Unrepentant Fanboys, Part 6: Brian's List of Listyness

In which Brian takes the bait and responds to Bryn's List of Listyness:

Awesome! After a long day, I've been looking for something fun and non-sciencey to think about. My list:

Guitar:
"Cortez the Killer" Neil Young... I'm thinking of the Weld version, but all versions of this song I've heard are tremendous
"Dead Man Theme" Neil Young... the perfect blend of distorted messy echoey guitar with acoustic strumming
"Shine on you Crazy Diamond" Pink Floyd... nearly half an hour of awesome guitar playing
"Time Trap" Built to Spill... the intro to this song is one of the best 30 seconds of music ever
"Contra - Alien's Lair and Boss Music" The Advantage... I realize it's a little ridiculous to have Nintendo music on this list, but I'm doing it anyway

Drums:
"Night Light" Sleater Kinney... there are half a dozen tracks on this album that could go on this list. Janet Weiss is awesome.
"The Funny Bird" Mercury Rev... big loud reverby drums of awesomeness
"Are You a Hypnotist??" Flaming Lips... drum machine / drum hybrid, but it sounds great... all produced by Dave Fridmann so far
"Y Control" Yeah Yeah Yeahs... something about the slightly-off timing of the rapid-fire high-hat sounds just awesome
"National Anthem" Radiohead... straight-forward drumming, but it sounds so nice

Bass:
"As Sure As the Sun" BRMC... bad-ass riff. enough said
"Airbag" Radiohead... ultra-minimalist, but perfect for the song
"Gronlandic Edit" Of Montreal... love this band's poppy basslines and dance beats
"Hanging On A Curtain" Morphine... I agree with Bryn, the bass on this song rules
"Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" Flaming Lips... the whole Yoshimi album revolves around awesome bass lines

Keyboards/Synth:
"The Past Is A Grotesque Animal" Of Montreal... the keyboard solo at the end is so amazing that I had to include this category
"Zero" Yeah Yeah Yeahs... holy shit, their transition from hard rock to dance pop actually worked
"Everything in its Right Place" Radiohead... one of the coolest keyboard sounds ever
"The Rip" Portishead... the second half of the song has such a beautiful keyboard sound
"Old Shit New Shit" the Eels... love the keyboards in the chorus, though I could say that about a lot of Eels songs

Vocals:
"Do the Evolution" Pearl Jam... best voice in the business, I still think
"Zero" Yeah Yeah Yeahs... sexiest voice in the business. I've been kind of obsessed with this song recently.
"The Penalty" Beirut... for a crooner, he ain't half bad
"For Reverend Green" Animal Collective... rapid switching between subdued, yelling, and falsetto, and it somehow works
"Half Day Closing" Portishead... great vocal sound, and that reverb-coated wail at the end sounds amazing

Honey White:
Guitar - Bryn on Let Go. I love tremolo. I should have used it more.
Drums - Drumbot 3000 on Lightning Rod. I love the rapid high-hat hits. No, I mean I LOVE THEM. Runner up: Polarity, I love where the drums took that song.
Bass - Blacking Out. The bass has such a dark vibe that is absolutely perfect for the song.
Keyboards - Keep Moving. I still love tremolo. Plus, it's me!
Vocals - Keep Moving. I think it has the biggest dynamic shifts and the most feeling. Runner up is Let Go when the backing vocals show up in the last chorus. Man, that sounds awesome.

So there you have it. I was tempted to add a "theramin" category, but I could only come up with three songs. Unless you count that guy on youtube with the bow tie playing that song for his mom. That guy rules. Seriously, he does.

So far Bill and I have resisted the temptation to yet again listify ourselves, but I already feel my willpower growing slack and flabby.

Unrepentant Fanboys, Part 5: Bryn's List of Listyness

In which Bryn checks in with yet another fanboy list of his favorite musical music, "High Fidelity"-style:

I put this together the other night on the way home from UCI after 4 hours of teaching and 6 hours of sitting in college classes; basically, with my mind wandering helplessly from overwork the thought occurred to me that a few of the songs that had been playing had, for example, one of my favorite guitar or drum tracks. So I decided to expand upon that and come up with my top 5 for guitar, drums, bass and vocals.

Guitar:
"Time," Pink Floyd. (On the strength of the solo alone.)
"Goin' Against Your Mind," Built to Spill. (There is no guitar in this song that is not awesome.)
"And the Flowers They'll Bloom," the Mermen. (How does he control feedback so well?)
"Either Way," Wilco. (How had I never heard of Nels Kline before?)
"Little Wing," Stevie Ray Vaughan. (Regardless of what you think of his other stuff you should give SRV's version of this a listen. It's amazing.)

Drums:
"Driven to Tears," the Police. (Best! Drummer! Ever!)
"When the Levee Breaks," Led Zeppelin. (I don't care that the drum tone & speed was changed in the studio -- they still sound great.)
"Hornet's Nest," Los Straitjackets. (Jimmy Lester is a fucking monster.)
"Secret for a Song," Mercury Rev. (Perfect drum tone, in my opinion.)
"All There Is," Bad Religion. (Precision & speed.)

Bass:
"Fear of Fireflies," Calla. (Hypnotic!)
"Lipstick Vogue," Elvis Costello & the Attractions. (This almost made it into the drum section too.)
"W.M.A.," Pearl Jam. (Simple bass lines can still be badass when played right!)
"Hanging on a Curtain," Morphine. (Best! Bassist! Ever! ...Also, his voice is pretty awesome. This was a contender for the vocal category too.)
"Cheapskate," Supergrass. (A cool circular-sounding bass line.)

Vocals:
"Exit Music (For a Film)," Radiohead. (More or less the full range of Thom Yorke awesomeness.)
"Mojo Pin," Jeff Buckley. (More or less the full range of Jeff Buckley awesomeness.)
"I Know," Fiona Apple. (Mmmmm.....)
"Prenzlauerberg," Beirut. (I have no idea what the words are here. But it doesn't matter.)
"Grounds for Divorce," Elbow. (Guy Garvey = amazing vocalist.)

And just for the hell of it, I'll include a special Honey White section. Because really, why not?

Guitar: "Dead Man." You probably guessed this already.

Drums: "The Lightning Rod." What else could it be? Bill, you fucking rock on many other songs too, but I gotta defer to Owen on this one. You do sound like "a drumbot 3000 from some awesome rock future"!

Bass: "It's Quiet Up Here." Runner up: "Sweet Oblivion." The track from your Low Tide soundtrack is just effin' sweet, Keir. The backup bass lines that you do seal the deal, for me. Though I have always loved that "Oblivion"'s bass line reminds me of a ship rocking back and forth at sea.

Vocals: I think I have to go with "Island Fever." I was pissed off over some pointless argument we were having in the studio regarding the vocal melody ("pointless" as in, I was completely wrong in the first place and shouldn't have argued) so when it came time for the final chorus after Bri's solo I just yelled it as powerfully as I could into the mic. And what do you know, it turned out pretty well.

And by the way, Brian took the bait. His entry will be posted...soon.

Because Not Enough Writers Play Fender J-Bass Guitars

So about a year ago I released a CD for my Low Tide side project. It was nominally a soundtrack to a novel I was (and still am) writing. For a while there I thought the tunes would be the only worthwhile thing I got out of the whole process, but some of the chapters in this first draft are surprisingly non-awful. Some are pretty bad, too—but who cares. It's a first draft. Anyway, CD Baby just informed me that the "Weapon of Young Gods" disc has sold out, and that I should send more. Well, I hand-made those, so I'll send more when I feel like it. I mean, the thing is on iTunes, and it's not exactly chart-busting material, so I won't bust my ass pressing more CDs when there's a book to finish. You'd think that would be easy, when 44 of 48 chapters are done, but it's really not, so in the meantime, why not listen to some weird ambient post-rock echo-bass instrumental noise from your favorite egomaniacal bass player? Ably assisted of course by his genius friends the guitarist and drummer. No, really—give it a whirl. It's right down there in the Flash player: