BoogMusic

Today Devo releases Something For Everybody, their ninth studio album and first in twenty years.  While it probably won’t go down as their strongest effort, Something shows Devo hasn’t really lost anything in the last twenty years (they have reunited in the past decade for a number of gigs and to sue McDonald’s; the “New Wave Nigel” character featured in Happy Meals was apparently a misappropriation of trademarked elements of the band’s look).  Opening with”Fresh”, Somebody is full of songs we have always expected from Devo: frantic pop songs wryly celebrating society’s unabated journey down the toilet.  The highlight of the first half of the album is “Don’t Shoot (I’m A Man)”, which features the best use of the phrase “don’t taze me, bro” outside of Gainsville, Fla.  It was released with this Target-Ad-esque video last April:

The Album has been available for stream on ColbertNation.com for a few days- Gerald Casale, speaking Kai Ryssdal on Market Place, said this about the band’s publicity strategy:

Ryssdal: So here’s where I do the “wait a minute” thing, because you guys now on this album have sort of gone that way — you’re using focus groups, you’re letting the audience pick the tracks that are going to be on the actual CD. I mean, you’re buying into it. A clever marketing ploy, probably, but I mean, you are doing it?

Casale: Well, it’s partly satirical, but it’s also having your cake and eating it too. Because we decided, what’s the one thing that Devo never did — which was play ball. We don’t exclude ourselves from the de-evolution process… That is definitely the culture we all live in. I mean, look what’s happened — the implosion of the music business in general, the functions of labels are almost gone, people have devalued music in terms of its cultural important and they feel they shouldn’t even have to pay for it. And with all the home-recording techniques, everybody puts out CDs and everybody thinks they can become the next huge act by using social networking like Facebook or MySpace. And it’s all largely an illusion. What’s happened is that so many CDs are put out per month, possibly 10,000 a month. Nobody can possibly even know half the music that exists out there. And so marketing is everything. Marketing is the end-all, be-all of our society.

(here is the interview in full)

If anything, there are moments of seemingly jarring sincerity near the end of the album – “No Place Like Home” to my recollection is the only Devo ballad I can think of (correct me if I’m wrong).  Having said that, however, the sincerity, at least musically, transforms more into a pastiche of Depeche Mode-esque emoting- how could Devo avoid jamming a tongue into that much cheek?  Really though, the thing I miss the most from early Devo on this album is the guitar work- Something is pretty much a straight forward electronic, strange dance album; I always thought Devo had really good guitar hooks.

Devo’s has always been and continues to be great, even if now they look more like five different versions of your boss wearing the same Halloween outfit to the office party than prophets from the future dystopia- I guess being part of the de-evolution includes the inevitable sixty year old paunche.  Too bad we can’t all work for dudes like that.

PLEASE INDULGE ME

This video has nothing to do with Devo, but it’s one of my favorite things ever from the Simpsons, and when I was looking for the photo of Roddy McDowell I was drawn to the siren song of the greatest musical that never was.  Let it stand here forever as my tribute to the undying genius of Phil Hartman.

This has nothing to do with music, but I really hope that, for his sake, brilliance does not languish in shit and Steve Strasburg does not suffer the fate of Walter Johnson- pitching excellently for a Washington team that, perennially, just stinks.

In the fall of 1997 I worked in a record store in the Pearl Street mall in Boulder.  That was a long time ago, so it’s probably safe to admit now that I stole a Hank Williams cd from the storeroom.  I had never heard any Hank Williams before that day, but I definitely would recommend going and stealing some right away.  Sorry Rocky Mountain Records.

When I was twenty one I got dumped real bad, drank a lot of whiskey and listened to Hank Williams.  Same thing happened when I was twenty eight.  Same thing’ll happen if (or knowing my luck, when) I get dumped again.  The best part of that equation has always been the Hank.

There’s no better salve for the loser soul than the music of Hank Williams.  No dead man has ever been a better friend to me.  God bless Hank Williams.  Excuse me while I go get drunk.

