Showing posts with label art rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art rock. Show all posts

Friday, December 2, 2016

The Rolling Stones - Child Of The Moon: British hangover from psychedelic times

The back cover for the Jumpin' Jack Flash singe, featuring our first pill of the day

It's a fun task, going through the Stones' catalog. There's so many different vibes, moods, styles and tones, you'll certainly find a song that suits however you're feeling in any moment, or at least that's what I think, knowing that to some, this band might feel like a derivative mess. 

But we're not here to debate the consistency and quality of this band's numerous releases, but rather, to enjoy one of their kind of obscure pieces. Today's first pill comes straight from 1968, and it's obscure mostly because it was a B-side to one of their most successful, well-known singles -Jumpin' Jack Flash- and while the A-side was some kind of return to their roots, Child of The Moon features some traces of their psychedelic wanderings in their previous records. To many people, this is a filler song, but to me, it's a great piece that showcases the transition between these to Stones eras. 

Brian Jones plays the sax here, proving once again his proficiency in several instruments. The lyrics are some kind of love-letter to Mick Jagger's love at the time, the widely controversial Marianne Faithfull. All around a catchy song, perfect for walking down the streets, singing along. I must add, I'm particularly fond for the song's drums arrangement, to me seems like one of Charlie Watt's most out there kinda parts. Brilliant!

As usual, check out the song right here, right now, in the embedded track below. Don't forget to leave us a comment and stay tuned for more crescent-shaped smile action!

Monday, November 28, 2016

The Doors - Unhappy Girl: Fillers, you say?

The Doors' Strage Days - It always gave me the heebie-jeebies


What can I say about The Doors' acclaimed second album that has not already been said before? Probably not a lot, but let our second pill of the day show you the importance of looking beyond the highlights of any album. I know plenty of people that dismiss a whole bunch of songs from a certain record just because they're not that particular song. I know, I know, let people do whatever the heck they wanna do, but we're talking about music here, man, and paying a little extra attention always pays off. 

Unhappy Girl might be a filler to some, but if you've heard this record before, which is probably the case, go back and revisit it. You'll find an exquisite piece that has just the right length, with mesmerizing keyboards and your usual dark, inviting lyrics by the Lizard King. As it is usual with The Doors lyrics, the whole thing is open for interpretation, which makes all the more fun to listen to. Although, trying to get into Morrison's head through his songs proves to be a bit of a demanding pickle. 


As usual, check this cool little piece right here, right now in the embedded track below. Don't forget to leave a comment!

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Reverberation Radio: I know that I know nothing



Hey dear readers! For this beautiful Sunday I wanted to do something a bit different from what we usually do here, so I'm going to share what has been probably the best discovery I've made over the last few years.

Music is a huge part of my life, so discovering new music everyday has been pretty much paramount in my mind. I found The Allah-las a few years back and fell in love with a sounds that had eluded me for years. It's not about the whole surf/beach/beat/merseyside/country-ish kinda thing they (and other California bands like Los Growlers) have going on; Rather, it's about this pretty vague sense of longing and belonging, a sense of times long gone and mysterious values that you can't quite put your finger in. I know it sounds confusing but bear with me, it's pretty god damn hard to explain. I grew up on all the music you can fit into the Classic Rock category, and a couples years into my first experience, I heard Progressive Rock music. I was struck immediately by this pleasant uneasiness that to this day I have a really hard time describing. From then on, I spent years and years trying to find that sound, that inexplicable stimuli that precipitated such rush of emotions.

One day, I was reading through some interview featuring Matt Correia from the Allah-las, in which the interviewer called him a prolific curator of playlists. I thought it was awesome, being known for doing just that, so I kept on reading, specifically aiming at finding the reason why he was called that. And then I found it, this aesthetically brilliant Tumblr kinda blog with, by then, 200 playlists containing roughly 10 to 12 songs each. I thought, well, that's awesome, lots of cool music to listen to. I kept browsing the playlists and realized I knew maybe one song out of each. Just one. One fucking song. I felt as if the weight of the world was pushed into my shoulders. What the fuck is all this, and more importantly, why have I never heard about any of that?.

So I began, slowly but steadily listening to everything that I was unfamiliar with. To my surprise, I experienced even stronger uneasiness and emotions than I ever experienced before with any piece of music. What's all the more interesting is, it doesn't matter what style of music the song featured. Everything sent chills down my spine... So then, I realized, it's not about this certain, very specific type of music, but rather, it's a combination of thoroughly looking into the vast extension of the undiscovered and whatever feelings it might bring, and the certainty of that immensity. 

So today, I present to you: the undiscovered. Have fun.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Mild High Club - Tesselation: Noir music for noir souls

Artwork for Skiptracing by Mild High Club - Taken from Bandcamp

Noir, noir, noir, noir. I don't know about you people, but I've always found the aesthetics surrounding Film-noir to be extremely appealing. If you're in this way like me, then you're in for a marvelous treat. This is Film-noir made music, and what's best, it's not like anything you've actually heard in that kind of movies. 

The groove, the smoothness, the velvety feel and the interesting harmonic background make this song a real standout in today's over-saturated music offer, because it still retains that pop sensitivity that is both alluring and enchanting. If you're into the kind of open, artsy songwriting that pullulated in the 60's and 70's, this is the right direction for you. As I've stated before, I hate to encompass music relating it to stuff that has been done before and the ones who've done it, and the beauty of this particular song is that I can't even do that, not even if I wanted to. It sounds fresh and original, even if it aches to decades left behind. 

I normally go for short songs, I like concise music I guess, but with this pill, I just have to go back to it and listen a million more times, because I can't seem to grasp everything the way I would like to. Yeah, it's that special. 

Follow Mild High Club on Facebook. Check this remarkable pill out, as usual, using the embedded track below. Thank me later!