the Second Annual McFarren Matriarch CD Challenge

The Challenge:
My brother Kyle and I selected 15 tracks that we thought our Mother would enjoy. Our brother Adam compiled and randomized the songs, replacing any duplicate selections with a track of his choosing. Mom graded each song on a scale of 0 to 5 (including half points). Highest total score wins.

The Songs:
Mom's score follows each song title. G or K indicates whether it was a Grant or Kyle selection. Running score totals are provided, along with number of tracks scored. Mom's comments are provided below each song.

1. Skinny Love - Bon Iver - 3 (G=3/1)
"I enjoyed the music more than the words (later: it sounded like guys trying to sing too high)."

2. Big Easy - Raphael Saadiq - 3.5 (K=3.5/1)
"motown-esque. I could understand the words"

3. As Tall as Cliffs - Margot & The Nuclear So & Sos - 3.5 (G=6.5/2)
"we haven't gotten to the very last note yet...i didn't like the end, the very end"

4. Awake My Soul - Mumford & Sons - 3 (K=6.5/2)
"Parts were a 2.5 and parts were a 3. I liked the instrumental more than the words"

5. Blue and Gold Print - Mates of State - 3 (K=9.5/3)
"All these songs are falling between the 2.5 - 3.0 range. It grew on me."
Kyle in a note to Grant: "I think mom decided if she gives bad scores she won't have to do this again next year."

6. Another Day - Jamie Lidell - 5 (G=11.5/3)
"That was my favorite song so far. I understood the words and I liked the musicality (that's a big word on Dancing With The Stars)"

7. Not on my Side - Cameron Mcgill - 3 (G=14.5/4)
"Too folk-songish."

8. Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo - Jens Lekman - 4 (K=13.5/4)
"I like the beat...could understand most of the words. It was a happy song."

9. A King and Queen - Okkervil River - 4 (K=17.5/5)
Grant: "Shocking!" Mom: "Why? I enjoyed it." [grant didn't think it was poppy enough]

10. Buildings & Mountains - The Republic Tigers - 3.5 (G=18/5)
"I was going to give it a 4, but the instrumentality at the beginning and end went on too long."

11. Lights Out - Santogold - 3 (K=20.5/6)
Mom: "reminds me of someone else." Dad: "wasn't this in a commercial somewhere?" [Yes: the Bud Light Lime ads this past summer]

12. Keep Me On - Bodies of Water - 2.5 (K=23/7)
Mom: "It was a very dreary song, but I liked some of the guitar parts and I pictured the people in all black clothing drearing along" Dad: "It was a dirge"

13. Auctioneer - The Broken West - 3.5 (Adam's filler song)
Mom: "It was happy" Dad: "It wasn't slow and they weren't in black"

14. Parties in the USA - Jonathan Richman - 5 (K=28/8)
"I'm torn...ok, a 5! I enjoyed the familiarity of it"

15. Always a Friend - Alejandro Escovedo - 5 (G=23/6)
"I liked that song...it reminded me of Huey Lewis and the News"

16. John Saw That Number - Neko Case - 2.5 (K=30.5/9)
"2.5...too twangy. The beginning reminded me of my least favorite part of "O, Brother Where Art Thou?" down by the river with the muses and those sirens. But, it had a good beat."

17. You Came Around - Nico Stai - 3.5 (G=26.5/7)
Mom: "3.5" Grant: "It's not over yet." Mom: "oh" "Yes, 3.5. Here's what I say: if they're playing it live, people will start clapping because they think the song is over." Dad: "The music was louder than the words."

18. Foux du Fafa - Flight of the Conchords - 2.5 (K=33/10)
"Soup du jour? It was hard to sing along to, but I liked the music."

19. Hitten - Those Dancing Days - 3 (G=29.5/8)
"Umm, 3. It had a good beat, you could dance to it." [a car from hawaii almost caused 2 accidents during this song]

Intermission: Mom: "I generally prefer songs by guys, and not a lot of pre and post instrumental."

20. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? - She and Him - 5 (G=34.5/9)
"I liked that song (I know I just contradicted myself)"

21. Keep Sending Me Black Fireworks - Of Montreal - 3 (K=36/11)
"Too many changes in the tempo, it was alright. Parts I didn't like but I liked the chorus."

