I wasn't that surprised.
Some notes on two 7 inches from 2011. Grass Widow released Milo Minute on their own label, HLR, last year, and when I got it, I didn't listen to it right away. Something about their Past Time LP left me worn out, although I've since come to my senses. Past Time is excellent, an album of effortless, slightly mathematical hooks (see "Shadow"). It's tempting to just emphasize the radical girl-ness of them, to place them on a riot grrrl continuum (they're all-female, they have a record on Kill Rock Stars, they've played with the reunited Raincoats), but there's more. The video for "11 of Diamonds" almost feels Maya Deren-ish, like avant-garde beach noir from the earliest days of counter-culture America. On the flip side of Milo Minute, they cover Neo Boys and Wire, and in interviews they've cited '60s Brits The Move as an influence. And while their strength is often in their restraint (no wild distortion, no super fast parts or freak-outs), they have something of the pop rush and bounce of The Buzzcocks, and they hint at the briskness and poetics, the guitar jangle and bass rumble and adventurousness, of the Minutemen, but take it in another direction. They're a model female punk trio, no question, but you can go deeper and wider with them. "Milo Minute", the song, feels like their attempt at a jaunty 2-minute pop burst--plenty of craft, without a ton of overthinking. In the video for "Milo Minute", they go to Boston's Franklin Park Zoo and play music for gorillas, and it's here, with the band on one side of the plexiglass and a gorilla habitat on the other, that the song seems to grow. The band is so charming, they seem like they were going to the zoo to play anyway, and then said "oh! you should bring your camera, we need to make a video!" I did have some questions, mainly about whether or not it was good for gorillas to hear amplified instruments and drums, and then also what their hearing frequency was like. Is it like a dog's? Dogs don't seem to notice bands. The gorillas seem fine with it, especially by the end. Grass Widow have a way of making the complicated very uncomplicated and natural. They make it look not only easy, but desirable.
One of the things I don't like about rock duos is that there's always some kind of shtick. They're married, or they're dating, or they're smiling too much, or they're really "stripped down", or they're really LOUD FOR A TWO-PIECE, or they only wear certain colors. It's rare that they're just two people in a band and that's it. Soccer Team is one of those rare bands. They're platonic (I think) and modest, and the closest they come to a gimmick is the use of a lot of tremolo, especially for a band that is not at all a garage band. The 3-song EP they released last year was partly recorded in 2006--the same year their last record, "Volunteered" Civility and Professionalism, was released--and partly in 2010. It sounds like it--same home-recorded (4-track cassette, 8-track reel-to-reel) DC indie rock, same wry humor and wordiness. They're smart and funny, and sound like they're experimenting without losing sight of the song. "World Series Apathy" rolls out images of damaged ear drums, Gods and Goddesses, long goodbyes. Ryan Nelson drops the line "clouds will cover every person and sweep through every living thing". He sounds like a mostly-composed post-breakup man trying not to think "defeat", possibly with the benefit of some distance, while cycling the line "Did we cry 'assistance!' when our hearts sank into the sea?" and not making it sound like bad emo. "Mental Anguish Is Your Friend" is a stunner and gets better with every listen. Melissa Quinley calls to mind Liz Phair, the same lower register female voice, and gives off what sounds like a one-take perfect set of imperfect notes. I'm just reading over all the lyrics now. Fuck, is this record bleak, way more so than "Volunteered". It's all doomed and damned, fuck this and fuck that, "I can't wait to die alone and broke". Nothing is gonna be ok, but we can kinda laugh about it? Maybe?
Elsewhere--I watched a bunch of Cat Power interviews the other day, thesetwo for example. And I listened to Container's "Rattler" on the way home from work. Gnar dance stuff! Oh and check out this Yaphet Kotto gem. Incredible. Ok, that's all I got for now. More tomorrow!
Some belated notes on Davy Jones. The Monkees were my first favorite band, the first I identified as clearly being the coolest. I spent hours on the green shag carpet of our TV room watching re-runs of their show on some local Fox affiliate, and I remember telling a friend of my sister's that Davy was my favorite, although I think I switched to Mickey because he was funnier and I thought his songs were better. I remember walking down the streets of Toronto as a 6-year-old, holding a Monkees 45 my sisters had just bought me because they were especially cool (still are). Years later I started a band called The Chuds and we wrote a "Chuds Theme Song" because the subliminal power of the Monkees was THAT STRONG. As a high school straight edge kid who mostly wanted to listen to S.O.A., I didn't enjoy/understand Head at all, didn't want anything to do with it. I saw it again a month ago (as a 32-year-old Genny drinker who still wants to listen to S.O.A.) and I could not have been more wrong--it's one of the greatest movies of all time. You need to see it. So good and so fucking funny. Anyway, you should know that The Monkees were great, and that Davy was great. Here are a couple clips I saw in the past few days that I watched multiple times. RIP RIP RIP.
That's when I get the shakes all over me. A couple quick things. This is a speed post! First, Raylene And The Blue Angels. I picked up Destroy That Boy: More Girls With Guitars after hearing She Trinity's wild/proggy "Climb That Tree" on Mike Yates' Normal Happiness show on WITR (between that and Genevieve Waller's There's No Tomorrow show on WRUR, we're living in a very cool era for local college radio), and it's been on steady rotation ever since. Tons of highlights, and I maybe wanna talk about The Liverbirds' "He's Something Else" also. But Raylene and Co's "Shakin' All Over" will not leave my head. You know this song already because everybody's done it (even Fugazi). It could just be standard '60s vague coded hornyness, but I'm fine with that. And Raylene's voice sells it. It's rock n' roll fun and there's a sax, and again, anxiousness and getting all fired up and excited (all meanings, I guess). Would go nicely on a tape with Link Wray, The Monks, Brenda Lee, Ohio Express, Tommy James, etc. Also, rock n' roll literally means sex. I hope everyone knows that.
Elsewhere: When I think of Dirty Three, I think of the time I listened to Ocean Songs almost in its entirety on the way home from my friends' wedding a few years back. Not typical celebratory love music, but there it was. "The Restless Waves" almost made it on a lot of mix tapes around 2005, for whatever reason. And then I kind of drifted away from anything post-rock-y and had to listen to the Ramones, Modern Lovers, Buzzcocks, early Stones, et al, like a purging of anything with long melancholy sweeps, anything way over 3 minutes. "Rising Below", from their upcoming record, sounds good now. Maybe it's the weather (steady, not freezing, grey)? The long drives to work? Silver Mt Zion just played in Buffalo, and I thought about going to that. There's a comforting looseness about Dirty Three that I don't find in the Godspeed/Mt Zion stuff, though (or didn't, it's been a while). It's almost surprising Dirty Three manage to get to the part of the song where it gets intense and crazy. But they know what they're doing, and when you realize they weren't just fumbling through the chaos, it's a treat. There's something broad and nuanced going on, some kind of Frontiersman thing, some grown men concerns. Maybe I'm just thinking about how they look. I have to say a full album of meandering, cascading instrumentals might still be tough for me to get through. But this 5 and a half minute easy-going slow burst feels right.
More elsewhere: I've been going back to Weasel Walter's '70s mix regularly because it's way too good. Also, all of the best bootlegs are probs on Doom & Gloom From The Tomb. I know this Neil Young live boot is the best shit, and this collection of Television demos and influences is solid (even if you have minimal interest in Television, the first disc is a quality mix). Also, I got this Prince zine for my birthday and it's really good. Kind of "Intro to Prince" crash course and "Guide to later era Prince stuff you were wondering about". ALSO, Rookie Mag posted up this clip of X doing "The World's A Mess; It's In My Kiss", which you might know as one of the greatest songs of all time by one of the greatest bands of all time. High time someone talked up Exene Cervenka.
Ditch that place and get a snack.
