Minus the Bear, etc.
On
Minus The Bear: Menos el Oso
A few years ago Minus The Bear’s debut EP – This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic – startled me with its superbly singalong harnessing of the techniques of rock’s avant-garde, causing me to coin the genre-term Fission Pop. Since then the band have successively smoothed the corners, and I wasn’t sure about this album at first, but when a track like ‘The Fix’ manages to combine the the guitar stutter of Don Caballero’s maginficently wired American Don LP with the old school Rawk moves of Kim Mitchell and MtB’s distinctive melodic ear, what more could I really ask for?
Charalambides: A Vintage Burden
I remember their name from way back, but had no idea their music was this beautiful. Thank you, The Wire mag.
Vaughan-Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D Major
Elgar: Introduction & Allegro for Strings
Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie
I really need help when it comes to classical music. Only the Vaughan-Willaims was actually one of my Set Works, but I find I do need extreme familiarity with a piece before I can really enjoy it, otherwse crucial details tend to slide past the ear in a whoosh of massed strings (much as, I guess, those for whom rock music is just a noise fail to hear it subtleties).
Anyone noticed how the Elgar sounds like early Queen?
In Limbo
Hot Snakes: Audit in Progress
Just grabbed this from a fellow Soulseeker because I liked the band’s name, but actually this a bit more no-nonsense that I normally like my punk rock.
Off
Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose
I can tolerate the White Stripes, but despite Van Lear Rose having Jack White’s stamp all over it, there is no space whatsoever in my heart for Vaudevillian schlock. Sorry.
Apart from that, I haven’t deleted anything much lately, which has narrowed my free space down to a worryingly meagre 2.5GB. Time for a purge.
