Do you have 20 minutes to spare? Rosy Parlane‘s “Part 3″, the denouement of his second album Jessamine, is time well-spent. In over a quarter of an hour, Parlane moves the track from the blissful sound of the pop and crackle of a needle on a dusty record to a menacing storm of sound. It’s a stunning composition, never boring or incidental.

It may be dominated by a cacophonous meltdown, but “Part 3″‘s peaceful beginning is just as interesting. Specks of sound flitter from ear to ear. In the distance, a mournful whistle descends down the spine, chills left in its wake. It’s a warning. This idyllic moment will come to a violent end.

The onslaught begins around the 8-minute mark. A white wave of noise slowly builds and surges to utter chaos, thanks to the contribution of eight guitar players and the augmentation of amplified sawblades and shimsaws. If all-absorbing sound is your thing, the next 11 minutes is nirvana. You may start praying for it to end; relief does come on just at the brink of insanity. Parlane ends the track as it began, a quiet moment wrapped in the analog crackling of an old record.

Listen to “Part 3″ (MP3)

Jessamine (Touch Records) is available in the U.S. from Forced Exposure.

Here are my picks for Information Leafblower’s “top 40 bands in America” list. A few quick thoughts:

- Making a list like this makes me realize, like Jason, how much non-American stuff I listen to. Between the omitted bands from abroad and the mostly European electronic stuff I’ve been into lately, a list like this ends up feeling like a very distinct subset of my take on 2006 music. That said, this is pretty much the new American music that I’ve listened to the most this year. My iTunes play counts were a very helpful guide in constructing my list.

- Taking a close look at those play counts also made me realize how much old and “old” (i.e. non-2006) stuff I listen to. In retrospect, I probably should’ve included some of those bands on my list – in particular, Deerhoof and Sleater-Kinney come to mind, as do the Fiery Furnaces (forgive me, Eleanor…), Cat Power, and the Rapture.

- I was really surprised to see Lavender Diamond make the final list. I’ve been super into them all year (especially post-SXSW), and I guess others share the feeling. They seem to have been the band to have inspired the most hate in the ILB comments, which also surprises me – I hadn’t seen them get reactions like that before. Perhaps the exposure that comes with opening for the Decemberists does the trick. Who knows.

Thanks to Kyle for asking us to participate again! It’s always fun doing something like this. Anyway, the list:

1. Lavender Diamond. Their first LP is due next spring and, from how the songs sound live, I suspect it’ll be fantastic. I’ve now dragged five people to their shows and not once was a person was disappointed. Becky Stark’s voice is almost enough on its own. I haven’t been this excited about a new band in ages.

2. Matmos. Whenever I listen to “Steams and Sequins for Larry Levan” (which is quite often according to iTunes), I wish it would never stop…

3. Brightblack Morning Light. Chillout album of the year. Love the Rhodes!

4. Sonic Youth

5. Yo La Tengo. My love affair with YLT is almost a decade old now and it shows no signs of waning, especially not with an album as solid as their new one in the mix.

6. Asobi Seksu. They’ve been playing one great gig after another in NYC for a few years now, but Citrus finally does a great job of capturing them on record.

7. LCD Soundsystem. Only LCD could make a list like this on the strength of a single song. “45’33″” is just that good.

8. Au Revoir Simone

9. The Psychic Ills

10. The Evangelicals

LOCAL BAND: Professor Murder

Here’s my submission to Information Leafblower‘s Top 40 Bands In America. Feel free to hate on me for my picks, or just ignore them. Now, back to my Brian Eno collection!

My list:

“Before I list my picks, first let me say that my lack of submissions is not meant to indicate a dislike for American music, circa 2006. Rather, I just haven’t been listening to much ‘new rock’ in general this year. 2006 has been a year for catching up with music I wasn’t old enough to hear the first time around. It’s also been the year where I’ve enjoyed more electronic music than usual, and for whatever reason, most of it has come from lands beyond our own. So, I’m not trying to be a hater by not listing any of the obvious bands, I just haven’t been listening to them. No offense.

1. Bob Dylan – My favorite American-made music from this year seems to be composed either by old guys (Mr. Dylan) or dead guys (Mr. Cash). Here, the old guy, the bard of Hibbing, still keeps me thinking and listening. Modern Times was an easier music pill to swallow than ‘Love and Theft’, but it still contained some lovable bitterness and endearing side effects. Namely, obsessive repeat listenings.

2. Johnny Cash – For producing American V

3. Ghostface Killah – For Fishscale

4. LCD Soundsystem: I may take up jogging just to hear 45’33 in its intended context. But “Jams” Murphy’s workout tape works just fine as a standing still piece of disco joy. Speaking of pieces, I’m contemplating cutting my favorite section of 45’33, minutes 10:00 – 20:00 into a separate song just so I can enjoy Murphy’s clicks and loops over and over and over.”

Thanks for asking for my opinion, Kyle!

Pure Language, an easily digestible six-track mini-album, is Leeds resident Keef Baker‘s follow-up to 2004′s The Widnes Years. Baker is an expert at balancing opposing temperaments. Angelic vocals are weighted with snarling attitude, dark machine noises are leavened with serene light.

Stop one on Baker’s journey, the opener “Straw Overcoat” is an apt example of the artists’ careful craft. The song juxtaposes warm ambience with stabbing rhythms, grounded in organic dirt. It’s a hackneyed term, but organic just fits Baker’s work. No surprise then that this term pops up often in his press releases.

The glistening mid-tempo “Psychiatric Credit” follows, resplendent in chimes and oboes. The sudden appearance of a skittish breakbeat again heralds Baker’s darker side. Shadows give depth to light, fear permeates certainty. It’s good stuff.

Listen to “The Middle”, courtesy of Baker’s label Ad Noiseam.

Has it really been over a month since I last surfaced on here? Yikes. Busy times, what can I say, but here’s some of what I’ve been digging of late:

Rickard Jäverling – Two Times Five Lullaby. This gently meandering record, the Swede’s debut, is remarkably coherent and cinematic, a perfect soundtrack to a lazy autumn afternoon. The mostly instrumental LP features harmonica, banjo, guitars, accordion, harp, a Hammond, drums, and more. It’s hard to pick a standout track because the whole thing stands together so well, but the pretty opener “Ice Princess” (MP3) and the hints of Tortoise in the slow-burning “Track” (MP3) are good places to start.

Dirty Diamonds II. I have no idea how I heard about this French compilation or where I even got it. All I know is it landed on my hard drive last year, I just started listening to it last week, and I’ve barely been able to stop since. The tracklisting is eclectic and far-reaching, the sequencing impeccable. The gospel-tinged hip-hop grooves of Sa-Ra Creative Partners‘ “Glorious” (MP3) are an early highlight, but I’ve been finding the section anchored by Martin Gore‘s “Compulsion” especially addictive of late.

Michael Mayer – Immer 2. I haven’t had this long enough to say much of substance here, but so far I like Immer 2 a lot. A whole lot. Kompakt’s Total 7 had its moments but felt tired in spots – this is more what I was waiting for (and I’m not surprised).

Matmos – For Alan Turing. Three tracks long and three inches wide, this mini-CD was the souvenir of choice on Matmos’s recent tour. “Enigma Machine for Alan Turing,” which somehow features one of these, and the beautiful violins and vocal loops of “Cockles and Mussles” are both standouts. (I’d rip one of them for you but my laptop can’t handle 3″ CD’s, so you’ll have to trust me.) As for the show, So Percussion, Zeena Parkins, and a guitarist joined Drew and M.C. to make Matmos an EIGHT-piece for much of the October 13 gig at Symphony Space. We’ve been lucky to have so many NYC Matmos gigs this year, and this one was the best of the bunch IMO. The extra hands made the songs extra live and the setlist was a treat with two songs from The Civil War (“Y.T.T.E.” into “For the Trees”!) and a few new songs joining favorites from The Rose Has Teeth. One new song was like a symphony of aluminum, another utilized a large block of dry ice. The props and objects never felt like gimmicks or one-liners, though, and that’s what makes Matmos so consistently great live.

