I just haven't had Internet at my house for a little while now (reasons for which I will not bother to explain) and it's made it rather difficult to post recently. I'm actually posting right now from Bongo Java. Since I don't have my usual resources available, and since I'm short on time right now I'm not going to get into anything too heavy or in depth today, but do expect to see at least a new Chart Watch and some more Lost and Found updates as soon as the Internet returns to my home.
I'm not saying I won't still be dropping a few political posts here and there in the last few weeks before the election. It's just I'd been planning on doing some more regular posts before all this Internet stuff happened and now I'm backlogged so to speak. Anyway, I leave you with this:
Because I'm both biased and lazy, here's what FactCheck has to say about last night's Vice Presidential debate. I know I've been lax on the posting lately and I promise to have a real post up in the next few days. I also promise to get down off my political soapbox and get back to writing about music, at least for a moment. Until then, please enjoy what hard-working, educated, unbiased and nonpartisan people have to say about what Joe Biden and Sarah Palin want you to believe.
But seriously, Sarah Palin is completely unqualified to be John McCain's running mate for Vice President of the United States. Apparently, She thinks that simply being Governor of the closest state in the union to Russia and sharing a boarder with Canada gives her experience in foreign policy. Here she explaining that very thing to Katie Couric.
I don't want to go out on a limb here, but I'd be more than willing to bet that if the Republicans are trying to suspend the first Presidential debate of the year, they'll probably try to eliminate the VP debate all together. I'm just saying...
Just to put things into some kind of perspective, here's Katie Couric's Complete Joe Biden Interview.
That's the difference between children and adults.
Yep, apparently Sarah Palin thinks she's running for President. Check it out.
That video comes from a Republican campaign rally held yesterday in Youngstown, Ohio. She's also been claiming that Alaska supplies 20% of the country's energy. Guess what? That's a lie!
Hey, wanna read her email? I mean, this is old news by now, but Sarah Palin's email was hacked and posted on Wikileaks.org. Turns out the Alaskan Governor had started using private email accounts to circumvent her state's freedom of information laws. Basically she was doing it in case official emails were ever subpoenaed. People only do things like that when they have something to hide. Here's a full article from Time on the subject. Why might her email's be subpoenaed? Probably for the court case for which her husband refuses to testify.
Now I know I promised some music related posts, and I will get back to them eventually, but I have some thing I want to get off my chest. As election day draws near I've come to the conclusion that I have no choice but to get serious and get involved. I've made a point about trying to keep this blog non-political and non-partisan, but I can no longer hold my tongue. It is my absolute opinion that if the republicans are given control of the executive branch of the American government once again, we are all of us, as a people on this planet, royally fucked.
Now, let me first make it absolutley clear that this has nothing at all to do with my friends getting maced and arrested (especially considering these things happened at both the RNC and the DNC), although, clearly that pissed me off quite a bit since I dedicated three posts to it. No, this has everything to do with the fact that I absolutely believe that as much as the McCain/Palin campaign tries to distance themselves from the Bush administration, they are absolutely the same people and they will continue to do the same things that have driven our country into it's current economic recession. Things will only get worse.
It's not so much John McCain that scares me, although the claims in his early ads that he stood up to "big oil" did totally baffle me considering he spent the past four years bending over backwards for the American Oil Companies. Never mind that choosing a woman who sued the government to have the Polar Bear taken off the endangered species list because it severely limited oil drilling in Alaska as his running mate doesn't help either, but It's a woman who's willing to do that that absolutely frightens me. I absolutely believe that Sarah Palin will be more detrimental to this country (and the world) than George W. Bush could ever dream. And I'd like to take some time and set some things about Governor Palin straight.
First of all, on that whole Bridge to Nowhere thing about which she claims she told the government "no thanks," it turns out she was initially behind it and even accepted money for it, which she never gave back. Click that link if you don't believe me.
Secondly, about that Jet she put on Ebay... turns out it's standard policy in Alaska to put things the Government isn't using on Ebay because they're so far removed from the rest of the country, it's the only way they can sell just about anything. Also, the Jet didn't sell on Ebay! As a matter of fact, she took it off Ebay, and sold it for far less than it was worth, meaning that not only was it not her idea to put it on Ebay in the first place, but she also didn't make a profit on the sale like she claimed.
But never mind her ability to stretch the truth, Sarah Palin can't even seem to explain the doctrine of the Bush administration, of which she plans to "reform." Take a look at two videos from her interview with Charles Gibson that I swiped from an article at the Huffington Post.
