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Way back when this first came out in the Big 80s, I learned "The Bugle Sounds Again" for the little acoustic set my dumb band did during our sets, a smoke break for the rhythm section. (It's gorgeous and not the easiest guitar part ever; I can't imagine actually playing AND singing it).
My then-roommate called it "dorm room music" -- his take was that Scotland's Aztec Camera were for students, bedsit people, moody folks with lots of extra time on their hands.
I suspect Roddy Frame would have appreciated hearing his cerebral-yet-shiny indie-pop music described that way.
The man also did a killer (totally straight-faced) version of Van Halen's "Jump" that must be heard to be believed.
Jan 29, 2025
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It's Syd Barrett's birthday today
So one of his finest recorded moments seems appropriate
(Plus my band used to play this one as a bit of a laugh)
Jan 6, 2025
"I smoked a joint and started playing the piano," said Church frontman Steve Kilbey about the writing of the Aussie band's biggest, dreamiest hit. "Then Karin (his girlfriend at the time) came into the room and we just made it up together. A spontaneous event."
A song about "nothing" that the band originally didn't like, "Under the Milky Way" is inspired by the Amsterdam music venue the Melkveg ("Milky Way") and came out on this day to race to no. 24 on the US Billboard charts and eventually win "Single of the Year" at the ARIA awards. (It appeared in "Donnie Darko" and a bunch of ads too). It's part of a record ("Starfish") that includes the amazing "Reptile" and is at least the band's best-known if not outright finest work.
PS: you could be forgiven for thinking the solo in the song's break is played on a bagpipe, it's actually a Fender Jazzmaster guitar played with an E-bow and then fed through a Synclavier.
Feb 15, 2025
I adore The Bug Club. The whole album is back to back bangers interspersed with cute and fun little spoken word tracks that build a whole lot of character. Itâs at points touching, the punchy and exuberant, then reflective and sincere. It shouldnât be missed, in my opinion.
Jan 16, 2025
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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€ïž
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