No more Neko Case after this, I promise.

How about Neko Case getting all these amazing reviews for Middle Cyclone? Color me incredulous. I like it, don’t get me wrong. The new record seems less affected than, if not as good as, Fox Confessor. There’s some plain old fun instrumentation, which is a type of enjoyment I rarely get from any type of music as of late. (I think I’ve been trying – artificially – to achieve that sense of wonder with electronic music.) And the remarkable thing is that it’s perfectly highlighted by the fact that the songs aren’t ‘catchy’ in the traditional sense of the word.

Yeow!

As Sean mentioned, many of Middle Cyclone’s songs are eyebrow-raisingly short. As a songwriter, Case seems barely able to sustain 2 1/2 minutes of recorded music this go-round. Seven of the fifteen tracks fall under the 3 min mark, with another just a hair above (“Middle Cyclone”) and yet another not even a song (“Marais la Nuit”). At fist I reacted with “I don’t mind the brevity of the songs; verse-chorus and AABA form doesn’t seem to be her cup of tea, so I’ll settle for a shorter song.” Now I feel the short songs impact the quality of the album as a whole (if not as individual units).

“Prison Girls” is a love/hate track. When she sings about incarcerated girls appearing “pushing mops and kicking pails” I want to laugh out loud. It seems like a line out of a musical set in a women’s prison (Chicago?). It sort of reveals that Case has reached the limits of the ‘country noir’ (or whatever-the-hell you want to call it) genre. It has moved from eerie and atmospheric to unintentionally comical. (Imagine listening to “Dirty Knife” and thinking “Gee, that diction’s just plain silly, isn’t it?”) The irony is that the refrain is a perfect example of her nailing those old conventions: “I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes.” Alas “prison girls are not impressed / they’re the ones who have to clean this mess.”

The covers on this album are problematic. Case can usually appropriate a song like nobody, turning a mediocre tune into something that’s almost entirely her own–integrating another’s intellectual material flawlessly into the whole (see Blacklisted). The problem with “Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth” is that it doesn’t achieve this ‘fit’ with the rest of the record and glaringly fails to showcase Case’s greatest asset: her oft-lauded voice. “Don’t Forget Me”, meanwhile, is such a tour de force – those pianos! -  that it overshadows her original material. “People Got A Lotta Nerve” may be a toe-tapper, but “Don’t Forget Me” is a sing-into-your-hairbrush anthem. No two ways about it. (A strange criticism, that.)

I’ve proba definitely lied about no more Neko after today. But people don’t really read posts all the way to the bottom, do they? Blogs are so deliciously self-indulgent.

:: Bibliography ::

• Gina. Neko Case In-Store at Amoeba Hollywood. ANTI- Blog. ANTI-. http://www.antilabelblog.com/?p=1465 (3 March 2009).

Empire for Ashes

“…and his scalp came off and landed in the dirt.” These, not haunting lyrics sung in Ukrainian, are my favorite words to ever pass Neko Case’s lips. It’s from some mp3 I found poking around on the internet. When I head up to New York in mid-April to visit friends and family I’ll be descending like a plague of locusts on one of Case’s Times Square concerts. (Crooked Fingers will be opening for her. Hooray!) Alas, some of them haven’t had the fortune of being acquainted with Case beyond The New Pornographers.

With the leaking/pirating of Middle Cyclone having occurred two days ago – and because I was sequestered in my forest-and-golf course-bound apartment due to freezing rain and darkness – I figured it was an opportune time to playlist my brains out in order to psyche up my fellow concert-goers.

Now don’t begrudge me, but I couldn’t bring myself to put anything from The Virginian or – god forbid – The Corn Sisters’ The Other Women on this. Canadian Amp and Furnace Room Lullaby had some obvious choices that just didn’t pan out. In the end I settled for her most well-beloved and a few that aren’t exactly well-traveled.

:: Empire for Ashes ::

1. John Saw That Number – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
2. Train From Kansas City – The Tigers Have Spoken
3. Soulful Shade of Blue – The Tigers have Spoken
4. Star Witness – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
5. Stinging Velvet – Blacklisted
6. Behind the House – Live From Austin, TX
7. The Needle Has Landed – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
8. Middle Cyclone – Middle Cyclone
9. Hold On, Hold On – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
10. Deep Red Bells – Blacklisted
11. This Tornado Loves You – Middle Cyclone
12. I Wish I Was the Moon – Blacklisted
13. The Tigers Have Spoken – The Tigers Have Spoken

:: Bibliography ::

• Case, Neko. Neko Case’s Store / Travelogue. http://www.nekocase.com/store/ and http://www.nekocase.com/travelogue/ (20 February 2009).

Femme Rougeâtre

The AV repetition makes it about a minute too long and it would have benefited from an interesting bridge (as opposed to a crummy one), but other than that La Roux – alias Elly Jackson – has it down in “In For the Kill”.

The video is severely lacking in dance sequences. Enjoyed the over-saturated colors and contre-jour lighting, though.

Her other songs that I’ve heard suffer from the same problem and aren’t as memorable, but apparently the beeb thinks she has mainstream appeal/breakout potential. La Roux’s no. 5 of 10 on the “Sound of 2009″ list, with Passion Pit tailing at 9. (Youngs) British conspiracy? Undoubtedly. The rest of the list is pretty questionable, too.

:: Bibliography ::

• Youngs, Ian. Little Boots tops music tips list. BBC. 9 Jan 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7814304.stm (17 February 2009).

Communicating Through the Stereo (Mix 4)

When a loved one is at a great distance the best way to reach them isn’t by post or telephone.

:: Communicating Through the Stereo ::

1. Sleepyhead – Passion Pit
2. Time that Bald Sexton – Danielson
3. 3 Little Words – Frankmusik
4. Number Our Days – Max Tundra
5. Replay (Justin Faust Remix) – Electric Youth
6. Lowdown – Lali Puna
7. Palimend – Benoît Pioulard
8. Lights Out – Roommate
9. Kate – Sambassadeur
10. Consolation Prize – Julie Doiron
11. Never Had Nobody Like You – M. Ward ft. Zooey Deschanel
12. Paper Way – Boca Chica
13. Walking After Midnight – Patsy Cline
14. Iris – Hercules & Love Affair
15. Daniel – Tortoise and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy

Links lead to downloads, yay! Try Google Blog Search to illegally acquire the rest.

:: Bibliography ::

• Warhol, Andy. CPH:DOX 2008: Andy Warhols Screen Tests. CPH:DOX. http://www.cphdox.dk/D2007big/8622.jpg (27 January 2009).

Oh, What a Merry Christmas Day

My dad’s skull. ^^^

I went over to Samantha’s for a bit last night to meet her new puppy, Emily. What a sweetheart! Samantha’s Mom told me all about her recent foot surgery; we also ate “bar gun” cookies (!), discussed the merits of Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreak, and took a tour of local neighborhoods all gussied up for the holidays. One particularly well-illuminated home, by the Baldwin Borough Library, won a national award and was featured on the local news. Unfortunately, the wind had blown down a bunch of their decorations and the computerized light show wasn’t running. It was still a sight to behold, though.

I found an mp3 of “Oh, What a Merry Christmas Day” from Mickey’s Christmas Carol — something I’ve been looking for for a few years. (Download it here. Or, just listen here.) It’s a cute, charming song, the kind that needs to be covered by someone who can suss out its potential. I think the rarity of it – it doesn’t seem to be available anywhere (save for this mp3, ripped from an old vinyl by Ian Roegels) – and the fact that it hasn’t been exploited by the Disney machine has further endeared it to me. Hard to believe that the cartoon itself is just a year older than I am. Almost a quarter century of Christmases celebrated. Egad!

I got another free French press, this time with an added thermal glass, via Amazon (rather than Bodum). The details of how I got it are a bit convoluted, moreso than the first time, so I won’t bother explaining. Pretty crazy how these keep falling, like ripe fruit, into my lap.

