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April 27, 2007

skin on skin let the love begin

before i left nashville this afternoon i decided to stop in at my favorite target/marshall's shopping complex on lebanon road. this particular complex is a favourite of mine because it was located a mere 4 miles from my old apartment on stewart's ferry pike. and some might argue that these large chain stores are the same no matter where you go - but that's not necessarily true. it has been nearly a year since i relocated to chattanooga and i've yet to purchase one item from the local marshall's. and our target is flat out lame. of course it doesn't help that it's a good 20 minute drive out to the dreaded hamilton place. chattanooga is a relatively small town but for whatever reason they decided to plop every retailer you can think of into a relatively small area and...i'm off topic.

i didn't find anything at marshall's today but as i strolled through the cd selection at target i came upon a display of cd's for $9.99 and the display banner said something about these particular cd's being essential - which i found amusing. i mean there were definitely some discs there that were worth the $10 speakerboxxx/the love below, pet sounds, sgt. pepper but of course there were the requisite duds no doubt, dave matthews et. al. i was thinking about picking up the stones exile on main street because i don't actually own any stones albums but just as i started to walk away i saw the familiar cover art to def leppard's hysteria and i had to have it.

once i hit the hiway i cranked up the radio and was transported back to 1988 - the glory days of high school cruising around town in el gato's amc pacer talking earnestly about the merits of segal v. van damme and wondering why lori katherine pinder was only interested in being friends...and i know i've talked about my un-ironic love for def leppard before...but seriously folks - they rocked. side 1 of hysteria: women - rocket - animal - love bites - (the ubiquitous) pour some sugar on me - armegeddon it. i don't care how sophomoric the lyrics are - how overzealous the production...you'd be hard pressed to find a better side 1 in your own cd collection.

and that music was fun...too much of the music that i listen to these days takes itself too seriously. and that's fine. i like it that way. but sometimes you need to roll down the windows let down the mullet and let the glorious power chords of love take your breath away.

Posted by young_christopher at 10:10 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

April 20, 2007

Founders Fun

Jeff and I are moving on May first and the packing process is slow but steady. Naturally, there is a lot of throwing out of old crap that's been kicking around but once had some sentimental value, which is now not worth the storage space. However, I found one easily stored item of such interest that I felt I must keep (and share) it. This flier for Carpenter's Tools was once taped up on the glaringly white hallway of the Jungle in Founders. Holly McMurtry (if memory serves - and it frequently doesn't) is responsible for the majority of the handwritten additions, and they still make me laugh.

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April 11, 2007

e-l-l-i-o-t

there is an album that was released in 2000 by damon gough - better known as badly drawn boy. the album i'm speaking of is the hour of bewilderbeast and i love this record for one thousand different reasons and i mention it here because for me this album encapsulates everything elliot smith (who i have so recently expressed disdain for) spent his whole career trying to achieve but was never able to pull off. and it's not just that the badly drawn boy album is flawlessly arranged and sonically perfect. it is those things but it also posesses a complete lack of pretense that i find so off putting in elliot smith's catalogue. every song literally screams listen to how dark and disturbed i am and ridiculously talented to boot!

and yes elliot smith was talented in the same way that beck is talented albeit to a lesser degree. i got into an argument a couple of weeks ago with a friend who made the statement that beck was a musical genius and i was all i don't think so - beck has never sculpted an original moment in his life. that being said he excels at cobbling together the best pieces of other artists work and making it work. i'm not a fan of beck but i can see the appeal in his music.

but getting back to elliot smith - maybe his fatal flaw was that we was so in love with alex chilton and nick drake and the beatles that all of his albums sounded just like theirs. i'm not saying this makes him completely worthless as an artist - it's just that his re-interpretations do nothing for me. i would never suggest that elliot smith is the worst musician to ever live and no one should ever listen to him. ever. i would and do say these things about coldplay and/or dave matthews and/or red hot chili peppers. and i feel that i must because people are idiots. this is why 98% of the albums in the i-tunes store are rated 4.5 stars. it's also why andy richter can't catch a break with a prime time television series.

music is such a personal experience it's pretty impossible to come up with a standard of what consitutes truly great music. but i like to think of myself as a fairly discerning listener. i know what i like. and what i like includes alot of crap to go along with my more elitist tastes. and i've learned that it's okay to admit that i hate something. and more often than not i tend to bristle at music that sounds like something else i've already heard...i was thinking of listing off a few but that might be a whole new can of worms. that doesn't necessarily mean i'll always hate it but it's important to have an opinion. and i'd like the record to reflect that i am not easily swayed by the reviews. i find myself disagreeing heartily with the self proclaimed vangaurds of hipster culture sometimes referred to as pitchfork media. i like alot of things that they pan and vice versa. source tags & codes is a perfect 10? seriously? are we listening to the same record? i like it and all but it's all over the place. all this to say - elliot smith's music might make me think horrible and violent thoughts but i won't judge anyone else for listening to him. much. because hey - i still listen to def leppard. and i do so unironically.

in conclusion i thought it might be a fun exercise to list off top overrated artists of all time. folks that critics laud and the masses weep for reasons that escape logic. and i'm putting this out there even though i know niche is going to list wilco 1-5. but no matter - here in no particular order are my top five.

