If the only Rufus Wainwright song you have on you iTunes is his or "Across the Universe" cover, you're missing out on one hell of a songwriter.
Theatrical, decadent, explicit and honest, Wainwright consistently manages to bare his soul and pour his heart on top of yours.
His voice is like a stage voice gone flat, and that's okay. Rich and fluid, but pained and just so unique. Varied instrumentation and plenty of string arrangements create a baroque-sounding symphony of a melancholy, homosexual man. (read:awesome, if you like that sort of thing?)
Scores and scores of musicians play on Wainwright's records--a few who are known, most who aren't. It's refreshing to see musicians reach out to others when they're trying to craft their record. There's no isolation, and his records end up being these unfolding panoramas, with all kinds of combinations.
The first record of his that I heard was "Poses," god what a great CD. The opening track, "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk." is a favorite song of mine. So fluid, so simple. And he plays with keys so well! He can change the mood without letting the song freeze, his melodies are always moving. (if that makes any sense...watch that one ^ and you'll see what i mean).
I love how he makes simple, everyday things such tales. Great with metaphor, too. His themes are consistently the same--heartbreak, society, the usual of a songwriter--but his lyrics strike a balance between colloquial and creative. He manages an optimistic desperation--you savor the sadness but you're not saturated by it. And he's got a sense of humor--poking fun at himself with just the right amount of cheek (see "Old Whore's Diet).
The man just drips of style. Videos feature artful decadence, but there's something almost mocking about it. (See April Fools)
I'm dying to see him live.
Listening Rufus when you're kind of bummed out can be uplifting--his melodies sound like they belong on Broadway, so there's an element of theatrics that's ultimately cheerful if you're into that sort of sound. A Rufus Wainwright CD is great if you're spending the night alone and wish you weren't. He just sounds like he's lonely, too.
Wainwright's for a certain kind of taste, that's for sure. If you're not into stuff that's really traditionally orchestrated (or if you can't get over the gay factor) you probably won't find much depth in it. But if you're looking for something that's fashionable and flavored with just the right amount of sass, he's a fantastic, fantastic find.
A modern minstrel if i ever heard one:
Poses
(Beautiful performance, beautiful, honest song.)
And above all, an entertainer:
Oh, What a World
(Although...really? Why witches? I don't really get it, but that's okay. Do your thing, man.)
Friday, August 8, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
8/5/08
I'm glad I was there when emo happened. I know "emo" as we've come to define is nearly two decades in the making, but for me, around 2002-2005 is where it all began, where all these artists who seemed to fit me started creeping out of the closet (really, I was just a lonely kid on Limewire)
Jesse Lacey, Adam Lazzarra, John Nolan, Andrew McMahon, Jim Adkins, (and for theatrical measure) Conor Oberst...those guys were writing my fucking soundtrack.
Violence, guns and car crashes from TBS or Brand New, lonely-awkward guy heartbreak from SoCo or Straylight Run, and the madness and drama wrapped up in Bright Eyes' "Fevers and Mirrors"...those kind of songs taught me about love and relationships and people as much as chick flicks marketed toward teenage girls, or Jane Austen or wherever we get all our ideals from.
It was all so bright-sounding, so new to me and so true-to-my-own life. Looking back some of the stories are tragic, some are just plain whiny, and some of the lyrics really fucking suck.
Jimmy Eat World was big, too--the first time I realized SoCo's Konstantine referenced "For Me This is Heaven" I felt like I was discovering a tomb of buried treasure.
Then Elliott Smith's "From a Basement on a Hill" was released when I was 16, and I found out about a whole bunch of other stuff. After lots of classic rock up til high school,combined with lots of Tori Amos from ballet class, trembling songwriting like his was some kind of music for my "still-not-bleeding" ears.
Then there was the first Spill Canvas record, Sunsets and Car Crashes. god such a cheesy title, but I listened to that thing every waking moment. I must've burned 5 copies of that thing because I kept breaking or scratching the ones I'd carry around with me. I preached that record like it was the damn third testament, pawning it off to anyone who would listen to see if it got to them the way it got to me.
I think I had it before it was actually released, too (zomg!!) and I remember hearing different studio versions of the songs and being like "what the fuck happened to my songs!" It's especially noticeable on "Caterpillars" or the backup vocals on the title track.
Made me smile when I heard his single on the XM radio station at work. "All Over You" or whatever. I had to go out and buy that CD when it came out, too. I had to see what he did. It sounds exactly the same to me, the same kind of writing, same kind of phrases all direct and dramatic and frustrated and insistent.
I've made leaps and bounds in my emotional and musical maturity in the past five years, but I hope that fucking CD will always have that same kind of magic to me.
What very well might be on every mix CD i made sophomore year of high school:
Something Vague
(Sing me to death, Conor Oberst! This guy just wails...let's see how his solo album, stripped of the Bright Eyes name, fares with his fans.)
Embers and Envelopes
(I forgot how much I liked Mae. The have a new CD that I really want to hear, but for some reason it would be weird.)
Cute without the "e"
(I never would've admitted loving this song, but you bet I did.)
Punk Rock Princess
(So bright. So bouncy. So cuffed-wrists holding hands. Ah, memories! I still listen to this song, it is so fucking cute, and somehow still sarcastic. And look at McMahon in his sweater. He looks/sounds so young!)
Sweetnesshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
(Don't ask how I responded when I saw that Paramore was covering that. So many wires in my head got crossed.)
And of course...
The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
I remember watching that video to death. "Your Favorite Weapon" was an instant favorite as soon as I heard it, for whatever reason, I downloaded it, I think, after hearing Seventy Times Seven. When I looked them up and realized they had just released this second record...well, next time I was at the mall with my mom I took my restaurant paycheck and bought "Deja Entendu." Peeled through those liner notes, I couldn't believe what this dude was saying and how it sounded.
Still fucking love that song.
Jesse Lacey, Adam Lazzarra, John Nolan, Andrew McMahon, Jim Adkins, (and for theatrical measure) Conor Oberst...those guys were writing my fucking soundtrack.
Violence, guns and car crashes from TBS or Brand New, lonely-awkward guy heartbreak from SoCo or Straylight Run, and the madness and drama wrapped up in Bright Eyes' "Fevers and Mirrors"...those kind of songs taught me about love and relationships and people as much as chick flicks marketed toward teenage girls, or Jane Austen or wherever we get all our ideals from.
It was all so bright-sounding, so new to me and so true-to-my-own life. Looking back some of the stories are tragic, some are just plain whiny, and some of the lyrics really fucking suck.
Jimmy Eat World was big, too--the first time I realized SoCo's Konstantine referenced "For Me This is Heaven" I felt like I was discovering a tomb of buried treasure.
Then Elliott Smith's "From a Basement on a Hill" was released when I was 16, and I found out about a whole bunch of other stuff. After lots of classic rock up til high school,combined with lots of Tori Amos from ballet class, trembling songwriting like his was some kind of music for my "still-not-bleeding" ears.
Then there was the first Spill Canvas record, Sunsets and Car Crashes. god such a cheesy title, but I listened to that thing every waking moment. I must've burned 5 copies of that thing because I kept breaking or scratching the ones I'd carry around with me. I preached that record like it was the damn third testament, pawning it off to anyone who would listen to see if it got to them the way it got to me.
I think I had it before it was actually released, too (zomg!!) and I remember hearing different studio versions of the songs and being like "what the fuck happened to my songs!" It's especially noticeable on "Caterpillars" or the backup vocals on the title track.
Made me smile when I heard his single on the XM radio station at work. "All Over You" or whatever. I had to go out and buy that CD when it came out, too. I had to see what he did. It sounds exactly the same to me, the same kind of writing, same kind of phrases all direct and dramatic and frustrated and insistent.
I've made leaps and bounds in my emotional and musical maturity in the past five years, but I hope that fucking CD will always have that same kind of magic to me.
What very well might be on every mix CD i made sophomore year of high school:
Something Vague
(Sing me to death, Conor Oberst! This guy just wails...let's see how his solo album, stripped of the Bright Eyes name, fares with his fans.)
Embers and Envelopes
(I forgot how much I liked Mae. The have a new CD that I really want to hear, but for some reason it would be weird.)
Cute without the "e"
(I never would've admitted loving this song, but you bet I did.)
Punk Rock Princess
(So bright. So bouncy. So cuffed-wrists holding hands. Ah, memories! I still listen to this song, it is so fucking cute, and somehow still sarcastic. And look at McMahon in his sweater. He looks/sounds so young!)
Sweetnesshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
(Don't ask how I responded when I saw that Paramore was covering that. So many wires in my head got crossed.)
And of course...
The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
I remember watching that video to death. "Your Favorite Weapon" was an instant favorite as soon as I heard it, for whatever reason, I downloaded it, I think, after hearing Seventy Times Seven. When I looked them up and realized they had just released this second record...well, next time I was at the mall with my mom I took my restaurant paycheck and bought "Deja Entendu." Peeled through those liner notes, I couldn't believe what this dude was saying and how it sounded.
Still fucking love that song.
8/4/08
Anyone else click on "The New Facebook?"
