HERBIE HANCOCK

Real people versus Herbie.

Instead of letting my Grammy fever turn back into my body temperature, I hunted down Herbie Hancock's Album Of The Year, a tribute to Joni Mitchell. The album is an expert level homage, but it's also a big budget pat-on-the-back using Lenard Cohen's and Tina Turner's wrinkly old hands. My friends would agree that the Grammy voters buried last year's legendary recordings (Kanye and Amy Winehouse). Nonetheless, one track really grabbed me, demanding discussion and repeat listens. Featuring Corinne Bailey Rae on vocals, the tribute album's title track "River" gets a brilliant update from Hancock and Co. Or at least I thought so...





"As far as this track goes, I really love it, and I'm surprised that I do. Joni Mitchell's original was a tragic, moving song that longs to escape holiday cheer after losing a lover. To have Corrine Bailey Rae try to do her thing all over it wasn't really something I was looking forward to. I guess I expected it to be like a Norah Jones record - stale and contrived. Fortunately, Corrine actually did just do her thing, and along with a jazzy-but-subtle musical backdrop provided by Herbie and Co., the track becomes almost an optimistic reinterpretation of the song. The track sounds organic and warm, and the performances are deliberate yet effortless. And her vocal! It's so... so... so fucking happy. It's wonderful! The way she enunciates words makes it sound like she's always smiling (seriously, listen to how she says "you know he put me at ease" in the 2nd verse). This is what Adult Contemporary wishes it could be (I assume)."

—MATT RADOSEVICH, record producer/engineer

"I'm a big fan of Joni's "ladies of laurel canyon", "court and spark", and particularly, "Blue." Rive has to be one of my favorite songs because it intros/outros with the Jingle bells melody and then it diverts into the actual song. Classic idea. I'm an Corrine Bailey Rae fan and a Hancock fan, but this version of river does not compare to the original. She catches the high note well, but I don't think this song translates into a jazz song well."

—KIM ROBINSON, music lover

"Never having heard the original, I imagine Joni must be pretty stoked on this version. Corinne (fresh off a stadium-by-stadium pillage of John Legend fans) sound pristine and great. The band sounds great too, though I could've used a little more cohesiveness somewhere along the line. It sounds like they recorded the parts all at different times without listening to the other parts (like the Mars Volta do!). The song ultimately just kind of meanders for me. All the sections are good, but no part really stands out or hits on a different dynamic. It's also hard to pick out the chorus (is it the "Fly" part? "I wish I was a river"?). My overall impression is that, while I like it while I'm listening to it, I find it instantly forgettable. Album of the year, over Kanye?? No way. "The Good Life" will still be the jam 115 years from now."

—EVAN MICHALSKI, bassist/investor

"When the very next track on your iTunes is a Mike Jones & Paul Wall vs. Britney Spears masher it's hard to resist the urge to skip to it."

—CHRIS MCNEILL, dark horse

Click to download “River” (From the album River by Herbie Hancock featuring Corinne Bailey Rae)

HERBIE HANCOCK'S WEBSITE
HERBIE HANCOCK on WIKIPEDIA

THE MARS VOLTA

Real people versus The Mars Volta

My favorite music critics don't write for websites or magazines: they're my friends. Music is a part of my experience and I want to represent it as it occurs in my life. I don't talk to myself about music, I discuss it with my people I know and respect. Which is why I asked a bunch of my friends what they thought of the song "Metatron" from the new Mars Volta album.



"There's too much going on in this song as far as instruments are concerned. This band was one of the only current acts to do Rawk music with one guitar and make it work well. I go back to Vagrant, Weezer, and '70s power pop where dual guitar attacks are a must (like sunglasses). I'm a fan of the twin attack, but TMV does not need it.

"I listen to all kinds of stuff that's a 'tough listen' with the expectation of having that 'Ah-ha' moment. I did it with Eloy, Rudgren, Alan Parsons, Crimson, Hella, Soft Machine and others. I see [TMV's] current direction as being a rehash of previous ideas."

—KIM ROBINSON, music lover

"I noticed one funny thing about the way that these tracks are mixed, especially "Metatron." The guitars are often panned hard left or right which allows multiple solos to happen at once and there are a couple places in "Metatron" where it sounds like there are 3 separate guitar solos going on at once: one on the left, one on the right and a lead guitar solo in the center. I guess it's probably the easiest way to cram in as much epic guitar soloing as possible but when I listen to it I can't help thinking about the "everybody solo" from that 90s novelty song "Let's Go Smoke Some Pot." Listen to it if you haven't heard it. It's funny."

—ANTON PATZNER, violinist

"I am LOVING the new drummer. They sound like they're on musical Human Growth Hormone. It's no Rick Rubin recording. This is the saddest element of post-Rubin Volta. I love Rich Costey, but I am jones-ing for that huge Vistalite kit sound with ungodly loud keyboards and vocals. Their first album hit that Zepplin/prog vibe perfectly, and this album especially could use that thunder. Overall, it's not a timeless TMV song (parts are great, 2nd half is superior to the first), but I would listen to it over some 11 minute impenetrable wall of noise ANY DAY."

—EVAN MICHALSKI, bassist/investor

"They've needed a producer since Deloused, they clearly don't think so, and the more records they put out, the less likely it seems that they'll ever try to write "songs" again. Far be it for me to be the judge of someone else's artistic vision, but they're just starting to sound more and more like a boring, messy, prog, circle jerk (the worst kind of circle jerk)."

—MATT RADOSEVICH, record producer/engineer

"After my first listen I thought the song should have ended at the 3 minute mark. Why not make it radio friendly? It could sneak in to some sort of KROQ like rotation pretty easy and blow prepubescent minds. The Mars Volta is for the kids! I still think this is better than anything off the post-Deloused releases because perhaps it sounds more like that record. The breakdown is growing on me, though the lead guitar around the 5:30-6:30 mark sounds like a recurring leitmotif that I know I've heard before and feels like a cop out. Rating: 8.0 million effective pixels."

—CHRIS MCNEILL, tour guide

Live in L.A.

Click to download “Metatron” (From the album The Bedlam In Goliath by The Mars Volta)
BONUS: Click to download the pre-Tremulant 'original version' of “Eunuch Provocateur” (From the Alex Newport demo sessions in October 2001)

THE MARS VOLTA'S WEBSITE
THE MARS VOLTA on MYSPACE
THE MARS VOLTA on WIKIPEDIA

THE SEA AND CAKE

Monstrously satisfying.

The other night I tried a small Nepali restaurant. I walk or bike or walk my bike past this place every day. It's so small and unassuming I wanted to approach it. It seemed nonthreatening, so I knew things could go two ways: the restaurant would be fine, or the restaurant would seem fine, but really be awful, like one of those small chirpy dinosaurs in Jurassic Park that acts like a baby bird but spits paralyzing tar on Newman from Seinfeld before nipping him to death.

Including the waiter, I was one of six in the room. Of course that discounts Monica, Chandler, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, and David Schwimmer. There was a muted television above my right shoulder, not a great sign for the restaurant—also not something I could notice from outside. The waiter was attentive to the few customers, but hypnotized by subtitled Friends when not refilling my water.

I ordered, checked my email, pulled out my Moleskine, and ate my in-no-way-Nepali green salad with bleached lettuce and rubber carrots—all before noticing the TV. It was an early episode of Friends, before Chandler began to look like an actor with real life problems. In this episode, the characters walk between the two apartments constantly; I wonder if it's "The One Where They Walk Between The Two Apartments Constantly." Once I noticed the TV the bit of dialogue I caught was incredible:

RACHAEL GREEN: Chandler, Monica just broke my seashell lamp.
CHANDLER BING: Neat. I'm going to die alone.

I was still thinking about friends the next day when a girl with the lowest center of gravity ever asked if I was going to ride that thing, or just walk with it. She was at a bus stop near the Nepali joint and wearing moccasins. I looked at my bike and said: "walk." She asked if there was something wrong. I told her the bike was just another part of the mirage.

And the tires were flat.

Turns out the video for "Coconut" rules.

Click to download “The Fawn” (From the album The Fawn by The Sea And Cake)

THE SEA AND CAKE'S WEBSITE
THE SEA AND CAKE on MYSPACE