hvid stöj ser dårlige film, fordi de handler om god musik. Maria Barrett følte sig ikke inviteret til The Family Jams og fraråder andre at tro, at de er.

Indledningsvis lod jeg mig forføre af denne beskrivelse fra CPH:DOX-programmet: ”Ligesom Banhart og co.’s intime family jams – hvor alle i stor forening spiller, synger og tramper med – stråler filmen af nærvær, glæde og kærlighed til musikken.”

Denne antibefaling er naturligvis et bittert piv fra den grå non-celeb masse, og mit budskab vil muligvis kun vinde gehør blandt andre, der heller ikke havde VIP-kort til Joanna Newsom, Vetiver og Devendra Banharts åndssvage kendis-tour i USA.

Ukendte Kevin Barker (instruktør, kameramand, runner, postproduktion samt diverse), der selv var så heldig at være inviteret med, kvitterer ved at lave en film om sine fab venner.

”Kill your Darlings”
Da jeg gik ud af Empire Bio på Nørrebro hørte jeg i forbifarten ovenstående afsnitstitel ytret, hvilket faktisk rammer hovedet på sømmet i forhold til denne film. Grunden til, at det ikke er sket, kan være, at der vil være meget lidt tilbage af filmen bagefter.

Man skulle nok have været der selv…
Under The Family Jams havde jeg det lidt, som om jeg så en bekendts efterskolevideo: en masse indforstået humor, en masse øl jeg ikke var med til at drikke, og en masse fester jeg ikke var inviteret til – alt sammen indfanget af en inkompetent, selvudnævnt 16-årig kameramand med et billigt, håndholdt kamera, og løseligt klippet sammen med Windows Movie Maker.

Kvinder med harper
Kvinder med harper har længe kunnet fordreje hovedet på mænd. Joanna Newsom får klart mest skærmtid, hvor kameramanden – åbenlyst forelsket i hendes skrøbelige akavethed og hænderne, der flyver over harpestrengene – forsøger at stille skarpt på enten hende eller strengene i et klassisk harpespiller-skud. Det lykkes ikke rigtigt.

Mest om de kendte og kongelige
Misforstå mig ikke. Jeg kan faktisk godt lide dokumentarer optaget med lo fi-optageudstyr. Der er set mange vellykkede eksempler før, og det kan være et kærkomment pust til de dyrt producerede faktions-agtige dokumentarfilm.

I dette tilfælde er der tale om en almindelig (kamera)mand, der optager sin livs tur med et billigt lommekamera. Det er ærgerligt at se koncerter – hvor intime og family jam-agtige de end er – optaget håndholdt med kameramikrofonen af en kameramand, der er beruset af foræret spiritus og næsegrus beundring. Filmen er knapt redigeret, men selvfølgelig har Barker husket at sætte en stor, tydelig etiket på mennesker, der er ”kendte nok” – eksempelvis Antony fra Antony and the Johnsons, hvilket forekommer redundant i  spytslikkende grad.

Det sympatiske ved filmen er, at den er lavet i 2004 inden nogle af de turnerende kunstnere for alvor slog igennem. Her – på en filmfestival i 2009 – virker fremstillingen af deres små strabadser, deres fede fester og deres skrabede tourbus mest som irriterende selvpromovering.

Hvis du orker en dårligt optaget koncertoplevelse så vælg denne i stedet.

Links: Trailer Officiel side (jep, der er virkelig kun een side)

Joanna Newsom, the queen of 2006.

2006 was an outstanding year for music. If you disagree then you’re not my friend anymore.

I have elected to share my list from that year rather than 2005 for two reasons: 1) A strange and inadvertent hibernation I experienced in 2005 within the caves of Malaysia. 2) My recent obsession with one-upping everyone around me coupled with a strengthening of my basic arithmetic skills (2005 + 1 = 2006).

If I could do this again, of course, it’d look a lot different. Alas, my decade list will serve as an opportunity to rearrange albums based on sustained listening of old favorites and discoveries of new (also based on the unearthing of a hidden track on “Stadium Arcadium” that makes it the greatest album of 2006, if not the 21st century… just kidding).

1. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
2. Joanna Newsom – Ys
3. The Knife – Silent Shout
4. Liars – Drum’s Not Dead
5. Band of Horses – Everything all the Time
6. Thom Yorke – The Eraser
7. Islands – Return to the Sea
8. Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit
9. Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche
10. The Strokes – First Impression of Earth

Joanna Newsom in Armani; image courtesy of wmagazine.com

So W just dropped news that Joanna Newsom has a proper follow-up to Ys and the subsequent Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band EP, the particulars to which twentyfourbit.com elaborated, all of which I know about thanks to GRCA’s Emily Marks.

