| gentle tuesday |
[Apr. 22nd, 2009|02:33 am] |
Get the fucking needle out of your arm and do an American tour. You have rabid fans here Primal Scream, and they'd all kill their mothers to see you play live.
Observe: people are bad mouthing you.
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| quintessential shoegaze |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|09:33 pm] |
We are waiting, and I am tired of waiting. I've worn out my My Bloody Valentine library several times over, and I need more. But I have it all! So, I've been turning to newer shoegazers like Fleeting Joys, Bethany Curve, and The Sky Drops for the cure... but I haven't been cured. In my tireless search for good shoegaze music, The Fleeting Joys comes off as one of the most satisfying bands I have found... and also the most bothersome. Surely such an obvious imitation of My Bloody Valentine cannot go unpunished? They sound far too similar to Loveless, and I can't tell if that's a good thing. Some joker on last.fm even tricked a few MBV fans into thinking that Occult Radiance was a new album by My Bloody Valentine titled "Tumbleweed". I don't blame them for falling for it either... it sounds like My Bloody Valentine.
Why isn't the music press harder on these bands for being such obvious rip-offs? And where is my new My Bloody Valentine album, Kevin? |
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| you think you can't, you wish you could. i know you can, i wish you would. |
[Mar. 4th, 2009|10:04 pm] |
My incentive and motivation has been peaked by my consumption of adderall this morning. I usually don't write anything in this thing unless I have a reason to, most of it seems to be musically inclined, since I do not like posting my personal life in the public domain, protected or not.
Thinking about it today... I've decided that "Slip Inside This House" by The 13th Floor Elevators is one of my favorite songs, and picking favorites is hard for me. I've also decided that Primal Scream's cover of "Slip Inside This House" is equally amazing to listen to as well, for a number of different reasons. So, here I go.
I know almost nothing about The 13th Floor Elevators, they are entirely mysterious to me. I have their first two albums, and despite that... I am still confused. Supposedly they were one of the first psychedelic bands, but their sound conflicts with my stereotype of psychedelic music for some reason, and because of that I have never really considered them a psychedelic band. They are very far out though, and they were very ahead of their time, at least in my opinion. But, I'll get to the point: Slip Inside This House is one of the greatest songs ever recorded. Opening with that fuzzy guitar rift that creeps it's way through the entire song, along with that electronic sounding bubbling noise that carries on in the background of the music [and the rest of the Easter Everywhere album, which is intriguing]. Almost instantly, Roky Erickson bursts in, singing his ass off. His words are strung out and come out in weak sounding yelps full of passion and paranoia. He sounds as if he could be either a bum tripping on acid that just happened to walk into the recording studio at the right time, or a messiah... which adds to the intrigue, is this guy a genius or just fucking crazy? The lyrics themselves are very competent, despite being written probably while tripping. The song itself is 8 minutes long, but it sounds as if it could go on and on for hours...
Primal Scream's cover sounds almost nothing like the original, but it's another one of my favorite songs, for completely different reasons. The bassline in Primal Scream's version is utterly unbelievable, it pounds its way throughout the entire song, and at points is accompanied by a few very pleasing piano outbursts. I'd consider Primal Scream's cover of "Slip Inside This House" by The 13th Floor Elevators to be one of the best covers ever recorded, and it doesn't even sound like the original... but that's hard for me to judge, so I'll just say it's really fucking good... too bad I can't find it on youtube anywhere. |
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| you can stop now. |
[Feb. 10th, 2009|12:05 pm] |
Someone asked me today: "Do you like Andy Warhol?"
And I said:
"No, No I don't."
In fact, I would place him on the top of my "most hated artists ever" list. His style has been drawn on time and time again, far too many times. I can't tell you how many people I know who are batshit crazy for Warhol and [especially] Edie Sedgwick, who, by the way, is obviously the easiest person to imitate on the big screen, just cake on the eyeliner and cut the hair short... don't worry about trying to play the character well, she has no character... and Warhol, deeper than he seems? No, not at all. |
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| the wail of the banshee; Keith Levene |
[Jan. 30th, 2009|11:48 am] |
The constant urge to pick and choose favorites is a natural process that all human beings experience throughout their entire lives. I hate to admit it, but I also pick and choose favorites... the very idea of it is unsettling and disgusting to me, but I do it anyways... naturally. If I didn’t do such things I would probably be a very dull and uninteresting person, but that’s beside the point.
With that being said, I think I have decided upon who I find myself most intrigued by musically… my favorite guitarist, well... one of my favorite guitarists. The obvious answer would be Maurice Deebank, who is a great guitarist, no doubt... but for some reason considering him my favorite does not sit well with me. Well, considering anyone my favorite anything does not sit well with me. The guitarist I am currently raving about is Keith Levene. He was one of the founding members of The Clash, and after that: Flowers of Romance, with Sid Vicious and Viv Albertine.. and after that, Public Image Limited, with John Lydon. The frigid and sharp banshee wailing guitar sound that he manages to create throughout most of his Public Image career is something to drool over, especially on the Metal Box album. At first listen it may seem as if Keith Levene has no talent whatsoever, sounding like a very ambitious youngster picking at random notes. The sound is so offensive that it would make anyone not expecting it gag and immediately change the music to something more listenable. Levene, despite the gags of unseasoned so called music lovers, is a very talented guitarist… one of the few virtuosos that had his own thing going; pure despair and anguish within every note… he created a sound that future musicians would strive to emulate. It’s almost impossible to explain how Keith Levene’s guitar sound makes me feel… the sound is immersed in anti-intellectual intellectualism, it just sounds like something very important, something worth mentioning, something remarkable. |
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| Kurt Ralske's dream-pop playground |
[Jan. 26th, 2009|08:49 pm] |
I was just browsing around, and suddenly somehow came across Ultra Vivid Scene's second album: Joy: 1967-1990.
Ultra Vivid Scene was Kurt Ralske's dream-pop playground, producing all the music pretty much by himself... he's sort of like the Trent Reznor of dream-pop. But, that's a bad comparison, since I find Trent Reznor's work to be rather bland and tasteless. Ralske, on the other hand, manages to create an actually gripping album that is instantly lovable on the first play through. If you ignore the annoying lyrics, the music is actually quite enjoyable... sounding like a very poppy Jesus and Mary Chain, with the noise turned down a tad bit. The album comes off as sounding a bit mechanical at times, but that's not necessarily a bad thing... it gives it a unique sound, quite unlike anything else on 4AD at the time of it's release. Sadly, Ultra Vivid Scene didn't get much hype, often being written off as just another Jesus and Mary Chain clone... while that may be true to some extent, it doesn't mean that Joy: 1967-1990 isn't a very catchy and enjoyable experience. It's certainly worth a listen. |
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| stay at home virtuoso of doom and gloom |
[Jan. 20th, 2009|04:05 pm] |
Like Donovan splashed with a permanent shade of melancholy, Nick Drake manages to touch the hearts of all of us. The finger picking virtuoso of doom and gloom lived a short and very tragic life... and perhaps, if he lived any longer... his brilliance would have faded. The artistic beauty of youth, always tragic, always superficial... always brilliant... has to fade away at some point, does it not? The talent remains, but the passion does not. But, perhaps Nick would have grown differently? Or! Perhaps... I'm in no position to talk about such things. Nick Drake, the enigmatic musician, will probably never be forgotten... with just three albums to his name, he remains one of the most influential and one of the most original songwriters to date.
It's easy for people to realize how brilliant someone is by looking at them through the lens of hindsight, but never do people realize how brilliant someone is at the time. |
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| a natural high; splashdown and the ether following the explosion of sonic sounds |
[Jan. 14th, 2009|05:32 pm] |
The Telescopes are a confussing band, well... they were a confussing band. Their first album was far too abrasive, sounding like the Jesus and Mary Chain on a bad day; but their second album, the self-titled one, was and still is an alluring masterpiece... a dreamscape of hushed vocals and flowing ethereal instrumental splashes that sounds like it was composed by angels. The first track on the album sets the listener up perfectly for what is about to come; a beautiful wave of atmospheric dreampop that sucks the listener into a wonderland of heavenly elegance. The entire album flows perfectly, there is not one song that sounds even remotely out of place. It works its way into your mind, toils with your emotions, and then leaves you wanting for more of it's brilliance. The sounds contained within this great landscape, ranging from sonic noise to hushed whispers, earthquakes to slowly moving tides, are enough to induce a natural high... a splashdown, an ether following the explosion of sonic sounds and implosions of emotional beauty.
To this day, "Telescopes" by The Telescopes remains one of my favorite albums... mood, brilliance, and beauty... it's all there, and it wants to be heard every singe day of my life. It calls to me, it needs a listener, and I am willing to listen... it's my pleasure. |
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| Peter! Peter! Peter! |
[Jan. 12th, 2009|11:43 pm] |
Peter Gabriel, I was never a big fan... until about a month ago, when I watched "The Musical Box" music video from the 70s. From there, I was hooked on you. I downloaded "Nursery Cryme", "Foxtrot", and "Selling England by the Pound", just to listen to you, and you only. Your stage presence had me fixated, your beauty had me captivated, and your voice put me in a whimsical state of mind. I don't know what else to say about you. I am almost ashamed by the music released by Genesis after your departure. It's really quite eye-opening, actually... it didn't seem like your work in Genesis went very well noticed at the time, but when Phil Collins took control and started releasing album after album of pure garbage... people ate it up, they loved it. Why? Peter, you're a genius, and I'm sure you still are. You'll never read this, but you're a star. |
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| Crumbling the Antispetic Beauty, literally. |
[Jan. 11th, 2009|08:49 pm] |
Dominated by harsh icy guitars and tribal drums; Felt's first two records still remain their most enigmatic and intriguing albums ever released. They take you to a land where vocals are rarely heard, and all is filled with desperation and fear, yet a glimmer of hope still remains. When the deadpan vocals do chime in, they are immediately drowned in noise, yet the lyrics are some of the most poetic of anything Lawrence ever wrote. There is a subtle beauty amidst the frigid wasteland that is Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty and The Splendour of Fear. This beauty, this brilliance... it is something unique... something no one else could ever possibly mimic to it's full extent... to even try would be suicide. Lawrence, you were the most beautiful person in the world... and your first two albums did what you intended them to do: crumble the antiseptic beauty. |
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| I've been thinking: why I will not join. |
[Jan. 10th, 2009|11:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Neil Young - Heart of Gold | ] |
I told the Glynn Peace people that I would join their group, but I've been thinking about it... and I won't. For a number of reasons, but the main one is: war cannot be stopped. Call me a defeatist, I don't really mind.
Human nature gets in the way of everything. Human nature destroys great ideas [peace, marxism, etc.] It's refreshing to see a group of people fight [not in the literal sense] against war, and advocate peace... but what good will it do? Wars are caused by human nature, and human nature cannot be changed.
So, I will not be joining the hivemind. I am not sorry for this... but what I am sorry for is human nature. But, not really, because I'm not the cause of human nature... I merely partake in it, to some degree.
I do believe that people are capable of overcoming greed and hatred, but just because they are capable doesn't mean a thing.
I am sorry that peace will never be attained... eh, but maybe I can be proven wrong... probably not... at least not in my lifetime. |
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| omnipotence is a shortcut |
[Jan. 8th, 2009|06:24 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Pink Floyd - "Pow R. Toc H." | ] |
I've been thinking about Gods recently. I'm come to the conclusion that the Christian god serves no purpose from a metaphorical and an artistic standpoint.
It's actually quite simple to understand:
For example, Greek Gods and Goddesses personified certain traits and whatnot. Apollo personified music, poetry, truth, etc. Ares personified violence, war, recklessness, etc. What does the Christian God personify? Everything... and that's kind of a shortcut, so in actuality He personifies nothing, if not cheapness and boredom. No one can relate to the Christian God, as He is perfect and omnipotent. He was created entirely to incite fear in the hearts of man and woman. Whoever came up with this God was a very bitter and artless person. |
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| pavement prisoner; self-inflicted wound? |
[Jan. 7th, 2009|07:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Lloyd Cole And The Commotions - "Rattlesnakes" | ] |
Every now and then during my humdrum life something or someone comes around and makes me overly thoughtful and generous. Now, I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, seeing as the two concepts are very blurry and often blur into each other... but, here I go.
I was sitting on the sidewalk during the last period of school, waiting for my ride to get out of his last period class. I had nothing to do, and I was very bored. I had about fifty minutes or so, and I was wondering about what I could do with the time.. nothing came to mind, and after about ten minutes or so a thin man with a black sweatshirt and jeans on sits down next to me and explains to me about his situation. His name is Clyde and he's a homeless man. He needed some money to fill his Valium prescription or something. I told him that I spent all my money on cigarettes, but I would give him thirty dollars the next day if he met me at the same spot. Very excited, he agrees and then proceeds to tell me about his personal life.
Apparently, he hitchhiked his way down to Georgia from South Carolina because he was born here and wanted a hit of nostalgia. He's an alcoholic, and while he's telling me this he continually reminds me that he had been drinking earlier during the day. He goes on to tell me that he had been rejected shelter by most of the churches he had visited, and some of them even called the cops on him. Oh, but it gets much better. Eventually, he gets into this story about how he lost his wallet in this married girl's apartment during a one night stand. He then said something like
"I go to the library to masturbate... oh shit, I didn't say that", and moments later pulled out a few ripped out pages from playboy and showed them to me. Despite his shitty life, he believes that Jesus died for our sins and that God is the ruler of everything.
Throughout our conversation he gave me about eight high fives and four handshakes.
Well, tomorrow I should see him again if he didn't forget about me. I'll give him my thirty dollars and I'll tell him to spend it on food and not smack... or something to that effect, even though I know he won't listen. |
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