The Best Albums of 2011

Thank you to anyone who has participated in these over the years. I realize I’m getting wordier and preposterously dense with some of these…but it’s fun. Let the little blonde boy play in the colorful rubber balls a few minutes longer.

And if you’d like to…jump on in the fun…

1. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light

One small family garage converted into a rock studio. Two of the best drummers in rock. Three guitars plugged in. Four half-decades since Nevermind producer Butch Vig produced a Dave Grohl LP (bonus points for re-enlisting Nirvana/Former Foo Fighter Pat Smear, and a cameo from Nirvana bassist Krist Noveslic on “I Should Have Known”). Five minutes is never eclipsed on a track. The sixth song on the album, “One of These Days,” was proclaimed by Grohl himself to be “my favorite song I’ve ever written in my life.” Seven albums into a hall of fame career, we approach a band that continues to defy odds, find new life, and maintain the Zen expectations of being the worlds best rock band (this is really no longer just my opinion).

Perhaps, I took the counting intro too far, but I believe this to be the best collection of songs for 2011. There are eleven of them for anyone still counting.

Technology was invented for a reason. The overuse of digitalization, layering techniques, Protools, and other unnecessary enhancements is frustrating for music purists who care enough to remember when people could actually perform their recordings. For me, it’s all about hearing the soul of a scream rather than a pitch bar set by a Macbook. Click.

The Studio 606 (state of the art studio Grohl & company usually use) TO THE family garage TO THE art of synchronizing rock music without a safety net TO THE I-Tunes TO THE device you carry with you these days for music TO THE headphones of varying performance…seems like an insane plotline—most likely to be tackled in next Tenacious D movie. Although, I’m sure at times it was painstaking, the music flows conscientiously raw, yet seared for your juicy consumption.

According to Grohl’s Biography This is a Call: the Life and the Times of Dave Grohl by Paul Branningan there was a moment in the process that went approximately (I’m paraphrasing) like this...

*they start rewinding the tape and it starts shedding oxide…

Butch Vig: We should back everything up to digital

Grohl: If I see one fucking computer hooked up to a piece of gear, you’re fucking FIRED!! We’re making the record the way we want to make it, and if you can’t do it, then fuck you!!!

Vig: What if something happens to the tape?

Grohl: WE’LL PLAY IT AGAIN!?!?!? God forbid we have to play a song one more time…

It’s a punk rock album from a bunch of guys who are in their 40’s, married, and have been in the business a long time now (scary) fighting the gravity of becoming a non-relevant classic rock hits-parade spectacle.

I’m quite confident with Wasting Light the Foo Fighters covered the spread of my bias. Apparently they’re ALREADY working on a follow up. Care to parlay for album eight?

Key tracks: “Bridge Burning”, “White Limo”, “Arlandria”

2. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

This handy-dandy list is a celebration of passion and pizzazz about things we love. My Best Albums of 2008 review of the Fleet Foxes (their first album) is my favorite review (I’ve ever done), of an album, ever. In the spirit of favorites, indulge me by reading (perhaps RE-reading?) what I said back then as it remains true pertaining to my feelings on the earthy jamming of Fleet Foxes.

“From the first time I heard this collection of heart anthems I wanted to trace back to my Native American ancestry, live in the wilderness with only enough power to play this album. It will move you. It will sooth you. It'll make you want to wait for a rainy day, jet over to Cedar Springs, MI and dig for worms. Once you get the worms you will then sell them for a penny a piece to fisherman on Lime Lake like my father used to make me do when he was at Steelcase pawning filing cabinets. Once you sell about 1,500 worms – which will take you a few days – you have earned the right to listen to this…

--Ryan C. Zerfas (from www.sportsnwhine.blogspot.com 1.28.09)

Non-sequitur – I MUST mention they have a song called “Sim Sala Bim”, which reminds me of one of my favorite all-time cartoon characters Hadji from The Adventures of Jonny Quest.

Lead singer and the windmill generator powering Fleet Foxes, Robin Pecknold almost killed himself making this album. From everything I’ve read he poured all he had (money, relationship, sanity, etc) into making a masterpiece. And if you’re lucky enough to have snatched it, you’re reaping the benefits. Lucky you.

He paired bluesy-Earth folk that sounds like Simon & Garfunkel rented a cabin and actually got along for a few years and added Pet Sounds percussion (I want this to be a quantifiable music term? Is that ok?), with instruments that I’m not sure what I’m hearing, but it doesn’t sound like a dude with a guitar and an acapella rhythm section anymore. It sounds like a continent travel video. Come to (the country of…) Fleet Foxes where we will plant your heart in the soil and give you a basket full of mouth watering bosc pears until you learn how to function on only OUR ridiculously enchanting music. The Helplessness Blues.

I thought blues music was supposed to make one sad?

Key Tracks: “Sim Sala Bim”, “Lorelai”, “Blue Spotted Tail”

3. Halos – Living Like Kings in Confined Spaces

“Meet me in the Atmosphere
Don’t worry I’ll take you there…”

This is the first line you hear on 2011’s most complete album. It’s an intro for the catapult ride you’re about to take from a band that’s been a long time in the making. EP’s of most of these songs have been floating around the greater Long Island area for years and finally, a break, finds the band residing out in California with a chance to create some buzz nationwide.

The blood, the sweat, the sinking stench of possibly living life in a van down by the river is not lost in the slicker, finalized, yet ready to consume production of Living Like Kings. Song after song burrows into the depths of your soul’s soul, finding your inner core at the intersection of inspiration and rock-a-bility. You’ll find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer amount of memorable fist pumping, borderline cult-like chants like, “Without faith it’ll bring you down” and “This is where I go to clear my head, this is where I go, this is where I goooooo.”

Big hooks, clean guitars, rip-roaring drum fills and near-irritatingly catchy melodies make you wonder how long Halo’s living space will be so confined.

When I say this is the year’s most “complete” album, I mean it plays like a lost art. Like an LP. I’m not saying the sound is retro, but the concept that songs light each other up like a chain cigarette has been lost in the digital generation. The introduction of “Hekla” weighs in like a polar bear, enough to break the ice, and the ballad finish of “Land Mine” tucks you in at night, leaving a gift basket with enough fruit for breakfast. Halos reach out their hand, sit you down, ask you to buckle up, be safe and give you a working man’s multi-hit, rock-band version of That Thing You Do.

Only THIS is something you seriously should do. Buy this now.

Key tracks: “Breaking Windows”, “A Rowboat in a Perfect Storm”, “Never Never Land”

4. Feist – Metals

All hail the return of Feist!? The Canadian singer-songwriter returns after a four year hiatus (seemed more like seven) with a collection of songs ponderous enough to make you wonder if she’s been working on Metals tirelessly since 2007’s breakout The Reminder.

Layered like a crafty poutine the arrangements of Metals weave quiet dripping shower ballad melodies, in the same bluesy breeze of Cat Power, seamlessly with many songs progressing into full choir chamber (perhaps a full choir of Feists? Yummy.) Earth-thumping pandemonium howls. The percussion is fantastically tribal. The lyrics and tone are drenched celestial moonshine. It’s the work of a writer who’s found her progressive swagger. Each song individually leaves me emotionally exhausted by the time the build is conceived and executed with feisty (zing!) grandeur.

The hooks don’t need horns, xylophones, marimbas, harpsichords, etc, but I’ve never been one to turn down a camp fire jamboree.

Apparently, neither is Feist, eh?

Key tracks: “Graveyard”, Pine Moon”, “Comfort Me”

5. Mute Math – Odd Soul

Towards the end of a typical George Thorogood blues-rock set you’ll often hear him say something along the lines of “we’re going to get DIRRRTY on this OOoonnnnnnne!?” I was never quite sure what to make of that. Though not the most linear way to make a point, the point is made, because you know EXACTLY what he’s talking about.

Bearing almost no resemblance to their Police-sounding first two albums, Mute Math perched down in New Orleans for six months shaving themselves down to a three-piece (after guitarist Greg Hill left the band). The result features more emphasis on the Keith Moon chaotic sweat slathered drumming of Darren King (holy SHIT!), blues-rock arrangements that find singer Paul Meany resembling the Black Keys rather than Sting and a collection of BBQ laced beats and grooves that make you kink your damn neck. Tell the waitress to bring you some wet naps and a list of chiropractor practitioners.

The synchronization of “Odd Soul”, “Prytania”, and “Blood Pressure” to open the album seems ubiquitous, leaving nowhere to go but down, only to be upended mid-album by the uphill bayonet charge of “Allies”, “Cavalries”, and “Walking Paranoia!?” It’s enough to make you enlist in McHale’s Navy as long they stay anchored off the Louisiana coast.

