I still have not gotten the few records that I have been so
excited to write about. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to write
about though.
Yesterday was black Friday. More importantly, it was BlackFriday Record Store Day (BFRSD). I went to The Electric Fetus, one of my local
record stores. The store had previously posted on its web site that they would
hand out numbers starting at 8:30. I got the family ready and we were at the
store by 7:30. We got up to the door, there was no one there yet and waited for
the numbers to be handed out. An employee came out at about 7:45 and gave us
our numbers starting at 16. He also told us that they started handing out
numbers at 7 instead of 8:30. I was a little miffed about that but 16 was still
a good number. We went and got a quick breakfast and came back to the line. The
other thing that they did that was different this year was to allow each person
to pick up seven items. This sucked because everything was totally picked over
of the things that I wanted. I got one thing for my wife of the six things we
wanted. I was pretty pissed about that.
We then decided to go over to another local record store,
Down In The Valley. They opened an hour later than The Electric Fetus. We got
there and got better numbers. We started at number 8. We were only allowed to
pick up three items per person as well. We were able to pick up every item that
we wanted this time. It was perfect.
Incubus released five of their past albums for BFRSD. We
picked up four of them; S.C.I.E.N.C.E., Make Your Self, A Crow Left of The
Murder and Light Grenades. We have an original copy of Morning View so we
did not get that a second time. We also picked up The Gaslight Anthem acoustic
10” and the Leonard Cohen/Jeff Buckley split single for Hallelujah. The last
two of which I talk about in this post.
On a side note I found out that Death Cab For Cutie are
putting out a box set of the albums that were released under the Barsuk label
through Artists In Residence. The box will cost about $250 though. I am going
to try to get one on order as soon as I can. The reason this is so important is
that if you were to try to buy any two of the albums in this box used on the
third party market it would be nearly as much as this box set costs.
On with the show…
This is a new single released in support of the NGen radio
show that Family Force 5 are doing. It is also in support of Black Friday. It
is free through the same page as Phenomenon. You do have to sign up again to
get this extra track called Chainsaw though. This track is not as electronic as Phenomenon is
and it reminds me of Wobble a little bit in that it is another song describing
a dance to a degree. The song uses a super cool electronic saw tooth sound to represent
the noise that a chainsaw makes. It is a lot of fun and takes from the 90s
dance/rap music. Get it if you can, it is up for free until Sunday.
This is the second 7” from this series. It was released to
coincide with Black Friday. The record consists of two songs just like the
previous one. You can get this as a download or as a record. I have not heard
of a CD release still as of yet. There may be one in February when all five of
the records have been released.
The first song off this record is called AMBULANCE. This
song starts out with a queen styled ahh chorded through all members of the
band. This queen style of singing and playing goes through the whole of the
song. A piano is also added in the background to add to the Queen sound of the
song. That means that this is not a power rock song like on the first record
that was released. It is refreshing to hear them show their appreciation for
another band. The song is a moderate rocker at best but it works for the song.
The second track on this record is called Gun. The bass line
has a distortion box on it. I have always loved this idea and I love that they
have done this on this song. The tempo is just slightly faster that the
previous song. It makes you want to bop your head a bit. The song seems to be
about a kid who wants to shoot up the town but doesn’t have a gun and certainly
doesn’t know where to get one. It is sort of funny to me because it really is
not that difficult to get one if you really had to have one here in the USA.
This is a split single released for BFRSD. It is numbered
with a foil stamp on the back above the barcode. I have number 684. It is a
black record cut at 33 1/3 RPM with a 45 RPM hole in the record. I don’t have
many records that have a 45 hole that are cut at 33 1/3. I don’t think that
this happens very often. This split single is in support of a documentary that
is coming out in December called The Holy or The Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff
Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah”. The documentary is going to go
over the making and remaking of the song. It will have interviews with the
likes of Bono and Bon Jovi. I have interest in the documentary but I am not
sure that I will buy it.
The A side of the record is the original version of Hallelujah
as sung by Leonard Cohen, who originally wrote and sung the song. This was originally recorded in 1984. Personally, I
dislike the original version. I don’t like the way that Leonard’s voice sounds
and I don’t like the lack of musicality that the song has. Leonard speaks most
of the lyrics except for the chorus and the guitar/synth is too simple for my
tastes. I got the split because I still respect Leonard as a musician still.
The B side of the record is Jeff Buckley’s famous cover
version of the song Hallelujah. I have been a fan of Jeff Buckley ever since his first
album and I have talked about some of his work here in the past. This version
has become the standard for me. His voice musically is unmatched. The song is
only helped by his guitar playing and the beautiful tones that he sets his
Fender guitar to for this song. It is truly angelic in tonality both vocally
and instrumentally. Every time I hear this version of the song tears stream
from my eyes.
I will always recommend hearing the two songs back to back
so that a true comparison can be made and so that the listener can make their
own choice as to which one is preferred.
This is a 10” clear red record that comes in a clear poly
outer sleeve with a sheet of paper folded in half to mostly cover the record in
the sleeve. This is also a BFRSD release. It was pressed in limited quantities
but not foil stamped like some of the other releases. This was a last minute
decision for me because I did not know about it when I went through the list of
releases the first time. I think it may have been added to the list after it
was published to the internet.
It is a three track record with both sides having the same
content. It is an acoustic set of songs. I thought it was strange that there
was no A or B side marked when I first looked at it out of the sleeve. The
first track on the record is called Hold You Up. I am not a fan of acoustic
tracks but these are pretty good. I think that the production adds to the songs
a lot though. On this first track the vocals have a bit of an echo giving them
a bit more presence. There is also an electric guitar used but it is used so
sparingly with no effects that it appears to will be acoustic still.
The second track is called Misery. It is a slower song with
a melancholy feel. The song seems to be about a guy wishing his ex-girlfriend
the best. It is really sweet. He misses her but knows she is not the right one.
He wishes she would find someone better than he was who will treat her better
than he could. He is still living in misery though because he has not moved on
yet.
The last song on this record is called Skinny Love. It is a
cover of the Bon Iver song of the same name. I love the Bon Iver version of
this song. I like The Gaslight Anthem and thought that they may have been able
to do a good cover of the song. This is actually why I got the record. As it
turns out they did not do the greatest with this song. The vocals are what
really through me. They are just not solid enough. The lead singers’ vocals are
shaky and too growly for me. The other thing that I am not to happy with is the
tone of the guitar is too dull. I am still happy that I have the 10” but just a
little disappointed over all. It may be that I have heard Bon Iver’s version so
many times that I have come to expect that every version should be that way.
But, like I said, it is a good version; I was just expecting something more
stable that what was recorded.
That is all I have for now... Only one more post for this year folks.
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