Some Recent Obsessive Listening

Daaaaang, this blog is looking sparse. Surely some people have noticed that the flow of covers has slowed a bit (Starting next week I am going to do my best to catch up in a big way). I have been out of town/having a birthday/working on Project Dispatch stuff/getting ready to go out of town again later this week. BUT! as usual there are a handful of records that I feel especially compelled to mention… most would agree that it is something of an obligation to pass this stuff on when found. I am afraid that my schedule leaves me little more time than is necessary to just kind of make suggestions at the moment (no rambling blurbs today!)

Chain and the Gang is the newest project of the enigmatic Ian Svenonius (The Make Up, Nation of Ulysses)… or DC’s other Ian, as some affectionately know him. Kind of loungey, kind of 60’s, kind of political, and all awesome. Down With Liberty… Up With Chains! was released on K Records, and it’s worth mention that some K favorites sat in on this record. Karl Blau and Calvin Johnson to name a few.

Dawes’ North Hills is a beautiful, loose, acoustic driven record that is full of exceptional songwriting and wonderful performances. This is going to be a great winter record…

The Family Afloat by Bound Stems is one hell of a good rock album. I’ve been needing one of those. Bound Stems is regrettably no longer together… though they managed to put out one of the best albums of 2008 before they left.

mp3 – Interview With The Chain Gang by Chain and the Gang
Order Down With Liberty… Up With Chains!

mp3 – When My Time Comes by Dawes
Order North Hills

mp3 – Passing Bell by Bound Stems
Order The Family Afloat

Good day.

100 Covers: #89 – Lifetime Piling Up

#89 – Lifetime Piling Up by Talking Heads (from Sand in the Vaseline: Popular Favorites, Sire Records 1992

mp3 – Lifetime Piling Up

So, first I have to apologize for the lack of posting here lately. Things have been pretty nuts lately. My birthday was last week and we went to NY for a few days to celebrate that. Now we are frantically getting ready for the Project Dispatch launch party tomorrow night… the event page is here (please come out if you can… it’s going to be a load of fun). These things leave little time to record, but my schedule will be lightening a bit soon so there will be a lot of time for catching up. I did manage to find a few free hours today so I thought that I should go ahead and get # 89 up here.

This is an incredible song that was included on the Sand in the Vaseline compilation. It’s really remarkable that this track didn’t make it to an album (I think that they recorded this while they were working on Naked?). I’m really glad it found a home on this compilation though, because I think that is absolutely one of their best songs. Enjoy!

100 Covers: #90 – Moment #72

#90 – Moment #72 by The Appleseed Cast (from End of the Ring Wars, Deep Elm 1998)

mp3 – Moment #72

At the risk of sounding terribly melodramatic, this album was kind of one of those life changing ones for me. Records that really change the way you think about and hear music don’t come along too often, but when they do they hit pretty hard. I first heard this album when I was 17… it set me on a new path in terms of what I was listening to and what I was playing. I was floored then and I still am.

In the interest of full disclosure this is not exactly a new recording. I hope no one thinks that this is a cop out, but I recorded this cover about a year and a half ago. I have always really liked the way that it turned out and I wanted it to be the version that was posted here. If you have heard it before, I apologize.

100 Covers: #91 – Oh, You Are the Roots That Sleep Beneath My Feet and Hold the Earth in Place

#91 – Oh, You Are the Roots That Sleep Beneath My Feet and Hold the Earth in Place by Bright Eyes (from Oh Holy Fools: The Music of Son, Ambulance and Bright Eyes, Saddle Creek 2001)

mp3 – Oh, You Are The Roots That Sleep Beneath My Feet And Hold The Earth In Place

Whatever my more recent grievances with Conor Oberst happen to be (which I will refrain from delving into here), there is little hope of disputing that Letting Off the Happiness and Fevers and Mirrors are fantastic albums, and rather significant ones for me. Somewhere between Fevers and Mirrors and Lifted (for which a case can be made too… though, for me, things began to kind of go off the rails after that record) there appeared this wonderful split with Son, Ambulance. The first time I heard Oh, You Are the Roots That Sleep Beneath My Feet and Hold the Earth in Place was on the first mix tape that Chandi ever made for me (in 2002? wow), and I have associated it with her since then. That’s why it continues to be my favorite Bright Eyes song , and it’s the reason that this song is on the list. Enjoy.

Oh and I feel like I should point out something obvious… this is the tenth cover that I have posted. 1/10th of my task is completed. That makes me feel pretty alright.

100 Covers: #92 – Things Just Getting Good

#92 – Things Just Getting Good by The Promise Ring (from Very Emergency, Jade Tree 1999)

mp3 – Things Just Getting Good

I have always felt a very strong need to defend this record. So many people were down on it when it came out that I think it made me like it all the more. I took pride in my loyalty to The Promise Ring… which seems silly, but I feel like a lot of people missed out on a really great record. Don’t get me wrong, my heart truly belongs to their earlier stuff but there is plenty of room for Very Emergency (and Wood/Water for that matter). This song always stood out as a particular favorite. I hope you enjoy it.

Oh, I suppose I should mention this before anyone gets defensive: a lot of people I know came around to this record eventually; it just took a while. I think people (myself not excluded) were kind of hoping for another Nothing Feels Good… but come on, there will never be another Nothing Feels Good.

100 Covers: #93 – Mess With the Bulls

#93 – Mess With the Bulls by Piebald (from If It Weren’t For Venetian Blinds, It Would Be Curtains For Us All, Big Wheel Recreation 1999)

mp3 – Mess With the Bulls

How amazing is this record? Jesus…

This one was super fun to do… hope you like it.

