Time for spring cleaning...

When I think of clean, I think of Mr. Clean.  When I think of Mr. Clean, Bruce Willis comes to mind.  At the mention of Bruce Willis, I either "see dead people" or need moonlighting.  Anywho, what I really want to discuss are the ridiculous "Voice", "Idol", or "America's Got Talent" shows.

Bjork has talent.  An idol is something like this...

Further, America does not have a voice.

When did we become the country who rules the world without any sense of morality?  I'm no fucking Buddhist, but this is enlightenment!

I want to fight for the high road.  If it is wrong for Russia to control Crimea, then why do we stand to the side on Taiwan?  We still embargo Cuba (because they are not "democratic"), yet our desert Saudis seem best of friends.  Why the double standard?

REALPOLITIK - politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral or ethical premises.  As my good friend Henry says, "While we should never give up our principles, we must also realize that we cannot maintain our principles unless we survive."  

Let's discuss...I am being called to dinner!

The upward spiral vs. angst

20 years ago may seem like a long time ago.  Me, I was a frustrated professional in a bank, full of future worries.  And, Trent Reznor just released The Downward Spiral.  (Suffice it to say, his genius is unparalleled in my generation.  He took industrial music to a perfected place...but, enough about the music.)

The great hoo-ha of X.  We were vexed at the ridiculous 80's...AIDS...jobs...Reagan...hippies turned yuppies...loser anxiety for the future.  Our god was supposed to be Kurt.  He spoke for the existential angst we all felt.  Somehow his view didn't quite work for me.  My internalization was based on a blend of Morrissey despair and Depeche Mode spirituality.  I also had an utopian world view that border on religion.  We had to be better than what we saw around us.  The world felt so stupid to my logical brain.  Whining about it was fun for a minute, then it was time to do something.

Nine Inch Nails delivered the answer to all that ailed.  The songs on The Downward Spiral  cut to the core of our situation.  We had to acknowledge the shit surrounding us...no more denial.  Then, we had to absolutely break it apart.  If we didn't, we would be destroyed and ruined by the circumstances of our lives.

The initial machine gun announcement that we are controlled by "Mr. Self Destruct" slides into classic whining despair...woe is me "Piggy"!  However if things are this bad, why not fuck it all and fight.  Nothing can stop me now.

Let's ATTACK.  HERESY.

He flexed his muscles to keep his flock of sheep in line.  He made a virus that would kill off all the swine.

His perfect kingdom of killing, suffering and pain.  Demands devotion, atrocities done in his name.

MARCH...I want to break it up, smash it up, fuck it up.  I want to watch it come down.  Now, doesn't that make you feel better?

The album seems to go back and forth between loathing and focused anger.  "Closer" won't let the evils of this world own us.  "Ruiner" might as well be Reagan/Bush as far as I am concerned.  It ends with "you are the reason I stay alive", which to me is another call to arms.  We cannot let that crowd of conservatives influence our world.  We must be the thorn in their side at every turn.

Lyrics are not the only important contribution.  "The Becoming" is an amazing piece of post industrial horror punk.  The theme of the whole album is captured in the sound.  Back to the message though, "I Do Not Want This" fully explains the path we must choose.  The angst will destroy us, if we don't fight it and it's causes.  We had to make a choice.  I want to know everything, I want to be everywhere, I want to fuck everyone in the world, I want to do something that matters!

"Big Man With A Gun" had to be on this album just to mess with the Tipper Gore fanatics.  It serves no other purpose.  This idiot wrote a book called "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" and used NIN as an example.  

I digress.

"A Warm Place" repeats the circling down theme beautifully and readies the listener for the bombast of "Eraser".  "Reptile" introduces the second guessing nature of the nihilistic dream.  Should we really tear everything down to make things better, or is that just our rage tricking us?  By this point of the album, I made my choice.  I wanted to make things better.  Trent seemed less sure as he wastes away in the "Downward Spiral" and "Hurt".  Perhaps one day at life's end, I will have similar regrets.  Somehow, I doubt it.

I am now 44, part of the white male dominated society, and jaded by success.  But, I believe the values instilled in me by works of art such as "The Downward Spiral" stay with me to this day.  I am "the guy" that wants to break down illogical walls and fight against every institution that holds the human race back.  One may see it in my occasional rants about the Pope, but the real passion lies in under-cutting anything conservative.  We are not meant to stay put.  Even conservatives change with the times.  They are just slower about it than necessary.

While a surface listen to The Downward Spiral might send a listener down a hole, I find it uplifting and empowering.  It captures an aggressive view of how to make the world a better place (cue Coca-Cola commercial now!)  We must fight the powers in control of our lives and create a world where things evolve; or, we might as well shoot up (take that as you may).

