Anamanaguchi – Dawn Metropolis

With the chiptune scene becoming increasingly important and interesting, it was only a matter of time before a band like Anamanaguchi showed up with a radical new take on the genre. While many chiptune artists create rocking music using synthesizers and NES sound chips alone, Anamanaguchi complement their sound with live guitar, bass and drums. The synthesis of the two worlds is difficult to categorize; it has the excitement of metal, the timbre of a vintage video game, the rhythm of dance-punk. Dawn Metropolis is an exciting album, pure and simple.

Mos Def – The Ecstatic

Mos Def made a big impact in the late 90′s, both with Black Star and his excellent solo album Black on Both Sides. Unfortunately his releases this decade have been somewhat lacklustre, and adherents have long anticipated a return to form. I doubt The Ecstatic is exactly what they were looking for.

The album doesn’t statically capture his old sound, but rather reflects the tribulations and blessings of the interim decade. Songs with Middle Eastern vibe (“Auditorium” and “Wahid” in particular) echo the complexities of America’s increasing involvement in that part of the world. In contrast, “Life In Marvelous Times” and “Casa Bey” explore the obligations of fulfilment and plenty. It’s a remarkably mature and complex album, more authentic than an anachronistic carbon copy of Black Star.

Fever Ray – s/t

Fans of the Swedish electronic duo The Knife had a lot to be excited about this year, as Karin Dreijer Andersson released her highly anticipated solo album under the alias Fever Ray. The album is significantly murkier and slower paced than the band’s other material; the formerly danceable elements of The Knife’s sound (layered synthesizers, tribal drums) are translated to be mournful and foreboding. The exploration of deep pitch shifting is particularly interesting, given Karin’s haunting voice and distinctive accent. The entire album has a shamanic vibe, an aesthetic that’s reflected in her live shows.

Metric – Fantasies

I’m surprised I haven’t seen this album on more “best of” lists, especially given the long gap since their last record. Have we started taking excellent Metric albums for granted now? Fantasies is loaded with hits: “Help I’m Alive”, “Gimme Sympathy”, and “Front Row” all charted in Canada. The new songs are layered with synthesizers and vocal harmonies; in contrast the lyrics are more romantic and personal. Metric is really hitting their stride as a band, and as a fan I’d be quite content to see more of the same in their next album.

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Like many people, I became aware of Dirty Projectors after the 2007 release of Rise Above, a cover album of Black Flag’s Damaged reinterpreted from childhood memory. It was a really interesting experiment, but the cognitive dissonance caused by knowing the original songs made it a bit difficult to appreciate.

Bitte Orca, on the other hand, is composed of entirely original material and is significantly stronger as a result. The band’s idiosyncratic formula contrasts Dave Longstreth’s strange soaring voice with soft vocal harmonies by Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian. While the singing is usually backed by extremely minimal instrumentation, the guitar and drums occasionally crescendo to incredible effect (ex: “Useful Chamber”). I suspect this is the kind of formula you either love or hate, but to me it’s absolutely magical.

Honourable Mentions

• Regina Spektor – Far
• Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3
• St. Vincent – Actor
• Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
• Sieber, Kammen, Fulton and Schatz – Braid OST

That’s my perspective on 2009 in music! Did I miss any of your personal favourites? I’m always open to new music suggestions, so please do drop me a comment with your picks.

When I first listened to Future Of The Left‘s “The Hope That House Built”, my first thought was: “that’s the filthiest guitar I’ve ever heard!” Their latest album Travels With Myself and Another is dirty, hungry and excellent throughout. With indie rock tending toward dreamy Pet Sounds pop these days, their heavier sound is both refreshing and distinctive.

Could this trio of teenagers (16, 21 and 19 respectively) from London spark a modern swing / rockabilly revival? I certainly hope so! Kitty, Daisy & Lewis‘s self-titled album consists mostly of covers, but they have a unique contemporary take on the classics. Beyond genre novelty, the band’s sheer instrumental ability shines through, particularly Kitty Durham’s wailing harmonica. This is a band to watch, without a doubt.

Regina Spektor‘s latest album Far was released yesterday, and I assure you it will be playing on repeat at my place for the foreseeable future. A Soviet-born, Bronx-raised folk singer, Regina’s music is defined by its contradictions. Her songs are playful and mournful, traditional and experimental. If “Dance Anthem Of The 80′s” (embedded above) made you smile, I strongly suggest investigating her entire discography.

Finally, the story of Connie Converse is as peculiar as it is heartbreaking. In the 1950′s, this aspiring musician was living in an apartment in Greenwich Village. Her melancholic, thoughtful, feminist music was perhaps too avant-garde for contemporary recording companies, and she was never picked up. Disillusioned, she packed up and disappeared.

However, her private recordings were rediscovered decades later, “unearthed from the bottom of a filing cabinet.” As Lucy Foley [via Simon Parkin] explains, her music is remarkable:

This woman wrote her songs before the Beatles showed up. Before Elvis showed up. Before rock ‘n’ roll showed up. Long before the singer songwriter paradigm showed up. Connie Converse was writing songs in the fifties of such intimacy, wit and poignancy that would not be heard in the mainstream until Joni Mitchell came along, a hundred cultural light years later. There’s an uncanny quality in Connie Converse. Her songs go on journeys into yearning, into the uncanny.

You can hear more about this outstanding lost musician on WYNC’s Spinning on Air, and purchase an album from the people who rediscovered her work.

That’s all from me, but if you’re looking for more music check out Nav’s Summer selection over at Scrawled in Wax.

Last month, head editor Ben Abraham and his crew of bloggers launched Critical Distance, a game criticism archive and compilation blog. They’ve been doing a terrific job, linking out to fascinating new sites and really expanding the conversation.

With exams over, I recently had a chance to contribute something: a post wherein I attempt to connect my love of indie games with my interest in music history. A quick note about the unusual format: it’s not intended to be an in-depth comparison, just a light exploration of the concept via various game bloggers.

Critical Distance – Punk & Indie Games

If you’re looking for fresh perspectives in video game criticism, then Critical Distance is definitely a website to watch.

Here are his picks for this month:

Greetings, Quixotic Engineer readers. I’m quite tickled that I have this opportunity to share my recent musical obsessions with you, which Matthew graciously invited me to do. Now, to the music:

Aleks & the Drummer is a local favorite of mine, based here in Chicago. It consists of ‘Aleks’andra Tomaszewska on farfisa organ alongside her siren-y vocals and Deric Criss on drums. I saw them open for The Octopus Project in 2007, and in 2008 they finally released the EP May a Lightning Bolt Caress You, filled with tracks that manage to sculpt out a space that brings to my mind space-age choirs. The ethereal landscape that is provided by Aleks through her two chosen instruments is well complemented by the driving force and reality that is Deric’s percussion.

I’ve always had a mild obsession with Grace Jones, ever since I first saw her in “Conan: The Destroyer”. Years later I would discover her music, and then my friend Josh showed me this video from her recently released Hurricane. The album itself is rather spotty, though the tracks that do stand out do so quite forcefully, and well. This was the first single, and seems to be perfectly suited for the economic crisis in which we find ourselves. Needless to say, it’s been played a few times since I’ve heard it.

Two notes: this video is much better viewed in HD and is NSFW. I have a special place in my heart for Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, given his treatises on gender and a voice that seems to reverberate with that special quality we attribute to the soul singers of the past. From his new album, The Crying Light, this song has a very soft touch in its instrumentation, in contrast with the floating majesty of Antony’s voice.

There exists no actual video for the song I wanted to share for Goblin Cock, but this happened to aurally work its way into my brain quite effectively regardless. Goblin Cock includes the talents of Rob Crow, a rather prolific artist, if not widely known. What we have is a doom metal band that doesn’t take itself seriously, nor is completely lost in genre with gruffly presented lyrics. The result is the doom metal sound with only two acknowledgements: well-written in its form and fun.

Thanks again to Denis for graciously accepting to guestblog, check out more of his great work at Vorpal Bunny Ranch.

Fleet Foxes – s/t

A delightful, dreamy folk album that evokes the softer side of Jethro Tull. It’s lovingly and masterfully crafted from beginning to end. “White Winter Hymnal” is the perfect song for a chilly December afternoon, and “Ragged Wood” feels like a long walk through a familiar forest.

Girl Talk – Feed The Animals

I’ll admit, this album would likely have been higher on the list if I didn’t consider it an immense guilty pleasure. Thumbing his nose at the RIAA and other creativity destroying goons, Girl Talk gleefully samples across eras and genres to create his distinctive sound. The tracks are light and fluffy like the pop music they sample, transitioning from earworm to earworm at a furious pace. Like no other artist, Girl Talk coaxes harmony out of cacophony.

Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple

This album came as a complete surprise to me, as their breakthrough effort and its massive hit “Crazy” left me cold. I picked up The Odd Couple on a whim and discovered an urgent, poignant pop/soul/hip hop album that was uniformly excellent all the way through. I can’t imagine why singles like “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” and “Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)” didn’t chart well.

Santogold – s/t

I wrote about Santogold‘s terrific debut album back in May, and I’m still listening to it regularly today. It’s a lovely eclectic record, M.I.A.-like on “Creator” while “Lights Out” is upbeat alternative. Amazingly, the disparate tracks come together to produce a refreshing coherent whole.

Shugo Tokumaru – EXIT

In October I described Shugo Tokumaru as falling “somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and the Katamari Damacy soundtrack.” EXIT is a quirky potent mix of pop, folk, and elements that I can only assume are uniquely Japanese. It’s dreamy and clever and, frankly, I’m nuts about it.

Honourable Mentions

• Beck – Modern Guilt: It didn’t reach very far artistically, but it’s the return of the catchy concise Beck we didn’t see on 2005′s The Information.
• Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue: More honky tonk indie rock? Yes please.
• TV on the Radio – Dear Science: It featured some very solid singles, but didn’t grab me as a whole.

Happy new year, I’ll see you all in 2009!

UPDATE: I’m sheepish about admitting this, but the list previously included Cross by Justice, an album I was quickly told was released in 2007. It was new to me! Thanks to Denis for the correction.

Brick (House) – Ben Folds vs. The Commodores [MP3]

Sometimes I have silly ideas about mixed brick metaphors.

This just goes to show that my poor audio editing skills are second only to my poor photoshop skills. Thanks to Ben for the audio isolating tips.

December is also a great time to be a music fan. All the music journalists are coming out with their top 10 album lists and you get to discover all the cool stuff you missed that year. This is how I discovered Janelle Monáe‘s debut EP Metropolis: The Chase. It caught my eye for exploring science fiction themes with a quirky Blade Runner inspired android love story. Her sound is a wonderful experimental blend of R&B, funk and spoken word, reminding me quite a bit of Outkast (she was featured on two songs off Idlewild.) Altogether a terrific start, I look forward to her first full length album.

I first heard of Max Tundra‘s latest album Parallax Error Beheads You from Chris Dahlen, who has already called it his favourite of 2008. I’ve been on a bit of a lo-fi kick these past few months, so it really hit the spot for me. Composed entirely on a Commodore Amiga 500, I would categorize it as progressive pop (you can’t get away with extended synthesizer solos without someone throwing in the “prog” word.) It may not suit everyone’s tastes, but I love it.

Nav may currently be on blogging hiatus (working on his PhD, which I’m told involves writing long essays and purchasing a tweed jacket), but that hasn’t stopped him from sharing interesting music on Google Reader. The latest is a band called The Happy Hollows, whose recent EP Imaginary is “free” if you’re willing to spam five friends about it. However, the album is so good that it’s almost worth losing respect in the eyes of your peers for. Fitting somewhere between the Fiery Furnaces and the White Stripes, they tell rambling stories and like to mix up the tempo. The Happy Hollows are another new band to watch.

7/10 – The Doyouinverts [download]

Finally, a comedy song about the romantic woes of a video game reviewer that Kieron Gillen described as “my life, basically.” This song is so funny that the very though of some of you not clicking through to listen to it compelled me to transcribe it:

[Show/Hide Lyrics]

That’s it for December, happy listening!

Many thanks to Chris Dahlen for linking me to TV on the Radio‘s latest album Dear Science, because it’s one of the loudest, freshest, funkiest records I’ve heard this year. His review over at Pitchfork says it better than I ever could, but it you like to think and dance (possibly at the same time) I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out. You can stream high quality versions of the album’s singles on their website.

I’m likewise indebted to Chris Furniss for introducing me to the music of Shugo Tokumaru. Fortunately I made this discovery early enough in the month for me to catch his show at Pop Montreal last Friday. He’s a virtuoso guitarist, and managed to coax such a rich sound out of six strings that you could have sworn he had an entire band backing him up. His latest album EXIT has been on repeat at my place for the last few weeks, it falls delightfully somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and the Katamari Damacy soundtrack. Another unconditional recommendation, pick it up and tell your friends.

Earlier this month I was browsing through Talib Kweli‘s back albums on Sven’s recommendation and I stumbled upon this gem, a 1998 collaboration with Mos Def called Black Star. It has everything you’d expect from a great hip-hop album: biting social commentary, fat beats and tight flow. Sadly this is the only album they’ve ever collaborated on, so you’ll have to check out their respective discographies if you want more.

Now if you excuse me, I believe I hear Mega Man 9 calling my name.

Straight out of Springfield, Missouri, Ha Ha Tonka‘s Buckle In The Bible Belt is full of foot-stompin’ roots rock about hardships in the Ozarks. While the rest of the album is great highway driving music, the track “Falling In” (embedded above) really stands out for its indie rock ballad sensibilities, strong vocal harmonies and overall catchiness. The bluegrass inspired “St. Nick on the Fourth in a Fervor” is also worth a listen.

I would place Apes & Androids‘ sound somewhere between the electric rock opera bombast of Muse and the low key funk of Beck. It’s a strange mix but they make it work. The track “Riverside” starts off with subdued folk guitar but crescendos into a cacophony worthy of a Final Fantasy boss fight. Their album Blood Moon is a mixed bag, but features gems such as “Hot Kathy” and “We Don’t Understand You.”

Love Is Where The Smoke Is is lead singer Jamie Fooks’ bedroom work of passion. The Calgary native taught herself to sing, play, compose and digitally record throughout the album’s creation. Jane Vain & The Dark Matter‘s debut is surprisingly well polished while maintaining the lyrical honesty of an enthusiast. Feist, eat your heart out.

Finally, I picked up David Byrne and Brian Eno‘s latest collaboration Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. While it’s more accessible than some of their earlier work (following the trend of the later Talking Heads albums), they’ve snuck in a few strange tracks such as “I Feel My Stuff.” The flash widget embedded above actually streams the entire album, a commendable move that certainly embraces the spirit of the digital music revolution.

Here are his top picks for this month:

As a regular reader of The Quixotic Engineer, I always look forward to the monthly Musical Box posts – so it’s quite the honour to get to do one myself! My thanks to Matthew. Without further ado, here are some of my recent musical faves.

Mark Kozelek has been making music for over twenty years, first with Red House Painters and most recently with Sun Kil Moon. I loved Sun Kil’s first disc, Ghosts of the Great Highway, and looked forward to their most recent release, April, with a great deal of anticipation. It was worth it. “Moorestown” (above) does a lot to showcase the bittersweet ache at the core of Kozelek’s work, which is littered with tales of love and loss, elation and pain. Fun fact: Kozelek played the bassist of fictional band Stillwater in the film Almost Famous.

I came across Jenny Owen Youngs in a simple 10 or 20 second clip from the second season opener of Weeds. The song, “Fuck Was I” is like much of Youngs’ music: dark, cynical and yet somehow sweet at the same time. It’s an oddly disconcerting yet disarming combination and I’ve literally listened to this track 50 times in the past few weeks. 2005′s Batten the Hatches, which this song is from, is well worth the listen.

Finally, someone combines my love of Indian classical music and long guitar solos! Niladri Kumar has become adept at melding the old and the new and is quickly becoming a rock star in the world of Indian classical, so much so that he has invented his own electric sitar, the ‘Zitar’. This short clip highlights both his virtuosity and capacity to mix rock star flash and classical rigour. Unfortunately, there is much less of Kumar’s more traditional work online, which is a shame as it’s also excellent. If you’re curious, I’d recommend starting with his disc Revelation, which you can hear clips of here.

Finally, in perhaps the most aptly named album I’ve heard in a while, we have From Here We Go Sublime by The Field. It’s spacey, electronic and yet somehow manages to remain remarkably organic and melodic. It’s perfect music for spending late summer evening watching time drift by. The clip here is a fan-made video, but it’s done by the same user responsible for the Girl Talk mashup vids.

That’s it for July, thanks again to Nav and be sure to check out more of his work over at Scrawled In Wax.

To those of us raised on three chord rock and 2:50 pop songs, however, jazz can seem a tad impenetrable. The songs often lack a traditional structure, and change rhythm and melody on the fly. Lacking a paradigm within which to understand the music, it can be difficult to pursue the active, focused listening required to properly grok it.

I don’t pretend to have any kind of jazz credentials; I wouldn’t even call myself a serious enthusiast. However, if you’re a rock music fan interested in exploring jazz but unsure of where to begin, I may have a few suggestions. By finding parallels between rock and jazz artists, I hope to make bridging the gap a little easier.

If you listen to Frank Zappa, you might be interested in…

Charles Mingus – Better Git It In Your Soul

If you’re a fan of Frank Zappa, you’re probably already comfortable with strange melodies, large horn sections and improvisation. While he experimented with jazz fusion on many of his successful mid-70′s solo albums (such as Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo) the influences in his music can be heard as early as 1969′s Hot Rats. Conversely, it’s not uncommon to hear a modern jazz band perform their own interpretation of “Inca Roads” or “Peaches en Regalia.”

Charles Mingus’ music greatly influenced Zappa’s sound. Indeed, he’s one of the few jazz composers name checked in the liner notes of Freak Out!, listed under “These People Have Contributed Materially In Many Ways To Make Our Music What It Is. Please Do Not Hold It Against Them.” Mingus shares Zappa’s affinity for punchy, energetic and strongly emotional music. I would highly recommend his seminal recording Mingus Ah Um, widely considered to be one of the greatest jazz albums of all time.

If you listen to Van Halen, you might be interested in…

Oscar Peterson Trio – Tristeza

This is a bit more of a stretch than my last recommendation. One of the signature elements of Van Halen’s sound is Eddie Van Halen’s virtuoso guitar work. Famous for popularizing tapping (using both hands on the guitar’s neck to play notes extremely quickly), Eddie is considered one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time. In that respect, he has quite a bit in common with Oscar Peterson, a man once named the “Maharaja of the keyboard.”

The late Oscar Peterson grew up in the Afro-Caribbean district of Little Burgundy in Montreal. His prolific career spanned over 50 years, in which time he produced literally hundreds (!) of albums. It’s difficult to know where to start exploring his music; unlike many jazz artists he didn’t have a single magnum opus that defined his career. However, the Oscar Peterson Trio’s 1970 release Tristeza on Piano is a definite highlight.

If you enjoy Animal Collective, you might be interested in…

Thelonious Monk – Straight, No Chaser

Not necessarily Animal Collective per se, but any band that’s actively involved in pushing the boundaries of music and sound. I’m talking about experimental bands such as Battles, The Fiery Furnaces and The Mars Volta. If you enjoy artists who explore new ways of thinking about rhythm and melody, then Thelonious Monk’s innovative sound might appeal to you as well.

Wikipedia had a surprisingly insightful description of what exactly made Thelonious Monk’s music so revolutionary: “His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are impossible to separate from Monk’s unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations.” I particularly enjoy his exploration of dissonance, you can hear it used to great effect in the audio sample embedded above. His fast tempos and jumpy piano playing set the foundation for the subset of jazz known as bebop. If you’re interested in exploring his music, I would begin with the 1957 collaboration Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane.

I hope these three recommendations have given you a potential starting point for exploring the genre. Of course I’m still green when it comes to jazz, so please educate me by leaving your artist and song suggestions in the comments below.

Ladytron’s new album Velocifero came out at the beginning of June, and it quickly became one of my favourite albums of 2008 so far. I’m not always big on electropop, but their heavy beats and thick synth layers really won me over. Helen Marnie’s haunting voice probably had something to do with it as well. If you like this song I recommend checking out “Tomorrow” off the same album.

I was introduced to The Young Knives by Boing Boing of all places (follow the link, they do a terrific acoustic set.) The lyrics to “Turn Tail” are very evocative; I particularly like the “head in my hands / hands in the soil” bit and the chanting of “I will turn tail and run” towards the end. Truth be told, I don’t think any of their other songs are quite as interesting as this one. Apparently the band is quite big in the UK, but mostly due to their pop-ier singles.

The video below contains graphic and disturbing historical footage, please click with caution.

I discovered this protest song by Phil Ochs via Bill Harris. I’m a casual fan of 60′s folk music, but I somehow missed Ochs up to now. I’d never before heard someone sing and tell a story in equal parts so majestically before. The message of his music is still incredibly relevant today, be sure to check out “Cops of the World” and “Love Me, I’m a Liberal” as well.

Brazilian Diamonds – DJ Earworm [download]

I’ll leave you with a rather clever mash-up of Django Reinhardt’s “Brazil” with Paul Simon’s “Diamonds On The Soles of Her Shoes” by DJ Earworm. I hadn’t intended to include this song, but Dan and Michael got a kick out of it so I thought you all might as well. Enjoy!

The show was scheduled to start at 8:30, but we got there at 7 to ensure a good spot (it was a free show after all.) There were Wii and Xbox 360 stations set up for people to play, as well as a Guitar Hero competition that went on throughout the day. There were a few cosplayers, including a troupe of Jedis and a dude in a fantastic Phoenix Wright costume. There were also hordes of people playing DS while they waited, so it was a good opportunity for me to take advantage of The World Ends With You‘s mingle mode feature.

Before the main event, the two finalists of the Guitar Hero competition were invited to play a final match on the unreleased Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, playing the Run-D.M.C. cover of “Walk This Way.” The winner got a free copy of the game, and an Xbox if I recall correctly. They also had a costume competition, and someone in a pretty good Kid Icarus costume won (Phoenix Wright was robbed! Objection!)

Once conductor Jack Wall bounded onto the stage in an outfit that would make Ian Anderson proud, the show began with a medley of arcade music. Accompanying it were short video clips of the games in question, as is the formula of the entire show. The crowd loved it, often shouting out the names of their favourite games as they appeared on screen. I would say that there were approximately forty musicians on stage, including a full choir and two or three solo opera vocalists.

Host Tommy Tallarico then took the stage, telling the crowd a little about the history of Video Games Live and the programme for the evening. Apparently they have roughly forty different game sets prepared, but only play fifteen or so every show. He also explained that they employed local musicians, which I thought was rather commendable.

The next set featured music from the Metal Gear Solid series, which included an audio introduction by David Hayter and a video foreword by Hideo Kojima. As the music played an MGS guard walked across the stage, pursued by a cardboard box. When he became suspicious, an exclamation mark appeared over his head and the band began to play the “warning” music. It was terrific fun.

This was followed by music from God of War, Final Fantasy, Sonic, Mario, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, Myst, Metroid, Civilization IV, and World of Warcraft. There were several solo performances by Martin Leung, of blindedfolded piano YouTube fame. They also included two small contest segments. The first pit the winner of the Guitar Hero competition against Space Invaders, with a motion sensing shirt that had him running across the stage to control his ship. Unfortunately the controls were sloppy at best, and he was eliminated very quickly. The second had two contestants randomly chosen from the crowd go head-to-head at Frogger, with the orchestra playing music for their game in real time.

The show lasted approximately two and a half hours, with a 20 minute intermission. They played the music from Halo for the finale, with Tommy Tallarico picking up Steve Vai’s part on the guitar. The crowd, predictably, demanded an encore, so they came back out with Final Fantasy VII‘s “One Winged Angel.” Finally, they closed the show with the music of Castlevania, which was really terrific.

Video Games Live was a tremendous experience and I’m thrilled to have travelled out to see it. Beyond the show itself, it was just really nice to be among a crowd of fellow geeks, a sub-culture coming together to relive their experiences with video games. Whereas most “gatherings” of gamers greatly depress me (Xbox Live, Internet forums, etc.), watching hundreds of people waving their DSs and PSPs in the air to the Castlevania theme song truly warmed the cockles of my heart.

[Photos by Sam Javanrouh, who was standing next to me at the concert and very kindly released his pictures under Creative Commons.]

I was linked to Los Campesinos! by Derek Tallon’s blog To Be Determined (he summarizes the video pretty well, with observations about “Big Eared Yellow Shirted Guy With A Fun Singing Accent” and “Shy Guy Who is Probably The Drummer.”) When I first heard them my inner cynic was cringing at the fake cheerleader sounds in the background, an effect that’s really overused in indie rock. Once I got over that, I really enjoyed their debut album Hold on Now, Youngster…, which includes highlights such as “Death to Los Campesinos!” and “You! Me! Dancing!” (it would seem that they’re rather fond of exclamation marks.)

Icelandic band Sigur Rós have had worldwide fame for nearly a decade. I’d probably heard the name bouncing around somewhere before, but never actually bothered to sit down and listen to them until they decided to give away a single from their new album as a free MP3. The song is called “Gobbledigook”, and it has a crazy dream-like quality that I absolutely love. I’ll definitely be digging through their back catalogue in the near future.

The Bird and the Bee got a fair bit of Internet attention this month from a Mac enthusiast’s video that featured one of their songs. I was introduced to them a few months ago by my friend Tiff, and rather enjoyed their eponymous debut LP. Their sound has a certain low-fi charm that’s both catchy and subdued, so it’s great computer background music.

Listening to the same music at work every day is getting boring, so please help relieve my boredom by dropping me a comment with suggested listening.

(If I keep posting Nav‘s musical suggestions, I’m going to have to rename this series “The Copy/Pasted from Google Reader Box.”) The Internet tells me that Santogold (Santi White) is a music industry veteran, and there was a great deal of anticipation leading up to her debut release. I’m not hip enough to have caught a whiff of said hype, but I really like the album. Santogold has been compared to M.I.A., and the comparison is apt. It’s extremely hard to categorize her sound, she blurs the lines between pop, electro and alternative. The album has hits and misses, but the whole is well worth checking out.

I was linked to British indie rock band Guillemots by Save The Robot. The video above is of them playing “Get Over It” live on Jonathan Ross. Great track, isn’t it? What a shame that the album version is TERRIBLE. Ok, minor hyperbole. It’s not THAT bad, but I really dig the rocked out version they played. I can’t speak too highly of their latest album Red, but I recommend their 2006 release Through the Windowpane.

I’m cheating a little, I didn’t actually discover the Yoshida Brothers this month. The Beatles introduced the West to Sitar-enhanced rock ‘n’ roll, could these guys spark a new trend of shamisen rockers? Wikipedia tells me that their style of music is inspired by Japanese Tsugaru-jamisen music. If you enjoy this song, I suggest checking out their 2003 debut release.

Finally, I was linked by Dubious Quality to a video of Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones hanging out backstage. The song in the background was a rough take of jam between Hendrix and Brian Jones, and you can hear both takes (take 1 [WMA] and take 2 [WMA]) at RocksOff.org.

Despite rock ‘n’ roll’s widespread success across America, the major record labels were initially mostly uninterested in this new phenomenon. Indeed, until 1955, the independent labels had a “virtual monopoly” on rock ‘n’ roll artists¹. They were the leaders in the rhythm and blues market, and when rock ‘n’ roll took off they simply had to: “modify the arrangements, simplify the beat, and promote rhythm and blues as rock ‘n’ roll.²”

The major labels’ disinterest can be attributed to several factors. According to Charlie Gillett, one reason was that: “there does appear to have been a general feeling among the executives of the majors that rock ‘n’ roll was a rather shoddy music, associated with ill-educated southerners who were difficult to patronize.³” This was certainly a popular opinion in some circles; Frank Sinatra testified before Congress in 1958 that rock ‘n’ roll was: “the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.⁴” Another reason for their disinterest may have been the fact that a standard contract with a major label was for five years. Such a long contract meant that a performer had to have long lasting universal appeal to be cost effective. This favored crooner-style pop artists, because “Rock ‘n’ roll singers, who seemed to be flash-in-the-pan novelties with only one style, promised to be redundant before a couple of years were up.⁵”

The major labels could not however ignore rock ‘n’ roll for long; they were rapidly losing their market share to independent labels. For instance, of the 51 records to reach the top ten in 1955, 11 were released by independent labels. This number nearly doubled the following year (19 out of 55 in 1956) and again the year after (40 out of 70 in 1957.⁶)

Therefore, the major record labels began encouraging some of their performers to record covers of rock ‘n’ roll songs. These “cover artists” were usually young and not so well known as pop or country singers, so it was relatively easy to change their “sound” and image⁷. These cover artists frequently “cleaned up” the original lyrics. For instance, the 1954 rhythm and blues hit originally recorded by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters featured the following lyrics: “Work with me Annie [four times] Let’s get it while the gitting[sic] is good.⁸” When Georgia Gibbs recorded a cover of this song with Mercury, it became: “Dance with me, Henry [four times] Let’s dance while the music rolls on.⁹”

These cover artists were enormously successful. According to Robert G. Pielke: “The white airwaves were filled with this kind of material. […] Black music had to be judged ‘safe’ before it could be played¹⁰.” For instance, Georgia Gibbs’ adaptation of Lavern Baker’s “Tweedle Dee”, Gale Storm’s version of Smiley Lewis’ “I Hear You Knocking” and Perry Como’s cover of Gene and Eunice’s “Ko Ko Mo” were all very lucrative hits which made far more than the originals. Some of Bill Haley and the Comets biggest hits were covers: Jackie Brenson’s “Rocket 88”, Sunny Dae’s “Rock Around The Clock” and Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle, and Roll¹¹.” However, the most popular and influential cover artist of the fifties was undoubtedly Pat Boone.

Originally a radio host for Nashville station WSIX, Boone signed with Dot records in 1955¹². While Dot was an independent label, president Randy Wood had seen the growing demand for rock ‘n’ roll in the white market¹³. He therefore decided to restyle the crooner style singer into a rock ‘n’ roller, despite the fact that Boone confessed to having little interest in the genre. His first hit, a cover of Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That A Shame”, made its first appearance at #14 on the pop charts as the original hit the top spot in the rhythm and blues charts¹⁴. He quickly followed suit with successive cover hits: “‘At My Front Door’ by the El Dorados, Big Joe Turner’s ‘Honey Hush’, ‘Tutti Frutti’ and ‘Long Tall Sally’ by Little Richard, the Flamingos’ ‘I’ll Be Home’, and Ivory Joe Hunter’s ‘I Almost Lost My Mind.¹⁵’”

What is most significant about Pat Boone is not his personal success, but rather the artists which became famous because of him. As Boone himself contended: “R & B is a distinctive style of music; it doesn’t appeal to everybody […] So if it hadn’t been for the vanilla versions of the R & B songs in the 50s, you could certainly imagine that rock ‘n’ roll, as we think of it, would never have happened.¹⁶” Indeed, artists such as Little Richard and Fats Domino went on to become breakthrough artists successful in both charts. For instance, in 1956, Little Richard’s original version of “Tutti Frutti” debuted on the pop charts above covers by both Pat Boone and Elvis Presley¹⁷. Likewise, Fats Domino’s 1956 hit “Blueberry Hill” reached #4 on the pop charts¹⁸. As Charlie Gillett put it: “The audience was determined to have the real thing, not a synthetic version of the original.¹⁹” Therefore, cover versions unwittingly allowed genuine rock ‘n’ roll artists to cross over to popular music fame.

Conclusion:

In the early fifties, music, like most everything in America, was highly segregated. Artists, disc jockeys, radio stations, and music charts were all clearly aimed at either a white or a black audience. The line of segregation was nearly impossible to cross.

However, the booming postwar American economy brought about subtle cultural changes. The teenage age group rapidly became a target for marketing due to their substantial disposable income and credit purchasing power. Portable radios and affordable record players meant that, for the first time, young people were free to experiment with their own personal taste. For a relatively small segment of the young population, this taste meant rhythm and blues.

While white teenagers were enjoying the dance beats and rougher style of rhythm and blues, disc jockeys such as Alan Freed took note. Radio programs on 50,000 watt channels, such as “Moondog’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Party”, helped introduce larger audiences to African American music. White teenagers across the country were buying rock ‘n’ roll records, and the independent record labels were reaping the benefits. As Charlie Gillett put it: “The mostly slow and unsympathetic response of the major companies to rock ‘n’ roll enabled independent companies to dictate the fate of music.²⁰”

By the mid-fifties, the major record labels finally responded to the rock ‘n’ roll trends by promoting their artists with cover versions of rhythm and blues hits. This decision eventually allowed African American artists to truly cross over to white audiences. Thanks to covers of their songs, artists such as Little Richard, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry became pop sensations.

Rock ‘n’ roll music helped improve race relations in postwar America by bringing the people of both races together. White and black people were now often listening to the same artists, buying the same records and dancing in the same clubs. While segregation was still an important part of American society through the fifties and beyond, rock ‘n’ roll acted as a medium which linked the two races.

Afterword:

Due to a word limit and the time constraints of being a student, I was unable to pursue two topics that I feel would have added a lot to this discussion: the rise of Elvis Presley, undoubtably the most popular white rock ‘n’ roller of the 50′s, and the 1959 payola scandal, which all but killed rock ‘n’ roll until its revival in Britain in the mid 60′s.

I hope you have enjoyed my Rockin’ The Boat series. If you are interested in a PDF compilation, I plan on making a fancy version with LaTeX this summer.

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Before further examining how rock ‘n’ roll brought the races together, it is important to retrace the convergence of certain economic and technological factors which gave white teenagers access to music.

The major label’s lack of interest in the specialty markets may have been largely due to the fact that, until the fifties, recorded music carried the label of class¹. Only the upper and upper-middle class could afford a phonograph, and their tastes encompassed big band, crooners and classical music. Country and rhythm and blues music was mainly enjoyed on the radio.

In the fifties, however, new technologies were quickly changing this paradigm. In 1948, the “Battle of the Speeds” had just begun². CBS (Columbia) introduced the 33 1/3 rpm disc, or the LP, which could record roughly five times longer than the old 78 rpm format with greatly increased fidelity³. President of CBS laboratories anticipated an increased interest in classical music, now that an entire symphony could be recorded on a single disc. The next year, RCA released the 45 rpm disc format⁴. The disc could only hold roughly 3 minutes worth of music per side, which was perfect for popular music. Furthermore, they were relatively inexpensive, so they were ideally marketed for teenagers⁵.

To match these new formats, CBS and RCA marketed record players nearly at-cost and capable of playing all three format of disc⁶. In the mid-fifties, an “Elvis Presley model record player” was available for $47.85, and could be purchased for $1 down and $1 a week⁷. Late fifties American companies were announcing sales of up to 10 million portable record players yearly. Also, whereas a family would previously only have one family radio, small transistorized radios became available for as low as $25.

These new technologies were being introduced to a country with a booming post-war economy. During the fifties, the American Gross National Product rose from $213 billion dollars to $503 billion in ten years⁸. In the same time, the per capita income increased by 82% and the unemployment rate was between 4 and 5.5%.

One of the groups that especially enjoyed this financial boom was the young people. Scholastic magazine’s Institute of Student Opinion reported in 1956 that there were 13 million teenagers in America⁹. A typical teenager earned $10.55 a week, while teenagers across the country earned $7 billion dollars annually (a 26% increase in three years.) According to David Halberstam: “This new generation was armed with both money and the new inexpensive appliances to which to listen to [music]. […] They had almost no memory of a Depression and the great war that followed it. There was no instinct on their part to save money.”

The teenagers of the fifties were now equipped with disposable income and inexpensive electronics and 45s on which to spend it. No longer reliant on “family appliances” which were subject to parental rules and tastes¹⁰, these young people were now free to experiment with previously forbidden music: rhythm and blues. It is difficult to say exactly why young white teenagers would be drawn to this music, but Charlie Gillett offers the following explanation: “The vocal styles were harsh, the songs explicit, the dominant instruments – saxophone, piano, guitar, drums – were played loudly and with an emphatic dance rhythm, the production of the records was crude. The prevailing emotion was excitement.¹¹” In other words, it was the polar opposite of the crooner ballads and big band sound which were popular at the time. Gillett also suggests that the first listeners may have been those with “relatively sophisticated standards for judging music”¹², followed by those who were naturally attracted to the dance beat and music with a rougher quality to it.

As more and more white teenagers began taking an interest in rhythm and blues music, musicians and record store owners took note. Jerry Wexler recalled that in the early fifties: “We became aware that Southern whites were buying our records, white kids in high school and college.¹³” In Los Angeles, a rhythm and blues records store named Dolphin Records reported that 40% of their sales were to white people in 1952. The dance halls were experiencing a similar change. According to president of Chess records, Ralph Bass: “they didn’t let whites into the clubs. Then they got ‘white spectator tickets’ for the worst corners of the joint. They had to keep the white kids out, so they’d have white nights sometimes, or they’d put a rope across the middle of the floor. The blacks on one side, whites on the other, digging how the blacks were dancing and copying them. Then, hell, the rope would come down, and they’d all be dancing together.¹⁴” This phenomenon may have been relatively negligible in relation to the total market, but the trend was growing and important people were beginning to take note.

Innovative Broadcasters:

Sometime in early 1951, Lee Mintz, record store owner in Cleveland, Ohio, invited disc jockey Alan Freed for a visit¹⁵. Freed was considered a “smart, free-spirited man” although many of his employers found him abrasive. He was also somewhat of a vagabond; he was at one point banned from broadcast for offering his services to a competing radio station. In 1951, however, he was the disc jockey for an evening classical music show on the independent station WJW¹⁶.

While visiting Mintz’s store, Freed was shocked to see how many white teenagers were buying rhythm and blues records and dancing to music that their parents would have considered completely alien¹⁷. Mintz had his own ideas about the success of these records: “It was all about the beat. The beat was so strong in black music […] that anyone could dance to it without a lesson.¹⁸” He suggested that Freed change the style of his radio show to cater to this new audience. In his own words, Alan Freed considered the idea: “I heard the tenor saxophones of Red Prysock and Big Al Sears. I heard the blues-singing, piano-playing Ivory Joe Hunter. I wondered. I wondered for about a week. Then I went to the station manager and talked him into permitting me to follow my classical programme with a rock ‘n’ roll party.¹⁹”

Freed began his show, named “Moondog’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Party”, in June of 1951. As such, he is credited as the first person to use the name “rock ‘n’ roll” for the music previously referred to as “rhythm and blues” or “race music.²⁰” This name change was significant. Freed’s audience was mostly white and the name “rock ‘n’ roll” allowed him to avoid the negative racial connotations that were associated with other epithets. The words “rock” and “roll” had previously been used in rhythm and blues as euphemisms for sex in songs such as “We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll” and “My Daddy Rocks Me With One Steady Roll.”

“Moondog’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Party” was broadcast on a 50,000 watt clear channel station, and as a result it reached a large section of the Midwest²¹. The show’s success was instantaneous and remarkable. As David Halberstam put it: “It was as if an entire generation of young white kids in that area had been waiting for someone to catch up to them. For Freed it was what he had been waiting for; he seemed to come alive as a new hip personality. He was the Moondog.”

By 1952, Alan Freed had decided to put on racially integrated rock ‘n’ roll concerts²². He felt he had enough listeners to validate the event, which would feature the artists of the rock ‘n’ roll artists he had been playing²³. The response was unlike anything seen before in live music. For the first “Moondog’s Coronation Ball”, over 18,000 teenagers showed up to an auditorium with a capacity for 9,000²⁴. It caused such pandemonium that Freed was forced to cancel the show²⁵. He organized a second reserved-seating show in 1953, which featured artists such as Joe Turner, Fats Domino, the Buddy Johnson Orchestra, the Drifters, the Harptones, the Moonglows, Red Prysock, Ella Johnson, and Dakota Station.

By 1954, Freed’s enormous success playing rock ‘n’ roll to white teenagers had been detailed in Billboard magazine²⁶. That same year, Freed was hired at WINS, a New York radio station. With Freed’s help, it quickly became the foremost popular music station in the city and helped to introduce thousands of East Coast teenagers to rock ‘n’ roll music.

While Alan Freed started the trend and took over in New York, dozens of other disc jockeys began playing rock ‘n’ roll across America. Disc jockeys who catered to this new style include “Danny ‘Cat Man’ Stiles, at WNJR, Newark, New Jersey; […] ‘Symphony Sid’ Torin and Ken Malder at WBMS, Boston; Hunter Hancock, Peter Potter, and ‘Spider’ Webb on the West Coast; […] Ken ‘Jack the Cat’ Elliott and Clarence ‘Poppa Stoppa’ in New Orleans²⁷” and many more.

Concluded in part 3.

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Rockin’ The Boat: Rock ‘n’ Roll and Race Relations in the Fifties was the extended essay I wrote in my last year of Cégep. The topic of the essay was at our discretion, and I was a young man who wanted to write about rock ‘n’ roll. Being a science student, I had studied neither sociology, history nor music but decided to write in an unfamiliar domain anyways. I consider the result to be one of the strongest and most well-researched pieces of work I have ever written (which isn’t saying much, really.) Being in the middle of exams and a little pressed for writing time, I thought I would split the essay into three parts and share it here.

Introduction:

The 1950s were a time of great dichotomy for America. It was, in one sense, the era of the “silent” generation, dubbed as such by social critics due to the “generally quiescent attitude and the boundless appetite for consumerism¹.” Although the post-war “status quo” was largely preserved in these years, there were changes brewing beneath the surface.

For instance, the fifties era brought about a previously unseen “adolescent culture.” According to Robert G. Pielke, “Prior to the fifties, the term teenager simply didn’t exist, for there was nothing to which it could refer.²” Young people were creating their own identity and style, influenced greatly by Hollywood films such as The Wild One (1954) and Rebel Without A Cause (1955)³ and the advent of the new medium: television.

Furthermore, the fifties saw the first glimmer of the civil rights movement with the Brown v. Board of Education trial⁴. The “separate but equal” philosophy of the South was a facade. According to David Halberstam: “The Southern states were spending twice as much to educate white children as they were black children and four times as much for school facilities.⁵” They were clearly separate, but far from equal.

Various social and economic factors such as these helped create an environment in which the young people of the fifties were inclined to investigate the music that their parents abhorred, namely race music.

This essay will consider the question of how the evolution of rock ‘n’ roll affected race relations in post-war America. It will be argued that rock ‘n’ roll music helped improve race relations in 1950s America by bringing the people of both races closer together both physically and culturally. To this end, attention will focus on the different factors which allowed rock ‘n’ roll music to cross the “cultural border” of segregation.

The Roots of Rock ‘N’ Roll:

Rock ‘n’ roll legend Chuck Berry once said about music that: “It used to be called boogie-woogie, it used to be called blues, used to be called rhythm and blues…. It’s called rock now.⁶” Accordingly, the roots of rock ‘n’ roll can be traced back through blues and gospel to the African musical heritage of the American slaves.

The early style of blues, often referred to as country blues, began as songs that slaves would sing to pass the time and lessen the tedium of the work. The songs often involved “calculated repetitions” and “call-and-response” patterns, with one worker taking the “lead part” of the lyrics which the others would repeat⁷. The music also “emphasized rhythm over harmony”, due in part to the substantial influence of drums in African music.

During and after the First World War, many African Americans moved from the southern cotton plantations to the larger northern cities, bringing the blues with them. There are many reasons for this rapid emigration; some left to escape the ravages of the parasitic boll weevil, others moved in hopes of escaping racial discrimination.

In Chicago, the African-American population grew from 40,000 in 1910 to 234,000 twenty years later⁸. As African-Americans congregated in these urban centers, musicians began to discover a multitude of distinct regional variations of country blues. As George Learner described: “The Illinois Central Railroad brought the blues to Chicago. With the thousands of laborers who came to work in the meat-packing plants and the steel mills came Peetie Wheatstraw, Ollie Shepard, Blind Boy Fuller, Washboard Sam, Little Brother Montgomery, Blind Lemon [Jefferson], Memphis Minnie, and Rosetta Howard.⁹” These different styles of country blues came together with city influences such as vaudeville, swing rhythms, and boogie-woogie rolling-bass piano to create urban blues (or rhythm and blues).

Rhythm and blues contrasted greatly with the “more sullen country blues.¹⁰” In the years after World War II, urban artists such as Muddy Waters, Chester “Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett, Little Walter Jacobs, and B. B. “Blues Boy” King were creating a “rawer, gutsier, angrier”¹¹ sound. They were also incorporating new instruments into their music, such as the electric guitar and the harmonica (largely considered a “toy” instrument before Sonny Boy Williamson.¹²)

Don J. Hibbard notes that “Rock ‘n’ roll drew heavily upon the rhythm and blues for its substance.¹³” Urban blues offered “words, phrases, rhythm, instrumentation, a musical organization and a verse structure¹⁴” to rock ‘n’ roll. For instance, the emphasis on the “off” beat (second and forth) to form a “pa-BOOM pa-BOOM” rhythm is derivative of the blues. Rock ‘n’ roll also borrows the use of the twelve bar phrase structure (4+4+2+2) and the use of the dominant type 7 chord.

Specialty Markets and Racial Segregation:

A special edition of Billboard magazine in March of 1954 stated that: “the ‘n*gro market’ did not exist in a national sense until about the Second World War.¹⁵” When the magazine began charting the “n*gro market” in 1946, it was classified under the term “race music,” which was a commonly used classification for blues records from pre-war companies¹⁶. By 1948, most of the major record companies had switched to unsuccessful alternative names such as “ebony” and “sepia.” In June of 1949, Billboard changed the name of the race charts to “rhythm and blues”, which became the commonly accepted term. Despite the name change, the meaning was the same; it was a chart for music in the black community. The other major charts were the “popular music” or “pop” charts, and the “country and western” specialty market.

Of the $189 million dollars worth of record sales recorded in 1950, four major companies collected approximately 75%¹⁷. These were the major recording companies: Decca, Columbia, and RCA Victor, with Capitol as a straggling fourth¹⁸. Over 5000 independent recording companies shared the remaining quarter of the market, with names such as “Aladdin, Argo, Aristocrat, Atlantic, Chance, Chess, Cobra, Dot, Duke, Dunhill, Federal, Gee, Herald, Imperial, Jubilee, King, Rama, Savoy, Specialty, Stax/Volt, Sun, and Vee-Jay”.

The major companies had the “big name” crooners who topped the pop charts, so they were largely disinterested in the smaller and less lucrative “country and western” and “rhythm and blues” specialty markets¹⁹. According to market research, these specialty markets constituted less than 5% of the total, an unattractive concept to a large company²⁰. According to David Halberstam: “They were hardly entrepreneurial; the bigger they were, the more conservative they inevitably were as well.²¹”

By contrast, the independent labels were concentrated almost entirely on the specialty markets. As Billboard reported in April 1946: “Some indies frankly admit they are going to stay out of fields in which the majors do more or less of a token job.²²” The smaller independent labels had strong regional ties due to their negligible distribution capabilities²³. A successful rhythm and blues album would sell only 400,000 copies.²⁴ As Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records once said: “Sales were localized in ghetto markets. There was no white sale, and no white radio play.” However, being small allowed these labels to be highly innovative. As Robert G. Pielke put it: “For those living on the outside, the prevailing norms weigh less heavily, and sometimes they can be successfully ignored altogether.”

Continued in part 2.

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I discovered Neutral Milk Hotel after reading an article entitled “Jeff Mangum, the Salinger of Indie Rock” by Taylor Clark (shared by Nav on Google Reader, I love that feature.) The story goes that after recording “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”, which some consider to be one of the greatest alternative albums of the 90′s, Mangum sought to escape his celebrity status and practically dropped off the face of the Earth. It’s a terrific read and a fantastic album, I highly recommend both.

A new online mixtape service called Muxtape made the rounds this month (I dutifully threw one together myself.) Despite its numerous restrictions, I like it quite a bit more than the other social music services I’ve tried. I discovered Norwegian indie rock band Ida Maria while listening to Matthew Ingram’s mix. They’re catchy and intense, I suspect they’ll go far.

I’ve been enjoying the sci-fi anime Cowboy Bebop lately, in large part because it reminds me so much of Firefly. One of the strongest parts of the show is its soundtrack, which is performed almost entirely by Japanese jazz/blues band The Seatbelts. The show and the band are both well worth your time, check them out.

Back to work with me, this Technical Writing essay isn’t going to write itself.

The Go! Team’s music is either a modern hip-hop flavoured take on soul or a return to late 80′s “Paul’s Boutique” style sampling. Either way they’re unique and terrific, and their albums “Thunder, Lightning, Strike” and “Proof of Youth” are both well worth listening to all the way through. Also notable are their terrific music videos, which I can only describe as blaxploitation meets Sesame Street.

A few months ago I played through Mass Effect, a flawed but enjoyable sci-fi RPG that featured a very strong electronic soundtrack. While “Still Alive” took the crown for video game credits songs last year, “M4 (Part 2)” by Canadian band Faunts did a great job of filling out Mass Effect’s epic ending. The entire “M4″ album is quite good, and well worth a listen if you enjoy a bit of electronica in your rock.

Talking Heads are right up there with The Who and Jethro Tull as “bands I would go back in time to see in their prime.” Fortunately for everyone under 25, “Stop Making Sense” is considered one of the best concert movies of all time. However, Bill Harris of Dubious Quality clued me in on 1980 concert in Rome that has yet to be released on DVD but has found a home on YouTube. Featuring Adrian Belew of King Crimson, it’s an intense musical experience with the whole band in top form.

I couldn’t embed the song I really wanted to, which was an absolutely fierce rendition of Crosseyed and Painless.

Dreaming of Boyz – Party Ben [download]

Finally, from Dave at Eclectic Gamer, I have a mash-up of a Kate Bush’s “The Dreaming” with M.I.A.’s “Boyz” by west coast DJ Party Ben. In my experience, mash-ups usually fall somewhere between amusing and worthless, but these two songs seem to really complement each other well. As Dave said, you can’t listen to the original songs afterwards without expecting the other part to come in.

While Montreal has a burgeoning indie rock scene, I can’t claim that this is something that I’m especially “hip” to. That is why I was only introduced to the Hot Springs by T’Cha Dunlevy’s (a name so hip you can barely even Google it) best of 2007 list. I think Mark Lepage said it best when he described lead singer Giselle Webber as as “flame shaped like a girl” and touted the music as “a devastating fusion of Bjork and Robert Plant.” This is definitely a band to watch.

A modern old-time bluegrass band, Old Crow Medicine Show brings a fresh perspective on a genre that has seen more popular days. I picked up their two latest albums, O.C.M.S. and Big Iron World, and have been consistently impressed by the quality and depth of their music. Incidentally, if the chorus of the song embedded above sounds strangely familiar to you, then you are an impressively dedicated Bob Dylan fan. The tune was lifted off an unreleased song from the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid sessions.

Throw Me the Statue – About To Walk

I was introduced to Throw Me The Statue by the excellent art blog “What to Wear During an Orange Alert?” Their debut album Moonbeams was released at some point in time, I’ll know exactly when that was once someone writes them a Wikipedia page. In any case, they’re pretty groovy and they’re touring with Jens Lekman, so they MUST be cool.

I have a not-so-secret infatuation with Jenny Lewis, but even without my rose-tinted glasses Rilo Kiley are an awesome band. That’s no exaggeration either, I enjoyed Under the Blacklight and More Adventurous so much that I’m intent on checking out their older works in the near future. I highly recommend the tracks “Silver Lining”, “The Moneymaker” and the embedded “Portions For Foxes”, as well as “Rise Up With Fists!!” off Jenny Lewis’ solo album. [Update: Thanks to Nav for letting me know that several of Jenny Lewis' songs are available for free at download.com]

Finally, while I think embedding another video would be overkill, I’ll mention that I got to see Kid Koala last month when he came to Concordia for the opening of The Hive. He was absolutely incredible to see live, here’s a taste if you’ve never seen or heard of him.

