Pop culture ephemera

While I was so studiously not blogging, I was also engaged in soaking up all manner of popular culture. A sample of the sights and sounds of the casa de wobs:

• ms. wobs and I recently finished watching Band of Brothers. I am, admittedly, a sucker for a well-made WWII flick and had been keen on watching this series for years now, and I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed. It's a well-crafted epic, both narratively and visually. More importantly, there's a fine line between telling the truly incredible stories of those who were there and myth-making, and I think the series tacks towards the former the vast majority of the time. The filmmakers also manage to keep the film apolitical (save the obvious narratives about the justness of WWII and a general "war really is hell" sentiment) while not flinching from the political and moral ambiguities that were inherent in the conflict.
  
  A special shout-out to goes to Donnie Wahlberg as Sgt. Lipton. When you see a former New Kid on the Block in the cast, you tend to be a little dubious, but Wahlberg plays Lipton with an understated dignity that's perfect for the role, even if he's less than convincing as a West Virginian.
  
  The only serious misstep in the series was casting David Schwimmer in a small but important role. It's really hard to get into the episode when all you can think is, "You're such a fucking douchebag, Ross!" Aside from Schwimmer and the obligatory awkwardly paced exposition of the first episode and the less-than-satisfying (emotionally, at least) denoument of the last, Band of Brothers is breathtaking to watch, especially the emotional heart of the series centered around episodes based on the Battle of the Bulge. It really is some extraordinary visual storytelling.


• We also managed to watch Thank You for Smoking and Idiocracy. They're both funny - I wouldn't necessarily watch them over and over, but they're definitely worth a spot in your Netflix queue. They're both over-the-top in their moralizing (though Mike Judge uses the outlandishness to far better effect, especially in a meta sense) but have plenty of gags to make them more palatable. I'll especially recommend Idiocracy for the visual gags that are Judge's vision of a distant future ruled by morons. The "House of Representin'" alone is worth the rental price. Or check it out free from your public library.


• I thought I was done with REM. The only new album I've bought since Automatic for the People was Up, and only really for the first six songs. So when I heard some good things about Accelerate, I at least paid attention. Then I read that someone heard a track on a college radio station, and that pushed me over the edge. It's good! Peter Buck rediscovered his distortion pedal, Mike Mills rediscovered those sweet counter-melodies backing up Michael Stipe, and the whole band rediscovered the whole jangly* rock thing that made us love them back in the 80s. There's a few tracks on there that sound like they could've been outtakes from Life's Rich Pageant or Green. The music itself is enough to put a nostalgic smile on your face, but the sly self-referential lyrics definitely seal the deal. This new album makes an old fan happy.
  
  * A little known section of law stipulates that media discussing REM with more than 50 words must use some variation of "jangle" within their work. It's true. Look it up.


• The best dKos diary I've read in a long, long time.

Because I'm there

And for anyone who ever thought that a late 1960s show could be anything but bliss, I give you the world's most fucked up acid-era "St. Stephen"

So many more questions

Well, Obama has garnered the crucial Grateful Dead endorsement (hat tip). That might be enough for some hemp-clad dreadie who just put down the bong, but not for me. Nosiree.

Bassist Phil Lesh, 67, said he met Obama, who told him he has some Grateful Dead songs on his iPod music player, last year.

Which songs, Senator? Some cuts from American Beauty or the Scarlet>Fire from Cornell '77?

Donna: Yay or Nay?

Pigpen, Keith, or Brent?

And most importantly, Bobby or Jerry?

Don't think that you can duck the hard questions, say that you've got some Dead tunes on your iPod, and think you can win my vote... which I'll get around to casting when I come down.

When I get back you better butter my bread

Off to Tennessee for holidaying with the family. It'll actually be the first time that I'll have been with all of my siblings in the same place in about ten years. So with that, I'll let the boys take me back to Tennessee...

And for the perfect little bookend, that's from May 8, 1984 at the Hult Center in Eugene. Le sigh.

This is too fucking weird

Earlier this evening, as I was doing the dishes, I was thinking to myself that it had been almost ten years since I won a pair of tickets to see Quiet Riot on one of their comeback tours and gee, wouldn't that be a funny story to tell? After doing some quick historicizing in my head, I realized that the Quiet Riot show occurred in the spring of 1998, so I planned on shelving the story until next May, if I even remembered at that time.

But as Dr. Jung would have it, there was a reason I was thinking about these minor metal deities this evening: they found the lead singer dead in Las Vegas today! And while I'm far from broken up about this, nor do I feel particularly comfortable with the fact that I'm using someone's tragic death as a springboard for a light-hearted story about a young man straying far from his element, I do think that the universe works in mysterious ways and that I was meant to relay this little vignette to you this evening. Either that or the gobs of acid I ate in the Nineties are having some consequences that I never could have foreseen.

At any rate...

In the spring of '98, when Seinfeld was about to go off the air, the local rock station KZEL was giving away prizes for being the nth caller with the correct answer to some piece of Seinfeld trivia. I'd always wanted to win something from a radio station and so when they asked a question to which I knew the answer (Tweety Bird Pez dispenser), I called in and lo and behold, I was the proud possessor of two tickets to go see Quiet Riot at the Mill Camp Saloon in Springfield.

To be clear, I was never much of a Quiet Riot fan in particular, or a metalhead in general (although I will cop to loving first-time-around Roth-era Van Halen and Guns & Roses), so I planned on going to the show and enjoying with a healthy does of irony. My friend Kooky - a New Jersey metalhead squatter turned hippie activist (at the time of this particular story) turned gender-bending anarchist - loved Quiet Riot and begged me for the other ticket. Since my then-girlfriend didn't want to go - nay, was absolutely horrified by the prospect of going - Kooky and I got righteously stoned and ventured into the wilds of Springfield for some heavy metal.

The Mill Camp had something of a reputation back when it was open - I seem to recall a number of well-publicized brawls (maybe one involving Akili Smith?), maybe a stabbing or two - it was a classic, shall we say, Springfield night spot. To its credit, it did have a gorgeous stained-glass window behind the stage. So we arrived, two stoned hippies amidst a sea of black metal tour shirts, too-tight denim, and mullets as far as the eye could see. Ordering the typical Eugene drink fare was not an option for the evening: no microbrews and no hipster friendly PBR or High Life. It was Budweiser like everyone else (plus a few trips to the car during the opening band to smoke more pot), or none at all.

Honestly, I was terrified for the first part of the evening and did my best to stay out of folks' way. Kooky, on the other hand, threw himself into enjoying the show in earnest, thus heightening my state of terror. What would the be-mulleted masses think of this goofy hippie banging his head to this washed-up hair-metal band? They loved him, and soon Kooky was surrounded by a menagerie of paunchy 40 year-old bikers with big, thick mustaches, all banging their heads in unison and high-fiving each other after each song.

At that point, I felt that things were going to be okay and started to enjoy myself, going so far as to make passable chit-chat while pissing out large amounts of cheap beer in the bathroom.

I couldn't tell you what most of the songs they played were. They may have even released a new album which they were supporting. For most of the first part of their set, I marveled at the full head of hair on the lead singer as I seemed to recall him balding back in their mid-80s heyday. It wasn't until the end of the set that I heard some familiar tunes - "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)," "Cum On Feel the Noize," and one other that I seemed to remember from childhood, but the name escapes me. By this point, I was filled with enough cheap booze and weed that I hollered out the choruses along with everyone else in the joint, and even managed a few high-fives and "that was so fucking awesome!"s to my fellow Quiet Rioters.

We ended the night by grabbing some more beer and heading back to my then-girlfriend's house to regale her and her roommate with tales about how fucking awesome the show had been. They were as drunk as we were, having done away with the better part of two bottles of wine, but had spent the evening listening to Ella Fitzgerald and discussing something far more civilized than Quiet Riot. Within fifteen minutes of our return, my ex publicly ruled out sex with me until I recanted my newfound love of hair metal.

I recanted half an hour later.

Totally and utterly non-random ten plus one playlist

I'm not leaving it up to iTunes to pick the songs today. Instead, I'd rather share some of the songs I'm regularly dialing up on the Pod and tell you why I'm digging them. And there's not a conservative or Catholic tune in the bunch.

• "Welcome to the Terrordome" - Public Enemy: It's a rare song that captures a moment and place in time so vividly. Chuck D's apocalyptic recounting of the mean streets of New York back in the "bad old days" of the late '80s is perfectly complemented by the Bomb Squad's production, which evokes the cacophony of a disintegrating social environment.
• "The Gash" - the Flaming Lips: The world's first and only psychedelic gospel march. I once read someone who stated that this song should be listened to very loud, sitting directly between the speakers after taking a giant bong rip. That sounds about right - the dense, swirling sounds perversely buoy the sweetness of of Wayne Coyne's plaintive lyrics.
• "Windchimes" - Brian Wilson: Staying in the realm of psychedelia, this little gem from the Beach Boys' lost masterpiece (finally released in the last few years) manages to capture the expectancy of a person about to embark on a wild trip, focusing on the minutiae of the surrounding landscape until the world explodes around him.
• "Caribou" - the Pixies: A narrative of self-loathing, the spartan production of this tune from their first EP creates a mournful atmosphere that accentuates the massive crescendo in the chorus, culminating in Black Francis's desperate cry of "Repent!"
• "Negative Creep" - Nirvana: More self-loathing (but really, what in Nirvana's catalog isn't about that?), but furious. The only thing that would make this song more perfect is morphing back into an angry sixteen year, huffing glue, and flipping off my parents while listening to it.
• "Bread and Roses" - Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco: Of all the labor hymns, this is the one that affects me the most. This memorialization of the Lawrence mill strike is a stirring testament of feminine (and human) dignity that never fails to make my skin tingle or bring a mist to my eyes. DiFranco's sympathetic accompaniment only underscores Phillip's sonorous baritone.
• "Must Be The Moon" - !!!: A wry accounting a hook-up born on the dancefloor, this song is sexy as fuck. It's a driving piece of dance punk made all the more compelling by the layers of processed guitar drone.
• "Hey Ladies" - the Beastie Boys: A hilarious send-up of the quintessential cad, I think this song also conveys a real, erm... appreciation for the women (especially the "beatnik chicks just wearing their socks"). Add to that the multiple obvious and subtle pop cultural references and the funky-ass Dust Brothers' production, and you have a bona fide classic.
• "Side with the Seeds" - Wilco: I've gone on before about how much I enjoy the laid-back, jammy feel of Wilco's latest, but this song stands out for me as featuring some of Jeff Tweedy's most soulful vocals to date.
• "One Reporter's Opinion" - the Minutemen: "What could be romantic to Mike Watt?" I have no idea what the answer to d. boon's rhetorical question might be, but this song rides on Watt's rolling bass lines and boon's perfect delivery of surreal lyrics.

And your bonus #11:

• "Common People" - William Shatner: You might be tempted to believe that I'm offering this track with an ironic wink. It is Captain Kirk, after all, and one could be excused, after his campy take of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and the atrocious "Rocket Man," for believing that this is just more self-indulgence. But this cover of the Pulp classic honestly rocks (witness the Shat's dueling with Pulp icon Joe Cocker). Does this make me post-postmodern? The song certainly is self-conscious, but Shatner's vocals nail the song's not so subtle contempt for rich hipsters. It's worth price of admission just to hear the Shat deliver the lines, "Laugh along with the common people/ Laugh along even though their laughing at you/ And all the stupid things that you do/ Because you think poor is cool" with such vitriolic cool. It really is a great track, and iTunes does a great disservice classifying it in the "comedy" genre.

So there you have it. Songs that are worth the $10.89 to download from the iTunes store, download from Napster, or steal from your favorite on-line pirate. Not that I condone that.

My shame, my salvation

I no longer feel so guilty about harboring a secret liking of Justin Timberlake, as David Byrne seems to dig him as well. That's not to say I'm entirely guilt free, but having a Talking Head in your camp does absolve some it.

Lost gems of my youth

I've been culling my CDs for things to put on the new iPod, and I've been discovering some old friends from long ago...

Life's Rich Pageant - REM
Oh, to be young and earnest again. This album was the soundtrack for a time when I believed that "we" could change the world. The songs on here bristle with righteous concern, belying an optimism that things could, indeed, be better. "Begin the Begin" and "These Days" still remains one of my all-time favorite opening track combinations. "Fall on Me" is the tune that originally introduced many of us to the band, and the Southern Gothic of "Swan Swan H" made many a teenager in the South believe that coming from Dixie might not be all that bad. Even if it was the accompaniment of a far simpler time in my life, it's still hard not be infected by the album's recurring themes of hope.

