Nirvana Week: Favouritism

I've been avoiding it all week, but here they are, my top three songs from Nevermind:

Come As You Are

Polly

Something In The Way

Mollx

REM

I just had to mention this really sad news - REM have split up, after 31 years and 15 albums. I know 31 years is a long time to be doing something, but that doesn't really make it any less devastating.

My favourite
An extremely close second
And a very predictable third

Please, add your own in the comments.

Mollx

Nirvana Week: Peer Pressure

Pretty close to the influences post I suppose, but I can kind of get away with mentioning Kathleen Hanna again so what the hell.

Whenever I have to explain who The Melvins are, I always say that Kurt Cobain was basically their annoying little-kid hanger-on. I can know add that they're bloody awesome. The Melvins, Lizzy

And Nirvana toured with these guys in the very early Sub-Pop days (see if you can spot Krist) Tad, Dementia

NOW WHY DO I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS???? I mean, seriously. I thought I'd listened to all of Kathleen Hanna's projects, but no. Julie Ruin, Apt #5

Mollx

Nirvana Week: Poppier Than You'd Think, Really.

It's influences time! Courtesy of MOJO magazine and Wikipedia. (well, I can't exactly interview the band themselves, can I?)

I'm starting with Shonen Knife, and Hot Chocolate. As the man himself said: "When I finally got to see them live, I was transformed into a hysterical nine-year-old girl at a Beatles concert." 


Nirvana covered this song, so if it's not an influence, I'll eat my hat. Fang, The Money Will Roll Right In


KC (although here with no Sunshine Band...yes I know it's an awful, awful joke. But you smiled, didn't you? No?) said they were his favourite songwriters so it's only fair that I fit in the Vaselines, with The Day I Was A Horse

Mollx

Label Day: Wait, What?

No, I'm not posting about a label called Wait, What? I don't even know if there is one. There should be.

I was going to do Sub Pop, you see, but I've done that.
I couldn't bring myself to do Geffen.
And then I thought "Well, Calvin Johnson and KC were friends weren't they? Do K Records!" But it turns out I've done that too.
So I was at a loss until I heard this first song, and decided on the spot an obscure opposite of yesterday's post.

 Here She Comes Now (Velvet Underground)
My Best Friend's Girl (The Cars) Yes, really.
Seasons In The Sun (Terry Jacks, I think)

There are tons of others, but I won't (read: can't cause there are so many) post them all so you can have that lovely feeling of digging and digging and then finding something mindblowing.

Mollx

An Announcement

If you don't like Nirvana, go get yourself to a doctor you might want to give this blog a miss for the next week.
Because, my dear awesome readers, Saturday is the 20th ANNIVERSARY OF NEVERMIND!!!

That's depressing, and I wasn't even born in '91.

So, with no further ado, I am hereby announcing NIRVANA WEEK!

So to get in to the mood, here are some rockin' Nirvana covers!

Have I said I wish I was Patti Smith? I think so. She's punk personified, and this version is the best SLTS cover I've heard. Patti Smith, Smells Like Teen Spirit

Reggae doesn't often appear on this blog. But this is so chilled I had to post it. Little Roy, About A Girl

Why do I like this? Oh yeah. Because I'm a closet metalhead. I do miss the melody of the original though. Thou, Sifting

Mollx

SOTW: Adam Green, Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division Cover)

It shouldn't work. It shouldn't. But it does. Keyboard, yes. Drum machine, ok then. American guy, he can get away with it. Acoustic guitar? Surely it has too much warmth, less Eighties Manchester and more nineties Omaha? True. But somehow it manages to fit in the same frozen emotional clout, the same tricky minimalism. And although it's not the original - nothing can beat that - it stands up as a song that, rather than copying, twists it  self into an entirely new beast.

8.5/10

Mollx

Edit: Link fixed. Sorry.

Foreign Friday: Denmark

This fixture is turning out to be quite intriguing, what with me listening to bands I may never have even heard of, let alone listened to.