The Rapture – Pieces of the People We Love. As much as I love the Rapture, I really disliked this album on first (and second and third) listen. The production felt far too sleek. But, as they showed on Echoes, the Rapture know how to write catchy songs, and the songs lodged themselves in my head enough that Pieces entered my morning commute rotation. Once I’d adjusted to the production, I found myself really enjoying the record. And hearing “Get Myself Into It” in a club – once from JDH and once from Optimo – made me see the production as a strength; so much stuff in this vein has a dirty sound that the approach the Rapture have taken here makes the songs stand out. Of course, the Rapture are still at their best on stage. Hopefully I’ll get to remind myself that tomorrow night at the Bowery Ballroom, if I can get my hands on a ticket.

Junior Boys – So This Is Goodbye. Nothing new to report here beyond the realization that this has a good chance at being my favorite album of the year.

Other recent favorites: Fujiya & Miyagi – Transparent Things, TK Webb – Phantom Parade, Minimum Chips – Lady Grey, Professor Murder – Professor Murder Rides The Subway

Also:

As part of CMJ, Lavender Diamond are playing Joe’s Pub this Friday night at 11:30. Simply put, their two SXSW sets are possibly my favorite live shows of the year so far. They’re currently opening for the Decemberists, and I hear they might be signing to Matador, so big things (and hopefully a new album) may be in store for them soon. They also play Northsix on Thursday night, but Joe’s Pub is much better suited to their sound. I can’t wait. Try “You Broke My Heart” (MP3).

When I first set about ordering my outlook towards music blogging (see part one here), I had just finished reading Simon Reynolds‘ history of Post Punk, Rip it Up and Start Again. A few minor criticisms aside (a post for another day I assure you), I thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned quite a bit from Reynolds’ informative writing.

Each time the proverbial light bulb went off above my head while reading, I was also illuminated by a fairly obvious and simplistic realization: knowledge is a good thing. In this case, knowing more about the music scene in late 70′s New York than say “oh the Talking Heads used to play at CBGB all the time” is a very good thing when it comes to listening to said music, let alone writing about it.

Why I waited so long to learn the history behind the music I love, I don’t know. Laziness I guess. It took Simon Reynolds spending hard earned time researching and writing his book for me to take a small step beyond a surface understanding. But now that I know a sliver more, I’m hooked on learning. Don’t worry, this won’t be a PSA.

Or maybe it will be. Yeah this is a public service announcement, to me as much as anyone else: Know Your History.

The way I see it is knowledge brings perspective and perspective begets a calmer, more rational outlook towards the new Best New Thing out there right now. Some applied knowledge might help place today’s “my favorite new band” into the smaller, more reasonable threads of a vast and expanding music tapestry. Who knows, it may even assuage the current prevalence of “gold rush”* blogging that is dragging down my enthusiasm. One can hope.

Reading Reynolds’s book, I realized I knew nothing. Knowing a fraction more than nothing may someday change how I hear and sometimes write about music for the better.

Digging through the annals of music history, listening to and learning old records, grasping to understand perspective: these pursuits take time. Time is not the friend of an immediate media like blogging. Take a breather from posting and you risk falling behind a trend. Take your eyes off the scene and someone else might scoop you. But so what? Slow down; take a minute to think about this music in a larger world, full of many different perceptions. Maybe you’ll start offering context with content.

* – Thanks for that term , Blackmail

What more can be said about Bobby Zimmerman and his new record? This man sneezes and gets a Mojo cover. Personal disclosure: I wear Bob Dylan blinders – the man’s phlegm is worth discussing in my opinion. So I’m predisposed to receive his albums as messages from on high. Is Modern Times a Rolling Stone Five-Star album? Not quite, and besides that honor lost it weight when they named Mick Jagger‘s last solo record a modern classic. Is it worthy of the canon? Hell yes, even if there’s not one song on the record that I would define as a classic. There are some just breathtaking lyrics though, and here are a few of my favorites:

(One note: there are of course probably a thousand sites analyzing Dylan’s lyrics line by line. I’m not going to attempt to match these efforts. If you’re looking for better commentary, check out Expecting Rain’s Modern Times review page. As of September 25, there are 384 reviews linked there.)

