Thursday, October 19, 2006:
Dear and Glorious Physician -- Spooky Action
Fugazi -- Waiting Room
Bob Dylan -- Idiot Wind
"Spooky Action": the punctuating grunts are cheesy and the vocals dip into emo but I can't stop listening to this track. I think it's partly the bass and partly the guitar but mostly where the vocals snarl and pop.
"Waiting Room": withdrawal, inertia, the laying of plans: the end of paralysis or a comforting fantasy?
"Idiot Wind,": the bitterest of breakups and recriminations.
[Dear and Glorious Physician's site]
[13 Songs]
[Blood on the Tracks]
Hey, why are you so happy?
Dear and Glorious Physician -- Spooky Action
Fugazi -- Waiting Room
Bob Dylan -- Idiot Wind
"Spooky Action": the punctuating grunts are cheesy and the vocals dip into emo but I can't stop listening to this track. I think it's partly the bass and partly the guitar but mostly where the vocals snarl and pop.
"Waiting Room": withdrawal, inertia, the laying of plans: the end of paralysis or a comforting fantasy?
"Idiot Wind,": the bitterest of breakups and recriminations.
[Dear and Glorious Physician's site]
[13 Songs]
[Blood on the Tracks]
posted by Tuwa @
00:50 | permalink |
0 comments
|
Wednesday, October 04, 2006:
[Pablo Picasso and a girl who never called him an asshole.]
The Modern Lovers -- Pablo Picasso
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers -- The Bank Teller
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers -- Affection
I looked for Orson Welles' F for Fake for about five years before finding it. Gainesville is a smallish place, and Criterion did the world a service re-releasing the film last year. The film is a documentary about an art forger and his biographer, who himself begins forging documents. The film has stuck with me, not just because of the surprise ending but also because of the basic questions of expertise, reliability, trust, and sincerity. It's thoughtful and thought-provoking work, presented accessibly--yet its method is avant-garde (thanks for pointing that out, Girish!)--and it's only now occurring to me how much my last post owes to it.
Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers is not the same band as The Modern Lovers, though they do have the same Jonathan Richman. The Modern Lovers were a rock&roll/punk band and lasted from late 1970 to late 1973; after they broke up, Jonathan Richman continued recording with a different band under the same name.
Lyrically, Richman is a goofy geeky fellow with the occasional spark of nastiness. "Pablo Picasso" probably serves as a good example:
Well the girls would turn the color of avocado
When he would drive down their street in his El Dorado
Funny, right--cheesy? Then:
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not like you
Is this a commiserating "Not like you"? No; the delivery makes that clear; it appends a mental "you asshole." It still doesn't fill out the meter, but meter isn't Richman's forte anyway.
"The New Teller" is an ode to the new bank teller, with handclaps, a rockin' country solo, and more cheesy rhymes ("teller" and "tell her", "There's only three in the other line / but in mine I count eleven / well, that's fine 'cause I'm in Heaven").
And then "Affection" is a simple, somber look back at Richman's earlier days, pointing out that being a snob makes you unhappy and that people need to risk pain for love. You could fault Richman for his sincerity and cheesiness, and plenty of people do, but I'm not one of them....
I posted The Modern Lovers last year as part of the jogging mix, but I find that the longer I post the less I'm concerned about if I've posted someone before. I doubt that that is Sturgeon's Law coming into play; if anything it's more a reflection of how much awesome music I still haven't heard.
[The Modern Lovers]
[Back in Your Life]
[Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers]
...
"It was a hot day when the horse came in and I was shocked at first because I have never run a pub before."
...
Sock puppets invade LJ. I was eager to see The Science of Sleep, but the studio falling back on sockpuppetry, astroturfing, and asshattery to promote it tells me that it's maybe not so very good after all.... Or maybe they just don't know how to market it (though God knows why that would be the case, with Michel Gondry, Gael García Bernal, and an arthouse theme).
...
Tone Memory, from which I deduce that I do not have perfect pitch, or possibly even any pitch at all.
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
[Pablo Picasso and a girl who never called him an asshole.]
The Modern Lovers -- Pablo Picasso
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers -- The Bank Teller
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers -- Affection
I looked for Orson Welles' F for Fake for about five years before finding it. Gainesville is a smallish place, and Criterion did the world a service re-releasing the film last year. The film is a documentary about an art forger and his biographer, who himself begins forging documents. The film has stuck with me, not just because of the surprise ending but also because of the basic questions of expertise, reliability, trust, and sincerity. It's thoughtful and thought-provoking work, presented accessibly--yet its method is avant-garde (thanks for pointing that out, Girish!)--and it's only now occurring to me how much my last post owes to it.
Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers is not the same band as The Modern Lovers, though they do have the same Jonathan Richman. The Modern Lovers were a rock&roll/punk band and lasted from late 1970 to late 1973; after they broke up, Jonathan Richman continued recording with a different band under the same name.
Lyrically, Richman is a goofy geeky fellow with the occasional spark of nastiness. "Pablo Picasso" probably serves as a good example:
Well the girls would turn the color of avocado
When he would drive down their street in his El Dorado
Funny, right--cheesy? Then:
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not like you
Is this a commiserating "Not like you"? No; the delivery makes that clear; it appends a mental "you asshole." It still doesn't fill out the meter, but meter isn't Richman's forte anyway.
"The New Teller" is an ode to the new bank teller, with handclaps, a rockin' country solo, and more cheesy rhymes ("teller" and "tell her", "There's only three in the other line / but in mine I count eleven / well, that's fine 'cause I'm in Heaven").
And then "Affection" is a simple, somber look back at Richman's earlier days, pointing out that being a snob makes you unhappy and that people need to risk pain for love. You could fault Richman for his sincerity and cheesiness, and plenty of people do, but I'm not one of them....
I posted The Modern Lovers last year as part of the jogging mix, but I find that the longer I post the less I'm concerned about if I've posted someone before. I doubt that that is Sturgeon's Law coming into play; if anything it's more a reflection of how much awesome music I still haven't heard.
[The Modern Lovers]
[Back in Your Life]
[Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers]
...
"It was a hot day when the horse came in and I was shocked at first because I have never run a pub before."
...
Sock puppets invade LJ. I was eager to see The Science of Sleep, but the studio falling back on sockpuppetry, astroturfing, and asshattery to promote it tells me that it's maybe not so very good after all.... Or maybe they just don't know how to market it (though God knows why that would be the case, with Michel Gondry, Gael García Bernal, and an arthouse theme).
...
