Irony, Post-irony, or am I Just Thinking Too Much?

One of the strange things about being a 40 year old guy living in a college town is that you feel alternately younger (there's a lot of young people around, a lot of things that cater to young drunk people, like bars, pizza joints, wing joints, taxis, tailgating, bands, bars, etc), and really old and out of touch (like, there's a lot of young people here). One of the things that falls into that category is the awesome and sometimes baffling Penn State radio station, The Lion 90.7.

My question is this: when The Lion plays a series of tunes that goes something like the following, what does it mean?

(note that this list is by memory and probably not completely correct, and that they are currently playing, no lie, "So Into You" by the Atlanta Rhythm Section):

Like a Virgin, Madonna
Crosstown Traffic, Jimi Hendrix
I'm Amazed, My Morning Jacket
An Innocent Man, Billy Joel
Paul Revere, Beastie Boys
We Are the World
Me and My Uncle, Grateful Dead

So what the fuck is that? I know, there are a fair amount of hippie songs in there, and granted, it's not a real playlist, just an approximation, and a pretty good one, I think, of what I routinely hear on that station. For instance, I know I've heard "We Are the World" at least twice in the past week, which is twice more than the previous ten years.

The question is: the Madonna, the Billy Joel, the We Are the World, the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Is that ironic? Or are we so past irony that they're listening to these songs and saying, shit man, you know what, An Innocent Man is just as good a song as Crosstown Traffic or My Morning Jacket, and fuck you if you have some kind of preconceived old man notion about the level of coolness of post-Glass Houses Billy Joel?

Ironic or post-ironic? Or am I just too old and opinionated to even parse what's happening here?

Happy Weekend, Barrelhousers!

This may, in fact, be the best video of all time, because a) apparently the band members are trapped in some sort of post-apocalyptic schoolyard from which they cannot escape, plus b) the lady in the red dress is doing some sort of sultry interpretive dance, or maybe she's only mocking the band members for being trapped behind that scary fencing? plus c) for some reason there's a horn section on a roof, and d) the inexplicable West Side Story moment at the end.

Also of note: Toto is quite possibly the least attractive musical group of all time, which means it's hard to root against their quest to get that red-dressed lady's attentions. Everyone loves an underdog, especially a mulleted, mustachioed underdog.

A little music for your weekend

Dazed and Confused is one of my favorite movies, for multiple reasons. It's funny, odd, it manages to almost perfectly capture the spirit of my high school experience even though that experience occurred in Florida, not Texas, and in the mid-1990s of the movie's release rather than the mid-1970s of the movie's setting. And of course there's the terrific ensemble cast, which could (and maybe has?) fill at least one VH1 Where Are They Now? special, and which represents -- though this only became clear several years later -- pretty much the creative peaks of both Matthew McConaughey and Ben Affleck (though, admittedly, I've never seen that movie where Affleck plays the Superman guy, or the one where McConaughey would rather ride around shirtless on a schooner with Sara Jessica Parker than get married to her).

The other great thing about Dazed and Confused is the music, which is as eclectic and representative as the movie itself. How disappointing, then, when some time in college I bought the soundtrack and realized way too many of the movie's great musical moments weren't represented.

Finally this tragedy has been made right, via the Internet: some guy just as obsessive as me has collected all the movie's songs into one easily downloadable (and free) album. Check it out.

He did the same for Boogie Nights, which is another great movie with a lot of great music. So two for one (zero)!

Note: Barrelhouse does not endorse the free downloading of music you should of course be purchasing, but we'll trust each of you to mail seventy-three American cents to each of the artists represented.

UPDATE: I just realized the guy not only included every track used in the movie, he put them into the order in which they appeared, all the way from "Sweet Emotion" to "Slow Ride," and he also included little money quotes from the movie (most of them, unsurprisingly, from out the mouth of McConaughey)

Craig Finn Knows His Audience

Now, anyone who's read my (sometimes) gushing interview in Barrelhouse 4 knows that I'm a big fan of The Hold Steady. Singer Craig Finn is one of my favorite lyricists of all time, and their music just keeps getting better and better. Stay Positive, their new album, is seriously great, and you should all pick up a copy as soon as it comes out in the next month.

In the meantime, there's a new interview at Please Don't which focuses on "Stuck Between Stations," the John Berryman-referencing opening track of their last effort, Boys and Girls in America. It's just a short essay followed by a few basic questions, but the last one is worth the read, and the reason for this post.

And yes, I'm going to spoil it for you right here:

As you look out at the crowds, what is the face of America?
Wow, that's a heavy question. I do think technology is allowing people to bridge gaps they weren't able to before. For instance, our audience has a lot of different ages, backgrounds, etc. Seriousness aside, in our crowds, the face of America looks like its going to be hung over tomorrow.

Hell yeah it is. "Double whiskey coke no ice" for me please.

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More Cover Magic

Last week, I posted links to a couple cover songs I really liked, in the category of "covers that make you appreciate a song you never fully appreciated before."

This week, a new category: indie-rock-approved covers of songs you never wanted to admit you liked, but totally liked even though they were supposedly "lame." Take that Ted Leo version of Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" that made its way around the Interwebs a while back --  it's the same song, sung pretty much non-ironically, but somehow you're allowed to dig on the Ted Leo version, maybe even sing along with it, while still maintaining your hipster street cred? 

It's bullshit, is I guess what I'm saying. Just admit that Kelly Clarkson kinda rocks, okay? We all see your skinny black jeans tucked into a pair of circa-1984 pink-and-green Nike hi-tops -- nobody's saying you've lost the right to mope around the bar and drink PBR tallboys.While you're at it, you can go ahead and admit you know all the words to Journey's "Open Arms," too. And you know what else? If you like Marc Broussard singing "Poo Corner," then goddammit, you just like "Poo Corner," you sappy son of a bitch.

Anyway, here's a link to a song I'm not afraid to admit I like, in both the original and cover version:

"Islands in the Stream," as hipster-fied by The Constantines and Feist.

Cover Magic

Some covers are weird, some are kitschy, some are slightly amusing. Then there are those rare covers that make you appreciate a song you never fully appreciated before. Here are links to a couple awesome covers I've recently stumbled upon:

--"Breakfast in America," by Gomez
I actually dig the Supertramp original, though Gomez brings a certain rough snarl to it that's way more badass.

--"Rainy Days and Mondays," by Cracker
I know JP is an unapologetic Karen Carpenter fan, but I think most others would agree that Cracker takes this already mopey song to new depths of awesome mopeosity.