Ick’s Pick (Week XX): Jason Lytle
I got sucked right into grandaddy‘s beautiful space pop when I heard their amazing album The Sophtware Slump
way back in old ’00. A couple of albums later, front man Jason Lytle decided to call it quits (after releasing Just Like the Fambly Cat
in 2006). He packed up his gear and moved to the Bridger Mountains around Bozeman, Montana. I opined back then that the clean Big Sky air would likely result in something cool in the not too distant future. Well it took three years, but here we have it: Jason’s debut solo album, Yours Truly, The Commuter.
The sound and feel of the music doesn’t stray far from the grandaddy sound – gorgeous melodies, unique lyrics, and an infusion of experimental electronic sounds into indie/folk based songs. There’s a sweet and gentle quality to Jason’s music, with an undercurrent of bittersweet sadness.
And it’s the dreamy, floating, melancholic tunes that I gravitate towards most on this record. The last half dozen songs have this area covered… “Fürget It” transitioning into the slow waltz of “This Song Is The Mute Button”; followed by “Rollin’ Home Alone”, “You’re Too Gone”, “Flying Through Canyons”, and “Here for Good”.
After hearing these, I can guarantee you won’t be cheered up. But that’s obviously not the intent. The self-imposed exile that Jason imposed on himself – from Modesto, Calif. to Montana – obviously sparked some soul searching, and the result is a sublime but sort of downcast collection of songs (if you ignore “It’s the Weekend”, an out of place ode to Saturday).
It’s all summed up during “I Am Lost (and the moment cannot last)” -“On mountain high / I’ll say goodbye / My concerns have been confirmed / I am lost“
Jason Lytle’s Montana days have yielded a great album, but hey – friends of Jason – sounds like he needs some company!
BUY Yours Truly, The Commuter
(Amazon)
Watch the video for “I Am Lost (and the moment cannot last)”
Visit: Jason’s Official Site | MySpace
Family Guy channels Revenge of the Nerds
I was delighted this past Sunday during Family Guy, when “King Stewie” and Griffin Peterson (Peter) decided to settle their differences the old fashioned way: with a talent show straight from Revenge of the Nerds. Classic!
A must see for any Nerds fan…
And the original…
Happy Birthday Joey Ramone
The world is worse off without the presence of Joey Ramone. Eight years ago (8!) last month, Joey lost his battle with lymphoma – he didn’t even see his 50’s, and that’s a tragic shame. I think often about how strange it is to live in a world without Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer. It just doesn’t seem right, does it?
May 19th is Joey’s birthday, and like a lot of people around the world, I’m marking the occasion by blasting the Ramones. Much like we hold artists like Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven in such high esteem today, our descendants 100-200 years down the road will study and enjoy the works of one Jeff Hyman and his band of “brothers”: the Ramones – inventors of Punk. What a legacy. What a body of work to unleash upon the world. And the world needed it.
Here are a few from my favorite Ramones album, Pleasant Dreams, a 1981 record produced by 10cc’s Graham Gouldman. Johnny Ramone wasn’t crazy about the production, calling it “too slick”. But as I’ve mentioned before around these parts, I love every song. It may be polished compared to early Ramones, but the melodies & hooks are great, and it’ll always be a favorite.
The KKK Took My Baby Way (mp3)
7-11 (mp3)
This Business is Killing Me (mp3)
All from:
Visit: Joey Ramone.com – and if you’re in NYC, head down to the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash Tuesday noght at the Filmore @ Irving Plaza (see web site for details).
Bedshaped and Legs of Stone: Keane @ Myth
“Everyone knows that the biggest wankers in any band are the drummer, the keyboard player, and the lead vocalist. And that’s their whole band, innit?” So sayeth Noel Gallagher on the subject of Keane. While there is a small grain of truth to what the elder of Brit Pop says, Keane is still a massively good band.
