A review of Saul Williams' "MartyrLoserKing"

Saul Williams is a rapper like David Bowie was a singer.

MartyrLoserKing is the follow up to William's accessibly dark and dancey Volcanic Sunlight, and it's his heaviest and most intricate release since 2007's The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust.
There's still a lot of anger in Williams' words and music, specifically on tracks like 'Roach Eggs' and 'Down For Some Ignorance', but it's not thrown, blindly, at the listener; he won't be dismissed as hysterical, his arguments are pertinent and well stated.

Standouts include 'Ashes', one of Williams' darkest works to date, the juxtaposition within 'The Bear/Coltan As Cotton', the first half with its soaring openness, the second with its high speed, bladed slam poetry, the pulsing, hypnotic 'Horn of a Clock-Bike', the revolution of 'Burundi' (featuring Emily Kokal of Warpaint), and the oddly-Radiohead feel of "No Different", which feels like a sorrowful prayer.

If all rappers were brilliant, impassioned, and recondite, then Saul Williams wouldn't stand out. As it stands, he remains one of the most thoughtful and intelligent artists out there and continues to evolve the arts of rap, hip hop, and poetry, all at the same time.

The Year of Dial-A-Song Wraps Up

More than 52 brand new songs in one year. The scope of this is still messing with me. Some bands don't release that many songs in a career, but these lunatics did it in ONE YEAR.
Jesus.
And what's more impressive is that almost all of them are great, not just good or passable. It's ridiculous.
True, about a fifth of them are less than two minutes and not one was over three and a half minutes, but when it comes to the music of They Might Be Giants, it's never about the length of the songs, but the depth.

After a short tour in the UK (starting January 27th), the release of their 19th studio album, Phone Power, and, finally, a month touring the US (starting March 17th), the band plans to go dark until 2017, enjoying a well-earned rest...or recording material for their 2017 Dial-A-Song project...we'll find out which in a year.

It was truly an honor to be a part of this experiment, and it's never been more excellent to be a fan of They Might Be Giants.

And now...QUANTIFICATION!

Favorite Line
I was ready to give Favorite Line to 'ECNALUBMA' pretty much the first time I heard it..."help me out, I can't seem to get this window open / never mind, now it's open / I think my hand is broken" and, while stuff came close ('Trouble, Awful, Devil, Evil' with "the weight of my insensate body draws all the bedclothes down with it / unknowing, ecstatically lowering into a bottomless pit surrounded by / trouble awful devil evil"), nothing topped that for me. Then, three weeks before the end, 'I'll Be Haunting You' brings a damn strong contender with "my absence has been weaponized, the empty sockets where my eyes are swiveling to recognize and pin you down". 
Man. 

I think it still has to go to 'ECNALUBMA', maybe because I've been hearing it for most of the year and I stop to appreciate it every time; the awful little story it tells in less than the length of a tweet and about ten seconds. 

Top 10 Dial-A-Songs (in no particular order)*

'Unpronounceable' - for its uncanny familiar-at-first-listen sound, a literal instant classic

'Let Me Tell You About My Operation' - for its ability to make the listener instantly jitterbug

'ECNALUBMA' - for its deification of the (over?) importance of emergency medical vehicles, the title is just a cherry on the sundae

'Underwater Woman' - for its jagged edges telling a story as sad and desperate as its lyrics

'I’m A Coward' - for its delicious contradiction

'I’ll Be Haunting You' - for its characters and the lives they led

'Thinking Machine' - for its perfect manifestation of a They Might Be Giants song, and for Ansel Adams' mouth

'Music Jail, Pt 1 & 2' - for its avalanche of raucous energy, and for its brilliant turn

'Daylight' - for its sorrowful, hazy grace

'Trouble, Awful, Devil, Evil' - for its dark, unsettling beauty

HONORABLE MENTIONS

'Whole Lot Of Glean' - for its self reference and Beatles impersonation

'Definition of Good' - for being the most adorable thing ever

'Madame, I Challenge You To A Duel' - for its decorum and the tale it tells

'It Said Something' - for recapturing the glory of Apollo 18

'Summer Breeze' - for finally fulfilling its destiny 

* These are for the songs, and not their videos. There are links because this is the Internet, whether you like it or not.

The Year In Bitch - 2015

A note: 2015 was completely owned by They Might Be Giants. Go forth knowing this.
There was other stuff though.

Biggest Surprises

Oh Christ it's in my HEEEAAAD!
Meghan Trainor. Meghan goddamn Trainor. Yes, I know it's poppy, sickly sweet, bubble-gum-in-your-hair drivel, but, guys...it's catchy, and I enjoyed it. Granted, I listened to the album, Title, about a dozen times over the course of a week or so and then kind of forgot it existed, but that was a damn fun week.

Aphex Twin's Musical Bukakke
Biggest surprise of the year was Richard D. James, after recently returning to the world with Syro back in 2014, dropping over a hundred unreleased Aphex Twin tracks (over eight fucking hours of never before heard music), onto the Internet for free. You know what's weird? Even after this ejaculation of new Aphex, I'm a bit surprised there wasn't more. Because I'm a greedy whorehole of consumerism.

The new Blur and how much I enjoyed it when compared to all other Blur albums
Usually, when Damon Albarn releases a Blur album or some side project that isn't Gorillaz, I check it out and then take whichever tracks I feel could encompass a Gorillaz album and then add them to a playlist called "This Could Be A Gorillaz Album". I don't hate Blur or any of Albarn's side projects (his solo debut was one of my favorite records of 2014), but I like Gorillaz more. I've read that it kind of pisses off Albarn that this thing that started out as a joke ended up being the thing that everyone in the fucking world latched onto, but, hey, he's getting to do whatever he wants, creatively, with whomever he wants to do it, so he can't be that mad. But, I dug a lot of Magic Whip. Not as much as I dug Plastic Beach or Demon Days, but, whatever. I was surprised by how much I liked it and that's why it's here, Dad.

David Bowie releases the best song he's done in twenty years
Not since Outside had I been more excited for a new Bowie album. The promise held within that one, epic title track...the possibilities were limitless...

Telepathe defies the music industry by releasing their debut album
After chewing their way through miles of record label bullshit over a period of years, they finally release Destroyer, and it's as dark and smoky and sweaty and throbbing as a club in the 90's.

Marilyn Manson emerges, slightly, from up his own ass
Saying Manson's The Pale Emperor is "his best album in years" is a deceptive, little compliment. Another way to phrase that could be, "The Pale Emperor is his first album in years that wasn't hot, wet garbage." Manson's The Pale Emperor is his first album in years that is not hot, wet garbage. Let's see if Mr. Warner can keep inching his way out of his own asshole. We're rooting for you, you pasty monarch, you!

Prince releases his 38th and 39th studio albums and they're both really solid
You'd think this purple sparkplug would have run out of ideas by now. Nope. That second one, HitNRun Phase Two, is a rock solid 70's funk gem.

ESKA
Seriously, you've never heard anything like her. 

Biggest Disappointments

Beck releases a really excellent new song...with no plans to release the album from which that song was taken

Questionable grammar aside, this was bittersweet. "Dreams" was a perfect summer song and introduced a shift from the reflective, golden syrup of Morning Phase to something a bit more active. I was stoked, until the weeks turned into months and he kept schtum about any new album plans. At one point, on his official site, he posted a picture of a mixing board with the caption "back to work". He might as well have posted a picture of a sack of potatoes with the same caption. Beck, you know I dig your stylo, but stop fucking with me, it's bumming me out. 

Not even a wet fart from Trent Reznor

See above. 

Although, I should know by now that he's big on the "calm before the storm" approach to creation. There was not a goddamn thing until the last few weeks of the year, at which point Reznor finally announced "Cargo In The Blood", and that there will be "new NIN music in 2016. And other stuff." Recent photographic evidence has shown him messing about with a Folktek Euphonos Field. Toss that fact in with his previous implementation of their Luminist Garden on the Gone Girl score and I'm ready to go ahead and declare that the new Nine Inch Nails album is going to be good. Quote me, bitches.

David Bowie releases the best song he's done in twenty years...and the album it's on doesn't live up to my own, personal standards

★ is a good album, but it didn't expand upon the world created in "Blackstar". And nothing can be more disappointing than David Bowie releasing an album that doesn't live up to my own, personal standards, right?*

That goddamn awful Bond theme

The theme to a James Bond film is one of its most important elements. To me, more important than the car or gadgets. And, look, I get that Sam Smith has no testicles, that's fine, I was born with only three molars, but you don't invite a man with only three molars to compete in a "Who Has The Most Molars?" contest and invite a man with no testicles to sing a Bond theme. Then again, if I had judged Spectre by its theme, maybe I would have known from first listen that the film was not only going to suck, but that it would also ruin my faith in the Bond franchise.

