Monthly Archives: March 2015

My iPod #479: The Dismemberment Plan – Gyroscope

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I got round to listening to The Dismemberment Plan’s cult classic Emergency & I sometime in late 2013, and it was another one of those times where I listened to an album the whole way through for the first time and thought: “Yep. That was a good one.” Probably one of the quirkiest albums about modern life and growing pains to exist with keyboard-heavy tracks and syncopation present in almost every song, but the way they are delivered along with Travis Morrison’s passionate vocal delivery make each subject matter touched upon in the twelve tracks seem so real and easy to understand. A really good album, you should hear it.

“Gyroscope” is track eight on the album and observes two people who go out for a date. The first verse describes the lady getting ready for it whilst the second appears to describe the male’s feelings after the ordeal. This being set to an irregular time signature that is very hard to get your head around, still is for me today, with minor sounding chords to set the uneasy tone. That is though before suddenly bursting into major key, keyboard-filled, sing-a-long chorus that’s bound to get you off your feet. I always liked that for the final chorus the lyrics then turn their attention to the listener, making it more personal and relatable. And it all sounds so happy until all the instruments stop playing, leaving Morrison to sing the track’s final words on his own just to reinforce that anxious feeling.

Great song. And with that the G’s are done. Thanks for reading. Don’t think I’ve had as much likes for posts for the other letters as I have for G, I appreciate it. Will be back to cover the songs beginning with H soon.

My iPod #478: Animal Collective – Guys Eyes

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A Panda Bear-penned track that had been around and heard in a much more mellow and calming form circa 2007 with the name “Song for Ariel“, “Guys Eyes” came to be the final result of the Animal Collective treatment the original track underwent and was placed as the seventh track on the group’s 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavilion.

The song sees Noah Lennox singing about his desire to please ‘[his] girl’. She isn’t there. And at the end of the song it is suggested that he has pleased himself instead of waiting for her.

In its new form the track possessed a bouncier 12/8 rhythm, weird pitch-shifted vocals that are buried in the mix, forceful stop-starting bass drums, flickering percussion and glorious counter-melodies. And those are only in the first few verses of the thing. About 1 1/2 minutes in, the song builds into this hypnotizing groove as Avey Tare and Panda Bear repeatedly sing the words ‘need her’. The walls close in all around as the tension continues to build as these two words are burrowed into your mind, until you’re snapped back into reality once returning to the melodies established in the opening verses for the closing moments.

My iPod #477: The Darkness – Growing on Me

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A song from Permission to Land and released as the album’s second single in 2003, “Growing on Me” contrary to popular belief is not in any way about genital warts or other sexual infections. It is more about the feeling one gets when coming across an attractive person that you can never truly understand, but you love them that much that after a while it doesn’t matter anymore. That is what Justin Hawkins said in an old interview, anyway.

And so in the track the lead singer with his trademark falsetto and high-pitched wails describes his pains and yearning for this person that he just can’t shake from his mind with a soundscape of dominant guitars and a steady rhythm section, as is the standard for any hard rock group.

I saw the video for this on the TV months after I first heard it on my physical copy of the album. It is a very low-budget production. But honestly at the age of nine or so, that didn’t matter at all. At that point the song had already become one of my favourites from Permission to Land, and to see its hilariously sub-par video didn’t put a dent in my feeling towards it. Sounds great today just as it did then.

My iPod #476: Pavement – Grounded

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“Grounded” is a Pavement song that can be found on the band’s third album Wowee Zowee, released in 1995. The album is loved many a fan of the band due to its complete randomness ranging from structured, melodic and accessible tracks such as this one to the bizarre, humourous, on the spot takes like “Brinx Job” for example. There are many reasons why it’s considered to be the band’s “White Album”.

“Grounded” is track five on Wowee Zowee after the silliness in “Brinx Job”, and after a slow count-in by Stephen Malkmus comes a beautiful twinkling guitar riff that makes use of only three notes but combined with Mark Ibold’s simple descending bass line (which interestingly doesn’t change one bit during the whole song) and Steve West’s drums makes for the most comforting and mellow musical moments on the whole album.

One thing that Stephen Malkmus tends to do is sing the same melody as a guitar pattern that repeats during a section of a song. Listen to “Unfair” or “Rattled by the Rush“. Well, there’s another instance of this occasion. This time during the verses where he sings in unison with the Drop-D tuned guitar. These then increase in intensity climaxing in the track’s climactic instrumental refrain, which slowly climbs up and up before falling face-first with an emphatic crash. These are all repeated once more, and the opening riff arrives again – this time faster and accompanied by the rest of the band – to close the song out for the last minute.

Love this song. One of their best. And one about doctors too if that does anything for you. An underrated indie anthem.

My iPod #475: Green Day – Green Day

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An old old old Green Day song today. “Green Day” is a track from the band’s first album 39 Smooth released in 1990 when they weren’t signed to a major label and didn’t have Tré Cool as their drummer. Weird to think, huh? But it’s very true.

You may think it a bit strange to have a song with the same name as the band itself. I know I did for a long time. But it was after realisation that the track was probably written whilst the band weren’t known as “Green Day” but by the name of “Sweet Children” initially. It’s known that the group changed their name to the former just because it sounded better – which I’m sure we can all agree on – and the context behind it is pretty funny too. When you smoke weed, it’s a green day.

And so, that is what this song is about. Smoking weed. Seeing strange things whilst under the influence. All set to an unpolished production of punk rock. Niiiice.