ladymisskirroyale

Fast Forward

Dec 152010

Last night, Mr. Royale and I went to see Australian band Tame Impala perform at a small club here in San Francisco. They focused on their 2010 album, Innerspeaker, which could probably be safely be described as “retro” a la 1967. The show was all out psychedelia: barefoot musicians, long-neglected hair, oscilloscope images morphing in time with the chords, large amounts of medicinal herb wafting around us. And Tame Impala are clearly old-school in their influences: Wikipedia lists, among them, Cream, Love, Blue Cheer, CSNY, Steppenwolf, Jefferson Airplane. So when it came time for the encores, I was expecting something in a similar vein. Instead, as the distinct bass line and rim shots were painted in, we got an amazing, full court press cover of Massive Attack‘s 1997, “Angel.” It was followed by another cover, which neither of us initially identified, but with a little research found to be Blue Boy‘s 1998 dance hit, “Remember Me.”

I’m used to encores or other performed covers being used to cite PREVIOUS musical influences: for example I can recall Grizzly Bear doing a cover of the 1962 Spector song, “He Hit Me (and It Felt Like a Kiss).” So what was with Tame Impala fast-forwarding 30 years to reference a more recent musical genre (although “trip-hop,” which could be seen as a bastard child of the earlier psychedelia, and “Remember Me” samples a ’60s single by Marlena Shaw)?

Have you had an experience of an unexpected encore? Did it make you change your mind about the band, for better or for worse?

Cage Against The Machine

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Dec 102010

Forget about dancing sugar plums and holiday ho ho hos, the most anticipated part of the British holiday season is which single will be #1 on Christmas Day. In recent years, Simon Cowell of X Factor and American Idol fame has ushered in the anticipated winner by proclaiming it to be the most magical song in the land. But the masses have started to rise up against the maestro and have been submitting revolutionary numbers to take the piss out of the whole thing. Last year’s anti-Cowell winner was Rage Against The Machine‘s “Killing in the Name.” Very jolly of them. But this year, it’s even better.

I heard about this year’s entry during an important news flash on NPR. Here’s a brief synopsis of this year’s bid to oust Cowell:

http://www.spinner.com/2010/12/06/cage-against-the-machine-campaign-silent-christmas

The best part of the whole thing is that Billy Bragg missed the recording session and had to, in his words, “phone it in.”

I’d vote for 4’33 over some icky holiday ballad, wouldn’t you?

The Secret Track

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Dec 012010

How often have you had that experience of thinking the album/disc/tape was over and then out of laziness or inattention just didn’t turn it off. Your distraction ended up with pay dirt: that secret, unlisted track that emerges when you least expect it. It feels like no one else in the world knows about it but you (and the producer). Tonight, the secret track showed up while I was washing dishes and listening to Gonjasufi‘s A Sufi and A Killer. And Mr. Royale has regaled me with the exquisite joy he felt when he discovered”Train in Vain” on The Clash‘s London Calling.

What are other secret tracks that you have discovered? Should there be an appropriate vocabulary word for this secret world?

All I Want

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Nov 202010

Black Friday quickly approaches. ‘Tis the season to share our favorite music with (un)suspecting friends and relatives, support the artists, and provide additional fodder for RTH discussion. What 2010 releases did you most enjoy and would recommend to our community of discriminating listeners?

Here is a partial list (not necessarily in order of preference) from the Royale household:

Beach House – Teen Dream
The Black Keys – Brothers
Gonjasufi – A Sufi and A Killer
LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Yellow Swans – Going Places
Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma

Separation and Contrast

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Nov 072010

I just finished reading Lavinia Greenlaw‘s The Importance of Music to Girls, a memoir of her years between the early ’60s to the early ’80s. She does a very nice job of describing the development of her musical and style interests, and the parallel understanding of her self. In a chapter entitled, “Separation and Contrast,” which starts with a quote by Goethe from A Theory of Colors, she describes this sea change of a clip by The Jam from 1977’s Marc show:

While Bolan lounged on a fluffy pink throne, the Jam posed rigidly – black suits, white shirts, black ties, black-and-white shoes – in front of a plain black background. Clean-shaven, short-haired, and with emphatic estuary accents, the Jam played “All Around the World,” and here was a speeded-up, pared-down sound that I knew could take me farther and faster than any boy in his car. Bolan cooed and drawled but the Jam shouted: “All around the world I’ve been looking for new…” I was looking for new and it lay in such collisions and detonations and two-minute songs, and in a new kind of color.

I was shocked when I watched this clip. What a perfect embodiment of a shift in English music! And one that clearly influenced Ms. Greenlaw’s sense of the world and herself. She describes shifting from an early adolescent world of discos and bright colors to a greater understanding of some of the contrasts in England at that time.

Did you have an experience or experiences like this? Were there music, films, or videos that made you realize that the world was fundamentally different than you thought and therefore your sense of self was as well?

I look forward to learning more about you.

Unfair Tone Burst

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Oct 172010

Sounds like...

Dear RTH’ers, please reflect on the following quote by uber music journalist, Sasha Frere-Jones:

Spending the nineties in a working indie band, my bandmates and I developed a shorthand for identifying other groups that we played with. After 1995 or so, there wasn’t a whole lot of variation. “Pavement or Stereolab?” we would ask, trying to discover who had inspired the act in question. Eighty percent of the time, the answer was “Pavement.”

As my educational brethren are currently wont to say, this quote provides a perfect opportunity for “think pair share.” Please reflect and discuss the accuracy of Mr. Frere-Jones’ comment. If you believe that his paradigm is a load of bollocks, please provide examples of other mid-to-late ’90s bands that would provide a template (divisive or not) that may be missing from his perspective. Note to self and readers, these are two of my favorite bands…but seriously!

A Bit of the Old Chepooka*

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Oct 042010

One could make a strong case that Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange has had a significant impact on the literature scene (vocabulary, style, etc.). And I think many of us would agree that Stanley Kubrik‘s movie also has lasting cultural significance. But what about that novel’s impact on music? As recently mentioned in a recent RTH post, Heaven 17 is the name of a band referenced in the novel and in the movie. Other bands have also acquired their “eemyas” from characters or vocabulary in the book (see “Devotchka,” “Moloko”). The Echo and the Bunnymen label out of Liverpool was named Korova, in reference to the club, Milkbar. And The Libertines have a song called, “Horrorshow.” Blur also referenced the look of the movie in their video, “The Universal.”

Can you think of other A Clockwork Orange references in music? Are there other novels that have had an effect on Rock (eg, J. G. Ballard’s “Crash.”)?

*chepooka = nonsense in the Nadsat argot.

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