Rave On!

I watch this and really wish I didn't pass on seeing them last May. Easily my favourite television performance by the Raveonettes. The rough video quality (despite having been shot in 2006) makes it all the better.

Les Savy Fav? Is That You?

http://tinyengines.bandcamp.com/album/athaletics

No, it's Wavelets, from Philly. But they have LSF's (and even a little bit of Kings of Leon's) vocals mashed up with American Football-style staccato as well as the lush, airy, emo-pop jams of American Football (check out AF's song "Never Meant" for reference). Pretty good and catchy album, Athaletics is.

While on the Subject of "Crazy" Covers

I'm starting to think there's no such thing as a bad cover of "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.

Wild, unrestrained vocal delivery partially from a distorted mic by Jack White (in the Raconteurs):



In complete contrast, a tightly controlled, mid-tempo, instrumental version by Booker T. Jones:

Second Chance: Violent Femmes

I've been listening to Baltimore folk-punk band Paul Newman and the Ride Home, lately, and while they don't entirely sound like Violent Femmes, their mutual acoustic sound and attitude made me decide to give the Femmes another shot. I can't remember when I got rid of my Violent Femmes collection. Probably back in high school. But anyway, the point is: "Blister in the Sun" is still a super-sweet song, and they do a killer cover of "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley:

What Would Happen If Zooey Deschenal and Best Coast Wrote and Performed A Song Together?

It might sound a little something like California dream-pop sisters Chelsea and Justine Brown, A.K.A. Summer Twins. Their self-titled album came out four days ago on Burger Records. Yes, Burger Records, possibly the best label name I've heard. Is it summer yet? *sigh*

Documentary Stream: Vinyl

A 2000 documentary by Toronto filmmaker Alan Zweigg. American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar also appears in this doc which you can watch in its entirety below:

Cat Power, Ya Really Do It For Me Sometimes.

"Nude As the News," Cat Power's first song to receive the music video treatment, and my new favourite Cat Power song, the bluesy, klopping "They Tell Me," both from her 1996 album What Would the Community Think? (Matador Records). I can't find a single thing wrong with this album.



I just love how how Cat Power sounds like she's in the same room as me on "They Tell Me," yet there's also a spectral detachment in her voice:

No Sinner at the Biltmore on Feb. 3?

For ten bucks? Yeah, probably. I mean, it would just totally slay to hear that voice at 4:03-4:07 live.

I feel like Vancouver's fiery, Joplin-inspired newcomers No Sinner would be a good time to break my habit of not drinking before/at shows. They definitely sound like an appropriately bloozy, rompin', swingin' good time, and the Biltmore's just a nine-minute stagger home. I could take that.

"Boo Hoo Hoo" may be my favourite thing I've heard from Vancouver's local music scene - except maybe the Jolts. And Half-Chinese. But they're another couple of posts.

Sometimes, I Just Can't Get This Song out of My Head.

And that's a good thing:

First Beef of the New Year: No Age Vs. Kings of Leon

No Age have accused Kings of Leon of ripping off No Age's white T with rainbow-coloured text. As much as I love No Age and dislike post-Because of the Times Kings of Leon (although, their latest album Come Around Sundown is actually pretty decent), I think this claim is a little farfetched. I whole-heartedly do not believe No Age are the first to have put rainbow-coloured block text on a white T. It's far too simple of a design to have first appeared in the New freakin' Millennium. But hey, what do I know about the history of logos and clothing design?

The Wave Pictures - "Sugar Maple Charcoal"

  The Wave Pictures - "Sugar Maple Charcoal" by wiaiwya

I'm mostly past acoustic folk pop backed by sparse brass (although I still highly enjoy the classics like Belle & Sebastian), but I can't deny that this is just a pleasant little song at the very least.

I Kind of Want To Drop ~$41 To See A Band I've Never Heard

But have heard of. Bad decision? Maybe not entirely.

I've been watching some videos of SoCal punk legends Social Distortion, and they are fucking great - REALLY fucking great. Guitar chops and obvious country, blues and rockabilly influences (their later work has been called punkabilly/cowpunk). Maybe. Just maybe I'll go. I mean, I can just imagine how fun "Story of My Life" would be live:



Speaking of California punk, I totally forgot Rancid had a hit besides "California Sun" ("Salvation"). No questions about it: it's definitely time I look up some Rancid records.

