Colour Me Pink

"Hot pink volcano in the heart of the tornado, is shaking the lemonade tree..." That´s right, here´s one more hand picked, hot pink six pack to turn you on. In this installment of Colour Me, the Kirkwood brothers see mirages left, right, and center, Grant Hart mourns a junkie friend, while Blonde Redhead space out under a blue blue sky. Plus: sweet Gene Vincent´s got it all, except the lady he wants of course, Lou Barlow´s Sebadoh pays a heavy tribute to Nick Drake, and Blitzen Trapper goes glam in pink padded slippers. Dig it? Buy some featured albums purleeze.

Meat Puppets - Hot Pink MP3

Hüsker Dü - Pink Turns To Blue MP3

Blonde Redhead - Pink Love MP3

Gene Vincent - Pink Thunderbird MP3

Sebadoh - Pink Moon MP3

Blitzen Trapper - Pink Padded Slippers MP3

Grab bag time again

It´s Friday, so time for another musical grab bag. Want to know what songs caught my attention over the last week for one reason or other? Please read on. Got some new stuff, some oldies and two flamingos. In a fruit fight.

Let´s start off with Blitzen Trapper, a band I´ve praised in these pages before. They hail from Portland, Oregon and mix country, pop and Pavement-style indierock like no other. Currently Sub Pop recording artists, the country flavoured Texaco comes from the self-titled debut album on their own Lidkercow label. Their slogan is ´Blitzen Trapper makes big happy´ and I can´t agree more.

Blitzen Trapper - Texaco MP3

"Everything´s wrong at the same time it´s right..." Captain Beefheart is one of the giants, a true original. I recall I didn´t like Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) much when it came out back in ´79. Yup I´m that old kids. Reviews were unanonymously raving, but I guess I was too much into the weirdness of Trout Mask Replica and the blues of Clear Spot at the time to fully appreciate it. Now it´s probably the Magic Band album I play most often.

Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band - Tropical Hot Dog Night MP3

Ever since Vampire Weekend made it to the big leagues after first having been championed in the blogosphere, music bloggers tend to find a lot of promo albums on their doormats. The majority doesn´t really make the grade, but every once in a while one receives something interesting. Like the just released I Turned Off Thinking About by The David Wax Museum. Their Americana folk is often injected with Mexican spice, but currently I like the Townes Van Zandt-like You Will Be Dishonest the best.

The David Wax Museum - You Will Be Dishonest MP3

Dave Smalley is one of the best punkpop vocalists around. He sang and played guitar in bands like DYS, Dag Nasty, All and Down By Law, and got into a row with the global punk community a few years back when he endorsed the George W. Bush regime in public. Dumb move Dave. But Best Friends (from their ´91 debut on Epitaph) remains a great song. This one is dedicated to the missus btw. Only one day late for Valentine love...

Down By Law - Best Friends MP3

Last week I wrote about Blind Willie Johnson´s John The Revelator, and an attentive reader immediately emailed me a song by 18 Wheeler with the same title. I presumed it would be a cover version, but it turned out to be an original composition. I´m sure fans of Big Star and The Posies will like this. I know I do.

18 Wheeler - John The Revelator MP3

You´ll find tonights closer on the Modern Lovers´ first album (´76). "If I were to walk through the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston... well first I´d go to room where they keep the Cézanne". I really have to visit there sometime. They´ve got some mean Gauguins too I´m told. Beautiful song, beautiful album. You need it. Now.

Modern Lovers - Girlfriend MP3

Faves of the year

I guess my first post for this blog should be about my faves of the year right? Well, that´s not a very long list I´m afraid. I only liked a handful of albums that came out this year. Bonnie Prince Billy´s new covers collection Ask Forgiveness is as good as it gets. Not funny-as-hell as in last years Tortoise collaboration; this is beautiful sparse acoustic stuff. I guess the Mekons cover The Way I Am is a good example. 

Bonnie Prince Billy - The Way I Am MP3 

Yellow House by Grizzly Bear is an album that grows on you. A bit anarchic on first listens, but the more you play it the more you discover the songs underneath. 

 Grizzly Bear - Knife MP3 

Blitzen Trapper surprised me with their Field Rexx album last year, and the new Wild Mountain Nation is just as good. Eclectic? You bet. Lo-fi? Sure. And very very refreshing. Be sure to check out this outtake from the album. 

Blitzen Trapper - Cool Love #1 MP3 

Bubbling under is Tunng, as I haven´t listened to their 3rd record that much yet, but on first spins it didn´t grab me as much as their earlier outings. More on them in a later post I guess. Most promising band must be Vampire Weekend: hardly a day went by that I didn´t give their their debut ep a spin.  A full length is expected for early ´08, so we´ll get back to them shortly.