June 02, 2009 Earworm

After leaving "Yellow House", The Beach Boys and Steely Dan jumped aboard Jefferson Airplane for a very special trip with a stop-over at Graceland; Paul Simon's, not Elvis Presley's. This is just one way to describe Grizzly Bear's latest album, "Veckatimest", but you'll have to throw in more reverb and some obligatory Spectorisms to get to "Cheerleader" which, for today at least, is my favorite track.

I'll go ahead and call the whole thing enchanting and intriguing because it is and because don't want to harsh anyone's mellow. What concerns me is this feeling I've had lately that our indie spiritual guides are drifting a bit too close to the edge of Yes and the other prog rock dinosaurs we once despised for their over elaborated concepts. With "Veckatimest", it's clear that the grasp of this issue for some of our most recently celebrated bands is fragile.

June 11, 2008 Eaworm

Conversing about the subtext of sixties pop songs with the Siniawsky's - as one does on a Friday evening - has me bending an ear in an attempt to see what I may have been missing. "Johnny Get Angry" was finally asked "Johnny Are You Queer" but I already knew the answer to that and I'm pretty sure I know the real story of "Jimmy Kiss and Run". And it's good to know that I'm not the only one who has suspected a down low theme to "I Think We're Alone Now".

The Crystal's "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)" has been discussed in detail for it's underlying theme of masochism but I've always thought the real story there was about insecurity, no matter how aware Spector was of the innuendo. Grizzly Bear's cover on their "Friend EP", however, throws any ambiguity aside like an empty condom wrapper with just one brief pause between "it felt like a" and "kiss"; just long enough to make it clear that he treasures the memory and the gratification that the moment provided.

It may not be my thing but it still sounds sexy as hell and not one bit gratuitous which is more than can be said for previous covers by Hole and The Motels. Go ahead, try it.