Laughing - R.E.M.

Pretty good live footage from 1982.  Their early stuff is by far their best stuff.  And this is one of the earliest and one of the best, IMHO.  I've thought a lot about their sound and what made it so fresh and great in its time.  The vocal had something to do with it, as did the guitar work and the songwriting.

time to play

Got some time to play outside on the deck this past weekend.  Always fun to do music outside.  With the uke especially.

Spring Rain - The Go-Betweens

[link] Always liked these guys.  Learned this song this evening.  Works pretty well with the baritone uke.  Lyrics are a bit klunky, but that's sort of the nature of the song and their sound.

This Charming Man - The Smiths

[link] Other than the screaming falsetto stuff, Morrissey is a vocal model/muse of mine.  This is one of the songs that sealed it for me.  The album The Smiths came out in 1984.  I discovered it in 1987 after I taped it from my bandmate Tom's LP collection.  Marr's classic jangly playing in this song really sets an atmosphere, especially with the changes and in combination with the bass line.

Firestarter - The Prodigy

[link] Possibly the most disturbing video I actually sort of liked.

Songs during childhood I needed to have

Frank Mills - Music Box Dancer

Billy Joel - Piano Man (B side of 45 was Root Beer Rag)

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around - The Police

[link] Still one of the best outfits to have ever played music on this planet.  My favorite band through most of my formative period. I was telling a friend the other day that the most straightforward bands I've been in were trios.  Take three good musicians and you can really do something, make something new.

Still no time

to go thru the Earthstock video.  Crazy week at work and home.

Watching the Wheels - John Lennon

[link] I am not heavily directly influenced by the Beatles and I don't listen to them except when their songs are on the radio, commercials, etc. But I liked (and bought) John Lennon's 1980 album Double Fantasy.  This is my favorite song off that album.

End of the Party - The Beat

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwC30oQcJAA] (aka The English Beat in the US).  Great chords. Sensual singing. The chord changes here really cannot be worn out.  And the production/arrangement really gets everything out of them.  Chord changes are narrative devices and sometimes the whole song can be an evocation of its hook over and over again.

Modigliani (Lost in Your Eyes) - Book of Love

[link] Absolutely love these guys.  Saw them live at Univ. Rochester in 1989.  Very electronic, of course (for the time).  But they have the progressions and the vocal is so low and sort of laconic.  Sets up a perfect atmosphere and attitude.

A wet set

The weather deteriorated after the late morning and it ended up being lightly drizzly and windy during my set.  But things still went OK.  I played for the full 30 min and got 9 songs in.  I'll see if the video turned out in the next couple of days and post vids.  10-20 people stuck it out and watched me in the rain.  I'm pretty happy with the way most of the songs turned out.

Weather looks good for tomorrow

Partly cloudy and mid 60s.  Should be good for the show.  I don't have anyone to run the video camera right now but I'm going to see if one of my undergraduates can.

Ring of Fire - Wall of Voodoo

Their cover of the Cash classic. Stan Ridgeway is a master of atmosphere.  This version really works for me.

Songs available for Friday

Folson Prison Blues (Cash)
Ring of Fire (Cash)
Southern Cross (CSN)
Thousands are Sailing (Pogues)
Country Roads (J. Denver)
On the Road Again (W. Nelson)
Evangeline (Icicle Works)
Leila (Clapton)
Last of the Famous Intl Playboys (Morrissey)
After the Gold Rush (N. Young)
New Years Day (U2)
My Little Stickleback (original)
Blue-Footed Booby Blues (original)
Roxanne (Police)
Please Come to Boston (D. Collins)
Unhappy Birthday (Smiths)
Here Come Cowboys (Psychedelic Furs)

Twilight Zone - Golden Earring

[link] Such a great song.  Pretty uptempo, great minor chord progressions in both verse and B part (beginning of chorus).  The guitar slide into the B part  really makes it. When Shian-Ren and I were in Leiden in 2002 we saw flyers up for these guys.  We weren't in town long enough to catch their show but I think it was in a small pub and was probably pretty great.

State of the Nation - New Order

A classic from 1986.  Heard it today in the lab listening to Soma FM's Underground 80s, which is truly excellent.  The vocal and low lead guitar are a high tension counterpart to each other and the always terrific New Order bass line.  The synth work and the strummed high rhythm guitar add the rest of the parts of the taut machine. High 80s dance pop par excellence.

Flier for Friday's gig

Sound Mirror - Clock DVA

[link] Clock DVA produced some of the more melodic stuff of the industrial genre.  In this one, the high synth line and the toned percussion line provide that. Not that it's that much, but it's there.

Wild Flower - the Cult

[link] One of the only arguably metal bands to get major airplay on US college radio in the late 80s and 90s.  Probably because they weren't hitting high in the rock charts in the US at the time ("alt-rock" had not yet broken into the mainstream rock of the time).  The Cult tended to use the same chord progression over and over, but they had a solid sound that was never boring.  This is one of their really good ones.

Fears to Remember - The Brothers Martin

Starflyer 59 led me to Joy Electric, which led to Dance House Children, which led to The Brothers Martin.  Now this is an excellent mid-tempo synth pop/dance song. Sort of a smoothing out of Depeche Mode with some more synthy elements thrown in.  Very nice.

No New Kinda Story - Starflyer 59

[link] Reading online about shoegaze led me to these guys.  I like the low-guitar/bass driven arrangement.  The light pulsing (synth or guitar) is a nice element as well.  Not in love with the orchestral elements, and the vocal is just OK.  But overall the atmosphere in this song is pretty good...

A Million Miles Away - the Plimsouls

A classic, very hard rocking new wave song from 1983. The verse builds a slow hook that leads into the multi hook of the verse. '83 was pretty close to the peak diversity of 80s pop.  A lot of great stuff was going on at the time...

Low Tide of the Night - Everything But the Girl

[link] I really like the housey stuff that this duo has done.  Very easy down tempo groove with the maudlin chords and amazing vocals of Tracey Thorn.  Some of the best atmosphere among music I heard in its time.

Set is shaping up

The set for my April 19 Earthstock performance is shaping up pretty well.  I definitely have 30 min worth of new songs, with most of them different from what I played last year.

Never as Good as the First Time - Sade

[link] I'm a huge fan of all the Sade classics. Coolness distilled.  This song has so much good stuff going on in both the top and bottom of the mix.  The breaks before the verses.  The vocal harmonies are extremely penetrating.  The bass and synth rhythm lines are really cutting.  But all within a very controlled and essentially single bass root groove (there are a couple of chords underneath the chorus, but still...).  Everything fits together perfectly in this song...

cool wizard hat for performing

Found this on eBay and just bought it.  Should be fun (hope it fits) to wear on stage.

Masquerade - Berlin

[link] I've always like this 1982 song. Perhaps captures a cliche about the Euro scene of the time (in both the band name overall and the song title), but it is a slice of the zeitgeist of the time.  And both the songwriting and the instrumentation are a tribute to early Euro synth pop/alt...

Linda Linda - Blue Heart

There is a lot to this, even if the song is really simple.

I would love

to be Dave Stewart to someone's Annie Lennox.

Modern Love is Automatic - A Flock of Seagulls

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztFdyL63RiI]  Probably because of the hair, these guys got a lot more criticism than they deserved.  These guys were on the early vanguard of synth pop as it went global and into the top 40 lists.  Their songs are layered, moody, and atmospheric.  And they haven't lost anything in 30 years.