As I've done every year for the past I don't know how many years, at year-end I've put together a mix consisting of tracks from my top 20 albums of the year. (As earlier entries in this listening diary make clear, in recent years I've also put together a large-format mix of songs I listened to during the year - regardless of when they came out. All the tracks on this list are from 2007 releases.) The previous entry (c'mon, just scroll down: you don't need a link all the time, do you?) lists those 20 albums, along with a bunch more and the usual verborrheac commentary.
The sequencing bears no relation to the ranking of the albums the songs are drawn from; I just put them together in an order that sounds good to me.
So: A Pillow Fight in Leather Pants: Makura-Nage.
1. The New Pornographers "All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth" (Challengers)
2. Maximo Park "A Fortnight's Time" (Our Earthly Pleasures)
3. Charlotte Hatherley "Love's Young Dream" (The Deep Blue)
4. Field Music "Working to Work" (Tones of Town)
5. The Caribbean "Bees, Their Vision and Language" (Populations)
6. The National "Squalor Victoria" (Boxer)
7. The Hidden Messages "Over" (Animal Actors 1 and 2)
8. Interpol "The Scale" (Our Love to Admire)
9. Radiohead "Faust Arp" (In Rainbows)
10. St. Vincent "Your Lips Are Red" (Marry Me)
11. Caribou "Sandy" (Andorra)
12. Future Clouds and Radar "Malice of Stars" (Future Clouds and Radar)
13. Spoon "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga)
14. Of Montreal "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger" (Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?)
15. Paul McCartney "Ever Present Past" (Memory Almost Full)
16. The Fiery Furnaces "Navy Nurse" (Widow City)
17. Von Südenfed "Flooded" (Tromatic Reflexxions)
18. Kristin Hersh "Day Glo" (Learn to Sing Like a Star)
19. John Vanderslice "The Tower" (Emerald City)
20. Low "Murderer" (Drums and Guns)
For what it's worth, the albums I had the most difficult time with in selecting a single track to use were the Future Clouds and Radar album (just buy it, okay? there are like 20 excellent songs on it, and even the filler's fun, and short), Hatherley, Field Music, and Of Montreal. A curious coincidence: two tracks here feature somewhat disorienting distortion, which seem to be of a similar type (sounds like overloading a digital signal rather than analog distortion): the Vanderslice (he and co-producer Scott Solter use this sound extensively on Emerald City) and the Fiery Furnaces tracks.
Top albums of 2007 discussed at length.
Previous entry in the 2007 listening diary.
Check the comments for a link to the zip file.
Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts
12.31.2007
12.30.2007
2007 listening diary - part G
The last section of my 2007 listening diary (the mix of tracks from my top 20 releases of the year is yet to follow) consists (almost) entirely of cover songs I listened to a lot this year. (There's a sort of cover embedded in the Michael Ian Black comedy bit - the reason it's in this section...) This one's called "Snake Fist (Shequan)":
121. Michael Ian Black "Satanic Messages"
122. Thurston Moore & Mike Watt "Fourth Day of July" (Tom Rapp)
123. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "The Diamond Sea" (Sonic Youth)
124. Engineers "Song to the Siren" (Tim Buckley)
125. Doveman "Airbag" (Radiohead)
126. Grizzly Bear "He Hit Me" (The Crystals - written by Phil Spector)
127. Joe Jackson "King of the World" (Steely Dan)
128. Manishevitz "King's Lead Hat" (Brian Eno)
129. Matthew's Celebrity Pixies Covers "Wave of Mutilation (Bee Gees Version)" (Pixies)
130. Ted Leo "Dancing in the Dark" (Bruce Springsteen)
131. The Fall "Hungry Freaks Daddy" (Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention)
132. The Vile Bodies "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" (David Bowie)
133. The Futureheads "Hounds of Love (acoustic)" (Kate Bush)
134. Of Montreal "Trouble" live on-air (Lindsey Buckingham)
135. Sara Quin ft. Kaki King "Sweetness Follows" (R.E.M.)
136. Robyn Hitchcock & John Paul Jones "Not Dark Yet" (Bob Dylan)
137. Final Fantasy "Paris 1919" (John Cale)
138. Division Day "Enjoy the Silence" (Depeche Mode)
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' cover of the Sonic Youth track reveals something that might not have been obvious in the way Sonic Youth usually arranges its own songs: Thurston Moore's a fine songwriter in the traditional sense, able to write music that works just fine with voice and acoustic guitar. (Lee Ranaldo's pretty good too - one reason Sonic Youth has outlasted many of its peers similarly interested in noise exploration.) Grizzly Bear's cover of "He Hit Me" is simultaneously creepy and compelling: it set me off to try and find the original version, which as it turns out is difficult to find (apparently a lot of folks would rather it be forgotten). The most obvious change is, of course, the gender of the narrator - but when I first heard this version I assumed that the somewhat odd harmonic basis of the song, and perhaps the curious, bolero-like rhythm Grizzly Bear uses, were their own adaptations...but once I heard the original, I realized that no, all that's there in the original. I'm not sure why it hadn't occurred to me that Joe Jackson would be a Steely Dan fan...but hearing this cover, it's obvious and quite evident in his own music. Ted Leo's version is nice in stripping away all the '80s-synth glop that half-ruins Born in the USA for me. The Fall's third or fourth recorded cover of a Zappa song (too lazy to go through all 750,000 other Fall songs to list them) appears on the DVD supplement to their latest, rather uneven recording. The new band seems entirely too deferential and too professional - a spark is missing. Fortunately, Smith had another version of The Fall this year (by the Granny's Bongos Bylaw - to be explained in the top 20 post to come).
