Get your random five, rank them favorites first, justify your choices.
- Sam Prekop - The Shadow. The Sea & Cake's singer's first solo record sounds pretty much like it could have been an S&C record. But at the time, S&C was going into their dense Stereolab / electronic phase, and this is very airy, minimalistic, stuff.
- Colorblind James Experience - New Beret. CBJE started out with a unique jazzy two-step circus polka feel; but that eventually gave way to more of a straight country/western vibe. Regardless of the base, though, they always had Chuck's deadpan lyrics and delivery and his love of repeating a simple curious melodic figure like clockwork throughout the song. They seemed to play a call/response role: Chuck sing/speaks a line and the songs's clockwork melody jumps up for a couple of bars, then back to Chuck, etc..
- Replacements - Buck Hill. An instrumental. Country/surf guitar line, and breaks that were eventually reworked into Tim's "Kiss Me On The Bus" (I assume). It feels like it needs just a bit more ... something. Maybe some of Westerberg's clever lyrics, maybe an explosive ending. Something. Still, it's a nice sketch.
- Robyn Hitchcock - Ye Sleeping Knights Of Jesus (live). This was never one of my favorite RH songs. But, it's a decent rendition, and Robyn's lyrical improvisations are fun.
- Louis Armstrong : Alligator Crawl. A bit slow, a bit plodding, and Louis' trumpet boppin over the top can't get this one out of the mud.
That was a pretty good random five. No bad songs, this time.
What you got?
1. New Order – Vanishing Point
Arguably one of the best songs on arguably their best album. I really love their dancy stuff but I have always loved their guitar pop songs as well. New Order has in many ways been the perfect band for me: a bit of synth and dance, a bit of guitar pop, a touch of goth at times, very British.
2. Dinosaur Jr. – Crumble
Decent track on one of their recent classic lineup albums. This video is from Norwegian Wood festival. It is actually hard to distinguish this song from lots of other perfectly good Jr. songs, which I guess could be a knock on them but I don’t think so. I like their sound enough that they can just keep making them as long as they want to.
3. Sigur Rós – Ég anda
A Nice bit of atmosphere, as usual, from Sigur Rós. Beautiful and hypnotic it’s the kind of thing you listen to quite loud with good headphones (I have some decent Sennheisers, which I am using right now) on a cold winters evening with the lights low, a fire going and your eyes closed. I suggest watching the video too because it is…weird.
4. Modern English – I Melt With You
Iconic 80’s song. At least in the States. I have come to find out that a lot of the European folk I know over here who grew up in the 80’s don’t really know this song much. Weird, that. Anyway, kind of a played out song but it sure does bring back memories of dances in the 80’s. Parachute pants! Member’s Only jackets! Skinny leather ties! Yikes…
5. The Soft Machine – Virtually Pt. 2
This one has a really long intro where it seems like it is never going to actually go anywhere…and then suddenly it does. It settles into a nice hard-bop-ish groove with a fusion flare. I like it but not one of their better tracks.
Technique. Man, what an album.
This shuffle is dominated by live tracks. And by long tracks — 3/5 are longer than 6 min.!
1. The Afterlight by Venus 3 – live version from Sex, Food, Death and Tarantulas — A great song, great performance. I saw RH perform this solo and it was great; the backing vocals really add a lot.
2. Hard to Handle, covered by the Dead. Nice. Nice big instrumental break.
3. Matilda Mother by Pink Floyd – 7-minute live version from What Syd Wants. Love this song and this performance; but the recording is of dirt-poor quality. Too bad cause there is what seems for all its muddy-ness like a fantastic instrumental break.
4. “Old and Gray and Only in the Way”, covered by Loudon Wainwright III — this song does not do a whole lot for me, pretty though it is. (That applies to a lot of Charlie Poole’s songs.)
5. 7 1/2 minute feedback solo by the Grateful Dead goes at the bottom of the list for what I hope are obvious reasons. The kind of thing that would be fun at a concert while high loses all of its appeal when neither of those conditions pertain.
Saw Radiohead at the O2 Arena in London last night. OMG. Blew me away. And it was LOUD. Ears still ringing! Great venue but getting out and on public transport back to Waterloo for our train was challenging!
oooh. i’d love to see them… but they never come around here.
They did tour the USA earlier this year but I think the closest they got to you was Atlanta, or the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, TN.
TBH getting to London for a gig is something I’d only do for a handful of bands as it’s so hard getting home again. The Black Keys are playing in December which is tempting though.
looks like there were some famous people there, too.
I keep hearing good things about a band called The Dry Season. Anyone heard them?