Heartache With Hard Work

Y’all probably know the story on Ani DiFranco, so I’ll keep it short. She burst on the scene in 1990 with a self-titled album of complex, beautiful, haunting songs in the folk tradition, a unique guitar picking style, and a talent for lyrics. Since then, she has released an album pretty much every year (sometimes more than one), and experimented with a large number of musical styles.

She turned down all offers of signing to a major and instead started her own label Righteous Babe Records. She has continued to be one of the most powerful voices for the Left in American songwriting and politics. And she has continued to write beautiful songs about more mundane (but no less important issues) of people’s daily lives: love, hard times, good times, her own unlooked-for role as a spokeswoman for a generation of woman, etc.

I haven’t liked everything she’s done over the years. She has been so prolific that one could hardly expect every song to appeal to every person. In particular, her work of the last 10 years has been a lot more spotty in terms of my tastes. However, she has a new album Reprieve due out on August 8. From what I’ve heard so far, this is my favorite album by her since 2001’s double-disc Revelling/Reckoning.

You can listen to one track Hypnotized directly from her website (either a streaming version, or an early live version from 2004). It’s a quiet, beautiful song with that almost effortless feel that is, in reality, so difficult to create. And unlike some of her other more recent work that I haven’t been able to get into, it’s quiet and simple without feeling boring.

Half-Assed

This song sounds more like a “traditional” indie-guitar song than almost anything else she has ever done. It’s got enough of the Ani bite to it to give it a unique feel, but it’s interesting to see her try out her pop-song chops.

And, while I’ve got your attention, here’s a couple of my old favorites from her.

Letter to a John (live)

I’m not sure where this version of this song is from. She has a number of live versions on her live albums, but I’m pretty sure this one is from somewhere else. Regardless, it’s my favorite take on the song, with a great edge to it to complement the cutting lyrics.

32 Flavors (live)

This is, by far, my favorite of her songs. The original version is nice enough, but it’s this one from the Living in Clip live compilation that really shines. It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful song. In some ways, it reminds me a lot of Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” in that both songs blow you away with their emotional energy, despite vocals that rarely rise above a hushed whisper.

Both Hands

This song is from her very first album, back at the tender age of 20. It’s raw, lovely, and heartbreaking. It is frankly astonishing how full it can sound given that it’s just her and her guitar.

Well, Mexico played a fantastic game, scoring almost immediately and then taking Argentina 120 minutes, but ended up losing what might have been the best match of the World Cup so far. This means (after the humiliation of BOTH the US and Czech Republic failing to advance to the Round of 16) that all three of my favorite teams have been knocked out. Germany put Sweden away in the first 12 minutes earlier today, which sets up what could be one of the strongest pairings for the whole tournament with a Germany v. Argentina match in the quarterfinals.

Of the teams that remain, my new loyalties lie with Ghana, England, and Argentina (especially against Germany). And, while cheering for Brazil seems a little too close to cheering for the Yankees, I do love watching them play and certainly wouldn’t be too upset if they won themselves another one. I do love that there is one hegemon in football and it’s not some European team or the US or something, but a team from South America.

In other Mexico news, I finally got around to loading my pictures from the Mexico trip onto my computer, and I’ll post a couple of them tomorrow (hopefully) when I have a better internet connection and can load the images.

For now, a band that I’m a little bit late to post on (I think May was the designated month for bloggers to hype them), but I’ve been enjoying them so much that I wanted to post now, even if I’m coming a little late to the show.

Sambassadeur sure sound French (the name, the vaguely Bohemian instrumentation), but they turn out to be Swedish, most reminiscent of another great Swedish band, The Cardigans. They write insanely catchy indie-pop songs, a little bit of twee and a great beat, along the lines of some of my other current favorites: Camera Obscura, The Young Republic, etc.

For your listening pleasure, here’s a couple songs from their most recent EP Coastal Affairs, which is available at www.labrador.se.

Kate
Think Nothing Of It

These are perfect songs for a beautiful summer day. Listen to them, relax, and enjoy the sunshine.

Mojave 3 – Puzzles Like YouAnother “catching up” post for today. I talked about Mojave 3 back in April, when all I had was the demos for their new album Puzzles Like You. That record was released earlier this month, and is every bit as good as I had hoped. Like I said then, it’s quite different from most of their prior work, with most of the songs having an upbeat tempo. There are still a few of the slower songs, but on the whole this is much more jangle-pop than it is pure folk-ballads.

All three of the songs I talked about before (Breaking the Ice, Puzzles Like You, and Big Star Baby – links are for the demos) are as good or better in their final form. They’re a bit more polished, but still have more than enough of the organic feel of the lo-fi demos to keep you honest. The one that gains the most is “Big Star Baby” which felt a bit too scratchy the first time around, but now floats effortlessly. I won’t link to the new versions of those songs, since they aren’t substantially different from the demos, and you can probably track ’em down yourself.

Instead, here’s two other great tracks from the album.

Ghost Ship Waiting
Running With You

Both of these follow along the same lines. A quicker tempo, some well-placed synths, keyboards, that jangly guitar, and Neil Halstead’s velvet voice.

Much like the Big Buildings album I talked about yesterday, I haven’t had much time to listen to this one, but I know I’ll spend a lot more time with it, and won’t be at all surprised if it ends up on the year-end list of best albums for 2006. It isn’t stunningly good, but there’s not a bad song, and quite a few very nice ones.

World Cup update: Tunisia did their best to upset Spain, only to see the wheels fall off in the final 20 minutes, and end up losing 3-1. The commentators were international for this game, which was a welcome relief. The comments from the American folks have been pretty bad.

Ukraine came roaring back from getting pummelled by Spain to win 4-0 and restore their goal-differential to even, giving them a solid chance to escape this round. Yesterday, France scored their first goal since winning the whole thing in 1998, but still failed to actually win a game, and Brazil snoozezd their way to a 2-0 victory.

Y’know, none of the teams this year have really looked dominating. Argentina’s 6-0 thumping notwithstanding, none of these teams have looked like cohesive entities, ready to execute plays, play tight defense, and force the other team to run for their lives. England, Brazil, Germany, etc. They’ve all won their games of course, but some of them have been pretty ugly, and it’s been against relatively weak competition. Maybe Brazil will kick it into gear in the next round, but I would say they look eminently beatable, except that no other team has impressed me enough, either.

We’ll see. That’s what makes this all so exciting.

First things first: the US is still in it! They looked like a completely different team today. They tied Italy 1-1, and could VERY easily have won the game. Until the final 10-15 minutes, they spent most of the game in control of the ball, created a number of scoring opportunities, and looked good. It was a penalty-filled game, with 3 separate red cards issued (resulting in a 10-on-9 game for pretty much the whole second half). It was also just about the most excitement for futbol I’ve ever seen in the US. I watched the game in John Harvard’s in Harvard Square and it was pretty packed with fans, to the point where they even switched off the Red Sox game so that every single screen in the place could show the match. When the US appeared to score the go-ahead goal to make it 2-1 the whole place went nuts, and it did so again 15 seconds later when it was called back. Good times.

I was both happy and sad to see the Czech Republic get upset by Ghana. It helps the US’s chances (they qualify for the chance to get beaten up by Brazil now if they can beat Ghana and Italy beats the Czechs), but it hurts the Czech’s (my #2 team) chances.

I’m 19-for-26 in predicting the results, leaving me tied for first in the MP3 Blogger League. It’s pretty impressive, I know. Of course, now that I’ve mentioned it, I’m sure I will quickly plummet. Anyways, enough on the World Cup, how about music?

Big Buildings is a band out of Chicago (on the Stars/No Stars label) who makes some of the best sloppy-drunk-bar-rock out there. I could list off a bunch of great bands to compare them to (The Replacements, Wilco, the Stones, etc.), but one thing I really enjoy about them is that they feel so much more authentically personal than any band I’d be able to reference that you’ve actually heard of. By which I mean: they really sound like the local band that plays at the bar on weekends. But much better. They’re like the Platonic ideal of that band.

I talked about the truly fantastic sonng “Other Days” about two months ago, and have finally gotten a chance to hear the whole album Water Everywhere. I will say that “Other Days” is pretty clearly the standout track from the album. Still, the rest of the album has a lot going for it. I need to spend a little bit more time with it to see how it grows on me. But at the very least this is a rousing good time. At most, it could be one of the better albums of 2006.

Here’s a couple of my favorite songs…

The aforementioned Other Days
Saskatchewan (which gets bonus points for being named after a Canadian province)
Do You Lack Imagination?

A few MP3s are also available at their myspace page. Listen to them, then buy the album.

Worst…concert…ever.

Okay, that’s not fair. I definitely went to some concerts when I was in high school that were worse. Of course, those were bands composed of other people from my high school. The Eels, on the other hand, are on of my favorite bands of all-time. I’ve wanted to see them live for almost a decade (“Novocaine for the Soul” was my introduction to them in the Fall of 1996). Their first two albums (Beautiful Freak and Electro-Shock Blues) are among my favorite albums of all-time. So what happened?

Well, some backstory: I don’t go to many concerts. Part of this is because I live in Hanover, NH, and am busy traveling most of the time, so it’s not too convenient to make it to shows. But more than that, there are a couple things I really dislike about live shows, so I’m rarely motivated to go. ALL of those things (well, minus one) were in full effect tonight.

First, concerts are too loud. WAY too loud. Am I the only one that thinks this? I prefer to hear music, not be assaulted by it. Especially since the acoustics in most indie venues are mediocre at best, the feedback and whines are truly piercing at 100 decibles. The concert tonight was, by far, the loudest I have ever heard. Stunningly loud. I plugged my ears the whole time and it was still too loud. Back home, my dad’s house is directly under the flight path of the planes from the naval base. This concert was several magnitudes louder than an EA-6B flying 50 feet overhead. I honestly can’t understand how the people who listened to the show without protecting their ears didn’t suffer brain hemmorhages.

Second, most of the time, live stuff doesn’t sound as good as it does on the record. Some bands are clearly more focused on their performances, and put on a great show. But a lot of bands just attempt to re-create the sound of the original and it comes out at 80% quality. The re-creations tonight were okay, but nothing special, and most of the re-interpretations (with the one exception of the rocking version of “I Like Birds” to close the show) were inferior.

Third, there are very few bands who have all good songs. When I listen to music at home, I can skip over the stuff I don’t like. When I’m at a show, they insist on playing it. This was the main problem tonight. I like the Eels because so many of their songs have such a powerful emotional core. They are beautiful, light, touching. However, on their recent albums, there’s been a lot more of the noise-feedback-screeching songs and a whole album (Shootenanny) of garbage-generic-alt-pop-rock. I own both Souljacker and Shootenanny but haven’t listened to either (except for “Fresh Feeling”) in years. Until tonight, when I was reminded of a whole host of songs I had happily forgotten.

Fourth, stage presence is tough. Some bands are fun. They joke, tell stories, etc. That’s great. Some bands seem shy. They don’t say anything except “thanks” and look astonished that you paid money to watch them. That’s also great. But lots of bands unsuccesfully try to generate some kind of presenc. Tonight was the worst example of that I’ve ever seen.

The show began with about two minutes of unbearably loud feedback while a guy in a security shirt stood on the stage. Finally, the rest of the band came out, in full Unabomber gear. For the rest of the show, the three main band members had basically no involvement with the crowd at all. This was not a shy reserve, it was a deliberate refusal of acknowledgement. The big security dude, though, spent a number of songs air-boxing, made random comments in between songs, stood there looking menacing, etc. I can’t really think of any way to describe the atmosphere but to say it was incredibly masculine (Hunter would have been aghast). Given that I like the Eels because of the emotional core of their music, this was incredibly jarring, and gave the entire show a bitter taste.

Fifth, jam sessions. Once again, am I the only one who just gets bored? Yes, you can generate feedback. Congratulations. Welcome to 1965. Just because I like a song at 4 minutes doesn’t mean I want to hear minor variations on the same theme for 15 minutes. Tonight, I was treated to an approximately 13-minute tuning session version of “Not Ready Yet” which included a substantial section where Mark Oliver Everett left the stage, leaving his guitar in the care of the air-boxing guy. What he needed to do offstage for 5 minutes in the middle of the show, who knows?

Sixth, the smoke. Just gross. Thankfully, Massachusetts bans smoking indoors so at least I was saved from that tonight.

