What MUSIC are you listening to?

Low albums were always a must buy for me after Trust came along. I was to see them perform in Houston around '05 or '06 and found out that the show was cancelled right as I was leaving my apartment. After Ones and Sixes came out in 2015, they went through Houston on a Monday night. I had childcare lined up so that my wife and I could attend. When she got held up at work, I initially felt a bit guilty attending solo, but the performance washed that away. For reasons that baffle me, the venue was this strange small space attached to a "record store" that more resembled a vinyl garage sale tucked in a warehouse north of downtown. Maybe 100 people were there, and I stood there leaning against a metal beam feet away from a stage barely elevated off the floor. Everyone spoke in hushed tones when they weren't playing, and there was revenant silence for the music. There were several moments of utter beauty.

We go hiking in Estes Park CO most summers. My flu equivalent altitude sickness really makes these hikes a struggle, though I do my best to hide it from my wife for fear of ruining her vacation. On the last day of hiking this summer, I felt so awful as we pulled into the trailhead. I then threw on some earphones and played 2001's Things We Lost in the Fire. All the discomfort faded away as the music matched the visuals.

BillyBobThwarton wrote: On the last day of hiking this summer, I felt so awful as we pulled into the trailhead. I then threw on some earphones and played 2001's Things We Lost in the Fire. All the discomfort faded away as the music matched the visuals.

Things We Lost In The Fire is a really great album.

It feels like the next big nostalgia trip will be a lot of that Bush-years indie-rock, sadcore, dream-pop, flannel rock that was everywhere in the 2000's. Not the Strokes/Interpol/Arcade Fire stuff but the Low/Fleet Foxes/Shins/Iron&Wine stuff.

My favorite Low song is Just Like Christmas. I worked retail for a few years when I was young, and then later worked a non-retail job that was in the Mall of America. So I am pretty sick of all the mainstream Christmas songs, but enjoy songs like this that capture the right spirit without being too familiar. One of my current guilty pleasure tv shows is The Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO), and they ended this week's episode with Just Like Christmas and I suddenly felt better about the show and life and everything. A good song can do that for me. One of the showrunners likely picked the song in honor of Mimi Parker.

Christine McVie died today. I didn't appreciate Fleetwood Mac enough back during their peak in the '70s, but I will definitely be listening to Rumours tonight.

This song has been intermittently stuck in my head for days now, because it really captures my feeling about a fresh snowfall around the holidays:

So Fred Again..

I discovered Fred Again by accident 6 months ago, and thought his stuff was decent but it has slowly grown on me and now I regard him as the one of most important musicians of the last decade. He is sort of like the second coming of Fatboy Slim, but more important and more profound, and in some ways better as the songs work just as well as a quiet bedroom groove as during wild partying. The Actual Life albums are recordings of conversations he had and conversational clips he found on the web put to music and tell a story of his life over several months. I have a suspicion something really special is happening with him, and his Actual Life trilogy (particularly Actual Life 1 with its story of love and loss) will be up there in those lists of top albums of all time 20 years from now. Or maybe I am wrong and he will vanish away ...

I wouldn't say "We've Lost Dancing" is anywhere near his best song, but it is a good introduction to his style of working conversation into song

The kids are alright:

I saw The Melvins and Boris in Petaluma last night with my partner. My first time seeing either act (though a longtime fan of Boris), and th energy level of both sets was incredible. I was very proud to be in front row wearing my t-shirt with the Japanese cover art for MAGIC REALM that I bought from the Emperors of Eternal Evil webstore.

The Melvins are still together? Did they play Hooch?

I had to search to find an image of that Japanese version of Magic Realm shirt. I keep forgetting that I can get a t-shirt of almost anything from Sticker Mule if I send them a scan.

I didn't think to post it since it's out of stock.

store.cave-evil.com/collections/shirts/p...riant=39881460973654

I wish they had made it with a yellow shirt as well.

Melvins' opening number was a crowd sing-along to the first chorus of Take on Me (a-ha) and they did all of Bullhead + extras. No Hooch, but I can cross off seeing Honeybucket live on my bucket list.

Saw my favorite band dada in concert again last Saturday, for the sixth time. They are skilled musicians with several albums of good original songs. You might remember their early '90s hit “Dizz-Knee-Land,” for the iconic line, “I just flipped off President George.” Anyway their show last night was plagued with technical issues with both of the electric guitars wielded by Michael Gurley, leading to some delays and some heroic efforts to cover for him by his two bandmates. Eventually everything worked out and they played an extended set to make it up to the fans.

At one point, Mike told a story to keep the crowd entertained. It was a brief account of how he was inspired to write the song “Posters. The woman mentioned in the song was in another band, the PopTarts, and they just played a gig together. He asked her out and she instead invited him to come over to watch a movie. Drummer Phil Leavitt leaned into a mic at one point and interrupted, “I didn’t know you worked blue!” as the story continued. As the roadie finished tinkering with Mike’s guitar and it looked like they were ready to start playing again, bass player/vocalist Joie Calio protested, “I wanna hear the rest of this fucking story!” So did the crowd. The story was okay, but Mike's delivery was hilarious.

Two songs later, the technical problem recurred, so Phil did a long and energetic drum solo lead for the upcoming song “Posters,” for possibly 8 or 10 minutes. Finally, they did the song, and it was as amazing as the first time I heard it in 1993. Great band, great live band, playing a great song. The song:

Debated posting this in the the TV thread, but went here instead. I found a spoiler-laden list of all the songs featured in Creature Commandos, tracked them down on YouTube and swiped them with Audacity. It turns out that the total length of the songs is 79 minutes, so it all fits nicely on a single CD, which is now in heavy rotation on my car stereo.

The music from Creature Commandos is primarily Gypsy punk, with some dark cabaret and a little Balkan brass in the mix. The overall feel is manic fiddles, brazen horns, stompy beats, and ecstatic shouting. And also some sweet and sour melodies, odd time signatures, and dark lyrics. A few of the songs would not be out of place at a circus or carnival. For you Spotify users (not me), here is a handy spoiler-free playlist:

open.spotify.com/playlist/16SR68AEwsPzFczgcoJAOR

For you non-Spotify people, try this YouTube video of Start Wearing Purple, by Gogol Bordello:



I love much of this music, but the soundtrack would have been even better with more Firewater, and also some Red Elvises and Devotchka.