Various Artists: The Secret Team

Bomp/Voxx Records, 1988

Everyone should know the story by now of Bomp! and the late Greg Shaw... 60's fan of longhair rock, dispirited in the '70's as rock petered out, starts a fanzine that draws the likes of Bangs and Meltzer and then starts one of the first small rock labels publishing the likes of Devo, Iggy Pop, Flamin' Groovies, embraces punk in '77, starts power-pop (new wave) with Stiv Bators, Plimsouls, Josie Cotton regrets starting powerpop when the majors embrace the term and push limpdick posers, pushes on, starts Voxx Records to allegedly publish "purist" garage rock (by 1988 Bomp and Voxx are pretty much interchangeable enterprises), sparks a neo-garage movement in the 80's and 90's (Cramps, BJM, Warlocks) -- which lays the groundwork for the holy ascension (and current freefall) of the Strokes, Yeah-Yeah-Yeahs, Arctic Monkeys and Hives-- but on the other hand has helped sustain and spark Greenhornes, White Stripes, Racontours and so on so it wasn't all bad.

Back in the olden days before myspace and MP3 blogs, labels had to (and still do) put out limited run, low price compilations to generate consumer heat for their bands. God knows they weren't getting played on the radio -- college radio maybe but in that period most college radio just took cues from NME and The Face and played Brit Pop -- or anywhere else for that matter. So records like The Secret Team come out and they're kinda fun records - getting one to go through what were no doubt Greg's personal picks (he provides loving liner notes for each cut on the back of the album) from a hell of a diverse bunch - about the only think holding them together was lo-fi/DIY recordings and maybe a shared sense of bathos -- I mean how ridiculous is it to be in a garage band in 1988? Might as well laugh. Pretty damn ass cool if you ask me but it wasn't like you were going to quit your day or night job with the residuals or gig take (and so it goes today for like 9 million bands).

So shut up already and listen to some of the tunes. By the way, there's a funny copyright notice here:

All rights reversed; all wrongs reversed. Unauthorized duplication might actually do a lot of good -- go for it!

Some songs (but not all of the tunes):

"Can't You Do Anything Right?" - The Lazy Cowgirls - the band from the home state of punk (Indiana) that put together pure garage rock with influences ranging from (early) Beatles, Ramones and Black Flag. At the time, one of the biggest bands on Bomp! This comes from their Tapping The Source. I liked that record at the time but I just can't always get into this muffled, recording. Still, it's a pretty great cut to start out the weekend with. Bonus link: Required reading for Cowgirls fans from Cutting Edge mag. They call this track "high octane frenzy"...

"Speed Freak" - Stomachmouths. This band of degenerate Swedes were on the Voxx label and prove that that garage rock from Sweden didn't start and end with the Hives and International Noise Conspiracy (respectively). Hell, it didn't start with the Stomachmouths - they were out and out revivalists but weren't afraid to admit it. Too bad they aren't around today, though I doubt this ode to drugs would have been featured on any iTunes commercials. Fan tribute site.

"Mister Mist" - Holy Sisters of the Gaga Dada. Junkyard rock - found noises, silliness abound. A tripped out Siouxsie Banshee meets Spike Jones. No doubt Xiu Xiu copped some of their ideas from the Sisters. Anyone have a copy of their cover of "Pretty Woman"? Pass it to me, please, please, please?

'H-Bomb White Noise" - H-Bomb White Noise. Get rid of Mark Mothersbaugh (he's too smart) and cherry-pick a new Devo from a buncha German prog-goth rockers, stick 'em back in the garage and they probably would have invented something like this.

Awesome H-Bomb White Noise Fun Fact: The married founders and members of H-Bomb White Noise - Roderick and Randa Milliron - also own InterOrbital Systems, a rocket manufacturing and test site in the Mojave Desert. Their companies goal is to make interplanetary space travel affordable and reliable! The band practices in their hanger and they are currently selling the first orbital space tourism tickets for a private-sector rocket (set to launch in 2008; ticket price: $250,000 - rebated after two years). That's literally outta this world, maaan!

"Wolfpack" - N.Y. Wolfpack. Some Albany straight-edge that describes both the attraction of the "scene" to young men and its fascist no-fun undertones. Very Black Flag influenced and part of Greg Shaw's very small foray into hardcore and thrash so it's nihistorically interesting in that respect. A e-zine called How's Your Edge interviewed the, er, leader of the pack not too long ago and he basically recounts the history of his band as a series of fights.

"It Can Happen To You" - The Leopards - You gotta love the ironic sequencing here. About the wimpiest, hookiest, poppiest song comes right after the loudest most obnoxious song (a death-thrasher called "Killing Kranium"). Although the Kansas City-based Leopards were basically pigeon-holed as a bunch of Kinks lovers, this is more reminiscent of the most treacly moments of Paul McCartney. And I've made my peace with Paul so this is alright. Trouser Press entry for The Leopards.

"Voices of Several Tourists" "Tourists from Timenotyet" - Steppes. Astute listeners might suggest that The Steppes (or sometimes just Steppes) played some influence in some of the prog-psyche-garage bands as Flaming Lips, Breeders and Mercury Rev -- although I have little evidence they ever listened to 'em. This Irish band was supposedly very, very big in Europe but never gained much traction in the US. Some of the best stuff on the record and was enuf for me to order Harps and Hammers from Bomp!

"Burning of the Midnight Oil" World of Distortion - This Boston band has previously received the VM treatment but as this is about as close to the early hairy chest classic blues-rock sound (somewhat different from other stuff I've heard from the band) that this record has gotten, it's worth a note.

And even though it's out of sequence, there's nothing like some Dwarves to enjoy the grotesque absurdity of the current fucked up world: So I leave you with "Fuckhead"

Not to say the other cuts didn't have their moments. The Inn (jangly Electric Prunes) Laughing Soup Dish (damaged garage psyche), Last Drive (classic revivalist garage rock), Necropolis (thrashy death metal), The Raunchettes (funny bitch-punk rock) all deserve honorable mentions.

Great comp. Great record label. Amen - have a good weekend.


Links:
Go visit Bomp! Records. Most of the bands above have some vinyl or CD on their mailorder list (although this is long out of print). If you order, you'll get an email from Shaw's long-time partner Suzy Shaw. Plus they have a great new limited run purple vinyl Warlocks 7" that's one of those singles that sounds as good at 33 1/3 as it does at 45 RPM.

While you're there read Greg's 1994 history of Bomp! Records. Hell, print it out and read it to your kids as a bedtime story.

Various Artists: Footprints of God compilation

7" EP on Tulpa Records, 1988.

