,

Brett Baxter

::Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days::

The south has had a lot to offer to music. If one looks close enough, an argument can be made that the American south was actually responsible for a very large portion of pop music; namely rock n’ roll, blues, folk and country.

But one large question looms: why is it that music that sounds like it comes from the South often not even geographically close?

For example, Credence Clearwater Revival were formed in El Cerrito, Calif. Most of the “southern gentlemen” I know would take this group as one of their own.

But the list doesn’t stop there. The Band was from Toronto, the Grateful Dead was from San Francisco, the Byrds were from Los Angeles, and so on.

That brings us to Sam Beam, better known by his alias (and group’s name) Iron & Wine.

He too lives outside of the south, finding a home in Miami, Fla. But the music he creates is undeniably southern, using every slide guitar and finger-picked melody to its fullest potential.

Our Endless Numbered Days has truly advanced Beam as an artist. His last album, The Creek Drank the Cradle, was a more grainy, hushed affair that sounded personal yet distant at the same time, sacrificing modern production methods for a more timeless sound.

This time around, Beam has given up the four-track and has asked the tremendous producer Brian Deck to produce the album.

The effect is immediately evident. At once, the record feels more intimate and thought out because the warm blankets of fuzz are no longer there to hide behind.

Guitar parts are clearer, different instrumentation is immediately distinguishable and there is much more importance placed on percussion, which was practically non-existent on Creek.

The percussion gives Days an interesting vibe. On the opener “On Your Wings” and “Free Until They Cut Me Down,” we see a bluesy side of Beam that, until now, has been underdeveloped.

The result is something that sounds like Gram Parsons covering Captain Beefheart – occasionally becoming weirdly funky but still remaining down-homey.

While the percussive element is interesting, the most alluring element of any Iron & Wine song, by a long shot, is Beam’s fantastic voice. He sounds like a happier, breathier Nick Drake, but he can harmonize as well, if not better, than CCR.

On songs like “Sodom, South Georgia,” “Naked As We Came” and “Sunset Soon Forgotten,” Beam makes an impressive case for how powerful the human voice can be in creating emotion through tone and sound alone.

In addition to these timeless melodies, Beam writes lyrics capable of coming from any time period.

His characters face enduring issues from love to death to Christianity to war, things most anyone has dealt with and things that can be explored over and over. Iron & Wine’s Our Endless Numbered Days is as timeless as the area it borrows its sound from.

While the south may not have the most visible artists ever (although there are many exceptions), it can be proud of always inspiring some of the best art.

In this case, the brilliant traditions of Southern blues and folk music have come together seamlessly to create a simple masterpiece.

Sorry...

Sorry, I've been missing in action for about a month. Here's three reviews...I hope you forgive me.

::Madvillain - Madvillainy::

Back when Ornette Coleman practically invented free-jazz in the late 50’s, early 60’s, it resulted in a huge shift in the world of music. In the years following his most commercially successful album, The Shape of Jazz to Come, the more musically outlandish followers of Coleman (and Thelonius Monk, among other innovators) fell further and further below the radar, while the more accessible, traditional players found continued mainstream acceptance.

Looking at the state of hip-hop, one gets the sense that the same thing seems to be happening. The underground is deservedly receiving a huge amount of critical acclaim, but still cannot find a stronghold in the mainstream.

MF Doom and Madlib, the two men comprising Madvillain, have, for years, been part of this underground. But rather than attempting to water-down their sound to increase record sales and public approval (Black Eyed Peas or Jurassic 5, anyone?), Doom and Madlib have followed in their jazz torchbearers’ steps and have made their music more exciting and experimental with each record. This is expertly proven with Madvillainy, a record of incredible depth and artistic integrity.

Madlib, as usual, handles most of the production and uses his comprehensive knowledge of jazz to his advantage, laying down unrecognizable yet great jazz and soul records to sound somewhere in between Sun Ra to Philly Soul, as strange as that may sound. As Doom says on “Money Folder”, “He flipped it like Madlib did an old jazz standard.” Tracks like “Meat Grinder” and “Sickfit” have the power to prove to any doubter that, yes, sampling can be incredibly dense and captivating stuff.

But as good as Madlib’s production is (and if we’re comparing them to their peers) Doom’s rhyming truly destroys any competition. He’s funny, surreal, aware, poetic, and any other number of praising adjectives you can think of.

