Wednesday!

Jaybird 25 Comments

Last week, Mike mentioned the FM station in San Fran that switched format from “Beautiful Music” to Rock… and that reminded me of this story:

Back in, oh, 1994, I was in San Francisco and I was brushing my teeth, staring out the window at a brick wall, and the radio station said something to the effect of “it’s Thursday, let’s play some punk” and they started playing Jim Carroll’s “These are the people who died” and I had never heard that song before and I just stood there, motionless, toothbrush in my mouth, listening to this amazing song on the radio that I had never heard before thinking “holy crap, I need to move here”.

I didn’t, of course. And it’s just as well.

My goodness, I haven’t thought about that in ages.

So… what are you listening to?

Jaybird

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

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25 Comments

  1. Recently you linked one of my early comments here and in it, I was telling you to check out Swervedriver.

    If you never did, please ignore the terrible, terrible 90’s video and check this song (slightly edited for length, they trimmed a few measures in the bridge and faded the end for the video I guess):

    http://youtu.be/b0DTBOQOdf4

    If you have any empty highway near you that is generally cop-free, I recommend playing this as loud as you dare, while driving as fast as you dare.

    It will make sense, trust me.

    • Oh yeah! I meant to talk about that!

      Seriously, we need an amnesty thread where we can pick up topics that we’ve always wanted to pick back up and talk about.

      I like Swervedriver a lot, they’re Low without the mumble.

      • Hmmm….Swervedriver seems a bit too “muscle-car” for me to think of Low…for me they fall more on the Smashing Pumpkins (circa Gish/SD) and Soundgarden (circa Badmotorfinger) axis of ‘perfectly-cromulent, mildly-psychedelic rock’.

        Are you sure you don’t mean Slowdive instead (and, why do so many rock band’s names start with the letter ‘S’ – which reminds me, speaking of ‘S’ bands, I should include some Seam)?:

        http://youtu.be/jpjiqM90CCI

        http://youtu.be/IIcbV2H5N3M

        • Ah, what the hell, here’s some Seam too (one with another bad 90’s video!)

          Love this band, one of the unjustly-forgotten ones from the era IMO. Incredibly consistent and tasteful, and with a different take on the soft/loud dynamic trick – instead of the “abrupt transition” thing, usually they’d do these really patiently-structured buildups and breakdowns instead; a masterful use of tension/release.

          Like Bedhead but not boring, or a more melody-minded Slint. Seam does a lot with a little, the production is very basic/dry, not a lot of effects or anything.

          http://youtu.be/1JvF2EAFkFI

          http://youtu.be/UsoWiLXXZIU

      • I agree. The older I get the more I find that I like that kind of stuff. It’s almost like I am vaccinating myself so I don’t become a grumpy old man.

  4. http://youtu.be/zFWme9D6LkQ

    this clip is only half of the entire track; it’s the best out of the four disc cuts, i think. i dismissed basinski for a number of years due to the 9/11 connection but i was wrong to do so. it’s simple, and when you explain the concept to people, it sounds like a prank, but it’s one of my favorite pieces of music. i listen to it every fall, as i find it’s seasonally fitting.

    • Nice. For about .5 seconds I thought I needed that new-ish TR Basinski box, but that is way too much $ and bulk for me.

      • i still think i do, but 225 is too much dosh, especially since i won’t have access to my record player for however long it takes my wife to get a tenure track job and we move to somewhere i can actually set it up. (i.e. maybe never)

        i wish they had a cd/dvd only package. i’d be fine with paying 60 for one considering the baked in 9/11 memorial donation.

        • i wish they had a cd/dvd only package. i’d be fine with paying 60 for one considering the baked in 9/11 memorial donation.

          Yeah, me too. I also still have some space for CD’s, whereas I am starting to contemplate a minor vinyl cull due to space limitations.

          • i’ve cut my vinyl collection down seriously because i haven’t been able to set up a record player in about three years now. hella lame.

            and moving boxes of vinyl sucks really hard. i have this fantasy that i’ll only have to move one more time in my entire life, but it’s likely just that.

          • weird trivia – i lived only a few blocks away from basinski’s loft at that time.

  6. It’s all over the place this week. For example, today on the way to taking the kids to school/going to work:

    Chicago – We Can Last Forever
    Roxette – The Look
    The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die
    Motion City Soundtrack – Her Words Destroyed My Planet
    Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger
    Ministry – Psalm 69

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