All that said, many of the other people in the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves perfectly well, so who knows? I just know that I love the Eels, but not only would I not pay 20 dollars to see them again, you’d probably have to pay me the 20 bucks to sit through another show. If the show hadn’t been in a theater (meaning I was in a seat in the middle of a row), I would have left halfway through.

Anyways, I was planning on doing a big thing on the Eels, talking about some of my favorite songs by them, and posting a bunch of rare stuff, a big extravaganza. But frankly I’m way too fed up with them to face it. Maybe in a week when the bad taste from the show is gone…

For now, sorry about the rant, and I’ll return to posting about enjoyable musical experiences tomorrow.

Tim Easton – Ammunition

Tim Easton’s new album Ammuniton is out. I talked about some of the demos from it a few months ago. The full thing is good – the demos have been cleaned up, improved, and the other songs are pretty good, too. I don’t think it’s quite as good as his last disc, though I’ll need to give it a few more listens to really decide. There certainly aren’t any standout tracks like Poor Poor LA though it’s quite solid the whole way through.

A couple songs to whet your appetite:
Next to You
I Wish You Well

I’m back in the States now and will be posting a bit more regularly, but it’s going to be a summer with a lot of traveling, so daily updates are probably not too likely. I’ve got a pretty big backlog of stuff I want to talk about though, so it’ll be somewhat regular.

AM Radio

Good news in the World Cup: my second-favorite team demolished their opponent. Bad news: my favorite team got demolished. The Czech Republic beat the US 3-0, which puts them in good position to make the next round, but means the US is in serious trouble. They now need to beat Ghana and Italy (which may be pretty tough) to qualify, and even if they do, there´s a good chance they´d end up playing Brazil in the octofinals. Oh well.

Today is my last full day in Mexico. I´ve got an overnight bus to Mexico City and then a plane back, so next time I post it´ll be from the States. Today, I want to talk about Kevin Ridel. Rivers Cuomo has called him “my favorite songwriter in the world.” Now, I wouldn’t go nearly so far myself, but that’s still a pretty strong endorsement. The two actually used to be in a band together in the pre-Weezer days. The band was called Truth and it was…ahem…a Christian metal band.

How times have changed. Now Ridel is the frontman for AM Radio, a band which is exactly what it purports to be: a slice of good ol’ fashioned AM power-pop. At times, they veer a little too far into the sort of “anthemic” that took over the airwaves in the late 90s, but on the whole, you can trust these guys to take a riff, keep it simple, and build a great melody out of it.

They made a minor splash in 2003 with their album Radioactive (you know that song “I Just Wanna Be Loved”? Yeah, that’s them), though frankly I think it’s the worst of their work. Overproduced, too much of that “frat-rock” feel. Ridel is much better when he’s just letting loose with the indie-pop.

Accordingly, by far their best song is from their first album, now out-of-print and basically impossible to find:

Final Destination

A great beat, those crunchy guitars, and fantastic singing. Back when three guitarists met a drummer for the very first time, this is what they were hoping for.

For more songs, check out their Myspace page, or go to JasonPenick.com, where you can also download some tracks from Ridel’s old band: Peel. I’ll recommend “Summer Song” in particular.

By the way, that page claims AM Radio is no more, but their website seems to disagree. Anyone know the real answer?

No music, just wanted to say that Trinidad and Tobago TIED Sweden today. Unfortunately I had to get on a bus about 20 minutes into the second half, but what I did see was glorious. T&T were clearly severely outgunned, but they played like maniacs, the goalie (the second string goalie, no less) made a couple great saves, and Sweden just kept looking more and more frustrated. It will still be pretty tough for T&T to make it to the next round, but wouldn´t it be awesome if they did?

In other news, I am settled in back in Oaxaca city for two days and then it´s back to the States. While I´m here, though, I´ll be able to watch Mexico (hopefully) beat the bejesus out of Iran tomorrow, and the US v. Czech Republic game on Monday (which I want the US to win, but I sure do like the Czechs, too).

So far, I´m 4 for 5 in picking the results (no, I didn´t have faith in Trinidad and Tobago, sadly).

