buffaBLOG - The Buffalo music blog: nick cave and the bad seeds

Showing posts with label nick cave and the bad seeds. Show all posts

best of 2013, Cliff, daft punk, DJ Koze, jeannette, john, jon, Nick, nick cave and the bad seeds, nine inch nails, ryan, shark?, staff picks, steve, the impossibles, Weatherbox — 0 comments

buffaBLOG's Best of 2013: Staff Picks - Favorite Songs Part 1

Jeannette Chin

DJ Koze - "Marilyn Whirlwind"
Being someone who likes to listen to electronic music because of the puzzle-piece like configuration of its elements, for me, the release of "Marilyn Whirlwind" marks the debut of a new level of possibilities in bass production. Through the blocky, symmetrical template of its 4/4 thud (via an almost engine-rev like bass and kick), Koze cleverly weaves in a diverse catalog of sounds as the track progresses. And further listens reveal subtle tempo changes and bass chord progressions. It's one of those tracks that appear repetitive on the surface, upon starting it, yet four minutes in you find yourself still listening to it. Pure audio alchemy.

John Hugar

Nine Inch Nails - "Came Back Haunted"
While How To Destroy Angels, and the soundtracks to The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo were certainly compelling, it was great to see Trent Reznor recording music under the Nine Inch Nails banner once again. This was easily the best track off of Hesitation Marks. In classic NIN fashion, the tension build up in the first verse, then is released in the chorus, like pent-up rage being spat at the listener. A well-deserved hit, and Reznor's best single in years.

Cliff Parks

Daft Punk - "Lose Yours"Lose Yourself To Dance (feat. Pharrell and Nile Rodgers)
Sure "Get Lucky" was the song of the summer before "Blurred Lines" shamefully overshadowed it, but "Lose Yourself To Dance" was it for me this year. Nile Rodgers laid down the best guitar riff of the last few years for this Soul Train line dance worthy jam, and reminded us all why Johnny Marr named his son after him. Daft Punk's ambitious Random Access Memories was loaded with information and an album with a mission, but this jam was it's most straight ahead, pleasurable, and irresistible nugget.

Steven Gordon

Shark? - "California Grrls"
A YouTube Vortex that either started with Thee Oh Sees or FIDLAR eventually introduced me to Shark? and the song “California Grrls.” It's a dark, guttural surf song made by tongue-in-cheek New Yorkers about a certain west coast sub-species. SPOILER: it's about girls from California. Super snide and catchy and accessible, too; it accounted for probably like 80% of my data plan the last couple months. Maybe I should have just paid for it instead of repeatedly smartphone jukeboxing it, but oh well ya live and ya learn. As a side note, “Minotaur” by Thee Oh Sees and “Cocaine” by FIDLAR are super-close runner-ups.

Jon Krol

The Impossibles- "Come Back"

I have to give props to fellow buffaBLOG writer, Mike Moretti, for turning me on to this band, and in particular, this track. Heartfelt lyrics, a beast of a chorus, and hooks that made my head spin, I probably listened to this song a hundred times this year. As someone who grew up loving that early 2000's brand of emo-flavored indie rock this was the clear-cut choice. I could have chosen a song that was abstract (esoteric lyrics and the like), or a b-side cut. Perhaps a track without the obvious pop inclinations. But at the end of the day, I know what I like. And this song spoke to me.

Ryan Wolf

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "Higgs Boson Blues"
Following my flip-flopping attitude toward my mid-year list, I am swapping out "Ya Hey" for "Higgs Boson Blues." Perhaps the Nick Cave and Vampire Weekend releases are not so different after all as they both deal with spiritual angst, dread, and longing in the Digital Age. Nonetheless, the chilling "ooohs" that propel the "Higgs Boson Blues" plunge deeper into the unnameable than most anything on Vampire Weekend's magnum opus (no easy feat).

The song icily reminds us that Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Johnson, Miley Cyrus, missionaries to Africa, and physicists at the superconductor in Geneva all inhabit the same world, where no thought, idea, or action is truly separable from any other. Great men die, pop stars float in swimming pools, and the universe carries on, fundamentally unaltered by our species' cultural shifts and scientific investigations.

Runners-Up: "Ya Hey," Vampire Weekend; "Afterlife,"Arcade Fire; "Down Down the Deep River," Okkervil River; "I Sat By the Ocean," Queens of the Stone Age

Nick Sessanna

Weatherbox – “Big News”
I have been repping this song all year and I don’t care who knows it. Between the impossibly irresistible guitar riff and singer/mastermind Brian Warren’s abstract-yet-relatable lyrics about how the entire world hates him, there’s really nothing about this song that isn’t flat out awesome. Listen and try not to get the alliterative “who got my bed bangin’ on the back of the board” stuck in your head for the next few hours. Recommended for fans of angular indie rock and 90s emo purists looking for something contemporary with sharp edges. Fans of Archers of Loaf, Say Anything, or Manchester Orchestra won’t be disappointed.

Click here for Part 2.

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+

A$AP Rocky, best of 2013, disclosure, joe, kanye west, mac, nick cave and the bad seeds, ntorsell, phosphorescent, ryan, skrillex, The Lone Bellow, the national, vampire weekend — 1 comments

buffaBLOG's Best of 2013 (so far): Part 4

Editor's note: If you missed any of this week's selections, you can check them out here.

Mac McGuire

Album: Phosphorescent - Muchacho

Muchacho, Phosphorecent's latest and best release to date, opens with the angelic "Sun, Arise!," itself bookended by the closing "Sun's Arising," Matthew Houck wastes no time in letting the listener know this is an album of awakening. What is found in between is Houck's journey of redemption, religion, and love, highlighted by the successful pairing of both conventional alt-country elements (mariachi horns, pedal steel slide guitar, violins) and non (synths, subtle electronics, dubby beats). Muchacho features a stunning one-two punch, maybe the best of the year, in the weary and reflective "Song for Zula" and the powerful show stopper "The Quotidian Beasts." The former, which would take top song honors if not for my selection below, features a wandering, Johnny Cash quoting narrator who feels to be "disfigured" by love and will be damned if he "opens [him]self up that way again."

Song: The National - "Sea of Love"

Like fellow Brooklynites The Walkmen, The National seem to have mastered the art of aging gracefully. Those “Mr. November” days are long gone, while family and a potentially soon-to-be post-rock ‘n’ roll life seem to be the band’s focus these days upon the release of their latest album, Trouble Will Find Me. On the tense and building “Sea of Love,” though, the men in The National remind everyone that they aren't going soft quite yet in their most thrilling and immediate song since “Abel,” and maybe best since “Slow Show.” While rocking out is great and all, it’s the little things that make this track really stand out: the welcoming heartland harmonica, the haunting backing harmonies, and those passionate pleas to “Joe” to “don’t drag me in” during the song’s thrilling conclusion. The great music video certainly didn't hurt either.

Joe Speranza

Album: The Lone Bellow - The Lone Bellow

Picking an album of the year is a very, very difficult thing to do and without some kind of aggregate it is impossible to do objectively. So all you loyal Daft Punk and Vampire Weekend listeners, and all you Kanye West martyrs, keep that in mind as I explain my choice.

Back in January, I wrote a gushing review of The Lone Bellow’s debut album in which I actually included the line “listening to The Lone Bellow is a potentially life-altering experience.” I wasn’t on drugs and I haven’t quit my job to follow them on tour, but it’s fair to say that my initial bewilderment with how good they are has quietly devolved into casual fandom. I’ve relaxed quite a bit since I proclaimed that “every so often, a band comes along that might just change everything.”

They haven’t exploded like I fearlessly predicted they would, but the release of their album was very important to me and it’s why I’m calling it the album of the year – so far. I previously called them a “kind-of country-sounding band,” which is – I can admit it now – inaccurate. They are very country. And I’m okay with it. And I never thought I’d type that.

The reason they appealed to me back then – and this is doing a disservice to the quality of the album from beginning to end – was that they were a Brooklyn-based band that had just recorded a country album. I grew up outside New York City, in a place where admitting you liked country music was not only frowned upon but a serious character flaw. It was wrong to like country music. So naturally, The Lone Bellow intrigued me. It was finally “okay” for me to listen to country music. And that’s great, because The Lone Bellow is just a beautiful album. The harmonies and buildups are perfect, and – if I can make an intangible tangible – you can hear how much this album meant to them. For more specific details and to read why I loved the album check out the initial review, but what you need to know is that there was a lot at stake for these guys and they really came up big.

The Lone Bellow has easily had the most profound effect on me this year; in case you care, I almost picked Indigo Meadow by The Black Angels – which was a huge return to form for them – but I already knew they were great. The Lone Bellow came out of nowhere and is the sole reason I now consider country music if not decent, tolerable. That’s a pretty big feat, so cheers to them.

Song: A$AP Rocky & Skrillex - "Wild for the Night"

In the same way people remember where they were and what they were doing during major, catastrophic events, I remember where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard “Wild For the Night” by A$AP Rocky and Skrillex. I was driving on that uneven stretch of road around the 219/I-90 merge where you start to think your car might just fall apart when all of a sudden, I heard the unmistakable, ghoulish voice of A$AP talking about his pistol and his morning routine. I thought okay, whatever, if my tires blow at least I’ll go out listening to a decent song. This was also around the time when I was deciding whether or not dubstep sounded better or worse than a fax machine and whether or not Skrillex was a genius or a joke. The 45-second mark of the song – the transition from the talking-with-your-mouth-full voice of A$AP to the button pressing brilliance of Skrillex – settled it pretty quickly; “Wild for the Night” literally made me smile and figuratively made everything clear: Skrillex is the shit and dubstep goes quite nicely with rap.

Ryan Wolf

Album: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away

Perhaps the first contemporary album to use Wikipedia and Miley Cyrus as artistic references without sounding shallow or smugly elitist, Push the Sky Away feels immediately prescient. Nick Cave and company demonstrate their continued awareness of the developing world we inhabit, crawling in its search for knowledge, placing faith in man’s flawed faculties while the Internet gathers and spreads human-generated information that may or may not reflect reality. As the all-knowing Google emerges as a man-made idol, Push the Sky Away returns to the flesh, favoring physical bodies and blood. Finding mystic qualities in seemingly neutral modern technology, Cave’s low-key, mid-tempo pastiche is deeper, darker, and more frighteningly astute than superficial listens suggest.

Song: Vampire Weekend - "Ya Hey"

Throughout Modern Vampires of the City, Vampire Weekend exchange class-focused secular musings in for serious religious introspection. On the record’s boldest, most full-frontal grappling with the spiritual, indie-pop royalty meets its Maker, addressing complaints, doubts, and praises to Yahweh (or “Ya Hey,” according to the inverted Outkast song title). Concealed within Exodus’s burning bush, God refuses to reveal his identity or “name,” obscuring the cosmic plan “through the fire and through the flames.” Earth’s searching onlookers may be left schismatic and confused, but Vampire Weekend’s fusion of inspired chants and chipmunk crooning sees beyond vicious ironies and mortal “mistakes” in this 21^st century open letter to the Creator.

Nick Torsell

Album: Disclosure - Settle

I’ve been having trouble keeping up with the amount of great music coming out this year. Not because I haven’t been paying attention, but because it seems like every time a record takes hold of my mornings and nights, a new one knocks it from its place, clamoring for attention. The past two months have been unbelievably rewarding for me listening-wise, with three of my favorites releasing excellent additions to their catalogs. Boards of Canada, Daft Punk, and Kanye West, whose music has meant very different things at different points in my life but all had an enormous impact on me, all came through, and I’ll be digging through their newest records for years to come.

But my record of the year is from a group who more than lived up to my high expectations after following their steady stream of remixes and singles, Disclosure. Settle, the 22 and 18 year-old Lawrence Brothers’ debut record, is body music, joyful and confident in a way that finds a way into your subconscious, coloring the daily rhythm of your routine. Settle is crowd-pleasing in the best way, endlessly appealing and diverse and never once pulling back from the throttle.

Song: Kanye West - "Blood on the Leaves"

“Creative output, you know, is just pain. I’m going to be cliché for a minute and say that great art comes from pain.” That’s Kanye in his recent New York Times interview on how his mother’s passing has affected his music. His tracks have always had a tinge of melancholy starting from College Dropout, but there’s a startling shift starting at 808s And Heartbreak where Kanye turns American Gothic. “Blood On The Leaves” is Kanye at his lowest, but also his most triumphant, reigning in a massive TNGHT beat to his own image. When that first TNGHT sample comes in around the minute mark, it’s a chilling moment, the brassy drums boasting Kanye’s total release. It’s the best representation of Yeezus’ apocalyptic nightmare-scape, a long way from a pink polo and a backpack.

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.