I was just in a well-spirited argument with Abe about all this horseshit thats been passed off as music these days, I found it unfair that crap like MGMT and The Pains of Being a Ridiculously Long & Overzealous Name, gets praised til' kingdom come, true musicians and visionaries get the shaft. Case in point: Jon Brion.
Im tired of talking about how much I want to see Charlie Kaufman's opus Synecdoche New York, each time I mention that Jon Brion did the soundtrack, all i get are blank faces. "the guy that did the Punch-Drunk love soundtrack! I Heart Huckabees! Magnolia too!" Nothing. Then I have to get into this whole thing about how he produced Elliott Smith's Figure 8, Aimee Mann, The Wallflowers, Kanye West(UGH!), Eels; and that Fiona Apple album that never came out(seeing as Brion made it "unmarketable").
In 2000 Brion finally got selfish and cut a record of his own. Some would say that his past collaborations are heavy influences but he comes into his own. Extremely catchy, beautiful and heartbreaking all at the same time. Elliott Smith fans should feel right at home. One of my favorite pop records, gems throughout, it is out of print and underappreciated to say the least. Do yourself a favor, put that "The Fray" album in the microwave set it to 30 seconds, enjoy the fireworks(probably 1000x more entertaining than the album itself) come back here, and download Meaningless.
I don't easily forgive like I used to
And I seldom get carried away
No, you don't have the pull that you used to
But you can still ruin my day
Oh, you can still ruin my day
PT Anderson is a semi-deity
I cannot fucking wait.
"The Grays were a short-lived supergroup comprising singer/songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Jon Brion, Jason Falkner, Buddy Judge, and Dan McCarroll.
They only released one album, the out-of-print but highly regarded Ro Sham Bo (1994) on Sony/Epic Records"
i agree 100%
ReplyDeleteatta boy.
ReplyDeletebtw Synecdoche New York comes out on dvd in like a month. I cannot wait to see it.
Agreed! I do get some "Oh, that guy" when I mention the eternal sunchine score. Hes also a frequent performer at the Largo club in Cali. Would love to be at one of those shows!
ReplyDeletefuckin' A. Vi los cortos de Synecdoche en el cine los otros dias, espero q no le piche'en.
ReplyDeletea month!? god dammit, i was really hoping to see this in theaters but blue-ray'll have to do.
ReplyDeleteI know those blank stairs well... haha
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree as well.
Man, you guys have a great Blog for sure... You are almost 100% in the same music vein as me. It is like a blog of my music collection...pretty uncanny. Keep up the great work! You may be interested in some of my shirts since we are so musically on the same page. Check em out at http://idolwear.net
ReplyDeletethanks again for spreading the word in so much great music.
Todd
This blows me away. "Meaningless" is not just better than today's stuff its absolutely brilliant, a desert island disc, and as emotionally powerful as anything out there- and I wasn't even aware of it. I'm a fan of Brion's arrangements and have followed Falkner since "Author Unknown" but "The Grays" is as good as it gets ! I can't thank you enough.
ReplyDelete