one-listen ... thursday?

sorry, campers: i was swamped under yesterday and didn't get a chance to do another one-listen wednesday, so, in lieu of that, i'm just going to refer you to this press release about neil young's new and controversial album, living with war. i'm not saying this is the best-written thing i've ever seen, but this is going to be a pretty important album this year, so here's a heads up.

Neil Young Lets Loose a War Cry
By Robert Everett-Green
The Globe and Mail
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/0426006F.shtml
Wednesday 26 April 2006

The world awaits Young's most powerful album in years, a disc
fuelled by outrage at Washington.

We met outside a bagel joint in north Toronto, then drove a few
blocks to a quiet street where two strangers could sit in a big old
Cadillac and listen to the car stereo in peace. Then Robert Young
slipped a CD-ROM from a plain white sleeve and gave me a rare preview of
the nine explosive new songs on his brother Neil Young's
much-anticipated album, Living With War.

The disc was made in a hurry, recorded in three days on Neil
Young's California ranch and another 12-hour session in a Los Angeles
studio. I can hear the urgency in Young's singing, as if there's not a
moment to lose when a great lie has spread over the land and only
strong, sustained truth-telling can turn it back.

Living With War is a fierce, comprehensive indictment of the Bush
administration and all its failures, at home and abroad, but it doesn't
feel like an outsider's dissent. It's the work of someone who clearly
identifies with the core values of ordinary Middle Americans who voted
for Bush, who sent their sons and daughters to war, and who are
beginning to feel betrayed.

Flags of Freedom, for example, starts like a proudly patriotic song
from the days before the Vietnam War began to stain the self-image of
the republic. Young depicts a parade of recruits marching off to war
down the main street of their small town, church bells ringing and "the
flags of freedom flying." But when the soldiers have passed, with
parents and sisters watching, Young pointedly asks: "Have you seen the
flags of freedom? / What colour are they now?" It would be hard to miss
the sense of doubt and disappointment, made sharper by Young's allusion
to a similar, more confident query at the end of The Star-Spangled Banner.

The disappointment turns into rage in Let's Impeach the President.
This long impassioned outcry begins with a trumpet flourish from the
Last Post and ends with a 100-voice chorus shouting Young's angry
responses to numerous clips of Bush's own words about Bin Laden, Saddam
Hussein and the case for war in Iraq.

"Let's impeach the president for lying / and leading our country
into war," Young hollers, "abusing all the power that we gave him / and
shipping all our money out the door . . . Let's impeach the president
for spying / on citizens inside their own homes / breaking every law in
the country / tapping our computers and telephones."

The text alone can't convey the sense of gasping outrage in Young's
singing, and his forceful arrangements for guitar, bass, drums and
sometimes trumpet. His electric guitar's gnarly, saturated tone has an
almost drunken quality, as if it too were reeling from the great betrayal.

But the music throughout the album feels sparse and tightly
controlled, as if these statements were too important to be gussied up
with ornament. The trumpet, when it appears, does so only briefly, with
a different character each time, evoking the sounds of a border town in
Bush's native Texas (in Shock and Awe), or doubling the guitar melody
like a quasi-human voice (in Living With War).

Likewise, the choir plays several roles, and offers much more than
backing vocals. It's the sound of the people, whether represented as a
church congregation (in the title song) or a chanting crowd of
protesters (in Let's Impeach the President).

Mostly, it's a big-tent collection of ordinary citizens, which at
the end of the album sings an a cappella version of America the
Beautiful, recalling in a more robust key the final scene of Michael
Cimino's devastating Vietnam film, The Deer Hunter.

The title song makes the most powerful use of core American themes
and symbols, and the rhetoric of the religious right. Both the melody
and the lyrics ("I join the multitudes, I raise my hand in peace . . . I
take a holy vow never to kill again") feel hymn-like, in spite of the
song's rock idiom. The voices rise as Young inserts a line from The
Star-Spangled Banner ("the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in
air") and it seems at first as if the reference is purely ironic. But he
goes on with another line from the anthem, and suddenly the meaning is
more ambivalent, more complicated by a sense of bedrock patriotism.

At bottom, this is a profoundly patriotic record. Its predominant
theme is spoiled hopes, and the list is long, including hopes for a safe
environment, for economic justice at home and abroad, for peace between
nations. But a few songs make it clear that Young isn't finished with
hoping. Looking for a Leader, which comes right after Let's Impeach the
President, is an unvarnished call for a new authority figure who can
right the wrong, clear out the corruption, and make the nation's symbols
feel pure again. "Some one walks among us, and I hope he hears the
call," Young sings, "Maybe it's a woman, or a black man after all."

Young supported Reagan, and was one of the first major rock
musicians to lend support to the so-called war on terror, in his 2001
song Let's Roll. It would seem to be a challenge for Bush's allies to
brush off his attacks on "the shadow man running the government." But
the struggle is already skewed in their favour, because most of these
songs probably won't make it on to American radio, which is heavily
dominated by the ClearChannel empire. Those are the folks, you may
remember, who yanked the Dixie Chicks from the airwaves after Natalie
Maines dared to criticize the President in front of a microphone.

Young knows all about that, which is why this album will be
streamed for free on his website (http://www.neilyoung.com) for a week
starting Friday, before a commercial release on Reprise/Warner. It's
going to spread on-line, and on college radio, and by word of mouth.
It's a media virus, and it's also Young's strongest record in years.

one-listen wednesday

so i didn't get any cds today. so i'm going back to one i haven't gotten to crack open yet.

stingray green
hard numbers
self-released

these guys are from minneapolis and consist of kent militzer on lead guitar, vocals and keyboards; dan sarka on guitar and vocals; robb burnham on drums; and dan boardman on bass, vocals, keyboards and guitar. that's a lot of guitars and keyboards. recording by boardman and militzer and mixed by militzer. so they're do-it-yourselfers.

second track "go home" starts with some seriously queen-inspired guitar. brian may look out. the recording sounds good, especially for what appears to be a home job. drums sound a little boxey, but that's my only complaint so far. they also get mad props for starting their press release with this sentence: "the word 'mantastic' gets thrown around a lot. but 'supergroup' doesn't." you see what they did? they made me laugh right away which is just incredibly hard to do within the format of the press release. kudos.

looking further down the press release, i see they've all done time in lots of different mpls bands, including magnatone, sparrows, and the magnolias. so on to the music: the queen thing is definitely there, but they're not super-glammy or anything. looks like we got another case of the power pops, here. i'm on track 3 ("good intentions") now, and it's got a sweet guitar solo. very '70s, and kind of reminding me of the movie "dazed and confused." but where a lot of retro-stuff is made to sound like a relic, this sounds more like the way the stuff was meant to sound straight off the assembly line. you know what i mean? there's no dust in these grooves.

i'm begining to gather that lead vocals are taken by whoever wrote the song? i think. dude, this kent millitzer's a burner. great tone, reminding me of scott wells from hockey night, who in turn reminded me, again, of the '70s. i wonder if i can make my guitar sound like the killer dual leads on "bad batch?"

harmony guitars. killer. people don't use that enough, in my humble o. i'm already more than halfway through; it's a very easy listen. not easy listening, though. i'm going to go ahead and recommend this to fans of straight-ahead good rock in the vein of other local superstars like rank strangers. i've got a feeling that tom hallett would appreciate these guys.

these fine fellows are having a release party for this here release on sat., apr. 22 at the hexagon, which is always free, so you should probably go. i think they'll fit right in. and thus i've reached the end of closer "when she comes," and, as such, the end of another one-listen wednesday. i'm gonna give this one the thumbs up for casual summer listening with the windows down while you're running around town picking up premos and brats for a backyard bbq.

it's one-listen wednesday!

