Society Always Wins

I was torn between Mark Sandman's "My Cocoon" from his box set rarities collection, and Pulp's "Sunrise" for my pick. As an introvert, I do have the tendency to retreat, and I have a helluva place to retreat, surrounded by literally hundreds of CDs, an XBox 360, some choice vinyl, a decent book collection await me when I get home. And until late last year, I had an amazing companion who was always vegging on the couch when I got home.

However, as much as the alternative usually burns you...for every great concert you go to or every amazing night out at the pub you have with a few friends, discussing the state of things, there's more instances of disappointment - those times where the places are too loud, too obnoxious, and honestly, too expensive, where you drive home, kicking yourself saying "I just spent $30 I didn't have, when I could have easily had a better time at home with a book."

Jarvis Cocker seems to have been in a similar situation when he penned the closing song of Pulp's final album (at least up to this point). After a beautiful beginning, where Mark Webber's guitar sounds like a literal sunrise, Jarvis bemoans:

I used to hide from the sun, tried to live my whole life underground.
Why'd you have to rise & ruin all my fun?

The answer, of course, is that the sunrise is inevitable. As much as you try to hide from it and pull the shades close, it will eventually shine on you sometime during he day. So the only logical response is to continue to go out. Continue to risk rejection, continue to endure those horrible movies that burn a hole in your wallet, and continue to put up with the occasional moron who reduces your faith in humanity, because as the protagonist in the song says...

Yeah, here's your sunrise when you've been awake
all night long & you feel like crashing out at dawn.
But you've been awake all night, so why should you crash out at dawn?

Side note...the guitar solo on this is absolutely bitchin'...

Seems like you've done this before?

This song doesn't have anything to do with a current situation that I may or may not be dealing with but a past one. That part is positive. Or it could just be a ruse I'm using. You'll never know because you're not inside my head... But what is really running in my head is this great track by Anberlin. I know this song has been around for quite some time and it's just getting better with time. "Breaking" is clearly the song about a guy who meets a girl who is just posing as the good girl to use the guy. It's the simple but apparent current modern day love story. It used to be the knight had to rescue the damsel in distress from a dragon/ogre/monster/evil step-sisters/midget but now the current trend is the knight in shining armor gets massacred by the facade of the damsel in distress. 

Such poetry in the lines like: 

Do you collect the souls you've lost

In the top of your dresser drawer

Count the number of tears displaced

On lonely bedroom floors

A machine where your heart once was

Slowly takes the place of you

Only hold the memories now

Of a love I thought I knew.

Also, the great use of instrumentals are like a pulse. The first part builds up with a piano  Such an epic song... 

A Friend In Need - A Social Media Case Study

Sunday morning -

Said writer checks a few news sites for daily headlines. He loads up Google and clicks the 'YouTube' link. Within the YouTube link, there's a inexplicable link to a 7-second link to a scene from Batman: The Animated Series.

The links to similar Batman comics display on the right side. One of them features Tim Drake shooting The Joker. I watch that clip. Another link has a brief retrospect of Tim Drake's appearances. I click on that link. And a song by Placebo pops up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLXpllnERlE

Said band has been passed onto me a few times by another writer on this site. Said song can't get out of my head for the rest of the day.

When Criticism Just Doesn't Matter

I know I'm in a state of at least mild depression when Aimee Mann becomes a recurring fixture on my 5-disc CD changer. She has always been well liked by critics, and reached her critically-adorned peak with the Magnolia soundtrack, which did feature some of her best work. However, the song that routinely gets me is "Video" from her Forgotten Arm album.

I would love to tell you it's the chorus, or the expert placement of mandolin that makes the song so memorable. But honestly, it just always hits the bullseye emotion-wise. It's sort of like if you have a shoulder injury, and there's that one exercise that will always feel like a cut going straight for the bone.

For music, that's when you know you have your personal favorite. When no amount of critical feedback, either pro or con will sway your opinion of the track in the slightest. It's your song.

RELAUNCHING!

Yes, we're relaunching. Keep posted!

It's been tough...

These last couple months haven't been easy. 2010 ended on some sad notes and some good notes. It was pretty much that was well, a pretty bittersweet victory. Somedays you're in the clouds and somedays you have one foot in the grave. 

