Friday, October 23, 2009

Enabeling the Editors

My last post below was about Editors and the way in which thay have gradually won me over from initial enthusiasm to slight suspicion to general adminration over the course of three albums.

I ended the post with reference to some interesting and telling cover versions, of great songs by REM and Prefab Sprout. Since then I somehow came across another cover version, which I would not find a video clip of, but which is of The National's 'Abel', which can be downloaded below.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2d3wwmzcdzm

'Abel' comes from 'Alligator' and is probably one of The National's angriest hours, a loud and pounding growling headache of a song in the chorus of which Matt Berninger does some seldom-heard shouting. I find the song very powerful and have spent quite a few busy days at work with the words 'my mind's come loose inside its shell' echoing round and round my head (yes, I do know how wierd that seems!). Two versions of it can be seen below:

In many ways, I feel it a somewhat inevitable squaring of the circle to find Editors covering the National, different ends of my musical taste turning out to the closely connected other than in my headshell. And how do they do? Of course no-one mortal could get the sound of Bryan Davendorf's drums exactly right, and Tom Smith is perhaps too cool to let rip the way Matt does, but it is certainly a very good version, and well worth a listen.

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Monday, October 19, 2009

Editorial Control

The Editors have been on my mind and in my ears a lot recently. I bought 'The back room' when first released based on very positive reviews, and my usual attention-grabbing keywords (Joy Division, dark, 1980sish) and, not knowing much about them, I loved it. I still remember the soundtrack to Christmas 2005 being 'Munich' playing semi-continuously in my car (it is, after all, a seasonal classic in waiting). This is still the stand-out track from their debut for me, as seen below on Jools Holland:




Obviously, the album really appealed to me, and while Tom Smith's voice certainly had echoes of Ian Curtis, the overall feel to me was individual enough to carve their own niche. Much of the rest of the album was very good, including 'Bullets', seen below:





I guess my enthusiasm (shallowly, I admit) faded slightly when I saw them on TV (never live), as they did seem that little bit too young and clean-cut to match the music; the term Boy Division did resonate with me. I did like a good bit of their next album 'An end has a start', but not as much as 'The back room', and my favourite track from it was 'When anger shows', which has a wonderful epic sweep to it, and sounds much less like JD:



I honestly would admit it was a decision to make as to whether to go for their new album 'In this light and on this evening' (great poetic title, and very Factory-meets-landspace art cover), but I paid my money to Steve Jobs through iTunes and gave it a chance, and it has certainly been a wise investment (the year is getting progressively better for music, after a slow start). I love the new synthesiser direction, and the new debts, obviously to Depeche Mode but also to OMD, especially the start of 'Bricks and mortars' below, which has a great synth build-up worthy of the best of the 1980s:




Of the other tracks, 'The big exit' keeps lodging in my head, especially the intertwining vocal lines at the end of the album version.




This is certainly their best album to date in my humble opinion. I will finish this piece with a comment on their particular gift for interesting cover versions, including REM's 'Orange crush' (below) which I think I first encountered on a Q magazine CD of cover versions of 1980s tracks some years ago:




However, the key discovery for me in doping research for this piece was a jaw-dropping cover version of the amazing Prefab Sprout song 'Bonny', which is off 'Steve McQueen', one of my top 5 albums ever, and which can be seen in a very unusual visual-audio presentation below:



The person who matched the song to a scene from the wonderful 'Control' (suitable for many many reasons) deserves some kind of reward, and Editors overall win even more respect from me for this wonderful version of an already classic song.

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Forecast: hurricane

As mentioned at length in my last post, I have been listening to David Berkeley a lot, and one of the tracks I really like from his album 'Strange light' is 'Hurricane', which can be seen here:


For some reason, listening to this made me think of the Bob Dylan song of the same name. I have never (despite trying, if not all that hard, on several occasions) every really warmed to Bob (although I am inclined to give his forthcoming Christmas album a go, on the basis that I give almost every new Christmas album a go, sentimental sap that I am). However, this song is one my favourites of his:



Strangely, I could repeat the above paragraph (except the bit about the Christmas album) about Neil Young, including the spooky fact that my favourite song by him is 'Like a hurricane':

So, to conclude this short post, it seems I have a particular fondness for songs about hurricanes. I did test the theory a little further when I found the Black Kids' song 'Hurricane Jane' in my iTunes library. I downloaded the album on the strength of 'I'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance' (reminded me a lot of OMD) and never listened mush - this song is not bad, but somehow would like a little pale in the giant craggy shadows of Bob and Neil, glowering over it like rock's Mount Rushmore, so I will just stop here.

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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Discovering David Berkeley

As I have said before, no matter how many albums you get, there is still an essentially infinite ocean of music out there; sometimes, this can fill you with the kind of existential dispair that you can get sometimes when you think about how really really really big the universe actually is, and how bloody small we and our small ball of rapidly rotating wet dirt are. There are undoubetdly all these bands out there you would love, and how you find them can often be part of life's great game of chance.