Violet Age

As I've said in my Sharon Van Etten- and War on Drugs-related posts, my concert well's been dry since Andrew W.K. at the end of November. I've been, for the first time, reduced to looking up cheap local shows, and so far, I've been pleasantly surprised. One band I've come across is local group Violet Age. The first couple of tracks from their three-song Prescriptions EP (which one can download for free at the band's Band Camp page) sounds like the Brian Jonestown Massacre playing Methodrone with less intoxicated minds. For only $6 at the Media Club (on Feb. 22), it will be worth skipping the post-rock/prog-metal/prog-jazz/whatever groups Ludvico Treatment and Seven Nines & Tens to see Violet Age alone.

Chairlift - "Amanaemonesia"

New York electronic pop duo Chairlift have been making a bit of noise with their second album Something (Columbia Records, 2012). While I dig the album's first single "Amanaemonesia" quite a bit, I find the rest of the album pretty unremarkable. "Amanaemonesia" certainly isn't enough to make me see their upcoming show at the Electric Owl on April 6, even for thirteen measly dollars. Synthy pop shows have never really been my thing anyway.

Yummy, Yummy Punk Rock Girls

Leather jackets 
Stupid boyfriends 
Poor report cards 
Life is just a ball 
High-top Chucks and bubblegum 
And oh, my gosh, I'd love to love them all 
They're so cool 
Their style's never cramped 
Too much of everything 
And everyone is amped 
Well, don't get hot and bothered 
Listen, I know I got problems 
I also know 
Just what this goofy world needs:

Yummy, yummy punk rock girls (x4) 
I wish they were all punk rock girls 

The smartest of the smartest 
And the sweetest of the sweetest
They're the most 
Me and Dr. Frank have both decided 
That we love them more than toast 
I wish they'd let me share their bubblegum 
And let me hang with them 
And life would be so fun 
I should be sedated 
'Cause my heart is all inflated 
I guess I gotta get me one or two 

Yummy, yummy punk rock girls (x4) 
I wish they were all punk rock girls 

I don't know where I'm going 
But I know just where I'd like to be: 
With my punk rock girlfriend kissing me 
Let's go!

Two of My Heroes Did A Song Together? No Way!

Way:


Iconic Vancouver music-reporter and musician Nardwuar the Human Serviette, with his band the Evaporators, cut a track with Andrew W.K. for an upcoming compilation called Busy Doing Nothing by Mint Records (out March 6).

A Cramps T-shirt, DFA Records T-shirt and Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! vinyl on display in this video. Could I have expected any less awesomeness from a collab between these two? SWEET!

Wrapped Up in Books (I Wish I Was)

I've never been a big reader. No, I'm not too cool for books; I just prefer to spend my down-time writing and drawing. I started reading again, yesterday, though, starting with Chris Jericho's A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex and Greg Milner's Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music (a full post on Perfecting Sound Forever to come after I finish reading that book). As I gave my bleary eyes a rest, I thought about how little I actually read - and enjoy. I thought, "I've read so little, I can probably list every book I've ever enjoyed." A few short minutes later, I whipped up that list. In even fewer minutes, I whipped up another list: a to-read list. But that wasn't enough. I wanted more - books of which I've never heard or that may have slipped my mind. And that's where you come in.

I'm open to all recommendations, but books related to music, fine/visual arts, American and Canadian history, black history, the American South, middle America, suburbia, frontier times, North American expansionism, modernism and philosophy are particularly welcome.

Whacked:
Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake
David Browne - Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth
Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Charles R. Cross - Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain
Deborah Curtis - Touching from a Distance
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment
Fannie Flagg - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Mick Foley - Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks
Bret Hart - Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling 
Hermann Hesse - Peter Camenzind
Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
Naomi Klein - No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies 
Michael Muhammed Knight - The Taqwacores
Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird
Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City 
Armistead Maupin - More Tales of the City 
Armistead Maupin - Further Tales of the City
Alan Moore - The Watchmen
Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife 
Michael Pollan - The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals 
Wilson Rawls - Where the Red Fern Grows 
J. D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye 
Susan Sontag - On Photography
John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men
Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
John Updike - Rabbit, Run 
John Updike - Rabbit Redux 
John Updike - Rabbit Is Rich 
Voltaire - Candide 
Kurt Vonnegut - Bluebeard
Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions 
Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night 
Kurt Vonnegut - Slapstick
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five
Rusty Young - Marching Powder

