I don’t know Tim Wilson. But after listening to A Wonderful’s “Uncorked Understandings,” I kind of feel like I could. Sure, it feels like a personal record. His voice has a kind of gentleness, and though it is thin at times, it is thin in a kind of pleading, desperate kind of way. The lyrics are sparse and simple yet seem loaded with personal references, experience, and memory. But the record seems personal in an almost universal sense. Tim talks a lot about hiding, about missing someone, about regret- thoughts and things that I’d like to think anyone could understand and relate to, particularly boys having been under the weight of heartbreak at one time or another.*
My favorite track is “Under Cover(s).” The drums are minimal yet mesh with electric guitar and a synth drone to tap out the kind of syncopated beat that makes me want to sway around alone in my bedroom. At one point, Tim seems to croon “… and this year, I chose to give myself to others. Just not you, and you’re damn tired…”, reinforcing a sense of isolation and a kind of lament. “Under Cover(s)” is really a beautiful song, and I’ve probably listened to it over twenty times now. It’s honest, minimalistic, and has a (dare I say) funky accented beat that sets it apart from 99% of lo-fi pop music in a good way.
I remember in the documentary “Wise Old Little Boy” (2004), Phil Elverum of the Microphones / Mt. Eerie said something about how he felt it was important to make music that was obviously “made by a human.” I’d say that A Wonderful accurately captures this human-made aesthetic, both on an emotional and musical level. Even the drums and percussion are cleverly layered and exude a very human feeling.
With repeated phrases and consistent instrumentation, “Uncorked Understandings” is a minimalist song cycle that begs for multiple listens. It is cohesive and lush with lo-fi pop sensibility.
*I don’t mean high school boys in a negative sense, but more in reference to young love and gray days when you just want to lay on your bed and listen to Elliott Smith.
Like most of the Myspace generation, I knew nothing of The Beach Boys except what I had gotten through sublimation through their amazingly bad beach movies and songs on oldies radio. For the longest time this didn’t bother me, but one day I grew curious. It might have been because I heard an interview with of Montreal front man, Kevin Barnes or just a realization that I had always known of this band and never really given them a listen before. When I finally got albums recommended by some of my more musicy friends I was quite surprised by how psychedelic and bizarre this beach music really is.
SMiLE was an album to be released in 1968 which had a great deal of hype surrounding it. It was supposed to be the greatest pop album ever conceived, proported grandeur probably coming from it’s fathers, Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks who worked together writing many tunes in Wilson’s in house sandbox. The concept: A teenage symphony to God.
The album never came out for a number of reasons, Wilson’s heavy drug use and mental illness being at the forefront. During the recording of the song, “Fire”, Wilson had the band wear fire fighter hats and halted further sessions suspecting that the song had caused several fires near the studio. The album has become the stuff of legend amongst Beach Boys fans.
So, suffisive to say the crowd was quite stunned when Brian Wilson played the entire album at a performance in 2004. A studio version was later released. This version was my first experience with it (and it is quite an experience!), but that is not the one that I was listening to on Thursday in my dimly lit room whilst doing thai-chi. I admit it was an odd listening tactic, but the material lends itself to surrendering the body to its heavenly rays. The album is a reconstruction of the original Beach Boys recordings from 1966/67 done by a fan with the alias of Purple Chick.
Based off of the newer arrangements (and maybe some old tracklistings) it’s a pretty intense trip. It was really evident at some points where Kevin Barnes got some ideas for tracks on of Montreal’s Coquelicot Alseep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse. What I really like about this version is the dual versions of vega-tables one of which Paul McCartney can be heard eating carrots on and also the wonderfully lush sound of old studio equipment handling insanely cool harmonies.
At 67 minutes it’s 20 minutes more than the new official release and probably a tad too much, but it still has it’s charm.
A FLAC download is available here and 160 kbps mp3 here.
When I first heard that my favourite songwriter and future husband Jeffrey Lewis was releasing an album covering the songs of 80’s British punk band Crass it’s fair to say I was more than a little alarmed. What I loved about his music was the use of words; the whimsical, intelligent, insightful lyrics that set him apart from your average “folk” musician. Fortunately, it turns out that that’s exactly what Jeffrey loves as well, and far from being a guitar driven noise-fest it could very easily be mistaken for his original material. The fun comes for me with trying to learn every single lyric to all the songs. “Huh?” I hear you collectively cry, “Isn’t that normal for an album that you like?” Of course it is, but the difference here is that a lot of the songs go at a hundred miles an hour with no room to breath. On top of that, the lyrics are so skillfully written that not one word is wasted. Everything is there to make a cynical statement about the state of our fucked up world or form part of an internal rhyme with nothing left to chance. Now this is exactly what we’re used to with Jeffrey Lewis, with the difference being in the overt politics and criticism of both the 1980s British government and current US administration. Although (obviously, being a super-fan) every track is a winner, the standout tracks for me are Banned From The Roxy and Securicor. The former begins with the bitterness stemming from being banned from a music venue but quickly leads to a scathing attack on modern politics and the government’s use of power and violence: “Defence, it’s nothing less than war/And no-one but the government knows what it’s for/Oh yes, they say it’s defence, say it’s decency/My Lai, Hiroshima know what I mean”. In keeping with the energy of the song, the lyrics (to both songs previously mentioned) are spat out pretty darn fast in a similar fashion to a lot of Jeffrey’s original material (see: Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror). To conclude, if you’re looking for an album that will make you sit up, watch the news, get angry, cry, get angry again and then do something about it, this is the album for you. If that isn’t what you want you should still get it because the arrangements and the lyrics and the humour and the anger is also worth it.
