Though I thoroughly enjoyed Kevin’s entry last week, and I sincerely thank him for stepping in and guest-writing my weekly Hodge Podge, I must say that it’s good to be back as king of all things TGIF. I’ve been back home in Chicago for the better part of a week now, and I think that I am almost fully recovered from my visit to Cleveland (I bet that picture makes a lot more sense now, huh). As such, I want to take a few minutes to fill everyone who wasn’t there, which would be, well, almost all of you, in [...]
Steve McBean is my homeboy. Dude spits out records of worth each and every time. I've been with Black Mountain since the beginning, and had the first Pink Mountaintops release in 2004. I bought into it just as much as BM. The lag time between Black Mountain's eponymous debut and In the Future would have been a much more grueling marathon without the Pink Mountaintops work McBean released. A prolific artist, I suppose, is one who can span multiple genres and create noteworthy art without sticking to securely defined perameters. What's so refreshing about Pink Mountaintops is that [...]
That's the front of the IRS building up there. It might be a titch difficult to make out, but the inscription reads, "Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society." No less a personage than Oliver Wendell Holmes said that. I'd probably disagree with Ollie and argue that taxes are what we pay for a wide array of things of varying degrees of utility and appropriateness (bombs = not so good, Pell Grants = good), but potato, potato. (I guess that potato thing only works when you say it out loud. Weird.) All this to say that I kind [...]
Click here to view the embedded video. Maybe Bossanova wasn't the best Pixies album to start off my understanding of the band, but some things are impossible to go backwards on. I remember getting that album in early 1991 and its futuristic lyrics and dreamy undertones were like candy for me. Black Francis is the man, and no matter what particular Pixies album is discussed, sound always dominates the discussion. I just purchased a home in the middle of an urban Cleveland renaissance of sorts, where old structures are [...]
The first three tracks on Floating Action's debut (it's more of a pseudo-debut, but we'll get to that bit later) lay out, to a large degree, what the album is about, aesthetically, sonically and thematically. The first song, "50 Lashes," is a shuffling, vaguely twangy ode to emotional flagellation. It's dripping with homespun, warm touches, despite the fairly bleak subject matter; there's a sweet, recurring guitar jangle, brushed drums, ethereal and angelic "ooh"s in the background and, in general, a feeling that the song was recorded in a room with hardwood floors by eight or so musicians all locked into [...]
There's a stringently defined set of rules for the position of people in an elevator. Think about it for a second. When you get on an elevator by yourself, you're likely to stand in the middle; when another passenger joins you, you'll almost certainly shift to one of the corners. If you're outgoing, you'll probably move to the corner with the buttons and push the appropriate one for your new companion. If, like me, you're a little more insular, you'll shift to the corner opposite the buttons and look at your feet. Nobody stays in the middle and [...]
(Editor's note: Obviously our focus here is on the music review side of things, but we've also been bouncing around some ideas for regular features. James has his TGIF hodgepodge, Brian has his lazy Saturdays, and up to this point in the game, I've been featureless. We're going to attempt to throw some things against the wall and see what sticks. Our "Dick in Weird Places" feature will cover exactly what you think it will. We've established a strong readership in some unique and quirky places around the globe. Weekly, we'll feature some of these culturally relevant specks on the [...]
Google's archive of photographs from Life is an amazing thing. It's surpassed the Library of Congress as my go-to resource for highly-specific photo needs. Today really required a long-haired freak sitting in a treehouse strumming on his acoustic. The LoC just doesn't have the search engine power to deliver that kind of image. Thanks, Google and Life. ( Editor's note: We're assuming that we're still in the "personal use" category on stuff like this; if not, we'll post a copy of the letter that Google's lawyers send to us. Google Lawyers, if you're reading, [...]
There was a heightened sense of anticipation here at Citizen Dick world headquarters this week for Thursday's Southeast Engine show; we've been unable to get From the Forest to the Sea off of the stereo and were deeply excited to see that material live. Happily, our high expectations were warranted; Southeast Engine ripped through ten of that album's twelve tracks before wrapping things up with a few old favorites; the material broke into another plane live, validating our feelings that this band is on the cusp of greatness. The evening was jam packed with sweet and rocking sounds, [...]
Since all three of us are in Cleveland together this weekend, we decided to take a more local twist into things. James is a little jet lagged from the trip in from Chicago and a few beers has slowed the young man down. There are two bands that have been on our radar for a couple of months and it's high time we began bringing out some of the talent and noteworthy music coming out of our city. Since we've seen the live shows and James is just hearing these guys for the first time, I've taken over his regular [...]
