mp3: James Iha - The Sound of Love

A quickie to end the weekend.

Hands up who even remembers James Iha’s solo album from 1997. Following in the footsteps of Smashing Pumpkins’ epic/pompous Mellon Collie double album, Iha backed as far away from the fuzzed up guitars, Corgan’s nasal whine and squeeling feedback to compile a collection of laidback acoustic pop.

Titled Let It Come Down, Iha never came close to breaking new ground, but that was never the intention. Instead he pays homage to simple melodies and pure guitar pop and folk harking back to the sixties. Much of it is sickly sweet, truth be told, and I can’t remember what the majority of Pumpkins fans made of it at the time. But its relaxed mood and earnest feel always appealed to me, and even if nine years on I can’t actually make it through the whole album without getting bored, it’s nice to dip into and get a sense of what Iha is capable of away from the reins of Corgan.

Buy.

Stolen blatantly from a friend and former-Stayfun writer. So Stayfun takes no credit at all for this mix. It’s purely the good work of Nick (No Longer) in Korea. The original post is here - just trying to spread the love a bit further. If you have any comments, best to send them directly to Nick at the above link.
———————————–

A 77 minute compilation of mainly pretty, downbeat stuff.

Go on, you know you want to.

01 - goldmund - methusela tree (4.48)

02 - chihei hatakeyama - swaying curtain in the window (8.24)

03 - burial - wounder (4.51)

04 - helios - coast off (4.52)

05 - the gentleman losers - mansion on the dunes (6.07)

06 - reigns - translating (3.31)

07 - august stars - grantchester meadows 2 (1.49)

08 - mountains - simmer (8.04)

09 - machinefabriek - somerset (4.52)

10 - voices and organs - any day now (5.10)

11 - modern institute - ecm haircuts (4.32)

12 - alex smoke - persona (6.12)

13 - martin schulte - submarine (6.35)

14 - william basinski - melancholia 2 (6.51)

mp3: About - Stack of Marshalls

It was a pleasant surprise to check Pitchfork today (a bad habit I know, but I don’t actually read it, just browse to check for anything relevant) and see a review of Bongo by About. Probably a bigger thrill for Rutger, although I’ve noticed the album’s been picking up decent reviews and mp3 blogging coverage even before this. Not bad for a wee Dutch artist.

This track isn’t one I’d have deliberately chosen to sell the album to you, but that’s the joy of random mp3 generation. I get to think about a track not at the forefront of my mind.

Ping-pong electro-rock is probably the best way to describe it. Opening with the sound of a Dutch ambulance echoing down the street, it quickly switches to a frenetic J-pop-style vibe, throwing in short blasts of gabber-lite and even shorter waves of punk guitars. All over the place, you could say. But Bongo as a whole is all over the place, and is great fun for that very reason. Plus I always get excited when it starts to loop back round to the opening track of the album ‘Think Niles Drink’ - ‘Stack of Marshalls’ is the closing track - which makes perfect sense if you’re prone to looping the whole 32 minutes.

mp3: Mariachi Cobre - Guadalajara

Okay, this works out well. The tortuous blast of hot, humid air may finally be heading out of my life in a few days (hopefully), but you should certainly mark the passing of July to August with some sizzling desert mariachi.

Truth be told, I know absolutely nothing about Mariachi Cobre. I’m not even gonna google them cos it’s irrelevant to me. I have two of their songs on a compilation album titled Feast on Tucson, and they’re tremendously fun in a traditional mariachi style. I have tried to find other songs out there on the internet and failed, but I’m pretty satisfied in what I have. So shake off that desire for solid facts and simply revel in the blasting horns and desert culture.

No, no new European tour yet, although they have just announced details of their new album release and American tour. But having written about their last Amsterdam show at Paradiso, today I noticed a link on Largefartingboy linking to a bootleg, which is both good and bad news.

It’s a nice keepsake, and has the potential to make one person reading this a little bit happier. Plus the quality is okay. In bootleg terms, I’d rate it as a B. But I also get frustrated when bootlegs are only made available in FLAC and not both FLAC and mp3 - especially as archive.org facilitates that.