Hitlist: 
Margaret Atwood - The Edible Woman 
Margaret Atwood - Survival: A Thematic Guide To Canadian Literature 
L. Frank Baum -the Oz series
William S. Burroughs - various
Douglas Coupland - various
Bret Easton Ellis - various
Jonathan Franzen - How To Be Alone
Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections
Susan Freinkel - Plastic: A Toxic Love Story
Allen Ginsberg - various
Books on which movies I like and movies I dislike were based
Jack Kerouac - various
Anthony Kiedis - Scar Tissue
Chuck Klosterman - various
Jack London - various
The Marquis des Sade - Justine, or Good Conduct Well Chastised
Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being 
Jack London - various
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita 
Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto 
Michael Pollan - Food Rules: An Eater's Manual 
Motley Crue - The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
Henry Rollins - Get in the Van
John Steinbeck - various
Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 
Philip K. Dick - A Scanner Darkly

I Don't Care For Bjork, Massive Attack Or Tori Amos,

But it is BONKERS how good this mash-up (which also includes PJ Harvey) is. A song in itself. Fucking incredible:

Scout LaRue Willis. Who Knew?

Scout LaRue Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, lends her voice to 22-year-old, Rhode Island-based DJ/producer Nicolas Jaar's new track "And I Say." From what I've read about Jaar, the track's music pretty much exemplifies his emotional self-described "blue-wave" style. But as this post's title suggests, for now, I'm mainly fixated on Scout's voice. It just sends me to another dimension; reality as I know it melts away into some runny, droopy, dripping, Dali-esque Serengeti-fantasy. I'll stop myself there to prevent further sleepy, 2 A.M. rambling. I don't know if Scout is a musician herself, but I damned sure hope so,

White-Striped Underground

I heard the White Stripes' cover of the Velvet Underground's "After Hours" for the first time, a few days ago. More surprising to me than the fact that there was a White Stripes song I hadn't heard was the fact that they covered the Velvet Underground; I'd never heard either Jack or Meg mention the Velvet Underground - not one sentence or even when listing influences or favourite songs/records. I guess any influence the VU might have had on the White Stripes shouldn't be totally surprising: there is the Bowie connection (of whom the White Stripes are HUGE fans), and the VU were part of the whole northeastern punk scene in which Jack and Meg grew up.

Say what you will about Meg's voice here, but her unapologetic crudeness is just part of her infantile charm that makes the White Stripes what they are. I'd rather listen to music with this kind of heart and soul, regardless of how scrappy it is, than cold, hollow, technical jerk-off sessions by greater-revered "virtuosos." However unquantifiable and subjective "heart and soul" are.

Victoria Bergsman and Perfect Pop

Well, isn't this just a sweet little diddy of a cover? I love the way Swedish song-writer Victoria Bergsman, better known as Taken by Trees, pares down the song to a piano-lead pop core and tenderly adorns it with little else.

I'm not much for indie pop anymore, but Bergsman's former band the Concretes have always had a special little place in my heart. I'm not entirely sure why; I don't listen to either their self-titled 2003 album or 2006's In Colour anymore (the only Concretes albums I've ever had, both made made when Bergsman was still in the band). Maybe it's because I got into the Concretes during a particularly musically formative time in my life (late high school/first year university?), but moreso, I think it's because those Concretes albums contain some spectacular, perfectly-crafted pop songs. That is, because when the Concretes got indie pop right, they got it perfect.

I felt like when Victoria left the Concretes, the band's soul left with her; Hey Trouble, their first album after her departure, confirmed as much for me. Yet, I was never interested enough in the Concretes (or didn't have enough faith in Victoria Bergsman as a solo musician) to listen to Victoria's solo work as Taken by Trees. It was just a classic case of me always assuming solo efforts are just watered down versions of work musicians have done with their previous bands - an assumption I always make with complete awareness of its ridiculousness.

So, Victoria's Bergsman's cover of "Sweet Child O' Mine" proved I was correctly incorrect about Taken by Trees. And since I've found out Taken by Trees also covers Animal Collective's "My Girls" (with minor lyrical changes, including the song's title, which she calls "My Boys") and wrote an album in Pakistan featuring local musicians, I just might take a moment to see what else Victoria's been up to since the Concretes.

