Minutiae

It must be hard to be a synth pop band from the British Isles. After all, for all its cushy sentiment, Coldplay has put an effective stranglehold on America's taste for imported wimp rock. Don't get me wrong, I'm among the many who have swallowed their gallon of the Coldplay Kool-Aid. Their brand of music has become so well-liked in the States that every band whose sound reaches the radio on this side of the pond is immediately compared to them. Every vocalist is a "raspy" or "stronger" Chris Martin, every guitar hook echoes one song or another from A Rush of Blood to the Head. Though most would imagine that Coldplay's popularity built a transatlantic bridge for like minded British artists, perhaps it's the very reason that, until their song "Run" turned into a megahit after appearing on the teen drama of the day on the WB, a band like Snow Patrol didn't make waves on American airwaves.

( Nobody said it was easy... )

I've already mentioned the confounding nature of trying to figure out exactly what indie music is. In my exploits as consumer of all things not on the radio, I've come across some truly strange, but truly beautiful music, as evidenced by my forays into the Sufjan Stevens and Decembersits catalogs. And even though I am proud of myself for finding these bands and giving them a home on my iPod, I still sport a soft spot for radio-ready tunes, be they the unplayed (Brendan Benson) or the overplayed (Teddy Geiger). The singer-songwriter edge of the great underbelly of indie music features some incredibly talented artists, even if they don't fit nicely into that mode of "anti-establishment" that the hipsters who push indie music would have you embrace exclusively. One of these talented artists ready for radio exposure, but somehow not getting it, is Matt Nathanson, who after David Mead (one of my new favorite singers) is the second artist to whom the great Pandora music service has converted me.

( Sad songs say so much... )

After something like two years exploring the various options in this vast category known as "indie" music, one thing that I have discovered is that it's nearly impossible to categorize what "indie" really is. Does it have to sound like it was recorded in a basement? Then indie powerpop god Brendan Benson is left out of the mix, because his most recent record is neatly polished. Is it something that doesn't get noticed by mainstream culture? Garden State and its soundtrack thrust a dozen tracks into a wide popular consciousness (and rekindled love for one older song). If that's the case, all those songs are too commercial for the indie moniker anymore. Indie music spans every genre, from folk to pop to hip-hop. The common thread is a desire to push the envelope on creativity, or maybe to put something more personal on the market. Heck, if you want to know what "indie" means to me, go read the reasons why I love Steve Burns. If nothing else, Rilo Kiley's More Adventurous embraces that idea of exploration, and if this is what indie truly is, I don't know many people who could listen and complain.

( To live...to live will be an awfully big adventure... )

It's an interesting business when musicians break away (not break up) from their established bands to form a solo act. It's worked for Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison; for Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins; and for Rob Thomas, to name a few, but I'm sure there are dozens if not hundreds of failed efforts to get a little of the limelight away from one's band (think any member of 'N Sync without the initials J.T.). Armed with this information, I was cautiously excited when I found the MySpace Music profile of Steven Page, one of the lead singers of one of my favorite bands, the Barenaked Ladies. His breakaway effort is The Vanity Project, a singing-songwriting cooperation with British popster Stephen Duffy. From the second I heard "Wilted Rose," the album's second track, on MySpace, I knew that the self-titled album (released a year ago) was a must-have. What I didn't anticipate was just how much Page departed from his They Might Be Giants-inspired Ladies cheek (though the album isn't completely different from some BNL material) and really settled down for twelve tracks of neatly crafted pop.

( If the indie world calls, Page will answer... )

'Tangerine' a sweet, refreshing treat for the ears.

If you stop by this site with any kind of regularity, you'll know that I am on a never-ending quest to find new, good music. For someone who rarely, if ever, listens to music on terrestrial radio (I wouldn't say I can't tell you the difference between Cascada and Frescata, but it's close), that's a daunting task. Again, if you're a regular reader, you'd know that I've enlisted online services like last.fm and Pandora to help me in my search. Those efforts haven't been as fruitful as I'd initially hoped, but one artist in particular stood out when I was listening to Pandora. I came across "Make it Right" from David Mead's EP Wherever You Are. I was immediately drawn in by the pure pop rock that Mead had seemingly perfected, but cautious about my discovery when I learned that he had three albums and the aforementioned EP out, and I hadn't heard a note of his music until then. Perhaps that's because he's moved from label to label, Wherever You Are being released on the indie label Eleven Thirty - an appropriate title as its songs were saved from the brink after being dumped by RCA. Mead returned to full album status with Tangerine, released last week on the small label Tallulah!.

( Pop music for those of us who have given up on the Top 40 ... )

Indie rock has its very first supergroup.

It was late one night in a local, quiet bar that I first heard about The Raconteurs. On the way to the establishment, I had played some Brendan Benson songs for a friend. We were talking about Benson, and my friend leaned over and whispered "Have you heard about The Raconteurs?" I thought it was the beer speaking, because I had no idea what he was talking about, and the name sounded too weird to be true. But I typed how I thought it was spelled into a text message and sent it off to another friend, partly to share the information but mostly to be sure the information stayed in my cell phone. That night, I downloaded their first single, "Steady as She Goes," and found a few live in-studio sessions they did over in the mother country (though not theirs; Jack White and Brendan Benson are Michigan natives and the Greenhornes are based out of Cincinnati). On a train ride into the city the next morning, I listened carefully to the single and the live tracks, and I couldn't help but be exited about the prospect of a full album. The prospect came to fruition today with the release of Broken Boy Soldiers.

( My baby's on the level...more after the cut. )

How the 'Blue's Clues' guy saved my musical life.

I can remember the day vividly. I was sitting at my work computer, minding my own business, when a friend IMed me with a very simple message: "www.steveswebpage.com." I clicked the link and poked around for a while, learning that the Steve in question was Steve Burns, the former host of Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues" that many, not including myself, had presumed dead. There was talk on the website of space lobsters and brain control...something about the Flaming Lips. I thought to myself "big deal, guy's trying to get himself some attention. It's the Internet...that's what it's there for." But my tipster friend directed me to a section of the website that I had overlooked: streaming audio of a few songs from Steve's indie rock album, Songs for Dustmites. I gave it a listen and, within a few days, was trekking to the most obscure music store I knew of at the time to find the album.

I've now owned Dustmites for more than two years, and I still marvel every time a song from the album comes up on shuffle. Heck, I still listen to the album in whole at least twice a month. Before Steve, you'd find quite a bit of overproduced tracks populating my iPod, songs that had gone through the ringer of studio mixers one too many times and been left ripe for MTV to pick and feed to the teeny boppers. Today, if you were to look at my music collection, you'd see more music that sounds like it was produced in a basement, with hand-me-down equipment. Though it sounds muddy, the fact that it's exactly what the artist wanted listeners to hear makes this kind of music the quintessential definition of "pure." Without having been exposed to Steve Burns' music, I doubt I'd be listening to The Shins today, or Brendan Benson, for that matter. Steve opened the door to indie music for me.

Until Dustmites, I never realized that music could be so deeply personal to its creator and the trickle-down effect that feeling has on listeners. The music that I listened to before I heard Steve Burns was emotionally distant, carefully-molded-for-radio garbage. There's only a few songs from Dustmites that I would ever consider putting on the radio, if only because there's a few upbeat numbers in the bunch. But Burns' music isn't meant to be a feast for the masses to consume via ad-sponsored airwaves. There's so many songs out there that people adopt for their own feelings, claiming that the music speaks to them. Burns' music needs no filter to speak to you; you can hear the emotion in the lyrics, instrumentation, and in Steve's singing. Listen to the distant ">1" and "Stick Around," or the rocking "Troposphere" or "Superstrings," and you'll get my drift. It is a deeply personal experience, and if you can get into the music, it will most definitely get into you.

