A far cry from the Sonic Youth-inspired indie rock noise she was creating in the mid-90’s as a member of Boston’s The Dirt Merchants, Maria Christopher’s latest venture, 27, is breezy electronic pop with jazzy elements. The band’s sound hasn’t always been this fully orchestrated – early efforts left room for improvement but set the structural foundation for Christopher and ex-Spore guitarist Ayal Naor to build upon over the course of three full lengths. For those disappointed with Esthero’s 2005 glossy pop follow-up to her 1998 trip-hop classic ‘Breathe from Another’, check out 27’s “Louder Than Words,” “Closer to You,” and “Windows and Glass” where Christopher’s voice shines.
The new album isn’t so bad but I was a bit hesitant to drop $50 for a ticket to see the Smashing Pumpkins in Columbus on October 11 because I didn’t want the setlist to be heavy with new material with the “hits” being saved for the encore.
Now, normally I’m all for bands with a deep back catalog of hits and a new album to promote playing the new stuff. In fact, I wonder what the point is for bands like The Scorpions or Journey or Superchunk or whoever to keep recording new music when the fact of the matter is that live, fans only want to hear the classics. Think it’s rough for those bands to be truly excited about ALL the songs on their new albums knowing that there are probably 6 or 7 of those tracks that will never be played live … ever?
I digress. If you want to see what the Smashing Pumpkins have been playing on their new tour, check this site out – there are setlists from pretty much every Pumpkins show EVER including the new tour. It looks like it’s a Greatest Hits tour with just a few new songs making it into the set each night.
Here’s a fan-filmed “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” from the September 19 show in San Diego.
I usually don’t waste my time responding to the MySpace bulletin survey things where you have to answer 100 questions like “Who was the last person you kissed?” and “Kool-Aid or Hi-C?”. But I saw a bulletin called “Life Soundtrack” from Shirley (who played bass in Log) that intrigued me. I decided to fill it out and post it here.
Directions:Â
Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
Put it on shuffle
Press play
For every question below, type the name of the song that’s playing
When you go to a new question, press the “next” button
Be honest
If your life were a movie, what would the soundtrack be?
1. Opening Credits: “Into the Drink” – The Evil Queens 2. Waking Up: “Live at P.J.’s” – The Beastie Boys 3. First Day At School: “Wait for Love (You Know You Will)” – Josh Ritter 4. Falling In Love: “Humanoid” – Sheavy 5. Fight Song: “Moth in a Cloud of Smoke” – All Smiles 6. Breaking Up: “Dr. L’Ling” – Minus the Bear 7. Prom: “All I Can Do” – Mondo Generator 8. Life: “Palestina” – Ministry 9. Mental Breakdown: “Aleph” – Baroness 10. Driving: “Penny” – People in Planes 11. Flashback: “Downtown” – The Dexateens 12. Getting back together: “Hook in Mouth” – Megadeth 13. Wedding: “Can’t Let Go (This Feeling)” – Spotlight Kid 14. Birth of Child: “Underglass” – The Frames 15. Final Battle: “Nobody Knows You’re Gone” – The Yarrows 16. Death Scene: “Waters of Nazareth” – Justice 17. Funeral Song: “Bring it Down” – Madder Rose 18. Ending Credits: “Where Evil Grows” – Gore Gore Girls
Feel free to post your “Life Soundtrack” in the comments. If anybody wants a copy of my “Life Soundtrack”, let me know, it can be arranged.
Lizard McGee has finally struck pay dirt in not only his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, but national as well with the release of Earwig’s third full-length, Center of the Earth. It only took him 15 years to do so. Now, let’s be fair to the songwriter and his band – Earwig has always been a perennial favorite in the local scene dating back to the days when the original lineup was playing house shows near the Ohio State campus. A few lineup changes later, a few years off to concentrate on things like life, employment, family, and McGee has hit a solid stride where everything he releases smells like a hit. If you’re into well written, good old meat and potatoes rock fueled by a Midwest lifestyle and a passing interest in the North Carolina indie pop-rock scene circa ’92, Center of the Earth belongs in your collection.
The ever-enigmatic front man with one of the greatest names in rock history, Lizard McGee, recently took on the challenge to discuss the third track on Center of the Earth, “Japanese Girlfriend”. (And, hey, was anybody else waiting for McGee to sing “You’re too stoned / Ninetendo” in the chorus or am I the only one that hears the similarities?)
Is track 3 representative of the whole CD?
The track “Japanese Girlfriend” has a lot of the sounds and elements that are common to the rest of the Center Of The Earth. But it’s also more of a no frills, pumped-up rocker than some of the mellower songs in the middle and end of the CD. It’s indicative of us in that it’s got the fuzz, crunch and power that are all part of the “Earwig soundâ€. It’s all loud guitars and drums with heart-on-yr-sleeve lyrics and vocals.
What’s the story behind the song – from the lyrical content to the way it was written and recorded?
It’s a song about a secret love affair. Love that exists only between two people and never goes any farther than that. No one else knows that they feel this way. Circumstances preclude them from actually getting to be together in any way other than sharing the secret. But they are still in love. And it’s about the special things that they do to signify how they feel, things that only they would understand or recognize. I wrote the song very quickly while I was living in California. I had been reading a lot of traditional Japanese poetry and the song even has a lyric that’s in Japanese. Like a lot of songs on this record, it wasn’t one that we really knew what to do with. We had not rehearsed “Japanese Girlfriend” or played it at all on tour. But after we got back from the tour, we spent three days recording in Chicago and came out with a great take of the song and it ended up being one of the best tracks on the record.
Was there a particular reason you placed this song in the #3 spot on the tracklisting?
Because 3 is a Magic Number.
A far cry from the Sonic Youth-inspired indie rock noise she was creating in the mid-90’s as a member of Boston’s The Dirt Merchants, Maria Christopher’s latest venture, 27, is breezy electronic pop with jazzy elements. The band’s sound hasn’t always been this fully orchestrated – early efforts left room for improvement but set the structural foundation for Christopher and ex-Spore guitarist Ayal Naor to build upon over the course of three full lengths. For those disappointed with Esthero’s 2005 glossy pop follow-up to her 1998 trip-hop classic ‘Breathe from Another’, check out 27’s “Louder Than Words,” “Closer to You,” and “Windows and Glass” where Christopher’s voice shines.
Lizard McGee has finally struck pay dirt in not only his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, but national as well with the release of