Everything Is Going To Be Alright

I spent a nice night alone, avoiding all of Black Friday and just working on things in peace, while adding a soundtrack to it.

I loved this song last year from Sigur Rós, although the remarkable work they've been laying down for more than a decade it's hardly a surprise.  Sigur Rós is currently filed in my "Albums Lost In A Break-up" pile that I have yet to replace.  (I lost all my Björk records in a break-up, too.  Is it an Iceland thing?)  Hard to pick them back up when they have that weight to them.  And what a shame, too.  What better soundtrack to a break-up than these crushing tones?  What they're saying in the song is beyond me.

Loading mentions Retweet

I knew you didn't think I'd actually start playing Christmas music today.  But because of that empty threat yesterday, compounded with the fact that it's Black Friday, the most miserable shopping day of the year, I decided to go far into the other direction.

Ok, admittedly I just typed in "black" in my iTunes search menu and came up with several tracks, yet the one that stood out was Black Funeral by Mercyful Fate.  Mercyful Fate!  Ah, those wonderful Danish gods fronted by that amazing shrill voice of King Diamond!  Make all Mercyful Fate albums your soundtrack if you go out into that awful shopping madness!  Fuck it, just listen to Mercyful Fate regardless!

Loading mentions Retweet

Weird choice for Thanksgiving, huh?  Not so, says I.

Last Thanksgiving after having dinner with friends we had one person bring up the song Only Women Bleed and stumped us all, even himself, trying to recall who sang it.  Perhaps because it's the least Alice Cooper like song in his repertoire.  But it also comes off what may be his most famous album Welcome To My Nightmare so it's even more odd.  Nonetheless, a quick Internet search reacquainted us with Cooper's song and we sat around a living room with bellies full listening to this classic.

Loading mentions Retweet

Sometimes I disappoint myself at the lack of rap representation here on this blog.  While it's true I don't listen to much when I do find something I enjoy I love it a lot.  De La Soul is one of those groups with their debut album 3 Feet High And Rising being one of the classics of the genre.

Loading mentions Retweet

Want to know a surefire way for me to not like some new music?  Use the phrase:

"You'll love it.  They sound just like (insert band I love here)"

Whether friends or critics, compare it to someone I love and you curse me not to like it.  I don't make myself like it, and there may be some bias after their claim is initially fed, but upon objective time and listening, no, I never like it, or like it enough to own.  Case in point:  Interpol.  Turn On The Bright Lights came out and I heard comparisons to Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen.  "I'm in!" I said.  I bought and heard.  "I'm out!" I said.  Didn't do it for me.  Yes, I appreciate some songs (Evil is an excellent single) but is there any Interpol in my collection?  Nope.

What inspired this?  Well, indie-lovers, a while back I finally caved-in and bought your precious Animal Collective with the new album Merriweather Post Pavilion.  I heard your claims of Beach Boys like harmonies so I went for it.  And I like it.  I don't love it, but I'm certainly not planning on selling it back to the store which gives it some mark of quality.  But am I cumming all over the place like everyone else is, slapping best album of the year claims to it.  Nooooooooo.  Yes, I hear those Beach Boys harmonies on some songs but when it comes to the music I hear wank.  Don't get me wrong, wank is good.  As a longtime Sonic Youth listener I love me some wank.  But wank is not my first preference.  And nor is harmonies the only reason I love The Beach Boys.  Brian Wilson's inspired composition goes a long way before being married to those vocals.  So Animal Collective as a modern Beach Boys?  Try again.

There are exceptions to the rule and one of the few I've discovered over the years is The High Llamas.  It's almost TOO Brian Wilson, and equally impressive since leader Sean O'Hagan has apparently paid attention to that early 70's era Beach Boys catalog, my personal favorite.  (Fair enough, Animal Collective, you did too).  Gideon Gaye, released in 1994, leads me to believe O'Hagan had a bootleg copy of SMiLE in his collection, too.

Loading mentions Retweet

When I was young we had a short-lived college radio program in my town called Ugly American Radio.  It would play punk rock songs, often without filter, because who was listening to left of the dial radio in Iowa?  It was there I first heard The Dickies, and specifically, their magnum opus If Stewart Could Talk.

The proper studio version of If Stewart Could Talk appears on their LP Stukas Over Disneyland but I will always prefer the live version that I heard on Ugly American radio with the crude monologue and Tommy homage.  The live version is from the cassette only We Aren't The World but has subsequently been released as Still Got Live, Even If You Don't Want It on CD.  And if you want one of the best live albums ever made (seriously!) pick up their Locked 'N' Load LP.  Done.

   

Loading mentions Retweet

Frank Zappa, people.  Or The Mothers Of Invention as his first album Freak Out! was credited to (I'm a stickler for original issue names).  It's an excellent and unfortunately the only work of Zappa I own since his catalog is so large it makes my head spin.  If I'm going to begin a collection like that I guess I'll start in order.

Loading mentions Retweet

There's always a few bands whose popularity doesn't cross the Atlantic from the UK.  The Jam are usually one of the firsts I think of.  I guess there's something decidedly "too British" in their music that people can't relate to it, but who knows?  People here are just missing out on some great music.

Last week while in London I was reading an article on The Specials reunion when a friend remarked "There's been articles on that in every magazine this year".  Not is the U.S.!  I was aware of the reunion but not the specifics.  I had incorrectly assumed it was a couple original members masquerading under the name but six out of the original seven?  That's a good reunion.

What's that?  My Coachella wishlist?  Yup, it just increased.  Here we go again:

The Kinks
Hüsker Dü
Public Image Ltd.
Pavement
Magazine
Young Marble Giants
The Specials

Coachella's dates have been set for April 16th-18th and the lineup announcement will take place in a couple months.  Here's hoping.

My fellow Americans may not appreciate The Specials as a handful of us here do but it's to their own disadvantage.  I'll throw on the excellent single Ghost Town and recognize the brilliance they can't.  Bliss!

Loading mentions Retweet

I miss The Spinanes.  They were in my listening rotation pretty constantly in the 90's, with their three albums spanning from '93 to '98.  I was in film school at the time and probably employed their music more than any other band at the time.

I can hang my hat on the legacy of the threes albums (and singles comp) which I have yet to grow tired of.  Some excellent work that doesn't deserve to fall through the cracks.

Manos is the title track of The Spinanes first LP.

Loading mentions Retweet

Aerosmith?  Fuck them.

Excuse me... Fuck them NOW.  In the 70's, no.  But now, oh yes.

The news out there is that Steven Tyler has left Aerosmith and Joe Perry and the remaining members are looking for a replacement.  With much offense, just pitch it in all together, boys.  Nobody wants another Honkin' On Bobo.  Yeech.  True they've had one of the biggest comebacks in history but their music has been for shit.  For my money, Aerosmith should've ended when Perry left the group after 1979's Night At The Ruts.  The original lineup reformed in '84 and since then we've had twenty-five years of a complete shit storm of awful music.   Dude (Looks Like A Lady)?  Please.  Blow me.

They were just a good rock band then and Toys was their pinnacle, as album track Uncle Salty can attest.  You want to talk about the band that cut this record, then yes, they're fantastic.  Let's call it a day, Aero, and I can forget the last three decades.  Ok?

Loading mentions Retweet