Sunday Soundtrack

It was a great week

"Say Yes" by Elliot Smith *Best Song On This Soundtrack*

"A Whisper (There's No Sun)" by Jay Reatard

"Belt Loops" by The Films

"Nobody Could Change Your Mind" by The Generationals

"Jacksonville" by Sufjan Stevens

"Twin Falls" by Built To Spill

"A History Of Lovers" by Iron and Wine

-S

I don't do too much talking

First day of college is done-and I am tired as shit. I won't get in to it too much as I have been away for the whole summer (those playlists don't really count in my book as posts). The only note is that the girl down the hall listens to Tegan and Sara, Death Cab, and The Mountain Goats so that could be a goldmine of new music but I assume the radio station will afford me the same opportunity.

Some may say I've already posted this song but I could not pass up an opportunity to post this version. I promise I am not obsessed with the song, I just think it has really stood the test of time.

I guess the first post to kick off the summer will be ripped straight from one of the blogs that I read. This comes straight from DailyBeatz (its ok to repost one of their songs considering they scooped me by only a few hours on some song a couple months back.) The song is a remix of a Nico song (of Andy Warhol superstar "fame"). I first heard her music in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums, the song was These Days, the cinematography was great, and more so I found Nico's voice haunting. So as you can assume I was excited to see someone had remixed the song. In this case by Japanese Electro/Acid-Jazz artist Shinichi Osawa.

The song begins the same with the same iconic rhythm guitar but then quickly diverges into an entirely different experience that runs rampant with vamping and excessive loops. For the most part that is the only change but a tiny change like that coupled with the drum beat and a few synth affects turns the song into another genre and another league. It is with this that I think a song can be given a face-lift to go better with the times. By no means is this a club beat and remix, but it gives it a fresh feel with a song that after a while sounds a little dated. Enjoy the track and be sure (if you haven't already) to listen to the original.

"These Days" by Nico remixed by Shinichi Osawa

(I could not find it on YouTube but here is the link to the DailyBeatz post)

"These Days" by Nico from Chelsea Girl 1967

-S

Fun Fact: The song was originally written by Jackson Browne and done by Gregg Allman and Elliot Smith as well (all three versions are very different interpretations)

Lo-fi before it was cool

Another nice find from my slew of recent downloads: Elliott Smith.

*Note: This blog has posted about Elliot Smith before but "A" has not posted about him*

Elliott Smith started releasing albums in the early '90s up through the early 2000s (until his unfortunately early death in 2003 when he was 34-an apparent suicide), but he started composing and writing music when he was just a teenager. In true indie style, he started playing around with four-track recording, played in a couple bands, and first started releasing albums on an independent label until getting signed in '97.

Smith said one of his biggest influences was Bob Dylan, which you can definitely hear in the bluesy guitar and harmonica, but if you ask me, his music is also really reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel, especially in the vocal style. It has just the right amount of hushed crooning and gentle harmony, although it's a little darker in terms of lyrics, which deal with a lot of Smith's personal issues, including his alcoholism, depression, and drug addiction.

It's definitely worth your time to listen through snippets from each of his albums and hear the way his music evolved, incorporating more and newer textures of sound and gaining even more melancholy complexity as the years went by. For now, here's "Condor Ave.," which he purportedly wrote when he was only 17 and then recorded for his first album, Roman Candle, released 1994.

"Condor Ave." by Elliott Smith from Roman Candle (1994)

"El Condor Pasa" by Simon and Garfunkel from Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)

(I just couldn't pass up the parallelism.)

-A

I don’t think you’re ever a hundred percent in the room

Hard choice for what to post for today. I just have been downloading music like crazy lately (probably thanks to my new and improved internet connection). I think I'll post about the artist I know nothing about (yay surprises!). I heard this song while flipping through channels last night, it played on the outro for some show I'd never heard of, but I was pretty enchanted right away.

The track is called "Neopolitan Dreams" by Lisa Mitchell. The intro is a little odd with the completely out of place xylophone flourish. The highlight of the track has to be her breathy vocals, which kind of take on a cutesy Elliot Smith-esque vibe. Her website aptly describes her music as Indie-Pop which is probably as accurate a description as I have ever heard. The Australian born singer got a recording deal with Sony's UK branch and just came out with her first album Wonder. I'm not sure if I'll love all her music, but this song is definitely a shiny little track that just sounds so pleasant, up-beat, and damn happy.

"Neopolitan Dreams" by Lisa Mitchell from Wonder (2009)

-S

I've been out walking

Just finished watching Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson's new movie. I have to say, it is pretty great, and pretty much like every other Wes Anderson movie. Regardless, it got me thinking about some of his other movies, particularly the soundtracks. There have been some pretty great songs utilized in his movies. However, one reigns supreme in my mind, "These Days" covered by Nico is by far one of the most beautiful (the original was written by Jackson Browne-note though, they are very different-Browne also performed his with Gregg Allman), and really just hits home with me. The guitar is great, and the strings really pull it all together.


As for Nico's voice, she is pretty unique, the voice can sound a little ugly and haunting, but that is just if you take it at face value. If you really listen to it it fits perfectly with her music. She is especially great on the VU album she headlined on. However this song is from her sophomore album Chelsea Girl, taken from the Warhol film of the same name. Her music particularly hit home with one of my favorite musicians, Elliot Smith. He described her music as being very influential in his musical style, which led him to cover a couple of Nico's songs.

So enjoy, I'll post both the Nico, Elliot Smith, and Jackson Browne versions of the song, they are all pretty classic and influential in their own right. By the way, if you wanted to know which movie "These Days" was featured in, it was The Royal Tennenbaums, which had a great soundtrack in and of itself.

"These Days" by Jackson Browne

"These Days" covered by Nico from Chelsea Girl (1967)

"These Days" covered by Elliot Smith

-S
*Note-I just found out that while Browne did write the song Nico recorded it first-with permission from Browne of course*

You're a crisis, you're an icicle

There have been many bands that I missed the boat for. These are bands or musicians that I hear of long past their prime, not because I missed them due to age, but because I remained in the dark even during their prime years (see: Jay Reatard). One such artists, I would have for certain missed their prime if they had lived to see it.

In 2003, Elliot Smith committed suicide in his LA apartment, he was seemingly still on his way to the peak of his career. How can I make this conjecture you ask? At the time of his death he was working on a multitude of new tracks (most of which are still trickling to the surface posthumously.


Those are not some of the tracks that I am writing about though. The song is off of Smith's freshman effort Roman Candle. "Last Call" is a classic indie rock song with my beloved lo-fi sounds (I will always love you Mountain Goats).

The first time I heard a Elliot Smith song was on the soundtrack of one of my favorite movies, The Royal Tennenbaums, since then I have alway adored his song writing abilities especially when coupled with his simplistic electric guitar melodies that really give his music incredible character. Like most of Smith's songs, the lyrics are incredibly sad and filled with pain, "Last Call" being no exception as Smith's final refrain reads: "I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me, I'm lying here waiting for sleep to overtake me." Not only can you hear the pain in his lyrics, but you can hear it in his voice and in his sad guitar style. It was a great loss to the music world.

"Last Call" by Elliot Smith from Roman Candle (2004) (Re-Released In 2007)

-S

Tell us what we did wrong, then you can blame us for it

I just stumbled on to "Heretics" by Andrew Bird, and I think I'm in love. The song starts off with a pretty awesome intro, layered guitars and then breaks off in to a driving drum and then Bird breaks in with his violin and absolutely haunting vocals (the kind of thing you might expect from Elliot Smith a la "Needle In The Hay" and " How To Take A Fall").

Bird however, sings with the upbeat-ish sound that you hear in Rogue Wave's "Electro-Socket Blues" *albeit a little turned down on the peppiness scale but with dark lyrics that I loved so much). Bird chimes in with this line: "You make your mountains of handkerchiefs where the mascara always runs," (LOVE IT!).

The violin comes off perfectly, somehow fitting with the percussion and driving the songs melody through the guitar. Furthermore, no instrument truly dominates the song in a way that's obtrusive to the others. As I said before Birds vocals are haunting and really stick with you. You simply cannot get this song out of your head after a listen. Enjoy! (Chag Sameach Pesach-if your a member of the tribe that is)

"Heretics" by Andrew Bird from Armchair Apocrypha (2007)

-S

P.S.-The album cover is great, not sure why is reminds me of the cover of Hawken's "The Ecology Of Commerce" not sure why...
P.P.S. This song is not Passover related, but it is Kosher for Passover at least.