I dig ’90s shoegazer-influenced DC pop band Velocity Girl, but for some reason, never paid much attention to Gilded Stars And Zealous Hearts when it came out in 1996. I think I thought they had become much too pop for my tastes at the time. Anyway, finally got around to giving it its due, and found it very agreeable indeed. “Zealous Heart”, among others, is a great song. I played it so much, I totally wore out those specifically allocated clusters on my h-h-h-hard drive, man. “Nothing” is also rather good:
I dig the first two albums by Sting. I didn’t really dig The Soul Cages, though, and have never paid any futher attention to Mr. Sumner. Perhaps at some point in the future I should, but as yet I have not. The Dream of the Blue Turtles has a lot of great tunes, and throughout has a bit of an eerie cold war vibe to it, at least to my ears. Not sure I would be able to get into it now were I not to have back in the day, but it’s possible. I’d never seen the video for “Fortress Around Your Heart” before a few minutes ago, and fortunately so, for it is quite horrendous. That whole “Sting is an egomaniac” thing is in full effect here. And what a wasted opportunity. It should have had eerie foggy views of barbed wire fields and ruins, with nary a Sting in sight, but no…
“The Lazarus Heart” is the lead-off track from his second album. I’m a terrible music writer and can’t describe my feelings towards this song, but I guess I get a really uplifting feeling from it. Not in a religious way, more in a sense of optimistic buoyancy. I remember listening to this for the first time, and thinking, “wow, this is really different from the first album, and actually I don’t think I’ve ever heard music quite like this, but it’s good”.
And man do I dig the Stooges. I was quite shocked to learn somewhat recently that Raw Power era guitarist James Williamson was actually still alive. You just figure most of those guys would’ve been drug casualties, apart from the somehow indestructible Iggy Pop. But no, apparently he changed careers and had been working as a techie in Silicon Valley for years! Mike Watt recently interviewed him in São Paulo. Listen to the “Watt from Pedro Show” here. The interview is a few songs in.
I also dig Deerhoof. Someone did a mash-up of “Believe E.S.P.” with Swizz Beatz, whoever they are. View here.
I totally dig Angel Deradoorian, one of the singers from the Dirty Projectors. She has a great EP out now, entitled Mind Raft. I particularly like the dirgey “Holding Pattern”. Not sure what the deal is with the intro on the video.
I think I’m in love, sigh.
Redug an album by the Psychedelic Furs, World Outside, which I recently found online. I used to have it on cassette; it was real big on my side of the dorm room in ’92-’93. I guess it’s not their best album, but I wasn’t familiar with any of their other stuff, and really got into it all the same. “Sometimes”:
The Creation “How Does It Feel to Feel?”. Was totally digging on this last night.
Ride does a nice cover of it, too.
Not that your job is to please me (wait, is it?) but you are so not turning me on. When I got to the Sting, I thought this post was a prank (wait…). I’ve always thought his solo work solidified the notion that he was a talentless skill-less hack.
Unfortunately (because I respect, if not fully like, the Dirty Projectors) I think I feel the same way about Angel Deradoorian’s solo work –sounds like something somebody would write on their side of the dorm room, freshman year. Anyway, thanks for turning me on to that (but you didn’t turn me on).
I could write a lot about Sting because I was a huge fan of The Police in my middle school days and I still like to listen to that stuff a lot. Because it’s still awesome. And even though the songwriting on the first solo album was a little middle-of-the-road, it was greatly helped by the crack band he put together to play it, so I was able to appreciate it. That second solo album didn’t do it for me, though. Sting is a good musician with a great voice and a fantastic ear for songwriting, but Nothing Like the Sun just showcases what I think is Sting’s Achilles heel: he’s all-too-willing to put out whatever schlock will sell albums. See for example his latest release, which is yet another romp through medieval English bullshit, this time couched in a “meditation on winter” conceit. Blah. Please step away from the lute, Sting.
I liked the Police but never really liked Sting’s voice –sounds affected. I remember my high school music teacher tried to make things interesting for us by allowing us to bring in our own music and he would dissect it.
He broke down Van Halen’s Eruption so fast, you would have thought Elmo wrote it. I strongly recall him giving a lot of respect to King of Pain which was shocking to my ProgRock-is-ultimate mentality.
Gee, I thought I had previously revealed my forbidden love of Sting* (* offer good for first two albums only). Good thing I forgot to mention Don Henley. The second album isn’t as strong as the first, but there’s not much in the way of a single on it, so I’m not sure I agree with the album-selling angle in that particular case.
Angel’s stuff isn’t terribly complex I guess, but I dig it for when I needs me a pretty dirge.