Stegzy's Music Project

A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

Oct 13

Electric Shocks – Roger Ruskin Spear [#420]

by stegzy

R-2236186-1271590213.jpegFormer Bonzo Ruskin Spear, with his first solo LP.

Clearly audible are the influences of the Bonzos, Python, Milligan and the era’s dadaist comedy mixed with the familiar popular big band songs of a hauntalogical pre-war era such as All by Yourself in the Moonlight and Make Yourself a Happiness Pie.

This is another album that, had there been no music download free-for-all in the noughties, I would never have known existed. I was already a fan of Bonzo, but it would have been unlikely I’d have been standing in Church Street’s HMV  flicking through the R section looking for this gem.

1972 Roger Ruskin Spear

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Oct 12

Electric Ladyland – Jimi Hendrix [#419]

by stegzy

220px-Jimi_Hendrix_-_Electric_LadylandDespite dying in 1970, Hendrix has this reputation for being an innovation if not the best guitarist in history. I’ve asked several respected musicians the “Who would you invite for dinner?” question and most of them say Jimi Hendrix.

But hey, guess what, I don’t agree. There are other far more talented non-mainstream guitarists around at the time and in present day who people seem to forget about. In my opinion, if it wasn’t for the whole Woodstock thing, Hendrix would still be seen as a mediocre artist with little but a couple of songs to see him into retirement.

Electric Ladyland is Hendrix’s third and final album. This is the one with all the tracks everyone associates with Hendrix on it, Voodoo Chile, All Along the Watchtower and Crosstown Traffic to name but a few.
At one point in the late sixties/early seventies, to own this album would have held you in high regard amongst your music loving friends, much like how owning a copy of Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds or Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells shows you’re part of an elite music loving club. You might have gathered with friends in your new town home wearing your cheesecloth and manly moustache like some sort of cast line up for the musical Hair or porn film. While congregating with your associates, you might have popped Electric Ladyland onto your gramophone with a mayonnaise like smoothness and smoked Woodbines, talking about socialist politics.

Just before the power cut.

 

1968 Jimi Hendrix

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Oct 9

Electric Dreams – OST [#418]

by stegzy

Unknown-1A film ahead of its time was the little known eighties film Electric Dreams. Possibly more familiar is the song from the closing credits performed by former Human League and car stereo buyer Phil Oakey.

Electric Dreams tells the story of Miles (Twin Peaks’ Lenny von Dohlen), a geeky architect nerd who happens to fancy his new neighbour Madeline (played by Dune Princess Virginia Madsen) just at the same moment he buys himself a home computer and accidentally makes it sentient by spilling wine all over it. As you do.

The music is a perfect eighties music time capsule with songs by Culture Club, ELO’s Jeff Lynne and P.P.Arnold (currently doing the Caribbean Cruise circuit).

I love this soundtrack. I love the film too. It’s such a shame that it’s hardly ever shown on TV these days and it’s pricey on DVD.

1984 Soundtracks Various Artists

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Oct 8

El Duende Flamenco – Paco de Lucia [#417]

by stegzy

Elduende“I feel like we should be eating tapas”, New-Mrs-Gnomepants said to me during the research part for today’s album.

Of all world music, I find Spanish, specifically Flamenco music, the most dynamic, passionate and hauntological. My first introduction to classical guitar music and flamenco came from the time in my early to mid-twenties when I used to go round to a friends house and chat shite.

I’d met Min, a keen guitarist, when I was doing A Level music at Liverpool Community College in the nineties. We had similar interests and would frequently hangout to listen to music together. Sometimes Min would practice or show off his guitar skills and frequently this would include renditions of Asturias (Albania) and  Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Tarrega) which would please me no end.

Further to this, I think Spanish food is possibly the best cuisine there is in the world, especially tapas. So when I began entertaining guests in my suburban hacienda I would endeavour to recreate Spanish food such as paella and gambas pil-pil while setting the scene by providing a Spanish theme musically, which certainly helped with the presentation and the taste.

El Duende Flamenco is an album of traditional flamenco music played by leading flamenco artist, Paco de Lucia who died last year. Four minutes into the album, if you’re not stood in the middle of the room clapping your hands rhythmically, or swirling an imaginary skirt like a flamenco dancer, then there’s something wrong with you. I love this stuff it’s sharp, neatly timed and perfect. Not like the sickly margarine of modern music, which is manufactured, well greased and bad for your health in large doses.

