Geek vs Life

I know not enough music gets reviewed for this site. The problem is so many music is dropped every week. (The same is true for books, but with books even more.) And for what ever reason we have been trained as consumers to buy the new thing right when it comes out. (I am a little dishonest there. I know the reason. The reason is just a long rant of a post…another time perhaps. Books thankfully are immune to this. Unless you really love the author/series.) Theoretically the reviewers of whatever media do this early critical reason to steer those reading the review to steer clear of the coals, and find the diamonds.

The problem is the sheer amount of material available within the media. We then have to commit an X amount of time to getting to the durability of the material under review. Durability here means two things. One is likability, and Secondly worth. As in both money, time, and memories. This is compounded by the fact that we here at the site are putting our own resources in getting the latest game, book, and/or compact disc. (etc) This is different then other sites, where they have people sending them gratis stuff for reviews. Those sites may get send something they have never totally encountered before…and viably unmolested with preconceived notions. They are unobjectionable. (So far we are only have that with the movie reviews.)

I guess they are others ways to look at gratis relationship. In order to keep getting the goods, you have to give a good review. That is neither here nor there. That is not the point here.

The point is anything reviewed here started as an interest in the reviewer. I already had to purchase or get from the library the said medium. I already have some idea of the material. I am “biased.” So the point of all this is to put up front some biases about the music I like.

I like good music, but that is some kind of temporal paradox waiting to happen. I like my guitars scuzzy or shoe glazed with different time changes or signatures. I like dual singers, but in general I don’t like female singers (unless they are in the dual singer situation.) Guys with acoustic guitars bore me. The stuff has been down to death. I like multiple instruments going on. I like my singers to have an unusual voice, and not what is considered good. If you can sing on American Idol, then I probably don’t like your voice. Now if you sing to high, lisp, faltering, soaked in whiskey…well meet my new favorite artist. If it is a classic…it is better than you think. I had to learn this the hard way. Yes, there are overrated songs or artists, but the truth is there are more underrated than overrated. The exception to this is U2. They are still barfy. (I don’t care if barfy is not a real word. It should be.) If you rap, don’t produce boring beats or flat hooks. You know the type, pre-manufactured disposable crap for the clubs. It will be huge for a month, then gone forever. Unless it gets huge in the gay community, where the kitsch factor is high. I like your rhymes to flow as if you read a thesaurus right before breakfast. As a rapper I probably prefer you if your on the west coast. I don’t know why that is, but it just happens. This is by no means a complete list, but if you like some of the adjectives listed on this declaration speak to you…please read on.

I LOVE Broken Social Scene (BSS). “You Forgot It People” is one of the best albums. Not in 2004, but ever recorded. It is one of my favorite albums. I really want to hone in on the word “album.” A word, which aside from some independent labels (Saddle Creek comes to mind.) that is largely meaningless. Technically a collection of songs…great albums are rarely produced today. I guess some explanations are in order. A great album is this: there is no one track or part of a track you will skip over. Not a one. So if you make a skit on your album…probably screwed. If you make an annoying intro….probably screwed. If you make a seven minute flat feedback…probably screwed. If you create an annoying instrumental going no where…probably screwed. If you have midgets getting castrated at a county fair…probably golden.

That said the BSS collective’s follow up was not a great album. It was good, perhaps better in the sense they had grown as musicians. Whatever the case their eponymous follow up was not a great album…it tried to be. I think the problem was too many ideas from away from them in all directions at the same time. It also has one of my favorite songs of all time. “It’s All Gonna Break.” A 10 minute proclamation of shit happens…get over it. Well that is my interpretation of it.

As stated previously BSS is a collective. They have some more famous members like Feist, and Emily Haines from Metric. (I have a crush on Emily Haines.) They have their other bands and contribute to some tracks. Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning are the guiding force. In fact they are the founding members. The more anonymous co-founding members decided to take a break from BSS to make solo albums I was crestfallen. Solo albums from successful groups are almost always uniformly bad, while side projects are about fifty fifty. To be honest I was picturing (or is this downloading?) song with a guy holding an acoustic guitar. Gross!