This is my first post, so please excuse any shaky editing, writing, formatting and lack of fancy things. BUY THIS ALBUM! That is all.
Hello,
Thank you for looking at this right now
but
remember to embrace the “real world”
and
don’t get lost in this one please.
Enjoy.
This week I have had the opportunity to explore many different forms of media including but not limited to; records, movies, magazines and novels. Here is a list and some thoughts…
MEDULLA by Bjork
If you haven’t heard this record you should give it a listen. If you’ve heard it, give it another listen. Wintertime is the perfect time to listen to Bjork. She might just be the goddess of snow, an angel sent by jack frost to sing us to sleep on nights when we find ourselves squeezing legs to chest in bed, attempting to beat the chill of the winter wind knocking at our doors and howling through the trees at our windows. Or perhaps she is from the future. Here now, in our time to be enjoyed on public transportation, aiding us to obliterate the disconnected feeling one can get while on a bus/train full of people (all looking at their shoes). She is my warm blanket. Listen to this record on headphones and enjoy the “sphere” of sound the pure tones create around your head. Oh and by the way, this record was made only with vocals (with some computer help). Yes, it’s true. LOOK
DEAD MAN (film) by Jim Jarmusch
I found myself get that feeling watching this movie again this past week. The feeling over takes me, rendering me speechless. This “feeling” comes when I witness something (in this case an artists piece) that is so overwhelmingly “perfect,” to me. It is everything a movie should be. I thought to myself, “this is my favorite movie I’ve ever seen.” I have a hard time describing this feeling and the way this movie makes me feel so please see it for yourself and let me know what you think. AND remember that’s Neil Young doing the soundtrack. Trust me on this one.
THE WORLD DOESN’T END by Charles Simic (poetry/prose)
My good friend Christina Spinelli gave me this collection for the holidays.
“The stone mirror which works poorly.
Nothing in it but dimness. Your dimness or it’s dim-
ness, who’s to say? In the hush your heart sounds
like a black cricket.”
POST PARTUM by The Watery Graves of Portland and/et Geneviève (song) Listen here
AND A VIDEO
For you.
It IS sideways
So turn your computer or don’t.
(the road is Rt.44 in Mass. The song is Diane Cluck-”The turnaround road.”) Click Click
It’s Friday, which means somewhere out there, Chris Tucker is getting Ice Cube high. It also means that a bunch of waiters wearing red and white vertical stripes and buttons are singing God’s praises before asking you if you’d like a Loaded Potato Skins appetizer. But most importantly, Friday means that new movies are hitting theatres. Some may be good, some may be bad, but they’re all going to show that Three Doors Down “Citizen Soldier” National Guard video before the trailers. Let’s check them out!
The Bucket List Starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman
Directed by Rob Reiner The Premise: Two dying old guys have fun, learn to love life, and tug at your heartstrings in the safest and most predictable of ways. The Lowdown: This is going to be this years Little Miss Sunshine. That is to say, the slightly above-average movie that everyone’s parents go and see, get exactly what they expect, and proclaim it to be “great” or “cute”. Cut to a year later, it’s playing on TNT and they sit down to watch it not even realising they’ve seen it before. Rob Reiner hasn’t made a truly good movie for 15 years, instead opting to play it safe with very dull formulaic comedies like Alex & Emma or Rumor Has It. This one appears to be no different. Is it Worth Seeing?: If you’re 40 years old and like to be spoon-fed life affirming pap, sure.
Hi folks, Patrick Ripoll here. I’ll be up-keeping this here blog every Friday forever and ever, until I die. Maybe even after, if I ever get my BA in Necromancy. It’s a 6 year program, so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that my scholarship money from “The Joey Ramone Foundation for Tall, Lanky, Ugly Bastards” comes in soon. The lady who took my application said I was a shoe-in.
As the weather got warmer your arms fell out/And I watched from the window and I thought it out- Shelby Sifers
As the year draws to a close, all those damnable end of year lists pop up everywhere. Pretty useless, right? By now you’ve already heard about the big albums, and you don’t need more reasons why Neon Bible is great. Well, my top 10 list for 2007 would mostly be the familiar safe “great” albums (Kala, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, etc) with one major exception: Shelby Sifers’ Run Around Run Around. The only reason it’s not on everybody else’s lists is that they probably haven’t heard it yet.
A band you people should check out is Jenny is a Boy. Yes, he went to high school with me, yes, we were roommates, but I think that that, if anything, gives me license to be more critical of his music than the average listener. Fans of The Mountain Goats (i.e. everyone) and Paul Baribeau will find some common ground here, but really Adam is doing his own thing here. His latest release is “Folkilla,” (whatever the hell that means) a split with the wonderful Life Under a Tree that you can buy over at Bob Heavens Records. Solo, Jenny is a Boy is a treat to watch for anyone who loves intense, earnest, personal acoustic guitar music, with equal doses of whispered lyrics and shout-alongs. But it is when he plays with his full band, The Proclamation where he really comes into his own and it’s a lot easier to see how original and versatile his songwriting really is. You can get one of his songs on the Real Live Tigers tribute comp (available from the wonderful Toby Foster’s myspace page), and there is a new album which should be out in two or three months on Bloomington, Indiana’s Let’s Pretend Records.
OH! And holly fucking shit guys (there’s a christmas typo for you), three of my favorite musicians in the word, Super Famicom, Redbear and imadethismistake, are all putting out a 4-way-split 7″ with me. And it’s going to be out on Fall of the West records in a couple months. How damn exciting is that?
Hey everyone it’s Steven from the Foggy Ruins Of Time blog and after being moved by what’s going on here at 001Collective I’ve decided that I want to contribute what I can here. For my first post I’m reposting a recent review of one of my favorite releases of 2007 by The Darlings put out on Wee Pop! Records. I hope you enjoy and I look forward to featuring more great music soon. =)
I’m in love with The Darlings. I’ll get that out now. When I first heard the songs off their myspace, the mail couldn’t come fast enough. They are a five-piece band from London lead by Elizabeth Darling and their first release, Photo EP is out now on the ever so amazing Wee Pop! Records. With every CD there is a different picture, so each package is unique! These photos were taken during Elizabeth’s travels and I got picture of women attempting to use a purple tent as a blanket. What will you get? The first song , “Anything You Want” describes someone who gives so much love to another due to the beauty surrounding them. She sings confidently, “And In my head I hear music/And its glorious music/All my love is with me/And we disappear into the sea,” and we float around in that environment blissfully. “Emily” is pure, addictive and hilarious. I haven’t laughed as much listening to song in awhile. Sort-of a revenge at the girl next in line, it’s too funny to be offended by yet wittingly perfect. The ukulele strums along sharply and the strutting bass line carries us through, but its Elizabeth’s lyrics that penetrate the most as she ends on, “He won’t love you baby/he’s got no more love to spend/He tells me you are fine/But I’m better than him at lying.” The last song on the EP is a cover of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” but I didn’t even realize until the chorus kicked in. It totally takes a new dimension in the hands of The Darlings. Consisting of Elizabeth’s voice (With some aid on back up vocals) and an insistent and pretty ukulele, this song becomes more intimate, barer and more poignant. The idea of being “shook” hasn’t been this physical since Elvis used it. Probably my favorite release from Wee Pop! Records so far, The Darlings Photo EP will soothe you, make you laugh, smile and shake you until you’re thoroughly hooked.
… or almost Christmas. I feel like for many, Christmas has a lot of layers to it: there’s the family thing, the materialistic thing, the changing of the seasons and year thing. Some people go in to this psychotically-cheery gift-giving frenzy, others become uncharacteristically Scrooge-like assholes. You see people you wouldn’t normally see. A lot of people go home to their parents’ houses and they sleep in their old rooms or guest rooms or whatever. Those spaces are often full of old memories, good or bad or both. It’s a weird polarizing thing, Christmas, and I think a lot of people would agree that that there’s a lot of weird emotions floating around at this time.
I kind of feel the same way about the old Peanuts comics. They’re funny and they’re sad in a way. They’re steeped in this kind of nostalgia, whether you grew up watching them or not. It works on a very complex level.
So it makes sense that the two elements would kind of suit each other in away. Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is a legitimately good album, Christmas and Peanuts aside. It’s got jazzy up songs and lilting down songs.
My favorite cut is “Christmastime is Here (Vocal),” a Christmas standard. It’s got this slow shuffling kind of swing, and the brushed drums remind me of snow falling for some reason, even though I grew up in L.A. and it doesn’t snow there. The vocal line is sung by a children’s chorus, and it’s kind of reverb-y and haunting. It goes really well with Guaraldi’s gentle plinking on the piano. It’s minimal yet full, a little glum but overall uplifting.
I don’t know Tim Wilson. But after listening to A Wonderful’s “Uncorked Understandings,” I kind of feel like I could. Sure, it feels like a personal record. His voice has a kind of gentleness, and though it is thin at times, it is thin in a kind of pleading, desperate kind of way. The lyrics are sparse and simple yet seem loaded with personal references, experience, and memory. But the record seems personal in an almost universal sense. Tim talks a lot about hiding, about missing someone, about regret- thoughts and things that I’d like to think anyone could understand and relate to, particularly boys having been under the weight of heartbreak at one time or another.*
Like most of the Myspace generation, I knew nothing of The Beach Boys except what I had gotten through sublimation through their amazingly bad beach movies and songs on oldies radio. For the longest time this didn’t bother me, but one day I grew curious. It might have been because I heard an 
