Category: Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog

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Shelf-reading at bandcamp: Co. Armagh edition

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Shelf-reading has two purposes: one, to make sure everything is in its right place; and two, to discover works you would not necessarily have though to look for, left to your own researching devices.

I decided to take purpose #2 and apply it to Bandcamp’s tagging system, generally, and the Irish music section, specifically, partially because I can and because why not, and partially because I had been ruminating on net-grumbling I had seen related to popular (trans: American) understanding of “Irish music” as being rock (U2, The Cranberries), traditional folk (the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners, etc) or folk-rock hybrids (The Pogues, Black 47, Flogging Molly) with no in-between or other options.

I then decided to use the counties of Ireland (North and South), arranged alphabetically, as a framing device for the experiment.

I started this a year and a half ago (!) with County Antrim and then I guess I got sidetracked.

I’m back at it now, though, and today we’re visiting the County Armagh section.

The first thing I learned is that there is not a lot of music tagged “County Armagh” and also Bandcamp’s search function might be a little bit wonky and/or broad because what did come back didn’t seem to have any obvious connection to Armagh.

So I switched to just searching for “Armagh” which brought back more options, though some of them were still not quite right.

In any case, here is what I found that I liked. Note: the connections to Armagh might still be a little bit loose or non-existent, but they are all at least from Northern Ireland.

Waylander, Once Upon an Era, “Born to the Fight” (demos, 1994) from the Irish-Metal Archive.

My reactions, in order: 1) there’s an Irish Metal Archive??!! and 2) did this song cause ceilidhs to break out in the pit? I bet it did. Also some classic ogre-roar vocals in there.


 

The Bonnevilles, Folk Art and the Death of Electric Jesus
These dudes play heavy punk blues. The search I used actually leads to their first record, Good Suits and Fightin’ Boots, which is also quite good; Folk Art and the Death of Electric Jesus is their second record and the one that landed them on the short list for the first ever Northern Ireland Music Prize.
 

 
Oh No! Ulster’s Hidden Reverse, Shuck, “Whitewash Asbetos Whitewash”
And in conclusion, a bulletin from the underground’s underground. I am not sure if I should believe the liner notes, here, but they certainly are entertaining reading.
 

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MGMT, MGMT

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MGMT is MGMT‘s third record.

One of my professors used to say, “Some books you read. Some books read you.” I think this is a record that is going to read a lot of people. It certainly read me.

Honestly, the reason I picked it up was I saw so many reviews that were basically “what is this weird quarter-life crisis nonsense??!!” which as it turned out were right, in a way. The songs are more introspective – there is actually a song called Introspection, which I love – and do grapple with more adult topics, specifically, the alarming sensation of being an adult, and all of it is filtered through a musical fun house mirror.

Or: MGMT’s answer to “What do you do after you become super-famous, then make a record your fans kind of don’t like because it wasn’t the same as the first one?” is “Become aggressively weird.”

Here are three songs from the record, all of which are very good. I decided to share them in video form because the videos are also aggressively weird.

Alien Days: colonial-era alien abduction as a metaphor for how your most precious things are sometimes caviar for unfeeling creatures. (Ooooh subtle, MGMT!) Also, aliens doing ballet.

MGMT - "Alien Days" (Official Video)

 
Your Life is a Lie: A bit of a modern echo of Once In A Lifetime; the moments after you have realized you have let the water hold you down and you don’t know where you are and you have to tell this nice lady next to you that she is not your beautiful wife.
MGMT - Your Life Is a Lie

 
Cool Song No. 2, in which Michael K. Williams engages in some skullduggery and then a dude slowly turns into a tree.
 
MGMT - Cool Song No. 2

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Greenhouse, The Last Shred of Night

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Greenhouse is Ryan Torres (drums, synths, guitars) and Rex Hudson (bass, synths, guitars) and they are from Denton, Texas. The Last Shred of Night is their second record.

It is a very long record – twenty-nine songs! – but this is, surprisingly, neither oppressive nor tedious, mainly because it is the kind of electronica that I think of as “companionable.” It’s good to put on while working on other things, because it’s complex and interesting enough to occupy a restless mind, but unlikely to cause a distracting dance party.

