Thursday, June 8, 2006

ADAM GREEN


Adam Green is one of those love-him-or-hate-him sort of artists. Whether performing with Kimya Dawson as the Moldy Peaches, or as a solo artist, he's a guy who seems determined to jar his audience from any and every angle. His primary weapon in this endeavor is his lyrics, which tend toward the scatalogical and the profane. One could, at times, almost mistake Mr. Green for a horny, 13-year-old boy - except for the fact that he has a decidedly adult knack for creating sophisticatedly simple pop arrangements. Call this his saving grace.

On his latest solo disc (available for download at iTunes), Green leans heavily on his affected croon, and it's difficult to know how seriously to take both him and his music. Still, there's something undeniably beguiling about it - especially in the small doses of his two-minute songs. In the first three songs below, one can listen to him morph from easy '70s, Glen Campbell/Jimmy Webb mode to Scott Walker to Jim Morrison.

Yes, it's a freakshow he's running, but he at least has the decency to do it while wearing a tuxedo. Albeit powder blue.

From the LP Jacket Full of Danger, 2006 >>>
[MP3] "Party Line"
[MP3] "Novotel"
[MP3] "C-Birds"

From the LP Garfield, 2002 >>>
[MP3] "Dance With Me"

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

ERASURE (1991)



[Second installment in the series - this one chronicling Messrs. Bell and Clarke's '90s efforts.]

From the LP Chorus >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Love to Hate You"

ERASURE (1994)


From the LP I Say I Say I Say >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Always"

ERASURE (1995)


From their self-titled LP >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day)
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Magic Moments"

ERASURE (1997)


From the LP Cowboy >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Don't Say Your Love is Killing Me"

RADIOHEAD ROUNDUP

Music is Art has 13 tracks from the June 4th Radiohead show in Boston.

Bradley's Almanac has the entire June 5th show from Boston.

Kwaya Na Kisser has a complete set of Radiohead demos from the summer of 1990. (Not only did I not have most of these, I also didn't know that the band was, for a time, called "Shindig." Yikes. How history could have been different. Kind of like if R.E.M. had gone with their runner-up choice... "Negro Eyes.")

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

LLOYD COLE (BY WAY OF CAMERA OBSCURA)


Well, don't I feel like a dummy... here I've been enjoying the hell out of the Camera Obscura song "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken," and I didn't even realize that it was a shout-out to good ol' Lloyd Cole and his good 'ol golden oldie "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?" Duh.

All of this is triggered by the fact that Camera Obscura's latest disc, Let's Get Out of This Country, comes out today in the U.S. I find it highly worthwhile, and am fairly certain that I offered up some songs from it at some earlier date. Regardless, if Belle and Sebastian can show us the way to Camera Obscura, then why the hell can't Camera Obscura lead us back to Lloyd Cole?

Okay, a brief bio: Lloyd Cole is a Brit who formed Lloyd Cole & the Commotions in the early '80s. They had a modicum of success with their relatively gentle brand of folk-rock and Cole's literate lyrics. Then he blew the whole thing up and went solo. Things have been somewhat sketchy for him since. But the man can still write a pleasant tune from time to time, as I hope today's offerings will attest.

[A somewhat related but essentially pointless "6 Degrees of Michael Stipe" (sort of): 1) In 1990, Lloyd Cole recorded his first solo album with the help of a then-unknown Matthew Sweet. 2) In 1983, an even more unknown Matthew Sweet recorded the song "Tainted Obligation" with Michael Stipe. 3) In 1998, Michael Stipe sang the title song to the Todd Solondz film "Happiness." 4) In 2001, Todd Solondz enlisted Belle and Sebastian to provide the soundtrack for his film "Storytelling." 5) In 2002, Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch produced Camera Obscura's first LP, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi. 6) In 1984, Michael Stipe wrote the lyrics to the R.E.M. song "Camera" and... um... well... his lyrics have often been said to be "obscure." So there you have it.]

From the compilation Collection, 1998 >>>
[MP3] [Myshare] "Fool You Are"

From the LP Love Story, 1995 >>>
[MP3] [Myshare] "Baby"

From the LP Don't Get Weird on Me Babe, 1991 >>>
[MP3] [Myshare] "Weeping Wine"

From the LP Rattlesnakes, 1984 >>>
[MP3] [Myshare] "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?"/Lloyd Cole & the Commotions

From the Camera Obscura LP Let's Get Out of This Country, 2006 >>>
[MP3] [Myshare] "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken"/Camera Obscura