It has fallen upon me to say a few words on this, the august occasion of the one-year anniversary of the Nonalignment Pact. I have a bunch of vague thoughts that don’t really add up to much, but it is perfectly appropriate to the occasion that I share said half-assed thoughts anyway, and probably more appropriate than a desperate attempt to bring narrative direction to my misguided creative writing project while addressing the one song on FULL FORCE GALESBURG I have nothing to say about.
Duke Ellington once said, “There are only two kinds of music, good music and bad music.” Although reasonable people may often disagree as to which music falls on precisely on which side of that line – and many people here have – we are all here because we love good music. (Or possibly because we are bemused by the writing of our acquaintances. But never mind.)
A discarded and much more pretentious title for this post was “We are winning.” When I say we are winning, I mean that there has long been a battle, and the battle has been between those that want nothing more than to easily discover good music and those that wish to push commercial product down our throats. And we are winning because of technology, because the ability to gate keep has diminished over time, and because the fact that we come here and share helps inflame our passion.
Perhaps I speak too quickly for all of us. But I know that I spent more money on music this year than I have in many years; that I spent more time listening and thinking about it; that I played my guitar more than I have in years. And I did easily the most extravagant thing that I’ve ever done in the name of music, flying to the other side of the world for the Primavera Festival.
I’m not saying what I want to say. I don’t know how to say it. Let me try this. Last week, Bruce Springsteen was joined on stage for his encore by two members of The Arcade Fire. I imagine at least one of you laments that the stage didn’t collapse, but for me this would rank relatively high on unexpected musical collaborations I’d love to see. At the end of this post is their take on an Arcade Fire song and a Springsteen classic, and even if you absolutely hate both, I want you to listen to the first 30 seconds and last 15 seconds of “Keep The Car Running”, in which the audience members near the camera phone completely, utterly, absolutely lose their shit.
That’s what music can do – leave you stand stunned, unable to do anything but scream “HO LEE SHIT!”
One of the things I love about NAP is the absolute disinterest in the “blogosphere” or whatever the current trends in music are. We’re all old enough not to care overmuch about trends, stubborn enough not to care what people think is hip. While other people keep track of who the latest MySpace phenomenon to break it big at CMJ is, we just trundle along and listen to Robyn Hitchcock or Violetta Parra or John Vanderslice or Part Chimp or Jesu or whatever we like. And it makes the day a little better, and sometimes it makes the day a lot better, and every once in a great while it makes us go “HO LEE SHIT!”.
So, in closing, I mention a holy shit moment that I’ve never mentioned before here. For a couple years The Grifters were one of my favorite bands in the world, and I saw them probably six or seven times. They were at the peak of their powers in the summer of 1994, and I saw them with Versus opening. Versus was a band whose appeal always slightly eluded me, and I thought they were okay. Then the Grifters came out, and started their set with “Felt Tipped Over”, and from the first crash of the drums until two days later, I forgot that Versus had played. Really.
But that wasn’t the HO LEE SHIT! moment. It’s worth mentioning that one of my favorite albums of all time, then and now, was IN A PRIEST DRIVEN AMBULANCE by The Flaming Lips. And at the end of one of their songs, The Grifters effortlessly segued into one of the great tracks from that album, “Raining Babies”.
No, the Flaming Lips didn’t take the stage, but the floor fell out from underneath me, a great band playing a great set taking a great song and making it their own and giving that moment of unexpected delight to which there can of course be only one response, whether or not you say it the same way that that dude at the end of “Keep The Car Running” does:
HO LEE SHIT!
So mention a HO LEE SHIT! moment in the comments, if you will, in honor of that dude at the end of the first video below, in honor of a year of NAP, and in honor of the fact that good music makes life better.
“Keep The Car Running”:
“State Trooper”:
The Grifters, “Holmes” (it would be too much to hope that YouTube had that performance on it, but I figure a taste of live Grifters is in order regardless):
Hear hear! Congratulations to us! And thanks especially to Ramon for starting this and asking me to participate. And thanks to the rest of you for all the good listening and reading over the year.
As for my ho lee shit moment, dd, i guess my last post was exactly just that… i’ll try to think of more, though right off the bat, watching Sonic Youth at Power Tools during their Daydream Nation tour (c. 1988) was pretty fucking incredible. The problem with these moments is that often it’s all downhill after that. Though not always, and when its not and you can get the ho lee shit moment squared, or even cubed (as i believe that Sonic Youth show was for me). Then that is something.
I don’t really understand the appeal of The Arcade Fire, especially to the Rock Royalty set. I’m always reading about how David Byrne or Bowie or Clapton go to their shows. And they apparently did the same sort of encore appearance with U2. Arcade Fire’s music just doesn’t do anything for me.
It’s worth noting that the Arcade Fire’s Butler brothers are from the Woodlands (a suburb of Houston, in the off chance that somebody reading this doesn’t know that). Though saying they are from the Woodlands is about like saying George W. Bush is from Houston. They may have been “raised” in Houston, but they went to boarding schools in New England. In fact, the Arcade Fire boys went to the rival school of Bush’s alma mater (thanks, Wikipedia!). I guess that makes them aristocrats. Maybe that would explain the hanging out with Rock Royalty.
holy shit moment… hmmm. Besides the time my mother was standing in her seat at a Neil Diamond concert in Houston, thrusting her fist in the air and screaming, “THEY’RE COMING TO AMERICA… TODAYYYY”
There’s certainly different holy shit categories.
