Stuff Pve Been Breakin Luke Simcoe, OP Blogosphere Commando te J E| AIFF IIA Broke up with: Kate - Girlfriend of over a year... Listened to: The National - A/Zgator Ben Folds Five - Whatever ¢» Ever Amen Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album| Transatlanticism Beck - Sea Change Cuff the Duke - Life Stories for Minimum Wage Wu Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever The National - Alligator I saw The National open for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah over a year ago (it was the first show I went to with my now-ex-girlfriend and it marked a turning point towards a more serious relation- ship) and although they blew CYHSY out of the water, Adigaior never really grabbed me. But now, in my current, conflicted state, The National’s command of texture and Matt Berninger’s earnest approach to his lyrics make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Songs like “Daughters of the Soho Riots,” “Mr. November,” and particularly “Baby We'll Be Fine” have become visceral, almost tactile expe- riences for me, and I’m frequently compelled to put on some headphones and curl up with only The National for company. Ben Folds Five - Whatever & Ever Amen I get the feeling that if you broke up with your girlfriend at three in the morning, Ben Folds would be the only guy who would go out for a beer with you. He’d tell it like it is, and give you the “life’s never as sweet without the sour” speech. In addition to being a stand-up guy and a great songwriter, Ben is also a prophet. I’m convinced that in 1997, Ben looked into the future, witnessed the downfall of my most recent relationship, and wrote an album about it called Whatever ¢ Ever Amen. At the album’s core is an uptempo ballad called “Kate,” about a girl who resembles my ex in more than name: she plays with squirrels and “speaks in mix-tapes and magazines.” Other tracks include the hit-sin- gle “Song for the Dumped,” with its chorus of “Give me my money back you bitch!” [Editor’s note: Luke was in fact not dumped... his rela- tionship ended mutually because “the magic died.” Yeah, sure Luke. It is also my understand- ing that the parties involved have no outstanding financial obligations to one another], and “Brick,” a touching tune about the slow disinte- gration of a relationship, and how one can be more lonely in love than out. So, uh... Ben...? I know you're busy promoting your latest album, Supersunnyspeedgraphic, but do you wanna go for a drink? g Up To Cigp THe TURE ee ee) Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album/Transatlanticism I may have teased Death Cab in this column in the past, but on the rare occasion that my life teaches the levels of emotion and drama that Orange County’s Seth Cohen experiences on an hourly basis, it’s nice to have the always ovet-sensi- tive Ben Gibbard around. I’m always able to con- nect with Death Cab’s heart-on-sleeve lyrics: I too have found pictures of an ex-girlfriend in my glove compartment (although I actually do keep gloves in there, so maybe it és accurately named), I too have made-out with girls in the back of small sub-compact car, I too have found New Year’s Eve to be a sullen affair, I too loved Guinevere, and I too shagged Summer Roberts... I mean Rachel Bilson... I mean... who am I kidding? Cuff the Duke - Life Stories for Minimum Wage I have included this album simply because no break-up is complete without a country record, and Cuff the Duke is the only indie-friendly, alt- country act that I dig, And with lyrics like “She beats me up / See if I care / Choking my desire in an easy chair / Baby you wete never really good to me,” you can’t go wrong! Beck - Sea Change This album is a heart-wrenching affair filled with insecurity, suffering, and loss. It’s by far the most honest and personal record to bear Beck’s name, and it’s consistently underrated whenever Mr. Hansen is discussed. The lush string arrangements and lyrics about being a “Lost Cause,” and crying “Lonesome Tears,” make Sea Change my all time favourite mope-rock album. Take that Morrisey! Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever Hah! Surprised ya! You thought this column was going to be full of sappy indie rock about love and loss, and now you're all like: “What’s Wu-Tang doing here?” You see, 36 Chambers established the knights of Shaolin as the best rap group of all time (a title which, in my eyes, no one has yet to usurp), and Wu-Tang Forever is the sound of a group at the top of the world. Consequently, it has all the ingredients for picking yourself and getting right back into the game. The confidence, the bravado, the machismo, the egotism, it’s all there. And if you need to get literal, nothing is as game inspiring as the GZA rapping about how he'll “pack a thousand white teens in tight jeans,” except for perhaps every line that comes out of OP Dirty’s (RLP) mouth. Luke Sismooe is the Deputy Director of the Angolan National Art Museum’ Vancouver distribution office, and is chief spokesman for the West Coast Literacy Project presently based in Portland. Song of the Week: “Hard Way to Fall” by Ryan Adams and The Cardinals Pat Mackenzie, OP Columnista Does Stephen Harper know that he’s attached himself to a sinking ship? Does he stay awake at night worrying that his up-until-now will- ingness to blindly follow George W. Bush might come back to haunt him? After last week’s routing of the Republican Party from the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, the shift in American political power from right to left must give our leader pause. After all, he is head of a minority govern- ment and therefore his hold on power is ten- uous at best — kind of like the hold a person has on someone who’s only biding his or her time waiting for something better to show up. So, in order to celebrate tenuousness in all its dreary forms — but mostly in matters of the heart (yes kids, even Stephen Harper has a heart) — I give you “Hard Way to Fall” by Ryan Adams and The Cardinals. Jacksonville City Nights, the album from which this week’s song is taken, along with Cold Roses and 29, is number two in a trilogy of albums Ryan Adams released in 2005. With backing band The Cardinals, Jacksonville City Nights takes a long detour down a dark and rough country road. aeditor@gmail.com Musically, “Hard Way to Fall” is struc- tured around guitar, bass, and drums. Slide guitar and an out-of-tune piano provide the atmosphere one might encounter in a half empty bat on a small town Saturday night. The song basically follows a three-chord pro- gression that is loosely strummed, by Adams presumably, on an acoustic guitar. A lilting quality to the music gives the sense of a slow waltz shuffling across the barroom floor by an inebriated couple trying to prevent the other from falling over, while backing female vocals temper Adams’s attempts to sing in a low register. “Hard Way to Fall” is perhaps representa- tive of the rest of Jacksonville City Nights’ sub- ject matter. Drinking, jealousy, loneliness, heartbreak — indeed all the major themes that run through country music — are visited here. Particularly in this song, the loss of a lover is being mourned. Something happened to change a once happy state of affairs and the singer is left in the terrible grip of longing and obsession: “See her smiling at him / That use to be me / But I can find her in a thun- derstorm / Just by the way that the rain would fall / We used to be something but something happened to me / Oh my god when I was free.” Freedom for the singer seems to be found in the solace of a lover; certainly he would be free of the gnawing obsession over his ex-lover that chews at his guts like a starving dog. But “it’s a hard thing to love anyone anyhow.’ Even at the same time he complains that though it’s never stated, it sounds as if the singer fucked up somewhere along the line and is now on love’s losing end. This time he has only himself to blame. Whatever it was that happened to the singer we are left to wonder. With Ryan Adams’ own life for a reference we can imagine scenes involving too much dink- ing and general poor behavior, but it is the difficulties and attenuated citcum- stances surrounding love that grab the lis- tener’s attention. Like in so many country songs, love in “Hard Way to Fall” is not a savior; rather it is something to be taken for granted and disregarded when it is in one’s possession and then pined over when it is lost.