XTC – English Settlement Virgin/Epic, 1982 Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2011 Price: $2.50 We’ve been listening to this album at work quite a bit lately. Some inspired soul keeps putting it in the CD player on the sunny days. Well, until someone decides to take it out because it freaks out the blue hairs. Personally, I think this is the sort of feel good record that hits all the little pleasure centers that pop music should hit while still remaining weird and cool and inventive and fun. The songs are like little road trips with friends. Full of side quests, pit stops, and diversions that only add to the overall journey of it all, “Jason and the Argonauts” in particular. “Senses Working Overtime” has become my defacto springtime jam and general thesis statement for the exhaustion of living. The soundtrack to having someone ask you “What are you up to these days?” and the only real response you have is “Working.” English Settlement has the same wonderful playfulness you find in Flying Nun bands and to an extent, the Australians. It’s fun, but not inconsequential. It’s just such a smart fucking record.
Bob Dylan – John Wesley Harding Columbia, 1967 Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2011 Price: $2 John Wesley Harding sounds like an exhalation after three solid, groundbreaking, and classic electric-Dylan albums. It almost seems slight, coming off of all that epic, legendary shit, but this record is loaded down with jams. It’s almost deceptive, how many stone cold killer tunes are on this album. “As I Went Out One Morning,” “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine,” “All Along the Watchtower,” all run in a little row on the first side. John Wesley Harding seems to be touted as a return to roots of sorts, but Dylan sounds different here. More mature and wizened. Or something. Weird that he wrote a song about someone named Frankie Lee meeting the heavy metal band Judas Priest, weirder since the band didn’t even exist when the song was written! GO FIGURE! JUST KIDDING! Fun fact though, those heavy metal dudes got their name from “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest,” which makes them a bunch of country music loving wimps. Anyway, I’d never even listened to this album until now and it’s much better than I ever thought it would be despite all the five star ratings and such.
Bob Dylan – Nashville Skyline Columbia, 1969 Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2011 Price: $2.50 I don’t think I ever listened to this album all the way through during my Bob Dylan phase a few years back. There was something really abherrent about the croon Dylan adopted for the record. Something like smooth jazz or something. Even “Lay Lady Lay,” the only real moster jam from this record, sounded like shit. And now, a couple years later, I’m changing my tune. It’s not great, but it’s fun and it’s cool to see Dylan’s shapeshifting to avoid being the mouthpiece of anyone’s generation produce listenable results. Well, then there’s Self-Portrait, but this is the last stop before the steam runs out and hey, it’s pretty good. And he got Johnny Cash to sing on a slowed down version of “Girl From the North Country” which is pretty cool! “I Threw it All Away” is an excellent track I would have overlooked had I not given Nashville Skyline a shot, so good for that.
I am a man who craves satisfaction. Scratch that, I am an overgrown boy unwilling to face manhood who likes music for wimps. And that is why I like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Well, like is taking it a bit too far, considering that I have the same reaction to their music. You see, the thing is, they seem to evolve with my own music tastes. Their eponymous debut came out in 2009 when I was still very much an admirer of the whole twee pop/Sarah Records thing, but I couldn’t help but think that they were just blatantly ripping off a bunch of bands I loved without half the soul. It sounded amazing upon the first few listens, but then it all fell apart when I realized I could just listen to the Field Mice and ignore the Pains of Being Pure at Heart forever.
But it sounded good, and I saw them at SXSW that year and their show was pretty good, but really only served to cement my feelings that they were copping a mess of other bands’ style and that they were too be ignored. Come 2011, they’ve got a new album coming out with a couple of pretty excellent sounding initial singles. “Heart in Your Heartbreak” is a pretty solid by the numbers indie-pop jam where “Belong,” ventured into new territory. 90s alternative rock territory. Notably, Smashing Pumpkins turf. I got that feeling that I got the first time I saw the “Tonight, Tonight” video and recalled wearing that ZERO shirt with the star Billy Corgan on the playground in 6th grade and understanding what I wanted to get out of music at a base level. My problem with Belong as an album is that it feels like that base level 6th grader on a playground album. It’s a bunch of fucking around without showing anyone anything NEW. It’s a rehash of a bunch of bands you loved, and at first you will knee-jerk into digging on it because you like the bands being copped, but after three or so listens you will soon realize that you might as well listen to the fucking music this band has put into a blender.
This album’s influences aren’t so much worn on its sleeve as they are splattered on their whole fucking t-shirt. It’s as if they’ve just cracked open the skull of the Cure with an axe and freely let the blood flow over their cheap white poly-cotton blend Hanes tee. Not just the Cure though, despite the fact that Robert Smith has taken up residence inside this album and quietly wishes to be evicted. The Jesus and Mary Chain, New Order, live here, and so does Robert Wratten despite the fact that he spent plenty of time inside of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s debut and despite the fact that he probably got his fill on that. Or maybe he likes this band, I don’t know. I hear the Field Mice and I hear true and honest heartbreak and pleas for someone to be let back in and I hear the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and I feel like they’re faking it. And really, that’s what kills me here. It’s not the influences on the sleeves and splatters, it’s how it all sounds so rehearsed and faked through. I can wag my head from side to side to the melodies but three listens in I can tell there’s nothing there and five or six I’m wanting to write a diatribe about how this band needs to find their own fucking sound because Christ this is fucking boring.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are always a band that I want to love. They appeal to my base urges to embrace indie-pop, but upon further listening I realize that their music is shallow in a disgusting sort of way. I don’t think they are bad people, or that they are committing some sort of crime, I don’t think there is anything wrong with them as people. I think they really love music, but I think the problem is that they may love music too much that they can’t disconnect themselves from the people they admire and that makes for some records that really need to be listening to. They are fine records once through, but I could just mash-up to Wish and Darklands and Loveless and Sittin’ Pretty and that jumbled mess would still sound more genuine. Despite the fact that they make it obvious that it is painful, being pure at heart and all, it’s hard to see the heart. Or the purity. Or the pain. And frankly, any one of those three would make this an album worth listening to.
P.S. For the sake of actual criticism despite the ideology of this album, I'll say this: Most of the songs commit the modern rock atrocity of having a decent first minute and repeating that first minute for two more superfluous minutes, play emotional by adding layers of reverb to the vocals that makes them only sound more insincere, and as probably already inferred, try so fucking hard to sound like other songs that its distracting...but mostly only after the whole "repeating the first minute for four minutes" shit. That chorus for "Even in Dreams" would kill me so perfectly if the thing was three goddamn minutes sorter. Goddamnit, I want to like this band so much every time they put out a new record and why the fuck does it have to sound so vacant?
Yes, the distortion and well, most of it for that matter, is cribbed from vintage Smashing Pumpkins songs but this is still the best track on the record. It's a bit overlong, but mixes it up enough to make it compelling in its message (and oft repeated chorus). But why do all the guitars sound like fey little children! There is some righteous distortion at work but the guitars still sound like they'd fall over and curl into a little ball if you breathed on them wrong! In short, where's that Calvin Johnson ethic of being a pussy but still having some balls? Stop giving so much of a fuck, dudes (and dudette)! Maybe some day you can be a band that isn't defined by a gazillion other bands!
Exciting week! Not only did I finally finish the epic tome that is A Clash of Kings (only to lay into the even MORE epic tome that is A Storm of Swords, oof), but Martin announced that the long awaited fifth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series is coming out in July! So now if he croaks before the series is done, I'd only have to suffer through two hack jobs constructed from his epic notes. But since I've become a convert (see: Someone who initially hated Martin's prose to someone who kind of likes it a bit now), I wish the newly married Mr. Martin the best of luck in wrapping up this series without A.) Extending it to more books and B.) Writing books that are 2000 pages long. But anyway, here is my imaginary soundtrack for A Clash of Kings, which I think I might have liked more or as much as Game of Thrones because well, it's just so fucking awesome. Even the parts where I was like "Christ this is going on FOREVER," like Arya at Harrenhal, I was still like "OH MY GOD THIS IS SO AWESOME." So yeah, can't really complain. Taking a breather before really starting A Storm of Swords and all its 1200 pages. Oof.
Kurt Vile – “Puppet to the Man” (for Theon Greyjoy)
When I started reading Clash of Kings, co-worker Jason kept nagging me about what I thought of Theon. I kept saying “I haven’t got there yet,” and when I got there, well, fuck. Theon is one of the most pitiful and pitiable characters I’ve ever read, as well as one of the most cowardly and pathetic. But still, I can’t hate him because I understand his motives. Taken away from his home at 10 to be a ward/hostage at Winterfell, he’s a 20 something without a home and oh so determined to win his father’s favor. The scene where he tries to get his sister into bed (though he doesn’t know it’s his much more favored by his father sister) is crushing, even given Theon’s unsavory talk to the woman. He deserves everything he reaps, despite the fact that the Greyjoy’s motto is WE DO NOT SOW. Watching him deal with the escape of Bran and Rickon from Winterfell was one of the most satisfying parts of the book, and the chapter Martin includes that is played out like he DID find them and plant their heads on pikes over the castle only to find out that he failed (like he always does because he sucks) was immensely satisfying. Well, that and spoiler alert.