Cake's continued yet somehow self-important silence

Does continuing to do nothing count as a disappointment? I mean, if they had said, "hey, new, triple album coming in 2015" and nothing happened, that would definitely count as a disappointment, but they continue to do nothing. I mean, can one really be disappointed when a near dead, shit-smelling dog keeps lying around and smelling like shit?

2015 LIVE

So much fucking They Might Be Giants...thirteen shows in one year...I'm not saying I never want to see TMBG live again, but I could take, say, a year or so off from seeing TMBG live again.

Saw John Grant for the first time, and, while it was a great show, it felt a little flat. The album was so multifaceted, I can't imagine recreating the sound with only a handful of players...and he didn't.

Garbage's "20 Years Queer" tour was palpable nostalgia. Shirley Manson is still a fire goddess.

The Bests! Yeah, The Bests!

John Grant's new one, Grey Tickles, Black Pressure was pretty fantastic. It made me reaccept Amanda Palmer as a person, although after a solid month or so of listening to it, I found I needed a break. It was making me a touch bloodthirsty...

But...it's They Might Be Giants. Hands down.
I cannot even begin to sum up how tremendous this year was for They Might Be Giants and for fans of They Might Be Giants. After thirty four years as a band, one could expect standards to be lowered, for the band to, perhaps, phone stuff in occasionally, but, in the face of these expectations, they, instead, released three albums worth of original material in one year, ranging from just plain good to truly excellent.
And, then there were the thirteen (more or less) unique shows at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on the last Sunday of each month. Fans were treated to performances of their first four albums in their entirety (more or less) as well as 2008's The Else, a live showcase of their 17th studio album, Glean, two mind-blowing horn spectaculars, a set of adorable and jittery kids' shows, and even a duo set, the first of its kind in 25 years. Call me spoiled, call me lucky, I'm going to stick with blessed.

And, other than that, nothing else noteworthy happen this year in music.

BITCHWISHLIST 2016
AKA The Future Sucks

For Prince to continue releasing HitNRun albums. Now that Bowie's gone, Beck and Prince have got a lot of work ahead of them...

To get that new Beck album before June? Yes? Gelfling? Friend?

I could deal with some new How to destroy angels. I still consider Welcome oblivion to be one of Reznor's more interesting sonic forays. Oh, and that reissue of...what's it called...The Fragile? Yeah, I could handle that too.

For They Might Be Giants to take the rest of the year off after their UK and US tours and the release of Phone Power. These guys have earned as much R&R as they want.

It's it about time St. Vincent and David Byrne teamed up for a sequel to Love This Giant?

GORILLAZ! FEATURING BECK! AND ST. VINCENT! AND ALL THE OTHER BANDS THAT I LIKE!

For the debut LP from Mother Feather to, literally, destroy the world.

* As Bowie didn't pass away until 2016, I don't feel right including that here, but you'd better fucking believe that that's the first item on my goddamn 2016 Year in Bitch.