Here I Thought Vancouver Would Have Been So Lucky As To Have Avoided Snow This Year.

Damn it.

Real Ick

I don't think there has ever been such a gaping disparity between how much I simultaneously hate and like something, not that I like L.A.'s Tearist very much. They definitely fall under the "trying too hard" category which is a shame, because I like parts of their music and the arguable ideas behind it: raw emotional release and pushing the boundaries of the human capacity to enjoy ramshackle discordance. But even when it comes to guttural, primitive, voice- and/or noise-oriented music (or experiments, rather), there is just a whole world of more interesting and even just more sincere acts out there: Swedish minimalist duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums and Bjork, for example, or Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth. And I really want to like Tearist's lo-fi, trash-ass, retro aesthetic (I've always had a soft spot for junkyard electro-punk), but image is nothing without substance.

It's not the fact that Jasmina Kittles smashes, crashes, scrapes and clanks objects together like a caged animal desperate for escape. It's not the fact that she dresses in essentially nothing more than what could be a torn garbage bag or the way or yells, yelps, screeches and scowls like a feral child, stretching her voice in ways that seem entirely antithetical to the human larynx's intended design (or at least hers). I just sense an intangible level of affectation in Tearist's entire performance. And I've watched multiple Tearist videos, so I believe my judgment of the band is well informed enough. I'd guess Tearist is a satirical comment on hipsterdom, but that may be giving Tearist too much credit as any sort of intellectual or even pseudo-intellectual artistic endeavour.

Little doubt this has been my most negative post yet, but I think I'm a fair person, so I'll end my post with this: only Jasmina Kittles seems to try too hard. Synth player William Strangeland is pretty nondescript (for better or for worse).

Godddddd DAMN IT, I Love Devo.

While listening to them, I often think they are the best God-damned band in the world. A different song always sets off this thought. Tonight, it was "Gates of Steel" from Freedom of Choice (Warner Bros., 1980).

All-Night Brain-Buster

It is absolutely bugging me that I can't remember what song "Cracking Eggs" by Brooklyn's My Best Fiend reminds me of. The lumbering piano line, the tidal wave guitars that crash against it, the crescendos, the in-between-mellifluous-and-nasally/coarse vocals and eventual harmonies, the pseudo-psychedelic squalls of pedal effects, ... I feel like this is a Dandy Warhols song. In fact, I'm sure I'm thinking of a song by them. Maybe "Genius"? "Big Indian"? I don't know. Maybe I'm not even thinking of the Dandies. Maybe I'm thinking of Antlers. That sounds more like. Oh, well. As Marge Simpson's prison-mate Tattoo Annie's Mad Magazine back-ink asks,

I'll just enjoy "Cracking Eggs" for what it is: a song for which I don't really care.

Hope For the Future Or I. Am. So. Fucking. EXCITED!!!

The War on Drugs, one of my absolute favourite bands and creators of my favourite driving album of all time Wagonwheel Blues (Secretly Canadian, 2008), made their television debut Tuesday night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. ?uestlove of the Roots (who moonlight as Jimmy Fallon's house band) even gives the War on Drugs an extra pair of hands on drums.

Although "Baby Missiles," as much as I like it, isn't a particular favourite War on Drugs song of mine (the same goes for everything else on their second album, last year's Slave Ambient), their performance on Fallon has honestly gotten me more excited to see them when they open for Sharon Van Etten at the end of March than anything else has. Maybe it's because in all of the live War on Drugs videos I've seen, they, to be blunt, haven't sounded very good, the details of their open road psychedelia diluted through sub-par sound systems or sub-par recording equipment, resulting in murky performances at best.

On Fallon, however, the War on Drugs is a rock-solid unit - a chugging bionic machine; you couldn't pry apart the sum. Front person Adam Granduciel's guitar skills, which don't quite translate in other live videos or really even on their albums, also really shine here. And has anyone else still yet to believe how similar Adam's and former War on Drugs member Kurt Vile's voices sound? Just uncanny.

The War on Drugs' amazing performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon makes it even more difficult for me to believe how much of a bargain their show with Sharon Van Etten will be.

Jack White on American Pickers

Watch Jack White haggle with the hosts of the History Channel's American Pickers over a $10,000 taxidermied elephant head. I can't help but feel the hosts oversold the value of Jack's items he offered for trade. But then, I'm not the one with the antiquing/oddities show. The segment begins at 34:54:

http://www.history.com/shows/american-pickers/videos#the-elephant-in-the-room

As If the Original Wasn't Great Enough.

