- joiezabel in Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head it really is brilliant, scott. i hate you.
- hotshotrobot in Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head Goddammit, Borch, now how am i supposed to review this? I can’t top that!
- Borch in The Avett Brothers - House of Blues - May 14th Good Lord, that’s a beautiful song! The Avett Bros. were in Chicago? Why wasn’t I notified?!
Ginormous is now an official word in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. Firefox is telling me that it’s misspelled, but Firefox is wrong. Anyway, ginormous is a good word to describe Pattern is Movement. Now a duo, the members of the band are closer to pre-Subway Jared Fogle than post (although, in fairness to the band, they’re not as big as pre-Subway Jared either). But thankfully, their new CD All Together requires a totally different word. All Together is proudly minimalist, with Andrew Thiboldeaux’s almost operatic vocals soaring over drums and keys that can be described as math rock, for wont of a better 
classification. Repetition is key to All Together, in both the lyrics and melodies. What differentiates Pattern is Movement from other math-rock bands, however, is that there are elements of just plain old rock and roll that find their way into the songs, and make the songs more accessible. On All Together, this is employed to especially good effect on “Jenny Ono” and “Bird,” songs that can best be described as memorable journeys that end before you want them too. There are a couple of songs that drag, but as a whole, the album is theatric, but still catchy. It’s tremendous.
Rating: 8/10
Release date: May 6, 2008
Label: Hometapes
(I still can’t call them The) Verve is touring the US this spring. I saw them after A Storm In Heaven was released in Boulder for $9. I don’t think anyone will be that lucky this time around.
The Verve Live
04.25.08 - Indio, CA (Coachella)
04.26.08 - Las Vegas, NV (Pearl Concert Theater)
04.28.08 - New York, NY (WaMu Theater at MSG)
04.29.08 - New York, NY (WaMu Theater at MSG)
The record industry is dying because everyone steals music off the internet! Er, maybe not. According to Reuters, iTunes has become the second biggest music retailer in the country, behind only Wal-Mart. According to the report, compiled by the NPD Group, legal downloads accounted for 10% of all music “acquired” in the US last year (whether that means sold or obtained, I’m not too sure). The amount of music purchased actually increased 6%, but “actual spending rates across the industry declined by 10 percent due to lackluster CD sales, dropping from about $44 per capita to $40 among Internet users,” Reuters reports. This could be due to a lot of things, such as stores like Best Buy and Target devoting more resources to selling their other wares instead of CDs, or maybe that music is a hell of a lot cheaper on iTunes. It’s hard to believe that the masses will be flocking to spend $16 on the new John Tesh CD, just to throw away the physical copy after they put it on their iPod.
In other news, Wal-Mart is the number one music retailer in the country. Ew.
God, it’s been a week already? But my head was clear, and the post-gig notes are mostly legible::::::::::
A five-night hometown residency to play every song in the book… bold. I want to know who managed to pull duty at all five nights, and find out what are their motivations (and connections). But the fourth was good enough for me and my companions, so…
A good parent (neither good nor parent, I… just projecting here) knows not to give a screaming child everything it wants. But sycophantic audiences of 20 to 40-somethings - occasionally more obnoxious than some infants - don’t react well to being denied anything, so Wilco and Jeff Tweedy, rock ‘n roll daddy extraordinaire gave in to our demands on Tuesday night at the Riviera, including free coffee.
The free coffee was for the kids who waited for hours in negative-sixty-degree cold for the doors to open (that’s called ‘negative reinforcement’, right?). And despite issuing a decree against encores, that’s exactly what Tweedy gave the implacable nursery of hipsters when we refused to budge at the end of the 2nd set. But not quite overindulging us… good bartenders, they cut us off at just the right time.
Between pandering to one’s whims and fetishes and the patient satisfaction that the Kama Sutra advocates, Wilco danced with both partners on Tuesday night. The show was aired on WXRT, which usually calls for a safer setlist, but even when it veered towards the predictable it came sideways.
Hard to say exactly what constitutes a ‘deep cut’ for Wilco since every song is someone’s favorite. Opening with ‘Outtasite (Outa Mind)’ isn’t exactly a b-side (and it was granted that they would bookend the night with ‘Outta Mind (Outa Site)’) but we WANTED it! The live debut of Sky Blue Sky’s ‘Leave Me (Like You Found Me)’ was a tiny gem, and seemed more consistent with the band’s mission to play every song they ever recorded. Following-up with ‘Company in my Back’ delivered, unwittingly, the illegal words, “Holy shit,” to the sensitive residents Radioland. Fuckin’ rock’n roll, man.
But the setlist was incidental to the execution of it, even if they didn’t offer anything from Mermaid Ave. Wilco’s songs are deceptively simple, but representing every sound from the discs in a live setting (sans laptop, mostly) is a feat - these tunes are dense. Faithfulness to the arrangements everyone knows was a bigger hit than had they cheated and fallen back on improvised flights to camouflage any on-stage ineptitude. Even ‘California Stars’, which doesn’t have many depths to plumb, was ebullient and chicken-tight, particularly on the vocal harmonies and interplay between Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt and utility infielder Pat Sansone… Tweedy was smiling like he just scored touchdowns (but, wait - he doesn’t believe in touchdowns… never mind) and that from the most basic song in the band’s cannon. Fierce highs, pin-drop lows… Wilco doubles as the loudest and most dynamic band around (I acquiesce, of course, that the conquerors of the straight-up LOUD department are Matt’s picks, but that’s an entirely different kind of flying, all together).
We all gave each other a little ‘aw-shucks’ look when Tweedy beamed that Chicago-love has spoiled the rest of the tour. Nevertheless, the tour is still young and may be coming near you. Go, even if they don’t promise to give you every song they ever wrote.
2-26, 27: Washington DC
2-29: Charleston, SC
3-02: Nashville, TN
3-03: Mobile, AL
3-04, 05: New Orleans, LA
3-07: Houston, TX
3-08: Tulsa, OK
3-09: Des Moines, IA
Dave Grohl is a rock god. Believe it (he looks like Jesus right now anyway). The fact that is took him thirteen years with the Foo Fighters to get to Madison Square Gardens is kind of unbelievable.
What is also pretty unbelievable is what I am about to say: That show sucked.
For me to read that even now hurts my heart and I think I died a little inside. I can’t berate the whole thing because it’s amazing to have the entire Garden sing the first chorus of “Breakout” amongst a few other momentary gems, but after watching the Fuse broadcast of the Foo rock the Big Apple, I am not happy with what I saw.
The main problem I want to blame on Fuse and their sound guys. The bass throughout the whole show was way too loud and this is coming from someone who has played bass in bands since he was 16 years old. Besides that, the rest of the band sounded weak. I don’t know what it was, but there’s no other word to describe it other than weak. I really hope that this is all the fault of Fuse because I really can’t convince myself that the Foo Fighters don’t crank their shit to 11 and blow the roof off the place.
Also, last time I checked, there were four members of the Foo Fighters, not eight. Pat Smear left the band in ‘97 and it should stay that way. I don’t know why they keep bringing that platinum bleached blonde asshole back but they seem to love the gap-toothed bastard on third guitar. Throw him in with another percussionist, female vocals/strings and a pianist who looks like every fucking added in piano player ever (semi-long haircut, rock tee with a blazer over it, jeans = d-bag add in piano player) and you have the Foo Orchestra!
We already got our fill of acoustic performances on Skin & Bones and I have heard “My Hero” and “Everlong” done in that fashion (the best on the Howard Stern Show) a couple times. I really want the Foo Fighters to get on stage and rip through a set as loud and as hard as possible. They did a good job by doing “Everlong” half acoustic and busting into it, but I rather have the high-energy chorus every time around.
I am unfortunate enough to have never of caught the Foo Fighters live in concert in the past and I will continue my streak of bad luck this time around again since I have to miss them when they roll through Chicago but maybe it’s for the best right now. When the Foo decides to do some small club tour where they can’t throw in all the extra bullshit I don’t want to see, I will be there.
Magnetic Fields have been, at various points in my life, my favorite band. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the prodigious 69 Love Songs; it’s undoubtedly one of the best releases of all time. Yes, all time. The band’s other releases don’t fall very short of that pedestal, either.
I’ve saturated myself so completely with their work that I feel pretty certain that somewhere, in the back of my mind, there will always be a Magnetic Fields song playing. Which is fine with me, as long as it isn’t a track from Distortion.
I’m not a fan.
There are two major problems with this record. The first, to me, is the very aesthetic behind it. Merritt wanted to do a noisy, feedback-filled record, My Bloody Valentine style. That’s all well and good, in theory, and god knows I was excited about it (Merritt + MBV noise = all I need), but a lot of the material on this album doesn’t lend itself well to that sound. Like plaid and paisley, these elements, when combined, do not look good together. The odd pop of Magnetic Fields doesn’t translate into shoegaze, pure and simple. It sort of works at various points on the record, and it is interesting to hear them sounding so relaxed and making such a racket. But mostly it just sounds off, and very far away from the polish of Merritt’s hyper-clever pop songs.
Which brings me to the second thing wrong with this record – it is severely lacking the captivating cleverness that makes Magnetic Fields so damn good. Most of the songs are overly simplistic in content, and some of them are just outright cliché. I don’t need Einstein level lyrics, but I’m accustomed to a Magnetic Fields that can turn a phrase. When style impedes substance I lose interest, and I think that’s what’s happening on Distortion.
Not that there aren’t good tracks on it. There are. “Please Stop Dancing” is excellent. “Too Drunk To Dream” is obviously a crowd pleaser, with lyrics like “…sober, you’re a Cro-Magnon, shitfaced you’re very clever…” and so forth. (I have to restrain myself from typing all of the lyrics out, as that would be tedious, but the whole thing is very charming.) “I’ll Dream Alone” is the typical MF lament, and also a fantastic track on this album. “California Girls” is quite likable, though the lyrics are kind of trite. But a handful of decent songs does not a great album make.
It all boils down to this: as an album, Distortion is a fine release. It’s certainly not bad, and there’s a lot to like about it. But as a Magnetic Fields album, it is disappointing.
