Archives : all posts by Jordan

Leonard Cohen - "Passing Through (Live)"

About ten years ago now, my brother was the talent wrangler for the short-lived and mostly awful late-night program, the Ralph Benmergui Show. During his time at the show, Dave (my brother) was most excited about wrangling Leonard Cohen. He brought a baseball for Cohen to sign and upon presenting it to him, Dave said, “I guess you don’t sign one of these everyday.” To which Cohen replied, “What do you mean? I sign one after every game.”

This isn’t the best Leonard Cohen song - that would probably be “Suzanne,” a song whose construction is so pure and easy that, according to Dave, it seems as though Cohen always sings it with a smile. There are many others, too. Almost every song on New Skin For the Old Ceremony, one of my favourite albums, is brilliant. But you’ve probably heard most of these songs. Here you get to hear a playful Cohen slowly luring an unexpecting audience (an audience who came to mourn, not to celebrate) into a clap-along; an illustration of an essential element of Cohen's music: that sometimes mourning is a celebration. [Buy]

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Sparrow - "This Is How It's Done"

Sparrow is Jason Zumpano’s latest project and it shares a lot in common with the work of his former bandmate, A.C. Newman. Both artists favour clean guitar and carefully orchestrated pop songs. I was not a fan of the Zumpano/Newman band, Zumpano, and sometimes Sparrow can’t avoid the Zumpano pitfalls: boring power-poppiness, general saminess. But sometimes he gets it right - like here - and evokes the simultaneous giddiness and melancholy of a late high school summer. [Buy]

The Evens - "Mount Pleasant Isn't"

It’s hotter than Hades in my bachelor pad. I’m going to go drink a tall glass of ice water in a bath tub full of ice water.

I write this from my bath. I’m eating grapes.

The production on "Mount Pleasant Isn't" is what Mount Pleasant isn’t anymore, unless Mount Pleasant isn’t anymore, in which case, suffice it to say that the production is pleasant. This song is like a philosophical problem Bertrand Russell would solve with predicate logic.

I can hear the string’s vibration decay, dust spring off the coated head of the snare. This drum kit is most pared down: I can’t hear a single tom, never mind a tom-tom.

The ice water is starting to boil. [Buy]

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Uilab - "St. Elmo's Fire (Radio)"

You guys remember this one?

When I first heard it, I broke my brain trying to figure out how Uilab could be so good as to alter the space-time continuum such that they could compose the theme song for a film released ten years before their founding. Later, when I came to understand that it was a Brian Eno cover, I re-rented St. Elmo’s Fire, excited to hear the original in its original context. Needless to say, I was disappointed both with the theme song (David Foster) and the performances (Demi Moore, Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, et al).

It is a daring undertaking to cover a song from Brian Eno’s masterpiece, Another Green World. However, Uilab pulls it off with aplomb by applying their own trademarks (ethereal harmonies, congested synths and circular drumming) to Eno’s summer adventure song. [Buy]

Red House Painters - "Mistress"

My Bloody Valentine's distorted guitars sprawl outwards, billow and crash inwards, onto themselves in dense loops. The drums and bass don't clarify or organize, but merely add fuzz to the sheets of soft guitar crunch. The vocal crudely cuts out a melody which appears as a drain hole through which the chaos disappears.

Here the Red House Painters sound like My Bloody Valentine with the edges rounded off, the parameters set claustrophobically narrow, the gentle voice at a distance. [Buy]

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Rahsaan Roland Kirk - "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone"

During Roland Kirk's last concert, just days before his death, he played three saxophones at once. Not bad. Probably more than not bad when you consider that he played from a wheelchair, one half of his body paralyzed. On "Ain't No Sunshine When You're Gone" he simultaneously sings and plays flute - such is the intensity of his love and mourning.

Bring me a man with more soul and I will give you something you can't buy in a store: my dignity. [Buy Blacknuss]

To start: a big congratulations to my sister, Dr. Nomi, who I was very proud to watch receive her Ph.D in political theory from Yale this weekend.

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Townes Van Zandt - "Texas River Song"

Van Zandt plays guitar effortlessly and playfully; his attack is light and his arrangements are paths winding in unexpected directions. His voice is simultaneously immanent and transcendent; something of the earth and something of the sky.

Imagine a dry country, a refreshing canteen. A cowboy rides happily, leaving behind a hint of a yodel. [Buy]

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The Cay - "Untitled"

Just to let you know what my band's up to: This is a rough mix of a song we just recorded with Dave Draves at Little Bullhorn in Ottawa. It's still very much a work in progress. More to come once we're finished.

Calexico - "Sunken Waltz"

In my experience recording music, one of the foremost challenges has been making each instrument sound forceful and present, each harmonic line distinguishable from the others. Too often a song is heard as the sum of its parts when it is more than that. Calexico succeeds in overcoming this challenge. Each instrument comes together to underscore the severity of the 3/4 time. As soon as we are given respite from the monotony of the waltz - the acoustic guitar breaking out of the bass-marshalled parade with a bright and piercing run -- the electric guitar puts an end to anything but the strictest adherence.

Eat it Liszt, your time is over! [Buy]

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My Morning Jacket - "If All Else Fails"

"If All Else Fails" is a simple folk song that travels an unexpected course. Whenever you think that the song has reached a dead end, realize that you're wrong and prepare to have your heart broken.

FYI As I write this, my editor, Max Maki sings along like a sad, pajama-clad, home-sick alien/Siren. [Buy]

Dear Readers,

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I won't be posting until tomorrow, noonish. OK?

Yours,
Jordan

Ray Charles - "What'd I Say?"

Listen closely and you can hear Charles emitting guttural hums over his opening electric piano chords. Then, eighteen seconds in, once through the simple chord progression, the drums come in and justify my posting this song and your giving it another listen. The drummer's unrelenting persistence on the ride and its bell explains why that cymbal is so named. He alternates between rim shots and hits on toms tuned so high that they sound like their heads might bust open - a fitting tension for such a salaciously taut song.

The vocals are flawless and leave no doubt that they emanate from the mouth of a most gifted lover. [Buy]

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Will Oldham - "Barcelona"

Sounding like a Valium-addled Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band attempting an attempted murder ballad, "Barcelona" is a weird song.

Though Oldham certainly behaves badly in the song - throwing his wife out of a Barcelona hotel room window - I nevertheless feel for him when she leaves and marries someone else. Call me a romantic. [Buy]