pop culture, reviewed

I am at work this fine Saturday afternoon and, as is my custom, I bought a live CD to help myself cope.  This week’s choice was Pearl Jam’s massive Live at the Gorge CD set (it’s going to be a long day).  While the whole set would be more PJ than most people need, I have to say the first disc, featuring a quasi-acoustic ballad-heavy set is fantastic.  Seriously, 45 minutes of awesome — including excellent versions of “Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town,” “Low Light”, “Crazy Mary,” and “Black”, as well as a superb cover of the Ramones’ “I Believe in Miracles.”  If iTunes (not available on my work computer) will let you download just the first disc, I highly recommend checking it out.  These guys really have become a fantastic live band.

(The rest (I’m through about 3.5 CDs so far) is great as well, but, like I said, that’s a lot of Eddie and the gang for most people.)

The new color scheme has inspired me to write something—music recommendations from the first part of 2008, a year that has started out pretty darn good.

1. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend - If you read any music press at all, you’ve heard of this band.  Their much anticipated debut almost lives up to the hype.  It’s not the total shot of fresh air that the Strokes were a few years back, but it’s unique enough and well-crafted enough to warrant some of the acclaim.  Stand out tracks like “M79”, “Bryn”, “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance,” “Oxford Comma” and “One (Blake’s Got a New Face),” make you imagine what Graceland would have sounded like if Paul Simon had made it when he was 21 instead of when he was 40 something and had the money to, you know, go to Africa.  This one has the added bonus of being a great soundtrack for the sunny spring and summer days on the horizon.

2. The Whigs, Mission Control - Now this my friends is a good rock album.  There’s nothing ground breaking or mind-blowingly new here, but this is one solid piece of work .  It is chock full of radio-friendly (though I doubt they’ll get much play, as well, I can’t think of too many rock radio stations still around) singles.  I wholeheartedly recommend the whole album, but if you want to give a couple songs a listen, I’ll recommend the single “Right Hand On My Heart”,  the mid-tempo “1,000 Wives”, the anthemic “Already Young,” and the ballad “Sleep Sunshine.”  This one will definitely be on the end-of-year top 10.

3.  Throw Me the Statue, Moonbeams —  I honestly haven’t really had a chance to soak in the album release, but the EP featuring the songs “About to Walk,” “Lolita,” and “the Old Believer” is fantastic — sort of acoustic electronic pop, if that makes sense.  “About to Walk” is a hit waiting to get noticed with a low key but catchy chorus that builds throughout the song.  I’d expect this to show up on a TV soundtrack this season.

I will not rehash last year’s post about how terrible the Grammy nominations were this year, except to say, I think that this year might even be worse that last. That said, if I were in charge, and could make up categories, etc, this is what I’d do.

Album of the Year:

Okkervil River — The Stage Names

I agree with Emilie that this is, hands down, the album of the year. A rare record where every single track is well-crafted and worth listening to.

Pop

Song of the Year (Pop) - “15” by Rilo Kiley, from Under the Blacklight

Record of the Year (Pop) - “Oh My God” by Mark Ronson (feat. Lily Allen) from Version

Album of the Year (Pop) - Mark Ronson - Version

Americana (totally making this one up, because I can)

Song of the Year (Americana) - “The Temptation of Adam” by Josh Ritter, from the The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter

Record of the Year (Americana) - “If the Brakeman Turns My Way” by Bright Eyes, from Cassadaga

Album of the Year (Americana) - The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism, honorable mention to Brandi Carlisle’s The Story

Alternative/Rock (because, while I appreciate that Alternative, in Grammy parlance, seems to denote something different than ‘Rock’, if you just nominated good Rock albums in the first place, they’d pretty much overlap)

Song of the Year (Alternative/Rock) - “Myriad Harbour” by The New Pornographers from Challengers
Record of the Year (Alternative/Rock) - “A Girl In Port” by Okkervil River from The Stage Names

Album of the Year (Alternative/Rock) - The Good, the Bad, and The Queen by tGtB,&tQ.

Electronica/Dance

Song of the Year (Electronica/Dance) - “D.A.N.C.E.” by Justice, from Cross
Record of the Year (Electronica/Dance) - “Archangel” by Burial, from Untrue

Country

Song of the Year (Country) - “Famous in a Small Town” by Miranda Lambert, from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Just assume all country awards go to Miranda.

Cover of the Year - “Devil Town” by Tony Lucca, from the Friday Night Lights Soundtrack

Performance

Vocal Performance (Female) - “How Come You Don’t Hold Me No More” by the Hot Puppies
Vocal Performance (Male) - “John Allyn Smith Sails” by Okkervil River, from The Stage Names

Live Act (Solo) – Brandi Carlisle (Her originals were good, and “Madman Across the Water” and “Hallelujah” covers were fantastic)

Live Act (Group) – The New Pornographers

Songs that totally would have been nominees (but now will win in categories I made up):

• “Tonight I Have To Leave It” by The Shout Out Louds from Our Ill Wills (Best Cure Song)
• “Country Caravan” by Blitzen Trapper from Wild Mountain Nation (Best Front Porch Drunk on Beer Sing Along)
• “History Song” by the Good, the Bad, and the Queen (Best Use Of One Repeated Riff; Best Song Sung By a Badass in a Top Hat)
• “Challengers” by the New Pornographers from Challengers (Best Neko Song)
• “The Story” by Brandi Carlile from The Story (Best Song By the Person Who Really Should Replace Freddie Mercury in Queen.  I would totally go see that show.)
• “1 2 3 4” by Feist from the Reminder (Best Song Not Quite Yet Ruined By Commercial Use)
• “Wonderlust King” by Gogol Bordello from Super Taranta! (Ukranian Gypsy-Punk Song of the Year)
• “Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo” by Jens Lekman from Night Falls Over Kortedala (Best Unclassifiable Song)
• “Blue Honey” by Pop Levi (Best Psychedelic Song of 2007)
• “The Sun Also Sets” by Ryan Adams from Easy Tiger (Best Hemingway Nod in a Song Title Song)
• “Don’t Make Me a Target” by Spoon from Ga ga ga ga ga ga (Best Wilco Song Not Recorded by Wilco)
• “All My Stars Aligned” by St. Vincent from Marry Me (Best Female Vocal Not Sung By the Hot Puppies, Best Female Vocal Performance for a Candle Lit Room)
• “Effect & Cause” by The White Stripes from Icky Thump (Best Little Acoustic Blues Tune)
• “All Kinds” by Dan Wilson from Free Life (Best Schmaltzy Pop Ballad)
• “Falling Slowly” Glen & Marketa from the Once Soundtrack (Best Almost-Creepily Cute Looks at Your Maybe a Little Too Young Crush Song; Also best song from a movie soundtrack. It’s a shame it wasn’t written specifically FOR the movie, or we’d all get to hear Emilie go crazy at Oscar time.)
• “100 Days, 100 Nights” Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, (Best Soul Song of 1967 Made in 2007)
• “High Society” by The Silver Seas from High Society (Best Song the Eagles Wish They Wrote For Their 2007 Release; see also the rest of High Society)
• The Whole Vieux Farka Toure album (Sweeps the World Music categories)
• “No Bad News” Patty Griffin from Children Running Through (Best Americana Song I Sort of Forgot About Earlier)
• “My Dove, My Lamb” by Phosphorescent from Pride (Best Really Long Song)
• “Under the Folding Branches” by the Veils from Nux Vomica (Best Song for a Candle Lit Room)
• “Is There a Ghost” by Band Of Horses from Cease to Begin (Best Song From South Carolina)

I am way way behind on recommending music to our tens of readers because of some broken iPod issues (resolved! New iPod purchased!), so I have a lot of catching up to do.  In the meantime, here’s an emergency “Song of the Day/Week” (I guess).

Dan Wilson, one of my favorite songwriters—see e.g. Semisonic’s “All About Chemistry”, specifically “I Wish”—has released a solo album.  The first cut “All Kinds” is a killer pop ballad.  Highly recommended.

Apparently, we’re JUST ahead of the curve over here at PC,R — Wired magazine just ran this article, “Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD’s Coffin”, which, of course, highlights the new-found popularity of vinyl.  It’s a good read and worth a look.

One interesting factoid: Amazon has a vinyl-only store now.

Also worth a look is the wikipedia article (linked in the Wired article as well) about the loudness war which explains, in pretty simple terms, why CDs don’t sound so great anymore.  (Summary:  It’s not the format, it’s they way they’re produced).

And, on a completely unrelated topic:  It’s cool in DC now, so I’ve been wearing a jacket — my Arsenal (FC) jacket.  I get more comments on that piece of clothing than anything else I own.  I am averaging about 2 conversations about Premier League football a day — and really, I don’t spend all that much time outside.  Seriously, there are a lot more soccer fans in America than you’d think.

And a final note:  Last night’s Ryan Adams concert was definitely a good show—especially if you like those ‘mid 70s-era Dead shows with nice long jams (example:  the encore was a 15-minute version of Easy Plateau — recommended if you DO like those shows — Live at the Cow Palace, New Year’s Eve 1976.).   It must have been good because it was enjoyable despite the two girls and one of their boyfriends behind us were talking loudly (about nothing in particular) texting people all through the show, and were laughably passive aggressive after Emilie (and the guy sitting next to us) told them to shut up.  They brought to mind a Jimmy Buffett song: “Please Take Your Drunken 15-year-old Girlfriend Home.”