Archives : all posts by Sean

Flaming Lips and Dave Fridmann - "Tubthumping (Remix)". I remember reading about this online when it was released as a single, and I didn't know what to think of it. On the one hand, it's a blatant cash-grab by Chumbawumba's label; on the other, I can't understand why the anarchosocialist Chumbawumba would go along with it. Maybe they're just very hungry. I suppose there's also the attraction of hearing what the Flaming Lips might do to your song, but why this, why now? It's all very peculiar.

But then, the peculiarity of the situation doesn't take away from either the shambling pop majesty of the original "Tubthumping," or the stepping-home-from-the-pub pile-on of this remix. It's not incredible - the original Chumbawumba strings and horns aren't good enough for this to be great - but that Flaming Lips synthesizer sound (like a hounddog being pulled through a black hole, or something) is special.

The Hidden Cameras - "Boys of Melody". Inspired by alex's post, here's a succulent taste of the Hidden Cameras. In concert, their best song was certainly the shake-it-baby anthem "Ban Marriage," but "Boys of Melody" slipped through in second-place. The genuineness of Joel Gibb's delivery, his comfortable earnesty, makes it fun to listen to even when it's just Joel and a harp. All the better, then, that the Cameras throw in xylophone, strings, harmonies, and as much volume as "gay church folk music" can handle. The silly angelic choir at the end makes me smile every time: it's so full-throttled and proud.

John Vanderslice - "They Won't Let Me Run". From John's upcoming Cellar Door. This track isn't as manic or intense as much of Vanderslice's recent work: in fact, it's downright laid back. In places it almost sounds like Modest Mouse, were Modest Mouse to clean up, arrange harmonies, and decide to go all baroque pop. I guess it's really closer to Pinback, Starlight Mints, or, I don't know, a sour-voiced-and-sunny Sparklehorse. The song is full of these little sonic details, these whimsical flourishes that thicken the springy, string-fed jam. It's nice. [I just noticed this track is available, with other mp3s, at John Vanderslice's own site. Oh well!]

The Eyesores - "Bent at the Waist". I was flipping through the $5 CD rack at Cheap Thrills today, and stumbled across the Eyestores' Bent at the Waist. I had never heard of the band, but I recognized immediately the artwork of William Schaff. William is the mastermind behind recent Okkervil River, Songs:Ohia and Godspeed! album-covers, and he's also a phenomenally gifted, astonishingly kind artist. I remembered reading something about his work with some alt.folk bands in Providence, so I figured I might as well pick the record up. It turned out to be a wise choice: the Eyesores play a thick and pungent sort of dark tango that falls somewhere between the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Sixteen Horsepower. This title track is vigourous, good-natured, fiercely striding. Upright bass, accordion, lightly pummelled drums, and (Schaff's) mandolin combine for a surprisingly light-footed folk round. It's like a soundtrack for ivy.

My piece on the top songs of 2003 is finally online, and I can't believe (argh) that I left out Jay-Z's "99 Problems."

Kanye West - "My Way". A marvellous cut from Kanye West's upcoming LP, rich with a particularly familiar sample (accelerated, of course), laced with strings, but skipping with a good-natured beat: hand-claps, oohs, a feeling of may-be-so, so-be-it. The music is light, full of an idealized, childhood innocence, but then - things are really heavier than that, sadly. Much heavier.

Nena - "99 Luftballons". This is here because Julian thinks it should be. He (rightly) believes it's a song everyone should know, and really, most of you probably do. It's 80s pop at its best, the synthy guitars dancing about in tight pants, zinging and zagging as the drums jump around. The german version of the song is peppier than the english translation: I couldn't care less what Nena is saying, so long as she keeps doing it, singing out that chorus with a big-eyed-but-sultry smile.

Hmm... it looks like sometimes when you download one of these mp3s, it cuts short - ie, it only grabs the first 2/3 of the track. The full-length files are on the servers: anyone know why peoples' browsers (including mine) might not be cooperating? (Techies: we need your help!)

update: the tracks seem to load fine if you play them in-browser (rather than saving the link), but this is no solution...

Bubba Sparxxx - "Comin' Round" [full version]. Since there's some interest, here's the version of "Comin' Round" that I downloaded, from Deliverance. As was the case with "Nowhere," this version is significantly different from the one that appears on my (Canadian) copy of the album proper: the strange country-squelching-hip-hop (fiddle alongside Timbaland beats) slides toward its end into the backwards-and-forwards hook from Missy Elliot's "Work It." It's very good, but you won't like it if you hate fun.

