Mike Franko's blog to comment, and complain mostly, about the sorry state of music these days.
Yes I am a crotchety old man but goddamnit so much music just sucks and I can't let it go unnoticed....so here is the written version of me running naked through the streets proclaiming the end of the world,
Doing a little catching up.
Saw Wavves/Fucked Up at the Magic Stick in Detroit with my brother.
Had a great time and enjoyed Fucked Up more than I thought I would.
Wavves was great. Very tight and, dare I say, professional by their standards.
Wavves are a band getting better with with release. I can hardly wait til the next full length.
The show was full of energy throughout and it finally overflowed as kids(hey, I'm just an old punk) stormed the stage.
I laughed hysterically as Nathan and the boys tried in vain to keep playing before finally giving up and joining the chaotic fun.
I was starting to write an article when "Suck it and See" came out saying that the Arctic Monkeys were the best active rock band in the world at this time. I would be remiss if I didn't at least put it in print tonight. Their scintillating 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor' carried into the Beatles 'Come Together' was absolutely the highlight of the Olympic opening ceremonies.
I don't sit around hoping for bands I like to get bigger very often. But in the Arctic Monkeys case I honestly believe they should be.
So let's hope tonight is the start of people realizing the genius of Alex Turner and the greatness of the Arctic Monkeys.
Ok, really quick...I was just reading a few sites this morning and was pleased to see the real demo versions of the Beach Boys long lost Smile lp, the intended follow up to ultimate classic Pet Sounds, will be released in their entirety as originally intended(along with a massive amount of outtakes etc.). The project was eventually scrapped after being derailed by Brian Wilson's advancing mental illness. These are the sessions that spawned "Good Vibrations". If you don't think that's a big deal, listen to the intro or verse 2 and forget the chorus. This is rock and roll poetry delivered with a grace that is unimaginable for mere mortals. Oh, and not to mention, one of the most sublime bridges in music history...
While Brian Wilson's re-imagining of the material was gorgeous and a wonderful gift back in 2004, this will be infinitely more revealing and rewarding. One of the few, 'could have been's' that will actually come to be; remarkably so, over 40 years later.
On a more contemporary note, I was also struck by the demo versions of 3 Wavves songs that have bubbled up from a 2009 session. These are songs that weren't finished and have never, and, presumably, will never, appear on record. They are simply better than most anything that will ever be put out by the bands peers.
How the fuzzed up Cheap Trick/Descendants crossbreed baby "Hula Hoop" didn't make the last album I don't know and while Pitchfork's description of 'punky' is a bit off, the 3rd track, "Glued", is a mid-tempo swinging, harmony saturated number. Only Nathan Williams can write a song this pretty and have you not realize that, in the midst of what is really a love song, the best offer he can make is that he will "melt in to my shoes for you." Speaking of Williams and his love, Best Coast auteur Bethany Cosentino, I think I would rather they break up. I like Williams better when he is unhappy and I think I hear her influence rounding his corners a bit after listening to "King of the Beach" for all of these months. I do dig her contribution on the Go!Team record though..check out "Buy Nothing Day" here:
And, finally, the Strokes new album Angles was delivered Tuesday. I have been through it 8 to 10 times so far and will give a complete rundown as soon as I have digested completely.
So far I do love "Gratisication"
and for reminiscence, "Under Control", the Strokes at their very best:
I am struck by excitement and breathless anticipation(no really, I can't wait) for the new releases from the Strokes and My Morning Jacket.
The Strokes first Single, "Under Cover of Darkness" is vintage Strokes with angular, dancing guitar lines and a stronger vocal delivery than anything on Julian Casablacas solo record.
The second pre-released track, "You're So Right"(listen here: http://www.nme.com/news/the-strokes/55213) finds the band channeling a sort of future mediterranean beat and an R.E.M.(the band's descrption) or mid-career Radiohead (What I picked up) vibe. It is not their best work but gives an indication that the new Album, Angles, set for a March 21 release, will be varied and challenging. Speaking of Radiohead, why didn't they charge me $15 for a golden shower straight into my ear? It would have been more pleasurable than their new album "King of Limbs". At least a golden shower is warm for a second. Better than this cold, lifeless, stillborn creation. Would it kill you to buy a goddamn guitar? I know guitars are so low-brow but seriously...
That brings me to my other cause for excitement, one of my former great white hopes of rock roll, My Morning Jacket. After the odd, prince influenced work on Evil Urges, they promise a return to form on their new record, Circuital.
According to Rolling Stone, the band recorded the LP in their hometown of Louisville, setting up a studio in a church gymnasium. Frontman Jim James calls the album "the most live record we've ever done." James also says, "We want people to have almost the exact opposite experience they had last time. I definitely had some goals of wanting to make this one warmer and somehow more contained and more concise of a statement."
James wrote a couple of tracks, "Wonderful" and "Out of My System", for an amazing Muppets collaboration that never came to pass. Rolling Stone writes, "An exec recruited My Morning Jacket to record music for a new version of the Electric Mayhem band (the one with Animal on drums), promising a Gorillaz-style tour where MMJ would play behind a curtain while Muppet holograms bashed away onstage. The psyched band began writing and demo'ing, but the exec got fired and the project disappeared."
According to Pitchfork.com, James also had songs rejected by Jason Segal's upcoming Muppet movie. Oh well. Their loss is our gain. Cannot wait to see the hair flying and hear the guitars wailing again soon.
I hope to review both full albums soon. See previous paragraph for my review of Radiohead.
By the way, I love the new Tennis album and am at least intrigued by the first full length from the Joy Formidible. If you like female singers, or, if like me, you usually don't, check these bands out.
One video clip(La La Love you) and 5 audio clips, totally free. Go Download them! Very good quality and pretty fun.
The Pixies just continue to roll on after, what I assumed would be a one off reunion tour. Hopefully more new material is on its way, but that has seemed to be in a perpetual holding pattern. It still gives me a 14 year old's thrill to see them live. The Pixies were somewhere between my Beatles or Big Star. A band that toured so briefly you had to be the perfect age to see them live. Like both the Beatles and Big Star, they influenced nearly everyone I have liked since. Like Big Star they were appreciated by most people more after the fact than while they were an active act. I was just a little too young, and lived a little too far from civilization(in Northern Michigan) to go and see them while they were together and they were gone just as I went away to school and could have. I saw Nirvana that first fall, month's before Cobain (as big of a Pixies fan as ever lived) died. I felt lucky to have seen them. It was uneventful but solid show...except for a pretty girl stealing my borrowed Sony Professional tape recorder(yes, tape). While I felt lucky, looking back, it was really a make-up for missing the Pixies. To this day, I put the Pixies on regularly. They still sound fresh, still sound better than most of the new music that they inspired. Strangely, as I think of that music and remember that time, I honestly can't say that about Nirvana. While the music is clearly classic, that is almost how it hits me, as Classic Rock. With no more depth or inspiration than your run of the mill Doobie Brothers record. OK, I am kidding. Nirvana could melt Michael McDonald's brain just turning their amps on, but listening to Nirvana is not that different than listening to the Who for me. Kurt Cobain is probably wishing he could mainline himself into a deeper oblivion, if he is somehow reading this from the grave. But I think he knew it before we did. The business sucked some of the life out of one of the unique voices in music. Thankfully for me, if not the Pixies checking accounts, the Pixies never ascended to those heights. And probably because of that, are still around, touring to the biggest crowds of their lives with music that I love almost as much as the day I bought Surfer Rosa at the late. lamented Full Moon Records in downtown Traverse City 20 years ago.
A side note: The Mexico City gig pales in comparison to the, unsurprisingly, somewhat cool, somewhat goofy Pixies logic displayed in their outlook on the recent show in Chile: In a press release, frontman Black Francis says, "We were so moved by this story, by how many lives had been affected by this, and how the Chilean people banded together to support what can only be described as a miracle. We wanted to do something to show how affected we were by this, so we played a special set at tonight's show, 33 songs for the 33 miners, the longest set we've ever played as a band. We found out five minutes before we went on stage that all of the miners had safely reached the surface. This was definitely one of the most meaningful show we've ever played."
Ok.............anyway, it is nice to have them playing. Whatever the reason.
On top of that, the Pixies have just launched a new website with free shows every week. Here is the release: We're writing to let you know that we've just released an all new PixiesMusic.com.
