The Icarus Line - Black Live at the Golden Coast (listen) I had about a 2-hour drive before me on Saturday and started a new Pandora station on my phone with Pulp's "Common People," thinking I was going to use a line from it in the article that was to result from this trip. Thankfully, Pandora could detect by just the shake of my hand as I pecked it in that I didn't really want to listen to Pulp. iPhones have gyroscopes so maybe they can actually do this. Instead it knew I wanted the dispatch from teenage wasteland that is The Icarus Line. They sounds like the Jesus and Mary Chain (if they were an actual chain) being used to stop the rented party barge from drifting too far into the reservoir.
Verbena - La Musica Negra - (listen on MySpace) About 13 years ago my roommates and I went to see Verbena (incubation band for the quite popular AA Bondy) and dubbed them "chicken-fried Stooges" and while I think I would substitute Cheap Trick or even Foo Fighters now, neither description has the ring of "chicken-fried Stooges."
Big Star - In Space - (listen at the Rykodisc Big Star site) Verbena has a song called "Me and Yr Sister" which made me think of Chris Bell which in turn led to the fact that I've never listened to that "new" Big Star record from 2005. From what I gather, it is Alex Chilton backed by the Posies, which may not be the Big Star of legend, but is not a bad trade-off. This is a great little record. It has comfort-with-tension hidden under a blanket of harmonies and perfect chord progressions that I always want out of Alex Chilton solo records but can't quite find. I even like the much derided pastoral disco diversion "Love Revolution"; Alex Chilton might have some jam band aspirations that should be explored.
I frankly hope he continues to make Big Star records even if dismantling a beloved rock 'n' roll mythological canon is what it takes; it's his to tear apart and, if I may, the beauty of a cannon is best exhibited by firing it, not by polishing it.
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