- Holy Sons - Survivalist Tales! Bought this after seeing them open for Malkmus & The Jicks. Live, they were a blisteringly loud blend of blues and jazz-inflected psychedelic/experimental indie rock, screaming guitar feedback/effect skronk, and dark lyrics. At least that's what I heard, standing ten feet from the guitar amp. But this record is sometimes electronics-heavy, sometimes based around acoustic guitars, always moody, often dense but rarely really loud. From what I can tell, Holy Sons is really just the work of one guy (though I was digging the actual band he had assembled on stage). Whatever the deal is, it's a unique sound. Worth investigating.
Golden Child, Look Of Pain. - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Mirror Traffic. This one feels a bit less jammy than the last one, and a bit more into quick tempo/time changes. And there are a lot of songs on here that I really dig - more than the last record, even. But when you get right down to it, it still basically sounds like Malkmus; his unique vocal style and his by-now-familiar songwriting style completely dominate. So, not a lot of surprises if you've been listening to him since the days of Pavement. But it's still tasty. Comfort food.
Senator, Tune Grief. - Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum. Yow! Another one of those bands that just drops neatly into a space in my mental map of bands, and makes the connection between two bands seem so obvious that I feel like an idiot for not seeing it before. In this case, the bands are Jimi Hendrix and Mudhoney. They sound like live Hendrix at his most feedback-drenched and free-spirited, but without the, err, stunning technical ability. That late-60's, primarily San Francisco-based, psychedelic blues sound (Janice Joplin, etc): it's loud and raw and loose, tends to long ragged bouts of improvisation, and gets its power from attitude and volume. So, take that, bind it up in tight punky song structures and you get Mudhoney; or, double the volume and speed and you get Boris. I've heard their "Summertime Blues" before (MTV used to show that trippy '68 video!), but never the rest of the record. Heavy duty.
Summertime Blues - Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Through The Devil Softly. Hope Sandoval was the voice of Mazzy Star, way back when. Since that band broke up, she's been doing her own stuff, with or without collaborators, and this is her latest offering (2009). Her voice is still that unmistakable dreamy, near-whisper; and the music, while lighter and more delicate than Mazzy Star, is exactly what you'd expect to hear next to her voice: it's slow, pensive and leans dark. Not really a party record, but it's a pretty one.
Blanchard.
Got anything you want to tell us about?
The Sea & Cake! Absorbing them chronologically.
Got the latest Death Cab but haven’t really listened much yet, too much Sea & Cake.
Sivert Høyem. Norwegian, former lead singer of a relatively famous (in Europe at least) Madrugada. This guy has a great voice and his most recent record has a retro feel to it. My wife absolutely adores him. The lead single is a killer. Listen.
Now back to more Sea & Cake.
The Sea & Cake! Absorbing them chronologically.
the first five are my favs.
Listen.
ah. that sounds like it’s worth looking into.
Went to see the movie Moneyball today. If it doesn’t win an Oscar for best sound there is no justice in the world. Which means it won’t win. But it was beautiful.
What was the last big budget Hollywood movie you saw that went 6-7 seconds at a time with no (none, zero) audio, and no explosions throughout? Characters in this movie sat and thought. And the soundtrack reflected that.
It was the best sounding movie I’ve seen in more than twenty years.
Even if you hate baseball (idiots), you should see this. Only towards the end did they make everything blue and orange, and there was often enough green in scene to offset it. Combined with the wonderful audio and a great story, you have a winner.
would it work for someone who likes baseball in a casual way, and doesn’t know the details of its semi-recent history ? someone like me, for example?
Yes. Very much. I’m a Red Sox fan and they only exist in the movie as someone to swindle. You really don’t need to know anything at all about actual baseball history. The story itself is absorbing. The theme of the movie is that the invisible hand of the market doesn’t know the proper value of real people. Beautifully produced, directed with a deft hand.
The Calamity Janes — they were the opening act last night at the Crooked Still show, and they are my new favorite thing. Check out their myspace page for some hot tunes.
I think you in particular would like what I’m listening to right now, Modesto
Hear Me Howling! Blues, Ballads, & Beyond
Cool, thanks!
Meantime if I can put in a plug for listening to my band, I think our cover of “Odds & Ends” will make you happy.