Cerulean

In 1991, I was fourteen years-old and living in California with my family. My older brother was back home living with us after completing basic training for the Army Reserves. We shared a room for about a year, and I was given access to his massive tape collection, a blessing which helped foster my ever-growing obsession with music.

It was at this time that I began graduating from my 80's roots. I'd been listening to a healthy dose of some of the more well-known "modern rock" bands of that period for a few years. Bands like The Cure, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, and REM were my musical universe, ever since the same older brother introduced me to a path at least slightly removed from the dark side of mainstream radio with a mixtape of assorted Cure songs (with everything from Boys Don't Cry up to Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me) which he layed on me in the fifth grade. While those bands were certainly a decent foundation, I was naturally starting to want more variety.

So I dove into my brother's tape collection and began listening to some newer bands like Ride, Chapterhouse, and Lush--basically bands in the poppier end of the shoegaze pool and what is sometimes referred to as "dreampop." [It would be several years before I heard MBV and Slowdive, unfortunately.] There was something very fresh sounding about those bands. Effects heavy and with plenty of swirling distortion, it was like nothing I'd heard. I remember walking around my neighborhood listening to Whirlpool on my walkman and being filled with this crazy energy. I was inspired to make a music video for Ride's "Vapour Trail" with my parent's camcorder which consisted of me basically riding around on my bike and shooting the scenery and people in highspeed shutter mode. What can I say? I've always been really into bike safety.

LA's Cerulean reminds me a bit of that time in my musical life. The music of their 3rd album, No Sense In Waiting (2005, self-released) certainly mines some of the same territory of those early 90's bands. And though they tend toward the more compact, song-oriented rock side of things, they do convey a similar vibe. There's not much drifting feedback or jam-y parts going on here. All but one track is up-tempo. On the other hand, the album is laden with overdriven melodies and cascading guitars, with plenty of delay effects. A few even approximate something like the rush I feel when I hear those opening reverbed toms of "Decay," one of my favorite tracks from Ride's Nowhere. My one real gripe is what I can only describe as the somewhat heroic quality of the music and of the male vocals, which I find mildly annoying. That, and the album has a sound that is maybe a little too consistent. Otherwise, this a pretty solid record and well worth checking out. And hey--with all these bands still mining the 80's post-punk/new wave sound, these guys actually sort of sound ahead of their time. What irony?

Cerulean: "In Pictures"

Stop-Gap/Premonition

Hey folks. Just a quick update in lieu of a real post (coming soon!!1)...

First off, did I call it or what? Pitchfork gave the Band of Horses record a glowing review yesterday (along with an eight-point-eight and a "best new music" tag). The significance? Well, lets just say that when I was logged into my favorite P2P app yesterday afternoon, practically everyone downloading from me had Band of Horses queued. I counted at least fifteen or so. I was wondering what the hell was going on, but when I checked Pitchfork it all made sense. I'd had a hunch, and sure enough there it was. Hype machine or not, it can't be denied that those people are tastemakers.

Also, the new Stereolab record, Fab Four Suture, is actually pretty damn good! Listen to "Get a Shot Of The Refrigerator" and tell me it's not bad ass. More of the same is not a bad thing when it's quality stuff.

The French film, Cache, is excellent but very frustrating. A good review can be found here. [Warning: kinda spoiler-y]

New updates coming soon:

Hey, Remember the 90's? - a new band sounds like bands did when I was new to new bands.

Girls With Guitars - a trio of intriguing folky females from the past.

A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock y Roll

Band of Horses is a local Seattle band about to make it big. They recently signed to Sub Pop to release their debut album, Everything All the Time, which comes out on March 21st. While I try never to play favorites when it comes to music (because, lets face it, there's just way too much good shit out there at any given time), I have to admit they are indeed my current favorite band. I just can't stop listening to them.

Solid indie rock (a la its 90's heyday) and lonesome country-ish tunes combine to deliver one of the strongest debuts I've heard in a long time. The midtempo rockers remind me a bit of Built To Spill, especially when it comes to the vocals. Some of the slower, twangy tracks like “I Go To the Barn Because I Like the,” “Monsters” and “St. Augustine” wouldn't sound out place on an Iron & Wine record.

There was a substantial article published in this week's Stranger to coincide with their show last night at Neumo's. I definitely recommend checking that out for a more in-depth look at the band. And you can bet that yours truly was in attendence at the show, but guess what? I was sick with the flu and had to leave after only three songs from Band of Horses because I couldn't stop shivering. Oh, what luck! Anyway, last night was the first stop on tour which will take them through most of the Western half of the country, including a spot at SXSW on March 17th. If I remember correctly, the band mentioned they'd be hitting the East Coast sometime after that. I urge you to see them without a fever.

