THE WAR ON DRUGS – TOUCH OF GREY

  • Is it the 80’s again?
  • Are Men Without Hats back?
  • The lead singer has never been in a fight.
  • Who stole my Cavaricci pants?
  • I wanted to wear them with my Capezio shoes and vote for Dukakis.
  • Maybe start a fanzine.
  • Jesus, how much longer is this?
  • I want to get in a fight with this lead singFUCK GOD, NO HARMONICA.
  • Dammit.
  • Good rule of recording: before you release a song, look in the mirror and take off the harmonica track.
  • I will fight this singer and his drum machine.
  • If you took The War on Drugs to a restaurant, they would have many questions about the food, due to their allergies and beliefs.
  • When Garcia sang “That’s really all I have to say,” it was bittersweet, but when this guy does it, it’s the best news you’ve heard in a while.
  • Fuck, he’s scat singing during the outro.
  • And more harmonica.

PHOSPHORESCENT, JENNY LEWIS & FRIENDS – SUGAREE

  • Immediate points off for not using the Oxford Comma.
  • Is Jenny Lewis not singing?
  • Why not?
  • It’s a bar band kinda deal, but it’s too fast: the whole point of Sugaree is the floaty, dreamy tempo.
  • Is the drummer playing like a drum machine, or is the drum machine set to 90% wobble?
  • I’m going to forget ever hearing this two minutes after it ends.
  • Nice organ playing.
  • Bored.
  • Who cares?
  • Why is this?
  • Who chooses a band name so hard to spell?
  • I now hate the drummer.
  • Browns picked up RGIII, huh?
  • Man, this election.
  • Could go for a ’72 today.
  • I could actually listen to the Replacements today.
  • I’d like to use the Time Sheath to make the ‘Mats do a cover in Sugaree in ’88 or so.
  • While Bob was still in the group.
  • Oh, thank God.
  • Three more.

BRUCE HORNSBY & DEYARMOND EDISON  – BLACK MUDDY RIVER

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM-shsMngdw[/embedyt]

  • We’re playing it this slow?
  • That’s a choice.
  • It’s Bruce Hornsby: how bad could it be?
  • He was a card-carrying Grateful Dead.
  • (Bruce insisted on having business cards made up.)
  • Did the same person produce all of these tracks?
  • Because that person doesn’t understand how drums are supposed to sound.
  • Oh, now they’re just making spooky noises.
  • Just play the Jerry Ballad; don’t haunted house at me.
  • Still spooky.
  • Oooooooooooooooooh.
  • Oogie-boogie.
  • Oh, there’s the song.
  • Bruce Hornsby can play the piano.
  • This drum sound is an abomination: if a state passed legislation stripping this drum sound of its rights, I would move to that state.
  • Turtle with multiple sclerosis.
  • Rusted-out Chevy in the backyard.
  • Tectonic plates.
  • Dripping pitch.
  • All of these things are faster than this song.

COURTNEY BARNETT – NEW SPEEDWAY BOOGIE

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdaAQlmExmI[/embedyt]

  • I have heard Courtney Barnett: they play her on channel 29 and 31.
  • Ooh, swamp guitar.
  • Drums still sound like shit.
  • Is that the theme of the album?
  • Which is 59 songs long.
  • Some of my very favorite bands didn’t release 59 songs in total.
  • Courtney Barnett is Australian, I believe, and she sings in her accent.
  • I approve of people singing in their natural accents.
  • Unless you’re Joey Ramone or Bruce Springsteen.
  • Okay, I got it.
  • 90 seconds left.
  • Animals that start with “B”:
  • Bat.
  • Baboon.
  • …
  • Um.
  • Big spider.
  • Birch tree.
  • Banana.
  • Biafra.
  • And the fade.
  • Slow-ass fade.
  • Still going.
  • Really?
  • Stop this.
  • Done.

THE NATIONAL – MORNING DEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLVLCXgTx3o[/embedyt]

  • Cover of a cover.
  • This is already not for me.
  • Is this Danzig singing?
  • MOOOOOTHEEEER.
  • Cuz the guy’s doing sexy voice at me and the song’s about nuclear war.
  • Like a Bauhaus vibe, maybe?
  • Goth-y.
  • Where are the cellos?
  • Can’t be goth without cellos.
  • Nothing in the soundscape is where it is supposed to be.
  • They’re doing a big build-up thing, but it’s so thin-sounding.
  • Oh, the drums kicked in.
  • Sucked the drama out of that.
  • Good job.
  • It turns out that without Garcia soloing over this song, there’s not really much here.
  • It’s the Dead’s version of Beck’s Bolero.
  • 20 seconds left.
  • Ten.
  • Aaaaand that’s all she wrote.