tiger trax

Green Is The Colour by Pink Floyd

This version is from The BBC John Peel Session.  The original was off of a soundtrack they did for the film More.

When Syd Barrett left the band and David Gilmour came in as a replacement fans were unsure of the outcome.   Gilmour’s effortless vocals and his signature stratocaster guitar lines took the band out of quirky psychedelic rock into a warmer, refined direction.

This transitory period, which contained albums such as Obscured By Clouds and Meddle, provides some of the groups most under-heard/under-appreciated work.

This song in particular showcases Gilmour’s brand of vocal improv/soloing (~2:30) made famous in the end of “Wish You Were Here”.

I Have An Illness (The Metaphysical Remix) by Once Okay Twice

DC producer The Metaphysical remixed our song.  He took the guitar/vocal tracks and redid the beat + added electronic parts.

DRI is one of my favorite contemporary female musicians (along with New Buffalo and Bjork).  Her voice is never forced and the production is always smooth yet edgy.

She used to be in a band called The Anniversary that was somewhat popular during my high school years.

Her album is called Smoke Rings.  Appropriate.

“I Want Wind to Blow” by The Microphones

The Microphones is one dude, Phil Elvrum, that records found sounds, acoustic guitar, casual vocals, and random percussion onto old (and often broken/altered) tape recorders.  He’s all about layering on the madness.  He now goes by the name Mount Eerie.  His songs have that personal, stormy NW feel.

I always dug the way he used acoustic guitar snippets as the rhythm in the first half of this song.  The jam out on the latter half of the song is epic.  I also enjoy the tightly packed harmonies that start at about 1:35.  Phil is also a respected producer in his region.

“Some Closure” - The Like Young

Like Mates of State, The Like Young consist of a husband and wife duo.  This is something I’m obsessed with for obvious reasons.

Unfortunately, The Like Young broke up because trying to make music professionally, while starting a family, can be pretty exhausting.  Touring is the bread and butter of the indie scene and you can imagine how rough it would be to do that while emotionally and financially planning for the future.

Fortunately The Like Young got big enough for me to come across them a few years ago.

“Some Closure” comes off of their last album, Last Secrets.  Like the White Stripes, this guy/girl duo rocks hard, but they are more diverse and the vocals and guitars don’t take many cues from Zeppelin.  The album is a cohesive piece and enjoyable from front to end.   Pop hooks are aplenty and balanced with honest grit.

“Some Closure” has this really nice sounding guitar part—- very “glass shard”-like.  There is a story behind the vocals on this album that the listener will never know.

“Loomer” - Japancakes

Japancakes are a band from Athens that play warm, instrumental Americana.  I heard of them because they covered My Bloody Valentine’s masterpiece album, Loveless.

MBV buried their beautiful pop structures in layers of distortion and feedback.  On this cover album, Japancakes successfully excavates the solid components of these songs to showcase the harmonies/melodies at their core.  On “Loomer”, the clean strings and lap steel guitar shine, while the bass and drums push the song forward.  Check out the original version of the song, one of my all-time favorites (much better on CD or wax with headphones).

“Party Trash” by Weird Tapes

I downloaded Weird Tapes EP from this blog called Wierd Social. It looks a site shared between Weird Tapes, Hail Social, and other friends/similar music projects. Hail Social’s last album is best described as hipster limo music.

Is it just me or is this song ripping off (ie, speeding up) the groove from Ice Cube’s “Today Was A Good Day”? Check out when it breaks down around the 2:20 marker.

“Jump In The Pool” - Friendly Fires

These guys remind me of one of my favorite alt-dance rock groups, VHS or Beta.  But unlike VHS or Beta, Friendly Fires’ British accents are real.

Something about the chorus lyrics reminds me of Jemaine.

Bedroom Costume - Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head

It’s pretty easy to come across weird band names these days, but a track list like this proves your worthy of the name Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head: