MOG - goodyk's Posts

Elvis is everywhere

goodyk — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 01:20:09 GMT

I am, for reasons unknown to me, in the middle of an Elvis Costello jag, where I listen to only him, on a sort of endless rotation.

Obviously lots of different kinds of styles and such going on with him, sometimes in the same song. But it got me thinking: What are his best albums? And/or songs?

Beyond Belief has long been my favorite, but Brilliant Mistake is fast climbing. I dunno, what else? Man Out of Time? Indoor Fireworks? Shipbuilding?

You tell me....

Reading my mind (or someone's)

goodyk — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:53:26 GMT

The combination of some vacation time and not being a television critic anymore has led me back to an old pursuit: reading books.

You know -- offline, paper between two covers, that kind of thing. You remember. In a previous post I talked about the beginning of Perfect from Now On, about the bit with the iTunes counter and how it reflected your musical tastes, like it or not (though, as others pointed out, there are reasons why this might not be 100 percent true). In the meantime I finished the book and enjoyed it, especially because it involved a brief journalistic quandry - John Sellers, the author, wound up drinking beer with Robert Pollard, his hero, and in the eyes of some betraying him because he wrote about it. (The resolution isn't as interesting as the problem itself.)

Then, at a trip to the beach, my mom was reading Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time, in which author Rob Sheffield chornicles his life by way of mix tapes, as you perhaps guessed from the title. It may not seem like the most likely choice for a 78-year-old woman to read, but there was a reason: the woman Sheffield was married to until her sudden death was one of my mom's piano students way back when.

So when she was done, I read that. It's the better book, probably, but obviously a much more serious affair. Highly recommended, both of them.

So I figured, this is cool - I'll devote my spare time to reading rock books. Perhaps I'll become an obsessive (both Sellers and Sheffield fit the description). Maybe this will be the ticket to my long-held dream: writing a bestselling biography of Mitch Easter, or his band Let's Active, or Southern jangle pop from the '80s. Though on further reflection: possibly limited audience.

And then I picked up Christopher Moore's You Suck: A Love Story, which, at least so far, isn't about music at all. (I'm a sucker for a good vampire story, pun intended, I suppose.)

But I'm still in the market for a good rock book, something in the vein of Nick Hornby's great High Fidelity: A Novel. If anybody's got suggestions, I'm all ears.

Again with the puns. Man.

Indisputable evidence

goodyk — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 06:06:18 GMT

I'm reading a book by John Sellers, Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life, which is amusing and kind of fun in that makes-you-want-to-listen-to-music way.

But there's something in the early going that really intrigued me. Sellers to his surprise discovers his obsession with Guided By Voices (eh, OK, never fully got it, whatever) mathematically, when he discovered that he could list songs on his iTunes by play count.

So I bit. What the heck. A quick click reveals ... no big surprise at No. 1. In a recent post at my other blog, in which I ranked what I thought were the top 25 songs of all time, I put No. 13 Baby at the top. And indeed, it's there at No. 1 on iTunes as well.

But No. 2 surpised me, a lot. Honky Tonk Women, by the Rolling Stones. Huh? When? Now, granted, I listen to songs on my iPod when I run, set on shuffle, so all manner of things come up. (Plus, I listen to Rhapsody a lot more than what I have stored on iTunes.) But I've listened to this more than anything but my beloved Pixies song?

Jimmy's Fantasy by Redd Kross at No. 3 isn't a big stretch. After a certain number of beers it's practically required listening. But Anne Richmond Boston's cover of Neil Young's When You Dance I Can Really Love at No. 4? Wow. I don't think that can possibly be true.

And yet it obviously is.

What a bizarre experience. I know that (Believed You Were) Lucky by 'Til Tuesday (great song, really, don't be fooled by Amy Mann's former hairdo) comes up a lot (No. 14), because it's at the top of a couple of playlists I've made. But if I had to guess a Sparklehorse song I'd heard most, it would have been Heart of Darkness, not Someday I Will Treat You Good (No. 6). Same for Elvis Costello. I would have thought I'd listened to Beyond Belief, one of my all-time favorite songs, a lot more, but it's hovering down at No. 21, while Alison sits there at No. 16. Go figure.

