Flowin' not fussin'

Many of my fellow Easterners love to dismiss LA as a vain, self-absorbed, hopelessly shallow ooze of sprawl. Hollywood incarnate. While I don't entirely disagree, I think it's kind of a lame straw man. Especially from a bunch of pretentious, neurotic, equally self-absorbed Yanks. There, see. Let's all hug. As for LA, I prefer my caricatures positive, and I like to imagine the place mostly in musical terms—a palette of easy grooves garnished with a sweet breeze and smog-kissed sunsets. Here's one that captures that flavor, from an album of similarly charming sketches. Who really cares that they have the fleetingness of sandcastles?

Tommy Guerrero - Flux and Meter

I feel the earth move

Greetings from LA! My work sent me here to sit in a dark room all day, but I'm parlaying this important assignment into a weekend of mellow sun soaking. I believe some site-specific tunes are in order.

If you don't own Margo Guryan's work, I'd suggest rectifying that. There's no reason why she wasn't huge. Her Take a Picture album is a sublime chunk of late-'60s soft pop that belongs in your parents' record collections, probably right next to Carol King. Sadly, it probably isn't. Life is cruel, so she moved to California, where fame continued to elude her. 

This is a tune she wrote later to combat her fear of earthquakes by imagining the shaking to be a big communal dance. Can't get more West Coast than that, mang.

Margo Guryan - California Shake

Don't leave home without it

I take a long time getting ready before leaving the house. It's usually a frantic, non-linear process of small tasks that overlap in ways that facilitate strange injuries. But it's not the running around that draws things out. It's finding the right music to soundtrack it. More than a few times, I've baffled friends by searching for the perfect shoe-tying song. Is it really so strange? Isn't it worth taking a minute to get yourself in the right headspace before subjecting yourself to the whims of the world? Why waste an opportunity to set the tone?

Here's a killer cut that'll have you bounding out the door like a man looking for some hot trouble.

Zebra Crossing - We're Going Places

Delivered from snobbery

Upon first hearing Bablicon, I admit I crassly shrugged them off. However eclectic my tastes at the time, I was a jazz snob. I misread their shambling, freewheeling approach as a lack of chops, the sound of rock dudes trespassing into the domain of rarefied improvisation. I saw musicianship as an end in itself, convinced that if you were going to dive into free music, the price of admission was technical facility with all existing music forms. Not surprisingly, this made for a pretty academic way of enjoying music, and yes, I was kind of a drag. But like any good reformed person, I'm happy to say those days are well past. Life is beautiful. Now dig this weird monster jam.

Bablicon - 2 Birds (1 Wing)

Is that a bruise or a kiss?

Another inbetweener. Too jagged for the radio; too hooky for art rock. Right in Songblague's sweet spot. Then there's Wedren's voice. Polarizing, to say the least. I always thought he sounded best when caterwauling on top of the twisted guitar pummel. This album started his drift toward explicit pop; not surprisingly, it signaled the end of the band.

This is a track that I can't help but keep falling for. I never know what he's talking about, but phrases like "the cream of California" suggest unsavory intentions. And yet kind of sleazily inviting. To quote another indie vet—sweeter than a drop of blood on a sugarcube.

Shudder To Think - Call of the Playground

B-side myself

Despite my longtime loyalty to the Cure, I find myself cringing at most of their stuff these days. Pornography, in particular, sounds almost like a joke now. At the same time, their lighter stuff charms more and more. I'm thinking this is one of their finest tracks, B-side or otherwise. Safe for parties.

The Cure - Throw Your Foot

You are leaving

Hearing this for the first time, I thought it had to have been written for burlesque shows. From the teasing vox and woozy horns, you'd never suspect that the song is all heartache and melodrama - "come back soon, my breath is going away." Especially if you don't speak Spanish. As much as I love the groove, that disconnect is actually my favorite thing about this song. That and the weird sourness in the intro.

Jeanette - Porque Te Vas

Party like it's 99

99 problems. 99 luftballoons. 99 cent stores. And today, 99 Songblague posts. I was looking for a clever way to mark the occasion, but several days of work hell have zapped my mojo. This song is sort of appropriate, I'd say. Count it off!

Ash Wednesday - Love by Numbers

The boy who tried to vanish

Before and After Science is the last Eno album that you can even try to engage in rock terms. It may also be my favorite. Sure, it's got instruments and songs, but in many ways it's all texture. Best enjoyed as pure assemblage of sound that sometimes masquerades as songs, rock as ambient and vice versa. Which is why "Kings Lead Hat" will probably always be my favorite slab of rock n' roll. But these days, I'm really feeling the light and magic of this deep cut. Heard it once accompanying some abstract video art and literally felt like I was merging with the sound field.

Brian Eno - Here He Comes

Cowboys in space

Now here's a band that's owed some love. Especially since they were kinda sidestepped in the '00s rock boom. It's the old you-know — too eclectic and inventive for casual ears, too straight and rockish for the full-on experimental set. At their best, this is the band Wilco was threatening to become. Traditional elements, but with the roots knotted and turned weird.

I used to think of this as wintertime, beard-growing music. But a walk in the park with their album has made me hear the sunshine in it, albeit a sun that makes known its intent to slowly and steadily escape the sky. This track is a soaring winner in any season.

Inouk - Elected

Anthem of the moonshot

Serendipity! The 40th anniversary of the moon landing happens on the day that I decide to post a song from the Anthem of the Moon album. A coincidence on one level, but I think this song is actually a rather earthbound affair. No one's gonna question Oneida's brain-frying, psychedelic bona fides, but this is less the sound of moonwalking and more like pulsing lunar prayer chants from deep in our terrestrial home. I love them steadily with each ambitious release, but this one has taken on the patina of a genuine classic.

Oneida - Rose and Licorice

Spitting image

It recently dawned on me that last month marked my 10th year in New York. Didn't feel too big a sense of occasion, but I began to try to recollect how that first summer felt. In truth, it was kind of lame and lost. Real post-grad drift. No job, a band nearing collapse, an ill-advised beard that shouldn't have lived past graduation day, and about 30 unneeded pounds. Sure, there were a bunch of beautiful/magical parts, but I'll leave it to future posts to reflect on those.

I spent a lot of summer '99 being sweaty and dazed, doing a lot of observing, and offering my brain up for the city's imprints. I was also quite surly - partly a holdover from college snobbiness, partly due to lack of focus. This song was pretty in tune with that stage of myself - done with old ways, but not sure what to do next. It really could've used a bridge or a solo too.  

Pavement - Spit on a Stranger

There's a splinter in your eye

Well alright then, here's that R.E.M. payoff that's been percolating. However misshapen their career arc has become, with its slow descent into middling albums after their string of '80s greats, you go back and just love the classics as much ever. How do you pick one to feature? For me, "Harborcoat" is a sentimental fave. It was the first song I heard after enough radio and MTV exposure had convinced me that the early stuff was worth checking into. ("Stand" notwithstanding, Green totally underwhelms in retrospect.)

You know the story, you get attached to the tunes that feel like discovery. You start getting that weird mix of thrill and accomplishment that comes with opening new doors and tracing new webs of musical connections. And in defiance of the Top 40 regime, no less. How quaint now to envision an oppressive, monolithic media! Kinda sad actually. Anyway, this track reminds me of those young, heady days. And braces. And a quasi-mullet that haunts me to this day.

R.E.M. - Harborcoat

Flying and jangling, part II

Another band named after a flying animal. Another jangly guitar song. This one is a little more somber, and good for beefing up your vintage indie bona fides. If there had been a video, it surely would've had regular rotation on 120 Minutes. Two consecutive songs that sound like R.E.M. Hmm. I wonder if this is my brain's way of telling me to put some of their stuff up here already.

