“She’s filled with secrets. Where we’re from, the birds sing a pretty song and there’s always music in the air.” — The Man From Another Place

Download audio file (MtEerie-TwoMysteries.mp3)
Mount Eerie – “Between Two Mysteries”
(from Wind’s Poem)

Phil Elverum’s decision to craft an album indebted to black metal and the television series Twin Peaks resulted in, if nothing else, the single greatest concept record of 2009. He sought errant strands in these diverse influences and managed to tie them all together in a way that suggests something that’s at once elemental and spectral, brooding with a primordial consciousness. Those vast Northwestern woods must have a power all their own.

The track “Between Two Mysteries” stays closest to Angelo Badalamenti’s original score, lifting the foreboding chords of “Laura’s Theme” and embellishing them with xylophone and apprehensive scrapes on the guitar, with the singer convincing himself that shapes in the dark are more than just tricks of the light.

Music played a key role in creating Twin Peaks’ atmosphere of unplumbed mystery, but not all of it was frightening. Here, for your resurrected Friday Fix, are three of my favorite musical moments from the only TV show that ever mattered:

The first is the most obvious and the most obviously overdubbed: reticent biker James Hurley switching into falsetto mode singing “Just You & I” with the haunting background vocals of Donna Hayward and Maddy Ferguson. It’s a truly moving 1950′s-style teenage love ballad, but even though James is committed to Donna, his eyes keep wandering over to Maddy, which of course results in drama. Oh James, why can’t you ever just be happy with what you have?

In this classic scene (aren’t they all, though?), Sarah Palmer and her niece Maddy are discussing dream visions they’ve had of the murdered Laura Palmer, when the previously inconsolable Leland Palmer sweeps into the living room with a shock of white hair and sings a jubilant rendition of the 1940′s novelty song “Mairzy Doats,” proving once and for all that a jaunty Irish jig is right for any situation. (My second favorite Leland Palmer vocal performance comes at the dinner party where he breaks into “Get Happy” only to break down. This is the only clip of it that I’ve been able to find on YouTube, but for some reason all the speech is in Portuguese (?), while the singing is pure Lelandese.)

Saving the best for last: Here we have the now clearly insane land developer Benjamin Horne dressed in full Confederate regalia, recreating scenes from the Civil War in miniature. About three minutes into the clip (it’s worth the wait), “General” Horne, egged on by the convincingly kooky Dr. Jacoby, belts out a spirited version of Daniel Emmett’s “I Wish I Was in Dixie”: “Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land!” (Please excuse the subtitles. Again, this is YouTube we’re dealing with.)

This week’s Friday Fix features tracks from some of our favorite Detroit bands who are playing

PHONOTROPIC’S WICKED AWESOME BARBEQUEDMUSICAL SAFARI…YESSS!!!

show this weekend at The Crofoot.

The

PHONOTROPIC’S WICKED AWESOME BARBEQUEDMUSICAL SAFARI…YESSS!!!

promises to be an amazing event with more than 15 musical performances and DJ sets as well as some great art from Detroit artists, as well as doubling as the

Zoos of Berlin CD Release Party

for their new album Taxis, which is exellent (reviews at Metro Times and Detroit Gorilla).

Bands include

Prussia
“Supreme Being” Download audio file (supremebeing.mp3)

Zoos of Berlin
“Black in the Sun Room” Download audio file (BlackInTheSunRoom.mp3)

Friendly Foes
“Get Yr Shit Together” Download audio file (GetYrShitTogether.mp3)

Millions of Brazilians
“Vermont” Download audio file (Vermont.mp3)

The Great Fiction

Aran Ruth

Manna and Quail

Charlene Kaye and her Heroes

The Summer Pledge

Dale Earnhart, JR. JR

Self

Oblisk

Oscillating Fan Club

Friends of Dennis Wilson

Awesome. This is going to be a great event. You should probably go to

PHONOTROPIC’S WICKED AWESOME BARBEQUEDMUSICAL SAFARI…YESSS!!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

While on an early evening bike ride yesterday I happened into a public park where several of the local senior citizenry were gathered to hear a Big Band play hits from the 30s and 40s (“back when music was really music!” so I can hear them say when attempting to put words in their mouths). The band was just tuning up, and I was stirred when two saxophonists sitting next to each other blurted out the first note to the Wallpaper Remix of Brooklyn duo Das Racist’s “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.”

