Spot The Influence, Affinity – (oh and down with plagiarism laws!)
One banter game us music buffs sometimes end up playing while jamming or even just talking is noticing melodic—or other—similarities between songs that aren’t usually associated with each other, for instance Siouxsie and The Banshee’s “Cities In Dust,” is like Quicksilver Messenger Service’s “What You Gonna Do About Me?”
Or The Replacements’ “I’ll Be You” is like Cat Stevens’ “Father And Son” or, The Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale” has a good deal in common with Little Anthony And The Imperials’ “Hurt So Bad” Then there’s the case of Continuous Peasant’s “So Denied” (2003)—the main riff and guitar solo was later used by Wilco on their crowd-pleaser, “At Least That’s What You Said.” Now, it can’t be plagiarism if you can’t prove someone knew about it, but I’d love to go up to Jeff Tweedy and just say “hey, great minds think similarly….so when you gonna introduce us to your manager?” There’s many other examples, but I’ll just throw the idea out there as a theme, and this week’s top ten probably has very little or nothing to do with it.
Ah, one of their earlier recordings, from the Chains Chained CD. This is perhaps the most radio-friendly piece off that album (in fact I was reminded of it when local KALX-DJ , BENJI LAWLESS played it) with its melodic I-vi-IV-V thang on the chorus, yet still brilliantly twisted lyrics. true psych-folk-country-punk
The first issue of this new literary magazine edited by Ms. Janssen and Ms McMahon was a peasant surprise for me, because it comes closer to stripping timid hipster alienation away from what’s soothing about the pun of ‘tears’ and potentially proactive about pain than any literary magazine since, say, New American Writing, Sulfur or Make Room For Dada circa 1990/1991. Perhaps I should call it a poetry magazine—but it’s unlike most fashionable (and even unfashioanable) poetry magazines today, in part because it doesn’t seem to use ‘style’ as a criteria for inclusion as much as a sense of personal intensity (without having to make a big deal of it) and in part due to the fact that it is more willing to put hot and warm (green and blue) writers more associated with the ‘post-Beat’ Naopa poetry scene (sometimes I hate shorthand!) such as Steve Roth and Gillian McCain (who’s probably still more known for co-editing Please Kill Me_ with Legs McNeil) in dialogue with the cooler (black, gray, silver and brown) musician poets more commonly associated with Open City and/or _Drag City (such as Neil Michael Haggerty, Bill Callahan, David Berman); add a few elder statesmen and and other writers either unaffiliated with scenes or from scenes I’m unaware of, and put it in a perfect bound, elegant yet modest, cover of brown and pink, and, well, maybe you have the beginning of something for the generations (X,Y,and Z) of ‘protracted adolescence’ who, labouring somewhat secretly under the dissemblings of the ruins of 1960s (and even 1980s) ‘youth culture’ notions of freedom are now, around age 40, on the verge of finding a more genuine integrated voice, that is old enough to be younger than it was when the clocks said it was, and is enough of a manifesto to be an indie-rock jam band. Since the magazine is loosely associated with Drag City records in Chicago, people may mistake it at first for The Minus Times which publishes more fiction and non-fiction, but Moonlit emphasizes poetry and non-poetry (a new genre I’m planning to start an MFA program in when the ship comes in), and next week I’ll get you the ordering info.
Alot of people on the ‘left’ (though not Willie Nelson) demonize Mr. Keith manly due to his public stance after 9/11/2001, and many on the right champion him allegedly for the same reason. Luckily, I got into him through this particular song which was his big country hit in the summer of 2001 just before he allegedly changed his image and become one of the most vocal spokesmen for American militancy (in music, at least). What was so refreshing about this song in the context of ‘contemporary country’ that summer (which I listened to alot as I drove through the ‘red states’ on my move from NYC to California) was the assertive uncompromising yet humourous stance of the male trying to pick up the woman for a one-night stand, a stance that is not so much sanctioned in contemporary ‘exurban’ country than it was in classic country or even in “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” byBob Dylan. It’s tempting to make the argument that Keith adopted the more acceptable aggressive patriotic stance after 2001 in order to help him ‘get away’ with such songs like this. In any event, I will probably always respect him a little more than most of my friends do because of this particular song.
