(Ajax Records, 1992 / Caroline Records [U.S.], 1993; Rough Trade Records [U.K.], 1993)
This song was released as a 7" by cool indie Ajax in '92, and then appeared on the band's High As A Kite singles compilation the next year. (The U.S. version on Caroline, which I own, has 11 tracks, while the U.K. version on Rough Trade has only 8.) This type of song is a perfect example of why I started this site: An obscure indie band releases a universe-destroyingly great anthem; no one hears it back in the day; the band breaks up; the song languishes in cool ppl's mix tapes / closets / iTunes for years or decades until the song decides to break free and assert itself much like when the robots rose in T2: Judgment Day. The only unfortunate thing about this song is its name, which does not exactly generate much excitement, especially when the mundane band name is factored in. Note: They sometimes spelled their name St. Johnny (in the early days), st. johnny, or St Johnny, and the asterisked (DGC-era) version of their name is technically spelled st✮johnny.
Reviews and zines from the early to mid '90s always pointed out how St*Johnny were protegés of Sonic Youth, though I think they were more aligned with fellow New Yorkers Mercury Rev. (The Rev's Grasshopper guested on at least three of their songs: "Velocity," "My Father's Father," "Matador.") Either way, this kind of thing is always a double-edged sword. The band was allegedly scoffed at relentlessly, at least by the hipsters and tastemakers of the era, which seems really sad to me. This song obviously has a ton of S.Y.-esque characteristics and charisma, down to the Thurston-y vocals, but it is definitely its own beast. To describe how awesome this song is would take me a while, but I don't think most people need a roadmap to its bounty. That one killer guitar riff immediately grabs the attention, and melds perfectly with the vocals, which are delivered in a desperate way, and with interesting post-Lou Reed / Tom Verlaine enunciation. It's a really amazing vocal performance overall. He says "I know that we're in trouble now, and I know that we're in deep" and "You're cursed and I'm a liar" without explaining the conflict in question. More cool lyrics: "If we live long enough we'll see the other side of everything,""The stars are out and they're comin' down on my head," and of course "I wanna burn like a martyr in my Chevrolet." (Note: I had thought for the last decade that it was "I wanna burn like the motor in my Chevrolet.") The somewhat detuned, violin-esque guitar anti-solo at the 2:29 mark is the perfect bridge between arena dino-rock and the noisy indie rock of the '90s. And I love when any instrumental break is preceded by a frenzied volley of drumming. Another cool touch is that the song's title is only uttered right before the guitar solo and as the final words of the song. I mean, check this out, they should build a whole museum dedicated to this song, if only so that lame, putzy, non-rocking rock bands like Wilco, Arcade Fire, Spoon, etc. can make pilgrimages to it in order to learn how to rock like motherfuckers.
The band's proper debut album in '94 had the great title Speed Is Dreaming. But, aside from the killer "A Car Or A Boy?" (featuring some backing vocals from Mercury Rev's head weirdo David Baker), sucked. I owned that CD but actually threw it away years ago; wish I had it back to check it out again, though. Being signed to DGC (Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beck, Posies, Sundays) apparently didn't land them in the Buzz Bin, and they faded into obscurity in the mid-'90s. Singer Bill Whitten reemerged with the band Grand Mal (named after a St*Johnny song, which was named after a type of seizure) soon afterwards, but I don't think I've ever heard them.
7" insert sheet
Well, I was very wrong about Hurricane Isaac last week. It turned out to be one of the worst disasters in the state's history, and was much more of a rainmaker than I had anticipated. Luckily I had trimmed most of my trees a week or two earlier, so they didn't blow around too much in the wind and suffer torsional stress injuries to their trunks. Since the eye of the hurricane passed directly over us, I went out and trimmed them a little more during that calm period. That day (Wednesday) was probably the most harrowing day of my life, due to all the wind and rain noise, and not being able to see the origin of it since most of the windows were shuttered closed. We never lost power, though over a million people statewide did. And it's fun to be able to walk around the house butt-ass naked, thanks to the boarded window thing. I drove through Gonzales, Prairieville, & Baton Rouge a few days later and ended up scoring this t-shirt at FYE:
...as well as the Stooges' Fun House 2xCD reissue and a rather tame CD by a band called The Mysteries Of Life. The store was playing Portishead's first album, so I recommended Slowdive to the Asian employee who had put it on after he told me he was a big Cocteau Twins fan.
Mon. 3rd: Went to Cocodrie (old Cajun slang term for "crocidile"), right on one of the southernmost tips of Louisiana. Listened to Verve's A Storm In Heaven, perhaps the ultimate roadtrip album. The area pretty much got no damage.
Tue. 4th: Watched Batman Begins at my sister's, since my parents in N.O. still hadn't gotten power back.
Wed. 5th: Went used book shopping for a few hours at The Book Rack in Mandeville, then drove over through Lacombe & Slidell.
Planets with similar climates: Sonic Youth - "Hey Joni" (1988), Verve - "All In The Mind" (1992), Swervedriver - "Blowin' Cool" (1993), Ride - "Here And Now" (1990), Catherine Wheel - "Texture" (1992), Silversun Pickups - "Well Thought Out Twinkles" (2006), Glide [Australia] - "Taste Of You" (1992), Nice Strong Arm - "Cloud Machine" (1989), You Am I - "Berlin Chair" (1993).
