What do you do when you're stuck with nowhere to go and a few hours to kill? For me, if I've got my phone or am near a compute, it's a good ol' Deep Dive on YouTube.
Tonight, I started listening to St. Vincent's awesome video "Bad Girl" from Bob's Buskers from Bob's Burgers:
That led me to Sleater-Kinney's "A New Wave" -- in Bob's Burger style.
I moved on to Sleater-Kinney's appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman:
I kept listening to the rest of Sleater-Kinney's excellent new album No Cities to Love, which as my brother points out sounds like Pink Flag era Wire if it was sung by Geddy Lee. That's a pretty spot on description, if you ask me. From there, it was The War on Drugs' "Red Eyes" from Letterman:
Then I played some Wishbone Ash, a rather crap-tastic prog rock band from the early 70s.
Then I fell down a New Order rabbit hole. Well, it starting with two Joy Division songs, actually. "The Eternal" and "Decades" were among the first to use a big ARP 2600 modular synth and planted the seed for what was to come later with New Order:
I found a neat 1981 live performance of "Temptation", which New Order did in NYC on a tour of the States. It's ten minutes of synth greatness:
Then flash forward to 1987, when New Order cut the theme song to the English soccer show "Best and Marsh":
Their work on that theme song earned them the opportunity to write the best World Cup theme song of all time, 1990's "World in Motion". I was after the B-Side:
Then I watched nearly an hour of that same 1981 live performance, in a specially made video called Taras Shevchenko:
After that, I came crashing into the current era for 2013's New Order song "Californian Grass", which Bernard Sumner wrote with Iggy Pop in mind:
Then I watched Iggy join Barney at Carnegie Hall for a live performance of "Californian Grass":
And also "Transmission":
And of course "Love Will Tear Us Apart", which -- if I had to pick -- is probably my all-time favorite song.
So I'm getting a late jump on this -- and my fellow Discordant recovers from a bizarre mishap. I missed AC/DC but was amused that they needed a Teleprompter for their own song. Also, happy to see Pharrell win, even if "Happy" is - what - three years old by now? Seeing Beck win was nice. Also, Tom Jones can still sing -- unlike his duet-mate Jessie J (she missed a few notes in "You've Lost That Loving Feeling.") And I'm surprisingly impressed with Madonna -- she didn't pull the drunk Colonel Sanders act of last year.
Let's get to the blogging.
9:10
So what's the big deal about Ed Sheeran? Was he really the best unsigned act in Britain four years ago (he was introduced that way). Please explain what makes him so great -- I'm hearing very little from his performance tonight that sounds innovative in any way. Is it that he actually sings and plays in a world where most people can't play an instrument and are Auto-Tuned? (I'm talking to you, Kanye)
9:14
ELO -- I can't help but think of a kid named Jeff Eberting every time I hear these guys.
9:15
Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani are introduced as "two of our finest." Finest what?
9:30
Why is Annie Lennox doing some sort of hand thing with her nose? Would that be permitted in church? Oh, and I'm buying the idea that Hozier is the new Gotye.
9:32
I have to say that if I never heard "All About that Bass" again I'd be a happy man.
9:33
Big surprise that Miranda Lambert wins in the best country album category. She was pretty much made for awards shows, with her just slightly on the edge lyrics that got her bleeped earlier in the night. Personally, I was rooting for Lee Ann Womack on the strength of her theme song for the Berenstain Bears.
9:36
How much mileage can one singer get out of one song? Surely not more than Pharrell Williams has gotten from "Happy". I mean, it's a fine song and all, but it was released in 2013.
9:45
President Obama makes a plea to stop violence against women. Oh, and Chris Brown is up for three Grammys.
9:50
I respect Katy Perry for what she's doing here. She's the biggest pop star in the world right now and she's using that platform for good. That said, it's just a week since she sang at the Super Bowl -- and it's not like the NFL has such a good track record with violence against women.
9:53
Wait! We want to play the Grammys too! We're Imagine Dragons, and Target is paying us huge money to make it look like we're at the Grammys. I'm not sure how I feel about this. This is going on for - what - two minutes? Three? They're getting paid to play in a giant Target logo. Folks, I don't think selling out gets better than this.
9:59
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga may be in heaven but the rest of us are in hell.
10:07
Lifetime achievement award to the Louvin Brothers. For this song alone.
10:31
Sam Smith takes the stage for "I Won't Back Down" -- err, "Stay with Me". How long until the cutaway shot of Tom Petty?
10:34
Mary J Blige just destroyed Sam Smith. I realize she has years of experience and he's the new kid on the block but it really showed in this performance.
One thing I love about music is stumbling upon the obvious influences of bands and artists. Take, for example, The Strokes. Before they burst onto the scene in 2001 I'm quite sure they were listening to The Buzzcocks' 1979 track "Everybody's Happy Nowadays." I hadn't played it in years but I picked up the fabulous collection Singles Going Steady on vinyl the other day and I couldn't believe the similarity. I mean, it's less an influence and more a straight steal. Listen for yourself:
Take a listen to Sam Smith's Grammy-nominated hit song "Stay With Me" and you'll hear what could legitimately sound -- to some ears -- like a slowed-down replication of Tom Petty's 1989 hit "I Won't Back Down." But Petty downplayed the similarity, saying it was "a musical accident no more no less." Still, Petty and Jeff Lynne are credited as co-writers on Smith's track. And The Sun reported over the weekend that Smith settled a copyright dispute with Petty over the song. But Petty says the agreement was easy to come to, and that Smith's people "were very understanding of [Petty's] predicament." Petty adds that the word lawsuit was never used.
Smith is up for six Grammy Awards, including song of the year.
Remember how MTV's 120 Minutes host Matt Pinfield would show off his command of arcane musical history by name-checking all the musical relationships and prior bands that musicians were in as he presented their videos? Well here's my best attempt at imitation:
Here's a flashback to 1987, when Howard DeVoto, late of the Buzzcocks and Magazine, teamed up with Noko to form Luxuria. DeVoto of course was on hand when the Sex Pistols played the Manchester Lesser Trade Hall on that fateful night in 1976, along with future bandmate Pete Shelley, future Joy Division and New Order band members Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner, future Factory Records chairman Tony Wilson, Mark E. Smith, who would later form The Fall and future Smiths frontman Morrissey. Anyway, Luxuria had a minor hit on college radio with "Redneck" on the critically acclaimed Beggars Banquet label.
It seems like every year I approach this list with the same attitude: I won't have enough to fill a CD, let alone an album side. This year MAY be different. I have 13 legitimate nominees for the best of 2014. We'll get to them in a moment, but first...
Album of the Year
St. Vincent - St. Vincent
For an album described as party music for a funeral, this was a fitting soundtrack to the last half of my year. Sometimes an album comes along that just fits where you're at and what you're going through, and for me, this was it.
Songs of the Year
"Holding Pattern" - Dean Wareham
The Galaxie 500 and Luna frontman returns with a his first full-length solo album. It's an often melancholy collection of folk-pop, but this track is the album's most upbeat, and it showcases Wareham's dry wit as he contemplates his life in a rut. He name-checks a couple of classic rock bands -- Kansas, Boston, Toto, Journey, Foreigner and Styx -- before completing the rhyme with a football score (San Diego over Denver 17 to 6). Classic stuff.
"Red Eyes" - War on Drugs
Kurt Vile's old band made a lot of Best of 2014 lists. And rightly so. The Philadelphia sextet offers a shimmering collection of introspective songs that sound like Arcade Fire covering "Pale Shelter"-era Tears for Fears.
"Mr Tembo" - Damon Albarn
I know what you're thinking: Damon Albarn is about 20 years past his heyday and only a fool or a fanboy would include him on a Best Of list in 2014. I challenge you to find a more fun and life-affirming song than this one, about an orphaned elephant in Tanzania. It even got my kids to stop singing Frozen for a few days!
"Easy Money" - Johnny Marr
While I'm on the fanboy kick, I include this track here. It's certainly not Marr's best work -- and I feel we've heard that guitar riff before (maybe as recently as Modest Mouse's "Dashboard"!) -- but this song grew on me as the year went on. Look, he's not much of a lyricist and he's recycling his licks but this one came wrapped in such a catchy package that I was compelled to include it here.
"Regret" - St. Vincent
This was a hard choice between this song and "Digital Witness", the song that's no doubt on everybody else's list. There are plenty of reasons to choose "Regret" -- and not just to be contrarian. First, that guitar riff. Then that angelic chorus. If you're not convinced St. Vincent has made the best record of the year by this - the seventh song on the album - I can't help you.
"Seasons (Waiting on You)" - Future Islands
Baltimore's Future Islands makes thoughtful electronic music and marries it to the blue-eyed soul vocals of lead singer Samuel T. Herring. The first time I heard this track I couldn't get past Herring's voice, but ultimately this song just pulls and tugs until it wins you over.
"Goodbye (Butterfly)" - Brian Jonestown Massacre
So this is technically a BJM song, even though it's on an EP where Magic Castles gets side two. And like the best Anton Newcombe songs, there's menace lurking not far from the surface, and it swirls and builds but never quite erupts.
"Inside Out" - Spoon
Austin's Spoon returns with their eighth album, and I'll let the critics decide where this one stacks up in the band's formidable catalog. This track is at once glossy and understated, and I appreciate the trance-like effect it has on me.
"Zigzagging Toward the Light" - Conor Oberst
A positive effort from Mr. Omaha himself. This is one of those tunes I first heard on Sirius XMU and sat in my car until it was over.
"Digital Witness" - St. Vincent
Surprise! The aforementioned single from St. Vincent makes my list, too. It's too hard to choose between songs this good.
"You and Me" - Damon Albarn
Another tough choice -- this time between this and "Mr. Tembo" -- so both make the cut. This is essentially two songs in one, and it's easily a contender for the prettiest song of the year. Listen closely to the turn the song takes at the 3:34 mark. Albarn goes places he doesn't often go -- heroin addiction, for instance -- and in its sublime, minimal beauty has given us a very gentle take on a break-up song. This is one of those tracks that I just played on repeat this year. Sometimes the best music is the most minimal. And it doesn't hurt that Brian Eno was onboard for vocals and synthesizers.
"Coffee" - Sylvan Esso
More elegant minimalism. A simple rhythm track, some lovely synth notes and Amelia Meath's beautiful voice. It all culminates in a familiar 1960s refrain from Tommy James and the Shondells.
"Water Fountain" - tUnE-yArDs
Not unrelated to "Milkshake" by Kelis, Merrill Garbus gives us a track that would be at home in a schoolyard singalong. Garbus has unfairly become the poster child for cultural appropriation but her live performance at Rough Trade NYC won me over this year. She takes the stage with her bandmate and a looper, records a measure of percussion into the looper, and proceeds to play over it in real time. It's a neat thing to watch.
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