O O O that Shakespeherian Rag!

Los Campesinos!- My Year in Lists

The best part of Los Campesinos! is that the tap into something inside of me that I thought was lost a long time ago. The 19 year-old who would write cryptic live journal posts about a girl he really liked but couldn’t bring himself to let her know how he felt. It was all so dramatic, and I’d spend so much time thinking about this stuff that in the end wasn’t that big of deal.

This band manages to convert a certain paranoia and urgency that when looked out in hindsight, seems so silly right? They throw these overdramatic statements at us and want to celebrate the minutia that consume our brains sometimes, and even ask us to say “fuck it, let’s just dance it off”. 

“My Year in Lists” embraces all those times we spent sending notes to girls in class and hoping they’d get the hint, knowing they’d succumb to the “cool” guys. It was hanging out with your friend and making declarative statements about what bands or books were “the best” before you really had a chance to discover anything. It celebrates all that youthful enthusiasm we think is so silly, but kind of want back. 

Centro-Matic ” A Parade of Choosers”

My senior year of high school was spent mostly taking long drives around the South Bay of Los Angeles in my friend Mike’s 1996 AstroVan. The soundtrack was made up of mostly Weezer’s “Pinkerton” & Guided by Voices’ “Bee Thousand”. We knew every lyric to every song on both of those albums, and had convinced ourselves that musical nirvana was singing along at the top of our lungs with the windows open speeding down long stretches of the Pacific Coast Highway.

So when we stumbled upon Centro-Matic’s Redo the Stacks it all made sense. Big overblown melodies just like Weezer all recorded on what sounded like a boom-box, á la GBV. It was the merging of everything we wanted, an album full of melodic guitar pop that sounded like it was pasted together on late nights of heavy drinking with friends.

Ten years later I still to come back to it, and it still all makes just as much sense. “Parade of Choosers” is a song that begs to ask the question: “Do we need more than some melodies, a couple loud guitars, some beer, and a 4-track?”. It makes me believe we don’t. Listening to this album, and particularly this song, makes me think maybe it really is that simple. 

Song of the Day: The Trashwomen “Justine”

My obsession in the last couple of years has shifted mainly to bands and music movements that no one really cares about. The ones that came and went and no one bothers to look back because they haven’t become part of the music “cannon”.

The early 90’s Bay Area budget rock movement is on the fence right around now. It’s still pretty hard to find some of these records, but with the emergence of a lot of kids claiming bands like the Mummies and Supercharger as influences it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing T-shirts and 180G Reissues. So I’ll enjoy this time before some dumb critic starts talking about how “it was direct statement regarding the musical climate of the time” by digging in piles and piles of vinyl, hoping to unearth gems from that era.

I don’t know much about the Trashwomen. I know that within three weeks they formed, learned how to play their instruments, and played their first show….and that’s enough right? They were loud, used a lot of reverb, and weren’t afraid to scream a lot. While other all-girl punk bands of that era were so concerned with making important statements, the Trashwomen played irreverent surf-rock dumbed down so much all you could do was jump around and enjoy it. 

Hence their cover of the Mummies “Justine” is a minute and 57 seconds of pure balls to the walls, punk rock bliss. They supplement the swagger of the original version with an urgency and somehow manage make it even more of a sing along affair. 

Song of the Day: Tom Waits “Back in Crowd”

I try to hard to not be part of any demographic by reading “interesting” books and have insightful things to say about films and step out of my comfort zone when it comes to art. But no matter how much I try, I am ripe for the picking when it comes to Tom Waits fans:

1. I’m in my Late 20’s

2. I have a college degree in Literature (Philosophy or History work as well… or any other degree considered useless)

3. I live in major metropolitan city

4. I grew up listening to a lot of underground music, and frankly I’m bored with the state of modern independent music (that’s a smarty-pants way to say I’m jaded).

But every 4 years or so Mr. Waits seems to pop his head in through the door that is the boring, Pitchfork dictated, soda-company sponsored music climate and give us a collection of songs that are more raw, rambunctious, theatrical and sad than anything else. He just seems to put something out that’s always far more interesting to me than whatever is dubbed “cool” for that month.

