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March 31, 2005
devin davis :: lonely people of the world, unite!
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queens of the stone age :: lullabies to paralyze
Good, but not as good as the pop songs on Songs For The Deaf or the art stretches of Rated R. I think they miss Nick Olivieri, but at any rate this is still one of the better heavy rock records around right now. (Erlewine calls it a masterpiece in AMG.)
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the bravery :: the bravery
Good, but not as good as the Strokes. Or even the Killers, who are getting a little defensive. Some decent singles here; some utter dreck. (Uncut gave it 5 stars.)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:46 PM | Comments (3)
March 29, 2005
m.i.a. :: arular
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that I don't need to say much myself.
I like this album a hell of a lot, although I wonder if the beats are as consistently genius as people make them out to be. They sure are jaw-dropping in places. I think the early single, "Galang", dominates the rest of this disc, and even though it is nearly ubiquitous by now, this blog assumes you haven't heard stuff yet. So it's one of the tracks we provide.
Galang (mp3)
Pull Up The People (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:06 PM | Comments (20)
March 28, 2005
preview :: bruce springsteen, teenage fanclub
A couple blogs tipped me off to some advance tracks of interest.
The title track from the new Boss album, Devils & Dust, through the thoroughly annoying AOL First Listen program: here. (beware: plugin downloads and ridiculous anti-copying voiceover)
Thanks to Stereogum for that one.
A tune from the forthcoming Teenage Fanclub album in the March 28th post at Scenestars (new blog to me - looks great).
I listened to each of these once and was underwhelmed by both, to tell you the truth.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:05 PM | Comments (1)
new releases 03.29.05
Thank fucking god. Only one must-grab disc this week . . . I was piqued by The Bravery, but I did some advance research & think I'll be holding off.
beck :: guero
the bravery :: the bravery
Next week it's back to average, with The Books, British Sea Power, and Hot Hot Heat.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2005
bloc party :: silent alarm
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Something glorious is about to happen! - "Positive Tension"
That something glorious is a new Borrowed Tunes #1. Backlash alert: the knock on Silent Alarm is going to be that it's too derivative, a third generation to the second generation of the Strokes, Interpols, Raptures, and Ferdinands.
But to me, it's the perfection of all that, and a little bit more. None of them have tried to shoot the moon like this. They're all too coy, too arch. Bloc Party set out to make a Giant Rock Record, and coincidentally happen to have some hip reference points. On this point, Pitchfork media has it exactly right.
Also, none of those other bands have a drummer half this good. What's here is an incredibly appealing combination of the angular and soaring elements of British music; if the Futureheads were Gang of Four crossed with XTC, Bloc Party is Gang of Four crossed with U2 (and, yes, Pitchfork has already written this as well). There's also a ton of Fugazi, to my ears.
I'm willing to say that even as Bloc Party gives me everything I couldn't get from the Strokes, Interpol, Rapture, and Ferdinand, they also give me what I can't get from U2.
I haven't listened to a record 5 times in a row since Slanted & Enchanted, I don't think. I scoured lists of the most notable music made since 2000 as this disc began to sink in, and right now I think this isn't just the best record of the year; it sounds like the best of the decade. It's kind of a shame that a disc so obviously referential (and reverent) would hold that honor, but such is the age we live in.
Dissenting viewpoint here, and I like the Guardian's taste in general.
Another file is available for download in the sidebar at Salon's Audiofile. The tracks below have been blogged a lot already, but whatever.
Positive Tension (mp3)
Banquet (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 07:41 PM | Comments (2820) | TrackBack
keren ann :: nolita
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I, and probably a lot of other people who pay attention to music writing, have Sasha Frere-Jones to thank for introducing me to Keren Ann. It hasn't been a life-changing experience, but she does make a pretty delicious, mysterious variety of polite coffeehouse music. It seems like S F-J, who is now the chief pop music critic for the New Yorker, has been working to singlehandedly introduce her to a broader American audience, especially through this article, which contained a hilarious deconstruction of her appeal:
Keren Ann’s music is like that view: a cliché stood up straight and done so well that you remember why it became a cliché. Every college student who feels a little sad and sits down with an acoustic guitar to summon beauty and form hopes, whether or not she knows it, to come up with one of Keren Ann’s songs. This, unfortunately, is not what usually happens. Right now, at a café somewhere, a guitar player is pouring out his acoustic vision in front of helpless diners who, bereft of legal protection, are silently praying for the robots to take over. Keren Ann doesn’t make you wish for these things.
His push coincided with her decision to move away from singing entirely in French, as on her first two albums, and begin writing most of her lyrics in English. You wouldn't know it's not her first language.
I haven't heard those first two French discs; I started with Not Going Anyhwere, which was S F-J's top full-length of 2004. It was a deeply simple, lulling set of songs that plowed a straight-and-narrow melodic path - which is far too uncommon in intelligent folk-based music these days. It didn't make my own top 10 - or even 20 - but it was a disc to remember.
Nolita is, for lack of any other way to describe it, more sophisticated - which helps and hurts it. There are a lot more production atmospherics, and the songs are far more uneasy and cosmopolitan (and not just because there are several in French). The melodies and chord progressions often twist unexpectedly, as if they take more from the traditional music of Continental regions. In a way, there's a langorousness that belongs more in a sidewalk café than on a picnic blanket by a lake.
This is also the 798th soft, sophisticated record that will be compared to the self-titled The Velvet Underground LP, but a standard is a standard. We can also roll out the old Opal/Kendra Smith connection.
Sasha Frere-Jones has this disc at number 2 in his 2005 list. She gets a #10 nod from us, and probably won't survive the 20 by end of year. But, again, it'll be a disc to remember. And I'd put "L'Onde Amère" in a very short list of my favorite songs so far. I'm a sucker for that minor-major key change.
In addition to our offerings, there's another track at Salon's Audiofile blog. You need to get one of those free passes to get it.
L'Onde Amère (mp3)
The Greatest You Can Find (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 07:00 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
March 26, 2005
jukeblog :: mp3 blog recommender
Jukeblog is a mp3 blog recommendation engine that is a promising potential way to find and develop a stable of blogs to read regularly. I haven't rated enough items to get recommendations, but it's thrown some really interesting posts at me to rate.
(Also, hello to the people who get this post to rate in the engine. Circular reference hell!)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 07:59 PM | Comments (7)
March 25, 2005
live dates: lcd soundsystem + m.i.a.
Allow me to be one of the 47,000 bloggers who will soon be salivating over an apparent joint tour between LCD Soundsystem and M.I.A. - a Borrowed Tunes top 10 fest (well, we haven't gotten to the M.I.A. yet, but we've heard enough to speculate).
There is a June 9th date reported
I can't find any dates at Pollstar or on artist websites. Scour your usual sources in your own cities for advance word.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:35 AM | Comments (1)
March 24, 2005
nils økland :: bris
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Borrowed Tunes hopes to become the official blog of Rune Grammofon records, a label that has singlehandedly thrust Norway's experimental music community to the forefront of world regional scenes. Germany has its microhouse and minimal techno, Canada has the Tragically Hip; Norway has a bunch of people making staggeringly beautiful music in unlikely formations.
Nils Økland is a virtuoso of the Hardanger fiddle, sometimes called the national instrument of Norway, and the principal accompaniment to liturgical music in traditional Norwegian culture. It's played in a similar way to the American country fiddle - that is to say by sawing out double-stopped chords and moving a melody over a repeated or droned pedal note - but at half or quarter speed. The fiddle has extra resonant strings that give it an eerie, brassy quality not entirely dissimilar to the tone (if not the feel) of a National steel guitar. Nils is also given credit for playing a viola d'amore, which appears to be an Italian variation on the resonant-stringed Hardanger.
On Bris, his third album (and the first I've heard), Økland moves from folk-inspired solo Hardanger pieces to ambient ensemble tracks where the fiddle's resonance blends with a breathy harmonium (a simple squeezebox instrument), double bass and abstract percussion. These bring the most arresting moments on the album, gorgeously lonesome, organic and crystalline, ice blue and deeply peaceful as the instruments swell and ebb together. The melodies, such as they exist, are modal - they make sense, but eerily so as they rely on scales shifted off of familiar centers.
Soon, we'll review an entirely different Rune Grammofon release by the confrontational outfit Shining; you'll need these serene tracks after a dose of their mayhem.
Bris (mp3)
Avminnast (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:42 PM | Comments (60) | TrackBack
uncut magazine :: april 2005
The Band cover Uncut's April issue, with a main biographical feature in the run-up to this fall's big box set. The issue's CD is interesting - a collection of music by or inspired by The Band that ranges from Little Feat to Mercury Rev and Sufjan Stevens. I know about half of the songs on it, and it seems like a pretty nice compilation.
The story on the Band is thorough as well - it's a great synopsis of the gestation and glory years of the Band, and really illuminates how radical their sound came across even to their peers - apparently, Eric Clapton broke up Cream as a direct result of hearing The Basement Tapes and Music From Big Pink, and then actually showed up in Woodstock to try to join as a 2nd guitarist.
Coincidentally, there is a short story on the formation of Cream - a small education in the early English rock scene - in anticipation of their summer reunion tour.
There are also excellent features on two parts of British music about which I am woefully underinformed: Postcard Records and Scritti Politti. Postcard (key bands: Orange Juice, Aztec Camera) was the first label to push the kind of reactionary post-punk jangle-pop that has come to define an entire school of indie rock; it's tough to imagine The Smiths existing without the 12 discs that Postcard put out in its brief existence. I must admit to only glancing knowledge of this stuff, and it's a subject for serious research.
Simon Reynolds' article on Scritti Politti makes me want to pick up the new compilation of their first art-punk sides, Early, since I only remember them as a synth-pop band from my teenage years in England.
5-star reviews
Tom Russell :: Hotwalker
Annie :: Anniemal
The Bravery :: The Bravery
Judee Sill :: Heart Food (reissue)
Brian Eno :: Music For Films (reissue)
Basement Jaxx :: The Singles (compilation)
The Fall :: The Complete Peel Sessions (box set)
4-star reviews
Rufus Wainwright :: Want Two
Alasdair Roberts :: No Earthly Man
Queens of the Stone Age :: Lullabies to Paralyze
Marissa Nadler :: Ballads of Living and Dying
Daft Punk :: Human After All
Beck :: Guero
The Necks :: Mosquito/See Through
Asian Dub Foundation :: Tank
Black Mountain :: Black Mountain
Alex Smoke :: Incommunicado
Out Hud :: Let Us Never Speak of it Again
Antony and the Johnsons :: I Am a Bird Now
Kaiser Chiefs :: Employment
Iron & Wine :: Woman King
Seasick Steve & the Level Devils :: Cheap
Kathleen Edwards :: Back To Me
Brendan Benson :: The Alternative To Love
Lil' Jon & the East Side Boyz :: Crunk Juice
Vic Chesnutt :: Ghetto Bells
John Doe :: Forever Hasn't Happened Yet
Duran Duran Duran :: Very Pleasure
Mark Mulcahy :: In Pursuit Of Your Happiness
Tons of 4-star reissues. Highlights include the second round of Eno ambient remasters (Films, Apollo, Thursday Afternoon), Os Mutantes, John Renbourn, and more.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:40 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
stars :: set yourself on fire
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When I first read the term "emo", I thought it referred to the kind of music that Stars make: sentimental, bittersweet, heartstring-tugging precious inde-pop. I was wrong, but this kind of music deserves that sort of name for the way it's aimed straight at the weak spots in your heart. They didn't name their last record after the ol' ticker for nothing.
