The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion- Orange

Here's a fun experiment: peruse your music library and dig out something you haven't listened to for years. Pop it in and give it a good listen. Then, fill out this questionnaire.

Album: Orange by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

How Long Has It Been Since You Last Listened To It (Approximately)??: At least three years.

Why Haven't You Listened To It For That Amount Of Time??: I'm not really sure how much slightly funky blues/punk you need in your life. For that matter, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion never really transcend what they are and what they always have been. Their albums are much more about sound and feel than they are about lasting impressions and memorable songs. To put it simply, Orange is good beer drinking music. It's an album stuffed with a thick two guitar attack mostly played in the mid-range, with riffs instead of definite melodies, set against an underrated and grooving drummer. Above it all swaggers Jon Spencer, the sort of performer who apes a specific rock idol (in his case, mostly Elvis) but you're never sure how much of it is a pose, a winking self conscious irony, and how much is sincere.

But this is probably not the point. Blues Explosion albums aren't meant to be thought about and examined. I guess this is why I haven't listened to it for years. Orange is (probably) their best album but it doesn't take itself seriously enough to deliver excellent songs and it's hard to really love the riffs and funky blues/punk stuff when you think the band might just be putting you on.

Do You Feel Differently About This Album Now Than You Did The Last Time You Listened To It??: Well, let's see now. I stumbled on the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion via Beck, who delivers a weird, out of nowhere (pre-fame) rap on the track 'Flavor' on Orange. I eventually bought Acme as well but traded it in to my local record store a few years ago. Because I didn't own nearly as many albums back then, when I first got Orange and Acme I used to listen to them quite a bit. It was one of those situations where you end up listening to a band over and over out of habit, smashing your head against a rock repeatedly in the hopes that it'll feel better the next time. Well, that's not being fair. Orange is pretty good for what it is, it's just that the entire output of this band is more of a curious branch on the indie rock family tree than anything else. I kept wanting this band's albums to be as good as the stuff I was concurrently discovering by Tortoise, Radiohead, and Pavement, but even judging them on their own terms, the John Spencer Blues Explosion are never truly great.

It is kind of funny to examine them in hindsight of the garage rock revival of the early 00's. It really must've burned their ass to see a bunch of upstarts do a similar thing to what they had been doing for over a decade without much success. Yes, there are a lot of differences between what the Blues Explosion does/did and what bands like the Hives, Strokes, etc. were doing, but ultimately I think it comes down to sincerity and classicism. At the heart of all of those "The" bands, even behind the aloof New York cool of The Strokes and the self-conscious foreign buffoonery of the Hives, was a true love of their craft as well as a fondness for garage rock/punk rock of the past. The Blues Explosion are arguably more "original" and interesting, but there is always a pretense about them, singing about fornication with "full grown women" and making their opening track about, uh, bell bottoms, complete with a breakdown where Spencer intones "thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, but right now I'd like to tell you about the most fabulous....most groovy....bell bottoms" in his best Elvis showman voice.

So, do I feel differently about Orange?? I guess I do. I don't like it as much as I used to and my favorite song off it is the closing instrumental 'Greyhound', which I think is as much indicative of how irritating Jon Spencer as a vocalist can be (is it just me, or is his shtick on 'Blues X Man' far more pretentious and affected than anything Roger Waters ever put out??) as it is how much I love the sound/riffs part of this band way more than the songs and band itself. I suppose a lot of other people must too, because the Blues Explosion have a surprising amount of remixes for a--yes I'm going to use this description again--slightly funky punk/blues band. Your best bet is probably to watch a few of their videos on YouTube and decide if this band is worth your time/money from there. Still, Orange is good for what it's trying to be, and is arguably their best release.

Album Of The Week/Primer Part 4: Radiohead- OK Computer

Kurt Vonnegut wrote five novels before Slaughterhouse-Five and eight after, yet it's the work he will be remembered for always. You may personally prefer other books of his (for me, Breakfast Of Champions is his best), critics may claim that other of his books are underrated and/or that Slaughterhouse-Five is overrated, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a novel that belongs to dictionary entries, short biographies, and lists of "best books ever" or some such thing. It belongs to eternity; it has been and will be taught in schools. Moreover, it was the book that made Kurt Vonnegut a household name, gaining him fame and, if not fortune, then a comfortable life.

Radiohead made two albums before OK Computer and four after, yet it's the work they will be remembered for always. You may personally prefer other albums of their's (for me, Kid A is their best), critics may claim that other of their albums are underrated and/or that OK Computer is overrated, but it doesn't change the fact that it's an album that belongs to dictionary entries, short biographies, and lists of "best albums ever" or some such thing. It belongs to eternity; it has been and will be enjoyed and studied extensively by music listeners and critics. Moreover, it was the album that made Radiohead a household name, giving them fame, semi-fortune, and an uncomfortable life (as evidence by the documentary Meeting People Is Easy and the direction of Kid A and Amnesiac).

I really don't think there's an original angle to approach OK Computer from, review-wise, unless you're just including healthy doses of your history with the album. Like other "best albums ever", such as those by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Bob Dylan, it has been praised, torn down, re-appraised, overrated, underrated, and absorbed into the human psyche. Just as you can hear disparate influences in the music of OK Computer (the band have acknowledged Miles Davis's late 60s to mid 70s electronic phase, Can, The White Album, and Ennio Morricone), it would be difficult to imagine the development of popular and 'underground' music without this album. Arguably Kid A had more to do with inspiring artists to do whatever they felt like during this decade, to follow their inspiration even if it meant alienating fans and critics, but almost everyone has heard OK Computer and understands what it did and still does.

There is everything in the world to say about this album and yet nothing to say. I mean, I still use 'GregRadiohead' as a username online and I've probably listened to OK Computer more than anything else in my life; it'll always be with me, physically, mentally, and spiritually. So, while I could write thousands of words about this album--about its sounds, themes, ideas, what it makes me feel and imagine--I am paralyzed by the possibilities. Even to start with surface things like its perfect pacing and sequencing would carry me off into the verbose night. Anyway, that misses the point. Like I said, this album has been built up and knocked down time and again: rated, overrated, and underrated by all manner of people. It feels futile to pretend there's anything interesting, critically, to say about it.

Yet this, too, misses the point. I don't need an interesting critical thing to say, and you don't need to read it. The only thing you need to do with OK Computer in 2009 is listen to it. Forget all the debates and discourse. Try to hear this album with the freshest ears possible. Remember what makes it so good. Remember the incredible songs, sounds, ideas, and emotions, as powerful and lasting as any "committed to tape" (as the liner notes say) in the history of rock music. Remember that, yes, bands can keep getting artier and more experimental and yet get better at the same time.

If, as I suggested in another review, The Bends can be seen as Radiohead accepting their fate to be one of the best bands of all time, then OK Computer is them not only trying to live up to this but going all the way. To quote Charles Bukowski: "If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods. And the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is..."

Video: Radiohead- Karma Police (live)

This would be the official video for this song, but it turns out that EMI/Capitol records are cocks and don't allow embedding of their videos. Oh well!! Since it's Easter I won't have time to get a full article written today, so enjoy this video instead and look for a review of OK Computer on Tuesday.

The Complainer: DSi?? More Like, DS-Why?! Sorry...

Let me ask you something: do you really feel like the potential of the Wii has been utilized?? I remember this idyllic time when the concept of controlling videogames in a way we never had before was tantalizing and interesting, but the end result has just been a bunch of gimmicky, me-too stuff that either ably (and rightly) caters to the casual market or tosses in arbitrary "you need to flail the Wii-mote around" sequences to remind you that you are playing on a Wii and not the PS2. To my mind, the only two games that properly delivered on the promise of integrating the motion sensing controller into gameplay were Super Mario Galaxy and, arguably, Metroid Prime 3. These games wouldn't be the same without the Wii-mote, but 99% of the Wii's library would be. Swinging a controller like an idiot man child is fun, sure, but ultimately it's the same as mashing a button.

So if we can agree that Nintendo has failed to take advantage of the Wii in the way we might like, I hope we can agree that the DSi is a waste of potential, too. Anymore I feel as though Nintendo is a hardware first, software second (or even third) company. They don't really need to put in the effort to develop excellent games because people will buy their stuff in droves no matter what. Anyone who might argue that Nintendo still develops and publishes games as good as they did during the NES, SNES, hell, even the N64 days needs to take a serious look at the Wii library and be honest with themselves. I fear this is the same fate the DS has been going through over the last couple years and seems to headed with the DSi stuff. While everyone owns a DS and so a lot of companies release great stuff for it, has Nintendo been the best supporter of their own system?? I would argue no, and the limp stuff they wrangled for the DSi's "launch" speaks volumes for how little of a shit they need to give. When you're on top by a long shot, what incentive is there to put in a lot of effort??

As with the Wii controller, Virtual Console, and WiiWare stuff, there's a lot of potential in the DSi for great things. But Nintendo doesn't seem to be interested anymore. Everything about the way they use or don't use the controller, Virtual Console, and WiiWare just makes me furious. They could do so much more with it but they don't because they don't have to. There are one or two chinks in their armor: after all, Wii Music didn't succeed as well as predicted because it is a baby's toy after you've tried Guitar Hero or Rock Band.

Wii Fit isn't even a game, that's how little Nintendo has to care about "gamers." What launched with the DSi?? Well, they released Rhythm Heaven at the same time, but that's based on an old Gameboy Advance title and doesn't use the DSi's cameras in any way. And by all accounts the DSi-ware downloadable stuff is overpriced and skippable. Again, they could have done so much more with the DSi already, and put way more resources and effort into the launch, but they don't have to so they don't.

