Song · Of · The · Day

Got it yesterday! Completely worth the $81.

So I would like to solicit everyone's opinions on the 2007 Year in Music. Now that I've heard the new Radiohead album, I can't really see how anything else could possibly top what has already been released thus far in '07. I was pretty much of the opinion that "Neon Bible" and "Sound Of Silver" were going to be joint albums-of-the-year, but "In Rainbows" has thrown everything wonderfully out of whack. After only a week of listening to it, I think it may actually be a tiny bit better than Arcade Fire and LCD. Plus, we still have yet to hear the bonus disc with the additional 8 songs, some of which (Up On The Ladder, Bangers And Mash) are guaranteed to be totally stellar, so my positive estimation of the album as a whole may actually get more positive.

Radiohead have just managed to cap off what was an already great year, though. I can't remember too many years where there were so many era-defining albums (the aforementioned trio of records, plus "Year Zero," which I think is easily Trent's best work since "Downward Spiral"). I also really enjoyed the latest Interpol record (they're a good enough band that they'll weather the current backlash) and Editors' new one (I think that they'll follow Muse's career trajectory of getting critically sneered at for a few years until people grudgingly start to admit that these guys know how to write a killer song). Plus, the great debut albums this year: Justice, The Field, Calvin Harris, Bat For Lashes, New Young Pony Club, the list goes on and on.

So what do you guys think? Give me some top 10 lists, or top 20s, or whatever you feel like.

As with most Radiohead albums, on the first couple listens I felt intense disappointment and dislike. Strangely enough, I've disliked "OK Computer," "Kid A" and now "In Rainbows" on first hearing them, and then of course come around to loving all of them. ("Amnesiac" was easy to adjust to since it was essentially "Kid A, Pt. 2," and "Hail To The Thief" seemed so typically Radiohead somehow that I never went through that weird "eww, what have they done to their sound?" phase that I experienced with those other albums). This new record is much more mellow than I expected, but the twisted beauty of many of these songs is already starting to be revealed to me. I'm currently stuck on "Reckoner," the string parts at the end are staggeringly gorgeous. God, Radiohead are the best. 2007 has been fantastic, musically and personally, really. It started off kind of rough, but I've had so many great times with friends, family and music that I will undoubtedly treasure for years to come. I'll write more about "In Rainbows" later. Maybe.

Hey, in case you somehow didn't already know, Radiohead is the most awesome band ever. Period.

Holy crap, I can't believe I'm gonna hear the new album in a little more than a week. I had just been mentioning to people how great 2007 has been for music (Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Nine Inch Nails, M.I.A., Interpol) and said that it would be absolutely perfect if Radiohead had just been able to get their album released this year (following the conventional wisdom that they were looking for a new record deal and would end up releasing it sometime in 2008). And suddenly, out of nowhere ...

Man. I'm not even coherent right now!

In case this makes no sense, go here and you'll understand: http://www.radiohead.com

This song has nothing but evil in its heart. I fucking love it. Why Primal Scream would release a nihilistic slab of mind-blowing sonic terrorism like this and then go back to making tired-ass Rolling Stones retreads (see their most recent album, "Riot City Blues") is completely mystifying to me. Download this and play it fucking loud.

Primal Scream- Swastika Eyes (Jagz Kooner Mix)

Go to http://www.mountaindrew.com. There are 10 mp3s up there. They were created by my friend Jason and myself. We record under the appetizing moniker Sphincter Wraith. We enjoy being tasteless, so if you are easily offended, our muzak may not be for you. But if random profanity and ridiculous bullshit are your thing, we've got both in spades. There's an e-mail address on the site also, so feel free to praise our originality and inventiveness or pillory us for being ignorant, nonmusician hacks with sick minds. We love feedback!

Do you ever hear a song and start constructing a themed mix tape/CD in your head? I do it all the time. Super electro dance mixes, bad attitude rawk song mixes, trippy space-out psychedelic mixes ... I've had thousands of good ideas for mixes, most of which I never get around to actually creating. But I'm storing this sunny Teenage Fanclub song away for one of those classic "I really like you" mixes that we music geek guys make for girls in the hope that our incredible compiling abilities will cause them to fall madly in love with us. It never quite seems to work, but it never stops seeming like a good idea.

