Tag: Getting The Spins

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Getting The Spins: XTC – Black Sea

(Virgin, 1980; Epic, 1982)

I love XTC. Adore them. They’re one of those bands that, sure, they’ve put out a couple weak-for-them records–but have they ever made a truly bad one? That’s a discussion for another time (the answer is no). XTC is one of those bands I am comfortably familiar with, but also continually discovering and rediscovering. Like, I just put on Black Sea for the first time in a maybe a year, and now I’m wondering if this is now my favorite XTC record (which I’ve always considered The Dukes’ records and the obvious Skylarking to be). It’s the perfect stop between the punkier White Music and more polished pop of English Settlement. Black Sea is spinning as I write this, and “Towers of London” just came on…and, yeah, this album just keeps on giving. So, yes. This is absolutely my favorite XTC record. For now.

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Getting The Spins: Terry Riley – A Rainbow in Curved Air

(CBS Records, 1969)

Terry Riley’s music still sounds as otherworldly as it did when it was released. Now wrap your head around the fact his best-known work In C came out in 1964–19-fucking-64! Some perspective: It was the dawn of the British Invasion, and teenyboppers were dancing (at safe and appropriate social distances) to “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Baby Love.” By the time Riley released A Rainbow in Curved Air in 1969, music was growing more adventurous…and it was still light years ahead of its time. This record remains a perfect specimen of minimalist electronic ambient music, influenced as much by Indian classical music (most notably singer Pandit Pran Nath) as it was the psychedelics Riley was ingesting. “[Drugs] had a big impact on the way I conceived a musical form,” Riley told me last year (in what ended up being the final piece I wrote for the CN&R). “It took me into details of music that I hadn’t seen before. It blew things up, like a big magnifying glass.” You don’t have to do drugs in order to enjoy Riley’s music, but it’d be a lot cooler if you did.

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Getting The Spinz: Split Enz – Frenzy

(A&M Records, 1979)

Anyone who knows me knows I am a lover of all things Finn: I love Tim. I love Neil. I love Liam. I love Crowded House (ssshh…don’t tell anyone). And I love Split Enz. Frenzy was released in 1979, one year before the band broke through with True Colours and became fixtures on MTV with their always-fantastic videos. This one is kind of overlooked…even by me! But as I revisit Frenzy, I am absolutely loving it. While 1977’s Dizrythmia marked Split Enz’s transition out of weirdo circus art prog, Frenzy sees the band settling into the taut new wave pop that would colour the rest of their output. A 20-year-old Neil Finn also made his Enz debut on this record (with the excellent “Give It a Whirl,” “Holy Smoke” and “Carried Away”), but brother Tim takes the lead throughout most of Frenzy (bassist Nigel Griggs also deserves a nod for his knotty post-punk closer “Livin’ It Up”). “I See Red,” “Master Plan” and “Marooned” are all pop perfection, which is essentially all you get with Split Enz. I am 4FR a frenz of Enz.

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Getting The Spins: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

(Capitol Records, 1985)

Seems fitting, right? “All we want is life beyond…the Quarantine.” I love this soundtrack, which I picked up cheap at the record show I recently attended. I literally hadn’t heard “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” since I was taping the song off the radio in 1985. It’s fucking great. It’s fucking Tina Turner! The instrumental version on here is also quite fun to listen to. And add to it a whole second side of Maurice Jarre instrumental magick, and you’ve got the sounds of a true hunker-down dance party.

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Getting The Spins: Steve Hillage – Green

(Virgin, 1978)

I’ve been looking for this for a while now. For some reason this one ain’t cheap, even though you can find other Hillage records for under 10 bucks. Anyway, I traded in some old junkers and got this shiny Japanese pressing for nothing, and I’m stoked. Steve Hillage was, of course, once part of the mighty Gong, the tripped-out British space prog band that put a out a string of (inter)stellar records in the 1970s. While Hillage’s first three solo albums are guitar onslaughts, Green dives into more synthesizers and gets a little funkier. This one has lots of twists and turns, and it’s probably my favorite Hillage record, which I’m sure to many is considered Hillage sacrilege.

