Ugly Music for Beautiful People

When I moved up to East Lansing and started doing some research on the local music scene one of the names that kept coming up was Chris Bathgate, a folkie from Ann Arbor. I downloaded his 2006 album Throatsleep and was thoroughly impressed. He has a new album out called A Cork Tale Wake, but I haven’t heard that yet. “Creek, Cure, Dawn” is a dark electric folk number that’s somewhere between Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Iron & Wine. “I Know How You Are Going to Die Tonight” is also dark (obviously), but has something of a cabaret feel with jaunty piano, horns, banjo & violin.

He’s going to be playing two shows in my area soon.
Today (!) he is playing MSU’s U-Fest at main lounge of the MSU student union. Also playing are Jon Rajewski, A Story Told, and Tyler James, but I don’t know anything about them.

He’s also playing a house show on Tuesday the 28th. The lineup is Chris Bathgate, Frontier Ruckus, That’s Him! That’s the Guy!, Drunken Barn Dance, Ryan Jock. The location is 528 Cherry St. in Lansing.

Acquire
Chris Bathgate - Creek, Cure, Dawn
Chris Bathgate - I Know How You Are Going to Die Tonight

New leaked B-Spears track. It’s fucking awful. Without K-Fed she is nothing.

listen to the thing that sucks

The new Caribou album came out this week. I bought it. It rules. When its first single “Melody Day” came out a month or so ago, I flipped my shit. It was the best non- R. Kelly-related song I had heard in 2007. It was probably the only time I have every bumped a CD single in my car on repeat. While “Melody Day” is the highlight of the album, I’m also very fond of the song “She’s the One”. If any song on the album shows the progress in songcraft that Dan Snaith has made, this is it. It has the lovely post-electronic psychedelia that he’s a master of, but in service of a song that could just as easily been done by the Beach Boys.

Caribou - She’s the One (expired)

I would be shirking my duties as a music blogger if I did not discuss the thing that has been sucking up more of my brain time than any other recent musical event:

R. Kelly’s next set of episodes of trapped in the closet. (watch here)

There’s really not a whole lot to say. It’s awesome of course, but not as tightly plotted as 1 through 6 and not as over the top ridiculous as 7-12. R. Kelly gets to play several colorful characters which lets him continue the campiness of episodes 7-12. As much as I loved midgets popping out of cabinets, my favorite part was always the tightly written and hilarious melodrama of episodes 1-6 (which you do see some of in the new episodes in a diner scene).

The new episodes do see Kels playing a bit more free with the structure of the song (song? more like an epic poem at this point). There’s several parts where the beat drops out and the cadence of the lyrics changes quite a bit. And the ending (a huge cliffhanger, naturally) has the best & most musical use of extensive overdubbing I’ve heard in years.

Oh, and Will Oldham makes a guest appearance.

The DVD came out Tuesday, but I haven’t picked it up yet. When I get it and rewatch it, I’ll probably have more to say.

The Forkadork just posted a new Gang Gang Dance track. GGD are one of my favorite contemporary acts. This track is from their upcoming EP “RAWWAR” and is probably the most pop and least noise thing they’ve done.

Gang Gang Dance - Nicoman

Do you know what song rules? “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” by Bryan Adams. Now, you probably heard this song on the radio at some point and are thinking, “Ed, that song doesn’t rule at all”. Well, you’re right. That version doesn’t rule. The version that rules is the one actually played at the end of the movie Don Juan DeMarco. It has more flamenco guitar and lacks the mid 90s adult contemporary guitar solo that is a prime reason the single version sucks so much. As far as I know, the film version isn’t commercially available, so I ripped it from the DVD. When I did so, I accidentally did it in mono. Whoops. And I got the DVD from my ex-roommate, who got it from Netflix, so I can’t really go back and re-rip it. Still, you’ll get the point.

Bryan Adams - Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

One of the first tracks that I downloaded from an mp3 blog was “It Is Just So Freakin’ Right” by the Power of Lighting. I downloaded it from 20 Jazz Funk Greats. They just mentioned it at the end of a post and noted that the band was from Manchester. That is all I know about the band and that is the only reference I can find out on the internet. The only other thing that is out there, as far as I know, is a repost I did on a quickly abandoned mp3 blog I did called temp3.

What we have here is one amazing lo-fi power ballad. The lyrics are just retarded (”Baby, nothing can touch your poodle perm hair”, “I’m with a 12 year old Thai girl now, her body is just so freakin’ right”), as you might gather from the song title. But the “Nova” synths, tinny drums, and restrained not-quite-arena rock yelps are expertly complemented by hand claps and a nice guitar line. There’s nothing quite like kids making funny songs on a four track.

I can’t let a masterpiece like this disappear from the internet, so I’m reposting it. If anyone knows anything about this band, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

Power of Lightning - It Is Just So Freakin’ Right (expired, but I will repost if you ask in the comments)

Well, here’s another dope thing I picked up while in the Chi. I saw this book called Wait, You’re Not a Centaur, noticed that it had a short (50 word short) story about Jesus meeting Bolt Thrower, noticed that it had a CD in the back and dropped down my $16. The book is 50 50-word short stories and a ton of awesome sketches. But the CD, by Nate Denver’s “band” Nate Denver’s Neck is what I’m going to talk about. It’s a mix of lo-fi folk, rap and death metal. And if you’re not sold there, I’m not sure if we could ever be friends. I’m posting two tracks. “Mace” is a mission statement of sorts. It’s one of the rappier tracks, as there’s no acoustic guitar. It’s a simple lo-fi beat with Nate doing a soft speak/rap thing, but spitting about “eating dragon hearts and drinking unicorn tears”, his family, personal life, and his penchant for sweets. Plus there’s Public Enemy & Army of Darkness samples. “4 Horsemen” is an ode to Slayer that wonders if they laugh or if they cry or if “their circuits are crossed so they laugh when babies die” and “wonders what they do on Christmas Day”. And then it ends with him playing the song for Slayer and them reacting favorably to it.

Both the book and album are the most wonderful, bizarre and hilarious thing I’ve picked up in a long time. I really encourage everyone to go pick this up. You can get it on Amazon, direct from the publisher La Mano, which is ran by Zak Sally of the band Low. La Mano is distributed by Sub-Pop, so you should also be able to find Wait, You’re Not a Centaur in all finer book and record shops.

Nate Denver’s Neck - Mace (expired)
Nate Denver’s Neck - 4 Horsemen (expired)

Beck used to be one of my favorite musicians, but I gave up on him after the borefest that was Guero, the wretched remix album Guerolito, and seeing Beck slack through an awful jam band-esque live show. But then I found out he posted a cover of “Forget Marie” by the great Lee Hazelwood. It’s on Beck.com and it’s pretty rad. It reminds of the two Hank Williams covers he did right before Sea Change came out. Maybe he should just stick to covers.