A girl — We know now she’s emerging artist and Taiwanese music producer’s daughter Joanna Wang  — singing a classic song in an original and stylish way.  Compared to the Beatles’ original, her tempo is slower with a feel that’s more contemplative and mellow.  She completes the effect with minor tweaks to the melody and tops it all off with a dark, smokey folk-indie vocal.  In her hands the song takes on a new life.  We’re compelled to love the Beatles even more, and we have a new awesome video to show our friends.

Why are great covers so hard to find?   The same reason good performances in general are hard to find:  most artists aren’t that great.

Cover versions usually fail in one of two ways:  they are either watered down knockoffs or infuriating bastardizations.

Compared to the original, lots of covers are similar, but a little worse.  This kind of record is pointless at best or a heartless cash-in at worst:

Orgy – Blue Monday (uneventfully covering New Order’s classic)

Lemonheads – Mrs Robinson (same but lamer version of Simon and Garfunkel)

Metallica’s version of Whiskey in a Jar (dumber, uglier copy of Thin Lizzy)

Alien Ant Farm’s Smooth Criminal (adding a totally unnecessary white suburban guy thing to Michael Jackson)

The opposite kind of fail is messing too much with what works.  We’re all for originality, but that’s no excuse for twisting a classic song to fit into one’s narrow stylistic niche

Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night (great, but nowhere near Ledbelly’s version)

Ike and Tina Turner – Proud Mary (over-covering Credence Clearwater Revival)

The Byrds – Its All Over Now Baby Blue (cheesy, unlike Dylan’s original)

And finally some beautiful, goldilocks covers like the one above.  In these, the artist lovingly re-purposes a great song to fit his or her style and ends up with music that’s new and interesting while still benefiting from he extremely high quality songwriting of the original.

Eater – Queen Bitch (a faster, less dramatic version of the Bowie classic)

The Raincoats – Gloria (a totally unexpected all-female post-punk take on one of the Kinks’ signature tunes)

Jimi Hendrix -All Along the Watchtower (everyone’s favorite good cover, of Bob Dylan’s little known b-side)

Johnny Cash – Hurt  (another genre-jumper and fan favorite covering Nine Inch Nails)

We also love biting disses, the funnier and more ridiculous the better.  From You’re Late:
a lot of you made your bills with whack stills
now you’re selling your asshole dreams on Hollywood Hills
like a shark with bite suck my deal with gills cuz you’re no frills
take a feminine pill reel-to-reel my cock you feel
fuck that shit your girl is wet as a seal

Cenobites was produced (read: funded) by a mega-fan of the band, one Bobbito Garcia, who also rapped on the album.  It feels like a serious effort at good art by a group of talented, well-meaning people.  Fans of late-era drugsy, nerdy hip-hop like Delton3030, Mr. Lif, or MF Doom will love this too.

Here’s a couple songs:

The Cenobites – You’re Late

The Cenobites – Keep on

The main thing about David Peel is his balls-out commitment.  The man is the myth.  Every sound he makes is dirty and true.  He lives his message :  Be yourself.  It’ll be fine.

Peel sold a million records, got on TV, played with John Lennon, and you can see him whenever you want in Tompkins Square Park.

David Peel – New York City Hippie live 1972 (on Mike Douglas featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono)

David Peel – Uptight in Manhattan live 2008.

He wrote Slow Down, Its All Over Now, and She Said Yeah (and Boney Maroney and Dizzie Miss Lizzie).  He was covered by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Jam, the Who, the New York Dolls, Dr. Feelgood, the Standells, and the Replacements.  He was good friends with Little Richard.  He also sold drugs and did some pimping.  And did drugs, and partied, and probably hurt girls’ feelings.  But most of just remember the music:

Larry Williams – She Said Yeah (no video, sadly):

Rolling Stones – Its All Over Now (live 1964 on the T.A.M.I. Show)

The Jam – Slow Down (live in the 70s)

Does the modern music world favor solo artists over bands?  Isn’t a singing guitarist better off selling all his or her electric gear and just recording as cheaply as possible without a band?

