State Of The Pretzel Logic: September

Well, after the dreary lameness of the summer, September more than delivered on the music front. This past month seemed flooded with great albums, peaking with the two new 2009 Favorites entries, Wild Beasts and Raekwon. Finally, I had some rap to write about and, finally, there was some British indie rock that didn’t make me want to claw my ears away to nothingness. September: a success!

After last month’s retro-grading upheaval, I’ve got nothing I want to go back and edit. Give me time, though. Who knows how my mind could change…

The fall months are here and the album release schedule seems to be ramping itself up, as artists make one final push to get on the obligatory “Best Albums Of The Year” lists that should start cropping up any day now. Here’s what I plan on reviewing for October: A Place To Bury Strangers, Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Built To Spill, Editors, The Flaming Lips, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Mission Of Burma, The Mountain Goats, a compilation album by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, The Roots, Weezer, Yo La Tengo and, finally, Bad Lieutenant, a new band from the people who gave the world New Order. Sounds great to me!

Radio On The TV

Artist: Rain Machine

Album: Rain Machine

Year: 2009

Grade: 4 pretzels

TV On The Radio have proven to be one of the most interesting and rewarding bands of this decade, but the path they took to get there is a bit odd. Their debut album, 2004’s Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, was flooded with hype after the band’s early EPs stunned the music community. Perhaps thanks to all that eager teeth gnashing, the album sounded (and continues to sound) strangely disappointing. One great song, a few other good ones and a bunch of filler…this was the magically new Brooklyn band that was going to save the world? Of course, TVOTR regrouped two years later to throw Return To Cookie Mountain at the world, which delivered everything listeners wanted (and then some), but it’s weird to think about the band’s lack-luster beginnings.

Currently, TVOTR are on a short hiatus, as the band’s members delve into other projects and commitments. This has given guitarist Kyp Malone the opportunity to record a solo album of sorts, under the name Rain Machine. Like most solo albums, it’s hard to know what to expect when musicians branch out on their own. Sometimes, the music is familiar and predicatable. Other times, they resulting songs come straight out of left field. You never know what kinds of hidden musical urges are creeping around beneath the surface of your favorite bands’ music. Solo albums offer a rare chance to see some of that tumult up close and personal.

Rain Machine, for the most part, is not a radically departure from Malone’s work in TVOTR. The same rhythmic, emotionally charged atmosphere is all over the album, especially “Hold You Holy”, which could easily sneak onto a TVOTR album without anyone noticing. However, there are a number of subtle differences. Rain Machine feels more connected to Cookie Mountain’s expansive, organic widescreen qualities, rather than 2008’s Dear Science. While that record found TVOTR compacting their sound into a funky, buzzing drone, Rain Machine lets the music stretch out again, especially evident in the songs’ long running times. However, this space feels justified. Even the eleven minutes of “Winter Song” don’t lose the listeners attention that quickly.

This sideproject seems to have given Malone liscense to experiment. Fun new instruments show up (bells, sitars, perhaps a banjo…? It’s hard to tell at times) and Malone lets single riffs become entire songs, as heard on “Love Won’t Save You”. What allows Malone to dabble so much while still retaining a high level of quality in his songs is his glorious voice. In TVOTR, Malone and Tunde Adebimpe harmonize and blend their voices on virtually every song, so hearing Malone all by himself is a familiar, yet new experience. While he doesn’t have Adebimpe’s howling force, Malone can wring a truly terrifying amount of emotion out of his shaky voice. Slightly overreaching and stretched, the flaws in Malone’s voice only underline the personal attatchment and feeling that permeates these tracks.

Thankfully, Malone can also write top notch pop songs. The chunky, growling “Give Blood” is a fantastic album opener, with its powerful beat and strident vocals. A few unusual arrangement details (a decidedly out-of-tune bridge, for example) show that we’re definitely entering more experimental grounds than we get with TVOTR, but the sound still sounds familiar. Malone has created a solid offshoot from his main band, an album with an identity all its own, but never threatening to overshadow TVOTR’s best work. It’s the perfect album to tide fans over while the band does the whole “hiatus” thing. What more could you really ask for?

More Wu

Artist: Ghostface Killah

Album: Ghostdini: The Wizard Of Poetry In Emerald City

Year: 2009

Grade: 3.5 pretzels

So, since Raekwon set the bar ridiculously high for this month’s Battle of Wu-Tang Member Solo Albums, it should be no surprise that Ghostface Killah’s Ghostdini pales somewhat in comparison. That said, the album isn’t bad by any means. Ghostface’s solo albums have proven to be the most consistently listenable out of the entire Wu-Tang Clan, with great works like 2000’s Supreme Clientele and 2006’s Fishscale being some of the best rap albums of this decade. Throughout Ghostdini, flashes of that brilliance crop up. However, there are also far too many moments where Ghost’s over-excitable style gets the better of him.

Ghostface promoted Ghostdini as his “R&B album,” leading many to believe he’d turn in a disc of solid slow jams. That’s only partly true, as the album often feels like a hilarious exaggerated version of the smooth romance R&B aims for. Whether we’re talking the Auto-Tuned single “Baby” (somewhere, Jay-Z is angry) or the languid beats of “Lonely”, Ghost’s ballistic tone and inflection doesn’t exactly mesh with the music behind him. At the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got “Stapleton Sex”, a song so sexually explicit I can’t in good conscience post a link to it here. Ghost may have been inspired by R&B, but the violence and drama we’re used to hearing in Wu-Tang music is still around.

There are highlights. The heavy, jazzy clomp of “Guest House” features Ghostface sounding in his natural element, while the surprisingly tender “Do Over” actually hints at the R&B-rap Ghost promised in his promotions. Both of these songs let Ghostface do what he does best: tell stories, interspersed with non sequiturs and evocative imagery, delivered in his frenetic voice. Ghostface himself is in fine form throughout the album, even when he’s being so hilarious blunt and sexual that you can barely take him seriously. The music just seems to be on a totally different page.

Ghostdini feels like a fairly glorious failure to me, an attempt by Ghostface to capitalize on the whole chart-topping, R&B-rap hybrid thing. This does actually work at times, recreating a smooth sound that feels ready for full-on mainstream acceptance. But, at the end of the day, there’s still too much Ghost for the album to concur the charts. His style rewards fans who follow the Wu-Tang Clan’s every move, who are aware of the complicated characterizations and mythology they all surround themselves with. Even with an album cover that redefines “ridiculously awesome,” Ghostdini isn’t quite what it could have been. Ghost is trying to do too many things at once and it’s a testament to his skill and musical ability that the whole thing doesn’t fall apart as a result.

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Artist: Islands

Album: Vapours

Year: 2009

Grade: 2.5 pretzels

Nick Thorburn has come a long way from his days in the Unicorns. He’s developed a better grasp of songwriting, worked with all kinds of high-profile indie musicians and just generally matured as a musician. However, a few things seem like they’ll never change. With Vapours, his third album with his post-Unicorns band Islands, Thorburn is still recording pastel-colored pop, shot through with quirky details and Nick’s thin, nasal voice. He’s clearly found an artistic space where he feels comfortable and he’s spent three albums poking at these self-imposed musical definitions. However, comfort isn’t always a good thing in music and Islands’ music is starting to sound very monotonous.

Islands’ sophomore album, Arm’s Way, was not much of a success. The solid, enjoyable pop songs of the band’s debut were replaced with overlong, overly complicated tracks that sprawled for miles in every direction, without any real reason. As usual, the album sounded lovely and dream-like, but it needed more. Vapours retreats to the other end of this spectrum. Stripped down and much more minimal than anything Islands have recorded up to this point, Vapours replaces the strings and multilayered instrumentation with crisp, electronic beats and gritty guitar riffs. Yet, once again, the album lacks something. There’s no spark, no magic in these songs. They sound like Islands-by-numbers.

There was a bit of excitement surrounding Vapours’ release, since founding drummer Jamie Thompson was finally returning to the band after leaving in 2006. Thorburn and Thompson have been working together all the way back to the days of the Unicorns, so Thompson’s return made long-time fans of their work quite pleased. Sadly, Thompson’s presence on the album is barely felt. I’m sure he’s there, being the awesome, dexterous drummer he always has been, but the sharp, clattering, programmed beats don’t give him many chances to shine.

The album does have a few high points. The album’s mid-point duo, the ominous “Shining” and the evocatively dreamy “On Foreigner” are great compliments to each other and show promising new directions the band could take. The same goes for “No You Don’t”, the stomping, moody dance number at the beginning of the album. Unfortunately, beyond those three songs, very little emerges from the album’s forty minutes of fuzzy pop cloudiness. There’s not enough to distinguish one song from the next and the album struggles to hold your attention. Coming on the heels of another disappointing album, it’s easy to become very cynical about Islands’ future. The return of Jamie Thompson was nice, but some good music would be even better.

Goin' Bonkers

Artist: Dizzee Rascal

Album: Tongue N' Cheek

Year: 2009

Grade: 3 pretzels

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Dizzee Rascal turned modern rap on its head with his 2003 debut, Boy In Da Corner. Recorded while Dizzee was still in his teens, Boy In Da Corner still stands as a tremendously unique and surprising approach to rap. Dizzee’s thick London accent and ferociously fast flow were in stark contrast to the mainstream rap listeners on both sides of the Atlantic were used to. Since then, Dizzee has become a focal point for the UK grime genre and has released a series of albums building upon the crucial groundwork Boy put in place. He’s also steadily found more and more success, collaborating with all kinds of high-profile artists (Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys) and creeping up the charts. Therefore, the shamelessly poppy Tongue N’ Cheek shouldn’t come as a surprise.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t a bit of a disappointment to older Dizzee Rascal fans, who yearn for a return to the stark, gritty sound that Dizzee started his career with. Instead of the intense, fast-paced psychological terrors of “Sittin’ Here”, we get…uhh…”Dance Wiv Me”, a lightweight club track, featuring some run-of-the-mill lyrics full of innuendos and posturing. Sure, there’s something irresistibly toe-tapping about the beat and hook, but…it all feels pretty shallow. Hear that sound? It’s the sound of thousands of hipsters crying as yet another rapper eschews “serious” subject matter.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t one of them. I dearly want Dizzee to record another Boy In Da Corner and steer far away from ridiculous electro-nonsense like “Holiday”. I like my rap serious and introspective and intense. However, I acknowledge that there’s a whole other half to the equation. I can’t blame Dizzee for recording music that makes people want to dance and party. He’s clearly capitalizing on his status as a rising star and he now has the evidence to prove it: “Dance Wiv Me”, “Holiday” and the absurdly house-influenced “Bonkers” have all claimed the top spot on the UK singles charts over the past year. Clearly, people like this new direction Dizzee is taking.

As the font on the album cover proves, Tongue N’ Cheek tracks Dizzee Rascal’s evolution from angry young man to cartoonish pop star. From the club-ready singles to silly album songs like “Road Rage”, the rough edges to Dizzee’s music are getting rapidly smoothed over. Yet, his successes just keep piling up. It’ll be interesting to see if Dizzee decides to drag his music back into darker pastures in the future. However, I have a suspicion that the seductive power of chart-topping singles will hold sway over him for a while. We can only watch and see.

My Top Guitarists, Pt. 5

#2
Name: Andy Gill
Associated Bands: Gang Of Four

Gang Of Four were a band fueled by deeply ideological, politicized beliefs. They were never really your normal, English rock band and, as such, they didn’t have a normal, English guitarist. Instead, they had Andy Gill and his jagged slices of electric fury. Although his playing had a certain funkiness to it, “smooth” is most definitely not a word that you can associate with Andy Gill. Jacking up the treble and utilizing all kinds of skittery, jerky rhythms, Gill’s guitar can be quite grating but also insanely dynamic. His tense, tightly-wound chords and blistering riffs formed the backbone of Gang Of Four’s music and laid the groundwork for much of guitar work heard in alternative rock to this day, from Franz Ferdinand all the way to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Required Listening: “Damaged Goods”, “To Hell With Poverty”, “What We All Want”

#1
Name: Ron Asheton
Associated Bands: The Stooges

Simply put, Ron Asheton plays his guitar like its melting. Though often fiery, volatile and incredibly menacing, Asheton’s playing is more than just the brutal assault we associate with metal or punk guitar. Asheton’s playing is characterized by a strange, murky slowness, which actually creates a sound much scary and ominous than any thrash shredder could hope to conjure up. Asheton was essentially a blues guitarist, but he played with such force and power. Never afraid of hitting strings just for the sake of adding some discordance and jarring noise, Asheton’s playing sinks its teeth into you and keeping shaking until you stop moving. The Stooges continue to be one of the most underappreciated bands in history and with that, Asheton’s astonishing guitar style seems to have been overlooked. Especially in light of his tragic death this past January, it’s time people recognized one of the most influential and exciting guitarists the world has ever seen.

Required Listening: “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, “T.V. Eye”, “1970”

My Top Guitarists, Pt. 4

#4
Name: Jonny Greenwood
Associated Bands: Radiohead

There’s a cliché running around about Radiohead deciding they hated guitars during the recording of their era-defining Kid A album. This simply isn’t true. Sure, Radiohead’s work this decade has featured less of the Brit-rock guitar crunching that made them famous in the 90s, but guitars are still a huge element to the band’s sound. Leading the charge in this department is Jonny Greenwood, the band’s musical heart and soul. With his bottomless bag of tricks and inventive sonic experiments, Greenwood has played such an integral part in creating the Radiohead sound. His playing ranges from pensive, gentle arpeggios all the way up to shearing torrents of chords. This flexibility allows Radiohead to be the incredible band they are, constantly shifting and experimenting in order to keep things fresh.

Required Listening: “Just”, “I Might Be Wrong”, “Go To Sleep”

#3
Name: Duane Denison
Associated Bands: The Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk

Sitting somewhere on the fence between metal, country and punk, Duane Denison’s guitar is instantly identifiable and quite difficult to forget. Buzzing, grinding and vicious, Denison’s sound is also a tremendous testament to extreme control and precision. His playing menaces you like a caged animal, always threatening to attack you but never quite getting all the way to your jugular. A master of the riff, Denison’s spirally, deep-fried guitar has defined every band he’s played in and represents a wonderfully different approach to hard rock guitar styles.

Required Listening: “Mouth Breather”, “Nub”, “Destroy Before Reading”

My Top Guitarists, Pt. 3

#6
Name: Daniel Ash
Associated Bands: Bauhaus, Love And Rockets, Tones On Tail

Daniel Ash has always said he hates guitars. As such, he doesn’t exactly play his guitars they way they’re meant to be played. Ash’s style tends to eschew crazy concepts like, say, chords and solos, instead opting for a noisy, piercing and often terrifying onslaught of electric noise, controlled with dentist-like precision. Ash’s experimental approach to his instrument was essential in creating Bauhaus, the band to defined what goth rock looked and sounded like. Along with is later work in Love And Rockets and the recent Bauhaus reunion, Ash has continued to slice away at the boundaries that dictate what electric guitars can and cannot do.

Required Listening: “In The Flat Field”, “In The Night”, “Ball Of Confusion”

#5
Name: Richard Thompson
Associated Bands: Fairport Convention, Richard & Linda Thompson, solo work

Definitely the most traditional “guitar hero” to be found on this list, Richard Thompson talents are well-documented. Yes, he’s an English blues-influenced guitarist and yes, he plays solos. But, holy sweet jesus, you’ve never heard solos quite like this. Whether he’s rapidly detuning the strings on his electric or playing three different melody lines at once on his acoustic, Thompson’s guitar deftness and sheer, undeniable dexterity makes his solos transcend simple shows of ego-driven virtuosity. His guitar playing virtually sings lyrics all by itself. More guitars could learn from Richard Thompson the skill of create solos that really speak for themselves.

Required Listening: “Shoot Out The Lights (electric)”, “Shoot Out The Lights (acoustic)”, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”

My Top Guitarists, Pt. 2

#8
Name: Vini Reilly
Associated Bands: The Durutti Column

Delicate and ethereal, Vini Reilly, the mastermind behind the Durutti Column, represents qualities usually shunned by electric guitarists. After all, electric guitar is usually seen as a powerful instrument, a monumental force of nature that sounds best when soaked in feedback, distortion or intense amplifier buzz. Reilly happily sits at the other end of this spectrum, however, where his intricate, skipping riffs and winding finger-picking can showcase their beauty and grace.

Required Listening: “Sketch For Summer”, “Sketch For Winter”, “In ‘D’”

#7
Name: Ricky Wilson
Associated Bands: The B-52s

I already gushed plenty about Ricky Wilson in this month’s Who’s Simon Defending Now? segment, but I simply cannot write about my favorite guitarists without acknowledging him. Cooking surf guitar down to its basic essentials, Wilson’s guitar twanged through all of the B-52s best work (sorry, “Love Shack”, you’re not included). Few guitarists have mastered Ricky’s ability to get a party started with a single riff, all while underlining the edginess of the B-52s New Wave classics. Although his style was rarely flashy, it was insanely enjoyable and the world lost a great talent when he died in the mid-80s from AIDS complications.

Required Listening: “Rock Lobster”, “Private Idaho”, “Mesopotamia”

My Top Guitarists, Pt. 1

Back in May, I wrote a feature about some of the bassists who most influenced my own style as a proud, four-string player. This month, I’ll be featuring ten guitarists I hold in similarly high-esteem. However, despite the occasional dabbling, I’m really not much of a guitarist myself. This month’s list doesn’t cover influences as much as it covers musicians I truly enjoy listening to. This will also showcase my specific tastes when it comes to guitar playing, far removed from flatulent, obligatory guitar solos or hyperspeed shredding. I don’t offer up these ten individuals as “better” than the classic guitar heroes people know and love. Instead, I want to shed some light on a few figures who might get lost in the shadows of those virtuoso behemoths or who legitimately deserve every ouch of praise they’ve ever received.

#10
Name: Adrian Utley
Associated Bands: Portishead

Much of Portishead’s smoky, dark vibe originates in the clattering rhythms and Beth Gibbons’ yearning voice, but Adrian Utley deserves heaps of credit for his ominous guitar style. One of my favorite atmospheric guitarists, Utley’s playing rarely dominates songs, but were you to take it away, Portishead’s songs simply wouldn’t work. For a band that requires drama and tension to operate properly, he’s simply indispensible. Drawing heavily from his film soundtrack background, Utley’s warped spy themes and moody, noir-ish riffs are subtle, but undeniably effective.

Required Listening: “Mysterons”, “Sour Times”, “We Carry On”

#9
Name: Rowland S. Howard
Associated Bands: The Birthday Party, Crime & The City Solution

A perfect foil to Nick Cave’s eruptive vocal performances in the Birthday Party, Rowland S. Howard blurs the line between apparent lack of skill and pure, inspired genius. On purely technical grounds, much of Howard’s guitar is “bad playing”: big slashes of noise from guitar, atonal screeching, yowling feedback and so forth. However, hidden in that chaotic mess is a man ripping apart classic blues riffs with abandon, casting the blues in a violent, bloody light. Perhaps it doesn’t sound all that…pleasant, at times, but it’s not supposed to. Cave is a visceral songwriter and, in Howard, he found one of the most viscerally powerful guitarists of the era.

Required Listening: “Nick The Stripper”, “Dead Joe”, “Junkyard”

The End Of The World As We Know It

Title: Apocalypse Jukebox: The End Of The World In American Popular Music

Authors: David Janssen and Edward Whitelock

Year: 2009

Every so often, a book will come along that feels like it was put on the shelves specifically to appeal to you. This happened to me with Apocalypse Jukebox, a book which combines my twin loves of popular music and dystopian themes. The book features some frighteningly thought-out and well-researched points, arguing the general thesis that apocalyptic imagery has been a part of American music (specifically rock & roll) since the beginning.

Janssen and Whitelock use a variety of bands as case studies, ranging from R.E.M. to John Coltrane. Each chapter is devoted to a specific band or artist (and often only a specific album by said artist). The authors identify the apocalyptic themes as either religious in tone (a la biblical revelation) or atomic, which makes sense, given that rock & roll “grew up” in a post-bomb world. Both of these have multiple musical examples supporting them, with some, like Bob Dylan, representing both.

Apocalypse Jukebox is well-written and well-argued, although the authors can occasionally get lost in their starry-eyed analysis of the music at hand. While chapters about Leonard Cohen and Sleater-Kinney are quality discussions of the themes and imagery within the music, they feel a bit forced into the overall picture “apocalypse-in-America.” However, strong chapters about Green Day and Devo balance things out. Despite getting occasionally lost in their own love for their subject matter, Janssen and Whitelock have written an impressive piece of cultural analysis.

Like The 90s Never Ended, Part 2

Artist: Alice In Chains

Album: Black Gives Way To Blue

Year: 2009

Grade: 3 pretzels

“A new beginning, time to start living.”

These are the words you first hear on “All Secrets Known”, the opening track to Alice In Chains’ Black Gives Way To Blue. As obvious and cliché as they are, they’re perfectly fitting for the song, which happens to be the first new recorded material since the death AIC’s frontman, Layne Staley, back in 2002. In a move that has divided fans, Alice In Chains have chosen to march on without Staley, replacing him with new singer William DuVall. Some say the new AIC insults Layne’s legacy. Others praise DuVall’s integration into the band. Either way, Alice In Chains have recorded their first studio album in fourteen years.

In marked contrast to the steadiness of Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains were one of the more volatile and disrupted bands in the Seattle grunge scene. Layne Staley’s much-publicized heroin addiction provided the inspiration for most of the band’s greatest material, but it also cursed them with a wildly unreliable singer. Their 1996 MTV Unplugged session is a startling testament to this, with the band playing together for the first time in months and the instrumentalists visibly concerned about Staley’s well-being. Just a few months after that performance, Staley gave his last public appearance with the band, before sinking into mysterious reclusion for the years leading up to his tragic death from a drug overdose. While not as iconic and unexpected as Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994, Staley continues to be mourned by those who celebrate the 90s Seattle scene.

We all know that replacing a dead band member is a tough task, and Willam DuVall had the extra challenge of stepping into the shoes of a highly distinctive and unique singer. On this count, Black Gives Way To Blue is a surprising success. DuVall’s voice captures enough of Staley’s soaring, piercing emotion to give old AIC fans a jolt, yet he allows the songs he sings to be his own, without just aping the band’s fallen icon. What’s more, harmonizing with guitarist Jerry Cantrell on the majority of the songs provides even more connection with the AIC sound of old. We’re acutely aware that Layne is not on this album, yet DuVall’s presence doesn’t feel like sacrilege. This stands as a major accomplishment for the band.

Where Black Gives Way To Blue doesn’t live up to the AIC legacy is in the song quality. Staley was never a prolific songwriter, so this is a more unexpected problem. Cantrell has always been the master songsmith in the group and his two solo albums during AIC’s hiatus years proved he still possessed that knack. Unfortunately, the songs on this new album just don’t click. The guitars churn and boil, the rhythms crash and everything feels suitably dark, but there’s nothing on par with the band’s 90s singles. Songs like “A Looking In View” and “Acid Bubble” overstay their welcome with their seven-minute running times. All the surface aesthetics are there, but the depth fans will demand from an Alice In Chains record is oddly absent.

I’m very curious to see how this new-look AIC and their fans will react to this new album. The post-Layne reunion has definitely been a success, but will that carry over now that the band is asking fans to accept new material? Singing songs that the fanbase loves was a safe bet, but will the same fans embrace these new songs with the same open arms? These are hard questions to answer at this time. Many still haven’t gotten over the concept of the band recording anything without Staley at the helm. Alice In Chains may have decided to “start living,” but they’ve got a long, uphill battle ahead of them if they ever want to escape the shadow of their past.

Like The 90s Never Ended, Part 1

Artist: Pearl Jam

Album: Backspacer

Year: 2009

Grade: 2.5 pretzels

This month, two of the “Big Four” Seattle grunge bands are releasing new albums: Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains. These two bands could not have followed more contradictory career paths, yet here they both are in 2009, releasing albums within days of each other. As such, I feel compelled to write a double-header review today, starting with Pearl Jam. AIC’s review will show up later in the day.

So, Pearl Jam. What have they been up since the grunge bubble burst? Well, much, much more than every other band that dropped out of the cultural mainstream at that time. They’re the only grunge band (besides under-the-surface greats like Mudhoney) to keep chugging along at a semi-constant pace since their debut in 1991. Perhaps this is because, at heart, they never really fit into the whole Seattle grunge aesthetic. Sure, half the band grew up playing in proto-grunge outfits like Green River and Mother Love Bone and guitarist Mike McCready graduated from my very own Roosevelt High School, but the band’s mouthpiece, Eddie Vedder, came from the Californian surfer culture. The end result is a band that looks and sounds like it belongs in Seattle, but is actually informed by outside voices as well.

Pearl Jam’s first three albums, Ten, Vs. and Vitalogy, are crucial cornerstones in the House That Grunge Built. However, Pearl Jam began to change soon after Vitalogy’s 1994 release. The boycotted Ticketmaster (winning lots of moral points but also shooting themselves in the foot in the process) and their music began drifting more and more into the standard alt-rock mold. The fiery torrent of guitar assault began to cool into a calmer, decidedly R.E.M.-flavored jangle, while Vedder’s penchant for quasi-intelligible, convoluted lyricism definitely cast him in the same light as Michael Stipe. This is the groove Pearl Jam settled into as the second half of the 90s took over and we find them in essentially the exact same place here in 2009.

Not unlike the band’s self-titled 2006 effort (y’know, the one with an avocado on the cover), Backspacer seems destined to be seen a “return to rock” for Pearl Jam. Big, flashy singles like “Got Some” and “The Fixer” feature lots of loud, electric guitars and pounding drums. However, most of Backspacer is actually very calm and mature. The languid “Speed Of Sound” and the soft, finger-picked “Just Breathe” are much more representative of the album as a whole. Sadly, they’re also a bit boring.

This is the struggle Pearl Jam have faced for the past decade. While their stability and consistent artistic growth are commendable, they’re records have lost the spark and thrilling intensity that won them legions of fans in the first place. With each new record, it feels more and more like the hardcore Pearl Jam fans are the only people who’ll be really enjoying the new songs. Backspacer delivers the usual blend of chunky rock and blurted vocals, with nothing immediately jumping out and demanding the album be treated any differently from the other albums Pearl Jam has released recently. The band sounds like they’re treading the same water they’ve been mired in since 1994. Sure, they’re the only grunge band to have made it this far in one piece. But, as their friend and artistic godfather Neil Young once asked, which is better? To burn out or to fade away?

R.I.P. Mary Travers

We’ve seen many important figures pass away over the past few months and, sadly, Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary was added to that list on Wednesday. Travers was a crucial voice in the 60s folk scene, recording famous songs like “Blowin’ In The Wind” and “Puff (The Magic Dragon)” with Peter, Paul and Mary. Travers battled leukemia since 2005. She was 72 years old.

That "W", Comin' Through

Artist: Raekwon

Album: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II

Year: 2009

Grade: 5 pretzels

Way, way back in 1995, Raekwon transformed himself from “just another guy in the Wu-Tang clan” into one of Wu’s most commanding voices, all thanks to his unstoppable and much-acclaimed Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…. Usually considered one of finest albums anyone in the Wu-Tang Clan has ever released, it’s also one of the most compelling rap albums of the 90s. While the connection seems obvious in retrospect, Rae was one of the first to bring mafia imagery into rap. Cuban Linx was a solid musical document of the ins and outs of drug trade, crime and reaping the rewards of such activities. Rae and an onslaught of guests weren’t rapping about being poor and trying to make ends meet; they were running the show. This was gangsta rap from a whole new angle.

It only took, oh, y’know, FOURTEEN YEARS (!), but Raekwon has finally recorded a worthy follow-up to his classic debut. What’s more, he’s presented it as a direct sequel. Needless to say, just like any much-anticipated follow-up, there’s a lot of pressure on Cuban Linx II to live up to its predecessor’s quality. Raekwon has recorded other solo albums and most of them haven’t been that great, putting even more pressure on Rae to release something truly great. Amazingly, he doesn’t disappoint. Cuban Linx II is everything a Wu-Tang fan should want.

I could write at least a couple of adoring pages about “House Of Flying Daggers”, the album’s explosive single and it’s amazing music video (warning: not for the squeamish!). Riding a phenomenal J Dilla beat, full of sawing violin loops and dry snares, the song’s four MCs demolish verse after verse, with each finding ways to top the previous. Add in a classic Wu chorus courtesy of the GZA and you’ve got a solid competitor for Best Song Of The Year. However, as excellent as this single track is, the rest of the album matches it step for step over the course of its twenty-two tracks.

Lyrically, Raekwon and his guests are working in his usual vein of crime-and-drug-riddled storytelling, but it’s the beats, provided by all sorts of contributors, that really soar the highest. From the quietly burbling “Pyrex Vision” to the strong horns of “Cold Outside” to the ominous droning of “Black Mozart”, Cuban Linx II tosses up great beat after great beat, just sitting there for Raekwon to knock them out of the park.

Of course, when Rae himself can’t do the job, he can draw upon the rest of his Wu-Tang brethren to polish the tracks off, all of whom are present (with the interesting exception of U-God). There’s even a few moments spread throughout the album dedicated to deceased Wu, Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Ghostface Killah proves that he’s the perfect foil to Raekwon’s straightforward intensity, with Ghostface’s frenetic voice popping up on seven songs. In many ways, it’s amazing this album didn’t happen sooner. Raekwon seems to understand completely what a sequel to his most acclaimed work requires: great music, solid lyrics and the cast of characters Wu fans have come to know and love. Cuban Linx II has all of these in spades and stands as the best mainstream rap album of the year so far.