(Ghostly International / Vagrant Records [U.S.]; Full Time Hobby Records [U.K.], 2010)
My town is about to get a direct hit from Hurricane Isaac, so this was the only song that kept coming to mind. It's only gonna be a category 1, and we took a direct category 2 hit from Gustav in '08, so I'm not very worried. The only annoying thing is moving my 100+ outdoor potted plants around. Perhaps based on their extremely polished sound, I had always thought SVIIB were on a major label, but a check of my Disconnect From Desire CD, in beautiful paper gatefold packaging, proves otherwise. This is truly one of the catchiest choruses I've ever heard, so beware, because it can really get stuck in your head for months at a time. This song came out on a red vinyl 7" in the U.K., but only as a "digital single" in the U.S. More proof that the Brits have always valued these kinds of bands more than we have over here, though ours did have an extra track, since we believe in super-sizing.
This song has that duelling-simultaneous-choruses style that reminds me of the old nursery rhyme "Frère Jacques," as well as the Psychedelic Furs' immortal "The Ghost In You." The wussiness of the song's opening chant used to put me off, but Alejandra Deheza's main vocals have a deep, resonant, almost androgynous tone that is very awesome to my male ears, especially during the "When the fire's burning from sky to ground..." part. The drums have a loose, jazzy feel that suits the music perfectly. It was NPR's song of the day: "[Ben] Curtis says he began writing the chord progression based on a melody that Alejandra Deheza was singing while they were driving through the Alps; they constructed the song's transporting sound to remind listeners of the mountains."
The aforementioned extra track on the U.S. single is a predictably pounding remix by A Place To Bury Strangers.
"Bye Bye Bye" actually had more potential to be a hit than "Windstorm" did, in my opinion.
Fun Fact: The album title is from Brian Eno's storied Oblique Strategies card deck. Yes, this band is pretentious and meticulous in all the best ways...
As I mentioned a few months ago (see here), I saw SVIIB in April '11 opening for Interpol at House Of Blues in New Orleans, and headlining at the Spanish Moon in Baton Rouge in April of this year.
Alejandra's twin sister Claudia had left the band in Sept. 2010, right after Disconnect From Desire came out, so I guess I'll never get to see the "real" / original SVIIB live. Note: They were not at their merch table either time, so don't plan on saying hi to them at a gig. And they did not have the "Windstorm" 7" for sale at either gig, since it had presumably sold out long ago. They also didn't play "Dust Devil" either time, so don't go hoping to see it. I did see Ben Curtis playing pool upstairs at the Spanish Moon right before opening act EXITMUSIC went on and unspooled their gloom-rock. Ben's previous band, Secret Machines, kicked moderate ass at Voodoo Fest '05, doing a bombastic type of Led Zeppelin meets prog rock thing.
Former print mag CMJ's digital cover from July 26, 2010. Hilarious Fact: This was actually not SVIIB's debut album..
Go check out the album cover and then look for that strange symbol, on the band members' bodies and elsewhere, in the music video:
There was also a deluxe version of the CD that came in a box with tarot cards; these cards are reproduced in the booklet of the regular CD issue too, so don't break the bank on the deluxe CD. I usually complain about bands that I like making super-catchy songs and then not receiving enough of a marketing push. Well, this album got a truly impressive and diverse promotional blitz, but SVIIB's music proved to be not quite simplistic enough to compete in the current major-label or indie climates, in which lobotomized party music reigns supreme.
I was gonna see the Jeff Buckley-channeling band Ours, of "Sometimes" fame, at the Parish in N.O. last night, but it was cancelled due to the storm. I guess I'll go when it gets rescheduled.
My sister sez noted Lana Del Rey hater Brian Williams has been following around her crew at her hospital in N.O. today, so you can probably catch a glimpse of her on tonight's NBC News.
Hipster traps appear around New York City - "...which include sunglasses, a yellow bicycle chain, a Holga camera, a can of PBR and a pack of American Spirits as bait."
Planets with similar climates: My Bloody Valentine - "Drive It All Over Me" (1988), Curve - "Horror Head" (1992), The Psychedelic Furs - "The Ghost In You" (1984), Lush - "Take" (1992), Pearl Harbor / Puro Instinct - "Slivers Of You" (2010), Catherine Wheel - "Flower To Hide" (1992), Bleach - "Dipping" (1991).
Memoryhouse barged into the crowded field of female-fronted dream-pop bands like a 4WD Ford F-550 dualie with Truck Nutz plowing into a herd of quail or endangered salamanders on an organic commune. By using a low speaking voice instead of a shout at a loud party, it's often easier for one's voice to be heard, and Memoryhouse got noticed by doing essentially the same thing. They're an example of the occasional good band that is propelled to star status by the indie music blogs and review sites, whilst getting basically zero notice from actual music magazines. Chalk one up for new media over old media. I really think this is one of the most important bands out there today, but unfortunately they often get dismissed as the poor man's Beach House, which is laughable. Yes, both bands are on Sub Pop, both are boy-girl duos making depressive, dreamy music, and both have names ending in "House," but Beach House have a different, more "masculine," non-spacey, almost campy, "Euro-friendly" sound, in my opinion. I think of their quiet stuff as just segues in between their singer's throaty bellowing, whereas for Memoryhouse the quiet stuff is the framework of everything. I think everyone can agree that Beach House has no ties to the "chillwave" trend, whereas Memoryhouse does. This is one of those songs that really re-established my love of music in the often dreary modern musical climate.
