Ok, so you’ve all been good sports and suffered through my Stones lists, rock lists, garage noise, rock / punk heavy A-list, axe wank list, etc. So i thought that as you were all probably dreading my week for the Spill Game, i’d put up something a bit different. Some of you may remember that i have a not-so-secret hankering for a pretty pop tune. So in honor of VD (i was supposed to be next week, but i switched off with DsD), i did a list of some pretty ear candy instead of the usual ear-splitting stuff. You know the drill – toss one or all, or keep as you see fit.
Will that do?
(Look, there are going to be guitars. There just are. It comes with the turf. But they’re gorgeous Byrds-y, Las-y, melodic, reverby, distorty, feedbacky, groovy, and even maybe some acoustic-y. Maybe a bit of saminess at the beginning of the list, but how can you complain when it’s this easy on the ears. Huh? I do promise that there’s nothing like Jimmy Page taking a dump on a Telecaster.)
Happy VD to all!
(Did this the new player way because a) it cut down on buffering problems, and b) makes it easier to find a specific song.)
12. Bonus Track #1
13. Bonus Track #2
1. Swim Deep – The Sea Brummie grunge surf rockers have quite a few pretty surf pop tunes, but haven’t come across one as sublime as this one. Bonus buzzy guitar in the background. Bliss.
2. Nada Surf – Jules and Jim Popular it ain’t. Pretty fluffy summer pop it is. Hmm, i think i hear bells.
3. Allah-Las – Vis-a-Vis So far it’s me and Fuel counted as fans of these California surf garage rockers. I still think they maybe need another album or 2 to hit their stride, but the gorgeous hook in this song, wistful guitar solo and lyrics get it a place on the pretty list.
4. Pavement – Date With Ikea Still trying to scare up more Pavement fans, and another try with this beauty. If Chris and Shane agree on a band, they have to be good, right?
5. The Scientists – Frantic Romantic These Aussie punkers got a bit of love on my garage thread, and the guitarwork and catchiness on this one gets it a place on the pretty list.
6. Richard Hell and the Voidoids – Time Beautiful guitar melody, and maybe the best song about songwriting i’ve come across.
7. Teenage Fanclub – Ain’t That Enough Late to this party – one of those bands i’d heard of but never checked out. What i’ve been missing. Pure pop heaven.
8. The Dentists – Strawberries Are Growing In My Garden First heard this Byrds-y tune from these Kent rockers during Songs About Gardens week. Groovy and gorgeous, never tired of it.
9. Black Hollies – Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Beauty of a tune from these psychedelic garage rockers from New Jersey, USA. Bonus She’s A Rainbow-ish pianowork.
10. Rouge Wave – Be Kind and Remind Acoustic beauty from these Simon and Garfunkel-ish California indie rockers.
11. Wintercoats – Halogen Moon Lush, gorgeous post rock-ish tune from this Aussie – yep, it’s only one guy. Could have easily put this up for the Bells topic i think.
Bonus Track #1
12. Rouge Wave – Desperate Thought about leaving off Be Kind and Remind and tacking this Rouge Wave tune on at the end instead. Figured it would probably be a bit of a buzzkill at the end of a list that was supposed to make you smile though. Song seems to be a bit of an anomaly for them in style, and as far as i can figure, it hasn’t been released but is only available via a session. I wouldn’t call it pretty, but as it’s probably the most beautiful song i’ve heard lately, i thought you should have the chance to hear it anyway.
Bonus Track #2
13. Beatenberg – The Sultan of the Economic Cafe These Paul Simon-ish South African guys would have been on the list in a second if i could have located a download. Unfortunately i couldn’t, but there are more songs on both Soundcloud and Youtube. I could listen to this stuff all day.
Ooh, “Ain’t That Enough” is a bishfave too – looking forward to this list. Busy couple of days coming up but will get to it eventually, I promise!
I’m not averse to the old jangly guitar at all, the trouble ( for me) with most of these is the vocals.
They are, on the whole pretty pleasant to mine ear ( standout being Richard Hell but then I would say that) .
Pavement, though, stand out like a sore thumb. Horrid (personal opinion here)., sorry but it’s too “intellectual” for me.
Now i’m laughing, because i though Richard was the weak spot on vocals. But still a great song. Pavement i don’t find intellectual much at all though – it’s kind of just like word wank.
Glad you liked the guitars – thanks for listening!
Now I’m laughing too. ‘Word wank’ is a great (although maybe not entirely accurate) way to describe Malkmus lyrics. I’m sure shane will (dis)agree with me.
I’ll listen later. Ta for the Venn compliment: suitably loose logic on that one.
Nah, not entirely accurate. I’d call it word wank that meanders a bit but ultimately gets somewhere to make a point maybe. Whatever tf that point may or may not be is up for interpretation though.
Ha! I’ve got my daughter singing along to “Shady Lane”. Not sure it’s suitable for a two-year-old any more.
“What’s your daughter singing?”
“Word wank”
“Oh my god and oh my god!”
I think Chris actually got that one zedded.
Now you need to get her to play air guitar.
Oh somebody bought her one of these PaperJamz things. It helps her air guitar skills. But it’s bloody horrendous. I hate it … she loves it. Thankfully, she’s now got a Fisher Price player which has pretty guitar pop versions of Incy Wincy Spider, Baby Bumble Bee, etc. It’s cool and she can sing along to the songs. Time to get her pretty head off to the land of nod, so cheerio for now.
I’ll keep Swim Deep.
On a first runthrough (whilst working, so a bit distracted), it was the Fannies and Wintercoats that made me sit up and listen.
Unsurprisingly, the other one I stopped working to investigate was RH&tV, to see exactly whose “eeewww!” vocal was ruining an otherwise lovely jangle.
Having stopped to write the above comment, I realised I hadn’t listened to the bonus tracks. Both of those hit the spot too, though they may be a little too ‘vanilla’ to really grab me if I was in full-on listening mode.
Thanks for all of these, Amy, and for the week-swap too.
Thanks for listening! Was wondering if Wintercoats was maybe a bit too syrupy sweet for some. It hits the sweet spot for me though.
If next week is still too soon, you may be able to switch with Severin for early March – he’s been sending me his tunes piecemeal.
there’s always a delay before i remember that fanny means something different to you than it does to us.
Ah, now this is the point on the Venn diagram where we overlap entirely. Loved this – including the ones like Pavement and Richard Hell where the more off-kilter vocals satisfyingly offset the prettiness of the guitars.
Wouldn’t kick any of these out of bed, and it’s hard to pick a favourite. But that Teenage Fanclub song (not one I know) is perfection. Really liked the bonus tracks too, particularly Beatenberg, and Wintercoats was beautifully hypnotic.
The sun’s out – I think I’ll listen to this all over again…
I’m really, really happy that you enjoyed it. Been short shrifting the mellower contigent here. Gun to my head, i think Teenage Fanclub would be the keeper for me too.
I confess I was almost hoping for some 80′s synths after so many jangly guitars! The last two were almost a blessed relief (I exaggerate hugely, of course) so I’ll definitely keep those (and Pavement, natch) but I’m not sure what goes. I’ll get back to you later, amy.
Can’t help my love for the groovier psych side of pop! I’m such a sucker for a jangly guitar.
I think the Allah-Las can go, for sounding the most derivative. And for having a rhythm track that could have been made by a machine.
Anyone have any thoughts – pro, con, or meh – about doing these lists with the new player? I like it – if i’m going through one of Shane’s or Shoey’s lists on the old player looking for a song, i get buffering or connecting problems sometimes. This way you can just click on the song you want, and there doesn’t seem to be any buffering delays either.
Also – if anyone wants anything boxed, let me know.
I don’t mind which player. You’re right about the occasional buffering problems with the old one but the presentation of this one (on Firefox anyway) is a bit wonky. It looks very strange with no track names.
Yeah, this one loses on aesthetics for sure (I’m on FF too). But for user-friendliness i think it wins. No need for click-thru scrolling to find a tune either.
Don’t think you got the coding quite right, as only the 1st mp3 shows up in the Safari or Google reader if you want to borrow an mp3. Can obtain from the ‘Spill media library, but that’s a bit fiddly – shall wait for the DB edition.
Aesthetics aside, the big downside is that this player isn’t airplay friendly & can’t be beamed onto the stereo from the iPhone, which is how I do most of my ‘Spill playlist listening these days.
Ah. Will keep that in mind then.
I didn’t code, just uploaded the mp3′s, then clicked on the checklist for the songs for the player, then clicked “insert into post”. no other coding required for this puppy.
Here sooner than I expected! At least for a bit…
Swim Deep: Ooh I really like this. Vocalist sounds nigglingly like someone else (that I can’t place). When’s it from? Sounds very early 90s to me. Stone Rosey or Charlatansy or Bluetonesy or something. Like very much anyway. Lovely ending too. Keep.
Nada Surf: How can I never have heard this before? Love love love. And he hasn’t even started singing yet. Quite Teenage Fanclub-sounding to me (which probably means it’s quite Big Star-sounding or something). Keep.
Allah-Las: Ooh very “Hey Mr Tambourine Man” Byrdsy opening. Onto a winner already. Californian, you say? Pleasingly unsunny vocal. Sounds almost British in its ineptitude. Like obvs. This list is shaping up very nicely indeed. Possibly a bit samey, but when they’re all so beguiling, I ain’t complaining. (Ah, Amy said almost that very same thing in her blurb! Well, I agree.)
Pavement: Most distinctive-sounding one so far. Just the right time in the list to start muddying up the sound – nice sequencing, Amy. Yeah, this is great. I have never really got into Pavement but always felt I ought. Maybe someone can do a Spillover… (Which reminds me: what’s happened to the Lemonheads? Blimpy?)
The Scientists: Bit too ‘dumb’/Neanderthal sounding for me. Not unpleasant but least interesting to me so far. In other company, I wouldn’t contemplate ditching, but here it’s up for consideration.
More laters. Oh and as for players, I don’t see a countdown timey thingy on this one, which I quite like (especially if I’m counting down the seconds waiting for a song to end – which didn’t happen too much here). And I still can only play two songs in a row on this player before it stops. But that’s my fault for not updating my browser, I should think.
Swim Deep is from like – in the future! Supposed to be released in March i think.
Thought you might like Nada Surf. I think Popular was probably a sort of anomaly, and it’s what got them famous. But they do mostly pretty pop now i think. I like that it’s a guy on vocals too, sounds like it could easily be a girl.
Must be your browser – after i start the list, it plays straight through. No skips or buffering problems either.
WP updates a lot, wouldn’t be surprised if some of the aesthetics improve on this player. It’s clunky and off center now. It’s a lot easier to set up a list with this one too – no cut and paste nonsense. Just check off the songs you want on the list and bob’s your uncle.
I’ve been sort of waiting for the Lemonheads Spillover too – that’s what kept them off this list. Blimpy is i’m sure a busy guy.
A Pavement Spillover sounds awesome, maybe Chris would do one? He probably knows their work and albums inside and out.
Don’t hold your breath – we’re still waiting for episodes D through Z of Scottish Indie from My Bloody Blimpy.
Swim Drop reminds me of a grant Lee Buffalo song but poppier of course.
Nada Surf are ace.
Allah-Lahs Oh this sounds like The Servants or early Primal Scream but the ALs are so much more accomplished.
…
if this were a compilation called “The Grandchilldren of Nuggets,” I’d buy it. Hang on that’s on “The Children of Nuggets”. Then again, I wouldn’t mind owning it on another compilation.
I like the Scientists and Richard Hell (he was so pretty) and I like his ‘singing’, but overall y’know, I prefer your Stones lists, rock lists, garage noise, rock / punk heavy A-list and axe wank lists. Too sugary for me, I’m bitter and twisted you know
Yeah, i figured there would be few disappointees – you, for one!
But who knew i was a closet softie.
(Yeah, Richard Hell was totally hot. Still looks good too. Unlike Tom Verlaine, who used to be cute.)
But what if i put the Cure on there, huh? Like I almost did. Not the gothy stuff either. Almost put a Stone Roses on there too.
well you know I love the Cure, poppy and miserable Cure and Ten Storey Love Song by the Stone Roses is beautiful, but I guess I can only listen to a certain number of sweet songs before I crave a bit of darkness.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you too, by the way.
Thanks Beth – Same to you!
Wonder if i’ll get lucky this year.
not for me, chuck … but the occassional guitar break kept listening till the end
Sorry amy, but I’m with beth on these. Nada Surf and the first Rogue Wave and Wintercoats were good listens but some of the others just melted away. Perhaps it is "sweet song overload". Off to listen to something heavy and loud to get the ballance back…………………….
Ooooops. Didn’t close the bracket. Sorrys.
Alfie and BP -
Thanks for listening! I have a Groovy Garage mini-list a few threads back if you crave some guitars…
Back! (I’m so full of sh*t with my ‘ooh me, I’m SOOO busy…’)
Voidoids: Lovely guitarwork. Ropey vocal of course. But there’s something rather touching about that. Keep.
Teenage Fanclub: One of those songs that is just too perfect to have needed writing. Surely it has always existed?
The Dentists: Hm, a bit less sold on this. Maybe a bit twee? Maybe just too ‘sixties’? Not bad but not engaging me emotionally, like.
Black Hollies: We’re stuck in the sixties, aren’t we? Prefer this to The Dentists. The production’s a bit shonky but perhaps that’s half the charm.
Rouge Wave: Yes, very S&G. Like the instrumentation more than the fey-ish vocals. Grow some balls, boys! Some ear-catching squiggly noises though. Like that. Keep.
Wintercoats: Ah, now we’re properly back on track (for me). This is lovely. Keep.
What a lovely set of tunes! All things considered (not very considered), I think it’s The Scientists for the chop. But only because it was the least best to my ears. I could live with hearing all of them again. Perhaps several times. Thanks Amy!
Mission accomplished, then. Wanted to do a set for meself, but that the likes of you and Barbryn would hopefully like too. (I’m sure any future lists will probably be back to our regulrly scheduled pregramming.)
Glad you enjoyed!
Contrary to probably popular belief, i really don’t sit at home and listen to headbanging axewank all day … i actually do have to work while i’m on the computer!
Updated Schedule -
Feb 12 – DsD
Feb 19 – Panther
Feb 26 – Ali
March 5 – Severin
March 12 – Punky
March 19 – Fintan
March 26 – Beltway
April 2 – SHA
April 9 – Tfd
April 16 -
April 23 -
April 30 -
This was good fun amy – i managed to play this through when the sun was shining this afternoon and a very enjoyable experience it was too.
It’s now dark and snowing again, so my ‘gyrating dance’ playlist has taken a turn for worse, with allusions to dirty drugs and bad sex rather than lovely fluffy jangly pop. I blame My Bloody Valentine.
.
.
Pavement are an interesting beast – as you say – there’s a fine line between intellectual and dumb in ‘rock’ music – it’s not as easily quantifiable as a scholar.
I find the stream of consciousness (too much grass? -insanity?-uniqueness?) refreshing in my record collection. But this only applies to me – I have a huge amount of music where the lyrics are the most important thing – easily analysed and just waiting for me to remember them when the correct theme turns up on RR.
Malkmus twists my imagination in a way that isn’t so ‘matter of fact’ – I have to work at creating meaning in his words – I don’t give a flying feck if they are what he means with his random babble – it’s just fun to creatively imagine the meaning.
Like Dinosaur Jr. … their music and lyrics can sound slack and tossed off – sometimes it is – but sometimes it transcends that .. I don’t love everything, but I’m very pleased they did produce and that they produced in a way that’s not so easily pigeonholed in the compartments of my musical mind.
As for that Chris fella and our venn diagram of musical taste – I just flicked on his Marconium profile – out of 14 bands that he lists there (his taste could well have changed) these: Pavement/Stephen Malkmus, Talking Heads, PJ Harvey, Throwing Muses, Velvet Underground/John Cale, Beck, would easily cross over. Although I would probably be listening to their more traditional vibrant 3 minute pop tracks and he would be championing their musical wig-out, output. heehee.
“I have to work at creating meaning in his words – I don’t give a flying feck if they are what he means with his random babble – it’s just fun to creatively imagine the meaning.”
Kinda like how i shoehorned Spit On a Stranger onto my A-list….
But i’m very happy that you enjoyed. Nice to have a chance to give some music back…
VU – you might even get a threesome with Ubu with that one.
My Apollo! – that’s a image I want scrubbed from my brain this instant !!!!!
On a serious note it would be interesting to see what parts/tracks of VU still tick the right boxes – I read pairubu’s RR post about his gateway into their sound – one of those recommends that makes it still worth reading the main blog.
I like the sweet poppier side of it where Lou’s skill at being a professional hit maker shines through and complements the rougher edged music, especially Cale, but I have a huge soft spot for Mo’s drumming.
I got the Banana album and VU when I was 14 in a record shop sale – both had their sleeves missing – both say 99p … VU was just a lovely album – and it wasn’t until a long time after that I found out it was collection of unreleased Velvet songs – I just thought it was beautiful playing and songwriting – timeless – so didn’t scream the 1960′s at me (too much) and the so called banana album is just wonderful.
I’m not the biggest VU fan. Should probably listen to more of them. They have a small handful of great songs that i just love, but for the most part they’re just not all that to me. Part of that could well be that i came late to them too – didn’t really listen to them back in the day. But the few i love are very sweet indeed.
Shite. Just lost all my comments.
Beatenberg and Rogue Wave are best for me. Hated the Allah-las, not sure why apart from the vocal. All sounds very old fashioned – sorry, “retro” – Kinks, Byrds, Beatles, Moody Blues-ish. “Retro” is a great word, I no longer live in an old fashioned house stuffed with hand-me-down furniture, I live in a spectacular 1950s time warp filled with period pieces … dream on… anyway, I digress.
Hummm … yes, very pleasant on the whole but a bit indistinguishable.
Don’t mind the player, I try to listen without looking at the artists so I don’t prejudice my comments. Except when I inadvertently saw the Pet Shop Boys on Bish’s list and knew they would have to go (sorry, Bish).
Thanks for a nice listen, you can all have a go at mine in a couple of weeks. I’m off to polish some of my retro furniture … (not really)
Thanks for listening, Ali! Yeah, i plead guilty to retro. Guess that 60′s grooviness and having Fintan for a big bro got in my veins. And i think i may be a bit too early to have been injected with the synth – i suppose i’m more like Chris than i like to think – and go for real instruments. That’s not a judgement call, just personal taste.
There’s only a couple here I’m sure I’ve heard before (Pavement & possibly the Richard Hell) yet I feel like I’ve heard them all before ( in a very good way). I have a very, very deep jangly Rickenbacker vein so it’s hard to miss it with the needle. Shoot me up with this sweet mix anytime you want Sis. My new fav is Rouge Wave. Just tickled all my senses it did. I really don’t want to leave one off this happy list but if pushed Richard Hell goes but not for lack of a first class effort.
I snuck in your room and raided your record collection again. Byrds, Hollies, Mamas and Papas, Rascals, Turtles, etc. Glad you made it here, was secretly hoping that you would and would like.
(psst – did you get to check out my groovy garage thread a few posts back?)
Amy- No . Was busy with family & friends so I must have missed it. I’ll backtrack this PM after skiing.
Pavement and the Dentists have been with me for awhile, they’re in my bones now and i can’t really be objective. Biggest keepers for me would be Teenage Fanclub and Swim Deep. Tossers would be the Scientists and Richard Hell – because they probably belong on another list. If i was making a totally custom list for myself – i’d probably replace them with the Cure and Lemonheads tunes.
Thanks for listening and for being good sports, all!
Sorry to be so late and so brief but I have only just had time to give the songs a second listen and I must say I like all of them and I didn’t know any of them before.
A lot of Byrds-like jangling and harmonies which is fine by me.
The tune of the Richard Hell song sounded naggingly familiar but I couldn’t place it.
Quite surprised/impressed by Teenage Fan Club because the only recording I know or have by them is a 12 inch single of Star Sign which I have very rarely played since I only bought it for th B-Side.
And yes, That Rouge Wave song was very Simon and Carbuncle.
If pushed, I would ditch Pavement I think. I liked it well enough but it seemed not to flow like the others.
Hi Steve -
Glad you liked them! It looks like i have all of your stuff for the post, so i’ll put it together over the weekend, and then send you my password again. I’ll schedule it for March 5th, but then it will be ready to go if DsD gets stuck for time this Tuesday.
I should be OK, but its good to know there’s a back-up plan.
Thanks, both of you.
You haven’t heard the songs yet. I keep thinking I’ve made a terrible mistake. If I do another one, it’s going to be…………….
I’ll get back to you.
You have plenty of time, Steve. You can make any changes you want.
finally got round to these – a lovely afternoon in the office listening to these, cheers Amy!
1. Like it – nice bass sound with the pretty vocals.2
2. Not bad, but a bit formulaic for me.
3. Nice and jangly, but not super exciting.
4. Ahhh…Pavement – super lo-fi and woozy, love it!
5. Nice and punky – keep.
6. Love RH&TV – had “Love Comes In Spurts” down on my list of 11 – this was mellower but ace too.
7. Gotta love the Fannies!
8. Reminded me of REM, not in a good way.
9. Very retro – like it.
10. Hmm…least favourite so far.
11. Dreamy!
So, keep RH&TV and The Scientists, lose Rogue Wave or Nada Surf – cheers!
Thanks, Panth!
I almost sent Love Comes In Spurts in for an earworm last week!
i thought this was a really great post to read. ill check back for new posts by you
make a plan to get ideas for your content? because i find your articles very engaging everytime i call at your blog.
Thank you for your great post.,Very nice post.,
City of Melbourne 67% (one,020 of one,520) Thought th is was Way Cool .. yep, Thanks alot for th is amazing report.