Author: jbenton

MP3 Monday: August 21, 2006

No time for deep narratives in this week’s MP3 Monday. I’m going to post the next three tracks that show up on shuffle in iTunes. As always, the MP3s will be up for one week, so be quick with your downloading.
“Flowing” by Teenage Fanclub. From the album Man-Made (2005).
I said a few weeks ago that power-pop bands, as a rule, don’t age well. Teenage Fanclub may be one of the exceptions. They don’t bring quite as much noise now as they did in the Bandwagonesque days — but to be honest, they never brought much noise in the first place. They were always a polite, tuneful pop band, built on those great MOR Blake/McGinley/Love harmonies. Their most recent album, Man-Made, is one of my favorites of theirs, particularly this track (whose wash of guitars in the bridge nicely echoes the title) and the more brash “Born Under a Bad Sign.”
“Shut It Down” by The Stepbrothers. From the compilation Shakin’ In My Boots: A Texas Rock ‘n Roll Compilation (2004).
Found these guys on a SXSW sampler a year or so back. If you believe the Rolling Stones, circa 1971, should have forcibly stopped the evolution of music — living forever in the sort of gutbucket Southern rock they had on Exile — the Stepbrothers are the band for you. Great fun, if in limited doses. Not sure if they’re still around or not; they were/are from Austin.
“Take My Hand” by Sammy Davis Jr.. From the album Now (1972).
Supposedly this album is the worst thing Sammy ever recorded; not being expert in the Sammy back catalog, I can’t judge. But, beyond “The Candy Man,” it sounds like a fine, if rote album. And I kinda like the faux gospel tone of “Take My Hand.”
Go read about Sammy, since you’re already on the Interwebs. He was hella interesting. Like, did you know he was half-Cuban?

optiganally yours

“Mr. Wilson,” by Optiganally Yours. OY is a quasi-band formed around the Optigan, “an early electronic keyboard instrument designed for the consumer market. It is best remembered today for its reputation of frequent failure and its kitschy appearance and sound. The name stems from the fact that the instrument relied on pre-recorded optical soundtracks to reproduce sound.” Sort of an early sampler, in other words.
Released in 1971, its prerecorded sounds are forever stuck in the Nixon administration, making it perfect for the retro enthusiast in all of us. And there’s a great ’70s-themed video:

More OY tracks available for download here and here and here.

cheating story and edcol

Had another cheating story on the front page Saturday:

Texas officials have released the names of 241 more schools with suspicious patterns in their test scores. But none are likely to be targeted in the upcoming round of state investigations into possible cheating.

The new list, released Friday, brings the total number of schools with suspicious scores to 699. That’s almost one-tenth of all the Texas schools that administered the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills in 2005.

Earlier, the Texas Education Agency had released the names of only 442 schools that had at least one classroom with suspicious scores. But Caveon – the test-security company the TEA hired to look for cheaters – also looked for schools that had suspicious score patterns schoolwide. Because of differences in the ways Caveon analyzed the scores, some schools were flagged as suspicious schoolwide without raising red flags in any specific classroom.

The TEA had not asked Caveon for the schoolwide list until The Dallas Morning News revealed its existence three weeks ago.

And my column ran today, which is probably more interesting:

Of all the layers of silliness in the No Child Left Behind law, it’s hard to come up with any more poorly thought out than the “persistently dangerous schools” clause. That’s the part of the law that is supposed to identify which schools are too scary and unsafe for kids to attend. If your school makes the list, it has to give you the chance to transfer to a safer school.

This year, five Texas schools were labeled persistently dangerous. Four are in the Valley, and I’ll admit I don’t know much about them. But the fifth one is a shocker: Cypress Ridge High School in Houston.

Cypress Ridge isn’t some gritty urban school with gangbangers roaming the halls. It’s a middle-class school in the suburbs. It’s in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, the biggest suburban district in the state. The area has a lot of new growth; Cypress Ridge was built only four years ago and already has 3,500 students. Its test scores are usually better than the state average. If you want to imagine a Dallas-area high school for context, Cypress Ridge’s demographics are comparable to Newman Smith High in Carrollton.

