The Killers: Sam's Town

Slight variation for the second installment of IRTRTCMM, but only inasmuch as I feel my opinion about this subject metamorphosing daily.

I'm not a huge fan of The Killers, as previous posts can demonstrate.  I go back and forth on them.  Hot Fuss was way overrated.  Sam's Town is the kind of half-assed concept album you'd expect from a band that hasn't really got anything to say.  And Brandon Flowers is a genuine, Grade A dick; his candor is the only aspect of his public persona worthy of respect.  All of this vitriol culminated in a generally anti-Sam's Town sentiment amongst reviewers.

I'm here to call bullshit.

Sam's Town is a far more consistent record than Hot Fuss.  Sure, none of the songs are as good as "Mr. Brightside" or "Somebody Told Me," but it's got the same glitzy, danceable pop sound as before.  It's still a Killers album, and identifiably so.  It may have deviated from the first verse a bit, but how does that make it any different from every other follow-up to a multi-platinum debut ever?  Can't we, as a nation, find at least one new angle for criticizing sophomore albums?

The thing that I find most off-target is this Bruce Springsteen obsession.  Apparently all you need to do to get a message out there nowadays is provide it in your press kit, because half the reviews out there make some mention of Springsteen as B-Flow's primary influence.  Of course, they weren't amused.  "Euhhh, well it's not Springsteen."  Oh, you think so, Doctor?  Was it the dance beat that tipped you off, Monsieur Poirot, or was it the disco high hats?  Did anyone seriously confuse "Don't you want to feel my bones on your bones / It's only natural" with anything in Springsteen's catalog?  The connection isn't as big as it looks.

If anything, it's the lyrics that caused all of this outrage.  But it's not even about sounding like Springsteen as much as it's about Flowers' persona.  He got cocky beyond what he should, and now in failure the critics are letting him have it beyond what they should.  Sam's Town wasn't even the biggest Springsteen rip-off to be released that day, and yet Flowers gets crucified for failing to reach The Boss' level.  But he doesn't need to write good lyrics.  He's a radio star.  Does it even matter what he's talking about?  So he throws in the odd ham-handed reference to a back roads or Jesus, or both, instead of being sarcastic about shiny transvestites or whatever.  Who cares?

If you're gonna break Sam's Town down that far, you'll find that the real problem isn't a Springsteen complex, but a Sgt. Pepper complex: they think they've been more theatrical than they actually have.  That's primarily due to the intro/outro tracks.  Both deviate from the musical feel of the surrounding tracks, break the fourth wall, and get overly cute, but in the end they just sound stupid and graceless.  "We loved to have you with us / even if it's just for the day," eh?  Good lord.  Despite being brief mistakes, they are prominently-placed mistakes, accomplishing little besides distracting from all the things they did so well between the two bookends.  Sigh.

Regardless, pop albums don't need to withstand that level of scrutiny.  The truth is that Sam's Town still works... mostly.  It's fun, it's still The Killers, and it will succeed enough to keep The Killers at the top of the A-list.  I'm just sick of the backlash.

Jeff Likes The Spinto Band

I checked out The Spinto Band's 2005 album, Nice and Nicely Done, on a lark, since they're opening for Art Brut on Tuesday.  I'm pleasantly surprised.  They remind me a lot of Imperial Teen, but without the dark, brooding sense that they're going to carve you up and throw you in a suitcase.  In other words, good power-pop.  I like it.

Grizzly Bear, on the other hand, loses.  I got Yellow House, and I think I'd rather watch the paint dry on said house.

Public Service Announcement

The men's room at Union Station smells like vaginas.  Yes, that's right... vaginas.  I've used that restroom twice, and it's smelled like vaginas twice.  A whole big bag of vaginas.

And I'm not talking about that classic, immediately-identifiable aroma, either.  If it were just that, I'd have just said the place smells like vegetarian pad thai and left it at that.  There's nothing about plain old vagina smell that a dedicated person can't overcome.  But the odor in question is genuinely terrifying.  I'm talking caveman vaginas.  Vaginis neanderthalensis.  I'm stunned that the tiles don't fall right off the wall.  That shit violates the Geneva Convention... right under the nose of Congress, no less.  (So to speak.)

I haven't been in recently or anything.  I was just thinking about it today.

The Crane Wife Revisited

It's been a month or two since I first raved about The Crane Wife.  My opinion hasn't changed one lick.  Not to be overdramatic, but I love it, sing its praises, and will kill in its name of my own accord.  Albums don't often dig this deeply into my soul.  It's good on so many different levels, and without a single weakness to speak of beyond personal tastes.  The only thing left to say is that I can listen to it on repeat by choice.  The ultimate compliment!  The last album to earn that honor with me was Jimmy Eat World's underrated Futures.  In short, The Decemberists win.

The only thing that's changed since my initial reaction, apart from the bloom of young love, is the following observation concerning the album's track order:

1) anthemic opener
2) twelve-minute epic in multiple parts
3) classic Decemberists-type tune
4) classic Decemberists-type tune
5) experiment with a "new sound"
6) experiment with a "new sound"
7) classic Decemberists-type tune
8) classic Decemberists-type tune
9) twelve-minute epic in multiple parts
10) anthemic closer

Not only is it brilliant, but symmetrically so.  It's like holding a mirror up to my friggin brain!  More fuel for the "not just ambitious but also well-executed" fire.

OK, I'll shut up about it now.  But if you're at all curious, the first single ("O Valencia!") can be downloaded here.  (I take no responsibility for link expiration.)

Emory, The Melons Are On Fire!!!

So I was wrong before about the Aqua Teen movie being ready for summer 2006.  And at this point, I'm not declaring this to be 100% for real until I start seeing some trailers and official movie sites.  But it sure looks like it's for real, doesn't it?

Whoa... Creepy...

I watched three items of television tonight.  I watched an episode of Nip/Tuck from season two, the latest Studio 60, and a chunk of the original Police Academy.  Totally random TV, right?  Except inasmuch as all three programs included montages that used the song "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" by The Shirelles.  And each show featured a different version of the song.  Let's see if you can match the montages to their shows.

A. Nip/Tuck
B. Studio 60
C. Police Academy

1. Two meat-headed recruits, both slow-dancing at the end of the night with a leather-clad gay man.  By accident.
2. Two wealthy doctors, best friends for 17 years, having a threesome with a hooker that looks somewhat like the wife of one of the doctors.
3. A large cast of snarky, fast-talking television professionals celebrating a big ratings win.  Because dammit, they're all in this together!

Spooner Than Fiction

This is nothing new, but after watching the trailer for the new Will Ferrell dramedy Stranger Than Fiction, I noticed that Britt Daniel of Spoon scored the film.  The STF folks didn't just co-opt "The Way We Get By" and "I Turn My Camera On" because Spoon has become a go-to band for eclectic movie commercials and, of all things, football game montages... they did it because they had an in!  But the manner of a worldwide increase in Spoon is irrelevant... the increase itself is what's important.

In that vein, the world is likely to make a quantum leap forward in the coming year, according to Pitchfork, due to the release of a Daniel solo album and the next Spoon album.  Nice.

I Reserve The Right To Change My Mind, Vol. I

This newest feature concerns TV On The Radio.  Return To Cookie Mountain has become a massive critical/underground success and an instant classic of visionary rock.  But, as an admitted late adopter, it's taking me a while to make up my mind about them.

I recognize why TVOTR is a big deal.  This is not a Strap Your Strands Stray Scram strituation situation, where I think TVOTR should be purged from the universe as violently as possible.  Not at all; their worthiness is self-evident.  Songs like "Province" and "Wolf Like Me" are special, particularly "Wolf."  As instrumentalists, they are talented to a man.  Their musical ethic, integrating portions of eclectic-with-respect-to-each-other genres (blues, Afro-pop, post-rock, etc.), works well, and in surprising ways.  The end result, as a whole, has a beautiful quality to it that I can't really grasp.  It's enough to convince me that TVOTR should make music for as long as they want.

The thing is... I'm not having much fun on Cookie Mountain.  In short, I was promised cookies, and I'd like them, please.

To illustrate, consider the curious case of Sigur Rós.  Their ethic is similar to TVOTR's: the music is manipulated to elicit a wide array of emotional responses, rather than just rocking first and asking questions later.  After a few stunning atmospheric albums, notably 2001's Agaetis Byrjun, they pumped up the rock on their most recent album, Takk.  Not only does "Glosoli" rock to the core while residing in the band's idiom, it is a better demonstration of what Sigur Rós wants to do on an artistic level: build the momentum (and the audience's emotion) slowly, and release it all into a nuclear explosion.  Takk is littered with songs that do likewise.  Because I was able to latch onto Takk, I can appreciate Agaetis Byrjun a lot more than I would otherwise.  The later, accessible album put their earlier work in perspective for me.

TVOTR needs their balls-to-the-wall rock-out moment... that moment where I can appreciate everything else the band is about.  Despite having sampled a vast array of musical genres, they seem to have done so without maintaining the core element that makes each genre so great: energy.  The hypnotic slower tempos in which the band lingers work a little too well on me.  By the end, the songs just bleed together.

It's not like they can't turn up the intensity.  "Wolf Like Me" and "Wash The Day" prove that they can.  But it's not enough.  Besides, it's obvious that rocking out is not part of the mission.  Maybe that's what bothers me... "Wolf" is a tease.  They give us The Rock, followed by a series of songs that seem flat by comparison.  I want more "Wolf," but the band doesn't.  Maybe they'll give it to me, maybe they won't.  But I think they need it.

Other bands I've accused of holding back have proven me wrong in the end.  Bloc Party and Tapes 'n Tapes come to mind.  But both Silent Alarm and The Loon project a deeper intensity beneath their lacking-on-the-surface sound.  They keep going crazy-go-nuts in their own way, and you eventually come around.  TVOTR does not carry that kind of intensity.  There's no rush, no adrenaline.  It just rolls, and rolls, and rolls.  I want more than that.

So, as of October 2, 2006, I think Return to Cookie Mountain is a portobello burger from a five-star restaurant: no matter how perfectly they cook it, I'd rather have prime rib.  But I reserve the right to change my mind.

Look Who's Back!!!

HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGH!

And it gets better... look who else is back!



The only way this day could get better is for someone to faithfully reproduce Dark Castle in Flash and make it available for free over the internet. So that I can play it once or twice and forget about it again. (Boy, it's just Dark Castle day today, huh?)

Some Colin Meloy Trivia

Old news, but a couple weeks ago Pitchfork ran a "what's in your CD player"-type feature on The Decemberists' Colin Meloy.  The music picks are all well and good, but I was more interested in these two tidbits:

1) He owns a bouzouki.  SHUT THAT BLOODY BOUZOUKI UP!!!
2) He names Snood as his favorite video game.  While that's enough to endear him to any Haverford alum, the truly excellent news was his second choice: Dark Castle, which comes as absolutely no surprise.  Nyuh-nyuh-nyuh-nyuh-nyuh!

Can't wait for them to come to town in October...