Recent Purchases 2-25-09

The New York Dolls - The Early Years Live 12" blue vinyl
The New York Dolls - Red Patent Leather 12"
Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You 12" picture disc
Kings Of Lean - Because Of The Times 12"
R.E.M. - Monster 12"
Deerhunter - Cryptrograms/Fluorescent Grey 2x12"
Louisville Is For Lovers 2x12" of local bands on red vinyl
Donna Fargo - The Happiest Girl In The Whole U.S.A. 7"

Overall, a pretty good night of record buying.

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

I've always heard of Tom Waits, but I've never actually listened to Tom Waits. I guess the time has come to do so. I've actually been listening to this album for the past week or so, but haven't written about it yet due to being still ill. I think I was in a coma or something. I know, I know, it's serious. Here is the long-awaited (well, for some of you) review for Rain Dogs.



When I first heard Rain Dogs start off, I felt as though I had entered a circus or carnival. I was surprised about this because I hadn't anticipated leaving my car to see clowns, bearded ladies, or Karnov breathing fire. That's what Singapore sounds like to me. Either that or Insomniac with Dave Attell. The second song, Clap Hands, is something I should have heard before. I think this is one of my favourites on this record. The best point in the song is when I realized where Radiohead got the lyric:
"We all went to heaven in a little rowboat"
I never knew that's where it came from. One of my favourite songs ever (Pyramid Song) wouldn't have been the same if it wasn't for that song.

The next song, Cemetery Polka, takes me from that circus I was at earlier, to a pirate ship. I wasn't sure how I made that transition, but I don't think I minded too much. This song makes me want to grab a mug of grog, wear a puffy shirt, and shout insults at people while waving a sword. Maybe not all of those things, but it is close. Very close. Arrrrrgggg...
After letting go of being a pirate comes another song I had to mention, I won't mention every song, but this one is especially smooth sounding. Jockey Full Of Bourbon is the name, don't wear it out. The guitar is simply incredible. A smooth surf sound to it, but much darker than just that. A bit like Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet (that's right, I name dropped them) only darker, and with words.

Listening further into the record, I realized Amnesiac (one of my favourites of all time) may not have been real if this whole album wasn't created. The sound of the song Tango Till They're Sore reeks of the wonderfully familiar horns heard in Life In A Glass House. The "New Orleans Funeral Song" sound as I've heard it referred to. The broken piano intro to it really changes your mood to conform to the song. That's right, you're going to get into it. You have no choice.

On Big Black Mariah, I expected for him to bust out some skat skills. I was a bit disappointed that it didn't happen. Oh well, maybe on another record. The song has a nice jazzy feel to it, like something you would hear when you walk in a jazz club where you don't belong. Silly wizard, hipsters don't belong in jazz clubs.

Blah blah blah, I promised these reviews wouldn't be too long. This is definitely different from what I've reviewed so far, but such a nice change. I really enjoyed listening to it. It has a gritty, real feel to it. Not a perfect sound, it's not supposed to be perfect, nothing should be. I do believe I'll pick up some more of his recordings some day.


Two favourite tracks:
Tango Till They're Sore
Gun Street Girl

Years Of Refusal - Released Today

This was released today in the U.S.
Go buy it. That's what I'm doing with my evening. No review on it since, well, let's just say I've heard this one before.






If you don't buy it, Morrissey will get angry with you. You wouldn't like him when he's angry...

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

In an effort, to make an attempt to, following a good old college try, I will persevere to recognize Valentine's Day by bringing you My Bloody Valentine's - Loveless. The title which sums up my holiday-filled Saturday and my past few hundred standard Saturdays. I promise this to not be a bitter review, just filled with a few jokes poking fun of those who are, for lack of a better term and also because it's the record I'm listening to, Loveless. Enjoy. Or not, it is entirely up to you. I am just telling you what I think. So there.


