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Since I was young, I knew I was goyin to be someone important and rich. That’s why I’m goyin to join this MLM. If I want a rich life, I am going (going?) to have to start thinking on my toes. That’s why Goyin will be my life’s focus for the next couple hours.

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On my eternal drive from New Orleans to Utah, I got to listen to a lot of radio. Probably the most interesting radio I listened to was somewhere in the pitch Nebraska high plains at around 7pm with an interview on Fresh Air with Colin Meloy. Listen to the interview here.

The interview talks a lot about the Colbert Report’s guitar battle, which I saw. Colbert in 2006 challenged the Decemberists to a guitar dual when they (the Decemberists) held a contest to make the best music video with the Decemberists playing in front of a green screen. Colbert had the same contest earlier and accused the Decemberists of copying his idea, so they had a dual.

Chris Funk of the Decemberists isn’t much of a super guitar shredder, and Colbert cheated by bringing Peter Frampton on as proxy, so I wasn’t super impressed and I’d only heard ‘Los Angeles I’m Yours’ prior, so it didn’t leave me wanting to totally get into them.

After listening to the Fresh Air interview, I became extremely engrossed in the desire to listen to The Crane Wife. His explanation of some of the tracks in the interview are great, including the chilling/ironic track Shankhill Butchers, and the touching Japanese folk tale of the Crane Wife. These stories motivated me to get the album and I was blown away.

I think what really brought this album home for me in the very beginning was the that the track 2 encapsulates pretty much all of the defining qualities of 70s Tull-esque Prog-rock. It has multiple movements (The Island, Come and See, The Landlord’s Daughter, You’ll not feel the drowning). Sometimes I get too wrapped up in my own head, but I swore that the main influence of ‘the landlord’s daughter’ portion was derived from Jethro Tull’s 45 minute masterpiece Thick as a Brick, with a lot of quick acoustic guitar finger picking with following tonewheel organ licks hot enough to melt your synapses until they stick to the inside of your skull like the shredded cheese on your omelet, like for instance minute 41:12 till the end of the song.

I was relieved to read this article and come to find that someone else that is apparently even more well informed and connected agreed with me.

Get this album, and find some quick explanations of the stories behind the songs to enrich your listening pleasure.

Be looking for the next Powerless release, because they debuted one of their new songs, and it was splifferific. The song’s name is still up in the air I guess (Sam, the bassist is right here and I just asked him what its name was and he said he doesn’t know). Anyway, the song’s time signature changed like three times and there were all these really creative wandering melodies. It was almost like if Tool did the Beatles song Happiness is a Warm Gun, but then changed it a lot.

Anyway, be careful the next time you go to The Big Red Barn. Not that its a very trafficked venue or anything (its just this big red barn…in Mapleton) but I got stung 3 times by a huge wasp. I think the Powerless summoned it by playing the secret yellow note, which was designed by the Top Secret Weapons Division of the US Military to summon the Japanese out of their pill boxes, but ended up summoning wasps. So they just sprayed LSD all over them and let them back loose over St. George, UT.

Powerless plays next at the Velour (which is on University Ave. near Center Street in Provo) on Feb 22nd at 8:30.

This is old news, but hey, neither you nor I care.

The album won a Grammy, but who really cares about that anymore?

The album for me is outstanding half the time, and so-so the rest of the time. The track “Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)” is probably my favorite, featuring about 200 different samples including a super catching guitar riff (pretty sure that’s sampled, if not, sorry Wayne, as if you read my blog anyway you big jerk). Let me just say that I LOVE their sampled noises and sounds. They are so crisp and perfectly toned, they just massage my brain.

“It Overtakes Me” is also excellent (excellent enought to be picked up by Beck’s beer in the UK which is why the UK is ahead of us in terms of awesomeness). It inspired me in my current recording project to have some vocals over just some drums. Don’t you love that sound?

Anyway, this is turning out to be really boring for even me to type. Who likes to read someone just ramble on about music without offering any actual insights. I might revisit this when I do have something interesting to say.

This album was one of the most pleasant surprises of the last new music binge. Devendra Banhart, once a homeless nomad, also turned out to be a gifted musician and songwriter. For now I only have his album “Cripple Crow” which is excellent. A good sample of the brilliance is in his song ‘Queen Bee’:

Well I do like a certain girl
She moves like a dancing dream
I saw everything I’ve seen
And I meant everything I mean
Oh queen bee you’re always happy and free
Oh queen bee land by me, by me
She’s kissed everyone I’ve kissed
She’s missed everyone I’ve missed
And her guess is always as good as mine
And I’m blessed, she treats me so damn kind
She’s grown every seed I’ve grown
She’s known everything I’ve known
And my dreams they always coincide
And bows always float in time
And oh queen bee, I’m always happy to see

This surreal psychedelic trip takes us into the head of a drone who finds himself in love with the queen bee along with thousands of others. Through the queen bee all drones think the same thoughts, dream the same dreams, etc. Like a lot of other Devendra’s tunes this one includes communistic undertones. It reminds me of what Preston said about how much people in mainland China (where he spent the last two weeks) love Chairman Mao even though he’s a murdering dictator.

Anyway regardless of Devendra’s political sympathies, I still love his poetic abilities and seriously authentic psychedelic folk. I read a little about him at Young God records. He is the real deal homeless SF child of a child of child of a hippie.

He also is a split personality. About 40% of the time he sings and plays seriously authentic Latin/Spanish ballads and folk songs. His song entitled “The Beatles” goes:

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are the only Beatles in the world
Do you feel like dancing are you getting hung
Do you wanna be my girl
rrrigui-digui-digui, canta trubador!…

…as the music turns into a latino folk tune. The Cripple Crow album cover also looks curiously like the Sgt. Pepper cover only with a jungle theme.

Anyway, very interesting stuff. Apparently he is already very popular so I’m sure this post isn’t much news to you. I like this picture of him; kind of reminds me of wayne coyne of the Flaming Lips only more intense.

The best thing that happened to me so far today (so in the last 46 minutes) happened when I logged onto the Official Elliott Smith Site for the first time in months. It looks like they have revamped it… and on wordpress! But, if you go there and look closely, they are using the same theme I am. Of course, Elliott is deceased and so its not like he chose the theme himself so its not like we have similar tastes in themes, but it made me happy.

I consider Elliott Smith to be one of the greatest song writers of this (well those of us that are 30s-ish) generation. His deceptively transparent rock style includes avante garde, atonal chord intervals and melodic/harmonic lines that beautifully intersect and make invisible spider webs. Some of his songs include “Miss Misery” which was featured in the film Good Will Hunting, “Needle in the Hay” which was featured in the film The Royal Tennenbaums, my favorite, “Condor Ave.”, “Somebody I Used to Know”, “Son of Sam”, “Baby Brittain”, and um, about 115 other songs.

Brief Bio

I’m not going to regurgitate his life history here, but you should go to the official site, Sweet Adeline, and read it. His life was pretty riddled with heavy heroin use and sordid developmental stages. It ended in the beginning of 2003 with multiple stab wounds to the chest. Although his death was originally reported as suicide, his close friends reported that Elliott was on the up-and-up at the time, and that he had shown progress in rehab. The case was reopenned to homicide investigations.

Anyhow….

If you are an Elliott Smith fan or would like to be introduced to music that is important to today’s musical landscape, check out the site. You will find tabs, lyrics, and even rare and free downloadable music files (some are mp3 some are .rm). There is enough music there to fill about 3 albums.

Synopsis: Simon’s come a long way from the S&G days where almost every song had to be something profound and preachy. In my opinion he is now more concerned with portraying humans simply as they are, and not trying to bring great truths to light. “Surprise” gets a 14.0

“Surprise” wasn’t what I expected, which is pretty standard for Paul Simon. Every album seems to have its own character. To name a few:

“Graceland” was an eclectic combo of african tribal music, Nashville country rock, and cajun. “Rhythm of the Saints” was almost purely Brazilian folk/samba and all around latin percussion driven. “You’re the One,” also with a percussion theme, reverted back to some American folk rock roots. This year’s “Surprise” is pretty pop, even electronic/ambient, thanks to collaborator Brian Eno. Brian Eno is known for pioneering ambient rock in the Seventies and also did production with U2, to throw out a big name.

At first I didn’t know whether or not to be happy with this direction. But then I realized that ever since I was a kid (Graceland was my first album ever; a cassette copy of my dad’s cassette which I remember listening to in the car on the way to elementary school) I was always skeptical of the new Paul Simon albums coming out until they proved themselves over time; not because of public approval (it seemed that Simon’s approval rating decreased dramatically with the whole “Graceland” exploitation of African culture charge), but because the music is almost always ahead of its time. If one invests time, Simon’s wisdom and musical choices will shine through without exception.

So its hard to give a good review of something that takes months to get to know. But what I can say is that Paul’s biting wit hasn’t fizzled out yet. In “Outrageous” he rants about the absurdities of the material world and about getting old. The refrain he repeats: “who’s gonna love you when your looks are gone?” four times and then later on says “God will. Like he waters the flowers on your window sill,” as somewhat of a reference to the Sermon on the Mount. The song’s ambient influence from Brian Eno made it sound like John Mayer in his most poppiest moments which is a pretty big initial turn-off, but I’m going to give it time.

The first track, “How Can You Live in the Northeast?” was written as a reaction to the vast polarization our country finds itself in today with a 50/50 split of red and blue states. It is playful until you realize that the song is reminding you of how closed minded you are.

“Wartime Prayers” was written before the US went to war, but was written when 9/11 was fresh on everyone’s minds. There is no direct reference to 9/11 (there is enough exploitation in popular culture). The song in the beginning is somewhat off-center rhythmically with long wandering melodic thoughts and is soon transformed into a bit of a gospel rock. Its very introspective and humble in a way you like to see old people get; especially when they are famous and successful old people.

I guess that’s what we all like to see, and characterizes this album throughout. Simon’s come a long way from the S&G days where almost every song had to be something profound and preachy. In my opinion he is now more concerned with portraying humans simply as they are, and not trying to bring great truths to light, and that is perhaps as profound as it gets. It might be because the more you know, the more aware you become of how little you know.

Check out Samples and the Rolling Stone Review Here.

Also…

I recommend you purchase the album over iTunes or any other way where you can procure the interactive booklet. It is just a video interview with Paul Simon where he discusses his choices and collaborations on the album.

Official YellowSubterfuge Rating system: 1-16

So I have to come up with some sort of rating system. I’ve decided to go by the Hexidecimal system (1-16 rating system), 16 being sent directly from deity, and 1 being that thing you generally step in at the park and is commonly characterized as hitting a fan.

Surprise gets a 14.0 for now

That’s higher than I feel about it right now, but the album is already becoming endearing, so its kind of a prediction of what I will rate this album in 4 months. Hopefully I will get past or understand the turn-offs over time, most of which are Eno production choices.

Anyone think the new M&M commercial called ‘kaleidescope’ is weird? Hard shell candies with goofy googly eyes get motion sickness and eventually eaten a la slapstick to the music of Iron and Wine, the independent, cerebral, transcendental, melancholy, folk band, covering the Postal Service song “Such Great Heights.”

Is this a clever ironic juxtaposition, or a lame transparent marketing trick, tossing a stone in the dark at hard-to-reach demographics? What a weird pair. Imagine if WBEZ (NPR) took This American Life away from Ira Glass and gave it to the late-late-night charlatan Carson Daly.

MC Hammer’s blog is helping us keep tabs on the man behind the legend. In a nutshell, Hammer is sticking with what works: the Zack Morris phone, “Hammertime”, and bitmap images.

I went and saw Mason at the Great American Music Hall in Frisco.

It was pretty much the most amazing show I’ve seen, which is saying a lot since I followed the Dead around since 1965 when they were better known as “Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions” and up until the heralded “Wall of Sound accident” of 1971 which hospitalized me and 471 others.

The Mason show was amazing and extremely simple. As you certainly must know, Mason is touring solo right now so no Chris or Brian. The simplicity of the show openned doors for tremendous honesty, and Mason spilled his guts for us. The show has since changed the way I listen to his music, mostly because of a new knowledge that he really means what he sings. Standing right under him at the stage, I could see his eyes well up with tears and his nose wrinkle from holding them back during songs like ‘Train Leaving Gray’ and ‘Adrian’. I can’t remember all the songs he did, but others included ‘Crown’, ‘The Light (part II)’, ‘Lemon Grove Avenue’, ‘Ballad of Paul and Sheila’, ‘Sorry Signs on Cash Machines’, ‘Summer Dress’, ‘Amphetamine Girl’, ‘Duluth’, ‘California (pt II)’, and ‘Butterfly’.

The show has also changed the way I write music and even live life as an individual, with more honesty. This kind of talk might seem quite exagerated, but that night was pretty special. The man is full of love. Thanks Mason.

His new album entitled Boneclouds is poised to release on May 2nd. My birthday is May 4th. You know what I mean?

Please post a comment to this post if you have a good name for my band. We are a blues band. We’ve played around town for about 5 months and we still can’t think of a name.