Live At Massey Hall 1971

Sifting through Youtube videos of Neil Young, I noticed one user's sage comment: "Neil never smiles." But with the topical themes of his songs and the haunting timbre of his voice, who can really blame him for an often-neglected sense of fun? A few weeks ago I stumbled across Young's Live At Massey Hall 1971. In addition to two never-released songs (the entrancing "Bad Fog of Loneliness" and the pulsing romp "Dance Dance Dance"), the album features stunning live renditions of his most poignant numbers. "Ohio" is all the more powerful in its acoustic incarnation; the defiant political rocker is elevated to a new level of stripped-down emotional vulnerability. "How can you run when you know?" sings Young, his fear and indignation audible. Live At Massey Hall 1971 is a remarkably rich collection of songs, so full of Young's essence: the social consciousness, the sensitivity, the sweetness. His mumble is modest and sincere, if somewhat somber. Maybe Neil Young wasn't such a smiley guy - but the breadth and depth of his emotional palate make smiling seem all-together irrelevant.

Faves of the Aughts.

As the decade drew to a close, I began to ponder what my favorite albums of the 00's (more simply the "aughts") were. Here's what I came up with.

Morrissey – You Are The Quarry (2004)
Most pop stars have to be dead before they reach the iconic status Steven Patrick Morrissey has achieved within his lifetime. Morrissey sheds his enigmatic, sexually ambiguous Smiths persona on You Are The Quarry. His sumptuous baritone wells with intense emotion as he denounces Oliver Cromwell, the Tory Party and the repressive Catholic Church that turned his childhood into a living hell. Amidst sensitive balladry and cathartic stompers, swirling piano and serrated guitar, Morrissey steps into the spotlight as a human being complex and flawed, on an album that is complex and flawless.

Nickel Creek – Why Should The Fire Die (2005)
Since their 1993 debut, the progressive bluegrass group has been composing melodically masterful tunes complete with lush three-part harmonies and charming twang. But what differentiates Fire from their other albums? This album really rocks. The string band remained traditional in their use of acoustic-only instrumentation, but their sonic scope broadened dramatically. The chromatic lilt of “Jealous Of The Moon”” is more reminiscent of R.E.M. than Ralph Stanley. With Why Should The Fire Die, Nickel Creek carried the American tradition of bluegrass into the 21st century.

Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006)
Alex Turner was a 16-year-old Brit with big ears, a thick Cockney accent and keen observational abilities. When Turner decided to pick up a guitar and put his stories – inspired by drunken teenagers, young prostitutes and North England nightclubs – to music, the result was a prolific punk outfit with a sound as raw as their message. In the span of thirteen songs, Turner and company encapsulate the gritty realities of an angry, exploited generation. Remember the teenage wasteland that The Who described in “Baba O’Reilly”? New generation, same wasteland.

I Love Liz.

Words fail to capture the importance of Liz Phair's 1993 debut, Exile In Guyville. I can only begin express my feelings towards the album via hand gestures and facial expressions. Have you ever had that transcendental moment alone on your bedroom floor, listening to that certain album with tears streaming down your cheeks? There's something very essential and not at all girly about the experience of being literally moved to tears by a work of music that speaks on such a personal level, you can't help but think it was written with you in mind. Exile In Guyville tore me to shreds. When I first laid ears upon Phair's splenetic snarl, all of my preconceived notions about communication and gender roles in relationships were challenged and shattered. Liz uses her sharp tongue and equally sharp brain to explore natural human impulses. Her narrative is unfiltered, uncensored, honest, raw. Exile In Guyville is an album that centers around themes of love and sex, with lyrics that are never safe or sentimental. The song that brought me to the brink was "Fuck And Run", which explores how destitute, how heartbreakingly bleak physical love is in the absence of genuine human connection. Liz has this wonderful way of making herself vulnerable yet retaining the ability to sound like she can kick your ass at any given moment. The album is uniformly lo-fi, full of scratchy guitars and the low, almost-masculine tonality of Liz's voice. Her music is where tough meets tender: she is opinionated, often angry, yet compassionate and introspective. Exile In Guyville became my adolescent spirit guide, helping me navigate this mine-strewn journey through its frank study of relationships, carnality and self-discovery. This is not a pretty album. It doesn't coddle, it doesn't preach and it's a must own for any teenage girl.

Last year was a good year.

2009 was pretty solid. Politically speaking, this country underwent a major change of government. Sonically speaking, this country underwent a major influx of indie music. I mean, who's to complain? Despite the fact that February is coming to a close, I've decided to detail a few of my favorite albums that came out last year 'cause I'm a rebel and I do as I please.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
The neo-hippies have done it again! At once reminiscent of sixties folk and psychedelia, Animal Collective will sneak up and surprise you with the sudden pulsing bass line or unusual vocal loop. Merriweather is a work of experimental genius, merging melody and riff-structure with swarming textural chaos in the boldest and most beautiful album of the year.
St. Vincent – Actor
St. Vincent, née Annie Clark, sings like an angel and shreds like a demon. The super-skilled guitarist/vocalist/composer will throw in woodwinds and saxophones amidst densely layered guitars and industrial drums. At times lush and bright, and at other times sparse and macabre, this Brooklyn goddess has both the charm and the chops to keep us hooked.
Passion Pit – Manners
Manners is a bit of an oxymoron – giddy, infectious rhythms juxtaposed with heart-broken, reflective lyrics. But hey, it works! Passion Pit concocted the perfect mix of organic instrumentation and Velveeta-smooth synths on an album that shines with a cosmic, unearthly beauty yet is filled with themes of all-too-earthly desperation and loneliness.
Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
Straying from her alternative-country roots, Neko took a cue from her bros in New Pornographers with this album, a piece of power-pop perfection. She explores the ins and outs of love from an array of perspectives: a teenage bride, a jilted lover, a smitten wind vortex. Her thick, warm vocals maintain a maple-syrup consistency, oozing over the tracks with sweet soulful ease.
Sonic Youth – The Eternal
The boldly bizarre Sonic Youth has been reinventing punk for the past thirty years and they show no signs of slowing down. From atonal riffing, shrieking guitars, pounding drums, excessive feedback, and Kim Gordon’s frenzied wails – this album has got the goods that Sonic Youth fans crave.

Veguary rocks.

Veguary refers to the second month of the year (February! This month! Right now!) in which those enthusiastic about improving their health, fighting global warming, or simply taking an ethical stance, eliminate meat from their diets. Veguary offers carnivores a nice lil' allotment of time (come on, it IS the shortest month of the year...) to try and reduce their meat intake. This Veguary, I'm stocking up on tofu and seitan - stickin' it to the man (otherwise known as the meat industry) one soy burger at a time.
It's a known fact that vegetarians are generally quite sexy individuals. In fact, a few of my favorite musicians continue to promote a healthier world through their vegetarianism. Morrissey (pictured) is an avid crusader in the fight for animal rights. If the Irishman's sensitive balladry hasn't taught us anything, Moz will gladly lend his beautiful voice to the voiceless: whether the 'voiceless' in question is a human being or, erm, a baby chicken. His band, iconic '80s mope-poppers The Smiths, even released an album entitled Meat Is Murder.
Not a Morrissey fan? Well, I bet you're a Beatles fan! (Oh come on, we all are.) Paul McCartney and John Lennon: both vegetarians. George and Ringo were both veggies too.
Radiohead's wunderkind Thom Yorke maintains a vegetarian lifestyle as well. Not so surprising, as he seems like a pretty enlightened guy.
From Kurt Cobain to Alanis Morrissette, the dudes from Rage Against The Machine to the lovely ladies of Indigo Girls, - vegetarianism attracts all different types of people who want to create positive change and confront prevalent problems that threaten the well being of our planet.

Buffy Sainte-Marie Fights On.

How many songs have been written about the Native American Genocide?

Hardly any. And why is that? Music has been the means for thrusting important issues into the social consciousness ever since Stephen Foster wrote "Hard Times Come Again No More" in 1855. In fact, a strong sociopolitical narrative is often considered the definitive trait of American songwriting. So why hasn't anyone ever sung of the 500-year-old war known as the American Indian Holocaust?

Actually, someone has. Her name is Buffy Sainte-Marie.

The 68-year-old singer/songwriter/musician/composer/educator/activist has released twenty-two albums since her debut in 1964 and shows no signs of slowing down. Her voice – she has a skillful, chilling vibrato and a howl that curls tight and spreads wide - is an instrument in and of itself.

Often portrayed as a flower child of the sixties, Buffy's message extends far beyond the pacifist sentiments expressed in her most well known song, "Universal Soldier", which was made famous by Donovan. She explored drug addiction on "Co'dine" (later covered by Janis Joplin) and sexual abuse on "The Incest Song". While she examines explosive topics with sharp insight and wisdom, her main focus has always been the Native American - particularly the Native American woman - struggling to overcome the "blue, white, and scarlet hypocrisy."

Her first album, It's My Way!, received rave reviews from the New York Times but failed establish her as a household name. On its opening track, "Now That The Buffalo's Gone", Ms. Sainte-Marie sings, "When Germany fell to your hands / You left them their pride and you left them their land / And what have you done to these ones?" Did she ever credit her lack of popularity to her radicalism? Did she ever try to censor her subject matter? No way! In fact, quite the opposite occurred. Her next album featured a song called "My Country 'Tis Of Thy People You're Dying" - a seven-minute attack on the foundation of this country.
No wonder Buffy Sainte-Marie was blacklisted by Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1970s. The government fought to suppress her scathing, topical music. "Everything changed when Lyndon Johnson started censoring artists of whom he disapproved. By the middle sixties, music business interests had gotten control of the scene. Coffee houses which had started out as free speech platforms of student opinion found themselves hassled and in tax trouble. The coffee houses that survived did so by reopening with liquor licenses. Alcohol is a different scene from coffee; so is the music, so are the words, and so is the crowd," Ms. Sainte-Marie has said.

