"Here comes the feeling you thought you'd forgotten." - "Horchata"

Vampire Weekend's sophomore album, Contra, establishes as a fantastic winter album by not being one. Some albums are great for the dark of winter because they make you want to stay home by the fire with hot cocoa and a good book. What makes Contra so great for winter is that it reminds you that fun can be had during winter too. Maybe this will change as time goes on and I hear it in different seasons, but right now this album reminds me of driving on a early winter's morning, as the dim sun rises over a snow covered golf course. Beautiful and a little bit preppy. 

Contra doesn't possess the same punchy character as their debut, but it is certainly good in its own right, and I've only come to like it more the more I've listened to it. Perhaps more importantly, it accomplishes the goal of a sophomore album: it sounds enough like the first one to be well received by fans, but also not just a direct repeat of previous material. In fact, the album starts in a place musically close to the first album, but pushes further and further away as the album progresses. 

The synths are more prominent here, and definitely listening to Discovery's LP from band member Rostam Batmanglij was good preparation for listening to this album. This is especially true of "California English" and "Diplomat's Son," two electronic heavy romps, the later of which includes a sample from MIA. 

Everyone has commented on how Vampire Weekend songs are littered with highbrow references, but I don't think that's what matters. It's really the fact that these cultural ornaments are weaved seamlessly into lush melodies with a texture not unlike chunky peanut butter. Its an album that feels like a Wes Anderson movie: deliberately scripted, well executed, and done up in Futura. 

Also check out Pitchfork's review here. 

Here are my favorite eight albums from this year: 

8. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Most people are not shocked that I had never heard of Animal Collective until a month ago. This is because most people have not heard of Animal Collective. Briefly sampling their back catalogue via the Interwebs, I know why. Most people don’t like avant-anything. This is why MPP is a revelation. After apparent years of experimenting on the fringes of pop music, Animal Collective ride back from the wilderness on biomechanical creations—like Terminators that are made to love and dance.

Listening to the album is a good experience, and it’s not in-your-face so much as in-your-mind. The album functions on a fairly deep level, with synth and bass lines swirling around steady vocals. This is the kind of thing that makes me love End of the Blank Lists, because without them, I still would not have heard of Animal Collective. Thank you, music media prophets. This makes up for your obsession with Grizzly Bear.

Key Tracks: “My Girls,” “Summertime Clothes,” “Brother Sport”

Summertime Clothes - Animal Collective

There are not enough good bands with lead female vocalists, although this decade’s biggest trend—bands with vocal leads of both genders (Arcade Fire, The Hush Sound, Silversun Pickups)—is a welcome move. Alongside the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Metric’s Emily Haines is like a mother hen of indie rock. She leads the pack from the rear, often worrying more for groups other than her own. More guitar driven than their previous work, this is a welcome shift.

Fantasies opens with “Help, I’m Alive,” and “Sick Muse,” both have extremely well constructed hooks and driving guitars, which in turn shape the baseline of the album. The syth still sparkles, especially on “Satellite Mind,” and “Twilight Galaxy,” which leaves you with a bright and happy feeling.  Despite some of the feelings expressed on the album, seeing Metric at a show this past week, you can tell Haines and Co. have a blast playing these songs. What some “serious indie bands” forget is that music is fun, and that’s exactly to what this album aspires. I could write a several pages long pontification about how the lyric “Who would you rather be/The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?” is a metaphor for different kinds of relationships, but it could easily just be the fun kinds of questions us Rob Gordon-types ask each other.

Key Tracks: “Help, I’m Alive,” “Gimme Sympathy,” “Twilight Galaxy”

Help Im Alive - Metric

6. Mastodon - Crack the Skye

Mastodon may be the most important metal band of today, and this is not because Crack the Skye may be the first modern metal album I have truly loved. Simultaneously a throwback to the days of progressive rock and a torch leading the way to metal of tomorrow, Crack the Skye exists apart from the ‘thrash metal’ that dominated the post-hair metal hard rock scene.  Bringing in Brendan O’Brien as producer on this disc was a very wise move. His trademark is texture, and helps make the layers of sound work towards a higher purpose, as well as making the vocals truly shine (a rarity for metal bands today, IMO). Everything was accessible if you were in the right state of mind. Or maybe two tracks longer than ten minutes on an album doesn’t bother me because I listen to Rush.

Mastodon blows right past accessible and shoots for cosmically epic. There’s something beautiful in the texture of this album. The pounding drums and the spinning riffs on the opener “Oblivion” meld into something not unlike chunky peanut butter, smooth and crunchy at the same time. This goes the same for “Divinations,” as well, which is easily my favorite song on the album. The guitar solo on here sounds like Muse’s “Knights of Cydonia” or perhaps more true—Satriani’s “Surfing With the Alien,” and is a more ethereal version of space-surf. This is a band unafraid to sing about the Czar and Rasputin for ten minutes. This is a metal band that is unafraid to have a banjo open a single. And no fear is good. Very good indeed.

Key Tracks: “Divinations,” “The Last Baron”

There may be no band in the history of popular music more controversial among its own fans than Weezer. Most of Weezer's fans are my age or older, discovering Weezer in the wake of their 2001 album or from their first album in 1994. Among these fans and most music critics, Weezer's debut album and 1996's Pinkerton are the high points of their career. 

One of the reason for the success of early Weezer is that geeks finally had a band they could identify with. Weezer spoke to people who were outsiders in high school as peers, on their level, and in a way they understood. This trend continued into 2002's Maladroit, which while good, showed Cuomo's limits as a person on the outside. 

You see, what made Pinkerton such a later success (and the most influential album of the past 15 years) is Cuomo's heartfelt and personal lyrics. He perfectly captured the feelings of being an outsider, not being able to get the girl, loneliness, not being cool, etc. 

Flash forward to 2005's Make Believe, and "Beverly Hills." Something hand changed. Rivers Cuomo got happy. Basically, from the fans' perspective, this is a disaster. I quite like Make Believe, and I actually think it's better than Maladroit. However, last year's Red Album was an absolute disaster. Some of the songs were fun, but it was like cereal with too many marshmallows. So sweet and sacchrine, you get sick before you finish the bowl. 

And that brings us to Raditude. It is so obvious that Cuomo is a great pop song writer, and he really enjoys writing songs. However, he is only good writing in a pseudo-autobiographical manner. Given that Cuomo is married with children and seems to be really freakin' happy about it. 

Raditude is meant to be an ironic party album. The album you pop in when all your friends are drunk...ironically. It's meant for older hipsters who want to love pop but are too cool for it. Basically, if you're cool enough to listen to Weezer and can survive Miley Cyrus, this might be the greatest albums of all time. 

Moreso than their previous effort, the songs are catchy, if shallow-seeming, and the band has a much more cohesive sound. "(If Your Wandering If I Want You To) I Want You To" is my favorite song on the album, and the best song they've done in four years. Also, "The Girl Got Hot," is an excellent high school revenge fantasy when you consider that Cuomo is the girl in question. 

None of this can explain the embarrassment I feel over even listening to "Can't Stop Partying," which seems to be destined to be the new "Fight For Your Right." Expect most people to miss the point. 

Overall, I actually really enjoyed the album, but as a long time Weezer fan, I almost hate myself for liking it at all. 

I chose this week’s album out of excitement in finding out that Iggy Pop’s 1977 album, Lust for Life, was a heavily collaboration with David Bowie. I’ve been on a Bowie-kick as of late, but I was listening to Lust for Life today and just need to write about it. 

Album info at Last.fm

First of all, this is a fun album. It may get dark and deep throughout, but remain fun throughout. Iggy Pop wrote most of the albums lyrics, and Bowie dominated the musical direction. It’s one of those albums that has a distinct sound, which each track part of a larger sonic whole. The drums are especially well recorded here, with some of the best cymbal crashes I’ve ever heard on a record. 

It opens with the title track, which is probably Pop’s most famous song. With its distinctive drum beat and infectious guitar riff, the song can’t help but get stuck in your head for the rest of the day. The song is about Pop rediscovering what to live for and dealing with drug and alcohol rehab. Though some of the lyrics here seem negative, it’s largely an affirmative song. Easily one of the greatest rock songs of all time, and a great Side One Track One. The Australian band Jet also owes pretty much their entire career to this song. 

Drug abuse and recovery are the common themes running throughout the album, including “Some Weird Sin,” “Tonight,” and “Turn Blue.” Later covered by Bowie himself, “Tonight” has a really cool 50’s-style introduction. Here Pop deals with addiction and recovery. This may be the best anti-drug record ever made. 

“The Passenger” may be my favorite song on the album, as it has a fantastic guitar riff and a nice driving beat. The lyrics are simply the point of view of a passenger in a car, making it a great driving song. Also, the pacing of the lyrics may have influenced Franz Ferdinand’s “Shopping for Blood” or Bell X1’s “The Great Defector,” but I could just be imagining things. 

I think the song where Bowie’s contribution is most felt is “Neighborhood Threat,” which also happens to be my second favorite on the album. Dark lyrics backed by busy keyboard, drums, and backing vocals, with the guitar joining but sometimes surging over, make the song surge with menace.

Overall, this is a fantastic album. 

“Craze, baby, the rainbow's end” - “Four Sticks”

If any album truly is representative of a “classic rock,” the fourth Led Zeppelin album is it. At least half of the album are staple songs on FM radio, and one is the purported to be the song with the most FM spins ever.

The release of this album, including the symbols, the lack of title, and the sleeve design,  was a reaction by the band to the negative and somewhat dismissive critical reception of Led Zeppelin III. It may have been the unfortunate timing in the wake of the overnight sensation that were Crosby, Stills and Nash. Led Zeppelin’s third album was criticized for being a departure from the raw, hard, rock of their first two albums for an embracing  more folksy and acoustic sound. Jimmy Page had this to say in an interview with Cameron Crowe:

That LP had just come out and because acoustic guitars had come to the forefront all of a sudden: LED ZEPPELIN GO ACOUSTIC! I thought, Christ, where are their heads and ears? There were three acoustic songs on the first album and two on the second.

The album was recorded in several stages, with a bulk of it done at Headley Grange, a house in East Hampshire, using the pioneering “mobile studio.”

I will definitely say that this is my favorite Led Zeppelin album, with each traffic building on the sound and the themes of the album: women and Lord of the Rings. This doesn’t exactly make it distinct from the rest of the catalogue, but to me this marks the high point of sheer creativity from the band. 

It opens with one of the best Side One, Track Ones in the history of pop music: “Black Dog.” Lyrically simple, the whole song is built around an idea for a rolling bass line by John Paul Jones. It also features a relatively simple drum pattern, however the music is all written in a series of shifting and complex time signatures, making it difficult to reproduce live without alteration. A rousing tour-de-force of a hard-driving rock song, it’s a perfect way to open the album. 

Following this is a fast-paced song built on the traditional 12-bar blues structure: “Rock and Roll.” First, I love two things about this song: one, the drum pickup by John Bonham that opens and song, and two, the fact that this sounds like pretty much the most amazing jam session ever recorded. The song feels organic and raw, and full of the energy of a live band. 

“The Battle of Evermore” follows, and this comes from the ‘acoustic’ side of Zeppelin. Essentially coming from Jimmy Page messing around on John Paul Jones’ mandolin. It’s an epic, sprawling song, detailing either a battle from Olde England or Tolkien. I would love to go back in time to teach this to medieval minstrels. Accompanying Robert Plant on vocals was Sandy Denny, who is the only additional vocalist ever on a Led Zeppelin track. All the voices come together nicely, and I think it’s my second favorite song on the album. 