As someone who worked a variety of service industry jobs in my teenage years, I can quite rightly say that most Christmas music is little more than muzak to me. While I zone out the old staples like Bing Crosby and various choirs used as background music at family events, there are a handful of Christmas albums that I can actively enjoy listening to. So for this edition of The Musical Box I’ll be exploring holiday music done right.

A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector – Various Artists

Say what you will about the “Wall of Sound” ruining music, A Christmas Gift to You is one of the greatest holiday albums ever made. Featuring Darlene Love, The Crystals, The Ronettes and Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, the album feels like a classic 60′s pop album first and a Christmas album second. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is a timeless classic, and a nice reprieve from the usual holiday fare.

The Ventures’ Christmas Album – The Ventures

This album by early 60′s instrumental band The Ventures, best known for songs like “Walk Don’t Run” and “Hawaii Five-O”, blends Christmas staples with surf-rock seamlessly. Album highlights include “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” opening with “Wooly Bully” and “Jingle Bells” starting with the “What’d I Say” riff.

The Jethro Tull Christmas Album – Jethro Tull

While it was released as recently as 2003, no modern Tull album has better recaptured the wild essence of their 70′s music better than this one. Featuring a combination of traditional folk ballads and holiday interpretations of classic Jethro Tull songs, the album is festive yet distinctive.

I’m always on the lookout for new listening suggestions (holiday related or otherwise), so please comment with your favourites.

First up is Robots in Disguise, an “Electro Punk” DJ Duo from the UK. I’ve been enjoying their 2005 album Get RID! this week, it’s got the quirky kind of sound that I’ve come to expect from UK electronica. Strangely enough, I was originally linked to them by Destructoid of all places. The clip below is their latest single “The Sex Has Made Stupid”, which gets bonus points for featuring some mildly unsettling robot pornography.

Next is Battles, a band my friend Nick introduced me to, whose debut album Mirrored came out last year. Each member of the band earned their chops with their previous work (Ian Williams with Don Caballero, John Stanier with Helmet, etc.), so you could reasonably call Battles a math rock supergroup. The music is largely experimental, with strange vocal samples and unusual rhythms that might not suit all tastes. Still, you’ve got to respect people who are pushing the boundaries of music, since they’re the ones who determine what we’ll be listening to in 2020.

At the suggestion of Scrawled In Wax, I’ve been checking out Kate Nash’s 2007 debut “Made of Bricks”. She’s achieved tremendous success in Britain despite having picked up the guitar as little as two years ago. As a vocalist, however, she’s fab, and her lyrics are down to earth and stunningly honest.

Montreal is already covered in snow (that will likely melt by next week) and there’s 30 days ’til Christmas, so expect a Holiday-themed Musical Box come December.

I’ve dabbled in folk music, mostly enjoying the very famous artists from the 60′s and 70′s (Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, etc.) After speaking with my friend Malini, who brought up artists such as Tori Amos and Ani DiFranco, I noticed that my preference for folk artists was majorly skewed towards male singers. That trend has begun to change recently after another friend introduced me to indie folk singer-songwriter Feist. Since her single “1 2 3 4″ has been getting noticeable radio airplay after that new iPod commercial, I thought I’d talk about the slightly less well known Regina Spektor instead.

I first saw her perform on Conan O’Brien a few months ago, but only recently have I had a chance to enjoy her “Soviet Kitsch” and “Begin to Hope” albums. They’re both musically, lyrically and thematically brilliant. Her voice has an unconventional quality that I can’t quite pinpoint, which is emphasized of course by her frequent use of irregular vocal techniques. Perhaps being raised behind the Iron Curtain gives her a unique view on things, since her lyrics are whimsical and often silly, yet feel soulful and beautiful all the same. Wikipedia tells me that this is a characteristic of the “anti-folk” scene, but I’m not a big fan of fussily pigeonholing everyone into a restrictive musical genre.

If you’ve played through the excellent game Portal, which I wrote a little on last week, then no doubt one of your favorite moments was the song at the end entitled “Still Alive”. This song was written by folk rock singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton, a man who has made great strides for both internet published musicians and the Creative Commons license. Being a programmer, I was first exposed to Coulton’s music about a year and a half ago via his geeky hit “Code Monkey“. His quirky and nerdy lyrics reminded me a little of the first few Barenaked Ladies albums, so I was immediately a big fan.

While Coulton does publish under Creative Commons and encourages people to spread his music around, keep in mind that he does make a living off his internet music. As such, I urge you to check out his MP3 store where you can listen to all of his songs and download them for the standard $1 each (no DRM either, eat your heart out major labels). My personal recommendations include the aforementioned “Code Monkey”, “The Future Soon”, “Ikea”, “Re: Your Brains” and his folk cover of “Baby Got Back”.

Lastly, along with just about everyone else on the internet, I’ve been checking out Radiohead’s latest album, “In Rainbows”. While their choice of digital distribution isn’t exactly going to send the record executives packing just yet, I believe that this is most definitely a step in the right direction for the music industry.

As someone who really only got into Radiohead less than a year ago, I feel ill equipped to judge “In Rainbows”. I do believe I’ll just default to agreeing with Chris Dahlen, who wrote a sensible piece on the subject. It is in that spirit that I embedded Radiohead’s excellent cover of “Nobody Does It Better” in lieu of one of their new songs.

That concludes volume 1 of my Musical Box experiment, here’s hoping that I have the discipline to pick it up again next month!

Hot on the heels of last month’s full albums goodness, Harmonix has recently announced that they will release a sizable number of downloadable Grateful Dead tracks for their upcoming game Rock Band. Here’s the abridged official announcement:

New York, NY – September 5, 2007- Harmonix [...] announced a deal that will bring the legendary band Grateful Dead to the highly anticipated music videogame Rock Band. The iconic group is making 18 master recordings from its diverse catalog available as digitally distributed game levels following Rock Band’s release this holiday season. Among the songs available will be the classic Dead tracks “Truckin’,” “Uncle John’s Band,” “Touch of Grey,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Casey Jones.”

“Grateful Dead’s unique fusion of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, and jazz challenged traditional musical boundaries and pushed the limits of creativity to produce a signature sound that is undeniably their own,” stated Paul DeGooyer, MTV’s Senior Vice President of Audio, Home Video and Electronic Games. “With an enormous legion of fans all over the world, Rock Band will give players a chance to interact with the music of these beloved rock pioneers and experience what Grateful Dead did best – jam from the depths of their souls.” [...]

Grateful Dead’s journey ignited in San Francisco’s Haight and Ashbury district during the psychedelic ’60s. The band, well known for constantly touring, continued to spread their message of peace and love for another three decades with a devoted community of fans known as Dead Heads, many of whom traveled the country with them. Earlier this year, the Recording Academy awarded Grateful Dead a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for its contribution to the evolution of rock music.

You can pretty much guarantee that Friend of the Devil is going to be on there, but I’m hoping for New Speedway Boogie, St. Stephen and New, New Miglewood Blues as well. With any luck Harmonix will catch the bootleggin’ spirit and release the tracks for free.

What do you think the next big announcement might be? Clapton? Zeppelin? Queen?

Firstly I’d like to clarify that I was most definitely being facetious with that post title. I did some casual research into the ad-supported media model, and my gut reaction was similar to that of one of my favorite authors:

When Kurt Vonnegut learned that users downloading his novel Slaughterhouse-Five on the new e-book retailer WOWIO will have to flip through ads like one for Verizon Communications Inc.’s (VZ ) “Chocolate” mobile phone, the 83-year-old author snapped, “This is just tasteless,” and hung up the phone. [link]

As a consumer, the saturation of advertisements now present in music and video games is already at a truly distasteful level. The idea of hearing an advertisement pop up while listening to my iPod would constitute a violation of my private listening space; it’s the #1 reason why I don’t listen to FM radio anymore. Furthermore, it seems to follow the same path that the failing-DRM system has: taking control of how to enjoy music away from the end-user.

That being said, it’s easy for me to criticize the ad-supported model without providing any sort of alternative. It’s clear that the current system is starting to crack. People who have grown up with the Internet have become accustomed to free music on demand, and your model certainly does a great job of catering to this demographic. I certainly don’t agree with music piracy; no matter how anyone tries to justify it, it comes down to absolute greed. I’m simply being pragmatic: how can ad-laced DRM-restricted music can seriously compete with restrictionless pirated mp3s with virtually no consequences? The ad-supported model’s fundamental flaw, in my view, is that it sustains the record company’s paradigm that making users pay for music, whether with money, time or convenience, is still a viable business option. They can litigate all they want, but the high demand combined with the ingenuity of freeware programmers is such that piracy will find a way to resurface every time.

My guess would be that, in the long term, a major paradigm shift will have to occur. Today’s industry struggle is akin to the tug-of-war in the 30′s and 40′s, when live musicians feared becoming obsolete with the advent of radio technology. How would live bands be profitable if recordings were played for free over the airwaves, they clamored. In the end, the local live bands were largely replaced by country-wide superstars like Elvis, and the industry evolved. Similarly, perhaps we are soon approaching a time when an mp3 will no longer become something that is bought and sold, and the recording industry will inevitably find some other way to turn a profit.

Counter arguments are welcome, so feel free to comment if you have a different point of view.

Every Sunday in the summer, hundreds of people gather around the statue of Sir George-Étienne Cartier on Mount Royal. The assembly doesn’t have an official name, but it’s called the Tam-Tams by most. The focus of the event is the drum circle, a free-style jam where anyone can bring a hand-drum and start playing along; it’s not unusual to see over a hundred drummers at one time. The rest come to listen to the music, dance, play some hacky sack or frisbee and just enjoy the great outdoors.

Along with the Jazz Fest (which I wrote about earlier), the Tam-Tams are part of a complete summer experience in Montreal. The event has a great vibe, Mount Royal park is beautiful, and overall it’s quite possibly my favourite use of a Sunday. If you’re ever in the city, do yourself a favour and check it out.

• Tam-Tams in Montreal site
• Google Map of the park

First is the sheer variety of artists. Last.fm appears to have collaboration from not only all of the major labels, but also a great variety of indie labels. You don’t only get the hit songs either, because Last.fm has full albums. Furthermore, since musicians can upload their own music to the site, there are opportunities to get to hear some great up and coming unsigned bands.

Secondly, Last.fm gathers data not only from what you listen to on their site, but also from what you listen to on your computer. Downloading the lightweight Last.fm software allows them to track what you’re playing from a wide variety of media players. I was initially a little wary about a company tracking information about how I listen to music, but the program is open-source and only extracts the song’s name, artist and album from the ID3 tags. This information is used to suggest new artists that you might enjoy.

Finally, the system by which Last.fm recommends new music is very well done. If you hear a song that you really enjoy, you can add it to your Love list to hear similar songs more often. If you really dislike one of the suggested songs, you can simply click the Ban button to ensure that you never hear that song again. It’s a simple, intuitive interface that works really well (unless you click the wrong button like I did, because there seems to be no way to undo a ban) [Edit: turns out you go to View Profile > Recently Banned in the Last.fm software, right click and "Undo Ban"].

Here are some of the great artists/albums/songs I’ve discovered through Last.fm today:

• Brainfreeze Breaks, album by DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist.
  I’m can’t say that I have much experience with turntable music on the whole, but I love soul music. These two mix wizards apparently took some of the rarest old soul vinyl records (some virtually impossible to find today) and ripped them to shreds making this remarkable album. I’ve been listening to it all day; it’s astoundingly good.
• Call Me Up In Dreamland, song by Van Morrison
  Heard this track while listening to “Sounds Like: Paul Simon”. Great track from his early days that I hadn’t heard before.
• Time to Kill, song by The Band
  Another fantastic song I hadn’t heard before by an artist I love, apparently off the Stage Fright album (which I’m now going to have to check out in its entirety).

Not bad for one day’s work. Go check it out for yourself.

This winter I took a course called System Software. In it, we learned a neat programming language called Perl. Perl was handy for that class because it happens to be very good at parsing text, and we used it to write a simple compiler. Being the pragmatic kind of person that I am, I immediately began to think of ways to use this new found skill, and the opportunity arose in a rather roundabout way.

You see, I have what I’d describe as a fairly large collection of music (roughly 18.6 days worth according to iTunes). This sometimes causes problems when I’m out shopping for CDs and I can’t quite recall which ones I already own. iTunes is able to export a list of your music as an XML document, but you end up with a large unwieldy file with roughly 15 lines per song.

The solution: create a small Perl script to go through every line of this gigantic XML document and create a list of albums matched with artists. The result of my code monkeying is in the box below. Is the script terribly well written? Not especially. Did my album problem really need solving that badly? Not particularly. Was this a good excuse to play around with Perl a bit? Damn right. Enjoy.

#!/usr/bin/perl #=========================================== #Script written by Matthew Gallant #=========================================== $filename = $ARGV[0]; print("Extracting album list from $filename… "); open(READ, "$filename") || die("\nError: $filename not found or cannot be opened."); my %albums; my $artist; while(my $line = <READ>) { if($line =~ m/<key>Artist<\/key&gt/) { chomp($line); $line =~ s/^\s+<key>Artist<\/key&gt<string>//; $line =~ s/&/&/; $line =~ s/<\/string>//; if($line =~ m/^The /) { $line =~ s/^The //; $line = $line . ", The"; } $artist = $line; } elsif($line =~ m/<key>Album<\/key>/) { chomp($line); $line =~ s/^\s+<key>Album<\/key><string>//; $line =~ s/&/&/; $line =~ s/ \(Disc \d\)//; $line =~ s/<\/string>//; if($line ne "N/A") { my %artistalbums; if(exists $albums{$artist}) { my $albumsref = $albums{$artist}; %artistalbums = %$albumsref; } $artistalbums{$line} = ""; $albums{$artist} = \%artistalbums; } } } close(READ); print("Complete.\n"); print("Writing album list to Album List.txt… "); open(WRITE, ">Album List.txt") || die("\nError: Album List.txt cannot be written to.\n"); for my $key (sort(keys %albums)) { $tempkey = $key; if($tempkey =~ m/, The$/) { $tempkey =~ s/, The//; $tempkey = "The " . $tempkey; } printf WRITE ("%-40.39s", $tempkey); my $valuesref = $albums{$key}; my %values = %$valuesref; foreach my $album (sort(keys %values)) { print WRITE ("$album\n\t\t\t\t\t"); } print WRITE ("\n"); } close(WRITE); print("Complete."); exit(0);

Technically I’m already breaking my own rule, but I’ll make an exception for awesome news like this:

SANTA MONICA, CA – July 11, 2007- Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a division of MTV Networks which is a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), announced today that one of the most influential records in rock history, The Who’s iconic Who’s Next, will become the first full length album available as a digitally-distributed game level for the upcoming videogame Rock Band™ – a first ever offering for a videogame. In addition to announcing full-length album availability, MTV Games and Harmonix also announced the first 16 Rock Band songs, spanning every genre of rock from alternative to classic to heavy metal. As previously announced Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) will serve as the exclusive distribution and marketing partner for Rock Band, managing distribution for the game in US, Europe and Australia

Holy crapcakes! Who’s Next is one of my all time favorite albums and there’s not a bad track on it. I was already really excited about Harmonix’s Rock Band, but this seals the deal for me.

[See Kotaku for the full story.]

I recently stumbled upon one such cover, and it inspired me to write this post. The song “Just”, originally by Radiohead, is a great alternative rock track that features terrific wailing electric guitars and plaintive vocals. That is until British artist/producer Mark Ronson decided to inject it with a syringe full of groove.

Ronson’s cover, embedded below, is a completely different experience. The wailing guitar has become a horn section and the new drum work is not unlike what you’d hear on a George Clinton record. The whole tone of the song, previously mournful and bitter, is now funky and fresh. Making an alternative rock song danceable is already a noticeable feat, but a quality cover like this is a truly praiseworthy accomplishment.

It is in this spirit that I present to you three of my personal favorite covers by artists who dared to do things differently. If there’s a distinctive cover that you love, show it some appreciation by leaving a comment.

• All Along the Watchtower
  The Jimi Hendrix Experience
  (Original by Bob Dylan)
  Rumour has it that Dylan himself prefers Hendrix’s legendary cover. Released just one year after the original, Hendrix turned this classic folk track into an incredibly powerful and soulful rock song.
• Hurt
  Johnny Cash
  (Original by Nine Inch Nails)
  What other country/folk legend would cover a NIN song? Cash’s tragic passing soon after the song’s release made his version especially poignant. If you enjoyed this song, I urge you to check out the albums American III: Solitary Man and American IV: The Man Comes Around, they’re fantastic.
• Hallelujah
  Jeff Buckley
  (Original by Leonard Cohen)
  Leonard Cohen is a musical genius, and the original version of Hallelujah is heart-wrenchingly beautiful. The fact that Jeff Buckley could take that song and perform it differently but with equal majesty is a testament to his talent.

Montreal is a fantastic city in the summer; it has four universities downtown, a great selection of bars, clubs and venues, and a fairly unique mix of English, French, and a thousand other languages. With the F1, Just For Laughs, Francofolies and (most importantly) The Montreal Jazz Festival in town, there is no shortage of fun things to do.

I got to sample three of my personal favorites iconic Montreal institutions yesterday, so I figured I’d write about them:

Carlos & Pepe’s

Brutopia Brewpub