Another Form of Relief

Here I was thinking I’d be falling back on them every week.

It’s been a slow week here at Another Form of Relief, mostly because I’ve spent much of it working in London, which combined with the commute, severely limits my time and energy levels. Everything is back to normal now though a regular blogging schedule should once again resume.

MP3 Ted Leo – Since U Been Gone (expired) (Kelly Clarkson)
There seems to be a lot of appreciation for the regular kind of pop music lately, and Kelly Clarkson seems to be at the forefront of this. Call me a jaded indie kid but I don’t get it all. It’s just generic pop music. Pretty shitty generic pop music at that. A strong singing voice in itself doesn’t equate to good music. This will just have to be one of those things that remains a mystery to me though. I don’t know whether Ted Leo was trying to be ironic or not in covering this one, but somehow it comes off rather well. Granted his high notes seem a little too high at times, but the rest of it all works well, from the powerful acoustic guitar through to the song suddenly diverting into a cover of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ‘Maps’ halfway through. That you can move from Kelly Clarkson into The Yeah Yeah Yeahs so easily is more than just a little disturbing.

MP3 The Bens – I Touch Myself (live) (expired) (The Divinyls)
For those unfamiliar, The Bens is a supergroup consisting of Ben Folds, Ben Kweller and Ben Lee. They released one EP back in 2004 and toured together a little, but that was it. This is something of a shame as they were actually really good. This cover is taken from a show in Sydney that was recorded for radio. For the most part it’s Folds and Lee playing off of each other, although Kweller does make it into the song at the end. This is the weekly cover where I’m not familiar with the original, so I can’t really tell you how it compares, but it somehow manages to be the perfect kind of song for these guys. A tad juvenile? Of course. A hell of a lot of fun? Most certainly.

MP3 Nada Surf – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (expired) (The Smiths)
Much as I can respect the influence that The Smiths have had over music as a whole, I’ve never really liked them very much. There’s nothing wrong with their music at all and the songs are good, but I’ve never found myself actually wanting to listen to The Smith, or Morrissey for that matter. That said, there are a handful of Smiths songs that I enjoy, and ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ is one of them. It also seems to be the most covered Smiths song, although most of them sound pretty awful. There’s a version by The Lucksmiths that I like though, even if it’s almost a note perfect copy of the original, and there’s this one by Nada Surf. I really like Nada Surf, even if their music sometimes wanders into the middle of the road. I’m not sure where this recording comes from, although from the quality I’d hazard a guess it’s from a live radio performance or something. Obviously if anyone can clarify where it does come from, the comment box is waiting below. As for the song itself, Matthew Caws doesn’t have the vocal power of Morrissey, but it doesn’t really matter with a song like this. Caws delivers the song as if he is incredibly weary and just wants to rest. He’s backed up by a nicely restrained guitar and some strings that soar, but never overwealm the other elements of the song. It’s not perfect, and the start seems a little bland, but once it gets going, it’s far better than it really has any right to be.

Ben Kweller’s 2002 album ‘Sha Sha’ was one of my favourites of that year, and it’s still something I give a fair amount of play to. It’s simply a great pop album from a fresh voice. Unfortunately, his follow up, 2004’s ‘On My Way’, was a big disappointment to me. None of the songs really held my attention from it, and it just felt like a rushed out album that sounded like a bunch of outtakes from the first one.

Since then, a lot has happened to Ben Kweller. Most notably is that he’s got married and become a father. Scarily, he managed this while continuing to look like a twelve year old. I swear this man has developed a way to stop ageing. Anyway, he has a new album coming up in September entitled ‘Ben Kweller’, which as the title suggests is a somewhat introspective affair.

‘Penny On The Train Tracks’ is the first song of the new album to be made available, and so far the signs are good. The signature Kweller elements are here: a piano, a slightly shaky yet still powerful voice, and lyrics that work in both an optimistic and pessimistic manner. Added into this mix are some gleeful handclaps, and a nostalgic tale about running into people you used to know who are doing better than you now. Not the happiest of material, but Kweller never makes it sound depressing, one of his talents on previous albums. If the rest of the album can hold this kind of quality, signs are looking very good for a welcome return to form.

MP3 Ben Kweller – Penny On The Train Track (expired)

‘Penny On The Train Track’ is taken from Ben Kweller’s upcoming self-titled album, which is released September 19.

Ben Kweller: Website || Myspace

The Bens were a side project for Ben Folds, Ben Kweller and Ben Lee for a short period back in 2003. They recorded a four song self-titled EP and performed nine concerts together down in Australia. Since then though, nothing has really happened with them. There were rumours of new material as well as US and UK tours, but nothing ever seemed to come of it. This is something of a shame as they do sound damn good together, and the way that they all took turns with songwriting duties made it an interesting experience.

The set below isn’t complete I’m afraid. The concert was recorded by Australian radio station Triple J, and these were all of the songs that they broadcast from it. It’s a shame that they didn’t focus more on the songs of the group as a whole (assuming they played any), rather than focusing more on their solo work. It does all come to a great conclusion though as all three of them launch into a hilarious performance of The Divinyls’ ‘I Touch Myself’.

MP3 The Bens – Ben Kweller – BK Baby (live) (expired)
MP3 The Bens – Ben Kweller – Wasted & Ready (live) (expired)
MP3 The Bens – Ben Lee – Running With Scissors (live) (expired)
MP3 The Bens – Ben Lee – Something Borrowed, Something Blue (live) (expired)
MP3 The Bens – Ben Folds – Army (live) (expired)
MP3 The Bens – I Touch Myself (live) (expired)

I was pretty sure it was out of print, but you can apparently still pick up the four song EP for $6 from Folds’ own Attacked By Plastic store, although it does seem to be on backorder.

It’s sunday and I’m not feeling particularly creative, which means you get a bunch of covers! There’s a certain irony that these posts I add when I’m feeling lazy seem to get more hits than ones where I’m actually trying, but we’ll overlook that little factor.

MP3 Ben Kweller – BK Baby (expired) (Vanilla Ice)
This isn’t a strict cover as Ben has changed it round a little to fit himself. I don’t know if he still does this, but he always used to open his shows with this song, which is one hell of a way to get attention. It’s just him and acoustic guitar, rocking out as hard as he can, declaring who he is. Some of the words have been changed to make it decidedly uncool (“rollin’ in my grey Volvo”), which adds a nice irony given he’s about the last person to “rock the mic like a vandal”.

MP3 The Flops – I’m In Love With A Girl (expired) (Big Star)
Covering Big Star seems to be in thing to do these days (how many versions of Thirteen are there?) but you don’t hear this one done very often. It’s a tiny song that’s unapologetically positive to the point where it’d probably become nauseating if it ran a full four minutes. As it is though, it works perfectly. The Flops version doesn’t really add anything to the original, but it’s another way for me to push a little Trip Shakespeare / Matt Wilson love on here.

MP3 Ben Folds – Get Your Hands Off My Woman (expired) (The Darkness)
Just about the strangest cover here, this was the last song in a set of covers that Folds offered up in his run of EPs before ‘Songs For Silverman’. For what it’s worth, I think that The Darkness are one of the most awful bands I have ever heard, and I think this song is pretty terrible. Folds can’t really do a great deal to recover it, but it’s certainly interesting to hear it turned into piano rock. There’s also something mildly fun about Folds bellowing “get your hands off my woman motherfucker” in the highest voice possible too.

MP3 Ted Leo – Dancing In The Dark (expired) (Bruce Springsteen)
Ted Leo seems to like a good cover as much as I do (his ‘Since U Been Gone / Maps’ medley seemed to cause a small blog storm last year) and this is certainly a good choice for him. It seems somewhat bizarre that he would mellow the song considerably from the Springsteen one, reducing to just an acoustic guitar and restrained vocals. It works well though, and it suits Leo’s style pretty well.

Site stuff..

Honestly, the MC Lars report is coming, I’ve just been holding off a little to see if any pictures from the show turned up online as I didn’t take any myself. I’ve found some of the support act but none from the MC Lars set. I’ll give it until tonight and then just post anyway if nothing shows up.

I’ve got some ideas for a couple of new (semi) regular features in the works. The first is something similar to these cover posts where we look at great songs that are under two minutes in length. Seeing as these songs are often overlooked and I have a short attention span, this could be kind of fun. The second is something along the lines of 6Music’s “great lost albums”, where a great overlooked album is looked at retrospectively. I’d limit this to within the past ten years as that’s the music I know well. Pretty much the albums that bloggers would be jumping all over if they were released now, but are sadly unappreciated as it stands. I’m thinking of things like Enon’s ‘High Society’ or The American Analog Set’s ‘From Our Living Room To Yours’. Of course if anyone has any suggestions for albums that fit the criteria, feel free to leave them below.

There is just about one thing that I find more interesting than music in this world: politics. Now I realise a ton of you have just written me off as being entire insane, but I can live with that. Nor do I particularly hide my politics, being a card carrying (literally) liberal of the (hopefully) non-loony variety. As such, it seemed fitting that the first mix I’d put together on here would be a combining of my politics into what I usually do here.

So in celebration of another glorious raping of our civil liberties that the public don’t give a shit about, Another Form of Relief is proud to present The World Is A Mess, But Our Hair Is Perfect. This is an updated edition of a mix I originally made last year, and seems depressingly more relevant than that. I know there’s a certain irony in most of the songs being by American bands about American issues, but god knows British bands aren’t getting political which would make this thing pretty damn short.

Note: This will only be available for a limited amount of time, so if you want any part of it, get it now, as I’ll be taking it down within a week of this post.

MP3 01 – The Robot Ate Me – The Genocide Ball (expired)
MP3 02 – Koufax – Why Bother At All (expired)
MP3 03 – Actionslacks – This Damn Nation (expired)
MP3 04 – The Rakes – Terror! (acoustic) (expired)
MP3 05 – Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – Counting Down The Hours (expired)
MP3 06 – The Decemberists – Sixteen Military Wives (expired)
MP3 07 – Ben Folds – All You Can Eat (expired)
MP3 08 – The Wading Girl – Amber Waves (expired)
MP3 09 – Stars – Celebration Guns (expired)
MP3 10 – Elliott Smith – A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free (expired)
MP3 11 – Ben Kweller – Jerry Falwell Destroyed The Earth (expired)
MP3 12 – Desaparecidos – Greater Omaha (expired)
MP3 13 – And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Worlds Apart (expired)
MP3 Bonus – The Rakes – The World Was A Mess, But His Hair Was Perfect (expired)

The additional Rakes song doesn’t really fit the rest of the theme, but the title fits perfect and it’s a rather good song, so I thought I’d throw it in there. There’s an 18 minute version of it with a massively extended pub conversation, but that seemed a tad overbearing so I kept it to the shorter version.

I’m not sure how well it flows together, but I tried to assemble it the best I could so it had some sense of cohesion to it at all. I know it can be a little preachy at times, and this may grate for some people, but I like my music to actually have a message, and everything here certainly has one.

I’m going to try and put up some kind of new mixtape every fortnight, but seeing as I’m exceedingly lazy it’ll probably end up being every couple of months instead. Still, enjoy. Normal service will resume sometime tomorrow.

And until then, Good Weather For Air Strikes have a complete Belle & Sebastian concert up in awesome quality that is certainly worth your time.