2 with ten – the letter d
the letter d was actually pretty tough. im sure everyone thought i would put death in vegas down but since i already wrote a post about them a few weeks ago im gonna go with something that might surprise a few of u. this one goes out to all the guys who keep suggesting female singer songwriters to me. Dot Allison. she’s a scottish singer/songwriter that i fell in love with in 1999 when i heard her debut afterglow. at that moment in time i was working at an online music start up and this record was sent to me by her publicist. to this day i think it’s a great record with a ton of a variety. during that time period she was collaborating with artists like arab strap and death in vegas. in the past few years she has been performing with massive attack and recording and performing with pete doherty. again, afterglow is a record worth listening to… just because of the ground it covers. the track i posted is not surprisingly one of the more deeper hypnotic cuts called morning sun.
wow…choice 2 was difficult…i wanted to go with my favorite deftones song change as well as my fav doves song snowden but i ended up going with a newer band from la called Deathelectric. i first heard about this band because i know the man behind this plan – joseph holiday. he gave me this cd one night a few months ago when i bumped into him outside of the viper room. i put it on while driving down to the studio and i really started to love this one song called no reason (no soul). i have since had that stereo with the deathelectric cd in it stolen from my truck…for the 3rd time. in a ideal world with more hours in the day to accomplish everything i want to do i would have already done a 9XF10 remix of it with josh. anyway, joe—great work on this debut.
random strangeness…i just noticed the name of this cd is in the evening sun…and the track i chose from dot allison was morning sun. strange indeed. i feel better about these choices now.
just cos im a sucker for Double D’s here are 2 more:
Deftones – Change (In the House of Flies)
About The Author
Francis Ten
Other posts byFrancis Ten
Author his web sitehttps://www.facebook.com/francisten
Dance Gavin dance
Dappled Cites- The Price http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phZNmfGaqkw
I really dig The Dodos. Check ’em out. Awesome amazing live shows.
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/musicvideo/3927-dodos-long-form-frenchkiss
Also, Dan Deacon
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/musicvideo/3761-dan-deacon-paddington-ghost-carpark
and Deerhunter and David Pajo.
Dylan…. ahhhhhhhhhhhh… stole right out from under me :).. Death From Above 1979… awesome!!! check them out if you can people!
OK… I’m going to have to go with Deerhunter (Atlanta – NOT THE DEER HUNTER!) and Daft Punk!
Ok, Deerhunter is an amazing indie band from Atlanta, Ga that was introduced to me during a romantic courtship with my girlfriend about a year ago. She played a song for me that summarized the effect I was having on her life at the time and it was really touching… The song is called Fluorescent Grey off of the 2nd CD to the 2 CD Set of Cryptograms. The entire album is pure fucking genius and echos a lot of mental and physical tension the band was going through at the time. I am fascinated by the use of effects and EVERY bass line off this album. FRAN, take note, this is the band I spoke of when we first got in touch about a year ago. ALSO, this band is the only other reason I planned a vacation to California last year and to attend the festival Outside Lands in San Francisco.. the other (and more important reason) was to see West Indian Girl :)… Because of the difficulty in a relationship I was exiting at the time (and the wonderful induction to another), this song became a mantra of mine.. Patiently, Patiently….
Here is a link to Fluorescent Grey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmXkd-4CXkU
Daft Punk…wow… these guys are off planet… seriously… Their live shows are probably the most amazing fusion of technology, lighting, DJ’ing, and music that I can think of. I was introduced to this band by my co-worker (who is also a DJ) who downloaded their self made and critically acclaimed movie Electroma (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-433357417541455147#). I had never heard their music, but their outfits and space age helmets totally intrigued me. If you get a chance, checkout their live show, it’s stunning…
Here is a link to a live version of Harder Better Stronger Faster (one of their more popular songs)… but you get a good sense of their live shows and the audio is actually not bad. You can definitely feel the energy these guys create live… They were also chosen as one of the bands for the new DJ game to replace Rock Band on Playstation and Xbox…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGECJP3phyY
Enjoy!
Back around Feb.’05 I was quickly skimming a local newspaper that commented on some of the new Sundance Film Festival movies that had just premiered, I noted that one of them was some kind of documentary about some guy I’d never heard of that made music. I figured it was the story about some lead singer of a small garage band or something, and it didn’t sound very interesting. Fast-forward to Sept.’07. I was looking for a good film to watch and decided to browse the former Sundance winners, where I again spotted this movie called “The Devil & Daniel Johnston”, read the details about what it was about, and decided it actually did seem worth seeing.
Not to give too much of the movie away, but it started out with some announcer saying “ladies and gentlemen, one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, Mr. Daniel Johnston”, and then Daniel started singing. He was old, looking pretty rough, and sounded pretty non-spectacular, to say the least. However, by the end of the movie, I was super interested in the guy, there was an really amazing story of a guy who lived for art and music. Although his artistic expression seemed different and rough around the edges, it had something quite unique and real about it that is very rare.
