Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

Published in 1984

Wikipedia

I love the Talking Heads.  I do not love the Talking Heads albums.  I don't know why, but they have never attached themselves to me in the same way that a lot of other albums have.  I think that there is a huge amount of talent in the band, I think the songs are catchy as fuck, and some of the stuff that they create is stronger than most of the stuff that I like, but they have never latched on for me.

This might be the album that I finally get into them on.  I've sampled, here and there, but the ever present pressure of space has overwhelmed any large downloads of their work, and album by album, I haven't found something to get me to fandom.  However, this might be the one.

First off, this one has a killer track list.  Burning Down the house is a dance classic, and can still get people doing rediculous 80's dances to this day.  As LCD Soundsystem so aptly puts it, borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered 80's is in full effect when you play that song.  However, This Must Be The Place may be my favorite off of this album, because it really makes me delighted just to hear it.  It's one of the few songs that never fails to make me stop and sing along.  It lives in eternal earworm company there.

Once in a Lifetime is another of those eternal songs, that you will always listen to and love.  Man, I think the more I listen to this album, the more I come around on it.  Okay, I think this is going on the iPod at this point, and this is my second listen.  This might be the one.

It is a long album, and to justify that, I am listening to the special extended edition to the album.  The length is not wasted, however.  The length augments it, giving it room to breathe, and allowing it to develop into something more, as opposed to finishing the thought too early.

This might be why I haven't gotten into the Talking Heads before this point.  I've always enjoyed economy in my music.  The exceptions being Arcade Fire and Kanye and probably Incubus, but there is something about the economy of music that I really appreciate.  However, I think as I grow older, I come to appreciate the complexity of music, and the layered qualities filter into us more.

This is the rare live album that doesn't treat the audience as another instrument.  It allows the band to play off of the audience without mic-ing them to death, and makes the band create something that is beautiful to hear live, because it is being heard live, but without the enforced fun that a live album can rely on.

This is a good album, and it deserves to be listened to more.  So I will,  I like it, I don't love it yet, but I can see it growing on me.

"How about Cody?" "No, it has to be something regal." "How about Cody II?"
Matt

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Published in 1993

Wikipedia

There is an aesthetic to great art.

The aesthetic is very important, because what it does is create an atmosphere, and create a world for you to live while appreciating to the art.  That's why great art has an aesthetic, because instead of changing the world that the album lives in, they change the world in which you live.

There was once a time when the aesthetic of the Wu-Tang Clan wasn't the model for everyone. Please, remember back to the first time you heard a Wu-Tang song.

I can tell you exactly when I heard my first Wu-Tang song.  I was watching MTV at some ungodly hour, when I couldn't sleep at my grandmother's house.  I was such a suburbs kid that my parents didn't have TV, so I got most of my music straight off the radio, and from MTV when I could.  One early morning at my grandmother's house, when they show videos on MTV, I was appreciating the incredibly over the top videos that I got to see on it.

The video art is something that I feel has been lost. I know I was watching deep into the video revolution, but I remember distinctly being impressed by some and disregarding others. I became a cinephile for the three minute movies that I got to see on the TV.  So, when something made me sit up and notice, I knew that it was good.

This is what it was.

"Tiger Style. Tiger Style. Tiger Style."

You want a fucking monster hook to your beat?  Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with.  You want something that will make people sit up and listen?  Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with.  You want to make a fucking statement about everything that you want to represent?  Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with.

Seriously, listen to that song right now.  It's so nasty good that it still makes me want to jump up and go crazy.  The production is so strong that everything comes through as the strongest fucking song ever.  The beat is just perfect and it just brings you in.

First off, Wu-Tang loves movies.  Most of their vocal samples are from dubbed Martial Arts movies.  So, when they started making videos, they made movies.  There was a story. There was an idea.  They created a world.  I wanted to live there, and back then, I didn't hold with rap that much.

Over time, my anti-rap stance has softened so much that it has pretty much reversed, but back then, I was pretty sure it was not that great.  I was wrong.  I was so wrong, but the reason I was wrong is a pretty interesting one.  I thought that it wasn't for me.  I thought it was for people who lived harder, who had a harder time than me, and the artists tried to reinforce that distance.  This is why Wu-Tang was a sea change.

Wu-Tang made the world sound like something to which I was able to relate.  The beats were so broken down, and beautiful, that I could completely get locked in on the beat alone.  Then, the flow was so strong that I could completely latch on.  The vocals were strong, distinctive, and filled with character.  Every time I listened to them, I was slowly brought into their fold, and following along was insane.

Everyone in the world knows that you should listen to this album.  If you want to hear the moment that hip-hop changed from straight hardcore gangster to some kind of strange mix of nerd culture, insane flows, and obscure corners, you need look no further than this album.

Seriously, go listen to it now.  I'll be listening to it too.  Crank it up, Wu-Tang for life.

"Diversify your bonds."

Matt

Incubus - Morning View

Incubus - Morning View

I have a vivid memory associated with this album.

