Pitchfork reviews The Satanic Satanist

Article here.

They give it a 6.5/10. My sense is that the reviewer paid more attention to the idea of Portugal. The Man "selling out" with this record than I did. Not that I know enough about their previous releases to make that judgment , but I do think I gave greater consideration to the music itself than Eric Harvey did.

Regardless, the experience of reading a Pitchfork review of an album I had just covered was rewarding. Nothing wrong with being the early edition.

Album Review: Portugal. The Man - The Satanic Satanist

Some bands tend to make recordings that invite introspection or self-consciousness. Listening to Pink Floyd's "Time," for example, is like hearing your brain's gears at work. Other bands create music that you want to hear while moving through the world. Portugal. The Man's The Satanic Satanist is a collection of this latter type of music. And it swings like it could be the indie rock fan's soundtrack to the summer.

The sound on Satanist is dark and bluesy, with electric rhythm guitar up front in the mix that's often accompanied by keyboard. Lead singer John Baldwin Gourney is magnetic at times, though I have to add that his voice is almost a dead ringer for Adam Levine's of Maroon 5. But the sound is only part of the feel. These melodies that the band has summoned are entirely fresh and invigorating. On "The Sun," the backing vocals paint a lush picture in broad swaths with the line "We are all, we are all just lovers." "The Woods" is a soulful, beat-driven groove with some great lyrical repetition throughout. And the closer, "Mornings," features breathtaking lead guitar riffery alternating with Gourney's most intense vocal performance on the album. The song rolls thundering to the finish line with lyrics like "The sunrise that builds into days & even more days/And as it rolls burning burning up like the trails of the comets pulled tails."

Portugal. The Man seem to have come upon a particular moment in their creative journey at which they've achieved the cinematic touch. They are in a place where they can make records that move us and compel us to move. Fittingly, only one or two songs on The Satanic Satanist don't flow without pause into the next track. It's as if Portugal. The Man are aware of their grasp of the kinetic capacity of music, and they don't dare let go.

The only hesitation I have as I listen to this album concerns track 1, "People Say." In one sense, it's a fun song with a tight and catchy chord progression. However, if I were forced to draw a comparison to other music, I'd call "People Say" the awkward child of an Oasis-O.A.R. marriage. And that's the post-Morning Glory Oasis. Putting the most accessible song in the first slot of your album isn't a bad choice in most instances. But here Portugal. The Man almost patronize their first-time listeners, rather than intrigue them. Big picture: this is merely a misstep in an otherwise spectacular collection.

So the force is with Portugal. The Man, yes. Not having heard much from the band's prior releases, I can't say where this album sits on the group's trajectory. But they do have a show coming up at the Mercury Lounge in August that I will certainly try to get out for. And after hearing Satanist on repeat for the past two days, I think it's safe to say that the band has hit one on the sweet spot.

You can hear the entire album at Lala: http://www.lala.com/#album/360569445921457774

And if you like it as much as I do, order the CD. It comes in some trippy fold-out packaging.

Song of the Day: Nick Drake - "Hazy Jane II"

I was first drawn to Nick Drake by the song "One of These Things First," which played from my father's iPod on a backroads drive one day. It was perfect for the occasion - delicate yet rambling. When I looked up the song later that day on Lala, it sounded just as good as in the car. That's my test for any song I discover while driving - does the song feel the same when I'm standing still?

But I'm going to recommend "Hazy Jane II" first. It's just a better song; it feels to me like a folkier version of Sprinsteen's "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)". Right now I'm listening to the entire Bryter Layter album for the first time, and it's a truly exciting listen. You can here "Hazy Jane II" and the rest of the album here. (You'll have to do a quick register on Lala if you haven't already. Do it, it's a great site and it's free.)

Classic Rock on FM Radio - What It Is, and What It Isn't

"Classic rock was originally conceived as a radio station programming format which evolved from the album oriented rock (AOR) format in the early-1980's." - Wikipedia

Classic rock is not a synonym for rock and roll from the '60s and '70s (and '80s?); instead, it's a mere term coined by radio program directors as a marketing tool. From what I can tell, the narrative went something like this: In the 1980's, as new rock releases strayed from that "classic" sound (see punk and New Wave), separate radio programs were needed to cater to fans of the older sound. In that moment, our imagination of what rock and roll meant became forever blurred.

As the influx of new music for these classic rock shows slowed to a halt in the '80s and '90s, playlists were slimmed down drastically. There are other reasons for this, too, namely the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which killed small broadcast companies and freeform radio. Regardless of cause, today's classic rock stations are by and large grossly inaccurate representations of rock and roll. Shadows of their former selves. Historical portrayals no closer to the mark than 6th-grade Social Studies textbooks.

Let's take a gander, shall we, at the last ten songs played on the classic rock station I grew up with: 95.9 The Fox, "Fairfield County's Only (damn!) Classic Rock Station"...

• The Who "Who Are You" - gets enough airplay already as the theme song to CSI
• Jimi Hendrix "All Along The Watchtower" - gee, you hear this one all the time, but when was the last time they played Dylan's original recording?
• Led Zeppelin "Over the Hills and Far Away" - great song, overplayed
• Billy Joel "Only The Good Die Young" - why don't they ever play "Summer, Highland Falls"?
  
• Bryan Adams "Run To You" - ah, yes, Bryan Adams, he's got that classic rock sound. I've never actually heard of someone owning a Bryan Adams album.
• Robert Palmer "Bad Case of Loving You" - great song. Not gonna argue this one
• The Doobie Brothers "Black Water" - great song, overplayed
• Bon Jovi "You Give Love a Bad Name" - I feel like these hair band songs are thrown in to draw the slightly less-ancient crowd. Classic for who?
  
• The Allman Brothers Band "Melissa" - great song, overplayed. And they had so many gems you just don't hear anymore.
• Queen "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions" - at the tiny but crazy-profitable intersection of music and sports

This list is a perfect example of what happens when rock and roll becomes Classic Rock. You lose the variety, the richness and the depth of the '60s/'70s rock music scene. What you get instead is a weird sort of pseudo-greatest hits that takes on a life of its own as later generations mistake the cream for the crop.

Now, here are some songs you will never hear on 95.9 The Fox or your local classic rock station:

• Neil Young "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"
• The Rolling Stones "Loving Cup"
• Bob Dylan "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
• Elton John "Amoreena"
• George Harrison "Beware of Darkness"
• Rod Stewart "Every Picture Tells A Story"
• Traffic "Dear Mr. Fantasy"
• U2 "Bullet The Blue Sky"
• The Who "My Wife"
  
• Anything off Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark

All enormously influential and popular songs in their day. Tracks like these have been left behind - to be discovered only occasionally by outliers like me who enjoy a good dig through their parents' vinyl.

So, the bad news is, if satellite radio doesn't catch on in the long run then most of our descendants will live harboring the illusion that rock history can be summed up in 500 songs or less. The good news is, digital music lasts forever and the good stuff will be waiting patiently in hard drives and servers for our childrens' children to discover and cherish.

By the way, the Wikipedia entry on "Classic Rock" is a recommended read: Classic Rock

Song of the Day: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - "The Tears Of A Clown"

I was listening to Marvin Gaye Radio on my Last.fm app, wondering if any Motown song could ever top "Heard It Through The Grapevine," when this song came on. Now, I had heard "The Tears of a Clown" many times as a little kid riding in the back seat of Mom's minivan. Mom liked to listen to golden oldies on KOOL 96.7 (now defunct). The nostalgia I felt as I listened once more was overwhelming. And this, I thought, was one of the most compelling powers of music.

There really isn't a better sound than classic soul with a great melody, as on "The Tears of a Clown" (though in my mind, there's still no better soul record than "Heard It Through The Grapevine"). You should give it a listen here.

Review: iPhone Radio Apps - Sirius XM vs. Last.fm

Last week I decided to download the free 7-day trial of Sirius XM Radio on my iPhone. Since I'm already a subscriber (with a radio in my car), I am eligible for a $3/month upgrade to the iPhone app. $36 a year for my favorite channels like Deep Tracks, The Spectrum, and The Loft seemed like a good deal.

The trial period now ended, I've decided there's no reason at all to upgrade. Not when the Last.fm app is so well-executed and so, well, free! Riding the train out of Manhattan yesterday - my trial period over - I actually felt relieved that I could fire up Last.fm again without feeling like I was wasting precious time. Listening to the custom artist station "Sun Kil Moon Radio," the only thing I missed about Sirius XM was the DJ's voice and the vague sense that I was participating in some experience with other people. That's not worth $3 a month to me.

Here's where the Last.fm app trumps the Sirius XM app:

• Better station selection - in fact, infinite station selection. You can create a station with a playlist of artists similar to any act you select (i.e. "Sun Kil Moon Radio")
• Better artist info - when a song by some obscure indie band comes on, you can actually read their Wikipedia-style bio and get a sense of their career
• Price, obviously

So, if you can bear to leave Bob Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" XM show behind, I highly recommend the Last.fm app.

Song of the Day: JJ Grey & Mofro - "The Devil You Know"

If you've ever listened to JJ Grey & Mofro, then you don't need me to tell you this: Grey hails from the Florida Everglades. Listening to "The Devil You Know" and the rest of Orange Blossoms, an immediate awareness of the heat and the swamp sweats through to your ears. The sound resembles Creedence at times, though Creedence never had a horn section.

Check it out: JJ Grey & Mofro - "The Devil You Know"