As soon as I hit play on good ol' Mr. Bill (my current iPod ever since Thomas had a heart attack), I was hit with a barrage of sound. This record certainly makes you aware of its presence from the get go, and you better hit dance mode within 25 seconds. After that you can mellow out, but don't do that for long. You will not even want to. It kicks right into those sounds and noises after the first verse. The first song is titled Only Shallow, in case you were wondering. If you were not wondering, then that is fine with me. I won't force you to think of the names of songs. I just would like you to know that the first song abruptly goes into the second one. My only complaint about the first song is that I wish it would go on longer. That noise is just so spectactular to hear.

I really wasn't sure why this came up in my iTunes as "Shoegazing" music, but after a few listens I can see why. After reading a bit into this genre of music I've never heard of before, I see that I like a lot of bands recognized as shoegazers. It's a style of music where, well, you gaze at your shoes. So to speak. Er, so to type. Kind of that swaying sound where you just hear smooth noise that is chaotic and melodic to the point where you are just losing all interest in anything that anyone ever did except for what you are hearing right then and there. Yeah. The best songs to example that feeling on this record are To Here Knows When, I Only Said, and Sometimes. Screw it, almost the whole album is like that. This is just a solid album all the way through.

I realize pretty much everything ever needing to be said about this record has already been said. So I'll stop here. Go buy this record/CD, listen to it while you are banging your significant other on Valentine's Day, and enjoy the rest of the week.


Two favourite tracks:
To Here Knows When
Soon

Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me

I really wanted to make this album artwork bigger, but for layout's sake, it's only regular size. It's such a cool looking picture.

Today I will be listening to Brand New for the first time. Yes, that's true, I haven't listened to them before. All my friends have raging boners for this band and one of my friends even compared seeing them live to what heaven would be like. I don't know if that is true or not, since I have never seen them live, nor have I seen heaven. I'll just have listen to this album before making any heavenly assumptions. I'm going to be out and about tonight while listening instead of just sitting and writing at the same time. Hopefully it will be a good driving album.


I'm writing half this review tonight, and the other half in the morning when I am more refreshed. When I first started playing this, I expected to have a barrage of noise blaring at me from the get go, so I cranked up my stereo (after I drove out of my old-people neighborhood) a bit more than usual. That blaring didn't happen. It soon did though, don't worry. It didn't start out like I thought it would, but all of the sudden screaming and noise were in my face again. Been a while since I listened to something along these lines. Reminded me of what it would have been like to go to high school and listen to music that the popular kids didn't like.

This record was a lot more melodic and darker than I thought it would be. A lot better than I thought it would be, because I expected a pop-punk type of album...

I'll just apologize right here. This is a really shitty review of a very incredible record. I really liked listening to this, but I just can't write anything that describes it well. For anyone reading this, please know that this is most definitely worth buying. I will probably review this later when I can actually think of words to put for it. After hearing Jesus Christ I can see why all my friends have those raging boners that I mentioned earlier. The dark and dreamy sound of it enrages my boner as well. I don't know what that term is where it sounds like it was recorded in a well, but I love that. Somebody tell me the right word for that and I'll take note of it for future writings and also to sound smart in conversations about music. That song going right into one of my favourite songs on the record - Degausser - is such a great change in tracks. Harder and a little faster, it has a great pick up from the last song. The energy through this record is maintained extremely well. After Degausser comes Limousine, a 7 plus minute song. Again, long song, I expect an epic track. This definitely did not disappoint. That track stretch could have been an amazing EP just by itself.

Another song I took note of was Welcome To Bangkok, an instrumental track that was just noise. That's all it was, noise, awesome noise. I really didn't think I'd hear something like this on the album. Quite a good sound, but since I like vocals it's not one of my two favourites.

Luca is in my top two. I state that right here. Extremely melodic and has such a swaying sound to it. A very very great sounding track. I really can't put a good description on it, you just have to hear it. After that it kind of picks up with The Archers Bows Are Broken, but then quites down for Handcuffs. The whole record has a fairly smooth flow to it, with some extremely high points, and very few lows. It does not disappoint in the slightest. I'll definitely look forward to what they have next on their plate.


Two favourite tracks:
Luca
Jesus Christ

No review today either

As my post below states, the Pretenders concert was postponed (I believe due to an illness). I spent the evening in Bloomington with a few friends playing music, drinking beer, reading a picture book, and watching wizard people. Not necessarily in that order, except that drinking beer happened first.

No review today due to lack of sleep and traveling. I did listen to some NPR podcast concerts from the likes of Stars, The National, and Okkervil River during my travels. I would highly recommend checking out NPR's All Songs Considered - podcasts and website. They have a podcast just for live concerts and one for new music, guest DJ's, band chats, etc.

Another good one is KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic - In Studio performances. The Walkmen were on a little while back and I just got around to hearing it right before skipping town.

I should return with a review tomorrow (Friday) evening. Until then, go find the Morrissey Radio 2 concert somewhere and send the videos to me!

The Pretenders - Concert Review

Hello, this is Ticketmaster Customer Service with an important alert for your event. The Pretenders, that was scheduled at Murat Theatre on Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at 7:30PM, has been postponed. The new date is to be announced.


:(

No review today

I won't have time for a review today. Right after I get off work I'm going to Indianapolis to see The Pretenders. That is if a killer tornado doesn't blow me away first. I'll also make a stop at Luna Music, possibly both Indy locations.

Feel the '80's!



I'll be back tomorrow, and I will have a surprise one for Saturday too. Stay tuned.

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

The only Velvet Underground song I've really heard is Stephanie Says because I watched The Royal Tenenbaums (more than once). A few months ago I found the art car BMW that Andy Warhol painted and thought it was the absolute coolest thing I had seen in life up until that point. Hell, I still think it's damn near the coolest thing I'll ever see, except that I haven't seen it in real life. I looked through a huge art book about Andy Warhol later that weekend and thought to myself "someday I'll listen to that album he painted with the banana on it...". Well, I still haven't done that, because the record store didn't have it. Therefore, I'm listening to the self titled album by The Velvet Underground.



This is an incredibly solid record, even with the song The Murder Mystery - coming in at 8:59. Not that it's a bad song, but I don't really understand it too much. I think it's one of those tracks where you need to be tripping to "get it". Well, I don't do that, so I'll just have to say that it's a kind of strange track. Alas, there are other songs than that one. I didn't write as I was listening like I did the last review, but I listened to it all the way through twice. Except for The Murder Mystery, it has voices on the left and right and is really hard to listen to on my headphones.

Anyway, the whole record is incredibly smooth. A really soft and almost gloomy opening (Candy Says) goes right into an upbeat rocking song - What Goes On - one of my favourites on this record. It has such great guitars sound in it, and thanks to Google, I found one of my favourite bands, The National, covered it recently. Break time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5krE7MP5QY
(Fun fact: I was considering going to NYC for that event because they were playing, and also because comedy group Stella were performing that night as well. I didn't go though, I went 2 weeks later for Saves The Day)

The entire feel of this album could be described as "chill". No, not Miller Chill, it's so much better than shitty beer. It just has and maintains a cool, smooth, chill sound right up until the amazing ending track (After Hours). It makes me want to wear sunglasses indoors and play guitar. Any sound that makes me feel that way is a good thing.

Two favourite tracks:
What Goes On
Pale Blue Eyes

Oasis - Definitely Maybe

I've really only listened to What's The Story? (Morning Glory) from the Oasis discography, so I'm not really too familiar with them. I picked up this CD yesterday along with a few others I thought I might enjoy. I'm going to give it a whirl and jot down what I think about it while I'm listening to it.





It's starting out kind of average. Just getting past the first song (Rock 'n' Roll Star) and it drags on a little bit long at the end, but it's not too bad of a song. I'm pretty sure I've heard this second song before somewhere (Shakermaker), the beginning sounds really familiar. The sound is different from the first song, but still maintains a certain feel to the album so far. Going into the third song (Live Forever) it sounds like it's mellowing out a little, and has a pretty good sound to it. Not too low, not too high, just in between. A cool track.

Picks up a bit on the fourth track (Up In The Sky) right from the start. Pretty upbeat and poppy with some nice vocals. I like this one pretty well so far, even with the creepy line "How does it feel when you're inside me?". The fifth song (Columbia) starts out a lot differently than the other tracks. It has some crazy guitar noises that are sharp and electronic sounding, yet soft and smooth. I think it's my favourite intro to a song so far on this record. A little heavier sounding than the others, but still has a sound consistent with the record. Even with being the second longest song on the record, I didn't really notice the length. Vocals and guitars on this song are great together. Probably my favourite so far.

Supersonic is the sixth song on the CD and sounds like it's the hit. In fact, I just looked up and it's the first single they released. I didn't know that before listening to this. It does sound like the strongest song to be picked for a single (so far, I have 5 songs to go). Bring It Down picks up the pace again and is a pretty jammin' song (did I just use the word 'jammin'?). A bit faster than the others and yeah, pretty much just rocks. The next song, Cigarettes & Alcohol, almost starts out like Bang A Gong (Get It On) by T. Rex. I like that. It keeps that type of sound throughout the song and is pretty catchy. Probably one of my top picks on the record.

Digsy's Dinner kicks off the last three songs of the record and is considerably more poppy than the other tracks. Not to say that's a bad thing, but doesn't seem like it should follow the previous track. Poppy and catchy, but seems weaker than the other tracks. The next song is Slide Away and comes in as the longest on the record at 6:33. For some reason, I always expect a lot out of longer songs. With that much time, there better be substance. Seems like a good song, but not an epic one. I have no problem with that. The last song is Married With Children and it starts out with a cool sound to it. A nice smooth sound to end the record with, a top track in my book.

Overall I liked this record. Pretty good changes in it, but doesn't go way off track. Good all-around listen.

Two favourite tracks:
Columbia - tied with Cigarettes & Alcohol
Married With Children

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Automatic

"the DJ never has it, JAMC Automatic"
"do you remember the JAMC? And reading aloud from magazines"


Since I listened to the two songs I quoted above recently, I thought I should probably finally listen to "The JAMC". I'm very ignorant, so I didn't know that it was referencing The Jesus And Mary Chain. I've heard of them before plenty, but just not in abbreviated form. I went shopping today to cheer me up, and found Automatic used for only $7. What a deal.


Upon first listen I felt that I liked it. It has an '80's sound to it, and I like that. It sounds like it could be a soundtrack to a John Hughes film, but it also has a sound that makes it feel like it's better than just that. I didn't really read much into JAMC or this album before I picked it up today, but I saw a few things say that it's not their most popular. After a listen, I'm not sure why that would be. It's pretty catchy and poppy, but with a slight angst in it. I'm pretty sure if it was released this year you wouldn't be able to tell much difference to the year it was made, even with that '80's sound to it.

The first listen I gave it was while I was driving around after going to the record store (Underground Sounds). That is one of my favourite things to do when I get a new CD. Too bad I can't do that with records. I'd say this is a pretty good driving album. It has some good energy to it, almost like it could be played in its entirety in a club. Good transitions from song to song, and it doesn't jump around with sounds too much. Not to say everything sounds the same, but it stays consistent to an album flow.

Two favourite tracks:
Her Way Of Praying
Half Way To Crazy

Introduction

My name is Joey and I thought it was time to try out writing reviews for records. I've been needing to listen to more things than just Morrissey lately, so I've been trying get into more music. I don't want to write about things I'm familiar with so that I can be all like "listen to this or I dislike you" sort of thing. I want this to have decent reviews that are humourous, insightful, not too long, and not too snarky (this means you Pitchfork). I'll try to have some other people write some reviews as well, so my ranting won't make you stop reading forever.

I'll try to have a variety of different albums. A lot of them I will have heard for the first time, or maybe have only heard once or twice. If you have a suggestion for me to listen to, please e-mail me.

Enjoy listening/reading.