You tend to have two camps in rock. Alternative rock, and mainstream rock. You get crossover, of course, but I don't think it's usually all that mind-blowing. I'm looking at you, Foo Fighters. This, on the other hand, is everything crossover rock (I'm patenting that) should be. The Floor Is Made Of Lava, All Outta Love

Going off the fact that I have actually heard of the Raveonettes, I would assume they are relatively well-known.
Or maybe not.
The Raveonettes, Attack Of The Ghost Riders

I know I say this all the time, but I really wish I'd been a teenager in the nineties. Because this is awesome. Psyched Up Janis, I Died In My Teens

And as always (but especially with FF) if there's a band you know that you think I'll like - even if it's the kind of thing I don't usually post, I'll listen to anything once - let me know, either in the comments or by sending me an email via the box on the right. I say especially with FF since I use Wikipedia to find these bands, and hence  they might be quite popular in their home country and I'd rather post more underground stuff as you know.

Thanks!
Moll

A Midweek Addiction Update III

I'm going to say something now, that you may not agree with.

Buying new music is not good for the wallet.

But it's good for the soul.

This song came along at the perfect time. I've been getting more into sixties soul-pop from all these episodes of Cold Case that keep getting shown, and until now I wasn't bothered about this album. But do you know what kind of music this is? Soul-pop. And do you know what just happened? I got paid. So if soul-pop + money = x, what is x? Me buying Feist's new album, of course. Feist, How Come You Never Go There

I haven't listened to Mr Adams for a good long while, but I'm a fan of his FB page, and as a result of his little updates, I find myself looking forward to hearing this album. Ryan Adams, Lucky Now

I can't think of much to say about this song, apart from saying that it's pretty awesome. Sissy And The Blisters, Let Her Go

Mollx

Late Label Day: Better Looking Records

Well, that was a good start to the week, wasn't it, being ill for near two days with food poisoning? Grr.

Anyway, let's kick off Label Day with some good old alt.rock music. The Electric Soft Parade, If That's The Case Then I Don't Know

Well, this is a twangy electronic mass, isn't it? Meho Plaza, I Sold My Organs

As a Heatmiser and Sordid Humor fan, I love this. The And/Ors, Flexiclocks

Mollx

(New) Music Monday

Sorry for my absence of late - it was mine and my Mum's birthday last week so everything was a bit hectic and I couldn't find the time.

Anyway, new week, new slate, new music. Well, new-ish.

I really, really want to like St Vincent. And I'm trying, I promise. So far I've been a bit...not underwhelmed as such, but not as blown away as I want to be. This is extremely good though, so if I see the album somewhere I might well get it. From her new album Strange Mercy, St Vincent, with Cruel

I started to smile as soon as this track started. It's not awesome, and it's not even all that original...but I love it anyway. The Horrible Crowes, Sugar, from the new album Elsie.

Well. Yes. Hmm. HOW CAN SHE BE THIS GOOD AT 21?? Laura Marling, the title track from A Creature I Don't Know

Mollx

AOTS: The Mountain Goats, All Hail West Texas

From last week:

"When you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don't expect him to thank or forgive you!" sings John Darnielle on The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton. It's a killer of a title track, filled with, as it says in the liner notes, The sound of a long-broken machine, deciding, on its own and without the interference of repairmen or excessive prayer vigils, to function again. As well as a musing on the Panasonic RX-FT500, it seems that that's a stencil for the relationships he sings about with such bitter passion. His lyrics are frighteningly clever, beautifully witty, and forced to the forefront by simple strumming and then buried in the crackle of the cheap stereo condenser microphone. The songs are what one could call basic - but it takes a long time to squeeze everything out of this album, and that's the mark of a truly great songwriter.

West Texas! West Texas! West Texas!

8.8/10

Mollx

SOTW: Your Ghost, Kristin Hersh

It takes a special song to stop you in your tracks. Your Ghost doesn't just stop you in your tracks. It covers you in goosebumps, makes your hair stand on end. It's full of melancholy poetry, a simple guitar, strings, and one of the most beautifully gritty voices since Patti Smith. But somehow it's more than just the sum of its parts. The sum of its parts would make an amazing song, true, but not a song this compelling, this heartbreaking. And it's more than just Michael Stipe's backing vocals that make it so.

10/10


Mollx

TV Theme Thursday!

I'm pretty sure one of you lovely people has seen at least a little of the US version of Shameless - well, as luck would have it, the theme song is rather epic. The Highly Strung, The Luck You Got

I don't know if this has a title of its own, but it's the Big Bang Theory theme, by Barenaked Ladies, and it rocks.

And if you don't know what this is from, watch some CSI. Except watch the earlier episodes of CSI:NY because season 7 is a bit crap in my opinion. Anyway, The Who, Baba O'Riley

Mollx