Joe Malinowski of Connecticut put out two of these 7" compilations in the late 80's. And evil Ronald Reagan on the cover and a funny Jimmy Swaggart drawing on the back.

These were all CT bands.

I'm laying down two of the cuts - both great for your Friday evening mix (assuming you are as twisted as me).

"Crystallize my Penis" - Masters of the Obvious (nee M.O.T.O.). Paul Caporino is a one man singer-songwriter-guitarist who has been sticking his long middle finger up the collective rectum of conventional rockstardom for about 18 years. This is one of his (perhaps the) first appearances on vinyl. Here he's vying to be the gross-out Kenne Highland. The highlight of the record. Paul Caporino has said he wrote it after he took care of a friend's cat who had to eat wet cat food or else the poor things penis would become crystallized. He also has admitted he wrote the song to get attention.

"Sandra's Getting Married" - Woodchipper. A skronky deconstruction of the John "Cougar" MellonCAMP / Springstine working class Tin Pan Alley so in vogue at the time... it's hinted in the liner notes that Damp fanzine editor Kevin Kraynick is on vocals. Their one and only recorded song and for that we can be thankful.

"Mother Goose and Mr. Hyde" - Eclectic Bitch. Before anyone had heard of post-partum depression, Dawn Cook was suffering and singing about it. Sounds very much like something Bongwater here. This band eventually became Bimbo Shrineheads (and then Shrinnirs and a few dozen other names) - anyway they recorded the sublime YLT-ish "I Will Die in Willimantic" (recommended) - the highlight of the second Footprints compilation - you can download that song and others here.

"Fuck you I'm God" - A Dying Gymnast. Scott Munroe's legacy to the lo-fi punk world. Thank you, Scott. Selfish Cunt ought to cover this if he hasn't stolen it already.

"Useless Things" - Isolation Farm. Sneering 4-track rock that namechecks all the stupid things about the '80's.

Links:

• This record is still available for purchase and I think it's the same price it was in 1988 ($3 PPD) when I bought it.
  
• M.O.T.O. is on yet another tour. I'll be there at his DC show.
• Writer Douglas Wolk is a fan of "Crystallize my Penis" - he says although it's "very, very, very dumb" that it "rocks with full-on commitment"
• Lost Shrinnirs website
• ...and Joe and Dawn's blog
• My old band appeared on Footprints of God, Volume II which thankfully appears to be no longer available (I'll blog it someday - fair warning)
  

Honor Role: Craig Olive "EP"

"Twist" b/w "Lives of Saints No. 135 (Naked Wife)" (Homestead Records) --- I don't like the A-side so much - "Twist" - there's a problem with the compression in the recording, I dunno, it bothers me. Judging it outside the production problems, it's okay, I guess, sounds a little bit like a lot of the Homestead indie-pop-rocks (Big Dipper, Antietam, early YLT) only a bit more limp and, well, again with this, it's poorly mixed or recorded. I almost didn't bother digitizing it.

But side two, the ostensible flipside, is totally different and one of the best examples of the meshing of that Emocore "genre" with its opposite partner of the era, Pigfuck (for lack of a better term - that Wire/Big Black/Squirrel Bait /Rapeman/Didgits eggcetra eggcetra shit)... I got no idea who Craig Olive is or why the song is entitled "Lives of Saints No. 135 (Naked Wife)" but I'm sure someone thought it was a good idea at the time.

Whatever, this song don't let up and they have to fade it out (early in my opinion) to get the room desteamed.

"Lives of Saints No. 135 (Naked Wife)"

Links:

• Some recently blogged rememberances of 1986 by vocalist Bob Shick (via TuningforkMedia)
• Honor Role German fan page
• Trouser calls them an "insider's post-punk saviour"
  

Buy this:
Every good rock collection deserves some HR.

And while Craig Olive (and Homestead) are long out of action but these songs and many other good ones from other albums (Rictus being their best) are still widely available on the retrospective Album (that's the name). Here's some froogle prices for ya.

United Mutation: Rainbow Person

7" EP on DSI Records, 1982

Psychedelic hardcore wasn't that welcome when it first hit the scene at least as I remember it - partic. here in DC despite United Mutation's presence on the beloved Alive and Kicking compilation but it sound great now. It's also one of the few recordings of the era where the "Inner Ear 'sound'" (where the microphones are in the basement and band plays in the living room - just kidding, Don Z.) works.

UM's singer is often credited (or blamed) as one of the originators of the "cookie monster" singing style although I don't think that's true - there were plenty of bands around this time singing in that fashion. Just pick up an old Pushead comp or some Jap hardcore. At any rate, "Infinite Regression" has a sort of version of that singing style so judge it for yourself.

Punkvinyl.com is a big lover of UM and has several reviews. This one includes a band history from bassist Jay.

"Infinite Regression" - an experimentalish metallic-psyche piece and reverby "lost" guitar
"Zone" - more pysche-metal that that is sort of hardcore Hawkwind with a bluesy metal vocal

Trying to beat the blogger.com outage - so sorry if this is rushed...

Haywood: "Trash Park"

Hmmmm... it's always strange to pick up these 7"'ers and then go and google these bands and see what became of them (as you can tell I mostly ignored indie music in the '90s in favor of videos and DVD collecting).

Anyway, these guys (Haywood as in "Hey! Wood...") went on to semi-respectable heights before breaking up in 2000 or so.

I've listened to the songs they have up on Myspace.com and while I don't see my self downloading them for posterity, they're okay in a indie pop-rock sortsa way. AS they go in Hitchhiker's Guide, "mostly harmless..."

Surprisingly, they seem to have enough of a following to command healthy prices on their out of print CDs (and this 7") and they have laudatory Epitonic bio (although don't the record companies pay for that shit? I dunno).

"Trash Park", I'm amazed to say, is so much better though, than what I've sampled from their later stuff. Produced by one of the members of Eggs, it toys a bit with the Teen Beat low-fi sound and has a "K" girl-boy lyrical theme. But you can tell the band prefers a much, much bigger and fully meshed sound tho' with tons of inneresting guitar noise, swirling sections and use of dynamics way long before it became a staple in the current young degenerates who populate MTV's early morning video trials. Their Wiki entry compares them with Superchunk (and band I know little of, sorry) and Modest Mouse (hmmm, Haywood isn't as anti-social...).

"Trash Park" then - it's a nice guy indie love song rock about hanging out with your girlie near the garbage dump. Simple and too the point. He likes looking at trash and he likes holding Jenny's (or whomever's) hand.

