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Album review, live from kcrw, nick cave, nick cave and the bad seeds, ryan, ryan wolf — 0 comments

Album Review: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Live from KCRW

Following up one of this year's most mesmerizing records with a last-minute live album, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have remained fully engaged as of late. Comments about aging and fine wine aside, the band have never sounded sharper and cleaner. Their restrained performance at the popular LA radio station KCRW only cements the latest phase in Cave's artistic maturity.

Given her media dominance in 2014, the songwriter's lyrics about Miley Cyrus now seem even more relevant than when they first emerged months ago, so perhaps it is fitting that the album opens with the extraordinary "Higgs Boson Blues" (wherein "Hannah Montana does the African Savannah"). This is followed by the gorgeous "Far From Me" and a period in which Cave tries to take audience requests. He ultimately lands on "Stranger Than Kindness" from 1986.

When Cave breaks into "The Mercy Seat," his most popular anthem, it receives the quiet treatment, a great distance from the terrifying soul-angst of the death row original. Although the drop in intensity might frustrate some, the grace with which Cave performs reflects the style and character of his recent work. Through the side-project Grinderman, Cave proved he can still rock as hard as anyone, but there is something to be said for his subtler side.

Live from KCRW is, in fact, almost entirely an expression of this "subtler side." "And No More Shall We Part" and "Wide Lovely Eyes" sound beautiful under the swell of Cave's croon and the subdued instrumentation that propel the songs onward. The background vocals on "Mermaids" mimic mythic siren calls before moving to the lounge piano of "People Ain't No Good."

The record ends with the haunted "Push the Sky Away" and a rousing, impromptu take on "Jack the Ripper" (the double LP release also includes two other renditions -- "Into My Arms" and "God is in the House"). With "Jack the Ripper" finally allowing the band to indulge a bit, the live recording feels complete and Christmas-ready.

Grade: B+

Album review, australia, internet, nick cave, nick cave and the bad seeds, push the sky away, ryan, ryan wolf, singer-songwriter, the bad seeds, the internet — 0 comments

Album Review: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away

The Internet. The great game-changer and life-leveler of modern existence, sticking the world to its wide web.

As the entire compendium of human knowledge (or at least the illusion of such a compendium) becomes a click away, does the value of knowledge itself go down? Why learn anything when you can Google it and forget it? Why write anything when it has been written before and posted on Tumblr? Why develop real human relationships when you have Facebook friends, when you can IM or Skype those you never need to hug or shake germy hands with? There are a hundred million porn sites to edify all sexual desires and fantasies, a hundred million shopping sites to remove any need to stand in line, a hundred million gaming, video streaming, and torrenting sites to provide centuries of free entertainment, all for your personal convenience.

In a digital age where human personalities are willingly stored on servers, where genetic code becomes HTML code, how can art hope to adjust?

By pushing on with a trembling Kierkegaardian faith in an uncontainable, uncodable sublimity, according to Nick Cave’s fifteenth Bad Seeds release. Cave has stated that Push the Sky Away is meant to “question how we might recognize and assign weight to what’s genuinely important” as the Internet floods us with gigabyte upon gigabyte of random information.

On “We Real Cool,” Cave sarcastically sings of “Wikipedia’s heaven,” where “the past is the past and it’s here to stay.” Similarly, “Higgs Boson Blues” provides a “Desolation Row” style stream-of-consciousness intended to reflect the Web’s postmodern pastiche, the hodgepodge erudition and pop culture sputtering of the collective human scatterbrain. The extended ballad blends speculative physics with the legend of bluesman Robert Johnson, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, and the escapades of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus across Africa.

Bleakly humorous at best, Cave’s ruminations feel gray regardless of colorful word choice and subject material. Each low to mid-tempo song is somber and dirge-like in tone. The heavy rocking of Grinderman and The Birthday Party, bands Cave once energetically fronted, and the youthful punk yelping of the Bad Seed’s early albums, are utterly absent from Push the Sky Away. A rainy day record conjuring Leonard Cohen at his most viciously tortured, the album reaches with wispy fingers of doom, promising rainier days to come, a “simulated rainy season” with no reprieve.

