SOUNDTRACK: J MASCIS-“Fade Into You” (2013).
I really liked this Mazzy Star song when it first came out. Over the years I have gotten a little tired of it–it was a bit overplayed and a bit too…something. So it’s nice to have this remarkably faithful cover from J. Mascis.
Mascis is of course the singer from Dinosaur Jr, and is usually fond of screaming guitar licks and wild vocals. But one must not forget that Mascis is also a king of melody (underneath the noise are beautiful pop gems). And this simple acoustic song fits very well with his vocals style and falsetto. There are some beautiful overdubbed guitar licks, and it never veers into the treacle at all.
I prefer Mascis’ to the original now.
Perhaps more fascinating than the cover is why he has released it: It accompanies a limited edition (360 pairs) of shoes. [So limited edition that my size is sold out already].
The shoes are vegan (or however you phrase that) and feature a purple faux suede and a stripe from Mascis’ guitar strap. As the write up says: In addition to having a design inspired by J Mascis’ guitar strap embroidered on the back, the purple shoe comes with an exclusive 7″ picture disc of Mascis covering the Mazzy Star classic “Fade Into You”.
And I have to say that the $75 price tag is surprisingly cheap for a limited edition/star inspired/benefit type shoe. You can buy a pair (maybe) here. Or just listen to the song at Pitchfork.
[READ: July 15, 2013] Three Poems
This issue of The Walrus is the Summer Reading issue. It includes three short stories and three poems. In light of my recent decision to try to read more poetry, I was pleased to see three poems here, even though in my head Summer Reading is all about Fiction.
Since there are only three poems (by different authors), I’m going to mention them all in one post, as I hate to write more words in a post than the author did. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 