November 26, 2008

Joan Baez: Two 20-Somethings on a 60s Icon

In 1959 Joan Baez was a pint-sized college dropout with a hell of a lot of hair playing her folk tunes in pretty much any Boston club that would have her. Once the sixties came—well, we know the rest—Baez met Bob Dylan, and she quickly became the darling of the nascent protest folk-rock scene. Her soprano reworkings of classic spirituals and folk songs became the soundtrack by which a generation remembers their youth.

Today, the 67 year-old Baez refuses to become a relic. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of her recording career, Baez has released The Day After Tomorrow, a new album of covers drawn from sources such as Elvis Costello and Thea Gilmore. (In true Baez style, the title track is a cover of Tom Waits' classic wartime ode to a disheartened soldier.)

Two of us MoJo staffers caught Baez during the last leg of her recent national tour. Later, we discussed via gchat how the rebel-rousing folksinger translates from legend to the stage. Full disclosure: Neither of us was even in utero during the sixties.

Jesse: Well, first off, I really enjoyed the show. It was my first time seeing Joan Baez, and I left feeling warm and cuddly, ready to give a stranger a hug.

Alexis: I mean she's Joan freaking BAEZ.

Jesse: Word. I've been hearing about her my whole life. My mother was jealous.

Alexis: So was mine. She offered to fly out to come to the show.

Jesse: My mom didn't tell me Joan was so religious, or maybe spiritual is a better word.

Alexis: Is she?

Jesse: Well, I can't be sure, but she kept talking about Jesus and God, and then Gandhi.

Alexis: But I think a lot of that is sort of sixties spiritual jargon, that when coming out of the mouth of a 60-year-old women is completely different than a 17-year-old hippie.

Jesse: Yeah, now it just sounds new-agey.

Alexis: You still have to respect her for coming out with new stuff though.

Jesse: Right. And her voice is still remarkably sweet.

Alexis: It sounds exactly the same. It's crazy.

Jesse: But, let's be honest, she's not a virtuoso. I really think people came more for the culture, to reconnect with a meaningful time in their own lives. I mean, she kept offering little nuggets of insight into her world. She introduced her mom, after all.

Alexis: Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash… She can name drop.

Alexis: There was a women sitting next to us just beaming, singing along with every lyric. It's clear that seeing her is really about so much more than the music. It's almost like a baby-boomer reunion. There was this collective energy about age. Like the way she kept joking about the time lapse and changing her song lyrics to reflect that it was 40 years in the future. Those jokes got the most laughs. But hearing the same songs sung in a concert hall to adults who might as well be attending a Barry Manilow concert is just incredibly sad. The baby boomers grew up, the revolution never happened, and now Joan Baez sings covers for $50 a pop. And you can buy a Pellegrino in the lobby after you've signed your Amnesty International petition.

Jesse: I've just got to say that she's done a much better job of practicing what she's been preaching and publicizing her beliefs and taking a strong stand for justice than Bob Dylan.

Alexis: She was one of the first celebrities to come out for Obama actively, and she's still a regular face in the protest scene. Its funny, considering the Joan Didion piece on her where she's called "the Madonna of the disaffected" and "the pawn of the protest movement." I mean she still has those qualities, but it's definitely something she owns and controls and seeks. She's not 17 anymore.

Jesse: I don't know if I'd call her a pawn necessarily, but I bet that's where I'll get to see her next, at a protest rally. Would you see her again, I mean, outside of a protest rally?

Alexis: I think I would, but only if I brought my mom.

—Alexis Fitts and Jesse Finfrock.

November 21, 2008

First "Best of 2008" Album List Very Wrong, Very White

Kids, this right here is more proof that sometimes it's better to take it slow than rush to be first. Stereogum points out that Paste Magazine is the first major publication to drop their "Best Albums of 2008" list, and while there are some good and interesting albums all up and down it, the order (and the omissions) are kind of head-slapping. Here's their Top 10:

10 Deerhunter - Microcastle (Kranky)
09 Lucinda Williams - Little Honey (Lost Highway)
08 Sun Kil Moon - April (Caldo Verde)
07 Girl Talk - Feed the Animals (Illegal Art)
06 Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
05. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins (Jagjaguwar)
04. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)
03. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL)
02. Sigur Rós - Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust (XL)
01. She & Him - Volume One (Merge)

You read that right: She & Him, #1 album of the year. My current top two faves, TV on the Radio and Portishead, landed at #50 and nowhere, respectively. And we all know how I feel about Sigur Ros. But there's something even more nefarious about this list, and that's its blinding whiteness.

