End of the Month Music Bitchfest - February 2014

Nine Inch Nails

The first few dates of the Japanese/European/Latin American/who fucking cares it's not where I can see them Tour have come and gone, the Japanese ones anyway.
The first show featured one live debut, that of "Hand Covers Bruise", which sounded great on some Japanese dude's iPhone and flowed perfectly into "Beside You In Time", a song which hadn't been played live in almost ten years.
Fuck me, The Downward Spiral came out twenty years ago. Excuse me as I age, screaming, in the corner.
Other than that and Mariqueen joining them on stage at the end of night two to perform "Ice Age" and "BBB" by How to destroy angels, nothing new on the setlist that Reznor promised to be spilling over with Year Zero and Fragile material.
Hm.

Speaking of Nine Inch Nails live...their performance at Austin City Limits from last year has been given a broadcast date of April 5th, which will, hopefully, coincide with the full release of the live Blu Ray.
Sadly, only about half of the set will be shown.
The fuckers.
I thought everything was bigger in Texas.
There was also this interview, which, in case you don't have eighteen minutes to listen to it, Senartor Busyasfuck, the last few minutes have Reznor addressing the goddamn motherfucking Fragile deluxe edition, which is, apparently, ready to go. Then, this cockteasing whoremouth mumbled something about have FORTY* unfinished demos, ranging from noises to finished songs just...sitting there until he decides how and what to do with them.
To answer your question, yes, I would rather he cancel his tour and his work on Gone Girl if it meant we'd have this fucking thing before 2015. 2014 marks the fifteenth anniversary of The Fragile, and having it come out around September...oh, I don't know, 21st? would be just the best fucking thing to happen since ice cream.
Will it though?
All signs point to Reznor.
Who softly whispers... "soon".

Beck

Homeboy, you just bought yo' self about eight months of me not bitching about your lack of stuff.
...
Although, in that time, if you want to release some more of those 12" vinyls, I'll buy them.
Just sayin'.

Here's what else happened with Beck this month: after Morning Phase came out and I had listened to nothing but it for two weeks (here's the review), I went back and just flailed around in a huge sea of Beck. I had never listened to those handful of country songs on Mutations, never, so I gave them another chance and, duh, guess what, you fucking idiot**, I liked them. Because they're performed and written by a superfuckingtalent musician. God, sometimes I'm so self destructive. "Bottle of Blues"? Are you kidding me? What a great song that's been out since 1998.
You dolt.***
Anyway, aside from gaining a new appreciation for all of Mutations, I spent some time with Guero and its companion remix album (along with all the other remixes, not just the thirteen on the disc) Geurolito.
I know the album was good, I know all his albums are good, but I always seem to forget how good.
Am I really just talking about how good Beck albums are?
Yes, it appears that I am.
So, moving on.

Eels
2014 tour dates have been announced and, on June 1st, I will be seeing Eels for the seventh time...at the Apollo Theater. Very excited about what this particular venue could mean. The last two Eels shows that were seated were at the Highline, where E and the Chet came out and marched all over the Eels catalogue, and their once-in-a-lifetime performance at Town Hall with a string quartet and a few multi-instrumentalists. Could I see Eels performing with a choir?
Yes I could.


In other news, the cover of the new Tori Amos album, Unrepentant Geraldines, was revealed on Perez Hilton's site on the 18th. A side note: based on his writing, I would have guessed that Perez is a 13-year old girl. Just saying.
It looks like the motif for the artwork will be that of paint.
So.
For all your painters who are also Tori fans, this looks like it's going to be your kind of album.
On the 19th, she posted pre-order stuff and whatnot.
If I don't sound ecstatic about this album, it might be because she's said it's going to be a step away from the dense, bold orchestral nature of her last few releases a return to her songwirting roots.
Bottom line: I'm worried we're going to get more bland, Adult Contempory music from Tori AMos.
Guess we'll find out in a few months.

