Soft Rock for Hard Times

When I set off to traverse the nation with Calvin, I had been in a full-swing soft rock binge. The result was a series of cassette mix tapes I made from my favorite dollar bin ballads that I entitled "Soft Rock for Hard Times." Calvin is lucky, because I somehow lost two of these in the move, and he saved himself hours of listening to Bread, the Eagles, America, etc.

Low and behold, hard times befell me again on the eve of this winter, so I put together another cassette. I figured I would share with you my favorite soft rock anthems that have made it on most of these mixes that I seem to misplace and lose as soon as I make them.

This last one I burnt to CD so that I could listen to it when my sweetheart and I drove up to her folks' place for thanksgiving. The CD player broke, and that CD kept playing, even when the car was off and the keys removed from the ignition. That's how you know it was good.


One of my favorite dollar bin soft rock albums. Their second album is nowhere near as good as this one. Doug Yule from the almighty Velvet Underground shed his urban grime to be the rhythmic roots to this breezy affair. George Martin quit the Beatles to produce this record. Pure beauty.


The rest of this record is not too strong, but it is worth snagging out of a 50 cent bin all for this magnificent nugget. Some record stores might pay you to take it off their hands.


I like to build it all up to this. After a good Stevie Nicks or Steely Dan burner or a nice touch of 10CC I bring the mix home with a classic like this.

Hypercage Record Club

In Philly, there is this party called making time. Everyone in the city goes to it, especially like, bros from outside the city. However, it is run by some of the RVNG people and they book good bands or DJs. The two I've attended were for Sebastien Tellier and Tensnake. I dragged Calvin to another that Holy Ghost played, and they were really boring. Making Time people just started a mailing list for a monthly mix cd, and low and behold, it is quite an excellent mix. They've got a good touch for the kind of house music that will keep Indie kids moving, so most of this is to the poppy side of the house spectrum, and I don't really have a problem with that. Nothing too obscure here, lots of stuff I've heard, even one or two I own. This one is brought to us by Pink Skull and a few philadelphia local djs. They call it the hypercage because the upstairs room where shit gets really housey and techno styled has a big cage on the dance floor, i think. Download the mix here if you want, and see the tracklist below. Or sample on soundcloud.

1. Neurotic Drum Band – Neurotic Erotic Adventure (Dub Mix)
2. Crimeax - Liubov
3. Hot Toddy – Won’t Let Go
4. Rollmottle – Take A Break (Maurice Fulton Remix)
5. Dextrax – E-Glez
6. Kid Deep – Looking 4 Someone
7. Chamboche – On The Streets (Brontosaurus Remix)
8. LSB – Cosmic Wild Boar
9. Scissor Sisters - Any Which Way (Tensnake Remix)
10. Cosmic Kids – Reginald’s Groove
11. Sun, Sun, Sun – Curious (Instrumental)
12. Murphy Jax ft. Mike Dunn – It’s The Music
13. Pete Heller – Nu Acid
14. Prinzhorn Dance School – Off The Radar, Off The System
15. The Glimmers & Baby G – Esta Si Esta No (In Flagranti Remix)
16. Munk – La Musica (Azari & III Remix)
17. MMM – Donna
18. Triangle Orchestra – The Strip

Mariah Carey has a new christmas album yaaaa'lll what?! feat. Mariah's mom!

Best Bruce Springsteen Cover of the Year

I guess this has nothing to do literally, or even conceptually, with the boss' "The River." But, it does have something to do with very serene synthesizers, heavy, (phil collins let's put the mic IN the floor tom) echoing drums, and a floating E2-E4 guitar solo to wash you away.

I'm sad to miss out on the album release party for this with CFCF & Herc and the Love Aff, but I am seeing Lindstrom this Saturday! Sick.

I Went to a Rave on Halloween

I did. It was weird. The music left me disappointed, but the costumes were good. I thought I should tell someone. It was in Philadelphia. I'm moving back there, btw. That is also weird. I'm going to miss the rubntug/runaway parties that happen here in new york. Oh well, I'll save hundreds of dollars a month, which is important when you don't have an income.



I guess last year was a big year for Levon Vincent, but I'm just now really getting into his sound. Could be a return for me into house with this kind of dub techno lean. I guess I got so grossed out by dubstep that I wasn't really open to the more Basic Channel or straight dub techno sounds out there. I mean, I still liked some of that stuff, and even have some good 12"s from a few years back that are great, but hadn't really stayed up on it. This is the kind of stuff I would have been more happy to hear at a rave. Or like Fred P. or Omar S. Any recommendations along these lines, anyone?

You can download a pretty good mix he put together at mnml ssgs.

Jesus is Red White and Blue

I looked into this on a recommendation from a friend who found it and was ecstatic about it. First listen and I wasn't sold. Fifth listen and its all I've listened to today. Something good going on here. Somewhere between the off kilter white dude funk, 5th Dimension cheese, and the Streisand/Bacharach lounge vibe is something totally and wholly human that reminds me that I am, in fact, alive. This record has Gospel, Funk, Soul, Lounge, and enough cheese to top your taco.

Cincinnati Joe and Mad Lydia

Proto Techno to Robo Techno

I just picked up this reissue of the Tolerance LP Anonym originally released in 1980 on Vanity Records. People herald it as a proto-techno record. Their second LP, Divin, was on the Nurse With Wound List and can be downloaded here. Unfortunately, I don't have a digital copy of Anonym to share. I think at times that it does get a nice proto acid house sound. Very creepy ambiance, so take this as my Halloween contribution, but what sold me on it was the percussion and synth builds that congeal in a few of the songs. Again, this is frustrating because there is not youtube or digi version of Anonym for me to play the tracks that I like the best. More info here....

I'm sure you guys are familiar with the Minimal Wave label and already probably have preset feelings towards electro new wave etc, but for one reason or another I've been really enjoying Deux's Decadance LP, and I think that label does a fair job of rolling out hits. I guess there isn't anything too robotic or too techno about this, unless we can count their Kraftwerky synthesizers, I just wanted to write a clever title. I know we had that BIPP compilation at kcpr when I was there, and I think they were on that. It's pop music. Looked around for a download of it, but I'm coming up empty.

You know that band Cold Cave? Well I got their first 12" cause it was a philly thing and what not. Problem was, I thought it sounded waaayyy better played at 33 rpm than 45 rpm. It made it all harsh and industrial and beautiful. Anyways, I think Deux's record at times sounds a little like I wish Cold Cave sounded like.

I'm rereading this post and it doesn't make much sense. Chill.

There Is A New Arp Album And It Is Great

I duno if you guys remember Alexis Georgopoulos AKA Arp and his wonderful album 'In Light' from back in 2007, but i sure do. It contained soothing tunes full of analog-synth minimalism, kinda like Terry-Riley's "Descending Moonshine Dervishes' on vintage synthesizers instead of organs. Well, he has a new album, and it is similar but also great. This time he seems to be more focused on kraut-y electronics more akin to Cluster or Eno, and if you are a hard-liner for that type of thing you might be put of by the inescapable derivative-ness of these two albums. But I don't really mind, and if you can get down with Emeralds' latest album then you can definitely get down to this. Let's face it, the world will never stop needing more new-agey komische records. So I'm posting the whole thing, because I have absolute faith that no one reads this blog and that therefore I will not get in any trouble.

Arp - The Soft Wave

Happy Halloween... BITCHES

DUDE. I know I talk a lot about Resident Advisor mixes, and really I have to give props to Jimmy for alerting me to the presence of both this mix and the Scott Grooves one I posted a week or so ago, but DAMNS. They are on a serious roll. This week, for the special spooky Halloween edition of the RA Podcast they got frickin ALAN HOWARTH to put together a few tunes from his heyday of making amazing soundtracks to your favorite horror films of the '80s and '90s, along with frequent collaborator JOHN CARPENTER. This is the real deal, as they say, and most of my favorite JC jams are here and accounted for. I don't think I should have to sell you dudes too much on this stuff... synthy, tense, dramatic, repetitive compositional amazingness is contained in these here megabytes... dl soon or forever hold your peace.

Alan Howarth RA Podcast

Linda Perhacs - Parellelograms re-release on Mexican Summer

Hey brahs, thanks for inviting me to be in your blogging club!

I'll start with a little post about Linda Perhacs. I work for Human Ear and we just hosted Linda and her band two weeks ago for a concert at San Francisco Art Institute. This was her third public appearance ever! Unlike all of us at The Society of Mutual Affirmation, she's incredibly generous and modest. She literally talked to probably everyone who attended the show afterwards. She currently lives on her ranch in Topanga Canyon - continuing to work as a dental hygienist while writing new music on the side.

You're probably familiar with her, but her album might be worth revisiting since it was just released on Mexican Summer. Linda received the new vinyl the night before traveling to SF for the show! I would definitely recommend buying a copy, it looks great. There's a print of her visual score as an insert! Parellelograms was originally released on Kapp Records in 1970, but Linda told me the original recordings were so crappy she gave up hope as a musician - and the label pushed her aside when they found it unmarketable. It's really soo amazing what music blogs have done for rediscovering artists.



Linda chatting with a fan at the SFAI show.

WFMU Record Fair Finds

SRC - Milestones
Detroit, 69, their second record. Their first release is their best, but their first two are solid records and not too easy to come by. This was the hit from their first album.

Second record gets more of a prog lean.

Another find worth sharing is the Paul Clark Songs from the Savior LP from 1975. I always want to find the good private press christian folk, acidy, oddball records (cause they're often overlooked and cheap), but am never sure what will be good and what will be just like the rest of them. This I got really cheap, and it is a solid soft rock record with fun backwards guitar and neil young vocals. Can't find youtube from this record, but one of his later records is here, and it kinda gets at the idea. Yacht rock + baby jesus = good used record.

I also picked up a good Wild Man Fischer record, Bukka White's Sky Songs, which Elijah got to before me when we went to the record store in redwood city, Albery Ayler's Love Cry, and an Eddie Hinton album I'm really into.

New (old) Records (albums)

Yoga Records is one of my favorite reissue efforts around. I've raved about them here before when that Robert Lester Folsom album came out last year. I just saw Folsom play his first show in decades tonight, and it was amazing. I wasn't the only one singing along to every word. There was at least one other dude in the crowd that I saw doing it too.

For reals though, this is the real deal. Yoga's two latest releases are totally worth getting your mittens on. The first is this Ted Lucas Record, which no one has ever not liked. The second is the record by Dwarr called Animals, and it is like if Bobb Trimble covered Sabbath. Like some proto-doom metal shit. So so so excellent.

I also really like Matthew Young's Traveler's Advisory and Jeff Eubank's A Street Called Straight. Yoga put all these out as digital releases and some vinyl and then bigger outfits (Drag City, Mexican Summer) put them out on vinyl later. I think he's running a really smart and effective label this way. Getting this stuff out into the world. I can't say enough to support this dude's label. I hope to catch him at the wfmu record fair tomorrow to pick his brain more about doing reissues and how to be so damn cool and stuff.

This track sounds like it could be by the Durutti Column (sorta). He is just reading lines out of his car's owner's manual. His hammered dulcimer work is technically, nerdily, brilliant. The record also has a spectacular cover of Michael Hurley's Werewolf.

New (Old) Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom Stuff

So there's a new EP on DFA from Delia & Gavin, who brought us the incredible full-length The Days of Mars in the mid 2000s. "Track 5" is an outtake from that album, that first was featured on the DFA Holiday mix in 2005 that aired on Beats in Space that year. You may also recognize Gavin Russom from his Black Meteoric Star and Crystal Ark projects, both also on DFA and both quite excellent. This track is actually pretty different from the stuff on Days of Mars, beginning with a characteristic bubbling synth line but eventually changing course with a psuedo-balearic guitar riff towards the end that almost reminds me of something Studio could be responsible for. Good stuff, and don't forget about the also-excellent remix from deep-house producer Ame, who turns the original slow burner into something far more uptempo and dance-worthy.

Track 5 & Ame remix

More 80s Bar Rock, But Mostly the Same Old 80s Bar Rock

As you all know, I've got this sad little soft spot for really awful blues rock. I got embarrassingly into the new Grinderman record, only listening to it on headphones cause I didn't want my roomies to think I wasn't cool. Then I started going back through my stuff trying to find some more shit to scratch the itch. Jon Spencer Blues Control didn't do it, Doo Rag didn't do it, Delta 72 didn't do it, and well, shit man, you get the idea.

So it all came back to Gun Club and The Pontiac Brothers. 80s Los Angeles alternatives to X, the cramps, or the bad seeds. Both Gun Club and Pontiac Bros. hit the white dude blues sound on the head better than anyone since Canned Heat. Like REM, White Stripes, and like, other people you dont care about couldn't exist without these bands. They also covered the Dead and shit. Anyways, this is the stuff I'm listening to on headphones lately. My latest Steve Hillage record lost my living room music privileges for the month.

Here's a good Pontiac Brothers album if anyone's interested....

More '90s House, but different

Lots of people have been predicting an early-90s vocal house comeback for a while now, and while it might sorta be happening, it probably won't make any real inroads into the U.S. for a while. Projects like Azari & III, Hercules & Love Affair, House of House and The Juan MacLean have been experimenting with this sound and garnering critical attention for years, but sadly most average "independent music-lovers" seem to be so much more likely to be fucking with thuggy dubstep than affeminate diva-house with cheesy organs. But YOU GUYS should. Just because DJ Sprinkles ranted about labels like Strictly Rhythm co-opting pure underground instrumental house music by adding vocals and turning it into 'commodity' (or something) doesn't mean it doesn't rule. And now you can hear a bunch of great tracks from the era on one convenient Resident Advisor podcast from Scott Grooves, who apparently played keyboards for Kevin Saunderson's Inner City project. "Good Life" and "Big Fun" are jamz...



But yeah, this mix is apparently a 90 minute mix-tape Scott made sometime in 1993, with two sides of classic house tracks... here's the tracklist he gave RA, and a link to both the article about the mix and the mix itself (since the official link just expired). And YES, it's even awesome enough to have that Robin S song on there even though it was a giant hit and now we can all sing it at karaoke parlors worldwide. And a remix of "That's the Way Love Goes".

Side A
1. India - I can't get no sleep (MK remix)
2. Bizzare Inc. - You took my love (MK remix)
3. Robin S - Show me love
4. Neneh Cherry - Buddy X (MAW remix)
5. Underground Commitment - I know a melody - Suburban records
6. TMVS - Don't be Shy - Suburban records
7. ?
8. ?
9. Innercity - Pennies from Heaven (Tony Humphries Delancey mix)

Side B
1. ?
2. A Better Love
3. The K London Production Club - I Believe in Love - KFB records
4. Make it thru the Night - Street Players vol 1- Emotive records
5. ?
6. Runaway - Loop D Loop - Pal Joey
7. Victor Simmonelli - Sound of One EP - One records
8 ?
9. ?
10. ?
11. Reese Project - So Deep (CJ Mackintosh remix) - Network records
12. Janet - That's the way Love goes (CJ Mackintosh remix)

RA.225: Scott Grooves
link

You guys don't know this but you don't really want this

This is a bargain bin album that I grabbed because this guy did work with Muscle Shoals back in the day, and one of my favs of that sound, Eddie Hinton, is on a track or two. So in looking into it, apparently all the strings, flute, and orchestral arrangement was added in post production, and Mr. Lampe was not happy about it. He thinks they destroyed his record. I love that crap, so it works for me, but you can hear, underneath that, some hard wrought, bare bones southern soul ballads that would be amazing without all that orchestration. Could've been like Dan Penn or Jim Ford if they'd produced it differently. Regardless, you guys probably didn't know that you didn't even care about this.



here's an eddie hinton jam

You guys don't know it but what you all really want is ambient early-90s house

I'm sure I've said this before but chillout-tent music wasn't always the trancey pap that embarasses us today, at one point in time electronic artists could actually navigate the terrain between beat-driven and ambient without making you feel like you entered some godawful yoga studio. Choice examples of 90s ambient include the KLF's Chill Out, Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, Terre Thamelitz's Soil, The Future Sound of London's Lifeforms, that kind of thing. I think SAWII is probably my favorite of the bunch, but it's also a frickin canonical album and an unqualified classic so I'll post one that you guys may not have checked out yet- 76:14 by Global Communication. This album is great but just a forewarning- two tracks here sound strikingly similar to "Love on a Real Train" from the Risky Business soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. If that sounds like your kinda thing then you are in luck my friend.

Global Communication - 76:14

OK FINE I'LL POST

Hey. I'm here again.

I thought this would be a nice first post in our newly revived blawg, a looooong piece of foreboding minimal jazz from Australian trio The Necks. This one is from 2003, and is considered by most to be pretty different than the rest of their catalog but definitely the grooviest and the best (I haven't explored much but I also like most of the rest of what I've heard, too). I know that cover reeks of POST RAWK but I promise this shit is amazing...

The Necks - Drive By (in FLAC, sorry)

Current Budget Bin Obsession

I highly recommend grabbing both Solid Air and One World by John Martyn for 99 cents at your local record retailer.

Sometimes, the best recording studio, is the great outdoors. Lee Perry on this track.

Totally amazing nigerian funk

Sexy Thing [1982] by Robo Arigo.



Bump this




10/10

Can't stop listening to this

Autre ne Veut - "OMG"

Modern Mali Desert Blues

If Pavement can go on a reunion tour, let's do a reunion tour of this blog. For every post one of you do, I'll match it with a post. That way we can get the ball rolling.

Now that Erik is in Portland and I'm in New York this will continue to be a good way to both stay in touch and share music with each other. Instead of worrying about saying things about music, let's just post links, videos, or quick comments to share with each other something that has caught out interest in our digressing musical excursions. I think the time it takes to make an in depth review is holding us back from keeping this up. So, for the sake of brevity, I'll stop talking and make a post in the fashion described above.

Saw this band do a secret show for free two weeks ago at Santos House Party. They killed it. The band is based around the female lead, a bit of a diva, but all focus is on the 17 year old kid who took his dad's place as lead guitarist in the band. He will certainly be someone to keep an eye on. Watch him on the far left of this video.

Marina Rock

I know that Yacht Rock has been a burgeoning undercurrent on the musical radar of record diggers for quite sometime, what with Fleetwood Mac and Bread providing soft rock for the ages, but what are the implications, transgressions, and transcendent moments of yacht rock?

Marina Rock. A Marina is a place where a lot of yachts sit tied to docks, bobbing up and down in the waves, glistening in eternal sunset mode. What are the implications of this you may ask? Well, the late seventies had an answer. A plurality of answers. An armada of yachts, anchored, chilling, chilling in the marina with sunsets, caressed and massaged by boat shoes. Marinas are places where you are either arriving or departing, lounging, reflecting or planning. Contemplative, introspective, serene.

Mexican Summer (Who knew they were an imprint of Kemado!?) just reissued this superb example of AM radio pop, soft rock private pressing from Georgia 1976. The album is Music and Dreams by Robert Lester Folsom, and it will sweep you away in a dreamy ocean of acoustic guitar and Californian, Neil Young via the Eagles, singer songwriter waves.

Another gem for you all to keep an eye out for will be sitting in the budget bin at a record store near you. Ian Matthews was in a band called Plainsong whose In Search of Amelia Earhart is a crowning achievement in the annals of soft rock lore.

So keep your eyes peeled to the horizon my brethren, and you too will know peace, love, and yachting for it is summer in winter. All hands on deck.

Album of the Century

Neil Young Archives, Volume 1 [1963-1973]

Album of the Decade

I know that we don't really post on this blog anymore, and that it is now more like those records you bought in high school that are in no way redeemable but you still have to see them at your parents house every time you go home.

Regardless, I'm going to make more and more audacious claims every post I make until someone counters my post with an even MORE audacious post, to which I will only scoff and leave comments about how predictable it was.

So, album of the decade motherfuckers. Group Doueh - Guitar Music From the Western Sahara.

I didn't know there was youtube footage of these guys from the big tour. I mean, I'd seen the SF DVD footage, but not this. Wish I'd been in Europe for that Sublime Frequencies tour, and I wish I didn't have class on Friday so that I could go see Tinariwen in Brooklyn.

I'm just going to stay up all night watching these youtube videos instead.




Supergroup Style:


In Amsterdam (no drug jokes)


In Berlin (Which makes this krautrock, right? Totally Ege Bamyasi inspired Desert Blues Jam)


And some more Souleyman for good measure: