Book Review: Love Goes to Buildings On Fire by Will Hermes

Moreso than the fans who are equally aware of the era’s greatness, music critics have somehow made the 1970′s a hardfought discussion time and time again in terms of who were truly great and who are worthy of pedestals in each genre’s respective Hall of Fame. That would perhaps be true, if not for our current state of everyone and their mother being able to form a band, create a Reverbnation page, book a show in a tiny puissant venue, and hope that the money will roll right in. So the consensus seems to be that the most significant contribution to music from this time is that these bands were all creating impressive works that are so exciting, less for their own artistic merits and more for how these records were made. This was conventional wisdom (with certain exceptions, like Bruce Springsteen) to any critic if you asked them closer to the era than those who’ve picked up on the records of the era second-hand.

That last part is emphasized in the book’s epilogue, where Hermes muses on how bands are still doing it themselves, and more willing to explore the possibilities of crossing-over genres so that we can have things like electro-punk and dance-rock. But where Hermes does an excellent job of recreating a sense of community so important to the arts scenes in the book’s middle, the book begins and ends in legendary (and widely common knowledge at this point) coincidences pointed in obnoxious matter-of-fact narration, and an epilogue that is more interested in putting the author into the story where he could not before and interviewing some of today’s artists who offer halfhearted musings on what a similar sense of community means to them today.

Still, there is much to love here, whether you are familiar with these stories already or not.

After the Jump, what started as love will go to a building on fire.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Electric Comic Book

May you, and your significant other, be happy together and in love on this wonderful holiday.

Live Review and Pics: The Gories at the Bell House, with Mighty Fine and Mark Sultan, 1-28-12

Again, working with the great folks over at TheMusic.fm, I was given the chance to see Detroit’s legendary houserockers, the Gories at the Bell House in Brooklyn. The show openers, Mighty Fine, and Mark Sultan (of King Khan and BBQ Show fame), and the Gories themselves were all excellent. In short: if you have the chance to see any of these bands at any time, go. All of them are outstanding, and seeing them in one night was a show I’ll never forget.

You can read the full review of the show over at theMusic.fm website, but after the jump, check out some of my favorite pics from the show!

“Looking Back At. . .” Feature with TheMusic.FM Launched

“Looking Back At. . .” is TheMusic.fm’s new feature, wherein two critics take a look back at some of the new classic albums in the past decade (and slightly beyond) to see where they hold up nowadays,  as well as re-reviewing secret gems, lost opportunities, flashes-in-various pans, and so forth.

To kick off the feature, I gave my two cents on Interpol’s 2002 debut, Turn On the Bright Lights. I am very proud to be a part of this new semi-regular feature, written in partnership with TheMusic.fm, and I hope you will enjoy this excursion beyond the Electric Comic Book.

Any suggestions on a ‘new classic’ album we should check out in the future? Tell us what you think in our respective comments sections!

In Honor of SOPA, A Timeline of Musical Censorship (and a Few Thoughts on SOPA).

This handy timeline comes courtesy of WFMU’s Blog. Click to embiggen:

If I may have a moment to talk about this SOPA/PIPA Buisness:

Censorship, being a topic I am passionate about discussing and protesting, always amazes me in terms of its causes. The question of why governments, organizations, etc. etc. choose to censor is a fascinating conversation if only for the brief chance to understand the way other people think and their visions of a world similar to our own, yet clearly painted in different shades of gray.

My appreciation and similar fascination with piracy is quite well known to those who read this blog often, but there is a need to reform how we support our artists. But this is something that has to change within the industry, and not mandated by the government. When you put the regulation of art and the commerce of art in the hands of the government, you risk the regulation of content as well, and that is far more dangerous to our society than a few unbalanced corporate checkbooks. Piracy is only a threat to businesses whose priorities and structures are so fucked up, the industry can rake in billions in profits year after year, yet still cry poverty because they believe that some server in an off-shore shack somewhere has a shit ton of Katy Perry albums and videos just waiting around to be taken by anyone greedy enough to download them.

I’ll get off my soap box here, because I never wanted the Electric Comic Book to approach anything of a political statement. But I will say this: in addition to doing what you can to fight SOPA and PIPA bills, and spreading the word through Twitter, Facebook, pamphlets, etc. etc. etc., you should also consider for a moment what you can do to better support the arts. And if you’re like me, and you think you give enough money to the arts, consider what you can do to convince your friends to commit to that same level of artistic expression. Fortunately, we do have a lot of content available to us for free, and I’m not asking anyone to break the bank for bands offering crap albums for $20 a pop, but I am asking you to consider your choices in art with a sense of what is really worth keeping in the world. And if that’s none of it, then I’d like to see YOU create something worth keeping around. Seriously, I would.

