The Days of Lore

Psychedelic Horseshit: A piece of shitgaze

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 | musiX | No Comments

You’d have a hard time pinning down Psychedelic Horseshit … though the band’s name kinda says it all. The Columbus, Ohio two-piece coined the term “shitgaze” to describe their music, thus giving music scribes something to cling on to (Does this count as a pun? Maybe a really bad pun?).

Their latest LP Laced is slightly less shitgazy, a little less soiled if you will. That’s a good thing if you ask me. Lo-fi/shitgaze/pee-twee/poop punk—whatever you want to call it this week—has ruined many a good song. The new record is by no means clean, but now there’s a little more umph! to it.

Take “French Countryside,” for instance, which sounds like a stroll through a tropical forest in that old hooptie that got you everywhere in high school. Bottom line: Shitgaze is dead. Long live Psychedelic Horseshit.

“French Countryside” - Psychedelic Horseshit

Like The Days of Lore on Facebook. Follow TDoL on Twitter.

Tags: FatCat, Laced, Psychedelic Horseshit

Weezer wheezes the tunes

Monday, May 30th, 2011 | musiX | No Comments

I have a great idea! Instead of releasing new music Weezer should, from here on out, only record unexpected and wacky covers. In Vegas. Dressed as the Village People. Weezer recently covered Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” in the studio (they’ve also done Gaga and MGMT in the past), and I must say they did a pretty good job. But it’s not enough for me. I need more. I need something zanier. More out of their element.

Here are TDoL’s Top 5 Zany Cover-Song Suggestions for Rivers & Co. … or are they zany?

1. “Make It With You” - Bread
2. “Sucka Nigga” - A Tribe Called Quest
3. “Fight Fire With Fire” - Metallica
4. “Pursuance”; “Psalm,” Parts 3 and 4 of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme
5. “Luckenbach Texas” - Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson

Weezer’s cover of “Paranoid Android”:

Like The Days of Lore on Facebook. Follow TDoL on Twitter.

Tags: "Paranoid Android" cover, Radiohead, Weezer

Ramblin’ Fever With DJs Poncho & Lefty

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

My good pal Robert Ham over at The Voice of Energy and I will haul our bins of records down to Portland’s Beauty Bar tonite to spin only the finest pre-’78 country and western music. If you’re in Portland, come on down from 10 p.m. to close and I’ll buy you a beer. Then you’ll buy me a beer. Then we’ll do some awkward square dancing. Then we’ll do it all again.

Expect some newly acquired gems from Buck Owens, Tex Ritter, Little Jimmy Dickens and a whole lot more. And expect Beauty Bar to become slightly less beautiful for one night only.

Like The Days of Lore on Facebook . Follow TDoL on Twitter .

Tags: Beauty Bar Portland, country and western, Ramblin' Fever with DJs Poncho & Lefty, records, TDoL DJ Night

Who wants a Huggy Bear?

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 | musiX | No Comments

A friend mine said this would make his “top 20 songs ever list.” I’d have to agree with him.

Like The Days of Lore on Facebook. Follow TDoL on Twitter.

Tags: "Pansy Twist", Huggy Bear

The sacrificial Ram

Friday, May 6th, 2011 | musiX, pdX | 1 Comment

Paul McCartney has always been the most polarizing member of that one band from Liverpool for several reasons: a) He’s had the most prolific post-Beatle career, b) Lennon didn’t live long enough to become cheesy, and c) because he’s the cute one.

When McCartney released his second solo record, Ram, in 1971, music critics chewed it up and spat it out and then spat it out again. As Robert Christgau spat it: “… most of the songs are so lightweight they float away even as Paulie layers them down with caprices.” Indeed, it’s far less introspective or serious than All Things Must Pass or John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and more sparse and raw than the Beatles’ cinematic later work. But that was 1971. Ram has since been embraced as the charming piece of pop that it is.

Portland go-to musician Dave Depper (Loch Lomond, the Decemberists, Norfolk & Western, every band in existence) found it charming enough to re-record the entire album (including the Ram-era B-side “Oh Woman, Oh Why”). The Ram Project is really good. And it plays eerily close to the original, while playing to its own ramshackle charms. Depper recorded the entire thing—playing all the instruments himself—in just 31 days with the help of his wife, local artist Joan Hiller, who ably sings the parts of Linda.

Interestingly, the project was essentially a challenge to himself to see if Depper could deliver the goods (he even kept a blog to document the recording’s progress and hold himself accountable). Now it’s being released on vinyl through Jackpot Records and in Europe on City Slang. Oh, and there’s a big record release show here in Portland at the Doug Fir. All this without really even trying. And with that Depper has just tied Richard Starkey for the number of good solo albums under his belt.

Dave Depper performs Ram in its entirety Saturday, May 7 at the Doug Fir. Lewi Longmire performs Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush and Sean Nelson performs the songs of Harry Nilsson.

“Dear Boy” - Dave Depper

“Oh Woman, Oh Why” - Dave Depper

Like The Days of Lore on Facebook. Follow TDoL on Twitter.

Tags: City Slang, Dave Depper, Jackpot Records, Joan Hiller, Paul McCartney, Ram, The Ram Project

True Widow: Seismic matters

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 | musiX | 1 Comment

Dallas trio True Widow makes huge racket. Not nearly as huge as the title of their latest long player—As High As the Mountains and From the Center to the Circumference of Earth—but big (and sllooooww), nonetheless. I guess it makes sense considering everything is bigger in Texas—including opening bass lines. Try “Skull Eyes” on for size—so good you’ll forget the band gave themselves the hideous label “stonegaze.”

“Skull Eyes” - True Widow

Like The Days of Lore on Facebook. Follow TDoL on Twitter.

Tags: As High As the Mountains and From the Center to the Cir, Kemado Records, True Widow

Black Friday, White Knuckles, Red Fang

Friday, April 29th, 2011 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

How do you categorize Portland’s Red Fang? Four 30-somethings who wield mammoth rock riffs like young’ns and apparently have little regard for metal’s conventions. They’ve been called metal, stoner rock, neo-grunge—all of which is just music critic-speak for “I don’t know what the fuck to call them” …

… Well, I don’t know what the fuck to call them, either. They’re not exactly metal (though that probably would be the most accurate descriptor). They’re not just a rock band (or are they?). They’re not stoner (musically speaking). And neo-grunge is just a slap in the fangs. The band’s second release Murder the Mountains (Relapse) is a monster. And it’s all over the place—heavy as a two-ton slab of concrete, intricate when needed and, dare I say it, accessible. “Wires” offers the best of all worlds—multiple parts, moodiness, power, aggression—which sounds a lot like metal, but it’s not. The record is also produced by the Decemberists’ Chris Funk, who cleans up these guys’ act while at the same time pushing them to volumes usually associated with jet engines (and Motörhead).

While 2009’s self-titled release—and more specifically the video for “Prehistoric Dog”—got them some notice outside Portland, Murder the Mountains has them positioned for world takeover. Beginning with a First Listen from the folky folks over at NPR, and now with U.S. tours, Euro tours and a slot on the Mayhem Festival with … Disturbed? OK, it is now Red Fang’s duty to completely crush Disturbed fans’ skulls (figuratively speaking, of course). I think they’ve got it in ‘em.

“Wires” - Red Fang

Like The Days of Lore on Facebook. Follow TDoL on Twitter.

Tags: "Prehistoric Dog", Murder the Mountains, Portland music, Red Fang, Relapse Records