Wednesday, December 28, 2005

My Top 16 For 2005

I made it! Just under the wire.
And I'd like to use my "Best Of" as a way to pay tribute to our many siblings-in-arms in the mp3 blognation. For, put simply, I downloaded most of these tracks from mp3 blogs-- most likely, from our friends at Music For Robots or via some link from our other friends at Junkmedia's World of Sound. So I tip my cap to them before regurgitating the filtered results of their hard work. Please visit as many mp3 blogs as you can, until your brain starts leaking, perhaps starting with those listed in our sidebar over there on the right.

Now, to get down to it. In no particular order, my top 16 mp3 downloads of 2005:

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Blossom
I am a fat sucker for these treacly Ryan Adams piano ballads.
http://www.ryan-adams.com
Buy it!

The Spinto Band - Oh Mandy
Both Philly-style and catchy as hell, and it was in some big commerciacal.
http://www.spintoband.com
Buy it!

Robbie Fulks - Where There's A Road
I know very little about contemporary country, but Silkworm did a great cover of Mr. Fulks' "Let's Kill Saturday Night," and I followed up and found this song, which makes me feel as country as I'll probably ever feel walking through Times Square with my iPod on.
http://www.robbiefulks.com
Buy it!

Portastatic - I Wanna Know Girls
This just reminds me of all the good reasons that Mac MacCaughan got under my skin in the first place.
http://www.portastatic.com
Buy it!

Mountain Goats - This Year
Darnielle just keeps getting better and better. Seriously, cut it out, or I may pack up my guitar and throw it under the nearest truck.
http://www.mountain-goats.com
Buy it!

Mobius Band - I Just Turned 18
All credit due to the tireless online championing of Breitling & Breitling.
http://www.mobiusband.com
Buy it!

M.I.A. - 10 Dollar
I had to pick a track.
http://www.miauk.com
Buy it!

Lucero - Bikeriders
I love this twangy elegiac punk rock shit.
http://www.luceromusic.com
Buy it!

Kiss Me Deadly - Dance 1
This is the sexiest song I heard all year, somehow.
http://www.kmdband.com
Buy it!

Joakim - Teenage Kiss
This is the second sexiest song I heard all year.
http://www.kitsune.fr
Buy it!

The Get Quick - Seem
Hometown boys, rally caps.
http://www.thegetquick.com
Buy it!

Cat Power - The Greatest
Not unlike Ryan Adams and his piano, Chan Marshall and hers just wash me into a little tear-filled tide pool, where I float helplessly, like a tiny plankton thing.
http://www.catpowerthegreatest.com
Buy it!

The Books - An Owl With Knees
This track replaced my academic love for the Books with something more emotional.
http://www.thebooksmusic.com
Buy it!

Amerie - One Thing
Was this this year? I don't know. It's still just...wow...though. Makes me wish I had 12 arms and a bigger ass to swing around.
http://www.amerie.net
Buy it!

American Analog Set - Born on the Cusp
Like much of their recent work, gently pulses you along on your wistful way.
http://www.amanset.com
Buy it!

Absentee - Rainy Days Swimming
Somehow reminds me of my favorite Swans song, "God Damn the Sun," only with considerably less tragedy.
http://www.absenteemusic.co.uk
Buy it!

Monday, December 26, 2005

Please Play Loud

So I'm back in Brooklyn after Christmas. Highlights from Philly included The Feast of the Seven Fishes (I manned the fryer this year!), news about my Mom's new purchase of a weekend getaway house in the woods, seeing all my great aunts, uncles and cousins who came from far away and getting to stay at my Dad's place with just myself and my fiance.

I do not have the cable television here at home so it was fun to swim around in all that media for a while. MTV has quite a few stations these days. This does not seem to have improved the quality of their programs. However, MTVJ (MTV Jams, I believe) played some pretty cool hiphop videos. This one by Busta Rhymes (he's back with a new album in 2006) has the minimal production (from Swizz Beats) and those scary-robot beats that I like, plus that chanting woman in the back is creepy and hot. Hey, speaking of creepy and hot, I just stumbled on "Gothic Lolita."

Busta Rhymes - Touch It (Explicit version)
(not released yet)

Here Are They Now : Roads To Space Travel

So I'm back early. Roads To Space Travel, from Baltimore, were as good a band as any I can remember in the mid-to-late nineties...they played Baltimore-y music (not to be confused with Baltimora music like "Tarzan Boy"). Baltimore-y music, it seemed to me at the time, was like DCish music-- angular, carefully calculated, stoic and cerebral-- only somehow weirder.
Roads to Space Travel - Represent
Beg for a reissue!

Most indie rockers worth their salt would probably have done a better job keeping up with RTST's distinguished alums-- I, however, am not worth my salt, which is depressing, considering how little my salt is actually worth.

Turns out vocalist/bassist Roman Kubler is in the Oranges Band, and did some time in the popular rock outfit known as Spoon.
The Oranges Band - Ride the Nuclear Wave
Buy it!

Tim Baier and Greg Preston play in the very excellent Slow Jets.
Slow Jets - Ether Remains
Buy it!

And Adam Cooke plays in the Translucents, about whom I can find very little, except to say that they seem to be playing shows. So I gots nothing to offer you in the way of listening there. Instead, a little Spoonage, albeit a track not featuring Kubler. Just cuz.
Spoon - Sister Jack
Buy it!

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Good-bye, cruel world.

Expect light-to-zero posting until the new year, at least on my end. It has been an honor to close out the year with all of you. Best wishes to you, yours, theirs, and someone else's for 2006, when I may finally get around to my "Best of" (1997).

My Top 2 Protest Songs of 2005

For Conor's boldness in playing this on the milquetoast, middle-of-the-road Tonight Show, he gets one slot.
Bright Eyes - When the President Talks to God

For amazing reactio time in getting some rhymes written and pasted over a Kanye track, The Legendary K.O. grab the other.
The Legendary K.O. - George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People

In a conscience-deficient musical era, I give the "props" to these two, who take the in-over-his-head gent from Texnecticut to task. For our more conservative readers, I'm open to suggestions. Maybe a little reggaeton from David Brooks' latest?

Nick Drake + Electronics = Things in Herds




And that's not a bad thing.
Nothing wrong with being realistic about things:
Things in Herds - Everything Has to End Somewhere
Buy it!
Visit TheirSpace: *click*

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Dallas, England

This anglosonic psych-pop ditty, by the Happy Bullets, from Dallas, is very, very insidiously calibrated to work its way into your gray matter, even if the guy's voice keeps doing that Tiny Tim thing. Please enjoy.

The Happy Bullets - Vice and Virtue Ministry
Buy it!

Did Sweden Steal the Soul of Sarah Records?

When I was in college, I developed an irrational obsession with the Sarah records label and all the imitators that label spawned. I hoarded 7" singles from bands like The Field Mice, Even As We Speak, St. Christopher, The Sugargliders, Blueboy, good god. I still have most of them, and it is a near certainty that I will punish you with a whole series of Sarah Records post in due time.

But it strikes me now (for I am in the mood to be stricken) that the sort of sickly sweet stuff that was coming out of the UK at that time seems to have wasted no time migrating to the continent. I remember, in those heady days, meeting various and sundry Germans and Frenchfolk at pop music festivals who were 10x further down the rabbithole than I was.

And, considering the history of pop music in Sweden, it's no wonder that the Swedes to stand firmly, proudly, and...twee...ly at the top of the heap these days. No label better serves the needs of the pop-addicted and rageless than Labrador Records, who gave us the Acid House Kings and The Legends. A visit to their website reveals a mother lode of bands, records, and sample mp3s for download.

Right now, they've got up a smashing special Christmas single, which I present for you here.
South Ambulance - Hanging in a Tie

And a few winners culled from the back catalog:
The Radio Dept. - Pulling Our Weight
The Legends - Make it All Right
Acid House Kings - This Heart is a Stone
Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - Loop Duplicate My Heart (this one's a good time on several levels)
Buy them!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Strike Music

This song documents reaction to a series of labor riots and strikes in the summer of 1937 in Fyzabad, Trinidad, led by Grenada-born preacher Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler(pictured).

I have to admit, to my untrained ear, there's a kind of cognitive dissonance that comes from the pairing of upbeat, major-key calypso music and the careful description of carnage and violence. But I post this because of its tangential relevance to what's happening in New York today and because it seems like something fastbacker would post if he had the time. Especially because I know he's got this record, Calypsos From Trinidad - Politics, Intrigue, and Violence in the 1930s, somewhere in his collection. It came out on the incredible Arhoolie/Folklyric label in 1991, and is, effectively, a collection of history lessons set to music, rich with social commentary and political reportage.

Atilla The Hun - The Strike
Buy it!

The Rebirth of Cool

With some scientists predicting a mini-Ice Age in Europe in the not-so-distant future, I thought I'd indulge in a bit of chilly-weather posting for all. My prediction, which, instead of being based on science is based on slightly more than a feeling, is that every week will be a mini-four-seasons unto itself, and the names of the seasons will become delightful hybrids like "Winterspring" and "Summerfall."

But for now, let us submit to the chill that is keeping me from riding my bike to work to beat the transit strike.

Silkworm - In the Bleak Midwinter (cover of an old hymn)
Buy it!
Clearlake - Wonder If the Snow Will Settle
Buy it!
Aarktica - The Ice (Feels Three Feet Thick Between Us)
Buy it!
Ray Charles & Betty Carter - Baby, It's Cold Outside
Buy it!
Gil Scott-Heron - Winter in America
Buy it!

Monday, December 19, 2005

Here Are They Now : Tiger Trap

In this installment of HATN, I catch up with Rose Melberg, who first came to prominence as the voice and guitar of Tiger Trap, who made some of the catchiest dang pop you ever did hear, primarily hailing from the legendary K record label. Their music was bouncy, bittersweet stuff, quintessential 90s indie-pop, very much like that of sometime-labelmates Heavenly, only not English.

After the Trap's demise, Melberg continued to work the bouncy pop angle in Go Sailor, while saving her more down-tempo material as part of the duo called The Softies. All this, without even mentioning the short-lived Three Peeps or Gaze. I have caught up with Ms. Melberg as part of a much-heralded new act called Rose Melberg. Her solo material is no great leap from any of her prior work, but that's fine with me, because that just means it's still good.

Tiger Trap - Sour Grass
Buy it(ish)!
Go Sailor - Together Forever In Love
Buy it!
The Softies - Charms Around Your Wrist
Buy it!
Rose Melberg - The Time Has Come (this is a cover of a song by English folk singer Anne Briggs)
Buy it(ish)!
**"Buy it(ish)"= you won't get this particular song, but buy something else by this artist, friend.

As a bonus followup, I've checked in on Heather Dunn, who played drums in Tiger Trap. Her post-TT journey has been marked by a stint with Lois Maffeo in the band called Lois, a brief residency with the No-No's in Portland, a much-heralded turn with the Raincoats on their 1996 reunion album, Looking in the Shadows, and a regular gig backing K Records poster child/impresario Calvin Johnson in Dub Narcotic Sound System. Here's a track each from the No-No's and Dub Narcotic, although I can't guarantee she's working the background for this particular DNSS track...

The No-No's - Jupiter Girl
Buy it!
Dub Narcotic Sound System - Fuck Shit Up
Buy it(ish)!

Kristi Rae writes beautiful songs


Kristi Rae is a singer-songwriter from Austin who makes deceptively unassuming, very quiet, mostly acoustic-guitar driven music. I came across her page on MySpace a while back, and have been hooked since. Her self-released cd, Various Means of Transportation is a fitting, seamless backdrop to a good old sad-session in a big fat chair with a cup of your favorite hot or cold beverage. Visit her MySpace den for more album highlights.

Kristi Rae - Down, Down
Buy it!

Here Are They Now : Sicko


Two things. One, I fully intend to use this space to follow up on all the bands I used to like and let you know what they're up to now. Two...you are gonna love it when I do that, I swear.

Sicko made some of the better-quality sloppity-poppity punk of the early mid-nineties: simple, straightforward, three-piece dork-punk from Seattle. After a seven year run from 1991-98, they called it quits.

Frontman Ean somethingorother went on to make a not dissimilar racket in Tales From the Birdbath, who went heavier on the pop and slop, lighter on the punk, while still catering to the geek in everyone, as evidenced by songs like the one below, from a 2004 session. Check out their website for a whole host of indie pop mp3s.

