SOUNDTRACK: MORPHINE-Like Swimming (1997).
Morphine was always a pretty weird band. They were very different even in a climate when alternative was the norm.
Their difference began with their instruments: Mark Sandman played a 2 string electric bass, Dana Colley played a tenor or bass sax and Billy Conway played minimal drums. In fact almost everything they did was minimal.
Their sound was smooth and sexy; dirty, almost skanky, and yet they were so cool. I got to see them live once in the Hatch Shell in Boston and it was great experience.
While their first couple of records, Cure for Pain and Yes were amazing, this record, their first major label release, seems to disappoint some. And yet I find it endlessly rewarding. You take that bass heavy, smooth, near-jazz and you throw tales of sex (“Early to Bed”) “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man or woman miss our on the night life” or just elliptical stories “Eleven O’ Clock”: (The whole lyrics are “Every night about eleven o’clock I go out” or just weird choruses ” Oooooh French Fries with Pepper.”
And through it all, that glorious slinky bass.
I could listen to Morphine all day.
[READ: March 3, 3009] “Saved”
The Walrus got something of a makeover for this issue. I rather like the new logo, and it seems easier to read overall too. I’m bummed however that they’ve gotten rid of the puzzles pages as that was always a favorite for me.
Anyhow, this story was okay. The content itself wasn’t that exciting, but it was the telling that was pretty enjoyable. In Vietnam, a teenaged boy is being questioned in the death of a 19 year-old American girl. The first section shows his in custody of the police; the second section shows his encounter with the girl; the third shows the boy’s life before meeting the girl and the fourth shows his very first encounter with her.
I wasn’t particulalrly blown away by this piece.
SOUNDTRACK: SUPERGRASS-Diamond Hoo Ha (2008).
I’ve enjoyed Supergrass since they were young whipper-snappers on their first album I Should Coco. It was a mix of fast catchy pop about being young and foolish. I was even more impressed with the expanded sounds on their follow-up In It for the Money.
SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Fight Test EP (2003).
The test begins NOW!
SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (2003).
This was the second EP that came from the Yoshimi disc. This disc contains four original tracks and three remixes.
SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2003).
How do you follow up the fantastic Soft Bulletin? If you’re The Flaming Lips, you simultaneously pull back and push forward. I often thing of Yoshimi as Bulletin part 2 but that’s really not right or fair. Yoshimi has a more Pink Floyd vibe: it’s quite mellow and folky. But nothing the Lips do can be completely commercial, so you get things in every song that add immensely to the sound, yet prevent it from complete accessibility.
SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Race for the Prize (1999) & Waiting for a Superman’ (1999) singles.
When these singles were released, Zaireeka was out of print; these discs were the only way to get any of the tracks. So, each of these singles has two track from a Zaireeka disc as a B-side: “Riding to Work in the 
Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)” & “Thirty Thousand Feet of Despair.” “Race for the Prize” (1 and 2) have the tracks from Zaireeka discs 1 and 2, and “Waitin’ for a Superman” (1 and 2) have the tracks from Zaireeka discs 3 and 4. The singles aren’t really worth hunting down at this point since Zaireeka is now available, but at the time, they were worth it.
SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-In aPriest Driven Ambulance (1990).
This is where the Lips really hit their stride. While they are still experimenting with sonic noises, the dedication to songcraft takes precedence. It’s as if they wrote cool songs first and then fiddled with them, rather than using the fiddling as the main focus. The album is divided into two sides: Smile Side and Brain Side. Amusingly all songs are listed as being 3:26 long, and yet none of them actually are.
SOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Hark! Songs for Christmas Vol. II (2006).
If we imagine that Sufjan had fun with vol. 1 one, then he must have had twice as much fun with vol. 2. It’s nearly twice as long and full of a lot of short ditties. “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” are short (less than a minute) instrumental versions (on keyboards which almost sound like a music box) of those songs (something that will become prominent throughout the series). I love his version of “I Saw Three Ships,” the instrumentation is exotic and wonderful.
SOUNDTRACK: FISHBONE-Set the Booty Upright Bonin’ in the Boneyard single (1990).
I Just Read About That... 