The Days Of Vine And Roses

 

Back then in 1982 popular music was ruled by electronic sounds and across the Atlantic ocean many bands returned to the guitar sound of the 60's/70's. Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Rain Parade and REM interpreted their musical history in a very new and great way. Another band that played in this league were The Dream Syndicate, formed in the early 80's in Los Angeles and set with their first albums trademarks in American alternative music. Steve Wynn was the mastermind of the band which combined the energy of punk with music inspired by CCR, Crazy Horse and yes, Bob Dylan because Tell Me When It's Over has a lot of fragments of Stuck Inside Of Mobile... Their first album is still one of those that I always come back to and at every time it is a great pleasure for me to listen to their guitar sound and Wynn's voice that is sometimes very close to Lou Reed.

The Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It's Over

The Dream Syndicate - Definetely Clean

The Dream Syndicate - Halloween

In The Sun

 

Yesterday I posted a long song by Psychic Ill and I remembered them when I read the news of a new series of albums released as Live At Leviation. It is a series about live recordings of the annual Austin Psych Fest. It seems like a series of live albums bringing back the best of American psychedelic music to our ears. Psychic Ill released a live album as well as Moon Duo from their appearance in 2012. Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada formed their band in San Francisco in 2009 to make a dusty, dirty and psychedelic guitar sound, minimalist rhythms and melodies, deliberately broken sounds and constant repetitions make up the sound. On stage Moon Duo make noise for five bands. Ripley nuzzles into the mic, playing down his fuzzy riffs, while Yamada feeds in flirty synthies and keyboard tunes. The drum computer works continuously without a break. You might think the two live in a different world. Or on the moon. This live recording seems to show them at a high leverl.

Monday's Long Song

I think it is time for another trip into space because I didn't featured this kind of music for a longer time. Psychic Ill are an American experimental/psychedelic band from NYC formed by Tres Warren and Elisabeth Hart in Austin at the beginning of the century and released a couple of albums and EP's. Psychic Ill play a guitar based psychedelic sound and on their longer songs they take you to a journey into space. Mantis is the first track from their second album and show their abilities at the best. Psychedelic mantras over a bass led ground with cymbals that wasn't even used in the days of flower power. A song you should watch the video by. Sadly Warren died a few years ago at the age of 42 and this is his legacy to the world.

 

Weird Goodbyes

The dogdays and summer are almost over and we turn slowly into autumn and the time when melancholic songs will return. I don't know why but during the last years sentimental songs were released mostly in the last months of the year. And so I wasn't surprised when I first listened to the new song by The National. A beat, a gentle chord sequence: Weird Goodbyes is at first simple and minimalist, nothing groundbreaking, until then Matt Berninger's vocals appear: „Memorize the bathwater, memorize the air / There’ll come a time I’ll wanna know when I was here“. Less singer can sing about separation and pain like him. Together with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon they made the an anthem for people who want to leave their past behind and looking forward to something new.

 

Back Then

 

Last weekend a few of my pals watched the Stuttgart game for the Bundesliga and we were all disappointed by the result. Stuttgart were the far better team but they lost at home 0:1 at home against Freiburg. After we got over our frustration we went to a friends home to finish the afternoon, There was nothing more to do than talking and have good conversations until a friend started to play some music. Step by step each of us took over the controls and finally it was my decision DJing for half an hour. I didn't know much better than to go back to the early 70's to play some glam rock. We all enjoyed this evening and so it is a pleasure for me to kick you all back to music more than 50 years ago. Enjoy this little journey.

Monday's Long Song

 

This song came a few days to my ears and I have to say that I really enjoy this one. It is based on a simple blues figure but played in a relaxed way I listened seldom before and this by someone who is not too far into this genre. I don't know who Weils is or are from but by the names of their members they must be from Scandinavia. Glimmering electric guitars over a relaxed blues theme makes this song outstanding in this genre. Anyway, great music could be made everywhere in the world and if you find a piece like this that works well with a glass of vine on a summer evening you could be grateful.

Lover Teacher

 

Last Friday Nina Walsh released Retrospective a new four-track EP with songs from her long lasting career. Walsh is a British composer, performer, producer and engineer and well known for her long time collaboration with Andrew Weatherall and The Woodleigh Research  Fascility. These four track show how different her style is and where she got the influences. Lover Teacher, is driven by a vintage `60s Vox Invader. Its distorted, fuzzed, freaked-out, mutant rockabilly riffing, recalling The Smiths and Johnny Marr from the times when they made Hand In Glove and What Difference Does it make. Great stuff.