Hey y’all, I’m Josh. I worked at Pure Pop a couple of years back, right around the time Sue Norton was packing up for NYC. As was the case with Sue and Casey, the time I spent in that dingy basement broadened and refined my musical knowledge more than I ever would’ve expected. It seemed like I was constantly discovering some new, mind-blowing album through one of my co-workers or a Pure Pop patron, and I’ve got nothing but love for the place because of it.
These days I’m involved in a few different music projects, which are all tied to Aether Everywhere, the experimental label and online resource I help to run with Pure Pop lifer, Tanner McCuin, and the drumtastic leader of The Le Duo, JB Ledoux. Feel free to check out the website, which has been lovingly constructed by Tanner, and join the discussion forums for music updates and general shenanigans. www.aethereverywhere.com
I’ve been asked to write about a few ambient and drone albums I feel deserve some recognition. If you’re reading this, then you’re probably already familiar with the highlights of these genres, like Brian Eno’s ambient releases, Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, Vol II, Biosphere’s Substrata, and Stars of the Lid’s The Tired Sounds… (and if you’re not, get on ‘em!), so I’m providing a chronological list of seven albums you may not be aware of, but are definitely worthy of your attention.
1) Klaus Schulze – Irrlicht
(Ohr; 1972)
Cosmic drones from Ash Ra Tempel and Tangerine Dream ex-member, Klaus Schulze. Using an organ, electronic effects, and a heavily-processed orchestra, Schulz created three colossal monsters that catapult you into the deepest recesses of space. Sharing many attributes with Tangerine Dream’s masterstroke, Zeit, any lover of early ‘70s German music has a gaping hole in his/her album collection without this one.
2) Tetsu Inoue – Ambiant Otaku
(Fax; 1994)
Relatively unknown, but highly touted by hardcore ambient fans, Inoue has been producing a steady stream of quality albums over the past couple of decades. One of his biggest fans, John Zorn, has released several of his servings on the awesome Tzadik label. Ambiant Otaku is most often cited as Inoue’s masterpiece, as well as one of the genre’s landmarks, and for good reason. Equally delicate and heady (which isn’t easy to pull off), you could easily spend weeks with this and his slightly darker offering, Organic Cloud, which was released a year later.
3) Pete Namlook – Air II
(Instinct Record; 1994)
Despite the fact that he’s released more than 100 albums, founded the venerable German ambient label, Fax, and collaborated with the likes of Klaus Schulze, Bill Laswell, Biosphere, Richie Hawtin, and Higher Intelligence Agency (to name a few), not many people seem to know much about Pete Namlook. I haven’t even begun to put a dent in his massive discography, but from what I’ve heard so far, Air II stands above the rest. Namlook deftly mixed shimmering synth pads, a barrage of exotic instruments, and plenty of interesting rhythms to create 11 pieces that work wonderfully as a unified whole, and take on almost a gothy feel in some spots. It remains one of those albums that always seems to find its way back to my ears before too long, and it’s usually one of the first to spring to mind when I’m asked to recommend an awesome album.
4) Thomas Koner – Nuuk:
(Big Cat Records; 1997)
Dark ambient really doesn’t get any better than this. Koner, who’s one half of Chain Reaction alum Porter Ricks, created a stunning album that perpetually evokes the barren, frozen landscapes of Greenland. Here’s a link to the Dusted review of Nuuk’s 2004 reissue, seeing as how it was penned by another Ghost of Pure Pop Past and all.
5) Hazard – Wind
(Ash International; 2001)
B.J. Nilsen, aka Hazard, hit a roadblock while trying to effectively capture the sounds of the wind, so he did one better by borrowing sound clips from field recording maestro Chris Watson. He then subjected these recordings to extensive digital processing and came out the other side with drones harrowing enough to recall Eno’s On Land. Highly textural and trippy as hell, this one’s not nearly as academic as it sounds on paper.
6) Christopher Bissonnette – Periphery
(Kranky; 2005)
For Periphery, sound artist Christopher Bissonnette weaved together snippets of piano and orchestral samples and stretched them into the unrecognizable, leaving only a ghostly blur where the source material once was. Bissonnette’s skillful patchwork summoned the sounds of barnacle-encrusted pianos and violins sighing from the recesses of an arctic sea, getting swept up by the currents, and gently floating back down to the ocean floor.
