October 2013 Mix: The Cusp

10 tracks, 46 minutes. Get it here.

(I shouldn't have to say this – but support working artists & musicians by purchasing records! Links in the tracklist.)

1) Songs: Ohia - I've Been Riding With The Ghost

2) Bitchin' Bajas - Sun City

3) Landing - Gathering

4) Camera Obscura - Troublemaker

5) Richard Hell & The Voidoids - I'm Your Man

6) Parquet Courts - Stoned And Starving

7) Paris 1942 - Move Out Of Wichita

8) Swell Maps - BLAM!!

9) Endless Boogie - Occult Banker

10) Television - Glory (Live in Portland 1978)

Jason Molina passed away in March, in Indianapolis, where I reside. I didn't know he was in town, and hell, I don't think many people he was close to did, either. He succumbed to organ failure from alcohol poisoning. Songs: Ohia's "I've Been Riding With The Ghost" is a ripper that melds together his best traits as a songwriter, the indelible, plaintive acoustic beginning, the Neil Young-esque staccato-electric verse, and the ruminating, glowing lyrics.

"Trying to remember how it got so late / why every night pain comes from a different place / 

now something's gotta change." Hope you're in a better place now, Mr. Molina.

I saw Bitchin' Bajas for the first time this Summer at Indianapolis's premiere musical happening – Cataracts. I'd missed them earlier in the year, but knew based on the Alice Coltrane & Robert Fripp references (as well as their Drag City backing & CAVE-chops), that their higher wavelength was one I needed to tap into. They played a blissful 15-minute set (due to running late) that was pitch-perfect. "Sun City" is tone painting, gorgeously full of guitar fuzz, organ drone, and sunny synth, all flowing together into One. 

Bitchin' Bajas LIVE at Cataracts 2013.

In August, I booked my first show in five years – all it took to convince me was the announcement that dream-wave/drone-poppers Landing were embarking on a rare tour. With an extensive discography that balances gauzy guitar work and more recently, drum-machine powered delicate new-wave...how could I not? "Gathering" is all note-heavy guitar hook and gentle, shoegaze-y vocal lift, building to a blurred haze of guitar that washes out the end.

Landing LIVE this fall at Do317 Lounge.

Ok, time to admit that Camera Obscura is no longer a guilty pleasure. While 2013 LP Desire Lines mellows out a bit – the hooks are still there, the production is pristine, and songwriter/vocalist Tracyanne Campbell still hits all the right notes (and still has that gorgeous Scottish accent...I'm a sucker for it). "Troublemaker" is the lead single and, to prove that serious/romantic nouveau pop isn't all they do, has shown up in video recently with a jab at ridiculous British television.

Note to self: don't ever consider wearing a jumpsuit. Real bad.

I've been on a huge bootleg kick this year, and Television has been leading the charge. If we're gonna get down to brass tax, I recommend this 1978 set (for the noisiness and solos) and Double Exposure (for demos and alternate versions). But somehow I never heard the Neon Boys (pre-TV) or Richard Hell & The Voidoids (replaced in TV by Richard Lloyd). Blank Generation is the succinct classic you might expect from such an ex-pat – "I'm Your Man" is full of attitude and swing and an iconic vocal take, just reined in enough to express instability. 

Classic cover art, too.

Pastiche, on the whole, in rock and roll music usually annoys me, from the dance-rock craze of the early 2000s, to hyperliterate scarf-rock that tumbled out with the Decemberists...yuck. Parquet Courts manage to take a pastiche of lo-fi icons (GBV, Pavement, even Brit post-punk like Wire or Gang of Four) and squish it into their own strange, wiry box. Wry vocal takes and cyclical guitar lines over a rock-solid rhythm section made Light Up Gold one of my favorite records of 2012. "Stoned and Starving" is the centerpiece, five-minutes-plus of a helluva guitar hook, lazy ruminations, and feedback – it's glorious.

(NYC-by-way-of-Texas, the LP cover does hint at the
subtle twang contained within.)

From the same universe, but a generation-and-a-half prior, discovering the Paris 1942 record was a jolt to my summer. It's all high-end, dismal punk and no-wave skronk. Part Sun City Girls and part Mo Tucker (the Velvets) – it sounds exactly like what you'd imagine...which is actually perfect. "Move to Wichita" is a grimy pop gem caked in dirty, wet newspapers of sound, like a house show that you're almost too drunk to remember. 

(I imagine the gloomy figure on the bridge actually
just found out they were moving to Wichita.)

"Aplomb" – something about Brits and how they have plenty of this to go around. Is it the weather? In the midst of bar bands and Sex Pistol-apers came Swell Maps, a brother-led group that had swagger and artistic ambitions. A Trip to Marineville has feedback experiments, perfect pills of pop-punk, and jam-it-all-in lackadaisical prog. "BLAM!!" takes a primal, bashing, almost-Kraut beat and pounds it into the ground with jagged guitar swell, moaning background vocals, and – surprise! – a sing-along chorus. 

(Swell Maps - "Build A Car". With rare live footage.)

Long Island by Endless Boogie is my favorite record of the year. Who could dethrone the muscular riff that "Occult Banker" rides into the sunset? A band of recordheads and riffheads for recordheads and riffheads – they do one thing: boogie. Choogle. Wah-wah riff. For 5, 7, 9 minutes at a time. Always mutating, hooks gestating and rearing their heads on down the road while their vocalist and frontman mumble-rants like Tom Waits with a chest cold. If that doesn't sound appealing: listen to that riff.

(A beast has awoken in the swamp – maybe this LP is
his foot-stompin' welcome back party. Rise from yr mud
and strap on a six-string, dude.)

I've already mentioned Television, and since I just waxed apoplectic about the power of the riff, I thought I'd end this mix with the regal-sounding "Glory" – this live version speeds the studio track up a bit, adds some distortion to the rhythms, but really, it's all about that crushing chorus that blasts immediately into guitar-solo, and back into the ragged vocals of another chorus with extra guitar on top. These guys were locked in in 1978, and it shows with the extra-heavy ending: 

"When I see the glory / I ain't gonna worry."

september 2011 mix; desert interlude

Download link here.
1) Group Bombino - Tenere (from Guitars from Agadez Vol. 2)
2) Bob Dylan & The Band - Million Dollar Bash (from Basement Tapes)
3) Tall Dwarfs - Think Small (from Fork Songs)
4) Yo la Tengo - Moonrock Mambo (from Summer Sun)
5) The Olivia Tremor Control - A Sleepy Company (from Black Foliage Animation Music Vol. One)
6) CAN - She Brings the Rain (from Soundtracks)
7) Alice Coltrane - Spiritual Eternal (from Eternity)
8) Stereolab - Margerine Rock (from Margerine Eclipse)
9) Oneida - Preteen Weaponry Pt. 2 (from Preteen Weaponry)
10) Talk Talk - Ascension Day (from Spirit of Eden)
11) Pink Mountaintops - Cold Criminals (from Axis of Evol)

Coming back from vacation, I felt like I was going through a desert of the mind/soul. Too much enjoyment of life? Distinct lack of liver function? Either way, I was in a pre-fall funk, a quiet mood; this playlist is reserved even when loud.

"Tenere" begins in the desert, literally, with the call of a camel. Group Bombino recorded the acoustic numbers live in the open air...somewhere in Niger. Released by the always spectacular Sublime Frequencies, the dry, hypnotic guitar chords mingle with a wash of handclaps and atmosphere---meditation through sound.


The inestimable guitar skills of Group Bombino soundtracked my visit to...Batesville, IN, of all places, for a wedding in the casket capital of Indiana.

"Million Dollar Bash"...oh Basement Sessions, how I ignored you for so long. High on humor and harmony, this shambles of a gospel sing-a-long is just about perfect. This is the record that invented alt-country, and I don't think anyone's topped it since.

Long-running Kiwi collaborators Tall Dwarfs usually wrap their pop gemstones in harsh blankets of keyboard skronk, acoustic hi-speed strumming, drum machine, and layered nasally vocals. "Think Small" is an aberration of their catalog, a plaintive melody backed by a single-tracked vocal take that ruminates on being, "Like life is nothing at all...I will think small." Autumnal sentiment, for sure.



"Moonrock Mambo" is YLT in silent/slinky funk mode, a melange of small sounds wrapped around witty wordplay. Colored in around the edges by squiggles of guitar feedback, marimba, piano, and tape loops; this is an exercise in minimalism and humor. With the inestimable Georgia providing just the right jazzy shuffle of a beat, this is a connect-the-dots that you can put your pencil down and just smile at.

On the other side; maximalism. "A Sleepy Company" wants every sound inside of it. Vocal harmonies are in-front here, but behind the mirror is a circus of brass, sound samples, distorted bass, fractured strings, and God-knows-what-else. Restraint isn't a strong point, but I trust OTC in their maximalist ode. When the violin hits double-time just before the static-loaded bridge, the hairs raise on the back of my neck.



CAN without the mighty Jaki Liebzeit...is it really CAN? This track would appear to answer, "Yes." Malcolm spins a typically fractured tale about some sort of rain goddess, there are ravens, magic mushrooms, and yellow men, naturally. Anchored by 4 notes from bassist Holger Czukay, and some spidery blues from guitarist Michael Karoli. The only experimentalism present here is the distorted guitar that seeps in from somewhere in the background. This is CAN at its most relaxed; you can almost visualize them leaving the tracking room one at a time after a 3 a.m. session.

I first heard Alice Coltrane while driving across the Pennsylvania wilderness in the middle of the night, my caffeined-brain being washed over by swells of harp, scattershot drumming, funky bass. "Spiritual Eternal" is Alice on electric organ, playing notes in such a way as to almost render them robotic, monochromatic, synthetic. When just over bass and drums, it is almost overpowering in its note-heavy measures. When the orchestra comes in; it is relief by numbers, the swell-and-pulse swinging slowly through time, battling her single organ. Beautiful.


Cover for Alice Coltrane's Eternity. Note the dichotomy between the luridly blue sky and pale, dry grass; the electric organ on the album reacts in the same way to the rest of her usually-organic sound.

Masters of the vintage organ, Stereolab accelerate through "Margerine Rock" with a staccato organ riff into beautifully sing-song choruses. The song lives at the edge of blast-off; finally reaching the point 2-plus minutes in, with a single note guitar solo bending and pitching like a kite in the wind. Rather than let it run its course to the ground, they break it off.

"Preteen Weaponry Part 2" is part of a 3-song album that itself is part of a 3-album cycle. Which makes "Part 2" the absolute middle, the hazy mid-ground, which begins with a distorted blast of electronic something-or-other. These distorted blasts, like a nearing industrial giant, like a factory collapse, like an approaching banshee; this is the tone of the song, omnipresent over slowly-thickening tribal drum-and-guitar stew. It is oppressive and haunting, yet free and purging at the same time. Go ahead; breathe.

Operating in a similar realm of experimentation and space, "Ascension Day" is an exercise in lush restraint, from the percolating stand-up bass, to the retreating, skittering drum-beat that leads into the song. Jagged guitars slash and retreat, leaving only vocalist Mark Hollis howling over a rhythm-section and gospel organ. In place of a chorus, we get a strangled instrumental of vibrating strings and distant brass. Talk Talk is often a rhapsodic exercise in exorcism; demons be gone in this room where righteous sound vibes are all that remain.


Cover for Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden. Fantastic.

Go: acoustic strum-a-thon backed by skree-feedback, thumping bass notes, school of Mo Tucker drum-stylings, and a "beep" that sounds like a trash truck is putting it in reverse...and you're in the blindspot. "Cold Criminals" builds to a religious fervor via a gradually increasing static swirl, and Stephen McBean's drawl that moves from lackadaisical to prophetic as it raises in pitch and volume. Pink Mountaintops make it sound so easy; but pop genius this dirty and inspired and so damn simple sounding is anything but easy.

dream map: may 2011 mix

Click here to download.
1. The Mighty Two - War is Over (recorded between 1974-1979; from 2002's No Bones for the Dogs)
2. Olufemi Ajasa & His Nigerian Bros - Aiye Le (from 2008's Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump
3. Funkadelic - If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Cause (from 1972's America Eats Its Young)
4. Radio Algeria - Disco Maghreb (from 2006's Radio Algeria)
5. Bardo Pond - lb. (from 2001's Dilate)
6. Spiritualized - Electricity (Live) (from 1998's Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997)
7. Sonic Youth - Reena (from 2006's Rather Ripped)
8. Phew - Dream (from 1981's Phew)
9. The Rolling Stones - That's How Strong My Love Is (from 1965's Out of Our Heads)
10. TV on the Radio - Stork and Owl (from 2008's Dear Science)

May was a particularly heavy listening month, and with the sweltering late-Summer like weather, I had to lead this mix off with some crucial dub reggae snagged from the always-quality Holy Warbles. I think I've mentioned before how reggae finally clicked with me while living in Bloomington in 2007, and "War is Over" with its reedy, emotive organ line is full of hooks, the excellent, smooth vocal that enters late, the simple syncopation of the bass-line; this may be the most memorable dub number I've ever heard.

