Sunday Tape - December 2007

(Download the Dec 2007 tape, which I gotta say showcases a lot of guitar rock despite some serious pop-dips.)

Can't Feel My Soul Teenage Fanclub, You can get this at insound for $6.64...don't be a fool! I love the great, Sonic Youth-y lead gtr run that comes in with the chorus. Less on the Big Star tip, this third track on the great alb showcases the "indie rock" side of the Fannies.

Spinning Shiner from the split with the Brandon Butler/Giant's Chair collaboration, the Farewell Bend. The only think that keeps me from worshipping Shiner are the vocs, which're a little bit bellow-y and dated. But the lyrics are sharp, and plainly put this band ranks with Chavez, Unwound and Giant's Chair in the just-below-slint tier of inventive 1990s gtr rock. The dark, descending hook and its doubly-dark, douby-descending reprise make it more than worthwhile endure the B- vocs.

The Silence Between Us, Bob Mould Golly, the advance single off of District Line, an album which seems bound for my 2008 top 5. At first the aggressive Yamaha chugging made me worry, but the chorus comes down with a sickness/sweetness/electricit that reminds me of "Helpless" from Sugar's essential Copper Blue.

Deluxe, Lush In the last year I've busied myself with investigations into the Brit-pop/shoegaze contemporaries of my beloved Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. I could imagine jumping rope to this song.

Golf Hill Drive, Boys Life And now the mixtape veers into dissonant guitar territory with the opener from this KC outfit's debut lp. Though their swan song, the Bob Weston-produced Departures and Landfalls, deserves mention alongside Ben Hur, Spiderland and Rusty when it comes to atmospheric hardcore of the 1990s... this is more than just their Tweez.

Blue Light, Mazzy Star Oh jeepers, this record will always remind me of a secret room we once built into our fraternity house. Staring out a window at a tree that looked like a face, thinking this sounds like the Velvets, then, this sounds great.

Ten Percenter, Frank Black (6/13/94, the Wetlands) this is actually from a live recording i found on the amazing captain's dead. The Wetlands was the kind of place that would have the occasional Earth Crisis show, but mostly showcased Blues Traveler, the Samples and John Densmore side projects. Enjoying this righteous recording in light of that bitta history really doubles my pleasure. Such a great guitar intro, the one that startes this song.

Stab Your Eyes, Kerosene 454 More from this band very melodic hardcore band, going further down the noisy emo road through this mixtape.

Mrs. E. Coli, Freemasonry This song - a crushing song marred, mebbe, by slightly pretentious vocals, is classic 90s Atlanta emo. In concert with the Hal al Shedad, Inkwell, the Forty-Two and others, Freemasonry comprised a 'moment' in Hotlanta that deserves mention alongside other key 90s scenes in Louisville, San Diego, Chicago, etc. Good thing the Shedad's own James Joyce has done the saintly work of compiling so many primary Hotlanta texts for download at his place, beyond failure. Par example, Freemasonry's sparrin' with the varmint is available to you through said lovely site.

Acetone Angels, Son Volt Here's Jay at the piano, dropping what plays like a classic Neil Young piano downer from Goldrush and/or Time Fades Away. 'Cept of course, these lyrics are simultaneously more opaque and more miserable. Beautiful.

Blue Vegas, The City on Film The thing about Braid/Hey Mercedes' guy Bob Nanna's "singer-songwriter" profile is that even it rocks hard with the shimmering SGs. Very beautiful arrangement, and I must confess I am something of a sucker for his crooning, tho I don't like the idea of it on paper.
Light Workers, Bright Channel Let me tell you I quite enjoy Bright Channel's Albini-produced s/t from a few years back. They have an ability to sound like U2, Codeine and Helmet at the same time.

Roland, Interpol I guess I just have a soft spot for baroque-y, melodic guitar punk. But it's in spite of, not because of, penchants for wearing all black, living in Brooklyn, etc.

Cast No Shadow, Oasis Ry-Ry Adams would have us believe these're a buncha real friendly blokes and shit, which is fine. All I know is that the Morning Glory alb is really something, all the way through. Do you disagree?

Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School, Warren Zevon The title track from a Zevon alb I checked out of the library, ripped, and took back, never to listen again. This came up on shuffle and I couldn't not love the choppy, chunky, stop-start guitars and Warren's absurd "call and response" mouth-moves. This guy definitely reminds me more of the poet Paul Muldoon than any other poet I can think of (that being a compliment.) I need to know more.

Pink Frosty (demo), Fugazi Just nice and creepy, slow-moving and bass-driven atmospherics from the massive and fascinating Instrument soundtrack. This alb, Red Medicine and End Hits
are easily my three fave Fugazi slabs.

The Eyes of Sarahjane, The Jayhawks I've screamed enough about this album, for certain. Varying a bit from their always-Byrds-y stock and trade, this song sounds like it could've been employed to powerful effects by the Bob Seger System-era Bob Seger

Running With Your Eyes Closed, Mojave 3 Hey, let's have fun with our girlfriends! We'll go skating!

Bossa Rocka, George Benson Quartet Yeah, another whimsical choice at the library! Standard, Blue Note-y jazz gtr fare from the late 1960s. A moody, snappy, swanky number - the sort of thing you'd like to have playing as guests arrive at your dinner party, except for the fact that said move ('Yo, I like guitar jazz, come in and get comfortable!') is endlessly contrived assuming you don't live in a wannabe Woody Allen movie.

Whirlweek, David Grubbs Now we're talking. From the beautiful and intelligent Spectrum Between, here's D. Grubbs at some of his most-not-unlistenable. I like to think I rip off his gtr playing every time I strap it on, but the troof is that I couldn't play with his fluency or his "individualism" anywhere, anytime.

Hey, Citronella!, 90 Day Men
Talk about a Rod Stewart-level waste of potential. This band started off great with tracks like this (and the whole first ep), only to slowly turn into a kinda stilted (if nonetheless interesting) Tortoise-y experiment. These days I hear one of the dudes is in TV on the Radio (who I guess I should check out?) Anyway, enjoy this creepy, tough and brash number from a band who, for a moment, seemed like a Great Leap Forward in the tradition of the long-missed June of 44.