Archive for the ‘ DeLorean Soundsystem ’ Category

Best of 1975, 2000 and 2009

So I’ve kinda dropped the ball in recent weeks due to assignments and general uni business, but I’m done with my current batch of stress and I’m ready to jump back into musical musings. So to catch up I’m going to rush through the last few weeks of radio playlists in one post. So here goes. Click the titles to hear beautiful music.

1975

Patti Smith – “Gloria”, Horses.

“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine…”

Hot Tuna – “Hit Single #1”, America’s Choice.

Hardly the hit single they were anticipating, but nonetheless a good blues rock track from an era virtually void of that particular genre.

Neu! – “Isi”, Neu! 75.

Boy was this a bitch to pronounce on air…

Led Zeppelin – “Trampled Under Foot”, Physical Graffiti.

Certainly not my favourite Led Zep era, but John Paul Jones’ clavinet playing is just irresistible.

Hawkwind – “Spiral Galaxy 28948”, Warrior On The Edge Of Time.

Why doesn’t this band receive more attention? Great instrumental track that reminds me a hellavalot of Man Who Sold The World era Bowie.

2000

Radiohead – “The National Anthem”, Kid A.

Shit they know how to write a perfect bass line.

Primal Scream – “Blood Money”, XTRMNTR.

Another amazing, repetitive bass line. I really dig the sprinklings of odd instruments and melody throughout.

King Biscuit Time – “Niggling Discrepancy”, No Style EP.

Who’s this guy? No idea. Pretty good though.

The Clientele – “An Hour Before the Light”, Suburban Light.

Perfect lo-fi indie pop. No audio link : (

The Microphones – “Ice”, It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water.

This song got me excited. Schizophrenic drumming, bad ass fuzzed out bass, female and male vocals, acoustic guitar that pans from left to right, followed by disturbing white noise. The structure makes no sense at all, but it’s cool as its title suggests.

 

2009

White Denim – “Mirrored and Reversed”, Fits.

Texas trio with a knack for jazz infused psychedelia.

Blakroc featuring Mos Def – “On The Vista”, Blakroc.

I think I can attribute my interest in hip-hop to this album. The Black Keys have created some of the best hip-hop instrumentals imaginable for a young lad such as myself, so it really was the perfect introduction to a genre I hadn’t previously paid all that much attention to. Also, check out Mos Def’s 2009 release The Ecstatic, because it is equally amazing.

Bridezilla – “Beaches”, The Last Dance.

Sydney five piece. Four chicks, one dude. Still pretty well unknown, but these vocals are so catchy! Saw them support John Cale last year and they were amazing.

Best Coast – “When I’m With You”, Crazy With You.

The perfect beach soundtrack to accompany my new hobby.

Tame Impala – “Sundown Syndrome”.

A nice bridge between 2008s self-titled EP and their debut full length InnerSpeaker.

2011
04/09
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Best of 1969: British Blues, Folk Harmonies and Mixed-Race Dance

Sly & the Family Stone – “I Want To Take You Higher”, Stand!

This is such a brilliant hybrid of rock ‘n’ roll, blues, funk and soul. A very danceable tune from one of popular music’s first mixed-race bands.

Led Zeppelin – “How Many More Times”, Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin’s debut was very revolutionary music. If there is heavier music that predates this release I am yet to hear it. I must have listened to this album 500 times, but it never gets old. As a thirteen year old, making the transition from American Idiot to Led Zeppelin was mind-blowing. It was a gateway into what I consider to be proper music. To a younger me, this music was dark and punishing. Coupled with the mystery surrounding Led Zeppelin’s links to the occult, the rumours of bizarre sexual acts and their legendary drug intake, this music was exciting and slightly rebellious.

Fleetwood Mac – “Watch Out”, Blues Jam In Chicago, Vol. 1

Few people know that Fleetwood Mac were actually a very reputable British blues band in the late ‘60s before becoming the international pop band we know them for in the mid to late ‘70s. On this album the band travelled to Chicago to be mentored by some of the blues greats, Otis Spann, Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon among them. This was from a period led by the great blues guitarist Peter Green, well before Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band. Sadly Green went the same way as Syd Barrett and fried his brain on acid, but not before leaving a considerable legacy.

The Beatles – “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, Abbey Road

This is one of my favourite tracks from one of my favourite Beatles albums, Abbey Road. The abrupt ending, as odd as it sounds, was actually a completely conscious decision by John Lennon. The song is designed to be repetitive and hypnotising, so after a long instrumental section John wanted to snap the listener out of a sort of trance, which is why the song ends half way through a random bar amid a chorus of white noise. The recording of this song was actually the very last time all of the Beatles recorded in the same studio at the same time. Abbey Road wasn’t actually their last album to be released, but the band had broken up internally at the end of 1969 before releasing Let It Be. It’s amazing that a band with so much internal conflict was able to produce an album not only ranked among their best, but also among the best in music history.

Crosby, Stills & Nash – “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, Crosby Stills & Nash

It’s not as if Stephen Stills had a small or unnoticed career, but I still think of him as one of the most underrated musicians of his era. His compositional skills were excellent, his lyrics beautiful and his vocal abilities outstanding. He could also play a hellavalot of instruments incredibly well. All of these elements are shown in “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, written about his then girlfriend folk singer Judy Collins.

2011
03/21
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Best of 1959: Jazz, Blues and Rock’n’Roll

Click the song titles to listen.

Ray Charles – “What’d I Say, Parts 1 & 2”, What’d I Say

George Harrison claims that he attended a party in 1959 where this one song was played for an entire eight hours on repeat. That may be an exaggeration, but “What’d I Say” certainly did have an enormous influence on the Beatles. Unsurprisingly, millions of others also shared a passion for this song, making it Ray Charles’ biggest hit at the time. Words can’t really describe its brilliance -everything about it is just fantastic.

Howlin’ Wolf – “You Gonna Wreck My Life”

If you happen to be a fan of Led Zeppelin, have a listen to the lyrics to this song because they bear a striking resemblance to the song “How Many More Times” from their self titled debut in 69. Howlin’ Wolf was a big influence on a lot of the British blues rock bands of the sixties, and when you hear this song you’ll know why. Pretty powerful stuff.

Eddie Cochran – “Somethin’ Else”

Despite having his career cut short one year later at the age of 21, Cochran managed to influence just about everyone in the British music scene in the sixties. This song in particular was influential on Led Zeppelin who later played a pretty cool rendition of it at their live shows (watch here). It’s just such a cool song and the main riff is so damn heavy for 1959 I can’t help but think this may be a pre-curser to heavy metal.

Dave Brubeck Quartet – “Take Five”, Time Out

Often I get a little annoyed when artists deliberately use alternate time signatures. Unless they’re done right, they are almost always jarring and awkward. I think the only time I enjoy them is when I don’t even notice their peculiarity to begin with. “Money” by Pink Floyd, “Whipping Post” by the Allman Brothers Band and “15 Step” by Radiohead are rare examples. On the groundbreaking Time Out however, Brubeck and fellow band member Paul Desmond composed an album almost completely void of the regular duple timing. Amazingly their innovation does not compromise the grace and beauty of the pieces. Great stuff.

Miles Davis – “So What”, Kind of Blue

No best of 1959 list (or of all time for that matter) would be complete without Kind of Blue. It truly is one of the most beautiful albums of all time. This was a hugely influential album, mainly because of its emphasis on modal improvisation, a technique which had not been fully explored but has since become a staple of jazz. It also features some outstanding musicianship from an all-star line up including Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Jimmy Cobb and the fabulous Bill Evans. “So What” is the opening track to the album and has some fantastic solos as well as a very catchy double bass line.

Discovery of the Week

Charles Mingus – “Better Get In In Your Soul”, Mingus Ah Um

Researching for the radio show was pretty time consuming this week because no one seems to have any idea when any singles before 1960 were released. It was very difficult to get accurate release dates on a lot of singles. Because of this I ended up drifting towards artists I was familiar with. I’ll be honest, I had heard of Charles Mingus before and I knew he played bass, but I wasn’t familiar with any of his work, so it’s still a discovery for me. This is certainly one of the most soulful and almost funky interpretations of jazz that I’ve heard, especially from this era. It sounds like there’s a lot of gospel influence in those background vocals as well as some rhythm and blues in those melody lines.

2011
03/10
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Best of 1996: Hip-Hop and Neo-Psychedelia

DJ Shadow – “The Number Song”, Endtroducing…

A groovin’ track off DJ Shadow’s debut album, which apparently (According to the Guinness World Records [according to Wikipedia]) is the first example of an album completely made of sample-based material. It just has a great beat and chord progression and uses other people’s music to create something completely new and innovative. Listen here.

Nas – “Street Dreams”, It Was Written

I played two hip-hop tracks on the show last week, this and “Dead Presidents II” by Jigga. As much as I dig Reasonable Doubt, Nas’s flow and rhymes blow Hova outta the water on this one. To be honest I’ve never taken the time to check out Nas, but I’ll definitely be seeking out Illmatic after hearing this.

