VAGUE SPACE

Hey, Snow White

Ok, I thought I'd heard this song before, but the original version by Dan Bejar's Destroyer was not in my iTunes collection, so I don't know where I could have heard it.  Was the original track, off of Destroyer's 2002 album This Night popular enough to get onto Sirius, or maybe BBC Radio 3?  Seems doubtful, but I guess it's possible, although Bejar's original version doesn't sound much like the new version.  In any case, I really love the cover by The New Pornographers, who happen to be another one of the bands that Bejar is a member of (along with Swan Lake, producers of my favorite album of 2009 so far).  But I don't think Dan was present in the recording of the cover (you can't hear his very distinctive voice), so maybe it's not too incestuous.  It is absolutely catchy.  And another in the long line of great tracks off of the Dark Was the Night charity compilation, that I will urge you again to purchase.  It's only $12 at Amazon!

• Hey Snow White, it's gonna be all right
  It's gonna be all right
  How can you win some?  How can you win some?
  When the company goes public
  You've got to learn to love what you own

• Download The New Pornographers - "Hey, Snow White".mp3
• Download Destroyer - "Hey, Snow White".mp3
• Download Destroyer - "Here Comes the Night".mp3
• Buy Dark Was the Night
  

Ash Wednesday

Today at my office, the parking lot we share with the Roman Catholic Church next door was filled with parishioners heading to church at lunch time to get ashes on their foreheads.  For those of you who don't know the reason for the ashes, I'm probably not the best person to explain this ritual, but I know that Ash Wednesday is the official start of "Lent," a six-week period leading up to Easter, in which Catholics are supposed to be extra vigilant in their lamenting and atonement for their sins, I guess in order to feel a little more worthy of Jesus' sacrifice on Good Friday, when Mel Gibson and/or a bunch of Jews staked him to a cross and grossed a few hundred million dollars at the box office.  Or something like that.  I grew up Catholic and went to CCD every week for like 8 years (including several retreats where we played basketball and swam and learned all about how premarital sex was a sin), but I don't really remember the specific origins of Lent.  I know that we weren't supposed to eat meat today -- or on any Friday for the next six weeks, although fish is ok, so it's not an anti-protein thing -- and we're also supposed to "give something up," which typically was a food product that you love but is bad for you -- something like ice cream or all desserts, or if you're feeling particularly pious, all sweets.  You could also give up something else "bad" that you do -- smoking? drinking? whoring?  I'm not sure because as a kid, I always gave up food.  It was usually ice cream.  I mean, it's too cold to eat ice cream for the first few weeks of Lent anyway and I wouldn't exactly miss it for the rest.  I remember one year I gave up gum, because I used to (and still do) chew a pack of gum a day.  My dentist was probably grateful but I'm not sure if anyone enjoyed a conversation with me during those six weeks.  The point is -- when you're young, you'll believe in anything, and if your parents and your teachers and your priests and your relatives all tell you that it's perfectly normal to stick a big swatch of black ashes across your forehead on one Wednesday in February, you just do it and don't ask questions.  And you may moan about having to eat your mother's flavorless attempt at baked flounder yet another week, but hey, there's always pizza, and you can survive without pepperoni for a little while if it means you'll get into heaven.  Because that's really what this day is all about -- and all these religious rites that we choose (or are forced as children) to follow.  We're looking for eternal salvation at the end of our lives, for some mystery fantasyland described in our scriptures and our paintings and our stories and our myths.  And that sounds a whole lot better than an eternity in that really hot place down South (not Jacksonville, necessarily).  So if I had to brown bag peanut-butter-and-jelly or tuna fish for lunch for a few weeks, it seemed worth it.  Plus, there's the whole feeling of moral superiority (or at least spiritual significance) at believing that your sacrifice is for some greater good, even though, let's be honest, the only thing affected by your Friday eating choices are the sales of plain pies at the local Pizza Hut.

New Music Tuesday

Swan Lake will be releasing their 2nd album on March 24, and Jagjaguwar has leaked three tracks from Enemy Mine, available at their website.  These are not the strongest songs on the album, but based on extensive listens to the new album over the past week or so, I have to say that it pretty much blows away Beast Moans and has a good chance of becoming Spencer Krug's fifth album in the past four years to finish the year in the top 2 on the Vague Space album of the year awards.  But it's not so much Spencer's continued brilliance that makes this album -- it's definitely a full-on collaboration between Spencer, Dan Bejar (Destroyer), and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes).  The three of them alternate on the first four tracks (Carey, Spencer, Dan, then Spencer), whcih are absolutely brilliant.  But for the rest of the album, the singers mix themselves among each other to wonderful effect.  Dan and Carey both appear on "Battle of a Swan Lake" and "Peace" and then all three come together on the amazing closing track "Warlock Psychologist," which starts off as essentially a Carey song.  Mercer's in great form throughout and, if anything, this album is closer to a Frog Eyes album than a Sunset Rubdown or Destroyer record, but I guess, it's mostly just a Swan Lake record, as they turn their sound into something new and bold and beautiful.  Check it out.

• Download Swan Lake - "Spanish Gold".mp3
• Pre-order Enemy Mine

M. Ward released his 7th album last week, titled Hold Time.  It features collaborations with country singer Lucinda Williams, She & Him partner Zooey Deschanel, and former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle.  There's also a cover of the Buddy Holly song "Rave On."  But I find that when Matt is simply singing one of his gorgeously crafted and understated tracks alone, he fares best.

• Download M. Ward - "Jailbird".mp3
• Buy Hold Time

Morrissey's 10th full-length album of new material was also released last week, the spellbinding Years of Refusal.  The album continues and actually exceeds the resurgence in quality music that he's experienced over the past five years, starting with 2004's surprisingly good You Are the Quarry.  This is definitely one of my favorite albums so far this year.

• Download Morrissey - "When Last I Spoke to Carol".mp3
• Buy Years of Refusal

Beirut's combined early release double album March of the Zapotec / Realpeople Holland also came out last week and features a number of good tracks ("La Llorona", "My Night with the Prostitute from Marseille") and an unfortunate number of clunkers.  I'm not entirely sure what to make of the release, but here's one of the good tracks.

• Download Beirut - "My Night with the Prostitute From Marseille".mp3
• Buy March of the Zapotec

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have a debut pop album that's become very popular for its simple, infectious beauty, and I find myself loving it too, especially the tracks "Come Saturday", "The Tenure Itch", and the New Order-esque "Young Adult Friction," which has found its way into my top 10 songs of this week.

• Download The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Young Adult Friction".mp3
• Buy The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About

  Many years ago, I was reading something online about how the author had to take a multi-hour trip across the state of Kansas or something and decided that was the perfect time to listen to The Magnetic Fields' magnum opus 69 Love Songs, a 3-Cd collection of, well, 69 love songs.  I thought that was a cool idea and anytime I take a long road trip alone I try to figure out some music to play for the ride -- and which songs and albums are best.  Typically, I gravitate toward an album on a long trip, rather than individual songs, which is an exception in the iPod world of my life these days.  In fact, I particularly enjoy "concept" albums, or records in which multiple songs reinforce a single thematic element or otherwise work well together, rather than simply an album that's a collection of songs.  This past week, I spent over five hours in my car driving to and from York, PA, and I made a quick list of my favorite "road" albums -- the ones I listened to on that trip, mostly, and the reasons why.  So here, without further ado, are the greatest albums to listen to when you're driving alone for miles and miles.

• Modest Mouse:  This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About (1996)
  

• A pretty self-explanatory selection, this album's title represents the theme of all 16 songs from Modest Mouse's amazing full-length debut.  From the opening chords of "Dramamine"  ("traveling, swallowing dramamine"), through tracks such as "Beach Side Property" and "Head South" and "Tundra/Desert" and "Exit Does Not Exist" the theme of travel and road trips is prevalent throughout.  And the album does an excellent job of switching between slow dirges (like opener "Dramamine") to all-out riot tracks (2nd song "Breakthrough"), sometimes in the same song ("She Ionizes and Atomizes").  There are lengthy guitar/percussion only moments in many songs (the most beautiful of which comes in the lengthy close of "Lounge") and other drawn-out lost moments that allow me to space out during the song and the drive and get lost in my thoughts.  It really is the perfect road trip album, in my opinion.  And it's nearly 80 minutes long, so it will treat you right for a very long time, or a very long trip.
  • Download Modest Mouse - "Dramamine (live)".mp3
  • Download Modest Mouse - "Exit Does Not Exist".mp3
  • Download Modest Mouse - "Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset".mp3

Big Love

Here's the skinny on a show I never thought I'd watch and definitely never thought I'd enjoy... but it's a spellbinding, ridiculous, wonderfully well-acted and scripted show that I would highly recommend, even for anyone who hasn't seen an episode before.  The program is in the midst of Season 3 (Sunday nights, HBO, 9 pm), about four or five episodes in, and I myself only started watching at the start of this season, so if you had any interest at all, now's as good a time as any to jump right in.  It really is excellent television. 

The story is very, very complicated, but also kind of simple, and I've picked just about everything up already.  It really wasn't that hard.  Bill Paxton plays Bill, a polygamist living in Utah with three wives, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn (Tom Cruise's wife in The Firm) as Barb, Chloe Sevigny as Nikki, and some woman I don't know playing Marjorie.  Barb is Bill's age and they have two teenage children and one around twelve (and maybe younger ones, but I don't know for sure, the younger kids aren't really ever shown).  The teenage daughter is pregnant by her boyfriend, but she hasn't told her parents yet and her current (evolving) plan is to have the baby at Arizona State (where she's been accepted into college) so she can run away from her over controlling, psycho polygamist family.  Except that her family isn't really that crazy at all -- it just has two extra wives -- and seems otherwise fairly "normal", at least for Mormons.  Bill grew up on "The Compound," a hardcore polygamist cult like the ones you read about where old men have bunches of wives and impregnate teenage girls because they call themselves "Prophets" and basically propagate the seedy and rightfully illegal side of polygamy.  But Bill has gone "straight" -- he was thrown off the compound as a teenager and remains estranged from his father, a sick fuck of an old man who was nearly killed by his wife (Bill's mother) with a shovel in an episode two weeks ago. And then she tried to choke him to death with a plastic bag but received a call from her son to interrupt the asphyxiation.

New Music Tuesday

Camera Obscura returns with their long-awaited followup to 2005's Let's Get Out of this Country.  My Maudlin Career is the fourth LP from the Glasgow band. Like its predecessor, it was produced by Jari Haapalainen of The Bear Quartet.  It will be released on April 13, 2009.

1. "French Navy"
2. "The Sweetest Thing"
3. "You Told A Lie"
4. "Away With Murder"
5. "Swans"
6. "James"
7. "Careless Love"
8. "My Maudlin Career"
   • Download Camera Obscura - "My Maudlin Career"
9. "Forests And Sands"
10. "Other Towns And Cities"
11. "Honey In The Sun"

Say Hi, formerly Say Hi to Your Mom, signed with Barsuk Record in December 2008 and will be releasing their sixth full-length Oohs & Aahs (2009) on the label on March 3, 2009. Oohs & Aahs was written and recorded entirely by Eric Elbogen in his home studio over the course of 2008.  The first two tracks off the album, "Elouise" and "Hallie and Henry" are absolutely wonderful pieces of pop beauty, better than anything I've heard in my admittedly limited experience with the band.  Of course, those tracks are not yet available here for download, but the song below is quite good too.  Check it out.

• Download Say Hi - "November Was White, December Was Grey".mp3

Happy Anniversary to Vague Space

On February 4th, Vague Space passed its 4th anniversary as a blog, 48 months of service to you -- the indie rock fan and/or Syracuse fan and/or friend of mine and/or bored reader of my strange brand of blog writing.  When I started this blog, I really didn't know what it would lead to, other than giving me a place to write what I wanted, when I wanted, about stuff I wanted to write about.  It has evolved into, I guess primarily, an indie rock/MP3 download site, because (a) I like spreading the word and talking about the music I love, and (b) hits have increased dramatically as a result.  I'm not sure what the future of the blog holds at this point.  At one time, I thought I could maybe get enough of a readership to make a little money at this, but that hasn't happened and isn't going to.  The Google Ads to your left barely cover the expenses of the site itself.  If more visitors clicked on the ads that might help (hint, hint), but I've long since hoped that this site would generate any worthwhile revenue.  But I never thought that I'd get the level of readership I've achieved and anytime I get an email or comment praising a post, that's worth a hell of a lot more to me than any few cents a click-through generates.  So I hope to continue writing for the indefinite future, if only for the joy that I can provide in a few readers.  And for more links like this -- someone appreciating all the time and effort that goes into making a post like this.

I myself used to read a bunch of personal blogs on a daily basis when I started this project.  Tomato Nation, Aaron Gleeman, Jeff Jarvis's Buzz Machine, and many others I've sadly forgotten in the past four years.  I used to go to indie rock blogs like Brooklyn Vegan or Stereogum or Gorilla v. Bear on a daily basis as well.  I'm not exactly sure why, but I really don't visit any of those sites anymore.  I'm busier now, I'm sure, but I still take time out every day - if possible - to visit USS Mariner and Beer Leaguer and Daily Kos and 538.com.  Each of those sites focuses on a specific interest of mine (Mariners, Phillies, liberal politics) while the sites I used to read were more general in nature -- just about the blogger's life and the subjects that interest them, which is how I fashioned this blog from the start and how it's continued through its existence.  I've thought at different times of having a more focused blog -- one that was only about indie rock, or one that was only about sports, but I never could decide and at this point - four years into the experiment, this blog is what it is and it's probably not going to change.  As long as I keep attracting readers, that's not such a bad thing.  And four years is a lot longer than I ever thought I'd go.  So happy anniversary to Vague Space.  Congratulations on a job... done.

• Download Stephen Malkmus - "Vague Space".mp3
  
• Download Smog - "Our Anniversary".mp3
• Download Morrissey - "Reader Meet Author".mp3
• Download MGMT - "Future Reflections".mp3
• Download Los Campesinos! - "We Are All Accelerated Readers".mp3

Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman

This is only the highlights of the appearance, as for some reason CBS has not made the whole video available on the Internet.  But it's still pretty hilarious.  This reminds me of the Letterman from a long, long time ago - back in his NBC days, when I thought he was the funniest person on the planet.  Good to see Dave can still pull out the old fastball now and again.

The Rake's Song

Only recently did I pay attention to the lyrics of the Decemberists' first single off their upcoming new album Hazards of Love.  They're quite awesome.  Sick and sadistic and awesome.

I had entered into a marriage
In the summer of my twenty-first year
And the bells rang for our wedding
Only now do I remember it clear
Alright, alright, alright

No more a rake and no more a bachelor
I was wedded and it whetted my thirst
Until her womb started spilling out babies
Only then did I reckon my curse
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

First came Isaiah with his crinkled little fingers
Then came Charlotte and that wretched girl Dawn
Ugly Myfanwy died on delivery
Mercifully taking her mother along
Alright, alright, alright

What can one do when one is a wid'wer
Shamefully saddled with three little pests
All that I wanted was the freedom of a new life
So my burden I began to divest
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

Charlotte I buried after feeding her foxglove
Dawn was easy, she was drowned in the bath
Isaiah fought but was easily bested
Burned his body for incurring my wrath
Alright, alright, alright

And that's how I came, your humble narrator,
To be living so easy and free
Expect that you think that I should be haunted
But it never really bothers me
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

• Download The Decemberists - "The Rake's Song".mp3
• Pre-order Hazards of Love

Gran Torino

Starring Clint Eastwood
Rating:  3 stars (out of 4)

Clint Eastwood's fourth directing assignment in two years is an intense study of a bitter and racist old man who befriends a teenage neighbor of Hmong descent in a mixed-race, ghetto-ized neighborhood in suburban Detroit.  What the film lacks in subtlety and depth of story is made up for through strong performances by its lead actors, particularly Ahney Hur and Bee Vang, who play the sister and brother neighbors of Eastwood's character, caught in the reluctant middle of a gang turf war that they neither started nor wanted to be involved in.  And despite the movie's overwrought attempts to tug on its viewers' heartstrings, it succeeds in not going over the top into ridiculous melodrama like the similarly themed Oscar-winner Crash, or Eastwood's Oscar-winner by the same writer, Million Dollar Baby.  Fortunately, Paul Haggis's hacky fingerprints do not smudge this screenplay, and the underlying story is powerful enough to overcome screenwriter Nick Schenck's infrequent overreaching.

The 78-year-old Eastwood plays a recent widower whose tenuous relationship with his sons (and the outside world) doesn't seem likely to improve upon his loving wife's death.  He hates everyone -- the priest at the funeral, his ungrateful family, their brat children, and (especially) the Asians who have taken over his neighborhood.  He is a Korean War veteran and uses racial slurs throughout the movie.  They're treated somewhat comically and none of his "victims" take his words seriously, but this is one hateful man.  Eastwood does a solid job, especially later in the movie, in imbuing this character with depth, but early on as Eastwood grunts through every scene to voice his disapproval at everyone around him, it's a little repetitive.