5 Reasons

5 reasons why Vampire Weekend's debut album is too good to be true:

1. It sounds too good. It's sonic presentation is perfect. No "debut album" comes this artful and sonically ambitious. It doesn't happen.
2. It's baroque, literate and classy yet tuneful, occasionally crass, and infinitely rump shakable.
3. U2 and R.E.M.'s debut albums weren't this perfect.
4. The cd design is pefect: the photography, fonts, layout are all preternaturally cool, and yes, perfect.
5. It reaffirms the virtue and value of of the cd as a piece of art and mode of musical conveyance in an age of the cheap commodification of popular music.

But let me take a brief moment to reflect on the Flight of the Conchords album. It's hilarious and remarkably soulful. You can shake your booty and nod your head stylfully to it, and you don't need to have seen the first season of the frankly hilarious HBO series of the same name. Of course you'll want to run out to pick up the 2 disc DVD set (I believe it's cheap at Target) immediately after listening to the cd, but that's OK.

I knew it all along.

Rod Stewart Sucks

I know I should blame the Molson Amphitheatre but that's no fun. Yesterday Radiohead tickets sold out in minutes and there is no chance of another show being added because Rod's got the place booked the following night.

Thus, Rod Stewart Sucks.

U2 is toiling away in Dublin and "still hoping the new album will be out this year?!?" WTF?



Also, I really wish I lived on the West Coast. Roger Waters, Portishead, and now Prince at Coachella?!? Damn.

Living Well Is Indeed The Best Revenge

A few games back I picked up a little wooden Sabres hockey stick thing at the Sabres Store, you know to have around the house. For clutching during Sabres games (especially penalty kills), clubbing yourself unconscious during Sabres games (or if I come across Fox News), and lately for air guitar duty as I shred through R.E.M.'s latest. Yes, "Accelerate" is the best album in ten years from the best American band of the last thirty years. The hype is correct. Peter Buck rocks, it hits you upside the head, it's a manual for our troubled times, yadda yadda. Everything you've heard and read about it is true. But what's truly great about "Accelerate" is that it almost simultaneously exists in R.E.M.'s past and future; I used to have a bootleg tape of an early R.E.M. show from Tyrone's in Athens and this is what R.E.M. used to sound like before the jangly neo-Southern indie rock, before "Chronic Town" and "Murmurs," and it's this raw and pure sound that is driving R.E.M. to it's future and away from the dreck they've been socking us with on their last two albums.* Air guitar and R.E.M. together again at last.... in an election year no less! It's all good people. It's all good.



* Okay, "Reveal" wasn't total bunk, but it wasn't great either. There are indeed a couple of cuts that do save it from being as lame as "Around the Sun."

Oasis and Paul Weller (with Stereophonics, some other bands) in Toronto 9/7/08. Very nice.

Springsteen is God, Danny Federici is back, and the Count Basie Theater is up for one hell of a facelift. Huzzah!

Nice

The new Gnarls Barkley disc The Odd Couple is nice. There's no standout cuts like "Crazy" this time around, but let's be real here: that was a once in a lifetime cut and one of the best pop songs ever and that probably wasn't going to happen again like that anyway. But The Odd Couple delights for all the same reasons as the improbably brilliant St Elsewhere- it's sonically sweet and dense no matter what style or groove is on display; the lyrics are sharp, relevant, funny, and occasionally universal; and Ceelo Brown no question has one of the greatest soul voices ever. He's Curtis Mayfield. He's Al Green (not the Reverend Al Green... not yet). And sonic architect Danger Mouse is as sonically daring and brilliant as Os Mutantes- all within the context of the 3 minute pop song. It's magical shit that gets you coming and going, and it's going to be in my cd player a lot.

Sunday Odds and Sods

• Happy Easter.
• This week's Torchwood was brilliant: sex, violence, conflict, maneating aliens, humor, a wedding- it had it all. God Torchwood is such a good show.
• The new Gnarls Barkley disc is awesome. More to come later.
• The Dude dissects the obvious appeal of Lonelygirl15's exploits on YouTube: her cans.
• I gotta admit it folks, I did think that it was cool that Cafe Aroma came in dead last in yesterday's Buffalo News coffee judging. Yes, the most ludicrously pretentious coffee joint in Buffalo also serves the lamest coffee in Buffalo. A coincidence? Probably not.*
• You know what the worst part of all this divisiveness among the Democratic party, in addition to the fact that it might well give the GOP the keys to the car for a third consecutive term? The fact that win or lose you know it's gonna fall to Barack Obama to (try) to unite and save the party. Yes, the guy on the receiving end of all this divisive BS, the chap playing far more defense than offense over this divisive BS, is gonna have to (try to) save the bloody day with his much maligned (by his opponent) pretty talk. Now does that qualify as irony, or is that the height of cynicism?
• It is waaaaay past time for activist Democrats to check themselves, and to ask themselves "WHAT EXACTLY AM I DOING?" Seriously. It's time.
• I used that Frank Rich link twice on purpose.

*I'm sorry, but I am gonna nurse that grudge against Cafe Aroma. I mean, what's the point of even showing World Cup matches if you can't get in the place because half of the seats are taken by the backpacks and tote bags of the wankers clogging up the joint?

And those wankers weren't even watching the matches!

The worst part of all these cool music festivals? They are all happening when I have other prior engagements.

