Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Mesmerization Eclipse Mix 4
This came out of DJ back in October or so. It's a good one. Fuckin' electric.
Royal Trux, “The United States of America vs. One 1974 Cadillac El Dorado Sedan”
Starts off kind of slowly, but quickly hits an anthemic chorus that segues into some dirty psych-rock and then some out-a-site space-blues. Not much genuine freaking out, but definitely another undeniably great long-form drug-jam from the masters themselves.
Bob Pollard, “Far Out Crops”
So of course we’re all (or at least Coke and I) huge Bob Pollard marks, sopping up every last splatter of his ridiculously convoluted catalogue. “Far Out Crops” is one of the more notable hits among Bob’s non-GBV output, as they’ve played it at pretty much every show since ’99 or so. Like “Subspace Biographies”, it’s one of those Pollard tunes that I’ve known intimately without ever owning the original due to its live omnipresence. But so, although it’s not near the upper echelon, “Far Out Crops” is a damn fine tune from the dude that many of us consider to be the finest rock and roll fetishist of our generation.
Rolling Stones, “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’”
Pretty good Stones song, one you don’t hear eight times a day on the radio. That moment when, well along your development as a discerning and self-congratulating music listener, you finally realize that the Stones really were quite awesome at some point, can sort of be like thinking about your parents getting it on; they’re both fundamental realities that you must come to grips with at some point, and the younger you are when that happens, the better. But what’s amazing is that, in continuing to do this well into their sixties, the Stones have almost navigated completely through their decades-long awkward and embarrassing stage, and reemerged as something ridiculously awesome and respectable. Sure, their music has sucked since before I was born (so for almost three decades now), but they’re fucking seventy, and they still live harder than I ever could. Anyway, contrasting this with the RTX song above hammers home the comparison; the Trux were the Stones of today (or I guess yesterday) if the Stones were willfully retarded and/or completely mind-blown.
Comets on Fire, “Antlers of the Midnight Sun”
Still haven’t heard Blue Cathedral, but this song sounds as good as anything off Field Recording from the Sun. In fact, if it weren’t for the crazed saxophone and slightly more coherent vocals, this song could come directly from that album. Comets on Fire are completely over the top in all the right ways. Their dense, dizzying, psychedelic noise-rock sounds like Blue Cheer or Blue Oyster Cult if they were on Bulb Records, or something.
Ghost, “Kiseichukan”
Ghost has always been a band that I’ve respected and appreciated without ever really enjoying all that much. They’re definitely good, but for whatever reason I’ve never been inordinately enthused about them. I don’t own any of their records, and have never even considered buying one. There are three Ghost songs on this cd, and although they’re all pretty good, I still don’t feel the urge to share my money with them. This first song on here starts off pretty good, with some mechanical whistles and other electronics and some good, classic guitar chords ringing out in cyclical fashion. But then the chanting is slightly cheesy, and the singing (what has mostly bothered me about this band) is reliably awkward. But that all gives way to some awesome rhythmic crunch at the end, and between that and the good intro this song winds up being worthwhile.
Ghost, “Piper”
Twenty-two seconds of pummeling drums and spiraling synthesizer noise. Awesome.
Ghost, “Ganagmanag”
The singing’s not that annoying on this one. It might be a different vocalist, but I can’t tell. Those people all sound alike to me. But here’s some good, old-fashioned, slow-burning psych-rock, with the gauzy atmosphere and the blazing, unearthly guitar solos, and the harpsichord, and everything. If Pink Floyd weren’t horrible, they’d maybe sound like this.
!!!, “Pardon My Freedom”
Wow, this is pretty horrible. I saw these guys once, a few years back, opening for Built to Spill; they were only slightly offensively annoying. There were like eight of them, and I think five of them were just banging on drums and dancing some drunk white indie-rocker version of a belly dance, or something. They weren’t necessarily bad, they were just sort of unremarkable. But this song is quite remarkable, in that it is one of the most exceptionally awful songs I’ve heard this year.
Neu
I believe it’s the first song from their first record. Not quite sure, but it is definitely from that album, the only one I have by them. And it’s still incredible, of course.
The Roots, “The Next Movement”
Eh, it’s alright. A bit too “tasteful”, if you know what I mean. Like a lot of “conscious” rap (or whatever), it’s kind of dull. There are some good lines, and they rap it well, but the little girl “bum bum” bit in the background sounds like it should be in a Dido or Jem song, and the music itself is mostly boring. I like some of the scratching.
Phoenix, “Everything Is Everything”
Catchy song, maybe a bit too glossy, though. If you like very, very clean, upbeat, kinda dancy pop, you’d maybe go for this. Completely not my thing, though. Again, like the Roots, it’s definitely not bad, I just find it to be a bit dull. Phoenix is alright, I guess.
Acid Mothers Temple, “Cosmic Introduction”
Starts off slowly with some digital ribbots and a barely perceptible, almost supersonic hum. Three minutes or so in some delay-pedal squiggles pop up, and the hum gets amplified mutated (again, through a delay pedal) into a thick wall of noise. After another minute the typical Acid Mothers sound fades in, as some demented psych-rock overpowers the hum. They’re a bit more subdued than usual this time, sounding more like Mantra of Love than something like Electric Heavyland. They do get progressively more out there as the song moves closer to the end. A damn fine track from an almost completely predictable band.
Grateful Dead, “Wharf Rat (live)”
Drug-fueled country dad-funk that goes on for almost twenty minutes. Some Old West player piano, incessantly jaunty bass lines, and great gobs o’ licks. This is actually pretty fucking awesome. The Dead were the silliest, most arbitrary and ridiculous of rock groups. Those are all qualities I look for in my rock and roll.
coming soon: Plunger Tongue and the Fags of Jove.