Tone Memory, from which I deduce that I do not have perfect pitch, or possibly even any pitch at all.
posted by Tuwa @
14:24 | permalink |
6 comments
|
Monday, May 22, 2006:
Mike Williams lives in Oxford, UK, and runs Dreamboat Records, home to The Rollercoaster Project (which you might have caught on Said the Gramophone some time back).
Jerimee Bloemeke is not a black-belt ninja; his skills are so advanced the universe is afraid to let his jacket flap open. He can kill birds, small mammals, and frail humans with the briefest of glances; healthy humans sometimes take a second and a half. He also reviews music, as at Kill All Artists and as below. For that, and for not giving me The Stare of Doom, I thank him.
Returning to the mix:
Morningbell -- I Found Jesus (Hiding Underneath the Bed)
Is this prog-pop? Really? I'd always associated it with 1970s wankery: ten-minute song codas, flutes and acoustic guitar and songs about the Lord of the Rings, album covers showing vibrantly-colored woodlands and "mysterious" hooded figures and whatnot.
[Morningbell's official site]
[Morningbell Myspace account]
Maxwell Edison -- Cheap Airfare
I did like this song when I first put it on the mix. I still liked it after I sent the mix out. Sometime after that I began not to like it, and then I began to despise it. Your mileage may vary.
[Maxwell Edison's official site]
[Maxwell Edison's Myspace account]
Towers of Hanoi -- Torn Jeans
Not a happy track, no, but I like it.
[Towers of Hanoi's official site]
[Towers of Hanoi's Myspace account]
Against Me! -- I Still Love You Julie
These guys are pissed off. I saw one of them several years ago, strumming an acoustic guitar on UF campus and singing/screaming himself hoarse about worker exploitation. I don't know anyone who can rock an acoustic guitar that hard. Maybe Rev. Frost.
[Against Me!'s site]
Big Oil -- Pot of Gold
This is another one I used to like (I have a knack for listening to songs without listening to the lyrics, and Mike is right; the lyrics are god-awful. To think I used to mock that Lenny Kravitz song about the butterfly up in the sky....)
[Big Oil's official site]
MC Intellekt -- More Than Meets the Ear
Intellekt gives a lot of concerts in town, and he's got fairly literate stream-of-conscious rhymes with a sense of humor. But that chorus--I'm puzzled too; it's like watching a David Lynch film. I don't get it, and I'm more than a bit disturbed by it, but I can't look away.
Also, "meta-wank" is my new favorite musical descriptor.
[MC Intellekt's official site]
This was the worst part of the mix, I think--lots of tracks here I wouldn't pick again. The next (and last) part is better.
the mix part two
In my hurry to get the last post up, I completely forgot to introduce Mike and Jerimee (sorry for that, fellas! and thanks for your patience).Mike Williams lives in Oxford, UK, and runs Dreamboat Records, home to The Rollercoaster Project (which you might have caught on Said the Gramophone some time back).
Jerimee Bloemeke is not a black-belt ninja; his skills are so advanced the universe is afraid to let his jacket flap open. He can kill birds, small mammals, and frail humans with the briefest of glances; healthy humans sometimes take a second and a half. He also reviews music, as at Kill All Artists and as below. For that, and for not giving me The Stare of Doom, I thank him.
Returning to the mix:
Morningbell -- I Found Jesus (Hiding Underneath the Bed)
Mike Williams -- A promising title, but the overwrought arrangement and silly instrumentation (are those oboes!?) is distracting. I'm probably not the right audience for psychedelic prog-pop though.
Jerimee Bloemeke -- When I first saw this song on the mix I knew I would love it. For some reason, I like any song about Jesus, especially ones that do not take the whole idea of a martyr who dies on a cross too seriously, evidenced in this song’s title, where Jesus hides underneath a bed. And also by this amazing lyric, out of Jesus's mouth: If you’re tryin' to impress me, don't bother/ You think you're so great, well, I'd like to see you walk on water/ I invented that shit. The whole song is about a Jesus that is hiding from all his troubles and is tired of having to listen to the troubles of others.
The song starts with acoustic guitar strumming, and a wailing, double-tracked vocal. The instrumentation in this song is all over the place: trumpets, banjo, synthesizer, saxophone, piano, etc. This is great stuff. And I can't wait to get more of it from this band.
Is this prog-pop? Really? I'd always associated it with 1970s wankery: ten-minute song codas, flutes and acoustic guitar and songs about the Lord of the Rings, album covers showing vibrantly-colored woodlands and "mysterious" hooded figures and whatnot.
[Morningbell's official site]
[Morningbell Myspace account]
Maxwell Edison -- Cheap Airfare
Mike Williams -- Eek. If you're my age and British, you’ll have been subjected to the Charlatans. This track reminds me of them, but with the Hammond organ replaced by a Casio keyboard. These guys are session musicians and this is for a car advert, right?
iTunes tells me I've listened every track on this CD at least a dozen times, except this one, which I've got through twice. Awful.
Jerimee Bloemeke -- This track starts out with a quickened Radiohead piano beat, with a singer that sounds like Paul Rodgers. The piano is definitely the centerpiece of this band - their website says it all: "maxwell edison - the best gainesville piano rock." I can't find fault in that. And they follow the Radiohead comparison with some Johnny Greenwood-esque guitar soloing at 3:17.
I did like this song when I first put it on the mix. I still liked it after I sent the mix out. Sometime after that I began not to like it, and then I began to despise it. Your mileage may vary.
[Maxwell Edison's official site]
[Maxwell Edison's Myspace account]
Towers of Hanoi -- Torn Jeans
Mike Williams -- At first I thought this was ludicrous epic rock that sounds like a sincere version of the Darkness. Then I realised it sounds like an unhappy White Stripes. Not my cup of tea at all.
Jerimee Bloemeke -- The singer is a cross between P.J. Harvey, Alanis Morissette, and Signe Anderson. And the band is a cross between Death From Above 1979 and a less progressive Mars Volta.
Not a happy track, no, but I like it.
[Towers of Hanoi's official site]
[Towers of Hanoi's Myspace account]
Against Me! -- I Still Love You Julie
Mike Williams -- Post-Pistols punk has never really meant much in the UK. Sure, it has a scene, which is presumably vibrant, but that scene is relatively isolated. And sure, people profess to liking Minor Threat and Black Flag, but I'm not convinced anyone except actual punks actually do. For myself, my only knowledge of punk comes from a regrettable phase of playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
That notwithstanding, I love this song. Against Me! are apparently a punk band with alt.country, folk and blues influences. I just hear a band a punk band having a good time. This track is now on heavy rotation.
Jerimee Bloemeke -- Ah! The snare drum ruins this song - it just pops way too loudly and it takes away from everything else. Otherwise, the band is reminiscent of Wolf Parade, but with more yelling.
These guys are pissed off. I saw one of them several years ago, strumming an acoustic guitar on UF campus and singing/screaming himself hoarse about worker exploitation. I don't know anyone who can rock an acoustic guitar that hard. Maybe Rev. Frost.
[Against Me!'s site]
Big Oil -- Pot of Gold
Mike Williams -- This alt.rock dirge threatens to be interesting, but then the lyrics start. "Come on over here and let me hold you near, let me kiss you all over your face / It's been so long since you've been so near, this is such a lovely place." Jesus wept. It's impossible to take this song seriously after that. Maybe that's what Big Oil wanted.
Jerimee Bloemeke -- The singer's voice ruins it for me: sounds like someone I heard on the radio in the mid-'90s.
This is another one I used to like (I have a knack for listening to songs without listening to the lyrics, and Mike is right; the lyrics are god-awful. To think I used to mock that Lenny Kravitz song about the butterfly up in the sky....)
[Big Oil's official site]
MC Intellekt -- More Than Meets the Ear
Mike Williams -- The first of the two hip hop tracks tracks on the CD doesn't do much for me. If you use strings you risk sounding like either Puff Daddy or a horrorcore act. The whiny patois which starts around 1:30 is difficult on the ear. They also make the mistake of talking about themselves and their abilities. I've never understood the popularity of meta-wank in hip hop.
Maybe I'm just out of the hip hop loop. I used to listen to a lot of hip hop. I remember vividly the innocent joy of ejecting a finished Jim O'Rourke CD and replacing it with Dr Octagon's Dr Octagonecologyst. But I am an idiot and a terrible person, so I followed fashions towards beardy alt.country to the exclusion of a lot of other genres, not least hip hop. It’s only recently that I've begun to rehabilitate myself.
Jerimee Bloemeke -- The production and beat on this song is great, but the rapper reminds me of Eminem. And dare I say: Ludacris. ...shudder.... And that chorus? Why?
Intellekt gives a lot of concerts in town, and he's got fairly literate stream-of-conscious rhymes with a sense of humor. But that chorus--I'm puzzled too; it's like watching a David Lynch film. I don't get it, and I'm more than a bit disturbed by it, but I can't look away.
Also, "meta-wank" is my new favorite musical descriptor.
[MC Intellekt's official site]
This was the worst part of the mix, I think--lots of tracks here I wouldn't pick again. The next (and last) part is better.
Labels: alt country, hip-hop, indie, punk, rock
posted by Tuwa @
00:17 | permalink |
5 comments
|
Friday, April 07, 2006:
MC5 were a proto-punk band from Detroit, like The Stooges, and in fact both of them were signed to Elektra at the same time. Their first album, which this track is from, is loud, muscular, and devastating, like Conan the Barbarian with a bloody maul.
Towards the end of the disc they drop "Motor City is Burning," a electric blues jam workout with a locked-in groove and the occasional guitar touches reminiscent of Magic Sam or Otis Rush or, more recently, Jimi Hendrix. The song comes off as relatively chill in comparison with the tracks before it (but not so much in comparison with the original by John Lee Hooker), but the lyrics are pointed and political.
The song is about the Detroit Riots of 1967, started after a group of police arrived at a bar to arrest everyone, including the two veterans fresh from VietNam and the 80 other people celebrating with them. The police in Detroit were overwhelmingly white, "protecting and serving" a population that was overwhelmingly black, and the police force was known for its brutality. It's the kind of scene that couldn't end well, for reasons that should be obvious, yet for some reason authority doesn't seem to grok that people don't like being subjugated.
After the police left, smashed windows led to days of looting and impassioned ineffectual pleas for peace, which led to Lyndon Johnson deciding the police couldn't handle the situation and maybe the National Guard could. By the time it was over 43 people had died and hundreds were injured. If you've ever been in a riot, or if you've heard of Kent State, or if you've seen much of the WTO protest footage, it probably won't be any surprise that a study of the riots found that the police and National Guard quickly became as disorganized, personal, and random in their violence as the looters, even after civilian violence had died down (specifically, Bergesen's "Race Riots of 1967: An Analysis of Police Violence in Detroit and Newark." Useem's "The State and Collective Disorders: the Los Angeles Riot/Protest of April, 1992" shows more of the same.)
[12th Street Riot writeup @ wikipedia]
[Rutgers writeup in need of a bit of proofreading]
[Allmusic bio of MC5]
[MC5 -- Kick out the Jams]
MC5 -- Motor City Is Burning
MC5 -- Motor City Is BurningMC5 were a proto-punk band from Detroit, like The Stooges, and in fact both of them were signed to Elektra at the same time. Their first album, which this track is from, is loud, muscular, and devastating, like Conan the Barbarian with a bloody maul.
Towards the end of the disc they drop "Motor City is Burning," a electric blues jam workout with a locked-in groove and the occasional guitar touches reminiscent of Magic Sam or Otis Rush or, more recently, Jimi Hendrix. The song comes off as relatively chill in comparison with the tracks before it (but not so much in comparison with the original by John Lee Hooker), but the lyrics are pointed and political.
The song is about the Detroit Riots of 1967, started after a group of police arrived at a bar to arrest everyone, including the two veterans fresh from VietNam and the 80 other people celebrating with them. The police in Detroit were overwhelmingly white, "protecting and serving" a population that was overwhelmingly black, and the police force was known for its brutality. It's the kind of scene that couldn't end well, for reasons that should be obvious, yet for some reason authority doesn't seem to grok that people don't like being subjugated.
After the police left, smashed windows led to days of looting and impassioned ineffectual pleas for peace, which led to Lyndon Johnson deciding the police couldn't handle the situation and maybe the National Guard could. By the time it was over 43 people had died and hundreds were injured. If you've ever been in a riot, or if you've heard of Kent State, or if you've seen much of the WTO protest footage, it probably won't be any surprise that a study of the riots found that the police and National Guard quickly became as disorganized, personal, and random in their violence as the looters, even after civilian violence had died down (specifically, Bergesen's "Race Riots of 1967: An Analysis of Police Violence in Detroit and Newark." Useem's "The State and Collective Disorders: the Los Angeles Riot/Protest of April, 1992" shows more of the same.)
[12th Street Riot writeup @ wikipedia]
[Rutgers writeup in need of a bit of proofreading]
[Allmusic bio of MC5]
[MC5 -- Kick out the Jams]
posted by Tuwa @
00:34 | permalink |
4 comments
|
Thursday, March 23, 2006:
The Stooges -- Search and Destroy
Iggy Pop -- Lust for Life
Iggy Pop -- Mixin' the Colors
Thanks to your favorite Reverend and mine, I've been turned on to the primal proto-punk of Iggy Pop. How to sum him up? I guess you could start by talking about giant turbines, haphazardly oiled and endlessly churning, or maybe semis on the interstate loaded with 12,000 lbs of freight, cruising along at 70 miles an hour (the left side of an equation that equals "good God almighty"), or maybe dynamite forgotten in some shed and beginning to sweat.