This is very difficult music to make the right way, and Stars show how to do it. Working with lyrics that need perfect phrasing and rich sonic detail to play out against, they rarely let a phrase fall flat or a song lapse into pure melodrama. When tunes threaten to become too earnest, they're generally saved by a gorgeous break or musical release. Some of the songs work simply, like the beautiful anti-war track "Celebration Guns". The full spectrum of instrumentation, from strings and horns through to electronics, is deployed in ways that support each song to its best end.
The record isn't for everyone; its slight update on 90s bliss-pop, squaring Lush, My Bloody Valentine, Sarah Records, and Belle & Sebastian, simply won't rock hard enough for a large contingent. It doesn't succeed wholesale - "What I'm Trying To Say", for example, is too mannered for its own good. For the most part, though, this is one to remember. And, if you end up loving it, go back to Heart - it set the stage for this one by being almost as good.
Critics are almost universally raving about this disc; I haven't seen a negative review yet, and it may end up in many top 10s. We'll see how it survives its initial #6 position in the Borrowed Tunes Top 20.
Besides the mp3s we present, a low-quality but full-length version of "Ageless Beauty" plays at the band's Web site.
Reunion (mp3)
One More Night (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 12:18 AM | Comments (694) | TrackBack
March 23, 2005
andrew bird
Borrowed Tunes is going in fits and starts this week with a busy travel schedule. To tide you over before a bunch of reviews in the works, I thought I'd briefly mention that I've been listening a lot to the Andrew Bird disc, The Mysterious Production Of Eggs, and it's really growing on me as a kind of kitchen-sink roots-pop disc chock full of interesting ideas.
Conicidentally, Pitchfork made its best track available for download last Friday. Check it out here.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 12:29 AM | Comments (357)
March 21, 2005
new releases 03.22.05
The biggest week of the year for my credit card is here. I fully expect at least three, and up to five, top10 entries from this crop. Take a deep breath:
M.I.A. :: Arular
Bloc Party :: Silent Alarm (Brit hype band of the year so far)
Queens Of The Stone Age :: Lullabies to Paralyze
Out Hud :: Let Us Never Speak Of It Again
Decemberists :: Picaresque
Prefuse 73 :: Surrounded By Silence
Vic Chestnutt :: Ghetto Bells
Radar Bros. :: The Fallen Leaf Pages
John Doe :: Forever Hasn't Happened Yet
MF Doom :: Live From Planet X
Dinosaur Jr. :: Dinosaur Jr. (remastered/extra tracks)
Dinosaur Jr. :: You're Living All Over Me (remastered/extra tracks)
Dinosaur Jr. :: Bug (remastered/extra tracks)
Yo La Tengo :: A Smattering Of Scintiallating Scenescent Songs 1985 -2003 (compilation)
Moby :: Hotel (for the record, I'm not buying this one)
Next week: Beck, The Bravery (UK hype band that's actually from NYC, as sometimes happens), and maybe not much else. I hope.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 08:47 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
March 20, 2005
preview :: devin davis
Several of our favorite blogs are already on top of this, but a little bandwagoneering won't hurt Devin Davis, who seems to have a little gem of a power-pop record in Lonely People of the World, Unite!. There are 4 mp3s floating around the Web which have us salivating in anticipation of the copy we've ordered from the Web site as none of Borrowed Tunes' suppliers have it yet. These are expansive, exuberant, ragged songs that combine the headlong rush of Bruce Springsteen and early Replacements with a more orchestrated pop sensibility and innocent melodicism. They're over too soon, and we can't wait to hear more.
(Thanks to Music For Robots for the original tip)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2005
soul roundup :: sharon jones + dap-kings, al green, solomon burke, baby huey
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The last few weeks have seen the release of several soul albums of interest - one by a fairly new force, two by old masters, and a reissue of a lost classic.
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings :: Naturally
It's the new kid on the block that comes out far on top. With their second album, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings have made one of the geniunely great records of the early year, and one that risks being criminally ignored as a minor genre exercise. Take my word: this isn't copyist revivalism. This is a soul/funk record that stands tall with any of its kin outside of the canonical core, and deserves a listen by any but the most postmodern music fan.
Chugging, clucking, chucking hard funk is the sound, recorded with mindboggling old-style warmth and authenticity; there must have incredible care taken to use original recording equipment - especially the early forms of reverb - and the results glow. The Dap-Kings are the kind of instinctively tight outfit that could be effectively recorded with one microphone in a shed; Gabriel Roth's pure love of sonic detail illuminates them perfectly.
Sharon Jones is one hell of a singer; the entire album is a vocal tour de force. Her very best moments come when she streteches out: the duet with "Little J.B." Lee Fields, "Stranded In Your Love", and the stupefying cover of "This Land Is Your Land". In her hands, the Woody Guthrie populist ballad is overtaken by a pair of consumed lovers as a declaration of sexual omnipotence.
The only thing left to do is see the Dap-Kings in person; replenish fluids regularly.
The Reverend Al Green :: Everything's OK
Al Green and Solomon Burke both issued excellent comeback discs in the past few years; they've kept right on going with their careers this year, with mixed results. In 2003, Al Green reunited with Willie Mitchell, the producer of his classic 70s discs, along with many of the original musicians (including drummer Steve Potts) to make I Can't Stop, which came very, very close to recapturing the magic. It simply didn't have quite enough strong songs to keep up - though it had plenty enough to make for a fine listen.
Everything's OK is the same cast of characters working the same sophisticated groove, and it may even have one or two more songs that stand on their own. However, without the novelty of comeback circumstances, its appeal will be limited to those who were left wanting more after I Can't Stop, or serious Al Green followers. Just like the last one, it's enjoyable all the way through, and it features some dazzling vocal performances - perhaps a notch up this time around. Unfortunately, I find the production a bit too crisp and urban; it was probably a conscious decision on the part of Willie Mitchell and Al to try a step forward, but the sound ends up less distinctive - except where Al simply overpowers tunes with his vocals, as on "Real Love".
