One man's musings on music, the media and more

Have rappers graduated from 70s funk?

2009-03-29T12:39:00.002-04:00

Anybody noticing a new trend in the hip-hop industry? After years and years of jacking beats from every good funk song of the 70s - James Brown, Parliament, Earth Wind & Fire - , it seems like hip-hoppers have decided that 80s-kitsch has now become 00s -gold.

Case in point: the latest hit single from Flo Rida, "Right Round" (as in, "you spin me right round, baby, right round..."...)

Not to mention, Rihanna's "S.O.S." (thanks, Soft Cell!), Trick Daddy's "Let's Go" (i-i-i!!), and Sean Kingston's "I Can Feel It" (In the words of Phil Collins, "Oh Lord...").

It's only a matter of time before they start exhausting the 90s, and then the aughts, and before you know it they'll have to start coming up with - GASP! - original material...

When concert documentaries become art: LaBlogotheque

2009-03-28T12:25:00.003-04:00

I'm sure this is old news to a lot of you indie heads, but lately I've really been digging LaBlogotheque, a pretty incredible French rock blog that films perhaps the most inventive concert footage around. Below are a few of my favs: Grizzly Bear strolling the streets of Paris singing an a cappella version of "Knife," Arcade Fire playing "Neon Bible" in an elevator, and - perhaps most touching of all - a video of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love," filmed from behind him and spotlighting the intimate, candlelit circle of crosslegged hippies grooving to the track like it was '67 again. There's also some great tunes from the likes of Sufjan Stevens, the Fleet Foxes, etc. Take a look here.

Grizzly Bear

Arcade Fire

Bon Iver

Six Auto-Tune songs I kinda actually maybe like...(just a little!)

2009-02-24T18:35:00.000-05:00

Lil' Wayne - Lollipop
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Okay, we heard this thing all over the radio last year. That doesn't change the fact that its use is gloriously, unabashedly over-the-top - and, somehow, strangely alluring. He doesn't pitch-correct every word, but the ones that he does - the gutteral sounds of "hair" and "her," for instance - pack a punch.

Natasha Bedingfield f. Sean Kingston - Love Like This
This sun-kissed pop ditty is a sharp contrast to the heavy, crunk-tastic T-Pain-ization of the device. It's subtle but pervasive on bubblegum-sweet lines like "That's why you keep on running in and out of my m-i-i-ind" (0:34).

Snoop Dogg's "Sensual Seduction"

As the video showcases, Snoop is hardly aping contemporary Auto-Tune stylings. With a laidback 70s-soul vibe and the rapper's borderline (GASP!) romantic come-ons, this tune stands out from the pack. Who cares if he's being ironic! The song buries into your head like no other Snoop song before it...

Kanye West f. Lil Wayne, "See You In My Nightmares"

The horror-film synths gives the two rappers' generic boasts a dramatic flourish, while the lack of a drum beat makes this sound like the world's longest intro - which somehow works.

T-Pain f. Ludacris, "Chopped N Screwed"
Jamie Foxx f. T-Pain, "Blame It"

On these two tunes, T-Pain acknowledges once and for all that pitch-correction is a gimmick, embracing and reveling in its ridiculousness. Both include deliciously Auto-Tuned choruses-> the first, "Chopped and Screwed," sounds like a turntablist having a bit too much fun with the scratching. The second, "Blame It," features perhaps the best over-enunciated nonsense catch-phrase since Rihanna's "Umbrella" (ella...ella...), as it somehow stretches "alcohol" into an eight-syllable word. Sing it with me, now: "Blame it on the ah, ah-ah, ah, ah, alcohol"

Six Songs About Sucking - That Don't

2009-01-25T14:19:00.013-05:00

In light of Kelly Clarkson's cheeky pop smash "My Life Would Suck Without You," I give you the following tribute to non-sucky suck songs.

1. Reel Big Fish, "Everything Sucks"
It's hard not to bop your head to this delicious slice of ska-pop goodness. Sure, there's less substance than a half-hour of Hannity & Colmes (excuse me, Hannity), but what do you expect from a group whose (arguably) biggest song is an ode to their favorite alcohol beverage?

