Ramblings: Spiritualized again...

I should have finished this well over a month ago, but as usual, I started something with the aim to finish it “at some point”. Thankfully it’s not a review of the show that took place on September 10^th at Webster Hall, just some ramblings about sharing music with my unborn baby…

Everything I do nowadays has a “We” to it as opposed to just an “I”. For example, I am not just hungry (make that absolutely starving as if I may collapse hungry) in the morning when I wake up; no “We” are hungry and “We” must eat right away. Little Munchie has taken over my life in the most magical of ways and I will never again see myself as a person alone in the world. It’s amazing. Anyway, the point of all this is that I am now sharing absolutely everything in my life with my unborn child, one of the most obvious things being my love for music. I haven’t been to anywhere near as many shows as I would like this year, but that didn’t stop me from looking forward to seeing Spiritualized when one of my dearest friends bought us tickets as soon as they went on sale this year. I didn’t know I was pregnant then, but I did before we went and it felt so good to think that my child was going to witness the live performance of one of my favourite bands before he or she was even born. 

There are some bands or musicians with whom you have a really intense relationship, one that holds you so hard that sometimes you need to take a step back to reevaluate, just to come back loving them even more. That’s my relationship with Spiritualized. I have seen them many a time over the years, at different venues in NYC, been around them with friends in different locations in the city, and have never ceased to be entranced during each performance, tears in my eyes and a smile on my face. There are some bands and musicians you go to see just for the live music, others you prefer to stay away from as they are just better recorded. And then there are those bands that you want all of: recorded, live, live recordings, conversations, everything. That special music that you will never tire of, will bore your children to death with until they, at a certain age, will appreciate your love for them and may even start to love them too. I have a list of bands and musicians that little Munchie is going to have to listen to over and over again and will probably hate for some years (some on this list are actually musicians that my mother had me listen to before I was even born, so I am just continuing a trend over the generations). In any case, Spiritualized is on this list and I am so happy that I was able to experience one of their performances with my unborn child.

"If you feel lonely and the worlds against you, take the long way home, past the scary jesus, and you'll find my door with your name in diamonds, and you'll feel lonely no more" - So Long You Pretty Things  

A list of random Spiritualized-related memories in no special order (just the order in which they come to mind when I am thinking about the band or listening to the music in some form or another): dancing round and round to Come Together with Hannah at Terminal 5 back in 2009; running late to the show at Radio City Music Hall with Meg but not missing anything due to the disco ball falling from the ceiling a few minutes before the band came on stage (and therefore being yet another narrow escape for Jason Pierce); listening to Death Take Your Fiddle with Meg on repeat for days before marching (stumbling?) off to Darkroom for another night of the same non-adventures; playing Broken Heart on repeat for days and days on end to constantly remind myself that my broken heart wasn’t the only one in the world; receiving a signed copy of Sweet Heart Sweet Light in the post out of the blue from a friend in England; the way hearing Stop Your Crying will always bring tears to my eyes, every single time; reconnecting with old and special friends I haven’t seen in a while at a show, and not feeling like anything had really changed over the months of not speaking to each other; dancing with my now-deceased and very, very special cat Luna to Ladies and Gentlemen in its entirety the moment work got too stressful… Music, friendship, memories, connections, love, anger, happiness and pain. Spiritualized embodies all of that and more for me.

Other bands/musicians on this list are of course The Cure, Marianne Faithfull, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Stevie Nicks, Tim Buckley, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, PJ Harvey… And so on…

Music: Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks

Remember back in 1994 when you were screaming along to Head Like A Hole and Closer with your best friends in the park and wondering how one man could make the exact music that displayed the anger and pain that you yourself were feeling at the time? And later on in 1999 when you were singing We’re in This Together from the balcony of your apartment at 3am to the distress of that stupid neighbor who was trying to sleep with his girlfriend in one of the apartments across the street? Seeing this band perform live in 2000 during your first trip to the States, and deepening the love that you already felt was unconditional for this band, and mainly for the man behind (and in front of) it all: Trent Reznor. Sometimes when I read the journals written by my younger self I have to laugh at how many times I declare my love for Trent Reznor and Robert Smith (although I would like to say that my love for both was always equal, I do think that Robert jumps ahead a little, but that’s a whole other story). In any case, this review is not going to be in any way objective, and who cares if it is anyway? I LOVE Nine Inch Nails. Have loved them ever since I first heard Pretty Hate Machine. I don’t write on my blog to be objective – I write about music, books, movies, art that I love, rant about things that really annoy me and ramble on about things that I miss and love and care about. 