(Update) There is no zinc in the comments. Earlier sections of this year's listening diary appear below this entry (too lazy to do a link).
121. Michael Ian Black "Satanic Messages"
122. Thurston Moore & Mike Watt "Fourth Day of July" (Tom Rapp)
123. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "The Diamond Sea" (Sonic Youth)
124. Engineers "Song to the Siren" (Tim Buckley)
125. Doveman "Airbag" (Radiohead)
126. Grizzly Bear "He Hit Me" (The Crystals - written by Phil Spector)
127. Joe Jackson "King of the World" (Steely Dan)
128. Manishevitz "King's Lead Hat" (Brian Eno)
129. Matthew's Celebrity Pixies Covers "Wave of Mutilation (Bee Gees Version)" (Pixies)
130. Ted Leo "Dancing in the Dark" (Bruce Springsteen)
131. The Fall "Hungry Freaks Daddy" (Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention)
132. The Vile Bodies "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" (David Bowie)
133. The Futureheads "Hounds of Love (acoustic)" (Kate Bush)
134. Of Montreal "Trouble" live on-air (Lindsey Buckingham)
135. Sara Quin ft. Kaki King "Sweetness Follows" (R.E.M.)
136. Robyn Hitchcock & John Paul Jones "Not Dark Yet" (Bob Dylan)
137. Final Fantasy "Paris 1919" (John Cale)
138. Division Day "Enjoy the Silence" (Depeche Mode)
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' cover of the Sonic Youth track reveals something that might not have been obvious in the way Sonic Youth usually arranges its own songs: Thurston Moore's a fine songwriter in the traditional sense, able to write music that works just fine with voice and acoustic guitar. (Lee Ranaldo's pretty good too - one reason Sonic Youth has outlasted many of its peers similarly interested in noise exploration.) Grizzly Bear's cover of "He Hit Me" is simultaneously creepy and compelling: it set me off to try and find the original version, which as it turns out is difficult to find (apparently a lot of folks would rather it be forgotten). The most obvious change is, of course, the gender of the narrator - but when I first heard this version I assumed that the somewhat odd harmonic basis of the song, and perhaps the curious, bolero-like rhythm Grizzly Bear uses, were their own adaptations...but once I heard the original, I realized that no, all that's there in the original. I'm not sure why it hadn't occurred to me that Joe Jackson would be a Steely Dan fan...but hearing this cover, it's obvious and quite evident in his own music. Ted Leo's version is nice in stripping away all the '80s-synth glop that half-ruins Born in the USA for me. The Fall's third or fourth recorded cover of a Zappa song (too lazy to go through all 750,000 other Fall songs to list them) appears on the DVD supplement to their latest, rather uneven recording. The new band seems entirely too deferential and too professional - a spark is missing. Fortunately, Smith had another version of The Fall this year (by the Granny's Bongos Bylaw - to be explained in the top 20 post to come).
(Update) There is no zinc in the comments. Earlier sections of this year's listening diary appear below this entry (too lazy to do a link).
12.29.2007
2007 listening diary - part F
The sixth part of this year's megamix, entitled "Black Tiger Pounce":
102. Barry Dworkin "Rock and Roll Dreams'll Come Through"
103. Wondermints "Arnaldo Said"
104. Herman Jolly "1,000,000 Feet Below"
105. Adam Franklin "Syd's Eyes"
106. Diane Cluck "Easy to Be Around"
107. Siobhan Donaghy "Ghosts"
108. Virgin of the Birds "You Haven't Talked to Tara"
109. The Safes "Only in Your Mind"
110. Socalled "(These Are) The Good Old Days"
111. Dirty Projectors "No More"
112. Castanets "You Are the Blood"
113. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? "That's a Good Question"
114. Taxi Taxi "Family Doctor"
115. My Teenage Stride "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge"
116. Gravenhurst "Black Holes in the Sand"
117. Minus Story "In Line"
118. Bockman "Tied to the Moon"
119. Prefuse 73 "The Class of 73 Bells"
120. Idle Tigers "The Shadow Falls Across the Fridge, Frank"
About that "Barry Dworkin" track: no, this is not the Barry Dworkin who's a physician with a Canadian call-in radio show, nor is this the Barry Dworkin who sells real estate in California - this is the Barry Dworkin who's the greatest living songwriter known to mankind. Sadly, his backing band, the Gas Station Dogs, could not be with him for this performance (he hasn't found the right guys yet), but I think you'll agree that this track is "The Godfather of rock'n'roll songs." Godfather III, probably - or maybe Godfather XIV, the one where Dane Cook and Pauly Shore co-star. Adam Franklin is the former main guy in Swervedriver, a band that's been ridiculously overlooked and whose catalog is really due for reissue. Every music blogger on the planet has had something to say about that Dirty Projectors album (the one that radically reimagines Black Flag's Damaged); as an entire album my impression is it might wear thin, but individual tracks are brilliant. My Teenage Stride seems to quote Brian Eno's "Cindy Tells Me" - not sure if that was intentional (any more than if the band's name is an homage to the Mercury Rev song "Young Man's Stride"). Judging from the Castanets' song, more bands should use heavily reverbed clarinet.
