Chuck Ragan did a great cover of "Bleeder" on the Alkaline Trio/Hot Water Music split. Here's a good quality, live version of that. It's a bit faster and livelier that the original cover, but it sounds great and, who are we kidding, it is a really tremendous song.

I don't know if anyone caught this article about Jim Jones' off-Broadway play in the NY Times recently, but it is worth reading. I have never really followed Jim Jones, but "We Fly High" was a tremendous song whose monotone hook sounded like the later hours of a drug binge. Interestingly, a different and much shorter version of this article ran around the same time this was released and it almost exclusively addressed how Jones was doing this play solely for the money, a notion supported by a deluge of forceful quotes about the need to stay hungry, keep hustling, etc. It depressed the fuck out of me. Clearly a play, while good promotion for his new album, is a risky move for an tatted up rapper and the economics of it aren't so obvious that a person looking to hustle up some currency would immediately pounce on the idea. Further, the opportunity costs of rehearsal and oversight must be tremendous and, obviously, take him away from doing other forms of promotion. So comments about how he just keeps on grinding came across as transparent.

The idea for a hip hop play is probably a bit overdue, but was surely, in no small way, hindered by a lack of cooperation from rebuttable collaborators. It's not especially street to address the nuts and bolts that come along with theater and the genre is typically associated with the comfort and complacency of the middle class. Certainly race relations play a role. But so much hip hop is centered around the narratives of the stars' lives and their trials and tribulations leading up to their launch into stardom. To the extent these accounts are credible, they present remarkable stories worth telling. So I applaud Jones for this risk and I hope it turns out well.


We Fly High (dirty) - Jim Jones

Micachu has been blowing up for a few months now, with the glowing Pitchfork review sure to launch her to new heights. The record is excellent, though I'm not sure I'll come back to it after I burn out in a week or two. The music draws on a lot of great stuff, but for me the best point of reference is a dancey Fiery Furnaces. Anyway, her track "Turn Me Well" is pretty sick. The cut-up vacuum beat is sure to compete for best of the year.

I'm going to give Andrew immediate credit for this. I would never have heard of Joker if it weren't for him. This song, regrettably titled "Digidesign" (ostensibly for those with a Pro Tools fetish) is a slower, bouncey dubstep track with a synth chorus that almost sounds like laughter. Check out the swelling background and the very-low bass that accompanies the main riff on its four note climb down the scale on the second part of the chorus riff. The whole thing is amazing (and to the point, which I always appreciate).

I realize I write about these guys every few weeks, but The '59 Sound is becoming one of my favorite albums ever. I think it has had a serious impact on the way I think and understand punk rock, which is no small statement considering that I've been listening to the genre since I was 14. I still get chills when I hear some of these songs. There's not a track on the album I dislike and only a few I don't love.


Meet Me By The Rivers Edge - The Gaslight Anthem

Franz Liszt's Transcendental Etudes are flat-out some of the most technically difficult piano pieces ever written. To competently play these pieces, a pianist basically needs virtuoso-level skill. That said, the Transcendental Etudes also accomplish something that a lot of overly-technical music doesn't: they're great songs. They have catchy melodies and motifs, dynamic transitions, and interesting build-ups and break-downs. While purely skills-based music has its place, I am always very impressed when a composer can create a piece of extreme technical difficulty that is still accessible to listeners who don't play the instrument or instruments in use.

As far as technical skill on a piano, you're not going to find many people who can out-class Georges Cziffra. Simply put, he did everything perfectly. What impresses me most about this man, though, is his ability to make the piano sound like a force of nature. While the piano is an instrument of great dynamic and tonal range, Cziffra's skill can make it sound like a the most violent thunder-storm you can imagine or a leaf falling from a tree on a windless day. He could just produce sounds that most other people can't.

Below is a link to my favorite of the Transcendental Etudes. It's Etude No. 6 in G Minor. I recommend that you pay special attention to the bass buildup that starts to happen around 2:52.

If there website is any indication, the Murder City Devils are playing shows again. Awesome.

The MCD are a tremendous band, and yet I only love a handful of their songs. They are always interesting and I give them immense credit for carving out a nice, unique sound. Their music is some of the darkest I've ever heard (and I seek this shit out) and it comes across in a nice, creepy, anguished sort of way. That is to say, there is plenty of black metal or goth that beats you over the head with black candles and bizarre-sounding phrases in Latin. There is a time and place for that, but it never feels genuine to me. I am made far more uncomfortable by someone who I find unpredictable and wild - an unhinged and intoxicated man in the throes of depression is far, far creepier. Put that on top of some spectacular drumming and the most well-placed organ you've ever heard and you have the Murder City Devils. The problem is, the pieces don't always add up. The band often fails to produce captivating climaxes and their loose and chaotic approach to rock and roll sometimes feels, well, loose and chaotic. It is a very fine line and they spend plenty of time on either side of it.

