Archives : all posts by Dan

Silver Jews - "Night Society"

"Across from him the Dane and his companions had ordered luncheon. Abe did likewise but scarcely touched it. Afterwards, he just sat, happy to live in the past. The drink made past happy things contemporary with the present, as if they were still going on, contemporary even with the future as if they were about to happen again."

A passage from F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. I've never read it. I assume the Dane must be Hamlet, and Abe must be Abraham Lincoln, because with those characters, the passage becomes quite pointed. But if my life and my whole damn aesthetic has any marching song it's "down with context", so let's just let the words fade in and out like passing by a fist-fight while riding in a cab. In a way, that's what this year has been like. A lot of heavy rumbling, some loud thunder, and a great big night that just turns the volume up and down on the sun. [the vinyl is cheaper]

Ramblin' Jack Elliot - "Woody's Last Ride"

Shhh... if you're quiet enough, the whole year will just fall fast asleep and we can get out without any more hassle, without any more favours. [Buy]

Her Majesty's Orchestra - "Ms. Christmas Tree, I Dig You"

I was swayed by the title too. Don't be. This song is strong enough on its own, it rises above "Christmas novelty" into a swaggering, staggering thug of a carol that is only vaguely recognizable as festive. It's Christmas in a tight Union Jack tee. It's like a Friedberger holiday party, where Eleanor, sauced, has lost her voice from reading ingredients lists on all the items in the charity bin. Everybody: salt rennet! tartrazine! sodium phosphates! calcium chloride!
[whole album available (I also recommend "You're Gettin' Nothin'")]

Sleeping People - "Untitled"

each person steps forward from the facing line, and says their line.

Mother: "I warmed him milk when he couldn't sleep"
Barber: "I cut his hair every 3 months, tapered from the bottom"
Bully: "I taught him the value of healthy suspicion"
Neighbourhood kitty: "I gave him bad luck, and kisses"
Mayor: "I shook his hand on a cold day in March"
Best Friend ages 8-14: "He made me la--"
KA-BAM!

[Buy]

Welcome - "Marry Me Men"

You know how the army makes high-quality tools and clothes for soldiers? Like, most people don't require the quality of most things to be very high because they don't necessarily want to sign on for that one aesthetic. So a diverse marketplace appears, naturally. But still, when you feel an army wallet, or an army belt, you know you're holding something built with the purpose of extended use. This song feels built for extended use, I bet the cd feels like a bathroom tile to hold in your hand. With that same white sheen, too. [Buy from Amazon UK]

The Whiskers - "Roses"

In a line, these words step single file, hoods hanging over their faces, out of your computer speakers, and they form a slow circle around you. Things that wear hoods are often kinda scary, you can't see what they're gonna do. But often, you'll find it's usually the silly and geeky who wear the scariest hoods, and only pretend to be a threat. Sometimes in their velvet monk's robe they're carrying a special edition Ghostbusters DVD.

This song is like making a salad with one thing in it. It might be like looking for your keys for 35 minutes. But it's certainly like putting a digital sepia filter on all your personal photos.

And all these things can be alternately pronounced, as can my Christian name, "I like it". [more]

The Kills - "No Wow"

This is like someone coming to your door, but not knocking. You can just see those two shadows that their feet cast against the line of light at the bottom. Just standing there, fist poised and clenched, hovering. You can stay that way for hours.

The Kills - "At the Back of the Shell"

I will liken this music to a long, slow, skewering. It's a push, steady, through tendons and thin cartilage, parting sinews as if trying to get through a dancefloor. Eventually it pokes out the other side, to no prize, there's no winning. Only pushing.

[Buy]

Broadcast - "Unchanging Window / Chord Simple"

[Buy]

The Dexateens - "Fingertips"

This song is slippery, suspicious, hazardous. The timing slips in and out of the beat just enough to wake you up, to make you reach for the guitar. So you lurch forward and your breath comes out like a harmonica, and then you gasp that c-chord gasp as you watch that last drum, that flat bangy bastard, beat all the other instruments to death. [Buy from Amazon UK]

Volcano Suns - "Balancing Act"

Literally as its title says. Things it is other than a balancing act: a chapped sneer, a bottle of goddamn beer, a leather fucking jacket. Pretty much every word associated with this song, since there are none, is right on: volcano suns, balancing act, from the album The Bright Orange Years. Full marks for intention and clarity of vision. Just don't hit on my girlfriend. [out of print, but buy others]

Anton Karas & Kay Armen - "I'm in the Middle of a Riddle"

That zither is unmistakable, and Kay Armen is its charming little wine glass rim. You're seated at dinner, pop culture never happened, and stone walls climb like ivy up until the red roofs, where they spread and the stars fall in like light rain. It's non-diegetic, and this has already happened, but it was the nicest dinner you ever had. Soy escargot in a butter garlic sauce, with a milkshake, and another 20 in your back pocket. [buy the Brick soundtrack]

--

Also, read Ian's great post on the death of Daddy's Hands' Dave Wenger over at Popsheep.

Also, commenter e-rock made a video for that AIDS Wolf song I posted, and I had no idea. He's a talented fella.

The Knife - "Kino"

A tall figure moves across the skyline, wrapped in a dark cloak. Reaching center stage, the figures throws off the cape and reveals itself as a great building, newly arrived from the months of hidden work the city had done. A new place to live and work and keep our stuff, the building starts to dance, to celebrate its birthday. Some people fall out the windows, but no serious damage is done. The buildings are the new gears of the city's whole world. They raise the sun and place the moon, they work while you, weak, sleep away another night. Heed only this warning: they are powerful monsters that can make people very happy, but for Beauty's sake, stay on their good side, do not cross them, whatever you do. [Buy]

Nitzer Ebb - "Isn't it Funny How Your Body Works"

Without much heed or expression, the buildings began to build buildings of their own, so they could live in them, work in them, relax with their families, and keep their stuff. This exponential use of resources essentially turned the world inside out; the surface of the earth became a hollow shell, inside which the buildings stored their waste and spare energy cells. Not only did the buildings begin traveling without care for humans, but the world they had built stole all necessary elements of regular human life: water, food, and sunlight. Elaborate steam-collecting machines had to be made, and only garbage and preserved food left over from when "Age Other" had been in effect could be eaten. One woman, though it is doubted by many, is said to have heard a building speak English to another building once, and it said, "I never gave it much thought before, and then one called me a 'fucking stupid building', and that was it for me." See what you have done? Didn't I warn you? [Buy]