SOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS-Wood (1995).
Moxy Früvous is a band that can totally be judged by their covers. Their first album had a cartoon animal dog thingy, and the disc was whimsical and fun. Wood, their second disc shows the quartet in an autumnal scene covered in sweaters. And the content is autumnal and snug. There’s very little whimsy on the disc. It’s as if they fully matured in two short years.
I would say that this is my least favorite of the MF discs. However, it also contains my all-time favorite MF song: “Fly” so I can’t dismiss it entirely.
In fact, the first 5 or so songs are all really enjoyable. I find myself singing “horseshoes have got to be tossed” (from “Horsehoes”) all the time for some reason. And then we get “Fly.” It starts out simply enough with an acoustic guitar, but as it builds and the harmonies come in, “we’ll take a last flight you and I….Hold on tight” it’s amazing every time.
“Present Tense Tureen” is similar to the Bargainville style of wit, although it is banjo infused folk rather than pop. And “Poor Mary Lane” has a Beatlesque stomp going on.
From there the album sort of drifts into pretty, fairly undistinguished folk songs. “Nuits in Rêve” is a 6 minute folk ballad in French. It’s very pretty, although I don’t know what it’s about. Finally, the last song “Sad Today” wakes the disc up somewhat, as it feels likes something of a drunken shanty. There’s also a bonus track called “Organ Grinder” (I suppose) that is the funnest, craziest thing on the disc and feels like pure insanity compared to the rest. It’s a big shit-stompin’ song.
So as I say, the disc is quite different from the first. It even feels a little claustrophobic in the production which is something I don’t really notice. I’m not sure why the band left out their fun songs, maybe so they wouldn’t be pegged a novelty act, but they are sorely missed.
(It’s also likely why they release b shortly afterward).
[READ: June 24, 2009] “The Nerve”
This is the second short story in The Walrus‘ Short Story issue. This one is labeled as Romance genre, and yet it also transcends the genre and is more about a man falling in love than any of the other romance tropes. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Land Speed Record (1982).
Mentioning Hüsker Dü during the Replacements reviews made me bust out their records too. Land Speed Record was their first release, and it always amazed me that their first record was a live record.
SOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS-Bargainville (1993).
I first heard Moxy Früvous on an NPR weekend morning show. They performed “Johnny Saucep’n” (a tongue twisting a capella marvel) live and it blew my mind. And, lest I forget, these 4 guys do AMAZING a capella. Amazing. Their harmonies are simply magnificent. I immediately went out and got whatever their latest album was (Live Noise, I expect). And I worked my way back from there.
The 30th Edmonton Folk Festival!
SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-No Code (1996).
I’d always sort of liked this disc because of its principles–I believed that the title came about because there is no barcode on the disc. Pearl Jam is always tilting at some windmill or another, and I can support that.
SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Ten [remixed] (2009).
Pearl Jam reissued Ten this year with a new mix by Brendan O’Brien, the producer who has mixed the bulk of their catalog. So, this gives everyone a chance to hear what it would have sounded like if it were released after Vs., or something like that.
SOUNDTRACK: DEAR MR. PRESIDENT-Dear Mr President (1988).
So, I mentioned these guys in a previous post about The Airborne Toxic Event. I said maybe I’d listen to the disc again (it’s been at least ten, maybe fifteen years since I listened to it). Sarah walked in and said it sounded like Bon Jovi, which may or may not be true.
SOUNDTRACK: WRFF 104.5 FM.
I stumbled upon this station by accident one day. I was working outside, trying to tune in a radio station, and, although I was near a classic rock station from New York, I heard a very cool alternative song. So, I tuned in this staticky station and later learned that I was listening to 104.5, WRFF out of Philadelphia.
30,000 views may not be a milestone for many blogs. But, for a blog like this which was intended mostly as a record of what I’ve read, the fact that I’ve had 30,000 views is pretty exciting. And it seems appropriate to let you, the readers know what you the other readers have been reading here. So, here is the top ten most read posts on I Just Read About That… with a director’s commentary tacked on.
I Just Read About That... 