“Thunder on the Mountain”

“Gonna raise me an army, some tough sons of bitches
I’ll recruit my army from the orphanages
I been to St. Herman’s church, said my religious vows
I’ve sucked the milk out of a thousand cows”

I love the off the wall lyrics about Alicia Keys, but the sardonic ferocity of these lines get me every time. Perhaps it’s the mental image of a haggard Dylan rousing orphans to fight some undisclosed battle that makes these lines so brilliant? Or maybe it’s the picture of him assaulting herds of cows?

“When the Deal Goes Down”

“I laugh and I cry and I’m haunted by
Things I never meant nor wished to say
The midnight rain follows the train
We all wear the same thorny crown
Soul to soul, our shadows roll”

I could easily quote every lyric in this beautiful, regret-strewn ballad.

“Working Man’s Blues #2″

“Well, I’m sailin’ on back, ready for the long haul
Tossed by the winds and the seas
I’ll drag ‘em all down to hell and I’ll stand ‘em at the wall
I’ll sell ‘em to their enemies
I’m tryin’ to feed my soul with thought
Gonna sleep off the rest of the day
Sometimes no one wants what we got
Sometimes you can’t give it away”

“Working Man’s Blues #2″ is another song with lyrics worth reading in entirety. I love how the line “Gonna sleep off the rest of the day” just jumps out between lines of vengeance and despair. I picture a weary old man resting from his battles against himself and his imagined enemies.

“Now I’m down on my luck and I’m black and blue
Gonna give you another chance
I’m all alone and I’m expecting you
To lead me off in a cheerful dance

I got a brand new suit and a brand new wife
I can live on rice and beans
Some people never worked a day in their life
Don’t know what work even means”

A moment of whimsy ends this fatigued tune. Dylan drags out the line “cheerful dance” on the record as if he’s suppressing a cynical chuckle. He’s eating rice and beans, dressed to the nines, complaining about the lazy and spoiled. I wonder if the line “some people never worked a day in their life” is a bit of self-deprecation.

“Nettie Moore”

“I’m the oldest son of a crazy man,
I’m in a cowboy band
Got a pile of sins to pay for and I ain’t got time to hide
I’d walk through a blazing fire, baby, if I knew you was on the other side”

The last couplet just stabs me in heart every time I hear it. After the first two lines, this endearing remark hits like a sucker punch.

“Ain’t Talkin’”

“Now I’m all worn down by weeping
My eyes are filled with tears, my lips are dry
If I catch my opponents ever sleeping
I’ll just slaughter ‘em where they lie”

Sigh, another track with line after line of gold, but again I’m struck most by the the imagery of weariness, grief and anger. Dylan’s character is a man on the run, hiding out from his enemies like David in the Psalms. He’s been decimated by bitterness, but is still strong enough to murder his oppressors.

- Lyrics sourced from Expecting Rain and are the property of Bob Dylan. Thanks for the loan.

- The Annotated Modern Times Lyrics is another great source for analysis.

(Disclaimer: These are just my opinions and are not meant to speak for anyone else who posts on this site)

One of the reasons my contributing to this site has slowed considerably are my general feelings of annoyance and discontent with the state of music blogs today. I can’t spend more than 10-15 minutes reading a certain group of highly trafficked blogs without feeling a sense of disgust. My complaint is not against all music blogs, rather just the more commonly linked and credited sites I see around the blogosphere.

Instead of tallying up my problems or even listing the sites by name (why give them even more attention?), I’d rather attempt to define the qualities that I believe separate good music blogs from the chaff. Consider it an “in-progress” manifesto: a set of expanding and flexible objectives. I’ll be the first to admit I fall far short of these intentions. My point is not to prop this site or myself as a beacon, but to announce publicly why I continue to bother with blogging.