Well, with that all sad, let's go with The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony as a our comeback post. 

England

Yesterday, I put my weimaraner down. Words can't come close to describing the joy he brought into my life.


For a good amount of the day, I was playing The Beatles' "Blackbird" - mainly for the lyrics "Take these broken wings and learn to fly" and "All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free."


Then, a stronger feeling gripped me. I remember hearing the second to the last song on The National's High Velvet album. I remember feeling drained when I listened to it, but in a good way - like a purging.


Matt Berninger's vocals may be more articulate than most indie lead vocalists, but his baritone can sometimes send you to a lyrical website to decipher some of the lyrics. Little did I know the first refrain pretty much summed up this entire day:


"Someone send a runner through the weather I am under for the feeling that I've lost today" -


To say that I've lost a feeling is an understatement. But honestly, what better way to phrase up this day than that statement? Feelings are one of the most important elements in being human, and the thought of one of those feelings that are part of your makeup being lost - perhaps never to be found again - is like losing a part of your self.


The song's focus is someone who has moved (fled?) from a previous area. The song's protagonist flatly observes "You must be somewhere in London / You must be loving your life in the rain."
As someone who has routinely thought about moving/fleeing my home state, I can readily identify with lines like " You put an ocean and a river between everybody / Between everything, yourself and home."


Though this has little to do with the opening refrain, the final refrain is staring me in the face for the next few days : "afraid of the house / stay the night with the sinners"
I'm not looking forward to the next few days - going home not to see a dog on the couch. Feeling that "I need to get home and let Jake out - I've been gone for almost six hours" - and then realizing you no longer have a need to go home.


"England" doesn't sum up what I'm feeling right now. But it shows that sometimes, and entire song isn't necessary to sum up your feelings. Sometimes a simple refrain is all that's needed.































R.I.P. Jake

THE RETURN OF STUCK ON LOOP!

I could insert a lame story of why I haven't posted anything in the last two months but the fact is I messed up and got a little too busy with work and some projects. Now, we're back and kicking off again with the 25 Songs of Christmas. What? Yes, 25 Songs In 25 Days!

Oh, and we are also kicking it off with a special teaser. Like Relient K's "12 Days Of Christmas" since it's a great twist of an overplayed song that you'll be hearing for the next month.

So at this point, I'll like to ask, "What's a partridge and what's a pear tree?"

Kicking Your Monday Off On A Mellow Note

A well-worn cliche in music is that what's not said or heard in a song can be as important as what's heard. A textbook version of this is Dylan's "Most of the Time."

I initially heard this one from one of the scores of Dylan "bootleg" releases (the excellent bootleg series that included his Oh Mercy/Time Out of Mind/Love and Theft period). But the song was familiar enough for some reason, and it was only after a bit of research that I discovered it was featured in a pivotal scene in High Fidelity, a movie that all music geeks should have in their collection.

Pay no mind to the slightly glossy video and production. The song itself is among Dylan's best, and unfortunately buried in one of his lesser albums (Oh Mercy). It's pure late-era Dylan. A woman wronged him. And you're hearing the voice of a man with a scarred heart.

Of course, according to the song, things are going OK.

"Most of the time I'm clear and focused all around

Most of the time I can keep both feet on the ground"

His resilience continues....

"I can handle I stumble upon / I don't even notice she gone

Most of the time"

Of course, the key is "most of the time."

His bitterness grows, but never in a wallowing self-pity tone. He even goes as far as to not give her a name.

"I can survive and I can endure

And I don't even think about her

Most of the time"

The "most of the time" is the stuff that tears you up. It's the reason Dylan spent a bit more time emphasizing "her" - adding a slight growl at the end. For true effect, go to the original recording from "Oh Mercy" - and let the final atmospherics by Daniel Lanois engulf you.

SOL Returning Monday due to burnout

As you probably have guessed, we haven't been doing the best in getting stuff pushed daily. Scott has a wicked cold. I've had three articles due....tonight - and a hellishly brutal workweek. So SOL will be taking a hiatus this week due to burnout.

But I feel bad not giving readers something, so in the spirit of the reason for the brief hiatus...

Sometimes The Bad Guys Win - NSFW

This past week was a test. Work had me there until 7 at night. Then a few hours of take-home work. Meaning I left my dog at home to fend for himself and...hold it - for a full 11 hours. I had deadlines at my newspaper I freelance for - and I couldn't get near the progress I wanted on two stories I was writing. If stress can make you sick, I was living proof on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Then I heard about the senseless tragedy at Rutgers where a student took his life after an intimate moment was filmed without his knowledge - and then posted to the Internet. A combination of sleep deprivation and stress has a way of scrubbing your nerves saw, leaving you exposed to the slightest negativity. And in this situation, I went for my "go to" song, Jarvis Cocker's "Running the World."

The song was written in response to the relative lack of interest/impact of Live 8. The song's striking cynicism was enough to make Blur's Damon Albarn to publicly chastise Cocker for the song. But I defy Damon to answer whether or not he's ever felt what Cocker was singing about. Over a simple, mournful piano chord, Jarvis keeps the drama to a minimum, going with a plainspoken delivery:

"Well did you hear, there’s a natural order.

Those most deserving will end up with the most.
That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top,
Well I say: Shit floats."

He then surveys the damage of a worldwide economic crash (a year before it actually happened even!). If these were spoken by any other angst-ridden singer or even co-worker or associate, you may tire of its perpetual bleak outlook, but Cocker manages to give it a weary elegance.

"Now the working classes are obsolete,
They are surplus to societies needs,
So let ‘em all kill each other,

And get it made overseas."

The final verse is almost a rip-off of The Clash's "Know Your Rights" where Joe Strummer said "You have a right to free speech - as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it". Cocker's version:

"And if you don’t like it? Then leave.
Or use your right to protest on the street,
Yeah, use your rights but don’t imagine that it’s heard, Oh no no"

The vulgar chorus is the shock value, but honestly, the song is so well structured, I would have been fine with Cocker singing "Jerks are still running the world." Just what he said was a bit more effective. And I praise him for having the stones to release a song as beautifully bleak as this.

Speaking of beautifully bleak, the song plays in the credits of one of the best films of the last decade, Children of Men. If you haven't tracked it down yet, by all means do so. Your future college-aged sophomore geeks will be obsessing over this movie just as geeks today obsess over Blade Runner.

A Road Less Travelled?

Ever have one of those days where the person in the gaudy car cuts you off with an illegal driving tactic despite you doing the speed limit? 

Ever feel like you're content just being average because you know how to be happy with being modest? 

Well, as a guy who runs www.GHOSTBUSTING.net and dressing like a Ghostbusters ever so often,for things like Halloween, it might be a little hard to believe that I am happy with being modest and working with what is average. 

Anywoo, tonight I present to you a song by a band called Dredg. See, a year ago I was transferred with my job and ended up bumping into a childhood friend of my older brother. Buddy and I have some stories that go way back and other stories; well I embellished a lot on the past experiences that Buddy and I had from getting kicked out of Sunday School to getting wounded in the face with a Ninja Turtles' pizza thrower. Since I was working with Buddy for a while, I got to pick up on some of his tastes in music and honestly, I'm rather jealous of the amazing collection of bands that he has in his playlist. 

One of them being Dredg. And Dredg has an amazing song about modesty and being content. 

What Just Happened?

I'm very dark and poetic; sometimes gothic. I'm sure Sean would second that statement about me. I mean, my music collection goes from Stabbing Westward to Gravity Kills or Depeche Mode to The Cure or Kill Hannah to The Birthday Massacre.

But sometimes, sometimes, I can be happy. Like I might toss on something to my playlist that has nothing to do with being sad. Can you imagine that?

Well, she just happened to cross my mind. The powerful sound of ska from The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones just happened.

"Check" This Out

I'm at my desk, listening to Sound Opinions (soundopinions.org). This week's program is about sophomore albums that WORK. Usually, a band succumbs to the dreaded sophomore slump. It could be for various reasons. My gut reaction is that a band's first album is an album that has to be made for the band. The band will oftentimes have to drudge through their day or night shift jobs, sink their money or non-money (credit cards) into making the album. These albums inevitably showcase a band at their hungriest.

Then, if they're lucky, success happens. In some cases, they don't have anything left to say. It's the same thing that hangs across great writers - as great as they are, they may only have one album in them. In other cases, a band gets lazy or complacent. They go from selling t-shirts at the back of their cars to pay for the gas to go to the next town, to having everything handed to them. And with the inevitable record contract comes the burden of releasing an album out of obligation.

But some artists are able to transcend this sophomore slump. Think Radiohead's The Bends, think Cowboy Junkies The Trinity Sessions, think Morphine's Cure For Pain, and think A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory. Two great genres separated by a huge generation gap, jazz and hip-hop, find a great marriage with The Low End Theory. "Check The Rhyme" is one of those songs that if anyone hates hip-hop, I defy them to listen to it and not be at least partially swayed to not discredit the entire genre. Sophisticated, flawlessly executed and just plain fun, "Check the Rhyme" is a high point in '90s hip-hop.

A Tad of Regret

The raspy vocals Mark Oliver Everett are an instrument in themselves but the lo-fi band known as The Eels  is more than just Everett's vocals. So with that part said, I'm going to move to the next part and actually introduce today's SoL; which is obviously going to be from The Eels. The song? Well, it's "I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart."

One of the great things I love about The Eels is the fact that their songs always keep up the same consistency of Everett's vocals, the plucking of guitar strings, and melancholy.

Anyway, sorry about the short posts and lack of involvement lately - getting ready and pumped up for a series of comic book conventions and the year anniversary of www.GHOSTBUSTING.net!

-Scott

Metaphors abound!

Say what you want about Fiona Apple. She's flighty. She's moody. She's erratic. But pity the person who underestimates her.

Apple of course entered the pop culture psyche with the eerie, voyeuristic video "Criminal." It had a nice hook. But a girl with a piano - Tori Amos already had that angle covered. As if anyone would tell a dude who picked up a guitar "Sorry, Springsteen's already filling that niche."

The best songwriters have easily-identifiable talents. You hear a Fountains of Wayne song, you're probably going to hear a tale of "7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m." cubicle woes. A u2 song will probably be about something...big. A Pavement song will be about...whatever the hell it's supposed to be about.

But as for Fiona Apple, chances are, a metaphor will be front and center. On the vague "Extraordinary Machine", Apple sings about taking whatever people say or think about her, and making the most out of it. On "Paper Bag", a perceived bird turns out to be a paper bag. However, as a certain notable movie showed us in that year, a bag could be a thing of beauty.

Her metaphor streak first showed up on "Shadowboxer", from her album Tidal. In that song, her significant (or soon to be ex-significant) other has turned into a sparring partner, as his actions - be it verbal or not - are treated as jabs. "I wanna be ready for what you do," Apple sings in a weary voice that almost seems like an act for a teenager. But when she sings "But I'll be sure to stay wary of you, love / to save the pain of once my flame and twice my burn" - you know it's the real deal.

Sick Day

Sorry for the lateness on this one. Battling a fever and a stomach virus.

In the late '80s and early '90s, rap was famously known as "The black CNN." But growing up in the late '80s and early '90s, I saw a lot of well-to-do high schoolers blasting NWA from their BMWs. And to be honest, I think a lot of rappers took advantage of this suburban type of urban fantasy by embellishing some of their bios. It's not different than what some outlaw country artists did a few decades before.

But Ice Cube was a different story. I wasn't too keen on gangsta rap in early '90s for its incessant posturing. But one listen to Ice Cube's "Today Was A Good Day" changed my outlook almost instantly. Instead of hearing stories about drive-bys and revenge, we heard Ice Cube detailing an utterly normal day to middle America, but a rarity for someone who is actually living in the environment Ice Cube routinely painted.

Cube expertly weaves in a few monotonous details - watching Yo MTV Raps, getting a fat burger at two in the morning and not getting pulled over by the cops. Cube also weaves in more poignant details - "plus nobody I know got killed in South Central L.A." Cube's frank delivery gave that line a stark realism that was missing in more than 90 percent of gangsta rap at that time. It was one of the few times where the information felt more like a letter from a warzone than a Grand Theft Auto fantasy.

Some Time Around Midnight

A couple years ago, I had the joy of having to borrow my a friend's car while my car was in the shop for repairs. During that horrible three day marathon driving, I was stuck with a radio; and no CD player or mp3 input devices. I was cursed with FM stations. And out of nowhere, there was something airborne and toxic going through the frequencies. No, not Britney Spears either.