In the words of Frederic Nietzsche, "I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilism's] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes master of this crisis, is a question of his strength!"

See the pope in a buffalo stance...

What a couple of weeks...

Neneh Cherry has been gone too long.  (Pompous religious bigots, not gone ever.)

First let me unload my discrimination rant.  If businesses can discriminate based on their religious beliefs, then should Hindi workers abstain from serving a McDonald's Big Mac?  Shall a strict Muslim not serve an educated woman anything?  Would a Christian be unable to promote "super-sized" meal deals to obese gluttons?  

When I get fired from my job because I can't deal with the Jesus-killing Jews, may I please use the religious belief card to sue my employer?  Obviously, the answer is yes.  More importantly, our government should specifically legislate which religious freedoms are valued in the community.  I don't want any gray areas, which could cause confusion. Let's make it clear to all the world that we are a white, male dominated, Judeo-Christian country (sans some of the Judeo part when it suits us)!  Amen.

Next, let us gives thanks to il mio Papa for his "modern" view of his kingdom.  His church might tolerate civil unions between same sex people, but I for one have one thing to say, "CAZZO you".  Shut up, because no one should care what you say.  "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." (Matthew 7:15)

Luckily for me, I have listened to Neneh Cherry's new album (Blank Project) about 25 times in the last few days.  Hyperbole is all that can be used to describe how it makes me feel.  Amazing!  Sensational! Hot! Intelligent! Genius!  The beats alone put me in a whirl!  It is refreshing to remember how important this type of artist is to our pop music evolution.  25 years ago she began a revolution within "hip-hop"/, then faded into obscurity.  Absence truly has made my heart grow fonder.  "Raw Like Sushi" sounds like something one would hear on the radio today, though not as forced and manipulated (hint, hint Kanye).  If you want a taste, here is the title track.  No doubt, this won't be the last you've heard from me on this subject.  

New year's dissolution

Resolutions are so last year!  I want to work on dissolving some things in 2014.  So, each month something will be broken apart and left in pieces,  only to further decay.

Join me on this adventure!

2013 Songs of the Year

In no particular order and only one rule...no two from the same album (well, except for the one exception made for the Pet Shop Boys who had 2 absolute classics).  These are available on your iTunes and other pay services!

Song	Album	Artist
Vocal	Electric	Pet Shop Boys
Diane Young	Modern Vampires of the City	Vampire Weekend
Closer	Heartthrob (Deluxe Version)	Tegan and Sara
Welcome To Japan	Comedown Machine	The Strokes
Brennisteinn	Kveikur	Sigur Rós
Lies	The Bones of What You Believe (Special Edition)	CHVRCHES
Love is a Bourgeois Construct	Electric	Pet Shop Boys
In Two	Hesitation Marks (Deluxe Version)	Nine Inch Nails
Tennis Court	Pure Heroine	Lorde
Sacrilege	Mosquito (Deluxe Version)	Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Young and Beautiful	The Great Gatsby (Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film)	Lana Del Rey
The Crack Up	The Messenger	Johnny Marr
Love Hurt Bleed	Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)	Gary Numan
Inhaler	Holy Fire	Foals
Be Free, A Way	The Terror (Deluxe Version)	The Flaming Lips
Where Are We Now?	The Next Day (Deluxe Version)	David Bowie
Pink Rabbits	Trouble Will Find Me	The National
Stuck Together Pieces	Amok	Atoms for Peace
Do I Wanna Know?	AM	Arctic Monkeys
Get Lucky	Random Access Memories	Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams
Afterlife	Reflektor	Arcade Fire

The "Classic" of the year...better than the top 10!

If anyone was paying attention, this should have been missed in my top 10 albums.  It is far superior in every aspect to the others...so much so, Rolling Stone even agreed (and they are the worst critics ever!).

Modern Vampires of the City, Vampire Weekend

Buy it here

First, the album is so good that even people who no idea what the lyrics are about will love it. (I shack up with one such person.)

It starts with a beautiful song about being underemployed and living at home with parents. Visions of the "Occupy" movement and other Millenial generation angst come to mind, as the whole thing takes on a silly vibe. To keep us on edge, the specific worries of "Obvious Bicycle" give way to bigger existential concerns with "Unbelievers". "Step" is probably about music itself, although I've seen a million analyses of the lyrics and still am not sure. (I don't care, because "Wisdom's a gift but you'd trade it for youth. Age is an honor, it's still not the truth.")

"Diane Young" had to be called this, because it is making fun of Ke$ha.  The big thrill here is the connection between this song and "Don't Lie", which is just sick in every way.  So, let us seize the day of "youth" and not die young...it's about to get really good!

"A gardener told me some plants move, But I could not believe it 'til me and Hannah Hunt saw crawling vines and weeping willows"...Are you F'ing kidding me?  How can anyone come up with lyrics so magical?  Songs like this keep us grounded in real human process, as we deal with the universal concepts that weigh on our collective minds.  Next up is my least favorite.  This is the song all the other pop bands would probably write, if they were this talented musically.  We have angst, so hold me in your "everlasting arms", blah -blah-blah...  Then, we get down right weird.  I have no idea what is going on in "Finger Back", but I really like it.  Perhaps, it is about our love of torture (and I once had a child sit on my finger and made it bend back...it has become lore of vacations past!).

Onto the deeply religious pieces..."Worship You" must be about wondering how god is a meanie and loving at the same time.  Jews must think that their god has a sick sense of humor!  So, back at YA WEH!  "Ya Hey" is so funny and serious...brilliant...(p.s. I'm blogging, so I haven't said anything blasphemous.  I'm as clever as Ezra.)

The album slides to a close with a treatise on history repeating itself over and over, all through the eyes of a Manhattan viewpoint.  (Historical fact of interest...Indians originally "leased" the land on Manhattan to the Dutch for 99 years, or so they thought!)  A beautiful calmness brings us back to reality, and it ends.

Basically, Vampire Weekend created a masterpiece with their third album.  And, it seems so effortless.  

Albums 1-3

3 - Hesitation Marks, Nine Inch Nails ~ I hadn't planned to think of this album as such a great piece.  But as I began to "rank" art, I realized that this incarnation of my beloved NIN is downright awesome.  First, come back with "Came Back Haunted"...how does one re-invent oneself (see Haunted)?  So, I'm a sucker for all things dystopian (funny, Google doesn't seem to know that word and thinks it is misspelled???  Or, maybe it is an adjective and I am using it in a noun form???).  I digress (and sip another Manhattan).  The incredible use of sounds to convey a message like "Satellite" in unreal.  One can feel the data swirling overhead.   More then anything else though, Trent creates a new version of music by transforming instruments into something other-worldly.  Take the last few bars of "In Two"... if satan herself could play guitar and loved jazz, she couldn't have produce such sounds (I promise - turn it up with headphones on)...which instantly stop ][ and lead into "While I'm Still Here" (second best transition of the year!):

Only thing I've ever done

Ticking time is running out

Closest I have ever come

Ticking time is running out

Oh, so tired on my own

Ticking time is running out

Best days I have ever known

Ticking time is running out

Thankfully, someone didn't follow through on the suicide.  So, all we have are his Hesitation Marks.

2 - Tales of Us, Goldfrapp ~  Incongruous and subtle.  These are words to describe the surprise of the year.  When I heard Goldfrapp had a new album, I immediately dusted off the dance shoes and got really excited.  Then, it came out.  I was confused, stunned, verklempt.  How could my peeps put out something so "boring"?  However after 1476 listens, it is now confirmed to be the number 2 album of the year.  I love intensity in my music; and somehow, it is achieved in all its glory in the quietest and simplest by a cinematic view of humanity.  Slowly, every character comes to life.  "Drew", "Jo" and "Annabelle" feel like old friends (albeit probably dead). I've never been empathetic, but somehow these songs bring real emotion to life.  I actually care what is happening to "Simone".  One of the most poetic is "Clay"...best I can tell, soldiers fall in love only to die young wondering what might of been.  "Thea" may yet have remixes that fill the clubs, but in its simple form we can still sway to the mystical vision.  I have concerns ranking it #2, because time may put this in the stratosphere! Watch "Drew" here

1 - Trouble Will Find Me, The National ~  Downer, I know.  But, gloomy perfection can win the day.  From the first refrains of "I Should Live in Salt", you know the feeling of regret whether you've dealt with it yourself.   The self-loathing doesn't let up in "Demons", but one can at least groove a bit through the up tempo "Don't Swallow the Cap" and encourage the protagonist to "pat yourself on the back" and not kill himself.  Now that we are entrenched in a person's misery, "Fireproof" let's us mope about the fact that others seemingly have no problems.    The pace picks up as people start drowning in the "Sea of Love" and falling apart in "Graceless", but the themes remains dark.  Certainly a highlight for me is the offhanded mention of Morrissey's Bona Drag whilst pining that "(i've) become a television version of person with a broken heart" in "Pink Rabbits".  Every slow song will break your heart and cause you to wonder how we get through the isolation and desperation that exist in our modern world.  The atmospheric tone of the songs match the lyrics perfectly.  Maybe I'm becoming middle aged myself and questioning how it all works, because this album touched me more than all the others.  I want my maudlin music to be agonizingly raw yet beautiful, and this album delivers over and over (and over and over...A Richard Bunn will get the point!).

Buy Trouble Will Find Me

p.s.  There is actually one more to come...but, it just couldn't be grouped with the rest!