http://noisetrade.com/rusttheband/knife-of-the-party-sampler
this link will take you to a sampler by a fresh new band, Comprised of….me, and three other dudes. the recordings are rough, by virtue of being garage recordings, but the songs themselves are pretty cool, if i may say so 🙂 here’s the link again, just in case.
http://noisetrade.com/rusttheband/knife-of-the-party-sampler
There’s a weird trend in music, to look down on people who write Singles rather than Albums. This is weird for two reasons. The first is that Hipsters are supposed to be concerned with the way things were….and the way things were is as follows: Albums, complete albums vs singles, were not the norm any time in history other than the seventies. every other point in history, including the heyday of the blues and folk musicians they prize so highly, were Singles-focused. The second is this: why are you trying to make your views mainstream? don’t you know that means you can’t hold that opinion anymore?
more to come, maybe
Most of you are familiar with the big hullabaloo surrounding Hobby Lobby and their lawsuit to try to overturn parts of the healthcare bill. Specifically, that they should be given an exception regarding the section of the bill which requires companies to cover various types of abortion in their insurance plans. While there is much to be said for proudly standing up for your faith, this particular instance becomes less an issue of martyrdom, and more an issue of bad stewardship. Hobby Lobby as a company employs around 21.000 people spread over 41 states, and by all accounts they take care of those employees.
But all that could change very shortly, since their refusal to comply with the new regulations regarding birth and pregnancy control has addled them with 1.3 million dollars a day in fines. With a reported revenue of 2.8 billion (in 2011), it doesn’t take a genius to see that in a very short time the company will be sinking, sinking, and sunk.
Where does this leave the 21,000 people who depend on that income to feed their families and survive? When a company goes down, the people who depend on that paycheck for their daily bread go down as well. So what we have, then, is a very expensive moral lesson which will mostly be learned by the people hurt by it, while the law will remain unruffled and unaffected.
If we can agree that such is the case, why is it sensible to support a movement that will be loud but accomplish nothing? Instead, should we not encourage them to save the money being paid in fines and use it to educate and reach out? Why is taking a stand more important than keeping safe the people who depend on that job for support?
If I may clarify, I think the federal government is out of line requiring this of its citizens. I think that the laws should be worked on by the lawmakers whose job it is to ensure that our freedoms, including freedom to practice and follow the tenets of our religion, are upheld. At the same time, the leader of a company is as much responsible for the people who earn their living from the company, as he is responsible for himself and his own family. To ignore that responsibility is not only unkind, it is wrong. No one would condone a father willfully putting himself into prison when the family had no means of support. This is not admirable, it is reprehensible.
I’m reminded of the students in Les Miserables, the men who rightly believe that the oppression in the country is wrong and should be stopped. To achieve these ends, they build a barricade in the streets of Paris, hoping that their courage will inspire the city to rise up. The citizens, while they are moved by the bravery that the young men exhibit, do NOT feel the urge to join and sacrifice themselves for this cause. While the whole story is emotionally stirring, it is clear that without help they had no chance.
If you have read the book, it is clear that some of the young men dying on the barricade were wealthy men of high birth. Men, in fact, with money and power at their disposal to do good and relieve the troubles of many people. Instead, their idea of good was to wave a flag and be shot down, without a single benefit to the people they were fighting for. They passed over the opportunities they were given, in favor of a last grand gesture.
The five people who read this will probably be offended and stop caring what I think, if indeed they ever did. All I have to say, in conclusion, is that Hobby Lobby should come down from its barricade, and stop wasting the resources and influence at their disposal. Maybe they could create a program to teach the people in their employ why they shouldn’t be using that money for abortions. Or they can take their stand, let their company die, and waste what influence they could have had. If their conscience requires it, so be it. I hope they think about who is harmed by their stand.
Here’s a little something I wrote a while back, trying to be Josh Ritter……maybe didn’t succeed, but I did my best. A low quality recording can be found at the bottom of the page, you’ll have to right click and save it to listen, I’m sorry for the extra work. All lyrics and music Copyright 2012 by Evan Ritchie.
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Dear God, I don’t want to fight
I don’t wanna draw these guns
don’t wanna duel to the death with you tonight
I don’t wanna feel like I have to saddle up
and take you for a ride
Dear girl, we used to have it all
we used to run around
turned up our nose at others, one and all
spent our days laughing hard, not knowing
we were destined for a fall
So take your fingers off that big red button
there’s no use in more destruction,
no use in fighting on, no
take your fingers off that cold black trigger
don’t make this mess get bigger
just let this thing be done
you know we both would rather be gone
oh baby, this time ain’t almost done
it’s already gone
already in a hole far from the sun
we both had a hand in its death
but you don’t have the sense to turn and run
So take your fingers off that big red button
there’s no use in more destruction,
no use in fighting on, no
take your fingers off that cold black trigger
don’t make this mess get bigger
just let this thing be done
you know we both would rather be gone
One of my new loves in the past year is epic pop songstress Lana Del Rey. While her vocals and even her lyrical style can be questionable at times, I feel that she is both enjoyable and worthy of respect. Her latest single, Ride, is simultaneously one of the prettiest and darkest pieces of music ever to grace pop radio.
It seems to be about the woes and and pains of a young woman who lets people use her in an effort to feel wanted and alive. And yes, part of that interpretation comes from the video, which is a little distasteful at times. I don’t know exactly what to say about this video, but you readers should give it a watch. It is at once painful and strengthening, and heartening to know that you aren’t in her place. Still, you might cry for her. If you plan to watch, watch the ten minute version to get the full effect.
Because of the distasteful content, I will not post the video here. You can find just the audio on youtube, if that’s more to your liking.
There are just some songs that make you cry, no matter how you feel, or how much you can’t relate to them. This is one such song. You can’t help but cry.
Another in the same category, Black Betty and The Moon, is if possible even more agonizing. but even more beautiful as well. The bridge is one of my favorites from any song ever, the delivery is perfect, the music is perfect, and the writing is stellar.
I have a serious and wonderful problem: I have acquired too much good music this past month to be able to review them all individually. Even more amazing is the fact that two of the new albums out this month have yet to be heard by my ears, Bob Dylan’s Tempest and Matchbox Twenty’s reunion album, North.
Without further ado, here’s what I make of my recent acquisitions.
Artist: The Briggs
Album: Back To Higher Ground
Los Angeles punk rockers The Briggs have been under my radar for their entire existence, but not since finding this excellent album on the bargain shelf. I liked the look of the cover, and the visible tattoos, so I shelled out the small number of dollars and took it home. It comes as no surprise after listening that these boys have toured alongside the likes of Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys. The album is a pleasant mix of slight celtic influence, two guitar riffage and power chords that do exactly what any punk would expect. A pleasant surprise came in the vocals, which manage to maintain a rather tuneful snarl. Highlights include the title track, Maritime Tragedies, and Harder To Stand
Artist: The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Album: Peyton On Patton
Midwestern rednecks Rev, Peyton and Co are a strange band, generally blending a sort of punk sensibility with a roughly stylized country blues sound, and if you’re into it then more power to you. I certainly am. This album, however, shows off the Rev mostly going solo, making a tribute album entirely composed of Charley Patton songs, mostly done solo. Patton, for those of you who don’t know, was arguably the first great American pop star. He drove new cars and played Gibson guitars when his contemporaries made do with what they had. Even Robert Johnson himself would go on to borrow some songs from the Patton catalog. Anyway, This album is pretty much good (if not great) from start to finish. Mostly recorded solo in front of a single mic, it really lets the Rev show off just how good he is at country blues. Standout tracks include all three (yes, three) versions of Some Of These Days I’ll Be Gone, Elder Green, Some Happy Day, and Green River Blues.
Artist: The Killers
Album: Battle Born
Ok, so first I have to preface by saying I love pretty much everything the Killers do. From the huge sound of their albums to the strange and sometimes ridiculous lyrics, everything about their music makes me happy. So just learn to love the bias. Their newest album starts with a strange ticking synth sound, builds into a big verse and a bigger chorus, and never backs down, even on the ballads. As is generally the case, they sound their best while channeling the operatic extremes of Meat Loaf and U2, and this is no exception. Two times on this release they almost sound like punks, first on the hard driving verses of A Matter of Time and then near the end of the album, on From Here On Out (which honestly sounds like an over-produced Gaslight Anthem song). A Matter Of Time, which starts out punkish and ends like something off Born To Run, is my favorite, opening with “you’re looking for a way out, i can feel it” and ending with “look what’s laying at our feet: it’s the wreckage of broken dreams and burned out halos, and it’s here on our street”. In short, it’s a chronicle of the death of a relationship. Other really good songs are The Way It Was, Miss Atomic Bomb, Runaways, Flesh and Bone, Here With Me, and if you bought the deluxe version, Prize Fighter.