Sicko - Your Wake
http://www.sicko.com Buy it!
Tales From the Birdbath - Spirochae
http://www.neatshows.com

Saturday, December 17, 2005

TSOC

I thought I might try to come up with some nice little post about the "sound" of Chicago, but my juicer's running dry here. I was just looking for an excuse to put up a little Raygun, Pegboy, and Sludgeworth. If you don't know their music, here's your chance to start making up for lost time.


I owe my interest in Pegboy to Princeton radio star, ex-Chicagoan, and my former rommate Jon Solomon, primarily because he did an uncanny, bewitching Larry Damore impression.
Pegboy - Through My Fingers
Buy it!

And, I may owe my greatest show memory, that of Sludgeworth's "last show ever," at McGregor's in Elmhurst, to Jon as well. Were it not for his bronze-colored volvo sedan with 800,000 miles on it, I would not have made it out there to take in one for the ages. Thanks, Jon.
Sludgeworth - You And I
Buy it!


Finally, naturally, Naked Raygun.
Naked Raygun - I Remember
Buy it!

Friday, December 16, 2005

Philly-Style #6


Too much Philly for one weeky? Sorry. Anyway, I've decided to parcel these Philly-Style things out individually, so that you and I may savor each morsel on its own. That occasionally means (for me and you) learning to savor things that might, at first recollection, not have seemed worth savoring.

To wit, the underrated and underremembered Scram. They were a formidable presence in a room, or at, say, a 4th of July Fireworks celebration, what with their many horns and so on. The great thing about Scram (aside from the fact that they were led by Archbishop Carroll alums the Mungan brothers, and that they were managed, at least for a time, by the Radnor High School (assistant?) soccer coach, Bob Denney) is that they had a social consciousness and an interest in issues and music of the international kind. I'd venture to say that that was rare in Radnor Township at the time.

In spite of their Radnor roots, Scram the ensemble were really a Philly band, and their eclectic sound made them a go-to as the opener for all kinds of local and touring bands of the punk, funk, reggae, and ska persuasions. So they set the table for Fugazi, Rollins, The Toasters, The Woodentops...they even opened for Buckwheat Zydeco at the Chestnut Cabaret. Here's a calypso-infused track from their second full-length on Internationalist Records, "Kingsessing Trials."

A couple of used copies here.

Scram - Forward, Onward

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Maria Taylor - Song Beneath The Song

Wrap yourself up in this woman's voice and fall into a deep and rewarding sleep. It is a safe place.

Maria Taylor is also in the lush and wonderful Saddle Creek band Azure Ray. This track is from her 2005 solo album 11:11.

Maria Taylor - Song Beneath The Song

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Philly-Style #5


Since some of us are in the head of talking about music for the stealing of intimate moments between young lovers, I have decided to rush out another installment of Philly-Style. This time, featuring the Gamble and Huff sound as purveyed by legendary Philly male vocal group the Intruders. This song caresses you with its languid late-night rhythm and perfectly real harmonies. Not to mention Sonny's introduction of himself-- he likes cupcakes and horseback riding.

The Intruders - I Wanna Know Your Name
Buy It!

This is music without comparison.
Particularly for the young and in love.
Like, for instance, 2 blogger kids I know.

Jump Up!!!

Seems like there might be some sort of mini-trend happening here: studied lo-fi room sound and reverb, child-like enthusiasm, rough group vocals, girl singers, fun! Probably just coincidental...

The Go! Team - The Power Is On
buy it!

No need to speak at length about these folks from the UK; they have received their fair share of hype and have enjoyed a nice blast of attention in the wake of their recent US tour. I think their album is good, clean fun, but I have to say, their show at the Canal Room in NYC was so harsh and trebly that I couldn't really deal.

Love Is All - Make Out Fall Out Make Up
pre-order it!

Pitchfork has proclaimed these Swedes the best band of 2006. I have generally stopped paying attention to these statements, especially after buying Johann Johannsson's Virðulegu forsetar on their word: to my ears, minimalist classical music that was both boring and clumsy. Anyhow, I have not heard the whole Love Is All album, but everything I have heard has been accomplished and varied. Promising.

Bodies of Water - I Guess I'll Forget The Sound, I Guess, I Guess

When I first heard Love Is All on Are You Familiar? , I immediately was reminded of Bodies Of Water, whoes EP we just received here. I thought, fantastic, my next post will link these two bands up - easy! Well, I read on, and saw that Are You Familiar? made the same comparison farther down the blog. Hard to stay ahead these days.

Bodies of Water are energetic, punk and from Los Angeles and their website features a quiz and some really fantastic show posters; they must have a designer in the band. Send them an email to buy their EP.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Bush Gave the Pentagon the Food Stamp Money


It's hard to imagine that, making music in DC, with its persistent poverty and proximity to the corridors of power, one could avoid getting all political. So the world got Fugazi and Bad Brains and whoever else you can name that I can't. But the thing about The Junkyard Band is that they made political party music. Not (political party) music, but (political) party music. While they may not have been the most famous Go-Go act to come out of DC (E.U., I think, hit it bigger with "Da Butt"), they were so very deserving of that title. Originally released together on a DefJam 12", "The Word" and "Sardines" are truly devastating sides filled with beastly fat bass keys, call-and-response kid-choruses, and banging on drums and cans and pots and pans.

I'll let you enjoy picking through the Reagan-bashing lyrics of "The Word", but suffice it to say, they make me wish people were still brave enough and angry enough to make conscious party music. Who, I ask, will step up so that we can get both our indignation and our freak on?

The Junkyard Band - The Word

According to their website, The Junkyard Band continue to work it today, having broken up and reunited several times since their formation in 1980.

I came across the briefest piece of an old video performance here (quicktime), but you're better off checking them out in the RUN DMC vehicle Tougher than Leather for a heftier dose.

Top 10 for 2005: fastbacker

My list is in no particular order, nor do I make any claim to be comprehensive or even that well informed about what came out this year...these are simply some records that I really enjoyed and had the urge to play repeatedly. It's a pretty typical indie-rock selection, but hey, what can I do.

Sigur Ross - Takk





featured track - Hoppipolla
buy this!


The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday





featured track - How A Resurrection Really Feels
buy this!


Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene





featured track - It's All Gonna Break
buy this!


Feist - Let It Die





featured track - Lonely Lonely
buy this!


LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem





featured track - Disco Infiltrator
buy this!


Clap Your Hands say Yeah - Clap Your Hands say Yeah





featured track - Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood
buy this!


Lavender Diamond - The Cavalry of Light





featured track - You Broke My Heart
buy this!


Bloc Party -Silent Alarm





featured track - Like Eating Glass
buy this!


Diamond Nights - Once We Were Diamonds





featured track - Dirty Thief
buy this!


Stars - Set Yourself On Fire





featured track- Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
buy this!

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Found: Pound


I've had this curiosity over what happened to the guy from Vitreous Humor and the Regrets. I've always felt like VH were by far the best thing to come out of 90s powerhouse label Crank! (aside, of course, from the paradigm-setting Haywood/Mariner Nine split 7"). But I've never lifted a damn finger to even so much as google him. Never, that is, until today. Today, I have googled. And, lo and behold, my investigation required that I go less than one results page deep. Fruitful, this google. My findings, for your perusal, follow below.

Danny Pound continues to play out of Lawrence, KS as Danny Pound and/or the Danny Pound Band. They are decidedly more up the middle than both of his prior bands (although I guess that depends on where you sit)-- a kind of rootsy, major key bar band, and Danny's quavery talk-singing has sort of settled into a more tuneful, subdued vein. It's quite nice, this new music. Here's a song for you:

Danny Pound - Put It Down

More tracks to be found at his website, here. Buy the record here. And, to top it off, there are more mp3s and a videohere.

And, since I'm in the bonus kind of mood lately, here's a track each from his former ensembles.

Vitreous Humor - She Eats Her Esses
Buy it!


Regrets - I Have the Tools
Buy it!

Friday, December 09, 2005

The Benefits of Membership are Many...

It's a rainy and snowy Friday in Manhattan, but this track will lighten the load and get you dancing for sure. I can't believe the only album on Amazon that has this tune is an import! This is a money product. The song comes courtesy of Said The Gramaphone's top 22 songs of 2005 list.

Robyn - Be Mine!
buy this!

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.


The Blood Brothers put on quite a show: shirtless, ear-bleedingly loud, and delightfully homoerotic (maybe that's just me). It's nice when, under the shreiking, you can pull out a little hummable tune, like on this track from their last record.

The Blood Brothers - Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck
Buy It!

