Kensington Blues

While I’m eternally grateful to Brad Lidge for making Eric Hinske a household name here in Philadelphia, I feel that after two consecutive bases-loaded saves he should at least consider changing his entrance music to the Beastie Boys’ thrash track, “Heart Attack Man.”

I haven’t even finished listening to the first song on the New Pornographers’ latest album, Together, and I’m bored. This is a band that once inspired me to do that least cool of things — join the band onstage to dance — way back in 2001 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Man, that was fun. Has it already been five years since they played a preview of Twin Cinema at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA? It has, hasn’t it?

It sounds like a snide, elitist thing to say, but the New Pornographers weren’t built to last. They were that rarest of animals: a supergroup not only didn’t suck, but actually produced two classic albums and a passable third before becoming adult contemporary claptrap.

You see, it would’ve been wonderful if they never really formed a band as such, just produced Mass Romantic, toured, and then went their separate ways. Sure, Electric Version is a spectacular album and I wouldn’t want to forget how fantastic it was to see them play those songs, too, but it’s just that it’s hard to look back on those albums and see them in the same light as they were made. Together, and it’s predecessor, Challengers, are shockingly boring mid-tempo affairs that make you wonder how the New Pornographers ever packed so many hooks into “To Wild Homes.”

The pace of their career makes me think they released those great albums, split briefly, and then reunited to produce two more lackluster albums, only to disappear into obscurity. Maybe it’s for the best. That way future generations might discover the unbridled joy when they first hear Neko Case wail on “Letter From an Occupant.”

I’ve been reading about this set all over the web, most recently at An Aquarium Drunkard. Unsurprisingly, understandably, everyone’s fallen in love with one of the greatest albums ever all over again.

I got the deluxe remastered edition for Father’s Day and I’m still working my way through it, but something really struck me as I listened: do we have the Stones to blame for Blueshammer and their ilk? I mean, would Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jonny Lang have been possible without the Stones paving the way for guys like Stevie Ray Vaughan?

I had no idea that anything I’d ever written, least of all a review of a middling album by Spiral Stairs, would ever gain this degree of infamy, but then this story broke this week. Turns out Spiral Stairs is upset at Pitchfork for their appraisal of his body of work post-Pavement. That’s totally his prerogative, but wouldn’t it have helped if he didn’t insist on rewriting “Coolin’ by Sound” and just giving it new titles?

For the record, that review stands as one of the most puerile pieces of criticism I’ve ever written. Bear in mind that it was written at a time when people actually wrote negative reviews about music, and those reviews were often long than 140 characters. Want to know a secret? The original was longer AND meaner. Hard to believe, right?

For what it’s worth, I loved Pavement. I’m not a hopeless nostalgic for the band, however, and I’ve felt that both Kannberg and Malkmus overestimated their talents in their solo efforts. I listened to Monsoon hoping to hear something different from Kannberg. How do you root against the underdog? The unfortunate thing was that I didn’t find anything to like and he’s been shockingly consistent in underwhelming critics and consumers. This may be why he was so frustrated in Pavement. Malkmus was too shrewd an editor to allow him to contribute material like this.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the praise I lavished on Kannberg for really working to preserve Pavement’s legacy as one of the great acts of the ’90s. I meant what I said about him undertaking the thankless task of unlocking gems from old tapes that he had to literally cook before they could be prepared for remastering. I think I can speak on behalf of Pavement fans everywhere when I say that effort was appreciated.

It’s a shame he can’t get past these bad reviews and just move on. He shouldn’t be discouraged by a handful of bad Pitchfork reviews. At least someone’s listening to these albums and promoting them at all. Will he ever play sold out tours across mid-sized venues as a solo artist? No. But he’d do himself a favor by lowering his expectations and maybe enjoy the fans who do come out to see him perform. Is that so much to ask?

Is it still cool to like Black Mountain? I strayed on their last album, but I’m willing to come back to the fold if it sounds like this, although I’m not hearing the OMG Black Sabbath freakout people have suggested elsewhere. I think I like the Two Lane Blacktop vibe of their new video, though. Maybe the ’70s revival isn’t dead yet?

(I honestly don’t know anything about the new album as I fell off the Jagjaguwar/Secretly Canadian/Dead Oceans promo list somewhere along the line and never remedied that oversight.)