Good night and good luck.

Alex

Hummel didn’t write a lot for Big Star, but he did contribute one of their best–the glorious “Way Out West.”

Rest in peace, Andy. I hope you are enjoying the reunion with Alex and Chris and working on some material I can check out when my time comes.

Big Star – “Way Out West”

Maybe not so many panties thrown onstage next tour, but the single is excellent. I’m curious to know if roots-music fans and AAA radio will pick it up.

I suppose this is similar to what Johnny Cash did with his American Recordings series, but Tom doesn’t try to be Johnny Cash (at least not on this number). It sounds like a natural evolution–the bombast is still there, but in service of a song appropriately sung by a man late in life.

I like it.

Tom Jones – “Did Trouble Me”

For old time’s sake…

Tom Jones – “Without Love”

After three straight masterpieces and some excellent contributions to the soundtrack of his movie 8 Mile, Eminem tanked on Encore and Relapse. He’s far too talented for those albums to have been completely worthless, but they were a pale shadow of his previous accomplishments. Exhibit A that something was wrong: Not only did he think “Ass Like That” was worth recording, he thought it was a worthy single.

He knows he let us down: “Them last two albums didn’t count. Encore I was on drugs, Relapse I was flushing ‘em out.”

Clean, sober, and determined to get his groove back, Eminem gets so back to basics that Recovery is more stripped down than his major-label debut, The Slip Shady LP. Gone are the stupid skits (the bane of far too many rap albums) and even the traditional album closer first line, “A lot of people ask me…” Recovery is all music, no gimmicks.

And fine music it is. While Recovery doesn’t quite reach the heights of the holy trinity of The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show, it comes damn close. The one bit of filler, the lame sex rap “Seduction,” is almost necessary to give the listener a chance to catch his breath before a furious second half that opens with an absolutely menacing cameo by Lil Wayne on “No Love” and never lets up for a second.

Along the way, Eminem notches what will probably be the single of the year, “Love the Way You Lie,” where an aching chorus from Rihanna (not content with only having 2007′s single of the year, apparently) anchors a wonderfully-strummed guitar bed for Marshall’s heartbroken rhymes. It’s a tremendous song, and it will seal his comeback the moment it hits radio.

Shady’s back. Tell a friend.

Eminem – “Not Afraid”

Eminem (with Rihanna) – “Love the Way You Lie”

- Wendy Dio

Well, that sucks.

Dio was responsible for Rainbow’s great “Man on the Silver Mountain” before doing something almost no one has ever done–successfully joining a popular existing band that had lost a charismatic frontman. Heaven and Hell is acknowledged by metal-lovers as standing proudly side-by-side with the classic early Black Sabbath albums with Ozzy Osbourne.

His solo career produced at least three classics: “Holy Diver,” “Rainbow in the Dark,” and my favorite metal song of all time, “The Last in Line.”

In my imagination, I picture the Mighty Dio going to hell with his broadsword and slaying numerous devils and demons before his final confrontation with Satan himself. Slay, Dio, slay. Rock, Dio, rock.

Rainbow — “Man on the Silver Mountain”

Black Sabbath – “Neon Knights”

Dio – “The Last in Line”

Oh my goodness, do I love this song.

And I suppose this obituary wouldn’t be proper without acknowledging the greatest video in the history of videos.

Dio – “Holy Diver”

Did you know that Dio is largely responsible for popularizing the “devil horns” hand of rock? Is there anything awesome Dio didn’t do?

Via Reason.

With songs like “Ilahiya Khinzir! (All Hail Allah the Swine),” the band does not play down its opposition to the religion of peace. In a merrily dyspeptic interview with MetalStorm.net, frontman Reverend Filthy Fuck takes issue with popular “First Anti-Islamic Black Metal” descriptor only because he wants other anti-Islamists to get some credit:

We received this reputation because we are against Islam as individuals. Yet we are not the first and we are not only that. In any case, this is the only thing people talk about when they mention Ayat and we’re sick of it. So here it is again: AYAT IS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENT IN ALL ITS FORMS.

Is Ayat, to Americans (or at least me), a novelty act? Yes. But given the threats against the South Park guys following their spot-on episodes on how too many Muslims lack a sense of humor, I think a Lebanese “Anti-Islamic Black Metal Band” is worth noting.

