The Psychic Paramount and Why Radiohead Can Suck It

Alright, I know it has effectively been about a week since my last post and for that I apologize. I'd hate to blame it on 9/11, but it just changed so many things.

A lot of big music things happened this last week. The big Grammy's upset, the new Radiohead album, some other stuff.. First of all, I ain't talking about the Grammy's. If you haven't already seen this scrum-diddly-umptious Tumblr feed about the Arcade Fire winning the Grammy for Best Album of the Year, I suggest you prepare to get depressed about humanity and click your way on over there.

i have created a diatribe: Radiohead - The King of Limbs

The album opens with an ambient-noise-heavy looped percussion bit with Thom Yorke singing long, drawn-out howls over the top. Shocking! Not coincidentally, this has been Radiohead's formula for songwriting for most of their work for the last 10 years. Their song "Little by Little" isn't half bad, and their single "Lotus Flower" sounds the most like a real song, even though it is still depressingly electronics-dependent. Thom Yorke, what do you have against real drums? Now, I'm not a musical purist who thinks that a band who has early success should be held to trying the same tricks over and over again, and I am not begrudging them because their sound has changed since their "classic Radiohead" days - I'm begrudging them because I suspect them of being hipster-feeding cop-outs. They once held the practice of writing and performing solid, complex, artistic songs that held feeling and passion within them. But I have listened to King of Limbs three times through now and I get more bored every time.

My Facebook friends are surely sick of me starting Radiohead fights on the internets, but it is a noble cause in which I believe strongly. You see, Radiohead's laziness breeds more laziness. If you release a halfway-boring song with syncopated piano chords in altered time signatures ("Pyramids" from 2001's Amnesiac) and then, ten years later, release a song that is essentially the same thing, except MORE boring ("Codex" from King of Limbs) - then, given your indie poster-band status, you are encouraging boring music from other bands. Have you ever tried to listen to a whole Sigur Ros album all the way through? Make as many awesome music video short films as you want, it doesn't mean the soundtracks to them should be released as albums.

I have one rule with my music: if it sounds like it could conceivably have been recorded in a day by a dude on a Macbook Pro, it's crap. For instance, right now I'm listening to "Give Up the Ghost," King of Limbs's second-to-last track, and it's making me want to do what the song's title says. This is a style I've been seeing more of, even in bands I enjoy such as Animal Collective. Mars Volta will insert a good 8 minutes of ambient sounds and effects loops, but they always, always balance it out with some good, solid, booty-shakin' rock.

Honestly, I really don't have strong feelings of hatred for Radiohead. You know, maybe I'm just simply not a fan of electronic ambient music. But I heard enough hipsters this week justifying the importance of this new album that it infuriated me just enough to write about it. Actually, I like Radiohead. This is actually meant to be less of a criticism of them and more a criticism of people who still think Radiohead shits rainbows and unicorns. The album is not terrible. It's decent. But it is so egregiously undeserving of the "genius" praise it has been receiving that I felt the topic deserved some attention. If they're playing what they want to play, more power to them. But it doesn't mean you've gotta keep worshiping them. Karma Police was a long time ago, and it's okay to let go.
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You want to talk about solid ambient music? Check out Psychic Paramount's album that has been released TODAY, simply titled II. Below is a sample. Yeah, yeah, the song is 8+ minutes long - I figured if you're into ambient music you've got that kind of time anyways. They definitely stray from the typical boundaries of ambient music and, at some points, turn into a Tera Melos-esque instrumental gangbang.

Bonnaroo Releases Line-Up, Courtesy of CoCo

Bonnaroo shows up Coachella IMO with a solid line-up and only 1 rap artist I don't want to see (as opposed to Coachella's baker's dozen).

Here is a line-up announcement video with Conan O'Brien..



Too lazy to watch video:
Eminem • Arcade Fire • Widespread Panic • The Black Keys • Buffalo Springfield feat Richie Furay, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Rick Rosas, Joe Vitale • My Morning Jacket • Lil Wayne • String Cheese Incident • Robert Plant & Band of Joy • Mumford & Sons • The Strokes • The Decemberists • Ray Lamontagne • Bassnectar • Iron & Wine • Girl Talk • Primus • Dr. John and The Original Meters performing Desitively Bonnaroo • Alison Krauss & Union Station • Pretty Lights • Florence + the Machine • SuperJam featuring Dan Auerbach and Dr. John • Explosions in the Sky • STS9 • Gogol Bordello • Beirut • Big Boi • Scissor Sisters • Gregg Allman • Ratatat • Robyn • Warren Haynes Band • Deerhunter • Opeth

"Ramona, I'm in Lesbians With You"

This was one of those tagged-in-a-note things, but it was by a dear fellow named Tyson, who periodically tags me in his music-related lists and I actually look forward to participating every time because we have comparable tastes. Instead of keeping this to Facebook, I figured I'd make a blog post out of it.

So, in honor of Valentine's Day, I've made a list of my 20 all-time favorite love songs. There will be a playlist available after the jump..

(holy shit this will be hard to put in order)

20. "Hot Venom" by The Miniature Tigers
19. "I Want To Know Your Plans" by Say Anything
18. "This Will Be Our Year" by The Zombies
17. "Good Day, Sunshine" by The Beatles
16. "I Want To Break Free" by Queen
15. "Falling For You" by Weezer
14. "My Best Girl" by Lucero -Okay, so it's a love song about a guitar. But, dude!
13. "If Work Permits" by The Format
12. "Blood" by The Middle East
11. "I'd Dance For You" by What Laura Says
10. "Trouble" by Ray LaMontagne
9. "She" by Elvis Costello
8. "Up On Cripple Creek" by The Band
7. "I'll Catch You" by The Get Up Kids
6. "Only In Dreams" by Weezer
5. "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds
4. "Dance Me to the End of Love" by Leonard Cohen
3. "Care of Cell 44" by The Zombies
2. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by The Beach Boys
1. "Something" by The Beatles

NOTE: Beatles songs were replaced by cover versions on the player, and the What Laura Says song is mis-named on it.

Labors of Love

So, I've heard Frankie Munoz's band sucks. And I've seen Russell Crowe's band, and it's awful. Gwyneth Paltrow recently made an appearance on Glee (verdict: "meh"), as well as releasing an incredibly important film about the struggles of an aging country star coping with the trauma of becoming less famous(oh, my!). There is a lot of crossover from the movies to music - Rick Moranis, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Meatloaf, the list goes on - which is fine by me. People should be able to play music if they want. Does it sicken me how many albums Paris Hilton can sell while she can't sing her way out of a flaming paper bag of dog crap? Sure. But what I'm interested in is the music that is made among the stars who are truly interested in playing music. The people who don't use their prior notoriety to turn their musical ventures into cash cows. These are labors of love. Artists who are not starving, who don't have to be doing what they're doing, but do it anyways.

Ryan Gosling was always a little bit kitschy to me, but he's turning out to be one of those John Mayer-esque "cool-or-douche?" mysteries. While his group Dead Man's Bones is a great listening experience (as well as having an awesome website), I'm not quite certain I need them in my life as long as Murder By Death is around. At any rate, this is a pretty cool song, and Gosling's proves to everyone he's not the teeny-bopper weiner The Notebook made him out to be.

I was just re-watching Three Amigos the other night (again) and I was reminiscing about how much showmanship used to be involved in being a comedian. Comedy and music have always been closely linked (music often being a vehicle for comedy), but now that Steve Martin has long-since made a name for himself in comedy, in recent years he's been getting into the core of his artistic self by writing novels (Shopgirl, adapted to film in 2005), scripts, and, apparently, banjo albums.

Okay, the case of Chuck Ragan is a little different. This man is no celebrity, and he surely is no millionaire. Chuck is a working class man who has made his living playing in an underground punk/emo/hardcore group since the early 90s, called Hot Water Music. The band took a break in 2006 while Chuck spent time with his family and friends, writing and recording a solo album called Feast or Famine. I was always a fan of HWM so I had grown accustomed to Chuck's gritty, raspy growl. But in his solo material, it was a whole new world for me to hear the grit in contrast with clean, strong acoustic guitar work. While he probably isn't monetarily set for life, Chuck is a good example of giving up the sure thing to pursue the important thing. And you can hear his restlessness and desperation for expression come through in his music. **tightens scarf and rides away on mo-ped**


I chose to go with Scarlett Johansson over Zooey Deschanel. As good as She & Him is, they don't have any songs quite as good as this one. While Scarlett's got a pleasant voice, it's nothing spectacular (which could be said for Zooey as well). But it fits the role of the song and I admire Scarlett for this, as it seems more daring for her in the context of her own image and career. While I do prefer M. Ward over Pete Yorn as counterparts, Zooey's already been getting plenty of attention with comparatively underwhelming material.

Breaking Up the White Stripes

The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong to you now and you can do with it whatever you want. The beauty of art and music is that it can last forever if people want it to. Thank you for sharing this experience. Your involvement will never be lost on us and we are truly grateful.

The White Stripes are probably the most prolific and resilient band in the decade of 2000-2010. Jack White is what rock stars should be today. The below statement was released this morning by the Stripes:

via pitchfork media

How could you possibly be upset? Today, while artists in a wide range of mediums are shamelessly milking the last pennies out of their dwindling publicity values leftover from an initial surge of success, Jack White is able to respect his audience and his art enough not to subject them to the miserable Favre/Jagger type of display of needlessly prolonging the glory days. In fact, many would argue that the White Stripes were nowhere near the point of wearing out their audience's welcome. However, White understands that great things aren't meant to be dragged on and on, but they are better suited to be encapsulated in the time in which they belonged, and looked back upon with fondness instead of regret. It's "I'm-glad-we-did-that", versus "We-should-totally-keep-doing-this". White realizes he has many great things ahead of him and that instead of dragging out his glory days he can simply create separate, new glory days.

Mock Orange, New Album in April

"Duuude, you guys sound like Mock Orange," said Steve LeFevre to me when I was 17. My band, The Manhattan Project, had just played a house party for a group of people much older and more experienced in the ways of the world than we were. This was the first time I had even heard of Mock Orange, and my life would never be the same (technically, that's true about every moment of one's life I guess - but, still). We naïvely smiled and nodded and immediately went to the record store to find out more about them.

picture from pennlive.com

What we found (listen to this old material here and here) was another take on the kind of indie math-y rock we'd grown to love through Braid and Jawbox. In fact, the guy's voice almost sounds like Bob Nanna's (of Braid and Hey Mercedes). Back in these days, music like that was still pretty hard to come across. Joan of Arc was doing their thing, but it was a little bit too avant-garde for me, especially back then.

We found they'd released two albums by that time (2000-2001?) - Nines and Sixes and The Record Play, the latter being produced by indie legend, Mark Trombino. The drumming and time signature changes are so complicated and precise, it's almost mesmerizing if you let it be. My love for the band grew more and more with time, until 4 years passed without a new record from them. It was 2004 and I was afraid Mock Orange had gone the way of The Jealous Sound and other great bands who weren't surviving the shift of indie rock to main-er-stream pop culture.

Well, when they finally dropped an album in 2004, titled Mind Is Not Brain, the reason for the wait was apparent - they had completely changed. They had drastically abandoned the heavy distortion and the aggressive rhythmic drive, and, most notably, adopted a radically different vocal style. The good news is that every change showed to be an improvement. Once familiarized with the albums, you can see things that do connect them. And it provides an interesting timeline of sound, showing not just Ryan Grisham's songwriting development, but adjustments in his fundamental musical execution as well. Observe:

If Mind Is Not Brain was the turning point of the band's sound, 2008's album Captain Love was surely the group hitting their new stride. The guitars got shakier, the drums got bangier, and the sound got weird-ier. Grisham's lyrics improved immensely, pulling more purpose into the songs - it was no longer a music theory show-off exhibition. As a result, the sound is more organic and more universally listenable. Here are five of my favorite tracks from Captain Love:

With that said, it is with great pleasure that I pass along the news of a new Mock Orange album, set to be released on April 12, 2011, in just a couple months! The album is called Disguised As Ghosts. This news, along with news of a new Man Man album is quickly making 2011 a really exciting year for rock music.

Listen and Read Friday!

This is a new weekly series post that I'll be calling "Listen and Read Friday" - where I will take the liberty of posting any song I would like (as if that's not already the case) and writing about any subject I would like. The idea is to make your Friday nice with a hand-picked song and a good story. You like?

Listen: "Weekend" by Dr. Dog (from 2007's We All Belong)


Read: OMG You Guys, Shocking Reports Straight From Science

An unbelievable study has returned the most amazing, unexpected results. ABC News, what would I have done if I had not read this article?

No, don't read it yourself. This news is so big and shocking that you might want to hear it from me, your pal, instead of a faceless news institution.

Word on the street is that "the most comprehensive annual survey of full-time college students at four-year colleges" has stumbled upon the disturbing fact (by the pure grace of God, I'm sure) that there is a trend of declining emotional health among college freshmen. The study shows that this decline is mostly financially-centered. I'm really grateful for this study, because I didn't know that money was becoming such a problem for college students. Now, I've got $16,000 of student loans to pay off, but you know what? Reading my DirectLoans statement is always a source of peace for me. I had no idea student loans could bring out stress or depression in students. When my student loan statement comes in the mail each month, I like to draw a hot bubble bath, light some candles, and soak in the dim light and soapy water while I read about how much money I owe. This is the part of the month I look most forward to, and it's just hard to imagine somebody not enjoying finding out the depth of their debts!

So, you can see how I might be surprised and a little bit thrown off by these reports. People are getting really sad about how expensive college is. I don't know why. I know that in my college experience, I felt like I wasn't paying enough money for the things I was getting in return: the understanding professors*, the safe facilities**, the amicable classmates***, and the easily-accessible****, cheap***** parking.

I know Arizona State is an extremely prestigious school, so maybe I've been spoiled. I feel like I relate more to the mothers of these depressed/stressed college freshmen, one of which said, "All I can remember worrying about in college was my class work and when it was due, nothing more. I don't think anyone really worried about getting a job after they graduated." Preach on, sister!

So, to you college freshmen who are getting sad about silly things like having absolutely no money left to pursue your dreams -

"Weekend is coming soon, it's time to get yourself up off the floor
Well, let's grab a case of lager and some old beat up shoes,
Head down to the river and strap on a canoe."

*except for most of them
**please overlook the assaults and shootings, it's only fair
***and lots of assholes
****a mile away
*****extra $300 per semester