Jesus Came Up Through the Ground So Dirrrrty

Page France @ the Court Street Theater in Harrisonburg, VA

In the last two months, I've seen Page France three times. First at MacRock, where it was actually my first time hearing them upon special recommendation from someone whose opinion I do trust. Second was a nite where I sped to the Middle East just in time to see them open for John Vanderslice, and left immediately after getting my fix, onward to a Warp showcase.

This past weekend the group from Marching Band, MD (not actually Baltimore) went on a four-day tour with Quite Scientific's Canada around the northeast. Playing very much the same songs I'd heard during their last two sets, it was not that there was anything particularly new about their performance, but it never manages to disappoint. Even something with as happy-go-lucky of a melody as "Say Wolf (In the Summertime)" is, as frontman Michael Nau put it, "for all you liars out there." "Junkyard" and "Jesus" are two of my personal favorites, and they never fail to manifest to my liking regardless of incapable soundmen or garbage acoustics. The recorded version of "Jesus" sorely deprives the track of its full potential that comes out when played live.


Page France @ Great Scott in Boston, MA

This is a band to see live. It's one thing to love their full-length, Hello, Dear Wind, and to buy their merch (which I point out because *I* did...an extreme rarity), but it's all about seeing the interaction of the band - particularly lovebirds Michael and Whitney - when they're in their element. Recently joining the Suicide Squeeze label - home of Crystal Skulls and Minus The Bear - this seems to be a promising move, as they're currently remastering their double-EP release, Pear and Sister Pinecone. For final thoughts, here is some additional info on the releases, from Michael's blog to mine:

Pear: "written and recorded this past winter...mostly in a corn field in western maryland. recorded to 4 track, edited by more advanced technology known as the computer. this is made up of 8 tracks - our wettest kiss to the pop/soul movement of the late 60's early 70's.. so, this work is for those of you with the loose hips."

Sister Pinecone: "this is a collection of 6 songs that were backlogged for months, years, lifetimes, from sporadic recording sessions. they were sifted through the '06 filter, and are now being made available. this work is for fans of those ratty moments that come to "fruition" via the wet, and suspiciously stinky basement."

He Said, She Said [Three]

"I wish we, myself included, would all stop pretending that We Have Sound was anything other than one fucking AMAZING song and a bunch of stoner garage-basement fourtrack jammy jam jams."

"Shut it. I love that album. Now go take two "If You Want"s and call me in the morning."

Tom Vek - "If You Want"

If you want lies then we'd better start confessing...

Beer, Brunch, and Burning Discos

Sidenote: Inspired by friends in other cities, I must acquire a mini-megaphone. I think it would be the perfect accompainment to a bike ride (Critical Mass or not) for someone as obnoxiously loud and shameless as myself.

Anyone selling?

Additionally, I'm waiting for the MoPod(tm) from the ITP kids over at NYU's grad program to get their asses moving and finish the product; four mini-speakers worked into your bag's shoulder strap to ensure safety while biking, combined with the ability to listen to your iPod.

...Because if there's anything worth missing about the suburbs, it's the opportunity to ride with headphones.

Buuut that's about it



And as far as music, a very nice bartender (whom I think I do know) at Bukowski's in Inman Square today was playing some fantastic music. Old, Rough Trade veterans Disco Inferno's 1995 album, In Debt . Described to me as a "less aggressive Joy Division," I can see the comparison, along with an inflection of Jesus & Mary Chain's greater moments.

Definitely an excellent record for sitting out by the sidewalk in Cambridge on a hot Memorial Day weekend afternoon. Thank you, Chekvar.

Tell All Your Friends And Tell All Your Enemies Too

Yeah Yeah Yeahs have announced an opportunity for fans to tear up their leggings and use up the rest of that green eyeshadow that's been lying around their artsy apartments. The band is looking to make a video for their next single, "Cheated Hearts" (easily the "Maps" of their latest and sophomore effort, Show Your Bones), which will most likely feature a Pollock-like splattering of all the over-the-top clips that they're sure to receive with this invite. Click for rules:



Pitchfork says.
Prefix says.
Resonator says.

I say...

Look, I'm not trying to win any points here, but I find this bit of information somewhat useful: Fever To Tell was an album I connected with while myself and every other hipster living in New York City was in need of "a summer album." 2003. That was it. Purchased shortly after its late April release, I remember melting to "Maps" throughout the hot Queens summer, and hearing my Primus, prog-rock loving roommate bash the album's worth for all its existence.

I missed the "Maps" fireworks. Turning my back for moments, I came around and suddenly everyone, everywhere was going yeah yeah for the Yeahs. I quickly brushed off any temptation to pull the "Ugh, I'm over it" bullshit due to their explosive fame because the truth of the matter is...Fever To Tell is a great album. (Not as good as Distiller's Coral Fang, but we can go into this another time...)

So after three years of extensive touring and having the beauty of "Maps" turn their lives inside-out and back again, the Little Band That Could returns with Show Your Bones. Sure, beer-spewing, superwoman frontlady Karen O has already confirmed that it is, indeed, picking up the ball where "Maps" left off, but I believe there's more to the album than the unmistakable pull of "Cheated Hearts."

Upon first hearing "Gold Lion," I was sorely unimpressed, but viewing the album as a whole, it all came together. I'd never understood how a song like "The Sweets" could end up getting stuck in my head, considering I'd never thought my ears would ever reach the song's end. "Way Out" and "Mysteries" are sonically delicious. Also, "Dudley" - the most underrated song on the album. "You'll take it over / and make it mine" is sung with such gentle bite, it screams from the pit of lioness den.

I think the best albums are the ones that make one corner of your mouth tighten upon first listen. Look away. One song grabs you, and the next week...something else. You can take each new fascination as entering the core of an album's content through various doors, trying to see every side of the situation that these three are trying to impose on their listeners. "Turn Into" is the latest track that's working on me, guiding me to that doorknob, and ready to suck on the album's marrow a little more. Ear pressed against the door, "I'll hear it in my head real low...turn into the only thing that ever known."

Bottom Line: It's good to mature with each album. YYYs have done so in a way that Interpol did not with Antics, though they still get an E for effort (hey boys, 3rd x a charm?). Anyone who puts this album down because (a) it's the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and they got too popular too fast or (b) it's the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and nothing can beat the perfection that was Fever To Tell...shove it.

Maybe you should go listen to the album.
Kthnx.

I don't even know what it's like not to go back to you...

Dee Eee Ay Dee Arr Ay Emm Ohh Enn Eee Ess

Deathwish darlings Modern Life Is War are going back on tour! 2005's Witness is a solid hardcore album, and one that inspired and intrigued much of the Long Island scene and beyond. Though the band hails from none other than the all-famous...uhh...Marshalltown, IA...hmm. Nevermind. Not much to say about that. I'm a bit sad that the closest they're coming to Boston is actually Worcester (being that their label is based in Salem), but I may make the trip myself.

June
06.08.2006 Menomonee Falls, WI @ Old Orchard Inn
06.09.2006 Worcester, MA @ QVCC
06.10.2006 Levittown, NY @ Club Ritual
06.11.2006 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
06.12.2006 Washington, DC @ The Nation (Side Stage)
06.13.2006 Virginia Beach, VA @ Peppermint Beach Club
06.14.2006 Wilmington, NC @ Soapbox Loandro-Lounge
06.15.2006 Jacksonville, FL @ Thee Imperial
06.16.2006 Orlando, FL @ Wills Pub
06.17.2006 Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl
06.18.2006 Birmingham, AL @ Cave 9
06.19.2006 Nashville, TN @ The Muse
06.20.2006 Memphis, TN @ Rally Point
06.21.2006 Metairie, LA @ The High Ground
06.22.2006 Houston, TX @ Java Jazz
06.23.2006 Corpus Christi, TX @ House Of Rock
06.24.2006 San Antonio, TX @ White Rabbit
06.25.2006 Lubbock, TX @ Winchester Pavillion
06.26.2006 Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
06.27.2006 Tempe, AZ @ The Clubhouse
06.28.2006 San Diego, CA @ Epicenter
06.29.2006 San Francisco, CA @ Pound SF
06.30.2006 Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
July
07.01.2006 Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
07.02.2006 Las Vegas, NV @ The Rock N Java
07.04.2006 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
07.05.2006 Kansas City, MO @ El Torreon
07.06.2006 St. Louis, MO @ Creepy Crawl
07.08.2006 Erie, PA @ Forward Hall
07.09.2006 Auburn, NY @ Auburn Public Theatre
07.16.2006 Marshalltown, IA @ Midnight Ballroom




Modern Life Is War - "Clarity"

He Said, She Said [Two]

"A year! It's been more than a year and that goddamn, motherfucking, bloody "Mr. Brightside" still cuts my chest, grabs my heart, rips it out, and throws it on the dance floor!"

"Even the Thin White Duke remix?"

"....Fuck you."

The Killers - "Mr. Brightside (Thin White Duke Remix)"

Let The Movement Begin

In the 1980s, the dance and new wave scene became so infiltrated with bands that everyone began to sound the same. As an attempt to salvage the scene, a vast majority of the bands built a time machine, and transported themselves to the late twenty-first century. Meeting with the same results in the future, they have been travelling back in time one by one. Rather than going in one large group, the bands decided to be dropped off in various time locations between the Then and Now. One thing was decided though, they all wanted no part in the twentieth century. They were over it.

So with the arrivals of Interpol, Bloc Party, She Wants Revenge, Arctic Monkeys, Test Icicles, Protokoll, and so on, there is reason to suspect that these are, in fact, Ghosts From 80s Past. Perhaps there were slight cosmetic surgeries involved in the process of modifying their Reagan rock with super-future synthesizers, but I think you're picking up what I'm putting down here.

But this is neither here nor there. Save it for the day that Chuck Eddy inherits Area 51, and then science and rock & roll explode and we start worshipping guitars and Moogs.

The point I'm trying to make regards a grossly underrated band from the UK. The aesthetically pleasing British fivesome White Rose Movement - named after the Nazi resistance circa WWII - was formed, of all places, on a hippie commune. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine...



...this to sprout from such a topsoil, but I speak the truth.

They've already played Making Time. Already played Coachella. Their album, Kick, has just been released, but has already been heard and remixed around the nation. The White Rose Movement is a gripping sound. Upon fiftieth-plus listen of their album's self-titled opener, I sit here typing humbly; not even near a dance floor, the organs in my chest are swelling up the way that only really. fucking. good. dance music can.

Then the original mix of "Girls In The Back" kicks in to take over, and I sit with my head tilted back. Staring at the ceiling, listening for several minutes.

This is perfect.

This is exactly what we are looking for.

And apparently I'm not the only one.

"Movement," indeed.




I've just left the house, I'm through making out with my dreams...


This is where I want to be.

Cliffs To Tassels On A Rainy Day

Although I've glanced romantically at my bike each time the sun has come out today, my stubbornness to stay inside has been hacked, repeatedly, the thunderstorms that Boston is undergoing today. Additionally, rest is a good plan, as recovery from hangovers and late nights are in order.

Therefore I've stayed away from most things in the blogosphere; visited no record stores, and checked no music news. I have, however, been listening to Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works, Volume 2 while quarantining myself to my kitchen to make the following vegan goods, from scratch:

1. Cumin spice bread
2. Oatmeal-banana milk
3. Quinoa (which turned into...)
4. Rustic Yam & Quinoa salad

No means of caffeine can help, today. And that's fine. It's a day particularly for NPR or this Aphex Twin double-album. I was moments from listening to Botch, but quickly realized that thunderstorms + baking + leftover hangover were a cause for celebration.

IDM party!

And if you're going to sample this album, focus on "rhubarb" - the best of the discs.
And yes, this will evolve into an mp3 blog. Patience, grasshopper.

Cuts Across My Brain

Happy Birthday to N.Cigs/Faust of the Arlington-based grindcore outfit, The Taste Of Silver. Quarter-century killer!

Definitely many good birthdays this week. August must be a good month for awesome people to get it on...

So Mr. Exitfare and I went out last nite with the intentions of making our way to either The Pill for my first Boston dance party or an abandoned church for a dance party that was apparently powered by a generator.

But neither happened, as in the mix of talking about everything from the current blogosphere to the embarrasing things we did as budding writers in 8th grade, we just got completely wasted until The Silhouette kicked us out. Additionally, it had been a long time since I'd walked around in a city at 2am drinking a beer with no regard or trying to hide it.

Two main points:

1. The Duke Spirit's, Cuts Across The Land is a great record. A la old PJ Harvey, singer Liela Moss has one of the best female voices I've heard in a long time. "Love Is An Unfamiliar" name is brilliant, and their live performance is generally one of the best I've seen in Boston considering there were not nearly enough people at TT the Bear's. The UK band adds a lot of soul into the heart of the rock n' roll that they play, which is apparent throughout the entirety of their very versatile and cohesive debut album. "You Were Born Inside My Heart" is probably their best, now that I've gotten over the initial "Love Is An Unfamiliar Name" obsession. Another fantastic track: "Bottom Of the Sea."

2. I don't remember the last time I woke up wearing my sneakers, in addition to everything else. Yes, I was that drunk. The subject of this post is not a coincidence.

He Said, She Said [One]

The first of many quotes.
Grumpy music snobs (yours truly included) bitch and moan.

"Also...i hate it when kids in that indie mix community ask for 'really good hip hop.'

And by GOOD, they mean WHITE.

And by WHITE, they mean ANDRE 3000 CIRCA 2004."

Pretty Good Career

(rant-mode enabled.)

Ahh, Tori. Were it not for you, I may have never been as obscenely fascinated with music as I am today. You were my adolescent obsession, and I still have all 8 copies of the first pressing of your third album, Boys For Pele. (The reason why is even sillier, and too irrelevant to post here.) Nonetheless, "Caught A Lite Sneeze" is still the greatest music video ever, largely because it can still give me a pleasurable feeling of vertigo every time I watch it. "1,000 Oceans" will always remind me of how I cried over getting dumped when I first heard the song, and "God" will never cease to produce an extended bite of the lower lip. Once one of the most interesting artists of the 90s in all creative facets - sonically, album concept, artwork, music videos, tour setlists, etc. - her die-hard fanbase wore the badge of their obsession like a purple heart.

Now, sInce the release of her last LP,The Beekeeper, in 2005, I've been on a steady decline from Tori Amos fandom, believing that album to be the material example of all that went wrong with her career.

Perhaps after the first two albums, something happened to her during: the creation of the untameable Boys For Pele (break-up, and [unexpected?] secret pregnancy at the end of its tour); the completion the four elements with From the Choirgirl Hotel (miscarriage); the making of the always-iffy "double-album," To Venus And Back (married her sound engineer); the release of the questionably fascinating album Scarlet's Walk (had a baby).

I think...she...ran out of ideas.

BUT HEY! Guess what...this post is actually NOT about The Beekeeper.

No longer available, a VHS was put out many years ago that paled in comparison to the Little Earthquakes tape or the unforgettable Concert For R.A.I.N.N. (from January of '97, when she was at the her creepiest having just experienced her first miscarriage only one month prior). Finally, this past Valentine's Day saw the release of Fade To Red, a DVD collection of her videos spanning her career's entirety, along with audio commentary and other special features. Though I'd ridiculed it around the time of its release, saying I'd "never waste my money on that bullshit" (again, still riding the anti-Beekeeper angst train), I finally decided to rent it and see - once and for all - how right I was.

And I am.

Worst videos on Fade To Red:
1. "Sleeps With Butterflies" - poor editing, boring, stupid concept (and the song sucks)
2. "Sweet The Sting" - camera focus going in and out giving me a headache, boring, and Tori is basically showing off her wardrobe (ATTN TORI AMOS: Who made the "Hung Up" video? Madonna? Yeah...let's keep it that way, kthnx.)
3. "China" - I know, it's from her first album, so I should therefore be screaming "Genius!" but you know what? That video is boring as well. She wrote the song when she was 11, and the video is her wandeirng around the beach while the camera does an odd stop-and-go motion that makes you mildly nauseous if you are not a die-hard fan of the song.

Best videos on Fade To Red:
Everything else.

I'm not kidding. Everything else. Caught A Lite Sneeze. God. Past The Mission. Hey Jupiter. 1,000 Oceans. Raspberry Swirl. Pretty Good Year. Bliss. Talula.

All of it.

Even "Winter," which I'd always thought was a bit dull, but it seems she and Cindy Palmano kind of had one good idea during her first album, Little Earthquakes, and just ran with it.

But is Fade To Red worthy of ownership for each and every Toriphile that has ever carried such a name for themselves? Yes. Absolutely. It will, at the least, redeem some of the seemingly irrevocable damage that The Beekeeper inflicted by ever coming into existence.

(/rant.)

So, in closing:

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Album


Greatest Album In the History Of the World


A Very, Very Worthy Item To Own

Does That Make Me Crazy?

First, a quick note - this week brings us another birthday worth noting. The founder of Exitfare has gotten a year older, and the blog itself has made its first run around the block. Having created it on his birthday in 2005, it's grown to an impressive size in the last three-sixty-five, so give it a look. I check it often, myself.

But now, on to business...