The usual postscript: check the comments for links, and the prior installments are available beginning here.
102. Barry Dworkin "Rock and Roll Dreams'll Come Through"
103. Wondermints "Arnaldo Said"
104. Herman Jolly "1,000,000 Feet Below"
105. Adam Franklin "Syd's Eyes"
106. Diane Cluck "Easy to Be Around"
107. Siobhan Donaghy "Ghosts"
108. Virgin of the Birds "You Haven't Talked to Tara"
109. The Safes "Only in Your Mind"
110. Socalled "(These Are) The Good Old Days"
111. Dirty Projectors "No More"
112. Castanets "You Are the Blood"
113. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? "That's a Good Question"
114. Taxi Taxi "Family Doctor"
115. My Teenage Stride "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge"
116. Gravenhurst "Black Holes in the Sand"
117. Minus Story "In Line"
118. Bockman "Tied to the Moon"
119. Prefuse 73 "The Class of 73 Bells"
120. Idle Tigers "The Shadow Falls Across the Fridge, Frank"
About that "Barry Dworkin" track: no, this is not the Barry Dworkin who's a physician with a Canadian call-in radio show, nor is this the Barry Dworkin who sells real estate in California - this is the Barry Dworkin who's the greatest living songwriter known to mankind. Sadly, his backing band, the Gas Station Dogs, could not be with him for this performance (he hasn't found the right guys yet), but I think you'll agree that this track is "The Godfather of rock'n'roll songs." Godfather III, probably - or maybe Godfather XIV, the one where Dane Cook and Pauly Shore co-star. Adam Franklin is the former main guy in Swervedriver, a band that's been ridiculously overlooked and whose catalog is really due for reissue. Every music blogger on the planet has had something to say about that Dirty Projectors album (the one that radically reimagines Black Flag's Damaged); as an entire album my impression is it might wear thin, but individual tracks are brilliant. My Teenage Stride seems to quote Brian Eno's "Cindy Tells Me" - not sure if that was intentional (any more than if the band's name is an homage to the Mercury Rev song "Young Man's Stride"). Judging from the Castanets' song, more bands should use heavily reverbed clarinet.
The usual postscript: check the comments for links, and the prior installments are available beginning here.
2007 listening diary - part E
Break out the horns and hooters (no Steely Dan here though - although one of their songs is covered in a later mix), it's the fifth part of my 2007 megamix, A Pillow Fight in Leather Pants, entitled "Cotton Boxing (Mian Quan)":
83. Flight of Conchords "Business Time"
84. Marnie Stern "Put All Your Eggs in One Basket and Then Watch That Basket!!!"
85. Monarch "Warning"
86. The Chemical Brothers "We Are the Night"
87. Savath + Savalas "Era Tu"
88. Deerhunter "Fluorescent Grey"
89. The Sharp Things "An Ocean Part Deux"
90. Magik Markers "Last of the Lemach Line"
91. Tokyo Police Club "Be Good"
92. SNMNMNM "Addy Will Know"
93. A Place to Bury Strangers "I Know I'll See You"
94. Division Day "Reversible" (Ginormous mix)
95. Plushgun "Just Impolite"
96. Head of Femur "Leader and the Falcon"
97. Bottom of the Hudson "Rusty Zippers"
98. Manatella "Apocalyptic Owl"
99. Sleeping States "The Next Step"
100. Great Lake Swimmers "Put There by the Land"
101. Los Campesinos! "You! Me! Dancing!" (ep)
Several Marnie Stern tracks were interesting this year - the woman is an insane guitarist. This was the year of Deerhunter: in addition to a 14-track mix from Jonderneathica, nearly another dozen tracks came my way via various music bloggers (pretty impressive for a band with only about twenty-some songs to its official discography)... The SNMNMNM track is especially for librarians: can anyone tell me which items are referenced via Library of Congress catalog numbers in this song? The band A Place to Bury Strangers seems to have conceived the odd idea that Joy Division and the Jesus and Mary Chain were actually the same band - not a bad idea though. Plushgun is one of three or four bands whose unsolicited demo links impressed me enough to make these mixes (one of them, as I mentioned earlier, made my top 20 CDs of the year...fairly impressive considering, uh, there's no actual CD yet. Technicalities...) Los Campesinos! (their screamer - they seem to like them) rerecorded this track in 2007; the version here (which I first heard in late December 2006) is a bit rawer, but I think all the better for that rawness.