Original 2009/10 version:
2011 re-recording:
Mash 'em up!
Note: I will be taking down the Sub Pop version after a certain amount of time.
Yes, this song has been released by four different labels so far, though the first two are digital-only "labels," so I don't know if they count. The Sub Pop re-recording has more prominent (DEVASTATING) piano, an ultra-powerful vocal performance, and, to top it all off, the addition of some amazingly nuanced violin. It also has less of that thumping chillwave beat that's in the '09 version. Confusingly, the original version is subtitled "Deuxième," which is French for "Second." So there must've been an earlier (still unreleased) version, which means the Sub Pop re-recording is actually a third version. Got that? Overall, it might be the best re-recording I've ever heard, and it almost singlehandedly rescues Sub Pop from the abyss of irrelevance. (Easiest way to tell which one you have: The original version is 3:23 long and the Sub Pop one is 4:05.)
I don't know if this song is comparing having a broken heart to being on life support in a hospital, but one has to assume that it is. When Denise distantly pleads "Shut me off," it has to be one of the most devastating lines ever uttered in any song. Denise pretty much has a built-in Autotune in her throat, which makes her singing very unique, kind of like that of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. They each like to split individual syllables into different discrete parts. Rob Dickinson of Catherine Wheel is my favorite at this technique, used to particularly stunning effect on their debut album Ferment (which is my #2 favorite album ever). This way of singing gives the vocals a cool stop-motion effect, like you're listening to an old movie reel with a hitch in it. Evan Abeele's guitar playing is cinematic and pastel-like, and I think both he and Denise play synths on the song. The music video does not feature Denise or Evan:
With only one digital EP and one 7" to their name, the 'House hit the pavement hard in 2010 on an ambitious headlining tour of indie clubs:
In August of that very annum, my sister & I saw them at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans, with opening acts Twin Sister and a new local band called Kindest Lines. Partly due to a thunderstorm and extreme heat, the turnout was quite low, maybe 40 or so people, but it was great to see the 'Mem rock a club with a large stage and a top-notch sound system. They had a third member in tow on electric bass. Denise seemed bored and distant, looking at the ceiling a lot, and she never once said anything to the crowd.
I bought the "Lately" 7" on limited colored vinyl at this show from members of Twin Sister who were manning the merch table; it's obviously one of the finest singles I've ever bought. The b-side is a nicely trippy, deconstructed, chillwavey remix by Teengirl Fantasy. I pretty much went to that show just to see them perform this song, and it was worth trekking into the heart of the French Quarter on this ridiculously hot / stormy / humid night. I had my sister film "Lately," but she can't find the clip anywhere. Sorry. She also lost her clip of Twin Sister doing a tremendous rendition of "The Other Side Of Your Face."
iPhone pic by my sister, near the start of their set.
My 7" bought at the 2010 show; too bad it's not on black vinyl for better sound quality. Yes, I like the "Dutch Angle" photo technique.
Notice the nearly-identical color scheme / photo treatment / clothing on the cover of their 2012 album.
Some of this song's vocals (pitch-shifted higher) were sampled in the downtempo / dream-rap (er, "cloud rap," as Generation Z calls it) song "Breaking" by a one-off supergroup called Seeing Suge.
Facebook users band together to exile Pitbull to Alaskan WalMart - “I’ve known Pitbull for a few years now, and he’s up for a party – whether it’s around the corner, or you have to get there by three planes and a boat in between, as I understand it takes to get to Kodiak.”
Planets with similar climates: Slowdive - "Losing Today" (1991), Julee Cruise - "Falling" (1989), Low - "I Remember" (original 7" version) (1998), Velour 100 - "Stare Into Light" (1996), Chairlift - "Cool As A Fire" (2011), Ella Fitzgerald - "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most" (1961), Yo La Tengo - "Damage" (1997), Red House Painters - "Drop" (1995), Portishead - "Roads" (1994).
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:
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.
Planets with similar climates: Pink Floyd - "Young Lust" (1979), Acetone - "Sundown" & "Pinch" (1993), Meat Puppets - "Scum" (1995), Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Gimme Back My Bullets" (1975), Jimi Hendrix - "Crosstown Traffic" (1967), The Rolling Stones - "Brown Sugar" (1969), Screaming Trees - "Shadow Of The Season" & "Nearly Lost You" (1992).
Another song from the Beads' stunning Transfixed EP, which was included in its entirety as bonus tracks on CD pressings of their album Black Aspirin. The mastering volume is quite low, so turn the volume and bass up.
Cover of my cassette bought on a whim in '07
As if you needed more proof that any band from any rainy country can, when needed, stop navelgazing and decide to rock way harder than those douches from Slayer, Converge, etc., this song provides it. I think this may actually be the most intense song I've ever heard. The speed is blinding, the precision is machinelike, the passion is unbridled. I love how the singer uses both "Did you fall or were you pushed?" and "Were you pushed or did you fall?" in the lyrics, in order to fit into two rhyming schemes. And probably also to show how some people tend towards having a victim's mentality ("I was pushed") while others have more of a self-blaming mentality ("I fell on my own"). I've been listening to Unwound's self-titled debut album a lot recently, and this is one of the few songs I can think of that can give the most savage ones on that album a run for their money. Another anthemic song on Transfixed is "Wolf On A Chain", but "Reckless Hope" (from Black Aspirin) could've been a genuine hit song:
Marla Fury tangling with The Baroness, from the allegedly influential comic Miss Fury
The best basketball that I've ever owned, a black Baden Explosion, died of a puncture wound last week, so I set out to find another one online, as no stores seem to sell them anymore.
I found this mind-blowing 5-star review on Amazon by user Brockeim:
Perfect for Shooting Free Throws in a Park with a Lovely Woman (June 21, 2010)
The Baden "Explosion" basketball didn't sit long after purchasing it. We bought it to use, and to labor we have put it. We brought it to a park just a ten minute walk away in early July.
Nancy and I shot for hours. I took ten shots; she took ten shots, neither of us gaining an advantage as we repeated this game throughout the late morning.
The Baden "Explosion" basketball bounced well as we tossed it between us. Perfectly balanced, it never went askew... always into her welcome hands as I made a pass.
Black, but almost navy blue, with orange lines, the ball rolled straight and true. With each revolution, the lines flickered like an old movie film. We stood mesmerized as we watched it settle in soft grass, ready to be shot again.
Whether the board deflected it, or points were scored, the game didn't matter. The shared smile, knowing we are shooting together, meant more than the tally.
A rain shower brushed by, but the composite leather basketball was unaffected. A few bounces, and a shot piercing the net was enough to shake off the dampness.
We have returned to that park a few times since, and will many times more. May your basketball bring you into the company with someone as beautiful as Nancy.
Though it has been used in commercials for everything from cars to athletic equipment to movies, the much-mocked/reviled genre known as dubstep officially jumped the shark today. The opening full-cast dnce number on So You Think You Can Dance today was performed to a dubstep remix of Marilyn Manson's much-reviled "The Beautiful People." And it was even worse than it sounds in theory. The genre's main practitioner, a chap named Skrillex, earns around $100,000 (or $250,000, depending on the source) per 1-hour "performance."
Sun. July 15: Dropped off a mix CD and a best-of Bleach mix CD-R for Sam. She wasn't there, and I found out this guy Mike (whom I had gotten into Sonic Youth years ago) had recently quit, possibly because the store was robbed at gunpoint a few weeks ago. Also gave them a live S.Y. bootleg CD-R (Cleveland, '85) and an amazing Faith No More one (Phoenix Fest in England, '93).
Chicken nuggets: Made from pink goo - "...the goop is then disinfected, re-flavored and bleached back to the whitish color we all associate with cooked chicken breast. According to McDonald’s, a four-piece serving of McNuggets contains 190 calories, 100 of which come from trans fat."
Planets with similar climates: Unwound - "Antifreeze" & "Rising Blood" (1992), Dub Sex - "Then And Now" (~1987), ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - "Prince With A Thousand Enemies" (1997) and "Blood Rites" & "Homage" (2001), Metallica - "Fight Fire With Fire" (1984), Band Of Susans - "Twist Of Fate" (1990), Hüsker Dü - "Deadly Skies" (1983), Polvo - "Crumbling Down" (1996), Nirvana - "Territorial Pissings" (1991).
I first read about Long Fin Killie in a spotlight article in Alternative Press in 1996 (the article used this exact photo), and later learned that I missed them at Lollapalooza '96. (It was at the field outside of UNO's Lakefront Arena, not at Tad Gormley Stadium as this poster incorrectly says. That poster also omits Rage Against The Machine, who played right before Soundgarden.) My friend Clark was not keen on going, so he went with me under the condition that we would only see Soundgarden, and then leave. We did leave, right before Metallica came on. I was such an indie rebel, brah. But too dumb to wander around and check out the side stage / second stage bands during the long amount of time we stood around waiting for Soundgarden (who kicked ass, by the way) to go on. Long Fin Killie were an unorthodox group, to say the least, so you must read about them in AllMusic Guide's excellent bio. The key phrase is "staggering levels of musicianly talent." I personally recommend their second album, Valentino, with its haunting ambient-pop title track, plus more intense standouts "Cupid" and "Cop". Mark E. Smith of The Fall did some grating guest vocals on "The Heads Of Dead Surfers" on their debut album, Houdini. All three of their albums were named after people who garnered the public's fascination before dying young, and all their artwork was intricate wood etchings. As for fame and dying young, the Killies got in a near-fatal wreck on tour, in N. Europe I believe, but never became even slightly well-known. I bet the head of Lollapalooza's accounting division resigned when he found out these passive-aggressive art terrorists were being bused around the U.S. on his dime with nary a Beavis & Butt-head or Buzz Bin appearance to their name.
The fact that this song didn't make it onto Valentino is pretty infuriating to me. The band's artsy, dense music is grounded by bouncy-yet-predatory basslines, and Luke Sutherland's vocals are usually mesmerizing, going from a whisper to a booming falsetto in half an instant. To call LFK's drummer one of the best and most innovative ever would be pointing out the obvious. The swaying, tropical-noir feel provided by the bassline has always intrigued me, and has made me return to this song again and again since I first downloaded this EP (Hands And Lips) on eMusic in '03. The "Dope, sex, protest, rock n' roll" chant at the end of the song has to be one of the most subtly hilarious / postmodern things in the history of music. When it comes down to it, most musicians' lyrical conceits can be summed up as either: a.) boasting about all the rad/illicit things they do, b.) whining about all the injustices in the world, or c.) reminding us how hard / capably / frequently they rock. Sutherland simply reduces all these things to a simple jingoistic slogan, repeated as nonchalantly as though it were a child's schoolyard song, thus squashing the previous several decades of popular music into a little ball of putty in his hand. This is a perfect example of why LFK were so far outside the mainstream, and equally far outside the alterna-stream. Not surprisingly, their fanbase today is small but very devoted.
