VAGUE SPACE

New Music Tuesday

One of my favorite bands of all-time haven't released an album of new material since 2001's great Here's to Shutting Up, and although there was no formal announcement, I'd assumed they were no longer recording new material.  Mac McCoughan's side project, Portastatic, has released several albums since then, so I figured the machinations of getting the old band back together to record an album were too difficult (I think some of the band members have families now).  But they still played together occasionally, usually for charity, and had released several albums of older material in the Clambake Series, so I still had some faint hope that something new might come along.  And lo and behold, this spring -- which has already seen so many amazing and surprising releases I can hardly keep track -- Superchunk are returning with their first album of new music in 8 years, a 5-song EP titled Leaves in the Gutter.  Yeah.  Freaking awesome.

Leaves in the Gutter will be released next Tuesday, April 7, but you can pre-order it now.  The album is a definite throwback to early, pre-1995 era Superchunk, with swirling guitars and Mac's wonderful falsetto, and the two standout tracks at the start of the EP, "Learned to Surf" and "Mistakes & Misfits" rank up there with the best of classic Chunk.  Just a wonderful, refreshing return.  Here's Mac's take on the new album, from his own blog...

Superchunk is stirring a bit this spring! we have a new EP coming out at the beginning of April, Leaves in the Gutter which does not mean that it's the last songs we're releasing ever, it's a line from one of the songs. though it does also refer to the fact that these songs are collected from a couple different sessions over the last few years and it seemed like a good idea to put them out before they got too old, and before we were tempted to put them out on an album....for an album we'll need to start fresh. the EP will be followed closely by a couple of shows:

April 15th at the Cats Cradle in Chapel Hill
April 18th at Coachella in Indio, CA

• Download Superchunk - "Misfits & Mistakes".mp3
• Pre-order Leaves in the Gutter

New Sunset Rubdown Album Announced!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ok, I'm not sure that quite captures my level of excitement.  What about this:  Holy fucking shit woo hoooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ok, that's better.  You don't know how excited I was when Kelly from Kelly's Alter Ego sent me the link to the Pitchfork story about Dragonslayer, the new album from Sunset Rubdown, but let's just say I played "Idiot Heart" about sixteen times in a row and screamed with delight every time.  I so wanted to see an album version of that song, and it's coming, along with 7 other tracks! on June 23rd.  Of this year.  Wooo hoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunset Rubdown, of course, is my #7 favorite band of all-time, despite having only 2 proper albums and like three years of recording behind them, so the news that Spencer and his mates are coming out with yet another new album so soon is both surprising and fucking awesome.  The Pitchfork article only talks about how Spencer's last 2 albums now have used mid '80s cheesy sci/fi flicks as titles (following Swan Lake's just released Enemy Mine), but I'm going to focus on the tracklist here.  It's as follows:

1. Silver Moons
2. Idiot Heart
3. Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!
4. Black Swan
5. Paper Lace
6. You Go on Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)
7. Nightingale / December Song
8. Dragon's Lair

Well That Was Quick

It was still a great season, but boy, did they stink up the joint tonight.  And yes, I know I'm posting with about 15 minutes left in the second half, but I've seen Devendorf get stuffed on a layup drive one too many times tonight to think we have any chance of coming back.  Sweet 16 is a good year, but this will leave a bad taste.  We weren't going to win with Andy and Eric freezing cold from outside, but the whole team just looked lethargic and outmanned all night, with the exceptions of Jonny and maybe Rick Jackson.  I don't want to blame Coach Boeheim, but these guys looked scared and lacking confidence from the opening tip.  They couldn't have beaten Cornell tonight.  What the hell happened?

Go Pitt, Louisville, and Villanova!  I can't bring myself to say anything good about the thugs at UConn, but go Big East!

Orange Love

I've realized something surprising over the past year.  The Syracuse Orange men's college basketball team is my favorite team.  Not in college basketball.  Of course they are that, but also in all sports.  More than the Mariners.  More than the Raiders.  More than the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.  The Orange, regardless of how many more games they play this season (hopefully four!), are my favorite team in any sport.  Period.  And they have been for a long time, at least since 2003 -- the year of their first and only NCAA championship.  I just didn't realize it.

College basketball is not my favorite sport.  It's third -- a strong third, but it still ranks behind baseball and football as the sports I enjoy watching the most.  Perhaps that's the fantasy influence -- I follow every team in those other sports, while in basketball, I only follow Syracuse and, sometimes, the rest of the Big East -- but there's no doubt I spend more time with the MLB and NFL during any given year.  And traditionally, my favorite team in all sports is the team that's doing the best in my favorite sports.  The Phillies have owned my fandom for the longest time -- since I was a kid and they won their first ever World Series in 1980.  The Raiders (still in Oakland) came a few months later, when I rooted for them over the local Eagles in the Super Bowl, either because I was already an independent spirit at the age of nine or because I didn't want my Phillies to be overshadowed by a team in a sport I didn't yet follow.  Syracuse didn't come until 1987, when they made a run to the final game of the NCAA tournament (losing to Keith Smart's jumper at the buzzer).  Why I rooted for Syracuse that year I don't remember.  I know I'd become a college basketball fan in the previous couple years, but I don't know why I didn't cling to the local Villanova squad that had shocked the world with a national championship in 1985.  I'd say maybe I picked them in my bracket but I don't think there were brackets in 1987, were there?  In any case, I did follow them from that moment on (despite the loss).  But they remained a distant third behind the Phillies and the Bo Jackson-led Raiders of the late '80s/early '90s.  I remember being crushed by the Orange loss in the Elite Eight in 1989 to Illinois (in the year that Michigan won its title with Glen Rice over Seton Hall in OT in the championship game -- go Blue!), but I can't imagine that was as devastating as the Raiders' 51-3 drubbing to the Bills in the AFC championship the following year, or as disappointing as the run of Phillies' crappy teams between 1984 and 1992.  Actually, when the Syracuse team was suspended from tournament play in 1993, I adopted my 2nd favorite college basketball team at the time, Indiana (I once loved Bobby Knight), as my new favorite and lost a lot of interest in the Cuse and their much-hyped but ultimately disappointing Derrick Coleman/Billy Owens era teams.

He's Our You

What a freaking awesome episode.  But you can't just end it after the most awesome scene ever!  I mean, yeah, I kind of saw it coming -- that Sayid is trying to change fate all by himself, that his very purpose for returning to the island in such incredible fashion was to change the world that would be created, but... I never thought they'd actually do that.  Wow.  I don't want to give any spoilers before the jump in case anyone hasn't watched it yet, but let's just say, I'm very pleased the show went back to a character-specific episode after jumping around in time so much.  I'm not even mad that we're still in the '70s anymore.

Praying for Pavement to Get Back Together

A line from The National's contribution to Dark Was the Night, "So Far Around the Bend" includes the words "praying for Pavement to get back together," which is pretty awesome in and of itself, and got me thinking about my recent list of all-time favorite bands on which Pavement ranked #2.  The band hasn't recorded a new album in almost a decade now and even if they got back together, any new music they'd put together would pale in comparison to the trio of classics that kicked off their career, Slanted & Enchanted, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and Wowee Zowee.  And not just because Stephen Malkmus' latest album was such a disappointment.  All bands have a peak, and almost all bands peak early in their careers, with their sounds and vibrancy changing along with their age.  Even the great bands have distinct ups and downs in their discography and almost all later albums, especially after a switch to a major label, are weaker facsimiles of the sound that made them great in the first place.  It's no coincidence that the two "older" bands that ranked at the top of my all-time artist list -- The Smiths and Pavement -- both ended their runs "prematurely", after less than a decade, and each after a single final album signaled their first decline in musical quality in their careers.  The rest of my once favorite bands, from U2 to R.E.M. to New Order to The Cure, have either muddled on through in increasing irrelevancy (The Cure), disappeared and come back to middling results (New Order) or have ascended to superstardom with a stale mixture of music that cannot come close to match their 1980s brilliance (U2, R.E.M.).  And so those bands did not rank in my top 10 -- or anywhere near it.  New Order would probably squeak into the top 20 on my list today, while the others wouldn't crack the Top 50.  I watched U2's performance on Letterman on the night Artie Lange was a guess and I made it through maybe half of the song they played before turning it off.  There were shades of old-school U2, but it just didn't do anything for me, and I'm pretty sure that was one of the better songs on the new album.  You just can't go home again, not in music, not for me.   The bands that dropped out at their peak -- without the decline phase of their careers to bring their overall average down -- end up looking greatest in my eyes, and maybe that's not fair, but that's my experience.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd love to see Pavement in concert again and I'd love to see them get back together, but if it means they'll be releasing a new album that doesn't come close to the quality they're known for, then maybe I don't.  Maybe it's best just to be done when you're done.  Yeah, you probably lose out on a lot of cash as a result, but maybe the legacy ends up stronger.

• Download The National - "So Far Around The Bend".mp3
• Download Broken Social Scene - "Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Place)".mp3
• Download Pavement - "Greenlander'.mp3
• Download Pavement - "Spit on a Stranger".mp3
• Download Pavement - "Father to a Sister of Thought".mp3
• Download Pavement - "Here (Peel Session 1)".mp3

I'll run through a thousand parties
I'll run through a million bars
Nobody knows where you are living
Nobody knows where you are

You've been humming and I think it's forever
Praying for Pavement to get back together
Nobody knows where you are living
Nobody knows where you are

You're so far around the bend

New Music Tuesday

March 24, 2009.

Is it possible that the top 3 albums of 2009 are all being released today?  Well, it's not only possible, but at this point (admittedly only 1/4 of the way through the year), it's actually true. 

The Hazards of Love is the 5th full-length from The Decemberists, and as someone who's loved this band since their stellar 2002 debut Castaways and Cutouts, I'd have to say this is the most ambitious effort from a truly ambitious band who continues to reinvent themselves successfully, album after album.  The release is clearly a concept album, with all the songs telling a story on the same theme, and all the songs running into each other.  I don't have a lyric sheet yet, and I'm sure they're probably as inscrutable as most Decemberists' records, but I am very curious to know what these wonderful songs are about.   According to the Amazon writeup, The Hazards Of Love tells the tale of a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake, who recounts with spine-tingling ease how he came "to be living so easy and free." 

