Hiromi Uehara totally fucking rocks! She always ALWAYS appears to be having the time of her life playing and performing. In this song, it helps that she is joined by some equally awesome musicians. Tons of fun here!
Okay, so let’s stay with Japanese artists. Avant-garde metal/punk/noise rockers Boris have released at least 23 albums of their own, plus at least a dozen collaboration albums (at least half of those with fellow noise rocker Merzbow, natch). They aren’t afraid to experiment, that’s for sure. Their 2011 album Attention Please included the first vocal performances from guitarist Wata, and she totally nailed it, IMO. Here’s the title track: Boris - Attention Please.
While I know that we all appreciate your contribution to the SDMB Music Appreciation Society, nachtmusick, the thread does have some ground rules for participation.
Hey, that Y&T was cool. I thought Y&T (yours and up-thread) reminded me way more of Whitesnake (or something like that) than any Journey I ever heard. But yours certainly had a Journeyesque intro.
I liked the Boris. Cool groove throughout that kept my interest. Her vocals left me thinking they’ve got more to offer, though. But I did like the composition of it; dreamy with a taste of spacey, too. Yea.
I posted this because it’s Japanese and I first heard it on CMJ. Oh, and I think it’s catchy. Cibo Matto w/ “Know Your Chicken”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4RUZqNq9C0
Cibo Matto RULES! Viva! La Woman is one of my favorite records, with “Birthday Cake” being the catchy song that sticks in my head. “Know Your Chicken” is from that record. A trip-hop/noise rock masterpiece, and it still holds up. Hopefully someday it’ll be taken more seriously, because it’s far from a gimmick record.
I’m torn between submitting something new or something old. Since the old thing is from the same era as Cibo Matto, it’s going this time.
Lots of bands have alternative instrumentation/found objects, but Crust really tried to make it come across as rock. The “bass” on this song (and a lot of other Crust songs) is a screen door spring stretched on a board, with a pickup. It’s tuned to around an octave below low E on a bass. He struck it with a drumstick and controlled the pitch with a steel tube from a piece of drum hardware. The results were pumped through a Chandler BlueTube preamp, a rack of effects and out (IIRC) through a bass amp and cabinet. An awesome sound. Sometimes the singer would play guitar, sometimes keyboards, and sometimes a two-string, tenor door spring that he picked, sometimes an electro engraver. On this one, he’s playing the two-string door spring.
I was a huge fan of late-80’s Austin music back in the late 1980s, but I figured that by now the few people who knew anything about the Trance Syndicate catalog had prolly forgotten about Crust (and Ed Hall and Pain Teens, etc.). Good to know that I’m not alone in remembering and appreciating (and owning) stuff from that time and place.
This song definitely rocks. Straight-ahead, damn the torpedoes, “fuck it” rock and roll. Fantastic choice, scabpicker!
I own a bunch of Cibo Matto on various comps, and while I think they’re listenable and all, they never really rise above and stand out, for me. Know Your Chicken was pretty good, tho. Decent hooks, lots of enthusiasm and that particular brand of gleeful sloppiness that I associate with the band.
For those that don’t remember/never knew: Morphine was an odd trio, consisting of Jerome Deupree on drums, Mark Sandman, who played a single-string bass (he later added a 2nd string) and Dana Colley, a sax player who would often play an alto and a baritone sax at the same freaking time. They were one of the most consistently awesome oddball groups ever, producing what they themselves termed “low rock” and what I recall one writer praising as “the sound of pure sex”. I was fortunate to see them three times before Mark Sandman died of a heart attack in 1999 while performing in Rome, Italy. The shows I saw were all excellent, all memorable, but the one I saw at the Huntridge Theater here in Las Vegas on July 18, 1998 stands out as one of the 10 best concerts I ever saw. Here’s my favorite track from the band: Morphine - Thursday.
Thankya, it’s really nice to know the Trance Syndicate made a mark outside of Texas. Some of the best records ever came from the acts associated with that label.
As a bass player, Morphine is a pure treat. Even with just two strings (and you rarely need more than that on a bass), Sandman played a hell of a bass, and easily proved you can write/propel a song with it. He was a genius. Even though I own that record, and have heard that song hundreds of times, it still pulls out a reaction of hard nipples and my hair standing on end. The music sets up the tension, and the words and delivery practically let you see the scene. Beautiful song, I should make my band cover that song with the guitars doing the sax parts, with a pitch bender for the bari.
–And, it’s a story song!–
Ok, I’m still going to post something old this time. Glenn Branca, Symphony No. 1 (Tonal Plexus) Movement 4. Why? Because besides one person, I’ve never known anyone IRL who’s listened to Branca without me foisting it on them, and the exception gave me a copy of a symphony I couldn’t find at the time. Plus, the closest description of it is: think Stravinsky wrote a rock symphony, with taiko drums (ok, trash cans, but they sound like taikos). It annihilates, it can totally beat up your rock band. I get parts from it and the other three movements stuck in head for days at a time. I like his other works, but that’s the one that sticks with me.
scabpicker, I hope you’re sitting down: I own The Ascension.
I knew who Glenn Branca was because he was the guy who brought us Sonic Youth. But it wasn’t until the mid-80s that friends of mine in college introduced me to The Ascension via cassette tape. I had a copy of it for about a decade before it degraded and wore out. When the internet happened, I bought a copy of it on CD (I have the one made by New Tone Records, an Italian company).
Branca fits right in between my love for Philip Glass and for Roger Miller. This piece you offered us was new to me, tho. Harsh as hell start with what sounds like actual industrial noise a la Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, the minimalist rhythm soon grows more complex and frenzied. I liked how it paused a few times to allow other elements to come forward. This is a very aggressive composition. By the time an actual drum kit is discernible, along with some seriously distorted guitar drones, the whole piece has settled into a trance-like pounding that spends several minutes trying to resolve itself. I really liked this; thanks for posting it.
Many people know who Philip Glass is, even if they don’t like his music. Many fewer know who Roger Miller is. Roger Miller first came to light as a guitarist and songwriter with a band from Boston called Mission of Burma. MoB were widely known for making unbelievably dense music and for being loud as fuck. They were so loud that Roger developed tinnitus as a result of the volume at their live shows, which eventually led the band to break up. The sole studio album from that time, Vs., is a watershed album, signaling the beginning of the post-punk sound and movement.
Roger didn’t bother to stop making music, tho. He took to wearing gun-range earmuffs and recorded with MoB-mate Martin Swope as Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and he also recorded a bunch of solo albums. One of these is one of my favorite albums of all time and contains one of my all-time favorite songs. I was fortunate to see him perform songs from The Big Industry when the album came out. When YouTube came along, I made a video for my favorite song and emailed Roger to make sure it was okay with him. Not only was it okay, we have been corresponding irregularly ever since (which is why I feel comfortable referring to him by his first name and not as “Mr. Miller” :)). Here’s the slightly disturbing industrial-tinged, prepared-piano song that is like no other: Roger Miller - Boil Away.
A few posts back I introduced y’all to Mother Corona a stoner/doom band from the UK. I promised/threatened to bring them up again, if y’all recall.
Since this tune is quite a change of pace from the first one I presented, as well as a change of pace from what we’ve been appreciating lately, I thought it would be a good time to present for your listening, headbanging and grooving pleasure: Mother Corona - Hedonist King
That Mother Corona was great. Lotsa well-placed power. The sound was familiar, but different, too. I dug it.
I saw you’d linked to Roger Miller, and my expectations went somewhere else altogether. That cut was interesting and moved-along well. I liked it.
Bracha. At first, I found it hard to listen all the way through it. But then I listened to Movement 1 from the same symphony, and it opened my ears a bit to what he’s trying to do. I’d probably have to have it foisted upon me to listen to more of it, but I can appreciate what he’s doing. It had a very mechanical, industrial sound to it and I pictured assembly lines and large diesel power sources when listening.
Crust. I wasn’t sure… was he saying “dick”? For me, that particular cut didn’t have much to offer past the story he was telling. I kept assuming he had it tattooed and consequently I wondered, “what girl is worth that”? But I hear now that it’s nearly *written *there. In redi-whip, perhaps.
Morphine rocked! I remember Morphine but I’ve not heard much of their music. After hearing your cut, I went searching for one of their tunes… didn’t they have a “hit”? Oh, found it… “Honey White”. “Thursday” was much better than that.
Y’all remember King’s X? These guys should appear in any music appreciation thread. Heavy grooves, fine musicians, superior songwriting, positive messages… what’s not to appreciate? And in appreciation of *music *itself, I want to hit you with “We Were Born To Be Loved”.
