Malajube - Montreal -40°C

Malajube - Montreal -40°C

I'm out of town again for the rest of this week, this time on a short trip to Montreal. Montreal has a great music scene; in fact, the Osheaga music festival is going on there this weekend. I'm closing out the week with bands somehow related to Montreal. First up are Malajube; they are one of the few French-Canadian bands to make it big on the indie scene. I'm not sure what they're singing about, but here's a translation of the lyrics. It sounds like its so cold even polar bears are taking the bus.

Spoon - Black Like Me

Spoon - Black Like Me

Dinosaur Jr. - Mick

Dinosaur Jr. - Mick

Both Husker Du's The Living End and Dinosaur Jr.'s Hand It Over were rereleased on June 10th. These are two great late-stage albums from influential noise-rock indie bands.

The Rosebuds - Hold Hands and Fight

The Rosebuds - Hold Hands and Fight

We went to the She & Him show on Saturday. The show was amazing, but the Rosebuds were a pleasant surprise, with a great opening set.

Pixies - Debaser

Pixies - Debaser

In advance of The New Hold Steady album, New York Magazine published an article titled "I Have Seen the Future of Rock and Roll, and It Is Not the Hold Steady". I was struck by one part in particular from author Joshua Ferris:

Initially, I disliked them immensely.

I couldn’t get into Finn’s spit-spoken delivery. He floats a heavy assault over the music, like he’s staring it down in the middle of the rink just before the fight.

I can remember feeling the same way about this band. That spoken word delivery walks a fine line; pile on too much, and it can come off as preachy and pretentious. But all that turned around when I saw them live. Craig Finn is absolutely intense when he delivers those words, without a hint of irony or disdain; he has a real respect for his characters and a real joy for rock and roll.

I experienced that with the Pixies as well. I can distinctly remember buying Doolittle for Here Comes Your Man, and being almost repulsed by the loud, driving randomness of Debaser. I put the CD away for about 2 weeks. But all that time there was a little voice in the back of my head, singing "Debaser, Debaser, Debaser". I didn't understand it, but the song caught a hold of me and wouldn't let go. So I put the CD back on and gave myself up to it. And that's how I met one of my favorite bands of all time.

A lot of the songs and the art that we cherish can challenge or even repulse us at first. And this is a great thing. Its something completely new and cool entering the walls of our mind and blasting them open. I feel like this happens less and less as you grow older; I doubt I would feel the same about The Pixies if I heard them for the first time today. Which is why I think its wonderful to have found another favorite band in The Hold Steady.

Led Zeppelin - D'yer Mak'er

Led Zeppelin - D'yer Mak'er

The moment I saw the title to The Hold Steady's Joke About Jamaica, before hearing even a single note, I knew it was about Led Zeppelin's D'yer Mak'er. This is common fact for any Zeppelin fan, and the song knows that:

They used to think it was so cute
When she said "Dyer Maker"
All the boys knew it was a joke about Jamaica

"D'yer Mak'er" is actually pronounced like the word "Jamaica" in an English accent, which translates back into "did you make her?" The phrase comes from the joke that goes something like this:

Guy #1: My wife and I just got back from the Carribean.
Guy #2: D'yer Mak'er
Guy #1: No, she wanted to go.

Thus a joke about Jamaica; no one said it was funny. This is the joke I've seen mentioned countless times, but frankly I believe the actual joke Robert Plant had in mind was probably a lot dirtier.

The Hold Steady song makes a lot more references to Zeppelin, such as Dancing Days, Houses of the Holy, Trampled Underfoot, and Dazed and Confused. And their indebtedness to Led Zeppelin is clear through the raging, epic guitar work in most of their songs

Lucero - What Else Would You Have Me Be

Lucero - What Else Would You Have Me Be

The Hold Steady's new album has a lot of guest stars, like J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr., Patterson Hood from Drive-By Truckers, and Ben Nichols from Lucero. Nichols lends his deep gruff growl on "Magazines."