While blacklisted and banned from radio, Sainte-Marie joined the cast of Sesame Street. She would be a regular on the show from 1976 - 1981, often appearing with her young son, Dakota. She used the show to introduce children to aspects of Native American life that she felt were misrepresented by existing educational materials. In one groundbreaking episode, Ms. Sainte-Marie breastfed her son in front of Big Bird."[There was] no titillation factor at all," she has said of the incident. Sainte-Marie's image followed a similar mantra: there was absolutely no titillation factor. Instead she embraced her womanhood as a strength. She stirred controversy baring one of her breasts on the cover of her 1974 album, Buffy, but to this day she maintains that it was a personal decision and not her record label’s ploy to sexualize her image. "Of course, Sears put a pasty on it," said Sainte-Marie in a 2009 interview, "...But I feel as though breasts are personal and sexuality is personal and I have a right to talk about it. There were a lot of people burning bras in those days, and there were a lot of women going topless. I think breasts are beautiful, and I don't like the idea of them being considered smut. ...A couple years later I was breastfeeding on Sesame Street. It's the same attitude."

In tandem with her politics, Sainte-Marie's music never lost its edge. A great innovator, Sainte-Marie was a pioneer of electronic music. In 1966 she began working with synthesizers, and began scoring films, creating some of the earliest electronic soundtracks. She multi-tracked her mouthbow, a unique instrument she had created using a traditional Native American hunting bow and steel guitar strings, for Mick Jagger's first movie in the early 1970s. In 1989, she made the very first digital album to be delivered via the fledgling Internet. This album, Coincidence and Likely Stories, contains her tour-de-force performance, "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee":

Ms. Sainte-Marie continues pushing boundaries and challenging beliefs on her newest album, 2008’s Running For The Drum. Buffy’s fierce originality coupled with her killer lyrics equates for one hell of an album. She’s never sounded so contemporary: she outdoes M.I.A. with the tribal-funk of “Working for the Government”. Buffy also begins to sing passionately about a new topic – global warming and the environment.

"[When I was blacklisted] I had figured I was just too weird for America, which was becoming very conservative. Powwow rock, mouthbows, passionate vibrato, high-heels, Indians, protest songs, electronic music: too much for some people. …For me, to move from being gagged and thought suspect to speaking out about Indian rights on Sesame Street was perfect. I was being denied an adult audience because I couldn’t get airplay, but I got to speak to kids before they got into stereotyping… and tell them the simple message: Indians exist."

Christmas Wrapping.

Ah, Christmastime. Department stores blast heinously over-played jingles, radio stations refuse to play anything but carols for the entire month of December. Singers further commercialize themselves by churning out “holiday” albums filled with souped-up versions of seasonal standards. Does Christmas music make you want to gag? Listen to these eight songs and think again.

River – Joni Mitchell
Joni recounts the ways corporations bastardize the holiday’s true meaning. It’s the only Christmas song she’s ever released, and needless to say, it’s brilliant.

I Won’t Be Home For Christmas – Blink-182
The pop-punkers get violent on a group of pesky albeit well-intentioned carolers and spend Christmas night in jail. Merry indeed.

Jingle Bells – Barbara Streisand
What happens when a record label forces a nice Jewish girl, like Babs, to crank out a song in the Christmas spirit? She takes the reindeer by the horns and comes up with an endearingly theatrical, thoroughly entertaining track like this.

Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt
Hands down the sexiest song ever written about the bearded man in red. It’s feminine, alluring, and cute as hell. I don’t think anyone is immune to its charm.

This Christmas (Please Come Home) – Death Cab For Cutie
A really good Death Cab song is warm, earnest and sincere. Ben Gibbard’s voice is ripe with genuine emotion on this beautifully simple song, which easily falls amongst their best.

The Christians and the Pagans – Dar Williams
A conservative Christian man is visited by his lesbian niece and her partner for Christmas dinner. They’re able to put aside their differences on this heartfelt, intelligent song.

Jesus Walks – Kanye West
If one song could make this apathetic atheist pine for a seat in the church pew, this would be it. “They say you can rap about everything except for Jesus / that means guns, sex, lies, videotapes / but if I talk about God my record won’t get played.” Kanye takes Christianity to the streets with fervent soul.

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon
To John, Christmas is a time of hope for a peaceful future. The bittersweet ditty rings more relevant than ever.