Record Store Day 2011

Today is, if you haven't realised yet, is Record Store Day. I got up early to join the queue at my local independent record store, Acorn Records, where I was somewhere near the back of a long queue. I saw some old friends and made some new ones while waiting to be let in. After about 40 minutes I finally managed to get into the shop and to peruse the purdy vinyl. My first notice was an Iggy & The Stooges 'Raw Power Live' release. This threw me a little, as I had checked the releases on the Record Store Day website and this was not among them. I tossed up the idea of buying it for a while, but decided to not go with it and to continue looking. 

The first record I bought was Vorwarts by Mute Records. It is a compilation containing unreleased, exclusive and rare recordings from bands on the Mute roster. It includes a composition by Can as well as numbers by Grinderman, Liars and Yeasayer. It comes on a beautiful translucent orange vinyl.

My second choice was this wonderful split between Oval and Liturgy from Thrill Jockey. Oval produce four tracks, a 6-minute one and several shorter lengths that remind me of all those CDs the Wire gives away every once in a while. Liturgy offer one long track that was apparently recorded at Shea Stadium. I imagine that was a joke unless there is a studio at Shea, but I doubt it. This had an extremely limited release of 150. So limited when I looked on ebay earlier this was not on there. It must be worth millions.

This yellow 7" is a split between ZZ Top and Mastodon, both playing 'Just Got Paid'. If you play the ZZ Top version at the wrong speed it still sounds quite good and a lot more arty.

My final purchase was The Clash's 'rap' song 'The Magnificent Seven'. On the Record Store Day website they say this is backed with 'The Magnificent Dance'. It's not. I've got number 341 out of I presumer 1,000.

All in all a good haul, in my opinion. Unfortunately I could not get hold of Flying Lotus' 'Cosmogramma Alt Takes' or the Yeasayer 7". Oh well. There's always next year, where I'll see you there.

Arcade Fire- Funeral

While researching this album I had noticed Pitchfork, in all its wisdom, gave this album 9.7 out of 10. Now I know it’s easy to kick Pitchfork what with its attempts to mathmetise the impossible (music), but come on; this is not an almost perfect album. I can pick plenty of holes in it. Songs like ‘Haiti’ go nowhere and while going nowhere do not do anything that interesting. Well certainly not a 0.3 away from being the most interesting song of all time.

This was not intended to be a critique of Pitchfork Media through the medium of ‘Funeral’ by Arcade Fire so I will try to steer away from that. Coming out in 2004 I have heard of many people claiming this album being their gateway to less popular music. I remember around the time Arcade Fire getting a lot of publicity and plays, coming out of a time when Post-Punk Revival was all the rage. While I would not call ‘Funeral’ Post-Punk, in fact being closer to Post-Rock, it is easy to see why they led to better things. They have a handful of catchy little numbers, ‘Rebellion (Lies)’, ‘Wake Up’ and ‘Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)’ being the most notable, although somewhat ruined by the BBC’s appropriation of them over Christmas. Then you get to songs like ‘Haiti’ that is nowhere near as entertaining. However these songs contain depth not seen by the likes of Bloc Party or The View and so will eventually pull up alongside the catchier tunes as your favourites on the album.

It is an excellent album. Not a 9.7 album.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

I was not originally going to buy this book. I had read Ian Penman’s scathing review of it in The Wire (Issue 315 if you are interested) and finding Smith’s musical output usually rather staid and insipid had not bothered to look it up. However a sunny full day in Taunton with absolutely nothing to do after look in Black Cat Records led me to HMV where the book was on some sort of discount (all books in HMV are generally less than RRP. The Taunton one has a wide selection of choice. I also recommend the Plymouth branch for books).

My previous knowledge of Patti Smith’s writings extends to a few of her poems and her epic ‘The Coral Sea’. ‘Just Kids’ follows ‘The Coral Sea’ in subject matter. It is an autobiography of Smith and her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith is an excellent writer and I cannot but help feel that Music’s gain (loss possibly) the literary world has lost a great, especially if she is as fond of crime fiction as she states she is in the book. She could have been a more poetic Elmore Leonard. There are issues with the book. I have to echo Penman’s criticism about Smith filtering everything through art. You are not Lee Krasner because you stole something. You are either poor or a wrong ‘un.

Patti Smith has written an excellent recollection of her time with Robert Mapplethorpe and just because she quickly glazes her musical work is not a reason not to buy or Lee Krasner the book. It is an excellent piece of work that Penman wrongly criticised as Smith’s art filter and naivety hardly spoil the flow and interest of the book whatsoever. My biggest criticism would be the tacked on chapter at the end of the paperback version, which tends to be a regular occasion for autobiographies, which serves no purpose except to show some photos and some small poems.

