Andy and I (Stevie Wonder Driving School) made it to Kathmandu in 15 days time and we are so damn pleased with ourselves!
There’s loads to tell but the highlight of the entire run was this amazingly bad crash we had on the 11th day — I drove into the back of a parked lorry at 45 kmph! Our rick was absolutely twisted and mangled. I thought GAME OVER! Read the rest of this entry »
I am kind of back but not with stuff about indie or alternative music. Last weekend I took some funny pics of Stewie with my watch strapped around his neck. So I thought I’d post them on here.
Sorry for being ‘slightly’ off-topic 
Read the rest of this entry »
Like fragrances and colours, music has the power to change not just one’s state of mind, (which is actually kind of obvious) but also the trappings in which one endures the dullest of quotidian events. Turn on a nice piece and see the hottest of summer afternoons transform into the most pleasant and delightful of evenings. I am sure most Indie lovers have experienced that first hand. The Long Winters is exactly the kind of band that bolsters the trust of us indie-gummers in surrealism. Musical surrealism, that is.
But then again not all songs (genres even) possess that sort of clout. Hip hop, as it is, is yet to get over certain parts of female anatomy– take that homies, ner ner. Admittedly though, even Indie fails to produce such gems regularly. Most of the time, one has to feel content with commonplace tunes. Well as long as it is Indie and tolerable anything goes. Example: Field Music – A House is Not a Home, Love of Diagrams – Pace or the Patience, etc. What were they thinking? It is an atrocity considering how much indie-maniacs like us are in love with all things “obscure”. Obscure reminds me I was going to make this post all about The Long Winters and not turn it into one of my whine sessions. I am tempted to say wine sessions.
The Long Winters are from Washington. Yes, Washington again. The self confessed paranoid John Roderick forms the core of The Long Winters. This singer/songwriter is capable of churning out melodies that prove to be handy whenever you are in that state of ethereal disconnect. However, the USP of the band lies in its lyrics. It is a skill to be able to put complicated thoughts across without being cheesy. “John Roderick writes songs that make you feel like you’ve been talking to someone really interesting in an airport for the last hour and, although you know you’ll never see them again, you just told them your whole life story and a part of you will love them forever. “ (Source: The Long Winters website).
My favourite song by The Long Winters is Delicate Hands (Ultimatum). In fact, this is the first Long Winters song that I heard. Needless to say, I immediately fell in love with it (I want to feed you butter-rum candy/but someone beat you to me/beat you to me/someone beat you to me). This is indie at its best. Even though it fits the bill perfectly, let us just forget about the obscure criterion for just once and concentrate on the tune for what it is. I am sure you’d concur it is quite nice.
Pushover from their latest record Putting the Days to Bed is lyrically not as good as Delicate Hands but it kind of makes up for that by flaunting stronger riffs. Fire Island, AK is well groovy and that is why me likes it loads.
Other songs that deserve a mention: Scent of Lime (The Worst You Can Do is Harm), Stupid, Blue Diamond (When I Pretend I Fall)
Songs on LB’s MP3 player: Delicate Hands, Stupid, Fire Island AK
Till we meet next time…
Keep moving forward (Meet the Robinsons style)
Megha
The Long Winters Discography
Putting The Days To Bed (2006)
Ultimatum (2005)
When I Pretend To Fall (2003)
The Worst You Can Do Is Harm (2002)
Laidbackness says:
Okay, so it had indeed been a long time since the last post (see: The Arctic Monkeys doing covers by Pradster). I honestly wanted to wait a while (or at least have an article about some other band) before posting another Arctic Monkeys article right after the first one about them. But then I thought, “what the deuce”, I’ll do it anyway! We have the usual excuses – work, studies, blah, and blah. Seriously, I would rather have my time and listen to stuff and write about it than do anything that falls a degree below all that on my scale of “Laidbackness like-o-meter”. On second thought, that was an awful name for a scale.
Anyway, so what have I been listening to lately? Umm, Indie/underground of course! The songs have been listed below (in case you are interested). These aren’t brand new tracks but in my opinion the best thing about underground songs is that no matter how long it has been after their release, they always remain fresh. Maybe, that is because most sloppy RJs (who play a song over and over again, until they kill it, grr…) probably never find out about these songs. Good thing. The last thing you want to hear on radio is some junkie toggling between pop and indie. Yes, that happens. At least here in India. That totally kills it. Okay, enough of the rant. Here’s my play list:
1. Heady Like a Kite – Noisy At the Circus
2. OK Go – Here We Go
3. Modest Mouse – Float On (one of the more popular ones, really)
4. My Vitriol – Always Your Way
5. Appleseed cast – Fishing the Sky
6. Arcade Fire – Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)
7. Arctic Monkeys, The – All You People Are Vampires
8. PJ Harvey – Good Fortune
9. The Shins – Kissing The Lipless (will review this song later. This song deserves it.)
10. The Subways – Oh Yeah (Laidbackness recommends)
11. Mojave 3 – Breaking The Ice
12. Sonic Youth – Incinerate
13. Be Your Own Pet- October, First Account
14. Nine Black Alps – Unsatisfied
15. 22-20′s – Shoot Your Gun (Laidbackness recommends)
That is it for now. I would love to know what you think about the songs (in case you get a chance to listen to any of the songs mentioned above)!
Megha needs to go now and find nice trousers to go with black jacket.
Laters
Question: Name the best song in the World?
The answer:
The Charlatans – How High
Now that you have had a load of it you’d concur that it is indeed one of the best tunes ever! Don’t tell me the electrifying guitars don’t do anything for you.
