Listening • Empire for Ashes

A thousand American Idol winners singing through a thousand autotune modulators will never make a Voice, a singer to be reckoned with, instinctually appreciated, and surrendered to. Very few of our musicians could just as easily go by the title of singer alone, which is what makes Neko Case and her dulcet serenades so transfixing.

Her new album, Middle Cyclone (which boasts some of the most kickass cover art seen in a hot minute), is due this coming Tuesday, March 3. As she bends slowly away from the roots-of-country sounds that gave her a broad appeal and audience, she finds gradual interest and gratification in gently teasing the boundaries of the low-key, wistful realms of alt-whatever-it-is, where she reigns as queen. So broad (and, some would say, bourgeois) is her appeal that NPR is currently streaming the album in its entirety from their site. But let it not be said that she’s “sold out” or gone middlebrow or, worse yet, lost her edge. This is the same woman, capable of both the most affecting earnesty and the most sublime tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation, mind you, who appeared as siren Chrysanthemum, quite fittingly, on an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. If that ain’t cred … —Erik Bryan, Feb. 27, 2009

» Listen to "Middle Cyclone" at MBV Music

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Neko Case, NPR

Listening • The Bloomed Hill Impasse

Remember how it was all supposed to be? And how the distance between that supposed and that of your here and now is the breadth of the America you inhabit? Imagine all that distance and the places in between which are passed through—once, twice at most—but never lived. Have you ever loved it all, all of America, not only because it seems like it’s no less sensitive to your condition in between these places, but also because you’re fairly confident it could kick your ass without question? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then worry not: since all the music explaining these lives and places is now just “information,” it’s that much easier to return to and cherish.

On March 10, three albums by Richard Buckner (Bloomed, The Hill, and Impasse) will be available as digital downloads from the Merge Records site (and presumably other places that trade in such stock as well). He will also be touring this coming Spring in support of these somewhat overlooked masterpieces. Though my introduction to the man came when he embarrassed Kris Kristofferson by way of superior tribute (#7 down: “Loving Her Was Easier”), I quickly covered these Buckner gaps in my catalog. Here’s your chance to do the same. —Erik Bryan, Feb. 13, 2009

» Listen to "Born Into Giving It Up" at MBV Music

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Kris Kristofferson, Merge Records, Richard Buckner

Listening • What’s Your Face

Apparently this band, Fight Like Apes from Dublin, has been around, recording, and touring Ireland and the UK for a couple years now. As much as we rely on the internet to fill us in on these things, we’ve only recently heard them and that was largely due to the January 26 UK release of their debut album Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion. The album has yet to be released in the US, however. As much as we need to believe that physical releases don’t matter anymore, that all information can simply be transmitted into our skulls from now on … well, I raise you one Fight Like Apes, sir.

The band’s name and album title may have already given it away, but the last thing they’re likely to be accused of is taking themselves too seriously. Even as they tend toward the clownish, though, there is an undeniable strain of professionalism to the proceedings, like on the single “Jake Summers.” Combining live instruments and cutesy synthesizers, the song starts innocently enough, the lyrics referring to a boy the narrator seems to have a crush on. Seems like any other power pop song you’ve heard in recent years, one of the better-crafted that you’ve heard, too. Then, as if to show off singer Maykay’s range, suddenly a high-pitched squeal leads into a cultural-reference-laden, punk rant against the listener. Or the boy. It’s hard to tell.

One gets the feeling that this band could easily play it straight, sing the cute, pretty songs that win the sentimental devotion of countless pop music fans, only they choose not to. They choose to be goofy, loud, and fun. They happily thumb their nose at listener expectations. —Erik Bryan, Feb. 10, 2009

» Listen to "Jake Summers" at Fluxblog

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Fight Like Apes

Listening • Out With the Old

For so long we’ve seen decline, dissolution, and departure. From our vantage here in the middle of winter we’ve seen Nature itself stripped of life and leaf, but memory serves to remind that these are merely cycles within a greater cycle. The days’ arcing sunlight is gradually getting longer, warmer. January’s nearly past. Suddenly the new year’s first marks are set. At last, we have new things to look forward to.

