It's all about me, really.

I admit being partial.

This is one of my privileges of remaining at an unpaid fanzine level of writing. I can exclusively write about only the stuff I like, or feel like writing about. Even if it seems I only write about my friends’ bands, (which incidentally isn’t completely accurate,) I think it’s an honest way to write. I don’t write about a band simply because I read about them in some music magazine from somewhere, saw on a list, or that someone else already told me was pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, this is how I find out about a lot of good stuff out there too. But if I’ve heard about it this way, unless it’s made some unique impact on me, I probably don’t have a lot to add to the conversation. I feel I’d just be tatting off a rewording of what I already heard. There are places for that, spreading the word and all, but I rarely do it.

Go to the source.

I far prefer to write about things where I have first-hand knowledge. It's my opinion that if you’ve seen something first hand, and on more than one occasion, you’ve got more depth of perception and more likely that you’ve got something of substance to say. If I know the environment and the other people in that scene, I’m going to have a greater perspective than some performer or band I’ve only seen once. And if some of the musicians I write about are my friends too, well it isn’t odd to become friends with people whose work you admire. Is it?

It is impossible.

“The heart of a melody can never be put down on paper.” I read this quote somewhere and I don’t know who to credit, but it sounds right to me. One can never get in words to the places where music can easily reach. Some people can write technically about music, and that can be useful, but it comes about as close to the heart of a melody as a list of ingredients describes what it’s like to eat your favorite meal. Though you might try to be objective, bringing music that matters to you in a review to other people really is never objective, but always personal.

It is love.

I think many times the better review turns out to be slightly more about the receiver of the music than the giver or the music itself. Even so, the attempt and the struggle to describe the heart of a melody in words, with some luck, compels fellow music lovers to find that melody and give it a listen for themselves. I’m grateful when I read something that makes me want to listen. And that is why I keep trying to describe the music I love.

CD review: Bela Karoli, Furnished Rooms

Double-posted at The Donnybrook Writing Academy



Bela Karoli is complicated simplicity, a paradox. But this is a band that makes songs out of Emily Dickinson and T.S. Eliot poems for goodness sake. So complicated simplicity makes a kind of perfect sense.

Furnished Rooms, Bela Karoli’s debut release, will make you pay attention and listen to familiar sounds like they were new.

In the first track, “Snow,” the rich and warm signature upright bass sound of Julie Davis is followed by the artful bow strokes of Carrie Beeder’s violin and then by the recognizable airy tones of Brigid McAuliffe’s accordion. The music is as inventive and playful as you might suspect with that admittedly unusual orchestration.

The sense of warmth and palpable life that reside in these twelve songs will make you feel the air passing through vocal cords, in and out of accordion bellows, bringing oxygen to blood pumping through arms that move bows, fingers that pluck strings. I could wax on in this vein but then paradox arises again. There in the background is a machined rhythm of programmed drum tracks. Like in the song “Invertebrate” where the lyrics, “we are soft cells; we have metal shells” suggest a duality, the songs themselves also feel as if existing as a cellular life of their own though encased in that hard and cold shell. It’s a compelling contrast, though I have to admit I miss the presence of a human drummer.

Bela Karoli is like nothing you’ve heard before. Not exactly. Like their version of “Summertime” you’ll recognize it as familiar, sort of, but it’s not an instantaneous recognition. Like no other, this is a furnished room you’ll find yourself glad to be sitting in.

Beck? You're asking me?

A few weeks ago I was working in the coffee shop when my one of favorite music conversationalists on the bookselling side of the store comes up and asks me "So, Linda Ruth, what's the deal with Beck?"

"Beck?" I laughed. "I think I'm probably one of the least useful people to ask about the dude, because 'though we're the same age, I've been ignoring Beck since I first heard him." But then I thought this might be an interesting thought to explore. "Tell you what Jim, it'll be the subject of my next blog."

So that was well over a month ago. But to my defense, I've been thinking.

Many months ago, weeks before The Information came out, I was given an advance review copy. I did intend to write a review of it, but every time I picked it up to unpeel the shrink wrap I suddenly thought of something else to do.

Since back when "Loser" was as ubiquitous and unavoidable as parks and churches in the suburbs, I've held a grudge against Beck's music. 'Twas catchy but not cool to my way of hearing. I reckoned he'd be gone and forgotten before too long. But while other musicians were dropping out of the scene or checking out of the world altogether Beck remained. Dammit.

I thought he was too easy to listen to. Lame and uninventive. But I'm willing to reconsider things I first blew off. Maybe the problem was mine, at least partly. The experience of music is reception as much as transmission after all.

I went home and saw as a sign of fate the November 2006 issue of Paste Magazine with you-know-who on the cover. British writer Steve Turner was taking it on. So I read it.

Turner starts out the article describing Beck's London performance…with puppets. Groan. The gist: Is he putting us on, or is he serious about this shit? Hm. On to a short bio of Beck's poor immigrant upbringing, his dislike of interviews (which he claims to not read) and charmingly quirky family members. Okay, this is all pretty likeable stuff. But there are a number of people who I like personally but don't necessarily respect.

