Catching up on my letter writing

[koganbot]

Dear male dudes in the Black Eyed Peas,

There is only one person in your group who can sing, and you are not she.

Sincerely,

A Fan


Dear male singer dude in the xx,

There may not be anyone in your group who can sing, but if there were, it would most assuredly never be you.

Sincerely,

Frank

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was a dealbreaker for xx, as I recall. That and them being interminably boring at all times.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

And yeah, I'm posting on some serious pain meds and I'm LOVING IT. Maybe my "pain meds" alter ego will be the guy who offers reasonable criticism that tries to see both sides of an issue before declaring that, really, BOTH of us are partially right.

[koganbot]

Well, everyone ranked six or lower on my top ten mock-up has a dealkiller somewhere, so The xx could still sneak in there. Black Eyed Peas probably won't; to my surprise a lot of it is rather pop-rock; unfortunately the number of ace pop-rock vocalists in the group is zero.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The BEPs album is oddly anonymous in its weirdness. I don't dislike it but I can't bring myself to care, even "Boom Boom Pow" and "Imma Be" just elicit a sigh from me now.

Except "I Gotta Feeling", that song is completely reprehensible. I DON'T GET WHY THE MAZELTOV BIT IS FUNNY.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, there is not anyone in the xx who can sing. One of them just not-sings a lot worse than the other one. (Am really sad that their album is in the running for your top ten, too. I probably heard a couple hundred albums this year that sounded more interesting to me, the vast majority of which weren't worth keeping.)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Or okay, maybe "interesting" isn't the right word. I can maybe see somebody arguing that the xx record is more interesting to, uh, ponder and think about than say Rodney Atkins's or Jason Aldean's 2009 albums, at least in the "what the fuck is in this music that would make anyone subject themselves to such tedium" sense. The xx are possibly doing something "new." (Possibly -- more likely, I've just ignored their precdents because they were just as boring to sit through.) But Atkins and Aldean, as mediocre as they are, still made better albums -- livelier, more songful, more fun to actually listen to. (Then again, I never cared about Aaliyah or Young Marble Giants, so what do I know?)

Btw, Frank, you should check out the album Flyleaf put out this year. I kinda liked it, and you liked their debut more than I did. (Anything to keep the xx out of your top ten!)

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Aaliyah didn't suck, though.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Whereas The xx do, so it's a different situation, is what I'm saying.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

*headsmack* Had no idea this existed!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Woops, forgot to quote the Flyleaf part.

[koganbot]

I had no idea the Flyleaf existed either.

(I own the Aldean but have yet to listen to it.)(By the way, has anyone else here listened to the BEP album?)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I had a similar experience with the BEP album -- the FUN on it seems to be underlined three times to make sure you know that's what it's there for -- not quite "turning fun into a genre," but the flatness of it is a little off-putting, even if I wouldn't call it BAD. Worst track on there, IIRC, is "Meet Me Halfway."

Xgua sez: "they party beginning to end, which as it happens is a far rarer achievement than signifying beginning to end." But they are signifying in much of it, which I think he kinds of hints at with his closer, "sure as showbiz isn't dumb underneath." I think I kind of want it to be a little dumber underneath, if that makes sense. "Lets Get Retarded" and "Push It" and any number of other party songs of theirs are a little dumb-dumb; and "My Humps" transcends the savvy-dumb trap by being such a one-off strange little thing, but most of this stuff just strikes me as a little to "in" on the Black Eyed Peas, if that makes sense. Needs more Fergie, not just singing but the overall sensibility that I think they really nailed on The Dutchess.

[koganbot]

It got into the Billboard top ten. Also, it apparently has nine bonus tracks, four on an expanded edition, two from iTunes, one from Amazon, one from Rhapsody, and one from Walmart. And it has a hidden track.

