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grimelords · 5 years

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The hits just don’t stop coming!

My May playlist is finished and it’s only almost one month late! Everything you want and nothing you don’t from Nicki Minaj, the band that did the OC theme song and Italian Adele. What more could you ask for!

Listen here!

Curious - Amerie: Amerie, who sang the world's greatest song 1 Thing and unfortunately never had any other good songs, surprise released a 22 minute album called 4AM Mulholland and a companion EP that was 20 minutes long called After 4AM last year. I don't know why she didn't just release one normal length album but anyway, because she's Amerie people weren't exactly eagerly awaiting a surprise release album from her so it came and went pretty quickly. This song though is really very good and sets a really nice midnight smoky tone that the whole rest of the album/EP unfortunately fails to really live up to. I also found out in my research that Amerie is also apparently a semi-influential book vlogger 'BookTuber' and last year edited a book of YA short stories where other BookTubers 'reimagined fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains' points of view. She's got heaps going on.

Vipers Follow You - Amon Tobin: Amon Tobin has lost his damn mind yet again. His last album was 8 years ago and it sounded like a hardware test for a new kind of million dollar sound system. Every single type of sound and frequency was crammed into it and it felt like a sound sculture that could physically attack you rather than an album that you listened to for fun. Now his new album sounds like the direct opposite. There's no drums on it at all and it's all stripped back thick and smooth acoustic-modelled textures and it's very nice. This song is a good example of the album feel overall: not exactly ambient or laid-back, but definite night music from a guy who has gone all the way from chillout trip-hop to walls of hydraulic noise over his career and it's always such a thrill to hear people pushing forward in their sound 9 albums in.

Do The Panic - Phantom Planet: Phantom Planet who famously did the theme song for The OC have reformed and released their first new song in ten years. This isn't that song but there was a bunch of people in the comments on the Stereogum article about it saying they were and underrated band and their 2008 album Raise The Dead has bangers and guess what: they were right!

Roman Holiday - Nicki Minaj: Roman Holiday reentered the billboard charts last month because it became relevant again via people putting it in memes where they would play a sped up version of the song over sped up videos of.. anything really. It's not a very good meme but I thank god for it because otherwise I would never have learned that it's a very good song. I also think there's a very interesting lesson to be learned here about Nicki Minaj because she premiered this song at the 2012 Grammys before Roman Reloaded came out with an elaborate Exorcist routine and everyone hated this extremely weird song and extremely weird performance so it was scrapped as the first single and they put out Starships instead. Nicki Minaj seem to me like an artist that has always struggled to ride the line between pop marketability and doing their own unique thing in much the same way as Eminem, and just like Eminem she's eventually settled in to a very safe and marketable version of herself. Roman Holiday is a glimpse of the Nicki That Could Have been that just starts singing Come All Ye Faithful in the middle of a song and does the chorus in an extremely dodgy British accent. There's a good bit on the wiki for this song that quotes Jessica Hooper's Spin review that says "the pop tracks are a paying of the piper and the too-perfect, Dr. Luke-produced songs are her penance for sneaking deranged yodeling ode 'Roman Holiday' in there." More deranged yodelling odes please Nicki!

Cousins - Vampire Weekend: I've never gotten into Vampire Weekend for an unknown reason. I like every song I've heard of theirs I've just never properly sat down and listened to an album and appreciated it until Father Of The Bride this year. I have however always loved Cousins. It’s got a completely deranged riff, the drums sound like their going to catch fire and it ends with chiming bells. It’s completely off the rails and I think the video is one of my favourites ever for just simply matching the tone of the song and the performance.

Lost Your Number - Nu Shooz: On the episode of R U Talkin' R.E.M Re: Me? with Ezra Koenig they were talking about grunge and the early 90s and how music that had 'authenticity' suddently became so popular. Scott's reasoning was that by the late 80s pop music had become so incredibly vaccuous and bad that people were yearning for anything with meaning. He said 'pop was so bad, stuff like Nu Shooz' and I immediately remembered how fucking good Nu Shooz are and paused the podcast to listen to them instead. This is an absolutely great song because the lyrics never rise above linear storytelling. 'I lost your number' is not a metaphor for lost contact or leaving someone or anything like that. This whole song is about trying to call someone but you've lost the piece of paper that you wrote their phone number on. She even describes the paper like maybe you the listener have seen it around somewhere, I absolutey love it.