Pop-wise, it's not entirely memorable but then I hate songs that play over and over in my head!!!! --- At least while its playin', I'm tapping my athritic foot and boppin' my fat head - in fact, it's pretty downright sweet (as in the rocker vernacular - "sweeeeeeeet") although, uh, predictable in that pop-rock sorta way - although it's unfair to say that, I guess, as it probably wasn't as predictable when it first came out.

The flip side "Nerf Dreams" continues to mix twee girlfriend-boyfriend lyrics with heavy loud pop rock. It's also quite good. You can download it from the Epitonic site and check it out yourself.

These songs were released on Model for a Monument but that's as out of print as is this 7" so good luck (see Gemm link above). They do have other CDs still in print (see their Myspace, um, space).

SONG:
"Trash Park" - Haywood

Tell me what you think? Super lame as in let's bury these guys or where's the Haywood reunion gig? As you can tell, I'm somewhat in the middle - if I find Model for a Monument in a used bin for a decent price, I might splurge but not so interested in their latter stuff.

A Sort of Opposing View Point: Mark from Music for Robots hearts Haywood including the latter stuff that I have so casually and ignorantly dismissed - he loves them so much he put them on his first compilation. Yay, Mark.

Super Cool Bonus Link: Two Haywood members (Rob Viola and Ted Pauley, I think) and their Brooklyn pals have their own MP3 blog - Two Pounds and a 1/2 Pounds of Bacon.

It's sort of like a Vinyl Mine for '90s music (except with the lower standards one one needs to enjoy most 90's music - remember during most Democratic administrations: music bad, movies good and during Republican administrations: music good, movies bad). I'm just hurt they haven't blogrolled me - bastids. It only took me 14 years to review this promo, ha ha ha.

Has Anyone Seen Sam Lowry???

I'm a sucker for all the versions of the song "Brazil" - ANALOG arts ensemble blog has Carmen Miranda's version that I hadn't heard before. She's great for dreaming in technicolor of that "amber moon"...

And that escapist trait of the song was probably why it's such a great centerpiece of Terry Gilliam's great movie Brazil (there's certainly no other reference to Brazil in the movie!).

Here's Geoff Muldaur's version from the Brazil movie soundtrack:

"Brazil"

-- There's a bit of a cheesy Spike Jonze feel to this version but at the same time it's laidback - it could be just that with this melody and the latin percussion you can't help but lean back. The trumpets slur and at the end there's a big farting sound from a tuba(?). It's light and fun but played like maybe a bad drunken samba band might play it. I can see why Muldaur doesn't exactly reference it on his site. The soundtrack also has a dream version of the song by Kate Bush AND a full-up samba version of the song ...

As for Muldaur's Latin-swing version, I can do that Latin dance with the wrists going up and down and my feet shuffling (but only in my bedroom, alone - and no, I don't have a web-cam).

If you have another version of "Brazil" (and there are plenty - just peruse iTunes for one point of reference) - please post it or write about it and let me know where and I'll link to it.

Image found at JamesWagner.com's great art image blog

King Kong: "Movie Star" (1st recording)

7" EP (1989). The first King Kong EP came with absolutely no information about who was behind it - sort of a hipster in-joke I guess known to a chosen few - at least until some of the fanzines in on it left some hints that it was yet another Louisville spin-off of Squirrel Bait. This record is all (Tweez line-up) Slint and I suppose a bit of a collector's item - Slint disappears in the later records and it's mostly (Tweez) bassist Ethan Buckler and guests.

The first side has two songs -- "Movie Star," the opener is the centerpiece and the more ha-ha pedestrian (get it?) "Camel's Walk Song." Side two has an extended song called "Chicken Shit." What unifies these songs are a sort of hipster detachment (some have compared it to B-52s and I suppose it was in that respect) and a new wave funk-rock styel. In later recordings, Kong morphed away from this - and while I would classify this recording as "post-hardcore" - it seems the later stuff was more firmly entrenched in a pre-hardcore attitude (blues, soul, conceptual, albums, etc.).

For my money, "Movie Star" is the best throw-down of the bunch. OK, so forget the trite lyrics (movie stars are clueless, shallow morons, we know this), and isntead groove on surprising classic blues-funk boogie-woogie new wave dance thang that kicks [substitute your favorite thing to kick].

It's for cool puppet robots, I guess (ooh, I have received the hidden message - movie stars are cool puppet robots! Wowie-zowie). For reasons unclear and most unfortunately, "Movie Star" ends abruptly - I would have extended it a bit more and maybe trashed "Camel's Walk" (a lesser piece in several ways).

Side two's "Chicken Shit" also has a funky groove and some awesomely recorded drums for the period / venue - was Albini behind this?... but in contrast to "Movie Star" - it overstays its welcome with a repetitive two-minute coda in which Buckler monotonically intones "anything but that" while someone squawks like a chicken - ha ha. Anything but that indeed.

Even if you don't like what Slint became (I don't, in case you care), you have to admit that the Bucker-Pajo/McMahan-Walford bass-guitar-drum combo was very, very, very boss (not to denigrate Brashear, he's a groovy cat too) and with them playin' this here white boy funk, that's enough of a reason to get this record. It was reissued as a CD single last year so what're waiting for?

This has one of my all-time favorite 7" covers - the giant ape angrily ascending over the water and threatening to overpower the sun makes the bright colors, um, ironic. But those big ape ears make it kinda funny at the same time. Note the scotch tape at the bottom - that's the way it came. I love seeing the evidence of hand-assembled records...

Song:
"Movie Star" - King Kong

Links:
- A 1995ish interview with Ethan Buckler via Thrust Electronic Webzine
- King Kong's discography, Drag City home page
- King Kong Website is hopelessly out of date but this FAQ is written by Buckler

I'll be doing 7"'ers all week.

Antietam: Music From Elba

In a sense, Music from Elba (Homestead HMS-068) is supposed to be a progression from Antietam's self-titled debut album, released just the year before. It also seems to be a commentary on their status in Louisville - Elba was the place of exile for Napoleon and there's more of a concerted effort to explore their mid-Western / Southern roots of the Kentucky border state. The album seems to be answering the question - just what does an art-punk band from Lousiville Kentucky sound like? That they can't settle on an answer is what makes the album compelling in spite of its faults.

So obviously, there's more roots showing here - nods are made towards country, folk and even square dance music. There's also still the ample love for San Francisco acid rock and Beach Boys pop that was in the debut album but we also hear obvious tributes to Antietam's contemporaries - X, minutemen, Meat Puppets, Feelies. If Elba was a perfume it would be a mixture of leather, patchoulli oil and freshly cut hay. One also hears echoes of the band's precursor's - Babylon Dance Band (Key and Harris's art punk outfit) and Your Food (Wolf Knapp's roots hardcore band). As a result, the band tries to go both for the head (art punk) and the gut (roots hardcore) and that sometimes causes what critics would call "stylistic problems" a nd what I would call songs that fall flat on their faces.