You could do far worse, and if you're a particular fan of Al Green by all means pick this up.
Solomon Burke :: Make Do With What You Got
Solmon Burke's version of the comeback, Don't Give Up On Me was a beautifully smoky Joe Henry production featuring songs written specifically for the occasion by the likes of Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, along Messrs. Dylan and Morrison. It was one of the 5 best records of 2002.
Sadly, this new disc's title is a little too apropos. He's saddled with a producer - the inexplicably omnipresent Don Was - who has none of the talent for shaping and coaxing performances that Joe Henry does, choosing instead to set the controls for a homogenous, overcompressed sound. He's picked a batch of songs from the classic racks and has turned in what amounts to a mediocre soul covers record. There's a misreading of Dylan's "What Good Am I" (from Oh Mercy) as a popcorn Meters-funk tune. The Band's devastating "It Makes No Difference" and the Stones' "I Got The Blues" are songs it would be impossible to mangle, and they're fine here. Most other tunes are unremarkable. Mr. Burke's pipes also appear to have weakened a bit with the years (which brings him within range of mere mortals, but still in first class).
There is one out-and-out winner here: the little-known "Let Somebody Love Me". And, guitarists take note: Ray Parker Jr. gives a master class in soul comping all the way through.
Baby Huey :: Living Legend/The Baby Huey Story
Baby Huey is making a comeback from the grave with this CD issue of his only album (and I'm not sure if this is the first reissue or not). Huey, a quite large man with a even larger Afro, died at the age of 26 in drug-related circumstances. Had he the chance to keep making records, he might have been able to realize the potential of this rather scattered collection of stoner funk impresario-ed by Curtis Mayfield, whose touch is all over the record.
There's a reason this recording survives: the first track, "Listen To Me", belongs on any and every compilation of top-shelf psych-groove. It features all sorts of mayhem; you can hear the tape disintegrating as it tries to accomodate the
relentless burn. Even if I rarely spin the rest of the tracks, this one tune is a crucial discovery.
Otherwise, there's a bongsmoke version of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Going To Come", with a gloriously unhinged vocal. Left over are some instrumentals and Curtis Mayfield covers which are largely unremarkable but undoubtedly prized by rare groove hunters and samplists.
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings :: How Do You Let a Good Man Down? (mp3)
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings :: This Land Is Your Land (mp3)
Al Green :: Everything's OK (mp3)
Al Green :: Real Love (mp3)
Solomon Burke :: Let Somebody Love Me (mp3)
Baby Huey :: Listen To Me (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:01 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
March 17, 2005
the soundtrack of our lives :: origin, vol. 1
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Gentle readers, I think we are confronted with the sound of a band moving in the wrong direction. There's plenty of good on Origin, Vol. 1, but the bad stuff speaks ill of the future. I'm a little bit worried we have a case of the AC/DC rule here: I firmly believe that Acca-Dacca lost it precisely at the beginning of side 2 of For Those About to Rock, literally in mid-album. This new TSOOL runs out of gas around track 6, and they may never be back as we knew them. Good news! Origin Vol. 1 is apparently the first in a planned trilogy!
I'm going to resist the temptation to spend this entire review poking fun at the lyrics on this disc. These poor Swedes have chosen a cleaner production and a slightly poppier sound - which has pushed the vocals out front and resulted in a feast of howlers, dead rhymes, and doggerel.
Now, you'll throw this platter in (or load up the couple of choice cuts below) and call me wrong for over 20 minutes. You'll say the bland opener is a forgivable prologue and submit the "Pinball Wizard"-copping "Transcendental Suicide" as evidence for the rock and roll defense. "Big Time" is some sort of motorik Judas Priest/Deep Purple wonder. "Heading For A Breakdown" is a 60s psych-pop handclapper, complete with the "For What It's Worth" guitar chime. "One Track Mind" is a blazing Stooges riff with a Liam Gallagher vocal - I think there's an Oasis melodic sensibility of the good, "Supersonic" variety running throughout this disc.
"Midnight Children" is where it all comes apart. TSOOL is, like many backward-looking bands, at best a celebration and at worst a shtick. From its title to its lyrics to the rote backwards-guitar stonerisms and flat delivery, this tune is an uninentional parody. Midnight children got not place to stay/Midnight children don't care if you're straight or gay. Well, alright then.
From there, the album is a collection of ripped riffs and half-decent, partly-owned ideas that can't transcend their clichébound structures. "Royal Explosion (Part II)" is a late glimmer of hope, another Detroit protopunk burner. Then there's the accurately named "Wheels Of Boredom". The last track before the bonus section tries very hard to be a winner but can't quite get off the ground depsite some well-placed Farfisa organ and Queen-style phaser sweeps.
I did see this band live earlier in the year, playing many of these songs, and they melted the club down. So all hope may not be lost. But other people are even more harshly disappointed - see what the I Love Music crowd is saying. The good news in there is that a set of Union Carbide Productions reissues coming for those interested in historical research - and rocking without compromise.
This album has its lovers. Mojo Magazine raves: Breathtaking moments, brilliant tunes, and Breakdown, a genuinely Beatles-league pop hit. Uncut says Majestic, life-affirming and touched by magic.
And then there's Thom Jurek in the All Music Guide, who never met a record that didn't change his fucking world:
TSOOL has arrived after a decade of carefully and meticulously crafting a passionate and compelling rock music that incorporates everything it finds genuine and necessary in pursuit of a music and lyricism that powerfully and beautifully articulates that which is less than obvious.
"A passionate and compelling rock music"? Thom will be providing us with lots of enjoyment in the future.
Enjoy the good parts.
Transcendental Suicide (mp3)
Heading For A Breakdown (mp3)
p.s. Don't get me started on new discs that have "bonus tracks". Did the band not want to take ownership of these b-side quality songs? Are you supposed to pull the disc out after track 12, turn around 3 times, caibrate your taste-o-meter to bonus setting and listen to the last 2? WTF?
