Post 8: Hey, New Wave is a Surprisingly Hard Genre to Define!

   Hey guys! And probably ladies too, I don't have any real idea of what my audience demographic is like. Anyway, I think I can safely say that from my first post, I have not exactly been secretive about the fact that I really, really like a lot of 80's music, a lot. 80's pop gets a lot of hate, but the fact of the matter is that whether or not you want to admit it, 80's pop is some of the most simply fun, purely enjoyable ear candy ever made. Honestly, if you can listen to Take On Me without having your love of life increased, you have no soul. Forget DeBeers, A-Ha is forever.

   Anyway, I was trying to think of a reasonable theme to use as an excuse to talk about the eighties, and at first it seemed like New Wave was the answer. There are all kinds of great hits that fall under that genre, right? Turns out that that is true, but it's true in a very inconvenient way, because apparently every song and band in the eighties except for glam, heavy metal, and the last vestiges of disco all fell under the category of "New Wave". It is seriously the most catch-all term possible. It's like classifying Nirvana as "90's": Technically accurate, but deeply insufficient as far as actual description goes.

  So, since apparently every song that was made in the 80's was New Wave, let's just talk about songs that are great and have lots of keyboard in them, starting with Blondie. I wouldn't say that I'm huge fan of Blondie, because I'm only really familiar with singles, and I have no idea how good their other stuff is. BUT, that being said, I am a huge fan of their singles. Call Me is pretty much a perfect song, and it isn't nearly as good as Heart of Glass, which in turn is inferior The Tide is High, which I will always love because it has both ridiculously catchy steel drums, and a fantastic trumpet section. The only possible complaint I could have about Blondie is that I can't sing along with the best part of their best song, which is of course the trumpets meshing in with the steel drums in the intro of The Tide is High.

   As long as I'm on topic of kicking trumpet solos, I feel morally obligated to mention Our House by Madness. It doesn't have any keyboard, but it does have roughly one full orchestra's worth of brass, along with a string section and maybe the best noise ever to come out of a bass. Seriously, check out the 14 second mark; you will not be disappointed. And on the topic of one-hit wonder British bands with fantastic string sections, Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners. Bad segues aside, I love Come On Eileen. Fun fact: when I was twelve or so I would regularly hijack CD's from my sister Rachael just so I could listen to this song on repeat. Then when I sixteen, I found out that the music video is a bunch of sketchy homeless lookin' dudes wandering around London wearing nothing but overalls, and I felt comforted knowing that my taste in music has always been impeccable.

   This next one does not have quite as happy an ending. Have any of you ever seen the music video for Soft Cell's version of Tainted Love? I don't think anyone with good taste will argue that it is definitively the best version of Tainted Love ever made, and also that Tainted love is a fantastic Song, but HOLY DANG is the music video creepy. To be fair, I don't exactly have a clear knowledge of the eighties, but after watching that video I'm pretty sure I'm glad I didn't live through them. My mental image of the eighties is basically women in expensive pantsuits with padded shoulders and unreasonably feathered hair staring at each other and wall street executives through  the ugliest glasses any generation has ever managed to produce, but every time I watch Tainted Love that Utopian (???) idyll is covered with a thin veneer of, just, the creepiest sexual tension imaginable. Let's talk about something else.

   Like Erasure, for example! Erasure is amazing. They are not a band that I listen to often, but that does not mean they aren't great. Erasure has the unique privilege of being one of the most joyously campy bands ever to make music that's actually enjoyable to listen to (along with Disco Tex of course [I'm sorry, I have a problem]). Seriously, as stupid as their songs may be, they are also really good. Always is a really good song. A Little Respect is a really good song. And Oh L'amour is just hands down fantastic. Also, they did a cover of Video Killed the Radio Star (originally by the Buggles, of course), and I still can't decide which one is better.

   And yes, I do like Video Killed the Radio Star, mostly because it's awesome.

  I have another couple of dozen songs I really want to talk about on this topic, but I''m running out of clumsy segues, so I'm just going to save them for a later date, and leave you all with one last song: Forever Young by Alphaville. Man, I never realized how many eighties songs that I love had killer brass solos, but it turns out to be a surprisingly large amount! We have been left with a rich history of trumpets, mullets, and neon jumpsuits. Truly we are blessed.

