I Humanized the Vacuum

I love this fucking record.

It didn't grab me it at first listen, and I was mildly disappointed. Closer inspection has revealed the finest set of songs Mssrs. Daniel and Eno have committed to tape.

Underestimate at your peril.

Cat Net

She tore it down so its only fair.

Circus Art / Marnie Stern

Circus Art show at MJQ. James was the circus retard, Amanda was a a lion tamer, Ryan was a clown. I got back in town too late and went costume-less.

Lame.

Stayed up late to go to the Marnie Stern show at the Drunken Unicorn... by myself. I don't think that I've ever been to a show by myself, but I'm sort of in love with In Advance of the Broken Arm and I just had to see her live - if for no other reason than to see some truly inspired guitar shredding.

More than worth it. Not only did she display some very prodigious skills, the songs sounded leaner and more lethal than they do on her album. More lethal? Jesus Christ am I really that bereft of interesting descriptions? Suffice to say that she was amazing, worth getting only 3 hours of sleep. Plus she was super sweet and I gave her mom directions to the venue.

41 Days of Music (U2 / Pop)

I'm a U2 fan.

And not in a "I'll sing along to Sunday Bloody Sunday at MetalSome" kind of way. Its not ironic. I like their music.

But fuck Pop. I remember when it came out there was a lot of hemming and hawing over the fact that U2 had incorporated electronic elements into their music. No shit. They did it 5 years earlier with Actung Baby and Zooropa. At the time I was a Pop apologist. Not anymore. U2 deserved all the shit they got for that record, and not because of the production. The production was fine, what was missing was the songs. There is not a memorable one on the entire record.

Its is the first record that I've decided to remove from my iTunes. And I've listened to four Low albums. Its put me in a bad mood, but now Ween's The Mollusk is on. All is well.

Group Think

I was going to write something up on the new Spoon record, but fuck it, I have to vent my spleen over the hive-mind, group think that is everywhere now.

The internet was supposed to democratize the flow of information, and it has in large measure, but it has also contributed to formation of new conventional wisdom: group think. Why? Well, everyone is a critic, and the internet has provided an avenue for everyone who has an opinion to publish it. Kinda like this blog. But if there is anything easier than being a critic, its regurgitating others views and criticism. It takes less time, imagination, and creativity - perfect for someone who wants to seem smart and well informed but doesn't want to put in the effort. So now the internet is an echo chamber that reflects good old CW while purporting to be independent analysis. In the context that I'm talking about (entertainment criticism) this is a relatively innocuous phenomenon. But it can have devastating real world consequences.

Of course, group think existed before the internet. But if there's one thing the internet does real good its distribute information - too bad if it turns out to be incorrect or biased. So, now we have people espousing opinions they have co-opted from others - again nothing new - and it spreads like a virus. The only way to innoculate yourself against it is to form your own opinions. What a novel thought.

Self

A month and a half in and I'm at 1996. While going through the mid 90s I listened to Self's Subliminal Plastic Motives for the first time in forever.

I miss Self.

They were poised for big things, or at least they seemed to be at the time. In the post-grunge mid-90s they produced two minor hits ("Canon" and "So Low"), but they were never able to follow them up with mainstream success or critical adulation. Partly due to their utter lack of angst (that wave wouldn't crest until after the end of the century), and partly due to the fact that they never had a record that truly captured their sound - Self was always on the cusp of success, but couldn't break through. Main man Matt Mahaffey had a Prince fetish and a background in hip-hop production that was obscured by the need for their records to sound "grunge", which led some of their songs to be viewed as cynical cash-ins.

But on the mail-order only Half-Baked Serenade the songs were stripped down and allowed some room to breathe. Self sounded more comfortable in their own skin and the proved the pop on Subliminal Plastic Motives was no mistake - it set up their upcoming major label release Breakfast with Girls perfectly. Big things seemed imminent.

But it never happened. Partly due to mis-management from their label - it was Dreamworks after all - the record flopped on its release. While its tempting to play the "corporate clusterfuck of a good record" card, the album doesn't justify such a defense. Betraying his past as a producer, Mahaffey made Breakfast as bloated and endlessly overdubbed as any Pink Floyd record. All that studio trickery might have been worth it, but sadly, the songs are just not that strong. The best songs ("Uno Song" "Suzie Q Sailaway"), are not coincidentally, the simplest. With the odds against them Self needed a solid record on their side, but Breakfast With Girls was not that record.

Oddly, a novelty idea (making an album with only toy instruments) gave Self an opportunity to make their best record, Gizmodgery. The limited range of the instruments focused the band into sparsity - though with Mahaffey at the dials the album is still heavily produced and processed. But the limited palette works to his favor as the simple structure and production suit Mahaffey and his sugar-rush brand of pop. Plus, this was the first record where he broke down and broke out his falsetto and indulged all the Prince affectations so long harbored in secret. And it works, except for the dumb, attention getting "Trunk Fulla Amps". Come on guys, Self was always dangerously close to being written off as a novelty band, and you pick the novelty-est song on the record as the lead single? Also, "Chameleon" is no good. But the rest of the record is a damn near perfect confection.

I don't really know what happened to Self after that. They've released a few internet-only b-sides comps since Gizmodgery, and have an unreleased Dreamworks album, but I'm still waiting for that great pop album that I know they have in them.

I just looked up their music online at www.selftunes.com, and the album art that is listed for the on-line only Feels Like Breakin' Shit is something that I did in high school. No idea how that ended up there, but cool.