Interesting exercise. No accounting for tastes, as they say. But you'd think I could account for my own.

Anyway, without further ado, the 20 songs I've evidently listened to most:

1) No. 13 Baby, The Pixies 2) Honky Tonk Women, Rolling Stones 3) Jimmy's Fantasy, Redd Kross, 4) When You Dance I Can Really Love, Anne Richmond Boston 5) No Better Place, Fountains of Wayne 6) Someday I Will Treat You Good, Sparklehorse 7) Special One, Ultra Vivid Scene 8) Clocks, Coldplay 9) Mexican Wine, Fountains of Wayne 10) Something Becomes Nothing, Matthew Sweet (another stunner; I'd have guessed about 15 other Matthew Sweet songs before this) 11) Corduroy, Pearl Jam (I am not sure how this happened) 12) Please Return It, The Posies 13) New Slang, The Shins 14) Stacy's Mom, Fountains of Wayne (big hit with my kids) 15) (Believed You Were) Lucky, 'Til Tuesday 16) Heroes, David Bowie 17) Alison, Elvis Costello 18) Zero, Smashing Pumpkins (again, I can't quite figure this out) 19) One, U2 20) Roses Are Free, Ween (I like the guitar solo)

Singing Sgt. Pepper's praises

goodyk — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 07:03:35 GMT

It was 20 years ago today .... You know, when I signed on to write about the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper, I tried really hard to avoid starting the story with any version of that lyric.

Evidently I failed. I did, however, try to put a twist on it. You can read the results here . (You can also click here to read about another milestone -- the 35th anniversary of Exile on Main Street.)

Once you've written something, a story pretty much speaks for itself. But I'll say this: it's more challenging than you might suspect to write about something you feel so strongly about. One of my brothers got Sgt. Pepper for his birthday when I was just a kid; there's really never been a time in my life that I didn't know every song on it, in order. Whether it was all my siblings singing When I'm 64 in the car on the way to church the first year I was old enough to go to Midnight Mass (leg cramps, trouble staying awake, by the by) or using the lyrics to Lovely Rita for sample writing in high-school drafting class or being quizzed by the assistant track coach about the running order of the songs, Sgt. Pepper was always around, always a big part of my life -- and a lot of other people's, too. I know that a strong argument can be made that it's not even the Beatles best album (though I think it is). But no other record has quite the same magic. And it's contagious: my 8-year-old can identify all the Beatles by the album photos, and pretty much pick out who sings what. She likes the CD a lot.

Wonder how she, and everyone else, will feel about it in another 40 years?

Top 500 songs: sea change

goodyk — Mon, 28 May 2007 19:42:56 GMT

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

What gives? War? National unease? State of affairs?

Something more shocking. I was listening to the local classic-rock radio station (one of them; their name is legion, but good luck getting anybody to play the new Wilco) and it's doing something that I always enjoy: counting down the top 500 songs for Memorial Day weekend. It's not so much the moldy oldies I like, though in truth I love a great number of them, and usually in the 300-500 range you get stuff that hasn't been overplayed to the point of icepick-in-the-ear annoyance. But what I really like is that it kicks off the summer, and then on Labor Day weekend there's some other big countdown (this particular station usually plays songs in alphabetical order by artist or some such). Nice little bookend for the season. Of course, in Arizona Labor Day means only two or three months of brutal summer heat, but it's a start.

Anyway, here's the jaw-dropper: woke up, put on the radio, made breakfast and heard Free Bird. Huh? They're that far along this early in the day? Back in the day, as they say, when I first heard people call oldies "classic rock," Free Bird was always a top 3 pick for best song of all time. (Probably causes a run on Bic lighters.) But the DJ came on and said that was No. 61! Huh? And now that I think of it, I think I heard Layla yesterday -- seems like it was always duking it out with Free Bird for the top spot.

Has classic rock changed? Can it? I tend to think of it as an immobile beast, encased in drum solos and guitar noodling. But maybe not. Maybe tastes have changed. Maybe voters have. Maybe younger people are voting in these things now, and throwing votes towards bands that have now been around long enough to be considered "classic."

