Rivers Cuomo

I’m pretty much gay for this guy. Pop genius. Harvard educated. Likes sitting alone in a closet for 12 hours at a time. He gave up sex for 2 years (saving himself for me??). And the millions of home demos he’s recorded that have never been released on a proper album are pretty damn amazing. But I can’t really back him up on this one. Idolator dropped this demo Pig a few weeks back, and as the title suggests, it’s your pretty standard pig-meets-girl-gets-slaughtered story. It’s not all that interesting musically. But I’ve also posted some of Rivers’ older demos which are pretty much guaranteed to blow your puny little unprepared mind.

Rivers Cuomo – Pig

Rivers Cuomo – Longtime Sunshine

Rivers Cuomo – Blast Off!

Weezer – Private Message

Weezer – Worry Rock (not a demo, just an awesome Greenday cover)

Thom Stone & The Barrow Gang

If the gritty b&w promo shot wasn’t reason enough, here’s several more perfectly good reasons to like Thom Stone:

1) Has the same first name as Thom Yorke

2) Has badass british accent

3) Has more myspace friends than me

4) He’s sort of like a young british Ryan Adams, except without the craziness

5) He’s rocking a serious hair surplus

Check this guy out. I was unable to download his best tune, She Knows, so you’ll have to hit up his myspace for that. While you’re at it, be sure to check out Big House, downloadable below, and which I stole from the excellent Come Pick Me Up.

Thom Stone – Big House

Thom Stone’s Myspace (Check Out She Knows)

Fennesezesszcqz

Van Gogh, after listening to Fennesz?

 

I’ll admit I find out about a decent amount of music from the self-righteous indie behemoth known as teh p4k, even if the 2004 exit of Brent DiCrescenzo in a blaze of douche-y glory marked the end of both the height of its hedonistic excesses as well as most of what sort of made it interesting. However, the guaranteed-to-sass-your-pants news section and mildy titillating American Apparel advertisements have always kept me coming back.

Every now and then though, I make the mistake of reading one of their reviews of electronic music. I get drawn in by the glowing praise and use of big words, and I wind up subjecting myself to an hour of tripe which invariably ends with me grabbing a knife and then getting rushed to the hospital with my ears packed in an ice chect. Which brings me to Fennesz.

I gave Venice a listen when it came out a few years back, and returned three different stereo systems and two cars before I figured out what was going on with this album. And I did it again when Endless Summer was re-released to rave reviews. I suppose depending on what you’re speaking relative to, just about anything could be a 9.4. For instance:

This album is a 7.3 compared to getting a giant hole drilled in your wiener.

This album is an 8.2 relative to waking up next to this.

This album is a 9.4 relative to a hypothetical twice-as-long Fennesz album.

Maybe, having not listened to the vast mass of crappy “electronic music” out there, I shouldn’t really speak to whether or not this is totally-way-awesome electronica. But when I listen to this stuff, I can’t help but feel like I’m on the outside of the biggest inside joke in indie music.

like so:

me < ———————————————————— > the fennesz joke

 

Fennesz – Made in Hong Kong

Fennesz – City of Light

Review of Brent DiCrescenzo’s Review of Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand

 

 

Everclear

Thread: Defend the indefensible: Everclear

Just saw a commercial on television for their new greatest hits record. Hearing all their hits back to back like that confirmed the suspicion I always had: the band only ever wrote one song, “Santa Monica,” and then just re-recorded it countless times with different lyrics and titles.
– Johnny Fever

his lyrics are subpar at best like a worn out, threadbare carpet.
– jack cole

the best-of’s title cites the period 1994-2004 and celebrates “Ten Years of Everclear.” I’m no mathematician, but isn’t that eleven years?
– Rickey Wright

Does “They were my favorite band when I was 10″ count as a defense?
– The Good Dr. Bill

What I don’t like about Everclear: When Art Alexakis sings “Yeah-ah!” You all know what I’m talking about.
— righteousmalestrom

There were an inordinate amount of really popular rock songs from this era that ended with the respective bands’ singers singing somewhat uninspired “yeah”s – Counting Crows, Everclear, Cake. It was the age of the Lackluster YEAH Outro.
— nickalicious

Cake doesn’t do “yeah” very well, but they do a great “hyah.”
— My name is Kenny

Did the Wallflowers ever do a “yeah”?
— miloauckerman

yes. immediately before the chorus of “one headlight” they do a yeah, yeah, YEAAHHHHHHHHHHH
— miccio

No, that’s “Hey, hey, HEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!”
— Doctor Casino

YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND UNLESS YOU HAVE HAD A WELFARE CHRISTMAS!
— scott seward

Everclear – Santa Monica

Everclear – I Will Buy You a New Life

Everclear – My Sexual Life (NSFW!!)

Joanna Newsom

Oh Joanna Newsom…. I’m not sure why I tolerate your elvin harp music….at first I hated it….and then it grew on me a little…and grew some more…and now I cant really tell if I actually like your music or if its simply a byproduct of the fact that I found myself fantasizing about you, your pointy ears, your high pitch yokel sing talk…with me and my not so pointy ears and my love for Arwen-like ladies. Or maybe it’s because you’re related to Gavin “I Can Bang Anyone I Want” Newsom and I think somehow that maybe his pimpitude will rub off on me through liking you and your music… maybe I’ll never know… sigh….. but take a listen for yourself and stay the hell away from my elf woman.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WSLAyKMAmU

mp3: Joanna Newsom – Inflammatory Writ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYl0uLrXP7U

mp3: Joanna Newsom – Sprout and the Bean

I am Now an Expert on Italian Culture

The other day, I read a characteristically circle-jerkish thread over at ILX about Italo Disco, re: how awesome it is, isn’t it awesome, god we’re awesome for listening to it. Aweeeesooome. Inspired, I turned to soulseek to begin wrapping my head around this mystique-filled genre. After all, I love spaghetti westerns, ramen noodles (Italian?), Mario Brothers 1,2, and 3, and also I generally enjoy slicking my hair back – could this then be the genre for me? Unfortunately, as it turns out, Italo Disco is pretty much just like Disco Americano. Nevertheless, there were a few standouts which would work really well on a MegaMan soundtrack. Keep them in your pocket for the next time you butt heads with Dr. Wily.

What I have learned: ILXers are nerdbags, and Alessandra Ambrosio is…apparently not Italian.

Brand Image – Love in a Summernight

Italian Brothers – Forever Lovers

Savage – Don’t Cry Tonight

Bruno Deneckere???

Sometimes I lay awake at night and dream of my ultimate fantasy super band….an awesome “collabo” (industry speak for a collaboration) of Creed, Nickelback and Three Doors Down. The coalescence of this holy trio into a unified front of power chord umpphh will truly be like Christmas times a thousand….maybe even ten thousand. However, until this glorious day happens to come, I will be stuck perusing through the internet to find something that will satiate my desire to hear good/decent music. In one of these recent online scamps I came across a one Bruno Deneckere. Bruno is a Belgian singer song writer who does the Americana thing….which makes you wonder how a dude from a country that speaks mostly French or Dutch rolls into this distinct little genre. Take a listen to his track “Laura” from his album Crescent of the Moon…tis linked to his myspace page….the rest of his stuff doesn’t seem to carry as well as this track but its worth a listen.

Bruno Deneckere – Laura (via Myspace)

http://www.brunodeneckere.be/

Jesse Malin

Take a listen to this guy. He has messed up hair…. He wears lots of denim…. He likes pretending he lives in a ghetto NYC studio apartment where all he has is his finger gun to protect him from the mean streets below. Also…and more notably so then the other factoid gems that I just dropped, Malin is a convert and not the super lame Yusef Islam kind. Malin used to play punk/ glam punk music for D-Generation and then he got old so he had to naturally convert like so many others to alt-country/ bad ass Americana indie folk in order to not laugh at himself every time he picked up a guitar. Malin makes this transition pretty seamlessly, as he channels a scummier version of Bruce Springsteen in his “Nebraska” glory days. In fact, sometimes I think Malin is actually the alternate dimension gutter trash version of Springsteen, if Bruce had continued down the cornhusker path and got reinvigorated with a large dose of badassness….as opposed to dancing with Courtney Cox and playing with the gay (“gay” not in the derogatory homo sense but just “gay” as in not cool) E-Street Band and their excessive saxophone solos. So take a listen below:

Jesse Malin – Hungry Heart

Jesse Malin – Brooklyn (Full Band Version)

Lucky Soul

Here at Midnight at the Lab, we often like to stay ahead of the curve by staying behind the curve. (No one will ever look for us there!) Lucky Soul has already done the music blog rounds, touted on the likes of Torr, The Torture Garden, and Scatterbrain. But while we may have sloppy seconds on this song, it’s none the worse for wear. It’s everything great about Camera Obscura – Motown production, endorphin-spiking melody, and titillating female harmonies – with about 20% more Pipette bounce for the same, I-stole-it-off-the-internet price.

Lucky soul – Lips Are Unhappy

Suckin’

Occasionally, we here at Midnight at the Lab disagree about the merits of a particular work. In that spirit, here’s JJ’s follow-up/rebuttal to my earlier succinct review of the first Wilco single from Sky Blue Sky. Await my comeback.

One of my cohorts at the Lab recently sent me Walken’ from Wilco’s new album, Sky Blue Sky. The early reviews from the Lab (as seen from the caption above) slammed the album as being another fine example of how Wilco had blown its creative load post Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and was now meandering into the dangerous territory of recording songs that could be easily converted into jam band doodling fodder for live shows. (for reference, see the less than amazing doodletry that new guitarist, Nels Cline, has brought to the band- http://youtube.com/watch?v=_vKEFJ5eiO8). So being that I’m easily impressionable and that my once steadfast fan boyish faith in Wilco had been shaken by the super lame Spiders from A Ghost is Born, I was more than willing to give the song my shit spin. However, I will have to save it for another time and another song. I like Walken’. It’s a simple and direct little love song that blends some quasi-honky tonk piano with some Greg Brown-esque guitar runs at the end (I actually thought they were starting to play Going the Distance at the three minute mark). Plus Tweedy’s singing throws out the scratchy vocal strain that makes me want to go out and start smoking three packs a day so I can sound a tenth as cool as he does. Take a listen… then buy some Marlboros.

Wilco – Walken’