From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V6 #28 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Thursday, February 2 2006 Volume 06 : Number 028 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] Mix up for grabs ["Stefaan Hurts" ] [loud-fans] David Lynch's Birthday Swap [2fs ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:17:35 -0500 From: "Stefaan Hurts" Subject: [loud-fans] Mix up for grabs I had made a mix for someone but after a couple of test listens I decided I wasn't quite happy with the track order. But the dirty deed was done and I hate to throw away music, so... the mix is up for grabs for the first person who sends me an e-mail. Regarding this offer (he hastens to add). Here's the track listing: Millionaire: I'm On A High King Of The Slums: The Pennine Spitter James Hall: Pleasure Club The Intimates: I've Got A Tiger In My Tank His & Her Vanities: Dispatch Elevation The Sea and Cake: The Arguement Black Flag: Police Story 1,000 Homo DJ's: Apathy Evil Superstars: Satan Is In My Ass Chiquita (original jingle) Ian Pooley: Menino Brincadeira (feat. Rosanna & Zilia) Think Tree: Hire A Bird (live) The Bonzo Dog Band: Narcissus The Bonzo Dog Band: Kama Sutra Oblivians: Feel All Right The Beastles: Whatcha Want, Lady? Oh! Penelope: Lait Au Miel Nora Dean: Oh Mama Buzzcocks: Boredom David Holmes: Sick City (feat. Bobby Gillespie) MC Buzz B: Slaphead Quickspace: Happy Song Merv & Merla: The Time Of The Singing Of The Birds Sparklehorse: Sick Of Goodbyes Daniel Johnston: Etiquette Some old and new favourites there for you. Also, Jenny, could you please let me know which of these tracks you'd still like/absolutely don't want on the new version of my mix for you? ;) Toodlepip, - -Stef ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 18:25:24 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: [loud-fans] David Lynch's Birthday Swap George Mastalir kindly sent me a (second) CD for the latest go-round of our swap (he'd earlier sent me a copy of his Xmas mix), which he titled after the rather random title I'd given the swap itself (based on its notice having been sent out on 1/20 - Lynch's birthday, according to some online source or other). I'm going to say a few words about it as it plays for the first time, without benefit of Google or clergy: 1. Youth Group "Shadowland" - Something late-eighties-ish about this, probably the bass sound, the way the singer returns to the same melodic phrase over different chords, the character of the reverb. Whoa - suddenly there's a theremin solo! That's kind of cool. 2. Sia "Breathe Me" - I'm not optimistic when, given the song's title, the singer audibly does this breathing thing right away - seems too obvious. Okay, then we have a piano, a woman's voice seemingly recorded (a la Roger Waters circa _The Final Cut_) by surgically installing a microphone directly on the vocal cords - kinda Tori-esque. Some electro-burblings add a bit of interest - and actually, the singer (presumably our recording artist, Sia) does this scratchy thing with her voice that's either interesting or, if overused, annoying. (Digression: For _24_ watchers, if anyone knows the guy who does the score, tell him to *cut it out* with that little col legno high-string zee-eeep thing he's done the last couple episodes. It's a very distinctive little bit - which means if you use it more than once within...hell, within two weeks, it becomes distracting - like, oh, there's that little string cue again.) Back to our song: it's grown a string orchestra - coincidentally, since I started babbling about strings before it entered. To this day science foolishly ignores my psychic gifts. A sort of phased, wandery guitar thing in the background. Overall: kind of interesting, in a moody cinematic way, but I'm not sure I'd like a whole album of this. 3. Portastatic "I Wanna Know Girls" (demo) - Everyone's on a Portastatic kick lately - I think three or four of the last few mixes I've received has a P/static track on it. Anyway, I knew this song in its less demo'd version (although not all that well) - I do like the opening lines ("I wanna know girls, don't wanna know men / I'm already stuck inside the head of one of them" - possibly slight paraphrase). However, this sort of lyric works best with a pretty light touch: if you act all serious, the whole thing collapses in a heap of earnestness. Mac's high-register "doo-doo-doot" backing vocals in the middle section help - but acoustic guitar just sorta signifies "sincere" and a poppier, electric approach would probably serve the song better. I think that's what the real one's like. The arrangement grows a bit static (hurr) after a while, too. But it is a demo, so.... 4. Matt Pond PA "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" - Yes, the Richard Thompson song. Gets a sort of jauntily clomping beat, not dissimilar to the original but distinctive. A couple of stringed instruments come in later - mebbe a cello, doubled - it is Matt Pond PA after all. Not bad - not a compelling reinvention either. 5. Sandy Nelson "Pinball Wizard" - Yes, the Who song. Wasn't Sandy Nelson some hotshit MOR '60s drum guy? Anyway, the song's pretty straightforward cover until here comes the brass! I guess it makes sense: if you're going to orchestrate Roger Daltrey's singing style, brass it would be. Pete gets to be a sax ("how do you think he does it?"). The "see me, feel me" section is rather nicely arranged: quiet brass, organ, acoustic rhythm. I'm less persuaded by the "listening to you..." closing: the brass stabs are annoying, and the Lesliefied organ backdrop a bit cliched, even by the late '60s. No drum solo. 6. The Bats "Horizon" - Yes, the...wait, I think this is a Bats song. It sounds like a Bats song. Kinda Byrdsy (if this is a Byrds song, please, just give me credit for hearing that instead of damning me for forgetting it okay?). The rise into the louder electric sound after the verse is pretty cool. There's something droney in the background (I don't have headphones, and cheap computer speakers aren't great for resolution) - snarly guitar, organ, sax? - whose sound I like a lot. I think if I were hearing this on real speakers, the rhythm could ride better longer - at about 3.5 I'm thinking, okay, already. But there's only about a minute to go, and now we get a geetar sola (that droney thing: indeed 'tis a guitar of the snarliness!). In the right mood this would be very cool indeed. 7. Neko Case "Star Witness" - Neko's playing here in a while, w/Martha Wainwright opening. I'm just saying. Of course, there's her singing. Kind of a waltz-time thing, brushes on the snare, Clint Eastwood guitar, and now here's a small string section - nice arrangement. (Astute readers will note that in this kind of review, I really can't pay attention to lyrics. Yiz gits yr choice: either I listen to the music, or I try to follow the lyrics. I think it's two different sides of my brain that handle each - can't do both. As a matter of fact I have very hard time *listening* to lyrics at all - I always drift back to the music.) So yeah, pretty nice track. That guitar and the strings are recorded astringently enough to avoid excessively sweetness. Q: who's doing the second vocals? It doesn't sound like Case doubling... Hey, really cool high-register vocal and string (with massive reverb) thing near the end! Curious piano coda. 8. Richard Butler "Good Days, Bad Days" (clip) - Wait a second: is this *the* Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs)? What, did he stop smoking and coat his throat with soothing mentholyptus or something? Anyway: surprisingly sweet, acoustic guitar, string chart (a theme?) - honestly, if not for the lyrics (all this "un[verb you wouldn't expect]" business is characteristic) I wouldn't have guessed. I don't mind the sweet - but actually, his old voice would have served this material better. Not sure why this track fades early - a bit abrupt that way. 9. Arctic Monkeys "From the Ritz to the Rubble" - Yes, another song about Barney & Betty's bizarre cracker-eating fetish. Okay, no. Anyway, the singer (who thus far is more of a rapper, in the old-old-school Lou Reed sense) has this peculiar kind of British accent that almost sounds like a southern American accent at first. The pounding cross-rhythm guitar thing on the chorus is fun - but so far the rest seems a bit...I dunno, not too dissimilar from that "we like the '80s without the Drums del Enormodome and matching reverb" school - but a bit...somehow missing something. 10. Eels (with strings) "Bus Stop Boxer" (live) - On the label it's written just "Eels With Strings" - a peculiar image to be sure. But, you know, it's the Eels. With strings. It sounds like the Eels. With strings. Good lord is E's voice hoarse. There's also an acoustic theremin (a/k/a bowed saw - or something that sounds like it). The song would be more spookily effective if E didn't sound like he was trying to box his way out of his own throat, though. (Aside: why do live albums feel compelled to include applause? It's annoying - it's not as if we doubt that it's really live, or care if it is, or imagine that applause proves anything. So fade the damned applause out. Also: why is there always some idiot who insists on doing that whistling with fingers in mouth thing?) 11. Ted Leo "Dancing in the Dark" - Yes, the 15th century Busnois motet. This song works pretty well with just Ted and his acoustic - plus, he holds in check that sudden-drop-at-the-ends-of-phrases thing he's been a bit overdoing lately. 12. The Go-Betweens "The Clock" (live) - This is from that new live DVD thing - I'm not sure, is it also just a CD? Or one of those CD/DVD double thingies? Anyway, I'd forgotten this song (from ...Rachel Worth), but it's a good one. Vocal performance is a bit rough, though. Alright, I'm going to take a break: rest of the tracks later. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V6 #28 ******************************