The City Veins

I think that it was when I started listening to more classical music, and opera, that I decided that I wanted more of a link between the words and the music in my (our) songs. One might think, “of course there should be a link between the music and lyrics. What kind of idiot are you?” Well, it is not something that Aaron and I have ever really done, so leave us alone.

An obvious example of what I mean is “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights” by Meatloaf. The first part is loose and fun. It gives an air of innocence, recalling scenes in movies of teenagers by lakes in the 50s. I personally picture the lake in the movie Pleasantville during the opening. In the second part, the band goes into 70s disco era. Which undercuts the innocence of the first part, and gives a much more suggestive dirty feel to the song. The music then builds to a crescendo, with the girl dramatically breaking in. Notice how forceful the band is during the woman’s part compared to the man’s. The the song keeps moving up a step at a time, heightening the intensity and putting more pressure on the boy. Until he finally cracks, and the music becomes almost manic to mimic the boys mind set.

The link between the words and music in “Paradise” is overt. One doesn’t really need to know anything about music to understand how the band is reinforcing what is being sung. A subtler, and more effective, example is “We Use to Vacation” by the Cold War Kids. You can download the song here at the always fantastic Daytrotter. The song is about an alcoholic father. In the verse, the father describes the things that he has done while drunk. The music features a descending bassline over a minor chord. The bass goes from the root, to the major 7th, minor 7th, and then the 6th. This is similar to the first four bars of “My Funny Valentine” or all of “Dear Prudence” by the Beatles. In “We Use to Vacation” the dark feel from the minor key, plus the descending bassline just show how bad the father’s alcoholism is. I think that the music is pushing him towards “rock bottom.” The chorus then moves to the related major key, and gives the impression of hope when the father sings “I made a promise to my wife and kids.” The music gives the impression that he is serious and earnestly trying to change, which makes the “It sounds so soothing” line all the more tragic.

Photo by Flickr user hi-tekznolgik.

ince I have no compelling topic to write about in depth this morning, here’s some little things I’ve been considering lately.

Ted Leo is all that is rock.

Charles and I checked out the last stop of the Ted Leo and the Pharmacists tour at the 9:30 Club on Saturday and were BLOWN AWAY. I mean, we’ve each seen Ted before but not with such energy and pure non-stop rock. It had to have been 40 minutes into his set before the took a one-minute break, and even then it was just to tune up and let Ted tie his shoe, and then right back into non-stop rocking out. To anyone who likes rock music, having fun, and/or phenomenal live performances, DO NOT miss the next time Ted rolls into town.

The Onion’s List: “Let it Die. 23 Songs that Should Never be Covered Again”

This is a fantastic little list that all music fans can appreciate, especially people in bands who’ve ever tried to come up with an idea for a “cool” cover tune they could do. I couldn’t agree more with most of the entries on this list. I also can’t put into words how much I love the following line from this article:

“Imagine a world in which only those who truly understand and embrace the message of John Lennon’s “Imagine”—that religion, nationalism, and capitalism are all essentially insane—bother to cover it.”

Good God, I hate that song. Not because it’s a bad song, because it’s a fine song. More because every empty-headed cheeseball loser and their brother have covered it, most of whom have no idea what the song is about. And because John Lennon was a self-righteous, hypocritical ego-maniac. There, I said it.

Fred Armisen is a genius.

Attention all musicians, especially drummers, and anyone who’s ever stepped inside a Guitar Center. Go to this link. You will die laughing at this Fred Armisen parody of instructional drumming DVDs. It’s about time someone did a send-up of these stupid ass things.

For those who don’t play instruments, there are these really obnoxious DVDs that line the shelves at music stores, especially the drum sections. They always feature some prog-rock or fusion-type drummer who is really talented, often foreign, very famous among drummers, and completely unknown to almost everyone else in the world (usually the bands these guys are in are “musician’s bands”, meaning musicians love them but they sell like 27 albums). The videos purport to be instructional, but usually come off in show-offy, snooty, “you could never hope to be this good” tone.

Fred Armisen nails these guys, right down to the unnecessarily big drum set, 80s-style tank tops, and lame hair. It’s one of the more amazing things I’ve seen this year.

Well, the nominations have been released for the 50th annual Grammy awards. While no one is under the impression that the Grammys are still relevant, I would like to offer some thoughts about the nominees anyway. Hell, I am just trying to get out one post a day. While there will be a wealth of material about the big awards, so I am going to dig deep into the nominations.

For example, did you know that they give out Grammys for “Best Tejano Album,” “Best Norteño Album,” and “Best Banda Album?” Yeah, well how about “Best Native American Music Album,” “Best Hawaiian Music Album,” or “Best Zydeco Or Cajun Music Album?”

The most important award is the face-off between Barak Obama, Maya Angelou, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Alan Alda in the “Best Spoken Word Album” category. This award has HUGE Presidential implications. I think that an Obama victory will send a clear signal that he is ready for the White House. He will have beaten the last two Democratic Presidents, and will clearly be their heir apparent. Also, Hillary has already won one; a fact she is certain to use against him. I am surprised that more pundits are not recognizing the importance of this award for 2008. It also shows that the right is dominated by people with horrible speaking voices.

Thank god that Stan Chow is nominated for putting the White Stripes “Icky Thump” on a USB flash drive. Seriously, if this isn’t deserving of a Grammy, then I don’t know what is. I was going to write about how “Best Recording Package, “Best Album Notes,” and “Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package” awards are clearly desperate attempts by the industry to fight the scourge of internet piracy, but they have been giving out “Recording Package” since 1974 and “Album Notes” since 1964. Hell, there use to be a “Best Album Notes - Classical” category.

My ironclad, you can take it to the bank, guarantee is that R. Kelly will win “Best Long Form Music Video” for Trapped in a Closet Chapters 13-22. There is no other artist that can even come close. That said, I do have a slight problem with the nomination. Apparently, the nomination is “For video album packages consisting of more than one song or track.” While “Closet” might sneak on a the track technicality, calling the different chapters separate songs is a dubious prospect at best.

The most awesome category has to be “Best Rock Instrumental Performance” with Metallica, Rush, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Bruce Springsteen all vying for the prize. Also, look to this category, and its nominees, to understand why the Guitar Center is such a horrible place to visit.

The best category is probably “Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album,” with Steve Earle, Tom Waits, Patty Griffin, Ry Cooder, and Mary Chapin Carpenter all nominated. I would ordinarily root for Mary Chapin Carpenter, because she is local, but Patty Griffin’s “Children Running Through” is one of the best albums of the year. That album only garnering one nomination is the biggest oversight of this year’s nominations. It is easily one of my top 5 albums from the past year.

Rihanna’s “Umbrella” should win every category that it is nominated in, and probably some that it is not nominated in. That said, she will probably lose to Aaron’s favorite Amy Winehouse. If our band breaks up anytime soon, this disagreement will be the genesis of it.

So that is it. Let me leave you with this video of Prince and Beyonce from the 2004 Grammys, because after the Plain White-Ts perform “Hey There Delilah” (nominated for “Song of the Year”), it will only be the second greatest performance in Grammy history.

Those who read this site, and don’t know me, should prepare themselves for a lot of discussion about The Wire. So just go watch the past episodes and catch up already. In preparation for the season 5, the final season, HBO has produced some prequels. Here is an early episode in Omar’s life.

You can find some other videos, including when Bunk met McNulty over here.

One of the great things about the internet is that it gives crazy people a way to express their crazy opinions. What is even better is that it gives crazy people a way to over react to other people’s opinions. This is particularly awesome in regards to music. A few years ago my friend Jon had a blog, and he had a post with an animated gif he made where you could “punch” Ryan Cabrera. The graphic was funny, but not as funny as the Cabrera fans who came out to threaten Jon with physical harm. I could read that thread for hours.

A few months ago there was a review in the Washington Post, that I can’t seem to find, of the new Jonas Brother’s cd, that got a similar reaction.

Recently, Rob over at The Rockist Society ran into Josh and had the audacity to say “Nice guy, bad music.” This set the Grobanites off, and the comment section is filled with hate towards Rob. My favorite comments are always the ones where the author was clearly too enraged to think clearly, or use proper spelling or grammar. Take this one for example:

In case any Grobanites stumble over here, I also don’t like Josh’s music. I would rather fill my apartment with The Painter of Light’s catalog than let the treacly mess that is Josh Groban’s music onto my Ipod.

p.s. This post was brought to you by a paucity of content.