Song of The Day #18 - Ryan Adams - 'Meadowlake Street'

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Not that easy to get a picture of this guy off google without him looking like a ridiculous idiot.

I use to absolutely adore Ryan Adams. I mean that too. I think I've seen him live six times. I've bought all his albums a couple of times. I've got merchandise and I've got posters. Hell, I've got vinyls and I haven't even got a record player. Serious shit friends, serious shit. At some point down the line though, I fell out of love with him spectacularly. The stupid stoner behaviour he started indulging in like creating 'funny' websites and writing rambling rants on (his own) messageboards about space and pizza might've done it, yes, that'd be a fair assumption. Ultimately though, as I've stated many of times, you have to separate the artist from the music as much as you can lest you ruin everything. So I tried to ignore all that. Their gift is their tunes, not their personalities, beliefs or moral stances. So I let the stupid shit slide. Nah, for Ryan and I it was the records. They just kept getting worse and worse and worse. The live shows too. No self control and sometimes almost no awareness for about 95% of the audience. i.e. those of us that DON'T want to see a 18 minute Grateful Dead cover noodling jam that goes on and and on and on until it arrives nowhere.

Ryan Adams - 'Meadowlake Street'

Count 'em back to nothing till I got to you.

There are, of course, reasons that I was so taken with this guy once. His old band, Whiskeytown, remain one of my favourite acts and once upon a time as a solo artist he was on a particularly 'golden' (oof, poor pun) run. This song is taken from a double record called 'Cold Roses' that really did hit many more times than it missed and it's impossibly pretty. The drumming is really great and beautifully understated on this song right until about halfway through when it starts to build and build and build. Props to the kick drum. It's solid and ever present and absolutely vital. It's a kick drum as a heart beat. To be frank, this song from the line 'I feel like a dream that's not worth having/like a nervous joke/ain't nobody laughing' onwards really is breathtaking. Listen to it on summer nights when you're with people you care about, c'mon, share the warmth man.

I feel like a dream that's not worth having
Like a nervous joke ain't nobody laughing
Like somebody with nothing 'cause they don't know
What they're wanting
Tiny like the sand in the cracks of the drift wood
Washed up on the shore of an ocean of you

Walk Away Now and You're Gonna Start a War.

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The National starting a war by just sittin' on steps. Jus' chillin', yesterday.

Yo I just stumbled across a video that I'd completely forgotten about. It's The National performing 'Start a War' around some banquetesque dinner table in someone's dark basement and it's just brilliant. 'Banquetesque dinner table' and 'dark basement' shouldn't really be used in the same sentence, I know. It doesn't even make damn sense. Yes, I'm aware of the term oxymoron smartass.

I really hate to do another National post, I really do. You gotta keep these blog things mixed up ya see - Keep 'em fresh. You can't go posting the same old bilge every week about the same stuff and not expect people to start sleepin' on ya. With all that said, this video really is great so I'm disregarding the whole start of this second paragraph and posting something about The National despite only reviewing 'High Violet' recently. Sleep all ya want suckers.



Also whilst I'm here, Ryan Adams. I use to dig him BIG style when he was all about writing a million songs a day that were actually good and being a bit unpredictable and drunk and roundly hated by anyone who wasn't one of his fan boy/girls but since then he's really fallen off. I'm talking since 'Cold Roses' here by the way (although I see the merit in saying 'since Heartbreaker'). Yesterday I was reading about (and heard, regrettably) some of his most recent release, 'Orion', and yes, it's space metal or whatever and yes, it's shit. I thought it was only fair to somehow inform his wife in a polite manner on twitter about this. See she was moaning about dropping a table on her big toe (fascinating tweet Mandy! 2m followers too. God.) so I replied:

Neither Mr or Mrs Adams has replied as of yet.

"Keep me in the loop."

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"Do you smoke?"..."Yeah I do. I smoke seriously. I'm a serious smoker."

People say that a lot, don't they? "Keep me in the loop on that." Normally it's those lucky souls that spend the majority of their weeks in artificially lit offices severely lacking in upbeat demeanours and inspiration. I'm sure you'll know what I mean there. "Keep me in the loop on that printer cartridge situation man! That's some important shit." That kinda thing. I myself am rarely 'in the loop'. My most common response in professional circles being "Umm. What?" It's a wonder I don't work in McDonald's. If they let you put your own music on whilst you worked and said you could just not turn up for, let's say, 20% of your shifts I would you know. I really would. Careers are overrated. In fact, you often read about cars careering off the road and those stories never end well, do they? Example here over at the Daily Heil. Four houses! Madhouse!

I did have a point here, I promise. Being in the loop with your favourite artists latest moves. That was it. It's strange because there's a fair few people I have, at various times of my life, completely loved yet now I sit here not knowing what their past three albums have sounded like. It's a strange thing. Maybe there's a simple answer. Maybe it's time. You can only listen to so many things can't you? I mean, unless you're doing that 'Zaireeka' experiment and if you're doing that you definitely do a have a problem with old Father Time son. That being that you have FAR too much of it, of course. Tastes change too, obviously. 1. I don't obsess over Ryan Adams like I once did. 2. I don't actually mind capers anymore whereas there once was a time I would've willingly marched myself to Guantanamo Bay before I'd eat one of those salty wonders.

Why am I rambling on about all this anyway? Rufus Wainwright is why. I ordered his new record 'All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu.', yesterday and I'm really looking forward to getting back in to Rufus world as it's been far too long. I'm not too sure what happened or where because I listened to both parts of that 'Want' album into my ears damn near fell off as it was an absolute peach. Since then though, I just ain't been returning Rufus's calls. I can't put my finger on why but we've just grown apart. Apart and away from each other.

Maybe it was that Judy Garland thing he did. I mean, I intend no offense and I probably should be open minded but c'mone, wasn't that album just Rufus performing, well, like proper show tunes?! Are you serious man? *shudder*.. Show tunes are not my bag at all. To me, they were born and raised in the same crib as other not-so-favourites/music I utterly despise like 'wartime songs', 'carols', 'acid house' and 'Joss Stone'. I think that record put me off for a bit and during this time Rufus just slipped off my radar. However, I read a couple of reviews of 'All Days Are Nights...' and was instantly alerted when I saw that this album is just Rufus and piano with no show tunes or camp C3PO stuff in sight. This is just Rufus with a piano singing songs about the recent loss of his mother. Sad stuff for sure and I'm pleased he seems to be dealing with that pretty well now. I've got high hopes for this one and naturally, I'll let you good people know what it's like so you can all stick it on your long list of things to download. Go on, pencil it in nerds. Just below 'World of Warcraft update patch' but just above 'Red Dwarf Series 4'. What's the worst that could happen?

Listen to this song. This is something else.

"No matter how strong/I'm gonna take you down with one little stone..."



Naturally I couldn't talk about anything being in or out of the loop without mentioning the below a little. If you haven't seen 'In The Loop' you're probably one of those people that needed counselling after watching 'Avatar' as you thought the world in that film was 'perfect' and you got all depressed coming out of the cinema and back into real life. Real life where people like the cast of 'Jersey Shore' exist and where millions upon millions of people listen to Chris Moyles every morning and enjoy it. God, now I've written it out and read that in blue and white I feel kinda low. What's your counsellor's number?