Yee Loi again and ... holy crap not another Stones book!

Yee Loi have struck again with a new single, "Dad's Money", which is streaming
but doesn't seem to be available for purchase yet.  

As their first studio-refined track, there's some surprises here.  The sound is fuller and punchier, but its the vocals that really stand out.  Clearly pushed for max effect, they sound both older and fuller than ever before.  If it hadn't been for the distinct sibling harmony, I wouldn't recognize them.  There's also a distinct stretching of their vocal chops on the chorus ("where do I even begin"), which took me by surprise.  That's good, I like surprises.  And since they actually have vocal chops to stretch, it's reasonable to expect them to do so.

I suppose if it was me at the boards I'd probably step it back a bit and get a little more of their usual lo-fi one-take ambience, but its time for them to grow.  And anyway it's not me.

The song itself is first-rate, a worthy addition to their growing body of singles, and mines classic garage/punk territory - a statement of defiance and a slap back at one's detractors.

I was disappointed to find out they have received some apparently negative feedback along the way.  From their Facebook post:

Yes....being young, girls, asian(ish) and not suffering means we can't rock.

If you check the video comments, you can see some wag putting out those very arguments - their not down-and-outers, dumpster diving for food, so therefore they're not real "punk" or rock and roll.  

You can also see me push back on the idjit.  Such arguments are bogus.  One's ability to make good art, or music, or rock and roll, is not determined by one's station in life.  Most of my rock and roll heroes did not come from poverty, and middle-class, upper-middle class, and even rich kids have made great rock and roll (Rick Nelson anyone).  For further dissertations on this subject you can reference my Perfect Sound Forever article on Yee Loi (and the Linda Lindas), which says all I have to say on such matters.

But I will note that YL have never claimed nor pretended to be any more "street" than they actually are.  They've dropped a good handful of first-rate rock-and-roll singles on us, and I sure as hell never expected anything like that from kids like these.  Anyway, they seem to be taking the defiant stance and more power to them.  The short-sightedness, sexism, prejudice and envy of others won't stop them, nor should it.

I would think by now I've said all I have to say about the Stones, other than that my opinion hasn't changed re: they pretty much created the mold for bands rock`n'roll geekazoids like myself love and re: even though they peaked long ago, they are still capable of making quite enjoyable music in a style I fanatically dig; and by "enjoyable" I mean if you can manage to stop mentally comparing it to their classic stuff there's still things to like there.  Plus I am trying to focus more on new(er) music here.  But inspiration strikes where it strikes and right at the mo I find I'd like to talk about this Stones-related book which I nabbed off the library shelves last Friday.

Which in and of itself is surprise since I must have read pretty much every Stones book out there (though I would like to re-read Tony Scaduto's Mick Jagger: Everybody's Lucifer, which I last had my nose in as an impressionable teen, not because I think it's any good - even back then I suspected bullshit when Brian Jones attempts to off Mick with a knife - bur because it read like a bad crime novel and I think it might be funny.  

Anyway my own shelves already have several inches of Stones books and I didn't really have any plan to add more to them ever, but I just might have to for Rich Cohen's The Sun The Moon and The Rolling Stones, because it turns out to be a much richer read than I would have imagined possible at this point.  Mind you there's nothing revelatory here about the band - these stories have all been told before, and before and before - scraping around London as American R&b-obsessed teen cover band; the lightning fast move (3 years or less?) to celebrated Swingin' London pop stars and media darlings; drug busts, the fall of Brian Jones, the late 60's comeback, Altamont, Exile (On Main Street and The Riviera), superstardom, and the less interesting decades following Exile.  But while Cohen doesn't offer anything new in terms of history, he does write like an angel and articulates, better than anyone, why some of us worship at the Altar of the Lapping Tongue:

Rock `n' roll died at Altamont and died again on the Internet.  The music craves vinyl and mosh pits and dark clubs where smoke collects along the ceiling - it's too dirty and rank for gluten-free world.  But I keep coming back to the songs - not the lyrics, or the chords, but how they make me feel when they come on the radio on a summer night and the top is down and the moon is up and the sea is shining and every door is open and every girl is my girl and every hill is a grass stain and an epic adventure waiting to happen ... it's not just music.  It's my nation.  It's my country.  It's where I've spent my life.

While I maintain rock and roll as music is still alive and well (as a social force - yes, dead as a doornail for many years), this is fine writing and a good articulation of the rock and roll obsession.  If you get it, you will get me....