I'm not sure that's better. Because if Talking Heads or R.E.M. or somebody like that ends up in the top 5, then I'M going to feel like the moldy oldie.

Sigh. Is it too late for a recount?

Sgt. Beck?

goodyk — Wed, 23 May 2007 05:36:25 GMT

I was recently working on a story about the 40th anniversary or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. No contrarian take here -- I am not going to be the person who challenges its position as the Greatest Album Ever (the reasons include both the professional and the personal), even if a relatively large number of Beatlemaniacs don't even think it's the best Beatles album (they'll usually go with Revolver).

The gist of the story tends more toward the cultural than the musical -- impact, all that -- and one of the stock questions I asked was this: could the planets ever align for the release of a CD to have the same kind of impact again? The short answer was, basically, yes. The longer answer tends to be: no. We don't experience music, or anything else, the same way anymore, it's now an individual thing, not communal, etc. etc. The usual suspects for being able to pull such a thing off, if it were possible, were bands like U2 and, maybe, Radiohead.

But here's an intriguing choice one person offered: Beck. Not popular enough, you say? Probably. The Beatles, as you'll recall, sold a few records back in the day (and still, in this day). But on the creative front, what an interesting choice. I can't think of any record (or CD or whatever) that I've gotten more enjoyment, more emotional use out of, in a really long time than Sea Change. Sad, sad fellow, pumping out the non-stop pop hooks. It makes you feel better, or worse, or both at the same time, just by listening.

It may not be Sgt. Pepper. Nothing else is. But it'll do in a pinch.

Wilco: worth it. Is Rhapsody?

goodyk — Tue, 15 May 2007 06:54:04 GMT

I like the new Wilco a lot. No big surprise. I like the band a lot, so why wouldn't I like their new release? Jeff Tweedy seems to have perfected the slow burn that explodes into angry guitars -- a sound I'm inordinately fond of.

So, high marks for Sky Blue Sky.

I heard it first, as usual, on Rhapsody.com, of which I am a huge fan. Love it. For $9.99 a month, you can hear just about anything by anybody (I know, I know. Except the Beatles, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, early Elvis Costello, which, when you put them all together sounds like a lot, but really, it is a cool thing, omissions notwithstanding). Make it truly portable, the celestial jukebox or whatever, and it's gold.

Alas, nothing lasts forever, including the $9.99 a month subscription fee. It's going up to $12.99 a month at the end of the month. Now, I know -- $3 a month isn't that big an increase. And if you are willing to go in for a year's subscription, they'll knock off $36. I'm no math whiz, but I am able to figure out that this keeps it at an average of $9.99 a month.

Still. It's not a money thing. It's a philosophical thing. (As an aside, I complained aloud about the increase and a tech-savvy co-worker expressed dismay at any sort of subscription system.) There's just some great underground feel to the less-than-$10-a-month model. Granted, it probably exists only in my head. But you definitely lose the feeling of being in on the ground floor of something once the price starts going up. Loss of innocence, all that.

In the end, I'll probably just pay it. But I'm not happy about it. Maybe a few more listens of Sky Blue Sky will make me feel better.

Mixing it up

goodyk — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 05:03:24 GMT

Talk about pressure: ever made a mix tape (mix CD, I guess) for a group? A group that knows a ton about music?

A friend of mine got a bunch of music fans together in a kind of club. Once a month the members make a mix CD. You end up hearing a lot of really good music that you wouldn't otherwise know about (or maybe forgot about), you get all inspired, you download songs, etc. Sounds great, right? And it is.

Until it's your turn.

What's the best strategy? Does putting a song by the Beatles or the Rolling Stones make you too passe? Should you go out of your way to stick something by Polvo or some other truly alternative alternative band on there, just so you can show how cool your tastes are? On the other hand, Polvo's a really good band. I knew I wanted Let's Active and Sparklehorse on there, but which songs?

Depends on what you want out of it, I guess. Should it be songs the rest of the group doesn't know but might like? Or just good music? Old songs OK? How old?

And how do you pare it down to a reasonable number of songs? OK, that part's easy -- you don't. Double CD!

If it sounds like I'm overthinking this, well, yeah. Isn't that the point?