Also, here's a bonus song! I'm a pretty big Beck fan, and I'm also very fond of the film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. This is actually kind of convenient, because it turns out that Beck wrote like half of the soundtrack for the film, and it's rad. Garbage Truck is my personal favorite, but Scott Pilgrim is one of those rare movies where the soundtrack is actually worth picking up, regardless of the film. It is seriously good.

Post 4: Saying hi to the Folk

   This week’s theme is particularly near and dear to my heart. Folk music isn't something that I tend to listen to super frequently, but I have no idea why. Every time I do start listening, I realize how much amazing folk music there is in the world, and then I’m covered in a tidal wave of nostalgia that is frankly completely inappropriate for a 20 year old. I don’t want to talk too much about myself on this blog, since that’s the not point of what I’m writing, but my love of folk largely stems from a childhood spent listening to my dad’s records, and so some of that might slip in when I’m not paying attention. Think of it as bonus!

   First up, Peter, Paul and Mary. I suppose if I wanted to get technical and Authentic, I should start off with someone like Woodie Guthrie or Pete Seeger, but while I love their stuff, the only reason I got interested enough in folk to listen to them is because of hearing stuff like If I Had a Hammer and Leaving on a Jet Plane when I was a kid. Peter, Paul & Mary songs have some of my favorite ever harmonies; I would highly recommend taking some one rainy afternoon to sit down and listen to Leaving on a Jet Plane, and wistfully consider the good old days. I don’t care how old you are, everyone can and should take time to listen to some classic folk and think wistful thoughts.

   Actually, pretty much every song that I’ll be mentioning for the rest of this article is well served with a side of wistful thoughts on a rainy afternoon, so you can pretty much take that for a given from this point on. For example: Ally Ally Oxen Free by the Kingston Trio, which is coincidentally my favorite song by the Kingston Trio. As a side note for those reading who are not related to me by blood, the Kingston Trio are a folk group who were absolutely massive in the mid to late 60’s, and who I suspect strongly have been almost completely forgotten since then. Anyway, they made lots of good stuff, and like Peter, Paul and Mary, had pretty phenomenal harmonies. For anyone who’s interested in hearing more of their stuff, another good piece by them is The Patriot Game.

   Moving away from harmonies and loveliness for a bit, let’s talk about Bob Dylan briefly, because Dylan was freaking amazing. He’s one of those musicians whose stuff I keep meaning to listen to and then forget, but whenever I do, I’m blown away. For one thing, it’s incredible. Seriously, everyone should go and listen to Like a Rolling Stone (aka HADDAZUH FEE, because Bob believed more in writing words than he did in pronouncing them), because that song is still mind-blowingly great. Second, he wrote a TON OF IT. According to the Wikipedia article on his discography (remember to cite your sources, kids!) he has 35 STUDIO ALBUMS. I want to be clear here: that is just the studio albums I’m talking about. He also has “58 singles, 13 live albums, 9 albums comprising The Bootleg Series, and 15 compilation albums. The list also includes three home videos, a bibliography, and a filmography.” I DO NOT EVEN. Anyway, the point I was trying to make about folk before I had my mind blown in half is that pretty much every song from the movement was lifted off of Dylan. I’m not going to list them here, because I want to talk more about him  in a later post,  but take my word for it: Bob Dylan wrote every song ever.

   As my favorite example of that, here’s one of my favorite Dylan songs, and here’s one of my favorite covers of said song. Notice, as you pass, that both are pretty much rad. Also worth noticing, pretty much every Dylan cover was much more polished and melodic than his originals were. That doesn’t mean one was better than the other, I just think it’s interesting. Dylan’s stuff has a raw vitality that no one that I know of has equaled, and we should all be glad for everything he added to music (ie, the entire discography of the 60’s)

  

I actually have a lot of other folk songs that I want to share, but I’m not going to list all of them right now, because I don’t want to use up every idea that I have before Cool Older Cousin hits its two month mark. Well, more accurately I DO want EXACTLY that, but wisdom tells me that I should avoid it if possible. Be prepared to hear a butt-ton more on Dylan and Dylan covers a few weeks from now, but before that, I've got two last folk songs for today: the first is one of the most powerful songs I know of,  We Shall Overcome. I’m linking a version by Pete Seeger, partly because I love it, and partly because I think it represents one of the things that make folk music so powerful. The whole point of the song is that it’s meant to sung as a group; the structure is very simple, the lyrics are incredibly easy to memorize, and after the first time you hear it, you can pretty much sing the whole thing from memory. The whole point is that it’s meant for people to share. In this particular case, it was meant mostly for people to share as a message of hope during the Civil Rights movement, but basically all good folk songs share that sense of empathy. Even if it’s not some great message of hope and world peace (once again, see Leaving on a Jet Plane), it’s a message of of connection, and everyone can share that feeling.

   Second and lastly, this song is much more recent, and I’m not even sure if musically speaking it technically qualifies as folk. However, I really like this song and I've been listening to it a lot the last week or so, so I wanted to put it on here. The song is Wolfmoon by some band called Modest Midas, and as far as I can tell the version I linked is the only decent quality one on the web, which is kind of frustrating frankly. The song itself sort of reminds me of 500 miles by Peter Paul & Mary, but with brass, hints of flamenco, and a bit of surfer vibe. Which is to say it’s awesome, go listen to it.

   Last of all, here’sa bonus song! MGMT is one of my favorite ever bands, and recently I've been listening to a lot of their earlier stuff, getting psyched up for the new album they’re recording. Their second album, Congratulations is by far the best thing they've ever made and anyone who claims that Oracular Spectacular was better is profoundly wrong and should feel deeply ashamed, for reasons that I will go into more depth in at a later date, but when I say that I don’t mean Oracular Spectacular was a bad album. It was really good, it’s just Congratulations is GREAT. Be that as it may, Love Always remains is a pretty radsome song, and I would like more people to hear it.

Post 2: Falsettos and beat-boxing should really be combined more often.

   Ok, at this point I have tried to write something not terrible about Arcade Fire three times, one after another, and apparently I’m incapable of effective articulation when it comes to them. Which I hate, coincidentally, because one of the single biggest reasons I decided to start this blog was to make an effective platform to talk about how much I love Arcade Fire, and apparently that strut of structure isn't ever going to be built, or at the very least it will not be put in place for an indefinitely long time. Therefore, I’m going to put the topic to rest for the time being, and simply move on. With one last note: both Neon Bible and The Suburbs are incredible albums, and they’re both available online for under $10 dollars, from wherever you get music from. You can listen to playlists of both albums here (or here) for free, and you should. Both albums are worth listening to in full over and over again (I should know, I have literally listened to both at least 10 times apiece), and they only get better the more times you do it.

   So, that being said, I wanted to talk about another, different album that I found recently, that I really like. 151a (which is apparently pronounced ichi-go-ichi-eh because how could any self-respecting artist pass up that chance) is an album released last year by some guy called Kishi Bashi, and it’s pretty great. I was going to try to describe why it’s great, but then I remembered that I don’t actually know anything about the mechanics of music, I just like listening to it. So, since I am completely unfit to objectively critique music, I’m just gonna call it: this album is pretty rad, you should listen to it! In a lot of ways, it kind of reminds me of Enya; it’s catchy, but has enough ethereal, drifting falsettos that you can either tune out and use it as background music, or pay attention and notice that it’s really good.

   The whole album really only seems to have two settings for songs: hyper-catchy energetic anthems that make you think about how great everything is, and soulfully crooned ballads (or at least some kind of soulful singing style that I would describe as being at least tangentially related to crooning) that makes you think about solitude and large, dry countrysides flooded with sunlight. I should also mention that I have a mild obsession with leaping falsettos (I Believe in a Thing Called Love is hands down the most fun sing–along song ever written, no questions asked), which has certainly given me a predisposition to 151a, but even on songs that contain a bare minimum of octave hopping, there are lots of cool vocal effects going on. If you check out Kishi Bashi’s live performances, you see that most of his music is made by combining looped violin sections with vocal and beatboxing samples, and so on pretty much all of the songs the vocals are used as just as much of a tool as any other instrument, which creates a very… distinctive sound, I guess? It’s definitely a very distinctive style musically, but it also ends up giving all the songs a very unique emotional setting.

   The whole album is really worth listening to through from beginning to end without stopping (which you can do for free here), but if you only want to listen to some singles, my personal favorites are probably It All Began with a Burst, Manchester, and I am the Antichrist to You. I am the Antichrist to you is definitely the most standout track in my mind; it was the first song I heard off the album, and is probably still my favorite overall. It’s the kind of song whose lyrical meaning isn't clear at all, but that doesn't really matter because whatever it’s about, it’s true. It’s the kind of songs that just has some aura of capital T Truth that you can’t argue with and wouldn't want to. Whatever the point is, you just need to listen along with your eyes closed and then go and do things with a lingering feeling that you may be becoming a better person for having heard it.

   I suppose It all Began with a Burst could be considered the lead single along with Bright Whites (which is also really good, by the way), and it sets a pretty good precedent for the tone of the album overall. It has lots of looped layers, yelps and a catchy chorus, and it’s fun to listen to. Honestly though, I've started liking Manchester a lot more overall. When I first listened to Manchester, I thought it was decent but forgettable track, but I've liked it more every listen through since then.  For one thing, I actually paid attention to the lyrics, and it turns they’re moderately incomprehensible but compelling, which is really just how I should describe all of the lyrics on the album. For another, I love the chorus. In addition to good falsetto, I also have a weakness for catchy choruses, and Manchester has one of the best I've heard in recent memory. You should go listen to it on repeat, and then try to get it out of your head for the next ten hours. You will fail!

   As a closing note, I've got a link to a playlist (linked above) of the full album on Grooveshark which you can listen to for free, but the album is also available for streaming and download from his bandcamp for 8$, so if you've got excess cash it might be worth swinging by and picking up. Supporting cool artists is cool! Also, there’s a video on youtube of a really cool live performance he did, and it’s worth checking out too. For real, doesn't his live show look completely rad? It looks so completely rad.

   Also, last of all, here’s a bonus song. Continuing the theme of awesome live shows and adding on my VERY IMPORTANT theme of ‘hey, listen to arcade fire’, this is one of my favorite versions of one of my favorite ever songs, Rebellion Lies. It’s also worth watching the video, if only so you can see a stageful of people sweat rhythmically. Delightful!

Post 1: On trashy pop, and why it’s great.

   So when I first visualized this blog, one of the first things that popped into my head was talking about Arcade Fire. I love them, I love talking about them, and the second I decided to make a blog dedicated to talking about music, it immediately became evident that the first post was obviously going to be about two of my all-time favorite albums, Neon Bible and The Suburbs. So I started writing that, and found out that while I do indeed love talking about them, I am surprisingly terrible at shutting up, and it looks like that particular piece is going to end up being three or four times longer than I was originally planning. As a side effect it just might not be done tonight. Since I want to do both albums side by side, but I also want to do them justice, I decided to put that project on the shelf for a bit, and start this blog off right by talking about stupid top 40 pop songs, and how great they are.

   I have kind of a love-hate relationship with pop music; on the one hand, listening to it makes me feel like my IQ is dropping at a steady rate of four points per minute. On the other hand, I think everyone reading this, whether they admit it or not, still loves Dancing Queen at least a little bit. You can’t not love Dancing Queen at least a little bit, that’s the whole point. It’s designed from the ground up to be as or more infectious than Ebola. And so, I wanted to list off a couple of the more delightful strains I've been listening to lately. As a side note, most of the bubblegum pop I’ll be talking about is fairly old stuff, because I’m in the middle of a thirty-year binge on 80’s one hit wonders. I’d apologize, but everyone needs to listen to more Culture Club.

   Speaking of, go listen to Karma Chameleon. I've got the link right here; you have no reason not to click. Unless you have a fear of Boy George and/or metrosexuality in 1870’s riverboat reenactments, in which case maybe you want to avoid watching the video (I will say that there’s nothing wrong with having a healthy dose of caution when it comes to looking directly at Boy George. I suspect that he strikes a slightly uncomfortable note in the psyche of all living people).  BE THAT AS IT MAY, Karma Chameleon is one of my favorite pieces of 80’s memorabilia. I have a soft spot for harmonicas that sneak their way into genres other than country, bluegrass and folk, and Karma Chameleon has one of the more balling hooks in that very narrow category.

   You know what else has a great harmonica line? Hook by Blues Traveler. I guess technically it falls more into alt-folk than straight pop, but it’s simultaneously on of my favorite examples and indictments of pop lyricism, and it also references Anne Boleyn. You cannot ask for more. Also, on the subject of delightful pop culture indictments check out Rococo by Arcade Fire. I promised myself I wouldn't be listing any of their songs until my mega-article, but I’m also a pathological liar, and it’s great.

   Moving right along, I would like to remind everyone that Lady Gaga still exists, and whether or not you like her music, Poker Face and Telephone are pretty much perfect pop songs. I've got nothing else to add, really. Some people like her, some people hate her… Telephone is catchy.

   In case it wasn't obvious, I’m still trying to figure out a viable format for this blog, and I've still got a couple more songs I wanted to talk about, so for now I’m just going to shove them down here and talk a little bit about why they’re great. I'm going to experiment with different formats over the next few articles until I find something that I think works well, but in the meantime listen to these other songs, 

Just can’t Get Enough-Depeche Mode

   Man, this might just be my favorite piano riff of all time. I have an unhealthy love for early electronic, and Depeche Mode are the godfathers of basically everything that’s been played on a moog synthesizer. Fun bonus: a while ago, I found a mashup of Just can’t get enough and Paparazzi. It’s right here. Haters to the left.

Super Trouper-Abba

   I will never pretend to understand why Swedish people have such a mastery over the art of making fluffy pop songs, but they do. It’s actually kind of weird realizing how well Abba’s stuff has aged; for being so deeply and distinctly rooted in 70’s and disco, it still has a very current sound. However, the same cannot be said of their videos. In all seriousness, they're pretty dang terrible. Naturally, I've linked the video versions in case anyone reading this wants to punish themselves.

Last of all, this is a song that as friend sent me, and I have no idea when, if ever, I'll be writing a post that it fits in with, but I love it and want to share it with the world. It's a reggae cover of Country Roads, and if listening to it doesn't fill a void in your heart that you never realized existed, then I've got bad news for you: you just failed the Turing test, and can be definitively considered non-human. On the plus side, isn't it amazing how far technology has come?

Post 0: Welcome One and All (Except for that One Guy)!

   Hi there! Welcome to Cool Older Cousin, a new blog I’m creating to talk about music, partly because I like music, but mostly because I like talking… a lot. This isn't exactly going to be a music review blog; it’s mostly going to be me talking about different music that I like. So unless I specifically say otherwise, any songs that I mention on here are songs that I like and listen to, and therefore, by extension, you should too.

   When I was growing up, I listened to a lot of music, but it was mostly stuff on the radio. I have nothing in particular against radio, and I still like a lot of the stuff that I heard back then, but a diet made of classic rock and top nineties love ballads (I will never forgive Celine Dion for My Heart Will go on) does not make for a solid musical education. The music that I really ended up caring about came from older siblings and cousins, who would arrive at home with beaten up mix tapes that they had created by holding a personal recorder up to a radio, thereby creating some of the most lo-fi recordings I have ever heard, bar none. They were pretty much the coolest things I could even imagine when I was seven. I have vivid memories of hearing snatches of Monty Python, Metallica, Abba, and whatever else my elders were fancying that week, interspersed with pops and crackles (and occasional muffled shouts when people forgot to turn off the recorder once the song ended).

   As I grew up, the mix tapes became more polished and eclectic, but it was always exciting to find new music every time someone came to visit. A couple of years after that I discovered the internet and stopped communicating with people in the real world, but I still love finding out what the people whose musicals tastes I’ve pilfered over the years are listening to currently, and I guess the point of this blog is to pass that feeling along to other people: The chance to find strange, cool music that you haven’t heard or that you forgot about, all from the soothing location of your own monitor.

   So yeah, welcome to my music-talking-about blog! I’m planning on posting something every Friday night starting on March first, so anyone reading this can expect to be regularly edified to my musings. As a side note, anyone who read my last blog might be wondering if I’m going to be saying funny things here. At this point, I don’t know! I started I’m not Longwinded mostly because I wanted to write stupid and funny things where people could read them, and I think I succeeded fairly well at it (especially in the former area), but I made Cool Older Cousin mostly because I like music, and I wanted to create a place where I could about it a bunch at a relatively captive audience.  I’d like to think that some of the posts will be funny, but mostly they will be long navel gazing diatribes about just what a great song Hey Ya is (it’s so great, by the way. If you think otherwise, you are simply and incontrovertibly wrong). Are you excited? I AM EXCITED.

  LET'S BE EXCITED TOGETHER, FRIEND.