All y’all know how much I love a good lyric video. This one, for Running to the Sea by Röyksopp featuring Susanne Sundfør, is particularly clever and lovely. And the song is pretty great, too.
For some of you, today is just Thursday. For others, and for me, it’s Thanksgiving.
One of the very many things I’m thankful for this year is Fall Out Boy, who came back, after a long time away. Here they are with Alone Together, one of my favorite songs from Save Rock and Roll.
http://youtu.be/Z79fveRw7LQ
Grounds for Invasion is a collaboration between Willow Sea (Willy O’Connor; music) and newcomer Tracy Friel (lyrics, vocals), of Galway, Ireland.
They initially met through college radio – he was helping her record live sessions – but their musical partnership didn’t really blossom until he heard her sing a Bo Diddley song at an open mic night, and thought it might be fun to have her add some vocals to some tracks he had been working on.
The results of that experiment are the five songs on Grounds for Invasion’s self-titled EP.
Willow Sea, left to his own devices, makes mellow, contemplative music. Grounds For Invasion, while still pretty chill, falls further down both the darker and poppier ends of the musical spectrum.
For example: Dance Alone, which is a wistful memoir of clubbing that you could do a swirly-girly-gothy interpretive dance to, if you wanted.
And also True Romance, which I am posting because it is my favorite. It’s poetry – bold, hilarious, profane poetry – recited over a hypnotic beat. Sample line: You appeared like a drunken Gabriel, all talk and Buckfast and legs that just went on and on.
Last year, Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing published a memoir called The Book Of Drugs, because he took a lot of them, and had a lot of drug stories, many of which he told in the book. He also told a lot of stories about screwing and being screwed in both the biblical and music industry sense. I think I read it in one sitting, wincing and laughing by turns. Favorite revelation: He was the author of the New York Press’s Dirty Sanchez column, which I used to read every week.
And then, of course, he had to go on a book tour, and read his stories out loud. That, in turn, led to him first revisiting the songs at the center of the narrative – the work he did with Soul Coughing – and then, eventually, to him completely reworking and re-imagining some of the tunes.
He has just released the product of that work as a record entitled Circles Super Bon Bon Sleepless How Many Cans? True Dreams of Wichita Monster Man Mr. Bitterness Maybe I’ll Come Down St. Louise Is Listening I Miss the Girl Unmarked Helicopters The Idiot Kings So Far I Have Not Found the Science.
He’s also made a new video for Super Bon Bon, which originally appeared on Irresistible Bliss (1996) and I’m pretty sure was played at every single frat party I attended for at least a year afterwards. This is the original official video, made at a time when raves were a big thing, and people wore goggles when they to a rave, to protect their eyes from whatever was in the smoke and/or foam.
True confession: The first time I listened to Wax Fang’s tunes, it was totally because I had to find out what kind of noises a band called “Wax Fang” was going to make. I was expecting them to be either gothy and overwrought or possibly gothy and making-sly-commentary-on-subcultural-ridiculousness.
What I found is that they are neither of those things. The best way I can think of to describe it, after listening to their three new stand-alone singles, is to say they are masters of building tiny rock ‘n roll universes.
Here are the songs. Each one contains a fully formed world, built out of bold guitars and augmented by piano, strings and steady drums.
The Blonde Leading the Blonde: The opening riff is the one that hooked me and drew me in, but the whole song serves as an introduction to the depth and verve of their sound.
Hearts Are Made for Beating: A meditation on how sometimes love is a bomb that goes off in your chest. Goes well with walking around the city alone on a dark, cold night.
King of the Kingdom of Man: One minute you’re rolling along, doing the grocery shopping, thinking casual thoughts about how many eggs you might need for poundcake, and the next you have been caught in an undertow of feelings and are on your way out to sea where “out to sea” means “suddenly verklempt in the dairy section because of a fictional character.” It’s also the one where every time it starts up I think Ziggy Stardust? Is that you?
For their next trick, they’re making a space opera. I am not making this up. It’s called The Astronaut and if you’re an American Dad! viewer you heard a big chunk of it during the 150th episode. For the rest of you, be prepared to appreciate the complete work when it arrives in mid-January.
Mumblr is: Nick Morrison (vocals, guitar), Scott Stitzer (drums), Ian Amidon (guitar) and Sean Reilly (bass), and they are from North Philadelphia. White Jesus/Black God is their first record.
They have made up their own genre – fuzz punk – which at first I thought might be a new way to say grunge, but no, this is definitely fuzzed out and distorted punk rock. It is gloriously obnoxious and exactly what I needed after several weeks of floating in a dream pop / electronica haze. Here are three tunes I especially liked:
Holy Ghost: This may be the most aggressive song about making out and grammar arguments that you will listen to today.
Puke: The first 20 seconds of this song sound like a rock n’ roll accident, like someone swung a wrecking ball into the middle of the band and knocked everyone into the speakers and amps. The rest of it sounds like they all managed to stand up and find their guitar picks and drumsticks and sing a song about being really angry at someone and not quite knowing why.
