Category Archives: Alternative

Hozier’s Introduction to the World

I struggled writing this post on Hozier’s first album. As I sat writing, deleting, and rewriting, I was reminded why I originally decided not to review new music. I listen to this beautiful album and like many reviewers I want to tear it apart and analyze it, but that approach would be inconsistent with my original intent. My goal is to experience the music, not destroy it. In the short time of owning this album I have experienced it deeply.

I was first introduced to the song Take Me To Church. Immediately I fell in love with the simple sound, and complicated words. Watching the video I was transported to past protests and rallies. The video tells the story of two men who love each other, one is murdered for it. The video and the song work together perfectly, we are confronted with struggles of the LGBT community and the isolation experienced by conservative religion. The refrain “Take me to church” isolates the dichotomy of religion that preaches love and acts differently.

Of course the marriage of this song and that video tell a different story than listening to the song alone. The song by itself draws parallels to love and the institution of religion. This song thrives in the heart of the teenager that lives inside of me. A boy who struggles to understand his feeling while still being enveloped by them. What I love about this song is that it works on multiple levels, it works as a scathing commentary faith and as a love song describing someone lost in an emotional tsunami.

My Church offers no absolution
She tells me, ‘Worship in the bedroom.’
The only heaven I’ll be sent to
Is when I’m alone with you—

It connects religion and love, faith and lust, hope and loss. I don’t know if you have ever been lost in love, especially a love that is not balanced but the author seems to understand this carnal desire.

Take me to church
I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I’ll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife
Offer me my deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

Maybe you’ve never had this feeling or maybe it’s just easier to lie about it, but Hozier’s rock, blues, gospel, pop mix brings to light the love we often leave hidden in the darkness, the love that we don’t admit. Or the feeling of losing ourselves to love. If you have never had this issue you may get bored but if you have, prepare to bring that darkness to the surface.

The album revolves around relational themes, generally about love, lust, sex, and loss. I played the song In A Week for my wife, she listened openly in the beginning appreciating the music, but she didn’t feel the full weight of the song until she heard the refrain:

And they’d find us in a week
When the weather get’s hot
After the insects have made their claim
I’d be home with you

Immediately she wondered whether we should continue listening to this album. But this is not an album one can simply pull one song out and expect to understand the full depth, some albums are just full of great songs that don’t connect with each other, this was not one of them. The order of the songs and the fullness of the album creates a context, and it would be hard to understand any one song without first beginning to understand the whole of the album. That is why I love vinyl, it helps me find that context.

So, If you are looking for simple, look somewhere else, this album is not for you. We have to think about this album, we comb over it, and always listen for something new. So far I hear love songs, joyful and tragic. He delves into love, he embraces it, massages it, and even mangles it.

I look forward to hearing his future albums. This album was very thematic, and I look forward hearing different themes. Love is important but I’d love to hear him pour this much work into other issues. Now, whether he will we don’t really know, but I do know I will blindly buy his next album in the hope that he continues to grow as a musician and commentator.

Weezer: Because Everything Will Be Alright in the End.

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Everything Will Be Alright In the End – Cover

It is difficult for me to write about modern albums, I feel like. I try to make sure that if I am going to dedicate the time to learning the new music (by learning I mean a lot of listening) it had better be good. My attention span isn’t what it used to be, and I find little desire to decode the lyrics of complicated songs. And though I support the idea that all musicians should grow in depth as they mature, the fact is, I am a much older man in spirit than body, and am very much a fuddy duddy, even though my last three posts were about modern albums.

Many of the bands singing pop rock when I was a kid had their start in the 70’s before I was born. I found them in the late 80’s and respected them into the 90’s. When it comes to bands that started during my middle to teenage years in the mid to late 90’s I wonder what they are doing now. For some reason I had assumed Weezer had simply stopped making music after Green. Then I realized why I was missing their new albums, when I saw “Everything Will Be Alright In the End,” at the record store.

Everything Will Be Alright In the End – Record

My ascension to Fuddy Duddydum had left me listing to classic rock channels and 90’s grunge and alternative channels (which is considered classic rock in some circles). I forgot that classic Weezer, though very good, was not the only Weezer. I looked over while picking my daughter up from school and heard her singing along to Weezer’s new album and realized that Weezer had gained new status in the world, a band that survived its beginnings and grew into something bigger, something that made them into a new classic. I was just old enough to have been there when they started, but my daughter, learned of them many years after their beginning. Of course it can often be difficult reconnecting older bands, but Weezer’s “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” made it easy. Cuomo’s intent in this album was to look back while moving forward, using their classic sound.

Everything Will Be Alright In the End – Insert

I don’t know what it is about Weezer and Cuomo’s writing that makes me pour over lyrics, regardless of whether I want to, it is compulsive. Sure, I could try to just enjoy this album, bobbing my head as I listen to the catchy tunes, but I feel like I would be treating the writer unjustly. These songs make it hard to just listen to I want to hear them as well. In fact I had to google Foucault before writing this paragraph. I can imagine saying that to Rivers Cuomo and Rivers just walking away shaking his head. When I listen to River’s words and music I cycle through few basic thoughts that progress in this manner.

I’d love to meet this guy for coffee
We could talk about his music and theology
I’d love to hear about his writing process
Shit he went to Harvard
Am I smart enough to talk with Rivers?
Uh oh I’d better prepare how do you pronounce Foucault again?
Can I call him Rivers?
And I’d better bone up on my Greek, where did I leave my old professors email?
I’m tired

Would Someone Please Translate This For Me? My Greek is Terrible.

Weezer produces great and catchy music, which seems extremely unpopular today. Cuomo writes amazing lyrics, in fact he went to college to make himself a better writer, to better delve into the depths of his soul. The songs in this album are broken into three topics, Women, Work, and Father Issues. These three topics show up often in Weezer songs, but that’s not a bad thing, because these three topics show up often in our day to day lives. But Cuomo doesn’t sing about these three things the same way as he did in Pinkerton and Blue, instead, his songs engender growth, and one of the greatest truths, sometimes we have to return to the beginning to really know who we are in the end.

Saying Goodbye While I Turn Blue, My Introduction to the Black Keys

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The Black Keys, Turn Blue Album Cover

If I were to write a review of The Black Key’s new album Turn Blue I would probably have to tell you which studio album they were on, how this album interacts with their past albums, and what new influences obviously lead to their blue turn. I would probably also have to mention 100 other bands or producers before ever talking about the Black Keys themselves, especially British Cartoon Character Danger Mouse who has something to do with this album. And it would be important to mention they are from Akron, because I guess… the Akron Music Scene? I know that would be the case because I made the mistake of reading reviews of Turn Blue before writing this post.

It is astounding. It astounds me because they never really get around to talking about the album itself, and they never give me the sense that they experienced the album. The goal from the beginning of their review is, simply, to tell you whether or not they think the album, from a critical standpoint, is good. Which apparently they can do without ever really talking about The Black Key’s music, and quite possibly listening to the whole thing. I obviously do not understand the business side because their reviews make no sense to me.

I bought this album at a record store in Memphis because I heard them sing on The Colbert Report. I don’t remember the song they sang because that was a long time ago, I just remember it was catchy and the album cover was cool, that was enough for me.

I appreciate this band first, because they include a copy of the CD with the record, and they gave me a poster. That is important because I don’t care to buy CD’s or simply download mp3s, they make it worth spending more money on the analog copy. Without the record there is nothing to touch. Many bands offer a free download, but these guys went the extra mile and gave me a CD.

The Black Keys: Turn Blue Record Sleeve

Secondly, something strange happens when Fever comes on. My disco ball finds a way to entice me into turning it on and I start to dance. Not quite sure why this happens EVERY TIME!!! But it does and that is something I am just going to have to live with it, as will my wife and children. Right away that song grabs me and pulls me from my seat. At that point it doesn’t even matter what the song is about, I’m already in. The whole album goes back and forth from this psychedelic blues to pop, and by then end, I have lost like 45 minutes and I’m covered in sweat.

Of course it starts strong, Weight of Love introduces something delightfully forlorn, and the message continues as I slow dance through the album. The album helps me say goodbye, and who doesn’t need to say goodbye to something? Turn blue makes me confront a certain kind of baggage, baggage that I am ready to let go of. I can’t stay angry long while listening to these guys. Their mellow mix of forlorn sadness and slow drive leaves me with the feeling that everything is going to be ok, even if the process takes a long time, even amidst the bullshit serenade. And quite honestly, sometimes I need that. This album gives me the permission to turn blue without the expectation that I stay there forever.

And Finally, I think I was hypnotized by the artwork.

Turn Blue

And as much as I would love to end this post with that idea I can’t. I have to say that of the reviews I read lack something very important when it comes to this album, a fresh ear. The reviewers spend so much time defining context that they miss something important, that this album creates its own context. Turn Blue made me a Black Keys fan. Not because there is anything wrong with their other albums, I just haven’t heard them. Sure, this may be a their 50^th album, and often I agree that most things don’t exist in a vacuum, but for the first time in my life I might just have found something that did.

