For Your Listening Pleasure

The Beta Band – Hot Shots II

Said But True

“China making a test tube baby is like
Mexico making a test tube cockroach.”

– Jimmy Kimmel

Feedback Fallout

Thanks to everyone that sent me feedback
on Howard Stern/FCC and some of my recent CD reviews.

For those of you who don’t think your
feedback means anything, here’s your chance to really let
your voice be heard! That’s right, later on in this week’s
column, you will have the chance to select 411mania.com’s
newest CD reviewer. Just read through his guest contribution
to this column, and if you like his writing style and want
to see more of him, just email me (by clicking on my name,
above) and we’ll get this up-and-comer a gig! HIS FUTURE IS
IN YOUR HANDS, so don’t let him down.

Onto some feedback…

LuckyLarry4u writes:

You are right who knows what to do.
I think it is all being over-hyped. I think if everybody will
settle down the whole thing will blow over and it will be
business as usual. Howard Stern sounds like a whiny little
bitch, at least for the time being he still has a job, unlike
Opie, Anthony, and Bubba. To me he sounds like he is more
worried about his wallet than freedom of speech. In the past
he probably would have said screw Clear Channel who needs
them anyway. After all he was on less than ten of their stations.

Well, while I’m sure he’s at least a bit
worried about his wallet, I’m not sure that’s the entire case.
And this will just blow over? This isn’t going away until
the elections, that’s for sure.

If you’re familiar with 411mania, the
author of this next bit of feedback is no stranger to you.
Jeff
Modzelewski chimes in with some thoughts on
satellite radio:

Hey. Just wanted to make a small point regarding
your column. If you’re looking to get into the whole satellite
radio thing in order to avoid what’s going on in normal radio
world, I have to say that that’s a great idea. I got Sirius
in my car and at home for Christmas, and it’s one of the best
gifts I’ve ever gotten. Soon after getting Sirius, my car CD
changer went down. I still haven’t gotten it fixed. There’s
no need. Over a hundred stations, no commercials, perfect reception,
and very little in the way of censorship (some of the “pop”
music stations will censor vulgarity, since it’s more family
oriented. Most stations that I listen to never do.) And, for
anyone interested in a satellite system, I will hands down recommend
Sirius. My father got XM in his car soon after I got Sirius,
and there’s no comparison. Sirius plays a much greater variety
of music. There’s absolutely no commercials on the music stations
(about half of XM’s music stations have some commercials.) Plus,
when activating the service, you can save money by paying a
one-time fee to activate your Sirius receiver for life. XM does
not offer that sort of service. On top of all of that, all NFL
games will be exclusively on Sirius next year.

The other reason that I recommend Sirius
is because XM has strong ties to Clear Channel. I’ve been
against Clear Channel for a long time now, and, other than
the occasional concert ticket, I can now say that I do not
in any way support that organization.

Jeff

Thanks for the advice Jeff, and I hope
you hurry back to 411 soon! As far as Clear Channel goes,
I have to admit it’s always funny hearing folks say how much
they can’t stand the company in one breath, yet say they’ll
still go to concerts they sponsor in another. Don’t worry,
it’s not just you – I think I recall Eddie Vedder saying something
similar a while back…

O Revisited

The final piece of reader feedback that
I’d like to feature this week comes in response to my review
of the
latest Damien Rice CD. I was so impressed with Ian’s
feedback, in fact, I promised him that I would print his entire
counter-review of the CD here, and give YOU all a chance to
write in and let me know if you think he should be brought
onto 411mania’s staff as a regular reviewer. Here’s your big
chance, “Goatboy”…

It’s not the typical rock n’ roll success
story but it certainly started out that way.

Boy forms band with schoolmates, band
practices, band gets gigs, band gets talked up by people in
the know as the “next big thing”, band get signed to major
label, band get ready to record debut album.

Its all fine so far but here is where
the wheels start to come off.

Label starts to interfere with creative
direction of the band, boy gets pissed off, boy walks out
in the middle of recording sessions, boy leaves home country
and busks around Europe for a couple of years, boy comes home
and decides that music is still what he wants to do in life,
boy borrows money to buy a home studio from Bjork producing
second cousin.

Boy records album, boy releases album
on his own label, album hugely praised, album eventually goes
triple platinum in home country, gold in the UK and to sells
over 167,000 copies in the US, album win shortlist music prize,
boy and his US label decide to re-issue album on the back
of this.

I review album while trying to get
a gig writing for 411mania.com.

The above is the abridged story of
Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice and his debut album O.

It’s very easy to read the above story
and think to yourself, “What a prick, he had everything he
ever wanted and walked away from it”, but everything about
this album screams that its creator is someone that is fiercely
independent, cares deeply about everything that he does and
wants it to be perfect. Even down to the album’s packaging.

Most albums covers are nothing special,
a familiar jewel case that is guaranteed to crack anytime
that you handle it with anything besides cashmere oven mitts,
occasionally they might be foldout cardboard but that’s it.
Only Radiohead have really done anything with the medium of
late. O is different. It comes in a linen bound hard backed
book that contains handwritten notes and artwork painted by
Rice and members of his band. Merely opening the album gives
you the impression that you might be dealing with something
a little bit different from the norm.

But the presentation would be worthless
if it accompanied a disc that sounded awful. As it stands
it serves to slightly enhance a remarkable piece of work.

Getting back to my point about the
amount of thought that Rice has put into every aspect of the
album, although the songs are about different people and relationships;
and were written in a different chronological order the album’s
track ordering gives the impression that it is all about the
one relationship and plots the path of initial infatuation,
the actual relationship itself and its painful conclusion
and aftermath. Or maybe it’s just a selection of songs that
Rice thought sounded nice in that order. Either way, it works.

The album opens with “Delicate”, a
song set against a gentle acoustic refrain examining what
the prospect of new love can do to a man; capturing the excitement
of starting something new whilst still questioning whether
or not the protagonist deserves to be with this person.

The next 2 songs, “Volcano” and one
of the highlights of the album “The Blowers Daughter” deals
with the relationship itself. “Volcano” opens with a cello
introduction by Vyvienne Long also contains the first piece
of lead vocals from Lisa Hannigan who we’ll get to later.
“The Blowers Daughter” features a chorus which learns a lessen
from when Bob Dylan put aside all verse, all poetry; and laid
it all on the table by just saying “I want you”. Rice, against
a series of soft descending chords, simply tells the object
of his desire “I can’t take my eyes off of you”.

3 songs in and the relationship is
done, most of what follows is the aftermath and the pain.
“Cannonball” and “Older Chests” find Rice missing his love
and pleading for time to lick his wounds.

Most of the songs on the album were
produced by Rice himself on a portable studio and the album
does have a certain homemade feel to it. The next song “Amie”
was produced by the aforementioned second cousin David Arnold
who is probably best known for his work Bjork’s albums. It
certainly has a more polished sound compared to the rest of
the album but set against the “I made this” lo-fi vibe of
everything else it tends to stick out.

“Cheers Darlin’” finds a drunken Rice
bitterly and venomously rebuking the girl because she has
moved on and found someone new. Interestingly the actual story
behind the song is that Rice tried to char up a girl in a
bar, plied her with drink (missing his last bus home in the
process) only to have the girl tell him that she had to go
because she was late for a meeting with her boyfriend. Rice
eventually got home, still drunk and wrote this song, you
can hear him fumbling around in the kitchen in the background,
knocking off of things.

“Cold Water” borrows very heavily in
terms of structure from The Smith’s “I know its over” and
John Cale’s piano arrangement for Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”
which is probably best known as performed by the late Jeff
Buckley who adapted it for guitar. Rice is at this point so
lost in his misery that he turns to God for help to guide
him out of his pain. The song features backward masked vocals
and possibly the first use of Gregorian chanting in a contemporary
album. The album up to this point had musically been quite
straightforward. The arrangements for the songs mainly consist
of Rice singing accompanied by his acoustic guitar, bass,
drums, cello and with backing vocals provided by Lisa Hannigan
who also occasionally gives voice to the woman in the relationship
and the importance of her contribution to the album cannot
be overstated. The possessor of a truly beautiful voice, her
presence often makes a good song great.

“I remember” starts off with a change
of pace. Up till now its mainly been Rice singing about his
infatuation, his love, his pain. Here Hannigan, again voicing
the woman, over some gentle picked guitar explains what she
saw in Rice in the first place. Rice responds angrily, he
doesn’t want to listen, he doesn’t want to know. The contrast
between the quiet of the female vocals here and the male response
is staggering. Imagine how rocking you think you can make
the cello and the acoustic guitar sound. Then double it. That’s
about half as angry as the music when Rice is singing this
song sounds.

The album closes with “Eskimo” and
finds a more resigned Rice realising that its over and seeking
comfort from his friends. The song features opera singer Doreen
Curran singing in Finnish. The album ends with a calm Rice
saying that he “looks … [to his] … eskimo friend, when I’m
down”.

But wait, there’s a postscript here.
The bonus tracks.

“Prague” is about the jealously Rice
still feels for his ex and her new man and not being able
to deal with it.

The real, last words on the album are
left to the woman that has caused Rice such grief, as ever
voiced by Lisa Hannigan. On “Silent Night” she sings her own
lyrics to the popular Christmas carol and explains that although
Rice has constantly berated her and abused her for the pain
that she has caused him he gave no thought to the fact that
he also caused her tremendous pain and she too has been hurt
by the whole situation and that she also deserves some “heavenly
peace”.

The 411.::. Rice has often been talked
up as “the new David Gray”. I think such comparisons are unfair.
Rice is infinitely more talented than Gray is. His songs are
both more musically interesting (I will die of shock if I
ever hear a David Gray song featured Gregorian chanting) and
emotionally deeper than anything Gray could stretch to.

This album is probably my second favourite
debuts of all time. It’s a concept album without the prog
rock pretensions yet the songs are strong enough to stand
up to examination on their own. Words probably can’t describe
how much I adore the album, but I’ve used more than 1300 of
them to try to. Unfortunately a mark on a scale of 0-10 will
have to do it.

So lets say … 8.5

Well, Ian, thanks for the feedback, and
you really put a lot of thought into that well-written review,
so I’m pushing for you! Plus, you spelled favorite with a
“u” … that’s called brownie points here in the States. As
far as your thoughts on the album, I can definitely tell that
you’ve become emotionally attached to the album, and I think
that may have clouded your judgment just a little bit, as
some of your analysis seems a stretch to me. That being said,
again, good job, and it’s now up to the voters, uhm, readers
to decide if you indeed will be selected for your “Dream Job.”
Good luck!

To everyone else, thanks for sticking
with me for yet another week, and stay tuned to 411mania
and moodspins
for some commentary on a special anniversary next week.

Until next time…

peace. love. moe.

Matthew Michaels’s columns can also be
found on 411
Music and 1-42.

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