The only studio recording he released while alive dropped 30 years ago today.
âSo Realâ is, to my mind, everything thatâs so iconic about that album; linked here.
âI love you/but Iâm afraid to love you.â
đ
PS: Here's my funny Jeff Buckley story, in a nutshell: a bunch of us were out slumming it on the Lower East side and stumbling around drunk near St. Mark's when we barged into this place we'd never been before. A skinny kid in a t-shirt playing Dylan, Van Morrison and Edith Piaf (!) covers was by himself at the front of the small-ish room with a beat up Telecaster soaked in reverb. We grabbed some Rolling Rocks, wondered why a bunch of model-looking people were in attendance, and then split down the block to catch some random band at CBGBs. (This was 1993, ha) Turns out we had inadvertently wandered into Sin-E' where Jeff was recording tracks for the live EP that became "Live at Sin-E'." WTF did we know. We were idiots and had no clue.
Aug 23, 2024
Related Recs
An absolute masterpiece from a genius gone way too soon. Jeff brings unbelievably powerful vocal performances and beautiful instrumentation, along with deeply poetic songwriting. A classic 90âs art rock album!
10/10
Listen if you like:
Radiohead
90âs Alt Rock
Powerful Vocals
Feb 19, 2024
đ
I just about fell off my chair the first time I heard this. It's unofficial, floating around on the YouTubes. I think there was a (brief) relationship between them, too. I once saw Jeff accidentally in 1993 at a little (long gone) LES cafe called Sin'e on St. Mark's Place. He was doing Dylan, Van Morrison and Edith Piaf covers, we had a Rolling Rock, wondered why a bunch of models were there, then split for CBGB's. We were young/dumb and didn't recognize the greatness we were seeing in such an intimate space that night. But this is the mountaintop of heartachy music. I miss you Jeff.
Jan 24, 2024
â
He was so special.
Jan 25, 2024
Top Recs from @coreydubrowa
Hey tyler hopefully this doesnât violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I canât wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! â¤ď¸
Mar 27, 2024
âSongs Of a Lost Worldâ coming to a goth listening station near you Nov 1 đ¤
The fr FW Me Friday the 13th the world was looking for
Sep 14, 2024
I will fail to explain just how much this band meant to me in the 90s.
So I will borrow from AV Club who did a fine job of distilling it:
âUnwound is the best band of the â90s. Not just because of how prolific, consistent, and uncompromising it was, but because of how perfectly Unwound nested in a unique space between some of the most vital forms of music that decade: punk, post-rock, indie rock, post-hardcore, slow-core, and experimental noise. That jumble of subgenres doesnât say much; in fact, it falls far short of what Unwound truly synthesized and stood for. Unwound stood for Unwound. But in a decade where most bands were either stridently earnest or stridently ironic, Unwound wasnât stridently anything. It was only itself. In one sense Unwound was the quietest band of the â90s, skulking around like a nerdy terror cell. In another sense it was the loudest, sculpting raw noise into contorted visions of inner turmoil and frustration.â
R.I.P. Vern Rumsey.
This is their finest song, from their finest album.
I really canât say enough about the sheer bloody minded genius of this group. đ¤
Mar 23, 2024