r.mutt's blog

03/12/05 TEN SONGS CURRENTLY IN MY HEAD (NO COMMENT) dear nora "sarah, you're not for me" ted leo "since u been gone" wu-tang clan "da mystery of chessboxin'" the field mice "emma's house" the rolling stones "factory girl" jimmy cliff "many rivers to cross" the colorifics "747 (i see heaven)" the new pornographers "the ballad of the comeback kid" 6ths "falling out of love with you" tullycraft "sad, sad, day" 03/06/05 FOUR LINKS ridiculous bullshit anti-feminist bullshit masquerading as gay rights - anti-humanist bullshit masquerading as human rights aetheticising politics since 1983 click on the screen, then, after the new window pops up, click on the link to "billy bragg continues to mix pop and politics" - billy bragg singing his great old song about "mixing pop and politics" while reminding us, ironically, that there was a time when he wasn't a jingoist an internet activity of mine was mentioned in a blog in the spirit of blog interreferentiality, i'm returning the favour here ted leo acoustic session speaking of ted leo, underground online is streaming a solo acoustic ted leo session featuring the aforementioned "me and mia," "the one who got us out," and a medley of kelly clarkson's "since u been gone" and the yeah yeah yeahs' "maps" - the novelty factor (on the latter) is huge and the perfomance is solid — no "ex-factor" or "dancing in the dark," but solid (i would have liked to see ted throw dismemberment plan's "the city" into the medley, but i won't quibble) 03/03/05 "FUCK YOU, YUPPIES!" this came to my attention via the indietorrents.com forum. it's a company that comes to your house, picks up your iPod and all of your c.d.'s, and, five days later, returns with your iPod all loaded up. the most common response in the thread was "fuck you, yuppies!" and, while i have to agree, doesn't owning an iPod already make you a yuppie? 02/25/05 NOW, UNDER "HEART ATTACKS," YOU CROSSED OUT "THREE" AND WROTE "ZERO" my thoughts go out tonight to edwin collins in his time of infirm health. i'm betraying my age here, but man did i love that song "a girl like you" back when i was fourteen. back in 1995, the popular guitar-based music scene was much like it is now, an agglomeration of veterans and newbies, genuine articles and poseurs, all liquidated, dehistoricised, and flattened to the same level for sale to a culture newly reacquainted with being hip to things (though, oddly, not catching references). thus, the rapture = le tigre = the scissor sisters = the killers = ted leo/pharmacists = beck = the folk implosion = filter = bush = our man edwin collins. i didn't fully appreciate him then but i do now. in the past couple of years, i've tried to make it my (impossible to achieve but nonetheless wholeheartedly attempted) goal to like more scottish bands than i do english. i went to great lengths to acquire records by josef k, the rezillos, altered images, and orange juice, the latter being edwin collins' seminal proto-C-86 band. i finally, after many years of secretly loving if you're feeling sinister, came out as a belle and sebastian fan. i even listened to horrendous albums by ballboy, idlewild, and the snow patrol, though i was tricked into listening to the latter — and even then only their two pre-coldplay-sounding-like records — by its being released by jeepster and lying critics who promised that it would be in the C-86 tradition. in any event, while i'm still hard at work on this silly little game of mine (i've come around to boards of canada, the cocteau twins, the jesus and mary chain, and primal scream, but i'm still not convinced arab strap, mogwai, and the beta band aren't complete charlatans), i've come to realise that orange juice are not only the guiding light behind most of my all-time favourite glaswegian bands (the pastels, the vaselines, teenage fanclub, bmx bandits, lung leg, bis, belle and sebastian, camera obscura), they're also behind many of the english bands so great that i consider them scottish (the smiths, mccarthy, talulah gosh/heavenly, the field mice, the wedding present/cinerama, boyracer, etc.). so sure josef k deserves their day in the sun, even if it was only for inspiring the insipid faded copyists franz ferdinand, and i pray to god that one day lung leg and the yummy fur, and with them the altered images, will get their due, but here's to you edwin collins. C-86 or indiepop (not to be confused with indie-pop) or anorak pop or twee or whatever you want to call it owes as great a debt to you as it does to the (imaginary) pop résistance's other convalescing progenitor dan treacy. get well soon, friend. 01/31/05 FIVE YEARS: MY BRAIN HURTS A LOT, FIVE YEARS: THAT'S ALL WE'VE GOT pitchforkmedia, which steve schroeder once called "music journalism's urban outfitters," unveiled its list of the fifty best singles of recently passed half-decade. one month ago, magnétophone entertainment magazine, as part of its own (yet unfinished) retrospective of the years two thousand through two thousand and four, published its own list, albeit in a somewhat different format and without the inane commentary. had i an iPod or some such gadget, i know which list i would hit up for download tips. but compare and contrast amongst yourselves. 01/27/05 NOT THAT "THE FREED PIG" DIDN'T TOTALLY ROCK... "It seems like the way I influence people is more on this theoretical, philosophical way," Barlow says, "and they seem to pick up on the fact that it's about empowerment, about being empowered in your personal life to survive situations, and if you're a musician, them being empowered to record their own songs or express themselves artistically. That's perfect. I wouldn't want it any other way." -lou barlow (from an interview discussing the replacement of john davis in the folk implosion with two schmoes) 01/04/05 I LIKE MY OLD TIME A-ROCK-AND-ROLL there was this scene in garden state where zack braff, natalie portman, and peter sarsgaard are walking around in some mucky new jersey landscape while simon and garfunkel's "the only living boy in new york" plays in the background. it being a swampy, outdoorsy mess, the song seemed inappropriate, particularly when braff screams into the rain as if struck by some sort of lightning bolt of pastoral self-revelation. several months earlier, i saw tadpole, which used a highly inferior version of the song (by everything but the girl) to much better results. for me, the song could only be used in a holden caulfield-esque tale of precocious prep school boy in the city self-discovery (probably because i was once a precocious prep school boy) and, igby goes down being a little flighty for such a scene, tadpole was the perfect film for the song. the story's constant allusions to the graduate, both implied and expressed, only add weight to the scene, the film's dramatic climax. i could describe the scene to you, but what was really great about it was how nothing really happened. the film built to this one moment, the protagonist's last night in the city before returning to prep school, and there was no other way to portray it than through the song. last week, i saw the life aquatic, which, like anderson's previous films, is wonderfully soundtracked and throws great oldie pop songs ("oh yoko," "me and julio down by the schoolyard," etc.) at you in a way that relies on their enormous weight but in a way completely different from how most filmmakers use timeless songs (cameron crowe's use of "hold me closer tiny dancer" in almost famous is a particularly egregious offender, "satisfaction" and "the end" in apocalypse now are less bad examples). wes anderson's movies, like the scene in ghost world when enid listens to the buzzcocks' "what do i get" while dying her hair green, treat the songs they use nonchalantly, almost unaware of their enormous significance to the film's audience, and, because of this, only because of this, do they pull off using these timeless songs that have already been used by generations of filmmakers. much has been made of the film's use of sigur rós' "staralfur" in the scene's climax, when steve zissou's crew comes face to face with their white whale (so to speak) and cate blanchett drops the near incomprehensible line, "in twelve years, he'll be eleven and a half" (wes anderson, you're the me of pointlessly and ridiculously uncatchable references in film). sure "staralfur" was nice in its moby/coldplay's "clocks"-ness [did i really say that? nobody heard me say that, right? -ed.], but the scene that really caught me was when zissou and his son ned hugged. the zombies' "the way i feel inside" came on with its pretty but wierdly nico-like a capella opening and just killed me. i don't know if it's wes anderson or mark mothersbaugh who soundtracks anderson's films, i suspect it's a collaboration, but, like "needle in the hay" in anderson's the royal tenenbaums, "the only living boy in new york" in tadpole, "ooh child" in boyz 'n the hood, "sometimes" in lost in translation, or braff's use of "the new slang" in garden state, i was completely taken aback by a song i know very well and it's been changed forever for me. for that, my hat is off to the life aquatic. two songs for the new year: simon and garfunkel "the only living boy in new york" the zombies "the way i feel inside" (obviously) albums r.mutt is listening to at the moment r.mutt's shopping list r.mutt blog archives