eMusic get your act together

So yesterday I tried to download my monthly quota of songs from eMusic and failed somewhat. For some reason, the wireless network at my Local Public Library was being diffcult, or maybe eMusic is just fed up with me searching for Calexico and getting frustrated. Either way, I only got about 20% of my quota downloaded, so album reviews will be delayed somewhat.

Perhaps I could just blog about old albums that I own in physical form, or get off my butt and check out some music from the library, like in Old Times. More than likely, I will just seek a better connection or finally suck it up and get home internet. I wonder if there is some kind of a black market for music, where I could trade some unopened aluminum foil and cherry grenadine for a flash drive full of Roxy Music MP3s that would not also give my computer some kind of STD.

In short, here is a list of artists you can expect me to review in the near future:
Grizzly Bear
Explosions in the Sky yet again
Loney, Dear
Calexico
Anything but Wilco

Today there will be a mini-review of Les Savy Fav's The Cat and the Cobra. I found this album to be both abrasive and obnoxious without being balanced by any particular redeeming quality. The best thing about this album was the album art, which is a nice painting of a kittycat behaving aggressively towards a cobra. While this seems like a bad decision on the cat's behalf, it also serves as an appropriate analogy about my feelings towards anyone purchasing this album. Maybe I have just gone soft in my relatively advanced age. I also happen to wonder whether a cat would be able to win a fight versus a cobra, though I doubt it.


In Other News:
I'm not sure why today's post was so petulant and disjointed. I guess this is what happens when you come in to work and find a cake in the break room first thing in the morning.

I need to get an air valve cover for my bike tire but will most likely end up overpaying for one at some place like Hy-Vee.

Notes from the Underground

Today's Music of the Day is Medeski, Martin & Wood's Notes from the Underground. This might have come to me from eMusic, or this might have been given to me back when I was dealing drugs around the military base. (Note: this did not actually happen.)

Notes is a jazz album, and while I don't know that it would be classified as 'free jazz', it's fairly chaotic. There are individual but given the general lack of melody (enough so that it's basically a theme), distinct impressions about the individual songs don't jump up freely. The soundscape is busy, though, but not really dominated by any one instrument. It's hard to say where this music would not seem out of place; maybe a late-night poetry club full of anarchists and Methodists. Still, the musicianship is outstanding, as expected, and each major player has an opportunity to shine.

It's sometimes difficult to listen to this album and not expect to have a night full of dreams so bizarre that David Lynch will show up somewhere, but it is interesting, just not a work that I am passionate about. I would probably prefer Combustication to this album, for quality and sentimental reasons, but Notes isn't a failure, just something that is almost completely undecided on what it is supposed to be.

In Other News:

I suppose this is the kind of unfocused and brief post you get on a weary but content Monday. I did actually get some work done today, though.

It's definitely scooter weather.

Mogwai in Concert OMG

Today, there is no album review, but instead, a concert review. On Monday evening, I was fortunate enough to catch Mogwai in concert, at Omaha's Slowdown.

The opening act was the all-male band Women. I missed part of their set due to the parking situation, in that spaces were generally unavailable within a couple blocks of the venue. However, Women was/were pretty good, if a bit uninspired. They sounded very much like a younger, less ominous cousin to Mogwai, albeit one that paid more attention to their song times (for better or worse). They rocked fairly hard, though I wish their songs could have been a little more dramatic. As one concertgoer in earshot said, "no band should end their set with a three minute track. I demand that a set be closed with at least six minutes of rocking my ass off."

Mogwai came out in relatively short order, and opened with "Friend of the Night". The band did a good job of playing through their back catalogue, giving the crowd songs from Young Team all the way up through their last couple of albums. (I was particularly pleased to hear some tracks from Happy Songs For Happy People, including "Hunted By A Freak".) While I thought Mogwai was very good, and quite musically talented, my memories from this show will likely be of the audience as much as the performers. The crowd was quite appreciative though not overly bouncy; however, the number of obnoxious drunks in attendance was surprisingly high. One woman somewhere in the back of the audience screamed between songs for the better half of the show before, I assume, being allowed to plague the general public and not the facility itself. It must be nice to be able to sleep in on Tuesday.

Overall, the show was quite enjoyable; Mogwai, despite being something of a down-tempo band, connected with the crowd quite well. I don't know that this was the be-all end-all of post-rock shows, but I certainly enjoyed the experience. Now, about those Explosions in the Sky tickets...

In Other News:

Support Your Local Catgun returns to its regular format sometime, or not.

The weekend looks to be mostly busy but good-busy, as opposed to why-did-i-think-this-would-work busy. I don't know if that makes sense tome or not.

I need to figure out what my next concert is going to be. It might be time for a flight somewhere.

Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Today's Music That Should Have Been Ranted About By Now is Good News For People
Who Love Bad News. I think I was just inspired to write about this due to Modest Mouse coming up on Pandora for me today. Anyway, this album was a big part of my life a few years ago, enough so that any "Jason c. 2005" soundtrack / mixtape would have to include something from this album. It made me like Modest Mouse, then really like Modest Mouse, then dislike Modest Mouse, then dislike myself, and finally just admit that I liked Modest Mouse sometimes.

Anyway, in 2004 / 2005, "Float On" was everywhere, and while it was likeable enough, the ringing guitar and Isaac Brock's sharp vocals gave the uninformed (and count me among them) the impression that Modest Mouse might be an updated Big Country or Dexy's Midnight Runners. Thankfully, I got my hands on a copy of this album and found that while "Float On" was the most outgoing song, it wasn't the only worthwhile track on the album by any means.

This album definitely wears its heart on its sleeve, for better or worse. It's very much a modern indie rock sound, with the guitar - sometimes blazing, sometimes tender, but always present - and Brock's half-screaming, half-pining vocals leading the charge. (The Dirty Dozen Brass Band makes a couple nice cameos here as well.) Not all of the songs are favorites, but the entire album is hard not to get behind. Even at its blaring, most raging moments, it is somewhat endearing. By the time the last track plays, it's difficult not to be weary from the weight of the emotions here, but it's also hard not to want to start the album over again.

"Float On" is a good place to start, though there are good tracks throughout the album. "Bukowski" and "Satin in a Coffin" are also decent starting points; I'm also partial to "This Devil's Workday" and, of course, who could deny "Dance Hall". "Blame it on the Tetons" is a nice counterpoint to the bitter vigor of some other tracks, and "The Good Times are Killing Me" is the very definition of bittersweet.

In short, maybe this album sounds a bit dated now, but it's a damn fine work and something that I'll probably always cherish for the nostalgia and the quality of the music itself. It's debatable whether this album is better than The Moon and Antarctica (which definitely warrants a future entry) but I would recommend it to anyone who isn't 100% metal but appreciates indie rock. Plus, enjoy the cover art:













In Other News:
Thank goodness for Friday. What a strange week.

How did I make it this far without blogging about Modest Mouse? Really?

Out of Time

Today's Music of the Day is Out of Time, by R.E.M. By now, if you haven't heard "Losing My Religion" enough times to know that it came from this album, you probably never will. This is probably the most well-known (though not the best, in my opinion) R.E.M. album, being released in 1991 at the height of their popularity.

This is still an R.E.M. album, though there are some notable differences from albums past. It couldn't be called 'experimental', but there are some elements - strings, guest rappers - that weren't present before and had lesser if nonexistent presences after Out of Time. In hindsight, it's easy to see how this album, though successful, probably created a schism between casual and determined R.E.M. fans, perhaps even more so than the each-successful Green and Document. The sound is light and wistful in places, enough so that some of these songs might seem to be covers. It's widely known that for years, hipster testing was administered by restraining an individual and forcing them to listen to this album. (Displeasure would indicate hipster status.)

'Abberation' might be too strong a word, but Out of Time represents a clear departure from the days of Fables and Reckoning. The lyrics and sound are still strong here, but the soundscape is so occupied that individual elements lose their weight. The strings which were so prevalent here would be used to better effect in the future, but this album sounds a little like R.E.M. wasn't quite sure how to handle its increased resources.

Still, there are some good songs here. "Country Feedback" and "Me in Honey" are strong individually, but bookended they are especially powerful. "Losing My Religion" is a fine tune, though overplayed in the years since its release. "Half a World" has a nice vibe as well.

Overall, I might recommend this album to someone who needs to ease into R.E.M. and hasn't quite been weaned off popular radio yet, but it's hard to put it above many of their other works (even the much-reviled Monster), at least those not from the post-Berry albums, which shall have no presence here save for Up and possibly Accelerate, if I ever get my hands on it.

In Other News:

I hope I have spring fever and not swine flu. (Note: I am not actually ill.)

Saturday is Roller Derby! Friday is Capoeira open house! Sunday is Advil!

Ágætis byrjun

Today's Music that is Great and Also Makes Jason Want to Watch Some Wes Anderson Films is Ágætis byrjun, by Sigur Rós. By now, my fondness for Sigur Rós is no secret, so you'll probably have to run today's entry through some kind of fanboy filter in order to extract any usable opinions or text.

Ágætis byrjun (which I will be copy/pasting for the remainder of this post) is a semi-symphonic, charmed album, to say the least. Oh, there are vocals, though you won't be able to understand them; by the time you get halfway into the album, you won't really care. The instruments here are mostly strings, though more traditional keys and guitar show up on occasion. This is possibly SR's grandest if not most ambitious album, and while the emotions run high, they aren't played up for attention. Like most any SR album, you probably won't hear these songs on the radio unless you happen to listen to a college radio station that doesn't make its staff do regular drug screens.

The end result is a sweeping, magical work, one that sounds the way that the Earth must look from outer space or maybe just how it feels to not get sick on a ferris wheel. I do have to confess that this isn't my favorite SR album; I generally prefer the darker Von or the more whimsical Takk... to Ágætis byrjun. It's still very listenable, though, if the sheer emotion doesn't prove too exhausting.

"Staralfur" is the song most people are familiar with, and for good reason, but there are some other tracks that stand alone as well: "Ny Batteri", "Hjarto Hamast". The closer, "Avalon", is a nice way to wind down and reflect on the listening experience. Really, though, the only track I'm not fond of is the title track, which isn't so much terrible as it is overstayed and emotional.

In short, this is a solid introduction to the band and worth listening to, if you like SR or appreciate strings more than lyrics in your unconventional popular music.

In Other News:
where did the weekend go anyway?

...

Robbers and Cowards

Today's Music of the Day is Robbers and Cowards, the debut album from Cold War Kids. I'm almost certain this was given to me a year or two ago by a friend who would not shut up about how good "Hospital Beds" is. Anyway...

This album isn't subversive in any real sense of the word; it comes out with all instruments blazing, though only occasionally does it grasp the 'rock' part of 'indie rock'. The guitar adds a welcome edge to the music, though the piano is surprisingly prominent. I'm not sure what to make of the singer's voice, though; he's sometimes restrained but usually wails loudly enough to put the instruments in their place. His voice isn't elegant, really, but it couldn't be classified as screaming in any real sense of the word.

Robbers and Cowards has its moments, but they aren't dramatic enough to make a fairly predictable album memorable. The songs aren't performed poorly, but there don't seem to be enough lyrical or musical ideas here to allow any tracks to stand out. The lyrics never venture into storytelling; mostly, the songs seem to be about how trying life is. Maybe I'm not listening closely enough but the angst doesn't have a great deal of mileage. Musically, each song seems to be based off one bit of phrasing and rhythm, with a little build on that idea culminating in an instrumental solo or interlude, and that's about it. The piano is a nice touch but it's basically Heinz 57 sauce on an otherwise plain hamburger: appreciated but not really a distraction from an underutilized canvas.

Overall, this album is okay, but there just isn't enough substance here in terms of music or mood to make it particularly worthwhile. Some bands that are stronger in other areas could compensate for the shortcomings in terms of songwriting, but Cold War Kids just aren't doing it for me.

In Other News:
Thank goodness for Saturday. Please let me sleep in and also remain motivated so that I don't work so much this weekend.

I have got to find a guitar teacher, or at least a good guitar book.