Three Word Reviews: The Simpsons Movie

Totally exceeded expectations.

Waiting 'Round To Die

A bit late for ‘Saturday is YouTube Day’, but oh well. A friend of mine recently turned me on to Townes Van Zandt, and I’ve been listening to him a fair bit since. Here he is:



And here’s some dudes who can’t be bothered to write decent songs of their own so they just play some of Van Zandt’s stuff instead:

So You Want To Be A Ryan Adams Fan

I mentioned my love/hate relationship with Ryan Adams to a friend the other night, and believe I promised to write a quick introduction to his work. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, we’d had a few drinks, but I thought it’d be an interesting post nonetheless.

Here’s the short version: Ryan Adams is totally frustrating. His output is wildly uneven, he can’t self-edit, he sometimes writes totally derivative material, he never seems to learn from his mistakes, and he put on one of the worst live shows I’ve ever been to. But then he’ll write something completely beautiful - some gorgeous, broken-hearted country ballad, and then all is forgiven, and I listen to him obsessively for weeks.

If you want to get into him, I’d recommend checking out Gold as a broad overview of the kind of stuff he does, but Heartbreaker and Cold Roses are both much stronger albums.

--

Now here’s the long version, album by album:

Whiskeytown: Pneumonia

This album was recorded before, but released after Adams’ first solo album, Heartbreaker. Whiskeytown usually played fairly straight-up country-rock, but Pneumonia is much more atmospheric - less distortion, more distinct voices, sparser arrangements. The album foreshadows a lot of Adams’ softer solo work, and usually eclipses it. Ryan is almost always better when he has good collaborators, and in this case, Caitlin Cary, Mike Daly, and Ethan Johns (for the most part) add all sorts of great, subtle parts to the arrangements.

This album also has the line that sums up Adams’ “asshole” character the best - “Don’t wanna know why, you like me, I don’t care”.

Standout Tracks: “Don’t Wanna Know Why”, “Reasons To Lie”, “Under Your Breath”

Heartbreaker (2000)

The first solo record, and the one the myth of Adams the tragic romantic is built on. This time his collaborators are Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, which is basically cheating if you want to make a great album. The album is almost completely made up of sad, heart-broken songs of love and despair. It’s a breakup album, and all the songs seem to be coming from the period where the pain is still fresh. There’s no trace of looking back fondly, or moving on, just “why do they leave on the day you want them the most?”.

Standout Tracks: “My Winding Wheel”, “Come Pick Me Up”, “To Be The One”

Gold (2001)

This is the swing-for-the-fences album, the one meant to make Adams a star. Big melodies, huge choruses, great songwriting, all-star collaborators, etc. It’s a great driving album, where Heartbreaker was an album to sit down and listen to. There’s some great swagger in a lot of the songs, as if he’s not really hurt by any of these girls, as long as he gets to play guitar and sing about it. Probably the easiest entry-point if you only wanted to listen to one Ryan Adams record.

Standout Tracks: “Somehow, Someday”, “Answering Bell”, “Harder Now That It’s Over”

Demolition (2002)

A collection of demoes and rarities, mostly from the Gold era. Most of these songs deserved to stay as demoes, but a few great tracks, including “Dear Chicago”, and “Chin Up, Cheer Up” save it. “Dear Chicago” is particularly great, especially in the way it was released. The song alludes to the same series of breakups covered in Heartbreaker and Gold, but from a distance - the moment when, looking back on a failed relationship, you wonder how that person ever drove you so crazy in the first place, when at the time they meant everything. Releasing the song on the same album as the breakup-tunes would be too close, on the next full album too out-of-place, but it’s perfect here as an afterthought.

Standout Tracks: “Dear Chicago”, “Chin Up, Cheer Up”, “Cry On Demand”

Rock N Roll (2003)
Love Is Hell (2004)

A quick n’ dirty rock album, and another record (originally released as 2 EPs). Both are pretty forgettable. This era is memorable though for Ryan’s infamous phone message to rock critic Jim DeRogatis, after DeRogatis wrote a negative review of an Adam’s show.

Standout Tracks: “I See Monsters”, “English Girls Approximately”

Cold Roses (2005)
Jacksonville City Nights (2005)
29 (2005)

2005 saw Ryan release three (3!) albums - two with his new band The Cardinals (both kinda awesome), and one by himself (kinda awful). Cold Roses is classic Adams - alternately brilliant and frustrating, a double album that could easily have been pared down to a really strong single album. To me it’s a great autumn album - I remember listening to it all the time one Fall walking around Parc Lafontaine. Again, he’s much better when he’s got good collaborators, and the Cardinals are a great backing band for him. The writing on this album is often great too, especially songs like “When Will You Come Back Home” and “Sweet Illusions” - still sad, still about breakups, but more nuanced than the directness found on Heartbreaker.

Jacksonville City Nights also features the Cardinals, but is a more straightforward album - playing within the confines of the country genre, just rocking through some really nice tunes. 29 is hard for me to remember, since I think I only made it through the whole thing once, and I felt that was more than enough at the time - it’s Adams at his most mopey and self-indulgent.

Standout Tracks: Tracks 2-4 on Cold Roses (“Sweet Illusions”/“Meadowlake Street”/“When Will You Come Back Home”), “A Kiss Before I Go”

Easy Tiger (2007)

There’s a new album out, and it seems OK. I don’t really have a strong opinion yet, which probably means I don’t really like the album that much. I will say that “Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.” is his best song title ever.

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OK. That was longer than I thought it was going to be. Anyways, the music can probably sum it up better than I could. Here’s Ryan with the Cardinals playing a song from Heartbreaker:



As a last note, I thought this story on NPR has a pretty good summary of his career - for awhile, it really did look like he was going to be a huge star, but that’s probably not going to happen now. It’s kind of a shame, but totally understandable.

Fruit-Control-D

Alright, here's another type of post that may become semi-regular just because it requires very little effort on my part. One of my favourite features of OS X 10.4 is the inline dictionary. In almost any application, you can highlight a word, hit the shortcut key, and get a quick definition. Very useful for when you're reading along and hit an unfamiliar word.

Bzzzz, Bzzzz

I Won't Make You

Thinking about Elliott, and about covers, I’m reminded about another post I wanted to write. For a little while, I was kinda obsessed with the song “Thirteen” by Big Star. I’d heard Elliott Smith’s cover first, and only much later heard the original. The differences are pretty striking. The lyrics to the song are fairly straightforward - a little adolescent longing, a little teenaged angst. The heart of the song is the last verse:

Won’t you tell me what you’re thinking of?
Would you be an outlaw for my love?
If it’s so, well let me know, if it’s no well I can go
I won’t make you

In the original, it comes across sort of like “I’m here if you want me, but if not, I’ll be OK”. But in the Elliott Smith version, the last verse sounds much more hopeless - as if he knows what the answer is, knows it’s ‘no’, but can’t bear not knowing for sure.

Here’s the original, hilariously enough set to scenes from Harry Potter:



And Elliott’s cover:

Even Though It All Went Wrong

I came across a really interesting article earlier today on the different incarnations of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. The most surprising revelation for me in the article was learning that the version by John Cale appearing in the film Shrek actually pre-dates (and indeed is the model for) Jeff Buckley’s version from Grace. The article is worth reading for the chronology, and the different interpretations the different artists give the song, and also the phrase “reductio ad despairium”.

Another point touched on the article is the use of “Hallelujah” in all sorts of film and television productions whenever a generic sad song is required, or when the main character needs to look pensive and sad. Another song I’ve seen used for a “generic sad song” is Elliott Smith’s “Angeles” - the worst offender in my mind was seeing it turn up on The Girl Next Door.

And it does bug me - “Angeles” isn’t really about just generic angst. I’ve always thought of “Angeles” as pretty specifically Smith worrying about the music business and his place in it. Worrying about “selling out”, getting stuck in a bad record deal, hanging out with phonies in Los Angeles - but also acknowledging how much he wants greater success at the same time. So seeing that song used in a movie when a character is feeling mopey because some girl won’t sleep with him kinda rankles. Anyways, here’s Elliott:

Deer and Pony Shows

Caught the Deerhunter show last night at Club Lambi. Another band that is apparently very popular right now, that I hadn’t really listened to before heading out to see the show. Alright!

The openers were Jay Reatard, and The Ponies. Jay Reatard played, a hard, fast, and loud punk set - screaming the name of each song, bashing it out in two minutes, and moving on to the next one. I always like seeing punk shows, and they’re great for getting a crowd moving, but I’m always mystified that the bands are satisfied with always playing fast and loud. Some of the most interesting aspects of music to me are dynamics and tempo, and lots of punk bands seem to ignore them totally. It’s alright to play fast and loud, but if you sometimes play slowly and quietly, the fast and loud parts seem faster and louder. Anyways, that’s why I find a lot of punk unsatisfying, but it’s great to see a band just let rip as well.

The Ponies played some shimmery indie rock, sort of like the Cure crossed with the Strokes. I really liked the jangly sound of their guitars - I think it’s some sort of rotary amp effect.

Deerhunter played a fairly short (under an hour), but intense set. They describe themselves as “ambient punk”, which seems fairly apt - pounding drums and bass guitar, spacy, echoey, guitars, and high-pitched, ethereal vocals. They wavered between creating lush, feed-back-filled soundscapes, and just rocking out.

I’m starting to really enjoy more ambient music - I’d always shied away from it before, given that the main things that usually attract me to a piece of music are the lyrics and melody, which most ambient music distinctly lacks. And looking up that Wikipedia link, I found a great quote from Brian Eno: ambient music can be “actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener” - that’s sort of how I feel about it. I enjoy ignoring it. Or, rather, I liked letting my mind wander while the band played. So maybe the set just seemed shorter than it actually was, since I was a bit checked out, but it was definitely a good time.

One last thing. I really like the venue the show was at, Club Lambi: it’s close to my house, so I can pre-drink there with friends, and stumble home easily after the show. Also, it’s really easy to hang out outside between acts, because you can hear when the bands actually start playing and get back inside.

Gol!

I went to the same soccer game as JB describes here, and also thought it was great - I’ve never seen Olympic Stadium more packed, even for the Expos last game.

One thing I thought was strange was that no replays of fouls were shown on the screen inside the stadium - so we had no idea if the controversial first Chilean goal should actually have been called offside or not. Apparently this isn’t unique to soccer games either - it seems weirdly paternalistic, as if they’re worried we’d storm the field or something after a bad call.

Three Word Reviews: Icky Thump

Oh hell yes.

Saturday is YouTube Day

Hey, three posts so far today and it’s only 11AM. Here’s some other new music I’ve been listening to lately:

I somehow managed to never hear a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club song before seeing them live at La Tulipe a few weeks back, and I was pretty blown away. I think they’re a better live band than a studio band, but their albums are quite good - particularly Howl. They have a great dynamic - a three-piece band with no real front-man, both guitarists take turns taking the lead. They’re also very good at looking cool. Here’s a song from their first album:



Also, The Smashing Pumpkins have a new album, but let’s just all agree that it never happened, OK?

Now I'm A Fat House Cat

Using my time machine, I’ve been visiting the future and listening to the new Iron and Wine album The Shepherd’s Dog. It’s due to be released at the end of September. After the first few listens, I thought to myself “I’m going to have to listen to this a lot more before forming an opinion on it”, but since bandwidth is cheap and so are opinions, here are some first impressions.

The new record is a lot more complex than previous I&W recordings, from the ground up. On earlier releases, most of the songs were built around Sam Beam’s voice and guitar - other instruments usually only serving as ornamentation. This time around, it feels like most of the songs were written with fuller arrangements in mind - there are more instruments, more harmonies, and fewer songs driven mainly by the acoustic guitar line. In a way, then, it’s similar to Wilco’s recent album Sky Blue Sky - the songs are less simple to break down to just “main songwriter brings in a song, other people add their parts on top”. This doesn’t necessarily make for a better album - it certainly didn’t for Wilco, but that’s another post.

In Iron and Wine’s case though, it makes for a more varied listening experience. Previous I&W albums were often fairly monochromatic - lots of slow, whispery songs, occasionally interspersed with swampy stompers. They’re great albums, because the songs are usually gorgeous, but it does seem that the band has been consciously trying to break out of its mold - first with Woman King and now with The Shepherd’s Dog. I’m genuinely curious whether the change has anything to do with the band’s increasing popularity and the difficulty of playing quiet acoustic numbers to festival crowds, or just continued artistic development.

One more thing. The first time I heard Our Endless Numbered Days, I knew immediately it was an album I’d listen to obsessively. That wasn’t the case with this one - it may grow on me, but it didn’t strike me at the gut level in the same way. Until I got to the last song.

“Flightless Bird, American Mouth” arrives at the end of the album like an afterthought, but it’s beautiful, and completely captures what makes this band so great. It’s a classic Iron and Wine song, in the sense that it brings together a lot of the common thematic and aural elements of the bands prior work, but expands on it with the broader palette of the new album at the same time.

It would almost be self-parody if it wasn’t so good: a simple chord progression (I hear D-Bm-G-A, I-vi-IV-V), finger-picked, whispery harmonized vocals, lightly ornamented first with accordion, then with a fuller band. Classic Sam Beam lyrics too: nothing too specific, just a misty, beautiful nostalgia. Here’s a clip of Sam Beam performing it solo, this recording doesn’t really do the album version justice, but it’s pretty good all the same.

Someone once told me that I could get nostalgic about things that happened five minutes previously, and that’s probably a part of why I like Iron and Wine so much. But I don’t think it’s about wanting to live in the past. It’s about remembering all the beautiful things you’ve passed along the way, carrying them with you, and thinking about how much wonder there is in the world.

Lions and Tigers

The Safari 3 Public Beta is awesome. But only because it makes a little orange bubble pop up when you try to find text. That is all.

Three Word Reviews: Transformers

Boring and stupid

Back in the Saddle

Posting from the rejuvenated PowerBook! I took it to a professional to get fixed, since my own attitude of “Well, I think I know how to fix it” was what probably broke it in the first place. The repair-man used the technical description “it’s all fucked up” to describe my old hard disk, so several months of journals, photos, etc. are gone for now. It may be possible to retrieve the data eventually, but will probably be quite expensive, so I think I’ll hold off until I’m rich and/or famous. In the meantime, it’s nice to be back on my old machine, and back in touch with all my music (which lived on an external HD, so wasn’t affected).

As far as my “crisitunity” plan of getting out more, reading more, etc., I’ve been spending a lot of time playing frisbee and softball, reading (finally finishing “The Master and Margarita”), and hosting house-guests. Apart from the usual time spent in the lab, of course! And somehow, I’m mistakenly a member of an A-League Ultimate championship team!

The plan for the rest of the summer is to do lots of lab work, head West briefly in August for camping and a wedding, and maybe even play a show with my band (which I don’t think I’ve discussed here, but is totally awesome). But for now, it’s Friday afternoon, and we’re going to see Transformers tonight.

Me in Springfield

Pretty close I think! I made this over here. This time I'm not even going to promise to update here more often.