Thursday, June 15, 2006

Listening to Records & Doing Scrapbook: Sampler #1, Tracks 10-13

Well, the weather these past two days has not exactly screamed "Hey, sit inside and write journal posts!" Already I've been lured away by a boat and lunch at a certain hippie diner, which it turns out is an afternoon-long undertaking. But duty calls, and for my sins I'll be posting four tracks a day til Sunday. I know you're thrilled.

Have we all noticed people doing work in the old Odyssey building? Tim "Mr. Rochester" confirms two R-city nightclub owners have rented out the joint. To what ends, no one is sure. There's also a rumor going around that Urban Outfitters is looking for a location on the Commons. And we're scaling back to just one head shop. Progress takes many forms.

Tracks ten through thirteen, kids!


Painter in Your Pocket- Destroyer
There are things Destroyer's Dan Bejar likes to sing about. Destruction. Rock music. Girls with names. Other Destroyer songs. Somewhere on the interweb there is a Destroyer drinking game that could more than likely kill a hearty drinker after two albums of Bejar's recurring themes. And yes, sometimes his songs do sound like they were written by high schooler for some grand Canadian musical. But Destroyer is music for people who like really listening to music, and "Rubies" fits right in with "Thief" and "Streethawk" to form a set of three fairly brilliant, lyrically difficult albums worth the time and effort.


Police Sweater Blood Vow- The Fiery Furnaces
It occurs to me that today's songs are all by bands you may have already formed a pretty solid opinion on. I don't know if this track is going to convert anyone to Fiery Furnaces fandom, but a couple listens to the rest of "Bitter Tea" might just. There's always something childish and wonderful about the Furnace's music, like no one ever told them, "No kids, that's not how you do it. That's not how you do it at all." Every Furnace's song sounds like something they found entirely on their own.


Thou Shalt Wilt-Loose Fur
The second album from this sort-of Wilco side project finds Jim O'Rourke still at the helm, but a little more focused than 2003's self titled album. Backed by Jeff Tweedy (who you may have heard of) and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, O'Rourke puts together songs with his warm piano sound and arid wit. Listening to O'Rourke's musical efforts make his producing contributions on albums like Beth Orton's "Comfort of Strangers" and the last two Wilco discs all the more apparent. Plus, the guy is pretty damn funny.


The W.A.N.D.- The Flaming Lips
There's not a heck of a lot left to say about the Flaming Lips. Unlike Jim O'Rourke's work, I've always found it better not to listen too closely to Wayne Coyne's lyrics. I like robots and magicians as much as the next guy, but I'm more interested in listening to the way Coyne plies his strange high tenor against the guitar effects, tight snares and psyched out backing vocals. The Lips never fail to disappoint and ever so slightly confuse.

Four more tomorrow. Enjoy the sun, cats and kittens. More news to come.

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