At the bottom of everything

I'm not completely convinced that Conor Oberst is the genius some people think he is, but I've decided that the song At the Bottom of Everything by Bright Eyes is the absolute shit. It's one of those songs that just gets better and better the more I listen to it, even if I end up fastforwarding through the intro most of the time.

edit: Since originally writing this post, I've decided that Conor Oberst is indeed at least occasionally a genius.

An almost live parade and the greatness of Green Day

I woke up on Thanksgiving and watched a bit of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I noticed that all the performers that stopped to sing in front of Macy's were lip syncing terribly. Actual live vocals couldn't have possibly come across worse than these God awful performances. Live performances might have some blemishes, but why does everything need to be so bland, safe, and talentless. There was this band called the Click Five whose members all pretended to play their instruments. What a bunch of jokers. As they hammed it up and mugged for whoever the hell buys this crap, the actual drumming, which wasn't muted very well, could be heard over the tape.

After watching the parade, I had Green Day's Macy's Day Parade stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Damn, that's a great song. MTV never played it too much, which is a real shame because it's a great song and a great clip.

As a matter of fact, that whole album, Warning, is great. If you are one of the many people that forgot about Green Day between Dookie and American Idiot, I suggest picking it up. I read several articles written when Green Day was doing press for American Idiot where lazy journalists hyped American Idiot by saying Green Day had been in a rut with Warning. BULLSHIT. I'll be the first to admit that I never put a lot of hours in listening to Insomniac or Nimrod, but Warning is as good as anything Green Day has done. Macy's Day Parade, Church on Sunday, Castaway, Warning, Minority, and Waiting were all personal favorites. Every Green Day fan I know loves that album.

Downplaying that album might have made for an easy story angle, but it just isn't fair or accurate. The truth is that the album came out at the height of the whole rap rock thing, and it didn't get nearly the airplay it deserved at radio or MTV ( I never saw the videos for Waiting or Macy's Day Parade -both great songs - until I discovered them on the Internet). The truth is that considering the hostile music environment of the time it was released, if Warning had been half as weak as feature writers from Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, etc. are now saying it was, Green Day may have collapsed like many bands from the ninteties, or become irrelevant like the Offspring.

American Idiot is a great album, but let's not forget that it wasn't an album by a band on the rebound. It was an album by a great band that did great work through tough times, and luckily stuck around until mainstream audiences rediscovered them. Good for Green Day. Go out and get a copy of Warning and see for yourself.

The execution of all things

I can't exactly figure out why Rilo Kiley isn't huge. Like with any other band, part of me wants them to blow up (Hell, they deserve it), and part of me wants them to stay relatively small (I don't have to worry about them changing their formula to get on the radio, and they still play relatively small venues). Maybe there's some middle ground. I don't know, but here's a damn good song, The Execution of all Things.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark

Maybe I just need to give it more time, but I haven't gotten that into Death Cab For Cutie's new album, Plans. I loved their last album, Transatlanticism. I find myself skipping through the new one a lot of the time. I absolutely love the song I Will Follow You into the Dark, though. I've been playing it over and over when I skip the other songs. Damn, I need to give this album another chance.

Fields of Joy

I downloaded "Fields of Joy" by Lenny Kravitz last night and I've been listening to it over and over. Some things never change, I guess. I mean, Lenny Kravitz isn't exactly the hippest music any more. Was it ever? But, there was a time when Lenny's music meant everything to me -1991, just as I was turning 16.

I've always loved "Fields of Joy" in particular, and I've always been prone to listen to it over and over. Don't you just love it when you dig a song so much you have to listen to it over and over? I do. I remember first hearing that song in the summer of 1991. I has just spent a miserable month alone with my father in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He was a man I didn't really know, and all I really learned about him that summer was that he hated my fucking guts. After the disaster of visiting my father, I was spending a week with my sister in Madison before I went back home to Wyoming. She had a cool little apartment in the city with her boyfriend, Alejandro. Best of all, Alejandro had a huge CD collection - crates and crates full. Who had so many CD's in 1991? I had just recently stopped collecting tapes. In fact, I doubt that today I have as many CD's as that guy had in 1991.

I remember that Alejandro was nice, or foolish, enough to let me run through his collection. He had a brand new copy of Lenny's Mama Said album, which easily gets my vote for being Lenny's best album, and "Fields of Joy" is the best thing on there. Funny, actually, since it was the one song Lenny didn't write, but I don't care. That song rules, and I'm not some Lenny Kravitz nutswinger. Lenny didn't seem corny when he sang about love. He seemed so idealistic, and so unpretentious. This was a guy that understood love, damn it. (I know his wife had just left him for banging chicks on the road, but at least he could talk the talk). That song is so quietly optimistic, and I sure needed that feeling that summer. Shit, I need some quiet optimism at this very moment. I remember sitting and staring out my sister's window listening to that damn song until my sister insisted I change it.

Unfortunatey, Lenny started to really suck on later albums, although he achieved much larger commercial success. His next album contained one of his biggest hits, "Are you gonna go my way," but the songs didn't drip with hope and soul like the songs on Mama Said. He was instead copping some seventies Led Zeppelin sound. He always did a better job of copping John Lennon and seventies soul, if you ask me. When Lenny moved on to the riff rock, his songs had absolutely no emotional power. Yuck. I can still enjoy a spin of his Greatest Hits disc, but none of those songs mean shit to me compared to "Fields of Joy."

The Photo Album from Death Cab For Cutie sucks

I just started listening to Death Cab For Cutie this year, and I have to say that they show signs of being a great band. I randomly picked Transatlanticism as my starting album, and I absolutely love it. The melodies, lyrics and production are all great. I then bought Give Up, the debut album by DCFC frontman Ben Gibbard's other group, the Postal Service, which is also a great, inventive album. So, I had big expectations for The Photo Album, their 2001 release. After many listens where I've tried to convince myself that I just needed time to get into it, I have to say that this album just isn't very good. There are a few good songs, but it isn't an album that I naturally just want to leave in the stereo. The vocals sound much more hollow. I love the memorable songwriting on Transatlanticism, whether its catchy pop numbers or slower songs that pack an emotional punch. The songs here just get boring. They just aren't as finely crafted and don't force me to get cought up in them. They aren't terrible, but I have to force myself to listen to them. Where are the hooks? When am I going to start rambling to all my friends about how great this album is? I won't be doing any such rambling anytime soon, and its a great disapointment, because Gibbard's recent efforts had me telling anyone and everyone about their greatness.

Here we go. I've got loads on my mind. The radio station programmers in my town are idiots. I'm foolishly watching reality TV. Possibly even more foolishly, I'm getting sucked into the upcoming presidential election. I'm spending too much time wondering why people don't care about the music scene in Wyoming, and I'm trying to tune out my real life. Who isn't? More to come.