June 2013
Low played a single, 27 minute long, song and set at this festival.
It freaked everyone out.
It is a work of stunning beauty. Which also freaks me out.
Low’s 27-minute “Do You Know How to Waltz?” set from Rock the Garden is now shareable on Soundcloud. A
Lou Reed - Charley’s Girl
I believe even Lou’s lesser songs are amazing. This, from the underrated Coney Island Baby, is a lightweight island-flavored recording (well, as much Long Island as a Caribbean island). It’s a cousin to Walk On The Wild Side. More lightweight. But . . . nice. And fun. Fun sometimes works with Lou Reed.
shared from exfm
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
From the epic, 1978, Capitol Theater run. A song about, well, about being the E Street Band when nobody cared. The band here is also ripping. RIP Clarence.
When the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band
From the coastline to the city
All the little pretties raise their hands
I’m gonna sit back right easy and laugh
When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half
The audacity of Low: What does a band ‘owe’ us when we pay to see them perform?
I’ve been thinking about this alot, particularly with respect to the new season of Arrested Development. What does art owe us, when we have preconceived notions of what it should be?
Moreover, forget about what artists owe us, what specifically do we owe to art itself? Respect? Focus? Attention?
I dont know
Allen Ginsburg - Howl
Read before an intimate group of students in a dormitory lounge in 1956, this is the first known recorded version of Howl.
I believe Howl to be one of the great pieces of literature, ever. Intense, difficult, challenging, wholly American, wholly prescient and prophetic and insightful, I read it often, and now have the ability to listen often.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked
Feeding People - Other Side
Sometimes the review comes before you hear the song. This is one of those. I can barely keep up with the torrent of references in James Christopher Monger’s writeup, but it got me to listen to the song:
“With a slight yet colorful history (the band cannot legally drink yet) that includes an evangelical upbringing that was thwarted by a Fab Four intervention, cassette- and vinyl-loving independent label Burger Records, and Ray Bradbury’s house (the latter was used to film the video for the album’s dreamy title track), Farfisa, fuzz, and Lizard King-loving Orange County psych-rockers Feeding People skillfully balance their counterculture affectations with a vagabond Gen-X spirit that belies their millennial credentials. Like a Laurel Canyon-kissed amalgamation of the 13th Floor Elevators, Opal, Esben & the Witch, Crystal Antlers, and Surfer Blood, Island Universe, the band’s debut for the Innovative Leisure label, forces noisy indie rock, stoner metal, trippy psychedelic pop, and freak folk to sit at the same lunch table, resulting in a spirited yet oh so slightly hesitant food fight that goes just far enough to earn a couple of detentions. Genuine youthful folly aside, there are some truly cosmic moments to be found here, most of which arrive via mega-church escapee/mini-siren Jessie Jones, a 19-year-old force of nature who emits a sound like a radio dial hovering between Fiona Apple, Jefferson Airplane, Lana Del Ray, and the Doors. Between the feverish push/pull dynamics of opener “Silent Violent,” which rolls in on a slow-motion rendering of the acoustic intro to Jane’s Addiction’s “Ocean Size,” the apocalyptic Waiting for the Sun-inspired vistas of “Uranium Sea,” and the expansive Sword-meets-Faun Fables mysticism of “Red Queen” and “The Cat Song (Secrets of Luna),” Feeding People live up to their “White Rabbit”-inspired moniker, and while they may be a tad prone to Summer of Love histrionics, at least they’re drawn to the era’s dark side. ”
Yea, this worked for me this morning. This, plus coffee, this worked.
Bardo Pond - Tantric Porno
I’ve been feeling off lately: misaligned, stretched thin.
This song, to me, starts with that feeling and proceeds to transform it into something that is very different and of epic scale.
[via caesivs]
The Replacements - I Will Dare
Live from July 4 1991, their last show ever, courtesy of aquariumdrunkard (easily the best music site in the world).
Word has the ‘Mats getting back together for a few shows. Hmmmm
Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now, I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I will dare
Arborea - Pale Horse Phantasm
Arborea fill a hole for me where Espers used to reside.
RIYL Espers, freak folk, Sandy Denny.
My band now has fans who’ve followed us for 35 years and for 35 days, who are 70 and 17. On our recent tour, I met kids who’d just seen us for the first time, along with folks who’ve been to hundreds of concerts over three decades. With the exception of age, they’re more similar than different. And every night at eight o’clock, it’s those faces jammed up to the front of the stage, smiling, singing, living every note of your song, their song, taking every breath with you, or dancing in the rafters that continue to fuel your rock and roll passion. A passion reaching all the way back now to the small bedroom where you sat young and alone, clumsily playing, singing, writing, hoping, dreaming of…this exact moment…of your fans.