Can We Kick It?

According to Rolling Stone Barack Obama is going to be appearing on Q-Tip's next solo album. I was probably going to be picking that album up anyway (I grew up with the Tribe, and therefore now old, which means I need to try to act young), but now it's a given. Rolling Stone also annointed Obama with an endorsement, a messianic cover that looks positively Struzanesque, and the new tagline A NEW HOPE- an obvious Star Wars reference. I'd ponder the ramifications of that analogy later... there's a Sabres game going on and this is a much needed intermission.

Controversy

Here are my thoughts on which Bruce show was better, the 3/6 show in Rochacha and the 3/7 show in Buffalo: Rochester had the "oh shit I better finish my business in the bathroom and get back to my seats because '__________' is playing" moment with "Rosalita," but Buffalo had more flow and energy, which was evident when the show reached it's emotional climax before the break before the encore. But that's just me.

From the exceptional Backstreets website, who had these setlists up before I went to bed after both shows.

Rochester 3/6/2008
Night
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
Jackson Cage
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason to Believe
Because the Night
Loose Ends
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Racing in the Street
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

Encore:
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
Rosalita
Born to Run
American Land

Buffalo 3/8/2008
The Ties That Bind
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
Be True
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason to Believe
Night
Candy's Room
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
I'll Work for Your Love
Working on the Highway
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

Encore:
Buffalo Gals
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
Thunder Road
Detroit Medley
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
American Land



Yes, the Buffalo show was staggering. Titanic.

The Promised Land

But back to business. Tonight I went to the promised land, and my shot vocal chords are the proof, as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band blew away the HSBC Arena with a wild and crazy set that laid complete and utter waste to the place. Sure some wags might suggest that The Boss sandbagged it last night so he could blow away the repeat audience tonight in Buffalo... but those wags would be full of shit. Bruce Springsteen and the band left it all on the stage last night in Rochester and went even deeper tonight to go that extra mile to create an even more fuliflling experience. It was an awesome show, and I am tired. The Bruce Springsteen double was an incredible experience, and ultimately an overwhelming experience at that. He is our Neil Young, our Woody Guthrie, his band is the best bar band ever, and I am both gratified and humbled to see the man in action twice within 27 hours. My bowling game might suffer for it tomorrow, but it was worth it.

Robert Plant Just Might Be A Total Ass

Word on the street has it that Robert Plant has pooh poohed the much desired Zeppelin reunion tour... much desired that is by all save Robert Plant, who apparently values his piddling solo career over giving the world what the world wants. Of course this hasn't been officially put on record, so there's time for certain parties to reconsider, this time factoring in the potential career negatives of spitting in the eyes of fans all over the world who just want the chance of seeing Zeppelin. I'm sincerely hoping that this tripe floating about that "Robert [Plant] wanted to leave last year's concert as their legacy. They had proved they could still do it and that was enough" is just that- tripe. The fact is they didn't even put that shit on PPV, and to call it quits in such an anticlimactic manner now after resurrecting the beast once is just wrong.

Let's try to be cool about this people.

OK, we're getting closer. Apparently it looks like Radiohead will be playing Toronto sometime probably near the middle to end of September, Chicago the end of August or early September, and Cleveland probably in early September as well. Toronto is optimal and my most likely target, and Chicago wouldn't be too bad at all as a back up or even a companion show, but Cleveland would be as always a last resort, especially if it's at Blossom. We actually almost got busted for drinking beer in the Blossom parking lot. Yeah I do like Cleveland, but to be honest Ohio in general is a dodgy state- and Blossom is just a bonafide no fun atall zone. Anyway, we'll know more when dates are officially announced...

You gotta believe me folks, I did not read this until after I came up with the whole Godzilla crack. It really is a total coincidence, just like the fact that Samantha Power was compelled (by the power of Christ?) to resign from the Obama campaign the same day I got the new issue of Playboy in the mail... an issue that happens to contain a review of Power's new book that gave it four bunny rabbits. Like I said, a coincidence.


Or... a harmonic convergence. Cue The X-Files music.


Also in the new Playboy, an interview with that lead singer from Nickelback that I think includes him being asked what it feels like to be hated by all people who fancy themselves to be "lovers of music." That ought to be great.

The Smell of Rock and Roll

Last night the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester was awash with the odor of mature adults totally rocking out to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and what an odor that was. But we earned it because Bruce and the Band were tight, and then loose, and perpetually magical. I'm not a big enough fan to talk about the surprises and old gems that entered the setlist (although "Rosalita" seemed to trigger total mass hysteria as thousand of mature adults had flashbacks to their torrid youths), but I can absolutely vouch for the fact that I was totally alive for those 2.5 hours and that's what Rock and Roll is all about.


Bruce and the Band take the stage in Buffalo in 6.55 hours....

A Quest

Tonight the Dude begins his quest for his first double- two shows by the same artist in two consecutive nights with a lovely roadtrip out to Rochester to see the first night of Bruce Springsteen's WNY double before seeing him at the HSBC tomorrow night, and the Dude is jonzed. I'm looking forward to hearing not only what Bruce and the Band have cooked up for us in the classics department but also the Wall of Sound psychedelia of their latest album, the beautifully relevant Magic disc from last year. Also, I'm looking forward to a Red Osier sandwich at the War Memorial... or two.