Loudon Wainwright III gets knocked up, a new EP from Kelley Polar and some alt-country names pay tribute to the Clash’s Sandinista!.
Loudon Wainwright III, Strange Weirdos: Music From and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up: When you think Loudon Wainwright III, you think gross-out frat-boy comedies, right? Don’t we all? Joe explained the connection to me this morning, which makes this soundtrack of sorts to Knocked Up a bit more understandable: Wainwright was a castmember of Undeclared, a TV series created by Judd Apatow, writer of Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin, etc. So yeah, there’s the connect.
As for the record itself, it’s actually very nice, in a very adult contemporary indie kind of way. The songs are sweet and soft, the arrangements full and radio-ready, a lot of it reminding me of Ryan Adams’ ongoing major-label era. Recommended.
Kelley Polar, Chrysanthemum EP: New EP from the Environ star, whose Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens is still an iPod regular for me. But this single I am really not feeling. Nothing much to grab hold of, not much in the way of progression from Love Songs and it sounds way too Broadway. Instead, if you are new to Polar, spend a download on “My Beauty in the Moon” from his debut. Great track.
Here’s the (admittedly gorgeous) video for the new song:
Michio Kurihara, Sunset Notes: Big-upped in the most recent Other Music newsletter, this is Kurihara’s debut solo album (he is the guitar player for Ghost). The record is mostly instrumental, with hyper-clean guitars looped on top of one another, giving the whole thing an orbiting quality that alternates between disorienting and enchanting.
Various Artists, The Sandinista Project: A country-ish tribute to the Clash’s Sandinista!? What gives, right? These are not particularly great renditions of the Clash’s second-worst record (Combat Rock being the worst, unless we’re counting Cut the Crap), but they are, at the very least, interesting, with Amy Rigby, Jon Langford, Camper Van Beethoven and Jason Ringenberg among the folks paying homage.
Stick with the Kelley Polar EP - its pleasantness is nicely undermined by the very dark lyrics…. definitely growing on me…..
Although there are a bunch of country-ish types on the Sandinista Project, the comp as a whole has quite a bit of variety. I mean, “The Call Up” performed on theremins!
i enjoyed 40 year old virgin, and i’ve never been in a frat. so there, yancey.
Wow, that version of Washington Bullets on the Sandinista comp is godawful. Don’t download unless you’re really curious how the song would sound with a crappy rap breakdown thrown in the middle. That’s enough to turn me off the whole CD.
Don’t give up too soon on The Sandinista! Project. Yes, it is messy, but there are some worthwhile tracks, esp. for rockists (grin). My picks: The Magnificent Seven (Joe Grushecky), Hitsville U.K. (Katrina Leskanich, of K & the Waves), Junco Pardner (Jon Langford/Sally Timms), Somebody Got Murdered (Matthew Ryan), Police on My Back (Willie Nile), Junkie Slip (Mark Cutler, fine performance and he was completely unknown to me).
I saw a trailer for Knocked Up and thought, truly there is a movie I will go out of my way never to see. And then I read that LWIII was doing the soundtrack. Confusion! And then I saw the soundtrack was on eMusic bringing the issue to a head.
And then I saw it was not available for download in Australia, saving me the dilemma of whether to acknowledge its existence.
Thanks to Higgy.
Please check out some of my other stuff on myspace- myspace.com/markcutler
Love,
Mark C