"Aiye Le" takes that good energy and multiplies it, leading off with a melody on electric guitar joined in short order by rollicking hand percussion, and joyful call-and-response & group vocals. There's a great, almost surf-esque high-frequency guitar solo not even 90 seconds in. When the second solo rides in, you'll want to yelp along with the background vocalist.

It's undoubtable that Funkadelic produced some of the best rock-tinged RnB funk-jams of all time; "If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Effects" is one of these, strutting along with slow-jam, sweltering sermon-like pacing. Aww shit, if you can't move to this, you just can't move. The strings here boost it to another level, almost as regal as the sassy group vocals throughout the second verse. Never has rhetorical reasoning sounded so damn sexy.

Radio Algeria is another of the great compilations from world-sound travellers Sublime Frequencies. this is the lead-track, which starts off on-fire, drum machines blazing, with some sort of tinny, eastern-sounding horn flying in on top of the mix. A quick vocal segues into a stringed-instrument solo which itself gives way to pleading vocals over some phased-out guitar which organically becomes a percussive jam...and so it goes. Being all over the place all the time is the mantra here, and it works even during sudden shifts, giving you the perspective of a dusty dial-twister marooned at a desk, on a rooftop, in a sweltering vehicle...


I want to bring back the 8x10 glossies...tired of this EPK nonsense. Black and white prints are so much classier.

Shifting gears is not normally a quality associated with Bardo Pond, their dense soundscapes usually encircling a towering riff, and piling onto it with the full, humid thrust of their attack. Here, "lb." lumbers through such a riff, vocalist Isobel Sollenberger letting the fuzz wash over her slow-paced vocals. "You make me feel like nothing." Ah, but here's a change! Three-plus minutes in, an over-filtered guitar squelch introduces a riff at double-speed, and the band enters re-energized while Sollenberger drags behind the speedboat of a riff, a smoky-voiced wake that works surprisingly well.

The new-found sense of speed carries over into "Electricity", which does not flow at the often glacial-pace of Spiritualized tunes, instead channeling a full-plumed V.U., complete with horn skronk and overdriven organ. It's a smash-and-bash affair, made even more effective by the vocal verse halfway through over just-quickening drums before the wild riff explodes back into the song. This is Spiritualized at the peak of their live powers, a release essential in any collection that will leave you in squall & thrall just like the end of this track.


Me with the wait of the entire Hall in the palm of my hand. Should've tried to look inside. This day felt particularly revelatory, something about standing in a spot so famous yet distant from my own life---and then being there in person.

Rather Ripped is one of my favorite records of the last five years, and though it may be ridiculed, my favorite SY record. How'd that happen? This record is one untouchable riff after another, very few effects or noise getting in the way. "But that's not the point of a Sonic Youth record!" Well...yeah, but these aren't normal riffs, they're still skewed, solo'd over, layered, de-tuned. "Reena" begins with a Daydream Nation-esque riff, which takes a while to unfurl itself, like a flag stretching out in a brisk wind. They barrel through it, roll through a feverish bridge, and end by driving it into the ground in a high-frequency jam.

Phew's "Dream" is my one nod to kraut on this mix...a Japanese vocalist backed by Can's rhythm section, produced by Conny Plank. The record itself is a melange of no-wave, alternately dance-y and haunting. "Dream" is a piano ballad, melancholy for sure, backed by interference from Plank's studio wizardry, electronics weaving in-and-out lending texture to the occasionally delayed-out chords. Some guitar-notes slide in, an eerie coda to a beautiful song. No translation needed.


Understated cover for Phew's self-titled record. Lost classic?

