Said the Gramophone - image by Keith Shore

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Where are the Holograms?
by Sean

I'm a bit rushed tonight: Gmail Swap is blowin' up a bit, and I want to try to keep on top of it. Still - I've got time for you, dear readers, if you'll just spare me your ears.

Two tracks by Jem, a terrific Welsh singer who takes a tiny bit of Avril Lavigne, a little bit of Nelly Furtado, a larger bit of Beth Orton (or maybe Sia), and then makes the product her own. Finally Woken is a delightful, varied album - and she wrote and co-produced the whole thing. Terrific. [buy]

Jem - "24". Worked-up strings with crunching TaTU guitars and a beat that surges like something from the soundtrack to Alias. Subtle production touches - a muted bell, the flicking guitar-strings that open the song - give it an unexpected weight, a surprising dark pop power. I like the way the song's both strong and soft, a firebomb sort of tune that's could borrow heavily from the video for "Toxic."

Jem - "Wish I". Something completely different, much closer to the summertime feelgood music of, say, Sugar Ray. (and by the way, Sugar Ray = good. all you haters can go home and be frowny.) "Wish I / Wish I / Wish I was going too," Jem sings, like surf on a beach. A lap steel guitar nods along beside her, helping to wash all that city ennui away. This is a song that should have colourful straws nearby, a breeze in one's hair, sweetened iced-tea.

12:57 AM on May 18, 2004.
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wounds
by Sean

Isobel Campbell - "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". From her recent This Is Just The Same EP, here's the former Belle and Sebastian member doing a feather-soft rendition of Sonny Bono's dark Western tune. This cover is most interesting when taken next to the Nancy Sinatra version, last heard in Kill Bill. On first listen, I'd surely take Nancy's over Isobel's - there's more tension in the former, more steel within the coo, - but there's something affecting in the innocence of Campbell's song, the lurid words in a breathy Marilyn Monroe whisper. The tragedy is underlined, but so too, perhaps, is an element of mystery. What really happened here? Why am I uneasy when that small woman's teeth catch the light? "Now he's gone / I don't know why..." [buy]

The Tiger Lillies - "Reap What You Sow". From the group's 1998 record, Brothel to the Cemetery. The band plays a peculiar blend of russian folk music, falsetto Tom Waits, proto-punk, and um, Bertolt Brecht. This is a dark, woody, almost claustrophobic ballad, its ebb-and-flow of acoustic guitar undercut by string scrapes and the foreboding upright bass. While the lyrics aren't all darkness - there's something reassuring in the tale's conclusion, - there's also a deep and weary sadness. On a dark night, Martin Jacques' chorus - "You reap what you sow!" - seems forlorn, almost desperate, a lie to let you fall asleep. [buy]

(You'll notice I've started doing "buy this album" links. I'll continue to do so, where it's applicable. If you like the music you hear here, you should really, most definitely, fo' sure, support the artists responsible. It's a cliche, but I mean it: please go to their shows! please buy their records!

And as John and Justin have pointed out, I might as well make it easy.

I'll link to the artist's personal webstore where I can (ie, when it exists and ships affordably to North America [ie, me]), but otherwise will use InSound or Amazon. Links to the latter two will be tagged with a code that will give me a tiny commission. If that makes you uncomfortable, please don't use them. Furthermore, if such profits ever rise above basic server costs (which is unlikely, but possible, as I don't pay for the mp3 hosting), I'll change the system. I'm not comfortable earning income through this blog.)

Saw The Unicorns on Friday. They did a good show, but as a studio-recording kinda guy, I gotta say that there were only a few numbers ("I Was Born a Unicorn," particularly) that improved upon the album versions. Noteworthy, however, was a new one towards the end - Alden starting solo before everyone else jumped in. Wistful, suprising, three-legged indie rock. The surprise of the night was Toronto's Controller Controller, who despite their clumsy name played a really tight set of disco guitar-rock, like a much heavier version of Franz Ferdinand (and with lacklustre, "creamy" female vocals). Much, much better live than on CD.

Oh, a new little web project of mine:

Gmail Swap - because people are nice.

Elsewhere:

Bhangra mp3s out the wazoo. [via mefi]

See you tomorrow!

1:42 AM on May 17, 2004.
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Josh Rouse and Jim White
by Sean

Two dusty-voiced singer-songwriters to carry us into the weekend.

Josh Rouse - "1972". First off, the softglimmering title track from last year's 1972. It starts out with strums and piano and organ, but things rise out of the calm, a beautiful melody on worn voice and reined-in strings. "She was feeling 1972 / groovin' to a Carole King tune." This impresses me in much the same way as Is This It? impressed me. Such simple ingredients - Rouse playing with the conventions - and yet the songcraft carries it up and into the truly great. For all of us who wish there was more craft to MOR, richer stuff in the fabric of John Mayer or James Taylor's songs. (This is, after all, a tribute to the seventies' pop folk. But it's very, very good.)

Jim White - "Static on the Radio". Taken from Jim's new album, Drill A Hole In That Substrate And Tell Me What You See. Yes, that's a terrible title. And while the record is uneven, this opening track is dusted with genius. Alt.country on a desolate midnight road, a wailing clutch of instruments (pedal steel, vibraphone, Your Blues-style synths,) that add mystery to the noir bassline. Aimee Mann's backup vocals make the song, really - it's the tickle of better things round the bend, or better things left behind. This song is the loneliness that comes from past fullness: better to have loved and lost, right? Right? "Ain?t praying for miracles, I?m just down on my knees. Listening for the song behind everything I think I know. ... Everything I think I know is just static on the radio."

Better Propaganda - like Epitonic only, uh, with better indie cred. (Free, legal mp3s by the guys who founded, then sold, Epitonic.) Via mefi.

Benjamen Walker, the man behind NPR's musicblogging story a couple of weeks ago, has edited and released a longer version of the piece. He digs deeper into the legal ramifications/possibilities for the movement, and it's quite well done indeed.

See you Monday!

2:31 AM on May 14, 2004.
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nominated for a gold gramophone
by Sean

Talib Kweli ft. Michelle Williams - "Lonely People". Talib must have had a fine time trying to get this past the sample clearance people. His saddened but sanctimonious raps would have been ok, but I'm not so sure about whole minutes from the instrumental track of "Eleanor Rigby," not to mention, uh, Macca's forlorn chorus. Which is sort of too bad, because while this isn't a spectacular track, its heart is in the right place, and above and beyond the appreciable "Michelle" synchronicity, Miss Williams is a fine partner for Paul's melancholy. Kanye owes George Martin some thanks, certainly, but his production is simple and effective: the slow drums give a threatening undercurrent to the slicing strings, a good match for Talib's berating verses. I'm told that the album version of "Lonely People" swaps Ray Charles in for Mr McCartney. Which is fine, I guess, but a whole lot more conventional. [via guerilla]

Also - I would like to thank whatever it is that is motivating this recent spate of hip-hop Beatles love. They are two things that I enjoy, and I like that they are getting together. (Without sucking.)

The Cat Empire - "All That Talking". Laura passed me word about these fine Australians, and here they are with a smoky cheshire-grinning bit of cabaret. This is a brilliant track - each of its sections is realized with aplomb, with alleyway style. Felix speak-sings like an ozzie Jean Leloup, the rhodes pumps, a trumpet mournfully toodles - then there's the unflappable piano solo, Glenn Gould after a night with Picasso, and ("divine!")
the tremendously wonderful, full-bodied brass blast. If only Ottawa was this cool.

Saw P:ano tonight, found them very nice. Was completely blown away by the grandness of their songs-with-guitar, though. (NB: These songs-with-guitar have not been released.) As a gauzy folk band they're good, but as an indie pop band P:ano rule - I want more boy-girl homophony! more songs about being evil! more fun! They're like Yo La Tengo pop-songs without the old person hangups; The Archies after a Fiery Furnaces concert, only macabre and baroque. Wonderful.

Liked "Holiday Road"? John points us to the John Hughes MusicBlog.

Oh yeah - download an unreleased version of College Dropout: early demos and some things that didn't make the final release. (recommended: the slippery track 10.) won't be available for long, i bet.

2:50 AM on May 13, 2004.
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Ezra learning to play bassoon.
by Sean

Nico - "I'll Keep It With Mine". I had a wonderful afternoon, this afternoon, and it's a recipe I can share. Take Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, add Nico's Chelsea Girl, garnish with thick white sunlight through the window. And let it sustain you for hours: like fresh pieces of apple, cold wine.

I'm astonished that I didn't know about Chelsea Girl, that despite my out-and-out love for Astral Weeks and Nick Drake it wasn't till this that I thought to seek it out. The album is fine, thoughtful, cold/warm like narnian turkish delight. Nico's voice is so wintry, Cale's production so spring. Crisp, brisk, sharp, silvergold, sublime.

Brian Michael Roff - "Magazine Memories". This Mass. songwriter throws all of himself into his dusty roots folk songs; he wheels his tunes down the road with an ache in his back. The banjo walks alongside, a fiddle swoops in with a sympathetic glint in its eye. It's a song that asks for a drink on the table, some drink down your throat. Smudged dreams, dented hopes: things sawing and fighting inside, before they finally find rest. "I blast off." (From 2003's A Sweet Science.)

Tofu Hut's main man is finished his move - he's back, he's rearing to go, and my behind-the-scenes-curating days are over! Welcome back, John!

I echo John's endorsement of the Dopplebanger "Yeah"/"Requiem for a Dream" bootleg.

Loving the Crooked Fingers track at Listen Closer.

Some fine new-to-me mp3blogs (will the bubble ever burst!? [i hope not!]):

Tried and True Attention-Getting Tactics has a very motley one-a-day selection (Soft Cell! Terry Callier! Peanut Butter Wolf!), and wow do i love his intro writing: smart, funny, good, different.

The Lusitania has got terrific honesty, an eager voice, and some damn fine selections. A slight hip-hop bent, but then there's Caetano Veloso and Sunburned Hand of the Man and indian flutes. So indeed - do yourself a favour and drop in.

Oh right, for the hipsters who keep track of such things, I forgot to mention in yesterday's comments babble that The Cay were the headliners in The Unicorns' first-ever Montreal show. Indie-rockers of a feather flock together.

2:43 AM on May 12, 2004.
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The Cay and Masta Ace walk into a bar...
by Sean

Masta Ace - "Good Ol Love". Been a little while since I've posted any hip-hop. Following up on Cocaine Blunts' post of "Beautiful", here is another elegant scorcher, a 9th Wonder slow jam with asphalt bottom. Masta Ace's upcoming record looks to be something amazing. The raps in these tracks blow most of Kanye's stuff out of the water - it's all just easier, simpler, wiser. "My limo driver's white / my attorney's black / show me some love, like Bernie Mac." To my ear there's the same conscious thug, but he doesn't sound like he's as worked up, so desperate to prove himself. And it's all spread over that indomitable, flush soul sample. Listen to the shout out, like a calm, welcoming nod: "New York, New Jersey, Philly, DV, Virginia, Chi-town, St Louis, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Slovenia, Japan, Austria, Africa. / Show me some love." But why is Austria mentioned twice? (269,000 results!)

The Cay - "Bird Yard". The Cay is an Ottawa-Montreal-Toronto three-piece with two self-released albums under their belt. They play pondersome indie pop, strain and nostalgia blended in with crisscrossing guitars. The Wooden Stars and middle-period Velvets and a little, um, Billy Cobham. This is my favourite track from Pine Trees Are Electric Guitars, an instrumental whose distracted, sprouting melody stumbles into Spring at two-minutes forty: buds creaking open, sun glancing through leaves, a weight lifting from shoulders. It's joyous and restrained, a small smile with lowered lashes. Something coming awake and then settling back into sleep. In short - undemandingly lovely.

A fine, revelatory ILM thread: "Famous Folks who are Unlikely Fans of Your Favorite Artist". I don't know why I hadn't guessed that Nick Nolte was a Smog fan, but I guess I should have.

1:52 AM on May 11, 2004.
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a stranger's mistaken kiss
by Sean

Lindsey Buckingham - "Holiday Road". For Scott (et al), because it's good and I feel like it. He was a member of Fleetwood Mac. But it's famous cuz of National Lampoon. Or maybe, (so I hear), from an American Idol ad. This takes nothing away from the "oh-oh-ohs", the handclaps (note that they chose to use fake, not real ones. there must be a reason for this. the artificiality of the backing track emphasizes the jouissant humanity of the main melody/harmony???) or the dogs who bark. And as I listen to the chopped-up delivery of the verses I just want to treadmill on the spot, to bop my head, to point at random strangers, to "oh-oh-oh-oh" at them, then to lead a parade of bicyclists. I want to do strange, silly things. And I'm glad.

The Bruces - "The Electric Halo". Opening track from Alex McManus' recent record, The Shining Path. It's music for green fields in twilight. Bear with it through the run-of-the-mill opening - the middle-voiced singer with acoustic guitar and a Nick Drake bassline. Backing vocals drift through. But as we approach two minutes, percussion rings, a fiddle strides, and horns jut out from the unlikeliest of places. A small thing, but good.

Dismemberment Plan - "Back and Forth". If I'm going to post a third song, better make it great. Classic indie rock, doubtless familiar to many, but I'm putting my hands in the air, waving 'em like I just don't care - it's a glorious pop song with mile-a-minute "End of the World" verses and the bestest easiest melody the Plan ever conceived. It's so sweet but so bitter, drums that hurtle like tumbling stars, it's the night where you dance and there's the endless sky and you've let everything go but it's still right there whispering in your ear. It beautiful and wild. And then there's that bit where everything stops, where we hold our breaths and dip underwater, but the voice keeps going and crash we're back, trapped in this bliss, this hopeful finite life, a sweet and sour synthesizer at our side, a bass like a ticking clock, the guitar like a neon sign that points to the end.

Some further notes:

1. Destroyer & Frog Eyes was a wonderful, wonderful show. Better than I had even anticipated. Frog Eyes looked far more interesting than I expected them to, but didn't in fact sound as good as I hoped. The songs became very similar, and the sound was mashed together. When they joined Dan Bejar, however, it was magic - the tunes on Your Blues gained an amazing new breadth and depth. Singer/guitarist Carey Mercer was particularly good, letting flickers of guitar solo waver around Bejar's witchy vocals. As a special bonus, Mercer looked a little like Conan O'Brien gone to seed. (Bejar's solo acoustic finale, "There's Certain Things You Ought To Know" was also beautiful; a final pushing earnest glimmer for 1:45 am.) In short: go go go!

2. I think I get Your Blues now. That all that noise and complexity is locked inside those songs, but it's locked inside those shiny mundane synthesizer sounds, like the way our noisy and complex hearts are locked inside such shiny mundane synthesizer lives.

2. To my British readers (and anyone else, really) - is all of Maroon 5's stuff as good as the infectious i-love-it "This Love"?

3. The music I listened to in the car this weekend sounded very, very good. It was: [day] Weezer - Pinkerton; [night] Vincent Gallo - When, Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans.

4. Good music found elsewhere on the internet:

Les Mouches - "Carload of Whatever". Sample a track from the new LP from this crashfolk Toronto group. I'm still waiting to get my hands on it. I like this band a lot, and you'll see them hear again.

Shakka Zombie - "Siroi Yami No Naka". "JAPANESE HARMONICA RAP." Via the terrific listen closer. Timbaland meets the Zoobombs.

Vulcan Dub Squad - "Comet in Moominland". Canadian band with a terrible name records an astonishingly elegant tribute to one of the finest children's books of all time. Wistful instrumental indie rock - a cello that squeezes in among hedges of guitars. (The first half is the best.)

5. Mystery & Misery is a great musicblog that's new to me. Insight into both undiscovered and familiar indie acts.

6. Addition to my concert schedule: The Unicorns next weekend (thank-you CBC), and DFA on June 19th.

1:08 AM on May 10, 2004.
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