Open A Tuning Rocks

If it's used on "Left Of The Dial" and "Alex Chilton," it's good enough for me. Funny thing is that almost every song I've written so far is about a different girl. Why? Cause they're easy. Writing the song lyrics, I mean.

Don't Call Home

So I didn't get to see Shellac today. Fuck. So I got to go to a record store. And was so excited when I found the "I Will Dare" and "Sliver" vinyl singles. But I couldn't buy them. There were so many bootleg CDs it was ridiculous. There must have been 10 Zeppelin ones and maybe 3 or 4 Pixies. So I got a cheap Breeders one. So not a total loss.

Hello Baton Rouge! - The Breeders. Pretty cool. I was a bit nervous about how the sound quality was going to be, but it's a pretty crisp digital audience recording. It's a 1994 Last Splash show, and the setlist is split pretty well, mostly relying on Last Splash standards (nice doubled vocals on "Divine Hammer," like every performance), with the rest of the songs mostly spit between Pod and their multiple EPs (although it would have been nice if they played "When I Was A Painter" or "Opened"). Kim seems out of breath on most of the songs and has to breath in deeply, especially on "Fortunately Gone" and "Happiness Is A Warm Gun." But unless someone ripped her tongue out, there's no way her voice is going to be bad. Am I right? (The CD also has some split second dropouts between tracks, or maybe that's just me)

Title TK - The Breeders. Recorded by the brilliant Steve Albini, using the All Wave philosophy. So of course the album sounds fantastic. Everything sound warm and intimate, like vinyls supposedly sound (I don't know how they sound, but they're bound be good). Even though Josephine and Jim are sorely missed, Kelley is still onboard, leaving Kim as the only original member. "Off You" is usually pinpointed as the best song on the album, and right now, I think it is. It's nice and peaceful, just Kim and an acoustic guitar. And some weird synth thing at some point.

Alien Lines - Guided By Voices. There are 28 songs on this album. And it's only 41 minutes, since none of the songs (if they're even long enough to be called songs. "Cigarette Tricks" is only 19 seconds!) only breach the 3 minute mark. This is one of GBV's more popular "lofi era" albums, and for good reason. "Game of Pricks" (NOT thrones) is one of those songs that makes me wish I lived in a simpler time. Where you actually had to meet with people to finish work. And where gossip wasn't posted on Facebook. Where the internet never existed. Lo-fi can do that to you.

Hold On Hope - GBV. These are demos for the "Do The Collapse" album (one of their cleaned up albums), produced by Ric Ocasek. I'd rather listen to Alien Lines right now. The EP's probably pretty good though.

Pleased To Meet Me (Deluxe) - The Replacements. I kept telling myself I was going to get this (for the bonus tracks), but I never did. I also told myself I was going to get Chinese Democracy but that didn't really work either. Most of the bonus tracks are already on the Flowers in the Dark booleg, albeit sped up and lower quality. The funny thing is that there's only 6 new songs on the Tim reissue, and 11 on the PPTM one. The highlights are "Photo," which is way better than some of the songs actually on the album (comparison to "Nowhere Is My Home"), a demo version of "Valentine" (interesting factoid; according to the liner notes, "Valentine" actually got rejected for the album, but was later quickly finished up and hastily pushed onto the album, so it would be for sure classfied as an album and not an EP), a rawer alternate take for "Alex Chilton" with a failed beginning (but sadly without the solo), and a stripped down version of "Can't Hardly Wait," which is not as good as the full band version on the Tim reissue, but much better than the overproduced crap version that made the album.

EMA

So here's one modern artist that I actually like. Finally. Her name is Erika M. Anderson, aka EMA. She's the girl that did this fabulous (such a phony word. So sue me) cover of "Endless, Nameless."

Most Nirvana covers are pretty crappy. That's a fact. But this one is rather great (even though the drummer is no Dave Grohl). Most of EMA's other songs are kinda weird and spacey. And she puts so much emotion into them that it's almost embarrassing (like her "California" video). But I like her for some reason. She gets a lot of comparisons to Kim Gordon, and it's easy to see why. (As a side note, a few days ago Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon announced that they're divorcing. Very sad, they said Sonic Youth was going to continue, but it's not going to be the same.) And look! EMA plays a Mustang!

What pisses me off is that they played San Francisco on October 12. And I missed it. It was a weekday. But tickets for that show were 18 and over. Boo. At least Shellac this Saturday is "all ages." Cause Shellac is totally family friendly.

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds...is OUT!

Freaking Noel Gallagher...why does he have to be so amazing? The new album Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds is out today in the UK (not until November 8th in the US...dammit. Youtube will keep me held over) and I have to admit, I am guilty of listening to "leaks" because I just couldn't wait. The album as a whole is truly very very good.

Some thoughts about the album...The singles released were a good interlude to the sheer amazing-ness of the album. Some of my favorites off the album are "(Stranded On) The Wrong Beach", "AKA...Broken Arrow", and of course, the classic that was an unreleased Oasis song "Stop the Clocks". Gallagher proves his brilliance as a songwriter throughout the entire album. Each song off the album is different and has a different aesthetic. The songs on the album range from having a nostalgic feeling and triggering flashbacks of psychedelic patterns to inspiring tranquility and peace.  The balance of acoustic guitar and electric intertwining with Noel Gallagher's voice is sheer perfection. With words of love, hope, fear, and the modern age Gallagher captures the essence of life in an album. I'm not kidding. This is arguably, one of the best, if not, the best album I have ever listened to.

I highly advise going and at least listening to the album. I myself intend to purchase it once it is released in the US.

Sitting in Silence

I apologize for not posting much recently due to being busy...excuses excuses...I know.  Anyhow, Noel Gallagher is so freaking amazing. I've been going through a major Oasis phase this past week and I have to say, Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher are both pretty amazing singers, but personally, I like Noel's voice better than Liam's.
Proof: Sitting in Silence...Noel Gallagher is such a boss.

