Music

Apparently a lot of people get depressed at Christmas. Is it possible they’ve been listening to the wrong Christmas music?

Oh man, I can’t believe I let Halloween go by without sharing this music video with you guys. I’ve been saving it up all year to watch on All Hallow’s Eve. I guess it doesn’t make for very good Thanksgiving viewing, but what the heck:

This video seriously has everything. I double-dog dare you to deny that you fantasized about this in high school: a hot goth chick gets persecuted by all the uppity cheerleaders, but then teams up with a band of Scandinavian zombie necromancers (Skeletor and a kobold on guitar, Undead Bossk on drums) who then use an army of the living dead to cut a swath of bloody vengeance through the ranks of the jocks and bullies. All to a hardcore a-rockalyptic soundtrack. The video doesn’t say for sure, but I assume everyone involved in this video has statted themselves up in Dungeons and Dragons.

You did fantasize about that in high school, right? It couldn’t have just been me.

Two Yutes’ review of the latest Bruce Springsteen album reminded me of an article I read recently about why protest songs these days suck. (The article suggests that “Last to Die” on the Springsteen album is actually one of the better protest songs to come out in a few years.)

Almost all of the bands I’ve listened to heavily in the last year or two—Pearl Jam, Dream Theater, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, Queensryche, Arcade Fire, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the list goes on—have put out anti-war or anti-Bush songs at some point recently. And while they’re not all as bad as the New Republic article claims, they do tend to suck more often than not. I’d agree that most of the political protest songs I’ve heard since 9/11 have ranged from “meh” to unlistenable. And I swear it’s not just because my political views are the ones typically being protested; I actually have a secret respect for a good socially subversive, countercultural song.

The article argues that most protest songs these days suck because the musicians get so worked up writing Fight the Man ™ lyrics that they forget to write good music to go along with it, which may be the case. Certainly there are a lot of protest songs with good lyrics and bad music (some are cited in the article), and some with bad lyrics and good music (Muse’ “Take a Bow” and Queensryche’s “Thank You”), but a lot of them sound like the musicians just hauled an unreleased-for-a-good-reason tune out of their archives and used their latest angry liberal blog post as the lyrics (Pearl Jam’s subtle masterpiece “Bu$hleager”).

I think a lot of them fail for the same reason that contemporary Christian music so often fails: when you are more concerned with preaching a message than with writing music that people can enjoy and relate to, you rarely produce great art. And there’s also the fact that when you’re preaching a viewpoint that’s shared by 99.5% of the art-producing world, you are not exactly risking your life with a bold, unique countercultural statement, and part of the thrill of a good protest song is participating in something that feels genuinely subversive.

So I guess I’m curious: what good protest music have you heard lately, and what makes it good? I think my favorite piece of recent protest music is the Black Angels’ album Passover; both the music and the lyrics evoke an era of indignant, anti-establishment anger (there’s actually a song on the album protesting the Vietnam War, and by implication the Iraq War), but it never devolves into blustering rage. The album trips up at the end with a painful anti-war song that falls into the “terrible lyrics, mediocre music” category, but the rest of the album is provocative enough that I can forgive it.

What do you think? Who do you listen to when you need to rage against the machine?

I haven’t been a huge fan of The Boss’ output recently, stretching back into the 90s, but “Magic” is his best effort since “Tunnel of Love.” The E Street Band is along for the ride this time, and it shows. Strong songwriting, playing and vocals push this album into the stratosphere of his best works, including “Born to Run” and “The River.”

Some highlights: “Livin’ in the Future” recalls the jazz/rock fusion of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”, and “You’ll Be Comin’ Down” and “Your Own Worst Enemy” are just flat-out gorgeous.

“Magic” is definitely worth at least a listen-through if you have access to Rhapsody (Mac users, alas, do not), or the 30 second previews through iTunes.

Ayreon is less a band and more of a prog-music project—each Ayreon album is a “rock opera” composed by Dutch musician Arjen Lucassen. Lucassen then assembles a cast of top-notch singers and musicians (often recognizable faces from the prog-rock scene, but sometimes relative newcomers as well) to play all the parts in the musical drama.

The Human Equation is the latest Ayreon project, and it’s one of the most rewarding albums I’ve listened to all year. Unlike most Ayreon rock operas, which tend to involve elaborate (and somewhat cheesy) sci-fi and fantasy storylines, Equation tells a much more personal and grounded story: a man who has fallen into a coma after an accident (…but was it really an accident?) relives milestones in his life, confronts his guilt and other personal demons, and works his way to an understanding of what really happened.

The storyline is not staggeringly innovative, and is a bit difficult at times to follow, but that’s OK: it pales before the music, which positively soars. Lucassen is a prog-rock musician at heart, which means Equation has a good share of pounding guitars and space-age synthesizers, but he pulls out all the stops to make this album a diverse one. Depending on the subject matter at hand, the music ranges from heavy and serious to light and breezy; instruments ranging from violins and cellos to flutes to bassoons to a didgeridoo weave in and out of the album throughout its 100-minute playing time. The singers Lucassen cast are great: James LaBrie (of Dream Theater) has the part of the main character, Marcela Bovio plays his wife, and a slew of other vocalists show up as different voices from the main character’s past and subconscious.