22. Walking on a Dream - Empire of The Sun - 2.5 (G=37/10)
At the start of the song: Kyle: "whoa" Grant: "Yeah, I'm not sure how this is gonna do." Mom: "2.5" Grant: "Better than I thought!"

23. Darling Be Here - Bodies of Water - 2.5 (K=38.5/12)
"This was an angry black Paso Doble song. Was that the same group [as earlier]?" Grant: "You were lucky to get 2.5 out of that song." Later: "It reminded me of Warren Sapp in black leather stomping around." [another Dancing With The Stars reference]

24. White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes - 2.5 (K=41/13)
"Hmm...that was just an average song. Maybe the one before it should've been lower."

25. Would You - Richard Swift - 5 (G=42/11)
Dad: "I knew she'd like that song." Mom: "It sounded like Little Anthony and the Imperials."

26. Airline to Heaven - Wilco - 4 (K=45/14)
"Bob Dylan-ish. It grew on me."

27. Born to be Your Man - Birdmonster - 3 (G=45/12)
"Easy to understand the words, but I heard something about blood and when your uncle died."

28. I Stand Corrected - Vampire Weekend - 3 (G=48/13)
"I say 3"

29. Life is Long - David Byrne & Brian Eno - 5 (Selected by both Kyle & Grant, so not counted in totals)
"easy to sing along with" Mom to Dad: "Do you agree with me most of the time on these songs?" Dad: "nope."

30. Neverending Math Equation- Sun Kil Moon - 3.5 (G=51.5/14)
"Better than some, not as good as others."

Final Score (14 songs counted for each):
Grant - 51.5 total - 3.68 average
Kyle - 45 total - 3.21 average

Grant wins for the second year in a row!

Analysis:
Songs with that "Motown" sound generally score very well (see: Jamie Lidell, Jonathan Richman, & Richard Swift). We have also learned that Mom prefers: male vocals, intelligible lyrics, shorter & less instrumental songs, and a general lack of dissonance.

Both Kyle and I took more risks than last year, with varying results (but more fun!). Kyle's stubborn love for Bodies of Water didn't do him any favors (although a controversy arose when it was discovered that Adam had failed to replace one of the Bodies of Water tracks, as per Kyle's instructions, with the Heartless Bastards' "Piano Song". It would not have made a significant difference in our final scores). I put Empire of the Sun's "Walking on a Dream" on the mix for a laugh, fully expecting it to score a 2 or below, so I was pleasantly surprised with the 2.5 it received.

Gallery Piece

11/17 Show
So, basically, the Of Montreal show was ridiculous. A great show and a great roadtrip to Denver. I drove back early Monday morning in time to do my show, and as you can tell I was a lot influenced in my song selection. I got a chance to play my entire interview with Bryan Poole (the guitarist from Of Montreal) as well. The transcript of that interview is below.

I'm travelling right now for Thanksgiving and won't be on the air this Monday. For the same reason, links may be slow to appear for this playlist. Hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving!

Artist / Song
Mogwai / The Sun Smells Too Loud
Little Joy / No One's Better Sake
The Strokes / Soma
Albert Hammond Jr. / GfC
Parts & Labor / Nowheres Nigh
The Boat People / Born in the 80s
The Rosebuds / Cape Fear
Wolf Parade / Language City
Yeasayer / 2080
David Bowie / Changes *by request
David Byrne & Brian Eno / Life is Long
The Kooks / Kids (MGMT cover)
Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos / I am a Lightning Rod
Belle & Sebastian / Lazy Line Painter Jane
Of Montreal / Nonpareil of Favor
Interview with Bryan Poole of Of Montreal (pre-recorded)
Of Montreal / Gallery Piece
Of Montreal / Gronlandic Edi
Of Montreal / Smells Like Teen Spirit (live)
Jay Reatard / You Mean Nothing to Me
The Mae Shi / Lamb and the Lion
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson / Woodfriend
Arizona / Swimming Hole
Blitzen Trapper / Furr
Okkervil River / Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe
Icy Demons / Miami Ice
Fake Male Voice / OMG!!!FMV!!!
Fujiya & Miyagi / Knickerbocker

White Horse Crap & Double Neck Guitars: An Interview with Bryan Poole from Of Montreal

Of Montreal's traveling circus is rolling into Denver this Sunday, and I was lucky enough to interview guitarist Bryan Poole ahead of their arrival. Bryan talks about this crazy tour, future acoustic shows, Kevin Barnes' recording process, and how seated venues are terrible.

So how’s the tour going so far?

Great. We’ve been having really excited crowds and everybody seems to dig what we’re doing. So far so good.

Great. I recently read that Kevin [Barnes, Of Montreal ringleader of sorts] said the band views this round of touring as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Would you say that’s a fair assessment?

Yeah, we’ve kind of done this prog rock, excess tour, you know? I used to get Mojo magazine and for those who don’t know what Mojo is, its just like this British magazine that’s kind of like the rock historian mag. They were talking about all these prog rock bands that had these lavish tours in the early 70s and were spending millions of dollars on these tours only to find out that they didn’t have the money to back it up and lost their shirts trying to do these tours. For this tour, Kevin, and the band, we’ve always wanted it to be bigger, better, and more extravagant and, you know, as big as we could get it, as big a spectacle as it could possibly be, but on kind of a budget. I mean, definitely, you look at a band like the Flaming Lips or something like that and you really admire what they do because they definitely are setting up all the stuff themselves and they are making the props. They’re not just paying some company, like “Let’s get the fancy laser light thing!” for the tour where some set designer designs your tour set. We’re trying to do the same thing but at the same time to have extra people with us, like we have two vehicles and we have all these extra performers and set pieces and all these things that we have to load into the club. We have to start getting stuff in at around 11am or at Noon. That’s when the day begins and, you know, working right up until the show starts basically getting things ready to go and then our show is like a two hour show. You have all that stuff happening, then you have to break it all down, put it back in, and drive to the next town. So, it’s a bit expensive to do that and we’re not really, or this tour’s not about making money. It’s more about having this celebration or this weird spectacle that we and Kevin have always wanted to do. By hook or by crook it was going to happen. Kevin was not going to be denied, you know? (laughing) “But Kevin we’re going to loose money!” He’s like “Ah, we’re going to do it!” So we saved up a bunch of money. We played some festivals earlier this year that paid pretty well and instead of putting that money up we put it back in to do this tour.

Great. Yeah, the photos and reports I’ve seen have been pretty ridiculous. How was having a white horse on stage in New York?

It was good! Luckily it didn’t do its business on stage. It did right before it went on supposedly. That was the funniest comment of the whole show. After the show we played and were behind the stage and stuff like that, and there’s this security woman back there who is probably like 55 or something. She’s just sitting in her chair, that’s all she did the whole night was sit in her chair. She was like, and I’ll edit it for radio, but she said, “Yeah I didn’t see any of the show, but I saw that horse take a crap on stage!” (laughter) So that was pretty funny. But the horse thing was a great thing, but it was just for that one show. It was just a big blowout because it was available. That was pricey, I won’t even tell you how much it cost to get that horse. So it was a little bit cost prohibitive. Plus, PETA, they weren’t too happy with us using the horse either, which is understandable. I have no ill will towards PETA, but they wrote us a letter about it. And I was like, “Yeah, probably a horse shouldn’t be on stage.”

Well, do you guys have anything special planned for Sunday’s show in Denver?

Well, we bring our show the same, I mean the only thing that’s missing from the show in Denver versus the one in New York is there won’t be a horse and probably Andrew Van Wyngarden is not going to be on stage. But, you know, who knows what other luminaries might appear? So if people want to see what our show is like there’s lots of stuff up on YouTube and pictures around, stuff like that. It’s a lot of time, and it really is kind of a once in a lifetime Of Montreal show, at least for now. I know for our next tour we’re scaling it back because we actually have to pay bills. (laughter)

You can’t do something like this every time I guess.

Yeah, we’ll go back to something more intimate I think, we’re hoping. We did some things in Europe where we played, basically acoustically, and we all had a great time doing it. So we might do a scaled-back, more intimate tour next time.

Yeah, I saw some videos of you guys playing acoustic in some parks in London…

Yeah! That was a little bit odd but it worked out. It was a bit cold and kindof strange and the wind was blowing. It was like one o’clock which is dreadfully early for us.

So, I guess the Elephant 6 collective has some roots in Denver and Boulder. Do you or any Of Montreal members have any connections to the area?

Not per se. Of course, Apples in Stereo, Dressy Bessy and the Minders, even Andy Gonzalez, who played in Of Montreal for a while, of Marshmallow Coat. He’s from Denver and he made friends with Julian and played in music tapes initially and came out to Athens. So that’s the closest thing, we have Andy, Andy from Denver as he’s now called. You should check out his stuff. Yeah, its unfortunate, you know, the Minders and the Apples [in Stereo] have left town, but we always love to hang out with them and go get Indian food. There’s an Indian restaurant I can’t remember where it is, but we always go there. So yeah, we like Denver a lot. I like Colorado, it’s beautiful.

It’s a good place to be. So I’m wondering if, since Kevin did pretty much the whole album by himself, did you guys have any problems turning his studio productions into stuff that can be performed live? How’s that process work?

As far as getting the songs that are recorded, to be able to perform them?

Yep.

Yeah, well we put a lot of time into that because a lot of times with Kevin’s recording methods, like let’s say the thing with bass… it’s not one bass line. Its not like he sat down and recorded the bass line in one go. He’ll start with a simplistic bass line, it might be just one little riff. And then he’ll overdub on top of that bass line another bass line and then, maybe, a third bass line on top of that. So when you actually hear the record it sounds like a crazy bass line but its basically impossible to play for one person. A lot of times that’s kindof the main thing. There’s times where three… I have a new double neck guitar slash bass, so in the middle of one part of the song I play a bass line, and then in another part of the song I play a guitar line. So there’s things like that, yeah, there’s a lot of technical things that we have to get through. But we practice really hard everyday, I mean, really, probably like 6-7 hours a day for about a month from the middle of August until the middle of September. And then after that we had to have stage rehearsals where it was like, ok, all the stuff. We had rented out this place in Athens that was basically a mini-arena and we set up everything in there just to see what’s going to work and what’s not. [So we’re] not going to the first gig with everything being raw. So, yeah, it was a lot of time and professional rock band stuff. Our friend Heather McIntosh is played with Lelain these days and she said they have 13 hour practice days with a short lunch break.

That’s a full-time job.

It could be. (laughter) Its an experience.

Does Kevin ever seek advice or feedback while he’s in the recording process from the rest of the band or is it pretty much a solo effort?

No, not really. He’ll send me sketches that he’s working on and I might comment, “Oh, I really like this thing” or whatever. I’ve kindof learned not to say negative things because then he’ll stop sending them to me. That’s about the only insight I have is that I can comment on it and occasionally get to play on a song if it just happens to be that day that I’m over there. It’s like, “You want to play guitar on this?” “Yeah, I would like to play guitar on this.” But generally he works by himself and he can play everything and I don’t begrudge him that. It is a bit frustrating, I’m not going to lie about that, but I don’t begrudge him for the way he goes about it. He’s like Prince. He can do it and he knows what he wants to play. He knows what he wants so it’s a bit frustrating for him to have other people parts that are not quite what he wants. And he has to wait for them to do it, instead of “Oh, I recorded this track. I’m gonna pick up the guitar.” And then’s he’s recorded something within twenty minutes instead of [saying] “Hey Bryan, can you learn this thing and come up with a part?” Waiting around. So it stops his creative process and he likes being in that world with the headphones on. I think anybody that does a lot of four-tracking, or starts there, can identify with that creative process. Staying up until four or five in the morning and just kind of being in awe like, “What in the world have I just created?” You know, you’re refining it and you’re sculpting it and you just become a really good sculptor of songs. You feel you should be in the guild of songwriters I think.

Do you have any advice for people, like myself, who will be seeing you for the first time on Sunday?

Come to have fun. Don’t just stare. Get involved, you know? We really want to it be a band party. I can’t remember the place we are playing in Denver if it has seats or not…

It’s a standing venue. It’s the Ogden Theater.

Good, because the seated venues are terrible. Everybody’s just kindof static, watching you. You know, I watched Neil Young on some BBC thing from ’71 that I downloaded. I’ve actually seen it about 500 hundred times, but this is a cleaner copy and I brought it on the bus and watched it. Its kindof like MTV Unplugged before MTV Unplugged and everybody’s sitting down. And that’s great for him to be playing acoustic or whatever, but that’s not what we’re doing. We’re a big spectacle rock show. Its like a dance party, so come to dance.

Well I look forward to the spectacle. I know you have a busy day Bryan so I’ll let you get back to what you are doing. Have a good show tonight in Houston.

Thanks! Have fun up there in Crested Butte. I hope you don’t have to put the chains on to make it down to the show.

------------------------------------

Thanks to Bryan Poole for the interview and for Chad Reich at KBUT for setting the whole thing up for me. Go see Of Montreal at the Ogden Theater this Sunday in Denver (or whenever they roll through your town). I know I'm ridiculously excited. Buy their new album Skeletal Lamping while you're at it. Its good.

Of Montreal official website
Skeletal Lamping @ Polyvinyl Record Co.

Daytrotter.com Appreciation Day

11/10 Show
November 10th was officially declared "Daytrotter.com Appreciation Day" by yours truly. Thus, below you will find a substantial selection of live-in-studio tracks from that delightful website. Luckily, many bands visiting Denver in the next week had Daytrotter songs available, so everything fit together quite nicely.

Also of note is Of Montreal's upcoming concert at the Ogden in Denver this Sunday. I am quite excited to see the spectacle in person.

Mp3 links are up and running!

Artist / Song
Parts & Labor / Nowheres Nigh
Built to Spill / Car (live)
Jay Reatard / An Ugly Death
The Boat People / Born in the 80s
Mason Proper / Fog
Wavves / Weed Demon
Vivian Girls / Damaged
Gang of Four / Damaged Goods
Wire / Mr. Marx's Table / Daytrotter
The Republic Tigers / Buildings & Mountains / Daytrotter
Architecture in Helsinki / Like it or Not / Daytrotter
Cave Singers / Seeds of Night / Daytrotter
Born Ruffians / Foxes Mate for Life / Daytrotter
Earlimart / For the Birds / Daytrotter
Beck / Debra *by request
Fake Male Voice / OMG!!!FMV!!!
Of Montreal / Jimmy
Of Montreal / Gronlandic Edit
Of Montreal / Nonpareil of Favor
Blitzen Trapper / Wicked
The Rosebuds / Border Guards
Au Revoir Simone / Sad Song / Daytrotter
Bishop Allen / Rain
The Castanets / You Got Lucky / Daytrotter
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson / Woodfriend
Arizona / Heath
Frightened Rabbit / Good Arms vs. Bad Arms (live)
O'Death / Lowtide
Extra Golden / Obama

Electioneering

11/3 Show
Being November 3rd and all, you might notice a subtle "election" / "change" theme running throughout my show this week. I tried not to make it too obviously political as some other KBUT DJs have done that more successfully and controversially than I ever could. I got a great deal of interested phone calls during the show, and probably the best random listener request to date: The Dodos' "Fools". The Ween request was not nearly as enjoyable.

Didn't use any link-able songs that I havn't linked to before, but you can expect a good dose of those next week now that my internet at home is up and running.

Artist / Song
TV on the Radio / Golden Age
The Very Best / Tengazako
The Tough Alliance / A New Chance
Cut Copy / Out There on the Ice
Cassettes Won't Listen / Change
Starf*cker / Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second
The Seedy Seeds / Changes Less the Moon
Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos / As Tall As Cliffs
Pete Yorn / American Blues Vol. 1
The Spinto Band / The Carnival
Radiohead / Electioneering
Parts & Labor / Nowheres Nigh
Japanther / Change Your Life
Jay Reatard / See Saw
Hacienda / She's Got a Hold On Me
VIvian Girls / Where Do You Run To
The Replacements / Election Day
Mason Proper / Lock & Key
Marc Bolan & T-Rex / Change
The Dodos / Fools * by request
The Umbrella Sequence / Urban Lull (At Once Charmed)
Matt & Kim / Daylight
The Notwist / Boneless
Little Joy / No One's Better Sake
Golden Animals / Beautiful Stranger
Billy Bragg & Wilco / Christ for President
Blitzen Trapper / Not Your Lover
David Byrne & Brian Eno / Everything That Happens
Ween / Freedom of '76 * by request
The Delta Spirit / People C'mon
Empire of the Sun / Walking on a Dream * by request from Kyle
Holy F*ck / Super Inuit (live)
Of Montreal / Id Engager

Wild Eyes

10/27 Show
As you might notice below, Halloween's impending spookiness had no effect on my song selections. Instead I opted for the tried and true blend of new and semi-new indie rock (along with one classic VU track).

Really enjoying Jay Reatard's new "album" Matador Singles '08 right now, as well as Of Montreal's new album Skeletal Lamping (which also just arrived in my PO Box on vinyl!).

Wow! There are links this week!

Artist / Song
Jay Reatard / You Mean Nothing to Me
Jay Reatard / My Shadow
Harlem / South of France
Black Lips / O Katrina
Art Brut / Pump Up the Volume
Vivian Girls / Wild Eyes
Arthur & Yu / Lion's Mouth
The Velvet Underground / Pale Blue Eyes (alternate closet mix)
Au Revoir Simone / Oh! You Pretty Things
Mates of State / Fluke
Matt & Kim / Daylight
Starf*cker / Laadeedaa
Interpol / Stella Was a Diver And She Was Always Down
The Walkmen / In the New Year
Grampall Jookabox / Air Penance
French Kicks / Abandon
Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos / I am a Lightning Rod
Backyard Tire Fire / The Places We Lived
Prabir & the Substitutes / Bad Days Are A' Comin
Dr. Dog / My Friend
King Khan & the Shrines / Outta Harm's Way
Sebastian Grainger / American Names
TV on the Radio / Shout Me Out
The Faint / The Geeks Were Right
Apes & Androids / Nights of the Week
Passion Pit / Sleepyhead
Of Montreal / For Our Elegant Caste
Of Montreal / Touched Something's Hollow
Of Montreal / An Eluardian Instance
Hockey Night / Dark Trance
American Football / Never Meant

Laadeedaa

10/20 Show
As I detailed a couple of weeks ago, Music is My Girlfriend has perservered and perhaps even improved despite the fact that my technological world is crumbling around me (add my iPod to the list of malfunctioning devices). I will admit, however, that my posting frequency has certainly been hurting without a home internet connection.

Walter Brennan made a special late-show appearance this week, courtesy of my uncle.

Artist / Song
The Notwist / Boneless
Starf*cker / Laadeedaa
The Umbrella Sequence / Urban Lull (At Once Charmed)
Matt & Kim / Daylight
Envelopes / Freejazz
The Mae Shi / Lamb & the Lion
Jay Reatard / Painted Shut
Vivian Girls / Where Do You Run To
The Bicycles / B-B-Bicycles
The White Stripes / I Can't Wait
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson / Woodfriend
Women / Shaking Hands
The Splinters / Splintered Bridges
Hacienda / She's Got a Hold on Me
Golden Animals / Beautiful Stranger
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists / Sons of Cain
Titus Andronicus / My Time Outside the Womb
War on Drugs / Taking the Farm
Little Joy / No One's Better Sake
Her Space Holiday / Sleepy Tigers
Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos / As Tall As Cliffs
Sam Champion / Always the Same
The Spinto Band / Later On
Birdmonster / Born to Be Your Man
Jay Reatard / You Were Sleeping
Blitzen Trapper / Black River Killer
Ra Ra Riot / Winter '05
The Rosebuds / Cape Fear
TV on the Radio / Crying
Beck / Hot in Here (Nelly cover)
The Clash / The Guns of Brixton
PVC Street Gang / Cutlass
Of Montreal / Gallery Piece
Walter Brennan / Suppertime