Category Archives: Shorties

Shorties

New Aimee Mann video: Goose Snow Cone

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Video: Aimee Mann – “Goose Snow Cone”

Who doesn’t love cat videos on the internet?

Aimee Mann has been quietly releasing sad and beautiful music for this entire millennium, since (at least) Bachelor No. 2 in 2000. We should all be paying way more attention to her. All of her songs have at least one line that punches you in the gut. For me, in “Goose Snow Cone” the chorus “Gotta keep it together when your friends come by / Always checking the weather but they wanna know why” is the one that gets me.

Mann discussed the origin of the song and video:

“I wrote “Goose Snow Cone” when I was on tour in Ireland, on a cold and snowy day. I was feeling very homesick when I saw a picture on Instagram of a cat I know named Goose. Her fluffy white face was looking up at the camera in a very plaintive way, like a little snowball, and I started singing a little song about her that turned into a song about loneliness. I intended to change the lyrics but could never find a phrase to replace the one I started with. When it came time to make a video, I knew the original Goose had to be in it. Her owners are my friends Rob and Puloma who coincidentally produce and direct videos. One of my cats had recently gone through a long illness and I was thinking about that when I came up with the idea for the video, and I knew Puloma had to star in it, as she has a very lovely and expressive face. The vet in the video is my actual vet and he’s a great guy. It was not easy wrangling Goose but the magic of editing makes it all work!” – Aimee Mann

From Mental Illness, out March 31 on SuperEgo Records. Stream it via NPR and then buy it.

Shorties

New Blackwaters video: Fuck Yeah

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Video: Blackwaters – “Fuck Yeah”

There’s a quote from Bobby Harlow of the Detroit band the Go where he says, “If you take young guys with shaggy hair and tight pants and baby faces and leather jackets and put them in front of teenagers I think that it just kind of works.”

The Blackwaters may be missing the leather jackets, but they’ve got the rest down to the tee. I rarely wish I was a teenager but this video sure makes it look fun. This song was produced by Carl Barat of the Libertines.

Blackwaters: fb, twitter

Shorties

New Skating Polly video: Hail Mary

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Video: Skating Polly – “Hail Mary”

Skating Polly is a family band, a teenage sister duo from Oklahoma with their brother on drums. Badass. Does this song remind you a little bit of Veruca Salt? That makes sense; NPR explains why:

Recently, Skating Polly teamed up with Veruca Salt’s co-frontwomen Louise Post and Nina Gordon, who helped the band write an EP called New Trick. “Hail Mary,” the first song the band wrote for the new record, showcases Skating Polly’s characteristic moodiness, as well the more subtle layers of harmonies that Post and Gordon brought to the new songs.

New Trick is due April 28 on El Camino.

Skating Polly: web, twitter, FB, wiki.

Shorties

Lollapalooza 2017 lineup: Look familiar?

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When you look at the 2017 Lollapalooza lineup released yesterday, a lot of those names might look familiar. Of the nine BIG FONT headliners only one (Blink-182) has never played Lolla before. Extending that to the 22 artists comprising the top five rows adds three more newbies: Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean, and Liam Gallagher.

If you’ve gone to Lolla over the past several years, you’ve probably already seen 18 of the top 22 acts. That’s 82%. Adding in the next three rows brings us to a total of 39 artists; 28 of them (72%) are Lolla veterans. This year will mark the Killers’ fourth Lollapalooza and it’ll be the fifth time for Cage the Elephant, Kaskade, and our beloved Spoon.

The undercard consists of an additional 21 groups that have played Lolla before and 108 that haven’t. So if you’re looking for new experiences, get there early!

I realize people don’t necessarily go to Lollapalooza every year and there’s certainly nothing wrong with seeing the same band a bunch of times. And you can’t blame the artists for cashing in on the festival circuit gravy train. But if you’re starting to feel a little deja vu when these lineup announcements come out, it’s not just your imagination. We have all been here before.

Big font headliners

CHANCE THE RAPPER: 2013
THE KILLERS: 2015, 2009, 2015
MUSE: 2007, 2011
ARCADE FIRE: 2005, 2010
THE XX: 2010
LORDE: 2014
BLINK-182: n00b!!!
DJ SNAKE: 2015
JUSTICE: 2012

Medium font rows 3-5

ALT-J: 2013, 2015
RUN THE JEWELS: 2014
CAGE THE ELEPHANT: 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
WIZ KHALIFA: n00b!
BIG SEAN: n00b!
THE HEAD AND THE HEART: 2012, 2014
FOSTER THE PEOPLE: 2011, 2014
THE SHINS: 2006, 2012
RYAN ADAMS: 2006
KASKADE: 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015
PORTER ROBINSON: 2012
ZEDS DEAD: 2012
LIAM GALLAGHER: n00b!

Continue reading Lollapalooza 2017 lineup: Look familiar? →

Shorties

Spoon: The Band We Can All Count On

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They say you shouldn’t trust anyone who doesn’t like puppies or babies. That’s kinda how I feel about anyone who doesn’t love Spoon. I mean…what’s not to love? Soulful vocals and witty lyrics; smart, economical instrumentation; beats and rhythms that make you DANCE; all peppered with hoots, hollers, grunts and groans that let you know rock music is supposed to be visceral.

Full transparency: Jake Brown was not always on the Spoon train and I can tell you that there were several whispered conspiratorial conversations around the office keg. We considered executing the 25th Amendment until he started to come around. I am pleased to say the state of the GLONO union is now strong.

Hot Thoughts is Spoon’s ninth studio album and builds on the same blue print established way back on 2001’s Girls Can Tell. This is a band who is consistent, if not creatively challenging. Once they broke (albeit slightly) from the jagged corners of their first two albums, the mold was set and they’ve honed the product more than redesigned it. And I am totally down with that. It’s a wonder how consistent, and consistently good, Spoon is. Given how shitty things are elsewhere in this country it’s really nice to know we can count on a solid record from this band every 24 to 36 months.

One area of exploration I have enjoyed from these guys is their occasional dips into dance-y pop music. I think it started with 2005’s “I Turn My Camera On,” which is a staple of any indie kid’s dance mix. This year we have “Can I Sit Next To You” as an early contender for Summer Jam 2017. It’s the kinda song that will make middle-aged dudes pine for pool parties that don’t include swim diapers.

If you’re reading this then you probably already have the new album so I’m not going to sell it. But I’d love to open up a conversation in the comments about the elements of Spoon that make them our favorite band. Because there are common elements, some of which are noted above and some of which get turned into criticism for other bands. Why?

Continue reading Spoon: The Band We Can All Count On →

Shorties

New Craig Finn video: God in Chicago

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Video: Craig Finn – “God In Chicago”

From We All Want The Same Things, out March 24 on Partisan Records.

The thing with spoken word pieces is that you have to sit still and pay attention, and while that can be tough to carve out time for, “God In Chicago” makes it worth your while. “Her mom found her brother, then she found a container wrapped up in a newspaper stuffed in a duffle bag with hockey pads and seven grand in rubber bands.” As far as opening sentences go, that’s a pretty great start to a story. You might be able to guess where it goes from there: she calls the narrator and they drive to Chicago to sell the contents of the container and have a night on the town.

Craig Finn says, “It’s a story about a guy and a girl pushed together to try to fix a problem. In doing so, they push into unchartered territory for both of them. Going to a bigger city without supervision for the first time is a huge moment, no matter how you get there. I was trying to capture that. Also, I wanted to show how easy it is sometimes to take a break, if briefly, from our regular lives.”

I remember being a teenager and driving to the city for the first time. We didn’t have to sell any drugs, thank goodness, but my homie and I got loaded and ate Harold’s chicken with our shirts off in somebody’s University of Chicago dorm room. We listened to Spacemen 3 and Starship Beer and went to a silly hat party. He wore a fez. Good times.

