Monday morning electric guitars:
Damien Jurado - "Simple Hello". For me the stand-out on Damien's new record, a dry and sandy approach to some of the same territory as Julie Doiron's Goodnight Nobody. The drumms patter-thud in perfect measured time, the guitar shfiting from red to yellow to black and back. As always, the biggest draw here is Jurado's voice, that bell-like groan, the sound of a big man singing small. I love the build-up of guitars every so often, and the way it evaporates in a second, huff-and-bother that has no place here. If I blank out part of my brain, I can almost imagine this track as an Arab Strap song... It's got the right rancour, the right prettiness and dread - all it needs is some more explicit sex! [buy On My Way To Absence]
Weezer - "Perfect Situation". If you, like me, gave up on Weezer after listening to the Green Album more than a few times, tune in. This is pure Blue, to me, updated for this year. The guitars soar blue and shiny, Rivers sighs but then double-hikes it to full-blown emo longing, and the chorus has the cheer of a chicken-chested man proudly clucking at the hens. It's fantastically written and produced, with that downward scale of guitar notes, the homey ding-ding-ding of piano hiding in the mix for the choruses. And where elsewhere on Make Believe, Rivers' autotuning is frustrating, here it's just a guy who fussied himself up for his visit to the cliffs, so that the sirens might give him a second glance as he bellows at them. [buy]
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I have internet at home, finally! So you are all very welcome to go back to sending me songs, as you used to do in the old days, with dropload. I am eager to hear anything you think I might like, might not have heard, ought to share, etc. You guys' taste is the best. :)
Rilo Kiley/Idiot Jed Contest is over. Winners will be announced Wednesday.
Posted by Sean at May 9, 2005 8:28 AMthat weezer song sounds exactly the same as the green album song 'simple pages' until the 8th note piano chords kick in, then it's just terrible. not comparable to the blue album at all.
Posted by patrick at May 9, 2005 1:17 PMMy problem with the Weezer song are the ridiculous rhymes. Rivers got a college degree and his vocab tanked.
Posted by Tim at May 9, 2005 2:56 PMhey sean,
did you get those akron/family songs i sent you?
Alan - thanks, yeah! I actually wasn't super moved, but I've kinda put off listening to the record b/c it looks like a review copy arrived to me in Canada, and I'm hoping I'll be able to get my hands on it and give it a proper CD-listen. I really appreciate your sending me that stuff.
I don't understand how you can hate this song, Patrick. Listen to it loud and - man, it just seems so obvious and easy to love.
Tim - You don't listen to Rivers Cuomo for poetry or insight, you listen to him so he can give a sullen bellow that's more melodic than the Brill Building. Can't you dig this!?
Posted by Sean at May 9, 2005 3:25 PMI'm not saying i hate it, i'm just saying that the best parts are already a song. Go back and listen to simple pages. Every time I play this song my roommate thinks i'm playing simple pages and then realizes it isn't and gets mad
Posted by patrick at May 9, 2005 3:55 PMnow i'm listening to it again, and some parts are pretty good. maybe i was just mad becuase the rest of the album is so bad and the lyrics are just nothing special.
Posted by patrick at May 9, 2005 4:00 PMyay!
Every time I play this song my roommate thinks i'm playing simple pages and then realizes it isn't and gets mad
this is hilarious.
Posted by Sean at May 9, 2005 4:30 PMThis is the first time I've ever actually been really HAPPY to see a song I've posted pop up on another popular mp3 blog, on the same day no less! This record is getting a raw deal, and this song really deserves the attention.
Posted by Matthew at May 9, 2005 8:08 PMThis record isn't getting a raw deal -- it's getting it's well-deserved beating. The album is hollow, vapid and NOT GOOD POP. I'm really surprised you guys are defending this. I love pop as much as the next guy, and I'm guilty of some horrible teen poetry in my day, but this is just the same tired Weezer chords they've been recycling for three albums now. Dude's write... go and sing "Give me some love Gimme Some Love..." over this progression.
Basically, this song has no place in my life. I don't want to sing along, or drive to it, or work to it or fuck to it. Rivers used to speak for and to the teens, but this is just patronizing.
bring back matt sharp.
Posted by robot mark at May 9, 2005 11:38 PMYay for synchronicity, Matthew, although I gotta say I'm not on the same bandwagon as you. My feelings are closer to Mark's - it's a dud record, and even if there are a couple of GREAT "greatest hits" tunes, it doesn't make up for the way that the band's degraded since Pinkerton. (Yeah, I'm one of -those-.) I disliked Green (apart from "Island in the Sun", which is one of my all-time loves), ignored Maladroit, and think poorly of Make Believe...
But Pinkerton's the only Weezer album I feel is a masterpiece, and I find it exceptionally difficult to get as worked up about them as you do, Mark. "The same tired, Weezer chords"!?! They may be the same chords (I've no clue), but they're definitely not tired!! Listen to those descending synth scales, and then the way that the arpeggios ramp UP, not down, at the bridge (or whatever). It makes me want to be able to fly! And to go to the drive-in with my high-school friends.
Posted by Sean at May 10, 2005 3:59 AMMy feeling is that they've barely changed and that a lot people are just dealing with their sentimentality for the first two records. I agree that the first two are the best, yeah, but this is not a radical departure musically. The lyrics have changed considerably, but I really don't think that's very important to my enjoyment of Weezer music. (Or much of any music, really. Good lyrics can make good songs better, but I feel very strongly that good lyrics can only make bad songs worse.)
Posted by Matthew at May 10, 2005 11:52 AMNot only should one not listen to Weezer for poetry, one should not listen to rock/pop in general for poetry. That ain't what it's about, unless you're listening to Blueberry Boat. The vast majority of pop songs are infested with cliches, whether lyrical or musical (e.g. loud-quiet, 4-4, verse-chorus-verse, etc etc).
And the Ramones got away with using the same four chords for a hell of a lot longer, had lyrics like "gabba gabba hey" and "hey ho, let's go," and nobody complained.
Sometimes it's nice to see a simplification, when so many musicians seem to be trying to make music do more than it ought to.
I wonder what everyone would think of "Make Believe" if it were Weezer's first album.
Posted by John at May 10, 2005 3:43 PMWeezer's generated all the discussion so far, but the Damien Jurado track is just amazing. I haven't fallen so quickly in love with a song since Jordan posted Papa M's "Over Jordan" a few months back. Anyway, "Simple Hello" ... I was confused, at first, because there's an earlier Jurado song with the same name. Very different, but still very good. But this latest track... wow. "Gimme Fiction" will have to wait. I'm gonna have to pick up "On My Way to Absence" this week. Thanks, as always.
Posted by Pixote at May 10, 2005 9:40 PMthe damien jurado song is great but i liked it better the first time i heard it - as songs:ohia's "the lioness". these songs are too close for comfort.
Posted by caleb at May 11, 2005 5:20 PM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
