List: My Top 10 Dylan Tracks

Well, everyone else is paying tribute to Robbie Z. on the occasion of his 70th birthday, so I thought I might do so as well. Here it goes…

My Top 10 Bob Dylan Tracks

“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” – 1965 – This is one of the greatest album closers ever. It’s a classic kiss-off in one sense, but what makes it remarkable is the apocalyptic imagery Dylan throws in. Love that noodly guitar too.

”Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” – 1966 – Everything about this song is simply amazing, from the lyrics to the drumming. It just sort of sweeps you up and carries you along on a wave for six or seven minutes.

”Tangled Up In Blue” – 1975 – One of the most beautiful songs ever. I love the way you feel like you’ve completed a journey with Dylan by the time the last verse ends, and then that harmonica kicks in and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Awe inspiring.

”If Not For You” – 1970 – What a great little love song. You gotta dig the arrangement – so 70’s.

“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (Greatest Hits Vol. 2 version)” – 1970 – This is Dylan’s goofed-out performance of an already silly song. Roger McGuinn of The Byrds went and butchered the lyrics a few years earlier, and so Dylan sends him up in the first verse. “Oooo-eeee/Ride me high/Tomorrow’s the day my bride’s a-gonna come/Oooo-eeee/Are we gonna fly/Down into the easy chair…”

“She Belongs To Me” – 1965 – “She’s got everything she needs/She’s an artist/She don’t look back…” Absolutely sublime lyrics on this one, the kind of stuff that “stones me to my soul” as Van Morrison would say. The arrangement is so wonderful too. An incontrovertible proof of Dylan’s greatness.

“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” – 1965 – “When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez/When it’s Easter time too…” The ragtime riff on that piano is pure genius.

”The Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo) (live)” – 1969 – This is Dylan’s performance with The Band at the Isle of Wight festival in 1969. Most people know this song from the Manfred Mann “oldies” version, but Dylan & The Band make this sound  like a blast. It’s sloppy and joyful, almost like a lost take from The Basement Tapes.

“Buckets of Rain” – 1975 – This one brings me to tears just about every time. Again, it’s such a simple song, but the lyric is vintage Dylan – soulful with a little bit of silly thrown in. I can’t help but think of the heartbreak that Dylan was going through at the time.

“Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” – 1962 – I’m generally not a big fan of Dylan’s work prior to Bringing It All Back Home, but this was one of his great early tracks. It’s not a protest song, not even faintly political, but it’s a showcase for the sort of wit that would become a centerpiece of Dylan’s work on later albums. Great finger-picking too. An underrated early pop-folk song.

Check out what else I’ve had to say about Dylan (plenty)…

Honorable Mention:
One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
Goin’ To Acapulco
I Shall Be Released (Greatest Hits Vol. 2 version)
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
Tomorrow Is A Long Time (live)
Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
Thunder On The Mountain
Tonight, I’ll Be Staying Here With You

5 Reasons: Frontier(s) debut 7″

5 Reasons I’m Psyched About The New 7″ From Louisville’s Frontier(s):

1. Lead-off internet single “Abul-Abbas” sounds fantastic – I’d call it angular, dressed-down Elliott. Download it here: http://nosleeprecs.com/home/index.php?viewrelease=40

2.  It’s been 5 years since an official release from Chris Higdon.

3. I always favored Elliott’s early, hard rock stuff, and A-side “The Plains” is compared to Husker Du and is said to contain “buzzsaw guitar.” Amen.

4. It’s a reason to buy a 7″ record – what I’ll call the most aesthetically satisfying of all recorded formats – plus it includes the digital download.

5.  It was recorded by former Elliott drummer Kevin Ratterman – a musical magician in his own right.

Anyone else excited about this release?

5 Things: “Found Out About You” by Gin Blossoms

5 Things I Love About “Found Out About You” by Gin Blossoms:

***WARNING: CRAZY FLASHY STROBE STUFF GOING ON HERE***

1. THE JANGLE SOUND: That’s the best Buck-riff since “The One I Love.”
2. THE ADOLESCENT PATHOS: “Whispers at the bus stop/I heard about nights out at the school yard/Found out about you…”
3. THE VOCALS: Robin Wilson unleashes a powerful lead; his dynamic range is really something.
4. THE ANGUISHED NOSTALGIA: Something about the band’s sound brings back fond memories of the past, but then you listen to the lyrics. This is some dark stuff…
5. THE TORTURED GENIUS: This track was written by Doug Hopkins, along with the band’s other early hit “Hey Jealousy.” Dude was a songwriting prodigy who left us too early, and this one proves it.

What do you love about “Found Out About You?”

5 Things: “Tinfoil” by Rainer Maria

5 Things I Love About “Tinfoil” by Rainer Maria:

1. The Dueling Vox: This is one of  the best vocal attacks in indie rock. It ranks up there with Robbins/Barbot from Jawbox’s “Dreamless.” It takes some skill to keep your words straight and play an instrument when someone else is shouting something else right next to you.
2. The Hyper-Poetic Lyrics: Do I understand what they mean by “Your chest is a cage for my letters/And your handwriting’s better than mine?” Nope. But it sort of comes off like a riddle, doesn’t it? Fun, right? And the full-throated delivery makes it clear that these kids REALLY mean it.
3. Excellent Bass Work: The tough thing about a stripped down three-piece rock band is that bass has to pick up the slack so that the music doesn’t become two-dimensional. Fortunately, Caithlin De Marrais’ low end work delivers something aggressive and melodic, adding real depth and warmth to the band’s sound. Reminds me of one of my favorite Louisville post-punk bands, Sunspring.
4. Poly-Rhythmic Madness: One minute it’s full out aggression, one minute it’s a nice sort of waltz. Whatever it is, the song always feels like it’s about to blow apart at the seams, so much so that they have to slow it down here and there to restore some semblance of balance. I’m feeling it – “drunk with rage.”
5. The “Indie” Sound – This is what indie rock sounded like before it went big-time in the 2000′s – obscurist, hyper-literate, raw, strong-willed, unbalanced and overflowing with cacophonous melody. “Tinfoil” is the kind of track I would drive around listening to with my friends in high school, out and about with no place to go.

Video Bonus Points: Gotta dig Caithlin’s twirls at the end of the song. These kids could rock!!!

What do you like about this track?

Back Tracks: Josh Ritter Rarities Mix

In tribute to the release of his 6th album today, here’s a little mix I put together celebrating some of Josh Ritter’s best back tracks:

Josh Ritter
Overnite

1. Good Man (live)
2. Blame It On the Tetons
3. Spot In My Heart
4. Peter Killed the Dragon
5. Kathleen (live)
6. In the Dark (demo)
7. Naked as a Window
8. Girl In the War (live)
9. You Don’t Make It Easy Babe (live)
10. Bandits (live)
11. Golden Age of Radio (live)
12. Harbortown
13. Wolves (live)
14. Overnite
15. Monster Ballads (early version)
16. Daddy’s Little Pumpkin (live)
17. Labelship Down
18. Peter Killed the Dragon (live)
19. Wildfires
20. Snow Is Gone (live)
21. Girl In the War (live)

What are your favorite “lost” Ritter tracks?

Top 10 Tracks: Death Cab For Cutie (part 2)

Here’s part 2 of my top 10 Death Cab for Cutie tracks, in no particular order…

Different Names for the Same Thing: Nobody lends drama to thoughtful angst quite like Benny G., and here’s more proof. The first part of the track consists of a piano, a thunderstorm, and Dr. Gibbard’s echoing vox. Distance and sadness right there. The second part accelerates into a jam, yet still there’s no closing the distance between what’s in his heart and what he’s looking for. Communication as infinite distance…classic stuff.

Bend to Squares: Death Cab makes a grandiose statement right out of the gate: we are mope, and we are proud. This is a great track, mournful and beautiful. The cello sounds less like an afterthought and more like a key component of the band’s sound. Gotta love that.

A Movie Script Ending: This is one of the band’s best riffs. Gibbard demonstrates his penchant for the turn of phrase and lyrical imagery: “As if saved from the gallows, there’s a bellow of buzzers and people stop working, and they’re all so excited – excited.” Loathing never sounded so pretty.

