Poolside - harvest moon cover, 2012

"Was this quintessential summertime record really a celebration of Autumnal Ecliptic Longitudes?"

REM - leaving new york, 2004

"It’s tempting to say that R.E.M. lost their focus after Bill Berry quit the band in 1996 and they never made another great album, but it’s simply not true. They may have ceased to be a commercial force, but records like Accelerate, Reveal, Collapse Into Now and even Up are stellar albums even if they fail to reach the absurd highs of their earlier works. The only time the group really stumbled was on 2004’s Around the Sun. “The Outsiders,” featuring Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, aims to replicate their KRS-One collaboration from 1991’s Out of Time, but it feels forced. “Final Straw” is a noble, if boring, protest against the Iraq War. The rest of the album simply feels lazy. And if you don’t believe us, listen to the band. “[It] just wasn’t really listenable,” Peter Buck said in 2008, “because it sounds like what it is: a bunch of people that are so bored with the material that they can’t stand it anymore.”

 Such a great song! In such a great album!

Wilco - california stars live, 2015

"Forty years later, these lyrics would fall into the hands of Billy Bragg and the group Wilco and they would put melodies to them, bring them to full life and record them. It was all done under the direction of Woody's daughter Nora. These performers probably weren't even born when I had made that trip to Brooklyn."

The Mountain Goats - autoclave, 2008

"I was in Alaska when I read about the discovery of a life-form that can not only survive an autoclave (The instrument used for sterilizing surgical instruments; It's supposed to kill any and all bacteria on the tools), but which seems to really enjoy the whole autoclave scene: at temperatures fatal to all other life forms, this bacteria would begin to breed. Naturally this got me to thinking about people whose hearts involuntarily pulverize any good feelings that come within a city block of them."

Jackson Browne - these days live, 2020

"A man who long claimed to be the son of French film star Alain Delon through his relationship with the iconic German singer Nico was found dead in Paris on Saturday"

Johnny Marr - hi hello, 2018

"it’s got a unifying theme going through it about the Earth welcoming a different intelligence from the cosmos to save us from our own plight"

Chumbawamba - one by one, 1997

"Everyone remembers where they were when they learned that Chumbawamba was more than a ‘90s one-hit-wonder and actually a long-running anarcho-communist punk band with a loyal following in jolly ol’ England; it may even be happening to you right now! Mel Magazine is marking the 25th anniversary of 1997 and wrote about the alcohol-propelled Trojan horse that was “Tubthumping,” a song that brought the band’s subversive politics to the top of the Billboard Alternative charts and provided the pop culture zeitgeist with one of the most memorable choruses of the decade."

 

Pontius Pilate came to our town

Up to the dockyards to see the

picket line

We asked him to help but he just

turned around

He's the leader of the union now

Leader of the union

All of our questions he ignored

He washed his hands and he

dreamed of his reward

A seat in the House of Lords

One by one

The ships come sailing in

One by one

The ships go sailing out

We live for words and die for words

Principles we can afford

When all our Brothers turn to Lords

Whose side are you on?

You tell the world your hands are

tied

History three times denied

A sea of changes three miles wide

Whose side are you on?

One by one

The ships come sailing in

One by one

The ships go sailing out

This conspiracy of shame

Murder by some other name

Play up and play the game

Whose side are you on?

If any ask us why we died

We tell them that our leaders lied

Sold us out down the riverside

Whose side are you on?

One by one

The ships come sailing in

One by one

The ships go sailing out

 

Slade - far far away, 1974

"Far Far Away" originated with Holder. While on tour in America, he came up with the opening line while sitting on a balcony overlooking the Mississippi river in Memphis. Manager Chas Chandler urged him to go away and write the song immediately. Holder went to his hotel room and returned half an hour later having completed a basic version of the song, with the title "Letting Loose Around the World". Lea later developed the song further, in particular the chorus. In the band's 1984 biography Feel the Noize!, Lea recalled: ""Far Far Away" was a real collaboration between Nod and myself. The verse was Nod's and the chorus was mine. I wanted to record it like a barrelhouse song with a very airy feel for us but Chas wasn't keen."