Cave writes with the grim literate dreaminess of a 21^st century T.S. Eliot, associating the sea with fleeting, frustrated, fading sexuality on “Water’s Edge” and “Mermaids.” His speaker succumbs to hypocrisy and drowns in degradation on “Jubilee Street” and its self-conscious Sufjan Stevens-inflected follow-up “Finishing Jubilee Street.” Elsewhere, the chatspeak-titled album opener “We No Who U R” introduces a recurring image of flaming trees that “burn with blackened hands” as it speaks of a graceless era where all is known, the private made public domain. Cave is an old soul in a brave new world, trudging through an unfeeling digital Waste Land devoid of authentic connection.

Not all is hopeless, however. The albums ends with Cave “preaching in a language that’s completely new,” urging listeners to follow the suggestion of the record’s name and “push the sky away.” Championing self-overcoming, Cave ultimately abandons his concerns with Internet realms in favor of real life’s immediacy. Hiding melancholy love songs in sweeping works of social satire, he chooses to be as heartfelt as he is relevant, as thoughtful as he is crafty. At 55 years old, the Australian singer-songwriter continues to evolve, adapt, and reexamine his role as one of our planet’s most necessary artists.

In closing: This review has been brought to you by the Internet. Now shutdown the computer, pick up Nick Cave’s record, and go live life.

Grade: A

atoms for peace, autre ne veut, Beach Fossils, Doldrums, frightened rabbit, ice age, my bloody valentine, nick cave, pissed jeans, tom, top ten new releases, unknown mortal orchestra — 2 comments

Top Ten February Album Releases

As you've been hibernating the past few weeks, staying cozy inside while windchill levels approached sub-zero, the music world has kept warm too, grilling up an entire month's worth of awesome new releases. Check out what February has in store for your ears!

10. Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse
When Scottish indie rock outfit Frightened Rabbit released their track and subsequent video for "State Hospital" last year I was pretty blown away. The song has the stamina and intensity of a stadium rock anthem, but wields weighty lyricism that cuts to images of suffering and hope. Overall, their EP release last year wasn't great, but just good enough to stir up a longing for their fourth studio full-length which is out today.

9. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
The legendary Nick Cave has stayed prolific as ever in the past few years with his Grinderman efforts and reissues with his band, and will be releasing his fifteenth studio record with The Bad Seeds on 2/18 via the band’s own label, Bad Seed Ltd. The debut single off the new record is called “Jubilee Street”. Check it out below:

8. Pissed Jeans - Honeys

Pissed Jeans are back with more of their corrosive, ear-punishing punk on their third full-length, Honeys. As Sub Pop points out: “Honeys stews on the kind of mundane, niggling things that keep you up late at night. It’s an ode to the misery and shackles of being a responsible adult, and the shame of one’s own narcissism.” That description, along with the buzzing guitar riffs of album cut “Cathouse” already have me sold.

7. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II

Unknown Mortal Orchestra had a pretty fast climb to prominence as their debut self-titled LP found itself at the center of a critical love fest two years ago. Reaping instant acclaim, the Portland-via-New Zealand transplants toured their asses off, and the relentlessness of that experience has been the slow-burning fuel for their latest record, II, which is out today via Jagjaguwar. With frontman Ruban Nielson’s unique lyricism and seamless guitar-playing to boot, it is interesting to see where this next record will take us, as it is almost always the case that a sophomore LP will up the ante on production value. Listen to “So Good At Being In Trouble” below:

6. Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety

Known by friends as Arthur Ashin, this Brooklynite is fresh on the scene with his latest album Anxiety due out 2/26 via Mexican Summer. The newest single off the record is “Play By Play” and highlight’s Ashin’s dynamic renewal of 80s pop and R&B that raises eyebrows with its spellbinding percussion and Prince-like vocals. Listen below:

5. Doldrums - Lesser Evil

Canadian beat-smith Doldrums aka Airick Woodhead will release his debut record Lesser Evil on 2/25 via Arbutus. The Toronto DIY-er has released a few small EPs in the past and relies heavily on brief loops of samples and tortuous percussion. Woodhead’s high pitched hum is unmistakable, as his vocal tracks are often cut and warped to match the psychadelic vibe of his music. Listen to "Egypt" below:

4. Beach Fossils - Clash The Truth

Back with their follow-up to 2010’s underrated surf-rock self-titled effort, Beach Fossils will release Clash The Truth on 2/19 via Captured Tracks. While the band has expanded with various members coming and going, it all started with mastermind Dustin Payseur, who recorded everything on the first record by himself, playing every instrument. As the musician received continued acclaim in the indie community, Captured Tracks took notice and brought Payseur on to record a sophomore LP. Payseur brought on some core band members for recording in a proper studio, including a feature from Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino on their track “In Vertigo”. Listen to their latest track "Generational Synthetic" below:

3. My Bloody Valentine -mbv
Remember My Blood Valentine? I don’t. Because I was two years old when their last studio record was released back in 1991. it’s been a long time coming, but in the last 22 years, after many rumors of a new material, lead singer Kevin Shields going crazy, and countless throw-outs, My Blood Valentine has finally released their follow-up to Loveless with mbv, which was released on February 2, subsequently crashing the online server that was facilitating the release. So far the album has gotten favorable reviews with The Guardian giving it a perfect 5/5 rating. Listen to the opening track below and stream the rest via YouTube.

2. Iceage - You're Nothing
Strait-up, Iceage is putting out some awesome music right now. Still riding off the coattails of 2011’s 24-minute hell-raiser, New Brigade, they’ve just released the video for the new single “Ecstacy” about a week ago. Picking up where they left off, the Danish teens let out a surge of dark energy on the track with chunky guitar riffs coating hair-raising shouts of “Pressure!” While it seems the trend has been for many current indie-punk bands to shift toward more refined, poppier territory, Iceage have committed themselves to louder and gnarlier thread of punk, one that requires cheap beer and trashed speakers. You’re Nothing is out 2/19 via Matador.

1. Atoms for Peace - Amok - 2/25
Perhaps the most anticipated album of 2013, Atoms For Peace’s Amok, is something like four years in the making. The supergroup was first concieved when Thom Yorke called Flea (bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers), Joey Waronker (drummer for R.E.M.), Mauro Refosco, and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead producer) together to play the entirety of Yorke’s solo record The Eraser in LA in 2009. Playing at Coachella in 2010 they were simply known as “??????” Since, they've slowly come into form, officially giving the band its name, releasing their first official single “Default” last year, and another “Judge, Jury, and Executioner” last month while detailing the release of their debut album. The tracks sound quite reminiscent of Yorke’s solo record Eraser, but there is definitely a stronger reliance on drum and vocal loops giving way to nuanced and textured sound that we’ve really yet to fully experience from Yorke. Amok is out 2/26 in the US. Listen to "Judge, Jury, and Executioner" below:

Cliff, david byrne, nick cave, r.e.m., tame impala, U2 — 0 comments

It's The End of The World As We Know It, And Cliff Could Care Less

Well, 12 hours from now, at 4:12 Mountain Standard Time tomorrow, December 21, 2012 the clock strikes APOCALYPSE according to the Internet, so to get ready for impending doom here's a handy End of the World playlist to get you in the right frame of mind.

Enjoy, and see you on the other side.

Tame Impala - "Apocalypse Dreams."

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "(I"ll Love You) Until The End Of The World."

U2 - "Until The End Of The World"

R.E.M. - "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)."

David Byrne - "Nothing But Flowers."

Please note: I think it's all bunk, as apparently the Mayans themselves are asking themselves "what's up with these gringo's?" but hey, it's all good fun. Sure I myself am keen on Evo Morales' very Alan Moore-esque theory that "according to the Mayan calendar, the 21 of December is the end of the non-time and the beginning of time.It is the end of hatred and the beginning of love, the end of lies and beginning of truth." Yes, that would definitely be cool, especially after this last week... but I ain't holding my breath.