I imagine this is what an alternate universe feels like.
I imagine this is what an alternate universe feels like.
Monday, August 4, 2008
8/4/08
And her mom's from Indiana and she
She married an Asian man and they
They brought her from Japan to be
Happily suburban and I
I met her one summer when I was
I was just visiting ten days
Her wrists were island thin but she
She smiled like her Indie kin
And she's half
She's into strictly rich and
Overworked businessmen
She don't remember when
She used to hold my hands
After the Rollerland
After she closed the stand
Now it's supply and demand
And it just comes down to the math
And she's half
And she's half
--The American-Analog Set, "She's Half"
Set Free
When read, these lyrics create a stunning image of a girl.
What really gets me is when you think about the fact that he wrote this about a real person. It's touching and poignant. The detail, the history of where this girl comes from and where she is now, you can picture a well-dressed, shiny-haired thin woman in business chic, a girl who once ran around holding hands with indie guys with guitars. The fact he only met her when he was around for 10 days-- How many times did he see her? How old were they? The fact that holding hands seems so poignant, and yet was that all they did or just what stood out?
Creepy eerie harmonies on the repeated "she's half" line, matched with the soft bells as percussion are magical, which sound somehow exotic and familiar at the same time. (Couldn't find a streaming link of the song anywhere--je suis desole, live YouTube will have to work). Plus, soft male vocals have a great effect on ambiance, i think--like when Thom Yorke gets all creepy-high, or Chris Martin, Sufjan Stevens.
There's a hint of regret in this song,a soft anger at how things ended up. Something a lot more furious than the lightness lets on. It gets in at the end, with the repeated echoes. Somehow it's not as sweet as it seemed.
The rest of their record is okay,I guess I haven't listened to it that much. It has one lone comment on songmeanings.net--one of the best ways to gauge how songwriting touches the Internet masses within all their personalized lenses. (I love thumbing message boards for that reason--people say some weird shit).
Pretty okay as a song, but great, i think, read as poetry.
She married an Asian man and they
They brought her from Japan to be
Happily suburban and I
I met her one summer when I was
I was just visiting ten days
Her wrists were island thin but she
She smiled like her Indie kin
And she's half
She's into strictly rich and
Overworked businessmen
She don't remember when
She used to hold my hands
After the Rollerland
After she closed the stand
Now it's supply and demand
And it just comes down to the math
And she's half
And she's half
--The American-Analog Set, "She's Half"
Set Free
When read, these lyrics create a stunning image of a girl.
What really gets me is when you think about the fact that he wrote this about a real person. It's touching and poignant. The detail, the history of where this girl comes from and where she is now, you can picture a well-dressed, shiny-haired thin woman in business chic, a girl who once ran around holding hands with indie guys with guitars. The fact he only met her when he was around for 10 days-- How many times did he see her? How old were they? The fact that holding hands seems so poignant, and yet was that all they did or just what stood out?
Creepy eerie harmonies on the repeated "she's half" line, matched with the soft bells as percussion are magical, which sound somehow exotic and familiar at the same time. (Couldn't find a streaming link of the song anywhere--je suis desole, live YouTube will have to work). Plus, soft male vocals have a great effect on ambiance, i think--like when Thom Yorke gets all creepy-high, or Chris Martin, Sufjan Stevens.
There's a hint of regret in this song,a soft anger at how things ended up. Something a lot more furious than the lightness lets on. It gets in at the end, with the repeated echoes. Somehow it's not as sweet as it seemed.
The rest of their record is okay,I guess I haven't listened to it that much. It has one lone comment on songmeanings.net--one of the best ways to gauge how songwriting touches the Internet masses within all their personalized lenses. (I love thumbing message boards for that reason--people say some weird shit).
Pretty okay as a song, but great, i think, read as poetry.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
8/3/08
If you haven't heard of The Hold Steady yet, you're about to. The Brooklyn-based five piece's fourth album "Stay Positive" is yet another well-crafted and emotionally poignant album, with piano and guitar solos galore, and chorus's that you'll want to hear over and over again.
"Stay Positive" deals with more mature themes than previous release--this one is about kids growing up, and how to hang on the passion that got you there so far (hence the album title). Though they've only been together since 2004, they've made it to a great place so far in the industry. With a close following and critical success, The Hold Steady's discography is just beginning.
Their third album, "Boys and Girls in America" (2006), is a fantastic record. It tells a story, one everyone knows so well. It's a story of growing up in America, falling in love with your friends and the stupid, wonderful stuff that happens within all that.At least, I think it is.
