Besides being the most aptly named song for this list, it is one of the most perfect. There is nary a note out of place (nary), the music is perfect, the lyrics lovely, the production divine. From Eno's first solo album, Here Come the Warm Jets from 1973. The band is essentially Roxy Music without Bryan Ferry but throwing Robert Fripp into the mix on guitar. Eno split from Roxy right before this album and he's finally doing what he wants with the music...still arty, damaged pop but lots of atmosphere and texture and no crooning vocals. Some of the vocals on this album are pretty nasally but I think Eno's voice sounds great on this track. He is probably the most influential music-maker in my world - playing in and/or producing some of the best albums from Roxy Music, Talking Heads, Devo, U2, Coldplay, David Bowie, and David Byrne. I'd say his next solo album Taking Tiger Mountain (by strategy) is in my top couple albums ever list.
Plus, if you were the coolest person ever, you could arrange to play Uno with Eno, Yoko Ono, Bono, (Sonny) Bono, and Emo (Philips) and that would be really funny, no?
I don't know why the video is of Iwo Jima but, it is.
The next installment in my list of the ten songs - and only ten - I would have on my iPod when stranded on a deserted island. If you're not checking out Adam's list too, Do It. This couple of songs I am truly still wowed by and listen to often but are loved nostagically too...these go back a couple years for me.
Really the first 2 T.T Club albums are incredible. This is one of my favorite songs of theirs and one that would be fun to sing along with really loud on the beach (seeing as how I'd be alone and all esp.). Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth from the Talking Heads, Adrian Belew, and a bunch of others went to the Bahamas in the early 80's - right after the Heads Remain in Light came out and recorded the extremely fun Tom Tom Club album. The tunes are goofy but the musicianship is great...the second side of the album is actually a lot more atmospheric and dark, similar sound but like they did the second side late, late at night or something. I picked this up on vinyl in Jr. High, probably 8th grade, and still have it today...and still put it on every month or so (much to Emily's astonished chagrin). I also Highly recommend their second one, Close to the Bone.
The video, I'll admit, is a bit much - don't be too distracted by the blinding neon or the tight moves...
Had to have a Sonic Youth song on this list and, out of all the incredible ones over the past 26 years!, this remains one of my faves. I picked up EVOL, the album its on, when it first came out in 1986 after I saw the video on Night Flight (I hope people remember this great show)...and I still have it too (on cassette). This song has Kim singing, which I love, and has everything I love/evol about SY - the slow burning tension, the release and cacophany, the simmering undercurrent of menace, sex, violence, and beauty. Plus, the first thing I did when I moved to Mpls. was go to the Sonic Youth outdoor show at the Walker. Walking down the hill on Groveland and hearing the first chords of Schizophrenia and later meeting the Choses (just Nicole and Chose back then) and going to the Red Dragon for mega-drinks...good times!
I decided to follow in the footsteps of the inestimable Adam Chose and post a couple songs at a time. The challenge was to come up with the ten songs that you'd most like to have on your iPod if you were crashed on a weird island ala' Lost. Here's a couple of my must-haves:
From their 1983 Speaking In Tongues album. They had put out 2 great albums with Brian Eno playing a crucial role and delving into some afro-rhythms and really textured atmospheres (Fear of Music and Remain In Light - probably my fave all around Heads album), but they were a bit oh-so-serious and intellectual. This album, and esp. this excellent song, were a welcome breeze of fun and sunny(-esque) hope. It's the song that I would pick to be the Jonathan Theme Song...the one that plays whenever I walk down the street in the opening scene from some un-yet filmed movie of which I'm the star (this actually happens in my head pretty often). There is also a great version of this song on Stop Making Sense - the rockumentary that Jonathan Demme filmed in 1984 - that I'm including here for your pleasure.
From her debut album, Horses, in 1975. This is/was undeniably punk - from the 'Godmother of Punk' - but not like anything that'd been heard before. Even now, we've heard P.J. Harvey or Liz Phair but, Patti had the poetry, the jazz, the coolness, and the Balls to yell: "...He's gonna run through the fields dreaming in animation It's all gonna split his skull It's gonna come out like a black bouquet shining Like a fist that's gonna shoot them up Like light, like Mohammed Boxer Take them up up up up up up Oh, let's go up, up, take me up, I'll go up, I'm going up, I'm going up Take me up, I'm going up, I'll go up there Go up go up go up go up up up up up up up Up, up to the belly of a ship. Let the ship slide open and we'll go inside of it Where we are not human, we're not human..."
...and when you listen to this, very loud for heaven's sake, possibly while driving on a winding road through the forest, you may cry or yell or orgasm but you will definitely be taken up and if you can imagine hearing this in 1975 (the year Emily was born, the year of Thank God I'm a Country Boy by John Denver, One of these Nights by the Eagles, and this incredible gem that you really have to watch at least up 'til the 1:00 mark...Muskrat Love) well, then you can imagine how startling it may have been. It Still is more intense than most music I know of and is almost more of an experience than a song.
Sandy Denny sang in Fairport Convention (with Richard Thompson singing and playing guitar) and Fotheringay in the late sixties and early seventies. She also was the only person to ever provide guest vocals on a Led Zeppelin album (on Battle of Evermore from Zep IV). Sandy D. has one of the greatest voices I know of...some may think her stuff sounds dated but I say No Way...just gorgeous. I also love how this song sounds like the sea...it's expansive, open and the instrumentation ebbs and flows and crashes with her voice just floating above it all. There are a couple songs of hers I could've picked - esp. "Autopsy" from Fairport Convention's Unhalfbricking but 'The Sea' is one of the most perfect folk-rock songs, nay - Songs, that I know.
It's been a pretty good year for new music I thought...some folks are complaining about it but I think they're a bunch of whiners. This is an incomplete list because I'm sure there are some outstanding albums that I just didn't hear. In no particular order here's some winning moments from 2008:
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid Less pretentious than Radiohead, much more creative than Coldplay...This one won the coveted Mercury Prize in England this year. This is the first Elbow I've heard though good things have been said for almost everything they've done. The production is awesome on this, not too compressed and lots of subtle richness to the sound. This album has my vote for the best song of the year...it got played daily, loudly, for the weeks after the election - track 10 'One Day Like This'.
Black Keys - Attack and Release The White Stripes should be this good. Great voice, great -and odd- drumming, production by Danger Mouse is incredible with lots of unexpected and subtle sounds and instrumentation. This is just an album that I feel like putting on a lot, don't get sick of at all, and sounds good turned up loud or sitting in the background.
Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold This gets tons of play in our house and car...a fave of both me and Emily which is no small feat. There's a heavy 80's sound to this album ...we're talkin' Grandmaster Flash synths and Sister Sledge grooves. Thick. The raps and stories flow but stay real, smart, and poignant (one almost makes me cry even...). Plus he's local guy done good - support Slug and buy this. Oh, and again, awesome production (ala' Ant) - great headphone album.
Antony & the Johnsons - Another World ep He could sing about skunks pooping and he'd make my list. When Antony chooses to sing about rebirth, love, loss, and absolute transformation, well...he had me at pooping. This is a gorgeous lil' 45 rpm album. 5 songs that are a teaser for the full length due in January. The sound production is exquisite - gorgeous piano from Antony, sparse but perfect instrument accompaniment. Their last awesome album, I Am a Bird Now, won the Mercury Prize two years ago (which Elbow won this year). Plus, it's got friggin' Kazuo Ohno on the cover (the Butoh dancer). Really a gem of an album.
Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. I love Spacemen 3. Deerhunter is making the music of an adolescent Spacemen 3. Shoegazing punk that's bored, pissed off, and kinda confused and awkward about who the hell they are. I'm glad that Bradford Cox (Deerhunter dude) is friends with Jay Reatard...they're both putting out some super fun, poppy-as-hell-but-you-need-to-give-it-a-good-listen-to-hear-it kinda' music. Plus, I got to see them at the Triple Rock a few weeks ago (thanks for going Maggie!). A really good show that fleshes out my enjoyment of the album even more.
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago Lovely stuff. This is the kind of music that should have been made ages ago...so many people in the world making things - someone should have come up with just the right combination of a few guitar strums and some words that would make this album redundant but Bon Iver hit it just right and, yes, this is lovely stuff.
Watch 'til the 3:10+ minute mark and see if you don't get a little shiver...
Shearwater - Rook Jonathan Meiburg not only has an awesome name, he's got a voice the likes of we don't get to hear very often. Think Jeff Buckley or the underrated Mark Hollis (from Talk Talk)...almost a croon that has an unholy range and is able to make the space around the notes mean as much as the sound. I tend to think Shearwater sound a bit like Midlake and they both share a lyrical penchant for Falconers, flocks of birds over winter fields, and other rusticnesses. It's a quiet listen that can feel too slow but if sat with, it's a great album that surpasses most anything else over the past couple years.
Josephine Foster - This Coming Gladness This album, along with her Born Heller release, scares the hell out of me. Her voice - she's an opera singer drop-out, the guitar - psychedelic as fuck and just 'off' sometimes but mostly gentle and restrained. It's the unexpectedness of how fucked up her music is that is so great and so disconcerting. All the components, esp. her voice, lead you to forgotten 70's folkies or maybe lost Germanic 78rpm recordings from the 1920's. Listen to 'Indelible Rainbows', late night, with a glass of scotch and headphones, and see what doesn't get exorcised.
The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride One of the best songwriters ever. Really, his name should be mentioned alongside Neil Young and Joni Mitchell more often. This album finally feels like John Darnielle is back in form. I haven't spent enough time with this one yet to Love it but I think I will. Mountain Goat songs are weird 'cause they don't feel addictive or overly poppy, they're even a bit annoying...but the good ones get deep under your skin and come up often and unexpectedly - over and over. There are some gorgeous female vocals on this one too which is a nice contrast to his nasally voice. I've made more art based on lines from Mtn. Goat songs than any other music. I think this album's got a few paintings in it too.
Honorable Mentions:
Jay Reatard - Matador Singles Hammer, I Miss You is one of the best songs of the year. Probably should just be on the list...great songs but not all top notch.
Ray LaMontagne - Gossip In the Grain very nice album...not as strong as his last one imo ('Til the Sun Turns Black).
Wire - Object 47 I don't have this one yet but if I did, it'd probably make the list. I love Wire (see my post last month) and saw them at First Ave. a few months ago. Great show!
No Age - Nouns not as strong as last years Weirdo Rippers...saw them at Triple Rock this year, good show.
WovenHand - Ten Stones pretty good but not great...have to be in the mood for this heavy bastard.
Black Mountain - In the Future I like that one of the women in the band said,"we don't try to totally rock out, we like to kinda' rock". A good album that has that prog/Black Sabbath/folk rock sound that I like.
So, I've been listening to a lot of Minutemen. 'Double Nickles On the Dime' is one of my favorite albums. Ever. And I just watched 'We Jam Econo'...an excellent documentary of the band. So, they're three guys from San Pedro, CA who hit the burgeoning LA punk scene ala' SST records (Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, Saccharine Trust, and the original label for Husker Du...) upside the head in the early 80's. I came upon them in '85 or so - the year after Double Nickles came out (which they named, off the cuff, in response to the Sammy Hagar tune). I've also been spinnin' a lot of Wire. 'Pink Flag' and 'Chairs Missing' is what I've got...plus - my intro. to the band - a homemade cassette tape of early Wire stuff that my painting prof. gave to me as a driving cross-country gift. He said to fast forward past anything that had synths. I did for awhile but have slowed down and found that some of those songs are actually ok.
What's up Minutemen vs. Wire?
Well, they were both three piece punk bands from the early 80's. Both with high tuned, angular guitar. Both with massive bass guitar that almost played as lead. Both totally political. Both totally unlike so much else that was around them at the time.
Both have had bottles and spit flung on them by hardcore punkers who thought they were too artsy and weren't rockin' it hard enough.
Both have been more known for their influence on others than their own discographies. Both integrated their philosophical/political ideology into their actual music-making... brilliantly. Is the only reason they aren't the same band the "British" thing? Sure, Wire is from London while Minutemen are from San Pedro, CA. There's more though...
(I'm working on Pt. II of this exciting lil' essay on obscurity that no one is reading...but if you are - and your numbers will be growing - hold tight 'cuz more is coming. Plus, I think a lil' rage about politics is festering - though I'm feeling cautiously hopeful 'cause it's just hard to believe that the dumb people can keep winning when Everything is against them.....plus, they're dumb.)
Couple shots of a really excellent show - Friday night, Oct. 17, 2008 Wire @ 1st Ave. Mpls.
http://www.pinkflag.com/assets/mp3/One-Of-Us_from_Object-47_by_Wire.mp3 ....'fraid you have to copy and paste to listen but it's an easy Quicktime link and a great song...if you know how to embed this, post a comment and tell me how. thanks.
Robert Wyatt was the drummer, vocalist, and songwriter for the Soft Machine in the mid-60's thru 1973ish. He suffered an accident then which left him wheelchair-bound but still filled with some of the greatest songs that were to come out of the progressive rock canon from then until now (his 'ComicOpera' came out in 2007 and is one of the best releases of the millenium)...it also got him ushered out of the lugubrious folds of the Soft Machine, who then floundered on in saxa-maphone-hell for many years with Elton Dean and different line-ups but never regained the funky groove of the Wyatt years.
I went, a couple times, to the Boyle Family exhibit in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2003. They invented the practice of showing colored-oil projections behind bands in the mid-60's. They were the exclusive lighting artists behind the Soft Machine and introduced moving oil projections along with all sorts of light and other video tweekings as adjunct hallucinatory experiences into the psychedelic rock world. They really made the rock concert a multi-sensory psychedelic experience like noone else...
