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Why Is The World In Love Again

by John J. Madonna

They Might Be Giants may only be two guys named John, a guitarist and an accordioner, but the music that they produce is something else. The lyrics—funny, tragic, weird, poetic, meaningless—are backdropped by consciously bizarre, irresistibly catchy, and off the wall rocking music. After twenty years, they have but two gold albums to their names, a few minor hit singles. They’ve made serious records, kids records, TV themes (Malcolm In The Middle, The Daily Show,) and unique music videos. And I am happy to say (now that I have my ticket) that They Might Be Giants are coming here to the Michigan Theatre, November 14th.

TMBG’s first records from the late 80’s, their eponymous record and Lincoln, epitomize the quirky musicianship with which TMBG has made their name, featuring prominent, rocking accordion, computer effects care of Apple IIe’s, tongue-in-cheek drum machines, and the oddly charming vocals of the two Johns. After minor success with their first records, Elektra signed them and released Flood. Not their best work, but it became their most popular, featuring a cover of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” and “Birdhouse In Your Soul,” which may be the greatest song ever made.

Everything thing was turning up roses for TMBG. They played on Carson, Flood went gold… but along came grunge. Grunge destroyed hair metal, synth pop, and everything bad about the 80s. Unfortunately, it destroyed everything good about the 80s, too, like the diverse alternative scene including TMBG. Flood’s follow-up, Apollo 18 did not sell nearly as well. So they expanded their sound by adding a band of Dans, going for a more straight ahead rock motif. While records like John Henry and Factory Showroom don’t get the praises of the earlier records, they still contain the unmistakable sound.

They Might Be Giants made the gigantic documentary Gigantic, highlighting their meteoric rise to… kind of fame. In it, we see a pair of guys excited about their fiercely devoted cult following. I have had the privilege of seeing TMBG twice in my life. Once during their tour of Borders Book Stores across the nation to promote Here Come The ABCs, and I saw them again at the Majestic in Detroit, when they did probably the best show I’ve ever seen (maybe a close second to Dylan.) They closed with “Fingertips.” That knocked me out.

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Yes, It Is Really As Good As They Say

by John J. Madonna

Looking at a quite expensive double LP reissue of The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds in PJ’s Records, I scoffed at the storeowner’s claim I was holding the greatest album ever made. How could the band responsible for “Kokomo” and… that song Uncle Jesse sang with the Rippers on “Full House” make the greatest record ever? Regardless, I figured I’d try it and ran to the Downtown library (this happened in those dark days before my employ at AADL) to check it out. The new version has the original mono as well as a stereo remix—a surprise coming from deaf-in-on-ear Brian Wilson. I elected to go stereo. I didn’t much care for it. Mono elicited the same reaction. But after the tenth time, I loved it.

I grew up on The Beach Boys. Maybe that gave me a bias, as I first band I ever liked, I dismissed them as “kid’s music.” Not to mention, I was listening to Pet Sounds forty years out of context. When someone says Pet Sounds was revolutionary, it means so little, because I’ve already heard all the music it’s influenced, making it much harder for original to impress a newer generation. But all it took was a few repeat listenings to start appreciating it.

While it owes a debt to Phil Spector and his teenage symphonies, Pet Sounds made a bold statement, creating, in a time when a British accent alone equaled top ten hit, a distinctly American record full of folk traditions and the sunny, California music synonymous with The Beach Boys. Furthermore, Phil Spector called albums “Two hits and ten pieces of junk.” Brian Wilson, took the challenge of crafting a cohesive, artsy, beautiful record from start to finish. Pet Sounds raised the bar of what an album should—nay, could be, and before everyone tried to release the next Sgt. Pepper’s, they wanted to make the next Pet Sounds.

Pet Sounds stands as The Beach Boys’ crowning achievement. I have since, through listening to their box set, rekindled my appreciation for their earlier work, but after Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations hit, they tanked. Smile, the follow-up to Pet Sounds (as if there could be such a thing,) never happened once Brian Wilson left the band (he actually finished it in 2004,) and slowly, the artistic competition The Beach Boys had with The Beatles deteriorated from neck and neck to a landslide.

For the record, while “Kokomo” and “Forever” (the John Stamos "Forever," mind you) are technically The Beach Boys, it wasn’t at all the same band that released Pet Sounds.

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Solos, Soli, Flat Picking, Shredding, Mind Blowing, And Cetera

by John J. Madonna

While explaining to me the merits of John Mayer, my friend, who has not similar but overlapping tastes, said he was first drawn into the sordid world of Try! and Continuum when he heard a John Mayer song on the radio, and it had an actual guitar solo. Music for the past ten years has focused on vocalists and not bands, so a guitar solo in a song on the radio can be cause for jubilation, but a solo good does not a song make.

