The Most Ut of 2005

December 27, 2005... Thanks to the wonder of the Internet, and particularly the wonder of mp3 blogs, I have actually heard enough new music this year to compile a best-of list. It's the first time I've been able to say that since about 1994.

So without further ado, here are twelve songs released (or re-released) in 2005 that are, in the words of Judy Jetson, "the most ut." They are kinda in order by preference, from most preferred to less preferred, but consideration was also given to what songs sound best one after the other.

#1. Deep Thinkers - Kiss The Sky. Leonard D. Stroy, producer for this Midwestern duo, cadges his samples from all over the globe, including (in this song) the Middle East. Not only that, but he cuts and pastes the shit out of them fuckers, too. The man is a monster.

Deep Thinkers - Kiss The Sky

#2. Deep Thinkers - We Live in Kansas City and... Brother of Moses, Deep Thinkers' MC, is no slouch, either. Bro Mo has something to say and the ability to say it with flare. In "Rock the Beat," for example, he dismisses the three largest-circulation hip-hop monthlies in America for being "fashion magazines." That takes a lot of courage. Dude also has a sense of humour, as evidenced by this song.

Deep Thinkers - We Live in Kansas City and...

#3. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth. My first thought was that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was a band name so lacking in imagination that I didn't need to hear their music to know that it sucked. Then I heard this song and it all started to make sense. Clearly, they named themselves so that the stores would shelf them right next to Eric Clapton, with whom they share so many sonic parallels. Listen to the way the singer channels the spirit of Clapton in the fast parts of the song, for example. I'll even bet he was wearing a Big Suit while he sang... What? Big Suit was David Byrne? Oh. Never mind.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth

#4. Okkervil River - Latest Toughs. Here's another band with a name that screams "Hey, you there, please pay us no mind whatsoever." Fortunately, my instincts aren't the only thing I listen to because, as it turns out, "Latest Toughs" isn't the only great song on Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy album. They put on a good live show, too, particularly when people don't heckle front man Will Sheff while he's being all emotional and shit.

Okkervil River - Latest Toughs

#5. Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Ain't No Jesus in Here. I'm not sure if this English band's debut album is even available in North America. What I do know is that all four of the mp3s available for download on the band's website are swell--none more so than this one.

Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Ain't No Jesus In Here

#6. Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left. I've always been wary of singer-songwriters. Nothing says 1970 and the end of rock and roll as a force of revolution, dope, guns and fucking in the street quite like the singer-songwriter. Still, singer-songwriter-violinist-whistler Andrew Bird has recorded his bad self a winner here.

Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

#7. Sufjan Stevens - The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts. Speaking of singer-songwriters, "The Man of Metropolis..." is the kind of song you hear once and never forget, even if at first you can't remember where you heard it or who did it.

Sufjan Stevens - The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts

#8. Bloc Party - Banquet. Bloc Party's got more press lately for the dust-up between its singer and the singer of Art Brut, than for its music. Myself, I'd rather listen to Bloc Party's earnest songs of worry than Art Brut's endless stream of piss-taking--for the same reason I'd rather listen to the Police than the Slits: catchier songs with a lot more depth.

Bloc Party - Banquet

#9. Art Brut - Fight! Sure, I prefer Bloc Party's music, but I'd rather go drinking with these lads. "Some people like things left unspoken / I prefer to have it out in the open / Some people like things left unspoken, I don’t care if you shout it, get it out in the open / Come on, come on lets have a fight." Full marks for honesty, boys.

Art Brut - Fight!

#10. The Go Team - Huddle Formation. Okay, do you know anyone else who is making music like this? Yes, I know George W. Bush was a cheerleader in high school, too.

The Go! Team - Huddle Formation

#11. Mutronium - I'm All Over You. Wow. This is the best Cars song the Cars never wrote.

Mutronium - I'm All Over You

#12. Jandek - Blue Blue World. After self-releasing forty-odd (odd being the operative word) albums over the course of two-and-a-half decades, the mysterious Jandek performed live, unannounced, at a festival in Glasgow in October 2004. It was His first-ever live performance. Unraveling the mystery of just who the "representative of Corwood Industries" is, and what it is he does when he isn't howling into a microphone, was one of the highlights of 2005 for me. Oh yeah, plus I actually enjoyed listening to His music, too.

Jandek - Blue Blue World

Honourable mentions are also in order for Caribou and LCD Soundsystem. No one song on the LCD Soundsystem album stood out for me, but there sure were a lot of good ones to choose from. As for Caribou, well, they do put on an awesome live show, don't they? I particularly dig that whole two drummers thing.

Thanks for stopping by. See y'all in the New Year.

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A Girl's Best Friends

December 18, 2005... !*@# (a.k.a. Exclaim!), is a monthly magazine of music alternatives available free of charge across Canada. Much of its content is also available online, for those of you not lucky enough to live near a Canadian city with a hip record store.

In "Questionnaire," which has been a regular monthly feature of the magazine for quite a few years now, famous people are asked to respond to a set of partly relevant/partly silly questions. The questions have been the same since the get-go, which imposes a certain discipline on the respondents. Most graciously roll with the punches, giving straight answers to bent questions like "What would make you kick someone out of your band and/or bed, and have you?" A few comment on the insipidity of it all.

A couple responses attributed to this month's subject, Neil Diamond, really caught my eye.

First, to the question, "What are your feelings on piracy, Internet or otherwise?" Diamond responded: "It's stealing. The sad thing about it is that so many people who have devoted their lives to music are without jobs and work because of the availability of music..."

Then, later, to the question "How do you spoil yourself?" Diamond replied: "Occasionally, I will rent a jet plane to go somewhere. Maybe a couple times a year." Note that he's not talking about buying a ticket and flying down to Cancun on a jet with the rest of us great unwashed. Nope, he's talking about renting the whole fucking plane for himself ... and his many handlers, I suspect.

Hmm... I wonder if one of the reasons piracy is so widespread is that so many of the people who have "devoted their lives to music" seem to think that a lifestyle that allows them to "rent a jet plane to go somewhere" a couple times a year is reasonable compensation...

Anyway, on a less serious note, I couldn't help but notice the similarities in the melodies of the choruses of the Neil Diamond song "Sweet Caroline" and the verses of the Roxy Music song "More Than This."

Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline

Roxy Music - More Than This

To compensate you for suggesting that you sit through two lackluster numbers, here's a bonus track that is in no way connected thematically to the rest of this post, but just happened to be on my mind this morning.

Tuli Kupferberg - Go Fuck Yourself...

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Songs About Bikes

December 10, 2005... I don't mind telling you, I've been struggling with this whole blogging thing for a while now. Even though I don't post very often, I sometimes feel that Afterbirth is taking up a lot—maybe too much—of my time.

Then I sit down in the morning, close my eyes, and try to clear everything from my mind ... and Afterbirth keeps intruding. In fact, it is almost the only thing I think about. Hey! I could write about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, or Lenine, or Wu Tang Clan, or Dinosaur Jr., or No Trend, or Roxy Music, or The Easybeats. Maybe I'll be able to post tracks by Radiopuhelimet, the Rhythm Pigs and Nice Strong Arm soon... The ideas never end... So here I am again, blogging away.

The rewards of blogging are different that I thought they'd be. When I started Afterbirth, I hoped that it would be a bit like the old days of loafing around with friends, hipping each other to groovy tunes; and there has been some of that. Mostly though, the reward of blogging, for me, has been the sense of accomplishment I get from exercising creative control over one tiny, little aspect of my life.

It's actually kind of similar to the feeling I get from riding a bike. I am in control of that fucker. I determine where it goes and how it gets there. My competence or incompetence is a big part of what determines whether I get there alive. (Luck has something to do with it, too.)

Which leads me to the "real" focus of today's post: songs about bikes or bicycling, or that at least mention bikes or bicycling. There are a hell of a lot of them out there. Songs, I mean. Here are three of my favourites. If you can think of any others, I'd like to hear about it.

Codeine - Jr

Tomorrow - My White Bicycle

Pink Floyd – Bike

The Codeine track is from the 1993 EP Barely Real. If you've never heard Codeine before, you should know that playing s-l-o-w was the band's modus operandi. Quite a few others—Low and Idaho come to mind—took a similar approach in the years that followed.

Tomorrow was a British band including future Yes guitarist Steve Howe and a drummer named Twink. “My White Bicycle,” a single released in 1967, was inspired by the white bike program in Amsterdam, which made a fleet of bicycles available for short term use, free-of-charge, to anyone who wanted to use one. Similar programs currently exist in a number of cities around the world, including the BikeShare program in Toronto.

“Bike” is the last track on the first (and best) Pink Floyd album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, released in 1967. At the time, Pink Floyd was led by vocalist/guitarist Syd Barrett, while Roger Waters played more of a supporting role and David Gilmour watched from the audience.

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Improbable Sounds

December 5, 2005... If you've come for the music, you've come to the right place. If you think you might enjoy reading about what else is on my mind, stuff like public policy, journalism 'n' shit, go here instead.

*****

Improbable sounds sound like nothing else. They may have been forged from the same raw ingredients as more probable sounds—human beings and guitars, for example—but they are bastards without precedent. There are no fathers to their style.

San Diego-based guitarists John Reis and Rick Froberg have ventured into the uncharted territory of improbable sounds frequently over the past fifteen years. First as members of the band Pitchfork, after whom the rock nerd website is named, then as members of press darlings Drive Like Jehu, and most recently as members of Hot Snakes, Reis and Froberg have written song after song where their guitars don’t do what decorum and good taste would suggest they should.

Drive Like Jehu - Golden Brown

That tweeting feedback starting at the 1:35 mark of "Golden Brown," and the outrageous skronking riff that follows it … well, it's just not done. Except by these two fellows.

How about this one, from Hot Snakes' 2002 album, Suicide Invoice?

Hot Snakes - Who Died

Exactly who writes a carefully calibrated math rock riff like that? These two, that's who!

On a related note... After being estranged from it for a few years, I’ve been listening to the first Television album, Marquee Moon, lately. If my opinions counted for anything, I’d say that I like it a lot. Instead, I'll just say that more of it is sticking with me this time around than before. Before, only the dramatic, Italianate "Torn Curtain" and the epic, Free Birdesque title track made an impact. This time around, though, even the comparatively short, four-minute numbers have caught my attention—perhaps none more so than the jangly "Elevation."

Television - Elevation

No, your CD player is not malfunctioning. No, the file has not been defiled. That's "Elevation." How's that for improbable-sounding?

By the way, I made up that shit about Pitchfork, the website, being named after Pitchfork, the band.

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