- Wye Oak - The Knot. Recently, the A.V. Club ran a series called "A.V. Undercover", in which they chose 25 songs from various bands and invited 25 bands to pick a song and then do a cover of it, live, in the A.V. Club's little round studio. It was mostly pretty good, though a few bands suffered because their singers just don't have the chops to sing songs outside of their own style. Wye Oak, a two-piece drum-n-guitar band, did The Kinks "Strangers", and did a very nice job of it. So, I bought this record. And I love it.
Their songs sometimes sound like the nodding narcotic fuzz of Codeine, and the singer's voice can't help but draw Cat Power comparisons. But they really have their own sound: spare and slow, alternating between delicate and pounding, a touch of dark country twang, bits of dissonance; pretty, but wistful and lonely.
Right now, you can hear the whole thing for free on Merge's website. My favorite songs so far are "Siamese" and "I Want For Nothing".
4 laquos: ««««
- The Antlers - Hospice. This is another band I found on the A.V. Club's Undercover series. They bravely covered Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", and I liked their cover enough to give their record a chance. Sadly, I'm having a harder time getting into this one than I did with Wye Oak's record, even though I keep playing it in my car - trying to get it to click. But it hasn't.
A lot of it is very quiet and slow moving, even more than Wye Oak. High, thin vocals singing slight melodies, barely above a whisper, usually far quieter than the surrounding instruments. Not a lot of hooks in those parts. And the parts that aren't quiet sound like motherfucking Arcade Fire songs. Which makes me want to change the CD as quick as I can because I'm so fucking sick of motherfucking bands that sound like motherfucking Arcade Fire!
Fuck, people, there are a million good bands out there you can rip off, why does everyone feel the need to sound exactly like this one middling fucking Canadian band ?
fuck!
FUCK!
2 laquos: ««
- Tom Waits - Rain Dogs. My first Tom Waits record! I ignored him for 35 years, but finally decided to take a look. And now I'll never be able to watch another Tim Burton animated movie without thinking all the songs were written by or for Tom Waits - it's that drunken, creaky, dirty, early jazz sound. When Waits sings, I see a big-mouthed skeleton in a bowler hat, singing into a microphone made from a legbone topped with a rat's rib cage; a zombie plays piano; a one-eyed monster serves drinks.
I could grow to really like this, or I could get bored; It's hard to say. I do like a lot of the songs - the more stylized ones more than the straightforward ones. I'm just not sure if I can suspend disbelief enough to really get into Waits' crazy drunken hobo character once the novelty wears off. Time will tell.
3 laquos: «««
ok-cleek
Misinformation followed us like a plague
I go in cycles with Waits, alternately bored and enthused. He really, really is a goddamned genius, but I just can’t listen everyday.
You may now pelt me with garbage, but I’m the same way with St. Leonard of Cohen.
I’ll agree with MikeJ to a degree on Waits (and totally with Cohen. I actually prefer other people doing Cohen songs.) Waits is a total genius and I can listen to him often enough. He is more mainstream over here (hell my father-in-law has several CD’s and he is 65).
I need to check out Wye Oak. Arcade Fire is the new Pearl Jam. Everyone tried to sound like them in the 90’s, to the point of making me ill.
@platosearwax: Tom Waits will turn 61 this year. He’s pretty close to your father-in-law’s age. It should be no surprise that Waits would appeal to a broad spectrum of listeners. I do agree that as a songwriter he is outstanding and in the category of Cohen, Dylan, etc in that he is a hit or miss as a performer. I heard Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish perform the old Waits classic, “I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You” and it was probably the best cover of that song I’ve ever heard.