Break Up Your Band

First Aid Kit - “Emmylou”

“I was frightened but I held back,
I need you now at long last.

No, I’m not asking much of you,
Just sing little darling, sing with me.”

This room I’m in suddenly got very dusty and there are things in my eyes and look away a minute thanks.

The Lion’s Roar is a fantastic album of supple folk songs and if you don’t listen to it as soon as possible frankly I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do with you.

M.U.S.C.L.E. Men.

The new Venetian Snares EP comes out in March, but you can pre-order it or buy tracks from it now. Aaron Funk makes some of the twitchiest and most experimental IDM/Drum & Bass/Glitch/whatever music I’ve heard. It’s barely classifiable but it will light up every neuron in your brain like a Christmas tree. This is a video shot by him of his song “Vache” from his 2006 release Cavalcade Of Glee And Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms playing on the Renoise beat-making software program I assume he made it in. If you are at all interested in this area of the music universe I suggest checking it out.

Pink Floyd - “Take It Back”
The Division Bell, 1994
(Video from Pulse, 1995)

Look, say what you want about post-Waters Pink Floyd. For the most part you are right. Those records are really pretty much David Gilmour albums with Mason & Wright (or in the case of Momentary Lapse of Reason, just Mason) along for the ride. And with the lyric writing responsibilities falling mostly on Gilmour we get to see what a cringe-worthy lyricist he can sometimes be (see “What Do You Want From Me,” “Poles Apart”, “A Great Day For Freedom” shit man see them all, they’ve all got their moments). But there is just something, for me at least, about a piece of plastic with the words “Pink Floyd” on it that contains a round piece of plastic with the words “Pink Floyd” on it that holds data that comes out of my speakers in the form of Pink Floyd songs. Pink Floyd songs are like family members to me. Even if I don’t really like some of them, even if I think they’re terrible and annoying and would never want to hang out at a party with them, I kind of just like knowing they’re around. Sure this album largely stands as a definitive statement that the band should be retired as a generator of new material but there are a couple of passable entries into the catalog and “Take It Back” is one of them.

Also, this is a good album to fall asleep to. Certainly one of the highest forms of praise you can give a band. “Your record lulls me to sleep.”

I would’ve posted the official video but it is bad bad bad (almost as bad as the lyrics “On the day the wall came down/The ship of fools had finally run aground”). Besides, Pulse was an absolutely phenomenal live show. I saw it at Giants Stadium, it was my first time seeing Floyd and the third concert I’d ever been to. To this day it’s the second best live show I’ve ever seen.

This week’s podcast features music from Ceremony, Charli xcx, Husker Du, Guided By Voices and much more. Frankly it’s my favorite one so far.