Tuesday, January 27, 2009
BACK FROM THE SMACKDOWN
Well, as previously mentioned, I was on the radio today. I was paired with an editor from Blender, we took calls from listeners and read emails on the air and listened to Springsteen's awful new "Queen of the Supermarket" song; it was fun. If you want to listen to the whole 30-minute thing, you can download it by clicking here.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
PURELY COINCIDENTAL
So the day after I posted my comments on Springsteen, Meat Loaf and Styx (see below), I got an email from the producers of Soundcheck, a radio show I've been on twice before - once to plug Marooned (and hey, check out that bargain price! Go get yourself one, why doncha?) with the help of Greg Tate and Ian Christe, and once to debate the merits of Metallica with Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork. They've asked me to return, this time to take the anti- side in a debate on the merits of...yes, Bruce Springsteen, whose new album comes out on Tuesday, the same day I'll be on the air. So check it out at 2PM EST, at 93.9 FM or 820 AM if you're in the NYC area, or online at WNYC.org. I hope it'll be at least mildly entertaining.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
NECK DEEP IN CHEESE
So this morning on the way to work I was listening to The Essential Bruce Springsteen, because...well, I don't know exactly why. Every time I see the guy lately, he pisses me off, whether it's his passing-a-peach-pit vocals, or his requiem-for-the-workin'-man schtick in both lyrics and interviews, or his dirgey songwriting ("The Rising" is not a rock 'n' roll song, it's a death march). But even though the only albums I've ever listened to all the way through were Nebraska, Darkness On the Edge of Town and Born in the U.S.A., and that was over 20 years ago, I had a pretty strong recollection that he wasn't always that way. So I...um, obtained the aforementioned three-CD compilation (cause if you're gonna do something, do it all the way, even when it's costing you nothing but time) and started at the beginning. And I got past the fake-Dylan stuff from the first couple of albums with no permanent injuries, even liking little bits here and there (like the Elvis-Costello-and-the-Attractions-esque keyboard sound on "For You"). But when I hit the songs from Born To Run, something weird happened...I suddenlly developed an irresistible urge to listen to Meat Loaf.
They both made the same kind of overwrought rock-as-opera-as-six-foot-tall-cheesecake, to the point that the parallels became almost disturbing. Listen to "Bat Out of Hell" (the song) and "Jungleland" and tell me they're not the same thing - hell, the piano parts are almost identical. So now, this afternoon, I'm listening to Bat Out of Hell all the way through for the first time ever. And I think I like it better than Springsteen, if only because Meat Loaf (or Jim Steinman, whatever) never gets to thinking he's John Dos Passos or Tom Kromer.
But maybe it's just that I'm in a mood for pomptastic cheese-rock lately. Another recent acquisition was The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings, an anthology of the first four Styx albums, before anybody was paying attention to them and when they were still trying to decide whether to be a Midwestern hard rock band or to fully indulge Dennis DeYoung's dreams of Broadway glory. Those albums (Styx, Styx II, The Serpent is Rising and Man of Miracles) are not nearly as horrible as their later stuff. In fact, there are songs on them that are firmly in the tradition of early '70s American progressive hard rock, when bands were attempting to tread a middle ground between caveman blooze-rawk (Grand Funk Railroad, Cactus, etc.) and the more intricate prog stuff coming from the UK (Yes, ELP, Genesis). There are some riffs - and organ tones - on The Serpent is Rising that fans of everything from Deep Purple to Atomic Rooster would find very pleasing indeed. Sure, there's some crap, too, but these albums shouldn't be dismissed, particularly the debut, which is damn heavy at times.
Styx: Not The Worst Band Ever, At Least Not Early On.
They both made the same kind of overwrought rock-as-opera-as-six-foot-tall-cheesecake, to the point that the parallels became almost disturbing. Listen to "Bat Out of Hell" (the song) and "Jungleland" and tell me they're not the same thing - hell, the piano parts are almost identical. So now, this afternoon, I'm listening to Bat Out of Hell all the way through for the first time ever. And I think I like it better than Springsteen, if only because Meat Loaf (or Jim Steinman, whatever) never gets to thinking he's John Dos Passos or Tom Kromer.
But maybe it's just that I'm in a mood for pomptastic cheese-rock lately. Another recent acquisition was The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings, an anthology of the first four Styx albums, before anybody was paying attention to them and when they were still trying to decide whether to be a Midwestern hard rock band or to fully indulge Dennis DeYoung's dreams of Broadway glory. Those albums (Styx, Styx II, The Serpent is Rising and Man of Miracles) are not nearly as horrible as their later stuff. In fact, there are songs on them that are firmly in the tradition of early '70s American progressive hard rock, when bands were attempting to tread a middle ground between caveman blooze-rawk (Grand Funk Railroad, Cactus, etc.) and the more intricate prog stuff coming from the UK (Yes, ELP, Genesis). There are some riffs - and organ tones - on The Serpent is Rising that fans of everything from Deep Purple to Atomic Rooster would find very pleasing indeed. Sure, there's some crap, too, but these albums shouldn't be dismissed, particularly the debut, which is damn heavy at times.