Hey citrus, hey liquor
i love it when you touch each other
hey whiskey, hey ginger
i come to you with rigid fingers
i see Judas in the hard eyes
of the boys who worked in the corners
i feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers
hey bar roommate tavern
i find hope in all the souls you gather
hey citrus, hey liquor
i love it when we come together
i feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers
I feel Judas in the long odds of the rackets on the corners
I feel jesus in the tenements of honest, nervous lovers
I feel Judas in the pistols and the pagers that come with all the powders
lost in fog and love and faith was fear
and I've had kisses that make Judas seem sincere
lost in fog and love and faith was fear
I've had kisses that make Judas seem sincere
-The Hold Steady, Citrus
Boys and Girls in America
"Citrus," an acoustic moment in an otherwise quite boisterous record, is a reflective moment with just the right amount of context. Great metaphor in this song--coming together like citrus and liquor. What a common combination and what a great comparison.
I love the line this record opens on--"There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right." Right from the get-go you know these guys must have something to say if they're referencing Jack Kerouac. And they're so good at setting scenes, references to dimly lit bars or all-ages matinée hardcore shows.
More tastes of The Hold Shttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifteady, in all their classic rock-inspired deliciousness:
"First Night"
"Sequestered in Memphis"
Craig Finn's gritty vocals, careful meter in every verse and great blues-rock piano are a powerful combination. Though they've only been around for a few years, they've gotten a fair amount of attention from music magazines, with numerous comparisons to Ameriana rock legends like Springsteen and Billy Joel for today's kids (namely the ones that are still growing up).
Curious to see what happens in the wake of "Stay Positive," a success so far with plenty of great reviews. Hopefully, they'll retain their authenticity despite any amounts of success that come their way, because I think that's what makes The Hold Steady such a standout sound in modern indie rock.
They don't try to say anything other than what they seem to already be thinking about, and in their growing fan base, they seem to be creating the "unified scene" they keep singing about. I'm pretty sure they've even made t-shirts with the phrase on it by now. Keep singing about the kids at shows, and pretty soon they'll hear what you're saying.
"Stay Positive" deals with more mature themes than previous release--this one is about kids growing up, and how to hang on the passion that got you there so far (hence the album title). Though they've only been together since 2004, they've made it to a great place so far in the industry. With a close following and critical success, The Hold Steady's discography is just beginning.
Their third album, "Boys and Girls in America" (2006), is a fantastic record. It tells a story, one everyone knows so well. It's a story of growing up in America, falling in love with your friends and the stupid, wonderful stuff that happens within all that.At least, I think it is.
Hey citrus, hey liquor
i love it when you touch each other
hey whiskey, hey ginger
i come to you with rigid fingers
i see Judas in the hard eyes
of the boys who worked in the corners
i feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers
hey bar roommate tavern
i find hope in all the souls you gather
hey citrus, hey liquor
i love it when we come together
i feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers
I feel Judas in the long odds of the rackets on the corners
I feel jesus in the tenements of honest, nervous lovers
I feel Judas in the pistols and the pagers that come with all the powders
lost in fog and love and faith was fear
and I've had kisses that make Judas seem sincere
lost in fog and love and faith was fear
I've had kisses that make Judas seem sincere
-The Hold Steady, Citrus
Boys and Girls in America
"Citrus," an acoustic moment in an otherwise quite boisterous record, is a reflective moment with just the right amount of context. Great metaphor in this song--coming together like citrus and liquor. What a common combination and what a great comparison.
I love the line this record opens on--"There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right." Right from the get-go you know these guys must have something to say if they're referencing Jack Kerouac. And they're so good at setting scenes, references to dimly lit bars or all-ages matinée hardcore shows.
More tastes of The Hold Shttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifteady, in all their classic rock-inspired deliciousness:
"First Night"
"Sequestered in Memphis"
Craig Finn's gritty vocals, careful meter in every verse and great blues-rock piano are a powerful combination. Though they've only been around for a few years, they've gotten a fair amount of attention from music magazines, with numerous comparisons to Ameriana rock legends like Springsteen and Billy Joel for today's kids (namely the ones that are still growing up).
Curious to see what happens in the wake of "Stay Positive," a success so far with plenty of great reviews. Hopefully, they'll retain their authenticity despite any amounts of success that come their way, because I think that's what makes The Hold Steady such a standout sound in modern indie rock.
They don't try to say anything other than what they seem to already be thinking about, and in their growing fan base, they seem to be creating the "unified scene" they keep singing about. I'm pretty sure they've even made t-shirts with the phrase on it by now. Keep singing about the kids at shows, and pretty soon they'll hear what you're saying.
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