Alliteration Monday: The Beastie Boys

Discoveries Worth Sharing: Is this real life?

Another sweet offering from Eclectic Method.

Discoveries Worth Sharing: You Don't Know

As a coda to yesterday's post, one of Greenwich's own recordings:

"You Don't Know" -- Ellie Greenwich -- 1965

Obits: Ellie Greenwhich (1940-2009)

Another Brill Building great departs from us today. Some of her amazing credits:

And my favorite "splatter platter" ever:

Beat.Connection: Alright alright alright

"So Fresh, So Clean" -- Outkast -- 2000

"Before the Night is Over" -- Joe Simon -- 1977


This doesn't really qualify as a sample so much as a clever adaptation, which might explain why Joe Simon doesn't have songwriting credits on the Outkast hit (via allmusic, if it can be trusted). Also, it's cool how the pizzicatos make the original sound so classy, especially given the hook of the modern interpretation ("so fresh and so clean, clean").

Alliteration Monday: Kool Chip & Chuck Chillout

Starts goofy, gets uncomfortable, winds up somewhere in between.

Alliteration Monday: Girls

Wednesday is the new Monday.

Favorite Songs of the '00s, #3: "You, Yes You," Beauty Pill

Allow me to preface this post with a clarification: “You, Yes You” was released in 2003, not 2009. In other words, before the “text-message-heard-‘round-the-world” shock of the summer came into our respective inboxes, this song still had a wry lick of humor to it rather than coincidental sincerity. Certainly, the loss of Michael Jackson has more substantive disappointments attached to it than something as trivial as a line in a song, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a bit saddened the edge is now potentially lost.

In reality, “Michael Jackson” was pretty much the most overplayed punch line in the book before he died. Yet, the status quo dictates that any dig at a man whom everyone acknowledges was both strange and misunderstood is no longer acceptable. Untimely tragedy, for better or worse, can do that whenever adulated art and/or celebrity enter the equation.

And maybe it’s neither Chad Clark’s (who wrote it) nor my place to judge when Jackson’s youthful spirit truly “died,” but I think we can still be forthcoming about the quirks of the star’s adult life: It may be unacceptable to stomp upon Michael Jackson’s grave, but I’d like to believe we can still dance on it a bit.

To that end, and as any luck would have it, the sentiment should still be intact. And that’s really what this one has going for it—pure charm. I’ll vouch for the warped strings at the end, and Clark’s distinctive coo, but if you aren’t smiling at some point during the song then this post has pretty much been in vain.

(To see the previous "favorite song" entry, click here.)

Earplugs (or 5 reasons why you should go see): Bat for Lashes

1) Maybe it's just the 9:30 Club's soundsystem, but Bat for Lashes' New Age-conquers-the-dance-floor stylings sound nothing short of epic live: Towering helpings of fuzz-free bass beats lend the sort of power to their set that justifies a giant mural of a howling wolf as a stage backdrop (sort of like this) and other interspersed kitsch.

2) Natashan Khan (the only full-time member of Bat for Lashes) has an outstanding voice: Imagine Björk's set of pipes, but with an understanding that "less can be more" and you have the gist. Rarely have I heard an artist end a song with a wail as potent as Khan's, and yet she grins so unassumingly after doing so...

3) Surprising instrumentation like autoharp, harmonium, and a harpsichord really fill out the sound, bringing nuance to the aforementioned brawn of the low-end. It's one thing to incorporate such eclecticism into your album, but to carry a harpsichord around with you on an international tour warrants admiration.

4) Touring members Charlotte Hatherly and Sarah Jones know how to carry a tune. The middle section of "Siren Song" (featured below) kills live. Absolutely slays. No joke.

5) Khan typically writes pretty compact songs. While such thriftiness can occasionally leave a longing for "more" by the end of a piece, it's always refreshing to encounter an artist that has a realistic grasp of an audience's attention span.

Samples:
"Glass" -- Two Suns (2009)

"Siren Song" -- Two Suns (2009)


Remaining U.S. Tour Dates:
17th August 2009 - The Loft @ Center Stage, Atlanta
19th August 2009 - The Parish, Austin
20th August 2009 - The Loft, Dallas
22nd August 2009 - Bluebird Theatre, Denver
26th August 2009 - Neumo's, Seattle
27th August 2009 - Wonder Ballroom, Portland
29th August 2009 - Outside Lands Festival, San Francisco
31st August 2009 - The Music Box Theatre @ Fonda, LA

Alliteration Monday: The Juan Maclean

One of the better songs about the final frontier.

