Category Archives: Music

Bands, albums and live reviews

The Sleepers revel in classic rock and roll hedonism

Music

I was pretty sure I was going to like Comeback Special from Chicago band The Sleepers before I even cracked open the CD. *

The cover has a vaguely bootlegged look to it like The Who’s Live At Leeds. Prominently displayed on the cover is the band’s logo, faux-rubber-stamped over a phonograph. Not a distinguished old-timey one that might have a dog peering into it, but one of those 70s down-market deals that proves that albums only sound better than CDs when you have 10K worth of stereo equipment behind them.

The back of the CD insert apes the look of a taped-up set list next to a picture of the band. The bassist is the most flamboyantly dressed of the five, while the lead singer is outfitted in what appears to be a sweater vest, button-down and corduroys. This makes so little sense that it must be true.

The easiest, laziest criticism against what The Sleepers are doing is that there’s nothing particularly ground-breaking going on here, though you could level the same critique at The Detroit Cobras, The Bellrays or The Goldstars, three bands who – like The Sleepers – take all the pieces necessary for a rock-and-roll, barroom-stomp style and put it together in such a way that it doesn’t sound like a retread.

Comeback Special is the band’s 2nd full-length after Push It Nationwide. The songs are full of crunchy guitar riffs crackling over bottom-heavy grooves as the lyrics repeatedly invoke the Holy Troika of Rock Problems (women – of legal age and otherwise – booze, and cigarettes). 70s rock shibboleths are offered from the MC5-style guitar lines to the Freddie Mercury-esque shouts of “Yeah!” on “Loaded” and “Jailbait,” to the direct line that can be drawn from Cheap Trick’s “Southern Girls” to The Sleepers’ “Filthy Ways.” These are bombastic, anthemic songs that revel in weekend-warrior vice.

The Sleepers manage to transcend their influences precisely because of all these winking nods at what came before. It’s the difference between a band that knows what it’s doing when it plays a certain way and a band that plays a certain way because it doesn’t know any better.

Comeback Special works because The Sleepers studied hard in rock school, then pissed off their professors because they turned out to be a little smarter.

The Sleepers’ Comeback Special is out now. Tracks from their album are available via its MySpace page. Their CD release party is March 8th at Double Door. Opening will be The Regrets, The Cocksmiths, and Whiskey Blonde, which sounds about right, actually.

* My own personal barometer for this decision-making – hinted at here – is worth expounding on, but not here. Buy me a beer in a bar sometime though…

Like wrestling a pig

Music, , ,

Yesterday morning, I waded into the slap fight between Pitchfork and Urb magazine with this post on the TOC blog. In dissing Pitchfork, Urb placed them within the Chicago indie rock scene, which it finds to be “the most pretentious smarter-than-thou scene in the entire country.”

Nevermind that ALL indie rock scenes are at least a little pretentious, but I don’t think you can really call much of anything in Chicago pretentious (although in a response, LA Weekly drops a reference to Tortoise and if all most of the rest of the world knows about Chicago is either its post-rock and free jazz scenes, then I guess I can understand where they’re getting that from). Moreover, I don’t think Pitchfork is a vibrant part of the city’s scene. It’s not a knock against them, they’re just more nationally-focused.

In any case, the post got picked up by LAist and The Daily Swarm as well as a couple other places. I’m getting called out for not knowing my ass from page 8 in the dictionary because Film School are originally (?) from San Francisco and not L.A. OK, my bad even though they’re billing themselves as an L.A. band. And yeah, they’ve been around a couple years, but that’s exactly my point: I don’t see them as anything more than a band of noodling wankers who keep trying to convince people to buy what they’re selling.

Skeet On Mischa also points out that No Age is obviously L.A.’s most talked-about indie musical export right now. And he’s got a point. It slipped my mind that the noise-rock duo hails from there.

So to sum up, in the 1st Annual Talking Out Of Your Ass Tourney, TOC, Pitchfork and Urb finish in a three-way tie.