I’m a somewhat religious person myself, so I don’t think I have it in me to pen an anti-Christian, anti-Muslim, or anti-Judaism song or writing. But I reserve my God-given right to do so.

I don’t like Cookie Monster music, so I’m not embedding Ayat’s video. (You can follow the Reason link if you’re curious.) Instead I’ll give you these two rap gems.

Ice-T – “Freedom of Speech”

(I wish my term papers in college were that easy! …Well, maybe not.)

Eminem – “Square Dance”

“Don’t think I won’t go there. Go to Beirut and do a show there.”

Would I really? I have no show to do, so it’s not like the issue is going to come up. But I like to think I would. I’m certainly considering joining “Everybody Draw Muhammed Day.” My drawing would be a stick figure, because that’s about all I’m capable of, but it would be a respectful attempt that would not offend Muslims not offended by images of the Prophet (many of them).

But if it does offend? Well, it’s my God-given right to offend and no one can take that away from me.

I’m saddened and pleased to present examples of all three genres. Rest in peace, Malcolm!

Sex Pistols – “Holiday in the Sun”

Bow Wow Wow – “C-30, C-60, C-90, Go!”

Malcolm McLaren and the World’s Famous Supreme Team – “Buffalo Gals”

• They are a profitable business in my beloved home state of Michigan. In fact, the list of profitable businesses in Michigan is as follows:
  • Ford
  • Jack White
  • Eminem
  • Insane Clown Posse

Unfortunately for Michigan, the list of profitable businesses ends there.

• I am an eternal juvenile, and have to confess to snickering to a handful of their rhymes in the past.
• Stranglemania 2 is a longstanding post-imbibement ritual at Casa de Winslow.

But I’m sorry. Sentimental thoughts, guilty confessions, and the entire economy of my home state must sometimes be put aside. I am, after all, a big-time music critic, so I must dismiss such trifles as the childish things they are in service of the larger task of telling the truth.

So it must be said–the first nominee for the Justin Moore Award for Worst Song of the Year has arrived. That nominee is “Miracles,” by the Insane Clown Posse.

I shall write no more on the topic. Instead, I’ll just quote a few lyrics.

We don’t have to be high to look in the sky,
And know that’s a miracle opened wide,
Look at the mountains, trees, the seven seas,
And everything chilling underwater, please,
Hot lava, snow, rain and fog,
Long neck giraffes, and pet cats and dogs.

Niagara falls and the pyramids,
Everything you believed in as kids,
Fucking rainbows after it rains,
There’s enough miracles here to blow your brains.

I fed a fish to a pelican at Frisco bay,
It tried to eat my cell phone, he ran away.

I see miracles all around me,
Stop and look around, it’s all astounding,
Water, fire, air and dirt,
Fucking magnets, how do they work?

Magic everywhere in this bitch.

I think the answer is no, but here’s why I ask.

I finally got around to listening to A Friend of a Friend, the recent album by the Dave Rawlings Machine. Track four is a double cover of Bright Eyes’ “Method Acting” and Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer.”

Listening to Rawlings perform “Method Acting,” I was struck by how much it resembled a different, and somewhat obscure, Neil Young song, “Distant Camera.” I’d heard “Method Acting” before, but did not notice the similarity in Bright Eyes’ raucous original version.

So I’m 95% sure that Conor Oberst is innocent, and even if he’s guilty, it’s entirely excusable plagiarism. The arrangement makes “Method Acting” and “Distant Camera” very different songs.

So the next question is, coincidence or not?

No idea on this one. Rawlings is a pretty clever guy. Was Rawlings saying, “You think this is Bright Eyes and Neil Young, but it’s actually Neil Young and Neil Young”?

Am I the first to get the joke?

Listen for yourself.

Bright Eyes – “Method Acting”

Neil Young – “Distant Camera”

Dave Rawlings Machine – “Method Acting/Cortez the Killer”

Bonus Track

Neil Young – “Cortez the Killer”

You might think that makes me biased, but it really doesn’t. I’m a critic even when it comes to my own brother, and I tell him honestly what I think of his band’s music, performances, lyrics, whatever.

So you can trust me when I tell you that this song rocks.

Album to follow in July!

squint – “Goodnight, Bad Intentions”

If you’re reading this, it’s likely I don’t have to tell you who Alex Chilton was and why his death on March 17, 2010 is being mourned by lovers of music everywhere. So I’ll just jot down a few thoughts.

I have no idea how I first heard of Big Star. I think I just sort of absorbed the knowledge that there was this hugely influential band in the 1970s that didn’t sell all that many records. This was just the sort of thing that music lovers, particularly fans of what used to be called college rock, knew, like they knew about the Velvet Underground.

I picked up Big Star’s three albums when they were reissued on CD in 1992. I remember the awe they put me in, particularly their astonishing third album, alternately known as Third and Sister Lovers.

Sister Lovers is a stunning musical achievement. I don’t think another album exists that is so majestic and yet so heartbreakingly human. From the rousing opening, “Kizza Me,” to the depths of despair of “Holocaust,” to the joy of “O, Dana” and “Stroke it, Noel,” to the delicate closing admonition to “Take Care,” Sister Lovers takes its listeners through the panoply of human emotion. It is an exhausting but hugely rewarding experience. It is also at the absolute pinnacle of rock and roll music, standing right up there next to works as towering as Exile on Main St. and London Calling.

My singling out of Sister Lovers should not be read in any way as denigrating Big Star’s first two albums, #1 Record and Radio City, which are classics as well (how did “September Gurls” not set the world on fire?). Big Star put out an amazing body of work, and it’s Hall of Fame worthy.

I made a decision not to seek out Chilton’s subsequent solo work. The reviews were, at best, mixed and I didn’t want to tarnish Chilton’s legacy in my mind. It must be said that seeing Chilton live sometime in the 1993-1994 area did not increase my desire to explore further. Now that he’s gone, I think I’ll dig around a bit in his solo stuff and the Big Star revival partially staffed by members of Big Star disciples the Posies. I’m sure there are some gems buried in there, and now I want to find them.

God bless you, Alex. Your music means the world to me and will so long as I live.

Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) eulogizes Alex Chilton on the floor of the House of Representatives

Big Star – “Nightime”

Big Star – “My Life is Right”

The Box Tops – “The Letter”

Here’s “Please Don’t Take My Sunshine Away” from Sparklehorse’s great 2006 album Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain.

Sparklehorse – “Please Don’t Take My Sunshine Away”

In news that almost made me regret slamming her performance of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” earlier this week, I have learned that American Idol season 9 contestant Siobhan Magnus’ uncle used to be in Stryper! This makes me so happy, it’s unbelievable. No, I’m not joking. To Hell With the Devil was one of my first three or four rock cassettes. (Sing “Calling on You,” Siobhan!)

My investigative journalism on this subject turned up another factoid or two. Did you know that…

…everybody’s favorite Season 4 contestant, Constantine Maroulis, once sang with Twisted Sister at the NYSE’s Christmas tree lighting celebration?

Also on the bill for what must have been an awesome Christmas concert…Stryper!

Do the connections end there? They do not.

Did you know that…

Randy Jackson once played bass on a cover of Earth, Wind, and Fire’s classic, “Shining Star?”

It was on a 1990 metal album called Against the Law.

An album by…Stryper!

I do not yet know what all of this means. In an effort to figure it out, I assembled this handy diagram to show the connections between Idol and Stryper. Whatever it is that’s going on here, I think it’s reasonably safe to conclude that Randy “The Emperor” Jackson is the epicenter–the Stryper Svengali. For good or for ill, I know not.

I shall investigate further.

Figure 1: The Idol-Stryper connection

And, yes. This is the sort of hard-hitting investigative journalism you’ve come to expect from Idolpundit On Deaf Ears.

–30–

Stryper – “Shining Star” (featuring an invisible Randy Jackson)

Twisted Sister with Constantine “Constantine” Maroulis – “I Wanna Rock”

[Note that Constantine, ever the class act, takes a cheap shot at Stryper at about 3:45.

Dear Constantine: You're not fit to polish Stryper's boots.

♥ ♥ ♥,

Gordon Winslow]

[Update: I have been assured by commenters that my interpretation of Constantine's remarks was incorrect, and that no swipe at Stryper was intended. I regret the error.]

Stryper – “Calling on You”

Stryper – “To Hell With the Devil”

I discovered this over at No Depression. How it eluded me until now, I have no idea.

Here’s all I know about “The Chicken in Black.” From Wikipedia:

Cash’s recording career and his general relationship with the Nashville establishment were at an all-time low in the 1980s. He realized that his record label of nearly 30 years, Columbia, was growing indifferent to him and wasn’t properly marketing him (he was “invisible” during that time, as he said in his autobiography). Cash recorded an intentionally awful song to protest, a self-parody. “Chicken in Black” was about Cash’s brain being transplanted into a chicken. Ironically, the song turned out to be a larger commercial success than any of his other recent material. Nevertheless, he was hoping to kill the relationship with the label before they did, and it was not long after “Chicken in Black” that Columbia and Cash parted ways.

It was released as a single only. It peaked at #45 on the country chart in 1984.

Johnny Cash – “The Chicken in Black”

Happy birthday, Johnny Cash!

Oh, back so soon?  Well, at this point, you may have given this record one or two spins, and maybe you’re thinking, “That Jason guy from the computer is wack!  This album has yet to change my life in any profound manner.  What a dick!”  Well, stick with it, friend.  I myself had to give this record several spins before I realized what a jewel I had on my hands, and it took me even longer to realize just what Surfer Blood had created:  a perfect pastiche of all of the good things that have happened in indie rock since the late 80′s.

With every spin of Astro Coast, I hear a new glorious influence from some titan of indie rock.  Here’s a list of influences that I have spotted so far:  Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., Built To Spill, the Shins, early Weezer, the Pixies, Vampire Weekend (although Surfer Blood derives their influence from the Tropicalia sound moreso than West African rhythms), Modest Mouse, Sonic Youth, Secaucus-era Wrens, Fugazi, etc.  Oh yeah, and throw a little Beach Boys in there, too.  If that list looks as awesome to you as it does to me, then please purchase this record.  Personally, it almost seems to me like someone interviewed me about what my favorite indie rock bands were, and then they proceeded to make an album based on those suggestions.

In addition to the bands mentioned above, Surfer Blood shares a lot sonically with now defunct Austin band Sound Team.  But while Sound Team were criticized (most notably by Pitchfork) for being pretentious, there is not an ounce of pretension to be found on Astro Coast.  This is guitar pop, pure and simple, and there is a simple little lead guitar run at the end of late album track “Anchorage” that summarizes everything I love about this album and good indie rock in general.  Put it on, nod your head, and have a blast with this great new album.

Surfer Blood – “Twin Peaks”

Surfer Blood – “Swim”

Lets look back at the year of the Ox.

Although many excellent albums were released during this most Bovine of lunar cycles, a few stand out in my mind as truly noteworthy. The nameless decade (I refuse to call it Oughts [fucking Steam Punks]) is over people! A new age is a brewin, three years ago I would have predicted a Grunge revival following the 70′s revival in the 90′s and the 80′s revival in the 00′s, a 90′s revival in the 10′s seemed logical. However, the fact that bands like “Nickleback”, “Creed”, and “Staind”, with the help of the corporate asshats at KROQ, managed to milk Grunge well after the teats of the Puget Sound’s sound shriveled and died off, the 90′s managed to morph into the early 00′s and it might be another 5 to 10 years until the flannel is flyin’ again. Frankly I hope I’m dead by then. I know Neil Young will be.

Well it’s time these youngsters came up with something new (as new as any modern Western music can be anyway). With that in mind, one album stands out in my mind that may help to define this “new” sound I’m looking for. Manners, the first full length album from the band “Passion Pit” was one of the first of what I hope will help to define this new sound that seems to be coming out of the East, hatched in dorm rooms, lofts, and Vermont hippie collectives on Macbook Pros by lovelorn lads and lasses (Passion Pit), Canadian Expats (Metric), College sophomores on LSD (MGMT) and plain old fashioned Freaky McFreaker’s like “Dirty Projectors”, “Animal Collective” and “Yeasayer”.

Anyway, that’s what the kids tell me and the last time I checked the kids are still alright.

Oh and just because it has synthesizers in it doesn’t mean its “80′s”. That’s a shortcut to thinking. How can a decade monopolize a musical instrument?

Passion Pit: Moth’s Wings

Yeasayer: Amblin Alp

Metric: Help I’m Alive


Dirty Projectors: Stillness is the Move

Animal Collective: Summertime Clothes

Enjoy, I’m going to eat some Nutella on Wonder Bread because I’m White.

On Jay-Z’s latest album The Blueprint 3, the once and future king of hip-hop elevates bravado to an art-form not seen since his Black Album.  After Hov announced his retirement in 2002, he released two more albums that made you wish he really had quit the game.  It was confusing to say the least.  After clawing his way from being an unknown to being the president of Def-Jam records in ten years time, he left us after delivering the best rap album in a decade.  It’s not exactly a new schtick in rap music.  Too Short used to announce his retirement on every album.  The two albums Jigga released after The Black Album sold well but did not garner much chart success with Kingdom Come’s “Show Me What Your Working With” the only top ten single on either album.  American Gangster, released in 2007, fared even worse on the Billboard Hot 100 with no singles charting above number 55.

With sales already in excess of 1.6 million albums The Bluprint 3 put Jay-Z back on top.  Its third single, “Empire State of Mind” featuring Alicia Keys earned the rapper his only number 1 hit.  “Run This Town” with the ubiquitous Rihanna made it to number 2, but it’s the first single, “D.O.A. (The Death of Autotune)” that made this writer yell “Oh snap!”  The song brings to mind great battle raps like Rakim’s “Follow the Leader” or “I’m Bad” by L.L. Cool J all set on top of brilliant production from No I.D.  The mix of trumpet and electric guitar gives the track a smooth yet edgy sound. He admonishes other rappers to “grow a set” and says the way to prove your street cred is to simply, “get violent”.  That sentiment appears to be at odds with his assertion on “What We Talkin About” that “Ain’t nothin cool about carrying a strap”.  But this is rap music, not a dissertation.  That’s one of the best things about hip-hop:  It doesn’t have to be a seamless world-view. It can be jumbled and contradictory just like its predecessor Rock and Roll.  Example:  the self-proclaimed hater of auto-tune uses an auto-tuner on “Hater” later on the album.

“On to the Next One” and “Off That” are interchangeable, theme-wise. Namely:  Jay-Z is a trend-setter.  What do you expect from the only MC that does yoga?  In “On to the Next One” he proclaims, “Used to rock a throw-back, ballin on the corner, Now I rock a Teller suit, lookin like an owner.”  This song is good but I was hoping against hope that it would be some kind of insane collaboration with The Foo Fighters. (See “All My Life” from FF’s 2002 album One By One) “Off That” continues in the “I’m so avant-garde” vein.  Jay’s awe-inspiring ego is on full display on this one as he reveals that he’s “so tomorrow they order mines on yesterday”.  He even takes a second to get political on “Off That”:

“This ain’t black vs white, my n***a we off that
Please tell Bill O’Reilly to fall back
Tell Rush Limbaugh to get off my balls
This 2010 not 1864”

Once again:  “O snap!”

The Blueprint 3 isn’t all machismo though.  The obligatory, One For The Ladies type song is usually a throw-away on rap albums.  Not this time.  “Venus vs Mars” is one of the best tracks on the album.  Jay discovers the yin to his yang and even likens he, and his fictitious paramour to James and Florida Evans.  But the thing that makes this song great isn’t all the nice “she’s the Bonnie to my Clyde” type of statements; it’s the last verse that really makes this song special.  That’s where the listener figures out that this is a break-up song!  That’s right boys and girls, even mega-rich, music industry moguls get their hearts broken.  The Florida and James comparisons turn to Shaq and Kobe in the final stanza with Hova lamenting that the girl took his “whole flavor, I call her Coke Zero” and even comparing her to Bernie Madoff.  Ah the longing, ah the bitterness.  It’s good to know that Jay-Z is just like you and me. Except baller as hell.

The last stand-out track is one of the six on the album produced by Kanye West.  “Young Forever” finds Jay-Z rapping over Alphaville’s 1984 pop hit “Forever Young”.  On one hand Jay is at his most philosophic on this, the fifth single from The Blueprint 3.  He is a man coming to terms with his own mortality.  He stresses remembering the good times and wistfully wishes that life could be like a rap video with pretty girls and champagne all the time.  On the other hand, this is Jay-Z.  He ain’t trying to be too damn sad.  He also infuses this cut with some thoughts on his figurative immortality.

“i’ll be alive for a million years, bye bye,
so not for legends, I’m forever young
my name shall survive”

There are a couple of tracks on the record that are throw-aways (“A Star Is Born”, “Already Home”, “So Ambitious”) but if you’re into hip-hop, rejoice.  The king is back.  Hell, even if you aren’t into hip-hop, give this one a try.   In the end it’s a return-to-form for the rapper who brought the term “Flow” back to the vernacular.  Sometimes it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what it is about Hova that makes him so great.  It even puzzles the man himself.  He asks in “D.O.A”, “I’m a multi-millionaire, so how is it I’m still the hardest n***a here?”  Good question, Sean.

Track 1: The High Road

Go down to wait all night
She’s bound to run him out
The rest of the nothing of any how
To each his own
The garden is sorting out
She curls her lips on a bar
I don’t know if you’re dead or not
If you’re anyone

Come on and get the minimum
Before you open up your eyes
It’s all being served in your hands
Your addled eyes
Come on and get to open yours
Collected at the borderlines
They want to get up in your hair

[Chorus]
Cause they know, so do I
The high road is hard to find
A detour in your new life
Tell all of your friends getting warm

The dogs who ran all night
The son who hoped it would
Break from the warfare in your house
To each his own
The soldier is bailing out
And curled his lips on a bar
And I don’t know if the dead can talk
To anyone

Come on and get the minimum
Before you open up your eyes
It’s all being served in your hands
Are you one of us
Come on and get to open yours
Collected at the borderlines
They want to get up in your hair

[Chorus]
cause they know, so do I
The high road is hard to find
A detour in your new life
Tell all of your friends getting warm

It’s too late to change your mind
You let laws be your guide
(repeat)

Track 2: Vaporize

What amounts to a dream anymore?
A crude device; A veil on our eyes
A simple plan we’d be different from the rest
And never resign to a typical life

Common fears start to multiply
We realize we’re paralyzed
Where’d it go, All that precious time?
Did we even try to stem the tide?

Why should we waste it on
Buying into the same old lies?
The longer we wait around
The faster the years go by

It’s not too late
To feel a little more alive
Make an escape
Before we start to vaporize

Doubtless, we’ve been through this
So if you want to follow me you should know
I was lost then and I am lost now
And I doubt I’ll ever know which way to go

I just picked up “The Hotrats” aka “Supergrass” album Turn Ons featuring all covers. Unfortunately, I was expecting some Zappa given their nome de plum, alas, not this time. However, I do dig their version of “The Crystal Ship”.

Here’s the track list.

1. “I Can’t Stand It” (Lou Reed) – 2:40
   • Originally recorded by The Velvet Underground/Lou Reed
2. “Big Sky” (Ray Davies) – 3:00
   • Originally recorded by The Kinks
3. “The Crystal Ship“(Jim Morrison/Ray Manzarek/John Densmore/Robby Krieger) – 2:34
   • Originally recorded by The Doors
4. “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” (Adam Horovitz/Adam Yauch/Michael Diamond/Rick Rubin) – 2:41
   • Originally recorded by The Beastie Boys
5. “Damaged Goods” (Dave Allen/Hugo Burnham/Andy Gill/Jon King) – 3:07
   • Originally recorded by Gang of Four
6. “Love Is the Drug” (Bryan Ferry/Andrew Mackay) – 3:42
   • Originally recorded by Roxy Music
7. “Bike” (Syd Barrett) – 2:42
   • Originally recorded by Pink Floyd
8. “Pump It Up” (Declan MacManus) – 2:41
   • Originally recorded by Elvis Costello
9. “The Lovecats“(Robert Smith) – 3:03
   • Originally recorded by The Cure
10. “Queen Bitch” (David Bowie) – 3:02
    • Originally recorded by David Bowie
11. “E.M.I.” (Steve Jones/Paul Cook/Glen Matlock/John Lydon) – 3:24
    • Originally recorded by Sex Pistols
12. “Up The Junction” (Chris Difford/Glenn Tilbrook) – 3:21
    • Originally recorded by Squeeze