A ‘spoken word’ album for people who may not generally like ‘spoken word’ albums. Some of you may know Garrett Caples for his many reviews (and cover stories) in The Bay Guardian on (mostly local) Bay Area hip hop artists; other may know of his books of poetry . Caples slummed it for a few years in academia, getting a Ph.D iwith a dissertation on Surrealism, and not just the french kind, but the Freedom kind (uh huh!) and so yes, well he may be better as a surrealist than a rapper (hence the album title), part of what makes this album so great is that he’s bringing these two styles, and worlds, into heated dialogue with each other (there’s also a couple more ‘indie-rock’ sounding pieces (tracks8 and 27). In fact, the album gets much more musical as it goes on (in the process suggesting a narrative similar to Caple’s own journey away from white academic teachers to sitting at the feet of teachers likeShock D and E-40and such. Helped out by such musicians as Jeff Mellin, Graham Connah, “Rob Norris, Matt Mitchell, J-Stalin, Geoffrey Dyer and Andrew Joron (the last two are also great poets), and featuring samples by Andre Breton and Zora Neale Hurston, this album not only creates a wide-ranging sonic experience that is pleasurable in its own right (and reminds me a little of Edwin Torres’s Holy Kid released on KillRockStars around the turn of the century) but also may direct listeners to Caples’ published works. Includes such cuts as “Prufrock Shakur” (which recalls some of David Byrne’s ‘spoken word’ experiments with Brian Eno on both Remain In Light and My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts), or the Tom Waits sonic textures of “Turning On The Tongue” as well Caples’ great send up of Marc Bolan’s songwriting abilities in T.Rex
A rare, unreleased track. One of those examples of how a silly lyric, based on a pun, can, if sung with pathos and yearning as Hudson did, be very powerful. While on tour in Minnesota, Hudson later saw a review of the band The Elected,titled, “Total Eclipse Of The Art.”
Doo-wakka-do-wakka-do-wakka-do. “I’m beginning to believe there’s hope for the human race.” Is this song about just coming back from a prostitute?
I’m singling this song out, but actually it was the whole 20 minute set played by KALX-DJ Disco Shawn that was a rare treat on college radio these days in that the warm searing guitars reminded me of the mid 1990s (or even a little of the late 1980s underground)—other songs in this set included The Mall, “Kill Me Kill You;” Uzeda, “Steel Man:” Sleater Kinney, “Lora’s Song;” The Thermals, “An Ear For Baby.”
Heard this song on KPIG. It’s one of those “what’s this about?” songs, the passionate conviction with which she sings the lyrics, which on first listen seem to be political, or, wait, maybe about a relationship, or wait, why does she repeat the phrase “the christmas tree just burnt it all” at the end of the middle eight. All I know is that she ain’t just riding on her dad’s reputation…
The San Jose-based Mumlers incorporate a wide-range of styles, and they frequently switch instruments (French horn, baritone, double bass, fender rhodes, hand percussion) between songs. This versatility weaves an eclectic tapestry with more conventional instruments and songwriting and brought a charming and refreshing spontaneity to their show at Frisco’s House of Shields. Not that the band isn’t well-rehearsed; only that they are neither slick no take themselves too seriously even as they evidently devote much of their time to crafting their arangements (check out the French Horn-baritone tandom at the end of “Red River Hustle”or was it “Hush?”). The songwriting is able without a cane, but luckily the band leads it in dance as if they were made for each other-helping the slow be slower, the fast be faster, while never losing sight of the potential sacredness of honoring the silences in the sound. Yeah, they were pretty cool. Also, on this San Jose bill was Oceans of Fire, whose half-dance, half-shoegazish music could be compared to Joy Division and The Jesus And Mary Chain’s more velvetty distortion.
I just heard this song on someone’s car as they drove by my window! It’s always been my favorite song by them, the way it moves from driving vocal ensemble choruses to lead vocals during the percussive breakdown is absoutely steller. I know “Stay In My Corner” is suppossed to be their biggest hit, but this was their first big crossover pop one, and it’s good to be reminded of it.
