It’s been a long twenty-four years since their last album, 2001’s We Love Life, though like The Cure they’ve been busy off and on in the interim, doing various tours and shows when they can. I’d been a passing fan during their 90s heyday, aware of the classic “Common People” single but little else until 1998’s This Is Hardcore, one of my favorites from the HMV Years. They were yet another band I’d finally get into just when they’re on the back end of their cycle.
Anyway, it’s great to see them back in the spotlight, with a lovely lead single that feels like they haven’t missed a beat at all. I’m yet to sit down and fully experience the new album More, but I’m looking forward to it!
I really have no idea how this band passed me by for six years! Perhaps I’d heard one or two songs on KEXP, but somehow I never got around to checking them out until this last weekend, when their first album was reissued. And man, this band is totally in my wheelhouse: sludgy, noisy echoey shoegaze that’s equal parts Lush, MBV, Curve and maybe even a bit of Boston indie in there as well (especially Mistle Thrush and Swirlies). And Lush’s Miki Berenyi even shows up on one of their songs! It all screams this is now a part of your permanent writing soundtrack collection to me.
Yeah, I’m going to have to investigate this band further, because I am hooked.
After multiple weeks of keeping the guitars safe and sound in their carry bags within the office closet, we’ve finally created enough room where I can put out the two electrics again! My Gretsch (which is in dire need of cleaning and retuning, seems like) is now parked right next to my desk where I can pick it up and noodle around on it whenever I feel the need. My Fender P-Bass is nearby in front of one of the other bookcases.
I don’t remember if I’d mentioned it here before, but I’m thinking of getting rid of my two acoustics as they acquired more dust than play during the Spare Oom years. I enjoyed playing them, I just never found enough time for it. I’m thinking of selling them to Tall Toad up in Petaluma (where I bought my Gretsch), though whether for cash or store credit is up in the air. I doubt I’ll buy another guitar, but I could probably use the credit for recording hardware or something like that. We shall see.
Still, it’s great to see them out in the open again, and I’m looking forward to playing them again. After I give them a good cleaning, of course.
The Beach Boys were a band that took me a long time to appreciate. I’d hear “Good Vibrations” and “Kokomo” and a few other big singles on classic rock radio as a kid but at that point I was a full-on Beatles nerd so I didn’t quite get what they were about. It wasn’t until the early 2010s that I finally decided to do a deep dive into their discography and finally figured it all out.
It’s far more than just the nerdy surf and car tunes and the easy laid-back pop. Brian Wilson was one of those rare songwriters that didn’t just write brilliant songs, he understood the math of them, as I like to say. Well-crafted songwriting to me isn’t just about a catchy riff or a singalong chorus; I see it similar to writing a novel. There are several moving pieces that need some kind of focus, and Wilson was a natural at hearing all those pieces in his head. Unfortunately sometimes the musical mathematics in one’s head doesn’t translate to reality and that can be absolutely infuriating (John Lennon often had the same problem), but he came extremely close with shocking frequency.
And there’s definitely a Beatles-Beach Boys connection there, because if it wasn’t for this wonderful piece of music (my favorite of theirs)…
….there wouldn’t be this song that was inspired by it.
(Not to mention Paul’s continuing love for the band a few years later when he did “Back in the USSR” as a Wilson pastiche.)
I can’t decide if this band is trying to be Comsat Angels, early Cocteau Twins, The Chameleons UK, or all of them and more. Not that I’m complaining, because this is fast becoming one of my favorite recent acquisitions!
What I mean to say is that this new album is definitely hitting all the right buttons for me: echoey 80s post-punk retro goodness that sounds like something you’d hear on some college radio station just about coming in on your boombox in your bedroom. Melodic basslines, vocals alternating between slithery and shouty, jangly guitar riffs, and adventurous melodies that resonate perfectly for me. I highly recommend this one.
Considering I’ve spent the last month or so focusing on moving house and day job stuff, I’ve fallen behind on my listening habits! So I’m going to spend a few days just going through some of the new releases and get my head around them.
Such as the new Peter Murphy album, Silver Shade, which came out on 9 May. I have to admit I really love it mainly because it feels like a true return to his classic form. His last couple of albums were good but very ponderous, but this one brings him back to the style he did best back in the late 80s and early 90s. It really does sound like a mix of the best parts of Love Hysteria and Deep, but with the added bonus of some heavy NIN influence.
Definitely an album I’ll be listening to during writing sessions.