From a broader standpoint, while recently thinking back about the fact that my opinion of this song is always in flux, I've realized that one of the coolest things about this song is that it seems to fit and adapt to my mood, or my mood can bend it (the song) in different ways. You can pay attention only to the pretty vocals and the snappy beat in the verses and it sounds like a breezy jangle-pop song. Or you can focus on the savage drums in the instrumental breaks and let the bass overwhelm you and it's a post-punk song. Someone with so-called classical training may follow the violin as the main instrument and hence view the song as a chamber-pop piece. To use more intangible terms, it can be either a blurry / pastel / 2-D kind of song, or an edgy / primary color / 3-D one. Sometimes this song just goes in one ear and out the other in a pleasant way, and sometimes I focus intently on it, obsessing over all the dozens of little details.
Fun Packaging Fact: The CD apparently came with a green plastic tray, as seen in this pic of a still-sealed copy:
I've amassed lots of different colored CD trays over the years, from gold (Primus' Brown Album), silver (Sonichrome's Breathe The Daylight), seafoam green (some CD by Pure), glittery gray (Eve's Plum's Envy), neon green (Alice In Chains' Alice In Chains), purple (Alice In Chains' Alice In Chains) (alt. color scheme), white, red, neon pink (Bagman's Wrap), yellow, orange (REM's Monster, bane of all clearance bins nationwide), taupe, etc. But I had never seen a green one until this one.
Sutherland gained underground fame (incl. comparisons to Morrissey) for his cryptic lyrics, and he was no pretender, later becoming a minor literary sensation upon the publication of his books Jelly Roll, Sweetmeat, and Venus As A Boy. The latter was later adapted for the stage, and its title rings a bell to me only as the title of one of Björk's best songs, but I'm sure it has some deeper meaning. A multi-instrumentalist virtuoso (violin, guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, saxophone, hammer dulcimer, thumb piano) in LFK, he also played some violin on Mogwai's downer LP Come On Die Young. Definitely a genius of some sort. Read an informative little article on him here – "So I started reading everything I could lay my hands on: fiction, history, mythology. You name it, I devoured it in an attempt to create a wider context for myself. And all the rigid constructs of race, nationality, sexuality just fell apart."
Press photo from mid or late '90s; Luke Sutherland is second from right
Since LFK broke up in the late '90s, Sutherland has helmed Bows and Music A.M., which are more trip-hop / downtempo / "glitch-pop" type projects. Fun German Fact: Music A.M. included bassist Stefan Schnieder of To Rococo Rot and Kreidler.
My cousin Shane is studying killifishes and cocahoe minnows in grad school at Mississippi State University right now, so this song goes out to him by default. The tropical killifishes kept by aquarists are often mind-blowingly gorgeous, so one can understand why Long Fin Killie chose its name. Here are some drawings I made ca. age 13, when I had recently gotten my first saltwater aquarium:
Blue Ring Angelfish (Pomacanthus annularis)
Some species of Rainbow Wrasse (Thalassoma spp.). No idea which one b/c their colors morph dramatically from juveniles to adults
I've long disowned these as somewhat pathetic, since they're just factual representations of these two species of fishes, and the white backgrounds always made them look incomplete. But I guess a tweenager can't be expected to do much more than simply try to be a Xerox machine, and there is a certain beauty in giving someone or some critter an accurate, detailed portrait. I now find the white background kind of cool, since lots of films / music videos have used it to create a disorienting feel. My grandmother Marcie made sure that I signed & dated them, though I didn't understand why at the time. I went on to have at least one saltwater aquarium, & sometimes up to three, between 1989-2010, excluding the year right after Katrina.
Sorry for the long, graphics-intensive post, but the study and care of fishes was my main obsession for about half my life, and I planned to become an ichthyologist or marine biologist. Even notched a 102 test average in ichthyology @ Loyola Univ. New Orleans, which trumped my ~96 test avg. in herpetology (reptile / amphibian biology). I took both of those courses in '98, and the field trips for each were extremely fun, especially the trip to the Ozarks in Arkansas for ichthyology and the trip to the swamps around the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for herpetology. I still jaunt over to the latter site every few years to look around, but mainly for botanical lifeforms now. Since I never even finished my last year of college, all the studying was for naught, but I think any sort of intensive learning of data makes one's brain better at gathering & manipulating info. So in a weird way, my studying of scaly beasts made me better at remembering songs by obscure bands, and vice versa. As I told Shane 2 weeks ago, "All I did in college was study and go to concerts."
It's a steal! How Columbia House made money giving away music - "On top of that, the clubs generally weren’t buying their records from labels and then selling them. Instead, the clubs would acquire the master tapes of records and press their own copies on the cheap. Moreover, remember those 'bonus' or 'free' records you got for signing up for the clubs? The clubs generally didn’t pay any royalties at all on those, which further slashed their costs."
Planets with similar climates: Simple Minds - "Sons And Fascination" (1981), The Dears - "We Can Have It" (2002), Lowercase - "Willing To Follow You Down" (1998), Bark Psychosis - "A Street Scene" (1993), Plexi - "Change" (1996), Cocteau Twins - "My Love Paramour" (1983).
(Skysaw Records, ca. 1987/1988 / Cut Deep Records, 1989)
I got an excerpt of this song in the mid-'00s somewhere online, and quickly became pretty obsessed with it, then bought the actual 12" EP (self-titled) in 2008 on eBay. This band was a favorite of John Peel, recording a whopping four Peel sessions despite never releasing a full-length album. In fact, this song was performed on his show as early as January of '87, so it was surely written in '86 or earlier. If I remember correctly, one band member did some time in The Fall, which would explain Peel's affinity for Dub Sex, since he had an inexplicable allegiance to Mark E. Smith's abominable band.
This song later appeared on a compilation of the band's material called Splintered Faith, which I have on vinyl rip and CD rip; the LP version has 15 songs, and the CD version has 18. I'm intentionally uploading the crackly vinyl rip so that folks will be inspired to seek out and purchase the actual LP or CD. Both are long out of print, so you'll have to buy secondhand, hence the band won't actually see any profit from your endeavor, but at least you can say you have something by a band called Dub Sex, whose sound is not remotely dubby and is definitely the polar opposite of sexy. The singer's voice is one of the most unpleasant things I've ever come across, but I can't imagine anyone else singing "Then And Now" other than maybe Henry Rollins. I also couldn't imagine the EP without its arrestingly unforgettable cover pic, credited to a photographer named P. Hoare:
I have no idea if Unwound were ever fans of Dub Sex, but their early, manic stuff sure seems to be in a very similar boat. Early Swervedriver had some musical and geographical similarity to D.S.; coincidentally D.S. had a song called "Swerve," replete with a bare-bones, but professionally-shot, music video:
They had a slightly cooler video for "Time Of Life" in 1989, which shows bassist Cathy Brooks more clearly. She had some pretty sweet basslines in many of their songs, such as "Voice Of Reason," "Man On The Inside," "Every Secret (That I Ever Made)," "The Underneath", and "Caved In." So you could say she was the only one who contributed anything remotely resembling dub music to their sound. Some interesting YouTube comments from "The Underneath": "I saw Dub Sex supporting the Stone Roses in 1989 at the International just after the Roses had released their debut album...two great bands" and "what happened to these guys? they are at least as good as Fugazi." Your only chance to see the band members in living colour is probably this performance of "I Am Not Afraid" on Tony Wilson's TV show The Other Side Of Midnight. (Wilson ran the club The Haçienda and co-founded Factory Records.)
Last week, after I loaded about half a ton of these white landscaping bricks into my car in 95º heat; note the chest sweat:
Best live bands I saw in the first half of 2012:
!!!, School Of Seven Bells, Whom Do You Work For?, A Silver Mt. Zion, Kindest Lines, The Neville Brothers (Jazz Fest), The Flaming Lips, Grimes (w/ Born Gold as her backing band), Tatsuya Nakatani + Helen Gillet + Rob Cambre, Tineke Postma (two shows in one night), Foo Fighters (Jazz Fest).
Good but nothing to write home about:
Alcest, EXITMUSIC, Shabazz Palaces, Magnetic Ear (French Quarter Fest), Dayna Kurtz, Sasha Masakowski (French Quarter Fest).
Ones I should've seen:
White Hills, The Weeknd (show sold out literally as I was about to buy tix online), Chairlift, Twin Sister, Har Mar Superstar (missed him twice so far this year; have still never seen him), No Joy, The darkness, Thurston Moore, Nautical Almanac, etc.
Speaking of the lyric "I used to live in this town before things started spiraling down," check out this YouTube video and/or this one. Disclaimer: I'm a full-spectrum atheist, meaning I don't believe in any god(s) and am against all religions. I have the least problem with "Far East" religions, since they're mainly centered on introspection and personal discovery. I think any reasoned survey of the facts will show that Mormonism, Islam, and Scientology are cults, not just religions. I like lots of aspects Arabic / N. African culture, and in fact I have over baby 100 date palms outside my window, have owned a Mali uromastyx lizard for 15 years, just noticed a CD called Moroccan Spirit on my desk, get chicken shawarma at a Metairie restaurant called Byblos on the regular, have The Kite Runner on DVD on my rack about 6 feet to my right, bought a copy of the Qur'an last year at a thrift store on a whim, etc. And this is all despite having some Jewish blood on my mom's side. I know that might come off as a "Some of my best friends are [black / Jewish / etc.]" type of rationale. My point is just that I have no problem with Arabic people or culture, I just don't care for Islam, e.g. the fact that kids in the region are forced to join it from a very early age, that drawing Muhammed is punishable by death, that Jews are a mortal enemy, and other inhumane aspects. From a broader perspective, I've long said that white people are the illegal immigrants in this country and that Native Americans and Mexicans have much more right to this land than we white people do. I just don't know if this country can survive another wave of militant immigration, since the white influx of 1492 tore it apart pretty quickly.
Planets with similar climates: Venus Beads - "One Way Mirror" (1990), Unwound - "Lucky Acid" (1993), Prosaics - "Teeth" (2004), Hüsker Dü - "Lifeline" (1983), Live Skull - "Fort Belvedere" (1986), Quicksand - "Lie And Wait" (1992), Helmet - "Murder" (1990).
Since a teenage user on a music rating site that I use recently made a rant against Faith No More's supposed "rap-metal" stylings, repeatedly expressed misogynist beliefs, and said that I partake in "feminist bullshit," I figured I'd post a song with a female singer rapping over a shoegaze background, if only to see if his head would explode at encountering all these things he hates rolled into one pie. I mean, one can insult me all one wants, but when Faith No More is brought into it, a line has been crossed and things shift to a different level. This person apparently has no idea that FNM's original lead singer was black, and hence the Rock Police would thereby have granted him leeway to do some rap-style singing. (Chuck recently put out a solo album cheekily titled Will Rap Over Hard Rock For Food.) His favorite bands are Neutral Milk Hotel and Bright Eyes... No, really. So one song immediately popped into my mind, since I already posted the other one ("Burn", also by Bleach). The feral intensity of the guitars in this song will never cease to impress me. The tremoloed guitar at the beginning adds a bit of surfy twang, but that is quickly massacred by a tsunami of drums and what I call "Godzilla roar" guitars. I always looked at this as sort of a novelty track until about 5 years ago, when I realized how addictive and well-contructed it was.
This song apparently caused a minor stir in the U.K. indie scene when it was released as a single (on CD, 7", and 12") in 1991. It was then wisely included on Bleach's sole album, Killing Time, in '92. That's one of my top ten fav. LPs ever, but I'm sure I've mentioned that before. If you don't know which version of "Shotgun" you're listening to, the single (indie) version is 3:51 long and the album (major-label) version is 3:42. The versions sound identical, except that the album version has four drum taps at the beginning. And on the single version, Salli ends the second stanza with "Spin me around," whereas on the album version she uses "Fucking around."
Salli's sharp-edged vocals in this song can be discussed forever, both pro and con. Being someone who listened exclusively to rap / hip hop in that particular year (1991), I can say that she knew exactly what she was doing, and did it with zero hesitation or "Ha ha, check this out" sarcasm. (If you want the latter, check out Sonic Youth's "Master-Dik.") Her vocal starting at 1:55 is very badass, playing off the beat in a nimble way that noted clumsy rapper Kanye West should take notes from. What I mean by that is that she slows down for a line, then speeds up and uses the bass drum hits to provide emphasis/punch underneath certain words near the end of phrases. You can even hear her waiting a split second to say the second syllable of the word "homespun" right on the kick drum (bass drum). It takes skilled breath control to be able to do this stuff; for someone who was known for her somewhat reedy / fey voice, she stepped up and really delivered the goods here. I've spent years trying to figure out what she says at this 1:55 section; I know it contains "You do and say what you think I'm not supposed to" and "I don't say what I'm allowed to."
The single's cover art features a silver-painted foot with a blue string tied around it. The string could either be for an i.d. tag in a morgue, or a way for a person to commit suicide by tugging on it whilst its other end is on the trigger of a gun. Parasol Records was clearancing this 7" for 50 cents for several years, and I always swore I'd get around to ordering a bunch, but recently was miffed to discover they no longer have it. The b-side is the extremely poppy and passionate "Bone," which should have also been released as a single. I would recommend buying the CD or 12" version instead of the 7", since in addition to "Bone," those formats add the stunning 10-minute "First & Last." An absolutely essential and groundbreaking EP, which I give 5 stars without any reservations.
A few days ago I discovered that Bleach made a video for "Decadence" in 1990. This made my week. The last third or so of the video has lots of psychedelically-tinted sea creatures:
This means that they had at least three videos, the others being the exuberant "Dipping" (1991) and the stylishly vertiginous "Surround" (1992). Does anyone know if there was a video for "Shotgun"? I also just found an ferociously spirited and bloodthirsty Peel session from July '91, which is neither for those who are faint of heart nor for those with flimsy computer speakers. Fun Fact: This was the same approximate month that I bought Above The Law's Livin' Like Hustlers, an album that brilliantly combined rap with jazz & rock instrumentation. I wouldn't even find out about Bleach until about a decade later. Also in '91, Public Enemy and Anthrax were touring together after having done that (awful) "Bring The Noise" collabo with each other.
Here is a pic from the May 4, 1991 issue of Melody Maker, with Curve on the cover. As far as I know, this image (photographer credit: Patrick Gilbert) has never been posted online before:
In 1993, a live version of "Shotgun" appeared on Bleach's Trip & Slide & Live promo CD EP, which I've been trying to get my hands on for years. That EP's artwork also starred the dead silver foot, this time on a bed of red grapes. In 2006, the song was included on an impressive and much-needed compilation called Like A Daydream: A Shoegazing Guide:
Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13 & 15 are among the best songs ever recorded, and most of the others are quite nice
It's been a record-setting week of heat across the U.S., with Denver over 100º for 5 straight days and the area near Colorado Springs ablaze. It's said to be Colorado's worst disaster ever. Tropical Storm Debby thankfully went to Florida instead of here last week. No rain here for about 2 weeks now, with temps in mid to upper 90s.
Sat. 6/23: Went to two Louisiana Nursery locations in Baton Rouge, both for the first time. Was very impressed with their plants.
Wed. 6/27: Got a picturesque & hardy species of prickly pear cactus called Opuntia santa-rita at Home Depot to replace a flimsier Opuntia that I already have.
Thur. 6/28: Saw the Flaming Lips set the Guinness world record at HOB. Grimes dropped off the bill with no notification or explanation. She was replaced by the somewhat (intentionally or unintentionally?) hilarious MNDR, sort of a combination of Madonna, Har Mar Superstar, and Grimes. She was decked out in slutty black and white mid-'80s Madge garb, letting her love handles jiggle provocatively, and ordered a guy and girl from the crowd to come up on stage to dance during one song. MNDR played only about 15 minutes. Then Wayne Coyne was paraded up Decatur Street to the front of the HOB, with local boys the Stooges Brass Band leading the way. The Lips kicked off with their two biggest hits, "Do You Realize??" and "She Don't Use Jelly." I was kind of jaded towards their stage prop tricks, having not seen the Lips since 1994, but I have to admit it was pretty transcendent. I raised my can of Guinness Draught at the moment the Guinness record breakage was announced. They played for about 70 minutes, despite averaging only 15 minutes at the previous seven stops. Thanks for the free tix, Butch! And thank you Ashley for making it through your terrible day (moving problems + flat tire) and coming out with us. It was too hot and humid to walk around the Quarter, so afterwards we got some grub at Lucy's (Lucy's Retired Surfer Bar & Restaurant) afterwards, and my sister taught me what a well drink is. I had my eyes glued to the NBA Draft. In addition to the somewhat overrated Anthony Davis, we got human highlight reel Austin Rivers, as I'd been hoping. I've also heard a rumor that Chris Paul wants to come back to the Hornets...
Fri. 6/29: My sister has been mad @ Grimes for canceling, so I texted her a self-deprecating Grimes tweet ("I'm not trying 2 be cute, I have a fucking speech impediment.") Went to dad's surprise 60th birthday party at Pelican Club. Tom, Ann, Kathleen, Shane, Ali, Roxanne, Preston, Sprague & wife, Jay & wife, and Jack & wife all came. It was also Vanessa's bday so she was included too. Emily cleverly wrote "You're sixty and you know it!" on dad's card, and dad actually crooned a bit of said LMFAO song. Do not ask me how he knew about it...
Sat. 6/30: Went to Dat Dog's new location for the first time. We had to sit outside in delightful 95º heat. I got the Guinness (beer) Dog again, but found it overbearingly greasy, so I probably would not get it again. Got aunt Ann a little Stevia plant at Freret Street Nursery directly across the street. We did not make it to the NOMA sculpture garden as I had hoped. Shane ripped lots of my CDs (e.g. Ween [R.I.P.], The Church, Acetone, Gil Scott-Heron, Faith No More, Miles Davis) to his Mac on my recommendation, after quickly selecting Herbie Hancock's Headhunters on his own. Roxanne decided that she and Shane should get a Uromastyx after she held mine and fed her by hand. Went to get snowballs at Sal's with dad, Preston & Roxanne. Used Sears gift card (received as collateral during garage door repair last summer) towards a little Sony HDR-CX190 Handycam, mainly to record bands in concert. Overall, one of the most eventful & strange 48-hour spans I've had in many years.
Here is a painting I finished on Super Bowl Sunday 2012, whose silver and blue reminds me of the Shotgun cover art. Yes, the palms are supposed to be leaning towards an implied ocean on their right, since the sand is always shifting / sinking a bit on the ocean side as compared to the dry land side. And I guess it goes without saying that these are supposed to be coconut palms. It's the first palm painting I've done on a circular or oval canvas (bought at Hobby Lobby, I think), and I will definitely be using them again:
That's the painting's info card; I try to remember to make one for every artwork I do, just in case I become famous in a few decades. I posed it on the pot of my 'Blue Elf' aloe for no reason. Some interesting tidbits are often buried in these cards, such as the fact that those are not black stripes. The dates also remind me that that silver-coated oval canvas sat on my coffee table for almost a year while I thought about what to do with it. Note that I only sign the backs of my paintings, never ever ever the fronts, since I grew up admiring album cover art, which essentially never have anyone's name scrawled on them.
Deciding whether I will go see a mediocre band with potential tonight called Widowspeak at Circle Bar, if only because I haven't been there in almost two years. I don't know if they have A/C post-renovation; they never did before. Widowspeak sound just like Mazzy Star's first two albums, down to the most minute detail, for better or for worse. The problem is that they remind me of a more lightweight version of the band EXITMUSIC, and don't yet have Mazzy Star's knack for penning at least a couple memorable tunes per album.
10-year-long video game creates 'hellish nightmare' world - "He doesn't play every day but returns to what he called a 'hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation' when he has some free time. Now in the year 3991, his world is down to three super-nations, each competing for dwindling resources, and a planet left scarred by multiple nuclear wars. His Celts are locked in a 1,700-year war with the Vikings and the Americans. All other nations have been destroyed or absorbed. Because of the continual fighting, he was forced to abandon his democracy and adopt a communist state, because his Senate kept overruling him when he wanted to declare war. Also, his cities are filled with starving people (90% of his world's population died from nuclear annihilation or famine from global warming) because, he says, he has to keep building war machines to sustain his combat efforts."
Planets with similar climates: A.C. Temple - "Chinese Burn" (1988), Lush - "Blackout" (1994), Poem Rocket - "Small White Animal" (1995), Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), Swervedriver - "Son Of Mustang Ford" (1990), Faith No More - "From Out Of Nowhere" (1989), Feverdream - "Vortex" (1995), You Am I - "Embarrassed" (1993).
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