Joe Strummer - Coma Girl

Joe Strummer - Coma Girl

The Hold Steady's Constructive Summer ends with:

"Raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer,
I think he might’ve been our only decent teacher"

He's singing about Clash-era Joe Strummer, but Strummer has released a string of solo albums after The Clash. This track is off his Streetcore album, one of his more critically acclaimed solo works.

Dillinger Four - Doublewhiskeycokenoice

Dillinger Four - Doublewhiskeycokenoice

As a follow up to yesterday's Iggy Pop post, the second verse of The Hold Steady's Constructive Summer is:

Me and my friends are like “Double-whiskey-coke-no-ice.”

Which is sort of an inside nod to this Dillinger Four song. The Hold Steady are originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Like Husker Du and The Replacements, The Dillinger Four are another band out of Minneapolis who The Hold Steady count as their influences.

Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

The opening line of The Hold Steady's Constructive Summer is:

Me and my friends are like the drums on "Lust for Life”

I know Iggy Pop's Lust for Life as the opening track from the immensely popular Trainspotting soundtrack. But almost 20 years before that, it was the title track from Iggy Pop's seminal solo album. Just how influential were those drums? New Order drummer Stephen Morris declared, "On Lust For Life the drums sound not huge but massive! The loudest cymbals known to man, that riff! I wanted to sound like that, still do." Bob Boilan from NPR has a look back at the riff on the All Songs Considered blog.

The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer

The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer

If it isn't clear already, I love summer, and I love summer songs. These are the songs that get you bouncing out of bed in the morning, and bouncing at the clubs into the night. I mentioned something similar when I posted Husker Du's Celebrated Summer; to me this is the quintessential summer song.

That is, until I heard The Hold Steady's new Constructive Summer. The Hold Steady's Constructive Summer is, unequivocally, my favorite song of the year, and one of my favorite songs ever.

I love this song. It captures the hope that arrives with summer, with a slight tinge of the disappointment that follows when summer is over and you find yourself right back where you started. But that's ok, because doing nothing with your friends is the best thing you can be doing.

While The Hold Steady's other songs evoke specific events and characters, these lyrics have a universality that makes them timeless. The song frames all this in the context of what it calls "sing-a-long-songs", from Iggy Pop and The Clash; Constructive Summer is a summer song about other summer songs.

If you are interested, here are the lyrics to Constructive Summer:

Me and my friends are like the drums on "Lust for Life”
We pound it out on floor toms
Our psalms are sing-along songs

And this whole town is like this
Been that way our whole lives
Just work at the mill until you die
Work at the mill, and then you die

We’re gonna build something this summer
We’re gonna build something this summer
We’ll put it back together - raise up a giant ladder
With love, and trust, and friends, and hammers (This summer!)
We’re gonna lean this ladder up against the water tower
Climb up to the top, and drink and talk (This summer!)

Me and my friends are like “Double-whiskey-coke-no-ice.”
We drink along in double time; might drink too much, but we feel fine
We’re gonna build something this summer.
Gonna build something this summer.

Summer grant us all the power to drink on top of water towers,
With love, and trust, and shows all summer (Get hammered!)
Let this be my annual reminder that we can all be something bigger

I went to your schools, I did my detention
But the walls are so gray, I couldn’t pay attention
I heard your gospel, it moved me to tears,
But I couldn’t find the hate, and I couldn’t find the fear
I met your Savior, I knelt at his feet,
And he took my ten bucks, and he went down the street
I tried to believe all the things that you said,
But my friends that aren’t dying are already dead.

Raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer
I think he might’ve been our only decent teacher
Getting older makes it harder to remember
We are our only saviors
We’re gonna build something, this summer

Siren Festival

Dragons Of Zynth - Anna Mae
Parts & Labor - Brighter Days
Annuals - Dry Clothes

This is a big weekend for music festivals, with the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago and the Siren Festival here in NYC. We were under the impression that 2007 would be the last Siren Festival at Coney Island, but it's 2008 now and Coney Island is still around for another summer.

