Rolling Stones / Exile on Main Street / Atlantic / 1972
The Rolling Stones' 10th studio album is a distillation of American music up to that point: blues, boogie woogie, urban soul, country, jazz, gospel, folk, and of course rock n' roll. Today it is recognized as a legendary masterpiece for the band, vast and sprawling, originally covering four sides of vinyl. Recorded primarily in Nellcote, France (in a mansion that was also vast and sprawling) and finished in a studio in L.A. The band was in a self-imposed "exile" from their native England at the time due to oppressive tax laws, so they relocated their entire operation. A near-constant party was going on in the house, which added lots of quirky atmosphere to the finished product, but also bogged the process down with hangers-on and other druggy distractions. They explored every nook and cranny of the physical space to make what is a true classic. (Note: This is not the 2010 remaster.)
764-HERO / Weekends Of Sound / Up / 2000
Weekends Of Sound is the third of four albums for the Seattle indie band who are noted for their spare, unpretentious style of rock. This release sees the group growing as songwriters and performers, delivering a fuller recording that is heavier than previous efforts. Singer/guitarist John Atkins and drummer Polly Johnson are joined by bassist James Bertram (Beck, Red Stars Theory), who clearly contributed to the bigger rock sound, but departed after they toured due to creative differences. 764-HERO is closely associated with Modest Mouse and the Murder City Devils, but unlike their peers, 764-HERO never achieved mainstream success. The band broke up in 2002, with Atkins going on to The Magic Magicians, The John and Spencer Booze Explosion, and The Can't See. (Note: 764-HERO is named after the phone number one calls to report interstate carpool lane violators in Seattle.)
David Bowie / I'm Afraid of Americans / Virgin / 1997
"I'm Afraid of Americans" is a cut from Bowie's 1997 release Earthling, an album heavily influenced by the electronic/industrial music trend of the late 90's. The original track (which is not on this EP) is a collaboration with the vaunted Brian Eno (Roxy Music, Talking Heads, U2, Bowie in the mid-70's). Bowie remixed the song himself for this single ("V1"), and a video was made featuring recent tourmate Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. NIN's reproduction of the song appears here as "V2", followed by further remixes and reworkings that flow together and succeed to varying degrees, particularly "V5", remixed by drum and bass artist Photek. The track is prescient and paranoid, an exploration of Bowie's view of American culture becoming homogenized worldwide, as well as his connection to electronic music. While it may be a lesser feat for a man with Bowie's deep catalog, the song remains worthy of your attention.
Radiohead / "True Love Waits" / [bootleg] / various dates
This is a collection of rarities for fans, not an official Radiohead album, with rather dubious recording quality.
- "How To Disappear Completely": Live, Los Angeles, Jan. 4, 1998; premier performance. Yorke prefaces the song with "This next song is for the benefit of the bootleggers; but mostly it's for Nigel, our producer, so he can hear it, and you can hear it." Studio version is on Kid A.
- "Motion Picture Soundtrack": Live, acoustic version. This song's origin pre-dates the band's first album, but never saw a studio release til Kid A.
- "True Love Waits": Live, not the version from I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings.
- "Sing a Song for You": Live, unreleased track.
- "Nobody Does It Better": Studio recording from 1995. Carly Simon cover (written by Marvin Hamlisch/Carole Bayer Sager).
- "Union City Blue": Studio recording - Blondie cover.
- "Rhinestone Cowboy": Studio recording - Glen Campbell cover (written by Larry Weiss)
- "Lift": Live, unreleased track.
- "Stop Whispering": Studio "US version" from deluxe edition of Pablo Honey.
- "Prove Yourself": Demo version (from vinyl, with cracks and pops) off deluxe edition of Pablo Honey and/or Drill EP.
The debut album from Chicago's standard-bearers of the hypnotic metal trance-groove; a heavy slab of doomy instrumental rawk and riffage (except track 5, which is quiet, spooky and elegaic). Produced by Sanford Parker and Pelican, while the recording studio was under construction. Pelican makes music you want to stomp around to, or at least snap your head to repeatedly. The band continues a Chicago tradition of stripping away the pretense of a vocal melody to present the foundation of unironic sheer metal power.
Modest Mouse / Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks / Epic / 2001
This is a collection of demos Modest Mouse submitted to Epic Records, along with unreleased material from The Moon and Antarctica sessions. The result is a somewhat hit-or-miss set of characteristally melancholy songs from songwriter Isaac Brock & Co. Modest Mouse, as well as Built To Spill, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Death Cab For Cutie, are the quintessential Pacific Northwest indie rock band of the late 90s: beautiful, poetic lyrics packed with philosophical self-loathing, carefully plunked out in a minor key. (Note: The version of "I Came as a Rat" (track 8) on this EP is a slightly longer take from the one that appears on The Moon And Antarctica [2000].)
