“You’re Pretty Good With Words, But Words Won’t Save Your Life”

Everyone’s A Critic, And Most People Are DJs

Over the course of about three months (mostly the past three weeks), I’ve become an obsessive fan of the Hold Steady. It all started when I ran into some friends after the band played a sold-out show at the Magic Stick. These were friends whose musical opinions I usually trust.

Then I started seeing their record “Boys And Girls In America” listed on several ‘best of 2006′ lists, including The Onion’s, and they typically know what they’re talking about. So I went out and bought that album. It’s their third. I compulsively listened to it every day – all day. I listened to it at work, in the car, on my way to work, on my way home from work. I’d play it when friends were in the car in an effort to get them into it. My two musically-minded co-workers were alerted that I had new music in my shared iTunes library for them to check out. Like I said: obsession.

I checked out some brief clips of their previous album “Separation Sunday,” but it didn’t sound anything like ‘Boys and Girls’. So I ignored it. Then I ran into some friends when they were buying advance tickets for the HS’s most recent show at the Magic Stick. I was saying how I’d checked out the other album and that I wasn’t all that into it and was met with incredulity. Maybe I missed something?

This was all last month. So I found myself in Record Time in Ferndale, as I do at least once a week, and decided to pick up “Separation Sunday” (2005). And, just like ‘Boys and Girls’ (2006), I obsessed over it. Unlike that latest album, this one had an obvious story connecting all the songs. It’s a concept record. And this one’s wordier, the guitars crunch a little more, and there’s less texture.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the latest record, but it’s quickly becoming obvious that there’s a reason it’s the one that got them noticed. ‘Boys and Girls’ is polished, very well written musically, well produced, and obviously well thought-out. ‘Separation Sunday’ is about a hoodrat named Halleluia, her dealer Charlemagne and her internal conflict between Catholicism and the party life. Sounds heady, but really, it isn’t. You don’t even have to understand the story to appreciate the music and the lyrics.

Beyond the obvious Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel references, not to mention Craig Finn’s quirky voice (oddly reminiscent of a straining Elvis Costello at times), the lyrics are what really get to me. For the past ten years, I’ve been a full-time observer, and half-time participant in Detroit’s bar scene. Sometimes I’m inclined to write about it, but it comes out fragmented grammatically and mentally. I forget details, my ADHD-addled brain spits out sentences missing subjects and complete clauses, memories slip through my fingers, and I’m left wishin’ I’d taken notes once in awhile. He writes the way that I wish I did, or at least feel like I could.

So that got me hooked. The Hold Steady played Detroit last Tuesday and I took that opportunity to pick up their first record, “The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me.” Holy shit. It’s the beginning of the story of Halleluia the Hoodrat that was continued on “Separation Sunday” (note that “Boys and Girls” does not continue the story). Lyrically, I’m even more obsessed with this one because it’s even more scattered and maybe sometimes trying too hard. But those are qualities of writing that I can certainly relate to.

The Hold Steady are definitely a band that is currently blowing the fuck up, and for good reason. I do have to say, though, that I recommend you start with the latest album and work your way back.

The Hold Steady official site
The Hold Steady lyrics
The Hold Steady on MySpace

Godstar (Monterey Pop Festival Mix)

A few weeks ago I had a serious hankerin’ for some Psychic TV. I first heard them in 1987 or so on college radio. This was during their acid house phase.

The ringleader, Genesis P. Orridge has a long history in British music that goes back to the early ’70s. His most well-known band is probably the pre-Psychic TV avant industrial Throbbing Gristle. In PTV, he writes the lyrics and sings the songs, but he doesn’t write the music. This means that each time he reincarnates the band, he is often reinventing the band as well. Their records have ranged from industrial-dance to Beach Boys-esque pop to avant-garde electro to the origins of acid house to psychedelia.

P. Orridge and his family have been the victims of investigations based on empty accusation. This is because he started a cult-like organization called the Temple ov Psychick Youth (yes, that’s how they spelled it). It was a quasi-religious group rooted in art and philosophy, but P. Orridge has since distanced himself from it. These days, he and his second wife spend much of their time distributing food and clothing to those in need in Tibet. This is from a longstanding Psychic TV tradition of ‘giving-back’ some of their royalty money. Interestingly, P. Orridge now goes by the name Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. The name Breyer is his wife’s surname. In the ’90s, he got breast implants, and now refers to himself as s/he. This is all related to his theories of pandrogeny, which you can read all about here.

