Music I Listen To NOW.
by Vince Daliessio
It has been literally years since I have heard a listenable music station on broadcast FM. For as long as I have been out of college, music on the radio has been an unrelenting crapfest from one end of the dial to the other. The few exceptions worth mentioning are pretty much moot now, anyway.
So I turned inward, following a couple of favorite bands to the internet through their maillists. Some things fellow listers recommended have turned out to have been worthwhile, most haven’t. When I discovered Guided By Voices in February of 2002, it was much the same – lots of recommendations, but not enough information on new records and artists to commit to buying without hearing. P2P and samples from artists’ websites helped, a little.
With GBV’s farewell (see the feature in this month’s SPIN Magazine), I was getting anxious about where my next music fixes were going to come from. Then along came XM.
Suddenly, I was able to hear the records people were recommending, on the radio, the way God intended. I am totally jazzed by the constant stream of fresh new stuff I have been hearing on their “college” format station, XMU (Channel 43).
So here are a couple of picks. You might or might not like them, but check them out if you can;
Brendan Benson – Lapalco
Benson slaves as much over each release almost as much as Axl Rose does over the never-to-be-released next GNR record. Only here, it’s worth the wait.
Tiny Spark - opens the record with a perfect piece of Byrds-influenced, Matthew Sweet-like pop-rock, but moved on in a direction different than Sweet’s has, Perfect harmonies.
The song “Metarie” is a minor-key testament to the power of a well-placed minor trauma to change one’s life for the better. The song’s small-town musician protagonist is snubbed by a girl, causing him to examine his life, and he finds himself motivated to change not only his surroundings, but also his music. “Get a life, put it in your song” is the refrain this the reedy, wistful song.
Good to Me – the simple pleasures of old, reliable things (80 Volvo, Supro Amp)
You’re Quiet – Even without the ripping, “Helter Skelter” riff of the remixed version (from the “Metarie Extended Player”), this second-person boast has a great pop-rock groove that makes you smile.
http://www.brendanbenson.com/_audio/LAPALCO/You'reQuiet.wma
Benson has the potential to be a really big star, if he puts his mind to it. His new record, which I haven’t heard yet, is called “The Alternative To Love”. Check out his website at;
http://www.brendanbenson.com/.
Pitty Sing – Pitty Sing
Ever wonder what would have happened if the guys from OMD had answered one of the Charles Atlas ads on the back of the old comic books? Well, you should. Pitty Sing – named after a demonic cat in a Flannery O’Connor novel – build seamless electro-pop with muscle – “We’re On Drugs” is a warped variation on the theme of “If You Leave”, but tight harmonies and a sense of impending doom balance the strings and synths to make this song about overmedicated lovers an ever so much more satisfying pop confection.
The entire cd is a lushly-arranged wrapper around a bunch of tough, meaty songs. “Radio” melds the mid-80’s dance-pop sensibility of Yaz and Erasure with the up-to-date New York City toughness of Interpol.
Tree Wave – May Banners (single) (Cabana EP)
Someone from the GBV list recommended these guys, and I can’t stop playing this song. Tree Wave, a duo out of Texas, use old Atari 2600 and Commodore 64 computers to get the cool synth sounds on this track (as well as the layout of their site, http://www.treewave.com/ ), which would be just as bad as it sounds, except for the real talent of this duo. Lauren Gray’s beautiful vocal delivery is the perfect human counterpoint to the mechanical, slightly alien, yet still funky and melodic music by Paul Slocum. Sample the mp3, or purchase the EP here:
http://www.atariage.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=54&products_id=285
MC Frontalot – I’m Gonna Be Your Man
MC Front is an extremely clever self-parodying “Nerdcore” rapper from San Francisco, in the vein of Cex or Alf Malf and the Tikimen. Here, Front visits a fan in the hospital. He is so desperate for fan adulation, he decides to donate a lung to the fan. The lyrics are silly, the music a cool crush of Sugarhill Gang / Kurtis Blow – style old-school. MC Frotalot plays in NYC pretty often and would probably be a hoot live. Check out MC Frontalot at http://www.frontalot.com/index.html
Finally, a new record from the GBV fraternity;
Doug Gillard – Salamander
Full disclosure – Doug is the guitar player from GBV, and his girlfriend Ana is a good friend of mine. So this is going to be a little biased;
(Doug and me after the Pier 54 GBV show, August 2004)
Doug already had most of this record in the can when the GBV breakup was announced, so he was ready to go even before the final New Year’s Eve show with “Salamander”. Doug played virtually all the instruments on the record, save a handful of appearances from Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster.
If you are familiar with Gillard’s measured, powerful guitar style from GBV, you know he’s not a flashy Van Halen or Steve Vai type player, but his leads and solos have always had the meat and content that the flashier players sometimes lack. This isn’t to say Gillard’s playing lacks for technical ability either – he is an incredible player, and gets the songs across without wasting a note. And that’s fortunate, because the songs are so good.
The record opens with “Valpolicella”, an uptempo acoustic / electric strum in the vein of XTC’s “Mayor of Simpleton”, a beautiful song with flashes of the Beatles “Penny Lane” “Valpolicella / is in my guts and in my mind”, as well as some Byrds-like guitar parts. But the song itself sounds like more than a simple sonic collage, because Doug’s ear for melody and rhythm never let his songs lapse into a pale karaoke of his influences.
“Symbols, Signs” is a chugging, insistent groove-y song with a great bass line that recalls the opening notes of “25 or 6 to 4” from the second Chicago record, again, in service of a kickass song.
“Give Me Something” kicks down the door – a hard-rocking tune that swings and swaggers as much as a Stones tune, but with a cool and intricate melody, and riffage that could kick Keith Richards’ ASS.
“Momma” is a tender ballad from the heart – here, asking forgiveness for not being able to be present enough during a parent’s final days (due to the endless GBV touring schedule). Despite the fact that the song shows up some limitations in his otherwise fine vocal abilities, the earnestness and sincerity of the song keep it from slipping into bathos or unintentional parody, and yielding a real gem of a song.
Throughout the whole record, Gillard mixes influences diverse in time from 60’s psychedelia through the artists of the current scene. “Drip-Nose Boy” rocks out with a Who-like opening, before progressing smoothly into a rave-up that wouldn’t stick out on a Lenny Kravitz record, except the latter isn’t likely to be so imaginative.
Anyway this record really shines, moreso the more you listen to it, so you should buy it right now from http://www.douggillard.com/ or Amazon.com.