the mountain goats - live at the 9:30 club, 3/25/11

Fair warning: I'm a die-hard Mountain Goats fan. Die-hard as in I listen to more live recordings than I do actual albums. Die-hard as in I knew John was going to play "Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" a good twenty seconds before he did because I saw him tune down to dropped-D. (For some reason that really freaked out the people around me.) So don't expect any sort of that journalistic fair-and-balanced nonsense in this here review.

I had only seen the Mountain Goats once prior to this show, when John Darnielle and John Vanderslice did a joint acoustic tour in 2008. This show couldn't have been further from that night at the Sixth & I Synagogue, for better or worse. But I feel confident in saying that the 9:30 Club show was at least 16x better than the Synagogue show (give or take).

The full-band Mountain Goats performance is still a rather recent phenomenon. For the better part of a decade, John played almost exclusively with bassist Peter Hughes, with scattered solo shows thrown in. Aside from encores where he would steal the drummer of his opening act, it was very much a minimalist act--even songs that he recorded in studio with a full-band would be broken down to guitar and bass. Around 2006 (to my best estimate), John began drifting toward more full-band performances, especially after 2007, when he recruited Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster as a full-time member. There was still the odd acoustic tour (hence the show I saw), but they were no longer the norm.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for a lot of Mountain Goats fans, many of whom had been following him since his cassette days. Many of his early full-band performances included jeers similar to what Bob Dylan received after going electric, though certainly never to that venomous extent. (I can remember several shows where people actually yelled "Judas," comments that John was none too amused by.)

I was admittedly saddened to learn this tour would be performed by a full-band. My fear was that John would abandon his earlier acoustic songs, playing exclusively post-All Hail West Texas material, leaving the majority of my favorite songs in the dust. I really don't think I could've been more wrong on that front.

Being that the tour was promoting All Eternals Deck, there was obviously a lot of new songs in the setlist. But John knows his core audience well, and he threw in a collection of older songs worthy of a "greatest hits" album. I knew every word to every song they played aside from the new material, and my cranky veteran superiority complex couldn't have been more placated. (I'll include a fractured setlist at the end of the post.)

The opening act was a band called Megafaun, an indie-folk band out of Durham, North Carolina. This was only the second night of the tour, and these guys were clearly still in awe of the whole experience. The traditional scorn and indifference given to most opening acts is nowhere to be found on Mountain Goats tours--we're some of the nicest people around, bar none. The group's Appalachian sound rubbed me the wrong way (honky-tonk just makes me uncomfortable, I can't explain it), but they were undeniably tight, nice as hell, and just a joy to watch on-stage. Definitely a band worth checking out if you're into rootsy country rock.

The Mountain Goats took the stage shortly after, with a brief death metal track introducing them, all four members clad in wonderful black suits. John and Peter Hughes were familiar sights, and the band was filled out by Jon Wurster at drums and Yuval Semo on keyboards and occasional guitar. (Yuval contributed organ, keyboards, and string arrangements to All Eternals Deck.) John, Peter, and Jon are still as in-sync as ever, but Yuval was clearly still working out some of the songs. The only noticeable slip-up was on "No Children," when he jumped out of the chorus a few measures early, but Peter set him straight from across the stage. There were several times when John had to teach him songs on the spot they hadn't rehearsed, but Yuval picked up on them seamlessly.

John Darnielle is simply the most entertaining frontman in music today. He's a joy to watch on-stage, his vocal delivery absolutely reeks of emotion, and his stage banter is on a whole different level from anyone else in the game. His best moment came during a rant against bands writing encore songs on the setlist, when he used Weezer as a hypothetical example.

"We don't say beforehand 'Oh, we'll play "The Sweater Song,"' a statement the audience cheered surprisingly loud for.

John seemed to realize almost immediately what he'd done, as did Peter. "You'd better get on Twitter after the show," he said to much laughter.

"I have no prior knowledge of that band," John maintained, though he was still clearly not backing down from his example. (I can only hope this leads to some kind of bizarre Mountain Goats/Weezer passive-aggressive feud.)

The band opened with several full-band tunes, before the rest of the group emptied, leaving John on-stage to play a few songs solo. The set alternated back and forth in this fashion for the most part, largely split between newer and older songs, though the band did play several old-school songs in full arrangement, including "Minnesota," and "Going to Georgia"(!)

