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 Post subject: Radcliffe's Sampler Mix - DumpJack Reviews
PostPosted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:08 pm 
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Okay, I've had this for awhile now and have not really had a decent period to sit down and listen and write. Well, I'm unemployed for the time being, so that freed up quite a lot of time. Radcliffe called this a 'sampler' so that's what I've titled it, as it's not a completely coherent mix, like the Monger series. It nearly was, up until the final third, and even then the songs weren't left field. So without further ado...

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1. Tim Easton- Dear Old Song and Dance – Good opening track about ‘the booze and pills and bottles and the bloody mary mornings’. These are just among the litany of substances listed, kind of a more decadent version of ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’, in that it got him feeling good, but looking rough. And he’s sick and tired of waking up and seeing death in his eyes. He’s done. This would have fit it near the end of one of the slowcore mixes as well. It would have been a great coda.

2. Giant Sand – Desperate Man - ‘I got Dylan filling in spaces of my stereo’ – I like that line. Overall, not a bad track, with a nice clattering Replacements quality circa Tim; the singer wails a bit like Westerberg and that’s always good. My only problem with it is it goes over 5 min. With a song like this, lesser is better for me.

3. Jerry Jerry & The Sons of the Rhythm Orchestra – Livin’ On Top – This song is fucking impossible to dislike. Seriously, with ‘I don’t like basketball or surfin’, but lord I do love bourbon’ and it’s “God Bless America/I’m livin’ on top, la dee da dee da, of the USA”. Jerry Jerry comments on a good number of the states, hitting the highs and lows. Kind of like Sufjan Stevens, but 1000x cooler.

4. Bona Roba – 4th of July - This is another immediate grabber, due in large part to the singer’s cool Southern snarl. ‘Everybody’s always talkin’ but no one’s listenin and the sound of the backyard stereo is all we’re hearin’. Isn’t that always the case at happenings like this? I can’t decide if the dude is bitching about this, or just stating the case. Because he never really follows up on it. I personally don’t think he’s bitching. I checked these guys out on the web and found their home site. They looked like a bunch of psychos who get the dead-eye drunk stare and suddenly decide to kick your ass with the all the sense of a cornered wolverine.

5. Bap Kennedy – Mostly Water – One of my favourite songs on the mix, if only for the singer’s lament ‘Don’t you know that I am mostly water?’. A lazy, mid-tempo song that sticks with you long after its over. This is another that could have been a slowcore track, but maybe that jaunty bounce might not fit in, but the sentiment does.

6. Field Trip – Keyhole – An excellent track, kickin’ off saying that ‘the devil came in through my keyhole…and then God came in the backdoor’ and then they sit down at the kitchen table to discuss, I’m guessing, our protagonists soul. I don’t know what there is to discuss. He’s playing the devils music. Satan’s got dibs. The best discussions always take place at the kitchen table. Where I’m from anyway, when folks are doing serious drinking, it’s always in the kitchen at the table. Seems like an apt place to argue over a soul and chances are someone is getting stabbed.

7. Thelonious Monster – For My Lover – The broad he’s singin’ about must be hellfire good. I’d heard of this band, but never heard them up until now. This is what I always wanted Moist to sound like, but they just couldn’t do it. Frankly this song was way to goddamn short. I wanted another minute of him yellin’ ‘For my lover, for my lover’.

8. Ian Hunter – Wash Us Away - ‘Hitler was dead, welcome to Babylon!’ What a great fucking song from a great fucking artist. If this song hit your radio in the car, you’d turn it up LOUD, not only because the song is so great but because you’d suddenly realize you’d popped into an alternate universe where stuff like this is played on the radio and you’d have to drown out the screams of joy or possibly horror at the realization. Ian Hunter is a neglected rock and roll god.

9. The Mendoza Line – An Architect’s Eye – Sounded like some good ol’ T. Rex right off, with Dylan on vocals. ALWAYS a good thing, I don’t care how fucking derivative it apparently is to do so. The song went from good to GREAT when the female vocalist comes on. I love when that happens. I don’t even know what the fucking song is about and I don’t care.

