Look, y'all -- We hate to quibble the point, but posting cruddy, "leaked" mp3s of Interpol's Our Love To Admire to raise your profile on The Hype Machine is really, really lame. So is posting track-by-track "reviews" based on the snippets from the website, hoping to imply that you're rad enough to have received a promo. I mean, it's people like you that make record labels paranoid about sending out promos in the first place. Seriously.
Furthermore, while I'm being crabby, you know we've flogged the "stop comparing Interpol to Joy Division" line long enough. Can we ban the use of that tired analogy in reviews of Our Love To Admire? Please?
Anyway, we can't post a review proper, as yet. You know. One of the conditions of getting to sit in a Capitol conference room guarded by junior staffers to have a listen on iPods and Bose headphones. (We don't mind, really -- more time to perfect it.)
So, we're killing two-point-five birds with one stone here. Quit listening to the grainy clips on your headphones and wait for the bona fide release; you need to listen to Our Love to Admire properly -- at home, on your stereo -- in the order intended. Trust us, it will be worth the wait.
And to further the joy of anticipation, we've prepared this little primer for you. We're running it over several days in three parts: Wait for the Elephants, No Trendy Réchauffé, and Not waving but drowning/Not drowning but waving. It's half a handbook to influences, half a little tour through our respective CD collections -- 'cause you know we didn't even get to the vinyl!
Variation One of A Prelude to Interpol's Our Love To Admire: Wait for the Elephants
[Deep, wide songs that threaten to swallow you whole somewhere in the middle -- when the elephants, dinosaurs and goblins come tromping through. NB: Please listen in order, would ya?]
David Lynch -- Battle and Aftermath
from Lux Vivens
Who better to set the mood of what lies beneath the glossy, perfect exterior?
The Hope Blister -- Spider and I
from .....smile's ok
Brian Eno and Ivo Watts-Russell set the aesthetic imperative.
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead -- Let It Dive
from Worlds Apart
Let's go for a long night drive. (Bring snacks -- preferably Twinkies.)
The Walkmen -- We've Been Had
from Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone
First we need to pick up the stowaways. Is there room in the back seat? Just move the cooler.
Sinéad O'Connor -- Troy
from The Lion And The Cobra
Rhetorical question: Is there anything more loaded, metaphorically, than relating the Fall of Troy to the death of a relationship? Thanatos and eros, kiddies.
Siouxsie & The Banshees -- Party's Fall
from Tinderbox
Everyone at this party has dead eyes. I want to go home.
Echo & The Bunnymen -- The Cutter
from Porcupine
You can keep the party going, you just can't party here.
Placebo -- Pure Morning
from Without You I'm Nothing
"Day's dawning, skin's crawling..."
Television -- Marquee Moon
from Marquee Moon
I'm on the fire escape, having a smoke. Leave me alone, for fuck's sake.
Tanita Tikaram -- You Make The Whole World Cry
from Eleven Kinds Of Loneliness
I'm sorry too.
Furthermore, while I'm being crabby, you know we've flogged the "stop comparing Interpol to Joy Division" line long enough. Can we ban the use of that tired analogy in reviews of Our Love To Admire? Please?
Anyway, we can't post a review proper, as yet. You know. One of the conditions of getting to sit in a Capitol conference room guarded by junior staffers to have a listen on iPods and Bose headphones. (We don't mind, really -- more time to perfect it.)
So, we're killing two-point-five birds with one stone here. Quit listening to the grainy clips on your headphones and wait for the bona fide release; you need to listen to Our Love to Admire properly -- at home, on your stereo -- in the order intended. Trust us, it will be worth the wait.
And to further the joy of anticipation, we've prepared this little primer for you. We're running it over several days in three parts: Wait for the Elephants, No Trendy Réchauffé, and Not waving but drowning/Not drowning but waving. It's half a handbook to influences, half a little tour through our respective CD collections -- 'cause you know we didn't even get to the vinyl!
Variation One of A Prelude to Interpol's Our Love To Admire: Wait for the Elephants
[Deep, wide songs that threaten to swallow you whole somewhere in the middle -- when the elephants, dinosaurs and goblins come tromping through. NB: Please listen in order, would ya?]
David Lynch -- Battle and Aftermath
from Lux Vivens
Who better to set the mood of what lies beneath the glossy, perfect exterior?
The Hope Blister -- Spider and I
from .....smile's ok
Brian Eno and Ivo Watts-Russell set the aesthetic imperative.
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead -- Let It Dive
from Worlds Apart
Let's go for a long night drive. (Bring snacks -- preferably Twinkies.)
The Walkmen -- We've Been Had
from Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone
First we need to pick up the stowaways. Is there room in the back seat? Just move the cooler.
Sinéad O'Connor -- Troy
from The Lion And The Cobra
Rhetorical question: Is there anything more loaded, metaphorically, than relating the Fall of Troy to the death of a relationship? Thanatos and eros, kiddies.
Siouxsie & The Banshees -- Party's Fall
from Tinderbox
Everyone at this party has dead eyes. I want to go home.
Echo & The Bunnymen -- The Cutter
from Porcupine
You can keep the party going, you just can't party here.
Placebo -- Pure Morning
from Without You I'm Nothing
"Day's dawning, skin's crawling..."
Television -- Marquee Moon
from Marquee Moon
I'm on the fire escape, having a smoke. Leave me alone, for fuck's sake.
Tanita Tikaram -- You Make The Whole World Cry
from Eleven Kinds Of Loneliness
I'm sorry too.
Labels: Interpol, wait for the elephants mix
posted by cindy hotpoint at 1:32:00 PM
9 Comments:
I'm loving this playlist, nice overall theme/sound - I'm a big fan of "The Cutter" as well.
this blog is fun no mo'
been so much bitching lately girls
ease out plz.
Oh, all right, all right! We just need to get this out our system, I think. Things will be back to "normal" in short order.
Please be crabby always. It's so much more interesting than any pollyanna blogging. Mean people don't suck - they win.
And you mean to say someone out there is still pushing the interpol/joy division comparison? I never heard it. Now Big Country and Interpol ...
And Not Drowning, Waving? I thought I was only one who owned their stuff ... always loved their work on the soundtrack to Proof (not the Paltrow, but the Weaving)
Dear Mr. Parnell. You said two of the awesomest words in the TRGAW lexicon. "Big" and "Country" right next to each other. I'm not sure about the Big Country / Interpol comparison, but I'd like to hear your argument for that. As to the Joy Division / Interpol thing...yes, people are still flogging it to death, while mentioning the Chameleons, Burma, and Kitchens of Distinction. I'm still siding with John Darnielle that Interpol are the most interesting collaborative backing band for the Tanita Tikaram come-back album that will never happen.
Anon, we get upset sometimes. Especially about and adjacent to things that are important to us. Despite the flashy pseudonyms and the authorial voice, we really are real women. Life gets in the way sometimes, and affects how we feel about some of the things we may or may not choose to write about.
Darnielle's comment is fantastic. So correct. They'd also make a great backing band for Richard Butler. I often hear them covering "Into you Like a Train" right before I wake up on a morning with weather like today.
I hear Big Country in Interpol's drummer(s) and bass, and often in the way the leads arrive in the choruses, a product of that dramatic/operatic song structure; there's the the production atmosphere, too, the delays, they keyboards, and the dueling retro-emo guitars. There's mucho e-bow in Interpol ("Take You on a Cruise" etc) almost as much as Big Country ("take your pick of songs). But mostly the rhythm section. I'd be surprised if playing the intro to "In a Big Country" wasn't the spiritual test for past and current Interpol drummers. (and PS- I think that song was BC's biggest mistake, or they should have changed their name. They had a sense of humor about it, but it reduced them to an 80s joke. Which, although I might be stretching here, probably didn't do much to help prevent Stuart Adamson from hanging himself in the US a few years ago).
And like Big Country's, most of Interpol's attempts at ballads make me cringe. Most Big Country after Peace In Our Time, including two-thirds of that album, is completely un-listenable.
I think I might need to listen to Big Country with temporarily different ears. When I hear Sam (Interpol), I think of the Weddoes' string of drummers, and of David Lovering. And Jim Eno. And for the "Sam and Carlos" show, I can't help but think of the Budgie / Severin and Williams / Gallup interplay. Yeah, the beginning of "Slow Hands" is sort of reminiscent of "In a Big Country," but beyond that and gratuitous use of high-hat, I just don't hear it. But I'm game. Heaven forbid having to listen to one of my favorite songs again... Also further Re: "In a Big Country"...I think the Levellers owe their entire career to this.
Hmmm. Not Waving But Drowning. Why don't you post the whole thing? (It's a poem. By Stevie Smith).
anon: i know! see the intro to mix #3. (;
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