Most people, musicians or simply music-lovers are aware of what tablature or “tabs” are. I found this interesting essay on Vancouver artist, Kathy Slade’s work that talks about the history of tabs. I don’t think you have to know the art itself to get something out of the essay.
Incidently, she recently learned how to sing and did an entire album of covers that all mention “sunshine” or “sunny”. I’ll report back Thursday or Friday once I’ve listened to it. Information on that can be found here.
-Stay Gold (starting to hate this ending after looking at Aritzia’s Olympic adverts that say “stay gold”)
So outside the U.K. The Dentists were virtually unknown. They were around in the 80s until the mid-90s, playing jangly 60s inspired rock and pop music with incredibly catchy guitar riffs and enigmatic vocals–think C86, paisley underground, Mod, Britpop. For whatever reason, they never attained much fame, but nevertheless they have reunited to play two shows this year and their original drummer, Ian Smith, has decided to film the band’s subsequent rehearsals as a sort of “rockumentary” as he’s calling it. I wouldn’t say unless you’re a fan of the band to begin with that it’s very interesting, but it does say something about the internet age when a band of 40-somethings are reuniting their not-quite-famous rock band and documenting it, finally posting it on YouTube.
Part 1 was interesting just to hear some history on the band and their practicing “I Had An Excellent Dream”–one of their best songs, otherwise there’s just some charming fucking around. Part 2 is more of the band rehearsing. I’m mostly intrigued with the idea of this fairly unknown band treating this effort in the same way one might treat a famous group’s reunion, but with a painfully amateur film crew (that is, one person handling the camera) and a down-to-earth attitude.
“In Paris, we clap like this,” he said and demonstrated by clapping very much like people do everywhere, however, maybe he simply meant in Paris they clap but they also just look more stylish doing so. “In Vancouver, we storm the stage and dance like this,” I said, as about 200 people from the sold-out crowd ran onstage during Phoenix’s encore of “If I Ever Feel Better” which turned into an extended version. In fact, from the nosebleed seat I had, I lost view of the singer and guitarist completely as the crowd joyously swallowed them. The band continued their encore in this riotous stage appropriation, finishing with “1901″. I have never seen this happen before, and certainly not at a venue such as the Orpheum–a theatre.
A photo someone took when they were on the stage with the crowd of 200 or so. Insanity.
As for their performances, it was quite good, they played with gusto. The drummer, in particular had a degree of finesse rarely seen. The singer seemed cheerful and spot-on, although, his singing is hardly strenuous or vigorous anyway. The guitar volume was absurdly low and the bass was too loud, which made normally very familiar songs a bit confusing at first for me to recognize.
Before the band was surrounded by passionate fans during the last two songs of the encore, they came out and did a rendition of Air’s “Playground Love” which was very charming indeed. I have since concluded that the difference between the band’s early work and more recent work is quite stark. It sounds as though they’ve been listening to Snow Patrol and every other uplifting and epic anthemic music around, and when compared to United and Alphabetical, one can hear the move away from quirky understatement towards extroverted sing-alongs. Still, similar disco infused drum patterns and driving basslines infiltrate both the early and new work, I do prefer the earlier albums, but that’s a matter of taste. They put on a good show. Too bad I was beside a girl in the dumbest looking fedora I’ve ever seen, who danced like a monkey climbing a tree and couldn’t clap in time. Perhaps in Paris, clapping “like this” means on the beat.
Many a music nerd has written with gusto and enthusiasm of their love for pop. Perhaps it’s a statement of reaffirmation one has to make in order to remember why and to justify all the time spent listening, writing, enjoying, seeking out, talking about. I don’t plan on being an exception, unless you’re Dorothy Parker, people love to discuss the things they love and I love pop music. The exuberance of a good song, the immediacy or the delicate introspective nature, or the connection even when you’re alone, or the rawness, the purity. These are the things that make pop music relevant. It brings people together, and creates communities–a conversation. When Morrissey or Ian Curtis are singing about being alone, I am alone with them. A good pop song can be distantly close–the sort of reserved intimacy of a fragile song by Felt or the jolting, celebratory, thrashing nature of a song by The Buzzcocks. There is a transcendent quality that Modernist painters could only have ever dreamed of in pop music. It’s colours exploding or the droning in your head, on the street, in your lovelife. In failures of others we see in ourselves; we see the world, but goddamn, those failures can make amazing and honest songs. I don’t mean honesty in the sense of autobiographical or historical, but honesty in the sense of some subjective truth or truth in our collective memories. Pop music is true.
For me the work of Jamie Stewart has evoked a mixed reaction. Some of it is beautiful; some of it is traumatic.Two new tracks from the forthcoming album were posted here. Both songs are actually really amazing. My favourite is the album’s title track, “Dear God, I Hate Myself” which at times reminds me of Morrissey if he took drugs and had access to a variety of noisy synthesizers. That’s not to say that Jamie Stewart actually sounds anything like Morrissey, because he doesn’t, but there’s that same desperation and self-reflexivity, with soulful vocals. “Gray Death” has a sort of epic feel to it, as though I’m travelling quickly on a train, or a car, dodging through traffic. Here Xiu Xiu mixes noisy lo-fi effects, with acoustic guitars and clean softer sounds. Overall if these two tracks are at all reflective of the rest of the album due out in late February, I expect one of the best albums of theirs I’ve ever heard. I’m excited.
So if I had to lose my hearing, every musician and music lover’s greatest fear, what are the songs I would like to do it to? Or what are the songs I would hope to have heard before it happened? What would be the list I would leave behind? What are the songs I wish I’d written? These are big questions, and I don’t plan on completing the list, but I’m going to try to tackle some selections as an ongoing research. I understand that it’s a compilation that can never be absolute and is heavily subjective, depending on what I happen to be listening to that day, that week. Unfortunately, my choices at the moment are very limited to YouTube because most of my music is on an iPod or vinyl that I can’t get on my computer. I’ll do my best regardless.
So the first up was prompted by repeated listens today on the bus. I’ve mentioned it before, “Precious One” by Chapterhouse. Shoegazing goodness that appears to borrow from The Stone Roses in the rhythm section, mixed with dreamy vocals, with intensely dynamic highs mixed with this constant rhythm that pulses like nature. You could dance to this, sleep to it, smoke pot to it (not that I told you to), cuddle to it, make a whimsical film montage to it… the list goes on. It’s pure atmosphere. Turn it up, close your eyes. It makes me feel like I’m underwater and soaring at the same time. Enjoy. There’s more to come.
So it seems like I’m quite behind, Zoot Woman’s third album, Things Are What They Used To Be came out a few months ago and I only found out the other day. In some ways it’s an improvement and in other ways it’s a regression. The sound is slicker–too slick–everything is so compressed that there’s little dynamic, however, I feel like it’s more consistent songwriting, all of the songs are pretty decent, whereas in the past there have been great songs like “Living in a Magazine” mixed with really lacklustre tunes. I feel as though the songs could have more layers of sound to really pump them out, but they are all very much in the realm of sophisticated electronic dance pop. I haven’t heard any remixes yet, but I imagine some of the remixes will outdo the originals. I find Zoot Woman’s strength is in the basslines and disco-y drum beats, with unintrusive vocals, what they need are more synth hooks. A few songs are reminiscent of Daft Punk but more of a rock band setup and frankly, it’s like listening to an English version of Phoenix (less groove more synth) and Stuart Price is a notorious Francophile anyway, so this isn’t surprising. That said, I don’t know how big of a part Price had in the songwriting because he doesn’t tour with the band anymore, there’s a girl who plays bass on tour with the band now and it seems important to draw the legacy of influences as coming from 80s British synthpop groups like Human League. Perhaps, I’ll assume the Blake brothers do most of the legwork. Anyhow, on the whole, it’s fun but not revolutionary, fans won’t have many complaints.
Recommended Tracks: “Blue Sea”, “Memory”, “Just a Friend of Mine”, “We Won’t Break”
So today’s recommendation I have to pass along is to hear the new song by Burning Hearts. Straight out of FInland and on the Shelflife label, I wrote about their debut album a few months ago. Pop bliss. The song is “Night Animal” and you can download the song from the website, or buy the 7″. Anyway, let’s just say that while everyone is reflecting on 2009’s highs and lows in music, I’m looking forward to 2010.
So a couple of days ago I saw the film, Nine, and it appeared to have promise. It’s a musical; it has a million of respected actors; it’s related to Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2. Unfortunately, it kind of sucked. The songs were sort of awful, with some of the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard. Every single song was somebody shouting “Guido!” (Guido is the protagonist) and these horrible Americanized and oversimplified stereotypical visions of what it means to be Italian. Fellini is rolling in his grave. It was essentially an unnecessary and poorly executed rehash of 8 1/2. Daniel Day Lewis, as always acted well, as did Judy Dench and Marion Cotillard was probably the highlight of the film, however, the script was crap and the songs were formulaic. It went like this: we see character interact with Guido, then we flash to character’s introduction song. I appreciated some of the allusions to 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita and Amarcord, but I’d rather just go watch those instead. The exact problem with Nine is that it is overeager and is too American Hollywood in style, therefore it is unable to represent the nature of the sort of Italian Neo-Realist films it is a fan of, and fails to integrate dreamy circus sequences in with reality, which for me, is part of the charm of 8 1/2, instead these song sequences are chopped up and too disconnected. I can see that with the addition of the musical element, there was an attempt to bring the two together, but it is in poor taste. Had the film gone without the awful soundtrack and explored the characters’ relationships it would have been far and away better. Penelope Cruz is a very capable actress, having seen Volver, this is clear to me, but what the hell is she doing here? Nicole Kidman has a very minor role, playing an actress in the spirit of Anita Ekberg, but she is no Anita Ekberg that’s for sure. So, if you were debating seeing this, download it or wait to rent it, or better yet, go watch some Fellini instead.
Fellini, rolling so fast in his grave that he has created a black hole. The Large Hadron Collider crew could only be jealous.
So in the spirit of the season I thought I’d post the video to one of my favourite Christmas songs. Many of my friends already know that this song is a favourite, but regardless.
So for your listening pleasure I’d like to present what I’m going to call The Apartment Session #1. Here you can enjoy the toned down and relaxed versions of The Lion in Love (that’s me) playing with Julian Bowers (that’s not me) on drums. You’ll also get a special Christmas cover song that Julian sings. These are raw and full of mistakes and hopefully a little charm, mostly intended as an introduction to some of the newest work.
More downloads galore, the Kingfisher Bluez No Revival compilation comes out today, featuring one of my songs and others on the label. Available as a free download or a limited edition CD. Click here for the freebie, or buy the handmade real deal and support the artists.
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