BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #9: OFFICE OF FUTURE PLANS (self-titled)
self-titled
(Dischord)
Available on LP w/download, CD, iTunes, AmazonMP3, eMusic, and Spotify
Given the label’s history, it’s understandable if during lulls in releases people start to worry about the future of Dischord. After one listen to this debut long-playing effort from the new project of ex-Jawbox leader J Robbins, though, it’s obvious that the label and it’s legacy will be fine for quite a while.
BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #10: MEAT PUPPETS “Lollipop”
Lollipop
(Megaforce/Red Ink)
Available on CD, LP, iTunes and AmazonMP3
It took them a couple of albums and a change of drummers, but the Kirkwood Brothers really got their footing back with this album, which while occasionally nodding towards past achievements (some of this material, as I stated in my review earlier this year, could have fit nicely on past MP’s long-players), is fresh from beginning to end and is pretty much a timeless album already. At this rate, I can only imagine how the next MP’s album will sound like.
And another ex-W becomes a MILF…
Ai Kago, the most troubled ex-MoMusu, has just gotten some surprise positivity in her life.
She’s married AND pregnant. (Translation of her blog announcement at Tokyohive).
To my knowledge, she hasn’t announced who the culprit (er, lucky bastard, ahem, new hubby/daddy) yet, but I hope he isn’t some douchebag twice her age like the last loser she was involved with. More than that, I hope she’s finally found the happiness that she deserves.
BEST ALBUMS OF 2011 – Numbers 15 to 11
Even though my personal life is getting even more fucking hectic as Christmas draws near, I settled earlier this month on a plan to post my Best Albums countdown at a more timely basis. I will be posting albums #10 through #6 between December 20 and December 24, taking a one-day break on Christmas, and resuming the countdown with #5 on the 26th.
Since I had a few albums that didn’t make the cut but didn’t see fit to pass off, I decided to throw in five more favorite albums to kick off the countdown a day early. Without further (any?) delay…
Lulu
(Warner Bros., available on CD, LP, iTunes, Amazon)
It’s not for everybody – you’d have to appreciate or at least respect what Lou has done in his solo career from New York first – but the only thing tone-deaf about this album were the armchair OMGWTFBBQ1111!!! “critics” who thought this was a mistake for both Lou and the Metallikats. It’s definitely the toughest backing band Lou has ever had in his solo career. Give it another chance.
To Hell With God
(Century Media, available on CD, iTunes, and Amazon)
Changing record labels always seems to revitalize Glen Benton and company. While their last (almost for good) album Till Death Do We Part was no black mark on the rest of the band’s catalogue (That dishonor would go to In Torment In Hell, their last album for Roadrunner ten years ago), this album would prove to be the best album they’ve done since Once Upon The Cross.
Tha Carter IV
(Cash Money/Universal, available on CD, iTunes, Amazon and Spotify)
As a pun-dropping lyricist, he hasn’t changed one goddamn bit – which is a good thing. And he doesn’t intend to sit on his ass, either, if talk of a Rebirth 2 and an I Am Not A Human Being 2 is any indication.
The People’s Key
(Saddle Creek, available on CD, LP/CD combo, iTunes, Amazon and Spotify)
Conor Oberst’s songwriting skills are still as sharp as ever musically. Lyrically, I still haven’t made up my mind about the subject matter on this album. Otherwise, it was worth the wait after two “solo” albums released in the years between Cassadaga and now.
The Boys
(SM Entertainment, available on import CD only)
The title track ended up being better in the original Korean than in the English version released here by Interscope, although the song itself turned out to be a grower. While the entire album is not perfect, it’s the best long-player out of the three original editions they’ve done.
Another one goes off the market…
According to Tokyohive by way of her official website, Japanese R&B singer Koda Kumi – a longtime favorite here – announced her engagement to BACK-ON guitarist KENJI03, a man two years her junior. This would make a bit of bookending for two of the Avex label’s top vocalists, given that Ayumi Hamasaki eloped with her boyfriend to kick off 2011.
TGML extends their sincerest congratulations to the happy couple. I’m sure essential brother Ray Mescallado is already planning to whip out some “rotting ovaries” jokes over at IW as we speak.
