Have Conor Oberst returned to his roots?

Some voices have stated that Conor Oberst returned to his roots with his solo project with the Mystic Valley Band (Taylor Hollingsworth, Nik Freitas, Macey Taylor, Nate Walcott, Jason Boesel). In general a crazy statement. In my opinion he have just taken a turn towards exploring the country fundament a bit closer.

Either way, it is a solid and wonderful acquaintance with a prominent member of the country-rock scene, even though country-rock may have had its height as the ruler of folk-rock. Hopefully country-rock is disolving and floating towards a more complex folk-rock seeking syntheses with other aspects of folk and world music. Looking forward to the time when you for example are taking your turn with Celtic music, Conor. Happy new year!

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 24th - Pavement

So here we are at the final day of our christmas/pitchfork countdown. The big question is who deserves the extremely prestigious role of ending this long, fine list of artists. Sometimes the answer just falls right into your lap. I always favoured Pavement as a strong candidate and when I saw this video there was just no better way to wish all our treasured Indie Laundry readers a merry christmas.

'Gold Soundz' is one of the best songs of one of the very best albums of the 1990's -'Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain' (1994). It is also the second single from Pavement's second release. And the video shows the five guys roaming around somewhere in California, almost like Beasties Boys in the legendary Sabotage video. Only, Stephen Malkmus & Co. are all dressed out as Santa Clauses and seem more confused. Along the way, they shoot a chicken and tumble down a hill. It doesn't make too much sense but hey... it's christmas. Have a good one!!

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 23rd - Happy Mondays

Happy Mondays have always managed to carve a smile on my face. So I'll light this little Xmas day up with the Happy Mondays. Challenging the Pitchfork list.

I had one live-experience with Shaun Ryder and Bez. In 1995 where they did a terrible - slash - really awesome disturbed show with Black Grape at Roskilde Festival. Shaun Ryder was piss drunk and tumbled about on stage doing his mental stuff. Well. Before that time, they were the Happy Mondays. And just as badass crazy with ecstasy and manic obsessions.

Anyone who know their brit-rock trivia OR have seen 24 Hour Party People would be aware of that Mr. Manchester - Tony Wilson - found these guys. Quality was a trademark for Mr. Manchester, who pushed acts like Joy Division and Sex Pistols into the limelight.

Well 'nuff said. The Pitchfork 500 single with Happy Mondays is 'Kinky Afro' from album Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches. That single hit the #1 spot in US. The songs chorus paraphrases the Labelle song "Lady Marmalade".

The challenge is that on the same album you'll find 'Step On'. That song didn't make the number one position in the US, but performed just as good back home in England.
To me this song is much more Happy Monday'ish, more bizare and freaky. Also this track is completely stolen from John Kongos' "He's Gonna Step On You Again" showing only that the Happy Mondays can steal anything claiming it their own.

But the real shit about this classic is the intro. Shaun Ryder on E or something singing 'You are twisting ma mellons maaaaaaaan'.

Either way. These two tracks are the most popular from Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches. That album is a masterpiece and reminds me of good times in the 90's.

First: Step On


Second: Kinky Afro

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 22nd - Brian Eno

Only two days till christmas. The race is heating up, people are stressed out. You know the drill. If you feel the strain yourself, Indie Laundry now provides you with an absolute perfect antidote in the shape of Brian Eno's ambient masterpiece, 'Ambient 1: Music for Airports' (1978). 

In fact, this album was the first to define the term 'ambient music'. It contains just four songs, rationally named 1/1, 2/1, 1/2 and 2/2. Pitchfork chooses the first and you cannot really argue with that. It is a stunning, gentle, ultra-slow piano driven piece of music. It is the musical parallel to a spa massage!

Eno came up with the idea for the record while being stuck at the Cologne Bonn Airport and being annoyed with the boring music there. Since then the album has been used in the LaGuardia Airport in New York. In fact, this can be seen as Eno's crusade against mindless muzak; to reestablish the power of music to create an interesting surrounding influence or atmosphere. You can only describe his project as extremely succesful. No matter your level of attention to it, 1/1 is a highly pleasurable experience.   

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 21th - Sufjan Stevens

Casimir Pulaski Day is not really a hidden gem. It's a genuine Sufjan Stevens gem that always hits me like a ton of bricks.

I don't really know why, but the lyrics are really sad and the simple guitar-picking is perfectly mellow.

Casimir Pulaski Day is on his album Illinois. If you want to learn more about the Casimir Pulaski Day as it's observed in Illionis, read this article! :-)

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 20th - The Clash

Play some Grandmaster Flash and Sugar Hill Gang for the members of The Clash and this single is what you'll get. Far from bad and close to brilliant.

The Magnificent Seven was inspired by old skool hip hop and build around a pretty funky bass loop originally issued by The Blockheads. The Magnificent Seven is the first major rap record by a white band and one of the earliest examples of hiphop with social and political content.

The song deals with consumerism, popular media, historical figures. In a funny way too! The first verses of the song deals with this nameless worker as he wakes up and goes to work, only to buy his girlfriend consumer goods.

Enjoy!

Keith Richards tells the stories behind his 10 all-time-favorite Rolling Stones riffs.

Keith Richards, who turned 65 thursday, reveals his favorite Rolling Stones songs. It's not really a groundbreaking piece, but fun to hear his own words on some of the more wellknown Stones songs.

