The New Muckrakers?

In Details Magazine's relatively unenlightening profile of New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin - for New Orleanians, anyway - says:

The mayor’s unwillingness to tolerate criticism hardened into a state of willful denial this summer, thanks to a scandal involving a program run by the New Orleans Homeownership Corp. News reports revealing that contractors had charged the city for work they did not do prompted the convening of a grand jury. Nagin doesn’t seem worried about the federal investigation, even though one of the program’s highest-paid contractors—S&A Construction—is run by his brother-in-law, Cedric Smith. He vows that Smith will face justice if he is culpable. “Everybody’s looking at it,” Nagin says with a smile, “which is great. Because now I’ve got professional investigators versus bloggers.”

Earlier this month, Salon's Glenn Greenwald documented the degree to which much of the mainstream media interpreted the opposition to John Brennan as a potential director of the C.I.A. as unfair criticism from bloggers.

Concerns over torture and rendition -- despite being widespread among countless military officials and intelligence professionals -- are uniformly depicted as nothing more than ideological idiosyncrasies from the dreaded Left ("left-wing hit job on Brennan"; "largely on the left"; "left-leaning bloggers and columnists"; "Obama's liberal base"; Obama's "most ardent supporters on the left"; "liberal critics"; "liberal bloggers"; "confined to liberal blogs"; "the Democratic base").

Evidently we are the new bad guys of journalism.

Santa Baby

"Santa Baby" may be the un-coverable Christmas song. That hasn't stopped people from trying it, but Eartha Kitt's sex kitten performance was so over-the-top to start with that there's nothing left for anyone to do but dial down the performance. Of course, that's not what people do. Instead, most takes are simply hammy, hammier and hammiest. It may one of the few Christmas songs written for a sexual woman, but still - just say no.

More Overkill

After blogging yesterday about my inability to come to terms with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's appeal, I talked with my wife about it and she went straight to Vegas and the spectacle of Blue Man Group. That certainly explains the success of the stage show, which is so popular that there are two TSO companies that travel the country during the holiday season. But it doesn't explain people buying the records - or maybe it does. Perhaps the songs themselves are best thought of in terms of spectacle, with Christmas songs and popular pieces of classical music arranged for two keyboards, two or three electric guitars, two electric violinists, a string section and five or six voices. The songs are taken out of their traditional contexts and given an arena-rock bigness and the crunch-lite of electric guitars. The songs are expanded in scope to an absurd degree to where they lose all of their intimacy, but they do have a grandeur - an empty grandeur, but a grandeur nonetheless - in the hands of the TSO.

Still, the audience's biggest applause was for Led Zep and Jimi Hendrix quotes, and Robin Zander's guest spot to do a couple of Cheap Trick songs, which suggests there are limits to the power of spectacle.

Trans-Siberian Overkill

Out of curiosity and a fascination with Christmas music, I took my wife to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I'd interviewed TSO's Paul O'Neill and heard in his answers a note of condescension toward pop and rock that inevitably leads to prog rock. But nothing prepared me for the visual onslaught. The Decepticon light rig (code name: Dazzler) yawned, sloped left, then right, fired lasers into the crowd, showered sparks on the stage, and the stage answered with three different types of pyro. My wife and I were in often in hysterical laughter, but no one else in the sold-out arena was, which was the problem. I walked away from the show trying to figure out how such a humorless, irony-free display of prog metal spoke to an audience. What was touched in people that this was a seasonal music they responded to? When I heard the TSO version of "The Carol of the Bells" as bed music on ESPN before a football game Sunday, I thought the music had found its proper context.

People around us were happiest when they quoted Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, which made me think this is all about the rock, and that people will like classical and Christmas music if its recast into a more familiar vernacular. But many people weren't the standard classic rock audience - many significantly older. Is it that our culture has so focused Christmas on children that any holiday concert that isn't infantile appeals to an adult audience?

The show was so Vegas that it seems like the answer must lie in network of Vegas aesthetics, perhaps in a presentation of two musics that are suspect to a mass audience - Christmas music being a guilty pleasure based on what I've read on blogs - without the elements that make them unpopular.

Then again, no one seemed all that caught up in the show. People watched intently, but no one I could see was worked up, banging a head, or rocking around. It was definitely an emotionally remote show, suggesting that TSO wasn't a passion but the sort of thing parents take their kids to because they want to expose them to classical music because it's supposed to be good for them.

Obviously, all of those are possible, and they aren't mutually exclusive. The audience wasn't all there for the same reason(s), but it still feels like something's missing. Nonetheless, it was exceedingly odd to hear music I have a strong history with coming back to me in such an inexplicable form.

Why People Don't Like Christmas Music

I'm pro-Christmas music, and when people tell me how much they don't like Christmas music, it often comes down to the context in which they hear it. Recently, a friend said she hated it because she heard it relentlessly on an easy listening station in the office next to hers. Of course, there's little on an easy listening station she'd like the other 11 months of the year, so it's unlikely it would play Christmas music she'd like either. And any omnipresent music - even stuff you like - eventually wears you out, and if it's an unwelcome visitor from the next office, it's triply problematic. So often, we hear Christmas music in emotionally challenging circumstances - shopping, family get-togethers - which makes it no surprise that the associations we make with Christmas music are often bad ones.

Recently, I received an email link to an eMusic Christmas downloadable mix, and it suggested another problem. The playlist is:

1. Deck the Halls: Twisted Sister
2 Why Can't It Be Christmastime All Year: Rosie Thomas
3 Angels We Have Heard On High: The Brian Setzer Orchestra
4 Holiday Mood: Apples In Stereo
5 Little Drummer Boy: Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
6 Something to Hold On To (At Christmas): Ron Sexsmith
7 Jingle Bells: Lisa Loeb
8 The Twelve Days of Christmas: Kidz Bop Kids
9 Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring: Angele Dubeau & La Pieta
10 Darlin' (Christmas is Coming): Over The Rhine
11 Noel: Robin Gibb
12 Auld Lang Syne: The Smithereens

I started to download it and stopped because I can't imagine ever wanting to hear that mix. First, all versions of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" are testers, but who but the most ironic listener would enjoy hearing "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and Kidz Bop Kids and Brian Setzer and Twisted Sister? It's the sort of mix that guarantees a degree of antipathy toward Christmas music. Something more coherent like Jared Boxx's "Soul Santa" mixtape podcast makes a far more convincing argument for Christmas music as a satisfying listening experience.

Time Out for a Pet Peeve

MySpace pages that have become such works of art that they take forever to load.

More on Lists

[Updated 2:20]

I'm not a list person, so I'm not much of a year-end list person. But I'm fascinated by people who are. As I mentioned before, I've enjoyed watching Scott at Pretty Goes with Pretty rummage through a year of listening in a series of lists laced with self-scrutiny.

Geoffrey Himes wrote as clear a defense of year-end lists as I've seen, even if I think there's a straw man or two in his writing.

I love year-end 10-best lists. I love getting tips on albums I had ignored or never heard of. I love watching my colleagues forced out of the comfort zone of easy generalizations such as "This is good" and "That is bad" and compelled to make the finer, more difficult distinctions between the "good," the "really good" and "the really, really good." I love to see how other listeners organize the chaos of a year's worth of music into the architectural order of a list. I love the story - or at least the psychological profile - that emerges.

Me, I like the psychological profile, too, but more in how obsessive listers seem. PGWP has been at it for a couple of weeks now, and though Himes was asked for his Top 10, he listed and organized a full 100. Since I couldn't rank with any certainty albums 7, 8 and 9 in a list I'd make, I'm slightly in awe of his ability to sort out anything from mid-60s on.

... and here's another who knows the difference between No. 87 and No. 88.

Shotgun Marriage

In New Orleans, chewing on the Jazz Fest lineup is a ritual as time honored as throwing coconuts from the Zulu parade. Still, if I were festival producer Quint Davis, neither of these reader responses at Nola.com would make me very happy. A critic writes:

snoooooze...been there done that...no surprises and same old same old...look at who is touring this summer and look at all of the great acts we are missing out on....time for Quint to get out his little black book and make some phone calls and beg...wondering why almost all of the big name brit legacy acts from the 60s have avoided Jazz Fest like the plague since Katrina, but show up as spectators?

A festival defender writes:

Ever heard of the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."?
Might look like the same line-up from the past, but why change it if it satisfies thousands of other people - locals AND non-locals? And when did New Orleans become a city of "Keep Out Tourists"?
I've bought my ticket - proud to support my hometown (recession or not).

My guess is that Davis didn't get what he got because he didn't beg enough; the lineup features so many artists that have played the festival before that they have to be there by choice, not default. But when you trot out a talent roster that includes Aretha Franklin, Wynton Marsalis, and a host of other E ticket attractions and people are bored, it means you've leaned on these artists and their generation a little too hard - enough to make the prospect of seeing them unexciting.

The festival's defender's attitude is almost sadder - who cares? For many, Jazz Fest is a party, and the music is just the background. Typically, artists such as Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and to a lesser extent Bob Dylan annoy this brand of festgoer because they don't want Van, Joni or Bob circa 2008; they want the hits to sound like the hits because that makes the party better. And presenting the usual suspects on a regular basis guarantees that the party won't change.

For me, the most interesting feature of this year's lineup is the apparent schism between the producers, Festival Productions and AEG Live. Jazz Fest has had a traditional problem dealing with modern times, and for the most part, it tried to acknowledge and attract people under 40 by presenting the jam bands. That made a certain amount of sense, but now that the jam wave was receded, the void has been filled by such un-Fest-like bands as Kings of Leon and Spoon, bands for whom Davis' fest-defining phrase "the heritage of jazz" seems stretched in the extreme.

It looks from the cheap seats (I have no inside knowledge) as if Davis hopes as he seemingly has always hoped, that the soul/R&B/blues stars of the mid-1960s to mid-1970s will always draw and will always find audiences large enough to sustain the festival, while AEG Live is looking to keep younger fans coming in the door, even if the fit's a rough one.

The Old Days Never Go Away

I was sorting through the "maybe" pile of CDs on my desk and ran across a self-titled album by Ladyhawke that brought to mind a conversation Scott from Pretty Goes with Pretty referred me to. A post on the Vivian Girls prompted a conversation in which he wrote:

I feel like I've heard a bunch of bands in the last couple weeks--Wavves, Gaslight Anthem, and Deerhunter, among others--that immediately send me back to another era. Even a specific band from another era. (That Gaslight Anthem record - wow, is emo already making a comeback?) Similar to what Dave is pointing out about Vivian Girls vs Tiger Trap (though I'm taking him at his word). That's not necessarily a recipe for disappointment, but it's still a little deflating.

The conversation crystalized my thoughts on this New Zealand electropop album. The songs have hooks and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have some fun listening to the album, but I kept wondering, "We need another Berlin album ... why?"

A Downloadable Soul Christmas

'Tis the season, and while I've been sorting through this year's Christmas CDs (particularly impressed by Ledisi's It's Christmas, and I'm always impressed by the intelligence of Harry Connick, Jr.'s arrangements, this year on What a Night).

Still, I keep returning to soul and doo wop Christmas music, and I'm listening regularly to Daptone Records' "Soul Santa" free podcast. Alison Fensterstock at Gambit Weekly turned me on to Sir Shambling's Soulful Christmas Web site, where I downloaded a bunch of songs including Marvin Gaye's brilliant "I Want to Come Home for Christmas." I'm not always sure HipChristmas.com is all that hip - or "hip" is defined as "anything that's not Andy Williams". Still, you can hear a lot of Christmas music there, and they post a bunch of downloadable mp3s, the highlight of this year's batch is the Phil Moore Trio's "Blink Before Christmas," a hipster version of "The Night Before Christmas".

Although the song's aren't downloadable, the dean of Christmas music sites is Christmas Music Everyday. As the title implies, the site has a new Christmas song every day with only the occasional relatively known track (today's, for example - Dean Martin's brilliantly lecherous "Baby, It's Cold Outside").

A Good Use for Lists

I'm not into Year-End lists because I don't think in terms of lists, and as the raw amount of music, media outlets and listmakers have expanded, lists tell us less and less. Still, I'm fascinated by the year-end meditation at Pretty Goes with Pretty, where our writer has spent most of this week reflecting on his year's listening. There are lists, statistical analyses, personal trends and thoughts on the year and his own interests. I admire the obsessive self-interrogation and reflections on his personal perferences, even if I'm not that into the CDs he's crazy about. I like Fleet Foxes but can't go crazy for it, and Andrew Bird's output has generally had the fingerprints of serious, self-conscious artfulness, which ultimately seems akin to art/prog rock to me in the message it seems to convey, which is that rock is not enough.

Ponderosa Stomp lineup announced

I don't normally reprint press releases unless it's for unkind, mocking or derisive purposes, but the Ponderosa Stomp's a cool enough event and the Stomp folks do good work putting some money in legacy musicians' pockets and presenting them in their best lights, so for them, I make an exception:

The eighth annual Ponderosa Stomp will invade the House of Blues New Orleans April 28 and 29, 2009 as it further strengthens its mission to shine a light on the unsung heroes of American music. The 2009 edition will be the biggest and best Stomp to date, with an expanded three-day conference of panel discussions and a Ponderosa Stomp-curated exhibition at the Louisiana State Museum at The Cabildo in New Orleans.

The full lineup:

Wanda Jackson, Roddy Jackson, Alton Lott, Carl Mann, Johnny Powers, Jack Earls, Dale Hawkins, James Burton, Dan Penn And Bobby Emmons, Howard Tate, Otis Clay, The Hi Rhythm Section, The Remains, Question Mark And The Mysterians, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Bobby Patterson, Wiley And The Checkmates, The Bo-Keys, Lil Buck Senegal And The Top Cats Featuring Stanley "Buckwheat Zydeco" Dural, Dennis Coffey, Robert Parker, Jivin Gene, Ray Sharpe, Long John Hunter, Texas Johnny Brown, Little Joe Washington, James Blood Ulmer Trio, L.C. Ulmer, Little Willie Littlefield, Lil Greenwood, Jerry McCain, Kenny And The Kasuals, Classie Ballou, Deke Dickerson And The Eccofonics, Roy Loney And Cyril Jordan Of The Flamin Groovies Backed By The A-Bones, Lazy Lester

The Stomp's stroke of genius has been to put classic R&B, soul and rockabilly singers with younger bands that loved their records, so they play the songs with the passion and sonic fingerprints recordings that are 30 or so years old. As such, older artists that have disappointed with bands of contemporaries that tried unsuccessfully to stay current - losing what was great about their songs in the first place - often sound as urgent as they ever did.

Musicians Bringng Musicians Home IV

My coverage of this benefit event at Tipitina's last night for RollingStone.com.

The Cost of Looking Electable

Sarah Palin's bills are once again in the news, as the New York Times reports that Palin's hair stylist made $42,000 and her makeup artist was paid $68,000. Add to that $55,000 for a fashion stylist and the now-infamous $150,000 for clothes, and you've got a very expensive vice-presidential candidate.

In general, I think this is a bullshit issue. I don't feel too badly for Palin because when her campaign chose a dishonest, anti-intellectual, faux populist strategy, spending more money her hair than many of the voters she was trying to woo made in a year left her open for a karmic whip.

There hasn't been any double standard here since John Edwards was called out for the cost of his haircuts, but the whole issue's phony because it presumes candidates are just like us, which they're not - certainly during campaigns. They can't easily arrange their campaign schedules around the availability of their stylists' at home; they likely pay their stylists to make themselves available at the candidates' convenience, and that costs more. And they're not making the choice between Supercuts and an Aveda salon; people running for office are likely getting their hair cut by top professionals, who cost more under normal circumstances.

There are ways where they are like us. When we apply for important new jobs, we dress the best we can and if necessary, spend what we realistically can to look like the person our prospective employers would want. They do too, but they can afford more (or get others to afford it for them).

The whole issue is part and parcel with the "Who'd you rather have a beer with?" notion of voting, where the president's just another average chucklehead like us. But he's not, he shouldn't be (as we learned in the last 8 years), and busting him or her for spending more than we would on clothes ignores a host of realities that we ought to deal with and get over.

Out of Time

I wish I could take up Robert Christgau's challenge in a recent ARTicles blog post. He asked for a defense of prog rock:

What I'm looking for is a ringing, systematic, polemical defense in which the perceived shortcomings of danceable rhythms, blues changes, and foursquare structures are articulated. Not just that they're old hat, but that their old hatness signifies in substantively undesirable ways. That way everybody understands more clearly what's at stake.

It would be an interesting academic task, but my heart wouldn't be in it. I enjoyed reading the Jon Pareles piece on the Mars Volta that Christgau refers to more than than listening to the Mars Volta.

Still, I'd be faking if I shunned Genesis 1970-1975. The release of the box set has brought out closet Genesis fans in the critical world, and the recent issue of Mojo includes a buyer's guide to Genesis. One fairly empty night in a music club here in New Orleans, the bartender took a break from the subdudes and the Radiators to spin Selling England by the Pound, singing along when "I Know What I Like in Your Wardrobe" got to the line, "Me, I'm just a lawn mower. You can tell me by the way I walk."

Growing up in Southern Ontario, I was in one of the prog hotbeds in the 1970s, with Yes, Gentle Giant, King Crimson and Genesis getting regular airplay on CHUM-FM in Toronto. As I went through high school and discovered punk and arena rock, I bought cut-out copies of Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot, which typified what was right and wrong about Genesis for me. No matter how weird the idea or time signature, Tony Banks and Steve Hackett could figure out how to put something beautiful on top. At the same time, Peter Gabriel made sure that things were never simply lovely. That was all good, but the same odd British-ness that once drew me to those records explains why they don't speak to other records of their time or sense for me.

With the exception of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, the albums all seem isolated - in time, and from other music. They may have had some anxiety about their Limey past and present, but when exactly the past represented by Nursery Cryme took place is tough to nail down, and Selling England by the Pound may have been more contemporary, but that doesn't make it modern, much less post-modern. More than anything else, when I hear Genesis, I hear lonely prep school boys who discovered the musical equivalent of Dungeons and Dragons, something that could theoretically help them meet girls except that girls couldn't dance to it and they sat down like wallflowers or hid behind keyboards.

On the other hand, as impenetrable as the concept behind The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway may be, the music is often dense and clattering, mimicking the New York City streets they imagined from the British countryside, and some of Steve Hackett's uncharacteristically gnarled tangle of notes would predate much of what Robert Fripp would do on his brush with punk and new wave, Exposure. There are passages that consciously build a melodyless tension, emphasizing texture and drama on a low sizzle instead of the grand sweep of "Firth of Fifth" or "The Cinema Show".

But revisiting and reconsidering Genesis isn't enough to make me want more. I now have the little prog I care about - these albums, King Crimson's Red and USA, 801 Live and Kevin Ayers, but they're another sort of art-rock, really. And when I received the Yes Live box a few years back, I decided the drugs must really have been better back then because I found it unlistenable. Ultimately, I too am a prog dabbler at best.

What's the Problem?

Seriously, what's so outrageous about Beyonce's "Sasha Fierce" side that it has to be cordoned off on its own EP-length disc? (At least buyers aren't paying two-disc prices for the album). And what does it say about her that she feels like a dance club side is such a radical thing that it constitutes a second identity that requires its own name? I'd say it sounds like she's gone Hollywood, but she's always been Hollywood. More likely, it sounds like someone who's forgotten what first made her interesting ("Bootylicious").