Otis Redding may have done it (not-quite) first, but the Stones' take on "That's How Strong My Love Is" is without fault. Jagger here is the star, pleading in the half-yowl, half-talk style he was busily perfecting on 1965's Out of Our Heads. The band ramps up momentarily, dropping down to a whisper before roaring back, letting Mick howl over the top, while they carry things into the red, a scorching ballad.

I often forget about Dear Science which replaced manic energy of TV on the Radio's most successful singles with a sound largely built on restraint. Looking & listening back, it's still an extremely strong record. Upon release of their newest effort Nine Types of Light, I feel like "Stork and Owl" is a great indicator of their direction, a song built on tons of little touches. At the beginning, the glitch-heavy slam of a beat, and vocal loops of "ahhhhs" and "ohhhhs" build tension that mounts with the inclusion of plucking strings. The chorus, with it's almost-falsetto lead vox, is a release, less glitch and more strings, and floats into the next verse with a string melody and cluster of delayed-out synth notes. They do this slow-build so well...I can forgive them for not writing another "Wolf Like Me." This is studied pop, emotionally heavy, and exceptionally beautiful at the end, vocals harmonizing with swelling strings, the beat finally tumbled off the cliff leaving just the void and those plaintive vocal loops.

floating somewhere above: april 2011 mix

Click here to download.
1. Cluster - Hollywood (from 1974's Zuckerzeit)
2. Liliental - Wattwurm (from 1978's Liliental)
3. Ash Ra Tempel - Light Look at Your Sun (from 1972's Schwingungen)
4. Don Cherry - Mali Doussn'Gouni (from 1973's Relativity Suite)
5. The Feelies - Original Love (from 1980's Crazy Rhythms)
6. Songs: Ohia - Coxcomb Red (from 2000's The Lioness)
7. Jackie-O-Motherfucker - Bone Saw (from 2003's Wow!/The Magick Fire Music)
8. Times New Viking - Teen Drama (from 2008's Rip It Off)
9. Archers of Loaf - Fabricoh (from 1995's Vee Vee)
10. Jackie Bernard - Jah Jah Way (from 2005's V/A: Studio One Roots 2)

I spent April meandering out of yet another Kraut phase, evidenced here by the first three tracks. Cluster's "Hollywood" is a melodic take on their most accessible work, Zuckerzeit, which was really a combination of solo efforts on the part of Moebius and Roedelius. Unlike the abstract soundscapes of I and II, here melody and rhythm abound, proving that yes, machines can be fun! Liliental's "Wattwurm" is a watered-down version of this, on a record with a slightly island/world pastiche filtered through German jazz/prog-heads. This track crawls along in an oddly satisfying way, continually toeing the line of being too fey, never quite stepping across.


Contrary to what this picture implies, machines can sound fun! Also, cool little article about the passing of Max Matthews, arguably the origin of computer-based music composition.

Ash Ra Tempel's "Light Look at Your Sun" starts with a pastoral, plucked acoustic, whispering like a spring thaw---naturally, things get heavy, and out of the storm wails a lightning bolt of a solo. Yeah, it's your standard dynamic change recently appropriated by any band wishing to adhere to the worst-named subgenre ever (I'm talking about you, post-rock); but it comes across here as bluesy and static-filled, a sense of unease filling the wide swaths of nothingness that comprise the majority of the song. In the same way, Don Cherry's "Mali Doussn'Gouni" evolves from a simple shaker rhythm into rapidly chanted gibberish, musical in its atonality. Of course, leading directly out of that is a fantastically colored cornet solo--a collision of a blank-ethnic rhythm & vocal with equally borderless, piercing jazz.


The fantastically quilted Don Cherry album cover for Relativity Suite. If you have a spare $150 lying around, you're welcome to purchase this gem for me.

I'm not sure what hole I've been living in (oh, wait...that's right), but I hadn't heard The Feelies till April, when I happened upon some recent re-issues. Kinda like the Talking Heads on speed, guitars and drums buzzing around, with a vocalist who generally overpowers anything else going on (though not to David Byrne's extent). Don't be fooled by their Vampire Weekend-cover, which only proves that everything old is new again. "Original Love" is a thin slice of early-80s new-wave/punk that is about as chunky & poppy as they get on Crazy Rhythms. Not that I'm complaining... Solid as well is "Coxcomb Red," which devastates with its simplicity of chords, its insistent rhythm, and above all else, lyrics that hit like hammers. Jason Molina always has a penchant for emotionally invested anti-pop, but this spare arrangement of voice & acoustic may rise above all other of his fine examples. Just a stunning achievement of focus, this song has purpose.


