Review of Wilco's Sky Blue Sky I am completely in love with the new Wilco, Sky Blue Sky. Have been since the first spin, and haven't tired in over four-dozen plays. By now, the record has become an old friend. I realize there is a good bit of negative opinion over it, but those people are just flat-out wrong. It's probably their best album. No, I'll say it... it IS their best album. And it isn't too far removed from Being There while also being a natural progression from A Ghost Is Born. It brings the entire Tweedy/Wilco canon full circle. It all begins with the sweet and beautiful "Either Way" which opens with the hopeful statement "Maybe the sun will shine today" and grows into a promise of support, devotion and understanding. "You Are My Face" gives us the first brilliant Tweedy line of the record, "Why is there no breeze? No currency of leaves?". It seems at first to continue track 1's pensive mood, but then we hit the first curve-ball of the album. Tweedy sings "I must have let you down too many times in the dirt and the dust", which is followed by a simple melodic guitar line quickly enveloped in the dark energy of a shuffle-groove replete with downtrodden sentiment. On the whole, probably one of the most viscerally impressionistic lyrical works I've heard from Tweedy. "Impossible Germany" could have been pulled right out of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot... with its choppy, playful lyrical structure and "Jesus, Etc." feel. Now, I'm seldom one for guitar solos. They rarely serve any purpose other than a placeholder or song extension. And it seems many fans are sorta getting down Nels Cline's work on Sky Blue Sky for this very reason. If he were at fault anywhere on the album, it would be on "Impossible Germany". That said, I actually love what he does to the song. The title track is as beautiful a song as Tweedy has recorded. Later in the album, songs like "Please Be Patient With Me" and "Leave Me (Like You Found Me)" are equally lovely ballads, and of the ballads, the latter is probably the most moving. "Leave Me" may even be ranking close to "Rhythm", my personal favorite Wilco ballad, which sadly never made it to a proper album. Without question, "Side With The Seeds" is the best song on the album and probably my new all-time favorite Wilco song. Niles Cline is just brilliant here. Where Tweedy's guitar solos on A Ghost Is Born were a conglomeration of noise (which I grew to appreciate), Cline now introduces a nearly prog-rock Robert Fripp intensity. His playing reminds me a lot of Fripp's playing on the Peter Gabriel and Daryl Hall releases of his MOR trilogy. Every stroke has great purpose and propulsion akin to Live at Leeds Pete Townsend. Cline is joined by a John Paul Jones style keyboard line and Tweedy and Cline unite into Allman Brothers double guitar. I don't think I've ever heard so many different loving rock tributes so seamlessly melded together in a single song. As on A Ghost Is Born, the piano plays a vastly important role on almost every track of the record. It's hard not to hear the influence of late period Beatles in the ivories, while the organ work seems to draw more from early Steely Dan. "Shake It Off" is a perfect example of Wilco doing Dan. Even Cline sounds a hell of a lot like Skunk Baxter. This track is a bit of a silly throw-away from a lyrical standpoint, but it's still a lot of fun. I imagine it to be a real highlight of the next tour. On the subject of keyboards, I'm a sucker for slightly distorted Wurlitzer electric piano. I think Whirlies are largely to blame for both my early-period Hall and Oates obsession and my need to listen to 10CC's "I'm Not In Love" on a nearly daily basis. "Hate It Here" satisfies my Whirly cravings and also unfairly preys upon my late-period Beatles fanaticism. Drummer Glenn Kotche is able to get his rocks off a bit with the very Abbey Road sounding blues riffs on "Hate It Here". Overall the material on Sky Blue Sky doesn't allow Glenn to shine as bright as he did on the recent Loose Fur record, but he still provides a wonderfully crucial loose framework to the songs. "Walken" made my jaw drop when they played it live on the last tour. Not only was it the exact kind of song I longed to hear the band devise for the new record, it was also eerily similar to the material I'm working on with The Ether Family Presents... for our third album in the How To Get Lost series. Take this song, replace Tweedy's vocals with the O'Jays and you have largely what I'm after on that record. But I digress. I just adore this song and have to listen to it over and over. So awesome. "What Light" could have easily been on one of the Mermaid Avenue records. It's a nice Woody Guthrie influenced song that does a good job of winding the record down after the peak of "Walken". It also again brings the Being There sound full circle. Tweedy's vocals throughout the album have a present intimacy. They sound just beautiful. The final track of the album, "On and on and on" just makes me ache. It contains the most poignant line of the album "Please don't cry/We're designed to die". It's one of those final album tracks that forces you to start the album over again, because it's just not enough to satisfy. Brilliant. A nearly perfect record. Pre-order or purchase the retail version on the 15th! -- Jimmy Ether is a record producer/engineer and runs Atlanta's indie pop/indie rock label Headphone Treats.

