Dang. Where to begin? First and foremost, Sufjan Stevens has got this mad plan to do an album for all 50 states… he’s already got 2 in the bag with “Greetings From Michigan” (2003) and the soon-to-be-released (and awesome) “Illinois“. While a plan such as that might seem ridiculous to the uninitiated, he does have a track record that says it might just be completed in his lifetime. Five primary albums in as many years and no signs slowing down (with the handful of side-projects and really excellent Christmas albums). Yeah, sure, it’s folky singer-songwriter stuff, but instead of being horrifying navel-gazing bullshit, it’s good.

Now, what really prompted this rise in respect was his song “John Wayne Gacy Jr.” from “Illinois”. Take a listen to it if you can find it (you might want to ask Carl) – and tell me that he doesn’t make the clown-faced psychotic that Gacy was and make him a sympathetic, tragic character. That’s the depth that Stevens gives to any subject he chooses to write about. His lyrical talents aside, listen closely to the lush yet subtle musical accompaniments. They are brilliant.

It’s all I can do from writing him a crazed letter telling him to continue his trek southward and end up in Kentucky. I just don’t know what he’d choose to write about… he forgoes the obvious (as evident with “…Gacy” and “Casimir Pulaski Day” from “Illinois”.

Anywho — highly recommend, unless you don’t like good music.

Note: The release of “Illinois” is currently being pushed back due to a dispute between his label Asthmatic Kitty and DC Comics. Seems he put Superman (a tiny Supes) on the cover and DC pitched a fit.

Further note: Horrifying navel-gazing bullshit. I will not listen to that.

Even further note: This is not horrifying navel-gazing bullshit. I was just generally saying that I will not listen to something if it is indeed HNGB.

So, I’ve had a billion things to post about over the last couple of days — I went to California for the first time last week (Mo, Tu, Wed) and experienced Hollywood proper. At the same time I was reading On the Road which is just the proper book when bouncing from coast-to-coast. Many thoughts which may become a singular entry at some point in the near future.

Second, I’ve been listening to Sleater-Kinney’s latest album The Woods OVER AND OVER. I’ve been a fan of them for many years, but not a huge fan. This album may very well upgrade my fan status. In the past I’ve found some of their music a bit too staccato or downright shrill for repeated listenings, but on The Woods they have really honed their rock skills to produce songs with awesome hooks and a lot of dynamic power. Get it now!

Finally, I highly recommend you Louisville-lovers out there to patronize the brand-new WHY Louisville (What-Have-You Louisville) store in the Highlands. Created by the same gents who brought you LebowskiFest, it is sub-titled as a “Fan Club for the City”. At the moment, they peddle a number of Louisville-related t-shirts and knick-knackery as well as the Lebowski-related materials. Personally, I picked up a “Louisville – It’s Not Kentucky!” t-shirt and a pair of fleur-de-lis vinyl stickers. Jason “Fluffy” Clark from krack.org tells me they’ll be expanding their inventory soon — they were rushing to open for the LebowskiFest 2005 ticket sales.

A few interesting links for you candy-cane children out there:
Jack White Weds Model Karen Elson, and White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan album review. (Both from Pitchfork Media, clearly the only news I ever read). Finally, a good interview with Jack White from the LA Times.

Yeah, what the deuce? Album is released, Jack White gets married (with Meg as a bridesmaid) and www.WhiteStripes.com says it’s the first marriage for both newlyweds. I love Jack’s oddly-crafted public persona as much as the next guy, but this coupled with Get Behind Me, Satan‘s “departure” from the Stripes’ norm, I can’t help but feel that this all lies on the edge of a precipice.

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I’ve been listening to an advance version of Get Behind Me, Satan for a couple weeks now, and while there are some great songs on it, this album falls far from their prior Elephant. Whereas Elephant managed to hit both qualifiers for seminality — expanding musically and not leaving the fanbase behind, Get Behind Me, Satan might have not hit the latter on many of the tracks. Granted, had they had made something better than Elephant, my mind would have caved in and my chest would have exploded, leaving me a weeping, broken man for the beauty of it. However, Satan left me wondering if Jack has spread himself too thin with his other engagements and left this album rushed. Not to completely heap beratement on the album, though! Many tracks on the album do rank as some of my favorites — lead-off track “Blue Orchid”, “Little Ghost”, “Doorbell”, “The Denial Twist” and “Red Rain” all showcase Jack’s dangerously beautiful songwriting skills. The album itself — including the album art and video for “Blue Orchid” also show a growth of the White Stripes — at least in a character sense. The Spanish/Victorian/goth influences as well as the increasing introduction of the color black (beginning with White Blood Cells) into the whole Stripes “scheme” seem to indicate progressive change of some sort — and I’m very interested in seeing where they’re headed, both musically and aesthetically.

