2 with ten – the letter d
the letter d was actually pretty tough. im sure everyone thought i would put death in vegas down but since i already wrote a post about them a few weeks ago im gonna go with something that might surprise a few of u. this one goes out to all the guys who keep suggesting female singer songwriters to me. Dot Allison. she’s a scottish singer/songwriter that i fell in love with in 1999 when i heard her debut afterglow. at that moment in time i was working at an online music start up and this record was sent to me by her publicist. to this day i think it’s a great record with a ton of a variety. during that time period she was collaborating with artists like arab strap and death in vegas. in the past few years she has been performing with massive attack and recording and performing with pete doherty. again, afterglow is a record worth listening to… just because of the ground it covers. the track i posted is not surprisingly one of the more deeper hypnotic cuts called morning sun.
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wow…choice 2 was difficult…i wanted to go with my favorite deftones song change as well as my fav doves song snowden but i ended up going with a newer band from la called Deathelectric. i first heard about this band because i know the man behind this plan – joseph holiday. he gave me this cd one night a few months ago when i bumped into him outside of the viper room. i put it on while driving down to the studio and i really started to love this one song called no reason (no soul). i have since had that stereo with the deathelectric cd in it stolen from my truck…for the 3rd time. in a ideal world with more hours in the day to accomplish everything i want to do i would have already done a 9XF10 remix of it with josh. anyway, joe—great work on this debut.
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random strangeness…i just noticed the name of this cd is in the evening sun…and the track i chose from dot allison was morning sun. strange indeed. i feel better about these choices now.
just cos im a sucker for Double D’s here are 2 more
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About The Author
Francis Ten
Other posts byFrancis Ten
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Haaaaaaa! You picked a singer/songwriter who for half the song didn’t sing! Great irony. I don’t know exactly what defines a singer / songwriter, but that sounded like a full array of sound to me. I liked it, very hypnotic.
My D’s probably won’t bowl you over. One is the doors. Crystal ship is my fav. I’ve listened to this song a million times and every time it feels like a new experience. I love the passion and fuck-you-this-is-me thing about them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WW9T6mRkQA
the other a brand new band — dirty pollyanna. I love parts about them. Sometimes they seem sloppy and a tad incomplete, but hey, they’ve only been together a few months.
The guitarist was in program the dead and before that comes with the fall. most recently he was on tour w/ lady gaga. The singer I think is very talented. She’s his GF and they are crazy wild in love. So there’s a cool energy to the whole thing. To me music is as much about the energies involved, like sound is the percussion of the energy, and I love the energy here. If they don’t fizzle and die they could grow into something really cool.
http://www.myspace.com/dirtypollyanna
I like GIVE and FRUSTRATION the best. I hate DYNAMITE.
My suggestions for the week are The Darling Buds and Die Warzau. About as different from each other you can get. The Darling Buds are a late 80s/early 90s pop/alt band. I first found them when someone did a mock ipod mini commercial using their song “Tiny Machine” The official video for that song is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhe6VbhKsng Another song from the same album (Crawdaddy) is “It Makes No Difference” Song only at this youtube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84heuKvhDmU.
Die Warzau is an industrial/dance band. I first got into them when a friend’s brother played their album Big Electric Metal Bass Face. You can find them at myspace at http://www.myspace.com/diewarzau I would suggest the songs “Electric” and “Born Again”. Sadly they don’t have anything from BEMBF posted there, but they do have those 2.
Nice one with Dot Allison, Fran. Afterglow was an old favorite of mine that I haven’t heard in years.
This week, my two suggestions for the letter D are Devo and Dead Man’s Bones.
Even if you didn’t grow up in the 80s, I’m sure you know Devo from their song “Whip It” which of course has been played to death in 80s clubs and on 80s compilation CDs, but Devo was actually a brilliant band. Some people didn’t really *get* Devo, and thought of them as purely a novelty act, but Devo was actually way ahead of their time. They saw the world in a state of “de-evolution”, with the majority of society becoming more and more stupid, and constantly in a game of follow-the-leader. They would use humor in their music to give the middle finger to all authority figures and the other mindless drones. The brilliant part is that almost 30 years later, you can look around and realize DEVO WAS RIGHT. I’m recommending something old and something new. First a live performance of “Uncontrollable Urge” from the film Urgh! A Music War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BmxN3E548I&fmt=18
… and next, their newest single “Don’t Shoot (I’m A Man)” off their soon to be released album… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPJV2M5HXZ8&fmt=18
Next, is the band Dead Man’s Bones. The band was started by actor Ryan Gosling and his friend, Zach Shields and I had the pleasure of seeing them live last month at The Echo doing a Halloween show. It was one of the most stunning shows I’ve ever seen, musically, creatively, and visually. One of their main inspirations is Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride, and on the album they combine eerie sounds with a mixture of folk, rock, goth, and 50s and 60s do-wop groups, and it’s all backed by a children’s choir. The entire album is amazing. Check out their haunting video for the song “Dead Hearts” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we3M1D19DNQ&fmt=18 and then the song “My Body’s A Zombie For You” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to7PxdyEdDw. If you make it thru both of those and have some time for another, check out “Name In Stone” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEvF7qUf2Pc&fmt=18.
