All posts by Kevin

arizona, general

Jimmy Eat World: Open Bar Reception

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I was wondering recently what’s a worse fate for a band: to be panned in a Pitchfork review or to not be reviewed at all. The album that got me thinking about this was the 2007 release from Jimmy Eat World, Chase This Light.

I may be biased when it comes to JEW because the band is from Arizona, and I’ve long enjoyed pretty much everything the group has done – including Chase This Light, thank you. I found it odd that Pitchfork didn’t exert any energy in reviewing Chase This Light when they seem to have reveled in taking potshots at JEW previously (3.0 for Futures and, criminally, a 3.5 for Clarity in what might be one of the most juvenile reviews Pitchfork has written). Now that I look, Pitchfork didn’t review Bleed American either, though hasn’t stopped the editorial vitriol: “Since Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American was grotesquely birthed upon our nation in 2001 … ” (from Game of Pricks track review).

So I guess my question is this: Did Chase This Light slip through the cracks or is Pitchfork trying to make some sort of statement by neglecting a review, like, “Please, this isn’t even worth our time.” The cynical side of me seems to think the latter.

That said, I hate to put too much stock in the value/influence of a Pitchfork review. Recently I cringed at their 2.8 review of Ryan Ferguson’s 2007 release Only Trying to Help, another album I quite enjoy (and talked about here). When I sent the review to my brother he brought up a point that’s worth noting: A low rating of a record by Pitchfork only seems to pique curiosity more. As E.J. from Loudersoft said in a forum where I posed the question: “If Pitchfork doesn’t like something, it’s as likely to generate interest as if they do.” It’s an interesting phenomenon, for sure.

Of course, the editorial minds at Pitchfork must know this, which is probably why they didn’t review Chase This Light. (Though, I have to say, nothing Pitchfork could have written would have gotten me as riled up as Idolator’s wordy rambling about the record.)

Anyway, on to the music. Open Bar Reception is a B-side from Chase This Light, one of those singles you get when you buy the album at a record store (ha, novel concept!).

  • Jimmy Eat World | Open Bar Reception
general

Stream clip of new Elbow song

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Because I’ve been home from work the past two days feeling like this, I haven’t spent much quality time with my computer.

Fortunately, I logged on to discover that Elbow is streaming a clip of a new song, The Bones of You, at its Web site. The song is off a new album due in March titled The Seldom Seen Kid (via).

It’s kinda hard to form much of an opinion from a short clip, but so far I like what I hear. Listen here.

fastescape.jpgALSO, this Friday at the Last Exit in Tempe is the CD-release show for Source Victoria, previously discussed here. The Phoenix New Times had some nice, if not esoteric, things to say about the record, The Fast Escape, which was mixed by Grammy winner Chris Testa (Dixie Chicks, Jimmy Eat World).

Also on the bill: Traindead, Reubens Accomplice and Sam and Nate from the Format.

More on this record soon. In the meantime, a track … whose literary inspiration can be found here.

general, year end

Favorite song of 2007

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Disclaimer No. 1: “How can it be bullshit to state a personal preference?” – Rob Gordon, High Fidelity.

Disclaimer No. 2: I am mostly sticking to last year’s idea that year-end lists are too hard to quantify. I said, and I quote: “The difference between, say, my 13th and sixth favorite albums is probably negligible.” And, yes, I just quoted myself (what a dick). However, I did put together a top 10 list of albums for a booklet that Stinkweeds, a local indie record store, puts out at the end of the year. I’ll share that here in the next week or so.

OK, enough with the fine print.

Favorite song of 2007:
The New Pornographers, Myriad Harbour
(From Challengers, on Matador Records; available at eMusic.)

In theory, this shouldn’t make much sense. I have no special attachment or nostalgic connection to New York, the city about which Dan Bejar sings with equal parts fascination and disdain. I’ve been there just twice, though the second time was this past September, a fact that might have heightened my reaction to the song, silly as that seems.

Though I think Myriad Harbour could represent the disconnect between a visitor and any foreign city, New York has a way of intensely magnifying that unnerving feeling of not belonging. For a desert rat like myself, it was easy to feel lost and out of place. Bejar sums up that emotion in the final verse: “Stranded at Bleeker and Broadway / Looking for something to do / Someone somewhere asked me is there anything in particular I can help you with? / All I ever want to help with was you.”

Bejar’s not the first, and he certainly won’t be the last, to write about New York. But he does it in a conversational tone that engenders a certain sympathy in the listener, as if you can really relate to him. I’ve convinced myself that I would never make it in New York, that (cliche as it sounds) I prefer the laid-back style of the West, where dressing up means jeans and a collared shirt. But the allure – people in constant motion, the sights, the sounds – is hard to resist. And here at least Bejar has humanized those fears instead of bowing down to the great city.

  • The New Pornographers | Myriad Harbour
  • The New Pornographers | Myriad Harbour (live on KCRW) (previous post)

I also really liked these songs (in no particular order):
The National, Apartment Story and Blank Slate (iTunes bonus).
Band of Horses, No One’s Gonna Love You.
Travis, My Eyes.
The New Pornographers, The Spirit of Giving.
Andrew Bird, Plasticities.
The Besnard Lakes, Devastation.
Busdriver, Less Yes’s, More No’s.
Kanye West, Can’t Tell Me Nothing.
Low, Murderer and Violent Past.
Kings of Leon, Fans.
Pharoahe Monch, Push.
Spoon, You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb.
Silverchair, Straight Lines.
Aqueduct, Keep it Together.
Wilco, You Are My Face.
Ryan Adams, Two and Halloweenhead.
The Broken West, Shiftee and Brass Ring.

Related:
Favorite song of 2006.
Favorite album of 2006.
Favorite songs of 2005.
Favorite albums of 2005.

hip-hop, i used to love h.e.r.

