Choose Rush. Choose The Who. Choose The Antlers. Choose John Lennon. Choose a fucking dose of Led Zeppelin, choose Bear In Heaven, Pulp, The Divine Comedy and Creedence Clearwater Revival
It's funny how way leads on to way. ''And its true that some things have to change''. So sings Kevin Parker on 'Runway, City, Houses, Clouds'. The lengthy title seems to be a recurring theme with Parker; 'Nothing that has happened so far has been anything we could control', being the most extreme example.
''It's nothing different'' has been an accusation I've heard leveled at Tame Impala more than once. There is a definite throwback to the likes of Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin in Parker's work. The change lyric rings true; some things have changed. The guitar effects are works of art in their own right, the guitar plays a huge part; the sound and impact it creates is equally huge.
Runway etc. contains an absolutely wondrous guitar solo for the last two minutes or so.Two slightly different pieces played over and over again. Each note is a clean, warm and ambient sound. Each note blending into the other smoothly rising to powerful crescendos.
The N-Man will be seeing them in August and eagerly awaits the prospect.
I've been studying rather hard of late. It's great I've been really relishing my exams and every exam is a joyous two hour window in which I have a great opportunity to splurge my learning all over the sheet.
'I'm a fuck man, I mean me only really human quality to speak of is a fondness for Celtic mysticism' - Colm Meaney (as Garda Jerry Lynch in Intermission)
I notice from my blog view statistics that the majority of people who read this are from the USA, in fact big shout out to Germany coming in a number 4 too. I have a soft spot for the Germans mostly due to the quality of their football team. So yes for you American folk, Intermission is an Irish movie you'll enjoy it.
Apologies for the text and colour etc, it just started happening I don't know how to get rid of it. Slowdive, one of those Creation Records bands; Alison.
'I'll wear your clothes when we're both high Alison I said were sinking but she laughs and tells me its just fine'
Somehow the three lines really manage to convey who and where Alison and the persona are in their lives. The soft ambient swirling of the guitars and the formidable yet tender wall of sound is simply breathtaking. It feels like swimming in some sort of warm vibrating jelly-like substance
Mojave 3 rose like a phoenix from the flames of Slowdive.Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell and Ian McCutcheon (potentially a relative of Martine McCutcheon whom I found very arousing in Love Actually). Their sound is a folked out more acoustic version of Slowdive the vocalists are the same. Ask Me Tomorrow is a lovely album a really mellow, warm yet haunting effort. The opening track Love Songs On The Radio is my pick of the lot upon initial listens. The closing track Mercy is equally wonderful.
I have been very lax about actually posting anything on this of late. Rank disgusting laziness. I wouldn't deal in mistruths or weak excuses.
I have been listening almost exclusively to Whipping Boy of late. They formed in Dublin in the late eighties, went on to release probably the best Irish album ever with Heartworm, before falling apart amidst record company squabbles in 1998. Their debut release was Submarine in 1992. It was a low key release and I even recently read a review of Heartworm in which the reviewer noted that he/she had been unable to track down a copy of Submarine to listen to!
Submarine, thanks to the internet is now pretty readily available if one has the patience to search for it. It is by no means a perfect album, the production is weak at points but it is also a strong indicator of a band with potential and has it's share of great moments. The influence of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine is present in the shifts between wonderful shoegazing guitars to Fearghal McKee's vocals which become almost hypnotic at points.
Sushi meanders from the beautiful soft opening riff to a noisy loud song by the end.
Favourite Sister is an absolutely wonderful shoe gaze song bringing to mind all that was great about bands like Galaxie 500 and My Bloody Valentine.
Submarine reached only a moderate audience mainly due to it being released on a very small label and the lower production values. While the album may not have sold well the bands live performances began to raise their profile. The gigs were known for being intense and all consuming with McKee cutting himself with glass at some gigs. Submarine began to generate some much deserved critical acclaim and a record deal with Colombia was arranged.
Colombia oversaw the 1995 release of Heartworm. Every once in a while I will come across an album that I fall completely in love with and Heartworm has turned out to be one of those few albums that I just cannot get enough of and can spend hours just listening to it and thinking about it. McKee's vocals and lyrics are absolutely sensational on this album. It simply blows an other 'confessional' album out of the water. Without ever descending to being mawkish. Nearly every line has a purpose and conveys a clear feeling.
It all blends together wonderfully to form a complex but perfectly interwoven tapestry of McKee's fears and hopes. The opening song Twinkle is a fantastic opener and was also released as a minor hit single. The verses are backed by a melodic guitar riff and lighter instrumentals all around. As it hits the chorus the music and vocals jump up a few notches resulting in what is really just some fucking fantastic noise.
The biggest song on the album was quite probably We Don't Need Nobody Else. It opens with a hint of 1992 R.E.M and McKee begins to sing. Initially he does little more than talk and the lyrics are clearly audible and your focus is drawn to them.
'In the morning I am a recluse, lost in memories, ideas, situations and convulsions, I am never in and I can't remember, They built portholes for Bono so he could sit and look out across the bay and sing about mountains, maybe'
I absolutely love the lyrics throughout this song, the intimate nature of the delivery always drags me right into the words. The picture of the singer being lost in the morning ties in with the fact that he apparently wrote his best when heavily hungover. As he finishes speaking the verse the music picks up and the distortion kicks in you could be up and headbanging in no time at all.
