convinced of the hex

within the first seconds of the new flaming lips album "embryonic," you know this is a different flaming lips. their last album "at war with the mystics" was a great disappointment to me. it was a thin attempt at keeping a sound that they seemed to have little interest in continuing. it was an album that was disconnected. it wasn't where they wanted to go, but they were already there so why not do it again. the lyrics were callow and sophomoric. the music was banal and uninteresting. and i felt like the band that made the symphonic pop masterpiece "the soft bulletin" had run out of steam.

and i was right. they had run out of steam/ideas of that sound. they needed a change in direction. embryonic is that change in direction. it's menacing. it's lyrics are simple, but direct. each track grooves along and bleeds into the next. it's sprawling. it's a series of riffs. the first track, convinced of the hex, says all you need to know about the rest of the album. it will make your arm hair stand up. i highly recommend this album. this was the change they needed.

as you (who?) have noticed, my postings about banks and government has been sparce. i'm growing disillusioned with government and people's apathy towards their situation. i sent out an email declaring the city of houston was bankrupt, and one person responded. nobody cares. nobody has time. i'll continue to post articles that i find interesting and relative. but it's hard to keep the passion when you can't find any anywhere else. anyway, i'll step down from my soapbox. it's not anybody elses' fault but my own. i need to get involved and find people who will engage me.

one red thread

last night i saw the low anthem and blind pilot, two bands that it is impossible to be a casual fan of. why? because they are not well known, not played on the radio and don't appear in an apple commercial or have a song on a vampire themed movie soundtrack. so it was amazing to me to witness the kind of inconsiderate and indifferent crowd that gathered at the house of blues last night. the crowd was loud, rude and completely not there to see the bands. at one point, a guy in the crowd yelled, "freebird!" at that point, i just shook my head. give credit to both bands. they soldiered on and played a tremendous couple of sets. my appreciate for both bands went way up after seeing them live.

the most amazing moment of the night came during the last song. blind pilot closed with one red thread and the crowd that talked all night, not paid attention and was there to stand and check their cell phones, sang the song in unison. it was a strange twist to the end of the evening. for that one song, everybody moved their heads, clapped and sang. no idea how they knew it or why all of sudden they realized where they were. but i counted myself lucky to see those two bands play. amazing lyrics for both, amazing musicianship, amazing harmonies. just amazing.

charlie darwin

i'm going to see the low anthem tonight and blind pilot. and i'm super excited to see both of these bands.

the low anthem have a video for charlie darwin right here. they also had a hearya session here.

blind pilot did a hearya session too. that's right here.

man i'm excited. i don't think i've been to a show that featured an opening band that's as good and talented as the headliner in a long time.

let me roll it

i'm going through a mini-mccartney obsession as of late. i can't stop listening to ram. it is not a flushed out piece of pop symphony by any means. it's an album consisting of little ideas, snap-shots of melodies and lyrically, it's just scatter-shot. but, as a whole, it flows so well. it's such a sweet album, and by sweet i mean soft-hearted. the fact that this is paul and his wife recording and singing these songs like "eat at home" and "long haired lady" and "the back seat of my car" is very comforting. it's greatly undervalued and i wished he would have made a few more albums like this.


his debut album, just called mccartney, was a particular obsession of mine back when i was in college at huntsville. mccartney consists of mere sketches of ideas of melodies and lyrical approaches. i mean, it is an album that sounds like an album of outtakes and demos. it really does. but at the time, i was intrigued by brian wilson's modular approach to recording, which he utilized on good vibrations and smile. and i thought, what if instead of taking these little recorded track sections and putting them together to form a cohesive album, instead you record little track sections and never put them together, but combine them into an album of little ideas. and that's what appealed to me so much with paul mccartney's debut album. it was an album of little ideas. and it was impressive that such a pillar of the music industry at the time would release such an album. you could argue that the beach boys did it first with smiley smile, but i wouldn't agree with that argument considering smiley smile only existed because smile was too complex and complicated for the beach boys and smiley smile was just a collection of tracks recorded for smile that they re-recorded and released subsequently.

you would think finding paul mccartney albums is easy. it's not. go to a record store and you won't find a lot of his 70's albums besides the debut, ram and band on the run. you'll find some of his more recent recordings, which i understand are pretty good.

but i'm interested in finding red rose speedway. (which strangely enough, i used to listen to on vinyl because my dad owned it. i listened to it when i was a kid, not because i liked the music, but because the insleeve contained photos of naked women in pseudo s&m poses. for a ten year old kid, that was like finding the lost city of gold).

i would also like to explore some of his early '80s stuff like mccartney II, and tug of war.

but back to ram, i'm not sure of a modern artist who's recorded an album such as this. i'm sure i know of one, but at the moment, i'm at a loss. but there are brilliant moments of exhilaration on that album and distinct beauty. i hear it in my head right now. great album.