“I am whole, I am free” - Everything

I’ve been waiting for the release of a new NIN album since I read a really well written article about Trent Reznor, written by Alec Wilkinson for The New Yorker and published in the December, 17 2012 issue. Imagine my heart jumping when I read that he was planning the release of a new album in 2013! He had previously said that NIN was over (although I had kind of refused to believe that, and just thought he may need a break to work on other projects until it was time to regroup and produce another opus). Hesitation Marks is to be released next week, on September 3^rd (although those lucky Australians can already buy it as it was released a week earlier there), but you can already stream it for free on iTunes and hear it for yourself. I never read anyone else’s reviews before reviewing an album myself, especially if it concerns one of my favourite bands, so I cannot say if it has been well received or not. All I can say is that I absolutely LOVE it. I honestly wasn’t as keen on the three albums released after With Teeth in 2005, or maybe just wasn’t in the frame of mind I needed to be to listen to the albums (Year Zero, Ghosts I-IV and The Slip) but for me this one marks a return to the NIN that I adore. REALLY adore.

For those of you looking for another Downward Spiral or even Pretty Hate Machine, Hesitation Marks won’t be what you are looking for. Instead it’s the creation of an evolved NIN, one where Trent is older and more mature. There is less anger, there are less pulsions towards self-destruction and self-hatred, more self-reflection and inner thought, and the music and lyrics portray that. I think Find My Way displays this feeling perfectly, a slow but powerful song, taunting at times but direct in approach: “I’m just trying to find my way”. But then you hear Came Back Haunted or All Time Low and you realize that the album goes back to sounds that made NIN so popular years ago – with a newer edge. And then songs like Satellite and Everything are entirely new and old sounds mixed together to create something completely different, but similar at the same time.  All in all I think that what makes Hesitation Marks so good is that it flows perfectly and is a creation of old and new, of evolution, of hunger and anger, of love and pain, of despair and hope. Basically a brilliant Nine Inch Nails album.

My favourite songs on the album right now are Came Back Haunted, Find My Way, Various Methods of Escape, I Would For You and Everything. But I really think that listening to the album as a whole is the best way to hear how brilliant it actually is.

And don’t worry – the world is still going to end. The last song on the album tells us that. Not everything changes, not even with age. And it feels like the perfect end to a wonderful album.

“A little more, every day, falls apart and slips away. I don't mind, I'm okay, wish it didn't, have to end this way” – While I’m Still Here

NIN - Official Website

Music: The Civil Wars

I’ve spent a lot of this past week partially day dreaming about the near future, dreaming up different lives and different places to live in. Not that I am not happy here, I certainly don’t want to leave NYC, not right now anyway, but sometimes when I am too restless to write stories about escape, I just tend to dream them up instead, usually accompanied by a specific soundtrack that drives these dreams.

I randomly downloaded The Civil Wars eponymous second album last Tuesday, just after it was released. I listened to it for the first time while I was relaxing on the beach, waves and seagulls in the distance, music right in my ears, nothing else to distract me from the melodies and the lyrics. I fell for the harmonies and the simple beauty of the songs, and the words pierced my heartstrings. Apparently The Civil Wars already have an award-winning first album called Barton Hollow (released in 2011), but I had never heard of them before this week. Not that this matter, I’m now a fan, and their first album is just as beautiful as the second.

The Civil Wars are Joy Williams and John Paul White who met at a songwriting session in Nashville in 2008. They must have realised their potential as a duo because this collaboration lead to a few EPs, a first album, a lot of touring, and then a second album this month. I have read that they are no longer collaborating due to some types of differences, which is quite a pity, because they really work well together. Nevertheless, I love their music. From some research that I have done they have been categorized as Country, Folk, Indie Folk and Americana – as always I don’t really like to categorise music into one simple genre, so I would say that they cover all of them. Music that focuses mainly on both Joy and John Paul’s voices which sing about relationships, love, and the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with relationships, accompanied by guitars that follow and lead the harmonies.

If you like singer-songwriter duos you definitely need to listen to The Civil Wars. Start with The One That Got Away and Eavesdrop, or just listen to the entire album. It’s worth your time. Now I am going to go back to dreaming about other places and other lives…

Let me in the wall, You've built around, We can light a match, And burn it down, Let me hold your hand, And dance 'round and 'round the flames, In front of us, Dust to dust

The Civil Wars Official Website

Music: Repo Man - All Mind in the Cat House

If you like distortion and grinding guitar riffs, splashes of crazy random saxophone sounds, punk, anger, lyrics that make you think coming from a voice that is sometimes purr, sometimes sarcasm, sometimes scream, then you need to check out Repo Man. Their debut album, All Mind In The Cat House is slated for release on September 9th on Lava Thief.

Think of a band influenced by The Fall or Swans with a touch of Bauhaus, Sonic Youth and The Birthday Party. Have you ever been to a show where you start off just standing there, on the spot, immobile, wondering what all of this is, and then automatically go into a mind space where you want to move like an insane person, pushing things, kicking things, getting something out of your system, and then immediately fall back into that immobile spot, mouth half open, words flowing into your brain, body still electric from the music, ready for more? That's exactly how Repo Man's music make me feel.

