(Good) Cover Version

Covering obscure songs is an odd choice in some ways.  After all, it doesn’t have the instant-recognition factor that will lead to major sales.   And the fans that know the song are probably so damn precious about it that they’ll hate you for attempting it.

That was what happened to Mark Kozelek’s Tiny Cities (all Modest Mouse covers) and to a lesser extent the Twilight Singers’ She Loves You (various artists).  They couldn’t ride the gimmicky wave that say Cake’s “I Will Survive” owned, and they managed to piss off a few indie purists along the way.

I think the new covers album by avant-folkie Adem should manage to get away with it, but only because the quality is really high.  The choices for his album Takes are pretty left-field and mostly from the 90s/early 00s.  Nothing too sacred there - but maybe the hipsters will still hate it.

A couple of favourite tracks of mine that he’s attempted are Pinback’s “Loro” - hardly a cult classic, even, but a great song - and Low’s “Laser Beam”.  Pinback is pretty easy to pull off and to be fair, Adem doesn’t really change things.  Low is harder, mainly because “Laser Beam” is such a classic example of Mimi Parker’s astonishing vocals.  Still, he gives it a woozy soul that works almost as effectively.  With this album, the initial impression may be that he hasn’t done anything remarkable - but each listen will turn up different angles.

Really, you should have a listen to all of it.  There’s some Yo La Tengo, some Smashing Pumpkins and a brilliant Aphex Twin reworking.

Adem - “Loro”

Adem - “Laser Beam”

Evil albums

I’ve been avoiding this post because it actually breaks my heart a little bit. I’d prefer to write a post complaining about the lack of a My Morning Jacket album in 2008, rather than having to write about the album that they’ve released.

Kentucky country-rockers MMJ won me over with It Still Moves in ‘03 and Z in ‘05 and made me look into their backcatalog with the barnstorming live set Okonokos. But honestly, the new album Evil Urges makes me wonder if this is the same band. I mean, they were never a straight-up rock ‘n’ roll band and they’ve mined some weird territory before, especially on Z, but it was alway good.

Now in the first three tracks we’re given barely warmed-up Prince parodies (”Highly Suspicious” - I’d rather not talk about it all) and only tolerable MMJ-by-numbers (”Evil Urges”). It all just seems lazy and contemptuous.

Still, it’s rare that a competent band produces an album that’s ALL bad, so we get the minor blessing of a pretty song like “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 1″. Albums like this are what iTunes was invented for.

My Morning Jacket - “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 1″

Bedroom philosophy

I’m not the first person to observe that Australian indie music sticks pretty closely to a safe template of mid-90s Britpop and 70s rock ‘n’ roll. So it’s always exciting when an artist comes along who doesn’t have time for any kind of categorisation.

Melbourne’s Ned Collette’s blend of acoustic folk and weird bedroom electronic experimentalism isn’t unique in itself - Machine Translations’ J Walker has been doing something similar for years - but he has an ability to use those same ingredients to make something idiosyncratic.

Take the droning, looped melody of “Sell Your Life”, with Collette’s mantra-like vocals - you could probably pigeonhole it into a genre, but it wouldn’t do any sort of justice at all.

His album from last year, Future Suture, seems to have garnered some local fans and critical support, but he’s a long way from filling even mid-sized venues.  I guess that’s the price you pay for being one of a kind.

Ned Collette -  “Sell Your Life”

More dour Scottish music

I’ve been on a major Malcolm Middleton kick since seeing him at the Hopetoun a few weeks back. Prior to the show, I only knew him as the guitar-playing half of the late, legendary miserabilists Arab Strap. While his solo material is less idiosyncratic (very few bands had a more distinct sound than the Strap), it’s got a lot of charm and humour.

Actually, Malcolm seems to relish the opportunities of self-deprecation and negativity. He didn’t smile much throughout the gig - and when you’re singing about death and heartbreak for an hour, that’s to be expected - but he cracked jokes throughout and you know he’s working a shtick as much as anything else. As he sings on “A Week Off”, “It’s easy hating yourself, it’s harder making it rhyme”.

His latest album, Sleight of Heart, is a bit of retreat from the full-band rock of last year’s A Brighter Beat, with mostly acoustic moodiness. In fact, it’s closer to his live show, which is just Malcolm, a guitar and an icebucket full of beer. The live show is pretty well documented on the limited edition Live at the Bush Hall, even if it was recorded a couple of years back. For a mix of jaunty melodies and scathing lyrics, it’s worth tracking down Malcolm’s albums or catching him live.

For now - here’s a taster.

Malcolm Middleton - “A Week Off”

Malcolm Middleton - “Break My Heart (live)”

Return from the dead

Despite their place as one of my favourite bands back in my late uni days, Death Cab for Cutie lost my love around about the time I heard a song called “Expo ‘86″.

Honestly, it’s not a bad song and even the rest of 2003’s Transatlanticism had some great moments. But it was lacking a secret ingredient that had made the earlier albums so extraordinary. Nothing they did in the subsequent four years quite won me back.

Ben Gibbard - Cath… (solo version)

Of course, Death Cab didn’t need my love. They were writing the songs they wanted to write, producing albums the way they wanted to produce them and selling them by the bucketload. So the news that the latest album, Narrow Stairs, has brought an old fan back will be of no importance to Ben Gibbard and Co.

The biggest difference is the return of the rock. The jittery guitars that are spread throughout the album remind me of how they used to be lumped in with Built to Spill by critics. The thundering drums remind me of how The Photo Album of 2002 was full of storming power-pop, rather than ballads.

It’s not perfect and some of the lyrics are uninspired and uninspiring. But songs like “Cath…”, “No Sunlight” and “Long Division” remind me of the Death Cab I used to love and can maybe love again.

Death Cab for Cutie - “No Sunlight”

Death Cab for Cutie - “Long Division”

Wistful thinking

Five years is a long time in electronic music. Trends move so quickly and today’s buzz artist is tomorrow’s complete irrelevance. So it’s interesting to see how a band that sounded so “now” in 2003 decides to approach 2008.

The Notwist’s Neon Golden was the undisputed high-point of the “lap-pop” revolution that-never-really-was. Along with the Postal Service and Lali Puna and a host of lesser-known (Clue to Kalo) and lesser (Styrofoam) acts, they were united by dramatic chord changes and glitchy percussion.

Things have moved along, as they always do. Electronic indie pop has simultaneously become more danceable (Hot Chip), more emotional (Junior Boys) and a hell of a lot darker (The Knife). Where do a bunch of sensitive Germans who haven’t released an album (barring the 13 & God side-project) in half a decade go?

Turns out they’re just doing more of the same. Whereas Neon Golden seemed part of a scene and part of a time, The Devil, You + Me sounds like nothing so much as The Notwist. I guess they just worked out that no one sounded quite like them and that they get away with making only minimal changes.

It’s less glitchy, less gimmicky. But it’s full of moody sounds and moodier lyrics. It makes me think that The Notwist of 2013 will be more or less like this, and that that won’t be a bad thing at all.

The Notwist - “Good Lies”

The Notwist - “Gloomy Planets”

Tonight wherever

I got very excited a couple of years ago when Mark Kozelek announced his album of Modest Mouse cover versions, Tiny Cities. A lots of critics dumped on it even before they’d heard it, but I quite liked the songs - at least initially. The big problem was that an album of slow acoustic finger-picking and melancholy vocals all starts to sound a bit same-ish after a while.

Kozelek has the same problem here with his third album with Sun Kil Moon, April. And this time the album is over an hour long. It’s really beautiful in places and I’m a fan of the Sun Kil Moon sound - Neil Young by way of a liquor cabinet and a bottle of sleeping pills. The issue is, once again, that it’s just one “sound” most of the way through.

This wasn’t an issue with album #1, Ghosts of the Great Highway, which mixed up a range of loud and soft and upbeat and downbeat bits. As a result, it’s one of the best alt-country-rock albums you’ll ever hear.

Still, April has its standouts. For my money, “Tonight in Bilbao” is this album’s answer to Ghosts’ “Duk Koo Kim” - the epic, devastating song to soundtrack your darkest nights. Even if Kozelek isn’t recapturing the whole genius of his old record, he’s still in touch with some of it.

Sun Kil Moon - “Tonight in Bilbao”

Them

I’m not quite sure in what movie I first came across Zooey Deschanel, but it was crush at first sight, I’m certain.  Of course, the first thing to kill a celebrity crush tends to be some kind of ill-advised vanity project.  Luckily, Zooey’s recent attempt at a musical career turns out to be pretty well-advised.

First up, she’s collaborated with M. Ward.  Always a good idea.  Secondly, she’s written her own material - the surest sign that she’s serious about music (c.f. ScarJo’s Tom Waits covers album).  Thirdly, Zooey has some talent for this singer-songwriter thing.  Not an amazing voice, but one that’s idiosyncratic and interesting.  And the “vanity project” tag doesn’t seem fair when she’s releasing her work under a strange band-name.

Fan boys everwhere are wetting themselves.

She and Him - “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”

Best band in a supporting role

Support acts are a great way to discover new music. They are also occasionally a one-way ticket to the land of Suck. Saturday night at Jens Lekman, it was definitely the former.

Second-up for the night was Gary Olson, a name that meant nothing to me. It turns out he’s the lead singer of The Ladybug Transistor - Elephant 6ers from way back. Not a band I’d ever paid much attention to, but Gary’s rendition of their songs with an motley crew of musicians from other bands was stellar. Olson is a laid-back indie everyman, but his rich baritone makes me think of crooners from the olden days and his trumpeting is excellent.

I picked up the Transistor’s 2007 album and it’s a goodie. Especially the stand-out (for me) from his set the other night, “I’m Not Mad Enough”. Yet another example of why I show up to gigs before 9 pm.

The Ladybug Transistor - “I’m Not Mad Enough”

Song for Hilary

I’ve been getting quite excited by the US presidential race, even if I’m not so excited by any of the candidates. This Hilary comeback is quite something - worthy of a song dedication, I think.

And what better song than one called “Ohio”. Sure, it’s about an abduction, but then Neil Young’s song was about a college massacre. Why doesn’t anyone write cheery songs about the midwest? Except for Sufjan Stevens, that is. Mind you, I went to Ohio back in December, and I wasn’t inspired to write jaunty melodies.

Also, this song is a hell of a lot better than that awful “Hilary for you and me” song.

Damien Jurado - “Ohio”