At the Expense of the Listener

MC Frontalot - Stoop Sale

2012-02-11T15:29:00.000Z

Too good, and fabulous video.
--LeE

I can't shake this cold.

2012-01-18T17:51:00.000Z

Year End Round Up - My 3 Top Albums Of The Year

2011-12-28T04:42:00.009Z

It's been a strange year for releases. Lots of my favorite artists released albums that didn't even show up on my radar (British Sea Power, Tech N9ne, They Might Be Giants). Even more bands that I thought didn't make music any more released albums (Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden, The Human League). There were releases that I should have paid more attention to (Tyler The Creator, Eddie Vedder's ukulele album, Hugh Laurie). A bunch of very good singles were released ('Blue Tip' by The Cars, 'Pumped Up Kicks' by Foster The People, 'Shake It Out' by Florence And The Machine). Also, I spent a good portion of the year playing a lot of musical catch up on certain artists (Mumford And Sons, Vampire Weekend, Jónsi) and missing out on releases from some of my favorites (Duran Duran, Blink 182, Blondie). And don't even talk to me about what a disappointing rehash Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' was.

All that being said, I have not been able to find 10 albums for a top list this year, so I will present to you my Top 3 Albums For 2011. It speaks volumes that all my top albums this year were from female singer/songwriters, and from 3 different countries at that. Take note, Gaga.

3. BIC RUNGA - BELLE
While it's probably true that Bic Runga could release album of the sounds of gastic surgery and I would still buy it, this is a fantastic follow up after a fairly lengthy absence. In that time she collaborated the experimental Kody & Bic, did some soundtrack work, released a retrospective album, did a tour of New Zealand winery shows with Tim Finn and Dave Dobbyn, and has been moving from Paris to New York to London and back to New Zealand with her little family. After all that, she released the sublime Belle. What can I say about a Bic Runga album? Just listen--it's nearly perfect.

2. LYKKE LI - WOUNDED RHYMES
Sweden's Lykke Li released her sophomore album, Wounded Rhymes this year, and the album was considerably more haunting than her prior work. Not that this is a bad thing. She shed her acoustically bent songs for a more pronounced rhythm, yet kept the music just as intimate and delicate. She out Florenced Florence by a year, and was everything that Björk could have been this year. Thank you to Anglo for drawing my attention to Lykke Li.

1. ZEE AVI -GHOSTBIRD
I was introduced to Zee Avi by my friend Britzel (and eternally grateful for that) about 2 days before Ghostbird came out. There was already some familiarity with her music from a commercial for Wal-Mart or Target or some place, but I didn't know anything about this brilliant Malaysian artist. Once this album was released I didn't stop listening to it (or her prior eponymous release) for weeks. It's the entire gamut of emotions and soundscapes, and no one plays the ukulele quite like Zee (sorry, Eddie). Where as Bic was nearly perfect this year, Zee was truly the perfect album this year. Ghostbird is the perfect way to finish off this year--hopeful, warm, alluring, fun, and always dreaming. As she says on 'Swell Window', 'We're all riding the same waves...' Indeed.

-N.
28 December 2011

At The Expense Of Christmas.

2011-12-21T15:26:00.015Z

'Tis the Season and so I figured what better time to share my Top 10 Christmas Songs!

10. SNOW MISER/HEAT MISER SONG
from A Year Without Santa Claus
Start it off right with an oft overlooked Christmas song. I'm really surprised that no one has ever really lifted the sample from the 'Heat Miser' part as it loops really well. This is a song that gets stuck in your head at all times during the year.

9. GABRIEL'S MESSAGE
Sting
From the first 'Very Special Christmas' album. I didn't care for it when I first heard it, but this year it's really grown on me. It definitely sticks out from the usual lot of Christmas tunes.

8. STARÁLFUR
Sigur Rós
OK, technically not a Christmas song, but you know I couldn't have a list without at least one Sigur Rós song. This of all their songs feels like the holidays, the early darkness and cold weather. That may be a regular day in Iceland but it feels like Christmas to the rest of us.

7. TENNESSEE CHRISTMAS
Amy Grant
I went to a Christian school from junior high on and during the holidays this album was inescapable. It's definitely a large piece of my history and I still feel very much in the holiday spirit when I listen to any song off this album.

6. DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS?
Band Aid
Again, another junior high school song and the first in the trend of the mega-stars getting together for a charity record. This was the pinnacle of 1980s Pop Music--it was all pre-fab music, Madonna, cheese Rap, and hair Metal from here on out through the rest of the decade.

5. THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Stuck at the end of an already personally revelatory album ('I Love Rock 'N' Roll') this was quite a surprise when I first heard it. Plus, it has that enigmatic line that replaces 'Mary nodded'; I still think she's saying 'joie de hadash' but I have no clue.

4. MUST BE SANTA
Bob Dylan
Another favorite of my youth (the Mitch Miller version rules!), but this one is covered by one of my favorite musicians...and a wig...in a video that involves a chase...and a listing of the reindeer in an interesting way...as a polka. Awesome.

3. CHRISTMASTIME IS HERE
Vince Guaraldi Trio
I don't even know the words, but we all know it from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Anything by Vince Guaraldi exudes Christmas, and this album is one of the best to put on at this time of year.

2. WE THREE KINGS
Traditional
Like 'O Come Emmanuel' or 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' (neither of which are favorites), this one has a very minor key start, but it's that glorious refrain that makes the difference. This was a favorite as a child, perhaps it was being intrigued by the 'Star of Wonder' line. A great caroling song.

1. O HOLY NIGHT
Robert Guillaume
TV's Benson (and an eventual Phantom, but most of you know him as Rafiki) stunned all the viewers with this rendition of my all-time favorite Christmas song. Until then they hadn't really showcased his beautiful voice on the show so it was a big surprise. This version still gives me chills. When asked to sing a Christmas song, this is the one I always choose.

------

Honorable Mentions:

2000 MILES
The Pretenders
A beautiful track and a favorite of theirs, but it's never really evoked Christmas to me.

CHRISTMASTIME
Larry Norman
I used to like this song when I was in high school, but I'm surprisingly less pessimistic now.

------

Merry Christmas all!

-N.

ATTENTION:

2011-08-12T12:08:00.001+01:00

10 Important Finn-Related Things To Know.

2011-08-08T03:28:00.006+01:00

Thinking about it, this is a list I should have made ages ago. The Finn-fluence (HA!) has reached far and wide and here are some things you should probably become familiar with.

10. Split Enz Pre-Neil
Arguably, Neil was the best thing to happen to Split Enz, but the band was created as a Folk-influenced troupe by Tim and schoolmate Phil Judd. Eventually they evolved into a bigger, more experimental sound heavily influenced by Art Rock, and they released two albums (Mental Notes and Second Thoughts, which was produced by Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera).

9. Denton
The fun side of the Brothers Finn, as seen on the Australian talk show 'Denton'.

8. Finn-Runga-Dobbyn
In 2000, Tim embarked on a tour with fellow New Zealand artists Bic Runga and Dave Dobbyn, representing 3 epochs in NZ music. They played their biggest songs, occasionally joined by Neil, and they revisited the format on a 2010 series of vineyard shows.

7. ENZSO
What happens when you merge Split ENZ and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO)? ENZSO, and the 1996 shows were a retrospective of the band's career with an orchestral backing.

6. Bic Runga's Backing Band
For Bic Runga's 2005 album Birds Neil was content become a member of the band, contributing guitar and piano as well as backing vocals. It should be noted as well that those are Neil's harmony's you hear on Sheryl Crow's megahit 'Everyday Is A Winding Road'.

5. Tim Finn, Movie Star
Tim appeared as Phillip in 1985's Coca Cola Kid (with Eric Roberts and Tim's then girlfriend Greta Scacchi). This is the scene where he performs a new Coke jingle, which is very 'Australian'.

4. Neil Finn's Soundtrack
Neil scored the soundtrack for 2001's Rain as well as produced a few new songs for the film (performed by him, as well as others including Edmund McWilliams, Lisa Germano, and Liam Finn).

3. 7 Worlds Collide
With a name taken from the Crowded House track 'Distant Sun', Neil formed a supergroup of sorts in 2001 (including brother Tim, son Liam's band Betchadupa, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Lisa Germano, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, and a couple of members of Radiohead) to rehearse at Neil's house in Kare Kare and then perform a series of shows in New Zealand. The project was so beloved that in late 2008/early 2009 the band reconvened and expanded (including Bic Runga, Jeff Tweedy, and KT Tungstall among others) to record an album and perform live shows for Oxfam.

2. Liam Finn
Eldest son of Neil and Sharon, he is the legacy. You hear his voice and know his lineage, and he's every bit as talented as you would imagine he should be. With his musical compatriot Eliza Jane 'EJ' Barnes (daughter of Aussie rocker Jimmy Barnes) he is creating music that will be influencing the next wave of artists.

1. 'Can You Hear Us?'
The song that had all of New Zealand singing at the turn of the Millennium. A rugby nation, this was the theme song for the New Zealand All Blacks and was impossible to escape during the race for the World Cup (they lost in the quarterfinals). However, with a catchy song that not only has brother Tim but also Lucy 'Xena' Lawless in it, it remains to this day Neil's only solo number 1 single.

First Splash Part Second

2011-05-20T19:54:00.001+01:00

Check out the first half first, duder.

So where was I? Oh yeah, The Breeders did manage to steer me into the arms of a very Kim Deal-esque young woman. You see, I met this chick in September of 1993. The Breeders and Kim and Kelley Deal were already so firmly imbedded in my mind that I didn't even notice that I was attracted to this girl because she looked and dressed like a Deal sister. This relationship was hot, heavy, dramatic, explosive, and lasted nearly 2 weeks (actually not consummated until months and months later in a rather peculiar one afternoon stand (don't worry I didn't put this album on for tha screwin')). The relationship ended but my aching love of this album never did.

During the summer of 1994, I actually got to see The Breeders live at Lollapalooza in Miami. They were not the most popular band at that moment and all the fucking idiots disappeared from the moshpit. So me and only a handful of rad dudes and ladies danced our hearts out in the August (the 15th to be precise) sun. Their stage was covered with gold Lamé and they rocked out. Like everyone who loves a band, it fucking felt like they were playing to me. The girl I was dating at the time didn't stand a chance. She looked nothing like Kim Deal. We broke up mere weeks after this show.

Side B

Track 1 - "I Just Wanna Get Along"

And here is another track that is so impossibly cool that it's like permanent sunglasses. With this in my walkman, I would strut around with a rock swagger that I never earned. Holy shit, here's a bass line so insistent and so steady that the rest of the band can do whatever the hell they please. The chops of Josephine Wiggs can never be praised enough.

Track 2 - "Mad Lucas"

In part 1 of this album review, I talked about how I thought this album was so weird and so out there? Well, if this isn't a bizarro track then I don't know what is. With vocals run through a rotary speaker, fuzzed out guitars that sound about a mile away, and some feedback that sounds an awful lot like one of those funky cicada sound toys that were everywhere in the 90s. This song sounds like eery meditation.

Track 3 - "Divine Hammer"

Nothing reminds me more of driving through rainy weather in Palm Beach County more than this song. Damn. The storm is breaking, the sun is setting to your left and you're just cruising through the weakening rain. What always impressed me are the snare blasts in this one. Years later, I would have my step-brother and I put together a drumset and I would fail to play along to this track. By the way, I never saw the music video for this track until way later when MTV2 played it.

Track 4 - "S.O.S."

Now this is heavy! I could dig on this instantly. There's nothing to get cerebral about. Soaring guitars and a thumping rhythm section. Duh, right? On any given afternoon, you could find my teenage self thrashing around my room like I was still into Anthrax and Sepultura.

Track 5 - "Hag"

This song seems to float in on melody that is impossibly pretty. Then it simply refuses to be ignored. It bristles with attitude, vocals dripping with disdain (wait, what song is that from? oh yeah, Vampire Weekend) and gets by on its good looks. Here is another example of a crash course in indie rock. This would open doors for me that would lead to tons of other bands. More about that at the end. This feels like someone else's memories. So perfect. And that jangly beauty again at the end. Pat yourselves on the back, ladies, you win.

Track 6 - "Saints"

I don't know. This one just seemed like a real easy track. Could this be the most radio friendly? I've always had trouble connecting to songs that praise summer. I've been in Florida for 23 years and I don't think I'll ever appreciate this awful, awful season. However, I did really enjoy the chip on the shoulder delivery of the lyrics. This song will not be denied. Oh yeah, this was the only other music video for this album that I saw at the time and it further enveloped me in the Dealness. (The version on the video above is different. Dig those gruff vocals!)

Track 7 - "Drivin' On 9"

What about this one? I don't know. It felt like the end of the album. For some people, maybe it felt like a reward. Maybe for some other kids, it was their favorite song. This song just depressed the shit out of me. I like how it has become this great bar song now. Awesome.

Track 8 - "Roi (Reprise)"

I have to say the inclusion of this short little bit of noise accomplished something that very few closing tracks (much less reprises) can do. It makes me want to start the whole record over again. I am one of those people who can't listen to the same album twice in a row and sometimes not even twice in a day. This was not the case with Last Splash and this track has a lot to do with that. Just play this back to back with "New Year". Truly, seriously, and totally.

So here it is, the future and I can't thank The Breeders enough for making my musical life so much better. I feel enriched after all these years. Without The Breeders I may never have even bothered with The Pixies until much later. I would never have been able to understand Sonic Youth. I would almost love Helium as much as this band. Almost! What else can I say? This one life-changing cassette did all of this. I needed to get out of my headspace and find music that felt just crazy enough to feel like it was mine. (Too bad it couldn't get me out of ska (that was a job for a little band called Braid).)

First Splash Part First

2011-05-20T17:59:00.003+01:00

The first time I ever heard anything "weird" was at the beginning of my senior year of high school. I was home on a Saturday and they played "Cannonball" by The Breeders. I had never heard or seen anything like these chicks (and one dude). I fell instantly in love with the Deal sisters. All I knew about them from the video was that they were some goodtime gals and that they made music that sounded punk-ish but had a distorted acoustic guitar and a bass line hook for the ages. I sat there and said to myself, I need this. By the next day, I had been to the mall and picked up Last Splash on cassette. The reason for not getting the disc was that I figured (incorrectly) that "Cannonball" would be the only good song on the whole tape. How funny. I was already very cynical.

When I finally put it on, I was totally blown away by Last Splash. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before. I knew rap, heavy metal, punk, and ska but I did not know this. The only alternative music I had in my possession was Soundgarden, Nirvana, and I don't know, Concrete Blonde? None of those bands felt as important, as fresh, as emotive, as eccentric, as impossibly cool, or as sexy as The Breeders did to me. Granted, I used to ride my bike around my little suburb of Jupiter, Florida openly weeping to Soundgarden's "Mind Riot". Shit man, I fucking loved music. And I was ready for Last Splash.

By the way, I had no idea who The Pixies were. It would be over two years before someone said, "Hey dumbass, Kim Deal is from this other band." While I love The Pixies, they NEVER came close to being as important as The Breeders for me.

I am now going to talk about every song on this damn album and try to imagine myself as a 17 year old newb. My age is currently double that right now so what the hell, right?

Side A

Track 1 - "New Year"

I'll never forget the "awwwww yeah" and "huh?" feelings this opener gave me. The drums were heavy and the guitars were heavy and I didn't know which way was up. And like any ex-metalhead, I was obsessed with the totally bizarre lyrics. There are sounds on this song that I thought maybe were guitars but maybe weren't. Strange plinking and feedbacky sounds that made a part of brain come to life that was always dormant and that I can never turn off now. What the fuck is this? No seriously, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? And what is up with that ending? We get all geared up for more magic, the buildup is building up, and we're done!

Track 2 - "Cannonball"

And here is that strange, strange song that screwed me six ways till Sunday (musically). The one that started it all. This song feels like a memory of a girl screaming in your ear and her lips accidentally brushing the lobe. You don't remember the pain but you remember the tingling in your guts and can't help but smile about the damage she did. Attention-grabbing and life-changing and unlike anything I had ever heard before. The perfect single for my young ears.

Track 3 - "Invisible Man"

Truth be told, this song, over the years, has become the most nostalgic for me over the years. When I heard that they mentioned "southern skies" (hey I live in Florida) and when I heard the phrase "nothing excites you" (hey I was born to disappoint the ladies), I felt something break inside me. This is the one that I would listen to and just completely fall apart. No clue why they never made a video for this one. Listening to this now, I find it hard not to stare off into space and imagine my Palm Beach days very, very fondly (even though they often sucked and even though it was almost always my fault). The violin and moog sound like something lifted off a creaky old ballad from the 1920s. And that coda with the bells... Ohhhhhhhhhh, doctor.

Track 4 - "No Aloha"

Now bear with me here. Imagine how close minded I was at 17. The first minute and 10 seconds of this track was literally the weirdest thing I had ever heard. Lyrically and sonically, I was not prepared. This song made me uneasy and then the drums kick in and I felt safe again.

Track 5 - "Roi"

Speaking of sonic blasts of guitar noise... This one grooves and rocks out until more strangeness happens. If ever there was something that could be called mind-expanding musical drugs, this was it. By the way, I never did any drugs in my teen years. This was was my LSD, pot, coke, E, etc. All of the weird vocal pieces on this album feel like a cute chick is humming, whistling, or cooing in my ears. Addictive and perfect in every way.

Track 6 - "Do You Love Me Now?"

I refused to use this song to think of girls and heartbreak over the years and I'm so glad I did. If this song had ever been attached to some brief relationship in my youth, it would have been ruined. It's a strong bit of longing and obsession that anyone can understand. What interested me musically is the un-guitar solo on this one. It sounded so sloppy and off. Couple that with the driving beat and gorgeous harmonizing vocals... Simply excellent.

Track 7 - "Flipside"

Um... huh? So here's this little surf rock song to close out side A. This may be the easiest thing to listen to on this entire tape. Leave it to a band like The Breeders and to come off even more odd by playing something painfully normal.

Side B coming in the next part wherein I will talk about the second side of the tape. I will also talk about the chick I dated because of The Breeders AND getting to see them at Lollapalooza in 1994.

Hey, Side B is done now. Check it out.

My Fantasy Jukebox.

2011-01-05T04:39:00.001Z

Frankie Avalon & a 1960s Cinebox video jukebox

Driving to work this morning in the 5:00a hour I was thinking about what songs I would put in my fantasy jukebox.*

*Now for those of you who were born long after vinyl 45s were regarded as little more than a novelty, a jukebox was a big machine that played one song at time for a few coins.#

#Now for those of you who were born long after hard currency was abolished in exchange for intangible credit and debit, coins were generally small round flat objects used to fire up video game machines and payphones.@

@Now for those of you who were born long after everyone already had a smartphone attached to their...[EDITOR'S NOTE: At this point we had to hit Nafa in the head with a baseball bat. He did leave his list so on with the countdown.]

10. JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS - FAKE FRIENDS

The perfect amounts of kick ass Rock, melodic happy Pop, and Sesame Street style sing-along.

09. SLADE - RUN RUNAWAY

Glam hits the 1980s!

08. SEX PISTOLS - BODIES

Just try to resist singing along once the third verse starts.

07. NED'S ATOMIC DUSTBIN - SATURDAY NIGHT

Fuller than the original with a bit of a sinister edge.

06. BUSTA RHYMES - WOO HAH!! GOT YOU ALL IN CHECK

A decade and a half later it still sounds alien and awesome.

05. SHONEN KNIFE - RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD

Just about any cover that Shonen Knife does outshines the original.

04. M.I.A. - PAPER PLANES

The Clash are catchy, but M.I.A. is catchier. And I'd much rather look at her.

03. LAWRENCE ARABIA - APPLE PIE BED

Listen to this and I dare you not to get that chorus stuck in your head.

02. SLIM DUSTY - DUNCAN

If this jukebox is in a pub than this song is essential. Hell, any Slim Dusty is essential.

01. RICHARD HARRIS - MACARTHUR PARK

Every jukebox needs maudlin, moody, silly, tearful songs. This covers all of those qualifications.

My Top 10 Albums For 2010.

2010-12-15T13:34:00.007Z

It's years end and time for the ever-present top 10 lists to begin. So without further ado, here are my top 10 albums for 2010 (in reverse order):

10. 'A WAVE IS ROLLING' - Nafa
Yes, OK, a bit of self promotion with this one, but I'm putting my DIY second proper album of original pop songs at the end of the list. These things get better as they come out and I'm feeling a bit chuffed at a few of the tracks. A solid effort.

09. 'PINK FRIDAY' - Nicki Minaj
Only a few weeks ago my friend Mark turned me on to Nikki Minaj via 'Roman's Revenge'. I explored more of her work and fell in love with her collaboration with Lil Wayne on his pop/punk song 'Knockout'. She has totally kicked my ass.

08. 'PATAGONIAN RATS' - Tera Melos
The first of two of Richard's bands on the list and one that I had found sort of difficult to get into at first. However, this album (and thanks to R for leaked updates as the album was being recorded) has really grown on me and it's solid.

07. 'GO' - Jónsi
This really should be at number 10, but on his Sigur Rós merits alone, Jónsi gets a 3-space pass. Don't get me wrong, the album is very good, ethereal and beautiful, though no Sigur Rós--but it's a good start, and perhaps a way-point on the way back to the band and a shortening of their 'hiatus'.

06. 'CONTRA' - Vampire Weekend
Strong debut, almost equally as strong follow up. 'Contra' starts great and doesn't wain. Instantly likable and infectious (as attested to by the number of commercials you hear 'Holiday' in). Who knew you could drag out Paul Simon's 'Graceland' so long?

05. 'MARNIE STERN' - Marnie Stern
Every. Single. Track. On. This. Rocks. The second Richard-influenced album. Every song here sounds like a mini-hurricane. Every song here sounds like life sped up to a couple minutes, birth to death and all the love and heart break in between. Just listen.

04. 'THE FAME MONSTER' - Lady Gaga
An album where every song could have been a single. It was inescapable and rightfully so. 'Bad Romance' is one of the best pop singles ever, and Ms. Bowie...erm...Gaga showed of her musical prowess and over the top theatrics on a grander stage. Love her or hate her, she's got skills.

03. 'INTRIGUER' - Crowded House
I must admit I've not listened to this album since I bought it. In fact, I've not watched the DVD that came with it either. I did listen to it when it was posted on the Crowdies website, and then finally got to see them live after a quarter of a century (where I bought said CD/DVD combo). There on my shelf still sits the set, unopened but basking in the glow of the show still that still rings off the cellophane wrapper. The album is fantastic, a bit more mature, but still distinctly Neil Finn and company. It's fair to say that it was a better album than their 2007 return disc, 'Time On Earth'. I don't know if I'll ever open it--but then again, I don't know if I'll ever need to.

02. 'CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF' - Sarge & The Aeromen
A long time coming for all Sarge & The Aeromen fans, and mark (Warren) my words it was worth the wait. They (Ryan) are(-senault) the best reason to see live music in Florida. This album captures every nuance and reason we love this band and (Chris) packs it into a convenient package. I listen to it (Mike) daily.

01. 'CHANT DARLING' - Lawrence Arabia
OK, hands down the album of the year. The man/band got exposure opening for Crowded House on the Intriguer tour, and it's about time. Just as infectious as Vampire Weekend or even Nikki Minaj but channels The Kinks and The Beach Boys. He/They has/have taken the ball that is New Zealand music and run with it. And scored.

-N.

The Road To Math Rock: Disharmonic Orchestra

2010-12-15T13:11:00.004Z

I listen to a lot of weird crap these days. And I don't mean like Beefheart weird, I mean like math rock weird. I was just talking with Nafa about what I listened to during my metal years (ages 11-15). The thing that I loved about metal was the in-between parts. I didn't care how fast the drummer could play or how low the singer could growl and I didn't give a flying fuck about those endless (though occasionally cool) guitar solos. What I wanted from metal were those "mosh parts", the breakdowns, and the moments where everything just seemed to groove to some insane rhythm that I couldn't even come close to understanding. And oh how I loved those noodly bits where everything became treble.

One band that had a lot of what I loved was Disharmonic Orchestra. Their album Not to be Undimensional Conscious blew my fucking mind and I can never thank my good friend Scott for introducing me to these guys.

Skip to 2:03 for some weirdness:

Around 2:05 for some beautiful stuff:

When I listened to metal back in the day, I tried to imagine the perfect band. They had five guitarists, two drummers, one bass player, and no singer. It makes perfect sense that I would be perfectly suited to love Don Caballero, Hella, etc. So of course, I was predestined to love Marnie Stern. Does any of this make sense?

I Listen to EVERYTHING

2010-12-08T13:16:00.005Z

You know, 2010 was the year of putting on the blinders and waiting for three albums to come out: the new Marnie Stern, the new Tera Melos, and Zach Hill's new solo album. I spent more time this year reminiscing about old music I used to like and just pining, pining, pining for these three to come out. Since there were only three albums to listen to, it only took me a few weeks to figure out my album of the year.

And the winner is... Marnie Stern! Patagonian Rats, the new Tera Melos, came close to the big win but Miss Stern wins out sonically, cohesively, and emotionally. Tera Melos definitely put out one of the strangest and fastest albums I've ever heard but it just doesn't quite cut my mustard. Plus, there are a couple of tracks that are needlessly long at nearly 10 minutes each.

And what about that new Zach Hill, Face Tat? Well, holy shit. It's fucking amazing. The problem I had with Hill's first solo record, Astrological Straits, is that it had a bunch of very original, very listenable moments surrounded by much less listenable, almost impenetrable um... stuff? On Face Tat, Zach Hill has merged the impenetrable with the listenable and it all pretty much works. Not only do I like nearly every track, the album is loud. Seriously, this is the loudest album I own. It's experimental and it is fun in a scary way. At first it all just sounds like noise but then your brain grows some balls and it's all good.

One band that put out a fantastic EP this year is Planets. This instrumental duo tear shit up on TURBO JAMZ!!!! and I'll never really be the same. Check this shit out. So until The Joggers put out something new, I guess music is dead to me. But at least I was able to pick an album of the year. That's good, right? It's okay that I only heard 4 things released this year, right? I have a bad feeling about this. Don't get me wrong, I love the accomplishments of these musical people but I have a sneaking suspicion that being close-minded musically is bad.

-Richard

"Take your skin off and dance" - Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra

2010-09-25T19:22:00.004+01:00

It has either been too long coming or I've talked about this before and its been so long that I don't remember. Anyway, we were talking about songs, and "Take your skin off and dance" by Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra is the kind of song I expect all songs that come out of Australia to sound like. I suppose I am glad that they do not all sound the same, but well...

So, the first song that ever caught my attention and turned it towards all things Martin Martini was actually "Stock Exchange." I found the bleak imagery and the energetic forging ahead if not cheerful force to the story line extremely easy to fall into. "Take your skin off and dance" has these same elements and a little bit more robust vocal belting.

While looking around for a fancy little embeddable player to share the song I found that the band has since broken up, but you can still enjoy some of their scattered online presence on myspace .

I did not actually find a fancy little embeddable player to share "Take your skin off and dance" but if you click on the end of this sentence a new window will let you Play the song with iLike.

Incidentally, "Monkey & Sardine," another song from Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra got stuck in my head so much I toyed with the idea of creating an animated video to fill the video void for it on the Internet. I am very happy to say that Jim Batt beat me to this and finally delivered a music video for the song. Follow the vimeo links after the video to find the making of the video.

Martin Martini - Monkey & Sardine from Jim Batt on Vimeo.

Cheers. --LeE

This is the summer of waiting...

2010-08-02T18:07:00.005+01:00

Damn, I guess it only feels like I'm waiting forever. Marnie Stern, Tera Melos, and Zach Hill all have albums coming out this fall. Brace yourselves!

Vuvuzela.

2010-06-19T19:16:00.002+01:00

If only the World Cup stadiums could unify and play a tune like this:

Aquarium

2010-06-18T15:30:00.000+01:00

Terrible Shit I Bought: The Rolling Stones

2010-05-25T18:34:00.003+01:00

Okay, this is totally baffling to me. When I was 13 years old, I was clearly the stupidest (and most bored musically) idiot ever born. The Rolling Stones had done "Satisfaction" and Mick Jagger had directed that movie with Whoopi Goldberg but that's all I knew about them. I mean, I knew they were an old band. So why would a 13 year old listen to music made by anyone over the age of 13? I don't fucking know. For some reason, I bought the Steel Wheels album. This is probably the worst album ever recorded. The Rolling Stones are even worse than Vanilla Ice. Why? Because I still like "Stop That Train". I have this crystal clear memory of sitting in my friend Sam's attic and listening to Steel Wheels on my little tape recorder and thinking, "Wow, why did I spend my allowance on this crap?" I started fast-forwarding, looking for a song, any song, that I liked and I couldn't find a single one. This wave of depression washed over me and I gave the tape to Sam. He probably hated it too.

Terrible Shit I Bought: Snap! & Technotronic

2010-05-18T16:27:00.005+01:00

I should change this to "Terrible Shit I Bought And Enjoyed The Shit Out Of". Sometime in 1990, I had both World Power by Snap! and Pump Up the Jam by Technotronic. These albums were immensely important to my 14-year-old brain for some reason. I was already listening to metal so who knows what I was thinking when I was into this junk. The best thing about these two albums? They both fit on a 90 minute tape! I would dig on Snap! for 45 minutes and then flip it over to groove to Technotronic. My brain must have been turned off that year. I remember playing videogames and watching sunsets to this awful and brainless stuff. I think I was a weird kid but I would have been even weirder knowing that the techno music I was listening to for 500 hours at a time wasn't even American. This shit was totally Belgian and German. The following year, when The KLF hit it big with "3 a.m. Eternal", I was already out of my techno phase. Thank God. Hmm, this post is only moderately embarrassing. I'll do better next time.

Terrible Shit I Bought: The Black Crowes

2010-04-27T13:50:00.003+01:00

There are things I have done that I am not too proud of. Some of them are crimes against humanity and some of them are crimes against music. Sometime in 1990, I was going on a road trip with my aunt, her boyfriend, and his kids. The trip involved the fairgrounds and a hotel with a pool. While I was packing for this impromptu voyage, I made a fatal mistake: I left my stack of tapes on my dresser! So I had a walkman, batteries, and no friggin' music. We made a pitstop at K-Mart before we headed out so I got my money together and all I had was a about $11 for the whole weekend. This was not good. Then I made a horrible mistake: I purchased The Black Crowes Shake Your Money Maker. I thought that "BABY I'M TOO HARD TO HANDLE NOW YES AROUND" (that's what I thought he was saying) song was good so I fucking bought it.

I have a vague memory of a Run DMC cassette that was very tempting but OHHH NOOO, I fucking passed on that for The Black Fucking Crowes! This is why I hate myself. This is why I am a worthless piece of shit. So for the entire weekend, I had ONE TAPE. ONE! TAPE! So for the car ride to our destination, the boring night at the hotel, and the endless ride home, I had nothing but these dirtball hippie scumbag shitheads singing stupid crap to my brain. I could have been memorizing Run DMC's raps all weekend. That's a skill that would have come in very handy later in life, let me tell ya. I could have maybe been like at least a little cool for a few seconds in my useless, miserable life. Okay, I'm done.

-Richard

FINN: Prologue

2010-04-19T14:06:00.003+01:00

(The following was written after a sleepless week and heavy NyQuil inducement...just like this sentence was. And it's the third attempt.)

28 July, 2010, one of the main players in one of my all-time favorite bands will be playing a concert locally. Of course I am talking about Neil Finn of Crowded House, and the band I'm referring to is Split Enz. I've never seen Crowded House live despite being a huge fan since I was 15 and having at least two prior opportunities. Nor have I ever seen any member of the Finn family or musical incarnation live, apart from owning several live DVDs, VHS tapes, and audio recordings, but that really doesn't count. I'm not much of a concert goer, actually, which some find odd for an active musician. (I passed up an opportunity this past Friday to see another musical god, Colin Hay.) I debated about getting tickets to the Crowded House show and passed up 4th and 7th row seats in lieu of 12th row. Don't ask.

But I'm straying from my point, which is Split Enz and the Finns. I had intended to use as little wordage as possible to express my love for them, but that ship has sailed. Granted, Neil wasn't a founding member of my beloved Enz, but his brother Tim was and after joining the band Tim and Neil were able to take the ring to Mordor and fight Xena for the Kiwi football wool sweater bungee. Throw another pimp on the barbie, mate. Fuck it, just listen to the twin Finn awesomeness in some of my favorite situations.

There can be only one.

Or two, since they are brothers.

-N.

Terribe Shit I Bought: Lenny Kravitz

2010-04-17T15:40:00.005+01:00

In 1993, I was a 16 year old fucking idiot who watched MTV all day, every day. I didn't go to school or work. Nor did I eat or sleep or poop. I simply waited for music videos to excite me and then I would run out and buy a CD. One horrible day, I saw this incredible video by a 'new' artist (well, I'd never heard of the fucking guy) named Lenny Kravitz. The song was called "Are You Gonna Go My Way" and it was the first single from the album of the same name. The song and the video rocked my socks off. It was 100% adrenaline delivered with a vibe of utter coolness. (Keep in mind it was the 90s and everything (even AIDS) was possible.)

So I bought the cassette. Yeah, at least I was a little cost conscious. On the way home in the car, I realized my mistake. "Are You Gonna Go My Way" is the only decent song on that terrible, terrible album. I thought Kravitz was emulating the 1970s. I didn't know he was a hippie! I decided to give the album another chance but it was pointless. Lenny Kravitz is a jerk and his music is terrible. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

-Richard

The X-ecutioners

2010-04-13T12:28:00.002+01:00

These dudes came up in conversation this morning.

Anthrax

2010-03-19T13:42:00.007Z

Here is me in 1988. Look how metal I was!

When I was 12, Iron Maiden was the gateway drug into metal. Their cover art alone was enough to draw me in. It wasn't long though before my friend Eric introduced me to Anthrax with their classic 1987 album Among the Living. Holy shitballs, I had never heard anything so heavy and so fast before. In an instant, I was a thrash metal convert. Suddenly, Iron Maiden seemed weak and boring. Within a year, I had everything by Anthrax. I listened to every song and read all the lyrics obsessively. My favorite songs were "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)" and "Now it's Dark" on State of Euphoria (of course I had no idea it was about David Lynch's Blue Velvet).

Many, many hours of my life were spent ruining my hearing with Anthrax pumping through my headphones. I would play them for everyone who had a stereo. Even people who hated metal had to get a speech from me as to why this band was the greatest thing to ever happen to their ears. When Persistence of Time was released in the summer of 1990, I had found the zenith of music as I knew it. That summer, if you wanted to find me, I was either moshing around my room to "In My World" or playing video games (while listening to "In My World"). Now that my teenage years were well underway, pretty much any angry music spoke to me but Anthrax did it with intelligence and nerdy humor. Life was good.

It wasn't until high school that other bands would crush my Anthrax allegiance. Slayer and Sepultura would decimate most thrash bands and other oddities like Prong would steal my attention away. Then of course, Entombed would come along and within just a few weeks, I was all about the death metal. I still had a place in my heart for them. Hell, I even loved it when they changed singers for Sound of White Noise. It was a change that I liked and I still dig that album. But my fascination with the band and metal of any genre had dissipated before Stomp 442 even came out.

Boy was I surprised when I found out that We've Come for You All, released in 2003, is a fucking kickass album. Hopefully, their upcoming album, which went into limbo sometime in the fall of 2009, will see the light of day soon. I have been revisiting my nostalgia for this band and I'm finding that it's just good stuff. Even though I strayed for a bit there, after all these years, Anthrax is still, without a doubt, my favorite metal band.

"Tonight You Belong To Me", etc.

2010-02-08T12:15:00.002Z

How come no one ever told me about Patience and Prudence?

4 Sale

2010-02-04T18:21:00.002Z

And now for our first commercial message:

Hey kids. My mom acquired some sweet records and music memorabilia and is selling the stuff on eBay. Check it out right here. If you buy stuff, be sure to tell her I sent you so that she won't disown me. Later.

-slizwiz

The Darkest 80s - Goth Was Never This Pitch Black

2010-01-08T15:46:00.011Z

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those ... moments will be lost in time, like tears...in rain. Time to die.

And so it began. Or ended.

It occurred to me that Richard missed out on a truly bizarre period of pop music having not listened to radio from 1979 through 1982 (which was also during the conception and birth of MTV and the music video as we know it). During that time music was more focused on the actual music rather than an image. Punk had it's influence a couple years before and New Wave was a novelty. Hip Hop was still very much a sub-genre and Rock was rolled so much it became dull and blunted.

During this period quite a few Country and Country-influenced artists dominated the mainstream, bringing their soft-edged twangless tones to the topper-most of the popper-most. Guys with beards and feathered hair and girls with dowdy floral dresses and Baptist bouffants ruled the day. Also, the novelty song was a popular choice then too, as well as limp, ineffectual Pop (like it always has been). All the songs and artists listed below were popular and would play on the radio one right after the other along with songs like Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’, Kenny Roger's 'The Gambler', AC-DC's 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap', and Kool And The Gang’s ‘Celebration’.

God bless my blue transistor radio, the Might 690 in Orange County, California, and 96KX and Q-105 in Tampa, Florida.

Some of these are amazing, others are…best forgotten (culminating with the final video, 'I've Never Been To Me', my choice for the cheesiest song ever).

---

Juice Newton - 'Queen Of Hearts'
I love Juice Newton (there, I said it). This song was great and her sense of melody and fun just showed. Yes, this is one of the best songs on the list.

Bertie Higgins - 'Key Largo'
A local boy for us Tampa Bay area people (he was from Tarpon Springs or New Port Richey). The requisite beard is mighty and the collar carefree.

Paul Davis - ''65 Love Affair'
He was truly an enigma to me. He looked like a bear but sang like a muffin. Love this guy.

And just for reference, this is the hunky Paul Davis at that time:

The Oak Ridge Boys - 'Elvira'
Again, on the awesome list. Who didn't love the ORB?

Melissa Manchester - 'You Should Hear How She Talks About You'
Something about this song always struck a cheese chord in me that I couldn't get past. Not hearing it in 20 years it's alright now, but back then forget it.

Chilliwack - 'Gone, Gone, Gone'
Truly confounding. Don't know who they were (except Canadians) or what this song was, but it was something I had heard many times and not heard ever. Or ever again.

Dr. Hook - 'Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk'
I would play this song a lot on the jukebox at Dawg's in Mission Bell. Thankfully, I could play it unashamedly because I didn't listen to lyrics then.

Sylvia - 'Nobody'
The Lesser Charlene. Nothing else to say here.

38 Special - 'Hold On Loosely;
Southern Rock, the South will rise again, Lynnaddrraddd Skhyyhdnfaardard FOREVERRREEREERRR!!! At least they have two drummers and some nice guitars. Can't we get them on a plane too?

Joe Dolce - 'Shaddap You Face'
I was 10 and obsessed with this song. God bless K-Tel records. My poor parents.

Charlene - 'I've Never Been To Me'
13:11 I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon.
13:12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.
13:13 He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people.
13:14 He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived.
13:15 It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn't worship the image of the beast to be killed.
13:16 He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads;
13:17 and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name.
13:18 Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six.

---

Thank you Prince, Duran Duran, and MTV for coming along and saving us all.

-NF.
08.01.2010

Disco Revenge

2009-12-22T16:01:00.005Z

I'm not original so I want to copy Nafa and post my favorite disco songs.

The only KISS song I like:

'To My Surprise (LISTEN!) One Hundred Stories High...'

2009-12-18T19:07:00.004Z

A short list of my top songs of the Disco era. Put on yer boogie shoes, duders.

If I Can't Have You - Yvonne Elliman

'To dreams that never will come true...' One of those rare pop songs with insightful lyrics and a driving beat. Penned by the Bee Gees but made amazing by Yvonne 'Mary Magdalene' Elliman, this was featured in the monster film Saturday Night Fever, which we will hear from again shortly.

***

Boogie Shoes - KC & The Sunshine Band

A sing along from the hitmakers KC & The Sunshine Band. Definitely not as annoying as That's The Way I Like It and featuring a horn section that you should kill for. Best song about shoes since Carl Perkins.

***

How Deep Is Your Love? - The Bee Gees

The Aussie brothers were kings of the era, just about every song they did could make this list, but this ballad just rises high above the rest of their great songs. It was a slow, meaningful tune but still had that swing to it. Gorgeous stuff and another from the SNF soundtrack.

***

If It Wasn't For The Nights - ABBA

Greatest band ever and another of their absolutely underrated classics. Pure Disco from the North. They even got that bouncy bassline worked into it--not bad for land overrun with reindeer.

***

Disco Inferno - The Trammps

Hands down the best song of the SNF soundtrack, of The Trammps, and of the era. Everything is in this--the faux classical rises, the driving beat, the dirty bass, the IN-YOUR-FACE horns, the desperation/flirtation vocals, and a hook that will lodge itself in your brain like one of those little skewer things that the ancient Egyptians used to pull out a pharaoh's brain before mummification. Just turn it on, turn it up, and burn this mutha down.

Health - 'Die Slow'

2009-12-16T14:14:00.002Z

This video freaks me out in the best way.

Planets

2009-12-09T14:31:00.004Z

I don't know about you but I think Planets are a great, great band. Usually they are covered head to toe in skin tight white outfits with a projector playing over their bodies. But this spastic duo has also been seen in their human skins as well. Their music is bass, drums, half-whispered vocals and God knows what else. All in all, this is good stuff.

Planets Myspace

Planets blog

Town Without Pity

2009-12-07T18:04:00.004Z

LeEtta and I are still enjoying our free 6 months of satellite radio and we've been hitting the 50s and 60s stations like red headed stepchild biznitches. One song that came on this morning was 'Town Without Pity' by Gene Pitney. Holy shit, this is one fantastic song. It makes me want to start another blog called The Songs That Should Not Be. This is just a miserable song (in a good way) tied to what sounds like a miserable movie. This is a great track to wallow in. How about that? Songs To Wallow In. Hmm, no. I'll just stop now.

When you're young and so in love as we
And bewildered by the world we see
Why do people hurt us so
Only those in love would know
What a town without pity can do

If we stop to gaze upon a star
People talk about how bad we are
Ours is not an easy age
We're like tigers in a cage
What a town without pity can do

The young have problems, many problems
We need an understanding heart
Why don't they help us, try and help us
Before this clay and granite planet falls apart

Take these eager lips and hold me fast
I'm afraid this kind of joy can't last
How can we keep love alive
How can anything survive
When these little minds tear you in two
What a town without pity can do

How can we keep love alive
How can anything survive
When these little minds tear you in two
What a town without pity can do

No, it isn't very pretty what a town without pity

--Richard

Shiina Ringo - "Ringo No Uta"

2009-12-04T14:48:00.003Z

Well, since we've got this face-lift and Shiina Ringo's lovely mug is up there, I might as well get off my butt and introduce you. The first introduction I'd ever had to her was with her song "Ringo No Uta." My chest feels like it's all stuffed with cotton when ever I listen to this song, her voice and the composition are so ridiculously beautiful.

"Ringo No Uta" has a new promotional video on YouTube:

but the first video of this I'd ever seen is:

Shiina Ringo - Ringo no Uta
Uploaded by enjoy-kumai. - Explore more music videos.

She's had a prolific solo career (discography) and recently formed a band: Tokyo Jihen. The music is all still prime, this song is "Osca:"

Now if you go about looking for just the song, "Ringo No Uta," you are going to run into another, older song by the same name that has been done and redone by a variety of performers. It's cute, and I love old music, but Shiina Ringo's is a much better composition in my opinion.

Cheers!
--LeE

Looking Back At The Apocalypse.

2009-12-04T13:47:00.005Z

The end of the world isn't what it used to be. It isn't even what it is. Even after the great apocalypse there at least was plenty of hair mousse, pleather, and headbands. Life after World War III was a big subject for '80s music videos and most artists were looking towards the future (the one '80s exception is Adam Ant who always seem to be taking inspiration from museums). Here are a few classic visions of the future.

Sigue Sigue Sputnik - 21st Century Boy
All hype and some delivery (and a personal favourite). They touted themselves as the 'Fifth Generation Of Rock And Roll', ordered us to 'Fleece The World', put advertisements between every song on their debut album, and envisioned a shiny-plastic-ambiguously-sexual-guns-and-rockets-exploding-helicopters 'Blade Runner'-esque vision of the future. Some places they were right on the mark. They were the logical grandparents of 21st century artists like Lady Gaga, the Spice Girls, and even Kanye West.

***

Blondie - Atomic
Blondie can do no wrong (nope, I won't even bad mouth The Hunter). The video for Atomic shows that even after the bombs fall, if you can find a garbage bag to wear you can still party like it's just prior to 1999.

***

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - You Got Lucky
What says end-of-the-world-1980s better than sepia sky washes, faux cowboy swagger, video games, pod cars, and dust? Absolutely nothing. Still among one of the best videos of the area and a surprise from the usually straight-rocking Heartbreakers. Sometimes it does pay to experiment.

***

Rick Springfield - Human Touch
Pop idol and daytime television heartthrob, Dr. Noah Drake had a vision of the future that landed him only about 6 years from the time I'm writing this post. If it plays out like he predicts in this video, then something went very wrong in the 2012 elections. At least spandex will stand the test of time.

***

Duran Duran - Wild Boys
YES! This is what the future was going to be like! Flying things, mild torture, spectacular escapes, things burning, easily defeated foes, victorious posing. This was 'Mad Max' played by the best band in the world. Telecasters kill, Andy, so use your powers for good!

***

Billy Idol - Dancing With Myself
Arguably in the top 10 of the all time best songs of the 1980's (even if it is a remake of his ex-band's song--Generation X, which also featured Tony James, the duder with the pink hair in Sigue Sigue Sputnik). Proto-Soviet stylings and dancing zombies. I can think of no more appropriate way to close out this post.

They're Coming To Take Me Away & More

2009-12-03T18:07:00.006Z

I'll never forget riding in the car one night in the late 80s with my parents as we were returning home from a party. It was very dark outside and much to my father's amusement, the oldies station played "They're Coming To Take Me Away" (the radio edit without the reverse part like on the Youtube clip above). I was scared and happy while my dad kept turning this song up louder and louder in the car. It felt like I was going mad! I guess that's an appropriate reaction.

The first time I found that you could love something terrible because of its terribleness happened when my dad would laugh until the tears came over the beautifully cheesy "Leader of the Pack". The whole song struck him as funny but the "LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT!" part really set him off. I'm surprised we didn't wreck every time this song came on the radio.

And a couple more that amused me and dad to no end:

-Richard

3 old songs

2009-12-03T17:37:00.007Z

-Richard

Marnie Stern

2009-11-03T14:48:00.005Z

Here is the Marnie Stern:

Myspace

Kill Rock Stars

Here's the fan letter I wrote:

"Miss Stern

Hello there. I'm not prone to writing fan mail but I've been picking through your albums and just couldn't go another minute without saying thanks. I was in a bit of a musical funk and needed something new without even knowing it. I have this habit of listening to the same 4 or 5 bands for years at a time and things get a bit stale upstairs.

And then I saw the video for Transformer and I was like "Okay, this woman knows how to make some seriously steamrolling and epiphanic pop. Plus, she has Lita Ford's videographer. I can dig this." I actually have thoughts like that so you can pity me if you must. Newness is goodness and you have proved that to my habitual brain.

Well, aside from Transformer and a whole mess of other great songs, I want to mention two in particular that wreck me in the best way possible. First up is Roads? Where We're Going We Don't Need Roads. There is this vibe this song gives off. I don't know, it's like a neon apocalypse but a really, really happy one. The denouement "I had a dream I crawled all around on the high road" is phenomenal! Do you get this a lot? People quoting your lyrics back at you?

Next is Absorb Those Numbers. If you were trying to make people dance while they would normally be skulking around doing laundry, then you have succeeded immensely. While I have seen worse, the laundry room in my apartment complex is still really depressing. With this song, I need not worry about that fabric softener syndrome (which has been so prevalent in the news lately) with this track playing at a moderately loud volume.

So yeah, time to wrap this up. Thanks! Thank you for kicking my ears' asses. I look forward to more music from you in the near future and wish you all the best.

-Richard Glenn Schmidt"

FAUXRROR 2: LASERDEAD (cross-postin')

2009-10-22T14:45:00.001+01:00

Two years ago, my friends and I started FAUXRROR (pronounced like Horror but with an F), a "band" that creates music for horror films that never existed. We even went so far as to give each track its own poster and plot synopsis. For FAUXRROR 2: LASERDEAD, we have created the music for just one made up film. In an alternate reality much like our own, director Ron L. Esteban set out to make his horror masterpiece but things got out of hand. This tale is told in more detail in the brief history of Laserdead included with the download.

Grab FAUXRROR 2 here.

And get the first FAUXRROR here.

-Slizwiz

1-4

2009-10-14T15:24:00.002+01:00

The Haunted House of Rock

2009-10-13T15:10:00.000+01:00

This will do nicely.

2009-10-09T12:17:00.003+01:00

It's that time of year again...