There was word a few months ago of a second Burns album appearing this summer. Though I've not heard anything more about it since the first rush of excitement, I'm confident that it will happen. But even if it didn't, I'd be forever in debt to Steve for what Dustmites did to my musical taste.

An exciting bit of news from the music world...

Jack White from The White Stripes has joined forces with Brendan Benson of...Brendan Benson, and Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler of The Green Horns to form the indie-rock version of a super band. They are The Raconteurs, and currently have a single out on iTunes, "Steady, As She Goes." Their album, Broken Boy Soldiers, will be out in May. I can't speak for the album, but I've become somewhat addicted to the single and found a few tracks from in-studio sessions they did for British radio, and I'm psyched to see what the album will be like. The good news is that, while this seems to be a serious project (read: more than one Raconteurs album before all is said and done...yay) the musicians will continue to work on their own careers. So not only is there more Raconteurs past May, but there's more White Stripes and Benson ahead.

A two-time failure on television, he was meant for pop radio.

I first saw and heard Teddy Geiger on the now-failed CBS series Love Monkey, after he had already been bumped from the reality series In Search Of The Partridge Family. Geiger's Wayne was the oasis of genuine singer-songwriter pop rock that Tom Cavanagh's character discovered and planned to ride to the top of the music biz. I was impressed with "Wayne's" music, but remember thinking that Geiger was just a pretty boy actor lip syncing his way to teen idolatry. Now that the show has been canceled and Geiger's debut album Underage Thinking released, I'm less convinced that Love Monkey was an actual attempt at a television show and am thinking it was more of a three-episode publicity for Geiger. And, even though I was addicted to the show, I'm not sure he would have needed it.

Geiger could easily be compared to John Mayer, as both are young, attractive, talented singer-songwriters who lean towards pop rock. But Geiger is more flavored by the rock; there are fewer "Your Body is a Wonderland"s in his album and more "No Such Thing"s instead. The album opens with seemingly benign piano chords before Geiger busts down the door with electric guitar to introduce "These Walls." The track speaks of wearing your heart on your sleeve and not fearing the bumps and bruises that are sure to come of it. The sentiment is a brash, youthful one, but sets up the rest of the album perfectly.

Underage Thinking progresses almost like a story. From "These Walls," Geiger sings about what it takes to get what you can't have in "For You I Will (Confidence)" and his desire to be treated like a thinking adult in the title track (well, reverse the words). He years for lost love but knows he can move past it in "Air Dry," but suffers the lamentations of a breakup in the somewhat under-developed "Seven Days Without You." As the album progresses, Geiger shows the lessons that come out of a loss. Maybe the best track of the album is its closer, "Love is a Marathon," where Geiger teaches us that the things worth having are worth working for.

Geiger has what it takes to become the poster boy for many a teenaged girl's bedroom wall, but he's also a skilled singer and musician; he wrote the majority of the tunes on Underage Thinking and plays piano, drums, bass, and guitar on the album. He shows promise for the future, too, because this is one heck of a debut album for a teenager. If this is the stuff of a seventeen-year-old, maybe I need to go back and pay more attention to junior year of high school.

Rating: * * * 1/2 of 5

I recently signed up for Last.fm, a social music service that recommends tracks for you based on what you listen to. Combined with Pandora, it will hopefully help me discover a lot of new music.

One of the neat features of Last.fm is that it has a plugin for iTunes that tracks what you listen to and publishes it to your profile page. By going there, anyone can see the last ten songs I've listened to (if I've listened to any in the last hour or so) and, eventually, check out what artists are most popular in my player, that is, when I've been doing this long enough for the service to generate charts.

Scroll down to the bottom of the sidebar on this site, click on the Last.fm button, and you'll be taken to my page, then come back here and make fun of my music taste any time you want. Think of it as a way to do your own Friday Random Ten for me any time you want.