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:14 PM | Comments (48) | TrackBack
March 16, 2005
q magazine :: april 2005
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Continuing our updates of new music magazine issues . . . it's the UK's big alternarag, Q.
Both Q and its cooler sister Mojo are running Ian Curtis (Joy Division) biography features. I haven't had the time to thoroughly read either of them.
Nothing much else notable in the features - Q is really about lots of lists and reviews. This month's big list is the "Ultimate Music Collection", a list of over 400 albums and singles, segregated by genre, that you apparently must own. There are also a few lists of 20 favorites from various alterna-heroes . . . we find out that Johnny Borrell of Razorlight has an unexpected taste for smoky cabaret, lounge, and jazz music running from Ella Fitzgerald through Tom Waits and Nick Cave to Edith Piaf. Jeff Tweedy thinks Loaded is the best Velvet Underground record (I think Loaded is unfairly maligned, myself). Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand picks a Fall track from Slates, which is a small shock.
You get to tick little boxes next to each album/song and find out how cool Q thinks you are. I was too frightened to follow through.
5-star reviews
None
4-star reviews
Queens Of The Stone Age :: Lullabies to Paralyze
The Bravery :: The Bravery
Antony And The Johnsons :: I am a Bird Now
Engineers :: Engineers
Martha Wainwright :: Martha Wainwright
Nagisa Ni Te :: Dream Sounds
Patrick Wolf :: Wind In The Wires
Brendan Benson :: The Alternative To Love
The Arcade Fire :: Funeral (just hitting English shores)
Tarwater :: The Needle Was Traveling
Rolling Stones :: Singles 1968-1971 (compilation)
Basement Jaxx :: The Singles (compilation + 2 new tracks)
Brian Eno :: Music For Films (remaster)
Brian Eno :: Apollo (remaster)
Funkadelic :: The Whole Funk & Nothing But The Funk (compilation)
Bunny 'Striker' Lee :: The Bunny 'Striker' Lee Story (compilation)
Nine Inch Nails :: The Downward Spiral (remastered + expanded)
Various :: Soft Rock Anthems (compilation)
Various :: Soul Gospel (compilation)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:50 PM | Comments (2088) | TrackBack
March 15, 2005
robert christgau consumer guide 03.15.05
Christgau's latest consumer guide notables:
Clem Snide gets an A-. Good enough.
Clinic's album of last summer, Winchester Cathedral, also gets an A-. It seemed like a solid B to me. I love how Xgau gets to records almost a year after the initial flurry of reviews is over and reminds you to take a fresh look.
He points out - as usual - some world/other music we should be checking out via a couple of new Rough Guide CDs: Astor Piazzola, the towering tangoist (an A), and Boogaloo, a New York brew of soul salsa.
Rufus Wainwright's Want Two is ripped with a B-. I thought this was an excellent disc.
And he finally gets around to the Scissor Sisters, giving them an appropriate B+ and pointing out that the record flattens a bit after the initial burst of tunes.
In all, a fairly tame Consumer Guide without as much acidity as we're used to.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:16 PM | Comments (66) | TrackBack
top 40 watch :: amerie
Hoo baby. There's a new radio hit on Borrowed Tunes repeat, and it's going to be damn hard to kick off the top. It's Amerie's "1 Thing", and it features pretty much the sickest "Apache"-bongo breakbeat I've heard in, like, forever. The vocal is just a series of stock playground hooks, which is the part of the point: you can hum whatever you want over this track. A chorus of bleating goats or even the Kings Of Leon dude wouldn't spoil it.
Note how the beat is chopped apart by the chord stabs at first, and then starts flowing through them to make the song open up. It takes a few spins to figure out how you're drawn in.
Note: we're stretching the definition of top 40 here. The tune is currently sitting at #46 in the Billboard Hot 100. It seems to have stalled there, actually.
Good news: her web site is streaming the song in listenable quality right now:
1 Thing (Windows Media Player 100K)
1 Thing (Quicktime)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:52 PM | Comments (466) | TrackBack
March 14, 2005
new raveonettes @ mystical beast
The Mystical Beast, an excellent mp3 blog, has stuff from the new Raveonettes record. I found their 2nd disc to be improbably good after a debut that hinged on a lot of style and one good trick (although they were honest about it). If this new offering is another leap forward, I'll be stunned.
I'm not entirely sold on the tracks that Mystical provides (one of which is a cover), but there's definitely a more sophisticated thing going on (and the Luna comparison is right on). Looking forward to hearing it all in May.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:39 PM | Comments (2483) | TrackBack
new releases 03.15.04
I thought it was going to be a relatively light week on the wallet, but as always some releases escaped my radar until now. God knows how this blog is going to keep up. We're past a full week behind on reviews already.
Devin Davis: Lonely People Of The World Unite (this could be one of the real sleepers of early '05. Straight guitar pop.)
Daft Punk (first reviews were bad, some good notices coming out this week)
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives
Keren Ann
Loves' A Real Thing (psychedelic afro-funk . . . Luaka Bop compilation)
United State Of Electronica reissue w/remixes
Everything But The Girl: 10 Years Of Remixes
Next week, further bankruptcy . . . Bloc Party, Vic Chesnutt, M.I.A., Decemberists, Out Hud, Prefuse 73, Queens Of The Stone Age . . . are you kidding me?
The following week looks like a break. I hope.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:21 PM | Comments (57) | TrackBack
March 13, 2005
miles/not miles
When you're a serious music fan (or, even worse, a musician), it can spoil movie scenes and even entire flicks. In Michael Mann's thriller Collateral, which I watched last night, there's a scene where the main characters drop into a jazz club. My ears perked up as the strains of "Spanish Key" from Miles Davis' Bitches Brew crashed through the soundtrack. It was ostensibly being played by the standard-issue jazz combo on stage.
Fact check:
Bitches Brew features electric piano, electric bass, and electric guitar. The camera showed a regular piano and a stand-up bass. No guitar.
