Loquacious Music

So imagine my surprise when I got this e-mail today:

From: xxxxx@xxxxx.net
Date: April 25, 2007 12:14:57 PM EDT
To: bgott@rectoryschool.org

Hello Ben. Just wanted to thank you for such a kind
review of my new record. It is also the FIRST one I
have been able to read (the previous 10 or so are in
Japanese) so anyway, cheers! Made my day Jasonf

Okay, so I made Jason Falkner’s day? Not likely. More like he made my day. Or my life. (For the uninitiated, me receiving an e-mail from Jason Falkner is like you receiving an e-mail from Paul McCartney. Or Marvin Gaye, even though he’s dead. Or pick one of your absolute favorite musicians of all time. So this is a very, very big deal.)

From today…

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Enjoy!

As most of you know, I got a new digital camera a few months ago. This camera, the Nikon D40, and its accompanying speedlight, the Nikon SB400, have allowed me to completely change the way I photograph (and for under $700, no less!)

Let’s look at some examples, shall we?

Here is a picture I took in my living room tonight with a $250 Sony CyberShot U:

Here’s (pretty much) the same scene, but photographed with my Nikon:

Notice the difference.

Today, I sent the following photos to Wal-Mart to be processed:

About half an hour after clicking “Send,” I received a phone call on my cellphone. It was the manager of Wal-Mart’s Digital Photo Processing Center. She called to tell me that one of her employees informed her that my photos — my photos! — may have been taken by a professional photographer and would therefore be copyright protected and unprintable. I assured her that I had taken the pictures myself that morning and that the photos were indeed mine.

“Oh,” she said. “Then they’re really good!”

That’s the difference a good camera makes!

I decided to take one of the recent photographs of springtime and to turn it into a “Happy Spring!” card for my dorm. Now I’m turning it into a “Happy Spring!” card for loquaciousmusic.com. Click on the image below to download a higher-resolution version:

And here’s a new promo picture!

Don’t forget to listen to “You Oughta Know” (scroll down one post), but I had to post these pictures to prove, beyond a doubt, that SPRING IS FINALLY KIND OF HERE SORTA!

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Yeah, I don’t really care about “Code Monkey”, but Coulton’s cover of Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know” is absolutely fantastic. Give it a listen and see for yourself!

And here’s a karaoke version of “Mayor of Simpleton,” just in case you’ve always wanted one. The instrumentation is actually quite good; they got the 12-string guitar parts and the harmonies right.

The first piece in my "Blast from the Past" series was a review of Scritti Politti’s album Cupid & Psyche ‘85; you can read it here.  Today’s review is of an album released three years earlier by another British group.  But this album, a jangling, complex masterpiece, is about as far away from the synthpop that Green Gartside and Co. so expertly produced.  This album is XTC’s English Settlement.

XTC fans are a passionate — indeed, some might say "rabid" — bunch.  Whether we’ve been listening since 1977’s White Music or since the middle of last week, we tend to act protectively toward Andy, Colin, Dave, Terry, and Barry.  A few weeks ago, I wrote a overwhelmingly negative review of Andy Partridge’s most recent project, an avant-garde improvisational album called Monstrance.  Even though the album has nothing at all to do with XTC, I was, to put it mildly, burned at the stake by my fellow XTC fans.  I was attacked for being a musical moron; for not having any taste; for not having an open mind.  I rebutted those attacks by saying, in effect, that my love for great music is evidenced by my love for XTC.

This is a love that has stretched for more than 10 years, ever since the first time (early evening) on the first day (July 19, 1994) that I listened to my first XTC song ("The Smartest Monkeys&quot off my first XTC album (Nonsuch).  It has stretched through purchases of every XTC album on CD (sometimes more than once); of various bootlegs on CD, vinyl, and cassette; of t-shirts and fleeces and hats; and of promotional posters, one of which hangs, framed, in my living room.  It has stretched through the band’s punk albums, like 1979’s Drums & Wires all the way to the orchestral pop of Skylarking and the alt-rock of Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2).  It has stretched through the departure of keyboardist and guitarist Dave Gregory and the current "freeze" of the band.  It has stretched through Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding’s seven-year strike against Virgin Records.  It has stretched through high school, college, and two jobs.  For more than 10 years, XTC has been my favorite band.

But, with the exception of Andy Partridge’s ten-volume set of demo recordings, XTC hasn’t released any new material since 2000.  So, after putting Monstrance to the side, I figured that it would be time to remember why I loved XTC so much in the first place.

There are many good XTC albums and a few great ones; English Settlement fits very comfortably into the latter category.  Produced and engineered by the legendary Hugh Padgham, the album marked a significant change of course for the band.  Two years earlier, in 1980, they had released Black Sea, an album that merged their punk and new-wave styles.  Now, for English Settlement, they scaled back the loud guitars and hiccuping vocals and replaced them with soft acoustics, electric 12-strings, and drums that seemed ready to take over the world.  (Drummer Terry Chambers left the band after English Settlement, and this was a perfect note — no pun intented — for him to leave on.)  From the psychedelic jangle that begins "Runaways" to the wintertime jingle that ends "Snowman," each song on this album is, simply, a masterpiece.  Bass player Colin Moulding’s contributions are the finest of his career; indeed, "Ball and Chain," the second cut on the first side, was one of English Settlement’s early singles.

Despite Padgham’s stellar production and the band’s exceptional playing (see pretty much all of "Jason and the Argonauts" for an example of both), this album clearly belongs to lead singer and songwriter Andy Partridge.  Although his songs on the band’s previous efforts range from the stunning ("Complicated Game" and "Respectable Street&quot to the silly ("Sgt. Rock is Going to Help Me" and "When You’re Near Me I Have Difficulty"), English Settlement marks a significant breakthrough for both his music and his lyrics.  The biting social satire "No Thugs in Our House" fades into the airy, complicated "Yacht Dance."  XTC fans will argue until the end of time about our favorite song on English Settlement, but my picks are both "Jason and the Argonauts" (seriously, go listen) and "All of a Sudden (It’s Too Late)."  (Yeah, I know it’s a tie, but c’mon!)  Both songs are perfect pieces of intelligent pop, each with a message and a melody unmatched by the output of most other songwriters of the era.  As Dave and Andy weave lead guitar lines in and out, Colin keeps pace with the bass and Terry uses both acoustic and electric drums to create a foundation that is intriguing, unsettling, and absolutely perfect.  Each song on English Settlement — from the amusing "Leisure" to the trippy and zippy "Fly on the Wall" — acts as a chapter in a musical novel about love, loss, hope, and heartache.  Whether the song is about razing buildings ("Ball & Chain"), celebrating womanhood ("Down in the Cockpit"), or destroying modern civilization ("It’s Nearly Africa"), XTC presents each topic without condescension, sarcasm, or haughtiness.  

Sadly, English Settlement did not provide XTC the commercial success they had been looking for.  Soon after the album was released, Partridge suffered a nervous breakdown while performing in France; soon after that, the band stopped touring altogether.  While there were some minor hits along the way — "Dear God," "The Mayor of Simpleton," and "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" being the biggest — the world, by and large, never quite caught on.  This is a damn shame.  

Oftentimes, know-it-all music reviewers like myself talk about the musical moment that changed my life, man.  For some, it’s the first time they heard The Rolling Stones on the radio or watched The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.  For others, it was hearing the sounds of Joni Mitchell or Marvin Gaye during that summer when __________ happened.  For me, though, this moment didn’t happen under such earth-shattering circumstances.  It was simple, really: it was the moment, sitting in my dorm room in high school, when I put English Settlement into my roommate Jon’s CD player and pressed the "Play" button.  It may not have involved fireworks or a glimpse of God, but I will never forget sitting in the chair at my desk and closing my eyes; skipping history class and hitting "Repeat" so I could listen again. 

And again. 

And again.

(Cross-posted at Blogcritics.)

Jason Falkner's new album, I'm OK…You're OK, is the best album that Falkner has ever made.

This is quite a claim, I know, so let me back up a bit.  His two previous full-length albums, Jason Falkner Presents Author Unknown and Can You Still Feel?, were better than almost anything released by any alt-rocker in the 1990's.  Full of gorgeous melodies, pop hooks, and unique arrangements, Falkner proved himself a capable, confident, and extremely talented young musician.  (A member of Jellyfish for only one album, Bellybutton, and of The Grays for only one album, Ro Sham Bo, Falkner had already proven himself both as a songwriter and as an exceptional bass player.)

Both …Author Unknown and Can You Still Feel? showcased an artist who was both unique and comfortably consistent at the same time.  His rich voice and vocal phrasings carried from one song to another, and his instruments were always played and mixed with both considerable attention to detail and an extemporaneous feel.  As a friend once remarked to me, "I've never heard a musician try so hard to sound like isn't trying so hard."  Songs like "I Live," "Don't Show Me Heaven," "Nobody Knows," and "My Lucky Day" raised an already high bar: in many ways, Jason Falkner had to outdo no one but Jason Falkner.

Such pressure surely takes its toll.  Except for a five-track E.P. released a few years ago, Falkner's solo album kept getting pushed back and pushed back.  He played bass for Paul McCartney, Aimee Mann, and Beck; his skills as a session musician are unequaled.  But, sadly, Jason Falkner himself stayed in the shadows for much of the last six years.

So what, then, makes I'm OK…You're OK such a remarkable comeback?  Partly, the album is enhanced by the sheer technical aspect of its recording; with the exception of drums on one track and backing vocals on another, Falkner played all the instruments himself.  He also wrote all the songs and produced and engineered the whole thing.  (Again, the songs benefit significantly from his casual precision.)  The melodies are intact, too: "Stephanie Tells Me" has a beautiful, rousing chorus, and the opening track, "This Time," loops and weaves as Falkner builds guitars, basses, drums, and vocal harmonies.  There is always something surprising in every Falkner song, and this album contains twelve tracks with dozens of places where you, the listener, will perk up your ears and say, "Woah!  I didn't see that coming!  I wish I'd thought of that!"  (The Japan-only bonus track, "I Don't Mind," is a perfect example, beginning as it does with piano and vocals and then breaking into a mind-bending climax of both vocal harmonies and instrumental flourishes.)

The most wonderful aspect of I'm OK…You're OK, however, is that Falkner brings an intimacy to his songs that we simply don't hear nowadays.  These tracks, put together, are true, real, and beautiful, alternating between moments of pure joy and pure sadness.   Like Beck's Sea Change, on which he played, the emotions of this album are not manufactured to sell records or to impress everyone with his "lo-fi" credentials.  (This album was, incidentially, recorded without the aid of a professional studio — not like you could tell, as the instruments are pitch perfect and the lower fidelity adds to the charm and warmth of the songs.)  Jason Falkner isn't trying to prove anything.  He is simply trying to share his songs with us.  His stunning, complex, rich, and eminently enjoyable songs.

I might as well save my money.  There won't be another album like this in 2007.  Jason, you have restored my faith in music.  Thank you, my friend.  Thank you.

(Cross-posted at Blogcritics.)

One of Morrissey’s most controversial and most disturbing songs. It’s even more disturbing now.

Day oh so late
Strangely the sun still shone
Ooh Asian boy
What are you on ?
Day oh so late
Strangely the sun still shone
Oh Asian boy
What are drugs are you on ?

Oh… strange

Tooled-up Asian boy
Has come to take revenge
For the cruel, cold killing
Of his very best friend
Tooled-up Asian boy
Has come to avenge
The cruel, cold killing
Of his only friend

Ha! La, la, la, oh …

There’s peace through our school
It’s so quiet in the hall
It’s a strange sign for one
Of what’s to come
Tough and cold and pale
Oh, they may just impale you on railings
Oh, English boys
It must be wrong
Three against one ?

Oh …

Brakes slammed, and
His gun jammed, and
As far as I could tell
Brave Asian boy
Was dealt a blow and fell

I’m just passing through here
On my way to somewhere civilised
And maybe I’ll even arrive
Maybe I’ll even arrive

Consumerist has a new feature called “Above and Beyond,” where they chronicle companies that, um, do their jobs correctly. (Actually, they chronicle CSR-related experiences that go particularly well, but, in this day and age, that means “provide a basic level of service with no hassle.”) I had such an experience tonight with The New AT&T. Here is a transcript of the chat session, in its entirety:

Ben Gott: I got a message that I had successfully changed to MEdia Basic Unlimited M2M messages but then a red error message F902 that the plan could not be changed. Could you change me instead to the MEdia Works Bundle?

Thank you for contacting Cingular Wireless. A Cingular Chat Representative will be with you momentarily.

[Four-minute wait ensues...]

[John - A representative has joined the session.]

John: Thank you for visiting My Account at Cingular.com, now the new AT&T. My name is John. I am sorry you are having this issue. I can assist you. As the security of your account is important to us, I must verify your account information. Please provide the account holder’s last name, last four digits of social security number, and mobile number you need assistance with.

Ben Gott: Last name: Gott. Last 4 digits: xxxx. Mobile number: 860-xxx-xxxx.

John: Thank you. One moment please.

John: I have added the $14.99 Media Works Bundle as you requested, effective today. This feature allows 1000 Text, Picture, Video or IM messages and 5 MB data. A partial month’s charge for this feature will be assessed on your next bill.

John: Is there any way I can further assist you today with your online account?

Ben Gott: No, thank you. I really appreciate it, John. Have a great night.

John: You’re welcome. You too.

John: Thank you for visiting My Account at Cingular.com, now the new AT&T.

John: We are always working to improve the Cingular, now the new AT&T, Click to Chat customer service experience. To help us with this effort, please take our short survey. We appreciate and review your feedback; however, we are unable to respond to questions submitted in this survey. If you have an issue that requires assistance, please call Customer Service at 1-800-331-0500.

John: [Item sent - C2CSurvey] (Click here)

[John - user has closed this session]

As Consumerist teaches us, let’s list what went right:

1) I was connected almost immediately to a CSR, and the problem was resolved in under three minutes.
2) There were two mistakes made: mine, in not clicking the plan I wanted; and theirs, in having perhaps the worst online interface in the world. They did not hold my mistake against me.
3) The problem was reconciled immediately, and I was charged on a pro-rata basis. The CSR was an actual person, not a bot (I just wanted to make sure; that’s why I wished him a “great night”).
4) The New AT&T put the plan in place immediately even though they could have been screwing me over, as I’m over my texting limit for this month already.

Score: A+. Now if only I could get good reception in my living room!