dVider blog | the vinyl word

So I couldn't resist commenting now that Ms. Kerry has delivered said gift. And of course I should apologize that it's now been nearly two weeks since J.C.'s birthday and I'm only getting to listen to the CD now. Kerry's sister (wife of chiarams) had hounded me to listen to the CD immediately, but I pointed out to her that I couldn't rush into the CD that could alter my coolness forever.

And I should warn that brevity is hardly a strongpoint of mine, and any longwindedness that is contained beyond this is completely intentional and simply for my own amusement and edification. Oh, and I use a crapload of commas, just for effect. And also because my brain likes to pause a lot. Darn those glue-sniffing years in my twenties.

So purposely, the first time I listened to the CD, I made sure to do so without any tags, so I wouldn’t know who the band was, so as not to pre-judge the song. You know, god forbid I know who the band is and know that I hate them, I’d hate to skip over that track purposely. Like, had Kerry put on, I dunno, Captain and Tenille singing “Muskrat Love” on Track 4, I’d have three tracks leading up to it, dreading that fourth track. Such dread would take away from my enjoyment of those first three tracks, and Kerry’s whole project would just go to shit.

Side note – so, Kerry mentioned a few things that I have to refute. I have but one iPod. I fought it tooth and nail for years. Then apple came out with a 160GB iPod befitting the completist in me. Of course now I wonder how I could live without said iPod. But that’s beside the point. I do have one pair of serious headphones that yes, were probably purchased in 1996 that were hijacked by the sister of Kerry and have only recently returned home. Thankfully I manage quite nicely with a much swankier (and sleeker, thank you Bang and Olufsen) pair of headphones that are far less serious, but also far more portable.

Further, as un-hip as I am to the music scene, I did know of Beirut (I don’t live under a rock, ya know), but some of those other scary bands are new to me. And Kerry’s mention of moe. leads me to think I should’ve prefaced this whole thing by pointing out that I’m a recovering granola rock fan. Not to say I don’t still thoroughly enjoy to that sort of thing, but unlike a hazy period in my life (c. 1996-2001), I’m able to appreciate the 3 minute tune just as much as the 30 minute one.

And while we’re refuting things, the title of the CD – “This CD Will Make You Cool Again…Sort Of” – It’s a cute title, really. And it totally fits into my brevity-challenged-ness. But there’s a problem. It implies that I actually ever was cool. I was never cool. Cool kids don’t listen to Phish. Cool kids don’t know who Henry Threadgill is. Cool kids don’t ask that their parents (or in-laws) order them CDs from some obscure store in Germany because that’s the only place you can find it. And cool kids surely don’t continually ask for a Curling (the sport, not hair) sticker that only costs $2, but for some reason costs $15 to ship. So I’m not cool. I’ve embraced this about me. But I appreciate that Kerry once thought I was cool. Though one has to wonder that if I was once cool – what’s happened to me? But that’s something I should probably discuss with my therapist, and will probably require fistfuls of Zoloft and Paxil in order to overcome.

Now I’m just rambling…

So – right, the whole reason I’m writing this – the CD. The gift. Now, Kerry had pestered the wife of chiarams about the proper Christmas gift. Chiarams, being a difficult person to shop for, noted that a proper gift did not have to be something of great stature, or monetary value, but something that was an appropriate reflection of one’s sentiment for another. Kerry, the fairly astute (okay, extremely astute) person that she is, understanding my love of music, and thirst for new aural things, put together what in her mind was that proper gift.

And proper gift it was. Along with the thoughtful blog post that I now find myself typing this quite long (again – lacking brevity…) response that likely Kerry is only reading at this point (and perhaps by now has even herself grown bored with).

So – the music. I’ve developed an affinity for what I call Euro-pop, but Kerry would probably smack me upside the head for calling this genre Euro-pop, but that’s what it is to me. It’s totally an over-generalization, but I’m good at doing that. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just what I think it is. These are musicians who listened to The Cure, The Smiths, Charlatans UK, and bands of that ilk. Probably Lou Reed, and Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, and those sorts too. Mind you, that first group were not bands that I ever enjoyed (nor do I enjoy them whatsoever today). Ironically though, this latest wave of Euro-pop I find quite enjoyable on many levels. In my own stumblings over new music I’ve come to enjoy things like Death From Above 1979, Do Make Say Think, Broken Social Scene, Of Montreal, and other bands that I’d group into that genre. So I’d already made inroads. Now, thanks to Kerry, my eyes (ears, really) have been opened to all these new bands that I’ve probably heard her mention at one point or another but never had the pleasure to listen to.

So I should note that I actually knew two of the songs – Sigur Ros, because, well, they’re a kickass ambient band, and DeVotchKa, because they have some sort of ties to Calexico, though what those ties actually are fail me right now.

Upon further review, Kerry was kind enough to provide me a setlist…

Interior of a Dutch House / Beirut
Queen of the Surface Streets / Devotchka
Stacks / Bon Iver
Hair Down / Cold War Kids
The Beach / Dr. Dog
The Waves Crash In / Spiritualized
Crosses / Jose Gonzalez
On a Neck, On a Spit / Grizzly Bear
Each Coming Night / Iron & Wine
Long Haired Child / Devendra Banhart
Bag of Hammers / Thao Nguyen
All My Friends / LCD Soundsystem
Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe / Okkervil River
Gobbledigook / Sigur Ros
Heaven for the Weather / The Streets

I had a gut feeling the first track was Beirut, because it sounds like what I thought Beirut sounded like, even though I don't remember ever hearing them before, or at least being in a situation where I paid attention to listening to them. Bon Iver, who I’d never heard before was really earthy – sort of M. Ward-ish, or even Bright Eyes (except *with* balls). Cold War Kids is where the disc really started to get going though – lots of good dissonance and fuzz. I like dissonance and fuzz. Now I have a friend (the other white Steve) that’s been trying to get me to go see Dr. Dog for like five years. Apparently they’re from Philadelphia (a fine city which chiarams where currently graces with his presence), but I’ve pretty much blown him off for awhile. Not sure why, and after listening to this track, I’m quite disappointed with myself. I’d imagined they were just your average throwaway fourth-tier jamband that would bore me to death. But this is great acid-y rock. Like late Beatles meets Blind Faith. Which sort of segues really nicely into the next track which is even more out there. Like a more melodic version of the Flaming Lips I guess. But not really upon another listen. This’ll definitely be a band that I seek more of. Given my lack of knowledge of Swedish Indie-folk (thank you Wikipedia), I had not heard of Jose Gonzalez (who is actually Argentine, apparently). Pretty haunting stuff. The first time I heard Grizzly Bear, I thought they were someone else – I felt like I’d heard this before, but clearly I hadn’t, since I wasn’t familiar with them (though maybe I should’ve been, since they opened for Feist, apparently, on her last US tour). There’s a middle section of this song that is totally Electric Light Orchestra though.

I have this thing about Iron & Wine. But I promised Kerry I would be nice. So I won’t say anything about Iron & Wine’s album with Calexico. Except to say it is not particularly one of chiarams’ favorites.

Devendra Banhart is one I couldn’t place at all. Not yet. I need to play this in my car really really loud some more before I think I’ll get this one. So, I’m totally a sucker for female singer songwriters. The main riff of the Thao Nguyen is from something really really familiar, but I can’t figure it out.

I could go on, but I should probably keep this under 1,500 words, a number I’m quickly approaching. I could’ve simply told Kerry that the CD was great and I was thoroughly enjoying it, but I thought it more befitting of her efforts to at least respond appropriately (appropriately perhaps only in my mind). So thank you, Kerry. While I don’t feel any cooler, yet, I am quite fortunate, and beyond appreciative that Kim has a sister that takes on lost causes that include my lack of coolness. And you're still my favorite sister of your sister. For now, at least.