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 19th - Elliott Smith

Connecting to the earlier post today, we continue our Pitchfork 500 adventure with the late Elliott Smith. Steven Paul Smith - his real name - was a genius and besides that, heavily influenced by The Beatles. So often you cannot help thinking of the more moody and introspective Beatles songs, like 'Blackbird' or 'While my guitar gently weeps' when listening to Elliott Smith. Yet, Smith's music is not just moody, it is almost tragic, like loneliness put to sound. Compine this with his ability to write very strong, timeless melodies and you end up with a haunting cocktail that will get you hooked. 

Of course, his tragic death in 2003 only strengthens this perception. If you are in the right kind of mood, prepare to get moved when you hear 'Between The Bars'. The song featured in Gus van Sant's movie 'Good Will Hunting' which marked somewhat of a breakthrough for Smith. Originally, it is taken from his 1997 release 'Either/Or' - named after Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard's milestone book. No more bonus info - instead, enjoy Smith's chilling performance of the song, sitting in a kitchen (I think).

Elliott Smith - Between The Bars

Beatles Remastered

2009 will be a year of some very noticeable re-issues. The other day I anticipated the upcoming Neil Young 'Archives' release and today I give a shout out to The Beatles. The only cd-versions of their studio albums that exist, are the ones from 1987. That will change next year- about bloody time - when long overdue remastered versions will see the light of day. There are not too many details about how and when it will happen but it WILL happen. 

Anyways, it gives me the opportunity to give you this über-cool video of one of the fab four's lesser known, yet totally brilliant tracks. If you think you have grown apart from The Beatles, watch this and you will think again! 'Hey Bulldog'!

  

NB: Stay tuned for the continuation of our Pitchfork Christmas Special in a few hours...

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 18th - The Pretenders

This is such a badass track. Powerful, with sad sad lyrics and even today with a bitterly rueful sound. It's from The Pretenders. Take it for a few spins.

At the time of release of the single 'Back on the Chain Gang' the band had been fractured by the drugrelated death of lead-guitarist and style-inventor James Honeyman-Scott.

The Prentenders only consistent member and songwriter Chrissie Hynde decided to go on and do this track with another line-up as a tribute to Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon, who were dumped earlier that year. He succumbed to an OD in April 1983. Such awful tragedy in that band!

The track was put on the the album 'Learning to Crawl' from '84, which is among the finest work The Pretenders ever did.

The single marked a new level of musical sophistication for the band, who formed during the tail end of the original British punk movement. In 1978.

The bass-walk on this song is just sooo fokkin' brilliant, and that whole swinging pop-style part and chorus just sticks in your head instantly.

Bonusinfo: Chrissie Hynde has teamed up with Morrissey for vocalwork on his new release.

The Prentenders - Back on the Chain Gang





Got into the house like a pigeon from hell...

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 17th - Orange Juice

Short post today... Now for some Scottish music. It is 1980 and Orange Juice is part of a string of new exciting post-punk bands from Glasgow also counting Josef K, Simple Minds and Aztec Camera. Orange Juice was fronted by Edwyn Collins (of later 'A girl like you' fame) and the song chosen by Pitchfork is their second single 'Blue boy'. And here is a video showing a gramophone playing it. Action-packed, huh?

Neil Young Archives Vol. 1. trailer

After countless delays it seems that this motherload of pure light and love is not far away. Call me a subject to clever advertising, if you like. I just want to get my hands on this a.s.a.p!

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 16th - Yo La Tengo

One of my friends once told me that everything released by Matador Records is awesome. No more, no less! If there ever were an archetypical Matador band, it would have to be Yo La Tengo so they ought to something, right? Too dynamic to be shoegazing, too silky to be grouped with noise-rockers like Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo carves their own niche in alternative rock and has done so since 1984. So if you find that they may sound similar to many other bands, you probably have to blame the other bands...

Yo La Tengo was formed by Ira Kaplin and Georgia Hubley; a married couple from Hoboken, New York. In 1993 they released the album Painful from which we give you 'From a Motel 6'. 

 

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 15th - R.E.M

A whole different look, but a punk ass solid sense of rhythm! Todays choice of song had a lasting legacy when it was released in 1984 — it put R.E.M on the American rock map once and for all. Why? Check out below.

R.E.M has got it all on todays video from Late Night with David Letterman in june 1983. R.E.M here shows off what was soon to come. This their first television performance on national tv ever.

The song is 'So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)' and was first released on Reckoning (1984) and didn't have a name when R.E.M played it on Letterman.

What I love about this video is the totally cool and relaxed atmosphere in the studio. Letterman talking with Buck & Mills about their music, while a shy Michael Stipe hides in the background. And their looks. It's brilliant. Mike Mills looks nerdy as a young Bill Gates and Stipe just looks amazingly cool and Godlike, with his hair and young and haunted attitude. Their style is almost grungy!

The music is superb as well. Sounds pretty campfire-simple, but changes a hell of a lot of chords and keys three times. I don't have a clue about the lyrics, but they are sung with so much emotional insight, that I don't even care.

R.E.M - So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry) (The Black Sessions 2001)

Pitchfork 500 - Dec. 14th - Television

For this Sunday we will treat you with a true classic. It was in 1977 that Television released the perhaps single most important album of the New Wave, erhh... wave. The title track 'Marquee Moon' is 10 minutes of duelling guitars. The track was done in one take but nobody told drummer Billy Ficca that. He thought they were only rehearsing! 

On top of Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine's guitar extravaganza, Verlaine delivers a haunted vocal. This a quite phenomenal stuff and it is easy to hear the spirit of Television roaming in much newer indie music, not least their fellow New Yorkers from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I can't believe I haven't bought this album yet, but I promise to fix that shortly!  

Television - Marquee Moon