Personal update

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks.

Christmas was very nice. Michael and I spent the weekend with our friends in Tucson again. He got me the Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man DVD (in exchange for which I agreed never to make him watch it) and a book collecting all of the artwork from the complete output of Factory Records, i.e., albums, singles, promotional materials, etc. I gave him a DVD player (to replace the one that died a few months ago) and two seasons of Will & Grace. I also bought a copy of Vellum for a friend and one for myself, finally. I kept getting it through interlibrary loan and running out of time before I had finished reading it.

I have registered for three online classes, two about music and one on reflective writing, for the Spring semester. The latter will count toward the Journalism/Mass Communication degree and the first two are for my personal fulfillment. I plan to pay my tuition tonight - a whopping sum of $68. Needless to say, I love my employee tuition waiver.

Additionally, I am taking a class called Supervisory Academy for work. This will count as a full year of supervisory experience when I apply for the Library Supervisor position that will open up after my boss finishes her M.A. and departs for greener pastures.

I'm also planning to take my GRE (finally) before February 1st. I keep procrastinating and missing deadlines. The absolutely final day I can apply for U of A's MLS program for the summer is April 1st. This will give me time to receive my GRE results, write my C.V. and letter of intention and gather up two letters of recommendation. I think four months to prepare my application is a realistic goal.

I am way behind on my end-of-the-year project, so it's unlikely that I will get caught up by Monday. However, I am going to see it through until the bitter end, hopefully sometime in January. The podcast will reappear shortly thereafter.

Finally, here is a photo of the first two grilled cheese sandwiches I ever made, strangely enough. I took the photo in the midst of eating them. I didn't burn down the kitchen, to my roommate's relief, though he did derive some amusement from my clumsy efforts. They did taste good, though.

My recommendations 2006:Palo Santo by Shearwater

Shearwater: Palo Santo
Misra 5/9/2006

Available at Emusic

Shearwater is Okkervil River's quieter, more introspective alter ego, with Jonathan Meiburg taking the frontman's reins from Will Sheff. As is often the case with those that suppress anger, Shearwater is slow to come to a boil but lashes out forcefully, often with a sincere expression of disappointment, rather the disgust displayed on Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy (a superb album in itself). Palo Santo represents an alternate perspective, another way of reacting to the same affronts. Shearwater illuminate a darker, perhaps more slippery path to catharsis, every bit as tranformative as the one traveled on Black Sheep Boy.

My recommendations 2006:Serena-Maneesh by Serena-Maneesh

Serena-Maneesh: Serena-Maneesh
Playlouderecordings 5/9/2006

Available at Emusic

A lot of people are needlessly hung up on the supposed virtues of originality, many to the point of giving glowing reviews to unlistenable albums that happen to be weird and giving bad reviews to gorgeous ones that tread familiar territory. On occasion, an album like Serena-Maneesh comes along that does little more than rehash a done-to-death genre, i.e., shoegaze, but does it so well that critics are tripping over themselves trying to explain why they love it, all the while making excuses for its familiarity. Frankly, all I care about is whether it's enjoyable - and in this regard, Serena-Maneesh is a superb album. After all, shoegaze is really hard to fuck up - one part reverb, one part feedback, two parts soft male/female vocals buried in the mix - and in competent hands, it can still be stunning. Despite a few rough edges, Serena-Maneesh have shown that they are at worst great imitators, and at best potential innovators.

My recommendations 2006:Pieces of the People We Love by The Rapture

The Rapture: Pieces of the People We Love
Universal 9/12/2006

Most assume that The Rapture make dance music with rock instrumentation. I disagree. I think they make rock music that's danceable. When I listen to Pieces of the People We Love, I hear similarities to The Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, Gene Loves Jezebel and The Cult, reimagined through the lens of Peter Brown's "Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me?" and Giorgio Moroder. It seems that The Rapture's mission, as their name would suggest, is to subvert gloomy and cerebral musical paradigms into something joyful and visceral. Though The Rapture lament that nobody's dancing, they manage to get even the most cynical feet moving.