Out of all the Top 50, I count only five albums with non-white contributors: two by Santogold, and one each from Lil Wayne, Thao Nguyen, and the TV on the Radio guys. Of course, one could note that three of those had major involvement from white people as well. Musical taste, and lists of this sort, are, obviously, subjective, and I don't mean to levy any charges of racism at the fine folks at Paste. But I will levy charges of closed-minded stupidity. If they had named this the Top 50 Folk Albums of the Year, I might be more sympathetic, but clearly they're making a half-hearted attempt to be musically inclusive. It's symbolic that Girl Talk's Feed the Animals landed at #7: while it's a fine album of attention-deficit mashup ridiculousness, capturing some of the euphoria of his live shows, it mostly features hip-hop vocals, so it's by far the highest placement of any non-white contributors on their list, if you want to think of it that way. I guess Paste likes their hip-hop well enough, but only if it's scrubbed clean of its original thumpiness and layered over some classic rock?

Stream Entire New Kanye West Album At, You Guessed It, MySpace

It's been a big week for the horrifically-designed friend-accumulation and lo-fi mp3 streaming web site MySpace. They grabbed the new G N' R just yesterday (the song "Chinese Democracy" is up to almost a million plays), and now they've got the new Kanye West album, 808s and Heartbreak, which isn't out until Tuesday. Of course, they can't help but screw things up, as Rolling Stone points out, their "fancy artwork" called the album "808s and Heartbreaks." In fact, they're kind of accurate: the album takes stock of all sorts of troubles in Kanye's life, from the death of his mother to failed relationships, from materialistic tendencies to a sudden regret he never had children. One heartbreak flows into another on this strange, lonely album.

I complain a lot about the audio quality of MySpace's streaming tracks—the service automatically downgrades any uploaded mp3s to 96kbps, low enough to be noticeably worse than a 99-cent 128kbps file on iTunes—but Kanye, as usual, has jumped out in front of this development, for better or for worse. Much of 808s and Heartbreak sounds like it was recorded underwater, on a throwaway (and, uh, waterproof) digital recorder, so the crappy MySpace streams sound just as good as the originals. Of course, much has also been made of the album's use of Lil Wayne's favorite toy, the Antares Auto-Tune pitch-correction software (you thought I was going to say "bong," didn't you), but the most noticeable thing to me about Kanye's vocals is how muddy they are. Add the robotic Auto-Tune to the reduced fidelity, and you get the overwhelming impression of claustrophobia, like Kanye's being squeezed (or squeezing himself) into a tiny box. It's an oddly perfect metaphor for the gray, lifeless world view and self-denial of the heartbroken, but it does mean 808s and Heartbreak falls squarely into "concept album" territory, and that it might not be that enjoyable to actually listen to.

NY Mag's Vulture blog checked out the album when it first leaked a couple days ago, giving it faint praise: "we have to admit, it's not (technically) the worst thing we've ever heard." I wonder what was? The NME calls the album "bold" but acknowledges that not all the tracks work, saying "Say You Will" uses "flaky hooks and backpack-rap-style beats with Frenchie-coffee-table-lektro blips and Enya-brand flute toots." Yeeps!

The Huffington Post jumps into the record-review fray with a piece on the album, making an interesting comparison between the new high-concept robo-Kanye and Garth Brooks' "Chris Gaines" character, calling him the only other artist "at such a commercial peak to take such a drastic, 'artistic' risk." They're realistic about the music, though:

As for the songs themselves, putting aside tragic and Autotuned context, some work and some don't. "Amazing" delicately plods along beautiful builds until the bottom drops out and Young Jeezy delivers the record's one rap verse with monstrous (and yet understated) flair. "Streetlights" is a drum-heavy ballad that flirts with cheesiness, but in the end is saved by layers of vocals and a moving melody. And despite adding Lil Wayne's supersized ego to "See You In My Nightmares" falls surprisingly flat and forgettable.

The LA Times is more generous, finding common musical ground between the minimalist, spacey beats on Heartbreak and current underground electronica like M83 or Junior Boys. Even more interestingly, they explore Kanye's use of the Auto-Tune as the foregrounding of the "fake":

Because they're so obviously "fake," the sounds that come from primitive drum machines and manipulative software forces the listener to question what she does consider real -- regarding not only the sounds she hears, but also the emotions they invoke. Puppets have historically been associated with the same questions Auto-Tune raises now. They seem to be more human than human, and if manipulated well can cause that uncanny feeling of not knowing where an object stops and humanity starts.

"Grace appears most purely in that human form which either has no consciousness or an infinite consciousness. That is, in the puppet or in the god," wrote the German poet and philosopher Heinrich von Kleist in 1810. Watching the dance of a beautiful marionette, which has no sense of self, we begin to ponder our own self-awareness -- the very essence of humanity. West seeks a similar effect on "808s and Heartbreak," a heavy trip indeed.

Ultimately, 808s and Heartbreak is such a left-field album, only time will tell if it stands out as a classic or sticks out like a sore thumb. But you have to give Kanye credit, and not just for trying something different: he took his misery and actually made something out of it, a supremely difficult task.

808s and Heartbreak is out Tuesday, November 24 on Island Def Jam. Listen to the whole thing here, but you have to click on "featured playlist" in their player deal and select "808s and Heartbreak." It took me a minute to figure that out.

Your Friday "Awwwww"

I bet Party Ben misses this one.

It's an awesome rap video from the 83-year-old "Funky Fraulein." ("I have to be in bed by nine.")

All my grandmothers were dead long before I was born, but I'm such a mama's girl I always mourned never having had them. I'm sure at least one of them would have been like her. Cutest of all, the grandson who no doubt talked her into this (she hefts quite a few wine glasses in the video) makes a cameo.

Enjoy.

November 20, 2008

Now: Even Easier for Teens To Embarrass Each Other!

Oh my God, you guys. Rejoice, teens of the world. It's just gotten a whole lot easier to pursue one of your favorite interests: torturing each other on the Internet. On a new site called High School Tabloid, teens can submit pictures and scandalous stories from their very own high schools. Just think: The angst and growing pains of your friends, enemies, and frenemies memorialized—and laid bare for literally the whole world to see! Check out this screen shot from the home page:

And its motto pulls no punches: "Gossip, Publicity, Popularity."

Teens who post are awarded points, two for comments posted to a story and "10 points for posted headline with story." (So are the points for the headline or the story?) Earn enough points and this fabulous prize could be yours:

Obtain 50,000 points you become an official High School Tabloid columnist which will give you the opportunity to write a cover story, which will be featured on the HighSchoolTabloid home page! .GOSSIP.PUBLICITY.POPULARITY.

Folks, there may be hope for journalism yet.

HT YPulse.

John McCain Countersues Jackson Browne

For those of you who felt like the McCain campaign, round about early September, started to look like some sort of demented cartoon, don't say "that's all folks" yet. As we discussed here back in August, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne filed suit against the McCain campaign for using his song, "Running on Empty," in a campaign ad. Sure, the suit was more symbolic than anything (considering the ads were probably off the air by the time Browne called his lawyer) but the remnants of the McCain campaign are taking it very seriously, countersuing in U.S. District Court in California. As Reuters reported, McCain filed two motions:

The first is a standard motion to dismiss, claiming that McCain's use of the song was fair use. McCain also says that Browne's assertion that the Lanham Act's prohibition on the implication of a "false association or endorsement" fails because it only applies to "commercial speech," not "political speech." The second filing is maybe even more interesting. It's an anti-SLAPP motion, which is typically used by defendants as a way to seek monetary damages after a plaintiff has subjected a defendant to a lawsuit meant to chill free speech. So far, McCain is only looking for attorney's fees and costs, but claiming an artist has interfered with free speech is quite the poke of an eye in show business.

That's right, McCain is looking to recoup some cash here. To add insult to injury, the first motion included the boastful assertion that using "Running on Empty" in their ad "will likely increase the popularity of this 30-year-old song." Hilarious, but McCain may have a point, as the only major "win" that had anything to do with his campaign was pop-cultural: SNL's ratings bump and Tina Fey becoming America's sweetheart. Maybe Browne should write a book?

Chinese Democracy Emerges, Pigs Stay Safely On Ground

It's here: early this morning, the entirety of Chinese Democracy, the new album from Guns N' Roses and their first in 17 years, was posted to their official MySpace page for your 96kbps listening pleasure. The physical CD will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy stores this Sunday, breaking with the odd tradition of Tuesday releases—speaking of democracy, could we do that with elections too? Anyway, Jon Pareles has a lot of fun with it in the Times today:

“Chinese Democracy” is the Titanic of rock albums: the ship, not the movie, although like the film it’s a monumental studio production. It’s outsize, lavish, obsessive, technologically advanced and, all too clearly, the end of an era. It’s also a shipwreck, capsized by pretensions and top-heavy production. In its 14 songs there are glimpses of heartfelt ferocity and despair, along with bursts of remarkable musicianship. But they are overwhelmed by countless layers of studio diddling and a tone of curdled self-pity. The album concludes with five bombastic power ballads in a row.

Glimpses, indeed, and I might add "fleeting."

David Fricke in Rolling Stone is more generous, giving the album 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record." He takes the album's bombast as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy of rockitude, no matter what it actually sounds like. He can't help but admire the audacity of taking up 13 years, 14 studios, and losing every member of your band in the creation of an album:

To [Axl Rose], the long march to Chinese Democracy was not about paranoia and control. It was about saying "I won't" when everyone else insisted, "You must." You may debate whether any rock record is worth that extreme self-indulgence. Actually, the most rock & roll thing about Chinese Democracy is he doesn't care if you do.

