10/27
2009
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- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
The Wailers “Concrete Jungle”
Quite possibly my favorite album opener of all time, when Chris Blackwell/Island Records took Marley & co. mainstream. Unsatisfied with the recording sessions in Jamaica (too black-sounding!), Blackwell hired a pair of American musicians to shred all over and whiten it up. Fucked in theory, but melding both sounds means “Concrete Jungle” came out positively sinister. Listen to that fucking intro! I dare you not to oil down your good machete.
- Has been played 8 times.
10/21
2009
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- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Antelope - “Wen Ho Lee”
Just wiki’d Wen Ho Lee. Turns out he was a Chinese-born scientist accused of spying by the US government about ten years ago. Yes, people still spy. It’s about the stuff that some guy, presumably Wen Ho, wants, specifically “something entire.” (I guess this is an instance where those words can be grammatically correct. Fair enough.) I don’t pretend or aspire to know too much about Antelope—they’re Dischord alums and their apples fall not too far from the Q And Not U tree—but this song makes me want to cross deserts. See the mountain. Be the mountain. If shit like that raises yr hairs, get into this song. It’ll cost you three minutes but you’ll be rewarded one hundred gold coins.
- Has been played 8 times.
10/10
2009
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- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Rival Schools “Travel By Telephone”
Another scorching album opener (I assume someone out there is doing a song review blog of just album openers. Killer idea, Someone.), this time from creepily handsome Walter Schreifels, who has been in more good bands than Paul McCartney and who has doubleplus scene cred. As far as I’ve been told, the rest of the album doesn’t hold up nearly as well. I’ll take the world’s word, since I’ve only gotten a few seconds into the second track and never heard the rest of the album. Nothing can follow this. It is the most perfect example of its genre, that being Quicksand-Influenced Post-Hardcore Rock Groups With Polished Radio-Ready Hits. You can even see how well Schreifels stacks up against everyman Nate Fisher in the composite photo below.
- Has been played 12 times.
10/9
2009
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Bracket “Circus Act”
It is fun to remember a time in early high school when every recorded song wasn’t available at my fingertits and some mid-roster Fat Wreck Chords band could prompt two or three of us to travel six hours round trip to the city. I don’t remember much about seeing Bracket. It was at Coney Island High and was not even half full; Furious George was one of the openers (I vividly recall the singer wearing nylon tights or some such nonsense); Bracket’s second guitarist looked like a meathead, like a weight room attendant or something. And I remember there was some acid casualty who was gyrating and tasting the rainbow for most of the set. But I do remember that we all left satisfied. Their latest full length at that time would’ve been ‘4-Wheel Vibe,’ which has awful cover art but starts off with this mostly great song, marred only slightly by the bridge’s brief digression into Nirvana-ish caterwauls and doggerel. Sixty seconds too long? You tell me.
- Has been played 5 times.
10/7
2009
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- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Townes Van Zandt “Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold”
I imagine that in Texas in the early 1970’s, Led Zepplin was too “faggoty” for shit-kicking roughnecks who were secretly desperate to satisfy their inner-most cravings for Tolkien-esque tales of palace intrigue, epic battles and widespread ensorcellment. So Townes relaxes ‘em with a down-home dirty joke and then takes them away to a magical land where those cards they play with every day have hidden lives. I’m willing to wager that most songs about poker are completely worthless. Not this one. Bake ‘em away, toys.
- Has been played 8 times.
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- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Gordon Lightfoot “Sundown”
This is Gord’s “Stop fucking my wife or I’m going to kill you and bury you with the refuse” song. I first heard it on the wonderful ‘Gord’s Gold’ greatest hits collection, which I’ve owned in cassette, vinyl and compact disc formats. I thought it was way tough when I first heard it in 5th grade, though my post-AlAnon father managed to twist the lyrics to be about depression and alcoholism. He used the word “inebriated” in explaining his take on the song. The whole affair felt pretty adult.
- Has been played 7 times.
10/5
2009
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- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
At The Drive-In “Picket Fence Cartel”
Didn’t think I’d ever have any use for the pre-In/Casino/Out ATDI releases but lo and behold this song always made me walk a bit faster (a good sign!) and it still sounds pretty urgent. Let’s skip over the fact that until I just read the lyrics exactly a minute ago I thought he sang the phrase “pig infested hell” in the opening stanza (refer to the song’s title if you are curious what he was actually singing), which means that I get to use the lyric “pig infested hell” for my invisible band. When life hands you a putrid colander full of sadness berries, you gotta meticulously remove the poison stones within and wring the wilting fruit for tears of cloying yet vinegary sweetness to make a batch of tepid consolation tea!
- Has been played 8 times.
10/4
2009
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- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Ray Charles “Hard Times”
Ray Charles is literally blind. Or was. He’s dead now. It does not get harder than dead or blind. Plus his mom’s dead and he had to sell his clothes, at least in the song. As far as I can tell from these lyrics, life will only get worse. RIYL if you like sorrowful Ray Charles dirges about overcoming hard circumstances beyond being without the gift of sight. Or of life. Gifts go away. This song will not. It will be on my hard drive forever until it crashes.
- Has been played 8 times.
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The Sensational Alex Harvey Band “Next”
I’ve had friends call this clip “virtually unwatchable.” It is one of the creepiest performances ever caught on tape, by the 5th most important band in Scottish history (Auntie Beeb don’t lie) covering a Jacque Brel song that was already great (evidence below). Favorite moments: Harvey’s delivery of “the naked and the dead” line. It makes me want to push people in the river. Other highlights: Harvey cradling the guitar like a lover on the brink, the nightmarish clown guitarist shown for exactly 15 seconds of a 4 minute song or most likely THE AMORPHOUS TUXEDOED STRING TRIO. This was the most television exposure SAHB ever got as a band and they very clearly made all the right wardrobe choices. Here’s a clip of the original (there are a half-dozen awesome clips of Brel performing the same song elsewhere on YT. Watch them all and report back.):
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- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Sixteen Horsepower “Hutterite Mile”
The first song on ‘Folklore,’ 16HP’s album of traditionals, is an original number (see what I did there?) about…having a good internal compass? Wearing peacock feathers? Having discolored knuckles? I’ll be honest and say the pause before the delivery of the second half of the “knuckles” line made me an instant fan of this band’s entire catalog, of which I have heard exactly only two full length releases of eight. The Younger Me once got in an argument with an old roommate, who thought that they were basically a Nick Cave ripoff. I argued (poorly) and have since realized that at the very least the old roommate was partially right. Fine by me. They could copy Bad Seed records track by track and at the very least they would become more famous within the confines of my bedroom.- Has been played 14 times.
10/2
2009
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- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Harvest “Epicure”
Strange song to start this off with but kind of fitting as well, as it is a song that I have no reason to thank any of the people who will potentially read this will have heard in the last ten years if ever. Excuse the silliness of the metalmuppet vocal delivery; it sounded pretty progressive to my teenage ears in 1998. What the fuck is that ridiculous(ly awesome) call-out (“I wont. Let you. Neglect. Your Fate”) about? As far as I can tell, everyone cheated on this band and they wrote a song about it borrowing text from the Nuremberg Decision. Song slays either way. It feels so good when the cum cums out.- Has been played 17 times.
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I have been sent here to tell you about every single good song that has ever been released. I will post until I run out of songs or until I become dead or bored.
