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I bought Beck’s Mutations album the day it came out, and I loved how Beck collected so many concepts on that record. After listening to it, I made the decision to write down all the ideas in my head, so I started carrying a pocket notebook. It’s been 24 years since then and I still write in one every day. Beck changed my standard of what a modern songwriter could or should be doing. I came from the indie-rock mentality where everything was sort of homespun and amateurish, Mutations made me realize that a contemporary artist could make a record at the level of Bowie, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen.
Nov 2, 2022
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This band quite literally changed my life (as opposed to a "Garden State" faux-changed my life scenario).
Later in life, I got to know guitarist Peter Buck (we were both living in Portland at the time and I now own one of his Rickenbacker 12-string guitars a result, ha) and came to appreciate their status as the Bartleby, the Scriveners of rock (you should Google the reference: “I would prefer not to”). I told Peter I began playing guitar because of “Chronic Town” and eschewed wanky dumbass solos because that is how he and Johnny Marr both played. It left a mark, in the most positive way possible.
The first chapter is entitled “The Things They Wouldn't Do” and perfectly captures the essence of a group who did it their way or no way at all, including walking away at the peak of fame and never looking back as a way to both preserve their friendships AND not slide into the trap of making music for cash that was a notch below their very best. And their very best is, to be clear, among the best music made by any pop artist at any time.
Nov 27, 2024
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Daniel Johnston's 1983 album "Hi How Are You - the unfinished album" is similar in sounding to Kurt Cobain's iconic song "Beans". The album was popularised in the early 90s when MTV covered Cobain wearing a t-shirt with the album displayed, and at the time Daniel Johnston didn't like/want any of the fame. In fact, after he started growing a cult following for his eclectic and unique sound, he continued working hospitality at Subway because he believed that was where he came up with his best songs (and best sandwiches ofcourse). It's definitely not for everyone, but a niche audience and musician that people should take more note of. Do you think this album was an influence on Kurt Cobain's solo project “Montage of Heck"?
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Ive been having trouble coming up with the things I want to post on here, but recently a friend sent me an Instagram reel with a song in it that I just couldn’t put my finger on. After asking everyone around me, just playing it over and over it in my mind, I realized it’s “Let’s Go Away for Awhile” by the Beach Boys. One thing led to another and now I want to start doing reviews for classic and new albums-that I like. I don’t want to be a dick.
After more thinking I realized there’s not much new to say about it. The consensus on Pet Sounds is that it’s sonically one of the most impressive albums of its era, and influenced pop in a multitude of ways. Some say it’s what made the Beatles want to start being taken more seriously as artist.
But as someone who grew up in a post Pet Sounds world (very, might I add), it’s hard to draw the connections because pop music is so far away from this sound now. Still, it doesn’t date itself, either in instrumentation, lyricism, composition, or other ways. It feels incredibly fresh, and feels like the biggest pop artist of the current century could decide to make it tomorrow, and it would pop off.
The lyricism is a sort of longing that makes me think of Jeff Buckley, or it might make you think of a first love that you ruined because of inexperience and inability. It’s quite simple, but it’s the idea that he’s saying “all the right things”.
On the other hand, both with the combination of how the instruments and Brian and Carl Wilson (I had to look that up, thought it was just Brian for so long) or Mike Love‘s voices, the album sounds still very impressive. Im not sure I have the vocabulary for it, but both from the quite sparse songs like “Don’t Talk” to the lush ones like “Here Today”, everything feels meticulously constructed to fit the lyrics and where it’s actually placed in the album.
It’s a 10, because of course it’s 10, but it’s important to go back and appreciate why it’s a 10. I enjoyed doing so, even after remembering the songs that made me think of my first girlfriend lol.
After more thinking I realized there’s not much new to say about it. The consensus on Pet Sounds is that it’s sonically one of the most impressive albums of its era, and influenced pop in a multitude of ways. Some say it’s what made the Beatles want to start being taken more seriously as artist.
But as someone who grew up in a post Pet Sounds world (very, might I add), it’s hard to draw the connections because pop music is so far away from this sound now. Still, it doesn’t date itself, either in instrumentation, lyricism, composition, or other ways. It feels incredibly fresh, and feels like the biggest pop artist of the current century could decide to make it tomorrow, and it would pop off.
The lyricism is a sort of longing that makes me think of Jeff Buckley, or it might make you think of a first love that you ruined because of inexperience and inability. It’s quite simple, but it’s the idea that he’s saying “all the right things”.
On the other hand, both with the combination of how the instruments and Brian and Carl Wilson (I had to look that up, thought it was just Brian for so long) or Mike Love‘s voices, the album sounds still very impressive. Im not sure I have the vocabulary for it, but both from the quite sparse songs like “Don’t Talk” to the lush ones like “Here Today”, everything feels meticulously constructed to fit the lyrics and where it’s actually placed in the album.
It’s a 10, because of course it’s 10, but it’s important to go back and appreciate why it’s a 10. I enjoyed doing so, even after remembering the songs that made me think of my first girlfriend lol.
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📕Lots of people love Alejandro Jodorowsky’s psychedelic movies like El Topo and The Holy Mountain, there is even a documentary about his famously unmade Dune movie. What people don’t seem to realize though, is that for the last 40 years, Jodorowsky’s been authoring numerous graphic novels that comprise 20+ other movies he would have probably made if he’d had the budget for them - and they are all fully fleshed out in comic book form! For example if you are mourning the fact you will never see Jodorowsky’s Dune, now realize that he put those ideas into a comic book series called The Metabarons. If you are wondering what happens after El Topo, know that there is a graphic novel sequel he recently released called Sons of El Topo. A series, Techno Priests, is like Jodorwosky’s Star Wars. In fact, his graphic novel with Moebius called The Incal was so good that Luc Besson ripped it off to make The Fifth Element. If you are willing to read the comics, you’ll experience Jodorowsky quietly creating a universe of Miyazaki-level creativity. Inspiring is an understatement!
Nov 2, 2022
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👃I started collecting perfumes on the tour for my “Aladdin” movie in 2016, my bandmate was an amateur perfumer and his passion for aromatic materials was infectious. Studying scent unlocked an entire dimension of sensory experiences I had been ignoring. I realized that perfumers were trying to communicate with us, the raw materials had developed symbolic meanings over thousands of years, and could be used in combination to create very specific artworks. I began to see perfumes as snowglobes that carry information as a landscape, that there’s a lot of encoded information in them. Collecting them became an adventure, walking around the city realizing every city block had stores with samples of these precious artworks. I even started to obtain vintage bottles of perfume from 30, 50, even 80 years ago that still smelled great, and I began to understand in more depth how people used to smell and why. I recently wrote an epic perfume adventure book that I hope to put out soon.
Nov 2, 2022
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🎥People had been telling me to watch this movie for years, I finally gave it a shot and it’s mindblowing. The film is a total artwork that takes place in an interior landscape of the human soul, called “The Zone”, with deeply felt apocalyptic evocations of Christianity. Tarkovsky provides us with aesthetic mastery of all the filmmaking elements, from set-designs both naturalistic and sculptural, breathtaking cinematography, deely psychedelic music, and brilliant portrayals of raw human emotion. With all these filmmaking elements in place, he conducts them all like it’s a Beethoven symphony. This film might contain the most aesthetic merit of any movie I’ve ever seen. Another thing is that the movie actually killed them to make it - some of the cast and crew including Tarkovsky and his wife were poisoned while filming scenes on a river near a chemical plant, and they died as a result. Essential viewing!
Nov 2, 2022