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Released September 22.
How did I miss this?
Here's a free download (enter your email to acquire) of a bonus track off of the album, entitled Stanislaus. I've listened to it a few times now. It has that bohemian-gypsy-thing going again. It's melodramatic. However, it's tastefully melodramatic. Nonetheless, I am anticipating picking up White Water, White Bloom. It seems Alex Brown Church, lead singer of Sea Wolf, "couldn’t have known beforehand what the next record would sound like, but I did know I wanted it to be bigger, with a band feel, rather than another series of intimate confessionals.”
With this crisp Autumn weather at hand, Sea Wolf seems fitting to be listening to.
"Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth."
Beck is exorcising his creativity in yet another way: a Record Club.
This group, composed of Devendra Banhart, both of the dudes of MGMT, legendary producer Nigel Godrich, actor Giovanni Ribisi, members of Little Joy, Wolfmother, and of course Beck himself, is going through choice classic albums and covering all of the tracks. This formula produces a track once a week. The site states, “There is no intention to ‘add to’ the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens.”
So far, The Velvet Underground & Nico has been covered. The project at hand is the misty, clairvoyant, Songs of Leonard Cohen.
Check it out: Beck Record Club
Julian Casablancas : Phrazes for the Young
If you're not familiar with this name, you may know him better as the moppy-haired lead vocalist for super-group, The Strokes. If you're not familiar with that name, leave my blog. NOW.
Listen to the single HERE.
U2 : The Unforgettable Fire, REMASTERED
Completely and fully remastered. The Unforgettable Fire is U2's 1984 album; the first album to see collaboration with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. It is the most experimental of U2's albums, leaving pictures, abstractions, poetry, colors, and images in the mind of the listener. No waving of white flags here. Just, simple, beauty. The album also boasts the climbing number, "Bad," my favorite of U2's songs.
Oh October 26, come quickly.
You may be asking yourself what a "Dylan-kick" is. This would be especially true if you've read my latest blog entry, posted earlier this evening.
A Dylan-kick is when you start listening to the music of Bob Dylan, incessantly and without end. It's when you're at work, and you just can't get "Positively 4th Street" out of your head. It's when singing Bob Dylan songs becomes the most delightful thing you could possibly do with your time. It's when you find yourself dwelling upon the depth of Dylan's early work, considering its (more than) possibly, politically-charged themes. It's when you think about how cool it would have been to have liked Dylan when he went electric, even though everyone around you would have thought it was shite. (or shit, if you saw him in America) It's when you purchase two albums of his in less than a week. It's when you randomly ask the nice people at the record shop why there is a small box of Bob Dylan posters lying on the ground behind the counter, and they give you one for free because you bought a Bob Dylan record.
It's when you can't get enough of Bob Dylan. It's when you watch I'm Not There, and consider that perhaps Cate Blanchett plays Bob Dylan better than Bob Dylan plays Bob Dylan. It's when you start realizing you really, REALLY want to get your hands on Martin Scorsese's biopic of Dylan, No Direction Home. It's when you decide your wife rules, because two of the Dylan DVDs you do own, she bought for you, even though she can't stand him and his music. It's when you open your closet and consider putting on all black and wearing sunglasses indoors.
How does it feel? So good.
As a continuation of my Dylan-kick,
"This film traces the early career of Bob Dylan in a manner no other has ever attempted telling his tale from his birth in Duluth, Minnesota; through school and college; across his years as New York’s bright young star, through to his electric phase, culminating with the controversial 1966 world tour. Featuring interviews with a host of friends, colleagues and associates from that era, and numerous others, rare and often previously unseen footage, daring and outspoken contributions from the very finest Dylan writers [such as Derek Barker, CP Lee and Clinton Heylin] and a host of other features, this film is among the finest Bob Dylan documentaries yet to emerge."
Ooooohhh yes.
Released September 22.