I spent many years studying audio technology and I know fine well the benefits of a lossless codec, but in the bootlegging world, where often the audio quality is limited by the quality of a room, speaker cabinets, microphones and the people around you, I generally feel that a decently encoded mp3 won’t disrupt the sound quality. I can live with re-encoding files at home (as I see no point in storing it in FLAC), but it feels like a waste of time when you have to do it often. Of course, what really bugs me are those bootleggers who request you don’t convert the files, and to them I’d say ‘bugger off’. But this page doesn’t say that, and I am grateful yet another gig I was at this year is available. The only negative was using much more bandwidth than seemed necessary.

Anyway, the whole batch of files can be grabbed from here.

Probably not obvious to most of you unless you read the small print, the last post (Flaming Lips) wasn’t by me. So carried away in the new Creative Random mp3 game, I invited Dermot to join in the fun. He is a former writer for old Stayfun so not too foreign, and now he’s the first non-me to be allowed to post on new Stayfun.

However, he qualifies wonderfully, not only by being able to write intelligently, but by also being an owner of a Creative Zen Jukebox (only the bugger has the 60GB variety rather than my 40GB). So between us we probably have around 9-10,000 files to randomly generate, with maybe a 30% overlap. Hopefully it will  help keep the page busy until his new photo blog is finished and he deserts me again.

mp3: The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.mp3

There’s a pretty revealing comment right at the end of this song - Wayne Coyne
(I think it’s him, anyway) says, “I, I quit - I didn’t make it all the way through that.” Fair enough. One of the best things about Flaming Lips is the way they blend deeply metaphysical musing with an unerring capacity for being astoundingly aurally irritating on first listen; somehow I forgive them sonic sins such as the first 30 seconds of this song because their sheer confidence breezes them along and the sentiment of the song itself’s absolutely on the button.

There can only be 9 people who haven’t heard much Flaming Lips these days, but if you’re one of them and the sort of person who buys a novel on the strength of the first page, you’ll run a mile from this, but don’t quit, keep with it. They’re just like a mate with a loud voice, really. You don’t notice after a while.

mp3: Throwing Muses - Mercury

I love Throwing Muses, Throwing Muses’ self-titled album from 2003. I have to open with that because I’m often guilty of forgetting it even exists. Throwing Muses broke up in the mid-’90s and I had come to terms with that. Then they were back for a couple of gigs a million miles from me, and I had come to terms with not seeing them still. Then suddenly there was an actual new album and a proper tour, which resulted in my three gigs in three countries effort in the spring of 2003. It was all tremendous fun, but after so much time spent with Limbo as the last Muses album, I still struggle to shake that idea from my mind.

‘Mercury’ is the opening track of the self-titled album and bounds on with limitless energy. In fact, it’s almost reckless as it spins you around the room, which is quite rare in the world of Kristin Hersh, seeing as her song structures are typically so rigid, verging on the scientific and mathematical. It has highs, it has lows, and it has the pounding toms of David Narcizo. I really wish I remembered to listen to the album more as a whole. It is a personal favourite, and even if it’s to be the last album they ever produce together, it still works as a perfect starting point if you’ve never listened to them before.

In a couple of weeks the Muses will surprisingly be back in action. This time it’s in Iceland and a tiny scattering of gigs in America. A few hundred people will be lucky enough to experience it all, and once again I’ve had to settle for being too far away. But maybe sometime in the future they’ll surprise me with another visit. I tend not to spend my time hoping, but in the world of Kristin Hersh and her many musical ideas, any path is possible.

mp3: Belinda Carlisle - Leave a Light On

I can sense the shock already, but I feel no shame in publicly posting some Belinda. Truth be told, my Belinda Carlisle Greatest Hits album was my second official CD, back in 1993, following on quickly from Faith No More’s Angel Dust. Plus I first fell for the music of Belinda when I was a mere nine years old, so that’s coming on for 20 years.

This song is a particular favourite. Great vocals, palm-muted riffage giving way to rung out chords and soaring eighties power. But where it particularly lends itself to my personal memories is a cover version my band once did a few years ago. I guess it was for an eighties night in the 13th note in Glasgow, where every band had to play a few of their own songs and include at least one suitable cover. We ended up reworking this track, and it actually fitted our style pretty well, with noisy indie rock clashing with the radio friendly voice of our singer Pamela. Simply fantastic fun, and whenever I hear this song, I’ll be filled with the buzz of performing once more.

mp3: FAO Jesus - Our Secret

I’ve actually heard their album many times. I’ve even tried used it as background music for reading on trains, but the simple fact is, (tsetsefly jihad) is too intimidating for casual purposes and ‘Our Secret’ represents that general mood pretty accurately.