I know that’s a lot of links, but there’s a lot of diversity on this album. Enjoy!!
FRANNY what about ” DENGUE FEVER ” Sleepwalking through the mekong . I love these guys . It’s like going on a little 1960′s warm vacation .
Also ” DANIEL LANOIS ” Dusty . Wish this song would last for 10 min. I have logged many running miles to his music .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gty6a6_kO-0
Franny I love these guys . This is not the best version but the only one I could figure out how to download . Check out there album if you haven’t already .I sent my comments but I think I messed up .
Also I love ” Daniel Lanois “DUSTY” Wish that song would go on and on .
I’ll get this thing figured out . xoxoxo
alright
i kept missing the deadline on these but i am back to play again!
ok the first one is someone at least fran will know through the scotsman melrose, it’s jessica dobson. she used to be this underage prodigy from the oc, then she toured as beck’s lead guitarist and now as bass and whatever player for yeah yeah yeahs. her solo project is called deep sea diver, and it is good (and that is a lot of d’s in the name). live they are two drummers guitar bass and jessica singing and slinging. pretty great. the full band on record leaves me a bit cold to be honest. but true to her roots, jessica is great with a voice and a guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mOrgIGSaVo
number two are the dirtbombs, detroit’s soulpunk double trio.
this is my fave of their albums, production on the others veers far enough away from the soul vibe and closer to the garage soiund you have heard a lot of times before that it loses its charm.
here is chains of love: http://lala.com/zCci
last and best, a band i grew up loving, dieselhed. they put out four records, toured as link wray’s backing band and finally broke apart. famously loose and brilliant, lyrics changed every night and they would allow pretty much anyone to come onstage and sing or play and then leave. it happened no matter the size of the gig. drummer danny heifitz of mr bungle, bass atom ellis of psychefunkapus, zac now leads dengue fever and virgil shaw continues to make strange quiet songs but now in nyc. the best of bay area 90s music hands down. there isn’t much out there, but here is a video of sergio taurus off their debut. as far as i can tell all their shit is out of print. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Cu1IwGkE8&feature=related
ive clip of a pink floyd cover (captures their fuck off attitude)
Hey Fran, glad you dug Cruyff. I’ll ftp some of their songs to you. Hope you saw the Supercar Best Of album I put there already. I only have one D suggestion and that’s The Daysleepers, another ambient/shoegaze band but this time they’re from New York. They sound a lot like Disintegration era Cure which is one of the reasons I like them. http://www.myspace.com/sleepwalkintotraffic
Start with the song Loved By the Sun. So no 80′s metal or virtuoso guitarists huh? I’ll keep it mind. I really liked the Dot Allison and Deathelectric songs.
1) Dan Reed
2) Dannielle DeAndrea
Ok, for my first “D” recommendation I have singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Dan Reed. He was the lead vocalist in my favorite band from the late 80′s and early 90′s, the “Dan Reed Network” from Portland, OR. To me, Dan’s always had one of the best voices in music and is both an incredible guitarist and pianist. He has a new solo CD called ‘Coming Up For Air’ that he’s been touring in support of and even does some amazing stripped-down versions of some of the old DRN songs during his shows. The song I’m choosing to recommend is from an EP he released in 2004 called ‘Sharp Turn’. I hope the song interests you enough to want to check out some of his live performance videos and maybe even the music of his old band, Dan Reed Network.
Dan Reed – “Heaven”
http://popup.lala.com/popup/432627047850839503
My second recommendation is Dannielle DeAndrea (aka Dannielle Gaha). I know I haven’t had much luck with recommending female vocalists to you yet, so I don’t really have much hope for this one either. Dannielle’s an Aussie living in L.A. and has been in the music business already for at least 20 years, but I only have one of her most recent CDs, ‘Chocolate For Holly’. On her myspace page I’m kind of torn on which song to recommend to you, but I chose “Dove”. It’s a brilliantly-reworked cover of a dance song that was originally done by a chick named Moony. And again, I would hope that after hearing this you’ll want to check out another song…the upbeat song “If You Only Knew”, which makes me think of late ’70s soul.
Dannielle DeAndrea – “Dove” (first song on her myspace music player)
http://www.myspace.com/danniellegaha
But, to really appreciate just how brilliant and different Dannielle’s cover of “Dove” is, you’d have to hear at least a little of the weak original. I apologize in advance for this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMPWD9TibPE&fmt=18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E94VH4ssac did this work???