I've finally decided to take control of my iPod. I know that sounds strange, but anyone who has followed the "Great Music Dump" storyline knows that I had too many songs on there that I just didn't want. The other day, I transferred all my iPod music onto my work computer hard drive (because it's way more spacious than my home laptop and now I can keep it all in one place) and wiped the iPod clean. I've started putting only the songs I know I want to hear back onto the iPod, making sure they're tagged properly with genre information and, for some, comments. I'm using Smart Playlists more effectively, too, making sure that some of the songs that fell into the "Film" category because they were attached to albums that were largely film score get their due on the "popular" (read: anything not Broadway, Film, Muppet, or Standup Comedy) list. I even made the "popular" list more dynamic by having the playlist be sure that what I'm listening to hasn't been played in the past week.

With that in mind, here's the Friday Random Ten, the "there's not a whole ton of songs back on my iPod so be patient with me because I'm betting there'll be repeat artists" version.

1) The Killers - Somebody Told Me
2) Nizlopi - Fine Story
3) Dave Matthews Band - Busted Stuff (the Lillywhite Sessions version)
4) Barenaked Ladies - Thanks That Was Fun
5) Barenaked Ladies - Go Home
6) Ben Folds - Jane
7) John Mayer - Clarity
8) The Beatles - Yellow Submarine
9) Journey - Faithfully
10) Steve Burns - What I Do On Saturday

There's no "best" song on the list, because I have different associations with all of them. I have a never-ending soft spot for Steve Burns, but you can't deny "Yellow Submarine." I would say that the "worst" song on the list is "Fine Story," because it's not representative of how good Nizlopi can be. It's a fine song, but it's no "JCB" or "Call it Up."

So the "Jeff's Playlist" is unrealistic. I know this now. I just need to continue to get rid of some songs, just to narrow down the possibility that, when I listen to my iPod on random (read: most of the time), I'll get something I want to listen to.

The most recent music "kicked off the island":

The Corpse Bride soundtrack, which doesn't affect my "popular" list, but I haven't listened to it since ripping it.
11 songs from 3 Doors Down, all from either their first or third album. "Away From the Sun" didn't get touched because it rocks.
3 Eminem songs, not that that really matters.
Something like 15 other hip-hop/rap songs that had no business on my iPod in the first place.

I freakin' hate Jane's Addiction. I have for a while now. So why were there three songs from the band still sticking around on my iPod? I don't know, but they aren't anymore.

Also gone: 90% of the Jay-Z/Weezer mash "album," I only saved "Yeah! In the Sun" and "Surf Wax Off Your Shoulder;" the soundtrack from "The Incredibles," which I ripped from a friend but never listened to; and most of the Me First and the Gimmie Gimmie songs I had from an old backup data CD.

New albums from the new guards of international pop music.

I find it extremely hard to find good, new music to listen to (hint: give me suggestions!). I hit a groove this summer while trying to familiarize myself with all the artists on the Garden State soundtrack, but since the beginning of the school semester, I haven't had enough time to keep up on the music world. This month, I finally got a chance to embrace a new artist and listen to a new album from an artist I've already reviewed, at least in some form.

Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

Friends have been trying to get me into Belle and Sebastian for months, but their melancholy tones never quite did it for me. I'd listen to the first few tracks on an album and then delete the whole thing, frustrated that I couldn't find a groove to catch or a hook to latch onto. Fortunately for the band, their newest release is peppier, if not prettier, pop than its predecessors. It's full of familiar, bouncy rhythms and sweet sixties harmonies, like on "Another Sunny Day" and "White Collar Boy." 

The top track, for me, is "The Blues are Still Blue," maybe because I expected the song to be as sedated as older Belle and Sebastian, but it wound up being a rollicking pure pop tune. Brit pop at its best (the band is from Scotland), The Life Pursuit embraces the folk-rocky feel that some of my favorite independent rock acts use. It's truly a blast to listen to.

(* * * * of 5)

Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself

One half of the British duo Frou Frou (who put out "Let Go," the song that plays over the close of Garden State), Heap has already earned her place in my heart for her haunting voice. Speak for Yourself follows the techno-pop blueprint that I thought made Frou Frou's Details so enjoyable. The album's opening four tracks are right along the lines of Details. Then you hear "Hide and Seek." Acapella and saturated by a vocoder, it makes it sound like Heap is singing a techno barbershop quartet with herself. I've never been one to think that music could send chills through you, but even when I listen to it now after twenty-something plays, it's toe-curling.

I don't know if it's the fact that "Hide and Seek" brings the album to a screeching halt or the merit of the tracks after it, but the rest of the album is good but forgettable. If you liked Frou Frou you'll enjoy Heap's second solo effort, but it's not the best introductory album.

(* * * of 5)

One of the great things about LiveJournal is the abundance of quizzes and memes you can find on your friends page. And while almost none of them will make it to the public archives here, I decided to include this one from friend and commenter Laura Grow.

Open iTunes/iPod to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrassing it is.

How many songs: 5,342

Sort by song title
First Song: Gin Blossoms - 'Til I Hear It From You
Last Song: Cherry Poppin' Daddies - Zoot Suit Riot

Sort by time
Longest Song: The Decemberists - The Tain...a continuous 18:37 EP. Incidentally, I have two other songs over 15 minutes: Jimmy Eat World - Goodbye Sky Harbor, and the requisite "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida."
Shortest song: Sufjan Stevens - One Last "Woo-hoo!" for the Pullman (which I haven't listened to yet) at 0:06

Sort by artist
First Song from First Artist: 'Til Tuesday - Voices Carry
Last Song from Last Artist: ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man

Sort by album
First Album: Mariah Carey's #1s
Last Album: Zoot Suit Riot, again.

Top Three Most Played Songs
1) The Killers - Mr. Brightside, 21 times.
2) Steve Burns - Stick Around, 21 times
3) Numb/Encore - Linkin Park/Jay-Z, 17 times...what can I say, I'm a sucker for it.


First song that comes up on Shuffle
Dane Cook's comedy bit "Let's Do This, I'm a Cashew"

Search (I found this difficult, because a bunch of songs, especially for "love," came from album titles or band names.
"sex", how many songs come up? 15
"death", how many songs come up? 37, many of them Death Cab for Cuties songs
"love", how many songs come up? 269
"you", how many songs come up? 694

Back when I was trying to learn all the artists from the Garden State soundtrack, I searched endlessly for Colin Hay's music, and even reviewed his Going Somewhere album. I also found Zero 7's Simple Things because I enjoyed "In the Waiting Line" so much.

Well, say goodbye to the Zero 7 album (didn't like it that much) and Hay's two albums before Going Somewhere (didn't really find reason to listen to them in depth...some songs were good, but those were re-recorded for Going Somewhere). I can survive on the Garden State soundtrack for that one Zero 7 song I like.

That's nearly 40 songs knocked off of the list.

I realize that, in my quest to come down from the junkie-like status of surpassing 5,000 songs on my new iPod (which was kind of the point of getting the iPod in the first place...to be able to have more than 5,000 songs), I'm going to be getting rid of songs from quote, unquote good artists. Elliott Smith was first, and now Death Cab for Cutie. I've grown to like Death Cab, largely through listening to the lead singer's side project band The Postal Service, but the quiet emo still sounds too much like Static Prevails-era Jimmy Eat World, and it's just not my bag. I realize that Death Cab is "good," but I can't have 100 of their songs taking up space on my iPod. So, I've knocked the collection down to 23 songs: the Plans and Transatlanticism records, plus the 10 Postal Service songs for a grand total of 33. I'm pretty happy with the cuts. If I've made a mistake, and maybe should have kept The Photo Album or Something About Airplanes instead, let me know in the comments. But I don't want much more than 30 Death Cab songs.

Next up is the gigantic collection of Bright Eyes that I picked up from a friend but haven't listened to yet. Anything worth keeping besides the I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning album? Again, I'm trying for 25-30 songs.

Part of a conversation from about three minutes ago:

JeffMartin31: i have a confession
JeffMartin31: i love kelly clarkson's "behind these hazel eyes"
FTCrodis: um, so do i
FTCrodis: everyone secretly loves kelly clarkson
FTCrodis: don't worry
JeffMartin31: still, somehow it seems wrong

If all CDs were as solid as these two, we wouldn't need iTunes.

I used to think that CD singles were for people who didn't want to bother learning a band's entire repertoire and would rather listen to the same song over and over again. But, as I've allowed my musical tastes to mature over the years, delving deeper into my favorite bands' catalogs, I've come to realize the importance of B-sides on singles and shorter discs of songs that didn't fit onto a particular CD. Inspired by this realization, and by a gift given to me at Christmas, I bring you an all-EP version of my "Stop, Look, Listen" feature.

Iron & Wine / Calexico - In the Reins

Too often in today's popular music scene, artists collaborate on tracks and it's a forgettable experience. Sure, I'll give you the Queen / David Bowie, even the Puff Daddy / Notorious BIG combinations of the world, but these tag teams only use the style of music they're already known for (I'll concede the Linkin Park / Jay-Z combo and applaud them for mashing together their slightly differing brands of music). What happens, though, when you take a band known for their quiet, stripped-down bluegrass feel and team them up with a noisy bunch who prefer their southwestern, mariachi style rock?

This is just what happens when Iron & Wine, better known as Sam Beam, gets together with Calexico. Beam had tried to recruit the founding members of Calexico to play on his debut album as a backing band for his Iron & Wine persona, but it never worked out. In December 2004, the musicians finally met up and recorded In the Reins, a seven-song album of Beam-written originals.

I've said before how much I like the Iron & Wine sound, even lauded its resistance to overload with instruments and let Beam's voice croon pure, but the added influence of Calexico only enhances the experience. The opening track, "He Lays in the Reins," shows you right away what some piano and gentle drums can do with Beam's expert guitar plucking. "A History of Lovers" is up-tempo by any standards, let alone the oft mellow Iron & Wine, and the sliding electric guitars of Calexico mix in a welcome southwestern spice. Calexico comes down to Beam's quiet level in perhaps the best track, "Sixteen, Maybe Less," a sweet love song with lyrics more poetic than you hear on the radio nowadays. It's almost disappointing that the two didn't get together sooner, as you find yourself upset that there are only seven songs to enjoy here. If the quality of this collaboration is any barometer, though, this isn't the last we've seen of Iron & Wine and Calexico together, and the music can hopefully only get better from here.

(* * * * of 5)

Coldplay - Brothers & Sisters

Though it wasn't widely available in the States until 2003, Brothers & Sisters was Coldplay's first-ever release, and listening to it, you can tell. Not that the fact is in any way a bad thing. The three-track EP, not any longer than 11 minutes, is almost identical to the sound that Chris Martin and company produced on Parachutes. The opening, title track, with its driving acoustic strumming at the chorus, reminds me of "Shiver." The closing track, "Only Superstition," sounds least like Coldplay as anything on the disc, with its heavier drum beats and a simple guitar riff, but Martin's ethereal voice still floats over the instrumentation and tells you that the track is indeed special. Sandwiched between these two tracks is probably the standout cut, "Easy to Please." It embodies the band's chilling sound, as Martin's singing lofts over quiet instrumentation and a whispering wind. It's no wonder that Coldplay was signed to a major record deal after releasing this in the UK, and even less a wonder how they used this as a model for putting together albums that are enjoyable from front to back.

(* * * * of 5)