5 posts tagged “beck”
)Top 5 Albums of 2008
1. Beach House – Devotion
Their first album was nice.
Occasionally heavy-lidded and aimless (as in, the mind wanders when
listening), but nice, certainly a curious take on dream pop. Then Devotion
came out and it was like Beach House even further demented the dreamy stargaze domain,
in, you know, a really, really attractive way.
With Victoria’s
sad, velvet voice (not at all, never ever cute,
for godsake), the off-putting pace, the hollow beat, the moodiness, the
sometimes romantic/sometimes painful lyrics, the harpsichord, that Daniel
Johnston cover…it just works. How often do all the pieces fall into
place? It may never happen again. Enjoy, Beach House.
2. The Raveonettes – Lust Lust Lust
So the Raveonettes are getting fuzzier and less defined, and moving further from those neo-noir 60s Phil Spector-inspired melodies into darker territory. Darker, louder territory. Like, seriously loud. I’d probably be less impressed with this album if it wasn’t for the sheer enormity of sound. Every song has a kind of feverish build-up; by the end it’s bye-bye future hearing, hello creepy weird aural enlightenment, or something.
3. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Real Emotional Trash
What I like about Real Emotional Trash is that it combines the best of the Pavement core—bizarre/absurdist lyrics and sprawling noise/extended “jammin’/freak deaky guitar rifts. This album sounds very Malkmus; it isn’t the work of a middle-aged rocker desperate to fit in one last reinvention and prove to the twenty-somethings that he’s “still got it.” No, Malkmus hardly seems concerned with too much change; he may choose different directions with each of his solo albums, but there’s always a comfortable familiarity. (And, for the record, he’s definitely still got it.)
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4. Santogold – Santogold
Let’s just get the obvious out of the way: yes, she reminds you of M.I.A. Sure, Santogold sings through her nose, loves a crazy beat, and is scarily supa fly (intimidating to the average-looking), but if you actually listen to her album you’ll realize that she ain’t no M.I.A. Which isn’t to say that Santogold ain’t fabulous. Au contraire, it’s perfect downtown club music (for the mild, hip and white). You can bump, grind, convulse, jump, rapidly move your hands in front of your face, remain mostly still while nodding your head, twirl, whatever. Also, with the absence of any kind of political message you don’t even have to pretend that you care about real things.
5. The Magnetic Fields – Distortion
What an aptly titled album. I’m found of aptly titled things. I wish Animal Collective and Xiu Xiu would take note and start naming their albums “Weird Crazy Things That Sound Like Woodlawn Creatures and Kitchen Utensils.” It would be convenient for writing reviews. Anyway, Distortion is Stephen Merritt doing distortion, which means fuzzy, drone-y guitar that lovers can still swoon to, and sad/silly lyrics like “sober, you’re old and ugly; shit-faced, who needs a mirror” (“Too Drunk to Dream”).
Top 5 Songs of 2008
1. Beach House – “Heart of Chamber” (Devotion)
Honestly, I could have chosen any song from Devotion, but “Heart of Chamber” is the one that gives me the strongest heart palpitations (like remembering a teenage night that never happened). As I said before, it works, and who needs solid logic?
2. Beck – “Walls” (Modern Guilt)
My relationship with Beck is similar to my relationship with thrift shopping: 99% of the time I leave the store irritated and resentful; however, maybe once a year I find something absolutely stunning, like amazingly, disgustingly perfect that I forget about all the previous disappointments. “Walls” is my disgustingly perfect gold lamé romper that I will never wear again.
3. Okkervil River – “Lost Coastlines” (The Stand Ins)
Apparently there are (self-proclaimed) straight men out there that would “go gay” for Will Sheff. Who knew. I cannot make that same declaration, but I will say this: Jonathan Meiburg’s voice keeps me comfortably heterosexual.
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4. Benoît Pioulard – “Brown Bess” (Temper)
His name is Tom (hint: he’s not French). Tom taps into those same otherworldly arrangements that Zach Condon used to convince hipsters that foreign music could be edgy too. “Brown Bess” is just too pretty to ignore. I don’t know what he’s singing (it’s in English; he mumbles, I selectively listen), but similar to hearing a beautiful French phrase, do you even care?
5. Lucinda Williams (ft. Elvis Costello) – “Jailhouse Tears” (Little Honey)
The whole album’s kind of a mess: a few old-school bluesy ballads, some terrible angry rockers, and a truly frightening AC/DC cover (Lucinda, no). However, this duet with Costello makes me smile because I think Lucinda’s being a bit cheeky, no?
Top 5 Bands to Think About in 2009
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1. Sybris
What: Anti-twee
indiepop
Where: Chicago, IL
Think about: “Oh
Man!” (Into the Trees, 2008)
More! http://myspace.com/sybris
What:
Halloween-voiced lad + pop music + geek beats
Where: St. Louis, MO
Think about: “Gamble”
(Classy Entertainment EP, 2008)
More! http://myspace.com/jumblingtowers
3. Alina Simone
What: Folk/punk
Where: Brooklyn, NY
Think about: “Half My
Kingdom” (Everyone is Crying Out to Me,
Beware, 2008)
More! http://myspace.com/alinasimone
4. The Pharmacy
What: Dirty rotten
indie rock
Where: New Orleans, LA
Think about: “Little
Toys on the Shelf” (Choose Yr. Own
Adventure, 2008)
More! http://myspace.com/pharmacy
5. Doomtree
What: White-friendly (read: non-threatening or “not too ghetto”) “smart” hip-hop
Where: Minneapolis, MN
Think about: “Dots
and Dashes” (Doomtree, 2008)
More! http://myspace.com/doomtree
Note: Doomtree is
extremely popular within their home state of Minnesota, but have they crossed the
border? Let me know.
