Neat. So Mr. Vile’s new record,So Outta Reach, is an EP of odds and sods from his recording session of the album Smoke Ring For My Halo.
I was reading about “Downbound Train” as I do when I download new songs. I want to learn about the history and what was going on. Nothing to flex my brain too hard, usually just poke around on Wikipedia.
Music critic Dave Marsh said that “Downbound” is one of the Boss’ worst songs! Heavy. Who is this Dave Marsh fella anyways?
Turns out Dave is pro Bruce (his wife is a co-manager of Bruce Springsteen) and he’s written a bunch of books about the man. BUT, what is more interesting is that dave marsh was one of the first people to use the term “punk rock” in a publication to describe a style of rock & roll. Now how cool is that?
I always knew that the first band to be described as “punk” was ? and the Mysterians. They had a number 1 garage rock hit in 1966 called “96 Tears.” The song doesn’t sound “punk” rock like you might hear on Jason Lamb’s Punk Show… but this was the first time a music critic described something as “punk.”
? and The Mysterians – “96 Tears”
More poking around on Wiki shows the term “punk” had been batted around in the late 60s and early 70s… but Marsh took it to describe a style of music in Creem in ’71. A member of the Fugs… used “punk” to describe his band’s sound in ’70… but for some reason, it wasn’t in the true “sense’ of the word I guess. BUT, fun fact… Fugs were the first band to have the word “fuck” show up on a recorded album. Neat.
Must be pretty cool to be THEE guy that invented a genre that gets used all the time today.
Right, so what was the point of all this?
Kurt Vile’s “Downbound Train” is a pretty good song. You should listen to it.
Somewhere out in the vastness of space… maybe 15 million light years from Earth is the spiral galaxy Messier 83. This galaxy contains six, count ’em, SIX supernovae. That is a party to the 6th power… AND multiple supernovas is spelled supernovae… or something like that. Mental.
Messier 83 gets cut down to M83 for French multi-instrumentaliest Anthony Gonzalez’s dream pop/electro project.
M83 started making music back in 2001… but he didn’t start getting traction till 2005. He got his hands dirty remixing other artist’s work. Check out this epic remix of Bloc Party’s “The Pioneers” from Silent Alarm. Whoa.
Bloc Party – “The Pioneers (M83 Remix)
2008 saw the release of Saturdays = Youth which is a great album. A super duper dreamy 80s electro-pop superset… then years. Now it is time for his 6th album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.
The first single is a free download if you’ll throw M83 your email. Small price to pay for a song that is garnering exceptionally high buzz around the internerd.
This disco-hipster romp is living on repeat right now on my MP3 machine. I think if I met Anthony I’d call him Tony and we’d be friends. He says that his new record was inspired by The Smashing Pumpkins 1996 record Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
Gonzalez says, “I saw when I was a teenager that I could dig into [the album]. It was like a treasure. If I were a teenager nowadays, I would try to find something as creative as this album. They had so much to say in their songs.”
Shut the front door Tony! I really dug into Mellon Collie as a teenager too… and the teenager living in me still wants to tuck into something as epic. With your sexy saxophone fade out at the end of this song (saxophones are so hot right now) I can already tell I’ll love this new record (due out on October 18. Vancouver show on November 12th).
yes, yes and yes. This just another song that inspires me to make-out.
***
Earlier today I posted about how great Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m Going Down” is… and a cover from Vampire Weekend. Remember that? I sure do.
Facebook friend and humanitarian Danika Whatsherface sent me a link to Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine) covering the song.
“We sit in the car outside your house
I can feel the heat coming ’round
I go to put my arm around you
and you give me a look like I’m way out of bounds
well you let out one of your bored sighs
Well lately when I look into your eyes
I’m goin down”
The first verse of the 6th single off Bruce Springsteen mainstream calling card… Born in the USA. The song is “I’m Going Down.”
Bruce Springsteen – “I’m Going Down”
Can you believe this classic tale of the standard relationship experience almost didn’t even make the cut for the album? Granted, it was between this and another Boss jammer, “Pink Cadillac” but still… such a beautiful song.