As always, check the dictatorship of the commentariat (where what made Milwaukee famous has made a monkey of me). (The previous entry in this series is here - earlier entries are linked backwards serially. Or - to recycle a joke - surreally, if you prefer.)
83. Flight of Conchords "Business Time"
84. Marnie Stern "Put All Your Eggs in One Basket and Then Watch That Basket!!!"
85. Monarch "Warning"
86. The Chemical Brothers "We Are the Night"
87. Savath + Savalas "Era Tu"
88. Deerhunter "Fluorescent Grey"
89. The Sharp Things "An Ocean Part Deux"
90. Magik Markers "Last of the Lemach Line"
91. Tokyo Police Club "Be Good"
92. SNMNMNM "Addy Will Know"
93. A Place to Bury Strangers "I Know I'll See You"
94. Division Day "Reversible" (Ginormous mix)
95. Plushgun "Just Impolite"
96. Head of Femur "Leader and the Falcon"
97. Bottom of the Hudson "Rusty Zippers"
98. Manatella "Apocalyptic Owl"
99. Sleeping States "The Next Step"
100. Great Lake Swimmers "Put There by the Land"
101. Los Campesinos! "You! Me! Dancing!" (ep)
Several Marnie Stern tracks were interesting this year - the woman is an insane guitarist. This was the year of Deerhunter: in addition to a 14-track mix from Jonderneathica, nearly another dozen tracks came my way via various music bloggers (pretty impressive for a band with only about twenty-some songs to its official discography)... The SNMNMNM track is especially for librarians: can anyone tell me which items are referenced via Library of Congress catalog numbers in this song? The band A Place to Bury Strangers seems to have conceived the odd idea that Joy Division and the Jesus and Mary Chain were actually the same band - not a bad idea though. Plushgun is one of three or four bands whose unsolicited demo links impressed me enough to make these mixes (one of them, as I mentioned earlier, made my top 20 CDs of the year...fairly impressive considering, uh, there's no actual CD yet. Technicalities...) Los Campesinos! (their screamer - they seem to like them) rerecorded this track in 2007; the version here (which I first heard in late December 2006) is a bit rawer, but I think all the better for that rawness.
As always, check the dictatorship of the commentariat (where what made Milwaukee famous has made a monkey of me). (The previous entry in this series is here - earlier entries are linked backwards serially. Or - to recycle a joke - surreally, if you prefer.)
12.28.2007
2007 listening diary - part D
Welcome to the D-side of our platter, sports fans - I'm compiling just for you, covered in sequins.
This sector is known as "The White Eyebrow (Bak Mei)" and expresses yet another form of the ancient martial art of pillow fighting. Contents may have settled during shipping but should still be viewable using the secret decoder ring as follows:
62. Patton Oswalt "Physics for Poets / The Dukes of Hazzard"
63. Portastatic "You Blanks" acoustic
64. The Mutton Birds "She's Been Talking"
65. The Knife "Neverland"
66. Tarwater "When Love Was the Law in Los Angeles"
67. Psapp "Needle & Thread"
68. Creeping Jenny "Mouse Bite"
69. David Kilgour "Sun of God"
70. David Vandervelde "Nothin' No"
71. Dylan Hears a Who "Too Many Daves"
72. Camera Obscura "Phil and Don"
73. Winterpills "Broken Arm"
74. Cezanne "In Snow"
75. Lost in Hildurness "Floods"
76. A Sunny Day in Glasgow "Our Change into Rain Is No Change at All (Talkin' 'bout Us)"
77. Felix Kubin + Coolhand "There Is a Garden"
78. Momus "Bonsai Tree"
79. MF DOOM "Tick, Tick..."
80. Dntel "Sundial"
81. The High Llamas "Apricots"
82. Ra Ra Riot "Each Year"
This one goes from political to weird...which, you know, makes too much sense. The chorus of the Portastatic track breaks my heart. A couple of otherwise unreleased tracks here: the Creeping Jenny track (which I believe showed up at the estimable Little Hits site), the Momus track (via his own blog Click Opera), and - curses! - the subsequently disappeared Dylan Hears a Who track (one of five or six), which was shoved with great force into the deepest, brownest folds of the nether orifices of the Seuss Estates' legal team. A damned shame: setting Dr. Seuss' words to a dead-on Dylan impersonation (dead-on both musically and vocally) is a brilliant idea that serves both artists. Apparently, some lawyers didn't see it that way. (E-mail me for more info.) Speaking of legal issues: I'd thought that Beatles samples were never able to be cleared. Someone forgot to tell MF DOOM - who finds here that a glass onion makes a wobbly and queasy-making watercraft. And sadly, Ra Ra Riot is one of two bands in this megamix (that I know of) to have suffered tragic losses during 2007: their drummer drowned earlier this year.
