Tuesday, April 13, 2004
(5:29 AM) | Anonymous:
They Only Want You When You're 17, When You're 21 You're No Fun
I had this great opening paragraph talking about all sorts of things, and then further talking about things that came up while discussing those things. Then, just as I realized my poor computer was going into "full of suck" mode and hit post (not publish) to save my progress, everything crashed. Not even a blue screen. Just a black screen with fragments of the 3 windows I had open left scattered all over it. Like fragments of my former life. How sad. I was halfway through the first two cds, so if those two seem like lackluster re-treads, know that's exactly what they are.The Sounds - Living In America
The Sounds are from Sweden. That's right, they're not living in america, and they're not sorry, no. They remind me of Blondie, as I'm sure they remind everyone of Blondie. This is because they have a strikingly blonde lead singer with all males behind her. This is also because they carry roughly the same style set. But, it's sort of more like if, instead of breaking up, Blondie had stayed around and absorbed everything that's happened since then. So, I'm basically trying to say it's like Blondie here today. And you know what I mean. And I don't mean that stupid "Mareeee-uh...You've got ta see hur!" song from a few years ago. I'm saying Blondie a lot here because, somehow, that was the first impression I got, and apparently the first impression everyone gets, even though none of us have heard a single old Blondie song except whatever the heck that Grandmaster Flash pitiful rapping thing was. However, what I know is this: The Sounds are fun, and seem to be good dancing music for all the young boot-scooters to cut their rugs right up to. In summary: Sweden so totally beats Australlia in the ongoing musical olympics - sorry to ruin it for those of you who didn't order the Triple-Cast and were waiting to tune in for the replay tomorrow night.
Camerata Academica des Salzburger Mozarteums feat. Geza Anda - Mozart: Piano Concertos No. 11-12 14 & 2
I love that I just typed that artist name, because it brings to mind an image of Geza Anda sitting in a yankees jersey and 50 thousand worth of bling' round his neck, gesticulating puffy style in the background while the Camerata Academica busts their rhyme, until he makes his big wham-a-jam entrance after the third verse. I think that might actually be on the DVD-Rom part of one of these discs, I've just gotta keep trying the other 6 discs.
When I listened to the first disc in this series, which has Concertos 6, 8 and 9, I thought Beethoven totally was kicking Mozart's cholla in the Piano Concerto department. But, on second listening, I think I might just like Vlad Ashkenazy's playing style better than THE GEZ. You know? It's more warm..tender..open. However, with further listening Mozart's actual writing turned out to be just as good as Ludwig's, and both turned out to be some of the greatest stuff ever written. Imagine that. Seriously, I think I'm totally loving the Piano Concerto over the symphony, the sonata, and the Santa Maria as musical style. Is there anything better in classical music? Pah on your big cymbal crashes. A Pox to your massive brass entries. I take the solitude and simple life.
Shorthanded - Forever Yours
If we were to play the game "Where's Waldo?", only modifying it into "Where's the 'Leave No CD Behind' CD?", it probably wouldn't be all that difficult a game. But..it might make for more interesting coffee table fodder.
Shorthanded is a band I think was drastically overlooked by the Christian music world in 2000. I blame Tooth & Nail. Seriously, they went out and signed EVERY SINGLE Christian punk band in the nation, and I'm pretty sure they signed some satanists and got them to change some lyrics as well. Apparently because MxPx was huge, and Slick Shoes and Ghoti Hook sold okay, this justified dumping every good band on the only good Christian label at the time's roster, and adding like..Craig's Brother, The Deadlines, The Dingees, Fanmail, Hangnail, The Undecided, Too Bad Eugene, and everyone else. It was crazy, it was ridiculous, it's the tooth and nail we've since come to know and love. We've seen this same "Sign every possible band" deal done now with Ska, Hardcore, Emo, Hip-Hop, "12 Stones/Evanescence-esque" and so forth. Where as most Christian labels hurry to get a token of "the latest thing" on their label, T&N hurries to drop everyone from the last craze and sign 400 of whatever style bands. If it weren't for holdover good acts from the blessed days like Starflyer 59, I'd let the whole label rot. Which is sad.
But, enough about T&N's demise as a beacon of light. We have Velvet Blue, we have BurntToastVinyl..strangely, I think both were started by ex-Tooth and Nail people. Not sure of that at all though.
But, enough about T&N's demise as a beacon of light. Shorthanded was pretty good. Sure, they're punk. And sure, any punk band that came along after 1997 is going to have a hard time justifying their existance, but you could do a heck of a lot worse. I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff. Mainly because it seems to be bass-line centered song writing. I'm always up for a song where the bass isn't just going between certain chords, and actually seems..you know..involved in the music. Shorthanded does this very well, and the songs are pretty catchy because of it, and the lyrics are pretty decent as well. So, I say it's a shame that they apparently broke up.