Continue reading New Craig Finn video: God in Chicago →

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New Dandy Warhols video: Thick Girls Knock Me Out

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Video: The Dandy Warhols – “Thick Girls Knock Me Out (Richard Starkey)”

Gotta love the Dandies. It’s been twenty years since they released The Dandy Warhols Come Down on Capitol Records, and ten years since Capitol dumped them, and they’re still at it. Still pounding away at chuggy, psychedelic garage rock.

This one’s pretty fun, shouting out Paul McCartney’s Kisses On the Bottom and “It Don’t Come Easy” by “that other Beatle.” LOL.

Hook, hooky hook, mama. Look at you slammin’. Indeed. Look at you!

Hey we’ve got a new single called “Thick Girls Knock Me Out (Richard Starkey)” – if you ask my opinion you should plunk down the $1.29 to buy it on iTunes, maybe we can get a pot of coffee outta the deal.

“Thick Girls” is also available on all the premium streaming services (Spotify, Google Play, Amazon, Apple Music, etc), just in case you need it even cheaper than $1.29. Nevertheless play it a lot, put it on repeat, those .004 cents checks really add up ?

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Shorties

Broke Mack: Have you ever been in a hot tub?

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Video: Ice Cube – “Who’s the Mack?”

I didn’t even realize Ice Cube made a video for this song from Amerikkka’s Most Wanted until I was googling around, looking for something or other and stumbled across it on YouTube. Priority Records released a promotional 12″ in 1990, but it didn’t chart.

The best part about this video–other than Cube looking like an adorable little kid–is the ending where after spending the whole song rapping about different types of con artists in his own community, he visually opens up the definition to include White America. There’s “President Mack” (sitting POTUS George H. W. Bush), “Busted Mack” (televangelist Jim Bakker who had recently been found guilty on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy), and best of all, “Broke Mack” (Donald Trump).

In June 1990, the Wall Street Journal reported the news of Trump’s impending financial distaster. So I’m assuming this video was made shortly after that. People magazine even had a cover story in July titled “Poor Donald!” But nobody summed it up better than Ice Cube: Broke Mack. You knew the game and you still ended up on your back.

Continue reading Broke Mack: Have you ever been in a hot tub? →

Shorties

TRAX: MisterWives – Machine

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Audio: MisterWives – “Machine”

MisterWives is the band nineteen-year-old-me would’ve loved — a cool girl out front, being super posi and singing huge, soaring hooks. There’s also a groove, and that’s like No Doubt in its earlist, best moments. And oh yeah, there’s a horn section. There are less and less great things in this world, right? It’s a fucking hellscape out there. Who does not want to jump up and down in rhythm with a bass player wearing a drug rug.

This song goes the other way.

Yo, dummy: We’re not part of your machine.

JTL

Shorties

New Conor Oberst video: Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out

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Video: Conor Oberst – “Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out”

From Salutations, due March 17 on Nonesuch.

So apparently Oberst’s last album, Ruminations, was just a collection of demos for this new album.

According to Nonesuch:

When Oberst wrote and recorded the songs on Ruminations, entirely solo—with just voice, piano, guitar and harmonica—he intended to ultimately record them with a full band. In the midst of putting together that band, the passionate responses Oberst was getting to those first solo recordings, from friends and colleagues, encouraged him to release the songs as-is, in their original sparse form, as his seventh solo album: Ruminations, which was released in October 2016. Meanwhile, Oberst simultaneously moved ahead with his plans to record with the band. Salutations includes full-band versions of the ten songs from Ruminations, plus seven additional songs.

So that’s kinda weird, right? Feels like a rip-off. Like maybe they should’ve just held on to the ten demos on Ruminations and included them as a bonus disc with Salutations. Who does Oberst think he is, Ryan Adams?

Then again, who cares anyway since nobody buys music anymore, and we can just stream them together or separately or not at all. The concept of the “album” as a cohesive piece of work is probably antiquated and anachronistic (and rockist!) at this point. Or maybe not. The only scarcity left in the music marketplace is people’s attention, and I’d rather not spend mine on demo collections when your ultimate intention is to put out a full-band album. But that’s just me.

Continue reading New Conor Oberst video: Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out →