New Yorker’s love to leave the city, it makes them feel special
to reconnect with nature, they even pay top dollar to escape their overpriced apartments
to go do yoga and play farmer for the weekend. They do so in areas that often
resemble the various countries and rural towns around the world they ran away from in
the first place! It’s all very confusing
but the point is Joanna Newsom has shared another new song off her
forthcoming album Divers and it's called "Leaving The City."
Joanna Newsom shared the first taste of her forthcoming
LP, Divers today in the form of “Sapokanikan.” The Paul Thomas Andersondirected clip see’s Newsom walking the streets of NYC while singing her tale, day turning to night.
I’ve never really thought of Newsom’s albums as a series of singles, they are
parts of a larger world that has to be experienced in its entirety to get the
complete picture. Thats being said “Sapokanikan” has several movements in itself changing
throughout and steadily building up. The song clocks in at just over 5
minutes but it actually feels longer as there is quite a lot to digest lyrically.
Jughead’s Basementreleased
his latest podcast highlighting records that are important to him, the focus of
this month’s being on Evanston, Illinois’ legendary,Big Black.
Founded by singer and guitaristSteve Albini, the
band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago
Durango and bassist Jeff
Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun. In 1985 Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, who played on Big Black's
two full-length studio albums, Atomizer (1986)
and Songs About Fucking (1987).The band’s
aggressive and abrasive music was characterized by distinctively clanky guitars
achieved by using metal guitar picks notched with sheet metal clips;
the notch causing the pick to hit each string twice, creating the effect of two
simultaneous guitar picks. Equally distinctive was the use of a drum machine
(who they lovingly called Roland) that pre-cursored industrial rock. Big
Black's music challenged convention, pursuing an abrasive sound that was more
aggressive than contemporary punk rock. The band acknowledged no taboos
and Albini’s lyrics openly dealt with loaded topics including murder,
rape, child sexual abuse, and racism. They also held staunch principles,
shunning the mainstream music industry and insisting on complete control over
all aspects of their career. Jughead’s podcast successfully attempts to tell a
portion of the history of the band from the perspective of their Bulldozer EP through
their first full length record Atomizer. (Marking a transition from
a project purely conceived by Steve Albini into a cohesive band with
the added influences from collaborators Santiago Durango and Dave
Riley.)
This episode is co-hosted by Russ Forster and
includes interviews with band members Santiago Durango, Steve Albini,
and Jeff Pezzati, including extra interview material with friend and
fellow songwriter/musician Camilo Gonzalez. Lastly an audio piece written
by journalist/novelist/radio personality Jim DeRogatis.
It’s amazing how well the band’s music holds up thirty plus years later. Steve Albini’s menacing vocals really still are
the gold standard on how to sound sinister without coming off as cheesy. The
band recently received some well-deserved props via a mainstream outlet with Dave
Grohl’s incredible HBO series,Sonic Highways.
While the band have always got their just due in the underground it’s
immeasurable how important the recent conventional exposer has been, equally
important is how Albini’s peer’s speak of the artist/engineer during the
series’ flagship episode as his reputation has not always been one that is warm
and fuzzy. For myself the influence has been great and hearing other’s speak so
highly of his importance, Chicago’s influence and independent music’s influence
on the history of music as a whole literally brought tears to my eyes as both
the tv series and Jughead’s podcast cut through all the bullshit
and rumors and honor one of the greats.
It’s been a while since we posted a new Throwback Thursday
so we were about due for one to say the least. I always try to balance things out on the blog
with what types of music content we post, in theory multiple contributors
should help in this department as we all have different tastes, but this has
been a solo effort for the last several months as my fellow bloggers keep busy
with their day to day lives. The end result is that I have to try and police
myself somewhat to make sure you, the viewer, aren't being bombarded with 99%
hip hop/electronic oriented content. In
all honesty I think the mix tape culture that is hip hop in 2013 just provides
way more content on a day to day basis than rock can keep up with.
Whatever the case my roots
have always been in punk rock and this week’s Throwback Thursday focuses on one
of the most influential in the genre.
What we have below is a Chicago’s Big Black performance from
July 13, 1986 at CBGB’s in New York, filmed by Greg Fasolino. Black's abrasive sound was characterized by
distinctively trebley guitars and the use of a drum
machine, elements which precursored industrial
rock. Albini's lyrics openly dealt with loaded topics including murder, rape, child sexual abuse, arson, racism, and misogyny, so
you know, the classics! The 45 minute set list is broken down below…
1. Clear Out!
2. Fists of Love
3. Big Money
4. Passing Complexion
5. Cables
6. Pigeon Kill
7. The Ugly American
8. Kerosene (stopped)
9. Kerosene (with Mission of Burma/Volcano Suns’ Peter Prescott on drums)
10 Rema-Rema (with Peter Prescott)
