Tanya Donnelly - "Heart of Gold" (the song remains the same)

One of my favorite LPs is the 2008 Neil Young tribute LP "Cinnamon Girl", which consists entirely of covers of Neil Young songs by female artists.  I'll eventually get around to reviewing the entire LP, but for the moment we'll continue Women's History Month with the advance single from the LP: Tanya Donnelly covering "Heart of Gold" on the A-side, and LUFF covering "Tell Me Why" on the B-side.

Tanya Donelly is on the A-side because she is an alt-rock icon, having been in Throwing Muses, The Breeders, and Belly, in addition to her solo career.  That's quite a resume, and she deserves to be the featured artist.  She turns in a really good version of one Neil Young's most popular -- and one of my favorite -- songs.

But the real surprise of this single (and indeed, the entire LP) is LUFF's cover of "Tell Me Why".  Whereas Tanya and most of the other artists on the LP stay pretty close in style to the originals, LUFF gives a mesmerizing, shoegazing version of a more obscure song.  I did not know of LUFF prior to this LP and I'm not 100% sure they're still active, but I intend to explore more of their (limited) discography.

Tanya Donelly - "Heart of Gold"
LUFF - "Tell Me Why"

Neil Young - "Heart of Gold", "Tell Me Why"
CSNY - "Tell Me Why"

Jill Sobule ‎– "I Kissed A Girl" (forgotten song)

Another Super Bowl has come and gone, and with it a pretty good halftime show, featuring Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz, and Missy Elliott.  Katy Perry was Katy Perry, I'm not sure why Lenny Kravitz was there (having him sing "I Kissed a Girl" isn't really a stretch), and most people celebrated the return of Missy Elliott.  And then there were the sharks, or more specifically "left shark".  If you didn't enjoy the sharks, trees, and beach balls then you're dead inside (see also: Aqua's "Barbie Girl").

I've already (sorta) blogged about Katy Perry once and that seems like enough.  The third song in the Super Bowl setlist was Katy Perry's first single from 2008, "I Kissed A Girl", but instead I want to focus on another song by the same name that you might not have heard.

In 1995 Jill Sobule released "I Kissed A Girl" as a single off her second LP "Jill Sobule" and it received minor airplay.  Although she's been active continuously I don't think she's had a hit since then.  Katy's song is a different song altogether, even though they share a title and theme.  Obviously Katy played the bi-curious theme to much more commercial success than did Jill.  In a 2009 interview Jill said, tongue-in-cheek:

When Katy Perry's song came out I started getting tons of inquiries about what I thought. Some folks (and protective friends) were angry, and wondered why she took my title and made it into this kind of "girls gone wild" thing....

As a musician I have always refrained from criticizing another artist. I was, "Well, good for her." It did bug me a little bit, however, when she said she came up with the idea for the title in a dream. In truth, she wrote it with a team of professional writers and was signed by the very same guy that signed me in 1995. I have not mentioned that in interviews as I don't want to sound bitter or petty...

Okay, maybe, if I really think about it, there were a few jealous and pissed-off moments. So here goes, for the first time in an interview: Fuck you Katy Perry, you fucking stupid, maybe 'not good for the gays,' title-thieving, haven't heard much else, so not quite sure if you're talented, fucking little slut.

God that felt good.

I watched the halftime show, and I liked it...

Jill Sobule - "I Kissed A Girl"
Katy Perry - "I Kissed A Girl"
Full Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show

Beyonce - "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (the song remains the same)

I seem to have a Super Bowl tradition going, so no reason to stop now...

Super Bowl XLVII had Beyonce for the halftime show, and by all accounts it was very successful.  Although I'm not really a Beyonce fan, it did seem like a high-energy show.  It was surprisingly short on guest appearances, so I'll have to do my first (and probably only) Beyonce post.

She performed several of her big hits including "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", which is probably her biggest hit, crossing over into many other genres.  You've heard it countless times before, but did you know that:

• the iconic dance routine is based on 1969's "Mexican Breakfast"?
• it is the basis of a SNL skit with Justin Timberlake?
• there are not one but two bluegrass versions?  The Cleverlys and The Pigs
• The Daily Show featured a mariachi version?
• it was slowed down by Sara Bareilles?
• just for Danette's benefit*, Liza Minnelli did a version?
• it was used as an example in an NPR piece about how video making has changed?

I find the last bit the most interesting: rather than the theatrical, complex arrangements of 1983's Thriller, which was meant to be viewed on a large screen TV, modern videos are optimized for smaller, mobile devices.  This means lots of flashing lights, centering framing, and facial close-ups.  The contrast with Michael Jackson is interesting, because it was his 1993 halftime show that launched the current practice of A-list performers.  Prior to that, you were more likely to see "Up With People" at halftime (seriously, look it up). 

Now that you've learned about how the viewing devices influence video making, take another look:

Beyonce: "Single Ladies"

Enjoy it because Super Bowl XLVIII might not have a halftime show (however, I'm betting they do).




* Aside from the obvious icon status, Danette completely doesn't get Liza Minnelli. 

Matt and Kim - "Daylight" (spotlight)

I was recently telling a friend about Matt and Kim's upcoming show at the Norva. She wasn't familiar with them, so we started talking about their song from the Bacardi commercial, etc. I wish I was cool enough to say that I had heard of them before that, but alas...

"Daylight" is the lead single off their 2009 sophomore LP "Grand" (the single itself was released in 2008).  This song is just pure joy set to music, and the video is equally clever and charming (check out the stop motion work starting at ~2:12).

Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino have a formula, and as a drums & synth DIY duo there is a limit to the variation you get from them, but it's a good formula and their attitude is infectious so why mess with what works.  Their YouTube channel is filled with gems, but "Daylight" is a good place to start.

Daylight: official video, live on the Daily Habit, live 2012, 2009 live debut, 2010 live.

The Magnetic Fields - "Distortion" (LP Review)

The Magnetic Fields pay homage to The Jesus and Mary Chain.  If your reaction to that statement is "who and who?!", then you're not going to appreciate this LP.  "Distortion" is the 2008 TMF LP that borrows heavily from the aural aesthetic of TJAMJ's 1985 noisy masterpiece "Psychocandy". 

In itself, that's not such a big deal -- lots of bands wish they could make something as good as "Psychocandy".  When TMF does it, it is a big deal.  Not only is their sound more in a synth & folk pop sound, TMF's leader Stephin Merritt has hyperacusis, which explains in part why TMF has typically has a muted and restrained sound (and why the live performances of these songs are not done in the typical TMF style and  TJAMC style).

I think this is a fun LP -- every band should do a Psychocandy homage -- but the song writing does not approach the genius of something like "69 Love Songs".  There are no bad songs and some are quite good, but the production is a bit of a gimmick.  Granted it is a gimmick I like, but this should not be your first TMF LP.

Standout songs: "Threeway" (live), "California Girls" (live), "Please Stop Dancing", "Too Drunk To Dream", "I'll Dream Alone", "The Nun's Litany".

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final score: 7/10.  Essential only for TMF and/or TJAMC fans.

Bonus links: "Just Like Honey", "Taste of Cindy".

Zomes - "Zomes" (LP Review)

Quietly working its way up my iTunes playlist is the 2008 self-titled LP "Zomes". Zomes isn't actually a band, but an alias for Asa Osbourne, the guitarist for the punk-band Lungfish. I'm not familiar with Osbourne, Lungfish, or some of the other various related projects, so I'm reviewing this LP without the context of Osbourne's prior work (two good reviews of the LP by someone familiar his oeuvre can be found at "dusted" and "hardcore for nerds").

This LP is a mesmerizing, minimalist, fuzzy, drone record that features a lot heavily processed guitar. Knowing what I now know about Osbourne, it makes sense to me that this is basically electronic music as envisioned and executed in a decidedly organic, DIY-punk aesthetic. If Kevin Shields, Brian Eno, and Phillip Glass listened to a bunch of Ramones and Iggy Pop LPs and then went on a weekend recording bender, it would sound like this. Butch turned me on to this LP, I love it, and I turned Herbert on to it. If you've been reading this blog regularly, you'll know that's a good indication of the breadth of interests to which this LP appeals.

Stand out songs: Although it has 16 tracks (owing to its punk roots, none stick around that long), this is not the kind of LP for which you have favorite tracks. Listen to the whole thing at grooveshark. Some representative songs include: "Crowning Orbs", "Clear Shapes", "Colored Matter".

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final score: 9/10. Deceptively simple, you'll be surprised how often you replay this.

The Cribs - "I'm A Realist" (LP Review)

This is an odd sort of EP from The Cribs: I think it only exists for the public in digital form, although I've found some evidence on ebay that it also exists (under a different cover) as a promo-only 4 track EP (the discogs.com entry seems to support this theory as well).

In my quest to acquire the back catalog of The Cribs (see my other reviews), I tried to find a CD version of this EP. Failing in that, I broke down and bought it on iTunes, which I have to confess is very unsatisfying. Yes, I understand that I'm something of a fossil by continuing to buy hard-copy formats of music, but 1) the collector in me isn't satisfied if there isn't a physical manifestation, and 2) my professional interests in digital preservation make me more optimistic about the long-term viability of CDs over my iTunes library.

Should you buy this EP online? Or hunt up a promo version on ebay? The short answer is "yes". It is mostly a collection of songs that have appeared in other releases, but some of them have been difficult to get and/or have only been in 7" vinyl. And if you're a hard-core collector, then promo-only releases are gems in your collection (for example, I'm proud to have a copy of DJ Shadow's "One to Grow On" promo-only LP).

The title track is the final single from 2007's "Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever" LP. It's not a bad song, but it certainly wasn't a standout track from the LP. This EP also contains a remix of "I'm A Realist" from The Postal Service, which I believe is the only track on this EP you can't find elsewhere. I'm a big fan of Jimmy Taborello (1/2 of TPS; see also my review of "Dumb Luck"), and while I really like the idea of a TPS remix of a song by The Cribs, I can't say it works that well. It is "interesting", and it sounds exactly like what a TPS remix should sound like, and while I'm happy to have it as a collector I don't really play it all that often.

However, the other two tracks on the EP I play all the time. "Don't You Wanna Be Relevant" and "Kind Words From the Broken Hearted" first appeared as a 7" non-LP single in 2007 after the release of MNWNW. "Don't You Wanna Be Relevant" is a blistering continuation of their previous songs like "Hey Scenesters" and "Mirror Kissers"; conventional wisdom says The Pigeon Detectives are the target of the band's wrath in this song. No one can do sneer and snarky like The Cribs.

"Kind Words From the Broken Hearted" would sound at home on either of their first LPs. This is in part because it was produced by Edwyn Collins (who also produced "The New Fellas") after his recovery from illness. There should be a law that requires Collins to produce every LP by The Cribs -- they simply don't miss when they get together.

The digital-only version closes with a video for "Our Bovine Public" from MNWMW. Not new material, but an excellent song and the video draws heavily from the DVD set "Live At The Brudenell Social Club".

Standout songs: "Don't You Wanna Be Relevant" (live version), "Kind Words From the Broken Hearted" (live version), "Our Bovine Public" (live version, Jools Holland).

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final score: 8/10, on the strength of "DYWBR" and "KWFTBH" and being the last release of the pre-Johnny Marr era.

Bonus Links: "I'm A Realist" (live version on Jools Holland; last.fm live version w/ Johnny Marr), "I'm A Realist (The Postal Service Remix)" -- these aren't good enough to be "standout", but they're not really "skip 'em" either.

Bonus Links #2: The B-side of the original 7" of "I'm A Realist" featured a cover of "Bastards of Young" by The Replacements: cover by The Cribs, original by The Replacements.

Bonus Links #3: Wichita Recordings has the official video for "Don't You Wanna Be Relevant", but the audio volume is very low. It's a great video, but you'll need to really crank your volume.