Mishmash of stuff

RIP Mikey Welsh. You will be missed :(

Doolittle - Pixies. As great as Surfer Rosa. Maybe better. But who cares, get both of them. It's a little more Americanish (as opposed to the Spanish vibe of Surfer Rosa), and has a cleaner sound thanks to Gil Norton (also produced The Colour and the Shape, and almost Is This It, according to Wikipedia). Most of the subject manner deals with Biblical stories and the ocean ("Wave of Mutilation," "Monkey Gone To Heaven"). But the song are classic Pixies. It starts off with "Debaser," which I don't feel the need to rave about again, cause we've already established how awesome it is. "Tame" is seriously a great example of loud quiet loud dynamics. There's a lot of screaming (TAAAAMEEEEEE) and jagged guitars (or maybe those are keyboards?). And then is "Wave Of Mutilation," possibly the best song on the disc. The lyrics are kinda depressing, but sung with an almost hopeful, ironic tone. "I Bleed" is kind of a solo for Joey Santiago. There's Black Francis's deadpan vocals, Kim's high harmony, and Joey playing weird garbled notes that sound pretty cool and only occasionally play something that resembles a melody. So it's pretty cool. I also already talked about "Here Comes Your Man," and it really does stand out as pop, compared to the violent contorted songs earlier on Doolittle. The band apparently didn't even want to put the song on Doolittle at first, which kind of brings to mind that Weezer didn't want "Buddy Holly" on the Blue Album either. Look how that turned out. The funny thing about the Pixies are that while most of their music is strictly 80s indie, they pull off these small 30 second interludes that have this anthematic quality. Like "Dead," which is mostly a shuffley thing with mixed down low rantings from Francis, but has these 2 parts that are really really cool. You'll know when you hear it. "Monkey Gone To Heaven" is also one of the greatest songs on Doolittle, but it's not as accessible. It even took me around 5 or 6 listens to get into it. It has a big open reverb sounding production, and almost no singing, just musings. But there's the one lyric that goes "If man is five, then the devil is six." And later there's "If then devil is six, then GOD IS SEVEN." Which probably means something important. But if you explain something to someone, it sort of loses something in translation. Y'know? Okay then. I really like the combination of the two songs that come next. "Mr. Grieves" is really fun to listen to, and reminds me of Captain Hook for some reason. Francis keeps repeating that "it's alllllllright" and laughing. And then he says "I believe in Mr. Grieves," which must have some connection to the Bible somehow. "Crackity Jones" comes right after, and it's only a minute and a half long. But like other punky stuff like "Territorial Pissings" and "Hayday," it leaves a lasting impact. The next song is called "La La Love You" and you can pretty much tell it's a joke by the title. But it kinda is and isn't at the same time (it's a love song, obvi). Well David Lovering sings this one, and while it's fun, it's not really one of those songs that you would play over and over again because it totally blew you away (or maybe it is, what do I know?). "No. 13 Baby" is a really well-rounded song, and while it's not as extreme as some of the other songs, it's very solid, and the second half of the song's a pretty awesome solo that actually fades out. "There Goes My Gun" is pretty unnoteworthy, although it does have a pirate-sounding verse, and a nice chorus. And if you tie this song title together with another one, it would be "Here Comes Your Man, There Goes My Gun." I amuse myself. "Hey" is a masterpiece. Don't try to persuade me otherwise. I don't like a lot of bands, but when I do, I REALLY do. And you can bet that the Pixies are one of them for sure. "Silver" (no, not "Sliver." Wonder where Kurt got that from?) is really sparce and unlike most songs with Francis/Kim harmonies, it sounds more ominous than anything else. The album kinda comes full circle with "Gouge Away," which is kinda about eyes like "Debaser." It's a pretty typical Pixies song, with bass, drums, vocals in the verse and everything in the chorus. So it's a pretty cool ending to one of most important rock albums of the 1980s. Disclaimer; I've only had this record for about a week. Of course I'm going to talk about it like it's the best thing since three day weekends. And there are no paragraph breaks in this on purpose. If you're not going to read the whole thing, so be it.

(What's The Story) Morning Glory? - Oasis. Well it's not bad. It's worth the $1.95 I bought it for. "Hello" is my favorite. Way cool chorus. "Wonderwall" is "Wonderwall." That's it. The song Green Day supposedly ripped off for "BOBD." Yes, they do have the same chord progression. Are they that similar? Not really. "Don't Look Back In Anger is also pretty good. I guess. Liam could've sang it better. Maybe. But the CD is mastered atrociously. It's really loud, has tons of clipping and one of the first places where the loudness war started... This link is pretty informative. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RecordOfLoudnessWar When most records are remastered, all the engineers sometimes do is turn up the volume, cause if something's louder, it should sound better, right? WRONG. Most records these days are victims of the Loudness War, and even though I don't really qualify as an audiophile, I still think most CDs these days sound horrible. At first I thought it just might be cause most of it is recorded on digital tracks instead of tape, but it's probably because everybody's trying to make their records louder so it's more "modern."

Mag Earwhig! - Guided By Voices. Or rather, Sunfish Holy Breakfast by Guided By Voices in a Mag Earwhig CD case. I'm still pretty disappointed.

Stereo / Mono - Paul Westerberg. Double record of his for around 4 dollars. It's much better than most of his other records (but it's still not comparable to stuff like Let it Be or Tim). The stereo side is made up of calming songs, while Mono is more upbeat, rockier tunes. And Stereo's songs are all in stereo, and Mono's songs are all in mono. Obvi.

