Ben Folds - Ben Folds Live

Ben Folds - Ben Folds Live

Published 2002

Wikipedia

Wait a second, I hear you say, that isn't the new Queens of the Stone Age!  You're right, I lied.  I am going to do it, but I want to make sure to do it justice, and I think that I can just write this one without editing.  So, fuck you, delete key on my mac, let me pick an album at random from my gigantic playlist of things that I have on my computer.

Ben Folds! That's a great idea, alphabetically listed by Artist's name column on my iTunes!  Hey, we'll even get to do a live album for this one! Fluffed notes! Audience Applause! Jackholes screaming to get on the album!

Maybe this is the wrong one to talk about those three problems.  Ben Folds' audience is way too nice to not listen appreciatively to his beautiful songs.  It's like listening to a Canadian rock album (Quick, I have done Rush before this right?  I haven't!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!????!?!?!??!??!?!?! WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?  Jesus, Moving Pictures is on the list.  I'm coming for you, Today's Tom Sawyer. [By the way, taking time off from doing these write ups has really showed me how much I intended to do, and haven't.])

This album is interesting to me, because I feel like someone said to Ben Folds, "just play the hits" listening to it now, but it may be because these recordings of his songs are so popular.  Is it a selective feedback that these songs have lodged themselves in my conscious because they are some of my favorite versions of his songs or am I remembering correctly that these are the most popular in general, and therefore became some of my favorites?

Fred Jones Part 2.  This song is just amazingly beautiful.  You should know it completely forwards and backwards.  It's a lovely, melancholy, haunting, and sad song.  This performance is just beautiful.  The duet is well done, and the piano is incredibly expressive.  I love this song. Also, his cover of Tiny Dancer is just awesome.

I have to recommend this album.  If you're a Ben Folds Fan (I'm looking at you, Jake), you already know how good this album is, and probably are shunning me for not getting on it earlier.  If you're not, you owe yourself to check him out.  I'd probably, very generously, because my opinion matters like crazy, favorably compare him to Elton John and (Old, awesome) Weezer style songwriting.  Or something, whatever.  I'm just writing this to keep you people off my back.

Moving Pictures and ...Like Clockwork are coming soon.  Feeling inspired to write.  This bodes well for the next like month.  Who knows after that.

"I'm not crazy!"
"Said the man to the dog."

Matt

Coheed and Cambria - Second Stage Turbine Blade

Coheed and Cambria - Second Stage Turbine Blade

Published in 2002

Wikipedia

First off, I want to thank Zach's friend Luke, who probably doesn't even remember suggesting this album or who the fuck I am.  As the first person who I don't know personally to suggest an album, I want to say thank you and hope that you will leave a comment or something.

This was written on my iPod just so you know, so if there are any crazily innappropriate mistakes, that is why.  Well, not the ideas, if those are bad, that is all me.

Coheed and Cambria is a difficult band for me to get into and an even harder one for me to write about.  It is a study in contrasts. They play some awesome rock and roll. They obviously know how to make a catchy song. They really like playing their instruments. And they remind me of the best parts of Rush (and if you hate Rush, you've got a severe mental block against awesomely cheesey rock).

Then there is the other side of them. The side that chooses to do the looney tunes interlude, just like Dream Theater, but actually more out of place than in that album.  They have the 'whispery breathy deep voices talking over our songs is awesome and not stupid' weirdness that just doesn't turn me on at all. And then there is the Cousin Jerry effect.

I feel like a prick for doing this, but I feel like I have to.  This is what I picture in my head. Coheed and Cambria are sitting in the garage that they practice in, between epic d and d sessions and listening to progressive rock. Then momma C&C comes out into the garage and tells them that they need to include their Cousin Jerry in the band, because he is not having fun, and she won't take no for an answer.  Cousin Jerry doesn't have any musical ability per se, but he really really likes screamcore and really really is being forced into the band by mom. So Cousin Jerry becomes the guy who screams in the background, behind the choruses and shit and drives me up the goddamn wall.

Just when I am getting into a song, just when I really am enjoying it, fucking Jerry comes in and pops a blood vessel in his brain by screaming. The fucking song is so good and enjoyable and that prick comes in and ruins it. It sounds like someone is just attempting to piss me off. Through my ear. It sounds how I must imagine syphilis must feel when you are just trying to take a nice long satisfying piss.

I'm listening to it right now, and it just stresses me out. Fucking every other part of the band, I am a hundred percent behind. But that prick makes me wish that I had a time machine so I could go back to the studio and fucking cut his mic and slap him around a bit for inflicting that scream-y shit on me.

The amount of vitriol in this post is probably a little overboard but I really want to enjoy this album. I just want the whole to be more like 33 where they attempted to use harmony instead of just fucking yelling. This is a really good album and the band has a ton of talent. If they could just dump Cousin Jerry, this album would definately be not optional, but that is the price you pay when you make my ears bleed with stupid decisions. And yes, I realize that this is probably someone's favorite part of the band, and that this is just like, my opinion, man, but it really did drive me up the wall that much.

Anyway, thanks again to Luke and I hope he'll suggest more albums that I'll he a complete and utter prick about and spew a bunch more words about.  Once again, I want to say I liked everything else about this album, so if c&c got rot of that guy, give me that album, and I'll sing it's praises.

It's two hundred miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack or cigarettes, it's dark out and we're wearing sunglasses,
Matt

Rilo Kiley - The Execution Of All Things

Rilo Kiley - The Execution of All Things
Published in 2002
Wikipedia

First off, many thanks to Grant. I got this on the first day of the project, and wanted to get back to it quickly. Hope that you'll make some more suggestions, but later, I've got like 10 albums on my plate right now, and that is building space into them.

Rilo Kiley's Execution Of All Things is an album that presents a lot of questions to me. Why do I find it moving? Why do I like it? What is it that makes a good indie rock record?

First, I will say, I was pretty sure I was going to write the album off at the beginning. It's a little light, and it seemed like they weren't taking things seriously, including the music. I find that I really enjoy the music of indie music, while sometimes I find the lyrical genius that people espouse about insufferable. But you know what? This record won me over, and it's actually precisely because of the vocalist(s) (I enjoyed both of them, but I have to think that her's are more fondly remembered than his). Her voice is incredibly ethereal, and I use that word knowing that every other person writing about Rilo Kiley must use that word to describe it, but seriously, it's the best word for it. Angelic would be too far up the ladder, and Earthy is far too low down for her, so we mix angelic and earthy and get Ethereal. The band can play, and does enough noodling around with sounds to be considered indie, and they produce some stuff that stands up well. It's a good album.

But what I really want to talk about here is a concept. I want to talk about "that Song." You know that Song. The one on any album that takes it from just good, to something more. You know, when you hit Consequence (for me, maybe others have a different one) on Make Yourself and you realize that these guys are not fucking around here. When you hear something that takes the whole album and kicks it up a notch, fucking makes it something that you are no longer just hearing and move over to 'Listening to'?

For me, that Song on this album was Hail to Whatever You Found In The Sunlight That Surrounds You. I don't know why, maybe I'm just in love with the weird sound of a slide guitar, and her voice mixing together, but all I can think about while listening to this song is that blue western sky, streaked with clouds and beautiful. It just felt perfect, and it really shifted how I was percieving the album. It made a huge difference in the way that I was listening to it.

I'm going to suggest you aquire this album, but I won't say that it is anything but optional. It's a fantastic album, but it definately will not appeal to everyone, which is part of the appeal to some people. So, what I'm saying is that Grant is a hipster douchebag. Wow, this essay took a turn somewhere.

Next up: The Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album) in celebration of 09/09/09. If I had done it first, it would have been my 9th post too.

I don't think you're a hipster douchebag, Grant,

Matt.

The Black Keys - The Big Come Up

The Black Keys - The Big Come Up
Published in 2002
Wikipedia

First, of course, I want to thank Dalton for suggesting this album to me. I'll be coming back to this point, but I just want to make sure that I get this usual thanks out of the way.

Holy Fucking Shit.

Seriously.

Like for real.

That was fucking incredible. Like right now, I'm still listening to the album, too psyched to not start typing. If you enjoy music, fucking get this album. At this point, I'm almost thinking of starting an Optional/Not Optional system of judging these things, and this motherfucker is squarely in the Not Optional Category.

Have I made my point yet? Can I stop telling you to go listen to it? No? Okay, if you don't hear this album once before you die, you have failed life as a human being. Like Christ, if you died before it, you missed the fuck out motherfucker. You gotta pray that he comes the fuck down to Hell itself to drag your ass up, pull your shit back up to heaven.

Anyway, lets get serious here, put on the old journalist fucking beanie, and start talking some sense, man. Remember the first time you saw Blues Brothers (you did see Blues Brothers)? When you realized that there were some great songs out there that you had always known, but they were just a little out of your range? You saw all those great fucking artists all together, making some fucking awesome music?

Then remember when, like Jake, you had the Revelation that the Blues Brothers was actually really fucking light on the actual fucking blues? You know, when you realized that it was kind of poppy and meh, especially whenever the Brothers themselves were performing? Their band was fucking kicking, but there was something missing? You know, like, I don't know, fucking grime? Some dirt on those suits, a little downheartedness that they just couldn't pull off. They were having so much fun, how could they really be singing the blues?

Well, I have come down from the mountain bearing some motherfucking tablets for you. God damn, this is a good fucking album. There is one arguably weak track in my mind, and that one I'll talk about later. Dalton, this is exactly what I started this project for. I wanted to find these kinds of gems, and expand my library. I am not a huge fan of Blues in general, I mean I can dig some BB King, some Ray Charles, a bit of Muddy Waters, but this is exactly the kind of thing that could get me into the genera.

Speaking of which, me and my mom were listening to it together, and we were talking about who it sounds like. She said "It's got a Jimi Hendrix kind of feel to it." "Yeah, and BB King and Muddy Waters." That is what it sounds like. Like they took everything you fucking want about fucking down dirty rock and fucking roll, slammed it together, and fucking put it in your ears.

Were I to be someone who engages in rampant overstatement (see entire article above, and probably below) I'd say that this album is fucking cataclysmic. It is one of those fucking albums that starts a chain reaction in your brain that breaks all the fucking rules, slams down the construct and really makes you think about what you like about music.

Every song they do is their song. Even the fucking covers are their song. These songs are stripped to the fucking bones, except for a couple of samples they play over top. Just a voice (my god that voice!), a guitar (downlow, dirty, grimy guitar), and some drums. We don't need any fucking thing but that to rock, the album fucking screams at you.

If I were to identify a weak track on the album, it would be Them Eyes, which is just a bit too poppy for me. Sounds a little too much like what a band that was hugely influenced by the Black Keys would do, but fuck man, it's a fucking good fucking song still.

I want The Black Keys to do an entire tour where they never fucking touch a stage, but they just come around fucking playing on back portches with fucking lemonade and piss fucking cheap American fucking beer, a grill going and fucking people sitting around on freshly cut grass, getting drunk and fucking singing songs, and hanging out. Playing whatever the fuck they want. Spreading those god damn blues around to everybody.

I'm doing that gushing thing again, but I really would suggest that you aquire this album however you need to, and give it a listen. It's fucking worth it, back to front. I'm also marking Dalton down for a Eppy, the award I just made up for Epic Album Suggestions.

Keep the suggestions coming, American Water by the Silver Jews is up next.
Fucking god that is a good album,

Matt

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Published in 2002
Wikipedia

First off, thanks to Patrick Doomsday for this suggestion, I knew that you would come up with a good one.

Let's talk about Space.

Not the concept of the space within music, where rests can mean just as much as notes, nor the concept of space in the real world, where the spaces between things have important implications. No, the space that I am talking about is maybe the most important space to me at the moment.

It's 8 GB big, and it's the space on my iPod.

This is one of those unchangeable boundary conditions for me, one of those things that determines what music I can bring with me. A limit. A line in the sand that you do not...

As some of you may have realized about me, I like to have complete albums on my iPod. This makes things very difficult. I have a very limited space in which to put music that I can carry with me. Some things on there are for the gym, for the ride to Annapolis, some for parties, some for just hanging out and chilling. (An interesting anecdote about this same space that I am talking about, my mom and I were discussing The Project, and she said that this was how people used to listen to music at parties. They were limited in space to one album, or a couple of them.)

Doomsday has in the past introduced me to a band that has been in competition for space on my iPod. I'm thinking mainly of Theviery Corperation. So, I do know that the man has some taste.

This is the record that I always hear Flaming Lips fans tell me that I have to listen to, and I can see why. It's a great album. It's obviously a continuous story, and it really conveys a defined 'other place'. I found myself just nodding along to the beat, just enjoying it. It's an upbeat album in a musical respect, but the lyrics are an interesting contrast to that upbeat sound.

This album is electronic. It sounds electronic. It makes you know that what you are listening to is an experiment in sound just as much as it is music. This is one of the things that I like about it. I'd compare it with great sound experiments like Kid A by Radiohead (which is on the list of my first picks for an album to do) or Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, which if I do say so myself is not too fucking shabby.

I realized while I was listening to it, that two of the songs I had heard in the background of my life before. The titualar track is a great fucking song. It's poppy in just the right ways, and the lyrics just fucking pull you in. It's really a fun song, and totally deserving of the praise that is given to it. I've also heard Do You Realize?? a couple of times out of context at parties, but I will say, it works so much better inside the soundscape of the album.

One thing that I will say against the album is that you need to be in a mood to listen to it. This is one of those albums that would be grating to me if I were in the wrong state of mind. This is not an album that you can work off your rage with, but one to which you can commute. I'm not telling you not to try it out if you aren't a fan of this kind of music, but I am telling you to pick the time that you listen to it for the first time wisely.

So, back to the beginning. I'm not sure if this album is going to replace one on my iPod. I actually think that it is a great travelling album, something that would be awesome on a road trip, late at night, when everyone else is sleeping. It's pump you up music at it's best. I'm very much on the fence about whether I would choose it over some of the other stuff that I have, but I can see it's merits in some cases.

Anyway, if you've never heard a Flaming Lips album, I'd suggest you pick this one up, and give it a shot. It'll at least sound different than a lot of stuff you've ever heard.

Thanks again Doomsday, and up next Icky Thump by the White Stripes.
I said good day, sir.

Matt