Playlist: July 2011 blog songs

Song of the Day: Neil Young - Tell Me Why

I spent some time this weekend organizing my digital music and realized I had yet to unzip the massive Neil Young Archives file that was part of the Blu-ray set. Young is one of my favorite all-time artists (hence why I dropped $300 on the Blu-ray version of the Archives box set), and while I have lost some interest in his current music, it's amazing to me that he is still relevant 40 years after his career started.

His Decade best-of is what began my fascination, but he has so many great albums that a compilation only scratches the surface. One of the first great albums I purchased, and the one that is still my favorite, is After the Gold Rush. It includes one of his best known songs ("Southern Man"), but there is not a dud in the bunch. In fact, it leads off with one of my favorite Young songs, featuring his trademark whine, acoustically strummed guitar and beautiful harmonies.

Song of the Day: Dead Confederate - Heavy Petting

I saw these guys on Conan a while ago (pre-TBS) and really enjoyed this song. The singer shreds his vocal cords a la Kurt Cobain, and the music is somewhere between Vitalogy-era Pearl Jam and '90s Neil Young. These guys aren't even close to that level, but on this song they pull off a pretty good reproduction of that era.

Song of the Day: Dinosaur Jr - Get Me

Where You Been was a monumental record in my life. I was a junior in high school and just getting into music, particularly "indie" stuff (ignore for a moment this record was released on a major label - it's still "indie" in spirit, whatever that means).  I was also into Neil Young big time, and from the opening Crazy Horse-inspired riffs of "Out There" to the obvious Young homage "Not the Same," this record was the epitome of everything I liked about music at the time.

I remember playing it for some friends, and let's just say the reaction was not quite as complimentary.  I realize that J Mascis's voice is a potential distraction, but anyone who likes guitar-based rock music would have to at least appreciate the fact that this guy can play the shit out of the guitar.  I still love this album through and through, so picking a favorite song is not an easy task.  "Get Me" is definitely one of the best though - it features J's trademark croak, some excellent backing vocals, and two guitar solos that completely and thoroughly destroy most others.

Song of the Day: Unbunny - Pink Lemonade

Snow Tires is probably one of the most underrated albums of the past 10 years - to paraphrase Bill Simmons, it's so underrated, I'm not sure it's even rated.  I've played this album for a number of friends, and all of them loved it (those that didn't are no longer friends).  I would especially recommend Snow Tires to Neil Young fans - the singer has that NY whine to his voice (I mean that in the best possible way), and the music has traces of Harvest-era country rock. 

Song of the Day: Kurt Vile - Overnight Religion

Kurt Vile's Childish Prodigy was on my turntable for a while earlier this year, but I've been putting off posting a song.  I got a chance to see him last night at the Echoplex, which put him back in the queue.  He's a guy who seemed to come from nowhere, though he has a lot of older records and EPs under his belt.  Live and on record, his songs are more like a chugging train than well-constructed, verse-chorus-verse songs - the Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man" would be a good example of what I'm failing to elucidate.  Early VU is definitely a reference point, as are The Stooges and Neil Young's Crazy Horse output.