- Aqualaygualry in arcade fire - black wave/bad vibrations Today i watching overlay from here. this is wondeful film. Who are watching this?
- cattartiste in arcade fire - black wave/bad vibrations SplitVideo is a freeware virtual video clone and split video nick driver in behalf of connecting disparate applications to a single video...
- Peggus-interruptus in The Temper Trap Lovin’ The Temper Trap!
Having read Zak’s review of this album in which he compares it to a smoking hot Swedish girl, I listened to this album half-expecting it to sound like Roxette, perhaps performing their never-released album of Strokes covers. Do I have a tendency to interpret metaphors literally? Maybe. *insert shifty eyes here*
Anyway, it doesn’t sound like that at all, but it does give me a chance to talk about the difference between a very good album and a great album, which is pretty much why — aside from the fact that I promised Joie that I would — I’m writing a review of an album that’s already received a review on this site. Make no mistake, Wincing the Night Away is a very good album, the kind that might show up on 2007’s year-end list, depending on how stiff the competition is. It is not, however, a great album.
Listening to the album for the first time, I was struck by how strongly I felt like I had heard every song somewhere before. This is not a compliment. “Australia?” That one sounds kind of like an old Smiths B-side, probably from when they were going through their weird Meat Is Murder phase. “Black Wave?” I think that was one that Radiohead got about halfway through writing before they decided they already had better songs for OK Computer. “Sea Legs” and “Turn on Me” could have shown up on any late-90s Britpop album without raising any eyebrows — I’m thinking Blur and Oasis, respectively, are the best fits. “Pam Berry?” Okay, that one doesn’t sound like anything. They can have that one, all 56 seconds of it.
Now, these are pretty solid touchstones, and The Shins execute each one about as well as anyone could have hoped for — the songwriting is well above average. That’s very good. It’s enough to make them pleasant, even a joy to listen to. If I didn’t already have an advance copy of this thing, it would probably be enough to make me buy it. But it’s difficult to be truly, greatly memorable when you remind your listeners of other people instead of yourself, even when those other people are tremendously talented musicians. I listen to this album and thing, “Wow, The Shins really do this kind of thing well.” I don’t listen to it and think, “Wow, The Shins, they’re really full of ideas, and they’ve got a lot to say.”
Now, every album doesn’t need to change the world. (For that matter, every album can’t change the world. Superlatives lose their meaning if they’re applied to everything.) I recommend that you listen to it, buy it, share it with your friends. But I can’t help feeling faintly disappointed, because I think The Shins have it in them to be great — but instead, they’re just very good.
Release date: Jan. 23, 2007
Rating: 8/10. Very good, but not great.
The next participant in the shiny new 5 Questions series is Sal, the self-described ”egotistical lead singer & bassist” for Chicago rock band The Goldstars. His 4-piece garage-rock band includes former and current members of the Krinkles, New Duncan Imperials and Poi Dog Pondering. They just released their second full-length album Purple Girlfriend, available for sale on the Goldstars myspace page. Going by the photos on their website, they put out quite the live show as well…Sal’s antics on stage are legendary in certain circles.
1. When historians listen to your most recent CD 1000 years from now, what will they say?
“They would definitely say “WOW, these guys are WAY ahead of their time!” Ok, just kidding. Probably more like, “ereik! jkxie cdiekwor diek! Translation: “Holy shit! I can’t believe rock bands today are still playing the same old rock-riffs from 1000 years ago!?!”
2. If you could play a show with any band/musician living or dead, who would you pick and why?
“I’d love to open for Insane Clown Posse, have all the juggalos boo, spit & throw shit at us, then come back out during their encore wearing all the shoes, shirts, hats & crap they whipped at us during our set and help them sing “Pass Me By”. Why? Man, I’ve got some serious self-deprecating issues.”
3. What is the strangest band-related dream you have had?
“I have a re-occurring dream about somehow pissing off one of my band mates (Dag, Skipper or Goodtime) and them wanting to kill me. I then anxiously worry about them hurting me really bad like knocking my block off or something (I’m a big puss). I usually have to kiss their ass or lie to make things better. This dream coincidently has come true.”