Anyhow, I recommend these albums from their various periods:

Experimental: Any of the eight live albums released between 1986 and 1987

Acid house: “Jack the Tab: Tekno Acid Beat” (note, this appears like a compilation, but it’s all Psychic TV under various names in an effort to make people believe that acid house was much more popular and well known than it truly was at the time)

Industrial: “Toward thee Infinite Beat”

Psychedelic pop: “Godstar: Thee Director’s Cut” (this was meant to be a soundtrack to a biopic about Brian Jones that was never made)

How a Resurrection Really Feels

It’s been eight months since I’ve posted on this page. Obviously, things are looking different. I moved to a different host. Blogger didn’t offer enough choices in templates, and I was starting to get tired of spending so much time trying to write my own script. I’ll admit, everything got a little better when Blogger updated a bunch of functions. But it wasn’t enough. Well, it was enough, but not the right enough. A change was needed. So I moved to WordPress, which I’m liking so far.

And now for the reason I’m here after such a long absence. I originally started rocknrollscientist three years ago because I desperately needed an outlet. An outlet for writing about music, culture, film, art, food, and pop culture. At the same time, I needed someplace where I could post random fiction that popped into my head. Most of it was about talking office supplies.

At first it worked out really well. I had a lot of fun, and my friends were reading it. But I started getting obsessed with my stats. And then out of nowhere one day, a music marketing company contacted me about pimping their artists for them. The payoff was free music. I took the bait, and went to work. My page hits were movin’ on up, but still nowhere near what I had hoped. Eventually more companies started contacting me, including the music marketing divisions of Vice and Filter magazines. They would email me with MP3s and tour dates and press kits for new bands and records. Some of them would send me free CDs to review and write about. They knew I DJ on the weekend, so that was yet another reason to give me free stuff.

When it began, I liked it, but it got to the point where I felt obligated to post everything whether I liked the band/album or not. And posting with photos, links, and other crap was too time-consuming for me. Come October 2006, and I started a new job that was much more intensive than the previous one. So I cut the cord with the marketing companies, and stopped posting on rocknrollscientist.

People are always telling me I should be writing about music, and I agree. So here I am.

The Chillout Tent

I’m back. Slowly but surely I’m back and I’m doin’ it with a new host, and new style. Watch out for new stuff in the near future.

Business Casual

Yeah, I know. It’s been awhile. I’m taking a hiatus from rocknrollscientist. Work’s been busy, and therefore I can’t update much while at the office. Plus that means that when I’m not at the office, I’m taking full advantage of my time away. Full advantage means I’m not sitting at home on the couch typing things here.

For right now, I’ve been posting more on my MySpace blog. For some reason I’m more comfortable with that medium right now. And I’m already on it throughout the day, so it’s easier to deal with. If you’re not on MySpace, but want to keep reading, you need to get an account. It’s free. You can find my page at myspace.com/ifuzzbot, but you can’t get to the blogs unless you have a MySpace login.

As for all the people I’ve worked with for content, I apologize for not being very responsive lately. I’m still DJing every Saturday night, but posting here on rocknrollscientist is going to be very spotty. Shoot me an email if you’d like to talk more about it.

Papillon de Madame

It’s been a few weeks now, and I’ve been listening to this CD on and off, and I really like it. Singer-songwriter-ish vocals and lyrics with minimal electro beats. Lots of bleeps and bloops. But it isn’t arrhythmic like Solex, and it isn’t folky like Beth Orton. It’s just…nice.

Lisa Papineau has already made a name for herself as a vocalist with Air and M83, and now she has her very own solo album. But she didn’t do it all by herself. You’d think she did if you read the liner notes and saw what all she played…but she didn’t. She had help. Thomas Huiban is credited with bass, synthesizers, singing, beats, triangle, kalimba, and guitar. Matthieu le Senechal Delosmone de Villeneuve played the Rhodes piano, clavinet organ, guitar, mandolin, accordion, synthesizers, sang, and made some beats. Then Bob Merrymountain created the string arrangements, played synthesizers, percussion, sang, and did some live programming and choreography (?). Lisa gets in on it with melodies, words, singing, beats, bells, synthesizers, cymbals, guitar jack, and one lousy Rhodes part. That’s all verbatim from the liner notes. We are also told that Lisa Papineau endorses chicory, a pleasing non-caffeinated warm beverage.

Despite all of this instrumentation, “Night Moves” is a very subtle record. And Bob Seger is nowhere to be found. This is decidedly not a rock album.

I’m a fan. But I don’t like the track “Shucking. Jiving.” It sounds like a Meg Lee Chin outtake, and I never liked her stuff all that much anyway.

She Said She Wanted Something She Could Recognize, Something She Could Feel

Last Wednesday night, I was sitting at the bar at the Garden Bowl in Midtown Detroit. I was waiting for the Terrible Twos to go onstage upstairs in the Magic Stick.

Dave Z, the owner of the Majestic (Garden Bowl/Magic Stick/Majestic Theatre/Majestic Cafe) sat down next to me. I asked Dave what was up with lame shows on Saturday nights. On Saturdays, I DJ there and if there’s a good show with lots of people, I get more into it and then people get more into it and stay longer. Win/win situation all around. He said “rock n’ roll’s changed…” No shit. I already knew that. Then he started saying something about garage rock, etc. His venues did really well in the late ’90s and early ’00s when garage rock in Detroit blew up.

But it isn’t like that anymore. Jack White lives in Tennessee and claims he’s from there. The Sights are on a major label, but you’d never know it considering their low profile. The Electric 6′s second to last album took over a year to come out in this country. Bands from out of state who made a name for themselves here, like the Soledad Brothers and the Greenhornes are changing significantly. The SB broke up last month, and the Greenhornes are down to three members from the five they started out with. Not to mention Jack and Patrick from the Greenhornes are busy being the rhythm section for the Raconteurs. The Clone Defects shattered into Human Eye and The Valentinos, but the former are on an indefinite hiatus, and The Valentinos just can’t seem to catch a break despite their excellent Television/Roxy Music inspired sounds. Bantam Rooster splintered into various acts including The Dirtbombs, The Buzzards, The Detroit City Council, and The Detroit Cobras.

Plus a lot of the acts from outside of Detroit who loved playing here because of the friendly scene are either all done, or they’ve moved on to significantly different sounds. If Sweden’s Hellacopters haven’t already broken up, then they should considering the watered down crap they’re pushing now. The Supersuckers play more acoustic country than “Born With A Tail” rock n’ roll. New Bomb Turks? Remember them? Yeah, barely. They haven’t put out a good record in years. The Oblivians broke up, went back to their earlier incarnation of The Compulsive Gamblers, then they broke up, too. Greg Oblivian’s Reigning Sound is great, but they don’t fill the clubs. Neither does Jack Oblivians solo stuff. Remember Jay Reatard and The Lost Sounds? It’s all but a memory…they broke up, too. Murder City Devils: done.

Most of the acts that helped build this late ’90s scene in Detroit are completely different than what they once were. Bands grow and evolve, and often the fans can’t do the same. Add onto that an over-saturated concert venue scene in Detroit, and you have too much going on and what is going on is lacking in the energy or substance it once had.

As soon as Dave mentioned ‘garage rock’, I interjected and pointed upstairs, “the Terrible Twos are what happened to garage rock. It isn’t what it used to be. Garage rock has morphed more into a dirty avant punk rock n’ roll type of thing.” Those guys can’t sell out a 500-person venue when they headline, but they sure as hell help. In fact, I think they are one of the most interesting things going on in Detroit music right now.

I think Detroit’s main problem is over-saturation of venues, but the second problem is the people. The kids aren’t willing to give a band a chance anymore.

This rant is all over the place, but I ain’t apologizing. I had some things I wanted to say. This scene is frustrating.

In the Morning of the Day

I think it was sometime before the movie Goodwill Hunting made Elliott Smith an indie-folk god when a million and one of my female friends were pushing him on me. He was good at what he did, he was a great songwriter, very talented, but I’m not so into it. I don’t know why. Sometimes, I just can’t get down with the sad bastard music.

But sometimes I can. When I first put in this new CD from Goldenboy, I immediately thought of the new-ish songs that Kevin Shields did for the Lost In Translation soundtrack. So I started listening to the rest of the album, and it is sad bastard-y, but I still like it. I hear some Johnny Marr in the music, and some Kevin Shields as well as Elliott Smith in the vocals and lyrics. It’s textured and poppy.

Goldenboy consists of Shon Sullivan and Bryan Bos. Apparently Shon toured with Smith years ago and he referred to Sullivan as ‘Goldenboy’. It’s taken a couple weeks, but these two are growing on me. Their new album “underneath the radio” comes out on October 3rd. I have a track you can check out, it’s called “Summer of the Evening.” You can check out more songs on their MySpace page, and if you click on the picture above, you can check out their regular site.

I’ve Got A Leather Jacket On, I Know That Is A Sin

You like Broken Social Scene, right? How about Metric? You know them, they’re the Canadians doing Pretenders/Blondie style new wave. Well, anyway, Emily Haines happens to be the lead singer for Metric and a regular contributor to BSS’s indie pop circus.

She has a new solo album out on September 26th. Her backup band is called the Soft Skeleton, and the record is called “Knives Don’t Have Your Back.” If you click right here you can check out a track from the record called “Doctor Blind.” It’s a Cat Power meets Beth Orton meets Lisa Papineau kind of affair. If you like those acts, you’ll like this.

Check out the Soft Skeletons site.

In the Morning

Hey, check out a new single from Razorlight called “America.” Then go here to check out their MySpace page.