Erik Bryan - Digest - The Morning News

Listening • What the Kids Don’t Stand

It’s become difficult to remember the hazy epoch that was last year, when the musical contents of a simple CD-R became an epidemic. The songs of Vampire Weekend were everywhere, which made the official “release” of their “debut album” in January of this year somewhat of an exercise in anachronistic formality. The current release of an EP featuring a single from that same, self-titled album seems all the more so, especially since it seems like those fine, young men should be coming up with new material by now. Aside from a contribution to the Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist soundtrack, we haven’t heard another peep from them. They’ll probably use the whole “we’ve been touring constantly in support of the album” excuse. Which is not so much an excuse as it is a point of fact.

They could learn a lot from Chromeo. Though they only have two albums to their credit, and though they are touring constantly in support of last year’s Fancy Footwork, Dave 1 is currently earning his PhD in French literature from Columbia university. Which is where he probably met those fine, young Vampire Weekend men. Which is probably what led to this, where both bands performed together for mtvU last week.

The live version of VW’s “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance” is interesting, if only for the addition of a vocoder, but the version that appears on the new EP, remixed by none other than Chromeo, is nothing short of a revelation. Retaining Ezra Koenig’s plaintive vocals and the song’s most basic keyboard melody, Chromeo throws a seductively glossy and disco-digital framework underneath. Combining the best elements of each disparate group, the resulting product is euphoric, colorful, brilliant. More like this, please. —Erik Bryan, Nov. 19, 2008

» Listen to "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance" at The Tape Is Not Sticky

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Chromeo, Columbia University, Dave 1, Ezra Koenig, mtvU, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Vampire Weekend

Listening • Message to Mitch

Early Wednesday morning, Mitch Mitchell was found dead in a Portland, Ore., hotel room. Most notably, he was the last surviving member of the ridiculously beloved Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix’s most famous and prolific trio, responsible for such incredibly favored songs as “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze,” “Voodoo Chile,” and the Dylan cover and overused-to-cliche staple of Vietnam-focused films “All Along the Watchtower,” not to mention several others. Of all the hippie-dippie crap that never really survived being dated as such in the years following the cultural revolution of the late 60s, somehow the work of this group managed to continually find favor in the decades that followed, and, though brief, their contribution to rock and roll legend has never diminished.

Mitch Mitchell died at age 61. Before joining the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he played with another amazing (but often overlooked) group, the Pretty Things, as well as the Blue Flames and John Lennon’s ad hoc The Dirty Mac for the Rolling Stones’s Rock and Roll Circus. Then, with the Experience, he played at Monterey, the Isle of Wight, and Woodstock. All of this, and when Jimi died, Mitch was only 23.

Encomiums are understandably being posted widely across greater blogdom, and Pitchfork helpfully compiled a selection of videos featuring the band and some of Mitchell’s best work. I also find it worth noting that my very first post to the Digest featured the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The song linked below is a live performance from Berkeley of “Message to Love.” Rest in peace, Mitch. —Erik Bryan, Nov. 14, 2008

» Listen to "Message to Love" at Art Decade

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell, The Blue Flames, The Dirty Mac, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Pretty Things, The Rolling Stones, Woodstock

Listening • Make of That What You Will

Just as a cat meows or a man who graduates with a Psych or Liberal Arts degree will most likely keep working at whatever service industry position he was holding prior to graduation, not only because he doesn’t really have any great prospects at the moment but because he’s also kind of comfortable there, new Carl Newman songs will always be posted here.

Carl Newman, being the bulk of the creative motivation behind one of the Aught’s best power pop-cum-professional rock acts, the consistently incredible New Pornographers, is releasing a follow-up to his excellent 2004 solo album The Slow Wonder with Get Guilty (Jan. 20)—possibly a play on Elvis Costello’s excellent Get Happy!!. As with The Slow Wonder, we can expect a tonal reduction of the bombastic, burgeoning, full-band sound that the New Pornographers cultivates (due in no small part to the participation of stars-in-their-own-right Dan Bejar of Destroyer and Neko Case of herself). Get Guilty should signal a return to Newman’s quasi-rustic self-reliance and a softening of instrumentation that sounds both nostalgic and grand. His thoughts tend to appropriately focus on smaller things on these solo albums, as if he’s at greater leisure to investigate the minutiae of experience, which, in turn, elevates the significance of a sigh or backward glance to something deeply revelatory.

