Our Saturday Mixtape gives into our mopey strummer addiction

1. Before Paul Simon got countermelodies and drum backing, he was a busker in England who happened to find himself in a recording studio, doing lo-fi versions of songs that everyone now knows by heart, such as this ragged version of “Kathy’s Song.”
2. Jandek will never be as successful as Jeff Tweedy. He spent three decades hiding from the world, releasing rickety avant-strangeness and getting mentioned in the same sentences as Roky Erickson and The Shaggs, only to finally play in public in the last couple of years. Jeff Tweedy, whose band’s most recent album debuted in the Billboard 200’s top five, does us a favor and makes “Crack a Smile” pretty and palatable.
3. After posting about Leonard Cohen yesterday, it got us to thinking – which song of his would never get covered on “American Idol”? “Chelsea Hotel No. 2” fits the bill: It’s pretty, but about sordid hotel room encounters with famous singers like Janis Joplin.
4. You can’t have a list of mopey strummers without Elliott Smith. You just can’t. His early albums use their lo-fi setting to focus directly on the darkness in the words. “Condor Ave.,” off “Roman Candle,” set Smith’s template.
5. The Tallest Man on Earth pretty much kills this song. The Swede wails at his guitar, putting everything he has into being the best Bob Dylan acolyte he can, and gets closer than most, especially on “This Wind.” source

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I was just reading a review of a movie called Watchmen that uses it, and the reviewer said ‘Can we please have a moratorium on Hallelujah in movies and television shows?’ And I kind of feel the same way. I think it’s a good song, but I think too many people sing it.
Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen • On the overdone popularity of his song “Hallelujah,” which he’s famous for by numerous proxies – Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, Kate Voegele, Jason Castro, and the list goes onnnn and onnnnnnnnnn. Someone kill this freaking song already! It’s like a roach. • source

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1. Fun fact about Barry & the Remains: They once were the opening act for The Beatles. And “Don’t Look Back,” to this day, still kills.

2. Thanks to “American Idol” and a well-received tour, Leonard Cohen is becoming popular again. Start with his first three albums, along with early touchstone “Bird on the Wire.”

3. Vashti Bunyan was saved from obscurity a few years back after the re-release of her album “Just Another Diamond Day.” Early unreleased single “Winter is Blue” shows why.

4. Silver Apples is an intriguing early attempt at electronic music, with a weird, rhythmic mix of noisy electronics and big drums, exemplified by “Oscillations.”

5. The late-’60s psych-folk of Pearls Before Swine clearly plays forefather to today’s oddball indie rock; the swoon of “The Surrealist Waltz” feels at home in today’s climate. source

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Leonard Cohen’s going on his first U.S. tour in 16 years. Sincerely, ShortFormBlog. source

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11 Jul 2009 17:00