Remembering Bowie

I went about David Bowie all wrong.
I was introduced to him, by accident, as a child, when I rented a VHS copy of Labyrinth from Couch Potato video. The cover was awesome, I knew and loved the Muppets, and I'd been to Jim Henson's house, so why wouldn't I rent this? He was the Goblin King. All right. Cool.
In my teens, I was reintroduced to him by Trent Reznor, specifically when I heard Reznor on the "I'm Afraid Of Americans"* remix. "David Bowie? ...oh, you mean the Goblin King, yeah, I know him..." The fact that he was friends with Trent Reznor (with whom I was at the height of my obsession at the time) made him cool in my eyes.
I repeat: the fact that David Bowie was friends with Trent Reznor made David Bowie cool in my eyes.
You see what I mean? All wrong.
Soon after, I saw Se7en, and did some homework when I heard Bowie again, moaning and hissing on "Heart's Filthy Lesson". I discovered Outside. 
Things finally started clicking for me in 1999, but neither fast nor hard enough.
My first year of college, a whole bunch of Bowie's earlier work was reissued, from Space Oddity to the first Tin Machine album. The combination of cable Internet, the birth of Napster, and my impecunious status as a college freshman resulted in a lot of stolen, low-quality Bowie music burned, haphazardly, onto CD-Rs. And, even though I had Bowie's full catalog at my fingertips, I still didn't get a lot of it.
Eventually, I did what I should have done years before and sat down with everything. I learned that I loved his earlier work and his later work but was lukewarm on most of the middle of his career, aside from Low. I learned that David Bowie was the Funkiest White Man Alive**. I learned what his wang looked like by watching The Man Who Fell To Earth.
After that, Bowie was just...there, like this musical spirit with a song or album for every mood or feeling. Then, in 2003, he puts out Reality, which closes with "Bring Me The Disco King". After hearing that for the first time, I declared Bowie's career over. If he never recorded another note, that would be fine, because "Disco King" was the perfect end to David Bowie's career. "You promised me the ending would be clear/you'd let me know when the time was now/don't let me know when you're opening the door/stab me in the dark, let me disappear". Fucking come on, man! He'd said everything he needed to and would now just be David Bowie, enjoying all the things that encompassed. But, I'll be damned if, a decade later, he drops The Next Day, which, I will confess, hasn't sunk in with me yet. I dug all the videos and a few tracks, and I get that it's good, but it just never did it for me.
Then, in November...surprise..."Blackstar". This song and video changed me. I'd never heard anything like it, I'd never seen anything like it. Bowie was about to create a new world for us, like Diamond Dogs or Outside, except this time, he was going to do so with almost seventy years of life and experiences under his belt. This was going to be...unparalleled.
I got my review copy and was disappointed. Not because it wasn't a good album, it was a very good album, but it wasn't the album I had wanted from David Bowie.
I repeat: I was disappointed because it wasn't the album I had wanted from David Bowie. 
Instead of starting things off with "Blackstar" and continuing to reveal this new world to us...we got some leftover tracks from a year ago, a song from this play Dexter was in, Bowie's love letter to a secret, British, gay language***, and some wistful and reflective tracks that were wistful and reflective. 
I was beginning to tire of the album, as I'd been listening to nothing else for a week or more, so, last week, I decided to spend more time with the second two installments in his Hansa Trilogy, "Heroes" and Lodger, both of which I had heard but never really listened to. The evening of Thursday the 7th, I attended a performance of Lazarus, the night after, on his 69th birthday, I watched Tony Visconti, Woody Woodmansey and friends perform all of The Man Who Sold The World, most of Ziggy Stardust, and a handful of other early Bowie hits, live, and, at one point, Visconti had us sing "Happy Birthday" to David into Visconti's phone, then, two days later, this.

This will sound idiotically naive, but I somehow thought Bowie would outlive all of us.
He was so many things to his fans: angel, alien, sex symbol, angelic alien sex symbol; I feel like we're more devastated than his family could possibly be, as they only knew and loved him as a man, a father, a husband.

In the wake of his passing, we're all going to be exposed to a whole hell of a lot of people remembering, recounting, and reliving their own Bowie Moments, but in light of the fact that he knew about his illness and that everything on his final album was meant to be a farewell to the world, nothing will ever be a more eloquent, poignant, and haunting eulogy than the one he wrote for himself in the album, its artwork, and the videos for "Blackstar" and, especially, "Lazarus". 
David Bowie spun death.

But Bowie means something different to everyone. To me, Bowie will be forever pursued through the streets of downtown New York City by a goateed Trent Reznor, will always be ruthlessly mocking Ricky Gervais in song, and will always, always, always be the Goblin King.
And the Goblin King can never die.

* At the time of its release, 1997 or '98, I had never heard "Heroes".

** An honor/burden that now falls upon Beck.

*** When I heard about that, the first words out of my mouth were, "Of course he's doing a song like this, he's David fucking Bowie."

A review of David Bowie's ★

I have two issues with ★. First, between the stage play, Lazarus, and the two re-recorded-yet-previous-released tracks ("Sue" and "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore"), it feels less like a new David Bowie album and more like a "here's what David's been up to since 2013" compilation*, and, second, Bowie and company blew their load far to soon with the utterly astonishing opener, "Blackstar", and, aside from a few moments here and there, the listener spends the rest of their tragically short time with the album stepping on cold, semen-soaked tissues. But, it is David Bowie's semen, and, I feel, that makes it better than regular semen.

After the epic, ten-minute title track, which introduces a plotline, characters, haunting locales, and a rich and mysterious world just begging to be explored and discovered, it is crushing to find that world immediately discarded for the drum-fucked ribaldry of "Whore". This album could have been a follow up to Outside (the new, sleeker, more dangerous version of "Sue" would have fit nicely there)...