31.3.07 00:36 Permalink / 4 Comments / comment

Parallel Dementia Man, either I have started to lose my pretty little mind or the cosmos is really f*cking with me lately. Let me preface this by saying that things are going really well and I'm generally thrilled with life right now. There are just a few things going on with me physically and mentally that have me scratching my head and saying "huh... that's... odd." Saturday night I was going to see Cassavetes at the new Lenny's in Atlanta, which has moved. Now, I pretty much spent my college years around Decatur/Avondale/Midtown/Cabbagetown area, and I know it all like the back of my hand. Or so I thought. I spent a good hour and a half driving around looking for this place and never found it. First, I for some absent-minded reason headed in the wrong direction on Dekalb Avenue toward Avondale almost getting to Decatur before snapping out of some trance of thought I was in. Force of habit I suppose since that was my usual route to work at the studios. So, turned around and headed back the other way to Lenny's. (let's break into present tense mental monologue just for kicks) Okay... here comes Boulevard up ahead. It's supposed to be around here somewhere. Huh. I see nothing that remotely looks like a club. Damn, there's the marta station. *turns car around* umm... wait, still nothing. Now there's Krog! WTF!!? *turn around and repeat 20 times* (enough of that... resuming previous tenseness) Lenny's, apparently, existed in a parallel dimension to me Saturday night. I have no other explanation. I came home in a slight huff, pulled up Google maps and looked at the satellite image... G0D D@MN!T... I can see it RIGHT THERE! Oh lord that was fun to explain to the band. There's nothing like thinking your label guy is totally out of his mind... or completely clueless! Missing the show made me feel even worse about missing The Nerd Parade show at The EARL last week. That time I was dealing with a four-day log migraine headache that would not go away. So, now I have two shows to make up for missing. There is something about the beginning of every year (or maybe it's just winter in general) that causes my mind and body to go haywire for no good reason. For fun, let's review... got tendinitis in both knees forcing me to use a cane for about 3 weeks (all better now btw) debilitating migraines, which I haven't really had this bad in years! stomach flu and a continuous 5 week cold that WILL NOT DIE DIE DIE slammed my head into the car door a few weeks ago... that was fun oh yeah, and I did my yearly falling down the stairs routine this morning, luckily catching myself In previous years it was passing out in the shower and knocking most of my front teeth out, breaking toes, and of course falling down the stairs... again. Sometimes weekly. I can't figure out if I'm a comical klutz in the Charlie Chaplain vein, or just a slow, giant lummox. Maybe an opinion poll is in order.

12.2.07 15:39 Permalink / comment

Headphone Treats Inks Deal With The Nerd Parade! Headphone Treats has inked a deal with Randy Garcia and his new band The Nerd Parade. The new album, entitled "A Delicate Bashing" will be released in April of 2007 on the Atlanta-based indie pop/indie rock label. Hailing from Florida's dance music scene, Randy Garcia made a name for himself as the founder of boutique label Nophi Records and through his varied and eclectic releases. He now makes a decisive move toward hook-laden indie pop with The Nerd Parade, teaming up with Abby Wren, who's astounding voice and distinctive personality adds a truly soulful tone to Garcia's cunningly melodic backdrops and beats. Vocally, Garcia and Wren blend together naturally sounding at times like an oddly perfect pairing of Stephin Merritt and Kierin Kirby. Three pre-release tracks ("Kitten", "Smedley" and "Resolution Day" are available for free preview at the Headphone Treats website: http://www.headphonetreats.com/allmusic.php?id=6 The band will be playing several warm up shows in the next two months and will begin touring the US in April. Visit The Nerd Parade website to keep up with dates and tour news: http://www.thenerdparade.com/ And add the band on MySpace here: http://www.myspace.com/thenerdparade

