MOUNT EERIE do not be afraid, you will be 'in the mountains', and 'in the mountains' means 'in the world', and 'the world', though dark, will hold you

.

this is the first record i got from Phil Elverum. bought at the legendary Cheap Thrills store, one year after i had been at Mount Eerie's show at Sala Rossa (in the late summer of 2004, if my memory is right).

don't know why it took me so long. don't know why i started with this obscure live-recorded split 7inch.

a couple weeks later, i got No Flashlight. still my personal fave, and a record i consider to be immensely underrated.

i totally understand if you cannot stand this song due to its 'evangelical gesture', especially if that's something you've been confronted with in your life (i haven't).


listen.


.

THE DIFF'RENT STROKES last nite [Strokes cover]

.

casio deluxe - homage.

what you might not know.

U., we listened to that 7inch on a portable turntable at Görlitzer Park, on a barbecue party in the early summer of 2002.

remember that?


listen.


.

VERSUS all in doubt [Flower cover]

.
quite an untypical Versus-song - a coverversion of Flower, the band that Richard Baluyut used to play in.

on a split with Unwound. on Troubleman Unlimited !

listen.


.

THE SCHOOL and suddenly

.

Slumberland Records rose from the dead last winter.

since then, they've released some over-hyped stuff (The Pain Of Being Pure At Heart, Crystal Stilts, Liechtenstein), and a bunch of really charming Searching for the Now - split 7inches.

as you can see, this song is from #6.

a spirit of everlasting beginning that doesn't seem to know what finiteness means.


listen.

buy. (and listen there to a pushed mp3-version, if you want)


.

PJ HARVEY wait

.
recorded in 1989. and very much in that zeitgeist-spirit, if you aks me.

for the Polly-completist.


listen.


.

AMP beyond

.
a classic mid-phase AMP-song. detached Karine-vocals on that one.


listen.


.

BRATMOBILE there's no other way [Blur cover]

.
ten one-minute-songs = Teenbeat 100.

perfect tape-filler. and way different from what you might expect from Bratmobile.

and, just for fun, compare this obscure 55sec. Blur-cover to anything that, say, the Vivian Girls have released so far.
see?





listen.


.

SHACK byrds turn to stone

.
Michael Head and his brother.

listen attentively to what happens from 2:18 to 2:30. sounds self-evident? right you are.
now try to write such a bridge.
good luck.

(don't really understand the reasons for the byrd-spelling. any suggestion?)


listen.


.

THE MAKE-UP the choice

.
the song that introduced me to The Make-Up.

one of my alltimefaves.


listen.


.

SMALL FACTORY so what about love

.
the first 7inch i bought thanks to this very blog - Mike sent me this link where he's still selling some amazing stuff.

Small Factory are pure melancholic joy.


listen.


.

KAIA my voice

.
Team Dresch's femme fatale.

as she said on her first album: "finally a dyke- record for the whole family."

bought in the fall of 1996 at Normal in Bonn. On the advice of S.

timeless.


listen.


.

TRUE LOVE ALWAYS r u coping w/ me?

.
maybe the best song True Love Always have ever recorded.

physically pleasing breaks, semi-candid melodies played with some relaxed, yet precise Unrest-edginess that always keeps a distance.

boy do i love this song.



listen.


.

DAN DEACON shoe faces

.
genious!

one of my everlasting regrets: to not have been at his West Germany show a couple years ago.







from the recording of his current album:



listen.


.

APPENDIX CALEDONIA [ aka Appendix Out ] the holiday atmosphere (qualified version)

.

another Hayfever-pearl - a hidden Alasdair Roberts treasure.

enjoy.


listen.


.

ASPERA AD ASTRA black in the eye

.
psychedelic weirdos doing semi-melancholic pop music.

the first minute of the track is - to me - the incarnation of the Long-Distance-Lovers-Spirit inherent to the Tree Rec.-split-series.

if that's what you're living right now: listen to this song at 5am in the greyhound / train /airplane that brings you to your beloved one.


listen.


.

JULIANE WERDING wenn du denkst du denkst dann denkst du nur du denkst

.

a song my father used to sing while doing the dishwashing.

listen.


.

ELECTROSCOPE walk the plank

.

music to introduce the soundtrack of a baltic-sea-movie. a fishermen-boat trying to find its way through thick fog.


listen.


.

AIR playground love

.
on many occasions, in my first college-year, this song was played at partys in the early morning to preserve a feeling of weightlessness.

in vain.





listen.


.

PINBACK tripoli

.
i once went to one of their shows in Montréal, in the fall of 2004.

Brendan, to my surprise, was there too. he was standing in the very front of the band, seeming totally absorbed by the songs. the crowd was having fun; not him.

after the show, we briefly talked about the band. "listen to the lyrics: these songs are not what they pretend to be. this is sad music."


the copyright-sharks came by.


.

HOOD the lost you

.
read german? dig this review.
not much to add.

a modern hymn. to listen to as long as not all the leaves have fallen from the trees.

if not a relief, it still makes you feel alive to shout and move.


take any train, get out at any station. it doesn't really matter.





listen.


.

THEE OH SEES carol ann

.
thank you, S., thanks a lot for this awesome gift.

on A.s brilliant Slow Boy label.

good luck getting a copy.


listen.


.

DEAR NORA girl from the north country [Dylan cover]

.

what a cover-version!

an awesome split with Mates of State (that cover Nico's these days).


buy it as long as you can.

listen.

.

CLUES ledmonton (7" endless forever version)

.

they played yesterday night at the Bang Bang Club. one of the best shows this year in town.

55 minutes of grace and energy.

Alden and Brendan (and of course the other three musicians involved) are musicians. doing music.

until you haven't seen them playing live, you won't be able to really get it.

this song reminds me a lot of the original Arcade Fire (until Brendan, Myles, Dane and all the other musicians left; at that time, they were closer, in their spirit, from Neutral Milk Hotel than from U2).

a dynamic born out of uncramped concentration, seemingly boundless in its scope.

there would be so much to say about this band.

there will be. soon.




this song appears in a rawer version on the b-side:


it's Brendan who sings on that one, of course.
he should do this more often. (listen to his vocal appearence on Think About Life's first album's Bastian and the boar - it's devastating, really.)





listen.


.

PLONE electronic beauty parlor

.
definitely one of the best Wurlitzer Jukebox-releases.

and the first Plone-release. (Keith Jenkins, the label founder, actually discovered them.)


listen.


.

PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION kiss

.
i'm waiting for THE DEAD SCIENCE cover version of this song!


listen.


.