I'm not going to recount the whole article 'cos it's out there if you're interested. But the thing that stuck with me (since I was searching for why I don't like Beck more than wishing to be convinced that I should like him) the observation that got to me the most was that among all the loads of bands influenced by the Velvet Underground and Joy Division sound (yeah, that's all up my alley btw) that Beck dared to be influenced by other stuff like funk and Mexican bands. Music ignored and discarded and made into something new and delightful. Like the middle class kids scooped up the good stuff and the poor kid sifted through the trash and made something nobody else thought was worth it. But it was.

Maybe. It's a nice story, but I'm still not convinced. I am a little stubborn in my grudges. But damn, that interpretation hit me in a weak spot. All that's totally punk attitude, which I thought Beck totally lacked. I looked again at the cd cover, blue graph paper, and opened up the sheet of stickers. DIY album art. Definitely a cool idea, but riding the line of cool to the point of contrived. But maybe that's the point. I still don't know, but my research brought me to this point—I still don't like Beck's music, but I respect him better. I guess the deal with Beck is that it appears he's probably doing about exactly what he wants to do and succeeding at it to boot. Dregs to diamonds and all that. And well, creating what you intend is better than many striving artists can say.

Hope that helps answer your question Jim. Thanks for asking.

my top music releases of 2006

My top eight 2006 releases, or in other words, the eight cds i've played over and over and....well, you get the idea. Plus, if you don't like my 8 darlings there are 80 more from 10 other writers in the article!

Here you may find the nicely edited version: www.superstarcastic.com

Here is my longer, unedited version:

Some 2006 releases that changed my life, at least a little bit.

It's a lot of work to get out of town, especially when the town you live in is Denver. I got out of here two times this year. In March I drove almost sixteen hours straight to get to Austin for SXSW. It took six cans of Red Bull, (shudders) and only a few stops for fuel and food. The music made it worth all the effort, but it takes a long, long time after you leave Denver before you get to anyplace else that doesn't look like a likely spot for aliens to visit. It made me drive as fast as I could (hence the only sixteen hours of driving). Thanksgiving I decided to not risk the speeding tickets and took the train back home to Kentucky. Again, hours and hours of vast nothingness before signs of life appeared. Point being, living in Denver can feel as isolated as living on an island.

Okay, I was trying to get somewhere clever with that intro but lost it. Probably because trying to get somewhere clever takes you off the path of where you really need to go. So, lemme start this over with as basic and honest a start as I can. Any music I've deliberately chosen to listen to countless times qualifies as life impacting, at least for a time.

These are the 2006 releases I've employed the repeat button on, repeatedly, this past year:

1. Porlolo – Storm and Season. I have certainty that I will never ever tire of hearing this album. Certainty isn't a regular visitor to my life. This is a beautiful collection of songs. Beautiful.
2. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. I love Neko Case and bought this the day it came out. On first listen I liked it, but disappointingly only kinda liked it. The songs didn't immediately take to my ear. But I've loved so much other Neko I kept listening. It has grown on me. Like bindweed choking out mainstream radio crabgrass. Very pretty.
3. Paul K and the Weathermen – Panopticon. This guy had Will Oldham listening at his feet back in the day. Me too, but that's a less interesting comment. This is an ambitious three disc project, all hand made covers. Love it.
4. Twilight Singers – Powder Burns. I could do more back in the day references what with Dulli/Whigs and Lanegan/Trees citations. But I don't need to. This record's pretty good without reminiscing.
5. Bright Channel – Self Propelled. The lady at the old hotel up in Fairplay said Jeff Suthers looked like a young Donald Sutherland, but that's only because she's never seen Thurston Moore. Bright Channel proves they don't need an Albini after all. Might be my favorite Denver band to hear…and that's saying a lot.
6. Head Like A Kite – Random Portraits of the Home Movie. I arrived late and totally missed this Seattle band's show at the Larimer. I had gone to see them solely on a friend's rec and had only a myspace idea of what they sounded like. So I bought their disc. I put it on and about immediately started dancing even though I was stone cold sober when I pressed play. Whoa.
7. Cowboy Curse – Nod Up and Down (To the Simulcast Singing). Best Denver pop band? Might be. Nod Up and Down is addition to the proof that pop songs can be much more elaborately crafted than their easy to listen to exterior first lets on.
8. Tarmints – Toil Like Devils. Yes, these sounds are definitely coming from inside Denver, but they can travel anywhere. There's a fierce rhythm not to be fooled with, guitars to match and as if that weren't enough, there's the unflinching eye of a poet in there too.

So, I fell asleep at the keyboard at this point last night and had a nightmare. It was cold and dark. I appeared to be in a cave. There were dim lights in the background. I stepped outside and it was even colder and smoky so I stepped back inside and it smelled bad and…wait, this sounds a lot like hanging out in the Larimer Lounge. Aha, this dream I could analyze. And it ties back into my clever introduction. No, I didn't get out of town much. Not in a physical sense and admittedly not so much in a musical sense either. But I did see 2/3 of the bands that made the releases I listened to the most this past year actually perform some of the songs on them. And that made all the difference to me.