As a bit of an addendum to finish out our lists today, we would like to give a mention to what all three of us have identified as our favorite track from the early portion of 2009. Amazingly, there was no arguing over this topic whatsoever: not a single one of us can get Dan Mangan’s “Robots” out of our heads. I hate to use such glaring superlatives, but this may be an absolutely perfect song. Clearly it’s enormously catchy, and Mangan’s smoky voice pairs in perfect harmony with his delicate guitar and the soft horns in the background, leaving [...]
I’m going to assume that you have caught on to the theme of the day, so I won’t bore you with a third semi-witty introductory paragraph. Instead I am just going to launch into my personal favorites from the year so far… Mazes - Mazes If you have been reading our site at all over the last month or so, my first choice should come as no surprise. I have called it the best album of the [...]
The overall problem with a list like this is trying to pluck a few gems out of a lot of gems. 2009 has been an excellent year for music so far, and there are stacks of amazing work that inevitably get the shaft. In our lengthy discussions last night about this year's albums of merit, I couldn't help but tense up a bit. For every ten albums we listen thoroughly to, there are probably another 5 or 10 that either get dumped or pushed to the side in favor of something else. This is problematic in the sense that we [...]
You might have heard that all three Dicks are in town; James arrived in beautiful and historic Cleveland this afternoon, rolled over to Kevin's house and we had the first face-to-face meeting of the minds in a good long while. Our friendly get together quickly devolved into a moderately truculent discussion of our favorite albums of the quickly passing year, with each of us vociferously defending our choices as the other two shot us down. (Somebody said something about avoiding triumvirates, right?) Happily, there's something to be said for being forced to defend your opinions. Out of the dissension was [...]
Generationals are good. Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer (no relation to Charles, we're assuming, because that dude is fictional), following the dissolution their previous band, Louisiana stalwarts and media darlings Eames Era, hunkered down and recorded a new record, packed to the brim with deeply catchy and hook-laden pop-influenced rock tracks. Immediately following the mastering of the album, which they'd intended to release on their own, they serendipitously bumped into a Park the Van exec; after the label heard the album, Con Law, Generationals quickly joined the PTV roster. (I'm not employed by a record label, [...]
I love New Order. That's about as far as I go into electronic music, generally. (I'm not even sure if that counts. They play a ton of guitars in that band.) I don't find myself in dance clubs often, probably because I find it difficult to move my body to music in any sort of natural fashion (I've got a hell of a head nod, but that's about as far as my personal sense of rhythm goes.) One of the perks of writing for Citizen Dick is the variety of music that finds its way into our hands. I've moved [...]
We've got a confession. We were holding back this morning. We've got a killer snippet of audio from the Dr. Dog show last night. Why didn't we post it this morning? Why did we post 1100 some odd words on the show and leave out the five minutes of sound that perfectly distill what this band's like on stage? Maybe we were being coy, making sure that you're not just using us for out amazing audio clips. Maybe we wanted to prove that we could evoke an image without giving you anything concrete to put in your ears. Maybe we [...]
I like the idea of how undiscovered bands get record deals. I sometimes have this idealized image of a band toiling away at tiny bars while suited record store execs whisper quietly in conference about whether or not the band is poised for stardom. Of course, I'm well aware this isn't how it all goes, but it's at least intriguing to consider the basic premise. We also cover a lot of debut records in our business and I often imagine the immense tension and excitement surrounding a band's first nationwide release. The interim between discovery and first release is no [...]
Spring Break came with impeccable timing this year. Brian and I both filled our briefcases full of student homework, shuffled out of the school doors and entered break with a little Dr. Dog and Golden Boots on the brain. Fate was on our top album list in 2008, and Winter of our Discotheque was one of the first Park the Van albums we reviewed in this new budding year. The fact that the double bill was going down in our state’s capitol, a mere two hours away, was an added bonus. The Monday night may well [...]
Hype is an enzyme excreted by a venomous spleen, and another late night here at Citizen Dick headquarters has been spent sifting through music that fits into three interrelated types. The first section of tracks could fall into the essentially no hype category, consisting of bands nearly non-existent to a majority of people around the globe. Obscure demos and random email submissions deluge the inbox quite frequently around here and we're always trying to keep up and listen to anything sent our way. The second section is the flavor-o-the-month variety bands, with a semi-sweet frosting of blogosphere hype that [...]
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Thursday Music News