Your average Mountain Goats show is better than anything else in the world, but this show was extraordinary even by the lofty expectations John's set over the years. As I rushed to jot down the songs I could remember after the show, I quickly came to the realization that this was one of the best setlists I'd ever seen from the band, and this is coming from a guy with around 50+ live recordings. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the immediacy of his old acoustic format, but I was still floored by the full-band format. This will definitely go down as one of the best tours the Mountain Goats have ever done.

If you can get tickets, for the love of God do it. Now. Travel as far as you need to go to see them live. You will not regret it.

I don't have a perfect chronological setlist, so I won't try to recreate the exact show. Instead I'll just list what I have, divided between new and old songs. (I'm fairly confident that I wrote down every song they played, though I certainly could've missed a few.)

NEW:

Damn These Vampires

Birth of Serpents

Estate Sale Sign

Beautiful Gas Mask

Outer Scorpion Squadron

For Charles Bronson

Never Quite Free

Liza Forever Minelli

SOMEWHERE IN-BETWEEN:

A Silkworm cover I couldn't quite place. It was fantastic though.

OLD:

Broom People

Dino Lapati's Bones

Minnesota

Family Happiness

Island Garden Song

Southwood Plantation Road

Seeing Daylight

No Children

Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton

This Year

The Sign

Going to Georgia

I'm not fucking with you. They played "No Children," "Death Metal Band," "This Year," "The Sign," AND "Going to Georgia" on the same night. A decent Mountain Goats show in the past had two of those songs as encores, but I can't remember ever seeing a show that had all of those songs together. I winced a little when John started off "Going to Georgia"--John's admitted in the past that that song became the bane of his existence--but it surprisingly turned into a jaunting full-band song that John actually seemed to be enjoying, which was a wonderful change.

On a side-note: I bought a CD copy of All Eternals Deck at the show and listened to it for the first time on the ride home. My initial reaction when it was finished: "That was pretty terrible." My reaction after giving it a second listen today: "Damn, that was really good." So take that as you will. Definitely worth a purchase.

the 2011 super bowl halftime show

Super Bowl halftime shows have traditionally been studies in mediocrity. Washed up musicians, poor choreography, and lame effects, all packed together into a remarkably unentertaining fifteen minutes of entertainment. It's like a car crash you can't turn away from, only someone paid millions of dollars to make it happen.

This year, we were blessed with the presence of the Black Eyed Peas, a group that has managed to go from a pretty well-respected '90s hip hop group to one of the biggest jokes in music over the course of their thirteen year career. They're an unholy mess of generic hooks, autotuned vocals, and soulless performances that has sold upwards of 27 million albums in the last ten years.

It was a safe choice for the NFL, one that surprised absolutely no one when it was announced, yet their appearance did mark one important halftime show milestone: it was the first time since 2004 that someone with breasts performed on the main stage.

It's remarkable how sterile the NFL has managed to make the Super Bowl halftime show over the last decade.

In the wake of the “wardrobe malfunction” that exposed a minute fraction of the female body to the world in 2004, rocking American values to their very core in the process, headliners were limited to washed up male musicians with a low probability of getting naked in the course of their show. The biggest performance venue in the history of mankind was reduced to a vessel for aging rock stars looking to reclaim their old glories.

So when the Black Eyed Peas took the stage on Sunday, lowered from the rafters clad in some kind of futuristic space outfits, they were downright edgy.

There was a woman singing, they played songs written in the 21^st century, there were people in spandex covered in neon lights—it was like someone had transported the Super Bowl forty years into the future, a refreshing change from the stale shows of the past.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the Black Eyed Peas. Far from it. I just believe that the Super Bowl halftime show should be a snapshot of music from the time, not a sexless attempt to appease conservative Americans with stars from their childhood.

The halftime shows we remember are ones that showcased popular acts of the time: New Kids on the Block in 1991, Michael Jackson in 1993, N*Sync in 2001, and yes, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake in 2004. As terrible as New Kids on the Block were, their performance is infinitely more memorable than anything some classic rock band can pull off thirty years past their prime.

Even though the Black Eyed Peas are staggeringly terrible musicians who continue to destroy the face of pop music with reckless abandon, I'm glad they were picked in place of another throwaway act.

Twenty years from now, I'll still remember the neon dancers, the terrible high school talent show choreography, and the fact that will.i.am's monotone chanting in “I Gotta Feeling” was somehow autotuned, because that all sadly reflects the state of pop music today. And I'd still take that any day over listening to Roger Daltrey try to sing again.

