Sweden isn't particularly renowned for its surf culture. However, the Langhorns (the three lads pictured above) don't care, and recorded their 1998 self-titled with Hawaiian shirts and surfs.
Of course, their dedication to surf doesn't stop at the aesthetics of their cover art. Tremolo picking, heavy reverb and sweet overdrive characterize the inspired blues and Hispanic-influenced licks that compose these instrumentals. For those of you familiar with the Shadows, the Ventures, Dick Dale and other Surfaris, this will be known territory. For the others, don't worry, you might actually enjoy this more.
Indeed, there isn't much crazy innovation on this record, but that's not really a problem. It's high quality surf, with guitars going from jangly to reverby and every tremolo in between, a motivated rhythm section (heavy on the rockabilly references - check out contemporary band Reverend Horton Heat if that interests you), as well as the occasional but notable brass instruments.
In fact, it's probably better than most surf bands past and present, as they go from uptempo tremolo-picking heavy tunes to mellower "under the summer sun at the beach" moments quite masterfully. Melodies on "The Quiet Surf" or "Penetration" feel just like a fresh breeze on a sunny day, while "Tierra Del Fuego" or "Knuckleduster" will fuel the most epic beach volley games. A few minutes of oceanside life sounds at the end of "The Eternal Wave" even made me want to go the beach even though I hate sand, shorts and salt water...
Where other recent bands like The Mummies, Man Or Astro-Man, or Los Straitjackets rely on crazy costumes (I'll let you guess what it is for each) and a variety of fresh, exotic influences to make their version of modern surf music more innovative, the Langhorns actually took what surf music came from - Rockabilly/Rock'n'Roll/whatever you want to call it - and reinjected in what they had learned from Dale & Co. Add that to a genuine talent for composition, and you get the best surf music album of the past 20 years (if not of all time).
Feeling angry? Admit it: sometimes you just want to complain, get drunk, punch a hole through your wall then go running outside and steal a police officer's hat.
Well, hopefully this will prevent you from annoying your friends, a hangover, hurting your hand and getting arrested. Because this album was made with the angry kind in mind.
Karma To Burn: Wild Wonderful Purgatory
1999, MIA Records
"We're All Ready For Tonight. Not Like You, Shithead"
This record starts with a woman saying those words in a cranky voice. A tone reminiscent of a grouchy grandmother mixed with a scary big-breasted vixen directly out of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
That's probably the only lyrics you'll hear on this record, exception made of a couple of distant yells during the few pauses Karma To Burn allows your ear and an interesting line about the band's native West Virginia on One (which by the way is probably much better than Metallica's eponymous song).
From then on, its mostly about guitars. Loud, powerful, textured, gnarly Les Paul tones played at excessive volume, layering on a rhythm section composed of a stooge bassist with a sweet saturated sound (in that style, check out Mammoth Mammoth's self titled EP) and an ex-Nebula drummer (basically a tall skeleton with a dirty looking 'fro) whose martial drumbeating skills (at that point, its not drumming anymore - he is seriously beating the shit out of his kit) are as impressive as he is skinny: he's really, and I mean really, memorable (do not, under any circumstance, forget earplugs if you go see them live).
People exclusive to soft melodies, or even those who appreciate occasional heaviness when contrasted with heavenly harmonies, can probably skip this. Focus is given here on providing angry people with a soundtrack to their calming down. Riffs are predictible, but never superfluous, and always delivered with masterful heaviness that will sooth everyone from the most rebellous teenager to the closet-fan-of-loud-music executive.
However, this music best showcases its soothing (annoying people might say exhausting) qualities on an album-length listening session. This is reinforced by the lack of song titles (just random non-sequential numbers), which make remembering a particular song quite difficult. Karma To Burn aren't trying to make memorable radio singles - they're pulling off something that most musicians with a sense of integrity want: coherent, powerful albums.
Of course, you can criticize these 51 minutes of music: these three aren't afraid to reach the borders of clichétown with their heavier-than-thou riffs. However, they do it quite honestly, which makes the stereotypical/unsurprising aspect of their compositions contribute positively to the somewhat phenomenal energy those songs have.
Here's what happens with Wild Wonderful Purgatory: while you listen, you will want to do the aforementioned "senseless things". You might then pause whatever song you're listening to for a couple of seconds, having actually decided to do them, then realize you probably want to go to the end of this record first. Maybe pull out the copy of Cowie's Owen Noone And Marauder you bought when you were in high school, and sit on a dirty couch with a beer, but listen to every riff these guys came up with nonetheless.
Then, when the last 20 seconds of distortion of "Eight" fade out, you'll give yourself a rest. Having totally forgotten what you were angry at, you'll pause for a bit, write down somewhere to get their 2001 album "Almost Heathen" in a near future, then pick your < insert object that when you use, you feel like you're doing something productive > of choice and try to use it as well as you can.
If anyone from Teepee records ever reads this (secretly hoping it happens), how do you do it? How do you manage to be so endlessly right about the bands you sign? Sampler: Nebula, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, Ancestors, Sleep, Karma To Burn, High On Fire, Imaad Wasif, Titan, Weird Owl, Witch, Sweet Apple, Hopewel... They've been doing a nice job.
The one of interest here is Earthless. They probably listened to Agitation Free's At The Cliffs Of The River Rhine a bunch of times (or they should) because they share a few things: the abscence of vocals (although their cover of the Groundhog's "Cherry Red" proves that if they needed vocals, they could deliver them) and a fondness for epic sonic paintings. Where Earthless separates from the path drawn by their European musical forefathers is however quite obvious. Indeed, Earthless is a power trio of the best possible faction, where Agitation Free involved 5 members, including a couple of guitarists.
Therefore, it all falls on extremely inspired guitarist Isaiah Mitchell's shoulders to provide Earthless with the otherwordly sounds their band name calls for. The rhythm section will perfectly lock in on every tasty groove they find, with Mitchell first doubling the bass lines, then shooting off in inspired guitaristic tangents that are reminiscent not only of the overcopied Hendrix, Iommi and other Gilmours, but also of Manuel Göttsching's work in Ash Ra Tempel, Louis Dambra from Sir Lord Baltimore, or Ax Genrich (Guru Guru). His prolific use of delay combined with, let's admit it, glorious vacuum tube distortion, should also make the day of anyone with some taste for interesting guitar tones.
The hour and thirty-one minutes of music on this double LP (each of which is one song) is, according to drummer Mario Rubalcaba, a "Heavy, Loud, Sonic mind melt". Which could let a few wonder if these three basement incense burners know where they're going.
They don't.
...but if you were lost somewhere in between the Biir nebula and the Vyydbürnar constellation, would you have any idea where you want to go...?
2) Spiritualized: Live At The Royal Albert Hall
1998, BMG Entertainment
If you are familiar with Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (and you should be) you know what Spiritualized stands for. Anciently half of drone rock duo Spacemen 3 (the other is producing MGMT records...) Jason Pierce has been providing via Spiritualized music that will make anyone attracted by layered, electric and melodic yet powerful pop have an eargasm.
Starting with a four minute intro showcasing every instrument present in Jason Pierce beautifully chaotic idea of a band, the song (and every other one on this live record) segues into the next in a way that can just really be described as frictionless, sweet and beautiful. Seriously, imagine it like ice cream at the top of a mountain on a sunny summer day. That good.
If you had a vague idea of what crescendo means, let this band redefine it for you. This concert is an epic travel from a calm and soothing place to one where bashing your ears with oscillating organ sounds, walls of guitars and a rhythm section that makes every beat seem like you're being metronomically beaten by a baseball bat feels like a good thing, then go back to the blissful consonance of the beginning.
Lyrics are supposed to be mournful, drug induced laments about misery, spirituality and life (or something). To me, they just sound good. Pierce's voice has some mourning aspect to it, but what comes out of it in the end (for me, at least) is that underneath all the complaining Spiritualized is just trying to make some quite beautiful, and powerful, music. Not that far from Spacemen 3's sense of eternally going down in some musical abyss, Spiritualized nevertheless manages to come out of the hole the Spacemen were digging for themselves. And on this record, they do it gloriously: not by providing some grandiose climax, but by resolving the tension they accumulate through soothing fade-outs and ultimately, silence.
"You know I've been thinking about not coming down,
You know I've been thinking about not coming down,
You know I've been thinking about not coming down,
You know I've been thinking about not coming down,
1) Agitation Free: Live At The Cliffs Of River Rhine (also called Live '74)
2008, Revisited Records
Mentioned in an earlier post, Agitation Free's Live At The Cliffs Of River Rhine (recorded live during a radio-concert at the WDR in Cologne, February 2, 1974) has a number of qualities that make it essential if you are at all interested in improvised or instrumental music.
First of all, Agitation Free is a west-German outfit formed in 1967. According to Allmusic, "Agitation Free were a fixture of Berlin's art-rock scene, performing with like-minded bands such as Tangerine Dream, Amon Duul and Guru Guru". I'm not sure I approve of the "art-rock" term, but they definitely were part of an extremely active and productive scene that mostly took what the Anglophone world was doing at that time and made it... hmm... better.
Have you ever listened to the Grateful Dead and thought... "this could be so much better if they just decided to not sing" or "that guitar solo was great... until it went farther than it should have" ?
Well, there isn't a note on this record will not melt through your brain like butter on a warm toast. Where Led Zeppelin's "How The West Was Won" live sounds so good because they cranked the amps a tad and every song sounds approximately seventeen times more powerful than the studio version, Agitation Free stick to their clean studio sounds (if not turn the drive down a notch) and take you along a wordless ride from the German countryside to the Orion nebula. When they do, like my friend JB would say, "kick it into overdrive", such as on "Laila", you gain a new appreciation of what creamy saturation brings you. Some people use it on every song, its when you only use it from time to time that you realize how good it is.
"Throughout The Moods", the first song off this record, is a thirteen and a half minutes long jam that will not be found on any other Agitation Free record. Just for that, this album is worth hunting down (try Revisited Records) . Swirling keyboards, long bass notes, cymbal rattles... taking their time to introduce the mood their set is going to have, the Agitation slowly focuses over a slow drum groove, swirling oscillations on a synthesizer transforming this bucolic improvisation into an otherwordly combination (with every instrument progressively joining in on the smooth spaciness). Agitation Free is one of the few German bands from that era that truely deserved to be called Kosmische.
Five records I will forever associate with high school
Why is this interesting? Well, first of all, maybe you'll like one of them - they're all definitely worth a try.Second, try to remember your top 5 high school records . It'll be worthwhile, I promise.
1) Secret Machines: Ten Silver Drops
2006, Reprise Records
First heard this band live opening for Foo Fighters in 9th grade. Bought their second LP in 10th, put it on repeat in my room for work, which invariably happened between 1 and 5 am, with my only light being this massive orange neon that somehow ended there. Quite the atmosphere, believe me on that one.
Notice the moustache and the obscene amount of gear. Three Orange half stacks! You'll want to put it up to 11 for this one.
Reading reviews of this album for the first time, I realize that most people were disappointed by this. I guess I'm lucky to be one of the few still able to enjoy this record.
The album that reminds me why reading Rock & Folk (French hipster music magazine par excellence) although sometimes excruciatingly painful, can be rewarding. From time to time, they'll actually mention (or maybe even review?) a band that's actually so much higher than all the other puree they're promoting that it'll make you wonder who the hell writes these things (as I would find out, a notorious past-his-prime cokehead edits it - does this explain it ?).
Interesting fact: Bill Steer played guitar in founding UK "grindcore" (??) bands Carcass and Napalm Death before forming this glorious power trio.
Probably one of the first albums I listened to entirely so many times the only way I can remember a song off it is by humming the end of the one preceding it.
3) Nebula: Apollo/Atomic Ritual/To The Center
2006, Liquor And Poker/ 2003, Liquor And Poker/ 1999, Sweet Nothing Records
Ah, hanging out with your local high school stoners. Quite an experience. The ironic thing is that I was the one not smoking, and they were the ones not listening to stoner. Another proof that this denomination is just plain wrong? Probably (go see Such Hawks Such Hounds. now.).
But Nebula isn't your run of the mill Queens of the Stone Age. No, contrarily to Homme's projects, these guys make albums with only good songs. You'll hear the Stooges as much as you'll recognize Hawkwind here, and that can't be half bad, right?
I'm pretty sure I also heard of Nebula in Rock & Folk, god bless their evil souls. Started with a heavy rotation of their latest record, Apollo, then ordered their psychedelic masterpiece Atomic Ritual (admire the cheesy cover). Found To The Center pretty cheap at the Virgin Champs Elysees, for those who are familiar with heaven. Some wicked triumvirat you have there - counting it as one entry because really it should really be considered a triple album dedicated to second hand highs.
AC/DC, you like them or you don't, but listen to this album at least once entirely before deciding you can't deal with them. Skip the Brian Johnson era (i.e. every album since Highway To Hell), and go directly for something that'll make you want to do the duck walk dressed like a british schoolboy while drinking whisky and playing air guitar:
Angus! Angus! Angus! Angus!
If this doesn't make you want to at least tap your foot, we can definitely still be friends. You're missing out though...
"These Flowers Of Ours - A Treasury Of Witchcraft And Devilry"
2008, The Committee To Keep Music Evil
Beyond the Allmusic comments about the liner notes, which are amusing (something about a shrine to shoegaze, and rolling joints on a Teenage Fanclub record?), this record is, in the words of my grandmother, pretty fuckin' good. One of the few "Psychedelphia" (...) scene bands, the Asteroid No.4 is actually very close to the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Not just because they share the same label, which was created by Anton Newcombe, BJM's sad sad leader (go see DIG! right now) but also because they do share the 60's revivalist aspect. However, when the BJM looses itself in drug induced laments (some of which quite nice), the Asteroid fittingly decides to stick with the Hawkwind and looses itself in the outer parts of extraterrestrial vacuum. They're still fueled by drugs though.
"Let It Go" starts with a jangly Rickenbacker playing a song reminiscent of the good old Byrds. Echoed drums kick in, that's when you start taking off. And you're not stopping eight miles high. The guitars send you to infinity and beyond, paying attention to the lyrics is probably an interesting thing to do. I didn't, and I'm perfectly fine with it. Perfect song to stick your cheek to a cold window while riding shotgun in a car driving through a forest. A sunset, thermos of tea and headphones would be nice. Close your eyes for the finish, then remember that you are probably just going to your nice but boring Aunt's country house someplace you never remember the name of. Yeah, too bad...
I'm not going to do that with every song, I'm sure you get the gist (what the hell is this word? According to Merriam Webster, it ironically is a word of Anglo-French origin) of things that are happening on this record. So pick an hour of the next sunny day, choose your most hipster-esque pair of sunglasses (if you're a normal person and have one pair, those'll do fine), headphones, your favorite music playing device and lie down on the ground. Listen to this while looking at clouds move, with the wind tingling your nose. You'll probably enjoy it.
George Salisbury, I love you. Figuratively. Fucking Bastard.
"Wayne and I knocked this one out fast. 1 day of prepping the animations in After Effects, 1 day of shooting and a 1 day edit/finish."
Well, Wayne & George, let me tell you something, from the bottom of my heart: Woody and I think you two are pretentious geniuses.
1) a Madonna cover? Really?
2) "knocked this one out fast": do you have to rub in our faces that this video was easy to make? Also, do my ears look like a boxing ring?
I guess they do. Because that song did knock me out (pardon the horrible transition), and the clip's not half bad either. No matter how wrong covering Madonna is, when you make it that good, you deserve the momentary genius appellation of non-controlled origin. The pretentious part has three reasons: the two mentioned above, and the fact that it will hopefully attract people who like using this word directly to this blog.
Back to the music?
Yes: This song, of which I've never heard the original version by that other blond girl, starts out smoothly. The 6 or 7 buddies playing on this song are the Flaming Lips, and Stardeath & The White Dwarfs, which basically are their roadies-turned-musicians friends. The happy gang progressively reunite with the 3 guys starting the song, like it's something they do all the time...
"Hi, < random band member name > , howyadoin'?
-silent nod-
Do you mind if I join on < random instrument >?
-silent nod-
I just happen to walk by, opened the door of your garage and thought your weird UFO looking instrument sounded pretty chill..."
-silent "I totally agree slight smug smile" that quickly turns back to an emotionless stare and nod-
Wokay."
Wayne, sporting quite the jacket, serenades some smooth slightly echoed lyrics that sound like they were written by some 90's pop singer. Then its all uphill from there. Remember how Godspeed You! Black Emperor build up then continuously explode for 25 minutes? Well, here it is done in 6. With a Madonna song. It makes your ears just as much as your brain go EKI EKI PATANG RUMPA . Extra points for the gong, and the sick guitar work.
Ah, Flaming Lips. If only all your songs could be as good as your Madonna covers. Flower Travellin' Band
"Satori"
1971, Japan: Atlantic Records; US: GRT Records, Reedited by Pheonix Records and Warner Music
When I started writing about this CD, I ended up having about 3 pages worth of ranting. Honestly, its not worth that much. So let's keep this short and sweet.
-Sure, Julian Cope mentions them in Japrocksampler.
-Sure, they were doing what Eternal Elysium, Boris and Acid Mother Temple have done for the past few years (i.e. taking what sounds innovative in the US and putting them to the nth power) 39 years ago.
-Sure, they're better than Blue Cheer. At least as good as Black Sabbath on their good moments, and like a groovier, thicker, instrumental Amon Duul II.
But when some band named Foals kicks in after that CD and sounds better then them, I can't stick with the "this is a lost masterpiece that deserves to be rediscovered" act. Worth a listen, even worth having if you're willing to get the CD or risk illegally downloading it (more ranting about legally downloading later). But in the "seventies masterpiece gone astray" category, go listen to the Groundhogs' "Split" for some thick blues, Brainticket's "Cottonwood Hill" if you want to get rid of a few brain cells, or Agitation Free's "Live At The Cliffs Of The River Rhine" if your jam is instrumental improvisation... and leave this one for when you want to impress your friends with some überÖunderGroond tunes.
-why did you decide to waste your time writing a blog in college when you could have been fighting global warming?
-Who do you think you are, asking impertinent questions like that, meaningless grasshopper?
-Easy on the insulting century old pop-culture reference Pops. I'm just trying to know more about life before I get into it.
-So you want to cheat?
-Pretty much.
- Good enough for me. Well, I thought it'd be cool to write stuff. I've always thought it was awesome to be able to transmit ideas through little drawings, and the internet made it terrifyingly easy to do! It's like you discover how great eating good things can be and then you realize you have an endless fridge in some corner of your attic, always filled with exotic fresh food. Boy would that be great, I'd definitely go with some Pineapple right now... Maybe with some fish and dried dates...
-Granpa. You're acting like a 70 year old. This tangent has nothing to do with the subject.
-I am 70.
-Touché.
-You were saying?
-About this blog thing...
-Ah yes. Well I really liked music, see. Sharing it. Listening to it. And talking with my friends about random things. And a number of subjects I wanted to talk about or share but that I've forgotten by now. It sucks to get old, you know?
-I'm sure it does, you 18 year old disturbed pseudo-intellectual.
Back to your blog: You're a horrible writer. You ignore most rules of coherent blogging and instead produce this pretentious mash of unfollowable thoughts. Plus this entry is precedes any actual blog content - Its one of the two only posts, and both are about why you are doing something, even though you haven't actually done anything. Were you lacking self confidence to the point that you had to write out your motivations on the blog before having the balls to post anything? Why are you such a justification junkie?
-Did it occur to you I had no idea what I was doing?
-So you're not a coward, you just can't think of something before doing it?
-Hey. Wait a second.
-What?
-This isn't real.
-No. This is all some awkward college kid imagining a conversation about his future self talking to his grandson and explaining why he started this vague approximation of a blog because he didn't want to do his homework.
-So I could both be doing something useful AND not insulting myself? This is pretty terrible.
-Yeah you're pretty bad at this. If you really didn't want to do your homework you might as well have spent your time writing a useful entry to this blog.
-Well fuck you. I'm never having imaginary kids again. Hopefully that'll prevent me from imaginary grandkids and getting lessons from my subconscious.
Studying with a friend, thinking someone should compile a list making any feeling or situation correspond to a song or group of songs.
The Undying Love For Unnecessary Capitalization Of Words According To A Logic Solely I Comprehend
The necessity of feeling like what I am doing is Useful and Necessary when In Fact its really just Procrastination
A Blatant and Pretentious desire to convince Other People that the music I listen to Is Worth Trying
Incomprehensible attraction towards terribly awful puns, wordplays And other mind farts. From that feeling comes an extended appreciation of bad science fiction movies, videographic productions that not only put your brain on pause while you watch but have actually been proven to lower your finesse after time and plain old sitcoms. Peripherally related is a treasuring of interior nerdiness and humor based on advanced mathematics and electrical engineering knowledge. Soon to come, a list of related ways to waste your time if you have recognized yourself in the above.
The satisfaction I get from doing pointless lists and writing in a non-native language
