Cubicle Tunes - Week of June 17, 2008

Music is constant, even if my writing isn't, and though I wasn't able to blog over the last few weeks, I was able to listen, and as always, you - the reader - are the beneficiary.

Big news! The bitchin' Saturn ION 3 is now reloaded with XM Radio. I told myself back in May of 2007 that I couldn't justify the expense. Then I told myself that I was a complete tool, and things got pretty heated until my sensible self just up and bitch slapped my frugal self with a stinging backhand. You should have seen it. It was textbook technique, employing the obliques and turning with my torso to generate power, and the next thing I know, I was telling myself "I got knocked the #@&* out!".

So, allow me to pontificate with these:

1. Viva la Vida – Coldplay (2008)

Teaming up with Brian Eno, Coldplay is back with their fourth album, and I think it’s just swell. “Life in Technicolor” is a great opener – I like the idea of starting a record with an instrumental track. Other favorites include “Viva la Vida”, which generated substantial anticipation through the iTunes teaser spots, and the album’s closer, “Death and All His Friends”.

On a related note, I still hate the song “Yellow” from the Parachutes album. I can’t fathom how such a crappy song could come from an otherwise pretty cool band. I mean, every band has a few misses in their discography, but rarely are they so far off the pace.

2. Narrow Stairs – Death Cab for Cutie (2008)

This album is tremendous. The opener, “Bixby Canyon Bridge”, starts calmly and builds pressure and explodes into noise and chaos before settling back into serenity. “I Will Possess Your Heart” is a sublimely creepy account of a distant infatuation turned obsession: “you reject my advances and desperate pleas; I won’t let you let me down so easily”. Damn – call the cops!

“Pity and Fear” must be listened to at ridiculous decibel levels. The distortion stops so abruptly that I went back and checked iTunes to make sure I had the whole song.

And finally, “Your New Twin Sized Bed” is my new Death Cab favorite, and is the first song to be guaranteed a spot on the Vox Acerbus Best of 2008.

3. The Seldom Seen Kid – Elbow (2008)

The return of XM makes an immediate impact with the discovery of this band. I was scanning stations and chanced upon XM 45 as they were playing the magnificent track “One Day Like This”, punctuated by a blend of sweeping and staccato string arrangements. Other favorites include “Mirrorball” and “Grounds for Divorce”, where the album title is taken from the lyric “Mondays are for drinking to the seldom seen kid”. They also have one of the coolest websites out there. Check it out here and make sure your volume is up at the intro screen – you can play piano by scrolling over the different letters! Their extensive discography will certainly warrant further listening.

4. Gavin DeGraw – Gavin DeGraw (2008)

I was hooked on Gavin DeGraw the night I saw him open for Barenaked Ladies back in 2004. I had no idea who he was before then, but he put on one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. The single “In Love with a Girl” picks up right where the material from Chariot left off. Other favorites include “Next to Me (Wait A Minute Sister”, “Untamed”, “We Belong Together” and “Cheated on Me” (I love a song that I can relate to on such a personal level).

So what if it took him 5 years to release another album? I love it, even if he does look like a dead ringer for Mike Damone from Fast Times at Ridgemont High on the album cover.


5. Gattaca – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1997)

Michael Nyman’s score is gorgeous. This is a film where the score holds critical importance; the surrealism and depth of the movie could not have been attained without this music behind it. Try this one on your iPod some time when you retire for the evening – a dark room with no distractions would take this up a notch, methinks.

I’m out-
KWass

Cubicle Tunes - Week of May 6, 2008

You thought you had heard the last of my incessant musical ramblings, yes?

To be honest, I thought I might have written the last of said musical ramblings. Lots of bitter happenings in the world of Vox Acerbus lately - a real estate deal gone sour, work travel for 3 of the last 5 weeks, and another real estate deal to replace the aforementioned sour one. Rodney Dangerfield said it best in Ladybugs:

"Two-story house. Yeah - before you buy it they give you one story, after you move in you get another story."

But I digress.

Through it all, I've managed to stay abreast of some very cool new stuff, as well as finally getting around to giving some earlier procured tunes their due credence. A few thousand miles in a van affords you that kind of opportunity.

1. You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into - Does It Offend You, Yeah? (2008)

This album goes against EVERYTHING that I like, and yet I can't stop listening. Electro-punk, funk-rock - whatever you want to call it - it ain't the soothing acoustic melancholy I usually immerse myself in. My favorites are "Battle Royale" and "Being Bad Feels Pretty Good", which would be quite at home on The Killers' Hot Fuss album. A paradox of the aural variety.

2. Who You Are - Cary Brothers (2007)

I was initially drawn into this record for the worthy cover of The Thompson Twins' classic "If You Were Here", but the dark and lonely miles of the western Michigan Upper Peninsula revealed the greatness of the rest of the album. "Ride" is simply stunning, and "Precious Lie" is epic sadness. And "The Glass Parade" features just the type of lyric that Vox Acerbus appreciates: "Just a voice inside your head, whispering that all the hope is dead, all the time you had to prove that no one really loves you". That, boys and girls, is why we listen to the words.

3. The Slip – Nine Inch Nails (2008)

The Slip is the second full length album released through the Nine Inch Nails website, and as a thank you to his loyal fans for years of support, Trent Reznor is offering it free of charge. Just click here, fill out the information, and you’ll get an e-mail with a link to the download site, where the files are available in many digital formats. You can also register and become eligible for presale tickets for the upcoming North American tour.

The album continues the raw machine-gun energy of 2007’s Year Zero, but for those (like myself) who revel in NIN’s darkened soundscapes, “Corona Radiata” and “The Four of Us are Dying” fit the bill.

4. Transatlanticism – Death Cab for Cutie (2005)

In anticipation of next week’s release of Narrow Stairs, I thought it prudent to revisit my favorite Death Cab album to date. Favorites include “Title & Registration” and its clever opening verse (“the glove compartment is inaccurately named, and everybody knows it, so I’m proposing a swift orderly change, because behind its door, there’s nothing to keep my fingers warm”) and the epic title track, which is one of those songs meant to be listened to at full volume. The record also contains one of my favorite songs of love desolation, “Tiny Vessels”, where Ben Gibbard sings “It was vile, and it was cheap, and you are beautiful, but you don’t mean a thing to me.”

5. Nonsuch – XTC (1992)

I am among the very few who wonder why people laud Skylarking so much more, because to me, Nonsuch is a better album. In fact, I would also rank Apple Venus Vol. 1 ahead of Skylarking as well. Blasphemy? Not to me, and it’s my blog. There it is.

XTC are some of the best lyricists ever. “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” is probably the most recognizable track, but the real gems here are “My Bird Performs” (“the cage is open but she has no desire to fly”), “The Disappointed” (“seems your ring upon my finger signifies that I’ve become the spokesman of . . . the disappointed”), and “Then She Appeared” (“and the moon which formally shone on the marbled midnight mile suddenly just packed its bags, now shines from her bright smile”).

It’s good to be home.

I’m out-
KWass

Cubicle Tunes - Week of April 1, 2008

It’s time for the biweekly submission of my weekly feature. Believe it, boys and girls; it’s just below this paragraph. I used letters and words and everything.

Looking back at my New Year’s Resolutions, posting regularly isn’t the only goal where I have failed miserably. That head of steam was quickly doused, wasn’t it? I guess there’s still time, but the fact remains that I wasted a full ¼ of the year. The only April Fool here is the author.

There has been enough great stuff released already this year to assure that the Vox Acerbus Best of 2008 will be a multi-volume offering. So, if nothing else, at least you have that going for you.

Did anyone notice that The B-52's released a new album last week? No? Neither did I.

1. Accelerate – R.E.M. (2008)

R.E.M.’s valiant return – a boisterous, angry album with great lyrics such as “if the storm doesn’t kill me, the government will”. I can now forgive them for the Reveal debacle. I may adopt “Living Well is the Best Revenge” as one of my personal theme songs. Welcome back.

2. “I Will Possess Your Heart” – Death Cab for Cutie (2008)

This is the first single from the forthcoming release Narrow Stairs slated for May 13. Clocking in at an epic 8+ minutes, the musical tone is set well before Ben Gibbard’s vocals begin halfway into the song. If this single is any indication, then another brilliant Death Cab for Cutie album is upon us.

3. “In Love With A Girl” – Gavin De Graw (2008)

This is the first single from the forthcoming self-titled second album from Gavin De Graw, which has been pushed back to a May 6 release. He retains and expands the pop sensibilities of 2003’s Chariot album, which by my account (and who else’s account really matters?) was a great record. He also puts on a very high energy show, so I hope his tour passes near my neighborhood.

4. Winterpills – Winterpills (2005)

A recent e-mail from a friend reminded me of this band, which unfortunately, for some unknown and inexplicable reason, had been relegated to iPod obscurity. My favorite song is “Portrait”, where they eschew the typical elegant and hollow professions of undying love and devotion for the simple phrase “I can’t pose for this portrait without you”, and the all too true "there's honey in the chemicals".

5. Synchronicity – The Police (1983)

Raise your hand if you can believe this landmark album was released 25 years ago. Yes – you are old like me. The album yielded timeless classics like “Every Breath You Take”, “King of Pain”, and “Wrapped Around Your Finger”. A lot of people fault Sting for being pretentious, but they’re just pissed that he wrote a lyric about Scylla and Charybdis and they didn’t know what it meant. Ignorance, while rampant, is no defense. Sting has knowledge, and you are a dumbass. Deal with it.

I'm out-
KWass