Here's how this works. Make sure iTunes is on shuffle and see what three songs end up playing. Write about said three songs. Nothin' too bewildering about the process of this particular entry. I'm starting out this morning with The Beach Boys and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and seeing where things lead me. Almost scrapped the idea entirely, though, to listen to all of "Pet Sounds". Such a great album! But no, this is an excercise in discovery and re-discovery, so here goes:
Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam, Nirvana, Unplugged in New York
Wow! Haven't heard this track in so long. Probably played this album 800 + times when it first came out. It was actually the album that made me REALLY get Nirvana. This was a talented band and this was the album that captured the sentiment that this was not just some loud rock and roll band. This song is not a Nirvana original and many of the songs are more reflective of Kurt and the band's diverse music tastes, rather than the actual catalog. Kurt's sounding great and the band sounds tight. A lot's being said about Nirvana once again, with two major recent releases ("Bleach" 20 year anniversary re-release and a new concert DVD). And I'm sure there will be plenty more being said within the next couple years since soon it will have been 20 years (!) since the release of "Nevermind", which still stands as THE classic album of the last 20 years. A band like Nirvana hasn't been seen since, nor probably ever will be.
Smiles (Single Version), Spiritualized, The Complete Works Vol. 1.
I came to this band late as well. Much less known of a band to come to late, though, but certainly not a minor act. I really liked their most recent release, "Songs in A & E", which was more reflective than much of their earlier work, which is understandable considering co-frontman Jason Pierce's near fatal illness, which heavily influenced the tone of the record. This is largely an instrumental song, that kind of has a "Satisfaction" riff going on. There's plenty of distortion and guitar effects in this tune that starts slow and builds to a blood vessel rupturing burn right around the 3:45 mark. The word for this is, "cacophony" (just like using that word)--horns, manic drums, strings?. Smiles all around, indeed.
Oceans & Streams, The Black Keys, Attack and Release
I mentioned these guys in my last blog entry. This is soul music meets grungy, dirty rock and roll music. The Black Keys could have been a late '60s psychedelic garage band. Their music's got that raw, jangly (one of the more overused rock descriptors, but hey, it works) sound to it. There isn't too much to say about this track. It's straight ahead rock and roll. I like the new stuff that's filled with layer upon layer, but sometimes it's also nice to curl up with a nice, stripped down, rock song. I'll take it!
Those songs go together really well, actually. My iTunes collection on shuffle is a better program director than most on modern rock radio! Probably isn't an accident that the songs go together so well. Technology is scary smart sometimes. I'd like to see it write reactions to each of the songs it plays, though! Ha! Gotcha, computer! I better not antagonize it.
How about a link to something Nirvana. From the aforementioned concert DVD "Live at Reading/1992", here's a song from the aforementioned album, "Bleach". I'll also put it up on The Hidden Chord FB page. Become a fan today!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfjGsrDKKoc
Showing posts with label The Black Keys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Black Keys. Show all posts
Friday, November 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Cliched Songs for Bad Weather and Other Stuff About Good Music
Just so you know, it's a gloomy, rainy, generally nasty day outside here in Chicago. It's getting to be the time of year that the weather officially gives us midwesterners its annual beat-down. Not fun, but it gives one plenty of extra time to curl up under a blanket, get a steaming cup of coffee (Irish or not...but the Irish version is a whole lot more fun) or cocoa or hot cider or tap water, and read your favorite blog. Today's post is rather disjointed, so prepare for a little bit of this and that without much direction!
I fired up the ol iTunes this morning with "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors. Kind of a predictable choice for a stormy day, I know, but I hadn't heard the song in awhile and it brings back plenty of memories--Wisconsin wilderness camp counseling for one, driving down the highway in the midst of a storm when the song comes on and helps punctuate the night with a little extra creepiness and potential for sinister happenings, etc. Jim's voice was/is the night. The song has the extra effect of the "whisper track", as after The Doors recorded the song, they had Jim whisper the song for overdub purposes, and the effect is pretty brilliant if you ask me. Does anyone listen to The Doors anymore? I feel like they've faded from our collective music consciousness to a certain degree. I'm not The Doors fan I once was, but I think there's still plenty of brilliance to be found amidst the cliches, at times weak lyrics, and Morrison drunkenness.
Just downloaded tracks from Them Crooked Vultures and Bear in Heaven. Them Crooked Vultures is the supergroup consisting of John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age). It's good when the music lives up to the hype. The last supergroup that I was excited to hear was Audioslave, but honestly, apart from one or two songs, I was pretty disappointed. So of course, being burned before, I came at this one with interest, but a touch of skepticism. It's actually good, though. It's what you would hope from two guys who were part of two of the most amazing bands of all time--good rock & roll music. My advice for supergroups is this (since I'm sure they care about my opinion): don't get cute, just play the damn music. Dave Grohl's been doing the extra poppy Foo Fighters thing for a long time now and JPJ, well I'm not sure what he's been doing besides the one Zeppelin reunion show, which came after Page/Plant had been snubbing the dude for years. But together with Homme, the result (at least the three tracks I've heard) is pretty engaging. The song I just had on, "Scumbag Blues" is a great rock song, complete with a funky organ riff. I'm interested to hear the rest of the album.
Bear in Heaven came to me as a recommendation from a friend. Most of my music comes from friend recommendations, these days actually. Pitchfork, everyone's favorite snobbish music site, also gave the album high marks. I guess you'd call it "indie pop"? Maybe "indie rock"? The description is so vague that you might as well just say it's music with guitars, drums and a singer and effects and "is that a synthesizer?", and you'd be just as, if not more descriptive than you would be by using those weak labels. Regardless of what you call it, pretty good stuff, indeed! As is "in" these days, the band's sound is packed with many a layer. Elements of electronic music, "alternative" rock, atmospheric Animal Collective type stuff...a blog I read compares them to A Place to Bury Strangers without the darkness (I'm really not too familiar with A Place to Bury Strangers, so I don't know if that's accurate or not). I can imagine hipsters dancing badly, trying to look oh-so-much-better-than-the-rest-of-the-world to this music. Despite that, I'm gonna go with a recommendation with this one.
Ramona Falls, "Intuit" is also an excellent album that I've got in heavy rotation right now. I guess you could put them in a similar category as Bear in Heaven, but more on the indie rock side and less electronic and effects heavy (although there is some of that). It still has that atmospheric feel to it, but it's more echoey and almost orchestral at times. On one or two tracks, the lead singer starts sounding a little like Antony of Antony and the Johnsons. Check out the video for their song "I Say Fever". Highly recommended.
The Black Keys are getting ready to release a rap-rock album. The term rap-rock makes me squeemish, yet from what I hear, it's the jangly guitar/psychadelia of The Black Keys, mixed with rap from MC's the calliber of Mos Def and Raekwon. So good rap-rock? Release date is November 27 and it's called Blackroc. Hoping for good things from this one.
That's it for now. Just a little randomness for a rainy day. To sum things up, still, no one is making money in the music industry, ticket prices are too high for big name acts, but there's still a lot of great music to be discovered.
Check out this little piece from Bear In Heaven and La Blogotheque from 2006...Once again this isn't linked, so just copy and paste into your browser. Trust me, it's worth it...It's arty and fabulous:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3a9rlg19IQ
I fired up the ol iTunes this morning with "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors. Kind of a predictable choice for a stormy day, I know, but I hadn't heard the song in awhile and it brings back plenty of memories--Wisconsin wilderness camp counseling for one, driving down the highway in the midst of a storm when the song comes on and helps punctuate the night with a little extra creepiness and potential for sinister happenings, etc. Jim's voice was/is the night. The song has the extra effect of the "whisper track", as after The Doors recorded the song, they had Jim whisper the song for overdub purposes, and the effect is pretty brilliant if you ask me. Does anyone listen to The Doors anymore? I feel like they've faded from our collective music consciousness to a certain degree. I'm not The Doors fan I once was, but I think there's still plenty of brilliance to be found amidst the cliches, at times weak lyrics, and Morrison drunkenness.
Just downloaded tracks from Them Crooked Vultures and Bear in Heaven. Them Crooked Vultures is the supergroup consisting of John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age). It's good when the music lives up to the hype. The last supergroup that I was excited to hear was Audioslave, but honestly, apart from one or two songs, I was pretty disappointed. So of course, being burned before, I came at this one with interest, but a touch of skepticism. It's actually good, though. It's what you would hope from two guys who were part of two of the most amazing bands of all time--good rock & roll music. My advice for supergroups is this (since I'm sure they care about my opinion): don't get cute, just play the damn music. Dave Grohl's been doing the extra poppy Foo Fighters thing for a long time now and JPJ, well I'm not sure what he's been doing besides the one Zeppelin reunion show, which came after Page/Plant had been snubbing the dude for years. But together with Homme, the result (at least the three tracks I've heard) is pretty engaging. The song I just had on, "Scumbag Blues" is a great rock song, complete with a funky organ riff. I'm interested to hear the rest of the album.
Bear in Heaven came to me as a recommendation from a friend. Most of my music comes from friend recommendations, these days actually. Pitchfork, everyone's favorite snobbish music site, also gave the album high marks. I guess you'd call it "indie pop"? Maybe "indie rock"? The description is so vague that you might as well just say it's music with guitars, drums and a singer and effects and "is that a synthesizer?", and you'd be just as, if not more descriptive than you would be by using those weak labels. Regardless of what you call it, pretty good stuff, indeed! As is "in" these days, the band's sound is packed with many a layer. Elements of electronic music, "alternative" rock, atmospheric Animal Collective type stuff...a blog I read compares them to A Place to Bury Strangers without the darkness (I'm really not too familiar with A Place to Bury Strangers, so I don't know if that's accurate or not). I can imagine hipsters dancing badly, trying to look oh-so-much-better-than-the-rest-of-the-world to this music. Despite that, I'm gonna go with a recommendation with this one.
Ramona Falls, "Intuit" is also an excellent album that I've got in heavy rotation right now. I guess you could put them in a similar category as Bear in Heaven, but more on the indie rock side and less electronic and effects heavy (although there is some of that). It still has that atmospheric feel to it, but it's more echoey and almost orchestral at times. On one or two tracks, the lead singer starts sounding a little like Antony of Antony and the Johnsons. Check out the video for their song "I Say Fever". Highly recommended.
The Black Keys are getting ready to release a rap-rock album. The term rap-rock makes me squeemish, yet from what I hear, it's the jangly guitar/psychadelia of The Black Keys, mixed with rap from MC's the calliber of Mos Def and Raekwon. So good rap-rock? Release date is November 27 and it's called Blackroc. Hoping for good things from this one.
That's it for now. Just a little randomness for a rainy day. To sum things up, still, no one is making money in the music industry, ticket prices are too high for big name acts, but there's still a lot of great music to be discovered.
Check out this little piece from Bear In Heaven and La Blogotheque from 2006...Once again this isn't linked, so just copy and paste into your browser. Trust me, it's worth it...It's arty and fabulous:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3a9rlg19IQ
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