I Used to Love H.E.R.: Cassettes Won’t Listen

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The 19th installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums (read intro), comes from multi-instrumentalist/producer Cassettes Won’t Listen (aka Jason Drake), who is currently offering a free ’90s covers EP called One Alternative at his Web site. (See recent post.)

Ice Cube
Death Certificate (Priority Records, 1991)
If I were stranded on a deserted island, hip hop would actually be the genre I’d love to be “stuck with”. I grew up listening to hip hop, and it’s always had a huge influence on my songwriting and production. Some of the first albums that come to mind when thinking of my all-time favorite are The Pharcyde’s Bizarre Ride II, Digable Planets’ Reachin’, Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique and Wu’s Enter The Wu-Tang. Although the latter is possibly my favorite (I’m a huge early Wu-Tang fan), I would have to take it back to my roots and go with Ice Cube’s Death Certificate.

I was born in LA and grew up around California until 1994, and so it was inevitable that G-funk and gangster rap would seep into my subconscious. Production is what got me into the genre, and when I first heard beats by Dr. Dre, The Bomb Squad, J-Swift, and Prince Paul, among others, I realized that this was the music I wanted to be a part of. I used to write rhymes and record them over instrumentals from 12″s that I would buy at the nearest thrift store for 25 cents. My lyrics would reflect the life I wished I were living: driving cars with hydraulics and daytons, selling drugs, making money, talking shit about other rappers and starting beef with everyone. Gangster rap was very prevalent in my early rhyme books. Honestly, my rap skills were sub par, and so I decided to gravitate towards what first sparked my love for hip hop: production.

So let’s get to Death Certificate.

Ice Cube, before all the family movies, was ridiculously ill back in the early ‘90s. You can’t really talk shit about someone who was spawned from one of the most influential rap groups in history and started his own successful solo career. Death Certificate, Ice Cube’s second solo album, was released in ’91, when I was 12 and in 7th grade. Back when people were laughing nervously in sex ed class, I was speculating what the “nappy dug out” was like and what Ice Cube meant by not using “vaseline”. My all-time favorite track from the album, entitled “My Summer Vacation”, was not only named after my favorite time of year, but it encapsulated everything I loved about the music with stories of gang life set to Parliament Funkadelic samples. It still sends shivers up my spine just thinking about it.

Ice Cube’s pissed off delivery has always been harsh — making the recent venture into PG-rated movies that much more surreal — and sits nicely with strong, hard-hitting production. Before I got into the playfulness of J-Swift and Prince Paul, there was The Bomb Squad, Death Certificate’s (and Dr. Dre’s cousin) Sir Jinx, Boogiemen, and Cube himself. I don’t think that The Bomb Squad made an appearance on the album, but all of these producers combined heavy-hitting drum hits and claps with classic funk and rock samples that complimented Ice Cube’s flow very well. This album would not have been possible without the heavy-weighted samples; I couldn’t imagine Ice Cube trying to ‘Steady Mob’ over Digable Planets “The Art of Easing”. The album would have tanked quickly.

The production acted as an anchor and compliment to Ice Cube’s storytelling of life and death. The well-balanced nature of beats vs. emcee is the reason I’d be more than happy to sit on an island with nothing but myself and a boombox. I may need to ask for suntan lotion, as well; I wouldn’t want to end up ‘Burnin’.

  • Ice Cube | My Summer Vacation
covers, general

Cassettes Won’t Listen covers The Freed Pig

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cwl.jpgIf I could go back to the early and mid-90s, I’d probably make a point to pay more attention to Dinosaur Jr. Instead, I had my head buried in hip-hop – A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Digable Planets, etc. Of course, I don’t regret that path, but I feel I have no history, no sense of attachment to a band that inspired so much of what I listen to today. (And their drummer’s name is Murph. MURPH! Maybe we’re related.)

You can draw the logical conclusion that I also missed the boat on Sebadoh. So when I got the reissue of III last year, I knew it was a big deal, but I probably couldn’t appreciate it to its fullest extent.

And that’s a shame because I could have used a song like The Freed Pig all these years – its bitter, angry beauty. “Now you will be free / with no sick people tugging on your sleeve / Your big head has that more room to grow / A glory I will never know.” Yow. I often wonder if Lou Barlow ever brought this up with J. Mascis when Dinosaur Jr. reunited. “Hey, look, about that song … ”

Anyway, Cassettes Won’t Listen (aka Jason Drake), in conjunction with Music For Robots, is offering a free EP of ’90s covers called One Alternative, on which The Freed Pig is included.

I question whether such a great song needs to be covered/remade in this way, but I give CWL the benefit of the doubt because his remix of El-P’s Flyentology was aces.

Go download the EP here.

  • Sebadoh | The Freed Pig
  • Cassettes Won’t Listen | The Freed Pig (Sebadoh cover)
hip-hop

Del: Eleventh Hour cover art/tracklisting

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If you haven’t heard already (or maybe you just don’t care), Del the Funky Homosapien of the Hieroglyphics crew has signed with El-P’s Definitive Jux label for the release of Eleventh Hour, due out Feb. 26.

It’s hard to believe this will be his first studio release since 2000’s Both Sides of the Brain. Guests on the new album include Opio of Souls of Mischief and producer J-Zone. Get the scoop here.

I haven’t seen an mp3 yet off the album, but here’s the cover art with the tracklisting.

delcd.jpg

1. Raw Sewage
2. Bubble Pop
3. Back in the Chamber
4. Slam Dunk
5. Situations
6. Naked Fonk
7. Hold Your Hand
8. Foot Down
9. I’ll Tell You
10. Workin’ It
11. Last Hurrah
12. Str8t Up and Down
13. I Got You
14. Funkyhomosapien