Light in the Attic

A few months ago I sent Taylor an e-mail with a deceptively simple question: does he prefer digital downloads or physical products. It was something I was thinking about a lot at the time. I had just bought my first few things from iTunes and was slightly weirded out. I’m a very tactile person and a collector by nature, so paying $9.99 for something I could neither hold in my hands or file with the rest of my collection just didn’t sit right with me. Sure iTunes organizes everything, but it will never replace the shelves that line my walls. I like seeing what I own in physical space, it gives it the feel of a real library. I ended up re-buying all everything I got from iTunes on CD because it bothered me so much. (You’re welcome for the double sales, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Junior Boys, and Wavves.) Of course, all of this boils down to personal preference. Some people prefer storing everything on an external hard drive, content with the music and some cover art. Some people enjoy the physical package. These are the things I think about all the time. I already feel like an old man.

One of the the main factors in my decision to abandon downloads, other than my general annoyance, was Light in the Attic. A label/distro based out of Seattle, Washington, Light in the Attic produce the kind of products that make me proud to still by CDs and records. Earlier this year, I received their reissues of Serge Gainsbourg‘s Histoire de Melody Nelson and The Monks‘ The Early Years 1964-1965 and Black Monk Time and, jeezer, are they some beautiful packages. Light in the Attic must be full people who care a great deal about music, because the amount of time and love that went in to just these three records is almost embarrassing.

Sunny Day Real Estate Reunion Mix

I can not begin to express how excited I am for the Sunny Day Real Estate reunion tour, the first time all four original bandmembers will play together since 1995.  Their debut album Diary helped shape my entire musical outlook and is still one of my all-time favorite albums.  I was just getting into the band as they were disbanding, I was never able to see them even in their second incarnation without Nate Mendel (who had joined Foo Fighters). Since their breakup the bandmembers haven’t exactly kept quiet, frontman Jeremy Enigk has had a successful solo career, Mendel continued to play bass with Foo Fighters, and three of the members released a project under the title The Fire Theft.  Nothing though has yet compared to the music the band made under the SDRE moniker.  I tried not to get my hopes up when initial talks of their reunion came up earlier this year but I really couldn’t help it and started texting friends to make initial plans to go see the band and discussing possible setlists.

Well, as you may have heard, yesterday the reunion tour was confirmed. I’ll get my chance to see the band that I had previously removed from my “bands to see before I die” and added to my “bands I never saw” list, which is an awesome thing. Jeremy Enigk and co. will be playing in Chicago at The Metro on September 24, which is where I will be among an ocean of presumably diehard fans.  I recognize not everyone is familiar with the band’s brilliance, but their influence is more appparent now than ever.  So to celebrate the news and hopefully bring a few more into the Sunny Day Real Estate fold here’s a mix of seven of my favorite SDRE songs.

MP3 Sunny Day Real Estate – Seven
MP3 Sunny Day Real Estate – Red Elephant
MP3 Sunny Day Real Estate – How It Feels To Be Something On
MP3 Sunny Day Real Estate – Song About An Angel
MP3 Sunny Day Real Estate – Guitar and Video Games
MP3 Sunny Day Real Estate – In Circles
MP3 Sunny Day Real Estate – The Rising Tide

Sub Pop Records will be re-releasing the band’s first two albums, Diary and LP2, on vinyl in September. Go to the band’s website for the full tour dates.

Protect Ya Neck

Today is my 23rd birthday, and to celebrate I’m seeing the greatest hip-hop collective of all time. It’s going to be completely ridikulous.  I still can’t believe that Ghostface Killah, RZA, GZA, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa, U-God, and Cappadonna and will be coming to the tiny midwest central-Illinoisian college town of Urbana, but I couldn’t be any more excited.  Just as a heads up, next week (hopefully Monday) I will be putting up my favorite songs of the year list. You won’t want to miss it.  Have a great weekend.

MP3 Blonde Redhead – 23
MP3 Wu-Tang Clan – Protect Ya Neck

Walk The Line: Extended Cut DVD Giveaway!

If you couldn’t tell by the post title, I’m giving away free copies of the new Walk the Line: Extended Cut DVD, which will be shipped straight to your address. The DVD has a crapload of special features/documentaries/deleted scenes/commentaries, so if you’re as big of a fan of this film as I am, it’s safe to say that you’re going to want to get your hands on one of these. I’m giving away THREE copies so you’re chances of getting one is pretty good.