In this spirit we present Telekinesis, a new band recently signed to Chapel Hill’s Merge Records, a label well-known for signing some of the best bands working today. Their first single, “Coast of Carolina,” evokes the same refreshing sense of renewal. The count-off is always the same, the familiarity tugs at something elemental, buried deep down, but it’s still a new take, another chance to do it right. And don’t let the meek lead-in fool you. This one’s a rocker. Telekinesis will be touring the West coast this spring, with their last performance of this introductory tour at SXSW in Austin. Welcome them. —Erik Bryan, Jan. 22, 2009

» Listen to "Coast of Carolina" at Brooklyn Vegan

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Merge Records, SXSW, Telekinesis

Listening • SXSW 2K9

The Academy of Indie Rocks and Cultural Science People has released its official list of candidates for consideration during the Academy’s annual Spring bacchanal in Austin, TX. Among these nominees, one winner will be chosen to win the grueling South by Southwest Showcase competition, thus earning the title of Most Hyped New Band in 2009.

Based on nothing more than the band’s names (and the deafening cacophony of insider music biz gossip going on behind the scenes here at the Digest), I’m going to tell you which bands have the best shot of making their pie-in-the-sky dreams of never being played on commercial radio but somehow having songs end up on Zach Braff’s next project a reality:

• Asylum Street Spankers
• Black Acid
• The Black Angels
• Black Cherry
• Black Diamond Heavies
• Black Drawing Chalks
• Black Gold
• The Black Hollies
• Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
• Black Lips
• Blacklisted Individuals
• Black Math Horseman
• Black Skies
• Margaret Cho
• Dananananaykroyd
• Les Breastfeeders

I give up. There are so many more ridiculous band names on this list, but obviously one’s chances of claiming the title are dramatically improved by adding “black” to the beginning of your name. Something to consider, Dananananaykroyd.

To hold you over until you get to see and hear all the fun in Austin, here’s “Happy Up Here” from the new Röyksopp album, due March 23, which has no chance of winning SXSW this year. —Erik Bryan, Jan. 16, 2009

» Listen to "Happy Up Here" at The Yellow Stereo

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Margaret Cho, Royksopp, South by Southwest

Listening • Wish in One Hand

This Friday past, peeps over at the Hype Machine finished up their year-end Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008, which uses data compiled by the search results and bookmarked favorites of registered users to determine what were the most popular artists, albums, and songs (in those three catergories) of the past year. The Machine’s design for the albums list is particularly handsome, and no one can argue that there aren’t some real winners on there.

A minor concern is that the list only considers registered users’ input (which doesn’t include me. Are you on there?), and that it’s a popularity contest, not an objective consideration of what artists and music was in our best interest over the past year (see the inclusion of Lonely “SNL’s Andy Samberg” Island’s “Jizz in My Pants” on the top songs from December. Sure, it’s good for yuks, but anything else?). However, the only highly troubling aspect of the list is how strongly it favors dance/techno (and the rare sad bastard song by Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes), and how little it rocks. Not that this Digest is wholly immune to the (mostly fleeting) charms of either, but something greater lies at stake.

With a new president being sworn in next week, it may well behoove us to think for a minute about what American ideals are and what makes this country better than any other in the world. Our economy sucks, we’re increasingly into super creepy stuff like rendition and torture, and our culture wars show no sign of abating. The answer, of course, is rock and roll. We invented rock and roll. We might go so far as to say that we built this city on it. Okay, bad example.

