One of the best bass lines ever
July 8, 2009
“Afternoon Tea” by the Kinks from Something Else (1967)
Come to think of it, every single track on this album is worth its own post. I’m just sayin’, is all.
Buy Everything Else by the Kinks
Posted by Jordy
Jeff W., is that you?
Drive-By Truckers – “The Opening Act” from Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (2008)
I’m a little late to hop on the Drive-By Truckers Mechanical Bull Ride, which is too bad, because they used to play down here in Greensboro on a fairly regular basis. While their latest album is not nearly perfect, this song is.
“The Opening Act” is a Tonight’s The Night-esque epic. The bit toward the end, where the narrator sees the sun “rising over a Technicolor horizon,” is a beautiful example of how good bands use color and variation in music to illustrate the dramatic weight of the lyrics. The song just seems to lift off right there.
Posted by Glenn
the protaganist of the S-K song below
Sleater-Kinney – “Light Rail Coyote” from One Beat (2002)
Bill Fox – “Portland Town” from Transit Byzantium (1998)
I’m off to Portland, OR for a week of this, this, and this. So I offer two of my favorite Portland songs, including one from our main man, Bill Fox.
What are your fave geography tunes?
Bill Fox is on iTunes, but you can check him out here
Posted by Glenn
“Country fair in the country sun”
June 26, 2009
Sly and the Family Stone – “Hot Fun In The Summertime” from Greatest Hits (1970) [originally released 1969]
Ya know what’s sad? (No, not the death of Michael Jackson.) Sly Stone (nee Stewart)’s slow descent into addiction in the 1970s, and his sad attempts at reemergence in recent years. Before that he was one of the smartest and most creative singers and arrangers in rock and roll or soul or whatever genre he worked in. “You can’t figure out what bag I’m in,” indeed.
What’s so tragic, or ironic, is that Sly’s early vision was almost beatific in its idealism — a band of blacks and whites, men and women, family and otherwise, performing a peace-bringing mash-up of psychedelia, rock, R&B, pop, and funk. Listening to Greatest Hits back in the day, you might have thought that partying down really might bring about a better world. (Cf. “Maybe Partying Will Help,” The Minutemen, one of the few bands near Sly/Family on the inventiveness-vs.-funkiness coordinate plane.)
Parties end in hangovers, and Sly suffered from a major one.
But shit! Before all that, Sly put out a load of stone-cold (sorry) good-time classics, including “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” possibly his best, and certainly appropriate for hot midsummer. Please play it loud and often.
By the way, I agree with Christgau here: Sly & The Family Stone’s Greatest Hits is one of the greatest rock LPs of all time. Certainly better than any of The Gloved One’s creepy opi. (Sorry to dwell, but the day demands it. Dude’s overrated. MJ’s ballads, for one, are more treacly than Stevie Wonder’s, and that’s saying something. Seriously, “You Are Not Alone”? “Man In The Mirror”? Those songs creeps the fuck out of me, and not just ’cause dude liked to paw little boys.)
(Huh, apparently Sly produced the Beau Brummels back in the early ’60s, for Autumn Records. Whaddya know?)
Here’s a fascinating interview with Sly on KCRW last month.
Posted by Glenn
“Turn around, summer’s almost over”
June 23, 2009
I didn’t even realize that we’d passed the solstice. But that’s how Summer goes.
I don’t know why I haven’t made a Beau Brummels post yet. Though not as prolific or flashy as their LA contemporaries the Byrds (in all candor, they even scooped the Byrds, having formed earlier in 1964), this band played a critical role in the development of countrified pop rock. This tune is from their outstanding and mature Nashville session Bradley’s Barn. I also include the Everly Brothers cover from their Roots record which was arranged in part by Brummels founder Ron Elliott.
The Beau Brummels – “Turn Around” from Bradley’s Barn (1968)
The Everly Brothers – “Turn Around” from Roots (1968)
Buy Beau Brummels’ Bradley’s Barn
Posted by Jordy
Blind Faith – “Well…All Right“ From Blind Faith [1969]
A while back I posted the Buddy Holly version of this song. This is the Blind Faith cover. I like the original because the lyrics, which are beautiful, are easily heard. I like the Blind Faith version because Blind Faith is awesome.
Now, what does the above photo have to do with Blind Faith?
Posted by Adam
Elvis Costello, live
June 14, 2009
I caught Elvis Costello at Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA Thursday night. I haven’t heard much of his new bluegrassish album but he and the band sounded pretty good. To be honest, I have trouble dealing with great rockers outside (particularly, after) their prime, be it EC, Dylan, or otherwise. It just seems weird.
In keeping with his appropriated American identity, he played a lot of stuff from King of America (Indoor Fireworks, Brilliant Mistake, American Without Tears) and even one from Almost Blue (Merle Haggard’s “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down”):
He also covered the Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” which seemed to draw more applause and singing-along than “Blame it on Cain” or “The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes.” They also did a nice work-up of the Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale.”
Other highlights included a couple tunes from his incomplete concept opera about the life of Hans Christian Andersen.
Posted by Jordy
Hey folks, there’s been a lot of ink spilled about this Neil Young Archves, Vol. I business. As the biggest NY fan I know, I feel compelled to weigh in but also solicit your advice and thoughts on the matter.
I really want to get this box set but am not planning on doing so (right now, anyway) for a couple of reasons: firstly, I own most of these songs in their studio versions and can’t bring myself to spend a huge chunk of change for alternate versions and tracks I’ve never heard, though I am horribly curious to hear them and to see Young’s weirdo movie Journey Through the Past in its entirety; secondly and most importantly, I am overwhelmed by the options for purchasing it. I, like all of you, don’t own a Blu-Ray player and was actually seriously considering buying a decent CD player for once in my life. In short, this whole Archives project makes me all the more angst-ridden about how to charter my audio future. Will Blu-Ray become the next Laserdisk? Why didn’t Neil release this set on vinyl? Are CDs doomed to irrelevance despite my owning hundreds of them? At what height of fidelity are the differences negligible? Digital music is totally and sadly divorced from the sacred ritual of listening to music but I can’t give up my iPod.
What do I do, fair reader? I am lost.
Lost, that is, until Vol. II comes out. Then I’ll be first in line to buy it in whatever format is en vogue. It will cover something like 1973 to 1979, which, as I’ve said before, is a period of unparalleled rock innovation. Witness: “Time Fades Away”, “On the Beach”, “Tonight’s the Night”, “Zuma”, “American Stars ‘N Bars”, “Comes a Time”, and “Rust Never Sleeps.” Good lord…that’s unbelievable.
Anyway, I need some feedback here. What audio format do you prefer? What do you all think about any or all of the following: Neil Young, CDs, vinyl, MP3s, Blu-Ray, pepperoni and onion pizza?
*sigh*
Neil Young – “Burned” from Decade (1977)
Posted by Jordy
Marvin Gaye – “God Is Love” from What’s Going On (1971) & “God Is Love (B-Side Version)” from “What’s Going On” single (1971)
What’s Going On is a well-worn classic. Though the hit singles (”Mercy Mercy Me,” “Inner City Blues,” and the title track) are awesome, “God Is Love” shows the album at its most triumphant. (It’s also my fave song on the record.)
The earlier, slower version of “God Is Love,” was recorded slightly earlier, after Gaye’s unsuccessful tryout for the Detroit Lions (no shit!). It served as the B-side to the the “What’s Going On” single.
What’s Going On? You’re Buying The Dang Album!
Posted by Glenn
“Finance is all that he understands”
June 2, 2009
On top of every good singer is a cool hat.
Curtis Mayfield – “Little Child Runnin’ Wild” from Superfly (1972)
I’m becoming increasingly convinced that Curtis Mayfield was one of the best and most inventive songwriters of the ’60s and ’70s. Certainly he had one of the best voices — that soft, sneaky insistence — and best ensemble sounds, both with the Impressions and on his own. In “Little Child,” the opening track from Mayfield’s famous soundtrack to the blaxplotation flick Superfly, the band sounds alternately like a leaf floating on wind, an interstellar-overdriven rocketship, a funky shake of the hip. And Curtis’s vocal performance here, with subtle variations of timbre and volume, injects the Little Child’s plight directly into the crook of your arm. It’s emotionally complex and geniunely affecting.
Today, there’s something awkward about Mayfield’s simple rhymes and earnest exhortations, but they seem a throwback to a less-cynical era. Then again, one might argue that by shoehorning stark “important” social commentary into a cheap ghetto-fabulous cash-cow thriller like Superfly, Mayfield (or the film’s producers) brought about some of today’s cynicism — our preference for guarded ironic cool, our distrust of straightforward statements of positivity, conscience, and passion. As Lester Bangs said (over and over, obsessively), we seem to be using music and art to kill our emotions. Or using music and art to stand in for our emotions.
But to counteract the soul-killing, we’ve got Curtis. And the Clash, see below. And the other music we try to present to y’all here at SWR.
Expect more posts from me in the coming weeks featuring those ‘69-’75 auteurs of soul: Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, Issac Hayes, George Clinton, Stevie Wonder. I haven’t yet moved beyond the big names, but it’s hard to seek the obscure when the famous stuff is so damn good.
Baby Huey covers Curtis Mayfield
Posted by Glenn
A Clash Triptych
May 31, 2009
The Clash – “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais” single (1978)
The Clash – “Safe European Home” from Give ‘Em Enough Rope (1978)
The Clash – “Rudie Can’t Fail” from London Calling (1979)
“Safe European Home” tells the now-famous story of Joe Strummer and Mick Jones’s disappointing trip to Jamaica. Thematically, it echoes one of their best singles, “White Main In Hammersmith Palais,” a stream-of-consciousness Strummer rant set off by a dopey reggae showcase in London: “On stage they ain’t got no roots rock rebel.” Taken together, these two songs set up ideas about cultural imperialism and idolization that the Clash would explore, lyrically and musically, on London Calling, Sandinista!, and Combat Rock.
And since “Safe European Home” ends with the words “Rudie come from Jamaica, ’cause Rudie can’t fail,” I include the stone-cold classic from London Calling.
These also happen to be three of my favorite Clash songs.
Posted by Glenn
“I can stay awake all night”
May 26, 2009
I caught Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy in Alexandria, VA over the weekend and thought it a terrific show. Will’s brother Ned opened the set in the duo Old Calf which was also very good. Oldham’s band was really excellent: great singing and very tight. They even played Glenn’s and my favorite selection from the Superwolf collaboration.
As a further sample, here is one of my favorite tracks for a rainy day: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – “Raining in Darling” from I See a Darkness (1999)
If you’re in or near any of his next dates, do try to check him out. I guarantee a good time:
Tuesday, May 26
Knoxville, TN
Bijou Theatre
(w/ Lichens)
Wednesday, May 27
Asheville, NC
Grey Eagle
(w/ Lichens)
Thursday, May 28
Carrboro, NC
The Arts Center
(w/ Lichens)
Friday, May 29
Atlanta, GA
Variety Playhouse
(w/ Lichens)
Saturday, May 30
Birmingham, AL
Bottletree
(w/ Lichens)
Tuesday, June 2
New Orleans, LA
One-Eyed Jacks
(w/ The Howling Hex)
Wednesday, June 3
Baton Rouge, LA
Spanish Moon
(w/ The Howling Hex)
Thursday, June 4
Houston, TX
Walter’s on Washington
(w/ The Howling Hex)
Friday, June 5
Austin, TX
The Mohawk
(w/ Howling Hex)
Saturday, June 6
Dallas, TX
Granada Theater
(w/ Howling Hex)
Monday, June 8
Little Rock, AR
Sticky Fingerz Chicken Shack
(w/ Bachelorette)
Tuesday, June 9
Memphis, TN
Minglewood Hall
(w/ Bachelorette)
Wednesday, June 10
Nashville, TN
Belcourt Theatre
(w/ Bachelorette)
Thursday, June 11
Newport, KY
The Southgate House
(w/ Bachelorette)
Friday, June 12
Columbus, OH
Capitol Theatre
(w/ Bachelorette)
Saturday, June 13
Lexington, KY
Red Mile Round Bar
(w/ Bachelorette)
Buy all your favorite Drag City releases
Posted by Jordy
If you think Tom Waits has been conspicuously absent from this space, it’s only because our reverence for his work needs no garish display. So I offer only this track from his Orphans comp to indicate what I love about him.
Tom Waits – “Fannin Street” from Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006)
Who the fuck is Scarlett Johansson?
Posted by Jordy
Fishing at 3 a.m.
May 19, 2009
Henry Thomas – “Fishing Blues” (1928) from The Anthology of American Folk Music (1952)
I know that I posted this before, but last night I was awoken at 3:30 am by a neighbor blasting this song at full volume. Infuriating, but at least the guy’s got good taste. Please enjoy at any time that won’t piss your neighbors off.
Taj Mahal performing “Fishing Blues”:
Posted by Glenn
Live, live?
May 17, 2009
Live – “Selling the Drama” from Throwing Copper [1994]
The band Live (ryhmes with jive) represents several firsts for me. This album, Throwing Copper, was the first album I ever acquired on CD. This song, “Selling the Drama,” was the first song of theirs that I heard on the radio, and subsequently made me a fan. Also, Live was the first band I saw in concert without parental supervision, on the Secret Samadhi tour, back when I was in eighth grade.
I still listen to Throwing Copper and Secret Samadhi every few months, and every now and then one of their songs will pop into my head for no apparent reason. According to my last.fm page, I’ve listened to 51 tracks by the band over the past 12 months. Not bad for a band who I have not purchased a new album by in twelve years. I didn’t even know, for example, that they released an album in 2006 called Songs from Black Mountain, or a live album (that’s right, a live Live album) in November of last year.
I’ve always liked singer Ed Kowalczyk’s voice, and the thought-provoking lyrical content on Throwing Copper and Secret Samadhi (I can’t speak for their newer albums). Plus, Live is one of the few bands that I listened to then that I still come back to today, which adds a nice bit of nostalgia for me. This must be what it feels like for my mom to listen to the Beatles today.
Posted by Adam