The soundtrack played a good part of the alto sax solo by Wayne Shorter. There wasn't a sax on stage.
One of the real innovations of Bitches Brew was the use of two drummers simultaneously. There was only one on stage (though it was impossible to verify whether the drummer had 4 arms).
However, the bandleader's dialogue after closing the "show" involved some goofy story about Miles dropping by the club years ago. I suppose that makes it all OK.
For the heck of it, here's "Spanish Key" from Bitches Brew and, of course, the Collateral Original Soundtrack. It always sounds as fresh as the first day I heard it. (It's a big download.)
Spanish Key (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 07:07 PM | Comments (2439) | TrackBack
the wire radio
As a follow-on to our first coverage of The Wire magazine, here's an amazing resource: single mp3 downloads of the weekly new music radio show hosted/sponsored by The Wire on London's Resonance 104.4 FM, "London's first radio art station". You can stream the station any time from the link.
The Wire Presents Adventures In Modern Music (mp3s)
(Kids, I think they call these podcasts nowadays, or something like that)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 06:48 PM | Comments (2224) | TrackBack
the wire :: march 2005
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This marks the beginning of a new feature on Borrowed Tunes: synopses of new issues of our favorite music magazines. Here, we start with the new issue of The Wire, the world's pre-eminent out-there music periodical (it is to magazines what New York's Other Music, SF's Aquarius Records, and Boston's Twisted Village are to record shops).
Highlight: Rob Young's interview/career overview with Bill Fay, who proves the case that there are unending 70s music treasures still to be unearthed. You'll be reading our take on Bill Fay soon, as there are some more reisssues coming after last year's stunning release of From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock.
Also worth noting is Hua Hsu's interview with MF Doom, the full transcript of which can be found here. It's heavy on Doom's personal and early musical history, light on insight into current projects.
There's a piece on Japan's longest running and most notorious all-vomiting noise unit, Hijokaidan. No thanks, but if you're curious, there's some mp3 action here.
A short piece on M Ward gives some background to his latest disc, reviewed here.
Spotlight reviews:
Konono No. 1 Congotronics
Archives GRM (musique concrète box set)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 06:33 PM | Comments (2390) | TrackBack
March 10, 2005
apparat :: silizium ep
Just a quick word about Apparat, from the excellently named Shitkatapult records. He operates in that beautiful vein of electro-organic technopop along with people like the Junior Boys and even the Notwist, although his music is more contemplative and complex than either of those groups. His new EP is almost flawless, consisting of 5 songs recorded for a Peel Session plus 4 remixes. One of the remixes, by Telefon Tel Aviv, is so stunning that I'm going directly to their catalogue.
Coincidentally, I'm glad to be able to point you back to Music For Robots for more words and another track after not providing any love re: the Ted Leo cover they posted yesterday. Finally, the Apparat site has a full-length live performance that I haven't been able to listen to completely, but it sounds more instrumental and purely electronic than the material on Silizium. (It's only 96 kpbs for quality nerds like me.)
Komponent (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
ted leo vs. american idol
Music For Robots has posted a Ted Leo acoustic version of a recent Borrowed Tunes Top 40 watch callout: Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" (got the noveau spelling down this time). He also sticks a bit of Yeah Yeah Yeahs action in for whatever reason.
I love Ted Leo.
I really like this song.
However, this is crap. It features none of the good aspects of either component, singer or song.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2005
kathleen edwards :: back to me + josh rouse :: nashville
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Two fine American roots-rock records have been released in the past couple of weeks, and they're interesting to compare directly. For me, the key phrase is "emotional authenticity", of which Kathleen Edwards has far more than Josh Rouse.
The touchstones are fairly clear and traditional. Edwards is a female folkie in motorcycle boots - a languid, gorgeous melodic sensibility run through the Tom Petty soundbox; a simpler, no less intense Lucinda Williams (I'm frustrated with the easy female roots-rocker = Lucinda comparison, but she really did blaze a trail). Rouse is a sensitive songwriter rifling through the polite, intelligent 70s catalogue - it's no conidence his last disc was called 1972 (and I haven't heard it). Fans of Ryan Adams' Gold will be pleased with his approach - for better or worse.
For all of Rouse's gifts as a songwriter, I can't help feeling like the tunes are pitched as yuppie fashion accessories, Gap ad hopefuls. They're shiny, not deep. There are questionable references - such as a direct Smiths pinch that's incongruously set in the Hamptons, and that Journey "streetlight people" thing. Lyrically, we're in "happy on the outside/she keeps frowning on the inside" territory - not exactly illuminating.
For Kathleen Edwards, it's as simple as "this is your life/I get copied keys" - an entire scene exposed in a line. Where Rouse is copying poems into purple letters, Edwards is writing lurid screeds to her exes. She's the mysteriously cute intellectual shy girl in high school who you later discover had a shocking and devastating taste for biker dropouts; Rouse is the guy who wrote Indigo Girls quotes into yearbooks with an ulterior motive . . . you get the sense he's using his musical acumen for shady purposes. Still, he's got an easy way with the plainer things.
There isn't a lot of writing to link to out there on either of these . . . the British press is generally loving Nashville as can be expected, while I generally agree with Pitchfork's take via Marc Hogan, saying the disc is always pleasant, if unexceptional. Though I do think the songs are strong enough to warrant a slightly higher rating. On Kathleen Edwards, read the ever-reliable Mark Deming of the All Music Guide, who is probably my favorite writer on straight American music: an artist who is quickly establishing herself as a major talent.
Each disc has their its place, and you should make your own judgement. In the end, the chick rocks harder and feels deeper than the dude. Oh, and "Summerlong" has the best 12-string guitar hook that Steve Earle never wrote.