Deathelectric! Great band name, great song. Nice one man.
.
OK, here are my D submittals.
.
Damien Jurado – “Go First” – It’s one of those rare tunes that grabbed me the first time I heard it. Super tuneful and atmospheric (click on the Play icon to the right of the screen): http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Damien_Jurado/track/Go_First
.
Death In Vegas – “Scorpio Rising” – Man, in my book, these guys can do no wrong. Saw them play at Glastonbury 2000. Blew me away. This tune has Gallagher at his sneery finest and…BONUS…it’s got samurais in it. Brilliant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97wDWmqGmPA
.
Enjoy!
Hola Fran, against my better judgment I left dredg and The Duke Spirit off this post for the sake of trying to impress you and find new stuff for the others as they’ve been good with turning me onto new stuff…but let it be known that dredg is in my top 5 and everyone needs a little dredg. Off my soapbox and on to the music.
Dungen (Sweden)
Lyrics in Swedish but the music is groovy in a raw aged kind of way. A little trippy. Nothing to sing to per se but certainly enough to expand your horizons.
Song to listen to is “Solen stiger upp”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXojCYfw6RM&feature=related
http://www.myspace.com/dungen
DeVotchka (US)
They have an ensemble feel without too many instruments. I love a band that can expand with more instruments.
Listen to “The Clockwise Witness” or “Head Honcho”
http://www.myspace.com/devotchkamusic
I just want to keep writing about my Ds.
Cheers! A la prochain!
OK Fran, other than Gregg P already mentioning Daysleepers, I don’t really have any “D’s” you probably haven’t already been introduced too (or like for that matter). However, since I am a sucker for 80′s music I am going to mention a couple songs that I think are vital for anyones library:
1) Duran Duran … whether one loves them or hates them these two classic tracks are essential:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhzd8_duran-duran-save-a-prayer
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xn9w8_duran-duran-rio_music
And can’t forget about this one hit wonder … not sure if they have any other song worth having:
2) Dream Academy: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x21zbg_dream-academy-life-in-a-northern-to_music
“D” was indeed a challenge. Dream Academy, The Dovells, Don and Dewey? You’ve probably heard them. Dr. Feelgood, Danny and the Juniors, Dick Dale, Diane Renay*? You’ve probably heard them too. So I chose a 1971 rarity. Don’t worry, future posts will have some much newer music.
Fran, since you hail from Michigan, you must have Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels in your DNA. In 1971, Mitch and Wheels drummer Johnny Bee assembled a group of musically talented, leather jacketed bikers and hoods into a band called Detroit, who released one self-titled album before splitting up. The band included guitar journeyman Steve Hunter and the immortal Dirty Ed on congas. (Whatever happened to Dirty Ed? If anyone knows, you would.) “Detroit” has a couple of slow tracks that drag a bit, but the rest of the album kicks ass. Standout songs include Long Neck Goose (yeah, I’m recommending a song with that title!), Let It Rock (Chuck Berry’s macabre tale of a gambling track gang), and the standout, Lou’s Reed’s Velvet Underground classic Rock and Roll. Detroit detonate this song with a monster 17-note riff that The Runaways used on their debut album version five years later. In an interesting twist, Steve Hunter joined Lou Reed’s band in 1973 and played the breezy VU arrangement of Rock and Roll on Reed’s live “Rock n Roll Animal.” You’ll like “Detroit.” Unlike many bands of the era, these guys were having FUN. You will too!
Here’s a link to an import copy of the album on amazon.com. CD is expensive, MP3′s are cheap, and you can sample all the songs: http://www.amazon.com/Detroit/dp/B0014YKQIC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1259722768&sr=1-3
* Early ’60′s 1-hit wonder from Philly. “Blue, navy blue, I’m as blue as I can be / ‘Cause my steady boy said ship ahoy, and joined the Nay-yay-vee!” She was cool.
Death From Above 1979. Been listening to their 2004 album “You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine” a lot lately. They get a lot of press for being a duo and sounding punk and loud and stuff. But their lyrics are good, too. The album title says it all.
“Blood On Our Hands”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEtBcEo7rK0
Something a little more immediate: “Little Girl”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTiR8j3qr8k
You can hear Diane Renay’s famous song on her Web site. What the heck, this is my second “D” recommendation! We have to be good to the one-hit wonders. Enjoy!
http://www.dianerenay.com/
Back around Feb.’05 I was quickly skimming a local newspaper that commented on some of the new Sundance Film Festival movies that had just premiered, I noted that one of them was some kind of documentary about some guy I’d never heard of that made music. I figured it was the story about some lead singer of a small garage band or something, and it didn’t sound very interesting. Fast-forward to Sept.’07. I was looking for a good film to watch and decided to browse the former Sundance winners, where I again spotted this movie called “The Devil & Daniel Johnston”, read the details about what it was about, and decided it actually did seem worth seeing.
