Last Plane to Jakarta http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/ en Copyright 2008 Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:41:55 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss A Public Service Announcement Peste Noire is touring in North America. They're not coming to the U.S., which is a pity on the one hand 'cause I'd like to see them - I can't make it up to the Toronto show since I'm playing a solo set at home that night, but I would otherwise go even if it meant I had to eat ramen for a month. Peste Noire are one of the best metal bands around right now. On the other hand, though, once I put my own personal wants aside, it's kind of not a pity that Peste Noire aren't coming to the U.S. It's more of a triumph. Look at those tour dates: if you're from the U.S., chances are high that you've only ever heard of five of the thirteen cities Peste Noire will be playing. That's kind of awesome. Most bands, for fairly obvious business reasons, run tour routes that are predictable and practical. Nobody who pays rent can fault any working band for doing exactly that. But I assume that most musicians, like myself, dream of a world in which it would be possible to launch ridiculous & memorable tours whose routings would be fanciful and creative but whose ledger sheets at the end wouldn't lead to profuse apologies to one's family or threatening notes from one's creditors. When I lived in Iowa, I used to joke about doing a full tour of the 99 counties; I wish I'd actually done it. Don't get me wrong: I'm certain that about 95 of the shows on such a tour would have turned out to be hard lessons in learning humility. But a tour like that would have been something to marvel at later. (Having no illusions about the cross-pollination between readers of this site & my other concern, let me say here that I have been giving long and hard thought to the question of what makes a show or a tour special ever since Zoop! last year, and that one possible answer to that question will be announced on Tuesday morning.) I view this Peste Noire tour as something special. You don't have to make your living in the music business to look at those dates, bracketed as they are by a quote from Leviticus and titled as they are with imaginary or posited stages of the plague, and feel like art's been put way the hell ahead of commerce in planning it out. I could be wrong; maybe Chicoutimi is a huge-money gig & I've just never heard about it. But my suspicion is that a black metal band from France has just arranged for an extended holiday in Canada and decided to do something really cool while they were at it. Hails from LPTJ to Peste Noire for setting such a good example, and curses on the heads of any Canadian readers who don't show up in howling, drunken, infernal droves. ]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/a_public_service_announcement.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/a_public_service_announcement.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:41:55 -0500 Like the Birth of a Comet the new Wetnurse since Thursday morning. Still picking out which superlatives I want to garland it with, but for now let me just put you on alert: this is the best metal album of the year so far. Period. The other metal albums on my running year-end list, if you're curious, are by Origin, Morbosidad, Prostitute Disfigurement, Septic Flesh, and Jucifer. Wetnurse isn't at all like any of those - their sound has its vocal roots in 'core, but the guitar work, and the percussion, remind me a little of all-time-greats Coroner, if I can say that without being struck by lightning. In my opinion it has not been a banner year for metal - I've heard a lot of stuff I liked, but very little that inspired me. There's plenty of decent headbanging to be had, but not much that's really made me want to bang my head. The "experimental black metal" stuff making the rounds is pleasant but boring; give me Peste Noire or give me death, please. (I think Ares Kingdom is due to start working on a new record soon, though, so all's not lost.) But Invisible City, now: this is a huge bright flash of inspiration and a huge growth spurt from a band that was once pretty decent and is, as of their new album, great. ]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/like_the_birth_of_a_comet.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/like_the_birth_of_a_comet.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:57:03 -0500 Heads Up here. ]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/heads_up_2.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/heads_up_2.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:10:31 -0500 Innocent Question Metal Sucks, Blake Judd, the main dude from the pretty excellent band Nachtmystium, responds to a question thus:
Q: Assassins is a pretty big departure from your previous work and I would think will divide your existing fans who claim it isn’t “br00tal” or “tr00” enough. Does this concern you?

A: No. I don’t make music for other people.