The Caretaker - "Persistent Repetition of Phrases" (LP Review)

"The Caretaker" is one of the many pseudonyms of James Leyland Kirby, who is perhaps slightly more well known as "V/Vm". The Caretaker project began in 1999 as an attempt to musically reproduce music from the haunted ballroom scene in The Shining. Although I get the reference now, the first thing it reminded me of was the opening scene in The Wall, with Vera Lynn singing "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot". Both movies repurpose big band recordings from our collective nostalgia for a disturbing effect. I could speculate as to why this is true, but there is no denying the results. Band music, complete with the technological defects of pops and hisses and hazily reduced to sound like it is coming from the other room (or some other world), makes for spooky music. I could go on, but instead I'll quote from The Caretaker's site directly, in his own words:

Dusty and forgotten memories, echoes and vibrations from the past. Using as source, recordings from the 1920's and 1930's era of Ballroom music. Often painful and desolate memories, recalled and replayed from beyond the grave of our senses. In amongst this darkness lies the solace of a semi-recognisable melody or phrase, a beacon of light in this often dark and distant ocean of haunted recalled audio.

The Caretaker's 2008 LP "Persistent Repetition of Phrases" has been steadily climbing my iTunes playcount since Herbert turned me on to it a few months ago. And since you can't stay at the Overlook Hotel forever (!), this LP deals with the more real (and more disturbing) concepts of memory, speech, aging, (loss of) identity and Alzhiemer's. Like Elvis Costello's Veronica, slowly and gauzily retold without words.

Standout tracks: Given the nature of the LP, individual songs are hard to single out, but I'll go with: Lacunar Amnesia, Long Term (remote), Poor Enunciation, False Memory Syndrome.

(The rest of the LP -- and other Kirby songs -- are available on the V/vm YouTube Channel. It is worth checking out.)

Skip 'em tracks: none.

Final score: 10/10. Part of me thinks I'm being too generous and maybe it warrants only a 9/10. But on the other hand, I don't know how this LP could be better.

Bonus Links: Ballroom Music from The Shining (YouTube), The Ballroom Scene from The Shining (YouTube).

Hot Chip - "Ready For The Floor" (the song remains the same)

The last five entries have been heavy on nostalgia so now it is time to shift to something more contemporary...

I learned of the song "Ready For The Floor" from the cover by Lissy Trullie, via the Wichita Recordings YouTube Channel. From the comments there, I learned that the original artist is by the English synth pop band Hot Chip, and that the song is from their 2008 LP "Made in the Dark". I'm not sure how Hot Chip had escaped my attention before (they've released three studio LPs as well as various EPs, singles and remixes), but they appear to be more popular in Europe than in the US. A good sampling of their material is on their MySpace and YouTube pages.

Hot Chip's version of the "Ready For The Floor" simultaneously reminds me of New Order (cf. "Regret"), Devo (cf. "Girl U Want"), and Art of Noise (cf. "Close (To The Edit)"). Ok, so all of my references are from 1980s bands -- I guess this isn't a nostalgia-free update. I have to confess that I have no idea what the song is about, but it's very catchy and the video is a lot of fun (Alexis Taylor apparently comes from the David Byrne school of dancing).

Lissy Trullie covers the song on her 2009 debut EP "Self-Taught Learner" as well as the upcoming soundtrack for "Jennifer's Body". She provides a straight-ahead rock arrangement of the song that works at least as well as the original. This video is also interesting in that 1) it is produced/sponsored by Herve Leger by Max Azria, and 2) features Trullie, a former model, in several of their outfits. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it doesn't detract from two versions of a fun song. Trullie is generating an early buzz (e.g., reviews in Spin & Rolling Stone), but similar premature press arguably sank fellow NYC artists The Strokes. You can hear more from Trullie on her MySpace and YouTube pages.

Hot Chip: YouTube.

Lissy Trullie: YouTube.

2009-12-24 edit: I just found a cover by The Pigeon Detectives: YouTube.

2010-01-24 edit: Apparently ever UK artist covers this song. Duffy is a big snooze-fest for me, but at least she has a non-standard, lounge arrangement for the song: YouTube.