Kathleen Edwards: Summerlong (mp3)
Kathleen Edwards: Copied Keys (mp3)
Josh Rouse: Streetlights (mp3)
Josh Rouse: My Love Has Gone (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:45 PM | Comments (28) | TrackBack
March 08, 2005
the top 20 is full - one in, one out
the borrowed tunes running 2005 top 20 is finally full, which means that the next disc to enter must be better than the Kings of Leon. I can tell you that 3 disc reviews are being prepped that will meet that lowly criterion; indeed, they are better than the entire bottom 3 in the list. Mary Gauthier, Lemon Jelly, and Kings: so long, it's been good to know you.
More to come. We will now officially cease crapping on the Kings Of Leon, at least for a week.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:50 PM | Comments (2)
filter magazine to go
This is weird: the very decent Filter Magazine has created a "to-go" mini-version available via pdf here. It's got plenty of interesting content and a bunch of reviews (even if they use an idiotic 0-100% score where nearly everything is in the 80s). But why don't they make an HTML version? Seems like willful craziness on the part of hard copy snobs at the magazine. Home printing is killing music.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:44 PM | Comments (9)
borrow tunes from sxsw via bittorrent guilt-free
Thanks to my friend Rich for the tip from Wired magazine below. A giant file of free SXSW tunes via BitTorrent, and an interesting iPod application. SXSW is a giant music festival/industry schmoozathon in Austin. BitTorrent is a way to share files among kind individuals. A decent guide to BitTorrenting is here. Azureus is the best client.
Anyway, here's the article in Wired.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:37 PM | Comments (7)
March 07, 2005
quick takes :: iron & wine, robbers on high street
iron & wine :: woman king EP (buy)
More winners from Iron & Wine, who haven't recorded a bad tune yet in my book (except possibly for their cover of that Postal Service song used in Garden State. These tunes - all about mythic women - continue where they left off on Borrowed Tunes' #7 disc of 2004, Our Endless Numbered Days. But the key word is "continue" - there is a slight clockwise turn of the dial, with grooved polyrhythm in places, fuzz bass and crunch guitar poking through in others. The title track, a chugging lullaby, is Crosby, Stills, and Nash meeting Califone or their predecessors Red Red Meat. That swampgrass approach is the dominant theme of the 6 songs here, but, to my taste, the best tune here is the more folky, early-I&W-sounding Jezebel. It's one of the 3 or 4 best Sam Beam has done. Jezebel (mp3)
(Note: EPs are not eligible for the running top 20 - if they were, this would be in the top 10)
robbers on high street :: tree city (buy)
Robbers On High Street put out an EP in 2004 (or was it 2003?) that sounded exactly like Spoon - but, if you're like me, you'd rather a band imitate Spoon than pretty much anybody else. It whetted my appetite for a more mature, wholly-owned sound.
That sound is the sound of watered-down 2000s college rock - a competent collection of multi-influence tunes with a put-on New York post-punk swagger. The Spoon influence is still there, but only in places. I wish they went back to their days as a tribute band, but some might find a handful of keepers here. A possible example: Amanda Green (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:11 PM | Comments (193) | TrackBack
new releases 03.08.04
This Tuesday is a bit lighter than the last couple:
Stars :: Set Yourself On Fire (indie pop from the Broken Social Scene scene)
Kid Koala :: Live From The Short Attention Span Audio Theater (CD + DVD - saw this live show & it was terrific)
Deana Carter :: The Story Of My Life (modern country stuff; like what I've read about this)
soon, I'm going to order 3 new releases on the terrific Norwegian experimental label, Rune Grammofon: Alog, Nils Okland, and Shining. They're detailed in this weekly update from my source for out-there music, Other Music.
the Kills and Sam Prekop also have discs out, but I'm not going to make the purchsase.
Next week's up-and comers:
Daft Punk (advance word: not good)
Kaiser Chiefs (British hype band)
The Sountrack Of Our Lives
then, March 22nd is a MASSIVE week with M.I.A., Decemberists, Out Hud, Prefuse 73, and Queens Of The Stone Age all dropping.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:34 PM | Comments (82) | TrackBack
March 06, 2005
more hating on kings of leon
Hilarious article by Dylan Hicks in the Mpls. City Pages, ripping the Kings of Leon perhaps even harder than our recent review.
Aha Shake Heartbreak (RCA) serves up less Dixie and more NYC than the Kings' more boogie-ish and also shitty debut full-length Youth & Young Manhood.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 12:20 PM | Comments (16)
March 05, 2005
doves :: some cities
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Here it is: a new #1 for the Borrowed Tunes 2005 Top 20. The Doves present the most complete and satisfying rock record of the year so far in Some Cities. It careens all over the map of big British rock and pop while forging a new blend - one that was hinted at in their excellent The Last Broadcast, which was a warning shot for those paying attention.
The Radiohead comparisons fly when any kind of inventive Britrock appears on the scene, but the truth is this is a much warmer disc than anything the 'head would create. Sure, Yorke, Greenwood, and Godrich cleared the path for some of the production tricks used here, but otherwise the touchstones are much wider in scope. Jimi Goodwin sings like a silken combination of the Swervedriver guy and Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears - and if you don't admit that the stamp of TFF and the New Romatics from the mid-80s isn't all over the vogue vocal style of today's alt-Brits, you're in denial. If Swervedriver was your great hope for modern music for a time, as was the case with me, there's no doubt you'd enjoy a spin through these swirling, cinematic tunes. They're better than any Swervedriver record by a good margin.
Each song here holds more than one surprise, and most have several. The sounds close in and open out, move in haze and shine, from brash to coy, all within the 4 or 5 minutes that songs last. Most noticeable are the drum sounds, which are generally way out front, martial and stark, marking a stomping Motown beat; more than once, they're radically treated, dropped back or spread out to mark a song's turning point. It's welcome every time.
The pleasures are countless, from the swooping signature that crowns the second track, "Black And White Town", to the chopping and looping of a Ryuichi Sakamoto string piece to announce "The Storm", to the Angelo Badalamenti lullaby ending of "Ambition".
