R.I.P. Big Star Bassist Andy Hummel

Tough year for Big Star. Andy Hummel (second from right) played a central role in one of the outstanding and most notoriously unsung bands of the rock era. He did not contribute many songs, but "The India Song" is one of my favorite Big Star tunes.

Dear Tortoise...

Almost Pavement

My brother Josh and I were fortunate to catch Pavement on stage just before they broke up.  It goes without saying that they put on one of the best shows I'd ever seen.  They played the 40-Watt in Athens, Georgia.  Perfect.  We were crushed to hear that they broke up a couple months later.  However, it appears that most of the band got up on stage for an impromptu set at auxiliary man Bob Nastanovich's wedding in Nashville.  While I'm not too thrilled with the current reunion craze, I would love to see SM, Spiral Stairs, and gang bring back that slacker magic.

Touch and Went

Sad news: Touch and Go Records, home to such amazing bands as Slint, Polvo, and the Dirty Three,  is closing shop.

Things that make me happy...

...the double-disc reissue of Pavement's Brighten the Corners.

Currently listening to...

...and three cheers for unassuming, melancholy Pennsylvania bedroom pop on vinyl.

Post-rock bedtime stories

I've always thought Slint's post-rock masterpiece Spiderland would make a fantastic horror film soundtrack. But a kid's book? You're kidding me! The stuff of nightmares, I'm sure. Still, you'd be the coolest parents on the block if you read this stuff to your kids. Could this be the birth of a new genre: ga-ga-gothic?

Notes on the Kinks, Britishness, and nostalgia

The Kinks' magnum opus Village Green Preservation Society displays a certain irony toward the idea of Britishness (Englishness?), slyly unmasking nostalgia as something not quite real, yet acknowledging something very real (an ideal? a virtue?) lying behind the nostalgia. Muswell Hillbillies does not maintain this ironic distance, idealizing the lost values of pre-industrial England with little hint of skeptism. Arthur, however, is highly critical of Great Britain's legacy. Note the subtitle: Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire. Arthur, from what I understand, was largely influenced by the Davies' sister's move to Australia.

Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round is an oddity couched between Arthur and Muswell Hillibillies. Though mostly known for spawning the goofy transvestite song "Lola," the album is largely a bitter fusillade against the recording industry (and one should not ignore the accusatory subtext roiling beneath "Lola's" veneer of absurdity). This is a very personal album in a different way than the preceding Kinks' albums in that it explicitly confronts immediate difficulties in the life of the band. The grand, abstract theme of Britishness has receded, although Ray Davies still anchors many of the album's songs to concrete references to British life (names, places, etc.). Lola's songs about the recording industry level a direct charge of greed and casuistry at anyone with whom the Kinks had to share their profits.

The other songs on Lola are more abstract and generally deal with a longing for escape. "Apeman," the first truly regrettable Kinks song, prefigures the primitivism of the following album, Muswell Hillbillies, which constitutes a full-fledged retreat from modern industrial society and handles the theme with infinitely greater charm and intelligence. "Lola" seems to summarize the confusion at the heart of the album.

Bereft of bossa nova

I knew this dreary moment would arrive sooner or later. My wife Wendy has tired of bossa nova. How can anyone find "Vivo Sonhando" or "Agua de Beber" wearisome? Even when I play it all day everyday? Well, I guess "Girl from Ipanema" gets pretty old (thanks for ruining it, Sinatra). Gilberto, Getz, and Jobim will have to take a break on the shelf for a while. But they shall return. Oh yes. (Don't tell Wendy.)

Thankfully, there's always some Berlin IDM (does anyone still use that term?) to fill the void.