How can you claim that you'll do things differently from or better than the Bush administration if you don't know what exactly the Bush administration did. Making things even more interesting, she also seems to be a little fuzzy on her running mate's foreign policies.
I also absolutely believe that Sarah Palin will be more detrimental to this country (and the world) than George W. Bush could ever dream
But that's ok, because McCain clearly doesn't know his running mate all that well either...
Check out this video which I opted not to embed purely because I couldn't prevent it from automatically playing.
Assuming you've just watched that, I'd love to point out that McCain never explains why Governor Palin is right and Barack Obama is wrong, nor does he at any time prove that Palin has more experience than Obama. Also, let me just say that claiming that Obama never once took on his own party seems to be a really weak accusation given that the Democrats were not the party in office the past eight years that got us into all of this shit in the first place. By the way, here's the article where i snagged that video as well.
Listen, I'm not trying to say that Barack Obama is the answer to our nation's problems. I absolutely don't believe that. What I do believe is that he represents hope in the face of almost certain damnation, and when given those two options, I'll take hope every time. If you want to know the truth about what both parties are saying, read FactCheck.org daily, and don't just believe what the Campaign ads say. make your own informed decision.
Here's one more article on the whole thing, which just so happens to feature a decent picture of Nathan Weber's face, sans black eye. And here are some photos of the actual event, courtesy of Jonathan D. Woods. Please visit his website. He's a damn fine photographer who was very generous to let me use these pictures for my blog.
Here we see Nathan in handcuffs as Batman goes through Nathan's backpack.
And here he is being taken into custody.
And here we see Jim Winn being taken in as well. Jim has a photo blog with some more pictures from the RNC. Check it out here.
And last, but not least, a nice shot of police officers in riot gear.
I know I promised not to get political again, but (in the words of The Big Lebowski) some new shit has come to light. Yeah. So it turns out that a few days prior to the events in my last post, another friend of mine was maced in the face while taking pictures of protesters outside the Democratic National Convention. Now, I know Christian, and in all fairness, of all the people I know, he's probably the person most likely to be mistaken for an anarchist, but not when he has a camera in his hands and a big bright and shiny press pass displayed for all to see. Looks like the Democrats are just as threatened by the truth as the Republicans are. Hmm.
For more information on the incident mentioned in my last blog, here's an article in which Nathan Weber explains how he was beaten by the police. Let's have a closer look at Nathan's face, shall we?
Could be worse, right? I mean Nathan just kind of looks like that normally, but he's clearly been beaten in the face with a blunt object as well. Also this picture is out of focus. Sorry, I didn't take it.
One more thing and then I'll go. Just so you know, a lot of what Governor Palin said last night wasn't exactly the truth. Here's Fact Check's take on what she had to say. Remember, she hates the polar bear, an animal that looks more cuddly than Nathan Weber, but is, in fact, far more dangerous.
For real, once my friends stop getting the shit beaten out of them for doing their jobs and exercising their Constitutional rights, I'll get off my soap box. Until then, God bless America.
In all fairness, polar bears are the number one threat to school children in this country, as this image clearly shows.
Listen, I'm not trying to get political or anything, but when people I know get maced and then spend the night in jail, and someone decides that money is more important than life on earth, I get pissed off.
I promise to have a more friendly, bipartisan post up in the next few days. Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy couple of weeks.
For one week only Pitchfork Media is showing the documentary Reformat the Planet about the burgeoning Chiptune scene. Don't know what that is? Here's the trailer.
Check out the entire film here. It's pretty amazing. Remember, it'll only be available for a week, so watch it while you can.
There's been a lot of really great straight up Rock music already this year, and instead of telling you about it all, here are a bunch of videos, half of which I stole from Pitchfork.Tv. Not all of these were made this year, but they do all feature music that has been released in 2008.
Cool, huh? Wanna know how to do it? Go here. Wanna know more about modern forms of Graffiti? Check out the Graffiti Research Lab. They made the video you just saw. That specific page is here.
Since I started the week off with a Chart Watch, I thought I'd end it with one. Here now, is one of the most pointless reviews of any album I've ever read in my life. Enjoy!
Title:My Own Prison (1997) Label: Wind Up Genre: Alternative Pro-Social Content: The Band Empathizes with a girl forced to grow up in a dysfunctional family ("Sister") and logns for racial equality and brotherhood among mankind ("One"). The Social commentary "In America" looks askance at abortion, hypocrisy, the worship of money, and promiscuity. Otherwise fatalistic, "My Own Prison" acknowledges Christ's sacrificial death as the pathway to eternal life.
