Friday Utilitarian Music: Stayin’ Alive in the Wall

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People seemed into last week’s music sharing post, so I figured I’d do it again.

For my contribution, I thought I’d post this amazing mash-up by Wax Audio that I rediscovered yesterday.
 

 
So let us know in comments what you were listening to this week.

15 thoughts on “Friday Utilitarian Music: Stayin’ Alive in the Wall”

  4. This week I’ve been obsessed with Swedish psych bands like Dungen and The Amazing, both featuring the awesome Reine Fiske on lead guitar. I dusted off my old Crybaby pedal for rehearsal Monday night just because of this song, “Panda”:

    Dungan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hey5JOvnEiY

    The Amazing (sorry I missed their gig at Schubas just a few weeks ago):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5vY4_y-fq8

    And even if it’s nostalgia I love the opening track from the new My Bloody Valentine, “She Found Now.” The rest of the album is growing on me, too, but this track is simply beautiful:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBKjhgHGVZs

  5. I’m into this retro-80s, sounds-like-disco-and-the-Kamen-Rider-theme-song trend in Kpop this week:

    Nine Muses – News and Ticket and Figaro and Dolls.

    Rainbow – Mach and A and their upcoming single unless it turns out to sound nothing like the teaser.

    Of course Infinite – The Chaser (and Sweetune in general) is what set this whole wave off. I’m using The Chaser – song starts 51 seconds into the music video – as my alarm clock at the moment.

    On the non-Sweetune front there’s Vixx – On and On VS MyName – Just That Little Thing (also with subtitles). VIXX-dudes already know this, but they should really take a page from MyName and mentally check-out of this psychotic relationship (but then what would they write songs about? + “I Need Therapy Lalalala Therapy” is an all-time great pop hook).

    Going further into soundtrack territory, a song capable of gaining HU approval: e.via – Night Blooming Roses. e.via currently in dispute with her management company and will henceforth be performing under a different name, though I don’t remember what it is just now.

    In non-Kpop retro sounds, I like Lady’s album and hope to see them at SXSW. I also like CeeLo Green’s protege V and Jade Alston who put out a really good mixtape last year.

    Finally, thanks to an article on hacked games in Nigeria, I’ve been listening to some Indonesia rock and rap recently.

  7. This isn’t meant as a diss or take-down, but I never understood the accolades for J Dilla. His beats always seemed pretty pedestrian to me…but so many musos with good taste like him that I must just be missing something

  8. OPETH – Ghost Reveries
    ((I really like bits of it but there wasnt any full songs I liked. Opeth are one of those bands that divide people and even their fans on everything they do))

    LYDIA LUNCH – Queen Of Siam
    ((Awesome, another album I’ve wanted for many years and I can see why it is a classic. Sophisticated jazz with weird punky stuff on top. She is an interesting character))

    URIAH HEEP – Very ‘Eavy Very ‘Umble
    ((I actually sped up buying this one because Noah mentioned it somewhere; but King Diamond’s recommendation was a big factor. I really like parts of it, some good songs, but even though I can take some cliches and enjoy a lot of great 70s hard rock despite them, some of this is just far too thick with cliche and a bit generic. I’m really into the idea of Heep, so I hope this isnt their best album like some people say it is. I’ll get more someday))

    AMON DUUL II – Phallus Dei
    ((Quite different from the other stuff I heard by them, liking it so far))

    KATE BUSH – Lionheart
    ((I’m becoming a big fan of her, this is my third album by her. Right up my street. She really is a genius))

    PATTY WATERS – Sings
    ((I always heard this was a scary album but only the last track is. Very short album))

  9. I loooove Very ‘Eavy. It seems like Queen on steroids to me; the classic rock cliches are just blown up and gigantic and crazed in this way that is just sublime. If you don’t like that one, I don’t know that any other of their albums will really do it for you….

  10. I wouldnt say it was blown up, gigantic, crazed and sublime, especially when you consider all the nutty gigantic prog from those days. It wasnt blown up enough. I would like less wenches and more monsters and wizards, which the later albums are said to deliver. I do like “Gypsy” and “Dreammare” quite a bit.

    Have you ever heard Devil Doll? Because they are as good as it gets if you like epic blown up sublime demented classical metal/goth prog that is obsessed with silent film imagery. They are a little known revelation, but the vocalist turns off a lot of people because he sounds like the actor Dwight Frye crossed with Peter Hammill (A great combination I’d say). Annoying to people who are annoyed by the vocals of Current 93 and Legendary Pink Dots, but a delight to me.
    I’d urge you to get Sacrilegium and Dies Irae. EPIC symphonic albums about madness and art!

  11. Prog is great…but I don’t know that I’ve heard any prog as crazed as Uriah Heap myself. And I’ve heard a good bit of prog. But different strokes!

    Devil Doll sounds fun though; I’ll try to check that out.

  12. I think you may be seeing “crazed” from a different angle than I, surely you can see how “Come Away Melinda”, “Lucy Blues” and “Real Turned On” could seem quite conventional?
    I think absurdity is one of the most important things about Yes, Devil Doll, Hammill/Van Der Graaf Generator, Rush, Goblin, ELP, Magma, Gong, Ruins/Koenjihyakkei, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Cardiacs etc. I try not to keep fixed expectations of a genre, but I always want prog that is bigger and more bonkers insane; it taps into something rare and beautiful that is immensely moving when it gets extreme enough.

  13. Come Away Melinda is pretty thoroughly ridiculous, I think. As is Real Turned On.

    I haven’t heard all of those…but I think one of the things I like about Uriah Heap (which is again somewhat like Queen) is that there aren’t really the art pretensions that you get in the Ruins, or even Yes or Genesis. It really comes across as bloated trash…which may be part of what’s striking you as conventional? I mean, Come Away Melinda is really ridiculously melodramatic in a movie-of-the-week way rather than a sci-fi apocalypse way (or in a movie-of-the-week way by means of sci-fi apocalypse, perhaps.) Maybe the extremity is in another direction than the one you like?

  14. I think I get what you mean now. That song sounds a lot like a Greg Lake ballad.

    You keep spelling it Heap instead of Heep. In general forum discussion it seems everyone knows and recommends the albums up to 1975 and occasionally something like Abominog from the 80s but otherwise blank. That is intriguing me because the stereotypical fantasy the covers seem to offer make me hopeful. Most music shops usually have at least 10 of their albums, which suggests they sell pretty well, so I dont know why there isnt more commentary on the later ones.

  15. They get duller as they go along. None of them really have the same charge as the first one, as far as I can tell, though I do enjoy several of them.

    There were personnel changes too I think.

    And my spelling is horrible. Always has been, alas.

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