Another Monday. They just keep coming, don't they...
Shuffle em up! Five, describe!
- Radiohead - We Suck Young Blood. A dirge slowly swinging to and fro like a boat at sea. Thom sounds ill, exhausted, delirious. A spasm shudders through it about three minutes in, but quickly passes; what's left crawls on for another minute or so, then mournfully expires.
- Graham Coxon - Tripping Over. I really like the toned-down lead guitar in this. The long, descending, descending, descending, melodic chord progression it floats over is nice, too. All that, and then the seagull slides at the end reminds me of early Fleetwood Mac.
- Charlie Byrd & Stan Getz - Desafinado. A warm, pleasant, gentle bit of early 60's Latin jazz, from the album "Jazz Samba". The song won a Grammy (Best Jazz Performance, for Getz), in 63. Very nice stuff.
- Broken Social Scene - Ibi Dreams Of Pavement. And I imagine the "Pavement" in the title is the band; the easy loping rhythm, the swirling waves of guitar noise which mask a sweet simple melody are all straight out of the Pavement manual. Good tune.
- Buddy Guy - Look What All You Got. Man. That guy has just the rawest, meanest guitar tone ever: the sound of a Strat through a Fender-esque amp cranked all the way up - overdrive, not distortion - with a lot of reverb. Makes this twangy, barking, semi-hollow, slapping sound. It's not a pretty sound, but to my ears, it conveys a feeling of volume in a way that distortion just can't. Distortion is an effect; but overdrive sounds like something working really hard.
You? Workin hard?
1. Deerhunter – Desire Lines
I have several Deerhunter albums but have never really taken to them. Not sure what it is, it just doesn’t excite me. However, this song is really dreamy and has that psychedelic 70’s pop thing going. And I really dig how about half way through it just motors away until the end like 70’s German krautrock. Hypnotizing. I like this.
2. Mike Doughty – Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well
Really love this song. Really infectious melody. Nice beat. Love his voice.
3. Primus – Lacquer Head
Typical Primus weirdness. This song was produced by Fred Durst, and you can actually hear that. He can’t ruin the awesome bass playing though. I could listen to Claypool play bass all day.
4. Big Star – She’s a Mover
It was only recently that I finally went and listened to Big Star after hearing about them for years and years and of course knowing Alex Chilton and Chris Bell. Not sure why they slipped through my musical cracks but it happens. This song almost sounds like an outtake from The Beatles Revolver.
5. Bardo Pond – Back porch
I have this place to thank for Bardo Pond. Had never heard of them but this hits that same sweet spot that is scratched partially by My Bloody Valentine and by the Black Angels (Someone took a Black Angels song and set it to clips from No Country For Old Men, even though the song does not appear in the film. Totally awesome though.)
First day back after winter vacation here so barely working.
Claypool’s “Duo De Twang” is coming my way, next month. i know nothing about them.
worth seeing?
It probably would be worth seeing. I’d go see them if they were here. I’ve only seen a couple of videos but if you are at all inclined towards Claypool’s brand of weirdness, couple that with an acoustic bluegrassy/old time country trip, and it should make for a fun time.
Here’s a video. I like it!