2. Mark Ronson (featuring Rivers Cuomo), "I Suck"
Catchy, funk-inflected power-punk that features the unlikely pairing of soul-obsessed celebrity DJ Mark Ronson and the lead
singer of Weezer. This track comes from an album, "Here Comes the Fuzz", that also lists Jack White, Sean Paul and Ghostface Killah among its guest appearances. Man, would I love to have ten minutes with Ronson's rolodex...

3. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Suck My Kiss"
Stop-and-go funk-rock with a filthy bass line and Anthony Keidis ' quintiessentially exuberant white-boy scat raps.

(You also gotta love the naked bass-playing Flea in this clip from Woodstock 99...)

4. Run-DMC, "Sucker MCs"
The minimalist snare-and-bass drumbeat set the standard for hip-hoppers 20 years to come. Even in its musical and lyrical simplicity, this track out-gangstas anything by Jeezy, Weezy, Yeezy or Eazy.

5. Stevie Wonder, "All Day Sucker"
This organ-driven soul-funk workout features Stevie at his most brazenly sexual, offering up eyebrow-raising commands to "get me horny for your love." (Though it should be mentioned that the title is a figure of speech rather than a dirty come-on...)

6. Nine Inch Nails, "Suck"
"How does it feel?" Trent Reznor snarls. If this downtrodden bit of industrial metal is any indication, the answer is "not so good." It rocks, if glumly. The suckiest of the bunch - hence, it's 6th-place positioning - but a no-less-worthy addition to the cannon of suck-related songs.

Should Steve Jobs do A&R...?

2009-01-20T22:05:00.000-05:00

I reviewed the Asteroids' first single for MusicOMH here, but their latest "Around the Bend" ups the ante. It's already getting some buzz from its much-deserved inclusion in a recent iPod commercial. Lead singer Mette Lindberg sounds like a long-lost B-52, purring lines like "I could stay forever" with energy and a healthy dose of grrlish spunk. Complemented by a plucky 80s keyboard riff and a funky bunch of horns, "Around the Bend" follows the tried-and-true iPod formula of catchy, danceable indie-rock in the vein of The Caesar's "Jerk It Out" and the Fratellis' "Flathead" .

Song In The Head: Matt Costa's "Sunshine"

2008-12-12T00:22:00.004-05:00

An oldie - well, 2006 - but a goodie. (Sorry, no embedding on this one...)

PS Has it really been three weeks since my last post? Damn, this 9-to-5er is a serious time-sap! (As opposed to blogging, which is sacred and all-important and entirely useful...)

My latest story about post-election news flashes

2008-11-18T19:49:00.001-05:00

Check it out. I got to interview a managing editor at Newsweek and generally rouse some rabbles.

The Roots: the new Late Night house band!?

2008-11-18T18:29:00.002-05:00

Good news: the Roots will be the new house band for NBC's Late Night.

Bad news: with Conan O'Brien jumping ship to the Tonight Show, the new host of Late Night is (EEK) Jimmy Fallon.

You can't have it all...

Song In The Head: Paolo Nutini's "New Shoes"

2008-11-15T13:38:00.003-05:00

This is about as perfect as pop music gets. Four chords and an indelible melody sung with a light Scottish lilt. For the sake of my mental health, I think I'll have to set this as my morning alarm. I'm sure I'll be sick of it by the end of the week. Until then, I'll be "short on money, but long on time / slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine..."

John Mayer gets his own talk show, and I'm pretty okay with that...

2008-11-13T21:27:00.002-05:00

Sounds like an awful idea, right? Not once you YouTube him and realize that he's actually pretty damn funny...who knew?

Song In the Head: Sonny Jim's "Can't Stop Moving"

2008-11-05T19:03:00.002-05:00

A happy song, for happy times...

Sounds like Daft Punk covering Jackson 5. Can't go too wrong with that...

Name-dropping hip indie bands in rock reviews

2008-10-08T10:36:00.003-04:00

Check out my article in Gelf about the practice of name-dropping indie bands in rock music criticism.

I interviewed lots of music journalists about the topic, including New Yorker critic Sasha Frere-Jones, Blender music editor Rob Tannenbaum, Pitchfork contributor Matt LeMay, Washington Post critic Josh du Lac, Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot and RollingStone.com editor Caryn Ganz. Post your thoughts either on this blog or at the Gelf site itself.

What's your favorite nonsense word in pop music?

2008-10-04T11:08:00.002-04:00

And the nominees are...

-The Doo-Doo

Third-Eye Blind's "Semi Charmed Life"
Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner"
The Police's "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"
The Rolling Stones' "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)"
Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson"

Some pretty solid candidates and memorable choruses. "Semi-Charmed Life" is, for better or (more often) worse, the standard by which all others are measured, though "Tom's Diner" always holds a special place in my heart for taking about 10 years to figure out the name to. YOU try asking all of your friends about "that song that goes "doo doo doo-doo, doo doo doo-doo...", and see how that goes...

- The Na-Na

Wilson Pickett's "Land of a Thousand Dances"
Cake's "Short Skirt, Long Jacket"
J. Geils Band's "Centerfold"
The Beatles' "Hey Jude"
The Counting Crows' "A Long December"
The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"

This might have to be the winner in terms of pure quality. Where the Doo-Doos have a couple bad apples in the bunch - the Stones tune is from the critically-assailed Goats Head Soup, and let's not try to pretend that "Semi-Charmed Life" isn't unbearably annoying about 75 percent of the time - but you can't argue with the Liverpool Four or Wilson Pickett, and even that Crows tune ages pretty well.

(I'm not the only one with a thing for the Na-Nas...)

-The La-Las

Bob Dylan's "The Man In Me"
Van Morrison's "Caravan"
Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" (noticing a trend?)
ATC's "All Around the World (La La)"
Kylie Minogue, "Can't Get You Out of my Head"
HONORABLE MENTION: Ashlee Simpson's "La La (You Make Me Wanna)"

An eclectic mix of old-school and new-crap, from Dylan's most joyous song to date, a couple of solid hits from Van and a couple of naggingly catchy electro-pop goodies. I don't even know what making someone want to "la-la" really means, but I'm intrigued and hoping that Ashlee will enlighten me....

The Others

-Hey!: Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll Part II (The Hey Song)"
-La-Da: Jack Johnson's "Bubbletoes"
-Yeah!: The Flaming Lips' "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song"
-Fa!: Guster's "Fa Fa"

Can you think of any others in these categories? Johnson's frequent "Da"s skew very closely to the aforementioned "Do"s, and I'm sure I'm missing more. Usher's "Yeah" could qualify, though he doesn't really repeat the word like Wayne Coyne does. You'd think there would be more "Heys," wouldn't you? Which brings me to the double-espresso of the bunch...

Extra credit goes to star pupil...

Steam, for "Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye", which manages to swing both a "na na" and a "hey hey" into its chorus.

Where does your vote go? What songs am I missing? And isn't there something refreshingly cheery about a song that doesn't feel like it has to resort to these inane, loaded "words" that everyone else subjects us to?

Rock music and oil: do they correlate?

2008-09-29T13:39:00.000-04:00

Some interesting food for thought.

This swings way harder than it should...

2008-09-24T11:04:00.002-04:00

Paul Anka doing "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Am I a bad person for liking a lounge-Nirvana cover...?

Review of Thievery Corporation's latest album

2008-09-23T11:26:00.003-04:00

Here's my review of Thievery's Corporation's Radio Retaliation, for musicOMH magazine.

For one of their funkier songs, check out this live performance of "Hare Krsna."

Bill O'Reilly cites himself as proof of God's existence...

2008-09-23T10:46:00.003-04:00

Can't wait for Bill O'Reilly's new book, which will be an undoubtedly heart-wrenching memoir about his humble beginnings. (Can you claim working class status if you went to a private Catholic boarding school? Hrmm...)

In Bill's words:

"Next time you meet an atheist, tell him or her that you know a bold, fresh guy, a barbarian who was raised in a working-class home and retains the lessons he learned there.

"Then mention to that atheist that this guy is now watched and listened to, on a daily basis, by millions of people all over the world and, to boot, sells millions of books.

"Then, while the non-believer is digesting all that, ask him or her if they still don't believe there's a God!"

Uh, okay, Papa Bear...

Song In The Head: Jens Lekman's "Your Arms Around Me"

2008-09-22T15:20:00.002-04:00

This track's too catchy for words...

Shameless plug for my college band...

2008-09-21T14:35:00.003-04:00

Yes, the Fuzz - that irresistible fusion of funk and jazz. (Because "the Fuzz" sounded better than "the Jank"). I found out last week that my six-piece combo from Pomona is magically on YouTube. I think it's only fitting that our last gig ever was also our first gig to be put up. It was a bittersweet show - it was right after graduation, and I for one got far more teary-eyed from this concert then from any of the hackneyed "do something with your life" speeches at the ceremony itself.

In any case, check it out below. This song ("Sewage") is an original, but we also do a cover of Average White Band's "Pick up the Pieces" and an extremely reworked version of the Youngblood Brass Band's funky-beyond-words "Brooklyn." I'm the one bobbing my head like a madman on the keys...

And if I play the same three chords, will you just yawn and say...

2008-09-18T07:58:00.005-04:00

Yes, it's all been done. I wrote a story for Gelf last year about music plagiarism, where I explored some interesting issues about originality and ownership of similar-sounding songs. At what point can an artist get a song protected? If someone else steals the melody? The lyrics? The intonation? The same chords?

I was reminded of these perplexing questions when I saw the below YouTube clip of a stand-up at Penn State marveling at the fact that he can't escape "Canon in D" due to its chords' ubiquitousness in modern rock music. He took some creative liberties - not every tune he plays has that exact 1-5-6-3 chord progression ("Let It Be," "No Woman No Cry" and "With or Without You," are all 1-5-6-4) - but the point's well-taken.

Indeed, I can't tell you how many times I've been jamming on that 1-5-6 riff on the piano and come across a famous pop melody ("Under the Bridge," "Head over Feet," even Akon's "It Don't Matter"). Back in my freshman year emo phase - all three weeks of it- I was messing around with tunes by the eternally lovelorn Dashboard Confessional, and realized that "Hands Down" had the same chords as a slightly more optimistic love song called "Let's Get It On." (Not to mention Van Morrison's "Caravan" and the verses in "Here's to the Night").

Apparently, G-Em-C-D can be applied to depressed singer-songwriters, graduating from high school, making babies AND barefoot gypsies singing around the campfire. Go figure..

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Indie hits the dance floor...

2008-09-14T21:58:00.004-04:00

An air of novelty has always surrounded the work of Omaha-based Tilly & the Wall, mostly due to its eccentric tap-dancing percussion. The group is invariably classified as indie even though the multi-layered female harmonies are more closely rooted in pop influences then anything else. (The "indie" moniker has all but lost its meaning: I popped Coldplay's X&Y into my laptop the other day - don't ask me why - and its genre was described as "Alternative/Indie"...)

Anyway, judging from new single "Beat Control" the group is now aspiring to reach the dance-friendly masses with an unabashedly catchy, slickly produced, bass-heavy rumpshaker. The song is the band's best bet for a top-40 hit - in six months it's already gotten twice as many YouTube views as any other T&TW tune EVER - and yet curiously enough it doesn't appear on the latest album (o). Go figure...

(and go enjoy, below)

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New Eagles of Death Metal leak

2008-09-13T13:19:00.008-04:00

The Eagles of Death Metal has always been too much of a side project for Josh Homme (QOTSA) et al. to be commercially viable as a band of its own right, which is a shame since the group's first two albums, 2004's Peace Love Death Metal and 2006's Death By Sexy, deliver a slinky, sleazy mix of blues-rock come-ons, peppered with country influences, Elvis Presley posturing and a rambunctious cover of Stealer Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle With You" (also known as "that song from the ear scene in Reservoir Dogs").

The latest album, the ever-cheeky Heart On, has been in the works for a while, with the release date currently pegged as October 28. EoDM hasn't lost its sense of humor, judging by song titles like "Prissy Prancin'" and "(I Used to Couldn't Dance) Hot Pants." Also expect some guest appearances from Dave Grohl, QOTSA regulars (Nick Oliveri, Joey Castillo), and maybe even this dude you might have heard of named Jack Black.

Anyway, here's an early leak of "Ask Me Why" from the new album. (Thanks, MySpace hackers!)

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Lindsay: switching sides?

