A lot of us at Pure Pop have been in this music game for a while. When you spend as much time following the news and watching the trends as we do, you develop a sixth sense for what’s coming next. Don’t believe us? Bookmark this page and look at it again in one years’ time. You will be shocked by how accurate these predictions turn our to be. (Note: The following is strictly a piece of comedy. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.)
5. Kanye West Mauled by Bear
During a visit to the San Diego Zoo, the contentious Kanye West will misinterpret a grizzly bear’s scratching of an itch as a personal affront. In retaliation, West will enter the cage and confront said bear, only to be mauled and disfigured. Surviving the incident, West will post a poorly-written and insincerely-self-deprecating post on his blog acknowledging that his hubris has once again left him with egg on his face.
4. Tom Waits Experiences Career Renaissance Due to Tonsillectomy
Gravel-voiced icon Tom Waits will undergo a necessary tonsillectomy this spring. Consequently, Waits’ gruff, growling vocal delivery will be forever changed. His growling tenor will transform into a smooth alto croon. Invigorated and inspired by his new Rick-Astley-esque voice, Waits will release a series of lively big-band arrangements of his most beloved songs. His initially skeptical fan base will embrace Waits 2.0 as will mainstream audiences as never before.
3. Phish Break Up and Get Back Together
During their spring tour, Trey Anastasio will tearfully announce that Phish have once again reached an impasse and decided to go their separate ways. During the summer, each former member of the band will embark on various unsuccessful projects, including six instrumental solo albums by Trey, a collaborative album between Mike Gordon and Living Colour’s drummer, an anthology of limericks by Page Mcconell and a new album from Jon Fishman’s Pork Tornado. This fall, on Phish’s website, the band will issue a statement saying they’ve realized they are at their happiest and most creative when working together. The subsequent early winter tour will be their most well-attended since the previous reunion tour.
2. Scarlett Johansson Records 2pac Tribute Album
Undaunted by the universal scorn that greeted her album of Tom Waits covers, Scarlett Johansson will continue to pursue her musical ambitions. Setting her sights on martyred hip-hop legend 2pac, Johansson and producer Daniel Lanois will release an album of down-tempo interpretations of 2pac’s songs. The album sells poorly, becoming a a synonym for celebrity excess and pop-culture vapidity. It’s greatest condemnation will come from 2pac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, who says of the album, “It’s the worst thing to happen to my son since he got shot.”
1. Bono Reveals Indifference To Injustice and Suffering
In a candid interview with Playboy, U2’s Bono will confess his various altruistic endeavors are part of a series of publicity stunts that, as the singer will put it, “…have paid off handsomely.” The Irishman will go onto admit that he “couldn’t really care less about other people’s problems. Have you seen my massive house? It’s bigger than most high schools. I’m not going to mope around over some starving people I’ll never meet when I’m living like an Egyptian emperor, am I?” When pressed for anything that does bother him, Bono will admit that, “Sometimes my personal chef will behave a little informally around me. That irks me to no end.”
When two or more creative personalities dissolve a partnership, the inevitable disparity of accomplishment between the former collaborators can be anything from slight to a gaping chasm. Consider Cheech & Chong. When the comedy duo parted ways, Cheech Marin’s success eclipsed Tommy Chong’s considerably.
Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari, a Famous Chonger
In the world of music, this phenomenon is all too common. Here are some unfortunate people who “Chonged” it.
Grant Hart
Hart was a vocalist and drummer for Husker Du. Hart composed about a third of the band’s songs, including many of their best. (Just listen to “Terms of Psychic Warfare.”) When the they split, the band’s other principle songwriter, Bob Mould, went on to achieve his greatest success with a new project, Sugar. These days, Mould’s a respected solo artist who released his ninth solo album to acclaim last year. Hart, on the other hand, has not fared as well. He was misdiagnosed as HIV positive following Husker Du’s break-up. He lived under that misapprehension for six months. His solo career, while producing some memorable and worthwhile albums, hasn’t come close to Mould’s prosperity.
Pete Wylie
Undoubtedly, many of those fortunate enough to have seen The Clash in their heyday were inspired to form bands of their own. The Crucial Three was one such band. They wouldn’t last long enough to record anything, but two of their members would go on to achieve fame and glory. Ian McCulloch formed Echo & The Bunnymen. Julian Cope would find his niche with Teardrop Explodes and as a solo artist. The other guy? Well, Pete Wylie was in a number of bands and, to be fair, he enjoyed a small degree of success. On the other hand, ever hear of Wah!? No? Didn’t think so.
Einar Örn Benediktsson
The Sugar Cubes were a sort of Icelandic B-52s, and their Fred Schneider was Einar Örn Benediktsson, an eccentric and charismatic co-frontman. The other singing Sugar Cube, Bjork, would go on to achieve massive international success and icon status. Benediktsson kept a much lower profile following his band’s break-up, writing a bit here and there and releasing the occasional, obscure album.
Johnny Marr
Perhaps the most famous musician to Chong on this list, Johnny Marr was one-half of The Smiths songwriting team, a group that influenced and inspired generations. To this day they are one of the 80’s most beloved bands. Unfortunately,they fell apart after four albums. Morrissey went solo and had no trouble maintaining his legions of fans. As integral as Marr was, writing all the band’s music, he has not been able to parlay his credentials to nearly the same degree. As Morrissey continues to release high-profile albums and embark on prestigious tours, Marr’s greatest successes have been sporadic appearances on other artists albums and the occasional stint as a sideman in groups like Modest Mouse.
Andrew Ridgely
They may be nothing more than a punchline today, but Wham! were quite popular when they first hit the scene. The duo put out three multi-platinum albums in four years, no small feat. Frustrated with the teen-baiting corner they’d painted themselves into, George Michael dissolved the group and went solo, releasing one of the best-selling albums of all-time and cementing his status as pop-star-for-life. Ridgely tried his hand at racing before unsuccessfully attempting to relaunch his music career. These days, he golfs.
Rodan
KMD were no great triumph. The endearing hip-hop trio were beset by some terrible luck. For one thing, one of their members, Subroc, was killed during the production of their second album. Subsequently, their label deemed that album too offensive for release and shelved it. It would not see the light of day for another eight years, in an attempt to capitalize on the momentum of former-KMD member (and Subroc’s brother) Zev Love X’s success under his new alias, MF Doom. KMD’s other founding member, Rodan, hasn’t done anything more notable than a couple of under-the-radar releases and a handful of appearances on MF Doom albums.
You may know Eric Olsen from his various musical endeavors. He is a member of a number of beloved Burlington-based outfits, including Swale, Led Loco and James Kochalka Superstar. He’s also a web and graphic design guru, a husband and, most recently, a father.
Tanner: Hey Eric -- what are you shopping for today?
Eric: I’m looking for the Spoon album -
Tanner: Find what you’re looking for?
Herb: boxes havn’t arrived yet cause of the holiday delay…
Eric: Because of MLK day, the shipments were delayed -- activists man, they always fuck shit up.
Tanner: What have you been listening to today?
Eric: Been going through albums in alphabetical order -- I’m up to B, so I’m up to that Art Brut album -- then there was that Basement demo’s from Elliot Smiths post suicide album… something else, can’t remember…
Tanner: What are your preferred mediums -- vinyl, mp3, cd, cassette, 8-track, a-dat etc?
Eric: That would depend on the setting -
Herb: What if you were being held prisoner?
Eric: That would depend on the size of the prison…
I’ve slacked on vinyl -- i like to get my albums, and rip them to MP3 for my Ipod. I have alot of vinyl, but i wouldn’t call it a collection, i’m mainly CD though. Usually my record player is in disarray.
Tanner: Conan or Leno?
Eric: I’m with CoCo. Actually in my opinion, Leno is like a red state thing, they’re gonna win -- it’s like the decline of western civilization.
Tanner: Read anything good lately?
Eric: Murakami - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, or is it “what i think when i talk about thinking”? … no wait. I’ve also been reading Bill Bryson’s, A Short History of Nearly Everything -- basically cliff notes of the history of science and all things. Also since I’ve been coming here last week, i’ve been constantly checking out Gawker.com pretty religiously, we’ve been having alot of laughs at the house about Conan’s list of possible porno names if he starred….
Tanner: If you could be one person in music history who would it be?
Eric: Fela (kuti) I’d have a sovereign nation. Not every musician has that.
Herb: You’d be dead.
Eric: he had alot of sex.
Herb: Not like, Warren Beatty levels of sex.
Tanner: ZZ-Top or DeeDee Ramone?
Eric: Ooooh tough one…. It’s a toss up, ZZ Top would be in the running before they remastered their drums, did not like that. Depends, every other day, I’d go back and forth -- shared custody.
Tanner: Your #1 album of 2009.
Eric: Umm… hmm… not sure.
Tanner: Your #1 album of 1989.
Eric: It was either Nation of Millions or Daydream nation…I’m dating myself now aren’t I?
Tanner: Shower singer or car singer? If so, what song?
Eric: Bath Singer -- You got another thing coming by Judas Priest.
Dear Readers, as the depth of winter approaches, I’m sure you’re either dreading the onset of maddening cabin fever or a vitamin D deficiency or weeks of freezing morning bathroom floors. My favorite remedy for the icy blues is reading, and now that Pure Pop has begun to stock books I’ll be prescribing a couple to you over the next week. Best taken with a cup of St. John’s Wort tea as you you sit under your S.A.D. “happy lamp”.
Your first dose is Tom Robbins‘ offbeat classic Still Life With Woodpecker. You know how at the end of Reading Rainbow they had those kids giving book reviews and they always started them off with the classic rhetorical question intro? I’ve always wanted to do that, so here goes.
Do you like exiled, tree-hugging princesses? How about outlaws with loads of dynamite and a penchant for domestic terrorism?
What about sex without a condom? If you do, you’ll love this book. Still Life is the quixotic adventure of Princess Leigh-Cheri, red-headed princess of an family of royals exiled by democratic revolt in their home country. After an unfortunate knock-up and miscarriage, Leigh Cheri embarks on a quest for the ultimate form of natural birth control. When she collides with career outlaw Bernard Mickey Wrangle aka “The Woodpecker” she learns how to communicate through a pack of Camel’s, and the purpose of the moon.
Robbins’ work is outsider brilliance in the same renegade realm as the words of Hunter S. Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut. The man crafts a story that brings you to the brink of what would commonly be considered mental illness and then convinces you that the experience is completely normal. He is prolific and philosophical, and considers humanity’s moments of being “playful, rebellious and immature” as it’s best. Still Life is an unmasterpiece that illustrates the beautiful absurdity of the world we live in.
Come pick it up at the store, and while you’re at it, special order your next read for 20% off the regular price. (aweshum)
So we’ve diversified our portfolio. Pure Pop now carries a small selection of books; some novels, some comics and a few non-fiction gems. If you’re interested in ordering anything through the store, we’ll happily do that for you. The best part? Special ordering a book at Pure Pop will get you 20% off the retail price. We’re sort of feeling it out as far as selection goes. Feel free to stop by and berate us for our pitiful selection, or commend us for a job well done. (Preferably the latter.)
Some of my favorites among the titles we’re offering include Don DeLillo’s White Noise, Charles Burns’ Black Hole and Irvine Welsh’s The Bedroom Secrets of Master Chefs.
…but there’s plenty more. Come on down and check it out.
(Because we’re a little soft on content this week, I’m going to wedge this in.) Steve Coogan is one of my favorite comedians thanks to shows like “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “I’m Alan Partridge” and “Saxondale.” I recently invested in The Steve Coogan Collection, a thirteen-dvd (but not entirely comprehensive) box set of Coogan’s television work. About half the material was unfamiliar to me, including The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon, a highlight in the set.
The show is basically a variety show spoof featuring a one-off Coogan creation, Tony Ferrino, a former Eurovision winner from Portugal. Like all Coogan’s best work, the comedy comes from how well-realized and nuanced the character is. Ferrino is conceited and insecure. The program is a self-aggrandizing tour of the man and his music. Each song is a wonderful approximation of vacuous pop-music.
Why would this be of any interest to you, dear reader? Well, I’m not sure that it would be, but in doing a little research, I happened upon a charity performance that pairs Ferrino with Bjork. We all love Bjork, right? Check it out:
10. Iron & Wine-Norfolk 6/20/05
9. M. Ward-Hold Time
8. Beirut–March of the Zapotec
7. Dirty Projectors-Bitte Orca
6. Fleet Foxes-self titled
5. Bon Iver-From Emma Forever Ago
4. Monsters of Folk-selt titled
3. Dark was the Night-various artists
2. Grizzly Bear-Veckatimist
1. Animal Collective-Merriweather Post Pavillion
If you weren’t already aware -- we like to reward our newsletter readers with a little monthly something extra, or at least, a chance at something extra. (Kind of our own little Skinner box of potential reward.)
This month’s winner will be announced in this weeks newsletter, along with what they won and how they can claim their lovely prize. If my estimates are correct, it should play out something like this:
We’ve had plenty of people weigh in on the best music of the past year, reinforcing my conviction that 2009 was a superlative year for aural fetishists. However, let us not forget the dross, for there has also been a whole lot of crap. In recognizing some of the worst these past twelve months have had to offer, be grateful you have discriminating tastes. Some people eat this shit up.
Chickenfoot – Chickenfoot
The debut from this “supergroup” is the sonic equivalent of Roger Moore’s performance in View to a Kill, in which a 57-year-old Moore phones in an awkward farewell performance as James Bond, a role he should have given up fifteen years prior. Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), Marc Anthony (Van Halen), Joe Statriani and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) are clearly trying to carry the Led Zepplin mantle but simply come off as a terrible bar band. Even if you love Joe Satriani and Hagar-era Van Halen, this album has nothing to offer you but incompetent riffs and the death-rattle like rasps of a man who used to be able to carry a tune.
Asher Roth – Asleep in the Bread Aisle
With any other album on this list, if you were to say to me, “Herb. I know it’s not your thing, but I like it,” I’d let you have it. Lord knows I listen to plenty of stuff that other people despise. The exception is this musical abomination by Asher Roth, who’s break out single “I Love College” is lazy, derivative and repugnant. The kind of lifestyle Roth celebrates with his music is characterized by merry ignorance, lecherous sexuality and milquetoast wit. Roth is the embodiment of the worst qualities of mainstream music and the manufactured personalities it produces.
Owl City – Ocean Eyes
Tacky. Saccharine. Overly-sentimental. Garbage. Ocean Eyes is a Postal Service record filtered through a Family Circus cartoon. Every song is a polished-to-nothing and empty-headed epic-ballad that makes Captain & Tennille sound like Black Sabbath. I feel a little bad writing this, because I believe Adam Young, who is Owl City’s sole member, is a sincere songwriter. Unfortunately, he gives me a severe allergic reaction.
Various Artists – The Michael Jackson Remix Suite
The crass commercial exploitation that follows a celebrity’s death is as likely as the wetness that follows rain, but as often and inevitably as the macabre exercise occurs, it never loses its capacity to disgust. There were a number of releases in the wake of Michael Jackson’s death that exemplified this, but none more so than The Michael Jackson Remix Suite, a collection of profoundly boring remixes of Jackson’s hits that have sapped the originals of their vitality and charm. If the goal of this album was to reflect via Jackson’s songs what Jackson did to himself, mission accomplished. Like the former King of Pop, these songs are grotesque, unnatural caricatures that have been sedated to death.
Here’s the final installment of my picks for top reissued albums of 2009. Enjoy & have a great 2010!
3) Eliane Radigue “Vice Versa”/”Triptych”
I love drone. I love the complexity masquerading as simplicity. I love the physicality of a live drone performance, the ethereal purr of sine wave massaging my entire body. I love how the monotony becomes hypnotic and meditative, to the point that I can forget where I am or that I’m even listening to a piece of music. I love where the drone takes me.
Eliane Radigue, born in Paris in 1932, was a drone pioneer. A wife and mother of three, Radigue studied piano and composing at an early age, and became enraptured with minimalist music after hearing a radio broadcast of musique concrete by Pierre Schaeffer in the early 1950s, who later became her mentor. Despite her studies and studio work in the 1960s, she did not start her own career until the 1970’s, with minimalist explorations utilizing tape loops and Arp synthesizers.
Radigue’s work has influenced artists as diverse as Greg Davis and Stephen O’Malley of doom metal band Sunn O))), yet prior to the late 90s, she only had a handful of physical releases, most of which were in very limited runs. Her popularity amongst fans of experimental music grew quickly when the wonderful Table of the Elements record label released her Adnos trilogy, consisting of three long-form, perfect drone pieces, and soon her new fans were clamoring more.
It takes a special label to take on a major and important drone release. While fans of drone have increased exponentially over the past decade (possibly because post-rock and doom drone bands have made minimalism hip again), there is still not a large audience for such a release. At the same time, work like Radigue’s rivals some of the best of minimalist art, so it would be a shame to see one of her masterpieces released on CD-R with a poorly designed cover, while even the worst of Frank Stella’s paintings still hang on international gallery walls and command millions at auction.
The special label that took up the job was, quite fittingly, Important Records, a label known for quality control in all senses of the word. Important released two of Radigue’s masterworks this year, “Vice Versa, etc.” and “Triptych”, and presented the pieces with the utmost respect, including extensive liner notes and elegant, minimalist cover art befitting the music itself.
“Vice Versa, etc.”, the earlier of the two works, was originally recorded in 1970 and was composed only of tape loop feedback. While the album was distributed upon its initial recording, only ten hand-numbered and signed magnetic tape copies were created, along with instructions to the listener on how to listen to the pieces. The options included one at a time, both at the same time, forwards or backwards and at various speeds. While the CD medium of the reissue makes such experimental listening difficult, Important did include two discs in this release: the first of the three tracks played forward, and the second with them in reverse. You can always rip the CDs to a digital format and experiment with speed variations as well. It is quite the interactive listening experience.