The lyrical topic is, in general, the personal relationships we develop with and within cities, and how transformations of place can be as profoundly meaningful as the changes of our loved ones. Specifically, it's about Manchester and its fading glory.
The producer is Ben Hillier, who was responsible for the gorgeous sound Borrowed Tunes' #3 record of 2004, Elbow's Cast Of Thousands. I guess we like his approach.
Some reviewers have felt that the Doves' songwriting is weak, and Johnny Sharp in particular, writing in Mojo magazine, isn't happy with the radical drum sounds I noted above:
. . . a snapping, metronome beat is used on no less than six of the 11 tracks . . . sadly, the songs are less noticeable than the urge to strangle the drummer.
On the other hand, Uncut magazine gives it the only 5-star review of the March issue, via Bob Stanley's perceptive review, which points out that:
Simon Reynolds once said that he didn't understand why people are fascinated by musical regionalism. Doves reflect their surroundings (Pennines, endless rain, Wigan Casino, Man City lose again) with such a keen sense of concord, the question doesn't need to be asked.
Black And White Town (mp3)
The Storm (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 11:06 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
March 02, 2005
dead meadow :: feathers
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There are only two songs you have to hear on the new Dead Meadow disc, but you do have to hear them. At least one is among the five or so best I've heard so far this year. Sadly, I can't tell you in good conscience that a disc can be effectively reduced to two songs & then give you both here. So I'll give you one and leave you to decide where to go from there.
I haven't followed Dead Meadow throughout their 5-album career; I picked up on them with last year's nicely done-by-the-numbers psych-sludge disc Shivering King and Others. The advance word on the new one said the sound was expanded both horizontally and vertically, with a broader palette and a wider dynamic range. True enough; but there are still too many straight smeared half-speed riff-rockers to make this a broadly appealing disc. Frankly, I lack the oxycontin supplies to properly enjoy this one all the way through.
But "At Her Open Door": oh my. It's a driving blistered folk nightmare, turning in on itself in shifts. It's proof that 30-second snippets at iTunes can never give you the picture; this track doesn't don its beard and muttonchops until the 4:00 mark. Stay seated.
The other track to hear is called "Let It All Pass", and it strangely filters British chime rock such as Ride through a heavy stoner haze. The main riff features ghosted chord changes that subtly temper a thick, pounding groove.
If Heather Phares' thorough consideration on AllMusic.com sounds good to you, by all means get the disc. For my part, it comes a little too close on the heels of Black Mountain, and I prefer that band's zanier circus approach.
At Her Open Door (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
futureheads :: live, boston, 02.25.05
Seeing The Futureheads live last Friday was a good occasion for me to revisit their debut album of last year. Its overwhelming sense of style led me to reserve final judgement until it had achieved some vintage; I'm pleased to report it survives the test of time. I'm even beginning to reconsider whether it was unjustly left out of last year's top ten.
The live show was flawlessly executed, which is saying something for a band that uses 3 and 4-part harmonies in angular arrangements. There's something beautiful about a band with only an album's worth of songs honed to razor sharpness - the impression is sharp and deep, and there's no chance to be bored.
The high points were several - most vividly, the crystalline tune "Decent Days And Nights", and the audience-participation two-part syncopated harmony of the "Hounds Of Love" cover.
Go see 'em.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:02 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
March 01, 2005
the game :: update
Should I be worried about dissing The Game's new LP here a couple of weeks ago?
If so, I have company. Greg Tate isn't very charitable in this week's Village Voice:
. . . I'm an oldskooler who likes his MCs, no matter their bent or content, to bring more musicality and wit to the table than how they'd never fuck Mariah even with Ashanti buttnaked in the bed with her because that bitch got a forehead as big as Tyra's.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 10:22 PM | Comments (6)
blog tip :: said the gramophone
One of my current favorite blogs is Said The Gramophone. The team responsible takes a joyful, broad, and inclusive approach. There's some good writing on the LCD Soundsystem over there now, along with a great advance track from Overkkil River that will appeal to fans of Wilco's "At Least That's What You Said" (their comparison, not mine, and perfectly apt).
When I get a links section going, these guys are first.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 09:57 PM | Comments (1)
clem snide :: end of love
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All of the comment to date on this very good 5th album from Clem Snide has ignored the opening bars, which are a barnstorming Counting Crows impersonation, circa Recovering The Satellites. Which is OK with me - I'm not afraid to admit my post-collegiate soft spot for the CCs. The day I sink to Toad The Wet Sprocket levels is when intervention is necessary.
Thankfully, End Of Love soon settles down into a near-regulation Snide outing, give or take. It's a good thing; otherwise writers would be forced to retire their canned review, which calls attention to Eef Barzelay's skill and songwriting wit, with examples, and mentions that this current album is not very much better or worse than the others. The reviewer closes the positive but borderline lukewarm notice with a recommendation for the uninitiated: this is as good a place as any to start.
The fact is, this truly is the place to start. It isn't the best album, but the rather consistently upbeat nature of End Of Love, along with a more expansive sound, will capture the attention necessary to build appreciation for the subtler, deeper charms of Your Favorite Music. The songs here are less rewarding than on that classic, but they present themselves with a bit more poise and polish.
Clem Snide have often been mislabelled as country-rock or alt-country, which must have scared off countless potential fans over the years. More accurately, they trade in a rootsy kind of chamber pop that may use a shuffle or two-step rhythm here or there but ends its association with Nashville there (never mind that the last 2 or 3 records have been made in Music City).
I tend to mistrust the kind of wit that peddles song titles like "The Sound Of German Hip Hop" and "Jews For Jesus Blues". I've been searching for a way to describe the way Eef Barzelay's makes his too-clever-by-half lyrics work at an emotional level, and I have to thank Noel Murray in the Onion A/V Club for coining the phrase "mournful positivism". His review is perfect, even if he uses a country comparison in the first paragraph.
End Of Love (mp3)
The Sound Of German Hip Hop (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 09:01 PM | Comments (204)