Album Queue, July 2012

I have accrued some more of these, and will hopefully get around to reviewing them pretty soon.  For right now, here is my updated queue.

1. Be Here Now - Oasis

2. Different Class - Pulp3. On the Mouth - Superchunk
4. I Hope Your Heart is Not Brittle - Portastatic
5. Coming Up - Suede
6. Unfun - Jawbreaker
7. Warnings/Promises - Idlewild
8. Mezcal Head - Swervedriver

9. Class Clown Spots a UFO - Guided By Voices10. No P or D - Ms. John Soda
11. Indoor Living - Superchunk
12. Isn't Anything - My Bloody Valentine
13. First Edition - The Fruit Tree Foundation
14. A Northern Soul - The Verve
15. Future Perfect - Autolux
16. Four Great Points - June of 44

17. Pod - The Breeder

18. Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis19. Fantastic Planet - Failure
20. The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle - The Sex Pistols

Recent Creative Endeavors

Most recently, I've been really into music, and tunes and things have been pulsing through me, to the extent that I really want to start a band just to get some of this down. Hopefully at some point I'll get the opportunity to do that, though I'm afraid it's all a bit too poppy and derivative for even my own taste.

Also, I've started writing some free verse poetry in this new stanza formation that can be read vertically in addition to horizontally, so I thought it would be fun to post up the horizontally organized bits to see how they read. Here they are:


#1
envelop me
toward the intangible
Things that did not
like those shaking atoms


#2
I once read of the Visigoths
throughout the continent
to have been so carefree.


#3
but how
to think I was


#4
Yours
as though we were the same
worthy of adoration
to cover us in white


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Sometimes fragments like these mean something to me, so maybe someone will see this disconnected bits and get something from them. I know I'm curious to see what I myself think in a week or two when I read this page again

Album Reviews: ("Calling Zero", "Catholic Education", "JJ72", "End on End")

I've finally got some free time with the semester ending, so as promised, here are my reviews.

CALLING ZERO - GO BACK SNOWBALL - 6.5/10
Okay, so I know I made a mistake on the last Pollard album I rated (Under the Bushes, Under the Stars) in giving it a 7/10, when it really deserves 8 or 8.5, and I don't want to do that here.  In fact, this might just be a 7/10, and by no means is it a "bad" album.  In fact, as I listen while writing this, it's rising in my estimation, but I'll leave it at 6.5: I have to have some sort of standards, and 6.5 isn't too harsh a score, considering Pitchfork gave it a 4.3.  Here's what I think about this album.  Like any '90's indie fan of any sort (I'm hardly that into the stuff), I salivated at the prospect of Mac McCaughan and Robert Pollard making an album together.  I mean, this is the stuff of legends.  It still comes out better than Proust and Joyce collaborating on a dinner party, which is the upside, but it could have been so much more incredible, and peaks of this potential are revealed on "It is Divine", "Red Hot Halos", and "Never Forget Where You Get Them", which fuse the happy-go-lucky attitude of Superchunk and a lot of Portastatic stuff with Pollard's intentionally obsoleted diction.  They really contain the best of both worlds.  Elsewhere, however, I hate to say it, but Mac's really excellent instrumentals are at times not fulfilled by the Bob's lyricism, not because Mac is writing for a too high pitched voice - I've seen interviews where he says he has trouble writing for himself, which would imply that he can write just fine for people who can sing in ways other than falsetto.  To me, it just seems like the sometimes funky music isn't in tune with Bob's strictly rock sensibilities.  Certainly GBV has put out tracks with incredibly clever instumentation, but its always creating texture through lo-fi textural experimentation rather than with the beat.  Mac comes up with some pretty compelling stuff that just doesn't seem to mesh with Bob at times, as in "Climb" or "Go Gold".  Enough negative though, because I spent way too long making just one point.  This album is certainly enjoyable.  It starts a bit weak, but that body of it is really well done, and when then the elements mesh, they end up with something every bit as good as GBV or Superchunk.  All in all, there are some gems, listed above, which alone make this album worth checking out.

CATHOLIC EDUCATION - TEENAGE FANCLUB - 8/10
Once again, I'm tempted to go higher, but I'll stick with an 8 here.  Catholic Education is Teenage Fanclub's first album, and I've got to say, if they stuck with this aesthetic, I wouldn't have complained.  Sure, Bandwagonesque is a classic of monster proportions, and deservedly so, but Catholic Education is nothing to sneeze at.  So much is apparent from "Everything Flows", a lost teenager's anthem.  The murky sound works to perfection on this song, the higher chords sounding like a lost voice amidst the multitude of lower notes.  A comparison of the original version with the solid Idlewild cover should make it apparent: "Everything Flows" is a good song, and would be a classic even if I sang it, but the execution is absolutely untouchable.  The jangly songs also get a different identity with the original Fanclub sound - "Pet Rock" is "Don't Need a Drum" with more saccharine, but the two sound totally different, and it totally works on both.  There are moments where Catholic Education is the greatest thing ever: as soon as I hit the opening chords on "Too Involved" I'm hooked for the rest of the song.  Why only ("only", eh?) an 8 then?  Mostly just quantity.  This being the only Teenage Fanclub album (besides Thirteen.  Kind of, if you try.  And maybe The King, but I've only heard that it's not a very good album) to carry this fuzzy and laid back atmosphere, I'm saddened that there was never anything after this.  If there was another Catholic Education (like there is on the album, incidentally enough), I'd be in ecstasies over it (and really, I think this might be a Scottish thing.  I'm still asking myself why Idlewild never made another Hope is Important or 100 Broken Windows.  Anything heavy would have been a godsend after what are already godsends).  As it is, though, the existence of two nearly identical versions of "Catholic Education" and two basically unnecessary "Heavy Metal" instrumental tracks (one I could live with.  "Is This Music?" from Bandwagonesque is a great track, "Satan", in my opinion, isn't particularly needed) cuts this album to only 7 (8 if you count one of the "Catholic Education"s) real tracks - 7 excellent real tracks, but 7 nonetheless - and that is just too few for this demanding blogger.  Nonetheless, this is a must have for anyone with feelings.  Check out "Everything Flows", because it is probably one of the best songs ever written.  Then check out "Eternal Light" and "Critical Mass", because they too are awesome.  This isn't Bandwagonesque/Grand Prix Teenage Fanclub, but it's incredible nonetheless (with probably the best Teenage Fanclub songs, for my money).

JJ72 - JJ72 - 8.5/10
I call this one number two in my should have made more albums list (after The Warm Jets).  Yeah, I to Sky was made after this, and from what I've listened to is just as solid, but JJ72 has the talent to have been massive.  It's not often that you get the musicianship, poetic lyricism, and vocals of JJ72 in one band - once in fact.  I give Mark Greaney props on all three, as well as being too cool for school, because he apparently never wanted to be mainstream (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJOpM5-AaI&feature=related).  Basically, there is nothing not to like about this band.  First off, the vocal talent is undeniable.  He sings as high as Mac McCaughan (neither, in itself, a strength nor a weakness), but has a larger range and can sing on pitch, and infuses the music with a passion and energy that's basically unmatched.  The instrumentals are also your standard Indie Rock, taking cues from Radiohead and Nirvana - you've got the mix of heavy and soft guitars used to great effect.  Finally, the lyrics are undoubtedly fantastic.  Take "Long Way South", for instance: "Torrential high seas dragged me to my knees. Bleeding perfumed blood: magic mixed with mud".  "Oxygen" and "Algeria" are equally compelling.  This album is in its entirety undeniably fantastic.  Why not rate it higher, then?  I guess there are two reasons.  First, the subject matter is just your classic set of love songs.  I like it, and I relate to it, but it's relatively standard I guess (I'm being picky here, because this album is flat out fantastic).  Compared to the animalistic qualities of Suede or the metaphysical despair of Diary, it seems somewhat flat, which means that JJ72 does not get my pick as greatest album of all time.  Oh no!  Also, the songs all pretty much reflect the same aesthetic, and can blend together a tad.  Really, though, JJ72 is a seriously excellent and underrated album that gets my stamp of approval.  Highlights include "Algeria", "Long Way South", and "October Swimmer".

END ON END - RITES OF SPRING - 8/10
There's nothing like Rites of Spring.  One feels the loss and alienation in Guy Picciotto's voice as he moans the lyrics over the instrumentals.  Even today it's completely out there.  The emo acts it inspired don't even try to replicate this level of pain and confusion, because it can't be done without just totally ripping Rites of Spring off.  The lyricism should also be pointed out.  Aesthetic is all well and good, but you have to say something too, and this is indeed satisfied.  There are so many examples I could cite, but the first lines of "Persistent Vision" have been stuck in my head the most: "I was the champion of forgive and forget / But I haven't found a way / To forgive you yet / And though I know you and I are through / All my thoughts are lines converging in on you".  The whole album is filled with this sort of heavy, dark, philosophical content, and for those times when you need the most self-loathing and intense music available, this is just the stuff.  It just oozes catharsis.  Being an album from the '80's (not to stereotype, but here we are), the instrumentals are pretty standard, and you won't find yourself playing air guitar to this album - with the exception being the guitar part in "All Through a Life", which is just amazing - but it is otherwise fantastic.  Highlights include "Persistent Vision", "All Through a Life", and "For Want Of".

Music Queue - May 5th, 2012

I've done some impulse buying with my gift-card (so it was like all free), and my queue therefore has been whittled down a bit, with reviews to come and new things filling in:

1. Verdena - Verdena
2. A Storm in Heaven - The Verve
3. Pygmalion - Slowdive
4. Be Here Now - Oasis
5. Dog Man Star - Suede
6. On the Mouth - Superchunk
7. I Hope Your Heart is Not Brittle - Portastatic
8. Coming Up - Suede
9. Unfun - Jawbreaker
10. Warnings/Promises - Idlewild
11. Mezcal Head - Swervedriver
12. No P or D - Ms. John Soda
13. Indoor Living - Superchunk
14. Isn't Anything - My Bloody Valentine
15. First Edition - The Fruit Tree Foundation
16. A Northern Soul - The Verve
17. Future Perfect - Autolux
18. Four Great Points - June of 44
19. Fantastic Planet - Failure
20. The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle - The Sex Pistols

Perspectives

Tonight I've been thinking a lot about an upcoming paper I have to write for my literature class. It has a very open-ended prompt, but I've decided to write it on outside perspectives in Œdipus Rex, Waiting for Godot, and Wuthering Heights, and how they influence and are affected by the plot and narration of their respective works.  It's a pretty abstract thing, at least for me, since I'm used to having very clear comparatives, and this doesn't seem to have one, although I've gotten to a bit of a start in noticing that all of the outside figures (Œdipus, who it will be recalled is from Corinth; the shepherds and other random figures from the past who bear such crucial information; Vladimir and Estragon who find themselves in some nowhere universe; and Lockwood, as well as the various outside figures in the story who inevitably die off) end up returning to some state of innocence in the end, which is a concrete start, I suppose.

In thinking about this subject, I decided to peruse JSTOR for some articles, if any should exist, and thinking myself somewhat familiar with Proust's work and curious to see how this problem should apply to the modern epic he wrote, I searched for "narrative Proust", expecting perhaps something about the discrepancies between Marcel and the narrator, or the participation of the narrator in the plot.

What caught my eye instead, however, was an article by Albert Sonnenfeld entitled Marcel Proust: Antisemite? ( http://www.jstor.org/stable/394885 ).  Of course, I do not think him to have been an anti-Semite.  His portrayals of Bloch and Swann, even when critical, were entirely separate from their religion, and, though I haven't read the whole article yet (the title certainly raises enough of a question for me to discuss it), raising the point of Charlus' anti-Semitism is hardly an indictment of Proust himself.  The observation that the narrator "(unlike Marcel Proust), is untainted by semitic blood" seemed initially to me to be inaccurate, but may be correct after some further thought.  Of course, Proust's narrator was also heterosexual, and Proust's real and fictional Dreyfusism cannot be denied (though I suppose one could believe correctly in Dreyfus' innocence without thinking poorly of his Jewish roots.

In sum, I find any idea of Proust's anti-Semitism to be so easily refuted to not be worth discussing, personally.  However, I cannot help but recall a set of e-mails I exchanged with a wealthy university donor at the start of the year who wished to organize some event about Proust and Judaism who had been redirected to myself by a friend who knew of my obsession - or more accurately, worship - of the French author.  Long story short, nothing ever materialized because I didn't have the proper connections at the university, and also felt a bit disingenuous to the dead man that I respect so much in having limited his work to the scope of "Jewish author", just as I should have felt to classify Kafka as a "Czech author" or Joyce as a "Catholic author".  They transcend such superficial boundaries. ...but I have digressed. I would just like to note the irony here.  One gentry-scholar sees Proust as the ultimate Jewish author - a supporter of Dreyfus who made Swann his hero; one academician sees him as an anti-Semite, ashamed of his own heritage, so prone to forming "Little Nuclei", as one could put it (or so I imagine Sonnenfeld would put it, as this is the only real way in which Bloch's Judaism becomes anything resembling a negative).

As for me, being a young man whose ancestors emerged from "Hebron vales" myself but who doesn't quite buy into the concept of a Jewish identity superceding any nationalistic identity (I identify first as a Mainer, something I may touch on at some point), I like think that Proust falls within some middle ground.

