The Zimmermann Note

Since the point that my wife started feeling movement, we began tracking the songs and music that the baby (‘Lil Z) was rockin’ and rolling to. Often times, scribbled notes and memos on iPhones would be loaded to the playlist that stored the music that was making a difference. Currently, we are at the 34 week point in the pregnancy and over this time definite trends have started. We’ve seen a preference to certain classic rock bands and artists like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix whereas at the same time has found time for more modern bands like Animal Collective and Radiohead.

Of course, ‘Lil Z gets a bit more time with my wife as could be expected. Thus, the music selection is often limited to her iPod which contains more of her music. While there are definite areas where our music tastes cross, this setlist has in some ways become a sense of pride for both of us and maybe in certain cases brought our tastes a little closer together.

At any rate, this is the current list with a few comments below. . .

The

Artist Song

Ahmad Jamal – Poinciana (The Song Of The Tree)

Animal Collective – Did You See the Words
Animal Collective – The Purple Bottle
Animal Collective – In the Flowers
Animal Collective – My Girls
Animal Collective – Bluish
Animal Collective – Tantrum Barb

Throwing together several songs from Merriweather Post Pavilion as well as a couple other favorites shows this baby’s tastes for the psychadelic. It is true that the baby’s first official show was an Animal Collective show (technically the first night of P4K) although was not much smaller than a tadpole at that point.

Atlas Sound – Flagstaff

The Beatles – A Day In The Life

Big Star – You Get What You Deserve

Caribou – Hannibal

Deerhunter – Desire Lines
Deerhunter – Calvary Scars Ll / Aux. Out

I remember playing the entire album ‘Weird Era Cont.’ for the singular hope that Lil Z would find stir on the final track Calvary Scars, etc., an epic 10 minute track. Whenever there are primary motives such as this I make sure not to mention this to my wife as it’s not the intent to try to subjugate my wife to any type of peer pressure, (the only exception of course to this rule is that of Iggy Pop’s – ‘The Passenger’ which is what my iPhone plays when my alarm goes off in the morning.) There willl be an active campaign of getting ‘Lil Z to appreciate this song. Of the 85 songs on the list, 11 of them are over 7 minutes, and 42 (half) are over 5 minutes. While I have always been a fan of the quick and dirty pop song or even a fine punk ditty that might tally a minute or two, this baby likes the epics. And while I would expect a slew of jam band tracks due to my wife’s propensity to enjoy the Grateful Dead/Phish genre, very little has been exhibited here on this list.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home

Fleetwood Mac – Dreams
Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop

Two Fleetwood Mac songs from my only Fleetwood Mac album? Is this baby a Clintonite?

Friends – I’m His Girl

Furthur – Alligator >

Grateful Dead – Dire Wolf

Iron Butterfly – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Jane’s Addiction – Classic Girl

We have often thought that songs such as this might reveal the gender of the child. While my wife and I both differ at this moment in terms of the gender our hopes are a healthy child

The Jimi Hendrix Experience – May This Be Love
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – I Don’t Live Today
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Machine Gun
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Changes
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – All Along The Watchtower
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Angel

It’s become fairly obvious that this baby is a huge Jimi fan. While my wife and I are fans, the baby will respond whenever a Hendrix song is being played on the stereo. You would think that this is totally random but will completely stop after the song ends and the ensuing song begins from a different artist/band.

Le Butcherettes – Tonight

Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song
Led Zeppelin – Tangerine
Led Zeppelin – Kashmir

At first we thought that maybe it was Jimmy Page or John Bonham that was causing the surge in Led Zeppelin but we feel that maybe it’s John Paul Jones’ on bass that is making the difference.

Lotus Plaza – A threaded needle

M83 – Reunion

Madonna – Holiday

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
Marvin Gaye – Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)

Michael Jackson – Man In the Mirror

Midlake – In This Camp

The Minus 5 – Got You

Nena – 99 Red Balloon

Pearl Jam – No Way

Phish – Fluffhead

Pink Floyd – Fat Old Sun
Pink Floyd – Speak To Me / Breathe
Pink Floyd – Time
Pink Floyd – One of These Days
Pink Floyd – Fearless
Pink Floyd – Echoes
Pink Floyd – Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)

Another band that has made an huge impact on ‘Lil Z. There is no rhyme or reason as the baby has found it’s way all across the Pink Floyd catalog hitting albums as diverse as Atom Heart Mother all the way to Dark Side of the Moon. Yes, even the 20+ minute ‘Echoes’.

The Pixies – I Bleed

The Police – Synchronicity II

Ponytail – Easy Peasy

Pylon – Yo-Yo

R.E.M. – Man On The Moon
R.E.M. – Talk About the Passion
R.E.M. – Moral Kiosk

As much as I can say about the lack of Grateful Dead/Further songs there is also a lack of R.E.M. tracks compared to the iPod/iTunes library containing a plethora. In some ways, I see this as setting their own independence; while we either consciously or subconsciously mold our children after ourselves, they often need to take their own journey.

Radiohead – Knives Out
Radiohead – 2+2=5 (The Lukewarm)
Radiohead – 15 Step
Radiohead – Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Radiohead – National Anthem
Radiohead – Bloom
Radiohead – Separator
Radiohead – Permanent Daylight
Radiohead – Lucky

Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ was the first album that we listened to together when it came out and has been a constant in both of our music lists so there is no doubt the baby is exposed to quite a bit of Radiohead. For me, their catalog begins at ‘Ok Computer’ and moves forward and you will notice that is relatively true from the songs above.

Rihanna – Only Girl (In the World)

The Rolling Stones – Gimmie shelter

Smashing Pumpkins – Rhinoceros
Smashing Pumpkins – Rocket

We’ve had a small amount of local bands/music as well as music from our grunge past. The Pumpkins lead the list with two songs total.

The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?

Sonic Youth – Teen Age Riot
Sonic Youth – Total Trash
Sonic Youth – Bull In The Heather

Stereolab – Lo Boob Oscillator

Sun City Girls – Dukun Degeneration

Suzanne Vega – 99.9f

Tame Impala – It’s Not Meant To Be
Tame Impala – Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind?