The Grand Hour - Guided By Voices. It's a 9 and a half minute EP with mostly minute to minute and a half fragments that barely qualify as songs. And the song quality is so low quality it sounds like it was recorded on a 4-track. Which it actually was. And it sounds great. Better than the Morning Glory one in my opinion. And the songs are pretty great too. There's "Shocker In Gloomtown," (soooo cool) and even this little song called "Bee Thousand" (also the title of their most famous album) which although has a pretty stupid "wabba wabba" part, has this insanely awesome other part that totally drives the song on it's own.

Wave Of Mutilation

I don't MEAN to always post later in the day after Maria does, but it just happens that way. Although I do like having my stuff at the top of the page.

No drum multitracks here. There's bass, acoustic guitar, bass, vocals, percussion, and electric guitar. For percussion, that horse galloping sound you hear is a notepad and a pillow. Yeah, the "drums" sound pretty lousy, but as a whole, I'm pretty proud of this one. It has kind of a "Third/Sister Lovers" feel, if I do say so myself, although I left the song in mono, cause you can only do so much with 5 mono channels.

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

I recently started listening to Oasis again after a month of a break and that led me to Noel Gallagher's upcoming solo work - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. The album drops in the US on Novemeber 8th and I am BEYOND excited for it to come out. So far, all of singles from the album are fantastic. The videos for Noel Gallagher's new songs are especially interesting - they all end in a "to be continued" which of course, sparks some intrigue. So far, my favorites are "Record Machine" and "If I Had A Gun". I'm counting down the days for when the album comes out...

But for now, here are some of the videos and songs.

"Death Of You And Me"

"If I Had A Gun"

"Record Machine" (Demo Version)

"AKA...What A Life"

Did you really think that you were the only one?

Guided By Voices is awesome. Found them a while back , but I never bothered to listen to any of their songs besides the one that the Breeders covered. Even though the only continuing member is Robert Pollard, (kinda in the vein of bands like Black Flag, Shonen Knife, and yes, Black Sabbath and Guns N' Roses), he does write almost all of their songs, which is a LOT OF SONGS. If you look at how many albums they released, it's a crazy amount. Most of their songs are lo-fi sounding, and I'm pretty sure lots of them were recorded on 4-tracks, which give the songs a demoish quality. And that's good, although some of their later ones are pretty polished. I'm not exactly sure how do describe them... their songs are sorta melodic with a Replacements-esque feel. The one below is my favorite by GBV right now.

Very light, like Big Star or Teenage Fanclub. And there's this really cool one that's less than two minutes. With very neat lyrics.

If this isn't enough reason for you to listen to GBV, consider the fact that the Strokes covered one of their songs. I'm not of fan of the cover, but the original version is pretty good. And Kim Deal and Steve Albini produced one of their albums. Oh and Pollard kinda sounds like Gerald Love. Sorta. Almost.

Blinded by Nostalgia

I have 2 great loves in life - music and books - the two seem to collide and mix and fester in my mind. It's strange what really happens when I'm thinking. And the result is even stranger.

So after re-reading Lord of the Flies for the I don't know how many-ith time and then going and listening to the Arctic Monkeys, I somehow felt a sense of nostalgia and deja vu and euphoria all in one.

The lyrics of the Arctic Monkeys just seem to capture the essence of Golding's message - of people, of place, of evil, of time. Combined with the crisp British snarl of Alex Turner and the snarky guitar rhythms and angry riffs,  Lord of the Flies just seems to come alive. Through the whole album Favourite Worst Nightmare, the themes and feeling of Lord of the Flies are perfectly illustrated.


Particularly in the song "If You Were There, Beware" the resemblance is uncanny. From the lyrics "the serpent soul pinches" which reminded me of the "Beastie" that the boys on the island claim to have seen which is really just a reflection of their fears and own evil, to the line "our attempts to remind them of reason won't get us that far" which precisely outlines the plight of Piggy and Ralph and their attempts that yielded no avail to bring order and society to the island.

It's strange, really, that I think of these things. But upon further inspection, everything just seems to connect and click into place.  Kind of how like the entire Muse album The Resistance is like a musical version of 1984...