13 posts tagged “music”
Anyone with any real taste in music knows how amazing Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand are but recently after finding my Rival Schools CD (which had been lost in a box for years) I've been really getting into that. Of course these are all Walter Schreifels
projects. I remembered a tape a friend from NYC sent me back in the
early 90's with Walter's band between GB and Quicksand which was called
Moondog. Thanks to the internets I just found that album was actually
released (online only) and is available here.
I just bought it and it's everything I remember it being. The one thing
I'm totally dying to hear now and can't find anywhere is the alternate
recording of GB's "Start Today" with Walter singing rather than Civ.
That was never released, and I think it was only even recorded for
pacing but I loved it and wore through the copy of a copy of a copy I
had many many years ago. Any of you guys got a lead on that? Please?
For a fair sixspace is in at the end of the year in London, each of us made a playlist of 10-12 songs that "rock" to go along with the theme of our booth, which is Destroy Babylon. Bad Brains fans will understand. Here's the mix I made - I can't post the whole thing but if there are any requests I'll see what I can do.
As soon as I get my head around you
I come around catching sparks off you
I get an electric shock from you
This secondhand living just won't do
And the way I feel tonight
I could die and I wouldn't mind
And there's something going on inside
Makes you wanna feel
Makes you wanna try
Makes you wanna blow the stars from the sky
And I can't stand up
I can't cool down
I can't get my head off the ground
As soon as I get my head around you
I come around catching sparks off you
And all I ever got from you
Was all I ever took from you
Yeah, the world could die in pain
And I wouldn't feel no shame
And there's nothing holding me to blame
Makes you wanna feel
Makes you wanna try
Makes you wanna blow the stars from the sky
And I'm taking myself to a dirty part of town
Where all my troubles can't be found
I said yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
And I'm taking myself to a dirty part of town
Where all my troubles can't be found
Makes you wanna feel
Makes you wanna try
Makes you wanna blow the stars from the sky
I don't recall if I heard Crimpshrine first on a comp or on their first Lookout! 7" but they instantly became the epitome of East Bay Punk Rock to me. Even more so than Operation Ivy who I could also listen to non stop if required to do so. The wikipedia article on them is incredibly light for a band who I kinda think there would never have been a Green Day without. This was also my first introduction to Aaron Cometbus (and his delicious handwriting) which inspired a hell of a lot of my own graphic design projects later on, most notably of which is probably The Bad Brains Omega Sessions. Funny how small a world this all shapes out to be, isn't it?
Of course I don't write off certain parallels with song themes and things going on in my life which make many of the tracks (on this as well as the earlier Racontours album) more poignant to me but whatever, that's how some of my favorite songs became just that. So, to set the record straight, and also to risk much psychoanalysis from close friends, I'm posting a track from the new White Stripes record. This one "A Martyr For My Love For You" has been on my iPod since the moment I got it several weeks ago and I keep finding myself playing it 3-4 times in a row. Lyrical attachments aside, this song flat out rocks. You'll notice the kinda-quite-breaking-into-totally-rocking-it hooks that I seem to be so fond of. So yeah, there you have it. Enjoy.
Samiam was also one of the bands that I was way too quick to write off the moment the signed to a major label. This band meant something to me on a very different level and I knew for sure that a major label would ruin that for me. I was young and stupid, what can I say? While I couldn't ever bring myself to stop listening to the pre-major label releases I definitely was in no rush to buy the new albums. I was convinced they would suck simply because of what corp info was printed on the jacket and couldn't stand the chance of hearing that. Well, I was a huge dumb ass. Clumsy came out on Atlantic in Summer 1994 and I didn't listen to it until sometime last year, in 2006. 12 years I waited to hear that record. Funny enough I went right back after they left the major and bought You Are Freaking Me Out the week it was released in 1997. Every time I listen to Clumsy I kick myself for missing out on it all that time. It's perfect Samiam, and the perfect follow up to Billy. So, here's one of my favorites off Clumsy, it's quintessential Samiam, and it's called "Capsized."
This list by Kerrang! of the Top 50 punk albums ever is quite possibly the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. I could take the records I have within arms reach and scatter them around on my floor then let my cat walk over them and make a list of only the ones the cat actually touched and it would be more accurate that this hunk of crap. First off Bad Brains Rock For Light, are you kidding me? Rior and I Against I both should have been on there. No Germs? No X? And as much as I love Green Day their first major label album does not deserve to be #2 - I could see 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours making the list but not above Black Flag, Minor Threat, Misfits, SLF, etc. And in what world is Napalm Death a punk band? And I say that fully admitting that I'm a big Napalm Death fan! That some of the things that made this list were even suggested makes me want to puke. Sublime? Blink 182?? Get Up Kids??? WHAT??!!! And almost across the board they picked the shitty major label albums put out long after the awesome punk albums by many of these bands. Let's Face It by the Bosstones? I'd take Devil's Night Out but holy crap. Ok, I have to stop looking at this before I actually throw up.
What's your musical horoscope? (Put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.) Inspired by Stephanie.
1- Crimpshrine - Tomorrow
2- Cypress Hill - When The Shit Goes Down
3- Johnny Cash - Mean Eyed Cat
4- The Clancy Brothers - Cruiscin Lan
5- Fantomas - Der Golem
6- Damnation AD - Climbing and Climbing
7- Beastie Boys - Mark on the Bus
8- The Pogues - Young Ned of the Hill
9- D.O.A. - Last Night
10- The Pixies - Subbacultcha