You can stream All Mind In The Cat House below for a taste of what I am trying to describe to you:



Here is also a pretty cool video that will give you another view of the band's awesomeness:



And finally - the band's own press release. Check them out, especially if you want or need to be jolted out of apathy:

Repo Man emerged in Bristol in 2011, reshaping 'rock groop' sturm-und-clang into subnormal forms, son-of-Oldham vocal slurries, oozing Free sax splatter and shards of punishing guitar bliss. If you ever freaked to The Fall, Sonic Youth, Swans or Ornette Coleman then Repo may be your ticket to oblivion. Their debut slab of un-poetics 'All Mind in the Cat House' is due for imminent release on Lava Thief.

Repo Man on Bandcamp
About Lava Thief

Music: Desert Stars - Habit Shackles

What do the words “desert stars” invoke in you? For me, they take me to a place where I am sitting on the rocky sand with a blanket over my legs, surrounded by a pure, open silence, and looking up into worlds that we only see from millions of miles away, flickering, bright, unknown worlds that we can only imagine the existence of. Imagination, beauty enveloped in silent dreams. Desert Stars album Habit Shackles evokes exactly that type of feeling in me: music that is dreamy, at times angelic, at times gentle and soft like a fuzzy cloud surrounding you, at times with an edge that teeters on the verge of dream and a nightmare plunge into something deeper and darker, pushing you somewhere that you may not be ready to go to.

There are elements of heartbreak, and sadness within the lyrics and the music that intertwines the words, as well as elements of hope and happiness. It’s the kind of album I want to listen to while lying on my bed, or the beach, or the desert, with my eyes closed, reflecting on my own life, past and future. Pure nostalgia linking every song together as a whole. Beautiful. Harmonies and soaring guitars and words that make you realize that within all of the dreaminess there is a real core that exists.

Desert Stars are Janelle Best, Carrie Ashley Hill, Eric Altesleben, Gregg Giuffré and Jane Herships, and are based in Brooklyn, NY. Their first album, Habit Shackles, was released on July 16^th. See links below for more information on the band and how to purchase the album and catch one of their live shows.

My personal favourites: Normal Man, Farewell Decade and Past in the Trash and the amazing guitar sounds in How Hard You Try.

Desert Stars Facebook
Desert Stars Website
Desert Stars Bandcamp

Music: Savages - Silence Yourself

I haven’t written a music post in a while, and this one should have been written ages ago, since their first album came out a few months ago (May 6^th to be exact) and I have been listening to it ever since.

Some days I complain to myself that all I listen to is “old” music, and that the only albums I buy are new albums from “old” bands, and that there is not much “new” music that makes me feel the same way my “old” favourites make me feel. You get the drift… And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, a new band will release an album and I will be blown away by it. Completely blown away. And this makes me feel that things are somewhat right in the world again (well from a music standpoint, because outside of that I doubt anything will be ever completely right again). Maybe I need to rephrase: Savages made me feel like everything was right in my music world again.

Seriously. Here we have another band that I want to kick myself for not taking the night off work back in October of last year to see them play live at the Mercury Lounge, because there is no way that they will ever be playing a small venue like that again in this city. In fact, they are playing a sold out show at Webster Hall tomorrow night (Thursday July 11^th), and if there is any way you can get in you definitely should. I wish I could, but I really can’t afford a night off work this week… Ah well. Next time. At least I can continue to listen to the album on repeat without getting tired of it!

Savages create music that makes you forget everything around you, let you lose yourself in a whirlwind of sound and emotion, and makes you dance like no one is watching, whether they are or not. Formed in 2011 in London, this all female band released their first album, Silence Yourself, this year. For me they seem to be timeless, and although they have been labeled as “post punk revival”, probably because they mainly fit right in with the sounds of The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division to name a few, for me they are a band I would have loved at 10, at 16, at 25 and now. Timeless. It’s not even about influences, as I honestly don’t listen to or even like every band influenced by The Cure or Nick Cave, it’s more about a perfect match of sound with lyrics that takes me to another place. And being in another place always makes me happy. My happy music, as my sister would call it. Dark, dreamy, raw, powerful and dark. Listening to Silence Yourself makes me feel the same way as I do whenever I listen to Faith.

With powerful vocals (think PJ Harveyesque) and raw lyrics that you can emphasize with, Savages are definitely my new favourites for this year, and I really can’t get enough of them.

Listen to Shut Up, and especially Waiting for a Sign – I have had this one on repeat for a while now. Beautiful song which evokes so many emotions as well as a feeling of power and loss of all power at the same time. Sometimes I feel like they have taken the words that run around my brain all the time and created songs out of them.

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"Repeat every word I say, Miming another boring day, I have better things to do, Now you’re here I must get rid of you”