This is from a season four episode of Live From Abbey Road. Ryan Adams is a frustratingly inconsistant artist, but “Oh My Sweet Carolina” is still one of his best songs from Heartbreaker, an album that will likely forever be the high watermark that — rightfully or not — he’ll have his new music compared to. Oh, and Laura Marling’s harmonies are pretty great too.
Author: Mike Katzif
Bon Iver, ‘Beth/Rest’
Bon Iver recently put out the ‘deluxe’ edition of this year’s very fine album Bon Iver. One of the bonuses is a DVD with videos of every song on the record, including the somewhat divisive last track “Beth/Rest.” To me this song was a lovely melody, pink cellophane wrapped in overwrought production that seemed straight out of a tender love scene in a cheesy romantic cop action drama in from the late ’80s or early ’90s. Turns out I wasn’t that far off.
This is practically how I pictured this song in my head, only in my version there’s more making out. Next to a fire place. On top of a leopard skin rug. On a mountain. While Michael Brecker plays sax. On a motorcycle. In heaven. In 1992.
Still, joking aside, I think there is a great song buried within all this sheen.
Old Things That Are New To Me: The Pop Group’s ‘Y’
Sometimes there are bands that I’ve heard of, and read things about, but never actually heard much of. This is the case with The Pop Group, a late 70s, early 80s post punk band that falls in the same wheelhouse as bands I already love like Joy Division, Gang of Four and Talking Heads. I kept seeing their name but strangely, it took another artist covering their work to finally get me to dig in and see what their all about.
On their recent tour, St. Vincent has been playing The Pop Group’s “She Is Beyond Good And Evil,” an all-out assault of guitar noise and seething and sexy, if not disturbing vocals. St. Vincent played this song last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a ballsy move for the talk show crowd who just want to hear something off the new record. But for singer and guitarist Annie Clark, it’s a perfect song to cover.
Clark has perfected this juxtaposition between alluring image, silky voice and stunningly beautiful melodic arrangements with fucked up lyrics of pain, loneliness and violent thoughts. And her guitar work is both skillfully dexterous and intensely loud and explosive. I recently caught St. Vincent on this Strange Mercy tour at Washington D.C.’s 9:30 Club, where she showed off her sweet, witty side and her under-the-surface boiling turmoil that manifests itself with her bursts of guitar feedback and killer riffs. Mid-show, Clark busted out The Pop Group song and it enveloped the entire room with white hot distortion.
Clark showed early signs of this newer, rawer direction during this year’s Our Concert Could Be Your Life show, Clark and a rotating cast of great indie rock bands paid tribute to the previous generations of indie rock that were depicted in the exceptional Michael Azzerad book Our Band Could Be Your Life. There, Clark pulled out “Kerosene” by Big Black, a song that first made a lot of people rethink how Clark could own the stage.
Seeing St. Vincent cover The Pop Group sold me and made me want to finally dig out that band’s 1978 album, Y, and I’m glad I did. It’s a masterful and weird record mixing post punk and funk grooves with avant jazz and experimental noise. They’re brasher, noisier, more experimental and atonal than many of the bands from this era. And they play with angular melodies and off kilter rhythms that at times feel in the pocket and other times completely sprawl out into washes of noise. It’s great, great stuff, even if it IS over 30 years old.
Wilco (The Tiny Desk Concert)
Back in late September, we all gathered on a Saturday at the NPR Music offices for a special Tiny Desk Concert with Wilco. One of the best we’ve had, and certainly my favorite I’ve seen and played a part in. I had the pleasure of filming and editing the video along with some great NPR multimedia producers. The result is a pretty stunning and intimate video from one of my all-time favorite bands.
Old Things That Are New To Me: Sebadoh’s ‘Punk Moon’
Earlier today, my friend and co-worker Lars tweeted:
“Accidentally typed “Punk Moon” instead of “Pink Moon.” Oh, Nick Drake, the world would have been so different.”
Which got me to reply:
How hasn’t there been a punk tribute to Nick Drake yet? We got the title right there! How do we make this happen?
Thanks to another friend, and former intern, I was tipped off to an amazing cover of Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” played by early ’90s indie rockers Sebadoh. Though a grainy old performance video from 1995, it was clearly a solid, powerful punk-ed out version of the iconic folk song. “Why didn’t they ever record this?” I wondered. But of course, things being the internet and all, I quickly found that they DID record a studio version of this song:
The song appeared on Sebadoh’s 1992 album Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock, a compilation album of songs from their Rocking the Forest EP and their Sebadoh vs. Helmet EP. The record served as the band’s Sub Pop debut. While I’m a big fan of Sebadoh, I’ll freely admit I haven’t heard everything, and mostly know their albums The Freed Man, Sebadoh III and Bubble And Scrape. Looks like I have some more homework to do. It’s always cool to find out something new from a band like this.
Wild Flag Dons Creepy Masks In ‘Romance’
There’s just so much to like about this Tom Scharpling-directed video of Wild Flag’s “Romance.” 1) Carrie Brownstein complaining about square-shaped pie charts; 2) Janet Weiss vacuuming in janitorial jumpsuit; 3) creepy masks; 4) knocking over all the Merge albums off the shelves; 5) a bucket full of coffee; 6) dreamlike midday work excursions. On top of all that, it’s a well-crafted performance video. And it rocks.
Wild Flag – Romance from Merge Records on Vimeo.
Wilco, ‘Born Alone’
I just cannot get enough of this new Wilco album. It seems like every listen reveals something new in a different song, which is something you probably couldn’t say about the last couple records. Anyway, there’s a new video directed by Mark Greenberg for Wilco’s “Born Alone” from their superb new album The Whole Love. I can’t wait to hear this song live in concert. It will be amazing.
Wye Oak, ‘Holy Holy’
At one point this spring I was probably listening to Wye Oak’s record Civilian multiple times a day every day. It was perhaps a bit much, but it speaks to how great these songs are and how stunning the band is. One of my favorite songs, especially live in concert, is “Holy Holy.” Check out the new video, directed by Jeremy Johnstone.
Wye Oak – Holy Holy from Merge Records on Vimeo.
JEFF The Brotherhood’s Funny DIY Vid
JEFF The Brotherhood played at the Tiny Desk today at the NPR Music offices. It was loud and completely awesome. One of the songs they played was “Bone Jam” from Heavy Days. After it was over I went to find the song on YouTube and found this no-budget video. I love this video because it’s SO lo-fi looking, but very imaginative and funny. It’s a good lesson in embracing the challenge of making something on the cheap, but acknowledging it having fun with that idea.
The Flaming Lips Collaborate With Lightning Bolt
All year The Flaming Lips have been releasing special edition, hard to find collaborative EPs with like-minded artists like Neon Indian, Prefuse 73 and now Lightning Bolt. Songs have mostly surfaced in the form of YouTube rips because the physical copies get gobbled up pretty fast by some lucky so and so’s. Hopefully at some point the band will release these in a wider release or even digital form for us non-vinyl collector types who just want to hear the music.
In the meantime, the band has released another video with Lightning Bolt for their song “I’m Working At NASA On Acid.”