Music About Music

I guess this is a bit like an Aussie Rock'n'Roll (The Velvets tune) done in an old wave pretending to be new wave style that reminds me of one of those New York cats who was a solo old wave into new wave type dude. Too tired to check the net and figure out who I mean. As I think I've said before New Wave was such good music to have as a preteen. I still love it and the more nooo the better.

Was this nooo wave hard rock for the FM airwaves? Or was it just a pumped up/revamped of version of Glam? Whatever, it was bloody great pop music for the child I was at the time!

Now we're going meta meta. Don't you fucking hate the word meta and its overuse by fucking try hard turds who think life is a bloody University essay? (er...did i just describe myself?) This music here is about other music and I don't mean the words. I mean the sounds (the music & melody) are about the music David Roback and Kendra Smith love ie. The Doors, Glam etc. 

Never seen this video before but by the looks Kendra must have already left the band and that is a young Hope Sandoval at the intro (with Dave) who must have already replaced Smith prior to the name change to Mazzy Star.

I think I mentioned recently that this LP is one of the greatest examples of good record collection rock. Garage Rock, Blues, Psychedelia, Folk, Glam, T-Rex, The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Doors, Jefferson Airplaine are all chucked in to make Happy Nightmare, Baby one of the best LPs of the 80s. One of the few arguments for Retromania (along with Urge Overkill's Saturation, Hoodoo Gurus Stoneage Romeos) because it's one of the best LPs of all time. The glittery laconic tripped out vibe here is extraordinarily sparkling on this record and is pretty much unmatched by anyone including their predecessors or peers, making this rare and a unique case of a band bettering or at least equalling their influences. Bands used to add to and often surpass their influences (cf. Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Church, My Bloody Valentine, Seefeel) thus making them palatable and pretty awesome not mere copyists with the occasional listenable tune (cf. White Stripes, Tame Impala et al.). REM might have been influenced by The Byrds but fuck they didn't really sound like them, did they?

I must be wishing I was stoned, drunk on tequila and relaxing in the hot sun with this LP booming from the Hi-Fi out into someone's backyard. I'd love to be kicking back on a banana lounge, being wasted in the warm early afternoon sun without a care in the world instead of being stressed out, not wanting to go to work tomorrow, freezing my bollocks off as my dog eats my wallet (funnily enough he left the pet insurance card intact and in pristine condition) while barking his head off and that's not the half of it. 

This whole post was meant to be some kind of response to Blissblog's music about music but I got sidetracked and my puppy has driven me mental. I just want to keep listening to Opal but it's too late to get faded er...and I don't do that anymore. It's Sunday night and nearly time for bed. I wish I was 22 again and didn't give a fuck about anything!

Beaches - She Beats

When I write about an artist I usually try to evoke the sounds, ideas and feelings through words and not list influences. This is getting harder by the second particularly as we are now very late in the (rock) epoch.  I'm only a couple of listens in but I'm really diggin' She Beats. It's a guitar record. It's not really breaking any new ground but who is? My ears just love hearing those guitars and the melodies. They've definitely done stellar research*. Beaches belong the lineage of The Velvets/Stooges/Kraut/Hawkwind axis, the Paisley Underground, 80s Sydney Rock (The Church, Died Pretty) 80s into early 90s Flying Nun, Proto-Shoegaze (ie. Loop et al.) Shoegaze, 90s Kranky and  instrumental groups from the USA like Pell Mell & Cul-De-Sac and the more recent Yawning Man/Ten East. I have to say though with Beaches It feels more organic than that. This musical melting pot  has been brewing in their DNA for some time and can't help but ooze out of them when they plug in and play. As opposed to a group like Savages who seem to be mixing and matching influences like trying on clothes. IE. 'Does my Wire match my Siouxsie? Does my Banshee look big in this?'

Beaches still haven't captured the immensity of their live sound on tape and one wonders if they ever will. Someone should give them hundreds of thousands of dollars so they can create their very own Tusk or Starfish. They must be special if I'm willing to let a track like Granite Snake get past me as I swore a couple of years ago that if I heard another band being influenced by Neu (Neu are one of my all time favourite bands but does that mean every 2nd band should rip em off) I would smash the radio in. But Granite Snake blows my fucking mind, it's incredible  Who'd have thought we'd be listening to a band in 2013 that reminded us of Opal, The Pale Saints or the 3Ds? Possibly the best record of its ilk since Yawning Man's excellent Vista Point from 2007 (yeah yeah I know Vista Point is a compilation of records made in 2005, whatever).