How To Enter:

To enter all you have to do is tell me which artist/band you would like see portrayed in a biopic. I’ll pick my three favorites to be the winners. You can also choose the actor/actress that you would like to play them, but it’s not required (it might help your chances though!). Leave entries in the comments and make sure to leave your email address with me so I can get in touch with you if you win. The contest will be over on March 26th. Shortly afterwards, I’ll mail out your prizes (unfortunately this means I can’t allow entries from outside the U.S.). Sounds easy enough right?

Here’s a couple of my favorite Cash tunes:

MP3 Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire
MP3 Johnny Cash – One (U2 Cover)

I'll show you a place, high on a desert plain…

I’ll get it out of the way right now, I won’t be doing a best of compilation/reissues list for this year. I know you’re all devastated. If I did make a list though, there would be absolutely no contest for the number one spot. Ever since I can remember liking music and not just listening to it, The Joshua Tree has been my favorite album, and to celebrate the album’s 20th Anniversary it has gotten the full reissue/remaster treatment. Personally, I don’t think I can ever fairly compare another album to it, because to me, The Joshua Tree is absolutely perfect. I’ve listened to the songs a thousand times, and I don’t think any amount of radio play can lessen the power of tracks like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “With or Without You”.

Even those songs though, as magnificent as they are, pale in comparison to the album’s incredible opening track (perhaps the greatest opening track ever), “Where The Streets Have No Name”. Everything surrounding the song is legendary: it’s origin on the streets of Africa, the difficulty in creating the track that resulted in Brian Eno almost erasing it completely, the music video featuring a rooftop concert on Republic Liquor Store in LA that police were forced to shut down, the passionate live performances that have been the foundation for every U2 show since the album was released, and the inspiring Super Bowl performance where the names of those who died on 9/11 scrolled behind the band.

Although the three biggest hits are upfront the album in no way slows down, with it’s hardest hitting track “Bullet The Blue Sky” where Bono famously told Edge to “put El Salvador through an amplifier,” immediately followed by the chilling, heroine tune, “Running to Stand Still”. “Red Hill Mining Town” splits the album in half and features one of Bono’s best performances (one that he’s never even tried to replicate live). Two of my favorite songs by the band “In God’s Country” and “One Tree Hill” fill out the second half beautifully, full of those wide open American spaces that inspired the album.

The B-Sides of The Joshua Tree era are almost as legendary as the album itself, and gems like “Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)”, “Spanish Eyes”, and “Sweetest Thing” are all featured on second disc of the album as are some tracks even the most hardcore U2 fan probably wouldn’t own (“Drunk Chicken”, “Desert of our Love”, “Wave of Sorrow”) Although not all the songs are amazing, it’s great to have them in one collection. The three disc version comes with a DVD full of music videos, a documentary, and a live performance from Paris. A fitting collection for what is one of the greatest albums ever recorded.

MP3 In God’s Country

Buy The Joshua Tree – Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition

My brush with Bob Dylan / I'm Not There Soundtrack

I work at the front desk at a nice hotel. While I was working friday night I was given instructions for a large group that would arrive late at night. We already checked them in to the hotel, we just had to give one of them the keys, and they would come in through the side door. Fairly odd, but I thought nothing of it. The next day when I came in their were two large tour buses in our parking lot and as I walked out some scruffy-looking old guys with southern accents were walking through the lobby. The person I worked with told me that Bob Dylan had just checked out of the hotel.

A few minutes later my manager called me from Dylan’s King Suite and asked me to come help clean it (the mixture of cigarette smoke, cigar smoke, and marijuana smoke was quite pungent). Our manager was pretty upset since we are a non-smoking hotel, but then again she didn’t know anything about Dylan so I had to explain that he’s the most legendary music artist alive and he’s also kindof an a**hole. I took a peek inside the trash cans which told me that Bob Dylan not only smokes a lot but he likes to eat apples. It was pretty thrilling to know that I was in the same hotel room (cleaning it, but still) that Bob Dylan was in less than an hour before. Interestingly enough the group that Dylan’s people book their reservations under gave us a fake name* and an address for a Diner in Greenwich Village.

While we’re on the subject, I’ve listened to a few tracks on the soundtrack to Dylan biopic I’m Not There which is coming out next week. I’ve heard a ton of Dylan covers in my day and these ones stand up with the best of them. The artists featured on the album include: Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Sufjan Stevens, Jeff Tweedy, Iron & Wine, Yo La Tengo, The Hold Steady, and Antony & the Johnsons. The covered songs are also a very eclectic selection, choosing album tracks and fan favorites over songs like “Like A Rolling Stone”, “Blowin’ in the Wind”, and “All Around the Watchtower”.

You can download Sufjan’s piano-based take on Oh Mercy track “Ring Them Bells” and Jeff Tweedy’s wonderfully simple version of Blood of the Tracks classic “Simple Twist of Fate” below. Stream Cat Power’s impressive version of my favorite Dylan song “Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” and Calexio and Jim James’ collaboration on “Goin to Acapulco” on the official I’m Not There OST myspace.

MP3 Sufjan Stevens – Ring My Bells
MP3 Jeff Tweedy – Simple Twist of Fate

*I would tell you Dylan’s pseudonym and the fake company name but I’d rather not lose my job.

DVD Review: U2 Popmart – Live from Mexico City

I think many fans would agree that the Pop era is the most underrated period in U2’s history. Even the band itself seems to disregard Pop in their live shows and their continuous attempts to rerecord the album (some of which have been great and some not so great). Yes their are campy parts of Pop the album and the Popmart tour that might not have aged so well (that crazy dancer during Lemon comes to mind) but the show also showcases some of the band’s best songwriting and their unbelievable ability to connect with an audience in the midst of the spectacle.

Even so, there’s something to be said for the spectacle. The Popmart video screen (which at the time was the biggest ever created) was 170 ft by 56 ft and comprised of 150,000 pixels. The band took advantage of every pixel, throwing incredible visuals on the screen during the entire show, using Andy Warhol imagery and a elaborate color scheme to create a wow factor that I still think is unmatched at a concert. This isn’t to mention the massive McDonalds Arch, the olive, or the 50 foot Lemon mirrorball that provided the Spinal Tap-esque mid-show entrance for the band.

I find while it’s incredible to look at though, the spectacle isn’t the focus of the show. It’s points where Bono tears up as the crowd sings the refrain for “Pride”, when he asks for all the lights to be turned off as he enters the refrain of “With or Without You”, and show-stopping “Please” where Bono is pleading with the crowd “Get up off your knees”, before doing so himself and transitioning into the most energetic and uplifting version “Where The Streets Have No Name” I’ve ever heard.

The Pop songs sound fantastic on this DVD, my favorite being “Gone” and “Last Night On Earth”, both songs that The Edge complete tears up. The interplay between Bono and The Edge on “Until The End of the World” was one of the high points of the Elevation tour and it’s done just as well here. If you have any reservations of U2’s ability to straight-up rock, watching Edge rip into the solo while chasing Bono down the runway will most set you straight. The electronica-based songs are also well represented here, “Mofo” being a early highlight and “Discotheque” providing the most all the extravagance and crotch thrusting that you would expect from the song. The band brings it all back though and ends the show with perhaps their most moving song “One” while a giant heart fills the video screen. While all the glitz and glamour are extremely fun sidetracks, the band still realizes their greatest strength comes from the center of emotion, it’s all about the heart.

MP3 Mofo (Live from Mexico City)
MP3 Where The Streets Have No Name (Live from Rotterdam)

Note: The above is my favorite recording of Where The Streets Have No Name, which has always been one of my absolute favorite songs. It was recorded during the Popmart Tour and was available on the Please EP. You HAVE to listen to it.

Don't Stop Believin' in the 4 Chord Pop Song

This is one of the best videos I’ve seen online in the last week or so. Basically, some guy who is most likely Australian plays the four chords in “Don’t Stop Believin'” and sings a number of pop songs that use the same chord progression over it (D A Bm G, I believe). Most of them are cheesy 90’s pop ballad-type songs. Call me crazy, but I loved when he went from The Calling’s “Wherever You Will Go” to Bush’s “Glycerine” to Five for Fighting’s “Superman”. I also cringed when I heard the chorus line to Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved”.

Take a break from studying your finals and reminiscent about the better days of pop music with this video (embedded below). The guy’s pretty talented and many youtubers have pointed out the hilariousness of the guy sitting in the background nonchalantly playing Playstation. Oh also, try and name all the songs that he sings in the comments. First one who does gets to take over this blog after I die*.

MP3 Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’
MP3 Blink-182 – Adam’s Song
MP3 Bush – Glycerine

*too bad longevity runs in my family, suckas!

The Knack Sue Everyone + Other Copyright Lawsuits Mix!

The Knack have decided to sue everyone who’s associated with the song “It’s Tricky” for copying their one hit “My Sharona”. This includes the artists (Run DMC) producers (Rick Rubin), publishers, and record companies. Online music retailers such as iTunes, Yahoo, Amazon, and Napster are even getting in on the being-sued action.

Wait, wasn’t “It’s Tricky” released 20 years ago? Yes, it was, and it had an awesome video featuring Penn and Teller. But conveniently no one in The Knack knew that the song, which is considered one of the most famous in the rap genre, existed until last year (that line about living under a rock would fit here). Or maybe, could it be because online music retailers are a bit more vunerable when it comes to copyright laws, they certainly didn’t sue Wal-mart or Best Buy, who also distributed the track.

To honor the timeless art of illegal sampling and the lawsuits that have come with it, here’s a mix of some original songs and the sampled tracks, that have been brought to the court of law, and the court’s verdicts I got most of my info from Illegal Art check out their article on the subject.

MP3 The Knack – My Sharona
MP3 Run DMC – It’s Tricky

The Verdict: We’ll see

MP3 Queen feat. David Bowie – Under Pressure
MP3 Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby

The Verdict: Settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

MP3 The Chiffons – He’s So Fine
MP3 George Harrison – My Sweet Lord

The Verdict: “It is clear that ‘My Sweet Lord’ is the very same song as ‘He’s so Fine.'” George Harrison loses all the royalites for the song.

MP3 Muddy Waters – You Need Love
MP3 Led Zeppelin – Who Lotta Love

The Verdict: The case was settled out of court but Led Zeppelin payed a large, undisclosed sum.

MP3 Cat Stevens – Father and Son
MP3 The Flaming Lips – Fight Test

The Verdict: Cat Stevens is receiving some of the royalties from the song

I would post the Rolling Stones – The Last Time/ Verve – Bittersweet Symphony except I can’t find the Rolling Stones version that was sampled… Anyone got it?

Happy Anniversary Celeste!

The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" Review

As you see from the two lists below, what I consider to be the best music from 1966 comes from the Beach Boys (and I’m not just saying that because the reissued album came out yesterday). The Beach Boys Greatest Hits album was the first pop CD that I ever received at the ripe age of 12. From that point on, the Beach Boys were the greatest thing in the world to me. I remember watching countless documentaries and biopics on the band, learning to play the opening to “Good Vibrations” on the piano, phoning into oldies stations to play their music, and even serenading girls in my class with the song, “California Girls”.

I eventually outgrew the “surf sound” of the older Beach Boys material but I still found myself going back to two tracks on the Greatest Hits album over and over, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows.” When I finally bought the whole Pet Sounds album, I was entranced by the record, and I think nearly every song on it has been my favorite at one point, I even warmed up to “Sloop John B” in time. Currently, I can’t get over the opening tympani and warm keyboard sounds in “I’m Waiting For The Day” that are mixed with lyrics of bittersweet optimism.

The ideas in the Pet Sounds are universal, honest, and heartfelt. From “You know it seems the more we talk about it / It only makes it worse to live without it” to “I could try to be big in the eyes of the world / what matters to me is what I could be to just one girl” to “God only knows what I’d be without you”, everyone who’s been in love knows those feelings. What makes them even more poignant though, is that they are put to melodies that hit you instantly and never leave your ear (like good pop songs should, right). Even listening to the album today, there’s something nostalgic and magical about it, even though I was born nearly 20 years after it was released. So hoist up the John B sails and let the Beach Boys take you home.

Buy the remastered, reissued 40th Anniversary Pet Sounds CD+DVD set. Seriously.