SOUNDTRACK: TORI AMOS: The Original Bootlegs (2005).
I have commented before about how much of a diehard Tori Amos fan I was. [See What I learned… (5)] I have seen her live many times, on a few different tours. One of the things that I never got to see was a live solo show. She has always had a few piano-only segments during her shows, but from the time I started seeing her, the shows were always full band. And the thing is that I really like her with the band. Her drummer, Matt Chamberlain, is first rate and her bass and guitar fellows make great noise together. But even though I enjoyed the band, I still wanted to hear the solo article. Then, for her Original Sinsuality tour, she did an all-solo tour. And here are some recordings from it. Six concerts selected from the tour. The Holy Grail of Tori live. Or so you would think. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: JUNIOR SENIOR-
Junior Senior is this bizarre dance band from Denmark. They have a new album coming out that has gotten good reviews, so I went back to listen to this debut. This CD has a nice memory for me as being the CD I was listening to on either the day I started a previous job or the day I went to pick up my stuff after being laid off from said job (the latter day being even better than the former); for some reason I can’t recall which day it was. At any rate, this record is a crazy mishmash of dance and grungey rock with lots of shouting and repeated choruses and fun fun fun. It’s like a raucous straight and gay orgy condensed into 35 minutes. It’s pretty much impossible not to like unless you really don’t like dance music. And, the songs are short so they never overstay their welcome. Go Junior! Go Senior!
SOUNDTRACK: ARCTIC MONKEYS-Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007).
I really enjoyed the first Arctic Monkeys CD a lot. Despite the hype from England, or perhaps because of the hype from England, I sought out the first record and really dug the aggressive musical style, the funny lyrics and delivery and the great basslines (which, especially in the last song, reminded me of The Jam somehow). They were part of a group of “garage-y” bands at the time like The Vines, The Hives, The Strokes, and I guess even The White Stripes were lumped in there too. I enjoyed most of these bands’ debuts, but didn’t bother with the follow ups.
SOUNDTRACK: THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH-Welcome to the Beautiful South (1989) & Choke (1990) & 0898 (1992) & Miaow (1994) & Blue is the Colour (1996) & Quench (1998) & Painting It Red (2000) & Goldiggas Headnodders and Pholk Songs (2004).
When the Housemartins broke up and The Beautiful South sprang into existence, I was working at our college radio station. I received a Beautiful South poster of the debut album, Welcome to the Beautiful South, and I remember hanging it on the hallway bulletin board of our dorm. It stayed up there an unreasonably long time for a public bulletin board Maybe everyone liked the picture of the women with the gun in her mouth. But really, that’s all I knew about them for a pretty long time. Then sometime around Blue is the Colour, I started paying attention to them and really started to like them. I was also amazed to hear that Carry On Up the Charts, their greatest hits record was one of the best selling records in England at the time. 
So, I thought I would have to check them out more fully.
SOUNDTRACK: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN-The Good, The Bad & The Queen (2007).
Once upon a time, Damon Albarn was just the singer from Blur. This was long before he became a multi-band, genre-hopping, composing man about town. Blur were a fun, poppy band who wrote fun poppy hits and sort of bubbled under in the U.S. until they hit it big with “Song 2” or the Whoo Hoo Song, if you will. I think that “Boys and Girls” or is it “Girls and Boys” from one of their earlier albums was a minor hit here. At least that’s how I first heard of them.
SOUNDTRACK: MATTHEW SWEET-Inside (1986) & Earth (1989).
Inside is so so keyboard heavy, it could be ANY synth band from the 80s. And, the keyboards are so loud in the mix that Sweet’s voice, which is not very powerful to begin with is almost totally lost. Sweet’s voice is not even that powerful on his 90s records. He has a very delightful, but very soft, voice. So, you can barely tell much about the songs, because it seems that every one has synth horns or whatnot masking what’s really happening.
Earth falls in line of what you think the Matthew Sweet sound is. It’s still pretty heavy on the synth, but you can see the song structures that Sweet perfected in the 90s. There’s nothing really striking on Earth, but it’s a good bridge to his 90s albums.
SOUNDTRACK: DEFTONES-Saturday Night Wrist (2006).
This is the latest Deftones release. It is a bit more atmospheric overall than the other ones. The dynamics of the record are still there, but aside from one of the more thrashier songs, they don’t seem to be as heavy, overall. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, it really showcases a catchier side to the band. It’s fun to see how well the heavier aspects can become accessible. Overall, I think the album is great, with each song having a great hook. It took a few listens for me to really get into it, but I’m now hooked.
SOUNDTRACK: DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE-Something About Airplanes (1999) & We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes (2000) & The Photo Album(2001) & Transatlanticism (2003) & Plans (2005).
collection, but not really planning on delving into any of the artists. And yet, this song just kept coming back to haunt me. The lyrics were great. And the melody was superb. There’s a part where the voices all sing “colli-i-i-ide” that is really just sublime. So, I bought the record and immediately fell in love with it. There’s really not a bad song on it. From the beautiful opening of “The New Year” to the ba-bah’s of “The Sound of Settling,” to the vivid description of teenagers skipping their classes and seeing how their bodies work. The whole thing made me go back and get the rest of their records. And I wasn’t disappointed.
I Just Read About That... 