Poetry Thoughts

I've been writing a tad more poetry recently since my Art History class is basically finished, and I've actually also been thinking about getting it published, which I know is quite presumptuous, but I really do think I've stumbled into writing some good poetry.  Part of my belief is based in my incredible snobbishness, which has led me to regard all poems regarding or referring to mundane subjects, like baseball, Hollywood, a pet dog, etc. as horribly lacking in some sort of refinement, which I guess I should call maniera, seeing as such judgment is no less silly than the exercises of 17th Century art theorists who said that history paintings were innately superior to genre paintings.  In fact, I'm sure William Carlos Williams would have no qualms writing about such silly things, and he probably did, though I choose instead to remember the amazing Elysian Fields metaphors in "Asphodel: That Greeny Flower" instead.

That said, I just can't get behind something like this (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/243858), all due respect to Mr. Blackburn, the poet thereof:

—for Joel—Nice day,
sweet October afternoon
Men walk the sun-shot avenues,
                                                     Second, Third, eyes
                                                     intent elsewhere
ears communing with transistors in shirt pockets
                                    Bars are full, quiet,
discussion during commercials
                                                      only
Pirates lead New York 4-1, top of the 6th, 2
Yankees on base,    1 man out

What a nice day for all this  !
Handsome women, even
dreamy jailbait, walk
                                      nearly neglected  :
men’s eyes are blank
their thoughts are all in Pittsburgh

Last half of the 9th, the score tied 9-all,
Mazeroski leads off for the Pirates
The 2nd pitch he simply, sweetly
                                                           CRACK!
belts it clean over the left-field wall

Blocks of afternoon
acres of afternoon
Pennsylvania Turnpikes of afternoon  .  One
                                    diamond stretches out in the sun
                                                     the 3rd base line
                                    and what men come down
                                    it

                                    The final score, 10-9

Yanquis, come home

It's a nice poem, but it makes me feel nothing, and I grant that I misunderstand the meaning of baseball to this country.  To me it is nothing, but to apostles of Whitman, I'm sure it's just as valid as the Greek plays and olympics, about which so many great sculptures and, I'm sure, poems were created.  I'm sure Joel liked it too, because it is fun, but in the end, to me, it just reeks of commercialism and some sort of nostalgia for "The good ol' days" that were just like ours today.

So what is poetry to me? To me it's supposed to be art, and I do not claim to have achieved such a lofty goal.  I do hope, however, that in time I will be able to do so by asking people what they think is most powerful and most permanent (because I think Ancient Rome more permanent than Baseball - the irony is not lost on me, but I disregard it nonetheless).

It would be unfair to take pot shots at the above poem, which I believe I have done courteously since I am not here to criticize it's poetry but only use it as an example of what I perceive to be a misuse of the medium, if I did not post one of my own, so here is one:

But how to change the stony will of fate
And bring my own to a more happy end?
What pleas can bring those three scions to bend
Their iron rulings, determining my days so late?
Perhaps the words of mighty Jove, so great,
Can change the flowing course of fate and mend
This lonely heart that otherwise will rend
With knowledge it will never have a mate.
I hope that if fate does indeed exist
And is not but a myth devised by man,
It be to me benevolent and just,
And leave not love to lie outside my midst.
If such were true, I'd be more happy than
Those ancient souls that satisfied their lust.

More Album Reviews

As promised a little while ago.  However, I'm not going to do Calling Zero yet, because I've only listened to it once through, and want to be sure I get a solid perspective of it.  Also, I should be getting copies of JJ72 (by the band of the same name) and Teenage Fanclub's debut, A Catholic Education, so I can do three at a time.  Also, because for some reason I like doing 3 at a time, I'll do the new Rod Jones album, technically by The Birthday Suit, called The Eleventh Hour, which doesn't really have very many reviews, so maybe my amateur effort will have some meaning to it?  Anyway, I guess I'll start with it, since I've had it longest:

THE ELEVENTH HOUR - THE BIRTHDAY SUIT - 7/10
So yeah, a pretty solid album.  Let me give you some disclaimers first: I have not heard Rod's folkier solo debut, so I went into this with only Idlewild as my comparison, and I think I've read things that say it goes for a rock sound more similar to Idlewild's catalogue than, say Roddy's solo work (non Idlewild fans may be extremely confused by my having just said this.  Rod and Roddy are different people for future reference).  I don't think it's really fair to make 100 Broken Windows the measuring stick here, since that album is my all-time favorite and it got me through freshman year, but whatevs.  It is what it is, and Eleventh Hour isn't 100 Broken Windows, largely because Rod now is different from Rod then, and he's also not Roddy.  For instance, in "Sell it All" I was somewhat taken aback by the grammatical incorrectness in the lines "I don't care if you don't care for me no more", since Roddy (who I assume, based on every interview I've read, wrote basically all the lyrics for Idlewild) is so good at that stuff, but Rod is still, at times, just as clever.  That line, amusingly enough, sort of echoes that propensity for intraline repetition that started to make itself more conspicuous in The Remote Part in lines like "I always happens, it sometimes happens to me.  Except always isn't a word I use. Always isn't a word I choose".  I really do think Rod is very clever at times also, in "Sell it All", especially, and the instrumentals, of course his specialty seeing as he was guitarist for Idlewild, are all great, especially the transition from "Do You Ever" to "Hope Me Home".  "Are You Okay" is also pretty different.  Rod's voice is also, dare I say, high and nasally in the same sense that Roddy's was on Captain and Hope is Important but, as I've heard it described, "cuter", which I think is apt.  He's earnest where nasal Roddy was angsty, which pretty much describes how The Birthday Suit diverges from early Idlewild stuff whose sound it tries to approximate.  "Do You Ever", "Hope Me Home", and "A Nation" are highlights.

ICKY METTLE - ARCHERS OF LOAF - 8/10
As a Superchunk fan, first and foremost, I saw these guys as Chapel Hill runners-up for a long time, although that guy on Pitchfork says he thinks they're better than Pavement.  After listening to Icky Mettle, it's obvious that Superchunk and Archers of Loaf are too different to be compared. How so? AoL is a million times more hardcore.  So yeah, I will say that Superchunk and Archers of Loaf are both clever and wry as hell, but Mac McCaughan doesn't rub it in your face like Eric Bachmann does.  He tempts us with "Web in Front" as though he'll try to be honest and sensitive with us, saying "All I ever wanted was to be your spine", presumably with puppy-dog eyes, and then starts out "Last Word" just as meekly before giving us a middle finger that lasts for the rest of the album, and continues into "Audiowhore" if you got the version with bonus tracks (speaking of which, I need to know which Leafs player is on the cover of "Archers of Loaf vs. the Greatest of All Time".  Like it's a physical need as a Leafs fan).  Generally, it alternates between "sensitive" song, song you'd be embarassed to have your mom see you listen to, over and over again.  You'll be like this: "Oh, 'You and Me' is over, now I can feel less badass for a bit with 'Might'", and then "Hate Paste" will come on and the pattern will start all over again.  But yeah, this is a fun album.  Most fun album? Off the top of my head I put Ned's Atomic Dustbin's and Eric's Trip's first albums ahead (Later edit: Is This It is the most fun album of all time; something which I had forgotten), but when you're being compared favorably with Superchunk on the fun-o-meter, you're in good company.  Highlights are "Wrong", "Plumb Line", and the fantastic "Slow Worm".

DIARY - SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE - 9/10
Dear God.  From now on I'll see the Foo Fighters not as the drummer from Nirvana's awesome band, but the disappointing SDRE spinoff without Jeremy Enigk, who is a revelation.  Sorry my many Foo Fighter fan friends, but as awesome as "Everlong" is, 2/3 of Diary is on a completely different level.  It's really unfair, considering Enigk is the one guy on Earth who can seriously make a concept album (I guess) called Return of the Frog Queen and have it be awesome.  Getting the rerelease edition with the lyrics packet thingy and random little kids' toy art  (if the original didn't have it, which would be a tragedy, it augments the already cathartic Diary experience that much) really shows the brilliant songwriting that went into this album, and even before I knew what the words to "Seven" were I though it was awesome.  Knowing what Enigk, maybe the most emotionally powerful American singer ever (because I'm going to extremes here), is actually saying (interesting note - he puts a 'W' before every word that starts with a vowel) is really just the cherry on top, though.  Listening to "Seven" is like being born again (Jeremy Enigk can't worship himself, I guess, so he was born again to worship God.  Ironic really), "Song About an Angel" is an equally jolting and incredible experience.  Also "In Circles", "Shadows" and "47" are there for you if you can't stand the heat, or don't want it for a moment; but with music this potent, why not just take it all? I'll bury my hatchet with Emo.  No reason not to, and I know it's not the same now as it was then, but whatever.  I have no more qualms after this and Jawbreaker.  I do agree with people who say that this is top heavy: "Grendel" and "Sometimes" don't quite live up to the colossal standards of the first nine songs, but they're still decent.  Highlights are "Seven", "Song About an Angel", and "48".