A Solid Call 2.0

Back To Mine is Back :

In a bold bid to restore legitimacy to the flagging Back To Mine franchise after a couple of loud, novelty-filled nasties, DMC have brought in a closer -- Andy Barlow from Lamb mixes the latest "personal collection for after-hours grooving." This should go far to restore the legend, as Lamb generally brilliantize anything they come in contact with, though is it wrong to not want to see the tracklist before I get to hear it? I want to be surprised. It's out Monday July 5 in the UK. Amazon sez Aug 24 for the US faithful. Also, check out the fancy new Back To Mine flash web site and enjoy.

New Nikka : The new album from Nikka Costa is coming in October. (Oct 5 my crystal ball sez) The new single is out soon! Tour dates coming in in August. Good times.

Reviewed: Calabash Music : A lot of specialty sites are popping up for digital downloads. I am glad to see this, I like diversity. Calabash Music is just such a site selling World Music downloads. Since I want to get the new Bebel Gilberto album, I thought I'd check them out.

I'm most impressed with the work they put into an artist page like Bebel Gilberto's. It inclused a link to artist's own site, spot-on related artists, link to an NPR feature, looks like custom editorial bio and album description. I like that they have an icon for "most downloaded song" -- popularity data! (BTW what is that icon anyway, a carrot in a beehive? Oh, it's a calabash.) Nice! For never having heard of Calabash, they seem to really have their act together in providing a rich experience that highlights the music. I really want the new Bebel Gilberto album... what better place to get it than here?

...click, click...

One big negative appears to be lack of a price for the whole album -- it's just N-tracks x $0.99. But the intro deal is 20 tracks for $9.99, so I'm all set. (After I signed up, I got billed for $9.99 and 20 song credits appeared right in the header of the site -- very handy and user-friendly.

Other details:
.> http-based downloads
.> save every track individually
.> Unencumbered MP3 @ 128kbps
.> "calabashmusic_com" prepended to each downloaded filename
.> Files ID3 tagged with artist/album/track/# (no album art)

It was a very good experience. It's good to know places like this are around in a pinch.

Come to Jesus?  : It’s late and I’m wrestling with a real problem. Mindy Smith is coming to town to play some music later this week. Knowing how much I am listening to her record, you might think this would be cause for joy, but you’d be wrong. See, I am really wrapped up in her tales of loneliness and emptiness – Hell, even the ones where she sings about Jesus and God above aren’t turning me off. No way should I be into this, I don’t know what it is about her. Well, partly I do but I’m not sharing. It’s just going to be real hard to be in her presence, that’s all I’m sayin’. It’s not the natual order of things for someone like me to be near someone like her. I mean technically a dandelion and an orchid are both flowers, but you never see them in the same arrangement. I might get struck down, my gruesomeness an affront to her amazing radiance.

Right, I’m exaggerating just a touch. Yeah, I’ll go see her and I’ll enjoy it… but it’s gonna mess me up for a few weeks, I reckon.

Wanna Rock : The FIFA 2004 soccer video game has a world-class soundtrack featuring Junior Senior, Cooper Temple Clause, Radiohead, Tosca, The Jam and more. Of course, I am attracted to the goofiest song in the game -- Babamania's "Wanna Rock" (Real player video). Are they Japan's answer to Crazy Town? Horrible stuff, but I like it.

Historical Data : So, HITS mag archive their sales charts after all. I just couldn't find them before.

Lethal Combination : RockOnTV - The Ultimate Guide Music on Television + Cox DVR = An opportunity for a lot of wasted time.

You're So Vain : When I first saw this headline, I thought it said Yahoo! News - Record Companies Weary of Vanity Label Deals, but apparently they're only wary of them. It's me who is tired of them. Anyone with a deal seems to get their own label -- which is bad because artists are the very last ones to see the big picture, and usually have questionable taste at best.

Music is Fleeting : Here's an RollingStone.com bit that asks the question Are CDs Rotting Away? without really answering it, yet. I wonder what the ideal way to store my collection would be? Hard drives fail, CDs fall apart. Maybe I should write down all the 1s and 0s in a notebook, just to be safe.

The Big Payback: RIAA Scams Schools.  : When U.S. District Court settled their anti-trust case with the RIAA last year, part of the deal was that states would get a big supply of RIAA product for schools, libraries etc -- basically the labels admitted to doing illegal things, but got away with paying off some of their fines with store credit.

The state of Washington just got a shipment 115,241 music CDs supposedly worth $1.5 million dollars. Schools are getting butchered in this era of corporate welfare, so it's hearteneing to see most of the free CDs distributed in Washington went to public schools. It was really top of the line retail too, as seen in this Seattle PI article.

