Quote:
Originally Posted by stefan
The Clean: Vehicle
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I love the Clean. Remember their first single "Tally Ho"? One of the lost gems of rock n roll. Not sure they ever really quite matched that level of fun and charm again as they moved more into jangle-rock, but Merge put out a 2-disc anthology that collects all those early songs and it's a great listen. And the second disc has most of Vehicle, and quite a bit from the mid 90s reunion albums too. All the early stuff is pretty lo-fi, but essential nonetheless for any jangle & drone rock fan. Lots of the sound that Yo La Tengo later became (listen to "Point That Thing Somewhere Else"). And blueprints for many other bands, including more recent faves of mine like Life Without Buildings (just listen to the song "Side On"). Highly influential.
A few years ago a buddy from New Zealand sent me a copy of the 1997 solo album from David Kilgour titled David Kilgour & the Heavy Eights (not released in the US) and I loved it so picked up his latest at the time
A Feather In The Engine, which is released in the US on Merge. It's one of those albums that I've listened to many, many times over the last few years and it's something that I bet a lot of people would proibably like a lot too. The everpresent VU influence is always there, but not to the point of sounding like them. More like the Feelies and Chills type sound, along with some Eleventh Dream Day maybe. Great guitar work and kind of psychedelic sounding, mixed with that jangle sound of the other bands mentioned above. Kind of along the lines of vintage Steve Wynn, but little softer. Wonderful album. Not one that slaps you in the face and declares its greatness right away, but one that you keep playing long after those others have been forgotten. Similar in some ways to Yo La Tengo (whom they coincidentally thank in the liner notes), which means that much of the influence comes from the quieter side of the Velvet Underground. Very nice recording too.
And then last year he released a new one that's very nice too,
Frozen Orange. With the help of my NZ connection I've now managed to get my hands on all his solo work, and this latest one has some of his best music yet....solo, or with the Clean. Top notch all the way through. But so are all of his last few, so it's kind of pointless to rate them against each other. Simply put, if you love the best of bands like Yo La Tengo and Luna and REM and the Feelies and all the other descendants of the softer jangle rock sound of the Velvet Underground, you'll love these records too. His last two are on Merge in the US so are very easy to come by, as opposed to the excellent one before that with the Heavy Eights I mentioned above, which is a NZ import. All have very nice sound as a bonus, especially this latest one, although it is a little too compressed. Lots of cool guitar and dreamy melodies. Only 35 minutes long so I have to play it at least twice. Even has the guys from Lambchop backing him on along with the Heavy Eights crew, and they recorded it down in Nashville.
But if you haven't heard the solo work of Davd Kilgour, look first for a copy of
David Kilgour & The Heavy Eights. And if you can't find that then try one of the latest on Merge in the US, although I just checked and the import of that 1997 release does appear to be available from amazon now for regular price. Hmm, that's good news!