Toto – Africa

U2 – A Sort Of Homecoming

The Velvet Underground – What Goes On

Wilco – Shot in the Arm
Wilco – Cars Can’t Escape

Yo La Tengo – Everyday

It is the end of the year which means that the world is putting together their “Best Of” lists. Often times, the case of putting together a ‘Best Of’ listing is a case of futility. How are we supposed to put a numerical value to your listening enjoyment? These lists often mention songs and albums over a limited listening window while, during this brief period of time we are expected to make a summation of the best albums over a government-sponsored Gregorian calendar and then write something slightly witty or asinine about the album while I fart onto my chair.

Over this period, a handful of idiots will expect us to make an objective review of the music, as if I am going to find Colin Meloy of the Decemberists somehow palatable or that R.E.M.’s latest would match the perfection of Murmur, that Jeff Tweedy would regain the magic he had with Wilco or that several of the senior circuit bands such as The Feelies and Wire would make records worthy of repeat listening. Will the bands trying to copy the retro sounds of the 80s live up to the scrutiny of that era and decide to put together something unique rather than just recycled.

I have focused in on about 60 albums or so, which would be about the limits for my attention in any given year because music is not just researching the present but the past as well.

I did not find the year to have one spectacular release that stood head and shoulders above the rest. As often is the case, these things take decades to realize that the album that saw minimal listens in 2011 becomes a desert island classic in 2031. In the meantime I wanted to break down the latest year into albums and bands that I thought that were movers and shakers and deserve a fans attention.

I broke the list into three categories:

The Greats – The albums which were head and toes above the others.

Extended Play – Albums that have showed promise and depending on your tastes might be worth your attention.

Deep Cuts – A land of misfit albums. There might be a compelling reason to listen or not to listen.

The Greats

Fleet Foxes –Helplessness Blues

I am not sure if this album is the best album of the year but the title song moved me enough to suggest there is a greater meaning to this album than maybe what I expected after first listens. I do know that the title track is the best song of the year, Simon and Garfunkelesque!; The song provides a socially active conscience that is sorely lacking in today’s music scene. For a sophomore effort they have shown the world they are for real.

Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost

The growth of the indie rock community has created several bands that would sound good in an intimate setting of a small club. And while ‘Girls’ sounds like an amazing intimate experience, the latest album breaths life into the 70s Rock Albums where everything was larger than life, even the floating pigs. Girls is that 70’s band that you could only dream about. Their latest release captures that energy of that decade without sounding stale. There is an epic sound on songs like ‘Vomit’, and ‘Die’ relives all those great guitar albums but then it ends with the Randy Newman inspired Jamie Marie.

Panda Bear – Tomboy

A psychedelic beach-combing experiment with the Animal Collective drummer. Panda Bear (aka Noah Lennox) follows up his highly acclaimed ‘Person Pitch’ with a much more organic record. With the help of Sonic Boom (aka Peter Kember) of Spacemen 3 fame, the album is much more intimate and personal and still worth the effort to engross yourself in it.

M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

How often can you remember any bands putting together a solid double album that doesn’t have significant portions of the album, which are weak? ‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’ relives the 80’s but offers enough of the 21st century to not be put off as a cheap imitation. Check out simple but clever songs like ‘Midnight City’ that becomes total 80’s ear candy. And yet for every 80’s induced sound they turn the decade into progressive rock. This is not just a cheap imitation of the era and it is the only album that I have listed here where the Sax solo actually works.

The Bewitched Hands – Birds and Drums

This French band has a couple things in common with the band Arcade Fire, both in their music as well as their point of origin speaks quite a bit of French (Reims, France, for Bewitched Hands and Montreal, Canada for Arcade Fire). This act put together a fantastic pop album that’s infectious after the first listen. For some reason, the music media has largely ignored this gem of a record. Become the first person on your block to check these guys out!

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi – Rome

If you were in the mood for a spaghetti western movie soundtrack, this would be your album. This album caught me by surprise but I have to admit to have been taken in with its charm. The unlikely successes of Norah Jones and Jack White (they would not normally be my favorite artists) pit their strengths alongside the spirit of the “Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”, in this winner.

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

PJ Harvey’s latest is a political statement/concept album/social commentary on Britain’s role in WWI and uses the themes of colonialism, war, .etc to ask questions as to their worth in the 21st century. Harvey might not be as in your face as he was in the past but her lyrics and pop sensibilities are clever enough to pull off this concept album.

Tuneyards – WHOKILL

Merrill Garbus. A name that should be remembered as her album WHOKILL was a definitive highlight for the year. What sets Garbus out is her ability to truly have a voice behind what she was saying. Dare I say feminist? Judging from the Pitchfork crowd this year that wore face paint in honor of her, it was obvious she is gaining a loyal following. I did miss her live set this year, for a couple reasons but from what I have seen online it would look like something that I would enjoy. At the same time, I do think that she needs a proper band so to put more attention on her soulful presence as a live singer. As impressive as it is to have a recorder and drums onstage while singing, it essentially cuts from her singing abilities when she is focusing on about three things at once.

Radiohead – King of Limbs

There were legions of fans that might have felt a bit shortchanged by Radiohead’s latest effort, an album that had to push it to bypass your typical EP Length record. That is also what happens when you are Radiohead, when you have taken your audience on wild trips with albums such as Ok Computer and Kid A, possibly the best albums of the 1990s and 2000’s respectively. ‘In Rainbows’, and the marketing genius behind that album was as solid musically and ‘King of Limbs’ expands in these directions. Oftentimes when you have a couple “Masterpieces” to your name, there is quite a bit to live up to.

Still, the release of ‘King of Limbs’ became an event like old school album buying. Fans and critics got their shot of the album at the same time which brings upon a unique dynamic where the fan becomes the critic while traditional journalism tried to catch up with the Radiohead dynamic. Very few bands could pull off what they did but it speaks to the quality of their work and also a reminder of being one of the few bands that truly matter in the music industry

‘King of Limbs’ sees the percussion play a more prominent role as sound is much more stripped down from the warmer ‘In Rainbows’. The single off the album ‘Lotus Flower’ made the biggest splash, as Thom’s dancing became an Internet meme with others editing songs on top of his work.

