Anyway, while I still don't regret skipping a festival that gave headlining spots to Jack Johnson and Roger Waters's solo version of The Wall, the last-minute addition of Prince kinda bummed me out.
So in the wake of last year's Superbowl, has anyone noticed that Prince, like, totally rules again? If that second guitar solo didn't give you chills, your soul is broken.
There's a nearly infinite list of platitudes beginning with the words "There are two kinds of people in the world." A Google search of this exact phrase generates roughly 46,000 results, although about 60% of those involve Robert Benchly's astoundingly unfunny "There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don't." In addition to being mildly retarded even by nineteenth-century standards of wit, Benchly's Law of Distinction is such a facile observation that it's doubtlessly been "coined" independently by thousands of people who have never so much as heard of Robert Benchly. It's like a comedian who claims he was the first to wonder what the deal is with airline peanuts; even in the unlikely event that it's true, it's not worth taking credit for.
Despite the obvious logical problems (the excluded middle principal, the false dilemma), most "two kinds of people" observations are patently false for practical reasons. You're either a Beatles person or a Stones person (or Beatles/Elvis)? Really? Dog person or cat person? Even if you forced people to pick a favorite in these situations, you're ignoring those who hate pets. Or Amazon tribesmen who don't know what the fuck a Beatle is. You're only going to get it right if you claim that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who are identical to me, and everyone else. I suppose you could also claim that there are approximately 6.70 billion kinds of people (as of March 2008), and they correspond to Earth's population in a 1:1 ratio, but you'd have to meet them all to define your types.
The real purpose of the phrase is to establish an adversarial, "us vs. them" relationship. Flaccid one-liners aside, the speaker is usually on one side of an imaginary divide. You can love both the Beatles and the Stones, but some people are dedicated to one being superior, and that is somehow tied up in the existence of a diametric. The either/or thing is exclusionary... it's fightin' words. That's why Chuck Klosterman's claim in his essay "33" that "there is no relationship that isn't a Lakers-Celtics relationship" gets so much play in the sporting press. Because the Lakers-Celtics dynamic is so clearly based on an exclusionary relationship, people will convince themselves of its universality. It's funny because it's true! But Klosterman's point (and most other successful "two kinds of people" arguments share this quality) isn't that you either love the Lakers or you love the Celtics. That wouldn't be a terribly compelling read. His point is that a certain worldview is shared by the Lakers (or cat or Beatles or beer) person, one that is simultaneously opposed to and dependent upon its "opposite" number. And the people who buy into this argument do so because they have already bought into it. Everyone else just stops reading because the whole "debate" strikes them as pointless, which, ultimately, it is.
Which is why, platitudes, sad witticisms, and logical fallacies aside, it is true that there are two kinds of people in the world, Captain Kirk people and Captain Picard people.
Interestingly, the notion of Kirk and Picard as an either/or proposition is even more widespread (on the Interwebs, anyway) than the tired old "there are two kinds of people" idea. A Google search of the phrase "Kirk vs. Picard" yielded an impressive 64,000 results. By my (totally untestable) estimation, that comes out to millions of words worth of nerd vitriol. There was an official Kirk vs. Picard contest that allowed fans to submit projects supporting their fictional captain of choice. There are countless lists detailing Kirk's superiority, and just as many lists going the other way. This is decidedly not a rejoinder in that ongoing debate. (It's a stupid debate for several reasons, not least of which is the fact that both men had the same job, the same mission, and the same employer... and they even worked together once and seem to hit it off quite well.) The beauty of the "two kinds of people" argument is that it does not require that either side desire the subjugation of the other. The Celtics and Lakers are supposed to try and beat the shit out of each other. Lakers people and Celtics people, on the other hand, should be able to coexist peacefully (as long as there isn't a game on TV).
The same is true of Kirk people and Picard people. The two men are archetypes, and choosing between them is both unnecessary and fruitless; depending on where you fall on the nature/nurture debate, it's possible that we're all one or the other from birth anyway. You know the stereotypes: The Kirk person is passionate, loyal, lusty, brash, and quick to action. The Picard person is refined, noble, dedicated to reason and negotiation. The Kirk person likes sex, beer, and shirtless fighting. The Picard person likes romantic poetry, wine, and fencing. Kirk is fiery, Picard is sensitive. Put in the most flattering terms, Ernest Hemingway is a Kirk, while Noam Chomsky is a Picard. In less-than-flattering terms, Matthew McConaughey is a Kirk and James Lipton is a Picard.
Kirk people: prone to shirtlessness
Hell, if you were to just read down that list of characteristics, chances are I described half the marriages you can think of. (Chances are Kirk is the guy in, like, 90% of them, but that's another essay.) The supposed "opposition" of Picard and Kirk really breaks down to differences in approach and temperament, and only those who identify with one or the other in the first place feel the need to choose.
It will always be true that there are two kinds of people in the world, Captain Kirk people and Captain Picard people. Luckily, there's room enough in the universe for all of us.
I love (or, more accurately, used to love) the International House of Pancakes. It's way before my time, but this unbelievably bizarre 1969 commercial has brought those old feelings rushing back...
"Of course it says pancakes on the outside, but there's a lot more on the inside." Evidently "a lot more" includes a deranged, acid-damaged chipmunk.
During my "extensive research" for this "piece," I discovered that IHoP is currently celebrating its fiftieth year. The flapjack flagship, if you will, opened in Toluca Lake, California, in 1958. (Sadly, there isn't a single IHoP in Toluca Lake these days.) Impressively, the chain was already adding locations a mere two years later, and by 1963 "International Industries" had reached conglomerate status, acquiring several other brands (including Orange Julius and something called The Original House of Pies).
