Wednesday, January 04, 2006




Five non-standard guitar albums

Because noodling is rarely a good thing - I'm talking to you, The Bone.

The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground - I love their noise to pieces, but I am no longer ashamed to admit that their sleepy album is my favorite. The rhythm guitar on "What Goes On" alone makes the thing worth it - the rest could be piano cabaret (fortunately only "The Murder Mystery" comes close).






Penthouse, Luna - This one's cheating a bit - geek guitar god Tom Verlaine guests on two songs. But like the VU album, it's always nice to hear subtlety rock. This is probably more of a testament to fantastic production - the sound of the guitars is strikes me as possibly still new but at least pretty.






Vee Vee, Archers of Loaf - But sometimes you just need to make a racket. Out of my 180 or so beloved CD's, maybe three or four spend more time in the player in my car than this one. Like The Libertines, Strokes-style, sterile-tight rhythms are not at a premium; unlike the Libertines, it's probably more by design and less by being fabulously trashed. It's what punk rock should sound like these days.




Slanted and Enchanted, Pavement - Tough call between this and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. I'll take this as a stand-in for Velvets-style drone. The songs and sounds grow deeper after you hear some of them live. The album creates quite the dense, ironic vibe; the shows prove the guys aren't trying to hide behind the vibe, at least not yet.





Entertainment, Gang of Four - I know it's very chic to drop their name these days. I'm still not entirely sure anyone is listening to this album as much as Solid Gold, their transition album from punk idols to disco wonks. Herky-jerky rhythms didn't start here, and they certainly didn't disappear until Franz Ferdinand. What the mangling to which Andy Gill subjects his guitar (nevermind Jon King's Marxist sly raving) has anything to do with the Beatles-in-the-club pop permeating alt-radio today is beyond me. I more inclined to think of them as Rage Against the Machine with less fuzz but much more humor.


Posted by Joel at 1/04/2006 11:40:00 PM