March / May 1999
Well, this is the first issue of Fred.
THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING
FICTITIOUS FRIENDS
For most people, there's always something that resonates
enough in their day-to-day existence to inspire (or in some
cases disgust them). For some reasons, these things that
inspire/disgust people are usually not work-related. Most
of the people I know (which isn't that many in terms of
numbers, but probably large enough to support this
argument) seem to gravitate to forms of expression that
have an aesthetic that is singularly clear to them. Music
is mine. Film or writing or mathematics or food or TV or
architecture or exercise or history or performance or dance
or hair-dressing or making money or procreating or praying
or being philanthropic or killing people or flying planes
or skateboarding or traveling may be yours.
JEWELRY
For some reason, I like jewelry. The trick is knowing what
to buy.
CROSBY STILLS NASH &
YOUNG
OK, straight to the news: seems that Crosby, Stills, Nash
& Young are getting together for an album and a tour
this summer. OK, I confess, when I'm alone, I secretly
listen to the crap they've inflicted upon the world. I
can't help it. I've tried everything. I am particularly
vulnerable to David Crosby's stuff (which has really been
execrable in...oh...the past 20 years or so). There's no
doubt that this is all nostalgia; we can't really honestly
expect anything good to come out of these guys (sans Young
of course) at this point. The last really good album from
CSN was in 1977 (ingeneously titled CSN). But I
think my excitement is at the prospect of seeing live CSNY
as opposed to CSN. No matter how you look at it, 4-Way
Street from 1971 is a really kick-ass live album of
heavy/soft rock. It is indulgent in the way that only
hippies from the cusp of the 60s/70s were self-indulgent,
i.e. they really believed that they were a bunch of four
geniuses standing on stage. But if you can ignore the
narcissism for a second, there were some really beautiful
songs, in particular two by Neil Young ("Cowgirl in the
Sand" and "Don't Let It Bring You Down") and two by David
Crosby ("Triad" and "The Leeshore") that are gorgeous in
their ambience--the silence in these big halls was amazing.
You could hear every sigh and missed guitar string. Crosby
taking "The Leeshore" into the stratosphere with wooden
music, the same year that The Stooges took "Down on the
Street" ino the same stratosphere with electric music. I
find it interesting that Iggy really hated CSNY, which is
not so unusual, but if you listen to the second record on
4-Way Street, there is some real jammy rockin' shit in
there that really compares not badly to the Stooges roar.
OK, it's not that great, but Stills and Young really shook
up the auditorium with their loud guitars and 13 minute
long songs. Southern Man indeed. So, yes, just to see them
recreate 4-Way Street in 1999, it may be worth
trying to see them this summer.
ORBITAL & CHEMICAL
BROTHERS
Speaking of summer shows, news has it that both Orbital and
the Chemical Brothers are set to release CDs soon and both
are touring. I'm particularly excited with the former,
since evidently they're going to try and produce their live
shows like a "rock band" as opposed to a faceless
electronic band on stage with their computers. Their last
album Insides was brilliant, the kind of techno
that actually manages to evoke some emotion rather than
Kraftwerk-esque stone cold Shprokets-like sterile stuff
(which in itself is not exactly a bad thing, but it is a
bad thing when it gets the cooness factor for no other
reason than being emotionally vacuous). Umm, so yeah, I
think Orbital are really the best popular techno band in
the genre today, partly because they seem to cross genres
and also because they, like the Beatles, have a sort of
appeal that's both pseudo-cool and
pseudo-lowest-common-denominator. For afficianados, I
highly recommend Snivilization and
Insides. The first and last tracks on both CDs are
works of genius.
Chemical Brothers, another "popular" techno band is good in
a very different way. They got the groove baby. If you
don't believe me, check out the first track on Exit
Planet Dust, their CD from a couple of years ago---to
the repeated bombastic refrain of "Brother's gonna work it
out" you will see the God of Dance and get your butt to
oscillate wildly. I definitely did so when I saw them in
late '97 in Philly at the Electric Factory (the worst place
to see a band). Much fun was had, even though it seemed
that the two bozos on stage were in fact doing nothing.
Besides, Death in Vegas opened for them, and they were just
brilliant. One thing Chemical Brothers has going for them
is the obligatory guest star thing on their CDs--most
notably Beth Orton who shows up in one song each on their
two full-length CDs. She has a truly beautiful voice, and
soars when combined with the techno beeps and squeaks of
the R2-D2 variety as on "Alive Alone," the amazing coda to
Exit Planet Dust. Apparently, the new CD, out this
summer, features members of Mercury Rev, which in itself is
an amazing feat of crossing over genres. What the hell is
going on here? And hey, what's happened to Mercury Rev?
MERCURY REV
Well, boys and girls, as you all know Mercury Rev released
Deserter's Songs last year, hailed apparently as
the most brilliant album released by anyone in 1998. Well,
let me tell you, it's not. OK, it's actually pretty damn
good. It's also pretty damn pretty. Very tender stuff. Sort
of good-timey folk stuff, not unlike the best stuff from
The Band--in fact ex-members of The Band actually show up
on this record, which is, I guess, another stunning example
of people who should have nothing to do with each other
actually making good music. So anyway, yes it's a purty
darn good album, but no go as the best thing released last
year. I think in some ways, Mercury Rev are laboring under
the shadow of Yerself Is Steam that blistering
attack from '91 that truly set off the '90s for me---I mean
think about it THREE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS EVER CREATED BY
HUMANKIND WERE RELEASED IN 1991--Nevermind,
Yerself Is Steam, and Loveless. Shit,
1991 was actually a terrible year for me. But that's
another story. I was trapped in a long lost town called
College Station amid the ruins of Texas trying to esape my
little demons (a Fleetwood Mac reference if I've ever heard
one). So, basically, Mercury Rev are laboring sort of under
a Pet Sounds-like dilemna. Nothing they will ever
produce will match the brilliance of Yerself Is
Steam although See You On The Other Side came
close. For those still reading up to this point, I do
however highly recommend seeing them in concert. Karen and
I saw them in '95 or '96 in Northampton, Mass. in a little
place called Pearl Street. Ummm, forget the superlatives.
This was the sound of narcotic rock. The kind of music you
just lay down on the floor and close your eyes for---yet at
the same time there is a raging jet engine two feet from
you blowing beautiful music exhaust over your naked body.
As you stare at the back of your eyelids, you see movies of
skeletons chomping down food. Incredible but true.
PAUL WESTERBERG
OK, so this is the thing. What up with Paul? I bought his
new album Suicane Gratifaction because everybody
said it was a "return to form." Well, I was very
disappointed. And it's not that I am one of those desperate
fans waiting for Tim Mark II. No, see I loved
14 Songs. I like mellow stuff. I like
introspective music, etc....but Paul is on some other
planet. I mean he still looks cool, but he now produces
songs that are completely unlistenable. The first song on
the album, "It's A Wonderful Lie," is, um, wonderful.
Unfortunately, it's all downhill after that. The bottom
line is that his melodic sense has been completely shot to
hell. He can't seem to create anything that is remotely
interesting in terms of melody---he's stuck in this cliched
little place from where emanates the standard sequence of
chord changes: use as few minor chords as possible, do not
vary chord sequences, and...wait...his voice. The way he
sings now is so annoying. He's got that cloying little
intonation in his voice, like he's some hobo sittin' on a
railway track somewhere. It just doesn't seem like he means
it. It sounds like this is a persona he's put on, but the
acting is really shitty. Listen to the way he sings
"Things" from 14 Songs and then listen to any song
off of Suicaine Gratifaction...his voice on the
latter is like something out of the early sixties hack folk
songwriter school of affectation--it has no real feeling at
all. Just because you don't pronounce your "g's" anymore
when your sayin' words like livin' don't mean shit to me.
So Paul, Paul, Paul, we know you are a genius. Hell, you
are the greatest living songwriter from the post-punk
years, fuck Bob Mould or Robert Smith, YOU DID IT. You made
the most horribly uncool music so ragingly beautiful. Once
you knew how to communicate what you felt. Now you have no
idea how to tell us what you're feeling. I don't care if
you chase rabbits in the backyard or actors in the
street...just tell us in a way that sounds like you mean
it. I don't understand what happened. It seems you've
bought a lifetime subscription to the Sting Distance
Learning School of Sucking After You Were Once Cool (see
also Rod Stewart and Paul McCartney). The sad part is that
I still think that he's the shit. I can't get over it. One
listen to "The Ledge" and I'm back on track. But I guess I
can't live in the past.
Well, that's all for issue 1 of Fred. Issue 2 will
be out in a couple of weeks, and will be a labor of love on
(among other things) The Who, why I hate retro-rock bands
like Wilco and Son Volt, and of course Laika (who make
music that is so incredibly sublime that 'tis beyond
words).