More than anything, Doom is extremely entertaining to listen to. He uses words to their full effect, playing with their sound, meaning, and rhythm to make him, quite possibly, one of the most original MCs ever. Take “Rhinestone Cowboy”, for example, where Doom exclaims, “We rock the house like rock n’ roll/Got more soul/Than a sock with a hole.”

While this may not seem too impressive on paper, hearing the spoken rhythm allows Doom’s rhymes to take off over top of Lib’s production that perfectly complements Doom’s dry attack.

Although MF Doom takes the microphone for most of the record, Madlib’s split-persona does show itself as the helium-voiced Quasimoto. His appearance on “America’s Most Blunted” is amazing—schizophrenic and hilarious, even if the subject matter is dumb, making the track to be one of Madvillainy’s best.

Even though some of the tracks on Madvillainy may be better than others, you’d be really hard pressed to find a bad track. As a whole, the record is unstoppable and, quite possibly, better than any other hip-hop record released this decade.

Madvillainy has potential. It can make a commercial splash and have some of the same influence that Coleman’s Shape had. If it does, we can look forward to an incredible future of progressive underground hip-hop.

::Kanye West - College Dropout::

The American Dream.

Kanye (pronounced Khan-yay) West, producer and rapper from Chicago, pretty much has this one thing on his mind. Only, it’s not the American Dream most people have of money, success, and happiness. While West’s idea does encompass these three touchstones of the American Dream, it dives a bit deeper into the fray surrounding this abstract notion.

When immigrants first arrived on ships into Ellis Island, being successful in the United States was not something that had to be achieved through education. Gradually, as the 20th century began to wear on, education almost became a necessity for anyone seeking class movement. Especially in today’s world, one must attend college to become successful as evidenced by our enrollment in Wake Forest.

Kanye West wants to eliminate this preconception. Even before you listen to the record, you kind of know what you’re getting yourself into. After all, you are buying a CD in a record store called College Dropout. This guy is letting you know “even though I didn’t go to college, I’ve made myself successful. Eff the system.”

Once the record hits the needle, it’s a bit different than the uninitiated listener might expect. He’s not a cocksure or brash in proclaiming “I’m #1”, because he constantly checks himself by confessing his weaknesses. It’s incredibly exciting to listen to College Dropout because Kanye is a man who is arrogant yet mindful. In other words, he’s someone the listener can relate to.

The best tracks are the ones that illustrate this duality. “All Falls Down” is the first track we see this, when he says, “Man I promise I’m so self-conscious/That’s why you always see me with one of my watches”. “Jesus Walks”, on the other hand, is a view of an actual cry for help, something almost unprecedented in the hip-hop world and one of Dropout’s best songs. Pair this subject matter with West’s smooth, simplistic (but not half-baked) flow, and the record becomes almost unstoppable.

Unfortunately, as a whole, the record does lose steam at some points. Most of the skits are unnecessary and truly boring. They serve no purpose to the record. Just keep that finger on top of the fast forward button when they come up.

Thankfully, this lull in quality throughout is more than made up for with West’s dominant production. West was a producer before he decided to step up to the mic, having helped on Jay-Z’s “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, Ludacris’ “Stand Up”, and Talib Kweli’s “Get By” (all three appear on Dropout). His studio experience is mesmerizing as he easily weaves 70’s soul and jazz reminiscent of A Tribe Called Quest into soon-to-be (or already, like “Slow Jamz” with Twista & Jamie Foxx) club tracks.

Kanye West’s debut is an incredible one. He, with a few missteps, has created an incredibly successful album bridging the underground and the mainstream. West is living the American Dream, but he still remains insatiated, wanting to conquer even more real-estate. He’s there, but not yet.

::Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand::

As soon as I saw Franz Ferdinand’s press kit, I knew I would hate them.

I mean, look at these nerds, dressed up like Interpol without ties, trying to be all cool and hip.

These guys haven’t got a chance in hell.

But my job is to review music, not wardrobe and image.

I put the record on and immediately, I thought, “You’ve got be kidding me with this post-punk crap. That garbage was sooo 2002.”

Of course I wasn’t really listening. I was still thinking about how much I hated that one dude’s moustache. It wasn’t ironic or good-looking. What was he thinking?

Music, not wardrobe.

Focus, okay?

All right.

