Drone.
Seeing M83 at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis last Wednesday night made me realize how much I love loud, echoey, droning guitars. Sweet, sweet droning, echoey drums, guitars, vocals, organs, and everything. REVERB! Reverb makes Qualler feel good.
My taste for reverb probably started at some point between my obsession with grunge and my obsession with Radiohead's OK Computer (i.e. probably some time in 1997 or so) when I realized distorted guitars are not the only kinds of guitars around. At the time, my 8th grade punk band had broken up over what I would call creative differences, and I started playing the guitar. Playing in a band we called AbbyNormal (clever!) and writing songs with titles called "Endeavor Seven" only deepened my desire to eventually be a droning, space rock guitar / drum genius. Through college, I lost sight of my love for droning guitars, embracing underground rock and what not, all while occasionally breaking out my My Bloody Valentine CD and trying in vain to get into it. Well, friends, the time and money I invested way back when has come full circle -- I can't get enough of the drone sound. And therefore, I present to you what may be a semi-regular feature -- a new Muxtape for your consumption with a little exposition. May I present to you...
QUALLER MUXTAPE FOR THE BLOGULATOR, Vol. I -- Reverbing Hearts, Droning Lives.
1. Spiritualized; "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" ; from Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating In Space, 1997.
"All I want in live's a little bit of love to take the pain away."This one still sounds beautiful / creepy and keeps building upon itself over and over. It gives me chills as the guitars keep swirling on top of each other, and hundreds of J. Spaceman's singing over each other. Chris, is the new Spiritualized album good?
2. Yo La Tengo; "Big Day Coming (Loud)"; from Painful, 1991.
"I wanna hold your hand / we don't have to talk." Yo La Tengo still sounds so freaking timeless. The flip side to this one (i.e. not loud) is a beautiful love song, equally droning, but this one is so much more scary sounding. The delay guitars came into my life in a more orderly fashion with R.E.M.'s Monster but they are perfectly utilized here, on Yo La Tengo's best album. Did you know Yo La Tengo means "I got it!" in Spanish, something the bandmembers heard a New York Mets outfielder yell at a fly ball? So much respect.
3. Asobi Seksu; "Mizu Asobi"; from Citrus, 2006.
"La la la la la." SHE SOUNDS SO MUCH LIKE A FAIRY! It's beautiful. I love this kind of mixture of reverb and pure pop joy. Probably my favorite kind of sound in the world.
4. Human Television; "I Forgot"; from All Songs Written by: Human Television, 2004.
"Said the same about me." Again, reverb and pure pop joy, but this time channelling R.E.M.'s masterpiece debut album Murmur. Oh how wonderful it is.
5. Explosions in the Sky; "Have You Passed Through This Night?"; from Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever, 2001.
"Is this darkness in you, too?" Featuring in-the-brain dialogue from the best movie of 1998, Terrance Malick's The Thin Red Line is a great example of another great feature of droning rock -- sometimes there is also beautiful / borderline pretentious dialogue within the song. And Terrance Malick's films are the closet thing movies have gotten to caputuring the epic, droning guitar-based song captured here.
6. Beach House; "Wedding Bell"; from Devotion, 2008.
"You're singing the only words you know." Not so much echoey guitars as echoey vocals and drums, but the "bell-ell-ell" is a great representation of my day-to-day life going to work, tired, burned out, but somehow still content.
7. Band of Horses; "Detlef Schrempf"; from Cease to Begin, 2007.
"The town is gonna talk, but these people do not / see things through to the very minimal." Laying on the grass feeling the air and staring at the stars in nature. This one would have very easily wrapped around my head for days had I had it in my high school years growing up in a small town and feeling the cool summer air in the evening. Oh and Detlef Schrempf is one hell of a great Seattle Supersonic great.
8. Wilderness; "End of Freedom"; from Wilderness, 2005.
"The hand over the fist / the end to all of this." Repetetive, driving toms on the drums and only like two differing guitar lines at the same time, but the guitars, bass and drums create such a longing, angry, epic sound. They reportedly took three years to record this album; the follow-up, Vessel States does not sound like it took as long. Wilderness, please take another three years to record a new album if it will make it sound this good again.
