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 ROTATION Ice Cube Mars Volta Rachel's Space Team Electra Rob Swift Apples in Stereo Jurassic 5 Sleater-Kinney Nirvana Sonic Youth Amon Tobin Dirty Three Cat Power Pixies Fugazi Frank Black Breeders Three Mile Pilot Mogwai DJ Shadow Chuck D Shipping News Black Heart Procession White Stripes Built To Spill Los Straitjackets Jon Spencer Blues Explosion AND MUCH MORE! 
 "There's
a scene in Richard Link-later's Waking Life where the protagonist
crouches down to read a note in the street that says, 'Look to your
right,' which he does, only to come face to face with a speeding car
aiming right for his head. That's what it's like to listen to Mars
Volta's De-loused in the Comatorium for the first time. " "Even
though Sonic Youth grabbed Cobain by his hypodermic needles and helped
foist him into the spotlight, alterna-fans du jour didn't return the
favor when the New York noisemakers lobbed this bottom-soaked missile
their direction."
 "You
need gas money and a car that works. Of course, my preference is to
do it in the middle of the night! Leave them little presents, you
know what I'm saying? Like the Easter bunny." |
The Morphizm Mash-Up: December
2003, Part Deux The
Sleepy Jackson, Lovers One thing is for certain: The Sleepy Jackson's Luke Steele has the strum down pat. You can hear it in almost every song -- a fail-safe pop music backbone if there ever was one -- propping up his winsome, catchy nuggets as they make their way into your ears. Jonathan Burnside's production has pushed Steele's guitar up to the front of the line, where its pendulous movement grabs your head and forces it to peacefully bounce from side to side. The Beatles knew about the strum, as did the Velvet Underground, Bowie and the Rolling Stones. In fact, any pop band that's lasted longer than a decade has perfected it; Black Francis and the Pixies stuffed Doolittle to the gills with it. Long story short, with only one full-length to his name, Luke Steele already has pop music formula cornered. The trick is to employ that formula and not let it dominate your output; it sounds relatively simple, but it's a trap that many well-meaning bands have fallen into. They have also been imprisoned by its inverse; bands like Radiohead and U2 have each tried deconstructing pop formula in hopes of breaking free of its influence (this is usually called a band's "experimental" stage; think "Jazz Odyssey" from This is Spinal Tap and you're there), only to find themselves lambasted for even trying. Musical composition is a tricky animal, and the line artists have to walk is often a very thin one, and even then some fans will toss them to the wolves without a second thought. But after about seven or eight spins, The Sleepy Jackson's pop retrofits are still swimming happily in my head -- but not taking up too much room. That, my friends, is pop music at its most potent, because if it sticks too hard, it becomes disposable that much more quickly. The fact is that Luke Steele has come out of nowhere -- well, Australia to be exact, which is nevertheless across the universe from us Ugly Americans -- to claim the pop album of the year prize that, by all rights, should have belonged to the Dandy Warhols before they fell in love with '80s glam trash (and themselves). Dandy is as Dandy does. Like the Warhols, The Sleepy Jackson is openly derivative, lifting most notably from George Harrison circa All Things Must Pass and the aforementioned Velvets. Their main single, "Good Dancers" (which boasts one of the most twisted, hilarious videos of the year), contains hooky slide guitar like that on "My Sweet Lord" (and "Come to This"), while "Vampire Racecourse" has that Velvet backbeat from "Waiting For My Man." Meanwhile, "Miniskirt" is a heady Rolling Stones cocktail that sounds like "Dead Flowers" and even boasts a line that would make Jagger proud: "The pretty ones seemed to get fucked up all the time." There is a bread crumb in every tune leading back to the greats -- and the forgotten, like Robyn Hitchcock's Soft Boys -- making Lovers a pop music history lesson of sorts.
But there are some curve balls, like the two-minute lullabye, "Morning Bird," sung by young Gemma Burnside (Jonathan's kid perhaps?) or the haunting Moog intro to "Don't You Know." Or the spoken word turn by Steele, "Fill Me With Apples," a one-minute poem (best line: "Fill their faces with farms/Make them become a pregnant man and woman of good spirit") that sounds like it's being recited by Futurama's lobster alien, Zoidberg. Steele does enough to keep it strange but familiar, doing Freud's theory of the unheimlich (or "uncanny") a solid in the process. In other words, Lovers sounds like so many of those storied pop albums you've held onto -- long after the nostalgia has worn off of the others you've left behind. Because it comes at you with one hand wrapped around tradition, and one hand wrapped around the future. It's easily the catchiest pop album of 2003, no small feat considering the more well-known acts that have released stuff this year, but it's nevertheless going to have it's share of detractors, because it dances on some sacred graves. But, like Emerson implies above, the balance between invention and theft is always in flux, always being redistributed. Steele, as the Warhols' Courtney Taylor-Taylor before him, understands that creatively borrowing from the hallmarks of the past is one way to get attention. It's also one way of redefining and reassessing their value. If the copy supersedes the original, maybe it was meant to happen in the end. That dilemma won't be solved on Lovers, but to say that it isn't explored would be fallacious. It's clear that Steele wants his place on the pop mantle when it's all over. With this album, he's made his way to its foundation. Here's hoping he makes it to his seat, one maybe next to Lou Reed or Harrison. If he doesn't make it that far, there's always Gram Parsons. -- Scott Thill
Following shortly after their early-2003 full length, Summer Sun, Today Is the Day offers fans a six-track sampler of must-have gems. What's more notable than the quality of the tracks themselves is the overall variety of styles and moods explored in such a small amount of time. Whether you want to rock out or roll over, the EP delivers tempos and temperaments split right down the middle. The title track is a stunning remake of the sleepier same-name version on Summer Sun. This time around, YLT returns to their feedback-driven noise-pop roots -- a signature style that was abandoned on the softer, smoother, more sophisticated Summer Sun -- giving the more upbeat YLT fans something they've been sorely missing all year. That momentum is matched by the fast-paced, playful "Styles of the Times" and the fuzzy, dream-pop ditty "Outsmarter." Both tracks offer feedback frenzies, snappy rhythms and bittersweet lyrics.
But YLT puts on the brakes for the remainder of the album, intimately showcasing the softer, more subdued side of life. On "Needle of Death" (a cover of the Burt Jansch Brit-folk tune), Georgia's beautiful, Nico-esque sadness turns the playfulness of the prior tracks starkly toward inner struggle and dreary escapism. The mood picks up a bit with the surfer instrumental "Dr. Crash" (think Camper Van Beethoven). And finally, the EP closes with a stripped-down acoustic version of "Cherry Chapstick," originally seen on 2000's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out. Simply put, Yo La
Tengo is a masterfully diverse group that time and again produces albums
filled with pleasing tunes, creative diversions, challenging shifts
and intelligent adventures. Today is the Day merely reinforces
their already acknowledged yet continually rewarding artistry. --
Nancy Hunter 01 December 03
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Copyright 2001-2003, Morphizm.com. All Rights Reserved. |
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Yo
La Tengo, Today is the Day