The classic lineup: blueberry, boysenberry, butter pecan, and strawberry
And yet, despite my very happy IHoP memories from the early 1980s, it seems the chain's descent into mass-market pablum began with two pivotal shifts in the 1970s: In 1973 the company officially embraced the "IHOP" acronym in its marketing materials; and in 1979 they built their last A-frame building. Remember when you couldn't order the Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity breakfast without everyone thinking you were a great big HOMO?(Here's another example of America's Fresh&Fuityphobia.)
I haven't had an IHoP pancake in years because a) I haven't been on a road trip with my dad since I was a teenager; b) you can't really get decent chain food in Manhattan; and c) the franchise has gradually become just another strip-mall symbol of America's slackening jaw and thickening waistline... after all, last year IHoP purchased Applebees. It's hard to consider something a special treat when it's traded on the Nasdaq (IHP) and the iconic building has been replaced by thousands of shitty looking blue monstrosities. According to Wikipedia, "As of September 30, 2007, the chain had 1,328 restaurants in 49 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, and Mexico." Hell, these days they use "International House of Pancakes" as a "secondary name."
Anyway, the company's official timeline, along with the Wikipedia entry, make for fascinating -- if ultimately depressing -- reading. I did use the restaurant locater to find my nearest IHoP: just a block from the Hoyt/Schermerhorn subway stop in Brooklyn. I won't be eating pancakes in that neighborhood anytime soon, so I'll have to wait until the next road trip.
At least now they have cool celebrity spokespeople...
You read that right. The Big Sleep at Mercury Lounge...again. Sound was a little muddy, but we had a nice time. And I took artsy-fartsy pictures.
I'll post the full set on Flickr is the site ever gets fixed. In the meantime, I also took somemuddy sounding, not-so-tasty (once I compressed it for YouTube, that is) video...
Artisanal Cocaine: For Those Who Demand the Very Best
My good friend Josh at Dilettante Films has finally hit the big time. (And if you look closely, you'll even see fellow Secret Square Tye in the background at the video's end.)
Band of Horses at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, 2/14/08
Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Gee, this site used to consist of more than incessant (and sub-par) concert photos."
You are not wrong. *Bitter Defeat* has been something of a one-trick pony over the past month. I have no compelling excuse (although I have several not-very-compelling excuses). I can only promise to try harder to focus on my own meandering fancies and the detritus of popular culture.
And now back to the middling photos and half-assed concert reviews...
Despite slightly muddy sound and the fucking travesty that is the "beer ticket," Brooklyn Masonic Temple is a very cool venue. It was like seeing a show in a high school gymnasium circa 1961, minus the taffeta and cats-eye glasses. The band played an energetic set (especially during the show's latter half), culminating in a fantastic (and totally unexpected) cover of Chicago's "Feelin' Stronger Every Day," sung by keyboardist Ryan Monroe. Monroe has upped BoH's "bar band" quotient by roughly three hundred percent, and a Doobie Brothers cover is always just around the corner. (He always makes me think of Jeff Healey, the Double Deuce's blind slide guitar player in Road House.)
It was a nice down-home Valentine's Day for the whole family, with more beards, flannel, and trucker hats than you could shake a stick at. In other words, it was a typical night in Brooklyn. (Full image set at Flickr)
Nada Surf at Music Hall of Williamsburg (2/7/08) and Bowery Ballroom (2/8/08)
Two nights of seamless power-pop with New York's very own Nada Surf! Despite their reputation among the general public as a 1990s Alternative Nation one-hit wonder thanks to 1996's "Popular" (MP3), Nada Surf has amassed a large and die-hard indie-rock following. And although their latest album, Lucky (which came out last Tuesday) is good-not-great, they put on one hell of a live show. Highlights on both nights included "Blonde on Blonde," "Happy Kid," "Always Love," new track "Ice on the Wing" (MP3), and a show-stopping version of "Killian's Red" (MP3).
Unfortunately when I took out my camera to grab some shots of the Williamsburg show, I realized the battery was still at home charging. As for the Bowery show the following night, it was one of the darkest, reddest shows I've seen in a long time. Which means my pictures pretty much suck. (Check out the "entire" set at Flickr. Hopefully Redboy will post his shots soon.**UPDATE: Redboy's pix are up.)
The show culminated in the most well-behaved stage invasion of all time...
And here's some (surprise, surprise) dark, red-lit video of "Blonde on Blonde"...
Finally, some bad news and some good news:
First, the bad news. Criminally underrated American cinema icon Roy Scheider passed away yesterday at the age of 75. Best known for playing a cop (or a spy) in almost every cool movie of the 1970s (including Klute, The French Connection, The 7-Ups, Jaws, The Marathon Man, and Sorcerer), Scheider continued to do great work well into the 1990s, from All That Jazz, Blue Thunder, and 2010 to gritty neo-noir projects like 52 Pick-Up and Romeo Is Bleeding. In a weird way, it's akin to losing a really cool older brother. We'll all miss you, Chief Brody.
Now for the good news. As reported at Gothamist, Brooklyn's McCarren Park Pool, possibly the city's the best overall summer music venue, will apparently be around for one more concert season. Maybe I'll learn to use my camera before then.