Art, in all its forms, are one of the very few things worth living for in the modern world. It not only gives us great beauty to distract ourselves with, but it also gives us a context and sense of place and time in history, and gives us a better understanding with ourselves and our world. And the Internet, for all its foibles and dark spots, is still an impressive exchange of human information. Never take either for granted.

Spotify Playlists to Practice Your Moves To

Spotify became available in the states not too long ago, and apparently, they’re shutting the doors on the free ride some time soon. Either way, if you have the program, there are two playlists I HIGHLY recommend if you want to get a good dance party going — I have not listening to much else in the past few days. Both come courtesy of the folks from the Mod Culture site — a great source for all your Mod needs.

The first is called “Uptight!” from a DJ named Marc McNulty — it’s not too deep, but most of the stuff on here is chock full of Northern Soul classics, a good sampling of legit Mod bands of the day (plus the Jam), and great pop-jazz to get you a-steppin’ in your living room. Check it out here.

The other list comes courtesy of a DJ named David Jackson called “Blowin’ Up My Mind” — it’s much shorter, but it has some nice choice cuts of some lesser known Motown-style girl groups. Definitely worth a listen if you’re looking to expand your girl group horizons. Blow Up your Mind over here.

If you got any playlists you think are worth sharing, let us know! Post in the comments!

2011: The Most Boring Year in Music.

Happy New Year, all. 2012 is going to be a real mystery.

A bunch of British guys playing American folk was the most exciting thing happening in music this year.

It doesn’t feel like 2011 was worth reviewing as a whole. Coming out and saying that immediately, without any kind of pretense or introduction, feels quite good. 2011 was a boring year for music, even the stuff I usually like. I’m not alone in this, and, on one hand, it feels good to be vindicated by other critics out there; on the other, it lends itself to a notion of desperation that something spectacular will happen in the coming year. It’s an easy criticism (any year, but this year especially) when criticizing mainstream rock and roll, which still attempts to replicate either the bigness of 80′s rock, or the intimate rebellion of 90′s alternative. But it’s another when it is prevalent among independent artists as well. For example, in today’s New York Times, music critic Jon Caramanica laments that it’s not relevant to declare rock as a genre dead, but to realize that both labels are wholly uninterested in investing in something revelatory, and that the genre is merely ‘spinning its wheels.’

But what I wonder is that while the preferred safety for labels to invest in bands that have marketable sounds and songs is obvious, what of the bands out there who intend on making such noise?

An even more boring year to come? More after the jump.

Album Review: The Ettes – “Wicked Will”

What makes a band like the Ettes so fascinating is that while they’re lumped in with the regular garage rock/punk that decide to stick to basics and pay homage to the sound (rather than the artists) who came before them, they still manage to have a subtle touch that makes them so unique — in this case, their Patsy Cline-style country leanings mixed with the power and fury of the Stooges. Being fronted (and numbered) predominantly by women, it would be easy to compare them to any number of garage-leaning girl groups of the day, from the Vivian Girls to Wild Flag, or to any of the retro-indie groups like Cults (they’re not, and I get the feeling that Cults will disappear from the public consciousness within months, the good lord willing). But the Ettes deserve so much more than ranking among their peers of girl-fronted groups, let alone other garage-minded indie bands: they do it right! They get it! And it’s all because the Ettes have plenty of pop smarts, but they sound like a class bully, waiting to throw a punch at any time they get the chance.

The Ettes’ latest, Wicked Will, is a bit of a retreat from their previous album, Do You Want Power, which was produced by the Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright and featured a bit more diversity in terms of style. Wicked Will, produced with Liam Watson (who did their first two albums), returns to the raw and raucous power combined with their pop smarts that made those first two albums such engaging listens. But fret not: just because they dropped the stylistic challenges of Power doesn’t mean that they didn’t take a little bit of that record with them to make Wicked Will all the better.

Why the Ettes are better at self-reflection than anyone else, after the jump.

Cool Find Of the Day: Mick Jagger Letter to Andy Warhol

Here’s a letter from Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol regarding an album design for a ‘hits’ album — not sure if that’s meant to be a best-of compilation, or the actual album that did result from the Stones and Warhol working together, Sticky Fingers.

via Buzzfeed.

On another, unrelated note: I must thank everyone who liked and discussed the El Camino review, after Electric Comic Book became a fresh pressed item. I’m working my way through everything, and I will respond to you all. Thanks guys, and expect more reviews and views as the year ends.

Find of the Day: Original Version of “Wild Thing” by Jordan Christopher & The Wild Ones

What we have here is the original version of “Wild Thing” — the song made famous by the Troggs in 1966 — by a band called Jordan Christopher and the Wild Ones. It predates the famous (and after listening, much cooler) Troggs record by about six months, being released in November of 1965.

Enjoy the video above, but be sure to actually go to the YouTube page to check out a really cool comment left by a gent claiming to be the keyboard player for the Wild Ones!