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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Jim Connelly's
Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Monday, January 15, 2007
Jesse Steichen's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Friday, January 12, 2007
Bill Bentley's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Anthony Carew's 13 Fave Albums Of 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
SXSW 2006: Finding Some Hope In Austin
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Letter From New Orleans
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums of 2005
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Music For Dwindling Days: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Sean Fennessey's 'Best-Of' 2005
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Albums Of 2005
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings of 2005
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Michael Lach - Old Soul Songs For A New World Order
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Found In Translation — Emme Stone's Year In Music 2005
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
Dave Allen's 'Best-Of' 2005
Monday, January 2, 2006
Steve Gozdecki's Favorite Albums Of 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Johnny Walker Black's Top 10 Of 2005
Monday, December 19, 2005
Neal Block's Favorite Recordings Of 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Jenny Tatone's Year In Review
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
Jennifer Kelly's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2005
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Ben Gook's Beloved Albums Of 2005
Monday, December 5, 2005
Anthony Carew's Fave Albums Of 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Prince, Spoon And The Magic Of The Dead Stop
Monday, September 12, 2005
The Truth About America
Monday, September 5, 2005
Tryin' To Wash Us Away
Monday, August 1, 2005
A Psyche-Folk Heat Wave In Western Massachusetts
Monday, July 18, 2005
Soggy But Happy At Glastonbury 2005
Monday, April 4, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 3: All Together Now
Friday, April 1, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 2: Dr. Dog's Happy Chords
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 1: Waiting, Waiting And More Waiting
Friday, March 25, 2005
Final Day At SXSW's Charnel House
Monday, March 21, 2005
Day Three At SXSW
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Day Two In SXSW's Hall Of Mirrors
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Report #1: SXSW 2005 And Its Hall Of Mirrors
Monday, February 14, 2005
Matt Landry's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
David Howie's 'Moments' From The Year 2004
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Noah Bonaparte's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Kevin John's Fave Albums Of 2004
Friday, January 14, 2005
Music For Those Nights: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Neal Block's Top Ten Of 2004
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Jenny Tatone's Fave Albums Of 2004
Monday, January 10, 2005
Wayne Robins' Top Ten Of 2004
Friday, January 7, 2005
Brian Orloff's Fave Albums Of 2004
Thursday, January 6, 2005
Johnny Walker (Black)'s Top 10 Of 2004
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums (And Book) Of 2004
Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Mark Mordue's Fave Albums Of 2004
Monday, January 3, 2005
Lee Templeton's Fave Recordings Of 2004
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Friday, August 31, 2001
They Want The Plastic Everlasting
Neumu's Michael Goldberg writes: Robert Pollard makes albums
under different names. You are most likely acquainted with the music
he's released as Guided By Voices, but whatever the name, the music
is always interesting, and often quite amazing.
Today I've been listening to an album called Tower in the Fountain
of Sparks by "Airport 5." The liner notes reveal that Airport 5
is actually Mr. Pollard and former Guided By Voices member Tobin
Sprout.
You can float away, listening to the cool, slightly '60s-influenced,
sometimes exuberant/other times ominous Brit-pop music and the sound
of Robert Pollard's mod vocals. This is the sound of great rock 'n'
roll. It is music so perfect. You listen, again and again, as I have
done, and you wonder how is it that that two men have such powerful
vision, such exquisite taste, such an intuitive feel for what should
be in a recording, and what shouldn't.
You can just groove to the sound, and trip on the lines that pop out:
"The network consumer...," "Whereby we dig the beauty...," "How can you
believe that patience brings reward...," "No one gets the brakes,
that's the breaks, baby."
Or you can dig in, listen to every word, read the lyric sheet,
attempt to decipher the words, the code.
One song that fascinates me is called "Burns Carpenter, Man of
Science." Whoever plays guitar on this track — Tobin Sprout?
— gets this metallic sound that is so cool. I can just listen to
the simple riffs over and over.
The song is about a scientist who has discovered a "liquid form of
love" that he wants to sell. One problem, as Pollard sings with
overdubbed voice in the chorus to a beautiful power-pop kind of
melody: "This kind of love (kind of love) will destroy the ozone."
In the song Burns Carpenter is unable to take his love potion to
market: "Taken to the test/ But regrettably not sold/ For ultimately
it must fail."
Sometimes I think Madison Avenue thinks they've got love in a bottle,
which, again and again, they palm off on a nation of lonely people
desperate for love. Buy the car, get the girl. Buy the —, get
the girl.
Pollard has some heady things on his mind. In the second song, "Total
Exposure," he begins: "How dare you say/ 'You have a good one'/ When
it's obvious/ I don't."
The album feels written under the shadow of Big Baby George Bush, and
the energy "crisis," and the negative trend of these past nine
months. Later, in "Total Exposure" he sings, "And the power plants/ A
doomsday crop."
I read today in the New York Times about one man who is
building an 18,000-square-foot house in Marin County and another who
lives in a 12,000-square-foot house in Lake Washington, near Seattle.
"I know there's a natural inconsistency," said Mr. Van der Ryn, the
man building the 18,000-square-foot house. "I mean, how can you be
green at this size?"
Well, you can't. Here in the U.S., we want it all. We want SUVs and
monster homes, and yet some of us also want to be politically
correct. We love the Web and computers and the newest technology, but
do we think about the toll that making those products takes on the
environment? Sings Pollard: "Dreams can't wait/ For tomorrow/ They
want the plastic everlasting/ Now or never."
The InsiderOne Daily
Report appears weekdays at 9 AM PST, except when it doesn't.
by Michael Goldberg
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