As stated earlier, Adult Swim has been posting tracks from the new Danger Doom EP. Originally, they were supposed to be posting tracks from May 15th until today, however, they only posted two tracks. Today, they have posted the entire collection titled Occult Hymn available as separate downloads or as a .zip file with the tracks and skits as well as a .zip file of the artwork. Get it while it’s hot!
As reported on Largehearted Boy, My Old Kentucky Blog has a posting on a bunch of bands who have covered the classic BOC song “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” One of my wife’s favorite covers is the clubby version from Apollo 440.
A quick search on Google turns up all kinds of references to the song, including the classic SNL skit refered to as “More Cowbell.” It’s one of those songs that will likely be popular for a long time to come. It’s odd considering what the song is actually about. When I was a kid (pre-Junior High) “Reaper” was one of my favorite songs. I got a cassette of K-Tel’s The Rock Album in 1980 which I must have listened to non-stop. I was fascinated with the song. I remember pressing play and pause repeatedly so I could frantically scribble down the lyrics (in RED ink as I recall) to it. This was a method I used to capture the lyrics for all of my favorite songs. It was especially useful for capturing the lyrics to LOVE SONGS that I’d give to whoever I had a crush on at the time. I clearly had more free time back then. I was 11 or 12 at the time.
It seems that my music listening as a kid included many K-Tel collections, and most of them seemed to include some Blondie song or “My Sharona” Click on the album title to see the album art and track listing courtesy of K-Tel Classics:
The Rock Album (1980) This was the first K-Tel tape I ever owned. To this day, I feel it really captures that late-Seventies rock sound. Permanently engrained in my synapses, to this day when I hear any of the songs from this one I immediately anticipate what would be the next song on the tape– and really shouldn’t “Dream Police” follow “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper?” In my mind it always will!
This album seemed to always be in every tape case I owned and in every car, too. At one point I attempted to re-create this cassette from CD sources. I guess I was afraid that the K-Tel magic would eventually fade. This caused me to seek out the really crappy Jethro Tull concept album Stormwatch to get the driving “Something’s On The Move” which was by far the best song on that album, and one of my favorite Jethro Tull songs. Although, that is probably due to its inclusion on the K-Tel record, now that I think about it. I also picked up a Robin Trower collection to get the bluesy “Too Rolling Stoned.”
Surprisingly, in 1997 Sony Music Special Products put out a 2-CD version of The Rock Album (Volume 1 Volume 2) that went out of print almost as soon as it appeared. I managed to pick up Volume 1 from Amazon, but the only Volume 2 they carried at the time was a cassette version. What Sony did was take the original album and spread it over two discs– maintaining some of the original mix, but then adding some questionable tracks to flesh it out– “Keep on Loving You” by REO Speedwagon was the only additional track to Volume 1 from the original sequence, but then they took the balance of the tracks and added Steve Miller, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Co., the schmaltzy “Heard It In A Love Song,” by the Marshall Tucker Band and two songs I consider to be more 80’s– “My Sharona,” and “Jeopardy” by the Greg Kihn Band. As luck would have it, while I was doing some digging for this post, a number of Volume 2’s showed up, so I ordered one! My first plan will be to lovingly restore the track sequence…
I guess this says quite a bit about the impact of this album that someone at Sony was able to convince the powers that be to allow a re-issue– albeit a botched one– of this album.
Rock 80 (1980) I’m pretty sure that I got this one after The Rock Album. This the other K-Tel tape that shaped the music that I listened to. Looking at this track list, you can see that this is on the cusp of what would eventually be called “New Wave.” Most of the artists on this album would forge strong careers during the 80’s– The Pretenders, Cheap Trick, Pat Benatar (two tracks!), Joe Jackson, Blondie (two tracks!), Nick Lowe, Gary Numan. It also includes a number of one-hit wonders that would prove to be important in their own way, “Pop Muzik” by M, “My Sharona” (Surprise!), and the song that I feel is overdue a comeback, “Driver’s Seat” by Sniff ‘n’ The Tears. This is another of my wife’s favorite songs lately.
Masters of Metal (1984) I purchased this tape during my “metal period.” This is a surprisingly good cross-section of artists, in my opinion. Some great songs, “Lick It Up,” “Breakin’ the Chains,” “Rainbow in the Dark,” “Street of Dreams,” and one-hit wonders Zebra with “Who’s Behind the Door.” I question the inclusion of “Tom Sawyer” and the bad choice of “Dancing In The Street” representing Van Halen, but overall the mix works pretty well, and spent a lot of time in my car.
Out of This World (1979) This is an import K-Tel release of Moody Blues songs. I remember purchasing this from the Musicland in Dubuque. I don’t know if this was purchased in ’79, though. The album cover is using the Moody Blues logo that they used on the Octave album– which was the last one for keyboardist Mike Pinder. My family listened to a lot of Moody Blues when I was a kid. We saw them in concert in ’81 in Ames, IA., for the Long Distance Voyager tour, which was pretty exciting for me. This is a very good collection of Moody Blues songs. At the time this was the only release that was even close to a “Greatest Hits” collection for them outside of the odd compilation This Is The Moody Blues.
Power Play (1980) Apparently, most of the K-Tel tapes were purchased in a one-year period. The link on the title is for the Canadian release, which is different than the US release. The US release has Blondie and “My Sharona” on it, but also has some of the same tracks: “Jane” by Jefferson Starship, Journey, and a song that I still really like, “Stomp” by the Brothers Johnson– who also perform the great “Strawberry Letter 23” that shows up in Quentin Tarantino movies.
Images (1980) This was a Christmas gift from an uninformed relative. I may have listened to this once or twice. I seem to remember the Bernadette Peters song. I remember being pretty disappointed because it was so “easy listening.” Still, from a K-Tel perspective, a pretty even collection considering what the songs were.
It seemed like K-Tel was everywhere back then– and a lot of people bought these compilations. K-Tel wasn’t doing anything new, really. There had been other companies before them to make compilations records, but K-Tel did it most notoriously with loud, bright TV commercials and new releases seemingly every week! K-Tel’s legacy is carried on by the “Now That’s What I Call Music” and just about anything released by Razor and Tie spinoff Musicspace. Someone on a board I was looking at this morning pointed out that even though these compilations are not considered for the “serious” collector– they do a very good job of showing what was popular when they came out.
Danger Doom track “Sofa King (Remix)” is up on Adult Swim. “Ho Ho Ho Ho. You said funny thing!”
You might have seen the post on Pitchfork a bit ago announcing the collaboration between Danger Doom and Adult Swim. It seems that Adult Swim will be posting an as-yet-untitled free-for-the download nine-track EP. The first track was posted today titled “Korndogs” and the rest of the tracks will follow until May 30th. I’ll keep checking for tracks and post here when new ones arrive.
I’ve been following the Court & Spark since I heard an interview segment on NPR back in 2001 around the time of their Bless You release. What I heard at the time was a logical progression from some of the other artists I had been listening to at the time. I was a big Neil Young fan, I liked Son Volt, the Jayhawks, Joe Henry, Jack Logan, and other artists who would unfortunately get lumped into the category of alt.country, or Americana. People love convenient labels, I guess.
Admittedly, the earler records from The Court & Spark (Ventura Whites, and to an extent Bless You) have many influences from the same place as other artists that share that category. Just take a look at the Byrds– were they country, or were they rock? Take a look at Neil Young– is he country, or is he rock, or folk for that matter? Is Tom Petty rock? He certainly can pull in some twang when desired. What about the Eagles? Even Fleetwood Mac with Lindsey Buckingham at the helm recorded a couple of songs that could be called country– check out “That’s Alright” from Mirage. A lot of Clapton’s output in the Seventies sure sounds like country (“Lay Down Sally,” “Promises”). The point here being that good bands and artists get great by stretching their boundaries. The more influences that an artist can draw from, the richer the work.
And, so it is with the Court & Spark’s new album Hearts (released May 2nd). Hearts is the sound of a band that is stretching its boundaries by diving a little more away from their rootsy or folksy sound and more towards a rock sound. In fact, in an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle, singer, lyricist and guitarist M.C. Taylor said that they were “being painted into a corner” and that Hearts is a reaction to that.