It feels like the right time for the band to have a proper home, share some music, and provide a place for fans and the band to communicate. We'll be releasing live shows once a week starting immediately, and have posted a free show (Live at Coachella, 2004) just for you through the end of the week.
The release receiving the heaviest current rotation is easily, and has been for awhile, Wavves King of the Beach. I will get into more detail in the upcoming article Wavves vs No Age, Episode 2: Attack of the Drone. Suffice it to say, though, that "Linus Spacehead", "Post Acid" and the title track are my current guess as to what was in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase.
I will admit to being behind the curve with the band San Francisco band Girls. It wasn't even that I wasn't aware of them. Honestly, it was that their outrageously homoerotic(?, you'd have to ask someone else if it is erotic, I guess) video for the song "Lust for Life" turned me off so badly I didn't even hear the music. Say what you will, it was just my reaction. It put me off to the point I stopped listening and effectively wrote the band off for months. That is, until "Lust for Life" crept back into my brain through my sub-conscious and I found myself singing along in the car. After a still reluctant download, I have come to the conclusion that the music is irresistible and for the most part cleansed the video's smiling allusions to male on male oral sex from my mind. "Lust for Life" is nearly perfect, and it really had to be. You don't borrow the name of an Iggy Pop/David Bowie classic, use another dude's hard-on as a microphone in your video and expect to take over the world unless you can write a fine tune. Even the semi-cute naked girl in the bathtub lip syncing a few lines can't balance out the horror... But enough about the video, all it really did was save this gem for me, like a forgotten final Christmas present. From the subtle "la da dadadeda da da" refrain, to lines like "I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of a wine, I wish I had a beach house, we could make a big fire every night", the song drips with a nostalgia never tasted. It taps into a universal feeling that something, anything, else would surely be better because where you are now is royally F'ed. Like lead singer Christopher Owens says, "Maybe if I'd had a father, maybe then I would turned out right, instead I'm just crazy, totally mad, yeah I'm just crazy and fucked in the head." But the melody almost wills you to sing lines like that with at least a wry smile. Even if you are singing into another man's penis. Below is the edited version:
I jumped all over "the Rat" by The Walkmen in 2004 but somehow they faded, not out of mind but out of heavy rotation at least. "Stranded", from the new album Lisbon, may end up being the song that pulls The Walkmen off my bench and transforms them from bench-warmers, behind the more fun The Hold Steady, the more immediate The National and more accessible bands like The Stills and Deer Tick, into full time playlist starters. Driven by horns, "Stranded" sounds like what it is, a boozy funeral song for a relationship that has passed away and relationships and lives deteriorating in front of the our eyes. Or maybe"Stranded" is a song for a wake...either way it is a slowburn that is dynamic in its restraint and, like its narrator, dramatic in the empty, open spaces of what isn't said. It is almost like the story has been told often enough that everyone involved, as well as the listener, can fill in the blanks. The sum here is more than its parts and The Walkmen are a band worth revisiting.
I've loved Japandroids since the first note. Their brand of noisy 2 man smash and yell, 100 word a minute melodic fuzz out is right up my alley. So the between-album single, "Younger Us", would have been a welcome morsel to tide me over even if it wasn't a time machine. This 3 and half minute blast of sprinting guitar and diving symbols captures a time just-past so perfectly in one couplet that they never need to try again. When they sing" Remember that night, You were already in bed, said fuck it, and got up to drink with me instead....Give me younger us," I, for one, remember perfectly.
Finally, on to one that escaped me: I have never been a full card carrying member of the Ted Leo fan club. I like a few tunes, I don't change the channel when he comes on, but the politics always fatigued me and the songs didn't always hold up to repeated listens. "Timorous Me" crept up on me though. Lyrically sharp, emotive and catchy as hell, not mention damn hard to sing along with, "Timorous Me" from the 2001 sophomore effort from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists finds Leo at his best, capturing his inner Thin Lizzy complete with chorused guitars near the end. Nearly a decade old it sounds brand new and Ted Leo must have known he got it right. The last 30 seconds of the song sound like he set his guitar down, shut off the lights and admired his still whining amp before he strolled out of the studio. The musical equivalent of a walk off home run.
Coming Soon: Wavves Vs No Age, Episode 2: Attack of the Drone and... Ruminations on a Reatard: Jay Reatard, One year after his death