There's also a jittery, overly caffenated feel in some of the songs that wasn't present in the sort of relaxed first album. The sound isn't great either but it was the rare independent record that lucked into a good production. On vinyl, it doesn't have the "tinniness' that some have claimed but there are problems with the mix - especially in songs where the lyrics are lost in the frantic guitar and bass playing. As was the case with a lot of these 80's indie albums, the drums are often amateurishly mic'ed and then given too much prominence in the mix. But even with that, the best recordings of that era can compensate for those problems by the quality of songs and enthusiasm, spirit and tone of the playing. That's not the case with some of the songs here, though, and I wouldn't recommend this as their best effort.

The most interesting compositions are either written or co-written by bassist Wolf Knapp - who left the band when they moved to New York City - he also takes the most chances which is good in and of itself but when the band can't keep up, the songs accordingly suffer. "M.V. Augusta" appears to be about a man riding his motorcycle around town - it shifts between a minutemen-style narrative of a bike ride and instrumentals embellished by Danna (Fetchin' Bones) Pentes' violin breaks -- including a square dance, a Meat Puppets meet Scarlet Rivera style lament -- the shifts, though, are abrupt and the drummer seems lost at times. Another composition "The Haunting of Rocky Face Ridge" (which closes the album) is written by the entire band but has Knapp's hand all over it. It also boasts a complex song structure (three movements and coda), vocal trade-offs and instrumental breaks and aspires to be something special but it just isn't a stand-out and suffers from some real amateur hour playing all around.

Knapp's other songs, though, are my favorites of the album even if they are obvious tributes to some of the more prominent roots-punk bands of the time -- there's X ("Until Now", co-written with Harris) and The Meat Puppets ("Concord") peaking out from behind the curtain in the best of them. The other obvious tribute is Knapp's "War Is (The Health of the State)" which sounds like a mash-up of The Knitters with d. boon's minutemen but just not as intense (and that scary crash and smash sound the minutemen had in the studio).

At any rate, I wonder if the band had spent more time rehearsing and improving these songs, whether this might have been more of a stand-out. Instead, it's a warm-up for things to come and also begs the question of "what might have been" had Knapp continued with the band.


Band line-up:
Tim Harris - Bass, Guitar, Vocals (seated front)
Tara Key - guitars, vocals (left with open mouth)
Wolf Knapp - bass, vocals (top right)
Sean Mulhall - Drums, mouth harp (top left)
Danna Pentes - Violin (right of Tara Key)
Albert Garzon - producer (middle, beard, glasses)

Songs:

"Fontaine Ferry" - apparently named after a controversial amusement park in Kentucky that was closed in 1969 after youth riots, this instrumental provides a chance to hear the band's sound unencumbered by vocals. Written by Tim Harris.

"Until Now" - You'll hear the obvious X influence but the mid-song vocal break takes the song into another dimension

"Concord" - Meat Puppets taking a ride on a Jefferson Airplane.

This album is out of print but can be found on E-Bay or used record stores.

What others have said:

New York Times:

"But it's passion, not complexity, that makes Antietam's music so impressive. The clinical precision of old-fashioned progressive-rock bands (who often played simpler music) isn't for Antietam; band members pick and strum and sing as if caught in a whirlwind. The lyrics on Antietam's new album, ''Music From Elba,'' are about surviving while structures collapse; the music builds new structures from fragments and clings to them with desperate urgency." - live review by Jon Pareles, New York Times, 1986

Trouser Press Guide to 90's Rock:

"The two mid-80's releases are marred by an over-abundance of restraint: just when Key and her bass playing significant other Tim Harris start to approach lift-off, they think better of it and remain content to chuf on terra firma. There's nothing really wrong with the discs - save the sub-standard harmonizing that makes X sounds like the New Christy Minstrels - but the songs are a bit too inconspicious, too gentle to really grab the listener by the lapels." (David Sprague)

Scaruffi:

A school was being born in Kentucky that would be influential throughout the 1990s. Its early leaders were bands at the crossroads between roots-rock and noise-rock, and Tara Key's Antietam were the most typical in bridging those two styles, i.e. the South and Sonic Youth, the rural and the urban sound, tradition and modernism.

All Music Guide:

Although the R.E.M. comparison no longer holds up, there's a moody, near-psychedelic feel to this quietly intense album that shows a definite similarity between Antietam and the mid-'80s Hoboken bands such as the Feelies and the Individuals. (Stewart Mason)

Circular free association fun: Antietam the band was formed in Louisville on Derby Day, 1984. A horse named Swale won the Derby that day. A swale is a "depression in the earth." Antietam was named after a Civil War Battle that occurred on September 17, 1892. The "Bloody Lane" is an 800-yard "sunken road" - or a "depression in the earth" is one of the more notorious sections of the Antietam battlefield. Music from Elba includes an anti-war song "War is (the health of the state)" Another song from Elba is called "The Haunting of Rocky Face Ridge" home of another Civil War Battle in Georgia. Georgia Hubley produced the third Antietam album, Burgoo, which is a traditional Kentucky stew served on Derby Day.

Links:
Antietam's Myspace streams songs from their most recent album (Victory Park), one cut from their 1994 Rope-a-Dope and a 2004 Esopus compilation cut.

Carrot Top Records

Best of SXSW 2006 (U-Z, Loose Ends)

Caption: Bobby Bare is so excited about playing Austin, he can't keep his hands out of his pants....

Or should I call this "Best of South Of" - as the Washington Post tells us that's how all the "hipsters" refer to SxSW - someone has called me a hipster in their de.lic.ious (whatever!?) capsule description as in "hipster digs through his record collection."

I am not nor have I ever been a hipster. I have always been outsider - I don't have a funny haircut, a hipster job, I'm afraid of tattoo parlors and my gut makes any ironic t-shirt look, well, ironically ironic.

So, I will continue to refer to it as "Best of SXSW" - but will pronounce it "SIXSOO" ...

At any rate - this LAST (applause, applause) posting goes into the remainder of the alphabet and ties up loose ends - namely the A-G songs that were in the second bit-torrent, which hadn't been released when I started this.

First, let's do the honorable mentions. The following were a bunch of heretofore unknown (to me) bands that had songs that almost made the cut - let me know if I'm wrong not to give them 5 stars: The Fever, Uncut, volcano! and Willy Mason. Here's some of the notable has-be--- I mean comeback: Chris Stamey, The Effigies, Garland Jeffries, Zolar X and Billy Bragg. And finally, here are the indie mp3 blog darlings that you probably have already downloaded to death elsewhere but are worth checking out: Band of Horses, The Boy Least Likely To, Earlimart, The Weepies and Wooden Wand.