- 2/8/11

the art of going to concerts alone

There's nothing more unnatural than going to a concert by yourself.

Concerts by their very nature are social events, a mass gathering of people coming together for the sole purpose of watching an artist perform their art. Every good concert has a way of bringing the crowd together as a whole, so that random strangers within the crowd become best friends for a short few hours, yet there is no feeling better than sharing that experience with someone you already know.

Sadly, this is an experience I've become more and more unaccustomed to as I get older.

It's not that I want to go to concerts alone. Quite the opposite, really. If I could talk every friend I have into going to every concert I went to, I would. My problem is that I can't even talk one person into going with me these days.

I'm a weird guy, but it's not like I don't have friends. They all just hate my music.

It's hard to blame them, really. Just listen to some descriptions of the last few bands I saw alone:

“Deerhunter is an experimental noise rock band from Atlanta, fronted by the compellingly odd singer Bradford Cox. Cox is a striking on-stage presence: the exceedingly skinny 6'4" lead singer has Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder of the connective tissue that gives him abnormally long and spindly limbs.”

“The Japanese musical group Boris are as prolific as they are experimental. They are known to regularly switch musical genres between albums, drawing from a wildly diverse variety of musical styles including psychedelic rock, punk, sludge, doom metal, drone, pop, noise, shoegaze, ambient, and more.”

“By turns cuddly and chaotic, San Francisco's Deerhoof mix noise, sugary melodies, and an experimental spirit into sweetly challenging and utterly distinctive music.”

Aside from the odd “deer” element found in two of the band names, these bands have little in common.

The first two bands put on incredible shows, some of the best I've seen in a long time, yet I saw them by myself. For some reason people are freaked out by terms like “experimental noise rock” and “Japanese doom metal,” yet I bought tickets to these shows immediately.

The last band I haven't seen yet, because they aren't performing until Monday, February 7^th. At 7 pm. At the 9:30 Club. For $15.

(Spoiler alert: this column is a thinly veiled attempt to get someone to go to this concert with me.)

Even if I do end up going to this show alone too, it won't be that bad, because I won't really be alone. The 9:30 Club will be filled with kids that night who went by themselves. We're not loners, we just have better taste in music than you all do.

Just kidding. Well, sort of.

It's a testament to the incredible power of live music that people like me are willing to stand by themselves in a crowd of people, silently swaying or screaming at the top of their lungs or running around in a circle randomly hitting strangers. You know, whatever the situation calls for.

The next time you go to a concert (which could be this Monday, wink-wink), take a moment and look around. You'll see us—the people there for the music, and only the music. Come and over and say hi, we'll appreciate it.

- 2/1/11

Note: A review of the concert I was alluding to can be found here.

Double note: The picture up top is of me talking to Beth from Times New Viking in Dublin. It's not really appropriate for this story. I just wanted to brag.

justin timberlake - justified

I tend to hold some strange opinions when it comes to music. I think ABBA is awesome. I think the Rolling Stones made better music than the Beatles (though the Beatles were clearly the better band). I own and cherish hour-long bootleg recordings of a single Japanese man throwing planes of glass at audience members in a small Tokyo club in the 80's.

I also think Justin Timberlake recorded one of the best pop albums of all-time back in 2002.

Let me just start by saying that this is not another joke column, like the Taylor Swift review from a few months back. I really think Justified is a fantastic album.

Somewhere, deep down inside my cold musical heart, I've always known this to be true. But I was reminded of this fact over winter break, when JT's Saturday Night Live appearance from 2003 showed up on my family's TiVo back home.

I was struck by two things from that episode. First, Justin Timberlake is really funny. Most SNL guests are just unbearably awkward within the live sketch format, but Timberlake fits seamlessly into the whole show, getting some serious laughs in nearly every sketch he's in.

Second, Justin Timberlake actually made some really, really good music back in the day.

Watching his performances, it reminded me just how musical his songs really are. I know that sounds really stupid, but hear me out.

Take a song like “Cry Me a River.” You know it and love it, no matter what you try to say. The complexity of that song, from beat to melody to vocals to effects, is unheard of in modern pop music. The chorus is instantly memorable, and, coupled with the tabloid drama that shaped it, is a surprisingly emotional piece of music.

“Señorita,” “Rock Your Body,” “Like I Love You”—every single off of Justified has those same levels of catchiness, depth, and musicality that adds up to some of the finest pop made in a long, long time. Place any of those songs next to the latest Ke$ha or Lady Gaga hit, and I'm sorry, there's just no comparison.

