Music Meridian

Check out the screenshot from Pitchfork this morning. (Click the pic to enlarge).

The headline refers to the new Lightning Bolt CD that's coming out this fall....but they have a picture of Pink And Brown next to the headline. Whooops!!!

Sure, it looks like it's from the interview footage of Lightning Bolt's "The Power Of Salad And Milkshakes" DVD (which is highly, highly, highly recommended viewing), but come on! Can't they at least get a shot that's actually of Lightning Bolt instead?

I, too, enjoyed the Lollapalooza festivities! I missed most of Saturday's acts due to work (damn real job), but did catch the end of Liz Phair and the beginning of Cake, both of which seemed to be quality performances.

Sunday was a ton of fun, despite the sweltering heat. If Saturday's attendance was down, then it was family-picnic attendance on Sunday. I started off my day with Tegan & Sara, who only played for 30 minutes due to Sara's heat exhaustion. It was a great 30 minutes while it lasted, though, despite them not playing "Walking with a Ghost", which was probably slated for the last song or two. I spent most of the set in the bushes next to the stage, trying to avoid as much sun as possible.

While in those bushes, the sound bleed from the other stage was pretty obvious and unfortunately it was Perry Ferrell's new band Satellite Party. How many times can you say your own band name in multiple songs. Hey everyone! It's gonna be a great Satellite Party. Yech.

Then I caught a little bit of Drive By Truckers, which was fun and not at all what I expected. I thought it would be great music for a road trip, but only caught about 4 songs before the heat was too much to bear and we took a road trip to the Hyatt bar for a few hours to cool off and use the non porta potty facilities.

Arcade Fire was phenominal. I actually went out and bought their CD "Funeral" It was an unbelieve, energetic set with what felt like a ton of people on stage all playing their asses off, including strings, and an audience that is clearly in love with this music. Highly recommended you check them out if you can.

I ended Sunday listening to Widespread Panic (unwillingly) in the background while I held a place for myself for the Killers show. The Killers were great, a lot of energy and appreciation to the crowd and the city for having them. The set was ok, I ended up liking some songs more live than their CD counterparts, and I enjoyed it but surprising not as much as Arcade Fire. The crowd was really riled up for the Killers, and Perry Ferrell introduced them with a tribute to Lance Armstrong (?) and by calling them the hottest band in America today, which I'm not sure is true but I can't really think of anyone else who is "hot" right now so maybe it is.

Widespread Panic finished the night, which is when I reached for another few beers to chat with friends and conclude what turned out to be a day of great music and fun.

I went to just one day of Lollapalooza (last Saturday) here are some random thoughts about it.

First impression was, it was a beautiful place to see a show. The crowds were not disorderly, there was no large lines for food, drink, or bathrooms. The weather was nice except for a quick spot of rain. Basically it was a nice relaxing day of music. I later found out only about half they people the expected actually came, which may account for why the crowd situation was so under control.

So who did I see? I got there to see And You Will Know Us By The Trai Of Dead ending their set so I was a little pissed to have missed that. Basically now I needed to kill time before Cake came on, in a couple hours.

So I caught Liz Phair while waiting for that. It was enjoyable in a kind of background-music kind of way. She did play a ton of stuff off of Exile in Guyville, to my surprise.

So Cake finally comes on and it's great. They play a healthy cross-section of their back catalog. The crowd sings along. A fine set. Jen had a similar experience at HOB the night before. (See her blog entry).

After that I believe Billy Idol(!) came on. Parry Farrell came out to introduce him and kept hyping him as an "original punk" and making him out to be this kind of elder statesman. Gimme a break!! Sure he was in Generation X and was in the same scene as the Sex Pistols etc, but unless you have some crazy dillusional revisionist-history going on, you gotta realize they were hated by the "punks" back then and accused of being fake. Besides, he didn't get famous that way. He became famous for being a solo hard-rock act in the 80s.

I watched about 5 songs of his set, and there was only so much fist-pumping, snarling Idol I could take before the amusement wore off. Steve Stephens was playing with him again, and he still looks identical to his 80s hayday. Pretty funny.

Anyway, I wandered over to the other stage and caught some of Blonde Redhead, which was enjoyable. At one point, I also saw a bunch of the Walkmen's set at that stage too...I don't know much about them, but I was quite impressed. Loved it.

Later in the day, it was strong sets from Primus, Pixies, and Weezer. Primus played an all oldies set. I don't think they played anything post-Pork Soda. And the only Pork Soda song was "My Name Is Mud". So all classics...it was great!

The Pixies came out and really kicked some ass. No talking, no BS, just song after song after song. They played both versions of "Wave Of Mutilation" which was kinda cool. What really sold me was the 1-2 knockout punch of "Debaser" and "Broken Face". Awesome.

After that it was Weezer, who is fun live. Nothing unexpected. Played a lot of the hits. Kept songs from their inferior new album to a minimum. They even played a bunch of stuff from Pinkerton which was quite enjoyable. Left mid-set to beat the crowd and also catch some of Digible Planets show, which was awesome. They should have had a crowd like Weezer, but whattya gonna do?

I had the awesome privilege of nabbing two free tickets to the Cake pre-Lollapalooza show at House of Blues last night. I love Cake, so this review is sure to be super-biased, but what a fantastic show. The house was packed with actual Cake fans (which always astounds me every time I go to their show. Practically everyone knows all the lyrics to every song. For some reason, I always think I'm going to be the only one there who loves them as much as I do, and am pleasantly surprised when I am not. Am I a Cake snob?) Regardless, it was a set jam packed with old favorites and the best of their new release. They hit the mark straightaway with "Comfort Eagle", lead singer John McCrea (pictured... though not a pic from last night's show) immediately getting the crowd pumped with his crowd-participation encouragement. That's the trademark of a good Cake show, he always hypes the crowd up and encourages participation through singing and clapping, which sounds a little pre-school when I write it but is loads of fun for all involved. Cake's mix of alternative rock/country is palatable and the lyrics are smart and sometimes silly but always a good time. They pulled out some great oldies ("Ruby Sees All", "Rock N Roll Lifestyle" and the chant-inducing "Sheep Go to Heaven" most notably) and I was delighted they chose "Mexico" as an encore song. Of course, the ubiquitous "No Phone", "The Distance" and "Never There" were played, and as a sidebar I find it odd that some of their weaker songs are the singles everyone knows, but I guess fans of a lot of bands can say the same about their respective favorites. From the new album, "Carbon Monoxide" and "Guitar Man" were represented with gusto. A testimony of a good live show, though, is what you walk away with. My guest, who had heard the more popular Cake songs but doesn't own any albums, walked away declaring herself a fan and had a great experience. In my opinion, that's talent.

Sir Millard Mulch is famous. What? You never heard of him? Are you kidding me? Check out his website. See, it says right at the top that he's famous. And all those big name rockstars are associated with him. Why would he lie to you? You've got some catching up to do, my friend. I suggest spending your hard earned dollar on his 2 new releases.

First of all, march right over to MutantMall.com and buy his magnum opus (not a far-fetched claim) called "How To Sell The Whole F#@!ing Universe To Everybody...Once And For All!"

It's a 3CD monstrosity. What I love about it, is that it's filled to the brim with many diverse ideas, but it doesn't come off haphazardly. It's a seamless blend of entertainment and dialog. There's lots of quirky pop ("I'm An Artist And I Shouldn't Have To Work For A Living!"), wild musicial workouts ("Chariots Of The Sales Gods") and hilarious spoken-word bits and commericals. My favorite being the "H2o2verphone Telethon". He also tells Estradasphere where to stick it on "Hardball 2". And this is all just on the very first disc!

Move on over to the 2nd disc and you're immediately confronted with a 20 minute prog-rock epic ("Hemisphere III: Hermes") that has lots of things going for it. It references Rush. It's got amazing musicianship (including over-the-top drumwork). It's broken into movements. It somehow pinnacles into a cover of "Come Sail Away" by Styx. What's not to like in this track?!

What makes the album even more intriguing is the fact that it creates more questions than answers. The booklet lists all kinds of high caliber musicians that supposedly appear on the album. But it doesn't tell you where. Does Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad actually play on this thing, or is his only bit the monologue on "The Great Strength Of Our Professional Affiliations/How To Spend Music Industry Currency"? Who's playing that insane drum part on the cover of Creed's "Higher"? And then there's the mysteries of the 3rd disc with it's one gigantic track.....

