Gavin B.

Song of the Day
Notable Albums of 2009


Noteable Album of 2009- Album by Girls

Lust for Life- Girls The debut album of the San Franscisco based Girls is simply titled Album. Girls remind me of the do-it-yourself, idiot savant UK punk bands of the late 70s like the Slits, Essential Logic and the Mekons. Their videos look like those cinema veritae Calvin Klein ads of the 90s featuring a rotating cast of wasted heroin chic teenagers. If you like quirky and precocious kids playing druggy dream pop, Girls might be right up your alley. The jury is still out on the long term career prospects of this volatile band, but their debut has impressive even if you're a jaded and world weary Gen X punk rocker.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day
Notable Albums of 2009


Noteable Album of 2009- Love Comes Close by Cold Cave

Love Come Close- Cold Cave Love Comes Close (Matador Records) by the darkwave electronica band, Cold Cave was my favorite debut album of 2009. They've been compared to everyone from New Order to My Bloody Valentine. Instead of being all things to all people, Cold Cave settles for being lot of things to a lot of people. From my perspective multiple comparisons to so wide range of diverse bands is a sign of a band with a broad music vision. They remind me of two of my most cherished NYC bands Luna and the Swans. The band embodies both the dark existential and the romantic apsects of goth pop, industrial electronica, Eurodisco and dream pop.

Founder Wes Eishold was originally in a couple of hardcore bands of minor noteriety. I hear a bit of Ian Curtis in his vocals. Caralee McElroy was in the San Jose based post-rock band Xiu Xiu. Caralee is responsible for most of the song lyrics. The third and final member of Cold Cave is Dominic Fenrrow. Dominic was once Prurient, a one man noise band with a low tech slant. Prurient's trademark style involved the unconventional use of banging objects together to create music; playing with live wires, pennies, frying pans, toolboxes, scrap metal, and used shotgun shells are an example of some of his instruments.

All three are seasoned performers and recording artists which may explain why Cold Cave has a fully developed musical vision on their debut album. Cold Cave is the perfect name for the band because they can stir both feelings of existential alienation and heart on your sleeve romantica.


Cold Cave (left to right) Fenrrow, Eishold and McElroy

Schizotypic

Yes, that's why I mostly just read and never post.... sorry Gavin B.

Gavin B.

Am I really that scary? Schizotypic you should know by now that I'm not a rabid pitbull.

My writting style is a little more polished than some MB members because I've have 20 or 25 more years to develop a writting voice. My line of work requires me to write about 5-6 hours a day and I've learned to write a lot of different things in a lot of different styles.

In fact, I'm a mediocre writer because I have to use a lot more words to make a point that a good writer can make far more convincingly, with far fewer words.

I don't believe in dummying down my language to appeal to the lowest common denominator or underestimating the intelligence of those folks who read my posts.

I can only hope my verbosity isn't a deterrent to an exchange of ideas and debate on my music thread. Strangely enough, my torrents of wordage online are in direct contrast to my monastic offline life. I usually spend 12 hours a day in complete silence working alone on various projects and when my wife gets home work, she's the one who does all the talking.

Schizotypic

Well after hearing that album by Girls and the song by Cold Cave I decided to give this entire thread a proper look, every song. I got as far as The Bad Plus and was literally stopped in my tracks. Me and my brother have been listening to cover songs by them for half an hour and I can't even explain the excitement I have toward d/ling their latest album... I think it's going to be hands down the best cover album i have ever heard. I'll probably get every album, I mean their stuff is jaw dropping good.

I have a new excitement for this thread, It'll take me a while but obviously it's worth it. Thanks so much for this thing Gavin, I can't ever repay you.

Engine

A bit?
Still, I like it. Thanks again for the music news, Gavin. I hadn't heard this.

__________________

Like an arrow,
I was only passing through.

Gavin B.

LOW BUDGET KINKS

I stumbled across a mega value for anyone who's a fan of the Kinks. On Christmas Day, 2009, the Kinks own Velvel Records began selling both two different Kinks completist collections, The Arista Years and The RCA Years as MP3 downloads for the astounding price of $11.99 each. Each anthology was issued in 2006 is a six volume set. The Arista Years in compact disc format sells for $63.98 and The RCA Years sells for $51.99 at Amazon.

All of the songs on both Arista and RCA have been remastered and the remastering is a big improvement on the orignial recordings.

The RCA Years contains the full content (99 songs) of 6 albums recorded by the Kinks for RCA between 1971 and 1975. ALBUMS: Muswell Hillbillies, Everybody's in Show-Biz, Preservation: Act 1, Preservation: Act 2, A Soap Opera, Schoolboys in Disgrace.

