Your Mid-Atlantic Indie Music Source
We had a very strange arrangement for hosting our files. I woke up this morning and discovered that the arrangement is over. We found something else, so the transition should be seamless. However, a good portion of the links through yesterday are dead. Sorry about this. Believe me, we know that it sucks. I’ll try to relink some of them and I’ll note it on the post. Anyway, the good news is that this won’t slow us down. Expect more from us soon. Thanks for supporting us.
Ted Leo returns to DC tonight for a sold out show at the 9:30 Club. For those of you who don’t have tickets, NPR will have a live webcast of the event that will begin at approximately 9:40PM. All you have to do is visit their site around show time and you will find a link and a live chat. For more details, go here.
On Tuesday April 3, Vienna Teng is coming to Wolf Trap. Want to win a pair of tickets? Send me an e-mail with your name and location. A winner will be notified late this week.
Vienna Teng – The Tower
These United States are a DC band that we have raved about on many occasions. Well, now we have a new reason. No, the album is not out yet (Jesse – I know that you have been known to read this site. So please tell me that this will be happening soon?). However, there is new material floating around. It also happens to be brilliant and free! Jesse recorded a Daytrotter Session that became available a few days ago. The songs are basically stripped down solo versions of some of the great These US songs. I couldn’t recommend them more. Check them out and you will get a hint of how great the album is going to be. You can also read a great interview and see what Jesse has to say about the songs.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Daytrotter, they have artists come to their studio in Rock Island, IL. They record 4 songs in the studio and release them for free on their site. The recordings usually turn out to be raw live versions of the songs being played and are unique. Definitely support their wonderful site and let them know how good it is.
The Daytrotter Session
First Sight
Already Got a Girl Who Calls Me That
So High So Low So Wide So Long
What Do You Want With My Heart?
Have you ever heard a song a zillion times without really listening to it? I have. I was ultra-guilty of this in my youth and I am still guilty of it today. I’ll never forget the moment of realization when it dawned on me that Extreme’s “More Than Words” was not a mere achingly annoying love song but in fact an out-and-out plea for sex. I had a similar experience a few weeks ago with a much more recent tune, John Mayer’s “Waiting On the World To Change”.
This particular moment of clarity occurred for me while sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic with only the music from my MP3 player keeping me from leaping out of my car and beating multiple fellow motorists to death with my handy-dandy ice scraper. I was sitting there seething, listening to the song and then it hit me. Eureka! Or, closer to my true reaction: “waitaminutewhatthehellisthisguysaying?!?!?”
I do not for one second question John Mayer’s talent as an artist. He is a gifted songwriter and a vastly underrated guitarist (though Rolling Stone has referred to him as one of the “New Guitar Gods.” With all that being said, I am scratching my head at what might have possessed Mr. Mayer to write a song like this. The following is a quote as to what Mayer intended with the song (taken from Sony BMG’s releases web site): “I don’t believe that inaction is disinterest, I think inaction is preservation. Nobody wants to get involved in a debate in which the rules and the facts will change so that they’ll lose“.
Me and all my friends We’re all misunderstood They say we stand for nothing and There’s no way we ever could…
Supposedly, John is writing as the voice of a disinterested youth. Forgive me if I am wrong, but it sounds to me like he is singing as the voice of couldn’t-be-bothered do-nothing celebrities everywhere. A lot of your friends are probably misunderstood, John. Most people are in some way. But there is nothing to misinterpret when it comes to the inaction of those with a true voice and a means to get a message across. No one is saying that every artist needs to do a Leonardo DiCaprio and take a stand on global warming or devote an entire album to how f’d the country and world have gotten (a la Green Day). In fact, I don’t blame young celebrities for partying and enjoying their money and fame. If I were young and rich I can guarantee you I’d be paying the paparazzi’s bills in earnest. I can completely understand it if activism isn’t your thing, so why not just shut up, make your music and keep your head in the sand?
…now we see everything that’s going wrong With the world and those who lead it We just feel like we don’t have the means To rise above and beat it…
I find myself wondering how John Mayer came to be the mouthpiece for do-nothing pop and Hollywood stars alike. Did they draw straws to see who was going to tell the world’s youth that its okay to expect positive evolution while everyone sits and hopes things change? Standing up to corrupt systems is hard. It hasn’t been an easy thing to do ever in the whole of human existence! That is why people who DO stand up for what is right, who DO challenge the status quo and who speak and fight for those who can’t for themselves are considered heroes. What would the world be like if the founding fathers of the United States such as your George Washingtons and Thomas Jeffersons – or the Frederick Douglasses, Dr. Martin Luther Kings, Ghandis, Nelson Mandelas, Steve Bikos, Che Guevaras and other freedom fighters from all around the world simply WAITED for the world to change?
…and when you trust your television What you get is what you got Cause when they own the information, oh They can bend it all they want
There is some truth to these lyrics but this might be the line that roils me the worst. This is either the lamest excuse in the song, or Mayer is insinuating something far more insidious. This is the information age. I have no doubt the current administration has leveraged media outlets to control content. But I am still not about to swallow this load of malarkey for even a millisecond. Celebrities have countless ways to get messages across. Web sites, live interviews, their art or what have you. Our country’s media and our society in general are set up so we pay attention to celebrities and ignore what is going on in the world. Western civilization is quite simply celebrity-crazed, and the puppeteers (Big Business, government, etc.) that control us LOVE it. Information is power. Most powerful governments do a good job of controlling it. The only way this lyric holds any water is if the current administration threatened to put the kibosh on the careers of artists who speak out. I just don’t see it.
It’s not that we don’t care, We just know that the fight ain’t fair So we keep on waiting Waiting on the world to change
There is a huge difference between not doing something and making millions of dollars while making excuses for not doing something. No John, the fight ain’t fair. It never is nor has it ever been. But we live in time where celebrities and regular people alike have more than enough means to take a stand and be a voice for change if they so choose. If you choose not to, then you are either afraid – or YOU DON’T CARE.
So John, thank you for sharing that it’s hard to take a stand. Thank you Captain Obvious. Hopefully when its time to choose someone else to make excuses for people of means who choose to bring nothing to the table politically while promoting a grin-and-bear-it laissez-faire attitude towards the world you won’t draw the short straw. Stick to love songs, enjoy your money and your ultra-hot uber-ditz girlfriend. Hopefully your single has cleared your conscience. Standing idly by and watching something happen is almost as bad as committing the act. The majority of Germany and for that matter the European continent applied the WOTWTC philosophy to the Nazis in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s and look how that worked out. At what point does one take action, John?
OK, enough with Mayer. While I am still fired up, I want to talk about something else that burns me…
As most past readers of this column are aware, Carrie Underwood is one of my all time favorite artists (gag!). Did anyone catch her appearance on American Idol on March 8th? Wow. Carrie might be rich and vastly more talented at singing than I am at anything, but damn it if I didn’t want to buy her a hoagie. She looked skeletal. That didn’t take very long. Underwood performed her single “Wasted”, and looks as though she was talking about her own body. I will never be one to make fun of eating disorders but I thought this fad was on its way out. Shame, really. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me when you see what is happening with the young starlets in Hollywood. Oh well, until next week…
Back in September, we covered R.E.M. in their IRS years, due to the fact that the Best Of came out at this time. It is time to revisit, as they were recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
After their stint with IRS, R.E.M. moved to a major label and took the momentum from Document to launch themselves on the road to glory. Already having a large following on college campuses and some air play from a few singles, they took over the alternative scene with the uber-catchy, radio friendly, yet still socially conscious Green. They continued with stellar albums (Out of Time, Automatic for the People), while trying new things (Is that Peter Buck playing a mandolin? Michael is bald?). The rocking Monster and the tour that accompanied it saw the end of R.E.M. as we knew it. Bill Berry almost died on tour and then left the band. New Adventures in Hi-Fi, recorded on tour and a pretty good album, kept it going, but it seemed the flame dwindled after that. While Up, Reveal, and Around the Sun have their moments, they lack the flavor of the days with IRS and the glory of the first few WB albums.
That being said, they will always be one of the most influential bands in college-rock, the indie scene, alternative, whatever you called it (I personally went through all three) and are now enshrined forever as a hall-of-fame band.
Green (1988)
Pop Song 89
World Leader Pretend
Out of Time (1991)
Country Feedback
Radio Song (feat. KRS-One)
Automatic for the People (1992)
Nightswimming
Sweetness Follows
Monster (1994)
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)
Bittersweet Me
How the West Was Won and What It Got Us
Up (1998)
Reveal (2001)
All The Way to Reno
Beat a Drum
Around the Sun (2004)
And as a little bonus:
Past Throwbacks:
1/25/07: Radiohead
1/18/07: The Police
1/11/07: Smashing Pumpkins
1/4/07: Ryan Adams
12/28/06: The Replacements
12/14/06: Talking Heads
12/07/06: Peter Gabriel
11/30/06: The Pixies
11/16/06: Prince
11/09/06: Ben Folds Five
11/02/06: Beastie Boys
10/26/06: Joy Division
10/19/06: They Might Be Giants
10/12/06: The Psychedelic Furs
10/05/06: The Clash
09/28/06: The Smiths
09/21/06: A Tribe Called Quest
09/14/06: R.E.M. (The IRS Era)
09/07/06: The Cure
08/31/06: Morphine
08/24/06: The Lemonheads
08/17/06: Depeche Mode
08/10/06: New Order
Yes, it’s true. There is definitely a certain type of music that always seems to attract me. Lately it has been music that would have sounded more in place 20 years ago, than it does today. Continuing the recent parade of bands that owe most of their influences to 1980’s Britain, is Norway’s New Violators. Instead of name dropping all of the bands that they remind me of, I’ll just tell you what I think of their music. I hate to dance and it makes me want to. The few songs that I have heard are really good (especially for a band that has been together for a few months) and I look forward to their debut album.
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