Check the comments, check the guy's track comments. (The prior installment is available here - and earlier installments are linked therefrom.)
This sector is known as "The White Eyebrow (Bak Mei)" and expresses yet another form of the ancient martial art of pillow fighting. Contents may have settled during shipping but should still be viewable using the secret decoder ring as follows:
62. Patton Oswalt "Physics for Poets / The Dukes of Hazzard"
63. Portastatic "You Blanks" acoustic
64. The Mutton Birds "She's Been Talking"
65. The Knife "Neverland"
66. Tarwater "When Love Was the Law in Los Angeles"
67. Psapp "Needle & Thread"
68. Creeping Jenny "Mouse Bite"
69. David Kilgour "Sun of God"
70. David Vandervelde "Nothin' No"
71. Dylan Hears a Who "Too Many Daves"
72. Camera Obscura "Phil and Don"
73. Winterpills "Broken Arm"
74. Cezanne "In Snow"
75. Lost in Hildurness "Floods"
76. A Sunny Day in Glasgow "Our Change into Rain Is No Change at All (Talkin' 'bout Us)"
77. Felix Kubin + Coolhand "There Is a Garden"
78. Momus "Bonsai Tree"
79. MF DOOM "Tick, Tick..."
80. Dntel "Sundial"
81. The High Llamas "Apricots"
82. Ra Ra Riot "Each Year"
This one goes from political to weird...which, you know, makes too much sense. The chorus of the Portastatic track breaks my heart. A couple of otherwise unreleased tracks here: the Creeping Jenny track (which I believe showed up at the estimable Little Hits site), the Momus track (via his own blog Click Opera), and - curses! - the subsequently disappeared Dylan Hears a Who track (one of five or six), which was shoved with great force into the deepest, brownest folds of the nether orifices of the Seuss Estates' legal team. A damned shame: setting Dr. Seuss' words to a dead-on Dylan impersonation (dead-on both musically and vocally) is a brilliant idea that serves both artists. Apparently, some lawyers didn't see it that way. (E-mail me for more info.) Speaking of legal issues: I'd thought that Beatles samples were never able to be cleared. Someone forgot to tell MF DOOM - who finds here that a glass onion makes a wobbly and queasy-making watercraft. And sadly, Ra Ra Riot is one of two bands in this megamix (that I know of) to have suffered tragic losses during 2007: their drummer drowned earlier this year.
Check the comments, check the guy's track comments. (The prior installment is available here - and earlier installments are linked therefrom.)
12.26.2007
2007 listening diary - part C
Here's the track listing for the third part of my 2007 megamix, this section entitled "Southern Sleeping Dog":
41. Scharpling & Wurster "Jock Squad" (excerpt)
42. Les Savy Fav "What Would Wolves Do?"
43. Sarah Blasko "For You"
44. Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden "Everything Went Down"
45. Prints "Too Much Water"
46. The Trolleyvox "I Call on You"
47. The Buddyrevelles "Moods of..."
48. Smart Went Crazy "Funny as in Funny Ha-Ha"
49. Clear Tigers "Boredom"
50. Mike Viola "Girly Worm"
51. Nyack "Savage Smile"
52. Mystery Jets "Diamonds in the Dark"
53. Scott Matelic "Thoughtless"
54. Jeremy Enigk "Oh John"
55. Miracle Fortress "Have You Seen in Your Dreams"
56. Iron & Wine "Boy with a Coin"
57. The Three 4 Tens "R.U.B.A."
58. The Shake "Stop the Show"
59. The 1900s "Cold & Kind"
60. Sam Amidon "Little Johnny Brown"
61. Shocking Pinks "I Want U Back"
Some comments: Scharpling & Wurster (from "The Best Show on WFMU") perfectly capture the sudden mood swings from self-congratulatory to absurdly aggressive that characterize the jock personality. That "Too Much Water" track has a bit of a purple tinge to it, don't you think? Say the band's name out loud... The Smart Went Crazy track contains maybe my favorite lyrics of the year (my year, not theirs - it was recorded in 1997), with the reference to "the time that you said that you were afraid to confront your fear of confrontation"... I will note that Mike Viola blatantly steals the beginning of the theme of the Addams Family TV show for his track...I'm not entirely sure why. Does anyone know who's singing on the Scott Matelic track? I couldn't find any info on the singer.
Once again, check the comments. Earlier installments are here: part A and part B.
41. Scharpling & Wurster "Jock Squad" (excerpt)
42. Les Savy Fav "What Would Wolves Do?"
43. Sarah Blasko "For You"
44. Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden "Everything Went Down"
45. Prints "Too Much Water"
46. The Trolleyvox "I Call on You"
47. The Buddyrevelles "Moods of..."
48. Smart Went Crazy "Funny as in Funny Ha-Ha"
49. Clear Tigers "Boredom"
50. Mike Viola "Girly Worm"
51. Nyack "Savage Smile"
52. Mystery Jets "Diamonds in the Dark"
53. Scott Matelic "Thoughtless"
54. Jeremy Enigk "Oh John"
55. Miracle Fortress "Have You Seen in Your Dreams"
56. Iron & Wine "Boy with a Coin"
57. The Three 4 Tens "R.U.B.A."
58. The Shake "Stop the Show"
59. The 1900s "Cold & Kind"
60. Sam Amidon "Little Johnny Brown"
61. Shocking Pinks "I Want U Back"
Some comments: Scharpling & Wurster (from "The Best Show on WFMU") perfectly capture the sudden mood swings from self-congratulatory to absurdly aggressive that characterize the jock personality. That "Too Much Water" track has a bit of a purple tinge to it, don't you think? Say the band's name out loud... The Smart Went Crazy track contains maybe my favorite lyrics of the year (my year, not theirs - it was recorded in 1997), with the reference to "the time that you said that you were afraid to confront your fear of confrontation"... I will note that Mike Viola blatantly steals the beginning of the theme of the Addams Family TV show for his track...I'm not entirely sure why. Does anyone know who's singing on the Scott Matelic track? I couldn't find any info on the singer.
Once again, check the comments. Earlier installments are here: part A and part B.
12.24.2007
2007 listening diary - part B
Continuing with my mix of tracks I listened to often during 2007, here's part B, "Drunken Clinch":
20. National Lampoon "Magical Misery Tour"
21. Harry Nilsson "You Can't Do That"
22. Wammo "Lowriders on the Storm"
23. The Jennifers "Good Morning, Starshine"
24. The Field "From Here We Go Sublime"
25. The Lichens "Vevor of Agassou"
26. Boy in Static "Violet"
27. Coltrane Motion "Twenty-Seven"
28. Salem 66 "Pony Song"
29. New Young Pony Club "Hiding on the Staircase"
30. Machine Go Boom "All the Way to PA"
31. Bishop Allen "Flight 180"
32. Hazeldine "Tarmac"
33. Jackson 5 "I'll Bet You"
34. Scissors for Lefty "Marsha"
35. Southerly "Soldiers"
36. Don Lennon "John Cale"
37. The Holy Modal Rounders "Give the Fiddler a Dram"
38. Panda Bear "Bros"
39. Pterodactyl "Three Succeed"
40. Ulrich Schnauss "Stars"
Thots: The National Lampoon track is notable in being a Lennon parody whose lyrics are almost entirely written by...John Lennon. That is, they're drawn from the infamous 1970 interview with Jann Wenner, later published in Rolling Stone (and, I believe, as a book). Lennon was at a rather confused and confusing moment in his career and life, and believing at the time in utter honesty and emotional blurt, made a complete ass of himself. Such an eruption of bile, pettiness, envy, and general emotional retardation...so much that Lennon ended up apologizing for and repudiating much of what he said here. So how is it that I end up actually admiring Lennon more after all that? Because I'm guessing that most people, committing themselves to a course of holding back nothing, would still hold back quite a bit, for fear of, well, making a complete ass of oneself. Not John Lennon: in fact, I'd say he made at least an ass and a half here. The music is brilliant: a dead-on impersonation of Lennon's singing and writing style circa 1970-71, complete with "primal scream" ending and imitation Yoko.
The next couple tracks are sort of mashups without being mashups. Nilsson here weaves together quotations both musical and lyrical from several different Beatle songs in his cover of "You Can't Do That." Wammo, rather than sample the tracks he weaves in here, re-plays them instead, for a slightly more organic take on the concept. The Jennifers disprove the adage that you can't polish a turd: taking one of the worst songs ever, stripping it of its mind-bogglingly stupid wordless chorus, and crossbreeding it with Stereolab's "Crest" and the Byrds' "So You Wanna Be a Rock'n'Roll Star" result in a new song that is...shiny and not at all turdesque. The Field deconstruct one of the greatest pop records ever (The Flamingos' version of "I Only Have Eyes for You") into a series of isolated moments, and somehow pull a similar sense of wonder out of what begins as a disorienting buffeting of sound.
A couple sequences of tracks here illustrate something I do fairly often in mixes: juxtapose tracks based on language rather than sound (if they sound like crap next to one another, though, I'll change it). It was, in fact, a total coincidence that the 27th track in this mix was titled "Twenty-Seven."
The rather hilarious Batman reference in the Hazeldine song reminds me of something I should have said last time: many songs in this mix (and particularly the comedy bits) use the sort of language that still makes censors squeamish, so if your house has children whom you'd prefer to remain innocent of such blunt usage of our native tongue, well, you've been warned.
I heard this Jackson 5 tune on a local public radio station late one night...and had a really hard time believing at first that it was a Jackson 5 song. In a sense, it's not: Funkadelic wrote it and recorded and released their version a little bit later.