Kaiser Chiefs rocks, but...

goodyk — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 03:10:15 GMT

Listened to Yours Truly Angry Mob on Rhapsody last night, while doing some other work, so I can't say I gave it the world's most careful listen. But I liked it -- liked the guitars, all that.

Then I discovered, to my horror, two things: 1) The thing came out last month and I hadn't realized it and, worse, after a few songs I sort of stopped paying attention.

Now, granted, I was doing other stuff, and watching TV for a living for nearly eight years and having four kids 8 and under tends to do a number on the ol' attention span, but I wondered: am I indie-rocked out? (Yes, I know -- Kaiser Chiefs are on Universal/Polydor. More the spirit of the thing that I was after.)

My thinking is: no. I still want to hear new stuff. But this isn't the first time the thought has occurred to me that discovering new music might be a young man's game. It was a near-constant thought during my trek to South X Southwest, actually -- not so much because I wasn't interested in new music, of which there was a gracious plenty. No, I loved that, heard a lot of bands I want to hear a lot more from (especially the Blakes), had a ball. It's just that I was so ... tired. All that walking. All that staying up so late. Sigh. I make it sound like I have to listen through my ear horn.

Wait, that's Christgau. Ha-ha, just joking. However, I will say this: he's more than 20 years older than I am and doesn't seem to have any trouble getting into new bands. So there's hope for me yet.

Sparklehorse: best of?

goodyk — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 05:55:28 GMT

So for whatever reason, maybe because the show was so good, I've been incessently playing Sparklehorse since returning from South X Southwest. Heavy rotation, as they used to say on FM radio.

Which leads me to a question: what's the best Sparklehorse song? Or top 5? (Or 10?) For that matter, what's the best Sparklehorse album? I'd probably go with Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, though Good Morning Spider is a close second. I like them all, but those two have the most pop hooks, and that's what does it for me....

Anyway, I'll attempt a top 5 list here, but I have to say, it changes constantly (like, from the time I started typing this post till now). So, for the moment, here goes:

1) Heart of Darkness 2) Cow 3) Sick of Goodbyes 4) Don't Take My Sunshine Away 5) Pig

Hmm. How did Someday I Will Treat You Good not work its way in there? See what I mean?

More SXSW: whither Iggy?

goodyk — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:33:31 GMT

Just curious: Did anyone see Iggy Pop at SXSW? Stubbs, the venue (and home of one of my favorite non-Eastern-North-Carolina BBQ sauces), was packed to the gills hours before the reunited Stooges performed, and they weren't letting anyone else in. (I was actually more game to see Kings of Leon and Spoon, but that didn't happen. And I saw Spoon the first night I was there anyway.)

I'm curious. Haven't read much if anything about the Stooges show. Good? Bad? Peanut-butter-smearing indifferent?

SXSW: home again, very sleepy

goodyk — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 06:49:45 GMT

Back from four days and nights of band-watching at SXSW with my trusty travel companions. The three of us had really, really great time, in a brutal, fun-never-stops sort of way. My band count stands at 46, though for some reason at 2 a.m. Sunday it stood at 56. Not sure what happened to the 10 I thought I’d seen….

You can read in a million different places about what goes on in Austin during the festival. The short version is: lots of music, lots of food, lots of beer. Not a bad combo. (And the food, this being Texas, more often than not was barbecue. Excellent choice. Though why Texans prefer brisket to pulled pork is one of those questions for the ages.)

If you looked through enough fliers and such, you could always find a free party during the day, with some really cool bands playing. We saw, among others, great sets by the Buzzcocks, Sloane, the Bravery and Scissors for Lefty while the sun was shining, which was perhaps not as rock ‘n roll as some might like, I suppose, but when your back hurts as much as mine did after a few hours of standing and you’d trade a nap for a free Miller Lite in a heartbeat, you’re maybe not as rock ‘n roll as you once were anyway.

I won’t bore you with a list of every band we saw. Instead I will bore you with a random list of the best shows we saw (or at least the ones that get my vote; my companions may well have different lists) and some other dribs and drabs. And I’m not going to bother trying to rank them all; the order changes in my head every time I hear another song, particularly the top three.

So here goes:

Top 3, easy: Sparklehorse; Peter, Bjorn and John and The Cinematics.

