longfadinginstant: March 2008

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

3/26/08

a few weeks back i downloaded a tony randall album from wfmu's "beware of the blog" out of curiosity, then didn't get around to listening to it till just the other day. it's actually really good. what was really exciting for me was that he sings a version of "stumbling" a song i'd previously only known as an instrumental. both vocal and instrumental versions are equally fun:

tony randall "stumbling"

leo addeo and his orchestra "stumbling"

you can download the full tony randall album here if you like.

and since we're having fun and all:

the sharades "dumbhead"

but seriously, some people have it tough. I'd put this song on the shortlist for saddest songs ever:

damien jurado "medication"

i know a lot of people who complain that they just can't get into zeppelin cause of robert plant's voice. i admit that there was a time, post an earlier high school obsession with zep, that i couldn't handle it as well. but now i'd make the argument that there really is no other singer i could imagine there. plant can get a bit cheesy with his lyrics and the moans at times, but they would have been a lesser band without him. anyways, if you ever wondered what zeppelin would have sounded like without him, here you go. jimmy page back in 1971 with bonham on drums, maybe jones on bass, and some guy on vocals:

jimmy page "flashing lights"

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

3/25/08

sunday was a great day. I did some neighborhood exploring on my bike while listening to 10cc. I don't know why, but it came up on shuffle and it just sounded sooo good:

10cc "for you and i"

i mean, "i'm not in love" is soft rock perfection:

and "dreadlock holiday" will have you awkwardly directing conversations around to give yourself the chance to say "i dont like (fill in the blank), I love it".

but enough of them. how bizarre are the lyrics to this galaxie 500 track from the "uncollected" disc from their box set:

galaxie 500 "cheese and onions"

(update: i was curious enough to do some searching. it's a cover of the rutles, a beatles spoof band. i was actually wondering if the title was a beatles reference, mccartney being the cheese and lennon the onion, as in "glass onion". that still may not be it but at least it contextually makes sense. so there you go.)

I also really like this same track from the same disc. one of the few songs to use the sax in a good way (the other two that come to mind being swervedriver's "never lose that feeling-never learn" and bowie's "young american":

galaxie 500 "blue thunder"

i also feel like posting this all time favorite, from my younger years:

"your never fully dressed without a smile" from the "annie" movie soundtrack.

come on. i won't pretend i've seen the guy's other movies, but john huston directed annie, and he does have some cred ("the maltese falcon"). this scene is so well put together:

whatever. the new lair of the minotaur album comes out today and i'm very excited. here's a video from the last album:

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Friday, March 21, 2008

5 covers for 2/21/08

4 electronic covers of rock songs:

arty fufkin "back in black-back in 85" technically i guess it's not a cover, but more of a remix since it retains the originals vocals. still.

mister hopkin's computer "where is my mind" they also do a great version of the twin peaks theme "falling".

minitel rose "another brick in the wall"

superpitcher "baby's on fire" (westbam remix)

and then a rock cover of a daft punk song:

uminski "technologic"

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Queen

i don't know if you're like me, but if you are, you love queen. yes you do. and the greatest hits wasn't enough cause they left out all kinds of great songs, so you bought copies of all the albums (well,"sheer heart attack" thru "jazz") used whenever you found them. And the lesson you learned was: queen albums aren't that good. much like mid-period belle and sebastian, queen albums feature a lot of contributions from the less talented songwriters and singers in the group. those members being all non-freddy mercury members of the band. the others penned a few of the classics, but even those had mercury on lead vocals. but still, the albums are worth it for the one, two, or three tracks that never made the hits collections but are still must-haves. here are a few:

"the millionaire waltz" (from "a day at the races") the "bohemian rhapsody" of "a day at the races".

"all dead, all dead" (from "news of the world")

"misfire" (from "sheer heart attack")

"mustapha" (from "jazz") freddy reminds us all that his real name is farrokh bulsara and that he was born on the island of zanzibar. great way to start an album named "jazz"

and then here's a playlist again with the above tracks plus a few more:

oh yeah, and it's finally bicycle riding weather again.

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Friday, March 14, 2008

Nancy Sinatra

when i used to work at capitol records there was a big debate that we used to have over who was the superior of the two: Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin. really, we actually argued over this for the whole two years i was there. a total waste of time considering SINATRA is clearly the winner. so much so the winner that even his daughter could take martin in a vocal duel. why the only two worthwhile songs martin ever sang on that i know of were duets with ricky nelsom ("my rifle, my pony, and me") and nancy ("things" included below). anyways, this is really about posting up a bunch of nancy sinatra tracks, so...

"highway song" (from the album "country my way")

"something stupid" (from the album "movin' with") duet with her dad

"time" (from the album "movin' with") duet with dean

"mamma goes where papa goes" (from the album "sugar")

and a big ol' playlist with the above plus selections from the albums "country, my way" "sugar", "movin' with", "how does that grab you", and "boots"

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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Jesus Party

i once worked with a girl who had a friend who was going to throw a jesus themed party. she came to me for music suggestions. It was a fun challenge (not so much of a challenge with itunes). since i didn't go to the party i thought i'd throw my own mini jesus party right here. i know there are lots jesus songs out there, these are just some of my favorites:

johnny cash "it was jesus" (from "the gospel collection")

knights of the new crusade "sympathy for jesus" (from the album "my god is alive, sorry about yours") the crazy thing about these guys isn't that they're a christian band, it's that they're on alternative tentacles. you know, jello biafra's label.

silver jews "rebel jew" (from the album "starlight walker")one of my all-time favortie sing alongs. you just have to have friends (or a brother) who knows the words.

nick cave and the bad seeds "jesus met the woman at the well" (from the album "kicking against the pricks")

swervedriver "jesus" (from the "reel to real" ep) cover of the surprisingly genuine velvet underground classic.

doug martsch "woke up this morning (with my mind on jesus)" (from the album "now you know") i was surprised that doug wrote this one till i found out it's a cover of an old blues song.

judee sill "jesus was a cross maker" (from her self titled album) sounds like it could be blasphemous by the title, but really it's about an abusive ex that judee forgives after pondering the belief that jesus, prior to his ministries, was cross maker, as some historians (?) have suggested.

so there you go, time to party.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

New 2008

While I'm putting my money on 08's album of the year coming from either animal collective or wolf parade (and maybe even lair of the minotaur , who have a new one on the way 3/25), the band evangelicals have a pretty strong contender with their "the evening descends". same for blood on the wall and their album, "liferz". anyways, here are some of my favorites songs of the year so far.

evangelicals "skeleton man" (from the album "the evening descends")

blood on the wall get two cause of the split with female and male vocals

blood on the wall "the x" (from the album "liferz")

yeah, at times (above) blood on the wall really remind me of early mudhoney, who i like to be reminded of, especially considering mudhoney themselves haven't been doing too good a job of it since 1995. other times they remind me of yeah yeah yeahs on that first ep (below).

blood on the wall "go go go" (from the album "liferz")

bottomless pit "repossession" (from the album "hammer of the gods") new project from the remaining members of silkwork after the death of Michael Dahlquist.

los campesinos! "and we exhale and role our eyes in unison" from the album "hold on now, youungster") new from the only band i know of to successfully pull off a pavement cover (last year's cover of "frontwards".)

disfear "live the storm" (from the album "live the storm") produced by the guitarist from converge, who i've been really into the last year or so.

also of note: my new favorite LA live band tweak bird.

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Thursday, March 6, 2008

Eric Gaffney's Sebadoh

lou barlow was always the big name in sebadoh, and so when i first got into them i pretty much assumed all my favorite songs were his. it wasn't till years later that i made the realization that in reality the majority of my favorite songs were eric gaffney tracks. his were the songs with mysterious names like "telecosmic alchemy" "elixer is zog" and "calling yog soggoth", with lyrics that were a mix of love, magic (of the sorcery type), monsters and mental illness.

sebadoh "as the world dies, the eyes of god grow bigger" (from the album "III") this song was my introduction to sebadoh. one of the music moments that i'll always remember. my friend aaron played it for me in his car during a journalism class errand off campus. we listened through it twice to the ire of our company, who was ultra-religious and who i'm sure had her belief that music was devil powered confirmed. really it's an autobiographical story of being raised by drugged up hippies and going crazy as a result. THIS SONG IS A MASTERPIECE. please be respectful and listen to the whole song. pay attention.

sebadoh "holy picture" (from the album "III") the way he sings "pussy cat" at the end is a career highlight.

sebadoh "moldy bread" (from the album "the freed man", also collected on "the freed weed").

sebadoh "elixer is zog" (from the album "bubble and scrape") despite the craziness of the music and vocal delivery, it seems to be a somewhat romantic song as gaffney imagines getting a "square of land" with his future wife. how very little house on the prairie.

sebadoh "crisis" (from the album "smash your head on the punk rock") this was the songs that kept the metal in my heart alive through the indie-snob years, and primed me for the metal i'd really be into years down the line. also the lyrics (see below) are pretty amazing and seemingly historical. not what you expect from such a song.

CRISIS
Story of water stronger than a man
Town crier: day of the dam!
More than a hundred years ago
The flood raged on fast and cold
Smashed barrels and broken chests
Bridgework carried along to rest
Crisis; cry sister
Crisis; cry sister
It's been real; it's been nice sis
I can't help with your crisis
C. Graves riding double speed
Clear the factories you all must flee
One in a panic turned to face the wave
Raised his arms; met his fate
Still in the riverbed you can see
The broken pieces of pottery
Cry sis; cry sister
Cry sis; cry sister
Yes, I'm gonna miss your kiss
But i can't go on like this
I AM A TRIBAL CHIEF
MY NAME DISORDER
FLESH AND BLOOD
A TANGO FLOOD
The antichrist is sleeping

and, then here's a playlist with all the above, and a bunch more. i think it's all his songs from "III" "smash your head..." and "bubble and scrape", with a few from "the freed man"

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Wednesday, March 5, 2008

5 for 3/5/08

times new viking "drop-out" (from the album "rip it off") i figure there's plenty of sites to hear new music, but to prove I still buy music from new bands, i'm posting this. when i was in college I bought a friend one of those mr. microphones, the ones that let you talk through your radio, for his birthday. he wasn't so into it, so it ended up mine. i went home, shoved the mic into the hole in my nylon stringed acoustic and then played it through the radio. the distortion it got was amazing. Times New Viking sound like they recorded their whole album through the same mr. microphone. you can't tell as much from the posted track, but believe me, the whole thing is peaked-out. i love it.

badfinger "in the meantime-some other time" (from the album "wish you were here") i keep buying badfinger albums hoping to find more songs like this.

764-hero "loaded painted red" (from the album "get here and stay") i was informed that 764-hero is the number you call to rat out people driving in the carpool lanes without the required number of passengers in seattle (or all of washington maybe).

the microphones "i lost my mind" (from the "moon moon" 7") way back when, i saw two equally amazing shows on back to back nights. night #1 was the white stripes at spaceland opening for spoon (even though they played after them). night #2 was the microphones (with little wings) in a friends living room. both bands blew me away in opposite directions, and both bands were absolute disappointments when i bought their albums. this track however does a pretty good job of capturing what made the microphones performance so special.

anthrax "i'm the man" (from the "i'm the man" ep) prior to being exposed to pavement and dinosaur jr i was a big anthrax fan. i owned every album. this song came up on shuffle this morning as i pulled into the parking lot at work.while i'll never have the desire to listen through a full anthrax album ever again, i did sit in my parked car and finish out the song before heading in.

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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

5 for 3/4/08

the mamas and papas "free advice" (from the album "deliver") i do love the mamas and the papas. there hits are all pretty much perfect. the non-hits good but not always as great. still there are some gems that aren't in oldies radio rotation.

bert jansch "a woman like you" (from the album "birthday blues"

todd rundgren "sometimes i don't know what to feel" (from the album "a wizard, a true star") one of the songs that put me into a rundgren obsession a number of years back.

clipse "queen bitch (diplo remix)" (from the mixtape "we got the remix") not your typical remix.

black sabbath "it's alright" (from the album "technical ecstasy") ozzy era black sabbath song minus both ozzy and evil:

the youtube audio's pretty crappy so here you go:

and here's a video of guns n roses doing a nice live cover. axl takes nearly 3 minutes to get into the songs but it's worth it i swear:

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longfadinginstant