Drop Nineteens - "Delaware"
(Caroline Records, 1992)
Riding atop one of the sickest basslines in history, not to mention some furious drumming, Drop Nineteens exploded out of the gate with the first cut on their debut album. I don't know where the band got its name, nor do I have any idea why the song and album were called Delaware. I'm guessing they jokingly chose to honor an American state in anticipation of every music critic calling them out for their unabashed Brit-rock fixation. They apparently had three guitarists on this album, which helps explain the dense web of guitar textures.
AllMusic Guide said "Acclaimed upon emergence as the American response to the U.K.'s shoegazing trend, the Drop Nineteens weren't totally following in that particular vein, though it was clear that they were the first of many American bands who had played Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine releases to death. Combining that version of blissout with a dollop of late-'80s indie/college rock, the quintet on its first album created a sometimes excellent, sometimes generic effort of politely queasy guitar overdrive and gentle melancholia. Lead guitarists/vocalists Greg Ackell and Paula Kelley made for a good (if clearly Kevin Shields/Bilinda Butcher-inspired) front team, the latter's singing the more distinct but the former's generally more prominent, if flatter."
Spacemen 3? Ned Raggett is usually very trustworthy, but that's a huge swing-and-a-miss there. I would say their sound on this album owes a lot to Bleach, but I guess My Bloody Valentine is an easier reference point for most casual fans to grasp. As for the line "Yesterday's home cut in half," I always thought it was "whole" or "hole" rather than "home." I think the concept of a whole or hole cut in half is cooler than a home cut in half. Some accurate-looking lyrics can be found here. The album also has a surprisingly great, psychedelicized cover of Madonna's early hit "Angel." Aside from the title track, the best songs on it are the stunning "Kick The Tragedy" and the passive-aggressive "Reberrymemberer." I got this CD sometime in the early '00s, and a promo cassingle for their next album National Coma, and National Coma itself, which sucks, and a Paula Kelley solo CD. A few years ago I downloaded their near-mythical Mayfield demo album, which was never commercially released. That album eschews their Pixies fetish in favor of pure shoegazeness, and is viewed by some people as one of the best shoegaze LPs ever made. These are the two most commonly-used promo pics of the band, and guitarist Motohiro Yasue is dressed the same way in both of them:
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| Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a pic of a member of Run-DMC wearing a Drop Nineteens shirt... yet. |
Note: Delaware was reissued by Cherry Red in 2009 (with the Your Aquarium EP tacked on as bonus tracks), but this mp3 is from my 1992 Caroline CD.
I have a 1992 Caroline promo CD called Between A Flower And A Chainsaw, whose liner notes contain this write-up of the D19s: "Halfway between a flower and a chainsaw, Drop Nineteens are poised to shake music's summer doldrums with their debut Delaware. Their impressionistic guitar-ridden pop orientation has been favorably compared to English practitioners like My Bloody Valentine, Chapterhouse and Ride. Quick brush strokes and calculated harmony, full on sonic melee and lilting vocal melodies set Drop Nineteens apart from the pack." (The only D19s songs on this CD are "Winona" and "Angel," unfortunately.)
You can see that they got that girl-with-gun photo from the cover of Delaware:
Speaking of mediocre actresses, I'd have to cite Kirsten Dunst and Scarlett Johanssen as my least favorite ones of the last decade or so.
I hate when everyone makes "Best of the year" lists, as though they've actually listened to all 50,000 or so albums that came out in that particular year, or arrogant / dumb enough to think that the random ones they have heard are somehow the best, so there's no way I'll do that kind of thing. I've learned that I have to wait 10-20 years before having a good idea of everything that was going on in any year. I would say the most memorable music video I saw from this year was "Milkman" by EMA:
Make sure to watch that video and Pocahaunted's "Ashes is White" video back to back. Spin magazine always overreacts to everything, but even I was shocked to see them rank EMA's album as the #3 best of the year, to say nothing of them putting Fucked Up at #1. It would be too easy for me to say underground music blows nowadays. But you can't deny that music is pretty polarized nowadays, with polite, parent-friendly diary-folk (Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, etc.) on one side and obnoxious, over-the-top primordial stuff (Fucked Up, Odd Future, Monotonix, etc.) on the other. Then there are niche genres (markets, actually) like chillwave and this disastrous new hybrid of metal and shoegaze that is laughably being called blackgaze. The chances of a song like "Delaware" coming out in 2011 are very slim. It's kind of amazing to think that great bands / songs like this were so common in the early '90s that they actually got viciously criticized for allegedly sounding too similar to one another. Music critics shouldn't have taken that scene for granted, and now we all suffer because they did. Every year there are fewer and fewer bands doing the kind of music I like, but every year I discover old ones that did it, so I can't really complain. As usual, few noteworthy rock bands bother to come through Louisiana, so I try to go and catch lots of local jazz groups in the Frenchmen Street area when possible. The Baton Rouge scene is essentially dead, even as a touring stop for national bands.
Best live acts I saw in the second half of 2011: Rex Gregory group, Memoryhouse, Puro Instinct, Tarik Hassan group (strange abstract soundscapes), Geneva Jacuzzi, TV On The Radio (good live, still terrible on record), The Meters, Das Racist, Brothers (local jazz-hardcore group with two dueling sax players), Boris, Asobi Seksu, Matana Roberts (solo), Ri¢hie, Simon Berz + Simon Lott + toktek (trio), Danny Brown.
This was my worst year of driving in my 19 years of driving; highlights include two tickets, two instances of driving away from a gas station with the nozzle still in my gas tank, a flat tire, and a huge scar on my front left panel from a neighbor's mailbox door.
I rarely talk about politics on this site, but for the last decade or so I've watched several hours of political talk shows a day, mainly on MSNBC and CNN, and the Sunday morning ones, plus I try to listen to political talk radio, and I'm also addicted to politics-based websites. It's definitely an obsession, and keeps me from doing more productive stuff like working on art, exercising, taking care of my plants, going to bed on time, etc. As with music, I feel that the more I learn about politics, the more I realize I don't know... and that leads to me spending more and more time researching it. A vicious cycle, all so that I can decide on a few meaningless votes every year or two. So I resolve to spend less time thinking about politics in 2012. But here's an example of an interesting article that I found peripherally this week: Is the world really safer without the Soviet Union?
I also have to spend less time on cacti / succulents, though it's hard when you keep finding cool species, like this amazing beauty I found last night:
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| Micranthocereus estevesii; photo © David S. Franges, 2006 |
I played basketball on the following courts this year: Lutcher Playground, Paulina Park, Ama Park, the ones at the Thibodaux civic center (outdoors in indoors), Gray Park, two in Laplace, the covered court in St. Rose by the airport, the one at SUNO, my driveway, the covered court at the foot of Broadway in New Orleans. I believe I could start at shooting guard for any team in the NBA.
Planets with similar climates: Bleach - "First" (1991), Pixies - "Break My Body" (1988), Morella's Forest - "Hang Out" (1995), Poem Rocket - "Box: Tallow, Felt And Ice" (1997).
1 comment:
I mean I like Bleach and all, but I can't say I heard them in the Drop Nineteens necessarily. :-D
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