Recently New York City hosted it’s fourth annual NYC Popfest, a celebration of smiling three-chord simplicity, reverb, and impeccable manners.  Despite being an easy target for cynics everywhere, NYC Popfest is an excellent showcase for up-and-coming bands of a certain type (that type being, if you will, the type that didn’t really like high school, but didn’t really spend any time in detention either).  Here are a few bands featured at the fest with new releases (click the cover art to go to the bands’ sites).

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart- Say No To Love  7″ (June 8 2010)

Like many bands in this burgeoning scene, POBPAH are a Brooklyn-based band with a large debt to the UK “shoe-gazer” bands of the early nineties like the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine.  To this they add a large dose of Robert Smith’s tunesmith sensibility.  These songs seem by and for the scrawny kid nursing a beer in the corner of the house party- hand jobs in the library, drugs to feel less suburban, falling in love to escape the boredom of living at home; POBPAH chronicle a type of ennui and do it well with catchy melodies that belie the lyrics’ darker intent.  Having said that, with a name like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and a video featuring a be-v-necked band of skinny people so earnestly singing into the camera, it’s a fine line between sincerity and self-parody.  I hope they continue to walk it on the right side.

Allo Darlin- Allo Darlin LP (June 7 2010)

London-based Allo Darlin’ are full of buzz and have not a mean bone in their bodies (featured in a recent NY Times review of the NYC Popfest, Allo Darlin’ were singled out for their unironic rendering of “You’re The One That I Want” as the highlight of the event).  If there were a year book for this year’s NYC Popfest, Allo Darlin’ would be voted most likely to succeed, or most likely to end up in a Volkswagon ad.  Having been weaned on seemingly equal parts Morrissey and Frente, Allo Darlin’ also walk the fine line between the sweet and sincere and that which is completely twee and ridiculous.  One can only hope that their very busy touring schedule will, if not jade them, at least bring them to the realization that their cover of “I Want To Be Sedated” was, in fact, a really lame idea.

Vivian Girls- My Love Will Follow Me 7″ (February 2010)

If the Shangri-Las were raised by Nico, in New Jersey, then they would sound like the Vivian Girls.  Far more raw sounding than the other two bands mentioned in this post (and owing more to the Vaselines than Cocteau Twins) Vivian Girls certainly hit the mark with what they’re going for.  Never has worshiping at the altar of Spector (Ronnie, not Phil) sounded so punk rock.  Not to mention easy on the eyes, I would imagine the Vivian Girls to be the object of desire for every navel-gazing band of emo-wimps with which they’ve shared the stage at Trash Bar.

These are just three of the many bands that played the NYC Popfest, so please don’t just take my word for it.  As with any scene, too much of a good thing, or at least a pretty good thing, can only last for so long.  Especially when one considers that the Brooklyn uber-hip thing seems to be waning (or at least transmogrifying into a hipness of self-loathing; who hasn’t heard a hipster douche passionately rail against the collective hipster douchery of Kings County).  Some of these acts should avoid schtick all together and try actually learning their instruments better- what’s the point of writing a song if you’re going to play it lousy?.  Giving new bands a break is a great thing; please make sure you’re up to the challenge.

see also:

Dream Diary (think Stone Roses without the swagger)

Very Truly Yours (authors of maybe the worst band bio I’ve ever read, these guys are none the less a pop band in the vein of Le Mans)

Best Coast (a fuzz, reverb, lo-fi girl group drone by apparantly three huge stoners- they need more bass in the mix, but definitely worth a listen)

Strange Boys (Ween + ? and he Mysterions- like someone dosed the Memphis Soul Stew)

I know this is a week late, but I must join the chorus singing the funeral hymn for Ronnie James Dio.  Dio was a little man with a big voice and, apparently, a heart of gold: his most enduring addition to the metal lexicon, the devil horns, was a gesture he lifted off his superstitious grandmother.  By the time Dio joined Black Sabbath in 1979 he was 37 years old, which means that for most of his career he was probably the oldest guy in the arena.  I mention this only to point out that for Dio, it wasn’t a gag- he was an old dude rocking out unironically, one of a dying breed.  He also has a street named after him in the town where he grew up (Dio Way, Cortland NY), which kind of makes me want to move upstate.  RIP Ronnie.