Born in the USA is such a big and polished record, but my fave songs off this disc are the more melancholy downer cuts. “I’m Going Down” or “I’m On Fire.”
On the Boss song “No Surrender” he sings that “we learned more from a 3 minute record than we ever did in school”… and that sentiment plays out in the melodrama of “I’m Going Down.” It gets all Tarantino where we start at the end of a relationship that is fizzling out then travel back to happier times, passion and excitement. It is such a sad, modern tragedy.
I am kinda glad I did because I read that Vampire Weekend does a cover of “I’m Going Down.”
“It’s one of those classic songs that has very bright music and dark lyrics. Coercing thousands of people into chanting those lyrics is pretty fun.” – Rostam Batmanglij, Vampire Weekend
I had to seek this bomber out… and wouldn’t you know it? They laid this cover down for an iTunes session.
Vampire Weekend – “I’m Going Down”
The cover by no means brings out the same emotion to me as the original. But I like it because it is sounds like a cute, “Vampire Weekend sings Bruce, adorable” kinda song.
I always enjoy VW’s style… and having them cover one of my favourite Born in the USA songs puts a smile on my face this fine Tuesday.
At the end of April, Chris Cornell performed a magical collection of songs at the sold-out Royal Theatre. He played a set that featured a diverse range of hits from his bands, solo creations and covers.
My brother CJ had the ear for the covers and picked them all out. The one that struck a chord with me the most was his take on Bruce Springsteen‘s 1982 song, “State Trooper.” You’ll find that song as cut 1, side 2 off the record Nebraska.
Bruce Springsteen – “State Trooper”
The stripped down, ghostly, folky Boss original is of course a classic… but when Chris Cornell launched into it live at the theatre; he injected it with a much needed shot of anger and desperation. As he yelped “Please don’t stop me…” wow.
I am not sure what exactly the original is about. I think CJ told me it might about being drunk-driving and getting pulled over. But I think it is more about someone needing to get somewhere quickly and the last thing they need right now is some agent of the government getting all righteous and holding them up.
because all my wisdom comes from television: “No one pays to see a one ball juggler.”
bands or record labels that disable the embedding feature on their music videos make me not want to share their great art with others. grrrr.
That is my little rant of the moment.
Here are some of my favourite bands getting play at home over the past week according to my LastFM page.
01) The Von Bondies
02) The National
02) Bright Eyes
04) The Frames
05) Explosions in the Sky
06) Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
06) The Tragically Hip
06) The Hold Steady
09) The Fratellis
09) The Flaming lips
09) Joshua Radin
09) Beck
09) Joe Purdy
09) Vampire Weekend
09) New Pornographers
The Von Bondies new record is mighty good. I am loving it the last couple days. I only put it on my computer yesterday!
Time for rant two: Pitchfork, get it together. Your new website is brutal slow on every computer I use and not very practical for me to read. Time for a new web design intern! Unless of course, they’re pulling a Nirvana. Maybe they are too popular and to get back that indie street cred they have designed a site so frustratingly difficult to navigate, all but the most scene (and I suppose unemployed) will have the time to wait for pages to load and to hunt for the basics. grrr.
The Hold Steady did a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City.” At first I wasn’t too into the track, but it is really growing on me.
ALRIGHT! Sorry to yell, but Madelyn is hungry and really wishing I’d stop typing about music and feed her.
bwoar, I want fight my toshiba. It somehow (well I somehow) toggle the French characters on, and I have no idea how I do it or any idea how to turn them off without resetting the computer! Now I want to fight technology!
***
OK, I broke down a resetted the old computer. I really do need to learn to toggle the french characters off. I tried searching on google but didn’t find very much that was helpful.
***
Its Friday the 13th! wow, spooky.
The top referrers to my blog this week are (not including The Zone dot FM or my social networks):
Since we’re jibber jabbering (or I’m going on about lists) lets have a look at the first ever Jeremy’s Top Bands.
I signed up for Last FM last week so now I have my own personal chart of fave bands on my media player at home for the week.
01) The National
02) Propagandhi
03) The Killers
04) Bruce Springsteen
05) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
and my write in vote is The Boxer Rebellion which I’ve been jamming out at work in the studio but I don’t have a Last FM scrobber thingy there.