Hey. Ok, so here's a new post, which is actually an article I wrote back in September for geneva13, where I've been writing music columns for like 3 years now (also, I don't know if a zine is really a "where", but I'm tired and I need to make dinner and my clothes smell like kerosene, so a little booklet is now a "where".) I've never wanted to post any of my g13 columns here because it felt like cheating somehow, to write something for one publication and then just throw it somewhere else, too. But I want to get the ball rolling on this blog again, or get some momentum going, because I still like music more than most things and I want to write, not even to get good at it or have it eventually lead to something, but just to fucking do it. Just because it's better to fucking do something, and it's better to have an opinion on music/art/words/jamz and actually give a shit. So here's a post. After this I'm going to post nearly everyday, probably just about one song. Like one song everyday, a song I just heard or a song I've been thinking about since I was 16, or whatever. Oh also, for the most recent issue of g13, I made a downloadable mixtape, which you can get from their site. I also made a mix for my grrrl Kaci's mixtape party back in January, which you can download here. There's one song that made it onto both mixes because it's SO GOOD. Anyway, read my shit and listen to some shit and shit the shit:
Margo Guryan - "Sunday Morning" from Take A Picture
My understanding of Margo Guryan is that she was a jazz-obsessed, gifted compositional scholar blissfully uninterested in pop music, until a friend played her The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", at which point her mind was blown. Take A Picture, her one and only album, released in 1968, somehow went nowhere at the time, despite the fact that it's dreamy and radical, full of remarkable pop structures, wispy vocals and chord changes all over the place and light jazz touches. Guryan goes for something beyond the epic teen drama and strict sugar rush of a good girl group single. She's not afraid to freak people out with exceptionally weird moments ("Love"), or use proto-King Crimson off-time rhythms and crazed violin ("Don't Go Away"). And on "Sunday Morning", she exalts the relaxed and grounded (but not lesser) pleasures of waking up with the one you love, drinking coffee, easing into the day. Have you ever heard someone so pumped about having a day to just hang? Raw, booming drums and domestic normalcy sound really good together.
Gray - "Dan Asher (I Saw You Liking Everything?)" from Shades Of...
The thing about Gray is that the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was in the band, along with Michael Holman, Nicholas Taylor, and Justin Thyme, and a bunch of other people, including Vincent Gallo (he doesn't appear on any of the recorings on Shades Of...; you can listen to his 2001 album, When, to fill in the gap). Maybe the bigger thing about Gray is that their jazz/drone/hip-hop/experimental/whatever music was actually great. They prank-call a suicide hotline, make dumb art world jokes, and on "Dan Asher" sound like an early '80s NYC version of Men's Recovery Project. The open-air drums, repeated mangled guitar chord, and woozy synth break make me all warm & fuzzy for reasons I can't explain. It's like they made a song out of trying not to make a song. Some tracks are more anti-music than others, but there's a liberating secret beginner genius feeling to everything, something fresh in the grime and decay, something gnarly even in the light vibes.
Crazy Band - "Drop Out" from **** You
Well, here it is. One of the best songs from one of the best albums of the year. Crazy Band is a bunch of LA weirdos wailing out inside jokes and internet-speak over raw sax punk, almost like all those '70s/'80s Raincoats-style bands but with a much better sense of humor and shorter songs. This song in particular has a little bit of rough language, so get your parents' blessing if that's something you need to get. I also hope this song encourages kindergarten drop-out rates to sky-rocket. A perfect back-to-school jam for those of us living in the real world. ps: WELCOME BACK HWS STUDENTS, THANKS FOR ORDERING A MILLION STUPID THINGS THROUGH THE MAILSTREAM.
Jesus - "Songe Mortuaire" from Midnight Massiera
Neil Young - "I've Been Waiting For You" from Neil Young
First, let's talk about Jesus. I have some pamphlets I want to show you real quick. Actually, the Jesus that sings "Songe Mortuaire" is a guy named Jean-Pierre Massiera, composer/song-writer/freak-a-leak who's sometimes referred to as "the French Joe Meek", which I think is code for "pretty out-there '60s producer who liked electronics and maybe spent every waking minute in the studio working out music fantasies". Midnight Massiera collects 18 of his pop soundtrack bizarro ideas, released under pseudonyms like Human Egg, The Piranha Sounds, Chico Magnetic Band, The Starlights, Jesus, etc. I almost started the mix with "Ivresse Des Profondeurs" by S.E.M. Studios, and now I'm kind of wishing I had. Hermans Rocket's "Space Woman" is a treat, too. But "Songe Mortuaire" sounds like it could be Leonard Cohen, singing and staring out at the sea, or while the leaves are changing under dark clouds, or some other grim chilly weather situation. Plus those piano bits that come in halfway through! It's also fun to imagine the bible Jesus singing this. Try that out.
