Six Shuffle #3 - 6th November 2011

Six Shuffle is a feature where our writers play six tracks from their musical library whilst on shuffle and write thoughts on the track during the track length, no matter what song comes on or how long the song is.

The Hope Conspiracy – They Know Not…

This is the first track from The Hope Conspiracy’s ‘Death Knows Your Name’ which was released back in 2006. For them, it’s a pretty dense and taunt opener. The build is a slow, but when it finally hits, vocalist Kevin Baker is straining to be heard over the rattling percussion which is seriously loud. It’s a gruff, stomping tune that stays seesawing on this howl of venomous fury and layers of trepidation. Most notable for Baker’s roar of “GUILTY! WE’RE ALL GUILTY FUCKING PIGS!” – remember: hardcore – never gonna be happy.

Lagwagon – Alien 8 (Live)

What’s with the first track choosing? Ok, this is from Lagwagon’s ‘Live In A Dive’ – I don’t know about you, but Joey Cape is seriously one of the best punk rock vocalists around. Sure, he’s pretty nasal – but the dude has range and he’s usually in tune and his solo stuff is brilliant (check out his album ‘Acoustic’). For a live recording, this is incredibly clear, with minimal crowd cheering; a chance to hear Cape’s impressive voice and some good old Fat Wreck punk played with passion and speed.

Green Day – Scattered

I can’t stand Green Day now – their preachy, diluted, piss-water political ‘songs’ are an embarrassment. In a perfect world, they split after ‘Warning!’ and lived off of repeats of the ‘Basket Case’ video. Enough hating – ‘Scattered’ is one of my favourite tracks from ‘Nimrod’, an album that was pretty experimental for Green Day – featuring ska, surf rock instrumentals and harsh vocals. This track is pretty standard for them back in 1997, 3 minutes of no-bullshit, thoughtful punk rock done when they had some dignity and charm.

Jetplane Landing – Conventional Thought

One of my all time favourite bands right here. I first got into them at University – seeing they were playing in the Refectory (don’t ask, the bar was being used for some other event) and hearing ‘Acrimony’ from a Rock Sound compilation I went and bought ‘Once Like A Spark’, spent the day listening to it, then headed down to what was the canteen and had now become a makeshift music venue. One terrific gig later, a t-shirt sold to me by the singer and my ears ringing I knew that this band would be a big part in shaping my musical taste. Ripping off Fugazi has never sounded so good, nor has the post-hardcore racket, wailing guitars and ever-changeable spoken/sung/shouted vocals on ‘Conventional Thought.’ I still remember chanting “THEY MADE ME DO IT!” in the refectory and that was over 7 years ago.

Rancid – Coppers

Let’s get experimental! I reckon Rancid were listening to a lot of ‘Sandinsta!’ when they recorded this. ‘Coppers’ is taken from ‘Life Won’t Wait’ – their most diverse sounding album. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever heard this song. Its 5 minutes long as well. Both Lars Frederiksen and Tim ‘HERON HERON IT’S ALL GONE’ Armstrong share vocal duties and some bloke called Dr. Israel raps on the chorus. Featuring steel drums, a reggae effect and that ska sound present from ‘And Out Come The Wolves.’ I actually really like this – might have to give ‘Life Won’t Wait’ a proper spin through again sometime as it’s been a while and any chance to hear Tim Armstrong’s hilarious singing voice again.

Taking Back Sunday – Faith (When I Let You Down)

I’m so pleased Taking Back Sunday are back with their original line-up. John Nolan really is the greatest. Him and Captain Mic-swing Lazzara compliment each other superbly, especially on this. Both harsh and clean vocals mixing nicely and overlapping, this is just what you want in your emo. I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of metaphor for them reuniting again “please don’t lose your faith in me…I’m not going anywhere…” This is from their self-titled 5^th album, which to be fair, is a return to form for a band that have been so splintered since ‘Tell All Your Friends.’

Bonus seventh spin

We Are The Union – I’m Like John Cusack…

(If you’re wondering, it sounds like Four Year Strong meets some trumpets.)

Six Shuffle #1 - 28th July 2011

A long time ago, in 2008, I had my own music blog with a friend.  I wrote a lot on it.  One of my favourite things that I did was a feature called "Six Shuffle" - I would play my entire musical library on Shuffle, six times in a row, and have to write something about the song or artist in the time that the song played for, without skipping the track.