As far as individual King’s X songs, this one’s somewhere down the list. That is until a little more than 3 mins into it. From here, the timing of the music is tough to keep up with and I find it *fun *trying to anticipate what’s coming next.
That song had more endings than the third LotR movie
I can see why critics and musicians liked this band so much but the general public didn’t catch on. They don’t really fit in any one genre, I’m hearing funk, metal, prog, the chorus sounds kind of psychedelic, it’s all pretty original and interesting. I should probably get some of their stuff, I didn’t know this band existed at the time.
Anyone remember the Virgins? Donald Cumming put out a solo album this year and this was the single, “Game of the Heart”. I hope y’all don’t find the song too Dire just because Straits away you should recognize who one of his big influences are.
That guy was Knopflered right into Springsteen! Then he got Elvis Costello’ed like a motherfucker!
Not my cuppa, but not unenjoyable either. He totally wears his influences on his sleeve. And his shirt ands hat. And prolly on his jacket as well.
King’s X is awesome. I’m not a huge fan because of their insistence on harmony and melody and that, but I don’t actively dislike them. This song had a killer riff and was fun once it was fully underway.
Doug Pinnick, by the way, is a fantastic drummer. His work with Pinnick Gales Pridgen is terrific; check them out if you want to hear what it might have sounded like if Stevie Ray Vaughn had wanted to really rock hard instead of just play the blues (hard).
My pick this time is from a band that never seems to quite put it together enough to vault into the big time. They’ve managed a bunch of albums that are, on the whole, good and they’ve also managed a small handful of tunes that are, to me, utterly awesome. They’re a bunch of weed-smoking, booze-drinking doom rockers from London who somehow managed to become better by losing one of their guitarists and soldiering on as a 4-piece. This is my favorite song they’ve yet written; here’s Orange Goblin - Beginners Guide To Suicide.
That Orange Goblin was okay as long as they kept their mouth shut I could find something to enjoy during the bluesy/jammy parts, but they lost me when they mixed in that death metal (or whatever it is). I found the steel guitar to be more gratuitous than really adding anything of substance to the tune. Of course, I’d also put some value that the steel at the beginning grabbed my attention and had me wanting to hear what was coming next. Admittedly, I didn’t listen deep enough to see if there’s a story being told that the steel accentuates. I’ll reserve that that could be the case.
I listened to a couple more tracks from OG, to see what they’re trying to do. Not bad and I like their approach, though their fine words are buttering none of my parsnips. Was Orange Goblin named in response-to/homage-to/middle-finger-to Rob Zombie?
Thanks for the suggestion of Pinnick Gales Pridgen. I wasn’t aware of this project. Bo, I think you meant to say Doug plays a mean-ass BASS, or something like that
The Donald Cummings was good, though i wasn’t familiar with him. I didn’t note anything magical, but after about ½-way, I really dug it. The beginning has a serious feel which held me back, but he lightens it up with the deliberate guitar picking and the quick little drum beats added from there to the end. And the refrain is catchy enough too; “Somebody wiiiiiins, everybody else… everybody else loses.” The song ends just as it’s getting fun.
I’m heading off-base here to hit you with a real classic. I’m going to throw-down with “We’ve Only Just Begun” from the mighty, mighty Carpenters. Though the vocalist in this group was phenomenal in her sound and ability, I want to bring some appreciation to Paul Williams’ songwriting. Williams wrote or co-wrote a lot of things that we’ve heard and/or loved, and I think this is one of his best. But it may be the music (from Roger Nichols) and the collaborative arrangement that make this one shine.
The opening verse brings a happy, serious, and solemn feel to the song. Then we’re hit with the first bridge which gives an almost celebratory intermission as the narrator dreams about and looks forward to some of the joys that lay ahead. Then we revisit that solemn verse to keep things serious and in-scene, quickly to be followed by the energetic bridge again. One more abbreviated verse that has us building to the bridge again, but instead it finishes by bringing it back to the soft, warm feeling of the original verse and the subjects staring a new life together. I know many couples use this in their wedding ceremonies and I think it’s a little cheesy. But it’s also incredibly appropriate. Speaking of cheesy… the linked video could be a commercial for Kraft.
