The Walrus » Album Reviews

VIEW: EXPANDED•LIST | MP3 PLAYER

Archive for the ‘Album Reviews’ Category

06.30.2010

Laurie Anderson’s New Album Homeland

lauriehomeland

Laurie Anderson’s first album in 10 years, the mesmerizing and politically-charged Homeland has been owning my ipod for the past few days. Once again, the electronic music visionary, who reached beyond the avant-garde and into the mainstream with 1980’s Big Science, has created a tour-de-force of modern language, bold social commentary and enigmatic, brooding soundscapes (with the help of some friends like John Zorn and Four Tet). This is a record for NOW and it is as thrilling as it is terrifying.

Watch as Anderson, engineer Mario McNulty and co-producer/husband Lou Reed discuss the album (excerpt from the album’s companion DVD):

Preview the record and purchase it from Nonesuch Records. Also be sure to catch the legendary artist on tour this summer.

FILED UNDERAlbum Reviews, Videos, Laurie Anderson

DISCUSS | LIKE {0} | DISLIKE {0} |

04.29.2010

Roky Erickson and The Aliens – The Evil One

Somewhere between genius and madness, between Alice Cooper and Freedom Rock, lies Psychedelic music pioneer Roky Erickson’s 1981 album The Evil One.

The release, consisting of two overlapping albums and often referred to as The Evil One or I Think of Demons, is a horror-rock opus. On first listen and without prior knowledge of the man’s life, one might think that the campy imagery within the lyrics is simply that of fantasy. However, the truth is far more disturbing:

In 1968, while doing a stint at HemisFair, Erickson started speaking nonsense. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and sent to a Houston psychiatric hospital, where he involuntarily received electroconvulsive therapy.

The Elevators were vocal proponents of LSD, mescaline (peyote), DMT and marijuana use, and were subject to extra attention from police. In 1969, Erickson was arrested for possession of one marijuana joint in Austin. Facing a ten-year prison term, Erickson pled not guilty by reason of insanity. He was first sent to the Austin State Hospital. After several escapes, he was sent to the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where he was subjected to more electroconvulsive therapy and Thorazine treatments, ultimately remaining in custody until 1972. (via Wikipedia)

Roky Erickson and the Aliens – “I Think of Demons”

More after the jump…

FILED UNDERAlbum Reviews, Streaming, '80s, Roky Erickson

DISCUSS {2} | LIKE {3} | DISLIKE {1} |

07.24.2008

C86, the NME Indie Compilation That Launched a Genre

In 1986, between the rise of The Smiths and The Stone Roses, NME released a compilation once referred to as “the most indie thing that ever existed.” Really? The most indie thing ever?! No way! Annoying anecdotes aside, C86 (Casette 1986) was a tape featuring British bands that would help to usher in the underground musical movement known as indie-pop, or what some call “twee-pop” (even though much of the music on the comp was tilted towards punk, no-wave and arguably, shoegaze…go figure).

Unlike it’s predecessor, C81, only a couple of the bands on C86 (Primal Scream, Wedding Present, Pastels) went on to make somewhat of a name for themselves beyond the British underground. But that, as I am sure you have already guessed, wasn’t the point. The daring quality of the music and the DIY spirit (it sounds like crap, so you know it’s made by real people!) was what mattered. The songs on the tape, which I recently found online, vary in style from punk to jangle-pop to off-kilter funk to slowcore. Through the years, bands that were inspired by the sounds featured on the original cassette, were labeled as “C86.”

So is it any good? Well, from the 22 song collection, I have pulled some highlights which you can download below. It’s a fun listen and definitely cool to hear where bands like The Stone Roses, Slowdive, Manic Street Preachers, and Arctic Monkeys came from…as well as some from the current crop of Lo-Fi bands. It’s also neat to see where Velocity Girl took their name…

The cassette isn’t for sale anywhere as far as I can tell, but I’m sure you can find it floating around online like I did. For more info, check out this article and this article. Also visit the modern day home of all things C86, Indie-MP3.

Primal Scream – Velocity Girl