I mean, I'm really happy that the schools got 387 Big Pun CDs, 310 copies of Will Smith's Willenium and enough Barry White to keep the kids happy for hours -- 356 copies of Staying Power. This represented real value against what the RIAA owed to the states, sure.

So, the schools got a bunch of cut-outs that the labels couldn't even move at a flea market. I can only imagine the Enron-like glee as the record label management authorized this scam. "Enjoy your 1,355 Whitney Houston singles from 1991, little Johnny. Count those at full retail price, please." Oh and as a bonus, a lot of them were promos -- not able to be resold. If I ever get sued by the RIAA, I'll just pay them back with Goodie Mob CD singles.

But, the lawyers on both sides got paid -- so good job, everyone. What a scummy way to do business.

Way Way Over His Head : The bad reviews continue to trickle in for Brian Wilson. Here's my new favorite: "Wilson has sounded croaky since the mid-1970s, but here he also sounds slurred and halting, as if his efforts are being hampered by an ill-fitting set of dentures and a faulty autocue. More disturbing is his emotional tone. Anyone who has noted that Wilson's face now seems to arrange itself naturally into an expression of horrified bewilderment - suggesting he isn't entirely sure what is going on, but is pretty certain he doesn't like it - might be troubled to learn that on Gettin' In Over My Head, he sings the way he looks." - The Guardian UK

There are more reviews over at Metacritic.

RIP : Derek Frigo, we will miss you brother.

Anatomy of a Good Night: The Album Leaf : The New York Times had an article on it – something about information addicts on the internet who compulsively reload news or mail searching for the very latest. Not to adopt the most recent invented affliction as my own, but I have seen symptoms of this in myself. Usually I’m stressed at work, but I will robotically hit my Yahoo mail shortcut, sometimes see no mail, get bored with nothing immediate to read and hit the shortcut again, even though I am already on the page. It worries me a little that I am not in conscious control of that behavior, but today it meant that I saw the M-Theory local record store newsletter at the earliest possible moment.

The big news was The Album Leaf playing an in-store performance this very evening, 7 P.M. I had a vague recognition of The Album Leaf, lumping them in with The Promise Ring, The Postal Service and The Fire Theft as crucial indie rock bands that I couldn’t get very excited about, much less tell apart. I messaged my roommate and carpool hostage Dave, facetiously suggesting it might be worth missing the gym to attend. While I see the value of the gymnasium, I loathe the idea of missing out on life to go there. But, this was just some indie rock band, a local one at that. Whatever, I didn’t really care.

Eventually the workday came to an end, and I steeled my nerve to go to the gym. I was particularly despondent, but expected the endorphins from exercise might carry me through another dreadful evening.

At this point, Dave says: Since you’re going to the in-store, I told my girlfriend I’d go with her to the gym.

I reply: Oh.

I guess my deadpan sarcasm was not evident, and Dave thought I was really excited to see The Album Leaf. No problem, I thought, bitter at myself more than anything. Realizing the miscommunication, he invites me to go to the gym with them. Can’t mess with Dave and Nicole’s together-time, I dangerously rationalize. I’ll skip the gym and just lose myself in lonely oblivion. Sure, I can handle that.

But, as it happens we pull in to the homestead at around 6:40 P.M. Without giving myself a chance to think, I lace up my boots for walking, and get my trudge on. Live music is on, and I’m there. Live life – but no way am I buying any CDs. I gotta cut down big time.

The place packs up, no foolin’. The Album Leaf are heroes, and play. They’re sitting down, and even though I am near the front, I can’t even see them! Luckily, there is a video art component being projected onto a white sheet to look at. Still, that doesn’t distract me from noticing that the band is incredibly good! It’s like the aesthetic of a slow, noodling Radiohead instrumental, carried on for entire songs. It reminded me of my secret passions for instgrumental post-rock experts Pele and Don Caballero, without the immediacy of ever rocking out. Instrumental cinematic textures, sequencer clicks with a live drummer, plus an amped up violin, meandering guitar – completely orthogonal to the mainstream. It’s rejuvenating – there are no "hits" or even near-misses to grab on to – just instrumental moodsmanship executed crisply and with sincere devotion. The performance went much longer than your typical in-store, maybe an hour. 120 people packed into the friendly confines of a tiny neighborhood record store, all dressed as if indie rock was a science and they were doctoral candidates, and they were all transfixed. It was truly a special moment in time, with me isolated in the middle of it all.

After it’s all over, I battle through the throngs to grab a drink at the local bar across the way. I drink alone at the bar, gin and tonic after gin and tonic, watching some of the baseball game and letting it all soak in. Adam Eaton is pitching a gem. I feel quite content, and soon I feel quite drunk. I even grab a bite at a local taco shop – a night on the town in my little neighborhood – before stumbling back to M-Theory, the record shop. Obviously, I buy the CD. You knew that was coming.

My trudge in reverse, I head home. I flick on the TV for two pitches of extra innings, and the Padres win on a Mark Loretta fluke nubber. It’s such perfect timing, I almost weep.

Still seriously buzzed, I throw on the new one from The Album Leaf – and fire up the word processor…

A Little Over His Head?  : As Monkey pointed out, Brian Wilson's latest got 3 stars from Rolling Stone. FYI: AMG dispensed 2 and a half stars for Gettin' in Over My Head.

Nellie McKay Interview : Our favorite redhead in The Onion A.V. Club: "I'm just kind of sick of music. I don't know what I want to do. It's not that I feel suicidal or anything, but I just want to end this life, you know? I just want to be somebody else now. Sometimes I feel like that. You always think, 'If I just cut my hair really short and dye it brown and put on a little goatee, no one would know it was me, and I could...'"

No Muse in So Cal? : KROQ's original pre-sale announcement on Wednesday for the Curiosa Festival listed Muse in the line-up. Today they sent out an updated lineup ("PLEASE NOTE REVISED LINEUP FROM LAST PRE SALE EMAIL") with Muse noticably absent from the list. This was for the L.A. show at the Home Depot center, but I'm guessing they'll be left off the San Diego/Coors date as well. Oh well.

Woxy Miracle : Here's an interesting article in the Cincinnati Enquirer about two anonymous investors save WOXY, a cool Internet radio station. (Originally saw this in RAIN)

Philosophy of a Perfect Game : In the pantheon of timeless philosophical questions, the real whoppers are “What would you do if you had a million dollars?” and “Who would you bang if you could have anybody in the world?”

But, less obvious and more intriguingly rounding out the top three is “What song would you want played if you came to bat in a big league park?”

This classic came up again last night, and I delivered a snap answer, But, like all good philosophical questions, the unknowable continued to percolate in the back of my mind. I’ve decided that I’m not happy with my first answer.

There are a lot of important conditions to consider when tackling this conundrum, but the top three are:

Number One: Recognition Factor

I can’t emphasize this enough. There is nothing worse in a ballpark than hearing an unfamiliar song blasted over the PA. The acoustics are non-optimal to begin with, so your mind needs to unconsciously fill in the bits that you can’t actually hear. Admittedly, not everyone is hip enough to know all the cool songs of the past 20 years, but you’ve got to find some threshold of popularity. So even if you think Ash’s “Burn Baby Burn” rocks that hard, skip it. The lesson, as always, is that nobody in North America knows Ash.

Number Two: Envy Factor

This one is almost at odds with Recognition Faction, but it is crucial to have them both. The key here is that other players have to nod and think “Damn, why didn’t I pick that?” So, it has to be something nobody else has picked – at least recently. That’s hard to do while keeping it memorable, but if you want perfection, you have to put in the effort.

Number Three: Badass Factor

You might think this is obvious, but know that badass can have many faces. “Lowrider” in Gone in 60 Seconds? Obvious and cheesy. “Lowrider” when Mark Loretta comes up to bat for the Padres? Badass.

I think I did a pretty good job with my snap pick of Nate Dogg’s “I Got Love,” but it’s not perfect. For Badass, it’s near the league leaders, but for Recognition and Envy, I think it’s hovering around the Mendoza line.

No, we need a real triple crown candidate – something that can that can put fear in the hearts of each opponent, something that will rock the park from top to bottom. And, my friends, I think I have it.

The "Imperial March" from Empire Strikes Back.

Griffey To Kids: Screw You : Ken Griffey Jr's picky about who will call his 500th home run according to article The Cincinnati Post. "Everyone involved took pains to emphasize that the request was no reflection on Stewart, but rather a tribute to how much Brennaman and Nuxhall have meant to Griffey since he listened to the duo in his childhood." -- No word on if Griffey would have ever developed that bond with the sportscasters in the first place if the players in that day bothered themselves with designating who should call what plays. He's basically saying to kids: "Too bad if you wanted to grow up with a sportscaster of your own. I'm more important." Screw Griffey. What a prick.

No Pain, No Gain: Happenstance by Rachel Yamagata : The gym is a very brutal place. Annihilation is at the center of all activity there, destroying muscle fibers in the hopes that they will grow back stronger than before. Beneath that physical violence is a psychic coup that takes place, where ego and mind is forcibly overpowered in service to the physical.

