Best of lists, music and wine
There are some problems with best of lists (some rules). First there is the time frame. A best of list usually covers a time period, e.g. a year.
Trivium #1: You cannot make a serious best of list before the end of the period covered. Actually this is not as simple as it sounds. Speaking of records, release dates are different in different countries. Which one to choose? For the sake of simplicity you could take the release date in the home country of the artist. But this is maybe irrelevant to you as you discover the record later which brings us to the next point.
Trivium #2: You can only include items which you know. Seems to be really stupid, but this determines the contents of the best of list decisively. So actually you can only make a serious best of list when you know all let’s say records which have been released in the said year.
Therefore once you have established your best of list it is not definite. As it could be that you discover new albums you did not know before. Even subtler it could be that you have known a specific album but you did not recognise it as a great album, it is a grower and you did not have enough time to listen to it. Especially probable for albums which are released the 30th December.
But there is also the other way round. You put a record in your best of list but when you listen to it a couple of months later it has lost its charm. Happens quite frequently to me. Using wine terminology we could say the said record has exceeded its apogee. In the first case when you did not listen enough it has not yet reached its apogee (like the Mouton Rothschild 2000). This leads me to the idea of the perfect album which would be a record which reaches its apogee at the end of your life. It grows every time you listen to it. Does something like this exist? Maybe the soundtrack of nature, e.g. the birds singing!
Conclusion: Best of lists are never final. They should be revised regularly as Parker revises his wine notations every year. Having said that I will post my revised Best of 2000 list as from July, 11th 2001 tomorrow.

Parallels between wine and music: Wine has three main properties. Colour, bouquet (smell) and taste (on the tongue). These properties could be compared to genre (e.g. white=pop, rose=jazz and red=classical), introduction and melody in music. Even better analogies can be found for grape in the sense of cépage (=style, e.g. shoegazing within pop), winery (=artist) and certain vintage of one winery (=record). The grapes are the instruments. The wine dresser is the musician. The sommelier is the deejay. The wine consumers are the audience. The alcohol is the beat. A corky wine is like a false note. The structure (or maybe the body) of a wine could be compared to the musical rhythm. The water in the wine could be the air. The water transports the alcohol into our body, the air conveys the sound to our ears. A live concert is like a wine we drink in the region where it comes from. Talking when drinking socially is like dancing to music. The vintage year is not equal to the release year. It is the year when you heard a record for the first time. Etc. etc.
In giving notes to music we have the same problem as with wines. How can we compare techno with baroque on the same scale? This is why they only compare wines within an appellation (smaller than a region, geographical term which is purely wine derived) in the Guide Hachette. A wine with three stars is a representative wine of the appellation and nothing more. A coup de coeur Vin de Pays de l’Aude is not necessarily better than a two star Chateau Latour.

P.S. Calexico's tour CD Aerocalexico I mentioned yesterday is phantastic. No mariachi at all, quite experimental. Doug McCombs from Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day participates and there are many very short but interesting slightly dissonant tracks. Definitely a grower. Calexico are following in Giant Sand's footsteps. Very DIY like Howe's recent album Confluence (amg). The record sounds like a homegrown cannabis (a strange crop anyway) plant. Actually Joey Burns almost looked like Howe on Sunday. He was wearing the same kind of baseball cap.

