Christmas - Menomena

Merry Christmas!

“Evil Bee”* – Menomena – Friend and Foe

Menomena is one of those bands that reminds me here and there of any number of bands, but without ever failing to sound like Menomena. When I listen to Friend and Foe, I hear Radiohead, Elbow, the Flaming Lips, Morphine (OK, “baritone sax”), a touch of Floyd…but whatever influences Menomena have, they warp and twist them into a new, unique beast that is way more than the sum of its parts.

Menomena do the “loud-quiet-loud” thing to great effect, although it may be more accurately described as “drums-no drums-drums.” I haven’t been this spellbound by a drumming performance on an album since I first heard Who’s Next. Danny Seim is an absolute animal, and more often than not, the tone and feel of any given moment of any given song on Friend and Foe is dictated by what Seim is doing (or not doing) to his kit. Check out “Muscle’n Flo” below to see what I mean.

“Evil Bee” is the crowning achievement on an album loaded with great material, though. I love every moment on this song, from the subtle slow build to the triumphant climax, the shifting instrumentation and harrowing lyrics. “Oh to be a machine, oh to be wanted, to be useful.” There’s something depressingly profound in that thought; I don’t think I’ve heard a better lyric all year. The video lives up to the song as well, full of allegory and subtext about the plight of the worker in addition to just looking incredible.

If allegory and profundity isn’t your thing, try the “Rotten Hell” video, which is a cafeteria food fight filmed in slow motion. That’s just as brilliant, but in a completely different way.

Oh, and “Boyscoutin’” has a whistling part! Another one for that playlist…

“Rotten Hell”

“Muscle’n Flo”

*”Evil Bee” and most of Friend and Foe are not on Rhapsody, unfortunately, so I’m putting the one song on the album that is on Rhapsody on the Rhapsody advent playlist, “Wet And Rusting.”

24 - Of Montreal

“Bunny Ain’t No Kind Of Rider”

(scroll to the bottom of the page for a streaming link to it)

“Bunny Ain’t No Kind Of Rider” – Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer is a slanted, manic-depressive, dance-pop masterpiece on which the music provides the mania and the lyrics the depression. I have a playlist called “Awful Things Sung About Cheerfully,” and almost every track on this album could make the cut for it. Euphoric, “you must dance!” music coupled with troubled, demon-wrestling lyrics abound.

On “A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger,” (youtube video below) a bouncy, Erasure-like intro builds to the brightly-sung opening line, “I spent the winter on the verge of a total breakdown while living in Norway.” “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse” is a plea to faulty brain chemistry, on which Kevin Barnes begs, “Come on mood shift/shift back to good again/come on, be a friend.”

My favorite song on the album is “Bunny Ain’t No Kind Of Rider,” which starts in fuzzy chaos, sneaks in a dance beat and bass line underneath the haze, builds it up to the vocals, and finally bursts into a clean, sharp chorus that will stick in your head for weeks.

I hope Mr. Barnes managed to exercise some demons through this album, because I’m pretty sure I gained a few from it.

A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger

Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse

23 - Cloud Cult

“Take Your Medicine”

“Take Your Medicine” – Cloud Cult – The Meaning Of 8

“Take Your Medicine” emanates a desperate sadness; it sounds like a man pacing his room, talking to himself in the mirror, trying to cope with a personal tragedy. The repeated lines used brilliantly throughout the song dramatically reinforce that feeling.

Craig Minowa, Cloud Cult’s primary creative force, lost his two-year-old son in 2002, so this is a man who knows his desperate sadness. It shows on much of his work since—particularly on tracks like “Take Your Medicine,” which have a powerful emotional impact without context, and can absolutely bring you to your knees when framed by the personal history of the artist.

A couple of other great Cloud Cult songs that were on YouTube:

“Chemicals Collide”

“Pretty Voice” (Live)

22 - The Shins

“Sea Legs” – The Shins – Wincing The Night Away

I've been waiting six years for James Mercer to write this song. "Sea Legs" sounds like Oh Inverted World properly evolved, with the Shins expanding their sound and scope to Decemberists-level heights. Instead of the quick three-minute burst typical of the songs from the first two Shins albums, Mercer allowed “Sea Legs” to stretch and expand over five minutes, gliding in and out of different movements, and the result is one of the finest songs he has ever written.

21 - Kings Of Leon

“Ragoo” – Kings Of Leon – Because Of The Times

This is one of those songs I knew I was going to love after six seconds, that guitar part is just too beautiful. I like where Kings of Leon are taking this whole southern rock thing...

OK, I don’t have a ton more to say about this song besides "I love it," so I’m going to use this time to bring up the subject of capitalization standards in music. Early on in my life, I noticed that the words normally left lowercase in things like book titles were capitalized when it came to music (see Kings Of Leon). Song titles on records and CDs capitalized every word, and I never understood why it was different for music. I adopted that standard anyway because, well, it seemed to be the standard, and then I got used to it.

In the Internet Age, you see it both ways. I still feel that by “official standards,” capitalizing all the letters in song titles, band names, and album titles is “correct,” but I still have no idea why or how this came about. Maybe I’ll go google it for a bit and report back in the comments, but if anyone has any insights or thoughts on this, I’d be interested in hearing them.

20 - Yeasayer

“Red Cave”

“Red Cave” – Yeasayer – All Hour Cymbals

Wow, I am totally running out of slots. This is my final “flex” day, the rest of the calendar is pretty well set. I guess I’ll have a long list of alternates to share after Christmas, but for now I have to stick with my obscurity tiebreaker and go with Yeasayer’s “Red Cave.”

Yeasayer is four guys who sound like twenty with their intriguing blend of folk, multi-part gospel-style harmonies, Middle-Eastern instrumentation, polyrhythms, and good ol’ poppy hooks. There are many fine tracks on this album, but besides having a building, big-sounding choral thing going on which I can’t resist, the sentiment of the closing lyrics on “Red Cave” put it over the top for the holiday season.

“I’m so blessed to pass the good times/With my family and the friends I love/In my short life I have met/So many people I deeply care for.”

Despite the theme of this whole endeavor, I’m not big on religion (even the Church of the Red Cave), but I can certainly “amen” that...

19 - M.I.A.

"Paper Planes" – M.I.A. - Kala

The broad assortment of elements found in this one song are a good indicator of the whole album’s eclectic nature. Start with a sample of the Clash’s “Straight To Hell,” add a beat and some laid-back, sing-speak vocals. Then have a bunch of kids join in for a chorus that mimics “Rump Shaker,” (you know, “All I wanna do is zooma zoom zoom and a boom boom”) except replace the “zooma zoom zooms” with gunfire, and the “boom booms” with a reload and a cash-register cha-ching. That’s…unique. I’ve heard the sound of gunfire used in a song before, I’ve just never heard it used as a singer.

New playlist: songs that use a chorus of kids without specifically being from a children’s album.

18 - Wilco

"Side With The Seeds" – Wilco – Sky Blue Sky

The opening recalls a Rolling Stones ballad, and the closing recalls, well, Phish. I was startled by how much the soloing in this song sounded like the work of Trey Anastasio; I even played the section from 3:20 or so through the end for a Phish fan without saying who the artist was, and he assumed it was new Anastasio solo material.

Rob Mitchum of Pitchfork agrees as well, but here’s how he puts it (in a lukewarm review of the album overall):

On the other hand, "Side With the Seeds" is the rare track where the new band demonstrates its chops without getting in the way of the song. With a soulful vocal, intertwined piano and organ, and guitar conversations that build to melodic peaks over a loosely swinging Kotche drumbeat, it's way jambandy, but epic and triumphant nonetheless.

Oh, just say it: it’s way Phish. And it’s epic and triumphant despite being Phishy?

Later, in a review of the Beastie Boys The Mix-Up, the same critic again describes his favorite track on an otherwise disappointing album using Phish (OK, “jambands”) as a negative point of reference:

And very occasionally, the band hits upon something new (for them), like the refreshingly bold (if a wee bit jambandy) guitar riffs that slice through the noodle-funk plod of "Off the Grid" and "The Rat Cage".

Now come on, Rob. Why do these songs have to be good despite being “jambandy?” Why can’t they simply be good? Or…you might want to sit down for this…what if those songs are good because they are Phishy?

Apparently if you reference a “jambandy” sound at Pitchfork without explicitly knocking jam bands in the process, you lose all your indie cred and have to sit alone in the cafeteria. And if you type the letters “p-h-i-s-h” in succession, a trap door opens under your chair and you drop into a pit of hungry sharks. With lasers.

17 - The National

“Fake Empire” – The National – Boxer

This song makes a sneaky transition from stark and somber to lush and hopeful, building to a soaring, layered, Sufjan-like climax (Stevens actually plays piano on a couple of the songs on Boxer). There’s a lot of the slow-build thing on Boxer; if you like this track, you’ll probably like the whole thing.

16 - I'm Not There (Soundtrack)

“Simple Twist Of Fate”

“Simple Twist Of Fate” – Jeff Tweedy – I’m Not There

It’s almost too easy…get a huge stable of talent to cover songs by one of the great songwriters of our era; bam, ship it. There are dozens of great Dylan covers on this soundtrack, and ironically, I can’t find a single one on YouTube, so you'll have to go to the album’s myspace page to hear a sampling if you don’t have Rhapsody.

Dylan covers are interesting because of Dylan’s distinct, defining vocal stylings…every cover falls somewhere on the scale of “not aping Dylan at all” to “totally aping Dylan.” Antony and the Johnsons doing “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and Cat Power’s “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” show that you can be successful from either end of that scale.

15 - LCD Soundsystem

“North American Scum” – LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver

It sounds like James Murphy had an eye-opening experience being an American on the world stage while touring in support of LCD Soundsystem’s debut album, because there hasn’t been a song with such an insightful perspective on being a band from the US since Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re An American Band” (new playlists: Lead-Singing Drummers, and American Pride Rock).

Murphy is torn between being false as an act of diplomacy (“I hate the feeling when you’re looking at me that way/’cause we’re North Americans/but if we act all shy, it’ll make it OK, makes it go away”) and basking openly in the prejudice (see chorus, song title), giving the finger to anyone who would judge him based on his region of origin.

He also gets big bonus points for successful use of the “long verse/surprisingly short verse” trick with the line, “And for those of you who still think we’re from England/we’re not.” A song has to have just the right tone to pull that off.

14 - Pela

“Cavalry” – Pela - Anytown Graffiti

Pela do the indie-rock thing with clear roots in epic, U2/Springsteen-style classic rock, to the point where it would sound perfectly natural if Bono or the Boss came in with the vocals at 0:45 on “Cavalry” instead of Billy McCarthy (who, incidentally, sounds like a mix of Brandon Flowers and Alex Kapranos to me).

The YouTube version is live, and it goes into a chaotic collapse at the end that I could live without (maybe you had to be there), but with direct-from-soundboard audio and a high-energy performance, I’m happy to link it.

13 - Spoon

“Don’t You Evah” – Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

The video is a sequel to the viral “Keepon” video, a demonstration of some pretty cool rhythm AI to “I Turn My Camera On” from Spoon’s previous album, Gimme Fiction. It makes sense because “Don’t You Evah” definitely feels a bit like a sequel to “I Turn My Camera On.”

OK, New Playlist #43: songs with studio chatter left in the recording (but more than just a count off). “Get Back” from Let It Be, David Bowie on “Andy Warhol,” Led Zeppelin’s “Friends,” and Lenny Kravitz on “Stop Draggin’ Around” come to mind. I’m sure googling “studio chatter” would produce lots of others.

12 - Gruff Rhys

“Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru” – Gruff Rhys – Candylion

I heard this song and thought it sounded a lot like Super Furry Animals. Then I found out that it was from SFA frontman Gruff Rhys. Well there you go. I also thought he was saying “goodie goodie goodie,” which made me strangely happy. Then I found out the title was “Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru” and figured it was just some nonsense, which left me disappointed. Then I found out that “gyrru” is Welch for “driving,” and it made me happy again, perhaps even happier than when I thought it was “goodie.”

11 - Eddie Vedder

“Hard Sun” – Eddie Vedder – Into The Wild (Soundtrack)

OK, when I pick songs for this calendar, there are really only about 10-15 I know ahead of time must make the list because of the impact they had on me. The rest, like today, are whatever I feel like at the moment. I tend to favor lesser-known artists when picking from the huge pool of “yeah, that could make the list” songs, because it seems more interesting, and there’s a better chance I’ll introduce someone to an artist they hadn’t heard before.

So, picking Eddie Vedder is hardly erring on the “lesser known” side of things, but picking “Hard Sun” is. I heard the original version by Indio back in the late eighties and instantly loved it; I went out and bought Big Harvest that day. I thought “Hard Sun” had the potential to be a hit, but it was not to be. Big Harvest is out of print, most people have never heard of Indio or heard this song, and I always figured “Hard Sun” was one of those hidden gems that was lost to time, buried under the sea of music that has been released since.

Eddie dug it up, though, and has done it great justice. And apparently he has done me great justice as well, because Big Harvest is now going for $120 on amazon! I wonder if my disc has any scratches…

Anyone seen Into the Wild? Based on the official video for this song, it seems to be about 27% shots of the guy raising his arms triumphantly at the glory of nature. Oh well, “Hard Sun” is a good soundtrack for that, at any rate.

10 - Deerhoof

“Believe ESP” – Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity

Satomi Matsuzaki’s super-sweet vocals are a perfect counterpoint to the choppy, angular, experimental funk on “Believe ESP.” She smoothes the transitions between the jarring and the sublime, and her Japanese accent adds just the right spice to the whole mix.

09 - Simian Mobile Disco

"Hustler" – Simian Mobile Disco – Attack Decay Sustain Release

[Disclaimer: video contains a bunch of women kissing. It's up to the viewer to decide if that's a warning or a sales pitch.]

I enjoy blippy electropop like this, particularly when it has a compelling vocal track. I’m not sure shoplifting vinyl qualifies you for hustler status, but it’s an interesting narrative, and the song peaks when she asks an answers her own question in the same sentence: “What the **** is you gonna do about it nothing.”

08 - The New Pornographers

“Challengers” – The New Pornographers – Challengers

It took more listens for Challengers to sink in for me than any previous NP album. I think part of this is that it doesn’t have a centerpiece song for me the way their other albums have (“Mass Romantic,” from Mass Romantic, "The Laws Have Changed” from Electric Version, and “The Bleeding Heart Show” from Twin Cinema). You are likely to get a different “centerpiece” list from any NP fan, but my point is that with no such song for me on Challengers, all the songs were essentially growers. Grow on me they did, though, to the point where picking one for this playlist was based as much on YouTube availability as it was on which song I liked best.

I went with the lovely, subdued title track, but it could just as easily have been “Myriad Harbor,” the best Bejar-penned NP song yet, Kathryn Calder’s breakout vocal performance on the stuttering, droning “Failsafe,” the haunting Neko Case ballad “Go Places” (also a waltz, I might add), the Bleeding-Heart-Show-That-Never-Quite-Explodes of “My Rights Versus Yours,” the rollicking “All The Old Showstoppers” or the sweeping glory of “Mutiny, I Promise You” or “All Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth.”

Challengers may not have peaks that reach quite as high as the previous three albums, but that is easily made up for in depth.
( Here’s a Rhapsody playlist of all the songs mentioned.)

07 - Kristin Hersh

“In Shock” – Kristin Hersh – Learn To Sing Like A Star

I’m a sucker for the quiet verse that erupts into a monumental chorus, especially when it’s as catchy and glorious as this one. Great use of the string section. Hey, is this technically a waltz? 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3…yeah, I think it’s a waltz. I love it when rock slips a waltz at me and I don’t even realize it. I smell another playlist…

Check out this cool painted-on-the-wall animation set to this song. I would have used it as the primary YouTube link, but it cuts the song off at the end, and I can’t have that.

The Full Calendar

06 - Bishop Allen

“Click Click Click Click” – Bishop Allen – The Broken String

Bishop Allen is kind of a Jethro-Tull-meets-Sleater-Kinney thing. The band name, not the sound—“Bishop Allen” isn’t a dude, it’s a road. The sound is really nothing like either, although a Tull-meets-S-K sound is, at the very least, an intriguing thinker. Anyway, I’ve had the “click click click click” chorus stuck in my head lately, so maybe putting it in the calendar will dislodge it from my brain and stick stick stick stick it into yours.

05 - Peter Bjorn and John

“Young Folks”– Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block

PB&J? I both love and hate that, depending on which part of my brain is processing it. All the parts of my brain love this song and the accompanying video though.

OK, new playlist theme: songs with significant whistling. “Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard,” “Winds Of Change,” “The Stranger,” “Reba,” and…what else? Post your additions to the comments.

04 - Battles

“Atlas” – Battles – Mirrored

Wow, it’s tough to compare these guys to anyone, and probably unfair to all involved, but I like a good challenge so I’m going to try anyway. “Atlas” is a recording of Primus, the sinister side of Pink Floyd, HAL 9000, and the Lollipop Guild storming Rush’s stronghold deep inside a synthesizer and staging a prog-rock coup d'état.

03 - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

“Satan Said Dance” – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Some Loud Thunder

KEXP played a live version of this song fairly frequently between the release of the first and second CYHSY albums. I was glad to see it on Some Loud Thunder, but the almost lighthearted execution of the “Said dance!” line on the studio cut unfortunately betrays the otherwise unsettling, sinister feel of the track in a way the live version does not. I sifted through some of the live versions on YouTube, but—you’re not going to believe this—they were mostly just snippets of unlistenable quality. I know, I was as shocked as you are. Here, this one from Lollapalooza isn’t too bad. And hey, that version is on Rhapsody as well with nice sound quality.

Tangent: note the vocal flub at 3:12 on the Some Loud Thunder version, where Alec Ounsworth starts to come in early, but cuts himself off. It’s interesting that they went with that take. I was trying to come up with other studio tracks in which vocal flubs were left in, and all I could come up with was “Louie Louie,” where Jack Ely also comes back in early at 1:58 and then self-corrects. I figure the Kingsmen went with this take because they ran out of quarters for the “make your own record” machine before they could record another one; CYHSY had more choice in the matter.

02 - Dean & Britta

“Words You Used To Say” – Dean & Britta – Back Numbers

On Back Numbers, the married slice of Luna continue meandering through the world of Dean Wareham’s dreamy guitar and subdued vocals. I’m pretty certain that Wareham is the illegitimate child of Jerry Garcia, but nobody wants to talk about it. If the contact high you get from the wonderfully narcoleptic “Words You Used To Say” doesn’t convince you of his lineage, try this live version of Luna’s “23 Minutes In Brussels.” Come on, the solo alone induces flashbacks in 63% of Deadheads.

Sadly, most fans of the Dead have no idea how much they would love Wareham’s projects, and many fans of Wareham would be uncomfortable with the reality that, somewhere deep in a closet, they would be capable of appreciating the Dead.

01 - Iron & Wine

"The Devil Never Sleeps" - Iron And Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

Samuel Beam has evolved his low-fi, one-guy-in-his-basement sound into more of a Sufjan thing, with lush, exotic instrumentation defining the sound of The Shepherd’s Dog. To some, this may be as initially blasphemous as Dylan going electric, but like Bob’s evolution, Sam’s is so successful that any fans who find the change unwelcome can’t possibly hold it against him for very long.

2007 Musical Advent Calendar

Welcome to my annual song-a-day advent calendar!

Each day until Christmas, I'll share one of my favorite songs from 2007, viaYouTube and/or Rhapsody.

I'll keep the link below updated with a Rhapsody playlist of the count down so far.

Enjoy the music, and happy holidays!

-Ryan

Ryan's 2007 Advent Calendar

• Christmas - Menomena
• 24 - Of Montreal
• 23 - Cloud Cult
• 22 - The Shins
• 21 - Kings Of Leon
• 20 - Yeasayer
• 19 - M.I.A.
• 18 - Wilco
• 17 - The National
• 16 - I'm Not There (Soundtrack)
• 15 - LCD Soundsystem
• 14 - Pela
• 13 - Spoon
• 12 - Gruff Rhys
• 11 - Eddie Vedder
• 10 - Deerhoof
• 09 - Simian Mobile Disco
• 08 - The New Pornographers
• 07 - Kristin Hersh
• 06 - Bishop Allen
• 05 - Peter Bjorn and John
• 04 - Battles
• 03 - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
• 02 - Dean & Britta
• 01 - Iron & Wine