On the heels of that huge eruption of stuff from my mental cock comes this:
Reasons Why I Am Excited About the Next Few Months Speaking from A Purely Musical Standpoint
February 15th, 2005
The simultaneous release of They Might Be Giants’ “Here Come the ABC’s” on DVD and CD. The CD is 25 tracks about the alphabet and its letters, while the DVD has the same material, but with videos featuring all sorts of off-kilter not-really-intended-for-kids animation, including the Deeply Felt Puppet Theatre. Although this will be the third “actually intended for kids” release of theirs, this will be the first didactic project. Although, based on some of the clips floating around, they will not be your typical Raffi/Barney teaching songs…thank God. The album contains OVER 60 MINUTES OF BRAND NEW TMBG MUSIC. I love that but I am also a bit pissed that their most recent “adult” release (The Spine) had 16 tracks of 80% new music and it clocked in at around 36 minutes. Can anyone handle quality AND quantity these days? But you know what they say about gift horses…
March 29th, 2005
Beck releases the anxiously awaited follow-up to his redefining work “Sea Change”. The title is “Guero” and, as the title indicates, there is a slightly Mexican feel to the album, especially on the title track “Que Onda Guero”. How would I know? Well, because I am overeager and illegal. About a week or so ago, Beck updated his web site with a blurb about how the album had been leaked but that it was not the finished product. It had yet to be fully mastered and produced etc. and that what was floating around out there was NOT what he intended to release. I downloaded it five minutes after I saw that tidbit. The raw album sounds like Odelay more so than any of his other albums, but there is a very Mexican feel created by samples, guitars etc. It does sound…I don’t know…untreated? There’s just guitar, vocals and drums on some tracks, while others seem to have more production values. It’s weird to hear funky, yet non-complex Beck music, but still refreshing to hear something new from him. The first single “E-Pro” or “E Pro” is a fun Beckish single with a chorus of “na na’s” and a guitar line that will finally bring something fragrant to the stale, shit-smelling music scene of today. I am a bit trepidations about the whole “this is NOT the finished album” promise. The new Radiohead album (ironically “Hail to the Thief”) was leaked a while before it came out and, although I haven’t given them a comparative listen (I’m not a huge Radiohead fan) I think the only major difference, aside from a general better quality to the sound, was one song that had some extra guitars added here and there. And then there was the most recent eels album “Shootenanny!” that was released in 2003. It was totally leaked a month or so before it was released and, although what I downloaded might have been the actual advance retail copy, the thing I downloaded was the EXACT same as the official release. Then again, “Shootenanny!” was recorded in ten days and really didn’t have a lot of production values; very ‘let’s put a mic in the center of the room and play for a few hours’. I have to say that if the leaked copy of “Guero” is the actual album, I will be disappointed. At the moment, the album sounds like Mellow Gold and Odelay but recorded in Mexico, and if the final version is the same, Beck fans will be disappointed, especially after something as masterful as “Sea Change”.
April 28th, 2005
And speaking of eels…they are releasing their follow-up to the somewhat lackluster “Shootenanny!” on the 28th. The best thing a bout a band that puts out a not-as-great-as-previous-albums album is the suspense one goes through waiting for the next one. So “Shootenanny!” was 13 tracks (about 10 or so good ones- I said the album was lackluster, not shitty) and clocked in at 40 something minutes. It was a letdown mostly because the album before that, “Souljacker” was the most complex album (musically) they’d ever done. I have found that that works both ways though. The new album “Blinking Lights and Other Revelations” will be a 33-track double disc album. Perfect follow up to the shorter-than-average, less-complicated-than-average “Shootenanny!” The reason I am putting all my eggs in one basket is because of the essay that has been posted on the eels official site a few days ago. I can’t begin to paraphrase so if you give a hoot, head over and check it out. I challenge you to show me ANYTHING else in music today that is as sincere and complex, bitches.
May 3rd, 2005
Oh God please let this date remain accurate. After more than five years, the new Nine Inch Nails’ album (questionably titled ‘With Teeth’) has been set for release in May. NIN’s first album came out in 1989. Since then, they have released 2 more full-length albums. Yes. In fifteen years, they have released two albums: March of 1994, “The Downward Spiral”. It redefined industrial music and had huge hits with angst ridden teens and popular radio such as “Closer”, “March of the Pigs” and “Hurt”. Five years later in September of 1999, the follow-up, double CD “The Fragile” is released. It debuts at number one on the Billboard charts and sets the record as the fastest falling album in Billboard history. The fans loved it and thought it was even better than Spiral, but the critics thought that artists doing the music they want is REALLY stupid so aside from fans of NIN. This album was regarded as a commercial failure. Since then, Reznor has been doing some shit to distract him from making a new record. About two years ago, he said the new album would be called “Bleedthrough” and that it was almost done. He then trashed that and said “With Teeth”. They start touring in March and hopefully the release date of 5.3.05 will stick. I feel like I might be in for a “Souljacker” to “Shootenanny!” thing based on the fact that “Fragile” had 23 tracks and hit the 109-minute mark whereas “Teeth” has 12 tracks and cannot, physically, exceed 80 minutes. I don’t know. Nothing Reznor does is going to live up to the expectations set by “The Fragile”, but one thing I do know: whatever he does will be a surprise. With the new Beck, eels, TMBG, I have an idea of what to expect, but with NIN I have NEVER been able to say, "okay based on this, the new stuff will sound like this" and THAT is why I have been fanatically checking the NIN web site four times a day for the past 4 years. New, fresh music. Untrodden ground. Or so I hope. Oh God I hope.
So that is why the next few months are going to be good, for me, from a new music standpoint. And since I knew I would have trouble waiting for February 15th to roll around, I waited for a bit to download the TMBG Venue Songs mp3 album which has all 32 tracks that they wrote and performed on the nights of almost every show of their 2004 Spine on the Hiway tour. I had heard about 8 or so, so I have some brand new love for my ears to get me though the next two weeks or so 'til my CD and DVD arrive. After June (once I’ve drunk in all the above releases) I’ll probably kill myself, so my apartment will be up for grabs. Just a heads up. If I’m not dead by June though, there must be some DVD’s I still want to purchase. As soon as I get those though, it’s a three bedroom for like $1900 a month or so. Talk to Chris or Kady about arranging an interview after I’m dead and gone.
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Also, it is now my Birthday. I have been here 24 years and I have to say...I'm not impressed. And that means one thing...YOU are not working hard enough. So, you all get to work. I'm going to rub one out.
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