Cut Copy – Zonoscope

Maybe in a different world they would be the twins of M83. Their sound is very similar and at times it can be difficult to tell each band apart. In terms of Zonoscope it again crosses into the retro 80’s dance category with ‘Need You Now’ and ‘Where I’m Going’ but is not afraid to stretch into ambient region with the 15 minute Sun God.

Atlas Sound – Parallax

After listening to Bradford Cox lose it recently during an interview, this brilliant songwriter suffers from the fact of being a very depressed individual. And after having my wife telling me that she thought that this poppy record was anything but upbeat, I cleaned the potatoes out of my ears and gave it some more listens.

As the Deerhunter/Atlas Sound motif has evolved Cox has kept the psychedelic sounds but have added themes and ideas to his sounds which

Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi

Anna Calvi displayed a hefty amount of talent on her debut album, mixing the beauty of Julee Cruise but also the power of Patti Smith. Her flexibility in a song that showing the blue collar edge of a Bruce Springsteen vs. ‘First We Kiss’, which sounds like a title track to a 60s James Bond movie and other parts it feels like a David Lynch movie. But there is a little bit of Jeff Buckley in here as well. She is not just a beautiful singer but an accomplished guitarist.

Woods – Sun and Shade

Songs such as ‘Sol y Sombra’ and ‘Out of the Eye’ exhibit Woods strength of pushing trippy psychaedelic rock into epic proportions. Woods has expanded their lo-fi psych-folk sound into something much greater. Probably the best true “Psychaedelic” record of the year for me.

Worth an Extended Play


The Feelies – Here Before

The Feelies first album in about 20 years shows a band that has matured over this time. It’s not the ‘Crazy Rhythms’ of its youth but will still go down as a strong resurgence. They don’t remake the formula of the Feelies but rather rediscover it, with Glenn Mercer and Bill Million battling it out on the guitar.

Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde

This Chicago outfit has captured the spirit of John Lennon and the Smashing Pumpkins to update their sound and come out with a quality rock record. Their second record eclipses their debut record showing that the band can update their sound but also show they are not going to go away quietly.

James Blake – James Blake

I would imagine that seeing James Blake live has to be a rip-roaring experience filled with slam dancing, jumping from the stage, with plenty of broken bones and bruises. Ok, maybe in a different dimension. Blake delivers in trying to define the dubstep genre with an original recording that is both innovative and endearing. There are two songs here that stand out for me: ‘The Wilhelm Scream’ and ‘Limit To Your Love’ which become genre-defining songs. The album has holes at times but it should be understood that the good is much better than the bad and much too

Bon Iver – Bon Iver

It’s the type of album that you would expect to hear playing in Green Bay when the Packers lose in the playoffs this coming 2012. It bleeds Cheesehead land while Mister Meatpacker is contemplating about his sad and depressing life. Somehow, this album got some Grammy nods. Quite honestly, this is not the indie record that I would gather would get some type of following and it speaks maybe to the irrelevance of the Grammys in general.

Mike Watt – Hyphenated-Man

This album looks into the work of Hieronymous Bosch in this wonderful collection of songs that are reminiscent of his work with the Minutemen. Most of the songs do not stray beyond the 2 minute mark and offer a unique and often humerous response to the work of Bosch.

Dirty Beaches – Badlands

Alex Zhang Hungtai has created a landscape with his 60’s surfari-themed album. Where I would love to see an artist like this go is try to expand their sound beyond that of youtube clips and exhibit that same power on album as what would be expected live.

Le Butcherettes – Sin Sin Sin

Judging from the lead singers stage name Teri Gender Bender, there is plenty to be excited about in this band. This Mexican trio is not your mother’s band with the lead Ms. Gender Bender covered in blood onstage. This is in your face rock and roll!

Wire – Red Barked Tree

‘Red Barked Tree’ shows off a level of intelligence for Wire, a band that has been making music on and off for close to three decades. Over this time they have gone from Punk, Prog. Rock, dabbled in Electronica and we see them capturing all of those elements here.

TV On The Radio – Nine Types of Light

Part of me is still a bit torn up regarding the death of Gerard Smith this past year and it’s been trying to listen to this album. Say what you want, but TV on the Radio add some needed soul and funk to rock and roll and this world would be sorely lacking without their efforts. ‘Nine Types of Light’ is their most commercially accessible album but for newbie’s, I would still recommend Return to Cookie Mountain as possibly one of the best albums of the last decade. In terms of epic songs, nothing quite tops ‘Killer Crane’ which adds some organ reminiscent of early Zeppelin.

Cults – Cults

The Cults seems to offer a lo-fi sixties bubble-gum/psychaedelic pop combo meeting the “Wall of Sound”. As a debut album they offer plenty of hooks to please. The band is obviously looking to the direction of Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavilion” as an outside influence even if their tracks are relatively simplistic.

Wild Flag – Wild Flag

What gives bands like Wild Flag their edge is the fact they don’t play it safe. They are not selling their sexiness as much as their grittiness. In a year when many of the albums on this list were afraid to rock, preferring the sensibilities of synths, Wild Flag takes their supergroup status to provide a wholly enjoyable romp. Includes Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney, Mary Timony from Helium and Rebecca Cole from The Minders. What I am looking for in this album is something that blows me away and that seems to be the problem. The album is almost too perfect. I want a little bit more Patti Smith jumping off a cliff while grabbing her crotch.

Crystal Stilts – In Love with Oblivion

Like the Dirty Beaches, their sounds of 60s surf rock are more organic and feel a little less like pulling out an old 45 and dusting it off. They pull off plenty of psychedelic riffs with some catchy hooks to warrant a look in any stoner’s collection.

