Dinosaur Jr... oh there you are

Rediscovered my vinyl copy of Where You Been a couple of weeks ago, the sleeve moulding slightly with long neglect. Oh is this a good album. I've no idea whether it's just me, but it's just the most perfect, blissed-out, sun-bathed, slacker-grunge-pop.

In marked contrast to the heavy, emotional fare of contemporaries such as, say, Pearl Jam or Soundgarden, Mascis and buddies sound like they're having a whale of time, closer perhaps to the sardonic, virtiolic side of Nirvana but with a more light-hearted, less pained view of the world. His voice for once is strong and clear, and the guitars just precise enough while never losing that live feedback drone that was such a signature.

Their most accessible album I think and my favourite, in stubborn defiance of the more widely acclaimed Green Mind. But in general you can't go wrong with any of 'em. Recommended for long, relaxed car trips.

Ladyhawk... kitchen sink independents

Ladyhawk, not to be confused with Ladyhawke, sound exactly like the indie kiwi bands of my youth (they're Canadian apparently, increasingly a quality mark in itself). Low-fi, garage, post-punk, post-goth improvisational rock. Noise matters. A good guitar is a heavily distorted, scratched, beaten and abused guitar. Husker Du, Pixies, and Sonic Youth, the founding fathers of the genre, with pan Atlantic cousins in the Cure and the Jam. Contrasted with the stadium-friendly-epic, moody (or less generously, - a bit morbid - ) anthems by the likes of the Editors, the Doves, or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, this is fresh, bright, unassuming. It sounds like they recorded it in their mum's kitchen. It's a universal law - you'll never be famous in music without pop songs, or at least, without one pop song, but there's nothing here to suggest that Ladyhawk would care. And fair play too.

It's music for students. It needs copious cheap beer and handrolled cigarettes, tattered jumpers and impressing girls with your 'sophisticated' 'alternative' tastes. It's both unpretentious and self obsessed in a way only the young can be. The world is a better place with people like this around.

Check out the Verlaines; this must be about 1985 or so I think. A true New Zealand classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eeuy8PD0bFM

note to self: Flying Nun... must write.

Cordoba

the sky ablack with brooding,
snapping,
flashing with ill-tempered ire

Their ancient marble arches,
their mosaics.
This hallowed hall still echoes
muezzin and mass
(like cousins estranged),
smells and scents,
shuffling feet...

Tourists scatter, as primeval gods
attempt a cleansing, we,
we imitators of the oldest of natural rituals,
the flood rebirth.

forgotten apex of the Old World,
you trampled western mecca,
you're become bone-weary-wise,
fatigued of politics,
soulsick of polemic and purging,

thou sage,
tired of this heavy world,
disillusioned of the next,
genuflecting to the final god,
what will be, shall be

(10/10/05)

Discovered this in an old notebook this morning. Only slightly retouched. I wrote it while hiding from a monsoon rain a bar one afternoon.

It helps if you know that Cordoba has the largest mosque in the western world. If I remember right it dates back to around the 10th century. Slap bang in the middle of the mosque, some (clearly insane) later medieval christians built a rather ostentatious catholic chapel, in the context it's just as grotesquely nouveau-riche gauche as you might imagine. unsurprisingly the city has a history of violent purges of one side or the other or more often the jews. the site is now a significant tourist attraction, and to me carried an air of self-loathing at the futile destructive hate all such fanaticism engenders.

Counting Crows...in two minds

It seems to me Adam Duritz, lead singer and songwriter for the Counting Crows, can't really decide who he wants to be. On the one hand he's a songwriter, a poet, a creative. On the other he's a performer, a capricious rock star. Sometimes, his songwriting is second to none, while elsewhere his songs can be dense, turgid arena-rock bores that a certain kind of american band seem to excel at. I had to check wikipedia today to figure out whether the band was made of identikit session muso's, or really made up the more or less original 'Crows (yes, they are) - they were more than competent... but disappointingly a bit lacking in personality.

So it feels as though they're victims of their own success - forced to pander to a mainstream audience that wants to hear the hits, but reluctant to really do that with any conviction. They seem bored to the point of loathing by the old songs, and did their best to stretch and distort them to something less entrenchently recognisable. I wonder whether this product-ised entertainment is an unavoidable effect of the modern American music scene .. "pick a core market, then broaden your appeal as far as you can without undue genre-crossing". It's more than a world away from, say, Christy Moore. I forget the opening song last night, but second up was a thrashy, dismissive version of super-hit "Mr Jones".

It took about 40mins and eventually, we got to "Round Here" and the show left the ground. Duritz relaxed, got caught in the moment and let go a bit. His strength, the thing I think we all love, is the casual poetic timing in his lyrical delivery, and here he soared off, improvising freely in and out of the song we all knew. This was followed by a rip-roaring, deftly accomplished version of "Hanging Tree". Other highlights included "Goodnight Elizabeth", and one I didn't know previously "Miami".

Is it just me or does everyone just love their piano ballads best? They also do a great line in country-rock.

One thing I'm always interested in when it comes to my own response to a gig - what music did the band make me want to go home and play? Depending on the gig, this can be a good thing (i.e. I want to hear more; Paul Weller made me want to hear Stanley Road, loud, all over again), or a bad thing (i.e. I'd rather hear it from the real thing not some pale imitation; The Pigeon Detectives made me want to hear the Jam). Last night inspired a large range of references including Jesus & Mary Chain's punk pop, Exile-era honky-tonk Stones, the Frames, Buffalo Springfield and Jeff Buckley. Duritz is clearly and Dylan adherent and openly acknowledges this - though, like the rest of the planet, cannot come even briefly close to his Bob-ness' - other than the obvious singing in tune perhaps.

I think they need to relax, explore a while, and do their own thing. I think they'd benefit from spending a couple of years in Europe. It does no one any favours to be touring a show you don't believe in 100%. I suspect he needs to take a break from the band and spend some time with more experienced songwriters, musicians and producers. Rick Rubin would do him wonders. Also Daniel Lanois, or T-Bone Burnett. American roots music informs most of he does, there's a real heart there and it's not helped by AOR rock cliches. He should rock up in Austin, see what happens. I'd also like to stick him in a room with Glen Hansard, some whiskey, and a wide assortment of instruments... open the door a couple of weeks later and see what emerged.

ps. pet hate: anyone singing about "...nooo orrrleeens...", maybe it's just because I aren't american, but is there something real behind this, or is it actually just a lazy cliche.