“Whoa, are they covering Das Racist?!” I unconsciously thought aloud, causing several octogenarians to look over at me, a man in dorky green football coach shorts on a stationary bike speaking to himself (since they all seemed hard of hearing, I can’t imagine what they thought I actually said). Suffice it to say, it was a coincidence–these guys haven’t heard “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.” I doubt they hardly ever even read this blog.

I first came upon “Combination” when I decided to listen to Pitchfork’s advice and check out some of their best new tracks. After flipping through standard indie fare, I found myself repeating this track over and over again. And thus my favorite track of summer 2009 was found.

Upon first listen, this seems like a dumb song. It’s just two guys singing back and forth that they’re at either the Pizza Hut or the Taco Bell and, lo! it turns out they’re at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. You can almost imagine two people on cell phones with bad reception trying to find each other on a noisy city street, one on the taco bell side of the titular fast food emporium, one on the other. It also reminds me of the way hard-of-hearing seniors sometimes communicate, so the whole intro to this post isn’t for naught.

But the brilliant thing about this song is that it’s intentionally stupid, the way only really smart people can make stupid songs. The Das Racist brain trust, Himanshu Kumar and Victor Vazquez, are pop culture tricksters, and this musical experiment with “rap” isn’t too different from what Sasha Baron Cohen is doing with movies and Neil Hamburger with comedy. Basically, you get trapped in the fact that they’re so good at the craft of intentional bad taste. I mean, their name is Das Racist after all.

Nevertheless, “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” is undeniably catchy, and once in its grasp, it’s hard to free yourself from it. And personally, I don’t really want to.

“Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” – Das Racist (original) [myspace]
Download audio file (DasRacist-combinationpizzahutandtacobell.mp3)

“Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” – Wallpaper Remix [Wallpaper myspace]
Download audio file (CombinationPizzaHutAndTacoBell(Wallpaper. RMX).mp3)

Links

A fantastic interview in The Village Voice with Kumar and Vazquez

Now watch the cool kids start hating them: A Das Racist show reviewed in The New York Times

[Writer's note: I have nothing against old people. I think The Greatest Generation is great!]

“Up north” is something that Michiganians in particular understand.

Sure, other states have “up north” equivalents. But people from Michigan in particular refer to any lazy excursion out of the city and normal life to a sylvan, nature-based area for the purpose of simply relaxing “up north.” I’ve personally been caught in conversation describing relaxing vacations to the east, west, and south as “Up North.”

Well, this weekend, a majority of our writers have decided to take such a relaxing excursion, and surely lots of convoluted, over-thought, hairbrained ideas about music will be discussed over a campfire and copious amounts of libations.

To celebrate, we at the Post-Rockist do what we always do when we plan on leaving the blog scene for a short period of time: we post a song by The Kinks.

After all, in case something catastrophic may happen and we never make it back to our laptops, we’d want the lasting impression for visitors who might trip upon our site through a Google search to be that we like The Kinks way more than most blogs do.

Enjoy!

The Kinks – Holiday (from Everybody’s in Show-Biz)
Download audio file (Holiday.mp3)

What a news cycle we have had these past couple of weeks! Palin resigns. Franken is a senator. Obama visits Russia.

And a lot of famous people died.

The ubiquitous Michael Jackson coverage has taken over the attention of the entire country, and no matter what his sins may or may not have been, there has been a lot of genuine, heartfelt love for MJ and the music that he made. But with all of the grieving and memorializing that has been going on, it’s interesting that there hasn’t been more coverage of the real star of this recent news cycle: Death.

The grim reaper is back, folks, making an unexpected comeback in the public eye and healthier than ever, it seems. To give the devil his due, The Post-Rockist decided to put together a short mix of our favorite songs concerning the greatest equalizer.

Paul McCartney - That Day is Done (from Flowers in the Dirt)
Download audio file (McCartney_ThatDayIsDone.mp3)

I’m still not sure what the overarching narrative of McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt may be, but I know that it’s there and that it has to do with a love story and a death. Possibly the weirdest and most touching song on this very good album is “That Day is Done.” From what I can tell, the singer has died and is watching his own funeral and particularly his lover in the procession.

One of my favorite songwriting tricks in music is when the writer uses the album title in the lyrics of a song. There are many great cases of this that I can’t currently think of, but when McCartney sings “She sprinkles flowers in the dirt” I always get chills.  I really don’t think it makes total sense, but McCartney somehow gives us us a complex and weirdly supernatural narrative and still is able to wrench our hearts. It’s a convoluted, beautiful song.

The Decemberists – O Valencia! (from The Crane Wife)
Download audio file (Decemberists_OValencia.mp3)

If any band has been really good at imagining death (and making it happen in their songs), it’s the Decemberists. A few months ago, Paste Magazine did a great job of tabulating the extent of Colin Meloy and Co.’s blood thirst, so really the question wasn’t whether or not to include The Decemberists, but which song?

I decided on “O Valencia!.” Why? Because it’s fun. Duh. The idea behind this mix is already kind of depressing and, to be honest, if I hadn’t already committed to the idea (or had another, better one) I would probably think otherwise and write about something happier. So tap your foot and bob your head to this sweet little pop tune about a lover taking a bullet and biting the dust. It’s just fun!

Jens Lekman – Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death (from somewhere on the internet. Buy Jens stuff here)
Download audio file (Lekman_YourBeatKicksBackLikeDeath.mp3)

As we are wont to do, we’ll leave it up to Jens Lekman to round out this short little playlist into the morose and unmentionable. And in “Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death,” Jens mentions it. A lot.

I know there’s a lot of material out there, so feel free to let us know your favorite death songs. They’re part of life, after all.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Download audio file (America.mp3)
Lou Reed – “America (Star-Spangled Banner)”
(from Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology)

This weekend, as you’re grilling veggie dogs over an open flame and sipping on a few too many imported brews in the backyard with your loved ones, be sure to take a moment to reflect on our nation’s struggle for independence and, in the midst of that hefeweizen haze, consider the possibility that if Francis Scott Key had penned his famous poem with the help of a broken synthesizer and a post-glam band that was trying to age gracefully into the curious new world of the 1980s, the song you used to sing before the start of every little league game would have turned out quite differently indeed. The harmonies may have changed, but the message remains the same: Fuck yeah, America.

Trap Them (photo credit: www.returntothepit.com)

As a result of my recent trip to Maryland Deathfest, I’ve been listening to mostly metal, with an occasional break to research the next topic of Andrew and Liz Discuss the Hits.  Below are a few songs that have excited me recently.

!T.O.O.H.! (that stands for Total Obliteration of Humanity, naturally) was an experimental grind band from the Czech Republic who broke up a few years ago, unfortunately, before they were able to perform here in our great nation.  Their odd, melodic riffage was really bizarre and unique, much less focused on downtuned chugging than most metal acts.  The drummer was nuts, with a very pingy and surprisingly un-annoying snare sound and speed to spare.  And the vocals (with lyrics all in Czech) sort of sound like a vampire cursing after he stubs his toe.  This is the first track from their excellent album Pod Vládou Bice (2003), ”Cistka,” which is full of all the aforementioned characteristics, and features an evil laugh at one point.

!T.O.O.H.! – “Cistka” from Pod Vládou Bice
Download audio file (TOOH_Cistka.mp3)

Trap Them from New Hampshire played at the fest, and they were so good that I saw them one week later when they toured through Milwaukee.  They were spectacular both times, and the material from their most recent release Seizures in Barren Praise destroys live.  Their music falls somewhere near Converge in that fuzzy spectrum between hardcore, grind, and metal, and their energy and pure power really impressed me from the first time I heard it.  Their somewhat fragrant vocalist got all up in the crowd’s shit during the Milwaukee show at the tiny DIY venue while the rest of the band flailed away, shredding and blasting and what-have-you.  Despite its ungainly title, the song “Day Twenty-Five: Guignol Serene” is a nice example of the middle of the tempo range these guys are capable of, and the second half of the song builds ’til it explodes.  Play it loud!

