Just checking out the WFMU heavily played list (and waiting for a big file to download) and I ran across this kicking video of Ty Segall playing "Pretty Baby." He's got a new record out on a label that John Dwyer (of the Coachwhips and the Oh Sees) runs called Castle Face...which I might have to check out now.
What do you think?
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Which is the real 1980s band…and which isn’t?
I’ve got two reviews up at Blurt right now, both of bands that reek of the 1980s. One of them, the Zero Boys, comes by its influences the old-fashioned way…their fantastic only full-length, Vicious Circle was originally released in 1981 and has been reissued this week by Secretly Canadian. The other, the Pains at Being Pure at Heart, is a latter-day echo of fuzzy, noisy, Creation records-style pop, but quite good anyway.
The Zero Boys is just excellent, classic punk, leaning a little more to West Coast than East…but you could draw all kinds of links to the Ramones and Dead Boys, as well as TSOL, the Angry Samoans and the diLs if you really got going. My review is unusually hard to excerpt, but not bad, so if you’re curious, why not read the whole thing?
Here’s Zero Boy’s “Civilization’s Dying”
The Pains review is a little easier to chop into pieces. I said, “A reverb-heavy haze layers over insinuating, narcotic hooks that pull you in and wrap you in gauze. Sweetness disintegrates from the inside out, riven by a squealing squall, punctured by a pounding bass line, and yet these songs are, above all buoyed by melody. Think Jesus & Mary Chain, not the pop-song-hitting-a-buzz saw of ‘Upside Down’ but the damaged mellifluence of ‘Just Like Honey.’ The rest is here.
And Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s “Everything With You”
Oh, and since I mentioned “Just Like Honey,” let’s just all take a deep breath and remember what a great song it was.
My son has been smitten by Sugar's "If I Can't Change Your Mind"...which I have as part of a Creation Record sampler. But if any of you all want to share that first Sugar album or some Husker Du, it would be much appreciated.
The Zero Boys is just excellent, classic punk, leaning a little more to West Coast than East…but you could draw all kinds of links to the Ramones and Dead Boys, as well as TSOL, the Angry Samoans and the diLs if you really got going. My review is unusually hard to excerpt, but not bad, so if you’re curious, why not read the whole thing?
Here’s Zero Boy’s “Civilization’s Dying”
The Pains review is a little easier to chop into pieces. I said, “A reverb-heavy haze layers over insinuating, narcotic hooks that pull you in and wrap you in gauze. Sweetness disintegrates from the inside out, riven by a squealing squall, punctured by a pounding bass line, and yet these songs are, above all buoyed by melody. Think Jesus & Mary Chain, not the pop-song-hitting-a-buzz saw of ‘Upside Down’ but the damaged mellifluence of ‘Just Like Honey.’ The rest is here.
And Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s “Everything With You”
Oh, and since I mentioned “Just Like Honey,” let’s just all take a deep breath and remember what a great song it was.
My son has been smitten by Sugar's "If I Can't Change Your Mind"...which I have as part of a Creation Record sampler. But if any of you all want to share that first Sugar album or some Husker Du, it would be much appreciated.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Nels Cline
My friend Max sent me this video of Nels Cline playing "Impossible Germany" with Wilco...hey, he's pretty good. I should write something about him.
Another one for rock ‘n roll heaven…
Lux Interior of the Cramps died yesterday of heart problems, ending a long and crazed career that bridged punk and rockabilly, surf and horror movie theater. There’s a pretty good tribute up at Pitchfork.
“Bikini Girls with Machine Guns”
“Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?”
The squirrels have been at my pathetic internet connection again, and I can hardly even get email. (I had to try about ten times to post this. Why is www.blogger.com so bandwidth intensive?) My comments are also getting swallowed most of the time, so if you’re wondering why I didn’t hop onto Michael’s The Wedding post to say how brilliant it was, I did…it just didn’t take.
Anyway, onward…I wrote a 4000-word plus feature on the Cline brothers this week, which took up most of my reviewing time, so lots of catching up to do.
“Bikini Girls with Machine Guns”
“Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?”
The squirrels have been at my pathetic internet connection again, and I can hardly even get email. (I had to try about ten times to post this. Why is www.blogger.com so bandwidth intensive?) My comments are also getting swallowed most of the time, so if you’re wondering why I didn’t hop onto Michael’s The Wedding post to say how brilliant it was, I did…it just didn’t take.
Anyway, onward…I wrote a 4000-word plus feature on the Cline brothers this week, which took up most of my reviewing time, so lots of catching up to do.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
New mix
Hey, I've got some more tunes for you all to check out.