So how did Cypress Ridge get labeled “persistently dangerous”? Was there a serial killer on the loose in AP Chemistry? Nope. Just a few kids snagging pills from Dad’s medicine cabinet.

MP3 Monday: August 14, 2006

Everyone loves story time. So this week’s MP3 Monday is all about the story song — tunes that tell tales. In particular, we’re looking at one of the masters of the craft: the British band Tindersticks. As always, the MP3s will be up for one week, so be quick with your downloading.
“My Sister” by Tindersticks. From the album Tindersticks (II) (1995).
Tindersticks were one of my favorite bands in college. I was into moody, reflective, sad stuff at the time — I was at the age where moodiness makes you feel sophisticated and adult. (It also didn’t hurt that Tindersticks were as British a band as there ever was. Another layer of sophistication to poach!)
But while most of that stuff sounds half-baked and mopey today — to my ears at least — the first two Tindersticks albums (released in 1993 and 1995) remain amazing. And while their spoken-word story songs are not always their strongest, it’s a tradition they maintained for a number of albums.
This one, “My Sister,” is gorgeous. The words are sketches of a dark life, and with good headphones on you and a little liquor in you, it’s pure beauty. “Our life was a pillow-fight. We’d stand there on the quilt, our hands clenched ready. Her with her milky teeth, so late for her age, and a Stanley knife in her hand. She sliced the tires on my bike and I couldn’t forgive her.”
“Harry’s Dilemma” by Tindersticks. From the album Working For The Man: The Island Years (2004).
Lyrics here. The narrator is bass player Mark Colwill, and the story is the sad tale of Harry, a big happy dog whose condition takes a turn for the worse, complete with a surprise ending. (Surprising musically, if not lyrically, since it comes only halfway through the song’s six minutes.) Originally a b-side from 1995; later released on the retrospective Working For The Man.
“Ballad of Tindersticks” by Tindersticks. From the album Curtains (1997).
Lyrics here. This loungy track is the tale of the band’s second American tour and their interactions with the seedy denizens of both coasts. “We’re standing on our heads drinking sours of Crystal Schnapps. Now we’re unable to step back or forward. Swallowing a swallow, tasting it again, it’s not so unpleasant. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste. The first time, it makes you sick; then, little by little, it becomes delicious.”

spoon at the ridglea

Saw the greatness that is Spoon last night in Fort Worth. It was some sort of “secret” show, sponsored by a cigarette manufacturer whose name shall not be mentioned here, although I will say it is derived from an even-toed ungulate. (It’s remarkable how much the ban on most cigarette advertising has forced companies like Ungulate into lifestyle marketing — sponsoring concerts, nightclubs, and other allegedly VIP experiences.)
Anyway, it was a fine show, even though temps inside the Ridglea approached 2,000 degrees. Two songs that were new to me; potential titles include “Don’t Make Me A Target” and “Tune In Tokyo.” (MP3 of that first one available here.)
Of course, my attendance at a show means it’s time for another edition of Who Dat Drummer?, the special crabwalk.com game. As I wrote some time ago: “It’s my attempt, the day after attending a fine indie-rock show, to describe the appearance of the performing bands’ drummers in terms of other historical or contemporary figures. Drummers are, of course, the quiet showboats of indie rock — free to cultivate a sartorial or facial-hair strangeness, but not burdened by the attempts at prettyness required of frontmen.”
But I saw Spoon last year too, and thus have already completed a Who Dat Drummer? profile of skins-pounder Jim Eno:
60 percent Dudley Moore, 40 percent Davy Jones.
At this point, however, I would like to revise said profile:
45 percent Dudley Moore, 30 percent Davy Jones, 15 percent Steve Carell, 10 percent Keith Moon.
Thank you for playing Who Dat Drummer?