The Drums: October One at The Independent

Buy This Album

The Cure's classic - remastered with the addition of live material from Wembley and some interesting outtakes. Growney and I saw the Disintegration Tour at Oakland Arena in 1989. I remember them playing "Three Imaginary Boys" and trying to explain the significance of such a thing to Tom.

We couldn't handle BART and I ended up leaving TG looking confused at Coliseum Station.  Long story.  Review from Pitchfork here.

The Drums - "Let's Go Surfing" Official Music Video HQ

Tame Impala

Liking the new album "Innerspeaker" from Aussie band Tame Impala.  Reminds me of Revolver-era Beatles.  Check out the strange and entertaining video for "Solitude is Bliss."

Rock Style from London and Beyond

All images plucked from the awesome Snap Galleries

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

That's a question for another day. In the meantime, Mr. Albarn looks damn good in his Kurt Cobain stripes, Persols, and varsity leather jacket.  Mos Def and former Clash members Mick Jones and Paul Simonon bring the funk...

Electronic Music For Grown-Ups

Since I'm going to be boring my friends raving about the forthcoming LCD album "This is Happening Now" for the foreseeable future, I figure I'd get an early start. LCD began streaming "Happening "from their site about two weeks ago. I've given it about ten listenings and it gets better each time. Just as tracks from 2007's "Sounds Of Silver" like "All My Friends" and "Someone Great" perfectly captured my state then, so it is now with "Happening" songs, "I Can Change" and "Dance Yourself Clean." Maybe it has something to due with the fact that, like LCD's front man James Murphy, I' m about to turn 40. These songs are about feeling old, cynical and frustrated by relationships. There also about friendship, sex, love and glorious indulgence. On "Dance Yourself Clean," Murphy sings, "If we wait until the weekend, we could miss the best things to do." Amen. Makes me want to see all my friends tonight...

Return to Exile

Exile on Main Street, to my ears the Stones' best album, will be reissued on May 10th and include 10 never-before-heard tracks. If you're not familiar with the legendary back story of the album, here's a condensed version:

In 1972, the Stones flee England for tax reasons (the British Government was threatening to seize their assets). The band picks as their exile a villa in the south of France called Nellcote, which also happened to be Gestapo Headquarters during World War II. The band records in the Villa's sweltering basement that was so humid their guitars refused to stay in tune. Keith Richards later says, "...down there, it was Dante's Inferno. It was like trying to makes a record in the Fuhrerbunker." Keith shoots heroin every day with a revolving parade of guests including Gram Parsons, William S. Burroughs and Terry Southern. There is growing friction between band members, especially Keith and Mick. Exile is released in May of 1972 to lukewarm critical reaction but is now considered the Stone's masterpiece. As the critic Robert Christgau wrote "it took me perhaps twenty-five listenings before I began to understand what the Stones were up to and I still haven't finished the job... Exile explores new depths of record-studio murk, burying Mick's voice under layers of cynicism, angst and ennui..."

Style-wise what can one say? I'll let these photos taken from here do the talking.

What Was and Will Always Be: REM

If you came of age in the 80's like I did, REM has probably influenced your musical tastes to this day. In 1985 I was mostly listening to British "New Wave" (The Smiths, The Cure, New Order, Echo...). I thought Amercan rock bands sucked. Then I heard Murmur. Even though I could barely make out Michael Stipe's lyrics, the pastoral, gritty, Keroucian images these songs conjured up shot straight through my soul. Geck would probably argue that The Replacements are the quitessential American band of the 80's, but my vote is for the boys from Athens.

Based on the stellar Pithfork reviews, I downloaded the newly remastered editions of Murmur and Reckoning. The remastered (deluxe) versions of these albums are stunning, adding space clarity and depth. As the PF review of Reckoning notes, "(the) expert remastering job cleaned up the album's notoriously murky sonics and revealed previously unheard detail and force." If that weren't enough, both editions contain some fantastic live recordings of a band at the top of its game, proving REM was a very good live band. If you're an REM fan, these remastered gems are a must-have.

Ruling the iPod: Local Natives' Gorilla Manor

About a year ago I rediscovered Talking Heads. Their music is just so funky and strange and ahead of its time. I must not be the only one obsessed with the Heads in 2010. The Dirty Projectors and my favorite band of the moment, Local Natives seem to have sipped from David Byrne's kool-aid cup as well. Pitchfork has a good review of this album (btw Pitchfork through Lala allows you to listen to as much of the album as you want before you purchase - gotta love our instant access/gratifcation world!) Here a live BBC studio version of the very moving "Airplanes."