Styx: Not The Worst Band Ever, At Least Not Early On.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS
An ex-bassist in Miles Davis' quintet brings his own band to the Sheldon
[From the Riverfront Times.]
Dave Holland has been in the top rank of jazz bassists since the late '60s, when Miles Davis plucked him from relative obscurity and recruited him to play with his quintet. In just under two years with the trumpeter, Holland performed on albums including Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way and Big Fun, before eventually departing to form Circle with saxophonist Anthony Braxton, keyboardist Chick Corea and drummer Barry Altschul. This began a lengthy working relationship with Braxton, much of which is documented on the recent Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton boxed set. Holland also recorded the legendary 1972 album Conference of the Birds, which featured Braxton, Altschul and saxophonist Sam Rivers.
The bassist recalls Braxton as "a conceptualist...He has very clear languages that he's working with in his writing and his playing." By contrast, Holland says of Davis, "Miles would sort of put something forward that he wanted to pursue, and then he would just let you go and fill in the gaps and do what you wanted to do."
Holland's been leading his own quintet since 1997, and in that role, he adopts a bit of each approach — while incorporating nods to Duke Ellington's use of the orchestra as instrument. The core quintet features saxophonist Chris Potter, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibist Steve Nelson and drummer Nate Smith, but at various times Holland's expanded to a sextet, an octet and even a big band. Each lineup makes different demands on Holland as a composer and an arranger, something he regards as a pleasurable challenge.
"The more members you have in the group," he explains, "the more opportunity you have to orchestrate. With a smaller group, for instance, if one of the horns is soloing, there's only one other horn, so you can't do a lot of background work. The larger the group, the more you can do that — with three horns playing, you can almost simulate a big band sound.
"Each [instrument] has its own character, and the more personalities you have in the band, the more opportunities you have to create settings which suit those personalities," he continues. "When I'm writing for the quintet, I'm thinking about those particular players and what they're doing, what their style of playing is and how to give them a vehicle that will allow them to fully realize their creative vision within the composition. And of course in the larger group I have a much bigger array of players to work on, and they're all unique. [Saxophonist] Gary Smulyan's approach to soloing is different from Chris Potter's, which is different from Antonio Hart's."
Holland is just as concerned with commerce as art, as any jazz musician worth his salt must be in 2009. A few years ago he started his own label, Dare2, which licenses his music to Universal. He's put out three albums on the imprint — 2005's live big-band Overtime, 2006's Critical Mass with the quintet and last year's sextet session Pass It On, which featured regular collaborator Eubanks alongside pianist Mulgrew Miller, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, saxophonist Hart and drummer Eric Harland.
Holland's just completed a weeklong stand at New York's Birdland with an octet lineup; recordings from the sessions will be released at some point. While he's still attached to the idea of CDs, he's planning to start selling digital music through Daveholland.com in the future — whether full-length albums or a few tracks here and there, like jazz 78s from the pre-LP era. The only thing he guarantees is a continuing stream of high-quality new music, which fans can hear at his upcoming concert.
[From the Riverfront Times.]
Dave Holland has been in the top rank of jazz bassists since the late '60s, when Miles Davis plucked him from relative obscurity and recruited him to play with his quintet. In just under two years with the trumpeter, Holland performed on albums including Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way and Big Fun, before eventually departing to form Circle with saxophonist Anthony Braxton, keyboardist Chick Corea and drummer Barry Altschul. This began a lengthy working relationship with Braxton, much of which is documented on the recent Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton boxed set. Holland also recorded the legendary 1972 album Conference of the Birds, which featured Braxton, Altschul and saxophonist Sam Rivers.The bassist recalls Braxton as "a conceptualist...He has very clear languages that he's working with in his writing and his playing." By contrast, Holland says of Davis, "Miles would sort of put something forward that he wanted to pursue, and then he would just let you go and fill in the gaps and do what you wanted to do."
Holland's been leading his own quintet since 1997, and in that role, he adopts a bit of each approach — while incorporating nods to Duke Ellington's use of the orchestra as instrument. The core quintet features saxophonist Chris Potter, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibist Steve Nelson and drummer Nate Smith, but at various times Holland's expanded to a sextet, an octet and even a big band. Each lineup makes different demands on Holland as a composer and an arranger, something he regards as a pleasurable challenge.
"The more members you have in the group," he explains, "the more opportunity you have to orchestrate. With a smaller group, for instance, if one of the horns is soloing, there's only one other horn, so you can't do a lot of background work. The larger the group, the more you can do that — with three horns playing, you can almost simulate a big band sound.
"Each [instrument] has its own character, and the more personalities you have in the band, the more opportunities you have to create settings which suit those personalities," he continues. "When I'm writing for the quintet, I'm thinking about those particular players and what they're doing, what their style of playing is and how to give them a vehicle that will allow them to fully realize their creative vision within the composition. And of course in the larger group I have a much bigger array of players to work on, and they're all unique. [Saxophonist] Gary Smulyan's approach to soloing is different from Chris Potter's, which is different from Antonio Hart's."
Holland is just as concerned with commerce as art, as any jazz musician worth his salt must be in 2009. A few years ago he started his own label, Dare2, which licenses his music to Universal. He's put out three albums on the imprint — 2005's live big-band Overtime, 2006's Critical Mass with the quintet and last year's sextet session Pass It On, which featured regular collaborator Eubanks alongside pianist Mulgrew Miller, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, saxophonist Hart and drummer Eric Harland.
Holland's just completed a weeklong stand at New York's Birdland with an octet lineup; recordings from the sessions will be released at some point. While he's still attached to the idea of CDs, he's planning to start selling digital music through Daveholland.com in the future — whether full-length albums or a few tracks here and there, like jazz 78s from the pre-LP era. The only thing he guarantees is a continuing stream of high-quality new music, which fans can hear at his upcoming concert.
THEY PRINTED MY LETTER
The Village Voice Pazz 'n' Jop poll is out today, and the results are unsurprising. I am pleased that they printed my comment, though, which is reproduced below. (Disclaimer: You've heard or read me making all these complaints before, in this and other spaces - if not, most annoyingly of all, in person.)
*****
Metal had one of the best years in recent memory - metal's been having a pretty amazing 21st century, frankly. But you'd never know it from year-end lists not published in metal magazines. The Onion A.V. Club completely ignored metal, except for making fun of one of their critics who voted for Opeth on his ballot. Pitchfork's year-end list was also totally metal-free, choosing to focus instead on albums (to quote their write-up of Titus Andronicus's The Airing of Grievances) "about spending your twenties . . . overeducated and underwhelmed." These sites, along with Popmatters and a few others, are nominally the new zeitgeist, shaping pop discourse - and, in the process, defining the canon for the future. And as far as they're concerned, the canon is guitar-based pop music that runs the gamut from folk to soft psychedelia. Token hip-hop and/or r&b acts are permitted, as long as they're stoners (Lil Wayne) or hippie-ish (Erykah Badu). But the rock genre that can actually claim commercial successes this year (not that sales are an aesthetic yardstick)? Nah, no need to bother with that. Pitchfork et al. have broadened their coverage quite a bit - they do a good job of writing about metal during the year. But when list-making time rolls around, the need to fake broad-mindedness goes out the window, and it's time to close ranks in the Short-Haired White Guys With Guitars Club.
I edit a metal magazine; I'm not required to listen to Fleet Foxes or Vampire Weekend when putting together a year-end list. But editors who want their site, magazine, or whatever to represent the full spectrum of rock/pop music, or want to convince people that's the goal, should be willing/able to admit that good albums were made in 2008 that were not limp indie-pop. Or they could just admit they are who their detractors have always said they were.
*****
Metal had one of the best years in recent memory - metal's been having a pretty amazing 21st century, frankly. But you'd never know it from year-end lists not published in metal magazines. The Onion A.V. Club completely ignored metal, except for making fun of one of their critics who voted for Opeth on his ballot. Pitchfork's year-end list was also totally metal-free, choosing to focus instead on albums (to quote their write-up of Titus Andronicus's The Airing of Grievances) "about spending your twenties . . . overeducated and underwhelmed." These sites, along with Popmatters and a few others, are nominally the new zeitgeist, shaping pop discourse - and, in the process, defining the canon for the future. And as far as they're concerned, the canon is guitar-based pop music that runs the gamut from folk to soft psychedelia. Token hip-hop and/or r&b acts are permitted, as long as they're stoners (Lil Wayne) or hippie-ish (Erykah Badu). But the rock genre that can actually claim commercial successes this year (not that sales are an aesthetic yardstick)? Nah, no need to bother with that. Pitchfork et al. have broadened their coverage quite a bit - they do a good job of writing about metal during the year. But when list-making time rolls around, the need to fake broad-mindedness goes out the window, and it's time to close ranks in the Short-Haired White Guys With Guitars Club.
I edit a metal magazine; I'm not required to listen to Fleet Foxes or Vampire Weekend when putting together a year-end list. But editors who want their site, magazine, or whatever to represent the full spectrum of rock/pop music, or want to convince people that's the goal, should be willing/able to admit that good albums were made in 2008 that were not limp indie-pop. Or they could just admit they are who their detractors have always said they were.
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