It's a Jungle in Here - Medeski, Martin, and Wood
MMW's second album still rooted them firmly in the Downtown jazz tradition, but the space-funk explorations of their later work are clearly presaged here. And the albums eclecticism is a wonder to behold. The mash-up of Coltrane's "Bemsha Swing" with Bob Marley's "Lively Up Yourself" is alone worth the price of admission, and their cover of King Sunny Ade's "Moti Mo" is a gorgeous excursion that, along with a bottle of red, provided for many relaxing moments coming down while the sun came up. The album's NYC vibe doesn't translate so well walking the streets of DC, but who fucking cares.

Slip, Stitch, and Pass - Phish
The only way to experience Phish was live - they never translated well in the studio. And listening to a whole show is a three hour commitment that, quite frankly, if you don't have the pot and other psychedelics to sustain you, can get a little dull after awhile. Slip, Stitch, and Pass distills the live experience down to a manageable one disc affair, and it captures the band at a great time. Playing a small European room, you can practically hear people in the crowd elbowing their buddies and saying, "Wow!" This 1997 recording marks a point in time when Phish learned how to swing, and the jams became grooves. Trey's guitar work on this album is great, and the band tips their hat to the Talking Heads (with a funky cover of "Cities"), ZZ Top, Pink Floyd, the Doors, and even to beloved cartoon frog Michigan J. Frog with an a cappella "Hello My Baby." I can't listen to Phish much these days, but I'll make an exception for this album.

Please stop

It was bad enough when John Miller decided to regale with us with 50 conservative rock songs, somehow trying to persuade us that the likes of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and the Clash were really, underneath it all, purveying music that extolled the traditional virtues and pro-America rah rah that are the bailiwick of the political right. Now I have someone telling me that rock and roll is a Catholic art form?

It's not. Please stop trying to make your religion and politics hip by making bizarre connections to pop culture. And they accuse the Left of being postmodern?

For uncle

Here's some crunk we can all get behind:

For pattyjoe

I know he had asked for First Tube, but being the Head that I am, I decided to satisfy pattyjoe's yen for some unpunk Phish with the original Tube, an early 90s tune that got reworked into a monstrous space-funk jam. This particular Tube kicked off the April 1998 "Island Tour" a four-date run in Nassau, NY and Providence, RI and captures the band at the height of their Fall 97-Fall 98 heyday. It was stupendous, living in that tube.

For added fun, watch the crowd just for the sheer amounts of ganja being puffed.

So, what're you listening to?

The consequence of moving to a new metropolis, not knowing many people with common interests beyond work, and having the family gone is lots of one-on-one time with ye olde blog. I'll spare you the "pity poor wobs" post, and instead relay to you that the vivacious ms. wobs got me an iPod as an early birthday present, allowing me to enjoy my commutes without that troublesome human interaction... and we wonder why I'm not meeting any new people!

So this seems like an opportunity to tell you what I've found aurally interesting these past few months.

Sky Blue Sky - Wilco
Enough people have commented on the mellow 70's rock vibe of Tweedy & Co.'s latest album, so I won't repeat what they have to say. When I hear it, it leaves the impression that instead of going in to the studio in order to make The Next Great Wilco Record, they had a ton of fun with some great songs. It's an effortless listen, especially compared to previous outings, and I think it features some of Tweedy's best vocal performances to date.

Pink Flag - Wire
This is one of those punk classics I keep rediscovering. It's a perfect soundtrack to the relatively new experience (for me) of urban anomie.

OK Computer - Radiohead
This is one of those albums I know I should have spent more time with in the past. But wow, it's an emotive, dense listen that I could get lost in time and again, and at this point their melodic sensibilities hadn't gotten lost in the heroin-nod bleeps and bloops of their later albums.

Clouds Taste Metallic - The Flaming Lips
Their last album with Ronald Jones tends to get lost in the shuffle, sandwiched between the psychedelic punk bubblegum of Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, the wild experimentalism of Zaireeka, and the lush emotion of The Soft Bulletin. Be that as it may, it's one of my favorite Lips listens. The buzzsaw two guitar attack is complemented by an expanded sonic palette, and the lyrical content, while still showcasing Wayne Coyne's surreal narratives, takes on a surprisingly touching character, foreshadowing later albums. "Bad Days," the albums closing track, is one of my all-time favorite pick-me-ups.

