Destroyer - Kaputt

I put on Destroyer's newest release in the car the other day, left the volume on low, and promptly forgot about the album. The next day I went out to go pick my sister up at the airport, I wondered how Liz had got a muzak installed in our car over night without me knowing (joke!). But seriously, from the outset of this album it sounds like Dan Bejar has channeled his inner-Will-Ferrel-Yazz-Flute, or was contracted to write the score for a teen drama circa 1985 and then decided to write lyrics over the music.

The bizarre part of all this, gentle ribbing aside, is that it absolutely works and this album is certainly a front runner for album of the year. Yes, it's early, but Kaputt is absolutely stellar.

Bejar's songs have always been my favourites off all of the New Pornographers albums, but I've felt like that's mostly because he's been restrained by Carl Newman's pop-sensibility. Most often (with the exception of Destroyer's Rubies and "An Actor's Revenge") his music has gone over my head. I've thought, he's an interesting lyricist, he's got an interesting cadence to his voice, but... meh. Maybe it's just that I'm too low brow and need at least some semblance of a hook or chorus in my songs.

I'm convinced that at least half my adoration for this album comes from the fact that it's a light, breezy, sort of album which is perfect for the weather here in Durham, NC today: shorts, flip flops, and windows down in the car. The other part, I think, is that the album draws you in with a really easy, steady rhythm at the beginning. The light snare (?), the synth noises, seem like the perfect fit for Bejar to wander with his often bizarre and cryptic lyrics.

That steady rhythm seems to permeate through the entire album, and that rhythm gives Bejar the leeway to freelance. And the album has that feel to it, fresh, almost like it's unscripted. Like the way that I imagine great jazz comes together -- where the drummer starts off with a beat, and then the other musicians come in and layer on top of each other. The last layer being Bejar, who's vocals sound like half lounge singer and half poet.

The moral of the story is, give it a chance. I always find that these types of albums, the ones that sound like they're going to be terrible -- either by their description, or by your first impression of the first few notes -- are often the ones you become the most attached to. I'm attached to this one.

... at least the first minute and a half of the video is worth watching even if you want nothing to do with the album... eat your heart out Napoleon Dynamite...

Let's Book Club!: Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami

I'm not sure whether I have anything really earth shattering to say about Haruki Murakami's Dance Dance Dance. The book is another solid addition in Murakami's rather impressive collection. It doesn't move the reader (me) on the same scale that Kafka on the Shore or Norwegian Wood did, and it's not an epic story like The Wind-Up Bird Cronicle (which may well be one of my favourite works of fiction of all time), but it's good.

After looking at Murakami's bookography, Dance Dance Dance falls right after Norwegian Wood a novel which garnered him much unwanted fame in his native Japan. NW was a more prototypical novel, without the strange surreal elements that often makes Murakami's work so different, and DDD seems to be a return to the strange.

The more I think about it, the more I think I actually really enjoyed Dance Dance Dance. I did, after all, read the entire book in 4 days. But, it's probably not the book I'd recommend first to people who haven't read anything by the Japanese super-star author... I'd check out the other ones I mentioned above first.

Grade: A-

Up next: Probably Chris Ballard's The Art of a Beautiful Game... I ordered approximately 100 basketball books from Amazon, so, it's going to be a lot of that in the next while. That said, I'm pretty keen on reading Murakami's memoirs What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

2011 Book Club Results

1. Into the Wild | John Krakauer (207 pages) | B-

2. Dance Dance Dance| Haruki Murakami (393 pages)| A-

My Favourite 5 Springsteen Videos/Songs

So, I feel like I might not have clearly communicated my love for all the things Springsteen in my last post, entitled "I'm in love with the Gaslight Anthem", or whatever. At any rate, The Boss is one of my all-time, all-time, favourites and since I've been singing "Hungry Heart" to myself for the last 3 days straight, I thought this post might be a way to right myself with the music gods.

Having said that, all that stuff I said about him pandering to the working man is so absolutely, unabashedly true. His attire in the videos are, in order: plaid shirt, sleeves cut off; suit jacket and button up shirt; plaid shirt, sleeves rolled up; coveralls; plain white t-shirt, jeans. So, basically, in three of the five videos he looks like he's just been working on his car in the driveway, one he was actually working on a car, and in the other he looks like a professional musician. And, hilariously, in "Glory Days" which just missed the cut, the video opens with the Boss on a construction site running some enormous super drill... I'm just saying...

