Sunday, September 14, 2008

New Old Sunday Tape, entitled "Still the Same, Mapes"


(This is a mixtape made for Thanksgiving 2007, subtitled 'yachats2.' Due to troubles re: "partitioning" my external hard drive, my archival, monthly playlists have been mangled and lost. Luckily, hard copies still remain. Anywho, this means that I will be getting a little craftier about "music posts" on this Board. Get ready for extensive use of the vinyl-to-cd burner, and get ready for some rock writing that tries to "return the favor" to the likes of Detailed Twang, Hardcore for Nerds, Zen and the Art...etc. Anyway, download this 29-song "event" that premiered at a weekend rental on the Oregon Coast: it is as close to a "desert island" thing as i can ever imagine myself getting. Except for that it's not. Anyway, it's a chunky file, but worth it. We're covering a lotta ground, here.)

  1. Waylon Jennings Brand New Goodbye Song Listen to the pocket that forms between the drums and bass on this track. What genre of music is this, with the deep pockets and the wash-y, phased telecaster? A standout track on Ol' Waylon, which is a half-great, half campy covers album.
  2. The Walkmen Good for You's Good for Me Again, I said there were "desert island" qualities to this song selection. People who drop the U2 comparison are way off, because this stuff is sonically more interesting and lyrically more sophisticated. This music is dour like Rod Stewart doing "Cindy Incidentally" and Lou Reed doing the '69 Live version of "Some Kind of Love." Is it just me?
  3. Shutout Walker Brothers, The Yeah, that's a fucking galloping bass, there. Oh, the comeback Walker Brothers album! Scott belongs alongside your Bowie and your Roxy when it comes to insane, disco-y Pop antics.
  4. It's All Around You Tortoise Heavy hitters, friends. They should be on Blue Note, don't you think?
  5. Sounds Don't Come Around Here Testface One of my hometown heroes here. What a guitar figure.
  6. Superman (Where Were You When I Needed You) Stevie Wonder Yes, I actually would say that Music of My Mind is my favorite Stevie. The live shit from this period goes really well alongside the (admittedly brasher) Miles fusion stuff. This is way out there American soul expressionism. What do you want?
  7. Stones Sonic Youth Speaking of American institutions...this is from my beloved Nurse. God, there were so many awesome gtr departures generated during the Jim O'Rourke era.
  8. When the Sun Hits Slowdive An all-time great. The guitar sounds following the chorus, folks. I have decided that my next album will have unprecedented amounts of overdubs and sparkly haze, partially under the effects of classic albums like Slowdive's Souvlaki, which is like the shoegaze Bad Moon Rising.
  9. Farewell Farewell Sandy Denny And now a beautiful and frightening woman will make you wretch from feeling too much.
  10. What Sin Replaces Love Cardinals Cardinals have moved on from their doctrinaire Dead worship into more of a mixed bag (lotsa Sonic Youth, Crazy Horse and Faces in there, too)... but this tune should not be forgotten. This is their take on a late 60s Dead, Viola Lee Blues vibe.
  11. Love is the Drug Roxy Music Did I mention Pop-Art disco? I need this song on 12", if anybody's wondering about me and the holiday season.
  12. Fool to Cry Rolling Stones Real Stones fans know that Black and Blue and Goat's Head Soup contain real wonders, right?
  13. Whoo! Alright-Yeah....Uh-Huh Rapture, the I cannot find my cd copy of the so-awesome Pieces of the People We Love, which bums me out because this is the ultimate ex-urban-christmas-shopping music. You know what I mean. Are they the biggest Gravity band ever?
  14. Poptones Public Image Limited Lest we forget that most of the great rock of the last half-century was made in the 1970s. Maybe "rock" is not the word for this. Maybe "punk" isn't either. I'm a Sex Pistols fan, but I don't think that classic stuff even gets near the greatness of the first 3 PIL albums. Maybe you disgaree?
  15. Psychic Power Control Pitchblende Underrated DC math warriors. I love the changes. 'Saw them, Chisel and the Monorchid one enchanted evening at the Cooler.
  16. Haunt You Down Pavement In my mind, this is Pavement's high-water mark. This was the A-side of the bonus 7" that accompanied Crooked Rain. The gtr solo, the haunting moog, and SM's vocal delivery haunt me. Haunt, haunt, haunt! The ultimate sleazy, creepy sex music for overeducated prudes.
  17. Tony Baines Oxes Speaking of braniac rock, this is the music I listen to while taking comprehensive exams. 'Gets me psyched, gets me active and gets me agile. The oxes rock way more than most math bands, I think.
  18. You Can't Escape the Hands of Love Otis Clay Otis Clay, telling you the truth.
  19. Between the Bars Mojave 3 Wispy, strummy sadness from the Slowdive people a decade on.
  20. Ain't No Use Meters (live) Guitars everywhere.
  21. Wailing Like Dragons Lungfish Coincidentally or no, I stopped listening to GBV once I started listening to Lungfish.
  22. Hey Cowboy Lee Hazelwood From Cowboy in Sweden, this sexual conversation is overdetermined by the piercing, unrelenting "Land of the Midnight Sun." Let me explain to you that I have never used powders or pills, so I cannot hope to identify with the vapid kind of panic just below the surface of Hazelwood's smirking, "easy" delivery. I would like to hand a large brass trophy to whoever produced this recording session. Maybe the best horns ever?
  23. Summer Madness Kool and the Gang You've been down this road with me before... I love the escalating synth shards!
  24. Out of this World John Coltrane From Live in Seattle, an album of massive personal significance for me and my fictive kin. Coltrane and Pharoah are out of hand early on this track, and McCoy Tyner's (late Modernist) way of "holding it down" with thick, elegant and minor chords. This is music made by people looking for a needle in the flamestack.
  25. Chinatown Jets to Brazil Blake S. from Jawbreaker telling a Gen-X-cum-beatnik story about the boys down in New York City.
  26. Escape-ism James Brown 'Speaks for itself.
  27. Move on Up Curtis Mayfield A life-affirming anthem. We all have Curtis, right?
  28. Radio Towers Boys Life Creepy, momentum-building, momentum-stifling operations from a band with some of the best dynamics of any of the post-Spiderland 1990s crop. Their epic Departures and Landfalls was recorded by Bob Weston, from Shellac of North America .
  29. Balanced on its Own Flame Labradford If anybody actually lives up to the desire that rock critics call "post-rock," it is Labradford. From the early, excellent A Stable Reference, this really sounds like a punk band playing Eno's Music for Films.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

doncha kno lee hazlewood had shel talmy produce that slab?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Albums_produced_by_Shel_Talmy