Vampire Weekend @ Bowery Ballroom January 30, 2008
Indie-blog flavor of the month Vampire Weekend brought their Talking Heads-meets-The Feelies vibe to a packed Bowery Ballroom last night, baiting New Yorkers with pro-Patriots rhetoric, and then re-winning hearts with cheerfully low-cal beat-pop. I haven't quite figured out how I feel about these guys. They're incredibly tight live, but there's something slight about their music. It's as if they aren't quite sure how seriously to take themselves. Given the fact that 80% of their lyrics are about college, youth may be a factor.
It is a proud time to be an American. After tonight's State of the Union address (Baby GeeDubya's last), we are sure to be prouder still.
America, the land of plenty, where all who dwell enjoy freedom of choice amid an embarrassment of riches. (We are free, for example, to wantonly mix metaphors.) The choices facing American moviegoers this weekend, however, may explain why the terrorists hate our freedom (to paraphrase David Cross). On the one hand we had Rambo, an unholy cross between classic batshit vanity project and populist kill-lots-of-brown-people brutality-fest. On the other, Meet the Spartans, an equally unappetizing mishmash of (what I presume to be) already-dated pop-culture references, strung together with fart jokes, juvenile homophobia, and countless variations on the collision of projectile and crotch. One thing's for sure: that's a uniquely American set of choices.
And so, being an American, I chose. Unfortunately, I did not choose "c) None of the above," even though I knew this to be the correct answer. Instead, I chose to see what happens when a 61-year-old pumps himself full of elephant growth hormone in order to mumble incoherently and blow shit up for 90 minutes. What happens is one's I.Q. drops precipitously. I am doubtlessly stupider today than I was yesterday. Much more stupider. In addition, I never want to stop showering. If it were possible to remove my brain and wash it, I would. Never has man's inhumanity to man been so gleefully sprayed across the silver screen. No amount of ironic distance could hold back the tide of objectionable material; a thick, clotted wave of rape, decapitation, limb removal, baby tossing, flamethrowing, and blatant machete misuse. There isn't enough "meta" in the collected works of Roland Barthes to separate one's consciousness from Rambo's infectious bloodlust and all-consuming stupidity.
And also, like a good American, I had a wonderful time. Sure, I could break my arm patting myself on the back because we laughed our way through the film and felt tired and dirty and guilty and violated afterwards. But you know what? Rambo still got our $11.25. Tongues in cheeks or not, we still had a blast watching human bodies get turned into piles of raspberry jelly.
And so tonight, when Good Ol' Boy #1 gets up and dangles that pretty $600 check in my slack-jawed face, I'll probably just giggle, drool, and fantasize about all the violent games I can play on that brand new XBox 360 I'm gonna buy.
Matador's finest psych/metal/groove-meisters, Dead Meadow, played a smashing set at Bowery Ballroom this past Wednesday in support of their upcoming album, Old Growth (which streets on February 5). Minds, they were blown. More distortion pedals that you could shake a stick at. Flannel; moustaches; sweet, sweet grooves: the airbrushed-van-and-skull-bong vibe was in full effect. Needless to say, the venue smelled like a Rastafarian wedding.
The Orange stack brings the heavy (as evidenced by the name of their Thunderverb amplifier head), and its presence on stage is always cause for celebration. (Check out the FULL PHOTO SET at Flickr.) (Redboy got some [depressingly superior] shots as well.)
In totally unrelated news, the full Coachella lineup has been announced. No My Bloody Valentine. No Radiohead. Yes Jack Johnson. Yes Slightly Stoopid. Yes Roger Waters doing Dark Side of the Moon without the other members of Pink Floyd. Most pathetic festival lineup of all time? If not, it's certainly on the short list.
Truly a New Year's Rockin' Eve at downtown Manhattan's Mercury Lounge. The Big Sleep played a scorching set of old favorites, tracks from their new album, and, naturally, a 100% instrumental Led Zeppelin medley. Faces were rocked off. Ears were injured. A truly wonderful way to ring in 2008.
As you can probably tell, I was also breaking in a brand new camera. Needless to say I had not yet spent any quality time with the instruction manual when these shots were taken. While my mastery of the photographic arts remains a work in progress, I was able to shoot a brief snippet of decent video:
LISTMANIA! 2007 THE 25 BEST ALBUMS OF 2007 PART II: THE TOP 10
**If you missed albums 25–11, you may want to catch up first. Or not. Free country.**
BITTER DEFEAT'S 25 BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR, PART TWO
10. Tegan and Sara – The Con Applying the term "power pop" to The Con seems ridiculous at first, mainly because the drums don't kick in until 1:20 into the album's second song. But from then on the hooks just keep coming. Even more polished and accessible (in the best sense) than 2004's excellent So Jealous, The Con also takes on a darker, more world-weary tone; check out the doleful piano in "Back in Your Head" and "Soil, Soil" and you'll see what I mean.
9. Kevin Drew – Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew Spirit If... As the title suggests, this is basically a new Broken Social Scene album, only with more beautiful Kevin Drew songs and fewer instrumental freakouts. So how you feel about this album relative to the rest of the band's output will probably be determined by how you feel about the previous sentence.
8. Panda Bear – Person Pitch "Sounds like..." sentences are always an iffy proposition (and tend to alienate half the people reading anyway), but Panda Bear prove especially tricky to nail down. That said, it sounds like The Mamas & The Papas dropped a bunch of acid and recorded an album in an airplane hanger on Mars. Consisting solely of Noah Lennox (of Animal Collective), Panda Bear marries weird atmospherics and Wall-of-Sound echo effects to produce the most ethereal pop album of the year. Despite that last sentence, this is not the thinking man's Enya.
7. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin Relocating to South Carolina had an obvious impact on these guys: opening track "Is There a Ghost" notwithstanding, BoH have largely eschewed the massive waves of guitars from last year's debut album in favor of love songs and more straightforward southern-fried rock. I'll admit I miss the dreamier aspects this time around, but it's hard to complain about something this fun. "The General Specific" and "Marry Song" in particular bear the imprint of rootsier influences, from The Band right through the Rolling Stones' "country honk" phase. If any 2007 album could be embodied by a twelve-pack of Bud cans, this was it.
6. The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible I was late to the party on the debut album, and this one took me a while as well. The reasons this time around are twofold: First, The Arcade Fire make "grower" music of the highest order; second (and this would undoubtedly be hotly debated by the band's internerd devotees), Neon Bible opens with its weakest tracks. "Black Mirror" is the worst song on the album, and the whole enterprise never really hits a stride until the double-whammy of "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" and the brilliant "Ocean of Noise." That said, when things finally get rolling the band more than lives up to the ridiculous expectations set by Funeral and the re-released self-titled EP. (And speaking of the EP, Neon Bible's reworked version of "No Cars Go" is utterly inferior to its predecessor.)
5. White Rabbits – Fort Nightly Preppy, slightly aloof boys with boarding-school looks and a penchant for ringing guitars, bombastic percussion, and antique barroom piano. Yeah, I would have guessed The Walkmen as well. Although comparisons between the two are somewhat apt, White Rabbits have a more varied rhythmic approach, employing the occasional 4-4 beat along with elements of sea shanties, mariachi, ska, and music hall. Along with the fantastic one-two punch of Greg Roberts and Stephen Patterson on vocals, the genre-hopping lends the proceedings a sense of fun, snotty menace reminiscent of early Madness and Dexy's Midnight Runners.
4. Radiohead – In Rainbows Yeah, yeah, yeah, Radiohead are brilliant. This album really does get more amazing with each listen. Amnesiac notwithstanding, they are clearly the greatest working band on Earth.
3. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga On their sixth studio album, Britt Daniel and Jim Eno owe very special thanks to... black people! From the blue-eyed Motown of "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" to the slinky funk of "Don't You Evah," Spoon help put the lie to Sasha Frere-Jones's "controversial" horseshit about there being no soul left in indie rock. Spoon's trajectory over the course of six albums has been astonishing, and it seems that they outdo themselves every year.
2. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver Not bad for the band that placed at the very top of the 2005 album list. What Sound of Silver gives up in sheer danceability, it more than makes up for in heart; "All My Freinds," "Someone Great," and "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" inject genuine human feeling into a genre that's usually stuck in one gear. Also... cowbells.
1. Deerhunter – Cryptograms Suffused with meandering aural soundscapes and shimmering lakes of tremolo and reverb, Cryptograms channels Brian Eno by way of the more dissonant sides of Suicide, Neu!, and My Bloody Valentine. The album is essentially a series of ethereal sound experiments punctuated by three or four "proper songs," which give the effect of gleaming spires rising out of a swirling mist. Only, you know...way less pretentious. This was the closest race in years for best album, so Deerhunter took the prize by virtue of their relative novelty and the strength of their equally amazing Fluorescent Grey EP, which also came out this year.
Some final points about the 2007 album lists:
It should be noted that some albums for which I had high expectations (Ghostface Killah's The Big Doe Rehab and Wu Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams, for example) came out too late for consideration. And there were many albums I really wanted to get my hands on, but simply couldn't (Grizzly Bear's Friend EP, Deerhoof's Friend Opportunity, Andrew Bird's Airmchair Apocrypha, 1900s' Cold and Kind, etc.). Finally, some honorable mentions for other good-to-great albums that didn't make the cut (in no order whatsoever):
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Is Is (EP); OM – Pilgrimage; White Stripes – Icky Thump; Various Artists – After Dark (Italians Do It Better compilation); Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank; Battles – Mirrored; Rogue Wave – Asleep at Heaven's Gate; Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare; Fields – Everything Last Winter; Art Brut – It's a Bit Complicated.
Hope you enjoyed Listmania! 2007, and may you pick up and enjoy as much of this music as possible. (For a disgustingly exhaustive run-down of 2007 best-of lists, be sure to visit Largehearted Boy.) Happy New Year!
LISTMANIA! 2007 THE 25 BEST ALBUMS OF 2007 (Part One)
As another year slouches toward the glue factory, another year-end list lifts its face to the sun and proclaims, "Behold! Lo, I am created! I and the six or seven million other blog best-of-2007 lists shall trumpet shallow opinions across the Interwebs in the hopes of convincing one of the six or seven people who read me to steal some MP3s from some other blog!" Or something like that.
All in all, 2007 wasn't the best year for music (although it was a fantastic year for band names). A lot of heavy hitters (White Stripes, The Shins, Modest Mouse) and promising newcomers (Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Art Brut) came out with albums that were (to varying degrees) not quite up to their previous outings. (The less said about my beloved Interpol, the better.)
**"Everyone I know has a big 'But...'. C'mon, Simone, let's talk about your big 'But.'"**
But... it was a great year for new bands and bands that were new to me. In fact, who am I kidding? 2007 was just fine. Enough doom and gloom. Enough talk. It's time for...