U2's manager is barking up the wrong metaphorical tree

Internet, Music,

Mega-selling bands – and their managers – need to stop presenting themselves as the standard bearer for artists who are losing money due to illegal downloads. If you have ever toured with a giant lemon as part of your stage show, you lose the argument before you begin.

Having said that, here’s what U2’s manager Paul McGuiness has to say about the role of ISPs vis a vis illegal downloading:

“‘If you were a magazine advertising stolen cars, handling the money for stolen cars and seeing to the delivery of stolen cars, the police would soon be at your door,’ he said. ‘That’s no different to an ISP, but they say they can’t do anything about it.'”

Leaving aside for the moment the whole notion that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 means that ISPs are not, in fact, liable for such behavior, let’s look at what McGuinness is really saying here.

If a “magazine” was taking possession of stolen cars and receiving money for them, they would, in fact, be breaking the law. But let’s go with this and say that possession of copyrighted material that you do not own is like a stolen car (better return that copy of Freakonomics or The National album now!). ISPs neither receive money for the possession of copyrighted material (his first point) nor do they provide the programs that allow one to access copyrighted material (his second point about “seeing to the delivery” of stolen material). This would be like saying that the builder of a garage used to operate a chop shop is responsible for the thievery that goes on there. Or that Xerox is responsible for people who photocopy books.

I could go on, but what’s the point? This is like the time I told my sister that the government wasn’t responsible for providing for a particular service because it wasn’t in the Constitution and she replied “Well asparagus isn’t in the Constitution…” How do you argue with logic that isn’t logical?

This whole argument is stemming from Canada’s efforts to tax ISPs (they call it a fee, but come on now) and funnel that music to artists. Anyone who’s been following the business of music for the last 50 years ought to be suspicious of such a plan, even if such a fee goes directly to the music publishers and bypasses labels altogether. Sound Opinions also discussed this topic recently and I’m surprised they jumped on board with it. If for no other reason but that not everyone uses his or her Internet connection to download music they haven’t paid for.

But hey: let’s compromise. How about anyone who buys an album by crap Canadian bands has to pay a “bad taste” tax? So if you by the next album by Celine Dion, Nickelback, Sum 41 or Avril Lavigne, you have to pay an extra five bucks. Who’s with me?

An open letter to Marilyn Manson

Music

Dear Marilyn (née Brian Warner):

Hey, how’s it going? Not sure if you’re aware of this, but here is an excerpt from a press release I received yesterday about your upcoming tour. The CAPS are your publicist’s own:

EAT HIM, DRINK HIM,

DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH HIM:

“MUTILATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY”

MANSON IS ON TOUR AGAIN

That was the first one. Then here were some other excerpts from yet another release I received not two hours later:

“Joining Manson and Twiggy onstage for the U.S. leg of the Rape of the World Tour…”

“Expectations for the upcoming tour are best described by quoting one of Manson’s most infamous lyrics, ‘Everyone will suffer now’.”

“Looks like the shit is gonna hit the FANS.”

Really, dude? “Rape of the World?” “The shit is gonna hit the FANS?” What does that even mean?

Just stop this nonsense. Do you know that every time something like this happens, you remind people of this Onion headline? It’s true. Don’t stop trying to make a career of it, but let’s maybe think about some minor adjustments to the marketing plan, OK?

Sincerely,
Our Man In Chicago

A sniff is as good as a wink to a blind horse

Music,

As I’ve previously mentioned, Wednesdays are the days that Team Web puts up the new issue at TOC, and it’s also the day that the Hard Rock Cafe: Heavy Metal compilation gets a healthy amount of use.

(Sidebar: Since the White Lion Revelation, I’ve found myself paying closer attention to the lyrics on this album, as well as other cock rock classics. As such, I usually hit the skip button when “Lay It Down” by Ratt cues up since I can no longer countenance lyrics like “I’m into total affection/Not being scared if you never please me.” Let’s be honest here: how “scared” were the members of Ratt that your average groupie was going to be unable to “please” them? I’m fairly certain that this was a low-set bar. Similarly, I was also struck by the lyrics to “C’mon and Love Me” by KISS: “She’s a dancer, a romancer/I’m a Capricorn and she’s a Cancer.” KISS, where do you get your ideas?)

As such, I was listening to Lita Ford’s “Kiss My Deadly,” a song I’ve been familiar since I bought it during an early 90s excursion to the local Phar-Mor (picture a low-rent Jewel combined with the record and tape selection that approximates the catalog selections one would find at a modern-day Circuit City ) where I purchased the eponymous Lita based largely on the cover (at right) and my friend Rick’s endorsement of the Ozzy/Lita duet “Close Your Eyes Forever” which we can all agree, in retrospect, is not near as cool as we remember it being. For those whose memories fail them, here’s a sample, but it gets worse from here when the drums kick in around 2:45:

MP3 excerpt – Lita Ford and Ozzy Osboune – “Close My Eyes Forever”

This is a good lesson for all of us: never buy music based solely on the endorsement of a 16 year-old.

ANYWAY, in all my years of listening to “Kiss Me Deadly,” I never noticed the audible “sniff” that occurs at approximately 20.40 seconds into the song right after the lyric about Lita’s unfortunate, but nominal, traffic and financial difficulties. To whit:

MP3 excerpt – Lita Ford – “Kiss Me Deadly”

What’s going on there? A defiant sniffle in the face of the aforementioned patriarchal groveling? One last bit of nose candy before the rocking commences? It’s a rather minor occurrence in the overall song. In fact, you can see the audio waves created by “the sniff” barely register (note the highlighted portions below):

I used to think “Kiss Me Deadly” was a great song but I fear this “sniff” is going to lead to an obsession with it. So I’m really hoping someone can supply an explanation before it takes over my life.

What have you done to my albums lately?

Music

Conversation between me and my lady yesterday:

Me: Look at this.
Me: Shut up, Janet.
My Lady: I am going to be sick.
My Lady: Please promise me that no matter what we do, we never have sex to a Janet Jackson album.
My Lady: And not just because I don’t want us having babies before we’re ready.
Me: Done.
Me: I reserve the right to have sex with you ON a Janet Jackson album.
My Lady: Oh that’s fine.
Me: Specifically, this one.
Me: I like doing it on the albums of women who look like they’ve had portions of their spine removed.
My Lady: For real.

Idolize

Music

Oh Idolator, how I love you so. This just sent me into co-worker-disturbing levels of giggles.

“Everyone’s had their music featured on The O.C. It’s not that big of a deal anymore. A guy I know whistled in the shower yesterday, and the tune was purchased to be used on a very special “car accident” episode of One Tree Hill. Then Nic Harcourt called him in for an appearance on ‘Morning Becomes Eclectic.'”

If these rumors are true, I’m going to take up a collection and buy it. Who wants in?

My first mistake was listening to White Lion in the first place

Music,

Today I was working on the TOC site, and listening to the Hard Rock Cafe: 80s Heavy Metal compilation. If memory serves, I acquired this from a friend who works at a radio station and occasionally raids their prize closet before throwing a bunch of stuff in an envelope destined for Chicago (this is also how I acquired the KISS boxed set). Several weeks ago, I discovered that 80s heavy metal is the perfect genre to code to for three reasons:

1. Despite its volume – and often its misogyny – it’s pretty easy to ignore because most of it is performed by people who are not very bright (For instance: “I’m into total affection/Not being scared if you never please me” from “Lay It Down” by Ratt. I’ve had some less-than-ideal sexual experiences but I don’t think I’ve ever had a fear that I wouldn’t get an orgasm. Maybe a concern, but it never evolved into all-out fear.
2. Most 80s heavy metal – and man is that a loosely applied term when it comes to this collection – combines driving guitars and drums with aggressively poppy melodies. This is ideal sonic motivation for tasks that are largely devoid of intellectual thought.
3. Occasional involuntary air guitar/drums helps to keep my fingers loose and stave off carpal tunnel.

Anyway, all this is a precursor to saying I had a moment of sheer disappointment today when I realized I have been mis-hearing a lyric from White Lion’s “Wait” for years. I thought the lyric was:

Wait, wait – I never got the chance to lie to you
Now I only want to say I love you one more time

Not exactly Dylan, but not exactly Fergie either. In fact, I’d say it’s a solid kiss-off lyric.

