sound-horn (boof!) avec sep 2008 1 mixtape

*Download the 2008 sep 1 cassette.(And please join me at the prisonship to bask in the long, expository efforts that accompany these sounds. We will be witnessing a downplaying of the "mixtape" format on future blocks, because the files are unwieldy to the point of turning off potential downloader--and/or-listeners. The point of posting the music is to foster writing/conversation about it (and about writing), so I will unabashedly do a good deal of probably pointless catering to a probably non-existent "audience" on this or some other blog. All of that aside, there will definitely be a year-end "best of," highlights mixtape. And if you don't download that, it will inevitably hurt our friendship. If we're not friends, of course, you should definitely just listen to dave emory instead of reading my blog or any other periodical.)

*even the likes of kev("-ron hubbard") are enjoying the exciting new June of 44 gene-thing project at Time Isn't on My Side. 'good to see gabbagabba's garden growing.

* similarly, the erudite, ever-so-curatorial and admirable pukekos houses absolutely essential, often-out-of-print weirdness including chris leo, bastro/codeine, swell maps, macha & bedhead, joan of arc, treiops treyfid, vague angels, secret stars.... the site is a bleeping golden mine. it's even got that mocket 7" kev waldo emerson gave me!

* not to be outdone, magicistragic goes to show (me, at least) how to write about rock in the not-crap, blog world of rock writing that has inherited the 90s zine tradition commemorated so dutifully by mike lupica, this bad man, and so many of us in our different ways. in particks, you'd no doubt benefit from visiting with the V-3, dillard and clark and tall dwarfs, mebbe? but there's so much more.

* and how about this domino/caroline comp. on outdoor miner? speaking of them 90s.

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.

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.