Death Cab for Cutie have been around for a while, yet somehow I’ve only just managed to discover them.
The first time I heard them on the radio I thought, “Oh my God, they are good”. Their style so distinct, it was hard not to sit up and take notice.
I was smitten the minute I heard the overwhelmingly nostalgic We Looked like Giants. The song goes from talking about things discovered as teenagers (When every Thursday/ I’d break those mountain passes/ you’d skip your early classes and we’d learn how our bodies worked) and works it way to describing the tumultuous events, which when thrown together become life (God damn that black night/ with its foul temptation/I’d become what I always hated).
Culminating in a piano solo, it provides the perfect background score to my space trips, which are quite often. All that coupled with grey guitar notes makes for an excellent listen. I wish DCFC did more songs in the style of Giants.
Crooked Teeth: It’s the absolute and utter unprosification of totally random and inane things as Death Cab beautifully incorporate something as ugly as orthodontic failures in a song (coz that night the sun and the tree/made the skyline look like the crooked teeth/in the mouth of the man who was devouring us both)?
Soul Meets Body from 2005′s Plan is a slight detour from their signature style. The tune is okay at its very best. Lyrics – mediocre affair indeed. I reckon it’s a great example of music videos greatly benefiting a song I like the song anyway. I do have this tendency to go substandard sometimes.
Another song worthy of a mention is The New Year from Transatlanticism. I find it’s somehow very evocative of We Looked like Giants though their themes couldn’t be further apart.
I am now eagerly awaiting more stuff like Transatlanticism.
Meanwhile the discography:
1997 You Can Play These Songs with Chords
1. President of What?
2. Champagne From A Paper Cup
3. Pictures in an Exhibition
4. Hindsight
5. That’s Incentive
6. Amputations
7. Two Cars
8. Line of Best Fit
1998 Something about Airplanes
1. Bend to Squares
2. President of What?
3. Champagne From a Paper Cup
4. Your Bruise
5. Pictures in an Exhibition
6. Sleep Spent
7. Face that Launched 1000 Shits
8. Amputations
9. Fake Frowns
10. Line of Best Fit
2000 We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes
1. Title Track
2. The Employment Pages
3. For What Reason
4. Lowell, MA
5. 405
6. Little Fury Bugs
7. Company Calls
8. Company Calls Epilogue
9. No Joy in Mudville
10. Scientist Studies
2001 The Photo Album
1. Steadier Footing
2. A Movie Script Ending
3. We Laugh Indoors
4. Information Travels Faster
5. Why You’d Want To Live Here
6. Blacking Out The Friction
7. I Was A Kaleidoscope
8. Styrofoam Plates
9. Coney Island
10. Debate Exposes Doubt
Limited Edition Bonus Disc
1. 20th Century Towers
2. All Is Full Of Love [Bjork]
3. Stability
2002 You Can Play These Songs With Chords Re-Release
1. President of What?
2. Champagne From A Paper Cup
3. Pictures in an Exhibition
4. Hindsight
5. That’s Incentive
6. Amputations
7. Two Cars
8. Line Of Best Fit
9. This Charming Man [The Smiths]
10. TV Trays
11. New Candles
12. Tomorrow
13. Flustered / Hey Tomcat
14. State Street Residential
15. Wait [Secret Stars]
16. Prove My Hypotheses
17. Song For Kelly Huckaby (facts version)
18. Army Corps Of Architects
2003 Transatlanticism
1. The New Year
2. Lightness
3. Title and Registration
4. Expo ’86
5. The Sound Of Settling
6. Tiny Vessels
7. Transatlanticism
8. Passenger Seat
9. The Death Of An Interior Decorator
10. We Looked Like Giants
11. A Lack Of Color
2005 Plans
1. Marching Bands of Manhattan
2. Soul Meets Body
3. Summer Skin
4. Different Names For The Same Thing
5. I Will Follow You Into The Dark
6. Your Heart Is An Empty Room
7. Someday You Will Be Loved
8. Crooked Teeth
9. What Sarah Said
Pleasant weather is a drug and it works almost immediately. This time around it has pleasantly affected the music review of this one album called The Chemical City. After a really long time I’ve been influenced by an album so much that it has made me sit down and picture stuff, such as, knee high beautiful yellow grass, mountains and nice breezy weather. Yeah, I pretty much tend to get into the Alice in Wonderland mode sometimes (I almost typed Wonderwall instead of Wonderland). The only difference is that my imagination is less perverted than her.
Back to the topic, Sam Robert band’s third album, Chemical City, has the effect of a great coffee on a rainy day. With A Bullet, my favourite song from this album, is a song for people who like to dream, not just because of it’s romantic wordings that tend to stay in the air for a while (You move like the moonshine/ Straight to my head/This is a storyline we write from the same bed) but because of the painfully beautiful music as well. The song does get a little cheesy at times (If you were marked with a bullet/ I’d jump in front of it/ I’d rather die for love than die for the want of it) but who cares? Hey, it sounds good, doesn’t it? Mystified, Heavy has a soft, mellow and melodious tune and that is what makes this song worth listening to, over and over again. Put the record on, lay back and relax. Umm don’t wander away just yet; the guitar tempo scales up a little in Bride to Nowhere. Full tempo is reached when you play The Gate, one of the most raved about songs of the album. Mind Flood has this psychedelic quality to it.
This album may not be wall of fame material but it definitely is worth a listen!
Rating: *****
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