Song of the Day Thread

[crazyzeke]

I can dig this. This guy's voice- it's so smooth- so dead on. Man, people had chops back then, and that includes engineers. I dig the jammy crunched out keyboard sound. One of my favorite bands is Quasi- so this tracks. It's all there, the voice is somewhere between Rick Danko, Phil Lynot, and young Elton John. Good stuff.

Ah cool, you listened! Yeah Rare Bird are one of those "also ran" type bands in terms of reputation from the time, but for me they're way more "underrated gem band". They have a bunch of good songs too, I mean here's a short list :-

1. Devil's High Concern - one of the bassiest vinyls I own, great groove. One of those "rock is the devil's music" type songs.
2. You're Lost - Huge 10+ minute jam which is almost entirely composed from minor seventh chords, as if that was why the writer made it.
3. Title No 1 Again (Birdman) - Classic fast paced riff rock, and I love the lyric "Shotgun in hand, I left a three time loser". also one of the earlier pioneers of harmonised guitar licks, arguably. Nice to hear the bass doing completely different lines to the guitars a lot of the time as well.
4. Four Grey Walls - Something proto-AC/DC about this one, the whole stop-start chord vibe.

These are all heavily pulled from my personal favourite album, Epic Forest but they had about 3 great ones including that.

Oh and their pretty legendary live run through of Beautiful Scarlet where the drummer looks like he's about to explode

Quasi eh? What would you say is the best song or album to start with that's closest to these guys?

[seenoevil II]

Quasi eh? What would you say is the best song or album to start with that's closest to these guys?

I'll check those out!

For Quasi, well, hard to say what sounds too too much like Rare Bird, but you can't go wrong with


Field Studies
-or-
Featuring Birds

Sam Coomes was a buddy of Eliot Smith's (he even toured with him on bass at their peak in the 90's) and you can really hear how they influenced each other. And of course the other half is the inimitable Janet Weiss of Sleater Kinney, Wild Flag, Jicks fame.

[crazyzeke]

For Quasi, well, hard to say what sounds too too much like Rare Bird, but you can't go wrong with

Field Studies
-or-
Featuring Birds

Wow that is like a modern reinterpretation of that kind of era, RB and a few other bands. I like that one of their songs is appropriately called "Birds"

Oh yeah you can definitely hear the ES influence :-D

[Nudger]

Violet Minefield - Smoke and mirrors
https://youtu.be/1ySeKlTcmdQ?list=OLAK5 ... YdjJSo97dc

[crazyzeke]

Eels - Beautiful Freak

The whole namesake album is great however this is the one that really catches my ear as the vinyl spins. It's in 6/8 time which is nice, a slow waltz vibe like he's dancing with the person he's singing about.

[X-Ray Spex]

Breakwater - Release The Beast.

Funky as all hell, sampled by Daft Punk for Robot Rock but honestly so much bigger and better of a song than it's sampled counterpart.

[crazyzeke]

Warpaint - Hard To Tell You

Had one of those "down the YouTube rabbit hole" moments last night... rewatching Five Watt World's Jag Short History I remembered last time I'd seen it he mentioned Warpaint, so I watched their Rig Rundown and was impressed by their attitude and gear, which naturally led on to seeing their full From The Basement set which bowled me over. Hints of Joshua Tree era U2, Dido, Slowdive, Jeff Buckley, softer moments from The Breeders, all kinds of things. Amazing! Liked all of it, but this song in particular grabbed me. I think it's the soaring, aching vocal in the chorus.

And I mean, on a more aesthetic level, they use two Jags and a Rickie bass, what's not to love? More Jag is more good in this case. I feel stupid mentioning them here because OSG strikes me as the sort of place where most people would know who they are, but for me it was the first listen and I was like, this is my kind of lilting and melancholy.

[JSett]

Warpaint - Hard To Tell You

I've been on the Warpaint train since their first record. Great band and gear. They used to be Jag, Mustang, Ric but occasionally I've seen them use other stuff.

Jenny, the bassist, has impeccable groove.

[crazyzeke]

I've been on the Warpaint train since their first record. Great band and gear. They used to be Jag, Mustang, Ric but occasionally I've seen them use other stuff.

Jenny, the bassist, has impeccable groove.

Yeah I feel stupidly late to the party but glad to have arrived. There's a lot of talent flying around in that band - the song where they all did a vocal quartet with guitar on one 360º mic was very 🤯 for me in a good way - bands so rarely do stuff like that any more, and maybe they should in cases where everyone can sing. Goddamn guitar tones are gorgeous as well; making a guitar sound not like one, or like one with synths in the background, is a lynchpin of my style so when I see other people doing it well I respect that and try and crib their techniques

[X-Ray Spex]

Warpaint - Hard To Tell You

Had one of those "down the YouTube rabbit hole" moments last night... rewatching Five Watt World's Jag Short History I remembered last time I'd seen it he mentioned Warpaint, so I watched their Rig Rundown and was impressed by their attitude and gear, which naturally led on to seeing their full From The Basement set which bowled me over. Hints of Joshua Tree era U2, Dido, Slowdive, Jeff Buckley, softer moments from The Breeders, all kinds of things. Amazing! Liked all of it, but this song in particular grabbed me. I think it's the soaring, aching vocal in the chorus.