The Waterboys - the three day man, 1983

"With the help of a drum machine, Scott sang, played the piano and guitar on each of five songs. Two recordings from this studio demo session would eventually make their way onto the first Waterboys album, "December" and "The Three Day Man". The quality of the session convinced Scott to leave Funhouse. Scott made further series' of recordings on his own at Redshop in February, April and August 1982, which yielded the following tracks: "Savage Earth Heart", "It Should Have Been You", "Gala" and "Where Are You Now When I Need You?"

Simon And Garfunkel - a heart in new york live, 1982

"The Concert in Central Park is the first live album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on February 16, 1982, by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded on September 19, 1981, at a free benefit concert on the Great Lawn in Central Park, New York City, where the pair performed in front of 500,000 people. A film of the event was shown on TV and released on video. Proceeds went toward the redevelopment and maintenance of the park, which had deteriorated due to lack of municipal funding. The concert and album marked the start of a three-year reunion of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel."

Lee Scratch Perry - blackboard jungle dub version one, 1981

"Black Board Jungle, often called Blackboard Jungle Dub, is a studio album by The Upsetters. The album, originally released in 1973 under artist name "Upsetters 14 Dub", was pressed in only 300 copies and only issued in Jamaica. It was one of the first dub albums."

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - dig up, 2017

"Cries of guitar bands going the way of the pterodactyls may be a bit premature as long as Australian groups like Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are flitting about. Steeped in the rich tradition of six string slingers like Belle & Sebastian or Teenage Fanclub, they also have taken studious notes from seminal bands closer to their environs. I can’t imagine they don’t have handfuls of records from Flying Nun in their collective possession and certainly Australian bands such as The Go-Betweens, Died Pretty and The Church must have made an impression on them."

Wilderado - sometimes, 2024

"Wilderado just goes down easy. The new four-piece melds americana and alt-rock with explosive pop choruses and just enough twang, courtesy of the boys’ Texas and Oklahoma roots."

Ford Chastain - do it anyway, 2024

"Indie bedroom pop artist based in Oklahoma City"

The Radio Dept - the absence of birds, 2020

"Swedish dream-pop heroes The Radio Dept. are low-key masters of restraint. Whether soundtracking Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette in 2006 or sampling a classic Thurston Moore manifesto on 2010’s U.S. breakout Clinging to a Scheme, their gauzy, often-bittersweet songs tend to hint at a mood and leave listeners just enough space to bring their own meanings. And with four albums spread out between 2003 and 2016, the band’s intermittent release schedule has ensured they always felt like furtive, welcome strangers."

I love Elon Musk because he loves The Radio Dept.

Blocked this fucking idiot pic.twitter.com/AWgbVrqFWe

— The Radio Dept. (@theradiodept) April 30, 2022

The Radio Dept - pulling our weight, 2003

"It’s a lovely album, and a fine piece of dream pop that varies from song to song without changing its ambience. The Radio Dept. paid a great deal of attention to the recording process. It’s lulling and pleasing and nice in a complimentary way. You won’t find much innovation on Pulling Our Weight, but you will find five very listenable songs and a good example of the craft involved in pop writing. You’d be best served listening to it through headphones, while sitting in a tree, close to napping." 

 Such a great song!

The Cure - pictures of you, 1989

"the inspiration of the song came when a fire broke loose in Robert Smith's home. After that day, Smith was going through the remains and came across his wallet which had pictures of his wife, Mary. The cover of the single is one of the pictures."

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - mixtape receipt, 2006

"Despite its ponderous name, Letting Up Despite Great Faults makes music that’s light as a feather and ephemeral as a dream."

U2 - pride in the name of love, 1984

"Slane Castle had some great rooms. When I first went there I had it in mind to record everything in the ballroom, which was this beautiful very tall room with big mirrors, chandeliers and windows overlooking the river. As it turned out, it was just a little too 'splashy' sounding. It was good for tracks that had an openness but not good for tracks that were quick and required punch. So we used what they called the library for most of the sessions. It was just a rectangular room but we could achieve a denser more powerful sound. We had The Edge's amp outside on this balcony; like there is this long balcony going around the castle and we had him out there for a little while. Initially, it was for the purpose of isolation but it turned out to be a good sound."