1. elvis costello
2. fiona apple
3. u2* post unforgettable fire
4. carlos santana - seriously. it's the same guitar lick over and over people
5. randy newman

Posted by young_christopher at 6:45 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack

April 9, 2007

do you believe what i sing now

former friends - i feel it's time for a sort of monumental confession from me to you. and it goes something like this: i HATE elliot smith. HATE. HATE. HATE. there. i said it. sorry to spring this so suddenly but i've been keeping this secret for far too long. partly because i have several friends who enjoy his music quite a bit and i always thought i would eventually come around. to that end i actually imported most of his albums onto my itunes in hopes that somehow his music would seep into my subconscious and before too long i would be helplessly humming along. but that just hasn't happened. in fact - whenever one of his songs comes up in the rotation i get knots of anger in my stomach that travel up into my throat - knots that refuse to subside until i skip to the next track. and this really makes no sense because elliot earnestly ripped off alot of music that i actually enjoy. and i'm usually a sucker for the sad sack singer songwriter types. my cd collection is littered with them.

but what it comes down to for me is that for all of elliot smith's supposed darkness and misery - i just don't believe a word he is singing. it feels phony to me. and yes, i am aware that he committed suicide and that should be all the proof i need that his angst was not an act. but it all sounds so passionless and unoriginal. if i want to listen to an album of songs that sounds like big star out on a friday nite with the beatles and nick drake i can just as easily put on those records and not have my heart filled with thoughts of violence.

anyway, that's all i've got for now. i just felt that - in the interest of full disclosure - i needed to put that out into the universe. so for all those folks scoring along at home you can now add elliot smith to your list of young_christophers most hated artists of all time.

Posted by young_christopher at 4:26 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

April 4, 2007

for now it sounds like heaven

friday i'm packing up the car to head out of town for the easter weekend. this year i'll be winding my way north and then east toward the fecund hills of asheville, nc. question? can mountainous regions also be fecund? i'm thinking the answer to that question is probably no since fecunidty is most often associated with marshes and swamps. misused adjectives aside - the trip will take approximately 4 hours which means i'll get to go through the painstaking process of picking out just the right music for the trip.

i remember growing up my grandparents lived in haines city, fl which was approximately 4.5 - 5 hours by car (step-pop driving time) and it seemed like such an eternity. but anymore i average 4 hours in the car several times a week. but when i am traveling for work i rarely get to zone out to sweet tunes because i have to be mindful of the ever present cellphone and work related whatnot is always at the forefront of my mind. as a result i usually end up listening to npr or whatever talk radio i happen to be able to tune in.

but friday should provide me ample opportunity to listen to music at unreasonable volumes as i traverse the miles at mostly reasonable speeds. and you might think picking out music for such a road trip would be a difficult task but it's not. because no matter how many cd's i bring in the car with me invariably i will listen to many of the same albums that i've been listening to for much of my driving life. so after this lengthy, superfluous prologue we arrive at the point where we should have started with not so young christopher offering up what he deems to be essential road trip albums. i'm going to try to confine myself to 5 - we'll see how it goes.

1.) trace ~ son volt. this album more than any other defines
the term road trip for me. something about it just begs to be
played on the open highway with the windows rolled down.
i came upon this album after purchasing wilco's a.m. and completely
fell in love with it. not only is it my all-time favorite driving record
it's easily one of the top five albums of my lifetime.

2) *fizzy fuzzy big & buzzy ~ refreshments. for all intents and
purposes this album should occupy the number two spot as
it is - in addition to being a fun raucous record - an album
that is really meant to be enjoyed in a car. and enjoy it i did.
until 1999. i was listening to this album on the way back to
school in the fall of '99 when powderpuff started overheating.
the same thing happened while listening to this album returning
from fall break that same year. and - while i'm not ordinarily a
superstitious person - i've never listened to this album in a car
again.

2) summerteeth ~ wilco. anyone who knows me knows that being
there is my all-time favourite wilco record. but this album
always went on road trips with me because it is such a great
pop record with killer track after killer track. and when you
have no air conditioning you need something that you can
really crank up until your speakers threaten to give out.

3) new miserable experience ~ gin blossoms. i don't know if it's
become embarrassing yet to have been a gin blossoms fan
but this record is essential. it was one of those records that
came out and nobody knew about it for a couple of years
and then suddenly it was everywhere. i remember hearing
hey jealousy on a college radio station and bought this one
(on cassette tape) and absolutely wore it out before giving it
to a friend - which i sort of regret because once the band
started taking off the artwork changed - i know every single
word to every single song by heart.

4) john henry ~ they might be giants. criminally underrated band.
this was their first album with all live musicians in the studio and
it totally rocks. i own most of tmbg records but i come back to this
one more often than any other because it contains the sweltering
guitar licks of the voidoids robert quine and also because of
the inclusion of two of my favourite tmbg tracks sleeping in the
flowers and the end of the tour.

5) louder than bombs ~ the smiths. this one is a more recent entry
and i should probably be embarrassed that i don't own any actual
smith's albums. but for my money this is almost the greatest
album of collected singles ever produced. if this disc included
"there is a light that never goes out" it might qualify as the greatest.
the smiths are just one of those bands that were so prolific in such
a short span of time it's mind boggling. and yes the lyrics to many
of their songs are terrifyingly dark but i love them still.

plan b's: kerosene hat ~ cracker; whatever and ever amen ~
ben folds; weezer ~ the blue album and pinkerton;
old 97's ~ satellite rides; greatest hits ~ the cars/journey
heartbreaker ~ ryan adams; pyromania ~ def leppard

Posted by young_christopher at 7:20 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack