Anthony Bozza's Blog

The fifth episode of the Bozza & Burke Podcast. Anthony & Max discuss Anthony’s recent trip to Seattle for the AC/DC exhibit at the Experience Music Project. We also remember the legendary life of Adam “MCA” Yauch of the Beastie Boys. Thanks for listening and remember to pass the link along if you enjoyed the episode. Until next time…

The long-awaited Episode 4 of Bozza & Burke is here. We review Rock Week, with Anthony and Max attending a smorgasbord of live music in New York, including Pulp, Bruce Springsteen and Sleepy Sun with White Hills.  Also discussed is how age, generation and the digital music revolution have affected the way in which music is consumed and music fandom develops. Don’t forget that Anthony will be appearing at the Experience Music Project in Seattle on Saturday, April 28 for a signing and discussion of his book Why AC/DC Matters. More details on this event by clicking here. Enjoy and please share the podcast with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks for listening!

Bozza & Burke – Episode 3 is here! In this episode Anthony and Max discuss new music from Sleepy Sun and White Hills (who are touring together in April), Santigold and Brooklyn’s own The Men. Please enjoy and pass the link along. Your feedback is welcomed in the comments section.

A small editing hiccup but we just about got this one out on time. Please enjoy episode 2 of Bozza & Burke. Topics discussed include the Coachella lineup, Anthony’s trip on the Holy Ship, and the Giants’ Super Bowl run.  If you enjoy the podcast please share the link with anyone who might be interested. Thanks for listening.

A holiday gift from Anthony and Max – our first podcast! Click below to hear discussions of Destroyer, The Black Keys, Mick Fleetwood, Courtney Love and more. Hope you enjoy and please comment below.

Thanks for downloading and listening. Happy holidays and a wonderful new year to you and yours.

- Anthony and Max

It has been a minute since Anthony and Max dropped their last their last entry. We were worried the rapture would end life on earth as we know it, so we figured what was the point of putting in all that work if no one’s left to read it? Disappointingly, we’re all still here, but more importantly there is, as always, tons of great music out there to make this earthly life bearable.  Read on, dear followers…

Thurston Moore has just released a solo LP, Demolished Thoughts, on Matador. He’s released song-oriented “pop” solo albums in the past, a few years back the modest but charming Trees Outside The Academy, and in the mid-90s Psychic Hearts, which has attained a bit of a cult following in the intervening years. Demolished Thoughts is the mellowest and most plainly beautiful of these records. Deceptively simple arrangements on Thurston’s acoustic are complemented by violin from Samara Lubelski (Tower Recordings, Metal Mountains) and harp from Mary Lattimore (Kurt Vile, Fursaxa).

The record was produced by Beck in Los Angeles and a few critics have drawn comparisons to Mr. Hansen’s melancholy masterwork Sea Change. Demolished Thoughts isn’t as cohesive as that record, but it’s not trying to be. Demolished Thoughts does have a downer California vibe at times, but it’s a lush, relaxing record that I find myself wanting to listen to more than I would have expected, given how conventional (in a good way) it is.

I had the opportunity to see Thurston play a record release show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with the full band he has recruited for a brief tour. The group includes the aforementioned Lubelski and Lattimore, and is filled out by Keith Wood (his one-man psych folk project is Hush Arbors, highly recommended) and John Moloney, who has spent time in long-running northeast weirdos Sunburned Hand of the Man. The result is an extremely tasteful and restrained group, capable of expanding on the records’ limited vocabulary. Wood’s guitar work, in particular, is an essential component of the sound.

Moore is a songwriter of such unique gifts it’s a pleasure to hear his tunes in a context other than Sonic Youth, a group who has always been careful to give each member an equal say in the resulting sound. His new solo group is recruited from the associates Moore has connected with in the orbit of the tight knit and highly productive Western Massachusetts underground music scene he and wife Kim Gordon have participated in since relocating from New York to Northampton. Demolished Thoughts is not going to change rock music as we know it (what is at this point?) but its pleasures are not soon forgotten. (MB)

Anthony went to Coachella last month and had a grand old time. I know you also wanted to talk specifically about the stage, sound and lighting setup which has been greatly beefed up from previous years.

I wanted to ask you specifically about the Animal Collective set. Now, they were playing a lot of new material which is always a risky move no matter how high profile your group is. Particularly in the festival setting where it is standard to do a crowd pleasing “hits” set. Do you think that Animal Collective have achieved a level of credibility where that is not totally necessary? That is, do people pretty much know what to expect from an Animal Collective show and know that they are not going to be getting the hits. This is an extremely difficult thing to do, audiences will always reward groups for giving them what they want at the most basic level. Personally, I am a massive fan and I think it’s great that they do these riskier sets, even for high profile shows, but obviously I am not your average Coachella-goer in a sea of tens of thousands of people who maybe just want to hear “My Girls.” (MB)

Yep, Max, you are totally on point. The visuals and lights were completely beefed up. They spent a lot of money on them and they let this organization called the Creator’s Project have their way with the experiential art direction. These people have done a lot of amazing lit up things with video and such. They’re really a bunch of producers if you go to their site. Anyway, there was a different effect for each headliner and all of it came off exceedingly well.

