(Editor’s Note: You know from last week about our unabashed love for the Life archive. The above image is described there as follows: “Hitchiking hippie Randy Brook playing a guitar while panhandling.” Obviously, if you are Randy Brook get in touch. We’d like to post a track or two. More importantly, we want to know if the dude in the checked pants took a swing at you and/or if you scored with the lady in the skirt; we’re hoping for a yes on both counts. In post related news, we’re going to be slightly less lazy today. One of the tracks below is from a band we’d like to introduce you to, one is from a commercially available live album and the third sticks to the previously established formula.)
Wild Dogs in Winter are an English duo cranking out brooding, dark tunes with a heap of emotional angst and sonic tension. Their music often flirts with meandering, nearly ambient, guitar fuzz, but the songs that kick in, kick in hard. (“The Butcher’s Wife” is a pretty good chrystallization of how this sounds in practice.) The vocal delivery is also intriguing, generally working in an almost conversational tone, but occasionally shifting into a higher lilt. The track below, “Em-I’Nor” is one that I can’t seem to shake; the loping guitar line, the eerie spoken word lyrics and the overall vibe keep this song in my head even though it’s not traditionally catchy. Wild Dogs in Winter recently signed with Chicago label Fragile Famile, so we’re expecting more material at some point in the near future. In the meantime, you can grab a three song EP here.
“Em-I-Nor” – Wild Dogs in Winter
Kevin and my dispute about which Frightened Rabbit track is the pick of the litter from their stellar Midnight Organ Fight has reached Hatfiled/McCoy levels at this point; he defends “The Modern Leper” as vociferously as William Jennings Bryant defended creationism (Too dated a cultural reference? Possibly.) I’m convinced that “The Twist” is one of the fifty best songs ever. In the end, everybody wins, as the album is solid from top to bottom. However, in the continually escalating battle, I think I’ve scored a tactical victory with the acoustic version of my track that’s on Frightened Rabbit’s live album, Liver! Lung! FR! (released in the United States last year, but in the rest of the world a few days ago). The entire recording is sublime, but, as in the studio material, “The Twist” is particularly stellar. I’m not sure how Kevin recovers from this one.
“The Twist” – Frightened Rabbit
Lastly, in a return to Lazy Saturday form, live tracks from a personal favorite. I’m not sure that I’m 100% sold on the new album from The Decemberists; I might need some more time to digest it, I might need to see how it translates live, or, terrifyingly, it might not be as good as the old stuff. I’ll keep you in the loop as I develop an opinion on the record. Until then, “Red Right Ankle” isn’t going anywhere. Neither is “The Chimbley Sweep.” Both are in the canon, and both absolutely kill live. Enjoy.
“Red Right Ankle” – The Decemberists, Live, 2004
“The Chimbley Sweep” – The Decemberists, Live, 2004
