Things have been hectic at the Test of the Boomerang headquarters: I just became a father, and things have been understandably hectic. I took a break from changing nappies, though, to put together a little mix. It’s a real mixed bag today, folks — I have Jarboe’s sweet cover of Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” from Swans’ out-of-print classic The Burning World, brooding folk from Neurosis guitarist Steve Von Till, King Crimson’s full “Providence” improv jam from the fantastic Great Deceiver live set, and a little taste of Merl Saunders (rest in peace, brother Merl) and Jerry Garcia. As well as some other musical goodies. Enjoy with some Fordham Scotch Ale and I’ll meet you back here in the New Year. (more…)

Guns n’ Roses - Chinese Democracy (Geffen, 2008)
purchase this album (Best Buy)

Unless you’ve spent a lot of time in the company of William Shatner, Chinese Democracy will likely be one of the most ridiculous audio recordings you ever come across. It is sprawling and stupid and ludicrous and hilarious and will make you shoot milk out of your nose and cringe and it is not very good and sometimes extremely terrible, and just when you think things cannot possibly get any more extraordinarily strange, that’s when Axl Rose drops the MLK sample on you.

Originally slated for release in 1948, Chinese Democracy comes out Sunday exclusively for people shopping for Black Friday-sale plasmas at Best Buy, a wise promotional stunt and kind of an all-in proposition — if putting this record out this week doesn’t create interest or move units, nothing will. Because one thing is sure: the songs won’t sell it.

The final, finished, ostensibly archival version of Chinese Democracy is a fucking mess, a haphazard, stop-and-go Transformer of rap-metal parts, ideas, sketches, Chester Bennington riffs, lyrical crimes, la la las, and ridiculous electronic touches and twists that only occasionally resemble completed songs; in what will be the least surprising thing you’ll read all week, it sounds like what happens when you dicker around with something so long it stops making any sort of cohesive sense. Tracks like “I.R.S.” and the absurd “Riad n’ the Bedouins” barely begin accelerating before they veer into left-field guitar solos, tempo shifts, distracting vocal tricks, and Axl’s never-far-afield need to drop in something robotic. These songs build no momentum, create no wave. It’s more like Axl’s “A Day in the Life”; you feel like he cut up the tape, threw it into the air, and sticky-taped together the results.

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Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Cardinology (2008)
purchase this album (Amazon)

It’s been fashionable for the last few years to slag Ryan Adams at every turn. There’s no doubt that he’s brought some of this animosity on himself by virtue of some less than discrete behavior, notably at his live performances.

I’ve always been one to believe that the proof is in the grooves, or whatever they call the equivalent on a CD. When judged by this criteria, it’s hard to think of another artist who has created the sheer volume of music that Adams has in recent years, while maintaining reasonably high standards. Sure, he’s shot and missed, but his misses are generally more interesting that a lot of other artists’ hits.

Word has it that Ryan Adams wanted this album to be billed as being by the Cardinals, without his name involved. In interviews he’s said that he is happiest just being a member of the band, and at live shows he has lined up with the other band members, and not claimed his spot as the frontman. It appears that a compromise was reached with his record company. The new album, Cardinology, carries the credit Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. Apparently Adams got his Cardinals, and Lost Highway got their Ryan Adams. (more…)

(With apologies to Ted, as there are no sob stories about failed relationships this week.)

Let it not be said that Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown was without its good points.

Actually, I shouldn’t say that. I never saw the movie – the trailer, lengthy running time, questionable casting of Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, and ultimately the reviews were enough to scare me away – but the impression I get is that it was not good. Whatever the qualities of his movies, though, Crowe always made sure the soundtracks could stand on their own, and sure enough, the music he slipped into Elizabethtown contains his typical blend of Boomer acts (along with the obligatory slot for wife Nancy Wilson) mixed with the occasional offbeat number or deep cut. For me, the album came down to the letter H: “Jesus Was a Crossmaker” by the Hollies, “Let It All Hang Out” by the Hombres, and last but certainly not least, “io (This Time Around)” by Los Angeles space rockers Helen Stellar. Few songs have grabbed me at first listen, and held me, like this one did.

Listen to that echo-laden piano track: it positively reeks of sadness, yet the few words that the band sprinkles into the song are not sad ones. “This time around, you can be anyone / This love of ours…” On second thought, I’m not sure exactly what that means, and I’m sure that was the point. Each listener takes a different journey with a song like this. It may not even be to a fixed point in time; just somewhere…else. For me, it made me feel like I had left something, or someone, behind, and this song was my guide to find it. Or maybe something had left me behind. Either way, it fills me with an overwhelming sense of loneliness. Sweet, beautiful loneliness. And as Kurt Cobain once put it, sometimes I miss the comfort in being sad. This song does it for me every time. (more…)

Today marks the final post of 2008 for Bottom Feeders. So instead of starting the letter G and then going on break, let’s take a look back at the first 33 weeks of the series, with what I believe are the ten best, the ten worst, and the ten rarest songs in the series up to this point.

The Best
10. Jimmy Buffett, “It’s My Job” (download)
9. Bee Gees, “You Win Again” (download)
8. Crosby, Stills & Nash, “War Games” (download)
7. The Time, “The Oak Tree” (download)
6. The Cult, “Fire Woman” (download)
5. Dragon, “Rain” (download)
4. Devo, “Theme From Doctor Detroit” (download)
3. Jon Astley, “Jane’s Getting Serious” (download)
2. Joan Armatrading, “Drop the Pilot” (download)
1. The Cure, “Lullaby” (download)

I’ve listened to every song I own in my collection — every track to hit the Hot 100, thousands of tracks on the R&B and dance charts, and album after album, but listening to all of these songs pretty thoroughly while writing them up for Bottom Feeders has opened my ears to some tunes I didn’t realize were so good. Two of those are “You Win Again” by the Bee Gees, which I couldn’t stop listening to weeks after I posted it, and “War Games” by Crosby, Stills & Nash, which I listened to repeatedly only after reading your comments on it.

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Tipsy - Buzzz (Ipecac, 2008)
purchase this album (Amazon)

They call their music “drunktronica,” explain the seven-year layoff between this and their previous release by saying they were “distracted by commercial corporate money music for hire (as well as occasional substance abuse),” and are the new kids on the block at Ipecac Records, the imprint founded by noted rock & roll madman Mike Patton. Clearly, whatever else Tipsy might be, it isn’t boring — and neither is their third album, Buzzz.

Honestly, although I can often appreciate this sort of thing in principle — and I freely admit it would take me a lot longer than seven years to build something sensible out of the chopped-up bits of music Tipsy works with — anything -tronica usually turns me off; I can’t think about club music without remembering things like the time I woke up to the sound of a friend banging on my window, pre-dawn, to ask me if I’d help him wash some girl’s puke out of his car so his mom wouldn’t know he’d been at a rave all night. Even when the DJs manage to mix some melody in with the beats, I can’t help tuning out — I’m a lyrics guy, and I want some narrative with my noise.

All that being said, I found Buzzz to be an enjoyable listen. It’s a sonic tour through a strange world that sounds exactly like its garish cover, but there’s too much going on for the listener to get bored, and it’s so artfully assembled that you can admire it even if you can’t dance to it. Listening to each track is like staring at an immense mosaic — you’re constantly torn between taking it all in and dissecting it. It’s also got a sense of humor, as evidenced by catchy tracks like “Chop Socky” (download) and the lovably schizo “Swingin’ Spaceman.” Rather than relying on a monolithic barrage of beats to get their point across, Tipsy gambols in the rusty playground between analog and digital, playing on the tension between man and machine, old and new, drunk and sober.

A fun little record, in other words, and suitably strange for anyone looking for new frontiers in machine-assisted pop music. Heck, I may even find myself listening to it again — and for a grumpy old lover of acoustic instruments like me, that’s really saying something.

Another example of a one-hit wonder in the States while huge in the U.K., paranoid android and Bowie Low cop artist Gary Numan can lay the blame for his lack of U.S. hits solely on his American label, Atco.  After the tremendous success of the iconic New Wave single “Cars,” Atco probably thought it was the right choice to release Numan’s first huge overseas hit (with Tubeway Army) “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” as the follow-up, even though it wasn’t featured on Numan’s then-current The Pleasure Principle LP.  After all, “Are ‘Friends’” was a massive U.K. #1 single, so it only made sense to consolidate his successes to break Numan big in the States.  Problem was, American radio, still in the thrall of the likes of Journey, Boston and Styx, was just not ready for “Are ‘Friends’” (and probably still aren’t), and the single topped out at #105, a pathetic showing for a Top Ten follow-up.

Meanwhile, over in the U.K., the downbeat, moody “Complex” (download) was chosen as The Pleasure Principle’s second single, a bewildering choice.  Almost half the song is a somber, synth instrumental, while the second part is a ballad about disconnection and alienation (on a macro level, you could almost say both halves were ripped off from Low - one moody vocal side, another instrumental).

Numan nearly had carte blanche on the U.K. charts in the early ’80s, so shockingly enough, “Complex” was a Top Ten hit.  However, to this day I can’t imagine why Numan’s record companies on both sides of the Atlantic chose to overlook the obvious choice for a second single, the groove-focused  “Metal,” (download) with its insistent guitar-like synth riff and soaring chords.  Its similarity to “Cars” wouldn’t have hurt its chances either. (more…)

The Pogues - “The Old Main Drag”

The Decemberists - “On the Bus Mall”

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Thanks to everyone who voted during Halloween week!

Dan Wilson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic, solo artist)

Okay Darren, here are my picks! I’m sure if I thought about it more I’d only come up with a bunch more bonus picks, so I’m sticking to these.

Joni Mitchell’s Hejira album. If it were one song I’d say “Hejira” — there’s something so heartbreaking about Jaco Pastorius’ bass melodies intertwining with Joni’s lyrics. And the song is about love, travel, the temporary fixes of modern life, and the quest for something lasting. What more could you ask for in a song? (more…)

DOWNLOAD THE FULL MIX HERE

In general, people who know Daniel Lanois know him from the musical acts he’s produced: U2, Robbie Robertson, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, and Emmylou Harris, just to name a few.  His partner in crime, Brian Eno, also shares in many of his production credits, and, truth be told, sometime it’s tough to know how these two split up the work.  Eno’s eggheadish tendencies, while brilliant at times, seem to be tempered by Lanois’ more rootsy approach to music.  The combination has resulted in some interesting and engaging albums by the performers above, but what about Lanois’ own music?  Well, that’s what this mix is about — so let’s get started, shall we?

“Sleeping in the Devil’s Bed,” Daniel Lanois (download)

In a way, I’m cheating by including this song as separate from the album The Beauty of Wynona.  “Sleeping in the Devil’s Bed” first appeared on the Until the End of the World soundtrack, and a shorter version was included on The Beauty of Wynona.  I have both iterations now (thanks to Scott Malchus), but I prefer this one — mostly because I first heard the song on this soundtrack.  Lanois’ vocal style varies from album to album, but on this song it’s clear that he was influenced by Bob Dylan when he worked with Dylan on Oh Mercy. (more…)