art is the new religion

Fightin' fire with fire

When it comes to listening to the radio and discovering music, for my money I'm choosing subscription, on demand and online.  This is not just because I've had two stereos stolen out of my sad little car.  It's because it's the only way to hear music that's programmed by people who love music, and not essentially by advertisers who need to sell Axe Body Spray to 16 year old dudes.  Or whatever they advertise on commercial radio these days, I wouldn't actually know.

Live from the archives

Anyone who has read this blog before knows that, while I love discovering new music, lately I'm as much or more interested in discovering older stuff.  Music blogging and online radio stations are generally associated with breaking new bands and starting trends, but I'm glad to see there are some sources to rediscover older music online as well.

For instance, Sippey clued me in to another good thing happening in the world of internet radio:  New York's legendary WNEW is broadcasting on HD2 at 102.7 and streaming online.

This station isn't going to help you discover new music, but you can hear pretty amazing interviews and live performances from their decades of archives.  I just heard The Go-Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed" (yay!) sandwiched between two of the more annoying songs by good bands - "The Weight" by The Band and "Elevation" by U2 (a mole in a hole, really?). But then I heard a snippet of an interview with Billy Joel from over 20 years ago, followed by a live performance.  Since I've been listening they've run a clip of Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull talking about smoked salmon and also a fantastic live performance of "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads from '83.  See, I find that interesting.  They're also doing a good job of updating their blog, talking about new and older bands from Billy Bragg to Tokyo Police Club.

Hot off the presses

Looking for a fun way to discover new music?  Add new_music on Twitter.  It's a feed of Pitchfork and Metacritic reviews rated 7 or higher, courtesy of Michael Young.  He was inspired by an old New York Magazine article that talked about people who only “Listen To Anything rated over 8.0 on Pitchforkmedia.com.”  Michael Young, I like the way you think.

Blog It

I'm interrupting my usual stream of music ramblings and dog photos to tell you a little bit about what's going on at my job.

Over here at 6A HQ lots of folks have been hard at work on the creation and launch of the new Facebook application Blog It Powered By TypePad. In fact, I wrote this while I was logged into Facebook, and was able to post it to my Vox, my TypePad and my Twitter all at once. Pretty neat.

Read all about it: http://www.typepad.com/features/blogit.html

Bet You Got It All Planned Right

Yet another perfect use for my Rhapsody subscription: listening to the remixes of Spoon's "Don't You Evah".

The tracklist:

• Don't You Evah
• All I Got Is Me
• Don't You Evah (Ted Leo's I Want It Hotter Mix)
• Don't You Evah (Diplo Mix)
• Don't You Evah (Matthew Dear Mix)
• Don't You Evah (DJ Amaze & Alan Astor Mix)
• Don't You Evah (Doc Delay Fixerupper)
• Don't You Ever (The Natural History Original Version)

The new B-side is pretty cool, but...I don't need to own six new versions of a song I already really like a lot.  Full disclosure: I don't really get the point of remixes.*  Too often they sound like someone created some beat or riff or ambient noise and then graffiti'ed them over the structural beauty of an original song.  Sometimes I can recognize parts of the song that was remixed, sometimes I can't, but rarely does the remix do anything to improve upon the original version.

Speaking of the original, here's the video for "Don't You Evah" by Peter Simonite:

Back to the remixes.  Ted Leo's "I Want It Hotter Mix" made it the kind of hot that's too humid and all you want to do is lay on the couch and not move.  Diplo made some interesting sounds and then mixed in Britt's vocals like he's a noisy nextdoor neighbor echoing in like a non-sequitur.  My vision of a remix is actually re-mixing the tracks of the song, pointing out some interesting parts the listener might not have heard before -- say, drop out the bass and isolate the handclaps, maybe add in some sounds here and there.  Not create a whole new song and paste in some of the vocal track every once in awhile.  In this batch, the version that comes closest to what I envision as a remix is the one by DJ Amaze & Alan Astor.

The Natural History's original version of "Don't You Ever" is great, and an awesome addition to this release.  Apparently The Natural History recorded "Don't You Ever" in 2004 for their second full-length album People That I Meet.  The record was due to be released in 2005, but then the band split from their label and the record wasn't available to the public until they self-released it in 2007.  Spoon obviously heard the song in the meantime and covered it on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.  Spoon is one of the few bands that chooses cover songs in a way that I never would know they didn't write them. 

*I know there are really great remixes, and really talented remixers, out there.  But none of the outfits that "Don't You Evah" has tried on here are very flattering.  My advice: skip the remixes and just get the B-side and The Natural History's original. 

And if you can point me to some great remixes and talented remixers, by all means do. 

• Buy Spoon's "All I Got Is Me" mp3 and The Natural History's "Don't You Ever" mp3 from Amazon.

This could be the year for the real thing

Something caught my eye while I was surfing around on Insound the other day.  I saw it in my peripheral vision, and did a double take to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.  Because it almost sounded too amazing to be true, but it is true.  I saw it with my own two eyes and then ordered it immediately.

The Constantines and Feist covering the famous duet written by the Bee Gees and popularized by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers: "Islands in the Stream".  Available on 7" vinyl.

Did someone make this just for me?  I knew those two were friends, with the Canadian indie rock connection and all, plus Feist likes to drop a lil "Nighttime/Anytime (It's Alright)" into her live performances of "Sea Lion" (which thrilled me).  But I didn't realize they have a taste for the old school classics too.

The original song is so incredible, and so ingrained in my musical DNA, that I'd probably be incensed if any two other artists decided to cover it.  I mean, how can you improve on the voices of Kenny and Dolly?  They're masters.  Witness:

Feist and The Constantines tossed out the spunk of the original and imbued it with a somnolent sincerity.  Give it a listen.  The thought of this collaboration was definitely more exciting than the final result, but I'll still be happy to get the record in the mail.

Meanwhile, I'm counting the days until The Constantines release their third album, Kensington Heights, on April 29th.

• Buy the "Islands in the Stream" 7" by Feist and The Constantines from Insound.

Dangerous, stressful, glittering, burning

On fire.

There is so much going on that I never talk about.  There is so much going on inside me that I never express.  I feel it all and never say it out loud.  Not that I'd say any of these things - if and when I got a wild hair to say them - on my blog.  I'm just talking about the not-talking, here.  Maybe that's why I want to write a novel someday - I can write it all down and attribute it to fictional characters.

My friend Erin started a blog called That Makes One Of Us.  I'm feeling it.  She's writing poetry:

...I

see you in imagination

where

my heart's a box of red crayons

where blue ghosts come to draw

and

my heart's a bumper sticker

that says

if you can read this, you're too close

and I

laugh.

Few things move me like a really good poem does.

I'm feeling love from my friends who play around with me and put up with me.  And I'm feeling Sarah's photography.

I'm feeling curious. 
I'm feeling inspired. 
I'm feeling sideways.

What's the worst that could happen?

St. Vincent on Food

My friend Harold sent me the link to this video of Annie Clark appearing on Cooking With Rockstars.  The interview isn't riveting, but the quick snippets of her live performance are.

I never deserved you from the start

The flow of promotional CDs to my mailbox has slowed to more of a trickle, but I do receive something good in a bubble mailer every once in awhile.  For instance, a few weeks ago I got a copy of Annuals' Wet Zoo EP.

I was a big fan of their debut album Be He Me, released in 2006 on Ace Fu, with its sing-song chaos and refined calamity.  Watch the video for "Brother" from the first record:

I was surprised to see they've jumped to an imprint of a major label - Canvasback is part of Columbia Records - for this  EP and the next full length.  The immediate fear is that they'd lose their adventurousness, but this doesn't seem to be the case.  These songs are definitely a little more polished and melodic, but they haven't been watered down.

Here's the video for the beautiful and heartbreaking "Sore" off the Wet Zoo EP:

If you're headed to Coachella, be sure to catch their set.

• Buy Be He Me and Wet Zoo from Insound.com.

Time Stops Still When...

My friend Chad sent me the new Goldfrapp record Seventh Tree and I've been listening to in the rare calm moments I've had over the past two days.  I haven't digested the entire album yet, but the song "Happiness" did stand out by getting stuck in my head and giving me a nice fuzzy, diffused feeling, kind of like you get when the dentist gives you nitrous oxide or after you've had two margaritas.

The music here is lulling, but the lyrics themselves also have a narcotic effect -- it seems she's singing from the point of view of a persuasive cult leader.  I'm in - show me some happiness and love, real love...

Here's Goldfrapp performing the song live on the Jonathan Ross show.  This particular clip must have been made by a superfan because they seem to have cut in every camera shot of Alison and Will, the principle members.  Even the one where she looks colossally bored, resting her chin on her hand, while The Rock flashes a smile from the adjacent couch.  Alison is always gorgeous and creative stylistically, so she's inevitably the focal point, but get a gander at Will's facial hair.  He looks like he's midway to morphing into a werewolf:

I was pretty delighted to see a keytar player in this performance, but that thrill quickly subsided as soon as I noticed the guy's wearing shorts.  This breaks one of my cardinal rules of onstage style:  you are only permitted to wear shorts on stage if your name is Angus Young.

Listen to a little bit more from Goldfrapp, including a live performance of "A&E" and "Caravan Girl" from the new record:

• Buy Seventh Tree from Amazon or, better yet, buy it at Insound.

Bands make it rock, but roadies make it roll

One of the purchases I made from Antone's Record Store was the double album soundtrack to the movie Roadie.

I love looking at the soundtrack section in a record store because it's inevitably amusing and bewildering.  Most movie soundtracks that were released on vinyl were for movies I've never seen, but that's not because they weren't star-studded and/or bizarrely awesome.  It's fascinating to get a glimpse of what films have stood the test of time (Grease, Saturday Night Fever) and what films faded into obscurity.  I'm going to file Roadie under: faded into obscurity* (please correct me if I'm wrong and this film is well-known).  This is the first time I've heard of this 1980 film starring Meatloaf and featuring cameos from Blondie, Alice Cooper, Hank Williams, Jr. and Roy Orbison.

Here's the trailer:

Of course, I didn't need to know anything about the movie to want to own the soundtrack.  It's a staggering roster of cool artists with a few complete unknowns thrown in to keep us guessing.  Check out the track list:

Side 1

• Cheap Trick "Everything Works If You Let It"
• Pat Benatar "You Better Run"
• Joe Ely Band "Brainlock"
• Alice Cooper "Road Rats"

Side 2

• Teddy Pendergrass "Can't We Try" (I've always felt a strange kinship to Teddy Pendergrass, as his name is similar to mine in sounds & syllables)
• Eddie Rabbitt "Drivin' My Life Away" (this song's second mention on AITNR)
• Stephen Bishop and Yvonne Elliman "Your Precious Love"
• Jay Ferguson "A Man Needs A Woman"

Side 3

• Styx "Crystal Ball"
• Sue Saad and the Next "Double Yellow Line"
• Blondie "Ring of Fire" (I've never heard this cover!)
• Alice Cooper "Pain"

Side 4

• Roy Orbison and Emmylou Harris "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again" (so much for my Emmylou moratorium)
• Jerry Lee Lewis "(Hot Damn) I'm A One Woman Man"
• Hank Williams, Jr. "The American Way"
• Asleep At The Wheel "Texas, Me and You"

The Texas connection is a special bonus for me.  The synopsis:   

A young Texas good ol' boy has a knack with electronic equipment, and that talent gets him a job as a roadie with a raucous traveling rock-and-roll show.

Songs from Joe Ely and Asleep At The Wheel are also a tipoff that it's Texas-centric, but the Shiner on the front cover is the biggest giveaway.

The art inside is pretty great too.

All in all, I consider this a pretty good score.

• Buy Roadie(released on DVD in 2003) from Amazon.

                        *Not to be confused with Roadhouse, which is still going strong.

Record Shopping at Antone's

This weekend I finally stopped in to a record store that's a ten minute walk from my house, a store that I've passed by hundreds of times in the past six months.  It was a long-held assumption that prevented me from stepping in to check it out earlier:  I figured Antone's Records just had a bunch of old blues music that I'd really have to be in the right mood to want to check out, but of course it turns out that's all wrong. 

If you've ever lived in Austin, or even just visited, you've probably heard about the legacy of the late Clifford Antone.  During his time here he started a venue, a record label and a record store all under the name of Antone's.  The venue, often called "the home of the blues", was started in 1975 and hosted blues and soul legends like B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Pinetop Perkins and more.  It also hosted and supported countless local legends, giving the place a family feeling that was sometimes even true-to-life with Stevie Ray Vaughan and his relatives to Doyle Bramhall Sr. and Jr.   

Antone's the club closed and reopened in a few locations before settling on its current 5th street setting, but the one I remember was the dark, intimate space on Guadalupe Street.  Outings to the club with my college friends yielded my first glimpses of the flash of Buddy Guy, the uniqueness of Malford Milligan and the shock and awe of all-out hippie dancing.  My best memory was going with my friend Chris to hang out backstage with Chris Whitley after a show there, the first of many meetings with the reclusive genius before we lost him in 2005.  I felt a genuine and true atmosphere at that club, like good music flowed regularly and was stored up in the walls to reverberate in the silence.  Truly those were some of my first doses of real live music heard shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers, so I was probably pretty easily impressed.

Here's the trailer from the documentary Antone's: Home of the Blues which I haven't seen yet:

These days Antone's the venue has strayed pretty far from its roots in the blues.  You can hear the blues maybe one night a week and the rest is filled mostly with rock and roots -- I saw the Gutter Twins at full volume there last week.  Antone's Record Store, opened in 1987 and located across the street from the venue's former Guadalupe location, also branches out from the blues.  I went in to the small space on Saturday and spent about an hour rifling through several well-curated sections including jazz, country, R&B, vocals, rock and a special one for Texas music.  They even had some brand new indie rock records which I was surprised to see - and it wasn't just the homeboys in Spoon or Trial of Dead.  The prices aren't too bad and I walked out with eight selections - two of them double albums - so I have plenty of new-to-me old stuff to listen to.  I even picked up a vinyl copy of Chris Whitley's masterpiece Living With The Law, and that little bit of nostalgia felt just right.

• Buy Chris Whitley's Living With the Law on CD from Amazon.
• Buy the documentary Antone's Home of the Blues on DVD from Amazon.
• Read more about the legacy of Clifford Antone.