Blitzen Trapper. Blitzen Trapper.

Blitzen Trapper are a Portland, Oregon band who have such unreal variety in the music that they put out that I've actually had to double take to make sure I'm still listening to the same band.  Sometimes that can be disconcerting to me, but in this case I have found myself more and more drawn to the depth it indicates.  I first was feeling them for their sweetly nuanced garage-sound but they offer so much more, too. Just go here and listen to the psychedelic, electronic garage-pop frenzy of 2007's Devils A-Go-Go.  Anyhow lately I am in to the folk-tradition of hearing a good story in a song so this is The Man Who Would Speak True off of their 2010 Sub Pop release Destroyer of the Void.  But be sure to listen to those other links so you get the multi-faceted-ness, too.

Rock and Roll Tuesday. Bruce Springsteen.

I remember about five or six years ago listening to a cut off of Born in the USA and thinking this man is a Shaman.  You know, someone whose intuitive understanding of lifes experiences is so deep that he translates it for the rest of us.  A few months later I saw him on a tv interview, saying that very thing--that he believed his role as a musician to be shamanistic.  Ever since, what I love the best about his music is his story-telling.  And how rootsy he is when he does so: you can practically hear the whole musical history of the americas in the layers of instruments he and the E street play.  And what is rock and roll, if not the pioneering, multi-layered rebel story of us?

The Bangles. Hazy Shade of Winter.

It is snowing out, there's a couple inches and it's totally covered the road and I was warm and cozy in my room, sitting reflecting on the year that's almost over.    Then the local radio station played this song--and like it always, always does the opening literally gave me chills.  I love the non-stop drum bang in this version, and sweet Susana Hoff's doll-voice singing Simon and Garfunkel's poetry over that sick sick guitar.  It's still an absolute favorite.

Rock and Roll Tuesdays. Liz Phair. Exile in Guyville.

Today my friend Marla and I had a long talk about good rock and roll, and though we parted ways at 80's hairbands we were in total agreeance over what came out of the 90's.  We made a list that spans several decades (Marla is a radio dj and is going to play my hitlist for me on air piece by piece over the next several weeks!) and elsewhere, you dear reader get to live out the birth of Rock and Roll Tuesday on this blog. 

So add me to the legions of Exile devotees...Exile in Guyville is without question one of the best rock and roll albums there is, released in 1993.  This clip is Liz doing her infamous Divorce Song a few years back.  The quality's not the best but it's one of the only ones I could find of this song live.  Go here for a vintage clip of another song off the same album. 

Snow Days. Real Estate.

Ok, so the melodic, melancholic chorus ohhhhhing of Real Estate in the background of this song, their layered instrumentals and the way they build the layers really reminds me of Fleet Foxes.  Which in my opinion is awesomeness.  This is Snow Day, off Real Estate's 2009 self-titled album which I am quickly loving through and through.  But it is this song (about the beach and reminiscing in the winter, go figure) that makes me happy and swoon.  They are East Coast as it comes, too.  Xtra yaayyy.

Phyllis Dillon. One Life to Live.

My buddy Sky mentioned this song by Phyllis Dillon in response to a post on my other blog.  The jam's really stuck with me--even though I suppose it's a love song--it's the I only have one life to live and I'm gonna live it that keeps resonating now and playing like a theme song through my head.  According to Wiki, Jamaican-born Dillon did all of her recording before turning 23.  She spent the years following focusing on her family, only to return to performing in the early nineties when she was 43.  She passed at 56 with an awesome sweep of soul-full reggae songs to her credit and several classic covers. 

The White Stripes. Jimmy the Exploder.

There is almost nothing sexier to me than the rawdog dirty sound of Jack White's guitar.  Seriously it gets me hot.  And together him and Meg epitomize to me all that's glory-full about good ol fuckin rock and roll.  She reminds me of Joan Jett.  Rebeliousness.  Nothin but her tight, gnarly loud ass drums breaking the beat. He makes me think of the only white guy back of the juke joint drilling licks in some past life almost memory of heat and oppression and music being the only saving grace. 

This is Jimmy the Exploder, off their 1999 self-titled release.  It makes my breath short.  Yummmmm.

Sea Wolf. Sea Wolf.

The first song I ever heard by Sea Wolf was You're a Wolf,  originally off their 2007 EP Get to the River Before It Runs To Low, and it spoke the way good poetry does to the mythic place inside my soul:  It immediately sparked my imagination in the alive-sensate place. Not too long after that a friend put Rose Captian by them on a mix CD for me and I was hooked for good.  Anyhow today I woke up feeling very Wicked Blood, which is another incredible archtypal song by them, and I got on here to post and whadya know turns out these guys are like famous for the Twilight series??  HUH?  Booooo.  But good for them I guess for making that cream?  Anyway they are pure poets, folk musicians at heart aligned with the same myth and allegory in their songs that for example Conor Oberst might bring to mind.  Also I saw them live at some point this past year and it was so dirty and real they could've been any no-name indy act, that's how much they keep it real.  I heart them.

Sea Wolf at the Rock and Roll Hotel, DC

Mia and Jonah. Shine I.

I fell resolutely in love with Oakland, CA's Mia and Jonah last year whilst the rest of the world unbeknown to me was also enduring a huge male/female-duo onslaught of bands like the xx and The Hoof and The Heel.  And while I dig both those examples, too, Mia and Jonah still get an I LOVE THEM and a THEY ARE MY FAVORITES specifically because they lac the cheeky showmanship and electric emphasis that I normally sweat.  They are classically acoustic, focused primarily on the singer/songwriter aesthetic.  I found them on Pandora.  Their 2005 album Shine I just sings the kinks out of my heart every single time.

Smithsoniam Folkways. Recordings.

This is a picture of famous jazz mistress Mary Lou Williams, as it appears in the magazine produced by Smithsonian Folkways titled the same.  Please go check out Smithsonian Folkways, which is a project produced entirely through the Smithsonian Institute and is all about documenting music of the people.  I ordered a box set of early American folk and blues recordings, which the Smithsonian happened to have archived, about five or so years ago and it was the only background music we listened to the whole winter through.  It was haunting and rich and sounded like old time crackling with vinyl and throaty back room soul in the low light. This sight is a music lovers requiem, a legitimate storehouse of dreams with sounds from virtually every movement and culture you can imagine.  Absolutely awesome.  HR.

Robert Johnson. Love in Vain.

So the first time I ever heard this song was off the Stones 1969 release Let it Bleed--classic smoky Mic going at it and the slow sex build up of Richard's guitar for that sensual fever that they're so damn good at.  Here is the original, by Robert Johnson, and here is a great close your eyes and listen link to The Rolling Stones version.

The Heavy. Colleen.

Man, I just love this song, that's it, no explanation.  It was featured in the Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah movie Mad Money and was hard to track down at first because of its ambiguous name: Colleen.  Performed by the UK bank The Heavy.  Not sure who did this video clip but I really dig it, too.

Tegan and Sara. The Con.

Oh, dear.  Freakin Tegan and Sara, who doesn't love these gals?  I will run the risk of melodrama here and just be out with it:  their album The Con, released in 2007, is without question my number one ever ever ever break-up album, ever, and I speak from devoted experience.  The Con, every single song on it, played on repeat track after track in early 09 and walked me through not just one but two tragic back to back endings of intensely heavy love affairs.  And I still love to hear it and can even listen lightly, now!  I mean, come on, that says it all.  This is the title song off the album, a rich acoustic version.  To see the video for the same, go here.  And in the meantime, encircle me I need to be taken down...!

Steel Pulse. Rollerskates.

Oh my gosh.  I can't remember the first time I ever heard this song--growing up at the beach I feel like it was just one of those always on background jams.  It was this summer though that my friend Ben asked me if I knew the song Rollerskates to which I was like no--turns out I didn't know the real name of ...life without music...one of those quintessential reggae anthems by Steel Pulse, released originally on 1984's Earth Crisis.
Anyhow, imagine my pleasure last week when my old buddy Sky started sending all this reggae music over.  This was a recent intention of mine, to grow the reggae selection on my iPod, however that's subject matter for a different blog.  There's a way better clip of this song as far as video quality, but I like it live and wiley when the audience is singing along...

Grande Roses. A Place to Love.

Grande Roses "A Place To Love" from Robert Henriksson on Vimeo.

A Place to Love by the Grande Roses just sticks in my heart the way some love songs can.  It's one of those standing in the kitchen makes time stop a minute and me be still songs that seemed to capture a lot of stuff for me I otherwise couldn't say?  I went through a minor tryst with The National this summer and maybe that's why, this song from lyrics to melancholy sounds to me like something Berninger might do.  Visit the Grande Roses, out of Sweden, here and hang out a minute and be still with this clip!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Karen O.

So in keeping with the spirit of amazing female front woman.  I listened to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz so much in the background this summer that I associate the sound of them with salt and sun.  But let's talk about Karen O the sexy crazy-talented through and through rock and roller lead.  I love her.  I lvoe her presence, her lyrics and aesthetic, her mix of visionary whimsy (she's the one who did all the music for Where the Wild Things Are) not to mention her voice.  I think she's everything an artist can be.  