We watched The Sound of Music this weekend. It was the Karaoke episode, where they display the words as the songs play. Since I heard (and sang-along with) Maria singing “My Favorite Things” to the kids, I’ve had this next song stuck in my head.
The points that stick for me with this tune are the relatively quiet beginning of the second chorus, building the tension. It’s like they’re winding-up the trebuchet before hitting us with their well-grouped musical shrapnel. Then the refrain, “…I’m so happy”. It really does have a joyful feeling, even as it’s trying to punch your eardrums. “Favorite Things” from Incubus. Incubus - Favorite Things - YouTube
I love this song! I’m a big fan of the album this is from, S.C.I.E.N.C.E.; there’s not a bad song on the whole album and there’s a few that are fucking awesome. I like the weird fuzzy guitar tone and how they buried it deep in the mix (fantastic production work on this album); I like the catchy percussion rhythm that drives the song, and I like the vocals (he sings and he sings well but he doesn’t fucking diva us with showy bullshit). The song that precedes this, A Certain Shade of Green, is another particular favorite.
Sorry you didn’t like the OG more. [/shrug]
Mea Culpa re: Doug Pinnick. :smack:
I’ve been listening to that Carpenter’s track for nearly my entire life; it’s like chilling with an old friend.
My pick this time is a band from Louisiana. Their music is difficult to categorize because they mash so many styles at once into everything and because they vary wildly from song to song to song; suffice to say they were a kind of a sludgey southern death prog blues doom thrash metal kind of band. Their lyrics were dark, dank, gloomy, misanthropic; their 2 album covers were artwork by serial killer John Wayne Gacy and euthanasia doc Jack Kevorkian. They were great at being fascinating and off-putting, creepy and enticing at the same time. I think their music rewards repeat listens, Anyway, when their bass player was killed by a drunk driver, the band folded and members moved on to other projects and bands. Their two albums are now highly regarded in the metal community and since the shuffle on my phone played 2 of their songs back-to-back this morning, I thought I’d start the new year by sharing Acid Bath - Graveflower.
The Acid Bath sounded to me like Soundgarden and Tool’s love child. Which might be great if you like either of those antecedents (I don’t, though I used to have friends who really did). I think this is probably legitimately good music–just not for me.
I just finished up my list of the Top 40 tracks of 2015 on Apple Music, so I’ll nominate my #1, “Jack Knife” by Little Racer.
If you don’t do Apple Music you presumably Spotify, so I made a shortened version (Top Ten only) there for your Spotification convenience.
Bo, I agree about S.C.I.E.N.C.E. That is a great piece of work; so tight and always hitting hard. Those guys put together some unique songs in their early years as they integrated the funk, turntables, and samples into their heavy, white-boy rock. Genius.
SlackerInc said some nice things about the Acid Bath. The singer’s voice sounded familiar, but I didn’t recognize the guy. As far as Bo’s tunes, this one was very, meh. It sounds like they took something mediocre and added some death in an attempt to brighten it up a bit.
Little Racer has that dreamy, foggy production. I often wonder what bands are covering-up with the fog, but reasoned that these guys just used the effect on this nice tune. Though from listening to other tracks on the album, they insist on using it. It sounded like they took something mediocre and added some fog in an attempt to brighten it up a bit.
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I listened to a few more of the selections on your list, SlackerInc, and I really liked “Classic”. It was a very simple, sorta bubble-gummy piece without a lot of substance, but I found it fun and catchy. And i don’t often appreciate the visuals, but the redhead’s performance was stellar. It really kept that video alive. Thanks for turning me on to that one. Ibeyi was cool, too. Some Lucius would fit that list nicely.
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Since S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was a favorite, I want to stay w/in the same time period and throw some Blind Melon your way (NOT that bee song). I don’t think they had the chops that Incubus did, but were unique in their own right. Shannon Hoon (may he be in peace) couldn’t sing his way through an 8th grade talent exhibition, but he was a valid creative link in the band. With most of their songs, it’s the drums and bass that pull me along. And sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the bass. It was tough to choose a track to represent in this post, though it, undoubtedly, had to come from the *Soup *album. “Toes Across the Floor” arranges the turmoil from Hoon’s head within the tight grooves of band’s musical talents to make this one of the highlights of the album. But I think either “Dumptruck” or “Galaxie” are its best offerings.