It was fun, for me at least.  You can check the archive by clicking here. Be warned, it's wanky and poorly written for the most part, so it should be fairly recognisable as my own writing.  So, here it is: the "rebooted" first edition of Six Shuffle for Tones of Town.

The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
The final and title track of the debut album from one of Scotland's greatest recent exports.  The Twilight Sad are up there with some of my favourite bands of all time, simply because they seem to do exactly what I wanted to do if I had been in a band - loud angry Scottish vocals, spooky lyrics, crashing waves of distortion and guitar, and thudding drumming.  They are my own musical tastes distilled into one band, and this track, a long, winding, immersive ambient track, misses a few things that make the band such a favourite of mine... but that is precisely why I like this track so much.  It embodies their range, and also echoes there EP release Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards, It Did. that expanded on most of the tracks from the first record to this slow, drawn out expanse.  It works.

The Beatles - We Can Work It Out
This is a stark contrast to The Twilight Sad.  Taken from Past Masters Vol. 2, or the indie-est selection of Beatles tracks you can get this side of the Stereo versus Mono debacle that plagues their back catalogue.  I made the mistake of keeping the Stereo mixes as they play havoc with my left-ear deafness - it sounds like the Fab Four are screaming in my right ear with a band playing just slightly off to the left, in a different room.  Anyway, this song is one my favourites from the band, partly due to the changing pace of ryhthm, and the sweet melody that permeates through the track.  Also, an accordion?  Points given.

The Horrors - I Only Think of You
This neatly ties to a Tweet I made a few weeks back:

 

I have barely listened to any Horrors material before the release of the recent album Skying, and I did feel dirty listening to their third LP before their first and second, so I acquired them and started listening to them... but they made no impact.  This track is over 7 minutes long, and in that run time it feels like nothing happens.  It is like a cover of How Soon is Now? or My Bloody Valentine that never quite made it.  The production feels like 20 years old, which isn't a bad thing... but it feels so bloody boring.  Maybe in context it works, but as a solo track... meh.  Also, I am yet to be convinced by Skying, but it's at least slightly more interesting on first listen that this track.

Radiohead - How to Disappear Completely

Ah, Kid A... the best/worst Radiohead album there has ever been - in my eyes, it's their Magnus Opus, but my best friend finds it abhorrent.  He is an ardent Bends/Pablo Honey fan, and can't even really listen to OK Computer.  However, in a spate of that "you SHALL like what I like" I have tried to force the later Radiohead releases upon him, letting him hear Knives Out, or Reckoner, and this, one of their most beautiful songs ever put to record.  Some suggest Nude is better, or Street Spirit, or even the recent Codex, but this for me is such a fabulous pop song, with exquisite instrumentation and a clever structure, especially in the face of the rest of the album.  You can draw the lines from this to Nude, I guess, seeing as they are from similar time periods in the bands lifespan.  I really enjoy Kid A and Amnesiac, as not only are they good records, but my gateway albums into electronic experimentation and various other artists, which I think they were and are for a lot of music fans. 

Boards of Canada - Paul Russell's Piece

Speaking of moving into electronic music, Boards, already circle jerked by me on this blog, appear here in one of their shorter, rarer cuts.  The track just ended... moving into...

Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy

Apple really need to look at their random algorithm.  I have 50Gb of music at my disposal and they pick two Boards tracks.  I am not complaining.  Dayvan is one of the stand out tracks from the band, and their most famous track - it's adorned hundreds of BBC programmes since it's 2006 debut.  It appears also on the 2006 EP Trans Canada Highway, which I love.  It's not my favourite Boards track, not by a long way, but it's certainly one that I love to hear, and smile when I know it's coming up.  The previous track in the shuffle is actually from their first "release" if you can call it that, whilst its canonical presence within the Boards discography is still discussed amongst fans.  See, it comes from A Few Old Tunes (Side II) which is a bootlegged tape of cuts from before the band had made a true release.  The story suggests that it was handed out to friends and family in the 1990s.  It has a sister; Old Tunes Vol. 2, both of which I downloaded a long time ago - I don't even know if a real copy still exists. There is still a lot of mystery surrounding the release, which I happen to love.

Bonus Seventh Track

Incubus - Magic Medicine