Diggings - musical musings of matthew sigur

"It’s intellectually and socially detrimental to both literature and cinema, simultaneously."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:43:00 -0600

“It’s intellectually and socially detrimental to both literature and cinema, simultaneously.”

- Jessica Baxter, in her review of Twilight: New Moon for Filmthreat.com.

Couldn’t agree with her more.

Album Roundup #24

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:25:41 -0600

The Sounds of Sniffling

By 8 a.m., I would have blogged more than usual, eaten breakfast and used a roll of toilet paper to combat my sniffling nose.

Yeah, it’s winter. I woke up to a pounding headache and a reminder of the season’s change. My head is hungover and hazy, even though I haven’t partied in months. It’s gonna be a drowsy day. How about some drowsy tunes as well?

I’m getting pretty sick and tired of these recently crowned “Best New Music” bands. Real Estate is yet another in a string of bands that have come out of nowhere to be given the lofty status: worthy of your ears’ time.
These guys make Grizzly Bear seem like the fucking Stooges.
Look, I could put on my wayfarers all day, roll up my sleeves and bob along to these half-assed tropical tunes—sure, it’s pleasant and all and I’d probably get laid more often, but I’m growing tired of these “different” sounds.
Face it, this band is copping sounds from other, better bands just like the myriad other bands that have been defined “amazing” as of late.
I’m drowsy and all, but this eponymous debut gives a new meaning to the word boring.

If I’m gonna go all in with this hazy playlist, I’m going to have to consider Bradford Cox’s latest album as Atlas Sound.
On Logos, Cox continues to unabashedly wear his predecessor’s sounds on his shoulders and wax nostalgic for those sunnier days.
But this album is the definition of winter music—full of echoes and slow-motion guitar strums. I don’t so much mind the first two songs. They are OK headphone experiments, but I’d much rather Cox pushing the boundaries of his songwriting abilities on songs such as “Walkabout,” “Quick Canal,” and “Sheila.”
For about five songs, Logos captures my attention because it doesn’t sound as forced. And yes, “Quick Canal” might be the best song Stereolab never wrote.
Then, it’s back to winter hums for Cox for the duration of the album. Pleasant sounds for some, but my brain can only take so much.

As much as I want to hate OneRepublic, the song “All the Right Moves” (of the band’s sophomore album, Waking Up) has one of the best drum beats I’ve heard in a pop song in awhile.
I don’t care for the rest of the album—this is The Fray with balls—but this beat is worth a listen.

Finally, The Cribs try to extend their winning streak taking tips from Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr on the new album Ignore the Ignorant.
The thunderous strums of the opening licks of “We Were Aborted” is the sound of a band vying and dying for attention.
The Cribs are something of a guilty pleasure. Leave it to an English band to make the best emo album of the year. But the band might have lost some of their quick wit and snap from the previous album. This might be Marr’s doing, being that he was in the most emo band of all-time.
But, right now, I don’t mind this album at all. It’s fresh compared the aforementioned blurs of “albums.”
Ignore the Ignorant is a well-produced rock record. This sneezy morning, I’d rather this than those other kids forming a band, recording in their mom’s basement and sending the product off to Pitchfork to be proclaimed the next best thing for two months.

Rock Plaza Central’s take on Dylan’s “I Want...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:29:00 -0600

Rock Plaza Central’s take on Dylan’s “I Want You.”

A somber, slower take on a rather joyous song. This is one of many interesting cuts from Paper Bag Records’ covers compilation The Seven Year Itch.

Though some covers are just blah, the latter half of the compilation hits its stride, starting with Laura Barrett’s version of “Gamma Ray” (Beck), The Acorn’s “Strange Animal” (Gowan) and Slim Twig’s funky, dirtier version of “Behold a Lady” (Outkast).

John Mackey's "Kingfishers Catch Fire"

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:17:00 -0600

John Mackey's "Kingfishers Catch Fire":

Last night, I had the pleasure of witnessing Dr. Linda Moorhouse conduct the LSU Symphonic Winds program.

Among the sparse set was this song and Eric Whitacre’s “Cloudburst.” And these were easily two of the best live performances I’ve seen all year.

No joke.

You can stream a performance of this piece from this link. Even more amazing, this performance is from high schoolers—it’s almost as good as what I heard last night.

Vampire Weekend’s video for “Cousins.” The...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:28:13 -0600

Vampire Weekend’s video for “Cousins.”

The song might be a bit too jittery, but this video is amazing. Kudos to Garth Jennings for once again making a memorable little show. Contra will be out next year, and Vampire Weekend will once again take over the world.

OK, I give, this song is pretty irresistible.

Beck's "Harry Partch"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:25:23 -0600

Beck's "Harry Partch" :

Not sure if this was done in response to the “feud” between Radiohead and Fiery Furnaces. Here, Beck’s paying his respect to the composer.

I would love if he did an album using these ideas as a jump-off. Though it’s all over the place, I feel myself wanting more of certain areas.

Say what you want about Beck, but he keeps changing and changing for the better.

New Classics Vol. 7The Dust Brothers—Fight Club Original Motion...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:35:00 -0600

New Classics Vol. 7
The Dust Brothers—Fight Club Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Grovel and grumble all you want, but Fight Club is great for three reasons.