The first time I saw them, back in 2004 on their Hopes and Fears tour at Quest (formerly Glam Slam and home of the sound system that gargles old-man-in-a-rest-home-testicles), honestly, they didn’t need any more than those three instruments. Richard Hughes’s drums were explosive. Tim Rice-Oxley’s (could he HAVE a more Brit sounding name?) keyboards filled the full melodic and sonic spectrum. And Tom Chaplin?
The voice of a fucking angel.
I challenge any of you Ickmusic fans to listen to “Bedshaped” and not have your heart melt into a lysergic acid diethylamide–induced water colour of gut wrenching, broken hearted nostalgia. There is a man or woman out there – for all of you – who is the purest definition of this song. So with all due respect, Noel – you are incorrect.
Imagine my surprise when Keane took the stage last Friday night at Myth in Maplewood (see: essentially Wisconsin) with a bass player in tow and Tom sporting a…Fender guitar?
After three albums, Keane has decided to build upon their three piece arrangement and expand their width of vision. Their new album, Perfect Symmetry, gives a giant shout out to the entirety of the 1980s while sounding wonderfully modern at the same time. Their first track of the night, “The Lovers Are Leaving,” found me reminiscing of Roxy Music (Avalon era), ABC, and Spandau Ballet, yet remaining fully entrenched in a 00’s dream pop bliss. As their set progressed, remaining mainly with their current effort and Hopes and Fears, I was perfectly and willingly trapped in that bliss.
Snapping out of hypnosis and midway through their set proper, the band left the stage to leave only Tom and…an acoustic guitar. Knowing what the next song would be (because I peeked at setlist.fm), I was stunned. One of my two favorite Keane songs: “Your Eyes Open”. An absolute stunner played with quiet certitude. Perhaps it was the minor key.
The band then rejoined him for the obligatory “unplugged” moment at the front of the stage. The first song from their second album, Under the Iron Sea, was played: “Try Again.” And then, in an extremely touching moment, Tom said, “We put this song in the set list earlier this afternoon, when it was quite sunny here in Minnesota. And then it started pissing down in English style!” Thus, we heard “Sunshine” and our hearts were warmed.
As the set concluded with more songs from Perfect Symmetry and the very last song of the set – the triumphant “Crystal Ball” – I found myself hearkening back to the awkwardness of the 8th grade dance…the 80s rag back in full force…wondering if falling in love for the first or last time was ever worth it. They left the stage to exulting hand raises and the anticipation of…the encore…and…that song. THE song.
It was nice to hear a new song (“My Shadow”) at the start of the encore. It was even nicer to hear more from Iron Sea, the other hit from that second effort, Is It Any Wonder?. The anticipation was palatable. The crowd could taste it in the air. Their hearts were ready. Mine certainly was.
And then it came.
Starting with the warmth of gentle kiss, building to an orgasmic cascade of sonic love in its purest form, and then going back and forth between the two…mother fucking “Bedshaped”… played with all of the softness and terror that all things carnal bring. As the final notes echoed through the club and the band left the stage, I shuffled off the floor of the pit through the empty cups and bottles. And, as it always is with Keane…my heart warmed and broken at the same time.
Keane will be playing in DC, Philly, Boston, Toronto, Cleveland, Montclair, and NYC in the next two weeks.
Hear: Bedshaped (mp3)
Links: Keane’s Official Site | MySpace
Dream Baby Dream
Very easy to get lost in this…
The Friday Five: May 15, 2009
For those who have not joined in the Friday Five here is all you need to know; each Friday I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five and drop a little knowledge and insight for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes we have guest, but most of the time it’s just me.
The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments. The more the merrier!
The Five:
Van Halen – “In a Simple Rhyme” (mp3) (from Women and Children First, 1980)
Earlier this week our friends over at Addicted to Vinyl posted an incendiary Van Halen related article that sent me on a listening spree. In the last week I’ve listened to every record from Van Halen I to 1984 and still disagree with the assertion that “Jump” was in any way a stretch (or sell out) and that it was really a part of the natural progression of the band.
