Velvet Underground... Loaded

Released: November 1970
Recorded: April–August 1970, Atlantic Recording Studios, New York City, New York, United States
Length: 40:35
Label: Cotillion
Producer: Geoff Haslam, Shel Kagan, The Velvet Underground
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Summer doesn’t start for me till I hear some Velvet Underground’s Loaded album, because I always sing the song “Who Loves the Sun” every morning I wake up with a hangover. I end up cursing the sun all day because its hot and bright outside, also it doesn’t help when people say “it's such a beautiful sunny day”. I’d rather lay low till night, listening the musings of Lou Reed all day long.

Sweet Jane always reminds me of this girl I knew way back when, with her wild indifference of everyone’s comfort level, and me with my greased black hair barely noticing anything around me. It was always just like traveling in my mind, seeing different sides of the world, showing my side world of the world where the working class lives and what we eat.  Traveling between the middle class and the working class always seemed like a journey to another world. It just makes it seem funnier that I was ignoring everything, while listening to this song when I meet her.

There’s a cool little draw that goes on when I listen to Cool It Down, the confidence in Lou Reed’s voice just fits the toughest stance I got. Slow and low just simple guitars and drums pick up and make you want to scream this song while in a dark bar with friends.

I Found A Reason is a sappy kinda love song that doesn’t sacrifice the talent of The Velvet Underground for bubble gum. It just hits the mark and makes use of the whole doo wop style. I can see allot of people dancing to this song at a wedding if they were cool and not Jersey Shored out (God I Hate MTV with that crap) there is allot sweet lyrics in this one.

So in the end you should really dig this album and share it. So this will be my new thing Pass it on meaning repost this link and share the music like I have

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1."Who Loves the Sun" – 2:50
2."Sweet Jane" – 3:15
3."Rock & Roll" – 4:47
4."Cool It Down" – 3:05
5."New Age" – 4:39
6."Head Held High" – 2:52
7."Lonesome Cowboy Bill" – 2:48
8."I Found a Reason" – 4:15
9."Train Round the Bend" – 3:20
10."Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" – 7:23

Clinic... Do It!

Released: April 7, 2008
Label: Domino Records
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Honestly I can’t remember where I first of the band Clinic, but I can say I was blown away by the simple sounds of the guitars and vocals. Like psychedelic 60’s band that did get beyond a grind house movie, until they were already done and past their time.

After I heard the song Tomorrow I felt like was in a bar just passing the time and the only thing that was keeping me from passing out, from boredom or being drunk was this song. The pacing and the lyrics really get my mind moving to were words just flow out of me (namely with a drink in hand… they don’t call me Drunk Poet for nothing). There’s some good emotion in this song of kind of optimism.

Free not free sound like it should be on the Art Laboe radio show with its slow tender vocals that suggest a sexier meaning. And the clarinet towards the end of the song only reinforces that idea in my mind. The only thing that keeps from believing it’s an oldie is the jarring guitars that ground it somewhere else

I hear newer bands trying to steal the sound of this song allot more these days, but Corpus Christi will always be the original. Once again with the 60’s style that speaks to me in this song makes me think of a dim bar with this band play and psychedelic show going on in the background.

Oh yeah this week I want to give a shout out to my Buddy Lysander of Bastidas and The Pinata Hour fame. Thank you for taking my drunk call last week.
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1. Memories
2. Tomorrow
3. The Witch (Made to Measure)
4. Free Not Free
5. Shopping Bag
6. Corpus Christi
7. Emotions
8. High Coin
9. Mary and Eddie
10.Winged Wheel
11.Coda

Brian Eno... Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)

Released: November 1974
Recorded: September 1974 at Island Studios, London
Length: 48:14
Label: Island
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Brian Eno… I’ve mentioned him before in a previous entry. But what can be said about the man that would do him justice? Not even in my opinion. The guy was always ahead of everything in music with his sounds and techniques that are still bizarre to this day.

