'Everybody know da Hound'

Hound Dog Taylour and the Houserockers- Natural Boogie 1974

Theodore Roosevelt has six fingers on his left hand. Can you fucking believe it? Shea said it’s unfair, like handicapping Tiger Woods.

At age 20 young Theo picked up a guitar, named himself Hound Dog and proceeded to make dirty, feral blues music with his friends – The Houserockers, two guitars and a drumset. Hound Dog’s voice is kind of a cross between André 3000 and BB King, he often hits wrong notes stumbles over vocals, snarling away about girls who only want him for sex. Every album cover is a picture of him with this beaming Colgate smile, Hawaiian shirt and that menacing little midget finger doing its best to clutch against the finger board of the guitar.

Natural Boogie was released through Alligator Records a year before Hound Dog died of cancer. It is essential listening for anybody who A) Hasn’t got a bass player in their band or B) Anyone who is curious about where bands like the Black Keys and the White Stripes got their stripped back, grunge ridden sound. The only downfall of Natural Boogie as an album and you will probably come across this problem in a lot more of his albums- every song sounds the same after awhile, they sound great, but they sound the same.

Here’s some more shit to read-

http://www.thebluetrenchcoat.com/?p=124

http://www.keno.org/hound_dog_taylor/hdhomepage.htm

Ruby.

Memories

Weezer - Memories (Song)





Its funny how often your favourite band will suddenly 'sell out', or produce something that 'just ain't like their old stuff' and you will be royally peeved at them for trying to do something different and failing. The fact is every band must go through a transformation at some stage, every band must grow and mature, and develop their music accordingly. Weezer are a testament to this, and not because they have had some world conquering Kings of Leon type transformation into the biggest band in the world, but because they have failed to ever have any such transformation.

Rivers Cuomo, who is now 40, is still trying to make the same music he was 15 years ago, and 'Memories' is evidence of this. In many respects I don' blame him, Blue Album and Pinkerton were two of the greatest raw, honest to God fun rock albums ever. Unfortunately he's exhausted his reserve of such musical ideas.

'Memories' is a bland and unexciting punk tune, with the mandatory splattering of riffs, River's very punk vocals, and a chorus that as Shin aptly put it, sounds like a High School anthem. Thats not the anthem the kids came up with, but those the teachers did. Perhaps this shows River's age, is he now the daggy dad trying to be cool?

3.5/10

None the less I love you Weezer, and please come to Australia and play for me, just play the entirety of The Blue Album and Pinkerton..

oh and.. that album cover? seriously wtf? Lost didnt even have a theme song.

In the Attic of the Universe

The Antlers - In the Attic of the Universe (Album)





'Hospice' was my favourite album of the year just gone by, not only was it beautiful emotive music, but i felt like i could connect with it on a personal level. That album gained a lot of recognition and it made to a lot of 2009 top ten lists, but 'Hospice' wasn't the Antlers first album.

If you look back to 2007, you find their first offering, 'In the Attic of the Universe'. Clocking in at just under 27 minutes, and with just 8 tracks, this album was a modest offering, a 'sneak peak' at the talent that is front man Peter Siberman and his band. They create such atmospheric, mood building indie rock.

'In the Attic' sounds like it was home recorded, beginning with the sound of someone walking on a path laden with foliage, before breaking out into an earnest ballad with soft guitar melodies and all. The lyrics are haunting, as are many of Siberman's lyrics, 'Say the ghosts up in the attic tell the truth'. It makes you wonder what if going through his mind, apparently this album was recorded at a low point in his life, presumably connected to the back story to 'Hospice'. Then comes the brooding instrumental 'Look!' which eventually breaks out into an Arcade Fire type riff. 'On the Roof' sees Siberman in despair, sounding like he might break up at any moment, similar to 'Epilogue' from Hospice.

The highlight of the album however is 'The Universe is Going to Catch You' which perhaps reflects a feeling we all might have at one time or another, that overwhelming feeling that we are out of control and drowning in the tide of life. The lyrics are appropriately accompanied by a set of loose and fairly wild instrumentals including a rumbling guitar and something that i think is cymbals? The album winds down reflectively on 'In the Snow' and 'Stairs to the Attic'.

If you have never listened to the Antlers before then please give this album and/or Hospice a chance, but don't listen to it at your weekend pre drinks, or everyone must suddenly want to go home and feel rather apathetic about themselves!

8/10

The Suburbs

Arcade Fire - 'The Suburbs' (Album)




Ok. So i know i've already ready the title track from this album, and i know now that 40% of my blogs are dedicated to Arcade Fire. This IS however what i'm listening to right now, and i believe i have listened to it about 10 times in the last few days. I could have talked about Birds of Tokyo and how they are reminding me of Porcupine Tree or i could have talked about Best Coast and their catchy little garage beachy tunes. I've got a lot more to say about Arcade Fire though, so here we go again....

So this album has all the grandiosity of a theatrical production. 'The Suburbs' sets the scene in (you guessed it) suburban America. 'Ready to Start' sets mood and introduces us to a conflict in the story, and 'Month of May' is the climatic end before our heroine holidays along the Mediterranean apparently inspired by Blondie in 'Sprawl II'.

Yes Arcade Fire have all the necessary elements here for another massive scale, anthemic indie rock album. 'Modern Man' will have you up and dancing to a shuffle which you can never quite work out the rhythm to, 'Rococo' has you feeling like your in some weird baroque fantasy land, and 'Half Light II' is Win Butler's new Rebellion, a true Arcade Fire anthem.

I don't know if I'm a bias fan like some of my friends accuse me, but Arcade Fire are going from strength to strength, and they've tried something new here with a couple of sprawling pop tunes in 'Empty Room' (reminiscent of some of the best work of 'Stars') and 'Sprawl II' sounding like Blondie has gone all grand. Admittedly at 16 tracks i felt the album overstayed its welcome just a little, tracks like 'Deep Blue', and 'Wasted Hours' felt like fillers, and i think the album would have benefited from perhaps from a stricter approach to what was included. This is not to say they are bad songs, it just goes to show the strength of Arcade Fire's material.

Overall, at 60 minutes the album is a long time to get through, but it is very rewarding for existing Arcade Fire fans, as well as a few new ones with the album currently being featured on Triple J I'm sure.

9/10

Aside from this, I've been listening to 'El Scorchio' by Weezer on repeat for the last couple of weeks, oh Pinkerton was the definition of cool in the mid 90's, punk rock at its best.