Hmm, so by that measure, the Spruce Goose was pretty rock 'n' roll, too? The UK Guardian, perhaps by virtue of distance, has a little bit more sobriety on the topic, looking back at Chuck Klosterman's 2006 spoof review of the album to observe that there's no way any album that cost $13 million could ever be good enough. They struggle, perhaps in vain, to listen to the music "objectively," and eventually discover that there are some "fabulous melodies" on songs like "Better" and "Madagascar":

Listening to them, you're struck by the thought that Chuck Klosterman might have been wrong. Chinese Democracy is clearly not the greatest rock album ever made, but nor is it an absolute and utter failure. The irony is, that for all the lavishing of money and time and technology, it's saved by something as old fashioned as a good tune.

Sure, there's some truth in all these reviews: bombast is, well, bombastic, and if you sing enough notes you'll probably combine them in a pleasing way at some point. But what, for Gore's sake, is this album's carbon footprint? In an economy near collapse, do we want our rock bands burning through money like insurance execs on a bender? Guns N' Roses are the GM of rock & roll, and observing that there are some nice melodies on Chinese Democracy is like saying the Hummer has well-designed cupholders. Like our mismanaged automakers, G N' R is a marauding dinosaur, consuming resources and manpower that could support 10,000 better bands. The economy might take a hit, but a bailout--or even $11.99 on a CD--just rewards stupidity.

November 19, 2008

These Men Are From Hell, not Mars

Man, I'm glad I'm divorced and definitely not looking.

Check out Love in the Time of Darwinism. That is, if you're a man—a "real" man—who wants to be reminded of why he behaves in the manly way that he does. Or if you're a "real" woman without a man and need reminding of why that is so.

Here's a quick, accurate summary of the article: "I'm a big, useless baby who knows he isn't shit and needs someone else to blame my endless failures, not least in the bedroom, on so I don't have to listen to my Mom yelling at me to get a frickin' job."

Here's another: "Duh, since I can't beat up women anymore, or get higher pay for the same job, stupid-ass that I am, or be deemed a "catch" simply by virture of owning a penis, I HATE, er, FEAR, women. Therefore, I must destroy them. I must blame my utter inadequacy on them, since every weekend they reject my jobless, drunk-ass stupid, uselessness, thereby turning that well-deserved inadequacy into a virtue. Duh." No man who is successful with women, whether thru guile or on his merits, contributed to this dreck.

It's a wonder the species hasn't died out by now.

Does explain all the losers on Cops, though. My fave is always the men complaining that all women are golddiggers—when they're living in their mama's basements but still managing to get laid. I guess their poverty serves the larger purpose of denying us 'golddiggers' any gold to dig. Otherwise, they'd make something of themselves. Showed us, ha!

But remember this, losers (i.e. men who think this article brilliant): Even the most useless woman has one arrow in her quiver, as opposed to you. She can bring forth life. All you can do is have orgasms. And we all know how difficult that is.

November 18, 2008

New Music: Amadou & Mariam – Welcome to Mali

It's a shameful fact that I came across Malian duo Amadou & Mariam's entrancing 2005 album, Dimanche à Bamako, well into 2006, too late to include it in my "best albums" list. While the album was produced with a professional sheen by Manu Chao, it still maintained a direct line to traditional Malian sounds while expanding into more complex musical and lyrical territory. Sure, with Chao's help, Bamako achieved international acclaim, but one can hope that it was the album's emotional purity that resonated with listeners worldwide. The duo's new album is called Welcome to Mali, but oddly enough, it finds them moving even further afield.

Album opener and first single "Sabali" ("Wisdom") was produced by Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz fame, and it's superb, a strange mashup of Gorillaz' "Feel Good Inc." with the rising-and-falling computerized tones and melancholy feel of Grandaddy's "The Crystal Lake." It's a fascinating, retro-futuristic re-interpretation of chiming Afropop, with brief lo-fi transmissions from the past laid over the top.

Thankfully, actual guitars reappear by track 2, "Ce n'est pas bon," with a large chorus joining in to sing the refrain, and fans of Dimanche à Bamako will appreciate the stomping beat and complex melodies of "Magossa." But what's amazing is how the duo manage to put their own stamp on an eclectic array of styles, whether it's the delicate piano-opened ballad of "I Follow You" (sung in English) or the swaying reggae of "Djama." Guitarist Amadou Bagayoko even sounds a little bit like Johnny Marr on "Djuru," whose opening strums evoke The Smiths' "What Difference Does It Make."