Teenage Fanclub- I'll Make It Clear

I've been long overdue in writing this entry. Frankly, I didn't really know where to begin or how to approach the subject. The artist in question has become semi-legendary to me over the past two years, so I was kind of fearful that my enthusiasm for her music would translate as hagiography. But I'm willing to take that risk if it inspires at least a few more people to check out her work.

I stumbled across Ringo Shiina online sometime in late 2005. I remember reading a review of her final solo single, "Ringo no Uta" ("The Apple's Song), which mentioned a b-side that she had constructed entirely from bits of all her previous songs, painstakingly sculpted into a new, independent entity. The idea sounded both crazy and exciting to me, and I filed her name away in my memory banks for later investigation.

About a month later, while hanging out with a friend at his call center job (free Internet!), I did a search for Ringo on YouTube, and was instantly hooked after the first song I saw. It was her biggest hit in Japan, I later discovered, an ultra-catchy tune called "Honnou" ("Instinct"). The music was amazing, strange wooshing sounds and shrieking strings suddenly bursting into jazzy piano and a chorus sung through a megaphone. It was glossy yet raw, jazzy yet still rock, undeniably unusual but still instantly accessible. And the video! Ringo approaches your screen in slow motion, wearing a nurse's outfit that shows enough leg to be eye-catching but still manages to stay on the right side of the sexy/slutty divide. She brings a leg up and suddenly smashes a pane of glass, through which the camera was filming her the entire time. Then we cut to Ringo shouting the chorus of the song through the megaphone, a pristine white backdrop matching her white dress, while IV bags of bright red blood hang around the room on metal stands. There's not much to the video, just Ringo and her bassist/producer extraordinaire, Seiji Kameda, playing along with the song in that white room, along with one mildly risque scene of lovely Ringo and an equally attractive female patient engaged in some amorous hi-jinks and more shots of Ringo's slo-mo glass-breaking. But the clip as a whole is instantly iconic, on the level of "Sledgehammer" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I knew right then that Ringo Shiina was going to be someone worth listening to.

The short version of Ringo's career reads like this: Yumiko Shiina started playing piano at the tender age of 5. By 15, she'd already played in several bands and solo. Her first single, "Koufukuron" ("Happiness Theory"), came out in 1998 on Toshiba EMI, when she was only 19. By this point, she was calling herself Ringo Shiina after a childhood nickname, since "ringo" means "apple" in Japanese and she had a tendency to blush, turning red like an apple when she was in front of people. Her first album, "Muzai Moratorium" ("Innocence Moratorium"), was released in 1999, and is a remarkably assured piece of alterna-pop, grungey guitars balanced with sweet melodies and more unusual instrumentation on occasion, like the traditional Japanese koto on "Tsumiki Asobi." She quickly followed it up with the "Honnou" single later in '99 and her second album in 2000, "Shouso Strip" ("Lawsuit Winning Strip"). Ringo had matured dramatically in a mere two years, moving from the poppy "Muzai" sound to a more diverse, aggressive approach on "Shouso." At times almost sounding like a compilation of a number of different bands, Ringo moves from soft-metal power ballad ("Gips") to thrash-along punk ("Identity") to electronica ("Yokushitsu") to bluesy rock ("Tsumi to Batsu") effortlessly, remaking each in her own left-of-center style. The album was a million-seller in Japan, and Ringo was a huge star. But she wasn't entirely satisfied with what she had done up to that point. She wanted more creative control, and with the success of "Shouso," she got it. She got married, gave birth to a son, and released a 2-disc album of covers, featuring artists as diverse as John Lennon and Edith Piaf. Finally, she put out her long-awaited third studio album in 2003. Called "Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana" ("Chlorine Semen Chestnut Blossom"), it was a radical departure and left her fanbase scratching their collective heads, much like Radiohead's "Kid A."

