Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Embryonic leans heavily on the Lips’ formative 60s/70s psych-rock influence (like In a Priest Driven Ambulance‘s “Take Meta Mars” before it, Embryonic‘s formidable opener “Convinced of the Hex” grooves heavily on Can’s “Mushroom”), but never before has the band recorded an album so unwaveringly sinister, or so devoid of pop-song levity. (Hell, even Zaireeka had “The Big Ol’ Bug Is the New Baby Now”.) Wayne Coyne no longer assumes the role of the endearingly creaky, puppet-toting crooner. Instead, he’s a world-weary fatalist describing scenes of environmental holocaust in a chillingly unaffected monotone on the rampaging “See the Leaves”. Or he’s a cult leader deviously summoning his minions on “Sagittarius Silver Announcement”, before leading them to a fiery demise on the monstrous, stoner-metal onslaught of “Worm Mountain” (featuring fuzzbox-stomping assistance from MGMT). (Read Full Review)

Baroness – Blue Record

Baroness’ rock is both intricate and blunt, and like most music that’s intricate and blunt, is easiest to classify as metal. Sure enough, they’re neck deep in the scene, recording for a premier label and doing artwork for Guitar World. Staring at frontman John Baizley’s Art Nouveau jacket art, you can glimpse what sets them apart, though. Like their album titles (this one follows up Red Album), there is a conspicuous absence of heavy metal’s favorite color and mood. Baroness don’t have much about them that’s black.

Leaving out darkness would seem to be as fatal as ditching overdrive or the kick drum, and it’s not completely absent. They do slash through minor scales and kachugga-chugga plods, tones that would metalicize middle-of-the-road rock. But for metal, Blue Record is uplifting. When the twin lead guitars lock in with each other and spiral up though notes together, it’s bright, bright stuff – southern rock, essentially, and it makes up meaty sections of the songs here. But just as often, it’s simple; icy notes hang in the air while Baizley howls listlessly and rhythms grind like machines. (Read Full Review)

Del & Tame One – Parallel Uni-verses

The album starts off with soulful production by Parallel Thought, who makes the most of this full length effort. Weaving between samples while bringing a true underground sound that compliments the emcees, Thought shines. By setting the tone from get go, Del and Tame, at times struggle to reach the bar. When they do, they clear it without effort. Both revert to spitting those conscious verses, with sporadic humor throughout that grabbed our attention 15 years ago. At times, they struggle to diversify their content, which can make it hard for the listener to differentiate between tracks due to the lack of variety. In same breath, that same struggle provides the album with a stability that is often unheard in today’s soundscape. (Read The Full Review)

Bob Dylan – Christmas in the Heart

This enjoyable sense of exploration, which prizes levity in a genre that usually amounts to an artistic wasteland, is invaluable. It also proves how much life is left in the songs, and how much other artists have succeeded at butchering them (Rod Stewart comes to mind). It’s not hard to imagine a few of these versions sneaking in with the Burl Ives and Bing Crosby classics that define the season. And there’s the added bonus of Dylan’s voice, which he wittily exaggerates to a creepy level, almost emulating a scratchy Tom Waits growl. Profoundly weird but still cozy, Christmas in the Heart paints an appealing holiday picture: chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost scratching at your ears. people under the stairs (Read The Full Review)

Pure Pop was my society for a couple of years when I was in grad school. Better than the Masons, more selective, and with its own share of bizarre rituals. I feel lucky to have been inducted, because I made some very close friends there, including my husband.

Back then, I spent almost all of my time writing, only leaving the house for my shifts at Pure Pop. This meant all of my social interactions took place in that basement, with co-workers and customers. It was an odd way to live. If Luke was living out The Machinist at the time, I’d say I was living an as-yet-unwritten Mike Leigh film. I miss the people I got to know there, though it’s nice not having having to inhale the surely cancerous shrink-wrap fumes anymore. (Herb informed us that as far as he could tell it only caused erectile dysfunction. – Ed)

A few albums that come to mind when I think of that time:

Morrissey – All albums.

Morrissey is an evergreen presence in my life. You knew things were going downhill when Rose, Casey and I went on collective Morrissey benders.

Lenny Kravitz – Baptism

There was some deal with CIMS, I think, that compelled us to have to play a few new releases every day, and this was one of those. It was one of many crashingly bad titles, but the lyrics were what set Kravitz apart, and I loved to make fun of them. One of the songs was called Sistamamalover, which should give you a sense of the awfulness.

Sigur Ros – ba ba ti ki di do

This was closing music for most of a winter when Chris and I were working together. It set the tone for my walk home. Could alternate with the soundtrack for Nói Albínói by Slowblow.

The Dresden Dolls – The Dresden Dolls

This album had some wonderful, over the top rage mixed with stylized vocal acting that hit the spot.

Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter – Oh My Girl

This lovely album came out towards the end of my time there, and it fit my mood perfectly. It was a sad late fall sound, and felt as intimate and isolated as a dark empty bar late at night.

