Posts published during August, 2009

08/31/2009

tapes ‘n tapes – insistor

tapes n tapes live

i decided “insistor” by minneapolis band tapes ‘n tapes would be a great way to start off a week that im sure is going to be ….interesting. the good news is that we have a lot to look forward to this weekend. i have some family coming into town, the start of the college football season and a nice long holiday weekend to look forward to. and hopefully the nice long holiday weekend will consist of temperatures above 65 degrees, because it is still summer even though its been unseasonably cool and some people are trying to cheat me out of my last few weeks of warmth by talking about how theyre really excited for fall. i still dont get how people like fall, since its just a constant reminder that winter is right around the corner.

but whats not to like about this song? a super catchy guitar riff that doesnt really fit into any sort of genre, a super fast drum beat (we all know how much i love super fast drum beats) and the intense vocals of lead singer josh grier. i think i like tapes ‘n tapes so much because their music contains so many different styles. plus i think they were sort of one of the first bands to get sort of huge thanks to the blogosphere, which is pretty awesome. hopefully one day ill be the first blog to post a new song, and then my 20 readers will tell their friends, who will tell their friends, and so on. i believe “insistor” was the single off their first album “the loon” and was yet another song found in the movie “nick and norahs infinite playlist”, so you know it must be at least sort of decent. their album art also makes great use of really bright colors over black and white. their last album came out in 2008, but i havent really heard anything about them since then. hopefully theyre still around doing what they do.

tapes ‘n tapes – insistor

Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon - Insistor buy this track on itunes
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08/29/2009

the velvet underground – sunday morning

velvet underground and nico

this weeks saturday throwback is “sunday morning”, the opening track of the classic sort of self titled album “the velvet underground & nico”, the album where the velvet underground collaborated with, you guessed it, nico! nico is basically one of those artsy women that every guy wants to date. singer, model, actress, artist. shes probably the femme fatale she sings about on this album. [aside: am i the only one that wishes the lyrics, "shes going to play you for a fool, yes its true," was something like "shes so cruel"? i guess its just me.] i need to find me one of those.

the number of velvet underground tracks up for posting today was literally in the single digits, so it was pretty tough to narrow down. but the velvet underground seems to be all around lately. at lollapalooza, bandleader lou reed performed, and wouldnt you know he played about a half hour over his allotted time. come on lou, i dont really care who you are, thats sort of a big festival no-no, and kind of a dick move when you know theres someone else scheduled to play right after you. i didnt witness said festival time slot desecration because i was seeing deerhunter, at which point lead singer bradford cox was simultaneously teasing and threatening to play several velvet underground tunes. he said he was going to play heroin, perhaps in reference to his emaciated appearance, but he did not.

the other place ive been hearing the velvet underground, or their tunes at least, is becks website. he started this new online project with a bunch of other peeps called “record club” where they all get together and without rehearsal or anything they record an entire album in one day. in this case, the album was “the velvet underground & nico”. then he posts a track a week on his website, complete with a cool black and white video of the recording session. pretty cool idea. and since he allows us to embed, im going to take advantage. so sort of two tracks today. becks version, followed by the original. i think i have my old roomate bobby to thank for introducing me to the velvet underground, but i cant thank him because hes been cooped up learning computer programming for the past month. true story. this ones for you bobby.


Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico ‘Sunday Morning’ from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

the velvet underground – sunday morning

The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico - Sunday Morning buy this track on itunes
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08/28/2009

everything in its right place (gigamesh remix)

gigamesh

sorry for the abundance of radiohead lately, but this is a gigamesh remix so it doesnt really count, right? plus i thought we unofficially declared fridays dance party fridays, so i kinda had to throw a remix in there anyway. i was a little cautious of this because everything in its right place is one of my favorite radiohead songs, and as ive mentioned before, i tend to be a little weary of dance remixes to begin with.

