Listened: Tuesday June 29
Excuses for Travellers is another gift from Woody. Mojave 3 play very beautiful music and the vocals are so lush and pretty. Their name reminds me of the Mojave tent at Coachella, so that’s a good association.
They’re quite American sounding, even though they’re British. This album is country-tinged (lots of piano, banjo, and lap steel) and dreamy-mellow. I would compare it to Nick Drake in energy level and tone.
Listened: Tuesday June 29
Like The Eraser, when I heard Everything That Happens for the first time it sounded very relevant and modern. It’s a rock-gospel album for the digital age. I also love the Sims-esque artwork. It fits in well with the theme of “life in the time of digital”.
Odd then when David Byrne sings “This groove is out of fashion, These beats are 20 years old” on Strange Overtones. Famously, some of Brian Eno’s music for this album is actually that old, but at this point, when everyone is revisiting 80s and even 90s culture already, in the scheme of things does a “20 years ago” even exist?
Listened: Monday June 28
Everything is Possible was a music hipster purchase – in the 90s, rediscovering Os Mutantes was all the rage in cool music circles, so of course I had to check it out.
Even though most of the songs are in Portuguese, the context is still clear – they were a bunch of Brazilian hippies on drugs making great music in the 60s (otherwise known as the Tropicália movement in Brazil).
They enjoy playing around with a lot of new sounds of the day (odd vocal filters, backwards instruments) but they are also very clearly influenced by more traditional sounds of their environment like samba music and jazz. If you’ve worn out all your British and American psychedelic albums, pick this up.
Listened: Monday June 28
What more can I say about Underworld that I haven’t already said? Everything, Everything is a pretty good document of an Underworld show, though you can’t quite get it all in just a CD. They are one of the few bands I still get really excited about when they come to town. Mostly because it’s a really core group of fans – they aren’t exploding in popularity, but they aren’t washed up or old hat either – that makes for a relatively hype-free, fun time. There are not too many bands around like that these days.
