10/28/15

Someone once told me time will seem to move faster as you get older and I'm starting to think that's true. Has it really been one whole year since "1989" came out? Hard to believe - but not so much a surprise that we're still all enthralled by Taylor Swift's best record and pop masterpiece.

Just stumbled across the performed she did of "Out of the Woods" on solo piano, and it's incredibly gorgeous. I'm really impressed with her vocal on the bridge, it's strong and soaring but intimate.

How many ways will we will hear this album re-imagined? I'm a little worried about fatigue, but it hasn't hit yet, as I find myself still wanting to hear these songs. Time to g home and play all these songs over again, and count down the days til the Ryan Adams' vinyl drops.



"Remember when you hit the brakes too soon
Twenty stitches in a hospital room
When you started crying
Baby, I did too
But when the sun came up
I was looking at you.
Remember when we couldn't take the heat
I walked out, I said, I'm setting you free
But the monsters turned out to be just trees
When the sun came up
You were looking at me."
~Out of the Woods
Taylor Swift, 1989 

10/26/15

"Years ago, my heart was set to live, oh
But I've been trying hard against unbelievable odds
It gets so hard in times like now to hold on
My guns they're waiting to be stuck by
At my side is God

And there ain't no one goin' turn me 'round
Ain't no one goin' turn me 'round."

~Ballad of El Goodo, #1 Record.
Big Star

Over the past week or so I've learned I cannot get enough of Big Star, the best band of the latter 20th century whose mass-market destiny was shot down by forces beyond their own control but whose talent never faded.

They were on my radar, in the background, back in the day for their authorship of "Thirteen" and its subsequent gorgeous covers, but learning about the band via Netflix doc has me floored, unable to grasp the fact that there was music this good being created that most listeners, as far as the masses were concerned, never heard.

Their story is an exceptionally tragic pairing of ego and industry, both in states of implosion. This sound is so perfectly encapsulating what would've been a hit ... "Radio City" is as close to a perfect album as I have heard in some time. "Back of the Car"is the greatest teenage love song I never heard before,  the harmonica counterpoint in "Life is White" is blues rock at its best, and the outro harmonies on "What's Going Ahn" are ghostly, and haunting. This record has no dull moments.

But, their debut, "#1 Record" is so good, too, so rich and pure, full of contrasting melodies, sing-a-long hooks cloaked in a cynicism. I believe someone in the Netflix described it as close to a perfect record, and I am inclined to agree. Alex Chilton and Chris Bell follow in the footsteps of Lennon-McCartney, with the added benefit of free-wheeling rock 'n' roll of the 1970s informing their efforts. These songs have a softer edge than "Radio City," which brings an edgier tone and a little more structure. Then we get to "Third/Sister Lovers," and there we find this band exploring boundaries it only previously toed, as far as dynamics and range and scope. Each record of theirs is progressively wild, pressing boundaries, but still so centered on what it means to write rock songs of weight and consequence.

Discovering this band has re-centered me musically, in the way that I was shifted as a teenager when I discovered Zeppelin. Just because something was released decades ago doesn't mean it can't be appreciated in today's environment - in fact, it deserves more of a spotlight if only to better compare against those who are trying to make moves and be the greats today.  I think what gets me the most is that no matter how many listeners did or did not get to absorb and adore Big Star in their heyday, is how absolutely breathtaking their sound is decades later. True style, true talent, it does not fade with the trends of the times.

"I like love but I don't know
All these girls, they come and go
Always nothing left to say

And I resigned everyone
Ever since I was young
I'm starting to understand
What's going on and how it's planned."
~What's Going Ahn, Radio City
Big Star

10/16/15

"I’m not confident about a lot of other aspects of my life, but I know how to write a song."
-Taylor Swift to Chuck Klosterman, GQ October 2015

Yes, she really fucking does. I love most of them. Heard Tim McGraw on the radio today, even. So pretty! This is worth reading, as a story of an artist, who is also the most famous there is right now, more or less.

10/12/15

"I just see everybody working for that same eternal weekend
Droning on and on and on and never doing what we wanted
Heavy legs two steps behind some forever dangling carrot.

and I'm tired of this
So who's to say that we can't just fucking change it?

Oh they want you to whistle while you work, 

they want you to whistle while you work your life away.

Oh they want you to whistle while you work, 

they expect you to whistle while you work your life away.

and I know it seems dramatic
but I treat it like a crisis The office to the coffin
All our time and talent wasted
and that weight against your throat
is that a noose dressed like a necklace?