Finally, finally, the new Gnarls Barkley album, St. Elsewhere has made its way into my heavy rotation. I'd stayed away from downloading or streaming "Crazy" because I wanted to hear the album's entirety. One shot, no single or sneak preview. The hype monster that had grown all around the duo's name had become so big and scary that I simply had to give in to it.



Ahh Gnarls...half Cee-Lo, for whom I'd loved madly during the days of Cee-Lo Green (especially 2004's ...Is The Soul Machine), and half Danger Mouse, who catapulted himself into notoriety with the Grey Album - a perfect mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatle's White Album - which is the only release I can think of in the last several years that was an unauthorized, fairly-illegal musical venture that blew its way through the charts.

St. Elsewhere is going to make its way into many people's top ten this year. Lacking anything that can be considered a lull in the album, it plays well from start to finish, giving Cee-Lo the kind of breathing room he needs to stretch his versatile singing. My personal favorite aspect of the album, always, is the lyrics. Always something that has kept me hooked, whether it was Goodie Mobb, Cee-Lo Green, or older Gnarles. After months of brouhaha, you'll still want to get your hands on this gem.

A-With-Ah Teeth-Ah!

Yesterday, between 6 and 6:30pm, the sun came out in Boston for the first time in about 10 days. I think many of us up here in the Northeast had forgotten what it looked like to the see the city in more vivid color, and the three hour post-rain bike ride provided much of that. This was cause for celebration, so riding to Grasshopper - the Asian vegan/vegetarian food joint in Allston - was in order.

But there is greater cause for celebration - today Trent Reznor turns 41. The man behind the moniker of Nine Inch Nails is currently preparing for a six-week tour that will bring him all around the US, once again, in support of his latest album, With Teeth. Additionally, he'll be touring with Peaches and Bauhaus.

More thoughts on why you should be admonished if you've never heard Bauhaus later, but don't worry for now - help is on the way. In the meantime, whether you have all of Reznor's Halos or only an old copy of 1993's The Downward Spiral, be sure to give them a listen at some point today.

I'd been a steady fan of With Teeth since the middle of April 2005, but talking with friends of mine who found it to be disappointing in Reznor's line of work, I've been reconsidering my perspective on the album...since January. My fanaticism for NIN has lasted at least ten years, at this point, and it'll be some time before I've decided whether to hold it up alongside his other genius works, or toss it in the same pile as Tori Amos' most recent and most atrocious release, The Beekeeper. (Being a long-time fan of Amos' work as well, moreso than any other artist, that pile is not one that any musician wants to be in.)

The thing I'll leave you with for Reznor's birthday is a strange dedication to a town he lived and thrived in for many years: New Orleans. After last year's destruction of hurricane Katrina, Reznor was able to access some of the worst parts of town via the mayor's permission, and shot some graphic photos of the destruction that had occured from the event. You can view them here. I've gotten the impression that Reznor, like many from the New Orleans area, fears that many Americans outside of the south will find it easy to forget about the tragedies of last year's flooding. This is one of his efforts to remind aside from his copious donations to relief efforts.

Mish-Mash Monday Musings (McSweeney's, "Meat," and Music)

POPULAR MUSICIANS IF ENGLAND HAD WON THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
BY S.F. PURSCHWITZ
- - - -
Nine Centimetre Nails
50 Pence
98 Degrees Celsius
Tha Dogg Kilogram
Kilometres Davis

Warning: If McSweeney's is not a website that you visit on a frequent and/or daily basis, you should seriously reconsider your aspirations in life on a day-to-day basis. I advise you to immediately reorganize your web browser bookmarks. Do yourself a favor because odds are your level of sarcasm is as high as Ian McKaye.

*

And on a completely non-music related binge, if you're going to invest in fake meat, consider Yve's Veggie Cuisine from now until the day you die. It's all vegan, as well, and my first experience with the salami slices + spicy mustard + toasted spelt bread was a cause for celebration. I'm sold.

*

But of course, I have to finish off with a word about music. (An extrapolation of one of my current top ten recommendations.)


[Luca Venizia, a.k.a. Drop The Lime]

In approximately one hour, it will not only be Tuesday, May 16th, but it will also be the release date of We Never Sleep by New York born 'n raised Drop The Lime. Coming out on Tigerbeat6 - the label project of electronic sweetheart, Kid606 - it's a release I'm very excited about, given that it's been about five or six years since a record of this genre has made me care as much as the first, second, and every following occassion that I've played We Never Sleep. In the car, on the treadmill, going to sleep, waking up, breathing in, breathing out...

