This video for This Old Banjo by J. Tex and the Volunteers of Copenhagen, Denmark, is a masterful piece of minimalism – it’s just him and a guitar – and it feels, for lack of a better term, organic. Unfussy, unforced, like he’s just walking around thinking with his guitar. The only thing that could have made it better would be the appearance of an actual banjo.
Because I feel like I’ve been listening to a lot of dreamy folk / electronica lately, and it’s time for the pendulum to swing back the other way: Stupid Everything from Burner by ScotDrakula, which melds punk grit with rockabilly swing and swagger.
A home for things that might be fleeting, might be soothing, might be weird, might be soothing and weird. The blogging equivalent of sitting in the garage twiddling radio knobs just to see what might be out there.
Industrial Love from Domesticated by Casper Cult is, I think, the aural equivalent of sitting inside a Zen rock garden with a rain-noises machine and a warm fuzzy sweater. Some part of me thinks something called “Industrial Love” should be louder, clangier, with more screech and holler, but a larger part thinks no, this perfect, this is sitting in an empty warehouse and communing with the silence and the stillness of machines not in use.
A home for things that might be fleeting, might be soothing, might be weird, might be soothing and weird. The blogging equivalent of sitting in the garage twiddling radio knobs just to see what might be out there.
Featherstitch is the first single and title track from Featherstitch by Eyreton Hall (Toni Randle and Andrew Keegan) of Auckland, New Zealand. It’s sweet, lovely and lovingly-crafted folk music, spare and delicate and sad and beautiful. I may or may not have listened to it three times in a row after the first time I heard it. And three more times while putting this post together. It’s kind of seductive, this tune.
You can listen to the rest of the record (and, you know, buy it) at their bandcamp.
In honor of Michael Hutchence, who left us much too soon, and 17 years ago today: the video for Need You Tonight, by INXS, one that I watched every time it came up on MTV – which was a lot – and showcases him (them) at his finest.
And, also, okay, yes, I totally had a middle-school crush on Michael Hutchence, fueled by this song, and this video. It was specific, but yet also somehow abstract; I was, I think, daydreaming of someone sidling up to me and informing me I was his kind. If that someone was as smoking hot as Michael Hutchence, all the better.
http://youtu.be/p9EsYnjFYTQ
It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.
In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.
For anyone who missed it earlier this month, Militia Vox recently released an all-covers album called Bait. On it she takes aim – with amazing results – at a number of hard rock icons, including Ozzy Osbourne. This is her take on PJ Harvey’s Rid Of Me:
And now, I will turn the floor over to her, to tell us about her favorite book, record and drink:
A GOOD READ:
I’m a sucker for dark poetry, Edgar Allan Poe being my ultimate fave. It’s too difficult to limit this answer to one story, an artist needs to be looked at by the entire scope of their work to truly feel them. I have quite a collection of Poe- both short stories and poems- in various editions and bindings. I have visited his grave just outside my hometown in Baltimore, Maryland since I was in 4th grade. I’ve regularly brought flowers to his gravesite since then. He is my muse. I also enjoy confessional poetry- Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Dorothy Parker… I love the witty and bitter, double edged quality of it all.
A GOOD LISTEN:
The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails will always and forever hold the crown for me. It’s sonic perfection, sex, love, angst and beauty. I remember buying it on the day it came out, running home and throwing in on my stereo and hearing that first sample of a guy getting whipped repeatedly and moaning, and then ripping into the opening track Mr. Self Destruct. I vividly remember my best friend at the time and I standing there in my room, in shock, with our jaws on the floor taking in this brutal eargasm. It was the most erotic thing our little suburban preteen ears had ever been exposed to. Still to this day, it’s a musical beast of an album. I highly recommend getting a good pair of headphones and taking it all in for yourself sometime. Oh, and have some tissues or a _ _ _ rag close by.
A GOOD DRINK:
I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about this beverage, because it’s not everyday that I get a drink named after me… My comrades at Coldcock Whiskey gave me a specialty drink to commemorate my residency at Times Scare in Times Square NYC and my album release of “BAIT” on Halloween. It’s called “Militia’s Macabre.” And it goes like this… Coldcock Whiskey, apple cider, simple syrup, lemon juice and a dash of cinnamon. Perfect for autumnal late nights and witchy winter times. Militious and delicious.
I touched on this briefly back in August, but: Frank Iero (Death Spells, Leathermouth, My Chemical Romance) and his new band (frnkiero andthe cellabration) have recently released a record, called Stomachaches.
My feelings, the short version:
It’s awesome and I love it. I return to it when I am feeling abraded by life, and wish to use Iero’s voice as a honey-and-gravel blanket. Or when I want to shuffle dance on street corners. Whatever you may have thought of My Chem: if you like vigorous punk rock with fuzzy accents and the occasional delicate melody, give this a shot.
My feelings, the long version:
I’ve been listening to this and Gerard Way’s Hesitant Alien as point-counterpoint, and while I like what Gerard Way has been up to – more on that later – Iero’s work is more musically interesting to me. I find I’m re-listening to songs not only because they feel like they fall directly into a pre-cut groove in my head and heart but because I’m actively trying to track what he’s doing with feedback and drums and/or listen more closely to the lyrics. Basically, I’m super into the way he’s playing with elements of dissonance in the context of pop-inflected punk while exploring themes of loneliness, alienation and the sometimes weird ways people express affection.
And now, some highlights:
All I Want Is Nothing: the first ten seconds or so sound like a band lurching to life, and then the song kicks into (high) gear. After a long, silent summer, this was a welcome burst of aggressive noise.
She’s The Prettiest Girl At The Party And She Can Prove It With A Solid Right Hook: a prime example of a delicate melody. It’s a little slower and more reflective than some of the other songs, more, dare I say it, grown-up. But I mainly I love it for the way the soft, gleaming melody gets showcased at the beginning and then runs through the whole song like a bright ribbon.
Where Do We Belong? Anywhere But Here.: the last song on the record, which starts out stripped down and halfway through falls off a cliff made of surging guitars and ogre roar. I am a big fan of both of those things.
In conclusion: A++, looking forward to whatever he/they do next.
The first polar vortex of the season arrived in New York yesterday, bringing with it icy temperatures and blustery winds. Like it or not, winter is here.
And in the spirit of all things frosty and beautiful, here are two songs from Johanna Glaza: Paper Widow and Winter Song, due out at the end of November, which embody, in sound, all of the best parts of the season: windows full of delicate frost fronds, the smell of fresh pine, the crunch of new snow.
Hard Hard Hard, by Dead Professional (John Harouff) is the sort of record that sneaks up on you. A bass line gets lodged in your head one day; you find yourself humming along with a melody the next; the day after that a particular lyric strikes home.
For example, I was just briefly arrested by I can be your baby / or I can play the sitter from I Can Deliver, which has both sharp edges and Replacements-style catchy grooves:
Another one I’m fond of is Bad Memory, because it’s a love song, if love songs were written by sharks:
The last time we checked in with Heart-Ships was last October, and since then they’ve released a bunch of new music including a full-length record called Foil (YAY!) and split up (NOT YAY, MASSIVE :().
I listened to Foil late last night, and on the whole it is breathtaking. But there are a few songs that sank their claws into me. One of them was Undress Me To The Bone, which I present here in video form, because they did a “garden session” and sang it acoustic and it sounds like a diamond being wrenched out of them by force.
This is the album version, which is worth listening to for the contrast: the lament sounds almost like an anthem.
Also strong: Nadine, Heart of a Wrestler and We Were Quick to Bang The Drum.
