|||||||| | | | | |||| | | ||||| | ||||||||||| | | |||||
I couldn’t tell you anything you needed to know. I couldn’t help you with the pressures of your exacting throes.
Come have at us, we are strong.
Come have at us, we are strong.
Come have at us, we are strong. WE.
Come have at us, we are strong. ARE.
Come have at us, we are strong. STRONG.
Come have at us, we are strong.
The coiled cord was dangling, the phone was off the hook.
Your stone-wall expression was a dialing tone of defiance.
My gaze, anemic, searched
for a vibrant color
to make sense of it.
[Purchase Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper.]
This is dedicated to those who like ducks.
Test Icicles – Circle, Square, Triangle
I’m not entirely sure as to how this song has lasted so long in my library. That’s a lie, I know exactly why; it’s because there’s melody. A rather elegant melody stretched over an undoubted blanket of chaos. It’s merry, there’s charm, and you can sense the fun. Each instrument is allowed the freedom to chase their own twists and beats and destiny and what shouldn’t form to become one surely does. It’s less poison, more the medicine that goes down with some sugar coated melody. Each scream is vast and aching, each bass trigger a thump and punch, and you hear that ghoul over the chorus, too, right?
Also, such a fantastically silly band name deserves your attention.
[Purchase the two track single for £1.38.]
All wicked strict christian
The Hold Steady – Slapped Actress
The Hold Steady make sweaty, cock rock. As Thomas Lennon (Lt. Dangle in Reno 911) said, “If you don’t like ‘insane rock faces’ don’t stand by me at The Hold Steady tonight.”
The lyrics use religious puns to weave narratives of Christians getting high, or teenagers getting high, or just about anybody getting high. But it’s an angry, self-destructive high – a high as vicious as the guitar riffs.
These are anthems for ruined souls.
[Buy the newly released Heaven is Whenever or – if you must – purchase Stay Positive.]
Swan vs. Raptor (!!!!!!!!!!!)
It is, according to Special Award Records, a “free (FREE!) digital-download-only compilation featuring new and unreleased tracks from a whole bunch of amazing Australian independent artists, released by local Melbourne label Special Award Records. It will be available for free download from the day of the launch!”
I can’t say I don’t like it. Go forth and download it via the button above. Or you can go to their site for additional mirrors. I don’t want to ruin it for you, but the compilation includes a cover of R. Kelly’s “Ignition” in Spanish. Thank you, Maudita. I might have never known.
BUT IT FEELS A LOT SLOWER.
Julian Casablancas – Left & Right In The Dark
I feel as if anything I say will endanger my friendship with Daniel.
(I have neither the superlatives nor the ability to play down just how keen I am to amble along to this gig merrily drunk with the evening in hand.)
But I will briefly chat about the song. It has a clever trick up its sleeve: the 4:59 length prickles with a chipper electric sound smothered by a throaty vocal that tempts you into joining the choral hook – something Julian has ever had a knack for (see: entire discography)
WAKE UP!
WAKE UP!
WAKE UP!
WAKE UP!
[If you must know, iTunes are offering Phrazes For The Young at a charitable $4.99. You’d be downright insane to not take advantage of that.]
All but the bravest men wilt and retreat…
Blind Willie Johnson – Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
Living within his thirty-first year of existence, Willie Johnson smothered an instrumental he was working on with capering and swooning murmurs of vocal expression – words without words. Not to lessen the strength of this sound, but if we were all without word, then this would be our attempted mating call; that fight to deter the crippling loneliness all too often felt, that cry for touch, and that desire for one of similar workings.
Do you imagine Blind Willie on a trusted rocking-chair, crowded by mist, not men, and that humbled glow of candle light steady in the air, too? Wood enveloped home, shed like, with a roaming dog. How inappropriate it would be to fill the summers drunken festival air with this sound. How timeless and yet how wonderfully time specific this sound is. Let’s all just crowd around, quietly, and maybe he can feel us sway, even if his lacking sight and life puts us out of reach.
You let your transport rust
[Buy Clues‘ self-titled debut.]
The scars were on the back
Broken Social Scene – Sweetest Kill
As Joey Comeau laments, this world didn’t turn out anything how I imagined when I was a toddler. Almost completely the opposite.
On one hand, I never imagined I could support myself – make money, pay bills. Let’s look at some empirical evidence:
- – Never in my life have I starved to death.
- – Never in my life have I lived in my car for a period longer than a week.
- – Never in my life have I sat on a street corner, cup in hand, begging for money.
On the other hand, young me never imagined happiness could be so elusive – that I might not accomplish all I set my mind to. Let’s look at some empirical evidence:
- – Never in my life have I been in love.
- – Never in my life have I been a senator of the United States of America.
- – Never in my life have I been a professional soccer player.
- – Never in my life have I been in a bar fight.
- – Never in my life have I been able to come up with that profound last sentence I will whisper seconds before I die, something so full of badassery it sears itself into the memories of my loved ones forever, sometimes making them cry, sometimes making them laugh, sometimes making them laugh and cry all at the same time.
[Buy Forgiveness Rock Record with its slick production like a piece of hard candy on your tongue.]
You can listen to the serpent, fine.
Child Rebel Soldier – Us Placers
My back hurts and I have no money. I have no money and my back hurts. My back hurts from standing all day and performing repetitive exercises with my upper body. I have no money because completing these repetitive exercises pays nothing. Why do I do them? To make money, so that the back pain is somewhat bearable. I guess it’s not so bad.
I have pockmarked skin and eat a lot of junk food. I eat a lot of junk food and have pockmarked skin. I have pockmarked skin because I’m genetically disposed to it. I eat a lot of junk food because coming home for dinner sometimes makes me feel sick. It’s not an angsty, nobody-understands-me thing: it’s a matter of comfort. Of feeling comfortable.
I have black toes and long hair. I have long hair and black toes. I have black toes because stupid fucking people keep stepping on them during football games. Over and over and over. Sometime in the last year my ten toes said Hey Man! Fuck You! and a couple have gone AWOL. They’ll be back. I hope. I have long hair because I had short hair and it grew.
[Child Rebel Soldier is the side-project of some well-known entertainers. “Us Placers” is performed with the help of a Thom Yorke instrumental.]