Except it isn’t. It’s actually:

Wait – wait no I never had a chance to love you
Now I only wanna say I love you one more time

From kiss-off to kiss-ass. A weak, wet noodle of a lyric that also sounds a little stalkerish too. I felt so foolish, like the time I found out a lot of the songs Freddie Mercury wrote for Queen’s last album were about his cat.

High infidelity

Music

Greg Kot has an interview with Paul McCartney this week. There’s a quote in it on whether he’s an audiophile that just about made me erupt into apoplexy:

“I’m used to hearing things on the radio. OK, I’ve got a sound system on my car. But we used to listen on the beach. As kids, in the summer, you’d listen to a little mono radio. It sounded great to me. The joke was when George Martin first announced this new thing called stereophonic and we walked into the studio and there were two speakers, we went, ‘Great, twice as loud!’ I still think like that. That’s what stereo should’ve been. Never mind all these putting things in funny places. It sounds OK on iPod. Those little headphones come out of my ears all too readily. Obviously, I love to hear the music on a great big system straight off the master. But if you’re in a car, or on the beach, or somebody’s playing it on a railway station, it still sounds good.” (emphasis mine)

So there you have it. The man who – for most people – earned co-credit for the sound experience that is Sgt. Pepper’s and the 2nd half of Abbey Road is saying that such groundbreaking studio wizardry was little more than “putting things in funny places.”

Also, when is the last time you suppose Paul McCartney spent significant time in a railway station? Was he waiting for the one after 909?

Art, the non-Garfunkel variety

Music

There’s been some fiery back and forth in the comments in this post on the selling of art (specifically music) and I thought it was worth bringing it out into the open.

Julene said: Um, wow. So if art is sold – it is no longer that artist’s work? I think what you are trying to say is that commissioned work for a specific ad or commercial reason is different than art created for for oneself or art’s sake and ended up being purchased.

No, I’m saying that if you create art ostensibly for yourself or under the auspices of a set of ideas (the way, say, Jeff Tweedy writes music as a part of Wilco) and then allow it to be used for commercial purposes, then be prepared for people to have a very different idea about what your art is or even who you are. Does anyone else think of The Caesars as anything other than “the iPod band?”

Now, this isn’t a value judgment. When you are commissioned to do public art, you are operating under a specific set of circumstances and creating art within them. It can still be striking, moving art. But this is different than creating art for its own sake. The motivations behind its creation and then how it’s perceived are fundamentally different.

Julene’s absolutely correct in saying that an artist does not have complete control over how his or her art is perceived whether it was created as a commission or for its own sake (witness the way the meaning of Bruce Springsteen’s song “Born in the U.S.A.” has been lost behind a fist-pumping chorus). When I said “artists need to be OK with is the notion that it is no longer their art when it is sold” I meant that they are placing that art they created for its own sake within a different context than the one in which it’s created. So the feelings behind it are no longer purely their own. It’s seen as Apple’s or Volkswagen’s.

There’s a giant gaping hole in my argument here that anyone is welcome to exploit and that’s this: most musicians don’t just create art for its own sake, it’s created in the hopes that they can make a living (a.k.a. money). My short retort to this argument is that most often music that can also be called art (not all of it can) is still created for its own sake in the hopes that someone will be willing to put up money to support that artist’s efforts without compromising the creation of the art. Sometimes this is true, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes the artist is complicit in this, sometimes the artist is not.

But that’s a whole other post, even though I’ve now opened this can and dumped the worms are all over the place.

Addendum: My man in Memphis, Kerry Hayes, has a related post at his blog Rural Free Delivery, where he points out that Kevin Barnes, lead singer of Of Montreal, posted about this issue on Stereogum. I read Barnes’s missive after my original post but found his logic so lacking in…well, logic that it didn’t seem worth it to post a counter-argument.

Addendum 2: Thanks to a referral link, I just found this piece by Anne Elizabeth Moore on this topic that’s a response to the Miles Raymer column that started this whole jag.