***
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Coral says she doesn’t celebrate the day, but I do… so we do. Ha. I am hosting an event at Element tomorrow if you’re looking to party on a Saturday night. Bring your special someone or come with friends. We have all sorts of fun shenanigans planned!
Before the big day, I think we’ll cook up a scrumptious dinner. I saw David Fey and Rod (My aunt Melanie’s brother) on A Morning today cooking up something I’d like to attempt. But try finding a website with the details and you’ll be disappointed.
Should you be fortunate enough to get laid on Valentine’s Day… Kid Carson posted this neat-O! link on his twitter.
Fist off… David Eleanor checked the Soundscan to see what Victorian’s are buying.
***
82 copies of “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand” sold in Victoria in it’s first week.
A distant second to Bruce Springsteen, who sold 238 of “Working On A Dream”
Other Modern Rockers in the top 10:
4. Kings of Leon – Only By The Night…60 copies. (up 50 from last week?
not too sure why)
8. Killers – Day and Age…38 copies. (up 18 from last week)
On Note:
Despite national and international praise, Nickelbacks “Dark Horse” was OUT
SOLD by Franz Ferdinand this week! 82-67.
***
Now, in Nickelback’s defense (not that they need my help), Nickelback’s Dark Horse has been put since November, the fact that is still sold 67 copies last week goes to show… there are a couple Nickelback fans out there.
But overall, not a bad list. The Boss at the top (where he deserves to be), Franz, Kings of Leon and Killers all big sellers in the Capital.
This next email is maybe a “do better next time email?” I dunno…
***
From: Shawn *** [mailto:shawn@***] Sent: February-09-09 7:01 PM To: ‘sarap@TheZone.fm’ Cc: ‘jeremy@zone.fm’ Subject: Programming question via TheZone.fm
Hey Sara/Jeremy,
My son tried calling to ask you a question during the picks at 6 tonight and obviously got the answer he didn’t want. “Go ask your dad”… J
His question was “Why is there a right angle triangle but not a left angle?”
My son’s name is D. (he’s eight ) and was pretty disappointed with Jeremy’s response, so I’m hoping you could help him out.
I said maybe he could get a song (Jambi of all songs) on instead, but we weren’t able to get through after that. This wasn’t surprising.
We moved to Vancouver in June, and he has developed quite a relationship with your station. We listen everyday in the car.
Keep up the good work guys, I don’t miss the Fox at all.
Cheers,
Shawn
***
hmmm, I wish I had kept the audio for this call, I’d play it for you. It wasn’t a:
“grrr stupid kid go ask your dad.”
It was more a:
“ahahaha, good question, I wish I knew the answer. I failed math. Maybe that is a question to ask your Dad. Keep on rocking little Zoner.”
and I hung up. The kid never made a request. So I don’t know… why is there no left angle? Maybe Sara P will tackle it during Ask Sara P?
I love our laptop. OK, so I am not using the laptop right now… Coral is in the main room watching her stories and I like to listen to music while I blog.
My other minor obsession right now is iTunes’ Genius. It is not just a clever name, this thing is genius. I just punch in one song that I am feeling, and it culls my epic playlist for a nice bite sized 25 song playlist based on… magic. Its gunna put my playlist making in the BC Museum, but I don’t really mind. I had a baby and spending hours researching and listening to music for no reaosn other than enjoyment is silly. You’re not suposed ot enjoy music, just consume it.
I like how I pick one song I am feeling, and then the machine goes through my 9,000 songs and picks out about 25 that fit the vibe. I like that it picks some favourites and some album cuts that I wouldn’t normally associate (and I think Mozilla’s spell check just crapped out… silly beast) with what I am feeling today.
I am sure I’ll tucker of the whole thing tomorrow, but today, it is mighty fine.
Basically it says that if you work in the media, you’re fucked up. That is true.
***
Next week, I’ll be filling in for Dylan on the Morning Zone. I think I’ll be having Vegan Author Sarah Kramer on the show. Plus… this might be a little epic, but I want to try and call some famous Daves for “Is Dave There?”
like Dave Babych… and I’ll talk to his mustache and maybe ask him about how weird it was being married to his brother’s wife’s twin sister. Like what? His brother was his brother-in-law? weird.