Tracks
1. Zero Boys, "Livin' in the 1980s"
2. Wax Museums "Safety in Numbers"
3. Eddy Current Supression Ring "Which Way to Go"
4. The Coathangers, "Stomp Stomp Stompin'"
5. Aidan Moffat and the Best-Ofs, "Big Blonde"
6. Mystery track (big commercial band, kind of nervous about tagging it...hope you, too, will enjoy it)
7. D. Rider, "Touchy"
8. Heavy Hands, "She Got It"
9. The Gris Gris, "Big Engine Nazi Kid Daydream"
10. Nels Cline, "Prayer Wheel"
11. Alex Cline "Clearing our Streams"
12. High Places, "Banana Slug/Cosmonaut"
13. Mirah, "Shells"
14. M. Ward (w/Lucinda Williams) "Oh Lonesome Me"
15. Loney Dear' "Everything Turns to You"
16. Wild Light, "Lawless River"
I might do some explication later...hard cases will like the first half best.
Tracks
1. Zero Boys, "Livin' in the 1980s"
2. Wax Museums "Safety in Numbers"
3. Eddy Current Supression Ring "Which Way to Go"
4. The Coathangers, "Stomp Stomp Stompin'"
5. Aidan Moffat and the Best-Ofs, "Big Blonde"
6. Mystery track (big commercial band, kind of nervous about tagging it...hope you, too, will enjoy it)
7. D. Rider, "Touchy"
8. Heavy Hands, "She Got It"
9. The Gris Gris, "Big Engine Nazi Kid Daydream"
10. Nels Cline, "Prayer Wheel"
11. Alex Cline "Clearing our Streams"
12. High Places, "Banana Slug/Cosmonaut"
13. Mirah, "Shells"
14. M. Ward (w/Lucinda Williams) "Oh Lonesome Me"
15. Loney Dear' "Everything Turns to You"
16. Wild Light, "Lawless River"
I might do some explication later...hard cases will like the first half best.
Hitting the highs
Got a little show preview of the Thrill Jockey band called High Places up today at Philadelphia Weekly…where I went all frustrated poet and said the band “filters calypso’s warmth through a Vaseline-smeared lens, its double-dutch skipping beats dissolving into dream-sequence masses of looped voices.”
Catch up on the whole preview and the other shows that you could see, if you lived in Philly, here.
And yes, I got fired from PW last fall and am tentatively, modestly back, so there.
You can see High Places for yourself if you live in certain cities on the Eastern Seaboard (and Canada), namely:
Feb 5 Philadelphia, PA Danger Danger Gallery w/Soft Circle
Feb 6 Northampton, MA Pearl Street Nightclub w/Soft Circle
Feb 8 Boston, MA Institute of Contemporary Art w/Soft Circle
Feb 9 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern w/Soft Circle
Feb 10 Hamilton, ON Pepper Jack Cafe w/Soft Circle
Feb 11 Buffalo, NY Soundlab w/Soft Circle
Feb 12 Princeton, NJ The Terrace Club w/Soft Circle
Feb 13 New York, NY The New Museum w/Grouper
Who knows, I might turn up at that Northampton show.
Here’s High Places doing their thing in Brooklyn.
That mix I promised a couple of days ago…I’m working on it, sorry.
Catch up on the whole preview and the other shows that you could see, if you lived in Philly, here.
And yes, I got fired from PW last fall and am tentatively, modestly back, so there.
You can see High Places for yourself if you live in certain cities on the Eastern Seaboard (and Canada), namely:
Feb 5 Philadelphia, PA Danger Danger Gallery w/Soft Circle
Feb 6 Northampton, MA Pearl Street Nightclub w/Soft Circle
Feb 8 Boston, MA Institute of Contemporary Art w/Soft Circle
Feb 9 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern w/Soft Circle
Feb 10 Hamilton, ON Pepper Jack Cafe w/Soft Circle
Feb 11 Buffalo, NY Soundlab w/Soft Circle
Feb 12 Princeton, NJ The Terrace Club w/Soft Circle
Feb 13 New York, NY The New Museum w/Grouper
Who knows, I might turn up at that Northampton show.
Here’s High Places doing their thing in Brooklyn.
That mix I promised a couple of days ago…I’m working on it, sorry.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Horses now, mixes later...
I'm working on a new mix for you...hope you like it, should be up by this evening.
Meantime, perhaps you'll enjoy this mp3 by a Belgian duo called Soy Un Caballo (I'm a Horse)...it's just been covered by Tunng, and I don't have the cover, but here's the original. It's called "Robin".
Meantime, perhaps you'll enjoy this mp3 by a Belgian duo called Soy Un Caballo (I'm a Horse)...it's just been covered by Tunng, and I don't have the cover, but here's the original. It's called "Robin".
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