Since the band's MySpace profile currently features my absolute favorite song from the album, “The Funeral,” here's another song to enjoy, the appropriately-titled album opener.

Band of Horses: “The First Song” [MP3]

A Musical Favor

The release of the new John Fahey tribute album, I Am the Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey, has reminded me how little I know about his music. I've only heard a few of his records (namely America and this anthology). So far I am most taken with this track I first heard recently while watching the movie Following Sean. I prefer this to his more bluesy songs. Can anyone recommend other stuff from him in a similar vein?

John Fahey: “Sligo River Blues” [MP3]

Site note: I recently figured out that my site's RSS feed wasn't working. Sorry about that. I switched hosts a short while back and I guess I missed something. Should be good to go now...

Shala-lala-la-la

Yes, I'm still here. I guess writing this crap has taken a backseat to things like work and being social. It's not such a bad thing really. After what seems like one of the rainiest Januaries in Seattle history, we're finally getting some sunny days again. I can't wait for the Spring.

I've been in a real pop phase recently. I'm not completely sure why; I think it has something to do with going through all this change in the past six months or so. After moving to the West coast back in the Fall, I went through a few minor hardships, and I think I needed comforting. That's what I like about good pop music, I guess--it's so damn right. It's like well-made home cooking or a good friend: nice and cozy...inviting. There's still something to be said for that, especially in light of all the awful news these days. It makes things a little better.

Case in point: The Brunettes, a New Zealand band who recently signed to Sub Pop to release their 3rd album, finally calling themselves to my attention. They are a male/female duo clearly (and pretty wonderfully) inspired by 60's girl group. Their music has a weird bent to it, though. At times it's definitely silly and happy, but there's a darkness there too. And they're not so innocent. I like their first album, Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks (2002), a bit better than the 2004 follow-up, Mars Loves Venus. Both records are kinda bubble gum and nearly every song is about love, but the debut has something about it. It's a little weirder, a little more daring. I prefer those moments, rather than the super peppy, hey-everybody-let's-dance stuff.

"Talk to Jesus" [MP3]
"End of the Runway" [MP3]

[Speaking of 60's girl group, I recently picked up Rhino's awesome boxed set, Girl Group Sounds, Lost and Found: One Kiss Can Lead to Another. Highly recommended if you like that sort of thing. One minor gripe: it gets my vote for most embarassing packaging ever. Where the hell am I supposed to keep this thing???]

Wonder Katzen

Fans of twisted, subversive comedy take note: The first season of MTV2's often brilliant "kids" show, Wonder Showzen (which I first gushed about here), is set to be released on DVD March 28th according to this and this. I'm psyched, are you? (You sicko creep.)

And if that weren't already enough, there's even better news. According to an interview with (H.) Jon Benjamin on the January 7th episode of the Sound of Young America, Dr. Katz is finally coming to DVD! Benjamin discusses doing the commentary for the Season 1 DVD in the interview, as well as his thoughts on Squigglevision (the style of animation used on Dr. Katz and on the 1st season of Home Movies, another show which features his voice), hosting the ongoing comedy thing Tinkle with David Cross and Todd Barry, and why he doesn't do traditional stand-up. You can hear the unedited Jon Benjamin interview here.

Anyway, this is awesome news for fans of Dr. Katz who have been petitioning for a DVD release for quite a while. My "temporary" copies of the series (previously discussed here), while good for quick fix, obviously can't compete with high quality editions with commentary and all that. I can't wait. [No release date has been set so far, and sites like Amazon aren't yet listing it.]

Slackin'

Man, has it been over a month?? The inspiration comes and goes (all too quickly, I suppose). New posts are coming soon, though--promise. Expect to see my 2005 best-of (it's so late, I know), as well as posts on why I can't seem to get enough pop these days and how I'm learning to love my ever-present sense of self-loathing (and maybe a blurb on my love of hypens)...soon-ish.

In the meantime, a PSA:

Are you like me? Do you enjoy that crazy P2P filesharing the kids are into these days? If so, you might care to know that the man is watching you. Whether you're Bittorrenting, Soulseeking, or riding your eDonkey, chances are that organizations such as the MPAA and the RIAA are spying on you.

