Okay it is the last week in March, which means Opening Day is just a week away, which means the awesomest part of the year has begun. We're a little baseball crazy in our house these days, which is to say that Sammy and I are a little baseball crazy these days and Liza and Emma roll their eyes at us a lot.
If the world was going to have a fantasy music draft, here would be my sleeper picks. (Not in order, I'd go into a total meltdown if I had to rank these.)
Erykah Badu
Pizzicato Five
Cheap Trick
X
Bersuit Vergabarat
Henry Threadgill
Chuck Berry
Cabruera
The Zombies
Ann Peebles
Thin Lizzy
Gilberto Gil
L.L. Cool J
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Fela Kuti
Little Richard
Heart
Isaac Hayes
Virginia Rodrigues
Jefferson Airplane
Cafe Tacuba
King Sunny Adé
James Moody
A.R. Rahman
El Gran Silencio
MC Lyte
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
Whale
The Boo Radleys
Ella Fitzgerald
The Four Tops
Blue Öyster Cult
Jimmy Castor Bunch
The Blake Babies
Joyce
Eurythmics
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
Electric Light Orchestra
Yellow Sisters
Peter Tosh
Himesh Reshammiya
Los Tigres del Norte
Macy Gray
Eek-A-Mouse
Super Furry Animals
Yolanda Pérez
ABC
Bo Diddley
Violent Femmes
26.3.07
16.3.07
My rejected pitch for the 33 1/3 series.
My name is Matt Cibula. I would like to write a book for the 33 1/3 series about the album Dream Police, by Cheap Trick.
I know this is not the kind of record covered by the series so far. It is hardly canonical among critics, and it never ends up on any of those “Best Albums of All Time” lists. I’ve heard a lot of those records, and I realize that many of them might be “better” on some level, more perfect or something. But Dream Police is still my favorite record, for a lot of reasons. This dichotomy will end up being the underlying theme of my book.
I think the lack of respect for Cheap Trick is criminal, and I will use part of the book to argue that the band was hugely influential on movements like new wave, power-pop, grunge (famously, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins, but also Pearl Jam), hair-metal, and modern punk-pop. Cheap Trick is funny and serious and smart and blue-collar, and they put on great shows. Critics — including Robert Christgau — even loved them…right up until this record came out. Then all the tastemakers suddenly jumped off the wagon.
But Dream Police deserves a good critical re-think. I can make a very compelling case for the importance and excellence of this album. It draws a straight line between all the British groups the band loved (the Beatles, the Who, the Move and ELO, etc.) and good old Midwestern U.S.A. bar-band action, but it is still thoroughly original. And it sounds great too, sharp and complicated but still accessible. (The making of the album turns out to be a fascinating story as well. Short version: they went into the studio to make their fourth record, but their live At Budokan record came out in the meantime and turned them into Top Ten pop stars, so it sat on the shelf for months. It would have been thought of as a lot more “groundbreaking” if it had come out six months earlier!)
The band also took a huge risk here by dispensing with some of their cutesier tendencies and doing songs of real substance. The opening song is a psychedelic freakout about paranoia; there are songs about religious/political fanaticism and domestic abuse and revenge, as well as love ballads and the obligatory tune about being famous. Each side’s closing song is an epic pop-prog-metal track that continues past the seven-minute mark. Songwriter Rick Nielsen basically put everything on the table here, and tried to make a statement about the world, but the rest of the band stretched themselves as well; Bun E. Carlos’ drum patterns are pretty close to disco-metal, and Robin Zander’s screaming on “Gonna Raise Hell” is legendary. It rocked hard, in an era that loved hard rock, but it also had pop hooks galore.
So why did Dream Police do so poorly with critics? And why, despite its success (#6 on the Album Charts, two top 40 singles), is it seen as the beginning of the end for a band that never went away? I think I have some very interesting answers to these questions.
I propose a different kind of structure for my book. About half of it will be an actual review of the album itself. Instead of going track by track, I will divide the analysis up into nine thematically focused chapters: “The Cover” (intriguing signs and symbols!), “The Band” (including autobiographical info about each member and the band’s history), “Lyrical Themes,” “Musical Motifs,” etc. I will interview as many band members and other involved people as I can, and I think this will be relatively easy to accomplish. (See below for details.)