1972 Paco de Lucia

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Oct 7

Ege Bamyasi – Can [#416]

by stegzy

EgebamyasialbumcoverIf you like your music a bit weird or maybe if you’re looking for that ideal album to pop onto your gramophone before you start passing round the extra strong skunk you have which will no doubt result in a really bad trip, then look no further. This lovely album is a blend of krautrock and experimental oddness.

All Can albums are odd and Ege Bamyasi is no exception as I found out after my discovery of Can’s Tago Mago. Idly discussing the band with a work mate one day resulted in the same chap bringing a shed load of Can albums for me to listen to. Eye opening stuff if a lot weird ,it’s no surprise the band isn’t very main stream but like with all bands that appear on the music project, I’ve tried the best out and kept them.

So if you’re in a situation as described in the opening paragraph to this entry, or perhaps you just want to expand your mind with sound, I suggest you try Ege Bamyasi as a taster to lure you into the deep dark realms of Mr Suzuki’s mind.

1972 Can

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Oct 6

Editor’s Recommendations – Half Man Half Biscuit [#415]

by stegzy

HMHB-EditorsRecommendationJust to reassure you, I’m not, by any means, channelling John Peel here but we did have similar tastes in music it seems. Anyway, those four lads who shook the Wirral take centre stage on the music project once more. This time with a cheeky little EP and a wink at Granada TV.

Now, let me tell you a secret about the music project. I don’t usually include EPs on the music project unless they’re exceptionally significant or relevant to the whole story I have to tell over 4000 plus posts. If I had included EPs from the start, we’d be still in the Bs or worse, and nobody wants to be in the Bs. Especially as we have the Gs to get through and boy, is that going to take the best part of next year.

So it is with pride and honour that I welcome Half Man Half Biscuit’s cheeky little EP, Editor’s Recommendations to the music project. With a sly dig at former Granada TV news anchor, Bob Wilson, Coronation Street’s Ken Barlow and an absurd trad. arr. song about Slipknot visiting the Pope, twelve minutes of dry scouse  acerbic wit nicely nestles between the release of Trouble Over Bridgwater and Cammell Laird Social Club. Lovely.

2001 Half Man Half Biscuit

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Oct 5

Ecliptica – Sonata Arctica [#414]

by stegzy

SonataArctica_EclipticaFinnish metal heads rejoice! Sonata Arctica are here to add power metal tones and poorly pronounced English lyrics to the music project. Hurrah!

I first came across Sonata Arctica when they were included in a compilation I’d sourced from Usenet. Suitably impressed by the one song, I did what I usually do on such occasions, download their entire back catalogue. This was a foolish move as I ended up with a hard drive so full of Scandinavian  metal it was hard not to think I was some sort of visiting viking.

Anyway, as is usual in such situations, I ended up liking about 2 albums by the band. This one and another, which is a live set featuring many of the songs that are on this album anyway. I’m sure they’ve got better over time, frankly I’m too busy to care….They do have a distinctive sound and possibly have faster fingers than Steve Vai. Though I’m sure many might argue otherwise.

 

1999 Sonata Arctica

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Oct 1

Eclipse – Love is Colder than Death [#413]

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2015-10-01 at 20.05.46The problem with downloading music illegally is you are at the mercy of the person who uploads it in the first place. Moreover, you are also at risk of downloading something that isn’t what it says it is, facing the grim potential that the music you have just obtained has been tagged incorrectly.

And that is what happened to me when I came across Eclipse.

Back in the day, when the internet was young and free, the internet was a lot less commercial. People who had an interest in things would upload unfounded facts and files or post tiled pictures of dancing hamsters to self hosted pages without the desire or need to have it create fame or fortune. And so, at some point, a misguided person uploaded a compilation of Love is Colder Than Death tracks retagged as a long lost Dead Can Dance album.

Of course, with only the fledgling Wikipedia to hand and still a great deal of poor information on important matters like “Who did perform this track” available, I was hoodwinked into thinking that it was a complete change in direction for Dead Can Dance.

It wasn’t.

It wasn’t even Dead Can Dance. Eventually though, I managed to work out what the songs were by using a combination of lyric searches and Musicbrainz Picard, and this is the album that 70% of the songs came from.

Unfortunately, the isn’t much out on the internet about Love is Colder Than Death. They’re from Germany, they have a website [http://www.lictd.com], they have seven albums and they’ve been going since the nineties. Which might sound contradictory, but in the UK it has always been difficult to access European  originating non-mainstream art be it film, television, music or the like despite the Television Sans Frontiers or the Audiovisual Media Services directives, which is a shame because mainland Europe is a vast treasure trove of great stuff, though access to it is getting better.

