Almost Famous: Wisconsin

It was nice for our state to actually get a little recognition today. I can't remember the last time our state has been acknowledged on a national level. The last time the Packers were at the Super Bowl? It got me to thinking, when will the next time be? What possible event could take place in which Wisconsin will play an extended role in national news. Every possible scenario had one variable in common: Brett Favre.

The obvious possibility would be Brett Favre's retirement. I have long thought about what will happen on this day. Schools would be shut down. The elderly will die from sadness. Men whose blood was pure alcohol and brat grease would no longer be able to thrive off of their adrenaline, which was the only thing keeping them from dying of heart attacks for the last decade or so. It would rain, not a violent storm, but a slow steady downpour with the clouds blocking out the daylight.

After this day, the next time the proverbial sun would come out for Wisconsin in the media would be when Brett Favre chose to run for governer, President, and Pope all in one shot. He would make Friday required-pick up football day, with cheerleaders and everything. There would be no war, and all conflicts would be resolved in sudden-death overtime (not to be taken in the literal sense). It would be the most glorious era in the history of the Dairy state.

So fear not Wisconsinites, despite the fact that rough waters are ahead, they will ultimately lead to a utopia... a glorious beer-battered utopia.

I want to make the song of the day a totally unrelated song. For the past two weeks, I have been bathing in the sounds of the Dekoder remix of Menomena's "Weird". I decided to make it the song of the day today because I heard it featured in a Mountain Dew commercial (ad can currently be seen on the Mountain Dew link in promo section).

Menomena- "Weird" Dekoder remix

Who's the Boss? My top 5 bands with More Than One Lead Singer

Like variety? Here are my 5 favorite bands with more than one lead vocalist. Each group will include a song or songs featuring each lead singer (except Broken Social Scene, because there are so many).

1. Menomena
I know, I know, this blog so far has been Menomena-dominated, but it really deserves to be. They barely edge out Broken Social Scene for this list, but each member of this band contributes to lead vocals on songs. Admittedly, they are mostly Brent Knopf and Justin Harris, but Danny Seim leads on a couple, has a solo project, and contributes back-ups on many tracks. Seim's got a very low voice but he'll bring it up to a falsetto from time to time, Knopf's is more sweet, vibrato-dominated, and higher than the other two's voices, and Harris pushes his to intensity very well, but can also have a beautiful falsetto.Their styles are all unique, but fit the instrumentation amazingly.

"Trigga Hiccups" at Menomena.com (Knopf)
"Weird (Live)" at YouTube (Harris)
"Strongest Man in the World" at YouTube (Seim)

2. Broken Social Scene
Okay, we all know Broken Social Scene is Kevin Drew's band. He dominates the vocals for the most part. But the female leads know how to steal the spotlight as well. You can't help but fall in love with 2006's break-out star, Leslie Feist, when you hear her voice in these songs. I love her in BSS more than in Feist because for the most part her songs in Feist show off her sweet, beautiful side, but songs such as BSS's "Almost Crimes" (my favorite BSS song) allow her to belt it out, which I think is her most impressive aspect. She almost has a Robert Plant aspect when she sings the best part of the song: "Love and hate is the only way". But she's not the only other lead singer. Amy Millan and Emily Haines also contribute on tracks. Even K-Os has contributed. This spring, Brendan Canning will release Broken Social Scene's second "Presents..." album, and from seeing him in concert, it should prove to be an amazing Dinosaur Jr.-esque album.

"Almost Crimes" at YouTube (Drew and Feist)

3. Tegan & Sara
No, I'm not ashamed that I like Tegan & Sara. Every guy is allowed to like a maximum of five girly bands I believe. But I don't even believe they are a girly band. Would the White Stripes have a hit with a cover of a girly band? I don't think so. Tegan's songs are probably the ones people think of when they call them girly. Her voice is much more normal, the instrumentation on her song normally less intense. However, she can speed it up on occasion as evidenced with "Living Room", my favorite song of theirs. Sara's songs are unique, odd, and impossible not to love. Her voice is weird, but not annoying. Her songs are often repetative, but not boring (See "Walking with a Ghost"). Overall, the two girls' songs are totally different characters from one another. They split cd's, which is a must because both of these girls clearly love the spotlight and are jealous of eachother's talents. I love them for it.

"Living Room" at YouTube (Tegan)
"Walking with a Ghost at YouTube" (Sara)


4. Headlights
Headlights is he epitome of the pop-folk male-female bi-vocal happy-go-lucky indie band. Erin Fein's voice is so sweet and innocent, Tristan Wraight's is chill. They have a new album coming out on February 19th.

(Both sing backings on the other's songs)
"TV" at YouTube (Erin)
"Signs Point to Yes (Outlook Not So Good)" at YouTube (Tristan)



5. The Receiving End of Sirens (Between the Heart and the Synapse only)
Why do I say that? Not because the mixed vocals ended after that album. No, because after the debut album they lost Casey Crescenzo, the strongest part of the tri-vocal attack. Their second album, "The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi", left only Brendan Brown and Alex Bars to contribute weaker, uninspired vocals. Not only that, but it is clear Casey was a large part of the song-writing process, because his solo project "The Dear Hunter" now sounds more like The Receiving End of Sirens than the current Receiving End of Sirens does. Nevertheless, Between the Heart and the Synapse is a fantastic experimental rock record, one of the few albums I still listen to from my high school emo music phase, although I fail to see how this album falls under the emo genre. There's no whining, no talks of cutting oneself, etc. I guess you'll have to listen for yourself.

"Planning a Prison Break" at YouTube (All three)

Menomena's "Evil Bee"

I decided that my first post was more introductory than a real post, so I justified to myself a second post, which is really what I was thinking today. I have said it over and over again to my friends and pounded this song and video into their heads, but I want to tell you why it's so interesting to me. It's a song called "Evil Bee" by Menomena, and to me it was the song of the year for 2007.

First, I want to address the musicality of this song. The song starts out feeling as if you are a part of some steam engine or industrial assembly line, which fits perfectly with the song. The bass line is dominant in this song, and it will be stuck in your head for days on end, but you will not grow sick of it. The song flies around, throwing jazzy sax, eerie piano, and diverse drum patterns at you. It's so unique, but it comes together with such an air of dominance, like a well-oiled machine ready to run you over and laughing at your feeble attempts to escape. The end is a slow-motion sequence of the music flattening you to the pavement. The music couldn't fit the lyrics any better.

T0 me, the chorus of the song is one of the greatest lines I've ever heard: "Oh, to be a machine, to be wanted, to be useful." At first, Brent Knopf weakly utters the words, as if curled up in a corner and talking to the himself. By the end he is violently wailing them. Now, the comparison of humans to machines is nothing new, whether in music, literature, etcetera, etcetera. But most depict the machines as an negative alternative to humans because they are emotionless and in no way individuals. However, this is exactly what the protagonist in this song wants. Humans can often be unwanted or be viewed as useless. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there you have no desire to have in your lives. But we see many machines as necessary in our lives. Where would we be without cars, computers, or refrigerators?

The video depicts a bee that is on an assembly line converting a substance into honey that powers bird-machines. When its production goes down and it rebells, it is destroyed by the bird- machine. It insinuates that the bird-machines are in fact treating this bee worse than a machine when in fact they do need it for existence. This bee clearly has feelings, and because the bird-machines show no regards for them, the video is saying that they are the feeling-absent machines, showing no sympathy. The bee must long for the bird-machines' abilities to not feel.

I guess it's open to interpretation by anyone who listens to the song. But here's my thoughts. We often treat people worse than machines, betraying the very feelings that separate humans from machines. In that sense, it is possible for them to want to long for these feelings to not exist. They feel their existence to us is unnecessary and not useful. Just something this song makes me think about.

www.myspace.com/menomena
www.menomena.com