7) Lusine ICL – Language Barrier:
(Hymen; 2007)
I can’t stress enough that you should give this one at least five loud headphone spins before you make any decisions. All of the parts that initially sound elementary become deeply resonant and flat-out gorgeous with each subsequent play. Ambient or not, this is the perfect album to cue up when you’re taking a mellow drive on a sunny autumn day. Or to put it another way, if you’ve ever wondered what it’d be like to hear The Field’s Sublime sounds on a morphine drip, skip right to track 3 and press play.
I worked at Pure Pop for exactly a year. My favorite part of the job was grading the condition of the used vinyl. My least favorite was selling concert tickets. Anyway, the music you hear when you shop there is an employee’s pick. You get to pick one album and then you have wait for the other employee’s picks to run through before you get play another. These days I’m a bartender at The OP, which means I can play whatever the fuck I want all day long. Sometimes people will make suggestions or requests (one customer got really steamed when I skipped over Donna Summer‘s 18-minute rendition of “MacArthur Park.” Um, sorry…NO), but I usually ignore them. Also, there are 10,000 songs on my iPod. I have lots of music to choose from on any given day for any kind of shitty mood I might be in. So, this is The OP top five.
1> The Rolling Stone 500 Songs playlist and The Pitchfork 500 Songs playlist.
People on the internet are crazy. Somebody actually took these lists of great songs, spent time compiling them, and then put them on the internet as a bit torrent file. The Rolling Stone one is great for the older patrons, who sometimes look very surprised that I know who Little Richard and Bill Haley are. The Pitchfork one is for the younger folks. Either way, all I have to do is open the playlist up, hit shuffle, and it’s great songs all day long. Also, it’s like radio. When a song you dig comes on the radio, it’s different than playing it at home. It’s more fresh because it’s unexpected. The Rolling Stone playlist will make you realize how many songs are about losing the one you love. I’m gonna go with 98%.
2> LCD Soundsystem, “Sound Of Silver”
Whenever I put this on at least five people will come up and ask me who it is. I’m pretty sure by the time they sit down they’ve already forgotten. No matter. I’ve watched old drunk people dance to it. On multiple occasions. Sounds like silver to me. It’s a lot like the Beta Band scene in “High Fidelity” except nobody goes out and buys it.
3> Pavement, “Grounded”
I never get tired of this song, but every time I play it at the bar at least one person locks eyes with me and nods. They know. I know.
4> Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”
Playing this makes the girls in the bar very happy, especially when it’s late and they’re all drunk. It makes me happy, too.
5> Silence.
The first example of silence I’ll use is its use at the end of the night when you want people to leave. Lights bright, music off. Usually effective. The other example occurred yesterday, during Beatles Day. When I worked at restaurants if the customers talked too loud (sometimes it’s deafening) I’d simply turn the music down a bit and they’d get a little quieter. Yesterday, a few drunken patrons were shouting their opinions over horse racing at increasing volumes. I tried the quiet trick. It didn’t work. Oh, well.
This week we put our heads together to come up with a short list of artists that successfully switched gears for the mellower, and managed to pull it off, not an easy thing for an artist to do, but the following artists did so, to critical and artist success.
1. Beck – Sea Change
Prior to the release of Sea Change, Beck had been like a shark in his artistic development, never standing still. One of his sidesteps was Mutations, an acoustic-laced, upbeat affair that surprised fans expecting another Odelay. That was followed by Midnite Vultures, a delectably over-the-top party album that sounded as much like Prince as it did Beck. Despite his chameleon-like musical identity, it was something of a shock when he released Sea Change in 2002. Acoustic-centric like Mutations, Sea Change had a more lush production, sedate rhythms and the most earnest, personal lyrics of the man’s career. Mellow, melancholy and unprecedented, the album was embraced by fans and critics alike, all of whom were happy to follow Beck wherever his whim brought them.
2. Velvet Underground – Velvet Underground
The third Velvet Underground album reveals a band in flux. They were on a new label. John Cale, a significant creative force who fanned the flames of Lou Reed’s avant tendencies, left the band and was subsequently replaced by Doug Yule, whose reedy vocal delivery would define some of the group’s most memorable songs. Their prior album, White Light/White Heat, had been a raucous affair, bathed in distortion and dissonance. Velvet Underground couldn’t have been more different. Opening with the sublime “Candy Says”, the album is imbibed with a dark intimacy that is haunting yet strangely uplifting. Even the more upbeat numbers like “What Goes On” and “Beginning To See The Light” feed into the album’s overall atmosphere, lilting asides that give the album dimension. Like every Velvet Underground record, it is an indispensable classic.
