popwreckoning updates

Posted: 14 Jan 2009 06:35 PM CST

Every week I write praise pieces on great bands and how other great bands pay homage to them in the form of a great cover and overall musical greatness. Sure, I could continue focusing on the best of the best, but sometimes it’s fun to talk about the music that never should have been made. Welcome to the sporadic and highly elusive Under Cover: WTF!? Edition. Why, you ask? More like why the fuck not!?

Sometimes music journalists feel the need to report on something really horrific, whether it be the musician who refuses to fade away/burn out/go away/simply retire already (i.e.- Madonna, ‘Sticky and Sweet’ tour, really? Really?! Gross.), or bands like Nickelback whose popularity in America makes me question the taste of my fellow countrymen. Then there are the general musical crimes committed by otherwise competent musicians that are worthy of mp3 deletion or a quick hit of the ::gasp:: skip button on your stereo. Specifically, performing a cover song that was perfectly fine as it was and did not need tampering with. These nonsensical acts generally lead to any, if not all, of the following questions: Are you kidding me? Are you serious? Who the hell allowed this one to happen? Why God, why? This week I salute Don Henley, Nine Inch Nails, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, and hang my head in shame at The Ataris, Johnny Cash, and Pixies. Come on guys, you really should’ve known better.
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“The Boys Of Summer” by Don Henley (original: 1984)
What can be said about this incredible rock song (and one of my all-time favorites) that hasn’t already been said? A mark of its genius is the fact that even today when I’m driving in my car and find it on classic radio I still experience the same goosebumps, tingles and awe I first experienced hearing it as a kid. That guitar riff in the beginning is so sexy, the drum machines and synthesizer action set the mood, and coupled with the voyeuristic lyrics it all feels like the musical equivalent to a night-time song on your radio when you’re “driving by your house, though I know you’re not home.” I love Don Henley’s passionate vocals, the story he tells and I admittedly still can’t quite entirely understand what this one is all about… loss of love? An unhealthy relationship? Infidelity? Stalking? Aging? Reflecting on past love? Maybe all, but I kind of like not knowing for sure since the enigmatic lyrics are what make this song so powerful. My favorite lyrics are “I never will forget those nights / I wonder if it was a dream / Remember how you made me crazy? / Remember how I made you scream?” because of the ambiguity. Is he implying a fight? Or sex. I enjoy assuming it’s the latter, but you never can quite tell here. And the black and white video is really artistically shot and perfectly brings out the haunting nature of ”Boys Of Summer”. This song is an American rock n’ roll triumph!

Don Henley - “The Boys of Summer”

website

The Ataris (cover: 2003)
I must ask, seriously, who allowed this mess to happen? Don’t get me wrong, I personally was a huge fan of The Ataris as a pop punk-obsessed youth and I’m all about the ironic rock cover, but still. I don’t know if it’s the heavy guitar riffs that overpower everything or lead singer Kris Roe’s straining vocals, but this song manages to steer very far away from the subtle genius of the original. It’s not as pretty or thought-provoking as the original and lacks any kind of emotional depth. One marked difference I actually found interesting is in the lyrics. While Henley sang “Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac,” The Ataris switched ”deadhead” to “Black Flag.” This must have been done since Black Flag was more relevant to them as a punk rock band, whereas Don Henley chose to discuss wealthy car owners with Grateful Dead stickers to highlight the counterculturalism of his age group at the time. It’s even been said that The Ataris are peeved with this being their hugest hit ever, especially since it wasn’t their song and they have a ton of other originals that are frankly much better. While an interesting take for The Ataris, I’d like to file this song under “Covers That Should Never Have Seen The Light Of Day.”

The Ataris - “The Boys of Summer”

myspace

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“Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails (original: 1995)
(Scroll to about the 20 second mark if you’re impatient!) I was always into rock n’ roll growing up and nothing else, whereas my younger sister was heavy into hip hop. Not only did I feel like I had failed in influencing her positively (or musically rather), but this made car rides extremely difficult since we could barely agree on anything on the radio… until Nine Inch Nails gained popularity and we both agreed lead singer Trent Reznor was (and still is) one hot piece of man. That was the moment I felt like I was making a musical difference as an older sister (haha) and we gushed about how much we loved “Hurt”. This song is entrancing, chilly, dark, and powerful in its music, lyrics and vocal delivery. My favorite line is “What have I become / My sweetest friend / Everyone I know goes away in the end” because while it’s pretty somber, there’s still a tinge of hopefulness in all the sadness as he sings. The guitar splices that punctuate the song while Reznor screams “you can have it all” almost feel like tiny daggers are stabbing you while you’re walking up a neverending flight of stairs. And the entire song charges at you with his emotional intensity in a way that refuses to be ignored, whether you’re ready for it or not. Especially that snarling guitar wail at the end that’s actually a tad unsettling. But that’s okay. The man is deep, what else is there to say?

Nine Inch Nails - “Hurt”

website | myspace | @ virgin mobile festival 2008 | @ oracle arena

Johnny Cash (cover: 2003)
I must ask, are you for real!? I’m aware I may lose some friends over this one, but I think Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” is one of the most overrated songs ever performed. I do, however, find it funny that most musical idiots think this song came out first and Nine Inch Nails covered it. I think his cover might have been better in theory than in reality since the whole thing seems too gimmicky to me. Sometimes when a musical icon of a different era and genre performs an unlikely cover people mistake this move as nothing short of genius. Yeah, I don’t think so. His vocals are chilly but don’t create tingles for me the way Reznor’s do, and the acoustic guitar doesn’t set the same dark mood as the original that makes it so captivating. He even changed Reznor’s “I wear this crown of shit” to “I wear this crown of thorns” to maybe reference Christ, making this song more religious and less about being in a fucked up emotional state-of-mind as Reznor was. Stick to country, Cash. I’m going to have to go ahead and file this one under “Cover Songs That Are Over-Hyped…Next!”

Johnny Cash - “Hurt”

website

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“Head On” by The Jesus and Mary Chain (original: 1990)
I looooove this song! If they ever make a movie of my life I hope they cast Rachel Weisz (or Cate Blanchett, if she doesn’t mind dyeing her hair) and play “Head On” during the closing credits. Or in the future, if science allows us to choose how we’d like to die, I want this song played during the inevitable aneurysm I will experience during an act of extreme and heightened pleasure. Yes, The Jesus and Mary Chain are really that awesome, even if most of their songs are usually about sex. Lead singer Jim Reid’s vocals are resonant, the incendiary guitar during the bridge sparks the rest of the music to ignite into a fiery sound, and the drumming is perfect for getting into the groove at an indie rock dance party. In fact, when he sings “Makes you want to feel / Makes you want to try / Makes you want to blow the stars from the sky” he probably didn’t realize he was explaining just how listening to this song can make you feel. You want to get up and dance, go out and fall in love, get hurt and do it all over again. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a sour mood, come home, blasted this song and I’m immediately transported to a much better emotional place where the air is sweet and all my favorite indie music plays on loop. But be careful– ”Head On” can make you do crazy things. If you don’t believe me, just ask this guy.

The Jesus and Mary Chain - “Head On”

myspace

Pixies (cover: 1991)
I must ask, who are the producers who allowed this shit to happen!? Yeah, sorry to my friends and assorted Pixies lovers, but I’m just not buying this cover. Why must they mess with perfection? Especially a year or so after the original came out. Jeez, can’t you wait a little? Somewhere between lead singer Frank Black’s screeching vocals and sloppy garage rocky guitars is a perfect gem of a song that didn’t deserve to be covered. What did The JAMC ever do to you guys? This version lacks the upbeat, feel-good danceability and the relaxing vocals of the original that echoed over the melody throughout the song. And all this one makes me want to do is break stuff or run over to my stereo and shut it off to make whatever all this is stop. I think I’m going to file this one under ”Cover Songs By Bands Who Need To Stick To Their Own Music… And Switch To Decaf.”

Pixies - “Head On”

website

Check back for Under Cover: WTF!? Edition whenever I get tired of praising the music gods and feel like sipping on some haterade. You know how it is.

December 25, 2008 — Under Cover: Christmas Edition (6)
January 12, 2009 — Remix Monday: Spoon (0)
January 4, 2009 — Under Cover: New Order (for a New Year) (1)
December 30, 2008 — Top ‘Ten’ Albums of 2008 (0)
December 17, 2008 — Under Cover: Showdown Edition… Part 2 (3)
December 10, 2008 — Under Cover: Showdown Edition (7)
December 10, 2008 — Flight of the Conchords Lip Dub Contest (0)
December 9, 2008 — The Priestess & The Fool Free Holiday EP (2)
December 3, 2008 — Under Cover: Gregory and The Hawk’s “Boats and Birds” (8)
November 19, 2008 — Under Cover Wednesday - The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” (6)

Hip Hop 2.0: San Francisco Native’s Bling Is All Silicon

Posted: 14 Jan 2009 12:37 PM CST

Mike Relm
Cult movies and cartoons, obscure hipster-riffic references, in-jokes with the out-crowd, spliced together on a MacBook and uploaded in time for dinner — can this be the future of hip-hop, 20 years removed from Staight Outta Compton? Nay, says filmmaker and DJ combination Mike Relm, it is the present: a cut, chopped and screwed version of events that the bespectacled and besuited has brought to reality (and Coachella, Blue Man Group and Adult Swim — but more on that later) for the past decade.

A self-proclaimed technology nerd, Relm is as 2.0 as hip hop in 2009 can be — the San Francisco native and former turntablist champion posts YouTube updates from the road on his blog (such as the time his tour bus was side-swiped by a U-Haul in subzero snowy Canada); works on project with geek mecca Adult Swim; and spits verses via Twitter. All is true save the last, but one wonders how far behind instant digital dissemination of lyrics can be.

Relm is no stranger to the studio release — with the DVD Clown Alley out in stores since the summertime, nearly 8 years after his first record releases — but both the artist and his craft thrive live (a fact your correspondent duly noted before and after Relm’s antics earned him an onstage visit from a throng of fine young women. One can only wonder what transpired in the sealed-off green room post-show).

Laptop in front and video screen behind, Relm rattles off a string of video favorites ranging from Quentin Tarantino flicks to that YouTube video making its way through the office e-mail pool, all spliced together in real-time with a full audio display for a total sensory experience (word).

The Relm experience is steeped in geek culture, from making a mashup mockery of Office Space’s “O-Face” scene (performed in front of thousands at Coachella), to performing a YouTube-favorite-only set at a recent evening performance.

He is unapologetically dorky yet undeniably hip: one second there he is on-screen in Reservoir Dogs get-up standing next to Tarantino; then you see him, holding a sign offering up a nugget like “MEN GET HICCUPS MORE OFTEN THEN WOMEN” with the same deadpan expression; then he happily acts the being playful curmudgeon, playing the Little Miss Sunshine strip tease scene to a soundtrack provided by a certain J.T. (yes, Little Miss “Sexy Back”).

His is an art form that seems perfectly suited for performances on cell phones, mobile devices, and e-mail attachments, but the portrait of the artist comes to life in 3-D onstage, a resounding rebuttal to lo-fi aficionados and anyone who claims street over geek.
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Peanut Butter Wolf
We’re told adults are free to do as they please. So when you’re an adult with your own record label, playing a show back in your hometown area after a decade-plus of independent hip-hop “stardom” in L.A. and an eight-night gig-fest in which you played video favorites for friends and strangers across the LA Basin — well, the sky’s the limit in your freedom.

So too is San Jose-born Peanut Butter Wolf free and willing to play the opener to lesser-known acts — and as he showed on a recent evening, no more so when he’s providing the opener with a host of obscure, 20-year old “they made a video for this song??” vintage hop hop cuts, from Ultramagnetic MCs to MC Shan to Biz Markie. Yes, neon pants, airbrushed jeans, the phrase “JAM JAM JAM” and jerricurls are all part of the hip hop historical lexicon, when most of today’s backpackers were still twinkles in the babysitter’s eye. Wolf is happy to bring them back to life. Pleasure’s all ours.

Mike Relm: website | myspace
Peanut Butter Wolf: website | myspace

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Words and photos by: Chris Roberts

December 19, 2008 — Free Music Friday: Coast 2 Coast Mixtape, Vol. 60 edition (0)
October 9, 2008 — The Dandy Warhols @ the Warfield, San Francisco (2)
August 26, 2008 — Outside Lands Festival, Day 1 (1)
July 10, 2008 — Download Festival 2008 (0)
July 6, 2008 — Win a trip to Outside Lands compliments of ShockHound! (0)
March 4, 2008 — Young Blaze (0)

My Dear Disco - Dancethink LP

Posted: 14 Jan 2009 09:45 AM CST

I have many fond memories of the last time I was in Greece. It may have been 12 years ago, but I can still smell the crusty sea salt and cigarettes on my grandfather's denim shirt. I can still feel the dry, hot, heat warm my body as I took a siesta on the cool marble floor of my aunt's apartment, and unfortunately I can still hear the candied disco-pop soundtrack that I lived by that summer, bouncing off the stucco rose-wrapped walls of the home my father knew as a child.

At 18, I thought I'd just die if I couldn't dance all night at the local discotheque, Baby-O, under the man-made indoor waterfall and neon beams of light. I was awash in electronic love that summer. I've come a long way since then. I moved to New York, went to art school, and traded in my rainbow striped half top for a black hoodie and a couple of tattoos. When I heard My Dear Disco's debut Dancethink LP, I took a harrowing ride in Doc's DeLorean DMC-12, right to the center of Baby-O's shiny, synthetic dance floor, but this time my feet were frozen. I couldn't, I can't, relate anymore.

Dancethink LP is straight up electro-disco-dance-pop. It doesn't go any further than that and in most cases that would be just fine. It has a place, just not my iPod, right? Well, not so fast. I shouldn't have had the violent, knee-jerk, control-alt-delete, reaction I did when I heard it, if it were okay in some way. Lead singer, Michelle Chamuel's voice is good enough: silky-smooth, soulful and skilled. The beats, on the other hand, are frenetic, unrelenting and reminiscent of the early 80's club scene and not in the Culture Club-good way, but in the Eclipse-bad way. Imagine Lisa Stansfield collaborating with Maroon 5 (sorry guys, but sometimes you almost cross the line) for a star-studded cover of Atlantis' "Keep on Movin' and Groovin". Needless to say, the sound is all over the place on this album jumping from Auto-Tune infected hooks to shallow disco choruses, to overblown, high-speed helium-pop, all in one song.

My Dear Disco - “White Lies”

While there once was a time when I liked the idea of dancing on a fluorescent Euro-dance floor to songs that sent vague messages of love to massive crowds of sweaty hard bodies, this couldn't be further from my current state of mind or heart. There are a few people though, who might actually dig the corny synthetic lyrics and whirling disco-pop of My Dear Disco. For one, there's my old roommate. She lives in India now in a dirt hut with religious figures called "babbas," but when we lived together, she spent her days "trancing" (a kind of intense, full-body, stomping hippy dance) to exactly this kind of music, drinking wine with the windows wide open, wrapped in a handmade tie-dyed tapestry in full Euro-club, music-mad glory. And then there's our old family friend, who spent the 80s as a DJ spinning house music at local clubs, and now retired, maintains an extensive record collection, solely devoted to house music where you can often hear him playing The Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men".

If you think you belong to the latter group, you might want to check Dancethink LP out. If you think you may be more like me, preferring a crunchier from the Earth kind of sound, you know, with guitars, I would advise you to stay far, far away from this album, which is available now.

Tracklisting:
01. White Lies (download)
02. For Your Love
03. My Dear Disco
04. All I Do
05. Amsterdam
06. The Way
07. Madame Eon - Part One
08. Madame Eon - Part Two
09. M.Y.F. (Move Your Feet)

My Dear Disco: website | myspace