"The Voice Within"-Christina Aguilera

Why is it that some songs are annoying/suck 90% of the time, and then certain days you really feel like listening to them? "The Voice Within" by Christina Aguilera is legitimately an irritating song. And I've always thought her show-off melisma was over the top, while, for example Mariah Carey's is a lot more musical. But today this song hits the spot. It seems yummy and forbidden, like a french fry off someone else's plate.

Taste is weird.




science cannot explain

"This Is The Way"-Devendra Banhart

Devendra Banhart: pleasantly folky weirdo, or pretentious asshole with a bad beard?

discuss.








but first, listen

"Eli, The Barrow Boy"-The Decemberists

basic plot: he wants to buy his gf a nice dress but he can't because he's DEAD. this and the bad economy are two reasons that his job selling shit out of a wheelbarrow isn't going very well.








bizarre student music video

"Lesson No. 1 For Electric Guitar"-Glenn Branca

So, after having that life-changing musicospiritual experience this weekend, I decided that there was no reason that I should not be experiencing this joy on a daily basis.

After about two minutes of serious consideration, I went for it. I am now the proud owner of AN ELECTRIC GUITAR. I bought it during my lunch hour, and then I took it back to work with me and set it down next to my desk. Just knowing it was there made me so excited that I could hardly pay attention to my job. It is possible that I Am In Love.

In honor of this purchase and lifestyle change, today's song is "Lesson No. 1 For Electric Guitar" by Very Important Composer Glenn Branca. I don't tend to get particularly jazzed up about long droning things without words, but this song/piece is pretty incredible. It builds in just the right way, until breaking into what can only be described as "cinematic triumphant slow-motion running music."

This song was introduced to me by my friend Ian Mathers, who also happens to know an awful lot about music, in addition to being funny and intelligent. He has written great stuff for PopMatters, The Village Voice, and the mighty-but-unfortunately-defunct Stylus Magazine. Also he has a blog, which you should read in addition to reading my blog, and Alex Ross's blog, and my friend Will's blog which used to be about grapefruits and is now about other stuff. I still hate the word "blog."

But I really, really like the guitar.


if you listen here to the entire 8 minutes and 18 seconds, you will be blessed with good fortune

"Heartbeat"-The Knack

Apparently the album Get The Knack was so popular when it came out in 1979 that there was a crazy backlash where people had "Knuke The Knack" bumper stickers and t-shirts and stuff.

Fair enough, but I think it's time to Bring Back The Knack. People only know the song "My Sharona," which is good, but the whole album is so incredibly enjoyable that it should be listened to all the way through. It's springtime, folks, and power pop is IN.




listen here

"Anyone Can Play Guitar"-Radiohead

I don't know if the title of this song is a true statement, but I do know one thing: I played an electric guitar for the first time in my life today and it felt like someone had opened the top of my head and poured all kinds of good stuff into it.

Being shitty at guitar is going to be an awesome experience for me. I can feel it.




listen here

"June Carter Cash"-The Finches

"I was listening to a tape that you made for me,
When my heart got so tight,
I thought I might die.
We cannot return to the Sundays down the street;
That's ok, we're where we ought to be."


AAAA I THINK I MIGHT DIE



you, too, can feel like dying

"Poor Poor Me"-Fats Domino

"Poor Poor Me" by Fats Domino is the antidote to Sneaker's "Quit Crying." And vice versa. It's good sometimes to just listen to them back and forth, back and forth, for days. You know, to get a healthy balance / good sense of perspective on things.

this method is recommended by TWO OUT OF TEN WEREWOLF PSYCHOLOGISTS






call the waaambulance

"Quit Crying"-Sneaker

You know how helpful it is when you're upset and someone yells at you, "Quit crying! Think of the starving children"?

Now imagine that instead of yelling it, someone SANG that to you. Imagine how helpful THAT would be.





be informed

"What Is Success"-Bonnie Raitt

Ms. Raitt, thank you for asking this difficult and important question. Here's my idea of what success would be:

--becoming a respected and skilled young female blues guitarist in a field dominated by men
--having a voice that will not quit
--making fifteen studio albums
--winning nine Grammy Awards
--having a boatload/buttload of money
--making an artistic and commercial comeback after a period of failure
--beating the crap out of your alcoholism
--looking pretty damn good for 59 years old
--being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
--generally not sucking

Oh, you did all that? Yeah, I think you're all set.


what, what

"Future Love"-Varsity Fanclub

I recently joined a gym. Before that, I had never belonged to one, and had possibly never set foot in one. The whole idea seemed "so corporate." Then when I got a 9 to 5 job and became exactly that corporate, I realized that if I sat in front of a computer all day without exercising I was going to start looking like a capybara.

So, I had to change my attitude about gyms. This meant going to the sports clothing store (where I went up to the desk and asked the lady, "Can you explain to me....all of this?") and bought perky exercise shorts, and shorts to wear under THOSE shorts so that people can't see my underwear when I jump up and down, etc. It all seemed kind of excessive and silly, but I figured that if I was going to give it a try, I ought to really see what this stuff was all about.

Then I actually went on one of those machines and I realized what it was all about: endorphins. Once people are exercising, they don't give a shit about whether they are wearing a pair of $50 spandex underpants. They don't give a shit about terrorism. They are riding on a magical opium cloud. Did you know that endorphin stands for "endogenous morphine," which means, "morphine produced naturally in the body"? Well, it does, and that is what it is. CRAZY.

What this means is that when I watch the music video channel at the gym on my own personal TV set, I am watching music videos ON DRUGS. When I came upon "Future Love" by Varsity Fanclub, I had this sensation like I was being lifted from my body, caressed by angels, and then gently lowered back to earth. I literally thought, "Thank god, boy bands are back."

Then I came home and bought the song on iTunes. I spent a dollar on it. In fact, I spent a dollar each on like ten other songs that I also heard at the gym. This is ten dollars that I could have spent on food, or medical care.

Luckily, even when the endorphins have worn off, my terrible taste has not. That lasts forever. And that's why this song still does it for me, every single time.



let the angels sing

"When You Find Out"-The Nerves

exactly two minutes of complete awesome




listen here

"Temptation"-New Order

There's this Buddhist thing where "right thought" is supposed to lead to "right action."

The right thought is "I like New Order."



listen here

"I've Made Enough Friends"-The Wrens

So, people who know me are aware that sometimes I can be a little "TMI." This is one of the many reasons I am not on Facebook and also one of the reasons I struggled over whether it was a good idea to have a blog of any kind. (Also, the word "blog" makes me sort of nauseous in the same way that "singer-songwriter" does. I probably need to work on these shame issues.)

Anyway, those concerns aside, I just want to tell you that this song is HOT. Like in a sex way. Uhm. That is all.



woah

p.s. It's not on youtube so if you want to hear it you have to buy it on iTunes or something. It's worth a dollar. I'm serious.

"Creep"-Radiohead

I just started doing this Pandora Radio thing that everyone's been so into lately. I'd been resistant to it, because generally I like picking out my own music. But then I started to feel guilty about spending approximately 20 percent of my work time fiddling with my iTunes library.

I entered "The Cure" as a band I liked, so it's been making me a Cure station today, which basically means it thinks that I am depressed. That's why it plays me songs like "Creep."

Thanks, Pandora. Just so you know, everyone is depressed on Thursday. It's a human thing. You wouldn't understand.


i'm a weiiiiiiiirdo

"Your Control"-Crooked Fingers

Crooked Fingers opened for Neko Case at the concert on Saturday night, and I was kind of underwhelmed overall (as much as I wanted to be excited about Eric Bachmann, who used to be in the Chapel Hill, NC band Archers of Loaf). But there was a string of three kind of exciting songs in there near the end of the their set, and "Your Control" was one of them. Then I found out that Neko Case actually sings on the recorded version (she didn't perform it live). That makes sense, because I've basically decided that she is somehow related to everything good in this world.

Really pretty harmonies with a driving, Bruce Springsteen-esque kind of thing going on. I'm into it.



download mp3 from KEXP Song of The Day

"Welcome To The Working Week"-Elvis Costello

This is the working week. Welcome to it.




actual song

"I Hate Everyone"-Get Set Go

watch out for me today

i will BITE you

and not in a fun way





garggg

"This Tornado Loves You"-Neko Case

I saw Neko Case perform last night and, let me tell you, her voice is actually a force of nature. Also I have never been to another show where the stage banter was about both tampons and head lice.

In terms of the song I chose, I am thinking that if "freak folk" and "happy hardcore" are allowed to be genres, that there could also be a genre that was specifically for songs where someone has so many feelings that they have to bust shit up. Another one from this category is "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass" by Nick Lowe. What's amazing about this genre is that none of the songs in it can be bad.

I am taking suggestions for names. I suggest "emostruction."



listen here

"Human"-The Killers

ARE WE BRANDON OR ARE WE FLOWER







brandon flowers, you are wearing an emu

"The World"-Brad Paisley

Yesterday I talked about why I think my peers aren't listening to popular country (or aren't even willing to try listening to it) and also I talked about why that bugs me. That part was like a depressing kids' movie about global warming, and now is the part where I come onscreen and say "But here's what you can do about it!"

Here are some reasons I think commercial country is worth sticking up for:

1) Country songs often have more lively instrumentation than their pop radio counterparts. The Nashville music machine, although I'm sure it's scary and corporate in many ways, is also full of incredible session musicians. These mandolin or banjo players, slide guitarists, etc add a life to the sound that mainstream pop and rock, which is increasingly computer-generated and auto-tuned, can't compete with. Most new music on commercial radio stations of all kinds is pretty slick in terms of production, but those fiddle solos on country records really stand out. And that is good. A great way to understand what I'm talking about is to check out both versions of Shania Twain songs. I didn't realize until recently that she put out two versions of every song on her album Up!: one for pop audiences, and one for country. These are very subtly labeled the "Red" and "Green" versions, respectively. (Maybe this is what John Edwards actually meant about "two Americas.") What's interesting to me in listening to these back to back is that, at least to my ears, the Green is so clearly superior to the other. All that's missing in the Red is some twangy guitars and fiddle licks, but it feels like the energy has been sucked out.

2) The subject matter can be surprising, and even subversive. We might think of southern/rural men as being macho, idiot rednecks, but I am amazed by how often the dudes in country songs are openly, unapologetically weeping. Much more than in pop. In Blake Shelton's "She Wouldn't Be Gone," for example, he talks about crying on two SEPARATE occasions: first in the chorus ("tears soakin' up my face") and then in a verse ("cried like a baby to her best friend"). I would argue that men are allowed a dramatic expression of emotion that we only expect from women in a lot of other types of music. Some people find country too sentimental, but I see the refusal of the genre to devalue sentiment as an impressive stand against posturing and coldness. Plus, while the rest of the music industry seems to be increasingly age-obsessed, country music is one of the only places left that deals frankly with aging and doesn't diss old people (both in the performers it celebrates, and in the lyrics to songs, like "Remember When" by Alan Jackson). And fatherhood--how many pop songs can you name that deal with that subject? Brad Paisley's "He Didn't Have To Be" is a song about appreciating your stepfather. I think we can all get behind that.

3) Country can have a great sense of humor about itself. It can have that same quality that really good Jewish humor has, the "life sucks, but that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun with it" mindset. Compare, for example, Jo Dee Messina's "Bye Bye," in which the wronged woman sings, "Bye bye love, I'll catch you later / Got a lead foot down on my accelerator...I've got pride, I'm taking it for a ride" to Alanis Morrisette's bitter "You Oughta Know," with its considerably less plucky/spirited "It's not fair to deny me of the cross I bear that you gave to me." Then there are the songs that are just ridiculous, like Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk." This song knows it's outlandish, and it just doesn't give a shit. Compare it to something like "My Humps" which is completely stupid but seems bafflingly to not know it--and worse, to miss every opportunity for fun that the concept could have presented.

4) The form allows for great storytelling and verbal creativity. Like a sonnet, a country song has its own rules and its own corresponding rewards. It pretty much always has a few verses and a chorus and a bridge, and the verses usually develop a story. A lot of people groan about the stories being too straightforward or obvious. First of all, straightforward can be refreshing. As much as we love to puzzle over what Pavement is getting at with stuff like "Magic Christians chew the rind," it can be great sometimes to be told a solid, traditional story. Note the popularity of the Harry Potter books with people of all ages and backgrounds. Another plus is that the seemingly "boring" foundation allows for the genius of the clever bits to come through. Some country songs do that cool thing of having one basic refrain which, by being altered slightly throughout the song, means a different thing when paired with each separate verse (classic example: Tim McGraw's "Don't Take The Girl"). I am pretty sure Virgil did something similar in The Aeneid, so it's legit.

5) It's not all conservative propaganda. Probably the most convincing argument against listening to commercial country is that, by doing so, you are supporting a massive right-wing evangelical hate-machine. Some of what gets played on the radio is undeniably odious. That song by Toby Keith where he goes "Cause we'll put a boot in your ass / It's the American way" is almost horrifying enough to turn a person off of music entirely. But let's not forget the Dixie Chicks, who spoke out against Bush at that concert in London in 2003. And Darius Rucker, who is black (and faces the greater challenge of being the former lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish) and whose country career seems to be flourishing. And beyond these specific examples, there are the many artists whose songs are not preaching hate or intolerance, but are just about falling in love or getting hurt, just like every other song since the beginning of time. Like being a conscious consumer and not buying t-shirts from people who kill seals, it's possible to listen to country music without being responsible for any book-banning or anything. And sometimes it's ok to buy hamburger from McDonald's, or listen to an infectious and slightly more harmless song by Toby Keith like "I Wanna Talk About Me." It's a complex world, and we can't always be perfect.

Ya'll. What are you waiting for.

listen here

"No One Else On Earth"-Wynonna Judd

When did it become cool to say that you listen to everything "except rap and country"? When did these two genres fall into such disfavor, at least with the people I'm talking to?

To figure that out, we first have to look at the people I'm talking to. Let's just say for the sake of argument that the majority of HYPOTHETICAL people I'm having these conversations with are white, politically liberal, middle to upper-middle class, college-educated, and live in cities. I probably have a total of, like, two black friends. HYPOTHETICALLY. I have a lot to say about the rap/hip-hop issue, but that's a conversation for another day. What I want to talk about this time around is why the majority of the people I associate with on a daily basis hate country music.

I want to first admit something shameful. When people tell me that they don't like or listen to country, I often stick up for the genre in the most pathetic of ways. "I actually sort of like it," I offer carefully, "but--you know. Only the good kind." I assume the listener knows what I mean: Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, all of the classic stars that time has redeemed. But not POPULAR country. Nothing, of course, that they would play on the RADIO.

The war against pop country is just as much about race and class as the war on rap, but not as many people will talk about it. While someone might reasonably say, "Yeah, I just don't like the way most of the rap artists I've heard treat women in their songs" or "I don't like the culture of violence," the main complaint against current country seems to be more along the lines of, "It just sucks." Apparently everyone agrees on this point, and I didn't get the memo.

What I think is going on here is, at least partly, our idea of who this music is for. It's not made for us. It's for white trash.

"White trash" is an epithet that has always made me massively uncomfortable. The way some people can say it like it's no big deal baffles me. I will admit that I have an ongoing flirtation with offensive words ("gay" and "retarded" are two that I'm particularly ambivalent about) but this one just gives me the creeps. I think it's the first word, "white" (which assumes that we all know who the other sort of trash is) combined with the second, "trash" (and if referring to a human being as a piece of garbage isn't cruel, I don't know what is). So, we assume that the primary audience of this music is ignorant and poor and has no class and therefore we don't want to be associated with them. We are elitist assholes. End of story.

But I don't actually think that's the end of the story. Because we're talking about a group of potential voters, and they're powerful! They could make it impossible for us to get married, or have abortions. They could get us into wars that we don't agree with. For real! That shit is serious! So in that sense, our fear is justified. As much as we try to make country music look small and ridiculous, we have to acknowledge that it has political power, like any popular (and unpopular) art does. So really it comes down to the word that Democrats would be smart to reclaim, which is "values." We don't feel that country music reflects our values. The same way I feel fratty listening to reggae (despite the fact that the originators were not frat boys) we might feel listening to country as if we are polishing our gun collection, waiting for our pregnant daughter's boyfriend to come home so that we can give him a talking to (or, alternately, take him fishing).

What I am going to suggest is that this mental picture is something we ought to challenge if we want to enjoy country music. "Now, why would one want to do something like that?" you are very likely asking. Like developing a taste for beer or whiskey or coffee, it's only worth the effort if you think the work will eventually be rewarding. I believe that it can be, and I want to tell you why. But since I have to, like, go to work and stuff, I'm going to do that part tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy this badass song by Wynonna Judd. The video is pretty dated, but the song is killer.

open your mind

"I Do Not Hook Up"-Kelly Clarkson

Clarkson (and the song's writers: Greg Wells, Katy Perry, and Kara DioGuardi) are clearly referencing the Russian poetic tradition of the late 19th and early 20th century with "I Do Not Hook Up." Similarly to Iakov Polonsky's "Tsar-Maiden" ("Tsardevitsa," 1876), Clarkson's heroine derives her strength from her chastity. By renouncing eros, she gains masculine characteristics and abilities that allow her to become the "androgyne" that the religious philosopher and poet Soloviev idealized in his writings (see "Smsyl liubvi," 1892-1894).

Catherine Ciepiela, professor of Russian at Amherst college and author of a fine piece of scholarship entitled The Same Solitude: Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva, points out that in Polonksy's poem, the maiden's power must unfortunately be short-lived to maintain a true gender balance: "the hero, after undergoing many trials, gains entrance to the tsar-maiden's castle and subdues her, after which his powers wax while hers wane....The logic is similar to the logic of numerous romantic texts in which 'the woman must finally be enslaved or destroyed...'"

I'll be looking forward to Ms. Clarkson's next album, in which she is sure to explore these themes in full.

listen here

"Wanderlust"-Bjork

I would like to see Bjork perform this song live with Joanna Newsom and Yoko Ono, arranged so that they would all be howling the chorus at the same time. I would like for them to close the concert with a rendition of Dionne Warwick's "That's What Friends Are For," and they would be holding hands, obviously. Afterwards I would like for them to come to my house and cook me a nice brisket.


watch weirdass official video

"Candyfloss"-Wilco

The internet tells me that "candy floss" is what the Brits call cotton candy. I successfully avoided learning this during the six months that I lived in England. How? By having AS LITTLE FUN AS POSSIBLE. But now Jeff Tweedy & friends have restored this lost fun to me. Small miracles are everywhere.

listen here

"The Fly Duet"-Natalie Dessay & Laurent Naouri/Offenbach

married insect opera porn


you are going to want to watch this shit right here

"Livin' On A Prayer"-Bon Jovi

dear bon jovi,

thank you for helping to make my second cousin's bat mitzvah a success.

love,
rachel

p.s. you totally should have been there, they had an open bar



listen here

"Sugar Daddy"-Fleetwood Mac

I have always liked this song, and I'm not planning to stop liking it anytime soon. So the rest of you can come with me, or I'm going to go it alone.

"Peg"-Steely Dan

you can't suppress the joy



listen here

"April Fools"-Rufus Wainwright

For a song called "April Fools," there is conspicuously little going on here in the way of practical joking. As far as I can tell, it's about relationships or something (ew) and not about dumping water on someone's head. At the very least, he could have started the song off being about relationships and then had it actually be about a robotic panda, or a Pomeranian in a little coat. OR halfway through it could have turned into "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, although I think that might count as copyright infringement.

Look, I know that April Foolsing can be risky (last year I convinced some of my friends that my mom had gotten a tattoo and afterwards they were pissed that I made them look dumb) but what I am asking Rufus Wainwright to do is to NUT UP. Real musicianship takes courage.

But it's, y'know, super awesome and catchy and all that. So I guess every day is a good day to listen to a song that doesn't suck.

listen here