Except when Animal Collective let Black Dice run the visuals for their entire set. That was totally hellish and people ran for the hills, frankly. The Creators’ Project people built this super intense audio-visual cube that surrounded the Coachella main stage. It moved like a Rubik’s Cube, it had it’s own mini-sets between sets. It was a super-powered being unto itself to be dealt with. When a band like Arcade Fire or Duran Duran was playing, all those screens were as intoxicating as the deep jade grass of the polo fields.

But when Animal Collective took the stage, Black Dice really dropped the ball. Personally I was excited to see AC, but was instantly confused as to why they’d let Black Dice have their way with the visuals. So far from the Bushwick borderline, it made no sense to me that they’d allow a truly sub-par outfit free reign to define their set on a canvas so beyond the pale of anything Black Dice would ever and will ever be capable of painting.

The easiest metaphor I can think of for what resulted is letting a toddler drive a Porsche when it’s your Porsche, and you’re still paying off your second born’s braces as you watch that baby you love grind your car and your hedge row into a pile of unrecognizable synthetic and organic material. The visuals amounted to a primary-color video test screen with a swirling skull in the middle of it – for hours. It was so bright and boring that it made the natural backdrop of Coachella seem fake. Black Dice, whom I’ve never really liked, can now, officially, eat a grenade tomorrow for breakfast forever in my eyes. It takes a lot to ruin Coachella’s main stage, and I feel like they’re probably proud they did, but they shouldn’t be. It’s easy to take a dump in public: anyone can do it but most understand this would be a bad idea.

Worst of it all was the fact that AC were completely kicking ass. They were on a very interesting trip, way out there in the desert, going for it on the new material that will make up their new album. What they were doing was daring and dark and really fucking cool – but sorry, Black Dice were too busy diddling their VCR dicks to even show us what AC were actually up to.

Duran Duran were great. Way greater than anyone but me expected them to be. And the Black Keys kicked so much ass it’s silly. They really are one of the most succinctly powerful things touring right now. I dare anyone not to dance, stomp, fuck or drink when they’re on stage. They’re fantastic.

I should probably preface this entire entry by saying that in the 9 of 11 years I’ve attended Coachella, this past year personally was the absolute worst I’d ever wish on my worst enemy. Still, I feel that if music moves you, you should be able to rise above, or at least rise into what is happening outside of you, if in fact that is actually good enough – which hopefully, if you’re there in the first place, it should be. That said, this Coachella for me sucked. It was hateful and reeked of 1000 year old eggs. But, like a Karmic janitor, all has been righted, cleaned and made well in my world, kiddies. Not to worry. So, Max, honestly, I was paying more attention to the light show than a lot of the acts, because like the worst third-tier character in Melrose Place, I was down in it, man. (AB)

Apart from the obvious decline in general music sales, there was for a long time the counter narrative that live music was doing well. This seems to be turning a bit, with huge arena tours starting to flounder in certain cases. However, festivals seem to have reached their height and continue to grow. Coachella sold out despite that fact that it was missing an obvious “must go” headliner and Bonnaroo is sold out. New festivals are cropping out – I am attending three next month. Personally, I think festivals are a terrible way to see music. Not in every case, but generally. Even with the most sophisticated setup, outdoor sound will never have the acoustics of a nice club room and the crowds can be utterly intolerable. Not just the sheer size, but the touristic attitude that festivals encourage.

Of course, a music writer is not a great litmus test, and since we both live in New York a festival like Coachella is more of a novelty, providing an interesting entry point to survey the music scene “in general” rather than a place to check out new bands in earnest. A lot of people in Los Angeles head out to the desert for Coachella but I’m wondering if most of these fests bank on people traveling from long distances or even from outside the country. My roommates are driving to Tennessee for Bonnaroo, which I find absurd for people who live in New York, but they’re just as excited about the hippy camping aspect as the lineup. I prefer my creature comforts, thank you very much, but I’m wondering if festival’s main draw is still the promise of a unique, collective experience that is not repeatable or translatable outside of the context of a hundred thousand people creating an impromptu community for a few days. (MB)

Speaking of Animal Collective, Panda Bear put out his long anticipated solo record Tomboy a couple of months ago. Many of the songs had been released over the past year as singles and so there was a lot of material floating around out there, however the final mix of the album is quite different. The album sounded great and now that I’ve had some time to spend with it I’m more enamored. I have no idea what genre of music to describe this record as. I’m ultimately drawn to describe it as a type of experimental dance music. Apparently most of the sounds were created with processed guitar, but the end result for me ultimately owes itself to something like Arthur Russell. A deeply personal music that plays within the general “dance” or electronic music genres.

