Yeah Right

Education Revolt in Watts

Drew Carey recently signed on with the libertarian think tank Reason to put together entertaining pieces on public policy topics.   We don't get a lot of laughs in this one, but it's worth watching (a little inspiring even).  About a pro-charter-school revolt in one of the California's worst school districts.

Cat Power's "Jukebox" CD

I had to go back to the first Cat Power record I ever heard (1996’s What Would the Community Think?) and compare it to her new release, Jukebox.   Back then, Chan Marshall (the band is Chan and whoever is in the room with her) sounded like a bit of a basketcase.  I figured she was like Allie Sheedy’s Breakfast Club character, as I listened to her warbling fragile songs about her inner turmoil. 

A slow transformation has occurred over the years.   Her release of two years ago, titled The Greatest (all new material, not a compilation), seems to be where she really made the pivot.   Just as Brit pop queen Dusty Springfield went to Memphis in 1968 and reinvented herself by recording the sexiest record of all time (Dusty in Memphis), Chan recorded in Memphis with musicians who used to back soul great Al Green.   The result was moody and mysterious: songs you could sink into like a warm bath.  And Chan herself sounded amazingly confident and soulful.

She is still on her game on her latest release, Jukebox, which consists almost exclusively of cover versions of others’ material.  In most cases, she radically reinterprets the songs, just as she did on an earlier release by doing the Stones’ “Satisfaction.”  Here, she doubles-down by re-recording “New York” and making you forget that some guy named Sinatra did it first.   She saves a subpar Bob Dylan song from his crappy period (“I Believe in You”) by turning it into an amazing rock thing, and she out-cools Johnny Cash on “Silver Stallion” in her husky voice (“the sun is gonna burn to a cinder before we pass this way again”).   You can download this song from the release, “Song to Bobby,” that she circulated as a promo track.   It’s a nice salute to Mr. Dylan, similar to the “Song for Woody” that he penned some 47 years ago.

Why Indie Rockers Are All Big Gov't Libs

This was a topic of conversation on the NPR Web site.   [“You were hanging out at the NPR web site?”  I know, I know.  I’m sorry.]  It was a very self-congratulatory conversation.  I’d sum it up as:  “We like the coolest music and therefore we have the coolest politics.  Q.E.D.”

And of course -- as an indie rock fan who loathes the Left -- this question is one I have thought about a lot through the years, causing me no small amount of grief.   But now I’ve figured out the answer.  Obama helped me see it more clearly than I have before.  It goes like this:

1. What’s admirable about the Left’s politics is that part that is hopeful, that is unsatisfied and frustrated with the status quo, and that imagines some big (albeit nebulous) transformation.
2. This mirrors what’s great about indie music – perhaps even what’s great about artistic types in general.   They’re restless, creative, emotional and bold.
3. Moreover, indie rock is usually BETTER when it’s not thought through a great deal.  Ever notice that the songs you hear on mainstream country are tightly wrapped little narratives, that have a “that’s clever” ending, and no gaps along the way?  Indie rock isn’t like that.    The point is the feel of the song, so the lyrics are evocative, not descriptive.  (What the F are the Shins are saying in “New Slang” anyway?)  The “narrative gaps” that exist in the songs engage the listener emotionally to fill in the details, and make it relevant to his/her own life.   The nebulousness of 98.5% of indie rock is a virtue within its genre.
4. Nebulousness can also be a virtue in political theater.  Witness Obama’s riveting speeches.  They may be short on substance, but they are riveting.*
5. But nebulousness is emphatically NOT a virtue when it comes to actually creating public policy, because government actions invariably have unintended consequences.   Good policy-makers are humble and pratical.  They are not emotional dreamers.  They understand that government actions involve costs, change incentives, and displace activity that others were doing independent of government.   So while it’s nice to imagine a world where everyone has good health insurance, it’s difficult to see all the troubling effects of such a government mandate.  Indie rockers don’t care about the second part.  Their songs would probably suck if they did care about such details.  But what makes their music good is precisely what makes their politics so very simple-minded and crappy. 

Get it?   Good.   I can’t believe it took me so long to figure this out…

* An aside about Obama:   A couple weeks ago, James Taranto made a funny comparison between Obama’s speeches ("We have to choose between change and more of the same.  We have to choose between looking backwards and looking forwards.") and those of Kang the Alien that was on the 1996 Halloween episode of The Simpsons.  Kang wanted to take over the world, but instead of the usual alien invasion, he pursued power by running for President and mimicking other effective politicians.  So we see Kang adopt a Kennedy accent and pontificate: "We must move forward... not backwards, not to the side, not forwards, but always whirling, whirling, whirling toward freedom."  Classic!

BIG TROUBLE

This is a terrific little short produced by up-and-comer Valerie Weiss.  Have you ever been in Big Trouble?

Obviously The Ten Best Songs of 2007

It's time to look back on the year that was in pop and un-pop music, and tell you the highlights.  Go find and download these now.

Peter Bjorn & John, "Young Folks" – Who would have guessed that the best pop hook of the year would be a whistle?   A great sounding song that drips with cool. 

