Following up on their (presumably successful) compilation of Radiohead covers, Rapster Records corraled a dozen electronic artists to create their own versions of David Bowie songs and released Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered. As a lifelong Bowie fan and someone who loves electronic music and covers, I feel like I personify the target demographic for this album (and I did, in fact, buy the CD). Sadly, however, I found the song quality to be rather uneven. As might be expected, given the genre, the song choices are heavy on Bowie’s Berlin years, and the standout track is definitely Matthew Dear’s cover of “Sound & Vision.” Most artists chose lesser-known Bowie songs, rather than hit singles - understandable, really, as who’d want to take on the challenge of reinterpreting a beloved masterpiece? - but the The Thing took a different approach. Their ‘cover’ of “Life on Mars” has nothing discernibly in common with the original besides its title. I’m going to politely describe its style as ‘experimental,’ including sounds like rusted metal-on-metal creaks and squeaky balloons. I’d suggest the version below instead.
This isn’t necessarily a great cover, but it’s one of the best illustrations imaginable (short of a performer actually stopping and berating someone, which would be awesome) of why you don’t sing from the audience. Everyone is basically behaving themselves, except for one guy, who drunkenly sings along (and then mis-sings along) at the quietest parts of the song.
Here at zed equals zee, we’re big fans of education. As musicians go, Queen guitarist Brian May pretty much has everyone beat - after setting his doctoral work in astrophysics aside to concentrate on music full-time, he returned to his dissertation some 30 years later, received his PhD, and is now Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University (the photo above is of him at his investiture). We’ve already talked about the Bon Savants, whose lead singer, Thom Moran - as everybody knows - worked as a rocket scientist at MIT, although I don’t know what his academic background is (they are playing at the Middle East Upstairs on Wednesday, July 9th, so you could probably ask him). There are also a couple of artists that I can think of who are actively balancing academic and musical careers. Another z=z fave, The Franklin Kite, features a frontman who did a PhD in astrophysics at MIT, and is now doing postdoctoral research at that university up the river. Even more notably, the lead singer of Bad Religion, Greg Graffin, not only has a PhD in zoology from Cornell, but he teaches at UCLA - apparently, he is on the timetable to teach Life Science 1 in the upcoming winter quarter (January 2009), after which the band will return to the studio.
Know any other scientist/academic/musicians that I missed? Tell us about them in the comments!
Probably the single biggest contributor to having a good time at a live performance is familiarity with the music. The Pitchfork Music Festival grasps this point - as it has for the last couple of years, they’ve teamed up with eMusic to provide free downloads of songs by artists who’ll be performing. If you plan on attending, it’s a great way to familiarize yourself with the bands you may not know. And if you can’t make it, it’s a terrific way to get a taste of the always well-curated festival. Ignore the pissy comments - there are some great songs there. Try Mission of Burma’s “Academy Fight Song,” Animal Collective’s “Grass,” and Apple in Stereo’s “Energy” for a start.
But I can’t help but think that takedown notices for leaked MP3s are as effective as antibacterial soap. The labels on the bottles proudly proclaim, “Kills 99% of bacteria!” But with an average doubling time of about 20 minutes, that just means that all the germs will be back in about two hours. On top of that, you’ve just selected for all the bugs that can survive the soap.
Blogs like Under the Rotunda and z=z might comply with a takedown notice, but I bet that you could still find the MP3s online without too much difficulty. And it’s not necessarily going to be on sites by music fans that are engaged in conversations about the album.
While I’m happy to accede to requests to remove MP3s, I’m not sure how holding the songs back for an extra six weeks will really help the band. And as a fan, I kind of worry about enthusiastic enforcement, since it makes me think of the difference between studios hosting preview screenings of their movies (because they are confident of what they’re selling and want the positive word of mouth) versus making sure no one can see their dud until opening weekend.
I’m definitely still thinking about these issues. And heaven knows the music companies, even the independents, haven’t really figured out how to deal with the brave new world of negligible distribution costs. Although The Hold Steady are certainly going in the right direction on another front, by stressing the physicality of the CD itself - it’s a limited-edition digipak.
Got an opinion? Feel free to share it in the comments.
Cassette from My Ex is a lovely blog where posters, mostly writers, musicians and other creative types, share the stories behind mixtapes they’ve received, as well as streaming audio of the contents. My own love of mixtapes (more recently, of course, mix CDs) is well-documented, and I love this site. The first story I read was from Claudia Gonson, of the Magnetic Fields and more, and it’s an excellent place to start.
It’s possible that perpetually underappreciated (in the States, anyway) Canadian power-pop band Sloan is too democratic. Fans tend to gravitate to bands where the members have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. In Sloan, everybody sings, writes, and trades off instruments. This means there’s no leader or star in Sloan, though a surplus of wonderful songs and killer harmonies would make up for that in a just world.
It’s especially hard to be swayed by that argument when the company they’re keeping includes, well, The Beatles (and the Beach Boys, and Fleetwood Mac, and the Clash, and Pink Floyd). You know, ‘perpetually underappreciated’ bands like that.
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In the new video for the All India Radio song, “Persist”, Australian animator Lucy Dyson hauntingly tells the story of Topsy the Elephant, who was electrocuted by Thomas Edison on January 5, 1903. The death of Topsy, together with the deaths of a number of other animals and the invention of the electric chair, was part of Edison’s propaganda campaign to discredit AC current by convincing the public that it was dangerous. Edison had developed a DC-based system to generate, transmit and use electricity. However, his former employee Nikola Tesla, backed by Westinghouse, went on to design an AC system that had significant technical advantages over DC (for example, AC can be transmitted for long distances with little power loss, while DC can be only transmitted a mile or so). The resulting competition between the two systems (known as the War of Currents) turned pretty nasty - not only was money at stake, but apparently it was also driven by a personal animosity between the two men. Edison filmed the death of Topsy (”Electrocuting an Elephant“) and circulated it widely. Despite Edison’s efforts, the advantages of AC won out and it was widely adopted, and that’s why those of us in the northeast US get power from Niagara Falls and why we’ve learned to be careful with hairdryers around bathtubs. Topsy’s fate seems to be in the zeitgeist; Brooklyn-based artist (and friend of z=z) Paul Davies created a piece on the elephant’s sad end as well.
As the requisite counterpart to the previous Threesome, here are three songs whose titles feature a female honorific. Not to get too gender-stereotyped, but they contrast sharply with the angular, aggressive songs in the male version. And oddly enough, they are all from sophomore albums. Up first, the Dresden Dolls’ “Mrs. O”, from their album, Yes, Virginia. Next, “Miss Teen Wordpower” from The New Pornographers’ Electric Version. Finally, “Miss Idaho” by Ox (from American Lo Fi, on Toronto’s awesome indie label, weewerk) is a beautiful country-ish song about leaving the city behind.
Kasson Crooker, of Freezepop, is selling a synth. The impetus for the sale is sad (our sympathies to his family):
i’m selling my nord lead 1 synth and donating the proceeds to charity. my dad has cancer and my grandmother died of it so i’m donating the money from this auction to the american cancer society. i’ve had this synth now for 8 years and it’s been through some amazing times with me. … i’ve used this synth on tons of recordings from splashdown to freezepop to symbion project. i’m leaving all my presets in it for you to use and you’ll probably recognize many from splashdown recordings. [more]
He’s throwing in a bunch of Splashdown, Freezepop, and Symbion Project goodies too. The auction ends on the evening of June 3rd. This is your chance to own a bit of music history, and it’s for a great cause - bid high!
If I post about a band here on zed equals zee, they have, in some sense, made it - they’ve gone beyond their circle of friends, and their high school Battle of the Bands, and are getting listening to by at least some members of the general (or at least indie-rock-obsessed) public. But for all the bands we listen to, there are scores of bands that never really got off the ground and are lost in obscurity - until now. For Those Who Tried to Rock is a blog-based project to document bands formed by every high-school student who dreamed of being a rock star. The photos and stories are funny, sure, but there also is a romance and poignancy to be found in these tales of enthusiasm (and if you’d like to see your high-school band immortalized, click here).
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While the life of this blog has been fairly brief, it has not escaped my attention that both my love of pop music and my fundamental geekiness shine through. Here, therefore, is the new KT Tunstall video, which brilliantly combines them both (together with anorak-clad obsessive fandom, which, um, I’m not going to admit to, okay?)
Okay, so ‘local’ is stretching it a bit. Bishop Allen are named after the street in Central Square where the founding members lived while at school in Cambridge (and which is half a block from zed equals zee mission control). As seems to be the case for many musical Cantabrigians, the hipster ‘hood down I-95 beckoned, and Bishop Allen relocated to make their quirky, charming indie-pop in Brooklyn. The song below, “Click Click Click Click”, is a wonderfully infectious soundtrack to these late spring/early summer days. Check them out at the Middle East tomorrow (Thursday, May 15); more tourdates here.
Harvard Square’s Mayfair was delayed to this Sunday, May 11th, because of the nasty weather in Cambridge last weekend. So you didn’t miss your chance to see Hallelujah the Hills or Girls Guns and Glory (4 pm and 3 pm, respectively, on the main stage). Lots more music (Action Verbs gets the z=z ‘best name’ prize) as well as dance, film, kids’ stuff, and other goodies. Full details, including set times, here.
The Teenagers are three Parisiens who write danceable synthpop, overlaid with spoken and sung lyrics that are irreverent (and controversial). Interested in checking them out for yourself? I have a pair of spots on the guestlist for their Boston show at the Paradise, this Thursday, May 8th. If you’re interested, send me an e-mail at debcha [at] gmail [dot] com. Please put ‘Teenagers’ in the subject line and include your full name and town in the e-mail, and get it to me by 9 am EDT on Thursday morning. I’ll pick one lucky winner (+1) then, and send an e-mail out shortly thereafter. Note that it’s an 18+ show, so at least some actual teenagers can attend.
A few weeks ago, WMBR had a column in The Tech that included a list of the ‘Top 5 Beards in Indie Rock.’ The top spot was held by perpetually clean-shaven Stephen Malkmus, in honour of the Jicks’ sold-out show at the Paradise on April 3rd. While I totally agree with their inclusion of Sam Beam (of Iron and Wine) and Devendra Banhart, and Doug Martsch of Built to Spill definitely deserves an honourable mention, I’m going to suggest a different top 3:
But the number one spot, unquestionably, goes collectively to Ladyhawk, pictured above. They are currently on tour, which means you’ll have a chance to check out the beardage in person.
John Darnielle (yes, again) upbraids Roland and Yamaha for not providing gear for the live version of Model 500, Juan Atkins’s band:
You need to get right, Roland and Yamaha. You need to get right. Juan Atkins is in this band. Without guys like Juan Atkins figuring out how to work your machines and making great sounds with them, they’d be useless crates. You don’t actually think people made tracks like this just by reading your impenetrable manuals, right?
