Heartache With Hard Work

I’ve alluded several times to the Springsteen show I saw last weekend without going into detail. Well, after a long day working on grad school applications and watching my Royals lose the game deep into added time I’m finally ready to try and explain just how amazing the show really was.

First things first, let me just say the the Boss (and the whole E Street Band) can still rock. It helps that the new record is chock full of songs that fit well into a stadium atmosphere. Of course, one of the brilliant things about Springsteen has always been that he is able to cloak introspection, subtlety, and character sketches in the guise of full-bore rock and roll. Still, Magic does it better than any of his albums since Born in the USA – and might very well be his best record since the days of Reagan, too. So it was no disappointment that close to half of the songs (9 out of 23, actually) were from the new album.

Sure, in a perfect world, I’d probably trade out, say, “Last to Die” for “The River” and “Gypsy Biker” for “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” But there’s something vaguely depressing about going to a show just to hear a band play a bunch of 20 year old songs. Instead, we were treated to a nice set of the old favorites, but also got a strong sign that The Boss is no relic. Magic is a significant record not (just) because it’s the from Springsteen, but also because it’s got a bunch of flat-out great songs.

All that is to say that the show was worth every penny of the 80 bucks or so we spent. They had as much energy as anyone I’ve ever seen, which would be pretty impressive even if they weren’t all pushing 60. And sure, they’re not playing four-hour sets anymore, but they did fill out a good two hours and fifteen minutes, with virtually zero filler time.

The highlights are almost literally too many to list, but a quick summary has to include a bruising take on “The Promised Land,” a version of “Girls in their Summer Clothes” that melted my heart, and a blistering “Badlands” which got all 20,000 people singing. And, when they left the stage immediately after, the calls for an encore took the form of the entire crowd humming the refrain together.

And then that encore. When, out of the cheers and screams I heard that opening piano line from “Jungleland” I was almost floored. I mean, it’s only my fourth favorite song on Born to Run, but there’s just something magical about it, a grandiosity that only the Boss could ever pull off. And where I could have imagined hearing almost any other song, I simply never would have guessed this one. It was pulled off to perfect effect, and ten minutes later we emerged from the haze, breathless and firm in the belief that there was simply no way he could top it.

And then, of course, we were proved wrong as they burst immediately into the opening riff from “Born to Run” that virtually defines rock and roll. And when he sang “together Wendy we’ll live with the sadness / I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul” nothing has ever felt more true.

I could go on and on. But suffice it to say that it was a truly amazing experience, and one I hope to be able to tell folks about when I’m old. If you love music, you owe it to yourself to get out and see this show while you’ve still got the chance.

So what about the record itself? As I said above, I think there’s a strong argument to be made that it’s his best since Born in the USA, with the only serious competition coming from The Rising. The main reason for this is that he abandons most of the pretenses that interfered with his other recent work. It’s strong from top to bottom unlike The Rising, it rocks unlike Devils and Dust or Tom Joad, and it’s delightfully grim.

My biggest complaint is that it all sounds a little bit too unexpected. There are no bad songs, but there’s also nothing that absolutely slays me (like “My City of Ruins” for example), and not enough songs which break character.

By that I mean that everything fits a little too perfectly into the mold – it’s a album about platitudes and grand concepts, not one about individual people and complicated lives. Too many of these songs feel like they could have been written about anyone. And while I love the everyman thing, an everyman story is only interesting because of the details. You want
something specific to hang your hat on so the similarities have a background against which they can reveal themselves against.

Girls in Their Summer Clothes – Bruce Springsteen

Given that, it’s no surprise that the two best songs are the ones that feel the most personal. “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” may be one of his finest efforts at establishing a setting in decades. I’m generally a sucker for this type of song anyways, and few can do it as well as Springsteen when he’s on his game. You can almost feel the years slipping by. It’s full of pain, and plaintive beyond words. It’s also one of the prettiest songs I’ve heard in years.

“Long Walk Home” is easily the best example of what I think he was trying to do with this record. The underlying theme on a Springsteen album is always redemption (or the lack thereof), but even in his best songs, he has rarely been able to meld the personal story into the broader political manner in such an unforced manner. The section where he says:

You know that flag flying over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone
Who we are, what we’ll do, and what we won’t
…
It’s gonna be a long walk home

I’m not sure there’s anything more to say than that. It’s about coming home and finding that everything has changed. It’s about a country asking itself how we got where we are. And it’s a perfect summation of a message that I think progressive folks should always be talking about: the thing that makes America great has very little to do with our power or our guns or our
ability to sell widgets. It’s really just about “who we are, what we’ll do, and what we won’t.” And we’ve lost our way, which just means it’s time to start acting how we know we should. It seems simple, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

He also strives to make this point on “Living’ in the Future” but here the delicate subtlety is replaced by bombast. It’s by no means a bad song, but it’s also just a little too obvious for comfort. Similarly, “Last to Die” packs a big punch but lacks the subtlety necessary to transcend simple sloganeering.

Still, these are minor complaints. If you haven’t picked up an album from Bruce in a few years, this is definitely the one for you. And if you have, well you’ve probably already got your copy.

FYI: here’s the full setlist of the show, for anyone interested…
Radio Nowhere
No Surrender
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason to Believe
Jackson Cage
She’s the One
Livin’ in the Future
The Promised Land
I’ll Work For Your Love
Tunnel of Love
Working on the Highway
Devil’s Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
Jungleland
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
American Land

I’ve admittedly been lax about posting this week. I don’t even have a good excuse, except that I’ve spent the last five or six days in a whirlwind of board games, Bruce Springsteen, Veronica Mars, and Thanksgiving feasting.

So in anticipation of a return to some real posting soon, let me just say that Illuminati is great, The Boss is called the boss for a reason, season 3 of V Mars may not be quite as good as the first two but is still better than anything else on TV, and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Huge plates of stuffing, mushroom gravy, cranberries, corn on the cob, honeyed yams with brown sugar, ginger and cinnamon, corn bread with honey, green beans, peanut soup, pumpkin pie…it was a full vegetarian feast.

It’s also a nice day to reflect on friends and family. It’s a bit of a cliche , but we’ve all got a lot to be thankful for. And it’s nice to take the time to really consider it now and again.

That promised post on Bruce will hopefully be ready tomorrow, but for now, let’s just give thanks.

Thanks – Cloud Cult

I’ve got a lot of other stuff going on, so no time for a full post now, but let me just say that ZOMGS Bruce Springsteen’s live show completely lives up to the hype. Two hours and fifteen minutes of solid rock and roll, no let up even for a second. And the E Street Band was in fine effect, too. I know it’s pricey, but it really is worth every penny.

Full review of the show (and his new record) coming later this week.

The Shout Out Louds are yet another band from the land of lutefisk, the welfare state, and Abba. But while most of the Swedish bands I talk about are focused primarily on bright and sunny pop music, these folks clearly are a lot more interested in Robert Smith than anything else. It’s all here: the rat-a-tat drums, the sulky yet inspired vocals, and a whole host of guitar lines straight out of Disintegration. Indeed, their newest record Our Ill Wills is easily the best Cure record I’ve heard in years.

It’s the sound of lost days and easy reminiscence, of the reckless energy of youth, of hesitant touches and furtive kisses. Most importantly, it’s the sound of the ill-defined space in between our broken hearts and our truest love.

It opens with one of the finest love songs of the year. With a combination of rollicking percussion, clanging bells, a dancing guitar riff, and soaring strings, “Tonight I Have to Leave It” is sure to elevate your heart-rate. And it demonstrates exactly what is so intriguing about this band: an ode to true love written in terms of rejection. Love is defined by its absence, in shallow relationships and meaningless connections, and in the need for escape.

A second standout track is the deliciously bitter “You Are Dreaming” with its rousing, desperate chorus: “Say what you say, I am listening, I am all ears / But if you still believe I’m thinking of you, you’re dreaming.” Few have written a better song in the “I’m totally over you” genre, and few have ever exposed the contradictions of such songs more intelligently.

But the record’s clear centerpiece is the nearly seven minute long “Impossible” which manages to be both epic in scope and intensely personal.

Here, love is both transcendent and immanent. It can be observed in the smallest of details, in the way the heart leaps to the throat at the sight of her, the smell of her hair, her fingers interlocked with yours, the pit in your stomach as you remember the lost times and wonder where it all went wrong. However, it is also a universal. Your eyes lose focus and suddenly you touch the hundreds, thousands, millions of other torn souls…each one unique, but all of us looking up in supplication, asking for something we cannot even understand, much less put into words.

It’s impossible, we know, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. And so all we can do is listen, and remember, and forget…

Impossible – Shout Out Louds
You Are Dreaming – Shout Out Louds

Here it is, in all its glory: the 30 minute Two Towers, as written and performed by the Dartmouth Forensic Union and the Dartmouth Physics Department.

That’s me as Gandalf, Faramir, a few random orcs, and the stunt double for Sam.

I’m curious what percentage of jokes people actually get – just a warning, if you don’t know who Joss Whedon is, have never seen Star Trek, are unfamiliar with physics, or don’t have a deep and passionate knowledge of the original material there’s probably a lot that isn’t going to make sense. But hopefully it’s still enjoyable regardless…

And, for the musically-inclined here’s a few songs from the (very fine, I must say) soundtrack:

Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits – Magnetic Fields
Stan – Eminem
Styrofoam Boots/It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright – Modest Mouse
The Man Comes Around – Johnny Cash

I’ve got no time for the next few days to post, so I thought it would be a good idea to kick in the way-back machine and (re)mention an old favorite that most of you have probably never heard. The band is Super Deluxe, they were briefly big in the Northwest in the mid-90s, and for the brief period they were around they were possibly my favorite band on the planet.

At that time, I felt incredibly special because I knew I had discovered the next big thing, and would be able to brag for the rest of my life about how I had seen them before they were huge.

Unfortunately, the dream was not to be. They had two (fantastic) albums and then faded into obscurity – the magic lost. And in the final act of indignity, as I was looking them up again recently I discovered that even their Wikipedia page had been scrubbed. A true 21st century end to a classic tragedy.

My full reminiscence on the band can be found here.

She Came On – Super Deluxe
Years Ago – Super Deluxe
Holly’s Dream Vacation – Super Deluxe

Earlier this year I confessed my love for “Like a Prayer,” and I’ve very recently developed a moderate music-crush on Lavender Diamond. Which means I was quite excited to see that they have undertaken a cover of the 80s classic for their part in a Madonna covers project called Through the Wilderness from Manimal Vinyl.

Like a Prayer – Lavender Diamond

I heard about it from Paper Thin Walls who rather perfectly captured my own feelings: “you’ve got to give the band credit for knowing which track from Madge’s past would best suit their brand of quasi-spiritual, feel-good chamber-folk.” It doesn’t improve on the original (how could it?) or radically alter it (why would you want that?) – it just gives you a genuine moment of perspective on what this song sounds like to the millions who sing it to themselves on any given afternoon. And so we see that shorn of its grandiosity, it loses none of its power.

Through the Wilderness is due out at the end of the month, and they’ll be donating a portion of the profits to the Raising Malawi charity. In addition, Lavender’s Diamond’s full-length Imagine Our Love came out in May, and once I give myself some more time to listen to it in full, I’ll probably post a review.

One of my favorite (re)discoveries of last year was David Ford, who I had enjoyed as the lead man from Easyworld a few years back and who re-emerged from the woodwork with a very fine folk-driven record (including the absolutely fantastic “State of the Union” – which was my #3 song from last year).

His turnaround has been relatively quick as he’s already got the follow-up record ready. The short review is that if you enjoyed the first one, you’ll be well-served to check out Songs For The Road. The slightly longer take is that this is one of the finer singer-songwriter records I’ve heard in quite a while. While there’s no single song that comes close to matching “State of the Union” it’s far stronger overall, with virtually no weak points and quite a few tracks that really catch your ear.

Decimate – David Ford

The opening track “Go to Hell” is nothing particularly special, perhaps even a bit monotonous, but it has no pretensions of being something more than that. Instead, it’s simply the place-setter for a trio of songs about as good as you’re likely to hear in this genre. “Decimate” is a piano-driven romp, perhaps a bit repetitious, but far too beautiful for me to care. It’s followed by “I’m Alright Now” which is melodramatic, too-cool-for-words, darkly literate, and far better than you’d ever expect a song to be based on that description. And third is “Songs For the Road” an over-the-top love song that is certainly self-aware but not self-conscious in choosing to leap headfirst into the emotional whirlpool.

The other highlight is “Nobody Tells Me What to Do,” demonstrates that Ford is at his best when he really lets loose. The sensitive boy with guitar thing has its place, but it’s got nothing on the sensitive boy who is absolutely not going to take it any more.

Go to Hell – David Ford

Unfortunately, nothing else on the record quite lives up to the heights of that early set. The relatively standard (if perfectly pleasant) singer-songwriter fare of “Train” and “St. Peter” only livened up a bit when the big guns kick in for the last minute or so of “St. Peter.” And the last two songs are an unfortunate letdown – too unfocused to live up to the promise of the rest of the album. Still, these blemishes are relatively minor and only serve to knock this down from the “top 10 for the year” category into simply a very, very good record.

Made a quick trip down to Boston this weekend to The Sinister Turns, a really great band I wrote about back in July, but who have been thoroughly under-represented by the rest of the blog world. C’mon people…

Anatomy Assessment – The Sinister Turns
I Support Women In Science – The Sinister Turns

They’ve got an EP available called Turn to the Left, and it’s one of my most-listened records of the whole year. This is piano-driven pop to batter the senses and lift the soul, some of the finest hooks in years, and mighty clever lyrics to boot.

Some music takes itself very seriously and attempts to answer deep questions. Other (usually far better and more important) music accepts that life is complicated beyond our capacity to understand, but that when it all comes down you have to be able to find a way to smile. The Sinister Turns make the latter, and do a very fine job of it.

Beyond all that, they put on one of the most fun live shows I’ve seen in a long time. If you’re in the Boston, I highly recommend you check them out at the Queen’s Head Pub at Harvard on November 10 or PA’s Lounge in Somerville on November 26.

I usually cringe a little bit when people talk about 60s-inspired pop. Even though I love a lot of the music that actually created that genre, I find I have very little patience for the throwbacks. So I was a bit skeptical of The 1900s until I heard “When I Say Go” and all my doubts drifted away. I’m a complete sucker for this sort of rolling piano/bass beat and the way the chorus rises up and the piano follows along just blows me away. I could do without the guitar burst in the middle but apart from that’s it’s as close to a perfect pop song as I’ve heard in a long time.

When I Say Go – The 1900s
Georgia – The 1900s

Part of their charm is that they draw quite a bit more from The Mamas and the Papas (and maybe a little Fleetwood Mac) than most of these 60s throwbacks. There is definitely a psych element to the guitar work, but it always has the constant backdrop of folk – as it should. This is especially the case on their best songs (“When I Say Go,” “Georgia,” “City Water”). Light acoustic guitars and sunny harmonies – it’s a perfect record for celebrating the last throes of autumn.

The album is Cold and Kind, and it came out last month.