My recommendations 2006:We Are the Pipettes by The Pipettes

The Pipettes: We Are the Pipettes
Memphis Industries 8/29/2006

Available at Emusic

This could have been terrible, and conventional logic dictates that it should have. After all, when is the last time a female pop vocal group did anything interesting? The Supremes, ca. 1967? While The Pipettes are every bit as manufactured as The Spice Girls, the former's aim is to elevate public tastes to their own threshold, instead of pandering to existing standards. Rather than blindly (blandly) resurrect a long-dead genre wholesale, or even inflecting modern indie pop with Phil Spector-esque production, The Pipettes inhabit the overlapping portion of the Venn diagram of both. Instead of presenting an artificial fusion, We Are the Pipettes is completely organic, as if from an alternative timeline in which the Shangri-Las segued directly into Iggy & The Stooges.

My recommendations 2006:Writer's Block by Peter Bjorn and John

Peter Bjorn and John: Writer's Block
Wichita 6/29/2006

2006 has been an excellent year for Swedish bands, intriguing uses of rhythm sections and songs with whistling. Peter Bjorn and John's Writer's Block is (so far) my favorite example in all three of these categories. While Writer's Block isn't this trio's first album, it might be considered a debut of sorts, as it represents a radical reorganization of the band. Peter Bjorn and John have abandoned the hierarchical order of a conventional band, in which one or two members control the creative direction. For their latest album, they have promoted all three members to principal singer and songwriter. This is manifest in the astonishing diversity of the songs. Despite the seemingly random directions they take, the songs still exhibit a consistency that proves that Peter Bjorn and John share similar creative visions and ambitions. Much like the cover suggests, their combined talents shown on Writer's Block completely dwarf most of their peers.

My recommendations 2006:Fundamental by Pet Shop Boys

Pet Shop Boys: Fundamental
Rhino 6/27/2006

When I am burned by a band I love, it's very difficult for me to trust them again. Take, for example, Pet Shop Boys. The release of Very coincided with my coming-out at the age of sixteen. I fell in love with that album and it came to represent that period of my life in my memory. I soon had all of their albums and EPs. Bilingual took some time, but I warmed up to all but one or two songs. Then they followed it up with the absolutely abysmal Nightlife, which contained about a dozen of their worst songs ever, one decent single and a perplexing duet with Kylie Minogue. Since then, I have largely ignored their output for fear of being subjected to something even worse. However, the past two years have been marked by a series of return-to-form albums by artists I had given up on years ago, so I felt intuitively that I should give Fundamental a chance. I'm glad I did. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have finally made maturity work for them, drawing upon the strengths of their first four albums and innovating musically as well. Almost every song ranks among their best early material, easily making Fundamental their best album since Very.

R.I.P., Peter Boyle

I just learned from CNN that Peter Boyle passed away due to heart problems last night at the age of 71. Most people will remember him from Everybody Loves Raymond, but my fondest memory of him will always be his role in Young Frankenstein. May he always be remembered for making us laugh for more than thirty years.

My recommendations 2006:Now You Are One of Us by The Paper Chase

The Paper Chase: Now You Are One of Us
Kill Rock Stars 6/6/2006

Available at Emusic

The Paper Chase is a deceptively benign name for a band that makes such creepy music. Paranoid and macabre, Now You Are One of Us could easily replace any of Goblin's scores for Dario Argento's giallo flicks. Man-eating houses and body-snatching aliens stalk the listener at every sonic turn, while the unnervingly familiar reanimated corpse of a Cat Stevens melody gorges itself on your temporal lobes. Now You Are One of Us is among the most twistedly imaginative albums of the year.

My recommendations 2006:Ys by Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom: Ys
Drag City 11/14/2006

Available on Emusic

Unless you have been living alone deep in a subterranean cave for at least a month, you have probably already heard everything there is to know about Ys, so I'll just give an executive summary. Joanna Newsom is a classically-trained harpist and a San Francisco native (her cousin just happens to be one of my personal heroes, SF mayor Gavin Newsom). Her 2004 album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, turned quite a few heads upon its release and expectations were high for the follow-up. While writing the songs for Ys, Newsom realized that she would need a string sections, so she recruited Van Dyke Parks to handle the arrangements. Ys lives up to the praise it has received and then some. Newsom weaves five lengthy musical parables, all based on actual events from one year of her life. I have seen several reviews that describe Ys as difficult on the first few listens, but I disagree. These five songs are immediately lovely and shimmering and gorgeous and any number of other adjectives along those same lines. Ys is not just a phenomenal album, but it is a beautiful experience that everyone should seek out at least once, like the ocean or the auroras.

