Broken Social Scene and Jam Philosophy

Broken Social Scene provides hope and validity for the musical model that Megachild adopted. The band is composed of a rotating/shifting/fluid cast of men and women, often beardy scruffians of varying ages, and often teetering on the razor's edge of becoming overcrowded with sound.

Their songs seem to emerge from jams, which can tend to be... well... jammy. Often deliberately sticking with a riff for much, if not the entirety, of a song. They uncover the emotive core of their music readily, and to me evoke the robust realization of that nameless song you've been humming or singing inside for days and days.

I'm sure that the describes the creative process for a lot of bands, but it definitely seems to be one of the approachs of Megachild. Everyone has stored up their musical energy for a week or more and is ready to release. The best nights come when everyone has a musical idea to bring to the table and when everyone else clicks in to round out the sound.

Despite their tendency to jams, Broken Social Scene can deliver some tight sounds with pop hooks. Watch the embedded stuff below and follow links to get a sense of what their moods produce on a given evening.

The Ting Tings, Franz Ferdinand, and INXS

Just listened to the Ting Tings on World Cafe and enjoyed much of it. These songs are built with hooks, and while I like the wonky-naive chord of "Great DJ" (which sounds like something I would play), I really liked the surging rythym of "Shut Up and Let Me Go" the best. The surging hooky thing reminds me of "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand.

Add in some breathy Michael Hutchence vocals (see "Devil Inside" and "The One Thing") and some sensual botanical allusions (a la Poi Dog Pondering) and you've got the roots of Megachild's "Horehound Honey".

Muscles, Beck, Dan Deacon, and Brad Neely

Here are some songs with synth and falsetto. Megachild has worked on a synth-pop falsetto song called Disco Wooden Spatula. It has a nice guitar riff and absurd lyrics about dancing to the choice of kitchen utensil.

First up is Sweaty by Muscles. I just discovered this song this morning. I first listened to the Shazam remix version, which is set to a video that highlights the amazing elasticity of the human face.

Link:

As you may have noticed in this cheerleader-chant, bumping fuzz-synth melange, the lyrics are both naughty and saccharine. That combination comes across as simultaneously sexy & grody in that version, but comes off more purely fun and hilarious when sung in harmonious falsetto and doofus voice in the original track, featured in the poor quality video/audio below. A better version of the audio and a more professional review of the song is provided in the link below the video (so if you can sink up the audio in that link with the youtube video, it provides a slightly better listening/watching experience).



Pitchfork review with good audio

The Pitchfork Review mentions Midnite Vultures era Beck. It wasn't something that I thought of at first, but the connection is pretty obvious now. Midnite Vultures was a great album, displaying the fun side of Beck before he got all grown up and serious in his latest albums. I couldn't find a good video for "Get Real Paid", which is the track that is probably most similar to "Sweaty in its bumpin synthedness. But "Nicotine and Gravy has a similar vocal mix with falsetto and droning, esp. coming to fruition at 1:45. The video embedding has been disabled, so just follow the link. Note the Warhol and Japanese Pop influences in both this and "Sweaty" videos.

Beck - Nicotine and Gravy

I love when synth uses cat sounds. Some may say it is overdone, but just like with cowbell, there is always room for more "Kitty Synth". Kitty Synth may have reached its artistic peak in the work of Dan Deacon and his "Crystal Cat". I really don't want to say much more about this, I just want to let the art speak for itself.



I missed seeing Dan Deacon play at the Whitney Museum in NYC last winter, and I am very sad that I missed it. I also realized upon this listen that Dan sings "Gonna get my face on" which I realized is connected (and either descended from, ancestor to, or independently derived) to China, IL, a short animated series by the musically talented absurdist/warped cartoonist/humorist, Brad Neely. The character sings the words, "Gonna get her face on, gonna get her din-din, gonna get her shoe-shoes), let me tell you she was my world".

Tweedy Van Lee Roth Weiland

Megachild has a new song that has more alternative names (3) than the number of times it's been played (1). It is tentatively labeled Tweedy Van Lee Roth Weiland, but might preferably be called Forget About Me/Looking for Abuse (1 title or 2). The Tweedy Van.... etc. is a reference to the sounds, esp. vocal sounds that I hear in the song. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy songwriting style inspired some of the lyrics and phrasing, esp. some of his more "rockin" stuff from disc one of "Being There". I may post a version of the Megachild song when we record a sensible demo of it.

In the meantime, here are some videos of the influences that I hear in the song.

• Wilco's "Monday & Outtasite (outta mind)" finale from Lollapalooza 2008
  
• Wilco's "Monday", I Believe this is from "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" nice guitar solo after the wolf whistle around 2 minutes:
• Wilco's fairly cheesy video for "Outtasite (Outta Mind)

There are vocal nuances in the new Megachild song that are, I'm sad to say, like loungier David Lee Roth/Scott Weiland. This is a little sickening, but not surprising. Just the product of my immature influences I guess. Weiland was the vocalist for Stone Temple Pilots and evetually the totally sucky "super-group" Velvet Revolver... sorry if you like them, but I was such a high school fan of STP and now I think that Weiland is a total disgusting washup. Here are some pretty slimy videos from Van Halen and Stone Temple Pilots. Enjoy.

• Stone Temple Pilot's "Sex Type Thing" Video:
• Van Halen's "(Oh) Pretty Woman" from Diver Down:

Dr Dog - The Ark

Update: See correction below and in comments. Also, go listen to Dr. Dog on "Morning Becomes Eclectic"

Just discovered this song and video via NPR's World Cafe and the blog of Kanye West. The music is psychedelic and guitar parts remind me of some White Album Beatles "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and Pink Floyd "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" from Wish You Were Here.

In "The Ark", I really like the spastic growl of vocalist Scott McMicken (oops- see correction in the comments, thanks to Lindsay), in the refrain that occurs late in the song. The imagery of this video pretty out there; still trying to explain the role of the guys spitting the seeds. They seem to be guardians or something.

According to Dr. Dog's website, they have a penchant for diminished chords and 3-part harmonies. I am a fan of the harmonies, but I haven't a clue about the chords. I tried to do some wiki-learning about diminished chords, but my ignorance can not be penetrated even by this new information.

There's some similar elements in the song "Easy Beat" which is from one of Dr. Dog's earlier efforts. Still Beatles-y, but also a little more Beach Boys.

Dr. Dog "The Ark" from Adam kurland on Vimeo.

Pavement - The Hexx and Box Elder

Pavement was the best band I never heard of while I was in high school. I didn't discover them until my buddy back in college put some Pavement on a mix CD during my last year of college. "Spit on a Stranger" was the first cut from Terror Twilight, the last album that Pavement put out. It was still another couple of years before I started dutifully collecting the other Pavement studio albums. I know that I can still see Stephen Malkmus perform if I find myself in the right place at the right time with enough money in my pocket. But I have forever missed the energy of an early Pavement performance. After sticking to a nearly strictly Pavement diet about 4 years ago, I weaned myself for a little while and have just been revisiting again. Blah blah blah on to the songs...

"The Hexx" landed on Terror Twilight. Here's a live recording of part of that song so you can get a sense of the sort of "preppie/straight guys go slightly punk and obtuse" style that Pavement was bringing in the late season of their game. Unfortunately, you don't get some of the crisp guitar elements that show up in the album cut, which I included in the next video below.

Here's the studio album cut, check out the echo-y guitar calls around 2:20, and the spacy-bluesy solo that starts at 3:35. It descends into distorted, rocky arpeggiating... and it's great for some supreme mellow air guitar sessions.


The other song I want to throw up on here is Box Elder, MO. This is from the early end of Pavement. Quirky lyrics and phrasing were a Stephen Malkmus hallmark from the beginning, but Box Elder had pretty straightforward lyrical content and straightforward rockiness was the musical vessel of delivery. Although the recording posted here doesn't quite do it justice (it's from a DVD commemorating the 10th anniversary of the album Slanted Enchantment) you can probably pick up on the simple but effective, quasi-epic-anthemic arpeggios and the dissonant, but not distorted guitar harmonics, which have a surprisingly hooky rhythm. You can also watch the happy-go-lucky seated frolicking of the early drummer Gary Young, who was eventually asked to leave the band for his constant drunken shenanigans that caused disruptions to performances.


This acoustic performance of Malkmus at the Knitting Factory from a couple of years ago give you the lyrics a little more clearly, and give you sense of the less abstract side of his songwriting. The verbal concepts and messages are mostly direct, but the casual non-sequitir or abstract image slips in now and then, too. Now that I've annoyed myself with my analysis, here's the video.

Old Grimy Songs

Hi. This is Old Grimy, and I'll now be posting to On Songs, picking up not necessarily where Slig left off, but wherever it is that music emerges from my mind through my fingertips and onto an electronic page where you can read, watch, and hear.