Monday, April 6, 2009

Oh, Doctor, doctor, is this love I'm feeling?


Dr. Feelgood - As it Happens (listen) This article on undersung guitar players in Blurt weirdly heralds much-heralded folks like Mick Ronson and Link Wray (or maybe we have completely forgotten all history and this is necessary) but thankfully mentioned Wilko Johnson and reminded me to check out Dr. Feelgood one of these days. Thanks Blurt!

The Litter - $100 Fine (listen) Nope, I've never heard of the Litter either, but what a genius group/trash-idiom band name! The singer sounds like Alex Chilton, the guitar sounds like the threat of drugs in the tap water, and the rest is hanging on the best it can. Not a damn thing wrong with this song:

Dr. Dog - Fate (listen) I'd avoided giving this record a serious listen because I feared I wouldn't like it, and I get tired of being the contrarian after a while. I'm almost at the point of just pretending I like the Beach Boys (which is I suspect how everybody really feels about them) just so I won't have to hold my paper umbrella against the rain anymore. Maybe I just hate the band name Dr. Dog; it hits me as the name of a band that takes aping their favorites a lot more seriously than it does crafting an individual statement, and upon listening, I think this is partially true, but not anymore than it is with anyone else, including myself. The album is pretty sweet, actually, but ice cream is also pretty sweet and you can get that anywhere. I'm not being fair to Dr. Dog. I think I'm still mad at My Morning Jacket for losing their edge and I'm taking it out on them.

And, perhaps the lady doth protest too much...

2 comments:

  1. I happened to write about Dr. Dog today too. The name is by far the worst thing about the band, and I don't begrudge anyone for avoiding them based on that fact alone.

    I gotta say though, this album has grown and grown and grown on me, to my continuing surprise.

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  2. I just saw your post. Yeah, I'm going to let it steep a little and see how it goes.

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