The rest of the record isn't bad (although people who aren't fans of experimental jazz might want to watch out), but, except for the title track, "Lazarus", and "Girl Loves Me" (the lyrics for which borrow heavily from Polari, something you'll know more about than you ever wanted to only because Bowie decided to record this song), the rest of ★ just sort of fades into the background. Both "Dollar Days" and "I Can't Give Everything Away", each wistful and hazy in their own beige fashion, feel like they could have been off of any one of Bowie's last four albums.  Insert the mention of this being Bowie's 28th studio album and the fact that it's to be released on his 69th birthday and how we should all be happy/lucky/grateful to even have new David Bowie music while children in Africa are starving for new David Bowie music...

It's my fault. I understand that. But it doesn't make the disappointment any less stinging. I based an entire album on its opening track and that was foolish; I'm an adult and have been listening to music most of my life, so, my bad. And, whatever the case, no matter how unfulfilled I was with ★, I'll always have the ebon perfection of "Blackstar" and its video to soothe me, provoke my imagination, and score my nightmares.

* An alternate title could be "David Bowie Is Back Into Jazz!!!"

End of the Month Music Bitchfest - December 2015

They Might Be Giants

Dial-A-Song Round Up! pt. 12

"I'll Be Haunting You"
Damn, this close to the end and we've got another contender for the Top 10 DAS tracks of the year.

"Long White Beard"
While it is, undoubtedly, a great song, one of the best from Why?, the album is out and they have two weeks left to close this thing, so I'm a bit let down. Even more so coming after "I Am Alone" and "Haunting".

"I Love You For Psychological Reasons"
What a disturbingly adorable song and video. Between this and the last few weeks (excluding LWB), I have a funny feeling they've been saving up the highlights for the twilight.

"Shape Shifter"
And then, it ends, with a fantastic song with an even more fantastic sing-along chorus and a nightmarish video reminiscent of the most feverish moments from Liquid Television.

Look for the Year of Dial-A-Song Wrap Up coming soon.

Also, the last three TMBG concerts of the year (or if you're being a dick, the last concert of this year and the first two of next year) are happening/have already happened. Reviews forthcoming.

And, finally, the upcoming 19th TMBG album has been titled: Phone Power, which is a dumb name that sounds like a bootleg collection of Dial-A-Song tracks which I love because that's pretty much exactly what it is and it's dumb. PP will be out in March.

 Nine Inch Nails

Oh Trent! You scamp! After, literally, a year of silence, this punk ass musical genius announced (finally) the release of "Cargo In The Blood", an art book by Russell Mills featuring all the work created for the most recent NIN album, Hesitation Marks. The big awesome about this isn't the 320-page book (which is pretty cool), but, rather, the fact that each of the 2000 pieces comes with a unique and original work by Mills himself. The idea of $300 for an original Mills is bonkers...which is why I purchased two. 

And, just a week or so ago, Reznor dropped this adorable little tweet into the world: "New NIN coming in 2016. Other stuff, too." You know...whatever. I'm stoked, but this might be the year I stop obsessing over every little plip and plop of NIN stuff that comes out; poring over a blurred image, getting sweaty over a thirty second clip of noise...maybe, who knows. Of course, Trent could avoid causing me all this heartache/headache/diarrhea by just releasing a full album on January 1st*. Technically, that counts as 2016. And he's done stranger stuff than that in the past. 
As for the "other stuff", speculation is running rampant, but I'm assuming it means the Fight Club musical that's been bandied around for about for almost two decades and, perhaps, some new How to destroy angels?
And also the "tension" Blu Ray.
And the deluxe Fragile.
Sigh.
2016 is going to drag like a dog with no legs, isn't it...

Bowie's Blackstar, sadly, did not meet my expectations. But, I'm kind of a dick, so that's on me. There might be a more formal review coming soon. Hold your breath.

Finally, Prince surprised everyone by transforming into a huge, purple clitoris and returning to his home dimension, SexyCum.
Just kidding.
He did, however, release a follow up to September's HITnRUN Phase One releasing...yes, HITnRUN Phase Two, at first, exclusively on Tidal, the streaming music service for the uninformed, idiot rich**. And I reviewed it here.

YEAR IN BITCH COMING SOON!!!!!!

*WHICH HE DID NOT

** IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOUR MUSIC IS FILTERED THROUGH DARK MATTER-COATED DIAMONDS IF YOU'RE USING SHITTY IPHONE EAR BUDS.