Drop The Lime - "Wake Up Call"

Purchase!

Wolf Mother's Day

In honor of Mother's Day, I'd like to dedicate a review of the self-titled debut from the Australian trio, Wolfmother. Doesn't quite seem like your typical choice for a maternal appreciation, but perhaps this sheds some light on how unique of a woman my mother is. You see, I was not raised in a Beatles house. By the time I hit college, I felt quite the outsider for having my only real exposure to the Liverpool quartet being several songs from Revolver and a few spins of Sgt. Pepper's.

My house was one of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Queen, and The Who. (And yes, there was Yanni and many lesser known Greek pop artists, but that's besides the point.) I could be bending the truth, but I swear I once heard my mother say that "The Beatles are for pussies." My mother, bless her soul, does not have that dirty of a mouth, but my memory instinctively tells me this phrase was uttered from her mouth sometime during my college years.

With that said, I have all intentions of getting my mother a copy of the new Wolfmother album, stat. Though she's never claimed to be a Black Sabbath fan (another one of the record's blaring influences), I think she will find elements of her favorite classic rock within the twelve flawless tracks that make up W-Mom's debut.

Another thing about this Wolfmother album: I've had it for ages, but was so hung up on Wolf Parade, Wolf Eyes, Guitar Wolf, or nothing at all that I just hadn't gotten around to it. After several positive review headlines and a CMJ cover passing my eyes, I decided to give the album a listen. Opening with "Dimension," I lunged for my volume knob as I was thrown off-guard by Andrew Stockdale's rock 'n roll holler, not expecting to be greeted by a banshee of a Black Zeppestones nature, followed by a Sabbath-esque fuzz. Not a trace of tongue-in-cheek. Not a slab of meat left lying around. This is not rock on 'roids, but an invocation of all things that classic rock meant to pass on with the unavoidable genres that were to come and obliterate its mainstream existence (i.e. new wave, goth, hair metal, grunge, electroclash, hip hop, and so on).

And I'll say this, too: Jack White proclaims that The Raconteurs is THE rock band he's always fantasized about having (go read the NME interview). He said it with such confidence, and such fervor, but I can only wonder...Jack, darling, how hard did your bite your lip when you first heard this Wolfmother album?

Because I know you did.
Especially...when you heard "Tales."


And maybe that says it all.




With that, thank you, Mom, for being so rock 'n roll, and not making me listen to "pussy music" as a kid. Happy Mother's Day.

"Your nimble feet make prints in my sand"

Six months and change after the release of Bjork's video collection for her latest full-length, Medulla, I finally caught up to receiving it amongst the endless list that is my Netflix queue. Receiving my e-mail notification that it'd be next in line, I asked myself how many videos from the collection I'd actually caught via Internet or television so far.

Zero.

Although thoughts on this DVD release are well past the point of anyone caring, I'd still like to add my two cents.

Similar to the beauty of the "Pagan Poetry" video for 2001's Vespertine, the enveloping "Oceania" video (which you can view, here) features a diamond-studded Bjork dancing (interpretively!) in an underwater setting amongst an array of CG creatures. "Who Is It?" is a case in which Bjork uses an alternative version of the track to make a video, one that happens to be twee as all hell, as she scampers around a barren landscape in a dress made of silver bells, while little children dressed in similar garb move around like lost synchronized swimmers out of water. "Triumph Of A Heart" you may have caught on TV, as its ludicrous story of wifebeater-wearing cat and Bjork (whose character is a mix of Party Girl a la Parker Posey vs. trashy, alcoholic trailerpark chic) are lovers in quarrel, and night of rebellion on her part brings them back together. (It's cool until the cat grows to human size and starts "dancing" with her in their living room. Wtf ever, B.) "Desired Constellation" is a song that focuses heavily on the lyrics by having a minimal aesthetic - stars and the constellations they form when viewed with different outcomes of the paths that are drawn between them. And tadpoles. (I think.)

Oh yes, and floating limbs. Can't forget that.

All is well, until we get to "Where Is The Line?," a track that features Mike Patton, Rhazel, and the Icelandic Choir on vocals, and the video becomes a interpretive dance gone wrong. In a barn, Bjork is weighed down from head to toe with sacks, and from underneath her emerges a human being slathered in white paint and placenta-like gel coating its skin and oozing from its mouth. Throwing itself around to the jagged arrhythmia of the song, it is eventually covered in the barn's hay, and...well, maybe it's best for both of us if you seek it out yourself.