Yes, it’s come to that. I’ve finally admitted to myself that perhaps I should cull some of my digital music library, as it’s become unwieldy. As I’d recently mentioned to my friends on our Discord channel: I might keep the backups on the secondary external (which itself is getting a bit full), but I can definitely see where I have some tracks and albums that I haven’t listened to in way too long. I most likely downloaded some of this stuff because I’m a completist that’s obsessed with full discographies. Or I may have acquired it out of curiosity and it just never resonated with me. Or I heard a track on KEXP or elsewhere and thought I’d give the rest of the album a try.
Part of this was my lingering worry that the music on our Plex server is nigh on impossible to navigate because I have so much on there. But more importantly, I’ve long been at the point where music has stopped resonating so closely with me because I haven’t allowed it to get close. If I’m not listening to it more than a few times by next Friday when the new releases come out, some of it falls by the wayside to be forgotten. And that’s been happening for the last couple of years.
Mind you, it’s weird getting rid of things you no longer listen to when your music library is 100% digital. It’s not as if you can bring them to the local record store for cash or store credit. You just simply…select and delete. Like I said — I’m not completely deleting it, I’m just taking it off my main music external, so I’m not wasting money or anything. Just that I need to give myself time to become attached to the things I like and what resonates with me.
This is most likely going to be a long term culling project that I’ll do in increments over a long stretch of time. And hopefully out of all of this, I’ll reacquire that love for music that’s been eluding me for far too long.
It’s been a busy couple of months here, and I suppose it’s finally time to reveal why I’ve been MIA here at the blogs. The short version? We’re moving!
The slightly longer version is that said moving has involved all sorts of paperwork, banking, thinning out of stuff we no longer want, packing stuff we want to keep, setting appointments to get utilities up and running, more paperwork, and shopping, all while working the Day Job, and that’s left me with not that much time to work on writing, let alone posting blog entries or even getting any daily stuff done on 750Words. [There’s also the fact that I just happened to pack away my journals as well, so those haven’t been updated for some time either.]
It’s going to take a bit longer before I’m back up and running again, alas. I’ve been sneaking in some editing of A Division of Souls when I can just so I don’t fall behind on my planned ‘remaster’ release schedule, but that’s about all I can muster at this point.
So yes, I’m still here! Hopefully within a few more weeks things will be back to normal. Thanks for your patience!
It’s been a whirlwind of a morning between our internet completely crapping out for some reason and having to reboot it…and receiving some incredibly awesome personal news a short time later! So yeah, I’m a bit behind on things right now and it may stay that way for a few more weeks. More on that later!
In the meantime, the above song popped up on KEXP this morning and I still say that playing that final chord on one of the original pianos in Studio One at Abbey Road is one of the coolest and most mind-blowing things I’ve ever done in my life. Today comes close, but this still tops it. 😉
Believe it or not I did not listen to Revolver this time out while I did our taxes! Just…didn’t feel in the mood, I guess. But yes, everything is done and away until next year. Who knows what they’re going to look like then?
In the meantime, I’ve been revisiting some music from 2001-2002 — the Belfry Years, specifically the albums that were on heavy rotation during the writing of A Division of Souls, which I’m currently ‘remastering’. [Long story short if you don’t follow my writing blog: It’s been ten years this September since I first self-published the book, so I thought I’d do a tenth anniversary special edition. I’m currently doing a bit of revision and clean-up where needed, fixing up the cover a bit, and perhaps adding some extra bonus things. And yes, I will most likely be doing this for The Persistence of Memories and The Balance of Light as well.]
So what’s popped up that I’m enjoying once more?
I’d forgotten how much I loved Zero 7’s Simple Things! It’s a lovely record that feels a bit like Morcheeba with a hint of Air and “Destiny” is just a wonderful track.
The Chameleons UK shows up on my playlists partly because I love the track “Swamp Thing” so much, but this 2001 album was an amazing return to form after a long hiatus for the group. Highly recommended.
Big Wreck has always been one of my unsung favorites. They’re one of those bands that are absolutely amazing yet have never had a huge following. Loud and extremely melodic, they’re definitely not alt-metal, but they’re not just another 90s alt-rock band either. I highly recommend checking out all their work.
I kinda sorta liked Coldplay’s “Yellow” when it came out, but I wasn’t completely sold on their lighter sound. I even passed up picking up their second album A Rush of Blood to the Head until I heard them do “Politik” live on the Grammys in early 2003. That’s when I realized just how amazing “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” is, and how this band has a lot more going on than just radio friendly fare.
Walk In Silence 