For the next year and a half I was heavily into listening and understanding everything about Daniel (and still do, but to a lesser degree), the movie was a good introduction, but the music, his visual art, felt like a whole other experience. It takes work, and time to understand him and his work, to fully appreciate it, the honesty and rawness of it is just incredible, as you get to listen back to when he was a kid, and all that happened in his life. His music is his life story, it’s who he is, it is his life. He’s become one of my favorite artists ever (although, I often disagree with his viewpoint but that’s ok), it takes work to fully enjoy. Certainly not a quick sale in most cases, but well worth it to me.
Daniel Johnston – Story Of An Artist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_RbSAwMa3U
The Devil & Daniel Johnston movie trailer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qtFPOxDMs4&feature=related
Re: Thanks for your YouTube response Fran, I’ll respond back to Youtube when I get some time 🙂
I liked your picks this week, good stuff, Deathelectric reminded me of a more patient Monster Magnet.
You can hear Diane Renay’s famous song on her Web site. What the heck, this is my second “D” recommendation! We have to be good to the one-hit wonders. Enjoy!
http://www.dianerenay.com/
Death From Above 1979. Been listening to their 2004 album “You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine” a lot lately. They get a lot of press for being a duo and sounding punk and loud and stuff. But their lyrics are good, too. The album title says it all.
“Blood On Our Hands”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEtBcEo7rK0
Something a little more immediate: “Little Girl”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTiR8j3qr8k
“D” was indeed a challenge. Dream Academy, The Dovells, Don and Dewey? You’ve probably heard them. Dr. Feelgood, Danny and the Juniors, Dick Dale, Diane Renay*? You’ve probably heard them too. So I chose a 1971 rarity. Don’t worry, future posts will have some much newer music.
Fran, since you hail from Michigan, you must have Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels in your DNA. In 1971, Mitch and Wheels drummer Johnny Bee assembled a group of musically talented, leather jacketed bikers and hoods into a band called Detroit, who released one self-titled album before splitting up. The band included guitar journeyman Steve Hunter and the immortal Dirty Ed on congas. (Whatever happened to Dirty Ed? If anyone knows, you would.) “Detroit” has a couple of slow tracks that drag a bit, but the rest of the album kicks ass. Standout songs include Long Neck Goose (yeah, I’m recommending a song with that title!), Let It Rock (Chuck Berry’s macabre tale of a gambling track gang), and the standout, Lou’s Reed’s Velvet Underground classic Rock and Roll. Detroit detonate this song with a monster 17-note riff that The Runaways used on their debut album version five years later. In an interesting twist, Steve Hunter joined Lou Reed’s band in 1973 and played the breezy VU arrangement of Rock and Roll on Reed’s live “Rock n Roll Animal.” You’ll like “Detroit.” Unlike many bands of the era, these guys were having FUN. You will too!
Here’s a link to an import copy of the album on amazon.com. CD is expensive, MP3’s are cheap, and you can sample all the songs: http://www.amazon.com/Detroit/dp/B0014YKQIC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1259722768&sr=1-3
* Early ’60’s 1-hit wonder from Philly. “Blue, navy blue, I’m as blue as I can be / ‘Cause my steady boy said ship ahoy, and joined the Nay-yay-vee!” She was cool.
OK Fran, other than Gregg P already mentioning Daysleepers, I don’t really have any “D’s” you probably haven’t already been introduced too (or like for that matter). However, since I am a sucker for 80’s music I am going to mention a couple songs that I think are vital for anyones library:
1) Duran Duran … whether one loves them or hates them these two classic tracks are essential:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhzd8_duran-duran-save-a-prayer
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xn9w8_duran-duran-rio_music
And can’t forget about this one hit wonder … not sure if they have any other song worth having:
2) Dream Academy: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x21zbg_dream-academy-life-in-a-northern-to_music
Hola Fran, against my better judgment I left dredg and The Duke Spirit off this post for the sake of trying to impress you and find new stuff for the others as they’ve been good with turning me onto new stuff…but let it be known that dredg is in my top 5 and everyone needs a little dredg. Off my soapbox and on to the music.
Dungen (Sweden)
Lyrics in Swedish but the music is groovy in a raw aged kind of way. A little trippy. Nothing to sing to per se but certainly enough to expand your horizons.
Song to listen to is “Solen stiger upp”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXojCYfw6RM&feature=related
http://www.myspace.com/dungen
DeVotchka (US)
They have an ensemble feel without too many instruments. I love a band that can expand with more instruments.
Listen to “The Clockwise Witness” or “Head Honcho”
http://www.myspace.com/devotchkamusic
I just want to keep writing about my Ds.
Cheers! A la prochain!