From here I couldn't really tell the difference

Come on show me the difference 

Come on and show me the difference

Either way I say let's not take more chances."

~Noose Dressed Like a Necklace
Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band, Matter of Time

Approaching Kevin Devine's catalog is a bit like when you're on a hike approaching a series of boulders and rocks in your way - you have no idea how the hell you are going to get through it all, but you know you'll get somewhere once you do. Few songwriters in this age are as accomplished and underrated, I would say. Has KD ever reached any kind of critical success beyond the emo/punk circles that gave him credit and fame to start back when? If not, they ought to, because if there's anything more impressive than the consistency Devine manages to produce, it's the astute observations and sociopolitical pronouncements he espouses, the kind that many artists who want to "make a statement" wish they could say something about. At a time when everyone is shouting, this guy is actually saying something worth listening to.

I'm knee-deep toady by listening to "Matter of Time" remastered, a collection of songs recorded about three years ago but only recently were re-released in a shiny and new package for a vinyl release. So glad I found this. The production on these is fantastic, I love the full-band sound that's backing him up and tearing into solos and cymbal crashes as Devine shouts his guts aloud. He is a great guitar player but he's a wordsmith first and foremost; his ability to string together three dozen word thoughts in a single verse is unmatched. This was clearly recorded at a time when they were onto something, and the live recording highlights just how good these players are -- locked in and ready to crescendo when they must, or dial down and let it the strings fade out at the last word. Probably helps they've got great material to work with - these songs offer an approachable, tried-and-true rock sound with off-kilter perspective and a hell of a lot of energy and grit.

What's captured in this live studio session is what you get at one of their shows, blissfully so. I had the privilege of seeing him & the Goddamn Band in concert earlier this year and I get chills every time I think about it. Just as impressive was the part where the mic dropped out and he quieted the sing-along crowd to get through (I think it was) an acoustic cover of "It Never Stops." He was a maestro, conducting himself as much as the rest of his band and the audience, both humble offering and

This guy, I'm telling you. He's not fucking around. For years, I looked at his catalog as something kind of ancillary and also-ran, and it wasn't until 2015 that I realized what a mistake that was. Fortunately, there's a ton left to discover and absorb, and I'd wager that Devine, with his inimitable voice and perspective, won't tire or slow down in his steps to share these honest passages of tired American life. At least, I hope not. I just want more of this sound, full and feisty and frustrated, unfettered.



"And I'm grabbing at a feeling now
That I can't ever name.
Some sign posted to remind me
How I wanted things this way.
She says 'It's pretty but you hate yourself.
I can hear it clear as day.'
 And I say 'I sing like this,
It sounds worse than it is. '

I'm okay, okay.
I'm okay, okay.
I'm okay, okay.
I'm okay, okay.
So just stay, just stay
So just stay, just stay
I'm okay, okay. So just stay, just stay,
Just stay, just stay."
~No Time Flat
Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band, Matter of Time 

10/11/15

Some songs you love in a singular context - there's no connection to the artist's catalog, albums or performances, it's just this one song you hear and hear and hear and it's perfect every time. That is Ron Pope's "Drop in the Ocean" - while I'm sure he's a very talented piano player and songwriter and has a lot of good things to say, I can only come back to this perfect beautiful song.

I believe it's a Pandora discovery, but every time it winds up on a channel of mine I love it. His voice is equal parts delicate and clear, managing full-throated held notes and occasional falsetto. A quick review of his discography tells me this was on his 2008 debut - the fact I still hear it so often in 2015, though, says something about how this might be the song that winds up defining his career. And if it is, what a beautiful thing that would be - I love the wanting in this song, and how hopeful the chorus is despite this rather melancholy setting of droughts and deserts.There's heartbreak here, but it's not accepted, it's not giving in.

I should listen to more solo piano songs like this today. There's something so sophisticated and uncluttered about it, and also quite impressive. I love imaging fingers dancing across keys and finding all the right notes. I love how crisp and bright and still dramatic the sound can be, I love how it highlights words and stories layered above it. It shows how powerful one good melody can be, when you don't need any other adornments. In this little relatively unknown song, with just voice and piano, there is so much beauty and simplicity and expression, a devotion to undying love, the kind that isn't little or unknown at all, and I just love how timeless and human that is.

"It's just a drop in the ocean
A change in the weather
I was praying that you and me might end up together
It's like wishing for rain as I stand in the desert
But I'm holding you closer than most 
'Cause you are my heaven."
~Drop in the Ocean
Ron Pope, Daylight