thorn in yer grip

If it wasn't before, Ecstasy of Saint Theresa is your new favorite Czech shoegaze band. When I think of shoegaze as a genre or movement one sound always comes to mind; this is the swirling guitars, orchestral samples and drifting vocals of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless . In 1989 Kevin Shields set out to make his masterpiece. Two years, 19 recording studios and a handful of defunct sound engineers later, Shields emerged with Loveless, one of the best albums of the decade and the seminal "shoegaze" record.

Go back a few years in the My Bloody Valentine catalogue and you will find a much different sound. MBV's first LP was 1988's Isn't Anything . Although some of MBV's distinctive sound stands out on this early release (most notably Shields's shifting chords played with the tremelo bar), Isn't Anything is in many ways the anti-Loveless. Loveless was recorded over the span of two years; Isn't Anything was made in just two weeks. Where Loveless is ethereal, Isn't Anything is raw--the guitars are bone-crushing instead of shimmering, the drums aggressive. Hell, some of it kind of sounds like a band from the Czech Republic called Ecstasy of Saint Theresa.

On Susurrate (1992), Ecstasy of Saint Theresa lays down shoegaze in the same grain as some tracks from Isn't Anything--bruising guitars, aggressive drums, everything blaring and percussive. But while Isn't Anything sounds a bit unsure, capturing a band en route to its full potential and defining sound, Susurrate shows a band taking this bone-crushing style of shoegaze and running with it--the result is stunning. I guess what I'm trying to say is Susurrate sounds like a better, more focused version of Isn't Anything's driving shoegaze--a better version of the best shoegaze band's first album.

So in this post I have:
a) mentioned a lesser-known shoegaze band only to write about the most obvious shoegaze band ever for two paragraphs,
b) succumbed to shoegaze elitism by measuring every shoegaze album against Loveless, and
c) written seriously about a pseudogenre, making indiscriminate use of the term "shoegaze".

...to the gallows. But hey, if you worked the late shift at a desolate hotel front desk you might start thinking about these things too.

Here are a couple of tracks by Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, all of them but "What's" from the aforementioned album Susurrate. Thanks to youcantgohomeagain for suggesting this band.

Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - What's
Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - Thorn In Yer Grip
Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - Ice Cream Star
Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - To Alison

don't fall in love

Well, it must be Ghostly Female Songstress Dream Pop Month of March out in the tobacco barn. Meet Still Corners, a London-based group that has recently signed to Sub Pop. Why is it that this dreamy brand of pop with haunting female vocals has been so prevalent in the month of March? The newly spring air is swirling, the world around us is burgeoning with green, blossoming with color; it can really be a powerful, emotional time...And I've got really bad spring allergies so it looks like I'm crying most of the time anyway. Yes, Still Corners is the perfect soundtrack.

"Don't Fall In Love" is about as ominous as music this poppy can get. The dark, two-chord sequence will chug along, you will hear Tessay Murray's voice, but you will not heed her warning. "Endless Summer" has changes reminiscent of Portishead's Third, and at 1:10 and 2:20 you might just lose it. "History Of Love" is flashing before your eyes. Yes, this is the good stuff. Listen and run along to your local record store and buy it.

Still Corners - Don't Fall In Love
Still Corners - Endless Summer
Still Corners - History Of Love

Blood Sausage: f*** you and your underground

Blood Sausage is a band from Brighton, England, that kicks ass. If you've ever seen Beavis and Butthead's critique of Pavement's "Rattled By The Rush" music video, you'll remember their tirade about Pavement's laziness: "If you're gonna be horrible at least kick ass, like, you know, Jesus Lizard. I mean, they suck, but they kick ass." Blood Sausage is a band that could've served for Beavis' comparison. Vocalist Dale Shaw will present his ramblings, tirades, whatever really over their bluesy punk jams. I mean, they suck, but they kick ass. This excerpt of the lyrics from "Billy Joel" will give you an idea of how Blood Sausage kicks ass:

"Through his various recorded works Billy spoke to me. He sang to me...
I remember one day I was sitting there watching Billy Joel live in Long Island on video. Someone turned to me, a close family friend, and they said: "Do you really like this man?" I looked at them and I said: "He's my hero." They were staggered by my sincerity. Then it all began to crumble. A woman entered his life. Turned his head, turned his life around. I could never forgive him really. It wasn't really love I felt for Billy. Though looking back it could have been. I was still hurt. Billy met Christie Brinkley. This changed him completely. From then on every song had traces of her through it. I couldn't understand it. What did she see in this ???. From that time, everything he did has turned to shit.