I also got to see Panda Bear perform the entire album live with Sonic Boom (Peter Kember of Spaceman 3 and Spectrum), who produced and did the final mix of the tracks. The show was a continuous wall of sound over an hour long with over-the-top visuals and strobe lights aimed at the audience. The volume was through the roof and the result was a rave-like atmosphere that was earnestly psychedelic without being “druggy” or hippie-like. I would jump at the chance to see Panda Bear in this current configuration. (MB)

Hey it’s a new Beastie Boys album, who’d have thought? And guess what it’s great, very alive, very funny and silly. I had pretty much written the guys off because they’re old and To The 5 Boroughs was bland, which is probably the worst thing you can say about them given their track record. They’ve also marked the release with what will go down as one of the most ambitious music videos ever. The idea of simply overloading a video with celebrity cameos doesn’t seem great on the surface but the “Fight For Your Right to Party Revisited” short film (it’s nearly thirty minutes long) feels like the last word on the current era of viral videos and internet absurdity. They ramp up the famous face counting so hard and so fast it becomes a meta-joke on the entire phenomenon. I think its brilliant, as it pokes fun of itself while also becoming the perfect “Have you seen this?” entree to a pal or someone you meet a party. A bunch of friends sitting around a computer monitor and searching for hilarious internet videos has become a social experience, and feeding that market can be very lucrative. My only fear is that the kids who might get a kick out of such a thing are too jaded to think of the Beasties as anything but old men. How do you feel about the fact that License to Ill is 25 years old Anthony? Or is that too personal a question? (MB)

The new Beasties is a perfect gem, it’s both nostalgia and as-awesome, by which I mean it’s as-awesome as they ever was. I’ve not heard an album since Paul’s Boutique that made me want to get in trouble as much as this one does. The video they made really says it all: it’s of the moment, it evokes their legacy (insane celebrity cameos) and it’s just funky. I mean this, if the album was the first two tracks on repeat for thirty minutes, I’d totally be okay with that. Dance off! (AB)

Bozza & Burke hit the town: Wire with Weekend at the Music Hall of Williamsburg

Anthony went to South by Southwest and there were a lot of bands he mentioned, but the first word out of his mouth was “Weekend.” This San Francisco trio relies on a distinctive post-punk guitar sound and hits all the right reference points, from My Bloody Valentine’s pleasurably punishing wall of sound to Joy Division/New Order’s propulsive percussion, without ever sounding like a lukewarm cover band or name-checkers going through the motions. Their debut LP Sports came out last year on Slumberland, and songs like “Coma Summer” give a good idea of what the band is capable of, displaying the confidence to stretch out their song running times, allowing the listener a chance to bask in the feedback afterglow as their blown out amps wind down.

Weekend – Coma Summer

The real showcase for the group is their live sound. They filled the Music Hall from floor to ceiling, managing to capture the attention of an initially restless crowd filing in to grab a good spot for the legendary Wire. Bass player and lead vocalist Shaun Durkan relies on a heavily processed bass tone, which means he can both play leads and hold down the rhythm end of things while Kevin Johnson fires waves of distortion from his guitar, patiently building a hypnotic groove before pushing his pedal into overdrive and unleashing a torrent of distortion and noise. Sports, though an admirable document, doesn’t come close to capturing the sheer force of volume Weekend are capable of live.

- Max

I caught Weekend in Austin at the Insound daytime party at Club de Ville where they played before Owen Palett and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Happening upon a band you don’t know that blows you away is still the greatest reason to go to SxSW – or your local rock club on a random weekday for that matter. Each time I go, I make a point of wandering a bit at SxSW to check out acts that would never otherwise be on my radar. I see many forgettables, but I often find a gem. This year, that gem was Weekend. Their dark, cavernous sound couldn’t have been more diametrically opposed to the setting: 89 degree, mid-day Texas heat, people getting drunk too early on free party-sponsor booze, which in this case was the toxically awful Mike’s Hard Punch (named, I assume, for the hangoever that follows), while wearing clownishly red Mike’s Hard Punch sunglasses. The P.A. at the show wasn’t much to speak of, but Weekend managed to sound powerful without losing their interplay in the fuzz and echo. When they launched into their first song, “Coma Summer,” frontman Shaun Durkan gazed above the crowd, off into some unseen distance as he intoned the first lines of the song, setting a shimmering, chilly mood regardless of his surroundings. I also enjoyed their attitude – because they had one – which we saw in kind in Brooklyn when Durkan responded to Wire hecklers with disarming, funny non-sequiturs. And on a real P.A., they were something else. As Max said, those three guys easily saturated a high ceilinged two level room with welcome waves of distortion and reverb. They didn’t just turn it up either, they were really in control of what they were doing and running a very tight ship. I enjoyed them so much that I went to see them the very next night at the Mercury Lounge, where, in a small rock club, they literally blew the doors off.

