There just aren't enough videos that pay homage to Day of the Dead.

Battles - Mirrored (Review)

I'd heard so much about Battles. They're the toast of every webforum on, er, the web at the moment, including my board-of-choice, the one over at oink.me.uk, where there are approximately 10 threads made per second about the group and their new record, Mirrored. So, I gave it a listen. Based on other people's descriptions of the band alone, I was expecting to hear a noise rock record. In a way, it was, but not in the AIDS Wolf Lovvers LP sort of way that I had imagined.

Instead, I got a gorgeously intense piece of music. There's basically a typical band lineup here—bass, drums, guitar, vox—except that each member of the band also plays guitar on the record, and that the vocals are fed through the same sort of Chipmunks-reminiscent sort of pitch control that you'd usually hear on the chorus of a Classified song. It all makes for a fascinating stew of sound. The thing is, though, that for all its noisiness, Mirrored is remarkably smooth. In fact, to me, it listens in the same way that a Steve Vai or Joe Satriani record does.

That is to say that those playing are virtuousos. But don't make the mistake of thinking that Battles merely jam; there are songs here. The structures are challenging, but that's what makes the record unique. Hopefully, a few guitar heads will start listening to this for inspiration, instead of the emotionless shredfests that typically end up in such fans' CD players.

The only substantial drawback is that the second track sounds a lot like "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson. The duh-duh-da-da-da-da drumbeat, all of it. Be warned. Otherwise, it's flawless.

Justice - † (Review)

Justice are born-again Christians, which is appropriate. They are the second coming of Christ. Well, maybe not Christ, per cé, but definitely the MSTR-Christ. I love MSTRKRFT; just check out my Top 10 Records list. That said, † seriously challenges The Looks. It has the same basic appeal: take Daft Punk's Homework, distort it a lot, simplify it until all but the hooks are gone, and then make it as snazzy as possible. Except this time, it samples Goblin... the same Goblin that did the soundtrack to the original Dawn of the Dead, yes. And the title is very Prince, even if this particular symbol can be pronounced pretty easily (it's just "cross"). Basically, I guess what I'm trying to say is that this French duo have made what I cannot imagine will be anything less than the year's best electronica record. At any rate, it's so devestatingly badass that it could possibly kill anyone who listens to it and isn't badass enough to handle it. Think Motörhead badass, only danceable. When this comes out on July 10th, buy it. God. I'm so floored, I can't even write a decent review.

Cool Rock 1

The tunes were HOT...
But the rock was COOL.

I just died in your arms tonight—C'mon! Hit me with your best shot!—Some like it hot, and some sweat when the heat is on—Turn around, Bright Eyes! Every now and then I fall apart—Here I go again on my own, goin' down the only road I've ever known—It's a nice day for a White Wedding—Gimme an R (R!)... O (O!)... C (C!)... K (K!)... Whatta ya got? (ROCK!)... Whtcha gonna do? (ROCK YOU!)—What's love got to do, got to do with it? Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken—Lean on me, when you're not strong—Islands in the stream, that is what we are—I believe when I fall in love with you it will be forever—If ya think I'm sexy, and you love my body, c'mon, baby, let me know...

Books!

Listed alphabetically by last name of author...

Reading...
Rich Balling, Ed. - Revolution on Canvas (Vol. 2)
Daphne A. Brooks - 33 1/3: Jeff Buckley's Grace
Bill Bryson - In a Sunburned Country
Macaulay Culkin - Junior
Jim Fricke, Ed. - Yes Yes Y'All: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop
Walter Isaacson - Einstein: His Life & Universe
Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot: A Vision Of Man's Future In Space
Carl Sagan - Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the End of the Millennium
Paul Steinholdt/Neil Turok - Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang

About to read...
David Barclay/Therese Marie Barclay, Eds. - UFOs, the Final Answer?: Ufology for the 21st Century
Paul Davies - The Last Three Minutes
Andy Greenwald - Miss Misery: A Novel

Recently read...
John D. Barrow - The Origin of the Universe (LIKED)
Kim Cooper - 33 1/3: Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (LIKED)
Yoshihiro Tatsumi - The Push Man and Other Stories (LOVED)

The White Stripes - Icky Thump (Review)

I like this record.

Before you fear that I've resorted to making bland generalizations in lieu of actually writing about the music on this disc, let me reassure you that I'll come back to that. It's just that the fact that I like this record is extremely important.

In 2005, I wrote a short article for The Aquinian called "Max Maxwell's Turd Awards 2005." It listed the various records released that year that had been, in my mind, turds. They weren't standard-issue turds, mind you: they were records by bands that could've done better. I listed—I believe—Dave Matthews Band's Stand Up and Big Star's In Space, the Foo Fighters' In Your Honor, some other record I can't remember, and the White Stripes' Get Behind Me Satan.

I felt that Satan was (if I may be forgiven another moment of punnery) devilishly undercooked. That is to say, there's a difference between minimalism and realeasing demos. It just felt incomplete and hollow; it is, to me, the only point in the band's career where you find yourself not amazed that only 2 people are making the music. So I was a little apprehensive for the release of this, the 6th proper record from Jack and Meg.

That apprehension was uncalled for across the board. I love this record, to reiterate my original thought. Basically, it confirms what I already knew: there are the White Stripes, and then there are bands that are not the White Stripes. In 2003, I wrote in a webforum on the Rolling Stone website that the White Stripes would one day be as synonymous with the 2000s as the Who are with the '60s. I stand by the statement (which, by the way, made it onto the main page; I was flattered).

"You Don't Know What Love Is (Just Do As You're Told)" is as close to being punk as anything that the band has done. It's a plosive and meaningful follow-up to the title track, a '70s-prog-influenced number that addresses politics—specifically, those regarding illegal immigrants in the United States—which is a topic that I don't believe that White has ever used as material in his songs. And there's plenty of Meg vocals here, as on the truly bizarre "St. Andrew," featuring bagpipes appropriate for the song, given the title.

Basically, this is a return to the shredding blues rock records that this band used to make, and I can't wait to see this band this summer. As egalitarian as it gets in the rock world, the Stripes are playing every province in Canada this summer. You bet that I'll be at the Moncton show after hearing this beauty.

The Cat!

The Glad Game

When you're approaching a crosswalk and the light just turns and you don't have to wait at all.

Jumping on the made beds in a new hotel room.

St. Vincent - Marry Me (Review)

Earlier this year, a curly-headed musician from Britain had us all humming a song that sounded eerily like the music that had been made popular by a certain long-dead icon with a planet's name for a surname. At this point in the year, a very-living girl (who just might become an icon) will have us all humming her song. Her stagename, though, is that of a Saint, and I may as well be the first to make the "she certainly is heavenly" pun. (Move over, Hailey Williams from Paramore, there's a new indie boy crush in town.) While Mika's Life In Cartoon Motion has been glued to my CD player for the last several months, it may just be usurped by St. Vincent's Marry Me.

"Grace Kelly" was a great little nugget addressing all of the things that its protagonist could be—brown, blue, violet sky, hurtful, purple, green, mean—and what's more, it was "anything you like." This willingness to fall into the desires of the listener seems worlds away upon listening to "Now, Now"—the first track on this disc—in which Annie Clark is going on about all the things she isn't—a dog, a carpet, a bomb—and then demanding that you say you're sorry for insinuating that she could be "anything at all." If it was strange that I was juxtaposing the two records, maybe it seems a little less weird now.

That's the world that you give yourself up to with Marry Me. You're along for her ride, if she says so. The record is challenging, even at its most seemingly-benign spots. Take the prosaic "What Me Worry?" for example, which manages to feel a little alien, despite the feeling I get that it could've been pulled from a crooner catalogue. It's hard to impress the seasoned music geek these days: Of Montreal and Apples in Stereo entered the Billboard charts within the last year. You don't even need to listen to underground music these days to hear strange chamber-pop arrangements and the like; the Arcade Fire doesn't even turn a soccer mom's head for sake of "weird"ness as of lately. Still, there is something original about this sound, something that even the most up-on-tends, cynical hipster loser couldn't deny being special.

This is not the sound of an artist that has started to find her sound, or the inkling of what's to come; rather, I think it's a great record, and that the woman in charge has arrived into our psyches fully-formed. Which is not to say that she doesn't have room to grow. I'm sure that most folks are going to hear echoes of PJ Harvey's third disc upon listening to Marry Me. Even still this is a supremely original listen that just re-cements my Mika-inspired notion that pop is good again.

Lists

People I Hate
Penn & Teller
Captain Paul Watson

People I Love
Carl Sagan