Ahh, “Stairway to Heaven.” The only lyrics printed in the album jacket (and in a cool medieval font Plant found), it is truly Led Zeppelin’s signature song. It’s also possibly the most popular song never released as a single, as it was too long and the band refused to edit it down. Other than that, I’m not sure what else to say other than that it’s pretty obvious why this song is so epic.

Kicking off Side Two is “Misty Mountain Hop,” which has some of my favorite drums on any Led Zeppelin song, and this combined with the sheer fun of this song makes it my favorite. It’s a tour-de-force of rock featuring not only Bonham’s drums, but very nice and melodic play between the guitars and keyboards. If/when the Zep ever comes to Rock Band, this is the top of my list. 

“Four Sticks” is an abstract of a song, rhythmically complex and rich it sound. It was notoriously difficult to record, with the title of the song coming from the four drumsticks Bonham used during the song. Also, the lead guitar riff from “Rock and Roll” was born out of frustration of recording this song. 

The penultimate track on the album is also a personal favorite of mine. “Going to California” was reportedly written about Joni Mitchell. It also features the mandolin, and musically recalls the surf rock and folk rock movements, and certainly captures the feeling of California as a land of dreams, a place that could represent anything it needs to. 

The album closer is a cover of the Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie song “When the Levee Breaks,” written about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. It’s actually my least favorite song on the album. I appreciate the structure, but I think (sadly) the recording and slowing it down makes it feel overly muddy. 

Overall, this is obviously one of the best albums of all time, and when it comes down to it, the reason why is because each song is great, and how they fit together is even greater. Also on the list of things everyone should experience listening to on vinyl. 

“I don’t know you and you don’t know the half of it” - Dirty Day

Rock ‘n’ roll is the opposite of safe. It should be experimental and forward pushing, and a little dangerous. It was true when Elvis Presley ruled the charts, and it’s true today. I love bands who continue to experiment and push the limits of popular music as well as their own. Some of rock’s greatest artists are also its greatest innovators. The Beatles, Hendrix, and Brian Wilson all come to mind. U2 is also on that list. 

U2 is a fascinating band, especially when their transatlanticism is concerned. Throughout their careers, U2 have oscillated between Europe and America, creating an especially varied catalogue. Achtung Baby, their 1991 release, is definitely the best synthesis of the two, deftly spanning the sea between their 1987 masterwork The Joshua Tree with this week’s album, 1993’s Zooropa. 

This may be the last album that would be expected of a band that delivered such a heartfelt love letter to American roots-rock a mere six years prior. Even more jarring is that it was released during the height of both American grunge and Britpop, both of which also looked to earlier, less technologically complex forms of rock contrasting the over-produced albums of the 1980s. 

Rather than echo the melodic pop or wailing guitar solos of their contemporaries, U2 decided to make a record that captured the ‘new Europe’ of a reunited Germany and a fallen USSR. Achtung Baby was perched on the verge of the post-Cold War environment, but after three legs of the Zoo TV Tour, U2 felt the need to capture the historical moment as well as the media overload satire from the tour with new studio material. Originally conceived as an EP (a format that had always been more successful in Europe than America), to be recorded on break between tour legs, at Bono’s urging it was expanded into full LP-length. 

The result is something very European, and very Brian Eno driven. 

The title track opens the album, and fittingly the first part is based on a warmup jam the band was using at the time. It then fades into “Zooropa” proper, which outlays a vision of a future Europe by way of William Gibson’s cyberpunk, as Bono and The Edge had been reading Gibson’s work at the time. I think it’s my favorite song on the album, perhaps simply of the central conceit of using advertising slogans like “Be All That You Can Be” and “Better By Design” intermixed with ‘traditional’ lyrics. From this perspective, it reminds me of an affirmative version of what Thom Yorke would do in the early and mid-2000s with Kid A and Hail to the Thief. 

