Little Toy Robot

Via Gapers Block, today I found Yo Chicago, “[a] fresh look at Chicago housing and neighborhoods.” Some of the writing on there is hilarious. Take a look at these headlines:

“Yuppie-on-yuppie violence mars Cabrini-Green housing redevelopment”

“Fisticuffs avoided at Plan Commission hearing on new Cabrini-Green high-rise”

Cabrini-Green, of course, is best known as being one of the things I pass when I drive to Borders.

Elsewhere, Fred Wilson (a venture capitalist who has great thoughts about the Internet and even greater taste in music) teases with a track from the new Arctic Monkeys EP.

I wasn’t sure if Jenny Lewis, without her band Rilo Kiley, could produce an album as good as 2004’s More Adventurous. With Rabbit Fur Coat, she has. Lewis must be easy to fall in love with: she has a sweet, urgent voice and the looks and lips to go with it. But all that aside, she could sing her way out of a traffic jam. This latest album turns the volume down a little bit, which only serves to highlight her voice, which is backed the Watson Twins.

Every single interview with Lewis mentions her affinity for country music, but that’s just an easy observation for an album that’s full of acoustic and slide guitars, and three-part harmonies. Lewis doesn’t break any new ground, but she delivers solid, catchy pop songs that don’t need any sort of apology.

Highlights for me include “Born Secular,” a sort of gospel number that doesn’t go, musically, where you think it’s going to go, and “Happy,” which I think is Lewis’ most heartwrenching vocal performance yet. But like I said, the whole album is consistently good. The only dud is the cover of the Traveling Wilburys’ “Handle With Care,” which suffers for some sub-par vocal contributions from the likes of Ben Gibbard and Connor Oberst.

So, I bought Stephen King’s latest, The Colorado King, in the airport in Denver. I thought that was clever. But I was disappointed by the book, in which two old, digressive newspapermen tell a mystery story to a young journalist on an internship. It felt like a short story expanded to 180 pages, with a very obvious point that is hammered into the narrative again and again, and also in the afterword in case you missed it. Skip it!

On a more positive front, I like the new Fiona Apple album. Her piano sounds like a steamroller sometimes, and at her best she has a sophisticated vocabulary and a very jazzy approach to pop vocals. I especially like “Oh Well.”

Michael Penn and Aimee Mann are married. Their latest albums make good companions, too. They’re both solid power pop concept albums.

Mann’s The Forgotten Arm tracks a boxer through his fall into alcoholism and despair. The album’s a little more mellow and has less humor (obviously) than her earlier efforts. For my money, she was best around the time of Bachelor No. 2, but I really like this new album. Frankly, I’m in love with her voice, so she could sing the phone book and I’d buy it.

Penn’s Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 is a bit harder to swallow. It’s a relentlessly pop album, very dynamic and solid. But with pretty much everything he has done since March there doesn’t seem to be much range in his voice, and no song really jumps out and worms its way under your skin. Still, it’s pretty good, and Penn has a Beatlesesque gift for melody that’s worth the price of admission.

Books

The Girl in the Glass, by Jeffrey Ford
New novel by the author of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque.

Marvel 1602 New World (comic)
Follow up to Neil Gaiman’s excellent Marvel 1602, though this series isn’t being written by Gaiman. Still, I’ll have to check it out.

Music

Mr. Hollywood, Jr. 1947, by Michael Penn
A concept album of sorts. Should be the perfect companion for his wife’s The Forgotten Arm.

DVD

Beulah - A Good Band is Easy to Kill
Swan song for the perfect pop band.

1. The person (or persons) who passed the baton to you.
His name is Jeff, and he lives here.

2. Total volume of music files on your computer.
According to iTunes, I have 2,560 songs, 6.6 days worth, coming in at 8.89 GB.

3. The title and artist of the last CD you bought.
Actually these are all here.

4. Song playing at the moment of writing.
“Time,” by Ben Folds. I don’t think this album is his best; it doesn’t have the humor or energy that his older recordings have. But damn he can sing a pretty song!

5. Five songs you have been listening to of late (or all-time favorites, or particularly personally meaningful songs)
Lately:
“I’ve Changed my Plea to Guilty” by Colin Meloy (Morrissey cover)
“I’ve Forgiven Jesus” by Morrissey
“Rael” by Petra Haden (Who cover)
“Everything I Try to Do Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right” by The Decemberists (catchy B-side of the “Billy Liar” single)
“Flesh & Bone” by Brendon Benson

6. The five people to whom you will ‘pass the musical baton’
Anyone.

I’ll be visiting the parents in Alabama this weekend. Keeping me company in the car will be the following four new CDs:

Cold Roses, by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals. I hope this doesn’t suck. I keep on buying Ryan Adams albums because there’s always a gem or two. His first solo album was so great, and so was his work with Whiskeytown. Maybe he peaked at 20 years old?

Songs for Silverman, by Ben Folds. Did you realize that the music genius behind William Shatner’s album also has a solo career? There’s a song on here called “Jesusland” and I can’t think of a more appropriate soundtrack for the trek from Georgia to Alabama.

Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out, by Petra Haden. An a capella reworking of the Who classic. I’m not a big Who fan but The Who Sell Out is among my favorite albums ever. (I wasn’t surprised to find it acknowledged as an influence on a more recent favorite, Blueberry Boat by the Fiery Furnaces.) Petra Haden is the daughter of jazz basist Charlie Haden and the newest member of the Decemberists (on violin and backing vocals), but she’s also something special by her own merits. Check this out.

Gimme Fiction, by Spoon. This man says it best.

Colin Meloy has done it again. The title of the Decemberists‘ third full-length effort, Picaresque, says it all. It’s a hodgepodge of short stories, spanning styles and subjects, ranging from a prog-influenced spy saga to (my favorite) an 8-minute wicked revenge song with an obligatory maritime theme. Great packaging with the CD, too.

A while ago Justin made me a copy of the Gray’s Ro Sham Bo. The Grays were sort of a pop rock supergroup, a little more straightforward than what I usually listen to, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love this album. There are some absolute gems on here, especially “Both Belong” and “Spooky.” It’s time for me to explore the whole Jellyfish/Jason Falkner/Jon Brion thing.

Wow, it’s not that I march to the tune of a different drummer–I march to a tune that’s about ten years old. It’s all good, though.

Yay, we have more Decemberists tour dates!

They’ll be in Atlanta on May 9.

I like the Dogs Die in Hot Cars album, Please Describe Yourself (thanks, Justin). It fills a hole in my heart left by XTC, who haven’t released a studio recording in years (the last thing I heard was Andy Partridge’s theme song for the DOA Fox show Wonderfalls). Specifically, it provides, in the absence of XTC, the requisite amount of staccato vocals, quirky lyrics, jerky music, infectious energy and beautiful harmonies to make me happy.

That is not to say that their vocals, lyrics, music, energy, or harmonies are as good as XTC. It’s not the same. Also, they sound like a variety of other bands; the Dexys Midnight Runners influence is obvious. But they are what they are. If I ever sound like this, please shoot me.

I was thinking of buying the iPod shuffle. After all, I don’t have an iPod yet, and I like the portability and price of this one. But two things are casting the shadow of a doubt over my resolve.

The first is the lack of a display. I’m trying to decide if this will synch with my rather impulsive personality. If I wanted to hear a certain song now, I’d be out of luck.

The second is the tiny, tiny warning at the bottom of Apple’s product page. After the useful note that “Music capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128Kbps AAC encoding,” there is this enigmatic warning: “Do not eat iPod shuffle.” Seriously! I don’t know how I feel about that, because sometimes I just need a snack, you know?

The track list to the much-anticipated new Decemberists album, Picaresque, is on their blog:

1. The Infanta
2. We Both Go Down Together
3. Eli, the Barrow Boy
4. The Sporting Life
5. The Bagman’s Gambit
6. From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)
7. Sixteen Military Wives
8. The Engine Driver
9. On the Bus Mall
10. The Mariner’s Revenge Song
11. Of Angels and Angles

It also looks like the table of contents of an anthology of Victorian adventure stories. But I’ve heard a few of these new tracks and they are indeed Decemberist songs, and they are indeed as good as those on the other two full-length albums. Picaresque hits stores on March 22nd.

The latest is “Thriller.” This is starting to get gimmicky. Not to mention that it sucks. Stop me if I start to get cranky!!!

As an antidote to all the 2004 retrospectives, I offer three more or less randomly selected all-time favorite albums of mine.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, by Neutral Milk Hotel (1998)
I admit, despite being tuned into the Atlanta music scene of the early 90s due to the influence of my older brother, who was at Emory at the time, that I missed this band from nearby Athens until recently. In fact, I was turned on to NMH and the Decemberists at the same time. The bands are sometimes compared to each other, more for the visions of the songwriters and their taste in instrumentation than for any substantial reason. This album, NMH’s last, is a masterpiece of ecstatic acoustic guitar strumming and grotesque lyrics (see “Two-Headed Boy”). It’s not for everybody, but it’s definitely for me.

Nonsuch, by XTC (1992)
Everyone complains that this album is XTC lite, poppier and less edgy than their early progressive punk stuff. Well, shit. This album is a masterpiece, full of heavenly vocal harmonies, smart lyrics which range from the satiric to the surreal, and great guitar playing. If you have to skip “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead,” do it, and forget about whether or not XTC has gone soft, because Nonsuch runs the gamut from tender to angry and remains beautiful throughout.

The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, by Roger Waters (1984)
I know, I know, Roger Waters made Pink Floyd suck. I agree with you. This album won’t change your mind. But somehow it wormed its way into my brain when I was a disaffected teen, before I became the fountain of good cheer you know now, and I still enjoy listening to it when I’m in the mood. This was the direction Pink Floyd was heading in when they were doing The Wall and The Final Cut - a personalized Roger Waters nightmare, full of dangerous women and Germans, and with a total of about four chords. But hey, it’s a deeply introspective album, with sophisticated, darkly surrealistic (if I may use the word again) lyrics. It follows the narrator through a series of nested dreams that take him to a biergarten and to the American West. I think. At the very least, it has Eric Clapton on guitar, a very catchy title track, and a naked lady on the cover.

An unranked list of the best CDs I haven’t yet bought, based on hearing tracks on the radio, downloading legal mp3s, or borrowing them from friends or co-workers. Note that in every case I haven’t actually listened to the entire album, so this list is dumb, but so am I.

The Slow Wonder, by AC Newman
The New Pornographers produced some of the best twisted pop of the past few years. On Newman’s solo album he shows that despite losing some of the luster (meaning, Neko Case), his talent and tortured singing style can really carry a tune.

Love Songs for Patriots, by American Music Club
Mark Eitzel did some great solo work, but it’s great to hear the band back together.

The Milk-Eyed Mender, by Joanna Newsom
Who is this harp-strumming, helium-voiced angel? My god, listen to those lyrics. The only reason I haven’t bought this album yet is because I’m afraid it’ll drive me mad with passion (or mad from hearing the sound of her voice for 45 minutes).

Blueberry Boat, by The Fiery Furnaces
Taken in small bites, The Fiery Furnaces produce unique, bizarre tunes dripping with melody and meaning. Another act that can drive people mad.

Shake the Sheets, by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Ah, rock music. Leo’s not afraid to push his voice to its limits, and he writes intelligent songs that also aim for the gut.