Also, they have the very best song titles. Reading the track list feels like a cross between skimming titles in a short story anthology and eavesdropping on text messages between friends.

Here are some examples:

 

 

 

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Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones, Long Time Gone

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File this under: unlikely musical collaborations. Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) and Norah Jones have teamed up to make Foreverly, which is complete reinterpretation of the Everly Brothers’ Songs Our Daddy Taught Us (1958). The results, so far, are unexpectedly sweet.

Here they are with Long Time Gone:
 

 

The rest of the record is set to emerge on November 25th, 2013.

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A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink, John Moen, Perhapst

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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.

Revise Your Maps is the second solo record from Perhapst, aka John Moen (The Decemberists, Maroons). It is a delightful folk-pop record, smooth and refined in some places, rough and jangly in others.

Here is Wilamette Valley Ballad, which got stuck in my head for a couple of days recently:
 

 

Other especially strong tunes are Revise Your Maps, Sorrow & Shame, and Still (Mt. Zero).

The more I listened to the record, the more I wanted to know more about the man who made it. So here is John Moen to tell us about his favorite book, record and drink:

A Good Read:

My favorite book is The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. Because I felt the need to loan it out, and read it at the same time, I now have two hardcover copies on my over-burdened bed stand. The author is (at least some of the time) a Portland guy which makes it all the sweeter, but this isn’t just a case of local pride gone to a reader’s head; this is actually one of the best books you’ll ever read.

It is a Western, of sorts, and a strangely violent look at sibling relationships. A great story told by a very smart and extremely funny writer – I found it hard to make time for others once I had started reading. Luckily, for those impatient folks who seemed to need my participation in their lives, I finished the book much sooner than I desired.

It is so good that you may even buy it twice. I highly recommend The Sisters Brothers.

A Good Listen:

It’s hard to say how good a record really is, when you get hooked as a teenager… I first heard Emergency Third Rail Power Trip by The Rain Parade when I was a hormonal 16 year old, and it made me feel great! By “great!” I mean totally depressed and introspective to the point of inspiration.

I am still inspired by the same record these days and continue to rob it’s “vibe” when writing music of my own. The album is true downer pop written by guys from the eighties taking on the sounds of the sixties. To my ear, the record is incredibly melodic, a tapestry of textures, and also imperfect in all the right ways. I will be buried with a copy… on Saturday.
 

Rain Parade - Talking in my sleep

 
A Good Drink:
Jack and Coke. My favorite. Yummy.

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The Architects, Border Wars Vol. 1

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Border_Wars_Book_Cover

Border Wars by The Architects, is, or will be, a concept album in five parts. Each part will contain both a comic book and a record, intended to be experienced simultaneously.

Volume 1, the comic, written by Brandon Phillips, lead singer for The Architects, and magnificently illustrated by Mallory Dorn, is the start of a dense, dark and bloody story of life along the Texas/Mexico border, full of interesting characters, including but not limited to: an inmate on death row who shares hints of a complicated past; a duplicitous, murderous reality-tv-star sheriff; a mega-church pastor and his estranged son; and a mysterious girl whose appearance – naked and half-dead – adds fuel to the narrative.

Volume 1, the record by the Architects, illustrates the same story in a different but complimentary and congruent way. The bruised jewel-tones and thick black lines of the comic are echoed by the bright brash punkabilly guitars; the lyrics allow the listener to get an idea of the character of the broad outer world of the comic while also illuminating the inner world of individual characters.

Also, while we here at NTSIB vigorously resist falling into the “sounds like” trap, I have to tell you, it would be reasonable to make comparisons to both Born in the USA-era Springsteen and early ’90s Social Distortion. The world may be different – this place The Architects and Mallory Dorn have brought to life is Darlington County if Darlington County was run by Walter White and Jesse was driving around listening to Ball and Chain – but the raw propulsive power and deft compression of a big, complicated story into only a few lines are the same.

