Nick Lowe: “Quiet Please…The New Best of Nick Lowe”

Nick Lowe may be one of the most underrated songwriters of the 20th century. His career has spanned roughly four decades and has included band work with pub rockers Brinsley Schwarz and the brilliant Rockpile as well a solo career that has been full of some truly wonderful songs. Sadly, for many listeners, he may be known only for his production work with Elvis Costello or penning the late 70s hit, “Cruel to Be Kind.” This new collection of Lowe’s work, Quiet Please…The New Best of Nick Lowe, will hopefully introduce more listeners to what they’ve been missing. And there is plenty here to be introduced to, two discs and forty-nine tracks worth, in fact.

The last “best of” collection of Nick Lowe’s work, 1989’s Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe, focused on Lowe’s skill as a rocking pop genius–revealing him to be well-deserving of the nickname “Basher” as he could bash out these pop gems in the studio better than almost anyone. Quiet Please tells a different story.

Essential Tune: Bob Dylan’s “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”

“Beyond here lies nothin’ but the mountains of the past.”

Mark it down, one of the best songs of 2009 has been released on March 30. Right now at Bob Dylan.com you can stream a new song, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin.” You can also download it there for free TODAY ONLY! So get over there.

This is the first song we’ve heard from Dylan’s forthcoming album, Together Through Life (April 28), and it sounds spectacular. Dylan growls and snarls as horns, an accordion, and a dirty blues guitar back him up and carry this southern-tango into some timeless era on the border between the US and Mexico. The song boasts an energy that we haven’t seen in Dylan since 2001’s “Love and Theft” and it weds a sense of mystery with a menacing playfulness in a way that only Bob Dylan has mastered. It seems that as he gets older, he just gets better. He’s continuing an exploration of American music traditions that has kept him busy for the last fifteen years, proving that no one can conjure up ghosts from dusty American music like him.

April 28th cannot get here fast enough.

Go stream/download it!

Leonard Cohen: “Live in London”

Leonard Cohen is one of those rare artists (along with Tom Waits and Bob Dylan) that has maintained a high level of excellence over a lengthy career. Since these three artists occupy a category all their own, they have amassed fans of all ages and backgrounds who are deeply moved and devoted to their music. The difference is, Waits and Dylan have been recording and touring over the last fifteen years; meanwhile, Cohen has done a little recording, spent lots of time as a recluse including five years as a Zen Buddist monk, and done zero touring. So you can imagine the excitement in 2008 when one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century, at the age of 73,  announced that he would be doing a tour. Fortunately for those of us who were not able to attend these shows, we now have Live in London, a splendid recording of a July 2008 show in London. And it is a record that proves that sometimes waiting patiently pays off big.

On Repeat: Dinosaur Jr.’s “I Don’t Want to Go There”

“I Don’t Want to Go There” from the upcoming album, Farm, to be released by Jagjaguwar on 6.23.09.

Few bands better scratch that good old rock’n'roll itch like Dinosaur Jr. Their unexpected reunion of the original line-up a couple years ago resulted in an album called Beyond that seemed too good to be true and was one of the best records of 2007. Even more unlikely is that fact that they have recently signed to a new label, Jagjaguwar, and are releasing a new album called Farm on June 23.

In true Dinosaur Jr. fashion the cover (pictured below) features a weird/creepy image of those Lord of the Rings walking trees and naked kids???? (Sadly, no people-swallowing couches this time around.)

Amadou & Mariam: “Welcome to Mali”

You’d be hard pressed to find a better fairy tale story in music than the one of African pop stars, Amadou & Mariam. Both were born in Mali, a French-speaking country in Western Africa, and both became blind early in life. They met in 1975 at Mali’s Bamako Institute for the Young Blind. They became close through their mutual love of music as they headed up the artistic programs at the school. They married in 1980 and officially became a musical group. In 1985, they toured outside of Mali for the first time and their popularity began to grow in Africa. In the mid-nineties, they began to perform in Europe and in the early 2000s their albums began to earn them fame and critical praise throughout Africa and Europe (gaining the attention of Blur/Gorillaz frontman, Damon Albarn, who produces a few tracks here). It is with Welcome to Mali (released in the fall of 2008 in Europe and Africa and the spring of 2009 in the US) that their music is earning attention throughout the rest of the world and the United States. And this record, which will carry their name to the rest of the world, is actually more amazing than their fascinating bio and certainly worthy of the accolades that it is receiving.

Marco Benevento: “Me Not Me”

Pianist Marco Benevento released his debut solo album, Invisible Baby, last year and it was one of the most creative, bizarre, and enjoyable records of the year. Benevento, acting as both mad scientist and skilled musician, crafted an album that combined jazz, rock, and pop into an instrumental tapestry that had a hand in a plethora of genres and yet broke them all.  In other words, it was an album of massive creativity and undeniable individuality. So, after a record as outrageous and imaginative as Invisible Baby, where do you go next? Well, having demonstrated his unique abilities as a song-scientist and melody-madman, Benevento has recorded a follow-up album titled Me Not Me, in which he demonstrates his skill as song interpreter. Me Not Me is a ten-track gem which includes three original compositions and seven covers from all over the spectrum of popular music.

Half of the charm of Me Not Me is in Benevento’s song selection. There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to his choices other than his own musical tastes. If Invisible Baby sounded like Benevento’s wildly artistic wedding of studio and laboratory, then Me Not Me sounds like he spent the weekend at home playing some of his favorite songs and turning them upside down and inside out– just because he wants to, and it’s fun. You can learn a lot about someone by looking at their record collection, and Benevento’s choices here reflect a well-rounded musical history and make Me Not Me a surprisingly personal recording. 

WAVVES: “WAVVVES”

I had a small hunch that WAVVES was going to be a big deal– and I think it’s safe to say that my hunch was correct. Much of the indie corner of the internet is abuzz with a twenty-two year-old San Diego native, Nathan Williams, who is WAVVES. He really has everything it takes to become an underground star. He’s a young, relatively handsome, punky-looking guy who blogs about classic hip-hop and records music in his apartment. His recordings are of the indie punk variety and his guitar and vocals are covered in a layer of noisy fuzz placing him squarely in the noise pop arena. This really couldn’t have happened at a better time since 2008 saw two noise pop records, No Age’s Noun and Vivian Girls’ self-titled debut, receive quite a bit of critical buzz. WAVVES also had the good (?) fortune of being lauded by Pitchfork in early March following a segment on ABC in January in which they considered WAVVES to be one of the next big things on the horizon.

And WAVVES is a relative newcomer to the music world in that before now he’s only released a few 7’s, an EP, and a self-titled cassette all during 2008. Originally, this record, confusingly titled WAVVVES (notice the extra “V”) was to be released by De Stijl in February but due to the increasing buzz WAVVES moved over to Fat Possum instead, pushing the release of his album  to March. This was probably a good move if for no other reason than that it gave Williams a bit more time to think about the record and he made a few significant changes to it–taking a few tracks off and adding a few tracks including the both tracks from a two-song 7″, “Beach Demon” and “Weed Demon.” The final album is substantially stronger than what was to be released originally. Yet, despite its strengths, WAVVVES is a record that loses its charms after repeat listens.

N.A.S.A.: “The Spirit of Apollo”

Yes, that does appear to be a KKK-esque Jedi standing between two lifeless Apollo astronauts under two rockets blasting off in the shadow of a giant disco ball– and I know your first thought: this is probably one of the best albums of the year so far– and you would be correct. N.A.S.A. (which stands for North America South America) is DJs Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon from North America and South America, respectively. And their goal, as stated on the one-minute “Intro,” is to bring together East Coast and West Coast hip-hop as well as North American and South American artists and musical traditions. It’s nice and easy when a record tells you up front what it’s goal is, but great records usually don’t have to explicitly do this, they just do it so well that their aim is unmistakable. The Spirit of Apollo is a great record and it is clear from the get-go that they are all about using music to unite people and cultures. It’s a lofty goal, but it’s one that they achieve with relative ease.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of The Spirit of Apollo is the breadth of their cast. This record features members of the Wu Tang Clan (living and dead), members of Jurassic 5, various rappers from the East and West coasts, singers from South America and Europe, indie rock stars, and two of pop music’s icons in David Byrne and Tom Waits. These folks didn’t just drop by a studio for five minutes to contribute a chorus, many of them receive writing credits as well– this makes for an album full of different voices and ideas.

DM Stith: “Heavy Ghost”

On his full-length debut, Heavy Ghost, DM Stith sings like Antony Hegarty with less warbling, combines pianos and guitars with strange electronic flourishes in a way that is, at times, reminiscent of Radiohead, creates dense atmospheres that are spookier than Grizzly Bear’s, and crafts bizarre, nearly orchestral arrangements like Sufjan Stevens– and yet, he has made one of the most unique records I’ve heard in a long time. This is appropriate as nearly everything about this record is a contradiction. DM Stith (aka David Stith) was discovered by Sufjan Stevens and signed to Stevens’ own Asthmatic Kitty Records and it appears Stith has learned a lot from Stevens about arrangements, but whereas Stevens’ compositions often seem light, friendly, and sort of repetitive, DM Stith prefers to explore darker areas musically and lyrically. Heavy Ghost appears to be a deeply personal and honest record and yet, Stith sings in one of the first lines of the record,”I’m leaving out all the parts I don’t like.” A few songs later, he comes around and adds, “I’m leaving out all the parts I don’t believe in.” On top of this, even the album’s title is contradictory.

Yet, Heavy Ghost is appropriately titled and true to its name, it is a spooky, haunting recording with a heavy darkness running through its twelve songs. Heavy Ghost is brimming with a dark spirituality as it tosses and turns through personal ghosts and demons, shameful hiding from the divine, frightening scenes of fiery destruction, and even more frightening scenes of divine grace. As demonstrated in the writing of Flannery O’Connor, the Christian faith can be a dark, frightening, and glorious experience– David Stith has captured these frightening aspects to tape as well as anyone else ever has. At times, Heavy Ghost provides moments of eerie quiet in which piano benches creak, a throat is cleared, a faraway clock ticks, and ghostly choirs shuffle around the attic, and then there are moments of stormy, apocalyptic chaos. Stith has mastered both and utilizes them on this record to craft music that is startling, memorable, and dramatic.

However, many people could listen to this album and hear none of what I’ve just described, because above all Heavy Ghost is cloaked in murky mystery. Stith sings in riddles and images, painting an emotional landscape rather than narrating a traditional story. We are led through images of blind animals in water, birds on fire, slick licorice roads, and stars gathering around a “thanksgiving moon.” Pianos, guitars, strings, and drums make up the building blocks of these songs, yet, Stith’s steady hand arranges them with electronic whispers and haunted choirs and creates bizarre set of songs that sounds like little we’ve heard before.

The record opens with a creaky, old piano giving us little groans of age with every pounding chord. As the first of many ghoulish choirs moan in the background, Stith sings, “I’ve gone in,” and without realizing it, we have embarked with him on a dark spiritual pilgrimage which will carry us through the rest of the album. “Pity Dance” creates a tight, weird world which the rest of the record explores. It slowly grows as each instrument to appear on the album joins in the chaos and a trajectory is set with lines like “shock horror shock horror shock horror hallelujah.” Many of the records darkest songs appear near its beginning. “Creekmouth” thumps along with its primitive, swampy rhythms and a murky sludge of instruments. It explores and points to a darkness within as Stith beckons in an eerie falsetto, “Open your creekmouth, your cankered waters, rising out, you’re rising out.” These songs dogleg into unexpected and uncharted territories. Stith pulls you along on a journey which is both unsettling and irresistible.

The drama builds as the record progresses. “Morning Glory Cloud” begins modestly with a simple acoustic guitar kept in line by hand claps but a host of voices and instruments soon follow as they begin cycling in and out of the background. Stith sings “I’ve been hiding…You won’t catch me, I know this street/And I’ve got my own policies, I’ve got my own policies/But the divining ray is threatening to illuminate everything/Everything I have been hiding.” One would be hard pressed to find a more personal description of the fear of God in pop music. An apocalyptic piano arrives just in time to finish this song in a fit of holy terror.

But a light pierces through the darkness by the end of the record on “Braid of Voices,” which may be the best song here. Gentle piano chords move along while other pianos ripple in the background like harps. “In my dreams I watch TV/I’m blue inside, I’m the blue light” he sings in a wounded voice. The song builds to a glorious crescendo and it answers a question posed in an earlier song: “Did you call, did you call my name?” The answer, we discover, is yes: “A braid of voices: David, David.” The record comes to a close on a “holy mountain” and like many dark journeys, we learn that the one on Heavy Ghost is an ascent– and it’s one you’ll want to make again and again.

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“Pity Dance”

Stream the entire album here.

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DM Stith
Heavy Ghost
Asthmatic Kitty, 2009
Rating: 4.5/5.0

Top Ten Films of 2008

Things have been moving a bit slowly around Tone Marrow Reviews the past couple of weeks, but, hopefully, that will change soon beginning in an unexpected way with this post. This is the introduction of a new occasional feature around here called Film Foray. I’ll post a review or an appreciation for films both classic and contemporary. However, the primary focus of Tone Marrow Reviews will continue to be on covering new music.

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I’m neither a film critic nor the son of a film critic, so I didn’t see all of the critically acclaimed films of 2008, though I did see some great ones. Of those that I got to see, here were my favorite ten.

10. Slumdog Millionaire (dir. Danny Boyle)

Is Slumdog Millionaire a fairy tale that honors the Indian culture and Bollywood cinema, or is it the other way around? It’s difficult to say because it does both so well. Slumdog was honored with the Best Picture Oscar a few weeks ago which serves as a bit of a change of pace for that award after the past two winners, 2006’s The Departed and 2007’s No Country for Old Men, were substantially darker films. Like any story of redemption, this one takes a long, arduous trek through a young man’s very hard life before he gets on a popular, Indian game show which changes his life forever. Slumdog Millionaire, despite a few flaws, is a helpful reminder that, in life, the bitter makes the sweet so much sweeter.

9. Man on Wire (dir. James Marsh)

Man on Wire is a documentary focused on what many have called “the artistic crime of the twentieth century.” French entertainer, Philippe Petit, walked on a tightrope between the Twin Towers in 1974. The story is told by those who were involved, including Petit himself, who tells his story far better than any dramatization ever could. However, the film does recreate many of the scenes leading up to and following the stunt and these scenes have the same feel as a bank heist. There are also home videos and photos used in the telling of Petit’s amazing and inspiring story which add an intimate touch to the film. Though there is no mention of the eventual fate of the Twin Towers, it is always present in the viewer’s mind which adds a layer of emotional resonance to the story. This is Petit’s tale from start to finish so it ultimately serves as a celebration of art and dreams, and yet, it’s impossible to deny the therapeutic power this documentary will have for those who remember that fateful day in 2001.

8. Rachel Getting Married (dir. Jonathan Demme)

Rachel Getting Married is about a weekend in one family’s life during which Rachel, well, gets married. Yet the focus of this story is not on Rachel but on her fresh-out-of-rehab-sister, Kym, played by Anne Hathaway in one of my favorite performances of the year. The film is shot with hand-held cameras almost like a documentary and it gives the viewer a sense of really participating in the lives of this family as well as all the baggage they’re carrying. I felt like I was sitting at the table during the rehearsal dinner which Kym nearly crashes with a terribly awkward speech; I felt like I was celebrating on the dance floor during the reception; and, for just a short time, I felt that I was a part of this severely dysfunctional family and as a result, this film provided gave me with the most emotional, heart-breaking viewing experience I had in 2008.

7. In Bruges (dir. Martin McDonagh)

In Bruges is the best movie that the Coen Brothers never made. The story of two hit men going to Bruges to wait out a botched hit back in London includes hilarious dialogue, emotional performances, and an ending that boasts shocking violence, chilly irony, and a truly bizarre scene which manages to reunite most of the characters from the film. Not a scene or line of dialogue is wasted and the script is one of the most original in years. Collin Ferrell gives a brilliant performance which is both hilarious and heart-wrenching. And yet, through all of this, the film prods deeper pondering questions about sin, forgiveness, and purgatory in a very compelling, thought-provoking way.

6. Shotgun Stories (dir. Jeff Nichols)

William Shakespeare’s tragedy meets Flannery O’Connor’s gothic South in Shotgun Stories. It’s a modern day tale of a father who had two families: one he loved and one he deserted. When the father dies, the sons try to sort through their thoughts about him and their hatred for each other. It is a movie about revenge and family ties and as things escalate and blood is shed, you just know in your gut that this can’t have a good ending. The conclusion is, indeed, unexpected and shocking.

5. Doubt (dir. John Patrick Shanley)

Doubt is adapted from a play and it’s simplicity and starkness still carry a bit of that feel. My favorite Director of Photography, Roger Deakins, photographed this movie and the straightforward manner, which he lends to the Coen Brothers so often, works perfectly here. Doubt is a film about crimes in the church, speculation, gossip, certainty, and doubt. It’s no coincidence that all four major parts here were nominated for acting Oscars, these were easily four of the best performances of the year. Philip Seymour Hoffman gives one of the most charitable portrayals of a Christian on the silver screen in quite some time (depending on how you interpret the film, of course–I’ve given away my interpretation with this sentence). The play, on which the film was based, bore a subtitle: “A Parable.” That’s appropriate because this is a story that is trying to teach us something– exactly what depends on how you view it’s ending. Allegedly, the writer/director, John Patrick Shanley, was inspired to write the play when America invaded Iraq looking for WMDs– now that opens up a whole new realm of possible meanings.

4. Synecdoche, NY (dir. Charlie Kaufman)

A sprawling mess of a movie– it is the exact opposite of Doubt, though ironically, both feature incredible performances by Philip Seymour Hoffman. This marks Kaufman’s first time behind the camera as director and we find what is perhaps the most ambitious, overwhelming film of 2008. Kaufman asks us to consider the human life and how the passing of time, the decay of the human body, and the way we view our lives affects the way we live. When I walked out of the theater I thought it was the worst film I’d ever seen, 24 hours later, I wondered if it might be the best film I’d ever seen. As it turns out, it was only the fourth best of 2008. However, this movie is so rich, so deep, and so layered with ideas and questions that it really ought to be digested on multiple viewings. If I’d had the chance to see it a second time, there’s a strong possibility that it would have placed even higher on this list.

3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (dir. Cristian Mungiu)

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a Romanian film about a college student seeking an illegal abortion in Communist-controlled Romania during the 1980s. Though Gabriela is the one seeking the abortion, the focus of the film is on her friend, Otilia, who is helping her. Otilla is in nearly every scene of the film and is brilliantly portrayed by Anamaria Marinca who carries the film on her squarely on her shoulders. 4 Months, 3 Weeks is composed of these long, slow-burning shots that draw the viewer into this world with which most Westerners have little experience. The film is a stark view at how Communism strips people of human dignity and teaches them not to think in moral terms. While, the movie doesn’t appear to preach a certain agenda regarding abortion, the much-talked-about climactic shot of the film has been described by some as one of the most compelling pro-life arguments ever made.

2. WALL*E (dir. Andrew Stanton)

PIXAR is pretty much an unstoppable force in cinema these days as they have boldly proven that animated films don’t have to be just for kids. WALL*E is a special film that combines elements of the silent film era, romance, science fiction, comedy, a dash of the musical, and it’s enjoyable family film to boot! The animation is gorgeous, the characters are fully realized (though they many of them are robots), and the story is just stellar. As fun as it is, there is also a poignant message here as well– we were created for relationships and community, not for the rugged individualism that is so valued today. In Genesis God declared that it was not good for man to be alone, and WALL*E shows us that by way of a robot. PIXAR has been responsible for some spectacular films, but WALL*E is now their crowning achievement.

1. The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan)

It may seem a bit odd that a list containing a documentary, a foreign film, and a slew of independent features would be topped with the blockbuster of the year, but that is just a testament to how spectacular this movie really is. Though it isn’t a flawless film, it is my favorite of 2008 because it gave me the greatest cinematic experience of the year (twice in theaters and one unforgettable viewing in IMAX). The Dark Knight was a fearlessly dark film which got my blood pumping and had my mind reeling– a rare treat in contemporary cinema. Another compelling factor is Heath Ledger’s iconic performance as the Joker which will be stuck in our memory for years to come. This is a morality tale with many philosophical underpinnings and it’s also a very relevant movie for the world of the 21st century as it boldly asks how we are to deal with terrorists and terrorism. I’m not sure that it makes a definitive statement on the invasion and protection of civil liberties as some have claimed, but it has gotten people talking and isn’t that what great art is meant to do?

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For What It’s Worth, 11-15:
Paranoid Park, Chop Shop, Pineapple Express, Flight of the Red Balloon, The Wrestler