Paper Trail$ - Joey Bada$$: Joey Bada$$ is a goon but he has good songs sometimes. If he wasn't a famous rapper he would be working full time in reddit arguments where people rank members of the Wu-Tang Clan. He's one of these 'real hip hop' 'lyrical miracle' guys and he even goes so far as to rework C.R.E.A.M in this song to say cash RUINS everything around me :O but this beat is nice as hell and I woke up with the bit where says 'shit is really real out here' repeating in my head.

Julien - Carly Rae Jepsen: I'm really loving this new Carly Rae album. It's not as heavy on hits as Emotion obviously but it's more even overall and has a lot more to dig into I think. I just keep listening to it. This song especially is so nice because it's a great example of how you only need two chords to get something extremely funky going.

Rock Non Stop - Cassius: Cassius finally have another great song! The nearly two minute choral intro is such genius because of how suddenly and forcefully it drops you into the middle of the most boneheaded dance song I've heard in a long time. Two different silly voices going back and forth with each other saying 'rock non stop' and 'gimme the good time', who could ask for anything more?

Just as I was about to publish this I saw the news that Phillipe Zdar died which is so sad! Just as they started releasing fantastic new music! So now this song is tinged with that sort of sadness which is unfair because it’s such a fun and silly piece of music, it doesn’t deserve to hold that kind of weight.

DOLO 5 - Dolo Percussion: This Dolo Percussion album absolutely astounded me. No melody! Just drums! For an hour and a half! It's a complete world of its own and you can get totally lost in the depths of it. Every song has a completely unique palette and it never ever feels boring like percussion focused music sometimes can, it's constantly evolving in every track and never settles into anything for too long. Things just come and go so naturally it feels like actually trying to figure out the structure of these songs would be impossible. There's a few moments where there's a hint of a bassline or melody in a some of the later songs and it completely shakes you up, like seeing sunlight again after years of absolutely thriving in the dark.

Song About An Angel - Sunny Day Real Estate: The way he sings 'running behind' in this is maybe one of my favourite pieces of vocal performance ever. He just shouted himself apart. Also the Genius description of this song is one of the best emo sentences I’ve ever seen: "The song is believed to be a conversation between a guy and an angel (possibly a girl)."

This Life - Vampire Weekend: The R U Talkin' R.E.M. Re: Me? episode with Ezra really put this album into a lot more context for me, because he's talking about being influenced by The Grateful Dead - not musically exactly but in the mindset and the idea of being in a guitar band and making guitar music in 2019 which is an interesting thing to think about. Anyway this has such a Dead feel to it and I'm really interested to see what they do live because as I've heard they're really mixing up their reputation of being a band that sounds exactly like the album and really going for it instead and doing absolutely anything which is a lot more fun.

The Past Is A Grotesque Animal - of Montreal: I've been getting heavily into Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer? this month and it's just so incredible. This song especially as the centrepiece of this whole album is amazing. The mindset is so intriguing to me: absolutely going though it in the worst way possible, getting divorced and everything like that but also somehow managing to keep it twee. The sorts of things that influenced this album would turn any normal person to heavier or stranger music but somehow he manages to believe so hard in the power of twee indie pop that he pushed it to the limit and create a masterpiece.

The Cascades - Janice Scroggins: You know that tweet about riding the bus and looking out the window and pretending the music you're listening to is the soundtrack to the movie about you riding the bus? That's me except with Scott Joplin rags and pretending i'm in a silent film where I embarrass myself in front of a society lady.

The Governor - Nicolas Jaar: I think i’ve probably already had this song on a playlist like three times so I’m going to stop talking about it but here’s my favourite thing this time: It could have just ended and been fine but instead it goes to saxophone hell and that’s what makes this a 10/10 song.

The Less I Know The Better - Tame Impala: My peabrain moment this month was suddenly developing a huge obsession with this song for some reason. Have you guys heard of this band ‘Tame Impala’? I really feel like they might blow up! One of my favourite things about this song is that the top youtube comment for a long time was ‘this is like the cuck anthem’. They’re right!

New Town - Life Without Buildings: Life Without Buildings feels like indie rock from another dimension. This came out in 2000 and for some reason I can't reconcile that fact with how it sounds. It sounds like it should have come out at least 5 years later. I cannot imagine this style of vocal ever working so effectively but somehow it just does. I'm hanging on absolutely every word and feeling it so intensely when in reality she sounds like something went wrong with the recording. I just love it.

Bang Bang Bang - Mark Ronson And The Business Intl: This is a hugely underrated song and this era of Mark Ronson seems to have been totally forgotten which is unfortunate. This song, Bad Romance by Lady Gaga and OMG by Usher all came out around the same time in my memory and I remember feeling very optimistic for the direction pop seemed to be heading in. Bombastic and unique and unafraid to be structurally different but then it turned out it wasn’t really a trend at all, it was just three great songs. So who knows.

Back To The Trees - Adele H: I suddenly remembered this song I completely fell in love with last year and remembered as a moderate hit only to find that it has <1000 listens on spotify and 300 on youtube. Simply not good enough, please listen to this song! Support my friend and yours Adele H: ‘The Italian Adelian’

Out There - Studio: What’s so good about Studio is it’s technically an electronic duo but it has the feeling of a jam jam band. Their wiki article is obviously written by their management but it also describes them as an ‘afrobeat-dub-disco-indie-pop adventure’ which is very true. It’s an adventure! It just keeps moving on and on through fifty flavours of groove!

Shut Up Kiss Me - Angel Olsen: This really is maybe the best love song ever written! Because it's about standing firm and not giving up on love! Stop pretending I'm not there when it's clear I'm not going anywhere / If I'm out of sight then take another look around!

Through This Town - Mia Dyson: If you ever need an optimistic song to lay down on the floor to then here's one.

Cry Flames - Rustie: I'm on my usual shit about how good Glass Swords was and how that it's a tragedy that this never coalesced into a major movement like it should have. This is such a good sound that just kind of disappeared because vaporwave and everything overlapped with the boring parts of it and the anime chillout version became popular instead. Sad!

Real Truth (feat. Tkay Maidza) - J-E-T-S, Machinedrum and Jimmy Edgar: I love this beat so much. The sort of beat that sounds like it's playing out of a droid that got shot with a lazer and is malfunctioning.

Aute Cuture - Rosalia: me putting these lyrics through google translate: oh my god she’s right this IS on fire

Self-Immolate - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard: King Gizz are a metal band now and they're writing the very best kind of metal songs - sci-fi about burning to death in the skies of Venus that's also a climate change parable.

Magic Arrow - Timber Timbre: Timber Timbre feel underrated to me. I never see anyone talking about them but they're one of the most consistently great bands around, I absolutely love them. There's so much space in this song, this whole style of minimal production is underutilised. It feels like if Wicked Game by Chris Isaak was about an 18th century cult leader instead which I think we can all agree is a much improved song.

Kim's Caravan - Courtney Barnett: I love this style of songwriting where you just sit on an extremely heavy bassline the whole time and have no chorus, which affords you the freedom to just get bigger and bigger and smaller as you wish. The Drones cover of River Of Tears works like this too and I think it's just masterful.

When The Movie's Over - Twin Shadow: My belief is Confess is front to back one of the greatest pop albums ever written. Please, please listen to it and be moved.

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ulyssessklein · 6 years

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American Idol David Cook on His Music, His Fans and Making a Difference

By: Rick Landers

David Cook – Photo by David Quillard

Many of us recall being enthralled by the performances and artistry of David Cook, as he ran the competitive steppes of “American Idol”.

David impressed us with his vocals and risky song selections that were staples of the airwaves and firmly embedded in our national entertainment psyche.

Catch Cook’s rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” where he lifted the high water mark of Michael’s catalogue and plopped it into the world of ballads.

Perfect.

And as he lifted the song, “American Idol” lifted him from obscurity to a level of fame, most performers only dream about.

And, it all could have ended there or shortly thereafter. The star-making machinery can severely crush ambition and germinate cynicism, leaving promising artists on the off-ramp of fame, to regain their footing or go back home to get a day job.

What’s intriguing about David Cook is that he leveraged his new found fame to blend his altruism with his ambition, and it seems he’s smart enough and kind enough to allow his altruism to lead.

Most recently, we find David Cook not performing at large venues, following the money track. His altruism leads.