There’s no money to be made out there.  Go play shows.  Go record albums.  Go try to get on radio or TV shows.  Unless your uncle owns the studio or you really and truly are a once in a generation talent, your chances of making more than you spend are slim to none.

The good news is the same as the bad  teh internets.  Copies of digital recordings are basically free.  One song can go around the world instantly.  Basic recording gear, web space, and social media marketing… they’re all cheap and DUI-compatible.

Bands have made it, like OK Go.  But they were already on a label and had genuine marketing power behind them.   They used the internet to catapult them to a classic oldschool kind of rockstar fame and fortune.

But but what about this guy?  He makes half a million a year and it all goes to him.  People like him a lot and they send him money.  Its uncanny!  Begging works if people genuinely appreciate the free product, as NPR itself has demonstrated.  But NPR is a name, and even John Coulton used the nerd-tech community as a springboard.  But, its still news that that works.  Its hard to get noticed, harder to stay relavent, and hardest of all to get anyone to give you any money, but it can be done.

It seems like this marks the start of a new market for quirky DUI singer-songwriter music marketed directly to the listening public.

Solo artists have always had inherent weaknesses.  Bands practice together.  Musicians need to play with other musicians like couples need to talk.  Individual people have a lot less to offer than I think we all generally like to believe.  The power is in like-minded groups, large or small.  Band members fill out each others weaknesses and inspire one anther’s creativity.  John and Paul competed, even though their styles were different.

But still.  The economics is what it is.  In practice an American musician today MUST have a day job, because there’s little room to make a profit playing gigs.  Bands need amps and practices spaces and often cars or vans to transport gear.  Bands need instruments, lots of microphones, and a higher level of gear to properly record their sound.

A songwriter writes songs.  The real thing is getting the song accross.  Good recording gear helps, but one or two decent mics is all it takes to get the basics (not so with bands).  No need for an entire room full of cables mixers and effects.

And the distribution is one guy at a computer.  Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, blogs, Reverb Nation, Sonic Bids, etc.  You might not make as much, but you’ll definitely spend less money and fewer man hours.   Why slice a small pie?  Ditch the drummers and start recording.

What do you think?

One of the best of all time.  Thinking man’s gangster rapper.

So lame he's cool? No.

Neutral Milk Hotel.  My arch nemesis.  The most venerated, mythologized third-rate band of 90s indie.   Jeff Mangum is the hero.  He pleads nostalgic, crescendos his keyboards, and unloads an orgy to sounds-profound ramblings.  The king of carrot flowers himself.  It is HE that plays pianos filled with rain.  That’s how beautiful and magical and from another world Jeff Mangum is.  You can tell because in our world, he stays very still, and you can’t see him.

Except recently.  Suddenly he’s touring and showing up at Occupy Wall Street:

Take a listen and entertain the following perspective:   He writes competent and totally unexciting folk-indie music and plays it with a lot of passion, but ALL his lyrics are bad.  Dr. Dre has written more good lyrics than Jeff Magnum.  We can do better, white people!

My dad once wrote off being deeply involved in music:  he said “You’re always gonna like what you liked at 14.”  I liked grunge when I was 14.  I liked jumping around and bashing into my friends at school dances.  Any music that encouraged me throw out energy and be a little deviant and a little violent was ok with me.  This meant Metallica, The Offspring, Pearl Jam, Green Day… but most of all, Nirvana.

Its a big cliche now but Nirvana stands out as a different and better kind of band.  They were hard without being cartoonish.  They were smart and progressive, in conflict with their commercial side.  Kurt Cobain was an interesting guy and a serious musician.  They acted and looked punk and cited obscure wonderful bands like the Meat Puppets and the Vaselines that I might not have found til much later.

Nirvana were also media darlings.  The biggest most popular and most important band of their times.  The band that brought punk to the mainstream.