9. City Breathing; "Rain and Revolution"; from Look How It's Snowing Upwards, Look How They Move Toward Heaven, 2008.
"We're driving cars and shaking hands." Full disclosure -- Arun from this band is a dear friend to everyone in the Blogulator and various members have various roles in City Breathing's record label Roses and Hello, but this isn't just a shameless plug -- it fully deserves to be alongside the rest of these tracks. Try listening to this one while on public transit in your city and let the slow, steady build of the song remind you of how amazing our society is when it works together and goes about its various business.
10. M83; "Dark Moves of Love"; from Saturdays=Youth, 2008.
"I'm focusing on your image / can you hear me in the void?" The song that made me realize the reason why I loved this album, and also loved My Bloody Valentine's Loveless -- the culmination of thundering drums, a chorus of vocals, synthesizers. It all adds up to heavenly.
11. My Bloody Valentine; "What You Want"; from Loveless, 1991
"Then I go back to you / And then you make him go inside." How does this song, nay, this whole album, still sound so good? Maybe because bands like M83 recapture the sound and keep it sounding totally timeless. I still really have no idea what they're singing, but does it matter? The voice is just another instrument, right, Now Like Photographs?
12. Sonic Youth; "Trilogy: The Wonder"; from Daydream Nation, 1988.
My taste for reverb probably started at some point between my obsession with grunge and my obsession with Radiohead's OK Computer (i.e. probably some time in 1997 or so) when I realized distorted guitars are not the only kinds of guitars around. At the time, my 8th grade punk band had broken up over what I would call creative differences, and I started playing the guitar. Playing in a band we called AbbyNormal (clever!) and writing songs with titles called "Endeavor Seven" only deepened my desire to eventually be a droning, space rock guitar / drum genius. Through college, I lost sight of my love for droning guitars, embracing underground rock and what not, all while occasionally breaking out my My Bloody Valentine CD and trying in vain to get into it. Well, friends, the time and money I invested way back when has come full circle -- I can't get enough of the drone sound. And therefore, I present to you what may be a semi-regular feature -- a new Muxtape for your consumption with a little exposition. May I present to you...
QUALLER MUXTAPE FOR THE BLOGULATOR, Vol. I -- Reverbing Hearts, Droning Lives.
1. Spiritualized; "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" ; from Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating In Space, 1997.
"All I want in live's a little bit of love to take the pain away."This one still sounds beautiful / creepy and keeps building upon itself over and over. It gives me chills as the guitars keep swirling on top of each other, and hundreds of J. Spaceman's singing over each other. Chris, is the new Spiritualized album good?
2. Yo La Tengo; "Big Day Coming (Loud)"; from Painful, 1991.
"I wanna hold your hand / we don't have to talk." Yo La Tengo still sounds so freaking timeless. The flip side to this one (i.e. not loud) is a beautiful love song, equally droning, but this one is so much more scary sounding. The delay guitars came into my life in a more orderly fashion with R.E.M.'s Monster but they are perfectly utilized here, on Yo La Tengo's best album. Did you know Yo La Tengo means "I got it!" in Spanish, something the bandmembers heard a New York Mets outfielder yell at a fly ball? So much respect.
3. Asobi Seksu; "Mizu Asobi"; from Citrus, 2006.
"La la la la la." SHE SOUNDS SO MUCH LIKE A FAIRY! It's beautiful. I love this kind of mixture of reverb and pure pop joy. Probably my favorite kind of sound in the world.
4. Human Television; "I Forgot"; from All Songs Written by: Human Television, 2004.
"Said the same about me." Again, reverb and pure pop joy, but this time channelling R.E.M.'s masterpiece debut album Murmur. Oh how wonderful it is.
5. Explosions in the Sky; "Have You Passed Through This Night?"; from Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever, 2001.
"Is this darkness in you, too?" Featuring in-the-brain dialogue from the best movie of 1998, Terrance Malick's The Thin Red Line is a great example of another great feature of droning rock -- sometimes there is also beautiful / borderline pretentious dialogue within the song. And Terrance Malick's films are the closet thing movies have gotten to caputuring the epic, droning guitar-based song captured here.