Now, I’m not sure why it’s taking her so long to make another full-length, which I’m assuming Drag City is releasing. Some might speculate that her hiatus might be due to her relationship with SNL’s Andy Samberg. And while I have no problem with giving Samberg a good feminist hard time, I’m not entirely sure if her absence can be attributed to playing house. With recent appearances in trendy fashion magazines like W, much as she did earlier in her career with publications like PAPER, I think it might have something to do with playing dress-up.

The boys of Lonely Island with their dates at the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards; image courtesy of aceshowbiz.com

Yikes! I realize those last two sentences might have infantilized the singer, something choruses of music critics do any time they call her voice “child-like.” What I mean is that Newsom has been mingling in the fashion world. Perhaps it’s no surprise that a long-haired, full-lipped, leggy white lady recording artist can get designers to take notice. However, I find it particularly interesting who she’s syncing up with, how this might help construct her image, and what all this might suggest about the commodification of indie. Because she’s not just putting on Armani. She’s friends with Rodarte, waxing pretentious about the collaborative process and wearing their designs to in-the-know, downtown fêtes. 

Joanna Newsom representing Rodarte's Fall 2008 collection; image courtesy of obsoleteantics.blogspot.com

Sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, who created a label honoring their mother’s maiden name, Rodarte, have made quite a splash in the fashion world and on the red carpet over the past few years. They seem like cool ladies with whom I’d definitely want to watch some movies. Yet I’m still on the fence about their decidely avant-garde design aesthetic. I almost like a lot of it, but it gets way too drapey and twee at times — particularly when factoring in the cost.

Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon’s dresses for the 2009 Oscars were vivid shades of pink and blue, but the knotty bodice patterns and woozy detailing made me a bit nauseous. Similar situation with the dress Tilda Swinton wore for a premiere of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – loved the color palette, wanted to rip off the sleeves. And in theory, I like the Rodarte sweater Kristen Stewart wore in last January’s Teen Vogue, but in actual practice, I have a hunch that I could find some moth-eaten angora free of charge if I just brave the family attic. 

Cute sweater or is Kristen Stewart just wearing the empress's new cardigan?; image courtesy of flickr.com

That said, I like that Rodarte work with retailers like the Gap and Target to make their clothes more accessible and affordable. And they have made some killer, coveted items that I’d snap up if I had the money.

Reese Witherspoon's minty fresh Rodarte minidress; image courtesy of girladvantage.com

Michelle Obama wore a 2007 Rodarte dress to meet with Queen Rania in April 2009; image courtesy of paulrfrost.blogspot.com

But Newsom and Rodarte seems an interesting match. Though musicians pairing up with designers is nothing new (see also: Cher and Bob Mackie, Madonna and Jean-Paul Gaultier, Courtney Love and Christina Aguilera representing Versace, M.I.A. representing Marc Jacobs), something seems pretty perfect with the alignment here. Perhaps with the three ladies’ talk about collaborative processes, we’ll get to see a Newsom-designed collection, as we did with Chloë Sevigny’s 2008 collection for Opening Ceremony.

Chloë Sevigny models her own designs for Opening Ceremony, convincing this blogger that t-shirts can be successfully paired with strapless dresses; image courtesy of stylefrizz.com

This pairing might be read alongside what commercial ventures Newsom has entertained. In an era that has seen many independent artists rely upon advertising and television shows to get their music heard, Newsom’s music has been featured in several places. Often she has elected that her music be used in documentary work. However, The Milk-Eyed Mender’s “Sprout and the Bean” was featured in Victoria’s Secret’s Dream Angels ad campaign. Note that her voice is not heard in this spot.

Or it could be that a dress is just a dress. Which is fine too. But while I’m excited about hearing Newsom’s new album, I’ll have two labels on my mind when it comes out: Drag City and Rodarte.

Sometimes music monday is a really good thing.

1. really good one came on first thing this morning.

2. jenny is adorable. plus a cameo from regina spektor??

3. cause let’s face it, bon iver + new moon soundtrack = ridiculously happy brittany.

4. just for a little bit of creepy factor. cause if you have seen the strangers, it’s creepy. (it’s in the trailer, but i couldn’t find the actual scene…. ) and i like creepy.