10. The Hangmen – Broke, Drunk and Stoned – ‘Nothing every comes cheap’. No fucking kidding, mate. Everything good in life is gonna cost you something. I dig this song, probably because I’m generally broke, always drunk and occasionally stoned. I think I would like it even better if I was drunk while listening to this. Alas, I’m not, but I will.

11. The Hellacopters – Might Come See You Tonight –Oh, shit. THIS might be my favourite song on the mix. This is like Cheap Trick with a slight country twinge with a big 80s chorus feel. The dude is a great a singer and I’m immediately listening closer and by the end I’m singing along with him. And handclaps over the chorus… my cup runneth over. Excellent fucking song. (EDIT: I’ve played it three times in a row.)

12. The Violet Archers – Time to Kill – Nice tune, kind of mid-tempo feel with some nice harmonies. I liked how he ended with ‘..a lot of time to kill...and rebuild’ and then the song kind of plays out slowly to the end over the next 40 seconds or so.

13. Catfish Haven – You Can Have Me – This guy is selling what seems to be a hard case because he’s all over the place pleading of all the things she can have and then he hits her with a ‘You can havvvvee meee, anytime! In the morning, the evening OH! OH! OH!’. Bold statement, I like his style. I am the final package. The cherry on top of the sundae. Great song, he never gives up.

14. The Cinders – The Pleasure is Mine - ‘The Days are getting longer and the nights are feeling good.’ - Wait! This might be my favourite song here. Feels like the Faces or the like. There are times when I think ALL music should like this. Period. 'Savin' up for Friday, I been waiting all week'. I fucking love these cock-sure songs about coming onto to broads, little stray girl, you can scratch me anytime. The pleasure is mine. Fucking perfect. The slammin’ piano juke fade out is the best.

15. The Lazy Cowgirls – Your Charmed Life is Fading Fast – This is impossible to ignore, killer beat and possibly the best song title I’ve heard in a quite awhile. ‘Better stop banking on things that don’t last’. He’s speaking The Truth on this song. Overall, it kinda reminded me of the Supersuckers without the goofiness. Good song.

16. Toys Went Berzerk – Brand New Life – Hmmm, things take a slight change in tone with this song. We’re in transition here in tone, but not tempo. First off, we’ve got our first female lead vocal, so you kind of notice that right off. It’s not jarring, but it is noticeable. The previous track was a great lead in here. With a song like this, I was waiting for a Big Chorus. The song is practically begging for it, but alas it doesn’t deliver it. So in a way, I kind of respect it, but I know it won’t stay with me.

17. Material Issue – When I Get This Way – Kind sounds like CCR right off the bat, ‘Up Around the Bend’ to be exact, but with the singer’s cadence totally reminds me of ‘I’ll Be You’ by the Replacements. I like this song despite both of those things. This song should have been a minor hit in the early winter of ’91. I imagine playing it on the jukebox in this local Chinese Restaurant called the Can-Am. Then I go back and order two eggrolls and a coffee and wonder where that girl is I’m looking for.

18. Painters and Dockers – Die Yuppie Die – Okay major change-up here. The song is the true breaking point here. I’m considering it on its own, and as it is, I like it. Ska-ish, with a great beat and chorus. I mean, who doesn’t fucking hate yuppies. They bore me with their ‘bold economic plans as well’, but usually it has to do with decorating and the Dave Matthews Band. You know, not one fucking yuppie has ever given me investment advice, and for that they should die. (EDIT: the first time I was listened to the album I had to stop here. I don’t know if it was a primacy/recency effect where you tend to remember the first and last things you hear in a series, but this song bounced around in my head the rest of the night.)

19. The Sports – Who Listens to The Radio – The change up continues, with a new wave feel here. Frankly I love songs like this, this whole era actually, it kind of reminds me of Rick Springfield circa ‘Working Class Dog’ or at least what I wanted Rick to sound like. Rick didn’t have this sensibility exactly. But the hand claps are gold. I can’t really hate any song with handclaps and it’s probably my most obvious musical achille’s heel.

20. The Trash Brats – No Jangle Thrust – Change-up no. 2. Trashy, fuzz guitar WAY out front of everything, fast and fun. I like the song but I can barely hear anything below the guitar. I hear some piano clanking vaguely and I can make out the some of the chorus. Everything is a wall of guitar. I liked it, but not as much as I could have.

21. Tommy Womack – Telling You What You Want to Hear – Back to the majority feel of the mix. I liked this one here right off. You can practically hear the singer tell a lady ‘Listen up, darlin’ I got something to tell you. Great song. I liked the line, “as his hands encroach your ass, keep your wits about you, lass. He’s just telling you what you want to hear”. I don’t know if this is good advice he’s imparting or if he’s cockblocking some other bloke for his own. Who cares, great, great song.

22. Alejandro Escovedo – Sway – Last song on the mix. Cover of the Stones’ song, one of my favourites on Sticky Fingers. It’s a pretty faithful cover. Frankly I wouldn’t want to hear a re-working of a song like this. Good end choice.
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Another great mix, Radcliffe. Despite it's apparent non-coherence, it functions extremely well and there's a half dozen songs on there that are so good, I'm stealing them for my own mixes at home. Many thanks.

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 Post subject: Re: Radcliffe's Sampler Mix - DumpJack Reviews
PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 3:08 pm 
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Apologies for taking so long to respond to this, DJ. I've been a lazy sumbitch.

DumpJack Wrote:
1. Tim Easton- Dear Old Song and Dance – Good opening track about ‘the booze and pills and bottles and the bloody mary mornings’. These are just among the litany of substances listed, kind of a more decadent version of ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’, in that it got him feeling good, but looking rough. And he’s sick and tired of waking up and seeing death in his eyes. He’s done. This would have fit it near the end of one of the slowcore mixes as well. It would have been a great coda.

And of course, this is where the title of the mix ("If You're Dutch You Can Laugh") comes from, mostly because the next line ("the rest of you can all fuck off") made me hit the rewind button about six times in a row.

DumpJack Wrote:
2. Giant Sand – Desperate Man - ‘I got Dylan filling in spaces of my stereo’ – I like that line. Overall, not a bad track, with a nice clattering Replacements quality circa Tim; the singer wails a bit like Westerberg and that’s always good. My only problem with it is it goes over 5 min. With a song like this, lesser is better for me.

Yeh, breaking that 3 minute barrier is an iffy proposition for a rave up about getting wasted - but that's what I love about old Giant Sand: they could never say no to an epic. This one in particular merits the extra minutes with that dramatic build up in the instrumental section, for me anyway.

DumpJack Wrote:
3. Jerry Jerry & The Sons of the Rhythm Orchestra – Livin’ On Top – This song is fucking impossible to dislike. Seriously, with ‘I don’t like basketball or surfin’, but lord I do love bourbon’ and it’s “God Bless America/I’m livin’ on top, la dee da dee da, of the USA”. Jerry Jerry comments on a good number of the states, hitting the highs and lows. Kind of like Sufjan Stevens, but 1000x cooler.

Jerry Jerry & the SoRO were always one of my fave bands. Just a commercially hopeless mix of rockabilly/punk/gospel/surf/country/jazz/whatever they found behind the fridge/and blues, with some of the best loser lyrics this side of Paul Westerberg. I try to throw them on almost every mix.

DumpJack Wrote:
4. Bona Roba – 4th of July - This is another immediate grabber, due in large part to the singer’s cool Southern snarl. ‘Everybody’s always talkin’ but no one’s listenin and the sound of the backyard stereo is all we’re hearin’. Isn’t that always the case at happenings like this? I can’t decide if the dude is bitching about this, or just stating the case. Because he never really follows up on it. I personally don’t think he’s bitching. I checked these guys out on the web and found their home site. They looked like a bunch of psychos who get the dead-eye drunk stare and suddenly decide to kick your ass with the all the sense of a cornered wolverine.

Trivia note: the singer for Bona Roba was one of the losers on Rockstar: InXS

DumpJack Wrote:
5. Bap Kennedy – Mostly Water – One of my favourite songs on the mix, if only for the singer’s lament ‘Don’t you know that I am mostly water?’. A lazy, mid-tempo song that sticks with you long after its over. This is another that could have been a slowcore track, but maybe that jaunty bounce might not fit in, but the sentiment does.

I love this song. The album was produced by Steve Earle, and you can hear his influence all over it.

DumpJack Wrote:
7. Thelonious Monster – For My Lover – The broad he’s singin’ about must be hellfire good. I’d heard of this band, but never heard them up until now. This is what I always wanted Moist to sound like, but they just couldn’t do it. Frankly this song was way to goddamn short. I wanted another minute of him yellin’ ‘For my lover, for my lover’.

This is a cover of the Tracy Chapman song. The Monster rocks it up just right.

DumpJack Wrote:
8. Ian Hunter – Wash Us Away - ‘Hitler was dead, welcome to Babylon!’ What a great fucking song from a great fucking artist. If this song hit your radio in the car, you’d turn it up LOUD, not only because the song is so great but because you’d suddenly realize you’d popped into an alternate universe where stuff like this is played on the radio and you’d have to drown out the screams of joy or possibly horror at the realization. Ian Hunter is a neglected rock and roll god.

From the Rant album, which Hunter recorded when he was 63 years old (I think - the exact age of Hunter has always been a subject of debate among fans). With the exception of Jerry Lee Lewis, there aren't many guys with that many years notched on their arms who can rock so hard and so unapologetically. New album Shrunken Heads due this year - I hope he keeps it up.

DumpJack Wrote:
9. The Mendoza Line – An Architect’s Eye – Sounded like some good ol’ T. Rex right off, with Dylan on vocals. ALWAYS a good thing, I don’t care how fucking derivative it apparently is to do so. The song went from good to GREAT when the female vocalist comes on. I love when that happens. I don’t even know what the fucking song is about and I don’t care.

The male singer tries a little TOO hard to sound like Dylan, but that slight faux pas is offset by the female singer's effortless Lucinda Williams imitation. "It doesn't take an architect's eye to see things fall apart" is the chorus, and you don't need a weatherman to know which way that wind blows.

DumpJack Wrote:
10. The Hangmen – Broke, Drunk and Stoned – ‘Nothing every comes cheap’. No fucking kidding, mate. Everything good in life is gonna cost you something. I dig this song, probably because I’m generally broke, always drunk and occasionally stoned. I think I would like it even better if I was drunk while listening to this. Alas, I’m not, but I will.

The Hangmen were almost a hair metal band in the late '80s, but a little too raw and punk-influenced for success in that wretched arena. They covered the Flamin' Groovies' "Slow Death" on their debut, so you knew right away they weren't gonna slide in easily next to Warrant and Night Ranger. Anyway, here we are 20 years down the line, and the band is still going, and they still sound pretty much the same, and they still sell about 24 reckids each release. I guess that means they win.

DumpJack Wrote:
11. The Hellacopters – Might Come See You Tonight –Oh, shit. THIS might be my favourite song on the mix. This is like Cheap Trick with a slight country twinge with a big 80s chorus feel. The dude is a great a singer and I’m immediately listening closer and by the end I’m singing along with him. And handclaps over the chorus… my cup runneth over. Excellent fucking song. (EDIT: I’ve played it three times in a row.)

Yeh, the Hellacopter fans out there are bitching about this band watering down their gutterpunk/metal sound on this new album, but for my money they're heading into a perfect direction. Now then just need to write a handful of songs as great as this one.

DumpJack Wrote:
12. The Violet Archers – Time to Kill – Nice tune, kind of mid-tempo feel with some nice harmonies. I liked how he ended with ‘..a lot of time to kill...and rebuild’ and then the song kind of plays out slowly to the end over the next 40 seconds or so.

Tim Vesely just left the Rheostatics to head this project full time. Good decision, I think.

DumpJack Wrote:
13. Catfish Haven – You Can Have Me – This guy is selling what seems to be a hard case because he’s all over the place pleading of all the things she can have and then he hits her with a ‘You can havvvvee meee, anytime! In the morning, the evening OH! OH! OH!’. Bold statement, I like his style. I am the final package. The cherry on top of the sundae. Great song, he never gives up.

Damn. Catfish Haven are playing the Columbia Pub here on Saturday, opening for Ladyhawke, and I can't make it. One of those shows I'll regret missing, no doubt.