'That's what I want it to be. Legal drugs! Why else would you buy an album these days? Have you read anything by (William) Gibson? It's sort of fucked-up sci-fi. And ('Zooropa') shows you what I mean when I say the textures on this record were very much influenced by what he writes about the future.' -Bono, August 1993.

“Babyface” follows, an untraditional love ballad depicting a man pining over the woman he loves- a model/actress whose photo he is manipulating for a magazine. It brings the idea of celebrity and privacy as part of the media machine into the album, and does a nice job being a subtle jab at ever growing celebrity journalism. 

 “Numb” was a very unconventional lead single from the band that had scored big with anthemic hits like “Streets With No Name.” It’s an industrial-flavored spoken word track, and one of the few times The Edge has done the lead vocal tracks. It’s a list of ‘don’ts’ spoken over a guitar riff and other electronic “noise,” with the intent being to try and capture the feeling of media overload, making one “numb” to all of it. I have to say after listening to it three or four times, it really grows on you. Also, the pacing of The Edge’s lyrics reminds me a lot of M.I.A.’s hit “Paper Planes.” I would totally love to mashup the two.  

The video is notable on its own:

“Lemon” features Bono singing mostly in falsetto over extremely processed guitar sounds. The song is about voyeurism as well as the transience of man’s creations. “A man builds a city/With banks and cathedrals/A man melts the sand so he can/See the world outside” is probably one of my favorite U2 lyrics ever. I also think an acoustic version of this song would be pretty awesome. 

Perhaps in a out-of-place-at-first-glance addition to the album is “Stay (Faraway, So Close!),” which was written about Frank Sinatra. It has a very electronic sound, as is typical of the album, but the lyrics are actually very soulful and heartfelt. The chord progressions backing it are actually very classic, but remixed and processed to sound electronic and foreign, fitting in with the whole Zooropa theme. 

“Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car” may be my second favorite song on the album, and it begins with some interference and a very Eastern European-Soviet style horn clip. Immediately it is interrupted by industrial-flavored percussive and electronic sounds. Recounting a snapshot in the life of a young girl who has befriended a very generous older gentleman, it shows how she has nothing to worry about-- he takes care of everything-- but she feels alone. Sure, she has nice things, but she is totally dependent on him. 

“Some Days Are Better Than Others” is what I think of when I think of U2 in transition. It’s a very typical U2 vocal track. Bono’s singing and occasional backing by other band members over very electronica-style music. It makes for an interesting combination, especially as the latter crescendos halfway through the song. 

After listening for this review, “The First Time” is now one of my favorite U2 songs. It features some of Bono’s best use of Christian/Biblical imagery. It’s an excellent ballad, and sounds like nothing else on the album. Here’s a link to the lyrics, because I don’t know what else I can say about this song. 

“Dirty Day” takes a lot of its lyrics from things Bono’s dad would say, and they sound like what we in America think of as nuggets of Irish wisdom. “You can’t even remember/what I’m trying to forget” and “The days run away like horses over hills.” Perhaps the most powerful lyrics in the song, especially since the passing of Bono’s father in 2001:

Wake up
Somethings you can’t get around
I’m in you
More so when they put me in the ground

 Closing the album is a true meeting of digital and analog. Johnny Cash sings lead vocals in a song titled “The Wanderer” about a man searching for God in a post-apocalyptic world. Adam Clayton’s bass line, though distorted, is the predominant instrument here, and it serves as a distorted echo of the guitar work on Cash’s “I Walk the Line.” It’s a haunting song, and it truly shows of Cash as the master storyteller as well as being an awesome thematic coda for this idea of the future.

As a bonus, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me,” U2’s single from 1995’s Batman Forever. It easily could have been on this album, and would have fit thematically better than some others perhaps. It sounds like electronica-glam, and a true synthesis of that idea. It’s a fun song, playful and loud. Reminds me of neon lights. (Link to the video because embedding is disabled by Universal Music Group)

Overall, I think this is now a hidden gem in the U2 discography. In lieu of me prattling on more, here’s what bassist Adam Clayton had to say about it:

 "It occured to me... look at the history of the band and then the Zooropa album... and looking at the history of The Beatles, and everything they'd done and learned, and then suddenly...Sergeant Pepper, which redefined the whole ballgame, and produced a different language, a different sound. And I think Zooropa achieves a new language for Bono to use - a language that's more his own, that he feels more comfortable with... 

And musically, I think, we've defined, or found, a sound that we're entitled to use...It's a record deep with mystery for me.' -Adam speaking to John Waters for Race of Angels

Overall, this is now certainly a hidden gem in the U2 catalogue, especially given the direction they took with their three albums of the 00’s. Some of the ‘European/electronic’ U2 does creep in on No Line on the Horizon, but I think I’d like to see more of this side of U2 again in the future. 

Also of note (to some): all of the liner notes are in Helvetica. 

We've been fighting a long time. We are out numbered by machines. Working around the clock,without quit. Humans have a strength that cannot be measured. This is John Connor. If you are listening to this,you are the resistance. - John Connor, Terminator Salvation

Although this is Muse's fifth album, I hadn't discovered them until well after their 2006 effort, Black Holes and Revelations was out. That album is easily one of my favorite albums of all times, so it's not much of a shock to consider that The Resistance was one of my most anticipated albums of the year. But does it hold up? Here are some initial impressions:

"Uprising" - Love this song. It's a great opener, and definitely continues the popular Muse theme of paranoia. It could easily be part II of the Black Holes track "City of Delusion" and it is easily better than that song. The general theme of the album seems to be the freedom of the common man from the aristocracy, as well as being awesome to play at football games. Also mega bonus points to the band for the amazing cover art for the single (Teddy Bears!?!), and especially for riffing on the Doctor Who theme for the last 20 seconds of the song. 

Here's the video:

"Resistance" - Good song about love-as-freedom made at least 30% more awesome due to the background vocals during the chorus. 

"Undisclosed Desires" - A quirky ballad about wanting to be closer to someone. 

"United States of Eurasia" - If you like Queen, you will like this track. It easily could have come off their Jazz album, and in no universe is this a bad thing. It also takes musical cues from either Lawrence of Arabia or Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. While the lyrics may sound serious, this is absolutely the kind of overblown classical-influenced rock that has been missing from our pop charts lately (except for Coldplay, which doesn't have enough guitar to even be rock).

After "Collateral Damage," the drumbeats announce  "Guiding Light," a song about losing that person who is your beacon for life. 

"Unnatural Selection" sounds like a melding of their styles from Black Holes and 2001's Origin of Symmetry, though thematically fits here as a call to arms for the "resistance." A solid track, but not a standout. 

"MK Ultra" is one of my favorite tracks from the album, and is a perfect example of Bellamy & co's style: the blend of classical music with synthesizers and soaring guitars. 

"I Belong to You" returns to the love theme running through the album, making this one of the strangest love discs I've ever heard. I like it. And there's French at the end!

Ah, "Exogenesis." A sprawling 13-minute 'symphony' spreading across three tracks (note: the Rush fan in me just squealed) about humans settling space. What. Is. Not. To. Love. Bellamy has been working on this for years, and the craftsmanship shows. It's sprawling and epic, and they don't make them like this anymore. Not only that, but it fits in perfectly with the rest of the album. 

So I clearly love this album, though it isn't as mind-blowing as Black Holes. Easily one of my favorites so far this year. On one last pop culture note, I want to visit the alternate universe where Muse did the entire Watchmen soundtrack. Because how awesome would that be? 