Has anyone seen Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I have loved you for so long)? I think it’s playing at the Regent Square Theatre, and has apparently been garnering all sorts of praise. As the only movie in ages that I heard about before it generated a bunch of buzz, I feel sort of obligated to see it. (And it looks good, too.)

Oh and:

Also, check out the menorah mobile I saw on the way to the airport today. For those who aren’t familiar with ‘em, they’ve been all over the ‘burgh for years!

Joyeux Noël!

Deep & Crisp & Even (Mix 3)

I decided to make my sisters a Christmas mix. It wasn’t easy; most holiday-themed songs have a lurid intro. I had to do some mp3 mangling to get The Ronette’s famous drum intro (first heard in “Be My Baby”) in front of “Sleigh Ride” (rather than the original track’s unfortunate clip-clop, whinny instrumentation).

It might not be accessible to the average listener. Only my older sisters can fully appreciate the inclusion of the non-holiday-themed “A Widow’s Toast” by Neko Case, with its imagery of pilot flames. (When we were children, we wouldn’t know that the furnace’s pilot light had gone out until the house’s temperature plummeted.) The motives behind the inclusion of some songs might be misunderstood as well: The cover of “There’s Always Tomorrow”, from the Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer tv special, isn’t a fondly nostalgic end to the mix. As kids we ruthlessly mocked the song, with Jen delivering a particularly unforgiving, operatic parody of Clarice’s original. Likewise, Belle & Sebastian’s oddly poignant rendition of the traditional “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” serves as a reminder of our bygone Advent mischief.

The first track, from a Folkways Records LP entitled Ukrainian Christmas Songs, in a spoken-word recording of Ukrainian émigrés in Canada. The liner notes have a translation on the final page.

:: Deep & Crisp & Even ::

1. Pobazhannya (“Good Wishes”) – [uncredited performers; field recording by Laura Boulton] *
2. What’s a Girl to Do? – Bat for Lashes [drum intro only]
3. Sleigh Ride – The Ronettes [intro and outro trimmed]
4. Calling and Not Calling My Ex – Okkervil River **
   
5. Snowfall – The Halo Benders
6. Baby, it’s Cold Outside – Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone
7. Amen – The Impressions
8. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Andy Williams
9. Blue Christmas – Bullette
10. Christmas Reindeer – The Knife
11. Who Is It (Bell Choir Mix ft. The Bústaðakirkja Bell Choir) – Björk
12. O’ Holy Night – Julian Koster ***
13. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Judy Garland
14. Child’s Christmas in Wales – John Cale
15. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Belle & Sebastian
16. A Widow’s Toast – Neko Case
17. There’s Always Tomorrow – Red Red Meat

* Listen to Pobazhannya (“Good Wishes”) here.

** I was at the show in this YouTube video!

*** Download the mp3 of Julian Koster’s O’ Holy Night here.

:: Bibliography ::

• The Electron and Confocal Microscope Unit. Stereo Snow Crystal Micrographs. Beltsville Electron Microscopy. http://emu.arsusda.gov/snowsite/stereo/pages/10134_35.html (9 December 2008).

Throw yourself into the Passion Pit

It’s crazy when you find music that fills a need that you didn’t even know you had. That’s what happened when Jeff gave me a copy of Passion Pit’s, Chunk of Change, as a belated birthday present this morning. I listened to it later in the afternoon, with blue plastic gloves on, drenched in sweat and scummy water, clutching a washcloth whilst squatting in the bathtub. I wasn’t cleaning anymore. I stopped for a good half hour to just sit in the damp, clean tub, listening to these folks sing.

Here’s the video for my favorite song from the EP, “Sleepyhead”:

I’m not sure I’d say they’re brilliant, however. Parts of their song “Smile Upon Me” sound very much akin to LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends”.

I should start paying more attention to my music news, because I totally passed Passion Pit over when they received a favorable review on Fluxblog back in July. You can download “Sleepyhead” there, if it pleases you.