And I mean, on a more aesthetic level, they use two Jags and a Rickie bass, what's not to love? More Jag is more good in this case. I feel stupid mentioning them here because OSG strikes me as the sort of place where most people would know who they are, but for me it was the first listen and I was like, this is my kind of lilting and melancholy.

I love Warpaint, got into them when they released the Undertow single way back in 2010 and the video was all over music tv channels at the time (Anyone in Ireland / UK remember Scuzz? )

There was a tonne of industry buzz around them at the time but they kind've completely disappeared for a while, I think the whole Boho / Hippie LA vibe all-girl band thing was just a bit ahead of it's time. If they were just starting now they would be killing it.

They seem to be making a bit of a comeback now which is great.

Top picks would be Disco//very, from their newest stuff Hips

And this killer live version of Bees

They all use Jags and Mustangs too so very OSG appropriate.

Anywho.

My song of the day is Mess Your Hair Up by White Denim.

A real groover, you think it's going to go one way and then the tilt towards squally noise shenanigans is a real surprise, dude's voice is absolutely killer too.

[crazyzeke]

There was a tonne of industry buzz around them at the time but they kind've completely disappeared for a while, I think the whole Boho / Hippie LA vibe all-girl band thing was just a bit ahead of it's time. If they were just starting now they would be killing it.

Yeah that's the thing - in my group of musicians, I'm always saying I wish there were more women in rock and roll, it can diversify the genre because women have a different perspective, lyrically you can listen and it can open your eyes to things and topics you just can't get from all-male bands or at least not in the same way.

I was hoping after Hole and Breeders and those sorts of bands (love the Breeders especially - Last Splash on vinyl is one of my favourite) it'd be more of a thing by now, but I'm sure we'll get there eventually, seeing bands like Wet Leg and Wolf Alice is a good start.

I guess in a way Warpaint are kinda like Pixies - ahead of their time, trailblazers whose influence eventually works it's way into guitar based music and changes what it is and what it can be.

Top picks would be Disco//very, from their newest stuff Hips

And this killer live version of Bees

They all use Jags and Mustangs too so very OSG appropriate.

I'll give those a listen later, just about to watch the Killing Joke movie now, can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to it.

[BoringPostcards]

Speaking of women in music, here is a song by my personal favourite female artist, Elizabeth Powell and the band Land of Talk.
Criminally underrated, just like all good Canadian bands are.

Anyways, here is the song:

Land of Talk - Diaphonous

If you like it, check out their albums. Their earlier work is more raucous and energetic, and their newer output is slightly mellow, but equally as awesome.

Edit: *Just discovered that Elizabeth now more recently identifies as non-binary, which was somewhat of a surprise as they were very effeminate and womanly when I met them years ago at a festival. People change. Times change.
I’m not up to date on this stuff at all. So forgive me, for the confusion.
I still love their music and personality, so this changes nothing for me, just thought I’d put that out there.

[windmill]

Yuzo Kayama and The Launchers - Black Sand Beach

[crazyzeke]

Criminally underrated, just like all good Canadian bands are.

And a lot of Canadian YouTubers are underrated too. Surprising how many on my sub list are. I'll stop talking about Mapleland though cos it makes me miss my ex more.

Land of Talk - Diaphonous

The song itself is pretty dreamy. I like chimey guitar chords that use open strings in as many of them as possible - a lot of my writing style is based around that and it really seemed to come out around the time I got into offsets, so it's nice to hear a band doing that as part of their conceit. It's like easy listening shoe gaze, and yes I mean that as a compliment

[BoringPostcards]

Criminally underrated, just like all good Canadian bands are.

And a lot of Canadian YouTubers are underrated too. Surprising how many on my sub list are. I'll stop talking about Mapleland though cos it makes me miss my ex more.

Land of Talk - Diaphonous

The song itself is pretty dreamy. I like chimey guitar chords that use open strings in as many of them as possible - a lot of my writing style is based around that and it really seemed to come out around the time I got into offsets, so it's nice to hear a band doing that as part of their conceit. It's like easy listening shoe gaze, and yes I mean that as a compliment

If you liked that song, check out their early work. Specifically, anything from the first two albums. The guitar work is great. Elizabeth plays SGs, but gets a tone that is very unique. You wouldn’t think it was SGs.
Here’s an older track. The guitar solo is pretty wild and noisy, but musical. Check it out:

Land of Talk - All My Friends