The other half of the book will consist of nine very short stories interspersed throughout the review text. These will be very brief fictional sketches of two friends who meet in 1979 by bonding over Dream Police. Each story will move them forward a bit, through junior high, high school, college (for the main protagonist, who is basically me), adulthood, and now. These stories will try to capture the spirit of growing up in the U.S., and each story will reflect a different song, albeit usually in a very understated way.
This will make for a very fun and unusual entry in the 33 1/3 series. But I am not proposing this structure just to be different. I think this is the best way to make people understand what a great record Dream Police is, as well as to illustrate the idea that one’s own personal canon is influenced by a lot of different factors. It is also a way for me to talk about this album without being all “me me me.” Because who the hell am I, other than someone who sometimes gets to give my opinion about popular music?
******
Well, here’s who I am. I am 40 years old, married with two kids and another on the way later this year from an adoption agency far away. I live in the Midwestern United States of America, about an hour from Cheap Trick’s hometown of Rockford, Illinois. (This is one of the reasons I think I will be able to score some great interviews with Rick Nielsen and the rest of the band.)
I have been writing about music for 10 years; most of this writing has been for online publications such as PopMatters.com, StylusMagazine.com, Ink19.com, and Music-Critic.com, but I have also been published in the Village Voice, Vibe Magazine, Seattle Weekly, Portland Mercury, Baltimore City Paper, and the Isthmus here in Madison. (I also write a blog.)
I am also the author of four children’s titles for Zino Press: Slumgullion the Executive Pig, The Contrary Kid, How to Be the Greatest Writer in the World, and What’s Up With You, Taquandra Fu? I travel to several elementary and junior high schools every year to work with young people on their writing skills, and have also written two teacher’s guides on this subject.
In addition, I’ve written an online serial novel for teenagers, and have participated in three different National Poetry Slam competitions. I am confident about speaking in public, and I’m very happy to do tons of bookstore appearances. I will drive all over the Midwest, and I have friends everywhere who will let me snore on their couches.
I applied to the 33 1/3 series last time, pitching Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. I did not get the gig, but have since become friendly with Zeth Lundy, who works with me at PopMatters. I am very glad he was chosen over me for that project, because his book’s structure sounds more exciting than mine was. So thank you for choosing him for that project. This project, though, is something even closer to my heart than Stevie, which is saying a lot.
A book about Cheap Trick would be a bold populist rock’n’roll type of move for the series. And no one else understands Dream Police, or its true place in music history, the way I do. I know I can do this album justice on both a critical/analytic level and on a soulful/personal level. (For a brief glimpse of what this book might be like, check out this piece I wrote for InkBlotMagazine.com a few years ago.)
My name is Matt Cibula. I would like to write a book for the 33 1/3 series about the album Dream Police, by Cheap Trick.
I know this is not the kind of record covered by the series so far. It is hardly canonical among critics, and it never ends up on any of those “Best Albums of All Time” lists. I’ve heard a lot of those records, and I realize that many of them might be “better” on some level, more perfect or something. But Dream Police is still my favorite record, for a lot of reasons. This dichotomy will end up being the underlying theme of my book.
I think the lack of respect for Cheap Trick is criminal, and I will use part of the book to argue that the band was hugely influential on movements like new wave, power-pop, grunge (famously, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins, but also Pearl Jam), hair-metal, and modern punk-pop. Cheap Trick is funny and serious and smart and blue-collar, and they put on great shows. Critics — including Robert Christgau — even loved them…right up until this record came out. Then all the tastemakers suddenly jumped off the wagon.
But Dream Police deserves a good critical re-think. I can make a very compelling case for the importance and excellence of this album. It draws a straight line between all the British groups the band loved (the Beatles, the Who, the Move and ELO, etc.) and good old Midwestern U.S.A. bar-band action, but it is still thoroughly original. And it sounds great too, sharp and complicated but still accessible. (The making of the album turns out to be a fascinating story as well. Short version: they went into the studio to make their fourth record, but their live At Budokan record came out in the meantime and turned them into Top Ten pop stars, so it sat on the shelf for months. It would have been thought of as a lot more “groundbreaking” if it had come out six months earlier!)
The band also took a huge risk here by dispensing with some of their cutesier tendencies and doing songs of real substance. The opening song is a psychedelic freakout about paranoia; there are songs about religious/political fanaticism and domestic abuse and revenge, as well as love ballads and the obligatory tune about being famous. Each side’s closing song is an epic pop-prog-metal track that continues past the seven-minute mark. Songwriter Rick Nielsen basically put everything on the table here, and tried to make a statement about the world, but the rest of the band stretched themselves as well; Bun E. Carlos’ drum patterns are pretty close to disco-metal, and Robin Zander’s screaming on “Gonna Raise Hell” is legendary. It rocked hard, in an era that loved hard rock, but it also had pop hooks galore.
So why did Dream Police do so poorly with critics? And why, despite its success (#6 on the Album Charts, two top 40 singles), is it seen as the beginning of the end for a band that never went away? I think I have some very interesting answers to these questions.
I propose a different kind of structure for my book. About half of it will be an actual review of the album itself. Instead of going track by track, I will divide the analysis up into nine thematically focused chapters: “The Cover” (intriguing signs and symbols!), “The Band” (including autobiographical info about each member and the band’s history), “Lyrical Themes,” “Musical Motifs,” etc. I will interview as many band members and other involved people as I can, and I think this will be relatively easy to accomplish. (See below for details.)
The other half of the book will consist of nine very short stories interspersed throughout the review text. These will be very brief fictional sketches of two friends who meet in 1979 by bonding over Dream Police. Each story will move them forward a bit, through junior high, high school, college (for the main protagonist, who is basically me), adulthood, and now. These stories will try to capture the spirit of growing up in the U.S., and each story will reflect a different song, albeit usually in a very understated way.
This will make for a very fun and unusual entry in the 33 1/3 series. But I am not proposing this structure just to be different. I think this is the best way to make people understand what a great record Dream Police is, as well as to illustrate the idea that one’s own personal canon is influenced by a lot of different factors. It is also a way for me to talk about this album without being all “me me me.” Because who the hell am I, other than someone who sometimes gets to give my opinion about popular music?
******
Well, here’s who I am. I am 40 years old, married with two kids and another on the way later this year from an adoption agency far away. I live in the Midwestern United States of America, about an hour from Cheap Trick’s hometown of Rockford, Illinois. (This is one of the reasons I think I will be able to score some great interviews with Rick Nielsen and the rest of the band.)
I have been writing about music for 10 years; most of this writing has been for online publications such as PopMatters.com, StylusMagazine.com, Ink19.com, and Music-Critic.com, but I have also been published in the Village Voice, Vibe Magazine, Seattle Weekly, Portland Mercury, Baltimore City Paper, and the Isthmus here in Madison. (I also write a blog.)
I am also the author of four children’s titles for Zino Press: Slumgullion the Executive Pig, The Contrary Kid, How to Be the Greatest Writer in the World, and What’s Up With You, Taquandra Fu? I travel to several elementary and junior high schools every year to work with young people on their writing skills, and have also written two teacher’s guides on this subject.
In addition, I’ve written an online serial novel for teenagers, and have participated in three different National Poetry Slam competitions. I am confident about speaking in public, and I’m very happy to do tons of bookstore appearances. I will drive all over the Midwest, and I have friends everywhere who will let me snore on their couches.
I applied to the 33 1/3 series last time, pitching Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. I did not get the gig, but have since become friendly with Zeth Lundy, who works with me at PopMatters. I am very glad he was chosen over me for that project, because his book’s structure sounds more exciting than mine was. So thank you for choosing him for that project. This project, though, is something even closer to my heart than Stevie, which is saying a lot.
A book about Cheap Trick would be a bold populist rock’n’roll type of move for the series. And no one else understands Dream Police, or its true place in music history, the way I do. I know I can do this album justice on both a critical/analytic level and on a soulful/personal level. (For a brief glimpse of what this book might be like, check out this piece I wrote for InkBlotMagazine.com a few years ago.)
6.3.07
Too much music criticism.
Actually, too much music writing, not enough music criticism. And too much of that music writing is lazy snarky gotcha crap. I should know, I've done it too. But it's all scenesterism maaaaaan; you cannot actually be the first to champion discs that everyone else has already championed.
Too much consensus about what the "important" records are every year. Most albums considered to be important just kind of happen to be by white people singing in English. Most of those are men. Every year there are a couple of black acts, or records by women, that grab hold of people's ideas about what an important record should be. (Hint: if you are a black act but you represent some kind of alternative or "correction" to black mainstream music [OutKast Gnarls Barkley Kanye West Arrested Development De La Soul], or if you are the one rapper taken seriously by critics every year [Ghostface Public Enemy], you just might be in there. But it's a lot easier to be Timberlake than Timbaland; you'll catch more flies with Montreal than you will with Atlanta, etc.
Oh god what a saddo here he goes. White guilt snooze, fake feminism bullshit, stop it stop it. We like what we like, we don't wanna hear about it.
Me I wanna discover new stuff from strange places, champion the stuff that no one else will touch. The problem is, most of that stuff really isn't all that yummy, at least at first. Got three 'world music' discs in the mail yesterday, just ripe for the picking -- but one was boring and two was also boring and three was self-consciously "wacky" and therefore just plain wack. But just because the path is rough and I'm walking it in bare feet and arrogance doesn't mean it's not the right path. Also: Alt.country can be counted on for some of the worst music of the year and I've already heard my least fave album of 2007 so far and it's like damn that competition was over quick. On the whole, I'd rather be in Indiedelphia.
Why complaining? Not sure. Just not sure I need the adrenalin/sugar rush of being FIRST ON IT, or even of 'hey wow free stuff in the mail yippeeeeeeee'. Getting old. Or I am.
But it's also like this: no one is listening. Or if they are, I'm mumbling and inarticulate, or too tired and unmotivated to do a good job, or just dummmm some days.
However, here you go: my new favorite record comes from Czech Republic. It is done by four more-or-less-a-capella female singers who call themselves Yellow Sisters. It's like the Roches beefed up, went ethnic, and then added some reggae toasting. I only got it because my friend hooked me up with a press pass, and then I got to download all the songs for like five albums of new stuff by lots of bands. Which is a pretty damm great use of the Internettage. Yellow Sisters -- a full-scale straight on bangeroo which isn't that boring and has killer harmonies in Czech. None of you will hear it, but please to czech out this site and forget I ever said all this elitist crap. Too tired to make any sense so I'll shut up.
http://www.indies.eu/en/alba/4/singalana/
Keep your yummy cake
I'm overweight already
Gotta shed this skin
Actually, too much music writing, not enough music criticism. And too much of that music writing is lazy snarky gotcha crap. I should know, I've done it too. But it's all scenesterism maaaaaan; you cannot actually be the first to champion discs that everyone else has already championed.
Too much consensus about what the "important" records are every year. Most albums considered to be important just kind of happen to be by white people singing in English. Most of those are men. Every year there are a couple of black acts, or records by women, that grab hold of people's ideas about what an important record should be. (Hint: if you are a black act but you represent some kind of alternative or "correction" to black mainstream music [OutKast Gnarls Barkley Kanye West Arrested Development De La Soul], or if you are the one rapper taken seriously by critics every year [Ghostface Public Enemy], you just might be in there. But it's a lot easier to be Timberlake than Timbaland; you'll catch more flies with Montreal than you will with Atlanta, etc.
Oh god what a saddo here he goes. White guilt snooze, fake feminism bullshit, stop it stop it. We like what we like, we don't wanna hear about it.
Me I wanna discover new stuff from strange places, champion the stuff that no one else will touch. The problem is, most of that stuff really isn't all that yummy, at least at first. Got three 'world music' discs in the mail yesterday, just ripe for the picking -- but one was boring and two was also boring and three was self-consciously "wacky" and therefore just plain wack. But just because the path is rough and I'm walking it in bare feet and arrogance doesn't mean it's not the right path. Also: Alt.country can be counted on for some of the worst music of the year and I've already heard my least fave album of 2007 so far and it's like damn that competition was over quick. On the whole, I'd rather be in Indiedelphia.
Why complaining? Not sure. Just not sure I need the adrenalin/sugar rush of being FIRST ON IT, or even of 'hey wow free stuff in the mail yippeeeeeeee'. Getting old. Or I am.
But it's also like this: no one is listening. Or if they are, I'm mumbling and inarticulate, or too tired and unmotivated to do a good job, or just dummmm some days.
However, here you go: my new favorite record comes from Czech Republic. It is done by four more-or-less-a-capella female singers who call themselves Yellow Sisters. It's like the Roches beefed up, went ethnic, and then added some reggae toasting. I only got it because my friend hooked me up with a press pass, and then I got to download all the songs for like five albums of new stuff by lots of bands. Which is a pretty damm great use of the Internettage. Yellow Sisters -- a full-scale straight on bangeroo which isn't that boring and has killer harmonies in Czech. None of you will hear it, but please to czech out this site and forget I ever said all this elitist crap. Too tired to make any sense so I'll shut up.
http://www.indies.eu/en/alba/4/singalana/
Keep your yummy cake
I'm overweight already
Gotta shed this skin
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