132 bpm 2: Wild Wild West
Posted in 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.