There are times that I understand the intricacies of Bjork's work, and others that I am simply left questioning my decade of devout fanaticism towards Bjork's art.

If you're not familiar with Bjork's career, Medulla and its video collection may be a bit too bizarre. If you're a veteran to her releases, however, it's an imperative task to get as intimate with her visual endeavors as with her sonic ones.

Thus Spoke Riverscuomo

I'd mentioned the mysterious allergy attack that has been polluting my chest and throat for the past week, so I'd planned to stay in today and catch up on all the little nooks & crannys of the english muffin that is music news. (Read it again; it makes sense, I promise.) I didn't expect, however, to happen across the news that The Rentals are getting back together.

Even creepier was that I was, in fact, listening to "Waiting," from 1995's Return Of The Rentals when I happened across this. For those of you that need a refresher, Weezer bassist Matt Sharp ran off in the mid 90s to start a pop band heavily laiden with keyboards and forefronted, fuzzy basslines. Or...how about this...if you're friends with P, well then you're friends with me. Ring a bell?

Thought so.

Finding more information on the Pitchfork news feed, I was particularly put on pause by this paragraph:

"[Sharp] added that his former Weezer bandmate, Rivers Cuomo, was especially influential. 'I think probably I saw Rivers less than a year ago, and he was really kind,' Sharp said. 'He's been one of the big people for me, who have been very supportive, going, "that's what you should be doing with your life"...in the sense of writing pop music again.'"

Well, well, well. I'll admit I'm not too over the phenomenon of 90s bands on a reunion-binge. I think I was too busy writing goth poetry and listening to Tori Amos in my adolescence to feel like any of these pop song and dances are ever really over. Nonetheless, Rivers...Mr. I heart Vipassana, am married but currently live in a Harvard dorm room, and wrote that song "Beverly Hills"...came through to tell Matt that really, instead of starting up a new project, he should resurrect the Rental's name from its peaceful, fairly legendary grave, and carry on with it.

Perhaps The Rentals was Matt Sharp's real moment in the spotlight, but this doesn't mean he shouldn't continue on while starting over. Aside from Sharp, the only other founding member to be part of the new Rentals round-up is Rachel Haden. Everyone else is new.

I'm TELLING you, in MY eyes, the PIXIES started doing this shit, and now EVERYONE is on it. Fine! Fine, fine fine! But GOD if you're going to reunite, do it right!

Reunion tour - (n.) when all founding members of a band get back together to (a) bring back old material to old fans or (b) bring back old material to fans that caught on after their initial break-up with the means of testing out even newer material. What responses from the audience this tour will provoke will often determine the possibility of there being a new record. (Note: re-releases DO NOT count).

But in all honesty, I'm not disappointed in the line-up. I have more faith in Matt than I ever did in Rivers (save the existence of the genius that is Pinkerton, and the fact that "Perfect Situation" is a great single), and anticipate the possibility of Boston being one of the main markets that they pass through on their small U.S. tour.

Endnote: If you do not own The Return Of The Rentals, I highly recommend getting a hold of it. Necessity for your record collection. If you're too lazy to go out to your record store, or you're also in Boston and are unwilling to go out into the monsoon of rain, click the album cover to buy the damn thing on Amazon for as low as a dollar-bloody-nineteen.



/rant

Appetizers, to start.

Day 1. Let's start with the power of suggestion.

What you should be listening to right now:

1. Sound Team - Movie Monster
2. Drop The Lime - We Never Sleep
3. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
4. Placebo - Meds
5. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Solider
6. SpankRock - YoYoYoYoYo
7. Justice - Waters Of Nazareth
8. Elf Power - Back To The Web
9. American Princes - Less And Less
10. AFX - Chosen Lords

The entire point of this blog is to keep the music journalist in me - that had been alive and well for five years - kicking while taking it easy with the freelance writing. Additionally, I just want to rant.

So, expect the following:
+reviews
+live reviews
+open letters
+rants
+news

In the non-music vein, I'll warn you all that I'm a fan of bikes and health via vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. Though I'm not that adept at cycling, and am currently coming over a questionable case of bronchitis/strep/allergies/laryngitis/one of the above, I'm trying to feel out Boston in regards to those two. With music, it'll be endless.

Mission: "I can promise nothing but enough sarcasm and sincerity to keep you interested. Read on."