The Purple Piper Plays His Tune

While I was on hiatus or in Purgatory or or whatever, I didn't write much. However I did still listen to a lot of music, and it helped to do so. The last year and a half or so, when I was on the mend, I was still pretty fucked up. To keep myself from turning into a gibbering blob, I conjured various games and activities. In doing so, I created an illusion of order in what was, really, a very muddled and doubtful time. Along with various other exercises, I adopted this practice of making playlists about once a month. (I had no strict time frame—it just worked out to about 1 per month.)

I kept the lists "short"—around 30-45 minutes—because I lacked an attention span. Let's face it: it's kind of hard to listen to a longer playlist, unless you're road-tripping or something like that. (Which I did, last Summer, and I made a longer list for that outing, and maybe I'll get into it here at some point.) Anyway, there was a time when most really good albums were 30-45 minutes, and they worked just fine. (Something that short is less common, nowadays, especially when so many albums are clogged up with guest appearances, alternate mixes, and bonus tracks.)

Since I used to post a lot of dullsville pontifications on here about this music or that or the other and why it was such hot shit, I figured it might be a good way to get back on the horse to share a couple of my skimpy lists with you. They're short, and I'll try to keep it pithy, like Bill O'Reilly once said. (The ladies said the same thing to him.) It may even be over before I bore you! (If I haven't already!) And if it goes well, maybe I'll post some more!

I should note that I didn't give as much thought to these playlists as I sometimes have in the past. The point, to me, was to mark a moment, and to do so without much self-consciousness. Then I moved onto the next list, and with any kind of luck, maybe a better day. To the extent that I really considered what I was doing here, I made it more about sound and vibe, than idea and theme. Soooooooo…

Ready????? Here goes:

06/20/17:

1) Side B (Dope Song) - Danny Brown - Old: Danny Brown can be viciously funny, but sometimes he's just vicious. This song hits and hits hard, as a crushing bassline collides with a demented midget backing track. His vocals range from panicked to furious, as he spits out anecdotes that are much darker and much more vivid than the average urban hip hop claptrap. It may not be documentary, but it feels like emotional and musical truth.

2) Black Diamond - The Replacements - Let It Be: There is a hilarious anecdote about this song, which you may very well know, involving Gene Simmons walking into a club where the Replacements were covering this Kiss number. They were playing with such sloppy, reckless abandon that he was appalled and stormed out. Not only is this a hell of a lot of unselfconscious (unlike Kiss) fun, it's sort of pleasant to think of that pretentious asshole throwing a fit.

3) Last Call - Elliott Smith - Roman Candle: From Elliott Smith's very first record, which is unlike any of the other albums in the way, it sprawls. It's more of an exploration of what someone can do with a prolonged groove, a sustained atmosphere, and a focused approach to storytelliing. Often the songs do away with verses, choruses and bridges, and instead follow a twisting, hypnotic path.

4) Run to the Hills - Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast: One of the best riffs ever ushers you into this mini-epic morality play. At first blush, this song may sound like hair metal cheese. Really though, all those squealing throwaway acts—from bubble gum like Motley Crue to gas bags like Yngwie Malmsteen—are just parasites. Iron Maiden is above and beyond their progeny. In retrospect, their music can sound like a happy marriage of Sabbath and speed metal, which is a pretty cool sound indeed.

5) 123 - girlpool - Powerplant: An awesome song from an awesome record. This one works off of bittersweet endorphins. It is not be "profound" in some weighty critical sense, but it is one of those experiences that feels very large, when you're in the middle of it. It has the elevated anthemic feel of arena rock, but it manages to stay intimate somehow at the same time. Really addictive stuff.

6) Draag - Brainiac - Smack Baby Bunny: It is now 20 years since the death of Tim Taylor, the lead singer of Brainiac. He, and the band, are missed. The world could use more unique and exciting rock music. All the more reason, I guess, why we may have to hold onto the really weird, really edgy stuff from the past. This one skitters about, unleashing little manic rock explosions and skittering electronics. It's from the first Brainiac record, when they were just starting to emerge from a 90s rock chrysalis to become something stranger.

7) The Court of the Crimson King - In the Court of the Crimson King: Hahaha. Oh my. Did someone just belch? Oh wait, that was just King Crimson, in their grand, original form, cutting loose on the prog-rock shot heard…around the headphones? What other song noodles through jazz, rock, and dinner theater in such a glorious, bombastic way? The ambition here is towering! The song teeters, but doesn't quite fall. (Depending on your taste.) Amazing.

8) The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton - Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas: There's somehing really… sublime?… about hearing John Darnielle intone "Hail Satan!" in his characteristic adenoidal way. Then there are the familiar folksy chords banging out behid this whistful but angry tale of metal, friendship and the tyranny of adults over the young. It's funny, but it doesn't trivialize its subject matter. 

9) A Spoonful of Blues - Charley Patton - Charley Patton, Volume 1: Listening to delta blues can be an exercise in frustration, if you try to understand the lyrics. The recordings are low quality, and the vocals are drawled in a nearly archaic dialect—all of which is too bad, because the stories and emotions that you find in these songs are just as powerful as they were in their day. (I suspect. My time machine's busted, so I can't verify.) With Charley Patton, you almost forget that you're missing out, because the sounds themselves are so compelling. Here, the harmony between the riff and the vocal is so off the wall, but so memorable that I can't get them out of my head half the time.

10) Blue Suede - Vince Staples - Hell can Wait: It isn't enough that Vince Staples writes some very powerful lyrics and delivers them with a level of intensity you rarely hear elsewhere. (The dude sounds almost laid back, at times, but he turns on a dime and spits in your face.) He also assembles some of the most unique and hard hitting backing tracks out there. The songs are catchy, generally, but they serve up a ferocious sound that you will not find anywhere else.

So that's it for now… I've been cranking these lists out about once a month—though I don't keep track—so likely I'll have another one up here soon. (If I get around to writing about it.) Hurrah!