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Music from the Cube: What Am I Listening Today?
Nine MP3s for your listening pleasure.
Caroline's Spine, Monsoon Rating=$$
[Support the Artist]
How I Got This CD: Bought this used out of guilt while out with my Dad trolling a used record store in Rhode Island
I had downloaded their second CD Attention Please for free off one of LJ's many, many MP3 communities and liked quite a bit of what I had heard. I figured their first CD, Monsoon, should be a safe bet.
Ummm, yeah. Not so much. I can see why they only released 2 CDs, and why the Website reeks of a band that's a Has-Been That Never Was.
Through most the CD, I kept having this over-riding urge to smack the entire band around with a rolled-up newspaper because of Teh Angstah! and Teh Wine! Call the Whaaaaaaambulance!
*snort*
Anyway, not much to say about this CD because it was that Muzak-worthy.
There are only two stand-out tracks on this CD placed right near the beginning (both 'You & Me' and 'Sullivan' are included below). Perhaps that's why I had such high hopes when I was standing in Luke's checking out the tracks. The rest of the CD is a huge, crashing disappointment.
If you're only going to download one track, go for 'Sullivan,' a song about the famous five Sullivan Brothers who were all posted to the USS Juneau and were all subsequently killed when the ship was sunk in November 1942. This track is actually really good and almost makes the CD all by its lonesome.
'You & Me' is also worth downloading if you're so inclined, although I kind of wonder what the song is trying to be — Is it grunge? Grunge light? A little light heavy metal with the random guitar riffs? What?
'Unglued' and 'Say It To You' are really the only other tracks worth a damn off this CD and that's why I threw them up here.
There. Now you've got the best tracks off the CD, IMHO.
If you really, really like what you hear, then buy it. If not, give this CD a miss and accept my mini-EP. If you really feel you must throw money at Caroline's Spine, or at least what's left of it since I don't get the sense that it's much of band any more, maybe invest in Attention Please instead.
Sample Songs Download: You & Me, Sullivan, Unglued, Say It to You
You can download all files from the project page by clicking here.
The Pogues, If I Should Fall From Grace With God Rating=$$$$$
[Support the Artist]
How I Got This CD: Bought this used while with my Dad trolling a used record store in Rhode Island
Look, it's the f*ckin' Pogues, okay? Do I have to chat these guys up? I mean, seriously? All you children of the '80s, back me up here. The Pogues, okay? That's it and all, over and out. Plus this is the BEST. POGUES. RECORD. EVAH! For you young 'uns who don't remeber this marriage of traditional Irish folk and punk that gives perfect voice to the working-class, liberal, poltical sensibilities I grew up with, download all the tracks. That's all I'm sayin'.
I know they're an Anglo-Irish band, but the Pogues could be from either Boston or New York City. That's how familiar their music and sentiments are to me.
And by the way, I'm weeping helplessly over here. Do you have any idea how much I want to upload the whole CD and be done with it? This CD is that awesome. But I'm going to be a good girl, and keep this one to 5 tracks. I pretty much just went with the first 5 tracks on the CD and left it at that.
'If I Should Fall From Grace With God' is the title track from this CD. Of course, the happy, cheerful, bouncy tune that inspires butt-dancing in the seats also just happens to mention death a lot, but duuuuuude, who cares, right? Still, the subject matter is defnitely more cheerful than the subject matter for 'Turkish Song of the Damned.' That song is all about the ghost of a man visiting from hell to lay a guilt trip on the dude that betrayed him. At least in 'Bottle of Smoke,' the guy actually wins by betting on a horse. So, yay! Something cheerful.
The real crown in today's offering is 'Fairytale of New York,' the quintessential Pogues song. If you only have one Pogues tune in your MP3 collection, chances are, this is the one. If you don't have any Pogues on your playlist, this is the one you need to start with. If you ever need to build a "Bah-Humbug Mix CD" for Christmas, this song is the must to have. I have several covers of this one, but this version is the bestest version. You must take. I will not accept no for an answer.
No traditional-sounding Irish band is complete without at least one tune in the repertoire about the great Irish immigration to America. 'Thousands Are Sailing' is The Pogues's particular contribution to this area.
Sample Songs Download: If I Should Fall From Grace With God, Turkish Song of the Damned, Bottle of Smoke, Fairytale in New York, Thousands Are Sailing
You can download all files from the project page by clicking here.
