Slumberlord
The Neal Pollack Invasion - Never Mind the Pollacks
I have heard the worst album of all time. Well, the worst of the year at least. I wouldn't wish physical harm on anyone, but if I
had to choose a person to be crushed by heavy things in a dark alley late at night, it would be Neal Pollack. Pollack's violent, bloody death would have a silver lining - no one would have to listen to his horribly unfunny attempts at parodying rock music. Please do not believe the
awful review at All Music Guide, 75 percent of which is lifted directly from the press release anyway. This makes Powerman 5000's
Transform sound like a good album by comparison. At least that was bad music that was trying to be its own music. This is bad music that is trying to be like previously-made good music. And trying to be clever. And failing completely.
I'm listening to "Straight to Hell" to purge the negative sounds from my poor battered brain...
...and on the same side, "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?" which is timely for other, non-Pollack reasons.
Busdriver - Temporary Forever
I keep going back and forth on this one. One day I think he's funny and fairly intelligent, and the production is intriguing, and the next he sounds like Del the Funky Homosapien on amphetamines channeling the Animaniacs with accompaniment by drunken circus animals.
Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
Today while listening to this incredible album, which could be a top 3 contender for the year, I was thinking about genres that are superficially dismissed in their entirety. Rap probably has it worst behind country, which is funny because of all genres country is probably reflected in the worst light by its mainstream radio content, while rap has some of the best music in the mainstream.
What's amazing about good rap, and Rascal in particular, is the intense narrative quality that exists so naturally and is so rare in rock. The call-and-response, the role-playing, the he-said-she-said, the battle, and the idea of storytelling don't exist on the same level in rock music, and just couldn't for practical reasons.
The more I've listened to rap the more I've heard how much there is to the sound than one might not notice at first glance. Coming from a rock perspective, there is so little there, structurally, and rockists have a conservative suspicion of music not made by instruments in the traditional sense (even though an electric guitar or, worse yet, a keyboard is accepted in the rock canon) and sampling is considered an inferior and illegitimate music form (while, for whatever reason, covering a song is not).
People have asked me about the whole rock-is-back thing, and I continue to be amazed by the amount of press and discussion that goes to talented but unspectacular groups like the Strokes while the real innovation is mostly going on in electronic music and hip-hop with artists like the disgustingly talented Rascal. There is some great rock music out there, but mainstream rock (and in the last few years, even indie rock) has become obsessed with unearthing it's own history, while rap and electronic music have continued to break ground. The Strokes, Interpol and the Shins all have a much larger debt to the past than the Neptunes, Jay-Z or Dizzee Rascal. Rock fans who continue to deny this risk contributing to the genre's stodginess.
Various Artists - Beautiful Noise
I listened to this compilation as I drifted in and out of sleep thousands of miles above Missouri at 4 a.m. Monday. Some experiences stay with you. Some music stays with you. Amazing.
Stew - The Naked Dutch Painter and Other Songs
I know an album is good if I can't pick one song off of it to put on a mix tape. The lyrical brilliance on display here doesn't let up. I mean should it be "Single Woman Sitting" with the utterly brilliant line "a giant cat sleeps on the bed/ he pissed once on my head/ what was he fed?/ i think cats are stupid"? Should it be "The Drug Suite," where Stew's bohemian edge slices back and forth through his Bacchanalian outlook? Should it be "Giselle," a song about a girl who "drops acid and goes to the opera"? Or should it be one of the other uniformly excellent songs on here? Hell if I can decide.
And as good as it is, it's still not quite as amazing as "Guest Host."
King Crimson - The Power to Believe
Oh, how I wish I had that power. King Crimson is a great band, and a prog rock band that actually managed to survive punk and new wave and integrate the music into their sound (which no other big prog band did very well... I saw the video for Yes' "Love Will Find A Way" on Sunday... that was never cool). But this new record is hit or miss and just wretched in places. I thought the 9th track was some nu-metal band I had accidentally downloaded but the chorus is the same. Some of the other songs are ok but... this isn't even really burnworthy.
Junior Senior - "Move Your Feet"
Fun but fleeting people. I remember two years ago when "One More Time" was a hit. How many people will be listening to Junior Senior in two years? How many people will
remember Junior Senior in two years? Not that we shouldn't enjoy it while it lasts, but please acknowledge that the shelf life for "Move Your Feet" isn't much longer than that for "Cameltoe."
Elvis Costello - "Veronica"
Today while I was getting my hair cut this song was playing in the Hair Cuttery. I expected it to be a warehouse or something but it was this trendy place (it was the first time I have ever had my hair cut by a man under the age of 50) with young guys and a chick with a dyed fauxhawk. And Supercuts prices! And he did a good job! But the song, yeah... it would have been a great Cars song. It's just an ok Elvis Costello song.
Funkadelic - "One Nation Under a Groove"
I was listening to this on the way home from work and seriously, how many guitarists are there who can stand up to Eddie Hazel? I hate rock guitarists who show off with lots of fancy soloing and riffs, but his are pretty incredible. They also work better in funk then rock, because jamming just sounds more natural in funk anyway.
The random play game I picked up from
I Love Music is addictive. I just set my computer to random play and see what comes up:
First ten random plays at home:
Red House Painters - It's All Mixed Up
Midwest Product - Lethal Cop (Kurt Russell)
Fatal Flying Guilloteens - Cup of 1000
I saw these Texans play Saturday. They predictably tore things up and rocked pretty hard. Noticeably talented bass player. At the end of their set (in a small bar, in front of 50 people, mind you) the two drunk punks at the front who were spraying beer demanded an encore. I wonder if the Fatal Flying Guilloteens have ever even
played an encore before.
Edith Piaf - La Goualante Du Pauvre Je
Brian Eno, Kevin Ayers, John Cale and Nico - The End (Live 6/1/74)
This makes the Doors version sound like a sunny picnic. I think Nico actually saw Jim Morrison not long before he died.
Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
I know everyone else has already said it but this song is off the hook. If someone had told me six months ago about the turnaround Timberlake was going pull, from hated pop hack to respected (if only for his choice in collaborators and voice) "important" musician among indie snobs, I wouldn't have believed it.
Vue - Pictures of Me
Meh. I know they were doing it for years before everyone else picked up on this, but I saw them, and I was nonplussed.
Ogurusu Norihide - 5
It's a strange one.
Wire - Three Girl Rhumba
Classic.
Sean Paul - Like Glue
"I don't mean to brag/ every day I got to shag." Hell yeah. What a great party track.