Primus – Tommy the Cat (mp3) (from Sailing the Seas of Cheese, 1991)
It has been a long time since I’ve heard this tune. Les Claypool is easily one of the funkiest bass players ever. Juxtaposed against the brash beats and dueling vocals with Tom Waits the band picked up the torch dropped by Funkadelic, dropped some Metal on it and moved it along.
Madonna – “Borderline” (from The Immaculate Collection, 1990)
I make no bones about it; I absolutely love nearly everything Madge did prior to the turn of the new millennium. These days it’s all one can do to avoid her pathetic clawing at staying relevant, compounded only by her odd public/private life and her preclusion to much younger men.
Rage Against the Machine – Freedom (mp3) (from Rage Against the Machine, 1992)
While I do really like guitarist Tom Morello‘s current project Street Sweeper Social Club, nothing can replace the sound and the fury of the original Rage Against the Machine record. Born of the first Bush presidency, the record captured the angst and social unrest that was brewing just below the surface; that and the hearts and minds of drunken frat boys from coast to coast.
James – “Laid” (from Laid, 1993)
In researching this tune I discovered that this record was produced by the legendary Brian Eno. It does not necessarily surprise me. One of the best parts of doing The Five week after week is spending a little bit of time getting to know the tunes in my collection a little bit better.
So what’s on deck in your shuffle this week?
30 Rock’s Kidney Now!
Here’s that great moment from 30 Rock last night. NBC will probably yank it off Youtube in a matter of minutes, so check it out while you can…
Ick’s Pick (Week XIX): Steve Earle – ‘Townes’
I’m sitting down to write this after the improbable occurrence of just seeing Steve Earle in the 30 Rock season finale. Oh my, what an ending! It’s a kidney benefit for Jack’s dad, and a We Are the World-esque gathering of talent comes together – Steve Earle, Elvis Costello, the Beastie Boys, Rhett Miller, Sheryl Crow, Moby, Michael McDonald, Wyclef Jean, Clay Aiken, Mary J. Blige, Adam Levine, and on and on… hilarious! And to see ol’ bearded Steve standing there between Wyclef and McDonald. Priceless…
So on to Steve’s new record, which dropped this week. There’s really no shock factor involved in listening to ‘Townes’, Steve Earle’s new album of Townes Van Zandt covers. I mean, it’s not like Steve is interpreting the Cole Porter songbook, or releasing an all-mandolin record of Devo songs. So much of Townes’s sound has been prevalent in Steve’s music since the beginning, and therefore the album just sounds – right. Townes was a mentor to Steve, his outlaw father figure. Nary a show goes by without Steve talking about him. So it just seemed inevitable that a record like this would come along.Steve takes on 15 Townes songs on the album – some of them familiar to me as a casual TVD listener: “Pancho and Lefty”, “White Freightliner Blues”, “Don’t Take It Too Bad”… and then some not so familiar to me – songs like “Where I Lead Me”, “Loretta”, “Brand New Companion”…
With help from Tim O’Brien, Tom Morello (electric on “Lungs”), Steve lovely wife Allison Moorer, among others, Steve injects new life into these songs. Steve brings along the drum machine on a few tracks – something he picked up on his last album, Washington Square Serenade. But it works (on songs like “Lungs” and “Loretta”). We get some bluegrass on “White Freightliner” that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on The Mountain (his bluegrass album with the Del McCoury Band). There’s the slow and churning blues of “Brand New Companion”, and the beautiful poem that is “(Quicksilver Daydreams of) Maria”.
With Townes, Steve Earle pays great tribute to an old friend and mentor. It’s been over a dozen years since Townes Van Zandt passed on at the young age of 52. With this album, Steve keeps his buddy’s memory alive and makes people like me want to seek out more his mentor’s work. I have a couple of Townes albums, but I don’t have 1971’s Delta Momma Blues. Based on “Where I Lead Me”, it’s next on my list…
Where I Lead Me (mp3)
Buy Townes
.
After Townes Van Zandt’s death on January 1st, 1997, Steve wrote this song for Townes in Galway, Ireland. It’s been my favorite Steve Earle song since the first time I heard El Corazon that year. Some of the most beautiful words put to song…
“There’s a full moon over Galway Bay tonight / Silver light over green and blue / And every place I travel through, I find / Some kinda sign that you’ve been through”
Ft. Worth Blues (mp3) – from El Corazón
The Truth About Funk
Behind the scenes, I have quite a cool little network of like-minded folks when it comes to the music of Prince. We have a soft spot for that golden era in Prince music – the 80’s – when he was as prolific as ever. We also have fond memories of his side projects and off-shoots from that era – the Time (of course), The Family, Madhouse… So how cool is it to see that some members of these groups – St. Paul Peterson, Jellybean Johnson, Jerry Hubbard, and the great Eric Leeds – have come together to form The Truth.
Their mission? Keep the Minneapolis Sound alive! And throw in some old school funk from the likes of Funkadelic, Cameo, and the Ohio Players while they’re at it. The guys are tight and funky as hell live, very true to the originals, and boy can they play the sheeet out of some Prince jams… “Erotic City”, “DMSR”, and even “America”.
The kicker? A new live album recorded at Minneapolis’s Fine Line that showcases their conglomerate of Prince-inspired talent. Who knows how they feel personally about their old boss, but make no mistake that they’re paying tribute to him, and to an era very important to a lot of us – an era that will never be matched.
This live album comes highly recommended… here’s a taste:
The Truth – High Fashion (mp3)
Visit the band on MySpace.
The Truth is:
- St. Paul Peterson (The Time, The Family) on bass, vocals, guitar and keyboards
- Jellybean Johnson (The Time, The Family) on guitar
- Odell (Mint Condition) on guitar and vocals
- Jerry Hubbard (The Time, Jesse Johnson) on bass, keyboards, guitar and vocals
- Chance Howard (Prince, The Time) on bass guitar, bass synth and vocals
- Kip Blackshire (Prince) on vocals, keyboards and guitar
- Kirk Johnson (Prince) on drums and vocals
- Eric Leeds (Prince) on saxophones, keyboards and vocals
- Donnie Lamarca (Johny Lang, Mick Sterling) on keyboards.
Ticket to Heaven
Nestled deep into the last album that Dire Straits ever made – 1991’s On Every Street – is a song that I consider as close to perfection as there is. The cornerstone of the song is the calm and gentle demeanor of Mark Knopfler in his vocal and instrumental delivery… I mean, who can pick a Fender Stratocaster with more beauty and eloquence?
In his work with Dire Straits and in his solo work since, Mark just has an innate ability to craft together beautiful & sublime melodies: “Romeo & Juliet”, “Water of Love”, “Love Over Gold”, “Why Worry”, “Brothers in Arms”, “All That Matters”, “Shangri-La”, “Love and Happiness”, “If This Is Goodbye”… and the list goes on.
I’m a fan.
And then there’s “Ticket to Heaven”. On the surface, a gorgeously crafted song about faith in eternal life. But digging in a little deeper, if you pay attention to the verses, it’s a scathing, tongue-in-cheek slam on tele-evangelism…
Now there’s nothing left for luxuries
Nothing left to pay my heating bill.
But the good lord will provide
I know he will.
So send what you can
To the man with the diamond ring.
They’re tuning in across the land
To hear him sing.Still as true in 2009 as it was in the early part of the 90’s. They fan out across the country every Sunday, and every night on television I’m sure – preying on anyone with a doubt and a pocketbook.
If you search on Youtube for a video of Dire Straits performing this song, you won’t find Knopfler and the Boys. What you will find, is Popeye. Whoa whoaaa there… don’t disparage Popeye. Don’t write him off at first glance. This tattooed, spirited Dutchman will put a smile on your face. Feel the essence, the essence of POPEYE!
