Music

« Older Entries | Newer Entries »

Grace Jones Pulls Back Up To Your Bumper

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on December 11, 2008 by admin in Music

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

I knew It All Along…Grace Jones Is Made Of Chocolate


Grace Jones Gets Her Head Examined

When Grace Jones first broke onto the scene over twenty years ago, my genderblending friends and I welcomed her to the club, but always thought of her more as a Jean Paul Goude media creation and personality than a true talent. Well, after 19 years of silence, she’s back to prove us wrong. Her new CD Hurricane ranges from the obligatory dub-derived club grooves to the unexpectedly sensitive and soulful , with masterful production (thanks to Sly and Robbie, Brian Eno and Tricky) that makes you feel like you’re opening a new present over and over each time you listen. The release cleverly manages to capture the essence of her early sound while somehow sounding timeless in spite of the extensive use of electronics, kind of like Seal’s secret dark sister. Although the cover art is suggestive of Goude’s other media creations (check out this classic Citroen ad featuring Grace Jones on YouTube) it was actually conceived by artist Tom Hingston. And yes, that’s an actual mold of Jones’ head in the photo here, rendered in chocolate.

Pitchfork Media Top 50 of 2008

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 30, 2008 by admin in Music

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

Yet more end of year best of lists

[UPDATED: The list is out!]

What ever will I do with myself until the Pitchfork Media Top 50 list comes out? Although I only agree with their reviews about half the time, I must confess that a lot of my listening of the last couple of years was heavily influenced by their last two lists. I might have encountered, but not slowed down and listen to, any of the following this year without the Pitchfork top 50 list (these are all Amazon links): Okkervil River – The Stage Names; Panda Bear – Person Pitch;  Arcade Fire – Neon Bible; Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; Feist – Reminder; Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam; Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer; Stars of the Lid – And Their Refinement of the Decline; The Field – From Here We Go Sublime…and others, actually. Anyone have ideas on how I can ease my dependency on Pitchfork without having to “put on the waders” and trudge through the crap that they call music distribution these days? By “crap that they call music distribution” I mean the commercial sites with the unbearably slow, ad-infested page loads, and glitchy audio players. Bring it on people, my ears are hungry, and the best recommendations always come from other listeners.

Peter Frampton, Meet Peter Drake

[ 3 Comments ]Posted on November 19, 2008 by admin in Music

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

The original talk box guy

Something that’s driven me crazy for a while is pop music artists that use that effect you’ve probably heard where they sound just a little like a robot on certain notes. Kid Rock probably used it first, trying to copy the effect on Cher’s “Believe”, and now everyone from Britney Spears to Akon uses it. People who sort of know what they’re talking about think it’s a Vocoder or a talk box, but it is in fact an abuse of the settings on Autotune, which is meant to correct a vocalist’s bad pitch. If you’ve ever seen this clip of Billy Joel singing the national anthem, you’ll know why I say “abuse” (I’ve always wondered if that sound guy still has a job). In any case, long before Peter Frampton or Stevie Wonder used the talk box effect, there was Peter Drake. In the clip here (from 1964!), he performs the spooky country tune “Forever”. The clip is probably better viewed full size, to capture the creepy, David Lynchian surreality of the zombie-like backing band.

Long Before Wireless, There Was Wire

[ 4 Comments ]Posted on November 13, 2008 by admin in Music

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Wire the band

After my recent dissing of eighties music, I was talking with my walking musicological pop media reference library and friend Eric about whether or not there were any eighties bands that didn’t suck. We agreed on Wire, one of the least-acknowledged but most influential pop bands of the last 25 years. The clip at left is of their club hit “Ahead”. Early on (1977-79), Wire was kind of punk, but even then had more melodic tunes like The 15th. Whatever popularity they enjoyed peaked in the late eighties, and by the mid-nineties, they were being thoroughly plagiarized by bands like Elastica. Of all their releases, my personal fave is probably the rather accessible A Bell Is a Cup…Until It Is Struck, which includes one of the most brilliant pop songs of all time: Kidney Bingos. Really bad video, beautiful song, and proof that lyrics don’t always matter.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – White Corolla

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on November 6, 2008 by admin in Music

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Back in my day, we only had flip books and one channel of MTV…

It’s weird for me to hear so many bands that do music that sounds exactly like awful music I did in the 80′s. Music that I think even we knew was awful back then, while we were doing it (sometimes I think we did all the drugs we did just so we could stand to listen it). Anyway, it’s even weirder when I find myself kind of liking the stuff. In the case of the White Corolla video at left by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone , I’m sure the video helps. The animation was apparently provided by Julia Pott of London (web site, blog). Drowned In Sound  has an interview with Owen Ashworth (who essentially is Casiotone for the Painfully Alone) which highlights why I’d never be able to get a job with the British pop press: whereas I would describe the music as “that plinky Casio stuff our manager wouldn’t let us include in the set list and IRS Records laughed at us for sending them“, DIS’s interviewer James Gracey describes it as “…simple yet incredibly addictive: a barrage of reverberated beats, shuddering with a raw, almost dirty intensity; melodic yet often lifting, blown-out chords wrapped around Ashworth’s baritone, guttural observations that form articulate, Raymond Carver-esque character studies…” I guess it’s not hyperbole if you’re British…

« Older Entries | Newer Entries »