I am happy to state that Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew is just a really long way of saying this is BSS with Kevin Drew singing lead vocals. I hope that means Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendan Canning is just a really long way of saying this is BSS with Brendan Canning singing lead vocals. Because “Spirit if…” is Broken Social Scene album. It has other members of the collective, including Brendan Canning, and Feist. It also has members of Dinosaur Jr. playing on a song that sounds like a long lost song from Dinosaur Jr.

It is an album. It picks up where sonically where “It’s All Gonna Break” ends…chaos that builds into melody. It has scuzzy guitars with shoe glaze thrown in. The guitars swirl with each other. What a surprise. Broken Social Scene always sounded like taking the best bits of underground or independent rock, thrown in to a blender. Blended. Then served. This is no discouraging remark. It is a compliment.

Kevin Drew sings in a voice that sounds like too many cigarettes almost giving out. A little whispering with some smoky harshness hidden in there. The songs themselves are little confessionals of some alcohol fueled weekend, either that or child like epiphanies of the universe. You know almost the same thing. There are multiple instruments balancing each other out. It sounds fragile, but doesn’t rock out.

I have yet to fast forward the tracks while they keep playing in my Itunes. It may be too early to tell, but…

It could be the first great album of the year.

Buy…download…get “Spirit If…” You will not regret it.

Of course I could get be biased.

Zeitgeist: /the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era/

Some things will never be the same. Especially when talking about music. Deep down, everyone knows this to be the truth. Yet somehow, when it comes to our favorite bands, people somehow tend to forget that. Then when a band changes their sound, the fans accuse them of selling out and then they move on.

This has never been truer than with The Smashing Pumpkins. Upon hearing that the band was reforming, a looming question came up: will there be an album?

The answer is yes, a new album would surface. There was doubts and mixed feelings about that. What would this album sound like? You the people like it? If you don’t go into it expecting another Siamese Dream or even Adore you’ll be amazed.

Zeitgeist’s release comes at a time when rock may be on the decline in favor of top 40 music and when more and more bands are becoming political activists through their music. Dubya holds a lot of the blame for that one. (He has, single handedly, made non-political artists rise up in near-zealotry. So, thank you so very much.)

On Zeitgeist, there are songs like “For God and Country” & “Pomp and Circumstance” which replace odes to lost loves. Corgan’s pictorial commentary on the US administration is worth the purchase price alone. I might also add that I have never seen so many pictures of Paris Hilton used in any band’s album booklet. Ever.

“Tarantula”, the first single off the album, seems to be a proclamation of how badly the band has missed being together. The most common complaint about Zeitgeist is how Billy Corgan & Jimmy Chamberlain have done all the instruments themselves, making a void where the pseudo-mystical “band dynamic” should be. What most people fail to realize is something Corgan himself said in 1994. That he usually played and recorded all the studio music for the Pumpkins albums. You can’t fault the guy for taking credit where credit is due, especially not on this one.

If you feel you’re missing good music and angst backed by loud guitar, pick up Zeitgeist. You won’t be disappointed.

In this third and final list for a summer party, comes the intimate party. This may involve cocktails, or sitting around talking in large groups. You will want to choose something mellow background music, but melodic, and interesting with the lapses of conversations occur. The silence is quite normal. Don’t be afraid of it. This is what the music is for. Try to choose something pretty, but not overplayed. Also a particular song might become linked to a memory. Someone could fall in love while some random song is playing. Try not to be something embarrassing or a novelty song that will be played out in week or so. For my own preferences I put on many songs from 2007. You don’t have to do that, when you create you own play list, but a theme may help whittle it down. Also if the party started as an intimate party it will most likely end in the same manner. Check the mood of the party at two hours, but don’t be surprised if the party is nearly over, or just extending your play list. These songs can be put on random or in order. Remember making great memories starves off death.

My Body Is a Cage – Arcade Fire

50 Thousand Deep- Blue Scholars

If the Brakeman Turns My Way- Bright Eyes

Futures & Folly- Blitzen Trapper

New York, I Love You But You Are Bringing Me Down- LCD Soundsystem

Rotten Hell- Menomena

Maybe Lately- Miracle Fortress

Little Motel- Modest Mouse

Fake Empire- National

She’s a Rejector- Of Montreal

Swing Your Heartache- Young Galaxy

All Fires- Swan Lake

You Are My Joy- Reindeer Section

The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East side- Magnetic Fields

Major Label Debut (Fast Version)- Broken Social Scene

What’s Mine Is Yours- Sleater-Kinney

Make Out Fall Out Make Up- Love Is All

Love One- Common Market

Love Is All- Rapture

Be Gentle With Me- Boy Least Likely To

Citrus- Hold Steady

So This Is Goodbye- Junior Boys

All Good Girls (Joyous Mix)- Die Warzau

Between The Bars- Amelia

Clair De Lune- And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

This Heart’s On Fire- Wolf Parade

I Was a Lover- TV On The Radio

Us Ones In Between- Sunset Rubdown

Smoke Like Ribbons- Ugly Casanova

Promised Land- Edan

So that’s all folks. I hope you enjoyed the lists, and the ideas generated. Remember you can get most of this stuff on legal websites. I hope the lists inspire you to make your own. If you want more lists on break ups, love making, and just work killing let me know. I am glad to help. See you on the Flip side.

Hopefully some of you have heeded my words of wisdom and made a great BBQ play list over the past weekend. Now let’s move on to steamier night and adventures, I give you you the dance-athon play list. again you can find most of this music legally, using sites such as Emusic or iTunes.

Dance-athons are the easiest play list to make. The only hard rule is to attempt to flow each song into next song. You can easily make themes, for example eighties night is very popular with the ladies and people of a certain age.

Again try for two hours for a play list. At the end of the play list, it is good to check the mood of a party. If it is a great Dance-athon, then you should have two or three play lists in the queue ready to pop off. A wide range of songs in all your play lists will help for requests. Try not to repeat any songs on your multiple play lists, although clever remixes might negate the rule. Also, don’t take offense if you have to fast forward song, a great song is only a great song, at the moment it is played. Another thing to remember is try to have builds, peaks, and releases. Try to structure the play list as a novel, have it increase in tension, have false climaxes, and then bamm…slowly calming down. Yeah this list should not be on random.

Bounce That by Girl Talk
Gone Daddy Gone by Gnarls Barkley
In the Morning (Alex Smoke Remix) by Junior Boys
House of Jealous Lovers by The Rapture
Whoo! Alright Yeah…Uh Huh by The Rapture
Toxic (Featuring Old Dirty Bastard and Tiggers) by Mark Ronson
Destroy Rock & Roll (Tom Neville’s Clean Edit) by Mylo
Positive Tension (Blackbox Remix) by Bloc Party
Over & Over by Hot Chip
North American Scum by LCD Soundsystem
Mr. Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont’s Thin White Duke Mix) by The Killers
Sun Shower by Bus Driver
Something Isn’t Right by Herbert
Manteca (Funky Lowlifes Remix) by Dizzy Gillespie
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (Featuring The Daptone Horns) by Mark Ronson
Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat Heavenly House Mix) by Nina Simone
Oh My God (Featuring Lily Allen) by Mark Ronson
Let’s Move by The Perceptionists
Satan Said Dance by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
She’s A Rejector by Of Montreal
Take Ecstasy by !!!
Fumbling Over Words that Rhymes by Edan
Thou Shalt Always Kill by Dan Le Sac vs. Scoobius Pip
Amsterdam by Peter Bjorn & John
Gold Lion (Diplo Remix) by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Sunshowers by M.I.A.
Comfy In Nautica by Panda Bear

Next Up: the intimate parties that are remembered for the rest of our lives associated with that one song. Sorry for the delay of this segment. I was working on it for too long. The following segment will be here shortly, I promise.

Next Monday, look for part two in making mix tapes, especially dealing with Dancethons. For your amusement, what follows is what people are going to be dancing to for the rest of the year. Meet this year’s darling music to make a beat to and a statement. Joining in the throngs of LCD Soundsytem, The Rapture, and others. Enjoy! And don’t forget to move your feet.

It is the song entitled “Thou Shalt Always Kill” by Dan Le Sac vs Scoobius Pip.

See the clip below.