Apostle of Hustle, “My Sword’s Anger” - I was a late-comer to the whole Toronto indie scene that has given us Broken Social Scene, Stars (and Amy Millan's solo stuff), and Feist.   Feist's lovely "1 2 3 4" probably deserves to be on this list, but you've heard it too many times on iPod commercials.   One you haven't is from Apostle of Hustle, a side-project of Andrew Whitehead (of BSS).  This amanzing little tune will creep up on you and stick in your head for weeks.

Menomena, “Wet and Rusting” – Who are these guys?  I just don’t know.  But this is experimental indie rock at its best.   Daring, but not pretentious.   It’s also very affecting.  Who says that you can’t make emotional music on a computer?

Amy Winehouse, “Rehab” -  O.K. it’s more popular than what you’ll typically read about on this site.  But Winehouse is so super-funky, she cannot be denied from making the list.    I mean, those horns are so Stax-Volt and yet completely 2007 too.  The other single, “You Know I’m No Good,” is actually better (and less played-into-the-ground), but “Rehab” makes the list for being perfectly suited for The Year of Britney and Lindsay.  Obviously.

Handsome Furs, “Dead + Rural” – Another side-project band, this time involving the guy in Wolf Parade.  The album is so-so but this tune is majestic.   A trembling dance rhythm conjurs up John Hughes films from the mid-80s, but the raw guitar riff drags the song into the indie rock present, making the song seem nostalgic and new all at once.

White Stripes, “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do as Your Told)” – One of the "other" tracks on Icky Thump is really its best.  An arena rock stomper where Jack White tries to save you from your bad relationship. 

Radio Citizen, “The Hop” – Proof that when it comes to funky, minimalist electronica, it’s best not to be able to understand a word.

Modest Mouse, “Missed the Boat” - Wistful and moody.  This is destined to be used in a “now high school is over” montage on one of those faux teen reality shows on MTV.    

Apples in Stereo, “Energy” – I can’t let my 2007 list fail to include at least one great piece of power pop rock.   This is so catchy it’s almost annoying.   

Birdie Busch, “Mystical” – A little folk tune, so light it almost floats away.  But then you’ll find yourself surprised at how sucked in you are by the time she accelerates at the bridge.  I want to hear more from this gal. 

To Settle or Not To Settle

That is the question being asked in an Atlantic Monthly article by Lori Gottlieb.  She thinks about what she learned in Say Anything, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and from Rachel Green on Friends.   And then concludes… Well, I’ll let you read it.

But suffice it to say that it’s surprising to see in the liberal Atlantic Monthly some pragmatic thoughts about the virtues of marriage (independent of the romantic sparks that hopefully, but don’t always, accompany it), which you can also find in books like this one by Carrie Lukas:

Suggested soundtrack for while reading the article: “The Sound of Settling” by the always great Death Cab for Cutie from the Wedding Crashers soundtrack.

I Don’t Get Why "There Will Be Blood"

There was a time when, after reading fawning reviews for an arty movie, I’d sit in my movie theater seat, and try – I’d try REALLY hard – to appreciate that film.   I felt a pressure to “get it” just like all the smarties that got to write in the papers.

But at some point I got fed up.   A good movie is supposed to grab ME, right?  Not play hard to get.

So let me go on record saying that There Will Be Blood is a lousy movie with no coherent point.   That’s disappointing because it does have things going for it.   Daniel Day Lewis does turn in a fascinating performance as the lead character, oil man Daniel Plainview (an aside:  you've gotta watch Bill Hader’s terrific parody of DDL in SNL’s 2/23/08 skit, "I Drink Your Milkshake" -- funny stuff).  And the early part of the film gives you a sense of what it must have been like to be an oil speculator around the turn of the 1900s.  Ayn Rand could hardly of done better depicting the entrepreneurial vision and gritty determination of Plainview than what director Paul Thomas Anderson gives us in the first 45 minutes of the film.   

But the purpose of There Will Be Blood is not to celebrate the capitalist mindset, but to convince us that it goes hand in hand with cruelty, elitism and – well – just a whole lot of craziness.   So Plainview slowly unravels into a madman. 

Why?   I’m not sure. 

Does the director think he’s telling us something about the world?  Again, I'm clueless. 

As Daniel goes out of his way to antagonize people who could have been helpful to him, we scratch our heads.   Surely, the pragmatic and seemingly kind guys from Standard Oil that appear briefly in the film are more believable as businessmen than Daniel.   So as Daniel sank to new depths of dysfunction, it became difficult to take the movie seriously as anything but a profile of one nutty guy who lives a meaningless life.   And sorry, studying the lives of nutjobs is not how I want to spend my Saturday nights. 

Oh, I should also mention that the religious character, who is Daniel’s foil throughout the movie, also goes from being merely eccentric to completely insincere, corrupt, and incompetent.   So while the intended purpose of this film was (as far as I can guess) to bash capitalism, rest assured that our friends in Hollywood managed to work in a nice swipe at Christians too!  Two insults for the price of one -- bravo!