Deep Cuts

Wilco – The Whole Love

The Whole Love is Wilco’s best album since ‘A Ghost Is Born’. Jeff Tweedy went back to basics and actually wrote some rock and roll songs and then some. For every classic song like ‘Art of Almost’, the best song since take your pick of songs on YHF, there are clunkers like ‘Capitol City’ and ‘One Sunday Morning’. There is a solid EPs worth of material here and the rest is pretty disposable.

Fucked Up – David Comes to Life

Like some that appreciate the rock opera, its nuanced characters and crazy plotlines, ‘David Comes to Life’ becomes slightly trying for my ears for the fact of it’s length as well as it’s twisted plotlines. If you are interested in something where progressive rock meets punk, it might be your thing.

R.E.M. – Collapse into Now

The album becomes R.E.M.’s swan song and while it doesn’t push R.E.M. in any new dimensions, it merely looks back at R.E.M. over the past 30 years playing R.E.M. by numbers. While that might be nostalgic for some, it’s not a final product that sets the world on fire nor is it completely forgettable. But the problem with R.E.M. ultimately becomes that the album will not replace the memories of their earlier works.

Yuck – Yuck

This hit and miss effort offers a couple of indie rock classics such as ‘Georgia’, with it’s catchy Yo La Tengo tributary feel.

Destroyer – Kaputt

2011 has become the year for the sax solos. The forgotten instrument has been reinvented by the Lisa Simpson’s of the world all grown up and remembering the music of their youth. Dan Behar’s effort is a hit and miss record remembering both the good and bad from the 80s.

Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact

A mixture of 80’s pop, Indian, and oriental, I would imagine that they would be quite huge on the planet Tatooine. The album material is uneven however with standout tracks like Mindkilla and Adult Goth outpacing much of the other works.

The Braids – Native Speaker

Being the R.E.M. fan from the 80’s, after Murmur came out, all these bands wanted to start imitating their works and in the 21st Century, that band has become Animal Collective. Native Speaker, with it’s pop sensibilities and animal ‘yalps’ will remind you of Animal Collective, but do they break new ground?

St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

I honestly think that St. Vincent goes off the theatrical deep end with this album and some of her pop sensibilities from her previous effort ‘Actor’ have been lost. Some have called this one of her best efforts but I have not really bought into it.

The Pains At Being At Heart – Belong

One of those albums that is not offensive nor stands out. They put together some nice pop songs and a bit cleaner production that would remind you of Jesus & Mary Chain/Shoegaze pop but it’s not something that you are going to want to pull out over and over again.

Lou Reed & Metallica – Lulu

I remember going to Blockbuster video, I would imagine that it was over 20 years ago and finding the movie, Ed Wood’s ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’ and reading the cover and thinking “I need to see this!”. Plan 9 is considered by most accounts one of the worst movies of all time, and maybe the same can be said for this Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration. If you go into it with the though that this is going to be the worst album I have ever listened to and I am going to laugh and have a riot making fun of Lou, Lars, James, .etc., then you might actually enjoy yourself.

As I sit here and listen to the latest album by M83, a so far stunning double lp release that needs an Atari 2600 present while listening to it, I am curious as to whether, the ghost of John Hughes will soon make his way back into the limelight.

This year has seen it’s fair share of albums that are 80s retro sounding. Depeche Mode, Cure, New Order, and every and any Flock of Seagulls wannabe. What is even more strange is that some of the kitschy sounds from that era – i.e. the sax solo have ended up in anonymous places and there are other bands like Destroyer (Dan Behar) and while I enjoyed Bon Iver’s new album, it’s final track is one of the worst examples for 80s campyness.

As these new albums start the retro craze of teaming themselves with the “Oldies” I am feeling old that the music that I grew up on is well, there is no better way to put it but ….old.

Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ is nearing it’s 29^th year on this planet. This issue seems to be a more troubling aspect to me than the fact that I will be turning 40 next year.

I’ve tried to get my head around the resurgence of the 80s. While I believe that these rediscoveries are inevitable. What I am always curious about is why an artist will grasp an era of music. I only wish they dressed like them too. Women, don’t you want to go back and wear the shoulder pads? Don’t you want to make a disaster of a dress like Molly Ringwald did in ‘Pretty In Pink’?

Does John Hughes get any credit for this resurgence? Do his movies play a prominent role among the artists that grew up on watching these movies over and over again?

I have wondered whether it was necessary this year to come out with a Retro 80’s Album Listing, separating this from the rest of the albums, putting on my best Boy George impression while describing them.

I mention Boy George because there is one thing that many of these bands lack and that is the charismatic front person. The music exists but the full package doesn’t. Part of the flair of that era was a change in the way that music was being delivered to us. Back in the 80s it was the music video, a disaster of 3 minutes where bands would sail off to far away lands or perform some lip synching in a studio that was edited by Uncle Charlie.  All the same, Generation X ate that shit up and loved every delicious bite.  It was our Hostess Twinkee.

As I end my trek into the past and finish up the last song on M83’s new double length album I realize that it has felt odd and yet strangely appealing. I do have to say that I see visions of Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall while listening to these albums.  But rock and roll is still young enough that it could have skipped a generation and never admitted to that time or era. The music was underappreciated. It followed the big bang of punk with a more fashionable futuristic model that flaunted for style points for possible demerits in substance.

At any rate, the music of today’s kids is copying that of my generation which should make some Gen X’ers take note.

I figure the best way to start with this song is actually posting the lyrics:

Lyrics to Helplessness Blues :

I was raised up believing
I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes
Unique in each way you can see

And now after some thinking
I’d say I’d rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery
Serving something beyond me

But I don’t, I don’t know what that will be
I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see

What’s my name, what’s my station
Oh just tell me what I should do
I don’t need to be kind to the armies of night
That would do such injustice to you

Or bow down and be grateful
And say “Sure take all that you see”
To the men who move only in dimly-lit halls
And determine my future for me

And I don’t, I don’t know who to believe
I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see

If I know only one thing
It’s that every thing that I see
Of the world outside is so inconceivable
Often I barely can speak

Yeah I’m tongue tied and dizzy
And I can’t keep it to myself
What good is it to sing helplessness blues?
Why should I wait for anyone else?

And I know, I know you will keep me on the shelf
I’ll come back to you someday soon myself

If I had an orchard
I’d work till I’m raw
If i had an orchard
I’d work till I’m sore

And you would wait tables
And soon run the store

Gold hair in the sunlight
My light in the dawn
If I had an orchard
I’d work till I’m sore

If I had an orchard
I’d work till I’m sore

Someday I’ll be
Like the man on the screen

I have been stuck on this song for the last month or so.  What I find awesome was that I completely disagree with my review on the song (and my review of the Fleet Foxes) album.

It’s not that I am wrong (or that I think that I am wrong) but rather the song has amassed a meaning beyond that of a single narrative and yet carries enough weight with it to be, in my opinion one of the best songs of the year.

After seeing the Fleet Foxes at Pitchfork Music Festival this summer and re-inspiring my desire to listen to their latest album, it’s made some inroads up the Zimmermann Notes charts as one of the best of the year.  I complained in my earlier review about it’s lack of politics or social pursuits and I believe that my review shortchanged this just a bit.

As of late, it has been the Occupy Wall Street movement that made me refocus how this music will have a lasting effect as its title track is chilling as it explores the impetus of the generation making their case against the world.

I posted the lyrics as a whole because I think they need to be recited. Part of me listens to the first three stanzas of what has been written as Generation Y’s prelude to Occupy Wall Street.

However, it’s more this innate desire to return humanity to a more natural state but also a call to action.  It tilts the emotional scales with its beauty providing a sense of purpose and understanding for those that feel trapped in similar scenarios. The generation that distrusted corporations at the same time lives off corporations has to try to balance out the inequities of life and reevaluate their own. We hear the protagonist wish to work the land, to work in an orchard, creating their own fruits of their labor, feeling a sense of accomplishment and still able to appreciate the beauty in the world (‘gold hair in the sunlight’).

‘Helplessness Blues’ is a timeless treasure, one that will be redefined in my head for different causes and events, but a song that should be examined for it’s depth for the era that we are living in now.

3.5 out of 5

When I said I liked the new Wilco album, that means like with a small l. Lets make one thing clear is that if there is any band that has disappointed me more than R.E.M. it was Wilco.  The period between Being There and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is pure gold and I still look at that era as the golden age as well as the “Classic Lineup”, one that will obviously not return.

I think I am more disappointed because I thought that they had more potential. Jeff Tweedy had the power to be the 21^st Century’s Bob Dylan with a knack for sonic exploration. We see this on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, one of the true innovative and classic albums of our era.  However, since the demise of Jay Bennett from the band, I have to admit to them being just alright to bad.

At times, their Dad Rock/Jam Band genre they are trying to invent is boring going on ridiculous. The Whole Love however, has a handful of tracks that make the grade as being the best since YHF.

‘Art of Almost’ is a great way to start off this album, and is definitely the best track that Wilco has released in nearly a decade.  It contains everything that I would have hoped this band could have turned itself into.  Lets face it, it is very difficult to get someone with music talent who at the same time has the potential to write eloquent lyrics.

The Whole Love is much more up-tempo than some of their previous efforts and I think this has afforded the band some better reviews due to critics not being lulled to sleep. ‘I Might’ is a drum-stomping track that exudes more Velvet Underground than Dad Rock.

Before we get too excited, Sunloathe hits our eardrums and all of a sudden we are reminded of ‘Sky Blue Sky’ and the fact that Wilco’s mellow days are behind them.

Off the top of my head without thinking some golden oldie Wilco mellowness

She’s a Jar

Via Chicago

Far Far Away

The Lonely 1

Pieholden Suite

Radio Cure

Ashes of American Flags

Now you take a song like ‘Sunloathe’ and to be honest I just do not get it.

Capital City sounds like a B-Side/Broadway Number and Rising Red Lung has mellow Wilco syndrome as well.

Still there are plenty of other positive moments. ‘Born Alone’  and ‘Standing O’ kick this album up a notch, bringing a little pleasure and less pain to their sound but also point to the fact there is more positive than negative on this album.

Finally, I can say is that ‘One Sunday Morning’ (Song for ‘Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) would make me go postal.  If I saw Wilco live this would be the perfect time to check out the bathroom and get yourself a drink.  Part of the problem with a 12-minute track is that it needs to go somewhere instead Wilco decides to proceed on cruise control. At about the 4-minute mark it becomes annoying. The 6 minute mark you are getting twitches and there have been cases of music listeners going into full seizures by the 10 minute mark. So before you play this song in the Jukebox at your local watering hole, think of your friends and choose epic songs by Sufjan Stevens instead.

A Whole Love is a solid album but not a classic one. It reminds fans why they loved Wilco but it will also remind why they still annoy.  For many fans like myself they are in a difficult predicament not being the same band they were 10 years ago and they never can be. I don’t know, I always thought there was something rock and roll about Jay Bennett.

Over the past few weeks of listening to the new Wilco and Girls albums on top of the breakup of R.E.M. I focused much of my time on how some of those old Wilco albums had a lot more heart in them. You could say that ‘Being There’ is your classic 70’s double album that you would never see anymore. I found myself missing the old Wilco after listening to the new Girls album and wondered aloud while listening to the new album where did that band go?

But bands become more than the songs. We care about the parts making those songs. When parts are changed along the way can we move on with the spare parts or is the machine not as authentic?

The Tweedy/Bennett feud was never answered but swept under the rug and while a review might not be the place to talk about it, I am not sure where is a good place. Critics are not objective voices in the crowd but subjective listeners just like the rest of the population, we’ve been maimed by rock and roll as well.

4.5 out of 5

The story of Christopher Owens has been told in numerous stories about his Christian upbringing which limited the amount of ‘culture’ that he was able to absorb. The back story is great for Wikipedia and for the novice who has no idea of who ‘Girls’ are. And while I should not say that it is easy for a band to come out with a critically acclaimed debut album, it is more difficult to come out with a successful sophomore effort.

‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost’ does not invent rock and roll but remembers it. This album is every rock LP that you own from the 70s without being cliché. Whether you can hear elements of surf rock (Honey Bunny) or Pink Floyd (Vomit) the album succeeds by not replicating these sounds but still sounds organic in its own right.

Father, Son, Holy Ghost digs through a plethora of the 60’s and 70s sounds without being pigeonholed into one distinct genre. Christopher Owen’s nasally “Elvis Costello” vocals  on their debut seemed to have disappeared on this album

The surf rock ‘Honey Bunny’ is that open letter to the woman of his dreams that loves him for all his shortcomings and sets the tone for this album.

Thematically, we are still stuck on the love theme and while critics might look to this and say that love is such a broad topic to discuss in music, it gets a bit overdone at times.

What rock and roll is still great at is creating self-loathing which seems to be a male-dominated pastime.  Even I can admit that there was part of me raising my hand when Owens claims about girls: “they don’t love my bony body”. You would think that the rock star gets all the girls but why is it that most of the shows that I go to have a greater guy to girl ratio? The girl that Owens is looking for is fictitious and the guys that go to rock shows listening to bands such as this and buying this crap, boy it would nice for someone to just accept me for who I am.

I had read somewhere that the last song on the album ‘Janie Marie’ is the Randy Newman-tune, at which case Owens and company need to sign a contract with Disney.  Going back to the title of this album, we speak to the father, son and holy ghost most often when there is a moment to confess on Janie Marie, it’s his prior actions.

Lastly, the iconic ‘Vomit’ brings us to one of the great rock and roll tunes in the last year. In it’s 70’s glory, ‘Vomit’ is that sloppy love letter written at three in the morning. It’s not eloquent. Its written on spiral paper ripped out of the notebook in three different colors of ink with scratches and doodles along the way. It’s the centerpiece of this amazing album bringing so much of the 70s together without sounding recycled. That is hard because it’s an impossible task to sound authentic and at the same time borrow something. Often times, when you borrow something you end up looking like Molly Ringwald’s prom dress in Pretty in Pink. Here, Owens salutes his idols but gives himself a stage to stand on.

Part of the passion of music is that it doesn’t die, and often in our most vulnerable moments is when it pops its ugly head. You know you are afflicted if you can play a song over and over again in an endless loop and the song to speaks to you. Then sometimes it becomes more than just one song but several.

The madness started with Seven Chinese Bros. The opening guitar intro was the hook and well the lyrics kept me coming for more. From there it just went downhill.

For me, the last quarter century has been situated around a band by the name of R.E.M.  and for me they became the band that mattered. I have questioned whether or not I would be the music fan that I am if there was never that moment of discovery. Would another band have taken its place? Before this point, I heard music but it never resonated with me. R.E.M. provided the colors.  Their songs became a personal experience. There was never a moment of loneliness with an R.E.M. album in hand. It would fill the void and talk to you in a manner that a person could never share. There was a reason that fans of the band were sometimes referred to as destiples.

I think that every fan has his or her own story to say regarding R.E.M. Our murals are all a bit different but they have been on our collective conscience for some time that their mentioning of breaking up feels slightly like abandonment. We could still count on a release. Speaking to a friend a couple months ago he remarked that a new R.E.M. album is still a new R.E.M. album. Well outside of what we can expect to see various retrospectives of their careers over the next several years, there will not be any new albums to speak of. No tours, singles, promos. That time has moved on.

R.E.M. wove a tapestry of Kudzu in our brains exploring the nuances of what defined us. They were a thinking mans band that required the upmost attention. Fans have created numerous conspiracy theories about their music, the albums and their packaging.

It was never about being the biggest band. They did not flaunt like U2 did but rather launched one of the quietest revolutions in the history of Rock and Roll.

In their early days, they were not an overly talented bunch. Peter Buck could barely play guitar, Michael Stipe was always off key, Bill Berry didn’t always keep a constant beat but they knew what they wanted, they had a bit of luck coming their way and they reached heights nobody expected them to reach.

Ego? This is a band that would go into a studio and try to make their parts quieter than their band mates. Their songs are co-written by all band members sharing equally. They handled their music and their careers democratically.  They broke rules. Their videos were odd and unlike anything you saw on MTV at the time.

They not only helped put Athens, Georgia on the map but also kept America as being relevant during a time when British Music was invading the airwaves.   They carried the torch for bands like the Replacements, Husker Du and the Minutemen helping to promote rock’s image in the states and create a grassroots groudwork for other bands to follow. R.E.M.’s success was a major turning point for the industry realizing that smart rock and roll sold.

They became godfathers to their successors, bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Radiohead coming to the aid of these bands when stardom waved their ugly finger at them. Although unsuccessful, Stipe tried to save Kurt Cobain and was directly responsible for Thom Yorke writing “How To Disappear Completely”.

They cared about their predecessors listing the likes of Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, New York Dolls, Television, The Feelies, just to start. Peter Buck was a rock and roll encyclopedia that if he was not in a rock band would have been selling records and making snide remarks about them.

They stood up for causes they believed in, treating the rock and roll concert as an event not just of entertainment but education. It was commonplace to see R.E.M. on a benefit release or having them announce during a show to visit a local charity organization that had a table set up at the venue.  They continue to support causes publicly and privately both globally and locally.

Every indie rock performer can thank R.E.M. for creating the blueprint for their careers.  There was talent and some luck but plenty of hard work. They toured incessantly in the early years playing at pizza joints and wherever else would have them with every audience member converted into a fan before they left.  They

They relied more on their fans to campaign on their behalf.  Even in the 80s it was common to see fans traveling up and down the east coast to check out multiple shows. They treated their fans with respect and admiration at times letting them travel with them in their early days. Their fanclub has always been receptive and I believe in existence for close to 27 years if I am not mistaken.  Over that time they have never changed their membership price (being 10 dollars a year).