I like the cute gambit in the Scissors for Lefty track of first naming the chords of the little break section, and then renaming the chords with women's names. Might help young (female-attracted) guitarists learn chords more quickly...
Congratulate Don Lennon: he's used sleighbells in a track without evoking either Christmas or the Beach Boys. (Oops - now I've ruined it.) He does evoke John Cale, his titular subject, rather amusingly (I love the line about the "double-l").
Once again, check the comments for el linko. (For the first batch of tracks, see here.)
20. National Lampoon "Magical Misery Tour"
21. Harry Nilsson "You Can't Do That"
22. Wammo "Lowriders on the Storm"
23. The Jennifers "Good Morning, Starshine"
24. The Field "From Here We Go Sublime"
25. The Lichens "Vevor of Agassou"
26. Boy in Static "Violet"
27. Coltrane Motion "Twenty-Seven"
28. Salem 66 "Pony Song"
29. New Young Pony Club "Hiding on the Staircase"
30. Machine Go Boom "All the Way to PA"
31. Bishop Allen "Flight 180"
32. Hazeldine "Tarmac"
33. Jackson 5 "I'll Bet You"
34. Scissors for Lefty "Marsha"
35. Southerly "Soldiers"
36. Don Lennon "John Cale"
37. The Holy Modal Rounders "Give the Fiddler a Dram"
38. Panda Bear "Bros"
39. Pterodactyl "Three Succeed"
40. Ulrich Schnauss "Stars"
Thots: The National Lampoon track is notable in being a Lennon parody whose lyrics are almost entirely written by...John Lennon. That is, they're drawn from the infamous 1970 interview with Jann Wenner, later published in Rolling Stone (and, I believe, as a book). Lennon was at a rather confused and confusing moment in his career and life, and believing at the time in utter honesty and emotional blurt, made a complete ass of himself. Such an eruption of bile, pettiness, envy, and general emotional retardation...so much that Lennon ended up apologizing for and repudiating much of what he said here. So how is it that I end up actually admiring Lennon more after all that? Because I'm guessing that most people, committing themselves to a course of holding back nothing, would still hold back quite a bit, for fear of, well, making a complete ass of oneself. Not John Lennon: in fact, I'd say he made at least an ass and a half here. The music is brilliant: a dead-on impersonation of Lennon's singing and writing style circa 1970-71, complete with "primal scream" ending and imitation Yoko.
The next couple tracks are sort of mashups without being mashups. Nilsson here weaves together quotations both musical and lyrical from several different Beatle songs in his cover of "You Can't Do That." Wammo, rather than sample the tracks he weaves in here, re-plays them instead, for a slightly more organic take on the concept. The Jennifers disprove the adage that you can't polish a turd: taking one of the worst songs ever, stripping it of its mind-bogglingly stupid wordless chorus, and crossbreeding it with Stereolab's "Crest" and the Byrds' "So You Wanna Be a Rock'n'Roll Star" result in a new song that is...shiny and not at all turdesque. The Field deconstruct one of the greatest pop records ever (The Flamingos' version of "I Only Have Eyes for You") into a series of isolated moments, and somehow pull a similar sense of wonder out of what begins as a disorienting buffeting of sound.
A couple sequences of tracks here illustrate something I do fairly often in mixes: juxtapose tracks based on language rather than sound (if they sound like crap next to one another, though, I'll change it). It was, in fact, a total coincidence that the 27th track in this mix was titled "Twenty-Seven."
The rather hilarious Batman reference in the Hazeldine song reminds me of something I should have said last time: many songs in this mix (and particularly the comedy bits) use the sort of language that still makes censors squeamish, so if your house has children whom you'd prefer to remain innocent of such blunt usage of our native tongue, well, you've been warned.
I heard this Jackson 5 tune on a local public radio station late one night...and had a really hard time believing at first that it was a Jackson 5 song. In a sense, it's not: Funkadelic wrote it and recorded and released their version a little bit later.
I like the cute gambit in the Scissors for Lefty track of first naming the chords of the little break section, and then renaming the chords with women's names. Might help young (female-attracted) guitarists learn chords more quickly...
Congratulate Don Lennon: he's used sleighbells in a track without evoking either Christmas or the Beach Boys. (Oops - now I've ruined it.) He does evoke John Cale, his titular subject, rather amusingly (I love the line about the "double-l").
Once again, check the comments for el linko. (For the first batch of tracks, see here.)
12.22.2007
2007 listening diary - part A
As I've done for the past few years, I've put together a megamix featuring the songs I listened to a lot this last year, other than those on full-length CDs I've acquired. Most of the songs were released in 2007, but many were not: like most people, I certainly don't listen only to new music.
Anyway, what's new this year is my distribution method: in each entry, check the comments for a link to a zipped file. Each batch is cunningly assembled such that if you want, you can burn them onto a single CD - and everything except for the album-based mix (the last one) will fit onto a single CD-R (as mp3s). There should be no gaps between tracks if you're burning them or playing them on iTunes, etc.
