Time and circumstances will prevent me from watching Super Bowl XLV this weekend. It's not the first time I've skipped "The Big Game" (as it's known in scores of electronics stores and supermarkets for legal reasons) - a couple years ago I passed on Steelers-Cardinals in favor of a trip to Disneyland. But this year I get the added benefit of missing the Black Eyed Peas performing the halftime show.
The last time I actively enjoyed a halftime show, I think, was U2's performance in 2002. I actually taped that one since I watched the game at a relative's house and while everyone would quiet down for the commercials, there was precious little interest in watching Bono show off the American flag sewn into his jacket (why a company of Boy Scouts and American Legionnaires didn't detain him after the game remains a mystery). To be honest, I recall watching the counter-programming more often than the halftime show. I'm a sucker for Celebrity Deathmatch and the Puppy Bowl. And the Bud Bowl, for that matter.
Prince was alright too, especially his sick burn on the Foo Fighters. Everything else is meh.
The Automatic - Not Accepted Anywhere
a.k.a. "The Automatic Automatic." Though I have a weakness for anything Welsh, this is pretty generic dance punk. They sound a lot like Kaiser Chiefs if those guys routinely forgot to write a third verse and just repeated the chorus a few more times. "Raoul" ain't bad though.
"Monster" was the big U.K. hit because...it had an a Capella breakdown? I'm still not sure why. I guess if you really hearing like the word "monster" over and over (and are not aware of Kanye West) this is your jam.
Also, I feel like it's my duty to report that most of The Automatic's songs have a whiny Linkin Park-sounding guy contributing background yelps. PASS.
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
I always felt like I was torturing my KSCR co-host, "Mellow Mike" whenever I asked him to participate in my many misbegotten attempts at gaining publicity for our show. One night I decided that we needed to post short bios of ourselves to our show's Facebook page. After 20 minutes we had about four sentences for Mike. I promised him we could stop if he could give me a few of his musical influences. He stared at me for a few seconds and said, "The Avalanches."
It makes sense now, because by name-checking the Australian electronic group he was essentially saying "everything." 1999's Since I Left You is a wall-to-wall samplefest, predating Girl Talk by 5 years. It's a fascinating stew of bits from obscure funk and soul songs, repetitious dialogue from old movies, and the smooth electronic sheen of a silkier Daft Punk. Tracks such as "Frontier Psychiatrist" are like weird, arty loops of black and white cartoons, deadpan and detached yet still fun and whimsical.
The Avalanches have a truly astounding grasp of rhythm, and this record would be essential if I were some kind of superior turntable mixologist. But I'm not. For me, it's something that's probably most effective to play when I'm waiting for the next act.
Average White Band
Yeah, everybody knows "Pick Up the Pieces" since it's the bigger hit, but "Cut the Cake" is way similar and better IMO - zippier and some of the more unusual lyrics conflating food and sex.
Between this and Van McCoy and Walter Murphy and Giorgio Moroder and Meco...well, we really loved our disco-funk instrumentals, didn't we? Or rather, our parents did.
And yes, they really were white...most of them. Like a lot of out-of-nowhere hitmakers in the 1970s, Average White Band was formed by a bunch of no-name session players with names like Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton on their résumés. This is a phenomenon that I find intriguing and I will definitely revisit it and it deserves a tag.
The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
I completely forgot about alt-country back when I was demeaning country music! How rude of me. Country and its close relations now comprise 0.9% of my library, up from 0.2% (margin of error 1 - 3%).
I kid. The Avett Brothers have been at this for more than a decade, and they're pretty good at it. Being from North Carolina, the home of Southern iconoclasts (that is, in terms of how Northern culture defines "Southerner"; not in terms of being fire-eating, secession-loving Yankee-baiters), has something to do with how they keep their sound so evergreen.
"I and Love and You" is a great closer that also works well as the album's first track. It's about a dusty vagabond who just wants to get back home to the sleepy burg of Brooklyn, New York. You might say that this fiddles with the country paradigm. When Johnny Cash famously sang, "I've been everywhere, man," I'm fairly certain he added, "except with those emaciated youths in Williamsburg."
Variety is a strength of I and Love and You, from the sweet, romantic "January Wedding" to the authentic hoedown stomp of "Laundry Room." My favorite is "Kick Drum Heart" - raw euphoria like this in rare in country, at least without a "Yee-haw" or a reference to shoving your footwear into your enemy's rectum.
Charming amateur music video for "Kick Drum Heart":
Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo
From the very first KSCR Fest to SXSW - not bad for a couple Long Beach high-schoolers. They're a little shoegazey for my tastes, though they coax quite a wall of sound out of each other on Avi Buffalo.
If you're 19 and have a record deal, you apparently write a lot about teenage sexuality. Write what you know, etc. "What's It In For," "Five Little Sluts," and "Summer Cum" are good examples of this form, full of madness, vulnerability, barely concealed excitement and nervousness. They make me feel old.
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