[koganbot]

OK, I'm six songs into the Flyleaf, and it could be a true candidate, even if the first words out of Lacey's mouth are "Unified diversity" and even if tracks 4 through 6 aren't as good as 1, 2, and 3. It'd be funny if this ended up battling with Brad Paisley for the tenth spot, since I spent several minutes this afternoon getting mad at the Christian bullshit near the end of the Paisley, and for all I know I'll get angry at Flyleaf for Christian bullshit too - not that I consider Christianity inherently bullshit, but Paisley made it seem like he was dealing with a hard spiritual issue that he was actually ducking; I don't have time to elaborate now; but I do recommend the Paisley album, American Saturday Night (the title track actually having a pro immigration subtext), has a nice sense of musical color, which he'd never really had before that I remember. Lacey Mosley still makes me think of Avril being jabbed by pitchforks.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

But no one listens to The xx for liveliness, songiness or fun! As I've said elsewhere, you have to already value certain qualities to appreciate them - stillness, minimalism, mood, stylisation - but if you're into all of those, which I am, The xx hit the sweet spot. I get why their album could seem samey or whatever, but I also know that - having ignored the hype for a while and with few expectations - when I finally heard them I was pretty awestruck.

Dude's voice is a lot better live than on record, where it acts as a really effective counterpoint to Romy's voice; like Cassie, neither of them will win any singing competitions but it works perfectly for what they're doing. xx will assuredly be in my top 10 for 09.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

stillness, minimalism, mood, stylisation

You're right that these usually aren't the primary things I'm listening for, but I can be won over on them -- I still think Pantha du Prince's album is one of my faves from the decade. Unfortunately for xx I would need to listen to the album again pretty intently to describe what it is about their atmospherics that don't do much for me, which is usually why I distance myself from convos about them (haven't listened enough to speak with any certainty on the subject).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The interesting thing about The xx to me is that, notwithstanding the fact that I get why people might not like them, they've received plaudits from across the entire spectrum of critics. That happens pretty rarely, rarely enough that I think this is one of their strongest defences (when talking about the music isn't enough).

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Cumulative advantage or hivemind?

[(Anonymous)]

Frank (and Chuck), did either of you hear Dr. Dunks' "How We Do In NYC?" Will definitely make my top 5: A mix of disco edits by Dr. Dunks aka Eric Duncan aka 1/2 of Rub-N-Tug aka half of Still Going, they of last year's Frankie Knuckles-doing-a-Robert Miles-impression "Still Going Theme," which would make a Jock Jams compilation were it released fifteen years ago. "HWDINYC" is a mix of disco edits, really well-paced and extremely ROCK in parts. Runs all over the disco map yet stays really raw and visceral the entire time, never letting up on intensity even as it changes tempos.

[(Anonymous)]

oh, this is Tal. I should probably just work on getting an lj account so I can comment here.

[koganbot]

I've never heard the Dunks, but seems very worth checking out.

[koganbot]

(For anyone who hasn't seen the Singles Jukebox discussions of the xx, they're here and here. My opinion of "Basic Space" has gone up since then; is about a 7.)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

I of course value stillness, minimalism, and mood now and then ("stylization" i have no idea -- maybe somebody should explain that concept to me sometime), though perhaps less than some folks, and either way, I can't for the life of me hear how the xx do them well. (As a matter of fact, if I have time, and if I can uh think of any, maybe I'll make a list of records from this year that I thought did them better.)

First I've heard of Dr. Dunks too; will try to check that out. And neither Paisley's not Flyleaf's Xtianity has ever actively bugged me -- in Brad's case, it's mostly always just seem like filler-bustering (one Xtn song per album that it's not hard to ignore -- less blatant this time out than on most of his other recent albums.) In Flyleaf's case, I actually got the idea their Christianity might be interesting, but I've never attended to enough to make absolutely sure.

Anyway, I'm ahead of y'all; already filed my P&J ballot. Here's what I voted for. (Guess I'll have to save my 30 points for the homemade early Bob Seger CD-R comp that ILMer Myonga Von Bontee put together for next year's poll; in fact, I've already started a movement so I'm not the only one.)

