The Bevis Frond - "Desperate"
(Woronzow Records, 1993)
This is just a dope as hell song that fuses classic rock stylings (Stones, Hendrix, Clapton) with enough Stooges / Dinosaur Jr. bite to keep the Pitchfork kids from feeling like their own dads. Trust me, Pitchfork kids are way lamer than their own dads. I think I once read Nick Saloman say in an interview that he saw Hendrix live, or maybe it's just that he was really into him as a kid growing up in England in the '60s. In any case, his congested voice and badass way of brandishing a guitar would please even the most discerning Jimi fan. The way the guitar line doubles / rises imperceptibly right as Nick sings "love me" in the chorus is so spine-tinglingly cool, and dare I say sexy. The line "I get insufficient adulation" needs to be made into a t-shirt. The song is from their album It Just Is, which was directly responsible for kicking off the annoying "It is what it is" craze.
I first heard the Frond via their amazing Pink Floyd-esque epic "Requiem" on a Darla Records sampler CD in '97 or '98. It's more psychedelic and vast than the compact rocker "Desperate," so I would say those two songs perfectly encapsulate each extreme of the band's sound. (Well, much like Guided By Voices, it's really a solo project of Nick Saloman + a rotating cast of backing members.) Their discography is large, and I only own a few CDs, so I can't preach about which ones you should buy; sorry. But a third song I can highly recommend is the evocative "Coming Round" from the album London Stone. The Frondies rarely performed live, mainly preferring to rock out at the annual Terrastock festivals.
 |
| Back of CD booklet; note the fact that Nick Saloman did literally everything on this album except the "engineering." |
Fun Fact: After seeing psychedelic warriors White Hills last year, I asked their singer / guitarist if he was into the Bevis Frond. His eyes got wide and he told me he was a big fan. (IIRC, we both gave props to "Reqiuem.") Bevis Frond fandom is sort of like a secret society.
Let's see, in the last three weeks....
I did the Nielsen ratings again, after doing them in Feb.
I decided to do "Meatless Mondays" from now on, after hearing Rush Limbaugh relentlessly mock it on his show one day in late July. "Eat nothing but beef from now on!," he implored his Dittoheads. Having been a vegetarian for two years, it shouldn't be too hard.
I caught the end of a Saints practice on Fri. morning, Aug. 3. Drew Brees signed autographs right next to me afterwards, but I didn't have a pen or anything to sign. Man.
I went to the New Orleans Botanical Garden the next day and took a bunch of photos. Also notified them of a mislabeled palm (A Chamaerops humilis labeled as a Washingtonia robusta! I know, I almost laughed too.)
I have been watching the XXXth Olympiad obsessively, like most other true Americans.
I read a horrifying article on the rise of dubstep in SPIN.
Surprisingly addictive TV shows:
The Newsroom (HBO)
The Girls' Guide To Depravity (Cinemax)
Bar Rescue (Spike)
Victorious (Nickelodeon)
Women's fencing; anything with Alex Morgan or Allyson Felix (Olympics on NBC)
Restaurant: Impossible (Food)
Dan LeBatard Is Highly Questionable (ESPN2)
Showbiz Tonight (HLN) (mainly because of former FOX 8 Saints reporter Nischelle Turner)
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (reruns on Comedy Central)
I watched upwards of an hour of rhythmic gymnastics just to espy this particular athlete but came up empty-handed:
.jpg) |
| Canadian rhythmic gymnast Kelsey Titmarsh, doing the "geeky glasses with no lenses in them" thing, concurrently popularized by Dwyane Wade, Russell Westbrook, etc. |
Not to be confused with:
 |
| Noted non-Olympian Sally Jesse Raphael |
Video showing every Space Shuttle launch at the same time::
Unfun Fact: My elementary school class in San Francisco watched the Challenger explosion occur live on a TV set that our teacher had wheeled into the classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment