OK, OK. No more May. June shuffling begins... today!
Five songs, random, list and describe!
- Nora - Dummy. This is a song from one of my college-era bands. It's a snappy little upbeat number and the performance here is pretty good (if you'll allow me this prideful moment)! This was always a blast to play.
- Led Zeppelin - Thank You. It's my 2nd-least favorite song from my favorite Zep album (Moby Dick wins last place because of the drum solo). Still, it's a better song than most bands will ever do, so I haven't totally wasted these five minutes!
- Neil Young & C.H. - Hey Hey, My My (live, from Weld). His guitar sound is just killer. It's so raw and brutal; it wants to tear your face off and kick you for being so ugly. And the beat is just StompStompStompStompStompStomp. It's like sitting on top of an overdriven sheet metal stamping machine. One of his best - especially the live versions, ex. on Weld and Live Rust.
- Cat Power - Salty Dog. This is from her "Covers Record" (an album of covers). It's just her and an acoustic guitar. Pretty mellow, in and out in two minutes. Not bad.
- Calexico - Nom de Plume. In a change from their usual unique blend of American and Mexican musical styles, this one is in whispered French. I don't know the name of the style, but it's that dark, minor-key French thing; there's typically an accordion (though not here). Calexico is an interesting band. I should buy more of their records.
OK, your turn!
New car buzz!
The Clash – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
The best Clash song ever recorded. Period. Nothing else they’ve done can touch this brilliant track about black reggae bands on the rise in 70’s London. It was a departure from their usual gritty punk-style which placed them above many other bands of the era (the track was released in 1978.) The lyrics even contain a (alleged) dig at The Jam:
The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits, ha you think it’s funny
Turning rebellion into money
And it also has one of my favourite lines:
I’m the all night drug-prowling wolf
Who looks so sick in the sun
R.E.M. – Summer Turns To High
Utterly forgettable crapfest from 2001’s poorly received ‘Reveal’ album. Ack, how sad. Not much more to say other than ‘don’t bother’. Can’t even find a YouTube link.
Neil Young – Like A Hurricane
Surely one of the best songs this man has recorded? Debatable but boy it’s good. Everyone must know it and if you don’t then seek it out right now. He often plays a (three-pickup) Les Paul Black Beauty live and it sounds like the Apocalypse.
Arctic Monkeys – A Certain Romance
This band are so tight, the drummer so talented, the guitar riffs so memorable and the lyrics so good it beggars belief. Alex Turner really is a poet and was for a time the voice of British Indie.
And over there there’s broken bones
There’s only music, so that there’s new ringtones
And it don’t take no Sherlock Holmes
To see it’s a little different around here
Don’t get me wrong, oh there’s boys in bands
And kids who like to scrap with pool cues in their hands
And just cause he’s had a couple of cans
He thinks it’s alright to act like a dickhead
Brilliant – especially the bit about ringtones.
Thom Yorke – Street Spirit (Fade Out) – Live
One of the most beautiful songs ever recorded and one of the few ‘tricky’ songs I can play (after many, many hours of practice!). This version is just Thom and an acoustic from Neil Young’s Bridge St. School benefit in 2002. I listened to the bootleg relentlessly before it appeared on iTunes. Brings tears to my eyes. The video is from a different performance but it’s still pretty cool.
Birmingham tomorrow to show some new stuff to customers. And a new car to take me there!!!
Ack. WordPress ate my Clash link. Must of shafted the tags.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTnijX0TH-w
New Nano. You physically shake the thing to make it shuffle Why do feel like a tool when I do this?
Hey Hey, My My? Neil Young comes up 7th in an itunes search. Le sigh.
A Salty Dog is one of my fave albums of all time.
(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais is an unequivocal tour de force. I had no idea that was a dig @ The Jam. Ha! Good one! Bankrobber is still my favorite. I will be covering that song this Saturday in fact and passing it off as a country standard. Will anyone notice?
You physically shake the thing to make it shuffle
took me about a month of running with mine before i figured out why it kept changing songs.
Marc Cohn – 29 Ways
First time I’ve heard this track. It’s a Willie Dixon cover, so it’s a standard blues progression, but this is a pretty nice arrangement of vocal harmonies and really sparse instrumentation.
No link, because all the YouTube versions are live, none of which really communicate the feel of the studio track.
Metallica – Enter Sandman (Live)
From a 2004 concert in LA. The guitars sound really energetic, but Kirk’s voice sounds kind of shitty. I’m not generally much of a consumer of “in concert” recordings, but it can be a good way to get a fresh listen to something you’ve heard a thousand times.
Victor Wooten – Norwegian Wood
The track’s credited to Bela Fleck, but make no mistake, it’s solo bass. Wooten should be an inspiration to anybody who thinks the bass is for people who can’t play guitar. The part where he plays the melody on overtones is a delicious appetizer to a finger-tappin, string-slappin’ feast.
Howard Shore – The Prophecy
The opening track from the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack, one of my favorite film scores ever. A great introduction, containing elements of what’s to come (both thematically and instrumentally). Bonus points to the composer for incorporating made-up languages into completely convincing choral parts.
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – What I Am
Another one you know by heart. For some reason this one still sounds new to me; it came around during a pretty ripe time in my life, right near the end of high school, and you know how it is with music you encounter in those years.
Man, I loved “What I Am” when I was in high school. Haven’t thought about that one in a while… And yep, still dig it.
“Am I Born to Die”, Mason Brown and Chipper Thompson. About as dreary as Appalachian spirituals get… Nice vocal arrangement. But for this kind of thing you want pretty fantastic singers, more fantastic than what is on offer.
“China Cat Sunflower”, the Dead. Nice change of pace. Another Dead song that I have no idea what the lyrics are about. It’s got everything it needs to have in terms of sweet guitar licks, chanting, etc.
“Darkest Light”, the Lafayette Afro Rock Band. Some aggressively beautiful funk. A long instrumental piece, lots of guitar and bass and keyboards. Highly repetitive but with just enough variation to keep me into it.
“Johnny B Goode”, the Dead (UC Santa Barbara 77). Funny, the Dead seem to me like a totally different band when they’re playing standards from when they’re playing Dead tunes. I like both bands but all in all, I probably like this one better. They’re also in top form at this concert.
“East Virginia Blues”, Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster. Nice — back to Appalachian death songs… This is an older recording than the Carter Family version but that will give you a good idea of it.
White Man at Hammersmith Palais
Hey thanks, that is a song I have always liked without knowing what it was called…
The Clash – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
it’s pretty amazing how much bands even today still sound like The Clash.
Green Day owe The Clash their entire career. :)
Damn you Caldecott, that’s two weeks that you’ve made me need to go buy an album. (I have never before owned any of the Clash’s records. That must change.)
Cris, many people will tell you that ‘London Calling’ is The Clash’s finest record but I disagree and would plump for ‘Give ‘Em Enough Rope’ instead. It’s well produced (which the band were slated for at the time) and contains a clutch of cracking tunes (Safe European Home, English Civil War, Tommy Gun and Stay Free spring to mind). Their first album (entitled ‘The Clash’) is *raw* but the US version includes “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais”.
London Calling contains a lot of different musical styles which was quite a cool thing to do in 1979 for a band that used to label themselves as ‘punk’ but it’s a bit hit and miss IMHO.
There is also a collection of songs called ‘Black Market Clash’ or ‘Super Black Market Clash’ which contains the simply fackin’ brilliant ‘Bankrobber’ (see Parallel 5ths post above.) and other great B-sides and rarities. Well worth it.
HTH.
Rob’s comment above me about the Clash is SPOT ON.
Victor Wooten is a bass god, and all of his work with Bela Fleck is worth listening to.
I need to get more Arctic Monkeys. Only have the first one.
I might actually have time to do one of these on Monday, though it is a holiday (Whit Monday) so one never knows.