As well as this, lyrically, they’re still a bit sparse on the internet in that their lyrics are difficult to come by, which is a problem because they’re often difficult to decipher or make out. For example, on the song Ideals and Pains  I still have no clue what it is he’s singing about. It’s the accent I suppose.

Anyway, it’s easy to see why someone might confuse the band for Dead Can Dance sans Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. Stylistically, this album is very similar to DCD’s Into the Labyrinth and it does feel like a natural progression. Unfortunately, because of the difficulties in obtaining preview copies (to see if I like their other stuff) and unwillingness to part with money in these cash strapped times just to find out I don’t like an album, this is the second of the only three LICTD albums I have and it is unlikely that I’ll dabble with any of their other albums. Especially with the likes of the Aural Apocalypse being off air these days….

2003 Love is Colder than Death

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Sep 30

Echoes – Camel [#412]

by stegzy

Camel_EchoesShowcasing popular tracks from all their albums up to Stationary Traveller, Echoes is Camel’s “best of” compilation. If you’re curious about the band at all but too scared to sit through the complexities of Moon Madness or  maybe you’re intimidated by the cover art on Mirage, then grab a copy of Echoes and you’ll be alright.

1993 Camel

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Sep 29

East of the Sun, West of the Moon [#411]

by stegzy

A-ha_East_of_the_Sun_West_of_the_MoonI was 10 when Aha’s Take on Me was doing the rounds. I didn’t have much interest in music at that age and it wasn’t until the late nineties that I picked up their “best of” compilation album Headlines and Deadlines – The Hits of A-ha.

I’d kind of lost track of A-ha over the years and there were a couple of songs on Headlines that I’d not heard before and so when I came across this album, I thought I’d give it ago. East of the Sun, West of the Moon is A-ha’s fourth album and marks the band’s transition from poppy eighties sound to moody nineties sound.

1990 A-ha

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Sep 28

Ease Down the Road – Bonnie Prince Billy [#410]

by stegzy

Easedowntheroad_albumcover
Back when I was in “lifestyle training” my mentor told me I should like Bonnie Prince Billy. Should, as in must. To gain the “Hipster – Level 8” achievement I had to listen to Bonnie Prince Billy and report back to the mentor about how much I appreciated his work.

Let loose, I went forth and researched. I discovered that Bonnie Prince Billy is actually a guy called Will Oldham who is also a sometimes actor. Much like a more laid back Chris Isaak with a penchant for doom and gloom rather than soppy pitiful whining. Deeper into the research I obtained this album, popped it on and listened awaiting enlightenment and the “Achievement Unlocked” sign to flash up in mid-air above my head.

It didn’t.

I reported back that the whole album was a little too slow and laid back for me. I couldn’t think of a particular time when listening to the album would be suited (other than when reading the Guardian supplements on a lazy Saturday while sat in my nice middle class domain). I reported that his lyrics inspired depression and lacked optimism. I explained that the affect Bonnie Prince Billy had on me was one of overwhelming “WTF”.

At this point my mentor nonchalantly held up his hand like some bearded yogi atop a Himalayan mountain to silence me. Leaned forward and whispered:

“You have failed”

I asked for explanation and was told that:

  1. I had selected the worst album to begin my embarkation into the world of Palace Music, Oldham and Billy.
  2. I had not listened to the music correctly
  3. I had not understood the subtle lyrical nuances present in the tracks
  4. My soul patch was not prominent enough
  5. I should get some John Lennon glasses and wear roll-neck sweaters

So I called him a pompous knob sock and never listened to his music recommendations ever again.

 

2001 Bonnie Prince Billy

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Sep 25

Earth Moving – Mike Oldfield [#409]

by stegzy

At this stage in his career, you can detect the “I don’t want to be here” atmosphere in his music. It’s like he’s not even trying.

This is Oldfield’s twelfth studio album but, unlike earlier Oldfield albums, doesn’t have a “feature length” instrumental track. Instead it is just a collection of songs featuring a variety of vocalists but mostly his then girlfriend Anita Hegerland.

Considering it fell between Amarock and Islands , two of my most favourite Oldfield albums, I was surprised that I didn’t own it before the advent of the Great Internet Free-for-all of the noughties. Of course, it highlighted the likes of HMV and Virgin Megastore were only stocking commercially viable albums in their stores thus controlling what people listen to and limiting access to less popular music thus preventing new fans from making their own minds up.

Still, it’s not his best album. Glad I didn’t buy it….Sounds like the soundtrack to a really bad, late eighties early nineties straight to video American crime film complete with neon lights and raunchy sexiness.

1989 Mike Oldfield

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Sep 24

The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place – Explosions in the Sky [#408]

by stegzy

Take some Godspeed! You Black Emperor, stir in a bit of Mono (Japan) and top off with a teeny grating of Mike Oldfield, you have Explosions in the Sky.

I arrived late at the Explosions in the Sky party and didn’t really progress beyond this album. I like it though and have had it playing while I’ve been flying around the galaxy in Elite: Dangerous.

2003 Explosions in the Sky

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Sep 23

Earth Inferno Live – Fields of the Nephilim [#407]

by stegzy

Live mix of concerts of Carl McCoy’sEarth_Inferno_Fields_of_the_Nephilim group of forsaken dusty cowboy zombires.

Earth Inferno has all my favourite classic Nephilim songs; Last Exit, Dawnrazor and Moonchild. This was one of the last CDs I bought before the great internet download feast of the noughties. Sadly the CD was damaged but I’m happy to say I still have the rip I made.

Great for wearing black to.

1991 Fields of the Nephilim

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Sep 22

Earmeal – Janne Schaffer [#406]

by stegzy

UnknownIf you happen to be making a 1970s porn film complete with car chase, man with suggestively large moustache and outrageous orange and brown patterned clothing, you’ll probably need this album to be your sound track.

Schaffer was a Swedish session musician who worked with Abba and Toto and this album was probably released to show off what kind of style he was good at. It’s alright and I often get comments about how the album is quite funky and exciting but repeated plays often face the cold shoulder or pleas for mercy.

1979 Abba Jean Schaffer

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Sep 21

Dziekuje Bardzo – Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard [#405]

by stegzy

Dziekuje_BardzoIf you’re a regular reader, you might remember when Klaus first appeared on the music project with Peter Namlook in Dark Side of the Moog and how disappointing that album turned out to be. We now meet Klaus working with former Dead Can Dance stalwart Lisa Gerrard in what turns out to be their third collaboration.

Listening to Dziekuje Bardzo is sometimes like listening to a futuristic Dead Can Dance without Brendan Perry, a bit like listening to Lisa Gerrard’s solo work without Klaus Schulze (Does that make sense?) and sometimes like listening to some god awful German electronic bollocks created by an egotistical electronic musician who can’t accept that their music is tosh and are misguided enough to continue under the premise of “occasional good bits”.

Still if Lisa Gerrard like his music who am I to judge?

 

2009 Klaus Schulze Lisa Gerrard

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Sep 18

Dynasty – Kiss [#404]

by stegzy

Dynasty_(album)_coverI’m still convinced that Kiss are the biggest and longest comedy act going.

Any day now Gene Simmons will announce that the whole band has been a highly orchestrated well scripted piss take that kind of got out of hand.

Dynasty is Kiss’ seventh studio and first break-up album in that the band started to flake apart like a giant comedy cream horn. Peter Criss had been in a car accident and replaced on tour with Eric Carr and eighteen months after the albums release, Frehley would leave the band.

The album also marks a significant stylistic change in the bands output as songs take a distinctive pop and disco flavour. However, even the stylistic change doesn’t rescue the Kiss flavour for me. There are a few songs I like and I’m fond of some of their cheesier lyrics but I don’t think I could listen to the whole album regularly.

1979 Kiss

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Sep 17

Dust Bunnies – Bettie Serveert [#403]

by stegzy

440px-Dust_Bunnies_(Bettie_Serveert_album_-_cover_art)The second of the three Bettie Serveert albums in the music project.

I’d not listened to this album entirely before writing this entry and before this project, I’d only really heard Bettie Serveert’s Totally Freaked Out track on the 4AD Presents compilation. After listening to the previous album I’d reviewed, I wasn’t too enamoured but then I wasn’t totally repulsed either so I approached Dust Bunnies in the same way.

Unfortunately, I think I must have listened to Attagirl on a day when I was feeling less critical because on second listen, I was wondering why I actually bothered saving the album from the recycling bin for. As a result, Attagirl eventually ended up a casualty of the first “purge” of unwanted previously featured music project albums.

Moreover, although first listen of Dust Bunnies wasn’t too offensive, it’s certainly not something I would probably listen to again. I think after nearly 10 years of ownership without listening, or identifying a track I’m keen on, is indicative that the music project’s second aim (#Deletion of unwanted music) is now starting to take effect and the decision making processes leading to the deletion of unwanted music (thus freeing up disk space) is now becoming easier.

Still, I’ll plough on…

1997 Bettie Serveert

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Sep 16

Dust and Dreams – Camel [#402]

by stegzy

Camel_Dust_And_DreamsAndy Latimer and Pete Bardens with their band again, this time with their 11th studio album.

Camel are a mixed bag progressively speaking in that their stuff either works or it doesn’t. I love their earlier albums such as Mirage and of course Snow Goose, then my next favourite Camel album is  their tenth, Stationary Traveller along with their penultimate, Rajaz. But there is a lot of Camel that’s a bit…bobbins – Dust and Dreams being an example of bobbins.

Latimer and Bardens churn out another concept album, this time based on Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Having never (shock horror) read the book, I guess I just don’t get the same enjoyment out of it as I would War of the Worlds, 1984 or Journey to the Centre of the Earth but saying that I’ve never read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda but I really like Yes‘ Tales from Topographic Oceans. 

I found Dust and Dreams dry, stodgy and forced. I got the impression that Latimer and Bardens went to their bookcase, pulled out a book and went “Let’s write a concept album based on that”. It’s as though Camel were trying their best to bring Progressive Rock out of it’s coma by beating it across the head with a heavy book.

I don’t get it.However, it is an interesting album because the sharp eared listener can hear early development of themes used later in Rajaz and further development of themes used in Stationary Traveller. 

 

1991 Camel Progressive Rock

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Sep 15

Dune – OST [#401]

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2015-09-14 at 20.20.28The beginning is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year 2015, and I’m still only a hundred albums shy of being a third of the way through this music project.

Dune is a very special film and soundtrack for me. My oldest brother used to scoff that I couldn’t possibly have understood the concepts dealt with by the film, especially as Lynch’s version was edited to bits. The weird thing is, I got Lynch from a very early age. In fact, I got Dune on a deeper level through the film than I ever did with the novel. I think Lynch did a bloody good job making a sci-fi snob’s book accessible to many people.

My oldest brother repeatedly tried to “explain” his interpretation of the novel to me, but he had no need as I already understood what the author was trying to say. I understood the hidden depths, the concept of the Kwisatz Haderach, the Fremen and what the spice really was. Even the trope of the sandworms.

The film is also important to me because of how the music actually makes a good accompaniment in the way that Queen’s soundtrack to Flash Gordon makes Flash Gordon what it is. Toto do an outstanding job of the soundtrack especially considering their only other significant contribution to the soundtrack of my life is their hit song Africa and Brian Eno’s atmospherics also add to the whole parcel of the film.

Soundtracks for Lynch’s films appear several times in this music project but if asked to save one from deletion it would definitely be the soundtrack for Dune. A film that still sends shivers down my spine and, in some respects, seen by many as a premonition/allegory/parable for the events in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East as we live right now and, I believe, has been since it was written.

 

1984 Brian Eno Soundtracks Toto

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Sep 14

Dummy – Portishead [#400]

by stegzy

Dummy - Portishead The nineties. A time of new beginnings. New Labour. New shoes. New hair. New protests. For some the nineties revolved around the hype over the potential “new age dawn” that the hairy bearded types, yogurt weavers, tofu knitters and floaty vagina types promised us would arise at midnight on the 1st January 2000, further fuelled by the likes of X Files and acceptance of associated “alternative” theories and television and other media’s thirst to provide Forteana via whatever programme concept they could think up over a copy of Fortean Times and a really strong joint.

The sound tracks to most of these programmes included songs from today’s album. You could almost guarantee it. More so, the band’s music began to appear in nineties dramas aimed at twenteenies such as This Life and the like. Indeed, if anything says nineties music to me, it’s Portishead.

But my introduction to their music came a long time before BBC documentaries about Parapsychology, UFOs or ghosties. It was a former acquaintance who introduced me to their music. Round about the same time as the same former acquaintance introduced me to Lara Croft. I was transfixed. Not just by Lara Croft’s figure, but by the weirdness that tracks such as Mysterons and Sour Times conveyed.  Later, that same album became to be even more influential and prominent in my life.

Listening to it again for the music project, it brought back all kinds of memories. Memories long unstirred. Fond memories. Memories of experimentation. Memories of people I haven’t seen or heard from in a very long time. Happy memories. Memories of a blossoming time for me and many of my contemporary peers.

Such is the power of music.

We’ll see Portishead five more times in this music project, again, all albums that were released at significant points in my life. So I’ll no doubt talk more about the band then. But for now, I’ll leave this entry with a song that should haunt you as much as it haunts me.

1994 Portishead

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Sep 11

Duality – Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke [#399]

by stegzy

Duality_Lisa_GerrardSomeone spoiled my enjoyment of Dead can Dance’s Lisa Gerard’s solo work. Simply, they told me to listen to her music and imagine her singing while pointing at something really disgusting. Like a plate with a dog poo covered fork, or perhaps a bowl of green olives, or that video on social media of someone having something fished out of their ear.

Yeah, that did it.

This is Gerrard’s second  album without Brendan Perry, her first being the Mirror Pool, and is a collaboration with occasional DCD session musician Pieter Bourke.

As a result the DCD sound is almost there. It’s not entirely there but it is almost. It’s like a cup of coffee that’s almost coffee but turns out to be something like coffee substitute. It does, however, feature some interesting tracks that featured in the film The Insider.

1998 4AD Lisa Gerrard Pieter Bourke

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Sep 10

The Drift – Scott Walker [#398]

by stegzy

images You might remember Scott Walker as one half of the Walker Brothers. What do you mean you don’t know the Walker Brothers. Hmm. Ok…

That’s the Walker Brothers. Gary, John and Scott, brothers in music not by birth.

Ok, now I’ve established for you who the Walker Brothers are, let me tell you about Neo-folk. Neo-folk, according to Wikipedia, is:

a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. – Wikipedia

Unfortunately, Neofolk gets a teeny bit of a bad name due to its links to martial music and appropriation by a minority of Neo-nazi groups who aimed to spread their filth through the medium of good music.

I like Neofolk. I discovered it through the Looking For Europe neo-folk compendium, the first track on which is Scott Walker’s Angel of Ashes which, I’m told, is Neofolk.

Intrigued by the inclusion of one of the Walker Brothers on the album, I sought out more by the artist and found that at one point in his career, he was signed to my favourite record label…4AD.

Sadly the album The Drift, is an acquired taste. A taste, I’m afraid, my aural tastebuds finds a little too rich and unusual tasting. A little bit Anthony and the Johnsons with a pinch of  Current 93, topped with notes of Can.Still, like with Kiss, I’ll persevere. Just in case he gets better with age….

2006 4AD neofolk Scott Walker

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Sep 9

Dressed to Kill – Kiss [#397]

by stegzy

imgresKiss are a comedy parody band right?

Gene Simmons et al glam and rock their way through 30 minutes of cheesy sleazy lyrics with no apologies to any of the listeners.

Not my cup of tea but my friend Jim swore I’d get used to it. Curiously though, he said exactly the same about The Darkness and Athlete. He was right about them so I’ll persevere…

1975 Kiss

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Sep 8

Dresden Dolls – Dresden Dolls [#396]

by stegzy

The_Dresden_Dolls_-_The_Dresden_DollsSome time ago I was working in a help desk for a major university in the UK. It was at a time when software and media piracy was looked upon with the same fondness one might have for free toys in boxes of cereal. With that attitude and super fast internet, some of the computers in the main help desk became literal media suckers by day, downloading all manner of treats.

Often partial downloads would be left in folders on the computers on the main desk. These folders would be digital gold mines of interesting music and films.

One day I found a folder containing several music files. Some of the files were of the Ditty Bops, others were the Decemberists but the ones that struck a chord for me were those featuring the Dresden Dolls. Now we’ve met the Dresden Dolls on the music project before but in their constituent parts; Brian Viglione (who also played with Rasputina, Black Tape For a Blue Girl and Revue Noir) and Amanda Palmer. This is their first album. The one they released before everyone went Amanda Palmer cray-cray and reimagined themselves as hipsters.

I’m particularly fond of the Dresden Dolls, though not so much their solo works. I really like their quirkiness and how they’re like some naughty anti-christ version of the White Stripes.  We’ll see more of the Dresden Dolls later in the music project, so as it was an introductory album for me, here is an introduction for you, dear reader, if you have been living under some sort of hipster rock for the past ten years or so…

2003 Amanda Palmer Brian Viglione Dreden Dolls Memories

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