Got into a pub conversation with Shaun and Kevin about perfect pop songs the other evening - before Kasey Chambers, actually, which I'll get round to writing about at some point in the course of working through the increasingly massive blog backlog that I've developed - and was then inspired to come up with a list. Twenty-five, because that's where Shaun drew his line (ie, 'the 25 most perfect pop songs'); I think that there are a few different notions of 'perfect pop song' working their way through here, but it's an honest to goodness attempt at it in which I stuck to my guns and valiantly resisted all thoughts of the 'but surely there must be at least one Beatles/Beach Boys/Kinks/Supremes/Elton John/Talking Heads/etc song' variety...the flip side being that some of my preoccupations come through fairly clearly (jangly songs, and anthems-masquerading-as-ballads and vice versa, in particular). Anyway, in more or less chronological order:
I Fall To Pieces - Patsy Cline
Be My Baby – The Ronettes
Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
Mr Tambourine Man – The Byrds
California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and the Papas
A Whiter Shade Of Pale – Procol Harum
Breakfast In Bed – Dusty Springfield
Perfect Day – Lou Reed
Killing Me Softly With His Song – Roberta Flack
September Gurls – Big Star
Life On Mars? – David Bowie
Alison – Elvis Costello
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths
Close To Me – The Cure
When Doves Cry – Prince
Don’t Dream It’s Over – Crowded House
Just Like Heaven – The Cure
Debaser – Pixies
Losing My Religion – R.E.M.
You’re In A Bad Way – Saint Etienne
The State I Am In – Belle and Sebastian
Save Me – Aimee Mann
The Way We Get By – Spoon
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Wilco & the Drones @ the Palace, Wednesday 26 March
So yeah, liked I'd expected, the Drones are pretty kick-ass live - bluesier than on record, and equally rockin'...I got pretty into it.
But the main event, natch, was Wilco. Last time round was sit down and faraway - this time, we were in the thick of it and close...far, far better. As shows goes, after a tenuous, country-heavy beginning, it was pretty total - two and a half hours of selections from their whole discography, even including several from A.M., and all good. So many of the songs just made me so happy and light and a little bit giddy ("California Stars", "She's A Jar", "A Shot In The Arm", etc, etc...)...I figured out a while ago that Wilco're one of my favourite bands, and this gig was a reminder about why even though I'd put it in the 'good' rather than 'great' show category.
It also, incidentally, reminded me of how many of the songs on the last couple of albums, and Sky Blue Sky in particular, are really all about the awesome guitar bit which kicks in somewhere near the middle to end. I've thought before that one of the great things about Wilco is the way they make me feel both happy and sad at the same time; to that duality add 'drifty' and 'energised', too, I reckon. Oh, yeah.
(w/ Jon)
But the main event, natch, was Wilco. Last time round was sit down and faraway - this time, we were in the thick of it and close...far, far better. As shows goes, after a tenuous, country-heavy beginning, it was pretty total - two and a half hours of selections from their whole discography, even including several from A.M., and all good. So many of the songs just made me so happy and light and a little bit giddy ("California Stars", "She's A Jar", "A Shot In The Arm", etc, etc...)...I figured out a while ago that Wilco're one of my favourite bands, and this gig was a reminder about why even though I'd put it in the 'good' rather than 'great' show category.
It also, incidentally, reminded me of how many of the songs on the last couple of albums, and Sky Blue Sky in particular, are really all about the awesome guitar bit which kicks in somewhere near the middle to end. I've thought before that one of the great things about Wilco is the way they make me feel both happy and sad at the same time; to that duality add 'drifty' and 'energised', too, I reckon. Oh, yeah.
(w/ Jon)
Manic Street Preachers - Send Away the Tigers
It's not exactly that I'd given up on the Manics, but more that a creeping kind of apathy had overtaken me when it came to the band - I still liked their early to mid period stuff, especially The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go, though more in the abstract than in the actuality of ever really spinning them nowadays, and even Know Your Enemy had its share of moments, but I never got round to Lifeblood and, I guess, disinterest reigned.