BITTER DEFEAT'S 25 BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR, PART ONE
Three-way tie from hell This year's list opens with an acknowledgment of the amazing sludge/stoner metal albums that rocked my world this fall... 25a. Weedeater – God Luck and Good Speed This Steve Albini-produced dirge-fest is rich with the lifeblood of all ultra-heavy stoner metal: DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUUUUUH DUUUUUH!! Recipe for a song like "Wizard Fight" (yes, that is an actual song title): Take the heaviest of Black Sabbath riffs, slow it to half-speed and feed it through 37 bass amps at full volume. Then have one of the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal smoke a carton of unfiltered Camels before handing him the microphone and letting him scream about drinking whiskey, smoking dope, and driving really fast. 25b. Electric Wizard – Witchcult Today Heavier and slower than Weedeater, Electric Wizard also tend toward more classically Sabbathian themes like witches, the devil, vampires, and other staples of 1960s Hammer horror films. Also, reefer once again plays a major role, as evidenced by songs like "The Satanic Rites of Drugula." 25c. High on Fire – Death Is this Communion The closest in sound and spirit to what Joe Indie Rocker thinks of as "metal," High on Fire picks up the pace considerably. In fact, they largely eschew the funereal tempo and tone of their more drugged-out contemporaries, favoring instead the all-out assault of Mastodon and their ilk. If Weedeater belongs behind the wheel of an airbrushed van, and Electric Wizard lights black candles in the local graveyard, then High on Fire is most certainly planning to conquer the world with an army of gigantic mythological creatures.
As metal (and, more specifically, stoner/sludge/doom metal) tends to be somewhat polarizing, possible reactions can include: a) This music is ridiculous. b) This music is exhilarating. c) This music is too loud, and it makes me want to wet my pants. d) This music is ridiculously exhilarating and I just wet my pants with rage/excitement. I shall now smoke angel dust through a ceramic skull bong filled with paint thinner, strip naked, and rob a liquor store with a sword.
I am a solid "d" across the board on these albums (not to mention 2006 gems by Earth, Boris, Sunn0))), Mastodon, etc.) and I welcome the renewed importance of truly evil, profoundly heavy metal in my life. The fact that this explicitly THC-inspired music appeals to me so viscerally even though I am 100% drug free says something about me… and I'm not at all sure that I want to know exactly what that something is.
24. James Murphy & Pat Mahoney – Fabriclive 36 The inclusion of a DJ mix is sure to ruffle purists' feathers. (In fact, in the past I have relegated them to a separate category.) But you know what? The rigors of taxonomy should be the province of those who get paid for writing lists like this (or, at the very least, those who truly give a shit about such things). When one considers the zeitgeist-y center of indie-dance music (or whatever you want to call it), from Simian Mobile Disco to Justice to LCD Soundsystem to the folks at the Italians Do It Better label, it's a rare and enlightening treat to go "behind the music" and dig through the crates of their collective unconscious. Muso fascination aside, Murphy and Mahoney running through a rack of shit-hot disco and space funk records is the ideal start to any Saturday night.
23. !!! – Myth Takes Wearing their reverence for the Talking Heads, afrobeat, and British postpunk spray-painted across their sleeve, !!! give new meaning to the term "urban jungle." You could probably use terms like "polyrhythmic" to describe their sound, but you'd be dropping five-cent words just to say that they make jerky dance music with lots of drums and sweet-ass bass hooks. So basically exactly what you think a !!! album sounds like.
22. Daft Punk – Alive! 2007 On the one hand, this long-awaited document of Daft Punk's revered 2007 stage shows is downright anemic compared to the brain-melting spectacle of the real thing. But play this for someone who's never had the pleasure, and they'll probably start hugging everyone within reach before running to Wal-Mart for a maxi-carton of Glow Sticks. That's not to say that Daft Punk makes shitty rave music, but, well…you must admit they do make rave music. Call it "French house" until you're blue in the face, but if you played this at a rave (assuming "raves" still take place anymore), no one would stop dancing and look around all confused. But I digress. Great live album. 'Nuff said.
21. Blonde Redhead – 23 Perhaps my perceptions have been unduly colored by their live show, but Blonde Redhead is probably the least cheerful band on this list. That's no small feat when you're up against Bat for Lashes and a trio of sludge metal bands. Yet, despite Kazu Makino's pixieish vocals, there's something self-consciously morose about these guys that transcends mere shoegazery. The lyrics are basically indecipherable (there's that echo again!), but I'm fairly sure all the songs have something to do with a beautiful horse or lover or dream that was somehow lost, never to return. At this point I should probably mention that 1) it's a wonderful album; 2) producer Alan Moulder's involvement is a plus, despite a serious debt to My Bloody Valentine; and 3) despite all the "sadness" stuff above, listeners needn't be placed on suicide watch. It's more "ethereal heartache" than "handful of Seconal."
20. Bat for Lashes – Fur and Gold In the grand tradition of complex, sexy/weird warblers who make music for future anthropology majors (Kate Bush, Björk, etc.) comes Natasha Khan. She's got a fever… and the only prescription… is more harpsichord! Combining Björk's range with the smoky lower notes of Chan Marshall, Khan sings pagan tales of broken love, forgotten women, and "the beauty of coming together in sorrow." Yet despite her penchant for batik scarves and the likelihood that she counts "naked dancing in forest moonlight" among her hobbies, Bat for Lashes makes tightly controlled and stunningly beautiful music. Too creepy to be a hippie, too absurd for Gap commercials, and too talented to be dismissed, Khan may soon join the ranks of pop music's high priestesses.