Oddly enough, the Smiths connection isn't really so strange, since it's minor chords that unite much of Amadou & Mariam's work, no matter what genre they're exploring. Yet there's an unfettered exhilaration that comes from listening to Mali, the same sort of expansive vertigo I got from M.I.A.'s Kala: a sense that "world music" is now profoundly decentralized, no longer "culture behind glass." It turns out the title may mean the opposite of its first impression—rather than Mali welcoming tourists to its exotic sounds, this is an album that welcomes Mali to the world.

Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali is out on Because Music in the UK but doesn't come out in the US until December 16th.

November 17, 2008

Paul McCartney Announces Unreleased Beatles Track

Paul McCartney has confirmed to BBC Radio 4 the existence of a "mythical" 14-minute-long unreleased Beatles track, and says the song will see the light of day. The track, called "Carnival of Light," commissioned for an electronic music festival, was recorded during the Penny Lane sessions in 1967, and was apparently only played once, at the festival itself. McCartney told Radio 4 that at the time he asked the other Beatles to indulge him:

I said all I want you to do is just wander around all the stuff, bang it, shout, play it, it doesn't need to make any sense. Hit a drum then wander on to the piano, hit a few notes, just wander around. So that's what we did and then put a bit of an echo on it. It's very free.

He said the track was never released because it was too "adventurous," but that "the time has come for it to get its moment."

After the jump: Brits find a reason to complain!

Not everyone is happy about the revelation, however, with the UK Guardian bemoaning McCartney's "insecurity," saying that the track's release could tarnish the Beatles' reputation:

If Carnival of Light sees the light of day, is it going to enhance the Beatles' standing? That's the very same Beatles who changed the world and whose influence and reputation remains undimmed. Of course it isn't. Is it going to make us think slightly less of them? In all probability, yes, and I'm inclined to trust the judgment of Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Yoko Ono, who vetoed its inclusion on Anthology.

Hmm, so you're saying the mere presence of one 14-minute freakout jam session will keep you from ever hearing "Paperback Writer" the same way again? I'm not sure I agree: the Beatles' psychedelic experiments are some of their most compelling, groundbreaking work, and I don't see how one could resist being a musical completist. To bring the scenario into my own era: just because I have the 12" single for "Touched By the Hand of God" doesn't mean I appreciate the rest of my New Order collection any less. What do you think, Riff readers: release every musical doodle from the world's most famous band, or just, er, let it be?

SNL Gets Gay

Not to be all-Prop-8-all-the-time over here on the Riff, but there was some surprising, funny, and surprisingly funny stuff on SNL Saturday night, and some of the best bits seemed to be inspired by the sudden re-emergence of gay rights as a newsy topic. In fact, homosexuality was pretty much the running theme of the whole episode, from the overly-kissy family opening sketch (which culminated in a jaw-dislocating open-mouth snog between Andy Samberg and Fred Armisen) to the baffling-but-hilarious digital short featuring Samberg and host Paul Rudd painting each other's naked portraits, Titanic-style. Justin Timberlake's lispy cameo as one of three terrible male dancers in leotards in a Beyonce video also might count. By the way, somebody give Justin Timberlake a variety show—his two-minute version of himself hosting the show was pretty mind-blowing.

After the jump: Heavens to Murgatroyd!

There were two bits that were both hilarious and oddly heartwarming. First, when Weekend Update host Seth Meyers started to introduce a segment by announcing Prop 8's passage in California, the audience erupted in loud boos. It was an amazing, unusual moment, and Meyers was clearly taken aback, responding with an "okay, vote's over, thank you." The bit he was introducing turned out to be awesome: a response to Prop 8 by none other than Snagglepuss, the overdramatic pink cartoon lion who, in retrospect, seems profoundly, obviously gay.

The second bit featured two parking lot attendants in a typical setup: they appear at first to be typical homophobes, until their dialogue turns more homoerotic than homophobic. What made the sketch oddly touching was that they took it to the next level, with one of the parking attendants finally asking the other for his hand in marriage. By the end, you could almost believe these two, with their goofball banter about gay stuff being "hilarious," might actually be in love. (Still searching for video on that one).

Sure, some thought the episode seemed to fall into the "over-the-top I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry brand of gay," meaning, I guess, an attempt at enlightened comedy that only ends up reinforcing stereotypes. Sure, Samberg's digital shorts get their chuckles at least in part from homoeroticism at least 60% of the time, and it would be nice if the cast had any openly gay performers--where have you been, Terry Sweeney? The episode was also a sausage fest, with few major roles for the show's talented women--Prop 8 banned lesbian marriage too, you know. But while the comedy often aimed for absurdity or adolescent giggles, it never struck me as offensive. On the contrary, it seems like more evidence of an emerging trend, that Prop 8 and its ilk have finally woken up the queers and friends-of-queers, and that while the Mormons may have won a battle, they got way more than they bargained for.

Jason Bentley to Replace Nic Harcourt as KCRW Morning Host

Santa Monica-based public radio station KCRW has announced that longtime evening host Jason Bentley (right) will be taking over for Nic Harcourt as Music Director and host of the influential "Morning Becomes Eclectic" when Harcourt leaves on December 1. Harcourt's exit was just announced last week, and included a vague notion of "expanding on other activities" which to me seems code for "I didn't have anything else lined up," but what do I know.

Harcourt came to KCRW from Woodstock, New York's WDST in 1998, and over the past ten years used the morning show to introduce artists like Coldplay, Dido and Franz Ferdinand. Bentley's promotion will excite fans of groovy beats, as the DJ and producer has focused much of his career on electronic music, with his KCRW show "Metropolis" and a long-running Saturday night show on Los Angeles alternative juggernaut KROQ. We'll see how well his laid-back late-night DJ persona translates to 9am.

KCRW broadcasts on no less than 12 frequencies and translators across southern California, and over the years its mix of progressive (but not too crazy) music and NPR news has become one of the symbolic cultural pillars of Los Angeles. For non-Angelenos, KCRW has also established itself on the forefront of online streaming, with three internet channels: the live simulcast, an all-music stream, and an all-news channel. Their focus on new music tends to make them a better online choice than other public music stations like Seattle's slightly-too-eclectic KEXP or Minnesota's not-quite-current-enough The Current. Before you decide your writer has drunk the KCRW Kool-aid, there are annoying parts as well: the music often defaults to vaguely-worldly Thievery Corporation-style dinner party beats, and their hosts' chilled-out style sounds a lot like that parody of FM radio Larry did on "Three's Company." However, while their introduction of Coldplay and Dido to America doesn't exactly make them my heroes, I'll freely admit that I've heard much of my favorite music for the first time on their airwaves, and for introducing me to J Dilla, KCRW will always have a place in my heart.

November 16, 2008

Side Benefit of Prop 8's Passage: Celebrities Busting Out of Closet

…or at least one celebrity, so far. Comedian and actress Wanda Sykes surprised an audience at a Las Vegas protest against on Saturday with the announcement that she's gay. The event was one of many held around the country as part of a coordinated protest against Proposition 8 and other anti-gay measures. Sykes told the crowd that Prop 8 inspired her to be more outspoken:

"You know, I don't really talk about my sexual orientation. I didn't feel like I had to. I was just living my life, not necessarily in the closet, but I was living my life," Sykes told a crowd at a gay rights rally in Las Vegas on Saturday. "Everybody that knows me personally they know I'm gay. But that's the way people should be able to live their lives. Now, I gotta get in their face. I'm proud to be a woman. I'm proud to be a black woman, and I'm proud to be gay."

The Emmy award-winning actress has roles on The New Adventures of Old Christine and Curb Your Enthusiasm. While Sykes hadn't publicly discussed her sexuality before this, she has been a long-time supporter of gay rights causes, performing as part of this year's Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour which benefited the Human Rights Campaign. Her Wikipedia page says, "She is now officially a homosexual," which makes me wonder if there's some sort of certificate I'm supposed to get? A passport stamp or something? I've been practicing without a license!

Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user Bobster1985.

November 14, 2008

Party Ben's Current Musical Guilty Pleasures

As readers of the Riff should know by now, your terribly-named DJ and contributing writer is a pretentious, nerdy weirdo, zoning out to noodly downtempo space-hop, jamming to 20-minute neo-metal sludge-fests, and bouncing along to Malian wedding music. Of course, part of my job here on the Riff is to, er, bring good things to light, hopefully exposing one or two (of our five or six) readers to obscure but worthwhile music. But there's some cheesy stuff out there that deserves a little critical praise, and I'm willing to be the man to do it.

First up, Atlanta rapper T.I., who isn't immune to critical acclaim. His 2006 album King even ended up on a few year-end best-of lists, with Pitchfork calling it "stunning." But nowadays T.I. is a superstar hitmaker, and thus, taken a little less seriously, but a couple tracks from his latest album, Paper Trail, have seeped into my brain and won't let go. I admit, it's partially Oasis syndrome; these are songs that are so deeply familiar, they almost sound like rip-offs. "Live Your Life" brings Rihanna on board for a hand-waving ballad that's about half a step from "Umbrella," and "Whatever You Like" bites E-40 delivery and Lil Wayne keyboard blips for Oughties-hip-hop-by-numbers. But they're irresistible. "Life" especially seems to distill the most universally-appealing moments from about 12 different songs (that's Ozone's horrific/awesome "Numa Numa Song" in the background) creating something rich and emotional that you can sing along with the first time you hear it. "Live Your Life" even brings in the good old "ays" and "ohs" from Naughty By Nature's "Hip Hop Hooray" to make it easy. I can't seem to find an embeddable copy of the actual video, so watch it at MTV.com here, or watch an amateur cut-up of other stuff to the actual song below.