Trap Them – “Day Twenty-Five: Guignol Serene” from Seizures in Barren Praise (buy)
Download audio file (TrapThem_DayTwentyFiveGuignolSerene.mp3)

The quizzically named Intestine Baalism play a blend of Swedish melodic death metal with elements from American brutal death metal.  And they’re Japanese.  The riffs are intensely melodic, often with layered guitar harmonies, but the vocals are the unflinchingly tuneless growls that rarely accompany this variety of metal, and the combination of the two strikes my ears as pleasingly unexpected.  Maybe a bit of a gateway drug that would lead a young potential devotee of the genre from Iron Maiden to Prostitute Disfigurement.  “The Genuine Tone” is an epic and catchy example of them doing that thing they do.

Intestine Baalism – “The Genuine Tone” (more)
Download audio file (IntestineBaalism_TheGenuineTone.mp3)

Andrew is the Post-Rockist’s Metal and Top 40 Hits (along with Liz) resident expert. He comes closer to liking “all kinds of music” than anyone else we know.

But sometimes, we’re uninspired, barren, our minds run ragged by the drudgery of the work week. Sometimes, we need to find an excuse in order to continually post and post and post werds about muzik. Sometimes we’re lazy.

So this week, our Friday Fix has a flimsy raison d’etre.

Over the past week, Post-Rockist contributor and resident Milwaukeenne Amy went to three great shows and didn’t write about any of them for our humble website. I know, right?! Well, that’s ok. We take werds when we can get ‘em, and sometimes, other blogs get ‘em. That’s fine. But if Amy would have written about these shows for The Post-Rockist, it’s likely we would have posted these tracks. Happy Friday everyone!

Two Thursdays ago, Amy saw The Tallest Man on Earth and John Vanderslice. She wrote about it at Fan-Belt.com. Not here. Amy and a few other lucky Milsqwakeans got an impromtu post-performance performance from Mr. Vanderslice:

And after the already dwindling crowd had mostly headed home, John Vanderslice asked a handful of us to wait five minutes while he grabbed his guitar. He returned as promised, and his drummer returned with a drum, and John played us a song, his band singing the harmony lines, all of us grouped in a little knot in the back of the Hall. It could’ve been a campfire, a century ago, or someone’s basement, or even just the empty, lights-up Turner Hall, with the tables and chairs cleared away and nothing but friendship and sincerity and a good song, beautifully sung, left behind.

John Vanderslice – Romanian Names, from Romanian Names (buy)
Download audio file (JohnVanderslice_RomanianNames.mp3)

The Tallest Man on Earth – Moonshiner

Click here to view the embedded video.

On Monday, Amy got to see Grizzly Bear, whose utilization of the autoharp and a Fender Rhodes were notable. Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest will probably be album of the year due mostly to the fact that everyone has written so many words about it already that it will be very easy to repurpose all of those words for a glowing end-of-year retrospective of the band and everything awesome they’ve done. While the album is indeed very good, some of us at the Post-Rockist have commented that Grizzly’s harmonies aren’t as sharp as everyone’s #1 last year, Fleet Foxes, and that the songs on last year’s Department of Eagles album seem more memorable and better constructed.

Nevertheless, I can’t stop listening to “While You Wait for the Others,” which differs slightly from the live version they played on Jools Holland in its studio gloss and in the sharpness of Daniel Rossen’s electric guitar playing. The studio afforded Rossen the chance to record a guitar part written to seem heavy-handed and sloppy but with artful control of reverb and pick scrapes. I’d love just 5 minutes with that guitar and that amp set up with that tone.

Grizzly Bear – While You Wait for the Others from Veckatimest (buy)
Download audio file (GrizzlyBear_WhileYouWaitForTheOthers.mp3)

But back to Amy’s awesome adventures in outstanding audiencing. On Wednesday, Amy got to see Evangelicals (one of my favorites from last year) open for Starlight Mints (a band I’ve only heard of). Apparently, it was a sparse crowd in a big venue (Wednesday night shows tend to be that way), but Evangelicals reportedly put on a great show. Amy’s thoughts will post soon (again, on another site that is not this one) but we’ll link to it once it’s available.

