Slim Jade

Bad Seeds

Posted by Slim Jade

Jan 302013

Noir is a term that gets used all to gratuitously, but the music of Tindersticks does indeed conjure shadows, rain-soaked alleyways, French cigarettes, and a concealed stiletto. This long-running and dapper Nottingham sextet stood distinctly apart from ’90s Britpop, working their elegantly romantic, debauched gutter ballads and orchestral pop up to the present day.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/02-Tyed.mp3|titles=Tyed] [audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/12-Jism.mp3|titles=Jism]

They are theatrical, volatile, visceral, and louche, with singer Stuart Staples’ rich baritone at the center of this confection. Think Lee Hazlewood, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Serge Gainsbourg, and Dean Martin at his most slurred. Those vocals, in fact, may be a deal breaker for some listeners. It’s a conscientious voice, spinning mumbled and miserablist tales of appetites and desires thwarted by alcohol, mistakes, betrayal, lies, bodily fluids, death, and regret. It evokes the literature of Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, and Charles Bukowski.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/06-Ive-Been-Loving-You-Too-Long.mp3|titles=I’ve Been Loving You Too Long] [audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1-20-Her.mp3|titles=Her]

The music is tightly wound, with melancholic orchestration, Stax soul, flamenco guitars, spaghetti western horns, Bernard Hermann stabs of violin, and Blue Note jazz touches. The aggregate of the band speaks softly, but carries the stab of cynicism, fatalism, and weighty moral ambiguity–the burden of mules, a carnival of lost souls.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/tindersticks_ballad_of_tindersticks.mp3|titles=Ballad of Tindersticks] [audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/04-Can-Our-Love….mp3|titles=Can Our Love…]

Don’t Hold Your Breath

Posted by Slim Jade

Jan 282013

Honestly, what are the chances? I’ve been asking this question of My Bloody Valentine for some 22 years now. I love everything Kevin Shields has ever touched, but seriously, the man has a skewed sense of time. Brian Wilson comes off with a train conductor’s punctuality compared to this.

Pitchfork has been claiming that MBV have the follow-up to Loveless in the can, and today they report that they have a video of a new song, and that Shields promises a new record “in two or three days.”

http://pitchfork.com/news/49317-watch-my-bloody-valentine-play-new-song-kevin-shields-say-new-record-out-in-two-to-three-days/

The video has apparently been revoked already.

Realistically, folks, should we look for this on Tuesday? Don’t break my heart again.

List-O-Mania

Posted by Slim Jade

Dec 292012

It’s that time of year again. You know, time for the frenzy for making Best Of lists. Lists that bring order to the chaos, lists to remember, lists to focus, lists that reveal the personality of the list-er.

In the contrarian spirit that I love to inflict on RTH, I’d like to put forth a 10 best album list that may not exactly match up with your own. These have been the constant loop in my studio and in my car, though many of them have to be turned down when Ms. Jade is in the passenger seat.

I’m always hoping to open a few eyes and ears. Take ‘em or leave ‘em, in no particular order:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!

The power and the glory of cinematic drones.

Andy Stott – Luxury Problems

Creepy noir disco beats and chopped vocals.

Land – Night Within

For everyone still longing for the sound of Talk Talk and David Sylvian

The Men – Open Your Heart

Almost kicked off the list due to their bullshit live performance, but still…

Swans – The Seer

You really have to commit to this album. Not for the faint of heart, but were they ever?

Deerhoof – Breakup Song

Ladymiss Jade has been funking up the kitchen with these SF locals.

Jack White – Blunderbuss

No, it wasn’t the album we hoped for, but I found myself listening to this a lot.

Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Aka “Huh?” Stupid cover, but a longtime favorite band.

Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes

A suite of beats and squeaks that carries the torch of his aunt Alice Coltrane.

Burial – Kindred EP

More noir beats and ghostly presence. He takes his signature sound a little bit further each time.

The Meh List:

Albums we had high hopes for, but…

Tame Impala, Beach House, Gonjasufi, Frank Ocean, The xx, Four Tet’s latest EP.

If You Can’t Say Anything Nice About…Yoko Ono

Posted by Slim Jade

Dec 072012

Oh, my goodness gracious…

We here in the Halls of Rock Town are sometimes taken to task for being overly negative, snarky, hyper-critical, and all too often, just downright rude. As part of our collective efforts to bring a bit of sunshine and light to the world wide web, we occasionally make an extra effort effort to find something good to say about, you know, stuff that is clearly godawful.

It is in that spirit that we embark on yet another effort to bring some positivity to our proceedings. Please spend some quality time with the video above, then—if you can—please find something nice to say about it. You’ll feel a whole lot better, I promise you.

I look forward to your comments. Just remember, if you can’t say anything nice about this video… please don’t say anything at all.

Bang!

Posted by Slim Jade

Nov 272012

Ginger Baker.

I am fired up about seeing this!

http://www.heavy.com/movies/movies-videos/movie-trailers/2012/03/beware-of-mr-baker/

You can have your Bonzo, your Keith Moon, your Animal from the Muppets…Ginger Baker is a motherfucker! In the first scene of this documentary, he apparently breaks the filmmaker (a former boxer)’s nose!

Last Man Standing: Stand!

Posted by Slim Jade

Nov 162012

Get up!

As we tussle in one-upmanship over each other on yet another LMS, what better theme could there be than the act of standing itself? This time around, get up on your feet and enumerate song titles with “stand” or whatever participle or variation you’re into. Don’t take it lying down!

From the Dark Side of the Moon

Posted by Slim Jade

Nov 122012

A recent little review of a singles compilation, in The New Yorker, got me going about another of the bands I champion.

One of the inescapable qualities about A.R.Kane is that they were black, and they were not making the music you’d expect from them, given their image.

Lollita

Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)

Back in A.R.Kane’s heyday, when The Jesus and Mary Chain were squalling with feedback and Cocteau Twins were building cavernous hypnogogic spaces, the reticent, difficult, and yes, arcane members of this duo cited only Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew as influences. It was a reference that, at the time, had me scratching my head and straining to make connections, but enjoying that pursuit nonetheless. Such assertions opened up a different area of exploration for “black rock” in a portion of the spectrum whose only representation came from the band Living Colour.

Spermwhale Trip Over

Spook

Down

A.R.Kane’s moment in the sun came as part of a collaboration with fellow 4ad recording artists Colourbox, a one-off called M.A.R.R.S. that spawned the club hit “Pump Up the Volume.” That scratchedelic dance fest sampled Eric B & Rakim, among a thousand other things, and bore very little of the studio contributions of A.R.Kane. The bulk of their sound exists in its own world, an immensely vast and yet microcosmic interior. I hear the acoustics of Pink Floyd and dub at the same time. It’s an opulent and menacing space filled with equal parts distortion and subtlety, familiar and yet very alien.

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