Sunday, December 11, 2005
Thursday, December 8, 2005
R.E.M. X-MAS
We're going to call this a "holiday" package today, and Bill O'Reilly can just shove that up his tight, fat, insufferable ass.
There was a time when my once-beloved R.E.M. made music that sounded FUN. Alas, in recent years, their studio efforts have sounded... well... ANTI-FUN. Which leaves me ferreting around their vast back-catalogue to rediscover the FUN stuff.
Thus, in the spirit of the "holiday" season, we present yet another handy-dandy zip-file with some appropriately loose and festive selections. And I've decided to fill it out with tracks sung by R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills. Mills' backing vocals were always one of the things I found especially effective (and affecting) about R.E.M. in their early-to-mid career years. Nowadays, for whatever reason, Senor Stipe doesn't seem to want the competition/complement. Our loss. And R.E.M.'s.
Now, make no mistake: I don't think for a minute that Mills' somewhat John Denver-esque tenor is as rich or distinctive an instrument as Stipe's through-the-nose baritone. But the boy can hold his own. And R.E.M. have always known their way around a cover song.
So left-click [here] for that aforementioned handy-dandy zip-file.
TRACKLIST:
1) Good King Wenceslas
2) Ghost Reindeers in the Sky
3) Toyland
4) Christmas Griping
5) Silver Bells
6) Christmas Time is Here
7) Deck the Halls
8) Superman (The Clique cover) [from the LP Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986]
9) Near Wild Heaven [from the LP Out of Time, 1991]
10) Texarkana [from the LP Out of Time, 1991]
11) Love is All Around (Troggs cover)
12) Jesus Christ (Big Star cover)
13) Yellow River (Christie cover)
14) Out in the Country (Three Dog Night cover)
15) No Matter What (Badfinger cover)
16) Baby Baby (The Vibrators cover)
17) Roadrunner [Mike Mills with the Backbeat Band]
There was a time when my once-beloved R.E.M. made music that sounded FUN. Alas, in recent years, their studio efforts have sounded... well... ANTI-FUN. Which leaves me ferreting around their vast back-catalogue to rediscover the FUN stuff.
Thus, in the spirit of the "holiday" season, we present yet another handy-dandy zip-file with some appropriately loose and festive selections. And I've decided to fill it out with tracks sung by R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills. Mills' backing vocals were always one of the things I found especially effective (and affecting) about R.E.M. in their early-to-mid career years. Nowadays, for whatever reason, Senor Stipe doesn't seem to want the competition/complement. Our loss. And R.E.M.'s.
Now, make no mistake: I don't think for a minute that Mills' somewhat John Denver-esque tenor is as rich or distinctive an instrument as Stipe's through-the-nose baritone. But the boy can hold his own. And R.E.M. have always known their way around a cover song.
So left-click [here] for that aforementioned handy-dandy zip-file.
TRACKLIST:
1) Good King Wenceslas
2) Ghost Reindeers in the Sky
3) Toyland
4) Christmas Griping
5) Silver Bells
6) Christmas Time is Here
7) Deck the Halls
8) Superman (The Clique cover) [from the LP Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986]
9) Near Wild Heaven [from the LP Out of Time, 1991]
10) Texarkana [from the LP Out of Time, 1991]
11) Love is All Around (Troggs cover)
12) Jesus Christ (Big Star cover)
13) Yellow River (Christie cover)
14) Out in the Country (Three Dog Night cover)
15) No Matter What (Badfinger cover)
16) Baby Baby (The Vibrators cover)
17) Roadrunner [Mike Mills with the Backbeat Band]
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
CROOKED FINGERS
Ah, hell.
As I get closer to finalizing my Top 10 Albums of '05, I have hit a formidable, unforgiving wall. For some ridiculous reason, I was ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that the Arcade Fire's Funeral was released in the year 2005. Of course, not true.
Shit.
So there goes my #1. My no-brainer. My silver-lining. My shining light.
For, you see, slotting everything else has been painstaking. It's been a chore. A bitch. I was sure of my ground only with #1. But no more....
Fuck.
But life, as they say, goes on. So I will strive to forgive myself for not having a blog at this time last year - and therefore compiling a list of the Top 10 Albums of 2004 (though I reserve the right to compile such a list, post-facto, any time from this day till December 31, 2009) (just for the hell/shit/fuck of it).
In the meantime, there is the 2005 (I double-checked) effort of Crooked Fingers - Dignity and Shame. I suppose now that it has an outside chance of making my re-shuffled Top 10. At the very least, former Archer of Loaf Eric Bachmann's work continues to be worthy of praise and potential contention. (And what with Neil Diamond's recent career resurrection, it seems appropriate to include Crooked Fingers covering the Jazz Singer, especially as Mr. Bachmann's distinctive pipes are so often connected with Mr. Diamond's).
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "Call to Love" [from the LP Dignity and Shame, 2005]
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "You Can Never Leave" [from the LP Red Devil Dawn, 2003]
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "You Threw a Spark" [from the LP Red Devil Dawn, 2003]
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "New Drink for the Old Drunk" [from their self-titled LP, 2000]
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "Solitary Man" [from the EP Reservoir Songs, 2002]
As I get closer to finalizing my Top 10 Albums of '05, I have hit a formidable, unforgiving wall. For some ridiculous reason, I was ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that the Arcade Fire's Funeral was released in the year 2005. Of course, not true.
Shit.
So there goes my #1. My no-brainer. My silver-lining. My shining light.
For, you see, slotting everything else has been painstaking. It's been a chore. A bitch. I was sure of my ground only with #1. But no more....
Fuck.
But life, as they say, goes on. So I will strive to forgive myself for not having a blog at this time last year - and therefore compiling a list of the Top 10 Albums of 2004 (though I reserve the right to compile such a list, post-facto, any time from this day till December 31, 2009) (just for the hell/shit/fuck of it).
In the meantime, there is the 2005 (I double-checked) effort of Crooked Fingers - Dignity and Shame. I suppose now that it has an outside chance of making my re-shuffled Top 10. At the very least, former Archer of Loaf Eric Bachmann's work continues to be worthy of praise and potential contention. (And what with Neil Diamond's recent career resurrection, it seems appropriate to include Crooked Fingers covering the Jazz Singer, especially as Mr. Bachmann's distinctive pipes are so often connected with Mr. Diamond's).
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "Call to Love" [from the LP Dignity and Shame, 2005]
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "You Can Never Leave" [from the LP Red Devil Dawn, 2003]
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "You Threw a Spark" [from the LP Red Devil Dawn, 2003]
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "New Drink for the Old Drunk" [from their self-titled LP, 2000]
[MP3] [right-click/"save as"] "Solitary Man" [from the EP Reservoir Songs, 2002]
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