No More

A brief update: my Great Albums In History series, which would usually be posted the 15th of every month (including today), is gettin' the axe. Writing these pieces proved to be surprisingly unsatisfying and they've begun to feel like a chore. As such, they're going away. Everything else on Pretzel Logic is going great, however. Stay tuned for lots of exciting album and book reviews in the next couple of weeks!

It's Time For Something Biblical

Artist: Muse

Album: The Resistance

Year: 2009

Grade: 2 pretzels

There was a time when I loved Muse. Despite their penchant for overblown, musical hugeness, their first three albums contained plenty of solid songs, more than willing to knock you into next week with their biblically proportioned riffage. The glory of Muse was that for all their awkward lyrics and forced melodrama, they could flat out rock, in a way which seems to be slowly disappearing from modern music. These three English gents could do things with a guitar, a bass and drum kit that could possibly be illegal in some states. Basically, Muse were corny, yet undeniably awesome.

And then 2006’s Black Holes & Revelations happened. While that album, in and of itself, is quite good, it signaled a shift in the direction Muse were taking their music. Polished within an inch of its life and so insidiously catchy that radio stations couldn’t help but play its singles over and over again, it proved that Muse were capitalizing on their steadily growing fan base. Black Holes was a full-blown, radio-ready modern rock album, with danceable tracks and glistening synths hiding behind every song. Muse’s ambition was taking over.

That process has taken another extreme step forward with The Resistance, Muse’s fifth overall album and, by miles, their most mainstream-accessible work to date (if you need proof, see their performance on last night’s MTV Awards. Not bad for an alternative English band). The pure rock elements that dominated solid albums like Origin Of Symmetry and Absolution have been all but completely excised from Muse’s music. Instead, slick, four-on-the-floor rhythms have taken over, coupled with riffs and hooks that burrow their way into your ear with every intention to stay there for eternity. Muse have continued to smooth every rough corner in their music down, occasionally to the point of absurdity.

When Black Holes experimented with dance-oriented songwriting (see “Supermassive Black Hole” and “Map Of The Problematique”), the results were strange, but still compelling. However, when The Resistance decides to chase the same motivations down the musical dead-end of a song like “Uprising”, the results are less than stunning. Drummer Dominic Howard sounds complete wasted, since he’s capable of so much more than stomping, clomping, four-beats-per-measure nonsense. Same goes for “Resistance”. And “Guiding Light”. And “MK Ultra”. The list just keeps going on and on. This album is dominated by dance-flavored rock and it gains little from any of it.

The other major theme on The Resistance is frontman Matthew Bellamy’s penchant for symphonic piano opuses. The album offers up not only the extravagant, Queen-meets-Lawrence-Of-Arabia-meets-Chopin mindfuck of “United States Of Eurasia”, it also features an honest-to-god symphony, “Exogenesis”, divided into three segments that close the album. Strangely, while the former is a catastrophic failure and a mockery of everything Muse have accomplished up to this point, the latter is actually a beautiful and contemplative composition. It sounds like the soundtrack to some epic sci-fi film that needs to be made immediately. By indulging in the most extreme of their ambitions, Bellamy and Muse have actually stumbled upon something great.

Sadly, The Resistance strikes out too many times early on to be redeemed by “Exogenesis”. The lyrics alone are cringe-inducing, second only to Green Day in this year’s battle for Most Awkward One-Liners Set To Music. Here are some choice examples:

“If you could flick the switch and open your third eye, you’d see that we should never be afraid to die.” --- “Uprising”

“Kill a breath for love and peace, you’ll wake the thought police.” --- “Resistance”

“EURA-SIA! EURA-SIA!” --- “United States Of Eurasia”

“Pure hearts stumble, in my hands they crumble.” --- “Guiding Light”

“The wavelength gently grows, coercive notions re-evolve.” --- “MK Ultra”

“When she attacks me like a Leo, when my heart is split like Rio, but I assure you my debts are real.” --- “I Belong To You”

Sadly, those are just the tip of the iceberg. Bellamy has cultivated this reputation as a wacky conspiracy theorist, but on The Resistance, he just seems to be singing vague accusations about governments controlling people. A high school sophomore who just finished 1984 could probably write lyrics with more grace than some of these. Bellamy’s words come across as limp sloganeering, aimed at impressionable youth who think they’re “rebels” or “punks.” While I’m sure some of these songs will be great for people who just want to pump their fists in their air, personally, I want more from my music. The elements of awesomeness have been not-so-slowly expunged from the Muse songbook, leaving only bloated, awkward stadium rock in their place. You’ve got to worry when a fifteen-minute symphony is the highlight of a much-anticipated rock album. Muse are sinking further and further into self-parody and I’m beginning to doubt if they can be rescued.

Up, Up And Away

Pretzel Logic is going to be quiet for the next several days, since I’m going to be tackling the demands of flying cross-country and moving into an apartment. In the meantime, if there’s anyone out there reading this blog who’s listened to the new Beatles remasters and has an opinion about how they compare to the versions you’ve presumably come to know and love, please share. This reissue collection seems to be making a lot of headlines and I want to know what people are thinking.

A Pale Imitation

Artist: Jay-Z

Album: The Blueprint 3

Year: 2009

Grade: 2.5 pretzels

Jay-Z has plenty to be confident about. He’s a hugely successful musician who has also become one of the premier businessmen in the music industry. He overcame a rough upbringing and he’s widely respected by his peers and contemporaries. He’s even living a storybook romance with his marriage to Beyonce. I mean, how often does the strong, successful man actually end up with the strong, successful (and beautiful) woman? These things just don’t happen in real life. Going back to 2001’s masterful The Blueprint, Jay-Z has spent the better part of this decade celebrating his success through his music, and rightly so, given all that he’s accomplished. However, here in 2009, that confidence is starting to get old.

One complaint I’ve heard leveled against the original The Blueprint is that Jay-Z’s bragging and swagger comes across as a bit desperate. I’ve never bought into this, since The Blueprint feels like a completely appropriate victory lap for a man who worked very hard to get where he was. However, The Blueprint 3 definitely sounds a bit forced and flailing. For one, how many times does Jay need to remind us that his past ten albums have hit number one on the charts? While that is quite an achievement, it’s the kind of thing you only need to say once to shut anyone up. After repeating that fact upwards of five times over the course of the album, The Blueprint 3 comes across a bit like someone trying to remind people not to forget about him.

Then we have the overabundance of guest artists. Not unlike Nas’ classic Illmatic, The Blueprint (the first one) gained much strength and potency from its lack of guest appearances, with the one major exception of Eminem, whose verses on “Renegade” are too fantastic to not be included. However, The Blueprint 3 is flooded with guests, ranging from Alicia Keys all the way to Luke Steele, an Australian alt-rocker. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with guest spots, here, they bring little to a show that is almost completely about Jay-Z. Even worse, a few of these appearances are less than enjoyable, especially Rihanna’s grating hook for “Run This Town”. Kayne West also drops by on the same song, delivering some of the worst euphemisms since “My Humps”: “she got an ass that’ll swallow up a g-string, and up top…uhhh…two bee stings.” Ew.

Speaking of Kanye…one of the album’s most awkward moments comes on “D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)”, the album’s first single. By including this vicious attack on the masculinity of rappers who are buying into the recent craze surrounding Auto-Tuned vocals, Jay seems to have forgotten that Kanye, one of the most prominent Auto-Tune abusers, produced almost half of the album’s tracks. Coupled with the fact that he comes across as a aging rapper bitching about trends that all the young whippersnappers are buying into, it’s not exactly Jay’s most biting diss song.

Despite all the surface boasting, The Blueprint 3 doesn’t sound like an album fueled by confidence. Jay-Z definitely comes across as a bit desperate and behind the times, despite trying to explicitly say that he’s not on several tracks. Also, not unlike the second entry in his Blueprint Trilogy, the music also disappoints on The Blueprint 3, especially on “On To The Next One” and “Hate”, two songs that feature irritatingly repetitive beats that rival Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli”. The album lacks a knockout single or radio-dominating anthem. It has no identity or coherent emotional core. Basically, it’s your quintessential disappointing sequel.

The Well Is Bottomless

Artist: Drive-By Truckers

Album: The Fine Print (A Collection Of Oddities And Rarities)

Year: 2009

Grade: 4 pretzels

The career of the Drive-By Truckers has been characterized by two things: quality and quantity. Few bands can match the complete package of songwriting, instrumental ability and tunefulness that the Truckers posses and virtually no one can compete with them when it comes to prolific output. Since 2001, the band has released five albums, all of which are pretty much solid gold from start to finish. Although they remain somewhat under the radar (probably because southern rock isn’t the hippest of genres), this decade has seen them hit one of those stretches of unbelievable artistic consistency that usually only legendary bands like the Rolling Stones stumble upon. In less than ten years, this Alabama band has flooded the world with great songs.

The Truckers wrap up this decade with The Fine Print, a convenient collection of some loose odds and ends that never made it onto their albums. Many bands do this, since it’s an easy way to make some extra cash and appease fans waiting for the next proper album. These types of compilations, full of b-sides and covers, can be entertaining and might contain the hidden gem here and there, but usually they’re just sub-par material that was obviously left off an album for a reason. The Fine Print, however, is almost as good as a full Truckers album, which is nothing short of unbelievable. Apparently, between the three main songwriters the Truckers have had throughout the ‘00s, their well of great music is bottomless.

Virtually every shade of song the Truckers have recorded is represented on The Fine Print. Mike Cooley contributes a couple of scorching, twangy rockers and the now-departed Jason Isbell showcases his frankly astonishing “TVA”, a song that appears to be about dams on the surface, but is, in reality, about so much more (he crams a coming-of-age story in there as well). That single song is better than anything Isbell recorded for his second solo album that was released this year. However, as with virtually everything Trucker-related, the star of the show is bandleader Patterson Hood and his grizzled tales of southern life and dichotomies. Hood scores big here with the slow-burning “The Great Car Dealer War” and an anthemic cover of Warren Zevon’s “Play It All Night Long”, which sounds like a dead ringer for an outtake from the band’s 2001 masterpiece, Southern Rock Opera. How this awesome track got cut from what was already a double album is something I’ll probably never understand.

Besides Zevon, The Fine Print features a handful of other passionate covers, highlighted by a show-stopping rendition of “Like A Rolling Stone”, which retains all of the energy of Dylan’s original while adding in some fun, southern attitude. The band even finds time to be a little silly, with the bluesy hilarity of “Mrs. Claus’ Kimono”, sung from the perspective of “a sinister elf with a sinister plan” who’s lusting after Father Christmas’ wife (shout outs to Newt Gingrich and a reindeer named Wynona also make appearances). While this is the only track that clearly would have never made it onto an album, it’s so unspeakably funny that I can only thank the band over and over again for releasing it. The Drive-By Truckers are very quietly owning this decade when it comes to musical consistency and when their castoffs and recording dregs are this stellar, it’s no wonder their albums continue to be near-flawless.

Who's Simon Defending Now?: The B-52s

The B-52s deserve a better fate then Johnny Rockets and karaoke clubs. Go to either of those places and your chances of hearing “Love Shack” increase by about 400%. Of course, this makes sense, as the B-52s have become culturally synonymous with the “80s party vibe”, with silly hair and brightly colored clothes. Their 1989 Cosmic Thing album (home of “Love Shack”, “Roam”, “Channel Z” and plenty of other hits) is definitely one non-stop party from the word go. However, the path the B-52s took to get to that point is fascinating and features plenty of unexpectedly edgy music. This month, I want to take a look at the beginnings of the B-52s and the music that paved the way for countless karaoke Fred Schneider impressions.

Athens, GA, must be a very odd place, since both R.E.M. and the B-52s hail from this southern college town. However, instead of trying to be cool, hip underground rockers, the B-52s embraced two very unusual musical influences: disco and surf music. While most late-70s college bands were desperately trying to fight off the insidious charms of disco and the saccharine escapism of the Californian surf sound, the B-52s welcomed both with open arms and played music with recognizable elements of both. However, something got lost in translation along the way and the end result was a long way from the Beach Boys.

One of the most striking things about early B-52s songs is the sinister darkness lurking on the edges. The quintessential example of this is their debut single, “Rock Lobster”. This is a song most people know and love/hate, but when was the last time you really sat down and, dare I say it, listened to “Rock Lobster”? Beneath all the “ooo-ahh” silliness and Fred Schneider’s speak-singing nonsense, the song is actually some sort of surreal, aquatic-creature-oriented nightmare. It’s a song about a beach party that gets overrun by an entire sea menagerie. Not too bad for a 1979 dance song, if you ask me.

The defining element of early B-52s is, without a doubt, Ricky Wilson and his magical guitar playing. Although he is rarely championed as a guitar hero, Wilson’s style is nothing short of fantastic. Taking surf guitar and wrapping it around itself until everything starts warping, his guitar is instantly identifiable. Wilson utilized a variety of alternate tunings, often tuning the guitar strings down to get the low, grinding guitar riffs that songs like “Rock Lobster” and “Lava” are built on. While he was never a flashy guitarist, Ricky Wilson and his twangy, skeletal evisceration of the surf style was the lynchpin to the B-52s music.

Not that the singers should be ignored, especially since the band featured three of them. Between the slightly hysterical girl-group vocals of Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson and the flat, nasal yelling from Fred Schneider, the voices in the B-52s were certainly unique. However, this back-and-forth, “girls vs. boys” style proved to be great at escalating the energy and tension within the songs. Plus, the weirder the lyrics got, the more excited all the singers seemed to become (see the frantic scream “Why won’t you dance with me?! I’m not no Limburger!” during “Dance This Mess Around”). Add in some songs about mysterious planets where no one has a head and odes to poodles named Quiche Lorraine and it’s clear that the B-52s were a bit more than just a silly dance band.

This amazing unique vision lasted through two fantastic albums and the wacky Mesopotamia EP (recorded with David Byrne manning the production board), before the band started to scrape the bottom of the well. A couple of mediocre albums were all the band released between 1983 and 1985. However, ’85 would end in tragedy when Ricky Wilson, the architect of so much of the band’s sound, died from AIDS-related illness. The band members (especially Ricky’s sister Cindy) sank into depression and it seemed the B-52s were finished.

However, after several years of silence, the B-52s decided to try their hand at writing songs one more time. With drummer-turned-guitarist Keith Strickland taking over the reins of songwriting, the band stumbled upon Cosmic Thing, the album that would finally see them break through into major mainstream success. The B-52s had survived the loss of one of their most important members and returned, stronger and more popular than ever.

Since then, the band seems to have become content with being an enjoyable, campy party band. After a sixteen-year-long silence, they even recorded a new album in 2008, appropriately titled Funplex. However, despite the cultural saturation of songs like “Love Shack” and the band’s “happy-party-funtime” vibe, I feel it’s important to acknowledge the strange, innovative music that started the B-52s' career and got them to that point. The B-52s were (and still are) weirder than even the 80s gave them credit for and that’s saying something.

Equally Elegant And Ugly

Artist: Wild Beasts

Album: Two Dancers

Year: 2009

Grade: 4.5 pretzels

I downloaded Wild Beasts’ Two Dancers knowing basically nothing about the band. A pile of good press and a raving Pitchfork review prompted me to figure out what all the hubbub was about. I did know they were an English band and that they were the latest in the endless cycle of much-ballyhooed London bands that burn out in about three weeks. “Hype” plus “English rock band” hasn’t been a great recipe for success this decade. However, within about forty-five seconds of listening to Two Dancers, it became readily apparent that Wild Beasts are, well, a different beast entirely.

Vocals are the dominant force in Wild Beasts’ music, as is the case with many of their Brindie rock peers. However, virtually none of those bands have singers with the ability/balls to sing like Hayden Thorpe, whose soaring falsetto is the band’s calling card. Thorpe possesses a truly otherworldly, gender-annihilating voice. The closest comparison I can make is Kate Bush, since both have voices that veer from beautiful to jarring from moment to moment. However, this comparison has issues, not the least of which is the obvious gender difference. Thorpe simply doesn’t really sound like any other singer I’ve ever heard.

Thankfully, Wild Beasts don’t get bogged down in the novelty of such a unique voice. The songs on Two Dancers seem built to contain and complement Thorpe’s heavily dramatized style, with lots of subtle surges and riffs skipping around in the background. The end result is a shimmering album of moody, intense music. There’s not much “rock,” in the traditional sense of things, but the music still has an eerie, slightly unidentifiable sense of urgency to it. A perfect example of this would be the jaw-dropping lead single, “Hooting & Howling”. The song starts with two quick verses of Thorpe’s evocatively odd lyrics, set against a simple bassline. At that point, the song is sitting on the fence between darkness and light and a simple push could tip it either way, which finally happens when some heavy piano chords drag the song down. From there, the rhythm begins to pick up and a glistening guitar riff is added. Wild Beasts seem to be masters of this type of unpredictable song evolution.

Wild Beasts seem to have mapped out a fairly unique niche for themselves. They have no qualms about sounding affected and slightly fabricated, as Thorpe’s falsetto can testify to. By definition, falsetto is an affected voice, creating a layer of separation between the listener and the singer’s real, “honest” voice. However, theatrics in music can be a lot of fun, especially when done this well. Two Dancers does stumble a bit here and there, especially when bassist Tom Fleming takes over the vocals. While Fleming does have a pleasant, deep voice (which also serves as a nice counterpoint), after Thorpe’s crooning leaves its stamp on the listener, more traditional voices sound a bit drab. Thorpe’s voice gives Wild Beasts’ music its character, especially when he goes nuts stretching out every vowel sound, as he does on “The Fun Powder Plot”. Hopefully, the band and Thorpe’s vocal chords will allow Wild Beasts to keep making music this wonderfully weird and enjoyable.