We Laugh Indoors: Another great riff, and now we’ve got some tempo to boot! Yet just when you think the band might get just a little bit aggressive, think again: “I loved you Guinevere, I loved you, Guinevere, I loved you” ad infinitum…

Transatlanticism: Death Cab doesn’t do epic all that often, but this one’s a masterpiece. Visual, narrative, climactic, cataclysmic, all full of pathos and the human condition. Nice melody and guitar too. As a thousand Gibbard’s howl “So come on!” who isn’t overwhelmed?

What are your favorite Death Cab tracks?

5 Things: “Wonderwall” by Oasis

5 Things I Love About “Wonderwall” by Oasis…

1. Liam’s non-dynamic vocal – he sounds like a bratty three year old in a grown man’s body, but it wouldn’t sound right otherwise. Even complete knuckleheads are born to do something great.
2. The cello…in my mind, it makes this the definitive recording of the song, even above the Ryan Adams version, but it manages to lurk in the background rather than stealing center stage from Noel’s genius acoustic patterns.
3. Somewhere in Europe, there is a college dropout with an acoustic guitar covering this song in a touristy, open air setting.
4. The utterly ubiquitous and gloriously ambiguous refrain: “And all the roads we have to walk are winding/And all the lights that lead us there are blinding.” It’s always true, but somehow, it manages to defy cliche…
5. It’s a masterpiece of impressionist pop songwriting. Fifteen years on, and it’s still anybody’s guess what a “wonderwall” is, yet we all sing it like we know.

5 Things: “Hearts of Stone” by Bruce Springsteen

5 Things I Love About Bruce Springsteen’s “Hearts of Stone”…

1. Steve Van Zant’s nasty backing vocals.
2. The saxophone – God bless you, Big Man.
3. The Boss’ delivery – totally over-the-moon, even for Springsteen.
4. The tempo – so slow the song just oozes heart and soul from every crack.
5. “I can’t talk now I’m not alone/So put your ear close to the phone/This is the last dance/Our last chance…”

What do you like about “Hearts of Stone”?

5 Reasons: “So Runs the World Away” by Josh Ritter

5 Reasons I’m looking forward to Josh Ritter’s new album So Runs the World Away:

- This is the guy who made The Animal Years, one of the best albums of the last decade.
- He’s now happily married to another excellent songwriter, Dawn Landes. One would hope this spells good things for his songwriting.
- He just previewed a few of these songs during a Daytrotter session, and they sound great.
- I was not completely enamored with his last album, “Historical Conquests.” Usually, that means I REALLY like the artists’ next album. See Wilco (A Ghost Is Born => Sky Blue Sky), Radiohead (Hail to the Thief => In Rainbows)…
- He’s been re-recording his back catalog in solo acoustic mode. The process of getting back to basics tends to improve a songwriter’s artistry.

So Runs the World Away is out May 4th on Pytheas.

Are you looking forward to this album? Why or why not?

Top 10 Tracks: Death Cab For Cutie (part 1)

Here’s part 1 of my top 10 Death Cab for Cutie tracks, in no particular order…

Grapevine Fires: This is the strongest track on their last album. It’s a serious stylistic change-up for the band, and a total success at that.

Photobooth: It displays all that is great about the “classic” Death Cab sound, and the band gets style points for the clever and catchy use of the click track.

405: The band opened with this when I saw their “welcome home, world conquerors” show in Seattle in 2006. The 405 is the Seattle interstate bypass, but to me this one drives straight into the heart of that city.

The Employment Pages: Close your eyes and put on your headphones for this one. When you begin to float away on clouds of mopey, ethereal bliss, you’ll understand why people go nuts about Death Cab for Cutie. Classic lyric: “We spread out/And occupied the cracks in the urban streets.”

Title & Registration: This hyper catchy tune features a classic Death Cab riff, but it’s the lyrics that ultimately steal the show. The fact that Gibbard can take something as common place as a glove compartment and stretch it into a mournful meditation on love lost as prison cell shows just what kind of talent we are dealing with. Simply put, this is masterful songwriting.