A throwaway track called "Prelude" kicks off the 17 song album, followed by "The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone)", which will do nothing to curb detractors' claims of pretentiousness, but is a decent song.  The album doesn't really kick in until the 4th track, though -- "Won't Want for Love" -- a sung song by one of the guest female vocalists on the album, Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden.  The next track is "The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)" which is a brilliant blast of energetic crooning by Colin Meloy and builds to a long-awaited first climax of the album.  Many more follow.  Eighth track "The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid" is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in a long time and the incredible chorus returns later, in tracks 15 and 16, "The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)".  After an instrumental "Interlude", listeners are greeted with the lyrically brilliant "The Rake's Song" followed shortly thereafter by the hard rocking thunder of "Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing".  The whole album ends with the tragic "The Hazards of Love (The Drowned)" a tortured dirge sung in Meloy's lilting quaver about the Margaret who is the title character of the story in album form.  This is an album that begs to be heard in its entirety and that builds with each subsequent listen, two amazing things that help make this music an anomaly in the singles based iTunes era we are currently living.  And I for one could not be more pleased.  Just a wonderful, wonderful album.

• Download The Decemberists - "The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)".mp3
• Buy The Hazards of Love

Welcome to the Sweet 16

For the first time in five years, the Syracuse Orange have played their way into what used to be -- and should be -- a familiar place, the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.  They beat 6 seed Arizona State today, 78-67, with relative ease.  The game was never really close after the opening six or seven minutes, as the Orange built a 14 point lead in the first half and held a 9 point lead at halftime.  They got it up to 15 in the 2nd half, but it hovered around the 9-10 point range through most of the final 20 minutes, other than a late run by the Sun Devils that brought the lead down to 4.  But Eric Devendorf hit two straight 3s to give them a double digit lead and they were never challenged again.  The Orange didn't play great -- they shot great, at 55%, but they didn't play great.  But they didn't need to against an overmatched Arizona State team that had one struggling star do very little for the second straight game (James Harden) and their big man (Jeff Pendergraph) in foul trouble all afternoon before fouling out with around 10 minutes to go.  The Sun Devils couldn't do much to stop the Syracuse offense -- other than a long stretch in the second half when neither team could seem to score -- and couldn't do much against the Syracuse zone other than launch 3-pointers.  I think at one point in the first half, they'd shot like 15 of 20 shots from beyond the arc.  They were actually shooting it fairly well -- they finished 13 of 35 for the game, or 37% -- which kept them in the game.  But you're just not going to win by standing outside the arc launching threes.  The team finished with just 14 2-point attempts in the contest - fourteen in forty minutes!!! -- and that's just not going to get it done.  So Syracuse survived and advanced and will play 2 seed Oklahoma on Thursday or Friday in the Sweet 16.  They didn't play great this weekend at all, but they didn't have to, and hopefully a good week of practice will get their game elevated for the matchup with national player of the year candidate Blake Griffin.  I can't wait.

Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

On a week like this, and in an economy like this, sometimes you just have to laugh.  This is so fucking hilarious.  And to be honest, Dan would have loved it.  J - E - T - S  Jets Jets Jets!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Rage in the Streets

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

NCAA Tournament Preview

Syracuse could not have asked for a better bracket.  A 3 seed!  Friday matchups so they get an extra day of rest!  No other Big East team in their bracket!  Potential Sweet 16 matchup with a Big 12 team that probably never plays against the zone!  Awesome.  Ok, that last one didn't work so well the last time we had a long Big East tourney run leading to a high seed when we lost in 2006 to 12 seed Texas A&M.  But I sure hope this team comes out a little more resilient and well-rested than the GMac-led '06 squad that wasn't nearly as talented as this one (and featured an injured GMac in that game).  And the first round matchup is with Stephen F. Austin, who've only lost 7 games all season, but presumably isn't as strong as A&M in '06.  The only thing I know about their team is that they gave up 60 points to Ben Woodside of North Dakota State in a triple OT game this season -- and still won by a point.  So they know a little something about multi-OT games.  A win there would give us a 2nd round game against an Arizona State team that plays zone itself or Temple - which used to run the matchup zone under John Chaney, but I'm not sure what they run now.  Of course, any team can beat us in any round (Vermont, cough, cough, Richmond), but I really like the bracket.  We went into the Big East tournament as a 5/6 seed and the team's magical run to the finals brought us up to a 3 seed.  I couldn't be more pleased.  In fact, if you'd told me at any time before or during this season whether I would have been happy with a 3 seed, I'd have said yes 100 times out of 100.  Remember, the 2003 team won the national championship as a 3 seed...  So congratulations, guys.  You earned it.  Now go out Friday and play like you've played the last few weeks and we should finally make it to the weekend for the first time since 2004.  Oh, and try to keep Devendorf away from South Beach before the games.