Key tracks: “Allies”, “Calvaries”, “Walking Paranoia”

6. The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow

2011 found me pining after a gaping White Stripes/Jack White void. I did enjoy Jack White’s production on 73-year old rock-a-billy legend Wanda Jackson’s The Party Ain’t Over. Coincidentally, this singer-songwriter duo features a man with the same last name, John Paul White with a shared female vocalist, Joy Williams. The irony doesn’t end there as the band hails from Nashville and John Paul White looks exactly like what you’d expect if Johnny Depp put on the red pants and white shirt for a White Stripes biography. And, really, who could do Jack White better?

Oh, and there’s music. The setting is as quiet as an abandoned den with a cracking fireplace and enough space for a male and female with guitars on the couch. Some of the harmonies can be found on sappy love soundtracks such as Grey’s Anatomy, but my favorite moments come from whiskey rock-a-rolla’s like “Barton Hollow” and winding finger twittering sonnets in the vein of “20 Years.”

The accessibility and urgency of these scintillating symphonies are as simple as running into a friend, colleague, and/or enemy who plugs you into their I-Pod with a “listen to this chief…” and the next thing you know you’ve made a purchase you certainly won’t regret. You think I’m bullshitting you? That’s EXACTLY what happened to me. It could happen to you?

Special thanks to The Chad for this one.

Key tracks: “Barton Hollow”, “20 Years”, “Birds of a Feather”

7. The Goat Rodeo Sessions – Self Titled

If I were a more refined soul this album would be higher on the list for its musicianship, song craft and all-world dexterity. I, however, don’t find enough use for (mostly) instrumental music no matter how uplifting, sensitive and/or beaming it may be. It’s like books I force myself to read (unfortunately, this is most books) as I find myself locked in momentarily, only to crave something with words—even if I don’t know/remember/understand what they are. I don’t know why. I don’t know why I don’t read more books rather than plopping down and zoning out to ESPN. I know it’s wrong, but I continue on. It is what it is.

What is a “Goat Rodeo?” According to Urban Dictionary is about the most polite term used by aviation people (and others in higher risk situations) to describe a scenario that requires about 100 things to go right at once if you intend to walk away from it. This is certainly a title in reference to the chaotic, uber creative deliverances between THIS lineup:

The Goat Rodeo
· Yo-Yo Ma – cello
· Stuart Duncan – violin, banjo, mandolin
· Edgar Meyer – bass, piano, gamba
· Chris Thile – mandolin, guitar, gamba, vocals (on two tracks)
· Aoife O’Donovan – vocals (on two tracks)

In other news, what the fuck is a gamba?

If you’ve seen Chris Thile live, you have some idea what you’re in for when you mix his ridiculousness in with other virtuosos of the sport. It makes the perfect soundtrack to a wine/cocktail party where you want the music to spectacular and memorable without being overbearing. Like Matt Damon’s assignment in Ocean’s Eleven.

Random thought: How cool would it be to have a mandolin Olympic event? Can you see Chris Thile in a dress vest with the American flag television name plaque? I’d watch that. Somebody get the summer Olympics on the phone!

I can tell you they didn’t mail this in. Well, figuratively anyway.

Key tracks: “Where’s My Bow?”, “Here and Heaven”, “Less is Moi”

8. Young the Giant – Self Titled

I don’t think I’ve watched the MTV Video Music Awards since Kurt Loder was a regular part of my day and cranking one out to The Grind was an after school routine (dial-up porn was actually an inconvenience). However, for some strange reason, I tuned into the latest offering of the show this fall. Amongst the sea of boringness that ensued they featured a “little band” in the show giving them the “big stage” for an uplifting ditty titled “My Body,” because for some reason they deserved it. I don’t remember the specifics and don’t care to do the research to come correct, but the point is it moved me. And, apparently, it moved others as well. Those little spots are effective after all. Imagine that. If only there were a place that played videos of bands like this all day?

Throughout the last few months, I’ve had this conversation with a number of people and a handful of others had the exact same experience. In fact, the exposure propelled them onto the Billboard 200, and sales of “My Body” on I-Tunes skyrocketed 220 percent after the show. It’s a high energy song that belongs in any gym mix and deserves to be seen live by the masses. They’ll be in NYC this March!?

They’ve been around since 2004, but haven’t made an impact until now. This is very surprising, because EVERY song on the album is good. They have the accessible urgency of Coldplay, yet the complex melodies of a more rockin’ version of Vampire Weekend. Songs like “I Got” channel the mid-tempo balladry of Peter Gabriel, “Cough Syrup” sounds like what I’d like rock radio to sound like if it were still a profitable genre and “God Made Man” starts like an hippie Oregonian coffee shop time filler and builds into a pent up shaken champagne explosion.

The fizz here doesn’t need to be sealed and kept cool. There will be plenty of celebrating to go around when these pop giants return with a follow up. I can’t wait!

Key tracks: “Cough Syrup”, “My Body”, “I Got”, “Granada”

9. Polar Bear Club – Clash Battle Guilt Pride

Polar Bear Club is considered a post-hardcore/punk rock band, but to me they sound like Gaslight Anthem with the vocals of the Dropkick Murphy’s. The title of this album could easily be exchanged for a Dropkick Murphy’s placard and nobody would flinch, however, the music could not. When I think of this brand of music, many times I just think of blending guitars crunching together and screaming I can’t understand—leading me into a world of discombobulating confusion.

Clash Battle Guilt Pride may not be as strong all the way through as their earlier album I’ve been obsessed with (Sometimes Things Just Disappear), but there are moments of absolute brilliance in “Killin It”, “Kneed On Nails”, “My Best Days”, and “Bottled Wind.” It’s a straight forward rock album, but the hooks are legit. The end of the album has couple acoustic cuts and I was impressed at how the stripped down version of the songs held up, without the thrash and scream that dominates my ears on typical hard-edge music.

At its best Polar Bear Club resembles, scarily close, the smooth voice/scream voice seamless transition I love some much on my favorite all-time Foo Fighters album The Color and the Shape. At worst, you get a great band to follow up “Shipping Up to Boston” for those of you that still make mixes.

10. Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire

I thought Ryan Adams was dead, well, as a musician that is. I honestly had blocked him out of my mind as I was so crushed he departed the scene and stopped releasing 2.5 albums, a girlfriend and a dog, annually. I was one of the few people that enjoyed (critically) the drug fueled days when he’d post 100 new songs a night with varying album titles like my personal favorite Hillbilly Joel under the band name Werewolph (yes, spelled like that). Every song on those Werewolph albums seemed to end with a crowing rooster. Classic stuff. I want it back. Good times, great oldies.

I’m not saying I want Ryan to do drugs again, but, let’s be honest, it was entertaining. So, anyway, when I heard he was making a triumphant return I was quite curious. Could this be good? I even discovered the double-disc Cardinals album III/IV I missed after his announced hiatus from music and apparently my life. I will note that particular Cardinals album is actually my favorite album of this year, though it wasn’t released in 2011, therefore it’s not eligible for this list. The “plays” tab in my I-Tunes knows the real truth.

Ashes & Fire is a welcomed return to the intimate style of Heartbreaker. Now that time has passed, the press shenanigans are no longer relevant, and Ryan Adams can become an artist, rather than a spectacle, he should/could/would be judged as so. This time around he received fairy high praise critically. Norah Jones, whose contributions in the past have been at the very worst, a highlight, joined quietly (not joking) for some piano and backing vocals, albeit somewhat non-memorable. Even Pitchforkmedia sautéed a poignant review, “…rather than equal Heartbreaker, here he might have accomplished something more difficult: making it somehow seem underrated,” before giving it a favorable 6.5.

I love the style of the album, but I have to kind of parallel myself with Pitchfork, which always makes me cringe a tad. I just don’t identify with it like I have in the past. It’s very close to being as masterful as his early work, but it just seems to be missing something. Perhaps…drugs, depression, alcoholism, sorrow, dark corners of bars, New York City, etc, etc, to name a few. I’ll keep my finger on the pulse, so I don’t miss out on the next wave, because inevitably, something interesting will happen, and for a songwriter with this much talent—that’ll be all it takes.

