workoutwednesday

A brisk trot on the cross-trainer today, or a reasonably strenuous run. Euphoria comes in a lot of flavors; call this a sampler pack.

Inside-Out (live) – The Mighty Lemon Drops House Of The Ancestors – Afro Celt Sound System Monarch – Hex The Blissed One – Lotus Omega Shock The Monkey – Peter Gabriel Buenos Aires – The Golden Palominos What Kind Of Man Reads Playboy – Andy Summers & Robert Fripp (cooldown) Riviera ‘68 – Steve Stevens

Short notes (I’ve written about many of these groups or songs elsewhere, so the links is important):

Years ago there was a Volkswagen ad campaign based around the concept of “the pleasure of driving.” There was a chirpy little techno theme song, with floaty female vox singing “fa-a-h-hr-ver-r-r-rg-nü-ü-ü-ü-ü-ü-gen-n-n-n” (you’ll hear an instrumental version in that YouTube clip). My brother-in-law used to sing that jingle whenever he heard me playing “Monarch.”

Hex never really got a shot, partly because they had a weird format history: I’d say they were due for a rediscovery, because I think their organic/electronic experimental-pop thing with Donnette Thayer’s gorgeous vocals would go down a storm in today’s musicblog scene—but their two albums were cassette-only, part of the ill-advised “Ryko Analogue” line, and mp3s are still difficult to find.

I know nothing about Goa trance, one of the many dance-music subgenres that have blossomed in such baffling, fragmented profusion; I found “The Blissed One” literally by running a Soulseek search with the query “150 bpm.” And I thought it was funny.

My parents got me the second Summers/Fripp record for Christmas when I was 17 or 18. My mind was blown: with players like this, with crazy guitar synthesizers no less, this was TEH MOST AVANT-GARDE THING EVAH. and oh my god this song was like 12 minutes long—total crazily complex prog monstrosity I’m sure. Then, upon my third or fourth listen, I realize that, at heart, it’s just a sixteen-bar blues fa chrissakes. Robert Fripp, playing a blues like just another bar-band hack. Motherfucker.

Also: NICE HAIRCUT, JACKASS.

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This is one where the songs all just happened to be around the same tempo and the idea just sort of coalesced. The “wild west” theme fades in and out, and as a listening experience it becomes more about the Idea of West: a code of honor, a landscape, a set of hardships; freedom, opulence, danger; Western Civilization (which might’ve been a better title for this mix, honestly). Campfire melodies and big trotting beats.

132 bpm 2: Wild Wild West This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us – Sparks Prairie Rose – Big Country Theme from Deadwood – David Schwartz Horseback – Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas North, South, East, and West – The Church Ring of Fire – Wall Of Voodoo Virginia Plain – Roxy Music Don’t Run Wild – The Del Fuegos All The Way To China – James Figurine with Erlend Øye Flame – Sebadoh (cooldown) Showdown At Big Sky – Robbie Robertson

But of course the listening experience is only part of it; this being a workout mix, it’s also about motion, which is how the not-particularly sun-baked but snake-hipped danceable Del Fuegos snuck in here. (Dan Zanes is now a children’s entertainer; he knows how to get ‘em moving.) Not so much talk, now. More motion.

(But it must be said: …the hell? Did the dude that uploaded that clip to YouTube just point a camcorder at his TV?)

Sparks: man, the camera loves that Hitler ‘tache, doesn’t it?

I’ve written about this cover of “Prairie Rose” before (it’s in the middle somewhere), and I’d rather not repeat myself here.

I know I’m getting old, because Kings Of Convenience is one of the few bands to come down the pike in the last five years that I’ve wholeheartedly dug, and they sound just like Simon and Garfunkel. This is The One With The Glasses, singing with one of those indie electronica kids who record under ten-fifteen different names for the sole purpose of confusing and alienating old bastards like me who might like to support them and their music, if we could only keep it all straight in our heads. Thanks for nothing, “James Figurine”—if that is your real name.

A little technical hoo-hah with “Flame”: the album version has a false ending, then fades back in again, before collapsing into sheets of noise. I overlaid the out-in (which is why there’s a moment that loops and repeats), then faded the whole shebang before the real ending.

Lastly: For a long time, I’ve thought that someone should remix and remaster Robbie Robertson’s first solo record. The songs cry out for a spacious, widescreen approach, but the record hasn’t aged well. All the guitar parts (and there are five or six going in the mix here) are crammed together, the backing vocals don’t blend—the whole thing generally sounds boxy and claustrophobic. I don’t think it’s Daniel Lanois’s fault—in his work with Bob Dylan and U2 he worked with similarly detailed multi-guitar arrangements (I’m thinking of “Cold Irons Bound” and “One,” respectively, as mixes of comparable complexity), but they were open; they breathed. This one, though, as good as it is, is still a letdown, because in my head it sounds so much better. The songs on Robbie Roberston are better, but I’d almost rather listen to Storyville, and avoid ear fatigue.

The remaster will never happen, though. Nobody’s marketing product to sad old fuckers like me anymore.

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