Even if you have a software firewall installed (you should) and/or a firewall enabled on your router, you may still be at risk. I found this out recently for myself when I installed PeerGuardian, a small, open source IP-blocking firewall for Windows and OSX. I was Bittorrenting something, instructions on how to better care for my sickly grandmother or some shit, and sure enough PeerGuardian was showing hits from all sorts of weird IPs trying to scan my port. So unless you want to stop all the downloading, I suggest you do the same--install PeerGuardian and stop this ridiculous intrusion on your digital privacy.

Favorites

My new favorite ice cream is...
Ben & Jerry's Half Baked Frozen Yogurt

My new favorite cartoon character is...
The grandma on Adult Swim's Squidbillies

My new favorite stand-up comic is...
Louis CK

I remember first seeing him on Dr. Katz back in the mid 90's. He did a bit about going in Wal-Mart and buying a bunch of weird, unrelated stuff just to freak people out. It was funny, but I soon forgot about him and carried on with my sad, pathetic Louie-less existence.

Flash forward to August 2005, when I was lucky enough to catch a particularly good episode of HBO's newly-resurrected One Night Stand featuring, yes--you guessed it, the comedy stylings of Mr. Louis CK. And it was good. It was so good, it was more like fucking excellent. In fact, I actually el-oh-eled quite a few times, despite watching it alone. I'd even go as far as to say it's a damn near perfect half hour of comedy. If you have the means I highly suggest you Tivo that shit or something. Here's an audio clip (NSFW):

+ Louis CK: HBO One Night Stand clip [MP3]

He's got an album called Live In Houston for sale on his site, too. It's not quite as tight as the HBO special, but it's definitely worth checking out. Some klips (mostly NSFW):

+ Louis CK: Diner Ordering [MP3]
+ Louis CK: Diet [MP3]
+ Louis CK: Itchy Asshole [MP3]

So apparently the guy's been busy since that Dr. Katz episode. In addition to the stand-up, he's written for Conan, Letterman, and the Chris Rock show, among other things. And now he's taping his own sitcom for HBO. It's called Lucky Louie and will premiere sometime in 2006. You can read all about it in a hefty article from a recent issue of the Boston Globe Magazine here.

Despite his busy schedule, Louie was kind enough to grace the boards at A Special Thing, a site that started as a Tenacious D fan site but has become a haven for comedy nerds everywhere. Actual, life-sized comics like Brian Posehn and Scott Aukerman (Mr. Show), Andy Kindler, and Patton Oswalt sometimes stop in for a chat. Louis CK recently started a “Question and Insult” thread there by promising “anyone can ask me any question and I will provide an answer that is deeply insulting to the person who asks the question.”

Here's what BrickSprickly (aka me) had to say to Louis and the insult offered in return:

BrickSprickly wrote:

Louis:

I know you're busy with your fancy new show, but do you think you'll do a stand-up show in Seattle in the near future? Will you tour after your show doesn't get picked up or what?

PS: I hope your show does get picked up. I'm gay for you.

It will be very hard for me to hit the road for a while. Once the show hits the air, however (in june) I'll probably to go on the road and make some cash. I miss standup and being on the road a lot. And I love working in Seattle.
And you're not gay for me. You're gay for the trillions, literally trillions of cocks that have been in your ass. Do you realize what that means? Trillions of cocks. There have never been trillions of people alive ever. That means that, on top of the billions of cocks that have been up your ass, meaning the cock of every man that is and ever was, there have been billions, trillions more up there, cocks that must just exist on their own without people attached to them, that were conjured by your wizard friend, just so they could go up yoru ass and die.

LCK

http://www.louisck.com

ps. you are not good.

If that's not awesome, I don't know what is. Oh, and by “I'm gay for you” I meant “I really enjoy your work.”

So there you have it, folks--my new favorite ice cream. [Sorry, David Cross. You've been crossed out, my man. Yeah, I'm still a little gay for you too, but you have to understand that things change.]

She Can Let You Down (Part 2)

Sometimes a band transcends the new-band-gone-old paradigm by instead taking on an old-band-going-older role. It just takes a little time. Such is the case with LA's 80's-gone-60's Paisley Underground scene which spawned several worthy bands, including the Dream Syndicate, early Bangles, The Three O'Clock, super group covers project Rainy Day, and future Mazzy Star guy David Roback in his early bands Rain Parade and Opal, among others. I have to admit I'm not really through checking out these bands and exploring this "scene," but so far Rain Parade has sort of stood out to me as a band worth going back to. Their debut album, 1983's Emergency Third Rail Power Trip does a commendable job at sounding like 60's psychedelic folk rock (i.e. The Byrds). It's nearly tranparent. I've found that this song in particular manages to both sound old and authentic and still sink it's fucking hooks inside my brain. That's timeless magic. What's it done to my mind? I can't stop listening to it!