Key tracks: “Kindness (feat. Norah Jones)”, “Chains of Love”, “Invisible Riverside”

The Next 10:

11. Man Man, “Life Fantastic” – A continued maturity from a band that suffers from a silly shadow, gulping the spotlight from their musical, and more specifically percussion virtuosity. Stunning songcraft finds this as Man Man’s finest moment. A song like “Piranhas Club” belongs as a theme song to an Adult Swim version of Sponge Bob Square Pants. Key track: “Life Fantastic”
12. The Strokes, “Angles” – Don’t listen to critics, your friends, other Strokes fans or even the band itself that dismissed this album. There are enough driving beats to warrant playing it on infinite repeat. It sounds like the Knack, high on crack, celebrating New Years in pink jumpsuits at Max Fish in the Lower East Side. Key track: “Taken For A Fool”
13. Gillian Welch, “The Harrow & the Harvest” – Beautiful, drawn out, slow folk songs for kids that like boring music. If you can’t find Mark Kozelek in an empty dive bar juke box, Gilllian Welch will certainly clear out the remaining tumbleweeds. More for me I guess. Key track: “Dark Turn of Mind”
14. Wilco, “The Whole Love” – Everyone’s favorite living classic rock band tribute’s itself with a non-sequitur greatest hits collection of new songs for their 184^th album. It’s already been three albums with jazz super guitarist Nels Cline and I find myself pining for the 185^th. There are a few clunkers, but these Chicago studs have enough wax to make antique sandpaper shine with luster, gloss and shredding folky-jazz solos. They can do no wrong with this lineup. Key track: “One Sunday”
15. Coldplay, “Mylo Xyloto” – There are very few moments in their new music that remind me of what made me fall in love with this band during the Parachutes and Rush of Blood era, but I find myself carrying on. Most of the new music is upbeat and sounds good played loud, and although this album doesn’t have the scenic time changes Viva La Vida pleasantly surprised me with, it does build purposely off its uncovered ground, which still contains vast green pastures. Key track: “Charlie Brown”
16. Mister Heavenly, “Out of Love” – An unveiled supergroup that actually sounds like the sum of its parts. Man Man + Unicorns/Islands + Modest Mouse = Mr. Larson (giant guy with nail in his head from Happy Gilmore) stomping on pigeons, filmed in black and white with added projector sounds. It mixes retro ballroom dance rock n’ roll (Nicholas Thorburn) with raspy piano thrashing melody (Ryan Kattner aka Honus Honus) over punchy (Joe Plummer) palpitations. Key track: “Bronx Sniper”
17. Old Wives, “Tidal Tales” – Jason Gleason has the best voice in rock music (think Jeff Buckley meets Roger Daultry) today and belongs in a rock band. End of story. Key track: “Rip Van Winkle”
18. The Decemberists, “The King is Dead” – A perfect mix of what the Decemberists have done so well throughout their career with the added rock backbeat their major label albums have sprinkled in. It’s almost as if Colin Meloy had a maudlin reminiscent desire to bring back Tarkio and return to Montanan form with this title for a self-aggrandizing finale. Fair enough. Key track: “Down By the Water”
19. The Lonely Island, “Turtleneck & Chain” – Guest appearances by Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Akon, Michael Bolton, Beck, Nicki Minaj and of course JT doesn’t totally define this album. The fact that these seemingly not serious spoof songs are actually legit is the biggest surprise and that’s no joke Mr. Big Nose. Key track: “Threw it on the Ground”
20. Wanda Jackson, “The Party Ain’t Over” – Wanda Jackson bids to be the Clint Eastwood of the industry producing some of her best work in her mid-70’s, quips coincidently fitting, because much of Jack White’s production sounds like spaghetti western Ennio Morricone horn arrangements. Although, I would argue her cover of Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good,” is nothing less than chilling, if not the damn best song of the year. And I typically resent covers. Rasp away Grandma Wanda. Key track: “You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse Cover)”

The Disappointments

I don’t necessarily think these were bad albums. In fact, I could make a case for putting them up, and onto the “top shelf” list, but I just can’t due to the depression they inflicted on my gentle heart. Everything is about expectations, and I hate to be let down, especially by some of my favorite bands.

Adele – 21

I honestly don’t know what happened here. I loved 19 and I don’t want to hop on the “hate Adele” bandwagon, because with her popularity, it won’t be long before THAT gets old. But, seriously?

I HATE this album. I honestly don’t like it at all. It just screams look at me, I’m sad, but I’m very talented (this is undeniable) and showing off my sadness for piles of your money. Then, I’m laughing all the way to the bank, because you’re crying, vulnerable and holy shit how easy is this?

I think it boils down to this interview I read when she made two points that turned me off. 1) She said she’s “never had a problem with the way she looks.” 2) She said she “smokes 30 cigarettes a day.” Ok, (1) you kind of should…and…(2) yuuuuuuuuuqqqck. Jesus. So disgusting.

These things aren’t an issue by themselves, but when I start hearing tear inducing balladry, marketed at my heartstrings, and think of an overweight singer who “claims” to not care about her body with pompous confidence in an interview that reeks of cigarettes stench—I just can’t get into it.

I can’t imagine why a guy wouldn’t want to deal with that? Right? Let’s hear 11 more songs about THAT!?I don't feel sorry for you at all, Adele, by the time you release 23, let's all hope the flash in the pan we hear is broccoli and the fresh scent of an open window.

Come on!!?

Red Hot Chili Peppers – I’m with You

In preparation for the release of this album I read Anthony Keidis’ biography Scar Tissue which, for me, turned out to be a huge mistake. The book makes him sound like the biggest douchebag I’ve ever heard. For those of you that love the Keidis, the Chili’s and want it to stay that way, don’t read this book.

Scar Tissue by Anthony Keidis summary:

1. I’m really fucking cool because I did a lot of drugs
2. I’m still really fucking cool because I relapsed so many times and lived to tell the tale
3. I write lyrics like “the day my best friend died I could not get my carpet cleaned.”
4. Grand Rapids, Michigan…SUUUUUCKS.

The needle and the damage is done. I don’t hate Keidis, but that was a tough pill for me to swallow for 300+ pages. John Frusciante, my favorite member of the band, departed, again, after the last album. Flea and Chad Smith still rock, perhaps harder than ever. The new guitarist, touring backing guitarist John Klinghofer, continues to do really neat, backing guitar effects—only he’s the lead guitarist. So, there really isn’t any lead guitar, which is a blessing and a sin throughout the album.

With that said, there are still some classic stand out tracks like the Pure Funk worthy “Look Around”, disco-dance hall throw down (once you get through the fuzzy noise intro, bridge and versus) “Monarchy of Roses” and the grinding relatable tale of age, “Annie Wants a Baby.”

It was cool to hear some piano rock from the Chili Peppers, and read about Flea expanding his musical means, but this should be an EP and the band should quit A) while they’re still ahead B) until John Fruciante rejoins the band.

That harshness aside, I still value this album and continue to enjoy to its catawampus sonic fortitude.

My Morning Jacket – Circuital

Three amazing songs. Three bad/ok songs. Two good songs. One shitty song. And one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard make up the long-awaited, highly-disappointing Circuital.

“Victory Dance”, “Circuital”, and “Holdin’ on to Black Metal” are simply BOSS songs. Phenominal. Yes. There are a couple of other good songs, but mostly everything else makes me wish I didn’t have ears.

Especially “Wonderful (the Way I Feel)!?!?!” If that’s not bad enough, they play it LIVE!? It’s a live staple!?!? They could just say, “yeah…probably should have listened to that one closer,” but they insist on pressing on and playing that shit live!!?!?! I don’t get it. I don’t get it one bit. You have to trace back to 1999’s Tennessee Fire to find such haphazard, psychedelic painfully-slow folk slop. Believe you me; if you put this in the pig’s trough, they’re not going to eat it.

Death Cab for Cutie – Codes and Keys

There are a couple of classics like “Portable Television”, “Doors Unlocked and Open”, “Underneath the Sycamore” and “Unobstructed Views,” but other than that, everything sounds like a bad Postal Service cover band. What happened to the rock band that wrote “We Laugh Indoors?”

This is a solid album; don’t get me wrong, it’s still very listenable, but well short of my lofty expectations. I feel like one of the few people that genuinely enjoyed Plans and Narrow Stairs with the later rivaling Transatlantism for Zerfas market share.

Sounds like a distracted, unfocused, and notably happier, lead singer. Hmmmmmm…what could lead to something like that!?

Yeah, I would be too.

Black Keys – El Camino

Too. Fucking. Fuzzy.

WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!

I honestly want to go on a ridiculous rage, much like crazy black mercenary guy in The Rock when General Hummel changes the rocket’s coordinates, dumping the weapon into the ocean.

The Spartans Season...A Red Storm Rising...

A review of the Michigan game as well as taking a look at the other two "red" games this month. Can the Spartans continue a surprising month by dethroning No. 4 Wisconsin?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/904909-michigan-state-football-a-red-storm-rising

Zerflive: Foo Fighters, September 26th, 2011 at the I-Zod Center, NJ

I have missed Dave Grohl in person like he’s actually in my family. He IS in my headline!? Ha.

I have my iPod and many memories to keep me appeased, but there is really nothing like the surreal nature of seeing your all-time favorite band grace the stage. I somehow missed the last tour (ticketmaster fees refusal and priced out of MSG, my scalper incident for a secret show) and wanted to see how my boys were doing this time around with three shows in the greater NYC area. For the first of two I’m slated for, I had to travel to New Jersey where I saw them play about five years ago for the In Your Honor tour. The name of the arena and the opening bands changed, but the Foo’s sweaty steadfast rock show has not.