***
Read the index for previous thumbnail reviews.
***
Rating system:
None = Avoid at all cost. Worth cutting your ears off to avoid if someone threatens to play it for you. When faced with even the threat of its cellophane-wrapped presence, your best option is to RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!
$= If you stumble across it for cheap in a used bin, it might, maybe, perhaps could be worth the buy, but only if you need a cheap coaster for your cold drinks or a cool-looking frisbee.
$$= You might want to give this CD/artist a try, but only if the sample track tickles your fancy. Don't bother buying this one new because the good tunes you'd get out of this one ain't worth that kind of money.
$$$ = Worth looking for on a casual basis and maybe even buying new, but no big rush.
$$$$ = Definitely worth having in the ol' CD collection and definitely worth buying new, but don't re-arrange your personal "must have" list to get your hands on it.
$$$$$ = Why haven't you bought this CD yet? Go. This is a "Want. Take. Have." situation because you so want this.
Caroline's Spine, Monsoon Rating=$$
[Support the Artist]
How I Got This CD: Bought this used out of guilt while out with my Dad trolling a used record store in Rhode Island
I had downloaded their second CD Attention Please for free off one of LJ's many, many MP3 communities and liked quite a bit of what I had heard. I figured their first CD, Monsoon, should be a safe bet.
Ummm, yeah. Not so much. I can see why they only released 2 CDs, and why the Website reeks of a band that's a Has-Been That Never Was.
Through most the CD, I kept having this over-riding urge to smack the entire band around with a rolled-up newspaper because of Teh Angstah! and Teh Wine! Call the Whaaaaaaambulance!
*snort*
Anyway, not much to say about this CD because it was that Muzak-worthy.
There are only two stand-out tracks on this CD placed right near the beginning (both 'You & Me' and 'Sullivan' are included below). Perhaps that's why I had such high hopes when I was standing in Luke's checking out the tracks. The rest of the CD is a huge, crashing disappointment.
If you're only going to download one track, go for 'Sullivan,' a song about the famous five Sullivan Brothers who were all posted to the USS Juneau and were all subsequently killed when the ship was sunk in November 1942. This track is actually really good and almost makes the CD all by its lonesome.
'You & Me' is also worth downloading if you're so inclined, although I kind of wonder what the song is trying to be — Is it grunge? Grunge light? A little light heavy metal with the random guitar riffs? What?
'Unglued' and 'Say It To You' are really the only other tracks worth a damn off this CD and that's why I threw them up here.
There. Now you've got the best tracks off the CD, IMHO.
If you really, really like what you hear, then buy it. If not, give this CD a miss and accept my mini-EP. If you really feel you must throw money at Caroline's Spine, or at least what's left of it since I don't get the sense that it's much of band any more, maybe invest in Attention Please instead.
Sample Songs Download: You & Me, Sullivan, Unglued, Say It to You
You can download all files from the project page by clicking here.
The Pogues, If I Should Fall From Grace With God Rating=$$$$$
[Support the Artist]
How I Got This CD: Bought this used while with my Dad trolling a used record store in Rhode Island
Look, it's the f*ckin' Pogues, okay? Do I have to chat these guys up? I mean, seriously? All you children of the '80s, back me up here. The Pogues, okay? That's it and all, over and out. Plus this is the BEST. POGUES. RECORD. EVAH! For you young 'uns who don't remeber this marriage of traditional Irish folk and punk that gives perfect voice to the working-class, liberal, poltical sensibilities I grew up with, download all the tracks. That's all I'm sayin'.
I know they're an Anglo-Irish band, but the Pogues could be from either Boston or New York City. That's how familiar their music and sentiments are to me.
And by the way, I'm weeping helplessly over here. Do you have any idea how much I want to upload the whole CD and be done with it? This CD is that awesome. But I'm going to be a good girl, and keep this one to 5 tracks. I pretty much just went with the first 5 tracks on the CD and left it at that.
'If I Should Fall From Grace With God' is the title track from this CD. Of course, the happy, cheerful, bouncy tune that inspires butt-dancing in the seats also just happens to mention death a lot, but duuuuuude, who cares, right? Still, the subject matter is defnitely more cheerful than the subject matter for 'Turkish Song of the Damned.' That song is all about the ghost of a man visiting from hell to lay a guilt trip on the dude that betrayed him. At least in 'Bottle of Smoke,' the guy actually wins by betting on a horse. So, yay! Something cheerful.
The real crown in today's offering is 'Fairytale of New York,' the quintessential Pogues song. If you only have one Pogues tune in your MP3 collection, chances are, this is the one. If you don't have any Pogues on your playlist, this is the one you need to start with. If you ever need to build a "Bah-Humbug Mix CD" for Christmas, this song is the must to have. I have several covers of this one, but this version is the bestest version. You must take. I will not accept no for an answer.
No traditional-sounding Irish band is complete without at least one tune in the repertoire about the great Irish immigration to America. 'Thousands Are Sailing' is The Pogues's particular contribution to this area.
Sample Songs Download: If I Should Fall From Grace With God, Turkish Song of the Damned, Bottle of Smoke, Fairytale in New York, Thousands Are Sailing
You can download all files from the project page by clicking here.
Read the index for previous thumbnail reviews.
Rating system:
None = Avoid at all cost. Worth cutting your ears off to avoid if someone threatens to play it for you. When faced with even the threat of its cellophane-wrapped presence, your best option is to RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!
$= If you stumble across it for cheap in a used bin, it might, maybe, perhaps could be worth the buy, but only if you need a cheap coaster for your cold drinks or a cool-looking frisbee.
$$= You might want to give this CD/artist a try, but only if the sample track tickles your fancy. Don't bother buying this one new because the good tunes you'd get out of this one ain't worth that kind of money.
$$$ = Worth looking for on a casual basis and maybe even buying new, but no big rush.
$$$$ = Definitely worth having in the ol' CD collection and definitely worth buying new, but don't re-arrange your personal "must have" list to get your hands on it.
$$$$$ = Why haven't you bought this CD yet? Go. This is a "Want. Take. Have." situation because you so want this.
no subject
erm...thank you?
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In my family, we had a tradition for many years of singing Faiytale of New York on Christmas Eve, as part of our carol singing session. Me and my sister would do Shane and Kirsty. I do raspy drunken Irishman quite well. :)
no subject
Yeah, I actually got much the same feeling from Monsoon, though "Sullivan" was the first song I heard by them. Attention Please is fun, though.
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Yeah, we're the flyover states. Sometimes we live down to the stereotypes.
All of which is my puffed-up way of admitting that I grew up in the eighties without ever hearing of the Pogues. Had to go to college for that.
no subject
So, it's funny you mention emo-before-emo was hip for your part of the country. It was nothing to see people in a suit and tie hitting up the Rat after work to watch the blood spill. You want to talk cognitive dissodance? Try bankers in their regular work clothes running to see Plasmatics.
Which is to say, yeah, the coastal people can be snobs. Sometimes we live down to stereotypes, too.
Anyway, seriously, there's a ton of artists that I know zero about. There are people on my Flist who put me to shame on the musical front. I just have a huge collection.
But really, check out the Pogues.
no subject
Back then, and unfortunately still true to an extent today, the broadcast music content was rather...not conservative, but more sticking-to-narrow categories. We'd have the top forty/top hits station, the rap/hip-hop station, the country stations, the gospel station, the oldies station, and the rock/classic rock station that sometimes plays newer music, too. And this was before Clearchannel seemingly owned half the stations.
Memphis is home to WDIA (trust me, look it up sometime to see how it pioneered radio and influenced music, not to mention that the late Rufus Thomas once had his own show on it). It's got Graceland and Beale Street, Sun Studios and the Stax Museum. About niney miles or so away from my Arkansas town is Helena, AR, with at least one museum dedicated to blues music. Somewhere in Mississippi, also within driving range, are some actual juke joints. There's a lot of pride and emphasis on musical heritage 'round here. Which isn't to say there are no avenues for newer, more alternative music here, but I think we could really benefit from more variety on the radio.
Put it this way: We're more used to eating catfish dinners than we are going to the sushi bar, but the sushi is finding its way into sometimes the darnedest places.
(Plus, the three-day Beale Street Music Festival from earlier this month had thirty-odd acts, ranging from Three Six Mafia to Jerry Lee Lewis, the Killer himself. I really wish I could have seen that.)
no subject
....did you see that documentary If I Should Fall From Grace With God? Broke my fucking heart.