Friday, June 28, 2002
Coming Soon: my big list of the top albums of the first half of 2002!
Got another cd in the mail, right before the long weekend: The Joy of Sing-Sing, by UK duo Sing-Sing. One of their members is Emma Anderson, former co-frontwoman of Lush, a band I really loved in the early to mid-Nineties...they've been releasing singles since 1998, but I had yet to hear anything by them. Sing-Sing take the trippy harmonies Lush specialized in, and takes it toward a more electronic, poppy sound, as opposed to the strictly guitar-based rock that Lush excelled at. This album is quite good, some really winning songs, like "Tegan", "I'll Be", "Panda Eyes", and "Feels Like Summer", all wonderfully sung by Lisa O'Neill. The cd doesn't come out until September in North America, but has been out in the UK since last October.
My review of King of Woolworths' Ming Star album is up today. Gotta say it again, a good cd. PopMatters is on a week-long hiatus, so I won't be linking to new reviews until July 8 at the earliest...
Wow...John Entwistle died yesterday. I've never been a big fan of The Who, just an admirer of a few of their songs (I've never liked an entire Who album), but Entwistle was undeniably one of rock's great bassists. 57 is still too young to go...
So who do I cheer for in the World Cup final? Germany are too methodical, while flamboyant Brazil are too arrogant...after all of Rivaldo's antics and Roberto Carlos's being such a jerky in the England match, I think I'll be rooting for Oliver Kahn and company...
Thursday, June 27, 2002
Poet Philip Whalen died yesterday. He'd been ill for the past year, so this comes as no real surprise. Still, another part of the Beat circle is gone...I'll always remember him as Kerouac's good-natured friend in The Dharma Bums. One of his last quotes about his own imminent death, from a few days before he passed away: "I'd like to be laid on a bed of frozen raspberries." That pretty much says it all.
Been getting some good feedback about my Ozzy review, including praise from Bob Daisley, even...not to toot my own horn or anything. Keep fightin' the good fight, Bob!
Pitchfork has a lukewarm review of the Tribute to Altman's Nashville cd...I guess I'm one of the twelve people who are fans of both Robert Altman and Neko Case. Pitchfork gives it a 5.9...by their ratings standards, I'd give it a 7.5.
Idlewild has a new album coming out soon, and their first single from it, "American English" is gorgeous. Of course, with Idlewild, it's not very original (this time blatantly ripping off U2), but they do it so surn well, there's no reason to complain. Just pretty, memorable Big Rock.
Got a surprise cd FedExed to me yesterday, in the form of Waltz For Koop, by Swedish jazz/funk/technodudes Koop. Didn't even know I was slated to get it. So what's it like? More jazz than dull techno, with the thing I crave most from techno-fusion artists: restraint! Simply a great album, full of lovely, luscious songs with great guest vocalists, the high point being 'Summer Sun', sung by fifteen (!) year-old Yukimi Nagano, the perfect song for the summer. What made me like this album more was its brief, thirty-four minute length. Nice and concise, just like Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain album. If there's a misstep on the cd, it's the pseudo-beatnik, done-20-years-ago-by-Tom-Waits vocal stylings of Earl Zinger. It's good, but not as fresh-sounding as the rest. Plus, that cover...ugh, it has to go. Two sullen-looking guys wearing dresses is not a good way to market an album.
The new version of the cd comes with a neat bonus dvd, with audio remixes, pics, a bio, and two music videos, including the entrancing vid for 'Summer Sun' that blew me away a couple months ago, and was the main reason I wanted to review the cd. Just more incentive to go buy this...do so, it's worth it.
Perhaps the big reason why I loved the summery jazz of the album is because it was a blistering 33 Celcius here yesterday. Supposed to go up to 37 today. Egads...
Wednesday, June 26, 2002
My big rant, about how awful and offensive the reissues of Ozzy's first two albums are, has finally surfaced. I still can't believe they'd wreck such good records...
Two book recommendations: first, Calvin Trillin's Tepper Isn't Going Out...a neat little story of a guy who parks his car around Manhattan, and just sits there in his spot for the full duration that he's allowed, all the while reading the newspaper and waving other cars on. The media (as well as a psychotic parody of former mayor Giuliani) picks up on this, and he becomes a big cult hero, even though all he wants to do is sit there. A good book about a guy who just might be smarter than everyone else, as well as a clever satire of the mass media and conservative politicians. Light and funny.
