Falling Out of Love with Bands

Seriously, what is the deal with that hat? 

There's something tragic about not caring. I was thinking about this recently while listening to the radio in the car. John Mayer's new song "Queen of California"came on and I couldn't help but think about how weird it was that I'd made no plans to buy the album, or even worse, how that though really didn't bother me.

A mere few years ago, I would have snapped up Born and Raised. Mayer was even the subject of one of my earliest blog posts here when I made my peace with his teen idol status because he could play guitar so well. I almost want to be sad about it, but I'm not.

What makes you fall out of love with a band or artist? Do you grow out of them like you do shoes? Or is it just like that friend you used to find hilarious and now you find annoying? God knows John Mayer is annoying. But up until that piece of ridiculousness Battle Studies, I could make exception.

In other cases, I think you move out of phases of your life where the music makes sense for you. It's damn near impossible to get that back, but at the same time, you find something else. In other cases, I think you have a break with the artist. Example: I was all about "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks in the wake of their Bush-comment-fiasco, but when the entire rest of the album turned out to be laments and references to betrayal, strife, and bad treatment, I just couldn't do it.

Anyway, here's my list of the top 5 bands I've fallen out of love with and tracks that really did us in (mostly):

01. John Mayer : "Assassin" : A thinly veiled metaphor. I'm still convinced this album was a joke.



02. Coldplay : "Princess of China ft. Rhianna" : As if including the lyrics "hurts like heaven" on the album was not enough of an insult. Rhianna. Really.



03. Death Cab or Cutie : "Some Boys" : What can I say? How many people are still with their high school sweethearts?



04. Dixie Chicks : "Bitter End" : Indeed.



05. Maroon 5 : "Misery" : I don't hate the song. I just got sick of Adam Levine.

John Mayer at the Sommet Center

Last Wednesday I had the good fortune of getting press tickets to cover John Mayer at the Sommet Center in Nashville, TN for the Belmont Vision. I'd never seen John Mayer so I thought it would be really interesting to see him and his crazy guitar skills in person.

There was a twist though-- the concert was the same day the 'shit hit the fan,' as they say, regarding his Playboy Magazine interview.

Do I think his statements were horrendous? Yeah. At the same I reserve judgment about whether his "tears" that night were real or not. I really just want to talk about some of the things I didn't include in my write up.

For one, Michael Franti and Spearhead opened and they were terrific. I've been anxious to hear "Say Hey" live since I found it over a year ago. The energy was great. Franti bounced around the audience, letting people crowd around him. I thought that was neat because artists who play the Sommet are typically "too big" to allow that close contact with fans. Also, he brought up kids on the stage at the end and it was pretty cute. The entire set was wonderfully positive and upbeat in an non obnoxious or cheap way-- it was like a Jack Johnson album! That sort of vibe but a little less fluffy.

Mayer picked a good set list. I never officially reviewed Battle Studies, but I wasn't a fan. In fact, before getting my tickets, I'd listened to it under 3 times mostly because of my disappointment. The logical assumption was that he was going to go bluesier after Continuum, not backtrack into pop. He's done well with pop, but I thought that was over. I wanted to hear really killer guitar playing, but Battle Studies did not showcase his abilities to the degree it could have, or half as well as Continuum. Basically, more of the album should have sounded like "Crossroads," the Robert Johnson cover.

Take a song like "Assassins." He's not really talking about murder when he says "you get in, you get done and you get gone." Obviously, I mean-- wow. The metaphor is so contrived and so thin it's painful. Plus, the song just sounds like it was made in the '80s. I'd classify this as mostly a bad thing.

Regardless, Mayer quickly jumped into his older songs, hitting all the big ones and mercifully leaving out "Daughters."

"Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" was killer. It went a long way to redeem him in my eyes after my near total disillusionment.

Anyway, this is my review of Mayer's concert.

Peace

The Musically Inclined's Top Albums of the Decade

Several weeks ago, every music publication and their mother('s publication?) started putting out "best of the decade" lists. Of course, until that moment I hadn't actually thought about the fact that the decade was ending until Bob Boilen was waxing nostalgic about OutKast or whatever.

That said, if everybody's doing it (always solid justification to do anything), TMI would be remiss not to throw together a completely subjective list of albums from this first decade of the millennium, in the effort to celebrate (and to impress the reader-- more solid justification) the finer points of the past ten years.

Criteria: Must own album.

Note: I got 99 albums and Jay-Z ain't on one. Or Bon Iver. Or any White Stripes before 2006. Never bought the Arctic Monkeys album. Refused to buy anything by Arcade Fire. No, Wilco is not on this list either.

So here, not truly grounded in anything but my mood this afternoon, are The Musically Inclined's Top Albums of the Decade.

Send your eye-rolling grievances to
themusicallyinclined@gmail.com.

