Burrito, tell me more about this Liars band. I like their album titles but I want to know if I should actually listen to them. (You can use that thread where we're supposed to talk about bands. And maybe I'll go check it in case you already did.)
I don't have too much to say about Liars. Their drummer is a beast, and they got this guy Aaron Hemphill in the band who is a master of experimental guitar. I loves me some experimental guitar, and this guy is always doing the weirdest unique shit. He favors the noise, but in a subtle way that allows their chunes to remain very rhythm heavy, rather than just sounding like a big wall of mess (not that that's always a bad thing).
Their first album They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top is kind of "punk", but also makes ya wanna dance. I dig "punk" and dancing like a freak (they dance like freaks), so I fell in love from the start. Then they did Fins to Make Us More Fish-Like (which is actually an ep) and They Were Wrong, So We Drowned which is a concept album about witchcraft, produced by David Sitek. Yeah. Listen to it. Then came Drum's Not Dead which is, you guessed it, focused on drums. I pulled this description from the record label: "The album's title and several track names refer to two fictional characters: Drum and Mount Heart Attack. For the band they are like Yin and Yang, each a state of being. Drum is assertive and productive, the spirit of creative confidence. With two drum kits integral to many of these percussive, propulsive, highly rhythmic convulsions, Drum came to be acknowledged as a fourth member of the band. Conversely, Mount Heart Attack is the reaction to Drum's action, the embodiment of stress and self-doubt. Both became key elements in the creative process." It's a mellow listen by their standards, and a fucking solid flowing front-to-back album. I would recommend it highly as a starting point. Liars and Sisterworld find them attempting more "traditional" use of their instruments, but still remaining really fucking weird. I read an interview which sadly I cannot find right now where their vocalist/guitarist Angus explains how they Dr. Garbanzoured it was time to learn to play the instruments the "proper" way, but realized that they preferred their own fucking weird ways and abandoned the traditional methods for Wixiw. Every album has a unique shift in style, and you should listen to them all.
Talking Heads - Fear of Music Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food Talking Heads - Fear of Music Talking Heads - Naked Talking Heads - True Stories (ABORTED. I FUCKING HATE THIS RECORD.) Talking Heads - Fear of Music Alexis Gideon - Daytrotter Session #1 Alexis Gideon - Daytrotter Session #2 Alexis Gideon - Video Musics
Talking Heads - Fear of Music Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food Talking Heads - Fear of Music Talking Heads - Naked Talking Heads - True Stories (ABORTED. I FUCKING HATE THIS RECORD.) Talking Heads - Fear of Music Alexis Gideon - Daytrotter Session #1 Alexis Gideon - Daytrotter Session #2 Alexis Gideon - Video Musics
You're in my head today! All I've been listening to for last 2 hours is Talking Heads.
I've been reading one of the entries in the 33 1/3 series, an seriously in-depth analysis of Fear of Music by fucking Jonathan Lethem. Fear of Music is by far my favorite Heads record, and Jonathan Lethem is by far my favorite novelist and/or essayist. It is a really, really fucking great read. It is what my Record a Day columns could only ever hope to be.
Anyway, Lethem's foreword suggests that for optimum results one should listen to Fear of Music while reading it -- which is why I've listened to it about nine times this week. Not that I mind; that is one hell of a record.
I've never listened to True Stories. I'm gathering I shouldn't bother?
Yeah, no. It isn't even technically a Talking Heads album, it is the soundtrack to the film of the same name that David Byrne directed in the mid-80's (also pretty terrible). Byrne himself said that it isn't even really a Talking Heads record, and that when he wrote those songs he didn't intend for them to be sung by him; rather the cast of the film.
The only culturally relevant footnote attached to True Stories is that it features the song 'Radio Head', which was where that other band took their name from.
HOWEVER, people similarly tend to overlook Talking Heads' final album Naked, and this is a mistake. It bears as much resemblance to their classic records as does True Stories, but next to Fear of Music it is my Talking Heads record of preference because it is that fucking good.
I've been finding my love for Pink Floyd once more rekindled. What is everybody's favorite Pink Floyd album? Other than The Wall.
1. Animals 2. Atom Heart Mother 3. Darkside of the Moon (arguably the greatest album every made) 4. The Wall 5. Wish You Were Here 6. The Final Cut 7. Meddle 8. The Piper At The Gates of Dawn