Saturday, November 26, 2005
Goosebumps in the shower, like seriously
I've been gone from this for a really, really long time & I apologize. I would like to blame grad school and, of course, Boston. Without having checked through the archives to see if you've already covered it I'd like to present to you Gentlemen & Ladies track 7 from the most recent Deerhoof album, The Runners Four. The guitar solo at 2:09 is my most favorite thing in music right now & gives me the same feeling the bass rumble from a Bad Brains song that I'm embarrassed that I can neither locate or remember.
Deerhoof -Wrong Time Capsule
Oh, wait I remember. For a second during She's Calling You from I Against I, when HR says "...vibrating cosmic waves...".
Bad Brains -She's Calling You
I've been gone from this for a really, really long time & I apologize. I would like to blame grad school and, of course, Boston. Without having checked through the archives to see if you've already covered it I'd like to present to you Gentlemen & Ladies track 7 from the most recent Deerhoof album, The Runners Four. The guitar solo at 2:09 is my most favorite thing in music right now & gives me the same feeling the bass rumble from a Bad Brains song that I'm embarrassed that I can neither locate or remember.
Deerhoof -
Oh, wait I remember. For a second during She's Calling You from I Against I, when HR says "...vibrating cosmic waves...".
Bad Brains -
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
number four.
Archers of Loaf: "Jive Kata"
Shortly before they broke up, the Archers of Loaf released a fanclub-only seven-inch featuring this song, "Jive Kata", and a live recording of "Slow Worm". That live track was recorded at the Middle East in Cambridge, which is where I saw Crooked Fingers play an amazing show back in March. That show was partially amazing because Matt Gentling, the Archers' bassist, had joined Crooked Fingers, and for about twenty minutes I was able to eavesdrop on a conversation he was having with some dude sitting next to me. Gentling's an earthy sort, apparently.
But so, "Jive Kata". It's not the best Archers song, but it's an interesting rarity, and a good precursor of their final album, which was released a few months later. Like White Trash Heroes, "Jive Kata" is darker and less immediately rocking than their earlier material. Between the keyboard and the high-pitched vocals, it's an unusual song for the band. Not a highlight, it remains a worthy curiosity. I'm throwing this up here primarily because Coke Bref requested it months and months ago. Enjoy, friend.
You can't buy this anywhere, as far as I know. Try Ebay, I guess.
Archers of Loaf: "Jive Kata"
Shortly before they broke up, the Archers of Loaf released a fanclub-only seven-inch featuring this song, "Jive Kata", and a live recording of "Slow Worm". That live track was recorded at the Middle East in Cambridge, which is where I saw Crooked Fingers play an amazing show back in March. That show was partially amazing because Matt Gentling, the Archers' bassist, had joined Crooked Fingers, and for about twenty minutes I was able to eavesdrop on a conversation he was having with some dude sitting next to me. Gentling's an earthy sort, apparently.
But so, "Jive Kata". It's not the best Archers song, but it's an interesting rarity, and a good precursor of their final album, which was released a few months later. Like White Trash Heroes, "Jive Kata" is darker and less immediately rocking than their earlier material. Between the keyboard and the high-pitched vocals, it's an unusual song for the band. Not a highlight, it remains a worthy curiosity. I'm throwing this up here primarily because Coke Bref requested it months and months ago. Enjoy, friend.
You can't buy this anywhere, as far as I know. Try Ebay, I guess.
number three.
Elizabeth Daily: "Shake It Up"
Elizabeth Daily is a true titan. Best known for her riveting potrayal of Dotty in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Elizabeth "E.G." Daily later charmed the hearts and minds of a generation of stupid-ass kids as a voice actor on various shitty basic cable cartoons. As truly awesome as that may be, I shall always love her primarily for her amazing singing career. The excellent theme song to the even more excellent film Better Off Dead is easily the brightest spot on her resume, but she has excelled on other work, as well. Before Better Off Dead she sang on a couple of Moroder-produced tracks from some movie or the other, maybe Scarface, or Space Camp, or something. Something awesome, though, obviously. That's apparently where "Shake It Up" comes from, and thank God I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this on the internet the other week. Born when I was, I grew up believing all music was supposed to sound like this. I think we'd be living in a far better world if it did.
You can buy the official motion picture soundtrack to Slapshot here.
Elizabeth Daily: "Shake It Up"
Elizabeth Daily is a true titan. Best known for her riveting potrayal of Dotty in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Elizabeth "E.G." Daily later charmed the hearts and minds of a generation of stupid-ass kids as a voice actor on various shitty basic cable cartoons. As truly awesome as that may be, I shall always love her primarily for her amazing singing career. The excellent theme song to the even more excellent film Better Off Dead is easily the brightest spot on her resume, but she has excelled on other work, as well. Before Better Off Dead she sang on a couple of Moroder-produced tracks from some movie or the other, maybe Scarface, or Space Camp, or something. Something awesome, though, obviously. That's apparently where "Shake It Up" comes from, and thank God I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this on the internet the other week. Born when I was, I grew up believing all music was supposed to sound like this. I think we'd be living in a far better world if it did.
You can buy the official motion picture soundtrack to Slapshot here.
number two.
Espers: "Flaming Telepaths"
Emerson tipped us off in the Flagpole back a month or so. WZBC added the album to their playlist during an installment of our show four weeks ago. Through the illegal magic of the infernal internet we have made this song ours forever. Espers' cover of the Blue Oyster Cult's "Flaming Telepaths" is a true work of beauty, as thorough and successful a reworking of a great song as one could ever hope to find. Espers' version is exactly as excellent and ridiculous as the original, as enchanting and sprawling as that one is compact and overpowering. More BOC songs could stand to be reenergized through a similar process of early-'70's Anglification. The gauntless has been passed down; "freak-folk" bands of the galaxy, feel free to heed this call.
You can buy The Weed Tree here.
Espers: "Flaming Telepaths"
Emerson tipped us off in the Flagpole back a month or so. WZBC added the album to their playlist during an installment of our show four weeks ago. Through the illegal magic of the infernal internet we have made this song ours forever. Espers' cover of the Blue Oyster Cult's "Flaming Telepaths" is a true work of beauty, as thorough and successful a reworking of a great song as one could ever hope to find. Espers' version is exactly as excellent and ridiculous as the original, as enchanting and sprawling as that one is compact and overpowering. More BOC songs could stand to be reenergized through a similar process of early-'70's Anglification. The gauntless has been passed down; "freak-folk" bands of the galaxy, feel free to heed this call.
You can buy The Weed Tree here.
a few morsels before the feast: number one.
Neil Diamond: "Hell Yeah"
The Statue of Liberty's 100th birthday celebration was the greatest television show of all time. It was better than The Pitts. It was better than a billion Olympics. It was even better than that BBC news thing where Mark E. Smith makes that hilarious face. The best thing about it was Neil Diamond's stirring performance of his seminal classic "America". Neil Diamond's "America" makes every other song about America irrelevent. In my opinion we're a one-song country, and that song is "America".
12 Songs is Diamond's first posthumous record. Rick Rubin helped produce it, and finished it up after Neil's untimely passing. People think it's some sort of renaissance, but to me it just sounds like warmed-over Crooked Fingers. I like Crooked Fingers a lot, and if I wanted to listen to Crooked Fingers, I would listen to Crooked Fingers, not some washed-up old lounge singer. Washed-up old dead lounge singer. 12 Songs is for old ladies and little girls and dudes who don't have the stones to handle the monomythlogical rock of Crooked Fingers. Crooked Fingers is the purest and darkest of metals, reforged in unassuming singer-songwriter guise, and sailed forth to bring true poetry and beauty to the miserable, undeserving masses. On 12 Songs Neil Diamond is a mere shadow of that might, a lecherous boil upon the colossal bulk of Crooked Fingers' righteousness. There is no "America" here, no transcendent glory, no exalted symbology and patriotic anthropomorphism, just an old, dead man drooling haplessly into his morning laxative.
