Category Archives: Indie Music

Jul 06 1 comments
Dave Crozier, Friends, Indie Music, Palace Brothers, Palace Music, Rock/Pop, The Replacements, Will Oldham

Work Hard / Play Hard

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An ex-coworker of mine had a sign on his cubicle wall: “A good song can make you late for work. A great song can make you quit.” Most of us struggle with the work/life balance, and few of us get it right. Rock and roll is predictably uninsightful when it comes to this subject, because most players in this game have done just that all their lives: played. Look at Morrissey: he was essentially a blogger before blogs existed, and next thing he knew he hooked up with Johnny Marr and the rest is history. By the time the Smiths covered “Work is a Four-Letter Word,” Morrissey had already given us odes to David Brent-like bosses from hell who wrote “bloody awful poetry,” musings on how miserable he was after he found a job, and statements like “I wouldn’t bother” [going to work]. Well, sod him. What does he know?

And what does Paul Westerberg know, either? He pulled his bandmates out of school to gig with the ‘Mats. Now, I’m sure his work ethic was as bad as this demo claims:
The Replacements: Bad Worker (Paul Westerberg home demo)

But the point is these are not real people. They’re rock stars. So what of the rest of us?

Well, we’re left with a balancing act. Some of us merge work with play. Others punch our cards to fuel a hobby. Tonight I worked late, and now I’m blogging late, and I’ll be up early again tomorrow. The trick is to engage in both, to become vested in both. If you just punch a card, heaven knows you’ll be miserable. If you work so hard that you have no play to come home to, then not even rock and roll can save you.
Palace Music: Work Hard / Play Hard

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The dedication, then, goes out to another ex-coworker, a regular visitor to this blog, Dave Crozier. I salute him for finding the right balance and carving out his own home studio (thanks for all the demos over the years, Dave!), and for taking weeks off here and there to create. This particular track was the result of one such sabbatical, back when he was advising me in project management for direct mail campaigns. He poured all of himself into both pursuits, took each seriously, and kept each in perspective. He has a wall full of guitars, real beauties, and they speak to him in primordial overtones. He is a disciple of the mystical Eighth Note Pulse. He thrives on the buzz and the growl. He just simply loves guitars. He also puts in a hard day’s work and takes pleasure from it. Here’s Dave Crozier’s heavy creation:
Dave Crozier: Heavy Creation

Jul 06 1 comments
Princeton

Princeton

princeton_band-photoCatbirdman is just now catching on to last summer’s Bloomsbury EP from Princeton, a threesome from Los Angeles. Before I get out my Norton Anthology of English Literature (each track is inspired by a member of London’s fabled Bloomsbury group, and hey, I’ve read “To The Lighthouse” more than once…), let me just share these tracks with you. They give me a similar pleasure that I found in Vampire Weekend last year, with more of a nod toward Stuart Murdoch’s record collection than the punk standards. This suits me just fine.

If you like what you hear, purchase the EP from iTunes, and while you’re at it, check out their Daytrotter session here. A new album is coming in the fall, so watch this space.

Princeton: Ms. Bentwich
Princeton: Eminent Victorians

Jul 01 3 comments
4AD, GusGus, Rock/Pop, The Byrds, The Velvet Underground

Come To Jesus

onewayA meditation on survival. Come to Jesus or perish. Work like your job depends on it. Become whole.

Inspiring speeches often teeter on the edge of hell and brimstone. Why is that? Why is there not a place for each of us? Why are the homeless without homes? Why are the homeful suspicious? Is it really a zero sum game?

For today, I have a place. Come tomorrow, will my lifeboat sink below the waters?

GusGus: Is Jesus Your Pal?

Alright, so we had the “Come to Jesus” meeting at work today. Times are tough. I know it’s just an expression, “come to Jesus.” But what does that entail? Within the religious tradition I was brought up in, it means (I think) to search within your best parts, looking for power and strength (a reflection of the omnipotent), for wisdom and alertness (a reflection of the omniscient), for shrewdness and awareness (a reflection of the omnipresence), and for weakness (a reflection of the incarnated body of Christ). It means finding these pieces, and bringing them to God in humility, asking for wholeness and growth. It then means to start living like you mean it.

The Velvet Underground: Jesus

But I’m not here to talk about religion. I’m here to share my experiences with a soundtrack. My experience today, at work, in life, was much the same as usual: faking my way through an uncertain world, intermittently grabbing hold of a real thing or other, knowing it, naming it, sharing it. You have to take it seriously, but not too seriously. We are not yet whole, so be content. We can always get closer, so never be content. “Long time between now and my death. I gotta have my fun, so I’ve chosen what’s best.”

Spiritualized: Walking With Jesus
The Byrds: Jesus Is Just Alright

I can do this job. “I know I’ve done wrong, but I’m heaven on Earth / Know I’ve done wrong, but I could have done You worse.” The job description at times feels overwhelming, at times feels impenetrable. But I can do this job, I know it. But I must bring my whole self to work. I must work like I know how. Like I’ve been taught. I must come to Jesus, within the sound of my confusion. Others will follow.

The Soft Pack: Walking With Jesus

Jun 25 0 comments
Patrick Wolf

Patrick Wolf

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Patrick Wolf at the Rock and Roll Hotel, June 24, 2009.

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Patrick Wolf: The Bachelor
Patrick Wolf: Hard Times

Jun 23 0 comments
Indie Music

For A Friend #006

chameleons

For Mark Eddy Smith, an invitation to write: Mark, tell us why the Chameleons’ music is so magnificent and I’ll show you what’s behind door #2. (Hint: it’s in mp3 form…)

The Chameleons: Is It Any Wonder?
The Chameleons: Perfume Garden

Jun 22 3 comments
Indie Music

I am Catbirdman

p5311430I am Catbirdman.

Actually, lately I’ve been the Big Black Bear, hibernating again. So our protagonist goes.

As I lumber out of the woolly den, I redefine my stride. Taller now, yet tentative, I stand defiant, in need of a shave. Remembering how to be brave.

It is then that I remember Catbirdman, twittering on the fringe with crude, disjointed vowels – a shameless copycat straining to live in the moment. I remember now what it was like to be Catbirdman, awkward and intelligent. I was happy in my habitat. I took care of my pets. I was an animal.

I lost sight of that for a while, slipping into the second-rate guise of homo sapiens, uncouthly cultured, with spectacles, an out-of-time wit, and unforgiveable incompetence, open to ridicule. But I am pure. I am primal. And I am back. I am Catbirdman. [cue syrupy John Williams "hero theme" crap]

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I haven’t been much of a birdwatcher during this time, and I haven’t brought any new birdsongs to this blog. But let me make my first step back by singing my own song, learned through imitation and inheritance, the only way I know how. Here are two songs from the forthcoming “Kitty’s First Words” album.

The Catbirds: Dog Loves You
The Catbirds: Man Or Beast?

May 12 2 comments
The Magnetic Fields

The Magnetic Fields’ Distortion

magnetic-fieldsLast year the Magnetic Fields managed to alienate the music community in true Neil Youngian fashion. They went and released an album that didn’t sound like themselves, and not many people seemed to be buying it. It reminds me of when Neil discovered the vocoder and decided he was going to become Kraftwerk. Trans was the result, an album of sampled beats and blips, and a few years after that, Geffen actually sued him for “not sounding like himself.”

I doubt the indie community is going to get all litigous on Stephin Merritt’s ass, but they did give the cold shoulder to the 2008 album Distortion. During interviews of the time, Merritt more or less admitted he wanted to be the Jesus and Mary Chain. Not that I would ever discourage such an undertaking, but seriously, was it realistic to pit the Brill Building-like brilliance of Merritt’s song structures and lyrics against a tinny fuzz? Most people didn’t think so at the time, but after a year, I think it’s time someone stood up for this record.

I love it.

The opener is a surf-rock pastiche that brings the garage aesthetic into a familiar and amiable setting. Surf instrumentals, from Dick Dale and the Bel-Airs through to Man (Or Astroman?), always had room for subtlety in the composition alongside raw bitchin’-ness. This track, “Three Way,” has all of the above, including the prerequisite shout-outs.

The Magnetic Fields: Three-Way

Now that the door is opened, the West Coast sound is exploited full-on with “California Girls.” Whereas Brian Wilson took an earnest-eyed approach in his transparent (and heavenly) ode to exultation and sunshine, Merritt says the opposite: “I hate California Girls.” Shirley Simms sings with a syrupy sneer, deriding the perfect white smiles and celebrity hedonism of the Golden State’s finest. Once again, the noisy background is used to full effect, snarling its way through the teenage symphony to the godless.