Based in Scotland and belonging firmly to the drone/electro/horror club, FAO Jesus have previously collaborated with my guitar horror heroes Aereogramme, which first brought them to my attention. I actually wish I could listen to them more often because they are genuinely interesting, but there’s only special moments when you want your music to actually scare you and have you looking over your shoulder.

And there are even a few moments of lovely ambience on their CD, sometimes even hinting at melody - just not on this track. So don’t be scared off. They’re worth a listen.

mp3: Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy

Can I start with a bit of negativity? I’m not really keen on Iggy Pop. He’s undoubtedly had some career highlights that even I like, but I own none of them. I’ve also caught him live on the festival circuit and wasn’t really into it. I guess I just didn’t want to see a naked Iggy Pop wrapped in cellophane.

But when it comes to the early punk rock of the Stooges, it’s a very different proposition, so I dare you to claim that ‘Search and Destroy’ isn’t a fantastic (and simple) American punk song. Raw and noisy, you can still feed off its energy all these later. Plus it made a fantastic appearance in The Life Aquatic, the soundtrack that this file came from.

mp3: Neil Finn - There is a Light That Never Goes Out

It’s always risky posting this and in turn upsetting fans of The Smiths who’ll think that Neil Finn is terribly uncool. But I’m not one to ever play the cool card, and those who already know me in person are more than aware the impact Neil Finn and his many bands have made on my musical history - favourite albums, key concerts, trailing to various corners of Britain.

I have seen this song performed live with Johnny Marr in London, although the actual mp3 here is from the 7 World Collide album, recorded in New Zealand with Marr, members of Radiohead, Eddie Vedder, Sebastian Steinberg, Lisa Germano and others. And I will maintain that it’s a fantastic cover version - whether you think he’s cool or not.

As a side note, I can link this all back to The Decemberists, whose Picaresque track ‘We Both Go Down Together’ features a violin part by Petra Hayden (I assume) at around 1.51, which feels almost directly lifted from Lisa Germano’s playing on the 7 Worlds Collide CD. Not a bad thing, but now both albums are welded together in my mind.

mp3: Tacoma Radar - So Much Water

When it comes to Scottish band Tacoma Radar, there are probably a lot of slowcore reference points you could make. From my point of view, it was always Mazzy Star. The languid drums, the gentle, soothing guitars, and the wistful and soft voice of Jennifer Cosgrove (at least on their album No One Waved Goodbye).

Perhaps too soft and slow to ever set the world on fire, they weren’t just a Mazzy Star tribute band, and I feel this song is particularly pretty and reflective of their style. And I was always really grateful that Cosgrove’s voice was never drowned in reverb in that Mazzy Star style.

They are/were signed to Andmoresound in Glasgow, who were also an early home to Camera Obscura, who are currently taking on the world and are living it up on mp3 blogs all over.

mp3: Helmet - In the Meantime

If my mp3 player had landed on any other Helmet track, I’d probably have chickened out and not used it. It’s not that I’m ashamed of liking Helmet, but they’re comparatively heavier than most things I write about on Stayfun, so it’s a weird but fitting way to start this random project.

I only actually own the one Helmet CD (and have seen them live once too) and it is Meantime from 1992 - generally regarded as their finest, if not a rock classic. Led by Page Hamilton, the band sound incredibly dry. It’s all down-tuned staccato riffs, stiff drumming and the monotone roar of Hamilton. But they were different to a lot of other metal bands around at the time, and as such, they stood out. Plus, ‘In the Meantime’ is a great song to dance to (honestly), and that’s actually how I first got to hear the band at all, usually at around 1.30am on Saturday mornings in Glasgow.

It’s hard to find new sounds in the sizzling heat of this current Dutch summer. Combined with the tonnes of work I’ve been facing, posting new mp3s hasn’t been the most exciting of tasks. But with an increasing amount of travel to and from work, one steady factor in my life has been my Creative Zen Jukebox, and through lack of inspiration, so has its ‘Play Any Track’ feature, often bailing me out on boring train journeys.

So I’ve decided to bring this feature to the internet, letting my mp3 player select random songs you should check out. Maybe it’ll inspire you to listen to a band you always meant to, or maybe it will remind you of a band you’ve forgotten. Or maybe it will just remind us that my music taste is a scary to place to visit without protection. We shall see…