Caption: Who's your Ume, bitch?

Ume - "Wake" - I'm glad I kept listening to this as the beginning is sort of a ho-hum doom metal that sounds like it was recorded in the living room but then Lauren Larson's ice-chipped voice starts, uh, crooning and it all kinda makes even less sense - which in effect becomes the charm of the song. She sounds like my cat used to sound when he had a sore throat. The song is kinda like a lost prog-diddle from Scrawl's Smallmouth.

Vague Angels - "The Princess and the Newt" - Chris Leo's lyrics read like the internal voice of a novelist which, in fact, he is. Here he's in bed trying to scribble lyrics and hold a conversation with his girlfriend, which is apparently near impossible.

Very Be Careful - "El Camionero" - Vallenata (Columbian folk) music is accordion, bass and percussion, mostly and its the specialty of this L.A. Band. Gotta love their band name.

The Weird Weeds - "Holy Train Wrecks" - Like Animal Collective, Weird Weeds use acoustic guitar folk as a jumping off point to make what is in its essential "art" music - here describing the quiet before and after an accident.

Whitehouse - "Munkisi Munkondi" - And here is art music on the opposite end of the spectrum. Whitehouse have only gotten better at pushing the envelope of industrial-sound based music. Although, I'm wondering why they're wasting their time in Austin when they could be headlining the No Fun Fest.

WHY? - "Rubber Traits" - The lyrics sound like something from Trent Reznor while the music is pure Death Cab meets Brian Wilson. Dog lovers will love the accompanying video.

Winterpills - "Pills for Sara" - Pretty little fluff-folk peace with "achingly beautiful" (spot the indie cliche catchphrase) harmonies.

Xiu Xiu - "Muppet Face" - I love Xiu Xiu. Only Jamie could conflate the death of a little kitten into the politics of the day and then back it up with a turkey call. Has the best huhwhah? lyrics since, well, "support our troops, oh!":

pull down your pants by the shi'ites
as I run my tongue over your gums

Or:

oh God, what a donkey
it smells like Fallujah
a hammock rod
this shirt clings like dander
this kiss scrapes like rust

Auktyon - "My Love" - The only Russian band in Austin this weekend will be Auktyon - who combine Russian folk rhythms, sensibilities and melodies with that alt-rock thing. For the very stupid (like me), think Pogues from St. Petersburg, Russia. Picture via Laura Williams

Bettye LaVette - "Down to Zero" - Joan Armatrading's original version was laced with sympathy for the ex-boyfriend who finds himself on the reverse rebound -- probably because Armatrading could relate - after all, he broke up with her first, right? Bettye retains almost none of that sympathy and instead seems to want to rub ex-boyfriend's sad sack face in the dirt -- it's only at the very end that she relents and opens the door for the poor little cur. Great soul update of a 70's under-rated classic.

Billy Faier - "New World Coming" - With all the comeback mania of 60's songwriter-folkies, Faier seems poised, for well, something - I mean he's gotta be in his 70's by now, so he's due for it. And he's no Johnny-Came-Never, he's been around playing the coffeehouses forever, has a resume stretching back to the 50's and can meaningfully improvise on the banjo - most of this 7 some minute song is basically improv that surrounds a version of Faier's Seegerish signature song from 1973 sung in Faier's now gravel-laced voice.

Bobby Bare (picture at top of posting) - "Are You Sincere?" - Weren't bobbysoxers like the emo-kids of the 50's? Here's a third bookend to Elvis's "Are You Lonely Tonight" and Nat King Cole's "Ramblin' Rose" - from Mr. Bare, who was recently pulled out of retirement by his indie-rock son (who is also playing at the festival) because, well, everything that was old and good is hip once again. Check out that bass line in the beginning and tell me you don't think of something James McNew would do. Check out the three-girl backup vocals intoning "Bobby, Bobby, Bobby" and while its kinda cheesy, you only wish you had a three-girl back chorus singing your name.

The Bronx - "Heart Attack American" - Someone has a big hardcore punk collection and even updates the sound a little with some v. tight guitar and drum flourishes. Easily the best HC punk song in the entire 932 song collection, if that means anything to ya. They're about to go onto a major label (Island), so get 'em before they start to suck.

Caroline - "Where's My Love" - She (pictured left) sleeps in her recording studio and sings as if she's lived in America all her life. Pitchfork call it: "a beautiful experiment in minimalist pop arrangements and angelic vocals" and all the emo-boys are already crushing on her but don't hold that against her.

Clipd Beaks - "Smoke Me When I'm Gone" - I'd say smoke it now before they're gone. Best use of analog reverb I've heard this year.

Dengue Fever - "Sni Bong" - Heavily textured Cambodian pop music by way of L.A. (and Cambodia).

Diamond Nights - "Destination Diamonds" - Powerful cock-rock in very tighty whiteys - open your mouth, no teeth please. Perfect music for the soundtrack of a yet to be unwritten movie about stupid co-eds (paging Lohan, Spears and Simpson). Currently looking for groupies to complement their bullet belts (really, I'm not kidding - this is a kool kut).

The Drift - "Invisible Cities" - Ambient, sound-effect-laden dub-bop from San Francisco.

epo-555 - "Il Presidente" - Ok, lad os sige - Disse Danes er afsindicated kraft halvtosset og cookeis gerne nå til vor landskab og fuck al vor nubiles chicks and boystuds. De må af sted standsede!!!!

Shearwater - "I Can't Wait" - I had passed this by in an earlier posting but it came up on the Shuffle and so I'm giving it that proverbial American second chance. And they're the only band that get this honor this year, so isn't there like an award? Why yes, there is - Shearwater, I have an unopened copy of The Meatmen's War of the Superbikes that is yours for the claiming. And since M comes before O, you can file it right next to all those Okkervil River CDs you had to go buy.


NEW UPDATE AT TEEN GLUE SNIFFER!

Best of SXSW 2006 (S-T)

Caption: The Sundresses Light One Up for John Ashcroft

Argggghhhh... if "S" stands for "Saturation," then "T" stands for "Thirsty" well, that today's paradox. So much crap to drown in and then so little fine wine to drink of ...

I remember last year around this time, asking why I decided to take this on when I could be spinning some old vinyl.... or new (I just got a dumptruck load of 7" records recently).

But we're coming into the homestretch... one final post after this.

