Tim Sweeney's sweet podcast Beats in Space hosted Steve Knutson of Audika Records a few weeks ago. Audika is the label that put out Love is Overtaking Me. So you know he's got access to those rare and juicy Arthur Russell cuts that nobody else can find. Shit is insane, the first 15 minutes is completely unheard stuff. A remix of a high-school group, some bizarre experimental electronic stuff, an a few alternate takes of the dance stuff. The podcast ranks pretty high on the nerd-meter. The "unreleased" version of "Is It All Over My Face?" is played later in the show (this version was actually released on one of The Loft compilations, it's 12 minutes long). Also there is a short segment from a live radio recording of Arthur, but the sound quality makes it nearly unlistenable.
Beats in Space podcast - Special Arthur Russell edition
Loose Joints - Is It All Over My Face? (unreleased original full length version)
(divshare)
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Rarest Arthur Russell Jams
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Mancrush
This Arthur Russell "Love is Overtaking Me" is so ridonkulous. I can already tell you it's going to be number one on my "albums of 2008." I consider it a new release...these songs were never released before, right? Arthur Russell is the gift that just keeps on giving---like Tupac was supposed to be. Seriously...and whoever is releasing his shit has really got it together as far as timing is concerned. When "The World of Arthur Russell" came out on Soul Jazz, (what I think 4 years ago now???) it really catalyzed this AR revival thing, but even if you feel like that whole thing played out (the dance track thing--->LCD Soundsystem), "Love is Overtaking Me" being released this year feels like that all over again, but bigger. If you had released these 2 CDs in the opposite order, maybe no one would give a shit about this guy at all, and that would be tragic. I'm tired of serious music right now. Give me Satie to your Wagner (Trip). Maybe its an ebb and flow/personal zeitgeist thing, and in 4 years I will be like "I'm tired of pop songs right now, give me something serious." But that's where I am in, and right now, gotta say, I'm mancrushing all over this shit.
Read More......Monday, October 20, 2008
More Arthur - What It's Like
So here is another song off of Love is Overtaking Me, the soon to be released Arthur Russell compilation.
Arthur Russell - What It's Like
Originally I thought this to be the weakest song on the album. The compilation is country themed, and this is one of the songs where the instrumental timbre of country music is strongest. There is a wanking lead guitar, slithering organ line, and a slow-walking bass. The drum beat is straight and simple rock, but a little articulation on the hi-hat really goes a long way. A triumphant trumpet gives the song a boost about halfway through.
Lyrically, it shares some of the nature description in previous songs, but the writing as a whole is dramatically different. First and most obvious is that it reaks with cliches and some of the lines are really awkward rhymes. What makes this passable, and even an asset to the song, is the structure of the story-line.
It's easy to ignore the continuity because of the staggered vocal phrasing, but if you pay close attention to the song as a whole, it has some depth to it. It's open to interpretation who the speaker is in the second half of the song, but if you cast it as the preacher it ties a lot together. Suddenly the silly sounding organ runs make sense and the bad rhyming and overly simplified descriptions of love fall right in line with the zeal of a man making a forced decision on religious logic.
I thought I'd post the lyrics to the song in order to help you follow the story and form an interpretation of your own:
In Iowa, in the tall grass
there is a couple.
She's very young,
he's a young preacher.
And every day they would go out
to the fields where nothing is planted
and lie in the tall grass.
But one day, he called her into the sanctuary.
He said, "Kate, I've been touched by the Lord.
I don't need you anymore."
She didn't know what to think.
But she loved the Lord.
So she just leaned back in the pew and thought about the tall grass and said:
"Reverend..." she said,
"Reverend... Reverend the only reason I did it is to find out what it's like."
Give me, the truth to me,
and tell me of what I see,
a feeling there must be an answer for me,
I feel like I ache all over inside,
my heart is so,
so troubled. I feel like I could die.
Oh, is this what love's supposed to be?
But I'm not one to gamble,
And I don't need to scramble.
I didn't know that love would strike me blind.
This is what it's like.
This is what it's like.
On Sunday, I read somewhere
that real love is heart and soul,
yeah, but only a master could understand that.
I left that old magazine and walked down into the green
of summer, I felt like I could cry
but in the grass I only sat.
Well I'm not one to gamble,
and I don't need to scramble,
I didn't know that love would strike me blind.
This is what it's like.
This is what it's like.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
More Arthur
Arthur Russell - The Letter
This is probably my favorite song on the new Arthur Russell compilation.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
MP3s
Free Blood - Parangatang
Take a wild stab where these guys are from. I give you three guesses. Duhhh, of course they're from Brooklyn. Psychadelia and soul and a little bit of tribal drums but enough of a beat to be remixed, I'd love to see these guys live.
Jonas Bering - Can't Stop Loving You
I've started listening to techno.
Arthur Russell - Goodbye Old Paint
This is the most obtuse track off the new compilation of Arthur Russell country songs. At first I wasn't fully sold on the album, but I've become endeared to it and now I can't stop listening.
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