Regardless of whether its the last Siren Festival or not, this year's show features a stellar lineup. I've mentioned some of the bands on this blog already, like The Dodos, Times New Viking, Beach House, The Helio Sequence and Stephen Malkmus. Dragons of Zynth, Parts & Labor, and the Annuals are also great bands. Parts & Labor's Mapmaker was my favorite album of last year. With so many great bands across two different stages, it's going to be hard to pick this year.

Pearl Jam - Black (Unplugged Version)

Pearl Jam - Black

I've been rediscovering a lot of tracks lately, from Wah-Wah to Books About UFOs, which in turn reminded me of this song. This version of Black is from Pearl Jam's MTV Unplugged session. Right around the 2:08 mark Eddie Vedder's voice just soars; that moment convinced me that this version was better than the original. MTV never released this show as an album, so I spent the next few months chasing this song. That means I had to:

1. Wait until MTV aired a rerun of Pearl Jam's MTV Unplugged
2. Quick grab a blank VHS tape and tape the show
3. Hold my tape player up to the TV replay the song while I record it

Tape player, VHS, I realize for some of those words may be foreign to you younger viewers. This was before MP3s, before the internet. Years later I found the track online, which is what I'm posting here. Music just means so much more when you have to work for it.

Hüsker-Dü - Books About UFOs

Hüsker-Dü - Books About UFOs

Many years ago, somewhere, somehow, I downloaded a bootleg version of Husker Du's Books About UFOs. This version was one of my favorite songs. I knew the original from New Day Rising, but something about this live version struck me as just better.

A few years after that, somewhere, somehow, I lost that mp3. I'm still not too sure how it happened. I may have accidentally deleted the file, or it got wiped during a reformat. I don't remember losing any other tracks, so that particular track may have been a freak occurrence. But I was crushed, especially since I had no idea where the live song was from.

Well just a few weeks ago, Warner Brother's rereleased Husker Du's live (and final) album The Living End. The entire album is a great recording; many of the songs reach if not exceed the heights set by the originals. And that's where I found the very same version of Books About UFOs! The album is only available off Amazon on CD, and I definitely was not paying for an iTunes DRM track, so I had to satisfy myself with the 30-second clips from Amazon until the CD arrived. It was great to solve this mystery after all these years.

Elvis Presley - Hound Dog

Elvis Presley - Hound Dog

So I've been phoning it in here over the last few days. With all the traveling I had last week, I just queued up a bunch of random tracks, which Blogger was then kind enough to post for me each day. Think of it like putting this blog on shuffle. But now I'm back and ready to return to a regular posting schedule.

The Go Team - Huddle Formation

The Go Team - Huddle Formation

Three Songs

Beat Happening - Teenage Caveman
Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI
The Who - Baba O'Riley

Its a weird pairing, in each of these songs, with the word "Teenage".

Ratatat - Wildcat

Ratatat - Wildcat

Tindersticks - Until The Morning Comes

Tindersticks - Until The Morning Comes

Cornershop - Sleep On The Left Side

Cornershop - Sleep On The Left Side

Ruby Suns - There Are Birds

Ruby Suns - There Are Birds

Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead

Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead

Jennifer Hudson - All Dressed In Love

Jennifer Hudson - All Dressed In Love

Jennifer Hudson is coming full circle to her American Idol beginnings, with songs on the soundtracks of both Dreamgirls and Sex In The City.

Sonic Youth - Bull In The Heather

Sonic Youth - Bull In The Heather

Sonic Youth is playing a free 4th of July show today. Honestly, I never cared for Sonic Youth; this is one of the few songs I enjoy.

R.E.M. - At My Most Beautiful

R.E.M. - At My Most Beautiful

The M's - Big Sound

The M's - Big Sound

The M's, out of Chicago, were another one of the bands to play at the recent Grand Archives/Centro-matic show.

My Morning Jacket - Wordless Chorus

My Morning Jacket - Wordless Chorus