End of the Month Music Bitchfest - July 2014

Nine Inch Nails

As of this moment, the 2014 NIN/Soundgarden tour has started. I know nothing at all about anything on the stage or the setlist* and I'm not going to do anything to change that before I see them tomorrow and Saturday.
So: I'm going to take a moment to make some predictions regarding what I'll be seeing in a matter of hours.

"Head Like A Hole", preceded by "The Hand That Feeds", closing with "Hurt".
"Terrible Lie", "March of the Pigs", "Closer", "Wish", "Burn", "Reptile", "Copy Of A", "Came Back Haunted" and not nearly enough from Year Zero or The Fragile.

Beck

Beck released a brand new song this month!
Seriously though, while I think the whole thing was an interesting experiment, I'd, obviously, much rather have had Beck record and release on a compact disc the entire album.
Hopefully, he'll wrap his (amazing) tour up soon and get back to slowly...painfully...releasing those 12" records until we have enough to constitute an album. About which I shall complain.
I should have a (completely fair and 100% unbiased or bitchy) review of Song Reader up soon.

Just when I thought he was done making them, Beck releases what might be the best music video I've seen in years. It's beautiful and heartbreaking and reflective and I'm crying. It's a perfect summation of his twenty plus years of being Beck.
Beck's "Heart Is A Drum" music video.

As I mentioned last month, I saw Beck perform at SummerStage on July 1st and my review (plus pictures) are up on SoundBlab, a UK-based music site to which I am contributing.
Weird, right?
Here's my fantastic review and here's more fantastic pictures.

Pretty slow month for my other favorite bands. Eels has just wrapped up their world tour thing, They Might Be Giants are selling a new t-shirt but should have a new album(s) announcement very soon and Cake is a band that, occasionally, plays music, though, not in front of people.

Because of this drought, I spent a little time this month with the new Sia album (more or less enjoyable, but sometimes her voice sounds a bit too wheezy, like she has a punctured lung and is leaking air), the new DEAD MOUSE album (mainly I checked it out because Pitchfork blasted it for sounding too much like NIN...which, if done well, is a not a problem for me as I usually don't care for DEAD MOUSE'S usual stuff, and, seriously, if an artist wants to do an album that feels like a nod to one of his favorite artists, who the fuck are Pitchfork to get shitty about it? They actually complained that one or two of the songs ended with "the audible sound of piano pedals and that that was 'lifted' from "Avril 14th" by Aphex Twin...who have worked with Nine inch Nails". Sometimes I think those cunts are just blasting shit to get whiny assholes like me to call them out) and, finally, the new Phish album, Fuego.
Man, is this a great album. So fresh and joyous and Phish-y. These guys know what they're good at and continue to be good at it. The title track, "Winterqueen" (which feels like something by Eels), "The Line" and "Wombat" are all standouts, that last one reminding me strongly of Moxy Fruvous featuring the Beastie Boys with some 70's funk dust on it. The horns and choir singers sprinkled throughout the album go a long way to making something already great even better. I'm envious of the potheads who listen to this while high; it must be amazing.

I had a chance to review the latest from Electric Sewer Age, an amazing, horrifying nightmare journey through infection entitled Bad White Corpuscle, but you'll never hear it or read the review I posted on SoundBlab, so why would I put the link to said review right here?
I wouldn't.
Tool.

Finally, August it nuts to butts with concerts; Nine Inch Nails two days in a row, then St. Vincent in Brooklyn and then Tori Amos at the fucking Beacon**.
I'll tell you more if I decide I like you.





* Except that "Disappointed" has been played, and that's only because Reznor tweeted about it...the vain fuck.

** Goddamn it I hate the fucking Beacon so much.

A review of Electric Sewer Age's "Bad White Corpuscle"

A corpuscle can be defined as an unattached cell, small mass or body. There are six of them here, each containing their own, specific, dark poison.

In one sentence: this is the sound of creeping disease.

