A few quick links you may have missed this week and worthy of your time this weekend
In preparation for our upcoming profile on Beck (and his new album coming out next week), you may want to read up on these retrospectives courtesy of BuzzFeed (really?) and Grantland. Strangely enough, the BuzzFeed profile was a bit more satisfying, despite the assertion that Midnite Vultures is Beck’s masterpiece, a claim which is pitched as fact and not a matter of debate. As for the Grantland piece, the premise that the “real” Beck is either one of two types (ironic funkster or serious folkie) doesn’t make much sense at all, but you know, deadlines mean you gotta come up with SOMETHING.
The A.V. Club had a couple of interesting bits of news. I’m really excited to hear that Sharon Van Etten has announced that her new album is coming out soon with this teaser. If you haven’t picked up her previous album Tramp, do so pretty much immediately. In addition, we have news of another “supergroup” forming–and since Dave Grohl and Jello Biafra are both involved, the label is definitely necessary.
Pitchfork will be posting a documentary on the Brooklyn venue 285 Kent, and one of their teasers is this video of a live performance by Deafheaven at the club. We’ll be discussing their album Sunbather in-depth in the future, and when we do our Top Albums of 2013 in April, it will definitely make an appearance. There’s a good reason a lot of outlets have done thinkpieces on the album.
And finally, when it’s time to settle into a relaxing weekend, it’s a good idea to listen to some Real Estate. If you’re bored with your relaxing weekend, it’s a good idea to learn to play some Real Estate. The band is providing the lesson with their newest video, which displays an overlay of the guitar tablature to the song.
It’s a holiday weekend, so it’s a fine time to catch up on some #longreads before heading back to work tomorrow.
Pitchfork had an interview with Sub Pop co-founder Bruce Pavitt about his new book of photographs documenting Nirvana’s 1989 European tour. It’s a great first-hand account of “the calm before the storm”, before everybody had an idea what grunge was or where Seattle was even located.
A different era of Nirvana
The Guardian has an excellent interview with Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. It’s a wide-spanning interview, covering her early career with the band to her new work with Body/Head and other venues for her art. The end of her marriage to Thurston Moore and the breakup of Sonic Youth are still clearly sore subjects, so don’t read this expecting juicy gossip.
Stereogum has a ranking of the Elliott Smith albums from worst to best. I know it’s merely opinion, but let me say this: it’s just wrong (beyond the fact that there is no “worst” Elliott Smith album). Feel free to read it anyway, because it’s always good to talk about Elliott Smith’s work. The subject is definitely worthy of a TL;DR post later on, but here is the correct ranking, in order of increasing awesomeness:
7. New Moon
6. Elliott Smith
5. Roman Candle
4. Either/Or
3. From A Basement On The Hill
2. Figure 8
1. XO
And finally, Beck has a new album coming out next week. We’ll have a long review of his career so far later this week, but for those of you who don’t mind jumping the gun, NPR has a stream of Morning Phase available on their site. Also, it’s a good reminder to note that we have a Tumblr, because apparently that’s what kids do these days, where we posted the link earlier.
A few quick links you may have missed this week and worthy of your time this weekend
Chino Moreno is best known for his work as the vocalist for the Deftones, but he is definitely unafraid to branch out and work with other artists (Palms, Team Sleep). Now Chino has a new project called ††† (Crosses), and they released their debut album out this week. Chino gave interviews to SPIN and Rolling Stone, discussing his musical influences and other interesting stories including battles with labels over his career. For me though, the one piece of information that most intrigued me was finding out that Chino now lives in Oregon. If I ever see him around, I’ll be sure to welcome him.
Happy Birthday Oregon!
Mark Kozelek has a new album out this week under his Sun Kil Moon moniker called Benji which is already drawing raves for both the evolution of his style and the stark, deeply personal lyrics. He did an interview with Pitchfork a couple of weeks ago, and you can read it here.
Punk icon Dennis Lyxzén (Refused, The (International) Noise Conspiracy) has a new group called INVSN, and their sound is a bit different than what you would expect. Then again, if you expected synths and programmed drums, I would like to learn about the hallucinogenic substances you’ve been ingesting. But I like the sound, and Stereogum has the video for their song “61”.
I’ve been sticking around after The Daily Show and The Colbert Report to watch the show @Midnight. I’ve been switching between that and Community reruns, but lately I’ve been sticking around the reruns less often (though this may be the result of the syndication schedule not doing a great job of shuffling the episodes). I only bring it up here because Neko Case was a contestant on the most recent show; you can watch her Win The Internet here.
We usually don’t get much snow in the Pacific Northwest, and as a result we’re generally unprepared to deal with such unpleasantness. This means outside of a couple of hours of shoveling the driveway and taking a quick trip to the grocery store (and then getting the car stuck in the snow before making it up the last hill to my house), it’s been a stay-indoors-the-whole-weekend kind of time here.
This will not get plowed for days.
At least I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to watch one of my many music DVDs, and what better time to watch the documentary of Sigur Rós’s tour of their homeland of Iceland. The visuals of their countryside are stunning, and as one would expect with the majestic music of the band, so are the songs. The band comes up with many novel arrangements of their songs, ranging from their stunning light shows in Reykjavik to acoustic performances in the middle of nowhere. In addition, I also love seeing just how some of the most unreal sounds that the band makes on record are reproduced live.
I highly recommend buying it, but here’s at least the first disc.
A few quick links you may have missed this week and worthy of your time this weekend
I am of the generation that grew up in the wake of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea—not in the era from when the album was first released, but in the ensuing years where it became totem of alternative/indie rock culture. Like many, I became obsessed with the album and the story of Jeff Mangum, the reclusive genius who became the J.D. Salinger of rock. I was ecstatic when Jeff Mangum returned to the stage, and witnessed two amazing performances in Portland and Eugene (I remarked at the time that only Jeff Mangum could get a Portland crowd to scream “I love you, Jesus Christ!”). But even there was something that was missing from those performances, and that was the rickety junkyard orchestra quality of the album itself, provided by a full backing band. “Holland, 1945” will always be one of the greatest songs ever written, regardless of how it’s performed, but it loses something without those horns and that fuzz bass and those barely-restrained chaotic drums. So even though I had the good fortune to see those previous two performances, I still jumped at the opportunity to see Neutral Milk Hotel as a whole for the reunion tour.
There are those that express some reservations to this. Steven Hyden of Grantland wrote about his reaction to the return of Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel, and he took a much more pessimistic stance. I do agree to some extent the cult-like devotion of some fans is a turn-off (while I have listened to the album over a hundred times, I haven’t memorized the entire lyric sheet as it seems most audiences have), but I wouldn’t go so far as to say as a result that I like the album “less”. And personally I think it’s unfair to call out any band for their possible motivations for reuniting, even if it’s to say that you don’t care that their intentions may be less than noble. I can see points being made about post-boomer generations now realizing how much fun it can be to indulge in nostalgia, this overlooks the fact that there were younger generations who never got a chance to experience things firsthand, so why piss on their opportunity to do so? I didn’t get a chance to see Dinosaur Jr. the first time around, but I’m sure as shit enjoying their late-period renaissance; Pavement was before my time, but seeing their reunion in Central Park was one of the greatest live performances I’ve ever seen.
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Continuing our previous coverage of the 20th anniversary of Dookie, Consequence of Sound asked various writers and musicians about their memories of the album. What struck me is how many were my age at the time (around 9 years old), and led me to wonder whether any bands that are currently popular with 9 year olds will have any critical respect twenty years later. I’m going to say probably not.
Here’s an interesting article that details how useless it can be to talk about a musician’s social media presence. The number of followers and likes are generally useless figures, and discussion of those immaterial numbers take away from any discussion of the music itself. However, there’s a twist in this story of how exactly an artist gained all those Twitter followers.
One of my favorite weekends of the year is NBA All-Star Weekend, and this year will be especially great because I’ll be cheering for two Blazers. Kudos to LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, the latter of whom will be the first player to participate in five events during the weekend. What does this news have to do with music? Just the fact that they’ve got an outstanding musical lineup for the weekend, with Kendrick Lamar performing before the Dunk Contest, Pharrell in the pre-game ceremony, and Janelle Monáe performing with Trombone Shorty, Dr. John, and Earth, Wind & Fire at half-time. That’s probably the best lineup that I remember for the event, if only for the fact that Phillip Phillips is not involved.
And finally, as the Winter Olympics begin, enjoy this video of a Russian Police Choir performing “Get Lucky” as a part of the Opening Ceremonies. I didn’t see much of the festivities, but I’m pretty sure this has to be one of the top highlights.
Because nostalgia always sells, you’re going to see a lot of retrospectives this year for some important albums. A couple of weeks back there was an excellent oral history of Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain from Stereogum, and now it looks like it’s time for Green Day’s Dookie to get its moment in the sun. SPIN reprinted its profile of the band from back in 1994, and Stereogum took a quick look back with this retrospective. After we take a moment to contemplate the fact that an album called “Dookie” sold over 10 million copies and is remembered with great fondness, and that somehow the bratty young punks of Green Day are still making albums, take a look at what I believe is the most amazing part of both articles: that there was an incident where, of all people, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys was assaulted and accused of being a “sellout”.
Not surprisingly, the scenewide furor that has resulted combines the brutal energy of hardcore with all its lack of clearheadedness. Most inexcusably, at Gilman Street in May, former Dead Kennedys singer, Jello Biafra, was assaulted repeatedly and seriously injured by a punk kid while a crowd chanted “sellout” and “rock star.”
Because words apparently mean whatever we want them to mean.
A few quick links you may have missed this week and worthy of your time this weekend
Complex had a great article this week in which a member of the Recording Academy provided a first-hand account of the Grammy Award voting process. It’s a quick read, and it gives you a clue as to how you end up with some of the more ridiculous options over the years. Of course, if you’re not inclined to read a behind-the-scenes look because the Grammys are not an award worthy of your time, that’s perfectly fine. Fiction has its merits as well, for the record.
Cloud Nothings debuted a new song this week on SoundCloud, and you can listen to it here. I’ve been a fan for a few years now, and appreciated how their new-found love of The Wipers shaped their previous album Attack On Memory (without “Youth of America”, there would be no “Wasted Days”, and Dylan Baldi would probably be the first to point that out). After listening to the new track, I’m glad to hear that this love of The Wipers was not just a passing phase and continues to be an influence. Hopefully the rest of the new album lives up to this song (we’ll find it for sure on April 1).
And finally, the music world (and the world itself) lost a giant when Pete Seeger died earlier this week. It’s been great reading tributes to him from all over, and seeing different friends post his performances. There was one that I caught last night that I wanted to share, and that was his performance of his classic “If I Had A Hammer” with Stephen Colbert.
The biggest news from Monday was the surprise announcement of the reunion of seminal shoegaze band Slowdive. While the news didn’t break the internet like the shocking release of My Bloody Valentine’s long-awaited followup to Loveless, it still brought a cheer to those who remember those lonely nights while Souvlaki played softly on the stereo of an empty apartment (though actual personal experiences may vary, it is has been my experience that these are in fact the optimal conditions for listening to the album).
For those who are interested in the particulars of the news announcement, the band announced that they will be playing the Primavera Sound festival, which takes place in Barcelona at the end of May. Just take a look at all the other headliners–it’s hard to imagine a more loaded lineup. In addition, the band announced a London show, and more dates will be added. And have no fear American fans (like myself), the band is hopeful that they can record a new album together, so there’s reason to think it won’t be a one-off kind of thing like the Pavement reunion was (the new go-to example now that the Pixies have decided to release new music once again). And while there were some publications that expressed reservations about the motives of the band (see Stereogum, AV Club), in an interview with The Quietus the band assured fans that this was done with more noble intentions in mind.
So, why should you care about this particular reunion?
In my mind, there were two titans of shoegaze, a peculiar genre that was popular in Britain in the late-80’s/early 90’s: My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. I’ve always appreciated the term “shoegaze”, because of all the various microgenres that the casual music fan might encounter, it gives the best idea of what the music actually sounds like (contrast it with say, “krautrock”). It conjures up both ideas of melancholy (staring at the “shoes”) and dreaminess/haziness (the “gaze” component), both of which appear in sizable quantities in the genre. I always felt that MBV focused more on the former, while Slowdive’s great asset was its emphasis on the latter. (For the record, if you are completely unfamiliar with My Bloody Valentine, I suggest you visit this link and then repeat the video ten times, because that will allow you to fully process what a mindfuck Loveless is to the uninitiated. )
The best introduction to Slowdive is probably their second album, Souvlaki. Few albums perfectly capture the concept of “dreampop” like this one–there is an ethereal quality to the swirling guitars, but they don’t overpower the delicate hooks and melodies. This is apparent from the very first track, “Alison”.
It captures the attention of the listener immediately, and gives a roadmap of what to expect from the rest of the album–layers and layers of echoed guitars with reverb to spare, a gentle melody, and those beautiful backing female vocals, all in a mid-tempo three-and-a-half minute pop song. Another highlight is the haunting ballad “Dagger”.
The band strips down most of the effects and leaves a gently strummed down-tuned acoustic guitar, with suspended chords adding to the tension of the lyrics. It is the quintessential melancholic 3 am song.
“Machine Gun” is another highlight, a ballad that features a great contrast between the vocals of Rachel Goswell for the verses and Neil Halstead for the chorus. I find that the song itself presents an interesting juxtaposition with its title, not only in style but in its lyrics as well, which focus on water-related imagery.
If you love what you’ve heard so far, then great news, there’s a strong chance you’ll love everything else in the Slowdive discography. Their debut Just For A Day is stylistically similar to Souvlaki, though it doesn’t quite gel in the same way that the later album does, and suffers a bit from weaker production. Pygmalion was a bit more of a stylistic shift, with some experimentation and an icier atmosphere, but is not a radical departure from the gorgeous Slowdive sound. All of this should bode well in case we’re lucky enough to see a new album.
Rust Is Just Right 