Second, though, is a real doozy. Famous book designer Chip Kidd's The Cheese Monkeys is fantastic stuff, one of the best books I've read in the past few years, about an art major's first two semesters at an Eastern US university. There were many times where I was howling with laughter...the graphic design professor Winter Sorbeck is the type of character who leaves a permanent mark on your mind, and when he's not tearing students to little shreds during critiques, he's actually teaching you, the reader, a whole heckuvalot about graphic design. And there's the character Himillsy Dodd, a brilliant-but-wacko student, who's sort of a combination of Dorothy Parker and Parker Posey's character in Clockwatchers. Plus, there's the book itself (designed by Kidd, with the help of the equally brilliant Chris Ware, whose own work of genius Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth, Kidd edited), which is a thing to behold: gorgeous, with tons of cool little quirks, like the odd placement of the 'thank you' list, the two hidden messages printed on the edges of the pages, and the cool little elephant slogan (try and find it!). Plus, the fake quotes by the book's characters on the really cool dust jacket. And dare I mention the fact that the story goes from end page to end page? Genius! This one's a keeper, and though it's a smallish book, it's worth every penny of the hardcover price. Can't wait to read it again...
Oh, and Minority Report is a spectacular movie. Attack of the what now? This one is the sci-fi flick to see.
Friday, June 21, 2002
Jose Theodore, you rule! England, well, you blew it, guys. Now who am I gonna cheer for? Brazil? Spain? Germany? Ecch. Uh, go Senegal, I guess...
Double-shot of reviews this weekend...first, my 2-in-1 review of Judas Priest's Turbo & Priest...Live!. I didn't want to do some kind of lame Lester Bangs imitation or anything by sticking myself into the review, but I had to stick a little anecdote in there to set the scene that was 1986. Man, what an awful time that was. Also up is my review of the Finnish Guitar Pop compilation. That one's a real delight.
Speaking of delightful, the Italian movie Bread & Tulips is very enjoyable. Light and funny, with the typical lovable, kooky characters you expect in a Continental comedy. It really looks great on the dvd...
Oh, nearly forgot: I'm finally on the PopMatters contributors page. If you don't know who the heck I am, look at this page's address for a hint...
Found a real cheap copy of the brand-new Neil Young biography yesterday. Eight bucks instead of forty-five? I'll take it...I still don't know what's wrong with my copy that warrants such a discount. Watch, in a few months I'll be in the middle of reading it, and there'll be a chapter missing. Reminds me of when a copy of Charles Bukowski's Hollywood I received for Christmas one year was missing one page, I wrote to Black Sparrow Press, and they sent me a hardcover copy of Hollywood, one of those famous New Year's Buk chapbooks, and a poster that still hangs on my wall to this day. What nice people...
Back to the subject of The Charlatans (see below), "One To Another" is a killer, killer tune...
Thursday, June 20, 2002
Still another review...we're really starting to catch up now. This one is for Songs From the Other Side, the B-sides collection by The Charlatans. It was your typical, hit & miss B-sides comp, but it had some very good tunes on it. Frankly, I haven't listened to it since the day I did the review, and that seems like it was ages ago...time to give it another spin, I think...
Pitchfork just put up a good review of Departure Lounge's Too Late to Die Young album, one of my faves from this year so far. They give it a 7.6, whereas I'd personally rate it about 8.5 or so. Good to see the band getting more reviews.
Oh, and kudos to Sound Opinions for praising the new Marianne Faithfull cd, and especially for singling out the song "Sliding Through Life on Charm", sure to be one of the best songs of the year. This comes three months after I raved about it...check my March 7 entry. I have to get ahold of that cd...
Wednesday, June 19, 2002
Another new review today, this time it's a real quickie, my one for Dirty Vegas that I wrote a few days ago. Again, it gets a touch repetitive and is far from original, but it was very surprisingly enjoyable.
Oh, and as for the World Cup: Italy, you had it comin' to you. What an idiotic game plan. Incredible how a team so talented can choke so many times. Good riddance.
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
New review up today...Iron Maiden's very good Rock In Rio cd. Has its flaws (mainly the muddy sound which drowns out Adrian Smith's guitar), but it's still loads of fun to listen to.
A quickie note: Three bands whose most recent albums completely blow me away: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, The Mooney Suzuki, and Burning Brides. Oh. My. Gawrsh. What great records. I'll say more about these soon, but then again, I said the same about Trail of Dead and Sparta, and I still haven't done that...
Every so often a different Yeah Yeah Yeahs song grows on me. This time, "Art Star", with Karen O screaming "Aaaaaaarrrrrt Staaaaaaarrrrrr!!!!", and then immediately after screaming her guts out, does a goofy, singalong "doo-doo-doo"...Will we get an album from them before the end of the year? Their potential is massive right now.
Friday, June 14, 2002
Congrats to the Red Wings on their big win last night...if the Canadiens aren't going to win the Cup, I always want to see Detroit do it. And Stevie Y, you're a god.
Review alert! My write-up of The Meat Purveyors' new disc is up. I read it over again, and despite being frantically whipped together one late night, I'm very happy with it.
