Uncle Tupelo

Uncle Tupelo, “Looking For A Way Out (Demo)”

This comes from the deluxe reissue of Uncle Tupelo’s second album, Still Feel Gone. And, you know what? I’m just going to get sentimental here. I really miss Uncle Tupelo! I know that we ended up with plenty of great music from Tweedy and Farrar, so it’s not some tragedy or anything. And maybe their partnership breaking down is one of the things that unleashed their creativity, sure, sure. But, their alchemy was special, and Uncle Tupelo was brilliant and still touches me. I miss ’em.

All You Can Eat, “Family Matters”

Here on Five Songs, mostly, we like our punk to be DIY and forgotten, mostly. I’m fine with some of the glossier stuff, but the underground shit just feels a lot more vital. There’s nothing special about All You Can Eat exactly, but this is fun, they’re just having a good time, they’re outta there in two minutes, hell yeah buddy.

The Black Keys, “The Go Getter”

It’s really such a shame that the Black Keys broke up after Brothers, their triumphant return to their big stompin’ psychedelic songs. I wonder what would have happened to them had they had a chance to build on their increasing popularity, and where they might have gone from here.

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “Simmer Down”

Ska-Core, The Devil & More is an EP with mostly covers released in 1993, notably primarily for this nice cover of a Marley tune. Other than this, it’s far from an essential release.

Uncle Tupelo, “Sandusky”

March 16-20, 1992 might be the Uncle Tupelo album that has aged the best. I’m not sure it’s my favorite, I don’t think it’ll ever displace No Depression. But the stripped down, acoustic production suits the material so well, and the traditional songs they picked to go with their originals all mesh so well. I truly wish we could have gotten a few more of these before things fell apart.

Eggs, “Erin Go Bragh!”

Hmm. Time to find out what the translation of “erin go bragh” actually is, a phrase that I know only from associations, and not what it actually means. “Ireland to the end of time”, neat!

J Church, “The Versace Killer”

From Cat Food, a mini-album that features some new tracks, a couple re-workings, an Electric Light Orchestra cover (“Turn To Stone”), and the usual commitment to rocking from J Church.

James Plotkin, “Caught In Your Orbit”

Well, I don’t remember getting this one. It’s from 2002, old enough that I don’t think it was from a grab bag or anything. It does sound like the kind of thing that might have caught my attention, some kind of strange combination of grindcore and drum’n’bass. At any rate, this is pretty interesting, might put on the rest of this album after I’m done with this entry.

Hooray, Five Songs!

Uncle Tupelo, “Graveyard Shift”

If you type the words “Uncle Tupelo” into a blog twice within an hour of midnight, it summons the band. Or so I’m led to believe by the worst horror story in the world, “Attack Of The Alt-Country Band That Apparently Was Bloodthirsty For Some Reason”.

You know, that dumb joke assumes that anybody read yesterday’s entry, and it occurs to me that that’s quite arrogant. Whatever, that joke owns. As does this song! It’s the opening track of the opening album from Uncle Tupelo, and while it’s a pretty straight ahead rock song, you can hear the lyrical themes that they would develop in their career.

One of my favorite bands showing up here for the first time today.

Calexico, “Coyoacán”

I’m surprised we haven’t heard from Calexico before now. Calexico is a long-running band out of Arizona that makes an unmistakable mix of spaghetti western soundtracks, surf, jazz, mariachi, and some pop. There’s nobody else that really sounds like them, and they’ve kept up the tremendous quality now for about twenty years. This song comes from their latest, Edge of the Sun, and gives you at least a good idea of one type of song you’ll find on their albums.

Today’s music. And, I recognize that people bitching about redesigns is the worst, but can I just say I hate the YouTube redesign? There, that’s out of the ol’ system.

The Sunshine Fix, “Everything is Waking”

The Olivia Tremor Control was a legendary indie pop band, producing Beatles-esque psychedelia that was beloved of basically every music critic. Will Hart retired from music to focus on art, and Bill Doss started The Sunshine Fix to continue in the same vein. And yeah, it’s very, very Beatles-y.

I wonder at what point I start hitting diminishing returns on this thing. 200 articles? 300? 500? I suppose I’ll find out. Let’s fire up the music!

Yo La Tengo, “The Summer”

Well, personally, I remain resolutely un-fired up. This is from Fakebook, a quiet covers album that is the least noisy thing they ever made by a long ways. Yo La Tengo have always had two sides, and this album really only emphasizes the folk-ish side of the band.