Slowdive- Pygmalion (1995) and Pygmalon Demos (1994)

http://www.mediafire.com/?gzyknf2nmjy

While i listened to a lot of embarrassingly bad music in high school (inevitable, but especially so growing up in an isolated small town), i managed to make friends with a gal in--ironically--east Ohio who turned me on to brit pop, shoegazer, and noise rock.

One of my favorite high school bands, believe it or not, was Slowdive. I heard their UK-only final release Pygmaleon early on in college. I paid $18 for it on a whim  and it was one of the best musical finds of the year. Their signature album "Souvlaki" is pretty cool and it has that seminal shoegazer sound--dreamy, reverby, epic, melancholic. But Pygmaleon was different--sparse, uncomfortable, disjointed, and eerily pretty.

This is the kind of album that happens as a band breaks up. Some members want to go in a new direction, the others don't like it, so you get an incomplete band making a record in pieces without the same commercial enthusiasm or backing of the label. Sometimes great things happen in that space (see Big Star: 3rd).

Fifteen years later, and it still stands out as an interesting listen. Might i also add that i would take this CD over any Mojave 3 record. 

If you find yourself especially smitten, or a bigger-than-average Slowdive fan, listen to the Pygmalion Demos:
http://www.mediafire.com/?um1ms1lcuri

The Lassie Foundation- Jet Stream, Three Wheels EP (2010)

http://www.mediafire.com/?1246e9h2x5r22zp


I had a strange musical childhood, with two parents who listened to those irritating Christian Church worship tapes every week. That was their definition of music, and because of that hideous weekly routine (**shudder**), we kids were expected to listen to "christian music." How can music be a Christian?


One of the few things that came out of that ridiculous musical wasteland was a band called The Prayer Chain, who later split into The Lassie Foundation. TLF was obsessed with The Beach Boys, Yo la Tengo, Built to Spill, Lilys, Medicine, and 60s garage rock like The Kinks and The Who. I couldn't get enough of that combination of sugar-sweet pop falsetto and make-your-ears-bleed loud noise rock.


Alas, the band did not age well. The Schlock Factor hit pretty hard. They were incredibly inconsistent and distracted, and seemed to have an "All or Nothing" approach, rotating band members with each new release.


Jet Stream, Three Wheels EP really surprised me because it's fantastic. The first song is negligible, but the two last songs are fantastic. I can't tell if it makes me forgive them of all the pedantic releases or hold it against them more...hmmmm?


--
I just noticed this amazing link: on their website, you can download "fancy" PowerPoint presentations to accompany their songs in order to "Impress your teachers, professors, and office colleagues." I have to give them credit for these ludicrous extras. 

Josh T. Pearson- Last of the Country Music Gentlemen (2011)

http://www.mediafire.com/?mxhwsl5d6xrh04l

Some musicians achieve this cult status that will elevate anything they do to a place of legend. I wonder if Josh T. Pearson isn't approaching that place. I sense that the hype surrounding this record--not the record itself--smacks of hipsterdom. You can be sure that Josh Pearson's first record in ten years is a huge deal. MOJO and The Times already gave it 4/5 stars. Hmm.... So how is it really?

I was and remain an enormous fan of Lift to Experience, but was less than convinced by Pearson's acoustic output following the band. I know the legend, the stories of the bassist's wife dying while on tour, the drummer getting mailed an actual boot as a way of being kicked out of the band, the singer's dad being a preacher who refused to work since God would give him the means to live as a test of his faith. Et cetera, et cetera.

But when I first saw the album art for Last of the Country Music Gentlemen, i realized just how at risk Pearson is of becoming a media pawn. Why does he need to be seated with a shotgun next to hot models who contrast greatly with his "authentic" image? For someone who has notoriously shirked from fame, this is either a good omen or a bad one...

As for the music, it's all acoustic finger picked guitar and a voice. The lack of instrumentation works in his favor and makes it sound huge and powerful, even at its quietest. It goes from being as beautiful and transcendental as Jeff Buckley to reaching the dirtiness and unforgivingness of Vincent Gallo. I can't decide if it's beautiful or repulsive, which I guess is a good thing. It's definitely an uncomfortable listen-- I keep imagining Mark Kozelek listening to it, sulking, feeling out-emo-ed.

"I'm Josh, and this is my band."

The first song, "Thou Art Loosed," is an intensely beautiful song that sets the rest of the album up deceptively, so that when i listen to it start-to-finish, I feel this immediate rush followed by a long letdown (comedown?).In a way, LotCMG doesn't feel that out of the ordinary, and it's not anything that any old washed-out, unrecognized country singer couldn't have made. And then in a way, when you listen closely, you wonder how someone could make you feel so beautiful and filthy at once.

* * * *
This interview excerpt is from My Old Kentucky Blog:

My Old Kentucky Blog: Are we hearing mostly first takes?

Josh T Pearson: The first three are on Last Of The Country Gentleman are. You know, the songs are so goddamned long. Once you get up over ten minutes, I wasn’t about to do it again. But if you get to minute five and it’s not working, just do it again. I agonized over the takes, rather than the recording process or the mic setups. Being such a personal record, I’m not going to lie, it was tough. Sometimes it would take ten minutes just to recover from a take, sometimes a few hours. I hope I don’t have to go through that again. I actually went gray overnight.

MOKB: Now that it’s done, and it met your standards, how do you feel about the record?

JTP: I don’t know, man. It seems like a terrible thing to do…to be happy about such a sad record. This record is definitely for other people. I can’t listen to it. I think it’s a good work, but I hope I don’t have to look at it for a very long time. It’s just too personal. If I was outside of myself and heard it, I’d think the guy was a real dick for doing it because it’s just too bare and honest.

