(Kind of) Recent CD's that I (Kind of) listened to this week.

First an amendment to my previous post:

Lindsay Lohan has to go and see a car crash as punishment for drink driving. Pity, if they wanted her a train wreck then they could have had her look at her career.

Oh, and I don’t know if you’ve heard, but some German airlines has opened up a new ‘nude’ airlines. Yeah, apparently Senator Larry Craig still went into the bathroom out of habit.

Bruce Springsteen- Magic

The thing (among so many others) that that I enjoy most about Bruce Springsteen is the 'worst times are over' type of positivity that he imbues many of his characters with. Classics like Thunder Road and Altantic City are practically exercises in positive thinking under undeniably shitty circumstances (along with being some of the well written songs...ever\

The most baseball-bat-over-the-head obvious example of this comes during almost-creepy-for-a-50-year-old-guy-to-be-singing Girls in the their Summer Clothes (which also happens to be one of the best Springsteen in decades. Yes, decades*) in which the character proclaims that things have been a little tight/but I know they're going to be okay.

When one considers the cynical nature of other Magic songs, such faux positivity appears almost ironic.

Nothing on Magic comes close to his seemingly unilateral support of Vietnam veterans that was Born in the USA , but every traditional Springsteen ballad hides a line that be applied to whatever political strife Springsteen turns his head to (see In The Future ,which is also a song whose hook, and sing-a-long bridge never quite made it out of the 80's) . It's probably not a shock that President Bush junior often cops the brunt of this criticism, with Last to Die being a track that contains some of the least unbridled (and admittedly well done, although the track is one the lesser lights) criticism of the Iraq War. Even the CD's opening track Radio Nowhere seems to be a statement on the America's ambivalence towards it’s seeming wayward path after 9/11.

Political grumbles aside, perhaps biggest comment that can be made to towards Springsteen is that, even decades on, he can still evoke the spirit of Americana that seems so damn appealing, even though it may have never actually existed. Long Walk Coming and You'll Be Coming Down are so Springsteen that it sounds like he's something imitating his previous records (albeit very well).

*Since it's bad to go brackets with brackets, I'm just going to say it here: If right now I had to die to a sound, it would to be to the chord change at the beginning of the chorus.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club- Baby 81

I have a problem. Okay, I many problems. The one most relevant to this discussion isn't so much my fault as it the mysterious cosmos that dictates concert lineups in Tasmania. See, I tend to like bands as soon as they've just played. Last year it was Modest Mouse, this year it was Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. It's not so much jumping on the bandwagon as it is me simply not being aware of said band until it's too late. Granted, I probably wouldn't have actually gone to see them, but at least a heads up would have been nice.

Last week a talked I about Black Mountain’s In The Future as being a tribute to times past, and how after three decades Zeppelin's song remained very much the same. Baby 81 is the same thing, except instead of Zeppelin, they're going for Rock in Roll in general. Or more specifically, what they think Rock and Roll is.

Sometimes the garage band philosophy goes too far, and BRMC fall into the enormous hole that is currently inhabited by groups like tribute band/fodder for urinating monkeys Jet. This understandably put me off, as even the fact that I'm from the same country as Jet makes me slightly nauseous, but whatever right? Sure, they sometimes sound slightly like Jet, just a Jet that possesses some sort of ability other than whining about how DJ’s are taking all their jobs.

BRMC do a pretty good of inhabiting that space between the hole that is derivate and the sheer cliff that is originality. It’s not great, but it’s sure not terrible, it just succeeds at existing.