3. Big Star – Third/Sisters Lovers
The first two Big Star albums are bright, power-pop classics. Despite the occasional (and obligatory) number about unrequited love or ennui, the albums trot al0ng as they espouse the virtues of girls, driving fast cars and being young. Unfortunately, the group never enjoyed the kind of success they deserved, and by the time they were ready to record their third album, they’d lost half their members and all their optimism. While there’s no official version of the final Big Star record, whichever version you listen to, the overall effect is the same. The songs are tortured ordeals, evoking regret, sadness and nihilism. It’s as beautiful and tragic as music can be. One can’t help but selfishly be grateful for whatever poor Alex Chilton was going through. He may have been put through hell, but lord, what an album.
4. Yo La Tengo – And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-out
Loved by droning noiseniks and dedicated Pop aficionados alike, Yo La Tengo, before the release of And Then Nothing, had seemingly taken their sound everywhere it could go. From full out long play feedback jams (Spec Bebop), slow burning kraut-drones (Five corned drone), gazey-noise rock (From a Motel 6), silly covers (Speeding Motorcycle), and everywhere in between. Yet is was still a surprise to most fans when upon listening to And Nothing, they realized that somehow Yo La Tengo had just reinvented themselves, this time for the mellower.
Track after track on And Nothing they took the raw skills they displayed on their previous outings, peeled, polished, and inverted them to reveal a set of meticulously composed and aranged odes to the night, failed love, and to the spaces inbetween notes. The fuzz pedals remain off for most the album, drums are brushed and keys chime softly, vocals barely reach above a whisper and once again, Yo La Tengo show the world that anything we can do, they can do better.
Every few weeks we like to compile a mix of tracks we’ve been loving lately – be it new tracks, old favorites, or the newly reissued. We compile them and link them to a sample through Thinkindie.com – the best (and only) place we know of to download legal, DRM-free MP3s. Get em while they’re hot.
1. Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes
2. Robyn Hitchcock – Somewhere Apart
3. Super Furry Animals – Dim Bendith
4. The Bug – Poison Dart
5. Nick Lowe – Nutted by Reality
6. Guided by Voices – Avalanche Aminos
7. School of Seven Bells – Half Asleep
8. The National – So Far Around The Bend
9. Jarvis Cocker – I Never Said I Was Deep
10. Low – California
Believing, as we do, that you can’t judge a book by its cover, what follows is a list of albums we consider great despite some garish cover art. Feel free to weigh in with your contributions to the list or any disagreements you may have. Ciao.
Neil Young – Zuma
When Zuma came out, Neil Young was coming out of his infamous ditch period, a dark and creatively fertile stretch of albums. Zuma, a more upbeat country tinged album is considered one of his greatest, but unlike the striking and more artistically considered album art of the previous albums, Neil seriously miscalculated with this one. What are we looking at here? A mediocre black and white sketch of what appears to be a pelican-eagle hybrid riding the back of flying naked women over desert terrain. And there’s a pyramid. Maybe there’s some brilliant connection between the music and the image, but it’s an eyesore. Only the idiosyncratic Young would compromise such an upbeat album’s broad appeal with a cover that says, “Put me in a bargain bin.”
Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour
In 1967, it seemed The Beatles could do no wrong. Sgt Pepper had solidified their status as popular music’s most ambitious and capable innovators. What would they do next? Of course, their subsequent music was immaculate. The Magical Mystery Tour EP, which would would later be expanded to a complete album with the addition of contemporaneous A and B sides, is as good as anything they did. However, the EP was released in support of the disastrous Magical Mystery Tour television movie, a masturbatory hour of improvised scenes and half-baked ideas. The EP’s cover, in its original and revised form, has more in common with the film than the music. As difficult as it is for me to write such blasphemy, for a moment, The Beatles seemed completely out-of-touch
Black Sabbath – Sabotage
The last great Sabbath album to feature Ozzy (sorry Technical Ecstasy fans), Sabotage saw Sabbath indulging a number of disparate whims effectively. The album featured two of Sabbath’s greatest rockers, (Symptom of the Universe and Hole in the Sky), ambitious studio trickery, and atypical, keyboard-driven songs. Unfortunately, for all the thought and planning that went into the music itself, the cover is garbage. The band strikes a lazy pose, echoed on the portrait behind them in a black, foggy room. It looks worse than it sounds on paper. What was the photographer saying to them? “You! On the left! Try to look more stilted. Red pants, can I get a little belly peeking out of that leather jacket? Beautiful. Something’s still not right. Can we get Ozzy in a dress?”