Lift to Experience- Falling From Cloud Nine E.P. (1997)

http://www.mediafire.com/?zlwfd76p3r3727c

I first saw Lift to Experience at the Cocodrie in San Francisco. They played after Pedro the Lion and remained one of my favorite bands of the decade (while Pedro remained one of my LEAST favorite).

They sold a tour-only EP that i'm guessing is pretty hard to find now. Uploaded for all your LTE junkies.

It doesn't sound nearly as good as their debut under Bella Union, but in a way it is a nice document of what they sounded like live. Consider it an early statement before they came to the conclusion they did (aka Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads).

CD Info:

1. Falling From Cloud 9

2. With the World Behind

3. Arise and Shine

4. Liftin' On Up

Mixed By - Dave Willingham , Lift To Experience
Performer [Lift To Experience Are] - Brian (64) , Josh* , Josh*
Recorded By, Mastered By - Dave Willingham
Written-By - Lift To Experience

First printing of 500 released in 1997 with limited edition trading cards of the then current members: Josh Browning, Josh Pearson and Brian Smith.
Second Printing of 500 released in 2000.
Both presses have the same cover art but different colors and fonts.
Recorded & mastered by Dave Willingham at 70 Hertz in Argyle, Texas.

All tracks recorded live, except vocals and tambourine 9/24/97.

Braids- Native Speaker

http://www.mediafire.com/?ztf5zuxaem3skhg

BRAIDS are:
a) one part early 90s classic 4AD sound (already recipe for greatness),
b) one part Gang Gang Dance,
c) one part Siouxie and the Banshees, and
d) one part Lars Ulrich.

Imagine really tasteful synth textures (i know--oxymoron, right?), female vocals with lots of personality and strength, super huge pop sensibility, soul, and the feeling of being seventeen years old on a spring break camping trip. Braids is really my thing this week.

Wearing a truly terrible band name on their sleeves, Braids are a four piece from Montreal, Canada. They could fit anywhere in a bill with Cocteau Twins, an aggressive version of Slowdive, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Animal Collective. Really, really great stuff that can fill your heart on the cloudiest day or brightest summer day.

Singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston is part of another poorly named group (Blue Hawaii), who sound basically like Braids, but less polished. Standell-Preston is interesting: she gets comparisons to Jenny Lewis and Bjork (which--C'MON!--has to be the laziest comparison someone could ever draw); however, she sounds to me like Joanna Newsome singing electronic music.

Love 'em.

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions- Through the Devil Softly

http://www.mediafire.com/?hbfi43tz1z4csiq

A friend of mine from Ohio introduced me to Brit-pop, shoegazer, and noise rock at the same time, and I can safely say that I was the only kid in Tuolumne County who knew of Blur, the Catchers, Mazzy Star, the Vaselines, Belly, the Breeders, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and Elastica. That was a special time when i could hear Nirvana, Mazzy Star, Green Day, and the Flaming Lips on commercial radio. Commercial radio!!!

Nothing Mazzy Star recorded ever touched the magic of "Fade Into You," which is okay, since that is still an unworldly single. But years later, when Hope Sandoval made a solo album with My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O'Ciosoig, I paid attention. "Bavarian Fruit Bread" is still one of my favorite records, that sounds as fresh now as it did ten years ago.

Through The Devil Softly is perhaps one small step below BFB, but it's still an uncanny and eerie record. Her "Is-she-singing-on-key-or-not" delivery still makes me weak in the knees, and the reverb-y instruments (from autoharp to twangy western guitar) makes such a weird juxtaposition that somehow works perfectly. It's a perfect cd for the dead of winter when it's dark and murky out. It's an album full of doubts, questions, and hauntings. And that makes it awesome.

This album will still sound amazing ten years from now.

Women- Public Strain

http://www.mediafire.com/?8yfmqd2wcls4ycf

A friend turned me on to Women's "Group Transport Hall," which i covered for a performance about jeggings. The song is really great-- weird, wobbly, beautiful, and catchy.

Public Strain could be described that same way. It has that uncanny element to it, where you recognize and don't recognize the music. It goes from sounding strident to blissful, and makes me feel like i'm underground looking at cathedrals when i listen to it. I read that it felt more like an "album" than most cds, and sounds best (*surprise surprise) when listened to on headphones. If you play it through speakers at work, like i did, people will just glare at you.

Recommended for fans of Deerhoof and Slowdive or Aaron Martin. *A disclaimer: it took at least 3 listens for me to really like this, which I think is a sign of a great album. One of my favorite discoveries of this new year.

Lift to Experience - The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads

http://www.mediafire.com/?wqggbh5a1stgiz0

This is the stuff legends are made of.

A hugely-bearded cowboy who shovels horse shit for a living in north Texas has a thing for shoegazer music. He plays giant spacerock through two amplifiers. One of those amps has a cow's skull drilled onto the top. He enlists another bearded cowboy and a large jazz drummer with big cymbals to create the largest live sound you have ever FELT, let alone heard. Think My Bloody Valentine, only they are all Texan cowboys. And the singer sounds like Jeff Buckley. And their lyrics are a semi-fictional fantasy about Apocalypse where Texas is Mecca.

They famously signed to Bella Union (run by ex-Cocteau Twins members) and release a double album. Absolutely incredible quality, predictably poor sales. They tour like crazy until a huge tragedy rips them apart (involving a sudden brutal death of one of their wives). They don't reunite, and have dropped off the face of the planet.

The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads is their double album that deserves a few listens. It is so well laid out that even the titles of the songs spell out two beautiful sentences:

"Just as was told/ down came the angels/ falling from cloud 9/ with crippled wings/ waiting to hit/ the ground so soft"  and "these are the days/ when we shall touch/ down with the prophets/ to guard and to guide you/ into the storm."