The Arista Years has the full content (101 songs) of 7 albums recorded by the Kinks for Arista between 1977-1984. ALBUMS: Sleepwalker, Misfits, Low Budget, One for the Road, Give the People What They Want, State of Confusion, and Word of Mouth.

Two cautions to buyers: 1. I have no idea of how long those cheap prices apply to the two albums. 2. For casual Kinks fans: There are no songs from the Kink's Pye/Reprise years from from 1964 until 1970 when they recorded the bulk of the popular songs in their catalog like Sunny Afternoon, Lola, Victoria, You Really Got Me, Stop Your Sobbing and Picture Book. These two sprawling collections of the lesser known Kinks music may not the best starting points to get aquainted with the Kinks. For newer Kinks fans I'd suggest Kink's Kronicles many of the oft requested classic Kinks songs.

For my own musical needs the downloads were perfect. I have very little of the Kinks' music issued after 1970. I have the compact disc issues all of their albums from their Pye/Reprise years, except for the long out of issue rarity The Great Kinks Lost Album released by Pye in 1973, three years after the Kinks left the label. I don't know if there's ever been a compact disd re-issue in the lost album in the USA.

In all honesty there's a great deal of material on The RCA Years and The Arista Years that is sub-par to their brilliant body of earlier work with Pye but there's around 30 songs that are absolute jewels and another 30 songs that will get a fair amount rotation on my Zune player and my Windows Media player song lists.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day


Joseph Spence is perhaps the most strangely talented guitarist and vocalist I've ever heard.

Good Morning Mr. Walker- Joseph Spence The first time I heard Good Morning Mr. Walker, I ended up doubled over in laughter until tears were running down my cheeks. I'd never heard such a delightfully odd approach to music and it's still difficult for me to explain to the uninitiated just exactly what his music sounds like.

He often mumbled the lyrics of a song as if he'd forgotten the lyrics or began laughing right in the middle of singing a song. He was a brilliant guitarist and his unorthodox guitar playing was a profound influence on master guitarists like Ry Cooder and John Fahey. Ry Cooder recorded the song Coming In On A Wing and a Prayer in a manner that worshipful imitation of Spence's signature guitar syle. The chords to Mr. Walker are fairly simple but playing it in the same manner as Spence is nearly impossible because he deliberately open tuned his guitar to slightly off-key chord to make his playing sound dissonant. Thelonious Monk acheive a similar jarring musical effect on piano by deliberately hitting sharp or flat notes. Monk's use dissonant note and chords counterpointed the tonal perfection of his most haunting songs like Ruby My Dear and Round Midnight.

It would also be a challenge for anyone to successfully imitate Joseph Spence's unorthodox vocal style. The lyrics to Mr. Walker are totally wacked. In the first verse Joseph sings in a jolly sing-song voice :

After hearing Mr. Walker for the first time I couldn't decide if Joseph Spence was a musical genius or if he should to be chained to the wall of a locked ward in a mental hospital. Joseph Spence is my litmus test to gauge the tolerence of my friends and aquaintences for quirky music. I never trust the musical judgement of a person who hates Joseph Spence's music. Inevitably it's the most musically informed of my friends who appreciate the unorthodox and adventurous music of Joseph Spence.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day


Laika & the Cosmonauts- Lords of post modern Finnish surf music.

Surfs You Right- Laika & the Cosmonauts Laika and the Cosmonauts have thrown in the towel after 20 years but the will live forever in my heart as Finland's #1 surf band. What better way to remember them than to play the title song from their 1990 debut album, Surf's Up. Don't despair the Cosmonauts left us with a definitive career spanning anthology, Cosmopolis.



Cosmopolis is a 27 song, 73 minute anthology that celebrates those endless summer days north of the Arctic Circle where the sun is up 23.8 hours a day. And the surf's always up in the Baltic Sea.... you can start waxing down your surfboard in July when all of those icebergs are finally thawed out. If you're too impatient to wait til July, put on your wetsuit and hang ten on one of the icebergs. Laika and the Cosmonauts have been all over this great big world and seen all kind of girls and wish they all could be Roveniemi girls.

Dieselboy

^I like everything about this. The pic, the album cover, the song title, the goofy video with the cheesy screams, even the music...especially the music.

Off the bat, it reminded me of the soundtrack from the game Jet Moto on the old Playstation 1. If anyone remembers that. Such a great soundtrack, and sounded so similar to this. I might go check this out, cause I definitely enjoy this style, but really had no idea where to start with it at all. Thx.

Btw, just wanted to say nice journal as well. Alot of stuff in here to keep track of, but I look through it pretty often, and have found a couple others that I enjoy as well. (Also, I hope that me comparing this band to a video game didn't offend you or anything.) 0_0