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Music is everything. It’s what sustains us, inspires us, drives us forward and makes us love life. What music also does is helps make the unbearable tasks less painful. Yes, what i’m referring to is working out, going to the gym. Or, in my case, the Bed-Stuy YMCA.
I hate working out. I get so bored. But I figured out a way to make it work, to make it worth my while (health issues aside). I thought going to the gym with my iPod would be the perfect time to get through some new music. But, actually, I was wrong. It’s hard to pay attention and listen to the nuances of music while working out. I don’t have the coordination. What you really need at the gym is JOCK JAMS. But I don’t listen to jock jams! So, here without further chatter, cool kid jock jams…
Cold Cave: Life Magazine
Washed Out: You Will Be Sad
Discovery: Swing Tree
Tanlines: Power Everything
The Tough Alliance: Something Special
Sonic Youth: Sugar Kane
Nite Jewel: Weak For Me (for the COOL DOWN mode)
by David Chiu
Anyone who has followed Neil Young’s 40-plus year career knows this artist can rock in blistering, noisy fashion. On everything from “Like a Hurricane” to “Rockin’ in the Free World,” Young plays a ferocious guitar. But the musical side of Young that really resonates with me is the warm acoustic one– just his quivering voice and guitar along with the occasional piano and harmonica. When he performs in this intimate setting, a purity in the music and the words emerges that is equal to, or even greater than, the power of the electric guitar charged rock he is equally and deservedly renowned for.
This power is quite evident on Dreamin Man Live ’92, the latest archival recording released, taken from his tour in support of the Harvest Moon album– the sequel to his hit record Harvest (1972).
Dreamin’ Man features the ten songs from Harvest Moon performed unplugged, and they’re all soulful and poignant. “Such a Woman,” for example, is utterly romantic and tender with Young on piano and his harmonica playing providing counterpoint. Equally touching is the song “Harvest Moon.” With its waltz-like rhythm, it’s a tribute to universal love. It retains the powerful imagery of a couple—young or old—somewhere slow dancing in a country field under a bright moonlit sky.
Other moments on Dreamin’ Man touch on the personal, like “Old King,” an ode to Young’s dog that passed away. There’s also the poetic and evocative “Unknown Legend,” about a former waitress with kids, (“Somewhere on a desert highway she rides a Harley-Davidson/Her long blonde hair flyin’ in the wind”), and the country-folk tune “One of These Days,” about old friendships.
Only the last two songs on the live record deviate from the previous introspective ones. “Natural Beauty,” the longest song on Dreamin’ Man at over 11 minutes, could be interpreted as a commentary on the environment. And the urgent and haunting “War of Man” follows in the same vein with its lyrics touching on humanity’s harmful impact towards the earth. (Could these songs have been a precursor to Young’s 2003 story-album, Greendale?)
Like any other great Neil Young acoustic-minded effort, Dreamin’ Man is moving in both the artist’s performance and the sheer honesty of the music. Young has the affect of making a listener emotionally involved– he’s just that genuine and heartfelt.
Burdens are LIFTED from me. That’s my voice rising!
ALBUM OF THE DECADE: Bright Eyes: Lifted: Or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
For most of us who have come of age under George W. Bush, who lived in the 90s but weren’t really thoughtful and mature in the 90s, well, this was our decade. The 2000s. We’ve lived through wars, 8 years of a Cowboy president and a recession. We were here for the rise of the Internet and the fall of the music industry. So much political unrest, chaos, depression, change. Each day was both tumultuous and boring. It was scary and fun. It was blinding with both bright possibility and dark humorless uncertainty. No music better captures the decade than Bright Eyes‘ 2002 album, “Lifted: Or, The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground.”
Yes, it was released 8 years ago. But the album spoke legions of truth to hungry ears and his withstood the weight of those years. Not even musically speaking but thematically, the songs are about living with guilt and living with fear. They’re about the desperate search for fun in the midst of death and terror. They’re about attempting to be joyous when all you want to do is scream out in anger.
Take “Method Acting,” a track shrouded in uncertainty:
It’s a shocking bit of footage viewed from a shitty TV screen. You can squint at it through snowy static to make out the meaning. And keep on stretching the antennae, hoping that it will come clear. We need some reception, a higher message, just tell us what to fear. Because I don’t know what tomorrow brings.
“False Advertising” is about being bought and sold. This album was released just a couple of years after the 90s, afterall. Being consumed by corporations was a real threat to artistic integrity. Although it’s still a threat today, artists are much less willing to care. No one is buying albums, so they have to make music somehow. That’s the popular argument, anyway.
In a hopeful twist at the end of the song, Oberst turns to his friends for strength:
And now my door, it stands open. I’m inviting everyone in. We’re gonna laugh, we’re gonna drink until the morning comes. That’s what we’re gonna do. Come on! Come on!
Musically speaking, this album was a breakthrough for indie bands and singer-songwriters alike. While Bright Eyes albums had always incorporated tapes and feedback and answering machine messages, “LIFTED” was a whole other story. Some songs were just Conor Oberst strumming an acoustic guitar in empty rooms, resulting in the most eerie hollow sounds you can imagine. But other songs utilized production like it was the main reason for doing the song at all. Mike Mogis can do wonders. Some songs have what sounds like hundreds of tracks layered on top of each other. This is definitely not LO-FI. And for good reason. It’s supposed to sound grandiose. It’s a protest album.
The live show, it should be noted, consisted of about 15 band members including multiple drummers. It was a spectacle, I-I-I mean a miracle.
The album was particularly good for drug-taking. Many songs inspired extreme physical bliss, “Lover I Don’t Have to Love,” for example. The simple keyboard melody, lyrics like “your tongue in my mouth” and references to taking drugs and the deliberate bass pounding that felt like your feet hitting the ground made for a potent mixture. Not to mention the cello…
Love’s an excuse to get hurt. And to hurt. Do you like to hurt? I do. I do. Then hurt me.
There isn’t one weak song on the entire album. Each one has a different, complicated story. And each one is more difficult than the last. To hear, to absorb.
“From A Balance Beam” is the most hopeful song on the album. It’s also my favorite. Hear it below.
Pagan Kennedy wrote in her NYT Magazine cover story that fans, mostly young, were attaching themselves to Conor Oberst for the same reason that they did in the 60s with another scraggly and poetic songwriter with a penchant for pointed lyricism: Bob Dylan.
“Kids sprawl on the concrete, drape themselves on the side of the club, take up room the way only high schoolers can. Even from here you can feel the suck of their longing, the weight of the secrets that they dare confess only to Conor Oberst. Maybe years from now they’ll be known as members of the generation startled out of puberty by 9/11. Or maybe we will know these kids, or their peers, as the ones who fought in the streets of Baghdad. But one thing is clear: if any generation ever needed a new Bob Dylan, this is the one.”
Oberst has since shrugged off that comparison, and has release many, many albums. Some were great, some okay. His newest project, the supergroup Monsters of Folk, is easy in the worst possible way. But all of that matters very little. The impact of Bright Eyes is impossible to ignore or dismiss. Oberst and his Nebraska friends paved the road for countless artists who wanted more; more from life, more freedom, more music and above all else, integrity and pure love.
Bright Eyes: From A Balance Beam
No Demons Here was my highlight of Chocolate Bobka’s church show. While Mountain Man never cease to impress, No Demons Here, sitting quietly and thin-legged on the foot of the stage, so unassuming and frightless, made me feel like i was witnessing a turning point, a shift in the Earth’s foundations. I think Luka may have made me catch my breath, and I held it for a little too long, because i remember thinking, damn i’m dizzy. That may have just been the affect his music had on my psyche though.
It’s no secret that I’m a die-hard Bright Eyes fan. I think an audience member at an early Conor Oberst performance, and I mean really early, like when he was 13, may have felt like I felt on that freezing, early December night in Greenpoint. Like we were witness to something exceptional. I don’t think i’ve ever compared anyone to my beloved Oberst.
Luka Usmiani has a tape out, get it from him or on his blog, “I’m Actually Happy,” and he just released an EP that you can download yourself from his blog. Below is my favorite track from the new EP, “Shithed,” and “Cradles,” thanks to Chocolate Bobka for that rip. Also, here’s a live recording of his set at the Church show, thanks to God Damn Cobras. Pay close attention for a cover (kinda) of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which is one of my favorite songs. Is it a successful cover???
No Demons Here: Shithed
No Demons Here: Cradles
This year saw the rise of “chillwave,” throwback beach songs filtered through haze and electronic dance pop. Full on guitar bands were pretty non-existent and everyone seems to be drugging the hell out of their sound. Cacophony abounds. Here are my favorite tracks of the year…these aren’t any any particular order, per se. And it was really hard to figure out which were the best…
Hopefully, there will be a best albums of the year post coming soon… but in all honesty, great FULL albums are few and far between these days. For all the reasons you can imagine.
Dirty Projectors “Useful Chamber”
“Useful Chamber” starts with a flat and droned out electronic beat, and synths, then veers into an acoustic guitar picked transition. It’s back to the synths and drones, female vocals that imitate the synths, and back to acoustic picking. And it builds and builds and then cuts to just a drum beat. Longstreth sings a few lines in a flat tone and then boom! The song gets louder, a guitar squeals and there’s a melody that brings you through all the glorious muck. Another cut. This time, the normally angelic vocals of Angel Deradoorian, Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle come in, harshly. They turn pretty, miraculously.
In perfect call and response, Longstreth’s wavering vocals return.
I’m caught up in a storm
That I need no shelter from
He needs no shelter because even though he’s in a storm, it’s not scary, not uncomfortable. It’s just strange and complicated. And you won’t believe this. The song cuts out again and we’re onto the third distinctly different section. To conclude, weave the three sections together. (Taken from my review of Bitte Orca.)
Dirty Projectors: Useful Chamber
Mountain Man “Animal Tracks”
I think i’ve said enough about this song by now. These girls make me feel completely intoxicated, even when i’ve injested nothing. This is music that sounds modern and ancient at the same time.
Mountain Man: Animal Tracks
Real Estate “Fake Blues”
Perfect pop from New Jersey that sounds like The Allman Brothers, (I just figured that out yesterday, how right is that?). Seriously though, it’s been a long time since a band made music that is so easy to listen to, yet so rich with innuendo, love and devotion.
Real Estate: Fake Blues
Discovery “Osaka Loop Line”
This album came out of nowhere, and took my head by storm. This is definitely the best track off of it, and the patterns, time changes and jagged sounds will leave you spinning.
Discovery: Osaka Loop Line
Tanlines “Bejan”
Tanlines is Jesse Cohen and Eric Emm- and their music is nothing short of a cocktail, part full-time high, part energy drink. This is the stuff made for life’s fun moments. “Bejan” is particularly good if you’re at the gym and you really don’t want to be there. In other words, these beats can make anything fun.
Tanlines: Bejan
Ecstatic Sunshine “Turned On”
Ecstatic Sunshine was the best electronic/rock band of the ’08s and haven’t gotten too much love lately… but this track “Turned On” is hypnotic in the best of ways. It was inspired by The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” too, which is awesome.
Ecstatic Sunshine: Turned On
Ducktails “Wishes”
Matt Mondanile could be the musician of the year. He has his guitar licks down pact, as evidenced by his work in Real Estate. He adds so much richness you think you might have a heart attack. In Ducktails, Mondanile weaves tapestries of sound that you can literally lose your mind trying to find your way out of it.
Ducktails: Wishes
Musicians who have been around the block always seem to be the ones that take their music in really bizarre directions. Or not even bizarre, but just in directions that aren’t already paved, or popularized. Like Bill Callahan from Smog for example. His voice is instantly recognizable on this- that deep baritone that moves like honey over lyrics that call out in desperation. Pay close listen to the detailed verses and the cello– not to mention the staccato piano clack clack. You could get lost…
“Eid Ma Clack Shaw” is off this year’s album, Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle, which i’m sad to say I haven’t heard. But thanks to Amelia from Mountain Man that is all about to change. She said this was her album of the year, and this song is pretty powerful.
For song analysis check out this post on Dramatic Medicine.
Bill Callahan: Eid Ma Clack Shaw
It’s hard for me to look back on a period of time and say, “Oh, this was the best, this was the worst.” In the moment your feelings are different than they are in retrospect. But, I know when I had fun. So, the best live shows of the year… that I can remember.
Wavves at Mercury Lounge, March 30
Girls and Real Estate at Maxwell’s, Nov. 2
Real Estate at the Market Hotel, Dec. 4
Mountain Man at Monkeytown, Oct. 20
Alex Bleeker and the Freaks and Fluffy Lumbers at Monster Island Basement, October 21
HEALTH, Pictureplane, Tanlines at Bowery Ballroom, September 24
Dinosaur Jr. at the Beachcomber, Wellfleet, MA, August 14
Dirty Projectors at First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, July 17
Magik Markers at Shea Stadium, June 11
Those Darlins and The Soft Pack at Union Pool, Jan.17
Seriously, the dudes at Rose Quartz are almost enough, and the sunny weather, and the feral camels, but also: the music. Just see the list RQ has going…
The sounds are distinctly foreign- at least to me anyway. All of these songs have a vibe that i’m not familiar with. Maybe it’s a guilt free feeling? Australia is an island, afterall. Perhaps living there you have a feeling of protection, stand-alone-ness?? Anyway, my favorite of the bunch is “Needles” by Grand Salvo. Sounds a little like Mojave 3. Anyone know that dream time? You can buy Grand Salvo here.
Grand Salvo: Needles
Also: people need to remember that when Evan Dando visited Australia he got inspired and wrote all those amazing songs on It’s A Shame About Ray, in 1991. Obviously there are good vibes there…
Hilken Mancini of Fuzzy
I’m not sure how with the 90s most of you are. But in the mid to late 90s there was a little band outta Boston called Fuzzy, and boy did they write rip roaring pop monster songs. Dave Ryan from the Lemonheads was the original drummer. He’s fucking AWESOME. And i’m not just saying that because I love the Lemonheads. (Read my Q&A with Hilken Mancini, pictured)
Recently I heard the song “Come Saturday” again, by the incredibly poppy throwback band, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. It sounds soooo much like “Flashlight” by Fuzzy. I don’t think this is a rip- it’s just testament to how 90s the sound of POBPAH really is…
Thoughts?
Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Come Saturday
Also, Fuzzy reunites tomorrow night in Boston. Wish I could be there…
“Shelia” sounds like John Lennon, it just has that sensibility. A shuffling beat and dramatic and romantic lyrics give this track by Bradford Cox/Atlas Sound that Lennon-flair. “No one wants to die alone.” How true and over used is that line? Yet, with what feels like timeless style, Cox makes it seem new.
Also, what is it with all these songs lately named after a woman, I mean, I get it, we are muses, but my real question is are these made up names? Who is Shelia? And yesterday’s Elliott Smith song, “Cecilia/Amanda,” who are they?
In the comments, name your favorite tracks named after a woman.
Atlas Sound: Shelia
This song is off the recently released on Kranky album, Logos.