Songs: Ohia - "Coxcomb Red"

"Bone Saw" is an arid neo-desert instrumental, slow-moving in a very deliberate way---indicative of the Jackie-O Motherfucker controlled improvisation mindset. This really reminds me of Neil Young's score for the Jim Jarmusch Western movie, Dead Man. It gets a little more fleshed out, adding meat to Neil's bones. Times New Viking's "Teen Drama" cuts through the heady jams like a knife, albeit a pitted, rusty, anthemic blade. I hesitated to even put anything from Rip It Off on this mix, since my relationship with this record is hate/love, with an emphasis on the former. The sheer volume, everything levelled so that it comes across as superheated & painful; is usually too much to bear. But that pop hook, that plaintive riff that lies at the center of "Teen Drama", it's too much to deny; as are the boy/girl harmonies that reside in the blown-out chorus. This is pop at its most painful, and it's a song I keep going back to.


The halcyon 90s...back before you had to cultivate an image in addition to your music. The Archers recently reunited for a tour, by the way.

Archers of Loaf's "Fabricoh" pulls back from the edges, just an dirty alt-rock standard with a one-note bridge. Eric Bachmann's next-best sing-along to all-time classic "Web in Front," the coda here will have you on the balls of your feet whether you mean to or not. The mix closes with "Jah Jah Way." Roots reggae always excels at its simplest, and this Jackie Bernard number is sublime genius, simple enough to sing, bouncy but not too fast, perfect for the creeping humidity levels of the Midwest. Simply a groove that cannot be denied.

March 2011 Mix: Slow Burn

Recorded in glorious mono!

Click here to download.
Side A
1. Kreidler - Cube
2. Konono No. 1 - Kule Kule Reprise
3. Bablicon - Snipanet 1
4. Beach Boys - Do It Again
5. Olivia Tremor Control - I'm Not Feeling Human
6. Beatles - The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
7. Sapat - Dark Silver

Side B
8. Can - Mushroom
9. Yo la Tengo - Nuclear War (Version 1)
10. Phantom Band - E.F. 1
11. Al Green - It Ain't No Fun to Me
12. Rolling Stones - Ain't Too Proud to Beg

The key to this mix was pacing...I wanted to keep things steady, pulling from records with no editing (what can I say, sometimes I can't hit the pause button fast enough on the stereo.) Kreidler starts things out with a pulse, almost dance music, but coming from a factory, or microwave. Segueing from such thoughtful, prim & precise into "Kule Kule Reprise", played on homemade giant thumb pianos made of old auto parts, magnets, junk, is an exercise in juxtaposition. Both retain formal elements of repetition, repetition, repetition, layers indecipherably moving in and out of the mix. "Snipanet 1" enters with the first riff, although a bass guitar riff, jazzy but backed by some suitcase percussion.


I once watched a pallet full of Bablicon CDs get sent to be destroyed. I only rescued 3 of each, and now feel guilty for not piling them all in a dusty box. Some of the most overlooked, adventurous sounds of the 90s and early aughts.

Very organic; which doesn't describe the synth-stomp that begins "Do It Again", which is about as heavy as the Beach Boys get. Skronky, filtered guitars sounding like live wires (is there anyone that uses recording like an instrument as well as OTC did?) highlight "I'm Not Feeling Human", which toes the line between the well-combed Boys and their moptop counterparts, who follow with the galloping story of "Bungalow Bill." Sapat ends Side A (it's vinyl, you gotta keep it to around 20, fools) with "Dark Silver", an unhinged bit of murky, funked-rock, guitar and woodwind solos snaking through the tree-tops.

Kreidler - Kremlin rules from Jörg Langkau on Vimeo.

Try not to blink.

Always wanted to begin a side with "Mushroom", one of the most unique sounding compositions of all-time, with the standout being the shuffling drum beat that has the odd reverb of a fetid tunnel, or laundry shaft. "Nuclear War (Version 1)" is a more light-hearted pieces that again possesses one of my favorite beats in this sing-along version of Sun Ra's "classic." Phantom Band takes it further into space with the calm & collected electro-reggae of "E.F. 1", a smooth landing into the stutter-stomp of "It Ain't Fun to Be Me", finishing with the amped-up "Ain't To Proud to Beg."


Understated but classic cover. And I left off the version with little kids singing; but I'm sure you can find it. Surprisingly feel-good!

February 2011 Mix

I was going to put a galaxy inside the drain, but I'll let you imagine that instead.

1 - Yo La Tengo - The Weakest Part
2 - Stereolab - Captain Easychord
3 - Broadcast - Pendulum
4 - Brian Eno - 2 Forms of Anger
5 - Ride - Taste
6 - Dinosaur Jr - Been There All the Time
7 - Flying Saucer Attack - Wish
8 - Michael Rother - Blauer Regen
9 - Television - Careful
10 - Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero
11 - Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb (Live)
12 - Link Wray - Georgia Pines
13 - Jack Rose - Linden Ave Stomp
14 - Faust - It's a Bit of a Pain
15 - Tom Waits - Virginia Avenue
Get it here.

This month's mix is comprised completely of stuff I've been listening to & enamored with as of late. During the recent ice storm, we pretty much listened to albums all day long while baking bread, cookies, pizza. Had to lead off with Yo La Tengo as we just saw them live at the Vogue a couple weeks back, in the teeth of winter. Much of the other stuff are recent additions to my collection, either digitally or vinyl.

Musically, I was trying to kind of segue through frozen weather into the great meltdown wherein Indiana becomes a sodden, muddy sponge. So while it begins warm & bouncy, almost holiday-like with "The Weakest Part", it soon moves to a colder location with the sterile, precise groove of "Captain Easychord" and the frosty, ethereal-quality of "Pendulum"'s menacing, insistent & dark form of pop (re-visiting Broadcast's catalog like many other people in light of lead singer Trish Keenan's passing).

"2 Forms of Anger" continues this train of thought, beginning with sounds of industrial waste, perhaps the post-internet clatter of once-great and now-empty totems of manufacturing. Still, at the end it bursts into a great, kraut-y beat reminiscent of Eno's best 70's work. "Taste" takes that insistence of beat & sound a notch up, adding the right amount of jangle & melody. Controlled freak-out if you will, perfect for cabin fever, as is "Been There All the Time", an apt epithet for the everpresent music & solo-inclined mood of J. & company.


Flying Saucer Attack's Self-Titled debut LP. Find it strangely appropriate to their sound. And along with Ride & Brian Eno, part of the blurred landscape-covers trio on this mix.

The deep-freeze sets in with "Wish", which gives me the alien-feeling of gazing out onto what was once a yard full of plant fibers, animal detritus, wind-blown trash, but has become a pearly sheet of round-contoured ice. Are we on another planet? Humanity returns with "Blauer Regen", which begins with warm guitar harmonics, rays of light that lead to the thaw audibly present in the songs's second half.

"Careful" is simple, fresh, spring. Like how you feel the first time it gets above 35-degrees. Still cold, but you don't care. "Less than Zero" and "Under My Thumb" get progressively more swampy in their riffs, sustained chords buzzing by like the extending hours of the day. The marimba-turned-bass line in the latter is plant-like in its branching off, twisting and turning in vine-like fashion. But not until "Georgia Pines" do we actually hit the swamp, following Link down a rabbit path back where the pine needles render sleeping bags useless.


Now yer in the pines. Having recently drove the back-roads from Montgomery into Florida, I can tell you that these places still exist.

"Linden Ave Stomp" continues the warm feeling, whereas before you were in the pines, now you seem to be floating over. An aerial shot, black-and-white. Landmarks. "Home of..." signs. There's a lilt present though, in some of the chords, hinting that you might not be out of the woods. "It's a Bit of a Pain" is a mellow end to the day, engine-buzz doppler-ing past your house at sunset, strangers clambering down from the bus-stop, talking non-sense. You know the sounds that are almost good because they go away? They're in this piece. Genius! "Virginia Avenue" is all denouement, shambling to bed. I see the sun glow in the distance, the days finally lengthened again. The possibility of unfulfilled promise exists in spring. "And let me tell you...I'm dreamin'..."