The Magnetic Fields: California Girls

One of the record’s finest moments is “Please Stop Dancing,” a track that finally goes where the distortion-laded textures had always wanted to go: a simple, infectious riff that gets stuck in your head as you beat it against the wall. It’s the simplest of tales, about an obsessed lover, pleading for a moment’s peace. The bass line pumps through the morass, a swirl of aches and screams. This track gets played often and LOUD. You can’t shake it off.

The Magnetic Fields: Please Stop Dancing

And then there’s the brilliant “Too Drunk To Dream.” More than any other track on the album, this one marries the distortion concept with the composition perfectly. Disorientation, frustration, and haziness are front and center, with Merritt’s genius for rhyming dictionary madness (you know he punched the air when he came up with the “plastered” / “bastard” rhyme) and songbook lyricism in full force.

The Magnetic Fields: Too Drunk To Dream

May 09 0 comments
Indie Music, Shoegaze, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Interview, Part Two: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

L-R: Kip (guitar, vox), Peggy (keyboards, vox), Alex (bass)

L-R: Kip (guitar, vox), Peggy (keyboards, vox), Alex (bass)

Picking up with the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Catbirdman asked them about their songwriting process:

Peggy: We hang out a lot, so I feel like it kind of comes out of that, in a way, you know.

Kip: Yeah, the songs are just mostly about us, our lives and stuff. Like, I come up with maybe an idea for a song…. I mean like in between jacking off in my bedroom I write some songs and then I bring them to the band … and if they think they suck …

Kurt: We change them around.

Kip: It’s kind of like a seed, then everyone waters it, rakes it, and worships it. And then it’s like it grows.

Peggy: It’s democratic in all the right kind of ways, I think.

Kurt: It has to pass the Peggy dancing test, because if Peggy doesn’t dance then we don’t play the song.

Alex: That’s true. It helps to have Kurt too, ’cause Kurt like knows stuff about music. Cause if he’s like “we have this song literally already; you didn’t have to write it again,” then we throw it out.

Kip: Honestly, it’s like….It becomes so much like… I feel like that’s the thing… Who writes the song… It doesn’t matter who writes the songs; it’s like who actually plays it and the way they play it. If all the songs were about how I wrote it, it would all be the same drum beat and it would suck. But the fact that we did play it all together and like everyone working on their own parts, it makes it a Pains song.  You know, it’s like not like some dudes like, Kip and the so and so’s. It’s like, everyone like writes their parts and the fact that it’s good is not because of my demos, my demos suck. You guys listen to my demos. They’re like pretty crappy, and if you listen to the real songs, they’re actually good. It’s not because of me, it’s because everyone says, “Oh, it sounds good but it would be better if I did this and stuff.” It’s like a cool democratic process where everyone kind of contributes their own.

Alex/Kurt: It’s like there’s a template in Kip’s ear. (laughter) There’s a template on Kip’s computer and it’s up to us to break out of the template. Destroy the template. (laughter) We break the template and we make it good.

Kip: I listened to Piebald the other day. They were like trying too hard to have like 87 different parts of the song.

Alex: We don’t have that capability.

Kip: It’s like sometimes bands try too hard. I’m gonna write like “Bohemian Rhapsody” but in Emo. (laughter) And I’m kind of like “Oh that first part of the song you were playing was really cool. Why did you have to go into like the 17 other parts of the song?”

Peggy: Yeah, we only have 3 parts.

Kip: I mean like, seriously, it’s kind of fun to joke about it, but what makes our songs good is that the people in the band are just open and like, friends, and there’s not an awkwardness about it. If Kurt starts playing a cool drum beat, everyone is pretty receptive to it because we all know Kurt’s much better at drums than I am. So it’s kind of like a general respect for each other, and the musical vision, the outcome, is kind of a product of all of us.

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Catbirdman: So when you take over, and you tour all the arenas of the world, what are you going to do for the environment?

Kip: We’re definitely not gonna tour all the arenas of the world – ’cause that would hurt the environment.

Peggy: Oooooh.

Alex: Trick question.

Kip: Oh, we’re biodegradable.

Kurt: We’re not going to play any Cablevision shows.

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C: How do you feel about the reception you’ve had?

Kurt: It’s so good. It’s fun. Honestly, it’s fun.

Peggy: Yeah, it’s more than we ever expected.

Kip: It totally exceeds our expectations. And some of the bands we love, that weren’t really appreciated in their time… Now it’s like The Vaselines get like reissued in triple LPs and stuff, and everyone appreciates them, but when they were making music, its like, most people didn’t. Same with most of the bands like Rocketship or … I don’t know, it’s like the stuff that’s considered canonical now…..They didn’t get to experience the joy of playing to a packed group like tonight with everyone being so psyched.

Alex: I mean like honestly why are you in a band? You’re in it to have fun with your friends, and to have people care about and respond to it. A: It’s like a given, that’s why we do it.
B: It’s like so much of a bonus. It’s so fun to see anyone just showing up and caring and dancing. It’s like the most fun you could have.

Kip: I could totally imagine us playing these same songs, the same set, in rooms to nobody. It’d still be fun. It’d still be awesome.

C: I hear in your songs a yearning to get to a place that’s like a perfect moment and a moment of elation. I think of “Come Saturday” where you’re expecting a lover to come into town and everything’s perfect right now. I think of “Hey Paul” …

Kip: Ah “Hey Paul”’s a really cool song. It’s about my friend Paul. He used to be in this really cool band, Cocaine Unicorn, and all of the lyrics are just kind of like Cocaine Unicorn songs. It’s kind of like all his song lyrics and we just made a song about him. They’re really good (Cocaine Unicorn). They kind of had a little problem with drugs, Cocaine Unicorn. When I lived in Portland they were my favorite band of all time and they were too much … they’re a little too like wasted to record all his songs … I made a song about him with his lyrics. I don’t know. I don’t know what a perfect moment is. I was looking out the window today and it was like overcast and rainy and all the trees were green and I was thinking how that was just great.

C: And I was looking at the withered wisteria on my deck and the clouds, knowing it was perfect as well.

Kip: There you go.

Will the Pains find their perfect moment? Tune in for Part 3 of this interview early next week.

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Hey Paul
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Come Saturday (Live KEXP 2-9-09)

May 06 2 comments
Indie Music, Shoegaze, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Interview, Part One: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

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L-R: Kip (guitar, vox), Alex (bass), Peggy (keyboards, vox), Kurt (drums)

Caught in the midst of a long North American and European tour, the members of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart discuss their sleeping habits:

— She says that I make weird noises in my sleep
— You do make weird noises!
— She says that I talk in my sleep all the time
— Yeah, you do
— You go like this: “Eeeeeee”
— You make moaning noises

This gentle, pokey exchange illustrates the light-hearted repartee that flows freely from this group. Too naive and too wise to look their fame straight in the eye, they prefer to stick to the simple stuff that got them here.

Peggy (keyboard, vocals): We started out just as friends playing music, and like, wanting to play my birthday parties. It wasn’t about making it or anything like that.

Kip (guitar, vocals): I knew Alex from work and I got set up on a dude date with Kurt. I don’t know how to explain it.

Kurt (drums): We’re still going out.

Kip: We’re going steady. We moved in together.

Kurt: It’s gotten more serious (laughs).

Alex (bass): The funny thing about it is we all met in different ways, but I feel like each way that we met was always about being music nerds in a very specific way. Kip and I met cause we were in the same work space, but we became friends because we nerded out about music. Peggy and I met because of a mutual music nerd friend.

Kip: We didn’t form a band based on who could play what, but it worked in a good way. It’s like Voltron, like special powers unite to form a cogent whole. (Laughter) No, it is, in a weird way, like, everyone kind of contributes, and it’s totally balanced. Everyone has their own skills, but we didn’t form out of some back of a magazine type thing … like, “oh, do you know how to play some mad licks on the guitar?”

Kurt: It’s like mainstream music is like the Decepticons. (mad laughter) To extend that metaphor a little bit.

A: It’s like Slumberland, he’d be Optimus Prime, moving all the pieces.

P: I’d be like, I don’t know, the girl that sleeps and doesn’t sleep. I’m an extra character that just has insomnia all the time.

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Kip: I just feel like there’s room for all kinds of music in the world, and our band is about dudes and chicks hanging out and playing music. Doesn’t mean that’s the only answer to life. It’s what we like to do, it’s the kind of music we like to play, and it’s not like …

P: Calculated.

Kip: It’s not calculated at all.

A: There’s no world domination plan.

Catbirdman: I am intrigued by the name. Being pure of heart is just something that is stark (“That’s so gay,” says Peggy) and your album cover is stark. Where did it come from and what is it like to be pure at heart?

P: It’s sad but true. I don’t know what it’s like. It must be like heaven, I don’t know.

Kip: Sad but true seems right. Its a name of a short children’s story written by a friend of mine in Portland, Oregon, and the children’s story was called “The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.” The moral of it was that the time you spent when you were young with good friends (Peggy: “Wait Kip, you don’t have any friends … just kidding!”) is more important than, you know,  worldly accomplishment. It’s just about appreciating the experiences you have when you’re young and like, with your friends and hanging out and going on tour and traveling and stuff.

C: Are you trying to recreate that in your music?

A: It just comes out.

Kip: Our music is pretty natural. It’s just like who we are and what we do and it’s not like really thought out that well. (Peggy: “It’s kind of like E E E E, A A A A, B B B B”) It’s a record of all the fun, weird …

P: I feel like our songs are really simple, but who we are comes out through the songs. That’s what’s special, cause like, obviously that’s who we are, really special … just kidding! (laughs)

C: Well the world seems to think you’re really special right now, and obviously you know there’s a huge buzz. I’ve tried to remain as unsullied by that as possible, and come with a pure heart as well, and you only get that in Baltimore.

Kip: Baltimore is so fun.

P: Guitar Center is awesome.

Kurt: Guitar center is not awesome.

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Kip: No, Baltimore’s great.

P: I really like Video Hippos from Baltimore. (Kurt: “Video Hippos are great.”) I love them. We played one show with them, with my old band I was in, which like, nobody knew who we were. I don’t know how he found out, but he found out about us, and he like, wrote me, “You wanna play a show?” They are really amazing, like two guys, it’s like Godhead Silo. Never mind, I digress, because Kip’s giving me a side glare.

Kip: Side glare? I wasn’t even looking at you.

C: I was thinking last week when I was listening to your record, that you guys got a really great mix, and it wasn’t until tonight when I was reading through the liner notes that I saw you mixed it here in Baltimore.

Kip: Yeah, Oh yeah. Archie!! [Archie Moore]

P: Archie!!!

A: That was so good.

Kip: Slumberland is based out of Maryland from the beginning. Mike Slumberland [a.k.a. Mike Schulman], who runs the record label went to University of Maryland in the mid ’80s and he had a cool college radio show. He started the label.

Kurt: They use the old computers that like used paper to like punch things out. Like punch cards.

A: This Slumberland thing is really cool cause it seem like all part of a weird club… well, not like a club, but, there’s a respect for everyone who’s been a part of it, and Archie was a part of it from … in so many different ways … and when we, you know, hooked up with Mike from Slumberland, and he was like “You should have Archie mix it.” And they were still in touch from way back in the day. It’s just all such good feelings between everyone who does it.

P: That sounds really trite but it’s true.

A: It’s totally true. It sounds really cheesy, “everyone gets along and everyone wants to help each other out.” But it just is that way. Like, he did it out of the goodness of his heart. He had a newborn and he took time out to do it and nevermind that, he’s also talented and he like made us sound awesome.

Kip: Seriously, I feel like the reason people appreciate the record is because of Archie’s involvement. He was like, “I know what bands you like, and I know what you want to sound like.”

A: He had a whole stack of albums there.

Kip: Yeah, it was really genuine and heartfelt. Yeah, he did it out of the decency of his time just to like, work with us. He was such a good guy.

P: It was also good just hanging out with him and talking about music with him and having sushi with him and everything.

Kip: He’s the coolest guy. Both Mike from Slumberland and Archie who mixed it are like the coolest dudes.

P: We loved hanging out with everyone.

A: It’s been like a charmed kind of existence. Because Mike’s been so awesome and Archie was so awesome.

C: So you guys hooked up with Slumberland relatively early in your existence?

Kip: Not really. The only record label that wanted to put our stuff out, so… (Laughter) Which is cool because they’re our favorite record label too. It’s actually their label we all really loved  growing up, and the fact that they wanted to be involved with it was really amazing. The one label we would’ve wanted to be with in our wildest dreams.

A: Yeah, we talked about it before … if it happened … that would be pie in the sky.

So, gentle reader, as the Pains enjoy their pie, please have another piece on me. Browse through the older posts and comment on what you like and don’t like, and do come back to check in again for Part 2 of this interview, more photos, and maybe a song or two.

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Stay Alive
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Tenure Itch (Live KEXP 2-9-09)

Apr 21 0 comments
Deerhunter, Indie Music, Shoegaze

Deerhunter’s Rainwater Cassette Exchange

deerhunter_rainwaterDeerhunter have just announced a new EP to be released June 8 (online release: May 18). Groovy stuff; sounds to me like they’ve been listening to the Piper at the Gates of Dawn and the latest Animal Collective album. Shoegaze goes psychedelic.

Deerhunter: Rainwater Cassette Exchange