The album is, in my view, a masterpiece of pop, rock, or whatever you want to call it. It's up there with Radiohead's "OK Computer" or The Flaming Lips' "Soft Bulletin" in redefining what a band can do with a traditional rock album, taking it into exciting new territories. "KZK" is a suite of 11 songs, arranged so that the track titles form a sort of symmetrical tree (Ringo is obsessed with symmetry) with the song "Kuki" ("Stem") at the center of the album as track number 6. There's still loud guitar on occasion, but there's also strings, harpsichord, dance beats, all sorts of arcane, traditional Japanese instruments, even whistling. I find listening to the album to be a profoundly moving experience every time I put it on; even without understanding a word of the lyrics, I can still tell that this album is a much more personal and intimate look into Ringo's world than anything she had previously released. From the swooping strings and rock guitar crunch of "Shuukyou" ("Religion") and the bizarre disco showtune that is "Yattsuke Shigoto" ("A Damned Job") to the graceful and heartbreaking "Kuki" and the kooky jazz-rock of "Meisai" ("Camouflage"), there isn't one weak moment on "KZK." The album ends with the appropriately titled "Souretsu" ("Funeral Procession"), an organ-led track that gradually dissolves into a cacophony of Sonic Youth-style art-noise and then abruptly stops, leaving the listener to sit in shocked silence, contemplating the wild and beautiful sounds he or she has just heard.

After releasing the album of her dreams, Ringo was exhausted by the task of making all the musical decisions herself. Or maybe she just thought she had reached a peak that couldn't be topped. She ended her solo career and formed a band, Tokyo Jihen (Tokyo Incidents), which has since released two fine albums, with a third on the way this fall. But none of her later music has quite reached the level of genius that comes through in every note of "KZK." Please check out the tracks below, and anything else you can find by her; Ringo is one-of-a-kind.

Ringo Shiina- Religion
Ringo Shiina- Camouflage
Ringo Shiina- A Damned Job
Ringo Shiina- Stem
Ringo Shiina- Consciousness

People who dismiss Suede as facile Bowie copyists obviously have never listened to this song. Melancholy on an epic scale, which is the way I prefer my melancholy delivered.

Suede- Stay Together

Low are a very special band. You have to be in the right mood for them, preferably late at night when everything is quiet and still. They need a lot of attention, or else their songs will mostly just drift by you in a sleepy haze. It's a fitful sleep, however, not a dreamy, happy one, because Low's world is dark; there's a lot of loss and sadness and pain in these simple songs. But the simplicity and the directness and honesty of their music is ultimately what makes listening to them such a redeeming experience. The song I've uploaded below is one of their better known tracks, but also one of their best. The way Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker sing with what seems like one voice never fails to give me shivers. Low are sincere and dedicated artists devoid of pretension. Thank god for them.

Low- Sunflower

Sometimes one perfect song can outweigh an entire day full of crap.

Idlewild- No Emotion

Criminally overlooked post-punk genius. Think Gang Of Four, Delta 5, Wire, etc. If you haven't heard Au Pairs, you'll definitely want to download this one.

The Au Pairs- It's Obvious

Want to watch in real time as I waste my life listening to music on my computer?:

http://www.last.fm/user/WestOfTheFields/

Tin Star. Does anybody remember these guys other than me? I don't really know anything about this band, other than the fact they put out a pretty wonderful album called "The Thrill Kisser" in 1998 and had a modern rock radio hit with a song called "Head," which I played approximately 100,000 times on my radio show back then. They released a follow-up album called "Dirtybird" which was also kind of cool although not as cool as "The Thrill Kisser," and then disappeared without a trace. I still listen to "The Thrill Kisser" pretty often, it has aged much better than a lot of music released in the late 90s, that frightening era when Limp Bizkit weren't yet a punchline and people took rap-rock seriously. Tin Star specialized in an alluring rock-electronic hybrid sound, something that Primal Scream would take a step further with their mind-blowing "XTRMNTR" album in 2000. I think "The Thrill Kisser" is a bit of a lost classic. Here's one of my favorite tracks from it:

Tin Star- Disconnected Child


Hey, do you like lists? Here's the 21 albums I bought in Boston during my trip this week:

Public Image Ltd.- First Issue
Wilco- Sky Blue Sky (w/bonus single)
Out Hud- Let Us Never Speak of It Again
Manic Street Preachers- Send Away The Tigers
Manic Street Preachers- Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (single)
Of Montreal- Icons, Abstract Thee (EP)
Various Artists- Ed Rec Vol. 2
The Horrors- Strange House (w/bonus single)
Junior Boys- Last Exit
Maximo Park- Our Earthly Pleasures
Devo- Freedom of Choice
Cabaret Voltaire- Radiation
Big Star- Third/Sister Lovers
Guided By Voices- Alien Lanes
Talk Talk- Spirit Of Eden
Yaz- The Best Of
Suicide- Suicide
Belle & Sebastian- The Blues Are Still Blue (single)
Soul Coughing- Lust In Phaze: The Best Of
David Bowie- Young Americans
David Bowie- Lodger

The Boo Radleys are a mostly forgotten Britpop band from the mid-90s who put out some wonderful records. Their main creative force, Martin Carr, knew his way around a good tune. This is from their final album, "Kingsize."

The Boo Radleys- Comb Your Hair

Terrifying, ugly and glorious.

Public Image Ltd.- Swan Lake (aka Death Disco)

Back when he used to be, y'know, good.

Badly Drawn Boy- Everybody's Stalking

OK, so here's the deal. I am too lazy to attempt a massive music-related thesis on a daily basis. Why it took me two weeks to realize this obvious fact is anyone's guess. At any rate, the new plan will be to post a song everyday, which is easy, and write something when I feel like it/have the time, which is not as easy. So, hey, here's the new White Stripes single, if you don't already have it.

The White Stripes-Icky Thump

So, it appears I was being wildly unrealistic in titling this little venture "Song of the Day." I lasted all of two days before taking a week or so off, heh. I will try to update regularly, however, so having me on your friends list won't be a complete waste of time. At any rate, I was thinking about possible discussion subjects and I decided to get all Klosterman on your asses and talk about overrated and underrated artists. However, I am feeling like a lazy bastard right now, so I think I'll just opt for the trusty list method. And without further ado, here are my Top 5 Most Overrated Artists (from my generally indie-rock-centric perspective):

OVERRATED

1) Joanna Newsom- I HATE Joanna Newsom. She represents everything that pisses me off about Pitchfork-sanctioned indie music. Pretentious (you can't even say the title of her album, "Ys," without people going, "No, no, it's pronounced 'ease'"), long-winded songs, annoyingly affected vocals (call it quirky if you like, I think she sounds like a goat being strangled), all wrapped up in a willfully alienating bundle of kookiness. Enjoy your "art," kids, I'd rather go listen to a t.A.T.u. album. At least they have tunes.

2) Deerhoof- The college kids loves them some Deerhoof. I don't hate them like I hate Newsom, but I just continue to scratch my head over their popularity within the indie rock community. Again, cute n' quirky female vocals that just strike me as obnoxious, and few hooks that I can find anywhere. If you're gonna throw annoying/affected vocals and no discernable tune at me, you'd better damn well have something amazingly, insanely compelling to make me give you a second look (this is my roundabout way of explaining why I like Scott Walker's impenetrable-but-bloody-weird "Tilt" and "The Drift" albums).

3) Neutral Milk Hotel- OK, their big "lost classic," "In The Aeroplane Over the Sea," is decent, but I don't know why so many people worship this band so much. It's a concept album? About Anne Frank? Or something? I mean, some of the songs grab me, but damn does this guy strain for notes that he should not even be attempting to hit. My cringing at his singing is probably hindering me from appreciating this record's brilliance. Or maybe it is just fairly average indie rock, I don't know.