Sly & The Family Stone. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

If there was one album from my childhood in to preteen time that had the most influence on me (not the one I listened to the most, but the most influential...) it was Sly and The Family Stone's Greatest Hits.  By the time, at age 11 or so, that I got my hands on mom's record collection several of their songs were already familiar from radio air so what I distinctly remember is the first time I heard this song.  It felt right.  I didn't know it til recently but Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again) was originally released as a bonus on that record, and it quickly became my fave because of how true it resonated with me, and equally important: because of how the song was titled with its unique spelling.  This was an early prompt to me of the freedom within language of self-expression, silly as it seems.  But isn't that it anyway--what's so very great about this song, too... 

Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt. Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt.

These guys are probably my favorite discovery of this year.  They came my way with their song Snow Day via an indy compilation from my cousin's fellow and I just loved the song because it always made me so happy.  Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt it turns out are that crazy blend of bizarre performance art with multiple musicians-and-instruments-and-costumes-and-zaniness combo that is my absolute most enjoyable live experience.  It reminds me of the experimental stuff that was happening in music when music and me first fell in love.  This is their myspace, this is their web, this is their blog and this is a clip of them singing MJ to sheep, as an example of their ridiculous showmanship  and why I'm so starry with hearts in my eyes over them....

Indie Pages. Random Pop Links.

Indie Pages is a compilation project run by the founders of Jigsaw Records out of Seattle and I discovered the website last year whilst perusing the Internet looking for cut and paste style zines.  It's a dated website, with only four or so updates this year in fact, but my absolute favorite thing for most of last winter was clicking random pop link on their links page.  More than once I discovered awesome Indy bands or fanzines that way.  Jigsaw closed its doors this years but are still available on the Internet, still pedaling 7 inches and cassettes, still full of the Olympia-Tacoma-Seattle underground going against the tide (especially now) flavor that I love.

Bomb in a Birdcage. A Fine Frenzy.

A fabulous guy I used to date turned me on to A Fine Frenzy, which is actually the performing name of a really sexy singer/songwriter gal out of Seattle.  There's nothing more to say than I absolutely love, love love this song, What I Wouldn't Do.  It's so flippen catchy.  Off her 2009 release Bomb in a Birdcage, which happens to be one of the15 or so Cd's this year that I literally played start to finish over and over again whenever I got in my car.  HR people.  Highly Recommended.

The High Strung. Real Nice Boy.

I first heard Detroit's The High Strung play on Pandora.  The song was She's Not Even Mad at You, and from that first time on every single time it played I would stop what I was doing and listen.  Soon enough I found them on Myspace and started listening to them pretty regularly.  That was the beginning of my mild obsession with contemporary indie bands with that sixties pre-punk garage-band sound.  I love them.  This youtube clip is a great song off their 2003 release These Are Good Times.  They once did a library tour. That's right, public library gigs.  There's a nine minute you-tube video of them, in fact, playing the public library in San Fran.  BTW, according to Wikipedia, they left the van that they drove for that tour on the steps of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

The Art of Sixteen Bars.

This movie left me in awe when I first saw it--with the same inside-kicking feeling that certain live music or the right poetry or late night conversations leave in me: totally inspired. Director Peter Spirer is a documentary maven in the hip-hop world, it's narrated by Meth and basically breaks apart the art and fundamentals of rap and hip-hop by interviews with various artists, big-name and other. My favorite part is Shock G talking about what made Tupac a great.  Here's a short clip with the ever prolific KRS-One, Nas and a couple others talking about writing rhymes.  

When I Was A Painter. The Breeders.

I didn't like the Breeders when they first came out--in fact I remember seeing them at Lolapalooza in 1994 and not sticking near the stage like I always did: indifferent.  I was more impressed by the riot grrrl garage sound and they were too produced for me, funny thing is I guess my young ears and unconscious mind compared Kim and Tanya to Frank Black too much. It wasn't until later that I really grew great respect especially for Kim Deal as a musician, and a woman, leading the way.  This clip is so good.  I love her voice, too.

Favourite Food. Tokyo Police Club.

Tokyo Police Club 's Favourite Food came on a an Indy Rock compilation someone gave me.  It's off their 2010 release Champ, and isn't nearly as dirty and Thurston-esque sounding as the earlier 2006 stuff I found to sample on the Internet.  But I like it alot, in this case bc his minimal entry made me notice the sparseness of voice and brevity in the lyrics.  I'll always be a poetry grl...afterall.