The Stooges – “Down on the Street” and “Fun House” from Fun House (1970)
This may the most muscular rock album ever.
Whatever you do, play it loud.
Posted by Jordy
Monthly Archives: September 2007
Oneida – “Reckoning” from Happy New Year (2006)
I suggest following up Jordy’s recent Bonnie-‘Prince’-plus-gin suggestion with a glass of mellow bourbon and this track from the fantastic Oneida.
Posted by Glenn
Filed under 2000s, Psychedelic, Rock
“As I have heard from hell”
Neil Young w/ Johnny Depp – “Dead Man Theme” from the Dead Man soundtrack (1995)
This flick is playing at The Loft here in Tucson this weekend. I always liked it and think it would be killer on the big screen.
NY recorded this soundtrack after the film was mostly edited. He claims that he improvised much of it while watching the film on “about 20 TVs all around me, big ones, little ones, tiny little portables, and wide screens and everything hanging from the ceiling in a big semicircle all the way around me.”
Buy the soundtrack and/or movie
Posted by Jordy
Filed under 1990s, Rock, Soundtrack
John Fahey – “Sligo River Blues” from The Legend of Blind Joe Death (1967)
Since Glenn posted on Fahey a while back, I’ve been lost in it. It’s so beautiful and unassuming.
Buy it now, for cryin’ out loud
Posted by Jordy
The madness of crowds
Baker Hunt Sandstrom Williams – “Experiments on Animals in Space” from Extraordinary Popular Delusions (2007)
Kudos to Chicago’s finest improvising ensemble for paying homage to Charles MacKay’s apparently classic text on, as the t-shirt some jackass in your high school biology class wore states, “the power of stupid people in large groups.”
Jim Baker (piano, synths, ARP organ), Steve Hunt (drums), Brian Sandstrom (bass, guitar), and Mars Williams (reeds) play a weekly Tuesday night gig at Chicago’s Hotti Biscotti (3545 W. Fullerton, 3 blocks from my old place) that you must check out if you’re ever in the neighborhood. The music is of the free-jazz energy music ilk–i.e., not for the faint of heart–but unlike most of those experiments, Baker & co. remain interesting after 15 minutes of listening. The group listens to each other and responds and communicates as well as any of the great jazz ensembles. Their new album demonstrates their sympathetic improvising, but to hear them live on a Tuesday night is to know you are in the presence of real power, real art.
There’s an interesting video from the Gear Wire Web site featuring Jim Baker talking gear; also included are a couple nice clips of the group at top form.
Baker Hunt Sandstrom Williams
live every Tuesday, 8:30 pm (it’s free!)
Hotti Biscotti
3545 W. Fullerton Ave.
Chicago IL
Posted by Glenn
Filed under 2000s, Experimental, Instrumental, Jazz
“I’m on my seventh cold glass of gin”
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – “I Am Drinking Again” from I See a Darkness [Import] (1999)
For some reason, this song was not included on the US release. It’s one of my favorite Will Oldham tunes.
It sounds just like a slowed-down evening. Try it out this weekend.
Posted by Jordy
“A rare and blistering sun shines down”
Red House Painters – “Grace Cathedral Park” from S/T (Rollercoaster) (1993)
The Decemberists – “Grace Cathedral Hill” from Castaways & Cutouts (2002)
I’ve never been to Grace Cathedral but it sounds like a beautiful place.
Posted by Jordy
“Like arrows with no target”
Leonard Cohen – “True Love Leaves No Traces” from Death of a Ladies’ Man (1977)
I don’t like Phil Spector – mostly because he’s a murderer.
However, the bombast of his arrangements on this record are the perfect backdrop for Leonard Cohen’s characterization of a pathetic, aging philanderer. Of the two, I would say Cohen probably understood best the irony of the record (and the whole era, for that matter).
Spector was probably just really coked-up.
Posted by Jordy
“Here we come again”
“But darling, what can I do?”
Roy Orbison – “Crying” (1961)
Look at that man. He made some of the greatest, most passionate rock and roll records ever.
Notice the abnormally long neck. That’s what allowed him the range to climb from 1:25 of this song to 1:50. Wow.
Posted by Jordy
“Me with nothing to say”
Yo La Tengo – “Autumn Sweater” from I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One (1997)
It’s starting to get cool and cloudy down here in North Carolina. Sorry, Jordy.
I tried to post the Tortoise cover of “Autumn Sweater,” originally released on a 1997 Yo La Tengo EP and rereleased on 2005’s Tortoise rarities comp A Lazarus Taxon, but I bought the Tortoise on iTunes, and therefore it is “protected.” Bunch of bull.
Posted by Glenn
“Yes, yes, yes”
The Kinks – “Autumn Almanac” (1967)
Summer officially ends this weekend and we welcome the crispness of autumn. Except for me, since I’m in southern Arizona and it’s still terribly hot.
This song is so British.
Posted by Jordy
“If I waited for you to signify”
Guided By Voices – “Gold Star for Robot Boy” from Bee Thousand (1994)
Guided By Voices – “Game of Pricks” from Tiger Bomb EP (1995)
I can’t believe it took me until two months ago to listen to Guided By Voices. This is the good shit. One million emo bands have tried to write a chorus as anthemic as “Robot Boy”‘s opening verse. Damn.
Thanks to Ryan for “Game of Pricks.”
Posted by Glenn
“Listen to your junkman”
Painting by Bernard Safran
Bruce Springsteen – “New York City Serenade” from The Wild, the Innocent & the E-Street Shuffle (1973)
This is among Springsteen’s most beautiful songs.
Now, I haven’t spent a lot of time in New York City and certainly not in 1973, but this tune seems intimately connected to that time and place in my mind.
Posted by Jordy
“The scientists say it will all wash away”
The Flying Burrito Brothers – “Sin City” from The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969)
Another song about how L.A. is a terrible place.
Country music has been in jeopardy for the last 30 years or so. No one can seem to save it from itself. But when I listen to this album, I realize that there was a time when it was one of the most beautiful kinds of music.
Thanks to Tylor for putting me on to these guys.
Posted by Jordy
So Well Remembered 