Sardonic Aggression

2011-07-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

At the risk of getting New-Age-y on yer ass, I find myself drifting more and more towards a narcotic sort of ambience when it comes to choosing music lately. I love Chillwave (a trite label for a type of music that is driven more by electronics than guitar, but seems appropriate when you dive headlong into it) like Washed Out, whose new record Within and Without is a woozy masterpiece. But even more, I enjoy the haunting, epic drama of Instrumentals - probably enabled somewhat by my choice of profession, floating around on waves of sound while I work has become one of the best parts of my day. Here's three of the best I've heard of late.

Rainforest (EP) - Clams Casino
Clams Casino = Mike Volpe, producer with a resumé that includes Lil' B and Soulja Boy, and he's put a unique spin on a sort of instrumental hip-hop with experimental but totally accessible aspirations. The project digs not subtly into a West Coast terroir (with titles like Natural and Waterfall) and when contrasted with some angelic vocal sampling and gritty noise, really takes the music into a niche that's hard to label. Unless you're an aficionado of Burial, you've never heard anything quite like this. Highly recommended for driving to as well.

Owl Splinters - Deaf Center
Haunting but not gloomy, epic sounding but not overwhelming, a cello and a piano and top notch production skills combine for a would-be soundtrack to whatever you find yourself doing while listening - profound and beautiful.

Ravedeath 1972 - Tim Hecker
A little jarring, Tim Hecker masterfully mixes church organ, shoegaze synth and industrial noise to produce a wall of dissonant beauty- it's a heavy workout but I find it infinitely rewarding.

2011-03-09T12:09:00.000-08:00

build a rocket boys! elbow

Maturity is a bad word when it's applied anywhere in the world of rock. A world ruled by drippy pop stars who paint you escapist portraits of non-stop parties, the "empowerment" found in sex and empty-hearted revenge fantasies leaves little room for music by those who've lived a little, have a story to tell, and choose to tell you in a way that won't insult your intelligence.

I used to (flippantly) call Elbow "Coldplay for smart people," but that sells them pitifully short. Warm, meticulously detailed pop songs that are enriched by the small things: shaker percussion, carefully placed strings with a restraint that is rewarded when they kick it out and raise their voices at just the right moment. This is a band that has been making top notch pop records for several years, and hit it reasonably big last time out with The Seldom Seen Kid, which yielded "One Day Like This," a song that won them a Mercury Prize and subsequently became the backdrop for TV montages, movie trailers and hoisted what had been a cult band into an unfamiliar spotlight.

Their reaction to all that? To act like they'd been there before. To put out a record that is the sound of a band growing creatively and moving steadily forward. Listen to "Lippy Kids," "Open Arms" and "Jesus is a Rochdale Girl" and be glad that there's still bands out there that make music for grown-ups, biting but rarely cynical, able to take a look back without being too nostalgic, and warm without tripping over sentimentality. Build A Rocket Boys! came out just yesterday, and frankly, I can't wait to see what this band is going to do next.

Other great Elbow records: Cast of Thousands, Leaders of The Free World, The Seldom Seen Kid.
Other bands that sing great grown-up rock but would probably frown on that characterization: The National, Wilco.

2011-02-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

Whatever you think you know about Hardcore is wrong.

With a nod (not a subtle one) to his previous life in Black Flag, Keith Morris puts together a band and a blistering sound that recalls the best of what was great about Hardcore with OFF!: First Four EPs.

Keith Morris has had some rough times post-Black Flag/Circle Jerks. Popping up in interviews from time to time, battling diabetes and dim job prospects (I remember an LA Weekly interview with him talking about his work in a restaurant), life has not been a bed of roses for him. But a little perseverance and a lot of help from Dimitri Coats (from Burning Brides, google "Poor House" and "Heart Full of Black" for a look at his brand of stoner rock), Steve McDonald (from underrated pop punkers Redd Kross), and drummer Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket From The Crypt, Black Heart Procession, Pinback, and my favorite reference of all, Battalion of Saints), OFF!: First Four EPs is a surprisingly restrained, completely authentic document of early 80s Hardcore that is less a nostalgia trip and more a contemporary reaction to the time we live in.

When I say restrained, I'm not referring necessarily to the music - Sixteen songs pummel you for seventeen minutes in what sounds refreshingly like one-take. It's more about the lack of finger wagging or any of that "if you weren't there you'll never understand" bullshit history lesson- just a raging set of songs that capture the fury of a time past in amber for anyone who wonders what it was really all about. Tastefully packaged with art from Raymond Pettibon (the vinyl EPs come with a booklet, complete with notes and illustrations by Mr. Pettibon that recall his best work with SST), this project is a musical, artistic and anthropological triumph.

2010-12-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

Weather or Not: A Lame (But True) Metaphor for Life

When I was seven I was living in a house on Hope Street in Huntington Park, California with my mom, dad, my brother and two sisters. We were a pretty typical family unit, and if it wasn't idyllic, as I remember it, things were mostly okay.

One afternoon on a rainy day after school, I looked out our front window, and the rainstorm which had been pelting southern California for a couple of days was in the process of breaking up. The instability of the air above us had produced a curious scene, something I've not encountered since.

Rain was falling on almost exactly half of our house - while the other side had sunshine and was relatively dry. I asked my mom if I could go outside. She said no, and I put on a jacket and did it anyway (things are not much different from that today, much to my mom's chagrin. I'm responsible for more than my share of the gray hairs on her head.) The rain continued to sprinkle on half of our lot, while the other side was aglow with the sunshine drying the pavement. This went on for a good five minutes, and I stood there the whole time, watching and wondering which way the weather would turn.

Eventually the stormy half blew out, the sky opened up with brightly illuminated clouds, a powder blue sky, and a couple of partial-rainbows formed as the rain moved away. Too young to see this as any kind of a sign, I was just happy the rain was going away so I could go out and play. But in the movie of my life, it would have been the irony-laced opening scene - In less than two years my dad would bail out on us, we'd have to move, and things were anything but typical after that.

I've stood on that border of dark and light ever since - I battle a darkly cynical streak, counterbalanced with an almost Pollyanna-like naivete that things will somehow work out - and I hang on for dear life as I ride the pendulum back and forth between these two places in my head.

Here on the cusp of 2011, I might as well be standing in that yard watching the elements again - half a dark sky and half a gateway to heaven stand before all of us, and I've decided I'm going with the bright side - something which hasn't always been that easy for me. But fueled with the love and support of a wife who's better for me than I possibly deserve, and a son whose growing intellect (and wicked sense of humor) are a joy to watch everyday, I can see the way to go. Add to that friends and family who know what a odd bird I am and still agree to talk to me, well, I've got a list of blessings too long to count.

The dark and cloudy side is still with me - I think maybe it keeps me from getting complacent - it comes and goes. But now I know that eventually it'll blow away.

Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.
And as the man said, let's make it a good one...

2010-12-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

The Pefect Holiday Gift for Just About Everyone On Your List

If you've got a picky bugger on your Holiday shopping list, why not stuff their, uhhh, stocking, with Emek: The Thinking Man's Poster Artist, from Gingko Press - available on Amazon.com and finer bookstores everywhere! For anyone who loves music, this astounding collection of sheer brilliance from Portland artist Emek will more than fit the bill. 272 pages and not a lull in it! Weighing in at around 4 lbs. it's gonna take a big-ass stocking, but you can be confident yer showin' the rocker in yer life the love with Aaarght! from a true master of the rock poster genre.

Emek's work stands out in a crowded field of rock poster artists with an incredible set of references - his sense of humor and meticulous artistry is revealed in stunning detail. It was a labor of love - we spent five years putting it together - and I think it shows.

All kidding aside, it came out right purty - I'm pretty damned proud of it. Happy Holidays everyone! – John

2010-12-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

F*ck Top Ten Lists - Mine, Yours, Everyone's.

It's that time again! Time for everyone to shun everything they've actually been listening to and post the most important music of the year in a top ten list to pump up their self image... Okay, that might be a little cynical, but raise your hand if you've never posted a top ten list that was at least part bullshit - look, there's no hands up! Tell me you've never scanned Pitchfork's Top Hundred to make sure you didn't forget something "important" - like making sure you include something like Billy Bragg, or Antony And The Johnsons, so you feel like you're down with it and don't risk confirming for all your smart friends that you're a pop-leaning dolt. Well, throw off the yoke of status anxiety... tell everyone what you've really been listening to - however uncool it might be. Sade, Mariah Carey, Gaslight Anthem, whatever it is - come forward and be proud!

(On the other hand, if you've been listening to Styx, Foreigner, Kansas, Journey, Creed, or Rush, please keep it to yourself. That shit's just embarrassing.)

All right - in no particular order - there's no #1, and this is a mix of 11 or so albums and singles that I wore out this year, because that's just the way I roll...

Voyager One - Geography (EP)
Hooray Space Music! 1000 Miles, 1000 Deaths = my favorite single o' the year.

Brian Eno - Small Craft On a Milk Sea
Moving, eclectic, beautiful. I doubt I'll ever tire of it and I've got the attention span of a gnat.

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma, and Pattern+Grid (EP)
Talk about down with it, this guy's doing not just what's next, but what's coming after that too.

Autolux - Transit, Transit
They tap into Sonic Youth a little too faithfully at times - but the record's solid. They also merit special mention for their sleepy interview with Jason Bentley on KCRW earlier this year. Jason's got better taste in music than 99.9% of the world (but never gets to play any of it on Morning Becomes Eclectic) and Oh God, are his interviews painful to listen to. At one point I'm pretty sure the band was getting so annoyed with Jason's cheerful "how're you doing?" line of questioning I was hoping they'd stir from their slumber and bludgeon him to death on the air. (Note: Almost all shoegaze-leaning bands work for me.) (Note #2: Jason, whenever a radio show is called "influential" that's a codeword for "boring as shit"...Please go back to the night show and start breaking music soon...)

Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
Not everything works on here, and some of it definitely could have used a little polish, but there's four songs on here that will make you want to jump and down no matter what an old fart you are. I'm rarely nostalgic but I'm really glad this band is still kicking.

Giant Sand - Blurry Blue Mountain
Smacks of time spent porch-sitting and spinning yarns, Howie Gelb comes out of the desert and drops another great collection of stories on us all - if you like Calexico, this is required listening.

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
See notes on Flying Lotus about not just doing what's next... The Unshaven One reigns o'er everything smart and danceable again.

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Gets more listenable with each record, and not in a mainstreamy way - painfully smart and sublime.

No Age - Everything In Between
Everything they release is my new favorite record, this is no exception.

The Fall - Your Future, Our Clutter
Whouldathunkit - Mark E. Smith survived to put out a brilliant record. Bravo.

Black Keys - Brothers
I hated Led Zeppelin, yet love bands heavily influenced by them - ironic, no?

Just missed: Champaign, Illinois by Old 97's, Teen Dream by Beach House, Astro Coast by Surfer Blood and Broken Bells.

Notable for it's absence: Suburbs by Arcade Fire - See my screed about "important" music and wake me when this band is over...zzzzzzzz.

Happy Holidays and Love to you all!

John's History of Dating: Part One: From Jr. High to College

2010-06-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

Next Week: Part 2: The Cindy Years

Today's Order of Business: June 18, 2010

2010-06-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

1 The Only Game In Town - Sportswriting from The New Yorker - Edited by David Remnick
Did you know there's a region in China where crowds at basketball games, instead of chanting "Airball, airball!..." instead yell the Chinese equivalent of "Impotent, impotent!..." - and you thought Philly fans were tough.

2 Good Advices - From Fables of The Reconstruction - R.E.M.
I was reminded by Aquarium Drunkard today of how brilliant this song and album were/are. Remastered reissue coming soon.

3 Elliot Allagash: A Novel - by Simon Rich
Quick and devastatingly witty.

4 The Bullpen Gospels - by Dirk Hayhurst
About baseball - and not. A sports bio for people with triple digit IQs.

5 Ain't Blues Too Sad - from True Love Cast Out All Evil - Roky Erickson with Okkervil River

6 The Imperfectionists - by Tom Rachman
I burned through this in three nights, all the while slipping into a mode where I felt like I was reading non-fiction. Storytelling so good, from a first time novelist.

7 Raw Power - Iggy and The Stooges
Remastered, reissued, and if you love these guys fight the urge to think this is a ripoff re-ish and get it, worth every penny.

8 Blessa - from Causers of This - by Toro y Moi

9 Farewell, Mona Lisa - from Option Paralysis - by The Dillinger Escape Plan

10 Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace - by David Lipsky
Better if you're a Drooling Fanatic for DFW - one time I wouldn't have minded riding on the passenger side. Dig for the gems.

My Son, The All-Star

2010-06-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

I just found out that my son Matt made his Little League all-star team this year. It's the fourth year in a row he's done that, but this one definitely feels more special than the others.

In early spring, right at the beginning of the season, Matt spent a few days in the hospital and was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. It took a few months for Cindy and I to help get his blood-sugar numbers in control, and all the while he was going to school and playing baseball and everything else a ten-year-old does, he was contending with a pancreas that would start and stop making insulin in a rather unpredictable pattern. With those highs and lows came mood swings that were quite uncharacteristic of him, but after awhile things settled down and he's acting like himself again.

Kids and their parents are forced to contend with much worse than this - we got a real dose of reality walking through his hospital's cancer clinic on the way to our car more than once - so I'm trying not to overstate this. But he has basically shrugged his shoulders and dealt with all the life changes he's had to make to accommodate his condition - and other than the occasional bout of candy craving and the grouchiness that accompanies it, he's made us proud with his ability to adapt, and he continues to thrive.

Baseball-wise, he played on a young team, and he was pitching for the first time in a year, and coping with the peaks and valleys of all of that was tough on him sometimes. I asked his coach not to change anything about the way he approached Matt, as a way to keep things normal as possible, and his coach Jeff was great about that.

So as if there was any possibility of me ever taking my son's accomplishments for granted, well, that's just not going to happen. I am as proud of him as any father can be, all-star or not. He really is everything I could have imagined a son to be. I figure I've got a few more years before he tells me to go f--- myself in the way that sons seem prone to do when they figure out their dads are as full of s--- as anyone else is. I'm going to make the most of the time I've got with him before that day comes.

Happy Father's Day Everybody!

Greatest Tweets Ever

2010-06-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

More important than what your dippy friend is having for lunch
and funnier than Sh*t My Dad Says:

http://twitter.com/bpglobalpr

And go to this link to buy a t-shirt and join in their fundraiser:

http://streetgiant.com/

You Cannot Be Serious

2010-06-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

Note: My post of May 27 was just (I thought) a bad joke - read the link below to see a list of people who are definitely not kidding about this...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/us/03nuke.html

BP Seals Gulf Oil Gusher For Good

2010-05-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

How much worse would it actually be?

Today's Order of Business: The Fall (!)

2010-05-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

A band that had fallen off my radar since the late '90s, Your Future Our Clutter is a setpiece and should be listened to as such, starting off strong and gaining momentum as it goes. Mark E Smith's snarl has lost none of its edge - you can still hear the spittle fly.

Layers of distortion unpeel as intros to the next cut, which segues beautifully into the next, and so on. The music carries itself like a stage production - I'm betting this story would be way more interesting than American Idiot, with fresher, more satisfying music to boot.

Save this and play it as an apology to your sons and daughters for filling their planet up with mountainous heaps of useless crap.

Today's New Favoritest Song Like, Ever

2010-05-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

It's "All I Want" by LCD Soundsystem. Not just by reminding me of my enduring love of Brian Eno, or even imparting just a faint whiff of something as pleasantly forgettable as Psychedelic Furs, it's the slow build that gets me every time. That and the perpetual day-old growth of beard. I can't wait to hear the rest. This is James' wikipedia picture. It's three years old, would someone please rectify this matter immediately? (On second thought, don't. The double chin AND the day-old growth is really working for him. Never mind.)

No Matter What You Think You Know About Music, You Don't Know Anything

2010-05-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Today's case in point, The Method Actors - This Is Still It.

The fact that these songs could languish in mostly obscurity for thirty years (I remember reading reviews about these guys from Athens in-the-know types muttering their name while clutching Pylon bootlegs to their hollow chests - I loved Pylon, R.E.M., the B-52s and Love Tractor but somehow I missed out on these guys.)

This is a two piece (guitarist Vic Varney and drummer David Gamble - no bass player) that will remind you at times of some of the bands that were their contemporaries but on further listening will make you wonder how they missed getting famous. Bouncy and energetic pop that will make you want to jump up and down in a semi-rhythmic fashion that is so early 80s it will make your kids want to retch. Go on, embarrass them, this is a gem.

2009-12-23T11:59:00.000-08:00

2009 (Thank God It's Over) Top Ten

I'd written grand essays on everything on this list, took one look, and decided to edit with a meat hook. My top ten, with runners-up, each in 5 words or less.
And although some of these seem particularly obvious, I took special care to leave off anything "important" - I just put what I listened to the most this year.
Go to itunes and sample anything you don't know - it's been a very good year for music.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, if you got this you know you are loved.

Cheers,

John

10
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

naive • sincere • smalltown • storytellers

9 (tie)
Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy
Thermals - Now We Can See
Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels

still • searching • for • another • R.E.M.

8
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains

Pavement • Modest • Mouse • solid • pop

7
Sonic Youth - The Eternal

music • still • equals • art • Yaaaaaay

6
Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

Rock/Folk? • Folk/Rock? • who • cares • listen

5
Washed Out - Life Of Leisure

lovely • floating • dance • or not

4
Atlas Sound - Logos

funny • scary • sunny • dark

3
Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do

fun • funny • dancehall • get • up

2
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

psychedelic • americana • shimmering • noisy • beautiful

1
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

screw • hipsters • listen • anyway

(HOLIDAY EXPERIMENT: Play Veckatimest for your mom or grandmother sometime without telling them what it is, they'll be delighted you did.)

Runners-Up

The xx - xx

post-coital • austere • ambivalent • smooth • glassy

Avett Brothers - I and Love and You

singalong • smart • straightforward • energetic

The Antlers - Hospice

sad • deep • cathartic • beautiful

Wish I had room for: Fuck Buttons, Surfer Blood, Cold Cave

Happy New Year!

John

2009-07-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

MIDYEAR TOP TEN LIST

I KNOW I'm a dinosaur, I still listen to records as set pieces, but I've isolated singles on some of these. I've tried hard to pare off the songs of the moment that always trip me up - I find myself "falling in love every second song", (1) anything with a strong hook or two sends me spinning head over heels, but by the end of the year I've long forgotten it - well, there'll be none of that, it's substance over style here all the way...I'll pop a sampler disc in the mail to you soon if I haven't already, If you got this it means I love you enough to bore you to death with this... Happy Wednesday!

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns (especially "The Ballad of the RAA")
Punker than anything else you're likely to hear this year, most everything clocks in under 3 minutes, at moments a Canadian John and Exene, at others you can practically see the Albertan prairie layed out before you... I've said it before (in reference to Weakerthans, I think) Canucks and Midwestern 'Murikuns convey this storytelling of smalltown isolation better than anyone.

Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains (especially "Indiana")
Somewhere Stephen Malkmus is grimacing (he'd be sufficiently horrified to be informed of his and Pavement's pervading influence, but it's undeniable.) There's other influences (Modest Mouse) but after a few listens I settled in, forgot the heavy borrowing and enjoyed it for what it is - a solid indie pop record.

Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do (especially "Hold The Line")
Smart collaborations by Diplo and Switch, getting the right voices tied together with Jamaican flavored dancehall - Maybe the most fun you'll have listening to a record this year, it's sometimes the aural equivalent of sitting on the throne and reading a comic book, then subtly shifting gears into experimental electronica, which is where it wins my heart - I defy you to stay still while listening. (2)

Moby - Wait For Me
I'm the last person on the planet I'd ever suspect of recommending a Moby record to anyone - but for an artist I consider quite conventional, this is a most unconventional and uncharacteristic record, which is the highest compliment I can pay him. Nothing musically surprises me anymore, this did, a superior record for a drive, a plane or a train, without anything sounding like it'll be the next Target jingle.

Jason Lytle - Yours Truly, The Commuter (song)
Nice. And not in the way I usually mean nice, (i.e. boring and conventional,) but really, really... nice, in the nicest sense of the word. (Oh, fuck it, I like this record, okay?)

Doves - Kingdom of Rust (especially "Jetstream")
I have a soft spot in my head for these guys, nothing they ever do will ever be as good as "Some Cities" was for me, but this is a good record.

Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels (especially "Pulling On A Line")
See Jason Lytle review. Repeat. (Sweet Jesus, am I turning into a big pussy.)

Thermals - Now We Can See (especially title song)
Pop but good, and I'll take a catchy song raking the Bushies over the coals over a kick in the gluteus any old time.

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Don't let the endless hype scare you off, a perfectly lovely record - play it for your mom or grandmother sometime without telling them what it is, they'll be delighted you did. (I don't mean for this to come off as faint praise or ironic - this band draws from such a wide range of influences, it makes them impossible to pin down.)

The Field - The More That I Do (EP) (especially the Foals XIII remix of "The More That I Do")
In 2007 "From Here We Go Sublime" made it into my big list of records to play often and hasn't budged, this EP is more brilliance.

Riceboy Sleeps - AKA Jonsi & Alex - Boy 1904
Did an amazing track on Dark Was The Night compilation, this is more of that from Jonsi of Sigur Ros and his boyfriend Alex Somers - Record comes out a week from today, buy next Tuesday, enjoy Forever.

Notably excluded: Wilco (Solid but not earthshaking) Spoon (EP is okay, if it signifies a change in direction, could be very interesting.)

Almost Made It: Akron Family, Black Moth Super Rainbow

Footnotes:
(1) Fairly obscure Elbow reference for your dining and dancing pleasure.
(2) Please exit the throne room before commencing to dance.

People Do.

2008-08-07T14:16:00.000-07:00

What if there was a group of people, and they came up with a campaign aimed at hard-working Americans like you and me. What if these people invited you to join hands with your friends and neighbors, to work as one, to benefit a very specific segment of American industry? What if those people worked hard to get this industry tax breaks and subsidies designed to ensure their wealth and well-being, even at the most profitable time in that industry's history? And what if those same people spent their careers, their lifetimes, to curry the favor of the American people, helping this industry get richer than ever at the expense of the economy, the environment, and the majority of the people living in the United States?

People do.

The Republicans.

Haven't you had enough already?

Welcome To Sardonic Aggression

2008-07-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Vented Spleen, CA. More soon!