Dave Grohl And Computers

I know, I know, I’m always writing about things that are so last Monday. Try as I might, I suck at being hasty. Too often when I make an effort to be timely and clever, I end up looking like an idiot. Things take forever to sink into my system and even longer for me to vomit back out as pieces of my own experience. So I saw all the Facebook posts about Dave Grohl’s Grammy speech and was pretty sure I had the gist of it without even watching it thanks to the commentary of friends and acquaintances. I finally watched it yesterday, and as it turns out, I guessed right: it’s at once a painful illustration of Dave’s oblivious rock star cloud of self-promoting smugness and a valid, possibly even heartfelt plea for human passion and physical interaction. You know, the one that’s been a perennial rallying cry ever since the industrial revolution? Don’t let technology rob us of our hearts! I suppose at some point a few hominids believed that the inclined plane would be the downfall of society.

Why I'm Sick Of Radiohead

Liam Gallagher , the bitterest Brit in the music biz, recently suggested that Radiohead ripped off The Beatles somehow with the tune “Karma Police”.  Anyone who’s ever heard an Oasis song knows how preposterous that accusation was, at face value, and the Gallagher brothers have a long history of slagging Radiohead in the press; if only Liam could’ve channeled his jealousy into a more pertinent argument…

U2 played at Soldier Field a couple nights ago.

To be a music critic and a U2 fan, you have to fear for your credibility.  At some point, maybe around the time of Rattle & Hum, it started to become increasingly unhip to believe in Bono.  Nowadays, a fun and socially admirable thing for writers to do is to point out the hypocrisy of a man who stretches himself thin to help and bring joy to people uncool enough to like him (at the perceived expense of his band), to suggest that his humanitarian efforts are merely fuel for his massive ego, to scoff at him for daring to work with world leaders from whichever side of the political spectrum you don’t agree with, and for the audacity of working for environmental causes while toting around umpteen tractor trailers worth of equipment to build a monstrous stage from city to city.  Less famous but more credible musicians maintain aloofness toward their fans, spend their time committing varying degrees of statutory rape, abandon their families for drugs, spread messages of violence or misogyny or self-loathing, or simply don’t bother to take a stand publicly about what they believe in, but these private hypocrisies are easier to look past than the benevolence of an enviable superstar riddled with contradictory impulses just like the rest of us.

the wall for the first time

do you remember the first time you heard the wall?

AV Club, Et Cetera

Just a quick note for anyone who doesn't get my Twitter/Facebook updates: I've been doing quite a bit of work for The Onion's AV Club lately; too much to put links to all of it here, in fact.  If you're interested, here are a few recent reviews

Robert Plant and Band Of Joy @ The Riverside

Bright Eyes @ The Pabst

Sharon Van Etten @ The Pabst

At this point, you can't really search for my name at the AV Club's website.  I hope I can get them to fix this at some point.  If you happen to be on Twitter, I'm @roachcraft.  Much more to come this week and in the future at You-Phoria, have no fear.  Thanks for reading!  We really do appreciate it.

Brew City infiltrates SPIN

There's no SPIN jinx, right?  No less than four mentions of Milwaukee appear in the latest issue.  There's the dubious notoriety of Weiland's latest crash-and-burn during STP's March show at the Rave ("...Weiland was out of it in Milwaukee, forgetting lyrics and looking confused...").  Summerfest gets a brief capsule in the festival feature story ("DON'T MISS: Thievery Corporation's politically fiery Bollywood-dub chutney"--no argument here).  Naturally, the review of the widely-acclaimed new disc from local heroes Kings Go Forth receives eight pink dots (that's four stars to the rest of the publishing world).

But perhaps the most satisfying blurb is a shout-out to our very own Radio Milwaukee from Elijah Jones of The Constellations: "'We sent songs to everyone,' explains the singer.  'And 88.9 in Milwaukee was the first to catch on.  They invited us to play a show, and the day I got there, I heard three of our songs on the radio.'"  Between the Mighty 91 (still in need of ten grand in community support by the end of the month--show 'em some support at wmse.org!!) and 88Nine, we have the best radio airwaves pound for pound in the country.  Believe it, people: MKE is bustin' out.

Dire week for metal

Devil horns up: you owe that iconic rock and roll gesture to Ronnie James Dio, who passed away this week after a prolonged battle with stomach cancer.  Metal purists lament the ubiquity of the hedonistic sign language, but it's only a thumb away from love anyway.  You can thank/blame Dio for much of what has happened in metal since the mid-70s.  With Rainbow, he sowed the seeds of hair metal.  He rescued Black Sabbath from an early grave following Ozzy's collapse.  With Dio, he established himself as a brand name, and endured for the rest of his life as both a legend and a punchline, embracing the entirety of his legacy with humor and class.