Pazz & Jop Ballot, Chuck, 2009:

Benny – Amigo Charly Brown: Die Hits Von Gestern Und Auch Heut (Akasa) 17
Scooter – Under The Radar Over The Top – The Dark Side Edition (Napith) 14
Collin Raye – Never Going Back (Time Life) 12
Uz Jsme Doma – Cod-Liver Oil (Skoda) 10
Jono El Grande – Neo Dada (Rune Grammofon) 10
Lady GaGa – The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition) (Streamline/Konlive/Cherrytree/Interscope) 9
K’Naan – Troubador (A&M/Octone) 9
Death – …For The Whole World To See (Drag City) 8
Kid Sister – Ultraviolet (Universal Republic) 6
Brad Paisley – American Saturday Night (Arista Nashville) 5

Singles
Jamey Johnson – “High Cost Of Living” (Mercury)
Love and Theft – “Runaway” (Lyric Street)
Das Racist – “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix)” (no label)
Larry Shannon Hargrove – “I Need A Bailout” (CD Baby)
Nicki Minaj – “Beam Me Up Scotty” (no label)
White Wizzard – “High Speed GTO” (Earache)
John Rich – “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” (Warner Bros.)
Sarah Buxton – “Space” (Lyric Street)
Busy Signal – “Da Style Deh” (Greensleeves)
Charlie Wilson – “There Goes My Baby” (Jive)

[koganbot]

I had no idea there was a Scooter album! (Runs to Internet.) I need to give the K'Naan another listen. Haven't heard the Death or the Kid Sister or the Benny albums; haven't heard the Charlie Wilson single, either (doesn't seem to be getting streamed anywhere). I'm going to end up doing with Taylor what you did with GaGa. Our lists will definitely have two singles in common ("Pizza" and "Runaway") with two more an outside shot ("Scotty" and "High Cost"). The only album we have in common so far is the Paisley, and I'm trying to find better albums to knock it off (perhaps from higher on your list?).

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Though conversely, I get the idea that I'm more bugged than Frank by Paisley's alleged "pro-immigration" title track (which lists all sorts of immigrated stuff -- French kisses, woo hoo! -- and almost no actual immigrated people except, like, his great great grandfather as I recall.) (Still a pretty fun song, though -- and obviously much more fun than any of his Christian ones I've heard.)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Flyleaf's Christianity is definitely interesting -- they take what can come across as pious mush and turn it into legitimate angst, not taking for granted the dependency and fear in a lot of their songs: "Perfect in weakness / I'm only perfect in just your strength alone" looks on paper to be humble, but on record she's snarling it like it kills her inside -- "I am nothing without you," operative word being NOTHING, not "You."

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

A few other albums you might want to consider (that you may not be very aware of) before throwing away a vote of the xx:

Selena Gomez & The Scene – Kiss & Tell (Hollywood)
Quiero Club – Nueva America (Nacional)
Lady Sovereign – Jigsaw (EMI/Midget)
Rhett Frazier Inc – Escape From Dee-troyt (Rhett Frazier Inc)
Liechtenstein – Survival Strategies In The Modern World (Slumberland)
Dirty Little Rabbits – Simon (The End)
(Various) – The Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems 2009 (Greensleeves)
Baroness - Blue Record (Relapse)
Electric Six – Kill (Metropolis)
Sally Shapiro – My Guilty Pleasure (Paper Bag)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

A few more. (Really trying to limit these to ones I think might align with your tastes, but I suspect aren't on your radar -- even though, at least in theory, I'm pretty much opposed to "last minute cramming" for these album poll things, since good music usually needs to be lived with):