Here's the songs:

Sailboats Are White - "Veto" - Dischordant and disorienting is exactly what I think they were going for - one of the lyrics you pull out of the knife tornado that is this song is "who am I?"... indeed...

Sam Baker - "Waves" - A real tear-jerker this. Baker, who nearly died in a Peruvian terrorist attack, came back to life and started scribbling songs. This sounds like Dylan in his C&W phase, if that means anything to you.

Sarah Hepburn - "Hey...OK" - Has that Breeders cool feel but with a slick sound and a standout guitar riff. Music for wearing sunglasses to and then retching over the side of your convertible in middle of the summer.

Sean Smith - "bittersweet tobacco farewell" - The touchstones are clearly Fahey and acoustic Kakouen (sans vocals, thank you). A steel guitar instrumental for all the guitar fans.

Spinto Band - "Oh Mandy" - I know I'll hate myself in the morning for loving this sugary indie pop golem - the vocals whine, the band is overly cloying but I can't help but wishing I had a life that this was the soundtrack to. Or maybe I'm wishing that this is the soundtrack to the life of someone I wanna beat up. I'll stand by to take the slings and arrows now. I'm am St. Stephen Spinto.

SSM - "Exit Strategy" - In the year 3006, they will probably still be playing garage punk rock in Detroit and it will still be sounding fresh and great.

The Sundresses - "The Love Song" - Slide guitars and Delta blues-hop is usually not what you would associate with political lyrics (think minutemen crossed with Doors) but rock comes in endless combinations - celebrate diversity, maaaaan.

Tapes 'n Tapes - "Cowbell" - So, last year I jumped on the CYHSY bandwagon for about 15 minutes - then I heard the rest of the album. This year's model is Tapes who Pitchfork recently smeared wet lipsticky kisses all over. This is sort of a rock version of one of those Russian dances where you cross your arms and get your ass way down low and shoot your feet out from below - I hear buzz guitar, flute, hand claps, non-annoying singer and I'm sorry to report no cowbell.

Tarantula A.D. - "Who Took Berlin (part i)" - I was reading an article recently where Radiohead was claiming that the reason they hadn't signed onto iTunes was because offering individual song for download would degrade and besmirch the integrity of The Album. I can't speak for Radiohead (nor do I want the dry cleaning bill I'll amass if I try to) but taking a cut from this, one of my favorite albums from last year, seems unfair since it's so all over the place (doom metal, gloom folk, orchestral rock, prog, etc.) and deserves a close listening in its entirety (unlike, say, Hail to the Thief, which deserves nary a listen). But if any one cut can stand alone it's this one, a classical rock variation on what sounds like wistful midevil army campfire song - the song you sing after you've lost the battle.


Th' Faith Healers - "This Time" - Another 90's band reunites for a lap around the states and Europe - promoting their recent Peel Sessions CD (they played for BBC five times). If you missed these guys first time around, as I did, this song reminds me of The Breeders trying to write a Dinosaur Jr tribute song.

Times New Viking - "We Got Rocket" - If any band last year set out to destroy capital R Rock - which is generally in the doldrums - and start rebuilding it shorn of all the current bullshit that it is mired in, it was Times New Viking with their incredible debut album (on Siltbreeze). Looking forward to find out where they go next.

Tom Brosseau - "West of Town" - One of those pretty folk pop songs that makes time stand still and makes you stare into space as the songwriter paints his picture for you.

The Trashies - "Bad Check" - Some scum rock from Seattle preaching good advice for all those Austin visitors ("spent all your money on booze and weed? / write a bad check, write a bad check") that I'm sure the locals will appreciate.

Tunng - "Tale From Black" - Mike Lindsay, who's been a one man folk and electronic collective, puts together the band for a short Texas tour - in Austin, they're playing with Man Man and n0 Things on Thursday and that sounds like much better thing than I'm gonna be doing on Thursday.

Tom Russell (pictured right) - "Grapevine" - This goes out to Bubba who I'm sure is still "writing movies in his head at night." Glen Campbell but with only a smidgen of country schmaltz.

The Twilight Singers - "Teenage Wristband" - Not a perfect song in my view (the vocals are a bit overcooked) but all honorifics to Greg Dulli, ex-Afghan Whigs are due. Except with something like two albums out since this came out (in 2003), why not pull out something from the newer recordings, Greg?

Saved Rounds: Just wanted to note that Savage Republic, a sort of B-list art punk band that was on the outskirts of the L.A. 1st/2nd wave SST teenage riot will be reuniting here on Friday. Also, if you want a laugh, Foo Fighters drummer will be "showcasing" his songwriting project. If you failed to pick up Sia's "Breathe" - the closing song from Six Feet Under - when it was making all the rounds of the Cool Kids Blogs, here's your chance to score a legal copy. Oh look, The Secret Machines are still shilling the same old song.

Best of SXSW 2006 (Q-R)

Your River City Tanlines are showing

...this is just a quickie cuz I gotta gotta break out of here for some fambly business.

So, here's what I think is notable in the Q-R run of the SXSW Bittorrent - all songs guarenteed listened to for at least 45 seconds... I'll try and complete the rest next week (whew):

Qien, es Boom! - "Brittle Britches" - OK indie pop that takes cues from Paul Simon and just about every other indie pop band.

Rachel Goldstar - "Christmas Day" - Languid guitar shoeglaze psyche from ex-Experimental Aircraft Rachel Staggs.

Ralph White - "Morning Sickness" - Sounds like a live recording of this banjo singer-songwriter type. White has that hippie hillbilly outsider feel of Johnny Dowd or Michael Hurley often adding in notes to fit his lyrics or stopping mid-song to exclaim thank you apropros of nothing.

Real Ones - "Ballad of an Old Man" - What the Pogues did for American-Irish bar last calls with "Body of An American", I'm sure these guys are gonna do for all those American-Norwegian bars that are popping up everywhere. If you get drunk enough, you'll even forgive the mid-song guitar solo and sing along with the shambling Polyphonic Spree-ish chorus.

River City Tanlines - "Black Knight" - Some ol' fashioned punk rock like Runaways jamming with Ramones.


Ronny Elliot - "Mr. Edison's Electric Chair" - He's lucky I like Johnny Cash so much otherwise I'd say this is stone-cold rip-off of The Man in Black. But the way I see it, this is more a not-so-embarrassing tribute, with a slight tongue in cheek, and we can never get enough murder ballads.

Rosanne Cash - "Black Cadillac" - Speaking of Johnny Cash.... Rosanne sings a song for her Dad (his voice is sampled in the beginning). I don't really like this predictable C&W song but am including it mainly for the tribute lyrics/historical interest. The MP3 has some encoding errors so there's an annoying digital "sn-snitch" every few seconds. Picture via Richard Silverstein. R.I.P. JC...