Okkervil River - "Okkervil River Song". I really should upload one of the songs from 2003's Okkervil River releases (Down the River of Golden Dreams and the Split EP with Julie Doiron). After all, a song from each appears on my forthcoming Top 30 of 2003. And yet... I couldn't help myself. Okkervil River is one of the very best bands in the world, and this eponymous track is their very best song. Taken from the group's second LP, Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See, it's a long, soothing and passionate marvel. It's about death and life and living and dying. And loss. It builds with such amazing ease, flowing forward with musical and lyrical verve. The words are perfect fits, the rhymes snug, it holds together as secure as the riverbed. Guitar with organ, tom-patter drums, and a mandolin that's a sunbeam, a barn-burning, a childhood game and a dirge. "The Okkervil River Song" is never hokey, simply home, and while on the record it fades into birdsong, long and wild chirps, I give you only silence, here: you're just going to have to go and buy it yourself.

Bjork - "Hyperballad" (Brodsky Quartet remix). My dad, of all people, dug up a copy of the Bjork remix album, Telegram. He knows I'm into kooky Icelandic sounds, and passed it along - it wasn't really to his taste. (He was disappointed, though: from all that he's read about her, he wants to like Bjork. He was relieved when I told him it was a remix disc, and not necessarily representative of her usual work.) I'm not really a Bjork fan, but I'm extremely partial to her songs here and there, and Vespertine is certainly something worth swimming in. Telegram is actually quite good, highlights being the industrial LFO remix of "Possibly Maybe" and yes, the Brodsky Quartet's peculiar string+vox rendition of "Hyperballad." It's helped, of course, by the fact that "Hyperballad" might well be my favourite Bjork song. As I so famously told a couple of my friends, the way she says "cutlery" makes my hair stand on end, makes me feel all cool and warm.

This remix is lovely because it's a string arrangement, which ever since "Eleanor Rigby" is like a sean hotbutton, but also because it's weird. Rather than just doing a straight cello-violin arrangement, as, say, the String Section has done for Radiohead tunes, the Brodsky Quartet channelled some of Bjork's idiosyncratic energy and made things lovely but just a little off. The instruments don't sound as if they're tuned quite right, and when they dash in vigorously for the chorus, they're not quite on the beat. This isn't an accident - no more than the string seagull sounds. It's an intentional flaw, a chink, a distortion in the glass.

The Weekend - "80s Rockstar". In the wake of my rather gushing review of the album from which this track is taken, I figured I should share some of what I got so excited about. "80s Rockstar" is a synth-stoked pop-punk should-be-hit, enthused and joyful and catchy melody fo' sure. Even the bridge is exciting, a ticklish "ohshit this is going to be great" intro to the chorus' return. Avril Lavigne eat your heart out.

Two folkie cuts today:

Jack White - "Never Far Away". One of the pile of tracks Jack White recorded for Minghella's Cold Mountain (in which he also acts). Contrary to the plugged-in, yammering blues of the White Stripes, on these pieces, White shows his admiration for Appalachian folk and bluegrass arrangements. This track, however, isn't really that - in fact, it's the least oldtimey of White's contributions to the album. Instead, "Never Far Away" refigured Jack White as Paul McCartney circa "Blackbird," just finger-picked acoustic guitar and the long strokes of a cello (?) that fill out the back. He plays well, but to be honest, it's not really that good (is it?). My quest to 'get' White continues.

Herman Dune - "You're So Far From Me. Belgium's Herman Dune (I think it's Belgium) just finished recording an album with Julie Doiron, to be released this year... "You're So Far From Me," however, is taken from Turn Off the Light, and it's definitely not Doiron singing. :) Instead, there's a gnarled and weird voice to match the creaky acoustic guitar. Where it goes from so-so to wonderful is in the chorus, where the singer scoops the words up with a clumsy, noncommittal emotion. "Not feeling," he sings, and it really does sound like something's broken.

I bought Bubba Sparxxx's Deliverance today, only to find that the version I downloaded isn't the same one as on the record. Gone are the kick-ass Justin Timberlake and Missy Elliott vocal samples, to the songs' considerable detriment. Argh!