"Bear Away" is the band at their tightest. Everything in the song sounds purposeful, which is nice. It also provides the listener with a near textbook perfect example of how to exit a tense bridge into an explosive chorus. As far as terrifying sounds go, it's hard to beat the sustained, strained sound of a man screaming "you better outlive your mother!"


Bear Away (Album) - The Murder City Devils

"Press Gang" is just fucked up. I mean, this is how you make a scary song. The subject matter is dark, but not descriptive enough to sound too cheesy, and the band creates all the right images in the listener's head. Most importantly, the song is largely a marching drum beat, sustained minor chords on the organ, and a ringing guitar that rides out each strum. Effort, coherence, having a "tight" sound are all very professional elements. Professional musicians aren't unhinged lunatics. The farther we move from these ideas, the easier it is to create unease, with bands like Wolf Eyes occupying the extreme end of the spectrum. "Press Gang" is just fucking brilliant.


Press Gang (Album) - The Murder City Devils

I wasn't all that taken with Dan Deacon when he came onto the national scene with 2007's Spiderman of the Rings. Clearly incredibly talented and doing interesting things with traditional composition in Baltimore electronic dance freak outs, my listening experiences were rarely rewarding. I guess you need to hear that stuff in a sweaty club. Anyway, I was really turned on by Pitchfork's short documentary about part of the recording process of his new record, Bromst. It looked and sounded like he was taking a giant leap forward. I've spent a week with the record and I must say that I am beyond impressed. I've not heard anything quite like this (Max Tundra comes closer, but he makes pop records (some of the best on the planet) and this anything but pop music.

"Snookered" is the track that has me avoiding doing work and keeping me up at night. It's technical and emotional and epic and sad and hopeful and has the finest phoneme-based funked up breakdown I've ever heard. You've got to hear this track. Put on some cans and take a bus ride to anywhere.

I've listened to this song like 5 times today (it would be more, but with finals around the corner, I don't have a ton of free time). The Sass Dragons have a really shitty name, but it kind of works for them, so long as they never insist on anyone taking anything they do seriously. Ever.

"Explode Alamode" is off their album Bonkaroo!. It is pretty embarrassing to suggest that someone make time in their day to listen to the Sass Dragon's "Explode Alamode" off of Bonkaroo!, but despite all that ill-advised naming bullshit, the chorus is great. It's some bouncy, sing along shit with like a million reprises because, as ridiculous as this band is, they aren't dumb, and the chorus is why anyone is going to care about this song. The rest plays out in very standard bury-me-with-my-Screeching-Weasel-LPs sort of way. That's fine. Screeching Weasel was a great band.


Explode Alamode - Sass Dragons

The rise in popularity of rock and punk-influenced dance music (often but not always disco based) always seemed a bit too safe for me. I guess dance music is inherently safe: instantly accessible; light on concepts or tonal challenges; and fun. But it sometimes seems to me as if there is this veneer of coolness that has to be maintained. !!! are a great band, but they also position themselves in a really clever way. They manufactured a mystique around themselves. They became known for playing parties in NYC and chose a band name that requires some explanation before it can even be pronounced. !!! draw quite heavily on disco (I do not know the genre that well, but I would bet it is late period disco), but they sound very current, clearly a product of modern musical currents. Hence the coolness. They took what a lot of people were playing around with and produced their own tweaked, and arguably better, version. I can't really argue that !!! plays it safe because I think they produce some really interesting and occasionally inaccessible material, but I can say that it is very clear that they are a product of their time and don't fully plunge into their dance influences.

What I like about Chromeo is that they fully commit themselves to replicating that sparkly 80s sound. Aside from the quality of the production, there is not much to indicate that Chromeo are a contemporary band. This is, at least on a conceptual level, unsafe. It should be inherently risky to fully align yourself with a style that has already had its day and, arguably, run its course. Maybe this risk is lessened in the face of a notable 80s resurgence in popular culture. I doubt it though. That resurgence was largely relegated to things like fashion and, where it did pop up in music, it was never a controlling or dominant influence.

"Fancy Footwork" (posted below) has been my jam of late. The synth work is masterful and that isn't a sampled bass or a synth, that is one of the dudes in the band wailing on that thing. That is fucking sick. Everything has its own space in the mix and the group is just absolutely masterful in creating musical accents to their groove. They bring in synth runs (where the synth goes through part or all of a scale) to flesh out certain parts of the song. It is clear that Chromeo is a studio band - a cerebral project that I think displays very thoughtful song construction. Anyway, I am nerding out on this. Hard.


Fancy Footwork - Chromeo