(Editor’s note: We’re from Cleveland. (James is in Chicago, but whatever.) We’re tough. We’re gritty. We roll up our sleeves at work, chew Red Man, drink whiskey and swear a lot. Other “music blogs” might have more flash and fancier jeans, but we will punch those dandies in the mouth if they roll into our neck of the woods. Why are we telling you this? No reason, but it justifies the rust belt-y picture above. In reality, we’re lovers, not fighters, so the blogosphere is safe. However, to maintain some street-cred, we wouldn’t mind testing our physical might against that of our contemporaries. If you write for an internet-based musical publication, please get in touch to schedule an arm-wrestling match.)
Maybe The Dismemberment Plan never really grabbed the brass ring as a band, but “The Ice of Boston” is an all-time favorite track of mine. There’s so much to love about the tune in general: the oscillating nonchalant/emotionally charged vocal delivery, the insanely clever and pointed lyrics, the chugging bass line and, as a whole, the dripping, greasy pathos. The live track below is, almost certainly, of less sonic and aesthetic quality than the highly-polished album version, but I love the sped up delivery and the vague sense that he’s tired of the jokes; that edginess/ennui is kind of cool. For the record, I play this song every single New Year’s Eve, at least twice. That is a quirk that Mrs. Citizen has long grown tired of, but I’m sticking with it to the bitter end.
“The Ice of Boston” – The Dismemberment Plan, Cleveland, 2002
You may have noticed that we’ve been fairly Animal Collective free here at Citizen Dick. While the vast majority of our peers in the blogosphere have spent a ton of time feting the band as the second coming of (insert appropriately obscure and cool reference here), we’ve kept our distance. Kevin’s a fan and keeps trying to get me to wrap my brain around Strawberry Jam and this newest next great album they’ve put out, but I lack either the intellectual alacrity or hipsterish foresight to truly dig in. I’m inclined to say that the Collective isn’t wearing any clothes, but even a naysayer like me can get into the spiraling experimentation in the live version of “Peacebone” below.
“Peacebone” – Animal Collective, France, 2007
Just to keep things fresh, we wanted to drop a non-live track on you this Lazy Saturday. Pennsylvania-based quintet Illinois have been involved in an intriguing project since November of last year; each month, they released an EP and a short film which defined the broad narrative of the project’s titular figure, Kid Catastrophe. They released six EPs all together, along with six short films, and have just collected the whole package into a special edition, with some bonus tracks and the like. The music can verge on the pop idiom at times, but we’re fans of the creative chutzpah it takes to throw such an ambitious concept out to a television-dazed public. We’re not going to spoil the story for you, in the hopes that you’ll track down the details on your own, but we can endorse the general creative thrust of this effort from Illinois.
Last up today is a track inspired by our own Diamond Jim and brought to us by the nice folks at A Deeper Shade of Soul. James hit The Replacements in his Hodge Podge yesterday, forcing me to listen to Let It Be over and over on Friday. (Which is awesome, because it’s a top-ten ever album, but also terrible, because I’ve got to be listening to the records I’m supposed to review this week. Get ready for 1500 words about “Answering Machine” on Wednesday.) Based on the strength of this live track (and everything that has ever been written about Westerberg and the boys), there’s going to be one more guy throwing up on a sidewalk in Minneapolis in 1982 as soon as I get that time machine built. Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads. Have a good weekend.
“I Will Dare” – The Replacements, Detroit, 1987