I am not a Dio fan; the style of music he gravitated to just ain't my bag for the most part (exception being the excellent Heaven And Hell album).  But the guy had an incredible voice, the most influential of all time in metal, from Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford to Dave Mustaine and Geoff Tate to Cedric Bixler-Zavala and legions of followers to come.  And there's no denying that he tirelessly injected the spirit of heavy metal back into pop culture over and over again throughout his life.  He cared about it as much as anybody ever has, if not more, and for that he has my undying respect and gratitude.

More sad news today: Isis is calling it quits.  This is the band that forcibly evolved metal with the untouchable Oceanic album in 2002.  I've already gone on and on about the swarm of imitators that flooded the market with post-metal in its wake.  I haven't been impressed with the band's last couple of albums, although I have to admit that last year's Wavering Radiant isn't as bad as I initially thought.  I was just beginning to hope that Isis was on the upswing.  Maybe the kiss-off EP that's in the works will be the crowning achievement.  Either way, it's a bittersweet ending, a legend carved in stone: far and away the most influential metal band of this young century.

So, thanks for changing the course of music forever, guys.  That was awesome.  Please add a Chicago or Milwaukee date to your tour in between L.A. and Bonnaroo!  You will be missed.

Almost seven years ago...

The date was June 21, 2003. Pearl Jam, at Alpine Valley, was in the middle of possibly the best performance I've ever seen from the band. Mike McCready was on fire, and Eddie Vedder was a little drunk. After going on a hilarious, foul-mouthed tirade making fun of reality TV (among other things), he proffered this little tidbit:

"But we were just talking in the back, and we were thinking that maybe uh, on the strength of a night like this, and uh, really, uh, so you understand how much we appreciate it, we were thinking that instead of uh, waiting 2 years or even, uh, after we finish the next record, maybe just next summer, we could come back and play, just a few places that we’ve been to and this would be one of them."

Fast forward to March 11, 2010: Pearl Jam announces yet another measly mini-tour. The closest date to Wisconsin is a five-hour drive. Still waiting for that promised Alpine return, Eddie.

Quotes of the Week

JamBase commissioned me to go see John Mayer on Monday, which was weird. I'd spent some time reading his recent Playboy and Rolling Stone (too paranoid about the decline of print media to put the story online...) interviews, so I was sitting in the audience watching this suave rock star after just reading way more details about his sex life than I ever wanted to know (and zilch about his music).

Why does this strike me so funny?

An email from Spin magazine today contained this teaser headline:

"COURTNEY LOVE SPEAKS!

"With her career -- and her family -- at stake, the Hole leader makes a bold move with her controversial new record."

BWAAAAHAAAAHAAAAAAHAAHAHAAAA

Did I wake up this morning in 1994? Did Courtney write her own headline for this story? Does the word "controversial" actually have any meaning at all in 2010?

While Dinosaur Jr. Played At Turner Hall Last Thursday, I Wrote This.

I planned to review the show. I really did. But sometimes that's just not what comes out. It was a good show, though...

IT MIGHT GET LOUD

I've read at least one mediocre review of this documentary that downplayed the musical excitement generated by its three stars (Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White) jamming together. But I knew going in that there was no way I wasn't going to enjoy the film, and afterwards, I thought to myself, 'what is the point of trying to critically review this movie?' Um, so here's my review:

Do you like the sound of the electric guitar? Do you think Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White are fucking awesome at playing it? Do you want to hear them talk about their philosophies on music and dole out interesting anecdotes from their lives? Do you think it would be cool as shit to watch them all jam on "In My Time Of Dying" and "I Will Follow" and "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground" even if it's just for a minute, even if it isn't all that great musically? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you should see this film. If you didn't answer "yes" to any of them, you should probably stop listening to rock and roll.

(I loved it.)

A Perspective

I love this Jack White quote, taken from JamBase. Honestly, this guy may have made a few sub-par albums in his time, but from music to film to just the way he operates, I've never lost respect for him in the slightest. Sort of a Tom Waits figure in that respect...

"I feel it, you feel it – we're all struggling with the trouble that this industry is in right now," said Jack White. "And it's not about sales; it's about beauty and romance and a relationship to art that's turning invisible, and it's affecting people's perception of music. It's affecting whether they think of it as a viable art, because it's so disposable. It's not about being modern or retro or a Luddite or being hopeful or pessimistic about the future; it's about clinging on to what makes sense of our lives, and what gives our lives value, and what gives us a commonality and a feeling of belonging."

Michael

One of the most common names in the history of the world, yet there was one man who possessed it so completely that he may as well have done away with his surname. So completely that now, it will be difficult to hear that name and think of anyone else. How can it be that we’ve suddenly been thrust into the era that comes after Michael?

Don't Let The Ticketbastards Grind You Down

Remember when scalping tickets was illegal? Maybe, like me, you thought it still was? As it turns out, these slimy ticket brokers aren't really working any loopholes; they're totally legal. But it looks like there might be a small chance that the tide is beginning to turn against them.