Ryan McPhun and the Ruby Suns - "Maasai Mara" - More oddball Brian Wilson Unbound stuff - this time from New Zealand.

Best of SXSW 2006 (K-M)

Lots of stuff I had a hard time throwing out so I'll just provide some quick links to their page.

The first group are kinda regular MP3 blog mainstays and don't need any further love from me - and I wasn't that ga-ga over their tracks anyway: Most Serene Republic, Magic Numbers and Lady Sovereign (this year's M.I.A.)

The others were songs I've previously linked to and with the exception of the last one, still like: Man Man, Magnolia Electric Company, Minni-Thins and Madagascar.

Another group are major label pseudo-controverial but not all that awful: Dreamworks' bad boys - Living Things and Geffen's Wilson-Phillips for the Aughties - The Like.

And finally just bands that didn't make the cut but were noteworthy: Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey, too L.A. for me "biker punks" Lords of Altamount, what-the-fug Japanese singer Konimotu Takeharu, Sub-Pop's latest gem-in-the-rough Kelley Stoltz and the Flaming Lips meets American Analog Set Mazarin...

Now onto my picks:

King Straggler (pictured right) - "Good Man" - All the things I'm not. About the most trad. country-folk I'm gonna get here.

The Kingdom - "I Am Constellation" - A bizzare re-imagining of Baltimore Colt Johnny Unitas as a cluster of stars blazing in the night with a strong GBV influence.

Laura Viers - "Galaxies" - This years singer-songwriter girl with glasses model has a right pretty song here in case you haven't already snagged it during her acoustic tour with Colin Meloy.

Lions - "Movement" - I've got a few punk songs that just happened to come out in a row. Something about bands with names that start with "L". Lions are an Austin group that do pounding hardcore and then morph into sludgey metal with reverb-turned-up-to-11 on a guy who sounds like Dylan-gone-wild. If that sounds familiar, so what - you need some of this in your life. Sounds like they've played their amplifiers so hard their about to burst into flames.

Live Fast Die - "Forged in Flames" - They've really let themselves go and they don't care. Crappy recording works fine for this fuzzy Ramones update. Playing with the DC Snipers on Saturday night.
Lonelady - "Hi Ho Bastard" - My lady who is a friend says, "finally a song about you." Grrr... there's a reason this lady (pictured left) is alone. This year's outsider.

The Longcut - "Transition" - British "dance music" (that's what they call any band in the UK who play songs in 4/4) with a healthy respect for fellow Manchesterites Joy Division. Really, so far, this is the cream of the crop coming across the pond this week. Great spazz-out at the 2:30 mark. Wait for it. Uhhnn...

Love of Diagrams - "No Way Out" - The best punk song of 2005 that you never heard. Why? Because the CD was only distributed in Australia.

The Low Lows - "The Low Lows" - OK, all the indie-alt-country types can come out from behind their futons. The punk set is over. Here's the cremains of Parker and Lily's divorce playing a Gothic This Mortal Coil. Over and over until all the demons are exorcised. Lily still plays with them in the studio but she won't tour with her ex-husband again.

The M's - "Future Women" - You almost expect this to be performed by a Salvation Army band around a camp fire. Nice sound - original enough that I can't draw many comparisons.

The Mammals - "Father William" - A guitar-banjo-violin-drums and bass western band. Wouldn't be surprised if this story song makes it to the Deadwood Season 3 soundtrack.

Maneja Beto - "Ciudadano" - An alt-Latin piece with an electric mariachi hook. Not Los Lonely Boys so they won't be winning any Grammies anytime soon.

Metric - "Monster Hospital" - They update Bobby Fuller's "I Fought The Law" in a bizarre way - reimagined as a monster movie as an analogy for the struggle against "the war"... About the closest I would go to the prevailing MTV punk pop this week.

Minsk - "bloodletting and forgetting" - This doom-psyche-metal piece should be called "forgetting and bloodletting" as the violent release comes near the end after a slow psychological build-up.

Mittens on Strings - "The Most Complete Skeleton Ever Found" - Sung from the perspective of the "most complete" fossil (a tiny fish) who looks forward to the day that kids will "love me" and "he'll be studied in the future / but the Brontosaurus is only / going to fuel a Ford Taurus"... Best band name of this set.


The Mudville Project - "The Tea" - Uncle Tupelo fronted by Lou Reed. Other than that I don't know why I like it but I do.

My Brightest Diamond (pictured right) - "Golden Star" - One of the standouts of the mostly tedkous Asthmatic Kitty compilation earlier this year was MBD. Who is she and where did she get that pretty voice and songwriting chops? Comparisons to Kate Bush are made in the liner notes and that's not a bad thing.

My Way My Love - "Captain" - Oddball Japanese band led by a guy named Yukio Maraka who sings like an American and lays disconcerting abrasive static and sirens over the verses. Indie-kids, there's nothing wrong with music that makes you uncomfortable. Noise-children, your new God is current deplaning. If Love of Diagrams had the best punk song of 2005, here's one for the running in 2006.

Best of SXSW 2006 (H-J) - The Desperate Mix

Jana Hunter is just desperate to get home...

A comment left by somebody on a previous thread notes that SXSW is too "desperate and business-like" for his tastes. This person has a point - SXSW is defined by the desperate fans trying to get into the "right" shows, the desperate bands looking for attention and deals, the desperate A&R guys looking for the next big thing and the desperate Austin-ites just trying to get home. But there's something distinctly American about it all - I know of nothing that even comes close to weeklong influx of musicians, filmmakers, fans in the world, the blatant commercialism and covert whoring (maybe Sundance).

So in honor of that commentator - and we love our commentators as there are so few of them - we'll call this the SXSW H through J Desperate Mix.

The High Violets - "Sun Baby" - Neo-shoogass pop from Portland, Or opens up the set. Dig the power chords.

Desperate scale: 6 - they're shagging a new album and have some miles on their tires already (pictured left)

Headlights - "Tokyo" - Might as well keep up the shoegaze - or maybe shoeglaze-electro? Love these opening lyrics: "You're walking / walking slow / But you gotta move fast / In Tokyo" and the just off the left speaker female backup vocals.

Desperate scale: 2 - these guys got it going on, it's up to the rest of the world to figure it out.

Healthy White Baby - "Soul" - Picking things up in the third song is one of my cardinal rules of a successful mix tape and this 60's R&B-style rocker does the trick.

Desperate scale: 4 - any band who is aping the Stones in 2006 can't be that concerned about a career.