There have been many remarks that R.E.M. should have broken up {Insert Number of Years} ago, and to that response I would offer some thoughts. Yes, it is true that R.E.M. is not the same band that it was but how many bands can you name that have shown the highese level of quality over 31 years? I do not think there is a band on the planet that can make that same claim.  Personally, their string of albums from Chronic Town to Up is unmatched. While their last 4 albums (Reveal, Around the Sun, Accelerate and Collapse into Now) have not matched their predecessors, part of their problem is they were going up against a legacy that was unattainable.

The IRS years (Chronic Town through Document) is a starting point for anyone wanting to discover the college rock scene back then. The first half of their Warner’s Contract showed a band that was in the mainstream still making music that made you think. They came out with two acoustic-driven albums in Out of Time and Automatic for the People and then created a Monster that was more Iggy Pop, T-Rex and Bowie than grunge.  New Adventures is still a solid effort and for the record I play Up just as much as any of their prior works.

But for 2 decades they were as strong as any band out there and I am not sure how their legacy should be tarnished. They have bowed out the way that they should have and while I am shocked and slightly saddened to see them go, I am also happy for them to be able to reflect on their careers and start the next part of their life.

My personal opinion has been that this has been in the works for some time. I believe that Collapse into Now was intended to be the last album and that the band had fully intended to break up unless something drastically changed. There was never a need for a farewell tour; they are not the Eagles.

The band’s last album, however, ‘Collapse Into Now” does deserve another listen. I think there is no doubt this was written as a final group of swan songs and taken in that context it creates a nice conclusion to the story of R.E.M.

For me, this has been one of the more bittersweet posts to write. I do not think you can encapsulate a eulogy in a couple paragraphs for something that has been so important in my life for 31 years.  I have to be honest there have been moments where I was afraid I was going to lose it. Thinking of a certain lyric or listening to a song and yes, the eyes begin to water up.

One of the first songs that R.E.M. wrote was a little ditty called ‘Just a Touch’. While the song never made it onto a proper release until their 4^th album, the song is about the day that Elvis died.

I remember heading down to Athens several years back to check out an early video of R.E.M. that surfaced from 1980. We sat in the auditorium and watched as a very young R.E.M. was performing Just a Touch.  I remember someone in the audience had thought that Stipe’s performance was very “Elvis-like” which shocked me because this was an event of the Athens Historical Society and not hardcore rock fans. Part of the gift of being a band for 31 years is that there are plenty of songs for fans to choose from. I figure that this song is that moment for me.

You set the pace of what was to come
I have to carry on now that you’re gone
A day in the life well nobody laughed
Look to the days how long can this last

In closing, I want to thank R.E.M. for the last 31 years.  For most of that time I have been thinking of your music trying to figure it all out and your decision to call it quits will not stop that. It’s easy to say that you have been the most influential band over this period of time and you will be missed.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver

4.5 Stars out of 5

“Basically, meaningfulcore music is reborn” – Carles, (www.hipsterrunoff.com)

When I read that Justin Vernon grew up in Eau Claire, WI, I knew that this fact would be almost everything that I would need to describe this album. If this album does not represent driving through central Wisconsin in the middle of winter then it represents driving through central Wisconsin in the middle of winter with a deer on your roof. This album represents all the depression and despair of the Upper Midwest Rural Landscape; it’s snow and puddles and ice and alcoholism, cheese and Leinenkugel.  It’s the morning after drinking a couple six packs of New Glarus Spotted Cow in the home of someone who is a Minnesota Vikings fan.

The music holds all the isolation while Vernon’s voice holds all the soul and they carry this simple formula together for one of the best albums of 2011.

The recent awful Peter Gabriel cover album ‘Scratch My Back’ had two fairly decent songs on it. One of them, Bon Iver’s ‘Flume’ , provided that answer about Vernon’s voice.  Vernon has the IT Factor just like Gabriel has and I think there was a reason after listening to the track as to why it worked. While there were many tracks that Gabriel picked were outside his range, ‘Flume’ was the contemporary song that he was able to push to a new crowd. If you were a Peter Gabriel fan and picked up the album, and had never heard of Bon Iver yet, it should have been one of your first purchases after listening to the Peter Gabriel pieces.

You can be an awfully good songwriter and write catchy songs. It’s another thing to capture an essence of soul and meaning within a song to trandscend me the listener to a different place and Vernon simply has that gift.

In terms of production, after Bon Iver’s debut album “For Emma, Forever Ago,” the success has allowed Bon Iver to improve on their initial release but not enough to go crazy.  It’s still endearing enough to spend watching the people come and leave from the Farm and Fleet all day.

There is a difference between this album and the Fleet Foxes in that Bon Iver builds an album that feels authentic.  I do not feel as if Robin Pecknold’s beard is all of a sudden gonna be pulled off and he is a girl or some Hollywood starlet.  Vernon on the other hand is going to the Walleye Fish Fry on Friday night and writing songs like Holocene to a bunch of individuals that are replacing the letters “FAVRE” on their back to “RODGERS”.

Holocene just requires the listener to replay it over and over.  As I mentioned earlier, the more I listen, I hear that “Peter Gabriel” nuance in the voice that drives me closer.

There are other songs that are ever so close from the audience singing along. ‘Towers’ deserves audience participation as the tempo moves ever so speedier.

This is not an album you are going to get your dance moves to and some might argue it’s a good album to listen to when you are burying your pet cat and I say that pretty confidently that there will not be a better album this year to bury your cat to.

I am remiss to give it a perfect grade as the final track Beth/Rest does it’s best to try to remember the 80’s and ruins a perfectly good album with a throw in piece of schlocky crap. Whatever “Bruce Hornsby on a casio keyboard/piano” getup they have going on here has to leave and pretty quick. I know the 80’s are all the rage these days but that is not the single on this album. People listening to this track and saying that “It’s executed to perfection” obviously did not live through the crap of the 80’s and lastly it just does not feel anything like the rest of the album. It just doesn’t belong.

I am not big personally on the “Folksy” albums so when an album such as this pulls my attention, I would suggest climbing on board. Maybe, it just feels like Wisconsin.

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

(4 Stars out of 5)

The Fleet Foxes are becoming the modern day Simon and Garfunkel. Robin Pecknold with his plethora of backup vocalists have modernized the folk genre to the point that in 20 years the next up and coming band will be called the next Fleet Foxes.

‘Helplessness Blues’ is a sophomore effort that doesn’t stray too far from their debut album that shot to the tops of the critic’s charts.  While the album offers less pop and more atmosphere, the key to their sound is that they avoid the trap of ‘Folk’ albums that sound like ‘Folk’ albums. It’s one thing having poignant lyrics and it’s another where you can combine that with beautiful melodies.

For me, folk music is a genre that has never quite inspired me to search out the deep cuts of any particular artist with a few exceptions. Often those exceptions where rooted in pop acts that had great lyricists to begin with.

And while I would describe the Fleet Foxes as one of the better bands of the 21^st Century, one of the flaws I see, and this being a minor one at that is songs like ‘Battery Kinzie’, and ‘Helplessness Blues’, don’t provide the power of the band that I mentioned earlier (Simon and Garfunkel). Helplessness Blues is a very personal album and often the “Lost Love” songs don’t pack the same power that a poet and a one-man band can carry.

Take songs like ‘America’ and ‘Homeward Bound’, which are more about trying to find our place in our culture. Or take a more contemporary artist such as Jeff Tweedy who pondered in ‘Ashes of American Flags’, “I wonder why we listen to poets and nobody gives a fuck”.  It might be because as Pecknold ponders in ‘Helplessness Blues’:

And now after some thinkin’

I’d say I’d rather be

a functioning cog in some great machinery

serving something beyond me.

But I don’t I don’t know what that will be.

I’ll get back to you someday

Soon you will see.

In our post 9/11 world we are asked to remember and yet we write about our own personal battles.  Pecknold’s in many ways admitting right here that very failure; “How can I figure out the battles going around me when I am still trying to get past my own?”

It might also have to do with the fact that more than ever we are being raised to be individuals rather than members of society. We cannot function in teams or as part of a unit. There are strong political beliefs that ask for more individual rights with less reliance on the public sector.

Montezuma expresses that same sentiment: “Oh how could I dream of, Such a selfless and true love, Could I wash my hands of? Just lookin out for me”

Conversely, since Jeff Tweedy and Wilco made the great American album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”, the future work has proved to be much more about internalizing everything.

In an age where we can see photos and video from our fingertips, I want to see a band try to tackle that subject.   While I might be hard on the Fleet Foxes, it’s my thought that they might be that band.  While the album provides the tools to be one of the great folk rock albums of this era, it needs to go further.

TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light

(4 Stars out of 5)

Admittedly, this is a difficult review to write. As has been reported in other venues, bassist Gerard Smith passed away from his battle with lung cancer.  Often is the case with musicians who die at an early age is that their deaths are much more tragic (from drugs, alcohol, suicide or accident). Here is a case of someone doing everything right in a band revolutionizing the sound of rock, soul and funk. In an era when bands have striated off in different directions, TV on the Radio is trying to bring these elements back where they belong.

TV on the Radio’s ‘Nine Types of Light’ is their most accessible album to date. A much ‘cleaner’ sounding album missing much of the fuzz from previous albums and in some ways their career seems to be going in the direction of David Byrne, going from a energetic art-punk career to a more vanilla but still acceptable pop sound.

Which is where preconceived notions can be fallible. When does TV on the Radio begin to sound like U2 and would I be saying this if this was a killer debut album by some no-name band?

With the circumstances of Gerard Smith fresh on my brain while strolling the city streets of Chicago, I began to reminisce by pulling out ‘Return to Cookie Mountain’, an album filled with energy.

I consider a song like ‘I Was A Lover’ beginning to write the next chapter after Prince. As I made my way through the tracks I forgot in this day of age how powerful this album was and I began to wonder why I have not returned to Cookie Mountain more often. It’s slightly crisp outer edges with the chewy chocolate chip center, both with dark and white chocolate in the middle.  Ok, I am getting ahead of myself.

Inevitably, as comparisons are made, the product in front of me is still solid from cover-to-cover.  ‘Second Song,’ sets the stage as one of those classic rock songs, mixing between an almost straight delivery and falsetto, the album is about love, the most overused, overwrought subject in the rock and roll encyclopedia and the band does not let anyone down with this album. If you took the lyrics and created a cloud, the word would be in 72 font.

Before you throw this in the garbage, TV on the Radio offers two compelling reasons to hold onto this: Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone. Soul, soul and some more soul. We take away the fuzz, we make the sound cleaner and Adebimpe shines as one of the true crooners of the 21^st Century. What separates them from many other lead singers these days is that they bring character to the songs, providing an essential warmth that can be enjoyed with a nice Pinot and the lights turned down. Maybe not first date material but perfect for that essential reminder when the kids are at the grandparents and need a little couples time.

While African or R&B might be common elements it reminds me more of some of those Peter Gabriel works of the late 80s and early 90s especially on ‘You’, it seems to get that perfect method of modern rock and soul.

Possibly one of the first ballads that I have enjoyed in years, ‘Killer Crane’ works with this beautiful organ reminiscent of John Paul Jones and banjo.

There are some more subtle moments such as ‘Forgotten’, the forgotten track on the album. The sleepy beginning builds into an opus, as Adebimpe purrs before mixing the falsetto shouts and horns explode into your eardrums.

What makes ‘TV on the Radio’ is their crossover appeal. While the album is solid, it lacks the shock of ‘Cookie Mountain’ and ‘Dear Science’ and while I do like the soulful albums about ‘Love’ the lyric can be overused here. Some might say that you cannot overuse the term but trust me, if every third sentence spewed out by your lover included ‘I Love You’ I would start to question what else love is about. It’s a word so powerful that said too early in a relationship can be a deal-breaker and never said enough can be a heart-breaker and said too much in a relationship can be a sanity breaker.

I look at “Light” in terms of “Love” in feeling illuminated. The forces that drive this feeling of love are often in the multiples and I question whether they are all present here. Even with it’s limits, the album still has enough substance to make it a worthy purchase.