Fountains of Wayne/Stephin Merritt
Songs From Venus and Green Bay, Wisconsin
By Xgau Aug 23, 2011 7:44AM
Fountains of Wayne: Sky Full of Holes (Yep Roc)
This leads mean, devastatingly so. The family who own "The Summer Place" is tragic and/or pathetic while "Richie and Ruben" and their "bar called Living Hell" are comic and/or repugnant, but both portraits feed off a dismay with the affluent professional world genius hookmeisters are privy to. Eventually the album warms up‑-"A Road Song," from a tour bus out of Green Bay, is the most touching love song yet from guys who've written more than you think, and "Workingman's Hands" dares Alan Jackson to cover it. What's missing is any sense of why these four songs are on the same album. Genius hookmeisters can do what they please, but here the genius has holes like the sky of the title, which were put there by a 21-gun salute it shouldn't have taken me 12 plays to notice. A MINUS
Stephin Merritt: Obscurities (Merge)
Nine seven-inches etc. plus five previously unreleaseds including three remnants of an abandoned musical obviously add up to an intentional hodgepodge. Still, I wonder whether the intention was to backload. I got dubious tracks four through eight, beginning with a faux Patsy Cline song that some find vrai and sounds like merde to me, only to be swept off my feet by Merritt thoughtfully intoning some little green men's "Song From Venus." Then there's the paranoid-robotic "When I'm Not Looking, You're Not There." It's just made for an arrangement that, according to Merritt, takes "random chord tones in random octaves, and hocket[s] them between dozens of instruments." A MINUS
362Comments
Aug 26, 2011 10:29PM
Christopher Small is indeed a treasure as an insightful writer. My only regrets about "Musicking" are that more people aren't familiar with the concept (or the book itself) and that it hasn't been followed up elsewhere as a source to explore the idea more. You could literally have a series of books covering each of the facets that he comes up with there, covering all the aspects of the experience of producing and consuming music. Maybe someday it'll happen (and if I'm wrong, please provide details as I'd love to hear about it!).
Small also happens to be a wonderful person. I visited him and Neville in Spain several years ago and they were very gracious hosts. I was sorry to hear about Neville and hope that Small can carry on.
Small also happens to be a wonderful person. I visited him and Neville in Spain several years ago and they were very gracious hosts. I was sorry to hear about Neville and hope that Small can carry on.
Aug 26, 2011 5:15AM
I will try to put this as clearly as I can: Christopher Small completely changed the way we study, teach, and live popular music. His concept of "musicking" is central to contemporary academic formulations of music production and reception: it is only the ubiquity of the formulation that sometimes makes it difficult to see the contribution made by each of his individual works. I know that when I read Common Tongue when I was in graduate school (and Musicking a bit later) my own approach to teaching and writing about popular music and the history of race relations in the United States was changed for good.
Jeff Melnick
Cambridge, MA
Jeff Melnick
Cambridge, MA
Aug 26, 2011 4:59AM
Aug 26, 2011 3:36AM
Aug 25, 2011 11:39PM
While on vacation, I listened to The Falcons on iPod. They have a track entitled "Let's Kiss and Make Up" with a guitar solo by a fellow named Robert Ward that even Lowman Pauling would be proud to have played. He was a direct sonic influence and inspiration on the great Lonnie Mack, as Mack himself always said. Later, he ended up as a session guitarist at Motown. Later still, his life fell apart, he left music, and did a year in prison at the same joint as Major Lance! In 1990, Ward met a guitar shop owner who got him back into music and recording.
Long story short- check out his blazing fretwork on "Let's Kiss and Make Up." You'll thank me for it! Also, out of curiosity, has anyone else hear heard it before?
Aug 25, 2011 11:25PM
Speaking of Luna's Britta Phillips, she ran away from home at 16 and eventually ended up in Hollywood, where she had a brief acting career. If any of you recall the critically acclaimed Crime Story from the late 1980s, which lasted for two seasons, there's an episode where she plays a beautiful call girl. She has recently started doing voice work again after a 20 year layoff. Here is her IMDB for those who are interested.
http://goo.gl/HFE7B
Aug 25, 2011 10:56PM
Aug 25, 2011 10:42PM
BTW, Cam, I know you like higher bitrates, so I'll mention that iTunes has the superb "Angry Inch" at 256. Otherwise, you can wait for the copy on S-K Rarities, which is 192k.
As I mentioned, it won't have any covers. I could always use a high quality jpg of Taylor Momsen in one of her "expensive hooker" outfits if people like. She does seem to be the future of American female punk at the moment
Aug 25, 2011 10:32PM
Cam, thanks for the well wishes. Richard, a Springsteen cover, eh? I'm starting to wonder if the ladies EVER did any punk covers. I know they're on record as saying that Zep was the only thing they could always agree to listen to while touring, which contributed to their finally making their "Zep album" with The Woods.
Aug 25, 2011 10:27PM
Joe, it sounds like I'm probably 10 years or more older than you are. Some memorable shows I saw at the old F street location... The Replacements on the Let It Be tour a week or two after "someone's" Village Voice cover story introduced them to a grateful nation. They were magical and didn't fool around. No boot seems to exist of that show. :-( I was there for Richard Hell c.1985; got so drunk I fell asleep shortly before he went onstage and literally slept through the whole thing :-( hehehehe
I was there for the "B Surfers" show the night they were playing with fire and their smoke machine, with Gibby singing through his megaphone while their woman danced nude on stage. Suddenly he announced that the club was on fire, it was not part of the show, and we had to get out PRONTO! That was 1987 or '88. I saw the Feelies c. 1989 and it was a jangle pop firestorm of duel guitar.
I saw Luna twice; once in 2001 and then in '03 or '04. I heart Britta Phillips! On the second show, they played with Consonant, which was Clint Conley's group before Mission of Burma reformed. I thought The Strokes were boring (playing the whole first album in order? Gimme a break!) but the MPs were fun!
With SK, I have a 128k rip of the 9:30 show someone gave me but there are no song titles, just track 1, track 2, etc. I have a 180-210k VBR copy of a show SK did a few days later in Atlanta. They didn't do "Fortunate Son."
I live in Phoenix now, so we won't be meeting up at the 9:30 or in Charm City any time soon.
Aug 25, 2011 10:27PM
Aug 25, 2011 10:20PM
Aug 25, 2011 10:02PM
Aug 25, 2011 10:00PM
Now that's something that I'd like to know more about.
18 tracks, 57 minutes (though some of the live tracks have a lot of talking and jokes before the music), and it runs 95 meg. The live tracks are covers or non-LP originals. One track is 160k, the rest are pretty evenly split between 192 and 256. Some songs may already be in your collection as a diehard, e.g., "Off With Yr Head", "Tapping", "Lions and Tigers", and "By The Times Ur 25". It includes the studio version (iTunes purchased) of "Fortunate Son" and live versions of "Rock Lobster" and a live medley "White Rabbit" with their own "Turn It On". There are no trivial live songs, e.g., boots or the iTunes only Lollapalooza '06 mini-set.
"Angry Itch" with Fred Schneider totally rules, while "Write Me Back, Effer" (effer spelled out) is their only studio song with an obscenity in the title. I never made covers for the thing, though there are covers of a couple of compilations and any live songs converted by 2conv. com include a cover that's an ad.
Anyhow, no one else has ever used my iTunes "Fortunate Son", so I think I could pass that to Cam- objections, anyone?- as a "thank you" for all the great work on behalf of our community. I know that I've occasionally picked up purchased iTunes songs that play, so the fact that this has only been on one authorized computer should allow Cam to play it, I think. I also owe Bradley a favor, so he's welcome to the track if it works. For everyone else, it will run 17 tracks with no CCR cover.
Unfortunately, I had a nasty cyst arise yesterday and I'm being examined by a surgeon tomorrow morning. I'm in no mood at the moment to clean up the "SK Rarities" and post it but sometime in the next few days to few weeks I'll put it up on mediafire.
Aug 25, 2011 9:40PM
Aug 25, 2011 9:38PM
Cyclops, I was at the Strokes/Moldy Peaches show, and at several Luna shows there over the years. (Including one at the original 9:30 location in '94.) We're coming up on the 10th anniversary of that Strokes show in a few weeks - I distinctly remember that it was a few weeks after 9/11. Is This It had just been released. I went to the 9:30 Club with some regularity from roughly '94 to about '07, but I'm kind of down to about once a year or so now. (In fact, I'm presently wearing a De La Soul shirt from the Grind Date tour - bought at their 9:30 Club show.) Most recently, my wife got the two of us tickets to see the Feelies there as a father's day gift. It's really terrific venue, and we're lucky to get so many acts in this part of the country. But I live in Baltimore, so it's something of a haul to get down there.
Aug 25, 2011 9:30PM
Guess I've been working pretty hard today, because I come back and we're at what, 349, the last 80 or so of which I haven't read yet. But before it's too late--and I'll be reposting this at the top tomorrow--I have something I want to ask of however many of you it involves.
It's about the musicologist Christopher Small, who I wrote about in a Voice Rock & Roll & essay called "Thinking About Musicking" and later published a long interview with in Perfect Sound Forever. He's written three books: Music Society Education, Music of the Common Tongue, and Musicking, and I'm hoping that a few of you have read at least one of them. That's because he's very ill as well as bereaved by the death of his wonderful husband Neville Braithwaite, and a few of his close friends would like to cheer him up with testimonials from his many admirers. As my piece tries to explain, Small is a remarkable man who has changed lives. If he's affected yours, please post a few sentences (or more if you like) about him or his writing here and I'll compile them and send them along to Susan McClary, who is organizing this project.
It's about the musicologist Christopher Small, who I wrote about in a Voice Rock & Roll & essay called "Thinking About Musicking" and later published a long interview with in Perfect Sound Forever. He's written three books: Music Society Education, Music of the Common Tongue, and Musicking, and I'm hoping that a few of you have read at least one of them. That's because he's very ill as well as bereaved by the death of his wonderful husband Neville Braithwaite, and a few of his close friends would like to cheer him up with testimonials from his many admirers. As my piece tries to explain, Small is a remarkable man who has changed lives. If he's affected yours, please post a few sentences (or more if you like) about him or his writing here and I'll compile them and send them along to Susan McClary, who is organizing this project.
Aug 25, 2011 9:29PM
Aug 25, 2011 9:28PM
Aug 25, 2011 9:27PM
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about the blogger
Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
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