The Bats - Mastery

Byrds in hand

I first heard the Byrds in an episode of The Wonder Years. It was one of those scenes where Kevin experiences a life lesson to the tune of an overplayed '60s chestnut, "Turn, Turn, Turn" in that instance. While I knew there was something cheesy about it all, I was totally smitten with Roger McGuinn's 12-string sugar clusters. The harmonies were pretty sweet too.

Despite the earnest efforts of several friends, I just can't get into the countrified latter part of the band's life. But those first few albums deliver hooks aplenty, even if the lyrics are a little cringe-worthy. I think this one represents the culmination of that version of the band. Full frontal jangle, nice chords, and vox that work as music alone. Sounds like Peter Buck picked up everything he knows from this fab track.

The Byrds - Have You Seen Her Face?

I like you mostly late at night

What is it about Fridays that gets me all prog and bothered? This is a real tender one - fragile, twisted, and very beautiful. No matter how short my attention span, I'm always happy to sit back and let it unfold. The music's drama is actually subtle. And Wyatt's voice is uniquely poignant. I love the end section, where the synthesizers swim around like the figures on the album cover, as he lets his voice coo in a combination of emotions I have yet to give a name to. I recommend you give it a few good listens this weekend. And also grab Rock Bottom for your record collection. It's kind of essential, y'know.

Robert Wyatt - Sea Song

Hit a stride

There are days when you get up with an all-too-familiar headache, ready to quietly surrender before you start. But then, as if pulled by unseen hands, you start getting things done in rapid succession. And you feel a whole lot bigger than resignation. Here's one that fits that surge. It's also part three in an accidental instrumental rock block. Electro-acoustic tastiness. Hope you're feeling it.

The Books - That Right Ain't Shit

What summer evenings should sound like

At the end of a long, draining, decidedly ungroovy weekday, you want something easy like the proverbial Sunday morning. This will do nicely. Can't go wrong with members of the Dap-Kings, Budos Band, and Antibalas. Classic sounds done right and cooked up in my own fine borough. Say yeah.

Menahan Street Band - Make the Road By Walking

Lambent ambient

Much of the ambient music out there seems a little too adept at evoking the discreetness of air. It's the good stuff that sets a scene and then puts things in motion that are just a little more pleasing to pay attention than to let sit in the background.

Eluvium does it up proper. And talk about right-on titles. I'm looking down at some kind of mysterious, shining thing under the not-so-still water. A vague sense of forboding amid hypnotic siren-like sounds. Imagine how it sounds under the water.

Eluvium - Under the Water It Glowed

Sunny daze

Woke up on the 5th of July with a head full of plans. I made it through a post barbecue roof cleanup and then decided to cool out and let the day drift. It was one of the best ideas I've had in a while. Here's a song that takes a similar course. Starts off in 5th gear, then gets a little lost in the blissout. Luckily, it's short enough that you don't feel too much of a drag. A little like life.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Laughter (Victims)

I love America

The band, that is. Seriously. "A Horse With No Name" may be one of their weaker numbers and easily their worst song title, but a straight listen to their best-of comp reveals an impressive array of solid a.m. gold. You may have noticed Songblague's fondness for music of an imaginary California. And this one is a fine slice of it, an early '70s vintage. Features some dumbass folk wisdom in the chorus and rustic drivel everywhere else. More importantly, it's irresistible as barbecue. And also somehow kind of appropriate for a holiday where we set off explosions to express our national pride.

America - Don't Cross the River

Artistic narcissistic nuance seance

I get the feeling that The Embarrassment didn't attend too many art parties—celeb-studded or not—way out in Wichita. I like the lyrical snarksmanship, but you sort of wonder why these smartypants Kansas boys, who must have felt so marginalized with their post-punk records, would worry about skewering the pretensions of the art set. Whatever. Fun song anyway.

The Embarrassment - Celebrity Art Party

Black and white dreams

This song serves up a whole night's worth of weird mental excursions in a just a minute and a half. I'm seeing cartoon car chases and strange acts of science, all in very disorienting shades black and white. Someone brilliant really should put this to video.

Dymaxion - Ant'lrd Ally