Don’t remember where I first heard of Brian Eno, but it must’ve been many years ago from KCRW (I’m guessing) and it was probably something from one of his ambient projects, so I didn’t really pay much attention to it. When I finally sat and listened to bulk of his rock stuff I had to keep looking at the copy rights on the album because everything sounded like I heard it before during the 90’s. It was all a real mind fuck because everything that I loved in the 90’s was for the most part pioneered by Brian Eno.

I originally kept an idea of writing about his first album Here Come The Warm Jets, but while I was listening to the radio the other day China My China was playing in the background and it stuck with me during this last week. It sounds real playful and it kinda reminds me of something like Tripping Daisy (which in many ways became the Polyphonic Spree).  The guitars are addictive to me when it changes up from the simple stuff at the beginning, also very inspiring to me makes me want to write something light hearted (which is not in character for me).

Bauhaus does an awesome version of the song Third Uncle, which is also fucking awesome. It sounds a little fast and grimier but the respect for Brian Eno is there. The pace of the original is fast that makes me think of a Parkour chase scene in a movie with dudes flying around all over buildings, good times in my eyes.

The chorus of the True Wheel is pretty crazy I can hear allot of the newer bands use that trick. And when the guitars break down it reminds me of the kinda stuff Nirvana would do, but with more distortion. In Eno’s career has set the blueprint for most of rock music’s most memorable sounds with this album from the point  it started to now.

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1."Burning Airlines Give You So Much More" 3:18
2."Back in Judy's Jungle" 5:16
3."The Fat Lady of Limbourg" 5:03
4."Mother Whale Eyeless" 5:45
5."The Great Pretender" 5:11
6."Third Uncle" 4:48
7."Put a Straw Under Baby" 3:25
8."The True Wheel" 5:11
9."China My China" 4:44
10."Taking Tiger Mountain" 5:32

Think About Life... Family

Released: May 26, 2009
Recorded: Friendship Cove, Montreal, Quebec
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Thanks to Blalock’s Indie Rock Playlist (http://www.birp.fm/) I’ve been exposed to music that I’d ever hear anywhere else. When I first heard the song Sweet Sixteen that he choose for a past playlist I was amazed ,at how obscure the sound was but it was still very familiar like an Electro Funk song from the 80’s(BTW what ever happened to the whole Electro Funk scene).

As corny as it may seem Young Hearts make me nostalgic for days past all the way back in the 90’s, with lyrics like “I’m you high school lover, number one stunner, can you hear me calling down the tunnel”. The words make me think back to those days of waiting to get the hell away from that madness, and being infatuated with a girl who didn’t even see what I was about, till it was all over. High school was a strange time, because everyone then that was poised to take make big splashes didn’t do anything (be it the economy, drugs, or just life some people never did excel). I can see all that now, but in those days I knew it was simpler than what life would be but I wanted out anyways. Guess I got my wish in a way…


Set You on Fire is a great song to get pumped up to and start tearing things up. Yeah its kinda bubble gum but it’s got a beat that’s infectious, “The music’s playing but I can’t see you dance” is an anthem to get up and dance around. I can see this band in my head dancing around in the crowd and everyone singing this song with them.

Sofa Bed is almost like my life at the beginning of my 20’s just struggling to find my way, all the while being nomadic. It has some romantic overtones to it but that’s part of life, not everything is so cut and dry, everything mixes together even in the spots that shouldn’t (at least in your plan).

The Veldt continues the whole vibe of coming of age (I guess is the right term even though its cliché). “When lightning strikes” is a great way to talk about love at the point in your life when you to young to understand, it happens too quickly and disrupts everything about you Lol.

Truth is that I love this album, but I don't want critique every song because I want you to give the album and a chance and possibly be amazed like I was.
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1. "Johanna" 3:56
2. "Havin' My Baby" 3:29
3. "Sweet Sixteen" 3:44
4. "Young Hearts" 4:11
5. "Wizzzard" 3:51
6. "Set You On Fire" 3:38
7. "Sofa-bed" 3:11
8. "The Veldt" 4:44
9. "Nueva Nueva" 3:18
10. "Life Of Crime" 5:46