But a while back I read an review of Send Away The Tigers, their latest, somewhere on the internets which was all like oh my god the Manic Street Preachers are back in form, so I thought I should listen to it, and guess what - while it's not a patch on those older classics, there's a lot to like here. The album comes across like a glossier Everything Must Go, with a dash of the more riffy hard rock Generation Terrorists, and in "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" (smashing duet with Nina Persson from the Cardigans - I got totally stuck on this one last Saturday while hanging around at home vefore V festival), "Autumnsong" ("Sweet Child O Mine"-esque guitars!) and "Underdogs" has some quality to it, too.
But a while back I read an review of Send Away The Tigers, their latest, somewhere on the internets which was all like oh my god the Manic Street Preachers are back in form, so I thought I should listen to it, and guess what - while it's not a patch on those older classics, there's a lot to like here. The album comes across like a glossier Everything Must Go, with a dash of the more riffy hard rock Generation Terrorists, and in "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" (smashing duet with Nina Persson from the Cardigans - I got totally stuck on this one last Saturday while hanging around at home vefore V festival), "Autumnsong" ("Sweet Child O Mine"-esque guitars!) and "Underdogs" has some quality to it, too.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
"Sidney Nolan" @ NGV Australia
It's easy to slip into accustomed ways of experiencing things - definitely something to which I'm prone - and in the spirit of avoiding that kind of laziness of the imagination, I went into the Nolan exhibition determined to open myself to whatever it might hold.
One thing that was striking about the exhibition is the extent to which it highlights the relationship between Nolan's travels and the art he produced, with dramatics shifts in not only subject matter but also style seemingly closely correlated to the particular places through which he was passing or had recently passed at the times of their creation; my favourites, as far as I can remember (it was a couple of weeks ago now), were the deep, craggy central Australia rockscapes and the second series of Ned Kellys (the later, messianic ones as opposed to the more famous earlier ones) which if I remember correctly were inspired by his exposure to sacred art in Italy. Also striking were the colours he used, particularly the vivid azures (which always strike a chord) - those, and some other aspects, put me a bit in mind of James Gleeson's stuff. And some cool tricks with perspective, too, including a recurring trope of things appearing too large or 'foregrounded' in a scene relative to everything else.
Overall, though, it wasn't especially my thing. I liked bits, but nothing really spoke to me - some engaged me viscerally but fleetingly, others tugged at more critical/analytical/experience-of-experiential parts of me but similarly didn't really lodge...well, we like what we like, and increasingly so, I suppose.
(w/ Jade T)
One thing that was striking about the exhibition is the extent to which it highlights the relationship between Nolan's travels and the art he produced, with dramatics shifts in not only subject matter but also style seemingly closely correlated to the particular places through which he was passing or had recently passed at the times of their creation; my favourites, as far as I can remember (it was a couple of weeks ago now), were the deep, craggy central Australia rockscapes and the second series of Ned Kellys (the later, messianic ones as opposed to the more famous earlier ones) which if I remember correctly were inspired by his exposure to sacred art in Italy. Also striking were the colours he used, particularly the vivid azures (which always strike a chord) - those, and some other aspects, put me a bit in mind of James Gleeson's stuff. And some cool tricks with perspective, too, including a recurring trope of things appearing too large or 'foregrounded' in a scene relative to everything else.
Overall, though, it wasn't especially my thing. I liked bits, but nothing really spoke to me - some engaged me viscerally but fleetingly, others tugged at more critical/analytical/experience-of-experiential parts of me but similarly didn't really lodge...well, we like what we like, and increasingly so, I suppose.
(w/ Jade T)
Three things to anticipate
Very exciting...new Philip Pullman, newish but I hadn't heard about it before Nellie McKay (oh Nellie McKay, how I do love her), new Kathleen Edwards...
"Love Gone Bad" (IMP February 2008)
Any mix cd that throws in "Reno Dakota" (as in the Magnetic Fields) and "Torn" (as in Natalie Imbruglia) back to back gets major points in my books. Extra props for a pair of very nice jangly alt-country weepies in the Drive-By Truckers' "Goddamn Lonely Love" (the title says it all) and Steve Earle's "I Thought You Should Know" (which, oddly - and I'm pretty sure I'm not just making this up - cops some girl group licks). And bonus points for ending with a "Pink Triangle"/"Hate It Here" split.
A couple of other familiar songs - Ben Folds Five's still grin-inducing "Song for the Dumped" and Elvis C's rather saccharine (if not all bad) "A Good Year For The Roses" - and a few other fun/good ones (Jay-Z's "Song Cry" and Ween's "Piss Up A Rope" particularly fitting both parts of that compound phrase)...all up pretty good.