To this I feel I must say: oh, really? Nonsense. If you are making music only for yourself, you don't release it. While it's true that an artist does not owe his fans the music they want, he does, in fact, owe them quite a great deal, and he lies if he says he isn't making music for them. Because it's the listeners to whom an artist owes the right to self-identify as an artist. They gave you that job. It is for them that you make music, not yourself; only artists of whom no-one has ever heard have any right to claim that they "don't make music for other people." The rest of us must always be true to our visions, don't get me wrong. If we waste our inspiration trying to chase down past glories to satisfy people who don't think we should grow or change, we're traitors of the worst kind. But don't kid yourself. You do owe the audience something, and you do make music for them, and if you don't think of it that way, perhaps you should.]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/innocent_question.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/innocent_question.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:54:13 -0500 Slept-On still listening to sadat x black october album he made before going to jail on a gun charge which will probably cost him his teaching credential which is a god damned shame since I don't doubt that he was an excellent teacher you might say "what was he doing carrying a gun" to which I would respond "shut the fuck up" I mean I'm not into guns either but walk a mile in a man's shoes you know anyway in 2006 knowing he's about to spend the better part of a year locked up he goes into the studio and makes this album on which there is not a single track that I don't love most of the beats are loping mellow window-blasters old school I guess but brand nubian always had their own thing texture like fading film and sadat x has his own thing too a kind of latin jazz bounce and a flow that's very tight without feeling too tight it is an absolutely beautiful album which I thought I would mention to you while waiting at the kitchen table for my rice to finish cooking http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/slepton.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/07/slepton.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:55:04 -0500 A Personal Message to Labels Everywhere Stop opening your one-sheets by announcing that the state of music is pretty dour but the artist whose music you yourself are putting out has somehow risen above the intolerable state of things. OK? Can you do that one thing for me, please, if not for the sake of your artists, whose promos get tossed aside by writers like, oh, me, the second we see a line about how we live in an era where music isn't really so good, but fortunately for us, some band has come along to rescue us all? Can you please just instead describe the artist you're promoting, either in plain terms or in fancy terms, directly or ellipitically, in whatever style you like, without resorting to nonsense past-was-better-than-the-present the-present-is-so-awful aren't-we-smart-to-have-noticed stuff? In possibly-related-but-I'll-deny-it-in-court news, this album, which has been sitting by my fireplace for months I'm pretty sure, is excellent.]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/06/a_personal_message_to_labels_e.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/06/a_personal_message_to_labels_e.html Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:45:59 -0500 By the Way this. The NWN edition is one of the most beautiful vinyl packages I have ever seen, and the music itself is singular. If you are at all interested in heavy metal, you should own not only this album, but this edition of it, because it is definitive. ]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/06/by_the_way_1.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/06/by_the_way_1.html Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:05:14 -0500 Let's Twist Again INTERLOCUTOR: Holy balls, what stinks in here? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: I mean that is just an incredible smell, I think I'm going to fall over. LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: You're really kind of into it though, I can tell. How's your health? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: Your gum smells like sweet honeydew and cola. What flavor is it? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: Shut your mouth! What has inspired this rad dreamlike two-strings-in-harmony guitar solo in the song "The Sadist King and the Generalissimo of Pain"? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: My grandmother has asked for an excellent new death metal album for her birthday. I tried to explain to her that my friends and I only really like black metal, because it's totally funny but also sometimes it reminds me of My Bloody Valentine, who are just so awesome. She hit me when I said that! With a hammer, in my face! What should I buy my grandmother to prevent her from harming my wine-tasting black metal ass any further? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: You know, I have way more extreme stuff that this in my collection. I don't see what the big deal is. When, after making comments like this, the police find me in a ditch somewhere, dressed in a Jessica Rabbit costume which was visibly forced onto my body while I was unconscious, what will they conclude was the cause of my humiliation? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: The last minute and a half of the song "Killing for Company" remind me of what summer vacation might have been like if the whole family had just really let their baser natures get the better of them. Primal id stuff in a blue Chevy 4-door. Can you dig it? And if you can, would you kindly express your agreement in the form of a two-word band name beginning with "Prostitute" and ending with "Disfigurement"? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR:In the song "Sworn to Degeneracy," the singer from what band appears at one point to be saying "sue my desperate lawyers"? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: What? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: Who? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: Where? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: When, if time were senseless violence? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: Please, allow me to represent a caricature of a common critical stance for a moment. I don't like this music! It's not experimental enough! It isn't pushing the envelope! It isn't taking metal to new places! It's just making a big fucking bloody mess! What band is this? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: May I continue? It gives me pleasure. For me, metal is best when it's a little cerebral. Some of these bands just seem like the exact same kind of guys who just rear up and clock you if you look at them wrong at the Pig Destroyer show. I hate those guys! Still, I dream about them sometimes. In my dream, what is the name of the coffee shop at whose marble tables we settle our differences over a relaxing game of Othello? LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA: PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT INTERLOCUTOR: You have seen into the hidden mists of my unconscious! Got any music recommendations for me? ]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/05/lets_twist_again.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/05/lets_twist_again.html Sun, 25 May 2008 15:14:13 -0500 Hot Spots better. Which is exactly what "I'm Going Up" is - a gorgeously syncopated bounce with a mixed-back horn section, a restrained slightly fuzzy electric guitar dipping in and ducking out, and a letter-perfect Warwick vocal that simply must be heard by people who love her style. Second run through the chorus, the way she pulls away from the tail-end of the phrase "in this world I've found"? That's classic Dionne. Her joining BeBe in harmony at the end of his verse? Best duet work I think I've ever heard her do; I have one whole hell of a lot of Dionne Warwick albums, but I've never thought of duet harmony as a particular strength, and I think the corpus generally supports that opinion. Even her ad-libs - another not-the-strong-suit area - are fantastic here. What happened in the the studio on this track? Was anybody filming it? And can we have, please, lots more?]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/05/hot_spots.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/05/hot_spots.html Thu, 08 May 2008 23:00:37 -0500 You Need to Get Right Model 500 was supposed to jump off way prior to this, but the problem was all our equipment that we had in the studio that we practiced with, this is what they gotta rent on the other side for you to play with. We couldn't afford to pull the shit out of our studio. Fuck that. If your shit gets tore up, you're hit, you're out of business. We needed like doubles of whatever we had in our studio, and Korg came through after many other companies were asked. Roland was one of them. Yamaha was another. The only ones that came through was Korg and Akai. For people to have programs on their machines that say 'Detroit Techno' in the fucking machine and then for the guy to approach and say 'Can I get sponsored for a little bit of gear?' and they are like 'We don't know who you are', that really set us back. Okay, maybe we didn't approach the right way with the official air about us, but I just think that Korg and Akai deserve a tip of the hat for coming through. The concert wouldn't be possible without the gear contribution. We can't afford to buy doubles of shit." You need to get right, Roland and Yamaha. You need to get right. Juan Atkins is in this band. Without guys like Juan Atkins figuring out how to work your machines and making great sounds with them, they'd be useless crates. You don't actually think people made tracks like this just by reading your impenetrable manuals, right? If Lucien Freud was using a Sharpie, you can bet money those dudes'd have couriers running pens to his door morning, noon, and night. Do I deserve free gear from you? Hell no. I can just barely work an egg timer. Does every bedroom musician who wants free gear deserve a handout? No. Ain't sayin' that. Does Juan Atkins? Yes he fucking does. You need to get right.]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/05/you_need_to_get_right.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/05/you_need_to_get_right.html Thu, 01 May 2008 15:08:25 -0500 Candidate of Hope Philip Sherberne's excellent analysis of Jamie Liddell's Jim - Sherberne has stuff to say about Liddell's growth as an artist, but I didn't get to know Liddell until December of '06, when I saw him play a set in Tasmania, of all places: I was completely knocked over by his visible, audible, palpable love for his music & the making of it & the communal experience made possible by it. My inconsequential two cents' worth, for what they're worth: one thing pop music is good for is remembering that somewhere inside us is the potential for unvanquishable joy: clearing a space for that remembering, broadening that space. Jamie Liddell's present project seems to be focused on illuminating that joy-containing space, hanging signs that point toward it. Consequently, the album-opener, "Another Day," is absolutely the most perfect song for putting on first thing in the morning that I have heard in ages: that piano! that melody! (I should probably confess that "Mouth Breather" by the Jesus Lizard also strikes me as a fabulous wake-up number, but don't let that give you the wrong idea.) The rest of the album is as good. It went directly to the year's-best list. Nobody who wants or needs the affirmation of goodness that great pop music can sometimes give should put off hearing this record for long.]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/candidate_of_hope.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/candidate_of_hope.html Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:00:48 -0500 In Re: The Good Stuff Blogging at Powell's all week about albums that might also have inspired an imagined narrator to go buck wild like the guy in my book, to which I here very craftily link just like a pro'd-out blogger and stuff.]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/in_re_the_good_stuff.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/in_re_the_good_stuff.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:01:25 -0500 When I First Met You, I Didn't Realize my book is available today. I'm only linking to Amazon incidentally - I'm sure they'll have it at Powell's, too, and in plenty of other places. If you enjoy Last Plane to Jakarta, especially the old longer-form entries that were sometimes as much fiction as criticism, then I think you will enjoy this book.]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/when_i_first_met_you_i_didnt_r.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/when_i_first_met_you_i_didnt_r.html Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:08:43 -0500 Seriously Though this album off and on since a few months before it came out, and I listened again today, and I'm now pretty certain that it is a perfect album. You don't hear a lot of perfect albums, and they don't always come with a big sign on them saying "oh hi I am pretty much perfect." Perfect is a funny word, and I'd usually expect somebody using it about a record to reserve it for something big and grandiose and statement-making like OK Computer or Hounds of Love. That is not what The Szabo Songbook is really about. The Szabo Songbook is just eleven beautifully realized songs. There is not a dud in the bunch. I have nothing else, really, to say about it, other than that, while listening to it today, for what must be the twentieth time in the past few months, I realized that I don't think it has any flaws. You don't get to say that very often, so I thought I'd let you know.]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/seriously_though.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/seriously_though.html Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:38:36 -0500 Hip Hop Is Universal whole story there'd be no point in setting them to music. Gotta give big ups to the punx on this front though, who in the early eighties made a real point of embracing the worldwide reach of their subculture. All this is by way of urging any hip hopmusic fans in or near Austin or Houston to read this right now, and follow the links Matt's grouped for you - be sure to close the text comments on the YouTube video, though, unless you relish the real intellectual depth, ahem, of anonymous online political commentary. The songs on their Myspace are considerably better than the YouTube one in any case. And then GO TO THE SHOW, if it's at all possible, because it won't be every day you'll have the chance to see a crew from Palestine, and it'll be just as rare to hear melodies and scales like the ones DAM favors used this adeptly and cleverly. (Try "Ya Sayidati" is you're pressed for time - it's a solid, loping tune that gets under my skin.) I think it's a tremendous thing Matt Sonzala's doing in bringing these guys down south. Show up and show love if you can.]]> http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/hip_hop_is_universal.html http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/hip_hop_is_universal.html Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:46:30 -0500