1) David Fincher’s impeccable direction.
2) Brad Pitt’s impeccable performance.
3) The Dust Brothers’ impeccable score.

Mixing electronica, break beats and a few hums of a keyboard here and a few strums of a metal guitar there, The Dust Brothers’ score is much like another fantastic soundtrack from a cult film—Requiem for a Dream by Clint Mansell.

The difference between the two is The Dust Brothers don’t rely on repetitive tracks and ideas to get the point across.

The Dust Brothers, who helmed the boards for Beck’s masterpiece Odelay and then some other pop fluff (yeah, they did do some Hanson production), know how to keep my fingers away from the NEXT button. Though listening to a soundtrack can be laborious, this one is not because The Dust Brothers rely on suspense, almost mathematic drum breaks then changing a song 360 in the middle of itself.

Take the third track, “Single Serving Jack.” First, it starts out like the best beat the Beastie Boys never rapped over. Two and a half minutes, the song is underwater and echoing. Thirty seconds later, the drums sound like small toys crushing into each other. Then out of nowhere, starry synths save this confusion, and the song sounds like the best Portishead song that band never wrote.

And this isn’t a one-time deal.

The six-minute opus “Medula Oblongata” repeats this amazing feat. For three and half minutes, it’s pretty routine trip-hop. Those minutes are better than the majority of trip-hop I’ve heard, but it’s still pretty routine. But around the four-minute mark, The Dust Brothers make me so giddy with this gleaning set of keys and paper-thin drum beat.

I could go on and on. How this album will be constantly overshadowed by the movie. How this album will be constantly overrated by the same people who might like The Boondock Saints (forget it, it’s a shitty movie).

I could go on and on, but I’ll cut the foreplay. On this album, The Dust Brothers expertly exceed at making an hour of beautiful beats.

"Let’s get one thing straight: Elizabeth Lambert and what she did on the soccer field was..."

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:23:10 -0600

“Let’s get one thing straight: Elizabeth Lambert and what she did on the soccer field was terrible. She should never be allowed to play the sport ever.
In the heat of the game, nobody acts like that much of an asshole.”

"It might be a good business move. And I get sent romantic comedies. But I’m fearful of doing..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:45:39 -0600

“It might be a good business move. And I get sent romantic comedies. But I’m fearful of doing those. I’m 23 — I don’t belong in a romantic comedy yet. Those movies are very safe. They’re tailored to middle America, which is why they make the money that they make. But I don’t want to do that yet.”

- Megan Fox on maintaining her high artistic standards by refusing to star in a romcom. From msn.com.

This is funny that an actress doesn’t want to do movies tailored to middle America. Did she forget she has starred in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?

You’re right, Megan Fox, middle America hates that movie. Rednecks don’t love Michael Bay, Tyrese and robots beating the shit out of each other.

You’re dumb Megan Fox.

Pearl Jam—No Code

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:33:16 -0600

Pearl Jam—No Code

nevver: Stanley Kubrick : Taming Light (Poster) This is...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:01:37 -0600

nevver:

Stanley Kubrick : Taming Light (Poster)

This is great stuff.

"Don’t it make you smile When the sun don’t shine at all"

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:01:11 -0600

“Don’t it make you smile
When the sun don’t shine at all”

- Pearl Jam’s “Smile”

"This land is mine, this land is free I’ll do what I want, yeah, irresponsibly It’s..."

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:34:36 -0600

“This land is mine, this land is free
I’ll do what I want, yeah, irresponsibly
It’s evolution, baby!”

- Pearl Jam’s “Do the Evolution”

Album Roundup #23

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:09:47 -0600

Touchdown, Field Goal, Punt

Touchdown, the title of this British band’s third album, fits. Stateside, the band is known as BrakesBrakesBrakes—I think that’s dumb—but otherwise, Brakes is the main project of sometimes British Sea Power keyboardist Eamon Hamilton.
I’m very partial to British Sea Power, so you might be thinking, “Anything associated with that band, Matt’s going to love.” I can’t help that this album is a shot of straight vigor.
Economical and full of hooks, the band barely overindulges. Musically, they sound like Nada Surf but without all the cliched lyrical phrases (see “Worry About it Later”). Like a better-producer and British Breeders (see “Crush on You”).
Like Viva Voce’s latest, this is exactly what my ear wants when I think of rock ‘n’ roll.

If you ever wondered what actress Karen Black was up to, check out the first track of Cass McCombs latest, Catacombs. She warbles and harmonizes towards the end of the song like some drunk floozy at a dimly-lit bar.
Other than that, this is the latest in a string of singer-songwriters I’ve found that delivers consistent, folk-tinged rock.
Things go astray when McCombs decides he wants to write a political speech. Political songs are always hard to listen to, because songwriters have the challenge of trying not to be overbearing. The results are usually troubling, but McCombs does try and wiggle a story in the mix on “Don’t Vote.”
McCombs is best when he’s cooly chiming a song about a “Prima Donna” or trying to win the heart of an unaffected lover. “You Saved My Life” interestingly delves into this popping bass drum beat every once and awhile, hinting at more experimental sounds.
But for the majority of the album, McCombs and his acoustic guitar weave pleasant songs. It’s not the best singer-songwriter album I’ve heard this year, but it succeeds just enough at accenting the right notes and keeping me from clicking onward.

So Josh Homme and Dave Grohl have hooked up with some old guy named John Paul Jones to do a Led Zeppelin tribute album.
You may have heard of these guys’ other, main bands. Homme does work in some hard rock band named Queens of the Stone Age and drums for Eagles of Death Metal. Grohl was in this little-known alternative band Nirvana, and now, he sings and plays guitar for Foo Fighters. John Paul Jones played bass for Led Zeppelin, and he now farts dust.
Jokes aside, I’ve been interested to see what Them Crooked Vultures can conjure up. The self-titled debut, which is streaming on YouTube, sounds like a supergroup.
You want to be excited. You tell yourself, “How could this not work?”
With this band, Homme tries to find a way to mix in his desert, acid rock to the Led Zeppelin fold, but his acrobatics are all over the place. Grohl does some of his best drumming, and he might be the saving grace of the record.
I’ll wait to hear the album in full quality. Right now, I hear sparks of hard rock goodness which is better than the majority of most radio rock today. I guess I can’t complain, but the expectations for a masterpiece are unfair for a band like this.
I kind of just wish the album sounded like the first minute and a half of “Elephants.”
Kick-ass.
And I will admit, “Scumbag Blues” sounds like an actual band and an actual cool, dirty song and not this amalgamation of good ideas.
Somewhere along the lines, someone told them they had to make a record that would save rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a lofty task, and three of the best ingredients sometimes fall flat on their face when their throwing everything in the crock pot.

Air—Love 2French Spacemen stay on course I’ve always had a...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:18:00 -0600

Air—Love 2
French Spacemen stay on course

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Air. They seem ripe for taunting. I feel like I should wear wayfarers while listening to them. I should probably drink gin martinis and exchange stories about a Gainsbourg with a black-haired girl.

At the other end, they are wildly ahead of their time. The synth-driven pop genre is at the forefront once more. Whether people like it or not, keyboards might be here to stay.

In short, my relationship with Air is a riddle. Talkie Walkie is a beautiful, subdued album, but I’m indifferent to the background music of Pocket Symphony. They have always been a band that’s there, and that’s it.

Enter Love 2, an album that has been shoved to the end of the calendar year and swept under the rug already. In a fascinating way, Air, a band that made about two killer albums, have been shoved to the side as a group that has no way of “properly” following up a hit record.

For the majority of this album, Air capture their electronica magic in a way they haven’t done so on earlier albums. Instead of relying on their limited English vocabulary of banal adjectives, they let the music do the talking. Kudos goes to enlisting a new drummer who fills out the space quite well and for having the balls to kick off the album with a distortion-laden track that Muse wouldn’t have the patience to pull off.

Unlike earlier albums, Air seem to be alive and not in slow-motion. “Tropical Disease” could have very well been another exercise is drum machine loops, but the beat provides an exciting background to an otherwise routine shift of chords and instruments.

Air have two categories of albums—mundane and interesting. Love 2 should be filed under the latter. 14 years in their career, they might have created their masterstroke. Sure, the blogs will tell you put it off to the side for some reverb-filled madness, but Air still knows how to craft a echo-tinged love lament.

In a music world filled to the tip with excessive changes and over-mastering, Love 2 is the perfect album for a sunny Sunday winter afternoon.

Chaos is easy. Air knows that, and I thank them for sticking to their French cool.

LSU Legacy Magazine: Lifeline

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:26:30 -0600

LSU Legacy Magazine: Lifeline:

In the latest issue of Legacy Magazine, I talk with three students/paramedics.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with this story, including Floyd, Audra and Aaron. They are truly great people.

Check it!

New song from The Widowers

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:54:18 -0600

New song from The Widowers:

This weekend, I finally got a chance to record one of my first songs, “Passing Through.”

Check it!

"my future is static it’s already had it i could tuck you in and we can talk about it i had..."

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:39:22 -0600

“my future is static
it’s already had it
i could tuck you in
and we can talk about it
i had a dream
and it split the scene
but i got a hunch
it’s coming back to me”

- Sonic Youth’s “Schizophrenia”

Happy Birthday Merge Records!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:10:52 -0600

Merge Records is probably the coolest indie-rock label out there today.
Since it’s the label’s twentieth birthday, here are just 10 of my favorites.

Arcade Fire’s Funeral
Polvo’s Today’s Active Lifestyles
Neutral Milk Hotel’s In An Aeroplane Over the Sea
Richard Buckner’s Dents and Shells
M. Ward’s Transistor Radio
Destroyer’s Rubies
Spoon’s Gimme Fiction
Dinosaur Jr.’s Bug
Oakley Hall’s I’ll Follow You
The Rosebuds’ Birds Make Good Neighbors

Album Review for 225 Magazine: Streamline's The Alchemist and The Arsonist

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:42:30 -0600

Album Review for 225 Magazine: Streamline's The Alchemist and The Arsonist