Sometimes, additional info will be available in the comments field for each mp3 (such as where I initially heard the track).
Each posting's mix will be available for about a week - after that, e-mail me. On with the show: presenting my 2007 mix, A Pillow Fight in Leather Pants (in several parts).
I began each batch with a comedy track - not necessarily because I listened to loads of comedy this year, but because it provides a nice break (and a clear marker, if you put the whole damned thing in a single playlist, of where those breaks are). Here's part A, entitled "The Eight Feathers":
1. Paul F. Tompkins "Elegant Balloons/I'm So Rich"
2. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "Nobody's Baby" live on radio
3. The Monks "Cuckoo"
4. Ringo Deathstarr "Swirly"
5. Charlemagne "8x10"
6. Black Moth Super Rainbow "When the Sun Grows on Your Tongue"
7. Morning Recordings "Sugar Waltz"
8. Aesop Rock "None Shall Pass"
9. Campag Velocet "Drencrom Velocet Synthemesc"
10. Pinback "From Nothing to Nowhere"
11. Voyager One "Wires"
12. The Sky Drops "Sentimental"
13. Tulsa "Shaker"
14. Speck Mountain "Girl Out West"
15. Destroy Cowboy "1000 Candles"
16. Get Him Eat Him "Exposure" demo
17. Muscles "Lauren from Glebe"
18. Phosphorescent "Wolves"
19. P.J. Harvey "Grow Grow Grow"
Some comments: I'm not sure if "Ringo Deathstarr" is the best or worst band name ever...but I am sure that band members have worn out their copies of Loveless several times over (that lick, even that drum part, is rather familiar). The Morning Recordings track presents the first of two Prince-based puns in this year's mix. Both the Tulsa track and the Destroy Cowboy tracks came to me unsolicited from bands I'd never heard of - nice when that works out! (Even nicer: one such band made my top 20 albums of the year.)
Also: as good a time as any to do the animal inventory, for 2007 continued the trend of having animals in either your band's name, its song titles, or both. Here's a list:
In band names: bears (twice), deer, horses, llamas, pandas, ponies, tigers (twice), doves, birds generally (twice), moths, pterodactyls.
In song titles: hounds, mice, ponies, wolves (twice), cuckoos, falcons, owls, worms.
And there were more in the album-based list...
Anyway, what's new this year is my distribution method: in each entry, check the comments for a link to a zipped file. Each batch is cunningly assembled such that if you want, you can burn them onto a single CD - and everything except for the album-based mix (the last one) will fit onto a single CD-R (as mp3s). There should be no gaps between tracks if you're burning them or playing them on iTunes, etc.
Sometimes, additional info will be available in the comments field for each mp3 (such as where I initially heard the track).
Each posting's mix will be available for about a week - after that, e-mail me. On with the show: presenting my 2007 mix, A Pillow Fight in Leather Pants (in several parts).
I began each batch with a comedy track - not necessarily because I listened to loads of comedy this year, but because it provides a nice break (and a clear marker, if you put the whole damned thing in a single playlist, of where those breaks are). Here's part A, entitled "The Eight Feathers":
1. Paul F. Tompkins "Elegant Balloons/I'm So Rich"
2. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "Nobody's Baby" live on radio
3. The Monks "Cuckoo"
4. Ringo Deathstarr "Swirly"
5. Charlemagne "8x10"
6. Black Moth Super Rainbow "When the Sun Grows on Your Tongue"
7. Morning Recordings "Sugar Waltz"
8. Aesop Rock "None Shall Pass"
9. Campag Velocet "Drencrom Velocet Synthemesc"
10. Pinback "From Nothing to Nowhere"
11. Voyager One "Wires"
12. The Sky Drops "Sentimental"
13. Tulsa "Shaker"
14. Speck Mountain "Girl Out West"
15. Destroy Cowboy "1000 Candles"
16. Get Him Eat Him "Exposure" demo
17. Muscles "Lauren from Glebe"
18. Phosphorescent "Wolves"
19. P.J. Harvey "Grow Grow Grow"
Some comments: I'm not sure if "Ringo Deathstarr" is the best or worst band name ever...but I am sure that band members have worn out their copies of Loveless several times over (that lick, even that drum part, is rather familiar). The Morning Recordings track presents the first of two Prince-based puns in this year's mix. Both the Tulsa track and the Destroy Cowboy tracks came to me unsolicited from bands I'd never heard of - nice when that works out! (Even nicer: one such band made my top 20 albums of the year.)
Also: as good a time as any to do the animal inventory, for 2007 continued the trend of having animals in either your band's name, its song titles, or both. Here's a list:
In band names: bears (twice), deer, horses, llamas, pandas, ponies, tigers (twice), doves, birds generally (twice), moths, pterodactyls.
In song titles: hounds, mice, ponies, wolves (twice), cuckoos, falcons, owls, worms.
And there were more in the album-based list...
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