It was some type of airborne toxic event going on. In fact, it was sometime around midnight. It started with a stringed orchestra, a mellow rock sound, and an emotional vocalist with just as emotional lyrics. Oh, this was The Airborne Toxic Event and it was Sometime Around Midnight. I pulled myself over to make sure to scribble that information down when I got home. I would then spend the next couple weeks of 2008 awaiting for August to come so I get this debut album for this band.

So fast forward, the album comes out literally right before I have to be sent away for job training and while I should be looking for the last bits of what I need to travel, I am instead hunting down this album for such a small and unknown band. Finally found it and rip it straight into iTunes so I can make it portable for this long flight to Texas from New Jersey. All I can do is hope that the rest of the album is half as good as their one song.

The Airborne Toxic Event failed to disappoint. "This Is Nowhere" became one of my favorite songs and this CD would end up living in my CD player for that car for the next year and rarely would be taken out. Literally, I could listen to this album 6 hours straight and still fall in love with each time I listened.



So I present to you, "This Is Nowhere" and tell you, it's the only song I know that uses the word, accoutrements. And it also makes you question things.

Cut Bob Some Slack

File Under Easy Listening has been maligned for being too similar to Copper Blue. And no doubt, I'm in that camp. Whenever I see this album on Amazon, I see it in the one-cent ghetto. In local record stores, it's usually on that huge wall of CDs that's marked "3 for $3", along with CDs from Deadeye Dick and a Backstreet Boys single.

But like most of Bob Mould's post-Husker Du output (at least before he dabbled into techno), there was at least a genuine stab at creating a truly great pop song. That was Bob Mould's Moby Dick. Yes, there were tons of moments on albums like Zen Arcade that had Mould screaming at the top of his lungs amidst a wall of ear-piercing feedback, but he also had an amazing sense of rhythm, which was accentuated on the brilliant New Day Rising.

So, I've spent the last couple of weeks transferring any remaining CDs that didn't make it to my removable hard drive...to my removable hard drive. It's a great way to rediscover some works that have been gathering some serious dust (see Virgin Suicides soundtrack, Smashing Pumpkins' "Zero" maxi-single, complete with a 20-minute plus song). Sure enough, File Under Easy Listening came up.

The album is no Copper Blue, but it certainly doesn't deserved to be left with stacks of other forgotten CDs at a failing record store. If only for the song "Gee Angel." It's pure Sugar - watery guitar riffs, Mould's driving vocals and a chorus that's difficult to shake.

The video is also a great snapshot of mid-90s nostalgia. The video's effects are so dated, they take on an endearing quality. The cartoons in the video are great - utterly familiar...you've seen these things before, but for the life of you, you don't remember where. They're not Warner Bros. They're not Hanna Barbara, they're not Disney, but you swear you've seen them sometime before - maybe on a cheap, locally-produced Sunday morning entertainment show for kids to watch while their moms and dad's get dressed up for church.

Where Is This Life That You Had?

There are several songs that kind of are a wake up call to you, the listener. This one, particularly, is the defining song of a band called Low vs Diamond. In 2008, Rolling Stone credited these Americans with the being one of the six bands that are defining pop and rock. So today, I present to you, "This Is Your Life."

With guitars that belong out of a Travis album, Low vs Diamond instantly captivates my attention with their sound of melancholily. A slow drumbeat matches the stings and sets the pace as frontman Lucas Field's vocals dig deeply into you when you listen to the lyrics. It's a perfect audial concept that is executed by a band that may, perhaps, be going nowhere.

Greatly written lyrical lines such as, "You reached for the sun; afraid of the day." make up the chorus with other great lines  such as:

And after work you are so tired but still a star

So I waited all day by your side

It's starting to wear on my pride

So go do what you want

I won't ask why

'Cause I'm leaving all this by my side

And I'm starting to wear all my pride

This song is clearly, about someone no longer willing to be manipulated or controlled but not wishing to fight with the oppressor. 

The debut album from Low vs Diamond is their only published work; with very little reason elsewhere to believe that there could be a second album since the release of their self-titled album in 2008. They were amazing when I saw them live in 2009 with Jack's Mannequin and Matt Nathanson.

Honestly, with this indie band from California, I'd like to see them pair up with New York's Longwave for a tour.