We enter this suppurating, fleshy mess with "Grey Corpuscle", a dense and throbbing node which sets the infected tone for the first two thirds of Bad White Corpuscle perfectly. From there, the viscosity of the pus changes for "Corpuscular  Corpuscle", a place that sounds darker and lighter, thicker and thinner, at the same time. The fluid thins about halfway through, before warbling and shaking into "Amber Corpuscle"; here, you are drowning in it, it fills your eyes and nostrils, cloying, smothering. At one point, you succumb to Black Antlers Disease*. In "Rising Corpuscle", the situation degrades from discomfort and disease to danger, and the phage is revealed: it is mechanized and mesmerizing, the electronic sound of infection. It's maddening. From here, we discover a temple of filth, wherein we hear the sound of a cracked and dying heart. Then...the cleansing sounds of ocean, vast and forgiving...unless from its depths is where this plague originated.
The first four tracks serve as one cancer and toxin ridden entity, while the last two stand on their own: the fifth, the title track, carries with it the feel of a bad fairytale, something about the high notes and the chanting. The deep rutting noises are horrifyingly indicative, but when that jouncy beep beat comes in, things get less sinister and more funky. Head nod. It's still sinister, but in a clean, cold, metallic way. Measured. Restrained. Eventually, whatever energy that was powering this track dwindles as mottled voices choke it to death. Finally, we have "Black Corpuscle", the sound of a cycling, black heart along with the respiration of a Thing that should have neither. Jagged, electronic pieces, great texture.
 We also hear the first clear vocals on the album and they are reminiscent of a more dramatic permutation of "Is Suicide A Solution?". In the end, everything clots and scabs over.

Coil fans: you will like this.
Danny Hyde, John Deek and Peter Christopherson are still managing to create some of the most terrifying and fully realized sonic landscapes out there, those last two, Deek and Christopherson, from beyond the grave.

Bad White Corpuscle is a soundtrack for sickness, one to which there is no cure.

* If you aren't familiar with that particular malady, you can read up on the symptoms here.

A review of Beck at SummerStage 2014

Kicking in the door with "Devil's Haircut"

While I was almost 100% certain going in that he would play the hits, including "Loser", "The New Pollution", "Devil's Haircut" and  close with the extended version of "Where It's At"*, I never expected to hear Beck play another track from Midnite Vultures live again, as he seems to have matured away from the trashy, electro sleaze-funk of that incredible record**.
But, I keep forgetting that he is the second funkiest white man alive, and, therefore, can be wily.
When he first spoke, he told the crowd that the band didn't know whether to come out fast or slow, and that they'd decided that the show would be a "W". The 23rd letter of the alphabet has never been so honored.

"One Foot In The Grave"

The slower moments included selections from Sea Change and his latest album, Moring Phase, and, although he played almost half of the latter, I could have done with more, as everything from it sounded tremendous live, even "Country Down", one of my least favorite tracks from the album. The three high points of the "W" were made up of bits and pieces from most of his eleven albums, with a leaning towards Guero, and everything was...Beck. It was Beck.
What else can I really say?
 Nothing.

Beck and Justin Meldal Johnsen engaged in Funky Telepathy

So, let's do standout moments!

"Que Onda Guero" - I find the album version kind of annoying, perhaps, because I used to live in Spanish Harlem which sounds kind of like the song, but without any of the music or Beck and with more shouting and whistling, but his sweat-pouring enthusiasm just completely nullified all the negative associations.

"Paper Tiger" - Although I would have given my kneecaps for a string section (which probably would have sounded like nightmare cats fornicating because of the goddamn humidity), this worked out beautifully, such an amazing translation of one of my favorite tracks from Sea Change.

"The New Pollution"

"Girl" -> "E-Pro" - While I was kind of expecting "E-Pro", I was not expecting "Girl". I still maintain that "Girl" could be one of the all time best summer songs ever. Hearing it live with the soft breeze and watching the last traces of the sun still in the sky was, for me, a defining summer moment. Plus, I don't think I've ever seen "E-Pro" tackled with such ferocity. You were unable to not sing along with the chorus.

"Blue Moon", "Waking Light", "Heart Is A Drum" - These were all exquisite, although, again, without the strings, they felt a bit flat. Also, some of the bridge was cut from"Waking Light" (the part with all the strings), which bummed me out; I could have listened to a 15 minute version of that song.

"Lost Cause"

"Sexx Laws" -> "Debra" - What can I possibly say? Justin Meldal Johnsen (Beck's go to bass master for over twenty years) screaming about laws? The goddamn banjo? And then, a sprawling version of Debra, one of my favorite Beck tracks. At one point, while he was on his knees, trying to relate to us just how lovely of a lady she was and just how crazy he was driven by Jenny, Sean Lennon (from opener The Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger) came on stage and draped a cape over Beck's shoulders, to which he remarked: "someone has put a cape on my mantle of loneliness".

"Someone has put a cape on my mantle of loneliness..."

Looking back, I would have loved to hear more of the new album*** and more of Midnite Vultures, and I would have also loved it if the fucking sound system at SummerStage hadn't have sucked quite so many balls, but, what can you do? It's not like people have been playing live music outside for almost a century.
But, none of that is Beck's fault and I don't want any of this sounding sour. Bearing witness to Beck, one of my favorite artists, performing with men who have created some of my favorite Beck albums over the past two decades was a truly unique experience for which I am eternally grateful.
Even if you've seen them before, see them again, they will surprise you.

* Yes yes, "Ooh la la sassoon", whatever you say, Mr. Hansen.

** To my great and unending sadness.

*** Should have gone to his show at the Hammerstein the night before, which included a few more tracks from Morning Phase as well as "Hell Yes" and "Get Real Paid".

A review of Dalhous' "Will To Be Well"

My favorite track on Will To Be Well is "Lovers Of The Highlands". The decay and interference speak of loss and fear and malfunction. Then the blurry waves come in and lend a nightmarish quality. Not a "being chased by a mobster" nightmare, more like, I'm in the same place as a monster and must be very still, or it will chase me. The distorted and melting sounds that join the general sonic chaos do nothing but add menace to the piece. Eventually, a temple song emerges and solos, making everything we've experienced thus far ancient, undying. Endless.
That is the sound of dread, and it's only one of the places Marc Dall has created for you to discover.

Someone might listen to this album without paying enough attention and think it might be good music to have on while you're falling asleep. That would be a mistake. Not sure how the subconscious would react to direct exposure to this. "A Communion With These People" is the sound of a clock with a scythe for a pendulum, slicing time into brittle seconds, "Function Curve" is a anthem of uncertainty, and "Sensitised To This Area" feels both retro and post-robotic-future at the same time. Here, there be serpents. Almost every sound bed is dusty and adds a caul of discomfort, albeit beautifully textured discomfort, a mosaic of a glorious sunset, formed by tinted sheets of dead skin. "Four Daughters By Four Women" provoked the phrase "Silent Hill dance club" to pop into my head. Other standout tracks include "Transcendence", which starts out a bit yoga, but then goes beyond itself and into itself to find its core, one made of pure, dark crystals, a subconscious new age dream, and I mean that in the least snarky way possible, and "DSM-III", which is unlike anything else on here, bursting through the gate with a strong syncopated beat and rife with solid programming and more cold, future sounds.

While a few of the tracks tended to go on, perhaps, a bit longer than necessary, and, every once in a while, I found myself asking if a song was evolving subtly or not at all, Will To Be Well presents an array of fantastic sonic landscapes; everything is a touch damp, subterranean. Shrouded. But with a dark, glowing heart. Could there have been more continuity? Of course, I think the music of Dalhous lends itself perfectly to it, but I can see him trying to create separate caves in this underground system. If you want something dark and sprawling, full of deep explorations of places you might not want to explore, then there's a home for you here.