All I can say about "I've Been Waiting For You" is that it's a perfect song and you need to hear it. There are Neil records better suited to Autumn than his self-titled debut (I've been a sucker for the Dead Man soundtrack, After The Gold Rush, and Le Noise lately), and you're free to dive into those. But this song slays, so turn it all the way up, past the point of eventual hearing loss. I had a dream not too long ago that Neil Young was running for president. I forget who his running mate was (Pocahontas maybe?), but I'm voting for him in the 2012 presidential dream-time elections.
Bill Callahan - "Riding For The Feeling" from Apocalypse
I've been listening to Apocalypse regularly for the past six months, and even when I haven't listened to it in a bit, the highlights of the record come to me in flashes. There's Callahan's voice, a warm speaking-tone version of Johnny Cash's deep bellow, and the full lyrics to "Drover". There's the quasi surf leads and spacey accompanying guitar textures on "Baby's Breath", and the genuine feelings of affection for the USA brought on by "America!". There's his spot-on impression of a flare gun going off in "Universal Applicant", a song that also includes a section that goes:
Oh bees only swarm when they're looking for a home
So I followed them
I found the bees nest in the buffalo's chest
I drank their honey, that milk
I've seen this taste cased in almost every face
That's working to see it in all
And this kidnaps me
On "Riding For The Feeling", he allows himself a second pass at an uncomfortable goodbye, and makes reference to what he's inadvertently left off the record, even as he's clearly putting it on. I could be wrong, I'm not good at this kind of dissection. Every song seems to be about horse-riding, continuous work, surrounding plantlife, discussions of place and time, distant love, etc, with the occasional nod to the album itself (he sings the record's catalog number at the close of "One Fine Morning"), but not in an annoying meta way. At times it's as though Don DeLillo or Cormac McCarthy have made an album. Callahan gives military ranks to his favorite songwriters, and sounds like he knows how to fix things around the house. It's obvious when something's been done right, you know? When it's sturdy and legit, unique. This is one of those records.
It's so good to be here, asleep on the lawn. Some notes towards a Neil Young summer, or what will probably be a Neil Young / Descendents / Sun Ra / Motorhead / Bill Callahan / everything else summer. But really, I just want to mention On The Beach, because I've been listening to it all the time, and even when I'm not listening to it, I'm thinking about it, and I suspect I'm even thinking about it when I'm not thinking about it. Maybe it's that it reminds me of someone and that I can hear her Fargo/Rochester accent singing "I'm a vampire, baby" and "I went to the radio interview/ended up alone with the microphone", and that it's a killer sometimes. Or that the line "sooner or later it all gets real" flashes in my mind every single day, or that "Revolution Blues" is an ultimate driving with the windows down in the warm air and feeling there's no way you won't survive song (the word BADASS, all caps, comes to mind), or that the solo around the 3:15 mark of "Vampire Blues" is like an anti-solo or a middle finger to boring virtuosos (or just a miraculous fuck-up?), almost jokey but absolutely not a joke. Maybe it's the flowery wallpaper inside the album sleeve, or that some Neil Young records feel like EVENTS and Beach is one of those in-between LPs or something, not that it's a non-event, it's just off-the-cuff in a way, not labored over. Did he have a studio at his house overlooking the coast? Was everything done in one take? Did he ever kill anyone in Laurel Canyon? I want to dig for every little bit of Beach session minutiae, and then pick up Trans, Zuma, Everybody's Rockin', American Stars N' Bars, etc, just jump down the Neil rabbit hole and see where it takes me. Fuck, have you heard Le Noise? Beach is all sunsets and being at a distance and being exhausted but it's nice out so let's keep going kind of attitude, and that's what I need so that I'm not just spacing out and counting down to Fall. It's easy to get buried in the past, for real, but fuck that.