Some of his music is oddly narcotic, some of it exhilarating and amphetaminic, and some of it sounds like it must be a bad trip, the kind that might leave you shaken for days (David Bowie and your awful misbegotten mid-80s synth sound, I'm thinking of you ... but thank you for Lust for Life).
When it's good, it's very good indeed; and so far I've missed the bad, thanks to a record store that lets you listen first.
But I've yet to hear all the good: I haven't heard all of The Stooges or Raw Power, not to mention The Idiot and Brick by Brick.... Iggy/Stooges fans, what else would you recommend?
[Fun House]
[Lust for Life]
[American Caesar]
[Life Aquatic]
music's gonna get you home tonight
The Stooges -- Down on the StreetThe Stooges -- Search and Destroy
Iggy Pop -- Lust for Life
Iggy Pop -- Mixin' the Colors
Thanks to your favorite Reverend and mine, I've been turned on to the primal proto-punk of Iggy Pop. How to sum him up? I guess you could start by talking about giant turbines, haphazardly oiled and endlessly churning, or maybe semis on the interstate loaded with 12,000 lbs of freight, cruising along at 70 miles an hour (the left side of an equation that equals "good God almighty"), or maybe dynamite forgotten in some shed and beginning to sweat.
Some of his music is oddly narcotic, some of it exhilarating and amphetaminic, and some of it sounds like it must be a bad trip, the kind that might leave you shaken for days (David Bowie and your awful misbegotten mid-80s synth sound, I'm thinking of you ... but thank you for Lust for Life).
When it's good, it's very good indeed; and so far I've missed the bad, thanks to a record store that lets you listen first.
But I've yet to hear all the good: I haven't heard all of The Stooges or Raw Power, not to mention The Idiot and Brick by Brick.... Iggy/Stooges fans, what else would you recommend?
[Fun House]
[Lust for Life]
[American Caesar]
[Life Aquatic]
posted by Tuwa @
13:30 | permalink |
9 comments
|
Tuesday, March 07, 2006:
Morningbell -- Me Bastard 2003
Morningbell is a band from Gainesville FL who introduce themselves in their second release as "a rock band that wants you to be a happy person" and follow the introduction with the request "Please be nice to people today." I can dig it.
A musical genetic analysis of their work shows White Album Beatles crossed with the Flaming Lips, dipped in Amnesiac-era Radiohead and dusted with Pet Sounds: somewhat moody work that tends to float downstream skystruck, running slowly ashore, pushing off again gently, drifting, sounding odd and effortlessly beautiful. The harmonies, the melodies, the instrumentation, the arrangements: all top-notch.
And this song: melodic passive-aggressiveness. "I will be there if you call me / I will be there if you call," with "call me, bastard" as a lovely singalong. Bonus points for bass solo spotlight, guitar freakout, and Wyld Stallyns ending.
I think Morningbell and Bishop Allen are vying for the title "Best Unsigned Pop/Rock Band in the States."
[Morningbell's Myspace page, with some other great tracks]
[Morningbell's website with some songs which are, well, mostly live and not nearly as good]
from the "Here's something neat in my inbox" department:
Tigs -- Don't Tell Me
Alicia "Tigs" Huertas plays punk tinged with country and touches of Siouxsie and Television.
From the press release:
Part Spanish and born into a bohemian musician family Tigs grew up in the sleepy Gloucestershire town of Woodchester. She started writing her songs as an 18 year old college drop out bumming around Bristol on the dole. A family friend put her in touch with French producer Dimitri Tikovoi (Placebo, Ravonettes) and together they started recording her dark, brooding songs.
Going to New York in 2004, Tigs blagged her way into an aftershow party and met Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner. Within weeks, they were recording together in former Smashing Pumpkin James Iha's Stratosphere Sound Studios in New York.
What the press release fails to mention is that Nick Zinner's guitar can scorch your eyebrows and that Huertas can sing with hurricane force, blowing out your windows and crashing a tree on your house.
I can't decide if that guitar solo is brilliantly jarring or just jarring, but it's definitely strongly felt, to the point, and in service of the song. And the song is much too busy kicking ass to stop and smell the roses. So maybe brilliant?
It seems Tigs doesn't yet have a website. [Tigs' myspace site]
Mittens -- Big Decisions
Mittens are a Boston trio priding themselves on "melodic, enduring, concise" music. They cite Squeeze and Violent Femmes as influence, sensibly enough. This is a pastoral song: an oak tree, a breeze, warm sun, lying on a spot of short grass with fields on all sides. There's an understated serenity to the song, the lyrics about living in the moment.
[Mittens' official site, with three more downloads]
[Mittens' Myspace account]
from the "palm/forehead" department:
•Red Ruin did a noteworthy post on international hip-hop some time back that I've kept forgetting to post about. Apparently there's another in the works.
•Birdy Nam Nam plays some neat turntablism, but either myspace is choking yet again or Birdy Nam Nam doesn't allow downloads. Their official site has a Flash-only interface, some videos, and also no mp3s. Ah well.
•Here's MORESUKINE, the weblog of a German comic artist living in Tokyo, accepting assignments and drawing them for his comic strips. Nice work he has up. I especially like the roller coaster assignment.
From the "you might not care" department:
I got a volunteer job recently with a boss who makes William Faulkner look concise. It's making me rethink my approach to writing--luckily, purposeful self-reflection is usually not a bad thing.
Morningbell, Mittens, Tigs
from the "I really love this band and I have them on a mix CD I'll be posting eventually and I didn't want to post them twice but, you know what, I really love this band" department:Morningbell -- Me Bastard 2003
Morningbell is a band from Gainesville FL who introduce themselves in their second release as "a rock band that wants you to be a happy person" and follow the introduction with the request "Please be nice to people today." I can dig it.
A musical genetic analysis of their work shows White Album Beatles crossed with the Flaming Lips, dipped in Amnesiac-era Radiohead and dusted with Pet Sounds: somewhat moody work that tends to float downstream skystruck, running slowly ashore, pushing off again gently, drifting, sounding odd and effortlessly beautiful. The harmonies, the melodies, the instrumentation, the arrangements: all top-notch.
And this song: melodic passive-aggressiveness. "I will be there if you call me / I will be there if you call," with "call me, bastard" as a lovely singalong. Bonus points for bass solo spotlight, guitar freakout, and Wyld Stallyns ending.