"Right now he's probably saying "totally organic" into his Blackberry" - Jack White on The Edge

Until the past year or two, I was never really a fan of documentaries. Sure, I read a lot of non-fiction, but documentaries always seem to involve people saying weird things to a disembodied camera. Then I saw King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters. Then Helvetica. And I realized that geeky documentaries could be really awesome. 

See, for a documentary to be really good, the people the film focuses on need to be both extremely passionate but also relatable. King of Kong does this immensely well though the perspective of Steve Wiebe. 

ANYWAY*, as someone who loves rock music, a group of generation spanning guitarists meeting for the first time seemed like fantastic docu-fodder. It Might Get Loud is exactly that, from conception to execution. Directed by the guy who brought Al Gore's PowerPoint to the big screen, IMGL is basically three dudes geeking out about guitars. 

Those three are luminaries Jimmy Page (of the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin), The Edge (of U2), and Jack White (of the White Stripes, Raconteurs, The Dead Weather...). Upon watching the documentary, these three choices make perfect sense because the way they approach playing their common instrument is so fundamentally different. Page is almost a classical-rock guitarist, the Edge like electronics, and White likes stripped-down, visceral rock. 

The movie divides its time between the backgrounds of these three legends and "The Summit," where they meet for the first time and talk about guitars and play. 

I learned a lot from watching them, and I really enjoyed the deeper look at why they played the way they did: their experiences growing up, their first exposure to music, etc. I always liked Jack White's music, but was never a big fan of him personally. This documentary changed that. I now have a lot more respect from him personally, and his choices in musical direction(s) now make sense rather than seeming disjointed (though I still think sometimes he's just weird to be weird). 

It was also cool to see legends get excited about little things, like Jimmy Page simply playing records. Easily one of my favorite moments of the film. Watching these three guitarists in the same room interacting, I was forced to choose between trying to watch them play and trying to watch them watch each other play, which are both deeply enriching experiences. 

I do have some minor gripes with the film and one major one. First, minorly, I am really really done with the Ken Burns picture-zoom-in thing. We need to find a new thing, especially since I'm pretty sure my Mac can do that in three clicks. Also I wish they had shown a little more post-meeting. 

Major gripe: Why can't I buy the soundtrack? Even if they only used one or two tracks each from Led Zeppelin, U2, and The White Stripes, there is enough over music in the movie to make a really kickass soundtrack. Especially when they all jam together on guitars. Who would watch this movie and not want to listen to that over and over? 

Overall, this is one of those movies where if you think you might want to see it, you probably should. Basically, if you enjoy rock music, and want a behind the scenes at the creation of song, this is an excellent opportunity. 

It Might Get Loud is currently playing at the Ritz 5 in Philadelphia.

*Apologize to Chuck Klosterman for that.

"Ich heiße Super Fantastisch!" - "Darts of Pleasure"

Five years ago, music changed for me. The repercussions may not have been fully felt for a year or two later, but 2004 had a bunch of amazing debut albums, marking the year where new music began to get good again. Along with The Killers' Hot Fuss and Arcade Fire's Funeral, Franz Ferdinand's eponymous debut is a landmark in retro-sounding art rock. All three take heavy influences from various rock movements of the late 60's and 70's, whether it be punk, glam, or even traces of disco. 

Franz Ferdinand 

At the time, Franz Ferdinand was my favorite, and I must have listened to it dozens of times the summer and fall after its release. A Scottish band named for an assassinated Austrian Archduke, they sound like a cross between T. Rex and later Velvet Underground, though the most apt comparison would easily be to mid-70's David Bowie, circa Ziggy and "Rebel Rebel." 

The album opens with "Jacqueline," which serves as a great introduction to the band in all respects. The lyrics are typical of the band, somewhere between storytelling and non-sensical. Paul Thompson's drumming style, which I would describe as intricate and manic. 