Brian Jonestown Massacre – “Anemone”, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request

This has got to be one of my favourite songs of all time. Pretty standard BJM chord progression and simple melody, yet the vibe of this thing is just mind-blowing. The mass of instruments function as one big psychedelic machine as the reverb-soaked vocals linger beautifully in the foreground. Obsessive bandleader Anton Newcombe may very well be playing every instrument, but this song sounds so rich and is a perfect example of one hugely dysfunctional band at their neo-psychedelic best. The BJM released three full length albums in 1996, so naturally I had to play one song from each album. As well as “Anemone”, I played “Down” from the blues-country Thank God For Mental Illness and the brilliant British Invasion inspired “Vacuum Boots” from Take It From The Man!

Anemone

Vacuum Boots

Down

Beck – “The New Pollution”, Odelay

As well as playing all the instruments (minus the saxophone), he also mixed the album, designed the album booklet, and directed the art and the award-winning video for this song (watch here). Beck must either be the most multi-talented musician of the ‘90s or the biggest control freak of the alternative music scene. Either way, this is a nice sixties style groove from Beck’s Grammy winning album.

Discovery of the Week

The Olivia Tremor Control – “Can You Come Down With Us?”, Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle

This song is from the Olivia Tremor Control’s gigantically-named debut album and is another great example of neo-psychedelia in ’96. I just love the multiple guitars, tambourine, heavy bass and double-tracked, panned, echoing vocals. Very reminiscent of late sixties production and instrumentation. Anyway, just a cool song from another band I’d never heard of.

2011
03/07
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1983…

So I do a radio show called Years In Music on a local community station (http://www.edgeradio.org.au/, 11am AEST Sundays). Each week I spend fifty minutes playing what I consider to be the best music of the chosen year and ten minutes stuttering and mixing up my words. If it wasn’t for copyright issues I’d probably upload the show, but I figure the next best thing would be to share my favourite songs each week on the blog.

Last week I chose to delve into the unfamiliar depths of 1983 (I did another show today, so I’ll put up a best of ’96 list soon). My music collection takes a steep dive at about 1975 and doesn’t recover until well into the ‘80s, so researching this was both difficult and time consuming. But no matter how dismissive of a musical era I am to begin with, I’m constantly surprised by how much quality music there is out there left to discover. There is simply no bad time period for music. Sure, “pop” music has taken a dive during some years, but public consensus has never been an accurate measure of quality. So anyway, despite my initial ignorance, I found plenty of music worth sharing. Here are my favourites of 1983.

R.E.M. – “9-9”, Murmur

No wonder R.E.M. went on to become so influential… While every other band was still experimenting with post-punk aggression and new wave synths, the relatively unknown Georgia four-piece shied away from the clichés of the time and created a debut album that still sounds modern among today’s alternative bunch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUXVOjKrrms

Sonic Youth – “Protect Me You”, Confusion Is Sex

Sonic Youth were particularly dark for the early eighties. There are certainly no upbeat rhythms or playful synths in the repertoire of these New York no-wave artists. While their sound certainly borrows from the post-punk darkness of acts such as Joy Division, Sonic Youth sound more influenced by the alternative tunings and noise rock of the Velvet Underground during their tenure with Nico. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7e7f0bbhRw

Men At Work – “I Like To”, Cargo

Being an Australian, I thought I hated Men At Work. Which isn’t etheir fault really. How could they have known that their Australiana-stereotype-packed “Down Under” would go on to become an international hit in ‘81, making them the only Australian artists to ever have topped both the American singles and album charts simultaneously. It also resulted in all my dad’s favourite radio stations playing that one song every hour throughout my childhood. I enjoyed “I Like To” not entirely because of its brilliance, but mostly because it was just a very pleasant surprise to discover that they were actually a very reputable new wave band. And it’s just a whole lot of fun that is reminding me a lot of Devo). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LXNrz9nDT4

The Police – “Mother”, Synchronicity

Written and sung by guitarist Andy Summers, this rather disturbing song is probably the most bizarre in The Police’s catalogue. Summers’ maniacal singing and Freudian lyrics also make it probably the funniest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NpvZ68EIgA

Discovery of the Week

ESG – “Chistelle”, Come Away With ESG

ESG are one of those all too frequent bands that are hugely influential, but receive almost no recognition or financial benefit. I certainly hadn’t heard of them before researching last week’s show. ESG have a back-story to good to be true: four sisters with the last name Scroggins (which also sounds made up) are each given instruments by their single parent mother to keep them occupied and out of trouble while growing up in the Bronx. Too poor to afford lessons, the four sisters teach themselves their respective instruments and form one of the most unique bands in New Yorks thriving underground scene. With a mix of punk, dance and jazz, ESG’s highly rhythm sound was later sampled heavily during the golden age of hip-hop, most notably by the Wu-Tang Clan and the Beastie Boys. “Chistelle” comes from their debut album Come Away With ESG and is a short instrumental showcasing their brilliant sense of simplicity and rhythm, making it my favourite song of ’83.

2011
02/27
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