The Not So Great Korn-holoio
I shouldn’t be giving this band ANY press on this blog solely on the grounds of their being totally and completely lacking in musical talent and intelligence… but I couldn’t let this pass without comment:
During an interview to promote his band Korn’s attempt to ride the dubstep trend – as well as repeat a tactic where they use the outside talents of more musically inclined “collaborators” [read: the "collaborators" do most of the actual writing and playing while the no-talents in the band still get the dominant credit, because without outside help, all of their music sounds like badly written ripoffs of side two of Black Flag's My War album being played on completely out-of-tune instruments by incompentent "musicians" that make The Shaggs look like King Crimson] – slacker trash poster child Jonathan Davis proceeded to [falsely, of course] accuse President Obama of being “an illuminati puppet”. How someone can be a puppet of an organization that doesn’t really exist beyond being a keyword for conspiracy theory lunatics is beyond me, but consider the source, folks.
I won’t even bother quoting his nonsensical ramblings that are only a degree or so removed from the Teabagger nonsense about President Obama being everything from an illegal alien to a Marxist to a Nazi – you’ll have to read the Billboard interview for that.
Rather than waste server space on a picture of a shitty band, we'll use this highly appropriate political cartoon that sums up this post quite well.
Hilariously, several years ago, he “wrote” a song called “Politics” about how because “It’s just about how I don’t like to talk about politics…Korn has never been a real political band.” Well, with idiotic statements like the ones he made today, they never will be – except maybe to the Teabagger crowd. Not like anyone would ever confuse Davis with someone like Jello Biafra (in either the musical or political fields) in the first goddamn place.
REVIEW: SHONEN KNIFE “Sweet Christmas” single / FEAR “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” single
“Sweet Christmas” single
(Good Charamel)
Available on 7″ single, iTunes, AmazonMP3 and eMusic
Rating:
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” single
(The End Records)
Available on 7″ single, iTunes, AmazonMP3 and eMusic
Rating:
OK, Christmas season is here, and as much as you might like the holidays, there’s a good chance you might not want to put up with the same fucking Christmas songs all over again. And what’s out there for new Christmas music, anyway? Justin Bieber? Too easy of a target, and besides, he’s had a rough enough time being falsely accused of paternity – leave the little Canucklehead alone. A fourth volume of Now Christmas repeating some of the same songs as Volumes 1, 2, and 3? Blech! Where’s my Christmas mix CD with select cuts from the Punk Rock Xmas comp, Mojo Nixon’s Horny Holidays album, various Hello! Project-related Christmas songs, and of course, Spinal Tap’s “Christmas With The Devil”?
But wait! Could it be? New Christmas releases from ARTISTS I ACTUALLY WANT TO LISTEN TO ANYWAY? Yes, please.
It shouldn’t be any surprise that Shonen Knife would drop a Christmas record – the great majority of their back catalog, save for their wonderful Ramones tribute album (which had some of the darkest moments ever recorded by them), is peppy, poppy, rockin’, and puts a smile on your face instantly. The title track of their “Sweet Christmas” single is a typical punk-pop concoction in the Shonen Knife vein, with frontwoman/songwriter/J-Pop & Punk Rock MILF Naoko Yamano’s vocals and guitar leading the way. Not wanting to blast your grandmother across the room, however, the girls throw in an acoustic mix of the song for good measure, then close things out with a power trio arrangement of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” whose only flaw is the stiff 3/4-time beat from drummer Emi Moriomoto. Otherwise, all three of the SK ladies (bass cutie Ritsuko Taneda, down with the Knife since their brilliant Super Group album, rounds out the trio) share lead vocals and redeem the track.
The bigger surprise comes from the notorious punk band Fear. Yep, the same bastards that caused a few thousand dollars (so called) of damage during their national TV debut on Saturday Night Live, then went straight into the studio to record their landmark debut long-player The Record. The A-side is a major surprise – a very straight cover of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” sung very sweetly by frontman Lee Ving over clean jazz guitar and some lonesome-sounding Western harmonica. “Wait a fucking minute,” you say – “Lee Ving singing SWEETLY? The same dude who sang ‘I don’t care about you, FUCK YOU!’ on national television?” Yep. Look up his performance of “The Impossible Dream” from Fame on YouTube sometime – this isn’t new territory for him. This being a Fear record, you might expect the jazz guitar to be interrupted by a rapid shout of “1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4!” followed by a typical punk rock poleaxing of the song. But with Fear, you get what you deserve, not what you expect. And since anyone buying this single deserves at least some typical Fear thrashing, they deliver it on the B-side with the original “Another Christmas Beer”. Yeah, it’s not “Fuck Christmas”, but then again, Lee Ving has written a LOT of songs about beer. This single is a lead-in for a re-recorded version of their first album to be entitled The ReRecord, which should be at least interesting to hear.
4.5 for the Shonen girls and 5 for Lee and his crew.
Perfume Doesn’t Like You, Get Over It!
This is something I originally let pass without comment, but since it cropped up to the top of my Flipboard and on my Twitter feed almost out of the blue today after two months, the situation is getting even more annoying and pathetic and thus, I’m going to speak up.
Most of us in the J-Pop Blogosphere know the story of an old, rather creepy fan of the trio Perfume, screennamed Perfume444, who used to post video blogs on YouTube, spurred on by his love of the group. I hadn’t heard of the guy until this article was posted on International Wota, so he was nowhere on my radar until that particular post, and only for a few minutes. He openly declared, according to IW, that since the objects of his, um, interest, basically blew him off after a token few minutes at the Cars 2 premiere in L.A., he was done doing videos.
That was two months ago. Since he saw fit to comment almost randomly on the IW post again, he’s apparently not done whining.
What is especially disturbing is one of his claims as to why he did the video blogs in the first place – to get more attention for his favorite group. It disturbs me because one of the reasons I do this music blog is to do the same for Morning Musume and other Japanese bands.
The difference is plain: I go about the goal by writing about the music, and writing about it on the same level playing field as any other music I write about. What this Frank dude does… yeesh! It definitely doesn’t have anything to do with the music, far as I can tell. The fact that he has bitched about the lack of attention Perfume and their management gave him says volumes.
Perfume444′s goals, then and now, are selfish. He wants the focus to be around him, not his favorite band, even though he claims otherwise. Perfume and their management apparently know this and, without a doubt, their private policy is described as succinctly as, “Forget that loser.”
I want to see Morning Musume and other groups get a better profile in the States and elsewhere. That’s a rather generous intention. Would I love to meet them? Of course, but I’m not going to go about it the wrong way and it’s not my primary motivation for supporting them and groups like them in this blog – meeting them would be a bonus.
Happy Halloween!
This is a bit of classic music-related TV that I’d totally forgotten about until friend and fellow musician Dom Cassise posted a link to this clip on his Facebook this evening.
Back in the early 70′s there was a program originating in Canada called The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, produced by the same production company that would later create SCTV. (The Wikipedia link embedded in the title will give a pretty good summary of what the show was like). The segment I always liked on this show, at a point when I was already a young music lover, was the Wolfman’s radio station segment. Pretty much every Wolfman segment was like this one: Sly And The Family Stone’s “I Want To Take You Higher” would introduce the segment, the Wolfman (played by the late Billy Van) would do his DJ rap, take a phone call, slap a 45 onto the turntable (randomly dropping the needle anywhere on the record), grab his bat-shaped prop electric guitar, and dance in front of a blue screen along with some of the other characters. Most certainly, this program segment was another early musical influence on me way back when (and I was out to absorb pretty much anything I could get at that young age, believe me).
There have been home video editions of this program but many of them lack the Wolfman’s segments thanks to master licensing issues. Thankfully, some folks did archive reruns of the program and upload the Wolfman segments to the web, preserving for eternity otherwise lost classic TV footage like this.
She’s Baaaaaack…
A little more than a year after she graduated from AKB48′s Team K, Erena Ono is apparently going to make a return to show business. Earlier this year she had opened a new blog and mentioned “It’s been too long… too long.” Somehow, her announcement back in July was a shade premature because her original “new blog” disappeared. But now she has a new blog (with only one entry so far, the one mentioning her return to show business) and she seems a bit serious this time around.
I’m all for it. And I hope it means she’ll be making music again as well – anyone who heard her solo vocal on the “Namida Surprise” B-side “FIRST LOVE” is well aware how pretty her singing voice is. I would definitely be first in line to pre-order an Erepyon solo album:
