Smoking Popes, Stay Down

Stay Down is warm, familiar and just the kind of uncomplicated rock that I've been craving lately. There's nothing new or groundbreaking here, just punk-ish electric guitar arrangements, verse-chorus-verse and songs from boys about girls. But this band, now reunited after almost a ten-year break, have been around the block and they've made a well-crafted and catchy album full of simple pop-punk gems. The album opens with 'Welcome to Janesville,' a bright enthusiastic song with plenty of pounding electric guitar and a chorus that begs to be sung along to. From there it moves at its own relaxed pace, hitting the high points exactly when it needs to. This definitely feels like an album from an experienced band--there's no youthful rushing or sloppiness, no needing to prove themselves.

The excellent vocals take the album up a notch further. Josh Caterer's voice is clear and spot-on in every track, and when he's backed by his brother Matt, the harmonies are just outstanding. This is most evident on the last track 'First Time,' an acoustic look at young love that manages to be nostalgic and wistful without getting sappy. The straightforward riffs throughout the song, the understated lovely guitar solo and the pitch-perfect harmonies make this song just right for summer evenings, and my favorite on the album.

is it my birthday?!

I take back any bad word I have ever said about downtown SLC. I don't know how I managed to avoid hearing about this until now, but this year's Twilight Concert Series looks almost too stellar to be true. Like, seriously, I get to see (for starters) The Roots, De La Soul, and The Cool Kids? Downtown, five minutes from my apartment? For free? Where does my city get off being so awesome? I guess I know what I'm doing every Thursday night until September now, geez.

Also looking good is Red Butte Gardens' Outdoor Concert Series. No matter how you feel about the musicians lined up, these shows are probably worth it for the gorgeousness of the venue alone. Wilco is already sold out, but I'm hopeful that if I keep my ear to the ground a solution to that pesky obstacle will present itself.

if you can drink tap water and breathe the air

Because of my job, I've been listening to my iPod at least eight hours a day, five days a week, and my need for a constant flow of new music is growing exponentially. Unfortunately, even with a ton of new stuff to listen to I still find myself with musical ADD, skipping around and eventually giving up and choosing to shuffle my whole library. I've been trying to make myself focus more and actually process the stuff in my New Music playlist; we'll see how it goes. Anyway, here's one album so far that's kept me from breaking a window to escape my corporate desk job.

Atmosphere, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Pain That Shit Gold

I had a great time at his show when Atmosphere recently came through SLC, and it's taken me a while to get to this album (after his show I got distracted by the Glow In The Dark tour, and the only hip-hop I listened to was Kanye, Lupe and N.E.R.D. for weeks), but I'm really enjoying it. What I'd heard of him before this had mostly been too serious and dry for my tastes, but on Lemons he finds a lightness and bounce without losing the smart grit in his words. A few of the slower tracks don't have beats interesting enough to carry the dourness, but one of my favorites on the CD is 'Guarantees,' a depressing snapshot of a song that's carried solely by meandering acoustic guitar and Slug's voice. Throughout the album he's at the top of his game lyrically, drawing you in to stories of normal-yet-heroic working-class America, and it's like drinking a tall glass of lemonade: sour but refreshing.

Kanye West's Glow In The Dark Tour on 5/23, 5/24, and 6/9

Better late than never, right? I’m trying to be more diligent in terms of at least writing something about each show I see, because I don’t want to look up at the end of 2008 and realize that I’ve seen dozens of shows and only written about a few of them. And with this tour, especially: I flew to Chicago to see it twice at the United Center and then saw it a third time in SLC at the E-Center, and spent close to 100 dollars on two of those tickets. I feel a little like I’ve committed something of myself to this tour, and I don’t want to let it pass by without jotting something down to look back on.

<>Everything about Kanye West’s Glow In The Dark tour is over-the-top: from Lupe Fiasco performing with the intensity of a top biller, not a first opener; to N.E.R.D. wylin’ out with twenty people on the stage; to Rihanna’s singers, dancers, and set pieces; and then of course the main man himself, explicitly setting himself up as the biggest star in the universe.

Lupe, N.E.R.D. and Rihanna collectively acted as a great advertisement for the idea of a music industry built around touring and performing, rather than record sales. These artists are all damn good performers, but each one is great in a different way—they all stood out from each other and performed with very distinctive styles. It’s one of the few tours I’ve seen with this many openers that didn’t waste a second on mediocrity, where each musician put as much into their performance as the main act did.

Kanye West put the same effort and skill into performing as the others did, but he took it a step further and pulled the audience into his own narrative. I expected going into the shows that the high cost of the tickets would have to go somewhere, and I wasn’t disappointed: he used huge video screens, a constructed stage, voice-overs and other special effects to pull off this story of Kanye as a space explorer who’s crash-landed on a foreign planet and is just trying to get home. Usually, I don’t have much patience for flashy effects at concerts and elaborate stages mostly bore me, but I do think Kanye chose effects and theatrics that made sense with his music—they always added to the songs instead of trying to be their own thing and detracting. And the big story of struggle, homesickness and eventual triumph mirrored themes that Kanye has used in most songs he’s written.

While the effects certainly helped, the narrative would have flopped and come off as corny if it weren’t for the weight he gave his own words. Say what you want about Kanye and his arrogance, but his big head has never resulted in him producing half-assed material, and this tour is no exception. Kanye held the whole stage by himself, up until Touch The Sky when Lupe joined him, and he was riveting the whole time. He didn’t just rap, he danced and jumped and yelled and used the whole area. Every song was a bigger deal and a bigger climax than the last, and even during the slow, somber ‘Mama,’ he didn’t truly let up, instead demanding the audience scream and clap for his mother at the height of the song. When space-explorer-Kanye is at his most discouraged and doesn’t believe he can go on, the back-up singers and band launch earnestly into ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’ and in the audience you have no idea if you’re singing along ironically or not, but you’re swept up in it either way.

Beyond the glitz and the hype and the weird sunglasses, the Glow In The Dark tour is one of the best showcases of sheer talent and skill I’ve seen this year, or even ever. I’m honestly thrilled that I was able to see it three times, not just because I obviously enjoyed it, but because I want to support a venture with as much musical integrity as this as much as I can. I want them to succeed so that maybe we’ll see more tours like it.

every gun you ever held went off

Coldplay is one of those bands that, while I've never thought of them as being a band I'm particularly attached to, have produced some of my absolute favorite songs. Much of their material thus far has been boring, soft, and interchangeable, but the songs that they've gotten right (A Rush Of Blood to The Head, Clocks, The Scientist) are ones that I put on repeat for hours, songs that I feel have shaped me, songs that I'm determinedly attached to. These songs have always given me the impression that they were written about things more epic, important and magical than the everyday world, have tapped into the same part of me that loves The Lord of The Rings and Star Wars. But then there's Fix You and Yellow and Trouble and almost every other song they've written, music that mostly I just find listen-able and inoffensive--background music.

But Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends is really fucking good. I've been listening to this album for hours now and I can tell that I'll be listening to it for days more. Whatever quality it is that makes me love The Scientist and Clocks so much, they've infused the whole album with it. This album is expansive and overwhelming--it feels like something larger-than-life being released.

Instrumentally, it's richer than their previous releases. Chris Martin mostly abandons his crooning, sickly-sweet falsetto, giving his voice a richer and stronger sound. They've changed their sound in general, branching out from their generic alt-rock sound with faster rhythms, more bass and electric guitar, and lots of strings. You can hear a greater variety of influences--bluegrass, especially, in Strawberry Swing, as well as hints of synth-pop throughout most of the songs. They still have their signature piano pop hooks, but they've stepped up their game and given us something much meatier. Where previous albums strummed along quietly, Viva soars, demands attention, and even rocks out.

an introvert an excavator

Wow, what's up, June? Once again, my grasp of the concept of time and how it passes is tenuous at best. I keep telling myself that I will definitely write up a post about seeing The Used, and then I'll definitely write something about Mac Lethal, and then most definitely Atmosphere, and then I look up and said show was two days ago and I'm seeing someone else already and the images of whomever last performed in front of me are already fading. It turns out that making the time to write about music is a whole lot harder when I have a fully functional arm and therefore have no excuse to avoid my busy life.

And this, this isn't even a substantive post, but I figure it's better than nothing. I haven't been listening to much new stuff lately, but I am loving The Game's new single, Game's Pain. It's drenched in shout-outs and fond nostalgia, and it hits the same heartclench-y chord that made Hate It Or Love It so addictive. It's giving me a reason to listen to the radio, because U92 is predictably already overplaying it, and I get a big sappy grin every time it comes on.

Game's Pain- The Game feat. Keyshia Cole

Between L.A.X. in July, N.E.R.D.'s new album next week, and Santogold's Santogold already putting a spring in my step, it promises to be a good summer.