Yikes. My cd pile gets even bigger...Thursday's arrival was King of Woolworths' Ming Star album. I just threw my name in for this one, and again, I'm pleasantly surprised. Think Air's Moon Safari done as a seminihilistic look back at childhood. Same laid-back grooves, but with something reeeeally sinister lurking underneath. I had no idea it had been out for nearly a year here in Canada. I'm so stupid. Anyway, it's a very compelling listen...now to get a review together before Sunday...
Thursday, June 13, 2002
Thanks to salon.com's Andrew O'Hehir for the best line I've read in a while, where he compared the Japanese soccer team's offense to a bunch of rabid Smurfs...
Got another cd in the mail yesterday, from those lovely folks at Capitol (they're so durn prompt!). The new album by Dirty Vegas, its growing popularity completely unbeknownst to me (I haven't listened to top 40 radio for over a year), is an okay, but staggeringly ordinary effort. That 'Days Go By' song, from the Mitsubishi commercial I must have seen, cos I knew the silly song, is excellent, laid-back, summertime pop, with no techno overkill that plagues most radio pop these days. The rest of the album tries to be more than just filler accompanying a one-hit wonder, with a few hits and a few misses. The good stuff: 'I Should Know', 'All Or Nothing', '7AM', and the cool 'Simple Things Part 2' (which lifts a few lines from Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall Part 2'). The not so good: the non-stop thumpythump. The band (they're a trio) tries to incorporate traditional gee-tar with techno, but too often the electronic overwhelms the songwriting. If they toned it down a bit, the album would be better. Case in point: the great acoustic version of 'Days Go By'. Still, I don't hate this album, amazingly enough. Very pleasant.
Which leads me to a question? Why the heck don't electronic artists realise that an hour-plus worth of boring thumpythump is sheer overkill?! TONE IT DOWN A TOUCH!!! Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain, which I love Love LOVE, is a great example, lasting only thirty-eight minutes. Any more could have been unbearable. If the Dirty Vegas album had been fifteen or twenty minutes shorter, it would have been a whole lot better...
Still with Dirty Vegas, it has terrific artwork by Richard Phillips. Before today, being the art doofus I am, I had no idea what photorealism was. Now I love it, especially Phillips' stuff.
Two mp3 picks...first off, Bob Dylan's new one, 'Waitin' For You', from the soundtrack to that awful-looking Ya-Ya Sisterhood movie. Decent song, a light, country waltz (is that Larry Campbell on both fiddle and steel guitar?), but nowhere near the calibre of the stuff on 'Love And Theft'. Had to be a reject.
Better, though, is a new tune by the great Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, called 'So Dumb (Homer's Lament)'. It has Castellaneta doing the voices of Homer, Grandpa Simpson, Groundskeeper Willie, Krusty, and Barney, on a hilarious seven-minute track, during which Homer contemplates why he's gotten so incredibly dumb as The Simpsons has gone on. There are always a ton of novelty songs that come out, but this one's one of the better ones. Love it.
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Tuesday's bow-out by France was shocking enogh, but Argentina now? Both after the preliminary round? Crazy. While England advanced with a snorefest against Nigeria, the real fun was over on the Spanish channel...Sweden played a decent enough defensive game, scored a cracker of a goal, and hung on for dear life. Not pretty, but like Senegal proved, it can work.
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
New review of mine is available today: The BellRays' In the Light of the Sun...good early album by the LA band. Less garage, more motown, and overall, a quality rekkerd.
Got a little present from Kill Rock Stars yesterday, as their huuuge double cd compilation Fields and Streams arrived in the mail. Two-and-a-half hours, forty-five bands. An indie lover's delight...I'm barely halfway through it, and I like what I've heard so far. A little band from Columbus, Ohio called Manda & the Marbles got my attention straightaway with their Go-Go's sound (which I'm always a sucker for), as did this kooky French outfit called Stereo Total. Tons of stuff from obscure artists, as well as some highly-anticipated-by-yrs-truly doozies by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (yeaaahhh!!!), The Mooney Suzuki, The Aislers Set, Mary Timony, and the always-awesome Neko Case. Whew! I only wish there was something by Sleater-Kinney...
I totally forgot to mention the passing of Dee Dee Ramone...he had an ugly falling out with the rest of the Ramones, but the man was responsible for some great tunes, like 'Chinese Rock'. I want to read his autobiography, but unfortunately, the local library doesn't have it...
Monday, June 10, 2002
Salon has a wonderful, wonderful tribute to Kieslowski's Trois Couleurs trilogy. Extremely well-written...I couldn't have put it better myself. It brings up many points I have read in several dissertations and articles, but leaves out an important part of the tilogy: the old woman and the recycling bin. In Blue, Julie (Juliette Binoche) is too self-centred to notice the old lady having difficulty trying to put the wine bottle in the bin. In White, Karol (Zbigniev Zamachowski) sees the woman, and chuckles to himself, pleased that there's at least one person having as much trouble as him. But in Red, Valentine (Irene Jacob) helps the woman stuff the bottle in, out of pure human kindness, which, in a small way, is the ultimate realisation og the trilogy's theme. Man, I could read and discuss these movies forever...