This is not new. I have vivid memories associated with lots of albums, but this one is a memory of incredible power to me. I find that I have trouble even listening to this album anymore, because it inspires this memory to be called up.

It is not a sad memory or a particularly happy one. It's just a strong memory. One that is affecting in a way that others aren't.

I come from Maryland. If you've ever lived there, especially in the areas where I lived, you'll know the time of year that I am about to talk about. There is a brief moment of time in Maryland that happens at the end of April and the beginning of May. It is in this brief window that the weather gets to that perfect moment between early, frostbitten spring and early oppresive summer.

As a child, or at least more of a child than I was then and probably am now, I remember this being the time of anticipation and excitement for the onrushing summer break. The moment that the world would open up and be fee for a few months. It was a time of swimming pools, swimming practice, library books and friends. I wasn't in any way popular but my few friends would spend tons of time together, which we can only thank our parents for.

As I grew up, I lost some of this. My job and my friends grew away from the swimming pools and the outdoors and into computer games and preparing for the next year or weekend.

Incubus grew up with me. I was obsessed with their album, Make Yourself, which I associate with early middle school, and with Peter and Zach. I got a copy of SCIENCE and Fungus Amungus a little later, and completely absorbed them.

So, when I heard that Morning View wasn't as good, I was devistated. I actively avoided the album. The singles were good, and the music seemed nice, but if I was going to be disappointed, I wanted no part of it.

This lasted for a while, almost up to the next Incubus album. But, at that moment when the weather was perfect, two events happened.

My Dad's pool opened, and my stepmom had a copy.

So for an entire early afternoon, I cleaned the pool and listened.

If you have ever cleaned a pool, the experience is rediculously boring. The best you can hope for is that the time passes quickly and that you can move on quickly, but it's a bit of a dragging experience.

That is the usual experience, but this time I had a differet one. I got into the groove of it, slowly but surely crating perfectly straight lines of clean pool bottom next to each other, overlapping as little as possible, striving for the perfect unattainable efficency of movement. The smell of the fresh cut grass with the chemical smell of the pool mixed and rose and imprgnated my nose, and I soaked in the experience.

But it was the music that made me fall into that state. I felt perfectly in tune with this album, and it resonated with me. I was completely in the moment, and that moment was perfect. The entire time I was cleanig the pool, I was perfectly satisfied with what I was doing, and I felt as if I was in the right place.

So now, I listen to this album and I think about how perfect that moment was, and I strive for it again, but the experience is never as good, and I wish it would happen again.

The album is a masterpeice of great down tempo rock. The songs are longing and sweet, but never overwhelmingly so. This was an album of a band in transition, and it is so well done that people have misheard it. The band was moving from Make Yourself to where they are today, and Morning veiw was one of the reasons that they have moved so far. It is a perfect early summer album, wen the time stretches before you, and you feel the call of the pool and friends and the outdoors.

"Earth: Harmless"
Matt

Man Man - Six Demon Bag

Man Man - Six Demon Bag

First, Will, Doomsday, and Pat, this one is for you.

Last week, or at least recently, I told you how I was introduced to one of my new favorite artists. The discovery of music is sometimes as interesting to me as the music itself. I think there are three major ways we find new music. The first is the corprate music way.  It is shoved at you every way imaginable, and the music is just sort of absorbed.

The second is the active discovery method. You hear something intreguing and go after it. This is how I found Mr. Watts.

The third, and in my opinion the best, is to be brought into fandom by a friend who is already a fan. I love it when friends introduce me to new music. As is obvious, I guess, from this blog. The moment when someone says, what do you think about (band I have never heard of), I get a bit giddy. Usually, I am introduced to new music this way.

Man Man is one of these bands. I was introduced to them through a road trip that I have remarked upon before. On this trip, I was innundated with music, but this album and Death From Above 1979 were the break out hits from the trip.

Actually, I didn't really like this album at the beginning of the trip. It sounded to me like a way too easy attempt to make "ironic carnival dark music" and it was a bit blah for me. But with the insistance of my friends, I stopped tuning it out and actually listened.

Man Man is some incredibly dark, haunting, beautiful music. The surface is some weird carnival music, but that is just a cover for the deep dark depths that are under the surface. The music is deliciously crafted, often sounding raw and easily sticking in your brain. Every time you listen, you will hear a new sound, noise, or even line in the notes.

My only complaint is that there is a bit of an admission fee. You have to be able to deal with the somewhat distracting and simple theme to plum the depths, and you need to give it some time.  I would suggest that you listen, find a song you like on the album and use it as a seam to get in. Find the moment that you go "this is amazing," and try to absorb that. Personally, my way in was Feathers and Van Helsing Boombox.

Man Man is one of those bands that rewards you for getting involved with them.  You may be turned off by their sound, but if you stick with it, there is real musical treasure to be had here. It's one of those bands that I almost skipped class to go see in Baltimore. Almost. I cannot wait to see them the next time I can, and I hope you, faceless nameless reader will be there with me.

"Act of God, thought Dirk. But which God, and why?"
Matt