longfadinginstant: April 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

more pavement rarites + 2

a few more live pavement rarities that i came across when an old cdr fell off a shelf over the weekend.

pavement - unknown song. not really a fully formed song but could've been a great b-side had he gone into the studio to record it, even at this early stage

pavement "something" - beatles cover. really really loose, but that's what makes it so perfect.

pavement "you are the light" early recording of what later ended up on "terror twilight"

death set "moving forward" - saw this band open for yeasayer and no age on friday. lots of fun. wish the album had the same energy as the live show, but most bands have trouble with that so...

also, finally picked up the melt banana album, "babmbi's dilemma", that came out last year.

melt banana "blank page of the blind"

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Thursday, April 24, 2008

pavement rarities

there's not too many pavement rarities out there anymore as matador did such an amazing job collecting most of everything for the anniversary editions of the first three albums. still, at least one favorite unreleased track slipped through the cracks.

"black walls" - matador released what was essentially the live "stray slack" bootleg as a "slanted" bonus. they however only released the brixton academy portion, omitting "stray slack"s 8/30/92 reading festival tracks. among them was this slowed down, "spizzle trunk" quoting classic.

if you saw pavement back at the beginning of their "crooked rain" tour you were treated to a bunch of new songs from what would later be "wowee zowee". I remember coming out of the show excited about that song where they were shouting "fight this generation". later, and still pre-"wowee", came the "green around the gills" (aka "georgia '94") bootleg. I love the studio version of "fight this generation" but this live version from atlanta '94 is my preferred performance.

"fight this generation" live.

and, if you saw pavement tour just before the release of "terror twilight" you were probably pretty disappointed in "the hexx". what was once a near metal rocker was stripped of it's muscle on the album. lucky for us they released an earlier studio version as a 7" only b-side to "spit on a stranger", from abandoned, self produced sessions prior to hooking up with nigel godrich.

"no tan lines" if they put out a "brighten the corners" special edition, this "shady lane" b-side will surely be there. till then...

I wish i could find the "brighten..." outtake "nigel" someplace. prior to "brighten"s release, a tape of a performance debuting the album at the cat's cradle (carolina?) was circulating. every song from that show made it out, either on album, or as a b-side, with the exception of "nigel" my favorite song of the bunch. I used to shout it out at shows. once sm turned to the band asked if they remembered how to play it. sadly, they didn't. hopefully it someday sees a release in some form. till then, please observe a moment of silence for "nigel"

...

and it's not pavement, but here's a couple of tracks from the silver jews out of print "arizona record" and a 7" that i'm guessing was recorded around the same time. malkmus, berman, and nastonovich screwing around in their college dorm room.

"famous eyes" - the above mentioned 7" single

"secret knowledge of the backroads" - later re-recorded by pavement as a peel session and released on the "slanted..." anniversary edition.

"jackson nightz"

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

4-22-08

the monkees "what am i doing hangin' round" been listening through a bunch of monkees albums, this track was the big find.

nick cave and the bad seeds "deanna" (live) couldn't get into nick cave till i heard "live seeds". all their albums should be live. every single song recorded live is better than it's studio counterpart.

tiger trap "supreme nothing" from what became half of the softies.

unrest "make out club" in four years of attending cmj i went to one panel. forgot what it was about, but mark robinson was on it. all i remember was that i fell asleep

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diamond head "am i evil" metallica cover this on "garage days". i can hear how they influenced metallica, but really, they ain't all that great. good song though.

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Friday, April 18, 2008

t.rex

It's spring, which is pretty much summer in LA, so, here's some t.rex.

in order to keep the set down to under 100 songs I decided to go with the only songs released after "electric warrior" and before "dandy in the underworld (cause i hate that album). that covers "the slider" "tanx" "zinc alloy..." "bolan's zip gun" and "futuristic dragon", which would be my favorite period. the one exception here being...

"ride a white swan" from what i understand, this was bolan's breakout hit single, recorded around the same time as his switch to electric guitar and the shortening of the band name to t.rex. it was not however released on any album, and it's the reason i have to keep the greatest hits in my collection.

"all alone" another favorite, from the criminally panned "futuristic dragon".

"girl in the thunderbolt suit" another classic from an unpopular album, "bolan's zip gun".

"country honey" from "tanx". anyone up for a trip to tulare?