Driving down the highway yesterday, I tuned into 94.7 as Jackson Browne came on (I think “Running On Empty,” if not, definitely one of his hits,) and his song had a guitar solo. An absolutely lifeless, tepid guitar solo. After that, the station played “Let It Be,” the 1970 album version—important because The Beatles released three distinct versions with three distinct solos—and it was great. Typical George Harrison, carefully choosing his notes, his tone, his contribution fit the emotion of the already moving song. The two solos had one key difference, and it wasn’t the quality of the guitarist. A session musician played the solo for Jackson Browne; a Beatle played the solo for The Beatles.

For the third anecdote composting this thought process, I was recently exposed to the musical wrecking ball that is youtube. I saw videos for chart toppers, cheesy eighties music, a rather terrible band performing “The Final Countdown” (people, a cheap Casio is not the same as the fat synths of Europe,) and an onslaught of guitar clips of shredding solos, fret board gymnastics, blues riffs, finger picking, the works… so many people can play guitar so amazingly, and that is why Jackson Browne’s guitarist failed to impress. Browne, a singer/songwriter, wanted a guitar solo on his song, so he hired a session musician. Once the session man finished, he took his check and went to his next gig with no investment in the final product other than to do a merely good job. At the end the day, he doesn’t do anything he couldn’t already do, as no one would commission a session musician who can’t already play at the audition what he is expected to wax.

In contrast, a guitarist in a band, when it comes time to solo, needs not only to play well, but stretch his own ability, work for a better sound, and strive to be an artist, not an artisan because no one else can do it for him. I don’t mean to rag session musicians (I’ve sung my praises for The Funk Brothers,) rather I’m saying a guitar solo might as well be lyrics to the song. The truly great solos, the ones that make us wave our lighters or pick up our air Les Pauls, have never been about how technical proficiency of the solo, but how the guitarist uses his guitar as his own voice. Just as it makes no sense to hire someone to write a verse for an already finished song, it similarly makes no sense to hire someone to record a solo for your song. Unless you like flaccid solos.

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Equadoran musician and friends perform

by Maxine

Canterbury House, an Episcopal campus ministry offers a concert series open to all. This Tuesday, the Winona Taxo University for Cultural Exchange, a unique educational initiative between North and South America will be holding its first concert at Canterbury House. Ecuadorian musician, Oscar Santillian, Ann Arbor folk musicians Laz and Helen Slomovits and students from The University of Michigan School of Music Jazz Department will play music that features a blend of both cultures. Canterbury House offers a great mix of innovative musical performers from jazz, electronic and folk genres.

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Want Radiohead's new album? Name your price!

by remnil

"In Rainbows," the latest album by consummate alt rockers Radiohead, is garnering attention. Unlike with the now legendary OK Computer, however, it's not for it's musical brilliance. In fact, the album isn't even out yet. Instead, Radiohead's getting press because they're letting you name your own price to buy it.

Aside from the obvious pricing mechanism, Radiohead is innovating in several other ways. First, the album is only available for digital download on the band's website. Second, the album will be DRM-free. Third, the band is bypassing the traditional gatekeepers of music, the recording industry.

Like Prince's July 2007 scheme with his latest album Planet Earth, Radiohead's actions are likely to anger an industry exec or two. But should they be afraid? Might artists be able to bypass them altogether and get their music out to the masses? Will such promotions only work for musical demigods like Prince and Radiohead? What do you think?

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Rodrigo & Gabriela

by Bertha

Quite the year for Rodrigo Y Gabriela, making the top 10 new bands best album of the year in Rolling Stone Magazine (Mexico) and currently they're nominated for an MTV Leftfield "Woodie" award. http://rodgab.com
The two met as teenagers in Mexico City, but are currently living in Dublin. Influences range from family salsa records to their passion for metal music. Treat yourself to a sampling of their sound on myspace.

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The Diversifyin’ Late 60s/Early 70s, Part IV: Hot Burritos

by John J. Madonna

No group was on the front of the country-rock movement more than The Flying Burrito Brothers. After Gram Parsons’s brief stint with The Byrds, where his influence resulted in the country Sweetheart of the Rodeo, he pilfered Byrd Chris Hillman and formed the new band. Unlike blues-rock, country-rock is ultimately indistinguishable from country and caters to the same crowd. Parsons brought his high lonesome voice and songs about heartache and drinking into a bona fide country group, whose sound was highlighted by the amazing work of Sneaky Pete Kleinow on pedal steel. Though FBB albums are hard to find, the library has a greatest hits.