Below is Volume 1, in its entirety. All of the songs are strong, but I particularly enjoy Lucky, Heartbreaker and I Chose Wrong. And by “enjoy” I mean “would happily listen to them on a little loop multiple times in a row.”
 

 

Volume 2 is currently in pre-order. Meanwhile, The Architects are hitting the road. New York, your show is November 19th at the Knitting Factory; everyone else, check their dates and make your plans accordingly.

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Jus Post Bellum, Oh July

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Jus Post Bellum (Justice After War) are Geoffrey Wilson (lead vocals, guitar), Hannah Jensen (vocals), Zach Dunham (drums, percussion, vocals), and Daniel Bieber (bass, cello, vocals), and they are from Brooklyn, via Minnesota and upstate New York.

Oh July is their second record, and it is some of the freshest and most lovely folk music I’ve heard for a while.

Their sound is traditional, and American, and intended to evoke the period after the Civil War. What distinguishes them from a million bands with the same idea is that they incorporate elements of a kind of folk music not often heard in folk-pop – spirituals – and that their old-timey concept is leavened with a distinctly modern sensibility.

Exhibits A and B: Gimme That Gun and Call to My Jesus. The former is the first song on the record, and is spellbinding live. The latter comes in the middle, and pinned me to my chair the first time I heard it.
 

 

 
And then there is Measure of a Man, which drifts closer to “pop” than “folk”, and is my favorite, because of lines like I’m lost / I’m a wildfire burnin’/ I’m a voice in the Devil’s chorus / I’m a dog / I’m a sleepy morning / I’m love / and I’m coming without warning:
 

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Gary Numan, Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)

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gnsplinter

There are times when I wish I could transmit the experience of listening to body of music for the first time whole and complete and unfiltered, so that y’all could experience it just as I did.

Because if I could, all of you would be able to stand with me on the subway platform on a crisp cold sunny morning, half-asleep and surrounded by other commuters, while the initial notes of I Am Dust, the first song from Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind) by Gary Numan rolled over us like a grimy tide coming in. They’re darkly seductive and a little bit intoxicating, like heavy sweet aural smoke.

And perhaps, as I did, you all would smile into your scarves and let the dark tide pull you under.
 

 

Here’s what I think about Splinter, now that I’ve listened to it a few times: it is a dark, dense, contemplative record, rigorously constructed and at times a little chilly. A candle-lit cathedral with broken windows. It is gloomy, but pleasingly so.

And while the slower songs – and there are several – are lovely, the places where the lights that shine most brightly through the gloom are the club bangers, like Love Hurt Bleed:
 

Gary Numan - Love Hurt Bleed

 

Note: there is a remix competition going on for Love Hurt Bleed through November 25, 2013. Get on that, producers in the audience!

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Video: Villebillies, Love is Kind of Crazy

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And continuing the cannibalism theme, or maybe just going off on a little “monsters in love” tangent, here is the video for Love is Kind of Crazy by the Villebillies, of Louisville, Kentucky, which makes excellent use of both a Dusty Springfield sample and a firedancer.

 

Villebillies - Love is Kind of Crazy

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Video: Natti Vogel, Cannibal

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Here is the video for Cannibal by Natti Vogel, directed by Rebecca Rojer, and starring Vogel and porn star Colby Keller.

The song is a cabaret-pop gem about wanting to be consumed by a lover.

The video plays with and explores the definitions and conventions of “food”, “porn”, and “food porn” by simultaneously mashing them together and flipping them inside out. “Boy in a cage” is mixed with “boy about to be dinner” in one scene, while “one partner washes the other” is presented in the context of “human washes his next meal” in another. “Sensual eating” and “food photographed to look luscious” are twined together and exaggerated to the point of grossness as part of a “fattening the kill” montage.

There was also one particular sequence that made me squawk with glee, which comes at 2:40 and I’m not telling you what it is, because that will ruin the surprise.

Meanwhile, while I may never look at pomegranates or savory danishes the same way again, as soon as I recovered from the initial shock of watching this, I had a list of people I wanted to share it with right away.

 

Natti Vogel - Cannibal (Official Video)