While it's true that we all get hardware lust from time to time and the DSi is cool in that sleek, designed way that Apple products are, I can't understand why anyone would want a DSi yet. It feels like a gimmicky, unrealized remodeling of the DS just so they can trick people into buying more hardware now that Wii's are easier to find.

Album Of The Week/Primer Part 3: Radiohead- The Bends

I know it's really obvious what the moment is supposed to indicate, but one of my favorite scenes in all of film history has to be the part near the climax of Return Of The Jedi where Darth Vader looks back and forth between his dying son and his master of many years, Emperor Palpatine. Many other points in the development of this character are probably much more crucial to his story and destiny, but I really feel like this is the moment he's been living toward. There's something thrilling about the way he suddenly picks up the frail-but-deadly Emperor and tosses him down that shaft. It is a powerful moment in which a character holds the reins of fate in his hands: he could let his son die and evil would rule the galaxy, as it has been doing because of something he did, but he redeems himself instead. I don't know why, but Radiohead's The Bends reminds me of this. After their hit song 'Creep' had run its course, the band was left with a choice of their own: to try to repeat that success and do what the record company said, or to follow their muse and make the music they wanted to. In choosing the latter, they, like Anakin Skywalker, were redeemed.

We may as well face the fact that if Radiohead hadn't recorded The Bends they would've gone down in history as a lesser known version of Bush, another popular English band who aped the alt. rock sounds of America. There was no way to repeat the commercial success of 'Creep' and to follow the sounds of Pablo Honey would be just as pointless. Instead, Radiohead seized the moment--they would never top 'Creep' in terms of popularity, so why not make something artful and timeless instead?? I use those words--artful and timeless--very deliberately here because they're exactly what I think of when I listen to this album now. The Bends was the sound of Radiohead discovering that their destiny was for greater things, attempting to seize that destiny, and, finally, achieving it. Without OK Computer and then Kid A I don't think we could call Radiohead one of the most important bands of our time, but without The Bends they couldn't have made those albums and we wouldn't have cared.

It's exceedingly rare to listen to the result of a band realizing they can do so much more with music, stepping up their game in every conceivable area, but that's precisely what this album is. Literally everything about The Bends is better than Pablo Honey: the lyrics are scores more sophisticated and interesting, the guitar playing is more imaginative and at the same time more rocking, the music is more experimental and (for lack of a better word) cool, the cover is better (apparently, a medical dummy morphed together with Thom Yorke's face), and the artwork is better (The Bends marked the beginning of Stanley Donwood's collaborations with the band, an underrated element of Radiohead's mystique). So many things we would come to expect from Radiohead began here that it's dizzying. In fact, they would go so far from here that you effectively forget they were the ones who did 'Creep.' This is a product of them changing so much as to not even be the same band they were in 1992/1993. If you go to see them live and they happen to play 'Creep', it almost feels like a cover they're doing as a lark.

Any fan of rock music from the 90s onward probably owns a copy of this album so I suppose there isn't much sense in drawing this review out. I do want to point out that The Bends features the most extensive use of acoustic guitar of any Radiohead album. It's one of those subtle things I didn't notice until just recently, but it's true. Much as I love the throttling full force of songs like 'Just' and 'Bones', the lovely ballad 'Fake Plastic Trees' and dreamy, spacey 'Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was' show that Radiohead are every bit as good when embracing the acoustic spectrum of sounds. It really leaves you wishing they would let Thom loose on piano or acoustic guitar more often. Or, I suppose, that his solo album, The Eraser, wasn't electronic.

Now I want you to consider that the only criticism I can offer about The Bends is that it isn't even Radiohead's best album.

....uhm, you do own a copy of The Bends, don't you??

Primer Part 2: Radiohead- My Iron Lung EP

Radiohead have made it pretty easy on music critics because their career has had a respectable arc: band gets popular right away; band hates being known for a single hit song; band gets artier and weirder; band releases at least two groundbreaking albums; band settles into elderstatesmen-hood, releasing albums that may not be revolutionary and controversial but are still really, really good. It's kind of dizzying to think that Radiohead have been releasing excellent albums since 1995, a winning streak that shows no signs of slowing down even after the quietly brave In Rainbows release. And this can all be traced back not simply to The Bends, their second album, but to the EP that preceded it, My Iron Lung.

This EP was (is??) only available as an Australian import and collected both versions of the 'My Iron Lung' singles, which came well before the release of The Bends. While it's true that even by 1998 Radiohead were popular enough to cause stores like Best Buy to stock some of their imported singles and EPs, My Iron Lung became a kind of 'hidden gem'/Rosetta's Stone of sorts for the band. On one hand it has six excellent B-sides that fans will eat up, on the other hand it has gone down in history as early evidence of how far Radiohead would take their art. Remember that these songs were coming out only about a year after the release of Pablo Honey. The jump to The Bends doesn't seem quite as great after you've heard My Iron Lung.

Even the more 'traditional' songs on this EP--'Lewis (Mistreated)' and 'You Never Wash Up After Yourself'--show a lot of growth and maturity from Radiohead's debut album. But of course it's the other songs that make this EP so compelling. 'Permanent Daylight' sounds like more of a Sonic Youth pastiche than I remember, but it took guts for a British band to try something like this back then. 'The Trickster' is a fan favorite tune that rocks harder than almost anything Radiohead have laid down since 1995. The dreamy 'Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong' is like a preface of all the keyboards, effects pedals, and experimental elements to come. And 'Lozenge Of Love' has an intricate acoustic guitar part that will surprise listeners who, as I do, primarily think of Radiohead as an electric band.

I'm still hesitant to call this EP a five star affair. It's not as good as Airbag/How Am I Driving?, Radiohead's other well known EP, but it is more historically important. This should be at the top of your list once you've gotten all their albums from The Bends onward, however, because it fills in part of the puzzle of "how did they get from Pablo Honey to The Bends in one move??" by answering "well, they recorded a crackerjack single that bemoaned their first hit single along with a half dozen great B-sides, too."

Album of the Week: Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene

I've never been an audiophile. I can detect when something has too little or too much bass, things like that, but I've never gotten into spending the money on expensive headphones or stereo equipment. In fact, the majority of the time I'm either listening to music on my sub-$100 Crosley all-in-one record player/CD player/radio or on my laptop's built-in speakers. Not exactly ideal audio quality but I don't feel like I'm missing much. Still, I've gotten really into beer over the last year or so and can see the appeal of extra cost and care. I much prefer splurging on imports and micro/specialty brews to mainstream stuff, taking the time to savor them out of beer glasses and specially designed mugs/goblets/whatever. So I understand the desire to take the time and money to enjoy something more than most do or can; it's just that I don't think having thousand dollar speakers/headphones is going to make good music any better. It may make it clearer or sound richer, but not better.

I do, however, agree with the notion that some music is best appreciated with headphones on. I'll grant that a lot of music seems better when it's pumped directly into your ears instead of cutting a path through the air and acoustics of wherever you are, but I think we all know what I'm talking about: the sort of densely produced, layered studio masterpieces that only reveal their true character when listened to with headphones. Just as beers and wines only open up their full aromas and flavors when poured into the proper receptacles, headphone albums only bloom when you can patiently separate the sounds out and consciously enjoy the various things at work. For a good example think of Miles Davis's Bitches Brew. It is an incredible album no matter how you listen to it, but I only am able to grasp all of its density and layered chaos when I take a seat, recline, close my eyes, perhaps enjoy a good beer, and concentrate.

Broken Social Scene's third, self titled album received mixed reviews upon its release, but I have to wonder how many of those were because the critics didn't give it a chance with headphones. Broken Social Scene is a dense, swampy, borderline psychedelic miasma of sounds. Listening to it now on my laptop, everything seems to smash together into a pile. I still love it this way. It's a fine mess, but it's not the same as the headphone experience.

As You Forgot It In People was one of those huge indie rock milestones of this decade, anything Broken Social Scene released afterward would probably be a let down. That the follow up ended up being a more experimental release, concerned as much with a totality of sound and production as it was songs and hooks, this meant that most listeners would give it a few spins, decide it wasn't as good as the last one, and move on. I always go for the 'weirder, less immediate follow-ups to a highly successful albums' kind of thing, so I love this album. It feels even more wild eyed, collaborative, joyous, and wide-reaching than their breakthrough. Assuming you get the version that comes with the EP, To Be You And Me, you can see what might have been if they had hued closer to the more immediate sound of You Forgot It In People: compare that 'Major Label Debut' (subtitled 'Fast Version') to the album version. The latter is a patient sidewinder of a song, undulating around in an expanse of sound. The 'Fast Version' is all energy and vivacity, a propellant drum beat keeping things going. I like the album version better, true, but I do have the 'Fast Version' on an exercise mixtape. Anyway, I'm glad they both exist.

Actually, I think everyone is simply mixed up about Broken Social Scene. I've yet to get to their post-rock/ambient debut or dig too deeply into the two 'solo' albums from this camp, but I think if you listened to their main two albums back to back you'll see that they're more alike than different. You Forgot It In People has just as many instrumentals and experimental bits as Broken Social Scene has interesting, intelligent indie rock/pop. The latter may be more densely produced and have less traditional song structures, may not be as perfectly paced and compact, but it's still just as good and worth a purchase. Just remember the headphones. And beer.