2009-10-08T16:06:00.003+01:00

The Cliks - "Dirty King"

2009-09-15T14:05:00.003+01:00

So, lately I've been finding a butt load of new music and thoroughly enjoying it on my own without telling anyone about it. Haven't felt like I've had the time, but anyway, it's time to fix that now. In an effort to break up my morning music-video channel viewing I started DVRing New Now Next Music on the Logo Channel so I would have something to run to when VHI and MTV got too repetative. And there I saw The Cliks' "Dirty King." And I loved The Cliks' "Dirty King"--it's like cool bastard rock--something I've been collecting lately.

So I went to find more on their YouTube Channel and Myspace Page. But first "Dirty King:"

"Oh Yeah"--

cheers. -- LeE

The Joggers

2009-09-03T12:43:00.003+01:00

I've been pretty gay about The Joggers for a while now and now I can get even gayer. The boys have put up all their songs for sale on bandcamp. Check it out! I first heard these dudes while working at a record store. The assistant manager had a bunch of promo stuff from Startime International Records which he was about to toss out. Not being able to resist free stuff, I grabbed The Joggers' first album Solid Guild. It took a couple of listens but then I realized I had a fucking stellar record from an amazing band.

That started the obsession and I've been stalking these dudes ever since. Their follow up album With a Cape and a Cane is even more amazing. That was years ago! Like the rest of the Jogg-Hedz (I don't think there is a fan club but if there was one, that is what we would call ourselves), I am impatiently waiting for a new record. So you good people need to go and buy all of their songs immediately. This will force them to record their new album.

I guess the best way to describe them is jangly sweet guitars, boisterous bass lines, a constantly twirling and sensitive drummer, and lots and lots of vocals. Wow I made them sound terrible. How about a kindly steamroller that crushes you with kindness? Eh, don't listen to me (like you ever would), just check out their songs, yo.

Here is an interview with them over at Funeral Pudding.

Pointer Sisters - "Automatic"

2009-08-13T17:30:00.005+01:00

When I was a kid (around 8 years old), I borrowed my mom's tape of Break Out by the Pointer Sisters and never gave it back. This tape and the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop were vastly important to me and were always thundering from my stereo. For me, the Pointer Sisters were this amazing "new" group that had songs that made me want to dance until I collapsed.

However, one song in particular was immeasurably important: "Automatic". Aside from making the condition of being in love sound really creepy (though only if you're a computer), "Automatic" was my jam! One evening while my parents were out at a party or something, I cranked up the volume and danced to this song for what seemed like hours. Every time it would end, I would rewind the tape and start over. What was I doing? Well, I was working on a dance routine with mechanical motions like the ones I saw breakdancers* doing. This went on until I could dance no more (or my parents came home).

*Someday I'll tell you about the breakdancing classes I took at the local rec center.

Some Zach Hilliness

2009-08-10T20:52:00.004+01:00

I have been on a Zach Hill kick lately. I've been looking into some of his projects other than Hella and liking what I'm hearing and seeing and liking what I'm liking.

MAMMA MIA: THE MOVIE

2009-07-22T01:54:00.008+01:00

the cast of Mamma Mia: The Movie reunites ABBA

So...Mamma Mia: The Movie.

One of the best times I've ever had in a theater (that I'll confess to). Or actually, over eight of the best times I've ever had in a theater. And I'm saying that with a completely straight face.

I get a lot of flack for loving this film and for being an ABBA fan. I know of Richard's great revulsion that verges on riotous, violent hatred for this film and, and he's a fan too, it's buggerying of ABBA's music (actually, this may be rooted in a fear of Greeks). And it would take too long to enumerate all of it's downfalls (Aphrodite's fountain, vast age difference in the cast), shortcomings (Remington Bond singing, use of slow motion during key scenes to supplement the lack of dance acumen), and cringe-inducing moments (the dream sequence during 'Money, Money, Money', the old woman throwing off the bundle of sticks during Dancing Queen'). It is difficult to watch your favorite band get butchered by non-singers, like a church fund-raiser karaoke night. But take another look.

There's magic lying just beneath the flawed veneer.

One of the big criticisms is that the cast consisted of actors rather than singers, or even actors who can sing. In fact, to the best of my knowledge there was only one musical stage actor in the cast, and I totally believe that she was upstaged by the non-singers. Meryl Streep is able and even portrays a lovely voice towards the end of the film. The young leads have excellent and strong voices. Even Pierce Brosnan's attempt at singing grows more and more endearing with each listen. It's your like that song that the person you love half-whispers, half-sings to you in those quiet moments. It's the drunk family members having fun at a family Christmas sing-a-long. It's a late night with your mates and all of your are being silly singing at the top of your voices to the radio. It's that kind of singing, not proper singing, and sometimes that's more perfect, more emotional than a sterile recording.

An unrivaled aspect of this film is the scenery. The Greek setting was nearly perfect. The backdrop was the one unfailing and beautiful constant throughout the film, from the opening to the boat picnic scene of 'Our Last Summer' to the breathtaking camera-work during 'The Winner Takes It All'. In fact, that last song has two of the most amazing moments in the entire film, the colours (starting at :49 in the video below) and the church on the hill (Agios Ioannis Chapel, around 3:56). (Another is Streep climbing the ladder during the first chorus of the song 'Mamma Mia'.) I even got a bit choked up and teary-eyed during the culmination of 'Dancing Queen'--the first time and every time since.

Then there are the amazing ABBA-related moments. Like dressing Streep up in blue feathers and a Napoleon hat right before 'Dancing Queen' (which harkens back to their Eurovision appearance for 'Waterloo'). At the end of 'Super Trouper' where the girls end with pointing at the sky, just like Agnetha during the 1980 video for the song. And of course the cameos by Benny (at 2:53 during 'Dancing Queen') and Bjorn (at 1:50 during 'Waterloo'). Plus, during the Stockholm premiere of the film, the original ABBA was reunited (with the help of Meryl Streep) for the first time in public since the late 1980s, which was something that they thought would ever be seen.

And you know what? The film is fun. It never takes itself seriously. And the actors seemed to have a great time making the film. It's just fun--silly, dramatic, corny, familiar fun. Sometimes the grandest purpose of a creation is just to bring a smile, a stupid, goofy, giant, insipid smile. And that's what this film does for me and, from the success of it, what it does for many, many others.

I'm a huge ABBA fan. I'm a straight male. I love Mamma Mia: The Movie. It makes me happy. Fuck you.

Where Did It All Go Wrong?

2009-06-30T16:24:00.006+01:00

I'm just going to post this as it was in the conversation Richard and I had:

From: Richard
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 9:49 AM
To: Nafa
Subject: more about MJ

Is it just me or did MTV ruin Michael?

The music on everything up to and including Thriller is stellar.

Once the video revolution took hold, it was all over.

What do you say?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Nafa
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 10:42 AM
To: Richard
Subject: RE: more about MJ

Interesting thought. Part of the problem is that there was a 5 year gap between ‘Thriller’ and the follow up, ‘Bad’, and in that 5 years the popular bands went from being The Police, John Cougar, and the singer/songwriter to post-‘Boy Toy’ Madonna, Guns N Roses, and synth-pop. In that 5 years, Wham and The Police had broken up, Duran Duran splintered, Prince stopped talking to the press and started becoming an alien, Van Halen became Van Hagar, Big Country started to ‘rock’, and the world was on the verge of the pop-metal and suburban rap revolutions.

Music, as a whole, changed from 1982 to 1987, and it was a big drop in both quality and consumer defenses. In 1983 no one would have ever bought the faux funk, over produced ‘Notorious’ record with only 3 Durans on it, but in 1987 it was golden (like a shower). And yes, we knew it was an awful (w)rec(k)ord.

MTV’s part in the whole thing was that now kids didn’t have to use their brains (or mind expanding drugs) to visualize the music, the almighty television did that for them. With one less creativity outlet to tap into, there no longer was that filter to say this song is great and this song sucks that you got by listening to the radio. In 1982, you would turn on MTV and see REO Speedwagon, 70s Bob Dylan footage, Iron Maiden, and some really ugly mofos in videos; by 1987 that had been weeded out and all that was left were the pretty ones, Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Ready For The World. That beautification process sacrificed talent in lieu of poster sales and the music became a bland pabulum of formulaic putty.

And all us kids bought into it.

As for MJ, he was the unfortunate vanguard for the whole thing, and while he was shaping the sounds and images that we would follow, he was also crucified when ‘Bad’ wasn’t ‘Thriller II’. He’d been through a lot by that point—42 minutes of his music had sold over 100,000,000 units, he’d gone from star without a normal childhood into the biggest star since Elvis, exhausting tour and promotional schedules, video shoots, injuries, relationships, yes-men, plus the everyday things of being just a ‘person’, and everything all under the mega-scrutiny of not only the media but those who worshiped him. He would scratch his ass at lunch and it would be on a t-shirt by 3:00p. It’s incomprehensible this constant roar from people that accompanied him everywhere—like a mosquito in your ear, times millions. I would imagine that would be a huge distraction and would make his product suffer, especially compared to the relative silence and peace he had while making ‘Thriller’.

In the end, we all ruined Michael Jackson. Any of us who waited for his video premieres, bought the glove, tried to Moonwalk, etc. It makes me wonder if his life would have been different if he’d never done the solo set on the Motown 25 show. I’ve always remembered that show, not only for his unveiling the Moonwalk (which was the moment where EVERYTHING that followed was launched), but that Adam Ant sang ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ and then got totally forgotten after MJ. Just think, it all could have been Adam’s world.

Yeah, I guess I did have something to say about this.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The moment we should have been talking about the next day at school...

...and the one we ended up talking about.

Rest in peace, Michael.

The Last Time I Post About Don Henley

2009-06-23T20:36:00.004+01:00

Okay, so I was watching too much VH1 Classic the other day and I was violated by two Don Henley videos. The first was "Boys of Summer" and the second was "The Heart of the Matter". So I'm thinking to myself, holy shit, they better fucking play "All She Wants to do is Dance" and they didn't! Luckily that bad ass clip is on Youtube (below) but for some reason the other two are not.

The thing about "The Boys of Summer" is that the video for that shit used to depress me when I was a kid. The black and white video was in heavy rotation when I was 8 years old and there is something about the melancholy lyrics and that inescapable morose bullshit video that still haunts me. And fuck "The Heart of the Matter"! The video which I can't find online is so awful. The Dust Bowl imagery is totally incongruous with what the lyrics are about. And I hate Don Henley's hair in that one; it makes me want to punch babies.

Oddly enough, "All She Wants to do is Dance" has a legitimately grim tone yet my young brain didn't absorb that part. All I wanted to do was dance too so whenever this video aired, I would get up and do it. I love the post apocalyptic imagery of "All She Wants" where Don Henley and his band are performing in some destroyed nightclub in El Salvador or something. This may be the reason why post apocalyptic imagery still makes me uncomfortable to this day. I'm scare of what Don Henley is trying to tell me.

Ha ha! Look at this one. Holy crap!

I Need Sleep & Midori

2009-06-05T18:17:00.006+01:00

Two videos I watch constantly...

Here is I Need Sleep - "Super Strong"

Here is Midori - "Doping Noise Kiss

THE LADIES OF DEATH ROW SWIMSUIT CALENDAR

2009-05-13T15:44:00.007+01:00

Apologies to LeEtta and Richard for temporarily abandoning my duties here, but I am back and 'tis time for a little shameless self promotion for Richard and myself (and Fluno) via a small history of LoDRSC in (mostly) chronological order.

THE BIRTHING--WHERE IT BEGAN:

THE GLOP GLOP ERA:

2001: 'Not Infrequent Concordence'

2001: 'Frankly, I Love Japan'

THE LIVE TRIO ERA:

2004: 'Run! Jump! Change The Future.'
(from the first live show)

2004: 'Eric Clapton Covers ("Layla"/"Cocaine")'

2007: 'Insomnia'

THE VIDEOS:

2005: 'Let's Return On The Mono Level'

2005: 'Rap Song (Lina Would Call This "Yo Momma")'

2007: 'Swing Free My Pet Lynx'

AND NOW...:

2008: 'Moi Non Plus'

2009: 'Honeymoon'

The Cramps

2009-05-12T15:28:00.003+01:00

Worship at the feet of The Cramps.

A Tribe Called Quest

2009-04-30T15:53:00.003+01:00

Ever since I first heard I Left My Wallet in El Segundo, I have been a huge fan of A Tribe Called Quest. I think it is time for you to witness their superness for the first time or just take some time to reminisce over one of the best hip hop acts of all time.

LM.C

2009-04-29T14:16:00.003+01:00

In my user news-e-letter from Japan Files was the news that LM.C(band website) had just recently made a deal to sell their entire discography digitally on the site. Japan Files is a pretty awesome DRM free mp3 store--which is why I'm already a customer. When I read this most recent bit of news, I had no idea who the band was, but had some free moments and headphones so I went to listen. While I can't say yet that I love all their stuff, I found some amazingness! "Bell the Cat" and "Sentimental Piggy Romance" have the kind of low frequency undulation and sound effect layering that just tickles the hell out of me. I couldn't have been more pleased to see the shadowy circus video for "Bell the Cat:"

And animated videos win my, almost, instant affection--this is so adorable! "Sentimental Piggy Romance:"

Cheers! --LeE.

Mother

2009-03-30T13:47:00.004+01:00

Toe

2009-03-27T12:26:00.004Z

Hey, I like Toe from Japan.

Traluma!

2009-03-11T11:10:00.002Z

Traluma on Myspace

Shannon Wright

2009-02-20T18:01:00.006Z

"Within the Quilt of Demand" Live

My Space

Site

Wiki

Ludo - "Lake Pontchartrain"

2009-02-17T16:35:00.003Z

'Round Halloween I went to Busch Garden's Howl-O-Scream and caught the musical show at the Desert Inn (what used to be the FestHaus--where is the German love gone anymore?) and, oddly enough, was impressed enough by one of the songs (all covers) that I sought it out the next day. The song was Ludo's "Love me Dead," and its great, but after finding it and finding Ludo, I found "Lake Pontchartrain."

A couple things I like about Ludo in general: interesting and horror movie material subject matter, and an amazingly strong and striking lead voice. Stuff I love about "Lake Pontchartrain:" its a story, it has crayfish, it has epic sounding multivoiced chorus sequences, its a story, and I swear its an unreliable narrator (one of my favorite literary devices). I'm an almost total sucker for story songs, and since I've said that I cannot currently think of a single other example. It will probably come to me somewhere around midnight or when I am otherwise far from the computer or a piece of paper. Here is Ludo live:

Cheers. --LeE

Ed Matus' Stuggle: Retiring a T-Shirt

2009-02-13T15:12:00.004Z

Over a decade ago, I bought a t-shirt from Juan Montoya, guitarist of Ft. Lauderdale's Ed Matus' Struggle at a show (can't remember the venue) and I was taken aback by how grateful and friendly Mr. Montoya was for my contribution to the band's gas money for a tour they were planning. So yeah, I wore the shirt with pride for over ten friggin' years! I would sometimes wash it and wear other band's shirts but this was a staple of my wardrobe for a long ass time. I just recently retired the now paper thin and hole-ridden thing but not without a twinge of nostalgia.

In 1997, Ed Matus' Struggle were playing music I had never heard before. I was coming off of a 4 year ska bender and I needed something different. Their fabulous sonic immersion knocked my dang socks off and it was a joy to have seen them live on 4 or 5 different occasions. They were a mountain of sound but were always breathtakingly beautiful to me and my friends.

The band has 2 myspace pages so you can hear some tracks:

Ed Matus' Struggle 1

Ed Matus' Struggle 2

Give 'em the fist, give 'em the wrist, give 'em the finger

2009-02-13T14:11:00.005Z

In 9th grade English class they taught me never to assume your readers know what you take for granted in any paper. I'm going to throw all that out the window and assume you already know about Danny Kaye's awesomeness. I have many movies, and as I was watching one the other night and thoroughly enjoying a musical number that always gets stuck in my head, it dawned on me that I could share it with you beautiful people.

I didn't have any luck finding the number by itself on YouTube, but I did find that the entire movie is up there and the song is contained in parts 7 and 8. Here's the first bit--the song itself starts around 2:40 but it gets to the meat of it at 4:45. What is the meat of it, you ask? This number seemed specifically designed to allow Danny Kaye to showcase his accents, personas, and funny faces. He sings with three alternate personalities.

The second part winds up his arguing with himself. It's really sweet how he comforts the other him.

In case you didn't catch them, or didn't realize how shiny the pearls of wisdom really are, this song has two lines which I find applicable to many situations, especially at work: "talk and you show your ignorance, laugh and you show your teeth," and "if you casually cover up your mouth with your hand, you will never put your foot in it." It is the best kind of self help song.

I've also assumed here that you know about my affair with musicals. If you don't, you can check me out talking them up on the Bean:

Polly: so much better than Pollyanna
Best Little Whore House in Texas
The Music Man, Hermione Gingold, and Mary Wickes
Clichéd but still good: White Christmas in July
Guilty Pleasure: Rogers and Hammerstien's Cinderella

Cheers. -LeE.

Tera Melos

2009-02-12T14:22:00.003Z

My friend Richie introduced me to Tera Melos, a marvelous band from California that completely wrecks me. I'd call them "hard chargers" if I knew what that meant. On the band's blog there are live sets you can download.

Nels Cline

2009-02-11T15:50:00.003Z

Today, I am all about guitarist of the century: Nels Cline. This prolific and super-talented player is currently part of Wilco. He provides the mountain of sound, wicked riffing, and sonic tomfoolery that makes my blood evaporate. The video below with Nels and his brother Alex Cline on drums is fucking excellent! And I just noticed that Mr. Cline has been kind enough to provide lots of free music downloads on his site so you should go and check them out.

More videos

Interstellar Space Revisited

just thinkin' about Battles

2009-02-10T20:27:00.004Z

Here's the full song:

I just wanted to post this video of Battles.

Victor Borge

2009-01-13T20:52:00.003Z

I'm totally cheating and reposting this from the Bean, but I realized that it probably should have been here in the first place. Victor Borge was first a pianist after all.

There's something about the holidays that brings out the wonderful non-holiday programming channels like PBS keep in their vaults all year round in order to show stuff less attuned to my needs. No offense to PBS, but I have some serious issues with the Saturday night programming they show opposed to what they have (or did have). I was very happy to run into a special on Victor Borge right before Christmas, and it reminded me why I must have more recordings of this amazing man.

Victor Borge was a phenomenal pianist, and comedian with a long career that spanned stage, radio, and television of all color capabilities. I first knew about him through my mother. We would snuggle in and watch her VHS of a Victor Borge show and laugh insanely when I was young. In my most recent viewing of Victor Borge's comedy, I noticed something I hadn't ever before. His is nerd humor, and sadly may not be widely understood anymore--just look at some of the comments on the YouTube videos and you'll see. Granted humor changes with the time, but his was a time when jokes about the Mozart/Salieri relationship and the history of musical instruments could be understood by a wide audience.

Ah well, if you like getting your nerd on, and yet have never heard of Victor Borge, I suggest you follow the video below to pretty good collection of videos on YouTube. Hooray for PBS!

Sites:

Victor Borge

I am writing about Mike Watt (part 1).

2009-01-06T15:43:00.008Z

Hopefully, everyone has met Mike Watt. The guy, aside from being the greatest punk rock bass player of all time, is also a champ and will talk yer dang ear off if the subject is right. I’ll give you a starting point, just say “John Coltrane” and things should take off from there. Several of my friends have some kind of Mike Watt encounter. He is easily the most approachable duders in the punk rock world. I was lucky enough to not only meet him but interview the guy as well.

Being the backwards kind of a guy I am, my first exposure to Mike Watt was not Minutemen, the band he’s most famous for. Instead I started with the less popular, though equally awesome, fIREHOSE. Sometime in the 90s, at Jupiter, Florida’s Music-X-Change (R.I.P.), I noticed an odd looking tape for sale. It was fIREHOSE’s Totem Pole live EP. I forget how much it was, the used price couldn’t have been more than $3. The 7 tracks were equal parts confusing and incredible to me. I had never heard anything quite like them before.

fIREHOSE is an adrenaline rush that hits me unlike almost any other band. And, I’m sure many folks will disagree with me, but for my money, it is Mike Watt’s finest work in a trio. The Minutemen get all the lip service and are indeed a must-listen for anyone into punk rock. But what I keep returning to (especially on road trips) is fIREHOSE. What drew me to them was Mike Watt’s phenomenal bass playing and gruff voice. Much to my dismay, there was this other guy who did most of the singing on their albums. It took me a while to warm to singer/guitarist Ed Crawford’s voice but once I did, I felt like a jackass for not getting it right off the bat.

When I next caught up with Watt’s music, he had gone solo (sort of). I'd heard of Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, his all-star jam album featuring everybody from Thurston Moore to Flea to Frank Black. While telling my friend about this album and how I had to find it, this smug little frown-queen was telling me that she had the album and would happily sell it to me. She had bought it because Henry Rollins had contributed but was disappointed that his involvement was only on a track or two. For $7 the CD was mine (which I would later get autographed by Watt at a gig) and overall, it is a fine piece of male rockness.

I bought Mike Watt’s next album, Contemplating The Engine Room, the day it came out in 1997 and I was totally unprepared. To the confusion of my Jawbreaker-oriented friend, Rocky (whose CD player was the closest at hand that day), I nearly burst into tears of joy as this punk rock opera unfolded track by track. This really is a vastly important record. Get it and love it and thank me later. I’d heard of guitarist Nels Cline before but he tears shit up on this record as does Stephen Hodges’ wicked drumming.

With a couple of friends, we drove off to Gainesville, Florida to see Mike Watt with opening band Atlanta’s own Five Eight on November 6th, 1997. It was a fantastic show as the Watt trio (with Joe Baiza on guitars and Stephen Hodges on drums) played Contemplating The Engine Room in its entirety and then came back for an encore. Just before the doors opened, we were walking to a convenience store that we had spotted down the street when we saw Watt coming towards us. We introduced ourselves and he was just really nice. Like a moron, I asked him if he was going to play “Max and Wells” (my favorite song on Ball-Hog Or Tugboat). Requesting a song, what a lame-o! Trust me, I have never ever done that again.

The following year, my friend Kevin and I had a zine called Volunteer Library League and thanks to his shaky connections to the music world, we were able to get Watt’s publicist’s phone number. I called up greatly exaggerating our “subscription” which amounted to some shady photocopying totaling around 250 issues and next thing you know, I’m interviewing Mike Watt over the phone. It was great but I was so nervous, I must sounded like a friggin’ teeny bopper on helium. We talked about John Coltrane, our evil government, the Engine Room record, and a bunch of other stuff. I’ll be posting the PDF of the interview up here sometime soon.

A month after the interview, Watt was playing the opera one last time with Nels Cline on guitar and Bob Lee on drums in West Palm Beach (about 20 minutes from my parents’ house). So me and my girlfriend at the time stood right up front on October 4th, 1998 to catch Watt in this little blues club. Nels Cline really stole the show doing wonderful things with his guitar that totally wrecked my world. We talked with Watt after the gig about John Coltrane and took some pictures with him.

End of part 1.

Some Videos…

fIREHOSE - “Down With The Bass”

fIREHOSE - “Witness”

POST

2008-12-01T15:35:00.004Z

I am here to happily plug Post: A Look at the Influence of Post-Hardcore 1985-2007. This book by Eric Grubbs caught my attention and I could not put it down until I had finished all 350+ pages. While it was impossible to cover every band that fits into the post-hardcore genre, the book's focus is the story and music of bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Hot Water Music, Jimmy Eat World and more. Grubbs provides a thorough history of each of these key bands and even takes detours for brief biographies of various indie record labels that the bands were signed to in their travels.

The story behind Dischord Records, Jawbox and Braid were my personal favorites but I found that even bands I had no interest in had riveting stories. Through his dozens of interviews and tireless research, Grubbs gives POST a fascinating narrative to go along with the discussion of the genre and its influences. If you have even a passing interest in post-hardcore or emo music, you need to get this book.

"Rancho Pillow" - The Andrews Sisters

2008-11-13T15:49:00.004Z

I've loved the Andrews Sisters' music for longer than I've been buying CDs for myself. In fact, the CD collection I have of there's was opportunely borrowed from my Mom before one of her moves. My original favorites of theirs were songs I already liked and had heard other people sing (or was forced to sing myself in chorus) like "Boogie woogie bugle boy" and "Mrs. Otis" regrets. Over the years these first favorites have faded back behind a couple stranger, more fun songs that just feel good in the mouth. You know what I'm talking about right? Were a song might not be the best thing you've ever heard but because of the way its written or the words used in it it just feels good to sing along with. One of these is "Ferry boat serenade" and even better is "Rancho Pillow."

"Rancho Pillow" had ridiculous lyrics and strange subject matter and is done in the perfect blended sometimes knifelike harmony that is the Andrews Sisters.

"Teach Me Tiger" -- April Stevens

2008-11-04T16:45:00.002Z

Long ago, but not so far away I worked the night shift in the library. I made friends with Annabel the sheep on media player and streamed internet radio to my little desk when I was not manning the big desk. It was a grubby, grumbley, magical time with just me and one other staff member and a couple of student assistants. Then one night, as punk rock Annabel bobbed around in her dance, a song trickled out of the speakers that would nearly asphyxiate me with laughter. That song was "Teach me Tiger" by April Stevens.

Don't worry, you can listen to the song without needing to laugh yourself to death. It's just that when I heard it, and waved my coworker over to listen to it too, we imagined what it would be like to end every line with a breathy wah wah wahwah wah. Lots of songs have that little nonsensical lyric in a chorus or wherever, usually its a 'baby baby,' or 'yeah, yeah,' "Mmmbop" consisted almost entirely of these nonsensical add-ons, but none has caught me so off guard as 'wah wah wahwah wah.'

--LeE.

"Where Evil Grows" - The Poppy Family

2008-10-16T19:59:00.004+01:00

The greatness of this song deserves a post of its own even though it was only just featured as part of The Great Halloween Playlist. "Where Evil Grows" by the Poppy Family is the kind of song I dream about stumbling upon when doing something else ( like putting together a Halloween playlist). It's not the only great song on the list that I had never heard before, but it is my favorite. "Where Evil Grows" really has everything going for it, beautiful forboding music, cleaver and well crafted lyrics. I highly suggest that even if you don't venture down the path of constructing your own Great Halloween Playlist, you at least head over to The Poppy Family's official Myspace and check out this song.

--LeE.

The Great Halloween Playlist

2008-10-13T16:05:00.005+01:00

I have a confession to make. I was dead tired of the 10 song CD compilations of silly Halloween songs that make up the meat of music we are offered for our October holiday. And I was unsatisfied with the top 10 or 13 lists that proliferate on the net. What with mp3 players and online playlists a mix needn't fit on a tape anymore. So, I have scoured my memory and Myspace music to create a better musical offering for Halloween.

A little aside here: If Myspace is good for anything it is a great resource for finding genius music that you previously never knew existed, and an excellent way for bands to market themselves before and after being signed. If you've been playing around with the new personal playlist feature in Myspace, you can easily put this playlist together sans only a couple songs and listen to your hearts content.

Included within the Great Halloween Playlist are some heavy, some light, some old, and some new, but none quite so fluffy as the Monster Mash. If you wanted recommendations for your Halloween listening pleasure, you have found the right place.

The Great Halloween Playlist

Old Black Magic - Louis Prima and Keely Smith
Werewolf - Haunted Love
Black Magic Woman (radio edit) - Santana
People are Strange - The Doors
Where Evil Grows - The Poppy Family
Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones
Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo
Devil Woman - Cliff Richards
Witchy Woman - Bad News Bears
Little Red Riding Hood - Paul Revere and the Raiders
Marie Laveau - Bobby Bare
I'm Your Boogie Man - White Zombie
Boris the Spider - The Who
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Let's do the Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show
Abracadabra - Steve Miller
The Killing Moon - Echo and the Bunnymen
Spooky - Dusty Springfield
Zombie Zoo - Tom Petty
Ghost Town - The Specials
Teenage Frankenstein - Alice Cooper
Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers
La Grippe - Squirrel Nut Zippers
St. James Infirmary Blues - White Stripes
Ding Dong the Witch is Dead - Rosemary Clooney
I Put a Spell on You - Nina Simone
Zombie Jamboree - Harry Belefonte
Red Right Hand - Nick Cave
Sleeping with a Vampire - Brigitte Handley and the Dark Shadows
Date with a Vampire - The Screaming Trees
Transylvanian Concubine - Rasputina
Spooky Madness - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Halloween - Souixe and the Banshees
Thank you Satan - Dionysos
Cannibal Flesh Riot - Hola Ghost
Halloween She Gets So Mean - Rob Zombie
Lunatics - Fun Boy Three

--LeE.

10/24: Love Me Dead - Ludo (courtesy of Busch Garden's Hall-o-Scream, seriously)

Entombed

2008-10-09T14:06:00.004+01:00

I'm trying to get into the Halloween spirit and what better way than to dig up some old Swedish death metal. In 1991, I was just about to make my transition from metal head dumbass to punk ska whatever dumbass and the hardest band to let go of was Entombed. Their albums "Left Hand Path" and "Clandestine" are essential if you have even a passing interest in death metal. Of course, their album "Wolverine Blues" (which I still can't get into, even nostalgically) made abandoning them much easier. When it comes down to it, I'm not very open-minded when it comes to death metal. If it didn't come out around or before 1993 at the latest, then I just can't dig on it. Anyway, here are three tracks from Entombed.

Dionysos

2008-10-08T14:42:00.004+01:00

I first stumbled upon Dionysos courtesy of one of the many blogs I read. If I had been a little more savvy, or perhaps wrote about Dionysos right after I first heard about them I could give the proper credit to the person who clued me in. Either way, that won't stop me from passing on information on this awesome French band.

There are two different ways to love a band, I think. Obviously, you can love them for their music and how it feels when you immerse yourself in the sounds and moods they create with their music. Then, you can love them for their theatrics. I'm betting that you have run into a music video that was phenomenally awesome, but the music wasn't something you would ever consider listening to on its own. Or perhaps you routinely attend the concerts of a band that is fantastically entertaining on stage, and you love the songs because they come with memory of the visuals.

I admit, I was first entranced by Dionysos' videos (the three following to be precise), but their music has outlived the theatrics for me. It's just great stuff.

They're music continues to evolve and is now quite different to my ears than these videos. You can hear it on the Dionysos myspace page.

--LeE

Plastic Bertrand - "Ca Plane pour moi"

2008-09-03T14:50:00.003+01:00

Of all the classes I took in college, my German language class was the most interesting and netted me the most contacts--all of whom I am no longer in contact with, but hey, them's the breaks. Not only did we have near explosive arguments between a Nazi sympathizer and just about everyone else, but we had the greatest most retiring instructor, from whom I learned very little language and very much culture. I was invisible in this class at the very beginning, as I was in all my classes, until I buzzed all my hair off. With my new haircut I had a group of friends to go to Einstein bagels with every day after class. It was great! I'm getting to the point now, I always rode in one car to get to Einstein's and in this car I heard "Ca Plane pour moi" by Plastic Bertrand.

Of course I had no idea who the artist was behind "Ca Plane pour moi" when I heard it in that car, nor did I find out when the car's owner made me an unlabeled mix CD with "Ca Plane pour moi" on it. And I still didn't find out when I lost that CD in one of my overabundant college student housing moving trips.

Off an on I would search for the song with my limited knowledge of French spelling and always came up with nothing until recently. Now that I've found it--it's everywhere. I mean, you have heard it on the Gossip Girl commercial right? And I swear its in another phone and/or car commercial as well. And YouTube has a video. Ah, sigh of relief for finding the song and soothing the niggling frustration of not being able to figure out what I should know already if I had paid attention when I had that mix CD. Cheers, LeE.

Golem - Libeshmertzen

2008-08-20T20:32:00.003+01:00

I think my exposure to Golem was as serendipitous as finding the album Libeshmertzen in a clearance used CD bin. Stranger still, I wasn't even the one to spot the CD, my boyfriend was. It looked promising enough at two dollars to give it a try and I am eternally glad I did. Golem is a Klezmer imbued six piece Easter European folk-punk band. Their songs are both old and new and in many different languages, played on traditional and neo rock instruments. If I didn't already think that all of these things could fit together, the energy of the musicians themselves would've sealed it for me.

So, in doing a little poking around for info, I found that in an attempt to stay true to the party band aspect of klezmer, Golem does do weddings and batmitzvas. This is only too awesome!

Golemrocks.com
Golem Myspace

'Nina, Pretty Ballerina'

2008-08-12T15:12:00.003+01:00

In 1973, Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anni-Frid/Frieda had yet to be dubbed the name that would ring throughout the world and were still a year off from the Eurovision winning worldwide smash of Waterloo. All four members had been successful chart-topping musicians in Scandinavia prior to forming what would become the ABBA juggernaut, and the Ring Ring album segued between where they had been (folksters, vague rockers, and pop imitators) to where they were headed (dance vanguards, vague funksters, and pop influences). It was originally released to Scandinavia and a limited market around the world (it wasn't released in the UK or US until the mid-1990s) and was a success.