Objectionable Content: Bitter disillusionment is manifested in numerous lyrics confessing misery ("Torn"), anger ("One"), and hopelessness ("Illusion"). "Pity for a Dime" finds lead vocalist Scott Stapp wallowing in self-doubt, confessing a loss of faith. "Ode" expresses self-destructive nihilism. There's also a profane use of God's name on "What's This Life For." Summary/Advisory: Lots of searching, but positive statements are well overshadowed by an outright rejection of biblical truth. Stapp says, "If it weren't for music, I might have ended up some crazed street preacher." Rock-n-roll is my religion." Not exactly the narrow path. Keep teens out of Prison.
What the fuck?Who on earth looks this deeply into Scott Stapp’s lyrics?I’ll give you one good reason not to listen to Creed and it’s a real simple one:they’re one of the worst fucking bands to have ever come into existence!To be fair, this review might have been well intended, since Creed were immensely popular at the end of the 20th century, and anyone trying to keep people from listening to Creed is alright with me, regardless of their reasoning.I think my biggest problem with this entry is that he’s giving Stapp way too much credit as a songwriter.Every criticism he has of this album could just as easily be applied to Pearl Jam’s Ten, which is, without a doubt, a vastly superior album in every possible sense (regardless of your feelings toward Pearl Jam, you cannot deny this is true).
Still, I feel this whole review could have been made wholly simpler if he’d just said “Scott Stapp is a fraud and a poor excuse for an Eddie Vedder impersonator, and Creed sound, at best, like the world’s worst Pearl Jam cover band.The only threat they really pose to your teenagers is to their intelligence.If you want to keep your kids out of trouble, don’t let them be the ‘Creed kid’ at school.”It’s simple, effective, and spares us from having to delve into the rather shallow waters of Scott Stapp’s lyrical ineptitude.Also, “Keep teens out of Prison,” may, in fact, be the single lamest closing line in this entire book.
Today's Lost and Found is a two-for-one, mainly because I couldn't decide which Neil Young album I wanted to talk about. Only Neil Young could have such an effect on me. So with out further ado I give you Time Fades Away and Trans.
Neil Young Time Fades Away So what do you do if you've just released the critically acclaimed best selling album of 1972? Well, if you're Neil Young you launch a nation wide tour during which you play nothing off that album, opting instead for completely new material. Then you release a live album from that tour, completely baffling both fans and critics. Of course, that's only part of the story.
After Harvest was released in 1972, Young suddenly found himself with more fame and fortune than he knew what to do with. Most people would probably relish such success, but Young merely seemed to shy away from it. Then on November 18, 1972, Danny Whitten, guitarist for the band Crazy Horse, died of an apparent Heroin overdose, not long after having been fired during the preparations of what would become the Time Fades Away tour.
The first album in what is known as the Ditch Trilogy, Time Fades Away finds an artist who's not only trying to make sense of his new found celebrity status, but is also coming to terms with the death of a close friend. Young was apparently drunk for most of the tour, much to the frustration of his fellow band mates. As is the general theme of the Lost and Found segment of this blog, the album, which features guest appearances from both David Crosby and Graham Nash, was a total flop. As far as anyone can tell, that was OK with Young, who seemed to be looking for a fast exit from the spotlight. Unfortunately, the travesty does not end there. Possibly due to the use of poor techniques and unreliable equipment during the mastering process Time Fades Awayhas never been released on CD. Apparently there's a good chance it never will be, since there's almost no way of ever recovering the original master recordings, which were already quite muddy to begin with. This is quite unfortunate since the record contains the only recorded versions of some of Young's more intimate songs including, "Yonder Stands the Sinner," "Love in Mind," "Don't Be Denied," and "Journey Through the Past." As of now the only way to Hear Time Fades Away is to get your hands on a the vinyl, which is certainly hard to find.
Neil Young Trans Often considered by critics to be one of Young's worst albums, Trans is not the misstep it's cracked up to be. Released in December of 1982, Trans was the first of five albums Young released on Geffen records, none of which were successful for either Young or Geffen. Actually, in 1984, Geffen sued Young for failing to release a commercially accessible album as per his contract. Regardless of Young's intentions behind the five Geffen albums, there certainly seems to be little to link them, except that they're all generally uncharacteristic albums for Young.
Trans is certainly no exception. Running his vocals through a Vocoder and opting to replace his defining guitar sound for synthesizers and a drum machine, Young was clearly stepping out of his comfort zone, but it actually pays off more than you'd think. The opening track, "Little Thing Called Love," as the only straight forward rocker on the album (and the only track to not feature synthesizers or the Vocoder) is actually one of the lesser tracks on the album. Aside from a completely digital reworking of Young's "Mr. Soul" (originally a hit for Buffalo Springfield), songs like "Computer Age," "Sample and Hold," and "Transformer Man" are all very stronge efforts, and sound absolutely nothing like anything Young has done before or since. If anything, these songs have more in common with Kraftwerk and Joy Division than anything else. "Transformer Man," incidentally, has had a life of its own as it is the only track to have survived Trans. The song made an appearance during Young's MTV Unplugged appearance and has also been covered by Sonic Youth.
The Truth is that Trans was such a drastic change from the rest of Young's repertoire that when it was first released no one knew what to make of it. In retrospect it feels more like an artist taking chances and testing his limits in uncharted territories. The results are somewhat varied, but overall successful, and Trans definitely deserves a second chance to redeem its place in rock history.
The Fugs The Fugs No single album better encompasses the feel of the '60s than The Fugs. Not a pretty one, but an honest one. Part political protest, part hippie drug culture, part scum bag dirty humor, this album offers what is probably one of the most honest pictures of what it was like to live in a post-Kennedy, pre-Nixon America. Initially touted as the single most offensive rock album, The Fugs' second album is a dirty, raucous, aggressive in-your-face album that's intentionally difficult. Why was the album so controversial? Well, when you consider that the album was released in 1966, song titles like "Skin Flowers" and "Kill for Peace" should be a good indication. Need more proof? Here's a video of a Fugs performance from the film Chappaqua, released the same year.
When the Fugs aren't protesting the war they're trying to make the listener laugh uncomfortably, or at least amuse themselves. It's really hard to take a song titled "Dirty Old Man" seriously, which is of course the point. Oh yeah, and then there's that 11 minute closing track, "Virgin Forest." Again, keep in mind that in 1966 you were hard pressed to get a Rock n' Roll audience to listen to any song longer than three minutes. Especially one that's full of strange noises and the sounds of several members of the band simultaneously chanting "gobble gobble" (referred to on the back of the record as the "Gobble Chorus"), well any sober audience, anyway. If The Fugs sounds like artistic brilliance to you, that's because it is. If it doesn't, that's understandable, but you should probably get out more.
The Everly Brothers Roots Originally released in 1968, Roots was initially a commercial flop for the Everly Brothers. Containing none of their hits and only one original piece, the album failed to widen the Everly's audience as it was intended. Time however, has been good to Roots as it is now generally considered to be one the best early examples of the Country Rock genre. A loose concept album, Roots expounds upon the idea behind 1958s Songs Our Daddy Taught Us and finds the Everly's once again covering songs by the artists who influenced them like Merle Haggard and Jimmie Rodgers. It also finds them covering songs by more contemporary artists such as Randy Newman's "Illinois" and Glen Campbell's "Less of Me." Taking it a step further, the album is also interspersed with old clips of Don and Phil as young boys conversing with their parents on their father Ike's radio program, pulled from the family's own home recordings.
The production here is understated and simple, often featuring the brothers on acoustic guitars with little accompaniment. There's a very relaxed feel to the record even on the fully arranged pieces such as their take on Jimmie Rodger's "T for Texas" (complete with a wah-wah intro and a fuzzed out guitar duel). There are no true highlights to this album and thats on purpose. The Everly's conceived Roots as an album piece and it is certainly meant to be taken that way. Every song on this record is equally strong in performance and importance to the overall picture. A more beautiful and personal record you will not find in the Everly's catalog. You'll also be hard pressed to find an album this good in the whole of the Country Rock genre.
The story of the forgotten album is nothing new. For whatever reason many great albums were not initially received with the acclaim they deserved, either critical or commercial. Pet Sounds for example was more or less a commercial flop, but has become legendary as one of the most auspicious and brilliant undertakings in the history of Rock n' Roll. Nick Drake's entire catalog didn't see commercial success until "Pink Moon" was used in a Volkswagen commercial. Some albums were initially successful when first released, but for whatever reason lacked the staying power necessary to last in the ever changing face of popular music. And then there are those records which simply were never recognized critically and simply stalled in record sales. Throughout the week I'll be writing about a few select albums that have lived a life time of obscurity. Today I give you: the Outsiders.
The Outsiders Happening 'Live!' Allmusic.com said of the Outsiders, "If any two-hit, dance-oriented band from the '60s ever deserved a crack at being voted in [the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame], the Outsiders do," and that couldn't be more true. The Cleveland, Ohio quintet only released three official studio albums and had a hit with the song "Time Won't Let Me," which peaked at number five on Billboard's Top 100.
Released on Capitol Records in August of 1967,Happening 'Live!' is cleverly misleading as it is not a live album in the conventional sense (hence the quotation marks around the word "live"). For a long time it was not uncommon for record labels to release live albums that were actually just compilations of studio recordings with audience noise mixed in. With Happening 'Live!" the Outsiders took it a step further by removing any and all over dubs from the tracks, stripping them of any horns, strings, or generally anything that couldn't have been played by the five members of the band live on stage. To further the illusion, lead singer Sonny Geraci introduces all of the songs and the band as though they actually were performing in front of a hoard of screaming girls.
All of that would really just seem like little more than gimmicks were it not for the quality of material on the record. Aside from the band's two hits and a few songs from their three studio albums, Happening also includes a handful of previously unreleased material such as a fairly straight forward cover of the Beatles' "Michelle." However, the real stand out tracks here are a fantastic cover of the Temptation's "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," the stripped-to-its-roots version of "Time Won't Let Me," another original called "Girl in Love," which has a poor man's Brian Wilson feel to it, and a kind of garage-band-meets-lounge-act cover of Van Morrison's "Gloria." At the end of it all Happening 'Live!' turns out to be one of the friendlier and more easily accessible concept albums of the 1960s. On a funny note, if you look closely at the album cover, the Outsiders appear to have two bass players. I have yet to find any explanation for this, whatsoever.
Title:OK Computer (1997) Label: Capitol Genre: Alternative/ Industrial Pro-Social Content: An isolated line on "Paranoid Android" states, "God loves his children."
Objectionable Content: "Exit Music (For a Film)" finds lead singer Thom Yorke waking a girl in the middle of the night to rebel against her parents and run off with him ("We hope your rules and wisdom choke you"). Anarchy and what sounds like a man's last words prior to committing suicide inhabit "No Surprises."
Summary/Advisory: According to the band's press materials, "OK Computer is a meandering, mournful, miserable celebration of loss and the unknown which aches relentlessly." Well put. The entire disc seems like the soundtrack for a despairing hallucination—dark and bleak. Even positive thoughts on "Lucky" and "Fitter Happier" seem sarcastic the way they're moaned. Don't let youngsters log onto OK Computer.
Yes, back by popular demand, it's Chart Watch. It's really hard to know where to begin with this one. Never mind that our authors clearly missed the point of one of the most important albums of the '90s, they can't even catch an obvious reference to Shakespeare. Yes, "Exit Music (For a Film)" does, in fact, tell the story of a boy and girl who decide their young love is bigger than the will of their forbidding, feuding families. Sound familiar? That's because it's not unlike the basic plot of one Romeo & Juliet, which also just so happens to be the "film" to which the song title refers. So if Thom Yorke, in his song, is encouraging the youth of today to rebel against their parents and run away, then I guess Shakespeare is further encouraging them to commit suicide. Following that logic, did you guys know that the Brothers Grimm's telling of "Little Red Cap" (more popularly known as "Little Red Riding Hood") is riddled with seriously perverse sexual overtones? Or that even the Bible itself is full of premarital sex, adultery, sodomy, incest, and murder? Nothing is safe! Parents don't ever let your children read or listen to anything ever! Keep them locked in the basement until their 31st birthday if you must!
Also, this entry contains one of my favorite closing lines ever.
Don't even act like you don't like Rush. I mean, it's totally understandable if you don't, but unfortunately you're wrong. Here's a no-frills-just-Rush clip of the show.
The entire episode is here. Also, there's a huge article in this month's Rolling Stone on Toronto's greatest rock band. Much love this month for the nerdiest band in Prog, apparently.
So if you haven't heard yet, Radiohead made a music video for "House of Cards" without the use of traditional video, film, or digital cameras. No, they used lasers. That's right, lasers. It doesn't really get more Radiohead than that, especially if you've seen any pictures from their current U.S. tour.
Here's a brief article on the subject courtesy of Pitchfork. And here's the actual video.
And here's a video on the making of that video.
And here's a page at Google explaining how you can download this technology yourself and upload your own videos to Youtube.
And just for some fun with ironic juxtapositions, here's this. Really, Axl? I mean, you can only have your heart broken so many times before you just pack up and move on.
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