Cultural Detritus, Reviews, and Commentary
Weezer – Weezer [White Album] Atlantic 554625-2 (2016)
Weezer’s “white album” is about as good as anything they have ever done, which, admittedly, isn’t saying a whole lot. This is pretty superficial stuff, lyrically especially, and the music is mostly just a reenactment of well-worn pop-punk riffs. No highlights, and forgettable for the most part, but still fairly consistent from start to finish.
The Mothers of Invention – Absolutely Free Verve V6-5013 (1967)
Absolutely Free is sort of the quintessential Mothers of Invention album. It highlights all the problems with the band’s musical approach. They were arch cynics, which is to say that their zany fart joke songs give the impression that they are mocking the “system” but that is really just a front for what are ultimately merely attacks on personalities in an — ultimately hypocritical — bid to supplant the personalities being mocked in some kind of upper ranks of that “system” they pretend to mock. Sound complicated? Well, it is. The ultimate problem is the hypocrisy. Rather than holding up the ridiculous claims of those in power for the moronic and stupid things that they are on their face, The Mothers opt to take a superior attitude, getting mired in a kind of “beautiful soul” problem in which they claim to stand apart from the fantasies of those of dominant society and mock in from afar. This is the epitome of the criticism that “a cynical distance does not amount to ‘traversing the fantasy’, since it implicitly reduces fantasy to the veil of illusions distorting our access to reality ‘as it really is'[, and so] . . . the cynical subject is [that] who is least delivered from the hold of fantasy.” But against the odds, The Mothers accidentally addressed this very problem on their next (and best) album, We’re Only In It for the Money, which was unintentionally a self-criticism.
The Stooges – The Weirdness Virgin 7243 8 64648 2 8 (2007)
So wrong, so wrong, so wrong. Reviewer BradL wrote about Dylan‘s Christmas in the Heart that “[a]nyone can make a mediocre record. It takes true genius to make a wretched one.” Iggy Pop has earned some ignoble piece of genius here because this is about as bad as they come. You have a band calling itself The Stooges that only manages to sound like a tenth-rate Stooges knock-off. File this alongside Heard Ya Missed Me, Well I’m Back and 15 Big Ones as another “comeback” album that should have never been.
Queen – Greatest Hits EMI EMTV 30 (1981)
Great stuff really. These hits are still ubiquitous. And they deserve to be. What struck me listening to this for the n-th time was how the techniques that Queen use are not altogether that different from the ironic, kitschy mash-ups of tropicália, though this is undeniably camp rather than social protest music. But the underlying musical techniques have similarities. Susan Sontag famously wrote that camp was characterized by artifice, exaggeration, a conversion of the serious to the frivolous, and naïve unpretentiousness. Even with the very exaggerated, flamboyant frivolity of something like “Bohemian Rhapsody” or even “Don’t Stop Me Now” there really is hardly a whiff of pretension. The band never blinks no matter how silly the premise.
One thing I’ll always remember about Queen is that a guy I used to work with (in retail) would stroll along at work and sing “Killer Queen” (or at least a verse or two over and over again) in a kind of stoner drawl. That kind of sums up Queen for me: a band that is a distraction, an escape, greasing the wheels of daily life, and completely and totally okay with being that and no more than that. The thing to question about something like that is how it tends to justify the status quo, no matter what that is, but , still, few convey a poignant sense of motion holding distinct concepts in a particular relationship to each other quite like Queen. As one person put it, “The great thing about Queen was that they could unite both meathead jock-rockers and sexually adventurous drama nerds, whether those two groups wanted to be united or not.”
This collection of hits is all you need from the band. There are also Vols. II and III, but those get lame quickly. Sure, there is still room to quibble with a few of the selections here, like the lack of “Under Pressure,” and “Flash” belongs at the very end. But those are minor concerns.
Juçara Marçal – Encarnado (self-released) (2014)
Comes across vaguely like a low-budget version of Tom Zé‘s Vira Lata na Via Láctea (2014), with more conventionally pretty vocals. Marçal is an excellent vocalist. The album’s major limitation is the “math rock” guitar style of Kiko Dinucci and Rodrigo Campos (Dinucci appeared as a guest on the Zé album), which more often than not uses the raw repetition of riffs as a way to cover up a general lack of ideas. The experimentalism of the music also falls prey to self-indulgence at times. Yet Marçal has a way of making just about anything she sings captivating, which often counteracts the overbearing (and mostly boring) guitar. The album improves somewhat in the second half, with shorter songs that have less guitar (and sometimes when it appears, it is more as a novelty and a contrast or change-of-pace, rather than with a serious “rock” sound, which works better). There are a few promising aspects to this album (especially the songs “João Carranca” and “Canção Pra Ninar Oxum”), but for the most part it seems insufficiently thought-through and burdened by the very mediocre guitar playing.
Willie Nelson – It Always Will Be Lost Highway B0002576-02 (2004)
As he has aged, Willie Nelson’s music has stayed fairly mellow. It Always Will Be is a solid effort, nowhere near his best, but decent for this part of his career. Its consistent fault is that producer James Stroud gives the music too much spit and polish. A little grit and gravel would have helped this along tremendously. Although it bears mentioning that breaking from the mellow tone of the rest of the album with the utterly ridiculous modern southern rock of “Midnight Rider” is brazenly stupid.
The Mothers of Invention – Weasels Ripped My Flesh Bizarre MS 2028 (1970)
An album decidedly influenced by free jazz. Woodwinds player Ian Underwood had studied at the Lenox School of Jazz back in 1959 when Ornette Coleman inspired many to take up the banner of “free” jazz, and maybe that experience helped steer the music on this album. Or so it seems from the opener “Didja Get Any Onya.” From there, much of this seems like aimless jams that have good ideas drawn out too long (many of the recordings were made live). The abstractions are great in theory but are less impressive in practice. And “The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbeque” might be the single least interesting thing with Dolphy‘s name attached to it. But there is also a more straightforward rock song, “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama,” which has long been a favorite Mothers song of mine. Anyway, music aside, this one features a great Neon Park album cover!
Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed Decca SKL 5025 (1969)
Probably the most convincing of The Stones’ late 60s/early 70s blues rock efforts.
Rolling Stones – Shine a Light Interscope B0010961-02 (2008)
Damn! So this is not the work of an excellent Rolling Stones cover band? Pathetic really.
Tame Impala – Lonerism Modular MODCD157 (2012)
So it’s quite easy to spot the references points to know where Tame Impala is coming from. Right away this music screams out its adulation for 1960s psychedelic rock. The lead singer could well pass for a John Lennon impersonator, and the weirder stuff of Magical Mystery Tour makes a decent reference point. Yet Animal Collective seems like an equal influence. What you end up with is something on the spectrum of post-psychedelic bands like Spacemen 3, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ty Segall and White Denim with a strong sense of melody and composition. Ultimately it’s the good craftsmanship and solid songwriting that carry this along. It may be a recombination of retro-isms, but the band’s enthusiasm makes it always a fun and fresh experience.