19. The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse Given the preponderance of subgenres, MySpace bands, blog buzz, and microlabels out there nowadays, it's becoming more and more difficult to talk about "trends" in music. That said, 2007 was a big year for echo. Ironically, thanks in large part to ProTools and the like, more and more albums are being recorded at people's tiny IKEA computer desks… and then processed to sound like they were recorded in the choir of Chartres cathedral. In the case of The Besnard Lakes, the vocal echo, along with big, distorted guitar leads reminiscent of My Morning Jacket, add eerie, otherworldly texture to what could otherwise be dismissed as a fawning attempt at Brian Wilson homage. Think of it as "Good Vibrations" from space.
18. Thurston Moore – Outside the Academy There's great line in Juno when Ellen Page declares that a Sonic Youth album sucked because "it was just noise!" Good thing she wasn't forced to listen to Thurston Moore's other solo efforts. I'm no philistine, but dragging your guitar through broken glass while a bunch of Japanese "noise artists" bleed onto hotplates and build "feedback sculptures" can be hard to get into. So imagine my surprise when I started hearing words like "pretty," "acoustic," and (most surprising) "songs" associated with a Thurston Moore project. Well this just in: Fresh off the best Sonic Youth album in a decade, Thurston Moore sings a bunch of really nice songs while playing some really nice tunes on an acoustic guitar. And in case anyone had forgotten, the dude can play. Take that, avant-garde!
17. The National – Boxer Right up front: this album would be waaaaaay higher on the list, but I really have a problem with Matt Berninger's voice. The music is fantastic across the board, but every once in a while the guy starts channeling Crash Test Dummies and it all comes apart for me. I admit this is purely a personal taste thing. (Who are we kidding? The entire critical enterprise is entirely a personal taste thing.) So again, the album's inclusion here is a testament to its superior songwriting and musicianship. Besides, don't listen to me when it comes to voices; I liked the first Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album.
16. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black "Rehab," irony, blah, blah, blah. In a country whose biggest "soul" artist is John Legend, it's always nice when something a little closer to the source makes it big. Even if it is a crazy white lady with drugs hidden in her beehive. No matter what, the girl's got some serious pipes... and some serious soul.
15. The Shins – Wincing the Night Away It's hardly fair that an album this good can be considered a disappointment, but Chutes Too Narrow set the bar impossibly high. Still, if you're coming in at 15, this is more of a minor letdown. (Interpol's Our Love to Admire? Now that's a disappointment!) The only real problem here is filler, and James Mercer still writes the stickiest pop hooks going. Tracks like "Sleeping Lessons," "Phantom Limb," and "Turn on Me" will never get old, and those three alone place this outing head and shoulders above their 2001 debut album. So forget that first sentence... unalloyed success!
14. Film School – Hideout The word "shoegaze" is making the rounds quite a bit again this year, but no recent band is as fully committed to the sound as Film School, who went as far as having My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O'Ciosoig guest on their latest album (take that, Blonde Redhead!). Rest assured, though, that this is no one-trick pony style-wise: vocals aside, "Sick Hipster Nursed by Suicide Girl" sounds disconcertingly like the Psychedelic Furs' "President Gas," and singer/lead guitarist Greg Bertens writes one hell of a melody.
13. Electrelane – No Shouts No Calls A last-minute discovery, No Shouts No Calls may have benefited from the initial rush of new love. Blending driving Krautrock beats with the twee harmonies of Stereolab and Heavenly, the Brighton, England, quartet has produced a disarming hybrid of the propulsive and the pretty; it's road-trip music you can cry to. Lead single "To the East" (which I heard too late to include in the Best Songs list) is as beguiling a song as has been recorded all year.
12. Black Lips – Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo / Good Bad Not Evil Although the very concept of "bad boys" in rock has become an exercise in self parody, it's always nice when some young gentlemen seem to be having fun with the whole thing. In the case of the Black Lips, "fun" means, for example, recording a live album in Tijuana (to document "crazy live shows that have included vomiting, urinating, nudity, band members kissing, fireworks, and a chicken," according to Wikipedia). Sublimely sloppy, spirited garage rock of the highest (and lowest) order, the Black Lips are the true children of the Nuggets generation.
11. Black Moth Super Rainbow – Dandelion Gum Black Moth Super Rainbow: a pseudonymous collective of freaks who spend their time collecting analog synthesizers and frolicking in the woods outside Pittsburgh. You just can't make stuff like this up. Although the album got slapped with the "psychedelic" label by virtue of its sheer oddity, it owes little to 1960s rock and lots to Boards of Canada, Air, and, presumably, drugs. If you can't get a hold of any BMSR music, just eat a pound of 'shrooms, put on Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children, and watch a few hours of H.R. Pufnstuf. That should just about cover it.
I've given up on the whole "singles" concept. Even though most of what follows would fall under the traditional definition, the proliferation of blog-buzz tracks, YouTube sensations, and satellite/internet radio (not to mention the lack of videos on MTV) has sufficiently eroded the classic notion of the label-released single that, well, it's becoming a little irrelevant. Besides, this little cheat allows for the inclusion of superior album tracks. Oh and one other thing...did song X not technically come out in 2007? Guess who gives a shit.
Anyhoo, as they say on the radio, less talk, more rock...
BITTER DEFEAT'S 25 BEST SONGS OF 2007
25. Arctic Monkeys – "Brianstorm"MP3 More of the same from the Arctics. That's a good thing.
24. !!! – "Heart of Hearts" Does this remind anyone else of Thomas Dolby's "Hyperactive"?