Kurt Vile – “Hunchback” (for Tyrion Lannister)
This is what I played on repeat when Tyrion was leading knights and shit into battle against Stannis and his soldiers at the river. Tyrion is my favorite character in a series FULL of amazingly built characters, and despite my disdain for the almost exclusively sinister House Lannister, Tyrion is the only voice of reason. Even when he’s doing shady shit, his actions are always make sense with his character. He’s learning that he enjoys the sweet taste of leadership but I still think his motives are as simple as he just wants things to return to normalcy. Where he can go about his little life, hide away with his beloved whore Shae and quietly enjoy his days with meat and mead. But well, shit’s fucked up and he does what he has to do to at least try to maintain a sense of order when his brother, sister, and nephew are trying their best to bring the kingdom to ruin. There’s a lot of poignancy in the refrain of “Halfman” that Tyrion so frequently receives, since he’s easily more of a man than any of the testosterone and blood hungry goons that surround him.
Radiohead – “Codex”
Something about this track illustrates Bran’s lonliness at Winterfell. Robb is gone, so he has to be in charge and play the prince when he, like Tyrion, would much rather be living a normal life, particularly one where his back isn’t broken and he can run with his wolf and climb the castle all he wants. There’s nothing particularly thematic about this song, I just remember spending a lot of mornings this past week or two waking up, putting on the just released The King of Limbs while eating oatmeal in an effort to absorb the aforementioned record. I never really did, it still feels kind of slight but this song stuck out and sort of got the mood right for the book so I kept playing it. It’s the sound of those somber moments right before people go into battle or someone important or tragic is killed.
Kanye West – “Power”
Because…well, just because. I still can’t see Kanye West as anything other than a guilty pleasure but there’s some truth in “No one man should have all that power” that I can oh so easily relate to A Clash of Kings. Maybe this is what Stannis Baratheon was listening to on his iPod before getting his ass handed to him at the Battle of Blackwater. Or maybe Robb Stark listens to this when he’s traipsing around the outskirts of Riverrun fucking shit up. Joffrey listens to it when he does something idiotic. Etc. They listen to it like “Born in the USA.” Getting pumped up on the jam, not the contradictory message. Wouldn’t be surprised if this showed up ina trailer for the Game of Thrones TV show. You know there’s an Austin Powers reference in this song? How was this the best album of 2010!
Destroyer – “Notorious Lightning”
Canadians know a thing or two of the North, and maybe that’s why they keep ruling my mental soundtrack for A Song of Ice and Fire. “Bay of Pigs” is still my favorite Destroyer song for the series, but this one is pretty apt too. The refrain of “And someone’s got to fall before someone goes free” is an easy touchstone, what with all the hostages and stuff. There’s just something regal about Destroyer. Even on Your Blues, the MIDI-tinged album from which this song is culled, it straight up sounds like music for kings.
The Broadways – Big City EP Asian Man Records, 1997 Acquired: Asian Man Records Mailorder Record Box, New, Ages Ago Price: ~$.50 I’ve been listening to a lot of Lawrence Arms lately. Not sure why, but of all the punk bands I loved when I was 18, I love them as much as I did then, maybe more. I just like Chris MacCaughan’s songs more than Brendan Kelly’s this time around, but just a little more. I love their dynamic, etc. So, hence, I love the Broadways, and this was one of those EPs I played religiously when I got political. Effectively, the songs here say this: Why are people fucking destroying the world? It’s not political, so much as why do we need to pollute and cut down trees and destroy everything here. It’s secretly environmentalist, which is now a super political thing. A leftist political thing. Something that the right makes fun of the left for, for hugging trees and wanting to save whales and WHY WHY WHY I don’t get that. They love to complain about how the left is ruining America for their children and their children’s children, who won’t know true values or whatever but what difference is that going to make if you know, we destroy the planet. It’s stupid, and I think the songs here are still potent and vital, with that youthful look at issues that may not be as eloquent as say, a leading ecologist’s opinion but it’s fucking true. Anyway, that’s why I love the Lawrence Arms again. Because they’re smart and silly and they also sing about drinking too much and the simpler things. And they have hooks, good hooks, and this EP is reminding me that I oh so adored the Broadways for the same reasons. Way more primal, but hitting the same spot.
Brighter – Around the World in Eighty Days EP Sarah Records, 1989 Acquired Love Garden, Used, 2010 Price: $12 The second I fell in love with indie-pop, I was obsessed with Sarah Records. I still am, so when this came into Love Garden I ogled it for weeks. Yet I couldn’t find an excuse to blow $12 on a 7”. It just wasn’t St. Christopher’s “You Deserve More Than a Maybe,” my favorite Sarah Records track, trumping even the Field Mice. If that one had been there, I’d have dropped way more than $12 (maybe $25!). Anyway, I went home and listened to these songs on my computer and was like “Fuck, this is really good I should buy it” so I did. And it was worth it, this is an excellent little record that I listen to quite frequently. There’s something about Sarah Records that hits my comfort zone. The sound sort of shared by bands like Brighter, St. Christopher, the Field Mice, the Sea Urchins, and Blueboy. That sad bastard rainy day English college kid sound. The tunes here are excellent. “Inside Out” is a mopester’s dream, fit for dreary everyday life and heartbreak. Brighter don’t quite have the melodic knack of say, any of Robert Wratten’s bands but it’s very good nonetheless, even after I get out of fanboy mode and my heart slows down. In my head, "Things Will Get Better" sounds like "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" if the Smiths didn't have a budget and had to record in a broom closet. Love it. Fact: When Jenny went on a whirlwind tour of the great European cities with a bunch of high school kids, I sincerely begged her to go to Rough Trade records (or any record shops, for that matter) and find me some Sarah Records singles and included it in a chorus to the song I wrote in my sadness of her going to Europe and having to stay in Lawrence.
Bright Coloured Lights - “Open Your Eyes” 7” Slumberland, 1992 Acquired: Love Garden Shotgun Room, Used, 2007 Price: $.25 Another crown jewel of my 7” collection. Bright Coloured Lights was one of Pam Berry's post-Black Tambourine bands and yeah, this single is pretty incredible. Well, the title track at least. The other two songs are great, but man, “Open Your Eyes” is one of THOSE songs. One of those perfect little pop nuggets that has existed for years and years but no one has ever, ever heard. There are bands now ripping off this sound that were born the year it was recorded. It sounds fresh, and yeah, I know I said no one had ever heard this so how COULD those bands rip this off? Well, uh, er, surely they're all familiar with Black Tambourine (see: The Vivian Girls and the Black Tambourine Revival) and this being an offshoot, led by the outstanding Ms. Berry (who might as well be America's Amelia Fletcher), this is pretty much what heaven sounds like in my brain. Vocals that almost sound fey, but cut through the distortion. There’s something perfect and amazing about that. Oh yeah, and the other songs are pretty rad too. It’s the early 90s underground in the face of grunge. It’s the indie pop Kurt Cobain so adored doing what its always done, soldiering on. Even now, when every other band is allegedly an indie-pop band, it’s a niche that has a nice handful of folks working in the underground to put out the good shit.
My comfort zone is actually quite small. In reality, I hate most music. I appreciate almost all music, for all its merits and all that, but the music I actually willingly listen to in my free time is safe. It's music with guitars, almost exclusively of an indie rock/alternative rock variety. It's what I enjoy, so I don't deny that despite the guilt I feel for never listening to hip hop or dance music or electronica. There's music critic world and there's the world I live in, which is soundtracked by distortion and sweet guitar riffs and fuzzy vocals. And that's why I love Yuck's eponymous debut. It's a cluttered mess of hooks and chord progressions and vocal lines and guitar tones borrowed from my favorite bands, and on that alone I can't really fault Yuck for anything. Yo La Tengo is pretty prevalent, notably in the perfectly timed female vocal harmonies. Eric's Trip is present in the construction of this record, which mimics “Love Tara”'s FAST DISTORTION PUNKY HOOKY JAM followed by PENSIVE SLOW BURN GORGEOUS SAD TRACK repeat for 12 songs aesthetic. Guided by Voices shows up in a coupled of guitar lines and hooks, Sebadoh is everpresent in the recording style, and the Breeders, the Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth (on every song, naturally), and on and on and on. And I love it because I love that music.
And then I think of newer bands that Yuck are influenced by. They kind of sound like what I wish Broken Social Scene sounded like. They have a lot of the same favorite chords, except while BSS always kind of sounds nice, but boring, Yuck has a vitality that I can't quite explain. I waffle between feeling like they shouldn't sound vital because their sound is mostly a cobbling together of a bunch of other bands' sounds, but I think their sound is vital because it's bringing to the forefront a sound that has been largely forgotten and dismissed. It sounds like the bands I love, so I love it. Basically, that's my MO. The slow burners though, that's what kills me. “Shook Down” is a minor masterpiece, with a riff that reminds me of a certain pensive GBV track I can't remember, but the chorus with its gorgeous harmonies and it's familiar hook lures me in, and then that perfectly placed distorted breakdown takes it over the top. It's all the simple, raw, and yes, vital energy that Yuck distills into an excellent LP.
And yet, it's still uneven, but in the best way. The way “Love Tara” is uneven. It's distracting but in the way that you're never quite complacent. I feel like Yuck are in the same game as Girls, where they're crafting these songs that sound so familiar but they're also carving out their own sound within that. The outro on “Shook Down” could easily come from Christopher Owens & co, but at the same time, it's a little too dirty. A little too crusty, less pop majesty. A little bit too...Sebadoh. And then another awesome upbeat track happens and “Suicide Policeman” hits me in the stomach like an Elliot Smith song and this is where the lyrics happen. Understated for sure, but the perfect kind of understated. Not self-important or overly literate (despite my adoration of both the aforementioned lyrical sytlings), but like the recording quality, raw and to the point. “If you conjure up a fear/ Make it loud so I can hear the tambourine” is one of my favorite lines in recent memory.
At some point, later on in the album, someone actually DROPS the goddamned tambourine midsong, and it feels like they SHOULD have re-recorded but didn't because that was the real thing that kept the song real. That's really my only gripe with the album. That point where someone drops the tambourine. I feel like that's what makes something real, that in-studio fuck up that is overshadowed by the greatness of a certain song. Like the sound of Jeff Mangum getting out of a chair at the end of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea or Kim Deal fucking up the lyrics in “Huffer.” But it IS charming, and that's what this album has that makes it potent. It would be easily written off as a tribute to 90s alt rock, but the band members are too determined to make the best songs they can with the time they have. And THAT is what makes this a great record. Despite all the influences, Yuck's spirit and attitude makes this a great record. A lovable record. A record worth listening to because it sounds real and the hooks are excellent even if they come from here and there. “Georgia” sounds like three or four songs I've heard, but it also sounds like a song by a band called Yuck. It's a terrible band name, because there's nothing disgusting or yucky about Yuck, they deserve an iconic, excellent band name, but I'm not one to be picky. The slow burn sad jams are the best slow burn sad jams I've heard in a long, long time. “Suck” destroys me in all ways, and I had to analyze that destruction. It sounds like a song I've heard before. It hits a spot that's been hit before by another song. But it's got a spirit to it that feels naked and RAW RAW RAW, god there needs to be another word for raw. From the heart? I don't know. I've been spending a lot of time detoxing from being a music critic and just appreciating the things I like because of the way they make me feel, and this album makes me feel equal parts awesome and miserable, and that's an awesome thing. It feels like a journey, a quest, a trip. It's good stuff, and though they don't have an immediately recognizable spark of originality, I think Yuck prove that the sum of your influences most often sounds totally awesome.
P.S. While looking for cover art for this album, I found out that Yuck are from FUCKING ENGLAND. And they do America Alternative Rock so perfectly, I'm kind of ashamed of my compatriots for not appreciating their rich history! Way to go Yuck, I know I hate your band name and think you should have a way classier band name but your hooks and chords and riffs > current American indie rock bands.
P.S.S. "Sunday" sounds Kiwi-esque in the best possible way, how do you do it Yuck? It's not the Clean, it's not the Chills, but you're like the new wave of Flying Nun that's not even from New Zealand goddamnit I just love your hooks you bastards.
