Posts tagged "openers"


Posted by whitneymcn April 21, 2009
Posted to openers  most memorable 
301 plays so far

Mike Watt - In The Engine Room

I don’t actually know what Watt the Widow Babies had in mind when they wrote the song Mike Watt Created the Universe with a Bass Solo for their Mike Watt EP, but the riff that opens this track (and Watt’s album Contemplating The Engine Room) is what comes into my head.

Variously described as a punk rock opera [Watt’s term], a concept album, and a song cycle, the songs that make up Contemplating The Engine Room explore Watt’s personal history, from his home and his father’s life in the Navy through the relationships that made up the Minutemen and Firehose.

In 1997 I saw Watt perform the album before I’d actually heard the recording, and the bass riff that starts In The Engine Room, which returns throughout the album, was immediately fixed in my memory.

If this is a new one to you, give yourself a little time to adjust to Watt’s voice, listen a couple of times, and then sit down and soak up the entire album. I made the happy discovery that the live show I saw is available from the Internet Archive, so give it a listen. Please.

Posted by whitneymcn January 22, 2009
Posted to openers 
660 plays so far

Ponytail - Beg Waves

When you come down to it, there are just two kinds of people in the world. On the one hand you’ve got the folks who sit around wondering “what would it sound like if Sigur Ros were a little more, you know…punk rock?” On the other hand, you’ve got the people who have heard Ponytail’s Beg Waves.

Kicking off 2008’s Ice Cream Spiritual, this track is accessible—for Ponytail, anyway—while still showing off what’s most wonderful about the band. These are people who flat out love noise, but have the musicianship to make it work. It’s structured, epic noise: I dare you to get through the last, power chord filled minute of Beg Waves without feeling a powerful desire for some air guitar.

What you really need to do is get out and see Ponytail live (if you’re in New York they’re playing tomorrow), but short of that full experience Ice Cream Spiritual is a decent second choice.

Posted by whitneymcn December 14, 2008
Posted to openers  one plus one 
90 plays so far

The Mountain Goats - The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton

This song kicks off the 2002 album All Hail West Texas, which was a return to John Darnielle’s habit [okay, “affectation,” perhaps] of recording albums using only a Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox.

This lowest of low-fi production techniques means that it’s just Darnielle and a guitar for most of the album, and also that nothing got a track added to sweeten it, or a little help in the mix…it’s the songs and nothing else: ”fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle, and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys.” 

Incredibly, this works.

While it does take a little effort to get past the clunk and hiss, once you start listening to the stories this album will pull you in, and this song is a perfect starting point.

Posted by newspeedwayboogie November 3, 2008
Posted to openers 
269 plays so far

Elton John - Bad Side of the Moon

Opener from 11-17-70, before he really became Elton John, he was alot more loose.

Posted by pootytang October 29, 2008
Posted to openers 
80 plays so far

Betty Davis - Nasty Gal

Funky as it gets.

Enjoy.

Posted by whitneymcn October 24, 2008
Posted to openers 
91 plays so far

Miles Davis - So What

Openers. ‘Nuff said.

Posted by newspeedwayboogie October 20, 2008
Posted to openers 
50 plays so far

Soundgarden- Rusty Cage

The insane guitar lines that open this album (“Openers” theme natch) suck you into the vortex.  I think this was Soundgarden’s pinnacle - musicanship, songs, vocals.  Never got this good again.

Posted by pootytang October 19, 2008
Posted to openers 
993 plays so far

The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

All night I have been jumping between albums.  Then it hit me.  The Stones.  Duh.  Explosive opener.  One of the all time rock songs.

Posted by whitneymcn October 2, 2008
Posted to openers 
70 plays so far

Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody Daylight

Feeling stressed? Twitchy? Discombobulated? Over-tired and over-caffeinated?

Drop Brightblack Morning Light’s eponymous 2006 album on, and about fifteen seconds into Everybody Daylight you’ll start feeling better. I promise.

Posted by pootytang September 9, 2008
70 plays so far

Robert Wyatt - Heaps of Sheeps

(from 1997’s Shleep)

I have wanted to post this song since this blog started, and so here it is.  I think it sets a records for fitting the most themes simultaneously :)

1. The first song (openers) on Robert Wyatt’s Shleep.

2. While having a bouncy Bo Diddly like beat, it recalls a night of insomnia when perhaps the most innocent behavior (counting sheep) takes a nightmarish turn. (sheep’s clothing)

3. It has the word sheep in it’s title, making it a theme pun.

4. It was the first Wyatt song I heard, while browsing other music spending the gift vertificate my brother got me for my birthday (Thanks Matt!), and I was instantly hooked (most memorable).

5. Much to my dismay, Robert Wyatt isn’t exactly popular. (obscura)

Enjoy!

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