Well that’s as good an excuse to play an album isn’t it? It’s no more or less valid a reason that others,
for example;
- in tribute to someone who’s just died,- hearing a track from an album in the media or on a movie soundtrack,
- seeing the album in a best of list or the subject of a retrospective article in the rock media,
- hearing a track or the artist mangled by an Idol/Voice contestant, the cast of Glee or some other misguided artist,
- boning up on artist’s catalogue before seeing them live,
- to impress somebody else or on a trusted firend or critic’s recommendation
- for company on a lonely day, night or long drive (especially after a loss at the footy)
- by sheer impulse, or, of course
- for the purposes of writing a music blog.
The one thing that I’ll never do is to utilise something like the Apple Genius in
which some form of, presumably computerised, program tries to guess what I’d be interested in. I’d also assume that this would be based on
my prior listening history. Now I don’t
have anything against the concept, but I’d hate to have music chosen for my
pleasure on the basis of a calculated analysis of my listening (or, market research,
if you will) when just about all of the examples cited in my list above are emotional
choices. (It’s for much the same reason that I no longer listen to commercial radio.) More importantly, should such a selection be
based on my previous listening
habits, the chances of such means enabling me to discover new (or should that be,
different) music would be significantly reduced and thus shunned on
principle.
All of which is a long winded way of saying, here’s the
three albums I played today that were inspired by track I heard in yesterday’s
Shuffle Session, starting with;
(# 327) Rocket From
The Crypt – Live From Camp X-Ray (2002)
Rocket From The Crypt is one of the many vehicle for guitarist
John Reis also from Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes. All of these bands employ full bore, driving rock
which always manages to stop just that one step away from being punk. Rocket From The Crypt had more of a 60’s
garage band feel augmented, at times, with frantic horns. Despite the title, this is not a live
album. That honour fell to the next
release, R.I.P which documented their final show, although at the time of
posting, they’ve just finished a reunion European tour. This is an extremely short – about 27 minutes
– release of mainly top notch material, including I’m Not Invisible, I Can’t
Feel My Head, the string enhanced I Wanna Know What I Wanna Know and Too Many
Balls. Brilliant stuff.
(# 328) Shearwater –
The Golden Archipelago (2010)
Shearwater specialise in a form of quiet indie rock/Americana punctuated
by the occasional outburst of louder stuff, usually at times you don’t expect
it. This is their sixth album, being
released after two extremely well reviewed predecessors in Palo Santo and Rook. It’s a good solid album, far better that I
remembered on first listening and it may well provide to be one of those albums
that will improve with age. For the
most part, it’s the tracks which break the mould that tend to stand out. Black Eyes sounds like a very good musical tribute
to David Bowie and God Made Me should become mandatory listening to anyone
wanting to learn how to construct a slow/fast/slow number.
(# 329) The Twilight
Singers – Powder Burns (2006)
Greg Dulli is one of the great, largely, unsung heroes of
rock ‘n roll. He was the leader and main
force behind the magnificent Afghan Whigs, who released a number of brilliant alternative
rock albums during the 1990’s. The
Twilight Singers was the band he formed after breaking up the Whigs and this is
their fourth – and best – album. Many of
the tracks here would not sound out of place on an Afghan Whigs album including
There’s Been An Accident, Underneath The Waves and the grand ballad I Wish I
Was.
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