The Great (Internal) Radiohead Discussion

Ben: So you’ve listened to the Radiohead album three times. It seems like everyone is raving about it. What do you think?

Lazar: I think basically the same thing that I always think. It’s “good.” It’s well-crafted. It’s very modern and of the moment. It's intelligently arranged. I don’t think there are any particularly great songs on it. I can listen to it and derive a little pleasure from it. But it doesn’t do much for me.

Ben: You’ve never been a fan.

Lazar: Well, I’ve tried a bunch. Shit, I’ve listened to Ok Computer about 100 times, trying to hear what the hell everyone else hears in it. And I actually like Kid A a lot; I love “Morning Bell.” I think that song is actually soulful. But deep down, I suspect they’re really a bunch of pretentious British art school wankers. Hipsters fall for that sort of thing like evangelicals fall for Bush.

Ben: Didn’t you heckle them once?

Lazar: Yes, I heckled them at MSG in the summer of 2001. Everyone was rapturously into the show and I thought it was self-indulgent bullshit. I even booed them. I got a couple of nasty looks, but no one said anything. A couple of people came up to me after the show and told me they agreed with me – they didn't think it was that great either. My friend who got me tickets to the show wasn’t so thrilled with me. But she enjoys telling the story to people when she’s making fun of me.

Ben: What is it about them that makes you so crazy?

Lazar: The make me feel profoundly alienated. I’ve never been the guy who seeks to set myself apart through music. When I was really young and felt completely alienated from my peers, music was the means through which I could actually communicate with people and be my fully expressed self. I love that music can be the means through which I can make a connection with someone that transcends boundaries of race, class, geography, etc. So I look to music as a tool to face down the coldness of the world, which is probably why I love the heat (and community) of soul music (and Springsteen) so passionately. When I listen to Radiohead, I hear a fetishization of alienation – and the fact that so many people love it and think that it’s of such a high artistic quality makes me a little sad. Also, I have to admit that they’re one of those bands that always make me question myself: “Am I missing something?” “What am I not hearing?” “Do I need to spend more time with it?” It’s annoying.

Ben: You sure make this mean a lot. They’re just a band.

Lazar: Welcome to my brain. It’s not always a fun place to be.

Ben: Maybe you just don't get it.

Lazar: (snarling) Yeah. And maybe everyone's taste is up their...

Bruce Springsteen's Magic: A Deeper Shade Of Soul Review

“The great romantic makes an album about working-class defeat – and, leaving most of his innocence hanging in the air, comes away ready for a long, uncertain fight against cynicism.” – Greil Marcus on Darkness on the Edge of Town, from Stranded, 1979.

“Better ask questions before you shoot/Deceit and betrayal’s bitter fruit” – Bruce Springsteen, “Lonesome Day” (2002)

Bruce Springsteen looks like a weary man on the cover of Magic, his new album with the E Street Band. But there’s also a look of defiance in his eyes, and it seems as though it’s defiance that Springsteen has tapped into to make Magic his best album in twenty years, a luminous and often gorgeous collection of songs, that typical of Springsteen, are filled with a sense of defeat, alienation, dread, anger and the residue of betrayals both personal and political, while also conveying a spirit of steely determination to carry on regardless.

Given the events of these past few years, it would be impossible to expect Springsteen not to have experienced both weariness and a deep sense of defeat. The Iraq war, which Springsteen publicly opposed from the stage months before Bush gave the orders to invade (Introducing “Born In The U.S.A. in the fall of 2002, he occasionally said, “I don’t want to have to write this song again.”), has entangled this country into a quagmire with no end in sight, with unimaginable costs of blood and treasure. And Springsteen no doubt remembers that it is a war that at its outset, a huge majority of the country supported (most notably Congress and the mainstream media) with little or no hesitation or qualification. Springsteen’s endorsement and campaigning for John Kerry in 2004 on the Vote For Change tour failed in its intention to remove the president - “You voted and you didn’t change,” was how Springsteen explained it at a Devils & Dust performance in Cleveland in the spring of 2005. And Springsteen’s 2006 tour with the Seeger Sessions band played to half empty arenas in several U.S. cities, despite the shows featuring some of the most enervating music of the man’s life, possibly calling into question for Springsteen the relationship between he and his fans.

Springsteen has always sought to create consensus through his music – he is a uniter, bringing together multitudes of people who on the surface, have little in common other than a reaction to his music. But the divide between his ideals of America and the reality of America in 2007 feels more like a chasm. And so to attempt to bridge that enormous divide he is back with the band, and while a cynic might say that he needs them commercially, what seems more likely is that he needs them personally - to combat his own sense of isolation by once again reconvening the best community he’s known and seeing what possibilities can be created by bringing it face to face with an audience.

Magic succeeds brilliantly because for the first time since perhaps Born In The U.S.A., Springsteen has paid as much attention to the melodies, hooks and sounds on the album as he has to the lyrics. Several of the songs – “Livin’ In The Future,” “Girls In Their Summer Clothes,” “You’ll Be Coming Down” and “I’ll Work For Your Love” are simply the some of the most enjoyable sounding songs Springsteen has ever recorded, downright gorgeous in both their melodies and arrangements. Producer Brendan O’Brien continues to create an updated version of the E Street sound – Roy Bittan’s piano shines as does Danny Federici’s organ and glockenspiel - but as on The Rising, the guitars are up front leading the band, sounding vaguely reminiscent of the 60’s British Invasion bands that Springsteen grew up listening to (and that Steven Van Zandt continues to lionize on his radio show). Clarence Clemons’ solos sometimes feel somewhat less than essential, but when they come in, like they do in “Livin’ In The Future” and "Long Walk Home," they occur as the sound of a beloved friend, one that you’re simply happy and grateful to know is still around. Garry Tallent’s bass is fluid as always and Max Weinberg’s drums, while still powerful, sound far lighter on their feet than they did on The Rising, which helps matters considerably.

Springsteen is universally and justifiably recognized as a great performer and lyricist, but he’s woefully underrated as a singer, and on Magic, his vocals shine. In the past fifteen years, Springsteen has substantially broadened the range of his voice, creating a myriad of options for his own phrasing, and on Magic, it seems like he utilizes them all. Whether singing plaintively or with a full-throated passion, Springsteen remains one of the few singers in popular music that has the ability to convey a multitude of emotional dimension within the same song, like in the mournful determination of “Long Walk Home,” the wistfulness of “Girls In Their Summer Clothes” and the humor and delight in the face of calamity of “Livin’ In The Future.”

The war in Iraq, while never addressed explicitly, can be felt all over the album. Springsteen, never interested in ideology or polemics, instead delves into the cost of the war in human terms – of death, sorrow, anger and cynicism. “Last To Die,” an angry lament, quotes the young John Kerry’s testimony during Vietnam (“How do you ask a man to be the last to die for a mistake?”) and asks the question anew, while making his statement about our current leadership: “The wise men were all fools.” “Magic” occurs as both prophecy and warning: “Now there’s a fire down below/That is coming up here/So leave everything you know/Carry only what you fear/On the road the sun is sinking low/Bodies hanging in the trees/This is what will be.” And in “Devils Arcade,” the most explicitly “Iraq” song on the album, Springsteen looks at it with a heartbroken eye: “You said heroes are needed, so heroes get made/Somebody made a bet, somebody paid/The cool desert morning then nothin' to save/Just metal and plastic where your body caved.”

Magic is not a flawless album. “Radio Nowhere,” the album’s opener and first single, is a less than thrilling rocker, and on occasion, the album feels a little too glossy, missing the grittiness that is a hallmark of some of Springsteen finest work. But these are minor quibbles.

Magic is an album that ranks among Springsteen’s greatest music – and whether you listen to it for fun or hunker down with the lyrics and pore over every detail, what emerges is both the brilliance and commitment of an artist who continues to grow musically and emotionally; an artist whose values remain intact and who continues to fight the good fight - even in the face of these badlands.

Buy Magic at Amazon

Bootleg Friday: Bruce Springsteen, 1974-2002

Ok, now that I've gotten the leaked version of Magic and am thrilled with what I'm hearing, I'm officially psyched for the tour. Tickets go on sale for Philly (the best city to see the band) tomorrow, and on Monday for Madison Square Garden (great) and the Meadowlands (awful - Jersey is possibly the worst place to see Bruce). So in that spirit, here is a random selection of some great live Springsteen and the E Street Band music from 1974 though to the Rising tour of 2002-03. There are some incredible covers here - a couple of Elvis songs, a Fats Domino song, a Dobie Gray classic and some great versions of some Bruce classics.

Download: "Good Rockin' Tonight" (Elvis Presley) 9/30/78, Atlanta, GA
Download: "Let The Four Winds Blow" (Fats Domino) 6/3/74, Cleveland, OH
Download: "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" (Temptations) 10/4/74, Detroit, MI
Download: "Heartbreak Hotel" (Elvis Presley) 7/7/78, Los Angeles, CA
Download: "I'm Goin' Down" 10/26/84, Los Angeles, CA
Download: "Tunnel Of Love" 7/3/88, Stockholm, Sweden
Download: "Darlington County (w/Honky Tonk Woman)" 5/8/00, Hartford, CT
Download: "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City" 11/24/02, Tampa, FL
Download: "Drift Away" (Dobie Gray) 8/20/84, E. Rutherford, NJ

Bruce and The Seeger Sessions Band Meet Chabad House...and Sparks Fly!

Other than Bob Dylan, I've never heard an artist rework his material the way Bruce Springsteen does. And unlike Dylan (who's maddeningly inconsistent), the results with Springsteen are almost uniformly great. Different keys, different tempos and different phrasing bring out new things in songs that you couldn't imagine hearing anything new from ("The Promised Land," "Born In The U.S.A.," "The Rising" are just three of many examples.).

The current Bruce Springsteen and The Seeger Sessions Band tour will be the first Springsteen tour I've missed since the early 80's, unless he does some closing shows at home. (I was in Italy when he hit the East Coast in June.) Reports from Springsteen diehards whose taste I usually align with has been extremely positive, and I've enjoyed the live shows I've gotten. (I thought the album was very strong, albeit slightly uneven. "O Mary Don't You Weep" and "Eyes On The Prize" are out and out classics, but I could have done without "My Oklahoma Home.") And his cover/reworking of Blind Alfred Reed's (discovered through Ry Cooder) "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?" (on the 2nd edition of the album) is one of my contenders for song of the year.

Bruce started opening his shows in Europe last week with "Blinded By The Light." This morning I got a copy from last night's show at Wembley Arena in London and it is NOT what I was expecting. I thought it'd be similar at least in key to the original, but this is completely reworked and fantastic. It could use a little more work in the phrasing, but it puts an immediate smile on the face. It almost sounds like if Bruce and his band had been signed up to play a Hasidic wedding on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. I'd LOVE to see this live.

Download: "Blinded By The Light" 11/11/06, London

On The Killers, Limits and Bruce

The new Killers record, Sam’s Town, has gotten mostly harsh reviews from U.S. critics. Personally, I like the single, and don’t think much of the rest of the record. Lead singer Brandon Flowers had promised that “Sam’s Town” would be the greatest album of the past 20 years, which it isn’t. But Flowers made some comments on MTV.com last week that I found interesting. He said, "The sky used to be the limit, and it's not anymore. It's about 200 feet, and beyond that people think you're being comical. Rock and roll used to be about not having limits, not having your box, and that's disappeared somewhere along the way. We're trying to bring it back."

I don’t think the Killers are a band with enough depth or skill to “bring it back,” but I think his larger point is all too true. In the post-punk universe that all “credible” rock exists under, ambition is a dirty word that must be kept to oneself. Post-punk and indie-rock attitude require a sort of false modesty, a mask that hides any sort of overt desire to reach a large audience. Of course, in their secret heart, most (indie) rock artists would love for their music to reach a broad audience (and yes, they’d love the money and adulation that go with having a big audience) – but admitting it is verboten. That’s the lie that been at the heart of the rock game since the post-punk philosophy took over rock’s vanguard. And that inauthenticity that has resulted in rock has getting smaller and smaller – the music has gotten smaller and the audience for it has gotten smaller.

Now, regarding the Springsteen influence of Sam’s Town. What the Killers do wrong is that instead of internalizing Springsteen’s music and then bringing a new depth and passion to their own, they’re taking the trappings of Born To Run era Bruce (the melodrama, the mythology, the glockenspiel) on without adding enough depth. My advice to artists regarding Bruce is this: If you’re inspired by Bruce, internalize that passion and live the commitment that’s present in the best of Springsteen’s music. Taking the surface of Bruce’s music on will result in music that’s not a whole lot better than Bon Jovi. Springsteen is an artist whose influence is usually best when it’s felt, and not heard. That’s probably why the most influential Springsteen record is (and will forever be) Nebraska.