(from Bruce in Chapel Hill, NC)
A couple of other familiar songs - Ben Folds Five's still grin-inducing "Song for the Dumped" and Elvis C's rather saccharine (if not all bad) "A Good Year For The Roses" - and a few other fun/good ones (Jay-Z's "Song Cry" and Ween's "Piss Up A Rope" particularly fitting both parts of that compound phrase)...all up pretty good.
(from Bruce in Chapel Hill, NC)
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Kate Nash - Made of Bricks
Fun! Probably not a stayer (unlike, a bit to my surprise, Alright, Still, which I still get out pretty often, especially when out and about) but with enough good bits to make listening to it as a whole a viable option, an' I like the attitude. Standout's "Pumpkin Soup" (previously known to me, with equal if not greater justification, as the "I just want your kiss boy" song).
J'attends quelqu'un
Unexpectedly, my favourite of the three I've caught at the french film festival over the last fortnight or so. It's carefully equivocal in its layering and interweaving of its various narratives, such that resonances &c are always implied rather than actually rendered, but also eventually succeeds in bringing everything to a satisfying and affecting resolution while at every point avoiding the obvious move (see, eg, the 'making a pass while moving furniture' and the 'I'm having a baby' bits).
(w/ Ruth and Meribah)
(w/ Ruth and Meribah)
Philip Pullman - The Scarecrow and His Servant
I didn't see anything special about this one, to be honest. It's not a patch on the His Dark Materials series, nor on the Victoriana ones - although nor does it set out to cover that kind of territory, being aimed at a younger audience and accordingly simpler.
Le voyage du ballon rouge
My first Hou Hsiao Hsien, and not precisely what I'd expected - much more in the social realist vein than I'd expected, to begin with! But 'social realism' isn't precisely what was going on here - more a kind of cinematic naturalism, interleaved with moments of pure cinema (the latter mostly involving the course of the red balloon itself). The film's pleasures are subtle but real, and it has an affect which has lingered even though 'the film itself' didn't leave much of an impression at the time.
(w/ Ruth, Jarrod, Steph and Roslyn)
(w/ Ruth, Jarrod, Steph and Roslyn)
"Love Song" (John Kolvenbach) (MTC)
Near the end of the rather excellent "Love Song", one of the characters declares "death to literalism!"; I wondered whether that line mightn't have been the genesis for the whole play. "Love Song" is about love and imagination, and how the two can (perhaps always must) meet, and it's pretty much perfect on its own terms.
Four main characters: Beane, one of society's misfits, living in his apartment under the barest of conditions, has his life illuminated one day by a spunky burglar with whom he falls in love; his career-minded sister and her husband find their lives also affected by this unexpected turn of events. All of the actors were pitch-perfect (Julia Zemiro particularly stole all of her scenes as the sister), the sets were unobtrusively integrated into the play text, and all told it was just one of those in which all of the elements came together - the play itself perfectly balanced between sweetness and edge, the production bringing out that delicate interaction and the interesting contrasts it entails to a treat. It's a minor thing, but the emotional palette from which it paints is nuanced and pleasing, and I liked the play a lot.
[part of an MTC subscription with Steph, Sunny & co]
Four main characters: Beane, one of society's misfits, living in his apartment under the barest of conditions, has his life illuminated one day by a spunky burglar with whom he falls in love; his career-minded sister and her husband find their lives also affected by this unexpected turn of events. All of the actors were pitch-perfect (Julia Zemiro particularly stole all of her scenes as the sister), the sets were unobtrusively integrated into the play text, and all told it was just one of those in which all of the elements came together - the play itself perfectly balanced between sweetness and edge, the production bringing out that delicate interaction and the interesting contrasts it entails to a treat. It's a minor thing, but the emotional palette from which it paints is nuanced and pleasing, and I liked the play a lot.
[part of an MTC subscription with Steph, Sunny & co]
Chacun son cinéma
Cool concept - a whole bunch of basically most of the most famous mainstream arthouse contemporary directors going around today (Wenders, Polanski, Egoyan, Campion, Kiarostami, the Dardenne brothers, Davids Lynch and Cronenberg, Lars von Trier, Wong Kar-Wai, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, to name just a few), each doing a very short (~ 3 minutes) piece on the subject of the cinema. As one would expect, it's pretty hit and miss, the narrative-oriented ones just as likely to be successful as the more impressionistic pieces, and a few reasonably predictable themes emerge, most notably the transformative, immersive, participatory and (of course) magical nature of the cinematic experience, but the good ones are strikingly good, and there are plenty of minor pleasures in amidst the real highlights, too.
My fave was the Inarittu piece, "Anna", which is simply one of the most lushly Romantic things that one will ever see in a cinema. It's beautiful - three minutes of holding your breath and feeling opened up to something that's at once completely familiar and utterly foreign. The David Lynch one was extremely David Lynch, and a nice snippet of his unique brand of craziness (ware the giant scissors!); the Atom Egoyan contribution also marvellous - a miniature existential meditation, inscrutable and poetic. Jane Campion's odd lady bug piece also stood out...
(w/ Ruth and Bec P)
My fave was the Inarittu piece, "Anna", which is simply one of the most lushly Romantic things that one will ever see in a cinema. It's beautiful - three minutes of holding your breath and feeling opened up to something that's at once completely familiar and utterly foreign. The David Lynch one was extremely David Lynch, and a nice snippet of his unique brand of craziness (ware the giant scissors!); the Atom Egoyan contribution also marvellous - a miniature existential meditation, inscrutable and poetic. Jane Campion's odd lady bug piece also stood out...
(w/ Ruth and Bec P)
Jens Lekman @ Corner Hotel, Monday 10 March
For various reasons, my mind wasn't on the music as much as it might've been, but nonetheless I enjoyed this show; he played "Black Cab" second song up, which was basically the whole reason I went along, so I was happy, and the rest of it was nice too.
(w/ SL, Ruth and Keith)
(w/ SL, Ruth and Keith)
Do You Believe in Love? A Creation Compilation
Break it down: this came out in 1990, and it's a Creation comp, so there are three main threads running through it - acid/ravey Screamadelica type stuff, post-80s guitar indie, and shoegaze of varying textures. The cd's frontloaded with three of its best tracks - "You're Just A Skin To Me" (Primal Scream), "Girl Go" (Jazz Butcher) and "Chelsea Girl" (Ride) - but keeps up the quality throughout (it doesn't hurt that there's a MBV classic, "No More Sorry", in the middle there somewhere). Nice.
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Got a message from Michelle the other day; words to the effect of "have you listened to the new Goldfrapp yet? It's exquisite"; wouldn't go that far myself, but I can see where she was coming from. Seventh Tree is the band's most pastoral and soupily dreamy to date, from airily disconnected opener "Clowns" through the succession of downbeat electro-ballads and wispy sketches which follow (I especially like "Cologne Cerrone Houdini" / "Caravan Girl" near the end), and there's much to relish about it.
Felt Mountain, Black Cherry and Supernature collectively set an impossibly high bar, and I think that Seventh Tree falls slightly short of those other three - but it's still a worthy addition to the discography and another jewelled link in the increasingly glittering Goldfrapp chain.
Now, bring on the new Portishead!
Felt Mountain, Black Cherry and Supernature collectively set an impossibly high bar, and I think that Seventh Tree falls slightly short of those other three - but it's still a worthy addition to the discography and another jewelled link in the increasingly glittering Goldfrapp chain.
Now, bring on the new Portishead!
Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon - Preacher: Alamo
The last in the series, and suitably explosive and bloody. Reflecting on how I came to work my way through the lot despite not having any particular taste for ultra-violence nor for the grit that characterises the series, and particularly while having some serious reservations about the politics / ideological standpoints of the books, I think there are (lemme count) three main reasons.
First, they're written and drawn with a helluva sense of pace - each one flies by (I read this last in a single sitting in the Fitzroy library a couple of weekends ago). Second, while Preacher isn't long on character development as such, Ennis excels in deepening our understanding of the characters as he goes along. And third, there's the mythos invoked by the books, and ultimately that's what gets me (even if, on closer inspection, it possibly turns out to be bound up rather closely with the essentially conservative viewpoint espoused by the books that troubles me).
[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6 & 7], [8].
First, they're written and drawn with a helluva sense of pace - each one flies by (I read this last in a single sitting in the Fitzroy library a couple of weekends ago). Second, while Preacher isn't long on character development as such, Ennis excels in deepening our understanding of the characters as he goes along. And third, there's the mythos invoked by the books, and ultimately that's what gets me (even if, on closer inspection, it possibly turns out to be bound up rather closely with the essentially conservative viewpoint espoused by the books that troubles me).
[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6 & 7], [8].
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
"2007 cd"
David's mix of his key tracks from last year (which reminds me that I should put up the tracklist from my own, made a while back). It was the soundtrack to my very gauzey, distracted last Sunday, particularly "McFearless" (Kings of Leon) and "23" (Blonde Redhead); of the ones that were new to me, the other that I particularly like is the National's "Fake Empire". A lot of very 'David' stuff on here, natch, much of which falls in the overlap between his and my tastes (Radiohead, Spoon and the Arcade Fire all get multiple slots), and some which are definitely in his camp (QOTSA, White Stripes, Ian Ball, Pete Yorn) - lots of replay value for me and, in those first three I mentioned, a trio of genuine song 'discoveries'.
"Astor Piazzolla" (10-cd set)
10 cds of recordings which tend more towards the 'song' end of Piazzolla's spectrum - an impression added to by the high proportion of them which have vocals - and which are just as pleasing as the more polished "rough guide". Yes!
"Rock 'n' Roll" (Tom Stoppard) (MTC)
My first MTC outing this year, having subscribed for '08 as part of Steph and Sunny's troupe, and quite possibly the one about which I've been most enthused, it being a Stoppard and all, and not only that, but also being about (a) revolution; (b) communism and (c) (but of course) rock 'n roll.
Well, I liked it well enough, but in the end the play didn't do that much for me. I found it a bit stagey - a fault which resided partly with the actors (it didn't help that Matthew Newton's Jan reminded me entirely incongruously of Manny from Black Books (manner of talking, hair, and, as Ben K pointed out, wardrobe)) but lay primarily in the play itself, I think. The first half was rather overly schematic, particularly in terms of the laying out of the various perspectives on (a), (b) and to a lesser extent (c) by way of their exemplifying characters; the second half moved a bit more, the characters and ideas better coming to life; the ending really didn't satisfy me at the time, but with a bit of distance, it's better than I'd initially thought...
Well, I liked it well enough, but in the end the play didn't do that much for me. I found it a bit stagey - a fault which resided partly with the actors (it didn't help that Matthew Newton's Jan reminded me entirely incongruously of Manny from Black Books (manner of talking, hair, and, as Ben K pointed out, wardrobe)) but lay primarily in the play itself, I think. The first half was rather overly schematic, particularly in terms of the laying out of the various perspectives on (a), (b) and to a lesser extent (c) by way of their exemplifying characters; the second half moved a bit more, the characters and ideas better coming to life; the ending really didn't satisfy me at the time, but with a bit of distance, it's better than I'd initially thought...
Kelly Clarkson @ Rod Laver Arena, Tuesday 4 March
I'd been anticipating this more than I do most shows - I don't see much out and out Pop live, and I really expected Kelly to be an experience, particularly given how much I listened to Breakaway over the second half of last year. Lest there be any doubt, there's not a smidgeon of ironic or postmodern expectation of kitsch, etc - this is all grounded in genuine love of pop music done well.
So anyway, it was pretty much what I wanted it to be without quite being the bee's knees. I got to hear the songs I really wanted to hear, and she's definitely got a powerful voice...but the sound wasn't as full as one might hope (a bit of a problem with the venue as much as anything else, I suspect) and for the most part she seemed to more be belting the songs out rather than imbuing them with any particular expressiveness - so while it was good, it wasn't the, y'know, spectacular spectacular that I'd thought it might be.
* * *
Supports Mandy Moore and Sean Kingston - both worth the seein', in this context, anyway.
(w/ Steph)
So anyway, it was pretty much what I wanted it to be without quite being the bee's knees. I got to hear the songs I really wanted to hear, and she's definitely got a powerful voice...but the sound wasn't as full as one might hope (a bit of a problem with the venue as much as anything else, I suspect) and for the most part she seemed to more be belting the songs out rather than imbuing them with any particular expressiveness - so while it was good, it wasn't the, y'know, spectacular spectacular that I'd thought it might be.
* * *
Supports Mandy Moore and Sean Kingston - both worth the seein', in this context, anyway.
(w/ Steph)
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