THERE IT WAS, IT WAS EVERYWHERE. UPTOWN GIRL, UPTOWN GIRL. EVERYTIME YOU TURNED AROUND YOU HEARD IT. HEARD BILLY, HEARD BILLY SLOWLY SELLING OUT, SELLING HIS SOUL. I COULDN'T TAKE IT. I NEVER FORGAVE HIM. IT'S LIKE A PART OF ME HAD DIED. IT WAS MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH MISTRUST AND CORRUPTION."

Blood Sausage - What Law Am I Breaking Now
Blood Sausage - Billy Joel
Blood Sausage - Fuck You And Your Underground
Blood Sausage - Knockout Drops
Blood Sausage - Static

James Tate poem

Goodtime Jesus
James Tate

Jesus got up one day a little later than usual. He had been dream-
ing so deep there was nothing left in his head. What was it?
A nightmare, dead bodies walking all around him, eyes rolled
back, skin falling off. But he wasn't afraid of that. It was a beau-
tiful day. How 'bout some coffee? Don't mind if I do. Take a little
ride on my donkey, I love that donkey. Hell, I love everybody.

try Pia Fraus.

Pia Fraus is a shoegaze band from Estonia. Try their light and fluffy dream pop.

PIA FRAUS - Mute The Birds (Remix by Ulrich Schnauss) from superVHS on Vimeo.

Pia Fraus - Springsister
Pia Fraus - Doctor Optimism
Pia Fraus - After Summer
Pia Fraus - Mute The Birds

this is why events unnerve me.

Here is a collection of Joy Division covers. They range from idiosyncratic versions of Joy Division songs (Low's "Transmission", Hot Chip's "Transmission") to candid live covers of them (Pavement's 50-second "Disorder", Mark Kozelek singing "blah blah blah"). In compiling these songs I have learned that bands love to cover "Transmission", they really really love to cover "Love Will Tear Us Apart", and that Joy Division rules.

New Order - Ceremony
This song really doesn't count as a cover. It is just Joy Division playing Ian Curtis' song without Ian Curtis (RIP). It rules though and if you don't have it you need to download it.

And the covers...
Calexico - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Codeine - Atmosphere
Galaxie 500 - Ceremony
Hot Chip - Transmission
Jose Gonzalez - Love Will Tear Us Apart
LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost
Low - Transmission
Pavement - Disorder
Radiohead - Ceremony
Red House Painters - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Tortoise - As You Said
Squarepusher - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Versus - Twenty Four Hours

Hardcore will never die, but you will.

Mogwai has a new album out called Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. It's different. Dynamic shifts and repetitive song structure have always been a sure sign of a Mogwai record. These characteristics are still here, but the classic Mogwai sound isn't really what defines this record. Songs are still based on a recurring theme; but instead of suspending you in calculated drum lines until Braithwaite's Telecaster strings that theme together, Hardcore Will Never Die just kind of bombards you with it (see "Rano Pano"). This is also the most optimistic Mogwai album I've ever heard. And there are lyrics. I like it though. Hell, it's not like Mogwai has anything to prove.

Here are a couple tracks from Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. If you don't make it to 4 minutes in "You're Lionel Richie", you are doing yourself a disservice. It is brutal.

Mogwai - "White Noise"
Mogwai - "Rano Pano"
Mogwai - "You're Lionel Richie"

Now run along to your local record store and buy it.

The sun smells too loud.

Mogwai has a new album. However, before I post anything from that I had to post this video. It is "The Sun Smells Too Loud" with a video edit of "Apache" by Tommy Seebach Band, whoever that is. For some reason the combination of this Mogwai song and the ridiculous music video is just mesmerizing to me.

5- The Sun Smells Too Loud.mp3
Oh, and just in case you were wondering...

Yuck, another lazy domingo.

I still can't decide if I like Sundays. Sometimes I enjoy resting on the seventh day. I'll relish in my last day of the weekend, take in some football, maybe do brunch. I might go to church, drink beer, do things that are done on Sundays. Sunday fun day. Still, sometimes Sundays are nothing but anxiety attacks and apprehension about plugging away at another week. Some days I'm sick and tired of a lingering football season, but don't want to watch Lord of the Rings on TNT either. Well friends, today is another Sunday during which I've erred on the side of perpetual nervousness. Yuck.

Yuck is a band from London. Their first LP is out right now on Fat Possum. You can check out a list of equipment they used to record the album on their website, which is pretty cool. Here are a couple tracks from it.

Yuck - "Rubber"
I am a sucker for bruising, distortion soaked guitars. This rules.
Yuck - "Get Away"
This one has more of a 90s power pop sound, which seems to be the direction of the rest of the album.

Sunday, fun day.

David Berman has a blog now, says Pitchfork.

Pitchfork Media has reported that David Berman of Silver Jews (one of my favorite bands) has started a blog called mentholmountains. Perhaps one of the most literary rock 'n roll figures of my generation, David Berman can't really sing worth a damn but he sure can write. I'd say you'll eventually take away plenty of nuggets of wisdom if you regularly check mentholmountains.

Here is a video via Pitchfork of Berman reading some of his poetry. Top ten redneck moments: there aren't any.

Wild Nothing's Gemini is really good.

I've finally gotten around to listening to Wild Nothing's Gemini (2010), a glistening collection of dream pop that is a recipe for nostalgia. Wild Nothing's label, Captured Tracks, calls it a "texturally rich glo-pop album that could come only from the young at heart." I'm not old by any means but listening to Gemini makes me feel younger at heart, and I'm not going to fight that. Here are a couple of tracks from the album, which you can buy via mail order from Captured Tracks. Or even better, you could pay a visit to your local record store and pick it up.

Wild Nothing - Bored Games
Wild Nothing - Chinatown
Wild Nothing - Gemini

U.K. Post-Rock of the Day

Here is a track from a band called Butterfly Child that I know very little about. Information on the world wide interweb about them is sparse at best, and there aren't a lot of downloadable releases. I do know that they were born out of the post-rock movement in Belfast in the early 1990s. This track really is a gem. That swirling synth melody is the wind that just stripped all the trees of their leaves--it's always late autumn when you listen to this song.

Butterfly Child - Lunar Eclipse

Wish List: Slint's Spiderland by Scott Tennent

33 1/3 is a series of books about famous albums, usually seminal works in their respective genres. Albums that the book series has covered range from Radiohead's OK Computer to Reign in Blood by Slayer. Slint's Spiderland is the latest addition to the 33 1/3 books, "A thorough history of Slint, and the Louisville scene that surrounded the band, leading up to and focusing on the creation of their masterpiece, Spiderland."

Yes.

Spiderland is one of those rare records that just stops you in your tracks after your first listen, and you know life is going to be just a little different thereafter. I remember the first time I listened to it a couple of years ago it just kind of froze me...What the hell is this? Spiny, skeletal guitars teeter around the bleak, dry drum lines, sucking you in only to spit you back out in an uproar of pawnshop distortion pedals howling. Scary. Spiderland changed my notion of what an album could be, challenged my understanding of rock composition, and completely transformed my understanding of how to use a guitar in that composition. Equally compelling is the lore surrounding the album--not duly appreciated (or even noticed) until 15-20 years after it was released, there is much legend surrounding the making of Spiderland. Slint's members came from various niches in the gritty Louisville punk scene at the time. It is said that some of them were institutionalized during different stages of the making of Spiderland. The black and white photo of four kids' heads hovering above a lake was taken by none other than Will Oldham. Anyway, Scott Tennent did the research and he knows a lot more than I about it all. Get the book, I know I'm going to.

Here is the last track (probably one of my favorite songs of all time), "Good Morning Captain." Never heard a guitar sound like that...It will give you chills.

Don't forget about I'm New Here.

Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here came out in February of last year. It is often easy to forget about a record when ten months pass before you start to think about the best music of the year. That's why I hope you didn't forget about I'm New Here. One of my favorite's of 2010, this collection of blues songs and spoken word performances makes up the first album in 16 years for Gil Scott-Heron. It is also a welcome departure from the stylized "indie" records that have become as prevalent as a 7.5 on Pitchfork. Scott-Heron offers sober reflections on society and self with a backdrop of bleak compositions and sinister beats. I'm New Here is real. Get it.

Here is the video for the title track (which is actually a Smog cover).


"The Crutch" might be my favorite track on the album.

Download Bridal Party EP

Bridal Party's Gorilla's Skull EP is available for free download on their website
. It is glitchy, drone lo-fi that does the same thing to you as drinking cough syrup. Listen to "The Light Holds."

Destroyer has a new album

And it's called Kaputt. Here is the title track.

looking lost in chinatown

I originally wanted to do a list of the 10 best tracks entitled "Chinatown". Unfortunately I couldn't gather enough tracks with the name. Even if I could complete a list it would be with a couple of cheap imitation chinatowns that i found scouring the worldwide interweb for "tracks entitled chinatown", chinatowns that i didn't care to listen to and neither would you. So i've expanded the scope of my list to consider tracks named for all things China in addition to ones named for Chinese enclaves in major metropolitan areas. However, chinatowns are still the focus here, and I tried to keep as many of them on the playlist as possible. here it is.

10. "All The Way To China" by James Figurine

James Figurine is yet another moniker for the musician behind Dntel and Figurine. This track is lifted from his Mistake Mistake Mistake LP, and it is your typical light and airy electropop China.

9. "China Grove" by Doobie Brothers

Classic rock China, goes well with Budweiser.

8. "Chinatown" by Thin Lizzy

From the album Chinatown (I know, chinatown overload). This is your standard brute rock chinatown. The guitar solo gets really annoying and kind of kills it though. "Living and dying down in Chinatown."

7. "A Chinese Actor" by Califone

Califone is a really good band out of Chicago. Drone-rock chinatown.

6. "Chinatown" by Do Make Say Think

This is Chinatown to listen to on rainy days or long drives…days when you're floating, days when you remember too much. Minimalist post-rock chinatown.

5. "Chinatown" by Wild Nothing

Chinatown is pretty much the only thing I know about this band. 2010 Chinatown.

4. "China Girl" by Iggy Pop

Co-written with David Bowie, Iggy Pop's version appears on his 1977 album The Idiot. When he sings "I'm feeling tragic like I'm Marlon Brando when I look at my China girl" i get chills down my spine. Iggy Pop chinatown, tragic chinatown.

3. "Chinatown" by Destroyer

From his upcoming album Kaputt, more 2010 chinatown. I've always had a weak spot for Destroyer, and like a lot of his tracks it took more than one listen for this one to really grow on me. However, once you decide you like it the hazy melodies stay lodged in your head. Dan Bejar can really place you on an emotional rollercoaster--he's seamlessly snide and impassioned. There is drunken schmaltz in one line and balladry in the next. There is regret in Destroyer's chinatown. His chinatown is sentimental when it knows it should not be. It is a classy man in a seedy establishment. There is sadness in Destroyer's chinatown, but not too much…because hey, it's only life. "I can't walk away at all in Chinatown." Destroyer's is a heady chinatown.

2. "China Steps" by Women.

I only recently discovered these canadian art-rockers--one of my big music revelations of 2010. "China Steps" is from Women's Public Strain (2010). If you don't have both albums by this band, get them. Women's china has a pulsing bass line and shifty, trebly guitar jarring through it. Make noise-rock stew out of Deerhunter, No Age and Deerhoof and you get Women. Damn it, how did i miss this band for three years?

1. "Chinatown" by Luna

"Chinatown" is the opening track on Luna's 1995 album Penthouse. Luna rules, Penthouse is a great album, and Dean Wareham is cool as shit. His chinatown wins. I got the idea to look into other artists' chinatowns while listening to Luna's chinatown; and, we may have learned that there are other chinatowns out there, but when I think of the song "Chinatown" I'm thinking of this one. When Wareham sings "looking lost in Chinatown" I'm pretty sure I'm right there with him, meandering around with the shimmering, lazy Fender guitar sounds. Message to other chinatowns from Luna's "Chinatown": "you can't be lucky all the time." Luna's chinatown is superior.

How do you like your chinatown? Download and decide.