Oh what the heck. In that order. I’d seen Sparklehorse before; this time they were a lot better, adding harder touches to even the soft songs they played. That was true of Peter, Bjorn and John, as well – songs like Young Folks that sound kind of wimpy on record rocked much harder; that song in particular sounded like an anthem the way they played it live. (They lost points for the fake whistling, though.) So, based on this, believe the hype. I don’t know that I’d ever heard a note the Cinematics played, but they were great. They opened with a rock cover of Sunday Sun, one of my favorite Beck songs, and never let up. Great shows, all.

A notch below, but not far below: Sloane, Scissors for Lefty, the Rosebuds, Broken West, Spoon, The Bravery, Amy Winehouse. Sloane was another band that played a great afternoon set. Same with Scissors for Lefty, a band I was completely unfamiliar with and whose name I think is so stupid it’ll keep people from buying their CDs but who were surprisingly good. We saw the Rosebuds, Broken West and local heroes Spoon, in that order, in the same club the first night we were there. Not a bad way to start things. Barely got in to see Amy Winehouse, but was glad we did;

Who knew they could still get it done? The Buzzcocks and Thomas Dolby. Dolby still insists on weird little mad-scientist touches like a bizarre pair of what looked like swim goggles made out of metal, but his set was really fun, including an amusing little tale of his side of the K-Fed copyright-infringement saga. Blinded me with lawsuits. Or something. As for the Buzzcocks, well, how to say this kindly – there’s a little more of Pete Shelley than there used to be, but they were GREAT, even if it seemed like watching your dad play stinging punk-pop anthems.

How does he do it? Kid Koala. Incredibly gifted DJ. Answer to the question: no idea.

Don’t believe the hype: The Good, the Bad and the Queen were a big disappointment, especially considering what a big deal they were to the assembled throng. Muddy sound, sluggish songs – we cut out to pursue other options, even though it was well past midnight.

Hope they get big: the Blakes, from Seattle, who played a great power pop set and whose singer stuck around afterwards for the always-embarrassing cell phone camera shot (and no, you won’t see it here or anywhere else, because the lighting was bad and it didn’t turn out).

And with that, nap time. Again. Have a feeling that’s going to be a recurring theme for a few days….

SXSW: home again, very sleepy

goodyk — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 06:49:01 GMT

So here goes:

Top 3, easy: Sparklehorse; Peter, Bjorn and John and The Cinematics.

How does he do it? Kid Koala. Incredibly gifted DJ. Answer to the question: no idea.

And with that, nap time. Again. Have a feeling that’s going to be a recurring theme for a few days….

Best news dept.: Mitch Easter returns

goodyk — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:44:13 GMT

Great news, if you're a fan of Southern jangle pop from way back when. (OK, OK, more than 20 years ago. Geez.) Mitch Easter, music hero, is releasing a new CD. (Pause for cheering.) From the press release (with the schedule of a minitour below):

"Mitch Easter was the mastermind behind Let’s Active and I’m pleased to announce that nearly 20 years after their last album, Mitch is releasing a new solo album called “Dynamico” which is very much in the vein of Let’s Active, but with modern twists and turns that make it a most welcome reprieve from radio pop.

"Mitch and his band are playing 4 dates in California to promote the album. Please let me know if you’re interested in covering a show, attending a show, interviewing the band or receiving a CD."

Mitch Easter West Coast Shows: March 28 – Amoeba Music – San Francisco, CA – 6:00pm (free instore) March 29 – The Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA – 8:00pm March 30 – Fox & Goose – Sacramento, CA – (w/Ghosts of California) March 31 – Silverlake Lounge – Los Angeles, CA – 7:00pm (w/Truckee Brothers)

SXSW -- now what?

goodyk — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 22:25:27 GMT

Making my first trek to SXSW this week and looking for advice -- have been working my way through some of the lineup on Rhapsody, but always eager to hear about more bands of the can't-miss variety. Also looking for other cool things to do while there.

Up and running

goodyk — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 05:21:23 GMT

Brand new here, feeling my way around -- and liking it a lot. A little creepy to think of the whole world knowing if I go on a self-pity induced America binge or something, but worth the embarrassment.