And, as a special bonus because it came up in my iTunes search, the wakeup track from The Dictators' 1978 album, "Bloodbrothers."

The Dictators - Faster and Louder
Buy It!

And, to keep the thrills coming, an epic blood bonus bonus from Manowar, the medieval, flagon-raising band that included the Dictators' Ross the Boss (he left Manowar after the release of this album, 1988's "Kings of Metal").
Manowar - Blood Of The Kings
Buy It!

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

The Big Bounce

Sure, everybody knows (and writes about) the Talking Heads / Clap Your Hands Say Yeah comparison, but this tune by 80's no hit wonder Altered Images really reminded me of CYHSY's happy new wave bounce. Might even be a nice cover for them. This song was featured on the Sixteen Candles soundtrack (when it was on TV!) apparently, the movie has been released with a host of different scores and soundtracks. Did this used to be common? Seems like more trouble than it's worth.

Altered Images - Happy Birthday
buy this!
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
buy this!

Since the season has once more come around and I initially thought that "Happy Birthday" was a Waitresses' song, I have included their infectious trademark Christmas number. Definitely one of the better things that we are forced to hear over the holidays. Love those horns! I bet Lionel Richie does too.

The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping

buy this!

Monday, December 05, 2005

Loving the Hun

My fiancee discovered the joys of Angela Wiedl by clicking (accidentally) on the German Folk section of iTunes. Much to her delight (and yours) Angela Wiedl was the first artist to come up. Look at the fine "Willkommen" she gives to us. Raise your stein and join the party!

Angela Wiedl - Wo sind die Zigeuner geblieben
buy it!

I couldn't help but notice that the seductive chorus of "Wo sind die Zigeuner geblieben" reminded me of a certain other group of joyous Europeans, ABBA. Damn if my fiancee did not yet then steer me towards a fine parallel number. Skol!

ABBA - Money, Money, Money
buy it!

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Le Peste

I am reading this fantastic book now called The Great Influenza by John M. Barry; it covers the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 that killed somewhere between 50 and 100 million people worldwide, all in about a year. It's an amazing story and one that people are generally not familiar with. There are some great photos in the edition as well, one of which I have placed to the left. Spitting was actually made illegal in many places and ordinances were also issued to try to force people to cover their mouths as they sneezed. Whole cities were brought to a standstill as all public meetings (churches, bars, parades, etc) were banned and huge portions of the population fell ill.

One of the factors that really got the disease rolling in the US was the mobilization of troops (quickly forcing people from all over the the country into crowded quarters) and the wartime propaganda machine. Once President Wilson decided it was time to fight, there was no negative press coverage tolerated. This included any information that would make the US look weak and harm the war effort, like news of a paralyzing and demoralizing epeidemic...

Music was a big part of the propaganda effort, and as luck would have it, my friend Dave forwarded me some amazing mp3s of period songs from the WWI era today! These come from an impressive looking (I have not explored yet) site called www.firstworldwar.com.

Harry Fay - How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm (After They've Seen Paree)
Arthur Fields - Hunting The Hun

Friday, December 02, 2005

The Rakes - 22 Grand Job

The New British Post-Punk (a)

There's tons of great dancey, post-punk influenced stuff coming out these days, especially from the UK. I don't think these guys are the next Bloc Party or anything but this song is great-o. They're on a long tour with Franz Ferdinand in Europe right now, which I would guess is kinda fun. A wee bit.

The Rakes - 22 Grand Job
buy it!

Forward Russia! - Nine

The New British Post-Punk (b)

These boys (and girl) are from Leeds and there's quite a bit more punk in their spiky post-punk. Anger is an energy. Also, the bloke second from the left looks like a hot version of Grant Hart.

Forward Russia! - Nine
www.forwardrussia.com

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Spoon - I Turn My Camera On (John McEntire remix)

SLINKY

I usually don't poach from other blogs, but this was too good...the folks over at Silence Is A Rhythm Too posted this a few days ago and I had to pass it on. "I Turn My Camera On" in it's original form was so dry and funky, with just a touch of menace - definitely a highlight of Spoon's last album, Gimme Fiction. Then a remix by my long-standing idol John McEntire (producer/drummer for Tortoise and The Sea & Cake!) It's almost too much. Enjoy.

Spoon - I Turn My Camera On (John McEntire remix)
buy it!