DumpJack Wrote:
14. The Cinders – The Pleasure is Mine - ‘The Days are getting longer and the nights are feeling good.’ - Wait! This might be my favourite song here. Feels like the Faces or the like. There are times when I think ALL music should like this. Period. 'Savin' up for Friday, I been waiting all week'. I fucking love these cock-sure songs about coming onto to broads, little stray girl, you can scratch me anytime. The pleasure is mine. Fucking perfect. The slammin’ piano juke fade out is the best.

I don't know much about this Aussie band, except that their album Up From The Ashes will be making my top 20 of 2006.

DumpJack Wrote:
16. Toys Went Berzerk – Brand New Life – Hmmm, things take a slight change in tone with this song. We’re in transition here in tone, but not tempo. First off, we’ve got our first female lead vocal, so you kind of notice that right off. It’s not jarring, but it is noticeable. The previous track was a great lead in here. With a song like this, I was waiting for a Big Chorus. The song is practically begging for it, but alas it doesn’t deliver it. So in a way, I kind of respect it, but I know it won’t stay with me.

Yeh, a definite turn. This song sounds like someone had a hit with a cover of it, but I can't put my finger on who. Maybe Siouxsie and the Banshees? That's what it reminds me of, anyway.

DumpJack Wrote:
18. Painters and Dockers – Die Yuppie Die – Okay major change-up here. The song is the true breaking point here. I’m considering it on its own, and as it is, I like it. Ska-ish, with a great beat and chorus. I mean, who doesn’t fucking hate yuppies. They bore me with their ‘bold economic plans as well’, but usually it has to do with decorating and the Dave Matthews Band. You know, not one fucking yuppie has ever given me investment advice, and for that they should die. (EDIT: the first time I was listened to the album I had to stop here. I don’t know if it was a primacy/recency effect where you tend to remember the first and last things you hear in a series, but this song bounced around in my head the rest of the night.)

Painters and Dockers, circa 1989, were one of the best live acts I've ever seen. They played for two nights, and after the first night I went back for the second - dragging along every friend I had for it. The second night might have been better than the first. I've still got a pack of extra large King Condoms they threw into the crowd, even though most of them got blown up to beachball size and bounced around the club like a human pachinko game.

DumpJack Wrote:
19. The Sports – Who Listens to The Radio – The change up continues, with a new wave feel here. Frankly I love songs like this, this whole era actually, it kind of reminds me of Rick Springfield circa ‘Working Class Dog’ or at least what I wanted Rick to sound like. Rick didn’t have this sensibility exactly. But the hand claps are gold. I can’t really hate any song with handclaps and it’s probably my most obvious musical achille’s heel.

An Aussie band from the early '80s - so yeah, noo wave fer sure. Anyone who liked Joe Jackson's Look Sharp will find a LOT to like with the Sports.

DumpJack Wrote:
21. Tommy Womack – Telling You What You Want to Hear – Back to the majority feel of the mix. I liked this one here right off. You can practically hear the singer tell a lady ‘Listen up, darlin’ I got something to tell you. Great song. I liked the line, “as his hands encroach your ass, keep your wits about you, lass. He’s just telling you what you want to hear”. I don’t know if this is good advice he’s imparting or if he’s cockblocking some other bloke for his own. Who cares, great, great song.

Gotta get the word out on Tommy Womack. Dude's toiling in obscurity, and he just keeps putting out the very albums that the world is waiting for Westerberg to make.

DumpJack Wrote:
22. Alejandro Escovedo – Sway – Last song on the mix. Cover of the Stones’ song, one of my favourites on Sticky Fingers. It’s a pretty faithful cover. Frankly I wouldn’t want to hear a re-working of a song like this. Good end choice.

Yeh, "Sway" is my fave Stones song, so I was apprehensive about hearing a cover of it. But Alejandro has the sense to slow it down to his chamber folk speed and still maintain the geetar intensity. Still doesn't come close to the Stones version, but what would?


DumpJack Wrote:
Another great mix, Radcliffe. Despite it's apparent non-coherence, it functions extremely well and there's a half dozen songs on there that are so good, I'm stealing them for my own mixes at home. Many thanks.

Awesome. Glad there was stuff on there you liked. And steal away, mang - spread the good word. That's what these exchanges are for.


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