How to Troll Ryan Adams in Only Two Songs

Yesterday was supposed to be Ryan Adam’s day to shine. After months of teasing his re-imagining of Taylor Swift’s 1989, he finally revealed his work yesterday for the world to hear. The afternoon was filled with lemming bloggers heralding Adams for his takes on Swift’s album of mundanity.  Why he got patted on the back for attempting to bring authenticity to an album of manufactured, overtly polished, radio-friendly schlock is beyond me, but you have to commend him for having the foresight to cover an album by the most popular “music artist” in the world. If you want to bring in a younger demographic after a stagnantly predictable decade of music, what better way than to hop on the magical coattails of Ms. Faux-Humility.

But then, amidst Adam’s day of glory, Father John Misty came along and trolled both him and Swift with two mp3s posted to his SoundCloud page. The first clip was a cover of “Blank Space” with the note: “My reinterpretation of the classic Ryan Adams album 1989.” Ouch. As if a cover of a cover wasn’t enough of a face to Adam’s desperate grasp for a younger audience, the audio revealed that FJM opted to cover Adam’s cover of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” in the style of The Velvet Underground (welcome to the rabbit hole, my friends).

BDWPS Podcast #39

In this month’s episode we check out new music from Royal Headache, Ultimate Painting, Beach Slang, No Famous Death, Titus Andronicus, and Zachary Cale. We also visit old tracks from Alice Cooper and Bob Dylan. Check it out HERE or even better yet, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher (search keyword: BDWPS).

Royal Headache “My Own Fantasy”
Ultimate Painting “Break the Chain”
Beach Slang “Filthy Luck”
No Famous Death “You’ll Go Back to Girls”
Titus Andronicus “Lonely Boys”
Zachary Cale “Sundowner”
Alice Cooper “Laughing at Me”
Bob Dylan “Isis”

HEALTH “Death Magic”

HEALTH

Death Magic

[Loma Vista; 2015]

Rating: 8.5

When HEALTH first started, they were noise-art to the extreme. If you want to test someone’s intestinal fortitude, put on that self-titled debut, turn it up as high as you can without bursting eardrums, and sit back to face the carnage. The drums were tribal bedlam. The guitars were shattering dissonance. The synths were icicles, sending chills down your spine. But amidst all this chaos, Jacob Duzsik’s vocals eerily sang vaporous melodies like a deceased choirboy stuck in limbo. Despite all the madness, the vocals represented the deus ex machine, keeping the sputtering tank from crushing over mankind.

The remix album DISCO that came out a year later helped expose the band’s serene little secret. While I prefer the debut to its remix predecessor, that album gave hints toward what this band could possibly sound like going forward. 2009’s Get Color stayed true to their initial style, although it featured moments of pop sensibility, and once again, the remix album that coincided with it even further revealed the melodies buried under the violent synths.