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Getting The Spins: Buffy Sainte-Marie – Illuminations

(Vanguard, 1969)

Easily the best $10 I spent at the Eugene Record Show this past weekend. I’d forgotten this was on my list until I saw Buffy looking back at me from the bin. This cosmic cult classic veers from Sainte-Marie’s more traditional style of folk music (although, she was an outsider even then)–it’s darker and more experimental than anything she’s done, pushing her voice and instrumentation into ghostly realms. Sainte-Marie is a trailblazer on many levels. On Illuminations she ran her vocals through a Buchla 100 synthesizer, something that hadn’t been done before. She was probably the first woman to talk about, and breastfeed, on television. Throughout her career she’s been outspoken about women’s and Native Americans’ place in society. She denounced Vietnam and the Nixon Administration. Simply put: Illuminations and Buffy Sainte-Marie were lightyears ahead of their time.

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Getting The Spins: Richard and Linda Thompson – I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

(Island, 1974)

There aren’t many artists that can easily bring me to tears, but Richard and Linda Thompson sure can. Linda’s voice alone does that, but add Richard’s low-end harmony and I melt into a puddle. Or when he squeezes off one of those moving guitar solos. Or when he drops a minor chord in just the right spot. I listen to I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight a lot–sometimes it’s the only thing that gets me through the day with my faculties intact. “The Cavalry Cross” makes time stand still, and the title track is a joyous sliver of hedonistic ’70s barroom rock. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention Timi Donald, whose laid back, yet precise drumming is one of my favorite things about this record (he’s also excellent on John Cale’s Slow Dazzle). This album is perfection and, if you’re looking for more, 1975’s Pour Down Like Silver notches only slightly lower for me.

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Getting The Spins: U2 – The Joshua Tree

(Island, 1987)

As a metalhead–and a knucklehead–in high school, bands like U2 and INXS were like poison (not Poison…I liked them), and best avoided. And just imagine my horror back then when The Edge was making “best guitarists” lists alongside Eddie Van Halen and Kirk Hammett. I grew to appreciate those bands (and The Edge) after the fact. While I still enjoy The Joshua Tree for the most part, I can see it for being the overwrought record that it is. Honestly, I just put it on so I could listen to “In God’s Country,” which is still a magical three minutes, and, to me, the reason The Edge made those lists back in 1987.

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Getting The Spins: Ike & Tina Turner – Nutbush City Limits

(United Artists, 1973)

It’s hard to choose a favorite Ike & Tina record, but this is probably it for me (1971’s ‘Nuff Said also gets a lot of spins around here). The title track alone is worth the price of admission, but then you have killer kuts like “Make Me Over,” “Club Manhattan” and their fiery, difinitive version of “River Deep, Mountain High”–guaranteed to draw some blood, sweat and tears! And Tina Turner is, was, and always will be, the goddamn Queen. Bow down.

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Getting The Spins: Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath

(Vertigo, 1970)

What else would I be listening to on this unholiest of days? (I bought this original German Vertigo pressing a decade ago for 10 bucks, for you nerds). Released in the UK on February 13, 1970–Friday the 13th, of course–Black Sabbath’s debut invented an entire genre–guess which one? Fifty years ago. There were a lot of hard rock bands at the time (Sir Lord Baltimore, Coven, Blue Cheer), but no one conjured the bleakness or evil that these four blokes from Birmingham had. Or the riffs. Or that voice. Tony Iommi rightfully gets credit for creating some of the most menacing riffs ever put on tape, but Ozzy Osbourne’s vocals were from another dimension. Add to that a rhythm section of bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, and you have a band that would release six straight untouchable records that can still crush anything that has come since. Heavy metal as we know it started right here. Let us pray. And let us listen to my favorite cut from this slab o’ doom.