They are still the best in the business, however, it is apparent they have aged and this is the top-end of their prime. In that way, they remind me of Dirk Nowitzki this last NBA season. Still enough prime and youth in the tank to win a championship, but you fear from here on forward the decline is here and we’re at the apex of the rising action. That is sad, but you simply do what you can in the present to enjoy the presence before you. Dave Grohl settling for half the album scream on “White Limo” is much like Dirk pulling up for an easy jumper, instead of going to the rack for style points. They both light up the scoreboard. Might as well save your energy…the show is totals about three hours and with the way Grohl runs literally from one side of the stage all the way to the other side of the arena—there is no room to take a break.

The biggest difference you can get from a band of this caliber throughout the years is the setlist. I know I’m kind of setlist obsessive, but really; it’s the first thing I think of for differences show to show. A band like the Foo are always going to have lights, big stage antics, banter, crowd surfing, etc. What I really look forward to is how the material is represented and what songs make the cut over the years. Notoriously, I used to spend a great deal of time looking at every setlist from every show and know exactly what’s coming up, but this time around I was able to show restraint. Maturity? The big one for me is my favorite song, “Aurora”, which didn’t make the cut this time around. The feeling of waiting for that moment it MIGHT be played, is much different than if they play a hit, and similarly parallel to NOT playing a hit.

After something like 16 years in the business, the Foo Fighters can’t begin to fathom playing all their hits and/or cult classics. Especially at the energy they play with and the way they make some of their three minute hits, 10 minute jams, like “Monkey Wrench”, “Breakout” and “Stacked Actors” which to this day continue to remain live jam staples.

I’ve never seen the Foo Fighters play a show over two hours, so with a setlist totaling 25 songs and three hours of duration, I was quite pleased with my bang-for-the-buck sentiment.

Highlights

• Two stellar covers I haven’t heard them do and would never expect. “In the Flesh” by Pink Floyd with Taylor Hawkins on vocals, who by the way does Roger Waters better than Roger Waters these days (watch the performance on Fallon vs. the performance at Izod...) and “Breakdown” by Tom Petty which is at least in my Top 2 favorite Tom Petty songs. Dare I say the Foo’s rock it twice as hard as Petty!? I do.
• The stage setup. Previously, Grohl would always find a way to move to the other end of the arena. Usually with a security guard he’d have to sift through the crowd. At this juncture, they just build a Tetris shaped end for him to extend his stage presence with a path all the way across the arena, that multiple times throughout the show he runs back and forth from the stage with the band and a 20 foot riser about 50 yards away.
• From this riser, he did a guitar duel with Chris Shiftlett during “Stacked Actors” that didn’t necessarily rock my socks off in skill, but was just kind of fun. It rocked. It was simple. It was theatrical. You can’t find it on any album. Shiftlett would give the “thumbs down” to Grohl’s duel submissions and tear into a shredding solo of his own. Shifty has improved enough at guitar that he definitely made Grohl look like a rhythm guitar to his lead.
• The encore video played while the Foos were backstage. It has a night light presentation while Taylor and Dave mime to that audience exactly how many songs they are going to play in the encore while swigging beers “backstage.” It’s a good way to get the crowd going as they start at “one” and end at “six,” before coming out for a seven song encore with Dave Grohl half way through saying “we’ll play all night, I’m fucking serious” which is a sentiment I’ve only seen matched by Ted Nugent and simply slaughtered by Goldfinger (ask me about THAT story. So good.).
• Everlong

The new material holds up really well. This, Wasting Light, is as you may have read on this very blog, the second best album the Foos have done. I love it. “Bridge Burning”, “Arlandria” and “These Days” with Grohl introducing Krist Novacelic on the accordion saying something along the lines of, “I don’t know if you’ve heard Krist play…but he’s the Eddie Van Halen of the accordion,” was pleasing to the soul.

The only problem when bands amass this much material (DG “I don’t know if you know this…we have A LOT of sooooongs…”) is the cult classics get lost. Songs like “Aurora”, “Up in Arms”, “See You”, “Ain’t it the Life”, “DOA”, and “For All the Cows” get lost in the mixture. Even the HITS like “Big Me”, “I’ll Stick Around”, “Next Year”, “Miracle”, “Walking After You”, “Low”, etc hit the proverbial cutting room floor. I guess you can’t “Have it All.”

Seriously…they never play that one.

Rise Against and a Mariachi band encompassed the opening acts. The Mariachi band has the word Bronx in it somewhere. I’m not bothering to look it up. They were pretty cool, but obviously a little star-struck playing in such a big arena. The right time and place would help them immensely and could throttle them into a Zerfas favorite.

I’ve really gotten into Rise Against lately and found them slightly disappointing at this show. They really do rock. Like, balls to the walls hair flying back for the entire set rock. It is all rock and nothing else which isn’t really the problem. I think the problem with bands like that is they record with such high energy and technology that it’s tough to replicate live. You can get parts right on, but it’s damn near impossible to recreate that energy song after song and hit every part for the duration of the tunes. I ran into the same thing when I saw the Offspring, who Rise Against reminds me a lot of. If the Foo Fighters had to play “White Limo”, “Weenie Beenie” and “Wattershed” for 45 minutes…one would probably be disappointed as well. I value things not sounding like the album (my whole reason for loving the Foo live so much!?), but for some reason over-the-top high energy songs sound slightly flat if you can’t match the energy. The screamers are good rockers and fun for the show, but offer little sustainability. It’s like a diet of nothing but protein bars. Eventually you crave balance, yet you’re so capable of running through a brick wall right now, and there’s something awesome to be said about that.

Lastly, the true essence of a Foo show was recently caught perfectly in an e-mail conversation I had with my buddy. I sent him a video of the Foo Fighters playing “Breakdown” and compared it to a Tom Petty show we saw in Grand Rapids, MI many moons back. We were gravely disappointed with Petty’s show as it was pretty much exactly like listening to an album (the anti-Foo Fighters) and we were less than impressed with Petty’s nonchalant stoner stage presence. I would call it the absolute zero of stage presences. He didn’t even play harmonica on “Last Dance with Mary Jane” and he more or less sat on a stool and played his hits. My buddy concluded Dave Grohl is the superior rock star because, “he could sing the Barney song and it would sound awesome.”

Yes, and I hope he does just THAT when I see him at MSG in November. I’d even sacrifice “Aurora” to hear it.

Setlist:
Bridge Burning
Rope
The Pretender
My Hero
Learn to Fly
White Limo
Arlandria
Breakout
Cold Day in the Sun
Stacked Actors
Walk
Monkey Wrench
Let it Die
These Days (with Krist Novacelic on accordion)
Should Have Known
This is a Call
In the Flesh (Pink Floyd cover)
All My Life

Long Road to Ruin (DG acoustic solo from mid-arena riser)
Best of You (DG acoustic solo from mid-arena ri
Times Like These (DG solo for half acoustic, joins full band for rock half)
Dear Rosemary
Breakdown (Tom Petty cover)
Skin & Bones
Everlong

Spartans See Red Ahead

These October games are tough. This weekend sets the tone.

Go Green!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/872818-michigan-state-football-the-spartans-see-red-ahead

Larry David Moment: The Barber Shop Quandary

I recently have been breached with a quintessential Larry David moment. Recently, I made a barber switch. I got sick of paying the $2.25 each way transporting for a hair cut and occasional DeAngelo Vickers power grabbing hot shave (try this gentleman if you haven’t). My new place is right in my neighborhood in the UWS. I’ve went there a number of times and I like it. The guy is nice, it’s reasonably priced and it’s an upgrade in style. I’m just happier overall.

Here’s what happened.

I work at a restaurant in Times Square. Gratuity is automatically included in the check. So, by happenstance, my new barber came into the restaurant. He did not know I was working. He was placed in MY section by coincidence. What are the odds of all of that!?

Everything was fine…until it came time to pay the check. In the restaurant business, this is where respect happens. I am fine going on record saying that I tip this barber 33% for haircuts and shaves. That’s not a calculation, that’s just what it works out to. That’s hooking a barber up!? People usually throw a few bucks, but $5 per service is respect, brother.

When I went to drop the check I knew this is where our relationship would be tested. Would he show respect and add additional tip? Would he flatline me at the stock 18% as included in the check? That pretty much says to a server “you were satisfactory, no better.” Especially in Manhattan if a server does a good job 20% is how you show this. If they include gratuity you throw a few more bucks on the check. You just do it!!!!

Welllllllllll…..I’m sad to say I took one on the chin here. It’s not like leaving the bare minimum is DISrespect, but given the fact that I hook this guy up everytime I come in, should mean he pays back, right? Show some reciprocity!?

The question now is…what do I do now?