okay, so i didn't get any local cds today, and we just ran a bunch of local cd reviews in the print edition, so i'm going to check out something else today. i'm listening to sunset rubdown, which is another project of spencer krug, he of the hysterical vocals for wolf parade. but, i started listening to it before i got to doing this, so we're going to pop out mr. krug and pop in scott walker.

scott walker
the drift
4 ad

scott walker is a dude i've heard a lot about. as a devout reader of british music magazine q in the late 90s, he got referenced left and right, although this is the first time i'm actually listening to him. whoa. weird.

apparently this record took seven years to make. mr. walker's got a strange voice. sounds a little like antony from antony and the johnsons. this special advance copy i've got here (full-length out on may 9) plays as one long track. the stated reason for this is that walker's ideal scenario for this record is to be heard all at once, but i suspect that foiling music piracy might have something to do with it. just an idea. this first track, "cossacks are," is also a little reminiscent of some of those more formless jeff buckley tracks from "sketches ..." based on the press materials, this guy is really somebody, plus he's 63. 63! there are some allusions to a past hit and walker's refusal to play the ageing rock star role. i guess that'd be a slam on the rolling stones, paul mccartney, take your pick.

this is a very empty record. the second track, "clara," is just walker's voice, some toms, and some keyboard. until some seriously giant strings come in. they sound a little like the music from "the shining." this is a good thing, i think, but also ridiculously over-the-top. to call this an acquired taste would probably be fair. it's peculiar to be listening to something with no referents when clearly you're meant to hear it in the context of all his previous work. try to imagine hearing the white album without knowing "i want to hold your hand." this album definitely has its sights set on similarly expansive and confrontational territory.

this is clearly the most pretentious press kit i've ever read. it's largely written by a guy named ian penman. an example: "Scott slips out the door of pop insanity (this is in 1967) and, running to escape the screaming both outside and inside his skull, like a boy in a myth, or a patsy assassin on the run, huddles inside a backstreet cinema ..." or there's this, from the part that actually talks about this album: "so let us start from scratch and paint a picture in the air: a dream, say, of the veldt at night where the locust chorus suddenly stops and the air sounds like threnody itself (threnody itself?) and cold lightning (cold lightning?) shoots across the sky like a whore exhaling crack (a whore?) and the death-coin Flugelman glides from hut to hut his midnight greeting like an infected kis ..." who is this guy? how can any music live up to that purple prose?

checking out wikipedia indicates that this guy is one of those peculiarly british (even though he was born in ohio) musicians who exert a stranglehold influence on a whole lot of bands that have never really broken through over here like pulp, julian cope, marc almond and the divine comedy. i'm getting the sense that i'm missing out on a lot just having it play on the boombox, so i'm switching to headphones.

apparently "jesse," the third song, was written about a month after the events of 9/11 and conflates the events with the story of elvis' still-born twin brother and is based around the drum pattern for "jailhouse rock" being replaced with whispered "pows" to represent planes hitting buildings. okay then. i'm beginning to think i need the cliffs notes version of this to guide me through it.

i find his refusal to give you a leg to stand on in terms of traditional song structure fascinating/frustrating, which i think is what he's after. "jesse," which i'm in the middle of right now, is basically just baritone guitar, vocals, and some super-ominous strings and sounds. i gather that he's done a lot string arranging, including writing the score to the 1999 film pola x. i'm right on the edge of feeling like this is all just too artsy, but i'm hanging in there. i'll be back shortly ...

there are some truly disturbing noises in "jolson + jones." kind of like a hippopatums being flayed alive. 41 minutes to go on this magnum opus.

now he's offering to punch a donkey in the streets of galway. i'm beginning to think i should have gone with eagles of death metal's death by sexy instead.

this is sounding more and more like a piece alvin lucier played us in intro to experimental music at wesleyan that was supposed to represent the music of the planets. it was very slow and very empty and quite ominous, based around the idea that big things moving very very fast actually look like they're moving quite slowly. add on top of that some very mannered torch singer-type vocals and the occasional sound of something being punched and that's what it's looking like 35:50 into the game.

this is music for people who find schoenberg "too pop." what happened, scott walker? in the 60s he was in the walker brothers and he even dallied with country and western music in the 70s. don't get me wrong, i admire him for the attempt, which, according to penman, i have to ("you MUST not dismiss the attempt"), but i think i'm going to have to pass on the second half of the drift. i'm just not finding anything particularly interesting going on, despite the attempt.

and thus concludes one-listen wednesday. what the hell is a flugelman? no, don't get up: apparently it's a leader, especially a political leader. now you can sleep at night again.

a quick aimee mann appreciation

folks, there is no finer song than "deathly" by aimee mann. here's why:

great opening line: "now that i've met you, would you object to never seeing each other again?"

great guitar solo. simple, melodic, amazing.

great drumming. and fun to play along with on drums.

great closing verse:

"you're on you honor
'cause i'm a goner
and you haven't even begun.
so do me a favor,
if i should waiver:
be my savior
and get us the gun."

the royal we there just absolutely slays me. the quality that aimee mann has as a songwriter which seems to be so difficult to find is that clear-eyed realism/pessimism that doesn't wallow in self-pity. seriously, given what the song is about it should be the most dour, depressing thing ever, but instead it just seems wry and self-deprecating in a very flattering way.

can a singer/songwriter have swagger? mos def, and mann's got it on a jay-z-like level.

introducing one-listen wednesdays

today i'm introducing a super new feature to the pulse music blog: every wednesday i'm going to pick out a cd from the towering stack on my desk and review it on the first listen as i'm listening to it. this week's pick is ...

crown vics
s/t
maduro records

so the crown vics are mike brown on guitar, jim freund on bass and vocals, nate gardner on vocals and guitars and mike olszewski on drums and vocals. i'm guessing nate is the singer, and they just went with the old alphabetical order for the listing of the band. here's what i'm thinking so far, about halfway through leadoff track "dad is sick": vocals sound a little like bob mould, but the music is in the vein of americana/roots rock. hang on, i'm gonna get some coffee. the sound is quite good, and i'm also reminded of another solid local effort that crossed my desk a few weeks ago by stook. we're going to have a feature on him by andrea myers the first week of may. but anyways. i'm taking a look at the sheet they sent along and they're going to be having their cd release show at the 400 bar on thursday, april 13. the second track ("dashboard") sounds a little more agitated. some touches of the late mark sandman (from morhphine). kind of down in the gutter and dirty, rain pouring down. although not as over the top, the groove is right down the alley of i can lick any sonofabitch in the house, who are one of my favorite live bands. however, the production really needs to be over the top for this to work, and it's not so much here. this song could really kick ass live.

"birdman" (not the askeleton song of the same name, although i suppose we could add these to the list from tom hallett's time waster this week in 'round the dial) has a nice guitar melody up top and some decent harmony vocals. the guitar riff is really nifty and symmetrical, taking you on a little journey and then bringing you right back again at the end of two bars. i heard that knol tate from askeleton wrote his "birdman" about a guy who was pissed at him one night when he was at chang o'hara's but couldn't get in because he didn't have his id so dude just stood outside and flipped him and his whole party off for several minutes. this birdman seems to have stolen the protagonist's girl away from him, but the tone is a lot more wistful generally. wouldn't it be crazy if it were the same guy?

okay, sorry, i got distracted by e-mail and an office visitor. i'm up to track 8, "medicine." the disc continues to display solid chops and a plesantly mild rock aesthetic. if the trend continues, i think we're looking at a really solid bar band with a good ear for melody that could and should do well at venues like the hexagon and the turf. which i went to last night for the first time post-smoking ban. and let me say, it's a treat. and it doesn't even smell that bad! of course, i couldn't make it down to the clown lounge, which might suffer a little more given its below ground status.

okay, the disc has wound to a close and the previous assessment has proven correct. no pink floyd-style freakouts at the end, just straight-ahead easy rocking that should make 'em smile at neon-lit bars around town. oh, and the mark sandman vocal comparison turned out to be more apt than mould.