Laboriously Yours

I've been thinking about throwing up a few mp3s, just a little five-spot, for a while now. Just as a service to you, the reader, who might still use this site as an indispensable resource for rockist recordings. No more ado:

Alejandro Escovedo - "All the Young Dudes" (Mott the Hoople cover)
My dad once made me a mix with this on it. It's a live take, and the cover comes pretty natural for Escovedo, who has the range to pull off punk, glam, country, Latin folk, and glam-country-punk-Latin folk too.

The Beanstalk Library - "Elephantitis"
Just interviewed these guys for the DCist. Their album's got real promise, and they're probably the most classically-oriented power-pop group I've heard in DC so far. Show at DC9 on Sept 11.

Jukebox the Ghost - "Hold It In"
I think I've talked about these fellows before as well. They're also from DC, I think GW students, but their EP has a lot of variety -- spunky, piano-led melodies and their guitarist has a post-punk edge, kinda.

Travis - "Writing to Reach You"
Used to love Travis. That second album, The Man Who, really is great. The first and third ones are okay, and I dropped out after that. Would've caught their 9:30 Club show this summer but it was $40. Which seems like a lot. I did see them once, back at Bogart's in Cincinnati when I was in high school. My dad took me -- kind of my first real 'rock club' show. Had the time of my life, but in hindsight, I really hope Pops didn't have to shell out $40 bucks a ticket.

Ride - "Time of Her Time"
A classic power-pop cut just to reassure our fans out there. I noticed also that Some Velvet Blog has a cool power pop post with some Rainbow Quartz bands I wasn't terribly familiar with. But since the Rainbow Quartz prominently features bands that refuse to let their drummers play with more than a hi-hat while simultaneously recording songs titled "No Escape from the Infinite", I am obligated to approve. Anyway, this song is from British shoegazer/powerpop/Creation Records band Ride. No more introduction -- just a fine, almost breezy tune from their very accessible release Going Blank Again.

Rockist Goes to Congress, Part II

We brought you Congressman Steve Cohen a while back when he honored Stax Records for their indispensable contribution to American culture.

This time we offer you Senator Russ Feingold, doing his best Bob Dylan. The persistent references to the Green Bay Packers we could do without (Bear Down / Hail to the Redskins) and the whole thing is pretty weak, but whatever...at least he's trying, right?

...Trail of Dead - "Naked Sun"

WTF...

Finally, an (almost) apology

I logged on to that ever wonderful piece of News Corp, myspace.com, today. Lo and behold there was a message waiting for me from Field Music with the subject " Aaarrggh, we're useless!" I guess I had asked them when they were coming back to the states and this is what Davey had to say:

Hey there, 'fraid to say we have no plans at the mo to head back to the states - we're pretty much off all band activity. There's a slight possibility I'll come across at some point next year to do some gigs on my own as School of Language, but it all remains to be seen. I'm still gutted we ditched the DC gig - shame on us! shame!
Take care
david

That's right Davey... shame on you. Maybe I'll just cancel coming to your not yet planned dates... yeah, maybe I will. How does that make you feel?

Not that I'm still sore about it.*


*ed. note: I am

This Week in Video: More Like This Summer in Video

Yeah, so it's been a while. I seem to be leading off every post with a version of this...

This guy likes putting old movies to music.

The Twilight Sad - "That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy"

Since we're on a foreign band theme...

Shout Out Louds - "Tonight I Have To Leave It"

If any of you know us, you know we worship The Bigger Lovers. Since they haven't been a band in almost 2 years, you can probably guess that this is old, but f-in a, this song is in my top 3 of all time...

The Bigger Lovers - "Bought Your Ghost"