Ill Ease - "One Hell of a Bender" - Nice to see someone representing the old lo-fi pop "K" sound here as most of those folks in Olympia avoid such "desperate and businesslike" spectacles. There's a little bit of a Scrawl/Waitresses vibe here, too - especially with the lyrics. Sample lyrics grab: "I remember the face and I remember the smile / And that's the last thing I remember for awhile..."

Desperate scale: 7 - First, it's a song about getting wasted and not knowing who you fucked and what's up with Ill Ease's website not showing any in-focus or close-up pictures of its main performer/song-writer?

Happy Flowers - "They Cleaned Out My Cut With a Wirebrush" - This will be the dance sensation of season - I'm looking forward to the dance remix and seeing hipsters writhing around the dance floor. Mr. Horribly-Charred Infant and Dave Anus return from Foster Home for the Abused and Disabused to do another triumphant tour.

Desperate scale: 10 - They're real desperate, desperate to continue this joke for as long as possible.

Helios Creed/Chrome - "Got to Have Someone" - Helios is also back and hopefully it won't be the total fuck-up that his last comeback (2000) was. If the rest of his new album is anything like this, it's a welcome return of Buttholes-tastic noise-rock (and yes, I know, Chrome came before the Buttholes).

Desperate scale: 1 - Helios is beyond desperate and extra deduction points for his business-like promo photograph (right).

Instruments - "When the Stars Shine" - Whoa, where did these freaks come from? The answer: Athens, GA which is increasingly reestablishing itself as a new music power center (Liz Durette, Of Montreal, plus the dozen or so attending this year's festival) Sounds a bit like Akron/Family in their more mellow moments.

Desperate scale: 4 - Some will say freak-folk is so over but I say M. Gira, here's your next big thing (well, not really - having not heard the rest of the album)



Jasmine Star - "Guide Us" - Speaking of Liz Durette, here's another haunting/haunted ghoul thing except unlike Durette who "died" in the 60's, Jasmine seems to have expired in the 50's. (pictured left).

Desperate scale: 3 - Well, it's probably her real name but my first thought was that this was an aspiring Pop Tart. Couldn't be further from the truth.

Jana Hunter - "Farm, CA." - Devendra's best friend who is a girl drops one of her trademark songs, an easy country-folk song that would have gone well on the Cold Mountain soundtrack. Currently touring with the Castanets.

Desperate scale: 2 - She's has pretty much done what she's set out to do but we'll give her one penalty point for the myspace page.

The Jason Seed Elixir Ensemble - "The Ol' Striped Carp" - Jazz-prog samba sing-song with vibes, sax, a hep drummer, a nice mid-song Jeff Beck-style guitar solo and Jason Seed's smooth vocals make this a welcome side-trip on our mix.

Desperate scale: 1 - Virtually no commercial potential here and just one of many "projects" for Jason means he's a functioning professional musician who doesn't need all the hype crap.

Jesca Hoop - "Seed of Wonder" - I know you're probably getting tired of these female singer-songwriter pieces but this one is different - a sort of one-guitar plus vocal harmonies (a la Larkin Grimm but in tune) and a pseudo-reggae feel.

Desperate scale: 6 - Well, it's not her fault that Nic Harcourt likes her and hence she's like the next big thing in L.A. but does she have to quote the NY Times story about Harcourt that describes her as if it's a NY Times story about her?

Humbert - "the ladybug and the beetle" - Gentle hippie psychedelia with a surprising hard texture to it... which perfectly describes the flower-laden, palm treed but broke-down hometown of Humbert - Hialeah, Fla where I once bummed around for a season hanging out with horse groomers and the scum of the town. I can see that it's a fertile area for the aspiring songwriter. You have to see the fantastic video that accompanies this song. Open it up in a new window as it takes awhile to load.

Desperate scale: 6 - they quote The Big Takeover review of their CD in their SXSW liner notes ("Cheers, toast... I absolutely love this disc!") - but I'll be gentle as I'm probably going to buy it (though not on Jack's recommendation! Cheers! Toast!).

Hologram - "bird" - Pop eats Mono. Even more shoegazer (what is it about shoegaze and bands that start with "H"?) but this time from Japan.

Desperate scale: 6 - Everybody knows that Mono will eat Pop.

Jim Noir - "My Patch" - Beatles/Beach Boy laptop music but don't let that unsell it for you - Noir has a knack for tight harmonic pop that makes this worth a spin on your hard drive.

Desperate scale: 9 - "currently looking for a label" after three sold-out 7" ... extra deduction for wearing a Charlie Chaplin suit.

The Happy Bullets - "The Vice and Virtue Ministry" - Love the faux-guitar minuet and the obvious Kinks tribute (foppish vocals, song title) but are they really from Dallas, Texas??

Desperate scale: 5 - Had they been from, like, Leeds or London, I woulda given them a 10.

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - "Do You Wanna (Come Walk With Me)" - ex-Belle and ex-Tree make pretty music together in this slightly creepy paean to statutory rape. The rest of the album is recommended especially if you like sussing out what folk song they've rewickered.

Desperate scale: Isobel: 8 (this is her big breakout), Lanegan: 6 (this builds on his great solo album and makes up for that other band he was in - Queens something)

Sylvester on Mp3 Album Blogs

Nick Sylvester rants away about this particular virulent breed (although he indirectly - and unfairly - implicates Aquarium Drunkard).

The worst of these blogs post entire albums, steal onesheet copy, utilize free hosting services (against the terms of service of those services incidentally) and then rake in advertising dollars as the hit rates go up.

Not really looking to get into the morality discussion, or the "what blogs can and can't do, what's a blog's real function, etc" one. We can take for granted that upping a new album from a living, breathing artist who supports himself off this stuff or wants to--that's pretty shitty, even if you disclaim that "All music posted here is for a 24 hour testing period. It is not my responsibility to make sure that you follow these rules, it is your own. I will not be held accountable."

MP3song blogs can rationalize teasing an album, drumming up interest, etc. The best of them have focus past NEW SHIT NEW SHIT, either curating old with new or taking advantage of the internet's collective memory to preserve some random seven-inch or mixtape freestyle nobody will remember if someone doesn't decide it should be.

Verbatim (that's my new unhip way of saying "Word") to that.

However, Sylvester also posits that this will lead to even shorter cycle lives for albums that deserve a longer "listening period" - I'm not sure I totally agree with that. Of course, Sylvester likes mostly shitty music so maybe the short life span he worries about has to do with that. No, good albums were "lost" just as much in the 60's as they are today. Eventually the shitty stuff gets flushed or turned into an object of nostalgic derision.

UPDATE (8:11 PM): Nick has taken down the link to Aquarium Drunkard's hit rate page...