"golden belt" i'd say bolan's disco inflected tracks, such as this (and "all alone" above) were some of his best. too bad not too many people cared at this point in his career. from "bolan's zip gun"

and, as is tradition, all the above + 9 more in a playlist:

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

4-15-08

lilys "returns every morning" (from "better can't make your life better") lilys had a minor hit with "nanny in manhattan" in england when the song was used in a levis commercial. as a result, the album was remixed, remastered and strings and horns were added. of course this version of the album wasn't released in the states. i tried ordering the import many times without any luck. one day, years later i happened to check their section in the racks, only to find the import version sitting there...for $30. not allowing myself to be that much of a chump, i put it back, defeated, to go search through the used section. but, lucky me, there among the used cds was the very same import version for $8. that's how much of a nerd i am. i remember this.

currently i'm still trying to find the lilys "a brief history of amazing letdowns" ep, which is out of print. but, through the magic of the internet i am still allowed to enjoy it.

lilys "ginger" (from "a brief history of amazing letdowns")

M83 "run into flowers" (jackson midnight fuck remix) pretty much perfect.

luna "ride into the sun" (from the "slide" ep) i remember my friend aaron coming across this ep and buying it without knowing the band, based off the cover art (which is what inspired him to pick it up) and seeing this cover of the velvets "ride into the sun" on the tracklist. it was meant to be.

josephine foster "nàhe des geliebten" don't remember how i ended up with her album, but whenever it comes up on random, i'm always happy it did. hey leah, since you're in europe, have someone translate this.

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Monday, April 14, 2008

4/14/08

first a couple of things i found on the internet:

I don't want to say who this is since the album doesn't come out till the middle of june, but it should be pretty obvious once the vocals come in. it took a few listens for the album to grab me, but now that i'm familiar with it i know it'll stand as one of the years best, maybe even the best. this song was the most immediate. and that's the track name, not the band you'll see on the music player.

got a cryptic email a few weeks back on a mailing list that turned out to be a heads up that the new silver jews album had leaked. i was so dissapointed in "bright flight" that i never even bothered with "tanglewood numbers". after listening through the new one i'm curious what i missed. cassie (berman's wife and bandmate) does a great job with the chorus in the posted track. does make me miss malkmus though.

and here's some tracks from a few of the albums i purchased this weekend in celebration of my tax return:

vashti bunyen "coldest night of the year"

judee sill "i'm over"

neil young "bound for glory" taken from "old ways" which i believe was one of the 3 albums that geffen sued him over for being uncommercial, and out of character. good album despite the weird 80's sheen. waylon jennings sings back up.

david pajo "let me bleed"

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

sacred songs

pavement "strings of nashville" - even though i don’t listen to pavement all that much anymore, they still hold that 1 spot on my list of favorite bands. so, it would only make sense that they also hold the 1 spot on my list of favorite songs. "strings of nashville" was a b-side on the "gold soundz" single. here it is placed over another reel of old home movies from when i was a kid. the wind sound effects from the song go nicely with the film flashes as the camera dies. also, the reel length fit perfectly with the track length as the song abruptly ends right as the picture goes.

2 on the list is camper van beethoven’s "all her favorite fruit" - i’ll always remember the first time i heard this song. senior prom night, sitting by myself in the back seat of a minivan on the way to dinner. it was a long adventurous night, and i remember it coming up more than once. most everyone has seen the picture by now, but it goes with the song, so here it is again:

3 is also a camper song. "sweethearts" from the same album "key lime pie".

and that’s it for the ordered songs. my list is only a top 3. but tied for spots 4-10 are a few of the following:

sparklehorse "heart of darkness"

foghat "trouble in my way" - i don’t know how a foghat song made it on here. maybe it’s cause i found it on my own and no one else know it. i mean who likes foghat enough to know anything but "slowride"? they kinda suck.

dinosaur jr "water" - not even my favorite dinosaur jr song, but i’d classify this as a sacred song after spending 4 years at pepperdine looking out over the ocean, but never really going to the beach.

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Friday, April 4, 2008

5 covers + 1

holly beth vincent "we danced" i was going to post all covers, starting with this one, but as it turns out, this isn't a cover. was this song a hit? i was already familiar with it when i got the album a few years ago. who knows.

so, these are all covers then.

luther wright and the wrongs "in the flesh" taken from their track by track cover of pink floyd's "the wall".

bettie serveert "sunday morning" taken from their live album of all velvet underground covers. one of my favorite velvets songs as well.

the beach boys "walk on by" makes you wish the beach boys had a side project where they did all burt bacharach songs.

mercury rev "raindrops keep falling on my head" another bacharach song. i wish mercury rev would have recorded this earlier in their career when they were more adventurous and noisy. i still like it though.

the flaming lips "little hands" i think this was originally recorded for a skip spence tribute album but looking at the tracklist for "more oar: a tribute to skip spence" "little hands" is handled by robert plant. i guess they never got beyond this reference instrumental. i got this track off a promo bonus disc assembled from "the soft bulletin" outtakes by their manager. don't know if it found it's way on to any official release. also, a roommate played "the soft bulletin" so much that i ended up absolutely hate the flaming lips. it's part their own fault as well. they've pretty much become a parody of themselves as their songs have become nothing more than a string of gimmicky studio tricks and sounds. i do still like this cover though.

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longfadinginstant