On April 27th the band The Qualia released their second album Secret Weapon.  While they are from Brooklyn and they are self-described as electro-pop, The Qualia seem more focused on what comes after the hyphen than before.  Song craft trumps gimmick; the Qualia is less dogmatic than many of their electro-pop borough mates (MGMT, Animal Collective, et. al), and the album is better off for it.  Too bad the bass playing sucks.

At this point I should mention that I auditioned to play bass live for this band, and, needless to say, I’m writing this blog and they just released a very good second album and are playing awesome live, regardless of the robot on bass.  They’re obviously doing just fine without me, but the rejection stung in a way that is hard for me to impart outside the realm of my own experience of it, so, you know,  f these guys.

Best track is “This Weekend”, which I find lyrically has a sweetness reminiscent of the Smiths-era Morrissey ballads like “Unloveable” or “Sing Me To Sleep”.  Here’s a link to listen/buy the whole album.

On October 23rd of last year Noel Gallagher announced that he would be leaving Oasis, ending a fifteen year run of consecutive #1 albums in the UK.  Only months earlier UK audiences were treated to multiple gigs by a reunited Blur, apparently taking their place as the Who for the Cool Brittannia generation.  Since so much water has passed under the bridge, with one band finally succumbing to sibling rivalry (apparently the final straw was Liam broke one of Noel’s guitars) and the other cashing in like the shrewd college boys that they are, let’s try and put it all to rest finally.  Considering that in the end they both really won, having sold countless more records thanks to a contrived media dust-up than without, nothing said here will really make much difference- Blur and Oasis defined Britpop in the same way that Bowie and T. Rex defined Glam and The Clash and the Sex Pistols defined British Punk.  But let’s do it anyway.

Since both bands released seven studio albums apiece, why not put each album head-to-head from first to last and see who turns out on top based on the merits of the work they produced?  So here it goes (a featured song from each album is provided below).

Leisure by Blur (1991)

Definitely Maybe by Oasis (1994)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Released in 1991, Blur’s debut is an album of it’s time, and by that I guess I mean it’s a little on the derivative side.  Obviously taking their cues from the Madchester and shoe-gazing scenes, a lot of Leisure sounds like a band trying really hard to sound like the Stone Roses (among others; call me crazy but a lot of the more trancy guitar work reminds me of Gish era Smashing Pumpkins).  A few very good songs from a band that had yet to find it’s voice.                                  Released three years later and on the opposite side of the grunge, Definitely Maybe is Appetite For Destruction plus monobrows. Like Appetite, almost every song is a classic (only “Bring It On Down” stands out as a stinker), and as GNR did for the LA douche-metal scene, Oasis threw down the gauntlet in a way so huge we’d still be talking about Oasis even if they hadn’t released another decent album.

winner: Oasis

Modern Life Is Rubbish by Blur (1993)

(What's The Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis (1995)

Winner: Draw

Parklife by Blur (1994)

Be Here Now by Oasis (1997)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This one is pretty much a no brainer- pointless bickering, lackluster songwriting, celebrity cameos, this alone would sink an album.  Add to that enough cocaine to make Elton John blush and there you have Be Here Now.  I mean, it’s one thing if it’s the drummer, but you know you’re in trouble when the most coked up guy in the room is the producer (and that’s a room that has both Noel and Liam Gallagher in it!)  This album has the distinction of being the most returned album in UK history.  Not to mention that Parklife is almost a perfect distillation of what Blur was going for in 1994.  Be Here Now does have some decent tracks on it, but this ones not even close.

winner: Blur

The Great Escape by Blur (1995)

Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants by Oasis (2000)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This is probably the most unfair match up.  The Great Escape was released in 1995 when Blur was at the height of their powers; Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants was released in early 2000, nearly two-and-a-half years after the disappointment of Be Here Now, and if I were talking about any other band I’d say the experience humbled them. That being said, The Great Escape wasn’t really designed to change anyone’s mind- everyone I know that doesn’t really like Blur finds this album annoying.  ”Best Days” and “Arnold Same” are just a little too adorable, and “Entertain Me” is a fairly cynical retread of “Girls & Boys”.  Then again, Shoulders has “Little James”, which is a real stinker, even by Liam standards.  It’s inclusion on the album could lead one to believe that the well was starting to run dry for Noel, the suggestion of which alone brings the album down a peg.

winner: Blur

Blur by Blur (1997)

Heathen Chemistry by Oasis (2002)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Both of these are comparative departures from the norm for both bands (although neither as much as either band would claim)- Blur reportedly working under the influence of American indie bands like Pavement, Oasis (or at least Noel) switching the muse of the Beatles to the more psychedelic Glam of this and later albums.  Both also claim a certain place in the imaginations of sports fans in the UK and US- “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” for being featured prominently on British TV after England lost in the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup, “Song 2″ now being the late inning rally song in ballparks across America.  The most difficult thing about this matchup is that, while about 40% of Blur is really good, 60% is really not, 100% of Heathen Chemistry is somewhere between inoffensive and decent.  Not only that, but two of the three Liam songs could even be considered good (or at least not bad).  Not yet at the bottom, both bands seem to be at the 2/3 dry mark on the barrel.

winner: draw

13 by Blur (1999)

Don't Believe The Truth by Oasis (2005)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The most apples to oranges comparison yet.  13 is an album of experiments, half of which are breakup songs, including a track of noodling around on an Optigan.  Don’t Believe The Truth was considered a return to form by Oasis and quickly ran up the UK charts.  13 seems like an album made by a group of interesting people who were very sad and getting very bored with being in a band.  Don’t Believe The Truth seems, surprisingly,  like an album made by a band where all the members are contributing and are really gelling thanks to the addition of an inspired new drummer (Ringo’s son Zak Starkey).  I give this one to Oasis if for no other reason than “Lyla” qualifies as one of the best singles of their career, easily stacking up with anything from Definitely Maybe/Morning Glory period.

winner: Oasis

Think Tank by Blur (2003)

Dig Out Your Soul by Oasis (2008)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

At one point in the opening track on Think Tank a voice asks “Can we stop now?” and states, “I’m here because I’ve got no fucking choice”, both of which were apparently front and center in the mind of Graham Coxon, who by this point had pretty much quit the band and is only featured on one song.  Most of the album sounds like a workshop for musical ideas Damon Albarn wanted to do with his various other projects.  I wouldn’t even really consider this a Blur album.  They do get credit for the Banksy album cover.  Dig Out Your Soul features a song that sounds an awful lot like “5-1″ by the Doors (see the March 2nd post of this blog), and a song called “Soldier On” so plodding you really have to take the title to heart.  I also find it hard to believe that no one thought putting John Lennon talking in the song “I’m Outta Time” was a really awful idea.

winner: who gives a shit

Throughout their careers Oasis and Blur pretty much fit the description they had been assigned- Blur were cerebral college boys with a greater sense of musical curiosity; Oasis were a bunch of working class rock&rollers more interested in writing songs the whole stadium would sing along to than redefining rock music.  Both released a few classic albums, both went through periods of bloated excess, both ran out of steam fighting the good fight.  At the end of the day, Oasis fans will think Blur fans are a bunch of punters, and Blur fans will think Oasis is chav-rock.  But in the battle of Britpop, a winner must be declared, and that winner is…

Radiohead.  Although not considered part of the mainstream of Britpop, no band that came out of the mid nineties UK music scene better than Radiohead.  They did what neither Oasis or Blur could accomplish on their own.  Radiohead is as big as Oasis and as critically loved as Blur.  Everyone sings along with the chorus to “Karma Police”, and everyone agreed about how groundbreaking and genius it was to release Kid A and Amnesiac simultaneously.  I’m not even really a Radiohead fan and I can see how big these guys really are.  Plus Thom Yorke is more annoying than all the members of both bands put together.  He snaked them all.  Hail to the Thief indeed.

BLOG NOTE: sorry to everyone for missing last week.  Listening to this much Britpop took more out of me than one week would allow.  I’ll try harder in the future to stay on top of things.