Not to give too much of the movie away, but it started out with some announcer saying “ladies and gentlemen, one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, Mr. Daniel Johnston”, and then Daniel started singing. He was old, looking pretty rough, and sounded pretty non-spectacular, to say the least. However, by the end of the movie, I was super interested in the guy, there was an really amazing story of a guy who lived for art and music. Although his artistic expression seemed different and rough around the edges, it had something quite unique and real about it that is very rare.
For the next year and a half I was heavily into listening and understanding everything about Daniel (and still do, but to a lesser degree), the movie was a good introduction, but the music, his visual art, felt like a whole other experience. It takes work, and time to understand him and his work, to fully appreciate it, the honesty and rawness of it is just incredible, as you get to listen back to when he was a kid, and all that happened in his life. His music is his life story, it’s who he is, it is his life. He’s become one of my favorite artists ever (although, I often disagree with his viewpoint but that’s ok), it takes work to fully enjoy. Certainly not a quick sale in most cases, but well worth it to me.
Daniel Johnston – Story Of An Artist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_RbSAwMa3U
The Devil & Daniel Johnston movie trailer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qtFPOxDMs4&feature=related
Re: Thanks for your YouTube response Fran, I’ll respond back to Youtube when I get some time
I liked your picks this week, good stuff, Deathelectric reminded me of a more patient Monster Magnet.
Dylan…. ahhhhhhhhhhhh… stole right out from under me
.. Death From Above 1979… awesome!!! check them out if you can people!
OK… I’m going to have to go with Deerhunter (Atlanta – NOT THE DEER HUNTER!) and Daft Punk!
Ok, Deerhunter is an amazing indie band from Atlanta, Ga that was introduced to me during a romantic courtship with my girlfriend about a year ago. She played a song for me that summarized the effect I was having on her life at the time and it was really touching… The song is called Fluorescent Grey off of the 2nd CD to the 2 CD Set of Cryptograms. The entire album is pure fucking genius and echos a lot of mental and physical tension the band was going through at the time. I am fascinated by the use of effects and EVERY bass line off this album. FRAN, take note, this is the band I spoke of when we first got in touch about a year ago. ALSO, this band is the only other reason I planned a vacation to California last year and to attend the festival Outside Lands in San Francisco.. the other (and more important reason) was to see West Indian Girl
… Because of the difficulty in a relationship I was exiting at the time (and the wonderful induction to another), this song became a mantra of mine.. Patiently, Patiently….
Here is a link to Fluorescent Grey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmXkd-4CXkU
Daft Punk…wow… these guys are off planet… seriously… Their live shows are probably the most amazing fusion of technology, lighting, DJ’ing, and music that I can think of. I was introduced to this band by my co-worker (who is also a DJ) who downloaded their self made and critically acclaimed movie Electroma (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-433357417541455147#). I had never heard their music, but their outfits and space age helmets totally intrigued me. If you get a chance, checkout their live show, it’s stunning…
Here is a link to a live version of Harder Better Stronger Faster (one of their more popular songs)… but you get a good sense of their live shows and the audio is actually not bad. You can definitely feel the energy these guys create live… They were also chosen as one of the bands for the new DJ game to replace Rock Band on Playstation and Xbox…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGECJP3phyY
Enjoy!
I really dig The Dodos. Check ‘em out. Awesome amazing live shows.
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/musicvideo/3927-dodos-long-form-frenchkiss
Also, Dan Deacon
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/musicvideo/3761-dan-deacon-paddington-ghost-carpark
and Deerhunter and David Pajo.
Dappled Cites- The Price http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phZNmfGaqkw
Dance Gavin dance
Damon Albarn – Tribute to John Peel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZnzK5eKXyU&feature=related
Doí – a 5 piece downtempo guitar-driven ambient band from Copenhagen. Check out the track “Missing” http://www.myspace.com/doimusic
Digitalism – wish there was an equivalent this year to this German electro dance punk duo… we need it desperately. This song “Pogo” was a bit overplayed here in LA. Hearing it now, though, brings back some crazy nostalgia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bQTVN2aAUw
Now, does David Bowie fall under D or B?
d for destroyer!
http://hypem.com/search/destroyer%20rubies/1/
http://hypem.com/search/destroyer%20european%20oils/1/
http://hypem.com/search/destroyer%20foam%20hands/1/
xo
thanx for the linx maggie – too bad i didnt get to comment on this via video.
1. The Devics “Lie to Me”
http://www.myspace.com/devics
2. The Dodos “Ashley” and “Fools”
Why didn’t I put The Dirty Three?!
http://www.myspace.com/dirtythree
Had my first musical orgasm hearing them live AND Warren Ellis tells little weird stories about his cat and stuff in between songs.