This is like the cutest thing ever.

I Think I Just Discovered My Favourite Jazz Album.

If you follow my blog or know me personally, you'll know that while I like jazz, I don't really know anything about it. Yes, I have my share of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson albums (with a particular affinity for Herbie Hancock), but I really can't tell someone what "good" or "bad" jazz are - what makes a particular jazz piece "brilliant."

I can, however, tell you what jazz sounds best to me, and that jazz is Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers' 1958 album Moanin' (Blue Note Records). I don't know where Moanin' ranks in importance or acclaim in jazz history; I don't even know where Moanin' ranks in Art's discography, but I know where the album ranks with me, and that's all that personally matters. Here's the album's self-titled cut:

Sharon Van Etten Live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

SO happy I'm seeing this in March, right by my apt., along with one of my favourite bands the War on Drugs opening, for only $15. I hope the National's Bryce Dessner (the male guitarist on Sharon's left) will be at the show:

Embedding disabled by the Audio Perv, so click the link to watch her performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon:

http://theaudioperv.com/2012/01/06/sharon-van-etten-serpents-15-fallon/

Random User Quote

“Primal Scream was my first experience with Some Velvet Morning - as a 14 year old boy, i sat in front of my tv one night at 3 am watching music videos and, when that track came on, it was then that I realised I wanted to be a space shuttle.”

- SpecialCookies
Posted 7/18/2011 8:35:45 AM

I don't care for Primal Scream, but hahaha.

The song "Some Velvet Morning," for reference:

"10 Years After the White Stripes 'Saved' It, Rock Is Again in Crisis"

Decent article from July ten years and two days after the release of the White Stripes' breakthrough third album White Blood Cells. Read the article at the Atlantic.com.

West Coast Is Best? Maybe Not To Ali Koehler.

Drummer Ali Koehler was kicked out of Best Coast for reasons allegedly unbeknownst even to her, last month. Super-lame. Line-up changes post-me-getting-into-the-band always suck, especially when I fucking love the band. Oh well. Ali's solo song "Unwell" is pretty good - not too far from early Best Coast and even sweeter with harmonica, trinky-dink Play-Skool-style xylophone and less fuzz. The guitar tone and naked strumming are pretty much the definition of cute bedroom pop.

Listen to "Unwell" and five other songs by Ali Koehler at her Band Camp page. (I should have posted this when the story first broke, and her songs were still available for free download).

Every Time I Read Something Related To World War II, I Have To Listen To Joy Division.

Specifically "Warsaw." But anything by them usually does the trick. They definitely make Mother Midnight by Kurt Vonnegut more enjoyable:

Underrated White Stripes Song: "Who's To Say?" (Blanche Cover)

Maybe it's "underrated" because not enough people seek out the White Stripes' B-sides, and probably even less people know who Dan Miller is.

"Who's To Say?," the flip-side of the White Stripes' I Just Don't Know What To Do with Myself single, was written by Detroit mainstay Dan Miller and performed as far back as at least 1998 by Jack's and Dan's short-lived band 2 Star Tabernacle. Since then, Dan has reworked the song as part of his current group Blanche's 2004 album If We Can't Trust the Doctors.

In un-White Stripes fashion, Jack and Meg don't put much of their own spin on "Who's To Say?" I still prefer the White Stripes' version, however, which is why I'm posting theirs. As much as I'd like to call some of the song's lyrics brilliant, I realize it may be a little grandiose of a compliment, so I'll just leave it at this: I fuckin' love them:

Who's to say this time I've wasted
Someday won't get used?
Maybe if you come around
I'll start to get enthused

...

Who's to say that I'm obsessed
With everything you do
Just because it seems my schedule
Seems to shadow you?
Who's to say that tired
"There's more fish in the sea"?
I don't mind treading water
'Cause you're the one for me

You say that by now
I should know you'll never love me
But who's to say that what has never
Been will never be?
What has been will never be?

Silver Dapple: Like Best Coast with 30% of the Charm

Silver Dapple - "Want To" by Jackson A. Ragg III

From the Montreal-via-Alberta-and-Chicoutimi group's 2011 album English Girlfriend. Check out Silver Dapple's Band Camp page for more tracks.