the Smiths

When I got to college in 1985, college radio opened up a new realm of musical sounds to me. Some of the major strands were: R.E.M. and other jangle pop from the Southeast, synth/dance pop from UK/Europe (best exemplified by New Order), various strains of heavier music from the U.S. (Dinosaur Jr., Husker Du, Sonic Youth, the Pixies, the beginnings of grunge), but another unique sound that stood out by itself was the Smiths. This was a blend of three crucial elements: Johnny Marr’s guitar sound (like Peter Buck of R.E.M., he stripped rock down to the basic instrument and built up something completely new), Morrissey’s lilting voice, and Morrissey’s sophisticated, literary lyrics. The band (especially Morrissey) has taken a lot of crap over the years for being too trendy or too melodramatic, but musically no band has ever really sounded like them before or since. There’s a sad sweetness and beauty that they own.

Here’s the first Smiths song that I ever heard, “Cemetry Gates”, which contains all the crucial elements (I couldn’t find the original video, but the sound on this one is good. You can ignore the two dorks who made the film, or not; they are kind of endearing actually.)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrissey

I Ain't Ever Satisfied - Steve Earle

I just picked this up yesterday at the Best Buy (a compilation album, not the one pictured), using a gift card my brother gave me for Christmas. The whole compilation disc is really good, but this tune in particular is sweet. Earle writes and plays crisp, poignant roots/country rock. Very simple structures. Pure and authentic.

Sorry I couldn't embed the song (disabled). Click here for the link.

Creative Hybridization II

And speaking of hybrids involving Led Zeppelin, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the great Dread Zeppelin. Catch them live if you can; they're really good.

Creative Hybridization

Speaking of Zeppelin, here's a very clever (and quite good) hybridization of Zeppelin and the Beatles that made the rounds on college radio a decade or so ago and has made it to Youtube (although not a video - but the sound is pretty good). Enjoy.

The Rain Song - Led Zeppelin

Houses of the Holy is my favorite Led Zeppelin album because it's the most varied and mature. There are a lot of great ideas there that go far beyond hard rock, and they are brilliantly executed. Since it's rainy today here, I thought I'd post this flash animation that someone did for "The Rain Song".

Dig for Fire - Pixies

In the late 80s and early 90s, the Pixies owned college radio, inspired a generation of bands that would come along a few years later, disappeared for a little while, then came back last year with a huge tour during which the entire rock music world rightfully lauded them as the most influential band of their time. Meanwhile, I was listening to their stuff the entire time (thanks to my friend Dave K in Durham who originally turned me onto them and gave me tapes of all their albums). The bands I have been in have also reflected the Pixies influence, although more in the instrumental sound than in the songwriting. I wish I could write like them. Anyway, here is my favorite Pixies song, "Dig for Fire"

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Sister Havana - Urge Overkill

This is the only UO song that I've run across that I really like. But it's an awesome one. I don't really get the cheesy Cuban political theme, but that doesn't matter. It's a perfectly constructed, guitar riff driven rock song with great breaks. Come around to my way of thinking...

Warrior - Public Image Limited

John Lydon's post Sex Pistols outfit Public Image Limited produced some of the best dance tracks of the late 80s/early 90s. One of the best is "Warrior". The sound on the embedded clip isn't the greatest (there are much better mixes of this song; e.g. on PiL's greatest hits compilation) but you can still catch the things I really like about this song: complex machine-like underlying rhythm track with plenty of interesting auxiliary percussion, great long slow synth washes enhancing the narrative content, Lydon's urgent vocals. The drum breaks are great, emphasizing the multilayered texture when the various tracks come back in. This song has the three things that make a song great: rhythm, atmosphere, and good-sounding chord changes. It gets me there.

Singapore Rice Noodles of the Month

From Chong Sar in Rocky Point, NY. Excellent mix. The meat is very fresh and the angelhair pasta is nicely snipped into more mouthful-manageable portions. A little on the salty side, but I'm more sensitive to that these days. This SCMF is highly recommended.

Everything But the Girl

Been busy and a little tired lately. I've been wanting to blog about Everything But the Girl for a while. This band has a lot going for it: great songwriting, Tracey Thorn's strong and engaging vocals, excellent range across several pop subgenres. I really like their house tracks. I find them to be very atmospheric and sophisticated. This is music I want in the soundtrack of my life.

Here's "The Future of the Future":

My new favorite blog

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/

It's about architecture, ideas, and the future. Lots of stuff about climate change, recycling, green materials, energy. Very well written. Beautiful art. Check it out...

New band name idea...

Mercy sakes alive.

Looks like we got us a convoy!

on TV

We basically skip network TV and head for deep cable. Here is what Mrs. Slig and I are watching these days:

Project Runway (Bravo) (BTW; a Canadian version of this show is in its first season; you can watch the episodes on Youtube.)
Top Chef (Bravo)
Iron Chef (Food Network)
The Next Iron Chef (Food Network)
Good Eats (Food Network)
Two Dudes Catering (Food Network)
Dinner Impossible (Food Network)
World Poker Tour (Travel Channel)
Weird Foods (Travel Channel)
No Reservations (Travel Channel)
One Piece (Cartoon Network)

Covers

In the shower this morning I managed to hear Placebo's cover of Kate Bush's timeless classic "Running Up that Hill". In my opinion it's pretty odious. It got me thinking about why bands choose the covers they do. Covering a well known song (and in international pop, there might not be a better known song than "Running...") seems to be done either as a tribute or as an implicit admission that you are out of original material and looking to score an easy hit (and there has been a lot of that lately). Covering obscure songs is a different matter.

Here are the bands that cover "Running up That Hill" and for which the song is available in the Itunes music store (I'm sure there are more): Placebo, Faith And The Muse, Re-Touch, Icon & The Black Roses, Danielle French, Jenna Myles, Elastik Band, Kiki & Herb, Visnadi, The Lund Clements Churchill Trio, Thomas Mery, The Baltimores, Kevin Slick, Dave Rummans, Isadar, Kenny Moran.

Most of these sound like fairly loving covers of the tribute variety. Few of these bands are ever going to make it big with Kate Bush's or any other material. The one by the Baltimores is not particularly respectful of the original song. The one by Icon & The Black Roses, which is a hard rock version, sounded the most interesting to me. Your mileage will of course vary.

The deal with this particular song is that the original is so amazingly good there's no way anyone could improve on it:

Songs that Write Themselves

Similar to the sculptor's concept that the sculpture is inside the rock and the artist just needs to remove the unnecessary material, some songs seem to already exist in ideal Platonic song space and simply await emergence by writing them down. This is no slight to the songwriter, since it takes a talented inner ear to find these songs and to know them when they materialize. Here's a song that strikes me as this type. It just flows out, probably like it did when they first put it together. "Caroline" by Concrete Blonde.



Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving.

Upcoming superhero movies

Movie versions are on the way for Sub-mariner, Captain Marvel, Luke Cage, Thor, and Green Lantern. Funny (non-optimistic) preview article.

Superheroes I'd like to see movies of:
Firestorm


Doctor Strange

FSM

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is hitting the mainstream! Long may He writhe!!!

Some Stevie...

...for your Thursday. I grew up singing along to her songs. She and I gravitate to the same stock chord progressions.

Bow down...

...before God Slayer!