Also, Mike Devlin at the Times-Colonist spoils me and has a copy of Kings of Leon’s new record for me. Huzzah. Maybe some KOL preview action and Mike’s thoughts, tomorrow on the show.
Local Vic rockers theset will be coming by on Friday for a chit-chat and live performance.
And what else on the work front? Oh, I am trying to get Sheldon the producer to put Pro-Tools in another production studio so we can both work at the same time during the day and I can continue my production journey and go home at 7PM.
***
Almost done reading “The Grapes of Wrath.” A L M O S T. God, I have battled the book for awhile, but so close. I can see why it is a classic. Very good. Not going to get into it here. But if you are like, “Swa? What is the Grapes of Wrath.?” You can coles-notes it here.
The parallels of of what the Jodes went through and what is going on today with this planet today are crazy.
There are many quotes I want to take from the book. A couple I want to share here are:
1) This one is for Coral and for my mother. I think it is really sweet and I want to get it printed on a poster or a mother’s day card:
“(…) seemed to have experienced all possible tragedy and to have mounted pain and suffering like steps into a high calm and superhuman understanding. She seemed to know, to accept, to welsome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken. And since old Tom and the children could not know hurt or fear unless she acknowledged hurt and fear, she had practiced denying them in herself. And since, when a joyful thing happened, they looked to see whether joy was on her, it was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials. But better than a joy was calm. Imperturbability could be depended upon. And from her great and humble position in the family she had taken dignity and a clean calm beauty. From her position as healer, her hands had grown sure and cool and quiet; from her position as arbiter she had become as remote and faultless in judgement as a goddess. ”
I like that passage in the book. I thought it was very pretty.
The book takes the Jode family to some pretty dark places. When they get to California it ain’t all movie stars and rock & roll music.
2) The Jodes have a hard time finding work and all the landowners call anyone wanting a fair wage a red. Tom gets a job digging for a farmer and sure enough, on day one, he gets his wage cut down.
Tom stepped clear of the ditch and wiped the sweat out of his eyes.
“You hear what that paper said ’bout agitators up north a Bakersfiel’?”
“Sure,” said Wilkie. “They do that all a time.”
“Well, I was there. They wasn’t no agitators. What they call reds. What the hell is these reds anyways?”
Timothy scraped a little hill level in the bottom of the ditch. The sun made his white bristle beard shine. “They’s a lot a fellas wanta know what a reds is.” He laughed. “One of our boys foun’out.” He patted the pile of earth gently with his shovel. “Fella named Hines – got ’bout thirty thousan’ acres, peaches and grapes-got a cannery an’ a winery. Well, he’s all a time talkin’ about ‘them goddamn reds.’ ‘Goddamn reds is drivin’ the country to ruin,’ he says, an’ ‘We got to drive these here red bastards out.’ Well, they were a young fella jus’ come out west here, an’ he’s listenin’ one day. He kinda scratched his head an’ he says, ‘Mr. Hines, I ain’t been here long. What is these goddamn reds?’ Well, sir, Hines says, ‘A red is any son-of-a-bitch that wants thirty cents an hour when we’re payin’ twenty-five!’ Well, this young fella he thinks about her, an’ he scratches his head, an’ he says, ‘Well, Jesus, Mr. Hines, I ain’t no son-of-a-bitch, but if that’s what a red is-why, I want my thirty cents an hour. Ever’body does. Hell, Mr. Hines, we’re all reds.'”
***
I’m going to leave you with a couple “red” cuts for those of you out there trying to make a buck… then I am going to pour a hot bath and finish the Grapes of Wrath.
More poking around on Wiki shows the term “punk” had been batted around in the late 60s and early 70s… but Marsh took it to describe a style of music in Creem in ’71. A member of the Fugs… used “punk” to describe his band’s sound in ’70… but for some reason, it wasn’t in the true “sense’ of the word I guess. BUT, fun fact… Fugs were the first band to have the word “fuck” show up on a recorded album. Neat.
The Morning After 