Much love,

Erin

Greetings from Michigan : Sufjan Stevens : 2003

Everyone always raves about Come on Feel the Illinoise, but Greetings from Michigan was the album TMI was interested in. It was partly due to my undying love for states that look like articles of clothing, but mostly it was because when I heard it, I knew Stevens hit Michigan on the head. Things have been rough up there, but there's a lot of natural beauty when you get past the economically depressed cities. Stevens managed to balance some of the grim realities of Michigan, with a sound that matched icicles on tree branches and the gorgeousness that is the Upper Peninsula. Plus, TMI first heard "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" on The O.C. in the Spring of '06. It felt significant.

Tranatlanticism : Death Cab for Cutie : 2003

Still the best Death Cab for Cutie album to date. More refined than their way early sound on Something About Airplanes, yet these were the edgier days before computers took over on Plans. Transatlanticism is Death Cab for Cutie at its best. Of course, this is not to say that TMI wasn't crazy about Plans... in fact, TMI would probably buy a box set of the band tuning their guitars, but really. Just about every song on Transatlanticism is a winner - "The Sound of Settling," "Expo '86," "Title and Registration," "Passenger Seat"-- this is the place to start if you haven't already.

Home : Dixie Chicks : 2003

Random country album? Maybe. Back in the day before The Dixie Chicks wrote mildly bitter songs about being wronged, they decided to go acoustic on their (in their current line up) third album, Home. It was ridiculously good-- a reprieve form that glitzy glossy commercial crap that passes for country these days. It was a little bit rootsy, a little bit folksy, but mostly just really solid. From "Long Time Gone," to the cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide," to "Lil' Jack Slade," to the super powerful "Top of the World," The Dixie Chicks laid down the direction that country music should have gone in-- "More Love," less Miley.

American Idiot : Green Day : 2004

It was like those angsty kids in middle school grew up a (little) bit and made a somewhat serious statement. Who knew? Between "Give Me Novacaine," "Tales of a Broken Home," and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," we started to get a grim picture of a generation raised by the media and popular culture. Or you could just sing along and pretend like you're angry. That's fun too.

Continuum : John Mayer : 2006

Room for Squares was an album for lusty teenage girls. Heavier Things spoke of potential. Continuum was the product of not a teen heart throb or one more drippy, sensitive singer, but of a highly talented guitarist and lyricist. Continuum was bluesy and soulful in a manner we didn't think Mayer was capable of, and it put him on track for "guitar great" status. Continuum is so rich, I only like to listen to it on occasion-- don't want to take it for granted. I also treat mangoes that way, but that's a separate issue.

In Rainbows : Radiohead : 2007

Maybe it's that I'd never listened to Radiohead seriously before. Maybe it's their avant garde marketing strategy. Maybe it's the way "15 Steps" is some strange breed of entrancing and infectious. "Videotape," "House of Cards"-- being classified as "un-radio friendly" never sounded so appealing.

Wincing the Night Away : The Shins : 2007

I bought this album after hearing the Garden State soundtrack for the first time a few years back (and who didn't?!). "Australia" is my most-played song on iTunes-- which is funny because I can never remember specific times when I've listened to this album. It's like an unconscious instinct pulls me back to Wincing the Night Away and I gladly follow. Cryptic, catchy, lightly sprinkled with 60's Brit pop, TMI eagerly awaits whatever James Mercer (and whomever he's wrangled for the line up) releases next.

Boxer : The National : 2007

Describing The National as "orchestral pop" does not do the band justice. Sophisticated sounds back the uncertainty of drifting into an oblivion of adulthood. Beautiful, often poignant imagery almost makes you want to be 30, if only for the drama and doomed romance of blue blazers, swanky apartment parties, and friends you can barely recognize anymore. Also, there seems to be a critical consensus that front man Matt Berninger's voice sounds like a variety of liquors. How could they go wrong?

Which albums made your list?

John Mayer Goes Pop. Again.

A few days late, but regardless, John Mayer announced that his next album is just about ready for release.

The last issue of Rolling Stone had a brief write-up describing Mayer's new effort. This time he's spinning himself back into the pop realm with Battle Studies, an 11 track disc that will be released on November 11th.

Mayer is pretty solid-- even Room for Squares is surprisingly good despite the teen ridiculousness of "Your Body is a Wonderland." So hearing he's shifting gears is a bit disappointing. Personally, I was really pleased with the direction he took on Continuum. It was like he managed to scrape off the bubble gum and turn himself into a legitimate musician who as more to offer than moody, breathy singing.

TMI won't count him out until the album has been played to satisfaction, but let's hope that he elevates the standards of pop rather than regresses to 2000. We've been there. let's not go back.

The first single, "Who Says" was released just a few days ago on the 24th. Look for a review soon.

John Mayer TV Show? Please Don't. Part Deux

I found that infamous one episode on Youtube. Enjoy, friends.



Don't forget about Fleet Foxes on SNL tonight!

John Mayer TV Show? Please Don't.

Once again NME serves up the news of the day. John Mayer is set to shoot a pilot for CBS. What kind of show would Mr. Mayer have, you ask with one eyebrow arched suspiciously? A variety show. You know, the kind that died a couple decades ago. The kind that hasn't been successful since Carol Burnett left the airwaves. The kind that just bombed recently under the care of Rosie O'Donnell. What a fantastic idea.

This could either turn into a full series or several specials. No word on that yet. It gets better. Mayer's dabbled in TV before with the one-episode wonder, John Mayer Has a TV Show.

No, this doesn't seem doomed at all.

TMI's got a lot of respect for Mayer as a musician, but this feels like that infamous ego of his rearing its ugly head. He should cage fight Kanye. That would be awesome.

Blog Action Day: Light Green

Let me go ahead and state the obvious. It's blog action day. If you're not familiar with this event, the whole point is to get a bunch of blogs to write about the same topic-- it's a little forced awareness, I guess. Normally, I think I'd stay away from all this blog brotherhood-ing but the topic this year is the environment. In all good conscience, I can't ignore this call to action via my Blogger Dashboard.

I read an article some months ago which contained John Mayer's approach to environmentalism. He calls it "Light Green," somewhere between freak out and denial. Mayer admits to driving a Porsche SUV and continuing use of privet charter flights while touring, but mostly his stance is-- here's life and here's what I can do without disrupting things too badly. It's an interesting perspective and I think that if we ramp it up a bit, it's more practical and easier to pitch, especially to people who worry "going green" is subscribing to a life of scooter riding, budget breaking, and a loss to those damn hippies.

I can't afford to switch to solar power right now, or install some fancy heating and cooling system, but as trivial as it sounds-- I can unplug my cellphone charger. There's no great sacrifice there but I'm a big believer in every little bit counts. I can't think of a single person who doesn't have a cell phone.
If everyone unplugged that charger...and maybe a few other electronic devices...don't tell me that wouldn't help. I say leave the multimillion dollar overhauls to the multimillion dollar corporations who need to clean up anyway and can afford it. That's what 's really going to take a big quick bite out of this problem.

To an extent, I'm with Mayer (just a bit more intense). Pick something(s)-- do it. Do what you can and what you're willing to do. Fear accomplishes nothing but an unevenly distributed amount of attention to a problem which needs prolonged concern.

The Musically Inclined...
~unplugs charger ~walks instead of drives
~unplugs laptop ~recycles plastic bags
~unplugs desk lamp
...refuses to believe we are powerless.

The Evolution of John Mayer

This past Friday I had the pleasure of being alerted to the fact that John Mayer was going to be performing on Good Morning America. Usually I brush off these kinds of segments purely because I'm not completely sure that three songs is worth dragging myself out of bed when I actually have the chance to sleep in. This time was different I suppose given that John Mayer is one of the few acts from whom I'll take those three songs and any other notes that emanate form his guitar. Sitting on my couch, fighting off the blurriness of my eyes, I watched him on stage with the mighty Eric Clapton and couldn't help but think "the boy's come a long way." Several years ago I first spotted him in some glossy, pink magazine crooning into...wait, that's not right, sucking on the microphone in between lyrics that sounded more like grunts than than words. I dismissed him as one more reason why music at the time blew big time. Girls bought his CD because they thought he was kind of brooding, the classic tall, dark, and handsome and boys just wished he wasn't there. There were hardly ever any comments on his music itself beyond what and a dreamy song "Your Body is a Wonderland" was. I made a point to stay far away. Not long after the release of his second CD, "Heavier Things," I came into possession of a copy. Completely unintentional; I really didn't know what to do with the thing, so I decided I'd listen to it just to see how bad it was. Well, I was wrong. Really, really, really, wrong. His lyrics were thoughtful and meaningful, not just the garbage cranked out to fill the space between the bars of music on a page. And the music itself...impressive. It was smooth and crafted, bolstered with feeling in every note. Clearly this guy had talent. I couldn't wait to hear what he had next. It took a while, longer than I would have liked, being the impatient person I am but still trying to understand the process. The result, in my opinion is truly one of the finest albums recorded in several decades. Lyrically and musically solid; he went away for a couple years and made himself into a guitarist who can hold his own on stage with the likes on Eric Clapton. Just watching the two made me want to get off my ass and pick up my own guitar. He's "not the man [he] used to be lately," and I'm quite pleased. He no longer eats the mike and he drips with credibility. If I had to hinge bets on one artist who was going to be around in twenty or thirty years...I think I'd win.