So then what is to become of our beloved Jack and Meg? Who am I to question someone’s marriage, but giving Jack’s anti-publicity/pro-image-crafting penchant one is left to wonder what all is going on in his head. Speculation has whirled since Elephant that there might be one or two albums left until the peppermint drumkit is put into storage for good. On all things art-borne, I am of the school-of-thought that dynamic art (a category which I think the White Stripes certainly fall into) should come to an end at some point before it can begin the mouldering process in the public view. Few music acts can continue in their same form and keep it up –a nd those acts don’t have to keep up the bizarrely concocted public personas. Even KISS took off their makeup… and then promptly started sucking.

I’m rarely lacking for a indie-music metaphor, so here goes…

What do you get when you cross Sunny Day Real Estate with “Good Morning, Captain”-esque Slint story-telling with a tasty pinch of Belle and Sebastian and the general musicianship of a Sufjan Stevens and/or the assembled Matt Pond PA?

Well, I’m not sure either, but I think it lands somewhere in the vicinity of The Decemberist’s Picaresque. Good ol’ Jackson Cooper turned me onto them in a veritable landside of indie-music suggestions a couple weeks back. Now that I have had the time to digest the onslaught, I’ve come to the same realization that they are good and should be listened to.

And on the visual front, I suggest this video for their single 16 Military Wives (which borrows unapologetically from Wes Anderson’s Rushmore down to a model U.N.).

Kelly and I (along with Jackson and Medina) went to Headliners Music Hall last night to have a rockin’ good time with The Black Keys. Opening guest, The Hentchmen.

The Hentchmen, with someone who appears to be a young Andy Dick on guitar, threw down the sort of greaseball rat-fink rock jams you might expect out of the Dead Kennedys, had they been formed a decade or two earlier. Good stuff, and the crowd seemed to enjoy (as did I).

The Black Keys, however, despite being on two guys (Dan on the guitar and Patrick on the drums) seem to control the room like no others. Patrick positions his drums on the left, mere inches from the front of the stage, with Dan on the right. Patrick Carney possesses a fury and determination for the drums that is at both infectious and scary. He is a lanky 6-foot-something, and his drum kit seems dwarfed by his long frame. When he sits at the kit, it appears that he’s attempting to ride a tricycle that is far to small. When he plays, it’s as if he’s on that tricycle, but being attacked by bees. Keep in mind, he’s like inches from the edge of the stage — arms a-blur with the speed of a flip-book animation, but with power of a man swinging sledge and busting rocks. I feared for the safety of those in the front row. “Would they be rocked to death?!” I wondered. As a visual contrast, Dan Auerbach is a short man (in relation to Carney’s height), but possesses a presence, voice and talent beyond his years (not to mention vicious guitar face). Between the two of them, they convey this infectious power of rhythm. The best parts of blues and soul with the on-the-brink excitement that only the rawk can provide. It’s dangerously exciting stuff when you are right close to it, and a venue the size of Headliners fits that bill right nice.

I was truly rocked by their performance last night, and judging by other shows I have seen, this one was different. Wimmens was swaying their hips and dancing with theys men, you see. The crowd was genuinely into it (as was I), to the point where they were called back for two encores. Akron, Ohio represent!

That, my little candy-cane children, is the name of the next (possibly last?) White Stripes album. It is due out June 7th, while the first single “Blue Orchid” is due out on radio in the US on April 19th.

The promo site for Get Behind Me, Satan has not yet “gone live”, and only holds a single image of a pale, white hand (Meg?) holding a white apple.

Further indications of awesomeness include Jack’s awesome mustache and long-hair combo from this year’s Grammy’s, where he stood aside Loretta Lynn when she picked up the statue for Best Country Album.

Pitchforkmedia has the tracklisting, fan site Triple Tremelo has the cover-art for Blue Orchid, and I am waiting breathlessly for this piece of man-made god-rawk to come tumbling from the heavens. Joy!