After spending the morning watching these videos, the contrast between the Springsteen videos from the 80s and everything that's being done now is really striking. Most of the videos are done in long form, there's a surprising amount of non-song dialogue, there are almost 'scenes', and you almost feel like Springsteen is trying to sell you on his songs. Not in a sleezy way, but in a I really like my music and you should too, sorta way.

In contrast, today, music videos basically don't exist and Much Music and MTV have evolved (or devolved, depending on your point of view) into places for reality shows about rich drug addicted teen mothers celebrating their 16th birthday (or something). But the videos that are being made are either larger than life productions that are symbols of how successful the artist is, or aspires to be (basically every pop/rap/rnb video); or more subversive videos by smaller bands which are deliberate attempts to demonstrate how they don't need an expensive video to enjoy making music (think OK Go).

Frankly, I'd take anyone of these Springsteen videos over 99.9% of the actual music videos being produced today. They're simple, straightforward, and just about the Boss selling his tunes. No agent, no building a brand or crafting an image. If smell what the R.O.B. is cooking, you should check out videos by Colin Medley, Southern Souls, LaundroMatinee, and, of course, the grandfather of these sorts of videos, La Blogotheque all of which are more or less in the grand tradition of... 80s music videos... weak ending...

5. "Born to Run" Born to Run

4. "The River" The River

3. "Hungry Heart" The River

2. "I'm on Fire" Born in the USA

1. "Dancing in the Dark" Born in the USA

... great song... it's my favourite because it's given me my signature wedding dance move: the underbite-shimmy-snap. Also, is that the chick from Cougartown?

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

Not sure whether this blogging thing is going to take again, but what the hell...

On a recent Bill Simmons podcast w/ Adam Carolla they did this bit about Bruce Springsteen and how his music was so overtly, unabashedly, middle-class. They went on about his newest (and most made-up release) Factory about the factory that makes the factories was shutting down... a little over the top... but right on point. The gag being that the Boss would do whatever he could to connect with blue collar middle America. While I don't think his motives are quite as suspect as Simmons and Carolla joked that they were, Springsteen's middle class nostalgia, seems disconnected in the post-internet age. Suffice to say the Boss hasn't been middle class in, say, three decades, so what's he really got to say about losing your job at the steel mill.

I bring this up because my first exposure to The Gaslight Anthem taps into this blue collar theyreshuttingdownthefactorythatmakesthefactories vibe that Springsteen made famous on Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. Beyond the obvious comparison between the gruff rock voice of lead singer Brian Fallon and Springsteen, both parties seem to capture the anger/confusion/longing for something simpler, of their respective generations.

I think what makes the connection between Fallon and the GLA and Springsteen interesting is how, simultaneously, they are so similar and so different. Both the GLA and Springsteen speak the same NJ blue collar language of the working man, but the more than 30 year gap between the emergence of the GLA and Springsteen is indicative of how that language and how that sub-section of blue collar steel belt America has changed.

In Springsteen's era the group was more populous, starting to wane, but hanging on. As such, the Boss' music seems longing, but hopeful and the edges of his music are softer, more palatable, and somehow seem less important. Maybe this has to do with The Boss as a rock icon or our/my familiarity with his songs, but in comparison American Slang, doesn't quite have the same sense of urgency, or meaning, or personal importance.

For example, when most people (and I've had this argument several times) that most people think "Born in the U.S.A." is a pro-America song, and while the lyrics are decidedly not, the melody might as well be the new American national anthem. In 2011, Springsteen's music feels as though it should be in a commercial for the newest Chevy Pickup Truck.

In contrast, American Slang (the album) and "American Slang" (the song) feels as though without a bigger audience to connect to, that they can speak for downtrodden in New Jersey. American Slang feels as though it's the sound track for the guys who didn't finish high school, and are going to have a tough time of it in a knowledge based economy where manufacturing work doesn't exist in America. Where Springsteen feels like he's selling pickup trucks, the GLA is the soundtrack for the Dicky Eklunds of the world.

None of this is to say that the GLA is better than Springsteen. Springsteen is, IMHO, one of the greatest rock 'n' rollers of all time, and without the Boss, there is no Gaslight Anthem. What I am saying is that the Gaslight Anthem has taken the torch, and from now on they're be speaking for NJ.