In May 2018, he could be found in Washington, D.C. at The 2018 Race for Hope, where he supported his 2018 Team for a Cure-Making a Difference. His team raised $78,000 to benefit ABC2 and The National Brain Tumor Society.

David’s been supporting the group for ten years, and he and his team have raised over $1.3 million for brain cancer and brain tumor research, in various fundraising efforts. And in 2018, their efforts were recognized with a 2018 Rabbi Joseph P. Weinberg Triumph Award.

At first blush, one might think that David’s ignoring his career aspirations, but they are deep and wider than we might guess.

And, one might expect more than a single blush from David during one of his last gigs, playing Charlie Price in Broadway’s Kinky Boots at the Al Hirschfield Theater in New York., where he dons some thigh high hot red high-heeled boots and befriends Lola, a drag queen, and works to reconcile his practical and, maybe, not so practical inclinations..

His musical ambitions are still upfront with a new EP, Chromance, that was released February of this year by Analog Heart Music.

Chromance is heavy on the production side, but allows David enough room to breathe, with his vocals a bit on the darker side with touches of rock, ballads and pop, oftentimes rolled into single tracks. The EP is Hall & Oates or Tears for Fears on steroids and is a strong set for his fans, whether they’re into his stripped down songs that focus on his voice – that voice – or are up for this amped up version of David Cook.

So, we see many sides of David in this Guitar International interview; talented singer-songwriter, actor with chops, fundraiser for good causes and a man who’s not only an entrepreneurial seeker, but one who takes on new challenges to reinvent himself, to explore and discover the many facets of not only who he is, but who he might become. We look forward to see where David Cook moves next, to see what mountain he might climb next, and we’re certain he’ll land with both feet firmly on the ground.

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Rick Landers: Let’s start where some interviews end. Let’s imagine your 90-years old and you’re looking back on your life. What kinds of experiences have you had and what are you most proud of?

David Cook: I’ve gotten to travel the world as a musician. I’m extremely proud to have had that honor. I actually just wrapped up another year of working with the Race For Hope in Washington DC, with ABC2 and The National Brain Tumor Society. I’ve been extremely proud of what my fans have helped accomplish over the last 9-10 years of working with that event.

Rick: Now, let’s go back when you first had an idea that your voice was not only a fun thing to be able to play with, but a talent that could open doors to, maybe fame, and opportunities to live a dream?

David Cook: I never really gave it much thought, truthfully, until maybe the end of high school or the beginning of college. I was offered a small theater scholarship for college, and that was my first real confirmation that maybe there was something there.

Rick: How has your initial hobby of playing guitar evolved to become not only a tool to a worthwhile livelihood, but possibly a “side kick” that will likely accompany you for the rest of your life?

David Cook: I always go back to being a kid, and my Dad always having a guitar around. He would sit there in the living room and noodle around while I was watching cartoons or whatever. So, I’ve always seen guitar as a lifelong thing. As with any artistic pursuit, there’s always another mountain to climb. You never really completely master it. I like that aspect of it.

David Cook – Photo by Olivia Brown

Rick: I think there’s typically a kind of void that a performer has when they start out that needs to be filled by confidence – probably hard won by playing to many audiences – and it might be a form of reinventing one’s self. What kind of progression did you go through in order to gut it out and perform to larger audiences. Or are they easier to entertain than smaller more intimate groups?

David Cook: I’ve always thought that the larger the audience, the easier it is. The energy is more abundant, maybe? I remember playing a gig in Manila in 2009. I think they said there were north of 100,000 people there. And then a week later, the next gig was somewhere in Ohio, I think, and it was maybe a thousand. And I could feel each of the thousand pairs of eyes starring lasers through us as we played.

Rick: Please, tell us about your fans and some of the lessons you may have learned from them?

David Cook: My fans have been incredible. They’ve developed this interesting community over the past decade, and to see that community manifest itself not just in supporting my music, and now acting, but also the causes that are important to me. The empathy and community that exists at that level are things I hadn’t been exposed to before 2008. It’s inspiring and certainly something I’ve tried to integrate into how I interact with people in everyday life.

David Cook in Kinky Boots – Photo by Matthew Murphy

Rick: How about telling about your electric and acoustic guitars and do you have a favorite at home? On the road?

David Cook: Oh, god. I think I’m sitting on about 25-30 right now, give or take a few. I’ve got a handful of Gibson Firebirds, LPs, SGs. A few Fender Teles. I’ve had this Taylor acoustic for a while that’s my go-to, sit-down-at-home-and-write guitar. My favorite on the road right now is a Japanese Fender Tele that I’ve had frankenstein-ed with some souped-up pickups. It’s in dire need of some fretwork, but it still does the job, so I’m hesitant to mess with it much further until I need to.

Rick: What kinds of experiences have you had with busking, house concerts, open mics and those kinds of “venues”, before you nailed American Idol?

David Cook: One of my favorite memories was during college, I was playing with this band based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We had a couple nights worth of gigs in Wisconsin, and they were going to swing through Kansas City to pick me up on the way there. I overslept and missed a ton of phone calls, so they ended up going on without me. I ended up going on this multiple-ride adventure to get there for the second show. Slept on couches, pseudo-hitchhiked, but got there.

Rick: Have you found yourself more interested in the technical sides of recording, engineering and producing and do you prefer to have more control than less?

David Cook: I am a total control freak, but I’m aware of my technical limitations. So there’s a yin and a yang there. I try to surround myself with as much talent as possible in that realm, and then just be a sponge.

Rick: Artists have nearly always told me that being on tour really beats them up. If that’s the case with you, what do you do to ward off the stress and the unhealthy habits that tend to creep along with artists when they’re on the road – like too much fast food?

David Cook: They’re not lying. It’s not a lifestyle that’s necessarily conducive to being healthy, physically or mentally. I went on the road for almost all of 2009, and when it ended, there was a long transition afterwards. Anymore, I try to keep road time brief and concise. Month here, month there. Life balance is the goal. As far as food goes, it’s doable, but difficult. You walk off stage late and starving, and the options aren’t usually great. Takes will power that I don’t always have…

Rick: Tell us about why you showed up in D.C. recently.

David Cook: I’ve been involved with Race For Hope, an annual event held in D.C., since 2009, as a way to honor my brother, Adam, who passed away from a brain tumor. This year marked my tenth go-round with them. It really is a wonderful event. Honored to get to continue to be part of it.

Rick: What’s your schedule like this year and do you set aside time to take a breather or are you hard charging all the way?

David Cook: This year has been a little different. I just finished my Broadway debut, in Kinky Boots. I also released a new EP in February, called Chromance. At the moment, the plan is to head home, spend some time with the wife and our pups, play some shows, and write some more. So resting, but not resting, if that makes sense?

Rick: Many of our readers are still working locally, trying to build their chops, their confidence and their bank accounts in order to make their first albums. What kinds of advice would you offer them?

David Cook: If they’re doing that, then they’re on the right track. It’s a craft. Take every opportunity you can to hone it. When I started really working at it, I tried to write a song a day. Most of it was trash, and thank goodness no one else heard it, but you get a little better, and a little better, and a little better. Great songs find a way to get heard, you know?

Rick: What projects do you have going for the moment; tell us a bit about your new album Chromance and are you already working on something new in the studio?

David Cook: Right now, I’m in idea collection mode. My notes and voice memos on my phone are damn near full. So now it’s about going through all that and figuring out what’s there. Hopefully, I can start putting that stuff together into cohesive ideas, and get to recording.

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Rick: Many artists end up with pretty lousy management teams, bad labels and overall disheartening experiences in the music world. Do you have any particular approach to hiring people or working with people to keep life sane and maybe to protect your own self-interests?

David Cook: Gut instinct matters. It’s important to know what you want out of it, before anything else, and then finding people that meet that ideal. It’s also important to know that no one else is going to have your interests at heart more than you. “No” can be a powerful tool, when used properly.

Rick: You’re back home, you’re hanging out or chilling….are you more meditative or energized? What other kinds of things do you like to do other than make music?

David Cook: A bit of both. I like to relax a little, but I get stir crazy really easily if I don’t have something coming up. I like to try to stay active. Occasionally, I like throwing on a Camelbak and doing some urban hiking.

Rick: Any thanks you’d like to pass along to friends, family or colleagues who’ve made your life easier , better, more humane, on this ride you’re on?

David Cook: I think your question kinda checks all the boxes. Thank you to all those people who help make my life easier, better, and more humane. Lucky to have you all! And thanks to you, Rick, for making the time to chat today!

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