“Triptych” was recorded in 1978, when Radigue’s instrument of choice changed from the tape loop to the Arp 2500 analog synthesizer. A return to music after a brief immersion in Tibetan Buddhism and meditation, “Triptych” is truly a sonic meditation in itself, with an enhanced focus on subtlety and masterful patience. If you’re new to Radigue (or drone in general), I highly recommend “Triptych” as a jumping-off point.
2) Oneohtrix Point Never, “Betrayed in the Octagon”
I’m a firm believer in the connections between dualities. Not because I’m a New Age mystic/Eastern philosophies type (far from it actually), but because it’s just an incredibly obvious part of everyday life. Love and hate are connected simply by being a dichotomy of strong emotion– just ask the hands of Radio Raheem. How many times have you met somebody that just irritates you so much that you just can’t stop talking about them? And then soon the anger turns to intrigue, and then understanding, and soon they’re your best friend.
The same thing happened to me when I first heard Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Betrayed in the Octagon”. While I was immediately drawn to the darker ambient tracks on the album, I was immediately repelled by tracks like “Behind the Bank”. See, I was born in the 1980s, and all of the bad music and art that came out of that period. To me, “Behind the Bank” sounded like the generic keyboard kitsch that was used as background music on the Preview Guide channel. I had spent most of the 90s trying to surround myself with high art: Bergman films, Rothko paintings, and John Cage compositions. While I loved and respected pop artists like Warhol and, to a lesser degree, later post-modern artists, I never was able to believe that they actually liked the works that they were using in their pastiche. It was all ironic, tongue-in-cheek; there’s no way that this work could be paying homage, only putting up a mirror to reflect the ugliness of modern consumerist society.
What bothered me most about “Behind the Bank” was that the tongue was nowhere near the cheek. This seemed like a true love letter to the sounds of early 80s elevator muzak, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese of music. How could anyone want to pay tribute to such garbage and waste obvious talent by playing and recording it? Why would anyone want to listen to it?
Stewing in my distaste, I couldn’t get the song out of my head, with its clichéd synth tones and pitch bends. Sure there was a elegance to the composition, and an emotional pull. But that wasn’t what kept it coming back into my mind like déjà vu, a long forgotten collective memory. It was the fact that it was a collective memory, at least for those of us who grew up in the 80s. It was a reclaiming of the things that defined us as children, all of the things that we were taught were low and base and garbage and deserved only to be forgotten in a forced amnesia. John Carpenter movie soundtracks and public access TV shows on VHS and Atari 2600 and hot pink and synth pop. These were all supposed to be embarrassments, a blip in the timeline of technology and culture than needed to be forgotten and moved past.
“Behind the Bank” was quite simply a rebellion against such mindsets, and a reclamation of our shared cultural history. It was ok to admit that we had a soft spot for these sounds, because these were the sounds that raised us. They were a part of us, and saying that we hated them amounted in a way to saying that we hated ourselves. Once I accepted this fact, “Behind the Bank” became a revelation to me, an opportunity to look back on a time in my life that I thought I had lost and, for the first time, be proud of it.
1) The Beatles discography (stereo and mono)
Ok, I’ll admit it–I bought into the hype. I bought into it hard actually, listening to nearly nothing besides the Beatles reissues for the first month after they came out. Is it because I was a huge Beatles fan? No. Was it because I never heard the Beatles and this music was all fresh and new to me? No. Was it because I’m a sucker for a gimmick? Partly.
What really sold me on these reissues more than anything was simple opportunity. It was an opportunity to revisit albums that I hadn’t put on in years because they were simply too ubiquitous and familiar to even need to be played. The Beatles have long been one of those bands that I didn’t feel a need to actively listen to anymore, and I think that is true for a lot of people. Not only can you listen to them on the radio anytime you want to (try scanning the AM and FM dials for five minutes and NOT finding at least one Beatles tune), their lyrics are forever imprinted on our minds, their melodies encoded into the double-helix of our DNA. Why listen to the Beatles when we are eating, breathing, walking, talking and living the Beatles and the culture they created?
There’s a definite downside to this outlook though, and it’s that while we “know” the Beatles, not actively revisiting the albums in full from time to time causes their music to become a jumbled, ambiguous specter. You recall the best lyrics or the most catchy riff, but you pass by the forgotten gems or the rare throwaway track that served as a transition to a great song. Listening to the full albums are simply the best way to appreciate what the Beatles were all about.
In retrospect, maybe they weren’t. The original CD masters really were pretty poor and mono versions of many albums (arguably the way the Beatles were truly meant to be heard early in their career) were unavailable. This year’s stereo and mono reissues, with their top-notch remastering, were like a face-to-face reuniting with an old friend that we had only spoken to over the phone for the past decade. There was dimension, clarity and humanity again, and you’ve found a whole new respect and attraction to them.
