Special short-week edition!
Shuffle-up four songs, describe them, and then rank them.
- Labradford - El Lago. Labradford was one of the "post-rock" bands: mostly instrumental, 'ambient', a bit more like Tortoise than Godspeed You! Black Emperor. This is from their 95 release "A Stable Reference", which is my favorite of their records. This particular song is simple repetitive bass and guitar lines over droning keyboards, all of it building in volume and intensity for five and a half minutes.
- The Sea And Cake - All The Photos. Also a "post-rock" band, but by comparison to Labradford, The Sea And Cake sound like a pop group. Verse/chorus/verse? Melodies? Drums? Vocals? Hand-claps?! This is like top-40 stuff.
- The Cure - Out Of Mind. One of the "Disintegration" B-sides. Not a bad song, but the keyboards and phased guitar are way too loud in the mix. It's all a bit of a mess, sonically.
- Van Halen - Secrets. A mellow tune from "Diver Down". It's got a quick tempo, but Eddie's guitar sound is unusually clean and his playing is laid-back and jazzy; the rest of the band is likewise subdued, but not quite as daring as Eddie (would have been nice if Alex mixed things up a little on the drums rather than simply playing simply). Definitely not a standard VH rocker, and it's interesting to hear this more introspective side. Wish they would've taken it a bit further.
For ranking let's go with : 1, 2, 4, 3.
Nina Simone – Pirate Jenny
I’ve never seen the Threepenny Opera, and I’m not sure I want to because there’s no way the show can live up to the intensity of Nina Simone’s treatment, is there? She totally sells it; I really believe she’ll line me up against the wall when the time comes. But I’ll confess, part of my fondness for this song is because of the comic-in-a-comic Tales of the Black Freighter.
Louis Prima – I’ve Got You Under My Skin
Smith & Prima had a great schtick, in spite of its capacity to wear out its welcome.
Eric Clapton – Signe
The first track from his must-have Unplugged album; I’ve heard it a hundred times but never knew the title. Because it, like most of the album, is dinner background music. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
Carl Douglas – Kung Fu Fighting
Huah! Sorry, guilty pleasure here. I guess the kids today know this one because of that Panda movie, don’t they?
I’d rank these really close to the order they came in, but I think I’ll give Clapton the edge: 1,3,2,4.
q Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie — Muddy Waters
w Talkin WWIII Blues — Dylan
e Candy Man — Gary Davis
r Down Where the River Bends — Old & In the Way
ranking: qfew
qrew, I mean
00: Supergrass – Cheapskate
01: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Skeletons
10: UFO – Doctor Doctor
11: The White Stripes – You Don’t Know What Love Is
11/01/00/10
nerd
1. Yo La Tengo – Living in the Country
Pleasant little instrumental.
2. Oasis – Shakermaker
Stellar song from arguably their best album.
3. Pixies – Here Comes Your Man
really good song for Frank Black and company. Memories…
4. Styx – Come Sail Away
WTF? How do I even have this? WHY do I even have this? Have I mentioned lately that my stepmother’s sister is married to the current drummer of Styx? I have an autographed CD/coaster! The Cartman version of this is so much better.
5. The Call – The Walls Came Down
Really good song from an underrated band.
Rank: 2.3.5…1……………………………………..4
Definitely Maybe is in a different league to any other Oasis album IMHO – it’s the only one I still listen to (apart from some DM-era b-sides). But that song, Shakermaker, was influenced by ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’ …
“The song illustrates Noel Gallagher’s habit of borrowing from the past: the chords are a simple twelve-bar blues progression and the melody for the verse was originally taken from “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” (the song made famous from its use on Coca-Cola adverts in the 1970s) by Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway, Bill Backer and Billy Davis. However, this led to Oasis being successfully sued for the unlicensed use by The New Seekers and were ordered to pay $A500,000 in damages.[citation needed] When asked about the incident, Noel Gallagher joked “Now we all drink Pepsi.”[citation needed]”
he he he.