The Microphones - It Was Hot, We Stayed In the
Water (2000)
The Mountain Goats - Sweden (1995)
The Microphones - It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water
01 - The Pull
love this track. starts off with a lot of strumming guitar, the
rhythm accented by right/left switch. It's really fucking cool.
Rhythm changes up ever so slightly, and then we get to the singy
part. "my body stopped moving and quickly got cold / i made my
escape through exhaling lungs / and watched my body rot away"
coolness. So he's up in the sky looking down at some chick, "and
when you breathed in / i felt the pull." Everything stops, we hear
an analog hiss kick in, a guitar note picked left right left right,
then a fucking balls out explosion of mad drums, fuzz bass, and
some ahhs. Totally rocking. The rest of the song is so gentle, too.
Guy's got a nice clear tenor.
02 - Ice
loud noisy drums with a shitload of hiss. Probably due to the mp3,
but you never know. hmm, yeah, words i can't hear over loud drums
and other noises. oh, the noise is gone now. "from under the ice /
i saw you in warm clothes." Very similar to the last song, where he
looked down to see her wrapped in wool. nice little xylephone
thingies.
03 - Sand
"i'd like to believe / in one thing that you say to me." accordion
noises going on here. this is nice. "it's only escape from
everything / i know i'm weak / i know that i'm sad." this is great.
little background "oohs." weird percussion, and that accordion
thing.
04 - the glow
11 minutes? you shitting me? guy and guitar for the first 30, and
now a cacophony of voices. still going, making chords and stuff.
more guitar and dude. wind noises and sustained accordiony stuff. a
door just creaked open. there's some guitar action. This better go
somewhere soon. Ooh, girl voice. "when you wake up it's me / that
glow / warm up and come down these hills." guy: "i started to glow"
turned into a nice groovin' little number. Hmm, mp3 just noticeably
did some weird skip. Wonder how much i missed. We're trucking along
here. There's a lot of ethereal out of body type stuff going on in
the lyrics to this album. Ok, i'm not going to be happy if the next
five minutes is just this instrumental section. Not happy one bit.
come on guys, slow it down and go back to the beginning stuff. ok
cool, it's dying off. sounds submerged now. running water? aha. "on
the cold dark ocean floor / i felt warmth from behind the door / i
asked to come inside / and the glow abides" all about being
underwater or in the air and shit. As far as epic songs go, this
one did just fine. like how the instrumental part got submerged
then he sung abotu being on the ocean floor.
5 - karl blau
sang the first bit of blue moon. little fifties type piano doowop
stuff. "some day the moon will reach out to the sun / but for now
it must drift along." liked that ending section, just him and some
gentle piano chords.
6 - drums
Aptly named. Sounds like the first cut on the new tortoise album.
ok, i get the point, drums. next. 3 minutes of this.
7 - the gleam
giant fuzz bass and some pots and pan percussion. and a high
pitched analog hum. vocals are deeply buried. catching a word here
and there, can't piece together any lines though. pretty worthless
track.
8 - The breeze
c'mon a minute in, give me some lyrics. An appropriate
instrumental i guess, nothign really wrong with it, and 2 minutes
which is a plus.
9 - (something)
"the foggy air around us was binding / the foggy sea was loud
behind it / its foggy breath breathed its water into our lungs."
These lyrics are just cool, it's all very weird, but i dig. Sounds
like a chick now, but i think it's just the dude's voice altered.
This is cool, really like the melody. It's been a damn strong
album, excepting the last 3 songs. Looks like we're in the outro
mash now.
10 - between your ear and the other ear
ok, nice little beat and some barely tuned acoustics. Now i think
this is a chick, who knows what's going on here. missed the
lyrics.
11 - organs
organs and voices that sound like organs. they're getting closer.
Closer still. odd. Pretty much nothing happened on that track which
closed out the album.
overall, quite good. although looking back, i still didn't enjoy
listening to drums, it fits in well where it is placed. (something)
was the only thing really good on the second half, but 1-4 were all
superb.
The Mountain Goats - Sweden
1 - the recognition scene
so what do i know about this? it was recorded in 1995 on a
boombox. with that in mind, let's go ahead. catchy guitar chords.
he's singing about a candy store heist. "we had hot caramel
sticking to our teeth" heh, they robbed a candy store, not of
money, but of candy and are in a getaway car. "i'm gonna miss you
when you're gone." i believe him. I like this guy's voice, a little
whiney, but cool.
2 - downtown seoul
singing to his girl in korea and he can't be there. Kind of a
sweet love song. If this album is just full of these 2 minute pop
songs poorly recorded by a guy and his guitar on a boombox, i'm
gonna be pleased.
3 - Some swedish trees
haha, there's a girl here, and they just had to stop the song and
restart and it was a funny exchange. There's bass in this song, mad
crazy. this one's rocking. "i saw wild strawberries on the vine /
out of control." oh yeah, this is catchy as fuck.
4 - i wonder where our love has gone
hmm, odd audio sample. minor song, a lot more noticeable
distortion here. aww, poor guy, "all i know is that i'm in love
with you / even though you say we're through." he's just
desperately pleading here. Stop, dude. Oh wow, he hit the end of "i
wonder where our love HAS GONE" so painfully. rock.
5 - Deinara Crush
oooh, bass AND harmony. "you say my name / how is that though you
say it some 20,000 times it's never quite the same?"
smile.
6 - whole wide world
pretty opening here. i love this shit. "and the voices came
quietly / i shut them down." "i turned around to face it / with
real arrogance burning inside / and i drank it / the whole wide
world."
7 - Flashing Lights
8 - sept 16 triple x love! love!
he seems angry. i'm iming, so this and the last song have gotten
shit attention from me.
9 - going to queens
alright, a love song and it takes place in nyc. i like it already.
Yep. 2 minute pop songs rule.
10 - Tahitian AMbrosia Maker
eh, still iming. i should probably stop the album during all
this.
11 - Going to Bolivia.
another odd audio sample. ahh, monkeys. "the monkeys jumped from
tree to tree / it sent a deathly chill through me."
12 - Tollund Man
nice guitar here. He's leaving sweden. The guitars sound a lot
like that filter song from this summer.
13 - California Song
ooh, there's like a casio going here. that's wild. no guitar
though, can't have too much going on. "you treat me badly / i love
you madly" all but like 2 songs on this have been about
relationships.
14 - snow crush killing song
wow, pretty bad guitar playing here, but it's earnest. "i know
you're changing / god damn you for that."
15 - send me an angel
something about roses and chocolate.
16 - Neon Orange Glimmer Song
this is a difficult album to give full attention to. it's full of
great songs, but 18 of them back to back and the lack of diversity
starts to bear down on you. I mean, i could certainly listen to it
in one sitting, like on a plane or busride or something where i
have to be listening to music or i'll die. but right now, having to
really focus on them all, they just start to bleed
together.
17 - FM
grapefruit wine? never heard of that. like this one. No suprise
though, there haven't been any i don't think that i haven't
liked.
18 - Prana Ferox
another audio sample. Sounds like a hypnosis tape. Four minutes?
what the hell is up with that? Holy electric guitar solo. First
time that instrument's been in play. nifty.
19 - cold milk bottle
ah, back to familiar 2 minute territory. i've got nothing to say.
it's good.
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