Kinks – Lola vs Powerman and the Moneygoround
Driven by the success of “Lola”, one of the Kinks biggest hits, Lola vs Powerman and the Moneygoround was something of a comeback for The Kinks after a handful of brilliant but under-appreciated albums. Eclectic and eccentric, the album was unapologetically honest and cutting, targeting the music industry as well as people of deplorable character in general. The cover is abysmal, featuring the bizarre and unappealing image of two faces spliced together. By all accounts, Ray Davies was really hoping for a hit with this album. Why he’d jeopardize his chances with such a poorly conceived cover, we’ll never know.
Pearl Jam – Ten
Here it is, folks. The worst cover on this list. Ten was one of the biggest albums of the grunge movement, and Pearl Jam has proven to be the most enduring of those bands, continuing to enjoy popularity and success well into their second decade. While most of the grunge elite were breaking up and falling apart, Pearl Jam was just getting started. So what the hell were they thinking with this cover? It features the band high-fiving under pink light in front of a massive sculpture of their name. It screams early nineties, but believe me folks, it was even shitty back then. The worst part has to be the group high-five. A high-five? Preposterous.
Son Volt – American Central Dust
Son Volt singer-songwriter Jay Farrar casts his gaze around the good old U.S. of A. and isn’t happy with what he sees. The economy has tanked, greed runs rampant and dreams come crashing to the ground. Even if all that’s true, does it really help to sound this mopey?
Farrar’s dour perspective courses through most of these dozen songs, the gloom broken only sporadically by the band’s musical interplay. Too often, his melodies are Spartan vehicles for his lyrical prose, which is ambitiously artful but would be served just as well — perhaps better — as spoken-word exercises. (read the full review)
Those Darlins – Those Darlins
Tennessee’s best kept little secret no longer remains hidden as Those Darlins have released their debut self titled album on their very own label Oh Wow Dang! Records. Kelly Darlin, Nikki Darlin, and Jessie Darlin who make up Those Darlins do their own thing their own way. The result is a band that spills out some great tunes combining pop with rock, punk, and country.
Hailing from Murfreesboro, TN the musically inclined trio of women have already made their way around the US playing shows small and large. With their constant touring with acts such as Dan Auerbach, The Features, and even playing a stage at this year’s Bonnaroo, they finally have released their debut album for all to hear. (read the full review)
Oneida – Rated O
Rated O is the second installment in Oneida’s long-promised Thank Your Parents, a trilogy in three unequal parts. The first chapter, Preteen Weaponry, comprised a single song that was really an unswerving freeway jams. A year ago, this correspondent found it underwhelming, but it grows on you in the same way certain Can albums (Soon Over Babaluma, Flow Motion) do, with passages that initially seem bland or underdone revealing subtle riches if you just play ‘em often enough. So ask me a year from now and I may say something quite different about Rated O. But today, it looks like an indulgent, overstuffed and intermittently brilliant mess. (read the full review)
The Jayhawkes – Music From The North Country
Hopefully Music from The North Country, an ambitious new career retrospective on the Jayhawks will change that. Overseen by Gary Louris, this 2 CD/1 DVD set was obviously assembled with loving care. You’d also be surprised at how many of these songs you might recognize, even if you don’t necessarily know the Jayhawks by name.
Disc one plays like the proverbial greatest hits set by a band that never really had any. It opens with “Two Angels” and “Aint No End,” two tracks from Blue Earth, the Jayhawks lone 1989 album for indie label Twin Tone. “Aint No End” in particular still sounds like the opening shot by a band destined for future greatness. Olson and Louris trade off on some of the sweetest harmonies this side of the Flying Burrito Brothers as the guitars crackle with all the warmth of a bristling campfire. (read the full review)
Wilco – (The Album)
Personally I can’t remember ever feeling the same about any Wilco album a couple of months after the first experience. For instance 2007′s Sky Blue Sky seemed so short of my own expectations that I felt annoyed I’d have to wait another two years for the next one. But it was seeing those songs live and building a relationship with the them over repeated plays that has turned it into my favourite Wilco album to date. Only time will tell how Wilco will reveal itself . What’s clearly evident is that seamless and effortless leaps between genre and style mask the fact that the wealth of variety and diversion in this one album puts the vast majority of their contemporaries in the shade. Sure, there’s a recognisable motif that connects everything here, but it’s not a ‘sonic’ or genre-based theme. Instead the thread is that of a band seemingly increasing in confidence to produce something hugely rich, deeply luxurious and ultimately enormously generous. (Read the full review)
Levon Helm – Electric Dirt
His last record, 2007’s Grammy-nabbing Dirt Farmer, is as raw and engaging a country folk record as any in recent memory. Electric Dirt, his latest, faces South, too. Helm kicks it off with a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Tennessee Jed,” which sounds more like a real country standard than Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter’s original. And his take on Carter Stanley’s “White Dave” is a mournful masterpiece that sounds like the songs on the slightly superior Dirt Farmer. “Growin’ Trade” is an aggie lament about a good farmer who is forced to start growing America’s biggest cash crop, despite its illegality. Helm teases with an intro that would trick a straight person into thinking it’s a version of the Band’s “The Weight.” The catchy hook, blue-collar vibe, and reverence for marijuana make it sound like the best Neil Young song he’s never sung. (Read the full review)
Moby – Wait for Me
Wait For Me is actually Moby’s best album since Play, with touches of his truly brilliant Animal Rights.
Apparently, the approach was inspired by a talk Lynch gave at BAFTA in the UK. Moby paraphrased a suggestion of Lynch’s thusly: “too often an artists or musicians or writers creative output is judged by how well it accommodates the marketplace, and how much market share it commands and how much money it generates.”
So Moby focused on making a record for himself, with no concern over how it might be received commercially. And if that’s something that he needed to make a conscious attempt to achieve, it’s really no wonder that his last few albums haven’t been very special from our standpoint. (Read the full review)
Away We Go OST
For a film that focuses on the intricacies of life: marriage, pregnancy, childhood, employment, social networking; its most appropriate that someone as simple and pragmatic as Murdoch should lend his talents to this film. His debut release Time Without Consequence won the praise of many a critic and sat atop numerous Top 10 lists. Oft-quoted for bearing an unshakable comparison to Nick Drake and Jose Gonzales, he is fortunate to possess a warm, woody tenor that’s appealing yet mildly tiring. Much like cedar or oak, his vocal tone at times appears dry and dull and were it not for some clever fingerpicking, the songs would most certainly flop.
This is exactly the problem with the first half of this soundtrack. Even though the jangly roots-rock of George Harrison’s “What is Life,” appears three songs in, the record is still dragged down by Murdoch’s lack of pace. Seriously, Alexi, would it kill you to do something uptempo? That being said, The Stranglers’ kickin’ “Golden Brown,” Bob Dylan’s pleading “Meet Me in the Morning,” and the crackling “Oh! Sweet Nuthin” from the Velvet Underground,” are the album’s highest peaks. (Read the full review)
The following albums are all classics that belong in any serious music fan’s collection. Another thing they have in common is that only the most hopeful among us expected them to be as good as they are. Join us, as we consider five albums no one expected to be good that came out great.
Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind Prior to the release of this album, Bob Dylan may have been popular, but he hadn’t been relevant in nearly two decades. His catalog throughout the 80′s and 90′s is a laundry list of underwhelming mediocrity, championed by only his most die-hard fans. With the release of Time Out of Mind, Dylan re-established himself as a first-rate song-writer and lyricist. Not only did it measure up to the best of his other works, it was one of the best albums of the decade. Dylan, whose voice had degraded to frog-throated rasps, had never sounded so vital.
New Order – Power, Corruption & Lies Movement, the first release by New Order, did little to dissuade people who were skeptical that Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris would be able to escape the shadow of their former group, Joy Division. The demise of Ian Curtis seemed to herald the death of his former bandmate’s music careers. Indeed, Movement, despite its exceptional moments, sounds like an attempt to rehash the Joy Division sound. With Power, Corruption & Lies, New Order were truly born. All the hallmarks of their sound are fully in place, and the album included perhaps their most enduring song, Blue Monday. To many, it represents the band at their peak.
George Harrison – All Things Must Pass After the Beatles break-up was made public in tandem with the announcement of Paul McCartney’s first solo album, all eyes were on Paul and John. How would the members of the greatest song-writing partnership in history fare on their own? While that’s fascinating topic its own right, the biggest surprise in the Beatles solo output is Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. Arguably the best of all Beatle solo records, ATMP is a double LP without an ounce of fat. Harrison delivered the best songs of his career in a single serving, a considerable accomplishment from a man who held his own in the company of the Lennon/McCartney colossus.
Portishead – Third Eleven years after their previous studio album and a decade after the genre of music they’d helped to define had become a memory, the idea of a new Portishead album was perplexing to say the least. Sure, it could have been a pleasant throw-back to days gone by, or a regrettable taint on a brief yet immaculate career, but Portishead defied expectation and delivered an instant classic. Without shedding the aesthetic that defined their sound, the band incorporated a variety of new influences and techniques to create a stunning, broad and cohesive piece of music that reminded us Portishead are, as they say, the shit.
Hank Williams III – Lovesick, Broke and Driftin’ Hank III’s first solo album, Risin’ Outlaw, was a huge disappointment to fans of the William’s Dynasty. Overproduced and undistinguished, it seemed as if the grandson of the legendary Hank Williams was capable of little more than exploiting his family name. With Lovesick, Broke and Driftin’, he made amends. True to the spirit of his grandfather, Hank III broke new ground and defined modern outlaw country music. Not only did he do right by his grandaddy, he cast a shadow over his father, Hank Williams Jr, whose music seems rather safe by comparison.
God Help the Girl – Stewart Murdoch (of Belle & Sebastian)
Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch has always been attracted to the understated, to music that slowly draws listeners in rather than reaches out to grab them. This is never more apparent than on his forthcoming God Help the Girl project, which he started by posted advertisements asking for girl singers and hopes to eventually finish with a full musical film under his arm. For now, he’s still working on the screenplay to the film, but he’s completed quite a bit of music that he’s rolling out, with the help of members of Belle and Sebastian, Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, Smoosh’s Asya, and a quintet of singers that includes contest-winners Dina Bankole, Brittany Stallings, and Catherine Ireton - Read Full Interview
Dinosaur Jr – Farm
Beyond, the first album to feature the original Dinosaur Jr. lineup since their 1980s heyday, was so surprisingly good it was tempting to call it a fluke. Tempting, but wrong– two years after its release, it still sounds great, on par with the early, hallowed triumvirate of Dinosaur, You’re Living All Over Me, and Bug. For any cynics still chalking Beyond up to luck, Farm should blast the scales from your jaded eyes. Energetic, confident, and catchy, it’s even more compelling than Beyond. Read Full Article
Sunset Rubdown – Dragon Slayer
to talk about Sunset Rubdown and only talk about Krug would be an injustice – a fact that has never been more evident than on Sunset Rubdown’s fourth full-length release, Dragonslayer. Sure, Krug’s influence (and voice) can be heard everywhere on the album. But compare this album to Krug’s first solo release under the Sunset Rubdown moniker, 2005’s Snake’s Got a Leg, and you will find yourself doing math with apples and oranges. The band has developed, blossomed, gained some flesh, and distinguished itself enough from Krug’s solo work that the fact that I’ve gone this far into my review of Dragonslayer only talking about him makes me a bit embarrassed. So onto the rest. Read Full Article
Deer Tick – Born on Flag Day
The title of Deer Tick’s sophomore effort, Born On Flag Day, can be interpreted as either a loving hat-tip to Americana quirks or as an eye-rolling Big Buck Hunter-style ironic embrace of homeland lovin’. And here’s where you should say, “But no country is authentic!” (or “Who cares if Brian Williams adores Deer Tick, what matters is McCauley’s songwriting!”) But honestly, at this point, country rock is the most unobjectionable music one can make. Float a slide guitar over a crunchy rhythm guitar, brush those cymbals, rasp some beery wisdom (“It couldn’t be much fun bein’ a millionaire to one / Cuz a million’s just a million of one thing”), and if the chord progression works, the song will probably speak to the heart of at least one person who hears it after precisely the right number of drinks. Read Full Article
Tortoise – Beacons of Ancestorship
Tortoise’s output since 2001 has included just one proper album, 2004′s water-treading It’s All Around You, and a collaboration with Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Despite being as distinctively Tortoise as their ancestors, these efforts were spotty at best. Both the 2004 album and the collaboration saw Tortoise’s once-thrilling compositional style lapse into self-parody. On It’s All Around You, all of the eclectic pieces—the jazzy fills, the dub breaks, the tempo shifts—came in exactly where you’d expect them to. In some ways, the band was shoehorned by its own good taste. In search of a sound that betrayed neither its influences nor the band’s emotions, Tortoise ended up with songs that were also incapable of surprising listeners. Thankfully, Beacons makes it clear that Chicago’s avant-vets still have some spark left. Nearly all of the tracks shake up the band’s formula, and that special feeling that comes from hearing a team of talented players fuse their restless visions permeates the record. Read Full Article
This week we’re taking a look at some vinyl reissues that are basically essential for any collector. Most of these have been lovingly reissued on 180 Gram (or better) vinyl, gatefolds, and the whole sha-banger. Check em out while they’re still here, limited pressings abound.
Roxy Music – Stranded / Country Life
Beach Boys – Sun Flower / Surfs Up
Without question, the resurrection of the Beach Boys in a vibrant critical and commercial capacity was a significant retrospective development of music in the ’90s. Pet Sounds becomes, now that we think about it, arguably the greatest pop production ever; a box set commemorating the album and the group’s legacy are released and uniformly lauded; pop groups everywhere shamelessly draw inspiration from the acid-tinged barbershop quartet arrangements; a handicapped Brian Wilson even manages to release something of a comeback. With this extensive overhaul, it’s right to expect some chafe only zealots with fat wallets could feel compelled to purchase. But such is not the case with this particular release, which pairs up the two first and best artifacts of the slow, golden sunset of the Beach Boys’ decline. - Pitchfork
Big Star – #1 Record / Radio City
Like The Beatles, Big Star had at its core two great forces: Chilton, and the enigmatic, cult icon Chris Bell. The band started with Chris at the throne, and he was a died-in-the-wool Beatles disciple. There was a tacit power struggle as to the direction of the band during their first album, #1 Record, and Alex wanted control. By Radio City, Bell was intimidated out of the band and Alex had free reign.
No one before Chris or after ever really challenged Alex musically, and I think Alex might even admit that to himself. Radio City was Chilton’s way of showing only to himself that he could write better Beatles-like songs than Bell ever could. My theory is that Chilton’s motivation for Radio City was to show up Bell. That is the source of the passion, angst and intensity on Radio City. That type of rivalry made The Beatles great, except they stayed together despite their dissonance, creating a larger body of work. That Chilton showed up Bell with Radio City may have literally killed the late Bell, a tortured, complex man who never had the chance to find a support system that would have allowed him to accept his homosexuality. Indeed, his early death some label as a suicide was a tragedy of the highest order. – Pop Matters
Cocteau Twins – Garlands / Head Over Heels
the best comparison points are to the Cure on Faith and Pornography, perhaps Metal Box-era PiL, a touch of Joy Division here and there — in sum, deep, heavy mood verging on doom and gloom. Bassist Will Heggie, in the only full album he did with the Twins, clearly follows the Peter Hook/Simon Gallup style of low, ominous throb, while Guthrie’s guitar work more often than not screeches loudly than shimmers. Fraser’s singing has a starker edge, unsettling even at its most accessible, sometimes completely disturbing at other times. The strongest track, “Wax and Wane,” has the trio creating a powerful but also surprisingly danceable track, the crisp drumbox beat working against Guthrie’s compelling atmospherics and Fraser’s vocal hook in the chorus. – Garlands / Allmusic
The album introduces a variety of different shadings and approaches to the incipient Cocteaus sound, pointing the band towards the exultant, elegant beauty of later releases. Opening number “When Mama Was Moth” demonstrates the new musical range nicely; Fraser‘s singing is much more upfront, while Guthrie creates a bewitching mix of dark guitar notes and sparkling keyboard tones, with percussion echoing in the background. Other songs, like the sax-accompanied “Five Ten Fiftyfold” and “The Tinderbox (Of a Heart)” reflect the more elaborate musical melancholy of the group, while still other cuts are downright sprightly. “Multifoiled” in particular is a charm, a jazzily-arranged number that lets Fraser do a bit of scatting (a perfect avenue for her lyrical approach!), while “In the Gold Dust Rush” mixes acoustic guitar drama into Fraser‘s swooping singing. Perhaps the two strongest numbers of all are: “Sugar Hiccup,” mixing the mock choir effect the band would use elsewhere with both a lovely guitar line and singing; and “Musette and Drums,” a massive, powerful collision of Guthrie‘s guitar at its loudest and most powerful and Fraser‘s singing at its most intense. – Head Over Heels / Allmusic
