Fluxblog Weekly #13: Oddisee, Silver Jackson, Robyn, The Smashing Pumpkins & Marilyn Manson live in NJ, U2 again
July 27th, 2015
When I Thought I Would Burst
Oddisee “That’s Love”
Oddisee’s verses on this song are great and it’s a very well-made track across the board, but to be honest, I’m mostly here for that organ tone. It’s like the musical equivalent of super-saturated bright color, and I love the way this two-chord vamp somehow signals both urgency and relaxed vibes. I love the way it contrasts with that simple, elegant horn hook that drops in on the chorus, and how the lead organ part that comes in seems to skip the surface of the groove like a stone on a pond. Oddisee is rapping about love and gratitude, but I think you’d pick up on that theme just by hearing the track. It just radiates a warmth and kindness.
Buy it from Amazon.
July 28th, 2015
Feel Like Sunshine
Silver Jackson “Melodies and Bass”
I am reasonably certain that this is the first artist based in Alaska that I have featured on this site in its 13 year history. Alaska is one of those cultural dead zones where even if there’s cool arts stuff going on, it just never seems to make it out of there and into the culture. Silver Jackson’s music definitely sounds like something made in relative isolation – it’s very odd and distinct, and comes across as the sort of music a person works on obsessively alone over long stretches of time. It’s not entirely sui generis – I can hear traces of artists like Gonjasufi, cLOUDDEAD, and other forms of stoned, abstracted R&B in his tracks – but it’s certainly not ordinary, and it’s so off-center that even moments of straightforward melody are disorienting. “Melodies and Bass” is essentially an R&B song, but it sounds like it’s made of rattling, broken parts, and swinging on a busted hinge. But still, despite the roughness of it all, there’s a gentle grace at the core of it.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
July 29th, 2015
It’s My Heart’s Desire
Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique “Set Me Free”
I felt vaguely bad about not connecting with Robyn’s EP with Röyksopp last year, as if I was in some way betraying an artist I’ve loved and supported for a very long time. When this sort of thing happens, I’m inclined to feel very “it’s not you, it’s me” about the artist, and give them the benefit of the doubt. You’re not always going to be on the same page. But here we are a year later, and this new Robyn track is outstanding, and exactly the sort of thing I want to hear from her. So maybe it was really just a problem with Röyksopp? “Set You Free” is right in Robyn’s sweet spot as a vocalist – a joyful song that’s weighed down a bit by melancholy and a touch of anxiety. The sound of the track screams “Madonna remix circa ’89-92,” but that’s a great fit for Robyn and that vibe feels very fresh right now in the context of a lot of dance music that either skews more atmospheric, or bludgeons you with post-dubstep noise and intensity.
Buy it from Amazon.
July 30th, 2015
Belief Is Just Some Faith
The Smashing Pumpkins @ PNC Bank Arts Center, NJ 7/29/2015
Cherub Rock / Bullet with Butterfly Wings / Tonight, Tonight / Ava Adore / Drum + Fife / One and All (We Are) / The Everlasting Gaze / Zero / The Crying Tree of Mercury / Mayonaise / Disarm / Landslide / 1979 / Run2Me / Thru the Eyes of Ruby / Stand Inside Your Love / United States
As you can see, The Smashing Pumpkins are aiming to please on this tour. The timing makes sense – Jimmy Chamberlain is back on drums, this is a double bill with Marilyn Manson and they’ve got to play to a lot of people who may be there more for Manson, and a reminder that while Billy Corgan is never going to stop pushing forward and making eccentric decisions, he’s not totally against giving people what they want. The Pumpkins have played a lot of oldies and hits on their tours over the past few years, but it hasn’t been as much of a hits-centric set – you’d generally get a handful of the biggest hits, but not all of them. This show felt like a power move, like Corgan’s way of being like “yeah, I can do this any time I want” and making the audience feel lucky to hear almost all the big ones at once rather than kinda bored because it’s a totally expected thing. I think there’s also a strong implication that he’s doing this now because it’s less likely to happen later – for artistic reasons, and also for physical ones. Corgan and Chamberlain are still relatively young men in terms of aging rock stars, but there may come a time when some of this material either won’t hit as hard, or just seem strange to hear from guys in their 60s or 70s. Maybe you can always pull off “Disarm” and “1979,” but I don’t know if you can play “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” and “Ava Adore” forever.
The Smashing Pumpkins “Thru the Eyes of Ruby”
I’m happy to see The Smashing Pumpkins play the big hits, but as a fan, I’m a lot more invested in the non-hits of the classic era. Seeing them play “Thru the Eyes of Ruby” for the first time after 20 years of loving that song was a very big deal for me, and more emotional than I actually anticipated. “Ruby” is one of my all-time favorites, easily, and a song that’s shifted a bit in meaning over time. I remember what this song was for me as a teenager, and how it laid out this fantasy of epic, tortured love. This is a song that builds disappointment and despair into the foundation of its grand romance, and portrays marriage as a sort of shared delusion, and love as something that’s bound to mutate into contempt. My perspective on the song is different now – its bitter and romanticism both feel like things I’ve put at a distance from myself, and the most emotional part is Corgan’s final epiphany: Youth is wasted on the young. Or, maybe more specifically – young love is wasted on the young.
Buy it from Amazon.
Marilyn Manson @ PNC Bank Arts Center, NJ 7/28/2015
Deep Six / Disposable Teens / mOBSCENE / No Reflection / Third Day of a Seven Day Binge / Sweet Dreams / Angel with the Scabbed Wings / Personal Jesus / The Dope Show / Rock Is Dead / Lunchbox / Antichrist Superstar / The Beautiful People / Coma White
Marilyn Manson gives you exactly the show you’d hope for – abrasive and campy, and with a lot of visual tricks and set pieces pulled off on a budget. Manson’s got incredible stage presence, and he and his band’s total commitment to wearing full make-up and several layers of black leather, PVC, and fur in hot summer weather is commendable. This was another setlist heavily skewed towards hits and career overview, and I felt like I definitely got a strong Marilyn Manson concert experience even if I never deliberately set out to have that experience. The band’s relationship with melody and hooks are a bit hit or miss outside of their covers, but there’s just no fucking with“The Dope Show” – that’s easily one of the best glam songs of the ‘90s, and there was no shortage of wannabe glam tunes in that era.
July 31st, 2015
The Surface Of Things
U2 @ Madison Square Garden 7/30/2015
The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) / The Electric Co. / Vertigo / I Will Follow / Iris (Hold Me Close) / Cedarwood Road / Song for Someone / Sunday Bloody Sunday / Raised by Wolves / Until the End of the World / [The Fly intermission] / Invisible / Even Better Than the Real Thing / Mysterious Ways / Elevation / Ordinary Love / Satellite of Love / Every Breaking Wave / Bullet the Blue Sky / The Hands That Built America -> Pride (In the Name of Love) / Beautiful Day / With or Without You // City of Blinding Lights / Mother and Child Reunion (with Paul Simon) / Where the Streets Have No Name / One
• This is my site and I paid to see this show, so I’m going to allow myself to be petulant about this: I am very disappointed that I managed to see the two shows of an eight show residency that had nearly identical setlists. There are four to five spots in the setlist for this tour where U2 rotate in different songs, and though they’ve been mixing it up over the past several nights in NYC, only one of those spots included a song that was not played on the first night – a cover of Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love.” I do not care about “Satellite of Love.” It’s hard not to feel bitter about paying a lot of money for this show and knowing that the other nights had truly exciting things played in these rotation spots – “Bad,” “All I Want Is You,” “Desire” with Jimmy Fallon, “Angel of Harlem” with The Roots, “Two Hearts Beat As One,” “Gloria,” “Out of Control,” “Sweetest Thing,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” But nope, I get “Ordinary Love” – one of the worst songs of their entire career! – for a second time, and another half-hearted performance of “One” in which Bono has the audience sing 80% of the song. I suppose Paul Simon coming out in the encore is theoretically exciting, but he was so awkward and in such bad voice that it was not exactly an exciting moment. Siiiiiigh.
• U2 were very on when I saw them on the first night of this residency, but this show felt like they were just doing their job. I could tell that Bono’s voice was a little worn out in spots, and he seemed a little tired. They’re such pros that they give a lot even when they’re not in top form, so it was hardly a weak performance. Really, I might not have fully noticed that the energy was a bit lower if I hadn’t seen them play with such fire in the recent past.
• The audience for this show, or at least all the people in my vicinity, were not good. U2 shows feed off the energy of the audience, and are improved by the audience’s participation in the big sing along moments in songs like “Pride” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.” I was surrounded by people who seemed entirely unwilling to participate or in any way visibly react to the music, and it dragged down my experience of the show. I have no idea why these people went to see this – it’s kinda expensive, and a lot of the reason you go to see U2 is to be part of this communal experience. It sucks to see them play “Pride” and have maybe 20% of the audience tops participating in the “oh oh oh ohhhh” part when you know first hand how transcendental it feels to be there when 80% of the audience is doing it.
• Midway through the show, Bono introduced the audience to the emergency workers who saved him after his severe biking accident in Manhattan last year, and to the woman who made the 911 call when everyone else in the vicinity of the crash were simply gawking at the scene. Bono let the woman tell her story for a couple minutes, and she made the huge mistake of making a snide remark about NYC, so she ended up getting loudly booed for almost all the time she was speaking. It was really something to see the woman who arguably saved Bono’s life – or at least his career as a performer – get booed by thousands of U2 fans.
• I don’t really have much to add about the songs or the staging, but I did notice that there’s spots in the show that don’t seem to work for the audience, even if they work on a thematic level. “Iris” doesn’t seem to connect at all, and everyone seems very confused by the intermission/”Invisible” sequence. I like that part, so it’s especially disappointing that the majority of the arena barely responds to it. Most of the arena didn’t even stand up for it. “Ordinary Love” is another song that doesn’t work at all, and the piano version of “Every Breaking Wave” is another moment that people take as a cue to sit down for a few minutes. That said, I think “The Miracle,” “Raised by Wolves,” and “Cedarwood Road” go over pretty well, or at least as well as you could expect for tracks from a new record that is mostly either maligned or ignored.