Mike & The Ravens – No Place For Pretty (Zoho Roots)
The Laughing – Fever (The Laughing)
King Khan & BBQ Show – Invisible Girl (In The Red)
Joakim – Milky Ways (!K7)
Slaraffenland – We’re On Your Side (Hometapes)
Caspa – Everybody’s Talking, Nobody’s Listening! (Fabric)
Crocodiles – Summer Of Hate (Fat Possum)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Actually, I haven't played most of these for a few months, so they're not necessarily recommendations per se'. And replaying a couple of them this afternoon, the Caspa ("dubstep," supposedly, but more dub than step to my ears, and with soulish songs and rappish raps mixed in) sounded much better than I'd remembered, and the Joakim (electro eclecticism including sludge-metal parts) sounds much duller. Slaraffenland (post-Radiohead Euro-prog that actually sounds good!!??? w/ definite minimalist stillness tendencies) were perhaps more manageable on their EP last year whereon they covered "Paranoid Android" and A-Ha. My mixed feelings about King Khan et. al. have been expressed on ILM. Crocodiles are probably more likeable if you think of them as a Jesus and Mary Chain clone than a No Age clone. And the only thing I remember about (Austinites) The Laughing is that their album sounded better than I've come to expect for an indie rock band; whether that means its worthwhile in the long run is still to be determined. Much preferred them all to the xx, though. (Among the less marginal first batch: Quiero Club are Monterrey synth-poppers who might appeal to CSS lovers; Rhett Frazier Inc are early Funkadelic obsessives from I believe California who understand that part of what made Funkadelic so great is how beautiful they could sound; Baroness are atmospheric metal guys from the lower Atlantic coast whose occasionally gorgeous Southern rock guitar solos are helping them win year-end polls at all the metal magazines despite not necessarily having many memorable songs per se'; Shally Shapiro might have better Annie songs than Annie has lately.)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Uh, not that anybody is paying attention to this anymore probably, but it turns out the Laughing basically sound...like Vampire Weekend (who I don't hate but don't love). Anglophilic Afrophilic nerd-rock. [i]Maybe[/i] with more going on rhythmically than VW, though I wouldn't swear to that, and probably with as little going on vocally and less going on lyrically. So, not recommeneded, not even close, but maybe some potential there. They're from here in Austin, so maybe I'll try to go catch them live sometime.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

They don't have VW's sense of melody, either -- and yeah, defintely no evidence of "clever worldplay" on a VW level, though mainly the words are just hard to make out. Still, sometimes they slip into a goth moodiness I don't mind. And a track or two (#7) seem to have more kick to them than VW do.

The publicity sticker on the cover of my promo copy compares them to, get this, Harry Nillson, Os Mutantes, Silver Apples, Love, Roxy Music, Sonic Youth, 13th Floor Elevators (pretty much all wishful thinking, as far as I can tell, but a pretty neat list) and Animal Collective (which might well be a clue.)

Replayed the '09 Slarrafenland CD yesterday, though, and once again thought it was really beautiful, in some weird convoluted way I can't put my finger on. "Post-Radiohead" might not be right -- more likely they sound closer to some obscure '70s progresssive rock band from, uh, Canterbury or somewhere I've never heard. (They're Danish themselves.)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Couple more: Dirty Rabbits (post-Bjorky/Siouxsie-ish bubble-goth metal) and Liechtenstein (Kleenex/Lilliput revivalists) are assisted by having put out very short albums that might technically be EPs; both have catchy songs, though. And I talked about Mike And The Ravens, who are either an art band or boogie band or both, on the ILM Rolling Hard Rock thread.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

And oh yeah, duh, on my actual Pazz & Jop ballot: Benny is some wacky bubble-dance guy from Germany who covers Plastic Bertrand and Dave Edmunds and Two Man Sound, are re-writes "Witch Doctor" as a skateboard anthem, and sings about the C.I.A. And Uz Jsme Doma (whose album actually came out in 2008, or 2007, or 2003, depending on what website you consult and/or what country you live in) and Jono El Grande are prog/punk/fusion/dada-rock artists from Czechlosovolkia and Norway respectively who conclusively prove that I'm probably a huge Frank Zappa fan (at least if you leave out all his stupid jokes, or sing them in a language I can't understand maybe) but I'm just scared to admit it. (Though for what it's worth, I do not have a single Frank Zappa album in my house.)