2011 was and is to be the year I read Tolkien. Last year my nose was spent buried in the annals of science fiction, but there were certain books who brought in an element of fantasy that I have to admit, I quite adored. Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is a good example, one that cracked open my mind and let flow in a genre I always scoffed at. Why? Because of the dragons. I thought dragons were so stupid. Dragons and orcs and trolls and all of that crap. Lame. But last year, I did a little turnaround. I started playing this computer game called the Battle For Wesnoth which is all about all that orc-y stuff I hated and got REALLY into it. Then Jenny and I watched the Lord of the Rings series together and though I thought it was OK the first time, I was totally into it this most recent time around. Earlier this year I read the first book in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series and well, I think that was the perfect set-up for Tolkien.
Why? Because I think Tolkien will be a joy after reading Martin. At least based on my experience reading The Hobbit, which was quite a joyous experience. Unlike Martin, Tolkien injects passion into his prose. Don’t get me wrong, I think Martin is writing a great story full of great, complex characters but the prose has always been the part that makes me reticent to tackle the series 100%. Tolkien on the other hand, well, it’s just so damned spirited I can’t help but love it. The way he persistently breaks down the wall and lets you know that he’s telling you a story, I thought I’d get annoyed with that but I always thought it worked so perfectly with the lighthearted tone of the novel. And though the book was lighthearted, it never felt slight. There was so much adventure, so many harrowing escapes, and so many fierce battles. But still, the book never ceased to be a rollicking good time. I’m sure the Lord of the Rings novels take on a more serious tone, but even so, what I’ve got out of Tolkien so far is that they’re at least not going to be stiff.
Hence, the soundtrack I’ve concocted for The Hobbit is one of carefree, summertime larking about, and when I think of carefree summertime larking about I think of the Kinks, for whatever reason, notably “The Village Green Preservation Society.” Music that is light, but not slight in the least. I felt like the Kinks would produce a nice bonding moment between Bilbo and Gandalf and the Dwarves (note: I THOUGHT about putting a song by the band the Dwarves on the list, but there is nothing remotely sleazy about The Hobbit so I had to pass).It’s also very British, just like The Hobbit.
And then there’s some American music. Songs I pull out for road trips, songs that capture that sense of charted or uncharted adventure in some great push west (or north, or south, or east).
The Kinks “The Village Green Preservation Society”
As I mentioned before, in my head Bilbo and the Dwarves love the Kinks, and this was the sort of theme song I had running through my head as they tramped out of Hobbitton into the Misty Mountains. I know Led Zeppelin are known for their penchant for Tolkien, to the point where they wrote songs about Lord of the Rings, but yeah, I never got a lighthearted sense of adventure from Led Zeppelin ever.
The Kinks – “Strangers”
Wes Anderson used this song so perfectly in his film The Darjeeling Limited. In fact, I’d never listened to the Kinks’ Lola Versus the Powerman and the Money-go-round until I saw the trailer for that movie and realized that the Kinks were much more than their transvestite anthem “Lola.” “Strangers” is a perfect road song for people who are kind of disconnected from each other. It’s lovely and sad andthe line “This love of life makes me weak at the knees” ties into the tone of this book like a neat little ribbon.
Beulah – “A Good Man is Easy to Kill”/ “Ballad of a Lonely Argonaut”
I imagine this is what the younger dwarves, Fili and Kili, would put on to piss off Thorin and Balin and all them. “It’s modern music, guys!” they might say. I listened to a lot of Beulah when I was working at CD Tradepost a year ago, until the day someone bought the Coast is Never Clear, which was a very sad day.It’s a perfect road trip album, full of all the energy you need to stave off being at your travelling companion’s throat. “Ballad of a Lonely Argonaut” is the same way, and one I used religiously on my trip to California in 2005. I remember finding this on the person we were staying with’s iPod, putting it on and running and jumping into a pool. It was a wonderful feeling.
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – “Parallel or Together?”
Another great track from another great road trip album. Ted Leo’s The Tyranny of Distance is always the first CD I burn when I’m going on extended vacation.I don’t even know WHY. Maybe it’s the propulsive drums or something, something that illustrates travelling.
Silver Jews – “Random Rules”
Again, another classic American road trip album: American Water. At turns somber, at turns joyous, it’s a perfect mix of the feelings of taking a trip. “Random Rules” is weathered, which is when you think about it, a strange way to start off an album. It’s got that feeling of going 500 miles and just wanting to get to the hotel, but you just keep trucking on until you get there because well, there’s nothing you can do about that. There’s a lot of that in The Hobbit, except there are no rest stops, or McDonalds, just starvation and peril.
