Ok, technical problems all sorted out now. Back at ya with one of my favorite records of all time, The Wedding Present's Seamonsters. While their earlier work was punker and their latter work was some of the best pop rock ever, this strikes a perfect balance between the two. Recorded by noizemeister Steve Albini in just 12 days somewhere in the heart of Minnesota, Seamonsters is agreat cd full of texture, feedback not-for-feedback-sake, and excruciatingly personal lyrics. I read somewhere that WP frontman David Gedge's lyrics are like phone conversations with his lover, but I would say that they are more like breakup letters. Anyway, judge for yourselves:
10. Octopussy 11. Niagara 12. Dan dare 13. Fleshworld
David Gedge on Steve Albini:
He's a great engineer and apparently works pretty fast. Gedge: It's weird because people say "how does he do it?" and it's very basic really, I mean it's kind of like old school in a way in that his heroes are people like George Martin and the BBC engineers. It's basically get a band, tune the drums, tune the guitar, it's all good equipment, it's an acoustically suitable room, great microphones, well-placed and he records it, and it's like, yeah it's kind of obvious really. Why change that? People spend six hours on the snare drum sound or longer and you've kind of lost the mood of a band playing together, you know?
Hello, you. My motherboard died last week so I am waiting to buy a new one, moving up to 64 bits and finally a decent RAM (1 giga), so all is well that ends well, but still, this blows. Anyway, to tide you over while I overcome these technical difficulties, here's a record that I managed to upload before disaster struck, the new compilation by CAKE, of old songs, covers and live versions. This version includes a bonus (how ironic) track, which is Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", the same track that opens the cd, this time recorded live. Enjoy!! Have a second piece if you like!:
1. War Pigs 2. Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town 3. Mahna Mahna 4. Excuse Me, I Think I've Got a Heartache 5. Conroy 6. Strangers in the Night 7. Subtract One Love (Multiply the Heartaches) 8. Never Never Gonna Give You Up 9. Thrills 10. Short Skirt, Long Jacket [Live] 11. It's Coming Down [Live]
Hey all. Sorry about the "vacation". But i am back at ya now, with a great, great album from 10 years ago. I listened a lot to this album back in 97, when I (and possibly you too?)was in my alt country phase. This is Richard Buckner's "Devotion + Doubt", his second. As they say here, "No tiene presa mala", meaning; there's not a clunker in the bunch, imho.
His newer disc, Meadow, from 06 is more of a rock thing, and it ain't bad at all, but THIS is pure gold. A beautiful, acoustic sounding record, intimate, depressing (yay!), one of my favorite albums from that time in my life. And beautifully designed packaging, too. Buy it HERE.
If you've never heard Mr Buckner, here are a couple of live performances from 1994 that'll give you an idea. And if you like this, the album is even better:
Richard Buckner on Fog Town Network--"The Worst Way":
Richard Buckner on Fog Town Network--"22":
And some amusing RB quotes from an interview (I think he was having a bad day):
It's funny, I was just talking to someone about this yesterday. I'm working in a studio right now with a bluegrass band, producing their record. We were talking to the engineers, and one of the interns is a real young guy and he's talking about MP3s and the people behind all that, and he's like, well, these companies, they're not making any money off it. And I was like, what are you fucking talking about? You think people are doing this for nothing? If people weren't making money off this, they wouldn't be doing it, because that's the nature of the beast.Usually every night when I'm performing onstage, at some point I think, like, ‘isn't this fucking weird?’, I'm up here on a podium hollering and people are looking at me. This is a really weird fucking way to make a living. Or not, as the case may be, he adds wryly. And it is weird. You're up there facing a couple hundred people and they're facing you and you're up there hollering.. When you put it in those terms it's strange, and after doing it for nine months of a year you're like, ‘God, I can't believe this is what I do with my time.’
You know, the only reason I write is that I'm trying to figure things out in my own life. It comes from there. I'm trying to comfort myself or something.
Does it matter that your music matters to others? No. If that matters, I think I'm in big trouble. Absolutely not. I don't give a fuck. And I tell people that too. They start telling me, ‘Well, you know, I thought this, I didn't think this.’ He shakes his head, laughing. You know, I don't want to know this. Keep this shit to yourself! It's not important to anybody. Especially me. So keep it to yourself. Look, if I'm talking to somebody I'm not going to be a dick and say, ‘hey, I don't want to hear what your favourite song is.’ But if people get too deep into it, I have to say, ‘Listen, this is not what this is all about. You know, take it for what it's worth and that's it. If it means a lot to you, great.
Surely there must be some songs which say something you want to say to someone else; surely there must be some people you want to hear a song and take a message from it. Buckner laughs, as much mocking as self-mocking. I think it's kind of a cowardly way to tell somebody something you want to say to them, don't you? Like, ah fuck, give me a fucking break. Is that what you're doing, you're sending me like a secret note or something? Fuck. That's my whole problem with computers. People can get on there and write whatever they want and not leave their own name. You fucking coward! God damn. Put your name on there. If you're going to say something to somebody, so when you make these little glib nerdy-ass comments, we'll know who it's coming from, we can get down to business and see what your real fucking problem is.