100 Covers: #94 – No Key, No Plan

#94 – No Key, No Plan by Okkervil River (from Black Sheep Boy Appendix, Jagjaguwar 2005)

mp3 – No Key, No Plan

OK… So this is one of the newer songs on the list, and this brings me to a point of pondering on something. At first I was feeling weird about the fact that a lot of the songs on this list are from the late nineties. I kind of felt like I was shunning some newer bands that I really love. But then it occurred to me that if I make another list like this in seven or eight years it will feature a lot of the bands that I’m into right now. Likewise there are a few songs that, had you asked me about them seven or eight years ago, I would have never believed that they weren’t on this current list. So this made me feel better about the exclusion of a lot of new bands. Their time will come. So, as we go through life we are constantly adding things to and dropping things from our many running lists of favorite things… I am fairly confident that the list I am working from right now is a fairly accurate, current depiction of my ever-evolving music listening history… I hope that makes sense.

There was really no way that Okkervil River was going to sit this one out… and it was kind of a no brainer picking No Key, No Plan. I am constantly amazed with them, and the fact that this song is from an Appendix album, and afterthought EP if you will, makes this particular track all the more amazing. Enjoy!

100 Covers: #95 – It’s Worse When You’re Young

#95 – It’s Worse When You’re Young by Neva Dinova (from Neva Dinova, Crank! 2002)

mp3 – It’s Worse When You’re Young

Hope you enjoy this one… I had a lot of fun recording it.

Oh, and if you ever get a chance to see Neva Dinova live you would do very well not to pass it up… I’m just saying.

100 Covers: #96 – Nightmares by the Sea

#96 – Nightmares by the Sea by Jeff Buckley (from Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, Columbia 1998)

mp3 – Nightmares by the Sea

Many apologies for the delay with this next installment. I’ve been a little under the weather, though I am going to try cover a lot of ground this week and catch up a bit. I’ve been listening to this album a lot lately… I’ve always loved it; even though it makes me a little sad it’s still brilliant. Oddly (and this may be a stretch of a connection) I also just finished watching the second season of Twin Peaks… some might say that Sketches and Twin Peaks are two of the most frustratingly incomplete, near masterpieces of the nineties. OK… think on that while you’re enjoying today’s cover.

Ben Folds at The Kennedy Center – 09.24.09

“For those of you in the front row, sorry… my pants shrunk.” Ben Folds is explaining to the audience that he never liked his “head nerd” status; he fears that the length of his pants will do more damage than good in trying to shake the title. “Interviewers used to ask me, ’so how do you like being king of the nerds?’… Anyway, sorry you guys have to look at my shitty socks.”

There were a number of similar jaunts and stories during the evening, which is common place at a typical Ben Folds show… though, this wasn’t a typical Ben Folds show. It was at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. And Ben was backed by the 100 plus piece National Symphony Orchestra.

Ben was completely comfortable carrying on in his usual way, telling stories and spending half of his time standing up at the piano rocking out in a pose that most fans would recognize (probably shaking the conductor’s stand that was just behind him too). The juxtaposition of tuxedo wearing orchestra and t-shirted Ben worked incredibly well though. The result was a incredible sound that didn’t betray the original songs, it wasn’t stuffy… it was still Ben Folds up there, but there was a reciprocal relationship between him and the orchestra. In other words: they made a fantastic team. If you have ever been in the concert hall at The Kennedy Center you know what that room is capable of sounding like; gorgeous, full acoustics that surround you and place you firmly inside what is happening.

One of the highlights of the evening was an unexpected demand from Ben for audience participation. He took full advantage of having many hundreds of voices in that room at once. Before they played Not the Same, he explained the parts that he wanted the audience to sing, telling people with lower voices to take a certain part, which he demonstrated, people with mids to take another, and people with higher voices to take the third and last part of this grand harmony. Then Ben conducted his makeshift choir… sometimes at chaotic speeds, and much to his apparent amusement. Not your typical night at the Kennedy Center.

Another nice thing about last night was the inclusion of two new songs that he played solo. Even more exciting was the news that the songs were from an upcoming collaborative album between him and Nick Hornby. Hornby has been writing the lyrics and Ben has been writing the music and doing. Judging by the two songs from last night (Picture Window and Levi Johnston’s Blues) it should be pretty great.

I wanted to pas son the set list from last night… though I didn’t have a pen to keep track of what they were playing. So here is a list; while I am positive that these are all of the songs that they played, I am a little shaky on the definite order of the songs. I think it’s really, really, close though.

- Zak and Sara
- Smoke
- All You Can Eat
- The Ascent of Stan
- Lullaby
- Gracie
- Landed
- Evaporated
- Effington
- Cologne
- Jesusland
- Not the Same
- Picture Window (New and unreleased)
- Levi Johnston’s Blues (yes, that Levi Johnston, also new and unreleased)
- Stevens Last Night In Town

After the show we headed over to Tonic to do something that I have spent a large part of my life trying to avoid: watch college football. It was a big game for Carolina, and I could sense that Mike Paolone, who was with us, might have a breakdown/freak out if we didn’t watch it, so Chandi and I conceded. Oddly, I enjoyed it more than I ever would have expected, though I can say that this is most certainly not starting a trend. Oh, and Carolina won… that was cool.

As you can see there is no new cover today, I am proud enough that I got four up in the past four days. Of course, in accordance with my previous promise, there will be at least two new ones up next week.

Good day.