Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Expect a post in the very near future about why i havent been posting more often. Thanks for your patience. this came out today, or rather it came out two weeks ago on vinyl but was released on cd today for the “masses.” Under different circumstances i would call this record Elvis’s best record since his Burt Bacharach collaboration, Painted from Memory but because Elvis would like us all not to give a s#!t about this record I will only say that it is a all time album tainted by the most insanely pretentious marketing campaign in the history of music. I dont think anyone can argue that Elvis is one of the only relevant artists left from the era that birthed him. Some of these bands are still making records, some might be touring but they are not relevant. they are living trips down memory lane, tangible nostalgia but i repeat they are not relevant. Elvis on the other hand sits comfortably in the top 10 of the greatest song writers living, i actually think there might only be 10 great songwriters living and they are all in their 50s and 60s well except for Paul Westerberg but he doesnt really count anymore. So, instead of releasing this album with the fanfare and coverage that an album of this quality would usually get, he sneaks it onto the shelves of a few dozen record stores that still carry new vinyl and tells the press that he is looking for new an interesting ways to release his music. i dont see how releasing an album exclusively on vinyl two weeks before the cd release is either new or interesting. it is especially stupid because the story became the release process and not the album. Then to top it off on the eve of the cd release, Lost Highway, the label, or Elvis himself decided that again they would distract the press, reviewers and listeners with the preposterous notion that this record is in someway a collaborative effort with a long list of people that include Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley as well as the swiftness with which this album was created. “We wrote and recorded it in three weeks,” Elvis has been telling people making it seem that the album is in a kind of toss off an experiment in collaboration and nifty marketing. For the record no one but Elvis had any input into how these songs were written or recorded and if he is going to maintain that he did have help then i am going to assume that means he saying that Jenny Lewis and the rest of his so called “collaborators” have been secretly helping him make records since Blood and Chocolate. This is an Elvis Costello record through and through and it is a freaking great one. He mixes all of the best parts of all of his rock albums from Brutal Youth on, mashes them up into a sticky groovy paste and spread it all over this disc. every song here is fantastic in ways that Paul McCartney only wishes he could still accomplish. This album makes it clear that Elvis only songwriting peers are Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Leonard Cohen. Throw Neil Young onto that list i you like, Neil hasnt made an album as great as Momofuku in 20 years but he still gives it everything hes got and his records are always interesting. Ive listened to this album twice already and im listening to it again as i write this and while i am in love with it i cant help feel angry and confused as to why Elvis would try to relieve himself of full credit for its creation and to portray this magnificent work as just a quickie meant to make a point about the music industry. i dont understand it. im all for trying different ways to get your music into the hands of the public but this is not the record to do that with. this needs to be forced down the throats of all the dumb asses that are listening to Daughtry and Maroon 5. This is song writing people. this is rock and roll.
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Monday, February 25th, 2008
I sat through the entire ceremony last night, including the nauseating Enchanted songs, and i feel pretty good about how the whole thing went down. I liked most of the nominated films and performers so i was rooting for everyone unless you were associated with Juno. Good Work everyone!
Moving on…
One of the things i’ll be doing, when there is nothing else i really feel like writing about is commenting on my list of Top 15 Favorite albums of all-time. This is a pretty eclectic list but not frustratingly so. My taste tends to swing in a specific direction so there wont be any gangsta rap or bone head county music on here. I will unveil my list one record at a time and hopefully if you havent heard this particular record you will get yourself a taste. So, entry #1 (in no particular order, unranked, im just going to list them as they were when i originally jotted them down) belongs to:
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Blood and Chocolate
The last album he did with the Attractions until All This Useless Beauty is also the best Attractions record since Armed Forcesand where that record may not have been made by a group of guys that loved or even liked each other they at least had momentum on their side and obviously cruised through that record like a rock and roll knife cutting melted butter. Not only that but the songs on Armed Forces could have been carry overs from This Years Model making that exact period Elvis’ most successful in marrying his two favorite things, hating people and writing the catchiest melodies since the Beatles were holding your hand and taxing the pennies on your eyes. Those records were easy. When the first song on Blood and Chocolate, the title track, kicks in with its bare E chord you can imagine him struggling somewhat to come-up with a decent guitar line before finally deciding to just bang on one chord for 4 minutes loathing the thoughts running through his head making it impossible to concentrate. the whole record stinks of this kind of anger and frustration. His band, the best backing band in the history of rock, this is arguable im sure but in that argument im taking the Attractions, was freaking breaking up, mainly because he hated his bass player and the cherry on top of the already too cherry laden sundae is he gets divorced. These songs specifically, Home is Anywhere you Hang your Head, I Want You, Battered Old Bird, and Crimes of Paris, sound like they were wrenched out of Elvis against there will, thrown on a recording console and stapled and nailed down with pneumatic air guns. Is there any other reason for Home is Anywhere you Hang Your Head to be so slow and his vocal performance so mannered and so off key on occasion? doesn’t it sound like the songs are fighting their own existence? In Battered Old Bird they use a reverse tape loop to lead into the bridge and kiss my grits if it doesnt sound like the record has finally decided it just cant take it anymore and come hell or high water its going back to the dark pool it had been swimming in inside Elvis’ head. Fortunately, it didnt and we have this amazing record to listen to. This is the first Elvis record I ever bought. at the time those Rhino reissues were a big deal (it has since be reissued again by Hipp-o but unless i finally wear out my copy I will be avoiding spending another couple hundred of dollars replacing records that need not be replaced) and i made sure i bought each one the day it came out. I poured over Elvis’ newly composed liner notes watched him get fat and bearded, weird and then back to normal, ive heard him be great and not so great all within the space of track 1,2, and 3 on the same record, but this record front to back is fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. I think in away, it ruined my life. Anyone that knows me knows that i have a slightly cynical side to myself. Am I totally blaming Elvis? No but did he and this record play a major part, i have to believe that they did. Its the record where you can hear Elvis loose his faith in marriage, his band and himself, and when something like thats going down, even the jauntiest acoustic coffee shop pop tune, like Crimes of Paris, is going to sound like you are singing through a smirk while poking people in the eyes with the head of your guitar. Fantastic!
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