Next, it's the "cheesy trance" category. San Francisco producer Kaskade has grown from his origins on local imprint Om Records to become one of the biggest names in dance music; north of the border, Canadian artist Deadmau5 has established himself as one of the most adept electronic music producers out there. They joined forces for a tune called "Move For Me," and it's completely formulaic: staccato chords pluck in the now-standard triplet rhythm established by Booka Shade, while an anonymous, breathy female vocal floats over the top. But "Move For Me" is a transcendent piece of pop music. The production is so clean, so smooth, that despite its minimalism, it gives you a sense of complete immersion, like diving into cool, clear water. Lyrically, it's an oddly melancholy set of lines that work both as a standard sexy pop come-on and as the lament of a touring DJ: "Another night out/Another dance floor/Move for me/I'll move for you." There's no video for it, but listen below.

Over in the Alt-Rock section of the store, there's nothing I find more annoying than stupid white boys with guitars ironically covering hip-hop, an ugly whiff of racism hanging over their smarmy mockery. Witness Dynamite Hack's old cover of "Boyz-N-the-Hood" which sneers out the ribald lyrics as condescendingly as possible. The whole conceit seems to say, "look how funny we are, covering stuff that isn't real music." I'm glad I got that out of my system, because a group called Framing Hanley has produced a rock cover of Lil Wayne's ubiquitous Lollipop that I almost like as much as the original. The Nickelback-style power-ballad interpretation seems both a tribute to devil-hands rockism and a winking mockery of it, turning the tables, as if to say "hey white boys, it turns out Lil Wayne rocks harder than Soundgarden." The video, which you can watch below, has an endless, idiotic intro, so be warned.

So, Riff readers, any current pop trash, cheesy ballad, or formulaic disco number you'd like to come clean about having on your iPod? Confess in the comments below.

Shepard Fairey Designs Gay Rights Poster (I Think)

Via Gawker, who rightly categorized this under "Things We Like" but couldn't help themselves from a subtle "fists up" joke, it's a poster in support of marriage equality designed by Shepard Fairey, whose red-and-blue Obama poster became such an iconic image in the presidential campaign that it inspired legions of imitators and parodies. I can't find any mention of it on Fairey's Obey Giant site, so I hope this isn't just a really well-done homage to his neo-propaganda style, but either way, it's pretty cool—as Gawker puts it, it's "butch," for once avoiding the same old triangles and rainbows we see on every gay thing ever. On the other hand, it's a bit, well, vague. Now, I recently complained to the esteemed MoJo editors about gay rights stories being ghettoized under the "Arts and Culture" section, so I'll try not to get too far into the politics of this here on the Riff, but some gay rights activists have said part of the problem with the (unforgivably disastrous and disorganized) No on 8 campaign was that their ads skirted around depicting actual gays and lesbians. The Obama "Hope" poster had, you know, an actual picture of Obama on it, but this one only reads "gay" if you, like most people I know, are already really pissed off about Prop 8. Maybe there could have been two hands, clasped? Also, maybe people could have done some of this before the election? Grumble. Deep breath. Anyway, nice work as always from Mr. Fairey. Click the "Continues" button to see it embiggened.

Update: Fairey has posted the graphic to his website, saying that "anyone who believes in equality and human dignity should be appalled that Prop. 8 passed." Right on, although Dave Gilson caught that the fist image was just recycled from an earlier "Obey" poster, with, er, its orientation changed.

PS: I'd also like to point out that I named this file "faireylove.jpg" without even thinking.

November 13, 2008

Crank-Call Scandal Turns BBC Upside Down

Anglophiles out there may have already been watching this saga unfold with amusement (as we sip our tea), but it's finally reached the hallowed pages of the New York Times, so here's the story for the uninitiated. British comedian Russell Brand (far right), known to US audiences as a recent host of the MTV Video Music Awards, has a weekly show on BBC Radio 2 every Saturday night. On the October 18th episode, Brand and guest Jonathan Ross (near right) left multiple "lewd" messages on the answering machine of Andrew Sachs, the actor who played Manuel on Fawlty Towers, after being unable to reach Sachs for a pre-scheduled interview. Part of the messages' gist was that Brand had had an affair with Sachs' granddaughter, Georgina Baillie. While only a few complaints were received after the initial broadcast, The Mail on Sunday took notice eight days later, writing an article and a commentary piece calling the show "verbal sewage." Complaints skyrocketed, reaching nearly 40,000 within a week, and even Prime Minister Gordon Brown jumped in the fray, saying the episode was "unacceptable." The fallout was severe: Brand was suspended and then quit, Ross was suspended from his popular Friday night television show for three months, and two BBC executives resigned. So, what the heck did they say?

