Sack - Other Voices set

'Sugar Free' & 'Tag'

'Latter Day Saint' & 'Pressures of Modern Life'

Shortly before Channel 6's Nightshift - Ireland's only halfway decent music video show on TV - got shut down by its evil corporate bosses in TV3, I saw for the first time ever the video for Sack's 'Laughter Lines', aka the song that Morrissey said "should be No. 1 forever". Unfortunately, I'm unlikely to see it again anytime soon, because it's not on YouTube - proving a) that good music television is not made completely redundant by the internet (it's not on Muzu.tv either, or (laugh) MTV Music) that b) most things by Sack, one of Ireland's best modern bands, are really hard to find.

So here is Sack's set from (Irish public broadcaster) RTE's Other Voices series in 2006, partially as a two fingers up to TV3 and an illustration of where the license fee actually goes (as opposed to Green Party, government minister for communications, Eamon Ryan's less than fantastic performance in explaining the virtues of public broadcasting against Vincent Browne's disingenuous block-headedness) and also because it's a very good live performance. In fact, it's probably my favourite performance of the several Other Voices series, even ahead of Fight Like Apes.

Self-described as "Frank Sinatra fronting the Pixies", Sack actually fits that description quite well. Crooning vocals revolving around a subtle electro-poppy, shoegaze-y indie sound and, yes, a certain Morrissey/Smiths quality. I wasn't very familiar with the band before seeing their Other Voices performance. 'Sugar Free' starts it off slow and gentle, not even touching the keyboard until three minutes in, and then only to accentuate the gradual curve of the song. 'Tag', by contrast, opens even quieter, yet stronger, with Martin McCann's vocal hook "I've spent this evening, watching you leaving", and from thereon in the song soars ever more upwards. Sack presents a certain sort of combined sonic and visual scenery in their carefully crafted pop. In the background, there is the beautiful musical textures created by the band; and in the foreground, the dramatic gestures of the frontman in his snazzy Suggs-style Fred Perry shirt.

At the time, I was only just getting into keyboards and pop music in general as valid means of artistic expression, something that also went along with discovering Bob Mould's post-Husker Du band Sugar and their first album Copper Blue. It may be an odd association, but it's not one without parallels. Both Mould and McCann are active as DJs in the gay club scene - and both are balding, stocky 30- to 40-something year old men - but what really interests me is the music here and the use of keyboard melodies in guitar-based indie or 'alt-rock' music. There's something about Sack that replicates the expressiveness of Sugar or later Husker Du, when they hit something sweetly poppy yet still obviously alternative.

In the second part, 'Latter Day Saints' is an upbeat, driving, melodic song with a groovy, slightly jazzy - in the showtune kind of way - chorus, "I'm trying hard to be a latter-day saint". The longer, more melancholy 'Pressures of Modern Life' combines instrumental atmosphere - vibrato guitar and keyboard blips and bloops - with the same kind of gentle melody and shoegaze-y drive: "suicide in a college town (ooh-ooh-oooh)". It's an almost defiantly pop sort of song, in its ending lines followed by the last, sugary riffs - "they got him, those demons/they repossessed his soul".

sacktheband.net

You Are What You Eat - b-sides and rarities

Festive Bestuv/Best Of Best ofs 2008

1. Best-Of Roundups

2. 2009 Schedule

1.

Recommended Blogroll Best-Ofs:

Failing the Rorschach Test: The Best Albums of 2008: from #30 to #21; #20; #19 ("and then eventually to #1). Example - "Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life: There was a lot of good hardcore music released this year. This wasn't even in my top ten." Plenty of hardcore/punk/screamo/post-rock/crescendo-core...

Geek Down, Best of 2008: Rock Albums, including Grails, Shooting at Unarmed Men, Mogwai and Have A Nice Life plus one other. Also, Rap and 'Pop Art' albums.

The Prisonship: Bestuv 2008, pt. 1: Haven’t Heards, Haven’t Heard Enoughs, General Trends. Example, 'Haven't Heards' - "No Age: I dunno, Bob Mould likes it". Also including Zomes, Earth, 'shoegaze' - i.e. "lush, rich gtr-blankets draped over sex-vocals with the feet-cymbals peaking out from under them blankets".

Last Train to Cool/Worship and Tribute (Sputnikmusic writers)

Still waiting on: Zen and the Art of Face Punching (his Best of 2007 list, from February 2008!)

Irish blog lists:

Swear I'm Not Paul: Best of 2008: Irish Blogs & Publications, Update 6 - like Largeheartedboy's worldwide aggregate list, but actually manageable.

Nialler9's Irish Albums of 2008 Reader's Poll: Jape and Rarely Seen Above Ground (see HfN: Year End November) at #1 and #2, streets ahead of the rest; Fight Like Apes at #3, Chequerboard at #9, So Cow and Ham Sandwich at #15 and #16 respectively.

Those Geese Were Stupefied: Best of 2008, including Interlude 2: Homemade, stapled-together super-limited EP, So Cow - Wackity Schmackity Doo (Unreleased); and Interlude 3: Free Download, Dublin Duck Dispensary - Luanqibazao, review by Brian Kelly, a.k.a. So Cow - example: "It's been tagged as no-fi. Incorrect. This is fi. It's pop-fi and it's smile-fi. It's gallop-fi and it's fist-fi."

Best Combined Post-Mcluskyite Inclusions in a List:

Gimme Tinnitus - Top 51 Downloadables of 2008 including Future of the Left, 'Adeadmanalwayssmellsgood' - "Award: Best awesomeness of the year" and Shooting At Unarmed Men, 'Boredom Is The Feeling That Everything Is A Waste Of Time' - "Award: Best song that took for fucking ever to be released in the states of the year".

Best/Most Inappropriate Description of Ham Sandwich - Carry The Meek:

Egoeccentric, Evil Bob's Best of 2008: "6. ...Ham Sandwich's first album mixes perfectly the female vocals of surprise preggers Niamh Farrell and fucking mentaller Podge McNamee to make some great pop-rock tunes. Great stuff all round."

(and thus) The Two Best Albums Of The Year That Almost Nobody's Heard (Yet):

Triptych.zip

Carry the Meek.zip

(If you like, buy: Shootingatunarmedmen.com, Eathamsandwich.com)

2.

Best of Albums of 2006*, including:

Envy, Insomniac Doze

Shooting At Unarmed Men, Yes! Tinnitus!

Si Schroeder, Coping Mechanisms

The Bouncing Souls, The Gold Record

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show Your Bones

*because it takes a year to hear about all the really good albums, and another year to appreciate them properly.

Looking forward to in 2009:

Dan Deacon, Bromst

and So Cow Greatest Hits LP

and Bats - split 7" with Fist Fite and forthcoming full-length album.

Happy New Year!

Eighty-Four: Bob Mould - 'The Silence Between Us'

- post #84

I missed the chance to do anything particularly special for '76 or '77 (the latter was My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, ?) which is a bit of a shame considering what kind of a blog this is.

Of course, '84 as in 1984 has its significance in a literal sense (Orwell) and I could work in the awesomeness of the eponymous Californian montage artist Winston Smith, and post some Dead Kennedys or Green Day's Insomniac. (Hey, that sounds like a pretty good idea - unfortunately, it's not on the schedule) However, 84 is quite significant in music terms as - to pick one example -the year of Husker Du's double album Zen Arcade. This isn't anywhere near as good as that, but it's pretty good nonetheless, and it is Bob Mould.

To borrow a non sequitur from the Clash:

eighty four... four... four...

___________________________________

"There were trails of fallen trees,

deciduous and [?]

the lowland birds and crickets roared, the final sounds of fall

along the banks of the river we approached the footbridge

entering the wilderness, following my footsteps..."

I really like this stage-quiet pastoral intro to 'The Silence Between Us'; and then, it's the point at which - pretty much - the big Sugar guitars kick in. It's a good, short and loud pop song although at least one person thinks we should be asking for more:

"If this track came from any other artist, people would dismiss it as the hacky, watered-down Foo Fighters bite it really is. Quicker than you can say Candy Apple Grey. But because it is “Bob Mould,” critics and fans seem to be hailing this twaddle as the Hüsker Düde’s comeback to his guitar-rock roots. In truth, “The Silence Between Us” hardly holds a votive to anything Mould has accomplished in his 20-odd-year career. Perhaps this tragic turn into Daughtry-esque tribal tattoo rock is the residual fallout of from hearing ring-entrance music during his tenure as a WCW scriptwriter a few years back. Hey, at the very least, this tune could make a great theme for the Batista montage!"

(Paper Thin Walls: Single Review; with a response from I Rock Cleveland)

Bob Mould - 'The Silence Between Us' (vinyl rip)

Bob Mould on eMusic

The b-side is a live version of 'If I Can't Change Your Mind'.

Read all about District Line on the ANTI- Records website

The Hüsker Dü Six and a Bit Minutes

A direct follow-on to the previous post. Both these videos are excellent. The first song is one by Grant Hart, from 1986's Candy Apple Grey, 'Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely'; the second by Bob Mould, from 1987's Warehouse: Songs and Stories, 'Could You Be The One?':

________________________________________

(Candy Apple Grey)

(Warehouse)

________________________________________

'Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely', live concert performance

'Could You Be The One?', music video

Anyone else think Greg Norton looks like a tall Det. Martinez from NYPD Blue? Probably just me.

The Bob Mould Half Hour

What, only half an hour?

When the artist for the night's featured half-hour was announced, I grabbed my trusty Mr. Audio and readied it to record. 'Micko' of Blitz (formerly, in their pirate days, Micko in the Doghouse) Phantom FM's alternative hard rock show, is one of the station's longest-serving DJs. And according to this article, he's 'Rodge' from Podge and Rodge. I didn't know that.

I wish I had the equipment to digitally record a cassette (and I would have if I'd got the next Ion turntable up, I think) but I don't, so I've just zipped up the relevant mp3 files from my own collection into a folder and uploaded it to Mediafire for your listening pleasure:

Bob Mould Playlist, Phantom FM

1. 'The Silence Between Us' - Bob Mould, District Line

2. 'Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely' - Hüsker Dü, Candy Apple Grey

3. 'A Good Idea' - Sugar, Copper Blue

4. 'Could You Be the One?' - Hüsker Dü, Warehouse: Songs and Stories

5. 'Your Favourite Thing' - Sugar, File Under: Easy Listening

6. 'Stupid Now' - Bob Mould, District Line

It's not actually half an hour long, more like twenty one and a bit minutes; but that's just the songs of course, and no radio jabber, radio idents or ads. Or programming warnings:

"If you don't like to hear songs with loud guitars or bad language, turn off your radio now and do something else, like

[build a model airplane],

[make a sandwich],

[join a band],

[fix the toilet - again] or

[stare at the fish]"

(square brackets to indicate sound effects)

It's a good mix, a good overview of Bob Mould's pop-heavy punk-hardcore songwriting; no really raucous stuff, like Sugar's Beaster EP or the early Hüsker Dü such as Metal Circus or, of course, Zen Arcade; and none of his more electronic work, such as Modulate or his most recent (before District Line), Body Of Song. 'Stupid Now', the last song of the half hour and the first song of the new album, comes the closest to the Body of Song sound; 'The Silence Between Us', the single of which should be appearing on this blog sometime soon, is more a return-to-form of the Sugar sound. I found this interesting summation of the single on the indie blog I Rock Cleveland:

"In his less than complimentary track review of Bob Mould's "The Silence Between Us" for Paper This Walls, Ron Hart wrote, "If this track came from any other artist, people would dismiss it as the hacky, watered-down Foo Fighters bite it really is. Quicker than you can say Candy Apple Grey. But because it is 'Bob Mould,' critics and fans seem to be hailing this twaddle as the Hüsker Düde’s comeback to his guitar-rock roots." Hart does have a valid point. If this wasn't Bob Mould, then "The Silence Between Us" wouldn't have had me digging through my mess of a cd rack, my secondary cd rack, and all the stacks of cds on the bedroom dresser and the coffee table in my living room looking for old Sugar cds I hadn't played in years. Instead, I would have tuned my dial to K-ROCK to hear more "alternative" hits from the Nineties and Today. Look, I'm not saying that "The Silence Between Us" is the second coming of "If I Can't Change Your Mind,"* but it's far from twaddle, and if anything, it serves as a reminder that Mould had quite a string of solid singles during his post Husker Du days."

(* guess what the b-side for 'The Silence Between Us" is? Ironic)

The other tracks on this mix, from Sugar and from Hüsker Dü, reflect that solid string. Candy Apple Gray is one of my very favourite Husker albums (almost better than New Day Rising?) and 'Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely' typifies the acerbic pop of that album (see note below); likewise, 'A Good Idea' from Copper Blue exemplifies the incredible grunge-y bite of Sugar's finest album. Like Micko himself says:

"...Now we're going right up to the nineties, when Mould formed the more rockin' Sugar, kind of the band I discovered him through. This is from Sugar's debut album released in '92, Copper Blue. In fact, I remember very well taping Copper Blue on one side of a cassette and on the other side I taped Nirvana's Nevermind and saying to a mate I gave it to I wasn't sure which was better. So there you go. Here's 'A Good Idea', taken from Copper Blue:"

'Could You Be The One?' is a late Hüsker Dü, from the Warehouse album which is crammed full of every type of song Bob Mould and Grant Hart could come up with. Similarly, 'Your Favourite Thing' is from Sugar's final album, FU:EL.

There is of course a whole range of other, solo, Bob Mould stuff preceding 2008's District Line. Body of Song is a very decent, if not to say quite good, electro-rock album - mostly sounding like late Sugar with a few extra twiddles. And then there's his self-titled debut, generally known as the 'hubcap' album due its cover.

Since I haven't done a Friday Video for a couple of weeks now - and to bring this a little closer to a full half hour of music! - here's the strangely Sesame Street-like video for 'Egøverride' from that album:

NOTE: 'Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely', I just realised last night, is in fact written - and sung - by Grant Hart. Says right so in the liner notes for Candy Apple Grey, and of course you can tell by the way it sounds a bit like 'Standing By The Sea'. To be honest though, if I hadn't heard some of Hart's solo stuff, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between their voices that easily. Anyway, to make up for that, here's something further that is definitely Bob Mould - vocals and guitar - the video for Sugar's 'Gee Angel':

I also realised, Candy Apple Grey has the right spelling of 'grey' - what's up with that?