+ Rain Parade: “What's She Done to Your Mind” [MP3]

Jumping back to the present day (or a present-day reflection on the past), England's The Clientele have released a few good records recently. First came their second album, Strange Geometry, released in the US on Merge Records back in September. The follow-up to their solid debut album, The Violet Hour (2003), and the excellent preceding singles collection, Suburban Light released back in 2000/01, Strange Geometry shows the band changing things up just a bit. Without sacrificing much of their core sound (wistful, melancholy, shimmery, dreamy, and yes, 60's-ish), they've made a few alterations this time around: First and most noticeably, they turned down the reverb considerably on the vocals, so they're a bit more clear and upfront than usual. They rock out a little more on tracks like “Impossible,” which at its climax features something of a psych rock guitar solo. There's also the inclusion of spoken word vocals on the track “Losing Haringey,” which is pretty interesting. Aside from these small details, and maybe a bit of a cleaner, more well-recorded sound overall, they're still putting out the good ol' reliable dreaminess that I can't seem to get sick of.

I got to see the band play here recently, and they were excellent. I can't think of a more suitable vibe for the rainy days of the Seattle winter. They played a good range of material, centered of course on their new album, including several of my personal favorites from Suburban Light. At the show, I picked up the early/unreleased songs collection just put out in time for the tour entitled It's Art Dad. It's self-released and currently available only at their shows or by mailorder from the band. The songs included (which were recorded from 1991-96) are lo-fi, with a home demo sound that might be a put off for some. I think it actually works pretty well for them. In most cases, it suits their warm-n-fuzzy sound just right. This disc may only appeal to big fans like myself, but there are actually a few gems that are worth checking out.

+ The Clientele: “Dear Jennifer” [MP3]
+ The Clientele: “The Evening In Your Eyes” [MP3]
+ The Clientele: “St. James' Walk” [MP3]

Before I go, I want to get back to something I mentioned in first part of this post, about how comforting I find old (and old-sounding) music. The Clientele, more than any other band I've mentioned here, typifies this feeling I'm failing to accurately describe. And not only do they seem to match so well the dreary weather of Seattle (which is probably pretty similar to that of the band's London home), but they seem to match me, too. It's strange. I can't think of any other band that so often suits my mood these days. I've really connected with it. Yeah, I need to get fucking happy, right? Well until I do, there's this band that seems to know exactly how I feel. That's just magic.

She Can Let You Down (Part 1)

There's something about old music that just does me right. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I can come close by saying that I find it very comforting. But it's not just comforting--it's something more. It's like a favorite sweater and a good cup of coffee on a saturday morning: warm, well-worn, and cozy.

I wasn't lucky enough to be born to parents with good taste in music, so I missed out a little growing up and have had quite a bit of catching up to do. Every so often, I seem to reach back for something that I've missed. Sometimes I find something cool, sometimes I don't. Either way, I learn something new. One thing I learned recently is that new music is sometimes very good at sounding old. This is good news because, let's face it, some day we're gonna run out of real old music, aren't we?

Yes: Espers, a psych-folk band from Philadelphia, has recently released an EP of covers. The songs are old. The band is new. Blah blah blah. Weed Tree (Locust) is Espers turning it's dark, folky hymns to the past. The covers include songs from Nico, Blue Oyster Cult, Durutti Column, and a few traditionals like “Black Is the Color,” as well as one original song, “Dead King.” Espers do a good job at sounding kind of old already, so songs like the medieval-y traditional “Rosemary Lane,” which makes me feel like I'm at a Reniassance Fair (minus the cleavage and weird sticks of meat), tend to fortify the vibe they're kinda going for. Seriously, this song isn't just old--it's olde:

+ Espers: “Rosemary Lane” [MP3]

Speaking of dark and old, Tarnation was a great band who was a big part of that whole dark, spooky Southern gothic country explosion that happened in a dream I had recently. Seriously, I don't know who you could compare them to, but the mostly female vocals sound a little like the ghost of Patsy Cline's equally talented lovelorn younger sister, Petula. The music is slow, twangy and with lots of reverb and only brightens up occasionally for a few upbeat numbers here and there. This song, featured on both their debut, I'll Give You Something to Cry About (1993) and their second and best album (and first for 4AD), Gentle Creatures, is especially good at sounding old, if maybe at the risk of sounding slightly affected:

+ Tarnation: “Game of Broken Hearts” [MP3]