Hearts is an album that is unique and familiar both at the same time. It has the typical laid-back, mid-tempo feel that all of the Court & Spark records have. There is this underlying darkness that beckons, too. This is the first full-length album recorded by the band at their recording studio The Alabama Street Station. As is typical with bands who finally get their own space– they can spend time on the record without fear of racking up expensive studio time. This extra effort shows in the sometimes subtle, and sometimes not-so subtle sound textures used in the album. The band employs everything from toy pianos on the stomping “Your Mother Was the Lightning” to dulcimers and typewriters. Even with the sound effects on the tracks the album still has a consistent feel. The production values and layers of sound effects are not blips and bloops of electronica, but more classic studio type effects that you’d hear from Smile-period Beach Boys or the Beatles. The whole album sounds like it could have been recorded in 1971– that precarious hangover time after the end of the Summer of Love and the beginning of the next party that would be disco.
The record starts off with “Let’s Get High,” which does a great job of setting the tone for the rest of the record. A mellow, sexy affair with M.C. singing an invitation to “swim down, you’ve got beautiful fins.” This song reminds me of the best work of The The (what the hell happened to Matt Johnson anyway?). Lot’s of layered guitars and horns slathered over a sparce beat that firmly puts M.C.’s voice front and center. Most of this song sounds like it was processed through the spinning speaker of a Leslie. In fact, that effect is used all over the record.
The album transitions to the breezy “We Were All Uptown Rulers” which is included for your listening pleasure thanks to the permission of the band’s management. In typical fashion, it is nearly impossible to tell what this song is about. The only reference to “Uptown Rulers” I could find was a Meters album. The song seems sad and defeatist. Whomever this song is about, his other Uptown Ruler compatriots have been killed off, and he’s the last one. But, he’s standing his ground.
The accordion or melodeon along with the strings and whistling makes “Birmingham to Blackhorse Road We Wandered” sound distinctly Scottish folk. I have to say that M.C.’s lyrics, while obscure, do paint a picture. When he sings “Lay your diamond hand on me, lay your hands on me” I wonder if that means that the narrator’s love interest he “met at the change of the century” is married?
Hearts has four instrumental interludes spread throughout the album. They make for nice spacing between the tracks. The first one following “Birmingham” is “The Oyster Is A Wealthy Beast” takes advantage of bouncing strings under a solo lone violin. In the last 45 seconds it breaks down to the sounds of water lapping on the shore.
Clocking in at six minutes, the following track is the monumental centerpiece to the album, “Capaldi.” I can only assume that this is a tribute to the late Traffic member Jim Capaldi. It certainly sounds like a send-up of a Traffic song with its analog synth and arpeggiated guitar and bass guitar hook coated in fuzzy distortion.
“Capaldi” is followed by “A Milk White Flag”– the second of the four interludes. I notice that these tracks seem to fit together. They have a “music from another room” feel to them. Nice use of reverb. This is followed by “Berliners” which is a slow strumming ballad about what seems like a voyeuristic ghost pining for love of a living girl. Wandering tape noises under the guitars drive home the feeling of loss. We are greeted again by an instrumental called “Smoke Snigals” [s.i.c]. I guess appropriately titled considering the previous track begged for someone to “talk to me!”
When you listen to this with headphones you get to hear M.C. take a breath before starting the next track, “Mother Was the Lightning.” A slapping 2-step beat and tick-tock guitar propels this head-bobber. This song seems to be about a family doomed for disaster sung from the vantage point of a boyfriend. A universal theme, I think. The song winds out with toy piano and claps and Leslie tinged vocals.
“The High Life” starts out as slow waltz of a song that reminds me a bit of the classic “The Night Life.” Around 2:50 the song switches gears to a driving four-on-the-floor with layers of soaring guitars and keyboards that seems more like an early-Seventies progressive track by Yes. This is followed by the last of the instrumentals called “Gatesnakes.” This track is more of an exercise in layering sounds effects over a lone piano track reminding me a bit of Game Theory’s experimentation on Lolita Nation. After two minutes of that we move to the album closer called “The Ballad of Horselover Fat.” This is a spare vocals plus acoustic guitar that layers in other instruments as the song progresses to its chorus of “As a man I fade away.” Horselover Fat is the alter-ego of Sci-Fi writer Philip K. Dick that he used in one of his last novels VALIS, in 1981. I haven’t read this one, but I guess that it deals mostly with Dick’s search to understand God. A nice way to end this album, I feel.
In attempting to break the perception that they were a “country” act, the Court & Spark have recorded their most interesting and complete work to date. It’s time to catch the Spark of these high-heeled boys.
Download “We Were All Uptown Rulers”
Download a Live Version of “Capaldi”
Download a Live Version of “Your Mother was the Lightning”
Band photo by Peter Ellenby