–

There was some video mixed in, too. I got to order the After School Specials box set, shaped like a school bus (I think it was Herb who tipped me off to its existence), and it led to one of the best finds ever…Ace Hits the Big Time. I’m still not sure what the message of this film was. Don’t join a gang? Don’t run from men stalking you in limousines? The hallucinatory fight/dance sequence in this film is required viewing for friends, well worth the cost of the set.

This might be a little out of place in the Pure Pop newsletter, but as I’ve already written two articles this week, so I’m putting this up. We’re starved for content, dang it.

Here is a cover of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” that my band, The Jazz Guys, did. I’m the ugly one.

Incidentally, fans of the original song (like myself) are no doubt familiar with its video. It’s a charming piece with some wonderful choreography by Jonte. This guy is so out-there he makes Kool Keith look like Robert Frost. Check out the video for “Bitch You Betta!”. If I could kick my legs up like that, well, I can’t imagine there’d be a lot of practical applications, but it’d sure be neat.  WARNING: This is pretty crass stuff.

About a month ago, we did a toungue-in-cheek article about the future video games featuring five absurd and hypothetical games inspired by the music industry. Well, the new Daniel Johnston iPhone game would not have been out-of-place on that list. Hi, How Are You? is a conventional puzzle-platformer built around the Johnston mythology. It features his music and various characters from his art. In the game, the player must rescue Laurie, a real-life muse of Johnston’s from way back when. It’s totally ridiculous and very very cool.

I’m not really a fan of these kind of iPhone games. Navigating 3D space by tilting your phone or with a touch-controlled virtual joystick (the game gives you both options) is a pain in the ass. Most of the challenge in these games seems to be derived from the sloppiness of their mechanics. That said, this is a very straight-forward and simply designed game. It’s completely worth it just to marvel at the absurdity of a world constructed from Daniel Johnston imagery.

This kind of stuff is great. Let’s hope we keep seeing more of the same. Rod Stewart Pong, anyone?

I Wanna Hold Your Hand ($4.88) - Before the Back To The Future Trilogy or Forrest Gump, Robert Zemeckis made his film debut with this charming tale of three young women who want to encounter The Beatles during their legendary 1964 New York visit for three very different reasons.

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny ($8.88) – Skeptical audiences skipped this one at the box office, all but ensuring we’ll never see a sequel. It’s too bad, because this Tenacious D origin story/fantasy epic is a sturdy piece of comedy loaded with inspired gags, hilarious cameos and classic D tracks.

Cry-Baby ($9.88) - John Waters‘ 1990 nostalgia fest stars a very young Johnny Depp as a 50′s gang member who falls in love with a straight-laced girl. Spoofing the conventions of teen musicals and mainstream portrayals of sub-culture, Cry-Baby is endlessly entertaining.

Nashville ($6.88) - Robert Altman directed a handful of truly great films in his vast career, and Nashville is one of the best. It features most of Altman’s hallmarks, including massive group action, overlapping dialogue and a dizzying number of intertwining plot threads. Even people entirely disinterested in the music culture of Nashville, Tennessee will find a lot in this film to fascinate them.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai ($6.88) – Allright, this is not a music-themed film by any stretch of the imagination. It is a great movie by the incomporable Jim Jarmusch about a modern man living by the samurai code who owes a life-debt to a local mobster. It gets a little complicated from there. Why is it on this list? Well, RZA did the music. Duh.

Built to Spill – There is No Enemy

On the unexpectedly terrific There Is No Enemy, it becomes immediately clear what had been missing, and sure enough, it was invisible: While Enemy technically sounds just like every Built to Spill record since Keep It Like a Secret– the pinwheeling guitar fantasias, the ambling tempos, and the wayward vocal lines are all here– it is buoyed by a fresh sense of emotional stakes, an urgency that puts wind back in the band’s sails. For the first time in almost 10 years, it seems that Martsch might actually have something he wants to say. (Read the Full Review)

Mountain Goats – Life of the World to Come

Darnielle seems to have heavier things on his mind than what instruments to use and where to apply the compression. Every song on The Life of the World to Come is named after a Bible verse, which reflects one of the places he has turned for solace and guidance while dealing with issues instantly relatable to anyone who’s lived long enough — ill health, the undying memory of your past mistakes, and the passing of the people you most love.

Potentially fertile material, but how to keep it from turning mawkish? One option is sheer craft. “Matthew 25:21” delivers a lyric that captures the impotence one feels when watching someone die of cancer just as vividly as the tightly constructed short fictions he used to write in the 90s about bad debts and mummified Vikings. (Read The Full Review)

Mike Doughty – Sad Man Happy Man

ecorded in mostly DIY fashion with Doughty handling guitars, the occasional keyboard, drum programming and what he calls “the weird noise stuff” (touring partner Andrew “Scrap” Livingston handled bass), songs such as the slyly acousto-funky lead track “(You Should Be) Doubly (Gratified)” and soulful shuffle of the socially observant “Pleasure On Credit” prove the old adage that less is often more. Charged and direct, Sad Man Happy Man may be a mostly spare affair production wise but the instruments that are there carry remarkable power, Doughty’s rough, raw, rap-syncopated vocals and knife-edged lyricism riding herd as the songs gain intensity with swinging style. (Read the Full Review)

Gogol Bordello – Axis Mundi (live)

Gogol Bordello’s cult-like following would be the first one to tell you that the nine-piece’s sweat-soaked gypsy-punk needs to be seen live to be truly experienced, so it’s no big surprise that the band would show off their frantic, carnival sideshow on disc. Live from Axis Mundi compiles live performances from BBC sessions, along with home-brewed, drum machine-backed demos, and a pair of songs recorded with producers Steve Albini (“Stivali E Colbacco”) and Victor Van Vugt (“Troubled Friends.”) The six BBC songs are sure-fire treats, showing off the ragamuffin ensemble’s blistering live energy better than most studio recordings have in the past, and the hip-hop/ragamuffin infused “Go Revolutions” is also particularly good, but the legions of Gogol fans will be most enthused about the Axis Mundi bonus DVD, which captures two shows filmed in the band’s home camp of N.Y.C. in July of 2007. (Read the Full Review)

When Anthology 1 came out in 1995 in a limited vinyl edition, I made a vow to myself that I’d keep buying new Beatles releases only on vinyl. Since then i’d broken that vow twice; first when i had a chance to get a collection of the Beatles Christmas messages on CD (who can afford $200 bucks for the record?), and second, the LOVE project, which isn’t really the Beatles at all but an amazing mashup project.). So why did I buy the remastered Sgt. Pepper compact disc? Maybe I succumbed to that zombie dance at Abbey Road crosswalk that Microsoft created for the Rock band commercial. Or maybe I just plain gave in to the siren song of that word remastered like I’ve always done. Whatever the reason, on Sept 11, I bought the remastered Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In researching this little rant I found out that the record was released Thursday, June 1, 1967, which means i can say with relative certainty that I bought my first copy of Sgt. Pepper on Saturday June 3, 1967, and probably at Gaynes Shopper’s World in South Burlington for $2.37. Know where Staples Plaza is? Anyway, it was probably a mono copy and I listened to it the way you’re supposed to listen to mono records – on a portable RCA hi-fi with a single 3 inch speaker. Sometime that afternoon I became addicted to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and started sketching backgrounds for a cartoon that i wanted to try and make with my father’s 8mm movie camera. He’d stumbled on the single frame possibilities of the camera and had started animating titles for some of his home movies and shown me the trick. A pretty high concept for a 14 year old who’d just brushed up against psychedelia for the first time. Anyway, back to 2009 and that remastered CD. Entertainment Magazine had warned me about the compression utilized in the remastering processing and there WAS a flatness to the music I heard when I put in the disc the next morning.

But there was also a new clarity and subtlety to those songs I knew so well. Here are some of the notes I scribbled during that first headphone listen: … Listen to the fades and the silences…the echoes…the doubled vocals, those hand claps…the first REAL kick in the head is the clarity of “She’s Leaving Home”…the break on “Within You Without You” (that whispered “da ta da two” lead (George?) at the end of the instrumental break) …even in its crystalline remastered glory “When I’m 64″ is still right there with “Besame Mucho” for ultimate Beatle cheese…The fadeout on “Lovely Rita” might have been Charlie Manson’s head’s up for “Helter Skelter” …”Good Morning” has that patented sax chorus that George Martin found for his Boys …Lennon’s “Bye” at the start and that little organ bit in the fade into “Day In The Life”…and of course the inner groove at the end of the now strangely anti climactic “Day in the Life”…

The next morning brought 2 more listens at home on speakers. The CD went on first and it sounded great. Then I got down my copy of EMI BC 13, the Beatles Collection box that first came out in 1978, pulled out Sgt. Pepper, put it on the turntable and set the needle to the vinyl. And there’s that analog/digital divide which I can’t really tell you about. The vinyl is, as they say, warmer, and to this geezer’s ears, the way the Beatles are supposed to sound. But what about those subtleties? Some of them are there in the room as I listen, but on Listen #4, with the vinyl on headphones, all of those little things I thought I was hearing for the first time Friday morning on the CD come right back out at me from the LP. So what is there to write about now?

A few days later I did another listen with my friend Erik. A couple of cuts in both formats and there’s that omnipresent word warmth again. A few days after that I rediscover my copy of Sgt. Peppeb’s Loney Hearps Club Band, a Chinese knockoff on Liming Records from back in the day that I picked up at a porch sale in Richmond, Virginia, and when I listen to it on headphones, some of those subtleties I heard on the remastered compact disc last week come bubbling out through 30 years worth of surface noise. So I guess I’ll end this with, not the Rockband Beatles which a lot of you love, and not the remastered Beatles catalog on compact disc that will launch akagillion memories, rants and lies, but rather, a Utopian to do list.
First, find a good record player and speakers. Second, track down the cleanest LPs that you can find (at least until they come at us with the limited edition remastered vinyl). Third, plop ‘em on, turn ‘em up, and enjoy some great records by a great band. And that’s not to say you shouldn’t be buying these CD’s, cuz I’m pretty sure that at some point, I’ll be getting the CDs of Abbey Road, The White Album and Past Masters, it’s just that, as they say, nothing is real.

-Michael Breiner