In the Evening, at the Bar, with 10-4

A thread in which I sometimes wander over to the dusty jukebox, put on an ancient banger, and talk - to no-one - about how great it is.

Wae?

Why not!!

Lets start with,

I still remember the first time I heard this song. I was INSTANTLY captivated. It's so intensely mysterious, so warmly nostalgic. I can't imagine this song not conjuring memories of endless youthful summers, of neighbourhoods as playgrounds. Even the rattling percussion reminds me of running a bat across the bars of schoolyard gates.

But there's that dark undertow.

The hazy, mysterious vibe is almost suffocating.

Jeremy's lyrics were always enigmatic, but here he's downright inscrutable:

Quote

The days were golden

We were known to be

We won't escape this memory

Forward on, to the place we sail

Oil to believe

When you raise an iron hand

This place without a song for all

The words just crawl

Glimmering and everything, another skull

You said it was dangerous

Found out the place where you were going

Follow me down the path

I take your hopes, I promise you this

A dying, cold world, but gold

Shimmering gold

Come mama now, tell me the story

Only laughing about our gilded wasteland

Devoured, torn into pieces

Come now, we shine

Small things ever calling out your name

You hear some other time

Unchained, alive

A world undefined

All to be free

When you raise an open hand

This place without a wall

The words just grow

Glimmering and everything, another skull

You said it was dangerous

Found out the place where you were going

Follow me down the path

I take your hopes, I promise you this

A dying, cold world, but gold

Shimmering gold

Come mama now, tell me the story

Only laughing about our gilded wasteland

Devoured, torn into pieces

Come now, we shine

Small things ever calling out your name

You hear some other time

Unchained, alive

A world undefined

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This was Sunny Day Real Estate's first (!!) reunion album, after they previously disbanded following Jeremy's conversion to Christianity. It's hard not to read spirituality into much of the album, not least because of the eastern mysticism that pervades the music itself.

But it seems to me that this song references the iconic cover of their first album. This is a song about global warming, in 1998, back when people were less acutely aware of the problem. No wonder we didn't grock the lyrics. Like the family in that album cover, we stand smiling while the fire threatens to consume us.

Laughing.

About our gilded wasteland.

If ever there was a song that I would use to sell slowcore as the greatest type of music ever made, it'd be Shame. It's one of those rare songs that are just so perfect that they seem eternal. Like they always existed. Like you had always heard them, somehow, even when you listen for the first time.

I mean it's just perfect. Icy guitar tones. Glacial pace. It's basically the arctic in musical form.

Even the video is great! Even tho it looks like two different videos stitched together. Low made good videos. Over the Ocean is the best music video in the genre. It encapsulates it!!

I once said that BTS' Spring Day was like one of only three successful attempts at marrying hip-hop and shoegaze.

SO WHAT WERE THE OTHER TWO.

One:

People on this board always be talking about "discographies". Truth is I never thought about it, but if I was going to single out a band, it'd be Bowery Electric. Over the course of just three albums and five years, they transitioned from droney shoegaze to hip-hop seamlessly. The middle album, Beat, is what made it work. Like the first album, the songs are largely static drones of hypnotic guitar noise. But that's undercut with the sampled beats and heavy basslines of their second one. I'm pretty sure the opener is using the same drum sample as Erik B & Rakim's Paid in Full actually which is hilarious. Anyway it's such a natural combination that it's kind of mind-blowing that there are hardly any examples of this sort of music.

Fear of Flying is probably the most representative song of this duo (hence it being a single) & is also a great song in its own right. The drones are as psychedelic as ever but the almost mechanised beat gives the song this propulsive, industrial edge. Away from the haze of skies and LSD tabs and into the turning cogs of a factory production floor. I really love missing beat in the percussion loop which is "filled in" in every other loop starting from about twenty seconds into the song. I love pauses like that in music, and to have it be a foundational element of an entire song is cool as shit to me.

For me though, their best song is Black Light. Black Light is a better song than I will ever post on here, it is one of my top-ten all-time favourite songs. Such a powerfully trippy piece of music that it does this to me EVERY TIME:

Here's a little known fact: Lawrence Chandler would go on to become La Monte Young's protege, would work for Phillip Glass, and is now primarily a modern classical composer in his own right. Not bad for a dude who started of in a one chord rock band.

Two:

lol this is probably Dalek's most accessible song. It's either this song, which is built up entirely of glissing noise or Bricks Crumble (which features a roiling, tumultuous orchestra of out-of-tune strings for a beat). What a group. Despite how weirdly catchy and tuneful Ever Somber's beat is, it still hits like a fuckin truck tho. That slomo boom bap beat is so heavy it's like a stomping tyrannosaur.

I've been resentful for years that Dalek have been incorrectly pidgeonholed as a "noise rap" outfit because of this song and the album its own (Absence) despite being so much more diverse than that would imply. But at the same time, I can understand why. And I can understand why Absence really resonates with people. The music is just so raw and immediate and heavy and loud that it just demands attention. Whereas their true GOAT opus, Abandoned Language (one of the best hip hop albums ever made btw) is a lot more subtle and subdued.

Bonus:

Despite most of Justin's projects being steeped within hip-hop, jesu is definitely.... not that. And yet this one song kinda is. I say song. It's an instrumental. Sure is nice though innit. Being slightly pepper than the lethargic groove-based music of Dalek and Bowery Electric might make the similarities to Spring Day more obvious too now that I think about it.

Anyway so,

Considering how mainstream the above groups are not.

Can u imagine how fucking pumped I was to see similar ideas explored by the biggest boyband in the world? In absolutely storming stadium rocking banger of an anthem as well?? K-pop can be really good sometimes. I mean mostly it's very bad. But sometimes. Put your motherfuckin phones up.

Bogo shipda, motherfuckers.

Quietly.

Imagine if all jazz was this good.

Or good, even.

Quite simply one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded.

Quote from tenfour

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Quite simply one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded.

So's this though:

Even without considering the lyrics, this is such a sublime, mystical piece of music.

But the lyrics match it: Joanna spins a tale of infidelity out into a rumination about the nature of men that sounds as ancient as humanity itself. If there is such a thing as a collective unconscious, this song was dredged from its deepest depths.

Did someone say "Kepler", tho

What a pleasant descent into nihilistic oblivion

Kepler was both the quietest and loudest rock band.

The most spiritual song about fucking ever

That ending is just the most gorgeous thing. Having that piano come in AS THE SONG IS FADING OUT is just genius decision making.

Still waiting for How To Be a Lady Pt.2 juseyo