Country music gets a bad rap. It irks me when I someone tells me, “Well, I like all kinds of music… except country.” I mean, first off, no one likes all kinds of music. I like a lot of different music, but you would never see me listening to, I don’t know, the newest Genghis Tron release. No offense to all the GT fans out there—both of them—it’s just not my cup of meat. But secondly, the negative associations of country probably stem from cowboys in rhinestones, melodramatic ballads, the Grand Ole Opry, and basically the entire campy Nashville scene from the seventies. But that isn’t the extent of country as several popular musicians best associated for non-country music have dabbled in it. Whether it be a song or two on their albums (The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, George Harrison, CSNY) or dedicating entire records to country (Bob Dylan on Nashville Skyline and Elvis Costello on Almost Blue,) country-rock merely reinforces the importance of country in popular music’s influences.

After four parts of talking about The Great Rock Schism, we can start to see why rock is as all encompassing as it is. Sub-genres like progressive and punk move away from the norm either through adoption of outside sources or complete rejection of the current traditions. Other movements re-embrace the roots of the music once the genre has drifted too far away.

The End?

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Coffee House Series Presents...

by Maxine

Looking for some folk music this weekend? Check out the Green Wood Coffee House Series concert at the First United Methodist Church on Green Rd. tonight, Friday, September 28. Ellen McIlwaine will be demonstrating her amazing blues slide guitar and vocal skills. A Canadian native, Mcilwaine only does a few gigs in the U.S. So don't miss her performance. Also, take advantage of the homey atmosphere and reasonable cost of concerts in this series.

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The Diversifyin’ Late 60s/Early 70s, Part III: Why Isn’t There Rock-Blues

by John J. Madonna

If rock is blues and country, then is blues-rock just bluesy blues and country? How blues is blues-rock in comparison to rock? Of course, if someone in 1956 called a group or artist “blues-rock,” it most certainly would have been redundant, but by the time of the sub-genre explosion in rock music (or as I like to call it, The Great Rock Schism) in the late sixties, all sorts of groups like Cream (and for that matter, any of Eric Clapton’s groups,) The Spencer Davis Group, The Rolling Stones, J. Geils Band, Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green’s version,) and hoards more identified themselves as blues-rock.

Though rock had its roots in jump blues, R&B, and country, throughout the 60s, the genre absorbed all sorts of influences like Tin Pan Alley, Phil Spector, classical music, urban folk, and not to mention the drug culture around it. So when bands like The Rolling Stones played Robert Johnson on Let It Bleed (the song Love In Vain, though credited as traditional is in fact Mr. Johnson,) they were reintegrating rock music’s original roots into their music, making blues-rock a callback to earlier times. Even though The Stones could play low-key Delta blues when they wanted to, or hard-driving Chicago blues, they were always a rock band. They played in front of thousands of screaming fans, played their instruments loud, and they played them fast.

Of course, this leaves us with the observation that no music is called “rock-blues.” Blues is too exclusive for that, yet what out there can’t fall under the umbrella of rock music? The Stones, a rock band, released Exile On Main St., a rock record, back in ’72 featuring blues, country, gospel flourishes (I love that… whenever I read about rock music integrating gospel, it’s always in flourishes,) as well as pop and rock. Nowhere else in popular music can a record like that exist. Jazz, blues, country, swing, and everything else are very purebred; rock is the hybrid genre. It absorbs everything it sees. Only rock could contain such divergent artists like The Stooges, The Moody Blues, and Duane Eddy?

The all encompassing nature of rock music might be the root of its longevity in the public consciousness, as it is a continuously evolving and growing genre, absorbing more styles, developing new ones, stepping back with roots revivals, making it possible for people to still enjoy rock music, even if “rock music” doesn’t necessarily stay the same over the years.

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Great Lakes Myth Society playing in town this Friday

by manz

Southeastern Michigan’s Great Lakes Myth Society bring their blend of folk, pop and rock music back to Ann Arbor this Friday for a performance at the Blind Pig. A common theme throughout many of GLMS’s songs is Michigan and its natural surroundings. Singer/Songwriter Timothy Monger explains, “to reference our home in song has always been a natural reaction. It was only when we noticed how strong the themes were that the desire to center our project within the Lakes took hold."
Check it out for yourself on their latest album. Side note: In the song “Marquette County, 1959” the singer croons “Jimmy Stewart came to Marquette County in 1959.” This is true and references the film Anatomy of a Murder which Jimmy Stewart did indeed film in Marquette in 1959. (It’s a gem of a film costarring Lee Remick in a sassy roll.)