Damaged - Lambchop
I haven't been able to stop listening to this since pattyjoe burned it for me. It's an astonishing subversion of the whole Nashville idiom. Where other bands can create a kaleidescope of moods from the sheer density of the music, Lambchop creates that same effect with its sparseness. It really is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.

So now you know, and to top it off, how about 10+1 randomly generated songs for shits and giggles?

• Kim's Watermelon Gun - Flaming Lips
• Army Bound - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
• We're Only Gonna Die - Bad Religion
• My Heart and the Real World - the Minutemen
• 21st Century (Digital Boy) - Bad Religion
• Floating Boy - Fugazi
• Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine - Brian Wilson
• Melt Away - Galaxie 500
• Something in the Way - Nirvana
• Nine Bones - Hush Arbors

And your home alone on a Friday night #11:

• Finger Lickin' Good - Beastie Boys

Unclear on the concept

Oh my:

Preparations to sedate as many as 300 horses stabled at Belgrade's racecourse to keep them calm during a Rolling Stones concert have enraged Serb animal lovers who are lobbying to have the gig moved to another venue.

[...]

The sedative would be diazepam. In Serbia it trades under the name Bensedin, a very popular drug during the 78 days of NATO air strikes in 1999, when much of Belgrade's adult population was on tranquillizers.

ORCA said that if it failed to convince the organizers to change the concert venue, it would contact the Rolling Stones directly and ask them to use their influence.

"I believe we'll succeed since such a reputable band will not allow such a stain on its record," Burazerovic said.

As for the Rolling Stones not allowing such a stain on their record, I have one word: Altamont.

On the other hand, if the animal rights activists succeed, Keith Richards will be able to have one helluva pill party.

Reacquainted with old friends

I've picked up a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for the first time since my junior year in high school and am enjoying it immensely, no, much more immensely than the first time around. The "reading snippets to teach a larger point about American literature/narrative structure" does a lot of damage to the work of art in the service of pedagogy. If we're going to have a "Great Books" curriculum, let's read the whole fucking book, no? At any rate, being able to take the time to read it slowly and savor its lyricism is proving to be especially pleasurable.

I've also rediscovered Tower of Power's epic Live and in Living Color, whose second side monster "Knock Yourself Out" powered many an acid-soaked dance party in my college days. The soul on this show is deep, the horns tight, and the funk ground-shaking. And it has a twenty-minute horn/organ showcase that is The. Shit. The only problem is that with a forty-five minute running time, it's far too short.

Revolutionary nostalgia

Henry Rollins adds his voice to this very cool photo essay of the DC punk scene back in the 80s.

Help me help myself

Is there a Scottish rock band out there that I can get into? All the ones I know, I positively can't stand: Travis, the Soup Dragons, Belle & Sebastian... hate 'em. Yo La Tengo (who I love) often sound exactly like Belle & Sebastian, and I still can't take them.

Please tell me there's a Scottish band I like. I don't want to think I'm an anti-Scottish musician bigot.

My year in music, as witnessed by discs of 0s and 1s

DR wants to spread some bloggy-list goodness, and I'm happy to oblige. I'm going to expand to the definition of albums that I bought or was given by someone else (but I'll omit my shameless archiving of the local research library's music collection). As you can tell, most of acquisitions this year were dedicated to reliving the halcyon days of the, well... halcyon-fueled late 80s and early 90s:

• The Minutemen - Post-Mersh, Vol. 3
• The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
• Willie Nelson -The Red Headed Stranger
• The Ramones - Hey! Ho! Let's Go!: Anthology
• Morphine - The Best of Morphine
• Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
• Dept. of Energy - [Eponymous EP]
• Inkwell Rhythm Makers - En-Ragophonic
• G. Love & Special Sauce - G. Love & Special Sauce
• The Beatles - Love
• The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics
• Beck - The Information
• Wilco - Kicking Television
• Nirvana - Bleach
• The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
• The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off
• Wire - Pink Flag
• Silkworm - It'll Be Cool
• Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues
• The Humblebums - The New Humblebums
• Bad Brains - Banned in DC: Greatest Hits
• Fugazi - End Hits
• Thom Yorke - The Eraser
• Sonny Rollins - A Night at the Village Vanguard
• They Might Be Giants - No!
• They Might Be Giants - Here Come the ABCs
• Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow

Passing the baton on to y'all, ash, dave, and pattyjoe.