Pops was right.  I’ve done that thing where you follow influences back to sources like the Johnny Thuderses, Ramoneses, Richard Hells.  I finished with the Offspring years ago, but its the same shit, I think, just better.  These days I hear Nirvana differently,  as a late-late punk band from the post-hardcore underground.  They don’t strike me as gods, they strike me as unsophisticated burnout runts.  I’ve spent some time in Washington and met some of Kurt’s younger peers.  I wasn’t all that impressed.

For your pleasure, a review of their breakout album:

————————————————————————————————-

Nirvana – Nevermind

Lets take a second.  Nirvana.  Buddhist enlightenment.  Nevermind.  Not giving a shit.  Not wanting to talk.  90s teen angst.  Also Nevermind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols so you know its punk.

Then there’s this:

What’s to say?  Its a baby chasing after a dollar on a fish hook.  Its all blue.  Has a baby penis.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

The track that started it all.  Big hard simple noisy riff…. into a quiet non-sense verse about guns and dirty words and stuff… then a bridge part over the same riff with more nonsense (hello, hello, hello)  … and back to our kickass heavy riff.  I like it.  Can’t go wrong with this kind of stuff.  Really satisfying heavy rockness.  Great drumming.  Clever breaks and filler parts to prevent monotony.  Believable vocals.  Musical screaming.

Do we care that the lyrics are mostly ‘impressionistic?’  I guess yeah, a little.  There’s really nothing here as far as a unified whole.  But there’s plenty of little nuggets like the well traveled:

here we are now
entertain us

and:

I found it hard
its hard to find
oh well whatever
never mind.

Pretty brilliant stuff.  Whaddayagonnado if its not Blowing in the Wind?

Big fat pixies-influenced heavy rock track with plenty of scary outsider culture.

In Bloom

Another big fat all-band riff into a melodic quiet part.  Slower tempo and more focused on the melody. A pop song with a much harder style of production.  Ripping guitars and beating drums, but basically just a verse chorus moody pop rock thing.

Giant disgusting dissonant solo.  Highlight of the song musically.

Lyrically… I guess its about coming of age right?  Cuz of the title.  The chorus I guess is about fans he doesn’t like:

he’s the one who likes all our finished songs
and he likes to sing along
and he likes to shoot his gun
but he don’t know what it means when I say yeah.

Funny and true.  Rock and roll ain’t young anymore and it ain’t like it used to be (and maybe never was).  What can we say?  Its the story of our lives.

sell the kids for food
weather changes moods

Awesome if vague imagery.   Second line = life in the Pacific Northwest

Come As You Are

The Nirvana Legend again.  Very memorable very simple riff.  Powerful passionate melody as before.  Jumbled but enlightening lyrics with some kind of emphasis on being authentic.  Something about a “memoria” and not having a gun.  Maybe less profound than In Bloom turned out to be.

The solo is great as again are all the little songwriting bits and pieces.  The flange on the main riff is unexpected and weird but not a problem.  Lots of great production.

Breed

Hard badass tough motherfucking punk song.  Very very heavy riffing style with a fast beat recalling I guess black flag but with way better vocals and a really great pop bridge part.   Lyrics continue to paint the same sad impressionistic picture of modern suburban whitehood as it stood 20 years ago and more or less stands today (as far as I know).

Lithium

Less loud.  More intricate lyrics.  Still not clear what exactly he’s talking about, but again its not really a problem.  A little slower and more thoughtful and to my ears a little more beautiful than anything so far.  I guess its the melody.  Also longer.

Polly

Kurt Cobain writes some really quality chord riffs and knows how to play them with definition and variation.  Also these little pop melodies.  This one is the kind they call ‘plaintive.’

A tragic and odd story of some kind of weird power situation between a guy and girl that involves sex.  Maybe a kidnapped, tied-up girl.  Its kind of ugly.  As much as I’m inclined to like Kurt’s stuff, I think he falls for the temptation to treat the extreme depravity as profound.  I’m really not impressed with things like Requium for a Dream that feel like horror-porn without any effort to say anything.  “ohh.  how terrible.  human nature bla bla bla.’

Territorial Pissings

Another punk basher straight-ahead destructive to-your-face song.  These are my favorites for sure and this to me is the best so far.  Great melody.

When I was an alien
cultures weren’t opinions

The little guitar squiggle at the end of the break is a homage to Devo.  I love the part when he breaks into total nonsense screaming at the end.

Drain You

Another mid-tempo rocked-up pop classic.  To my ears the most pleasing melody so far.  Its apparently a fucked up love song.  This one strikes a balance for me.  Where Come as You Are and Lithium are a little too obvious and explicit, this one just does its thing and impresses you.  Dave Groehl brings the sweet backup vocals.

Lounge Act

All the way to track 9 with no bad songs.  This one is a lot like Drain You.  A balanced, uptempo rock / pop number with a dark edge.  I might say its a higher-rent version of Bush or Everclear.

Stay Away

Harder and more raw.  More screaming.  Funny verses:

monkey see, monkey do  (I don’t know why)
rather be dead than cool (I dont’ know why)
every line ends in rhyme  (I don’t know why)
less is more love is blind (I don’t know why)

Hook is just kind of boilerplate grunge angst.  Musically its hit parade though.

On a Plain

A very long beautiful complete melody with a great hook at the end of it.  The lyrics are classic as well

love myself
better than you
know its wrong
but what can i do?

Great song.

Something in the Way

A total departure at the end of the album.  Extremely down, slow, quiet, sad song about being homeless and alone in the world.  Also perhaps about being a little insane and realizing it.  Kurt Cobain told us what his inner world was like.  That’s really why we love him.  I’m not the kind of suburban metal/hardcore kid he is.  I’m educated which he isn’t.  But whatever.  I love him.  I feel like he’s my friend.  He tells me what’s really on his mind and he works really hard on his music.

moving, delicate song.  strings, for god’s sake.  keeping the all-time memorable lyrics coming:

its ok to eat fish cuz they don’t have any feelings.

Verdict:

Twenty years on, Nevermind still impresses.  Great chords, great writing, great playing, great band.  At all times.  Nirvana combines two opposed artistic values.  They’re ‘underground’ and up-to-date (noise, fast tempo, loudness, pixies-effects, ironic, difficult lyrics) and at the same time very technical and professional in their musical composition.  Intricate hummable melodies and polished, finished songs.  Raw and pretty.  I wish more bands were like that.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine showed me this interview clip of singer/leader Kathleen Hanna:

Tense atmosphere, hard beat, great singing, simple easy riff.  More hating:

You bought a new van the first year of your band.
You’re cool and I hardly wanna say “not” because I’m so bored
that I’ll be entertained even by a stupid, fucking linoleum floor, linoleum floor
Your lyrics are dumb like a linoleum floor
I’ll walk on it
I’ll walk all over you
Walk on it, walk on it, walk on, One, Two!

There are a lot of dumb lyrics, but its not nice to say so.  Her approach reminds me of hi-phop: shame the lame and thereby raise the bar.  Run DMC – Sucka MCs (live) or Big L – I Don’t Understand It.

I relistened to the Le Tigre self-titled album and found it satisfying from start to finish.  Weird songs.  What’s Your Take On Cassavetes (mysogynist? / genius? / mysognyist? / genius?). Or Slideshow At Free University:

We favor the simple expression of the complex thought.
We are for the large shape, because it has the impact of the unequivocal.
We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.
The artist was attempting to make art more than something to just look at,
they wanted it something to be involved in, something too big to ignore.
It is our function as artists to make the spectator to see the world our way,
not his way.

Little cerebral.  Whats stood out to me this time was their New York song:

Insanely catchy hook and the 60s, Austin-Powers-esque sound, and especially the extreme simplicity of the music.  Its one continuous riff with a whole bunch of melodic variations like The Stooges – TV Eye or MC5 – Kick Out the Jams (live) or… on the other side of the influence chain CSS – Art Bitch (remix)

More Please.  Other bands should write, sing, and perform this well.