I think Morningbell and Bishop Allen are vying for the title "Best Unsigned Pop/Rock Band in the States."
[Morningbell's Myspace page, with some other great tracks]
[Morningbell's website with some songs which are, well, mostly live and not nearly as good]
from the "Here's something neat in my inbox" department:
Tigs -- Don't Tell Me
Alicia "Tigs" Huertas plays punk tinged with country and touches of Siouxsie and Television.
From the press release:
Part Spanish and born into a bohemian musician family Tigs grew up in the sleepy Gloucestershire town of Woodchester. She started writing her songs as an 18 year old college drop out bumming around Bristol on the dole. A family friend put her in touch with French producer Dimitri Tikovoi (Placebo, Ravonettes) and together they started recording her dark, brooding songs.
Going to New York in 2004, Tigs blagged her way into an aftershow party and met Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner. Within weeks, they were recording together in former Smashing Pumpkin James Iha's Stratosphere Sound Studios in New York.
What the press release fails to mention is that Nick Zinner's guitar can scorch your eyebrows and that Huertas can sing with hurricane force, blowing out your windows and crashing a tree on your house.
I can't decide if that guitar solo is brilliantly jarring or just jarring, but it's definitely strongly felt, to the point, and in service of the song. And the song is much too busy kicking ass to stop and smell the roses. So maybe brilliant?
It seems Tigs doesn't yet have a website. [Tigs' myspace site]
Mittens -- Big Decisions
Mittens are a Boston trio priding themselves on "melodic, enduring, concise" music. They cite Squeeze and Violent Femmes as influence, sensibly enough. This is a pastoral song: an oak tree, a breeze, warm sun, lying on a spot of short grass with fields on all sides. There's an understated serenity to the song, the lyrics about living in the moment.
[Mittens' official site, with three more downloads]
[Mittens' Myspace account]
from the "palm/forehead" department:
•Red Ruin did a noteworthy post on international hip-hop some time back that I've kept forgetting to post about. Apparently there's another in the works.
•Birdy Nam Nam plays some neat turntablism, but either myspace is choking yet again or Birdy Nam Nam doesn't allow downloads. Their official site has a Flash-only interface, some videos, and also no mp3s. Ah well.
•Here's MORESUKINE, the weblog of a German comic artist living in Tokyo, accepting assignments and drawing them for his comic strips. Nice work he has up. I especially like the roller coaster assignment.
From the "you might not care" department:
I got a volunteer job recently with a boss who makes William Faulkner look concise. It's making me rethink my approach to writing--luckily, purposeful self-reflection is usually not a bad thing.
Labels: indie, pop, punk, rock
posted by Tuwa @
12:25 | permalink |
9 comments
|
Tuesday, February 07, 2006:
The Clash -- Drug-Stabbing Time
The Clash -- London Calling
I love The Clash, but it's probably the kind of love felt only if you have some bit of simmering rage left unaddressed.... It's tuneful punk, and of course they're known for their punk/reggae bridge, which you can get a taste of on "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" here, from their U.S. version of The Clash.
"Drug-Stabbing Time" is a grittier track than "Hammersmith": distorted guitar and a brisker pace, with somewhat hoarse vocals and a saxophone that comes thundering over the hill like the lone horseman of the apocalypse, no others present or necessary.
I remember the first time I heard "London Calling"--the guitar and drums followed by those first few notes of the bassline skidding in, and suddenly I knew that there was some great music on deck. First hearing that LP reminded me of first digging into the Beatles catalogue, buying CDs my parents didn't have, finding plenty of songs I knew by heart mixed in with others that I'd never heard before but that were just as good. The CD London Calling is a great CD in general but particularly great for long drives: you'll be crooning, yelping, head-bobbing, banging the steering wheel.
These three tracks are from their first, uh, four LPs, I guess, if you count the UK and US versions as separate. I'll probably post some Clash again, from the other three; they have good tracks buried on them, though they're not generally held in as high regard.
[The Clash (U.S. version)]
[Give 'Em Enough Rope]
[London Calling]
... some films:
La Sentinelle: Either this film is very intelligent or I am very dense, but much of the plot seemed not to follow from what had already been established, with increasingly distancing effect over the course of the film. I can handle a few cases of "why did that happen? that's odd" but by the end, the film gave me a serious case of WTF which resolved itself into "WTF-ever."
Night of the Iguana. Right. Huston is usually a good director, but the boxing scene was silly and the story in general struck me as weak. As for the cast, it's got Richard Burton playing Richard Burton in a frock, in extended rehearsal for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which he plays Richard Burton with pockmarks. Instead of seeing the story, I kept seeing Tennessee Williams, talking to himself:
So he goes past the hotel. Why? He doesn't want her to get that telegram. Also, there's another hotel, more isolated, where an old flame is. Why is she there? She's visiting. So how does he know she's there? No, no, you're right, that's wrong--she runs the hotel. Yeah, she runs it. This'll provide a neat ending. Okay, but then she must be very busy. Uh, no, no, it's off-season. Ah. So why does she take him in? She cares for him still. So the story becomes a simple romance. No, she takes the others in too; it will provide some additional conflict. So she's a doormat? No, she's ... she's brusque, gruff, at heart a softie, but afraid of being hurt again. Okay. Who else works there? A cook. He sleeps a lot. And who else? Two handsome young shirtless Mexicans. What do they do? They dance around and shake maracas. What else? That's all. They must have personalities, regrets, ambitions.... No, they just dance around and shake maracas. Sometimes they put them down, for instance if dancing on the beach seducing the hostess or if chasing an iguana and not dancing. I see. Don't worry about it; no one will be thinking about what they're doing there, or not doing. Okay.... So what happens? Well, by the end he's no longer interested in little girls. So miracles do occur. Sometimes, if you're a defrocked minister.
Promises: Wow. Take half a dozen children living in and around Jerusalem, both Muslim and Jew, with differing levels of faith, interview them and follow them through their daily lives in dangerous surroundings--watch them at school, in sports events, hanging out ... introduce them to each other and watch them trying to feel their way through the treacherous intractable politics. I thought it was truly a wonderful film, not because of the political history but because of the voices of the children--certain, doubtful, thoughtful, flippant, patient, exasperated--each of them explaining, in their own way, what the conflict has cost them: a brother, a father, a constant needling fear. And it was a very nice and much-needed, though maybe unintended, bit of counterpoint at the end with Faraj, stateside, working in a Wal-Mart dealing with customers annoyed by the unavailability of stick pretzels. After the laughter died down I was wondering "and how much different am I from that, really? Didn't I, just a few days ago, post some trivial complaints based on relative comfort and wealth?"
... some politics:
The President has seen National Treasure, so he's heard about the Constitution; if he noticed any mention of the Bill of Rights, it really doesn't matter. It is his Divine Right to spy; after all, he's constantly talking to God and God is, uncustomarily, talking back. Besides, it's A Different World After 9/11: the U.S. intelligence community needs more things to know about and ignore, like people learning to fly planes and not bothering to learn to land them, which is obviously not a Big Red Flag. No, the intelligence community, intelligently, recognizes that the real threat is in breastfeeding mothers, war protestors, people who get off on anthropomorphic animals, people downloading movies rather than buying them in the subway, and anyone who happens to talk to any of those people. Luckily this includes most of the world, insuring the necessity of information-gathering (whether to ignore it or to act on it in violation of Constitutional law) for decades to come.
The shift in focus is part of that oft-touted ideal of small government, which means that Bush and Cheney can continue cutting public services, subcontracting them to companies headed by close personal friends so they can deliver fewer services more inefficiently, racking up private profit through the generosity of tax breaks provided by a public laid out over a barrel. And then complain about the lack of funds for public services, and claim the only solution is more contracting and more tax breaks. Which is not incongruent with one definition of insanity.
...
I'm having some computer troubles here: a borked video card making every page, document, and image look a bit like timid abstract art. More posts later. Or shorter posts sooner.
grand guignol and custard pie
The Clash -- (White Man) in Hammersmith PalaisThe Clash -- Drug-Stabbing Time
The Clash -- London Calling
I love The Clash, but it's probably the kind of love felt only if you have some bit of simmering rage left unaddressed.... It's tuneful punk, and of course they're known for their punk/reggae bridge, which you can get a taste of on "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" here, from their U.S. version of The Clash.
"Drug-Stabbing Time" is a grittier track than "Hammersmith": distorted guitar and a brisker pace, with somewhat hoarse vocals and a saxophone that comes thundering over the hill like the lone horseman of the apocalypse, no others present or necessary.
I remember the first time I heard "London Calling"--the guitar and drums followed by those first few notes of the bassline skidding in, and suddenly I knew that there was some great music on deck. First hearing that LP reminded me of first digging into the Beatles catalogue, buying CDs my parents didn't have, finding plenty of songs I knew by heart mixed in with others that I'd never heard before but that were just as good. The CD London Calling is a great CD in general but particularly great for long drives: you'll be crooning, yelping, head-bobbing, banging the steering wheel.
These three tracks are from their first, uh, four LPs, I guess, if you count the UK and US versions as separate. I'll probably post some Clash again, from the other three; they have good tracks buried on them, though they're not generally held in as high regard.
[The Clash (U.S. version)]
[Give 'Em Enough Rope]
[London Calling]
... some films:
La Sentinelle: Either this film is very intelligent or I am very dense, but much of the plot seemed not to follow from what had already been established, with increasingly distancing effect over the course of the film. I can handle a few cases of "why did that happen? that's odd" but by the end, the film gave me a serious case of WTF which resolved itself into "WTF-ever."
Night of the Iguana. Right. Huston is usually a good director, but the boxing scene was silly and the story in general struck me as weak. As for the cast, it's got Richard Burton playing Richard Burton in a frock, in extended rehearsal for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which he plays Richard Burton with pockmarks. Instead of seeing the story, I kept seeing Tennessee Williams, talking to himself:
So he goes past the hotel. Why? He doesn't want her to get that telegram. Also, there's another hotel, more isolated, where an old flame is. Why is she there? She's visiting. So how does he know she's there? No, no, you're right, that's wrong--she runs the hotel. Yeah, she runs it. This'll provide a neat ending. Okay, but then she must be very busy. Uh, no, no, it's off-season. Ah. So why does she take him in? She cares for him still. So the story becomes a simple romance. No, she takes the others in too; it will provide some additional conflict. So she's a doormat? No, she's ... she's brusque, gruff, at heart a softie, but afraid of being hurt again. Okay. Who else works there? A cook. He sleeps a lot. And who else? Two handsome young shirtless Mexicans. What do they do? They dance around and shake maracas. What else? That's all. They must have personalities, regrets, ambitions.... No, they just dance around and shake maracas. Sometimes they put them down, for instance if dancing on the beach seducing the hostess or if chasing an iguana and not dancing. I see. Don't worry about it; no one will be thinking about what they're doing there, or not doing. Okay.... So what happens? Well, by the end he's no longer interested in little girls. So miracles do occur. Sometimes, if you're a defrocked minister.
Promises: Wow. Take half a dozen children living in and around Jerusalem, both Muslim and Jew, with differing levels of faith, interview them and follow them through their daily lives in dangerous surroundings--watch them at school, in sports events, hanging out ... introduce them to each other and watch them trying to feel their way through the treacherous intractable politics. I thought it was truly a wonderful film, not because of the political history but because of the voices of the children--certain, doubtful, thoughtful, flippant, patient, exasperated--each of them explaining, in their own way, what the conflict has cost them: a brother, a father, a constant needling fear. And it was a very nice and much-needed, though maybe unintended, bit of counterpoint at the end with Faraj, stateside, working in a Wal-Mart dealing with customers annoyed by the unavailability of stick pretzels. After the laughter died down I was wondering "and how much different am I from that, really? Didn't I, just a few days ago, post some trivial complaints based on relative comfort and wealth?"
... some politics:
The President has seen National Treasure, so he's heard about the Constitution; if he noticed any mention of the Bill of Rights, it really doesn't matter. It is his Divine Right to spy; after all, he's constantly talking to God and God is, uncustomarily, talking back. Besides, it's A Different World After 9/11: the U.S. intelligence community needs more things to know about and ignore, like people learning to fly planes and not bothering to learn to land them, which is obviously not a Big Red Flag. No, the intelligence community, intelligently, recognizes that the real threat is in breastfeeding mothers, war protestors, people who get off on anthropomorphic animals, people downloading movies rather than buying them in the subway, and anyone who happens to talk to any of those people. Luckily this includes most of the world, insuring the necessity of information-gathering (whether to ignore it or to act on it in violation of Constitutional law) for decades to come.
The shift in focus is part of that oft-touted ideal of small government, which means that Bush and Cheney can continue cutting public services, subcontracting them to companies headed by close personal friends so they can deliver fewer services more inefficiently, racking up private profit through the generosity of tax breaks provided by a public laid out over a barrel. And then complain about the lack of funds for public services, and claim the only solution is more contracting and more tax breaks. Which is not incongruent with one definition of insanity.
...
I'm having some computer troubles here: a borked video card making every page, document, and image look a bit like timid abstract art. More posts later. Or shorter posts sooner.
Labels: movies, politics, punk, rock
posted by Tuwa @
22:14 | permalink |
3 comments
|
Monday, November 07, 2005:
After months of humidity and stultifying heat, we had two days of fall--chilly mornings and brisk breezes--and then it snapped back into good weather for shorts and sandals. If Florida were a person it would be not be a Buddhist: it's quite attached to summer and stands terrified at the prospect of anything else: "what would it be like, this ... 'coldness' thing of which you speak? Sort of a humid heat, only ... without hurricanes? No? Oh. So ... sort of a humid heat, only ... less hot?"
Tom Paxton -- Bottle of Wine
Tom Paxton kicks us off with a very springy sort of song: picked guitar ringing out "life-fun-everything great," with lyrics that it would be easy to sing along to without paying much attention to: "Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine, when you gonna let me get sober? / Let me alone, let me go home, let me go back and start over." Tricksy, that: a cheerful-sounding song about a drinking problem.
Paxton has a strong voice--confident but not overpowering, giving just enough and not a bit too much. His work ranges from the bitterly satiric to the plaintive to the mellow and accepting. He started performing in the 1960s, often focusing on political themes (some of which, like "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation," are more specific than universal; others, like "Daily News" or "What Did You Learn in School Today?," still have a clear relevance). Paxton is still performing, still releasing new albums.
Tom Paxton's site;
I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound @ amazon.com;
Karamelo Santo -- Fruta Amarga
Sylvie from Delanuca Records wrote some time back introducing me to Karamelo Santo, an Argentinean ska-punk band. "Fruto Amargo" is a Rubén Blades cover: stuttering funky bassline, horn section, slightly distorted rubber-wristed electric guitar, and a melody that telegraphs high noon, barbecues, volleyball on the beach. Good times.
Karamelo Santo's site;
Delanuca Records, which has a downloads section under "media/press";
Sylvie's blog;
Soft -- Higher
The rock band Soft, based in Brooklyn, wrote me a few days ago mentioning that their EP would be released soon. They have a good sense of composition and arrangement--when to add things, drop them out, bring them back--and a great sense of melody; I bet they put on good shows. I posted their track "You Make Me Wanna Die" about a year ago and I was glad to hear from them again.
The band Soft;
The Soft EP @ insound.com;
Pet Politics -- In My Head
Magnus from Pet Politics emailed me in late August; we swapped a couple of emails and then the conversation fell off. He had a round of postings in September but here he is again in case you missed him. Pet Politics is one of those "bands" that's just one person: that's Magnus arranging drums, playing guitar, singing. His music has sort of a wintry quality to it that I like quite a lot: it's like sitting in watching a film, cozy in your pile of blankets, cold creeping in around the curtains. There's something about the melodies he comes up with that's somehow both new and immediately familiar; it gives his sound a sense of nostalgia and oddness at the same time.
The Pet Politics site, with another mp3 up for download;
Calvanes -- Buzz Buzz Buzz
The Calvanes are a doo-wop group that cut a few sides in the 1950s and never put together a full album before 2001. In Harmony has some great tracks on it, especially this one, their Leiber/Stoller cover "Smokey Joe's Cafe," and their lead-off track "Travellin' Stranger". This one's exuberant, catchy, with an open love and a contagious joy broadcasting sunrise, dewy grass, tweeting birds, green twigs, flowers in bloom.
In Harmony @ amazon.com.
Tom Paxton, Karamelo Santo, Soft, Pet Politics, Calvanes
After months of humidity and stultifying heat, we had two days of fall--chilly mornings and brisk breezes--and then it snapped back into good weather for shorts and sandals. If Florida were a person it would be not be a Buddhist: it's quite attached to summer and stands terrified at the prospect of anything else: "what would it be like, this ... 'coldness' thing of which you speak? Sort of a humid heat, only ... without hurricanes? No? Oh. So ... sort of a humid heat, only ... less hot?"
Tom Paxton -- Bottle of Wine
Tom Paxton kicks us off with a very springy sort of song: picked guitar ringing out "life-fun-everything great," with lyrics that it would be easy to sing along to without paying much attention to: "Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine, when you gonna let me get sober? / Let me alone, let me go home, let me go back and start over." Tricksy, that: a cheerful-sounding song about a drinking problem.
Paxton has a strong voice--confident but not overpowering, giving just enough and not a bit too much. His work ranges from the bitterly satiric to the plaintive to the mellow and accepting. He started performing in the 1960s, often focusing on political themes (some of which, like "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation," are more specific than universal; others, like "Daily News" or "What Did You Learn in School Today?," still have a clear relevance). Paxton is still performing, still releasing new albums.
Tom Paxton's site;
I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound @ amazon.com;
Karamelo Santo -- Fruta Amarga
Sylvie from Delanuca Records wrote some time back introducing me to Karamelo Santo, an Argentinean ska-punk band. "Fruto Amargo" is a Rubén Blades cover: stuttering funky bassline, horn section, slightly distorted rubber-wristed electric guitar, and a melody that telegraphs high noon, barbecues, volleyball on the beach. Good times.
Karamelo Santo's site;
Delanuca Records, which has a downloads section under "media/press";
Sylvie's blog;
Soft -- Higher
The rock band Soft, based in Brooklyn, wrote me a few days ago mentioning that their EP would be released soon. They have a good sense of composition and arrangement--when to add things, drop them out, bring them back--and a great sense of melody; I bet they put on good shows. I posted their track "You Make Me Wanna Die" about a year ago and I was glad to hear from them again.
The band Soft;
The Soft EP @ insound.com;
Pet Politics -- In My Head
Magnus from Pet Politics emailed me in late August; we swapped a couple of emails and then the conversation fell off. He had a round of postings in September but here he is again in case you missed him. Pet Politics is one of those "bands" that's just one person: that's Magnus arranging drums, playing guitar, singing. His music has sort of a wintry quality to it that I like quite a lot: it's like sitting in watching a film, cozy in your pile of blankets, cold creeping in around the curtains. There's something about the melodies he comes up with that's somehow both new and immediately familiar; it gives his sound a sense of nostalgia and oddness at the same time.
The Pet Politics site, with another mp3 up for download;
Calvanes -- Buzz Buzz Buzz
The Calvanes are a doo-wop group that cut a few sides in the 1950s and never put together a full album before 2001. In Harmony has some great tracks on it, especially this one, their Leiber/Stoller cover "Smokey Joe's Cafe," and their lead-off track "Travellin' Stranger". This one's exuberant, catchy, with an open love and a contagious joy broadcasting sunrise, dewy grass, tweeting birds, green twigs, flowers in bloom.