Artist: The Early November
Album: In Currents
I don’t really have a ton to say about this one, haven’t listened to it enough. It’s super mellow Alt Rock that sounds especially good on a gray day, with come coffee and a good book. Possibly there will be more on this artist in the future, but I just don’t know. Still, it’s worth a listen, especially on a dark cool day.
Artist: Mumford & Sons
Album: Babel
I am still getting a feel for this one as well, it being one of the most recent purchases, but overall my reaction is good. It didn’t instantly jump out the way the first album did, no huge fantastic standouts on the first listen. That being said, some of the songs are every bit as good, including Ghosts That We Knew, Babel, I Will Wait, and Hopeless Wanderer. More to come on this for sure
Brian Fallon of New Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem said recently that he had enough of writing in characters, of “talking in jive”, and of not being real with his songs. For many of us, I know, that article caused much worry and doubt, wondering if the great Fallon had just shot his songwriting self in the face. How wrong i was to doubt.
Handwritten, the major label debut of my favorite punkish rockers, is in every way the equal of its indie predecessors. The guitars are harder, the vocals tighter, the emotion even more present and undeniable. those of you who know how much i love their earlier albums know what high praise this is. Even Brian’s work with The Horrible Crowes can’t beat this new album for sheer emotionalism.
The album opens with “45”, a hard edged punk piece that uses a 45 RPM single as a metaphor for a relationship ending. lyrically, it isn’t too far out, lots of cliches. They avoid sounding tired mostly because if the beautiful harmony and the fact that these particular cliches are immortal for a reason:everyone has this type of day at some point or other.
There are so many high points on this album that you’ll get tired of the phrase. The title track, Handwritten, is just as hard and angsty as the first, but instead of relief and the readiness to move on, this one drips with regret. Its clear that the choices he recalls are not ones he still believes are right. He wants to try again, but the hurt he caused stands in the way. As the chorus says “and to ease the loss of youth/and the many, many years i missed you/these pages plead forgiveness/every word handwritten”. It is the sad cry of a man trying to clear his conscience for the hurt he caused, and to be allowed back into his place. He left to find what he thought he was looking for, and is now begging to get back what he used to have. The best vocal moment on the album comes right after the bridge, where he howls and cries his way through singing “and we waited for sirens that never come/and we only write by the moon/every word handwritten”. Worth a bunch of listens.
Here Comes My Man, on the other hand, is NOT about regret, it’s about trying and trying and then giving up. One of the smoother songs on the album, it continues the trend of relationship based songs (face, most good rock does). Mostly, this songs is about a man not feeling appreciated and deciding he’s had enough. It’s possible that this and 45 are about the same situation. In the first, he’s moping about what he lost, but here he’s saying to her face that he is, in fact, better off without her. That she does, in fact, care more for other things than she does him. In the bridge he sings “maybe your pride will be your companion/but I just won’t be there to stand for it/not one more more minute will I stand for it”. On a musical note (haha), this is the first time TGA has used a twelve string guitar, and it does a beautiful job of recalling the classic american sounds of The Byrds and Tom Petty.
Mullholland Drive. I won’t pretend to understand this song. The situation and the emotions are unclear. The only thing you can really take from it is that both of them, at some point, thought it was forever, and both of them seemed to be wrong. He wants it to continue, saying that he is the only one who cares for her properly. even more, he says that the reason it ended was her unwillingness to let people care for her. It seems that he wanted her to need him and she never did. The end of the song recalls The Killers Smile Like You Mean It, as they both talk about how someone else is driving their former love through the streets they used to share. It’s a sad song, with no real hopeful note. Here they continue the Tom Petty esque trend they began in the song before, with a hard heartland sound that could come from nowhere other than America.
“At the bottom of this river/is where i put you down to lay so i can live with it/and in my hard hard heart there’s all these waters/where i put you down to lay while i learn to live with it/until i’m free”. I’m sure we all know this feeling. Something so painful that it must be buried until the effects can be cured or dulled enough that they don’t ruin every waking moment. This one will get no dissection from me. Just listen to it.
Too Much Blood takes the rock to another level, with a nasty hard beat and a dark heavy riff that make you feel like you’re tunneling through Texas clay. It’s all about honesty, about telling people the things that make us who we are. It’s also about not taking that too far. He refers to his lover as “the eternal witness to the pride and the shame”. Isn’t that what our partners are supposed to be? someone who knows both the good and the bad aspects and doesn’t run away. His dilemma seems to be between how much to let the world in on, and how much to save between the two of them.
Generally speaking, albums get most of their good songs out in the first half, and the last half are mostly fillers. Not so here. Howl, coming in at number seven on the track list, is one of the most epic and most quintessentially Gaslight songs on the album. It has everything i first fell in love with: the driving guitars and drums, the howling vocals, and the universal themes of love, loss, and youth. This time they even added the “wrong side of the tracks” bit and the “you have turned your back on yourself” bit. “does anything still move you since you’re educated now/and all grown up/and traveled so well/do you still hear the sound of thunder when you lie all by yourself?” On the one hand, he accuses her of leaving everything she cared about. on the other, he wants her to return…..”if you wanna, you can find me on the hood under the moonlight/radio, oh radio,/do you believe there’s still some magic left somewhere inside our souls?” This song will never change your mind about politics or society, but it can make you feel like you’ll never die. As one reviewer said, “if there was a psychotropic drug that made you feel like James Dean, this song would render it unnecessary”. This is real rock and roll.
Another that could be written by Tom Petty, Biloxi Parish is about wasting your time on idols that disappoint and can’t do for you what your friends can. The singer is promising that he will be enough of a positive force that she will regret being without him, or that she’ll be happy with him. he says that being with him will cost her nothing and gain her much. most touching is the assurance that “I’ll be with you through the dark/so that you do not go through the dark alone”. It’s really just a man with complete assurance that he will be a good thing for her. what a novel concept. more men should work that hard.
Possibly the most philosophical question ever posed by Brian Fallon occurs in the opening verse of this song. “what makes a man do the things/that a man does to be/the thing he perceives/would capture your heart?” But unfortunately, all he comes up with is desire. and not a desire to be there for her, just a desire to be with her. The song itself is a beautiful punk rocker, but just doesn’t go as deep as the opening line suggests it might.
Mae is one of the best moments on the album, even though it would sound more at home on The Horrible Crowes album from last summer. It is another that deals with regret, not really saying if he still loves the woman or whether he wants closure. one of my good friends said that Fallon’s crowning line is “You told me fortunes in American Slang”, but I would say that so far the crowning moment would have to be “we work our fingers down to dust and we wait for kingdom come/with the radio on”. I feel like that says everything that can be said about life. As far as the sound of the song, it kinda makes me with that Brendan O’Brian had produced the Horrible Crowes album, just because of the depth and beauty of the production here. He has a great reputation for a reason.
To close out the album, Fallon and co go with their recent standby of fading into the night quietly. This song is a thematic continuation of Here’s Looking At You, Kid, from 2008’s The ’59 Sound. in that one, he lists the names and circumstances of those who still fill him with regret. here, he looks them all in the eye and says, in essence, that he never will forget them but he also will no longer mourn losing them. In some ways, it’s a send-off to those people he sang about through the rest of the album. The one woman in his life wishes they had more, and he says that the race isn’t run, to keep looking forward. It isn’t a happy song, but it is a hopeful song. one of the few times where you can see a theme of future redemption.
In conclusion, the move that so many like to hate on, from indie to major label, did no harm to the punk rock band of the new decade. Fallon still sings like a man possessed, but possessed with the fire of youth and hope and dreams. I look forward to whatever they do next.
I discovered a new band today. they’re very similar to another band that I love, Alkaline Trio. In fact, they share a lead singer. Matt Skiba and the Sekrets have released one album so far, and it sounds a whole lot like the best of AT. In fact, they sound like they might have come from Agony & Irony, arguably AT’s best album.
The song I’m currently most happy with is called “Voices”, and is your typical punk pop made by satanists. Full of dark imagery, living dead, and being “face to face with the seven-headed one”, it might not be the kind of thing you want to hear. That being said, the melody is beautiful, just like most songs written by Skiba, and the poetry is faultless. Add to that just enough synth to make me happy, and plenty of guitars, and you have a song that should be on the radio for years to come. It probably won’t be, since they don’t like music made with instruments anymore.
anyway, just thought I’d blab for a bit since I haven’t in a while. Video down below, so listen to it, but the video is useless and rather creepy.
beholdthehurricane 