2008-09-11T01:33:00.005-04:00

I had heard that Linds Lo had been mugging for the camera rather suggestively with socialite Samantha Ronson, but I never expected it to come to this...

Is this love, or this "I Kissed a Girl" bi-curiosity? Your guess is as good as mine...

Sniffing out bias, one website at a time...

2008-09-09T13:36:00.001-04:00

We have filters for everything these days - you can filter out superfluous search results, report spam, protect your children from porn, and generally edit out anything you don't want to waste your time on...

The only natural progression, then, is a filter that checks for the political biases of an article on the web.

It's a promising premise, and it became a reality with yesterday's unveiling of Spinspotter. A BusinessWeek article gives a solid summary of the program. I just downloaded it, and haven't been too impressed - though, granted, it's a beta version, and it also depends largely on the contributions and commitment levels of its users (a la Wikipedia) to establish parameters for bias. In any case, it should be an interesting social experiment for objective journalism. I'm curious to see how it pans out, and encourage you all to give it a try.
(At the moment, it's only available for use with Firefox...)

From the producers who brought you the Tipping Point...

2008-09-08T17:21:00.002-04:00

Malcolm Gladwell seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth after 2005's Blink, his second book after the wildly successful 2000 release The Tipping Point. He dabbled in some more New Yorker articles but has only written three stories in the past year.

But he's baaaack...

He is scheduled to publish his third book on November 18, titled Outliers: The Story of Success, which rather ambitiously tries to tackle ideas about genius and achievement. Sounds like it could be a bit too self-helpy, but as someone who has poured over the New Yorker archives and emptied its Gladwell contents, I'm always down for some fresh pop-psych reading...

In any case, here's a little sneak preview in the form of a speech he gave at the 2007 New Yorker Conference . It's a little drier than some of his other talks, but hey - Gladwell at 50 percent is as good as any talking head...

Musical qualities that automatically make any song better

2008-09-03T17:46:00.001-04:00

-Handclaps
-Wordless background harmonies
-Upbeat acoustic guitar strumming
-Bright piano chords
-Slap-bass
-A healthy dose of spunk

Songs I've heard lately that have many of the preceding characteristics:

Noah and the Whale's "Five Years Time"

It's effervescently catchy, comfortable in its laidback, midtempo pace and likeable enough that the whistling at the beginning and end barely interfere with its execution. Plus, Charlie Fink somehow imbues his simple, silly lyrics with a certain whimsical grace (sample couplet: "In five years' time we could be walking around the zoo, with the sun shining down over me and you"). His voice sounds like a grainy love child of Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum and the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne.

Jamie Lidell's "Another Day"

White dude can sing! The lush keyboard riff is a bubbly bit of faux-Motown. Critics seem to hate on this guy cuz he admittedly rips off virtually every black soul singer from the 60s and 70s (album cut "Figured Me Out" is a pretty spot-on imitation of Jamiroquai, who himself robs Stevie Wonder more or less wholesale). That said, I challenge anyone to find anyone else who has come out with such genuinely buoyant R&B in the past couple years. It's usually all overbelted, overproduced or simply joyless (see anything by Mario or Ne-Yo). Give me some derivative Stevie-aping over shitty soul any day...

Ray LaMontagne: "You Are The Best Thing"

2008-08-29T23:47:00.000-04:00

It's not particularly hip to dig Ray LaMontagne. His folkie blue-eyed soul is hardly revolutionary, and his grainy, worn voice is essentially a slightly heartier version of Sam Beam's. But his newest album, Gossip in the Grain, is out Oct. 16, and his new single "You Are The Best Thing" is an uncharacteristically cheerful R&B-tinged number that recalls Van Morrison more so than Iron & Wine. Give it a listen here.

Number one

2008-08-29T23:09:00.001-04:00

Hey all,

I'm new to this blogging thing, but I think it will be a good exercise for me as a freelance journalist. I'm currently writing for a few different places but still always have one too many thoughts in my head itching to get out. This blog will serve as a venue for said thoughts, with a combination of irreverent opinion, offbeat web discoveries, and sweet new songs I've discovered (I write about music for The Boston Globe and musicOMH, among other places). Plus, I'm sure, a whole lot of other stuff. Stay posted and comment often!

Adam