Friday, July 15, 2011

Song of the Week #151

Welcome to a bumper episode. School holidays have been good to me so far and I've done plenty of music listening and some purchasing as well.
 
As I type, there is a VERY, VERY tired young man on the lounge next to me. A week at snowboarding camp has certainly worn him out. Of course, he came back today and Zoe has now exited stage left for a couple of days!
 
To start, welcome to our first guest presenter – DJ ArrVee. She's chosen three songs and they are all crackers.
 
Song 1: Mazzy Star – Fade Into You. "So dreamy and intense and I love the slide guitar".
 
Song 2: Pixies - Gigantic, "because Kim Deal does vocals and every Arts student fangirl wished she could be Kim Deal. Also because it starts with a cool bass line and then builds into screamy guitars."
 
Song 3: Bjork – Hyperballad, "because who hasn't wanted to throw car parts off a cliff."
 
As I said, great choices! DJ ArrVee sent some more suggestions as well so look out for those in the coming weeks. Feel free to join in by shooting me an email. You can choose one song and tell me your reasons or if you're really keen go for a whole episode.
 
Now, back to me. This next track was on one of the morning TV music shows that I was flicking past on the way to the cycling highlights. It caught my ear and the TdF had to wait a bit. What I like is the nod to the 80s with a modern twist. I found this track remeniscent of Howard Jones, Thompson Twins and Big Country.
 
 
Another more recent band that I've had a bit of a listen to this week is Potbelleez. Recommended sort of by DJ COJ so thanks to him for the heads up. This clip is hilarious – the Muppets go adults only! As for the song, the squidgy bass sound is a winner with me.
 
 
I've played Glenn Campbell before. It's no secret that I am a big, big fan of "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Galveston". But I didn't know that he'd put out a CD covering bands like Green Day, Foo Fighters, Jackson Browne, Travis and U2. So, after a bit of Googling I had a track listing and was off to YouTube to check it out. Now, Glenn is 70+, but to me his voice is still great. And the thing I liked the best about all the covers I was able to listen to is that he made them truly his own. This next song is overplayed, overblown and my least favourite Green Day tune. But Glenn just does such an awesome job that I couldn't resist.
 
 
I got a huge shock when I saw an advertisement for this next band. They are playing Canberra in October. This is a group that I loved as a teenager – their album "Hysteria" was, and remains a stone cold classic of the hard rock genre. Hopefully I'll be there at the gig.
 
 
To follow on from Def Leppard, here's something a bit different from AC/DC clones Rhinobucket. They're a solid band with some good rock tunes, magic vocal delivery and a swagger that reminds me of Thin Lizzy. But this is an acoustic track and it translates well.
 
 
I've had the album that this next track is from for ages but for some reason it wasn't until I saw this video that it all came together. I really, really like the idea of the two piece band but without the screaming of the White Stripes perhaps. Try this, it's groovy baby!
 
 
I spent some time one day this week at a very good record shop. Landspeed in Canberra isn't huge but it has a great mix of styles to choose from. And every time I've been in there good tunes have been playing on the store stereo system. I picked up Kyuss' first album and a Johnny Winter live CD both for $10 – bargain. But the CD playing in the shop had me entranced – I even hung around longer to see what each subsequent track was like. It was great so I bought it. The band is Colour and City and they are out of Canada. I did some checking with my Canadian connection DJ KelSee and she advised that it was an offshoot of a very loud and noisy band called Alexisonfire. Well, this is the complete antithesis of that band. Colour and City are moody, acoustic, analogue and full of depth and reverb. I love it. This is the first track, the one I heard and was instantly hooked.
 
 
Have a great weekend. Listen to something old, something new, something local and of course some blues!!
 
DJ Rob
 
 

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