And then, there's St. Vincent. In February, we got the new album (review coming very soon) and the first night of the North American leg of her Digital Witness tour, at Terminal 5. I've covered the album in the review and will only say that it's fantastic and that you should listen to it now, so I'll focus more on the show here.
I'd only seen Annie Clark perform once before with David Byrne on their Love This Giant tour, and it was an amazing show, their back and forth was just perfect for the what they were trying to achieve, but then, at Terminal 5...
Sometimes, Annie Clark was a robot sex kitten. Sometimes she was a malfunctioning robot sex kitten. Sometimes she was a friend, confiding similarities between you and her. Sometimes a figure in a cuckoo clock (moving in tandem with her spectacularly talented bassist/keyboardist/back up singer, Toko Yasuda). Sometimes a Silent Hill nurse, missing only a rusted scalpel to complete the picture. Sometimes a goddess, sometimes the sacrifice offered unto said goddess.
She also played a guitar that made the most wonderful, horrible, compelling sounds.
After ridiculously punishing hours of rehearsal, some spent with choreographer, Annie-B Parson, we finally get to see it all pay off in just under two hours. Most of the evening was focused on her new, self-titled album (all of which was amazing, specifically when she followed "Huey Newton" with "Bring Me Your Loves", my two favorites tracks on the new album), but she made sure to represent her older material as well, hitting about half of Strange Mercy and a handful from her first two albums.
Highlights included "Digital Witness", "Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood", and "Cheerleader", one of my favorites from her last album.**** There was a brief punk rock/thrash segment which consisted of "Northern Lights" and "Krokodil" and then, there was the encore: a heart-wrenching solo rendition of "Strange Mercy", then "The Bed" and, finally, the violent juxtaposition of "Your Lips Are Red".
Within two hours, we had witnessed Annie Clark go from flirty, quirky and leggy***** to panting, staring and all-consuming, like a sun in supernova.
It was terrifying and invigorating and astonishing.

And, now you may go, preferably to buy Morning Phase and St. Vincent and to pick up tickets to see St. Vincent live on her Digital Witness tour.





* That's twenty two MORE than eighteen, in case you're keeping track.

** Me, not you, You're smart. And pretty.

***Again, me, not you, You also smell great.

**** Mind you, these are picking out brighter patches from the surface of the sun. This show was amazing.

***** Good lord, are her legs something worth discussing.

A review of Beck's "Morning Phase"

Yes, I'll admit I would have been more excited if the newest Beck album, the first proper Beck album in five and a half years,* had been a continuation of Midnite Vultures, but I'll take a continuation of Sea Change with nary a qualm.
Ha!
I'll bet you thought this was going to be an outpouring of bilious vitrole!
Well, in your face, nobody, because I really, really like Morning Phase!
...although I do have, like, two qualms.

I'm not going to be the first nor the last to call this album gorgeous, epic, radiant, award winning, a triumph...because it is.
Maybe it'll even earn Beck another five-star rating from Rolling Stone!!!
EEK!!!
What a world!!!

I'm also not going to be the first or last to compare it to Sea Change, so let's get that out of the way: Morning Phase is denser than Sea Change, but the cloth it's woven from is brighter than that of Sea Change. While there's night on Sea Change, the closest thing we get to it on Morning Phase are those seconds right before the sun shows itself, when the sky is already lit, just not directly. The darkest song on here is "Unforgiven", and even that addresses the end of night. 

However, the strongest and most direct connection between Beck's ridiculously well-crafted 2002 opus, Sea Change, and this latest ridiculously well-crafted opus is the second track from Morning Phase, "Morning". The acoustic guitar, bright, plinking notes and ambient electronic echoes floating in the background are absolutely a reference, whether intentional or unintentional**, to "The Golden Age".
But, enough about Sea Change.

There are only a few tracks on Morning Phase that don't contain the words "morning", "sun", "day" or "light", and, each song, regardless of its lyrics, captures a different aspect of the sun's light.***
For example, "Heart Is A Drum" feels like mid-day light, more silvery, falling on a small, honest town as it goes about its day. The opener, "Cycle", and its fraternal twin, "Phase", are straight up representations of a sunrise, the notes sung by Beck and then transposed to strings by his father and long-time collaborator, David Campbell. "Cycle" is the perfect opener for Morning Phase.

The sunlight on "Blue Moon" feels older and more mature than the rest of the album, but still new; perhaps a decades old photograph of the sunrise in "Cycle" and "Phase". The sparkling guitar at the end does an amazing job of cutting through the dreamy, sleep-dusted atmosphere up to that point. I also love the piano on this as it lends such a sense of sincerity. And, like most tracks on this album, the myriads voices and vocalizations in the background add a sense of warmth and depth, depicting, in sound, yet another aspect of sunlight. 

Another relation to those two instrumental twins, "Wave", might be the simplest track on the album, but it's also one of the most stirring. There's something so brave and powerful about "Wave", something brazen about that one voice just set adrift in this soporific sea of strings, swallowed and dwarfed by the size of it. The lyrics, out of context, could fit on a moodier-than-usual Nine Inch Nails album, and the repeated chant of "isolation" is almost silly but for the setting. Narrow miss on that one.
As I mentioned before, the darkest track on here (sonically) is "Unforgiven", although it contains sunlight as well. I'm picturing the light in the sky just seconds before the sun crests the horizon and stings one's eyes. Or, maybe a dark dream in a sunlit room.

There is a tiny handful of songs I've yet to get into, namely the more-folky-than-I-prefer "Turn Away" and the more-country-than-I-prefer "Country Down". I'm not altogether worried though, I didn't love everything on Sea Change when I first listened to it either.

But then, there's "Waking Light". I don't like sweeping statements. So I did some thinking before I put this here. This is tied for my favorite Beck album closer.
You know how "Debra" is the perfect ending for the sweaty, glitter orgy that is Midnite Vultures? Thus is "Waking Light" for Morning Phase.**** In a recent NPR interview, Beck mentioned that he'd originally had "Waking Light" at the beginning of the record. I've never actually wanted to slap Beck until that moment. "Waking Light" is the perfect evolution of all those ambient vocalizations we've been hearing this entire time, the perfect evolution of Morning Phase as a whole; it has the light and the facets and the darkness inherent in the album in one, glorious, five minute song. And, just when you think it can't get any more perfect, because it's already perfect, that guitar comes in at the end, and your mind and body actually dissolve into pure sunlight.

Beck. 

You've just transmogrified your listeners into sunlight.

Brava.

One comparison I wish I could draw between Morning Phase and Sea Change is that Sea Change had that SACD release with a music video for each track and the album in stunning, jaw-dropping 5.1, but, guys, this a new, full length*****, really great Beck album.

With music written and played by Beck.

Beck Hansen.

The musician!

But I digress.

I want to pour Beck's vocals on Morning Phase over a stack of buttermilk pancakes and then eat those pancakes while listening to this album. They're just that thick and golden and syrupy and delicious.

What can I even say here? I'm completely biased because this is the first Beck album in half a fucking decade and I'm so starved for buttery, syrupy Beckcakes that of course I'm going to find a way to love it. 

Although, to be fair, Beck facilitated things nicely by making yet another career defining masterpiece.

That rascal.

Morning Phase is out next Tuesday.
Details and pre-orders and whatnot here.

* Song Reader? Yes, I have heard of it. It's a bunch of fucking sheet music.

** Most of the musicians on Morning Phase helped to craft Sea Change over ten years ago.

*** Like TV On The Radio's Nine Types of Light, but for just sunlight. Dig?

**** Is "Waking Light" a better song than "Debra"?

Whoa.

I can not and will not answer that.

That's like comparing sex and pizza. Both are important. Both are excellent. But both cannot be compared to one another, and you'd be a fool to try.

***** By today's deplorable "full length" standards. FILL THE DISC, YOU LAZY BLACKGUARDS.