Taking a Water Break
...Maybe a permanent one. If I don't come back, thanks for visiting.
-Kent
"Water all around...never learn how to swim now." This site is devoted to great alternative music. Like "Swingin' Party" by the Replacements from which the aforementioned lyrics hail. These posts are intended to introduce visitors to bands that I believe deserve greater attention. If you wish to have an MP3 removed, email me at zotzedwriter@yahoo.com.
Happened upon this on eMusic today. It's Joe Strummer performing under the pseudonym Electric Dog House. Not sure what year it was released. In fact, I can't find any info on EDH. Anyone know anything?
[MP3] Generation X – "100 Punks Rule" EXPIRED
Thanks to Water-rat Sparkylulu for turning me on to the Fratellis. These fun-first Scots are kinda like an amped-up, rocked-out Beatles, infused with the bounciness of early XTC.
Andy Partridge of XTC fame recently compiled an entire musical life of outtakes, alt takes, and unreleased takes into an eight-disc set titled The Fuzzy Warbles. As I understand it, this was originally only available through his website as a British import (and it cost an ungodly sum).
Santa went to the Island of Misfit Blogs this weekend and brought back these two gems:
[MP3] Aimee Mann – "Stupid Thing" EXPIRED
From The Tragic Treasury:
This is the best I’ve heard in 2006, a good but not great year fer rock ‘n’ roll. Of course, I only have two ears so there’s only so much I can listen to. I’d love to hear others opine on the subject. Or even share a track or two.
[MP3] 101ers – “Sweet Revenge” EXPIRED
Read on only if you have an affinity for wickedness, wretchedness, and woe. You’re still reading? You are a sick person. But that’s not all! You’re also a prime candidate for the books popularly known as A Series of Unfortunate Events. As some of you may know, particularly if you’re sick, this set follows the nasty, nefarious Count Olaf as he schemes to get his grubby, greedy hands on the fortune of the kindly, caring Baudelaire children, who have been cast out into the cold, cruel world after the mysterious death of their parents.
Well, December is here. Time to drag the Christmas songs down from the attic.
[MP3] The Hong Kong – "Tongue Tied" EXPIRED
This post goes out to Greg, the childhood buddy who introduced me to punk back in high school and in the process saved my rock ‘n’ roll soul from the likes of Journey, Styx, and REO Speedwagon.
If you any of you are pondering doing a music blog, here’s one of the perks: As you become established and start getting some traffic to your site, record companies begin offering you free discs in hopes that you’ll give their band a plug.
This is a post I’ve been wanting to do for a while. A few months back as I was listening to “Beer for Breakfast” by the Replacements, I realized that there are a lot of wonderfully stupid songs out there – songs whose subject matter is so crass, juvenile, and/or moronic that they induce guffaws and/or grins.
By popular demand (one person constitutes popular demand at the Water All Around blog), here are three tracks from Costello's classic 1977 debut disc, My Aim Is True:
You young uns might not know this, but there was a time way back in rock ‘n’ roll days of old when Elvis Costello didn’t take himself too seriously and played with rockin’ back-up bands, not crusty classical quartets. In those days, when punk was in its infancy and E.C. had far more hair and far less girth, he was an angry man who played angry songs.
[MP3] Garbage – “I Just Wanna Have Something to Do” EXPIRED
When Paul Westerberg was with the Replacements, there were only a handful of songs I didn’t love. Since he left the Mats, there’s only a handful I don’t hate. And most of this handful come from his alter-ego efforts as Grandpaboy.
[MP3] Cracker – “Movie Star” EXPIRED
I probably wouldn’t have heard of and certainly wouldn’t have dropped dough on Ivy if it weren’t for Fountains of Wayne. Regular visitors to Water who read my posts (there’s gotta be at least one of you….......right?) know of my affection for FofW. Well, FofW bassist and co-songwriter Adam Schlesinger doubles as the drummer for Ivy.
I love the Libertines. Which makes the abrupt, highly publicized descent of co-founder Pete Dougherty into drug-dazed dereliction – a descent that led to the premature end of the band – all the more painful and frustrating.
I’m gonna start this one by asking: Why do so many rock-o-philes hate the term “alt-country”? I mean, bands like Whiskeytown, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, and the Drams sure ain’t country. To define them in the same way as Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks (those are the only country performers I can come up with right now) would misrepresent them to potential buyers. Before I shell out my dough for a band, I want to know as closely as possible what they sound like. If you classify everyone within the rock genre as “rock”– as some purists would have it – you’re suggesting that Britney Spears is no different than Black Flag. All of this has led me to adopt the following policy:
I need to check if my new file management site is linking up with elbo so you guys get my favorite Epoxies track. Enjoy!
[MP3] Soviettes – “Multiply and Divide” EXPIRED
Somehow, these guys escaped my punk purview back in ’82. Which is kinda surprising cuz those were my college days when I’d scour the bins of Flat Black and Circular in East Lansing and read NME and other alt pubs cover to cover in search of new bands.
If the Clash had stuck it out and stuck to their punk roots, they’d sound a lot like Rancid. Led by HellCat Records co-founder Tim Armstrong, Rancid carries on the Clash torch of ska-fueled, punk-fired rock. They rank as one of my two or three favorite modern-day punk bands – mainly because each of their releases sounds fresh and not refried.
The moment I heard the Briggs sing "I wouldn't be so paranoid if the world wasn't out to get me," I knew I had to do a post on them. Ha! What a great lyric. You'll find it below in "My Own Enemy," which appears on the band's 2006 Back to Higher Ground disc.
[MP3] Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 – “(A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs EXPIRED