Thursday Random Eight (11/20/2008)

Smog - Wild Love: I talked about this release a number of weeks ago; this is Smog (Bill Callihan) at his best.

Snog - Real Estate Man (Ubin Offer Affordable Solutions Mix): Not to be mistaken with Smog, Snog is a Australian mix artist with a political focus, saving the world with one illegal sample at a time. Real Estate Man is one of my favorites, which is a good thing because there are about five remixes on the Relax Into the Abyss release which this sampling is from. This mix replaces the general rant against the Real Estate Man with, albeit catchy, nonsense words. Perhaps the artist had foresight into these dark days for the real estate industry and wanted to lighten the mood.

Paul Westerberg - All Over This Land(???): A free mp3 from the Westerberg website, I actually have no idea what the name of this song is, although since he repeats "All Over This Land" numerous times, I have a feeling that I am either safe with that title guess or folks in the know will be able to figure it out easy enough. I'm glad Westerberg has had success past the Replacements, but I miss the Replacements, so let's just leave it at that.

Ondar - Kargyraa Rap: The morning's required throat singing track.

Tom Waits - Trampled Rose: This seems to be a favorite of Tom's works as it tends to show up in most live shows he has played over the past couple years. It is a somewhat unique track which is, of course, a somewhat normal thing to say about any Tom Waits song. The lyrics are typically compelling and the music follows a strange progression even if it is a bit repetitive.

Thuja - Track 04: Well, this will give me 18 minutes to relax. A psychedelic collection of spooky noises from the Pine Cone Temples CD, this certainly falls into one of my "acquired taste" categories.

Meat Beat Manifesto - Repulsion: A band I don't know much about. I think they gained some popularity from the Mission Impossible soundtrack a few years ago, and I think I picked up the CD just because it looked kinda funny. It is bouncy and repetitive - a pretty fun listen.

Salaryman - New Centurions: The alter ego of the Poster Children, this is one-drummer, three-keyboard playing exercise in throwback electronic music. The initial self-titled release that this track is from is my favorite and I happily saw a few live shows from the experiment (I think opening for Luna, back in the days where it seemed perfectly normal to see a show in DC and then drive to Baltimore the next night to see the exact same concert).