23. Matt & Kim – "Yea Yeah"MP3 This fun little slice of girl/boy party-time synthpop has a treasured place in my heart thanks to their spirited set filling in for CSS at Lollapalooza.
22. Midnight Juggernauts – "Shadows"MP3 Kinda like the Australian Justice. Or, as an NME quote on their Web site puts it, "Like The Rapture with John Carpenter on keys."
21. Feist – "I 2 3 4" Yep, it's the iPod Nano song.
20. Blonde Redhead – "23" This should probably have been number 23, but what are you gonna do? Gaze shoeward, young depressives!
19. Justice – "D.A.N.C.E." The title really sums everything up. Great video too.
18. Black Lips – "Veni Vidi Vici" "I came/I saw/I conquered all... all y'all"
17. Kanye West – "Stronger" Kanye + Daft Punk = duh. (Although Kanye owes his finest moment of the year to Zack Galifianakis.)
16. Art Brut – "Direct Hit"MP3 Eddie Argos could read from the phone book and still have a good shot at making this list.
15. Rihanna – "Umbrella" Sentimental pick: it was Kim's ringtone for most of this year. Oh, it's also a great song.
14. Vampire Weekend – "Walcott (Insane mix #2)"MP3 Simon and Garfunkel meetz phat beatz?
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – "Down Boy" The best song from this year's uniformly excellent (and unfairly maligned) Is Is EP.
12. Tracy Jordan – "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah"MP3 From ten-second throwaway joke to cultural phenomenon in the course of a week. Nice work, NBC marketing department!
11. Amy Winehouse – "Rehab" Yes, there were much better songs on the album, but in terms of ubiquity, impact, and instant irony, "Rehab" became its own cottage industry.
10. Snoop Dogg – "Sensual Seduction" Is it all about that video? Yeah, probably.
9. Bat for Lashes – "What's a Girl to Do" Speaking of videos... Dougal Wilson is a genius.
8. White Rabbits – "The Plot" Probably the most Walkmen-like song by a band that, well... sounds like the Walkmen.
7. Tegan & Sara – "Nineteen" They're back! The old poppy, accessible Tegan & Sara!
6. Battles – "Atlas"MP3 Is this song about elves? Is it sung by elves?
5. Panda Bear – "Bros"MP3 (radio edit) Sweet '60s pop transmitted from a parallel universe. There's something almost Christmassy about this song.
4. Rogue Wave – "Lake Michigan"MP3 Another advertisement song. Yep, it's "that song from the Zune commercial."
3. Spoon – "Don't You Evah" First "I Turn My Camera On," and now this. Who knew Spoon was so funky? And the Keepon video is too damned cute for words.
2. Deerhunter – "Hazel Street" I just don't know what to say about how incredible this song is. So maybe Kim can do it for me.
1. LCD Soundsystem – "Someone Great" / "All My Friends" Cheating? Sure, but no one's paying me for this. I can't choose between these two, and they appear back to back on Sound of Silver, making this the most astounding one-two punch in memory. Just amazing.
LISTMANIA! 2007 Bitter Defeat's 20 Best Live Shows (and the biggest disappointments)
1. LCD Soundsystem @ Lollapalooza, Chicago 8/3/07 With the Chicago skyline in the background and Daft Punk setting up roughly 300 yards away, the crowd was primed to dance. And dance we did. An electrifying set in the perfect setting. Images and recap.
2. Jarvis Cocker @ Webster Hall 4/23/07 Nothing is more gratifying (and rare) than seeing a genuinely urbane performer. Jarvis's wit was exceeded only by his remarkable singing (and bizarre hand gestures). The cover of Springsteen's "State Trooper" wasn't bad either. Images and recap.
3. Deerhunter @ Mercury Lounge 4/26/07 (video); Bowery Ballroom 7/11/07 (images and commentary); Bowery Ballroom 10/17/07 I can barely differentiate between these shows, so what's the point? Pretty sure Bradford Cox only wore a dress at the first two shows, and only used fake blood at the first one. He also talked to the crowd for 20 minutes (until they turned off his mic) at the second one. It doesn't matter. An absolutely brilliant live band in any case. Check out Kim's recap of the October show HERE.
4. Interpol @ Bowery Ballroom 6/5/07 One of those tiny kick-off-the-tour hometown shows that're always the worst-kept secrets on Earth. Anyway, Kim somehow got tickets and off we went to feel all cool and special. Interpol are clearly suited to smaller venues, so this was a real treat. Images
5. Ted Leo + The Pharmacists; Polyphonic Spree; Matt & Kim; Spoon; Interpol; White Rabbits; 1900s; Iggy & The Stooges; and TV on the Radio @ Lollapalooza, Chicago 8/3/07–8/5/07 Attempting to integrate the rest of this year's great Lollapalooza acts into the list as a whole... well it just seemed like a lot of work. And this [cheat] solution allowed me to have my listy cake and, uh... write it too? Anyway, we had one of the best times of our lives. And I proved that you can still enjoy music festivals in your thirties. Images and recap here and here.
6. LCD Soundsystem @ Bowery Ballroom 3/30/07 See #1 above. Favorite live band on the planet.
7. Amy Winehouse/The Pipettes @ Bowery Ballroom 3/13/07 As a devout Pipettes fan, my main question going in was, "Who in hell is Amy Winehouse and why isn't she opening for them??" This question was answered quickly and definitively. The pre-meltdown Amy Winehouse in a small club was truly something to behold. Images and recap
8. Daft Punk @ Keyspan Park, Coney Island 8/9/07 As this was my third time seeing them in "the pyramid of light," the novelty had worn off slightly. Still, you cannot deny the sheer power of this show. And "show" really applies, as this has as much to do with spectacle as it does with music.
9. Morrissey @ Hammerstein Ballroom & Film School @ Mercury Lounge 10/23/07 What a night. Tye took me to see the Mozzer for the first time in over a decade (and the first since he started doing Smiths songs), and the man did not disappoint. "Death of a Disco Dancer" was a complete show-stopper. Then we hopped a cab down to Mercury Lounge, grabbing a beer just as Film School started their first song in a blistering set of top-notch shoegazery.
10. Sonic Youth @ Webster Hall 2/16/07 Amazingly, this was my first time seeing Sonic Youth live. In a way it was fitting, as Rather Ripped is my favorite album of theirs in over a decade. Suffice it to say they are in every way deserving of their reputation as world-class mindblowers. Video
11. Band of Horses @ McCarren Pool, Brooklyn 7/22/07 Their cover of Ron Wood's "Try Together" alone was worth the price of admission. I mean, it was free, but... well you know what I mean. Images and commentary
12. Grizzly Bear @ Bowery Ballroom 3/6/07 Gotta admit I'm lukewarm on their recorded output, but this show knocked me for a loop. The vocal harmonies seemed to good to be true, and (apparently unlike the rest of the blogosphere) I was utterly charmed by their cover of "He Hit Me (It Felt like a Kiss)."
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ Webster Hall 8/7/07 The fabled Karen O of old returned for the final-night-of-the-tour homecoming show. A scorching set of hits, oldies, and EP cuts had the decidedly young-skewing crowd testing the stress capacity of Webster Hall's dancefloor.
14. Fields @ Mercury Lounge 5/19/07 A total surprise. I liked the album quite a bit, but we were all totally unprepared for their rampant enthusiasm and guitar virtuosity.
15. Bat for Lashes @ Bowery Ballroom 9/25/07 Although I was told repeatedly how much I was going to hate this show, Natasha Khan's haunting vocals won me over completely. As for the Stevie Nicks-meets-Red Sonja vibe? Well, I also enjoy giggling.
16. The Thermals/Ted Leo + The Pharmacists @ McCarren Pool, Brooklyn 8/12/07 It's hard to separate the performances from the setting and the dodgeball tournament, so why even try? Despite Ted's ultra-solid set, The Thermals stole the show.
17. Arcade Fire @ Radio City Music Hall 5/9/07 Although very nearly ruined by the drunken band of Upper West Side douchebags in front of us (good lord do I hate assigned seating), the latter half of the show redeemed thee entire experience. Once the band demanded that the crowd rush the aisles, the experience shifted from torturous to transcendent.
18. Blonde Redhead @ Webster Hall 5/8/07 Interestingly, their spooky/ethereal vibe, which worked so well in this context, has bored me to tears at subsequent outdoor shows.
19. Art Brut @ Bowery Ballroom 4/17/07 Eddie Argos could stand on stage and read the phone book and still make this list.
20. Black Lips @ Siren Festival, Coney Island 7/21/07 Despite our collective boredom and borderline agoraphobia due to massive crowds, the Black Lips were a total revelation. They're just a crazy as one would expect. Images and commentary
...and the Biggest Disappointments
The Shins/Viva Voce @ The Theater at Madison Square Garden 3/14/07 Viva Voce did their very best, but they simply couldn't compete with the cavernous space. The Shins, who have never had much of a reputation as a live band anyway, didn't bother trying. One of those bands who stand still and sound exactly like their studio recordings. Meh.
The Black Angels @ Mercury Lounge 4/7/07 After an amazing set at the Knitting Factory two years ago set the bar at roughly forehead height, these guys have subsequently failed to impress. This time around, it seems likely that the sound guy was on quaaludes.
The Jesus and Mary Chain @ Webster Hall 5/22/07 We could barely hear a thing. Let me say that again: At a JaMC show, we could barely hear a thing! That's supposed to be your complaint as you're leaving their shows, not as you stand 20 feet from the stage. One of the loudest, most tinnitus-inducing bands of all time...neutered. It was like someone's mom made them to turn down all the amps.
The White Stripes @ Madison Square Garden 7/24/07 This show was probably amazing for the folks in the first five rows. For the other 18,000 people in attendance...not so much. Images and commentary
Interpol/Cat Power @ Madison Square Garden 9/14/07 This just in: unless you're U2 or Bruce Springsteen, the Garden sucks. Cat Power? Not ideal for this setting. At least we had a good time laughing at poor Interpol, who were beset by Spinal Tap-style technical difficulties. "We're gonna take a short break while they figure out how to lower this giant curtain." Classic.
Some lovely covers coming down the pike these days. So let's share.
Kevin Drew covers New Order! The erstwhile Broken Social Scene frontman does a tear-drenched, piano-only cover of a haunting New Order classic. (As Tye the Secret Square put it after hearing this, "Hold me!") "Age of Consent" (MP3)
Radiohead covers The Smiths! Great guitar coverage and some breaks for (semi-inappropriate) laughter make this Radiohead one-off worth a listen (and a watch).
Cat Power covers herself! It certainly sounds like a Dylan cover, but this is just a reworked version of an older Chan Marshal composition. "Song to Bobby" (MP3)