4) The Hold Steady- Again, average indie-rock tunes, crappy vocalist, "story songs," "blue-collar Springsteen vibe," blah, blah, blah ... I'm just not feelin' it. And yet their latest record was almost universally praised. What am I missing?

5) Animal Collective- So this is genius? Really? Have I not smoked enough weed to listen to these guys? Do I need to be playing hacky-sack for this stuff to make sense? Sorry, lazy stoner jokes. But come on, I mean ... WTF?

All right, I'm fully prepared for people to bite my head off over these blatant dismissals of semi-popular artists. So let the bitching begin! And when I post my underrated artists list later, you can then laugh at my philistine tastes.

Oh, and how about a song that doesn't suck? Here's Mansun. This fucking rules, trust me.

Mansun- Six

For me, one of the most important things when meeting someone is finding out who is in that person's musical pantheon (for the purposes of this discussion, we're going to assume that the person in question isn't saying, "You know, I really, really like the Dixie Chicks." Sorry, I'm a snob, that's just the way it is.) The funny thing with the pantheon is that you can't really just tell someone who your favorite artists are, because sometimes you don't really know yourself. I mean, I own almost every Cure album (I'm only missing "Wish," "Wild Mood Swings" (barf), and "Bloodflowers," and I'll probably get those once Rhino finishes their nifty reissue series. Except maybe "Wild Mood Swings." That album really blows.), but I can't honestly say they are a pantheon artist for me. I enjoy their music a lot, but there's something about Robert Smith's brand of overwrought despair that just doesn't connect with me on an emotional level. My appreciation of The Cure is somehow a little too intellectual to get them into my personal pantheon. The pantheon has to include only artists who have touched your heart at least as much as your head. The rules for this kind of thing are sort of fluid, but the concept does make sense, I think.

There are other pantheon caveats, as well. I think an artist can't truly be a pantheon member unless they have at least 3 albums or so (you can get special dispensation for untimely death, i.e., Jeff Buckley). I feel that you have to have a fairly sizeable body of work built up before you can be one of the artists I mention when people ask what music I like. I mean, I love the Arcade Fire, but they have two albums and an EP. It seems like cheating to immediately elevate them to pantheon status (plus, you also run the risk of looking like a bandwagon-jumper by picking a relatively new band like them. I want people to know that I'm down with musical history, I done my research, yo). And bands can fall out of the pantheon. Ten years ago, Pearl Jam would have been a pantheon band for me. I listened to the first three albums religiously, like most teenagers in the '90s, and I even liked "No Code" and "Yield" a lot, despite the mixed reviews and middling sales they got. But the one-two punch of mediocrity that was "Binaural" and "Riot Act" killed my PJ fandom stone-dead. I didn't even listen to the latest self-titled album, despite the "best Pearl Jam album in years" reviews that it picked up.

So who is in my pantheon? It's a much smaller group than I would have guessed. R.E.M. obviously are up there, although the blandness of "Around the Sun" and my complete disinterest in giving it another listen have me really concerned. Their previous efforts have guaranteed them lifetime admittance, though. Radiohead are another easy call for the pantheon, they've meant a hell of a lot to me ever since I got "The Bends" in the same Columbia House shipment that brought "Murmur" into my life. I can tell that they're still very important, too, because I've heard a few people diss Thom Yorke's solo album and as soon as the words "I didn't really like it" leave their lips, my brain goes, "You are a fucking moron to miss the genius of this record." Doesn't mean that I'm right or wrong, it just means that that album means something to me. The wonderful Danish dreampop band Mew are on the cusp of the pantheon, they have 3 albums, although one was only released in Denmark. But I've seen them live and shelled out money for import singles just to get the b-sides, and I get really happy every time I hear even a tiny snippet of one of their songs, so I think they can safely be allowed in. The amazing, versatile and gorgeous Japanese singer Ringo Shiina forcefully broke into my pantheon last year, and that is a whole other entry for another day. Possibly a series of entries. And thus we (finally) come to the Manic Street Preachers, a British band who have been out of fashion, in fashion and back out of fashion in their native UK over the past 15 years while making almost no impact here in the U.S. They started out as punky glam-rockers in the early '90s, injecting some attitude and image into the rather faceless shoegazer scene then ruling the British Isles, then moved on to a pitch-black synthesis of Joy Division and Nirvana for their career high-watermark, 1994's "The Holy Bible." The Manics' main lyricist and overall band focalpoint at the time was guitarist Richey Edwards, a brilliant but disturbed soul who disappeared just before the band was set to embark on a U.S. tour in 1995. He is presumed dead, but his body has never been found. The remaining Manics soldiered on, releasing the bruised but hopeful "Everything Must Go" to critical acclaim and big UK sales in 1995. They've put out 3 more albums since then, and have a new one due out this spring. I love pretty much everything they've ever done, and try to get everyone I know to love them also. In that vein, here's a track from "The Holy Bible," a bleak slice of raw punk angst called "Yes." Look up the lyrics online, it's hard to make them out just from listening, but it's some pretty powerful stuff.


