Woody Guthrie, Ani DiFranco & Nirvana: "Do Re Mi"

One of the most influential factors of music is its versatility.  There will always be the artist’s interpretation and the listener’s re-interpretation or miss-interpretation. This can be in the context of other artists doing a cover of their own personal, creative interpretation or a listener using a song to get through a rough time by relating their personal experiences to the lyrics.  The beauty of this is that it doesn’t matter; someone can be listening to a song about drug addition and use it to get through a break-up.  It’s about the feeling the melody gives you or the relatability of the lyrics.

For anyone who hasn’t heard “Do Re Mi” by Woody Guthrie, just think “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck.  It’s a dustbowl fuelled folk and country classic.  The first cover of it that I heard was also a folk cover, by Ani Difranco, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and Bo Ramsey.  Growing up, my dad promoted a lot of Ani Difranco tours so I spent a lot of time watching her perform live and I saw a lot of different hair colors!  I’ve only heard this song performed live, and it’s not that it’s bad… it just doesn’t live up to the original.  The imperative emotion is just not there.  I think if I had never heard Woodie Guthrie sing this song, I would like this version a lot more... but therein lies the problem with doing a cover. Even as a folk artist, it’s a pretty ballsy move to cover a classic like this!  It doesn’t live up.

The reason this other cover is so notable is that it was the last song that Kurt Cobain recorded before his suicide.  Actually, all that was recorded was a solo acoustic demo.  I think that a lot of people like to over interpret the meaning of these lyrics when Cobain sings them, hoping to find some hidden further understanding of his suicide.  The problem with that is simple: he didn’t write them.

Regardless, I was really surprised by how much I like this cover.  This song is not meant to be a rock song yet, in my opinion, Nirvana successfully make it one.  It’s by no means better than Guthrie’s, but it certainly stands its own.  When I hear a cover of a well-known song I always unintentionally compare the two (as I think most people do).  It's impossible not to.  That being said, I found that I didn’t do that the first time I heard this song!  I think that, along with the fact that people don’t interpret this song as a cover (although perhaps that’s simply musical ignorance!), demonstrates how strong of a cover this is.  Even though it’s an acoustic cover, like the original, the guitar has a much more raw, harsh sound.  The cover has a naturally haunting tone to it, which is hugely amplified due to the eeriness of it being Cobain’s final recording.

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Kings of Leon New Single: "Supersoaker"

Today, the new Kings of Leon single was released.  They have always had a unique following: one half only listens to their first 3 albums and scoffs at the other half, the mainstream half, who started listening to them after hearing “Your Sex is on Fire” on Radio 1.  With “Supersoaker”, it seems like they’ve tried to appeal to both of these opposing sides.  It’s catchy with big guitar hooks and pounding drums and retains Caleb’s signature, partially incomprehensible, scream.  It’s certainly nothing new for the band, in fact they definitely seem to be leaning more towards their roots than their most recent work.  This song has their original raw sound and I’d be surprised if it doesn’t receive high recognition – Kings of Leon are back!

Their 6^th album, Mechanical Bull, is to be released on September 24, 2013.

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Review: Jason Isbell, Southeastern

There are a lot of artists whose entire careers are based on their substance abuse.  Sometimes, this is fuelled by media attention after abhorrent behavior and sometimes the fuel emanates from the pain, addition and abuse the artist has experienced to create beautiful, dark-spirited albums.  Or, they get sober and produce an album that tops anything they’d done before.  With that, Jason Isbell presents Southeastern.  What is especially notable about this new album is that it doesn’t sound like a preachy self-help book; it’s a non-preachy, non-self-help inspired reflection of his abusive behavior and his journey to overcome it.

This sometimes is done in a comic fashion, in “Super 8”, which reiterates that he “Don’t want to die in a Super 8 Motel” or in a demonstration of raw emotion like with “Yvette”.  He depicts loneliness in “Traveling Alone”, which leads to misery and desperation.  “Cover Me Up” tells a haunting story of growth, realization and repentance and has some of the most beautiful lyrics on the album (a very welcome change after listening to The Neighbourhood’s, I Love You. last week!).  My favorite songs off of this release have to be “Stockholm” and “Elephant”.  I think these two really demonstrate Isbell’s ability to create stunning music free of fancy special effects or synthesizers.  Rather, these songs use pure emotion, experience and musical talent to create something influential and beautiful.   This is particularly evident in “Elephant”, which is used as a partially arbitrary replacement for the word “cancer”, and tells the dramatic story of attempting to live a normal life under the elephant-sized shadow of the disease.

Isbell uses a significant portion of this album to point out the weaknesses of humankind and explain the drastic changes and effects this can have on a person’s life.  Even more than this, Isbell really demonstrates his versatility on this album.  He portrays an open-mind, whereby he’s able to examine an issue or event from multiple different points-of-view.  Through this he produces a varied album that uses multiple styles of music and presents many different influences, both musically and lyrically.  He creates relatable characters that have the listener immediately hooked on each unique situation that he describes.  Even though he creates such a vast selection of characters, they are all tied together by the theme of regret.

This really is a fantastic album that truly deserves the admiration and recognition that it has been receiving this week.  It’s based around the acoustic guitar and emotionally grabbing lyrics.  Similarly, anyone who was a fan of City and Colour’s Bring Me Your Love from 2008 will likely be a fan of Southeastern, as well!

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Introduction to State Radio

It feels like I’ve followed and adored State Radio since their formation in 2002.  This is likely due to lead singer Chad Stokes’s previous position in Dispatch, but State Radio didn’t come onto my radar until the release of their first album, Us Against the Crown, in 2005.  They’re a band that I feel quite close to as they’re from Sherborn, MA, which is nearby where I grew up, and they have a tendency to make Red Sox references in their songs (“I'll hold that hanger up As long as the sox put up a fight”)!  The band is now Boston-based, and released their fourth album last year.

 

Their first album, Us Against the Crown, was more reggae inclined than their later work.  Yet, rather than boasting messages of peace and love, it focuses on anti-war protests.  It’s motivating, but not preachy.  It was a great debut album and the response it got (particularly in Boston!) really reflected this.  Their next album, Year of the Crow, established them as a leftist-liberal band.  I like the effort of this album, but I think that they attempted to target too many imperialist victims throughout the album, leaving it directionless.  However, it’s still a fantastic album and the combination of these two made State Radio a fierce addition to the music scene in the early 2000s.

Two years later, the release of Let It Go was massive.  It included 3 discs, two of which were recordings of live performances.  At this point they had the reggae influences from their first album and the rock influences from their second album and they had to decide which direction to go.     It seems that, rather than doing this they tried to create a balance between the two – but it just resulted in inconsistency.  That’s not to say that there weren’t great songs on this album, it’s just that it feels a little incomplete.  The strongest songs on the album are rock-based, so I think if they had focused the rest of the album on that it would have been more impressive.  “Knights of Bostonia”, which emanates from this album, is one of my favorite State Radio songs and also a song that really describes them as a band.

While their next album in 2012 still had the inconsistent aspect, there were enough standout songs that this was overlooked.   This album was purely based on their social activism and had some really emotional songs.  “Freckled Mary” is about the rising drug issues facing Boston; “State of Georgia” was part of an Amnesty International campaign pleading mercy for Troy Davis, who had been on death row for 22 years; “Adelaide” depicts a story about lead singer Chad Urmston’s brother who moved away from Worcester, MA to LA with a girl he met on an Indian Reservation there; “Roadway Broken” served as a charity track after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and describes a woman searching for food for her children; "Take Cover" describes the bizarre feeling of peace we had in America, while fighting two wars.  This is what I really love about State Radio: Each song feels like a story. Stokes acts as a storyteller and each word gets you closer to an understanding.  If the challenge of discovering this doesn't appeal to you, Stokes released a commentary to give listeners a clearer understanding of his writing process and song meanings.

Yes, there are endless bands that fight for political and social change.  It’s to the point where it’s almost mainstream to do so!  But State Radio is special.  They began a social activist group, Calling All Crows, and have been working to send stoves to Sudan for many years.  There are a lot of bands that preach for change and get praised for this.  Yet, most of the bands singing about this change aren’t doing anything! Saying that there should be no war, but sitting on the couch waiting for someone else to carry out this change doesn’t make you a hero.  While it’s not as though what State Radio is doing is going to change the world, it’s refreshing to see a band using their influence in a purely positive manor.

Regardless of your political or social views (mine certainly don't always match up with Stokes!), State Radio is such a great band that they're still worth listening to.  Check out 10 really, really great State Radio songs:

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An Introduction to Gang of Four

In the rock community – or really any community other than the Justin Bieber community – you constantly hear people going on rants about all the underappreciated bands that don’t have the recognition they deserve.  For me, the band that describes this to a T is Gang of Four.  They only had one album that was great, so this is perhaps why they don’t have the legacy of other bands.  Regardless, this album was rated #490 on the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums List and is one of my favorites of all time.

Gang of Four is a band that I find authentic.  They began in Leeds, England in 1977 and are comprised of lead singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham.  When their debut album, Entertainment!, was released in 1979 it seemed like they would be working their way up to the likes of the Rolling Stones or the Clash in no time.  The reason I call them authentic (although, some might choose to replace that word with stupid) is because when they had the opportunity to perform on a hit BBC music program, they refused.  They did this because BBC deemed their second single, “At Home He’s A Tourist” too risqué and requested the band sing the word “packets” in lieu of the word “rubbers”.  This moment played a huge part in cementing Gang of Four as a cult band.  While their potential success was never achieved, they still produced a stellar album that really defines the post-punk era.

This album is one of the most motivating albums I’ve ever heard, both lyrically and musically.  Regardless of your political options before listening to this album, by the end you will genuinely want to get up, punch the wall, quit your job and start a revolution.  Each song makes you want to get up and do something in a really unique and unsuspecting way.  I think a lot of post-punk bands attempt to give you the same feeling, but end up just sounding like they’re trying to force their own political and social views down your throat.  Gang of Four doesn’t appear to be doing this, and I definitely don’t get that feeling – I get inspired.

In line with their lyrics, it almost seems like guitarist Andy Gill is trying to do the opposite of anything that any producer told him with a jagged (a little sexy?) sound.  Gang of Four’s mix of Gill’s unique sound and Jon King’s voice is truly an iconic post-punk sound.  I think a lot of indie bands now try to accomplish the complex chemistry of Gang of Four – but none thus far have come close.

My Top 5 songs from Entertainment! (in no particular order)

-       I Found That Essence Rare

-       Ether

-       Damaged Goods

-       5-45

-       Return the Gift

-       At Home He’s a Tourist (okay I had to add one more…)

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The Day the Music Died: An Introduction to Buddy Holly

We’ve all heard that Elvis Presley is the King of Rock & Roll.  While Buddy Holly’s untimely death at the age of 22 prevents him from ever achieving such a title, his contributions to rock n’ roll radically changed the genre in succeeding years.

Buddy Holly was born and raised in Lubbock, Texas.  As a teenager, he performed in the duo Buddy and Bob with Bob Montgomery.  Through this Holly discovered his true passion for music, which was cemented after an opening performance for Elvis Presley.  He formed the group ‘The Crickets”, who found success with their song, “That’ll Be The Day”, soon followed with “Oh Boy!” and “Peggy Sue”.  In 1958 he went solo and married Maria Elena – who he proposed to on their first date!  Holly continued to record emotionally rich and powerful songs, until his fateful death by plane crash on the 3^rd of February 1959, along with other noted acts. 

Holly’s performance with the Crickets at the Apollo Theater in New York had a massive influence on the racial divide in rock n’ roll.  The unique vocal “hiccup”, known as the “holly hop”, is something that has been recreated in many subsequent rock n’ roll songs.  While I don’t understand the technical aspects of recording and producing music enough to comment on Holly’s contributions, it was clear from the start that his innovations would change rock n’ roll, and music in general, forever.

Listening to Holly’s voice is mesmerizing.  It reminds me of those toys we all had at one point growing up – the one’s that would continuously wobble back & forth, around & around.  No matter how long you sat and watched it, awaiting its seemingly undeniable crash, it never hit the ground.  His voice demonstrates the same eccentric highs and lows and he impressively manages to turn the word “well” into 6 syllables!

In line with his tone, Holly’s music is a guide to the highs and lows of life and relationships, with “Oh Boy!” to accentuate the highs and “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” to get through the lows.  It’s not easy to choose only 10 Buddy Holly songs, so I’ll have to deem this my provisional Top 10 – in no particular order:

Rave On

Blue Days, Black Nights

Ting-A-Ling

Early In The Morning

That’ll Be The Day

Not Fade Away

Rock Around With Ollie Vee

Maybe Baby

Oh Boy!

It Doesn’t Matter Anymore

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