4. What do your fans look like?
“Usually M.I.L.F.s in their mid-late 30s with pretty-big tits (Hi Holly!).”
5. What bullshit do you run into at most every show that makes you think “man, this bullshit again?”
“Wow, what a loaded question! Man, I could go on for hours and hours about my sad-sack tales of rock ‘bullshit’, but why bore your readers to tears? Just please keep in mind that most entertainers/musicians out there (like myself) don’t HAVE to be in a band. I wasn’t chosen by Satan to do this, it’s totally my choice. But hey, who doesn’t love to bitch and moan, right?
Bonus question: why won’t you forget to tip your bartender?
“Hey, I’m a lot of things but I ain’t no bloody hypocrite…ever hear, “…and please don’t forget to tip your waiters and waitresses!? “
When I was a sophomore in high school, a Swedish foreign exchange student moved to town and immediately joined my class. This girl arrived completely unexpectedly, caught a few peoples’ attention and was generally very affable, but nobody knew exactly what to expect from her – I mean c’mon…she was foreign. Well, the Shins are exactly like that Swedish girl.
When the Shins broke onto the scene with Oh, Inverted World, they caught a few of the more observant peoples’ attention, just like my foreign exchange student. They were well-liked by pretty much anyone who did happen to hear them, but nobody knew just what they were up to…a decent start for a little-known band.
Junior year, my little foreign exchange girl was rolling along - ‘in the groove’ you might say. She was accepted as just another girl, far from a social pariah, but hardly the prom queen. Nobody really thought bad of her and the most positive thing you ever heard anyone say was, “She’s definitely got something about her.†That was until she went to prom with the jackass captain of the football team. All I’ll say about that night is that my little Swedish girl went into the date innocent and came out a steaming heap of damaged goods.
The Shins popped out Chutes Too Narrow and everyone felt great. The band had followed-up on a solid first album with more of the same. People liked that. They had hardly “hit it bigâ€, but they had their fair share of devoted fans. That is until jackass Zach Braff came along with his wannabe indie flick and ruined it all. All I’ll say about Garden State is that the Shins went into the film a viable under-the-radar band and came out a commercially raped pile of “Hey, you mean the guys from Garden State?†Damn Zach Braff, damn anyone who doesn’t damn Zach Braff, and damn anyone who doesn’t stay up all night damning Zach Braff.
Senior year rolled around and you would think my sweet little damaged Swedish girl would have shrunk into the bowels of high school society. Or maybe even packed up her bags and sailed back to BF, Sweden. Hell no. Girl had gumption. Girl had grit. Girl came back full-blown hottie. A nice big “up yours†to the entire football team.
Enter the Shins’ third album, Wincing the Night Away (dropping january 23, 2007). I consider this to be the full-blown Swedish hottie of Shins albums. I’ve already had people liken songs on this album to both seeing a long-lost friend and falling in love. Funny, because when I talked to Jimmy Mercer he told me the album was all about running over squirrels in his 1988 Mercury Tracer and playing Parcheesi with illegitimate Estonian children. I kid, i kid.
The albums kicks-off with “Sleeping Lessons,” a dreamily bouncing, turned straight-ahead rocking song that’s one of the few in the world that makes me actually want to watch the ridiculous visualizations of Windows Media Player. This makes way for “Australia,” which ironically sounds like it opens with some sort of German jibber-jabber, but is actually just those wacky Shins being zany. I’m still going to pretend it’s Germans mumbling – those damn krauts never enunciate. ANYWAYS, the song’s quite the playful little tune, but that betrays the lyrics calling out an unrequited something or other: “You’d be damned to be one of us, girl/Faced with a dodo’s conundrum/Ah, I felt like I could just fly/But nothing’ll happen every time I try.” Well put, James.
