Mountains of Salt in Wounds, I'll Take Mine Black, Please
With the noiseboy out of the record-buying game for at least the next 347 days, I’ve decided to pick up the extra slack and spend about twice as much money on records as I did in ’04.
A brief pause while I let that sink in.
Okay, I’m lying. (Long, deep sigh of relief from all parties.) I already can’t keep up with the constant deluge of new music (though it doesn’t keep me from trying—damn this newfangled Internets), and throwing more money at the situation, even if it were fiscally possible (forget responsible!) and wife-approved, will certainly not help that. It seems that a similar type of vacation will be in order…someday, someday.
But until then, knowing the noiseboy is out there waiting, already anxious for ’06 and living vicariously through my record purchasing, that—that is what keeps me going. And if so much buying is pouring salt in open wounds, then I, the devil on the noiseboy’s shoulder, command this masochistic one-album-a-month fast to an end, in the name of, um, Lester Bangs and, uh, that guy John Cusack played in High Fidelity!
I fired back:
So I’m only on my second pass through the Black Mountain LP (the too-many-records, not-enough-time predicament), but I like it a lot—an awful lot. It’s hard to say right now, but I can definitely see this landing near the top of my list for ’05. Right now it’s Number One with a bullet.
More so than the My Morning Jacket and Comets on Fire references dropped by Pitchfork and to be repeated ad infinitum by lesser cool kids everywhere, two different bands leapt to my mind more immediately: Dead Meadow and Oneida. Black Mountain sorta lies somewhere between the smoke-ringed laziness of the Meadow and Oneida’s hyperactive kraut-punk, but definitely shares with MMJ and Comets, as well as bands like the Gris Gris, a very sincere, if totally invented, feel for the zeitgeist of seventies rock. But I think Black Mountain has better songs than MMJ, more soul than the Meadow, and a subtler touch than Comets. They could be THE band to break this scene wide open. Stay tuned.
N/P Primal Scream – Screamadelica
A brief pause while I let that sink in.
Okay, I’m lying. (Long, deep sigh of relief from all parties.) I already can’t keep up with the constant deluge of new music (though it doesn’t keep me from trying—damn this newfangled Internets), and throwing more money at the situation, even if it were fiscally possible (forget responsible!) and wife-approved, will certainly not help that. It seems that a similar type of vacation will be in order…someday, someday.
But until then, knowing the noiseboy is out there waiting, already anxious for ’06 and living vicariously through my record purchasing, that—that is what keeps me going. And if so much buying is pouring salt in open wounds, then I, the devil on the noiseboy’s shoulder, command this masochistic one-album-a-month fast to an end, in the name of, um, Lester Bangs and, uh, that guy John Cusack played in High Fidelity!
The noiseboy, yesterday afternoon:Unbeknownst to him, I had, in fact, only just returned from the wonderful world of record stores, the venerable Twist & Shout to be exact, where I purchased, among numerous other things, the freshly-minted and much-anticipated debut from Vancouver’s finest. All of a sudden, it seems, Vancouver’s the place to be.
Subject: what do you know about...
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 16:43:44 -0600
Black Mountain, and their new self-titled record?
I fired back:
Subject: re: what do you know about...I’m not sure of the entire lineage and don’t feel like researching it now, but suffice it to say that Jerk with a Bomb and the Pink Mountaintops are incestuous kin to the Black Mountain collective. Said order was placed this evening through Scratch Records.
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 17:07:32 -0500
Black Mountain = one of Jon's favorite new bands.
I had the Drugonauta 12" and it fuckin' smoked. Getting ready to order some Jerk with a Bomb and Pink Mountaintops...
Vancouver baby!
So I’m only on my second pass through the Black Mountain LP (the too-many-records, not-enough-time predicament), but I like it a lot—an awful lot. It’s hard to say right now, but I can definitely see this landing near the top of my list for ’05. Right now it’s Number One with a bullet.
More so than the My Morning Jacket and Comets on Fire references dropped by Pitchfork and to be repeated ad infinitum by lesser cool kids everywhere, two different bands leapt to my mind more immediately: Dead Meadow and Oneida. Black Mountain sorta lies somewhere between the smoke-ringed laziness of the Meadow and Oneida’s hyperactive kraut-punk, but definitely shares with MMJ and Comets, as well as bands like the Gris Gris, a very sincere, if totally invented, feel for the zeitgeist of seventies rock. But I think Black Mountain has better songs than MMJ, more soul than the Meadow, and a subtler touch than Comets. They could be THE band to break this scene wide open. Stay tuned.
N/P Primal Scream – Screamadelica
posted by Jonathan Wright at 12:25 AM EMAIL POST