In the meantime, listen to one of the most beautifully frightening songs I’ve every heard.

Evangelicals – Party Crashin’ from The Evening Descends (buy)
Download audio file (Evangelicals_PartyCrashin.mp3)

So that was Amy’s week in live music, indirectly presented to you by The Post-Rockist. A pretty spectacular week of live music, I must say. Hey, we’re just happy to give you just a taste of what she experienced, although we suspect that the real story behind these shows lies buried in Amy’s LJ account, which we assume she dutifully keeps up-to-date.

The Riverfront Times’ annual local music Showcase is taking place this Sunday at various locales throughout the Loop, and, if you’re familiar with the Showcase, then you already have an opinion about it. But the bottom line is: you should go. So what if these are all the same bands you’ve watched perform every week since the last Showcase; these are our bands, the bands that make a concerted effort to improve the quality of the St. Louis music scene, and this really the only opportunity you’ll get all year to sample some of the best the city has to offer in one marathon session. Besides, even when you think you’ve heard ‘em all, chances are you’ll make a wrong turn into Racanelli’s or stay in the drink line too long at the Halo Bar and wind up discovering some amazing, under-the-radar band that you had never bothered giving the time of day to before.

Plus, with something like 65 bands on the schedule, and only $5 for unfettered wristband access, that averages out to less than $0.08 per band, which is extremely reasonable.

The full schedule of events can be found here, although the gents from Gentlemen Auction House have taken the time to compile their own recommended itinerary, complete with a diagrammed map! Not surprisingly, they recommend checking out Gentlemen Auction House at 4:00 on the Main Stage.

Instead of putting together my own itinerary like last year, this time I just want to highlight a few excellent and recent releases featuring bands in this year’s Showcase.

Jon Hardy & The Public – “Little Criminals”
Download audio file (JH-LittleCriminals.mp3)

Last fall, Jon Hardy & The Public performed an all-Randy Newman cover set at the then-Bluebird, and it rocked my argyle socks off. They took Randy’s sad-sack, meandering personal style and punched it up with gusto, gravitas, and gut-wrenchingly powerful arrangements. Turns out the Public know a hit when they have one, so earlier this week they decided to release a four-song EP of Newman covers as a free download, which was made available, ahem, exclusively here. Or here. Or, you know, direct from their website.

Jon Hardy & The Public take the Main Outdoor Stage at 2:00 p.m.

The 75s – “I Wanna Kill My Boyfriend”
Download audio file (75-Boyfriend.mp3)

Something about seeing this band live makes grown men acknowledge a secret desire to become the drummer in an otherwise all-female punk band. Don’t know why, but I’ve heard this confession on more than one occasion. Maybe it has something to do with their mix of infectious, bittersweet pop harmonies and salty, undercooked rhythms that awakens long-dormant fantasies of swapping K Records B-sides and C86-inspired mix tapes with the girl with black eyeliner and magenta hairdye next door. The Stereo EP, from which the above song comes, can be downloaded for free or for name-your-own-price via Trouble In River City.

The 75s play at Cicero’s at 7 p.m. sharp.

Target Market – “Killer Cars”
Download audio file (TM-KillerCars.mp3)

Over the past year or so, Target Market have evolved into one of the most impressive indie acts in the city. Up On the Moon, released digitally last month and physically two weeks from today at Vintage Vinyl, is the group’s second album and it’s fairly fantastic. There are hints of Pavement and Broken Social Scene, but aside from the overt indie-ness of the record there is some truly great craftsmanship that went into these songs — rhythmic arrangements that are speedy and angular without being jagged; bursts of clean guitars and fuzzy keyboards that are cathartic without being overwrought; vocals that are smart and emotive but not pretentious. It’s a meticulous balance of styles, but it feels wholly natural.

Target Market will go on at 11 p.m. at the Delmar Lounge.

Something else.