The second verse deals with an incident of the protagonist hitting his girlfriend or wife for the first time. 'I hit you for the first time today........ 'You wouldn't let me go to the phone, you wanted to make love and I did not'..........'Silence and you started to cry, that really hurt you said, Yeah?, And you thought you knew me'. As soon as the word me has been uttered the music again takes off for the chorus, the change in tempo is pretty intense and the chorus truly does sweep you up.
What really blows me away about Whipping Boy more than anything else is that across 3 albums which is by no means a massive amount of songs they manage to sound like more brilliant bands than I can think of. I have definitely heard little snatches and thought; The Killers, Joy Division, Arcade Fire, U2, My Bloody Valentine, Galaxie 500, Velvet Underground, The Smiths, Doves, R.E.M or Sonic Youth. I don't mean to trivialise them as some sort of mad concoction of the above just their music is incredibly varied. Not varied in the here's a straight up rock version and a techno remix but a sort of subtle range of varieties. I've probably listened to it all a little bit much.
The final Whipping Boy release was a self titled album in 2000 on the Low Rent label. The album had been recorded almost two years previously but the release was delayed. It shows a development from Heartworm and it maybe lacks the raw emotional power of that seminal album.
The fourth track Mutton is one of my favourites. It is like a cross between a Blur song and The Clash's hit Lost In The Supermarket.
The other highlight is Ghost Of Elvis. It is a quieter slightly more stripped back track than most of their songs. There are two lines at the end of the first verse that are brilliantly witty and cutting that have really made me love this song. 'Read it in the papers, love the company, the attitude, the videos, the ideas, Love the money, the law suits, the cheap jokes, the honesty of sleaze'.A shot at the record labels or just a sarcastic take on a job interview, who knows?
Unfortunately youtube has let me down in a big way and I cannot find a recording of Ghost Of Elvis. That's a bit of a bum note to end on, sorry. It is probably worth your while going and acquiring the three Whipping Boy albums. For a big journey through an album, fantastic noise, poignant lyrics and sheer emotion any of the three will do the trick for you.
I am getting up in the morning and packing my backpack and getting on an aeroplane. I am flying to London Stansted. Then I am going to see Pulp at the Brixton Academy. Pulp were the first band I truly loved. The band that thought me to listen to music by albums. Jarvis Cocker's wondrous lyrics, the brilliant ironic, cynical and sardonic take on the years between 1993 and 1995 (His n'Hers and A Different Class). The era that spawned the incestuous opening to 'Razzmatazz' the innate summation of the despair of the masses on Common People, not to mention the iconic Babies. Pulp are and always have been my favourite band. I will bore you further when I get back from the gig. I'll leave you with my top three Pulp songs.
I am lying about now dying for something bleak and slow moving so as to hasten my departure to the land of nod. I have stumbled across a couple of old favourites of mine that for me anyway fit the bill. Bark Psychosis released an album in the mid nineties that captivated the listener and delivered an epic journey through post rock heaven. The opening track is a big favourite of mine.
This title was inspired by the Bob Dylan song, another great opening track; Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35. The famous chorus line; 'Everybody must get stoned' makes stoners everywhere a little happier every time they hear it.
Apologies for having deviated from the journey into melodic and sombre slumber. We may resume with another track in that vein right here and right now. A far cry from his feel good rocker moments Bruce Springsteen toned it down and poured himself into Nebraska. The haunting vocals and the as expected; perfect songwriting and formidable guitar playing combine to create a fantastic album. I have gone with the second track here. The harmonica is great too it seems to join on and elongate the vocals at times.
Rounding off tonight's posting is Anomie Belle's song Down. It is my attempt at a trip hop equivalent of the recurrent theme.
Internet peoples; I have been absent from this blog of late and for that my humblest apologies. I was stuck right between a mouse and a hard place. I didn't have comfortable internet access. You know what I mean, the sort of internet access where once can be naked and picking crisp fat from one's hirstute upper torso. Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu once sung 'Listen to On Fire and pretend someone could love you'
He was referring to the Galaxie 500 album On Fire. An a bittersweet effort in melancholy and fuzzy ambience. It includes a wonderful rendition of the George Harrison song Isn't It A Pity. It truly is a remarkable album, Blue Thunder and Snowstorm are particular highlights for me.
Galaxie 500 enjoyed a short lived existence between 1987 and 1991. They were a trio: Dean Wareham on vocals and guitar, Naomi Yang on bass guitar and drummer Damon Krukowski. They originally met in London but began playing together whilst in Harvard. Early Galaxie 500 recordings feature a drum kit on loan to the band from none other than Conan O'Brien a fellow student of theirs at the time. On Fire is the bands best work and sits proudly as their greatest achievement, it truly is an outstanding album
Also popping around inside my head begging to be played is the Yo La Tengo album Painful. And this song in particular.
My ability to accumulate music has stalled recently due to laptop problems as it is suffering from being over stuffed with superfluous files and so generally just turns itself off at will.
