Capsule Music Review - Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

The title is misleading - these are not songs written by Seeger, they are recordings of traditional and other songs inspired by Seeger. Bruce's sincerity is of course beyond reproach, and I have no doubt these songs really were recorded in one take, but no matter how spontaneous these recordings were they don't sound spontaneous (Bruce's shouting out changes on the fly notwithstanding). Perhaps it's the seriously annoying Southern accent affected by Bruce. Perhaps it's the realization that these "informal" recording sessions were undoubtedly facilitated by state-of-the-art equipment and some top-notch catering. Perhaps it's the inherent contradiction in a guy as obviously well-off as Bruce singing about what he would if he do if he had as much money as Bill Gates.

These flaws make the record not as great as it should have been, but it's still lively and enjoyable. "Old Dan Tucker" and "Jesse James" are jaunty and catchy, and Seeger's "Bring'Em Home" is genuinely moving under the circumstances. The record shares two tracks with the recent sea chantey album Rogue's Gallery ("Mrs. McGrath" and "Shenandoah"; the version of the latter is inferior to Richard Thompson's).

Capsule Music Review - Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan - Modern Times

Yet another drastically overrated album from the single greatest individual artist in the history of popular music. You may say I'm being unfair, that I can't expect every album to be Highway 61 Revisited, but I don't think so. Is it too much to ask from Bob Dylan that in 2006 he do better than "If it keeps on rainin' the levee's gonna break" without a trace of irony? "Thunder on the Mountain"? "When the Deal Goes Down"? "Workingman's Blues #2"? It's like he cut up the collected lyrics of Robert Hunter, threw them up in the air, and reassembled them at random.

Musically the record is as dull as dishwater. The lead guitarist plays so diffidently and with so little fire or originality that he sounds like an awed teenager playing his first gig. What, is Robbie Robertson dead? Is Richard Thompson too busy? For God's sake Bob, you can do anything, have any band you want, why are you so fucking boring?

I had this record on my car CD changer back to back with Springsteen's Pete Seeger Sessions (which has its own flaws). When the Dylan album ended and the Springsteen album came on, it was like a rotting corpse had been reanimated.

Everything about the album feels like a marketing ploy, from the lazy and trivial lyrics, to the falsely ironic album title. I don't know where the hell these critics come from who are hailing this as a masterpiece, but I think it's crazy. One numbnuts even had the temerity to compare it to The Basement Tapes.

Capsul Music Review - Built to Spill

Built to Spill - You in Reverse

Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, the forces of prog-rock have refused to die and continue to mount devastating raids on the fringes of alt-rock. At the vanguard of this guerilla force are Built to Spill, whose prominent guitars and high-pitched vocals signal that the spirit of Yes lives on.

Whatever the shortcomings of 70's prog-rock, Built to Spill continues to release remarkably consistent and worthwhile records, wisely reducing the risk of drowning in topographic oceans through superior song quality and a judicious restraint in song length.

This record is very rewarding for those with any interest in the genre. Musicianship is impressive without an excess of showing-off. There is not enough beauty, emotion or rock excitement to push this record into the year's top ten, but it is nevertheless well worth picking up.

Capsule Music Review - Alejandro Escovedo

Alejandro Escovedo - The Boxing Mirror

Escovedo is much loved among discerning fans of adult alternative. My prior experience (with his 2002 theater piece/album By the Hand of the Father) was, please get this crap off my disc changer now.

His new album was a pleasant surprise, being a far more eclectic and far less maudlin exercise in alt-rock, almost completely devoid of the studied ethnic sound of the 2002 album. Eclectic, but also unfocused, leaving my overall experience with the album at the tepid level.

Some tracks rocks surprisingly hard, such as the Springsteenish "Break This Time," or the punkish "Sacramento and Polk."

In short, a worthwhile record, but non-essential.

What's playing in my car?

Ali Farka Toure - Savane
Futureheads - News and Tributes
New York Dolls - One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This
Scott Walker - The Drift
Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
Twilight Singers - Powder Burns

England Dan and John Ford Coley's "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight"

There are many execrable songs in the history of popular music. "Feelings". "Afternoon Delight". "Tonight's the Night" (Rod Stewart, not Neil Young).

But I have concluded that none is more foul, more detestable, than "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" by England Dan and John Ford Coley.

I won't even comment on the musical vapidity of the song, but it's lyrics - oh my God.

Okay, guy calls up a girl and says, "Hey, haven't spoken to you for a while, how you doin', would you like to get together tonight and do something." So far, we are in the land of the merely banal.

But in the chorus, he sings "I'm not talking about moving in, and I don't want to change your life..." At this point the girl should be saying "Hold on, cowboy, who said anything about moving in?"

It only gets worse from there. The second verse amounts to "So maybe we could take a walk in the park, watch TV and hang out or something, and then maybe we could, uh, you know, fuck."

So in other words, this guy is calling up this girl to say "I haven't seen you in six months, but I'm feeling horny, I'd like to come over to your house, fuck you, and then leave. Is that okay?"

The girl's only correct response to this asshole is "If you call me again, I'm calling the police."

I suppose some deconstructionist dimwit (like my brother-in-law) would say "Actually, the song is meant ironically. The songwriter knows the protagonist is an asshole. The song is a biting, satirical portrait of loneliness and self-loathing that rivals "Strange Fruit" for pathos and power." Yeah, right. How did I miss that?

Capsule Music Review - Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash - Personal File

This two disk set is purportedly composed of obscurities and rarities recorded mostly in 1973, uncollected and released only sporadically from Cash's basement. As one might expect, the song quality is uneven, but there are some gems, especially "The Engineer's Dying Child" and the Louvin Brothers' "When I Stop Dreaming" on disc 1. The spoken personal reminiscences on disc 1 are charming.

Disc 2 is composed entirely of religious songs, again of uneven quality. Cash's religiosity is moving and all but, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, one would have to have a heart of stone to listen to these songs without laughing. I know I'll burn in hell for this, but when he talks about religion between songs, he just sounds like a stupid hick.

What's playing in my car?

T-Bone Burnett - The True False Identity
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of this Country
Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing and a Curse
Galaxie 500 - Today
Parliament - Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome
Walker Brothers - After the Lights Go Out

What's playing in my car?

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Danielson - Ships
Minus 5 - Minus 5
Roy - Killed John Train
Television Personalities - My Dark Places
Tom Verlaine - Around

Capsule Music Review - Belle and Sebastian

Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

B&S's traditional appeal has been its mopey style and sensitive approach, hilariously dissed in the movie High Fidelity.

Whether group leader Stuart Murdoch has reached a happier place, or wants to reach a larger audience, is unknown, but now B&S is a highly expert pop band writing cheerful, catchy songs.

Nevertheless, the lyrics have a bite that one does not normally associate with pop music, putting this band on a higher level. Song quality is consistent and excellent.

ABA Task Force Recommendation on Presidential Signing Statements

Just finished reading the ABA Task Force Recommendation on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine. The Report analyzes and makes recommendations with respect to the President's use of signing statements to disregard the rule of law.

The Report confirms, as any marginally sentient being has known for at least five years, that the Bush Administration represents the greatest threat to America as we know it in at least the last 50 years. Arguably, Bush represents an even greater existential threat to the country than the Nazis in WW II.

The Report concludes that Presidential signing statements may be used solely for the purpose of illuminating the President's understanding of the meaning of a statute. He may not use it to justify disregarding the law.

The report tries to be non-partisan and level-headed, but the contempt of the authors for the Bush administration is palpable. For starters, the report makes no bones about the fact that through the signing statements, Bush is literally assuming kingly powers. The report also makes thinly veiled threats of removal from office, comparing Bush's actions unfavorably to those of King James II "which ultimately occasioned his dethronement" and suggested that legislation by Congress allowing judicial review of signing statements would "demonstrate an eagerness to play by constitutional rules short of impeachment."

The task force pointedly quotes at length from Jimmy Carter's 1978 signing statement for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (you know, the law that Bush keeps ignoring) as an example of a proper signing statement.

The historical discussion of signing statements is interesting also in that it highlights the non-constitutional problem with the signing statements, a problem that permeates the entire Bush administration, which is that the real reason for the signing statements is not that Bush feels the power of the President needs to be expanded, but that by creating such statements as an alternative to vetos Bush avoids political accountability. Few people know about the signing statements, and most Americans would be unable to understand their import even if they knew about them. By signing a bill and then secretly refusing to enforce it he can have it both ways - take credit for the bill in public while eviscerating its effectivenss.

But perhaps the saddest sentence in the report is the coda to the task force's suggestion that the Supreme Court should be given the opportunity to rule on the constitutionality of the signing statements: "It is to be hoped that the President would obey any constitutional declaration of the Supreme Court." What does it say about the state of the country that we need to worry about whether a President will obey an order of the Supreme Court?

Misleading headline on Huffington Post

I find a headline on the Huffington post regarding the deaths of four UN observers in Lebanon to be misleading and dishonest. The headline says "Israel Refuses Investigation of UN Deaths," implying that Israel is refusing to investigate the deaths. In fact, Israel is pledging to investigate the deaths, but is declining to conduct a joint investigation with the UN.

Capsule Music Review - Band of Horses

Band of Horses - Everything All the Time

I do most of my listening in the car, and I try to put the discs in alphabetical order so I can keep track of what I'm listening to. I went all the way through this debut album by Band of Horses before I realized it wasn't Built to Spill.

The commonalities are the high-pitched vocals and sophisticated approach of prog-rock. In retrospect, the comparison is superficial, as Band of Horses shoots for a more lyrical place, with some excellent and moving songwriting. The reverb-y vocals are also reminiscent of My Morning Jacket.

The sum total is solid, and occasionally compelling alt-rock with high-quality songwriting and flashes of great beauty, especially the album closer "St. Augustine". "The Great Salt Lake" also stands out as a well-constructed song with nice dynamics.

Capsule Music Review - Neil Young

Neil Young - Living with War

Few artists do disintegration better than Neil Young, as in his best records Tonight's the Night and Rust Never Sleeps. Unfortunately he doesn't do calls to action quite so well. True, Neil deserves major points for unambiguously attacking the Bush administration, a small thing you might say, but who else is doing it? The Dixie Chicks?

However, these songs are overall fairly weak, with cheesy chorused vocals to create a simulacrum of collective action, and lazy lyrics that rely too heavily on now hackneyed phrases like "shock and awe," "mission accomplished" and "smoking gun." Neil's laziness drains the power from the songs, favoring vague generalities over more powerful specificity: sadly, and with a nod to Stalin, "thousands buried in the ground" is less powerful than "four dead in Ohio."

The only really successful song is "Lookin' for a Leader," in which Neil identifies explicitly potential replacements for Bush who might have a chance to set things right.

Music capsule reviews - Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

One of this year's hyped bands is neither as good nor as bad as the hype would suggest. Tracks are at breakneck speed in the '80s dance-punk vein, with that unmistakable snotty UK attitude. The hit, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor," would be a worthy addition to any 2006 compilation.

Tony Snowjob on murder

On July 19 Tony Snow said that Bush believed that stem cell research was "murder." On July 24, Snow (apparently the most incompetent press secretary in U.S. history) said, oops, I didn't mean to say that, I was "overstating the president's position."

As others have noted (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-elisberg/a-summer-snow-job-the-st_b_25779.html) what the hell is going on here? Is it possible that Snow could have inadvertently used the term murder? Did he not discuss this with the President, or anyone else who knew what passes for the President's mind on this subject?

My belief is that the whole thing was set up - Snow refers to stem cell research as murder, then pretends to have misrepresented the President's view.

Why? The original statement prompts the headline "President's spokesman says stem cell research is murder!" Yippee, go the conservatives. The liberals get all upset.

A few days later, Snow says he overstated the position, but note he did not say "Bush thinks stem cell research is not murder." That would have upset the right wing. Instead he says Bush "would not use that term." Really? Well, what term would he use? The story does not get reported.

The result? Bush got his message across to the right wing, and liberals can't accuse Bush of taking the patently absurd position that stem cell research is murder because Bush can deny ever having said it.

Name that quote

"His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."

Ron Suskind on Bush? Nope, the OSS on Hitler during WWII.

Ghok Buti's Three Fundamental Laws

Yes, I know I said the first rule was that the Bush admin always lies. Okay, that's not fundamental.

Here are the Three Fundamental Laws:

1. Everything is overdetermined

Taught me by my analyst. It means that there's never only one reason. For anything. Doesn't matter what it is: personal foibles, environmental crises, political actions, sports results.

2. This is not a damned football game.

Taken from a powerful moment in the movie Failsafe. This is not a zero sum game. Best example: no matter how moronic Republicans are, they're still Americans and they're still people. It is essential we show them the error of their ways. Even if it were possible to crush them, we would all lose.

3. It is futile to reason someone out of a position they were never reasoned nto.

Jonathan Swift. Stop trying to explain to Republicans why a cluster of cells one-tenth the size of a period is not a person. Instead, tell them that their leaders are lying to them for their own political gain, and let them go home and think about it.

The "Bush administrati0n always lies" rule could be thought of as a corollary to the Third Law of Ghok Buti.

Bolten on Meet the Press

Just saw Josh Bolten on Meet the Press. Seems like an articulate, intelligent guy. Let's not forget the Ghok Buti First Principle: everything the Bush administration says is a lie.

What can we learn then from applying the first principle to Bolten's appearance?:

The Busb administration doesn't want a cease-fire in Lebanon because they're hoping it will trigger a Mideast-wide conflagration.

The Bush administration does not believe that Iraq will turn into a democratic ally of the United States.

Bush doesn't care about the fate of embryos.

What kind of President sacrifices human life for the sake of his own political fortunes?

What kind of person does that make Josh Bolten?

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to the first real post of my new blog. Will anyone besides myself read it? Let's find out together.

Expect me to post something every day, as my schedule allows. Typical topics will include music, literature, politics, popular culture, and dime-store philosophy.

Flamers (if I'm lucky enough to get them) will be terminated with extreme prejudice.

For the time being. anyone can post without becoming a member, which will continue to be the policy unless it gets out of hand.

My first post

http://www.dailykos.comThis is my first post. Does it work?