The Fiery Furnaces - "Slavin' Away"
Elvis Costello & The Impostors - "Needle Time"
Travis - "The Last Laugh Of Laughter"
Stephen Malkmus - "Troubbble"
Field Music - "Place Yourself"
Every indie music fan with a computer (a.k.a. every indie music fans), is painfully aware of the online tastemaker Pitchfork. Their album reviews are sometimes so obtuse, they can make Robert Christgau seem like John Grisham. (I'm not sure I understand that metaphor either, but if you email me, I might offer further explanation.) Of course, I read them (or probably more correctly, skim them) and they frequently turn me on to a new band - - regardless of the holier-than-thou prose. Field Music is an example of a great find, courtesy of Pitchfork. And even though the writer managed to work his teenage crush on Kristi Yamaguchi into the review, I could still sense that this was a record I should check out. Key phrase that tipped me off: "baroque brand of whirring indie pop, with enough time signature changes and clever hooks to evoke XTC." And even this: "a Timbaland-esque mouth percussion tangent, backed by dreamy glockenspiels." Okay, so I'm still searching for those mouth percussion tangents, but the review led me to give Field Music's sophomore release Tones On Town and I'm grateful because it's pretty great. The band is a trio of Brits (two brothers among them) and they do make a fairly intricate brand of pop (Pet Sounds is a good jumping off point), and it's pretty damn catchy. And as I write this I realize that I never got Field Music's debut album, which our Kristi Yamaguchi-loving friend at Pitchfork claims is even better. He's earned my trust so maybe I'll do that now.
The Apples In Stereo - "Shine (In Your Mind)"
Pavement - "Platform Blues"
Broken Social Scene - "Cranley's Gonna Make It"
Cannonball Adderley - "One For Daddy-O"
This jazz saxophonist had a pretty great nickname. But where does it come from? I can't imagine that he was a virtuoso of the spring break pool-jumping technique. Cannonball was portly, but the nickname is actually the evolution of the name he went by when he was a kid: cannibal. He didn't eat other kids, but apparently he ate a lot. In any case it's a lot cooler than Julian Edwin Adderley.
Joao Gilberto & Stan Getz - "Vivo Sonhando (Dreamer)"
And then I got to work.
Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 10
Total minutes of music (approx.): 48
Song with the most previous plays: "Needle Time" - 10
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: First day back after a long weekend is hard, but the fact that it took me nearly 5 minutes to untangle the cord to my headphones means my mind is definitely still on vacay. And the fact that I'm even calling it vacay only further proves the point.
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4 comments:
During my most avid era of music listening in the early nineties, I had twin bibles: Christgau's 1980s record guide and the 1988 edition of the Trouser Press Record Guide. Generally speaking, Trouser Press was the informative, Christgau the lyrical - he was indeed obtuse, seemingly writing almost exclusively for people who were already intimate with a band or album, giving the already-converted a memorable and sometimes even poetic way to think about a band or album. But for the neophyte exploring a band for the first time, Christgau was just about the worst place to start - for that, one should have turned to Trouser Press instead.
In my humble opinion, Tones On Town is the better record, but the debut is worth getting.
Everyday I read your posts and wonder what comes after "and then i got to work". What do you do for a living, man?
I'm so curious...
flacouto
Pitchfork, as you put it, is like homework. I listen to their mp3's and such and make up my own mind. Sometimes reviews help. Sometimes they're worthless.
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