And it turned blue.

Reflecting on Twenty Years of Rage Against the Machine

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The Front Cover of the 2012 Release

If you don’t take action now
We settle for nothing later
We’ll settle for nothing now
And we’ll settle for nothing later!

I found Rage Against the Machine’s debut album, 20^th anniversary version at my local music store (I understand it came out in 2012). I bought it, immediately,

I was first introduced to RAM(Rage Against the Machine) on MTV, watching the video for Freedom, it had to be the early 90’s. Something struck me. It wasn’t just that the lead singer was screaming but the way he incorporated the scream into the song. It wasn’t random, it grew, and it grew from nothing to deafening. And it wasn’t baseless, it had purpose, literal outcry. The video and song tell the story of the Federal Raid of the Pine Ridge Reservation in the early 70’s, and though it would be 20 years after the release the song the video would become the core of a Thanksgiving Sermon.

Rage Against the Machine Back Cover 2012

One of the reasons I love Rage Against the Machine is that they go further than simple social commentary but send a call to action. It would be years after their initial release and the beginnings of my work as a minister that would bring them to the forefront of my listening life. Rage Against the Machine remind me that the winners control history, and if we are to fight marginalization we may have to embrace basic principles of anarchy. I myself am not an anarchist, I appreciate order, I just get frustrated when that order is skewed so far to the white that oligarchs use crisis as fuel to control the population. If the poor and middle class are pitted against one another, by class, race, gender, religion, or freedom (yeah right) then the top 1% are free to function without question, at least without real question.

There used to be a word in English, accountability. Now when the corporate oligarchs do something unethical they are called before bought men and instead of being brought to justice they are given tribute. They are too big to fail, but down here in Mississippi, we are too small to survive. I am reminded every day that Mississippi is run by stewards, stewards bought and paid for by the Corporate Oligarchy. Before the Civil War Mississippi had one of the highest GDP’s in all of the United States, money made off the backs of slaves. If you visit Natchez you can still go to the site of the biggest auction block in the country. Cemented in the ground are shackles and chains that had been lost to the elements and buried until a work crew found them and cemented them into a large concrete block in the ground.

But sadly as I grew up the injustice didn’t register. I grew up religious, I am religious today but it doesn’t look like it used to. I have learned that to be moral I must also be active. It is Rage Against the Machine that drives me downtown for a march, or a rally. It is Rage Against the Machine that forces me to vote, it is Rage Against the Machine that makes me value justice, even when justice bring me discomfort and pain. I often find myself sitting in rooms full of men and women whose names were recorded on secret Sovereignty Commission lists in Mississippi that date back to 1956, those who were vocal those who fought against the machine that grew strange fruit.

LP Art

The cover of this album has a Vietnamese Monk burning himself in protest, asking only for religious freedom. RAM reminds us of the cost of activism, the cost of standing for right. It was a religious man on the cover, I am a religious man, I was raised in a faith that called death the ultimate sacrifice but the right one when facing injustice. I don’t know if I have that courage, but it is a courage that has passed through many leaders of the past: Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X, Medgar Evers, Mahatma Gandhi, Michael Servetus, John F Kennedy.

I may sound bitter as you read this, but it really isn’t bitterness, it is shame. I live in Mississippi, white privilege helps me on a day to day basis. It is privilege I grew up with. In fact, it was so much a part of my White and Male privilege that I didn’t catch it. I never really noticed my bias’s, toward people of different color, different gender, and religion. I know that even while listening to Rage that I am part of the Machine. I made a lot of changes but change is slow. I sit frequently in rooms with leaders fighting for equality, whether it’s race, gender, orientation, or labor. I try to face rage with peace. I am a pacifist, there is enough violence, there is enough death, without adding anything to it, but even peacefully we can rage against the machine. I know I stand on the shoulders of all those who came before me and I know that what I reap is what I sow.

Rage Against the Machine Spinning

Best of Mandatory Fun 2014

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This is scary in the right light

Watch this record spin

I don’t know if I’ve made it clear but I don’t feel well versed enough to review new music, in reality, I question my ability to review any music. Which is fine because that has never been the purpose of this blog. This blog has always been about my relationship with music, and that means that I don’t need a good technical understanding of music I just have to have ears and feelings.

However, I have had a new Weird Al Yankovic album thrust upon me, and I feel I must comment on this album that entered the billboard top 200 at number 1. I have been a fan of Weird Al for a long time, in childhood he was the one who let me know (and Gonzo from the Muppet Babies) that I was ok even though I didn’t fit in, I wore the epithet “weird” proudly even when it hurt. But that will be more important when I talk about my favorite childhood Weird Al Yankovic album. This post is about a new album that shows the relevance of Weird Al and his adaptability.

With Tea Cup

Weird Al, coming off of a solid but not well received album by the public found himself in a pickle. When this album came out the label made it clear they wouldn’t be making his videos so he had to find a different way. He did, he proved not only to be relevant but savvy. He released 8 videos in 8 days on 8 different websites.

But, this post is not about how amazing Weird Al is, it is just my annual Best of Mandatory Fun 2014. Listed below are the categories I find important.

Just typed up some lyrics

Best song upgrade (This parody actually improved the song)
Word Crimes

Best Breakout song with male twerking
Tacky

Best song that the video does no justice for
Mission Statement

Best parody that introduced me to an original song that I really like
Handy

Best Pixies style parody
First World Problems

Best style parody of a band I never heard of
Lame Claim to fame

Best school fight song ever
Sport’s Song

Song that should have been made into a video as the theme song to a pretend new show
Inactive

Best song that could almost be a parody of Dr. Seuss’ Things I Saw on Mulberry Street
My Own Eyes

Song that reminds me of how glad I am to be married
Jackson Park Express

Best Parody
Foil

Best Song on Mandatory Fun
Now That’s What I Call a Polka

Scott Pilgrim: In Regard to a List of Things I’ve Liked for A Thousand years.

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There are two important things to note about this blog. First, this is not the third post on Zeppelin I and second, this is a movie soundtrack. I wanted to take my time with the final Led Zeppelin blog and I was working with a lot of new material, this LP is one I know well from movie and music.

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World

I would generally avoid buying movie soundtracks on vinyl, but there is something different about this movie, this movie is about music. On the back of the record sleeve Edgar Write says that the music leaps off the pages of the original source material and also that these songs became the soundtrack for the lives of all the people involved with the movie. The movie sets itself in the middle of the Toronto indie rock scene therefore this soundtrack lives there. I know what you’re saying, “There were so many better option to start with, why didn’t you start with the Blues Brothers or Spinal Tap,” well there is a good answer to that, I don’t have a copy of the Blues Brothers and I didn’t really care for “This Is Spinal Tap.” And I probably wouldn’t have started there anyway, if you think they are so great write your own blog.

I should also say on the front end that I am not a movie critic, I base the goodness and badness of movies on whether I walked away saying, “That was fun I liked that.” Unless of course it was a sad movie then I base it off of the statement, “That movie explored deep issues and was important.” I make this clarification because for some reason critics didn’t like this movie and many thought Michael Cera gave a week performance, to those things I say very clearly, “Eh maybe but, the music was great and Michael Cera did what Michael Cera does.” But then I am not here to talk about some movie that came out forever ago, instead I am going to talk about the LP. I will probably mention the movie on more than one occasion but then this is a soundtrack.

I noticed something when I watched this movie, I liked the band Sex Bob-Omb. I don’t just mean the characters but also the music. The great thing is that was before I found out that the actors were playing and Beck wrote their songs. I have never been a big fan of indie-rock rock per-say but I would have loved seeing these shows, when I was younger and before I found my own Ramona Flowers. The music, as I move through the record, is so diverse and there is a tone that makes fun of itself. I walked away singing about going for a ride on a garbage truck… truck truck truck truck.

Spinning Pilgrim

These songs and the scenes being described remind me of the time from college to my late 20’s when I was catching live shows like they were going out of style, of course, I could list them off but you’ve probably never heard half of them. The difference between my scene and Toronto was the style of music, sure there was weird rock, but I was out mostly listening to blues, swing, and Rock-a-Billy. I spent a lot of time in Bars and Juke Joints, don’t get me wrong I would order a drink, but I was there for the live music and the dancing.

Of course not all the music is Indie and Beck, for instance “Under My Thumb” recorded by the Rolling Stones. The stones provide great anchor point, of course if you are looking for that sound throughout you may want to look into something else. The fact is, if you are an old feller who can’t open up to different styles you may want to just buy something else. This music was very different than my normal music that was why I loved the album.

One of the things I love about the physical construction of the album is the color, red. Or at least some weird variant thereof. The LP has a great look even though it was made with thin vinyl. That is normal with first issue releases. Most bands aren’t going to start with 180 gram vinyl until they have a big enough base to support them and with this record being a soundtrack it would have to garner major support. I do, however, believe that this record is important in any collection if you are a fan of the genres represented, if not however, don’t worry about it, you will only miss out on some great indie-rock and Beck, but if you are looking for a good music that will make you feel bad and think about stuff, you should check out this album.

All About Fish and Feelings, Whatever Nevermind

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My first experience was Nirvana was not from their ground breaking album Nevermind, nor was it from MTV over playing the video Smells Like Teen Spirit, no my first experience with Nirvana was through Weird Al Yankovic’s song Smells Like Nirvana. I was, at the time, a classic rock fan, I had never been too impressed with modern music so I encountered most of it through satire. I would sit and wait for hours for the video of Smells Like Nirvana to air on MTV. Of course during that time I heard songs, like Come As You Are, In Bloom, and Smells Like Teen Spirit.

www.heptide.com

I was just leaving Middle School when Nirvana hit the airwaves and I missed it. Of course when I found them, finally, they were the first band since Led Zeppelin or Queen to make any sense. Much of my music taste comes from hindsight, in fact, I missed most of it the first time, except the grunge. Once I found that style I never let go, even today I listen to 90’s stations frustrated with the lack of Nirvana. However, there is no doubt that Nirvana changed things for rock music. Glam Rock was reaching its panicle, men in sprayed on leather pants with hair do’s that cost more than most of my wardrobe were prancing back and forth on stage when Kurt Cobain stepped up in ratty jeans, old converse (from before they were popular), and a tee-shirt. From that point on, jeans and a tee-shirt were just fine for me, in fact even today I might just throw a blazer on top and go to work.

I remember hearing a story that when they made it big, Kurt was living in a van. Chris Novoselic said once, “We didn’t come to the mainstream, the mainstream came to us.” This one statement says volumes about the struggle that Nirvana and specifically Kurt Cobain felt about their success. This struggle along with the constant physical pain led Kurt to commit suicide, I remember coming home from school one day, turning on MTV like I often did, and read the scrolling words at the bottom of the screen, “Kurt Cobain has been found dead.” This was the first musician of my era to die, and I will never forget the feeling that day.

I was reminded of Nirvana the other day watching a rerun of the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. I sat with tears in my eyes during the opening clip, the tears stayed throughout the show. Michael Stipe called them “lightening in a bottle.” I agreed. I agreed when Dave Gohl and Chis Novoselic gave their short speeches, and I agreed as Joan Jett sung Smells Like Teen Spirit. I remember thinking about how I would react if I were to ever meet those two men. I imagine I would hug them with tears in my eyes and hope to God that it didn’t come off creepy. I couldn’t help but think about what they were to me, I think I spent most of the rest of my life dressing like Kurt Cobain. They exuded frustration, and that was how I felt so I showed it. Their music helped me give voice to feelings I couldn’t consider touching.

I never understood teen spirit (the spirit not the song), pep rallies never made sense to me. In hindsight I appreciated my high school but while I was there I stood counted with social exiles, I was home there. Through the years the music may have changed but the caliber of people didn’t. We were to the social minority, we didn’t want to be football stars, we didn’t play basketball, and we weren’t ashamed to be part of the marching band. Most of my good memories of high school took place in either the band room or the theater. My lunch was spent with all the “others,” because they weren’t afraid to come as they were.

I never owned Nevermind, I borrowed my brother’s cassette and over the years had a few dubs. I bought this a few months ago as soon as I found it, and as I listen to this record over and over again, I sing the songs, often without thought, the words are just there. Funny, the first time I actually bought this album was 2014 and 180 gram vinyl. Nirvana’s lightning in a bottle fueled my teenage years. Through dating, break-ups, and embarrassing moments, I found my voice while listening to the often ridiculous lyrics of Nirvana, lyrics so pure I never had to actually consider their meaning, mine was good enough. Spoke the alien, “Nevermind.”

Friday Vinyl

The Music of my life

Category Archives: Alternative

Hozier’s Introduction to the World

Weezer: Because Everything Will Be Alright in the End.

Saying Goodbye While I Turn Blue, My Introduction to the Black Keys

Reflecting on Twenty Years of Rage Against the Machine

Best of Mandatory Fun 2014

Scott Pilgrim: In Regard to a List of Things I’ve Liked for A Thousand years.

All About Fish and Feelings, Whatever Nevermind