Do I have to change barbers? I can’t go back to the old barber (who was very good), because he’s going to know I went somewhere else. That’s cheating!? It would be very hard for me to switch now, because I see the current barber in the neighborhood. I go in at least once a month these days (shedding the Phillip Seymour Hoffman moniker?) and it would be obvious he’s fired. That’s awkward.

If he sucked…sure. But, he’s a good guy and I like that I don’t have to even say much when I walk in. He goes to work…it’s quick…there is never a line. Easy.

Why couldn’t he just reciprocate the respect? NYC especially is all about the service industry and once you’re in—you must take care of everyone else. It’s code. It’s karma. It’s only fair.

Those that haven’t been there have NO IDEA. Cliché to say, but true. Especially in serving when you have interactions on the nanosecond with people, your robotic discourse can be altered uberquick by someone with a grump agenda. The tides really turn on the dime.

I want to talk to him about it and ask? That’s where the Larry David thing comes in. But, I can see this going very badly. I envision a shouting match? He’ll scoff at me around the neighborhood. By similar happenstance, I’ll for no reason start seeing him all the time at my favorite hangouts/pastimes!? Perhaps he would offer me a free cut/shave!?

I don’t want it!!!!!????!

I want that moment back, where 1) he doesn’t come in at all 2) If he comes in he shows some fucking respect for reciprocity!?!?

The Spartans Offensive Line is a Nightmare Without a Kick

My document of the Michigan State Football 2011 campaign continues with this Spartan saga...the Offensive Line is facing a tough tasks. Injuries, adversity and lack of experience plague a group that started the year as the Spartans biggest...????

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/862280-michigan-state-football-the-spartans-o-line-is-a-nightmare-without-a-kick

Notre Dame Week Cannot be Topped

Michigan State vs. Notre Dame. Yes!!!!

I grew up watching both programs. This is without a doubt my favorite football game of the year...making it my favorite day of the year until...ohhhhhh.....March Madness (next year). Yeah...it's that important.

Superlatives. Ellipses. A hell of a good tailgate and football day. I couldn't ask for much more.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/852021-michigan-state-football-just-another-notre-dame-week

Notre Dame Vs. Michigan: Can the Wolverines Keep the Pace?

Alot of football on the docket for tomorrow. I wrote up my projection for this game as well.


Notre Dame 42
Michigan 27

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/843587-notre-dame-v-michigan-can-the-wolverines-keep-the-pace

Michigan State Game 2. Bring on FAU.

Here is my preview and continuation of the Spartans 2011 football campaign.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/842761-michigan-state-football-things-to-look-for-against-florida-atlantic

Michigan State Football Preview and Unit by Unit Breakdown

I have previewed the season and broken the team down unit by unit.

Part I -- The overview and offense: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/832120-michigan-state-football-preview-unit-by-unit-breakdown-offense-part-1

Part II -- The defense and special teams: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/832241-michigan-state-football-unit-by-unit-breakdown-defense-part-2

Go Green!

Camps of Green Under Friday Night Lights

I will be the Featured Columnist for the Bleacher Report covering Michigan State football throughout the 2011 campaign. I'm very pumped about this. What that means for you, the reader, is 2-3 articles a week about the team. I'm not going to do this "beat" style and to prove that...THIS is my intro...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/828725-michigan-state-football-camps-of-green-under-friday-night-lights

Mute Math Odd Soul Introduction Tour

(Thanks to this awesome fan for posting this video of the show on Youtube. It gives you a good idea of what you missed.)

Mute Math
Odd Soul Introduction Tour
Mercury Lounge 8.25.11

Whoever came up with the bright idea to slate Mute Math as the early show at Mercury Lounge is now on my shitlist!?

I’m PISSED! What a tease man? Mercury Lounge just didn’t get Mute Math enough time to do their thing.

I came to this show expecting a special event; there were only two of these shows when I bought my tickets.

I’m not blaming any of this on the band. It’s just how it shook out and quite clearly someone didn’t do their research. Granted, any good promoter or manager should and probably realized what’s going on here. Perhaps this tour is simply…an introduction to the new album titled Odd Soul, due for rapid release in early October.

I am just always a fan of a HUGE set (the most bang for the buck) and getting as much concert as I can. I did pay a meager price to see one of the best live bands in a miniscule venue.

All anger aside, I believe this was an amazing opportunity, a tantalizing treat delicious enough to make any music aficionado salivate. Everyone needs to see a drummer like Darren King in a venue like Mercury Lounge, a venue about the size of an incredibly small room in a basement—it just has that musky feel. I was standing against the right wall all the way back, which is about seven rows at Merc Lounge, yet I felt like I was inside Darren King’s drumset (he sets up his drumset all the way right). I felt like he was hitting ME with the sticks, although that could have been the $4 dollar Pabst’s I was guzzling with reckless abandon. Trust me…it was a good night.

Strip Mute Math of a big “hit-filled’ setlist, their state of the art light show, sufficient time to jam the songs out (my favorite part of a Mute Math show) and sufficient space for singer Paul Meany to complete his trademark flip over the piano, one would have to wonder can they still “bring it?”

The answer is of course yes, with the caveat being my anger over my self created ridiculous expectations.

The Merc Lounge stage doesn’t allow much of a secret entrance. The bands usually have to get from the back of the room to the front through the audience they are about to entertain. That’s always provides me enjoyment in itself. In true New Orleans fashion, the guys came in like a marching band playing tambourines, drums and anything they could walk with all the way to the stage. It’s pretty much the most festive intro one can have at this particular venue.

They played the new material. It’s good. Very different from your standard Mute Math Police-like pop songs. Everything is pretty raw and downright drenched in Southern Blues. When the album comes out it should come with wetnaps and an extra side of BBQ sauce. There will probably be many haters accusing the band of “jumping the shark” and hipsters will chastise the songs as Black Keys ripoffs.

Imagine that?

Let the haters hate. This album is going to be damn good, a true venture for a band that refuses to settle for rerecording only their strengths. This onset of raw blues really lends itself to the thundering drums of Darren King. There doesn’t seem to be as much electronics in the new songs, however, the recordings are raw, yet remarkable intricate in the way they bring all that New Orleans blues into the studio headphones.

It’s quite clear to me Odd Soul will be an impressive timepiece album that solidifies the location and longevity of a band I just can’t get enough of. I did miss the sing-a-long vocal style Meany has in the first two albums that makes me actually WANT to sing along (rare for those that know me), but I have a deep appreciation for what they’ve done here.

Definitely pick up the album when it comes out, and I would imagine every other city will give ‘em space to operate. NYC, man…can’t live with it…can’t live without it.

Setlist:
Prytania
Heads Up
Allies
Reset
Odd Soul
One More
In No Time
Blood Pressure
Spotlight
You Are Mine
Chaos
Break the Same/Quarentine (ran out of time…merged the two quickly)

1!, 2!, 3!…Listen to Me

“Music the great communicator
Use two sticks to make it in the nature!”
--Red Hot Chili Peppers (“Can’t Stop)

The word of mouth raconteurism (not a word, but it should be) of music makes me giddy. I’ve spent so much of my precious time over the years bouncing music back and forth with others—it makes me want to take my I-pod to the top of Zerfas Mountain and play it for ALL the lands. Perhaps others will enjoy it as much as I do and join the party. It’s that real The Jerk mentality that makes me want to write about my passions in the first place. Navin R. Johnson in a see of blues music (being born a poor black child) finds some toe tapping jazz. He shimmies around the house and inspiration pours out his pores to the point that he hitches a ride to search the world for more.

That is how I pursue music. If you find yourself reading this…chances are you have that mentality as well.

This, my friends, is a tribute to you (I actually originally put your names by each band and inspiration, but then struck that idea as YOU may not want that) folks who have passed along music to me. I am taking a moment to list and promote a few bands I’ve been listening to. Most of them in this batch I have a close relationship with in some, way, shape or form—whether it be friends of friends, friends bands, friends recommending and updating me on the happenings of people in bands that we became friends listening to together, etc.

Let’s get started with talking about the title of the this post,“1,2,3…Listen to Me”: There is a band called Further Seems Forever. Their first lead singer was Chris Carraba who most associate with Dashboard Confessional. The second lead singer was a man of outrageous pipes, Jason Gleason. The album he did with Further Seems Forever was titled How to Start a Fire. If you don’t own it, you should pick it up now for a lesson in gut shredding vocals. He ended up leaving the band after one album and was replaced by a bland voiced Jon Bunch. The third album came out with said bland voiced singer and it was decent, however, there was one track on the “Bunch album” that eventually surfaced with Gleason on the vocals. Same song, different vocals and there was a world of difference between the two. It is hardly recognizable that they’re the same song!?

Further Seems Forever “Bleed”: The Jon Bunch version is a good rock song. You could listen to this song. You like it. Simple. Straight to the point. It gets the job done.

Further Seems Forever “There, Now I’ve Said It”: The intro to this slices you so quick and thinly you’re not sure what hit you, but you know it’s deep cut. HOLY SHIT! That’s all you can say.

He just BELTS “1!,2!,3!!!..Listen to Me” only the ellipse there is TOO MUCH. There isn’t time for three periods! He merges it smooth, somehow, scream purees into a melodic croon that eventually details emotions about leaving the band behind. I don’t know how, but it happened, and that’s all there is to it. It’s one of the most amazing feats I’ve ever heard vocally.

Secondly, he sings the same song in a completely different timing. Kind of like how Elvis Costello never really follows the pattern of his songs vocally in the way that you’d think one would based on the backing music. It’s just off enough that you feel it’s off, but it works well enough that you’re amazed at its authentic nature and originality. Use two sticks to make it in the nature.

Overall, I can’t help but always use this as an example of how the slightest change can mean EVERYTHING to a song, and to me that’s everything you need to know about the raconteurism of music and why we all need to stick together sharing these tales of music appreciation.

Old Wives Tidal Tales
Listen to: “Alto Cinco”

You now know who Jason Gleason is. You needed that and you’re welcome.

Further Seems Forever’s How to Start a Fire might possess too much depth for you. It’s not light lifting. It’s NOT the kind of music you go to first thing in the morning or when you’re driving. Too much viscosity! In fact, I would recommend stretching and doing calisthenics for 5-10 minutes prior to consumption. Drink a red bull and try to relax, sucker.

I’ve been waiting my whole life for Jason Gleason to make an accessible album that everyone can enjoy, and brother, this is it! In theory, the right situation could find Gleason making a whole album that sounds like if you typed Jeff Buckley’s “Eternal Life” into Pandora. If you could handle it!? Tidal Tales closes in classic Jeff Buckley fashion with a song called “Troubadour” which could easily pass for a B-Side off of Grace.

(I typed “Eternal Life” by Jeff Buckley into Pandora and the first five songs were 1) “Operation Spirit” by Live 2) “One Big Holiday” by My Morning Jacket 3) “How Lovers Ball” by Only Living Boy 4) Bring it Down” by Oasis 5) “Lethal Woman” by Gentleman’s Pistols)

You know when you really hope for something and it doesn’t happen for awhile, you don’t give up, but your expectations lower and almost anything will do? This is not the case at all on this album. The only problem I have is the length. It’s kind of an EP if you ask me. There are essentially nine tracks and one of them isn’t what I would call “accessible” as it’s low fi and kind of a bonus track—only it’s actually the eight of nine tracks. Weird. We can’t have it all, but you CAN get this album for yourself today and live a better life because of it.

Besides the vocal prowess of undeniable accolades, the backing music here is unique and pretty thick. Not in the way that How to Start a Fire is deep, but there are lots of organs, steel drums, changing tempos, huge rock intros/outros, laser effects, horns, calypso rhythms, and whatever else you look for when you ask for variety. This music is so catchy you’re going to hate listening to it, because the addiction will geyser to your brain like an ice cold glass of Mug Rootbeer.

The timing and the structures of these songs hints at something retro. I think of music that you SHOULD be hearing when you were spinning around on amusement park rides as a kid. I don’t know the name, but one of those spider like contraptions that essentially whips you around avalanching your body to one corner of your seat, depending on which way it spins. This is the soundtrack to that moment, only if my memory serves me right, they would play hits. These songs are better than those hits, but with the feeling of this childhood memory I’ve depicted.

One more time…THE VOICE. This guy is the best in the business. I really hope he continues to make rock music, because my soul needs it.

Halos Living Like Kings of Convenience
Listen to: “Amalgram”

We seem to be on the theme of soaring vocals. Gleason is the king of setting up a satellite above the music with unfathomable emotion and technicality. I really hadn’t had that experience with a band again until I discovered Halos, a project that hails from Long Island, NY (now LA), through a former colleague. That particular friend will be PISSED that I make that particular connection between How to Start a Fire and Living Like Kings of Convenience, but it has to be done. In both cases, I find myself looking to the stars to find the vocals that rocketed through the headphones, out of my brain and into outer space.

“Meet me in the atmosphere
Don’t worry I’ll take you there…”

This line is a pretty fitting intro to the album. The descriptors of Halos like to use words like “atmospheric” and “ambient rock”, which are terms I like, but also don’t want to over categorize the music. The point of having categories is to group things not make 10,000 categories for filing things. That’s what band names are for.

One of the lost arts in the electronic movement is the album cover. Obviously, purists have been saying it all along when cds transcended to records—that the art lost the size. Now days, one has to seek out album art electronically and force it into I-Tunes (that takes forever!). I’ve always wondered if album art is a self fulfilling prophecy or if bands are just very skilled at branding their own music, because well, they created it—I think they know it best. The cover for Kings is a haunted looking mansion on a hill in the dark night sky. Perfect. Whether it’s that way because they planted that image within me while listening to the music is up for debate another time (seriously, I will talk about this someday, I have thoughts).

Halos definitely take you on an emo ride through the atmosphere. There are undertones of the emo movement, like that of Sunny Day Real Estate, but the hooks are memorable fist-pounders that make you want to take life by the horns, throw your troubles to the ground and float using the breeze at your back with vocalist Dan Lyman through the starry night sky.

I’ve always been a sucker for celestial references and callings from mother earth in music. Everyone should channel their inner Walt Whitman and anytime I have the feeling that a singer hiked to the top of a mountain or nearest grassy knoll with a pen and paper and let the beauty sculpt the prose…my day has become more organic. Everybody knows the word “organic” is worth another 27 percent, fiscally. I’ll go ahead and send Halos $2.69 to supplement my purchase order.

The other thing I like about the band is the hidden intricacy of the arrangements. Everything seems pretty simple, waiting for the vocals to chime in and take you away on that ride, but the guitar effects used are unique, rocking yet not too heavy or campy and quite patient, reaching out a helping hand to the magic carpet.

Combine the organic celestial mother earth with locker room bulletin board inspirational sonnets, clinging to your cortex, like “without faith it’ll bring you down!,” and my favorite “this is where I go to clear my head/this is where I go/this is where I go,” to lift your battered soul and give those teary eyed stars a hug. Yes, stars feel pain too.

Our American Cousin Michigan EP
Listen to: “Michigan”
Buy the Michigan EP (you name the price): http://joshkaufman.bandcamp.com/

Michigan is a four song EP, soon to be LP (tentatively slated for late September), composed by my life-long friend Josh Kaufman. Besides being one of the world’s best wise-ass sarcastic sentimentalists and all-around good guy, he’s one talented dude. I’ve always encourage Josh to continue pursing music (he always has) and I’m elated, perhaps even giddy, about his latest project Our American Cousin.

It’s just downright impossible to avoid Sufjan Stevens comparisons with the song “Michigan.” Josh himself is probably sick of it, but, when you use a shit-ton of instruments giving a wide array of backing sound with an almost intimidating variety (think a more grassroots Pet Sounds), coupled with a soft soothing voice, and blonde-haired boy (Sufjan isn’t blonde) next door lyrics…well…it’s going to happen. Oh yeah, and then there’s the whole Michigan thing.

We got that out of the way.

There’s much more to this. My favorite moment is on the last song titled “If You’re Looking For Me (I’m Not There),” channels 2004 era Ryan Adams (I believe he made three albums that year alone, so that’s an era) and the quagmires of the mid-to-late 20’s.

“I'm in the prime of life
I've heard a hundred times but
I've been hiding for so long
It's hard to give life up”

And…

Their right for keeping on
And in the end i'm wrong but
I've been drinking so what’s the use
How about you?

Sounds a lot like one of my all-time favorites…

“So I am in the twilight of my youth
Not that I'm going to remember
Have you seen the moon tonight, is it full?
Still burning as embers
The people dancing in the corner of the city
Happy, but I am sad
I'm still dancing in the coma of the drinks I just had”
--Ryan Adams (“Anyone Wanna Take Me Home”)

This is where the ‘Nard Dog chimes in with a “nailed it.”

It’s relaxing, soft and soothing, but there is depth and pain there. Pain you hate to love, because you feel for the songwriter, but you’re almost glad they went through it based on the final product of the music. Torture makes for wonderful art. If a subject has to have a couple down years to come up with the next “Bohemian Rhapsody,” I’m all for it. The potential of Josh Kaufman is a truncated exponent.

I lied. I can’t root against this guy (even if in this case rooting against was a root “for” in the grand scheme). I did, however, as a youth, ruin one of his shows by showing up OBLITERATED and shouting “Noodles” through an entire concert pretty much mutilating the experience for everyone involved. I almost got my ass kicked.

I’m a jerk, but you can help me make it up to him. Pick this up and get yourself out on the backways with a man that’s about to change lives one maudlin melody at a time.