Viel Neues gab es von Joanna Newsom seit der Veröffentlichung ihres zweiten Albums “Ys” vor drei jahren nicht zu hören. Sie spielte zwar haufenweise neue Songs auf ihren Konzerten, ihr Label Drag City kündigte gar schon den Release des Nachfolgers für diesen Herbst an – doch dann passierte weiter nichts. Joanna tobte sich lieber im Mode-Bereich aus mit Bildern für Armani wie dem oben und weiteren Shootings

Jetzt scheint sie aber zur Musik zurückgefunden haben und nimmt in Tokyo neue Songs auf. Warum dort? Nach Van Dyke Parks hat sie sich diesmal für Jim O#Rourke, bekannt von Wilco, Sonic Youth und auch als Solokünstler, als Arrangeur und Dirigent entschieden und der lebt inzwischen in Tokyo. Auch in Tokyo dabei ist Newsoms derzeitgiger Freund, der Comedian Andy Samberg. Das ist natürlich Gossip, aber bis es erste Hörproben gibt, müssen wir damit Vorlieb nehmen.

High school and college. God, how I miss them already. Now I’m 22, In fucking Korea, and I work a nine to five.

Sometimes, all I want is to be splayed out next to the warm lake back home with my high school boyfriend. Or pummeling down highway 71 with my brother in his Supra. Or smoking cigarettes in stretches of desert with friends.

The angsty pain and adrenaline associated with those year is tied, inextricably, the the music I listened to.  It’s sad that this decade –  and formative chapter of life – is closing. These may not be the best albums of the 2000’s, but they’re my best albums.

2001 - Hedwig and the Angry Inch OST.

 #1)   My dad gave me this movie when I was in high school, but I never appreciated it fully until, at 17,  the first boy who dumped me forced me to watch it one January under his covers. Whenever I’ve broken up with boys, I always find myself driving through neighborhoods singing “Origin of Love.” The soundtrack is  a full-blooded, raw, sincere ode to love in its many, many forms.

2003 - Erland Oye, Unrest

#2)  Electronica music helped to build the foundation for my music appreciation, and no album (or artist) had a greater impact on me than Erlend Oye. After the death of trance/house, Oye  pumped new blood into the genre: an album that was organized, subtle, and minimal, capturing the autumnal isolation of Nordic life and blending it with restless, steady energy in modern pop.  I am in love with this man.

2004 - Animal Collective - Sung Tongs

 #3)  I blame Animal Collective for the fact that I dressed like a Native American stuck in 1970 in college. I blame them for all the weed I smoked, too.  Sung Tongs wasn’t like anything I’d every heard:   It was primitive, sensual almost, like a wild animal you could hear through headphones. They were, and still are, one of the only bands with a distinct, inimitable  style to emerge after 2000.

2006 - Joanna Newsom - Ys.

 #4) God, what the hell is that?

My first impression of Joanna Newsom, mewling and shrieking to the velvety crescendo of a harp. But her childlike lyrics and nymphette demeanor infected me, badly. Ys was a weighty album, each song a storybook. Newsom was a role model to me, so small, so powerful.

2002 - Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People

 #5 I almost can’t listen to this album. If I do, I’m transported back to high school. I’m still crying over Jeff Holman. I’m still drunk at an anime convention.  I’m playing Tetris in the hallway. I’m still sitting in a truck bed after marching band practice. I still have black hair and fake glasses and low self esteem. I still want everyone to notice me so badly, my skin hurts. It’s an Anthem for a 17 Year Old Girl.

2000 - Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica

 #6  Like BSS, It’s hard for me to shake the memories any Modest Mouse album dregs up.

The Moon and Antarctica is maybe the point when Isaac Brock went off the deep end, droning on darkly like chubbier Thom Yorke in a denser mood. But Modest Mouse transformed and adapted with this album.

Just as life was really getting bleak at 16, so was Modest Mouse. Serendipity?

2002 - Chemical Brothers - Come With US

#7) Dear Cooper: Thanks for showing me one of the greatest albums ever. I remember the poster you had in your room, and the way it sounded through the speakers in your car that I accidentally melted lard all over. It makes my ribcage shake, my heart undulate, my blood go fast, my head turn to stars, my emotions ebb and swell.  It’s a brother and a sister, at 90 mph, 110 bmps.

2001 - Daft Punk - Discovery

#8 It’s not that Daft Punk made every sucessful  dance party that I ever threw. It’s that Daft Punk made me want to dance.

I could never dance in high school. I was too busy thinking people were watching me. Discovery was so good, my body told me it was a crime not to move. And it did. And it still does.

2007 - LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

#9 This is the end of college. Like angst coincided with Isaac Brock, so fear does with James Murphey.

For me, SOS is about fear. Fear of getting old, fear of losing your friends, fear of failure, fear of being too late. And as a lot of those things happened to me towards the end of college, I held onto this.

2009 - jj - JJ N 2

#10 No one knows about, much less appreciates JJ. If this album were a color, it would be a frost covered, cobalt-blue.

Maybe I found this album right before I biked across Germany, and it lays a soundtrack for first seeing the world.  Maybe its dynamism is what appeals to me. I’m not sure sometimes. But it’s never leaving me.

Honorable Mentions:

The Books – The Lemon of Pink

Brian Wilson – Smile

Alan Braxe & Fred Falke – The Upper Cuts

Instead of going to see Zac Efron and Claire Danes standing around Leicester Square today, I figured a good pick-me-up would be to scan my YouTube Favorites list.
145 videos of “quality entertainment” for me to occupy my time with.
(Normally, Wednesdays are spent coping with a hangover from the New Cross Inn and trudging to the library.) An androgynous British musician playing the harp can change someone’s life.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sszreter

As soon as I figure out how to rip audio from YouTube videos, I will do it. And I guarantee I will just lay in bed for hours and listen to it. (I miss my record player.)

The cover of the QEH version of “Only Skin” is also gorgeous, if “yar interes-ted” in those sorts of things. Maybe it’s just me.

If  it were possible to screen friends, I would surround myself (part of the time) with (talented) musicians. I walked out of my Public Administration lecture yesterday, past the open window for the lecture room two doors down and was struck dead by this massive orchestral jam session going on. Their class is sitting in a circle, playing without sheet music. They even had someone on a harp. Which is why I bring this all up.

. . .And I stand by what I’ve said at least a dozen times: one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me was to transcribe Joanna Newsom’s “Sadie” onto a guitar. Life changing in small moments. (I wish I could’ve recorded it.)

After a little thought and self-review, I think I’d be incapable of actually seeing Joanna Newsom perform live. (I’d never turn down a chance for tickets.) But I think it’d be such an important moment to me that I’d black out. It’s unfair to hang so much on one person (although it is fair, because they have no clue who you are.) I would faint. Like little girls watching The Beatles live, I would scream and cry and then be incapable of relating the experience to anyone. Thus, a downward spiral of gorgeousness.
Those are my thoughts on that, anyway. 

BTW, educational issues from last night are now resolved, thanks to a little luck, a nice lady, and an exceptionally snippy email on my part. More apologies owed.

Here, cheer up with this photo.

This blogging malarky is a pretty good time ain’t it? Pretty glad i gave it a bosh.

I use to think people who did it were just pompous arseholes that like the sound of their own voices words a little too much. I mean, it is pretty self righteous to think that people will really care about what you have to say. Also how often do you see “I” in a blog? A bloody lot overall. It’s always YOUR thoughts.

ANYWAYS….

Joanna Newsom, Cocorosie and Regina Spektor (OLD REGINA NOT NEW!) all seem to have the same feel to me. I seem to have a category for them in my mind, it’s like a certain kind of fondness.  Now i know that I love them, I would bloody marry them all in a heartbeat. Even settle down and have some kids, get that Citroen Berlingo that i’ve always wanted. I don’t think i’ll ever get to the bottom of how i feel about them, but i know its something that I want to keep.

Anyone know what I’m on about?

Oh and heres an artist that joined the ranks, so to speak.

Ivana XL

Sundowner – Ivana XL

Sweetie Pie – Ivana XL

NOT.

EVEN.

FUCKING.

SIGNED.

Sfogliando, per motivi che non starò qui a spiegare, il bellissimo volume didattico di lingua inglese Grammar in communication (ediz. Mermaid), in particolare nella sezione dedicata alla fonetica e all’ intonazione, mi è tornata una gran voglia di leggere e tradurre testi di canzoni, cosa che ho saltuariamente provato a fare dai tre ai vent’anni circa e che mi ha permesso di imparare un inglese più o meno scolastico pur non avendolo mai studiato a scuola.

Ho letto alcuni testi dei Drones sul loro sito, perché sto ascoltando tantissimo il disco Havilah e perché sono australiani ed hanno una strana pronuncia. Li ho trovati complicatissimi: storie di viaggi esotici e di incubi mitologici, cose di questo tipo:

They come, they see
They conquer then they leave
With man-eating beliefs
Superior of death
With lineage and myth
And a half-heartedness at birth
I have the same old dream
About a tunnel by my bed
From where the stench of shit of minotaurs
Yawns like lewd and evil breath

Particolarmente intreressante, anche se ci ho messo una settimana a capirlo, è il testo di I am the supercargo, che parla di un certo John Frum e di un fenomeno assurdo chiamato “culto del cargo“. E’ una specie di religione nata nel pacifico fra le popolazioni indigene che consiste nell’adorazione dei beni portati dai Cargo occidentali.

They say “our John Frum’s coming,
He’s bringing cargo….” and the rest
At least they don’t expect to be
Surviving their own deaths
It’s probably not a good thing
To believe in all that shit
[...] They are just like all the white folks
The whites are just like them
They take pain and superstition
And then they call it something else
And they build airfields in the jungle
That no plane can land on

Per il resto ho scoperto che Gareth Liddiard dei Drones utilizza delle tecniche di “cut up” per mescolare le parole e creare frasi surreali. Il risultato mi affascina molto ma lascio perdere ulteriori tentativi di interpretazione.

Anche in Joanna Newsom (accento americano), per pura coincidenza, ho trovato un bel testo sul mare, pieno di termini specifici e molto poetico:

We sailed away on a winter’s day
With fate as malleable as clay
But ships are fallible, I say
And the nautical, like all things, fades
And I can recall our caravel
A little wicker beetle-shell
With four fine masts and lateen sails
Its bearings on cair paravel
[...] Brace and buoy the livingroom
A loom of metal, warp – woof – wimble
And a thimble’s worth of milky moon
Can touch hearts larger than a thimble
Oh my love
Oh it was a funny little thing
To be the ones to’ve seen

Non scriverò qui i miei tentativi di rendere i versi in italiano, perché non ne sono in grado. Mi piacerebbe che i testi musicali fossero trattati come la poesia, con tanto di pubblicazioni, analisi, traduzioni affidabili. Nel mondo editoriale, invece l’attenzione è scarsa ed in rete l’affidabilità è nulla.

On the cultural front, life has been unfolding quite beautifully, on the work/ housing front, I must emit a resounding, “Don’t Ask.” So lets accentuate the positive, starting with last Monday night. I went to my favorite niche Museum, yes, The Rubin. After some Indian Dahl soup in their cafe, I ventured downstairs to hear a very creative approach to the old fashioned interview. Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter was being essentially analyzed by the Jungian analyst, Harry Fogerty. Some pretty astounding things emerged from the exercise.

While, I live tweeted along, I found out that the young Dorsey, has quite an artistic/poetic brain. He spoke of his love for maps and pockets, as could be expected, but did so through the lens of Virginia Wolff, his favorite author, and by offering anecdotes about his mother (one of the first Twitter users) and his walking habit. Apparently, he makes a ritual of zigzagging across the city from one end to the other, so if your out walking after midnight under the starlight you might literally run into him. He also spoke a lot about the potential dangers of internet addiction, the crackberry and Twitter fiends. He recommends technology as a tool, to be used for good, and in moderation.

The invitations kept coming in and Wednesday after a day of shots from my newly acquired doctor (!) I caught a performance of Jennifer Muller and the Works’ piece Bench. Based on the issues captured in Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, the performance is lyrical and symbolic. Thanks to a choreography-explained session by the formidable Ms. Muller, I now know that the 7 deadly sins are danced in stages throughout the performance, with 7 couples representing the possible roads to folly. The event took place in the Chelsea Museum above the Hudson River skyline. I almost felt far from Brooklyn.

On Friday night, I checked out J.VIEWZ. I don’t know what that stands for but, they are: an Israeli Jazz band, fused with Reggae, equipped with a record scratching, hip-hop stylz DJ and an amazing vocalist. We enjoyed the way they turned the Blue Note into a cross between an international beer hall and a Joanna Newsom concert. It was all very Barcelona. Check out their cover of  MJ’s Smooth Criminal below, and email some juicy and fascinating tidbit about something if you want to win a free download or old school hard copy of the album…

If The O.C. were still around, Golden Shoulders would own the soundtrack

PREVIEW: DOWNLOAD Golden Shoulders’ “Mountain” from goldenshoulders.com

Calling Alexandra Patsavas!  I think I just discovered the most teen-soap-ready California-pop ever penned.  It has the jangly guitar line — the cooing back-up vocals — the urgent mid-track crescendos — it’s basically like a more obscure version of half the tracks on The O.C. Mix 2.

The song is “Mountain” and it comes to us, unsurprisingly, from California: the Nevada City collective Golden Shoulders have been writing ’70s-tinged retro-pop since the early 2000s.  The band has no set line-up, apart from frontman Adam Kline.  Joanna Newsom spent some time with them, as did Marc Snegg, the founder of Grass Roots Record Co.  And if that Joanna Newsom tie isn’t enough to pique your interest, consider this: Golden Shoulders play all of their shows without electricity  (no mics, amps, etc.), a feat that few other bands can claim to have attempted.

Fans of Nada Surf, Rogue Wave, The Thrills and The 88 — you will dig this.

– Caitlin Dewey, editor in chief

As it would appear i haven’t had an opinion on music since the summer i thought i’d start doing this more seasonally (as i think that affects what i listen to more than anything).

I’ve been listening quite a lot to Meursault who’re a bunch of folksy loveliness from Edinburgh. I like it because it’s a little bit abrasive, not in an obvious way, but there seems to be a bit of a sonic roughness mixed in with some lovely melody.

I also dug out my copy of the milk eyed mender by Joanna Newsom the other day because it reminds me of cold mornings and it getting dark before teatime.

and for once i posted before Cam!

Kooky, quirky broads come in all musical shapes and sizes:

Indie Kook:

Retro Kook:

Artsy Fartsy Kook:

UK Kook:

Progenitor Kook:

Feel free to add to this list!

After years of avoiding XTC – because I struggled to get on with the Nigel one – I finally made an effort this evening, ‘using’ Spotify.

Using is in scare quotes because it’s reductive. A tool-focused take on online music discovery is understandable and appropriate – most of the time.

But in the background, this time, lie:

• Half-heard play of Peter Pumpkinhead on 6music last week
• Desire to listen to a particular Joanna Newsom song tonight
• Failure to find the original in library, Youtube, Last.fm or Spotify
• A moany tweet about not finding it on Spotify
• A reply that said ‘Spotify gets me into things I wouldn’t normally listen to’

However you slice it, it’s a mess – an episode of discovery jerry-rigged on frustration, contingency and idle chat.

It reeks not of tool, but of person.

Usher (Texas, USA)
Confessions
LaFace, 2004

Discovery: Following on from yesterday’s post on Angel Deradoorian’s EP, Mind Raft, I thought I’d go for one of the albums from fellow Dirty Projector Dave Longstreth’s Guest List feature for Pitchfork. He chose twelve albums as his favourites from the decade: amongst the relatively unsurprising choices of In Rainbows, Vespertine and The Milk-Eyed Mender were some more unexpected picks, including Beyoncé’s B’Day and Justin Timberlake’s Justified, as well as Usher’s 2004 breakthrough album, Confessions.

History: Despite initially wanting to continue working with Jermaine Dupri, who had produced his previous two albums, Usher also contacted several other producers, “With this album I chose some new producers who I figured would definitely allow me to really articulate myself in a different way. Every album you gotta grow. You gotta look for something different.” After completing forty songs he submitted the record to his label but they were displeased, thinking there was something missing. Usher returned to the studio with Ludacris and Lil Jon – the songs ‘Yeah!’ and ‘Red Light’ were recorded in those sessions.

The final track listing was chosen by Usher, Dupri, Reid, and then-A&R rep Mark Pitts, based on the songs that “came up consistently more” on their individual lists of favourites, and the album was released in March 2004. It was re-released in October 2004, just 6 months later. The new version included ‘My Boo’ and ‘Red Light’- which had already leaked alongside other songs which did not appear on the album, a remix of ‘Confessions, Part II’ and ‘Seduction’. There was also an extended version of ‘Confessions Part I’ and a rap added by Jadakiss on ‘Throwback’. The label treated this new version of the album like a completely new release in terms of promotion.

Facts:

1. Confessions sold over 1.1 million copies in its first week, the highest first-week total ever for an R&B album.

2. He is a co-owner of the NBA team Cleveland Cavaliers.

3. He was ranked #47 on VH1’s 100 Sexiest Artists.

4. At 12.1 seconds, he holds the record on ‘Star Search’ for the longest note sung by a child.

5. He has a road named after him, the “Usher Raymond Parkway” in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Review: This is surprisingly decent. I remember when ‘Yeah!’ came out and I immediately decided Usher was my least favourite musician ever to exist, but even that song sounds fresh now. Even songs like ‘Bad Girl’ – which should really be the worst thing ever because seriously, Usher looks about as scary as a new-born puppy and he’s singing lyrics like “I’m ready to be bad / I need a bad girl (say yeah) / Get at me bad girl / What sexy lady’s comin’ home with me tonight?” – are OK. They’re OK because I know a song like ‘Throwback’ is going to come along with its incredible Dionne Warwick sample (as heard on Dilla’s ‘Stop’) and they’re OK because even the worst songs on this album have decent enough production and enough good melodies to make them tolerable backing music.

I think if he’d spent more time working with producers like Just Blaze and Jermaine Dupri, less time with Robin Thicke and less time making ballads like ‘Do It to Me’/'Truth Hurts’ then this could have been a really solid album. That and if he’d cut it down from 88 minutes, just to increase the replay value that little bit- it could have been great. That said, I’ve pretty much done a complete 180 in terms of my thoughts on Usher, so good job, Usher. Good job.

Practical information: Real talk. Usher. Just Blaze.

In all fairness, I hated this video as well. I wanted to love it. Joanna Newsom was even featured! But this video kind of makes me sick.

Here’s the actual video, with misquotes at the beginning and everything. (They’re Nietzsche not Twain)

Via.

And yonder, wild and blue /
The wild blue yonder looms

– Joanna Newsom, Swansea

I don’t want to depress you.

I really don’t.

So let me keep quite.

I finished reading The Fountainhead at long last. Nothing like a good novel to make a surrealistic sense of being swell up inside yourself. And now I have to write a book report on it for English class. I’ve done out a rough draft, and it begins by talking about Ayn Rand’s role in the evolution of female novelists. I make references to the echos of Rand’s writing that can be seen in the modern work of  Elfriede Jelinek and Carol Ann Duffy. God I hope my English teacher gets these references.
Yes, she is that thick.

heads cocked

uhhhh h hhh hhh “>hh “>hh “>hh “>hh “>hhh hh hh h hhhh hh h hhh
had a ____ day

um mmmsmmmm mms msmms mmmsmms
had a ____ trip

i miss everyone so much

been back in the mood for writing recently. I won’t post any of my bad poetry here, I wouldn’t put you through that.

li hui

someone I know ended up in hospital last night from swallowing all the pills in his house.
my heart goes out to him.
saviour everything

‘night

xxx

I’ve sort of posted about Joanna Newsom before, but I really must come back and give her a full post. I really hate to use the album Ys as a perfect example of exactly what I think art should be, since it is such a polarizing album. I understand why, too. I completely understand where people are coming from that hate this album. There are people who say it is unlistenable (probably not a real word).

In any case, as I understand the back story, this is an album that recounts a full year of Newsom’s life. The lyrics are directly referencing actual, real, exact events of her life. But the lyrics are incredibly abstract. The concreteness of the events that they are based on gives the songs every bit of emotion and realness as if she were telling the events straight-up. The actual lyrical abstraction into story-metaphors allows the listeners to interpret into their own situation.

I’ve put serious listening into this album at three very different points in my life. All three times I have been 100% sure that I knew exactly what had happened in Newsom’s life that she was referring to. All three times my interpretations have been radically different. This is because I was identifying so well with the emotion and metaphor in the song. I am completely baffled at my current listening, but again it fits my situation perfectly.

To me this is exactly what art should be. It should be an abstracting of real life in such a way that the viewer feels as if it is exactly their own situation.

There are some interesting cases out there that I could bring up. The first that comes to mind is Connor Oberst (at least in the early Bright Eyes stuff). It is incredibly emotive and about some really intense things. Overall, Oberst is very specific lyrically. I think in this case that is alienating. As a listener, it is hard to change the details of these specific stories to really relate to them.

One thing I haven’t put a lot of thought into is whether this interpretation of great art translates well outside of the song/poem medium. My guess is it doesn’t. It seems like it would be hard to write a novel about a specific event, but keep everything really vague so that you don’t know what the event is.

There are many, many other aspects of Newsom’s music I could go on about, but I think what I just mentioned is the key element.

Maybe I should give some examples of her lyrics. I wish I could post the entire song Sawdust & Diamonds. It is so ridiculously abstract, but as I sit here reading it, it couldn’t be any more obvious what it is about exactly. Anyway, here is a part of it:

and the little white dove
made with love, made with love:
made with glue, and a glove, and some pliers

swings a low sickle arc
from its perch in the dark:
settle down
settle down my desire

The white dove is the relationship she is in. Although, she has created the relationship with care and love, it is also ad hoc patched together in places (the fact that glue and pliers had to be used). This doesn’t matter because she still desires the person and they’ll fight through it.

then the system of strings tugs on the tip of my wings
(cut from cardboard and old magazines)
makes me warble and rise like a sparrow
and in the place where I stood, there is a circle of wood
a cord or two, which you chop and you stack in your barrow

(First off, the “system of strings” is a recurring theme. Earlier it was mentioned: there’s a light in the wings, hits this system of strings/ from the side while they swing;/ see the wires, the wires, the wires)

The dove (relationship) is being held up artificially with wires. Again, the ad hoc construction of the relationship is mentioned since the dove is made of cardboard and magazines. She sees the wires. She is aware that it is artificial in some sense.

There is evidence of her resistance to falling in love with this person (“love, you ought not!/no you ought not!”). This is probably due to her being aware of all the faults and artificiality of the relationship. Perhaps she fears that her construction isn’t strong enough and the system of strings will collapse.

But she becomes aware that every relationship and person has faults. Resisting falling in love is not an option and it overtakes her at some point (“then the furthermost shake drove a murdering stake in/and cleft me right down through my center/and I shouldn’t say so, but I know that it was then, or never”)

In any event, I certainly have never interpreted the song this way before (I used to be convinced that it was about death, actually). And it baffles me, since this must be correct. But I had just as much evidence for my last interpretation. I’m not sure I will ever grow tired of this album.

PROS: nothing is overdone | little surprises | satisfying

CONS: far too short

Surprisingly, when Bon Iver’s new EP dropped on January 20th, things were kosher.  For an album so critically acclaimed as his debut LP For Emma, Forever Ago, it seemed as though future works would be doomed to fall short in the eyes of purists. But the release did well from the beginning, entering the Billboard 200 at number sixteen.  Blood Bank, which is comprised of three new tracks plus one track left off For Emma, proves that Bon Iver is no one hit wonder.

The title track to Blood Bank – the track left off For Emma – begins with a chorus of oohs, setting the mood for the EP.  The subdued electric guitars and semi-cryptic lyrics allow Bon Iver to tell a story yet leave you questioning it.  Lyrics like “That secret that you know/ But don’t know how to tell” and “it’s just like the present/ to be showing up like this” cast a certain feeling of regret and sorrow on the track.  But unlike For Emma, the songs on Blood Bank have a more accepting tone to them.  Things may not be ideal, but everything will be alright.  The end of the title track echoes this sentiment with its repeated “I know it well…”

“Beach Baby” shows once again that Vernon is more than willing to allow his instrumental skills to take the back seat in favor of emotional song writing.  With its subtle waltz strumming and clever, melancholic melody, “Beach Baby” is easily the high point of Blood Bank.  Vernon’s voice is smoother in this piece than in any song on For Emma and is nicely matched by a solo slide guitar that takes over once the lyrics have finished.  The tragic flaw to this piece, however, is its brevity.  It is not only the saddest, most heart-felt song on the EP, but at just over two and a half minutes, it is also the shortest.  It is hard to resist putting this track on repeat.

Birth and procreation are certainly important themes in Blood Bank, and no song makes it more obvious than “Babys”.  In stark contrast to the sadness of “Beach Baby”, “Babys” rings out driving piano notes and exclaims that “summer comes/ to multiply/ to multiply!”, and there is no hiding behind the amorous line “my woman and I know what we’re for”.  Though the piece may seem out of place at first – perhaps his happiest sounding tune thus far – it serves as a much needed resolution to the heart ache of Vernon’s other songs.

The final piece, “Woods”, is a departure from the lonely-cabin folk found in most Bon Iver songs.  Layer upon layer of auto-tuned versions of Vernon’s voice are slowly added together to create a beautifully lush chorus of soulful wails.  While auto-tune seems like the very last thing one would ever expect Bon Iver to utilize, the song is masterfully crafted and legitimately sounds like it belongs with the songs of For Emma and Blood Bank.

The songs on Blood Bank certainly live up to those on For Emma, but Blood Bank has one huge flaw: the whole release is far too short.  True, it is an EP – not a full-length.  But when Vernon creates tracks that draw you in as much as those found on Blood Bank, you want to follow him a bit longer.  The EP’s four tracks come to less than seventeen minutes total – that’s shorter than Om’s “Flight Of The Eagle”, Joanna Newsom’s “Only Skin” and just about every song written by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Blood Bank is out now on Jagjaguwar on CD, 12” vinyl and digital download.

(4 out of 5 beards)

Track Listing

01. Blood Bank
02. Beach Baby
03. Babys
04. Woods