Also: not trying to get into a Taste War, or what's that phrase, "class antagonism"? But I went to one of the Jazz Fest shows, The Budos Band down in a huge tent near Main and Gibbs. 20 bucks, and Leah and I only caught half of their second set of the night, and I only had enough money for a couple overpriced whatever beers. It was strange. Budos was good, if a little crisper and modern-er than their records. On vinyl they're a band straight out of the sweaty, well-dressed sixties, soul/funk rhythms, great horns and bass, scratchy guitars, lo-fi enough to sound old. They're an ideal summer band (I wrote about that first record a few years ago, see!). The full clear sound at the venue and the actual physical presence of the band itself erased my dream vision (in my mind they all looked like young Ornette Coleman with sunglasses and short-sleeve collared shirts and tailored slacks; this is not what they in fact look like), and then there was the audience. Again, not picking a fight, but it was a mix of jam band kids and normies and then all these middle-agers. People's parents, or maybe people who could afford a season-pass or whatever it's called. I shouldn't even care, the band was solid, people were dancing their asses off, but I felt out of place almost. It was so comfortable. I wanted it to be in a club where you couldn't breathe but couldn't stop moving. Why?? I love breathing. When I heard Budos for the first time, it was music that felt, maybe not revolutionary, but like it was needed. Necessary music, dance music that was also a time machine and had tons of real instruments. I was also big into Hypnotic Brass Ensemble at the time. I don't know, I get lost in my own music fantasies and when the reality doesn't match up, I get grumpy. There was a woman doing a light workout routine to the live Budos set and she seemed happy (I have video of it, I should post it). So what am I complaining about really? Am I complaining? I've listened to Forbes/Young/Walter's American Free a few times and this is what I want. I want to be pummeled and flattened I guess. I missed their show a few months back (maybe it was a year ago?) and I'm kicking myself way hard. Something raging and transformative in the tight quarters of a frightening punk show is almost always the way to go, and I realize it's not for everyone, and there can be the soothing and the vintage and I'll totally get into that and love it, but I also need to be taken outside myself and feel like I will never be balding and will always be horribly restless on the inside.
Have you checked out Jesse Michaels' thrash metal blog? Please do so now. I finished Bill Callahan's Letters To Emma Bowlcut the other day, and you should do that, too. I keep thinking of the part where the main guy says "I hope someone drops a burlap sack of cash on your doorstep. And that you will undo a button on your poncho". Girls should be melting. I've been singing his "America!" for days, I can't stop. Also, if you haven't picked up Ellen Willis' Out Of The Vinyl Deeps, you really should (cool trailer for the book here). Great, great, great stuff and important in the history of feminist rock writing. Also, she liked all the shit I like (Dylan, VU, Van Morrison, Dolls), except she said the first three Sabbath albums were terrible. And she was into CCR and Janis and I can't really hang with them. I can only listen to them from a radio that I'm not paying attention to. Dick Snare recording is nearing completion, too, even though Kaci's in Switzerland right now living the high life, if the high life includes working a job you don't necessarily like (ironing sweatpants?), but getting to nanny some cool kids and skip town for Paris to see live Dinosaur Jr and skateboard expos. A postcard she sent me included the phrase "cool peens". So there's that. Otherwise, if you need me I'll be drinking coffee and trying to write lyrics while the plumbing gets fixed. PEACE.
Yooo, here's the Dick Snare recordings I mentioned way back when, titled Sega Tapes, an homage to the citizens of Quad City. Two joints, one called "Punta Gorda" and one called "Smith-Corona", done pretty quickly--a few takes of each song, a couple quick doubled guitar takes, and maybe three vocal takes total for both songs. Everything sounds HUGE and together, mostly thanks to Kolbe Resnick. Also, new podcast by me, Kaci, and Kolbs is here. Longest one yet, but it flows pretty well and you'll get to know some of the songs we liked/remembered from our childhoods. It's entertaining (I think!). I'm currently in the process of moving to Rochester, so my mind is on how many cardboard boxes and plastic tubs I need to carry my shitload of shit, and the only music I've been hearing is stuff I put on in the background while I pack and unpack. Cold Cave's Cremations, Grinning Death's Head's LP, Death's ...For The Whole World To See, Milk n' Cookies, Shoppers, etc. Today I slowly woke up after having a dream that I met the man who's life inspired The Wonder Years. He lived in the neighborhood I was moving to, and I went over to interview him for a magazine I was working for. We went into his living room and he still had a Christmas tree up, but the dream could've taken place in January, I'm not sure. We sat down and he started talking about the girl who was the actual Winnie Cooper, who he'd eventually married and who'd died a few years ago from cancer. We both got really choked up, and I kept thinking how unfair it was that he had to lose her and that he lived in a shabby apartment by himself in a dreary part of town. He seemed like he never got any royalties from the show. I assumed he must have written a book and then some producer adapted it for TV, but as I kept talking to him I got the impression someone had just overheard his life story and a lightbulb went off over their head, and then they changed all the names and cast Fred Savage and filmed the pilot and they were off. Kind of fucked. Dude just kept on living, though. I wish I could remember his name. I'm never gonna watch that show the same way again! Anyway, I woke up, watched two episodes of Doug, then watched Tamra Davis' doc about Basquiat, The Radiant Child, which you should watch. Heroin death is fucking dumb, but I could look at SAMO graffiti all day. BOOM FOR REAL. Can't wait to get the Gray cd. Also, here's a couple songs I've been thinking about: Chalk Circle's "Scrambled" and "Subversive Pleasure" (from the incredible Reflection, available from PPM), Albert Ayler's "Masonic Inborn, Part 1", Harald Grosskopf's "So weit, so gut" (from Synthesist, reissued over at RVNG), The Tornadoes' "The Breeze and I", Jonathan Fire*Eater's "I've Changed Hotels". I haven't listened to a lot of things but I'll get around to them. Thinking about going to Jucifer tonight, thinking about getting a lot of Sonny Sharrock records. Thinking thinking thinking....
Yooooooo, what's up? Guess what--THIS BLOG STILL EXISTS! People Mover is alive and well and not exactly motivated. But here are some nuggets: my band is in the process of recording, and, if they're not too sucky, I'll put the songs up here. The band is called Dick Snare. I play guitar, my friend Kaci plays drums, and our friend Kolbe is recording us. If you want to hear a rough practice demo of one of the songs, click here. You can also follow us on tumblr here. Our first show is February 18th (really fucking soon!) at the Dress Barn in Rochester City, NY. Kaci and I have determined that we'll be rocking shit as hard as possible. Come see us! Also, if you go to our tumblr, you can check out a couple podcasts we've done. New one should be happening soon. You should also stop what you're doing and check out my friends Kelley and Kyle's "Two Dummies" podcast here. Garage/goofball mania. And then you should stop what you're doing again and check out my boy Tyler's monthly mixes over at Androids-Anonymous. Best mixes you will ever hear EVER. Not kidding. Also, he just posted a recipe for his delicious vegan cornbread, and he's not even vegan! What else? I'm assuming you saw the Ice Age video and thought "man, I gotta get that record". I did the same thing! This Verma stuff is cool and it's FREE. The new Earth jammer is record of the year. Listen to "Old Black". I'll probably write something about Jane Birkin's Di Doo Dah soon (favorite record of 2010, hands down), which includes "Help Cammioneur!", which is better than "Le canari est sur le balcon". The Nerves/etc. tribute comp is pretty killer. Davila 666 doing "Hangin' On The Telephone", Audacity doing "Why Am I Lonely", P & the Ps doing "Any Day Now". Oh and I finally heard "King of Fuh", too! Beyond that, I don't know. I'm waiting on a copy of On The Beach (ahem). I can't think of anything else I'm freaking about. I mostly hang with my girl and watch Larry Sanders and listen to Legends 102.7 and daydream about reading all day long. Oh, here's a picture of me in front of the animatronic T-Rex at the RMSC. I'm at that point in winter where I just don't care how long my hair is and the cold is basically killing me. I work like 10 hours a day, face brutalized by sub-zero winds, openly swearing at sidewalks that aren't shoveled. But Lungfish's "Lay Yourself Aside" is cool, and I can't wait to eat homemade burritos with the girl who coined the term "butt babies". I'm gonna be in my early 30s as of 11:30 tomorrow night. More updates soon, probably!
I wasn't that surprised.
