Author Archives: Chris Moore

Broken Bells’ “Broken Bells” (2010) – The Weekend Review

Posted on by
Reply

By Chris Moore:

RATING:  4 / 5 stars

Having never heard a Shins album (or even as much as a thirty-second preview clip of a Shins song), I came to Broken Bells with no expectations or preconceived notions of how it should sound.  To be fair, that isn’t entirely accurate.  Seeing Danger Mouse’s name in the mix made me wonder just how experimental, or just how “far out,” this would be.  When my wondering gave way to actual listening, I found something I hadn’t expected.

Simply stated, Broken Bells is a beautiful collage of influences finely knit together with unique modern qualities that set this record distinctly apart from the jurisdiction of terms like “retro” or “derivative.”

Still, never in one album have I found such a wide range of interesting influences.  Here and there, a pinch at a time, I have perceived subtle flecks of styles from the Beach Boys to Elliott Smith to Weezer to Phantom Planet and back to the Bee Gees, or perhaps the Scissor Sisters.  As was the case with his collaboration with Beck on 2008’s Modern Guilt, Danger Mouse’s more synthetic sounds and beats are finely balanced out by the more conventional instrumentation and sensibilities of the Shins’ lead vocalist and guitarist James Mercer.  Between the two, Broken Bells is a celebration of many sounds that have come before, newly contextualized and altered here to create something new, something all their own.

This is also the rare record that only gets better as it stretches out.  Without question, the first two tracks are the standout efforts of the album.  That being said, the album does lag a bit after them, particularly after “Your Head is On Fire” fades out.  However, as the second half of the album kicks off with “Trap Doors,” it is only onward and upward from there.  By the time “The Mall & Misery” closes the album, it would be difficult to deny another go-round kicked off by lead single and opening track “The High Road.”

Broken Bells' self-titled debut (2010)

Broken Bells' self-titled debut (2010)

“The High Road” is an excellent choice for leading off the album, as well as representing it as a single.  Danger Mouse’s synthesized sounds somehow manage to appear random while obviously being the result of a very purposeful pattern.  Under all the layers lies a fairly straightforward piano ballad, a simplicity that is realized in the stripped-down outro.

From the piano and vocal fade follows the acoustic and vocal intro to “Vaporize,” another standout track on the album.  This is where Broken Bells start to lay out some of the themes that will follow in the songs to come.  As Mercer sings,  “Common fears start to multiply; we realize we’re paralyzed.”  He continues, “It’s not too late to feel a little more alive.”

What an excellent lyrical anchor for an album that is all about shaking up the format.

“Your Head is On Fire” is a particularly fascinating track.  It kicks off with instrumentation and a vocal arrangement that strongly conjures seventies Beach Boys (my favorite!), with a particularly heavy emphasis on sounds characteristic of Dennis Wilson’s solo effort Pacific Ocean Blue.  By the time the acoustic guitars strum in, the song proceeds to a second movement, but it does return for one more retro romp in the outro that would have felt right at home on SMiLE.

The following two tracks — “The Ghost Inside” and “Sailing to Nowhere” — carve out a clearer idea of what the Broken Bells sound is going to be.  Although they are strong tracks, they are the sort of fare you might expect in the half to three-quarters swampland of your typical record.

Instead, Broken Bells comes alive with new vitality in that region, kicking off with the steady beat and buildup of “Trap Doors,” followed closely by the multi-movement “Citizen.”  The latter peaks with an essential question: “From the moment that we’re born, ’til we’re old and tired out: Do we ever know?”

The opening piano riff of “October” may conjure Phantom Planet’s “California,” but it quickly progresses into the multi-vocal attack that Broken Bells have asserted as their own throughout this record.  And the pace isn’t lost on the low-register vocals of the next track, the beat-driven “Mongrel Heart.”

The aforementioned “Mongrel Heart” blends seamlessly into the album’s final stop.  “The Mall & Misery” is an exercise in perfect timing, another gorgeous mixture of beautiful acoustic guitars, lush harmonies, and a bed of beats and other synthesized sounds.  “Use your intuition; it’s all you’ve got,” Mercer declares.  Every lyric resource on the Internet seems to disagree with me, but I read the refrain as “I know what I know will not fill a thimble.”  I won’t even share what the misconception (?) is; I’m quite attached to what I’ve heard.  At the close of the stylistic odyssey that is Broken Bells, what a fitting final thought.

All in all, Broken Bells’ self-titled debut is a sharp, vivid album that presents a series of interesting lyrics and sounds mostly by way of tight but thoughtful little pop songs, the pieces which work together to form a greater whole.

And that’s more than enough to hook me.

More album reviews

“Chris’ Mix (Vol. 2): Music I Discovered in 2009” – Playlists on Parade

Posted on by
Reply

By Chris Moore:

In April 2009, I decided to put together a playlist for a friend, one which would represent my favorite music that I had discovered since I began paying close attention to new music, as well as expanding my range of interests.  This had all started in the middle of my first year of teaching; now that I made a regular salary, I realized I could budget out enough money for regular music purchases.  So, it all started in January 2008 with Ringo Starr’s Liverpool 8.  I would have bought that album anyway, but I went on to buy albums that I never would have paid much attention to in the past.  Some, like R.E.M.’s Accelerate, are albums that I consider to be among the best of all time.

I’m glad I didn’t miss them!

Now, of course, there were many mediocre (and worse) albums along the way, but in the end, this decision has been fruitful.  I look forward with excitement to each “New Music Tuesday,” waiting to receive the Newbury Comics newsletter in my inbox.  Many weeks, there is music that piques my interest, and I set off on the journey to pick it up and listen.

This is a collection of songs that I discovered in 2009, either because they were released that year, were recommended to me, or I stumbled upon them.  I hope you enjoy the brief liner notes and consider picking some of these up!

1)  “Got Some” – Pearl Jam

This is the song I thought should have been the lead-off track on their 2009 album Backspacer.  I first heard it performed live on the first-ever Late Night with Conan O’Brien show, and I was head-over-heels for it from the first snare shots.  The studio version didn’t disappoint, and thus, it’s the lead-off track for this playlist.

2)  “Wilco (the song)” – Wilco

I’ll admit it:  I laughed when I first heard this song performed live on the Colbert Report, but I simply fell in love with the album version.  The band is clearly so comfortable with themselves that this very direct, very cheesy statement comes across as consoling and encouraging.  I needed it last year, and I continue to sing along every time.

3)  “Help Me, Suzanne” – Rhett Miller

I vividly remember hearing this song for the first time on Mike Fusco’s iPhone.  He was playing this because it was a song he had to share.  He had heard it on the Hollister store soundtrack, and I was surprised by just how good it was.  How could such excellent music slip by unnoticed?  Well, Mike noticed it, and I picked up the album shortly after.  There are a couple other great songs, but although the album is enjoyable, there’s no song that competes with this gem.

4)  “Singing Joy to the World” – The Fruit Bats

This is one of the most stripped down performances on the Fruit Bats’ brilliant 2009 album The Ruminant Band.  You just don’t hear too many ballads like this one, and I’m hooked on the lyrics and melody every time I listen.

5)  “Part of It” – Relient K

Why this song wasn’t released as a single from 2009’s Forget and Not Slow Down, I’ll never know.  It is easily one of the best performances on the album, and it is one of my favorite Relient K songs of all time.  My favorite line?  Gotta be: “I’m the Cusack on the lawn of your heart.”  Now THAT is a metaphor for the ages!

6)  “Jonathon Fisk” – Spoon

Mentioned in an email by former student Geoff Troup less than a month before the New Year, I set out to hear Spoon’s Kill the Moonlight before their scheduled 2010 release of Transference (which is fantastic, by the way).  I realized I did know “That’s the Way We Get By,” probably from watching The O.C. with my sister.  (Did I just admit that in an official post?  Wow.)  The album was a bit odd to me at first, but after a few listens, I couldn’t get enough of their unique style.  “Jonathon Fisk” is among the best, and I hold a special place in my heart for this track since I learned it for a recent Laptop Session.

7)  “The Mob Goes Wild” – Clutch

Clutch came highly recommended by my colleague Dan O’Brien, and although I liked Blast Tyrant very much (so much that it just missed charting on my favorite 50 albums of the decade list), “The Mob Goes Wild” immediately stood out from the rest.  It is one of those songs for which you feel compelled to learn the lyrics so you can competently sing along.  It also adds a nice, harder edge to this playlist that balances out the quieter tracks.

8)  “Cornerstone” – The Arctic Monkeys

Like “Singing Joy to the World,” I instantly fell in love with the story told in this song.  Not only did I listen with rapt attention that first listen, but I was fascinated by the instrumental and vocal blend.  “Cornerstone” is a wonderfully quirky, hauntingly skeevy, and addictively entertaining track, one that softened my distaste for the Arctic Monkeys,’ an opinion I had based on their early work.

9)  “Life of a Thousand Crimes” – Echo & the Bunnymen

If you believed the critics that write for the major music magazines, you would have ignored the 2009 release (The Fountain) that yielded this Echo & the Bunnymen gem.  McCulloch’s vocals are in gritty, perfect form for leading this upbeat romp.

10)  “Peacemaker” – Green Day

There were so many standout tracks on Green Day’s 2009 album 21st Century Breakdown that it was difficult to choose just one for this playlist.  Overall, though, “Peacemaker” is one of the most instrumentally and vocally interesting, not to mention one of the catchiest.  When I recorded my Laptop Session cover song version of this track, it certainly gave me a workout as I figured out how to fit in all the vocals and still breathe!

11)  “Cream and Bastards Rise” – Harvey Danger

Remember “Flagpole Sitta”?  Well, it seems that this is about the only Harvey Danger song that anyone remembers.  And it’s a shame because 2005’s Little by Little… is an outstanding disc, one that featured this catchy, killer performance of their lead single.  (And, sadly, they’re so right!)

12)  “Jocelyn” – Kevin Hearn & Thin Buckle

If you liked the hidden track on the Barenaked Ladies’ 2000 album Maroon, then Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle are for you.  This, as you may have guessed, is Hearn’s side project, and their second album (2004’s Night Light) yielded this beautiful little song.  After the frenetic buildup of “Peacemaker” and “Cream and Bastards Rise,” I thought this was the perfect track to relax on before “Got Some” returns again for another go-round.

More Laptop Sessions covers

Announcing an all-new Saturday series at the Laptop Sessions!

Posted on by
Reply

By Chris Moore:

As of today, the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog is happy to introduce yet another weekly series to the blog, for your reading pleasure.  Let’s start with a quick recap of what regular visitors have come to expect:

Mon: Chris Moore Mondays, including a new cover song music video and accompanying post.

Wed: Original Wednesdays — intermittently featuring videos of original songs by FMP artists.

Thurs: Jim Fusco Thursdays, including a new cover song music video and accompanying post.

Fri: The Guest Sessions, including a new cover song music video and accompanying post.

Sun: The Weekend Review, including a full-length review of an album, stretching from classic to current.

Now, we’re pleased to add the following entry:

Sat: Playlists on Parade, including a featured playlist arranged by an FMP artist and liner notes to accompany the track listing.

So, be sure to check in every Saturday for the featured playlist of the week.  We’d love to see you post your comments, suggestions for additions to the track listings, or even your own related playlists.

Related posts

The State of the Cover Address, 2010

Posted on by
8

By Chris Moore:

Greetings, my fellow musicians and music lovers.  I come before you tonight in the form of an actual blog post, airing my thoughts and feelings for the Internet to read.  Take them for what they are.

Ever since Jeff’s Eagles cover songs posted on YouTube were tagged for copyright infringement, I’ve been increasingly interested — and concerned — about the state of the acoustic cover song.  Now that I’ve been hit for alleged infringement by corporate superpower Sony Music, I find myself having a personal stake in this debate:

Should it be — and, perhaps a more pressing question: is it — illegal to post acoustic cover song music videos on YouTube?

I’d like to start at the beginning.  A cover song is a performance by one singer/musician of another songwriter’s composition.  For as long as there has been music, there have been covers.  It is through cover songs that we learn how to play guitar, not to mention how we feel out our own songwriting styles and preferences.  Cover songs provide an avenue for us to explore our influences in a very personal manner, as we must take in every nuance from the original performance, decide which work for us and which do not, and attempt to recreate the song in a way that is fitting to our own abilities.

Finally — and this is where the legality of it all comes in — cover songs are what listeners are often interested in before they listen to the original music of a new songwriter.

The members of the Laptop Sessions music blog have spent countless hours preparing for and playing shows at bars, restaurants, fairs, and other venues at which we would have loved to play all original music.  However, most promoters and managers required that we bring songs that were more well-known to their customers.  Thus, we set out to learn some of our favorite rock songs — the standards, in most cases, from mainstays like the Beatles, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, and others.  Although we made money here or there, even this was never for profit.  Over the years, considerably more money has gone into these ventures than we have ever seen in return.

No, and perhaps this is a point that multi-million dollar attractions like the Eagles and Bob Dylan have forgotten, the point was never to make money.  The point was to perform in front of an audience, to have our music heard, and to practice with the intent to become better musicians, songwriters, and performers.  This desire naturally progressed into Jim’s conception and development of the Fusco-Moore blog, better known now as the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog.  Week after week since its 2007 inception, the Laptop Sessions performers have chosen songs that they loved, practiced them tirelessly, run through multiple performances until a satisfactory recording could be captured, and posted a textual component to augment the video, explaining trivia about the song, as well as commenting on the quality of the song (such as why we feel it has been underrated, forgotten, honored for good reason, etc.).

The point is that our cover songs have been labors of love.

(At this point, I will highlight the fact that I speak only for myself by switching to the first person singular, but I do believe the other contributors would agree, at least to a degree.)

Although I hoped that people would naturally gravitate toward my original music if they liked my cover song performances, it was never a necessary component.  I haven’t sold even one track since I started contributing to the Laptop Sessions 192 original and cover song music videos ago: if profit were my intention, I would have stopped months and probably years ago.

These cover song performances have allowed me to study a variety of songwriting styles at close range, artists as wide-ranging as Bob Dylan to Pearl Jam, Tegan and Sara to the Lovin’ Spoonful, and even, most recently, Pink.  The experiences I’ve had have fueled my commentary and criticism in my blog posts, as well as the direction my interests have gone, most directly affecting the CD’s I buy (yes, corporate music labels, we are among the few people still buying music in legal CD and vinyl formats on a very regular basis).

Which brings me back to the present.  Last week, I was hit with a copyright infringement notice from YouTube that was brought against me by Sony Music on behalf of Bob Dylan.  Why my cover of “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” was chosen among my other Dylan covers, I can’t be certain, but I’m sure that more allegations are on the way.  It would appear that my only recourse is to file an official DMCA counter-notification.  Before I do this (and sign my name to the promise that “I consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the district in which my address is located, or if my address is outside of the United States, the judicial district in which YouTube is located, and will accept service of process from the claimant.”), I want to be certain of what the law states.  While I agree with Jim’s reading of the fair use provision in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, I have also found legal forums where members disagree with our reading and proclaim cover song music videos to be a violation of copyright.

My correspondence with the YouTube Copyright Team has thus far only yielded a reply in which they simply copied and pasted text from their FAQ section, but I have restated my email to be clearer.

Essentially, I want to know (and have asked) if acoustic cover song music videos posted for non-profit, personal use on YouTube are in fact illegal.

When I receive a reply, I will add it here.

Until then, I am left frustrated by the irony of Bob Dylan — Sony Music, technically, but in the name of Bob Dylan — attempting to intimidate me out of posting cover songs on YouTube.  This is the same Dylan who earned a living, albeit a meager one, playing covers in Greenwich Village in the early sixties.  This is the same Dylan accused in the interviews of multiple friends from that period of literally stealing music, lifting vinyl from various people’s collections.  This is the same Dylan who has built his early respect and his contemporary catalog on the foundations of the music of the past.

Why has he not been shunned, brought to court, or otherwise attacked?  Because anyone who cares to look more closely at these aspects knows he has undertaken each of these actions in the name of honing his craft, experiencing and adding to his influences, and continuing to create thought-provoking, entertaining performances.

He is my acoustic, folk, rock, and just plain music role model, and frankly I am left with a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach as I obsessively review the censure I have received from YouTube, staring at my hundreds of dollars of Dylan music and merchandise and wondering how such an insignificant figure in the music industry as myself could be perceived as such a threat, such a criminal, by the establishment.

I await an answer from YouTube.

More Laptop Sessions covers