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones - Outbound
Bela! Why you hurt me so good! I know..I know..it's cool to hate on Bela, Dave, Tim, the whole crew. I know..it's stuff for that college freshman who just finally discovers "wow..good music really isn't Hoobastank!" But..come on, dangit! They've got a "Drum-tar" And, for all the fact that it may be the entry level position in music cooldom, in actual musicality, you won't find much better. Okay..the 12 minute jams are a bit unnecessary, but God love 'em, if you got 'em, show 'em. He busts chops enough to make a school girl cry. I seal myself off to the land of poseriffic, but I still like Dave Matthews, I still like Bela. I don't really like John Mayer, though a few songs now and again don't tick me off. I know, I know, I'm sorry. But Bela didn't do me no wrong, and I can't say a word again' him. For some reason, in speaking about the Flecktones I keep using apostrophes at a record pace. I'm going to scurry off now and talk about some much more obscure - READ COOL - electro-pop.
Ladytron - Light And Magic
The thing about the electro-pop, is that when done well it always has some of the greatest, most original beats in the business. The sort of thing where you hear it, the bass or whatever going in some crazy pattern with some sort of start/stop rhythm, and then whatever crazy extras are thrown in..and you know it's God-blessed. However, at its best, it's also self-defeating. That beat is so good..it fits so well with that random bit of wisdom, that the beat-maker seems unwilling to tweak it. So, instead maybe you drop the drums out for a minute or two. Or maybe you pan left to right. Or maybe you add some complementary layer on late in the game. But there's no transition at all..the same beat goes on and on, and no matter how good it is, it can't stand up.
Ladytron is perhaps the best of this genre, but even they are succeptible to this fault. Except in their amazing track "Seventeen", where the beat is so perfect, all the extras so amazingly fit in, and the tag line, which heads this article, seems to fit so greatly, that the song could go on for hours without a wimper. We're certainly moving ahead from Dance music, which had no place in anyone's cd, and should have been strictly monitored so that such songs never left the dance floor, but I'm not sure we're really getting to the sort of stuff that sounds good other then when you're grinding against whatever random girl(s?) you met at the bar a few minutes ago. And really, what doesn't sound good in that situation? DJ STUPID CRAP and all his DJ SO AND SO friends have been playing the same song for years, with a slightly different beat, and no one notices, because that's not the sort of thing you notice in a dance club. But, then they had to go and start releasing CDs, holding Dance "Festivals" and what not. This brings a higher standard. And I think Ladytron might meet that standard eventually, and if you're having a party, you can certainly slip in any one of these songs for a good "pop", but the whole album gets annoying fast. I'm excited to see when someone solves this problem, because with the awesome "jive" of the first 30 seconds of each track, a good full actual "song" could be amazing.
Hot Little Rocket - Our Work And Why We Do It. This one goes out to Gavin Raath. And why? Because Hot Little Rocket are a local Calgary band. They haven't even broken out in Canada yet, but I bring them to you here on The Weblog. And what's more, they freaking rock. I think when I finally do hold the music olympics, Canada might just win. Sure, they gave us Rush. Sure, they gave us Celine Dion. But, it also seems like every "little" indie band that isn't even on Amazon or Allmusicguide I happen to hear, is somehow better than 80% of the stuff out here in the states, and certainly better than almost any local band (minus UWC-affiliated groups) in the states. I got this cd because some guy in an IRC chat room was talking it up. He sent it to me, and I..I don't know, I was really happy. This is something in between The Shins, The Alkaline Trio and Modest Mouse. As unlikely as that sounds, I think that's the best I can do to describe it. I hope they hit it big soon, otherwise Western Canada will forever hold it's treasure. Plus, if they're this good on a production budget that I could probably have splurged on, I can't wait to hear them with some professional recording equipment. When I said I hoped they hit it big, I should clarify that I meant "indie big" so..like..selling some 20,000 cds or so, and still having to have a day job. You know.
That's really all. At a particularly long traffic light on the way home from work the other evening I churned out a list of 10 potential posting ideas. So, hopefully I'll do something other than a CD Change post soon. Oh, and just in case I don't post before then..I'm going to see David Dondero on Sunday for my first concert in a month or two. It should be splendid. Also, after several tries at fixing it, I have no clue why it says this is posting at 5:30 AM, as my clock clearly says 2:30. So, no mom, I didn't stay up that late. Not that you read this site. But..you know, just in case.
Also, it was actually several extremely long stop lights, I should mention. I didn't like..hold up traffic or anything.