The thing people seem to forget, however, is that Justin Timberlake has nothing to do with how good his songs are. Just like Britney Spears probably heard “Hold It Against Me” for the first time when she went in the studio to record the vocals.

Justified is a classic example of a stellar performance artist being buoyed wholly by the music of people much more talented than he is. It's a time-tested tradition that has unequivocally resulted in some of the greatest music of the 20^th century.

Justified represents one of the last great studio efforts in this classic tradition. This album is purely the work of the Neptunes and Timbaland. Justin is just the pretty face on the front of it all.

But thanks to Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Katy Perry, and every other trashy post-crunk pop star, we'll probably never experience another album like Justified.

All you need to make a hit song anymore is a tight melody and a random hook. “California Girls,” “Tik-Tok,” “Hold It Against Me,” “Dynamite,” and every other popular song that came out in the last few years were all produced by the same two people: Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco. You've probably never heard of them, but they've made obscene amounts of money by producing the same exact song, over and over and over, each one one becoming inexplicably popular with absolutely no one noticing what they're doing. And it's killing pop music in the process.

We're at a point where real instrumentation sounds out of place on pop radio. It's all synths and auto-tunes mashed together to make something loud that you can dance to, with some talentless figurehead put in front of it. Most of the tracks on Justified sound downright revolutionary compared to every Ke$ha song I've ever heard.

When someone like me is actually getting nostalgic for Justin Timberlake, something is clearly wrong with the world.

- 1/24/11

kanye west - my beautiful dark twisted fantasy

I’m still trying to wash the Taylor Swift off of me from my column a few weeks back, and I could think of no better way to do so than to review the new Kanye album.

Kanye West is one of the few artists in hip-hop who truly needs no hype-man. Whether he’s on rapping stage or doing something stupid in the media, Kanye gets the spotlight, no matter what it takes.
 

But even by his standards, the buzz surrounding his latest album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was absurd.

Before a single track had been leaked, it was already being called a masterpiece by inside sources. 

An increasingly astounding list of guest stars was slowly built up over time, including names like Jay-Z, M.I.A, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Elton John, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), and most of the Wu-Tang Clan, with some of the best producers in the world cooking up beats for the album.

It quickly became clear that this was going to be huge. And as usual, Kanye didn’t disappoint.

This is the return to form fans have been looking for since 808’s & Heartbreak. Kanye once again pushes the boundaries of what hip-hop can be and do, refusing to make the same album everybody else is making today, yet he never goes over-the-top the way 808’s tragically did.

There are moments on this album where Kanye seems capable of just about anything. Nobody else in hip-hop could get away with sampling King Crimson, let alone pull it off as well as he does.

On paper, rapping over “21^st Century Schizoid Man” is just a laughably terrible idea, and I could not wait to get my hands on that song and destroy it in this column. Yet I was nearly all the way through “Power” before I realized this was the King Crimson track, and it was nothing short of brilliant.

I seriously doubt there’s any song in the world Kanye couldn’t sample and turn into a hit song. I really do.

Kanye West is the rare example of a hip-hop artist who is as equally skilled behind a mixing board as he is holding a mic. He’s listed as a producer on all but one of the tracks, and clearly did not just hand off his album to his cast of veteran beatmakers as most rappers will settle with doing.

As daunting as the guest list is throughout, this is firmly Kanye’s album at all times. Modern hip-hop artists have a terrible tendency to lean on other rappers and singers to boost their singles, but Kanye West could not be further from this reality.

Even when identifiable voices pop up along his in the middle of a track, they’re clearly there to back up Kanye’s dominating presence. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, and Bon Iver all cram themselves into a single track for “Monster,” yet the guest appearances are seamlessly integrated into the song, coming together to create what amounts more to a group performance than a set of individual ones.

At no point on this album are you saying to yourself “Oh cool, here’s Jay-Z’s part.” It all comes together to tremendous effect, a far cry from the guest verses that get aimlessly slapped into flavor-of-the-month singles to gain notoriety elsewhere in hip-hop. (Looking at you, Lil Wayne.)

Five albums into his career, Kanye is showing no signs of slowing down, ever. He has yet to put out anything less than greatness, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is no different. (The jury’s still out on 808’s, but it’ll emerge as a classic one day, mark my words.)

It doesn’t matter who you are, what music you listen to, or what side of the epic 2009 Swift/West rivalry you fell on—you will love this album. It’s just that good.

- 12/7/10