But first I would like to address a couple gripes that are germane to this post. I’ve seen these grievances pop up in posts and comment boards across the sphere, so I believe it’s one worth discussing. While I concur with the sentiment of these generalities to a degree, I have more questions and doubts than certainties and answers. Here are the complaints:

1. Blogs talk about the same small set of bands.

And the corollary:

2. These bands aren’t worth the hype.

Yes, it seems true on the surface. A number of blogs that show up in most blog rolls do appear to mention the same bands, over and over. The ad nauseam coverage raises the question of sincerity. What are the motives of these blogs? Do they really like these bands? The content is posited as personal passion (and most likely is) but in the conflagration of buzz, it can appear as no more than shilling for ad revenue, traffic numbers or ego.

But evaluate the bands receiving coverage. It’s no mystery or coincidence: they are the acts with new albums to promote, tickets to sell, interviews to give. Bloggers are covering them; paid media outlets (“indie” and mainstream magazines, music review websites, content portals, etc.) are covering them. Content is easy to source and quickly distribute on a minute-by-minute basis.

Is it somehow wrong when music blogs parallel the “what’s new, what’s hot” mentality as for-profit media? What is the nature and point of music blogs then? Is it the stict realm of personal, unsolicited opinions only? Does crossing into service journalism and covering subjects that fall outside of individual preference somehow violate unwritten rules? I really don’t know because there are no rules. There are larger questions here that are better suited for future topics. I do believe that it is only natural that most music blogs inevitably line up with popular trends. It’s not wrong. It’s an immortal “it is what it is”.

So what about the question of worthiness. Are these hyped groups really that great? That is a question that cannot be answered, an argument that cannot be won or lost. It is a wholly subjective matter. I do have a solution for avoiding the blogs I don’t like though and it’s simple and liberating: I don’t read them.

Yes, I can choose to ignore these bastions of buzz. Sure, I want to know what’s going on, what “the kids” are talking about. I scan some sites I don’t like on occasion just to find out who is hot. But the whole argument of blogger banality can easily be squashed with a simple Google search.

Look beyond the 10-15 most commonly linked blogs and you’ll find someone writing passionately about nearly every band that has ever existed. Disregard the sites that seem to hold up fingers to test the wind before posting and find that the Word is out there, testifying in the wilderness to greatness worth appreciating. These are the sites I want to find, frequent and support. These are the examples I want to follow. This is the bedrock for me: keep it honest and personal.

My point? Stop complaining about similarity and start discovering what else is out there. My assumption is the vast majority of music blogs operate under this principle: People write about music they like, without thought of profit, popularity or ego strokes. If it happens to align with the “flavor of the day”, so be it. It’s ultimately up to the reader to determine the sincerity of the blogger. It’s up to the blogger to keep it real. It’s magic when those two meet.



More to come.

So my blogging “vacation” went a few weeks longer than Jason’s, thanks to a few things in the mix. The more interesting half was a trip to Prague (which was a blast) and Budapest (which was flat-out *amazing* – making the current state of affairs there a bit unsettling). Then school started back up again, and it’s been keeping me busy since. But what else I have been up to?

Well, last week had two highlights:

- Soulwax‘s visit to Studio B in Brooklyn last Thursday tops the list. I was looking forward to the party mainly for the 2manyDJ’s set – they’re always fun live, and it’d been ages since I last saw them. I was looking at Soulwax’s live Nite Versions set as a mere bonus. I had things completely wrong. Soulwax absolutely killed it, putting on one of the best shows I’ve seen all year.

Inspired by the Human League‘s Love and Dancing, Nite Versions is Soulwax’s Any Minute Now LP remixed in entirety, and the band played it straight through on Thursday with just a few changes – “Another Excuse” got moved to the middle, and snippets from some choice covers (“Your Love”!) were peppered throughout. With a drummer and guitarist joining the Dewaele brothers on keyboards, they played it 100% live (!) and were insanely tight and energetic. Not once they did miss a beat or slip up. I never expected to be so blown away. They reminded me of LCD Soundsystem live, except they took that sound to totally new heights. Perhaps the best thing I can say about the show is that I’ll never again think of 2manyDJ’s as DJ’s first and the guys behind Soulwax second. The fact that I heard only 15 minutes of their DJ set and didn’t mind says it all.