Manic Street Preachers- Yes

All right. Since I spend most of my waking hours thinking about, talking about or listening to music, I decided it was time to start an LJ devoted solely to this topic (which will likely be much more edifying and less depressing than my other LJ, whose stated purpose is delivery of radio show setlists and long posts about existential angst). My shockingly original idea is to write a little piece about an artist or song everyday, post a picture, post a song, and let you guys decide if you want to check it out or not. I like to think I have pretty good taste most of the time, but of course your mileage may vary. I think this will be fun for me, fun for you guys (free music!) and will also help keep my writing sharp, so it's a win-win-win, right? Anyways, there can be only one way to start this mofo, and that would be with my favorite band of all time:

For me, R.E.M. was the gateway drug. I was first getting into pop music right around the time that "Monster" came out in '94, and "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and "Bang and Blame" were all over radio and MTV at the time. The video for "Bang and Blame" in particular made a big impact on me, images of each band member playing separately in a bare white room juxtaposed with shots of an empty house and a long, winding dirt road, with the camera zooming off into the distance as if it was mounted on the hood of a car. The song, the video, everything about the band exuded intelligence, inscrutability, mystique, something left unsaid but still deeply felt. I loved it. I got "Monster" for Christmas that year, and from there it was "Out of Time" and "Automatic for the People." I got the "Eponymous" compilation of their IRS years and played it to death, and from there worked my way back to their early '80s albums. I got "Murmur" from one of those Columbia House music club deals, and I must have listened to it a thousand times in my last three years of high school. R.E.M. helped me survive high school, really; I brought those albums with me to school every morning in my Discman, listening to "Pop Song 89" as puffs of steam escaped my lips on frigid winter mornings at the bus stop or tuning out my schoolmates before home room with "Radio Free Europe" in the Bangor High School cafeteria. I still remember the deliciously agonizing wait for "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" in 1996; back then, the two years between "Monster" and "New Adventures" felt like an eternity. Devouring the new album back then, I figured every subsequent R.E.M. release would continue to be a seismic event in my life. I was still really excited when "Up" came out in 1998, even though I was worried what the band would do without Bill Berry behind the drum kit. "Reveal" in 2000 was a little less of an event, although I still came to love many of the songs on that album. And then "Around the Sun" felt disappointingly perfunctory; not a terrible album by any means, but when you're used to a band changing your life with every new song, "just average" is a massive letdown. I still have hope that R.E.M. can turn it around, but I don't know if there's any way they can ever recapture that mystique they once had. Nothing last forever, I suppose.

At any rate, I want to try to provide songs that I think might be a little harder to find for you guys, rather than just toss "Losing My Religion" out there and treat it like some kind of revelation. So here is a lovely ballad called "Fascinating" that was originally earmarked for "Reveal" in 2000. It appeared on a few early promo copies, but the band decided to take it off the final album because it made the record too long and slow in the middle. A shame, because I like it much more than some of the stuff that made the cut ("Beat A Drum," "Beach Ball" ... not my cup of tea). Enjoy!

R.E.M.- Fascinating