This came out of DJ back in October or so. It's a good one. Fuckin' electric.
Royal Trux, “The United States of America vs. One 1974 Cadillac El Dorado Sedan”
Starts off kind of slowly, but quickly hits an anthemic chorus that segues into some dirty psych-rock and then some out-a-site space-blues. Not much genuine freaking out, but definitely another undeniably great long-form drug-jam from the masters themselves.
Bob Pollard, “Far Out Crops”
So of course we’re all (or at least Coke and I) huge Bob Pollard marks, sopping up every last splatter of his ridiculously convoluted catalogue. “Far Out Crops” is one of the more notable hits among Bob’s non-GBV output, as they’ve played it at pretty much every show since ’99 or so. Like “Subspace Biographies”, it’s one of those Pollard tunes that I’ve known intimately without ever owning the original due to its live omnipresence. But so, although it’s not near the upper echelon, “Far Out Crops” is a damn fine tune from the dude that many of us consider to be the finest rock and roll fetishist of our generation.
Rolling Stones, “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’”
Pretty good Stones song, one you don’t hear eight times a day on the radio. That moment when, well along your development as a discerning and self-congratulating music listener, you finally realize that the Stones really were quite awesome at some point, can sort of be like thinking about your parents getting it on; they’re both fundamental realities that you must come to grips with at some point, and the younger you are when that happens, the better. But what’s amazing is that, in continuing to do this well into their sixties, the Stones have almost navigated completely through their decades-long awkward and embarrassing stage, and reemerged as something ridiculously awesome and respectable. Sure, their music has sucked since before I was born (so for almost three decades now), but they’re fucking seventy, and they still live harder than I ever could. Anyway, contrasting this with the RTX song above hammers home the comparison; the Trux were the Stones of today (or I guess yesterday) if the Stones were willfully retarded and/or completely mind-blown.
Comets on Fire, “Antlers of the Midnight Sun”
Still haven’t heard Blue Cathedral, but this song sounds as good as anything off Field Recording from the Sun. In fact, if it weren’t for the crazed saxophone and slightly more coherent vocals, this song could come directly from that album. Comets on Fire are completely over the top in all the right ways. Their dense, dizzying, psychedelic noise-rock sounds like Blue Cheer or Blue Oyster Cult if they were on Bulb Records, or something.
Ghost, “Kiseichukan”
Ghost has always been a band that I’ve respected and appreciated without ever really enjoying all that much. They’re definitely good, but for whatever reason I’ve never been inordinately enthused about them. I don’t own any of their records, and have never even considered buying one. There are three Ghost songs on this cd, and although they’re all pretty good, I still don’t feel the urge to share my money with them. This first song on here starts off pretty good, with some mechanical whistles and other electronics and some good, classic guitar chords ringing out in cyclical fashion. But then the chanting is slightly cheesy, and the singing (what has mostly bothered me about this band) is reliably awkward. But that all gives way to some awesome rhythmic crunch at the end, and between that and the good intro this song winds up being worthwhile.
Ghost, “Piper”
Twenty-two seconds of pummeling drums and spiraling synthesizer noise. Awesome.
Ghost, “Ganagmanag”
The singing’s not that annoying on this one. It might be a different vocalist, but I can’t tell. Those people all sound alike to me. But here’s some good, old-fashioned, slow-burning psych-rock, with the gauzy atmosphere and the blazing, unearthly guitar solos, and the harpsichord, and everything. If Pink Floyd weren’t horrible, they’d maybe sound like this.
!!!, “Pardon My Freedom”
Wow, this is pretty horrible. I saw these guys once, a few years back, opening for Built to Spill; they were only slightly offensively annoying. There were like eight of them, and I think five of them were just banging on drums and dancing some drunk white indie-rocker version of a belly dance, or something. They weren’t necessarily bad, they were just sort of unremarkable. But this song is quite remarkable, in that it is one of the most exceptionally awful songs I’ve heard this year.
Neu
I believe it’s the first song from their first record. Not quite sure, but it is definitely from that album, the only one I have by them. And it’s still incredible, of course.
The Roots, “The Next Movement”
Eh, it’s alright. A bit too “tasteful”, if you know what I mean. Like a lot of “conscious” rap (or whatever), it’s kind of dull. There are some good lines, and they rap it well, but the little girl “bum bum” bit in the background sounds like it should be in a Dido or Jem song, and the music itself is mostly boring. I like some of the scratching.
Phoenix, “Everything Is Everything”
Catchy song, maybe a bit too glossy, though. If you like very, very clean, upbeat, kinda dancy pop, you’d maybe go for this. Completely not my thing, though. Again, like the Roots, it’s definitely not bad, I just find it to be a bit dull. Phoenix is alright, I guess.
Acid Mothers Temple, “Cosmic Introduction”
Starts off slowly with some digital ribbots and a barely perceptible, almost supersonic hum. Three minutes or so in some delay-pedal squiggles pop up, and the hum gets amplified mutated (again, through a delay pedal) into a thick wall of noise. After another minute the typical Acid Mothers sound fades in, as some demented psych-rock overpowers the hum. They’re a bit more subdued than usual this time, sounding more like Mantra of Love than something like Electric Heavyland. They do get progressively more out there as the song moves closer to the end. A damn fine track from an almost completely predictable band.
Grateful Dead, “Wharf Rat (live)”
Drug-fueled country dad-funk that goes on for almost twenty minutes. Some Old West player piano, incessantly jaunty bass lines, and great gobs o’ licks. This is actually pretty fucking awesome. The Dead were the silliest, most arbitrary and ridiculous of rock groups. Those are all qualities I look for in my rock and roll.
coming soon: Plunger Tongue and the Fags of Jove.
