Eaten by Monsters

You may have read my post/rant earlier in the week about the coming war betwixt the major labels and the blogosphere, but now it seems that things are coming to a head.

The Daily Growl (an exceedingly excellent music blog, and a source of discovery for many of my favourite bands; from Esser to Rob St.John) has reported similar post-deleting atrocities occurring on his site.  But all is not lost: Ed, from the 17 Seconds blog, (and who’s Glasvegas post’s deletion caused such an uproar at Song, by Toad) seems to be rallying his supporters and preparing for a Big Push Over The Top…  So, I shall hereby nail my colours to the mast:

I shan’t post about any music from a major label.

This won’t do my Hype Machine rating any good at all, but hopefully do wonders to my credibility and self-respect.

And to celebrate, here’s some ever-so-slightly-relevant songs for you guys to check out:

Show of Hands – Sally Free and Easy

REM – Radio Free Europe

N.B: the irony of claiming to reject the majors and then posting an REM song is not lost on me; I’m just “sticking it to tha’ man”…

I stumbled upon this album whilst perusing the “elbo.ws” blog aggregator.  It’s kind of like the Hype Machine, but not as huge, and a little bit more friendly.

As a result, I know next to nothing about The Glasses, other than what I read about him on his site (he’s a solo project, it would appear…)

The music’s nice, in a Ben Kweller kinda way, but sounds just a little to unsure of itself for my tastes.  I’m sure his next album will be well worth a listen, but the delivery of this one lacks the confidence to engage the listener with his songs.  There’s some lovely moments, to be sure.  Now this is starting to sound like quite a harsh review, and that’s not my intention at all.  I strongly recomend that you give this a listen, especially if you’re fond of the 60’s pop that seems to be in-vogue all of a sudden (just listen to the Fleet Foxes album to hear what I’m talking about), but it’s just not my cup of tea.

If you’re intrigued and want to hear Story Problems, then mosey on down to his site, where he’s “doing a Radiohead” and giving it away for free but leaving an honesty box for anyone who want to do the right thing and pay.

The Glasses – Confused Hair

Uh-oh, I guess it’s time to keep a bucket of cold water by the front door (how come no one really goes in for the whole “trick” side of trick-or-treating any more? Tis a darn shame…).

So, while all the yuppies are boogying down to the strains of The Monster Mash and making out like they’re yanks, and gangs of marauding hoodies go from door to door menacing old ladies for sweets, what is there for a discerning music fan to do?

Well, fear not kids, the answer is here. Gaze on my works, ye mighty, and despair! It the Wednesday Top Five (delayed on account of the All Hallows Even festivities):

The top 5 non-cheesy Hallween songs.

5: Halloween by Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds. Okay, okay; I know they’re the least cool band in the world, but the Dave Matthews Band have actually made a couple of good records. And besides, this doesn’t really count as a DMB track, as this version comes from Dave & Tim’s Live at Luther College release. It’s properly angry (it very nearly made last week’s list…) and good for scaring away unwanted kids from the door. It does loose marks for unoriginal nomenclature, however…

4: Hellhound by Son Of Dave. What with all the talk of crossroads etc, the devil surely listens to the blues. And SoD uses the same loop pedal as I do, so I’ve got to love him. For the love of god(sic) steer well clear of the Jack on the Rocks remix, though, as it’s truly evil…

3: Frankenstein’s Party of Three: Your Table is Ready by Kelly Joe Phelps. Here’s some more blues, just for kicks. Also likely to spark off some oh-so-interesting arguments about whether or not it was Frankenstein or Frankenstein’s Monster that was the scary one…

2: This Devil’s Workday by Modest Mouse. Just plain creepy genius. Jagged and nasty, like all the best MM songs.

1: Halloween by Lupen Crook. At times Lupen verges on sounding like a musical theatre act (erugh! I feel dirty even mentioning it…) but this track serves to remind us that Kurt Weill was actually quite good. By far my favourite Halloween song, despite the lazy naming.

Lupen Crook – Halloween

Curses! I’ve been trying for hours now to post links to some mp3s I’ve uploaded to Xdrive (recommended to me by the Hype Machine) but so far I’m not having much success.  However, once I manage to do it I’ll be a fully fledged music blogger.  And, as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility…

Obviously, posting songs for free download when an artist wants people to pay for them isn’t really doing anybody any favours.  But yet there seems to be quite a community of music bloggers who do just that, and are often encouraged by the artists themselves.  For a new/small band the publicity can be a great help, and the blogs themselves can be a convenient go-to point for anyone on the prowl for obscure new bands to adore.  A pretty lage proportion of the new music I’ve discovered lately has come from music blogs, and as an “artist” myself I’m all in favour of submitting “promotional release” mp3s to blogs; at the level I find myself at, the exposure gained from being written about on a blog far outweighs the loss of revenue from a few sneaky downloads.

But clouds are gathering on the horizon, and it appears that there’s a growing atmosphere of resentment between the blogosphere and the major record labels.  I’ll let you read all about it at the Song, by Toad site, as he seems to have taken the matter to heart, but basically Columbia have started shaking their fist at Google, who have finally shown their true colours (the spineless b*st*rds) by obediently acquiescing to the demands of the label and deleting “offending” blog posts (and destroying legitimate intellectual property in the process).

More news on this will be forthcoming, but this post is getting a little long and ranty so I’d better put a stop to it right away.  Stay tuned, folks…

Everyone seems to be compiling lists lately, from the Guardian to Song, by Toad, so I figured I’d have a go at it.  Being as its now Wednesday (only just…) I guess we’ll make this a regular feature: a Top Five once a week.  This might even convince some of you lurkers out there to get stuck in and leave a comment, as I’m sure everyone will have their own views on what should/shouldn’t make the lists…

So, this week its gonna be songs about hate! More specifically, songs that are so saturated with vitriol and outright hostility that you can’t help but wince when you hear them.

Before we get stuck into the list proper, there are a couple of songs that made the longlist, but missed out on the final top five that deserve an honourable mention: Killing in the Name nearly made it, but was just far too obvious – any band with Rage in their name can’t be taking their anger seriously.  Styrofoam Plates, by Death Cab For Cutie came close too (“a b*st*rd in life; thus a b*st*rd in death”); Micah P. Hinson’s Patience just missed the cut, as it only really comes into its own anger-wise when he plays it live (apparently, I myself have never seen it in-the-flesh); and Ani DiFranco’s Lost Woman Song (the only girl to make the top 10; are women less pathologically angry than men?) a challenging rant about abortion – more blunt than Ben Folds’ Brick, but certainly less impartial…

But enough of the alsorans, and on with the main event!

5: Cheers Darlin’ by Damien Rice. Boy meets girl, girl leads boy on, girl gets picked up by fiance, boy goes home and vents his spleen onto DAT tape… what a classic story.  The one song that definitely separates Rice from the rest of the acoustic, coffee-table, Jack-Johnson-lite drivel that seems to be so popular at open-mic nights.

4: I’ve Been Eating (for you) by Bright Eyes.  Ooh, poor Conor’s been taken for a ride by a floozy who was porking all his friends as well.  He sure taught her a lesson with this bilious paean to the injustices of teenage lust.

3: Has Been by William Shatner.  My word, Bill must’ve been waiting for years to write this song.  Selfdeprecating, venomous and painfully honest.  Get’s the spurious distinction of being the only song on this list that’s not about girls…

2: Skinny Love by Bon Iver.  A current hit to keep this list contemporary.  Our hero gets dumped, shuns society and lives in a cabin in the woods for months, living off moose, and makes a sublime album of heartbreak and isolation, of which this is the stand out track.

1: When Did You Stop Loving Me When Did I Stop Loving You by Marvin Gaye.  The title says it all; Marv’ splits acrimoniously from Mrs. Gaye (a.k.a. Anna Gordy), and thanks to his fleet of cars, mansion, and coke habit he can’t pay alimony for his kid.  So, the divorce judge orders that all the proceeds from his next album should go to his Ex. missus. The result? Here, My Dear, the bitterest record ever.  It flopped when it was released, as per Marv’s plan, but it subsequently went on to become one of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  Take that, ya b*tch!

“So, you’re a creationist, huh? And you’ve got kids, eh? Well…

THEY CAN’T PLAY WITH TOY DINOSAURS!!!”

“No, son, put it down.  It’s not for the likes of you.  You see, your favouritest toy in the world is all a LIE!!! Hey, come on; don’t cry….    hey, quit with the screaming already!…”

and so on and so forth…

Heavens, Ben’s gotten a little sweary with this one! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for expletives, but I can’t help but feel Folds’ getting a bit old for this s**t.

Anyway, in short, this album’s all substance and no style.  A lot of people bemoaned the lack of the trade mark Folds humour in his previous album Songs for Silverman, and they’ll all be pretty pleased with Way to Normal; there’s chuckles aplenty.  Sadly the humour comes at a cost: the jokes and ideas come at the expense of scansion and melody.  This album’s far too wordy and disjointed to stand up as a truly great album; something Folds has already shown he’s capable of.  This one’s just a little too contrived, and a little over-produced too.  There’s far too much vocal compression on his vocal, and it sucks the life out of the recordings.  This is particularly apparent on the otherwise-pretty-good duet with Regina Spektor, You Don’t Know Me.

All things considered, the biggest joke about this release isn’t even on the record.  Folds leaked a copy of the CD onto the net, to be lapped up by fans.  It turned out to be the result of a eight-hour session where he and his band mates recorded 6 “fake” songs as a joke at the fans expense.  Priceless!  You can hear the full story here.

Listening to the legit. CD release, however, I can’t shake the feeling I’ve been given the “joke” record by mistake.  While there’s nothing particularly exciting about the music on this record (it’s all good, just nothing we haven’t heard before) it is a truly entertaining listen.  I found myself actually chuckling aloud on a couple of occasions.

The word on the street, though, is that the fake album is actually better! I’ve not listened to it yet myself, but for those of you who are curious here’s a link to a torrent for the fake release (and as Folds released it himself, it’s a 100% legal download)… I guess that it’s got a bit more sparkle and a bit more edge to it, as it’s bypassed the “production” prossess that has so mired the official version.

Well, being as I’ve repeatedly claimed that this is primarily a music blog I’d better talk about some music…

Choosing what record to post about first was a tough decision (should it be something I think’s awesome? or terrible?) and I’ve finally decided to just write a post about the last CD I bought; Before the Ruin by Kris Drever, John McCusker and Roddy Woomble.

Now those astute music fans amongst you will probably recognize those names, and this certainly appears to be a folk-super-group. Woomble’s probably the most famous of the group, thanks to the success of his (now seemingly defunct) band Idlewild. I’ve always been a closet fan of theirs – Roddy’s got a great, distinctive voice, but the ham-fisted electric guitar displayed on Warnings/Promises put me right off. McCusker’s played with pretty much any slightly-folky act you can think of, but it probably most renowned for his involvement (musically and otherwise *cough*cough*…) with the occasionally excellent Kate Rusby. I’ve not heard of Kris Drever before, but a quick wikipedia search reveals him to be yet another stalwart of the northen-england/scottish folk scene. There are also far too many cameos on this record to mention in full here, but expect to hear drums a la Radiohead’s Philip Selway and vocals a la Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake, to name but a few of the guest appearances…

The album itself is actually pretty good – as you’d expect from such a pedigree – but fails to set the world alight with it’s amazingness. The first two tracks particularly stand out, but the momentum slips as the record progresses. Drever’s aged-fisherman style vocal delivery works nicely when layered under the dulcet tones of Woomble, but sounds somewhat contrived and folksy when he takes a turn at lead vocals. His guitaring, on the other hand, is exceptional; competent without being flash, stylistically relevant without being twee. But then again that could be McCusker I’m hearing, as he does step in occasionally on Tenor guitar, but mostly struts his stuff on the fiddle; at times lifting the songs above the morass of singer-songwriter drivel that seems so popular of late, but at others sending the record spiraling toward Radio 2 folk hell… eugh.

In short, Before the Ruin is a fine example of some exceptional musisians doing what they do best, but it does lack the substance and originality that would’ve made it more than the sum of it’s parts.

Reports emerged the other day that Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has been accused of shopping a “western” Czech spy to the commies…

The allegations come after the release of a police report from Prague, 1950, stating that a student called Milan Kundera had come forward to the police with details of a clandestine meeting between two “dissidents”, and also detailing the whereabouts of one of them; leading directly to his arrest and subsequent 14 years hard labor in a gulag.

I’ve been following the story at the Guardian website, and I’ll let you get all the nitty-gritty-actually-researched-and-fact-checked details direct from there.

Kundera, of course, denies the allegations; claiming he knew nothing of the event until he was told about it this week, and goes on to say that it’s the “assassination of an author”.  Now, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of my favourite books – Top 5 quality, even – so I’m rooting for dear ol’ Milan and hoping the allegations prove to be false, but it does beg the question: who would want to “assassinate” a 79 year old author?  And on closer inspection it appears Mr, Kundera has behaved mightily suspiciously in the past – particularly when visiting his native country, and he’s sworn all his Czech friends to secrecy; so very little is known about the man’s life there…

So, are the Reds back under the beds, or is the report genuine?  Will more cultural icons of the ’50s be “exposed” in similar smear campaigns, or is Milan just a sneaky, treacherous numpty? I await the story’s resolution with interest…

Welcome, my friends, welcome to the inaugural post for the Eaten by Monsters blog. I guess I should start with a bit of background info. to set the scene regarding the birth of this exciting venture.

Basically, I’m a sometime musician/student/fainéant who feels he has the right to hoist his opinions on the rest of the world, regardless of whether or not anybody’ll actually listen…

My band is called Eaten by Monsters (hence the blog’s title) and you can find everything you’d ever want to know about us (and just a little bit more) here, which is not only my band’s website, but also the website for my entire label. That’s right, boys and girls, this cool cat’s a high-flying executive in the world’s smallest
no-budget indie label, Bearfaced Records.

On my site I have a little journal (a.k.a. an uber pretentious blog) documenting all my musical adventures, and a few friends and I release a semi-regular podcast charting the ups-and-downs of Bearfaced, along with some of the music/news/etc that’s caught our attention at any particular time.

But yet I was still left wanting. I craved a more personal and informal forum for airing my views; and lo and behold; I started this blog.

Here I will write reviews of stuff I’ve come across in my voyages through the cultural ether, as well as rant about various news items that stir up the bile in my belly.

So enjoy!

N.B: I guess this post’d serve quite well in the About page, so I might Ctrl-C it over there too…