mehan jayasuriya

Coming of age, as I did, in the ’90s, I had to rely mostly...

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:42:00 -0400

Coming of age, as I did, in the ’90s, I had to rely mostly on pre-Internet mechanisms for music discovery during my formative years. Where we lived, this largely meant the magazine rack at the supermarket, the local “alternative” radio stations and MTV. And while MTV rarely showed music videos even in those days, there were a handful of shows on the network, “120 Minutes” being chief among them, that served as gateways to new music and largely unknown artists. It was through “120 Minutes” that I first discovered the Eels’ “Novocaine for the Soul,” a music video that ushered in both a longstanding love affair with the Eels and a penchant for wearing horn-rimmed glasses that has continued to this day.

So, as you might imagine, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to interview Eels mastermind Mark Oliver Everett (aka “E”) for PopMatters. Though it pains me to say this, at this point, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that E’s best work is behind him (a fact that I’ve written about on here in the past), though that’s not to say that his current work is without merit. In fact, his most recent release, Tomorrow Morning, might just be the best Eels record in 10 years. I chatted with E about Tomorrow Morning, his unlikely success in the music industry and his love for Neil Young—you can read the interview here.

Inverted Umlaut Podcast, No. 5: As Slow As Possible

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:56:00 -0400

Inverted Umlaut Podcast, No. 5: As Slow As Possible:

DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST (192kbps MP3)

Some metal and hardcore records just sound better sloooooower. Inspired by producer Shamantis’ surprisingly affecting 35-minute ambient edit of teen pop star Justin Bieber, this week’s Inverted Umlaut turns the crushing grimness of Electric Wizard, Converge, Black Sabbath and others into hour-long bliss-outs using the open-source software PaulStretch. Since each edit is on the long side and the show’s only two hours, I’ve provided full 320kbps MP3 download links for each track below, plus edits that didn’t make it on the show!

Last week, upon receiving my copy of the 2xLP reissue of Converge’s Jane Doe in the mail (best punk/hardcore/metal record of the ’00s? Possibly!), I ran home and threw down “side J,” only to be greeted by a blast of torpid sludge. Whoops—turns out the Jane Doe reissue is a 45 RPM! Still, it was a serendipitous, if masochistic, discovery, so I’m glad that my buddy DJ Young Padawan (aka Lars Gotrich of NPR fame) did one better and totally Biebered that shit, transforming one of the fastest, most blisteringly heavy records of the last decade into something you might reasonably meditate to. Strong work, Lars!

sashafrerejones: Emma Kupa could easily be David Gedge’s love...

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:34:06 -0400

sashafrerejones:

Emma Kupa could easily be David Gedge’s love child. The dates even line up.

SFJ is right on the money about this. And honestly, who among us hasn’t secretly wished for a female-fronted counterpoint to the Wedding Present? The B-Side, “Don’t Tell” is great as well, a delightfully exuberant nugget of kiss-and-don’t-tell indie-pop bliss. Don’t snooze on that 7”!

What the Google/Verizon deal means for net neutrality – and you

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:21:00 -0400

What the Google/Verizon deal means for net neutrality – and you:

I wrote a column on the Google/Verizon agreement for The Guardian.

come watch me flap my gums

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:55:00 -0400

So, I am going to be speaking at a couple of conferences during the next few months, alongside noted consumer advocate and burrito enthusiast Michael Weinberg. If you are planning on attending either of these events, you should drop by and say hello:

On September 4, I’ll be speaking about the importance of Net Neutrality to Gamers at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle
On either October 1 or 2, I’ll be teaching independent video producers and remixers how to fight automated takedown notices at the Open Video Conference in NYC

Also! Mike and I would really like to hold a workshop at SXSWi this year for music bloggers but we need your help. Could you do us a solid and vote for our panel, “Bloggers Fight Back: Legal Workshop For Music Bloggers”? Thanks! While you’re at it, you should also vote for these fine panels helmed by upstanding citizens:

And now back to our regularly scheduled, shameless self-promotion.

wilsonblog: An addiction to being as clever as possible is...

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:28:00 -0400

wilsonblog:

An addiction to being as clever as possible is becoming both Wale’s downfall and his calling card. When he focuses on a single story or issue, like he did on “The Kramer” or does here, on “Friends N Strangers,” narrating a relationship drama that ends in a paternity test, he makes a case for being the best conscious-rapper out there, if that term still applies. But moments of focus are rare. Too often, Wale’d rather be funny. “The Eyes of Tiger” bills itself as a first-person exploration of the Tiger Woods tabloid fiasco — hinting at the interracial taboos the story tugged at and ESPN’s fair-weather patronization — but the most memorable moment of the song is when Wale raps in Tiger’s voice about “all the pedicures I’ve given to their camel toes.”

My former PopMatters colleague, Wilson McBee, takes Wale’s More About Nothing mixtape for a spin and in so doing, pinpoints precisely why the rapper’s recent output has felt so hollow. To borrow Nitsuh Abebe’s classroom analogy, Wale is that kid in the back of the class who could effortlessly ace the exams, if only he wasn’t too busy trying to be the class clown. It’s that sense of wasted potential, I think, that has made Wale such a frustrating artist to root for recently. More please, Wilson!

I wouldn’t exactly call myself a fan of the Arcade...

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:49:00 -0400

I wouldn’t exactly call myself a fan of the Arcade Fire—sure, I enjoy Funeral as much as the next guy but I haven’t really dug most of the stuff they’ve done since. Even so, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see the monsters of indie-rock fresh off of their coronation at Madison Square Garden (also, Spoon!). I will say that I enjoyed the show quite a bit more than I had expected to and that a number of songs from The Suburbs—particularly the delightfully bass-heavy “Ready to Start”—have turned up in my heavy rotation since. My review of and photos from the show can be found over at PopMatters (additional photos can be seen on Flickr).

It seems like everyone is talking about the new M.I.A. record,...

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:42:17 -0400

It seems like everyone is talking about the new M.I.A. record, /\/\/\Y/\, this week, one of the more critically divisive albums in recent memory. Like many other critics, I didn’t like the record—you can read my PopMatters review if you would like to know why. Still, I’m not sure how to feel about being included in Flavorwire’s list of “The Meanest and Funniest Reviews of M.I.A.’s /\/\/\Y/\”. Of course, my intent in writing the review was not to be mean (or even funny, for that matter) but to offer my honest assessment of the work at hand. And yes, while I am quite disappointed with /\/\/\Y/\, I still hold M.I.A. in very high regard as an artist and I hope that that comes across in my review.

One thing that I was thrilled to be included in was Rich Juzwiak’s brilliant piece, “A Collage for a Collage,” which constructs a review of /\/\/\Y/\ entirely from recontextualized fragments from over 40 other reviews. Yeah, it’s a clever gimmick, one that mimics M.I.A.’s own cut-and-paste mode of production. But it’s also a surprisingly incisive piece, a shotgun blast of adjectives that manages to distill a weeks’ worth of blogosphere hand-wringing into a single, 1,500 word review. If you read one review of /\/\/\Y/\, you should probably make it Juzwiak’s—just don’t blame me if the bright blue, hyperlink-saturated text gives you a headache.

three formative experiences in my career as a music fan that now seem quaint thanks to the Internet (1994-1996 edition)

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:19:00 -0400

1.) One fateful afternoon in the fall of 1994, my friend Evan came over and prophetically announced that he was going to show my brother and I something that would blow our minds. He tuned the cable box to channel 18, a channel called MTV that we had never really thought to watch. Those were the days when MTV actually played, you know, music and we soon found ourselves watching some pre-TRL countdown show the name of which I’ve long since forgotten. A few unmemorable songs passed and then, just as I was about to lose interest in the exercise, a music video that was striking both visually and musically arrived as if on cue, seemingly tailor-made to rock my 11 year-old world.

The video was, of course, Green Day’s “Basket Case,” which held sway as the de facto jam for much of that year. It was likely the first song I had ever heard that resembled punk rock in any fashion and as such, it made quite an impression on me. There was just one problem: after three blissful minutes, the video was over and as time began to pass, I could feel the song’s melody slowly slipping away. Since I had no way to hear the song again, save for watching MTV in the hopes of them replaying the video, I decided to repeat what I remembered of the song in my head at every occasion, so as to retain my grip on its melody. I vividly remember standing outside of the public library in Racine, Wisconsin, waiting for my parents to pick me up, pacing back and forth on the sidewalk and attempting to sing the song to myself, even though I didn’t know any of the lyrics. Instead of the actual words, I tried to shoehorn the lyrics to a song that I did know quite well—the Beatles’ “I’m So Tired”—into the now horribly warped “Basket Case” melody that lived in my head. I really wish I could remember what that sounded like.

After about two weeks, I had saved up enough money from working odd jobs around the house to buy a copy of Dookie on cassette. Thus began an illustrious career in record collecting that continues unabated to this day, much to the chagrin of my bank account.

2.) The following summer, I developed an obsession with the idea of the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream. I say “the idea of” Siamese Dream because I had never actually heard the album. Due to a confluence of factors—the band’s name, the album title, the cover art, the Pumpkins’ eminently doodleable “heart” logo—I had decided that this was a record that I was fated to love. And so began my quest to actually hear Siamese Dream.

After asking around at my school, I learned that this kid, Tony, had an older sister who owned a copy of the album on CD (a format, which, at the time, struck me as terribly sophisticated and slightly futuristic). I asked Tony if he could get his sister to dub me a copy of the album onto a cassette and after a few solid weeks of pestering, he finally produced a copy, replete with a tracklisting scrawled out by his sister on a piece of notebook paper. Upon reading the tracklisting and realizing that the album contained a song called “Silverfuck,” I immediately began to worry. What would my parents think if they found this tape? After a few classes during which I could feel the cassette beating inside of my Trapper Keeper like a Telltale Heart, I disposed of the handwritten tracklisting, for fear that my parents would see it.

Upon bringing the tape home and listening to it on the stereo in the family room, I remember feeling an initial twinge of disappointment. During the course of my obsession with the idea of Siamese Dream, I had formed an idea in my head of what the album sounded like. Incidentally, the album in my head sounded quite a bit more like Queen than it did the Smashing Pumpkins, a fact that can probably be explained by my brother’s rampant Queen fandom circa 1995. As time wore on, however and as my memories of the idea of Siamese Dream began to recede, I started to fall in love with the actual Siamese Dream.

One day later that summer, I decided that the time had come for me to own an actual copy of Siamese Dream. I wanted to page through the artwork and lyrics and was curious to know what the song titles were. Unfortunately, being 12 years old, I didn’t have any money or any prospects of making any in the short term. So I waited until my parents had both gone to work and then went into the drawer in the kitchen where my dad kept the two dollar bills I had earned by selling frozen pizzas door-to-door as part of a school fundraiser. He had warned me that these two-dollar bills were collectible and that I would be unwise to spend them. Despite his warning, I removed the two dollar bills from the Ziploc bag in which they were kept, hopped on my bike and rode down in the hot sun to the local K-Mart where I purchased a copy of Siamese Dream on cassette for the low price of $9.99 and four two-dollar bills worth of guilt.

I do feel a bit vindicated in hindsight—according to eBay, a two-dollar bill appears to be worth roughly two dollars in 2010—and as it turns out, my teenage intuition was dead on. I continue to love Siamese Dream to this day, even if I can’t bring myself to defend most of Billy Corgan’s other endeavors.

3.) Living, as we did, in southeastern Wisconsin, we could occasionally pick up radio signals from Chicago. On good days, we could get a weak signal from Q101, which handily bested the Milwaukee stations in terms of the tastes of its DJs. There was a particular night of the week—Fridays, maybe?—when Q101 would count down the most requested songs of the week and they would occasionally premier a highly-anticipated new single as a part of that program. I remember sitting in my bedroom with my brother in the summer of 1996, the record, play and pause buttons depressed on the tape deck with my index finger hovering over pause, waiting to hear the new single from Weezer. I loved the jerky, start-and-stop delivery of “El Scorcho” from the first time I heard it and was really glad that I had taped it, so that I could play it back at my leisure.

You see, in those days, one of your favorite bands putting out a new single was an event, something you eagerly awaited and then proceeded to discuss and mythologize on the playground long after the fact. The day after Q101 debuted the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” I stepped off of the bus and immediately ran up to the group of stoner kids who seemed most likely to share my enthusiasm. Before I could get a sentence out, one of the kids responded, “We know” at which point I looked around the circle and realized that the stoners were just as awestruck as I was. Or maybe they were just high.

It seems like the release of a new single or a song getting played for the first time on the radio is probably no longer an event for people in that age group but I wonder if there’s a 2010 equivalent that gets kids similarly excited and talking about pop music. Is it the album leak? Or the seemingly inconsequential iTunes release date? Do kids run off of school buses to discuss the Lady Gaga video that debuted on YouTube last night? I really hope that they do.

I was watching the Belle & Sebastian Fans Only DVD earlier...

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:04:00 -0400

I was watching the Belle & Sebastian Fans Only DVD earlier today and was really struck by this performance of “I’m Waking Up to Us” from Later With Jools Holland. It’s pretty incredible that Stuart is singing such a cutting, condescending song about Isobel as she stands just to the right of him. At times it feels like you can cut the tension on stage with a knife and Isobel’s body language—especially toward the end where she kneels down on the stage and stares at the floor—says a lot, I think, as does the slight tremble in Stuart’s voice. While it makes me a bit uncomfortable to see him this self-righteous, I’ve got to admit that his cruelty resulted in a pretty great pop song. It’s no wonder that Isobel left the band shortly after they put out this record, eh?

I first encountered Crystal Castles in 2007, when they opened...

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:49:00 -0400

I first encountered Crystal Castles in 2007, when they opened for Metric at the 9:30 Club. I was less than impressed by the early incarnation of their live show that I saw and wrote a pretty critical review to that effect (my powers of premonition apparently leave something to be desired, as evidenced by the damning quote, “Crystal Castles…seem destined to live out their days in relative, albeit, hip obscurity”). In the course of writing that review, however, I happened upon the band’s MySpace page and found myself returning with surprising frequency, in order to hear tracks like “Alice Practice” and “Crimewave”. By the time the band’s full-length saw release in 2008, I was a dyed-in-the-wool fanboy, as my review of their debut LP—which identifies the duo as no less than the saviors of electro—attests.

Still, as much as I love this band, I wasn’t expecting anything quite as accomplished as this new album—I don’t think anyone was, really. Bands making music this volatile usually aren’t built to last; they tend to burn brightly and quickly before disappearing in a plume of rumor and speculation. So it’s to everyone’s surprise that the second album to bear the title Crystal Castles is a sophisticated, refined, polished affair, the unmistakable product of a band with career ambitions. It’s also catchy as hell and digs deeper into many of the ideas and genres (goth-pop! house!) that the band previously nodded toward superficially, pushing past the dissonance and noise to find the kernel of pop that lies at the heart of each song. I had thought that I would finally be able to put this record down after I had finished penning my review but as it turns out, that was just wishful thinking. The longer I live with Crystal Castles, the deeper my fascination with it grows and it just might be my favorite album of the year thus far. Read my full review of Crystal Castles (II) here.

Two recently published things that I’ve neglected to post...

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:40:51 -0400

Two recently published things that I’ve neglected to post on here: my review of the Depreciation Guild’s sophomore effort, Spirit Youth and my review and photos of High Places and Dustin Wong’s (Ponytail, ex-Ecstatic Sunshine) show at DC9. (Photo of the Depreciation Guild is from when I saw them in 2009—I wish they still did those rad projections!)

It’s probably best that A Weather’s latest LP,...

Fri, 14 May 2010 13:05:10 -0400

It’s probably best that A Weather’s latest LP, Everyday Balloons was released in the spring, as opposed to the winter, since it essentially sounds how being trapped alone inside the house all winter feels. Which is to say, amazing, if depressing slow-core is your cup of tea. Read my review at PopMatters.

In all honesty, I never thought I would get to see Jeff Mangum...

Thu, 13 May 2010 13:58:15 -0400

In all honesty, I never thought I would get to see Jeff Mangum perform live. Even as he took the stage at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge on Thursday night, I found myself filled with uncertainty. Would he actually play Neutral Milk Hotel songs? Would he just play a Chris Knox cover? Would he play more than one song? Was it really him? Luckily, all these fears were instantly assuaged once Mangum strummed the opening chord of “Oh Comely,” an act that kicked off one of the most powerful performances I have ever witnessed. Listening to Live at Jittery Joe’s and other late ’90s Mangum/NMH bootlegs in college, I often wondered, what would it feel like to be in that room, to stand a few feet from Jeff Mangum while he unleashed those singularly haunting, beautiful songs on an awestruck audience? I feel privileged that I now know the answer to that question. Read my full review of the show at PopMatters.

In my day, I’ve seen relatively few electro-pop bands that...

Wed, 12 May 2010 18:04:00 -0400

In my day, I’ve seen relatively few electro-pop bands that have managed to occupy that perfect middle ground between energetic live band and lone performer twiddling knobs/staring at a laptop onstage (see: New Order, Cut Copy). My feeling is that it’s not as easy as it looks to mesh pre-recorded beats with live instrumentation in a way that’s seamless and convincing, especially in a live setting. At any rate, I can now add Caribou to the list of bands that manage to walk that tightrope with both style and finesse. While many of the songs on Swim are hazy affairs shot through with echoes of house music, they take on a new urgency live, with all four members of Caribou’s live incarnation working in tandem to nudge things along toward the nearest climax. It helps that they don’t just do the two drummers thing for the sake of spectacle but rather, manage do it well—we’re talking cascading rolls across the two drumkits, etc. Do make an effort to see them if they’re coming to your town but in lieu of that, check out my photos from Monday night’s show over at DCist.

The other night, I sat down to write what should have been a...

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:25:07 -0400

The other night, I sat down to write what should have been a short, fairly straightforward review of a Casiotone for the Painfully Alone show but what came out was a (still relatively short) treatise on why Owen Ashworth is one of the best young songwriters working today. I’ve got a lot of pent-up feelings about Ashworth and apparently haven’t found nearly enough opportunities to write about him (a recently-discovered Word doc full of ideas for a review of Vs. Children that I never wrote bears witness to this fact). I really do think that he’s one of the best things going right now in indie-pop, though and since he’s been perennially underrated, I feel a responsibility to evangelize whenever given the opportunity. So, what makes this guy so great? Well, a lot of things—his melodic sensibilities, his ability to work wonders within a narrow set of aesthetic constraints—but more than anything, his lyrics. He’s got Stuart Murdoch’s knack for writing character studies with real depth, Morrissey’s dark wit and like the authors of some of my favorite short stories (Salinger, Murakami and O’Connor all come to mind), he’s sentimental but doesn’t shy from the ugly stuff. All of this is to say that Casiotone for the Painfully Alone is, in my opinion, wholly deserving of this unapologetically fanboyish rant and if you haven’t checked out his records, you should do yourself a favor by starting with Vs. Children and working backwards. The aforementioned show review and some photos can be found at PopMatters.

When it rains, it pours here in Washington and I’ve spent...

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:51:00 -0400

When it rains, it pours here in Washington and I’ve spent the last few weeks running around town, trying to take in as much of the spring touring circuit as possible. Here are some reviews and photos I’ve posted to the PopMatters “Notes from the Road” blog so far this month:

The Smith Westerns and So Cow at the Black Cat Backstage

The Wedding Present play Bizarro at the Black Cat

Xiu Xiu and Tune-Yards at DC9

Mi Ami at the Velvet Lounge

Titus Andronicus at St. Stephen’s Church

While all of the above shows were good, I was especially impressed with Tune-Yards’ loop station prowess and with Titus Andronicus’ rousing, impassioned set, which was undoubtedly the most rock ‘n’ roll thing I’ve witnessed all year.

Some albums I’ve reviewed recently for PopMatters: Gigi...

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:47:00 -0400

Some albums I’ve reviewed recently for PopMatters:

Gigi - Maintenant
Past Lives - Tapestry of Webs
Giant Drag - Swan Song EP
Polysics - Bestoisu!!!!

This year I did things a bit differently down in ATX: I attended...

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:14:36 -0400

This year I did things a bit differently down in ATX: I attended most of the SXSW Interactive festival and stayed for a little over a day’s worth of the music. And while I wasn’t covering the festival for anyone this year, I still couldn’t resist snapping a few shots of Carsick Cars, Fucked Up and Sleigh Bells, which you can see here. This year’s highlight for me was probably IAMSOUND’s showcase at Malverde, not because Zooey Deschanel was in attendance (she was and reportedly smiled at Alex!) but because the bands performed on an open air, second floor balcony, set against a backdrop of neon green insulation foam and steel, thanks to the unfinished office building across the street. Fool’s Gold and MEN were both great, jj was confusing and Sleigh Bells destroyed—that is, until their set was cut short by Austin’s mandated 2am closing time. Luckily, I still managed to fire off a few shots during their truncated set, some of which came out quite well, if I may say so myself.

Despite her undeniable talent, Joanna Newsom’s work can be...

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:27:00 -0400

Despite her undeniable talent, Joanna Newsom’s work can be pretty impenetrable. In the age of the disposable MP3, there are few things more intimidating than two hours of music spread across three platters and that’s not even taking into account Newsom’s penchant for verbose, densely-packed lyrics and generous runtimes. So, if you find yourself looking for a way into Have One on Me, might I recommend seeing Newsom live? At the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue on Tuesday night, Newsom and her band treated fans to a set that was not only masterfully executed but also expertly curated and sequenced (as luck would have it, you can stream a recording of that show, in its entirety, at the NPR website). I walked away from the performance feeling like I had a better grip on Have One on Me, which says a lot about Newsom’s ability to sell some pretty challenging music in a live setting, I think. Read my review of the show and see my photos at PopMatters (apologies for the subpar photos—the room layout and Newsom’s harp and mic stand placement made it all but impossible to get a clear shot of her face).