I let a few days pass and eventually I sat down with the record, attempting to divorce myself from my preconceptions.

And, hell, I was wrong.

I heard one of the best records I’ve heard in a long while.

The thing about Franz Ferdinand is that they’re not really that new.

Rather, they tend to be a synthesis of everything that draws one into an addiction with rock music.

They keep their head in the future and their feet in the past.

Franz Ferdinand’s all-encompassing knowledge of worthy music is impressive, but their tightness is even more astounding. Every song is so securely wound that it feels like it could unravel at any moment and leave the listener with an incredible sense of urgency.

While each member plays perfectly in time with one another, they, at the same time, aren’t afraid of going in four different directions, which they almost always do.

Franz Ferdinand’s urgency can’t be simply measured by how fragile they sound. One needs to, of course, mention those damn disco beats.

It sounds like they’re playing at Studio 54 where someone lit them on fire and told them the only way they could put it out was by playing with a greater sense of urgency and by making everyone dance faster and weirder.

Not only would Franz Ferdinand make a great Studio 54 house band, but they’d probably fit in there as well.

All over their record they make an effort to sound creepily androgynous like early Bowie or Suede, especially on “Michael.” Singer Alex Kapranos blurs sexual lines allowing everyone except the homophobes to come along.

While Franz Ferdinand do sound kind of disco, they more frequently tend to stick to the rock end of the spectrum.

They find a comfortable niche in between Interpol and Hot Hot Heat (see “Take Me Out,” “Cheating On You,” or “This Fire”) but thankfully sound nothing like either.

Other times, like on “Tell Her Tonight,” they sound like Wire or even the Pixies.

In the end though, Franz Ferdinand doesn’t sound like a conglomeration of these torchbearers but a completely new band - and a fantastic one at that.

So I learned a valuable lesson. Don’t judge a book by its cover, or its press kit, because you might lose out on the content.

Unless that book looks like Good Charlotte. In which case you should discard of it immediately because there is nothing redeemable to be found in those pages.

::Liars - They Were Wrong So We Drowned::

“Fear is a very powerful emotion.” Or so says the first sentence of Liars’ press release.

I’d tend to agree. After all, we’re fed fear every day. Glance at Fox “News” and most of the time you’ll get some sort of mention of an orange/purple/green alert. Why? To scare us into watching more? To see what kind of duct tape we should purchase? To see when Bill O’Reilly predicts the world is going to melt?

Although the media does play a large part in the American consciousness, it’s not completely their fault that we are terrified of everything. I’d like to point my long middle finger at the Bush administration for the rest of the blame. Sure, everyone should have felt uneasy and, well, terrified after 9/11, but the extent that the Bush administration went to was ridiculous. What they have taught us, by example, in the past few years is absurd: every middle-eastern non-U.S.-supporter is a potential terrorist whether they prove to be an imminent threat or not. What the hell happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Liars, like many other skeptical Americans have watched what has happened to our country for the past few years with a weary, firsthand eye. They are from Brooklyn, minutes away from where this all began (or did it?). Rather than take the blatantly easy route by screaming personal politics over sharp-edged discopunk, (see They Threw Us in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top) Liars have created something different.

Liars have taken America’s history of fear and turned it into an uncompromising work of art. They have proved that our earliest fears run parallel to our current paranoia. That’s right; Liars have created a concept album about witches.
The United States has a history of witch hunts. They date as far back as the literal Salem witch trials to the McCarthy “you’re a communist” era all the way up to now, and the Bush “you’re not patriotic” era. These times have created a paranoia uniquely American, one that is dutifully captured on Liars’ They Were Wrong So We Drowned.

The album in question is one that takes sound and uses it to create the aural equivalent of a Pollack painting. Synth bleeps, collapsible drums, and lacerating guitars arise chaotically and sporadically creating dark and forceful sound collages reminiscent of terrified confusion and dread.

Although Liars have allowed their sound to become noisier and less-accessible, their old post-punk resonance is not completely gone. Songs like, “There’s Always Room on the Broom” and “Hold and It Will Happen Anyway” revisit familiar territory that is both recognizably welcome respites and forward-thinking at once.

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned is not for everyone. This is a record interested in social commentary through art, and difficult art at that. This record will polarize many crowds like most abstract contemporary art does. But if you allow yourself to get into it, you will find, as the Liars’ press release says, “Fear is a very seductive emotion.”

::Air - Talkie Walkie::

In the early 90’s, I used to watch Back to the Future, Part II repeatedly. There was something that was so exciting about jackets that were hair dryers, watching 12 television networks at once, and having a flying skateboard. As I got older, Michael J. Fox’s face was gradually replaced with a faceless Hal 3000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. My innocent, hopeful vision of the future had slowly begun to change into a more paranoid idea of the unknown.

Air, like those films, have found themselves evolving in the same manner. For their past two full-lengths the electronic/acoustic French duo has been creating a time that does not suit them. Their sound seemed stuck in some kitschy 70’s vision of the future, a time when space travel is common for anyone and everyone, a time that finds us miniscule and in awe of a huge universe.

Ultimately, this sound quickly wore itself out. Moon Safari, their debut and the album most consider their masterpiece, after a few listens seemed too tacky and absurd; too innocent a picture of the unknow. While “La Femme d’Argent” and “Sexy Boy” were great, the rest of the tracks failed to explore very different ground. 10,000 Hz. Legend, their sophomore effort, fared even worse by testing out paranoid experimental soundscapes that were found to be flat, claustrophobic, and uninteresting making them sound like some new-age bores.

Talkie Walkie, I figured, would continue down this road to self-destruction, eventually resulting in an Air track on some gross Ibiza “chill-out” compilation. Surprisingly, Air has not only reclaimed the magic of Moon Safari, but has stripped Safari’s sound to its core, resulting in simple, minimalist compositions. Particularly on “Alpha Beta Gaga” we see an incredibly mature band finding the silence between the notes to be more deadly than the melody.

That is not to say that Air has given up their sense of melancholy, dreamy pop. Every one of Talkie Walkie’s tracks float in those soft harmonies that made Air so memorable in the first place. This time around, the band places those sexy synths and plucked guitars against little more than a dry drum-machine or no rhythm at all. On “Universal Traveler” and “Cherry Blossom Girl” Air uses this exact method of restraint to achieve breathtaking results.

While their sense of melody is approaching impeccable, their sound also finds an impressive cinematic center. “Alone In Kyoto”, a song used in Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation and the album’s centerpiece, is exactly this—a song that undeniably evokes imagery. What, exactly, that is remains up to you.

Because most of the lyrics on Talkie Walkie are about rockets, planets, and space travel in general, there is no doubt that Air is attempting to evoke a visualization of the future. With their simple, mysterious production and nearly perfect sense of spacious melody Air has finally found how to straddle the line between an absurdly glamorous prospect and heavy-handed apocalyptic outlook resulting in a repeatedly enjoyable vision of the next century. I can’t wait for the DVD.

::The Descendents::

Let's talk about pop music for a minute.

Ok.

The Descendents are pop music. Yes. We agree.

Words like, "I like food/food tastes good." Yes, everyone can get along with that. Understand that.

But the genius of the Descendents is not easily seen by everyone.

They're a punk band.

[Crowd Groans]

Stop and listen. The Descendents are genius. They exist in the same realm as any great pop band. Ever. Yes.

That means they can be compared to The Beatles, Beach Boys, Byrds, Beulah, Beachwood Sparks, etc.

A Descendent's song rarely consists of more than 3 chords, inane lyrics about something anything a high-school dropout could have written (note: Milo Aukerman, the singer, is a Molecular Biologist when he's not in the band), and a fucking unbelievably catchy hook for the chorus.

This is enough to make any person a fan of the Descendents. Even if the lyrics "Sienfeld, Simpsons, My So-Called Life/Seen the reruns 20 million times" make you cringe. I mean after all, you've seen all those shows too, haven't you? You sad bastard.

Yes.

So, go buy the new single 'Merican. You know what you're going to get, you know you're going to like it, and you know it's going to be money well spent.

Just so you know.

Hello...

Hello,

I wanted to thank some of the readers of this rag for a moment. Also, I would like to let everyone know that many of the things that I print in the upcoming weeks will be printed in The Old Gold & Black at the same time (Wake Forest University's school paper). You can see that here.

While you're reading about music, why not see what's happening in the world of film (and music, too)? I have a great website for you to turn to here. It's called Math Industries and its published daily by a friend named Paul Bullock. He's a smart and reliable fellow. Check it out!

The Math Industries website is quite sexy, don't you think? Yes. Well, another friend of mine has helped design it, and he also has his own website here. His name is Chad Pugh and he is extremely creative. At that website you can check out his work. Check that out too!

Okay, that's it for now, I'll talk to you soon!

Love,
Brett

::The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows::

The Strokes. Yeah, the Walkmen kind of sound like the Strokes. They both have that wildly crooning singer that seems really impassioned yet bored at the same time. They both dress well. They’re both from New York. And, in the last six months, they both put out records that are much more impressive than their predecessors.

The comparisons between the Strokes and Walkmen pretty much end in their specific locations, the Strokes are from downtown Manhattan while the Walkmen call uptown home. Where the Strokes are all parallel lines and Mondrian-esque, the Walkmen take a crescendo and make the song to melt into itself like grilled cheese (see “No Christmas While I’m Talking”). Also, where the Strokes seem pleasantly grimy, the Walkmen actually embrace a weathered songwriting approach.

That’s not to say that their chops are underdeveloped and woefully scratchy. Rather, the Walkmen’s production, which they mostly do themselves, allows their songs much more space to breathe than the Strokes’ airtight veneer.

While the Strokes are good, the Walkmen are better. The thing about the Walkmen is that they don’t care about the garage-rock thing that much anymore.

In the late 90s three of the five Walkmen were in the superb Jonathon Fire*Eater, which predated pretty much every half-rate “rock revivalist” that M2 deems “buzzworthy” (screw you, Jet). They’ve taken the standard three-chord songs as far as they can go and now challenge themselves to embrace more orchestrated and difficult territory.

The outcome is nearly perfect. While their last album Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone, with a song in a Saturn car commercial, was simply catchy; Bows and Arrows, on the other hand, is even more accessible, memorable and rewarding all at once.

Songs fluctuate between brink-of-disaster rockers like “Little House of Savages” and the utterly fantastic “The Rat” to the mood-oriented and rhythmless “Hang On, Siobhan.” The fact that they seamlessly fluctuate between sweat and sweetness is impressive. After all, can you say that for their colleagues in the Strokes?

Nay.

The only problem encountered with the different types of songs is that the fluidity of the album is compromised. Twice the listener’s heart rate is brought up only to be suddenly cut off in heart-wrenching laments. Of course, this is only a minor problem in the long run, because individually the songs stand up separate from the whole.

The more and more I think about it, the Walkmen don’t really sound like they should be related to that god-forsaken/holy place that is known as New York City. Their sound is too natural, too dreamy. There’s an environment that lives in this record and it’s not the high rise, fashionista life of the East Village, but the snowy, cold winters experienced all along the eastern seaboard, looking from the inside out. While the Strokes can and will always have New York pegged with Room on Fire, the rest of America can embrace Bows and Arrows as the soundtrack to the East Coast’s muffled landscape of winter.

::Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse::

Stereolab, a band whose most important period is considered to be the mid 90’s (circa Emperor Tomato Ketchup), has been remarkably consistent in their evolution. While some may find it difficult to see a difference from their debut Peng! to Margerine Eclipse, Stereolab have allowed their sound to naturally and interestingly evolve into more mature and orchestrated territories. Stereolab has almost totally given up the 2-chord pop songs of their earlier (but still great) material and have now begun experimenting with prog-type structures, but without all the D&D references and self-indulgent solos.

Superficially Stereolab’s sound remains the same spacey lounge-jazz it always has been. Their clearest reference points continue to be krautrock hall-of-famers Kraftwerk and Can. But this time around Stereolab willfully explores their love-hate relationship between disco/not-disco. On “La Demeure” we are greeted with their typical dry, driving beat and some ambient keyboards only to be sucked into a parallel universe where Chic and Parliament run a sexy cocktail bar with Air and Dimitri From Paris in attendance. “Need To Be”, on the other hand, follows a rainbow synthesizer line to the obvious reassessment of Stereolab’s mellow pop-songwriting chops complete with soaring chorus.

Margerine Eclipse is not an album that finds Stereolab attempting to conquer any new territory. Rather, Stereolab proves that persisting down the same path can yield some tasty new fruits.

::The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?::

Spontaneity in music is a volatile thing. On one hand, it can be endearing, make you feel as though the song is being meticulously crafted around you, and can leave a sense of urgency and energy that will not be found in carefully orchestrated performances. On the other hand, in spontaneity can leave a sloppy, misguided, and pointless feeling to songs. Typically, Phish (and their ilk’s) songs fit into the latter category.

Montreal’s the Unicorns, on their first album Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, have, from out of nowhere, successfully found a balance between this live, spontaneous energy and pop craftsmanship and songwriting. “Les Os” perfectly embodies this flexibility. The song, while undeniably pop, takes a strange route from beginning to end that seems fragile and combustible at any point, but when looked at deeper, proves to be incredibly intricate while thoughtfully messy. Add to that some surreal lyrics (“I want to die today/and make love with you in the grave”) and a melody borrowed from 70’s power-poppers Big Star or the Beach Boys and you’ll get the idea.

The one thing that makes the Unicorns’ record so great is its repeat value. WWCOHWWG is incredibly accessible pop music that, dependant on how closely you listen, has layer upon layer to unravel.

::The Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting For My Man"::

Imagine yourself living in the sixties--a time of change from a period of strange paranoia and social oppression to a era of free love, thinking and risk taking. There is no doubt that many of us, who missed the opportunity, have romantically dreamt of the time, its signifigance, and most of us have even imagined living in the middle of America's maturation. But the more I think about it, the Sixties must have been fucking scary, man. Especially if you listened to the Velvet Underground.

These days, the Velvet Underground are more readily recognized for their place in the hipster canon rather than their uncompromising, gothic blues. Which, let me remind you again, can be really fucking scary. Under these seductive, driving 12-bar blues songs lie sadistic songs of drug addiction, sexual perversion, and overall the notion of a utopia gone wrong. For a time like the Sixties, where drugs were romanticized and sex was pure, the Velvet's music was undeniably jaw-dropping. Here were four rock 'n rollers, creatures of debauchery and excess, talking about the inescapable dark side. No wonder no one wanted to hear it.

"I'm Waiting For My Man" is one of these songs that seem easy enough to get along with, but in the end find the darkness at the end of the tunnel. Surely, no one wants to romanticise the notion of drug addicition and paranoia with the "free" Sixties. Instead, the Velvet's refusal of more popular superficial rock themes like love or the depths of the mind, decidedly take a more realistic and dangerous approach that observes one's freedoms as occasionally becoming one's vices. In the end this notion is most likely what turned people off from the Velvet Underground but also made them one of the most important bands ever to exist.

::"The Boss"::

[I know it's been quite a bit of time since I've updated this website, but I know you all understand because I'm incredibly important! Stay tuned for regular updates.]

Bruce Springsteen is "The Boss". He always has been and always will be. But how does a person who writes songs sympathizing with the lives of lower-middle class men and women become "The Boss"? Surely, this is a misnomer.

Springsteen, to most people, is a realist, one who questions common (the media's?) values and opts to portray life in its most vulnerable and unpleasant ways. In particular, his brilliant 1982 album Nebraska shows Springsteen as an even-more-regular-than-you type of person.

But how does this happen? Obviously, Bruce is not like any of us. Sure he may have grown up in middle-earth type places like New Jersey (ah, home) and seen the blue-collar lifestyle, but isn't Springsteen a celebrity? Isn't he one of those rich, pleasant-on-TV/Stage type of people? Especially at the time of Nebraska Bruce Springsteen he was a recognizable celebrity, selling out stadiums and shows on all his tours.

But yet the music prevails. The thing is that Springsteen tends to illustrate his stories with a narrator that may not necessarily be himself. This worn-down man has seen a lot, knows more than he'll let on, and has that raspy voice to prove it. Listening to Nebraska is not like listening to a rock star attemping to reestablish his credibility, but is like listening to the emotion, thought, and stories of an underrepresented lower-mid class. Ironically, his stories transcend class boundaries and achieve (especially on Nebraska) something like the Human Experience. His dealings with violence, lust, love, and emotion, as stripped down as they are, achieve things anyone can relate to. The sound is necessarily barren and raw to give us that realness we need.

Even though Springsteen is a celebrity with money, fame, and most things that middle America cannot relate with, we find ourselves giving him the name he deserves. He is "The Boss". We will work a week so that we can spend our hard earned cash on seeing a Springsteen show. He knows human emotion like the best artists of our time. And, more than that, he knows he's not better than the murderers, gamblers, or antisocial characters in his songs because, at heart, we all are equal.