Category Archives: Rock/Pop

Mar 14 0 comments
Country Music, Lefty Frizzell, Rock/Pop, The Blue Nile

Saturday Night

"She said the prettiest place on Earth was Baltimore at night."

"She said the prettiest place on Earth was Baltimore at night."

I literally have two minutes to post for you these two songs to get you going into the urban evening. No time to elaborate on the matter; time only to send you on your way to the juke joint or the disco. So here’s a song from Lefty Frizzell to get you started, and a song from the Blue Nile for the ride home in the rain, later tonight.

Oh, and I noticed there are a number of other Saturday songs (including a cracker from a regular poster to Subanimal Sounds) that I’ll keep in the treasure chest for future weeks…

Lefty Frizzell: Shine, Shave, Shower (It’s Saturday)
The Blue Nile: Saturday Night

Mar 14 1 comments
Brian Wilson, Rock/Pop

Saturday Morning

brianwilson

Brian gets his legs a-movin' in the morning

Today I’ll post some of my favorite Saturday-themed songs. Most of these are dedicated to the night, which seems a bit unbalanced to me, seeing as how the morning is one of the highlights of the whole week. Consider: either you sleep in (ah, bliss), or you get up and jump into gleeful, leisurely activity with the whole weekend ahead of you. Brian Wilson does the latter, or so he claims in one of the giddiest of his paeans to healthy and vivacious living, “Saturday Morning In The City.” Enjoy the chromatic runs and the usual stellar, precise melodies from Brian. I love this guy. The picture he paints here may not be totally in line with reality of life at any given examined moment, but hey, neither was that whole California myth. It still works great for singalongs and serves as inspirational material to find happiness in one’s life.

Stay tuned later today for a bunch of Saturday night songs. Be seeing you.

Brian Wilson: Saturday Morning In The City

Mar 13 1 comments
Friends, Ian McCulloch, Indie Music, Lee Mavers, Life, Rock/Pop

The Beliefs of Catbirdman

The likelihood of getting chills while listening to music decreases with age. During our more formative years, while we’re coloring in the pieces of our holistic selves, it’s easier to find a new piece that we haven’t seen before, and to be thrilled by it. The word “chills” implies terror, and great music brings that. It more or less opens a wormhole, usually through emotional channels, that allows one to peer directly, fleetingly, into a chasm of truth and beauty.

 

Readers of this blog will understand that I, Catbirdman, will show a tendency towards the dramatic from time to time. The language of Keats, while mechanically far beyond my technical scope, will inform the belief system upon which Subanimal Sounds is based. I am not afraid to think big or talk big, and to embrace the naiveté to believe it.

 

I do believe in spirit and in the unfathomable double-sided coin of wholeness and despair. I believe that such spiritual states can have physical make-up, and that they can be sensed. I believe that it is good to listen, and not to turn your ear away, when a chill of terror takes hold. Underneath all of that, I believe we should respond with love to others, in an effort to help them hear their own music.

 

These beliefs can be apocalyptic, in the sense that a person can undergo a sea change. There is slow evolution, and there are sudden mutations, epiphanies. But Point Z can appear to be a universe away from Point A. Worlds do end and others begin. Again, I turn to the clean prophet, Mr. Lee Mavers:

 

Love is all

The world will fall

And this is all we came here for

I hear the ever-distant

Callin’ All

If I am Love’s assistant then I bawl:

“If all the world should fall then let it fall”

 

And another oft-quoted (by me) lyric from Ian McCulloch:

 

Aim for stars and hit the sky.

 

It’s a fool’s errand to be sure, to aim for the unattainable. But that’s what the best music does, so why should a music blog be any different? This is a music blog, and as such, we will be listening on this blog. There will be “For A Friend” posts and “From A Friend” posts. We are all informed by each other. I will continue to prod for comments and increased readership, even if I grow old doing it.

 

Subanimal sounds are those reverberations of the unseen, the exercises of spirit. They are the vestiges of the chills, the burnt image of beauty, like sunspots on the retina. As soon as you look at beauty, it’s gone. But the subanimal sounds are left in its wake, and are captured here, poorly and crudely. But it’s something.

Mar 08 2 comments
American Music Club, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Lee Mavers, My Bloody Valentine, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Rock/Pop, Shoegaze, Syd Barrett, The La's

The Inevitable Top 10

topten

We lost an hour this weekend, but it felt like ten hours. The big black bear was lumbering, lolling out on the mountaintop this weekend, and found time for a catnap, but none for this blog. So, in the interest of quick content, I throw all journalistic integrity (good thing I’m not a journalist) out the window right now as I recycle myself. This little blurb comes from Facebook, so it may be a repeat for some of you. It’s the inevitable top ten. More reliable even than the backlash that follows them is the perpetuity of the simple “top ten” list. Grumble if you must, but I thought they worked rather well in “High Fidelity,” and after all, many of us do order our lives this way, at least subconsciously. So, here are the top ten albums that influenced me as a fan and musician, and along with each choice is an mp3. Please enjoy, and, oh yes, please do share your top ten.

TEN
Pink Floyd The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Simply nuts. The only (semi-)coherent body of work we ever got out of Syd Barrett, and it’s a kaleidoscope of strange characters and bicycle parts. It’s the sheer invention that gets me.
Pink Floyd: Bike (mono version)

NINE
Deerhoof The Runners Four
There have been so many solid albums of the recent ‘Aughts, but this is the only one that I can say without hesitation is a GIANT, and I suspect will remain so for years to come. Again, it’s sheer invention.
Deerhoof: Running Thoughts

EIGHT
Bob Dylan Oh Mercy
I could have easily put Desire, Street Legal, Blonde On Blonde, or 5-6 others on this list, but I chose this reawakening from the ’80s, mainly for its post-Gospel soul searching and reverberation.
Bob Dylan: Ring Them Bells

SEVEN
American Music Club Mercury
Almost single-handedly put me on the wrong track mentally for 15 years, and convinced me that it was all too beautiful for words. Now that’s powerful stuff. Drugs schmugs.
American Music Club: I’ve Been A Mess

SIX
Neil Young Tonight’s the Night
One of the most harrowing and foggiest tributes to departed friends ever put to tape. This is what it sounds like when a caring man tries to stop caring.
Neil Young: Mellow My Mind

FIVE
The Innocence Mission Birds Of My Neighborhood
The most beautiful album I own, and the purest, most humble music it is possible for humans to make. The kind of music that gives me chills even after the 100th listen.
The Innocence Mission: The Lakes Of Canada

FOUR
Tindersticks Tindersticks (second album)
The persona that Stuart Staples brings to this exquisite music — ragged, classy, world-weary, wise in hindsight — soak through the listener’s experiences like scotch through ice.
Tindersticks: Tiny Tears

THREE
My Bloody Valentine Loveless
The aural equivalent to a painting with thick oils that look slightly different at different angles and in different light. The bent sound thrills me every time. “11″ isn’t loud enough for this album.
My Bloody Valentine: Soon

TWO
The Beach Boys SMiLE
This is hands-down the finest and most evocative body of music to come out of the collective pyschedelic dream of 1966. Tells the story of America in visual puns, and ventures into an elemental side-trip like a koan.
The Beach Boys: Cabin Essence

ONE
The La’s The La’s
The official version is good, but when you take the best bits and bobs from the various junked sessions, you’ve really got something. Urgent, desperate, wild-eyed, celebratory, despairing, and bad-ass. All extremes in life are here, like an apocalypse.
The La’s: Son Of A Gun (album version)

Mar 03 0 comments
Pink Floyd, Rock/Pop, Syd Barrett

A Spot of Syd

One of Syd's more coherent drwaings from his collage book, 1965.

One of Syd's more coherent drwaings from his collage book, 1965. Hey, didn't this guy pop up in the "Apples and Oranges" single?

Just a real quick fix this morning before dashing off (late) to work — a few versions of my favorite song by the late Syd Barrett, madcap extraordinaire.

Pink Floyd: Matilda Mother (original mono mix)
Pink Floyd: Matilda Mother (stereo mix)
Pink Floyd: Matilda Mother (Alternate Edit)

Mar 02 5 comments
Boo Radleys, Cocteau Twins, Echo & The Bunnymen, Friends, Indie Music, Interpol, Joy Division, Rock/Pop, Shoegaze, The Soft Pack, Velvet Underground

For A Friend #005

Stereolab taps into the Pulse

Stereolab taps into the Pulse

Tonight’s post is for an old friend of mine named Thad. He used to play guitar on stage with me back in ye olde salad days. We influenced each other quite a lot musically. From him, I got a general openness to musical delight. I credit mainly him and Kurt Lightner for that. They showed me that you can be a sponge, sucking up any old muck, and at the same time you can have standards. I was so stuck on a twisted definition of what was “cool” and what wasn’t.

What did Thad get from me? Ultimately you’d have to ask him, but I will relate one thing he once said in mixed company. He credited me for being the conduit to the appreciation of the Sacred Eighth Note. I suppose it really took off with the Velvet Underground (and someone – Crozier? – please chime in with a half-remembered quotation … was it Lou Reed who first spoke of this?), but it’s a hallmark of the post-punk era, it has resurfaced like clockwork every ten years or so, and it has remained my heartbeat ever since the teenage years. It’s a monotony, it’s a haze, it’s the sound of getting lost in music. It’s the Eighth Note Pulse. All hail.

I asked Thad what he remembered most about our shared musical experiences, and he mentioned some of the music posted below. So to Thad, then…

Thad, I had great, formative times with you. Thanks for helping me embrace my cool and for sharing in it. Tonight, I’ll post some songs that conjure up that aesthetic, and later, anytime after tonight in fact, you can check in on this blog, and chances are I will be posting some marvellous shapes and colors that I might have remained closed to had it not been for your generous spirit.

I’ve attempted to trace this religious rhythm at various touchpoints through recent years, starting with the Velvet Underground (the original?), and on to Joy Division (perfectors of the post-punk signature, and suitably, they carry the Pulse on the bass), Echo & The Bunnymen (close echoes and a seminal example in “Back Of Love”), the Cocteau Twins (progenitors of the ’90s shoegaze swell), the Boo Radleys (the most inventive of the shoegazers), and ending with Interpol (the original resuscitators of the ‘Aughts). From Interpol onwards, it just gets crazy, as do many things, with the profileration of ideas brought on by the Information Age. Further below, I’ve posted a fine example of the mantra in the Soft Pack’s double-sided package of bliss. And anyone who has ever namechecked the Arcade Fire will testify that the Eighth Note beats on. Much to our delight.

And please, let us all know what I have overlooked.

Velvet Underground: I’m Waiting For The Man
Joy Division: Transmission
Echo & The Bunnymen: The Back Of Love
Cocteau Twins: Cherry-Coloured Funk
Boo Radleys: Skyscraper
Interpol: Obstacle 2

Feb 25 1 comments
Brian Eno, David Byrne, Friends, Rock/Pop

FROM a Friend #001

Is this my beautiful house?

Is this my beautiful house?

I’ve decided that a central purpose of this blog will be this: the transparent and earnest exchange between friends.

So there you have it and here it is: the first recommendation from a friend here on Subanimal Sounds. This one comes from Julie Anne Reda (I remember her under an earlier name), whom I knew in college, and with whom I attended Gulf War symposiums, nature preserve lie-ins, and Saturday afternoon common room singalongs (often featuring U2′s “40″ and the entire oeuvre of the Waterboys). “Warm memories” are how I would describe those times.

Fifteen years of life later, together we look back one small year: one of Julie Anne’s favorite records of 2008 was “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” by Brian Eno and David Byrne. I happened to have “Life Is Long” in my iTunes library, so I will post it here. I hear a potential world to be drawn into here, and my interest is piqued (the names alone would do that), but I’m on the fence. I fear the song’s title promises more than the lyrics deliver. I remember a character from the movie Magnolia chanting “life is long” on his death bed, and depressives everywhere nodded in their guts… a little later I stole it myself and used it in a song. I hear a different message in this song. More measured, more instructional. Any thoughts out there? What does this album mean to you? Please share with us.

Brian Eno and David Byrne: Life Is Long

Feb 24 1 comments
Elbow, Friends, Indie Music, Kurt Lightner, Lee Mavers, Rock/Pop, The La's

For A Friend #003

This video actually comes from a friend. One of this world’s most enthusiastic souls, and sadly, one of beauty’s most bitter (but undeterred) enthusiasts, happens to be a former roommate of mine. I’m talking about Kurt Matthew Lightner, originally of Des Moines, Iowa. I got lucky that way, to run smack into this man. He is a brilliant artist, the kind that you set apart. He lives in Sweden and has two beautiful children there. Find out all you can, at least about his art, here.

The video above comes sight unseen from him, as a recommendation. There will be more on/for/from Kurt later. I have time tonight only for a superficial dusting. The Elbow video is from him. The La’s are from me. I will always post La’s here and I will never hear a word against it. Cheers Kurt. Back atcha later.

The La’s: Clean Prophet (Jeremy Allom Version; 2008 Remaster)
The La’s: Over (Liz Kershaw BBC Radio version)

Feb 23 2 comments
4AD, Ben Gibbard, Country Rock, Dark Was The Night, Feist, Flying Burrito Brothers, Indie Music, Rock/Pop, Vashti Bunyan

Bright is the morning…

Lonely is still an eyesore, apparently.

Lonely is still an eyesore, apparently.

…when one contemplates that Dark Was The Night is out now. This is a new compilation on 4AD that should be on everyone’s radar. Look at the tracklisting and ask yourself, am I motivated to buy this? If you are on the fence, chances are it’s a rickety fence. To help shake you off, let me offer up yet another mp3 (in addition to the Bon Iver track posted below), and also point you to the consistently interesting, if questionably titled, blog known as Pasta Primavera (run by a Baltimorean, no less), where you can sample the fabulous new Sufjan Stevens track.

I hope you enjoy this duet with Feist and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), and to round things out I’ve also included the original version by the alternately hibernating, alternately dazzling folk artist Vashti Bunyan. Finally, because I couldn’t resist, I’ve posted a rare Flying Burrito Brothers track, despite the fact that it relates to the subject of this post in name only.

Feist and Ben Gibbard: Train Song
Vashti Bunyan: Train Song
Flying Burrito Brothers: The Train Song

Feb 22 6 comments
Rock/Pop, The Smiths

Songs that saved your life

Did these Salford lads save your life?

Did these Salford lads save your life?

So then, a completely unoriginal post to end the evening (I even flat out stole the title from a book by Simon Goddard). Name your three favorite Smiths songs. The only thing that’s been done more often in this world is name your ten favorite Doctor Who episodes (and your favorite supporting character from each, and your favorite assistant producer whose name rhymes with an ex-boyfriend, and then connect your least favorite companion from the Fifth Doctor era [um, can I choose all of them?] to Lily Allen in three steps, and then make an anagram of the answers…), and who gets tired of that?

Anyone with “indie” roots, if they sprouted them on the other side of the millennial divide, almost certainly owes, or has, some vested interest in the Smiths. They are, after all, a shockingly individual event in the history of British, disaffected, left of center, DIY… no, make that all music.

My little twist on this game is this: Name your favorite three Smiths songs that are not titled “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” (which is indisputably the best) or “How Soon Is Now?” (which is good, but clearly is horribly overrated and should be half as long as it is).

Here are mine then. Post a comment and tell me yours. If you don’t, the secret police will come and bludgeon you in your bed.

The Smiths: Still Ill
The Smiths: Rubber Ring
The Smiths: Sheila, Take A Bow