Indie Music Chatter

Yesterday I talked about Tom Waits and how I think that Closing Time is one of the greatest albums of all time. With your indulgence I’d like to talk about another relatively “old” album that occupies the rarefied club of all time greats.

Allow me to talk about My Bloody Valentine and Loveless.

Loveless is consistently in the top ten of almost all “greatest albums of all time” list — and rightfully so. My Bloody Valentine’s technical and artistic achievement with Loveless is incomparable. More than any album, Loveless has achieved that rare transcendence of elevating a song into sonic landscapes. Each song paints a picture in your mind, and you’re just listening to the instruments.

True it could be hard to swallow Loveless at times — some complain that Kevin Shields and co.’s masterpiece is too noisy, or that it has a tendency to meander. But, as I love to say to friends, this is one of those albums where you will need to invest time. You need to wait for that magic moment, when your intellectual mind shuts off and you allow yourself to be carried by the music. What you need is to surrender to My Bloody Valentine and they will hold you by the hand and show you one of the most beautiful sonic pictures you will encounter.

Tomorrow, I promise I’ll write something a little more current. I’m just in this old school funk the past few weeks, rediscovering my collection– revisiting old friends, as I love to tell my wife.

My Bloody Valentine, Loveless, Kevin Shields

I was on a nostalgic mood a couple of nights ago so I decided to take out a few albums that I haven’t heard in a while — mind you these are works that were made way back in the 70’s.

First on the list was Tom Waits‘ Closing Time. And man, I have to say that the power and artistry of this album just becomes more and more potent as it acquires the patina of time. From the opening bars of ‘Ol 55, Tom Waits’ debut still packs the wallop of a freight train. This is one of the strongest albums I have heard both lyrically and musically. Couple that with Tom Waits’ amazing vocal delivery and what you have is an album that consistently stands the test of time.

This early, I am already exposing my son to Closing Time. This is one album that I want both of us — father and son — to bond over. Twenty years from now, when I am old an gray and my son is ready to take on the world, I want Tom Waits’ masterpiece to connect us — to remind us of a time when he was still a small child resting on his father’s chest while we fall into sweet slumber to the tunes of Waits himself.

Tom Waits, Closing Time, ‘Ol 55

A few weeks ago, I discovered that Amazon.com was holding this nifty sale on indie CDs. This was like waving a red flag to a bull. Indie CDs for 9.99 or less?! I am so there. So I browsed through the selections and ordered an initial batch of CDs (I still need to be conscious about my budget). One of the best titles on my recent haul was the remastered and expanded CD of Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted.

Slanted and Enchanted, for me, is one of the most important albums of the 90’s. It practically ushered in the indie rock movement and served as template to many other indie rock acts that emerged in its wake. As most seminal albums go, Slanted and Enchanted quietly arrived and slowly built its reputation as a rock classic through incessant recommendations from fans and the support of independent and underground music magazines. This happened at a time when there was still no internet to speak of (well, no internet the way it is today) and the indie movement survived on just word of mouth and the enthusiasm of its supporters. I myself discovered Slanted and Enchanted when a friend of mine gave me an old zine in which one writer was raving about it. Of course, I just had to get a copy just to see what the fuss was all about. I still remember when I got my hands on the cassette tape and popped it in my player. I wasn’t expecting much – but boy was I in for the surprise of my life!

From the opening beats of Summer Babe I knew that Stephen Malkmus and company has made an album was going to knock the wind out of me. The world melted away as I fell into the world that Pavement was painting to me through its music. Here is a bunch of songs that sounds so effortless and nonchalant but at the same time almost sags with its creative weight. I played the life out of that tape and when my tape practically disintegrated I bought the CD.

And now I have the remastered CD on my hands and guess what? I’m still having a lot of fun listening to it! This is the mark of a great album – 15 years after it was released and it still sounds as relevant today as it was then.

+++++

I just want to give a shout out to my dad, who I always remember whenever I play Slanted and Enchanted. This was his favorite album too and he would always request that I play Zurich is Stained for him.

I love you, dad. Kisses to heaven…

Pavement, indie rock, Slanted and Enchanted