Radiohead - " Street Spirit (Fade Out) " - Performed live at the All Points West Festival, Jersey City, NJ, August 8, 2008. Radiohead - " There, There " - Live at All Points West, 8-8-08 Radiohead - " Jigsaw Falling Into Place " - Live at All Points West, 8-8-08 I was lucky enough to see Radiohead live on two consecutive nights this summer at the All Points West Festival in Jersey City, NJ. The Radioheads sure know how to put on a good show. All of these tracks come from the Friday [...]
One of my heroes is dead. David Foster Wallace faced down some of the fundamental problems of existence: how the fuck do you communicate with any other person, share a shred of authenticity, while you're stuck in your own dumb head and he or she stuck in hers; how can you give yourself away to something wholly other (that phrase is not a mistake) than yourself and not go insane; how do you write about this stuff in an engaging and original and above all direct way, while getting at all the feelings these problems drum [...]
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - " Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles (live)" from I'm Going To Do What I'm Going To Do: Live At My Father's Place 1978 Thanks to the good folks over at The Mixed Tape Film Series , I recently got the chance to watch The Big Lebowski on the big screen-ski. Cheap beer and free pizza at the best theater in town guaranteed a good time for all. As a bonus, I noticed for the first time that this song, one of Beefheart's [...]
vs. Bruce Springsteen - " Streets of Philadelphia " Music from "Philadelphia" [1994] Primitive Radio Gods - " Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand " Rocket [1996] Let's just be clear: lay down a keyboard track, throw some crappy electronic beats over that ish and put some mumbly vocals in the background and I will love that song forever. It should also be noted: not only did Chris O'Connor of PRG rely heavily on B.B. King's "How Blue Can You [...]
Idaho - " To Be The One " from Hearts of Palm [2000] Summer is drawing to a close here in Pittsburgh: I watched the sun set on my neighborhood's bricks the other day and it felt just perfect. Much like this song. Jeff Martin makes perfect miniatures of sweet, slow, pop goodness. Treasure these last few days of summer and look forward, desperately, to autumn. Buy buy buy Idaho Idaho Idaho Posted by Phil
Creedence Clearwater Revival - " Green River " from Green River (1969) and " Dont Look Now " from Willy & the Poor Boys (1969) Minutemen - " Green River " from Post-Mersh, vol. 3 (1985) and " Don't Look Now " from Double Nickels on the Dime (1984) At the end of this month, Creedence Clearwater Revival's first five albums will be re-released in honor of the band's 40th anniversary. For those who have long dismissed CCR as merely classic rock station mainstays, I encourage [...]
The Pogues - " South Australia " bonus track from If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1987) reissue Here's another, non-a cappella version of the sea shanty " South Australia ." More Pogues at SWR Buy it here Posted by Glenn
South Australia - Traditional My interest in sea shanties stems from my interest in folk music. Sea shanties are work songs that were sung on sailing ships. The rhythms of the songs would help the sailors time their movements while performing tasks that required synchronous movements from multiple saliors. There are several types of sea shanties that correspond to different jobs, and "South Australia" is a capstan shanty. This song would be sung as the ship was raising its anchor. "South Australia" has its origins on the London-Australia shipping route, and [...]
Which is the better a cappella group: world-music purveyors Yeasayer, or world-class fuckheads Rage Against The Machine? You tell me. God damn , do I hate Rage Against The Machine. Buy Yeasayer (it's a pretty darn good album) Buy Rage Posted by Glenn
Demon Fuzz - " Past, Present and Future " from Afreaka! (1970) I finally have a damned moment to myself and time enough to post. This track is a real prize; a buried ember of the funk-rock era. And it's disturbingly good despite its anonymity. Not without its debts to Fela Kuti, Sly Stone and James Brown, it still sounds as if Demon Fuzz knew what would be considered freaky-groovy for the next three decades and incorporated those elements into this album. What prescience! And what freakiness! (that cover is especially frightening) [...]
Television - " Marquee Moon " from Marquee Moon (1977) Interpol - " Obstacle 1 " from Turn On The Bright Lights (2002) Never underestimate the power of skinny white guys playing dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee. We offer two nervous New York rockers, masterpieces of the slow burn. Damn that Television If the rat from Ninja Turtles joined the band, they'd have to call themselves Splinterpol Posted by Glenn
Mission of Burma - " (That's When I Reach For My) Revolver " from Signals, Calls, & Marches (1981) & " Mica " from Vs. (1982) Of a piece with Joy Division and the Constantines (our previous two posts), Boston's recently reunited Mission of Burma played (and play) a stoic, no-nonsense, anthemic version of punk rock anthems. This is the type of thing I can't listen to over and over, but it sounds lifesaving every once in a while. You mean Mynamar? Posted by Glenn
The Constantines - " Soon Enough " from Tournament of Hearts (2005) Dang, I just remembered that these guys put out a new record a while back, and I've yet to pick it up. Their '03 and '05 releases, Shine A Light and Tournament of Hearts , were somewhat neglected by the critical establishment and by most of the people I know, and it seems that the new one, Kensington Heights , may suffer the same unfortunate fate. Too bad; the Constantines are a great Fugazi-esque rock band, albeit a [...]
Joy Division - " Candidate " from Unknown Pleasures (1979) I recently visited Manchester, England, and my thoughts the entire time I was in the city were consumed by Joy Division. The Manchester-based band released two albums in its lifetime before the suicide in 1980 of singer Ian Curtis. After Curtis' death, the remaining members of the band found much success as New Order. Manchester is a very interesting city of great historical import. It was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution as well as the home of bands like Joy [...]
John Prine - " Paradise " from John Prine (1971) I've had the great fortune to spend a lot of time this summer with my brothers, both of whom live states away. When we get together, we start playing guitars; when we play guitars, we eventually get to this song. "Paradise" packs in a lovely evocation of childhood idylls and uses that as a basis for a stirring indictment of environmental destruction. Prine's debut is a masterpiece, by the way. A few of the protest songs sound quaint, but others could have been written [...]
Grateful Dead - " The Eleven " from Live/Dead (1969) Y'all may well disown me for this.... My apologies to SWR-heads, but I've been away for a bit, listening to the world's most overreacted-against psychedelic jammers. Live/Dead is the only Grateful Dead record I own, but man is it a doozy. This track and the epic "Dark Star" are right up there with the best of Can and Miles's Bitches Brew era . As far as songs go, the Dead left a hell of a lot [...]
16 Horsepower - " Horse Head " from Hoarse [2001] Whenever I speak with fellow aficionados of 16 Horsepower, we can all agree on the importance of the crazed, drunken preacher with hellfire in his eyes coming out of frontman David Eugene Edwards, just as we can agree that this band has rekindled the fear of the Lord in our souls. But I never hear about the importance and soul-crushing weight of Pascal Humbert's low end: on Secret South 's opener "Clogger," the whole album starts with a massive, speaker-rattling bowed contrabass. It's [...]
Calexico - " Hair Like Spanish Moss " from Tool Box [tour release] (2007) After three years of desert living, my wife and I are leaving Tucson to begin anew in Washington, DC. I will miss this place, its landscape, and its people. Southern Arizona is truly a wonderful part of the world. My posts may be sporadic at best over the next couple of months so bear with me. I know I can count on my colleagues to pick up the slack. Viva Calexico [...]
(To be cross-filed under the possibly new Department of the Unforgivable.) Red House Painters - " Trailways " from Songs for a Blue Guitar [1996] Red House Painters - " I Feel The Rain Fall " from Songs for a Blue Guitar [1996] To truly understand the abject horror of "I Feel The Rain Fall," you should first listen to "Trailways," the immediately preceding track on Songs For A Blue Guitar. Let's be honest. "I Feel The Rain Fall" is not a good song. [...]
Neil Young - " I've Loved Her So Long " from Neil Young (1969) Neil Young's eponymous first album receives and deserves much criticism for being a bit bloated and overwrought. Young himself has said that he and producer/genius/madman Jack Nitzsche got a bit carried away in the studio. Nevertheless, there are many shining moments on this album, "I've Loved Her so Long" being the most charming among them. The Bacharachian orchestration and background singers add to the beauty of the song rather than distract from it. Listen for Merry Clayton who also [...]
So Well Remembered
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