That was Mike Patton in March 2008.  Yet here we are, a short two years later and Faith No More is back out there playing to crowds of pudgy, balding thirty-something year olds.  This bothers me, way more than it should.  I don’t mean just Faith No More- I love Faith No More; I saw Faith No More at the American Theater in St. Louis on the Angel Dust tour with Helmet opening and it was a truly seminal experience in my life.  As was seeing Blur at Roseland in ‘96, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers in early ‘92 supported by the then-unknown Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, and Rollins Band that same year with the totally unknown Tool opening.  Like countless other kids at other rock shows, I had the experience of, for just a few hours, not feeling like a total loser and that I was actually doing something cool, or at least seemed cool at the time.  They were awesome shows played in pretty small venues by acts that didn’t really feel the need for lasers and sets and all the trappings of “mainstream” music that all the square phonies at school were into.  These guys, as they said, cared a lot: big money stadium shows were for old fogies like the Who and U2; we had a scene based on awesome rock & roll, man, not your soulless suburban corporate nightmare.  Fuck Happy, man, Fuck Happy.

That, of course, is all total bullshit.  Every one of those bands that I thought we so above it all would’ve loved to not be broke.  Living on a bus for weeks at a time, eating Taco Bell, fighting with every two-bit promoter for money I’m sure gets pretty old.  If fifteen years later all those pimply kids you used to play for now have dough enough to see you again- no, have dough that they’re chomping at the bit to part with to see you again, why not?  Who cares if it feels a bit rote?  To quote Malkmus from a recent Spin article, “If the band likes hearing people cheer, and getting a check, as is the case with us… then it usually ends up working out, even if they’re just ham-and-egging out the same old chords.”

But therein lies the rub: none of us are thirteen anymore, and this time these guys are just in it for the money.  Even if they play great, it’s still just a money gig.  Again, there’s nothing wrong with that, but how jazzed can you get for somebody else’s payday?  When you consider they probably don’t really like each other and they’re not working on any new music, it comes off as pretty soulless.  It’s worse than soulless, it’s exploitative and blatantly commercial, and I really can’t imagine myself having a good time after paying too much to stand around with a bunch of other pathetic 30 or 40 year old aging hipsters pretending we’re all back in college while listening to someone cynically cash in on our collective nostalgia.  I don’t know who to despise more in that transaction.

As I said earlier, this bothers me way more than it should, but it does.  The Malkmus Spin article makes me hate every band I liked growing up, or at least reminds me why I pretty much stopped listening to current music after 1996.  To claim that touring or playing out is “kind of weird” unless you’re getting paid and “if you’re doing it for the art, stay at home with your family” seems a little cold and calculating, and quite frankly, is a bunch of rationalizing bullshit.  I guess, as town-cryer for Gen-X zeitgeist, he really sums up what sucks about Americans today- more interested in maintaining the contrivances of their suburban existence than doing something decent and soulful, albeit painful.  Wait- haven’t I heard this before?  Isn’t this the kind of thing bands like Pavement used to rail against back in the day? Or was that all just a way of intellectualizing their lack of success in the face of Hootie and the Blowfish?  I guess if Stone Temple Pilots are elegant bachelors, then are Pavement very shrewd cultural politicians?  Spoiled children abound in the spotlight of public adoration.  I almost respect Kurt Cobain for killing himself.  At least he didn’t have to turn into his parents.

Unless, of course, his parents also killed themselves…

The xx seem to be pretty hot right now.  They’ve been touring pretty constantly since the release of their album last August, and in addition to playing multiple gigs at SXSW and an outdoor set at Cochella this past weekend, the song “Intro” was featured prominently in an AT&T ad during the Winter Olympics.  I don’t usually go for this type of music, but of all the recent synth-pop bands I’m really taken with this band.  Rather than using electronic music as some sort of trashy hipster gimmick, The xx is actually writing simple yet truly compelling melodies with electronic instruments.  Plus the vocal back and forth between Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim is absolutely adorable, as if the “Grease” soundtrack was reimagined by two pasty, misanthropic British teenagers.  They’re also the first band I’ve seen in a long time that I actually like that look so young they make me feel really old and uncool (isn’t that what good new bands are supposed to do to people in their thirties?)  Here’s them on French television, which also seems very fitting.

The 2010 Pulitzer Prize board has given a special posthumous citation to Hank Williams for “for his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.”  All that and he had a real purdy voice too.  Here’s a pretty good clip of him doing “Cold Cold Heart”, plus “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)” as a duet with Anita Carter.  Of course, singing to teenage girls was more Lefty Frizzell’s thing, but who could say no to that smile?