I really hate the gym. No matter how strongly I feel I need to be there to maintain some semblance of health, I can’t shake the feeling that I should be jogging on the beach or climbing up some dirty hill. But, of course it’s never all that convenient to go to the beach, or if I do go to the beach, it’s too easy to chill lazily and take in the sunset – which is surely a more natural thing to do, anyway. However, I love cheeseburgers, so my presence is required at least a few times a week in ye olde gymnasium.

And, an hour at the gym is a great time to go in-depth with, say, the new album from Rachel Yamagata.

Sure, the gym is a great place for pumping uptempo house, but given my soul’s desperate need to escape that harrowing prison of a place, sometimes a quiet, intimate album can be just as effective in getting me through the rigorous ordeal. It just requires keeping my eyes closed while I sweat. Yamagata’s Happenstance really did the trick last night. While my body toiled away in agony, my mind was on a date with an intelligent and sophisticated songwriter.

Yamagata’s emotional tales waft smokily over piano with a casual off-hand manner that is very accessible. She will, of course, draw comparisons to Fiona Apple and in some ways Norah Jones. At when she has the songs, those comparisons are valid in the good way. “Worn Me Down” is a flat out hit, and if the single doesn’t make it, I guess it will be because it slips through the cracks between adult and alternative.

Just like being on a real date though, I found my mind wandering a little after the halfway point. I can only listen to a girl ramble on for so long before I start drifting off – this time I lost the plot while wondering how expensive it would be to get into hang-gliding. You could probably see me nodding politely as my date continued on blithely about her emotional growth and independence, but I wasn’t all there for all of it. It finished up well though, and by the end of the album, I was really feeling her pain, empathizing, wanting to comfort her the best I could and lavish her with attention, preferably over some wine back at her place. As dates and albums go, I’d consider it a rare and stirring success.

See, I thought “Collide” from Yamagata’s self-titled preview EP was one of my favorite tracks of the past year. That infectious song didn’t make it onto this album, I guess because the EP and the album are meant to stand alone. Shame that, since the full-length couldn’t seem to hold me enthralled throughout. If she had saved the best of both for one killer album, she might have made a real splash. As it is now, she has two very good releases and is the darling of the KCRW set. Not that I mind. Just like with ex-girlfriends, I can stitch together the best memories and create my own playlist.

And, unless I keep going to the gym, memories of ex-girlfriends are all I’m ever gonna have.

CNN.com - The ups and downs of being the Strokes : There's a somewhat amusing rise-and-fall piece on The Strokes from CNN: The ups and downs of being the Strokes: "The band has gone from being critical darlings to ... well, not being critical darlings."

Trance on the Beeb : This week's Essential Mix from Above & Beyond is really reminding me why I ever liked trance in the first place. Catch it before it disappears this weekend.

Who is This America? by Antibalas at Audio Lunchbox : Who is This America? by Antibalas at Audio Lunchbox is only $5.99 for 192 MP3 files. Very cool.. I saw them at Coachella and it was a treat.

Big Brother Rules : Singer in Clash tribute band forgets the words. Bandmate texts him a reminder. Special Branch shows up and slaps on the cuffs. The lesson as always is that THE CLASH STICKS IT TO THE MAN.

Good Times, Good Guy :
Good times were the 1980s when I was a youngster fiddling with my Select-A-Tenna AM Radio antenna booster, keeping my ears peeled for what hockey cities I could pull in. From my cold upstate NY wood-panelled room, I'd hear distance voices from NYC (Rangers & Islanders) and New Jersey (Devils). I tuned into the Pittsburgh Penguins and on certain nights the Philadelphia Flyers if the clouds were properly aligned. Oddly, there was nothing coming out of Buffalo, but Detroit and Chicago were in easy reach. One of my favorite pulls on those late n' lonely winter nights, though, was out of Hartford. While "The Whale" were a pretty hapless team at the time, I thought their old-school play-by-play man was one of the best ever. Turns out I wasn't the only one as Chuck Kaiton just got the Hockey Hall of Fame nod. Now with the Carlina Hurricanes, Chuck has missed only 1 game in 25 years. Nice work.

Ska Brewing Company - Durango Colorado : Do you like ska? Do you like beer? I bet you answered yes to exactly one of those questions. But, to cover all the bases, I give you a link to the Ska Brewing Company in Durango, Colorado

Niche News: Napalm Death : This bit should have limited appeal, but my childhood heroes Napalm Death have signed with Century Media Records. That's right -- death metal. Ahh, memories. Of freaking people out. Hah!

Muppets: Mahna Mahna : Seeing a funny bit on the BBC show The Office prompted me to look this up -- Recommended for peeps who grew up in the '80s: Mahna Mahna @ menteb.org

From the Grapevine : Steve sez: "Her face has a real long feel: www.alysongrooves.com