Any thoughts on the new Wilco album? I missed its official debut the other night. I heard it described somewhere – here? – as sounding like the slow songs on Summerteeth. In the basement some dudes were saying that Tweedy’s voice had changed. For the better or worse?
Will Radiohead ever do anything that captivates people again, or are they headed for the departure of that guitar player and the eventual drafting of Johnny Marr for a politely ignored send-off album?
Wait ’til you get past the “Read more!” link and see the way Ian Hunter lifts a tiny background singer to get closer to his mic on the break in this second clip? Think that Bright Eyes guy will ever have the confidence to pull a move like that? Someone from this generation needs to. And how ’bout Hunter’s cavalier laugh as the break wraps up? Cavalier Rock Laughs are an art we take for granted. Can you think of other songs that feature such a laugh, usually at either a song’s intro or the beginning or end of a solo or middle eighth section.
When I’m browsing through a digital download service, such as eMusic, in search of New Rock ‘n Roll music, how would you suggest I locate albums that rock and reach in the rollicking way of a band like Mott the Hoople? I can easily locate severely segmented subgenres, such as Power Pop, Garage Rock, Indie Rock, and Albino Pygmy Pop, yet I have trouble finding a slew of rock ‘n roll bands in one tidy setting. I know they exist – I’ve got a You Am I record, a Figgs record, and such – but where do I even go to find some band like Old 97s?
I know some of you aren’t troubled by essentially one-and-done hitmakers like Gnarls Barkley and Arrested Development long before them. You are comfortable with the ephemeral nature of pop music, right? More power to you! Townsman Sammy worries about bands out of time. I’m hung up on bands with a certain sophomore slump and subsequent disappearance in their near future. I admire those of you who let the good times roll.
Did anyone go to see The New Cars (with Todd Rundgren, without Rick Ocasek and Benjamin Orr) on tour last year? Anyone who’s been in the company of a woman within the last 8 years? Did I read correctly that they’re going on tour again? A New Cars concert strikes me as a pocket calculator-carrying male scene. (I will have to say that Elliott Easton comes through with yet another fantastic 14-second solo in the clip that kicks off this post. I suspect that guy will be making some free-agent visits.)
How did they find a whole room ful of kids whose puppy had just been run over? Beauty.
Sometimes you see too much, General. You see things only a blind man in the movies can see.
I haven’t listened to it yet, but plan to sit down and donate a chunk of internet time to it. I think Berlyant was the one who said it sounded like Summerteeth… I didn’t mind Summerteeth and have liked both kinds of Wilco, pop and experimental:) I’m actually going to be at the Autumn Defense show on the 16th (only two days away!!) here in Philly @ North Star, anyone else going? I’m sure it will be another sold out gig, or nearly, like the Alexi Murdoch one. Autumn Defense is: “John Stirratt, longtime member of Wilco and formerly Uncle Tupelo and musical compatriot Pat Sansone (who has worked with Joseph Arthur, Andrew Bird, Swan Dive, Josh Rouse to name a few).” http://www.myspace.com/theautumndefense
old 97s are probably in the alt-country section, or under americana i bet…! hey mr. mod, have you gotten into calexico, giant sand, m. ward, sun kil moon, ryan adams, minus 5, neko case, gillian welch, luther wright & the wrongs, songs:ohia/magnolia electric/pyramid electric/jason molina, damian jurado, blacky ranchette? other good things to look up also! 🙂 and exceeding all of my expectations, m. ward is amazing live even though it’s just him and his guitar, just… amazing. he makes his albums pale in comparison.
Townswoman Sally C asked:
I’ve tried half of the artists you list. None has broken through for me completely. A friend burned me 2 M. Ward albums, which are OK but a little too rootsy/folky for me. The same friend also burned me 2 Gillian Welch albums, which are way too folky/rootsy for me – BUT I LIKE THEM because they’re so focused and direct. I want to love Neko Case, but he solo stuff is so buried in reverb and atmosphere. I wish she’d just sing all the songs with The New Pornographers (and I wish Carl Newman would just sing lead on his solo album and for Zumpano – for some reason I don’t like his singing as much in the NPs – go figure). Ryan Adams gives off way too much of that “Save me, girl, I’m a lonely space cowboy” vibe for me to get by. His music’s good. I’m suspicious of that Calexico stuff. Songs/Ohia’s band name is too stupid for me to get by, although the stuff that guy does is distinctive. I like The Minus 5 – that joint album they did with Young Fresh Fellows was one of those rare, unabashed rock ‘n roll albums I wish I could come across more often.
Is the rhythmic laugh in ‘The Message’ considered cavalier? Doesn’t Ian Hunter laugh cavalierly on ‘All the Young Dudes’ as well? Is he rock’s most cavalier frontman?
Thwarted by Mr. Mod’s massive amount of musical knowledge! Ack! I got nothin’.
I wasn’t sure if I liked (really liked) M Ward as much until I saw him live opening for My Morning Jacket. He’s just really dynamic and a real personality on stage.
I’m listening to it right now, how can a solo album not have someone singing lead? What do you mean? That he’s singing rhythm? I much prefer his solo stuff over NP too. Okay, this’ll be my last suggest: how about these – there’s also: the gourds, woody guthrie, and for some reason americana/alt-country had quite an effect on younger canadian upstarts in the past few years with artists like cuff the duke, kathleen edwards, sarah harmer (even though she’s mostly pop, but she has some great numbers-my friend julie plays keyboards for her and mike o’neill from the inbreds is also in the band) and the guthries coming to the fore, and people like joel plaskett even have a country twang in some songs. I loved zumpano too btw, awesome band – it kinda surprises me when people say they love them and know them (who aren’t from canada), like almost like saying “the odds” or “the weakerthans” or something.
The thought bubbles over their heads read, “If you really play, we’ll really enjoy it. Going crazy over a lip-synch? That’s called acting. People get paid to do that.”
Sally, it’s not so much musical knowledge that I possess to thwart anyone but a bad attitude:) What I meant about Newman is that I find him much more relaxed and enjoyable on his solo album and with Zumpano than when he tries to “rock out” more in the NPs. On the other hand, I think Neko Case benefits greatly by rocking out with the NPs. Plus, they don’t drown her excellent voice in reverb, as she tends to do on record.
I know, I know, Townsman Trolleyvox and others: I still owe you an in-depth piece examining my hang-ups with reverb.
Non-Canadians aren’t supposed to know the Odds and the Weakerthans?
Not what I’m saying, but it just surprises me when people know them because I think of them as college rock, and sometimes indie fare is harder to find… You know? I’m just continually surprised by how much people know!
Maybe I should have said Elevator to Hell & The Rheostatics?
Pat Sansone is a classic example of an Oliver.
I know about the Odds too and also the fact that they backed up Warren Zevon on a few tours…they would open with a set and then Mr. Z would come out and do his thing.
I’m a big fan of Neko Case and love her reverb drenched records actually. Makes them nice and “other-worldly” to me. The song “Dirty Knife” on Fox Confessor gives me chills…but I’m not much of a fan of the NP or Zumpano. Go figure.
I am actually looking forward to the next Radiohead release. I wasn’t much of a fan early on – saw them at the Troc playing the “hit” Creep and didn’t think much of them. Only later when they wigged out did I get interested.
it’s always been easier to find american indie music because it was always more accessible and charted faster in college radio because that’s the market. It was only 33% cancon for a long time even for our little university station, and the only bands that even our largest station (owned by an american company) played were by sloan, pursuit of happiness, wild strawberries, treble charger, tragically hip, and a few others that were repeated so often that I can still sing “I’m an adult now” from start to finish – i guess the odds were a part of that group too, but I never considered them (or the weakerthans for that matter) as having “broken” into the scene. there have been more bands that have broken into american mainstream radio over the years, but not so many that they don’t get larger airplay across canada only or in the UK vs the US. i don’t know where i’m going with this… it was an off-comment because i’m just always surprised when i hear that someone digs the odds or the weakerthans who wasn’t exposed to everything canadian because they’re just SO canadian to ME.
Well, to be fair, I’m not an unbiased sample because I’m an unapologetic Canadiana fanboy, but it’s never been particularly difficult to find even fairly obscure Canadian bands in the states (the Rheostatics were on Warners!), and with the advent of podcasting and satellite radio, it’s even fairly easy to hear the stuff on the radio now. When I’m in the car, I’ve usually got the XM tuned to the Canadian indie channel.
I love that you’re a Canadiana fanboy;) I have some great fanboy movie suggestions for you (if you haven’t seen them already) 1. Roadkill & Highway 61 2. Hard Core Logo 3. Parsley Days 4. Whale Music 5. Childstar 6. FUBAR
Mostly Don McKellar and Bruce McDonald offerings, but awesome. Especially Don McKellar as Pokey Jones in Highway 61 (one of my favourite all-time movies – Satan playing Bingo? It’s in there.) Childstar also has an appearance by members of Sloan where they get busted by a SWAT team in a raid while they’re playing, it’s classic! McDonald also did a docu called Vinyl which I haven’t seen yet on record collectors and one on Robbie Robertson too I think.
I never got into all of their stuff, but like certain songs (dig Don Kerr who runs Gas Station Recordings – way cool recording studio & Dave Bidini is a great writer too for the sports fans out there), have friends who are diehard Sprouts and go up to the ‘shoe in Toronto (the horseshoe tavern) every year for the Fall Nationals.
If you really want a taste of getting your ass handed to you on a Canadian slab of ice, anyone can go out for the Carleton Cup in Ottawa which takes place in February. My ex went out for it one year, and his older brother was one of the early competitors to finish so they got to drink out of the hockey skate and ended up jamming on stage with Chris Murphy and a few others-drunkenly I might add. Apparently my ex fell clean off the stage at one point.
I had no idea about this! Cool.
Scott Rodgers said:
Crap. What’s an Oliver again? A third contributing member? Is someone going to write this up for the RTH Glossary?
Still trying to master “the lingo”
Mr. Clean wrote: “I’m a big fan of Neko Case and love her reverb drenched records actually. Makes them nice and “other-worldly” to me.”
Join me, won’t you, in awaiting Mr. Mod’s treatise on reverb?
I’m right with mrclean on Neko Case and NP. A blanket prejudice against reverb? I won’t even accept a blanket prejudice against the DX7 and I hate the DX7.
Sally- I dig Calexico and Clem Snide, though Clem can get a bit repetitive album to album. I like Giant Sand in principal but I think Howe has his head up a similar ass as that guy from Blues Explosion.
Other similar stuff I like- Tres Chicas, Freakwater, Uncle Tupelo (of course but really only Anondyne), some of Holly Golightly… Have you heard Dieselhed? They’re kind of AltCountry filtered thru Haight Asbury. Chico & The Flute and Elephant Rest Home are my faves.
Oh yeh! Totally dig Clem (but your point is well taken with the repetitive)! In early October of last year I saw Eef Barzelay play between Rosie Thomas and Damien Jurado at World Cafe Live. I spent my last twenty bucks on that show (didn’t have a lot when I first got here) and was never so glad! My favourite sung lyric of the night was from Eef’s song Bittersweet Honey: “The girls don’t care if you want to be free / They just want a sweet melody…” He’s a real comedic guy on stage. It was a great show! Gelb gets his foot in just about every side project you can think of with them all slanting towards him, but I think he definitely has a “sound” that he goes for, and I’m okay with that sound, just not every day, but I do find that I like it when I’m in the mood to listen.
Speaking of which (i’ll have to check out those others too Sammy) yeh, Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs newer stuff would fall in nicely. It seems really dark, deeper than I imagined her to go anyway. The Holly Golightly that I love is Thee Headcoatees. Although I’m a huge Childish fan so that’s where that comes from.
Sammy wrote:
Listen up, Townspeople: I don’t have a blanket prejudice against reverb. It’s highly complicated – and personal. Someday I’ll sort out my concerns with this effect, and I’ll share them here. In the meantime, I beg of you not to make blanket statements concerning my feelings on this effect. Some of my best friends love reverb, and I want to make sure I take their feelings into account before I say anything else.
I went o see Holly Golightly at a small club near my place a couple years ago. Went with a bunch of hipster friends who really wanted to pay their Golightly respects. I knew nothing of her, but had seen a few minutes of The Woggles before, and they were opening, so I figured it was worth ten bucks or whatever they were charging. As is true with every single Woggles show I’ve ever seen, they so utterly, totally blew HG and Co. off the stage that it wasn’t funny. Also like every Woggles show I’ve ever seen, I walked out wondering how anybody could be so stupid as to hire the Woggles to open for you. None of my friends wanted to stay more than three songs into the HG set — the Woggles were just so much more exhilarating.
Damn, I shoulda mentioned Holly in the Mendoza Line thread. Outside of a couple of songs, she’s invariably pleasant, but bland.
Anyone that has a problem with people making blanket statements is wrong. Period.
This is interesting.
“Getting Your Music On The iTunes Store”
I have never heard of PARSLEY DAYS, but I am a huge fan of all of those other movies, and indeed have most of them on DVD. I’m an enormous fan of both McKellar and McDonald…in fact, I have the DVD of both series of TWITCH CITY sitting here on my desk waiting to get tapped into whenever I get the chance.
My wife and I hit the Toronto International Film Festival every year (Charity’s been going since the late ’80s, I’ve been going since ’96), and we make a point of ignoring anything that we’re likely to be able to eventually see here in Boston, so we get to see a lot of the more interesting Canadian stuff that way. Have you seen THE LOVE CRIMES OF GILLIAN GUESS yet? It’s pretty much McDonald’s masterpiece. MONKEY WARFARE, starring Mr. and Mrs. McKellar?
I believe Mr. Mod is in possession of a mix CD I made several years ago for a tape tree that includes several choice quotes from FUBAR stuck between the songs. It’s in fact titled after my favorite line from the movie: “Turn Up the Good, Turn Down the Suck!”
I think there’s too much reverb on the Neko Case music I’ve heard, frankly. I think it’s going to date some of her music badly, with time.
The Great 48 wrote:
If the contents of my messy desk here at work have not shifted too much, that CD should be within arm’s reach! That’s a great mix.
I wish I could remember why these McKellar/McDonald fellows’ names are ringing a bell. I must have seen something they’ve done.
By the way, I’m headed back to Toronto for work at the beginning of May. I look forward to getting back there. Sondra’s going to join me for part of the trip. I’ve been raving about the city for the last 2 years.
We’re recreating the first half of our honeymoon for our 5-year anniversary later in May, by returning to Niagara Falls for a week. Fingers crossed, this time Charity won’t have a knee injury that’ll make it damn near impossible for her to amble through the various kitschy tourist traps so beloved by us both.
The second half of our honeymoon, a week in residence at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel, wasn’t in the card this year due to Charity not being able to take a full two weeks at a time off work.
What makes you think Radiohead is on the way out? I agree with mrclean. They’ve gotten interesting since they moved to left field.
I am totally jealous. I only got to see maybe part of an episode because I caught it by accident and keep forgetting to check it out and kept having friends tell me about it. That FUBAR mix sounds interestingly awesome!
p.s. all this talk of toronto and you guys are making me miss home. i think i’ll be passing through there soon enough this spring/early summer to visit friends on my way to grab more stuff at my mum’s to bring back with me.
Really? I think the opposite actually. The reverb on them is one of the things that gives her recent records an old-timey (for lack of a better way of saying it) sound that I think will make them timeless. I already regard Blacklisted as a modern-day classic.