Here’s to the diehards.
” —Bruce Springsteen, in the introduction to Diehards, Erin Feinberg’s terrific photography book featuring the fans of rock and roll(via illbeonthathill)
Jon Pareles, NYTimes
Good writing never goes out of style
CocoRosie - Poison
Another song from the new record, with Antony on some vocals.
Strange, unusual, compelling, a lullaby, maybe. I fear, as before, CocoRosie will go largely unnoticed for making music that is wholly unique.
Sigur Ros - Brennisteinn
New record out next week. This is the opening track.
Nick Drake - Harvest Breed
This sounds to me like June 9, 2013.
Bright Eyes - We’re Going To Be Friends
White Stripes cover
gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous
btw this record is a must own
Ann Peebles—“Until You Came Into My Life”
I Can’t Stand the Rain (Hi Records 1974).
The Dictators - The Next Big Thing
In the history of NYC music from 1973-1977, Love Goes to Buildings on Fire (one of the best books about music, and urban culture, I have ever read), Will Hermes posits that the Dictators were in the same league as the Ramones and the NY Dolls in the genesis of punk rock. Yet, they never really received the recognition of those bands. Hermes pinpoints a show, in 1975 or 76, when Dick Manitoba heckled, and maybe even attacked, a performing Wayne County, as the moment the scene turned on them, resulting in their later historical secondary status.
It’s interesting as a reminder that history, and historical events, may play as much a role in how we perceive (and consume) media, as much as the media itself.
shared from exfm
what the above quote does not take into account is that, maybe, maybe, Love Will Tear Us Apart is the greatest song ever written.
Maybe.
But if true, doesn’t that change the analysis?
After 30 years, should we consider Phish a great band? - Grantland (via gregcohn)
Ouch.
Of course this begs to question, do the Blue Album and Pinkerton rock less simply because everything Weezer has released since then sucks? Maybe? When was the last time you thought “Man I want to listen to that awesome Bad Religion song!” probably not since ‘92. But what if No Control was the last record they ever put out? It might be a lot more often. What if Red Hot Chili Peppers broke up after The Uplift Mofo Party Plan? Would you want to die right there on the spot anytime a DJ says he’s playing one of their songs next?
But who’s to say Joy Division would have started release half assed songs? When The Mars Volta and Sparta rose from the ashes of At The Drive In it was pretty damn obvious where the talent was and wasn’t. But New Order’s catalog (especially the first 10 years or so) suggests that the all songwriting genius didn’t die with Ian. We lost his lyrics of course, but he was a pretty morbid fucked up guy to begin with and I think it’s a stretch to suggest if he’d lived he would have cheered up somehow. I mean, Rivers Cuomo is a weird guy too, but come on now, does anyone think there’s a world where Ian Curtis could have written the equivalent to ‘Heart Songs’ or ‘We Are All On Drugs’ or ‘Cold Dark World’ or named an album something like Raditude?
FFS.
(via seanbonner)
See also: the peak-end rule:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak–end_ruleAka “go out with a bang not a whimper” rule.
(via bustr)
Lace Curtain - Falling (II)
I know nothing about this band; I saw a (what is becoming ubiquitous) Soundcloud embed on a web page, and hit play, as I usually do.
But it’s great: chill, disco, ambient like, psych vibe. Recommended.
Black Sabbath - End of the Beginning
Opening track from the new (!) upcoming Sabbath record! Make your own judgements, but to me this is 8 minutes of sludgy bliss.
New York Dolls - Subway Train
Amazing.
Also - in his youth, Morrissey was the head of a New York Dolls Fan Club.
May 2013
Jeffrey Lewis - Tell It To Your Heart (Lou Reed cover).
Beautiful cover of one of the myriad of lesser known, yet still remarkable, Lou Reed songs.
I was standing by the hudson river’s edge at night
Looking out across the Jersey shore
At a neon light spelling out some cola’s name
And I thought your name should be dancing
Beamed from satellites
Larger than any billboard in Time’s Square
shared from exfm
Miles Davis - Maiysha
At one level both beautiful and challenging at the same time, this is Miles far from Kind of Blue territory. Expansive, funky, nasty, and wholly, wholly unique. For some, me particularly, essential listening. But not for everyone.
