Quick Hits for a Holiday Week

Steady Shock - Girl Talk (mp3)

Bob and I are both somewhat distracted and occupied this week, so I’m just throwing out a collection of quick hits.

Girl Talk On Long Play

Those of you in your mid-30s or older likely have this instant and unavoidable nausea that gurgles inside you when you hear the words “Stars On Long Play.” For younger folks, this was a creation that mashed together about 100 songs -- many of them Beatles’ songs, but some disco faves thrown in -- to a single disco beat, thus allowing the bell-bottomed, feathered-back masses dance dance til the boogie night turned to downer day. (YouTube clip of SOLP for the sadomasochistic)

The strange musician/technician known as Girl Talk (his real name is Gregg, but who cares?) released his latest mishmash of law-breaking music last week. His musical creations are Stars On Long Play on steroids, with more powerful technology at his fingertips.

To be sure, better technology doesn’t always make something better. One need only view the evolution of six Star Wars movies to know this. With Girl Talk, however, the improvement is undeniable and significant. When his second “official” album, Feed the Animals, made #4 on my 2008 best of list, I noted the meaninglessness of the mash as the one detraction. But in all of his music, the meaning is this: only someone who really really loves music, lots of music and lots of genres, could do what he does as well as he does it. The meaning of Girl Talk is the ultimate musical expression of vague and widespread fandom.

Even juicier, Girl Talk mostly gives away his music. It could be because he breaks more copyright laws and is guilty of more DMCA violations in a single song than a music blog could commit in a year. Or it could be because he makes enough money on residual rewards than he does for his central product. He’s somehow managed to avoid the wrath of lawyers and CEOs, so bully for him.

Check out his album for free here. If you want my best breakdown between the two most recent collections, the latest delves much deeper into the ‘80s and ‘70s for its background pop and rock, where Feed is much more heavily focused on the ‘90s and ‘00s.

Discovery of the Year

By April it was clear that 2010 would be the best year in music since the birth of BOTG in 2008. As we close out November, it’s possible this is the best music year of this nascent 21st Century. I’m so blown away by the number of great albums released this year that the idea of compiling a Top Ten list saddens me a little. Can’t make a list like that without leaving off someone who, a month or two later, I regretted overlooking.

But one award is in the bag: Discovery of the Year -- The New Pornographers.

It started with my purchase of their newest album, Together, and continued with eMusic purchases of both their debut 2000 album (Mass Romantic) and 2004’s Twin Cinema. By the end of 2011 I’ll own their whole collection. A new one every three or four months is a good pace.

Oddly, I bought A.C. Newman’s first post-New Pornographers solo work, “The Slow Wonder,” in CD format on sale right after it was released. But that was back before the total demise of Tower Records and test driving CDs in the store before purchase. How I could totally miss the news on a band whose style and attitude is almost perfectly designed to give me giddy musical moments is a mystery, but a good one. Finding bands you didn’t previously know and catching up to others who love them is what makes this hobby so splendid.

Beatles on iTunes

The main home page at iTunes is currently awash in Beatle shit. There’s Beatle shit on my football commercials. There’s Beatle shit on NPR and all over the news.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out why any of this is a big deal.

Nothing here is new. Nothing has been re-re-remastered especially for these versions that somehow allow the listener to actually hear John Lennon speak from the grave during these songs. It’s like marketing coffee as being “Now With CAFFEINE!” Or like Volkswagen, instead of redesigning the VW Bug (or, ahem, Beatle), just re-releasing the same damn car they originated 80 years ago.

I mean no respect to the Beatles. But dudes, it’s really time to step aside and let some other folks play the damn game, mmkay?

As for Apple, they could market iTurds and the damn things would sell.

Girl Talk's Steady Shock is included to either impress or horrify the Bruce Springsteen fans amongst our readers.

Re-Meet The Beatles

The Beatles--"Dr. Robert (original)" (mp3)

The Beatles--"Dr. Robert (remastered)" (mp3)
The Beatles--"Norwegian Wood (remastered)" (mp3)

I have a long history of owning Beatles music. When I was 7, my brother and I got our first Beatles album, either before or after we saw them on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was Meet The Beatles, one of those "American" versions that chopped up and rearranged the British albums. We bought other Beatle albums, especially the earlier ones, but some of the later ones, we never owned. Abbey Road we heard on a cassette tape that my brother borrowed from one of his friends. By the time the red and blue anthology albums came out, we had moved onto other things, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Chambers Brothers and Iron Butterfly, and so avoided that round of Beatle purchases.

Which led me to buy a boxed set of all of the British Beatle albums back in the late 80's, early 90's, because when you're my age, you always return to the Beatles, however often they move in and out of your life. Very, very soon after that purchase, everything turned to CD's. A few years later, I bought the same boxed set, this time on CD. And, as they came out, I added to that Live At The BBC and the CDs that contain outtakes and alternative versions. In short, before 2009, I had bought a lot of Beatles.

Last night, I started buying the Beatle records again.

On CD once again. With rare photos this time. And a mini-documentary on each CD. And supposedly better sound through remastering. I stood in front of that rack at Target, looking at all of the nicely, subtly, attractively-repackaged albums, in eco-friendly cases this time, just as friendly as the original records.

I know there is a boxed set coming, in fact, two boxed sets, depending on whether I want to own the Beatles in stereo or in mono or both. But I was also calculating in my head just doing the whole deed right then and there: for about $180 I could own the latest, "best" version of the Beatles. And I couldn't help feeling like I was getting scammed, having now purchased the exact same songs for, in some cases, the fourth time.

But you know what it was. It was the sound, the chance for better sound, that called to me. The website Tone Audio claims that the remastered Beatles are a "feast for the ears," going on to say that they contain "[n]ear-miraculous improvements in the key areas of information retrieval, hidden details, palpable physicality, expanded midrange, transient presence, and frequency response." And the bass and drums are supposed to be there in ways they haven't been.

So I stood in front of that rack at Target and thought, I can't do them all, not all at once, not only can I not afford to do it, but what if I'm just buying the same thing and the better sound is really not all that much better? So which ones do I buy? Abbey Road for that suite on the second side, which ought to sound amazing, if anything does? The White Album for its stripped-down sound and variety of song styles? Something early with a favorite song on it, like "I've Just Seen A Face" on the Help! soundtrack? Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for all of the obvious reasons?

In the end, I suppose my choices were pretty conventional. I went for Revolver and Rubber Soul, right in the middle of the group's output, right when they're getting control of the current recording techniques and pushing the boundaries of those same techniques. I like those records because they aren't full of hit songs, and so they still sound fresh to me, even after all these years.

Props to George Harrison, because in spite of all of the Lennon/McCartney classics in their catalog, the first song to undergo a serious listening of the remastered sound was George's "Taxman."

Now, you never know whether you hear what you hear or what you've prepped yourself to believe you hear, but I thought from the start that the songs sounded appreciably better. Couple this with the fact that the Beatle albums are recorded pretty damn well to begin with. And remind yourself that you aren't going to hear things that you didn't hear before (necessarily), you're just going to be more aware of them. On "Taxman" it was the bass that caught my attention first. With the possible exception of "Come Together," I don't often think of Beatles songs as having a bottom. On "Here, There, and Everywhere," it was the unadorned Epiphone guitar playing rhythm that stood out. It wasn't louder in the mix, I don't think, but there was just more of it.

Some things can't be fixed. On "Got To Get You Into My Life," there are two drum tracks, and one of them is way too low in the mix. But "Doctor Robert" came alive in a way it never has before, with more crunch and punch to John's rhythm guitar and more separation between it and George's 12-string parts. And that's the key to most of the songs--more separation. It may be because I've been listening with such focus, but I am simply more conscious of the construction of the songs, who's doing what. I like that. It makes the songs, in a way, feel new to me.

When I want to test out the quality of a recording, however, it is acoustic, rather than electric, music that I seek. "Norwegian Wood," off of Rubber Soul, is simply gorgeous. It sounds like it could have been recorded this year.

The songs posted above are here so that you can test some of this for yourself, though I don't know that computer speakers are the best way to make a judgment. On my ones at home, the two versions of "Doctor Robert" sound almost identical, but those speakers do not have the depth or range of the Bose system I used to compare the CDs in my living room. MP3 files undoubtedly diminish some of the sound quality, as well. So, worth it? Your call. I do think the remastered versions have better range and separation, and I know they are louder. That means they fit into the mix of the other music I listen to better.

All of the remastered Beatles CD's are available at Target for $11.98, or $16.98 for the double cds. If you buy two, you get a $5 gift card.