Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Moon Still Tries to Steal the Tide Away
The album I listened to in the parking lot on my walkman at age 13, on that weird shivery day when I told the Sunday school class I'd been teaching, and my mom, that I didn't believe in God and wouldn't ever be coming back to church.The song 'Dear God', however, is sort of an anomaly (Andy Partridge complained that it was the only song he ever wrote that didn't have a sense of humor), and though it's sort of a perfect mission statement for a disaffected young i-wish-i-could-believe-but-i-can't angster such as I once was, it's not necessarily the best anthem for a more complicatedly spiritual person.
Whatever. The songs on this album are all pretentiously lyrical, soaringly melodic, and working very hard at changing the listener's life. Obviously at least one succeeded.
The sound of XTC here (basically reduced I think to Andy Partridge and a studio full of instruments) bears very little relationship to the earlier albums, which are manic condensed punk-prog-pop full of intricately rocking microgrooves, with clever guitar-bass-drums interplay. (I love love love Black Sea and Drums and Wires, for instance, both of which sound nothing at all like this album).
Skylarking is basically a solo-songwriter's-attempt-to-be-Beatlesy, and as such occasionally falls over the edge into pomposity. But, it's still gorgeous and wonderful.
Post's in two parts due to size, just unzip 'em to one folder and proceed.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Mixtapes For Mason: Crack! Whoosh!- Misc Rock
Dylan, Eno, Galaxie 500... sort of a mishmash of great rock music on this last mixtape post.Enjoy.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Mixtapes For Mason: Whiz! Bang!- Rock- 80s & 90s
This mix is mostly 'alternative' rock; it starts with R.E.M. and ends with Yo La Tengo, and what's in between gives a fairly good guide to my youth.
I'm old enough and jaded enough to find alternative rock, and most other rock, pretty uninteresting. But this is a pretty starry-eyed parade of sumptuousness all the same.
These mixtapes, for those who didn't read earlier posts, were intended for cassette, and for a teenager, as a musical education-in-a-box, but without undue academicism. I flatter my mixtape-making abilities overmuch, perhaps, but I think this set of music will rock the teenager's college-roomates' world.
This particular side may not be up to the same standard, since it's a bit more personal/subjective. Aw, hell, no it's not... they're all personal/subjective, and they're all solid. This isn't, though, a guaranteed bell-ringer like the first rock side posted. But, you'll enjoy it. If not, let me know (if so, let me know too).
One more rock mixtape post coming up, then no more mixtapes from me for a while.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Mixtapes For Mason: Is In Our Ears- Rock- 60s
More rock goodness. This starts with the Bobby Fuller 4 (doing the song Clash fans know so well), but otherwise is pretty crunchy granola hippie. Byrds, Neil Young, Kinks. You know you love it. (If not, what's wrong with you?)Older posts explain. Enjoy.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Mixtapes For Mason: Our Sense Of Hearing- Hard Rock
Closing in on the end of this massive mixtape series. Rockers will enjoy this one: it opens with the Stooges, and stays heavy and vital all 40 minutes. Nonstop headbanging. Roll a joint, do a shot of Jack Daniels, turn it up. Most rockers will know most the songs. You'll still enjoy it. I'm not bragging but it's hard to imagine a more consistently tuff cassette side than this. (Unless it be side A of the punk mix). Clearly this is where my roots are; I may not listen to much rock these days, but I've got a good grounding in it.Read older posts for explanations of the mixtape context; upcoming ones (three more) will all be rock rock rock. Rock rock rock rock rock rock.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Songs for Jackie Chan
Seems quite silly, and it is. But I love this album. I bought it in some chain-store CD outlet more than 10 years ago. Track 2 appears to have disappeared. There's Chinese pop, Chinese electro-pop, Chinese disco, kung fu pop, stirring monk-humming montage music--all vintage from the 80s. Serious fun.
And somehow it all has to do with Jackie Chan, even though he doesn't sing on any of the tracks. And he's a trained singer! (See Peking Opera Blues for what his childhood was like.) BTW, I was glad to see "Supercop" on Tarantino's list of the best movies since 1992. For meltmaster, before he discovered Herzog, he had Hong Kong action flicks. And Chinese and Hong Kong pop is IMHO superior and more interesting than J-Pop or K-Pop. (Although Korea has got both countries on their toes on the movie front, again I refer you to Tarantino's list of movies.)
[Yes Tarantino is annoying and hasn't really made a good film since Reservoir Dogs (although I haven't seen Basterds yet!) but he gives props to Asian movies. Glad he put the masterpiece "Memories of Murder" up there. Although "Oldboy" is conspicuously absent; instead he chooses "JSA," probably just to be snooty. Anyhow, I digress.]
Here is the ending of Police Story. Skip to about 2:20 for the end credit music that Jackie belts out. Damned catchy!!!! I love the hook.
Here is a link to the mp3 rips on my CD.
Stop the presses! When looking for images for this CD, I found a blog with what appears to be a vinyl rip of a Japanese version of the same CD. I haven't downloaded it yet, but here's the link!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Total Misnomer
While searching archive.org (never been there? check out the pre-copyright music available!!) at 5 am for a family project, I came upon this misleadingly named bit of glitchbience. I'm 37 minutes in and it's destroying my brain.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Mixtapes for Mason- Knowing He Hath Wings- RnB 2
More R&B, this time less funk-centric but still pretty fun. If you're saying to yourself, what's the context for this? read older posts for more info.Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Mixtapes for Mason- Be Like the Bird- RnB 1
My mixtape madness continues. This one is sort of Funk oriented... with just one exception, for Etta James, who's always worth making an exception for.If you're just tuning in or haven't been reading the posts, this is from a large mixtape series aimed at creating a musical edumacation for a younger friend. They were originally created to fit onto cassettes. So many of these, including this one, try to hit highlights of a genre-- but without being overly restricted by notions of representing the canon or anything. I wanted to make sets of music that would be inspiring and maybe help begin an awesome collection.
So longtime music aficionados may find some of the sets overly obvious (Parliament, check. James Brown, check). But if you put this sucker on the stereo you'll still dance around.
Note: personally, I'm incredibly ignorant about anything R&B that happened after about 1975. Sorry. This installment and the next are purely 60s and early 70s... with an exception (there's always an exception) for Prince.
Next up: assorted R&B and soul smokers!
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