His newly released song, “There Were Maybe Ten or Twelve,” appears as the first track on Matador Records’ free fall sampler, which also includes new tracks by Belle & Sebastian and Lou Reed, among notable others. It seems the bar for the rest of 2009 will be set perilously high by the end of January. —Erik Bryan, Nov. 12, 2008

» Listen to "There Were Maybe Ten or Twelve" at The Catbirdseat

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Carl Newman, Dan Bejar, Matador Records, Neko Case

Listening • When a Stunt Pair Is Not

Known Recording Aliases of Kool Keith

Ultra, Dr. Octagon, Dr. Dooom, Matthew, Black Elvis, Spankmaster, Mr. Nogatco, Keith Korg (in the Analog Brothers) [source]

Stunt pairings come in all forms, be it award presenters, buddy/action flicks, or commercial endorsements. And who can forget those irascible “maverick” twins of way back before the election? I know, it seems like ages ago now.

When it comes to music collaboration, however, the question must be asked, is it a stunt pairing if both participants are already stunts in and of themselves? Regard the recent pairing of Kool Keith and Tom Waits on a track produced by NASA. (Not that NASA.) Kool Keith, aka Keith Matthew Thornton, has certainly made a name for himself as one of the more gonzo elements of modern hip-hop, having come up with nearly as many alter egos as he has albums. He’s also, on rare occasion, been institutionalized. Tom Waits, well, the man simply is an institution, one that many have imitated, but none have achieved the same adulated, bonkers status. While Waits hasn’t had nearly as many alter egos as Keith, he’s certainly turned in a great performance or two.

What’s most striking about the pairing is how well it works. The track, “Spacious Thoughts,” from NASA’s upcoming debut album sounds like it could easily fit in either artist’s catalog. Considering the disparity of genre and tone of the catalogs in question makes this track a genuine oddity, but an exceedingly fortunate one. For those of us who occasionally enjoy a good howl at the moon, this is a real righteous kill. —Erik Bryan, Nov. 7, 2008

» Listen to "Spacious Thoughts" at Pitchfork

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Kool Keith, NASA, Tom Waits

Listening • We’re All In

Last week saw the U.S. debut album release, titled Na Na Ni, of yet another group of almost disgustingly talented and natural-sounding Swedish indie poppers. According to their MySpace page, the members of Fredrik carry on the traditional first-name-use-only rule as set forth by their brilliant predecessors and countrymen ABBA, and we see that two of the members are simply going by Fredrik (the others being named Anja, Mikael, Lindefelt, and, on bass, Jerker). Which one would think would become as cumbersome and complicated as having two Jameses in the band James, or two guys named Parliament Funkadelic in Parliament Funkadelic. Only time will tell if it summarily becomes too confusing for Fredrik.

Their music—like much of the music coming from Scandinavia in recent memory—proves their arctic clime’s pop genius. It’s expertly produced, performed, and packaged. The most aggravating (and, of course, delightful) part of all is how effortless they make it sound. The component parts of “Alina’s Place,” the second track, seam together without a string out of place as the music gently evolves in tone and timbre throughout. Pounding (yet somehow quiet) drums give way to finger-plucked guitars, and pan-pipe-sounding woodwinds eventually lead to a closing polyphonic tintinnabulation. The resulting sound is cozy but not twee, dark but not morose.

Fredrik will be touring the East coast in support of Na Na Ni through November. If it hasn’t yet been made clear enough, they come highly recommended. —Erik Bryan, Nov. 4, 2008

» Listen to "Alina's Place" at Quarterlife Party

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: ABBA, Fredrik, James, Parliament Funkadelic, Scandinavia

Listening • Calling It a Day

Bands break up. It’s a fact of life. Sometimes it’s a blessing (ahem, Creed); sometimes it’s an unfortunate loss that everyone chooses to blame on Yoko. In the case of the Long Blondes, it was a tragic necessity. In June of this year, lead guitarist and songwriter Dorian Cox suffered a stroke, which has left him unsure about his ability to play music anymore, as he related in a post on the Sheffield quintet’s MySpace blog earlier this week. Irony being what it is, the band also happened to release a collection of singles on the very same day in their native U.K. As the future is unwritten, this may not be the last we hear from this promising group, and the other band members have vowed to continue working, whether it be together or in other projects. (Singer Kate Jackson, in particular, will probably do fine.) But it won’t be the Long Blondes, which was always more of Cox’s vision.

