The greatest love song of the last 10 years

If you just read selected lyrics, it comes across like your typical ode to lost love ("I don't even know where she lives/ I've not seen her in 10 years..." or the impassioned chorus of "Other girls went and other girls came/ I can't get over my old flame/ I'm still in love with Emily Kane.") But what makes "Emily Kane" arguably the greatest indie rock love song of the last decade is Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos' delivery and attitude. Sure there's some humor there, but it's only to mask the fact that he's 100% sincere.

From the way the opening eight chords slide down the scale to the fevered repetition of the final choruses, "Emily Kane" sticks with you not just because it's a great pop song, but because it so vividly pines for a certain feeling at a certain time of life. Not to mention that it's relatable; nearly everyone had some sort of infatuation at age 15 - unrequited or otherwise - and the thrill of that early romance is the newness of it. And that's half of what Argos is longing for: "Even though we didn't understand/ How to do much more than just hold hands/ There's so much about you I miss/ The clumsy way we used to kiss," he reminisces in his mostly-spoken style. Sure, it's a tribute to a real person, but more than that, it's a longing for something intangible - a little bit of nostalgia for a feeling that you basically only get once.

(Note: The video sucks, so press play and then ignore the visuals. Or just go find your copy of the album and turn it up fucking loud.)



(Originally posted 2/12/10 at SpectrumCulture.com)

Review: Aziz Ansari - "Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening"

Arguably the three biggest stand-up comedy stories of the last decade were the massive popularity of “blue collar” comedians; the continued prominence of macho frat-boy jack-ass comedy (lookin’ at you, Dane Cook); and so-called indie comedy, the likes of David Cross, Patton Oswalt, Flight of the Conchords and more. Aziz Ansari (best known from his work on Parks and Recreation, Human Giant and Funny People) fits easily in that last category, but Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening demonstrates that he’s still got a long climb before he reaches those comics’ level.

Intimate Moments, Ansari’s first stand-up special, premiered on Comedy Central, followed by release a few days later on both CD and DVD. The DVD’s only benefit over the CD (aside from the visual component, and save for one joke, Ansari’s not a visual comedian) is the bonus 30 minutes of material not included in the special itself. Why Comedy Central chose to release this in two separate formats rather than just packaging them together is beyond me, though my educated guess is that it has more to do with commerce and less to do with common sense or what the consumer might want.

As for the work itself, Ansari’s an insanely clever jokester, but he suffers from multiple faults which cheapen the material. Comedy has its own verbal tics and cues, and jokes need the proper tone for set up, development and punchline, but Ansari too often takes the same tone on each joke, wearing it out before its time. Thus material which should seem spontaneous comes across as scripted, punctuated only by Ansari’s frequent yelling to emphasize a punchline, for example.

There’s way too much repetition here, too. One joke (or series of jokes) about meeting celebrities is fine – indeed the Kanye West bit is among the best moments here – but there’s not just one bit about meeting celebrities: there’s three. In addition to West, Ansari also riffs on run-ins with M.I.A. and R. Kelly. If that’s your shtick and your name is Kathy Griffin, I suppose that’s okay; but since that’s already been taken, Aziz better come up with something else.

But the celebrity issue exemplifies one of Intimate Moments’ main problems. Far too frequently Ansari repeats himself and/or drags things out vastly longer than necessary, such as on the aforementioned R. Kelly bit or in a segment about commenting on Facebook. What starts out as funny simply becomes dull and irritating as the listener has wait for him to exhaust the topic at hand before he moves on to something else.

The set concludes with an 8-minute encore of “RAAAAAAAANDY,” Ansari’s take on macho comedian buffoonery (and his character from Funny People). Ansari’s clearly thought this through and done the research to come up with a composite sketch of that kind of comic, but it quickly moves from funny to obnoxious. That’s obviously the point, but Ansari seems to think enough of it to drag it on for longer than necessary. Like much of the rest of Intimate Moments, it’s a clever idea taken too far for too long.

(Originally posted 2/5/10 @ SpectrumCulture.com)