Education news

I have been accepted to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU to pursue a second B.A. in Journalism with an emphasis in Media Analysis and Criticism. I am going to start out in the pre-professional program to get started on some of the lower-division requirements. If I can use my tuition waiver at both ASU and U of A, I will also pursue a M.A. in Information Resources and Library Sciences at U of A.

I think that this will hedge my bets between landing my dream job one day (music critic) and having to settle for a job that is practical but nonethless immensely enjoyable (librarian). Also, and more importantly, it will allow me to defer my student loans a bit longer.

Movement

Matthias Davies (formerly of Titus Knew and threedogheads) has relocated and retitled his blog. Check it out.

My recommendations 2006:Dial 0 by My Robot Friend

My Robot Friend: Dial 0
Soma 5/29/2006

Available at Emusic

My Robot Friend, aka Howard Robot, offers fun and frivolous electronic dance music. Nobody could credibly accuse My Robot Friend of taking itself too seriously, as the subject matter vacillates from the sublime to the absurd and back in the same breath. Drugs, orgies, break-ups, bears (of the large, hairy, gay variety) and the decline of Western civilization are some of the most prominent topics tackled on Dial 0. Like many John Waters films, Dial 0 handles these subjects deftly with a perverse, and often juvenile, sense of humor.

My recommendations 2006:Bring Me the Workhorse by My Brightest Diamond

My Brightest Diamond: Bring Me the Workhorse
Asthmatic Kitty 9/7/2006

Available at Emusic

Classically trained multi-instrumentalist and Sufjan collaborator Shara Worden is likely to find her way into my pantheon of singing goddesses, among the likes of Neko Case, Nina Simone and Alison Moyet. Her vocal style and range have both been described as operatic, and for good reason; she studied opera at the University of North Texas. The influence of opera is easily seen in her songwriting as well. The songs are theatrical and histrionic (in a good way.) Bring Me the Workhorse will surely appeal to fans of Sufjan Stevens, Antony & The Johnsons and Nine Simone.

My recommendations 2006:The Looks by MSTRKRFT

MSTRKRFT: The Looks
Last Gang 7/18/2006

I was saddened by the news that Death From Above 1979 had split this past August. Though it was a little too harsh for me at first, 2004's You're a Woman, I'm a Machine grew on me and was in heavy rotation on my iPod by the end of 2005. Its abrasiveness, the very aspect which had originally put me off of it, became its most endearing quality. The same can be said for The Looks, the debut album of MSTRKRFT, DFA1979's partial reincarnation. Though MSTRKRFT create dance music, as opposed to DFA1979's noise-rock, they still sound as if they are felling redwoods. The Looks is reminiscent of the Ibiza-via-Manchester acid house of Technique-era New Order, and even The DFA (despite the well-publicized acrimony between The DFA and Death From Above 1979 over forcing the latter to change its name).

My recommendations 2006:The Fountain: Music From the Motion Picture by Clint Mansell

Clint Mansell: The Fountain: Music From the Motion Picture
Nonesuch 11/21/2006

About a month ago, I posted about my excitement about this collaboration between Clint Mansell (formerly of The Pop Will Eat Itself), Kronos Quartet and Mogwai. As high as my hopes for this score were, the end result surpassed my expectations. I went to see The Fountain with a friend two weeks ago and I was so impressed by how well the music complemented the emotional arc of the story and the visual palette that I immediately downloaded the score upon arriving home. Kronos Quartet are, as usual, adept at conveying the protagonist's grief, while Mogwai illustrate his desperation. This is a definite must-have if you are a fan of either. My only gripe is that the Antony Hegarty vocal version of "The Last Man" is not included. For now, you can hear it on Clint Mansell's Myspace page.

Back to business

Okay, it's been ten days since my last post, but I've been thinking about posting. As they often say this time of year, it's the thought that counts, right?

I am way behind on my end-of-the-year project. I have about ten recommendations queued up and waiting to be posted; I have the the album art and links to artist and label websites saved in my drafts. I just need to write the darn things. The problem is that the longer I procrastinate, the harder it is to remember what I wanted to write. So now I have to take a couple of days to listen to each album again and write the review immediately thereafter. I still plan on having this project done before the end of the year.

Paleunderweight podcast 30, as I mentioned before, will be available before the end of the year also.

Later today, I will have updates of a more personal nature regarding my educational direction.

My recommendations 2006:Ringleader of the Tormentors by Morrissey

Morrissey: Ringleader of the Tormentors
Sanctuary 4/4/2006

When I was a horny, depressed teenager, I had an enormous crush on Morrissey. He was everything I wanted in a man: he was sexy, English and bordering on suicidal. At night, in bed, I would stare at my Smiths posters and dream of the day that I would break Morrissey's celibacy and he would be mine. Now, long after I had given up hope, somebody seems to have finally accomplished what I had fantasized about all those lonely nights. Morrissey is now confident, mature and liberated from sexual frustration. His famous gallows humor is still present, all the better now for not taking himself so seriously. Ringleader of the Tormentors is probably the most well-rounded of his solo albums, now that he has outgrown being masturbation fodder for drearily clad adolescents.

My recommendations 2006:The Obliterati by Mission of Burma

Mission of Burma: The Obliterati
Matador 5/23/2006

Available at Emusic

With The Obliterati, Mission of Burma seems to have beaten the reunion curse - not just once, but twice! ONoffON was a fantastic, if only slightly scattered, record, but The Obliterati is better. This time around, Mission of Burma has harnessed the focus that was missing on their first reunion album. It almost seems a little unfair to the pack of post-punk bands that have emerged in the past five years. Imagine if you had grown up listening to Vs. and Signals, Calls and Marches, which inspired you to form a fairly decent band of your own. Then your idols return from the grave after a hiatus of more than twenty years and drop a record like The Obliterati, which is ten times better than anything you could have come up with in a million years. I'd be kind of discouraged. It's a good thing I'm not in a band; I'd hate for my own inadequacy to interfere with my enjoyment of such a fine album.

My recommendations 2006:And the Glass Handed Kites by Mew

Mew: And the Glass Handed Kites
Sony 7/25/2006

The problem with most bands is not that they shamelessly rip off the bands that preceded them; it's that they don't rip off enough bands that preceded them. Mew could never be credibly accused of having too few influences, and they aren't ashamed of it. On their official website, they namecheck virtually everyone who has mattered in music in the last thirty years or so: Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., M83, Prince, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins and, weirdly enough, Aqua. Mew describe their music with elaborately nested and modified noun phrases, such as "ecstatically icy space ballets" and "bombastic medieval madrigal space opera." I can't find fault with any of these descriptions; they certainly illustrate the quailitied of Mew's songs, which are just as elaborately nested and modified as their metadata suggest. It's safe to say that if you love music at all, you will find something about And the Glass Handed Kites to enjoy.

My recommendations 2006:Tears of a Clone by Icy Demons

Icy Demons: Tears of a Clone
Eastern Developments 10/31/2006

Available at Emusic

If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed that I have a strong affinity for outsider music, freak folk and weirdo pop. The last three years have been incredibly fruitful for artists such as Man Man, Xiu Xiu and Antony who combine musical ecclecticism and theatricality to create the most vivid and visceral experience possible. Icy Demons certainly inhabit this space as well. What Icy Demons manage to accomplish (and what most of their contemporaries have not) is to make their habitat seem habitable for oxygen-breathing creatures. The cover of Tears of a Clone demonstrates this quality - the surreal illustration could not be any more over-the-top, yet bright pink tears over the spilt white blood of what appears to be a Wookie anchor the visual fable in raw human emotion. Icy Demons weave together the strange elements of outsider music with thread spun from pure pop, at moments evoking the ska punk of early XTC, the restrained cacophony of Boredoms, or the sugar-and-caffeine-fueled hyperemotionality of Polysics. While the strange worlds of Icy Demons are inhabited by weeping albinos and dying furries, their denizens seem more approachable than one's own parents.

Check out Miniluv

Miniluv is a blog and a project devoted to sending a copy of George Orwell's 1984 to everyone in the House and the Senate who voted for the Military Commissions act. I have added a link to my "Other Blogs of Note" sidebar. Check them out and donate a book for the cause!