EASE DOWN THE ROAD

This week Ease plays it vain. This week, whether our 50 or so readers care or not, we’re delivering the week’s important indie rock-related news through the fusty veins of a narcissist. Why, you ask? Well, because as the year winds down, so does the news. So, at least for one week, we live in the context of the Ease. Why not a list of favorite rock films or maybe even another long-overdue interview? Well, because our upcoming interviews are all still in the works and our long-labored Beatles rant isn’t quite done … and, well, you know, it’s easiest to talk about what you know. Don’t worry, we’ll be getting to all the extensive year-end stuff from 2007 (as well as some interviews and the usual 2008 preview stuff) in the coming weeks. Onto the self-important slant …

 I started reviewing albums while attending Indiana University – very big deal. Not until I heard a baffling 5-song album called Mount Eerie by The Microphones did I feel the urge to send whatzup a review. That album review (which hopefully anyone who read it has long forgotten), was the first step towards my exit from the dying world of music retail. No Mount Eerie, no Ease Down the Road. The album, which was the follow-up to The Microphones The Glow, Pt. 2 (which won Pitchfork’s “Album of the Year” honors in 2001), was considered by most to be a big letdown, thus prompting Microphones honcho Phil Elverum to smugly rename his band after the album and also to write a book about the album (which he sold on tour for awhile). Four years later Elverum is revisiting his misunderstood masterpiece by issuing a 132-page photo book complete with a 10″ record that features what he’s calling Mount Eerie Pts. 6 & 7. Known for his DIY approach, Elverum is treating this oversized picture book with extra attention, printing it at “the best printer in the North America on 10,000 lbs. of FSC certified consumer Endeavor paper.” Not too sure what that means, other than that – at $65 a pop – it must be expensive to produce. That said, if I had $65 to blow, I’m pretty sure I’d probably also have a new candidate for Album of the Year honors. (Note to my friend Austin who drove over his copy of Mount Eerie: I still have hope.) Those of you with bread to throw around can purchase the Mount Eerie book/10″ at insound.com.

My personal favorite guitar-clad, mustache-wearing person of all time, Stephen Malkmus, has finally given his upcoming fourth post-Pavement album a name: Real Emotional Trash. The album, which Matador Records will release in March, is rumored to be his most fully-baked work since his now classic solo debut in 2001. Fingers crossed, this is the album Ease will be blabbing on and on about for most of 2008. With Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney) now in the band, how can he go wrong?

Speaking of favorites, the very man this column is named after, Will Oldham, will release an EP of covers on Drag City Records on November 20. Included on the EP are songs by Bjork, Danzig, Phil Ochs and R. Kelly. Sounds like More Revery Pt. 2 to us Oldham geeks. We’ve also heard from a reliable source that those Coldplay kids somehow finally whipped up an album that lives up to the promise of their early work. Recorded with mastermind Brian Eno, Coldplay’s as-yet-untitled fourth album should hit hard drives (and shelves) sometime during the first half of 2008.

At some point years ago – like most Ease readers, I’d imagine – I decided that Radiohead’s OK Computer would be remembered as the best album of its time. I bought all of Radiohead’s import singles, watched their videos and film incessantly, put posters on my walls, wore T-shirts and put stickers on my car. Up until the recent pseudo-release of their amazing new album, In Rainbows, the band responsible for two of my favorite albums from the 90s had been a little less than spectacular since the release of 2000’s Kid A. As much as Ease loves In Rainbows, not having an official copy of it doesn’t sit well with the geek. Lucky for Ease, Radiohead have signed a deal with XL Recordings to release physical copies of the album in the UK as soon as December 3. No plans yet have been made for a stateside release. Fine with us – bring on those salty import prices!

While working at the student-operated radio station at IU in 1999 I decided to give into the hype and pick up Guided by Voices’ major label debut, Do the Collapse. It didn’t do much for me, but two years later – while working in a record store – I heard their next album, Isolation Drills, and it did something for me. From there I started buying up their older albums, usually only liking a couple of songs per disc. Eventually I decided that I needed to buy the “Freaks and Geeks” DVD set, so I traded in – amongst other things – most of my GBV. Then, upon the release of Robert Pollard’s proper post-GBV solo debut, From a Compound Eye, I was hooked again. I now own almost 30 Pollard-related albums, most of which I still only like a few songs from. Fresh off the release of two pretty lame new albums, Pollard has announced that he will be releasing – you guessed it – yet another LP in January called Superman Was a Rocker. But that’s not all; one month later his band Psycho and the Birds will release an album as well. Too much, Bob. Too damn much.

Poet/activist/rapper/actor Saul Williams has at long last released his Trent Reznor-produced third album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust by way of his website. Ease just downloaded it (for free) at www.niggytardust.com. Those interested in a CD-quality download can acquire such for $5; otherwise the album is free at about half the sound quality. As for the actual tunes, well, they’re … strange. With Williams and Reznor playing all the instruments, Reznor producing and Alan Moulder mixing, the album’s sound is very full, progressive and powerful. Even more experimental than his previous album, Saul Williams, Tardust takes a style-over-substance approach that does little-to-no justice to Williams’ always interesting vocal performances. In an attempt to outdo Radiohead, your free Tardust download comes with a printable color poster and a 33-page printable color book, complete with lyrics. That said, the music on Tardust is nearly unlistenable. If you’ve not yet heard Williams’ classic, Rick Rubin-produced 2001 debut, Amethyst Rock Star, we suggest you start there, then scour the city for a copy of his 1998 film, Slam.

Looks like there’s room for a list of “rock films” after all. First off, it should be no surprise to any Ease reader that Stephen Frears’ High Fidelity is our all-time most-viewed anything ever. Other favorites include This is Spinal Tap, Singles, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, School of Rock, Don’t Look Back, Gimme Shelter, Almost Famous, A Mighty Wind, 24 Hour Party People, Tapeheads, Stop Making Sense, Sid and Nancy, Come Feel Me Tremble, True Stories, The Last Waltz, Hype!, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, 1991: The Year Punk Broke, Detroit Rock City, Meeting People is Easy, That Thing You Do, Dazed and Confused, Pump Up the Volume, The Commitments (whoever borrowed this, can I have it back?) and a whole lot more. Two rumored-to-be great “rock films” were released this year: Once, a film about two street musicians played by real-life musicians Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová; and Control, an Ian Curtis (Joy Division) biopic directed by legendary rock photographer Anton Corbijn. Ease hopes to see both asap.