- Girl Talk‘s Night Ripper was an August obsession of mine, and I made my way to APT last Tuesday to catch him live. The most common criticism I’ve heard about Girl Talk is that he isn’t doing anything with his sample-heavy style that Diplo and others haven’t done before. I can see that, but Girl Talk’s approach is so much more frenzied that I think it still feels fresh. Diminishing returns will probably be an issue, but last week’s party came early enough in the curve for me. His live set was good – about what you’d expect, but not as crazy with the samples as on album. It still made for a fun time though. (But my highlight of the night was Roy Dank dropping Loose Joints‘ “Tell You (Today)” – love that song!)

Plus I’ve been working through lots of albums in the listening pile, including:

Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass. This album most reminds me of Electr-O-Pura, but what I love is how it doesn’t sound quite like anything the band has released to date. The most valid criticism of Summer Sun was that YLT were settling into a groove. You can’t say that about this one, not with the falsetto piano pop of “Mr. Tough” staring you in the eye just a few songs after the stellar 10-minute opening guitar jam “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind” (MP3). The band recently did a “Name That Tune” feature for the Guardian, and Ira Kaplan wrote up 12 of his favorite albums for eMusic. Both are worth a read. YLT plays Jersey City this Friday, and I cannot wait.

Arthur Russell – Springfield. Take the loopy disco of Calling Out of Context (and especially “Calling All Kids”), add in the dreamy strings, synths, and vocals of Russell’s quieter work, and sprinkle in effects liberally. Springfield sees many of AR’s styles colliding, and it works wonderfully. “Springfield” – both the original and the DFA remix – is the big highlight here, but I also love the sound of Russell’s cello running through a distortion pedal on “You Have Did The Right Thing When You Put That Skylight In” (MP3). Kudos to Audika Records for putting this release together.

Cassy – Panorama Bar 01. Mix of the year? Too many contenders and it’s too early to say, but it’s up there for me. CD’s like this make me want to move to Berlin.

Yellow Magic Orchestra – Yellow Magic Orchestra and Solid State Survivor. Thank you Senor Coconut for turning me on to these guys, the “Japanese Kraftwerk.” Try the awesome “Firecracker” (MP3) or their deliciously ragged cover of “Day Tripper” (MP3).

The Velvet Underground – VU. Someone should’ve told me this was essential listening sooner! “Foggy Notion” alone gets it there.

Also:

Matador has made Matmos‘s fantastic “Steams and Sequins for Larry Levan” (MP3) available for download. Matmos make their name with electronics but always top themselves live, and this song was the easy winner of their two spring NYC shows. It turned into a 6 person percussion jam both times, and that’s not counting all the live sampling. They’re back in October for two shows at the Symphony Space. Not to be missed!

Here are two recently released favorites of mine:

Rub-N-Tug: Better with a Spoonful of Leather: Rub-N-Tug‘s second mix for aNYthing keeps sticking to the bottom of my brain, like the aural equivalent of primordial ooze. Hot tar! The tempos trudge rather than strut, guitar riffs strum and hang in the air before fading like puffs of blue smoke. If you prefer disco slow and low, with heavy helpings of sludgy vocals and drugged out atmosphere, then this is your record.

- Listen to “Slipps” (MP3)

R.E.M.: And I Feel Fine…The Best of the I.R.S. Years: I came of R.E.M. age at the end of their fruitful run on I.R.S. Records. Ushered into the cult by a top-40 radio hit, “The One I Love”, and its respective record Document, I was unfamiliar with the glories of their preceding catalogue. So I walked slowly backwards, from Life’s Rich Pageant all the way down the road to Chronic Town. From “Begin the Begin” to “Gardening at Night”, an unforgettable journey I wish I could repeat again today.

Now I can in a way, with And I Feel Fine…, a compilation of R.E.M.s pre-major label greats. The songs may not be surprises now and recent releases have somewhat tarnished the band’s appeal in my eyes, but from start to finish this is an amazing collection. I like jangling, mumbling R.E.M. best, so I appreciate the inclusion of unsung songs like “Feeling Gravity’s Pull”, “Life and How to Live it”, and “Pilgrimage”. The second disc of band favorites, live tracks and other miscellany is required listening.