This and more will supposedly be solved when the compainion book comes out in August. Are you taking notes here? This guy's a marketing genius. Buy the CD, then after all your confusion you're forced to buy the book to help figure it all out. It's like buying one of those SimCity Strategy guides or something after you can't figure out how to make your town grow to metropolis level.

At any rate, this is an album I'm going to be digesting for a long long time. I urge you to do the same.

Moving on to the other Sir Millard Mulch music you need to buy. It's called "Fanatical Video Game Retroverse 1995-1999" and right now it's only available in mp3 format at iTunes. So fire up your mac and search for this gem instead of clicking on that lame Jason Moraz banner that comes up on the frontpage of the iTunes Music Store. Believe me, you'll be a lot better off.

This album comprises instrumentals supposedly composed and "performed" on Mulch's Atari 1040 STe. If you like stuff like The Advantage, but yearn for more complicated stuff as well as some originality, this is the album for you. Plus the album titles are like A.C titles (if they were a bunch of computer nerds). Very enjoyable stuff for people who liked to leave their Nintendo on just for background music.

Sir Millard Mulch is also planning a promotional tour in September. That should be the final step in assimilating into Sir Millard Mulch's personal slave, so you should check that out too. Sign up for his Cult and keep in the loop of that development as well as other crap he wants to send you.

The 'A Good Life Spoiled' blog wrote a huge article called 'New York Rock: A Critical History ' which is an interesting read. But he spends so much time bashing Mick Barr of Orthrelm/Octis as well as other brillant bands like Zs and Copic Light.

Fortunately, Barr recently moved to San Francisco, knowing he wasn't wanted here. Unfortunately, Orthrelm's associates Zs (modern-classical counterpoint rock. Zzzzzzzz indeed) and Coptic Light ("free rock" like free Iraq, anarchy no freedom at all) remain.

Ouch!

Hey man, what did they ever do to you? God forbid you actually have to listen to music that's a little left-field and different as opposed to watered down swill....







raising a child is hard work, so i decided to ease the burden and re-visit my own childhood last weekend--i went to best buy and picked up two classic albums: dare to be stupid and in 3-d. needless to say, my nine-year-old boy found them to be absolutely hilarious and awesome. these albums, along with jim varney's ernest movies (and that dr. otto thing) really made the 80's for me. in fact, they're probably the best things i got out of that decade.

so, though i should say something of import here, i really just want to thank alfred yankovic for making my developmental years so enjoyable and fun. and now, thanks to the wonders of digital technology, i can play my boy the same cds and he can be just as enthralled with al as i was (though since i own the cds and not him he won't be following my parents around insisting they hear this song or that one). now if i can only find 'dr. otto and the riddle of the gloom beam'....

Went to see Batman Begins on the IMAX yesterday. The movie itself was fantastic, but I have to ask, why didn't Danny Elfman do the soundtrack? Just because it's not a Burton film? That would be a shame. Elfman would have pushed the movie right over the top in my opinion.

Oh well, still worth watching.





I've been obsessing over the latest Strapping Young Lad CD ("Alien") over the past week. I gotta say that Devin Townsend and Co. have completely outdone themselves this time. They've made an album that's sure to be in my top 10 of the year. Why?

First, let's get right to the nitty-gritty. Drummer Gene Hoglan is some sort of cyborg. Fluidly playing a wide array of beats with high speed and precision. It's a wonder he's not a bigger name in drumming.

Devin sounds like a man possessed, howling over the whole thing with equal parts of humor and venom...("Sh*tstorm" is a fine example...and it gets even weirder when it breaks down into a childrens choir.

That's what also so engaging...is the little quirks that make it such a weird metal album. Xylophone parts (fine example is "Skekis"), odd choirs, strange synths. Proggy song structures. This thing is out-weirding the new System Of A Down album, but is still catchy, just like that album. SYL really should be as big, if not bigger, than SOAD, but I fear that won't ever be the case.

The most jarring song, ironically, is the most calm. "Two Weeks", crammed into the middle of the album and making the whole thing screetch to a halt like a mack truck slamming into a brick wall. Calm....serene.....almost a ballad! Then after 3 minutes of that, back into the fray of heavy insanity.

Highly recommended.