6. Beach House; "Wedding Bell"; from Devotion, 2008."You're singing the only words you know." Not so much echoey guitars as echoey vocals and drums, but the "bell-ell-ell" is a great representation of my day-to-day life going to work, tired, burned out, but somehow still content.
7. Band of Horses; "Detlef Schrempf"; from Cease to Begin, 2007.
"The town is gonna talk, but these people do not / see things through to the very minimal." Laying on the grass feeling the air and staring at the stars in nature. This one would have very easily wrapped around my head for days had I had it in my high school years growing up in a small town and feeling the cool summer air in the evening. Oh and Detlef Schrempf is one hell of a great Seattle Supersonic great.
8. Wilderness; "End of Freedom"; from Wilderness, 2005.
"The hand over the fist / the end to all of this." Repetetive, driving toms on the drums and only like two differing guitar lines at the same time, but the guitars, bass and drums create such a longing, angry, epic sound. They reportedly took three years to record this album; the follow-up, Vessel States does not sound like it took as long. Wilderness, please take another three years to record a new album if it will make it sound this good again.
9. City Breathing; "Rain and Revolution"; from Look How It's Snowing Upwards, Look How They Move Toward Heaven, 2008.
"We're driving cars and shaking hands." Full disclosure -- Arun from this band is a dear friend to everyone in the Blogulator and various members have various roles in City Breathing's record label Roses and Hello, but this isn't just a shameless plug -- it fully deserves to be alongside the rest of these tracks. Try listening to this one while on public transit in your city and let the slow, steady build of the song remind you of how amazing our society is when it works together and goes about its various business.
10. M83; "Dark Moves of Love"; from Saturdays=Youth, 2008.
"I'm focusing on your image / can you hear me in the void?" The song that made me realize the reason why I loved this album, and also loved My Bloody Valentine's Loveless -- the culmination of thundering drums, a chorus of vocals, synthesizers. It all adds up to heavenly.
11. My Bloody Valentine; "What You Want"; from Loveless, 1991
"Then I go back to you / And then you make him go inside." How does this song, nay, this whole album, still sound so good? Maybe because bands like M83 recapture the sound and keep it sounding totally timeless. I still really have no idea what they're singing, but does it matter? The voice is just another instrument, right, Now Like Photographs?
12. Sonic Youth; "Trilogy: The Wonder"; from Daydream Nation, 1988.
"Rich boy, poor boy / Poor rich boy coming right through me" The reason Brigitte and I will some day name a child Thurston. Also, the closing part of the Trilogy is Kim Gordon's "Rich boy poor boy" section that will kill you.
Enjoy!
This entry was posted by Unknown, on
Sunday, June 01, 2008.
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this muxtape lacks slowdive's 'souvlaki space station'. mistake.
Wow Sean, I'm sorry I didn't put a song I have not heard / have a copy of on the mux I made special to share with you, the reader. You are now minus one Ryan vs. Sean vote for Sean, sucker!
Noooooo!! I need those to live.
But wait, do you like Slowdive? They're a pretty good shoegaze group.
I only have that one album. But they're kind of like MBV. The song has a driving base-line and weird lady vocals and this could drum part that gets all awesome.
AWESOME mux. Detlef Schrempf is definitely one of my favorite songs of the year. (Yes, I realize it came out last year.)
EiTS is awesome. i forget that they are brilliant.
I actually haven't heard any of Slowdrive's music, but I would love to give some a good listen. Me loves me some shoegaze.
i love that spiritualized song!
The new Spiritualized is indeed awesome! Check out my write-up at radiok.org's Weekly Release Spotlight column...
And I second Sean's Slowdive suggestion...featuring members that went on to form Mojave 3.
Other great recent uses of reverb/shoegaze for people that enjoy Qualler's awesome Muxtape: local band Gospel Gossip, Cut Copy's newest album - more electro shoegaze but so much reverb, the full-length debut by This Will Destroy You for fans of EITS...
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