Yesterday we went to see Calexico in Mainz. The concert was ok but very similar to last year's one at the Frankfurt University. The first half was nice with a very good trumpet solo by the Mexican guy whose trumpet sound can be very similar to the cold and lonely intonation of Miles Davis. Joey Burns did some nice distortions with his electric guitar and also with his voice whenever he used the left microphone. He must have learnt that trick from Howe whom I missed sadly. There were also some quiet songs, I think I heard a Nick Drake cover, but it was not Clothes of Sand. That song can be found on the nice exclusive tour CD Aerocalexico with some live stuff and covers, e.g. a great instrumental version of Goldfrapp's Human renamed Humano.
The second half (no pause) was too Mariachi, Tex-Mex for my liking. The trumpet parts were very predictable. I liked it when they played this very calm song (do not know the name) and suddenly went berserk in the middle of it bursting into an amazing cacophony of sounds. For a minute or so we listened to a free jazz session. Besides Burns and Convertino there were four other musicians. Two trumpet players who were also playing guitar and singing. Then there was a bassist who looked like the son of Phil Collins. And finally the pedal steel player. The pedal steel sound was really predominant, but not annoying though it gave the music the C&W tinge. The pedal steel is a kind of guitar which (from far) looks like a keyboard. The way it is played reminded me of the washboard which is used in Bavaria but apparently also in Zydeco and Skiffle.

What is love?
The day before yesterday we watched Le beau mariage by Eric Rohmer as a home video. The movie dates from 1981 and is very low-budget. As all Rohmers it is mainly conversation. Rohmer is like the small brother (actually he is older and his films are wiser as well) of Truffaut. Quite simple but still intellectual films.
The plot is really simple. A beautiful brunette in her early twenties (Béatrice Romand looks younger than she is) splits with her married painter boyfriend. She is sick of being only second choice. So she decides to marry. Very strange. She does not even know whom. But soon her friend introduces her to her cousin, a lawyer. From the beginning her friend makes clear that she is exactly her cousin's type. Dark hair, slim figure. Now she knows whom she will marry. She gives up her job and runs after him. It is like the Diary of a Seducer by Kierkegaard, but there it works and here not. Maybe men are better seducers. :)
She is so sure of herself but the guy does not respond. So finally she goes to see him in the office and he tells her that actually she is exactly his type of woman, but this is exactly the problem. The reason he puts forward that he has no time for a relationship and that he has to work on his career is of course bullshit. In fact he says no as she is trying too hard.
The quintessence for me is that it does not work as no love is involved. She is absolutely not in love with the guy. She is only acting rationally so she cannot expect that he will love her back. It is all too perfect. You cannot force love. Love is always a present, with something irrational or unpredictable. There is a very human aspect in love. We do not want to be overrun. We want to be respected, free to choose or at least we want to think that we have a free will.

REM – Reveal
I finally came round writing the review, sorry that it took so long and got so long as well.
The first thing that strikes the eye with REM's new record Reveal is the cover. It must be one of the most horrid covers ever produced in the history of cover art. It pictures a lawn in the midday sun with some ducks in the distance moving towards a pond. As the photo is overexposed the predominant colour is yellow. The photography seems to be taken against the sun, but the photographer's shadow can be seen in the left corner in front, so that the sun must be behind. So actually he has taken a picture of himself (self-referential , how smart!) in an artificially (either via mirror reflections or via a spotlight) bright looking landscape. And then there is R.E.M. in big capitals with orange circles near the "M." in the right corner in front. The upper part of the cover is in plain yellow with the song titles in font 5 on the left and the album title in capitals on the right. A really tasteless creation, looking awfully cheap. It shocks the eye. A title which would have fit much better with the cover art would have been Disguise instead of Reveal.
Speaking of the title, is it by chance that Stipe has just had his official (we have known it for a long time) coming out when the album was published? Another revelation is the inclusion of a lyrics sheet for the first time as far as I know. Before Stipe was never proud enough of his lyrics to publish them. REM seem to have arrived where they always wanted to be. They have become adults, they really have matured. The music is now on such a high level, it is pure magic, very calm and very self confident but nevertheless melancholic. We should be happy that Stipe’s voice will never sound happy.
The most frequent words on Reveal suggest a new direction in their song writing : eyes, cry, high, gravity, fly, sing, light, summer. The songs are airy, very light and can be compared to a delicate blossom. The old college rock days are definitely gone. There are several songs where Stipe seems to literally take off (also with his voice).
Maybe Stipe is right when he said that this is the perfect music for housewives to do the cleaning and washing to. On the other hand this must have been ironical, the production of Reveal (especially the strings) is so perfectionist, Stipe has become really cool to say something similar about REM’s chef d’oeuvre.
When listening to the album what strikes the ear most is a certain ease. This can certainly also be explained by the more ample use of samples and electronics than usual. Already the gorgeous New Adventures in Hi-Fi was pointing in this direction, Up was even more experimental but did not succeed. The departure of their former drummer seems to have given REM a means to redefine and liberate their sound and to adjust it to modern contemporary pop music.

Some short impressions track by track:

you’ve said the air was singing (the lifting)
Already the title of the first song „The Lifting“ sets the theme of the record. It is a perfect opener, a lush production with symphonical support. Michael even welcomes us with „good morning, and how are you?“. My favourite part comes just before the end at the climax when Stipe sings „never“ for 19 times and it is like a song in a song.

but life it sometimes washes over me (i’ve been so high)
Somber keyboards and a dark drum machine rhythm and then the lighting up with one high keyboard chord. Loads of strange electronic noises and a string section complete this good song.

you’ve dusted the non-believers and challenged the laws of chance (all the way to reno)
Light and optimistic song. Slight country touch with pedal steel sound. Additional electronic „bubble“ sounds.
String section is in the background. Stipe’s voice reaches quite high when he sings „you know who you are“.

and now is greater than the whole of the past (she just wants to be)
A more classic and conventional REM tune. Nice simple guitar intro and outro. A song with lyrics like “it’s not that she wasn’t rewarded with pomegranate afternoons of mingus, chet baker and chess“ cannot really be bad. The string arrangement and the Knopfler like guitar make this track nevertheless a little too close to schmalz for my liking.

the only thing worth looking for is what you find inside (disappear)
Slightly experimental dissonant electronic start. Some banjos, some dark electronic string-like noises, Peter Buck’s guitar and the music suddenly has the typical REM classic sound. Most average song yet but not really bad.

easy to take off harder to fly (saturn return)
A ballad with sprechgesang. Strange beginning and atmosphere with dark electronic sounds and whistles. Suddenly Stipe’s voice and the piano set in. Stamping drum-machine rhythm. Then some electric guitars in the background. Some electronic experiments. At the end Stipe‘s voice too high when he sings „harder to fly“.

i knocked my head against the sky (beat a drum)
A brighter song. Piano driven. Rhythmic piano play. The start „the sun reflected in the back of my eye“ is the clue to the strange lighting conditions on the cover. A line like „the dragonflies are busy buzzing me“ sets the tone. There still is melancholy, but it is serene: „halfway from coal, halfway to diamond“. After 2:50 a beautiful magic horn entry for ten seconds. A great song musically and lyrically.

no one can see you cry (imitation of life)
The single. Typical REM sound. Buck’s guitar is predominant. Nice synthie after 2:00 with bell-like noises.
This song will be killed by airplay this summer.

the fireflies and time move like syrup through the evening (summer turns to high)
Atmospheric beginning with keyboards and sprechgesang. Another allusion to the cover: „i won’t step on my own shadow“. Most average track yet, too repetitive, melody not really hooking.

the machine of god singing (chorus and the ring)
The low point of the album. Sprechgesang and no melody. Just terrible. Stipe’s singing not à la hauteur. The end when Stipe repeats „sing“ a couple of times embarrassing. Skip!

and summer’s song it fades to memory (i’ll take the rain)
Strong guitar intro. Melancholic lyrics, singing and melody. One of the top three songs of the album. After 3:15 bass line. Best chorus of the album: „i used to think, as birds take wing, they sing through life, so why can’t we?“. Near the end guitar line. Somehow this song reminds me of the beautiful psychedelic Beta Band rain song Dry the Rain.

this life is sweet we’re dancing in the street (beachball)
Perfect closer. Ballad. Very relaxed atmosphere with accordion and horn section. String section a little too sugary. „good mood“ song.

This is one of those records which I am afraid of to listen to too often. I fear that the beauty will fade with each listen. This is what happened to Out of Time. I heard it everywhere during the spring and summer of 1991 and I loved it to death, the music wore out. From my point of view right now REM’s best album. Before it used to be Automatic for the People. But there is definitely more filler and kitsch on that album.

Pale blue eyes
Yesterday we went to see Aimee Mann. Very good concert. When she arrived on stage she looked so pale and ill and was really shy. But after a couple of songs she had warmed up. She really looked like the daughter of Joni Mitchell. Resembling her like hell and the songs of Aimee are maybe less poetic but definitely more pop. She told us (after her first short tour in Europe) that German audiences are the best ("after a million concerts that I have done"). And I believe her. She cannot lie. Impossible with such a face (found using this Google image search). She also told us that the concert the night before (in Stuttgart) was really bad. And then she corrected herself, it was just her who was terrible, the other musicians are "professionals", it was her who was just a dabbler. Of course this was an understatement. She did two encores. Altogether 18 songs. She started with "..One.." and finished with "Deathly" from the Magnolia soundtrack. The guitarist was great (some nice distortions). Altogether a very nice inauguration of the Unionhalle in Frankfurt.

Music criticism
I am definitely not and will never be a music reviewer. I neither have the ears nor the vocabulary (especially not in English) to write anything profound about rock music.
It is very easy to say such and such album is crap or brilliant. It is much more difficult to argue with good reasons why the album is bad. Nevertheless the most difficult is to write why something is so phantastic. It is like in real life. When you are happily in love you do not write. You only become creative when you have to fight for resp. attract love. Or can you imagine to write love letters to your wife with whom you have been married for a couple of years?
Anyways I have to start this, I want to do it. I really love the new REM. I think Reveal is a revelation (sorry for the stupid pun). I will tell you why. Soon. Stay tuned.

Went to see Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau last night. A huge disappointment. The worst were the so-called sex scenes. Ridculous. How can you have sex without an erection? Watching other people having sex is embarrassing enough, watching them faking sex is even more stupid. Anyways the soundtrack was brilliant. The music somehow did not fit to the movie but who cares. Starting with the Tindersticks "A Night in" it went on with The Clash, David Bowie, the Clinic (I did not know them), Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Eyeless in Gaza etc. A good sample of the darker and punkier part of the mainly London indie scene of about ten years ago. Between the bad sex and the good music there was nevertheless one line by the main actor to remember: Is next Wednesday again Wednesday? (Wednesday was their meeting day.)

No More Heroes?
I bought the latest offering by one of my favourite groups of the 90s:
Everybody Wants to Know by Swell (better french page) from San Francisco. They were the masters of atmospheric alt-rock with everyday noises like doors closing, steps on the stairs, keys turning etc. 41 is like a sound odyssey on magic mushrooms.
There is only David Freel the singer left now. I should have feared the worst.
The album is a DISASTER. All the listenable tracks come from the EP "Feed"
from last year. Songs 9 to 11 from the record use the riff of "Feed", the song.
The whole album is a bad remix, mainly keyboards, drum machine and
synthesizer. What a rip-off!

The name of this blog is totallly random. It could have been called masturbating in the rain or dying in a thunderstorm. Maybe not as Blogspot does not allow such long names I guess. Actually I wanted to write in German and call it Tomaten in Ohren, a pun on Tomaten auf den Augen which translates literally as "tomatoes on the eyes" and is used as a reproach when you do not perceive something apparent because of the red tomato juice which is covering your eyes. I wanted to call it "tomatoes in ears" as I am more the auditive than the visionary (pun intended) kind of guy. And I think there is lots of music which you can only enjoy with tomatoes in your ears.
But I kept getting these 503 error messages so I had to change the name.
But actually THE reason for calling this "sex and sunshine" is that this can be abbreviated to SAS and this stands for at least two totally different things. One of the two can give you a clue about my studies and work. All the above is of course bollocks. I chose sex and sunshine as name for the blog as I hope to attract much more traffic with such a fancy and slightly frivolous title.