Songs to just move to

Band: !!!
Song: Dear Can (Stream)
Album: Louden Up Now (2004) (Buy)

I typically go through phases of listening to certain bands, genres and songs for a number of days before I get bored and move on to something else. This will probably be reflected in the articles I write in future, but I find Dear Can impossible to tire of. Really.

Just as !!! (chk chk chk) reside in that grey area between a dance outfit and an indie band, Dear Can resides in a sort of grey area between an instrumental and a full blown song. It has words, but they work more to allow the vocals of Nic Offer and John Pugh to function rhythmically. Sometimes it’s unclear what exactly is being sung, and to a greater extent, what the hell it's about (‘Burn the maps/the maps burn’‘I know you want more’ ). A friend of mine once said that she couldn't enjoy instrumentals because they can't have any meaning because they have no words. I see where she was coming from to a degree, but if anything, Dear Can is an example of the opposite; these lyrics mean absolutely nothing, but that’s part of the joy. They’re just phrases, repeated again and again – more riffs in a jam than lyrics.

3 steady bass drum blasts serve as the backbone for the majority of the song, over the course of which it becomes the most infectious beat in the world. I defy you to find a better one. The interplay of two guitars producing a recurring motif, cymbals, bells, shakers, and spacey keyboard sounds intertwine and drift in and out of each other demanding that you move. Around the 80 second mark the bass kicks in and you have no choice. It's amazing.

At times Dear Can meanders into 'ambient' sections typical of !!!. In other cases, (Must Be the Moon, Bend Over Beethoven) this is a trope that can take away from the inherent rhythm of their songs, but anchored with such a strong, relentless beat, these are used to best effect, giving the track some necessary breathing space.

There are a lot of elements used throughout the course of the song, including some unexpected brass, but it never feels overwhelming. Each musical line is subtle enough not to overshadow any of the others, whilst still adding something more to the song. Like the majority of dance songs, there's a breakdown, which highlights the nonsensical vocals of Offer and Pugh (can anyone work out what they’re singing?), before dropping into a typical 4-on-the-floor beat. It’s not a massive, anthemic drop by any stretch of the imagination, but this kind of subtlety allows Dear Can to bury itself into your head as well as being hella danceable, and I think it's all the better for it. However, it may not be the most accessible of songs, but it becomes so much more in spite of and perhaps because of this.

It may not have meaning, but it represents where I think my friend has missed the mark completely. Meaning isn't what this music is about, it's about feeling, and I don't think that there are many words out there that could give me the same feeling sheer escapism and elation that Dear Can does. Besides, who needs meaning when you have groove by the truckload?

Songs to be obsessed with

Band: Marina and the Diamonds
Song: Obsessions (listen)
Album: Obsessions (EP) (buy)/The Family Jewels (album)

Occasionally, just occasionally, a song comes totally out of left field and slaps you in the face and goes “I AM AMAZING! LISTEN TO ME CONSTANTLY!” That’s what this song did for me. It was, however, an awful choice as my first song to blog about since my love for it is pretty much totally irrational. I think I can confidently say it is the best song about buying crackers ever, but then that doesn’t really seem like great enough praise somehow.

From the opening chords this song gets under your skin, it feels hypnotic. The gently pulsating piano, mixed with Marina’s lilting voice seems to reverberate in your head momentarily before she starts crashing the piano and brings you out of the dream-like start. I think this is part of the joy of the song, the sheer amount of emotion Marina gets into each syllable, the tenderness of little sweetheart juxtaposing the malice in creep is somehow made even more heartfelt.
The simplicity of this song makes me love it all the more. There’s not much to it musically below the surface and yet it still fails to get boring, I would put this down mostly to how fantastic the vocals are but I’d also like to think that every person listening to it will be enticed for different reasons.

This song is part of a wider love affair I’ve had with Marina and the Diamonds. Both Mowgli’s Road and Seventeen have all of Marina’s charm but Obsessions has that and then some. It’s like finding out that girl that you have liked for the past 6 months secretly plays Quake in her spare time, just managing to tip the balance from pretty fucking good to damn right amazing...yeh I’m not good with analogies. You get my point. For me this is just a beautiful piece of music, everything about it just makes me feel good inside and you really can’t ask much more of music.

Yours besottedly,
JoewMo

Songs to get high to

Artist: Pantera
Song: Planet Caravan (Black Sabbath Cover) (Listen)
Album: Far Beyond Driven (1994) (Buy)

You know Pantera, right? Kings of the thundering, blistering, rage-fuelled metal anthem, and masters of the groove metal subgenre they arguably created? Well, as those who have heard this song know, Planet Caravan, a Black Sabbath cover, is as far from the style that made them famous as you could possibly get without them ditching Dimebag’s guitars entirely and becoming a synth-pop boy band.

For a start, it is probably the mellowest song I listen to. Don’t let the fact that I listen mostly to speed metal undermine that statement; it is immensely peaceful. Phil Anselmo’s normally furious roar is far calmer and melodic, similar to how it is in Cemetery Gates but deeper, and Vinnie Paul swaps the drum kit for a hypnotic set of bongos. For anyone that knows anything about Pantera, you should already realise just how unusual a song this is for them.

I discovered Planet Caravan a few months ago when I decided to expand my Pantera collection beyond Cowboys From Hell and listen to some of the heavier stuff. Looking through their undeniably brilliant material, I saw this song and, remembering it to be a cover of some sort, began playing it out of curiosity. Needless to say, it blew my mind. Dimebag’s (or should I say Tony Iommi’s?) main rhythm was immediately relaxing, and once the bongos came I knew I was hooked. Stick Anselmo’s strangely soothing voice and Rex Brown’s subtle bass-work into the mix and you’re in for a truly psychedelic experience. I have since played the song for a number of my friends, very few of whom listen to metal, and normally about the point the bongos makes their entrance I get some sort of positive reaction out of them, including that of one female friend who let out a pleasantly surprised ‘Oooh!’

The dreamy atmosphere created throughout the song works to conjure up a variety of images in my head, like all good songs do. Whatever the song is actually about, it makes me imagine some sort of planet travelling through this dream-like universe, invoking images such as the caravans in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and the gypsies in the His Dark Materials trilogy, all mixed together in a deep-space setting complete with the vast pallet of colours of its various planets and nebulas. For those of you wondering, this is purely fuelled by my imagination; no substances were involved. This is all capped by a masterful solo from Dimebag, which provides a suitably mellow outro to the song and the imaginary galaxy it creates.

This song was originally created for a Black Sabbath covers compilation, but was ultimately rejected… perhaps because it was far too good to belong on a covers compilation. Instead it can be found at the end of the Far Beyond Driven, probably their heaviest album, providing an almost unexpected yet brilliant ending to a brilliant album.

Risen from the Graveyard of Good Ideas

You know when you're just going about your daily life and all of a sudden a fantastic idea floats out of the blue and whacks you across the face, shouting "HEY. YOU. I AM A FANTASTIC IDEA. DO ME NOW"? So you start thinking about this fantastic idea, and how exactly you're going to set about 'doing' it. Maybe it's an idea for an awesome flash animation, or maybe it's how to cure cancer... either way, your intentions are noble, and you quickly sort out all the technicalities and details in your head. "Wow," you think to yourself, "this is a truly awesome plan. I can't wait to see it brought to fruition."

Time passes, and obviously, you being you, the amazing idea has fallen to wayside. Any motivation you had for doing it has disappeared, and you move on to the next big thing. Namely life. Well, that's what's happened here.

Obviously, the mere existence of a post such as this would suggest that things are about to change, and they are. Expect some sporadic updating from the three of us while we figure out a good schedule (which may just end up being sporadic and unplanned updating).

JackD, RGYB, JoewMo