The album is great. Perhaps not the music you'd expect from ABBA, but a really great reflection of the pop music scene at that time (think Gilbert O'Sullivan or the Rocky Horror Show soundtrack). The end of groovy The first hit single was People Need Love, a song that would have been better suited for the Starland Vocal Band (and who would cop that sound un-/-intentionally for their hit Afternoon Delight 3 years later). The poppy and catchy title track of the LP was set up to be the big Eurovision breakthrough (with English lyrics penned by the great Neil Sedaka) and though it was a big success it unfortunately was not chosen to represent Sweden.

I've been reconnecting with my lost ABBA past (thanks to seeing Mamma Mia! thrice and counting) and going back through their entire catalog and not just the Gold album. My personal favourite from Ring Ring is a track called Nina, Pretty Ballerina, the story of a shy and quiet working girl by day who on Friday nights turns into Nina, pretty ballerina, now she is the queen of the dancing floor... (a subject that would jettison them to immortality 3 years later). It has all the traits that would soon become their signatures--main vocals by Agnetha and Anni-Frid, a dance-friendly rhythm, happy backing vocals, and a folk-sensibility. This is the last song to ever tap into the term 'groovy' without being ironic. Then again, groovy had to be over with by the time it reached Scandinavia.

Here. Listen. Dance. Rejoice. Reconnect. Smile.

Keep the Faith,

-N.

ABBA - Nina, Pretty Ballerina

Rita Pavone

2008-08-11T18:24:00.003+01:00

You ever feel like you’re the last person to hear about something? That’s how I feel about Rita Pavone. You see, I’m about 40 years too late. But that happens, right? I found this Italian songstress on the Morricone Lover blog and proceeded to flip out over her. This boyish little munchkin just tears up the pop music. Her music is very lively, unbearably cute, comically schmaltzy, and yet comforting, all at the same time. Luckily, Pavone is all over Youtube so you can get an idea of her diminutive infectiousness.

When her stylists played up her boyishness, I have to admit that I get a little creeped out. Nonetheless, there is something vastly important about listening to music like this. When you are diggin' on Italian pop culture like I am lately, this stuff really just transports you into a different place. I'm guessing that this would be like an Italian kid going on Youtube and searching for The Shangri-Las. I don't know what I'm talking about.

Durian - Sometimes You Scare Me

2008-07-16T18:46:00.003+01:00

I found Durian on Epitonic several years ago and it was their song “X and Y” that caught my ear. I just couldn't stop myself from listening to this hypnotic and hyper track over and over again. By the time I picked up their 2000 album, Sometimes You Scare Me, the band was long gone. Luckily, the album proved to be more than just one great song. Recorded by J. Robbins at Inner Ear Studios, the whole dang record is pretty much awesome as hell.

Reading the lyrics, oh man, I just get totally lost. The singer gives himself a great deal of work to do and you’ll hear it. Every song has a weighty paragraph of lyrics and a mountain of weirdly delivered moments and idiosyncratic intonations. The guy uses every facet of his voice and it all just totally blows me away. A staggering amount of power in Durian’s vocalist, for sure.

Here’s a little taste of “X and Y”:

When sanding off the finishing
Be careful don’t damage the ring
Gray grime hands are the next big thing
They’ll hate one mistake and then excuse scores more
To prop up their affirmation-laden lore
A tense date, a report from an inside source
Who’s unfazed and jazzed to say
We’re staying on course
Supposing all things maximize
(with lower tiers simply excised)
I plotted out both x and y!

And then there’s the rest of the band! My god, these boys are gifted. “Emergencies and Laughs” is just a swarm of bees with pleasure stingers. The guitars and the bass are a guiltless banana split and the drums are a 500 meter dash in an algebraic hailstorm. Durian’s music just runs and stops and slows down and runs and stops and spins around and…

Please buy this album wherever you can find it.

Grab "Emergencies and Laughs" & "X and Y" right here.

Songs from the Screen: a mix

2008-07-01T16:02:00.011+01:00

Sometimes songs can be made great by a video, and sometimes they can be killed by their video. Visuals are so important to us humans that its no wonder loads of cash are spent upon them. But there is a very special visual music tie out there. It is the movie song. This isn't just a song on the soundtrack, it is a song written specifically for the film or performed by an actor in the film. These can be really, really bad songs, but if they tie into the plot and the feel of the movie well enough they can have a life of their own outside of the movie even if they are really really bad. Now, I'm not passing judgment on any songs here or outside of my little most liked list. I'm a sucker for a movie song, and these are my favorites.

BECK "Hit in America"
Not only do I love this show, but I love the song. And I love the animation sequence for the song during the intro credits. I was waiting through-out the entire series for this song to show up on stage, but it never did.

Top Secret "Skeet Surfing"
I have been known to annoy friends of mine with this song. I have never been able to get an answer as to why it might be bothersome. Its so fun. Its like one of those late night mash up ideas that comes from greasy pizza, stupid entertainment, friends, and sleep deprivation. You know the kind, where everyone sits around saying, "what if such and such were combined with so and so, then it'd be like...."

Empire Records "Say no more mon amore"
I am not afraid to admit that I've been a fan of Maxwell Caulfield since Grease II. What can I say?-- I was a little girl and all. I love the way he plays the washed up jerk rock star here and I love how sleazy his music video is. I only wish the song was included in the soundtrack. Come on, its for the movie....it can't be a rights issue or anything.

Get Over It "Dream of Me"
Sung by Kirsten Dunst in Dr. Desmond Forest Oats' 'Rockin Midsummer's Night Dream.' Sometimes I can really be a fool for those heart broken pretty songs, and I was for this one.

Josie and the Pussycats "Pretend to be nice"
Another girly movie, but good for so many reasons (see LeEMS Bean). This was probably my favorite song of the bunch, maybe because the movie had a whole video montage based on it. And if you saw ------, you'd know that video montages are created especially to evoke emotion, yeah!

Martians Go Home "The Martian Hop"
Ok, so this one was around before the movie, but it just fit in so great and, after seeing it lip synced by kelly green painted and clothed Martians mid move, I just had to have it. The Ran-Dells were lumped in among the novelty doo-wop one hit Wonders, though for lack of representation and not for lack of talent.

--LeEtta

7/7 addition: I can't believe I forgot this! One of the best movie songs of all time: "'Cause I'm a Blonde" from Earth Girls are Easy. Julie Brown is always fantastic, the movie is fantastic, and all of that gets rolled into a fantastic song. I have to admit I never really understood the singing sequences in Earth Girls are Easy when I stopped to think about them. The movie isn't a musical, and they can't really be explained as just a vehicle for Julie Brown, because Gina Davis also has a song. But that's only when I stop to think about them, somehow they fit in just fine. K, bye. --LeE

My Dear Giallo

2008-06-13T19:00:00.005+01:00

I was startled to find myself listening to film soundtracks. It was something that had always perplexed me when others did it. For instance, about 6 years ago, I was hitching a ride from some hipster friends of mine to a class assignment for an art history class and they were listening to this really dramatic orchestral music. I asked them what in the Hell they were listening to and I was informed that it was the Gladiator soundtrack. It caused me to start giggling so much that I’m probably lucky that they didn’t just drop me off at the next corner. It struck me so funny because I just assumed that only complete nerds listened to film scores.

So yeah, I never expected this much nerdiness to have manifested itself inside me. But after I started Doomed Moviethon, my horror movie review site, I think it was pretty obvious that there was no turning back. A Giallo is a bloody Italian mystery-thriller from the 1970s and a sub-genre which quickly became my favorite of all the films I had begun collecting. These intensely dated though endearing films feature equal amounts of blood-spilling, black-gloved killers, and boobs. It wasn’t long before the soundtracks began tugging at my dang ear.

The score for a typical Giallo is pretty outrageous. They usually have terrifying and discordant pieces that perfectly accentuate a scene in which a fashion model is being chased through a garishly lit room full of mannequins by a deranged killer. But that isn’t all that a Giallo soundtrack is about. In fact, most of them feature these “hip” tracks with breathy female vocals set to ludicrously cool lounge music. And the last and most important ingredient: at least one painfully schmaltzy “love theme” to top things off.

The most recognizable name in the long list of Giallo soundtrack composers is Ennio Morricone. With nearly 500 film scores to his credit, Morricone is also prolific in his contribution to the infamous genre by lending his talents to dozens of films. Other fantastic composers to watch out for are Stelvio Cipriani, Bruno Nicolai, and Riz Ortolani.

So yes, soundtrack enthusiasts, get your nerd on! I am totally one of you or at the very least, I’m becoming so obsessed with a subgenre that I consider myself geeky beyond reproach. When night falls, you’ll find me out on my patio, smoking a cigar with a couple of hours’ worth of Giallo soundtracks on my iPod. The best is when I start to dreamily look around at my darkened apartment complex and begin to imagine some razor-wielding maniac in high heeled boots lurking around in the shadows.

My Dear Giallo 2 is the third Giallo soundtrack mix I’ve put together and I’m pretty proud of it. I searched for as many selections from soundtracks to films I hadn’t seen before. There are around 8 tracks that come from films that I haven’t managed to see just yet. Hopefully, if my research has paid off, there isn’t any music from a film that strays too far from the restrictions of the genre. If so, I apologize. At the very least, I made sure that all of the music fits together thematically and should put you in a very, very odd mood. The title of each track is a film title so start searching for the films, y’all.

The mixes:

My Dear Giallo 2

My Dear Giallo 1

Giallo Meltdown

Other stuff:

G Is For Giallo (a Giallo article I wrote)

Giallo Meltdown (a Giallo movie marathon I documented)

Giallo Fever (great blog)

Bloody Italiana (another great blog)

Euro Fever (yet another great blog)

Morricone Lover (awesome Ennio Morricone soundtrack blog)

Giallo trailers (warning: include nudity and violence):

Miyavi

2008-06-05T15:47:00.004+01:00

All right, let's discuss the music-gasm. It is a cousin of the food-gasm, the honest and visceral reaction to something that is not sexual, and yet the only thing it really compares to is sex. The music-gasm happens when something you listen to excites you to the extent that you hold your breath, and your head tingles, and your hands shake. Or at least, that's what happens to me, and did while I gorged myself on Miyavi (wiki) videos for the last half hour. That's just how much I loved it--Miyavi's music, that is.

I don't know if it's possible to write something that does justice to the way Miyavi plays guitar. I have never seen anything quite like it. At least, not with quite as much variation and speed. It does remind me of skilled and traditional flamenco guitar, but put on speed. His unique rhythmic playing and accomplished mastering of the guitar have earned him a reputation as one of the top guitar players in Japan.

And then, there is the ridiculous variation among songs, the theatricality, and that, to me, Miyavi appears almost unbearably cool.

--LeEtta

'Murmaider'/'Go Into The Water'

2008-06-05T12:45:00.004+01:00

Foresight, that's the key.

So I was roped in to seeing the new Sex And The City film for V's birthday. She wanted to see a girly film and I had a free pass to something so at least I know I didn't pay for my ticket. To be fair, I do watch the show sometimes and find it amusing but I am by no means what you would call a fan. However, I'm in a very small minority of those people going in willingly to see the film because:

a) I have a penis.
b) I'm straight.

Sitting in the film I realize that it's much easier to look at Charlotte (the cute one) at home where you don't have to listen to her. In a theater there's no escaping the dialog. Surprisingly, there was a fairly inescapable poop joke. And Kim Catrall just creeps me out--I wouldn't touch her with Rosie O'Donnell's dick. I was trying my best to sit through the entire film (which was unbelievably long, like almost 2-and-a-half hours), but an hour into it I knew I something had to give. Sleep was no option because the seats were too uncomfortable and, unlike what was presented at the MTV Movie Awards two nights prior, Jennifer Hudson's prominently displayed breasts were no where to be seen.

This is where foresight came in to play.

You see, before we left I loaded my MP3 player up with some new music I had been meaning to listen to and one familiar album--Dëthkløk's Dethalbum. Foresight. *SPOILER ALERT* At the scene where Big gets cold feet and leaves the wedding only to decide to come back and then Carrie flips out (oy vey), I had decided I'd had enough. I quietly slipped on my earbuds and hit play.

While Carrie and Miranda and Charlotte and...erm...who's the forth?...Mrs. Garrett were blabbering away, their words were lost to the strains of Murmaider (listen to the repeating third and forth lines of the chorus and tell me that isn't the greatest thing you've ever heard in music!) and Go Into The Water. Foresight is salvation and this 20 minute respite (which also included Awaken, Go Forth And Die, Face Fisted, and Hatredcopter) was exactly what I needed to remain seated and carry on through the rest of the film. Removing the audio from the film and replacing it with Dëthkløk gave me a whole new perspective and dare I say appreciation for the movie. In fact, I can't wait to watch it on TBS tonight...while listening to Castratikron and Bloodrocuted of course.

All hail Dëthkløk!

-N.
05.06.08

Dëthkløk - Murmaider
Dëthkløk - Go Into The Water

Versailles

2008-06-03T19:47:00.002+01:00

In the Autumn of 2006, Kamijo (from Lareine) and Hizaki (from Sulfuric Acid) decided to create a band based on the “The absolute Youshikibi (beauty of form) sound and extremes of aestheticism." Six months later Versailles was formed. The combinations of their musicianship, costuming, and make up with their on-stage energy makes Versailles seem truly other-worldly. Part of the Japanese Visual Kei movement among musicians, Versailles message is more than music.

Versailles Myspace
Visual Kei on the Bean

--LeEtta

"Dead Beat Strategy"

2008-05-28T18:29:00.004+01:00

I have to write about Gauge. This band, early Braid, and Cap’n Jazz make we wish that I had grown up in Chicago instead of stupid old Jupiter, Florida. Gauge is the centerpiece band in a number of various and awesome side projects and other bands. Find these things and you will be happy: Radio Flyer, Traluma, Sweater Weather, Haymarket Riot, Rollo Tomasi, Red Villain, Euphone, Heroic Doses, and The Sky Corvair. Anyway, Gauge’s 1995 album, Fire Tongue Burning Stomach, is absolutely essential for everyone. Whenever I put this album on, I get stuck on one quintessential Gauge track that I’m helpless against.

The song in question is “Dead Beat Strategy”. As soon as this song starts, I’m confused. Then the vocals, streamlined and raspy, start rolling in. If I could just stop the guitars from entering my pores for a second, I could probably analyze them better. They’re like shades being drawn when something really good is about to happen. The drummer is in total control the whole time, knowing when to hold back and when to cut loose. And that’s where the brilliance of this song lies; in its ability to hold back until the last 20 seconds. Jump directly to 3:10 and witness the chorus which is delivered once and only once and fuck me, it’s over.

Grab the song

More about Gauge

A Myspace page

'Cold Rockin' Au Graten'

2008-05-22T16:36:00.006+01:00

Richard Missile and Nafa Missile of The Missiles

What can be said about The Missiles that hasn’t already been written in the anals of history?

This duo from the backwoods of East Virginia began as the Missiles Brothers Musical Cliche' and started playing church socials and forcibly playing random talent shows of the various elementary schools in the area. It was after one of their subsequent arrests that they were discovered by a big time Hollywood producer who immediately booked them for the Sunday evening variety show, Hey Hey, We’re The Missiles!:

The show was a huge success and they won many, many accolades and developed a huge fan base. They started experimenting with other styles of music, eventually settling on a hybrid of Enuff Znuff, Saigon Kick, and Creamsicle, the all-star children’s choir consisting of singers with Asperger’s syndrome. The result was the timeless album, Lipstick Panda Squared:

Becoming disillusioned with their fame, the boys spent the next few years living quietly in a small town in Beirut working as Mexican chefs. This was the core inspiration behind their seminal work, the edgy and sweet The Missiles Is Duder:

The world had thought they had heard the last of The Missiles but a new track appeared showing a new direction. The track is a raw live mix of Cold Rockin’ Au Graten and this gem is like a stream of bat’s piss—it shines out golden when all around is dark (thank you, MPFC).

Get it, love it, eat it, vomit it, eat it again, digest it, and get another one.

-N.
22.05.08

The Missiles - Cold Rockin' Au Graten

'The Seventh Stranger'

2008-05-20T17:42:00.015+01:00

First, watch this:

The year was 1989 and Kid-N-Play were in full swing. These were my heroes, the mighty Duran Duran who had been close to my heart since I was about 11, and here 8 years later on how the fashionable had become fashion victims. They had survived the loss of two core members (drummer Roger Taylor, who went on to live a farm life, and guitarist Andy Taylor, who went on to be a 'rocker'), but at what cost? Though they would re-emerge 3 years later to regain some past glory several years later they would become completely Taylor-less with the departure of John Taylor (none of them are related, by the way). And a some years after that all five would be back together and charting once more, but this was the end of the Eighties. This is where the pinups, the icons, the plastic gods had settled. On the whole, the Big Thing album wasn't bad and had some pretty spectacular moments (though by just listening to the singles you couldn't tell). But the Golden Years were over. This was the dubiously named Big Thing tour.

And, with my luck the way it is, this would be the only era I'd get to see them perform live for 19 years.

The show was great--fuck, it was Duran Duran. These were the not-so-young men I had spent ages 11 to 17 trying to dress like, wear my hair like, play music like, sound like, smell like, dance like, eat like. I had the wide brimmed Stetsons that John favoured. I had the black and white suit similar to Simon's in the video for The Reflex. I used Colgate and Vidal Sassoon like Nick. Since I went to private school I had to keep my hair short so I would take a picture of Roger Taylor with me as a guide for the barber. And I would jump around with my string-less Rexina Strat-knockoff trying to time the strumming with the jumping like Andy did. I learned to play bass and drums to their cassettes. Hell, I even had a blond streak in my hair until 2001 because of them.

Our friend Tracy bought two tickets for us to see Duran Duran on the Red Carpet Massacre tour two nights ago in Orlando. While forever in debt to her kindness, at first my heart wasn't really in going to the show. Over the past few years I have given Tracy every piece of Duran Duran memorabilia that I owned, from the 1982 calendar to posters to tour programs to books, videos, and the import 12" singles that I had saved my allowance for and went to Bullfrog Records and ordered. She is a much more dedicated fan with an entire room dedicated to the band. I should have been ecstatic, but even once inside the arena I wasn't feeling the excitement I should. There was a distinct scent of Rogaine and estrogen well past it's sell-by date. Then the lights went down and they hit the stage. It only took a song or two for me to feel like I was that early teenager once again. Maybe it was that Roger was with them again, maybe it was that they are just that damn good still, but they seemed to be more animated than they had been nearly two decades before. I was most impressed that at 50 years old Simon's voice has held up beautifully, almost indistinguishable from his younger years--it was amazing. They played for over two solid hours. I was sold once again and regret even thinking that I wasn't into seeing the show. How wrong I was--I needed this. Thank you so much, Tracy. They are still my icons.

Hungry Like The Wolf
Orlando, FL - 18 May 2008

Red Carpet Massacre/Nite Runner
Orlando, FL - 18 May 2008

I am a born again Duranie.

For your consideration, my song selection is The Seventh Stranger, the closing track from the 1983 album Seven And The Ragged Tiger. [Miriam Lopez bought me this album for my 14th birthday and I won the 8th grade talent show singing this song (I was in it twice, the first time playing the drums to Big Country's In A Big Country).] A staple slow dance at all our junior dances, it's the closing track of the album and signifies the last time the band was truly unified. The next album was a live album with one new track (Wild Boys) and after that the band wouldn't be a quintet again until the next century. This ballad was the end of an era, of some type of innocence. It's beautiful and sad. And fitting.

Keep the faith,

-N.
20.05.08

Duran Duran - The Seventh Stranger

'Jesus, I/Mary Star Of The Sea'

2008-04-24T20:24:00.004+01:00

OK, after a brief hiatus with a steady diet of nothing but Dëthkløk and Viva La Bam, I'm back and ready for action so on to business.

Billy Corgan--Svengali, fan of pro wrestling, lover of comely female bassists (I mention that only because I'm jealous). He is an accomplished lyricist, poet, and musician with a keen sense of melding Prog Rock vastness with saccharine-laced Pop melodies. He is also notoriously difficult to work with, and the fact that all of the incarnations (save a one album) of the Smashing Pumpkins, Zwan, and Corgan's solo material were just variations of Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain are a huge testament to that fact. Still, the man knows his craft.

Zwan, a mini-Alt super group, was a brilliantly jubilatious (if that's not a word it should be) band and much too short-lived. In less than a two year period between Pumpkincarnations (another word that should be) Zwan formed, recorded, toured, began in-fighting, and broke up. They spawned one album, the amazing Mary Star Of The Sea, which produced at least one radio-friendly single, Honestly (plus it has the wonderful Paz Lenchantin):
The album featured several other songs in a similar vein (Lyric, El Sol) that reflected Corgan's new found spiritual enlightenment.

The highlight came in the form of the titular track, Jesus, I/Mary Star Of The Sea, which is really two songs in one. At over 14 minutes, the song is epic to say the least. The first part, Jesus, I, is paraphrased from a 1833 hymn by Henry F. Lyte (and Matthew 16:24).

Jesus, I've taken my cross
All to leave and follow Thee...
I'm destitute, despised, forsaken
All to leave and follow Thee...
After several minutes of a chiming guitar loop, the music starts to swell into the religious frenzy of a mosh pit with the repeating lines, Jesus...reborn..., which give way to the rest of the hymn:

So perish every fond ambition
God and trouble are all I've known
Yet how rich is my condition
God and heaven are all my own...
The music continues with an onslaught of soloing guitars in an almost free form jam. This continues (perhaps a bit too long) until it reaches a plateau of beautiful chord construct. The tempo shifts to a slower pace but once more explodes though this time with more restraint and purpose. Corgan returns to vocals once again at almost 9 minutes into the song with some of the best lyrics he's ever penned (well, at least they are my favourite):

Rooms full of salt, fault my pluck
And a poets charm so far, ever far
Little stars that burn the holes in my soul...
And everything just feels like rain
The road we're on, the things we crave
And everything just feels like rain
The nights i sleep, what's left to dream
When everything feels like rain...
Drift as I dive, find the deep
Out of reach of all light
Stars, ever far
Listless tides along the changing shore...
The song's languid rush finally gives way and seems to fly off into space or drift out in the tide. This track is certainly a journey.

And just because, here are those comely female bassists and their Fender P-basses:

D'arcy Wretzky

Melissa Auf Der Maur

Paz Lenchantin

Ginger Reyes

-N.
24.04.2008

Zwan - Jesus, I/Mary Star Of The Sea

Don Caballero ruined me (but it's my fault)

2008-04-24T18:39:00.004+01:00

My heart runneth over with the Don Cab. I've spent several years trying to recover from my obsession with this band. Well, it ain't working. Here's three tracks from various live bootlegs to demonstrate why I couldn't give up the ghost.

When I think about it, there's nothing like plundering the deepest and darkest corners of your music collection. It is important to listen to live bootlegs of your favorite band, whoever they are. They might play your favorite song in a way that differs drastically from the album. Or, if they're like Don Caballero, you're just wondering if they ever pulled this shit off in a live environment.

Once I got over the flashy drums of Don Caballero, the guitars started to seep into my mind. They changed my whole sensibility on what I expect from a guitar player and how I listen to them. And of course, they influenced what kind of guitar pedals I bought (Akai Headrush, I miss you) and how I (try to) play. I think I just heard some hipster-eyes rolling. Anyway...

Their music is irrational therapy for me. There is something about Don Caballero that causes me to fold, unfold, and level off. I don't care what happens to me when I hear this stuff because I know that nothing will ever go wrong ever again. Sometimes, you just have to give in and realize that life really is this good.

I recommend all of their albums but my favorites are American Don and What Burns Never Returns (Mike Jolley told me I would hate this album (he was wrong (dead wrong!))). Nothing can stop this band, I tells ya. Not even a 75% lineup change. Thank God they're still good and still out there touring and recording. It helps me sleep at night.

Don Fanallero - an excellent resource

Another video - "Railroad Cancellation"

Hey look - it's yours truly (from 2001):

-Richard

Sarah Harmer "Around this corner"

2008-04-24T15:21:00.007+01:00

I was a band geek in middle school, I admit it. And though I did not continue my band geek career any further, the ridiculously advanced classes at my middle school and private tutoring made me comfortably companionable with my instrument and not a bad clarinet player, if I do say so myself. As what happens when I start hanging out with someone new, my relationship with my first rented clarinet inspired me to find out all there was to know about clarinets and clarinet players. So the result was the permanent seed in me tuned to listening for a clarinet, and that alone may be the first reason why I was hooked on Sarah Harmer's "Around this corner" the very first time I heard it.

Perhaps the second reason "Around this corner" alone made me buy the album was that I imagined the song fit that part of my life perfectly. But then, isn't that the reason so many songs become precious? The smooth, round clarinet tones permeate the album 'You Were Here,' and add breathy interest to well composed songs. Harmer's following album 'I'm a Mountain' loses the clarinet and focuses more on an acoustic guitar sound that sells itself a little short, I think. Maybe I was just expecting something more smooth and round once again. Choice of instrument is not all that 'You Were Here' and 'I'm a Mountain' have going for them, however. Harmer's music composition skills continue to impress, even without the clarinet. Yeah, I just cannot let that go.

Interestingly enough, all the songs on the Sarah Harmer myspace music profile come from the 'You Were Here' album. Alas, "Around this corner" is not there.

I did eventually own my clarinet, by the way, and I sporadically, maybe not so often, get it out and play it lovingly.

--LeE.

Searching for Caviar

2008-04-09T14:22:00.004+01:00

Anyone who has seen the Charlie's Angels movie or happened to listen to the radio at the time the movie was out will have heard Caviar's "Tangerine Speedo." They may not, however, have heard anything else from this band. Based in Chicago, they manage to create exceptional music without having any locatable presence in the news, on the radio, or online. They're myspace page is frustrating to me, with an overlay of traditional style Asian music that cannot be turned off. Though I suppose the layering of different sounds and inputs is what makes their first album one of my favorites.

Their self-titled first album is filled with everything that would make a band humongous if they wanted to take advantage. Instrumentally, their skills are amazing; and, though they don't need it, they generously overlay superb playing with layers of overdubbing, synthesized sounds, and generated drum beats. On top of all this geniusness are clever, memorable, and often filthy lyrics that tickle the brain in the best way possible.

I am not proud to say that I have not yet heard their second album. The Eagles' article about it makes me question why my obsessive enjoyment of the first didn't become fanatic impatience for and consumption of the second. Overall, it seems as though they are a very hard band to pin down, and perhaps that is best if the non-existence of a public persona makes for music like this.

Hmmm, 'embedding disabled by request' means y'all will have to go and look for your own selves.

--LeEtta

Fastbacks

2008-04-07T20:53:00.003+01:00

Shortly after high school, I begrudgingly started community college and began working as a sad sack security guard. Fastbacks are a prime example of the music that kept me from suiciding. One day while killing time at Sound Exchange (R.I.P.) in Jupiter, Florida, a promo copy of their 1994 album, Answer The Phone Dummy, caught my eye. I remember guarding this car dealership all day one Sunday and I’d brought this album along. Sometime around 6:30am, while I was eating stale Oreos from the gas station, I put Fastbacks on while watching the sunrise. Magic!

And here it is, 13 or so years later, and this band still gets to me. How I ever got by without this record is a mystery to me. I need everyone to dig on this album. It saved me and LeEtta’s lives the other night while we were driving on the highway at night in the rain. The songs I picked are “Went For A Swim” and “And You”. You need to know that dueling female pop punk vocalists are on a list of things to live for.

Songs:

Went For A Swim” and “And You”

Videos:

Fastbacks – “Waste Of Time”

and...

-Richard

'You Cannot Fart Around With Love'

2008-03-25T00:14:00.002Z

You cannot fart around with love, duders. Enough said.

-N.
24032008

'You Cannot Fart Around With Love (From The Movie "Roseland" [1973])'

'Addicted'

2008-03-21T02:04:00.006Z

For me 1998 was a great year for discovering music. Actually, 1998 was a great year for discovering familiar music. Ten years on they still hold true.

Blink 182 was in the process of recording their mega-hit album Enema Of The State, which is truly a technically brilliant album. There is no finer drummer than Travis Barker at that point (say what you will about Neil Peart, Barker was a refreshing new sound to the familiar and intricate riffs we all grew up with, not to diminish Peart).

Bic Runga, New Zealand chanteuse and all around goddess of all she vocalizes released her first single (Sway, which is mostly known by the American audiences as the sex song from American Pie) and the brilliant debut album, Drive. I say 'brilliant', but that stands because we are talking about 1998. Her albums have progressively gotten more and more amazing, piquing with 2005's transcendent Birds.

And finally, also from New Zealand, a man who needs no introduction but will get one. He assumed the lead guitar role and eventually headed New Zealand's top band and musical export of the 1970s and 1980s, Split Enz, and wrote some of their biggest hits including the 80s international staple I Got You; he founded the international hit band Crowded House and penned one of the most recognizable pop ballads even today with Don't Dream It's Over; he frequently collaborated with his older brother Tim in almost every musical endeavor the tow of them have ever participated in; he is father to Liam who's band Betchadupa has also received international recognition in the past few years; he has drawn the likes of Eddie Vedder, Johnny Marr, members of Radiohead, Wendy and Lisa of Prince's Revolution, Sheryl Crow, Sinead O'Connor, and Lisa Germano among the many into his backing band; he co-wrote hits for other people including Every Day Is A Winding Road by Sheryl Crow (on which he also sings back up) and Silent House by the Dixie Chicks; and his most recent role has been fairly low key touring pianist and backing vocalist for Bic Runga's band.

Of course, he is the great Neil Finn.

Neil Finn at age 22 changing pop music history
with Split Enz and I Got You.

5 years later with Crowded House
and an even bigger success.

With friends (see the list above)
and her first solo hit.

The unassuming piano man and perfection herself
in 2005.

After 21 years as a professional musician (not counting when he would open for his brother Tim's band Split Enz at age 13 as a solo act) Neil Finn finally decided to release an official solo album. The result was 1998's beautiful Try Whistling This. The album is incredible. It begins like a railway station and ends with a dream. In between he dabbles in undying romance(Try Whistling This), the carnal (King Tide--I swear to this day this song is about oral sex), redemption (Sinner), the perfect pop song (She Will Have Her Way), and barren, wind-swept emptiness of the soul (the eerie yet enrapturing Astro). The dreaming begins around track 9 (Truth) and ends with track 14 on a moving dream train to other places ('feels like this train might never stop...', Addicted).

It would be another 3 years until Finn would continue the journey with 2001's One Nil (and the American version, 2002's One All. In a strange note, the track Turn And Run was an chilling lyrical premonition of the events of 9/11 that didn't go unnoticed by the Frenz (Split Enz and all related music fans), though nothing was ever mentioned officially about it. The song itself was written months, even years prior to that tragic day.

Whatever the case, I've decided to include the last track of Try Whistling This, Addicted. You can hear where the journey ends. This is an album I highly recommend you go out and find for yourself and get keyed in to how it all got to this point.

Thank you, Neil Finn.

-N.
20.03.2008

Neil Finn - Addicted

"Mary Had a Little Lamb"

2008-03-17T15:10:00.003Z

When I set out to my own apartment and college life, my parents opened up with a stream of memories from when I was a baby. I heard stories I never knew before. It was as if my impending absence resurrected the past in their minds, and from that came a song. In a tiny nursery with yellow and green butterfly wallpaper, my Dad sat in a rocker holding a little me and sang Wings' version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Who knows why he picked that song? He was quick to qualify that he never really followed Paul McCartney's work outside the Beatles. But because he picked that song and sang it to me when I was just a tiny helpless thing, the song became precious to him. And when I finally found the song (he never had a copy) and listened to it with that picture in my mind, remembering the emotion in Dad's voice when he related the story to me, the song became precious to me as well.

It's not a groundbreaking version of the song; there are no new lyrics or altered rhymes, but the thing that Dad remembered setting it apart was the la la las, and they do add something almost imperceptible to a familiar tune.

I've made sure that Dad has a copy of the song now--the internets is an amazing place that way. One day maybe I will share it with other tiny helpless children like he did.

--LeEtta

'This Means Anything'/'I Was In Chains'

2008-03-05T22:50:00.004Z

Last night I was in a migraine haze, sitting on the couch and watching Tivo'd episodes of Chef Stories, No Reservations, and Bizarre Foods, and trying to read my Apocalypse 2012 book. I had just taken a small handful of pills that I hoped were Ibuprofen, though I couldn’t be exactly sure since my girlfriend tends to throw all her meds into the same bottle for when we travel and this was one of the bottles, and washed it down with the last 32-ounces of the 5-gallon drum of tea that I had nearly single-handedly put away over the past 2-and-a-half days. (At least I had the sense to make sure all the pills matched.) The laptop was on and I was ready to be creative and post amazing new things.

I woke up a few hours later in time to hear V’s key turning in the lock, be on the receiving end of claws as the sleeping cat on my chest sprang to life and leapt to the door, and having Bullet Tooth Tony yelling at me from Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels on TV. So suffice it to say, little got written. However, I did jolt awake with a song still ringing in my brain. It was something that was left over from the unconscious state, the soundtrack to my dreamless-dreaming. It seems to be a song... rather ‘songs’ that transition from waking to sleeping well. From the 1985 LP Secret Of Association, it’s This Means Anything/I Was In Chains by the spiky haired hero of my youth, Paul Young.

For those who need a refresher:

Everything Must Change

Yes, this was his big album with hit singles like the cover of Every Time You Go Away, Tomb Of Memories, and Everything Must Change. Chock full of blue-eyed soul the album was about as close as the Luton-born Mr. Young ever got to being a fully fledged Detroit soulster. It had the definite sway from three male back up vocalists, the funkiest organ riffs heard in those days, and—one of my favourite tricks of the 80s—the warm, mournful cry of a well played fretless bass. Much like a Vegas crooner Mr. Young’s career depended a lot on cover songs (Love Will Tear Us Apart, Love Of the Common People, I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down, Oh Girl, Wherever I Lay My Hat Is Home, A Soldiers Things, Don’t Dream It’s Over, etc.), though that’s not to say that he was in any way sub-par. In fact, he has a beautifully gruff voice. But towards the end of this soulful album there are two tracks that bleed from one to the other. And one is, surprisingly, an original.

This Means Anything is a sad, sweet song with still that plaintive soul edge that made Every Time You Go Away such a huge hit. Of the two I’ve always preferred this song because of its simplicity and earnestness. Perhaps it's because Mr. Young is singing something that he wrote and can express it with deeper conviction than the lyrics of another. Jangly, reverb-drenched, and shiningly 80s, the song fades with the repeating roundelay I'll be with you again, words without credence, oh and segues into windchimes and a sparse rhythm. Enter I Was In Chains. His Eastern take on the Sutherland Brothers classic conjures images of deserts, ships, open skies, and travels. Lonely deserts, lonely ships, lonely open skies, and lonely travels. I was in chains and bound for Australia... Though it creeps up on you the instrumentation is full. The lyrics and delivery compliment the sentiment of This Means Anything, the natural progression. It is not until the last ambient 20 seconds of the track do you become aware that it's over (and for the full effects listen to it through headphones, panning-o-philes, but I have to admit that I was much more impressed when I was 15).

As I mentioned, this is a drowsy pair of songs. Songs for the heartbroken, the traveling, and those of you who have hopefully taken only Ibuprofen.

-N.
05.03.08

Paul Young - This Means Anything/I Was In Chains

"Highschool Stalker" Hello Saferide

2008-03-05T16:12:00.005Z

"I've been looking for you baby
any way that I can find
I've been searching for your sweet name
'cause you never leave my mind
I've been on the Altavista
I went twice on the Yahoo
And every where I go
There is always a clue
Always something about you
That may help me get my hands on you."

Hello Saferide was one of those awesome Myspace discoveries for me when I was so bored the only thing I could think of to fill the time was to friend hop band pages. When I heard "Highschool stalker" I was hooked. Annika Norlin's cleaver lyrics and sweet voice make the somewhat disturbing, but infinitely familiar message in "Highschool stalker" all the more poignant. Who hasn't searched the internet for a high school crush, accidentally walked down the street they live on the weekend, or changed their dental records? Ok so maybe not the last one.

"hacked into the school computer
changed all of your Ds to As,
broke into the dentists office,
no you never needed braces"

I have been informed, by a friend, that this song is creepy; and I have to agree that imagining a person really going to all this trouble under the weight of their obsession is a bit much, but there is a feeling there that reminds me of me. Am I admitting too much? Aren't we all prone to fall prey to the crazy obsessive first hints of love and infatuation? Where some people stay up into the night staring out on to their back yard wondering what the object of their affection is doing--some other people prank call, and walk by their house, and start eating the foods their crush likes the best. The all permeating feeling underneath either reaction is the same and indescribable. Judging by the vast popularity that the song enjoyed from its internet debut--I cannot be alone in thinking so. And somehow the self effacing blurb by the band about the song makes it all the better.

"'Highschool stalker' was an instant Internet hit with all of your favorite twee elements: handclaps, a Shangri-Las ask-and-tell chorus, a scrunched-up trumpet, and a weak guitar. Hello Saferide immediately got a record deal..."

Listen to it and other awesome songs by Hello Saferide.

--LeEtta

Storm & Stress

2008-03-03T18:04:00.005Z

Disdain. That was the look on my friend Mike Fusco’s face when I showed him my purchase. In my hands was Storm & Stress’s 2000 album, Under Thunder And Fluorescent Lights, and I couldn’t have been happier. Being a huge Don Caballero fan, this side project was the next logical step for me. I try not to let people’s gray faces sway me when I’m making musical purchases. I’ve discovered a few friends who are gaga over Storm & Stress but they are few and far between. When I approached my future bandmate, Nafa, back in 2001, Storm & Stress was one of the things I passed along as one of my influences.

I quickly backtracked to 1997 with Storm & Stress’s self-titled album and was fairly confused at first. This is not easy listening. It took a while for this album to sink in but once it did, I could be found wasting away, with headphones on, in my local library. The constant absorption of this stuff (which I could barely understand) probably did irreparable damage to me but I doubt I’d be the same without it.

The last track on the self-titled album (not to ruin the finale for you or anything) is called “Orange Cone Made No Noise”. The rambling vocals let me know I’m in trouble. Then the eruption of instruments makes me shake and I get nostalgic for good old days that never happened. Deceivingly alienating, this is actually the warmest and most loving music in the world.

If you can make it to 2 and half minutes then you’ll be rewarded with a soft, soaked, and sinking life preserver. The guitar (played by Ian T. Williams) and the bass (M Eric Topolsky) spend a great deal of this song turning around too quickly and bumping into each other. And I wasn’t aware that drums could tease, rumble, sputter, and romp before I heard drummer Kevin Shea. I am in love with the 8 minute mark.

It just dawned on me that this track is over ten minutes. For some reason that’s funny to me. Ian Williams mentioned in an interview I read somewhere that there is a great deal of humor and tongue-in-cheekiness to Storm & Stress. Pretentious? Sure. Why not? I feel surprisingly levelheaded about this positive noise and it still reels me in and destroys me with smiles.

Tuba City interview with Ian Williams

"Orange Cone Made No Noise"

-Richard

'The Crossing'

2008-02-29T19:31:00.004Z

I remember first getting the full album The Crossing on my 14th birthday from Sean Wheeler. Or rather, he gave me $10US to get the album. Months earlier we had both procured his brother's LP but eventually had to give it back. Here were four talented musicians--featuring a rhythm section that was favoured by the likes of Pete Townshend and many others, an ex-member of the seminal Scottish punk band The Skids, and a guitar wunderkind--who wrote and performed unconventional and lush compositions about landscapes and adventure tales in a time when pop music was all about androgyny and power ballads. The album was brilliant, full of amazing epics (The Storm, Porrohman), Scottish melodrama (Chance), and blazing guitars-as-bagpipes, also known as the E-Bow (Fields Of Fire, 1,000 Stars). Also here is one of my all time favourite Big Country tracks, Close Action. Shortly after The Crossing was released, they also released a 4-song EP called Wonderland, and it was every bit as brilliant as the previous album. Wonderland, All Fall Together, Angle Park, and The Crossing. Of course they continued with their plaid and be-sweatered, spiky haired image but the music and lyrics were timeless. No one since dear Robbie Burns wrote with such scenic Highland eloquence. And this all reached it's peak with Stuart Adamson's (may he rest in peace) lyrics to The Crossing, the 7:10 long finale of The Crossing/Wonderland period:

Maps on the back of your hands point to the cross
Scratches on walls in a room draw out your loss
Your islands are conquered and you are returned to the throne
Martyrs take penance and fill up the mattress with stones

Pull straws with holy men, stain all the atlas pink
And let us find a beach where we can cross our hearts

Stand in the wind as the carousels spin, wear out your welcome again
Stand in the silence of mountains and wear out your welcome again

Mornings hit hard with an uncontrollable light
Piercing the senses that click deep in the night
Crouched in a pillow of straw feet on the floor
Creeping a path to the mat that holds back the door

Stand in the wind as the carousels spin, wear out your welcome again
Stand in the silence of mountains and wear out your welcome again

Build up great railways that run through the horns of the moon
Hold up a city with cast-iron museum walls
Explain your machines to the boys feed them with tools
Bring out the skill in your skin polish your hair

Stand in the wind as the carousels spin, wear out your welcome again
Stand in the silence of mountains and wear out your welcome again

Stand in the wind as the carousels spin, wear out your welcome again
Stand on the silence of mountains and take your rib down to the sea...

The following year would see the release of Steeltown which closed with the amazing Just A Shadow, the first of my personal 'New Years Songs':
Just A Shadow
1986 saw the release of The Seer, which was truly the last Big Country album that had that 'Big Country' sound. As did most of the artists of the 1980s, they fell into the trap of over-production and traded in their soaring uniqueness for a too polished sound. It was a great half-album with the rest being just OK. Unfortunately, the rest of the story concludes with Stuart Adamson's disappearing act that resulted in his untimely demise by his own hand alone in a hotel room in Honolulu just before Christmas 2001.

They were amazing at a time when no one would even dare to sound or write the way they did. And no one has even come close since. To this day I still wear my plaid shirts and penny loafers with Scottish pride.

-N.
29.02.2008

Big Country - The Crossing

"Two Way Action"

2008-02-29T18:28:00.005Z

Back in the days when Borders books store's late evening hours were still relatively dead, and I had time to hang around for hours, I would monopolize a set of headphones in their music section and listen to as many featured artists as possible. This was long before you could scan any barcode in the CD section and listen to a sample. Only those albums featured on the top display row of the wooden cabinets got play time.

I had a very late exposure to musicians and bands. Though I could easily pick up lyrics of any song I'd heard two or three times, I could never tell you who sang it or from whence it came. Most of the CDs I owned were given to me by well intentioned neighbors, one actually, and a music obsessed father. All this changed when I got to college. Perhaps as a way to be out of the dorm, I spent massive amounts of time at books stores and local restaurants, which eventually lead me to Andrew Bird. Although, I am sure that the Borders recommended listening list was a sponsored by money paying industries, it was here that I found The Swimming Hour album by Andrew Bird's bowl of Fire.

Now, the tricky part about listening to a recommended CD on those headphones at Borders is not getting so bored with the beginning of the song or album that you miss the good bits. This is where "Two Way Action," the first song on the album, won my heart. It is the perfect driving song--as that is what I did the most while listening to it in the subsequent months and years after I bought the CD (and now that it has just popped up through the earphones of my mp3 player--I remember, it also speaks of driving--how funny). Not to knock songs that have a slow and easy beginning, but "Two Way Action" draws you in fast from the very beginning guitar notes.

The violin, by the way, is the instrument that Andrew Bird is most associated with. It is not the only instrument he plays however. His experimentation with instruments, voice, whistling and various musical influences is what keeps me buying his albums, many since the first. They are all interesting in their own right, completely different than the last, without straying too much from what his fans have come to know and love.

If you ascribe to the solidity of Wikipedia, then you will see that Andrew Bird has appeared as a guest musician on many other albums besides his own. Quite a few of these albums belong to the Squirrel Nut Zippers, which may be the reason I believed he had originally been part of the band and had broken off. I have been corrected since.

You can sample some of his newest songs and work solo of his Bowl of Fire companions on his web site and on Myspace.

--LeEtta

3 From The .99 Bin

2008-02-28T14:11:00.004Z

I've spent so many precious hours of my life digging around in the .99 bin at various records stores that I almost feel a twinge of regret. I'm sure vinyl scavengers go through the same thing. Sometimes it goes like this: for every 10 .99 purchases, there is at least one good song buried in there somewhere. And once in a great while, there is not just a good song, but a great album, and just possibly, an amazing band. Here are three bands' CDs I found that are both hits and misses.

The Tom Collins – “One Day Krush”

Did someone just kick me in the face? Wasn’t expecting much from this band’s 1999 self-titled album and I didn’t get it. However, this one track managed to steamroll its way into my mind. “One Day Krush” shows two kinds of promise: good and very bad as this is probably the heaviest and tightest song on the entire CD. I’m glad I took a chance but things got ugly. The band turned into something awful by their 2005 album, Daylight Tonight. Think of Black Crowes meets The Toadies. Ohhhhh!

The Tom Collins Site

The Planet The – “Arty Movie”

The one track on Physical Angel that isn’t a prog/math rock attack is the creepy “Arty Movie”. I remember playing this for LeEtta and she handed the headphones back to me saying that the vocals were making her nauseous. Hmm… I can’t let that stop me, right? There is something amazing about “Arty Movie” and I can’t help but get swept up in its twisting and churning urban horrors. My favorite part:

It makes me nervous at night
It makes me nervous at night
It makes me nervous
So nervous nervous nervous nervous

The Planet The Myspace

Judging by this video, I’d say The Planet The are excellent live:

The Dying Californian - "Springtime Is For Suckers"

“Springtime Is For Suckers” is the kind of song that insidiously reminds me that I haven’t grown up at all. Suddenly, it’s 1998 all over again and I’m driving around West Palm Beach aimlessly to Boys Life or The Van Pelt. The rest of The Dying Californian’s 2002 EP is quite good but none of it gets me like this track. It never really screams “EMO!” but it is enough to get me instantly nostalgic (not like that’s difficult). “Springtime Is For Suckers” sways easily back and forth, building nicely to a somewhat restrained fervor, then pulls back, and is gone.

The Dying Californian Site

And you should...

Grab These 3 Songs

-Richard

'Condition Of The Heart'

2008-02-26T17:36:00.009Z

Suffice it 2 say, in my formative years a good deal of what learned about sex, God, and playing the guitar came from listening to 5'3" man from Minneapolis. And thinking about it have quite a few musical icons that seem to mix the sacred and the carnal.

But that's another discussion 4 another time.

So after the monster hit that was Purple Rain, Prince (pre-symbol-name and with the penultimate appearance of The Revolution) decided 2 go 4 something akin 2 his Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Granted, not so much musically but...erm...spatially. The result was Around The World In A Day, which wasn't the huge success that everyone hoped it would have been in following a 13-million seller. But by no means does that infer that the album is inferior. Quite the contrary--it's got the usual radio-friendly fare (Raspberry Beret), some naughty funk (Tambourine), and some lashings of psychedelia (Paisley Park), all crafted as finely as U would expect a Revolution album 2 be. Every song has a different feel totally, not adhering to one musical style alone or daring 2 repeat itself. And there in the middle of side 1 (yes, still refer 2 'sides' as got this cassette in 9th grade from my friend John Penta) it all comes 2 a satiny halt. ('d say 'screeching halt', but the song isn't very screetchy.) In fact, it barely shows signs of life with the faint piano strokes that start track 3. Welcome 2 Condition Of The Heart.

Placed between the bounce of Paisley Park and the obviously successful Raspberry Beret, Condition Of The Heart is otherworldly. It's nearly 7 minutes of atmosphere, where the vocals don't even start until almost the 3 minute mark. The slow-build of the song brings the anticipation that there will be a huge sonic blast and the up-tempo turn will begin. Well, that never happens. Nope, it maintains a languid pace, chock full o' Prince's overdubbed vocals giving the bulk of the singing an almost gospel feel. Piano crescendos, sparse aquatic-laden synthesizers, and little else. It's beautiful, haunting, and silly. But mostly beautiful. Sometimes this song reminds me of the scene from Creepshow where Ted Danson is buried up to his neck in the sand and the tide is slowly coming in drowning him. Yeah, this song has a definite Danson-slow-drowning-Creepshow vibe 2 it.But in the most gorgeous of ways.

And of course, any song that name-drops Clara Bow is aces in my book. She's also featured on the cover of the album as she appeared in the film Hoopla.

Mainly picked this song out of the ether because it's supposed to rain sometime today and this is the perfect song 4 a stormy afternoon. Barely lucid, overly maudlin, and playing like a drapery. also have found that it segues well into the Screaming Masterpiece soundtrack, but again that's a story 4 another day.

-N.
26.02.08

Prince - Condition Of The Heart

*ADDENDUM: After posting this noticed that Prince was in the news twice today. First, there was a story about Lindsay Lohan being verboten from Prince's post-Oscar box social. There is a very humorous mathematical analysis why she was banned. Secondly, and speaking of humerus, or rather closer 2 the ilium, the Purple-and-briefly-peach-and-black 1 will be getting hip replacement surgery. Please insert your own joke about visiting Dr. Fink here. Thank U.