Ted Nugent Live at the Iridium Jazz Club

(image taken from ilyamirman.com without permission)

I guess it’s fair to say I’m a bit of a concert purist. You may have taken that away from my last Minus the Bear piece. Venue, sound, audience, setlist and the whole experience are all factors to me. They make a magnificent blend of rock excellence.

That’s why I don’t like certain venues. I usually don’t like festivals, because you don’t get the full audience of one band as well as the buzzkill of a shorter set. I will sometimes avoid seeing bands if I believe they’re on the decline as it might lower my perception and fanship of their previous music. When I saw Tom Petty, he was too high to play the harmonica. It took me about five years to get over it enough to listen to him again. Snap perceptions are at a premium when the curtain goes up.

Ted Nugent is a dish best served outdoors. I normally don’t think outdoor concerts have the best sound, but Nugent rolls to town with enough amps and sound equipment to kill a Yak in Japan. Believe you me, he’ll be pumped when happens! The Nuge needs a big stage, a loud drunken audience of people that have been coming to his shows since the 70’s (and still think it’s the 70’s mind you) and the sweet scent of the great outdoors in the summertime. The man cannot be quarantined into a little indoor venue with puny little amplifiers and table seating.

Or can he? How about a jazz club in Manhattan? Can you just plug the outlandish Ted Nugent in with a legendary group of blues/jazz/R&B band as part of a tribute spectacle for Les Paul and expect everything to turn out normal? This ought to be interesting…

I want to unroll this out like a summertime concert blanket in three sections.

Pros: I’ve never paid more than 20 bucks to see Ted. In fact, I’ve seen him for free, seven bucks, 15 bucks and 19 or so bucks. The ticket at the Iridium Jazz Club in Times Square was more than all of that. What you’re looking for here is a unique experience. That was delivered.

One of my favorite things the Foo Fighters ever recorded was witnessed at the 2004 Grammy’s. They came out and played “Times Like These” with a jazz pianist. It was awesome, because they were able to string together both the acoustic and rock versions of the song into one budding explosion of rock awesomeness…PLUS…a jazz piano. See the video here! (not the best sound quality)

Ted was able to do similar here. I was worried about him playing his songs with a band that he’s never played with before (The Les Paul Trio). He has such a bond with his band and everything they (the “Motor City Funk Brothers”) do is a structure leading to the next jam. You really feel like they get better every night they are on tour as they continue to add to the recipe. Believe you me, the Nuge likes to BBQ.

Seeing “Stranglehold” with a jazz piano was really something to cherish. The Les Paul Trio is a pretty talented band and even though they didn’t look totally comfortable playing with Uncle Ted, they got through it. It’s not like he made them play “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang,” requiring those old dudes to chime in with backing vocals to “she looks so sweet when she gobbles my meat.”

The other cool thing is you could tell Ted was trying to be affable. He only really played three original Ted songs and the rest were basic jams that any blues player could easily plug into, however, not many can do it on the level of the Les Paul Trio. All of that marinated with that certain Detroit soul Ted brings to every performance really makes for something special.

Seeing Ted play blues numbers like “Honky Tonk”, “Red House” and “Johnny B. Goode" was unique and special to me. I just love the concept of jamming when someone points at another person to solo. Isn’t that what music is supposed to be about? Raw, unbridled enthusiasm and joy? Ted sets the pace in those qualities. It means a lot to me to see a musician (seemingly) enjoy what they are doing. It makes me enjoy more what I’m seeing.

See what I’m talking about in this ("Johnny B. Goode") video from the show. The sound quality is primo! (My favorite part is minutes 2 to 3)

Cons: It was a little awkward. The Les Paul Trio didn’t seem to know totally what to do with Ted’s banter and stage presence (even if he watered it down due to time and place). The venue was very small which you think would be an advantage in sound quality. It wasn’t. Ted delivered some blue ribbon Grade A quality guitar playing, but it just didn’t sound like Ted without all the amplifiers. You get to know how good someone is when they are playing in such a small setting and you certainly felt Ted had the “stuff”, but it all just felt a bit awkward for lack of a better word.

Also, when you play a jazz club like Iridium, one usually ends up playing two sets. It’s all about the green, and the consequence was instead of getting two hours of loud and proud American rock, we were treated to a set of just over an hour. It’s fine. It’s just less for more and that’s never an equation I’m comfortable to boast about.

Quick Tangent: Never go to the Iridium Jazz club. It fucking sucks!!! It took them over two hours to get the first crowd out and the new crowd in. Everyone was pretty hostile overall—true NYC experience I guess. Everything is so crowded and uncomfortable. Obviously, you’re looking at overpriced drinks and food, but that’s a given. I’ll throw it in there anyway for SPITE. It all just left a horrible taste in my mouth. I just cannot fathom mainly…how it took so long to get everyone in and out. It had a complete aura of chaos and disorganization. Avoid at all costs!

It’s funny, there was this guy that kept throwing ice cubes and acting like an imbecile the entire show. He would get up to talk to his friend who was sitting right in front of me. All the while, he was swinging his arms and elbows like he was “Skankin’ By Numbers” in the classic Ska era. For a moment I thought I saw black and white tile on the floors. He almost elbowed me a couple of times and I looked at the waitress with discontent to have her come up to me and apologize saying, “there’s nothing I can do, he’s the owner.” Well, that explains it all doesn’t it.

Question: Ted is playing three shows in NJ (fairly easy to get to, hour on a train, we take beer, it will rock!) this summer with his original lead singer Derek St. Holmes. Is anyone in!?!?!?!

Setlist:
Star Spangled Banner
Route 66
Johnny B. Goode
Stormtroopin’
Red House
Stranglehold
Honky Tonk
Cat Scratch Fever

Hungover Again

The bite size review: It’s 3/4^th’s as good as the first. Only because the first…was first. If the Hangover II was first, the Hangover would be 3/4^th’s as good. It’s the EXACT same movie. It’s just that little bit you lose when cloning. Nothing new to gain, but the sequel didn’t lose anything either. The Hangover II is still very much worth your time and theater money. You will laugh from the gut and isn’t that all that really matters?

Further thoughts: There is a tipping point to passion. When it’s “almost” (I use this sarcastically) no longer fun, because you’re so nervous, so into it and in such a state of anticipatory bliss it rakes your nervous system over the coals. You’re almost irritated until you experience the anguish and nervousness you’ve been craving. The event.

That’s where I’ve been all week about The Hangover II.

I know what you’re thinking, “Zerf, it’s not that serious,” and my answer would be sarcastically, “nothing is, kid…nothing is,” but just as I refer to everything I write here as “drivel,” it’s all serious shit to me. I was really nervous to watch this movie, because I didn’t want Zach Galifiankis and Ed Helms to come up short and be lame. We all saw what happened to Vincent Chase when he bombed on the big time stage.

Which brings us back to the beginning…

Summer of 2009, the Hangover graced us with an unexpected summer blockbuster. I don’t think anyone would have imagined the success it would eventually garner. At the time, Bradley Cooper was the big star and he was B list at best. Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis were pretty much unknowns. At the very least, they weren’t box office names you could bank on. They took a simple frat boy concept, going to Vegas and having…shit…go…down, but they had the weapon of dynamic, separating it from the pack (not the wolfpack).

Galifiankis shined as an extremely sands of Sahara dry, dufus. Ed Helms adds his zany spin on someone trying to be normal and perhaps slightly uptight, when in fact they are O.C.D. Bradley Cooper works as the glue—with sex appeal and candor—holding it all together with his take on ladies man with a soft heart and enough sensibility to keep everyone else in check.

The original had a production budget of around $35 million dollars and Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis took in a mere $300,000 a piece. Chump change in Hollywood. The movie went on to be the best selling rated-R comedy in history grossing $277,000+ worldwide, placing it 49^th overall domestically, putting it just behind Meet the Fockers and just above Shrek.

It’s safe to say it worked.

This time around, the budget ballooned to $80 million and the “Vegas trio” were dished their sheckles as well, to the tune of $5 million a piece with a 4% cut of the profits. Needless to say, they will start getting residual checks dating prior to half way through Memorial Day weekend. But, I was never worried about the money.

I want these guys to get paid, yes, but I was more concerned with the product. Now that Galafiankis surprised the world and became a world-wide star and Helms has begun to solidify some steam of his own, would the Hangover lose its luster? It’s obviously no longer an underdog story for the Vegas trio. They have expectations and expectations eat lesser entities ALIVE.

I watched the Hangover II gripping my chair the entire time, very similar to how I watched No Country for Old Men. The second offering has a slightly more serious tone as it’s set mostly in Bangkok, which even on screen keeps one a little uneasy. I can’t imagine what it’s like in real life.

What worried me the most was the bigger budget being sunk into big time action sequences, like the one shown by Ed Helms on Jimmy Fallon’s show. The scene has Helms trying to get a little monkey back inside a vehicle whizzing in and out of traffic. Things like that would take the viewer away from what should be the bread and butter of this movie—comedic timing between three extremely funny guys. It does seem a bit out of context, except for the fact that it’s a freekin’ MONKEY. Ha. The monkey takes the 4^th lead in this movie very nicely and overall one isn’t taken back by over-effort and unnecessary production measures.

The bottom line of it all is, Todd Phillips wrote a way to properly use the stand up genius of Zach Galifianakis. I also think it’s astounding and downright unfair that some people STILL don’t realize that ZG is a long time standup comedian. If you think of the entire history of stand up comedians from the greats to up-and-comers, there aren’t many examples of them being used effectively on the big screen (Steve Martin and Robin Williams are the only ones I can think of) as if their own stand up material seeped through the screen and into your heart via osmosis. Even if they have, the blend of comedic, critical and box-office success of The Hangover has never been matched. It sets the standard of how to use a standup comedian properly in a movie. Bravo Todd Phillips, others that have had ZG all these years must be jealous.

Most of the jokes Galifianakis delivers in the Hangover are formulamatic rewrites of his own standup he’s been doing for over a decade. It just doesn’t get old. Like any good stand up routine you can listen to over and over, watching the Hangover movies is like a series of taking those jokes and placing them in scenes. It makes Zach’s jokes come to life. Much of my enjoyment from these Hangover flicks derives from the fact that other people now get to enjoy the dry wit of saying the absolute worst thing possible at the least appropriate times. There is an art to it and I’m really glad it wasn’t lost in budgets, remakes and people’s sheer hatred of sequels.

Galifianakis has a couple of projects in the works with none other than Will Ferrell. That’s enough to make my head explode! I can hardly take it!

So let the critics say what they will…just shut your brain off for a bit and watch some shit that will make you laugh. It’s really as simple as that. Why do people make going to movies so complicated?

I HEART the Kinetic Positionability of Minus the Bear

I was walking to Music Hall of Williamsburg on an overcast, yet summery May day (not a surrender). I walked past a bunch of dudes in flannel shirts and other causal pageantries just outside and smoking. They were inconspicuous enough to blend in, but large enough that I had to walk around them.

Yes, it’s Williamsburg and there are a lot of hipsters and funny looking dudes that look like Terry Gilliam (Monty Python artist) plucked them out of a grunge era picture from Seattle. I saw one particular gentleman wearing a vintage Nirvana Nevermind hat. Perhaps, there is a store that sells those still somewhere online…but I doubt that’s where it came from. You’d have to have saved that hat, because it was in pristine condition. The thought behind that boggles me. I always wear my band/concertshit right away i.e. concert t’s, hats, bracelets, etc.

The POINT IS…I later realized the dudes I walked by were Minus the Bear. The band I was about to see were just chillin’, taking in some tasty beverages at the bar next door and conglomerating out in the street like a college frat party. True.

I stood in line to get tickets to the sold out show (I didn’t know if I wanted to go or not, so I did my walk up routine, which by the fact that I’m writing this right now was successful) and pondered how cool that is. I was in line with a bunch of other kids waiting for the show and the band everyone was about to see was 20 feet away. I wonder how many people knew?

This isn’t Mustard Plug people. It’s not any of my friends’ bands. It’s Minus the fucking Bear!? I thought about how I adored the kinetic positionability this band possesses.

I think they have it perfect. Well, perfect for what I, Ryan C. Zerfas, would want to be as a band.

First and foremost, they have a killer catalogue. They are four albums into their illustrious career, which puts them one album short of my milestone of “five albums that make a band legit.” Almost there, boys! Keep up the good work. Let’s take a look at what they’ve given us so far.

Minus the Bear Catalogue:

· Highly Refined Pirates (2002) – This is guitarist Dave Knudsen’s opus. He has the guitar tapping method method down to a science (he didn’t invent it, but he ABUSES it, boy) as well as having a plethora of effect pedals. This album is a masterpiece of up-tempo, throw the chicken on the grill, rock excellence.

· Minos El Oso (2005) – The Spanish album. Although I don’t regard this as “good” as the debut, it builds upon the sound and really mixes in more electronics and big rock choruses.

· Planet of Ice (2007) – The name creates an image of darkness and cold that the music sonically can not get away from. Despite the band name, prepare to be eaten by a baby snowy Polar Bear of rock!

· Omni (2010) – Versatility. This proves MTB can do anything they want as if it were auditioning for Paul Schafer’s old cover band show. No covers were recorded throughout the production of this album, except the colorful album cover.

That’s something I’ve always adored from bands. The ability to make albums of sonic diversification that stands alone as albums place-mark a style and time, as well as, still carrying the flag of the band.

The other thing every band needs is an X-factor. Something original that band can stand on, but isn’t necessarily known for. To me, for Minus the Bear, that’s their guitarist Dave Knudsen. I’ve never heard anyone bring up his guitar playing in a casual conversation, but they should. He really makes the band come alive on stage as well, because he’s always thrashing or tap dancing seamlessly on his guitar pedals, and we’ve already mentioned his mastery of guitar “tapping”. You really wonder how the guy is producing THOSE guitar sounds, but when you watch him, it’s just magical. More people should be talking about this.

I love the idea of having a guy like that, playing in a highly unique fashion. I remember watching in amazement during “Thanks for the Killer Game of Crisco Twister!’ as he seemingly had his right hand all the way up with his left hand on the guitar neck. In that song the guitar line just rolls out like a red carpet, although for me, it takes me on a journey like the Rainbow Road level in Mario Kart. I could even fall of the “cliff” per say, and just be spinning into darkness with inner jubilance.

Lastly, but not leastly, the fans. MTB has built a legion of partying concert-goers that are well versed in the catalogue, rowdy, and ready to rock! It’s very important. At both shows I’ve been to, the fans represent a key ingredient. It’s not that the music isn’t good or that there’s nothing else to entertain you, but the fans come through with fist-pumping energy in surplus. That’s something that you can’t always count on.

I know what you’re thinking. Every band has fans, Ryan. Yes, but what I’m saying here is the MTB nation has struck that proper medium. They don’t come off as pompous assholes like the Dave Matthews heads I associate with “fanship downfall”, but they bring the energy to the top degree—with love and friendship.

Like a hot girlfriend bringing you soup when you’re sick. It’s just what you needed, without going over the top. If your girlfriend isn’t hot, it’s still good soup, but you know what you really need to take it over the edge. Dave Matthews Band or Phish “heads” try to be Scarlett Johansson, naked with soup and cookies, but the arrogance leads to a prophetic spill that’s cringe worthy and ever burned into your rhetna’s. You’ll never get the soup and Scarlett Johansson will never be hot in your eyes again. You’re out of whammy’s, return all your “big bucks.”

Yes, MTB has the perfect amount of fanship at a rock show. People jump, but not into you. They wave their hands to the songs, but always fail to punch you in the face. They drink beer and get rowdy, but they never spill on you. If they puff…they pass. (ßI can’t actually back this up)

Let’s review the qualities we’ve talked about. The correct mediums in 1) catalogue 2) defining, but not redefining X-factor 3) fanship.

Everyone knows my favorite band is the Foo Fighters. I wouldn’t want to be them, because they are too big. Too much comes with being too big.

I like the idea of being able to play Bowery Ballroom, Webster, and Music Hall of Williamsburg instead of Madison Square Garden. They allow for big shows, lights, fans, etc without it having to be a mid-city spectacle. On the other end, shows at smaller places while cool, one knows the band cannot live properly filling Mercury Lounge. I wouldn’t want to have to get another job. I would want to music to sustain me, but with enough freedom that I could have a beer at a local establishment without getting MOBBED, yet I’d want some people to know who I was, because I AM awesome.

Unfortunately, bands are defined by their venues. If you play shows at Terminal 5 in the city, I will not see you. I like the mid-range venues and the bands that choose to and have the sack to fill them up. Even better, is a band that could be above mid-range, but is able to step down and fill it up righteously, brother.

Minus the Bear is a band everyone should see. They just opened a new leg of tours and wherever you are, you should make sure you get out and support this level of rock awesomeness.

Just don’t bring too many people with you, or their fifth album will be toured in stadiums, and I’ll have to find another band with the proper kinetic positionability to adore.

Use this knowledge with care; people…superlatives for kinetic positionability don’t come cheap.

Setlist for May 6^th at Music Hall of Williamsburg
Knights
Thanks for the Killer Game of Crisco Twister!
Into the Mirror
Throwin’ Shapes
Ice Monster
Summer Angel
Drilling
This Ain’t a Surfing Movie
White Mystery
Spritz!! Spritz!!
My Time
Hold Me Down
Pachuca Sunrise

Fix
Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse