The Critical Asshole: Listening to...

I’ll write a more “in-depth” post about it, but for now here is a list of albums you should be checking out, legally or otherwise:

Beck - Modern Guilt - Another great offering from the King of Funk/Soul/Indie/Electronic Slacker Music. Thank you, Beck. May I have another?

The Features - Some Kind of Salvation (the only place you can get it is lala.com - long story) I’ll be writing a detailed post soon to describe my deep and abiding love for the Features.

Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight - Thank you goes to NPR for playing this on some program they have. Check out “The Twist” for all you nervous, neurotic indie cats.

Liam Finn - I’ll Be Lightning This guy is the wunderkind son of Neil Finn (of Crowded House for all you not privy to overly pretentious pop music references).

That is all for now. I love you all. I live in Lubbock now. They’re letting me go to law school. Thanks Lubbock!

2006 was a bad year. 2006 was an awful, no good, terrible year. 2006 was the year that Satan rose from his (or her) layer of destruction and brought torment to me every where I went. I could have done without the whole damn thing. Few good things happened, and the bad things nearly killed me. I suppose it is easy to see why I would have overlooked such a good album, I was too worried about surviving to be able to find any good music. Thanks to my snobby appreciation of the NPR podcast “All Songs Considered” I am honored to be here to present to you M. Ward.

I used to say that California was wasted on Californians. I suppose this is some long held classist belief I have held with me (I also don’t like most Californians). The Golden State however has given us a new Americana folk treasure in the form of Matt Ward, known on his records as M. Ward. Post - War is a brilliant exercise in proving the memory-relationship people unconsciously have with sound; through an analogue and possessive treatment of his recordings (Ward prides himself on having as few people’s hands in the mixing bowl as possible when it comes to the recording and mixing process) Post - War paints a picture of a time when people and the environments that they create were more closely linked than they are today.

In the world of Post - War, young men travel across the sea and are allowed to ask three questions to old men (“Chinese Translation”):

1. What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?
2. How can a man like me remain in the light?
3. If life is really as short as they say say, then why is the night so long?

And this is just a short vignette of the depth that M. Ward searches.

Being Father’s Day, tears gathered in my eyes while listening to “Requiem” and thinking of my own hell-on-wheels father (though I sing no requiems, my father is very much alive, and ornery as old dog). Ward revels: His heart was stronger than a heavy metal bullet/And that’s why I dedicate this song/He was a good man and now he’s gone.

With lyrics, music, and recorded sound so rich as this it is difficult sometimes to get your bearing during the thick of it all. On headphones, Ward’s vocals resonate anywhere from a whisper, to a cackle, to a deeply melancholy and somber moan in a sea of shimmering echo and reverb that sounds more like a concrete floor warehouse in West Texas than a ritzy recording studio in Los Angeles. The guitars both shimmer and buzz ‘round like mosquitos at a lake. This production is wholly perfect, and I am saddened that I could not have heard this sooner.

2006 was a bad year. It was a lonely, hot, desperate year—the beauty of a “period” record like this is that it is so well constructed that it actually links our sense of pathos to those post-war folks that truly know the guts of a bad year. Ward, amazingly enough, has the talent and understands the chemistry behind making these awful and lonely feelings palatable and communicable.

I’ll take 2006 back if I can have this album on vinyl.

Go purchase:

Go purchase the whole damn record—record store, iTunes, Amazon.com, I don’t care…Every tune is good and heartbreaking. Buy the whole damn thing.

I’ll cut to the chase: it’s not very good; Queens is an honest to goodness “good” band too, which is why this is so difficult to say.

On Era Vulgaris, the fifth release from the stoner-supergroup with the ever-revolving lineup led by resident scary asshole Josh Homme, the group (I’m guessing) has churned out a factory made, run of the mill, rock album. It’s overall, an unimpressive, bland effort, and I probably wouldn’t pay more than 8 or 9 bucks for the disc. It’s just…a little “out of place.”

Era Vulgaris seems out of place in the sense that, while it does challenge the listener, it doesn’t do so in any sort of innovative way. Queens play rock music. period; and while 2002’s Songs for the Deafwas a listener favorite, not much has changed then besides a mukier recording style and an SNL stint featuring Will Ferrell on cowbell (“I’ve got a fever!”).

This album is far from bad, like I said, it’s just not very good. The tunes starting the album sound like the members of the group had disparate ideas of what the shape of the album and the individual tracks should be (“I’m Designer” and “Misfit Love”). Others are distrubingly simple, but perfectly acceptable. I would have accepted a full album of tunes like “Sick, Sick, Sick.” No matter who you are, you understand rock music. you may not like it, or it may offend the core of your very being, but it’s easy to understand.

The great thing about Queens of the Stone Age was their “scary” factor. Seriously. The video for “No One Knows” from Songs was a rude awakening from my Beatles-filled days right after graduating from college. Queens of the Stone Age is music for a slasher movie. It’s your worst fears made very real and tangible. For a kid like me that’s seen everything, Queens is a sincerely frightening band (for the record, I’d bet on Homme against any of those pussies from Slipknot).

I suppose the problem is a lack of a coordinated effort. It’s had to be scared of the monster under the bed and the Boogey Man in the clset when the two can’t work together to arch their shadows in the most effective way.

I recommend one song to obtain from this album:

“River in the Road” - a galloping, epicly dark, brooding tune. Reminds me of a sedate, more earnest version of Iron Maiden.

The Fantastic Four vs. The Universe

Part of the joy of being a comic book geek is the liquidity of stories and characters at your disposal. In this alternate universe, nearly anything goes. You can ascribe nearly any superpower to your heroes and villains as well as being able to alter the, thought previously to be immutable, laws of nature to nearly any degree. What is by far the most interesting is super hero “match-ups” in which the authors and artists combine characters from completely different series, or different comic lines all together. Superman could battle Batman. The Silver Surfer could take on the X-Men. The Green Goblin could have a love affair with Vicky Vail. Anything is possible. Being able to see your favorite super hero matched up, or against, an unexpected figure is a unique delight as it tends to reveal more about your favorite hero than you could see paired up against the usual villains and taking place in the usual metropolis or Gotham City; such is the case with rock’n’roll.

The story and makeup of the group is interesting (as most superhero origins tend to be). Three brothers, Caleb, Jared, and Nathan Followill gain life experience following their evangelical Pentecostal minister father Leon Followill across the Midwest during 80’s and 90’s with Neil Young and the Rolling Stones blaring from the car stereo the entire way. The age of manhood dawns upon them and the brothers plus first cousin Matthew Followill on lead guitar form the Kings of Leon, both a tribute to their father and a stab at perpetuating a rootsy, southern-boogie type of image on the garage-rock scene. I was unimpressed by their debut Youth and Young Manhood. It didn’t sound like anything I couldn’t get from Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers Band, or the Black Crowes. Their sophomore effort Aha Shake Heartbeat was only a little better, taking more from the Neil Young noise school of rock than their usual mush-mouthed southern rock.

Which brings us to Because Of The Times, named after a Pentecostal conference the brothers Followill attended with their father when they were kids. The Times places the brothers not in the honkey-tonk of the rural deep south, but rather in a cold, euro-tinged back room where they sit along side the likes of Echo & the Bunnymen, Joy Division, and Television. I suppose, surprisingly, it’s a pretty incredible place for them to be. Such jumps as this of artistic direction have not worked out so well for others (See Ryan Adams’s Rock’n’Roll—an album which I actually kind of liked).

The opener, “Knocked Up,” seems like more classic Kings of Leon in style and form (save for the 7 minute length) than any of the other tunes. The album, to it’s credit is subtle (much like clues given to a super hero’s alter ego) in it’s introduction to this new Kings of Leon that a longtime fan would be unfamiliar with. New cuts which lean toward this new direction “Charmer,” “My Party,” and “McFearless” are balanced with more traditional non-invasive tunes such as “Fans,” “The Runner,” and “Camaro” bringing the disc full circle to remind the listener that although one may dip occasionally into a dark pool, the Kings still reign as a great, traditional southern rock outfit.

Because Of The Times brings to light a certain fun fact about those that are “album” people. It’s fun to see your favoite band change, develop, and grow. it’s even better when they get…well…better, and when we get to hear them perform a style of rock that we would have never expected, well then…this issue is collectible.

Where others have failed, KOL has succeeded due to a perception of sincerity that most people would approach a group like this with. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Followill boys are sincere, but at least they put on a good show (and again, on that note, Ryan Adams has never claimed to have a sincere feeling in his entire life…asshole). Because Of The Times is your favorite superhero waging and winning a battle against two of the worst villains from a completely different universe: boredom and predictability. Because of the Times totally and completely wins.

Download from iTunes, please, at your earliest convenience:

“On Call” - Romantic and accessible, easily a proud and deserved single worth depressing the “Repeat” button.
“My Party” - highlights the strength of the drummer. Cool studio generated sounds. Would be interested to hear this live. Like a boiling, hot riot.
“True Love Way” - Heartbreaking and humble. Lot’s of good “Southern Man” references placed in a “post-punk” context.
“Ragoo” - a totally winning and virtuosic track about (of all things) class warfare. A total and complete success.