All of the songs are tightly focused around the album’s concept; it’s the sort of album that really demands a full-length listen to really appreciate it, although several of the songs quite well on their own. “Day Two: Isolation” (download it from the Ayreon site) opens the album with a terrific, guitar-heavy intensity; “Day Seven: Hope” is a lighthearted, nostalgic song perfect for cranking up on a summer road trip; “Day Eleven: Love” swings majestically from dreamy vocals to hammering guitars and back; “Day Seventeen: Accident?” flirts with an ambient electronic keyboard groove. Most songs feature at least two or three different characters (male and female) singing in dialogue, which keeps the vocals varied and interesting.

If I sound like a raving fanboy, I suppose I am: I loved this album. It hits most of the spectrum of progressive rock, from crunching guitars to quiet flutes, from cookie-monster growling to ethereal female vocals. (It does ultimately lean toward the heavy side, though.) There’s a great deal of musical creativity packed into this one. I’d heartily recommend it to anybody who wants a good introduction to prog rock, or to anybody who just enjoys hearing a troupe of highly skilled musicians all doing what they do best.

At the risk of looking like a fanboi, I’m offering my thoughts on the new Radiohead album about eight hours after it dropped last night.

• This is summarily a Radiohead album. The very first track, “15 Step”, is an adept melding of Kid A fuzz and ambiance with Amnesiac timing (5/4 is my guess, 5/8 is my son’s… and on further listening, I think he might be right) with melodies reminiscent of “Talk Show Host” or “Paranoid Android”.
• Speaking of melodies, they are fabulous and, in many places, simpler than on past albums.
• I’ve never been a huge fan of Thom Yorke’s voice by itself, but this album reminds me how well it cuts through the thick, luscious layers of sound in the music.
• Of the ten songs, only one stood out to me as a particular “throwaway” (”All I Need”). On the other hand, the breadth of sound is simply astonishing. The band shows that they don’t need to rely on hyper-produced songs with 32 tracks of noise to make great music; “Faust Arp” is a beautiful track with nothing more than voice and two guitars, while “Videotape” is just Thom at a piano, playing hypnotically along with minimal, almost ambient drums.
• From time to time, I could use a break from the “singing in the middle of an empty Albert Hall” vocal effect. Also, if the dude who does the voice for Herbert ever needs a break, Thom can surely step in. (Seriously, listen to something like “Nude” and tell me he couldn’t do a great, “You like popsicles?”)
• Early favorite tracks: well, just about all of them. I immediately love “Bodysnatchers” and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”, but so much of the album feels fresh, yet familiar.

I got to the end of the album ready and excited to listen to it again. I didn’t skip any tracks and didn’t get anxious during any of the songs to do so. Four (preliminary) stars.

OK, so I’ve never worn mascara, dressed up like a vampire, or felt particularly rejected by mainstream society. But you must admit, the Goth scene did produce some pretty killer music. This week I stumbled upon Abney Park, a Goth/electronic/trance band that dresses up in Victorian garb and pretends to be the crew of a steampunk airship, and it turns out they rock, in a pass-me-the-absinthe sort of way. I defy you to loop “Stigmata Martyr” (even the song names are Gothier-than-thou!) for a half-hour and not be lulled into a sublimely melancholy fugue state. That’s what I’ve been doing all afternoon, at least.

They’ve got numerous tracks for free download at their website. Go forth and Goth!

Check out these three clips of bits that Philip Glass composed for Sesame Street. When I watched them yesterday, I immediately remembered loving them as a kid, and they’re just as good (if not better) now. I have to assume some sort of embedded memory of those is part of the reason the scores from Mishima and Kundun resonated so much with me.

Here’s one of the clips, and they’re all linked above:

I hope Sesame Street still has stuff this good.

Via your daily awesome (via mefi)

I don’t get HBO (or cable for that matter), but I caught a new show “Flight of the Conchords” in a hotel this week.  (Am I totally late to this party?)  The show is based on a band by the same name.  They are “New Zeeland’s fourth most popular folk-parody group.”

Anyway, their live show includes “Think about it, Think, Think about it“, a song about dealing with the issues, and “The Humans are Dead“, an ode to our future robot overlords.  Here’s a clip of the HBO show.  Not for everybody, but what is?

Ondi Timoner, the documentarian behind the excellent DiG!, is apparently unrolling a new documentary about religious cults called Join Us (sorry, free registration required).

If you’ve not seen DiG!, I highly recommend it–it traces the awesomely melodramatic rivalry between the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, two bands vying for the limelight. The real star of that documentary is Anton Newcombe, the musician behind BJM; he comes across simultaneously as a raving loon and an intensely talented musician. DiG! is entertaining in a look-at-the-train-wreck sort of way, and it introduced me to music I’m still listening to years later. I suspect that Join Us will be worth checking out as well.