Greg Kot and his daughter wrote a good article about kids and popular music in the Chicago Tribune today...
Pitchfork has a good review of Doves' Last Broadcast. Not as persnickety as they usually are, but not quite as over-the-top as my review was (I still stand by it, though!).
After many searches for a quality Judas Priest-related website, I finally found one today...very informative and helpful.
...And speaking of Priest, here's a brilliantly done analysis of Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Excellent stuff, just a blast to read.
As for the World Cup: Good On You: England, Ireland, Mexico, Senegal. Poo on you: France, Brazil, Portugal, Italy.
And the Stanley Cup finals...well, after wathing the entire game last night, I was completely, emotionally drained. Thank goodness those Wings won. And what's with those Carolina fans standing during overtime? Sit down! Relax! Act like you've been there before. Oh yeah, they haven't...
Wednesday, June 5, 2002
My review of Radiogram's wonderful, bee-yooty-full All the Way Home cd is now up...
Carolina? Carolina? Surely this is just an aberration for the Red Wings...
Tuesday, June 4, 2002
Last night, I innocuously came across a website that allows you to watch the legendary documentary short Heavy Metal Parking Lot, in its entirety. You can either get the big quicktime version or watch it on realvideo (I opted for the former)...I had seen clips of it many times, but never the whole thing, until now. Let me just say that it paints a scary, funny, disturbingly accurate portrait of the whole headbanger scene sixteen years ago. Taped in May, 1986, it features interviews with a bunch of drunk metalheads in the parking lot of the old Capital Center in suburban D.C., on the day of a Judas Priest concert. The booze, the spandex, the mullets are all there. They're there for two reasons: to get totally wasted, and to rock. It's a dead-on look at a time that has long since passed...I highly recommend watching this.
Seeing Heavy Metal Parking Lot in its entirety coincides with my upcoming reviews of the Judas Priest remasters from the late 1980s...the documentary was done during Priest's 'Fuel For Life' tour, in support of their massively popular (but hugely disappointing to any real fan) Turbo album. If you want the full experience, play the Turbo cd, watch Heavy Metal Parking Lot, and then listen to the very good Priest...Live! cd (or even better, watch the video, if you can find an old copy), which was recorded on that very tour. Rob Halford's banter between songs is just as hilarious as the short film: "Are you ready for some Judas Priest style heavy metal?" I mean, nobody in their right mind would even think of saying somethnig like that onstage anymore, unless they were going for some college-boy irony. Still, when I hear stuff like 'Metal Gods', 'Breaking the Law', 'Electric Eye', 'The Sentinel', and 'Freewheel Burning', I learn I love it just as much as I did when I was a kid. Goofy, but fun...something the whole nu-metal thing has no idea about.
My review for the Let's Live Together EP, by The Walkmen, is now available for your perusal. Good little cd, with four songs that grow on you. It really makes me want to hear the rest of the album, called Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone.
Sunday, June 2, 2002
So England choked again...I watched the first half, during which they looked very impressive (especially fellow Canadian Owen Hargreaves), and went to bed at halftime (hey, it was 4:15 a.m.!). Turns out I wasn't the only one sleeping when the second half rolled around. England will be very hard-pressed to make it to the next round, especially with a huge match with Argentina (who looked awesome last night) coming right up.
Saturday, June 1, 2002
I archived my April & May entries, so if you're wondering what's been going on over here recently (especially the past week, which has had lots of updates), click the appropriate link on the right...
More World Cup fun...Ireland proved to be a spunky little club, and managed to have more energy than Cameroon near the end, managing what turned out to be a very exciting draw. If only Robbie Keane not hit that post in the late goings...
Got a neat little cd in the mail today, from Finland, of all places. It bears the somewhat wordy title Meet the Scene: An Introduction to Underground Finnish Guitar Pop, and as I had anticipated, is quite the weird little treasure. What does it sound like? It ranges from stuff that sounds a lot like Guided By Voices, to Belle & Sebastian, to American Emo, to Matthew Sweet, to Britpop, with a tiny bit of country influence as well. Some very catchy tunes, and some even better band names: Harry Hunks, Flannelmouth, Cartoon Trees, Cheerleaders United, Big White Monkees, Hundred Million Martians (take that, 10,000 Maniacs!), and my personal favourite, Ben's Diapers. Coincidentally, it's that Ben's Diapers tune, 'Josephine Geraldine', that's my favourite song from the cd right now. Irresistibly catchy. Also very good is the American-sounding emo effort 'New Day', by Puny. Give it a listen! Watch for my review, coming soon...
