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April 14, 2008
Ripping Vinyl, part 1
I've only owned a record player recently, despite a lifetime of musical obsession. It turns out New York City is a really good place to find vinyl. I'm as shocked as you.
I'll be posting unearthed treasures here occasionally...when the mood strikes...
From the 1994 John Peel Session that was later commercially released as Extended Play, comes this version of the lead track from the British band's 1981 LP Odyshape. They were rubbing slumped shoulders with the alt rock elite then, after Kurt Cobain had leveraged for the re-release of their records and sacrificed Incesticide's liner notes to be evangelical on their behalf. Accordingly, the kit for the BBC set is manned by Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley. This "Shouting Out Loud" is just as urgent, mysterious, and pretty as the one committed to tape 13 years earlier. In the band's handful of true classics, there is a balance of chaos, craft, and charm that is very hard to achieve. Whenever a new song is winningly ramshackle, I find myself tempted to cite the Raincoats as a forebear of its appeal. The tightrope their best songs walked might be to thin for anyone to truly follow though.
the Raincoats - "Shouting Out Loud" (John Peel Show 1994)
Interesting note from Wikipedia, regarding the band's original drummer and former Slits member "Palmolive" (aka Paloma Romero):
"After leaving the Raincoats Romero looked at changing her life around and spent the next six months exploring India. During this time she met and married her husband Dave McLardy. In 1979 Romero gave birth to her first child, Sandy, after moving back to Spain. Soon the family would move back to England. After moving back to England and feeling unhappy with life in general, she became a born-again Christian.
She currently lives with her husband and three children in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As of 1995, she and her husband led a cover band called Hi-Fi, rewriting key lyrics to reflect their Christian beliefs. Included in their repertoire is The Slits' song "FM," with the chorus' lyrics changed to "Jesus is the answer / Why don't you let him in?"
Posted by Jeff Klingman at April 14, 2008 01:45 AM
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Comments
Upon discovering the record player, Jeff then learned that New York has some really tall buildings and that his pencil has some sort of erasing device attached to the bottom.
Posted by: Randall Monty at April 14, 2008 12:53 PM
tough crowd!
Posted by: Sebastian at April 14, 2008 01:02 PM
Is there a font specifically for intended understatement?
Posted by: Jeff K at April 14, 2008 05:22 PM