“Back in the Crowd” is a heartbreak lullaby played on a spanish guitar. It’s an amazingly vulnerable piece that’s not uncommon on Waits’ albums in between all the junkyard howling. A man coming to terms with a love that’s nearly gone, and not being angry, or even that sad, but just saying farewell in the most dulcet tone he can. 

Top 5 Songs of (last) Year

#1 Girls “Lust for Life”

I had a hard time arguing this song with a friend last night. He said this band was shit. To tell you the truth the album did not blow my mind like I thought it would, and this isn’t even my favorite song by them.

But what I think Girls did with “Lust for Life” was important in the sense that it was the return of the single. This song is two and a half minutes of pop bliss. The song stands as an introduction to band that does have many more facets. The single was released on 45 way before the album came out, and it just grabs the listener wanting to know more about the band. To top it off they had an amazing music video (yes, good ones still exist!…kinda) and everything seemed so matter of fact.

However something to me is very fuck off about Girls. First off, this song shares the name of Iggy Pop’s most commercially viable tune. Perhaps it was a joke intended only for music geeks, or maybe they just didn’t give a fuck (I’d like to assume the latter). Then after they’ve had this great music video, they decide to release a second version that included a whole lot of homo eroticism (singing into penis’ is always funny).

But more than anything for me this song had a visceral effect. The first time I saw the video and heard the song it just hit me. It did what most good pop music does, it made it look incredibly easy, real, and fun.

Top 5 Songs of the Year

#2 Merry Christmas “Bedside in the Cosmos”

I’m in my late 20’s, and very few things get me out to see live music anymore. I have realized most bands I like probably are not that great live. Even if they are, I’d like to enjoy them by sitting down, having a beer, and not getting home too late.

So it’s astounding to me to listen to a band that makes me want to be in a crowded room, jump around, get sweaty and sing along at the top of my lungs. Merry Christmas makes me remember what used to get me excited about music when I was young. They make me want to start a band that doesn’t even have a myspace (although they do have one) and only release 7” singles with photocopied cover art.

“Bedside in the Cosmos” also speaks to the junior college, heart broken, apathetic, hungover guy inside me. Lines like “You are so apparently ready for anything. who knows? who cares?” sums it perfectly. All of these wonderful FTW lines are delivered between music and melodies that would make both Bob Pollard and Paul Westerberg jealous. The song is self destructive yet incredibly catchy and anthemic.

It makes an older, fatter, slower me want to have fun again

Originally posted in November

Top 5 Songs of the Year

#3 Drake “Best I Ever Had”

People like Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne and Outkast make a pretty good argument for commercial radio hip-hop. They push the limits, look towards the past and the underground for inspiration and completely admit to their own shortcomings.

Drake does none of that. He’s a canadian teenage actor who happens to have some friends in the music industry and was able to put together some demo’s to put on mix tapes. However, this song got me this year. Something about how dumb it allows itself to be. Drake doesn’t seem to be concerned with saying stupid shit like “You can have my heart or we can share it like the last slice”.  He relies on cliche’s, and although the song is supposed to be about a special lady, it ends up being a proclamation to how awesome he is.

All things said, I couldn’t get through this summer without blasting this in my headphones while walking to the train. It was my wake-up, pump-up song. That’s the thing about it, no matter how cliche and dumb it is, you can’t help but tap your feet and just maybe sing along to the chorus.

While Jay-Z declared the death of auto-tune, Drake managed to sneak this one in there without issues.

Top 5 Songs of the Year

#4 Atlas Sound “Walkabout (featuring Noah Lenox)”

This is a perfect springtime jam. Starts off a little ambient, maybe a little weird, but then is broken by a wonderful, gleeful, slightly dancy pop song. It brings up images of long bike rides to the park with friends, maybe even a pretty girl.

I was late to get into the whole Deerhunter/Atlas Sound thing, but now that I am playing catch up, I am pretty impressed.

Originally posted in November

Top  5 Song of the Year:

#5 Former Ghosts “Hold On”

This song is an amazing description of a broken and bruised heart set to piercing synths and a steady dance beat. It almost sounds like it could be an outtake from OMD’s Architecture and Morality sessions. There are no metaphor’s here, just a certain honesty that proves true to anyone who’s ever been through something like this.

When he released this album during fall, not one person I knew who heard the song could keep it out of their head.