Their song “Once and Never Again,” from the first LP, is one of my favorites, and now seems sadly appropriate. At least the music the band made—despite their dissolution—will remain fun, dance-friendly disco pop. I mean, I once saw Dorian eat a banana on stage. Does it get any more fun than that? —Erik Bryan, Oct. 23, 2008

» Listen to "Once and Never Again" at Allan's World of Music

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Dorian Cox, Kate Jackson, Long Blondes, Yoko Ono

Listening • No Censorship Age

Election years tend to put a strain on the relationship between the media establishment (at least its old-school incarnations) and entertainers/artists (to say nothing of the strain between the media and the candidates, or between entertainers/artists and the candidates). The executives for the major television networks, especially, may feel besieged as hundreds of watchdog groups search for any shred of what could be negatively interpreted as media bias. Granted, it’s the kind of bias that ethical journalists should avoid, but—let’s be real, people—can never be completely excised. Take this Digest post, for instance.

When so-hot-right-now, Sub Pop group No Age went in to record a segment for CBS’s Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson last week, one of the producers, presumably, told guitarist Randy Randall that he couldn’t wear a shirt with Obama’s image on it because it violated the FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine,” which essentially said that equal airtime must be given to both candidates. “Said” being the operative word, because the doctrine was repealed in 1987. Randall was told that if he did not remove the shirt, No Age would not play. He compromised by turning the shirt inside-out and writing “FREE HEALTH CARE” on it, but the argument is moot. The CBS executive(s) had no legal reason to demand Randall’s compliance. Furthermore, legal substantiation or not, this was a clear act of censorship, and it’s up to We the People to stand up to these First Amendment violations through Election Day. —Erik Bryan, Oct. 15, 2008

» Listen to "Eraser (live)" at Culture Bully

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: CBS, Craig Ferguson, FCC, No Age, Obama, Randy Randall, Sub Pop

Listening • Attracting Strange Midnight Snowflakes

Buffalo’s own Mercury Rev is the latest band to jump on the increasingly popular trend of making recording industry executives cry by giving away great material absolutely free. On September 29, while simultaneously releasing Snowflake Midnight—a proggy, shimmery, mostly electronic album—the band also released Strange Attractor, an instrumental, digital downloadable complementary album, free of charge from their website. Mercury Rev has always made interesting parallels to the Flaming Lips, as bassist Dave Fridmann has been engineering and co-producing both bands’ recordings since 1990 (not to mention a host of other bands). The Flaming Lips have always had much greater success in the US, however, while Mercury Rev’s output, for unknown reasons, has most graciously been received in the UK. Perhaps on this side of the Atlantic, the band’s wild reputation, if their Allmusic bio is to be believed, has prevented those same recording industry executives—a truly timid lot for the past few decades—from giving the band the attention and promotion it’s deserved. Not that the Flaming Lips haven’t had their share of strangeness.

Whatever the case, it’s never too late to try to give these brilliant scoundrels a homefield advantage, especially when their output (think of buying Snowflake Midnight as a two-for-one deal) is so affordable in these perilous economic times. —Erik Bryan, Oct. 13, 2008

» Listen to "People Are So Unpredictable" at Are You Gene Hackman?

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Allmusic, Dave Fridmann, Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips

Listening • Quoi de Neuf

Beautiful pianist, singer, and New England Conservatory drop-out Casey Dienel is only 23 and she’s making better music than you or I probably ever will. She’s also not trying to make a big deal about it. She recorded her first album on a lark in a farmhouse in Massachusetts, not even expecting anything to come of it—just to do it. The songs found their way to the head of Hush Records, who signed her immediately thereafter and released the songs as the album Wind-Up Canary in March 2006. Since then, Casey has formed a band called White Hinterland and released another album earlier this year called Pylactery Factory.

A new EP from Casey and company, called Luniculaire, is scheduled for release this October. It will feature five songs, two of which are originals and three covers. Here’s the catch: It’s all in French. The covers, it may interest some to know, will be songs originally recorded by such beaux esprits as Serge Gainsbourg, Brigitte Fontaine, and Francoise Hardy. The first song released from the forthcoming EP, Chant de Grillon, bears evident similarities, rather appropriately, to the work of these internationally acclaimed singers, though it’s a good deal more psychedelic than yé-yé. Mais ça ne fait rien. C’est bien. —Erik Bryan, Oct. 8, 2008

» Listen to "Chant de Grillon" at Stark Online

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Brigitte Fontaine, Casey Dienel, Francoise Hardy, Hush Records, New England Conservatory, Serge Gainsbourg, White Hinterland

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About the Author

Erik Bryan really likes rock and roll. He’ll listen to just about anything, but he prefers it if it rocks. Also, he knows that while many people consider pop music the most popular form of music in the world, it’s actually world music. Have an mp3 you think he should hear?

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Saturday, May 26, 2012