Picks for tomorrow:
The Netherlands over Serbia-Montenegro
Mexico over Iran
Portugal over Angola

Elf Power

Finally away from the coast, now we are up in the mountains at San Jose del Pacifico. It´s about 30 degrees colder and a lot less humid. Also, the World Cup begins today, which is pretty exciting. I´m cheering for the US, the Czech Republic, and Mexico. Once I get back to the States, I may write some more about it. For now…

Talk about big shoes to fill. As the new kid on the block at Elephant 6 in the mid-90s, Elf Power started out in the shadows of giants. Moreover, for a lo-fi jangle-pop band out of Athens, the overwhelming presence of R.E.M. surely cannot be ignored. And then, as if all that wasn’t enough, they took on a name which invites comparison to the Elves of lore. There is elf power and then there is Elf Power. I mean, sure Legolas does some neat stunts, but he ain’t no Gil-Galad.

Despite these obstacles, Elf Power has managed to remain prolific, producing quite a few good songs and a couple great ones over the past decade. Their new album Back to the Web came out in April, and while it bears a number of resemblances to their past work, it’s certainly not a re-tread.

While their earlier works drew primary inspiration from the name of the band, with a liberal dab of fantasy settings, and a lot of power pop, this album is a darker, slower, and more lush record. This album owes much more to folk traditions than the indie-pop of their older records. While this experimentation is certainly to be admired, and sounds great when well-done, there are times when I can’t help but wish they had stuck a little closer to the script.

There are segments of the album that feel like unfulfilled promises. They develop some interesting themes but there’s just not enough punch to the songs to elevate them. Indeed, the whole second half of the album falls victim to this problem. I don’t dislike any of the songs, but neither am I particularly infatuated with any of them.

The first half, however, is extremely well done, culminating in my two favorite songs:

Peel Back The Moon, Beware!
23rd Dream

The first track, a tale of long glances and love (perhaps in vain?) amidst the rain, exemplifies the best of the jaunty, lilting appropriation of the folk tradition. “23rd Dream” is the counterpart, moving more slowly though the banjo (I think) dances on top of the more foreboding main theme. If all of the album could have sustained the strength of these songs, this could have been a truly significant record.

Nevertheless, I’d still recommend the album, especially to those who enjoyed past Elf Power albums, or other Elephant 6 groups. While it may not all that I hoped it could be, there is a lot to be said for making the effort, and it remains a very pleasant listen.

The Hidden Cameras

Hola from Mazunte, Mexico. Puerto Escondido was amazing, but Mazunte (just a little further down the coast) is great, too. A lot less people here–in some ways it feels a little bit like a ghost town, with all of these restaurants and posadas for tourists but only a few dozen actual people. I think it’s on the upswing though, with more people to come in the years ahead. Justifiably so, since it is beautiful here. Anyways, a little bit of time for music, even though the beach calls me…

Let me throw some bands at you: The Polyphonic Spree, The Magnetic Fields, Morrissey, Brian Wilson, Belle and Sebastian. Now let me mention some instruments: guitars, the glockenspiel, the tambourine, about a million kinds of strings, bells, piano, trumpets, hand-claps, and the kitchen sink. Now imagine if all those bands were playing all those instruments, all in the context of a Broadway musical about a bunch of gay gospel-singers.

Impossible to imagine? Most likely. Fortunately, The Hidden Cameras are here for us, so we don’t have to imagine.

Named in after (or, in recognition of) Michel Foucault’s take on the panopticon, with songs about urine, the joys of sex (mostly of the gay variety, but they consistently expand the scope of their songs to include everyone), and with a song that embodies what I sometimes think might be the best response to the Right’s attempt to make gay marriage illegal: why not go further and ban all marriage?

Here is that song and one other from their 2003 album The Smell of Our Own.

Ban Marriage
Boys of Melody

“Ban Marriage” is the song that made me fall in love with this band. Ridiculously fast-paced, with lyrics that tumble out so quickly they almost stumble on themselves, and a rousing chorus that bursts out with “Ban marriage!” this is a song that is simply a joy to listen to.

“Boys of Melody” takes longer to build and is one of the less “topical” songs. It is simply about the the joy of summer on the beach. It’s a little sappy, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need.

And, you can head over to Brooklyn Vegan for “Music is My Boyfriend” from Mississauga Goddam.

And, while I’ve never seen them live, I hear they put on an amazing show. So I’m keeping my eyes open for the next time they come by.