Rated R: Reissued

Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri 

At 36, there are a lot of things that begin to make you feel old. You might find you manage to hurt yourself doing minor yard work. And then you don't heal very quickly. In fact it might take months before that shoulder sprain finally goes away... Yup.

Like learning that your body is beginning what will be a long decline, the anniversaries of landmark records from my 20s are signposts that time is slipping away. This week's release of one of my favorite records, Queens of the Stone Age's Rated R is a perfect example.

It's hard to believe that the Pixies' Doolittle is more than  20 years old. But the Pixies feel like history (they've felt like history for a long time, actually. Very good history, but history nonetheless). That Rated R is 10 years old is altogether different. Queens of the Stone Age do not feel like history. They're still around. Just last year, Queens leader Josh Homme was part of Them Crooked Vultures. The Pixies are the past. The Queens are now.

Arcade Fire & the slow burn of The Suburbs

The Suburbs

When I first downloaded Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs"/"Month of May" single earlier this summer, I was underwhelmed by what I heard. I was certain, though, that like most Arcade Fire songs, they needed to be heard in the context of the whole album. Well, I have the whole album now and I'm happy to report that my optimism was rewarded. The Suburbs is a huge, ambitious work that, like most great albums, offers things to discover with every listen.

In the aughts, Arcade Fire managed to secure a position as perhaps the most important indie rock band in this hemisphere on the strength of of its first two albums -- Funeral and Neon Bible. Each album was a treatise on social decline and modern alienation told in a series of rock songs. While most bands write albums that are collections of tunes, Arcade Fire compose song novels. Each song is little more than a chapter of the larger work. It might contain greatness, but it lacks outside the whole.

This is especially true of The Suburbs, which finds Arcade Fire without its usual bombast. Arrangements are not grandiose. Tempos shift, but never break into that end-of-the-universe groove of Funeral. Lead singer Wim Butler's voice is as melodic as usual, but never hits the hell-is-coming pitch of Neon Bible. The initial listen will likely leave the experienced Arcade Fire fan puzzled. The songs are catchy, well done, but unlike Arcade Fire songs of the past, they don't seem to sound like a whole lot.

Best of 2000s list -- new and improved

So I reconsidered a lot of what I posted as "Best of 2000s" at the end of last year. Came up with 40 records I'm a lot more comfortable with. I'll blame the original list on my rush to get the post up. Some great records I just forgot. Others, I've more recently discovered are better than I originally thought. So, I just changed my mind.

The new permanent page is listed in the right sidebar. Lazy people can click here.

Hasta la Vista, Khyber

Last month, my band, Winston's Dog, played the Khyber. It was a great room for a rock band: good crowd, cheap beer, nice location, fantastic sound. Everyone in the band was eager to get back

We called to get booked again and we were told the Khyber wasn't booking in August. It didn't make much sense... Why would a rock club close for August?

This week, the answer is detailed in a thorough story and oral history by City Paper editor, Brian Howard. Turns out owner Stephen Simons has permanently put an end to a generation of rock shows at the club. The Khyber, Simons told Howard, just can't compete with Johnny Brenda's in Northern Liberties. Brenda's has been attracting all the touring rock acts that used to play the Khyber.

So, so long Khyber. It was nice knowing you. I'll always remember seeing Mike Watt there and talking to him at the bar while he updated his "Hoot Page" blog on one of those original,  candy-colored iBooks.

New Girls of Rock (where have all the guitar girls gone?)

Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino

There just aren't enough cool girls with guitars anymore.

In the glory days of '90 to '94, girl (or girl-led) bands were everywhere. In the dawn of  New England indie rock in the '80s into the '90s, we had Juliana Hatfield and Blake Babies, Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donnelly of Throwing Muses and, of course, Kim Deal of the Pixies and then The Breeders.

But there were more: from Babes in Toyland to L7 to Liz Phair and later Hole we had authentic female rock bands. In the UK we had Elastica (ironically the rockingest brit pop outfit of the time), The Sundays and the Cranberries. Women were everywhere in rock.

The same can't be said today. Indie rock is a man's world with only a few rare exceptions. We had Sleater Kinney for a while. And Karen O of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. There are a few big lady-led hard rock hits, from Paramore to The Dead Weather, but the strongest female voices migrated to pop, electronic or folk en masse. The best we had were Neko Case and Jenny Lewis -- both are great, but not "rock" in the dirty, guitar sense.

Benefit for Daphne Fifield this Sunday

Chestnut Hill resident, musician, filmmaker and all-around great guy, Jason Fifield will host a benefit concert this Sunday for his wife, Daphne, who is battling Breast cancer. The concert will include Sifield's own trio, Mischa Machez and local jazz luminaries Orrin Evans and Odean Pope.
The show is at La Rose, 5531 Germantown Ave. 7 to 11 p.m.

Here's an e-mail Jason sent out earlier this week (we got it too late for the print edition).

Many of you already know that my wife Daphne is battling breast cancer, and as a result we are also battling our insurance company and huge out-of-pocket medical expenses. This Sunday, August 1st, 2010, Jazz Bridge is hosting a benefit at La Rose social club 5531 Germantown Ave. for "The Daphne Fund" - a fund which has been established to help us, but will also remain open to assist women jazz performers and women from musical families. The jazz jam Sunday will feature some internationally renowned performers including Orrin Evans, Odean Pope and Trudy Pitts, as well as my trio Mischa Machez, so please plan to stop in between 7p-11p if you can, $15 at the door.


Lots of press buzz this weekend, so please help spread the word - Shaun Brady has listed the benefit as the lead jazz pick this weekend and a byline will appear in Friday's Philadelphia Daily News. Also Friday, Mischa Machez will be performing original material on 90.1 WRTI at 10pm as part of J. Michael Harrison's "The Bridge." Finally, on Sunday at 1pm, WRTI's Bob Perkins will be helping to promote the event by broadcasting a Slife and Turtle Studios co-produced recording of the Tony Williams Quartet Live at La Rose. Hope to see you at La Rose on Sunday night, Daphne and my mom will be there, so good times are assured. If you can't make it, please check out one of the radio shows and stop by http://jazzbridge.org to make a donation.

Big Boi: much less than a glass half full

It's been a long time since Outkast took the hip-hop and pop worlds by storm with the double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. The Atlanta duo was able to do something that few artists ever accomplish: They recorded a serious album that was wildly inventive, pushed the boundaries of the form in which they worked and did so in a way that was wildly popular. "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move" were mega hits. "Hey Ya!" might have been one of the greatest so-called crossover singles of the last decade (perhaps second only to Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy"). 

Maybe 2003 doesn't seem that long ago, but popular music can experience what seems like generational turnover every six to 12 months. And despite the impermanence of the contemporary pop/hip hop record, the legacy of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below feels as enduring as any of other record of the time. It is in that album's long shadow that Big Boi, the "grounded" half of Outkast, released his solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty a few weeks ago to nearly universal acclaim.