The Mystic Valley is Mystical!

There has been one thing that had clashed between Paul and I for a long time, and that is one man by the name of Conor Oberst. Now, as many of you hipsters know, the new Conor Oberst self-titled album officially came out in the U.S. on August 5th, though it has been on the internet for quite some time. I remember when I found out about the album, then, when I found out about the tour. I was at the Philadelphia show on August 11th, (I know I suck at updating, I meant to that night, but I couldn’t get on the internet with my Mac and felt bad using my friend’s desktop) and to be honest, it was the best show I believe I’ve ever been to. Now, many of you cringe at the mention of the man who is affiliated with Bright Eyes, who is Bright Eyes. However, I tell you, listen to Conor Oberst. It is some of the best work I’ve heard in a while and it is racking up the plays on my iTunes. So, put your prejudices behind you.

The opening track is called “Cape Canaveral” which is a beautiful and elegant song, and my personal favorite on the album. Close seconds are “Milk Thistle” (I cried during this one at the show, I’m not afraid to admit it, it was beautiful and touching) and “Souled Out!!!” which has a new video out:

Now, while this may not tickle the fancy of many of you out there, it certainly did to the large amount of hipsters that waited outside the Troc that fateful night. Many, like me, were excited, but concealed it behind their apathetic attitudes (I didn’t, sorry) and arrived early, providing some in line laughs and eye rolling. Now, the show was sold out, very packed, and I hope if you ever go to a show with a parent that doesn’t know show etiquette that they stand in the back, drinking like good parents that need to pass the time. They truly can be irritating when they elbow you, telling you to back off. If that woman reads this, Sorry, I was being shoved against you, too. I didn’t want to be, trust me. There were plenty of others I’d prefer to be pushed against. For the most part, the fans were friendly and good natured, being apathetic and smoking and talking outside the venue. It had a great feeling, as it was a very intimate show, and I’d advise you all to go to a show if you can. I recently found out that there will be two shows in New York City this November. So, buy your tickets and relax, giving a good listen to the music.

Songs can be found here: myspace.com/conoroberst and are available in your local Borders, F.Y.E. or iTunes.

 

So, since it’s been so long, and I feel bad, I propose a challenge to Paul. Let’s give each other bands to blog about, so we just don’t pick things we are already opinionated about. What do you think, buddy?

Jump Little Hipster Children!

Today I bring to you the mind-blowningly incredible (yet tragically disbanded) South Carolinian alternative rockers Jump, Little Children. It’s funny because if you take the comma out of the band name, they seem to be imperatively encouraging you to sneak up on small children and beat them senseless. Oh, punctuation, where would I be without you? Off jumping little children, I guess. But let’s forget my little grammar lesson–I’ll leave that to Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Jump, Little Children was formed in 1991 at the North Carolina School of the Arts. They began their career playing Irish folk but soon began incorporating more of an alternative rock/pop sound into their original work. Their work ranges from electric guitar-heavy alternative rock to peacefully acoustic and folksy pop. Whatever the orchestration in the background, lead singer and guitarist Jay Clifford‘s voice drives right through it and is among the purest and most distinct in music today. He never seems over matched by a song or sounds like he’s straining his voice; it is always effortless and beautiful.

On the other hand, when Matthew Bivins takes the lead on vocals, Jump, Little Children‘s sound changes entirely. Often backed by Clifford‘s harmonies or ethereal background vocals, Bivins spins tales slam poetry-style atop the atmospherically appropriate bass and drums. The vignette style lyrics read like scenes of a play and Bivins’ performances of these songs are known to captivate audiences at live shows.

I have two picks for today. One Jump song featuring Clifford and another featuring Bivins.
While there are many Clifford Jump songs I could pick from, my personal favorite is a track off of the 2001 record Vertigo called “Lover’s Greed:“

(Close Your Eyes ran a close second; you can find it here.)

As for a Bivins number, it was difficult to choose. It’s a toss-up between The Singer, Body Parts and Habit. Because this is a great live performance, and because I can’t find The Singer on YouTube, I give you pick #2: Habit.

If you like these, I suggest you check into more Jump, Little Children (official site / myspace). Sadly, the band is on indefinite hiatus after a messy situation with their record label, but they have plenty of music in their repertoire, and it’s all good. Also, they’re all pursuing their own side projects. Jay Clifford‘s new solo CD, Driving Blind, is absolutely incredible. You can check him out at his myspace. I highly recommend his song “Know When to Walk Away“–even if Zach Braff is making the video for it. I hope it’s sooo quirky and hip and underground like Garden State.

Rage Against the Mainstream Part II: Paul Loves the Ladies.

Okay. I’ve been MIA for some time. I’d been entertaining the content of my returning blog entitled “Excuse my absence, I’ve been frolicking in the forest with some Feral Children,” but a very important event occurred while I was abroad, upsetting my plans. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies was caught snorting some cocaine in upstate New York. Now, as a hipster, I cannot rightly lecture Mr. Page on his alleged drug habit–cocaine habit, no less; but what hipster doesn’t love a little hypocritical irony? Thusly, I give Mr. Page a wag of my finger for being a bad role model to the children and a tip of my hat for bringing some rock star street cred to a band with a squeaky clean reputation tainted only by being barred from playing at Toronto City Hall; but, in all seriousness, as a fan of Steven, I hope that he finds the help he needs and gets himself back together for his kids, his bandmates and himself.

Now, cocaine is bad, folks, but my real outrage occurs over the content of a number of articles I’ve read about his arrest. It seems that it’s all some form of “Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies was arrested, blah blah blah, hit songs ‘One Week’ and ‘If I Had $1,000,000.’” This has prompted me to write my second installment in my infinity-part series: Rage Against the Mainstream Part II: Paul Loves the Ladies. Forgive the length; my haughty hipster rage has been incensed.

Barenaked Ladies have more than two songs. I know it’s hard to believe. The Chinese chicken guys. The lotto song guys. You don’t know how these names pain my heart to hear. Today, I will put all my hipster cred on the line and declare my love of the Ladies for all the blogosphere to see! The Ladies’ career has spanned 16 years, and although they are best known for their novelty pop songs *seethes with rage*, they deserve to be known for their dedication to musicianship and clever songwriting.

Back in the day, meaning 1992, they released their first real album, the pepsi-colored-album-covered Gordon. It contains some of the best songwriting of their career, including relatively unknown gems like “Wrap Your Arms Around Me,” “What A Good Boy,” “Blame It On Me,” and “The Flag.” In addition to excellent lyrics, these feature some classic Barenaked harmonies. One also has to mention the better-known, and rightly so, “Brian Wilson.” It’s a brilliant must-listen, as is Gordon in general.

The 1994 Maybe You Should Drive came during the beginning of a troubling time for the band, and thus yielded a slightly more disjointed effort. It’s not their best, but the songwriting still shines on the disc, providing classics like “Jane,” “A,” “Am I the Only One?,” and “The Great Provider.” One of the album’s more popular tracks, “Alternative Girlfriend,” should make its way into every hipster’s musical library. It’s a great song and the video’s a clever shot at the 90′s alternative scene that was sprawling further into the obscure and bizarre for the sake of the obscure and bizarre.

In 1996, Born on a Pirate Ship was released during a continuation of the tumult within the band, between personal struggles, creative disagreements and the departure of their original pianist and percussionist Andy Creegan. It’s harsher than you would expect from the poppy-ness of their later work, including the startling angst of “Just A Toy” and “I Live With It Every Day.” It also has two of the best Barenaked tracks you’ve probably never heard: “When I Fall,” Ed’s surprisingly evocative ballad to a high-rise window washer afraid of heights, and the brooding “Break Your Heart,” which in addition to breaking your heart as you listen, is hands down Steve’s most impressive and moving vocal performance.

Do we really need to go over what came next? Stunt. I would say that says it all, but buried within the hits is the lesser-known “Told You So.” Just listen to it and love it. That’s all I can say.

And after Stunt came the almost as popular Maroon which has an equal lack of need to be covered here– aside from my command that you listen to “Baby Seat.” If you hipsters are wary, it namedrops Kerouac. Go crazy, kids.

After three years of silence, Everything to Everyone, a title playing on the pressure on the band to please everyone again following the success of the last two albums. “If I check the irony/Would everybody cheer me?” Robertson asks in “Testing 1, 2, 3″ (hipsters certainly would not cheer, unless in irony). Some call it unbalanced. Okay, maybe. Others called it underwhelming, but I turn my haughty hipster rage upon them and proclaim this album simply more mature. At times. There is no lack of smart wordplay, but for the best I suggest the dramatic “Next Time,” the chilling “War On Drugs” and the wittily metaphorical ode to people who suck more than they appear to, “Aluminum.”

And so we come to the most recent effort aside from their children’s album, Snacktime! I am somewhat apathetic (surprise!) towards Barenaked Ladies Are Me(n). I pine for the days of Gordon, yet embrace the fact that the Ladies are getting old and changing their tune a bit–but are 29 tracks really necessary? I weed through and suggest: “One And Only,” “Half A Heart,” and the two politically driven tracks, “Maybe You’re Right” and “Take It Back.” Also, “The New Sad” is a fitting ending to an album dealing with the band’s more mature troubles. Barenaked Ladies are not 20 anymore. Sorry.

This is where it ends (SEE: TITLE REFERENCE). Finally. I can see you all breathing a collective sigh of relief. I hope I have single handedly opened up a whole new world of Barenaked Ladies to you that the rest of the world chooses to ignore. I wear my love for the Ladies with pride on my sleeve, and I hope your image of my elite hipster scorn has not been damaged by my ardor for their clean, genuine, smart-ass brand of rock/pop/folk. If it has, well, cling to the fact that they’re are an indie band now–and that one of them just got arrested. That has to count for something.

Love is Chemicals can claw my sweater any day.

Everyone knows that hipsters like obscure bands. Everyone also knows that hipsters like sweaters. Thusly, my pick of the day is “Claw Your Sweater” from some indie pop-rock darlings of San Fransisco, Love is Chemicals. Don’t know them? Good. The more obscure, the better the band. True fact. But you should know them–and you should know this song. It’s reminiscent of old school Death Cab (we’re talking The Photo Album-era Death Cab, not Plans-era, you corporate puppets) with its jangly guitar and contains just a dash of Built to Spill and a pinch of Beulah. Nate Grover’s elusively familiar vocals spin an honest tale of hipster love atop the infectiously poppy, yet authentic, guitar hooks. As I’m especially partial to anything pertaining to sweaters, I think the chorus is delicious: “I know better than to claw your sweater with my crooked fingers how they creep you out.” I would never expect that line to embed itself in my mind, but it has. I would let them claw my sweater any day. All in all, a catchy tune by a band that should be bigger than it is–although I must warn you, one listen to this will make you more nostalgic for the good old 90′s indie scene than your old high school pictures and favorite Sonic Youth vinyl.

You can listen to and download “Claw Your Sweater” for free at Love is Chemicals’ myspace (http://www.myspace.com/loveischemicals) or band website (http://www.loveischemicals.net/)

Also, make sure you check out the rest of their stuff and their newest CD, Song of Summer Youth Brigade, so you can condescendingly tell all your friends that you liked Love is Chemicals before they did.