Both musicians and listeners should take heed. Our cultural legacy is hanging in the balance. If we lose rock music, we won’t be so cool anymore and won’t be able to act so superior to the rest of the world at the world’s best parties. Consider, then, a new song by The Joy Formidable, a Welsh band (with some fun videos here). This is chart-topping rock and roll over there, America. Are we just gonna sit here and let them out-rock us? While, as Fluxblog points out, the song “Cradle” has a somewhat atavistic bent, sometimes taking a look back at our roots (back in the halcyon 90s in this case) is just the shot in the arm we need to take that step forward. This year has every potential to rock. It’s up to you, America.  —Erik Bryan, Jan. 13, 2009

» Listen to "Cradle" at Fluxblog

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Andy Samberg, Hype Machine, Lonely Island, The Joy Formidable

Listening • We Will Fall

It would be remiss not to mention the recent passing of Ron Asheton, guitarist for Ann Arbor’s most acerbic contribution to the late 60s garage rock scene, The Stooges. As reported first in the Ann Arbor News on Tuesday, Asheton’s body was found by police in his apartment that morning. Later reports suspect the cause of death was a heart attack days prior. While frontman James “Iggy Pop” Osterberg tended to steal the spotlight (both onstage with wildly histrionic performances and offstage with his volatile drug and alcohol dependencies), Asheton’s guitar work (driven by his brother Scott Asheton’s drumming) is every bit as crucial to the sound developed by the Stooges, which would influence nearly every rock band thereafter.

The development of this sound is described by Asheton in the book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, which is really worth checking out if you’re at all interested in the subject. In his own words:

We’d never been into a recording studio before and we set up Marshall stacks, and set them on ten. So we started to play and John Cale [of the Velvet Underground, producer of The Stooges’ self-titled debut] just says, “Oh no, this is not the way …” We were like, “There is no way. We play loud, and this is how we play.” So Cale kept trying to tell us what to do and being the stubborn youth that we were, we had a sit-down strike … So our compromise was, “Okay, we’ll put in on nine.” Finally he just said, “Fuck it,” and he just went with it.

Which is precisely the attitude that led to the band being the bellwether of the entire genre which became known as punk rock.

Strangely, one of the reformed band’s final non-tour performances last year was at the ceremony inducting Madonna into the laugably formal Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, purportedly at her request for the Hall’s repeated snubs of The Stooges. Their performance of “Ray of Light” can certainly be read as a grandiose “fuck you” to the mainstream music industry which counted them out so long ago, even as it continues to do so (although they are up for consideration for induction this year, but whatever).

The song linked below, “No Fun,” not only features Ron Asheton’s trademark, unheedingly overdriven guitar work, but was one of the songs famously covered by the Sex Pistols and helped introduce a generation of British youth (who, it turns out, also loved punk rock) to the Stooges. What’s more, I think it’s only fitting. —Erik Bryan, Jan. 8, 2009

» Listen to "No Fun" at Here Comes the Flood

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Ann Arbor News, Iggy Pop, John Cale, Madonna, Please Kill Me, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, Sex Pistols, The Stooges, Velvet Underground

Listening • Diamonds From the Trough, Part 2

In every effort to outdo Mike’s first entry in this ad hoc series, I’ve gone about collecting those lapidary listens from the past year’s releases which, though somehow managing to miss my attention, became firmly lodged in the collective consciousness of list makers the internet over.

Some find the whole listing process—in the literal sense of rating songs integrally better or worse than another song—either arbitrary or too unnerving to be helpful. Am I only listening to the 27th best song this year when I could be listening to a song from the top ten? What does that say about me as a consumer? Dispensing with a numbered list altogether is wise of Fluxblog’s Matthew Perpetua, who offers his collection of the year’s finest tunes as a podcast, free to all takers. Believe it or not, several of those songs have appeared in this very space. Another group eschewing a formal list structure comes to us from the Onion’s AV Club with their offering of celebrity guests’ favorite albums. I honestly can’t tell if David Cross is just screwing with us.

Another list to note is Idolator’s continuing 80 ‘08 (and Heartbreak), which catalogs the 88 things (80 wonderful, 8 tragic; their rules) that made a cultural impact this year, many of which are songs. Songs like Andrew W.K.’s “The McLaughlin Groove” or Parry Gripp’s “Hamster on a Piano”. Songs that, while dearly loved, I was perhaps too ashamed to write about here. Idolator also brings the indie cred with great songs by Jenny Lewis and the French Kicks (listen to “Abandon” here).

