On Friday night I went to check out the Afghan Whigs in Austin, a band I’ve loved since the early 90s but never got to see live. Greg Dulli’s voice is one of my favorites and I’ve often said if I had the chance to sing like anyone, it would be him. His voice is so raspy and powerful, it’s just killer. I was really excited to check them out at a venue I’d never been to be before. Continue reading I’m Getting Too Old For Concerts
Until the End of the World
1991
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It’s been a long time since I saw this movie, and I don’t really remember it at all (confirmed by just watching the trailer), but I do remember I really liked it. I might have seen it in the theater when it was first released, though 1991 – I may not have entered my big Wim Wenders phase by then, ignited by Wings of Desire. I think I probably had though, because I remember the soundtrack coming out, and though not all of the songs made an impression, there have been a few that have stood out ever since I first heard it.
Continue reading October Soundtracks: Until the End of the World
“Nothing Lasts”
by Matthew Sweet
from the album Girlfriend
1991
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When Lance wrote up this album last week, it was pretty spot on. I completely agree with him that it’s one of the rare albums with nary a skippable song. I associate this album most strongly with my high school friend Joel Robinson (not of MST3K fame), as we had a shared love of it from the time it first came out. It is indeed a perfect album. I don’t want to rehash what Lance went into, but just to expand on a couple of points (and I’m going to ramble here entirely too long to just add it as an article comment)…
Romeo + Juliet
1996
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I was a big fan of this movie when it came out and (though I still for some reason haven’t seen Strictly Ballroom) it made me an ongoing big fan of Baz Luhrman. It was the coolness and fun and frenetic energy of it, it was Leonardo DiCaprio, fresh from The Basketball Diaries, and the totally cute MSCL-era Claire Danes, and a great cast all around, like Harold Perrineau in drag and John Leguizamo being bad-ass, and it was the music (2 new Radiohead songs!), etc. On a personal level, I also really enjoyed it because in my sophomore year of high school, our theater department put on this play, and I was the Friar, and quite frankly, I didn’t really understand everything that I was saying. Seeing the masterful Pete Postlethwaite at work, it all became totally clear to me.
“The Ballad of Winnie”
by Tribe after Tribe
from the album Pearls Before Swine
1997
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Scattered throughout my digital library are lonely orphan songs which contain the only appearance from that particular artist in my collection. Most of these come from a time when file-sharing was new and exciting. You’d search for a bunch of random stuff you had heard about but had never seen in a store, or maybe had a jonzing for that catchy track you heard on the radio. Every search was an attempt to fill up the empty hours at night and the megabytes on your hard drive. Most of these songs have been lost to time, played once and forgotten. Most are missing key pieces of metadata. But every now and then one of those songs will stick out. It’ll make the move from computer to computer. You might even end up buying a higher bit rate version later on iTunes or Amazon. And if when it comes on shuffle, which is rare in a sea of complete discographies and ever-increasing collections, you’ll listen to it and remember. Continue reading Orphan Songs: “The Ballad of Winnie”
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2010
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I haven’t seen this film since it came out, but it was super fucking fun and clever at the time. It might be a little dated now or might be just old enough to be cool again. Either way, it introduced me to some music I wouldn’t have otherwise discovered on my own. The album isn’t consistently good through and through, but there are some choice cuts along the way. Continue reading October Soundtracks: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Chris and I have been talking about doing full album reviews ever since we started MNP a few months ago. We recently set a goal of one album per month from each of us, which seemed manageable at the time, particularly since we had no other rules regarding what to pick or how to go about covering it. You’d think it would be awesome having the ability to choose any album ever made, throughout all time and space but fuck if it’s not totally stressful – particularly on the first go-around. You want to pick something great to initiate your catalog but at the same time you don’t to completely blow your load and have nowhere to go. While my wheels were turning I became aware of the dates quickly advancing towards the end of the month, I have to get the entry done by the 31st. The 31st, that date means a lot to me, which I’ll get into later… but it did make this album pop into mind and when I started doing a bit of research, I came across another interesting fact:
Twenty-three years ago today, Matthew Sweet released his masterpiece of an album, Girlfriend.
That sealed the deal. My first album of the month will be Girlfriend. Continue reading Album of the Month: Girlfriend by Matthew Sweet
Kick by INXS
1987
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Kick by Beck’s Record Club
2010
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Lance recently posted a full length cover version of this for #CoverFriday. Courtney Barnett’s version was respectable and a cool effort, but honestly didn’t do much for me. I finally finished listening to most of the rest of it this past weekend, and was watching it on YouTube, and then noticed the Beck’s Record Club full album cover version in the related videos. I liked it enough that I was considering just featuring it, but then decided it may be overkill to still do the real Kick later, so here we are. I also just learned on the Slicing Up Eyeballs Facebook page that the album was released yesterday in 1987, so the timing is fortuitous.
“Feed the Tree”
by Belly
from the album Star
1993
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I didn’t know much about Tanya Donnelly when this song came out. Throwing Muses had been in one Venn circles of the type of music I was mainly into, but I had never been that exposed or into them. I knew her more from being part of the Breeders’ first couple of albums. When this song came out, though, I got hooked, and got really into Belly and a lot of her later solo work (some day I’ll do a proper full album post of Star, which is a great album).
I even tried this once at karaoke because, well, yes I love it, but also because admittedly I really liked our friend Matt’s karaoke version of Lisa Loeb’s Stay, and was wondering if this song could match it. The song might, but my version was fairly horrible. I’m certainly not opposed to singing female songs, but wasn’t a match for this one.
Trainspotting: Music from the Motion Picture
1996
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I’m not a junkie or even a dabbler, but most of my favorite films are wrapped in heavy layer of drug use and overdose references: Dazed and Confused, SLC Punk!, Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting. It’s probably some weird escapism thing – watching a life I’ve never lived, the same way we’re fascinated by alien invasions in science fiction. Big characters in outrageous situations. Seeing the best and worst of people. Depression. Darkness. Great soundtracks. Trainspotting pretty captures all of those things.