Standing in front of the stack in Hollywood when Jane’s Addiction played “Ocean Size”. They played with Primus and The Pixies.
I think most of my holy shit moments are totally about the volume and guitars.. sometimes crazy drum shit. But Standing in front of Caspar Brotzmann and watching him play was pretty amazing. And when I first saw Neurosis play songs off of “Souls At Zero”.. once again my ears pummeled in front of the stage. That took my heart out. Recently seeing Diamanda Galas in NYC was pretty special.. I’m supposed to have one moment here. Fugazi’s early shows were inspirational to say the least.
Probably the Janes Addiction, even though I haven’t listened to them in fucking ages.
Shit. There was the Nick Cave shows that made me cry. but… once again.. so many categories.
Music which made me cry holy shit moments which I think Anaconda wrote about once.
And here’s to the NAP passing one. When I first came to these parts, I think this baby was a couple months old. Here’s to all of you doing what I could never fucking do. Cheers.
Justin, I didn’t get into the Arcade Fire at first, and wrote them off after a few listens. (Something I’ve done with a lot of bands that have turned into my favorites, most venomously with Guided By Voices.) The song that turned the corner for me was “Wake Up”, which I clicked on in my fourth listen to FUNERAL.
I don’t think either of their albums are wall-to-wall genius, but I do like them a lot, and I think their appeal is pretty obvious to the rock royalty – everything about them, from their lineup to their anthemic musical qualities to their lyrics are outsized and big, nakedly sincere and completely contrived all at once in the way that big pop music is. I didn’t know they played with U2, but that kind of makes sense too.
I should have looked for this before–here is Arcade Fire with U2.
Speaking of U2, I remember having a holy shit reaction when leaving one of their shows. The audience sang the chorus of “40″ out the doors and into the parking lot. I guess that doesn’t have as much to do with the show or the performance as much as is does my amazement about that happening. I also remember having a holy shit moment when I saw the Boredoms playing at Emo’s. I don’t know what I was expecting, but not that kind of precision.
ah ha! my real holy shit moment was seeing KODO. When several of the drummers gave us a pitter patter rain storm, then some rain, then it was pouring, then it was the loudest rain ever and thunder and lightning. That was for sure my holy shit moment. You had to be there. Chances are that some of you were.
bevis frond: one of about a dozen people at mary jane’s. staring up at nick soloman, mouth agape, “getting it”.
justin if that U2 moment was the unforgettable fire tour at the summit, i was one of the one’s singing along.
That was the Joshua Tree tour at the Summit. I wonder did it happen more than once?
I was also at that Bevis Frond show. It was pretty amazing.
Medeski, Martin, and Wood at the Axiom or Catal, whatever. Justin probably worked the board on that one. Nice. By the way, I was at the Bevis Frond show at Mary Jane’s and it reminded me why the Jazzmaster is the coolest guitar on the planet, but that’s another blog. To all the NAP folks, thanks for having me.
I still can’t believe Medeski Martin and Wood played at Catal.
My favorite holee sheeit moment was also there but when Crash Worship played and I was asked if I wanted to open the door for them, as they were going to trick the audience and come in the back way.
I had no idea what the band was about except there was a lot of drumming and maybe some fire.
Opening that door was quite amazing.
And being able to have the chance to dance amongst everybody while the drumming and the fire was going on was exceedingly nice.
oh yeah, it was definitely 40 and it was def the unforgettable fire tour as i was still in high school (10th grade?) and i remember the whole parking garage being filled with voices singing “how long?”
hey nick soloman fans: there’s still no official line-up but i couldn’t imagine a terrastock w/o bevis frond. june 2008 in louisville, kentucky.
I don’t remember doing sound for MM&W, but I guess it’s possible.
I’m pretty sure I stripped down to the waist at that Crash Worship show, Ramona. Did I?
It would be unlike me to not notice, so I don’t think you did. But it was pretty dark, and my mind was kind of gone halfway through. On life, man, on life.
Yeah. That probably wasn’t me then.
The Grifters are pretty much a “HO LEE SHIT!” sort of band in general to me. Especially live. Nice boys too.
I was at that Crash Worship show, and I definitely would class them coming through the door as a HO LEE SHIT moment. I think that show’s the only time in my life I’ve danced with someone whose name I didn’t know.
Nice sentiment Dougie.
I like Arcade Fire but they do have an end-of-the-world style that gets a little old when the world doesn’t happen to end. So did Springsteen. Maybe unexpected but not really a surprising appearance I’d say. It brings to mind David Bowie and Bing Crosby singing Little Drummer Boy.
Speaking of Arcade Fire, this is a long watch (15 minutes) but worth it and it’s a HO LEE SHIT moment.
Yeah two kinds of music just like there’s to kinds of things going on. There’s a whole lot of bad and a little bit of good. Thanks girls and boys for doing some of the culling.
Those Blogotheque shows are really cool. You can find a whole bunch of them here. I especially liked the Shins one.