Links:
www.weheartmusic.com
podcast.weheartmusic.com
news.weheartmusic.com
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An interesting thing to note is that whenever BECR make promotional appearances, they all wear dot-matrix images for masks.
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So I bought the starter boxset to Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. The box is kind of cool because it's shaped like an Amp and it comes with stickers and a guitar pick, plus the first five episodes of this Japanese Anime.
Like most anime series, it is very slow to build. I can summarize the first five episodes by telling you that they form their band "Beck".... but I guess the early episodes are really an introduction to all the characters.
Our lead character, Yukio, is a bit naive, but it's okay because he's only fourteen, also (unknown to him) the singer in the show.
The DVD extras are a "music video" and a rather lively commentary by Taliesin Jaffe and Christopher Bevins.
So, I found out that the catchy theme song to Beck is called "Hit in the USA" by Beat Crusaders, aka BECR.
The song's influences seems to Ramones-style, but more power pop and with an Engrish chorus of: "I was made to hit in America".
I believe the correct lyrics should be "I was made to be a hit in America", but somehow that extra letter just doesn't fit too well with the melodies... And because they're Japanese, you just accept the broken English.
Apparently they have a new album coming out on June 4th, 2008. Since I can't read Japanese, I can't really tell you much about it. Go to www.beatcrusaders.net for more information.
04/07/2008 08:09:56
vu
my♥posts
beatcrusaders.net
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So you like Beck and was thinking about picking up Odelay (1996). Well don't! Wait until January 29, 2008, because there's a Deluxe 2-disc version coming out. More details on our press page, featuring our new embed W♥M audio!
Excerpt from the press release:
Disc One of Odelay - Deluxe Edition adds to that original album two never before heard Dust Brothers-produced tracks from the Odelay sessions, "Inferno" and "Gold Chains," and "Deadweight" from the film A Life Less Ordinary. Disc Two's 16 selections include "Thunder Peel," co-produced by Mario Caldato Jr.; the U.N.K.L.E. (featuring James Lavelle) remix of "Where It's At," and Aphex Twin and Mickey P. remixes of "Devil's Haircut" (titled "Richard's Hairpiece" and "American Wasteland," respectively). Also heard are the once international-only b-sides "Clock," "Electric Music and The Summer People," "Lemonade," "SA-5," "Feather In Your Cap," "Erase The Sun," "000.000," "Brother," "Trouble All My Days," "Strange Invitation," "Devil Got My Woman," (a cover of the Skip James classic recorded at the original Sun Studios in Memphis before they closed their doors) and "Burro" -- a Spanish language version of Jackass recorded with a mariachi band.
Like many of you, I already own the original album. There are some really good songs off of Odelay, including "Devil's Haircut", "The New Pollution", and "Sissyneck".
In other Beck news, he's recently been nominated as "Best Solo Rock Performance" at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.
12/21/2007 08:53:24
vu
my♥posts
www.beck.com
Did you know the Devil has hair ?? In fact, there's a few songs about his hair... this is continuing with the Halloween theme, of course. By the way, there's way too many songs devoted to the Devil and Satan!! We'll have to save them for next Halloween.
PIRATE PRUDE
♥ myspace.com/pirateprude ♥ pirateprude.wordpress.com
Mark Freifeld got the name Pirate Prude from Helium's debut EP (see my article on Mary Timony/Helium).
"Devil's Hairslut" starts off very quiet, and then 25 seconds into the song you hear some guitars. There is this line in the song that goes "To dance with the Devil in the pale moon light" - and of course I just think of The Joker from Tim Burton's Batman (1989).
Pirate Prude's CD will be called "Exile In Circuitville", an obvious nod to Liz Phair's "Exile in Guyville" (which in turns got its name from the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street").
You can download this song, as well as a few others on ilike.
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BECK
♥ www.beck.com
Beck Hansen really doesn't need an introduction. You can read my review of his last CD on W♥M, and as I suspected, everyone loves him.
The main thing about this catchy song is that it's comprised mostly of samples. According to wikipedia, The drums are from Pretty Purdie's "Soul Drums" and the verses from Them's cover of James Brown's "Out of Sight". The guitar riff was taken from Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything".
I am including "I Can Only Give You Everything" for you to reference.
MOMUS
♥ www.imomus.com
I really love this Momus song, the "Hairstyle of the Devil". It sounds very Pet Shop Boy-ish, which is what I absolutely love about it.
Check out this great video on youtube. You should also read my Momus article.
The song ends with some lyrics lifted from the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" (see how all this comes around?)
If you know other Satan songs about his hair, let me know.
10/30/2007 02:10:43 vu my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com ilike.com/artist/Pirate+Prude
Beck (or rather his record company, Interscope), just re-released The Information in a special deluxe package on 27 February 2007. The package contain the original album, a remix bonus CD, and a DVD of lo-fi Beck home music videos (the video style are similiar to the one included in the deluxe Guero package). They're all very cheesy.
If you didn't pick up the original CD last October, then this new version might be worth waiting for, since the retail price is only $5 more (it retails for $20).
I'm including a photograph of the package and a remix song. I normally don't really like remixes, but these are actually pretty good. They often add new sounds and effects and change the song enough that it doesn't sound much like the original. As for the very boring covers, you're supposed to spruce them up with your own design using four sheets of stickers. But seriously, who does that?
On the topic of music companies re-releasing material, I've seen this trend happening a lot with DVDs. The movie company push out the movie, and then re-release the same movie with a bonus disc and/or packaging. It's kind of annoying for the fans of the movie who bought it the first time around. So I hardly ever buy DVDs the first time they release it, it's the simple truth. So record companies, listen up!