The middle portion of Wincing the Night Away is undeniably solid and up to and beyond your usual Shins sounds, which definitely says something. Whereas the Shins’ first two albums had a slightly cold feel, this album warms up to you like a toilet seat that was in use mere moments before you graced it with your own best side. This is no clearer to me than on the closing track, “A Comet Appears,” a slowed-down acoustic gem. It’s classic Shins in the best kind of way. Again, the lyrics betray that warmth, but who the hell wants to hear people sing about gumdrop dreams anyways.
And there it is, the best album in an already solid Shins discography – the full blown hottie. People tried to stunt their growth; tried to stop their upward climb; tried to pull them down into the infinite abyss, but the Shins were having none of it. Up yours, Zach Braff.
holy crap! the czars (<3 <3 <3) have announced tour dates for early 2007. i will be at as many of these shows as i possible can...their 2002 album the ugly people vs. the beautiful people has a coveted place on the list of joie’s 10 favourite albums of all time. john grant’s voice is like a razorblade wrapped in unsweetened whipped cream…listen and don’t miss the show if it comes to your town. or if you miss it, at least don’t tell me. i thought we were friends.
2/16/06 Providence, RIÂ AS220Â
2/17/06 Syracuse, NYÂ The 855Â
2/18/06 Burlington, VTÂ 242 MainÂ
2/19/06 Cambridge, MAÂ TT The Bear’sÂ
2/20/06 New York, NYÂ The DelanceyÂ
2/21/06 Washington, DCÂ DC9Â
2/22/06 Chapel Hill, NCÂ Local 506Â
2/23/06 Charlottesville Twisted Branch Tea BazaarÂ
2/27/06 New York, NYÂ The DelanceyÂ
3/2/06 Kalamazoo, MIÂ Kraftbrau Brewery (postponed)Â
3/3/06 Lansing, MI Mac’s Bar (with Saturday Looks Good To Me)Â
3/5/06 Newport, KYÂ Southgate HouseÂ
3/6/06 Columbus, OH High Five Club (with Mi & L’au)Â
3/7/06 Indianapolis, INÂ Indy HostelÂ
3/8/06 Chicago, ILÂ Empty Bottle (with Ester Drang & The Minus Story)Â
3/9/06 Champaign, ILÂ Cowboy MonkeyÂ
3/10/06 Madison, WIÂ King ClubÂ
3/11/06 Des Moines, IAÂ Vaudeville MewsÂ
3/12/06 Lawrence, KS Lawrence, KS at Tap Room (with Ghosty) 3/14/06 Houston, TX Walter’s On Washington (with Asobi Seksu)Â
3/15/06 Austin, TX SXSW World’s Fair Showcase (with The Flaming Lips, Midlake)Â
3/17/06 Austin, TXÂ SXSW Urban Pollution/Austin Mopeds/Progress Coffee day Party (with Say Hi To Your Mom, The Mendozas Line, Zykos and more)Â
3/19/06 Norman, OKÂ Opolis (with Kiss Me Deadly)Â
3/20/06 Columbia, MOÂ Mojo’sÂ
3/22/06 Pittsburg, PAÂ Garfield ArtworksÂ
4/9/06 Denton, TXÂ Wall Of Sound Festival (with Okkervil River, Starlight Mints, Low, David Bazan, and more)Â
4/23/06 New York, NY Joes PubÂ
Today’s participant in the new 5 question series is Pennsylvania’s Safari So Good. Here’s what I know about them so far: They’re kinda emo-y (mp3’s available for download at the link so check ‘em out for yourself). They have a song cleverly entitled “Tom Cruise Control.” They sound more like Jimmy Eat World than Jimmy Eat World does.  And they are obviously men of few words.
1. When historians listen to your most recent CD 1000 years from now, what will they say?
“It’s hard to believe that the best free form latin jazz/polka fusion band of the 21st century started out like this.”
2. If you could play a show with any band/musician living or dead, who would you pick and why?
“Texas Is The Reason.”
3. What is the strangest band-related dream (one of) you have had?
“I think it involved all the whole band sumo wrestling “Queen” on MXC that show on Spike. We of course won.”
4. What do your fans look like?
“All super hot. Like the kind of hot that you’re like “I dunno if I can play tonight cause there are so many fly hotties in the crowd”. Then you start sweating, and your knees shake, it’s really quite unnerving.”
5. What bullshit do you run into at most every show that makes you think “Man, this bullshit again?”
“Waiting around… being in a band is 10% doing fun stuff, and 90% waiting around to do the 10% of stuff.”
Bonus question: Why won’t you forget to tip your bartender?
“Because our guitarist is a bartender so we would all get our rears whipped if we didn’t tip well.”
I’m pretty lucky. In less than 2 weeks Marky Ramone, drummer for The Ramones (and Richard Hell & The Voidoids), will be the guest DJ at the night I host here in Denver, Lipgloss. I’m pretty amped about this because I’m a Ramones fan and have been for as long as I can remember.
Joiezabel and I have been talking a lot about interviews in the last couple of days and I was going to try to hit Marky up for one… and then I remembered, I’d already done one. Over 10 years ago. I originally wrote it for my “never seen the light of day” zine, Indie Anna. It then ended up on Fallout Magazine, one of the web’s first magazines. I ended up as the editor for that and merged it with Hybrid Magazine - so it may exist in the archives of that fine magazine these days. Or not - maybe this is its home for now.
Anyway, I remember at the end of the interview I told Marky I had to get my shit together and go to a job interview. He wished me luck on it. I don’t remember if I got the job or not. Here we are 10+ years later. Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee have all passed on, CBGB is closed and moving to Las Vegas (!?) and despite claiming to loathe dance music and disco 10 years ago, Marky is going to be the guest DJ at our night at a dance club…
GABBA GABBA… Goodbye.
An interview with Marky Ramone
by Tyler Jacobson, Sometime in 1995
Yes. It’s true. The Ramones have finally called it quits. Let me share with you my favorite Ramones memory: We were waiting for the band to take stage. My friend, Mike, grabbed me by the shoulder and asked “What the hell are two nine-year-old boys doing at a Ramones show?” I shrugged. It was a bit odd. The didn’t seem to really mind that they were surrounded by hundreds of geezers. I couldn’t help but eye them for more clues as to how they’d gotten there. One of the boys turned. He was wearing a shirt that said something like “Orgasmic Dildo Squad” with about 20 naked women on it. It was really weird now. Then, these two little “boys” started sticking their tongues in each others’ mouths and grabbing each others’ asses. Suddenly, it hit me. “Mike,” I said, “Those aren’t little boys…. They’re midget lesbians. How weird!” Now that the Ramones have broken up, I doubt I’ll ever run across those pint-sized lovers again.
In 1974 four guys from New York that wore ripped jeans and leather jackets started playing music that sounded like the Beach Boys on speed. They were loud, hyper and called themselves the Ramones. They all pretty much looked the same; black hair, blue jeans, black jackets. They all shared the same last name. There was Joey Ramone on vocals, Johnny Ramone on guitar, Dee Dee Ramone on Bass and Tommy Ramone on drums.The Ramones started a movement that was dubbed “punk” by the media. The punk audience formed quickly. They also wore black jeans, blue hair and…. Hell, who can afford a jacket when you’ve got drugs to buy? Suburban mothers were shocked. Religious figures cowered. Kids wanted mohawk haircuts.
The Ramones went through some personnel changes: Tommy left the band and was replaced by their new drummer, Marky. Dee Dee was replaced by their new bass player, C.J.. The sound didn’t change despite the changes. The Ramones were still doing what they’d always done: they played Punk Rock.
The Ramones were one of the hardest -working bands. They put out several albums, toured constantly and still found time to make a cameo appearance on “The Simpsons”. 21 years after the Ramones’ start this writer spoke with Marky Ramone on their last headlining US tour in support of their last studio album, appropriately titled “Adios Amigos.”
Over the last 21 years what’s changed?
Well, CJ joined the band and I, of course, joined in ‘78 and then I left in ‘83 and came back in ‘87. So, those are basically the main changes in the line up and we still get along the same way we always have. Y’know, Joey and John don’t really get along too well. I get along with both of them. I was close friends with Dee Dee. So, when he left the band around ‘89, I was in the middle of John and Joey and up until now I’d get along with both of them at a different level. But, in every band after 20 years there’s always something that rubs somebody else the wrong way. But, that’s what makes the Ramones play the way we do. So, I guess we just let it out on our music, our intensity when we play the shows. Read more »
Who better to start out our new 5 Questions Series than Black Bryson’s band Arnold Jackson, which sounds like a 64 count box of post-punk and soul Crayolas melting in the hot sun. They have a cd out and it’s good…listen to a few tunes and then buy it.
 1. When historians listen to your most recent CD 1000 years from now, what will they say?
“Wow, a cd. They must have meant to put Michael Jackson’s thriller in this museum of outdated technology, but chose these guys instead. Let’s get out of here and plug our brains into the wall.”
2. If you could play a show with any band/musician living or dead, who would you pick?
“Teenager-era Frank Black. Archers of Loaf. Modest Mouse. Nirvana. All starring in Zombie-palooza this twenty-eighth of November with yours truly the only one in attendance because all these bands are out of vogue. I think.”
3. What is the strangest band-related dream you have had?
“I was playing Budokan with the Banana Splits as my backing band and the show ended in a fistfight between
Bingo and Fleegle, who cried. The whole time Snorky was backstage doing lines with Sly Stone, and I think one of them died. I woke up in a pool of sweat and my pajamas were sticky.”
4. What do your fans look like?
“They look a lot like my mom, oddly. And my girlfriend. And my friend Russ from high school. And me sometimes. They don’t look like Paris Hilton or anyone you think you want to meet. But they’re better.”
5. What bullshit do you run into at most every show that makes you think “man, this bullshit again?”
“We don’t play shows, but when we did I think it was the absent crowd and the flyering/littering. When I go to other local shows it’s usually the music.”
Bonus question: why won’t you forget to tip your bartender?
“A bartender is a person in your neighborhood. And they’re filthy.”
Take heed and get into the Cat Empire now. Get a spot in line (come on, you waited in line for four days for PS3, and they don’t even have any decent games), and snatch up a copy of their debut US release Two Shoes when it comes out in February. Unlike PS3, you won’t be able to get much for it on ebay, but the Cat Empire doesn’t exist for selfish reasons – their music is too generous for cynicism.
Garnished by the single ‘Sly’, Melbourne, Australia’s The Cat Empire scored international double platinum when Virgin released Two Shoes in 2005 and, has done very well w/ the 2006 follow-up Cities – the Cat Empire Project. But if America isn’t ready to embrace Manu Chau, then the Cat Empire too has to wait for its due. The U.S. got its best taste of TCE to date at the 2006 Bonnaroo music festival, but now has only a 6-song EP to satiate us until Two Step makes its first domestic appearance on Feb. 6, 2007.
But the time is right. The six-piece (and their horn and dance sections) rarely slips into the clichés of the styles from which they borrow, and achieves a greater whole than bands that amalgamate genres simply because they have no other way to set themselves apart from ‘the others’. It’s easy to tire of contrived ‘feel awright now, shake yo’ hips’ steel drum-heavy world music, but there’s nothing wrong w/ a little shaky-shaky when it’s done so genuinely as has The Cat Empire, even if it would be pap in less capable hands.
I’m hearing my grandparents’ Frankie Yankovic records mashed-up with some forgotten mariachi band playing an Irish jig, and that’s just the verse of Cities‘ ‘Waltz’. Believe me when I say that I mean that in the best of all possible ways, and stop me before I spend too much time lauding keyboardist Ollie McGill for expert use of the Hammond B-3 and other vintage boards en route to some otherworldly-funk that sounds like it could have been made anywhere on earth, but only in Australia. Forget listing each of the styles that Melbourne’s cultural ambassadors are capable of mastering and conjoining – that would take more space and redundancy than I’m allotted. The hip-hop/reggage/funk/soul/jazz/country/cajun band (for starters) should be listened to, not read, so check out their four-song EP available for download.Â
There is a dubious, though not completely unwarranted, stigma attached to ‘world music’ that Cat Empire avoids. Much of what is made under that moniker amounts to talentless reggae made by Europeans, or a lame Caribbean-synth swill t
hat borrows enough from other styles just enough to make it somehow qualify as ‘international’. No, this band will overcome pedestrian categorization, and just as there are too many styles to list and members to name, it’s best to leave the rest unsaid. They don’t stick with one style long enough (which, incidentally, IS their style) to repeat themselves, and they are owed the same courtesy.
Cat Empire’s double-platinum self-titled hinted at what the band would score with Two Shoes in 2005, and Cities in 2006; if this upward trajectory continues, then The Cat Empire will do more than become ‘popular’ in the U.S. – there’s potential for a Former-British Colony Invasion if there are other Aussies of like mind. Two Shoes is the right album to get the U.S.-debut treatment (dynamic and emotional), which will be released on the Velour label. That’s not to say that Cities won’t make just as big an impression when it hits stateside shelves, whenever that happens – one thing at a time, and it will all fall into place.
Joiezabel told me I’d better post this here, and there was a threatening edge to her voice that suggested consequences if I didn’t…
The one-and-only-super-fantabulous Tom Waits is making the late night television rounds this week. Tonight (11/27) he’ll be on Late Night with David Letterman on CBS, and tomorrow he hits The Daily Show with John Stewart on Comedy Central. Can’t wait to see him and Stewart try to out-funny each other.
The problem with being Isobel Campbell is that everything you do will forever be compared to Belle & Sebastian, that being your old band and all. However, on Swansong for You, her second album as The Gentle Waves (which is just Isobel, band-type-name not withstanding), she doesn’t back away from the comparison at all; indeed, she seems to deliberately invite it. The sound of the album is precisely the sort of dreamy faux-’60s pop that she was known for in B&S, and no fewer than five members of B&S wander through the record at various points.
So, using the obvious point of comparison, Swansong for You is quite a bit better and more consistent than B&S’s low points (Tigermilk, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant), but it’s nowhere near as transcendent as If You’re Feeling Sinister, or Dear Catastrophe Waitress, or the one it desperately wants to be, The Boy With The Arab Strap. Indeed, the best moments on Swansong could easily have been swapped with her contributions to Arab Strap without damaging the latter record. The difference is that, on Arab Strap, Stuart Murdoch was doing the heavy lifting with the songwriting, and so Isobel’s songs weren’t asked to be the centerpiece of the CD. Here, with all of the attention on her songs, the album seems strangely centerless, ten appetizers looking for a main course.
The simple fact is, at least based on the evidence here, Isobel doesn’t have much range as a songwriter — she likes mid-tempo things with cute chamber-pop arrangements, which describes a good three quarters of the album. Part of the issue is that her whisper-thin voice isn’t comfortable outside of that setting. The few occasions she tries to stretch can be generously described as unsuccessful: the rushed spoken-word verses of “Partner in Crime” sound forced, and her attempt at rock on “Sisterwoman” is remarkably unconvincing (though it’s actually quite a good song, except for the vocal). The other part is that her lyrics range from the blandly pretty to the frighteningly banal. “For I was young too / with trouble like you / it hurts when you throw love away,” she intones on “Loretta Young,” and it’s enough to make you want to beg Murdoch, who’s playing bass on the cut, to push her away from the microphone and sing something that might have some actual meaning.
All this might perhaps give the impression that Swansong is a bad album. It isn’t — aside from maybe “Partner in Crime,” it doesn’t have any bad tracks, it’s well-played and produced, and it does what it sets out to do fairly well. And at the heart of the matter, I think that might be the issue — it’s a perfectly pleasant record, but it doesn’t have much ambition. Sure, B&S came up with some truly awful moments, plenty of them much worse than anything on Swansong, but you usually got the impression that they were trying to do something interesting, to move forward, to stretch and grow and say something, even if only to themselves. Swansong, on the other hand, is a complacent album: it does what Isobel has long since proven that she knows how to do, and it does it well, but that’s all it does.
Release date: Nov. 7, 2000
Label: Jeepster
Rating: 6/10
