Some Stuff

In which Alex talks about some stuff

Here's some stuff:

• I went into Record Theater on Monday for the first time ever.  From the first glance around, I see why I've been keeping my distance.  My mouth started to water at the huge selection and low prices of used CDs.  Why have I never gone there?  Because I'm moderately poor and this place is trying to take my money.  And I am quite eager to give them money that I don't have.  I resisted the urge to buy the new Stephen Malkmus record, Dan Mangan's Oh Fortune, and everything else in the store.  Instead, I bought Mutations by Beck for $7 and a VHS copy of Life of Brian for 99 cents.  I am patting myself on the back.

Sun Kil Moon's Benji

• I heard a new song by Sun Kil Moon, one of my very favorite bands, on Pitchfork yesterday in their Best New Tracks section.  I had no idea a new Sun Kil Moon record was coming out this year, but I find that pretty exciting, despite the strange saxophone solo in this song, "Ben's my Friend" (Ben being Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service and you probably knew that).  

•  I'm gonna try out Grizzly Bear, even though I've never really cared for them, and report back on it.  Apparently they're worth the effort, so I'm going for it.

Grizzly Bear playing somewhere in Alaska

Alex Hates Food

In which Alex gushes about Pizza and Sonny

Two nights ago my special lady friend and I randomly went to Pizza Plant, which I assumed was a national chain the like of Applebee's, because it kind of looks like Applebee's.  But it's actually locally owned and operated, with two locations in the suburbs of Buffalo.

We were immediately taken by the crazy amount of vegan options, which you never seem to see in restaurants, especially in the home of the chicken wing.  I got a deep dish "stuffed" veggie pizza.  Two thumbs up.

When we first sat down, I noticed the song that was playing sounded familiar.  But it wasn't the typical classic rock familiarity, nor was it a pop radio hit.  It was "Keeping Me Awake," by Tarkio, Colin Meloy's college band.  They kept playing good music the entire time we were there, including a couple Johnny Cash songs and a song by the Clash which started playing as we were on our way out.  I was impressed not only by the food, but the atmosphere created by this good music.  It made me think that Applebee's might not be such a bad place if they would just play some nice music every now and then.  And add some vegan options to their menu.  And burn all of their restaurants down and then rebuild them as Pizza Hut, or Taco Bell.

Enough about pizza.  Look, last night I went to the Waiting Room to see my good friend Sonny Baker play a solo set, and it was awesome.  I'm going to show you some videos I took and then encourage you to go to his bandcamp site to download his music.  There are nearly 40 songs for free download, all pretty amazing too.  And come Monday there'll be 9 more when he releases his new EP/album, Mangled in the Front.  Sonny already sent me the album and I've already listened to it about 4 1/2 times through.  If you like music, I recommend it.  Here are those videos:

Movie Music

In which Alex doesn't hate music written specifically for movies

I am listening to "Fare Thee Well" from the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack.  It's a good folk song with strong vocal harmonies and a nice building string arrangement.  I haven't seen the movie, but I'll watch anything the Coen brothers make, and this one looks especially good to me.  I like Bob Dylan a lot, and folk music, and stories about struggling singer songwriters.  So I think I'm the target audience, precisely.

For some reason, I have a hard time enjoying songs written specifically for a movie.  Something about it seems a little fake, like actors in commercials who are stealing comedy tricks from The Office to "act funny."  It always seems to me like there's somebody etching out songs to fit the formula of a particular genre for movie soundtracks.  This bothers me, although I'm well aware that most songwriters do the same thing regardless of whether or not their song is going to be in a movie.  The truth is music is formulaic, and there's really nothing wrong with that.

It's like the movie Once, which has a soundtrack I really love.  Before I had seen it or knew anything about Glen Hansard or The Swell Season, I just assumed that these were songs written for a movie by some heartless musician who was selfishly tugging at people's heartstrings.  It's a weird, cynical thing to think, I know.  But after the film's opening song, I was totally sold.

Then I learned more about how the songs were all written by Glen Hansard and/or Marketa Irglova and that the movie was just a little art project that they made without expecting to get a lot of exposure.  Then I felt like a jerk.  It's the same thing with that song from Crazy Heart that Colin Ferrel sings at the end: I didn't want to like it, but it's pretty darn good, so I did like it.

Maybe I just need to relax and not be so critical about the motivations of songwriters.  If something sounds good, maybe I just need to accept that and enjoy it.

At the very least, it's nice how movies can highlight good music that would otherwise not get nearly as much exposure. 

Let me know if I'm crazy for actively trying to not like music made for movies in the Comments, or tweets at @berkley84.

Pink Clouds

In which Alex reminisces about discovering Superchunk via the internet

Back in the early days of the internet, streaming radio was a pretty neat thing to a whole lot of people, like certain 15-year-olds who spent all of their free time staring at a computer screen.  Early on in high school, I was pretty obsessed with They Might Be Giants.  And I was obsessed with finding out about new music.  So it was a nice surprise to find a combination of these two hobbies in "Radio TMBG", an "application" which you could download and use to "stream" music for free.

This was a fairly nifty device at the time, as I was realizing I could no longer rely on my local

alternative rock station to discover new music.  Yes, traditional radio had plunged into the abyss of Limp Bizkit, Matchbox 20, and Creed.  It was dark times and it only grew darker.  Yet late at night, I logged on to the internet and enjoyed some TMBG, plus a bunch of indie rock, a genre I was not yet at all familiar with.

Above and beyond everything else that was on, I discovered Superchunk through Radio TMBG.  At least 7 songs from their 1999 album Come Pick Me Up played frequently through the service and I quickly fell in love with Mac McCaughan's high pitched voice (I totally thought it was a female singer for several months), the melodic lead guitars, dynamically shifting songs with string and horn sections accenting driving drums and distorted guitars... I bought the CD through some Amazon.com competitor, CDnow.com or something, because I needed it.  It's still probably one of my most listened-to albums.

There are too many good songs on Come Pick Me Up for me to choose a favorite, but "Pink Clouds" is one that always struck me as pretty amazing.  It shows the dynamic variation which is typical throughout the record, starting out with a subdued clean guitar and bass, with McCaughan practically whispering the lead melody line in octaves, singing about the end of the day.  From there, the song leaps into distortion and dips back to its quiet beginnings over and over.  It's quite beautiful and finishes off with an explosive jazzy horn section.  It's good, seriously.

I know I picked a pretty timely and controversial subject to talk about with Superchunk.  They have a new album out, which I hear from all the critics is a "smash hit," and I'm quite excited to hear it.  What do you think about Superchunk?  Tweet me @berkley84, or leave a comment.  My friend Alex A. was not able to leave a comment, but he did tell me over the Facebook that "I realize that most of the bands I consider my faves today all came from one guy--my roommate junior and senior years."  So that makes me wonder, does music discovery end after college for most people? 

Welcome to Alex Hates Music

In which Alex does not actually hate music

Hello and Happy New Year and welcome to Alex Hates Music!

I know I'm going to have to explain the title of this blog*, because it seems a little "negative."  But the blog itself will not be negative.  As a matter of fact, I am going to attempt to use this blog as a vessel to reignite my love for music.  Not that it needs too much reigniting, but let me try to explain anyway.

I'm a pretty opinionated fella.  When I like music, I really love it and there's nothing better in the world.  But if I hear something I don't like, it usually bothers me to no end, and unfortunately there's a lot out there that I do not like.

For example, stores usually put on light music that's supposed to be inoffensive and pleasant for everybody.  But I often find myself hearing a song come on and can't help but cringe.  I used to find refuge in the sanctuary of indie rock, but even that seems to have been tainted by inoffensive pleasantry. 

Why are there so many people???

I don't really keep up that well with new music these days, not like I did back in college many years ago.  But one thing I tend to enjoy is year end lists, like on NPR's All Songs Considered and the CBC 3 "R3-30" podcast.  This year, I heard a lot of talk about how great of a year this was for music and how the hosts had such a hard time narrowing down their top album lists.

But I don't get it.  Most of what they played did nothing for me.  Nothing!

Recently while walking home on a snowy December night, listening to one of these shows, it occurred to me that maybe I'm being too cynical.  Maybe I'm just trying not to like new music.  Maybe I need to relax and enjoy it.

So I guess that's what I'm attempting to do with this blog: To dive deep into new music, to rediscover old favorites, and to share it with an insignificant fraction of the internet.

Here's my first question, to anyone reading this:  Where do you find out about new music?  Off the top of my head, my sources tend to be All Songs Considered, Pitchfork, CBC 3, friends, live shows, and buffaBLOG.  Does anybody have any other suggestions?

Go ahead and tweet me @berkley84.  Or leave a comment on this page.  Or don't!  Do what you like, I ain't the boss of you.

*Speaking of hate, man do I hate the term "blog."  I sure wish we hadn't let that one stick.  Ah well...