For you, gentle reader, I bring recommendations of rock…

• …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Worlds Apart

  They got my unpublished “Best Name in Rock” award back in 2004, and yeah, so I gave their prior album “Source Tags & Codes” about 2 minutes of attention back in 2003(?), and never listened to it again. Looks like I’m making another of my apologies to rock bands again… Worlds Apart rules in so many varied ways. They’ve got a sorta nerdy thing going on, but they bring the rock right along with it. Archaeology + sociology + rockology = AYWKUBTTOD?

• Death From Above 1979, You’re A Woman, I’m a Machine

  DFA 1979 is two Canadian guys with a synthesizer and a bass guitar. Now, normally, that is usually just spelled out D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R, but not this time, oh no! I think I described it to Najati as “dance-inspired noise rawk”, and I think that just about sums it up. Like 75% noise rawk, 25% ass-shakery. It’s all good.

• Sleater-Kinney, The Woods (Advance Copy)

  Yeah, so I got a copy of this via a lil’ birdie. The girls of Sleater-Kinney have asked very nicely for those folks who are currently dealing it over the intarweb to kindly cut it out. However, since my deed has already been done, and I have listened to it in its entirety — I’ll say this: It rules. In their letter to the pirates, they mentioned that the record “is a response to the deadening and watering down of music”, and I can’t agree more. It’s noisy, loud and far more thrashing as any of their previous records. We likes it very much.

• Sunday Nights – The Songs of Junior Kimbrough

  Junior Kimbrough is credited by Dan Auerbach of the Blakc Keys as “his first record purchase”, and he has created a number of contemporary blues classics that inspired many, from Iggy Pop (who appears on the album with The Stooges) to the White Stripes (not to mention the Black Keys). This various-artists tribute lines up like a hipster funeral wake for Kimbrough. Cat Power, Iggy Pop & The Stooges, Mark Lanegan, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, etc. Some really fantastic tracks on here, especially from The Stooges, Cat Power and The Black Keys.

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Man — not a month goes by that I don’t find myself apologizing to one band or another for not listening. I’ve publically acknowledged this before, but now I’ve got to do it again. This time, it’s Death from Above 1979. I had seen their music being bandied about with furious intensity over on IndieTorrents, and I had read the Pitchfork review of You’re a woman, I’m a machine a while back. I thought that it was probably just a bunch of indie-hipster saber-rattling, but o’ how I was wrong. These pair of canucks throw down the beat-infused noise rawk! Go and find yourself a show or a file on their website.

As much as I hate to do it — I’m putting my Fender Performer 650 guitar amp up for sale on the eBay. One of my first big purchases ever, I bought this thing when I was 17 new with the help of my mum. It was hell-of-loud, and never turned up past 3 (maybe even 2 1/2). Anywho — doing some research on teh intarweb shows that it was and still is a very well-liked amp, being that it’s so loud and only weighs some 40 pounds, has an effects loop, and has TUBED distortion. Tubes! In this day and age! Of course. Nothing beats vacuum tubes when it comes to powering soul-crushing rock machines.

I found a bunch of reviews for it online, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was and is well-liked, well-reviewed, well-respected and maintains a decent resale value. By the way — if anyone within driving distance (50 miles) of Louisville wants it, let me know. We’ll make a deal and forgo the shipping.

Meanwhile, I want this and one of these.

One of my favorite British rock bands, Mclusky has called it quits, much to my dismay. I did not get a chance to see them when they played Cincinnati last year, and now they’ve gone and broken up! I think it’s only appropriate to post the lyrics to their song “Fuck this Band”. After reading you should read my previous post about Mclusky, and then hit their own site, mclusky.net.

Fuck this band
And their demon seed
Cos if they burst out
You're responsible

Yeah fuck this band
Cos their clothes don't fit
But their dancing clowns
Are incredible

Keep your passport near
There is no other disappointment here
There is no other disappointment here
There are no other obstacles

Fuck this band
Cos they swear too much
It's an obvious ploy
And irresponsible

Fuck this band
Yeah fuck their holes
But if they split up
You're responsible

Keep your passport near
There is no other disappointment here
There is no other disappointment here
There are no other obstacles

Fuck this band
And their foolish pride
Which lets them think
They can get away with this