Guided By Voices – “The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory” from Bee Thousand (1994)
Led Zeppelin – “Misty Mountain Hop” from IV (1971)
Well, I’m off to the Smoky Mountains for a hiking trip. See you in a week if we don’t freeze to death. Here are a couple of my favorite mountain-themed songs by two great bands who wrote songs about elves.
Posted by Glenn
The Replacements – “Skyway” from Pleased to Meet Me (1987)
Rediscovered this pretty little paean to Minneapolis walkways during a recent 26-hour delay in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. One of Westerberg & Co.’s best.
Sorry Ma, forgot to buy all their albums
Posted by Glenn
Calexico – “Gift X-Change” and “Crawlspace” from Aerocalexico (2001)
I wish everyone a fine Christmas time. Here are a couple pretty tunes from Aerocalexico to share with your family: “Gift X-Change” for the plane/car ride home if you’re not already there and “Crawlspace” for anytime you forget that the pedal steel guitar makes the most beautiful sounds ever created by men.
I am headed back home to Michigan until January 4. See you then, friends.
Photo courtesy of Hillside Photos
Posted by Jordy
Silver Jews – “New Orleans” from Starlite Walker (1994) and “Wild Kindness” from American Water (1998)
The Silver Jews is the most consistently under-appreciated group of the last 15 years. Perhaps it’s because David Berman usually stays tucked away in Nashville fostering his country soul.
As a Christmas gift, I give you two of my all-time favorite SJ songs. Notice Stephen Malkmus’ unparalleled guitar stylings especially in “The Wild Kindness.”
Posted by Jordy
Echo & the Bunnymen – “The Killing Moon” from Ocean Rain (1984)
Pavement – “The Killing Moon” from Major Leagues EP (1999)
Ever since I heard it in Donnie Darko, I have found this to be one of the creepiest songs ever. But Pavement provides an appropriately goofy cover without compromising the terrific melody.
Posted by Jordy
Bill Fox – “Song of a Drunken Nightingale” from Transit Byzantium (1998)
Tom Waits – “In the Neighborhood” from Swordfishtrombones (1983)
I’ll be in MO and KS for the next week, reenacting the Battle of Westport. As a for-a-while farewell, here’s a beaut from SWR fave Bill Fox and a Tom Waits classic famously described by Jordy’s wife as “A Cookie Monster Christmas.”
See you on Boxing Day.
Bill Fox is expensive (just buy it from iTunes)
Posted by Glenn
Neutral Milk Hotel – “Holland, 1945” from In The Aeroplane Over The Sea [1998]
Jesus Christ this is a beautiful song.
Visionary beauty from another Elephant 6 Collective member, Jeff Mangum. This record captures tragedy and suffering as well as any pop record I can think of. Including Pet Sounds.
Bonus uninteresting trivia!: the wedding of Jordy’s brother featured a Neutral Milk Hotel song.
Posted by Glenn
Filed under 1990s, Folk, Rock, Singer-Songwriter
The Olivia Tremor Control – “Jumping Fences” from Music From The Unrealized Film Script: Dusk At Cubist Castle (1996)
The Elephant 6 Collective has been responsible for some of the most visionary pop music of the past 15 years or so, with Neutral Milk Hotel and the Olivia Tremor Control being the main exponents of Beacheatles-esque lo-fi loveliness. (E6 bands Of Montreal, Circulatory System, and A Hawk and A Hacksaw also get a lot of play around the apartment.)
Image courtesy of Married To The Sea. Check it, it’s the funniest thing on the Interweb.
Posted by Glenn
Filed under 1990s, Pop, Psychedelic, Rock
The Beach Boys – “I’m Waiting for the Day” from Pet Sounds (1966)
This gem from Brian Wilson’s masterpiece, Pet Sounds, is a perfect example of how that album set a new standard for pop songwriting. It combined an infectious melody with flawless harmonies, unique but appropriate instrumentation, and one of the greatest codas in rock history. Most of this craft was due, no doubt, to B. Wilson’s obsessive attention to detail and demand for perfection.
The record was recorded over a span of six months and each song features between 10 and 20 or more musicians. Read about the storied production of the album here.
I can’t say enough good things about Pet Sounds, if only for the tremendous work ethic and respect for the medium it exhibits. It is most certainly among the top five best albums of all time, in my view.
Posted by Jordy
Bob Dylan and the Band – “All you have to do is dream – take 1”
and “All you have to do is dream – take 2” from Tree With Roots (2001)
Here are two takes of one of the more coherent tunes from the Basement Tapes sessions. It has a pretty infectious groove courtesy of R. Danko (bass) and R. Robertson (lead guitar).
Anyone know what a “floor bird” is?
Posted by Jordy
Filed under 1960s, Americana, Folk, Rock, Roots rock, Tree With Roots
X – “Adult Books” from Wild Gift (1980); plus “Adult Books [demo]” (197?) from Rhino reissue of Los Angeles (1979)
Another Books-related post, tee hee. Great L. A. punk from Viggo Mortensen’s ex-wife & co.
Posted by Glenn
The Books – “Twelve Fold Chain” from Lost and Safe (2005)
This is the most sedative song I have ever heard.
For those not familiar with the Books, please check them out, especially if you’re as tired of indie rock as I am. They are at once warmly familiar and experimental.
Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up on these guys.
Posted by Jordy
Filed under 2000s, Experimental
Nick Drake – “Hazey Jane II” from Bryter Layter (1970)
The powers that be here at SWR have been gracious enough to allow me to do a guest spot here, so here goes: I was walking around town all day yesterday with this song in my head, and given this blog’s reference to a very nice Nick Drake cover, I thought this would be the perfect venue to share this relatively obscure song with the world.
This is the most upbeat song that the perennially melancholic Nick Drake ever recorded. Backed up by Fairport Convention, this is the second track off what was purportedly Drake’s least favorite of his three albums. I neglected this album for a long time, but since I finally picked it up, it has proven its worth many times over.
Posted by Adam
Filed under 1970s, Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Modest Mouse – “The Stars Are Projectors” from The Moon and Antarctica (2000)
Modest Mouse’s 2000 release is, in my opinion, a five-star all-time classic. “The Stars Are Projectors” stands as the most epic and mind-expanding track.
Check out more photos from the Hubble here
Posted by Glenn
Any SWReaders interested in classical music, music theory, or I guess what you’d call performance theory might be interested in Jeremy Denk’s blog, Think Denk. Denk is a concert pianist and a great writer about the intracicies of what is going on, emotion-wise, in the technical side of classical music. From a recent post about the extent to which music evokes states of desire and surprise:
Will is not either free or not. The Krispie Method shows that I might succumb to desire with various amounts of will, and posits a kind of will-free extreme, where the Treat appears out of nowhere, is not willed and yet is extremely desired: probably impossible, probably heaven. Music has a way of evoking these various states of will.
Thanks to Heather for pointing me in Denk’s direction.
–Glenn
So Well Remembered
So Well Remembered 