missing one inside of me

I guess I have been doing alot of covers lately, but whatever. Here is Evan Dando's version of "Fade To Black," surely a depressing song when played by Metallica, but I do believe that the ex-Lemonhead is channeling true hopelessness where in the original the sweet guitar solo kind of cuts the degree of abjection down to an appreciative level. Dando I am sure knows what he is talking about here as he struggled throughout the 90's with various drug addictions, having started the decade the doe-eyed slacker starlet and finished it washed up and out of the limelight.

Evan Dando - Fade To Black

a thousand apologies

I know I was supposed to like The Shape Of Punk To Come, which aside from it's incredibly pompous title was pretty boring. But everyone seems to disagree with me on that, so I probably just didn't get it. Seems like I'm not the only one to miscalculate though, considering Dennis Lyxzen's next "effort", The (International) Noise Conspiracy probably is listed in the dictionary under "missed the point". That however does not take away from my appreciation of their previous album, Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent, a cleanly aggressive example of hardcore music being played right. There are no superfluous crowd noises, "we like jazz too" intros, or "maybe techno will save punk" interludes. Punk rock doesn't need to be saved or changed, all it needs is for people to play it well, which they already did before they tried to re-invent it and subsequently keel over. These two songs are some of my favorites from their second, unfortunately underrated album so check them out and enjoy the shape of some actual lean and mean punk.

Refused - It's not OK...

Refused - Crusader Of Hopelessness

ziggy played guitar

Somehow I managed to hear the cover of this song before I heard the original, when freshman year of high school a kid on the bus had And Such Is Progress and let me borrow it. I have posted on this album before, so I'll spare you the same spiel on the album and such, but I always thought this song really stood out. It has a different tone to it, a tinge of sweet vintage nostalgia I'm sure exists mainly in the instantly recognizable Ronson riff. It maybe that I just enjoy heavier bands takes on older songs, (see two posts down...), so maybe it's time to break out the Converge cover songs, but we'll see. Give this one a few listens, and if you don't already have the original, enjoy the Bowie glam gem as well.

Grade - Ziggy Stardust

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust

what i'm seein' is hauntin'

As a follow up to my post a couple days ago concerning the Bob Marley song about Zimbabwe, here is his son's video from Welcome To Jamrock, where Nas directly refers to Mugabe. I had heard this song a couple times, but when I was listening to it today I heard the line, "President Mugabe holding guns to innocent bodies/in Zimbabwe," which pretty much means no one I know in Zimbabwe will ever hear this song.

been so down lately

Of all the heart wrenching songs that are out there, few convey the raw recession of emotion so terribly as this song. In fact when I am down, I have to be careful to not let myself invest too much in songs like this, because it reinforces negative attitudes in such haunting tones of resplendent regret. It doesn't help that the music is pretty likely to get stuck in my head on account of the subversively catchy bass line. I have also included a cover of the song by hardcore band Give Up The Ghost, who do a pretty effective take of it with some nice screwdriver guitar around 1:25 and cleaner production. I think the Archers' dirtier production emphasizes the broken nature of the song, but it's nice to hear a different perspective on old familiar songs as well.

Archers Of Loaf - You And Me

Give Up The Ghost - You And Me

P.S. - Go get Icky Mettle now.

it's black history month

Can you remember a time when this city was
A great place for architects and debutantes
A nice place for midwives and crossing guards
And on, and on...

Hold on children
Your mother and father are leaving

Do you remember a time when this pool was
A great place for waterwings and cannonballs
A nice place for astrologists and blow up dolls
And on, and on...

Hold on children
Your best friend's parents are leaving

Death From Above 1979 - Black History Month [Josh Homme Remix]