25.1.07 16:12 Permalink / comment

Twits, Twitters and Typos I recently switched over from the standard QWERTY keyboard layout to Dvorak... partly because it just makes sense, partly because it's suppose to be less likely to cause carpal tunnel syndrome, and mostly because I'm a masochist (That sentence took about 2 minutes to type). I mostly have it down, but I keep mixing up the C and R keys. That led to some ROTFLMAO hilarity while writing a press release for Headphone Treats earlier. I mistyped the label's "We've Got Your Ear Candy!" slogan as "We've Got Your Ear, Randy!". Particularly funny since the release is about a dude named Randy. If you ever see me sporting a straight razor and gasoline can while dancing to "Stuck In The Middle With You"... run. --- I was just in Caribou Coffee trying to get some work done, but instead was distracted by a rather passionately bitter conversation between two dumpy, 30-something yuppies about divorce. Specifically, how to "lawyer" your way into the best financial situation under the circumstances and how to acquire custody of children, pets, houses, etc. Some tips included claiming the opposing spouse to be a consummate drug user and child neglector. They were not joking even a little bit. Lovely stuff. I mean, I know we've all (men and women) had our share of abuse by the opposite sex, but jumping Jesus on a pogo stick. It can't be all that bad guys! --- Years ago when a friend explained blogging communities to me, I thought it was the dumbest idea I'd ever heard. Then I promptly started blogging. Yesterday, when a friend sent me an invite to Twitter.com, I thought it was a dumb idea. Then I promptly started using it. So, I guess I'm saying... you should come be dumb with me. (Basically, you blog short little quips about what you are doing from your phone, im or their web interface and it's distributed to your friends. It actually has some practical applications too.)

19.1.07 05:20 Permalink / comment

Beatles I wasn't sure what to think of the newest Beatles release, Love, when I first heard about it. It may seem a bit opportunistic to cash in on all the Beatles mashup craze, but then again, who better than George Martin to do a Beatles mashup. A peak at the liner notes however reveals that the project came from a very different place... collaboration with the Cirque du Soleil. But, really, it's more than a mere mash-up anyway. To me, it feels more on par with the late 60's Brian Wilson "patchwork quilt" approach of aural art and avoids the novelty of the whole mash-up movement, yet it is every bit as fun and fresh. Many of the tracks are not dramatically different from the originals. With the stereo release I'm sure people could see it as yet another repackaging of the same tunes, but the high-resolution 5.1 release opens up a new world for surround sound enthusiasts and audiophiles. I for one am ecstatic to get high-resolution 5.1 mixes of "I Am the Walrus", "Something", "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite", "Come Together", "Revolution", "Hey Jude" and for goodness sake "A Day In The Life". I would have paid well over $100 for that opportunity alone, but then again, I'm a looney audio geek. Martin of course stayed true to these songs, and they just sound gorgeous in 5.1 surround. Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering is on my radar now, as this may be one of the first surround releases in the rock genre that I would truly consider of "reference" quality (Beck's "Sea Change" SACD being another strong candidate). I can definitely see myself reaching for this disc when acclimating myself with a control room for a 5.1 mix or when setting up a home theater. The stereo version was mastered by Steve Rooke at Abbey Road, and is also very good. Steve is one of my favorite engineers in the business today, so I expect no less. The stereo master isn't quite equal to the superb quality of the Yellow Submarine SONGtrack that came out a while back though. The stereo Love seems a bit reserved or over-compressed on first listen, but this could be more an issue of the new mixes. It's very difficult to compete with those original analog mixes. By the same token, it would be unfair of me to compare the high-res 5.1 master to the stereo 16 bit, but just understand that the surround is truly mind-blowing. Martin arranged and recorded new strings for "My Guitar Gently Weeps" at his Air Studio, but beyond that, everything is taken from actual Beatles sessions. Adding string parts to Beatles tracks is not without precedence of course (see Phil Spector's "Let It Be". Criticism of such is not without precedence either, but this arrangement is quite tasteful and completes one of Harrison's best recordings. This project really gave license for anything, and considering all that could have been done, it might even be a little safe at times. But with material like this, I too would be loathed to change the songs drastically. But there are really creative combinations. "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows" is just stunning. Ringo's drum line from "Tomorrow Never Knows" (arguably the best drum riff ever) is perfectly suited to Harrison's trance-like drone mantra. The transition from this into "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is really, really clever. And the subtle manipulation of the rest of "Lucy" is just awesome. I think it breathes a new liveliness and drive into the track (and maybe partly erases the memory of that awful Elton John version). I also like that, on Strawberry Fields for instance, rather than sticking strictly to tracks from the released version, Martin uses bits of the alternate/demo takes which bootleg fans have adored for years. I feel like he could have gone a little crazier at the end of "Strawberry Fields" than the extremely baroque-pop treatment the outro received. It was unexpected though, I'll give him that. It sorta Maccas-up a Lennon song to me though with that super-clean "Penny Lane" sound. By contrast, the end of "Mr. Kite" is awesome with the heavy "I Want You" and "Helter Skelter" mix. It is far more appropriate treatment for a Lennon track, and it may be my favorite mashup bit of the record. The playful transitions between songs, which utilize a lot of the little toss-off ditties you hear on the original records, are quite nice and aid the flow of the entire album. "Gnik Nus" is eerily beautiful and indeed the kind of thing Lennon would have been all about doing. In fact, more than any of the others, I think John probably been the most excited about this kind of project with his love of sound manipulation. The sound quality of the surround version is an audiophile's wet dream. Well, duh. After all, the tracks are the Beatles with Martin/Emerick/Smith/Johns at the helm. The release itself is a sonic orgasm for everyone who's been clamoring for years to get high resolution mixes of anything Beatles. Raves aside, there are a few track that could have been better -- "Glass Onion" for instance -- or perhaps should have been eliminated completely -- like "I Want To Hold Your Hand" which seems more like an effort to pull in the core oldies audience. At the end of "Something", they combine "Blue Jay Way" and "Nowhere Man", and it just doesn't work. "Octopus's Garden" is terribly awkward in the intro, but ramps up well enough. It is nice to hear the "ahhhh" guitar solo break in surround finally though. This transitions with a bit of "Sun King" (forward this time) into a very cute intro of "Lady Madonna". The much reviled "Lady Madonna" has always been one of my favorite Beatles tracks (I never understood any dislike of that song), and while this mix seems to lose a little of the original's guitar power, the transition into the guitar line of Hey Bulldog is quite interesting. My conclusion is that this disc (particularly the surround version) is total ear candy and a lot of fun. If you are in any way inclined toward such thing, GET IT. I know it's going to be on constant rotation in our home and in our iPods for the next several months. Buy from Amazon.com

4.1.07 20:44 Permalink / comment

An American Blogger in London... So, I've set up this little blog here to talk about stuff and whatnot. Of course, I already have several blogs, but here's the thing. I like community interaction. And every service I've used so far has been awesome in that regard, and they are all different. I've met so many great people from blogging, many who have transitioned to real life friends, clients, and peers. What this blog will become (and how often I use it) will largely depend on the activity in the community here. I'd love to meet some of you Brits if you will be so kind as to let a foreigner in among your ranks. If you share any of my interests or find anything I have to say remotely interesting, please don't hesitate to add me and give me a shout in the comments. I promise some real content here soon. Technorati Profile

17.12.06 13:35 Permalink / comment