A Word on Covers

A song cover is a tricky thing. It's a good way to introduce people to your style of music using something that they're already comfortable with... if you do it right. If you do it wrong? Well, if the best song on your album is a cover it means that you need to hire someone to write some songs for you, because you suck.

Sometimes, though, you just hit it out of the fucking park.

For example: when Morrissey recorded "First of the Gang to Die", he was probably thinking 'Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted.' I mean, it's a good song. I'm not a huge Morrissey fan, but I do like that song. He's a pretty solid musician, but normally I'm not that into his stuff. Anyway, I like "First of the Gang to Die", it's catchy. You find yourself whistling about Hector being the first of the gang with a gun in his hand.

At this point, I recommend that you click on my link above and listen to Morrissey's original recording. You can definitely see what he was going for and you can appreciate that he has achieved it.

Then, NPR's All Songs Considered podcast introduced me to the cover of this song by an artist known as Zee Avi.

Damn. She fucking nailed it. I mean, Morrissey didn't even realize that this is what his song should have sounded like! He must have heard her version and been like "Ah, come on! How could I have known that's what my song was meant to sound like?" Sucks for him, because Zee Avi's voice and inflection are perfect for that song. Good news for us though, because I find it to just be an awesome song now. I haven't listened to her other stuff yet, but this could well be one of those times when a good musician and singer needs a strong songwriter, don't know yet.

Anyway, score another one for the All Songs Considered podcast. Seriously, it's like the most consistent source for awesome new music I've found.

Impulse Buying in the 21st Century

So I was listening to a Podcast from NPR's "All Songs Considered" (for those of you doubting my yuppie-cred, QED) this evening and I hear host Bob Boilen say, "Our next artist is a Canadian rapper by way of Somalia..."  I reacted as you'd expect - "Of course NPR is playing Somali-Canadian rapper, it's just too damn quirky to leave alone."  But then the guy was GOOD.

You might not believe me, so here's K'naan's music video for Dreamer:

How can you not get behind someone with lyrics as creative as "We're from the only place worse than Kandahar; yeah that's kinda hard" in the midst of a song about how there's nothing wrong with having a good time.  So I've decided to put my money where my mouth is and make that impulse purchase.  I've just downloaded K'naan's second album Troubadour.  It's only $8 on iTunes and it's definitely something different to listen to.

Overall, I have to say that I'm surprised by how much I enjoy All Songs Considered.  It's not all necessarily stuff I'd pick out to listen to a lot, but for the variety of styles Bob Boilen chooses, I like an awful lot of it.  I guess having good taste in music is his job after all.

Bloc Party on the Financial Crisis

This evening I was listening to "Pioneers" from Bloc Party when I realized that this song is actually the script for the Bush administration on the economic crisis.

"If it can be broke then it can be fixed!"

...

"It's all under control.  It's all under control.  It's all under control."

...

"If it can be lost then it can be won!"

...

"All you need is time.  All you need is time.  All you need is.. time."

...

"We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?"

I've heard this song so many times, but I never realized that they were talking about the financial crisis.  I guess the sense of deja vu was caused by the way they keep repeating "It's all under control!  It's all under control!" in that tone that tells you that it is anything but under control.

"So here we are reinventing the wheel" (a clear allusion to the seized up credit markets)

"I'm shaking hands with the hurricane" (that's how Bernanke and Fed must feel every day)

"It's a color that I can't describe, it's a language I don't understand" (John McCain on economics)

Stars are Awesome Musicians, Fans of The Wire

Last night I checked out the Stars concert at Sonar.  I've been listening to their latest album, In Our Bedroom after the War, and it's fantastic.  Seriously, you should really check out some of this band's music. 

So anyway, the show:  At first, it kind of seemed like they brought their B-game, the female lead kind of sucked on one of my favorite songs (The Night Starts Here) as they opened.  But the crowd really got into it the show and you could tell that the band got into the groove quickly.  It was awesome, but probably my favorite parts were when they gave shout-outs to The Wire, a show that every Baltimorean should watch and everyone who appreciates great television should love.  It's weird that I haven't posted anything about The Wire before... I think that may be the next post.  

