Octo throws down some smack, part 1

Johnny Sweatpants.
I thought I was going to have a quicker rapport with Johnny's selections, because we share an affinity for The Dandy Warhols (and despite the whole Kiss thing). I had a similar thought upon hearing both of his picks: "Well gosh, I guess Johnny Sweatpants is a druid." Both tunes had the kind of sound that says "we're hanging around Stonehenge in our multicolored hemp hoodies, stroking our curly beards and waiting for the shrooms to kick in."

Since I kept listening to the Horrorthon picks in order, and things got interrupted a number of times this week, I've actually gotten kind of used to Zoom! because I've heard it the most times. Ultimately however, I don't think either of these tunes will ever rise too high in my estimation. I'm oddly picky about my mellow; for me the wrong smooth jam can be more grating than a searing Beastie Boys vocal, and both tunes have a syrupy texture that ain't my thing. The first 51 seconds of Zoom! were actually deceptively promising, because as soon as the guitars kick in it slows way down.

DCD
I'm pretty well versed in my sister's appetite for cheese, and while we enjoy a lot of crossover there I was pretty dubious about the Kelly Clarkson thing. The whole American Idol phenom leaves a bad taste in my mouth. So I was pleasantly surprised by her Fiona Applish vocal stylings. She shed the Idol poppiness -- good for her.

Fairytale was even more fun. Cinderella having a crush on the guy in the liquor store cracked me up, because can you imagine the liquor store in that world? It would probably look like the buildings in Disneyland's Fantasy Land, all big fake wooden beams and stained glass windows, but with a disquieting touch of seedy. I imagined "Cinderelly's" two main mice hanging outside the door, the little skinny one trying to get the big fat one off his drunk ass.

Since my first cheapo combination turntable/tape deck I've always listened most to my own mixes, so my ultimate litmus test for any new music is whether I'll put it on a mix (or playlist, as they say these days). These two songs probably won't ever make that cut, but I get 'em.

Miko
My statement above about how certain mellownesses rub me the wrong way is best realized with country. I like "soft," I like "understated," I like "subtle," but there's something about country -- the presentation of every instrument seems to be designed to piss me off. You know how weak, undersweetened Kool-Aid is a worse option than a simple glass of water? That's how I feel about country. Somehow, taken individually the elements never strive to be enough in this weird way. The first chorus of "He Stopped Loving Her Today" has that flourish of violins behind it that sounds like they're playing a joke on me. I'm all "Really? That? BdldldldldleeEEEEE? I'm supposed to respond to that?" On the second chorus that flourish is joined by my arch enemy the slide guitar. Slide guitars just make me roll my eyes.

At this point it's probably a good idea to step back and state for the record that I'm 1) being a dick and 2) carefully trying to expound on my opinion and not the music itself or its champions, my fellow bloggers. Miko and I did have a couple of years of merciless ribbing like good high school friends will, and it's in this vein that I'm pooping in his cowboy hat.

But but but, I have to admit that I found myself humming bars of the George Jones song a number of times as the days went by, and as I listened to it more I realized there was nothing in the vocals that made my spine itch. And I liked the impact of the sentiment, because I made pretty much the same mistake DCD did at first. My thoughts went "Oh, this song is about a guy getting over his ex. 'He stopped loving her today' means she finally left his heart in that particular way and now he can get on with his...wait, what did he just say? Oh, he's dead. Jeez, that's far less positive."

So I guess I did learn a little something and open my mind some; the George Jones cut won't make it onto a mix of mine either, but it did wend its way a little bit into my heart.

Since some discussion about Johnny Cash has come up, I'll chime in that I actually feel pretty good about JC. His vocals are great, and I don't think the backup instruments do that thing I was complaining about above. I did burn out on him once because we kept playng a cd of his in a shop I worked at (more on "shop music" later), and thinking about that I just now I realized something else about country that bugs me. The whole "just plain folks" thing. To me it's so full of itself... by pointedly not being full of itself. That's a component of my dislike of reggae, too.

In a way I'm pretty grateful to Mr. 564 because he's given me such opportunity to catalogue my musical dislikes -- which brings us to Sell a Lot of Beer. In addition to the "just plain folks" attitude, it also unfortunately falls under a category of rock and roll that doesn't work for me.

I've been a fan of alternative music since 1985, when "alternative" meant a different thing than it does now. My debate coach gave me a big stack of records that changed my life, with a few by Depeche Mode right on top. For the rest of high school I often felt somewhat oppressed by the omnipresence of mainstream rock. I have a specific memory of leaving the cafeteria dance floor because Bon Jovi's Shot Through the Heart came on, and right then Scott Thomas came walking in, looking past me at someone I never saw, stabbing his finger in the air while he (and presumably the person behind me) joined in a psyched singalong of that opening line. I was so not there, but the roomful of people around me so was. Sigh. Too bad for me "Emo" wasn't a viable shtick back then.

I finally articulated my feelings about this when Jordan tried to get me interested in The Who a few years ago, and hit the same wall. He provided the perfect Who tour, pointing out the musical components and dropping in the right bits of history. I sat and tried to absorb it and came up with "it's just the same plodding drum beats and banging on the piano and licking on the guitar that's supposed to be sooOOoo great." I can't define it any better. I love the Beatles, love the Rolling Stones, totally get the rock templates laid down by Motown and Bill Haley and His Comets or whatever. But Bon Jovi, The Who, Guns 'n Roses, Kiss -- I just can't stand 'em. At my current job we spraypaint things outside, and we're in earshot of the piped-in music of the hip clothing store next door, and more than once "I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day" gets stuck in my head and I wanna claw my ears off. (I don't know if there's a disease about easily getting tunes stuck in one's head, but I've got it.)

To top if off, I never got used to the taste of beer. I'm afraid the deck was stacked against the Warren Brothers and Miko when it came to me, but I hope nobody's insulted. I hope reading my personal musical polemic here has been fun so far, because it's been fun for me.

Landshark
LOVED the Rilo Kiley cut. Everything I don't like about redneck bar music, I do like about Irish pub music. The Pogues and their ilk have been on my list of stuff I should get around to getting into for years. My only problem was that the quiet opening part was too quiet for the casual listening environment. I kept turning up the volume while in the car, unsure my iPod was working, then turning it back down when she started saying "fucking". But whatever, in a pure listening scenario this was pretty great. Future mix appearances are likely.

"Holland, 1945" is pretty damn good, too. It's handicapped slightly by the vocalist's tone, but I'm getting used to it. When I worked in the MTV model shop we played cds fairly constantly, and my music choices were often at odds with those of my coworkers. "Can we listen to something with REAL drums in it?" was a complaint I would hear a lot. (This is when Johnny Cash was a compromise cd that I eventually burned out on.) The majority of the "not Jeff's" music came from my coworker Gabe, who championed what I called "Williamsburg alternative." (Williamsburg the hipster neighborhood in Brooklyn, that is.) Unfortunately the only example I can think of is Belle & Sebastian, which isn't a good example because they don't sound much like Neutral Milk Hotel. But many of them did, and I grew weary of the sameness: high-pitched male vocals with a certain knowing twee-ness to them. NMH is suffering a bit in my estimation by this association, but it's good stuff. "Now she's a little boy in Spain/ playing pianos filled with flames" is just brilliant, in my opinion.

Oh, and Gabe introduced me to The Magnetic Fields, who I love to little pieces. I'll probably put up a cut of theirs on our next round.

Octopunk
First of all, Sci-Fi Wasabi's jumping in after Holland, 1945 is one of the most unfortunate musical juxtapositions I've come across in a while. Makes me think I should turn off the gapless playback on my iTunes.

I'm not going to comment on the song, of course, since you all know how I feel. But I find human subjectivity fascinating, especially when it comes to music. I tend to love things in a way that I can't imagine anyone thinking differently, i.e. "It's obviously so good to surround your desk at work and home with toys -- why doesn't everybody do it? You're just waiting for me to show you how." So of course I expect no pulled punches when you guys are rating my goodies. Maybe pulled a little bit, but you see how I'm dishing it out and I hope I can take it just as well.

About Meditational Field, I was gratified that Miko found a foothold of accessibility in this happy tune. I posted it because it was the most recent thing I'd acquired and because I was hoping it might be some techno the non-techno fans might like. Besides the other opening theme song Susumu Hirasawa's done, I don't think I'm very interested in his work. More minimal and ambient, okay to have on in the background but essentially without the kind of hook I need to even remember it.

Anas Demens Purpurea
I seem to be at an advantage here because I've missed the mass culture exposure of New Soul. The following impression may be completely uninformed, but I've always liked the European and British embrace of pop. It seems pure and uncluttered -- of course Yaz's cut Only You would be one of the signature songs in the UK The Office. On our side of the pond you encounter a great deal of resistance to things pop just because they're pop. I don't like American Idol, but if I wouldn't poo-poo the efforts of an AI alum if I liked them just so I could maintain some artificial aloofness (and I hope I proved this above). If you categorically despise whatever the herd thinks is good, you're still letting the herd dictate your thinking, you're just running in the other direction. That, of course, is a completely different thing from hating a song after you've heard it eleventy hundred times.

Both of our Belgian imports are appealing to me without grabbing me deep inside, much like DCD's picks. There's a bit in the Imogen Heap song that has that syrupiness I complain about above, right when she says "I'm having trouble finding you" at the 3 minute mark and the synth bridge oozes in, but it's not a dealbreaker. Of course, neither song is likely to appear on a mix every, so I'm only accepting the limited deal as it is.

Well, that's half the list. I'll get the rest done when I can. I still haven't perused the contributions by AC, Whirlygirl and I'mnotMarc enough to start opining, but I will.

I think this a great idea, and I think we should keep doing this on a monthly-or-so basis. However, I also think it wouldn't be too steep a learning curve to get to where we're just emailing our picks to everybody.

Horrorjams!