As a means of helping to introduce you to music you may like but have not randomly tripped over already, one of the great things about compilation albums like 'Ciao my shining star' (the collection of Mark Mulcahy cover versions released last week and which I reviewed in a previous post here) is getting introduced to new artists you have not heard of before.

In the post above, I commented about the cover of 'Love's the only thing that shuts me up' by David Berkeley, and got a very nice e-mail later from his management (one of the unexpected and really cool outcomes of my joining the world of blogging) inviting me to check out more of his stuff, which I did, and I really like tracks like 'Miss maybe' shown below: I like his voice and his style and my initial impressions from the Mark Mulcahy cover were only reinforced by finding tracks like this on Youtube.




I was then kindly sent a link to download his almub 'Strange light' and I have been listening to it all week and I really really like it. It may well in fact become one of my favourites of the year so far. His voice is the best thing; despite annoying me in terms of who it keeps reminding me of (I will get it eventually) it is still very unusual and uuniques and warm and expressive, and the songs he has are somehow familiar yet different. This is not the most different or unusual album I have ever heard, but yet it has a certain lovely feel and warmth. I guess my closest comparison is Bright Eyes (particularly of 'Wide awake it's morning' or 'When the brakeman turns my way' from 'Cassadaga').

One of my favourite tracks from the album is 'Oh lord, please come down', which is the kind of name that instinctively puts me off, but the song is just gorgeous and uplifting. There is a live in-store performance of it below:

My other favourite is 'Wilwaukee road', which has a driving pulse and roll to it which makes it stand out from many of the other tracks, but which I can't find a clip of to show here. One I did find is the first track, 'Hurricane', which can be seen here:




Another track from the same album and show as above is 'High heels and all':

I started this blog in part to try and maybe spout on about my favourite artists to others who may be interested in following up. I love the idea that that can sometimes work in reverse, with artists like David being brought to my attenion instead. I hope this happens more!

His myspace page is here, a Wikipedia article here and all Allmusic Guide section here.
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Monday, October 5, 2009

Uncut and me: reflections of a disciple

I have written on several occasions on this blog about how there has been no single greater influence on my musical taste in the last decade than 'Uncut' magazine, and how this magazine has completely changed my listening habits, particularly in terms of introducing me to the alt-country scene (as introduced here).

One of my original ideas for this blog was a project where I would explore each track on the seminal 'Sounds of the new west' CD from 1998, and I did the first few tracks in posts here, here, here and here. I have fallen a little behind on this project (4 tracks down, 16 to go!) but fully intend to get back to it, as these tracks and bands still mean a lot to me.

The key legacy of Uncut, actually (as well as all 150 issues which I have), has almost certainly been CDs like this and others, which have fallen into two categories:

1.Taster compilations of mostly new stuff out that month (e.g., unconditionally guaranteed);
2. Thematic compilations

CDs in category 1 have introduced me to more bands than I could even start to list, but a few that spring to mind (defined as bands whose albums I bought as a direct result of hearing them on one of these CDs) are Lift to Experience, Mark Mulcahy, Jim White, Marah, Songdog, The Mendoza Line, Clem Snide, Tom McRae, Slobberbone, Sufjan Stevens and, of course, The National (of which more to follow), and basically every band on 'Sounds of the new west'. These CDs became a trusted and reliable pointer for my musical antennae, accompanied by the high quality reviews in the magazine itself, and were collectively responsible for many hundreds of euros spent on music and many many happy hours of listening. Of course, I did not chase every song on every CD, but few months went by without at least 2 good leads to follow up.

The second category of CD was much more variable overall. There are quite a few Uncut CDs which never came out of the wrapper (usually collections of very old songs which inspired someone like the Rolling Stones); I know if I trust them on the new stuff, I should trust them on the old, but Uncut has always struggled on a fine line between homage to old stuff I know does nothing for me and the urge to reach into the future with bands which seem to me removed from the older stuff by a vast gulf. Other CDs featured sets of cover versions (e.g., Dylan, Springsteen), many recorded specifically for the occasion, and these usually brought a few gems to light. And then there were the stone-cold classic compilations, of which 'Sounds of the new west' stands as not only the best Uncut compilation ever, but also probably the best compilation of any kind I have ever heard for consistency of quality and theme; other good ones included follow-up alt country compilations, and one I remember very fondly called 'Only love can break your heart'.

My main problem (or disappointment) with Uncut in recent years is that the taster CDs have effectively vanished, and thematic CDs adorn the cover most months; I approach the newsagent every first friday of the month in hope of a good compilation, but too often my hopes are cruelly dashed.

However, this month's 'Uncut' (November 2009) is issue (take) 150 and they have taken the occasion to list the top 150 albums of this decade (whatever the f**k it is supposed to be called), and have marked the occasion with a CD containing songs by many of the artists on that list (Ryan Adams, Richmond Fontaine, Lambchop, Bright Eyes, Calexico, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Wilco, and others); that is a pretty impressive list and it is a very very good CD.

Regarding their top 150 list, they state by way of introduction that it was unashamedly a specialist's list, with no concessions to eclecticism or commerce; this has always been the great thing about Uncut, when they could put an album no-one heard of then or since (Sunhouse's wonderful 'Crazy on the weekend', for example) as album of the month.

Thus, delving into the list, I of course was comparing it to my own collection, and found that I owned 6 of the top 10 (Fleet Foxes, Ryan Adams, Arcade Fire, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Wilco and the White Stripes), 14 of the top 20 and overall 66 of the top 150. I had expected more correspondance with my tastes, given the massive influence, but I still know that there would not be anything like that level of agreement with an equivalent list in any other music magazine.

In the editorial of the magazine, the editor, Allan Jones, admits that everyone will have at least one album they are amazed was omitted, and for me there is really only one jaw-dropping shock:

Where the hell is 'Boxer' by the National?

I cannot say any more of the amazement and disappointment I felt on this score, and it makes me know that Uncut and I have perhaps just grown too far apart, and that our once close relationship will never be the same again.

Anyway, moving to what they did put high up, I will end this post with a few clips from a selection of their top 10 (+1) CDs of the decade so far:

11 Flaming Lips 'Yoshimi battles the pink robots'
As with all Flaming Lips CDs, I did like around half of this a lot, particularly the title track shown below, which I have very fond memories of live in concert in Cork in 2007 (wth a sing-song just like that captured below);





10 Fleet Foxes; again, I liked quite a bit of this album, but can't say I loved it, but 'White winter hymnal' (below) is far and away my favourite (followed by 'Mykonos', which appears not on the album but, appropriately enough, on an Uncut CD):





9 Ryan Adams 'Heartbreaker': Whiskeytown were my first major discovery from an Uncut Album of the Month recommendation, and 'Stranger's Almanac' remains one of my favourite albums. His solo stuff was of course far more variable in quality, but 'Gold' had mostly great songs. I was less impressed by 'Heartbreaker', but 'Oh my sweet Carolina' (below) is gorgeous:






3 Wilco 'A ghost is born'; this is probably my least favourite Wilco album (see my review of their latest eponymous one here) but 'Spiders (Kidsmoke)' is undeniably powerful and quite cool:





Their top album of the decade was The White Stripes' 'White blood cells'. Now, clearly this should have been 'Boxer' but, leaving aside this obvious fact for a moment (and it is a struggle), I have this and several other White Stripes CDs, and none have done that much for me. My favourite is probably 'Elephant', and mostly for the quiet ones ('You've got her in your pocket' is just beautiful). However, I accept that this lack of enthusiasm relates to my aforementioned problem with 'old' music (particularly the blues). In fact, the White Stripes are probably the band that best straddle the two faces of Uncut which point in such seemingly opposite directions. Anyway, I do enjoy the roll and energy of 'Hotel Yorba', so will finish with that:





I imagine I will keep buying Uncut every month because there is always something there for me, and the writing is excellent, but I need more of the direct contributions to my musical education provided by the taster CDs - I am sure I am not the only reader who pines for them!

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Saturday, October 3, 2009

Alienation in South Africa: District 9

I got to see 'District 9' this week and thought it was very good, after being as usual partly expecting a disappointment after the hype. It was a good gritty thriller, and moved very interestingly through several moods - the start somehow reminded me an episode of 'the office', but very little of the rest of it did! I liked the lack of pretension in the special effects, which seemed to get away with a lot by not dwelling very closely or clearly on things most of the time. I found the protagonist very watchable and liked the way your conceptions and level of sympathy for him kept switching, and the baddies outdid even those they dragged out for Lethal Weopan 2 (perhaps it is neither fair nor surprising we associate a certain type of accent with cruelty from the movies alone); the chief MNU mercenary had a wonderfully craggy and evil demeanour, and could easily step into the title role of immortal 1980s actioner 'One tough bastard' when they inevitably decide to remake it.

I liked the casual and unshowy nature of what was being shown, and the way the presence of the aliens was taken almost for granted, not only by those in the movie, but by the audience, as they were introduced without the typical fanfare which one would expect a big sci-fi movie to show off their goods with. I also liked the way that I genuinely could not work out as I watched how it was going to end (a game I usually start playing even before I enter the cinema) which is very rare indeed. I did detect the watchful influence of Peter Jackson, particularly in the gorey bits and some of the action sequences, and the obvious nods to 'the fly'. There was also clearly 9and perfectly understandable) an alien influence, particularly 'Alien resurrection' with the labs and experiments and obsessions about controlling the military implications of the visitors abilities and hardware.

My only quibble really is that I simply can't work out why the aliens, who, while initially arriving in a very weakened state, ad certainly rediscovered some aggressive behaviour, did not use those massive bloody weopans and exo-suits themselves either for defence or offence.

To end, I will include the short movie by the director of 'District 9', Neil Blomkamp, 'Alive in Joburg', which starts to tell the story which the full film brings to life:



Quite similar in some ways but very different in most (multiple alien ships, not just one, and totally different looking aliens clearly due to the complete lack of CGI capability). Overall, a very good science fiction movie, and well worth a look.

(p.s. went to Toy Story 3D with my kids today - why did they bother? No discernable improvement due to the 3D to note, no new dimensions to classic shots, but still nice to see it on a big screen, I guess).

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