Anyway, near the beginning of the show:

Amy Millan (female singer) - "We're really excited to be in Baltimore (a little noise from the crowd), we've never been here before, but we love The Wire (a lot of appreciative noise from the crowd).  We were looking for Bubbles on every street corner on our way in."

At the end of the show:

Torquil Campbell (male singer) - "This is going to be our last song.  I'm tempted to dedicate it to Stringer Bell (lots of cheering) ... [says some things I miss] ... did you know telling your mother you love her is ganster?  It's about the most gangster thing you can do; maybe if Stringer Bell had called his mother and told her he loved her, shit wouldn't have gone down so badly for him."

Other things that are great about Stars:

• They are so obviously Canadian, so absolutely Montreal, it's actually cool.
• They have a bunch of flowers arranged on the stage and periodically throw some of them into the audience.  This would be even awesomer if they were any good at throwing flowers.  Torquil (the male singer) definitely needs to work on his release point.  Still, throwing flowers to the audience was cool.
• The bassist definitely referred to our fair city as "B-more!" at one point.

Things that were not awesome about the show:

• The opening act was some douchebag who didn't even have a real band.  He got some random band to back him up within the week before the show.  Plus he can't write songs that don't sound stupid.  However, when he let the random band do a couple songs, they were much better, so I recommend Pash.

What makes me want to buy an iPhone?

It's not that it has all sorts of features, that it can browse the internet, or play music, or even make telephone calls. No, it's because they made me aware of Cansei de Ser Sexy. Cansei de Ser Sexy is the band that sings the song on the most recent iPhone commercials (the one where they keep repeating "Music is my boyfriend"). The name of that song is actually "Music is my Hot, Hot Sex." You should check out this video:



Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS) really has everything you're looking for in an indie band. They're from a strange place (Sao Paulo, Brazil), they dress in really unattractive clothes, they can't really dance but are enthusiastic anyway, and they write songs that make you question their grasp of the English language. Best of all, they have a very ironic band name, Cansei de Ser Sexy is Portuguese for "Tired of being sexy." Apparently, that's a quote from Beyonce Knowles that this band latched onto. Considering the band, very ironic.

For examples of poor dancing:



As you may have noticed, they make a great music video. Can you really watch people dancing around like they're in an earthquake and not laugh?

Here's another awesome video:



I have to admit, I like this band in a not-completely-ironic way. I'm definitely considering buying their most recent album just based on the amount of entertainment I've derived from their videos already.

A Short Post Gone Long

Lately I haven't had a lot to say about much of anything, but I do have a few short things to say, so I've gathered them all into one post:

1) Wikimapia is about 6,000 times as much fun to edit as wikipedia. I'm quite proud of the fact that I have made a significant contribution to the world's knowledge of southeastern Wyoming geography.

2) If a recipe ever advises you to "wrap the cinnamon sticks, cloves, and the remaining bay leave in cheesecloth and tie it with a string to create a spice bag," ignore it. Who's got cheesecloth and string in their kitchen? Now, if you're like me, you've probably got coffee filters and a stapler. Yeah, it totally works.

3) According to my little sister (who is a manager at a 2700-sow commercial hog farm) there is a foolproof way for spotting the illegal aliens. 1) They have a really, really Anglophone a name but barely speak English and 2) they frequently misspell their name. This actually happens. (Alternative method: they tell you about walking from Guatemala and going three days without water.) She says that HR sends them the workers and the managers are just expected to manage and not question their workers' status. That's some courageous corporate leadership - "We can't compete because everyone else uses illegals; so the corporate strategy committee has come up with a plan we call 'taking the low road.'"

It's not that I dislike immigration. I actually think that we need to liberalize immigration AND step up enforcement at the same time. It's not fair to companies that actually care about not contributing to organized identity thefts rings.

Corporation - "We need these workers! No Americans will take these jobs because they're hard/dangerous/mind-numbingly boring/in rural Oklahoma!"
Rational Individual - "Actually, what you mean is that no American will take that job for the wages you offer, the problem is that you need to raise wages."
Corporation - "We pay a competitive wage compared to our industry."
Rational Individual - "But you admit your entire industry can't find enough legal employees. Maybe you all need to raise wages."
Corporation - "That would raise expenses! We're in a low-margin business!"
Rational Individual - "Then perhaps you need to raise prices or become more efficient."
Corporation - "We can't raise prices! We're a commodity item! And we've already pressed efficiency as far as we can!"
Rational Individual - "Well, then here's what I suggest you do: go out of business. You're a net welfare loss to society. You're missing the point of capitalism - crappy enterprises fail. If you can't succeed within the rules, then admit that you suck and get on with life."
Corporation - "But think of the workers that would lose their jobs!"

The conversation ends there because the Rational Individual has given up on the Corporation and is off to efficiently allocate some capital.

Let's be clear here, I don't hate corporations. I hate whiny corporations that won't admit that they're bad at their business and instead of spending money fixing their problems, they spend money on lobbying politicians to tilt the playing field towards them.

Here's a handy reminder for business people out there thinking about investing in lobbyists: government is society's overhead cost. You hate overhead costs, right? So stop giving money to lobbyists and political action committees. Just because it's an industry standard doesn't make it a good idea.

4) Paolo Nutini is pretty good. My roommate discovered him through iTunes free song of the day. Paolo Nutini is not Italian. He is not related to Nutella. He's actually Scottish and a pretty good singer. I'm a big fan of the title track of his debut album - "these streets." I am kind of freaked out by the fact that he was only 19 when this album was recorded, but I'll still recommend it.

5) And finally, an item that I know my friend is probably already complaining about in his blog - Baltimore passed a city-wide smoking ban in public places! I, on the other hand, am psyched. I love breathing non-carcinogenic air and yes, I do believe that it jives with a libertarian/classic liberal viewpoint. It's okay to have the government regulate to keep people from hurting other people. Second-hand smoke hurts other people. Only 10 months until the ban takes effect!

Rambling Thoughts on Music

What, you might ask, am I doing publishing an occasional blog for more or less two months without recommending a music album? Do I not believe that my music tastes are above average and that I have a special insight into the sort of music you ought to own?

Fear not, I am prepared to recommend a new album to you: Eyes Open from Snow Patrol.

If you visit their webpage, you're likely to notice something that I've just discovered: those dudes really, really look like a bunch of guys from England. The haircuts, the pasty white complexions, even the jackets. It's pretty uncanny (ok, so they're actually from Ireland, but how am I supposed to know about Irish haircuts?).

Anyway, you may remember Snow Patrol from their unbelievably good song "Chocolate" from a couple years ago (off of the album Final Straw). I'm sure that not everyone agrees with this characterization, many people liked "Run" better, but what's the point of having a soap box if you don't use it?

The point of this entry, however, is that if you haven't heard the album Eyes Open, then you should give it a chance. It may not be as good as Final Straw, but then again, I may be swayed by the existence of the song "Chocolate." I believe that was an example of the band playing above their level. A statistical anomaly.

I think this happens a lot to bands; for example, The Postal Service. Their original album, Give Up, is unbelievable. It is probably in my top few favorite albums. But I hope and pray that they don't release more material. It's just going to depress me. Clearly, it can be no better than Give Up...and I believe it could be a lot worse. Look at it this way, have you listened to Death Cab for Cutie (Ben Gibbard's band)? It's just a disappointing experience if you've listened to The Postal Service. They really need to quit while their ahead before they release another album where they try to rekindle the magic and their wikipedia article starts talking about how they used to be good.

Oddly enough, it seems that I've set out to write a quick recommendation of Eyes Open and completely failed to give you a good reason to buy the album. So here you go: I recommend that you check out the song "Set the Fire to the Third Bar." It's a spooky, haunting duet featuring Martha Wainwright. Be prepared to dislike it the first 2 to 5 times you hear it, but after that, you're going to have to buy the CD (or download it from iTunes).