Good Cop, Dad Cop: I picked this one mainly because I’m amused/impressed that they managed to wedge the phrase “fornication magazine” into the lyrics and have it not sound clunky.
I went to see the Architects, DeathSpells and the Scandals at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn this past Tuesday, and it was awesome.
The Scandals are from Bayonne, New Jersey, and they play Jersey punk at breakneck speed.
DeathSpells is a new venture from Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance) and James Dewees (Reggie and the Full Effect, The Get Up Kids) and is more pop-industrial than punk.
And by “pop-industrial” I mean it’s weird experimental noise you can dance to – well, stomp-sway and headbang and bounce a little – which the crowd and I did, enthusiastically.
Sadly Frank Iero’s voice got a little bit lost in the mix; this may have been because I was right up on the rail and too close to a speaker. But their songs worked great as instrumental pieces, too, so that was okay.
The Architects are at a transitional period, musically; up until now they’ve played thrashy punk mostly – to quote Brandon Phillips – “about drugs and law enforcement.” Their most recent record goes in a little bit of a different direction – I’ve already written about how much I like it – and has more of a punkabilly vibe, which in practice means they now sing some songs about girls.
They still play the old songs like bootleggers outrunning the law: fast, but nimble and focused. But I’m pleased to report the new songs were seamlessly integrated into their set. And that their set is still a glorious, exhilarating torrent of punk rock.
Also, yes, that is Frank Iero on bass and possibly specifically on Mikey Way’s sparkly bass, at that; their regular bassist is temporarily absent and Iero is filling in.
It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.
In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.
The Honorable South of New Orleans, Louisiana, and their heady stew of rock, funk and jazz are a long-time favorite of mine. As I noted the first time I wrote about them, the best description I can give you is that they’ve found a way to bottle the spirit of New Orleans.
Faithful, Brave, and Honest, their second record, is due next year. But they have just put out a video for the first single, St. Charles Parish. It’s one of their slower numbers, and it is lovely.
http://youtu.be/Y72RxsU5z24
And now, here is lead singer Ms. Charm Taylor, to tell us about her favorite book, record and drink:
A Good Read:
A library the size of an industrial sized refrigerator, must mean I own books that I have yet to read, haven’t finished reading, don’t belong to me, and can’t remember I own right? I think the last piece of fiction I read in it’s entirety was Oil! by Upton Sinclair, before that it was Black Music by Amiri Baraka, which made me realize I didn’t know half as much about jazz as thought I did.
I read one or the other in conjunction with a social history of The Spiritual Churches of New Orleans: Origins, Beliefs, and Rituals of an African-American Religion by Claude F. Jacobs a little bit ago.
I immediately followed those up with Herbal Medicine translated from the original German text. Ok, I’m cheating here and not really abiding by the parameters of the blog. NO Rules! Right now the good read in my life is Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine all about the mysteries of the universe and leaves of the world.
A Good Listen:
Mongo Santamaria: Afro Roots (1972 repackaging of Yambú(1958) and Mongo (1959))
Jazz cats fusing Latin Rhumba, Soul and music from the continent. Outstanding record with everything you need: intense drummer…smooth melodies.
A Good Drink:
African Colada featuring Rhum Barbancourt, Haiti.
It’s sort of like a private cruise in your mouth, which means you’re playing yourself if you decide to substitute for Bean.
2 spoons muddle pineapple
1 1/2 shot Rhum Barbancourt
1/2 shot simple syrup
large pinch cinnamon
splash heavy cream
The HARTEBEEST are duo from the island of Guernsey, and they have made the most cheerful sounding song about death that you are going to listen to today.
I decided to share it in video form because the video both illustrates and clarifies the song. “Death” doesn’t necessarily mean actual death; it could just be a reference to some of the more soul-killing aspects of modern life, and how different people have different escape valves. Places to go to feel alive, even if that place is in their head, or a track, before dawn.
In non-musical news, the HARTEBEEST also post amazing pictures to their Instagram; check it out if you like dramatic views of island coasts and/or graveyards in the snow and don’t mind the occasional dead mouse.
Blitz//Berlin are Martin, Casey, Dean and Tristan, from Toronto, Canada. Martin sings, they all play multiple instruments, and several of them have beards. They grew up on punk shows and sci-fi movies and when not rocking out, make scores for independent films.
They have recently released a three song mixtape, which you can listen to at Soundcloud and then download for free here.
All three songs are quite good; I picked Outside to share because of a lyric that reached out and hooked me: There’s a barroom in the belly of the war machine / and they’re serving cheap American beer all night / There’s a bedroom in the bottom of the sinking ship / it’s where I love you where I love you where I love you on the outside. As soon as I heard it I wanted to know the rest of that story. Also, I love the surging, driving beat.