- Anthony

Weekend inspired a lot of reflection from me, particularly around the idea that Weekend take their references for granted – they know their audience will be accustomed to post-punk rhythms, high-volume layers of distortion and long songs that can sometimes appear to lose the plot. They know their audience is along for the ride and, as evidenced by the positive response in Brooklyn, most are game for what would be considered “out there” ten or twenty years ago. Luckily, as evidenced by this shot of their merch table, the band is not taking themselves too seriously, always a good sign.  (MB)

Yes, a sense of humor should be a prerequisite in rock and roll. Max made a good point when he first heard the band, which was that they could only be a buzz band now, and I completely agree. I think that music fans on a wider scale have become accustomed to longer, more textural songs to the point that they’re equally moved by music where the hook is a sound refrain rather than a verbal chorus. It could be the mainstreaming of electronic dance music to a generation of listeners who came of age with it in the charts, or it could just reflect the more emotional and interpretive way that fans are interacting with music today. I’m not sure, but I did see three audiences be completely taken over by Weekend in the best possible way. In Austin, in Brooklyn and in Manhattan, I watched curiosity turn to interest, followed by earnest, rocked-out enjoyment. There is also an incongruous element to the band that I like. I mean, they named their album Sports. I associate the music they are channelling with outlaw looking weirdos like The Jesus and Mary Chain, yet, they are a very nice, clean-cut group of boys reinterpreting that era with reverence and skill.  In some way that makes me feel that the sounds I loved as a teenager have scored a victory. Of course, if they were crap I would think otherwise.  (AB)

In contrast to my restless thoughts on Weekend, I have very little to say about Wire. In a word they were exceptional. Playing a career-spanning set, heavy on their sometimes controversial 1980s material, they kept the crowd at rapt attention. After the first encore, I had to vacate my choice spot for a quick visit to the facilities, and this broke my hear in some way. As Anthony astutely commented after the show, they pretty much invented, perfected or progressed the entire catalog of distinctive guitar sounds in the post Classic Rock era. The crowd was extremely receptive and the band was quietly, confidently devastating. As I start to come to terms with the fact that, yes, I am going to get older one day, my attention turns more and more to bands that have persisted and evolved their career in interesting ways over a long period of time. Youth may be the central promise and attraction of rock and roll, but it is by definition fleeting. If only every band that burned so brightly in their prime could age with the level of style, grace and integrity that Wire demonstrated in Brooklyn, the canon of rock and roll would be truly sacred.  (MB)

Well said, Mr. Burke. Wire are an institution that has aged gracefully, and I can’t stress enough that any fan of alternative rock of any kind should see them on tour, even if said fan is unfamiliar with their catalog. It won’t matter – if you truly enjoy anyone from the Pixies to the Feelies to Sonic Youth to Nirvana you will hear the root of every single post-punk guitar sound that ever was, because Wire started mining that terrain in 1979 and never let up. If you’re a guitar nut, see them for their guitar collection alone. All in all, it was an incredible show.  (AB)

TV on the Radio have a new album out today. Without getting too specific, I will say that TV on the Radio is a band of my generation (their breakthrough Young Liars EP was released the year I got my own show after working my way up through my college radio station). However, they are one of Anthony’s favorite bands, and I have barely heard a note of their music. Mostly out of ignorance and the unjustified notion that they were simply “not my thing.” In this way, a band that is indisputably one of the most enduring of the last decade of indie rock and they have utterly passed me by. As a corrective to this, I’ve asked Anthony to recommend ten songs from the group’s catalog for us to discuss. (MB)

Well, Max, I remember being young and sometimes not liking things because people I didn’t like liked them. But you’re older now my friend, and this is a band you have no reason not to like. They’ve got all the ingredients you enjoy in other bands: fuzzed out guitar, an enormous wall of sound aesthetic, pointed, intelligent lyrics full of dark realism and romance, no sell-out moments and a general disdain of fame. Before I’d ever heard them I respected them for the fact that they named their demo OK Calculator and left cassette copies of it on the couches of coffee shops all over New York City. At the time, one of the guys was working as a courier for an art gallery and when delivering a painting to David Bowie’s Manhattan apartment, he taped one of those cassettes to the back of it with a note and his number. Bowie was so impressed with what he heard that he called them, offered some advice, and then ended up doing backing vocals on the song “Province” on their second album, Return to Cookie Mountain. Even if the music didn’t move me, I’d be a fan of theirs just for pulling that off. But I am a fan. A compete, utter, unabashed one. I’ve loved TV on the Radio since the moment I heard “Young Liars,” which is where this list will start. (AB)