The Times didn't think it was very funny at all, and took every opportunity in the article to stick it to the two comedians. The calls, said the Times, "were not what most people would consider totally hilarious, or even mildly amusing." There's a furor, they wrote, over the "talent, or lack of it, of highly paid BBC entertainers." Ross is "generally beloved" in the UK, "despite the fact that many people apparently do not find him funny." They were "egging each other on like children." Jeez, NYT, who are you trying to impress, the Queen?

Granted, I'm a big fan of bawdy comedy and snarky radio shows like Howard Stern, but I thought the bit was, if not totally hilarious, at least mostly hilarious, and moreover, pretty tame by US standards. The transcript is available at the UK Telegraph here, or you can listen to the bit below (although the transcript is easier to follow--those Brits sure talk fast). Sure, there are fleeting lewd references, but most of the humor seems to be about their bumbling and ridiculous overreactions to those moments. And remember, this is the "answerphone" of Manuel from Fawlty Towers, the randomness of which fact makes the whole thing even sillier. I can see why he'd be a little upset, but he was scheduled to call in anyway, wasn't he? Okay, come to think of it, they did cross the line, but I've got to admit I did have a bit of a giggle. As to the question of whether the British public should be paying for all this with their £139.50 annual license fees, you lot are going to have to work that out for yourselves.

Photo courtesy BBC.

The Christmas Wars MMVIII: Attack of the Atheists

Seems like every year Christmas decorations in stores go up earlier. Even the Banana Republic across the street from Mother Jones' offices has installed its celebratory, yet demure, holiday displays well in advance. Appropriately, the "War on Christmas" is also getting an early start this year. Already a pro-atheist group, the American Humanist Association, has launched a literally godless ad campaign that's riling up the pro-Christmas soldiers at Fox News and other conservative outlets. The ads (seen left) are shamelessly posted on 200 secular buses throughout D.C. In addition, the American Humanist Association will post billboards in Lamb's-blood-red Colorado Springs and Denver that say, "Don't believe in God? You are not alone."

The congenial press contact for the campaign, Fred Edwords, says he will appear on CNN and Bill O'Reilly's show tonight. That promises to be interesting since O'Reilly prophesized that a lack of a properly Christian Christmas could lead society to embrace other "...secular progressive programs, like legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage, because the objection to those things is religious-based, usually." Instead of leading to gay marriage, O'Reilly would prefer Christmas lead to religious celebrations and the purchase of specialty, fleur-de-lis emblazoned doormats sold on his site which boldly proclaim "We Say Merry Christmas."

Bill O'Reilly isn't the only one worried about Christmas, though. The book publishing world is pinning its hopes not on a Jewish guy in sandals, but on a blonde British woman in pointy boots: J.K. Rowling. Her new book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, is reportedly the shining hope of what promises to be an otherwise rather gloomy time for Border's. Christmas will also be not-so-fun for folks at Hearst. And Morgan Stanley. And Viacom. Merry Christmas!

Never-Nudes Rejoice: Arrested Development Movie In the Works?

So much good news! Obama wins, and now this—can the discovery that donuts are good for you be far behind? Some website called Collider.com has video of Jeffrey Tambor saying that an Arrested Development movie "is a go." Eeee! The details are sketchy but Tambor seems pretty confident, claiming that "when the writer and the director calls you it's a pretty good sign." Also, last night Keith Olbermann reported that David Cross has also confirmed he got the same call. It all seems so real, but maybe this is just a bunch of fake mini-actors meant to fool Japanese investors?

After the jump: the long, Bluthian saga

The unassailably hilarious series had a legendary struggle with ratings and its network, Fox, which added insult to injury by broadcasting the show's final four episodes opposite the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in 2006. Rumors swirled (fueled by the show itself) that the series might continue on HBO or Showtime, but series creator Mitch Hurwitz seemed to give up the fight later that year, and the show appeared to be over for good. Of course, the last moments of the series finale featured producer Ron Howard (as himself) saying, in another self-referential moment, that Maeby's proposed series might work "as a movie," but that has been a roller-coaster ride as well. Earlier this year, some former cast members started dropping hints that a film might be in the works, but then Michael Cera seemed to put the kibosh on the idea in September. Sheesh, stop toying with us, Bluths! I'm going to have to go have a frozen banana and calm down. More updates as they become available...