"Take Me Out," was really the band's breakout single, as this song was everywhere at one point. It's a powerful party anthem, both joyous and angsty, a surefire hit. "The Dark Of The Matinée" is maybe my favorite song off the album, a "Karn Evil 9" like romp through a darkened theater. 

Meanwhile, "This Fire" is probably the best song written about sexual desire since the mid-Eighties. It's also notable for being played during during Calgary Flames home games. 

"Darts of Pleasure is my second favorite song on the album, and is just a "super fantastic" fun song. The popularity of the song among FF fans has led to at least one incident of darts being thrown at them on stage. 

Overall, I don't think the album quite holds up to the heaps of praise it received in '04, but I still think the album is infinitely listenable, an a spectacular debut. Their two successive albums have not been quite as good, but I will always have a fond place for Franz Ferdinand for brining me back...to the present.  

It was 40 years ago that gave us two events that sum up all of rock ‘n’ roll’s existence: Woodstock and The Altamont Free Concert. The summer had been capped off by Woodstock, “An Aquarian Exhibition” of free love and free music. The crowd had been peaceful, and it seemed like the hippie spirit from the Summer of Love had found it’s way to upstate New York. That December, a “Woodstock West” was attempted at the Altamont Speedway. Some of the Woodstock acts like Crosby, Stills and Nash, Santana, and Jefferson Airplane performed there also, but it was notable for the headlining act of the Rolling Stones. 

Unlike Woodstock, however, the crowd became violent. The Hell’s Angels were guarding the stage, and while accounts vary, they all agree that the crowd and the Angels became more agitated. This was topped off by the death of Meredith Hunter, who was stabbed five times by Angel Alan Passaro. It was later ruled that Passaro acted in self-defense because Hunter had been brandishing a handgun. Besides adding even more notoriety to the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” this murder illustrates the difference between these two events and the turning point to classic rock.

To fully explain, I think it might be a worthwhile endeavor to explain what exactly “classic rock” means. While originally starting after the release of the singleless Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) became an FM radio format. FM has many advantages in terms of music broadcasting over AM, including stereo and a higher fidelity signal.

Obviously, at one point “classic rock” wasn’t classic, it was just “rock” and it was new. Sgt. Pepper was a major catalyst as the album had no single releases, so many radio stations simply selected album tracks to air based on what they thought might attract the most listeners. Also in this period, many FM DJs were in total control of what they played without the guide of pre-prescribed playlists.

On the other end, what “froze” classic rock into being was new wave and punk. These were new styles of rock that completely parted with the Led Zeppelin-driven sound of AOR stations. Since a decline in readership did not follow, radio stations continued to play the music of the previous decade as their main playlist.

I use 1969 as the cutoff, as Woodstock and the looming breakup of The Beatles was signaling the end of the “flower rock” era, and in fact, Woodstock’s lineup reflected this, with ‘future classic rock’ acts like Crosby, Stills, & Nash (& Young), Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Sly & The Family Stone played alongside Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane (the band that dealt with the change the worst, leading to the abomination of Starship and “We Built This City”). Other acts making their debuts that year were Genesis, Chicago, Yes, Grand Funk Railroad, and of course, Led Zeppelin. 

This was a heavier sound overall when compared to the hits of the 50s and 60s, as well as adding a lot of “progressive” influence. The format certainly evolved over time, and generally rose to prominence in the 80s and 90s. In Philadelphia, 102.9 WMGK and WYSP are both currently broadcasting the classic rock format, the latter having switched over again last fall.

The definition of what is classic rock is certainly fluid, but the core will always be the British-led blues-rock of Led Zeppelin and the heavy folk rock of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Newer formats, like WYSP’s have added the “Rock You Grew Up With” to include 90s heavy pop rock like Pearl Jam and Guns ‘n’ Roses. It’s a format that continues to evolve, but somewhere on the radio you’ll always be able to belt out “Don’t Stop Believing” while running to Wawa.