my biggest concern with this song was how they were going to handle the “yesterday i woke up sucking a lemon” part of the song, with its uneven time signature. well, i will say that part does sound pretty weird still and sounds a tiny bit not right to me, but its totally worth it to get to the 2:07 mark, when you realize that this could have really been a dance song if it wanted to be from the start. its also worth listening to this whole song to hear the funky little bass line that comes in just after the 3:00 mark and everything that comes after it. pretty nice touch in the first 15 seconds where you can hear a little sample of “packd like sardines in a crushd tin box”, the opening track to kid a’s brother album amnesiac. im usually not a big fan of anyone touching radiohead songs for any reason, but this remix was definitely not a letdown, and that is a good thing. and whats not to like about a danceable version of a song i love that is anything but danceable in its original state? what do you think? danceable or desecration?

everything in its right place (gigamesh remix)

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08/27/2009

deer tick – easy

deer tick live

you know what this place needs? a good old fashioned rock song. and i think “easy” by deer tick fits the bill. deer tick hails from the great state of rhode island, and might be the first band ive ever heard of from rhode island. i seem to remember hearing somewhere that singer john mccauley is cousins with the perpetually shirtless matthew mcconaughey. thats my best attempt at the spelling and im not even gonna try to spell it correctly. but it would be funny if that were true because ole matty seems like he wants to be a rock star, not content with being a famous actor heartthrob that all of us men are constantly judged against (much to our chagrin). kind of like how we are all supposed to be like vampires now.

but i digress. deer tick has the rare honor of being one of the few bands ive posted about that has just about zero electronic elements (thats right nick, it can be done). while their style is definitely more along the lines of folk/country/alt-country (see friday xiii, which features a modern day johnny cash/june carter style duet), todays track is by far the least folky song on the album. its a great case of tension and release. the opening verse is dark and minor, but as soon as the chorus hits its like a wave of resolution. the gruff and harsh voice of mccauley is pretty much perfect for this song, especially during the excellent harmonies of the second verse when he sings “she got me flyin like a wild man/in the middle of the night”. i read an article that pretty much perfectly described the bands sound. its a little bit rock, a little bit folk and a little bit country-western and while it doesnt really mirror the sounds of hank williams or willie nelson, its definitely got the same feeling and authenticity.

deer tick – easy

Deer Tick - Born On Flag Day - Easy buy this track on itunes
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08/26/2009

devotchka – transliterator

devotchka live

if you are not familiar with devotchka and have any interest in anything even remotely european, then you are really missing out. i never knew where these guys and gals were from until just now, and i have to say im extremely surprised that they are from denver, colorado and not some distant european land 40 years ago. while the band is american, its easy to hear the international influence in most of their work, and thats part of whats so exciting about listening to their albums. one minute you feel like youre in the middle of a raucous eastern european wedding, and the next youre taken away on a seven minute mariachi-influenced ballad. id like to take this opportunity to make my first ever reference to a book. listening to their albums (especially how it ends) kind of reminds me of ernest hemingway’s “the sun also rises”. ok, enough of that book talk. it felt weird and unfamiliar.

the other interesting thing i just learned from wikipedia, and something that makes a whole lot of sense, is that devotchka started out as a band that played at burlesque shows and even toured for a bit with dita von teese, the queen of modern burlesque (whose name i always thought was dita von tesse, and who i just discovered is from rochester, michigan!). i guess that explains the sound of a lot of their stuff.

so i guess its funny that after that introduction full of references to far away lands that i chose to feature “transliterator”, the song which probably sounds the least like what ive described above of any of their songs. but it definitely still gives a nod to international music. singer nick uratas voice is just unique enough that you cant quite place where he may be from, though the vibrato definitely conjures images of beirut’s zach condon. devotchka and beirut both remind me a whole lot of europe but in very different ways that i cant describe outside of the pictures in my head. what i love about this song, aside from the obvious over the top catchiness of the chorus, is the insanely excellent rhyming. “beautifully mutilated/insanely antiquated/i must admit i almost always underestimate it” has got to be one of the best 4+ syllable word rhyming sequences out there.

devotchka – transliterator

DeVotchKa - A Mad and Faithful Telling - Transliterator buy this track on itunes
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08/25/2009

fools gold – surprise hotel

fools gold live

todays track is “surprise hotel” by LA band fools gold. well at least im pretty sure theyre from LA. im pretty sure i first heard this track several weeks ago on an aquarium drunkard edition of sirius xmu blog radio (the bestest daily radio show out there) and it immediately made the dailybeatz list of upcoming songs. i couldnt really find out a whole bunch about them other than that the band includes members of foreign born and glasser. and im somewhat familiar with foreign born but i dont really know who glasser is. but in the end, it doesnt really matter because theyve definitely got a little something going on here that i think most people will like quite a bit.

its nearly impossible to listen to this track and not want to dance a little bit. it sounds a little bit african-infused and a little bit not. and the lyrics are, i believe, in hebrew, so i have no idea what they say, but it dont matter to me cuz its all about the beat here. if the beginning melodies arent enough to get you moving, just wait until about halfway into the song when it speeds up even more. it kind of reminds me a tiny bit of something that could have been heard during an amadou and mariam breakdown in the middle of one of their songs to get the whole crowd moving. “nadine”, another track you can find on their myspace page is equally enjoyable, but in a less makes you want to get out of your chair and dance kind of way. i like these guys and am pretty sure they would be a blast to see live too.

worst post ever. i should have just stuck with what i wanted to write, which was, “i really like this song.”

fools gold – surprise hotel

Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel - Single - Surprise Hotel buy this track on itunes
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08/24/2009

doves – kingdom of rust

doves live

todays track, “kingdom of rust” by uk band doves has been on my list for quite some time now, but the time has come to post it in all its glory. i first remember hearing about doves many moons ago probably my freshmen or sophomore year of college while listening to a sunday night radio show on either 89x or 96.3 call sonic heaven. then their track “pounding” made its way onto the playlist of the restaurant where i worked all through college on the weekends. this prompted me to check out some more of their work and before i knew it i was completely smitten with this band from across the pond.

“kingdom of rust”, the title track from their newest album that was released a few months ago, is full of subtle musical cues that i want to listen to over and over again. perhaps the most intriguing is the constant shift throughout the song from minor keys to major keys and back again. if my vague sense of music theory serves me, even within the chorus, the music is major while the vocals are minor, but both of those switch frequently back and forth. and its different each time the chorus comes around. other things to listen for are the changes between verse and chorus when the bass and high hat kicks in. and the whole thing is carried along by a steady double-time type beat. i especially enjoy the last verse which gets extremely soft followed by the quick buildup into the final chorus. and if youre in the mood for a really nice and depressing music video, this songs video just might fit the bill. its kind of exactly what i think about when i think about doves. a minor sounding gloomier song with glimpses of major sounds throughout. its no wonder these guys were often featured on a show called sonic heaven.

doves – kingdom of rust

Doves - Kingdom of Rust - Kingdom of Rust buy this track on itunes
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08/22/2009

van morrison – snow in san anselmo

van morrison

todays saturday is by an old standard, van morrison. while the singers biggest hits are most likely to be heard at the hangge uppe or ricks american cafe, there is a whole bed of work that many of us, myself included, have probably never heard, and thats where todays track comes from. i can still remember the first time i heard this song (thanks to nick sha, the cool guy) during a memorable night of just hanging out with the motley crew of people that was left in the house during fall break when everyone else was at home.

so why do i like “snow in san anselmo”, the opening track of “hard nose the highway”, way more than “brown eyed girl”? first of all, because girls dont scream whenever it comes on at the bar (probably because its never played at the bar), and consequently chris jordan doesnt scream when it comes on at the bar to make fun of those girls. second, theres just so much going on all the time. it starts out with piano and, you guessed it, a choir, which makes it automatically pretty sweet. then after the first verse, it suddenly changes into a full jazz combo breakdown, complete with (presumably) an upright bass, saxamophone, piano and those one of a kind jazz drums. but wait, theres more. the choir is back! and since we all know that i love just about any song that has any sort of dramatic change in the middle of it, it was a pretty safe bet that id be a fan of this one too. its cool because the little jazz section is, in a way, the chorus of the song, but there are really no words at all, save for a few from the choir. pretty unconventional, but it totally works.

van morrison – snow in san anselmo

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