tuneage : everyone deserves good music

Beach House - “Norway”

The way it starts - mechanical drum machine hits and organ blast - makes you think that it is just another track off of their self-titled debut.  “Get out of 2006, Beach Hou…”  But before you finish that thought, the track has exploded.  Compared to their somnambulatory jams of years past, this track is Babe Ruth calling his shot in the bottom of the ninth.  Phrases like “hazy and ambling,” which once seemed so appropriate for their past work have no place alongside Victoria Legrand’s pant-and-yell chorus routine.  The woozy guitars are still firmly in place, and the organ is still the backbone of the track, but the drums have sprung to life and the contrast between the verses, which feel like stretched taffy, and the lush, powerful chorus provide a dynamic which Beach House has never achieved before.  This is the sound of a band stepping up its game.

Kyuss - “Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop”

The genre of stoner rock probably has a somewhat maligned reputation, by virtue of its misleading name. Certainly, the genre used to be known for its artists and fans being stoners — it’s said that the effects of marijuana complement the music quite well — but there’s no reason anybody can’t enjoy it, provided slow-to-mid tempo, low-tuned guitars, melodic vocals, and a whole lot of bass sounds good to you.

Stoner rock’s influences go right back to the 1960s if you look hard enough, with the likes of Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Grateful Dead, and Iron Butterfly being notable influencers. But Kyuss are said to have made the first true stoner rock album with “Blues for the Red Sun” in 1992. The release of “Welcome to Sky Valley” (1994) marks their finest point, as far as I’m concerned, and this track is from that album.

The most interesting thing to note about Kyuss, for my money, is the history of its band members. Josh Homme was one of Kyuss’ only continuous members, who of course later went on to form Queens of the Stone Age. That’s the most notable mention, but far from the only one: members of Kyuss at one point or another have been responsible for great bands like Fu Manchu, Eagles of Death Metal, Slo Burn, and Mondo Generator. Stoner rock seems like a fairly incestuous genre in that respect, with a lot of bands sharing members, which is true, but it was also a lot of shared talent, and they’ve been responsible for producing a lot of music that still sounds great today, 17 years after Kyuss started making music, and 14 years after Kyuss broke up.

Fuck Buttons - “Flight of the Feathered Serpent”

Well these guys have stepped their game up! Their 2008 debut Street Horrrsing delivered a nice hypnotic mix of noisy skronk, electronic texture, tribal rhythms and other buzzy signifiers. What makes the band distinctive, of course, is that they are not afraid to get epic—see “Sweet Love for Planet Earth”. Their recent release, Tarot Sport, delivers more of their signature sound, but the approach is streamlined and the band makes greater use of electronic rhythms. The album-closing double whammy of “Space Mountain” and “Flight of the Feathered Serpent” is enthralling—part dance work-out and part noise bliss-out, quite worthy of the epic titles.

Gejius - “Makkuro Kurosuke”

When you imagine meeting the woman of your dreams and eventually marrying her, you probably don’t imagine a blogging platform, a music blog, and a little-known electro artist from Oregon playing a big part in it, but for me, it did.

Heather and I have a lot to thank Tuneage for. We met on Tumblr — when we started following each other, of course — but it was me asking her to contribute to Tuneage that really gave us the chance to get to know each other.

We got married this weekend, some 11 months after the first time we met, and more than a year since asking Heather to contribute to Tuneage. She visited me in Brighton, and we spent a cold, winter week holed up in my dorm room listening to music, playing Guitar Hero, and just getting to know each other. During that time, Bill posted this song on Tuneage, that both Heather and I immediately loved, and it became “our song.”

I’m reposting it today for her, for me, for Tuneage, and for you guys. If Tuneage hadn’t taken off the way it did, we might never have met. So here’s to many more happy years, for Heather and I, and for Tuneage.

And just to keep this relevant: Gejius released a new album in September called The Last 46:08 of Your Life that you should probably buy.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - “Hanuman”

A strange thing happened to me this morning. As I was sifting through my unplayed podcasts, something emerged from my speakers that I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard before. It sounded like it rocked, it felt like it rocked, but it was early and I hadn’t yet had a reasonable amount of coffee, so I wasn’t sure my brain could be trusted. I asked a few friends with good music taste if my uncaffeinated brain was playing tricks on me, and as it turns out, I was right; this music rocked.

The rocking music in question is Rodrigo y Gabriela, a Mexican guitar duo with a flair for metal-infused flamenco. Yes, you read that correctly, they basically play acoustic Mexican folk metal. And it rocks. “Hanuman”, the lead-off track to the band’s latest record, 11:11 (which is a collection of 11 songs, each dedicated to a specific artist), is dedicated to Carlos Santana and features some breakneck guitaring with a Santana-esque feel. How could that not rock?

Feist - “I Feel It All (Britt from Spoon Remix)”

Leslie Feist writes songs that lend themselves to remixing. So much so that there is an entire album of Feist remixes titled Open Season. One remix that does not appear on that album is the one the Britt Daniels of Spoon did of the Feist song “I Feel it All”.

The wonderful thing about this remix is that nothing is added to the song. If anything Daniels breaks the song down into its simplest form and gives us only what we need. He has taken out the signature guitar part that carries us through the original. Also gone are most of the background vocals and harmonies but you’ll barely notice because you’ll be too focused on the bad ass bass and drums.

For more Britt Daniels fun be sure to check out his version of Interpol’s “Slow Hands”.

Clare and the Reasons - “That’s All”

This is the best Genesis cover I’ve ever heard (in my humble opinion, at least). Brooklyn based chamber-pop extraordinaire Clare and the Reasons mix light, airy girlie vocals with fun instrumentation which include brass, strings, and other things to hit. This track, off the recently released “Arrow”, is the follow up to the acclaimed debut EP, “The Movie”.

Additionally, they have an amazing cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” on their Myspace. Certainly worth checking out along with “Rodi” and “Pluto.”