Bon Ton

…finally, finally. The first new stuff since 2004’s “Drag It Up,” excluding Miller’s solo album. If you like your country electric, if you like it with punch and verve and (usually) a happy ending, then you’re in the right place. I think over the years, Miller has kept his style fairly even-keeled; “Blame It On Gravity” has the ballads, the fight songs, the nicely crafted pieces that are a cut above his mournful solo work.

I’m loving just about everything, from the bluesy, amped-up “Early Morning” to the wistful “She Loves the Sunset” and points between. How do I know what the songs sound like? Hah, I don’t have people sending me awesome promo copies, but I do have a Rhapsody player, and if you do too, you can listen to the whole album at Rhapsody. Or you can watch Miller sex it up on Leno and shake his pretty pretty hair.

The Old 97s — Site | Myspace | Label (New West)

The Old 97s — Dance With Me
The Old 97s — Just Like California (from “Too Far To Care”)

I’m on semi-hiatus — laziness always hits me around this time of year — but I just read an excellent and thought-provoking article at Moistworks. Now those lads at MW are always writing great stuff, which most of you know. And this one is about indie, or should I say, “indie,” and whether it’s now viewed as an ideology, or an aesthetic. By which I mean, does indie still mean “independent, stays off the major labels, doesn’t sell out, has a certain set of musical rules” or does it mean, “a label slapped onto a genre of music by radio stations and corporations who want to evoke a certain sense of rebelliousness where there really is none”?

My opinion is that the former has morphed over the years into the latter. This has happened to multiple genres, and it has to do with money, the passage of time, and youthful elitism fading as proponents get older. But all you have to do is wander over to the hype machine and check out what kind of blogs call themselves “indie” blogs to realize that current indie music is everything from radio-friendly mainstream rock (Radiohead) to folk country (Rocky V.) to alt-country (Old 97s) to shoegaze (Xiu Xiu) to lit-rock (Decemberists) to electronic dance (Ladytron). They all now shelter under the friendly umbrella of the indie aesthetic.

Is this bad? To some folks, especially those who remember the days of the indie tenets fondly, yes. In my opinion … no, but I have never really been tied to any genre philosophy. Whatever the music I like is called, I will keep listening to it, as I have done my whole life. Major label? Fine. Heard on a commercial or TV show? Great. CD handed to me on the street at Mann’s Chinese? All righty then. I just like music and I really don’t care what it’s called or where it comes from. My favorite comment on the Moistworks post came from a fella named Ben, who says: I’d add only that how something is discovered might not matter as much as the fact that is it discovered. On with the discovery.

My guilty pleasure is back … that shiny, ridiculous show where 3/4 of the actors give their lines with a sort of glassy stare. But hey, as the drama ratchets up between B and Little J, and Serena’s crazy ex-best-friend stalks the unsuspecting Dan, let’s take a moment to appreciate another show that keeps up with the musical times. This week’s ep even featured a Vampire Weekend song, making me think that it’s probably someone at Brooklynvegan that moonlights as the music editor.

So if you’re dying for some Upper East Side glamour in your life, steal your friend’s mom’s Valentino dress and rock out to the following.

01 The Kills — Sour Cherry
02 Crystal Castles — Crimewave (Crystal Castles vs HEALTH remix)
03 Flo Rida — Elevator
04 Figurines — The Air We Breathe
05 The Deadly Syndrome — Eucalyptus

Bonus Video: Henry Mancini’s absolutely gorgeous “Moon River”

Browsing around this morning, I read a funny article by Joshua Allen of the Morning News. It’s not safe for delicate eyes, but it posits that the perfect length for a pop song is 2:42. Allen’s ephiphany descends when he digs up “There She Goes” by the La’s:

I listened to it and said, in my rich and sonorous timbre, in my typically concise and absolutely-nailing-it fashion: “Here is a song that has everything I need and nothing I don’t.”

2:43? Please don’t bother. 2:41? Allen mocks those short ditties:

Then over here we have “Good Morning Good Morning,” rightfully discarded by the masses as a throwaway. Why? Two minutes, 41 seconds. Hey, Beatles, maybe next time think about tacking on an extra second to give a song the grandeur and majesty it deserves.

So, if pop perfection is just a matter of time, it comes as no surprise at all that Lykke Li’s song “Let It Fall” is exactly 2:42. While I’m chair-dancing to tracks from her new album “Youth Novels,” I get the feeling that she knows exactly what I need, and has cut out everything I don’t. And the rest of the songs ain’t bad either (understatement); my absolute favorite is “I’m Good. I’m Gone.” when she sings about getting butter for her piece of bun. Mmmmm…buttered bun.

The videos are great too; she’s in a bathroom, she’s in a high school, she’s in a train station but she can’t stop moving, twitching, skipping, shimmying. It’s not to be expected that a listener could keep from it either.

Lykke Li — Site | Myspace

Lykke Li — I’m Good. I’m Gone.
Lykke Li — Everybody But Me (Christoffer remix)

video — Lykke Li — Little Bit
video — Lykke Li — I’m Good. I’m Gone. (bathroom)
video — Lykke Li — I’m Good. I’m Gone. (official)
video — Lykke Li — Dance Dance Dance

Thanks to Nick, who suggested more 20th century songs to add to the list:

– “1963″ by New Order (video link is the “arthur baker remix”).

– “1972″ by Josh Rouse (that’s a crappy video, but on his site, you can see a video of him doing an excellent cover of “A Forest.” Suddenly I’m a little bit in love.)

– …and the man who rhymes “Simone-a” with “sober” and “over” — James Blunt, “1973.” Not to mention that if James Blunt could get into clubs in 1973, I’m the frigging queen of Sweden. (Hint: My name is not Silvia. And JB was born in 1974. Hah.)

Also, DANCING CUPCAKES! You know you want to see some cupcakes waltzing. It will make your day.

At Idolator, a couple of vintage Garbage videos. Ah, Shirley.

And via LAist, well, Kobe jumps over an Aston Martin. No offense, but I can’t try it at home, because I don’t have a #$*&!!!@ ASTON MARTIN.

[The astute may notice that I have changed layouts a smidge — Benevolence wasn’t widget-friendly and when I updated to WP 2.5, it had to go. I miss its turquoise self very much and I’ll have to visit Song, By Toad once in awhile to see it again. But this new layout is actually easier to frak around with than Benevolence, so hello to Tarski!]

The bleepity blooping shick-a-shick that characterized Ill Lit got me right on board with their 2006 album “Tom Cruise.” It’s electronic alt-country, perfect for LA, where the man behind the music does his work. He is Daniel Ahearn, and he recently released an EP called “Pray For Me By Name.” The email I was sent notes that the muted sound on the EP is deliberate:

Late in 2007, Daniel was robbed. His electronics, his boom box, keyboards, and pedals—all stolen. All the songs on his new EP, Pray For Me By Name, were written to be songs that Daniel felt like he could play with just an acoustic guitar and his singing.

It sucks beyond belief that someone would steal all that equipment (though it happened to a lot of folks last year). But Ahearn didn’t let it stop him, and there is still some nice electronical buzzing in “Down For the Count” (and a violin too). The EP is fairly standard soft country, well lyricked and easy to listen to — plus, the man knows who Anne Carson is, so he’s obviously a superior being [sorry, poetry geek moment]. If you liked Ill Lit, consider buying “Pray,” and hopefully Daniel won’t stay down for the count for long.

Daniel Ahearn — Site | Myspace

Daniel Ahearn — Down For the Count

Ill Lit — The Homewrecking Ball

Random bits of music I have picked up lately:

01. Bruce Springsteen — O Mary, Don’t You Weep [the Pete Seeger Sessions]
02. Weinland — Sick As A Gun [La Lamentor]
03. The Breeders — We’re Gonna Rise [Mountain Battles]
04. Vanessa Paradis — L’incendie [Divinidylle]
05. Fischerspooner — Danse En France (DIM remix) [Danse En France EP @ iTunes]

Discover magazine profiles the Viennese Vegetable Orchestra, who buy their delicious instruments fresh every night and make soup with them after the concert.

Nerve and IFC.com profile 50 great moments in comedy. My favorite: #29, “Argument to Beethoven’s 5th,” the beautifully choreographed argument between Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray.

New video for Vanessa Paradis’s song “L’incendie.” Curse you, woman, how can you have had two children and look like that?

At Muzzle of Bees, Steve Earle joined by the angelic Emmylou Harris singing “Goodbye.”

Via Chromewaves, the video for the band of scottish awesomeness: Sons & Daughters’ “Gilt Complex.”

And via Catbirdseat, a nice little article from the NY Press about how indie is the new adult contemporary. Psh, guys, seriously, Scott beat you to that like 8 months ago. And since you’re so cool with Feist being mainstream and stuff, you can join the club. K? K. (I’ll leave the Soof half-insults to any reader who can stand the guy.)

And to back that premise up, you can now stream Feist and Constantines singing “Islands In the Stream,” and it’s perfectly lo-fi adult contemporary whitebread country and it’s AWESOME, and I say that with no shame whatsoever, because the Bee Gees and Dolly Parton are also awesome. (Kenny Rogers is not awesome, but he knows when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, and I respect that.)

The upgrade to 2.5 was successful, and the new version is very smooth. The dang thing used to not let me make new categories, but finally they fixed that. Now if only I could preview before I posted, but you can’t have everything, right?

So, a new category in honor of artists like Justin Rutledge, who aren’t new (this is his third album with Sixshooter) but who certainly aren’t indie darlings because of the specificity of their sound. Though many will find Justin soft and overly country, he’s got a beautiful turn of phrase and a bit of a dark side (just enough). He’s Norte-Americana, mandolin and guitar and a man with a broken heart trying to find his way out of a dark room. Sometimes he makes it and sometimes he doesn’t, even in the same song: in “This Too Shall Pass,” he sings both when your eyes are sick with wonder and your heart is in a cast / this too shall pass, and, we figured out how to make a good thing last / but this too shall pass.

It’s that kind of wry ambiguity that really ratchets up the quality of Rutledge’s country sound, which is fairly standard. He never quite reaches the Votolatian heights of the tortured metaphor or tries to out-stamp the country stompers; he just speaks directly from himself to the listener, and therefore, we listen. “Man Descending” will be released on April 8th.

Justin Rutledge — Site | Myspace | Label (Six Shooter)

Justin Rutledge — This Too Shall Pass

Justin Rutledge — Greenwich Time

Some upgrading to WP 2.5 going on. I’m terrible at it so we’ll see what happens.