Rancid- ...And Out Come The Wolves

I came into this album not expecting much. I have and love ‘Let’s Go’ by Rancid and knew ‘...And Out Come The Wolves’ as the multi-million seller and thought this would be a massive sell out album. Obviously I was a little confused. I took the Minor Threat aping cover the wrong way and thought it was a shameless attempt at trying to get some cool points rather than the honouring of their heroes it probably is. I thought their deliberation over whether to sign to a major label was a proper deliberation and did not realise that this album came out a little over a year from their previous, so the deliberation probably didn’t take too long.

Having said that, it is obvious that Rancid had tempered their attitude slightly to be more commercial. The average song length is over two minutes making them more radio friendly. There songs are a little less Hardcore Punk and a bit more Reggae-Clash-’77 Punk inspired. Still all the songs here their mark and will have you singing aloud after only a couple of listens. My personal standout track in ‘Junkie Man’ that has an all-star performance from original Punk poet Jim Carroll.

Grails- Deep Politics

‘Deep Politics’ is the new album from Northwestern American ‘instrumental’ rock band Grails. I put the instrumental part of instrumental rock in quotation marks, as Grails are not actually fully instrumental. Their music does contain vocals, they are just not at the forefront and are used in the background to create atmosphere and to aid the sound. As well as the usual band Timba Harris of Estradasphere who handles the strings joins them on this album. As well as this it also contains a cover/reworking of a Bruno Nicolai composition entitled ‘All The Colors Of The Dark.’

I have listened to this album a few times now, in a variety of different settings such as in my bedroom with my eyes closed taking it all in as well as listening while playing some basketball. It is fair to say that this album is indeed deep if not political. It would probably take literally hundreds of listens to discover each and every little nugget involved in the music. The best way I have discovered to listen to it is to allow it to wash over you and take in as much as you can. There are beautifully serene bits, there are noodly guitar bits for fans of Metal and Prog Rock, there are also bits that appear to have been lifted from Motley Crue’s ‘Kickstart My Heart.’ To truly appreciate this album it has to be listened properly, on proper speakers not through tinny laptop ones.

Earth- Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light I

Earth have come a long way since ‘Earth 2’. When I bought this album from Amazon instead of being recommended Harvey Milk, Sunn O))) and Slayer I was recommended PJ Harvey and a bunch of ‘en vogue’ folk albums. I wouldn’t say Earth was for fans of Mumford & Sons but I guess they are now a hipster band and we will have to wait a few years before they lose that tag and then they will be the domain of solely Metal fans again.

Earth dropped the fuzzed out Drone with their return in 2005 (somewhere around there) and have since been using cleaner sounds. This continues with this album, with an almost completely new line-up. Many things remain the same; the riffs are still super slow and the drums reach about 30bpm at their quickest. First track ‘Old Black’ could have been on their last album ‘The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull.’ Some things however have changed. The star of the show has to be new cellist Lori Goldston, whose electric cello intertwines itself around Dylan Carlson’s guitar lines leading to a harmonious sound between the two. The final eponymous song was recorded live in the studio and illustrates the four members pulling together in exactly the right way to produce what will no doubt be one of the best albums of the year.

Awesome title, by the way...

Alkaline Trio- Good Mourning

I don't rate Alkaline Trio as high as I should. They're not as cool as Blink-182 (I know Tom DeLonge is probably one of the least coolest people in music, but when I was 12 he was THE MAN) and they don't have the variety in voice that The Lawrence Arms have. On the positive side, for a Pop Punk band, they are a lot more experimental than their contemporaries. I can remember reading an interview with a member of The Lawrenc Arms where he dismissed fan favourite album 'Apathy And Exhaustion' for going through the motions. With Alkaline Trio you do not feel that. When you feel a song is about to take off, like Blink-182 and Lawrence Arms songs would, Alkaline Trio pull back from it. Like good sex it stops you from blowing your load too early, so when it eventually does take off it is even more ejaculatoraly than it should be. On that lovely, beautiful, romantic note I shall leave it. Don't have nightmares.

Why Be Something You're Not: Detroit Hardcore 1979-85

It's a good question. Why be something that you're not?

Detroit has a long glorious history of pop music. The home of Motown, the birth of Proto Punk with the Stooges and the MC5. In the present day they have Eminem representing in the world of Hip Hop. However when the early days of Hardcore Punk is looked at Detroit does not get a look in. Everyone is interested in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Boston and even New York who for the most part were years behind the rest of the country or doing their own thing with No Wave that the scene did not get going to the latter part of the 80s.

This aim of this book, I presume, was to alter that view somewhat. Detroit had a lively Hardcore scene. Its easy to forget, what with the blowing up of the alternative scene in the late 80s that Touch & Go originated in Detroit and only moved to Chicago later on. The scene was very much alive in Detroit. While initially taking its cue from the burgeoning L.A. scene, midwestern Hardcore Punk soon developed their own personality, which Rettman argues soon switched this around and the L.A. bands started to copy bands like the Fix and Necros. Refreshingly as well, the main Detroit bands had no problem having fun, getting drunk etc. This made them occasionally butt heads with the D.C. bands and sometimes led them to being beaten up. Similar to stories in other areas of the US the decline came when the scene started to grow and younger kids came through, who followed holier than thou ideals and all dressed the same. A music genre that came from not wanting to be the same as every one else, soon descended into a scene where everyone looked the same and those who did not were often met with violence.

Why Be Something You're Not is written by Tony Rettman in a style reminiscent of the Touch & Go 'zine. It is also padded out with verbal histories with all the major players of the scene (Tesco Vee, Dave Stimson, Corey Rusk, the guys from Negative Approach) and also equally impressive scores of flyers, photos and articles written in various fanzines and newspapers. This book really does give an impressive overview of the Detroit scene and I doubt that I will dismiss it as easily as I did when I look back at the great Hardcore scenes of the early 80s again.

Cauldron- Burning Fortune

NWOTHM (New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal) is probably the dumbest name for a genre in quite some time. I blame Metal journalists for wanting to hark back to NWOBHM, but I don't understand why there always needs to be a 'New Wave' of anything. New Wave happened in the early 80s and featured people choosing to wear a shirt and tie, so was horrible. If this album was released 5 years ago it would merely be called Heavy Metal.

Coming out on Valentine's Day is this album by Canadian band Cauldron. Cauldron are a band that liked music between '82 and '86. Just giving this album a quick spin this is more than obvious and it is glorious because of it. Riffs, clean sung vocals this could have been released anytime in that period. Luckily for Cauldron it was released in 2011 when they could be the best band doing things like that, rather than competing with Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. I partly bought this album for my girlfriend on the back of the song 'All Or Nothing'. We both love that song. She hasn't listened to the album yet, but I promise she will love it too. Go buy this album so it does better than Radiohead's new one.

Brit Awards

It's the Brit Awards on Tuesday, apparently, and to celebrate that fact I will be going through each nomination and chosing my own winner for each award that will not match the actual winner. So up first is:

British Male Solo Artist
Hmmm... A few interesting choice. I presume Paul Weller is there, purely to make up the numbers. My choice would be Plan B, mainly because I like his first album.

British Female Solo Artist
I though Rumer was Bruce Willis and Demi Moore's daughter, but I guess she isn't. This is a really weak category. I don't really know. I suppose Paloma Faith is the most interesting.


British Breakthrough Act
Bruce Willis' kid, the woman who does the M&S advert and a bunch of others. Tinie Tempah is the one on the list that actually properly penetrated my awareness this last year.

British Group
Gorillaz are probably one of the best British groups that we have seen in a long time. Probably since The Verve and Oasis' heyday. So they should easily walk this.

British Single
Out of all the nominations I can only remember the Biffy Clyro cover and Florence & The Machine- You've Got The Love without looking them up. The X-Factor cover is a neutered version of a neutered song by a neutered band, so Florence wins.

Mastercard British Album Of The Year
Does this go to the act that had the most album purchases made with a credit card? I have to admit, not listened to any of these so I'll have to give it to Plan B- The Defamation Of Strickland Banks and pretend its exactly the same as his first album.

International Male Solo Artist
This is more like it. Several strong nominees here. Kanye West probably had the best album of these guys released in the last year, so he gets the nod. Plus he'll give the best acceptance speech of the night.


International Female Solo Artist
Ooooh my... Has Kylie Minogue even released anything this last year? Her name is probably to etched into this category to rub it out. I don't care. As she's playing Bestival I'll go with Robyn.


International Breakthrough Act
I want to see the entire Glee Cast up on stage. Every single one of them. Including the extras. And the autotune machine.

International Group
Another poor selection here. Arcade Fire is the only one I would go watch, so they win.


International Album
Another list of albums I haven't listened to. It's between Eminem and Arcade Fire for their previous albums. I have heard that Arcade Fire- The Suburbs is better than Eminem's album so they win another award. Yay!

Critic's Choice
This has already been decided. But looking at the nominees, I agree with Mr. Brit. Jessie J should win.

British Producer
Well, this seems like an exercise in back slapping if there ever was one. I have heard of John Leckie. He apparently produced The Coral's last album. But that hasn't received a Brit nomination. This seems totally bizarre.

So there we have it. My version of the Brits. Looking at this my version of BBC Breakfast will be claiming Arcade Fire and Plan B cleaned up with two awards each. Now when are the Grammys?