“Young Liars”  (2003)

This song is one of their earliest, and in addition to lyrical phrases like “I will be calmer than cream” and imagery that has stayed with me since I first heard it, the song is testament to their potential. They did this on less than a shoe-string, and though you can hear the limits of what they were able to do production-wise, what they were able to do with so little is still awesome in the true sense of the word. I firmly believe that to appreciate Tv on The Radio in their entirety, the lyrics must be read while listening. I feel like the librarian in the Language Lab asking you to do your homework properly, but it’s true. This band is an project driven by two artists (Tunde Adepimpe and David Sitek) whose first mediums were visual – film and painting. It’s an all-immersive band that should be taken in at all levels to be truly appreciated. The band name says it all, after all. (AB)

This is a bit different from what I was expecting, a lot of swing. This has the feel off a big, swaggering career-opening statement. This band is serious business out the gate. Like you said, nothing not to like here, but nothing is grabbing me yet. (MB)

“Mr. Grieves” (2003)

This is a cover of The Pixies’ original off of Doolittle (1989), and it’s so blazingly unlike it and great in its own right that it resulted in the band being asked to open for The Pixies on legs of their 2004 tour. It’s a Pixies song re-imagined as a doo-wop, barbershop quartet with a haunting, plucked stand-up bass line. As one should do with TV on the Radio’s entire catalog, listen on headphones, or on a very good set of speakers for full appreciation. (AB)

It’s pretty ballsy to put a Pixies cover on your first EP. It was also a very fashionable choice in 2003, as Pixies were just about to be getting their long time coming due and kicking off a never ending series of victory laps. I lined up to get in on the reunion right off the bat, being the impressionable college rock guy I was. In all fairness, they do pull the cover off with aplomb, but I have to file it under successful experiment rather than “enduring re-imagining.” (MB)

“The Wrong Way” (2004)

Tunde’s honest exploration of what it means to be a black man today is as honest and arresting as the song’s hard bop horn line and military two-step beat. All in all it’s a rich sonic expression, and at the time it couldn’t have been more refreshing and alien from every other bit of indie rock being released. (AB)

Imagine my relief when this didn’t turn out to be a Sublime cover! (rimshot) Seriously though, this one swings, for lack of a better word, and I like that. In fact, I dig this significantly more than the previous two tracks. The production is dense, at times even suffocating, but it’s difficult to turn your ears away. The vocals are a bit buried – perhaps it’s this crappy streaming version – and I wish I could hear a bit better. I must point out that 2004 was a banner year for contemporary indie, seeing the release of Funeral, and breakthrough albums from Animal Collective, Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart. (MB)

“Staring at the Sun” (2004)

This song wins everyone over, and it should. It’s got an amazing guitar riff courtesy of Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (TVOTR’s Dave Sitek produced the Yeah’s Fever to Tell), and a simultaneously nervous yet expansive quality. The ticking hi-hat in the chorus mirrors the tense guitar line, and the lack of a big bass drum backbeat – or any percussion at all – until more than midway through the song makes it truly unique. It’s an attuned degree of song craft. This song also showcases the wonder-twin vocal prowess of Tunde Adepimpe and guitarist Kyp Malone. They harmonize so well that many people don’t realize that two men are singing. On this track you can hear them separately and together very clearly, which is a gateway to hearing what they’re doing on every other song. (AB)

This definitely has big alternative rock single written all over it. Which isn’t a bad thing. Nick Zinner is an interesting figure and I’ve always that – though he is a diminutive figure – his guitar sound was too big for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who strike me as long on style, short on ambition (which isn’t the same as being short on substance). Finding adjectives to describe listening to rock music is generally a fool’s errand, albeit a necessary one, but I will state this song “slinks.” Yes, it creeps along, gets under your skin, and just when you think you’ve got a handle on it – boom. This is actually a perfect pop single – your comment about song craft is well taken. Okay, I’m won over – for these three and a half minutes at least. (MB)

“Province” (2006)

David Bowie backing vocals, end of story. (Check You Tube, the band also did a rendition of their song “Dreams” live with Peter Murphy and Trent Reznor doing back ups. What else does a die-hard alternative rock fan need to know?) This song is epic, and again, one that must be read to be appreciated. Return to Cookie Mountain was the band enjoying major label funding, and the production value reflects it. It was money well spent: the sonic tapestry they weave on the album really comes together beautifully here. It’s uplifting and melancholy, capturing both strength and frailty. (AB)