In Harmony @ amazon.com.
Labels: doo wop, folk, pop, PR, punk, rock
posted by Tuwa @
09:54 | permalink |
5 comments
|
Monday, October 10, 2005:
The Modern Lovers -- Road Runner
Jr. Walker and the All-Stars -- (I'm a) Road Runner
Jr. Walker and the All-Stars -- Clinging to the Thought That She's Coming Back
Don't mind The White Angel up there; these tracks won't make your jaw hurt.
The Modern Lovers are a party I came to late: I just discovered them a couple of years ago and have yet to look through most of their catalogue. They've done several versions of "Road Runner"; there are two just on their debut re-release (one is a bonus track of the demo) and there's a different version as a bonus track on the Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers rerelease). The Jonathan Richman CD is a bit more complex and contrary than The Modern Lovers' debut; it goes from children's songs to gospel to rock. But this version (and this debut) strikes me as more immediately accessible: punkish rock, occasionally confrontational, leavened with an appreciation for the absurd. All in all it's a hell of a lot of fun.
Jr. Walker and the All-Stars were a Motown group probably best known for their track "Shotgun," a bit of funky white-hot R&B that's just crackling with energy. "(I'm a) Road Runner" is another fairly well-known track from them; this one tells a story in the vein of traditional "walking" blues--a man who shies away from close ties and drifts from one place to the other. This one puts on a strong face about it: he's got his toothbrush and his freedom; what more could he need? The song clips along briskly--no time for sorrows, no time not to swagger.
"Clinging to the Thought That She's Coming Back" is off the flipside to the 45 with "Gotta Hold on to This Feeling." I'm including it here though it's a bit crackly, as I think the charms of the song show through anyway: bassline, organ, sax, swinging delivery with good vibes to spare. The lyrics are about a man burning a candle for his ex, not giving up hope. You can decide for yourself if he should. The track's originally from Jr. Walker's 1969 LP Gotta Hold on to This Feeling/What Does It Take to Win Your Love, which had a re-release on CD some time back that I missed.
[Amazon.com]: The Modern Lovers
[Amazon.com]: Jr. Walker and the All-Stars: Shotgun & Soul
[Amazon.com]: Jr. Walker and the All-Stars: Gotta Hold on to This Feeling/What Does It Take to Win Your Love used, for $70. That purchase should be more fun than an amateur tooth extraction.
Road Runner: The Modern Lovers and Jr. Walker
The Modern Lovers -- Road Runner
Jr. Walker and the All-Stars -- (I'm a) Road Runner
Jr. Walker and the All-Stars -- Clinging to the Thought That She's Coming Back
Don't mind The White Angel up there; these tracks won't make your jaw hurt.
The Modern Lovers are a party I came to late: I just discovered them a couple of years ago and have yet to look through most of their catalogue. They've done several versions of "Road Runner"; there are two just on their debut re-release (one is a bonus track of the demo) and there's a different version as a bonus track on the Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers rerelease). The Jonathan Richman CD is a bit more complex and contrary than The Modern Lovers' debut; it goes from children's songs to gospel to rock. But this version (and this debut) strikes me as more immediately accessible: punkish rock, occasionally confrontational, leavened with an appreciation for the absurd. All in all it's a hell of a lot of fun.
Jr. Walker and the All-Stars were a Motown group probably best known for their track "Shotgun," a bit of funky white-hot R&B that's just crackling with energy. "(I'm a) Road Runner" is another fairly well-known track from them; this one tells a story in the vein of traditional "walking" blues--a man who shies away from close ties and drifts from one place to the other. This one puts on a strong face about it: he's got his toothbrush and his freedom; what more could he need? The song clips along briskly--no time for sorrows, no time not to swagger.
"Clinging to the Thought That She's Coming Back" is off the flipside to the 45 with "Gotta Hold on to This Feeling." I'm including it here though it's a bit crackly, as I think the charms of the song show through anyway: bassline, organ, sax, swinging delivery with good vibes to spare. The lyrics are about a man burning a candle for his ex, not giving up hope. You can decide for yourself if he should. The track's originally from Jr. Walker's 1969 LP Gotta Hold on to This Feeling/What Does It Take to Win Your Love, which had a re-release on CD some time back that I missed.
[Amazon.com]: The Modern Lovers
[Amazon.com]: Jr. Walker and the All-Stars: Shotgun & Soul
[Amazon.com]: Jr. Walker and the All-Stars: Gotta Hold on to This Feeling/What Does It Take to Win Your Love used, for $70. That purchase should be more fun than an amateur tooth extraction.
posted by Tuwa @
17:45 | permalink |
0 comments
|
Wednesday, November 03, 2004:
Right. An illegal unwinnable vastly expensive war under false pretenses, torture of POWs, massive tax cuts to people who least need it, bin Laden uncaptured and gleeful that we're bankrupting ourselves as he had planned, civil liberties being axed right and left while decrying "enemies of freedom," global warming on the march and our government officials ignoring it because they'd hoped for stronger third-quarter returns from Halliburton ... and what most needed correcting was all that talk about gay marriage.
"My goodness, what happened to your nose?"
"I cut myself shaving."
"You ought to be more careful. That must really smart."
"Only when I breathe."
Cop Shoot Cop, towards the end of their run: they've given in and added a guitar player. Their earlier albums were much heavier--two bassists, drums, singer--this one (Release) had a guitarist and even snatches of piano buried in the mix. Sneaky. Like that fundamentalist zealot who thinks he's on a mission from God. Which one? Take your pick.
Cop Shoot Cop fan page
[Amazon.com]
I cut myself shaving
Cop Shoot Cop -- It Only Hurts When I BreatheRight. An illegal unwinnable vastly expensive war under false pretenses, torture of POWs, massive tax cuts to people who least need it, bin Laden uncaptured and gleeful that we're bankrupting ourselves as he had planned, civil liberties being axed right and left while decrying "enemies of freedom," global warming on the march and our government officials ignoring it because they'd hoped for stronger third-quarter returns from Halliburton ... and what most needed correcting was all that talk about gay marriage.
"My goodness, what happened to your nose?"
"I cut myself shaving."
"You ought to be more careful. That must really smart."
"Only when I breathe."
Cop Shoot Cop, towards the end of their run: they've given in and added a guitar player. Their earlier albums were much heavier--two bassists, drums, singer--this one (Release) had a guitarist and even snatches of piano buried in the mix. Sneaky. Like that fundamentalist zealot who thinks he's on a mission from God. Which one? Take your pick.
Cop Shoot Cop fan page
[Amazon.com]
posted by Tuwa @
13:01 | permalink |
0 comments
|
XML
