Professor Jones searches for the decedents of college rock in Indie Jones and the New Millennium.
Each decade after the 70's has had a rock sub genre that supposedly contains the purity and creativity of the art form. In the 80's it was college rock, the 90's alternative and in the 00's it's indie. Indie has become a sort of catch all term for any rock music that is different from the mainstream in an arty sort of way, so I'm using the term in that same way. Now, on with the show this is it.
The New New Wave
The kids discovered the joys of Joy Division and Men Without Hats forming bands that sounded a lot like groups from MTV's birth. Franz Ferdinand's self titled debut (2004) had the angular guitars, Talking Heads style odd sparseness and dance grooves to set the world on fire for a second. Las Vegas' The Killers handed in two great albums that meshed the giddy feeling of synths and grandeur of stadium rock on Hot Fuss (2004) and Day and Age (2008). Meanwhile The National came across as a mildly depressed but not as down as Joy Division on their hypnotic 2007 disc The Boxer. All proof that even now kids still want their MTV...in 1983.
Cool As Ice Ice Baby
What it comes down to is that the indie rock I listen to mostly come from major labels meaning its an attitude more than a literal term. Enter The Strokes, arriving with much fanfare as the supposed saviors of rock music following Is This It (2001). Oddly, it's their weaker follow up Rooms On Fire (2003) that I enjoy the most with its The Cars style synth twists such as on "The End Has No End". Deservedly or undeservedly The Strokes symbolized hype overkill because old folks like me wanted new music that reminded us of something good from the past. The poster child of this scene I would pick to be Jack I'll-Form-A-New-Band-Every-Time-I-Sneeze White. Elephant (2003) by The White Stripes was dynamite with sharp material to support heavy guitar riffage and bare bones drumming. I also will throw in the Stripes Icky Thump (2007) as being just as great. Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot(2002) famously took a circular route from major label to no label and back again with old fashioned strong songwriting and tasteful performance. Death Cab For Cutie was another buzz band that broke through embodying those weepy sensitive guy ways like the excellent Transatlanticism (2003). I feel so much closer.
More Accordion Pleaze
Some bands made their name on unusual sonic templates, like Arcade Fire whose disc Neon Bible (2007) I found dark and moving like an undertow at night. Just before they attempted to be Fleetwood Mac, Rilo Kiley had the likeably low key More Adventurous album (2004) anchored by the mild toned swipe at George Bush Jr and pressure to write a pop song on "It's A Hit". And who could forget the quirky funk of Spoon? The only Spoon album I have is Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga which was a blast of hip shaking weirdness.
...leads to the Dark Side of The Force. I wanted to make a quick post so I'm just gonna go on about whatever comes up in shuffle mode on my IPOD. It's a popular blog gimmick and I love it so here it goes!
My Ipod has been Aerosmith crazy lately, almost like it could sense a tremor in The Force. How has this year gone for the Beantown boys? Guitarist Brad Whitford got hurt, then I think drummer Joey Kramer got hurt, then I think bassist Tom Hamilton had an operation, then Steven Tyler fell off a stage-and all that before the recent drama. Tyler's revolving door answers to if he's in or out of Aerosmith gives me a headache. I'm so glad I got to see them live a few years ago, even with them playing a truncated set and Hamilton being absent (I believe he was battling Cancer at the time) they were great. "Seasons Of Wither" was awesome in that show.
One of my favorite White Stripes songs, unique with that Spanish sound added to the heavy drums / guitar combo that is their trademark. Jack White's vocal has a playful absurd tone to it which is very funny. I often skipped to this song on the CD during my commute to work a few years back, it got me pumped up like I was bull fighting or something.
Not since the glory days of Rick Wakeman can I recall this much church organ in a song. Off the excellent Neon Bible album, I like the downtrodden mood and cynicism balanced with longing for a way out in this track.
And she's buy-yuy-ying a sta-hair-way...to he-avennn. Well, I'm going to have some time to do some typing now won't I? For the first five years or so of my buying and listening to rock music, I did not hear this song. Heard it about it, yes, but actually heard it, no. Once I did hear it, I thought "Is that it?". Years later in college I had a tv production class where the assignment was to create a production about a poem. I asked if song lyrics counted (because I don't know poetry from jack) and was told yes, so my production was me reading the lyrics to this song while we did slow camera movements on pics taken from a Best Photos From Life Magazine issue. After reading the lyrics over and over from this assignment I came to appreciate the song more. While they didn't invent the soft to loud song pace, their influence is unmistakable on other rock bands that copy this structure. The best rip off? Whitesnake's "Sailing Ships" from the Slip Of The Tongue disc. Guitarist Steve Vai tears it up while Coverdale wails, blasphemous as it is I like "Sailing Ships" better than "Stairway".
This is off one of the Paste Magazine samplers, this is my first listen of it. Hmmm...pleasant Country rock with a sort of George Harrison slide guitar lick and clip cloppy percussion. A sort of updated 70's feel. Stuff like this is what I like about Paste samplers, it gives me exposure to new music that fits my style. Twangy female vocal is good. Nice song, it's growing on me.
Another Paste Magazine track, very intricate acoustic guitar here. Sort of Hawaiian mixed with some Spanish guitar it sounds like. I like acoustic guitar solos where it's very complex with all these neato nimble finger moves you can hear. This is even better than the last song, good stuff. Makes me want to go to Starbucks and order a Mocha Latte. I think the free Itunes download I got from Starbucks for Roberto Y Gabriela is in the same vein. Impressive...most impressive. (An update, now that I've looked this up on You Tube dude is playing a ukelale. Wow)
In my book, George Harrison is the best Beatle. For me, that is. Lennon's avant garde touches could get a little too "out there" for me, while McCartney's melodicism could get a bit wimpy. Harrison had a direct approach that balanced melody and guitars in a way that appealed to me...that is except for hippy trippy stuff like "Within You Without You" of course. When Harrison died, this song was featured in just about every televised tribute to the man and with good reason, its a great song. So breezy and hopeful without being slight. Awesome.
I have a ton of Boston on my Ipod, which would mean something except they only have like five albums. This came from the Walk On Cd aka the one where they started using synthesizers. Seemed totally wrong for Boston, who proudly advertised on their record jackets that they didn't use synthesizers, would turn around and use them. It's not like it saved them time in recording, the gap between Walk On in 1994 and the prior album Third Stage in 1986 was eight freakin' years. Oh, back to the song. I love the guitar solo part of "What's Your Name", where the multitracked guitars solo in unison while another guitar in the background makes this descending sound like a spaceship landing.
A classic of arena sized power pop, it instantly takes me back to 1982. All those news stories of people dialing this phone number, a number that belonged to real people, was funny or what we in '82 liked to call "gnarly". Too bad Tommy TuTone couldn't come up with another humdinger of a pop hit like "Jenny". This song still fires me up and has me dreaming of the numerous county fairs this song must be played at annually. I want me some corn dogs!
Mary Mary, why you buggin? Sorry, couldn't resist that. You know, as big a hit as this song was in the early 90's it was some tv commercial a year back that got me into this song. Was it a phone commercial? Probably. I like the occasional R&B song and Blige has come up with a winner on occasion, she had some song that sampled part of a soap opera theme (Young and the Restless?) for an aptly titled tune "No More Drama" that I liked too. Didn't care as much for her duet with U2 on "One" though, a little over the top on that one. Anyway, I like the groove here with the slow heavy bass and antsy piano figure on top while Mary soulfully wails away.
All right, that was painless - for me that is. Not as painful as being cut off at the legs with a light saber or anything. And now Lord Vader...rise!
One of the best parts of reading MAD Magazine was the last page, where you could catch up on the latest shenanigans of Spy vs Spy. I enjoyed reading these magazines with its low brow humor, bad movie parodies and back cover that took an innocuous picture and folded into a nasty one. Spy vs. Spy featured two needle nosed spies constantly trying to outsmart each other no matter what the cost. This sort of one-upmanship is on display in the present with the political season rumbling through the air like a sonic boom. It's sort of like Sean Connery's "Chicago Way" speech in the Untouchables (1987) brought to life, he brings a knife, you bring a gun. That's the Chicago Way.
This leads up to the big spy showdown. The first video is the theme song to the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. Apparently neither the words "Quantum" or "Solace" make for a good song title, because the theme tune by Alicia Keys and Jack White is called "Another Way to Die." The song kicks off with a very Bondian guitar riff followed by 60's styled horns punctuating the riff which is pretty exciting. But then the song drifts a little bit as it searches for something to do. Keys and White do their best to out-cool each other but without a catchy hook, the song sinks fast. It's as if they're planning to be distracted by the slo-mo silhouetted nude girls during the title credits too. I'm hoping the song sticks after awhile because I'm really looking forward to Daniel Craig's second film as James Bond.
Which reminds me, I had a friend in college who made a good point about James Bond. He said James Bond was the worlds worst spy because a spy is supposed to be inconspicuous, blend in. All of the bad guys know who James Bond is on sight and if they don't, Bond usually tells the bad guys who he is or blows something up. This makes him a terrible spy, he rarely picks up information through surveillance or subterfuge. Instead he walks up to the bad guy, announces himself, gets captured, escapes and then destroys the bad guy base. That's exciting, but not espionage. James Bond always blew his cover-particularly in the Brosnan era, one time he took a car ride where his boss tells him people worked hard to set up a cover and then Brosnan Bond blew it inside 5 minutes (see Tomorrow Never Dies when he walks into a party, he just uses his normal name and chats up his ex girl in a heavily micro phoned/videoed room like he's daring the enemy to ID him.). That's the real reason Bond needs a license to kill, he has to shoot every person who figures out his identity.
So what do you do when James Bond, or his soundtrack, lets you down? You call Double O Rock, that's what. In between beach parties and beer bashes the Red Rocker moonlights as a secret agent fighting the enemies of freedom. You may ask, what qualifies Sammy Hagar to be a spy? His qualification is a canary yellow sleeveless jumpsuit and as Howard Stern puts it-the best teeth in Rock, my friends. If you're man enough to wear that jumpsuit with the red stripes on it, you're man enough to take on the world. The second video is a true Sammy classic, he takes his party hearty 'tude to battle Russians and the Middle East in the name of American Patriotism. Uzi's, tarantulas, White House board meetings...nothing can stop him. Not even Eddie Van Halen could keep Hagar from rockin'. So here's "V.O.A.", the voice of America. America, F*ck Yeah!
Professor Jones searches for the decedents of college rock in Indie Jones and the New Millennium.