The only song worth hearing here is "Hell Yeah". It makes me want to hoist high my tankard of ale and drink deep from its bewitching bounty. For these four minutes, Mr. Diamond, you are momentarily spared my eternal enmity.
You can buy 12 Songs here, but beware the evils of rootkit.
Neil Diamond: "Hell Yeah"
The Statue of Liberty's 100th birthday celebration was the greatest television show of all time. It was better than The Pitts. It was better than a billion Olympics. It was even better than that BBC news thing where Mark E. Smith makes that hilarious face. The best thing about it was Neil Diamond's stirring performance of his seminal classic "America". Neil Diamond's "America" makes every other song about America irrelevent. In my opinion we're a one-song country, and that song is "America".
12 Songs is Diamond's first posthumous record. Rick Rubin helped produce it, and finished it up after Neil's untimely passing. People think it's some sort of renaissance, but to me it just sounds like warmed-over Crooked Fingers. I like Crooked Fingers a lot, and if I wanted to listen to Crooked Fingers, I would listen to Crooked Fingers, not some washed-up old lounge singer. Washed-up old dead lounge singer. 12 Songs is for old ladies and little girls and dudes who don't have the stones to handle the monomythlogical rock of Crooked Fingers. Crooked Fingers is the purest and darkest of metals, reforged in unassuming singer-songwriter guise, and sailed forth to bring true poetry and beauty to the miserable, undeserving masses. On 12 Songs Neil Diamond is a mere shadow of that might, a lecherous boil upon the colossal bulk of Crooked Fingers' righteousness. There is no "America" here, no transcendent glory, no exalted symbology and patriotic anthropomorphism, just an old, dead man drooling haplessly into his morning laxative.
The only song worth hearing here is "Hell Yeah". It makes me want to hoist high my tankard of ale and drink deep from its bewitching bounty. For these four minutes, Mr. Diamond, you are momentarily spared my eternal enmity.
You can buy 12 Songs here, but beware the evils of rootkit.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Tell Me 'Bout the Color of Your Soul
Gary Puckett and the Union Gap: "Woman, Woman"
ScatMan John: "ScatMan's World"
I'm a coward. I cut and run from P2P networks about five days after I first ventured in. I had time enough to grab a few gigs worth of songs, though, and "Woman, Woman" just happened to be one of them. That was back in September, or so, and it wasn't until last week that I got around to queuing up this particular mp3. Upon doing so, I had to pause, and ask myself, "okay, what the hell is this?"
I love this song. Normally. I at least love the version that used to get played on Fox 97 all the time. This is definitely not that version. It says Gary Puckett on the tag, but it most certainly does not sound like the Gary Puckett who so easily tickles my cerebellum on the original. It may well be him, and this just a more recent recording of the all-time classic, and I imagine that to be the case. Still, Gary's complicity aside, this is a shameful bastardization of Mr. Puckett's masterpiece.
"ScatMan's World", on the other hand, is a startling improvement upon ScatMan John's similar, and more familiar, hit. It's quite possibly the happiest song I've ever word, and pretty much all I've been able to listen to for a month now. I would give anything, absolutely anything, to glimpse ScatMan's world, even if for just a moment.
Gary Puckett and the Union Gap: "Woman, Woman"
ScatMan John: "ScatMan's World"
I'm a coward. I cut and run from P2P networks about five days after I first ventured in. I had time enough to grab a few gigs worth of songs, though, and "Woman, Woman" just happened to be one of them. That was back in September, or so, and it wasn't until last week that I got around to queuing up this particular mp3. Upon doing so, I had to pause, and ask myself, "okay, what the hell is this?"
I love this song. Normally. I at least love the version that used to get played on Fox 97 all the time. This is definitely not that version. It says Gary Puckett on the tag, but it most certainly does not sound like the Gary Puckett who so easily tickles my cerebellum on the original. It may well be him, and this just a more recent recording of the all-time classic, and I imagine that to be the case. Still, Gary's complicity aside, this is a shameful bastardization of Mr. Puckett's masterpiece.
"ScatMan's World", on the other hand, is a startling improvement upon ScatMan John's similar, and more familiar, hit. It's quite possibly the happiest song I've ever word, and pretty much all I've been able to listen to for a month now. I would give anything, absolutely anything, to glimpse ScatMan's world, even if for just a moment.
Friday, November 04, 2005
a momentary respite from the Pollard-lust
Giorgio Moroder: "The Chase"
We briefly lost our heads on Ebay, ringing up all sorts of purchases we truly did not need. One thing I do not at all regret buying, though, is the dvd collection of the first ten installment of the NWA's Clash of Champions. These were pay-per-view quality cards that aired four times a year on TBS, and pretty much nothing was more exciting to the middle-school Darkness. But I've already written about this, here and here, and so I'll let that be. Today I'm here to talk about one of the two or three greatest tag teams of all time, the second formation of Jim Cornette's Midnight Express, featuring Beautiful Bobby Eaton and Sweet Stan Lane. Not only did they have the most innovative and high-impact double-team maneuvers around, not only were they represented by the best manager of the time, they also possessed what is indisputably, hands-down, the greatest ring entrance music of all time. Moroder's "The Chase", from the score to the film Midnight Express, sounds awesome in any situation, but especially when blasting out of the Omni's PA while 15,000 wrestling fans go apeshit wanting to kill Cornette. Greater even than Also Spracht Zarathustra, Randy Savage's Pomp and Circumstance, or anything from New Japan, All Japan, or NOAH, this is the greatest theme entrance of all time. Now, I never quite understood why they named themselves after a movie where prison rape is a recurring thematic element, but hell, it lead to them using this amazing music, so I full-heartedly endorse whatever thought process was involved.
Giorgio Moroder: "The Chase"
We briefly lost our heads on Ebay, ringing up all sorts of purchases we truly did not need. One thing I do not at all regret buying, though, is the dvd collection of the first ten installment of the NWA's Clash of Champions. These were pay-per-view quality cards that aired four times a year on TBS, and pretty much nothing was more exciting to the middle-school Darkness. But I've already written about this, here and here, and so I'll let that be. Today I'm here to talk about one of the two or three greatest tag teams of all time, the second formation of Jim Cornette's Midnight Express, featuring Beautiful Bobby Eaton and Sweet Stan Lane. Not only did they have the most innovative and high-impact double-team maneuvers around, not only were they represented by the best manager of the time, they also possessed what is indisputably, hands-down, the greatest ring entrance music of all time. Moroder's "The Chase", from the score to the film Midnight Express, sounds awesome in any situation, but especially when blasting out of the Omni's PA while 15,000 wrestling fans go apeshit wanting to kill Cornette. Greater even than Also Spracht Zarathustra, Randy Savage's Pomp and Circumstance, or anything from New Japan, All Japan, or NOAH, this is the greatest theme entrance of all time. Now, I never quite understood why they named themselves after a movie where prison rape is a recurring thematic element, but hell, it lead to them using this amazing music, so I full-heartedly endorse whatever thought process was involved.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Guided by Voices Suitcase 2 Disc Two
Guided by Voices: "I Am Decided"
Guided by Voices: "Mannequin's Complaint"
Second day, second disc. Now in iPod-friendly .MP3 format. Our reviews can be found here.
Guided by Voices: "I Am Decided"
Guided by Voices: "Mannequin's Complaint"
Second day, second disc. Now in iPod-friendly .MP3 format. Our reviews can be found here.