Happy Birthday

Worth Watching.

Album Review: Circulatory System - Signal Morning

In terms of rock ‘n roll time, an eight-year break is an eternity. Unless a band spends eight years recording a masterpiece or otherwise nursing a killer reunion tour, chances are the rest of the music world has moved on by the time it resurfaces. Then again, Circulatory System (and most Elephant Six constituents in general) seems to operate outside of the traditional rock ‘n roll time continuum anyhow.

Formed by Will Cullen Hart in 2000 (after his other main project, Olivia Tremor Control decided to take a breather), Circulatory System stands as another loose conglomeration of Elephant Six buds. In 2001, the group released it’s eponymous debut—a colossal helping of psychedelic guitars, smart orchestration, and loads ‘o quirk—along with a “remix” of that album in the same year, but has maintained radio silence ever since. So why has Hart waited until 2009 to post a follow-up? Well, the singer attributes the interruption to multiple sclerosis, a condition he was diagnosed with a few years back. The event purportedly delayed the construction of Signal Morning, but also stirred the Olivia Tremor Control camp to start playing together again (!). Hart seems to have strayed away from the project naturally as well, letting other interests fill the void in the interim.

Given that lengthy gap, and in the interest of evaluating Signal Morning fairly, a lot of potential avenues of analysis are somewhat skewed. For starters, Circulatory System isn’t trying to make a career out of this music—it sounds more like friends coming together to capture energy on tape to share it with like-minded friends and fans alike. With intentions like that, who cares if this record doesn’t “measure up” in any traditional sense? Hart also admits that the chronology of songwriting varies heavily, with some of the initial demos dating as far back as 1993. So to compare Hart’s ideas circa 2001 to their 2009 iteration is somewhat baseless.

Keeping those qualifications in mind, let’s get down to it: At their core, Circulatory System and Signal Morning overlap heavily in terms of aesthetics (*see previous note about songwriting chronology). Hart’s distinctive voice is as alluring as ever, the album embraces lo-fi elements without glorifying them, and there’s a healthy mix of melodicism, abstraction, and hypnogogic reverie. There’s more straight-up noise on Signal Morning [“This Morning (We Remembered Everything)”; “The Pelican Trust”], along with a decidedly more somber tone, but it’s just as charmingly piecemeal as its predecessor. Opener “Woodpecker Greeting Worker Ant” and mid-disc jam “The Spinning Continuous” especially channel the sort of boundless vigor that typifies so many great Elephant Six recordings.

If the circumstances were a bit different though, it would be easier to say that Signal Morning is too unfocused, and somewhat lacking in new ideas from Hart. But the eight-year gap privileges the artist in ways it wouldn’t for others: It’s definitely long enough to justify a similar-sounding record (hey, it’s “new”), especially when the quality of that material is already of a high caliber. And as far as veteran Elephant Six material goes, maybe we should just be glad this exists before taking any cheap shots at it.

MySpace

Alliteration Monday: Best Coast

Bummer.

Jams of '09: Vivre Sans Temps Mort

The merits "Vivre Sans Temps Mort" are actually pretty well-reflected in the music video: There's a progression through a three (arguably four) episodes that all tie together nicely, yet remain discrete enough to justify distinction: boy buys model car; boy builds model car; model car reappears in milieu of destruction and chaos (and by the apparent volition of its creator, no less). I'm particularly keen on the middle section of the song (2:00-4:02), which somehow transforms a series of one-note jabs into the catchiest idea this side of early Q and Not U. Between the amble of the contemplative introduction and the swift, exciting conclusion, the middle passage brings a palpable sense of tension to a song that's already about everyone's favorite subject ("Spent my whole life just thinking about dying," in case you didn't catch it before).

And here comes the overblown image/music/lyric connection: like the largely stylized ending of the video (a car crash that has been, oooh, constructed), the music can only ever be a lurid, unreal representation of that terminal anticipation. We can watch the boy buy the kit and use the kit, but it's still just a model. In essence: we don't see an actual car crash because that's not what the song is about--it's about the imagination.

If there's any validity to that point though, credit goes to director Cat Solen, not necessarily Double Dagger. Killer song though, right?

Discoveries Worth Sharing: Behind On My Memes Edition

Next time you see this video, it'll be on television.