Also favoring the old school, numbered list thing is a countdown of this year’s 50 best over at Gorilla Vs. Bear. It is a respectable list despite the inclusion of the way-overhyped and marginally overmaligned Vivian Girls. Oh, those Vivian Girls. Toward the top of the list, at number seven, I was introduced to Grouper, the recording name of Portland’s Liz Harris. The song “Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping” off this year’s Dragging a Dead Dear Up a Hill features dreamy, murky, saturated vocals and instrumentation reminiscent of Beach House and Mazzy Star in their swirls of sweet, somber noise. Another great find on this list is the number two spot given to Austin trio White Denim’s “Sitting.” It bounces along amiably with a refreshingly atavistic bent, but halfway through the song the tempo is halved and an extended garage rock experiment in stereo suddenly slips in, showing everyone who cares to listen what a simple arrangement can become in the hands of musicians willing to go that extra mile. What was cute became so much more.

Finally, while not so much a list as series of kickass posts, My Old Kentucky Blog has been running a Holiday Interview Series with notable persons, most of whom are musicians. (One exception would be the artist, writer, and now record label owner Stanley Donwood who has done all of Radiohead’s packaging artwork since 1994.) One of my favorite, newly discovered tracks from the year is featured in the interview with Alejandra Deheza of School of Seven Bells. The song, “Half Asleep,” apart from being beautiful in the dreamlike, saccharine sense advocated by Grouper, also adds layer upon layer of pop perfection and glitchy programming. It’s uplifting, complex, and you can dance to it. Happy holidays! —Erik Bryan, Dec. 17, 2008

» Listen to "Half Asleep" at My Old Kentucky Blog

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Fluxblog, Gorilla vs. Bear, Grouper, Idolator, Jenny Lewis, Matthew Perpetua, My Old Kentucky Blog, School of Seven Bells, Stanley Donwood, The French Kicks, The Onion AV Club, Vivian Girls, White Denim

Listening • Music Blogovision

Every once in a great while, a thing comes along which is more or less some things you’ve already been using diligently for that same while, and suddenly you’re experiencing those things in a new form and wondering how this new composite thing couldn’t have existed before. For example, ask your grandparents about when they started going to drive-in movies or using sporks. It knocked their socks right off their garters (also: socks with elastic bands). Anyway, this is one of those great whiles, and it’s perfectly in step with the internet age. Behold, the new, simple, and extraordinarily useful MBV Music blog. Unveiled officially on Monday and developed by occasional lord of the internet Ryan Catbird, the site collects entries from five spectacular music blogs into one clean, ad-less space. Those blogs are the Catbirdseat, Chromewaves, Fluxblog, Largehearted Boy, and Said the Gramophone. Heavy hitters one and all. As Ryan continues:

And hopefully, it’ll also be contributions from you. Intelligent, engaging music conversation is frighteningly rare out there, and I find that strange, considering all of the sharp-minded music lovers I know. I hope MBV will be a place you can come to engage in interesting music-centric conversation, free of the usual knuckle-dragging comment trolls (who I will execute with wild abandon).

For starters, MBV led me directly to a couple of Meursault songs posted by Said the Gramophone contributor Sean Michaels. The band is from Edinburgh, and their name is taken (supposedly) from Camus’s L’Étranger. Sean’s review of this song, which sounds like a folk-singing robot, begins, “BREAKING NEWS: CYBERMAN 3000-D HAS BEEN SPOTTED. HIGH-POWERED TELESCOPES PICKED UP MOVEMENT IN THE BLACKENED WRECKAGE OF THE FOREST.” I don’t want to ruin it for you, but everyone wins. —Erik Bryan, Dec. 3, 2008

» Listen to "Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues" at Said the Gramophone

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Albert Camus, Catbirdseat, Chromewaves, Fluxblog, Largehearted Boy, MBV Music, Mersault, Ryan Catbird, Said the Gramophone, Sean Michaels