Went To A Gig...

I dragged my old bones to a gig last night. It has been awhile. I'm slouched in my chair with a hangover to prove I did it. A good line-up of the new guard in a Coburg art gallery got me there. I like art gallery gigs and I like gold coin donation beer.

It was my second time seeing Absolute Boys and Gold Tango. Absolute Boys were the the band of the night for me; good songs and plenty of potential to improve. New War were okay, I've been meaning to check 'em out for awhile but I just didn't really feel them, if you know what I mean. Likewise with Gold Tango. I'm interested in anything the members do (Useless Children, etc), but I couldn't completely let myself enjoy them. Too many beers, probably.

Afterward we caught Chrome Dome at the Empress (of India). They were the best I've seen them. I may buy their debut album yet.

Johnson Street 3066

A Confession

Do you ever stand in front of that misshapen pile of CD’s you own and wonder what the hell to put on? You know you should put on a record, but God, where to begin and who can be bothered choosing something, pulling out the sleeve, putting the thing on the platter, carefully placing the needle. Don’t get me wrong, I love the vinyl ritual, but sometimes you just want easy access to good sounds, right?

My CD collection isn’t massive. I’ve culled it down to the absolute essentials so everything in there is good to great. Compared to my vinyl collection, I treat my CD’s like an albino brother who ran away, became a drug addict and is now a shame on the family name.

What’s my point here? Well, I play about 10 of those albino CD’s on a regular basis: Dr. Dre, 2001; T.Rex, The Slider; Dead Moon, Echoes Of The Past come to mind. Aside from compilations like the Can’t Stop It! series, anything from the Soul Jazz label and the Anthology Of American Folk Music, my most listened CD is Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco.

Now hang on. Keep reading, I can explain. It’s a masterpiece. Yeah I know every Pitchfork-touting nerd in town thinks that, but it’s true dudes. I’m up to my elbows in assignments at the moment and YHF is my best friend. We laugh, we cry, we drink!

I stumbled across Wilco at the 2003 Auckland Big Day Out. They played mid afternoon on one of the small stages to a ridiculously small audience. I didn’t know anything about them then but I was sold. Actually, I forgot about them until I saw Sam Jones’ I Am Trying To Break Your Heart documentary on the making (and breaking, and fighting, etc) of the album. I was sold all over again. 

The reason I'm garbling about Wilco is last month I had the opportunity to meet drummer Glen Kotche and guitarist Nels Cline at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. They’re two of the nicest guys going. I said to Glenn, ‘I dig your band’ and he was like, ‘thanks.’ I didn’t tell him that his percussion intro to the song I Am Trying To Break Your Heart is one of my favourite opening sequences ever. Nels and Glenn played as a duo at Bennett’s Lane later that night and were as far removed from Wilco as your imagination can stretch. 

It’s no secret that YHF is a document of a band at the height of its powers. If you’ve heard the demos floating around the Internet you can appreciate just how much Wilco crafted the songs and the mastery of Jim O’Rourke’s mix. The little things he incorporates totally make the record. He is absolute key here.

This is the only Wilco album I own. I’ve heard Summerteeth and A Ghost Is Born, but honestly, I’m happy for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to be entirely representative of the Wilco I know and love.

Sweet Marianne

I'm making a compilation of music for my Dad. It's all the stuff we used to listen to when I was growing up, stuff he would play me. 90%  of it is utter crap. There's some Eddy Cochran and Buddy Holly in there, but apart from that it's of little use to anyone but him.

One thing I did revist, and probably the most interesting record in my parents entire record collection is Marianne Faithfull's  Broken English album. I know it's not exacly Sticky Fingers or Dark Side of The Moon like I desperately hoped for as a kid, but it's something.

Just what is Marianne Faithfull saying in The Eyes Of Lucy Jordan? Is it some kind of suburban housewife nightmare? Does the woman in the song kill herself at the end?

Hang on, I'll do some wiki-cheat research...

Faithfull said that the story she intended to put across in the song was that Lucy climbs to the roof top but gets taken away by "the man who reached and offered her his hand" in an ambulance ("long white car") to a mental hospital, and that the final lines ("At the age of thirty-seven she knew she'd found forever / As she rode along through Paris with the warm wind in her hair ...") are actually in her imagination at the hospital.

This song could have so easily been a folk tune (it was originally done by Dr Hook?). The opening line, 'The morning sun touch lighty on, the eyes of Lucy Jordan' always reminds me of the Fairport Convention. Faithfull's voice is amazing in the second verse, the part where her voice changes/breaks as she sings 'and the kid's are off to school', and 'rearrange the flowers'. I love that verse. Thank God for ciggarettes, eh?

I wonder how much input produer Mark Miller Mundy had on that post-punkish synth sound she got. It's so subversive the way it barely changes through the whole song yet you hardly notice. I like the way he brings up the second synth half-way through the first chorus and builds it thereafter.

Giant Steps

My first ever jazz tape, Ellington/Hawkins & Eric Dolphy's Outward Bound. Dubbed from loan CD's at Auckland Library sometime in the mid 1990's. Unbeknown to me at the time, these two albums are a straightforward jazz style, nothing too crazy and a good place to begin. Something like Ornette or Albert Ayler would have flipped me out back then. I remember dancing at home with a girlfriend to Duke and it being so cool. I also recall alternating this tape in the car with my other new discovery: Minor Threat - Out Of Step.

Thee Oh Sees & Wounded Lion

So the new Thee Oh Sees album is a good one huh? I'm still digesting their last LP, Dog Poison, which was basically a solo stoner project for singer John Dwyer under Thee Oh Sees name: it worked = I bought it.

Warm Slime (In The Red) is as different from Dog Poison as Dog Poison was from Help. What I mean is Thee Oh Sees have a style of sound their own and still manage to switch it up/down each record they make. Treat Warm Slime like an EP but not exactly an 'in-between album' deal because this band are super prolific and release consistently strong material without care for a typical discography. Great bands releasing albums whenever they damn-well please suits me.

I love how the title track is stretched to over 13 minutes (the entirety of side A) with six short, loud and catchy tunes on the flip. Warm Slime (the song) could have been cut down to four minutes, but why should it? I Was Denied and Everything Went Black are favorites and might be familiar if you saw any of the bands Melbourne shows last December. A solid bunch of songs here: they sound like one-take, live performances with very little post production. I love everything about this band.

Another band whose debut LP (again via In The Red records) I've been excited to hear is Wounded Lion, a five-piece from LA. Yes, this is the band I compared, sort of, to Vampire Weekend in an old post. I still stand by that claim, but yeah, the Clean, Cramps, Modern Lovers is probably a better indication. But fuck, I hate comparisons, what band at the moment with a jangle guitar and a keyboard isn't being compared to the Clean / J. Richman?

First heard these guys through a 45, Carol Cloud b/w Pony People way back in 2008. Both tunes are on the album, both re-recorded, which you can kinda understand, though I cringe when bands re-record early singles for a debut and lose the original feel of what made the song great. Both had a crunchier guitar and chunkier bass and drum sound; that manic ending to Pony People is nowhere to be found on the album. That said, both songs are actually decent versions that work with the record's overall feel.

Wounded Lion are a weird looking band - very un-photogenic. Pop hooks, arcane lyrics, and a  sense of fun spill out of this weirdness in a big way. Any band that makes its own film-clip using Power Point that turns out like this has my vote. For an mp3 of album highlight Creatures In The Cave click here.

Scott Walker and all that

A friend of mine is going through this goo-goo Scott Walker phase; he of 60’s hit parade group the Walker Brothers and - far more interestingly - as the author of work under a banner of solo albums titled Scott 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

 

 I haven’t caught up to Mr. Walker yet; musically he seems to be about 20 years ahead of everyone. A 2006 documentary, 30^th Century Man, fills in all the gaps of his fascinating musical trajectory, from feted 60’s heart-throb to self-imposed obscurity. Three things I got out of this documentary: Walker is a visionary with an incredible ear for sound; he’s a super complex dude with major punk attitude; and I need to delve into his work ASAP.

30th Century Man trailer

The reason I mention Scott Walker was cos I was thinking about the re-issue label 4 Men With Beards today. These guys are responsible for re -issuing Scott’s solo albums (Scott 1-4). I like to think the label is actually run by four burly bearded bears draped in flannel. There are a handful of labels dedicated to re-issuing deleted gems in a caring and dedicated way (Soundway, Aztec, etc) and 4MWB do a great job of putting out important  albums in LP format. Check out their catalogue on the Forced Exposure site and get your credit card out. 

Russell & Ron = Sparks

Do you know Russell and Ron, the Mael brothers? Do you know Sparks? I feel as if I’m the only person who can appreciate the brilliance of Sparks. Hell, I’m the only person I’ve met who even knows who they are.

I get the feeling most music lovers - people who appreciate sound as an art form, who sit down, put on headphones and actually concentrate on music - won’t get Sparks. I can hear them now: ‘They sound gay. They are a pantomime/fairytale/joke.’

It’s so strange to me how Sparks are never mentioned as influences by bands. If I had an ounce of musical talent, Sparks would be my primary influence. That said, the only musician I’ve ever read or even heard mention Sparks is Morrissey. Okay, so most of you will stop reading here. Fair enough.

Awhile back there was this excellent CD series called Under the Influence. It was basically a compilation of particular artist's influences, chosen by them, annotated by them, etc. I play Ian Brown’s one every other week (reggae, northern soul, hip-hop). I didn’t bother with Geldof’s (good, but what you’d expect). Moz’z one is this jumble of eclectic stuff, from the 50’s through to the Dolls. He throws in Arts & Crafts Spectacular and writes of Sparks as kindred spirits: of wanting to be "with creatures of my own species" and essentially suck their cocks. So blame Sparks for the Smiths.

Not long after I got the Kimono My House album and fell for the Mael brothers myself. I mean, even if the music sucked, I’d still have a large amount of respect for their iconoclastic artwork (album covers) and image (dazzlingly absurdist).

So, yeah, that was me walking round the city this afternoon totally absorbed in 1974’s Propaganda album. Sparks rule.

Feeling Bad...

This Must Be The Place

If you want to talk about a song that matters and is right for every occasion (birth, suicide, shopping, speeding, fucking) then that song is This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) by the Talking Heads. I don't know any of the words. I think it's about falling in love in a big city at night with lions and tigers all around. I like how it's about the other three as much as David: the reggae guitar thing with the upbeat keys. Kids love this sort of music, it always grounds (not grinds) you into feeling good. Go put it on.