"American Slang (acoustic)"

The Gaslight Anthem w/ Bruce Springsteen "The '59 Sound"

Easily the Best Music Video. Ever.

is this:


It's unclear what, exactly is going on here, but whatever it is it's spectacular. My favourite parts are as follows:

1. The way he strolls along (note the exaggerated arm movements on the wide angled shots).
2. That he looks confused through a good deal of the song. It appears that they asked him to lip sync without ever hearing the entire song.
3. There are no discernible words in any language in the entire song.
4. The part where he goes super high, like those old Kia? commercials (1:26). What really solidifies the high pitch notes is the spin and point that goes along with it.
5. And when they go low and he looks directly, meaningfully, into the camera.
6. The laughing at 1:53. I'm not sure there's ever been laughing like that in a song. For about 5 seconds straight, with the music.
7. The decor. Really nice job matching the wall cover with his tie.
8. When he gives up trying to lip-sync at 2:14.

If you'd seen this before and didn't pass it along... shame on you...

Sorry K'naan, you DO have a soul

Sometime last year I wrote some thoughts about K'naan's album Troubador, and I was pretty luke warm on the whole thing. My issues with the album were that it was over produced, had no heart, and I pointed to "If Rap Gets Jealous" ft. Kirk Hammett of Metallica as a prime example of why that was the case. Part of my distaste may come from the fact that the album included a guy from Metallica (douches!) who I'm picturing doing some kind of (douchey) underbite while he plays the guitar, but it also runs contrary to the "my music doesn't need no touch ups" line at the beginning of the song (at least the Dusty Foot version). Yes, I do get the irony of me complaining about a song where the message of the song is 'I don't care if you don't get what I'm trying to do here'. But, to be fair, the message is more about the rap/rock genre than it is about artistic integrity.

That was the crux of my beef with Troubador -- the unnecessary guest appearances by the Metallica, the Maroon 5 guy, Damien Marley, etc., etc., and the whole aesthetic of 'we need a bunch of guests so that we can reach a wider demographic'. More than anything, I would say that it was disappointing that music that has the potential to be so meaningful gets glossed over so that it becomes "more appealing". I had basically written off K'naan as a pawn of whatever record label snatched him up, until the other morning...

... when I watched NPR's 'Tiny Desk Concert' ft. K'naan and friends where he performed "Take A Minute", "Fatima", and "Waving Flag"... which brought me back to all the reasons I thought The Dusty Foot Philosopher was so interesting/moving and really, really, catchy at points. His story and his story telling are so compelling that it seems like all he needs to do is make sure the production on his albums doesn't ruin it. Of course, with a live performance in the NPR office it's pretty easy to avoid over producing, but it'll be interesting to see how K'naan moves forward. Now that he's "cashed in" -- it'd be very interesting to find out whether he's actually made any money, though with "Waving Flag" being the 2010 World Cup song I suspect he's making some serious coin from that -- what route he goes (hip hop or hip pop?). Is this worth even talking about at all, because maybe with his new found financial security he doesn't have anything interesting left to say anyways. I hope not, because when K'naan's production team gets out of his way I feel like his one of the most interesting, charismatic artists of any genre around...

Beach House - Teen Dream

So, yeah, it's been a while.

An explanation/excuse: I've been putting together PhD applications (actually, only one, but still) and it's not that I didn't have time, but more that my mind has been elsewhere. I'm hoping to get back to blogging a little, though I expect I'll be doing less and writing more about a variety of different topics rather than just sticking to music. We'll see how it goes though.

I guess the other thing is that I haven't really been keeping track of what's going on in music...

Beach House's first two albums s/t [2006] and Devotion [2008] really didn't do anything for me. Teen Dream, the third release by Beach House, really couldn't have come along at a better time for me, personally. The album evokes some of the nostalgia of those John Hughes movies like Ferris Bueller, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, or even Risky Business (not a John Hughes movie, I know, but it feels like it should be) where you just know that things are going to work out. That no matter how far behind the proverbial 8-ball the protagonist(s) get, everyone is going to be happy and learn the lessons that they need to learn.

Teen Dream is just about the perfect title for the album. In conjunction with the whole John Hughes thing, the album just sort of washes over you, one song blending into another (and you may, in fact, not remember listening to the whole album). Nothing on the album really stands out, which is not to say there aren't outstanding moments, because there are on just about every song, but the way the album flows bringing you up so gently and down so slowly you never really notice. I'm imagining this is the way heroin feels. Probably not.

But even if it isn't as good as heroin, it is a terrific album, and something I've listened to more from start to finish then I have just about anything else in the past year. Teen Dream never really deviates from that washed over ambient psychedelic sound, and they have enough material that it works, but not so much that you get sick of it. And then there's the closing track, "Take Care" that is like the Notebook level romantic. Even if you're not a huge music dork, there's a pretty good chance you're going to like this album.