[koganbot]

Are the Benny tracks all old ones? From my Web search I see that "Amigo Charly Brown" was a German hit in 1976. (If it's a best-of comp of thirty-year-old material I'll only vote for it in the event that this will be the only thing keeping the xx from making my ballot, assuming I hear it.)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as far as I know, all the tracks on the Benny album (discounting a couple remixes at the end at least) are old ones. His is one of two albums in my P&J top ten (the other being Death's) consisting of old music. And as I've said elsewhere, if I was going to be really honest about the 10 2009 albums I've listened to and enjoyed the most this year, my list would be almost [i]all[/i] reissues of older stuff.

But I decided that Benny qualified for the following reasons: (1) I never even heard his name before this 2009, when a couple old German hits of his jumped out of a pile of old German vinyl K-Tel-like compilations that Metal Mike Saunders mailed me last winter; (2) He has seemingly had no previous visibility whatsoever in the U.S., a fact somewhat changed by his best-of album's presence on sites like Rhapsody -- which is the only place I've actually listened to it -- and Amazon; (3) his best-of was better than any of the [i]other[/i] reissues by other artists I heard in 2009; and (4) there were no albums of new music that I considered good enough to deserve to occupy the cherished #1 spot on my list, but his album was.

Death's album (recorded in the early '70s in Detroit) was not actually my second favorite reissue of the year (in fact, it might not even be among my ten favorite reissues of the year!), but I decided to vote for it anyway because (1) almost all the music on it was previously unreleased in any form, even in the '70s; (2) the record was publicized enough -- including a full page in the NY Times by Mike Rubin -- to qualify as an actual phenomenon in 2009; and mostly (3) other people are likely to vote for the record too, and it might even have a chance of placing on the overall Pazz & Jop list.

Also worth noting, maybe, is that this is the first year ever in which I have never actually seen physical copies of the top two albums on my P&J list -- namely Benny and Scooter, the latter of which I've also only listened to on Rhapsody. (I also only actually own physical copies of three singles on my singles list -- Jamey Johnson and White Wizzard, both on their albums, and Busy Signal on that Greensleeves dancehall compilation. In fact, as far as I know, Das Racist's single does not even exist in physical form at all, even as a track on an album. "Beam Me Up Scotty" is a mixtape track, I guess.)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Though duh, I actually do sort of "own" physical copies of "Pizza Hut" and "Scotty" and "Runaway" on CD-Rs of the famed Frank's Eardrums series, if that counts. (And those CD-Rs usually get a lot play in the car, fwiw.)

Another thing working in Benny's favor, fwiw, is that my 17-month-old daughter Annika's favorite song is "Witch Doctor." Which in turn puts Benny's update "Skateboard (Uh-Ah-Ah)" more in the realm of currency this year, in our house anyway.

[koganbot]

Oh yeah, now I'm remembering who Death are.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I have "sort of" come around on xx dude's singing, in that it now seems an integral element of their aesthetic rather than (merely) something that causes my bitchslap hand to itch, said aesthetic being "really depressed teenagers". Kind of amazingly vivid, the sound-picture those two vocalists paint of inarticulate romantic codependency rooted in raging hormones and total lack of self-esteem. These kids can't even manage the loud kind of emo teen angst, they're already on triple doses of Lexapro for suicidal ideation, what more can you ask?

...I am uncertain whether I "like" this album ahaha can one really be said to "like" an album when all one can think about listening to it is "boy if he dumps her for some reason she will stick her head in the oven for reals." Vox/lyrics aside they are quite good if one is into that sort of thing as per alexmacpherson (I also am).