bad diary days

A week after Chicago-based duo Telefon Tel Aviv’s third full-length album Immolate Yourself officially dropped (January 20), co-founder Charles Cooper was found dead in a Chicago park. Needless to say, the future of the band is uncertain, and remaining member Joshua Eustis hasn’t explicitly said whether or not the Telefon Tel Aviv name will continue with a tour or future releases.

It’s incredibly sad and disturbing that such a tragedy would take place at all, let alone shortly after the band’s new album was poised to drop jaws among the electronica elite, but I’m thankful that the album made its way into the world and brought us a song as wonderful as Stay Away From Being Maybe. It’s absolutely breathtaking and I’ve had it on repeat lately - it’s bringing me back to 1984, when MuchMusic used to constantly play a video by Malcolm McLaren called Madame Butterly (watch the steamy, 14A-rated video here). The songs share many similarities, including the breathy vocals and whirling drumbeat. Malcolm McLaren’s Madame Butterfly is an homage to the Italian opera of the same name, and it was produced by superpop producer Stephen Hague.

If you like Junior Boys and Air France, you’ll love this gem.

Telefon Tel Aviv - Stay Away From Being Maybe

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Under The Radar consistently ranks as my favourite music magazine - it’s always teeming with unbelievably beautiful photographs (taken by co-founder Wendy Lynch Redfern) that are coupled with insightful interviews (often written by her husband and founder of UTR, Mark Redfern) and all laid out in a sharp glossy format.

I’ve been buying UTR since its inception in 2001 (it’s one of the rarities that’s actually not cheaper to get via subscription), and even though new issues have become exceedingly difficult to locate (Pages doesn’t carry it, and only certain Chapters locations ever update their issues), I always manage to hunt it down. In 2003 the magazine snagged (and published) the last ever Elliott Smith interview and they’ve devoted an issue entirely to Canadian indie music. The magazine is trumps.

Back to the topic of this post: Grizzly Bear. The Winter 2009 issue (#25), pictured above with the band on the cover, hit newsstands last Thursday and I’m eager to devour it. I picked up two copies of the mag - one to dissect and one to preserve. Along with a massive Grizzly Bear feature, it’s got all of the best that 2009 plans to offer us.

Grizzly Bear’s third album (as yet untitled) is being released by Warp Records on May 26 and it’s on my list of most anticipated albums of the year. I have high hopes and very few doubts that it’ll top my “best of” list at the end of 2009. So far the internet has heard three new tracks (”Fine For Now”, “Two Weeks” & “While You Wait For The Others”) and I have chills just imagining what the rest of the album sounds like.

Grizzly Bear is a Brooklyn-based band made up of vocalists Ed Droste & Daniel Rossen (Daniel also makes up one half of Department Of Eagles, who put out a stunning album of their own in 2008), drummer Christopher Bear and bass/woodwinds/electronics/backup vocalist/virtuoso/producer Chris Taylor (aka my current obsession).

The band recruited friend and classical music composer Nico Muhly and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus to work with them on the new album. I can’t wait to hear what Chris Taylor has produced and put together (Chris also produced 2007’s Yellow House).

For now, sate your appetite for Grizzly Bear’s wonderful harmonies with my five favourite tracks - and if you’re heading to SXSW in March, be sure to check out Grizzly Bear’s set, cause they’ve just been added to the lineup!

Grizzly Bear - He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) (from Friend EP; live on KEXP)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Grizzly Bear - La Duchess Anne (from Horn Of Plenty)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Grizzly Bear - Don’t Ask (from Horn Of Plenty)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Grizzly Bear - Knife (from Yellow House)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks (from the new album; live on “Late Show With David Letterman”)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

About two weeks ago at the MacWorld Expo, there were a couple of non-announcements - one being that iTunes Store pricing was going to change. From what people told me, there would now be two price points - some songs would drop down to $0.69 (with DRM protection) while DRM-free songs would be marked up to $1.29. But that’s not actually the explanation for the new pricing format.

Apple has marked down some songs to $0.69 (I have yet to find any of these while searching for music), kept others at $0.99 and then set a third tier of more popular songs at $1.29 each.

For a music fan like me who has that immediate itch to hear something, I have absolutely no qualms with actually PAYING for my music. As a result, I use the iTunes store a lot, and I usually spend about $60-70 per month on music (in the form of 6-7 albums) there. Every album I’ve purchased has been $9.99 or $6.99 (sometimes they have ’sales’).

Ever since this announcement though, I’ve noticed that every single album I’ve tried to buy has been $11.99.

If you’ve even set foot into an actual record store in the past three years you’ll know that $11.99 for a DIGITAL version of an album is a complete ripoff - most albums can be had for a dollar or two more, and in the case of popular/top 40 albums, it costs the consumer LESS to purchase the physical CD.

HMV sells several hundred different CDs every week that are priced at two for $20 or two for $25. Even the more expensive CDs in this case cost $12.50 each - that’s less than a dollar more than buying it on iTunes, and you get the physical CD to put on your shelf, plus the liner notes, etc. And you can just burn the album yourself to dump it on your mp3 player. Some of HMV’s CDs are FIVE DOLLARS. Future Shop sells CDs for $10 and even Rotate and other douchey record stores sell them for $12 or $13.

Why would I pay $11.99 for a digital album on iTunes when I can buy the physical CD for less in store, or even the vinyl + digital download for a few dollars more? Disobeying the psychological barrier of $0.99 has worked on me -  this whole thing has been such a turnoff that I’ve gone from buying six albums a month to zero albums.

Apple has stated that “the risks of the strategy — that consumers will be confused or turned away — have declined a lot since iTunes launched with uniform pricing in 2003.” Apple currently has an estimated 80 percent share of the digital download market…I wonder if this will change with the varied pricing now.

Dark Was The Night is a forthcoming two-disc AIDS charity compilation organized by The Red Hot Organization (who are also behind Red Hot + Blue). There are 31 great tracks on the album (out February 17), but there’s one that stands out furiously among the rest, and naturally it’s by Grizzly Bear.

Service Bell isn’t a new song - it appeared on 2005’s Horn Of Plenty - but this is a reworked version featuring Feist on vocals instead of just the boys from Grizzly Bear. The addition of Feist (who I am normally not even a fan of) is outstanding. The new version is 23 seconds longer than the original, yet it still clocks in at only 2:24 long.

Whereas the original Service Bell is backed by only an acoustic guitar, over-reverbed male vocals and some indistinguishable backing lyrics, this new version has a dozen more beautiful layers added to make it such a spectacular upgrade. Feist’s super delicate voice, layered male harmonies and some sort of tuba or other brass in the background along with percussion help the song crescendo into Beirut-esque territory at 1:00 before it simmers back down at the 1:36 mark.

Grizzly Bear featuring Feist - Service Bell

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Compare to the original version [YouTube].

Lyrics:
I keep a service bell by my bed for you
let the others do what they do
I will hold on
hold on
hold on

I keep a service bell by my bed for you

I have so much love for the new Oasis album Dig Out Your Soul, with the Liam-penned I’m Outta Time being one of my top picks from the album (Waiting For The Rapture & Bag It Up being two others. Oasis fans will know that Liam Gallagher is the mouthpiece (both in voice and snappy attitude) for the band, and that he leaves the songwriting and musical talent to his brother Noel.

Liam’s written about a dozen songs throughout Oasis’ career, but never any that were (IMO at least) worth discussing - Don’t Believe The Truth’s Songbird was OK I suppose. But now the band’s chosen I’m Outta Time as the second-ever Liam-contributed single and it was an excellent decision.

The song is allegedly Liam’s love letter to The Beatles’ John Lennon and it shows. The song sounds a LOT like something The Beatles would have done and even borrows a John Lennon interview soundclip (”As Churchill said, it’s every Englishman’s inalienable right to live where the hell he likes. What’s it going to do, vanish? Is it not going to be there when I get back?”).

When you compare this excellent remix by Twiggy Ramirez (included on the single version of I’m Outta Time) to the original, the song remains essentially intact and recognizable, but it’s “enhanced” in a bunch of ways. If you didn’t already know this, Twiggy Ramirez (aka Jeordie White) is the bass player for Marilyn Manson, and formerly A Perfect Circle and NIN. Oh, and apparently he makes a killer Oasis remix. Who knew?

There’s the omission of the xylophone and “la la la”s to open the song and their replacement with a ticking clock throughout. At first the ticking sounds like it may even be too literal, but it totally works with the more urgent drums. The first set of drums starts about a minute in and when the chorus kicks in at 1:20, it’s a full-on snare party. I just love how powerful the drums sound in the remixed version. Another example of a remix that’s as good, if not better, than the original.

Have a listen and let me know what you think.

Oasis - I’m Outta Time (Twiggy Ramirez Remix)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.