May 012007
 

This review originally appeared in Phawker.com.

Whew! My head hurts from all the time I’ve been spending with the latest Modest Mouse album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. This thing’s hard work. When did the world get so smart that they all get it and I’m not sure I do? This band’s moving units, right, and you can’t attribute their appeal to hot looks and sweet hooks. In an act of brutal self-analysis, I persevered. And yes, I’m a better man for having done so.

For the first few spins of this new Modest Mouse album, all I could think of was why I find this band so difficult to like. Their angular funk marches, which are nevertheless not very danceable, aren’t too far removed from the noisier side of XTC, a band I went so far as loving to defend the excessive-by-their-standards The Big Express. At times, such as on the hit single “Dashboard” and “We’ve Got Everything”, those angular funk marches verge into the ‘80s Bands Reunited territory of The Fixx as interpreted by Dave Matthews Band. Fair enough, but no reason to feel tormented by this record.

The sea chantey choruses of songs like the opener, “March into the Sea”, could not set this fan of Pere Ubu’s “Caligari’s Mirror” over the edge. Not at all. In fact, if I had my druthers the production of this album would allow for the clanging guitars to fight for space with singer Isaac Brock’s hectoring yelp. And no, hectoring yelps in an of themselves, I kept telling myself, are by no means deal breakers. But something about Brock’s yelp had me playing the first 4 or 5 songs over and over, never feeling the slightest bit satisfied beyond the brief, rare, melodic Flaming Lips-styled elfin interludes of songs like the opener and “Fire It Up”. Then it came to me: When did Bobcat Goldthwait get reborn as an indie rock singer? To carry on, I would have to steer clear of the deadly Bobcat segments.

Not the worst trip I’ve ever been on

Early on, “Florida” gave me some hope, sounding like one of those hopeless bids for a hit single off a Fontana-era Pere Ubu album. When I finally made it to a track called “Missed the Boat”, the seas began to part. With chiming guitars; choral vocals; and a brief, melodic guitar solo, this number went down easy. How I needed to get my bearings straight.

The album ends with a string of songs that display challenging arrangements; hectoring, good natured, self-critical verses and grand, anthemic choruses; undanceable funk marches; and those damned segments in which Brock channels Bobcat. A song called “Steam Engenius” had me scratching my head with a bad case of “What the hell does this remind me of?” until I remembered the verses to Led Zeppelin’s “Southbound Suarez” mixed with an early XTC backing vocal device. Land ho! The punishing journey of trying to find a way to like this album had paid off. I want to go home.

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Apr 292007
 


Once again I’m finding myself stuck watching Apocalypse Now, but this time – as has been the case in recent years, it’s Apocalypse Now Redux. Every time an added scene comes on, I’m proud to be an editor. As is often (always?) the case when watching this or any “Director’s Cut,” I’m reminded of all the redone or extended original works of art, and in musical terms specifically, I wonder if any piece of tape that had initially been left on the cutting room floor actually improved the work of music after it had been restored and release on some Deluxe edition. Please name one song that was improved by a restored edit.

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Apr 282007
 

PORTLAND, OR – After 23 years in development, former Nixon’s Head and Autumn Carousel musician Mike Fingeroff has released a White Paper in support of the pending release of Strat-o-Matic Rock ‘n Roll, a virtual band development, composing, and recording tool.

“Although I respect the work Pete Townshend and his developers have been doing,” said Fingeroff in a recent interview, “their software will allow users to create little more than a musical self-portrait. That’s cool, but what rock ‘n roll fans really want to know is, ‘What would a band with Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, John Entwistle, and Gary Rossington sound like?'”

What Strat-o-Matic Rock ‘n Roll offers is not only a chance to form these Supergroups but, through the software, to accurately simulate the writing and recording of original music. The possibiliities are endless, but the best way to understand exactly how this works is to study the following White Paper. Fingeroff will be available to field your technical questions.

Strat-o-Matic Rock ‘n Roll is a real-time system level performance modeler. It differs from other “performance engines” in that it allows both the novice and expert musician to create complete musical productions by applying a series of constraints in the design environment. The end result is pristine audio with song qualities that can rival creations that would normally takes years of practice to duplicate.

The key patent-pending technologies involve a combination of Linear Predictive Coding techniques for modeling vocal tract formant frequency acoustics (Fig. 1), Blind Adaptive Filtering analysis (Fig. 2) and reproduction of numerous amps, guitars, acoustics, etc, and Neural Networks for “on the fly” performance creation and modeling of a wide range of rock-n-roll styles.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Continue reading »

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Apr 272007
 

Don’t be shy. Surely you’ve got an answer.

What’s the happening album you’ve been spinning of late, old or new?

Are you or have you ever been into “hot rod music” – with all those rockabilly, hellcat, headlight, and pommade associations?

Can the exaggerated “vampire rock” of goth-related artists like Bauhaus and The Birthday Party (and other heavier Nick Cave projects, including this new Grinderman CD) be seen as an update of the hot rod ethos?

Opera excluded, have you ever been able to get into any foreign-language music and love it as much as something sung in English? I ask because I just downloaded a bunch of African guitar stuff that sounds really good and I know will be good background music for painting rooms and editing manuscripts, but as with other foreign-language albums I’ve bought over the years, I fear I’ll never get the added kick of being able to sing along with them. Some of the stuff is in French, so at least I can make out the gist of some couplets.

Perhaps you’ve got your own dugout chatter to stir. What’s the one question that hasn’t been asked yet?

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All-Star Jam

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Apr 262007
 


Boy, to hear you tell it around here, Hotel California is the worst thing ever recorded, and another thing…Hey, that’s not Jan!

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Apr 262007
 

Andy Partridge gets “un-Ludded.”

I think technology is a sword. It’s fine, it’s sharp and you cut things with it, but if you’re not careful you can cut your own toes off. It does bring people in, but it also brings people who don’t like you. Some messages on the Ape House forum have brought me close to tears. Who would write you a fan letter saying how awful you are? The net brings out the anonymous assassin. But certainly, it is great for Ape House (30 percent of all Ape House sales are from the web.)

Pete Townshend beats Strat-o-Matic Rock ‘n Roll to market.

“This is a step in doing something which is a true, authentic, elegant artist process, based on the incredible [software)]system,” he said. “I love what this produces and my vision for it now is that I think, yes, we could have a gathering in some future time where we could share our music together.”

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