Well, I think this particular trip is over. I started it a couple of years ago because I felt I had to, and now I no longer feel I have to, why not stop? Writing words about music that you just want to enjoy without analysing it too much takes a fair amount of time. So I'm announcing the obvious and shelving Records Ad Nauseam.
Of course, big thanks to all the contributors, Andrew, Andrew, Rory, Tony, Mike and Peter who certainly turned me onto a few new things. We never did finish that 80s list, did we?
Also, all the people who made intelligent comments. And those who made dumb, idiotic comments as well; perhaps in hell all the George and Kid Rock fans will end up in the same cell, though they did give us a few laughs as they decanted their stupidity...
From the pachouli oil set:
"george are the most incredible band in australia, maybe ever, i may be 14, but i know a HELL of alot about music..."
"if you ahvent go something nice to say dont say ne thing at all ... u guys are fuckin rude"
"i'm always a big fan of graham's reviews. and the "our site, our rules" ethic is about as provincial and inbred as it gets! very sad indeed..."
I wonder if this is what they mean by friendly fascism. Mind you, I was getting a bit censor happy there, too.
As for provincial and inbred, well, quite a few people found Mike's Kid Rock review rather compelling...
"fuck you id like to see you come up with something half as good as this you fucking idiot dont do a review when you got your head so far up your fucking ass if you think this cd's no good i think youve been drinking and doing to much cocaine you fucking goof.anyone in rock's postion would do the same fucking thing as he's doing i mean how many of you can say your dateing pamela anderson that alone shows him that hes doing something right and just because he's rich dont mean his lifes perfect so i think you should go lisen to the song FUCK OFF and do us all a favor and by the way you seem to have quite an interest in what kid's been doing in the bedroom especialy anal sex kind of makes you wonder about you ya fucking faggot"
Oh, shut up.
Honourable mention goes to the person who was so impressed with my Sounds Like Sunset review that they felt compelled to dump half the script to The Big Lebowski into the comments. At least their taste in film was OK.
My most gratifying moment in the two years was having the review I did of Midnight Oil's Capricornia linked from the official site, which resulted in a lot of great comments. Being scarily effusive helped, I guess. It's a pity I didn't get to see them on their last tour before they broke up.
And, because you'll need somewhere else to go for music news and reviews with an Australian flavour, do yourself a favour and check out Rocknerd.
See you 'round like a rissole!
I haven't been right down into a moshpit for years. The heat, the sweat, the elbows in the head, sitting under the nose of those on stage, the crushed feet. It was disturbing to get dejavu of a 1997 Faith No More concert while in the middle of a dance music gig surrounded by fans bopping and waving their arms through lasers instead of nuts falling on your head and/or jumping up and down, more or less on the spot...
I'm still not sure what to do about the Top Records of 2002 thing, but I did see a lot of good gigs, so I'll do a Top Gigs of 2002 list instead.
8. Stereolab @ the Corner, 29/3/2002
I wasn't a big Stereolab fan before this, though shortly afterward I ended up buying 3 of their albums. (Had I been into them more, I'd probably have placed it higher.) The supports by Ninetynine (who only got half an hour, but rocked in characteristic fashion) and Mid-State Orange were pretty good too, though that's more than one can say for Full Fathom Five.
7. The Charm Offensive, Betsey Trotwood, London, 14/11/2002
It's refreshing to see, in this age of back-to-basics rrrrrawk and obtuse Austrian laptop music, a new band who play nice jangly indie-pop. And, sounding like Birdie or something off Sarah Records, The Charm Offensive are just that. Jangly guitars, boy-girl vocals and a guy with a bowl haircut in a sharp suit; what more can you ask for? Let's hope they release something soon for all the non-Londoners.
6. Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen, Old Bar, Fitzroy, 15/4/2002
And now for something completely different, Equal parts Eastern European folk music, spaghetti western and Tom Waits, Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen put on intense (and somewhat comedic in places) performances. From Mikelangelo thumping a table and staring down the suddenly hushed audience to the finale, with the musicians wandering through the crowd whilst playing (try doing that with a double-bass), the show was a pretty impressive 2 1/2 hours.
5. Apollo Bay Music Festival, 15-17/3/2002
Not one gig per se, but a lot of them. Granted, many weren't to my taste (there was its share of bland folk and pub-rock), but there were a number of standout performances; Sarah-Jane Wentzki put on some good shows, playing some quite lovely wrist-slitting ballads accompanied by guitar texturist Seth Rees, and reggae band Bomba tore the roof off the tent with their finale. And FourPlay rocked with their two sets.
4. 555 Recordings/Red Square PopFest, Empress Hotel, 3-4/5/2002
Two nights of indie-pop from various acts from Australia and overseas, organised by visiting newlyweds Stewart Anderson (of 555 Recordings) and Jen Turrell. Highlights would be Jen's brand of understated jangle-pop, gay Mod power-pop act Bend Over Boyfriend, retro-styled French-girl-fronted groovers Minimum Chips and local electropop outfit Other People's Children (aka Jason Sweeney).
3. New Order @ the Metro, 30/1/2002
Their first visit to Australia in ages, and they rocked more than a group of paunchy middle-aged men should. Gillian remained at home taking care of a sick child, and was replaced by some younger bloke, but you can't have everything. Barney was dancing bozotically in between singing, and Peter Hook's bass-guitar heroics were the stuff of legend. (If the city of Manchester ever decides to erect a statue to honour the band, one of Hooky standing on a pedestal and playing bass at ankle level will do nicely.) They did the favourites (including Blue Monday, True Faith with the original drug lyrics and Bizarre Love Triangle), and some old Joy Division numbers (including a drum'n'bass-influenced version of Isolation).
2. Mogwai @ the Prince of Wales, St Kilda, 17/10/2002
The Scottish post-rockers made it to our shores and filled the Prince with noise, from assorted guitars, as well as some keyboards, a flute and a laptop. Highlights were Helicon 6, Mogwai Fear Satan (I think that's the track where the quiet flute bit is abruptly stomped to death by a wall of guitar noise), and the full-on, intense rendition of My Father My King which ended the set, leaving everyone's ears ringing.
1. Morrissey @ the Forum, 15/10/2002
Finally Morrissey has graced our shores, and he's still got it. His new songs (with titles like The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores) are right up with his best material, and he played some excellent versions of older songs, both from his solo material and The Smiths, in between bantering with the audience with his Wildean candour. He ended the gig with a spirited performance of There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, and the crowd went wild.
Honourable mentions go to: Kevin Blechdom @ Revolver 28/9/2002 (walking the fine line between naff open-mic material and genius; her raunchy performance of Tina Turner's Private Dancer was quite something), Architecture in Helsinki @ Rob Roy, 6/12/2002 (some of it still feels like kids playing around in a garage, but there are some real gems there; and the balloons were an inspired touch), too many Ninetynine gigs to mention (the one at the Tote after they finished recording their album, and the launch at the Corner stand out, and the Valentine's Day gig at the Punters Club, with Sir and Love of Diagrams, has sentimental value), New Buffalo @ Pony 1/6/2002 (her new material sounded quite interesting, with time signature changes in odd places; let's hope that the recording company don't turn her into Danielle Spencer or something). The Lollies @ the Metro Club, London, 29/10/2002 (tongue-in-cheek punk-pop, including a very New Orderesque rock rendition of their electronica track Happy).
I'm not *all* that keen on top ten lists, because you always have to leave a lot of great stuff off the list. Last year I fudged it by doing some halfbaked list of lists thing, this year I've gone back to the more usual format, and so I've decided to go at it from the completely subjective angle, according on each album's impact on me. (Is there any other way?)
Even then, I've ended up fudging it out to twelve, because I counted sixth and tenth twice. Oops. I posted a draft version on VM a few days ago, but here it is again, buffed up to cause more arguments. (I really do enjoy deleting comments from indignant George fans.)
1. Augie March - Strange Bird
I felt that Sunset Studies was perhaps a little monochromatic and slow, but this one certainly hit the spot, ranging the gamut from rollicking raveups, to quietly simmering ballads, but all done with a curious otherworldiness. I will stand by my claim that "This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers" is the song of the year, and if the Hottest 100 voters don't agree I'll eat my hat.
2. Midnight Oil - Capricornia
What a way to go out. Raw and yet refined, as is their want - the energy of Species Deceases with the inventiveness of Red Sails In The Sunset. I was convinced that they would take out top spot until Augie March showed up.
3. Múm - Finally We Are No One
Yes, its a tad twee, but this album coalesces the best parts of Yesterday Was Dramatic... - the crunchy beats combined with real instruments and all that into a more cohesive mix, and keeps it going for the whole album. Highlights for me are "Now There's That Fear Again" and "The Land Between Solar Systems".
4. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Better than Music Has The Right To Children - Spooky in parts, evocative in others, and still with that obsession with numbers. There are parts where it does seem as if BoC are trying to reprogram you to do something like destroy Tokyo. Leslie Neilsen popping up doesn't hurt either.
5. ... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
The best American rock album of 2002 - Neither post-rock or nu-rock, pseud yet guttural, rowdy yet strongly melodic. Sure, there's a bit of that Daydream Nation vibe, but again, they've got their own thing going on. Nice segues too. There were few better songs than "Relative Ways" all year.
6. You Am I - Deliverance
Clearly their best album since Hourly Daily, takes a few risks, such as on "'Til The Clouds Roll Away", along with a few safe bets, such as "Words For Sadness" which couldn't anyone else but You Am I. Frustrated Tim is gone, though there are always the old records again if you want to hear them.
6. Sonic Youth - Murray Street
Picks up slowly, but "Karen Revisited" and "Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style", even "Plastic Sun" nail it. And in "Sympathy for the Strawberry", we finally get to hear Sonic Youth channel Faust (the band), and it all works.
7. Yann Tiersen - Amelie soundtrack
The movie killed me, and the music had a fair bit to do with it.
8. Waikiki - I'm Already Home
Not the most intense album around, but with some lovely songs, and yes, it reminds me a bit of the Clouds in parts, and Juanita's voice, hmm. Plus some Pro Tools operator hasn't sucked all the soul out of the record, as happened with George's Polyserena.
9. Ninetynine - The Process
And for something completely different, though there's some great pop in here as well, and elsewhere bounces between the low-key and the over the top. Very unrock, and nevertheless it rocks. Highlights: The harmonies at the end of "December", Cameron's cat-scaring delivery of "Baluchistan".
Equal 10th. Wilco Yankee Wilco Foxtrot
Not the greatest record in the history of the world, though perhaps the first country & krautrock album. Some well written songs with interesting stuff going on in the background. "Reservations" is the sealer.
Equal 10th. The Breeders Title TK
Vulnerable but not naïve, they've been through a lot in the interim, the Breeders' return is a good'un. Even if you think Steve Albini botched the GY!BE album, he certainly did the trick here, stripping back each song to the minimum required to support it, with an aesthetic akin to electro.
It's a cruel irony that, in the wake of Mary Hansen's tragic death earlier this week, Low-Fi, an early Stereolab EP which I had ordered a couple of months back, arrived here just as I and many others were coming to grips with the news. I never met Mary, I only saw the band play once, and yet it seems like I've lost a friend, and I feel sad for those who have indeed lost a friend.
Mary contributed harmonies to "Low-Fi" and "Laisser-Faire", and even though her involvement seems somewhat tangential on the band's first release with her onboard, by the time the supercharged "John Cage Bubblegum" and The Groop Played Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music followed shortly after, she was well and truly esconced. Her sing-song counterpoint to Laetitia's somewhat cooler delivery encouraged much gross generalising by dilettantes posing as critics (like me, perhaps), but it did add that final piece of magic to the way they effortlessly merged the lightness of their French pop and Tropicalia stylings with the hardness of Neu!-style motorik rhythms, not to mention their punk sensibilities, and god knows what else in a myriad of ways over the following decade.
At this point, it's still the Krautrock influences to the fore, though the coda to "Elektro (He Held The World In His Iron Grip)", following as it does three minutes of moog and farfisa meltdown, is about as beatific as they got. Laetitia's lyric for "Laisser-Faire" is typically left-wing in subject matter, and though she's often dismissed her words as just something to sing over the music, they seem eerily prescient with its prediction of a war within the decade. I quite like "Low-Fi", though it's very much in the vein of the Refried Ectoplasm tracks. "(Varoom!)" is another one like that, starts off as a straight-ahead indie tune which is followed by five minutes of rowdy noises with what sounds like a Bontempo drum machine accompaniment.
The Low-Fi EP captures another moment from that 92-93 period where Stereolab were lifting a notch from being just another very good indie band into something special.