Okay…this is great. Seriously, even if I didn’t go all in for TVOTR, I am glad I heard this song. The Bowie reference is clearly enticing, but the Peter Murphy mention is where you really had me. I’m a closet fan of the more anthemic moments of his solo career and this fits the bill, with a dash of the Bowie glam swing. This is big, panoramic, life-affirming rock music which, thus far, is more successful than the moodier, more spooked material that has preceded it. This, I can get with. I had no idea TVOTR sounded like this. (MB)

“Playhouses” (2006)

Just a wall of wailing reverb and distortion composed into an orchestra. A tour de force of the band’s disparate yet united elements. (AB)

I like anything that starts with some swirl of distortion way in the background that sort of ramps up and then it gets even louder. I really want to listen to this on a better stereo, which is an endorsement. (MB)

“Let the Devil In” (2006)

This song bridges Afro-Pop, Gang of Four and deep south gospel and slave songs. And it works. (AB)

I could only find some insane live version of this with a ton of drummers. Fair enough, I love drums. Your description is academic (and accurate) but I prefer to think of this as a much better produced version of some Brooklyn basement noise rock band.(MB)

“Dancing Choose” (2008)

An eloquent statement on materialism, capitalism, and the media – particularly the print media, so perhaps I’m enjoying it for personal reasons, but it’s also a really killer, interesting, jazzy tune. (AB)

This sounds like a different band. A band I don’t like. The lyrics are pretty trite too, compared to what has come before. There had to be a genuine loser among the picks, and this is it. See, if this was the first TVOTR song I heard I may never have ventured further (MB)

“DLZ” (2008)

Have you ever been pissed at hypocrisy in people, institutions or governments? Want to hear it taken down with soul and artistic grace? Listen in. I love the haunted house G-funk keyboards in the background during the “la-la’s”. (AB)

This track and the previous are from their last album, Dear Science, and I don’t know if I would dig this album. An edge is missing, and it’s not just the beefed up production. Everything sounds a bit smoother…more confidence, surely, but less risks. Generalizing about the career arc of a band that had barely registered with me just a few hours ago is hardly advisable, and yet… (MB)

“Golden Age” (2008)

This is anthemic and sunny as they get, and it’s really glorious. Worthy of a dance on New Year’s Eve in my opinion. (AB)

This is great for a radio anthem, and the Bowie-isms are always appreciated. But somehow lacking in conviction. Perhaps a longer discussion of the band’s evolution over time is warranted, because this isn’t hitting me like the mid-period stuff. (MB)

I know that Anthony was a bit disappointed with my overall reaction, but it’s a real victory to go from not giving a band a time of day to having a few favorite songs and a genuine curiosity to check out the rest of the catalog. Expect more TV on the Radio talk in coming installments, including some choice thoughts on their just-released new LP Nine Types of the Light (streaming here). (MB)

The thing about TV on the Radio is that they are a whirlwind of music – literally a rush of sounds and voices and imagery and messages that come en masse. Unlike a wall of dissonance that is layered but in the same cadence, they are a storm cloud with bolts of lightning that fire and spark off beat, of their own accord. The band’s music is ruled by syncopation; it’s rock but always utterly funky. They are a lot to listen to – they both overwhelm and tickle the ear and mind. They are not the most easily accessible hang, but they’re one well worth it, because if you get hooked and begin explore further, you will hear something new every time.  (AB)

Kate Bush: “Deeper Understanding”

Kate Bush has a new song out in advance of a new album this summer. This would be big news in any context, but it seems that a genuine renaissance in the Kate Bush school of reclusive chanteuses has taken place since the release of her last record, 2005′s somewhat mystifying but basically excellent Aerial. It seems that everywhere you turn, there’s a pint-sized bundle of charisma with an outsized howl backed by a fragrantly fashionable backing group. (MB)

The deadpan take on this phenomenon is spearheaded by Esben & The Witch. To wit:

Esben & The Witch “Marching Song” (Matador)

I saw Esben & The Witch at SxSW and I was really impressed. I’d heard their recorded material and thought it stood out from the Kate Bush-alikes, but it wasn’t anything incredibly special. After seeing how the band creates the music live, I stand corrected. Front woman Rachael Davies is like an Elf possessed – she’s all of five feet four inches, but her intensity is twenty feet tall. And she’s incredibly in tune with her band, Thomas Fisher and Daniel Copeman. The trio alternate roles and trade instruments, which often leads to impassioned throw downs on the floor tom that sits in the middle of the stage. It gets Braveheart in the best way possible, but they are the exception, in my opinion. If you’re going to channel one of the great female voices of the post Classic Rock era, you’d best come correct. (AB)

Zola Jesus (aka vocalist Niko Roszas) has the subterranean Los Angeles fashion goth angle:

Zola Jesus – “Night” (Sacred Bones)

Next Month: We discuss Radiohead -Anthony digs that “Lotus Flower” video, I wish it was a whole album, I’m gonna talk about Panda Bear (Tomboy!), and of course…Coachella! Anthony bakes in the California heat while I grumble from the east.

I’ve wanted to blog about music for a while, but like a drunk uncle at a wedding, I found myself reasoning in circles. Why do this? What should I cover? Hasn’t that been done? Where do I fit in? Why bother (who are you and where’s the bar?). I saw no need for more opining, snark, or over-sharing. I was done with diary diarrhea passing for reviews. I wanted less to say more than esoteric soundbites. I didn’t want to cover the obvious obviously. I wanted a nuanced conversation, a dialogue of observations with a like minded soul harboring different sensibilities – this would yield insight and add something of worth to the wide waters of the Internet. My co-hort Burke is the perfect fit. He’s got a great ear, a clean writing voice and he knows his music, both past and present. So away we go. I hope you all enjoy it.

- Anthony

What is the purpose of this blog? First and foremost, we’re hoping to get some discussion about the current state of music and hopefully expose some bands that deserve it.  This project speaks to a single provocative question: Does the culture of rock music have any weight in this day and age? Has the time when rock music “meant something” in a larger cultural sense, passed? Perhaps it has, and if it has, then what does it mean to continue to engage in rock music as a critic, a fan, a musician or record label? Has it become just an insular group of people talking to each other in new ways or does social media, the ubiquity of the digital world and the democratizing power of blogging point the way forward to a new era that recaptures the idealism that birthed the music?

We hope to address these questions by looking at a variety of bands across the spectrum of rock music, as well as bringing you interviews and commentary on the music industry at large. We’ll discuss our backgrounds, how we came to be music nerds and critics, and how that role is changing rapidly. We’d also love to hear from you…is there a band we should investigate? Is there a subject you’d love to hear us discuss? Please let us know.

-Max

For our first installment, we’ll be looking at some of the rock music made over the past 12 months or so by a variety of under-the-radar artists.

White Hills – “Dead”

from the LP White Hills (Thrill Jockey, 2010)

Burke: White Hills are one of my favorite bands in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, they don’t play out too much in the city. They have a much larger following in Europe although now they are on Thrill Jockey and last year was a big year for them. They are heavy psychedelic rock, although some of their material is longer and spacier, and some noisier. The band is masterminded by one man named Dave W. and they have recorded with Kid Millions from Oneida. Live they are a three or four piece and they really bring it, including costumes and makeup which are pretty out there and psychedelic. The live spectacle is mesmerizing: the group isn’t afraid to flirt with the theatricality of glam, which is a bit unfashionable in rock right now.  I got into White Hills around the time that I discovered Hawkwind, which I think makes sense. They’ll be going on tour in the States shortly, check the MySpace link above.

Bozza: You were on a Hawkwind bender, were you Burke? Glorious stuff – one could fill a weekend with Hawkwind’s catalog without even stretching. White Hills does psych the way I like it: they capture the roller coaster emotion of a psychedelic trip without going the short way around, which is to say using noise to recreate a “freakout” experience. They avoid the bad acid and carnivorous spiders feeling of more run-of-the-mill trippy jam bands. They avoid retro cliché but capture the power. They remind me of  Hear It Is/Oh My Gawd!!! era Flaming Lips sans the compulsion to couch their extended explorations in shades of traditional pop song structure. On stage,their glam touches, from the occasional Ziggy Stardust spaceman outfit to a healthy theatrical flair, are what keep White Hills fun. They get “out there” but don’t insist that it be a somber Spacemen 3/Velvet Underground affair. If I had my way, this summer they’d tour with Earl Greyhound and play outdoor venues where the ticket price included a free plate of BBQ.

White Fence - “Lillian (Won’t You Play Drums?)”

White Fence – Lillian (Won’t You Play Drums?) by forcefieldpr

from the LP Is Growing Faith (Woodsist, 2011)

Bozza: This really is a perfect 60s garage track, and it couldn’t be better produced to achieve the desired effect. It’s a nice one-man band yin to the yang of  Tim Presley’s work with Darker My Love. There is a lack of pretense here, combined with a very well crafted and conveyed idea that never strays into cover band territory. I can’t understand why this song isn’t on three movie soundtracks already.

Burke: The first time I heard this record all I could think was “lo-fi” Kinks. Like you say, this has potential to be a cover/tribute act without bringing anything new to the table but it avoids that through sheer talent and earnestness. The bonus track on the digital version is a straight cover of Johhny Thunders’ “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory,” which is a pretty ballsy pick, but it slays.  The lack of exposure this group has is a perfect indicator of how even accessible, extremely well-done traditional rock is barely a blip on the radar for all but the most devoted hipsterati.

Tyvek - “4312″

Tyvek – 4312

from the LP Nothing Fits (In The Red, 2010)

Bozza: Excuse the alliteration, but this is primo post-punk amphetamine garage rock. They remind me of a mid-Nineties Epitaph/Fat Possum band from Oxford, Mississippi called The Neckbones, but a tougher, more Stooges version, because they are from Detroit after all. The Neckbones came from a juke joint blues tradition, but the two bands share the same overly-wired out of control exhilaration. Did Tyvek name themselves after the polyethylene fabric used for Priority Mail envelopes and painters coveralls? I have a wallet made of that material which I’ve found to be strong, yet highly breathable, much like this band. Should Tyvek ever write a “Smells Like Teen Spirit” break out hit, I wonder whether Dupont will send them a cease and desist letter or just try to awkwardly levy the band’s cred in an effort to offset their ongoing crimes against the environment.

Burke: I think they have had to disguise their name on LP covers and their MySpace. Tyvek is a copyright of DuPont. Perhaps by refusing to change their name they have dodged the question of what happens when they sell out. I have been trying to see these guys live for a while and finally succeeded. They showed up late to their headlining set and the second guitarist got lost along the way so they played the first three songs without him. Why not? The kids were going crazy I tell you, a full-blown bouncy mosh pit of joy. I think these guys are the real deal simply by virtue of truly not caring.

Purling Hiss – “Run From The City” (Live on WFMU)

Purling Hiss – Run From The City (Live at WFMU)

Burke: I chose this live session because the recorded material is so beyond lo-fi it can take multiple listens to acclimate and really understand what he’s doing. The recorded stuff is also a one-man band show, not unlike White Fence, but live he adds a bassist and drummer that gives the songs some muscle. Most of the tunes, which are well-constructed, are just structures to add crazy guitar solos to, which is as legitimate an approach as any in my mind. This guy really gets my blood pumping, although it might not be the height of originality.

Bozza: I agree, but there’s no shame in his game. Stylistically, he’s a less glum version of J Mascis. Both of them are marvels. Allow yourself to be subsumed by the wailing wall of shredding.

Spotlight on Marnie Stern

Marnie Stern – For Ash

“For Ash” from Marnie Stern (Kill Rock Stars, 2010)

I find it difficult to write about Marnie Stern. One reason is that her music is so exuberant, so immediately accessible and full of technical prowess and melodic invention that it seems rather crass to put it into writing. Not crass, maybe, but ultimately pointless. Of course I’m a writer and a critic and a fan and I love to talk about music but Stern elicits that all too rare reaction…speechlessness. Critics and pundits have been trying to pin the girl rock thing on Stern since her first LP and she won’t allow it because she preempts so many of these criticisms through her music, relying on a fierce tapping technique in her guitar and songs with titles like “Female Guitar Players Are The New Black,” at once sarcastic and knowing.

I think Stern has potential to transform into that rare female rock figure who does everything on her own terms and is never co-opted into a music industry that would like nothing better than to exert control over all its artists, male and female alike. She’s too smart and too talented to let that happen, and she’s also fortunate to live in a time when the influence of “the music industry,” as a monolith, is on the wane permanently.

- Max

I wish it were six months from now so that everyone reading this blog would believe me when I say this: Max, you and I never gush like this. Because we don’t. We both dig Marnie for the semi-reclusive, impossible to compartmentalize, stupidly talented, uncaring creative genius she is. She is the new (and improved) Kim Gordon for all girls (and boys) in rock and long may she wail. I’d love to see what happened if she found just the right band, if she found her male or female Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce or Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. Not sure I could handle that but I’m damn willing to try.

-Anthony

Everyone just chill out, listen to Neil Young, and figure out how you feel about the new Radiohead album in six months. Or even one month. Seriously.

There will be a full discussion of King of Limbs next go-round, but for now, we’re going to showcase the best of the impossibly premature reactions we’ve found around the Internets.

Sean Fennessy goes for the literal approach.

Klosterman nails it.

Fox News’ surprisingly watchable Red Eye deadpans it for the win.

I think AC/DC are one of the most important bands in the history of rock and roll. I wrote a book about it. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Are they worthy of deep critical analysis or should they be dismissed as a bar band that somehow made millions by selling formulaic rock to the masses? Let it rip, people. Let’s discuss. I know what I think. I want to know what you think.