Epitonic Newsletter: Vol. 4, No. 27 'The Summertime Driver's MP3 Companion'
07/22/02
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Summer often brings with it a lot of driving. Day trips to the
beach, weekend trips to visit the family, camping trips to the desert or the mountains. Granted, these marathon driving excursions are a phenomenon that is fairly unique to the U.S. (in Europe, for instance, it is prohibitively expensive to drive for days and weeks on end as we Yankees like to do), where despite rising energy costs and global
temperatures, the auto remains a sacred totem of American wealth and
lascivious consumerism. Nevertheless, most of you folks out there
are probably all too familiar the soul-crushing boredom attendant in
spending many consecutive hours in a cramped, overhot vehicle watching
a lifeless, homogenous landscape flicker past. Which is, of course,
why people so often sing to pass the time on a road trip. Well, what
better topic to sing about than being on the road? In this week's newsletter
we've got a bunch of driving songs for you and they're all a lot less
irritating than "99 Bottles of Beer." Load 'em into your mp3 player
or burn 'em to a CD and take 'em with you wherever you go this summer.
Or, if you can't do that, just learn them before you leave so you'll
never be at a loss for a good song to sing.
Maybe your destination on one of these epic asphalt journeys will be
a music festival (it should be!). There are so many to choose from in
the sunny months which lie ahead of us. Events of note remaining
this summer include San Francisco's Ladyfest (July 24-28; Erase Errata,
The Bangs, Bratmobile, The Donnas), L.A.'s Sunset Junction
Street Fair (Aug 24-25; Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, Radar Bros,
Mudhoney), Warp Records' North American minitour
(July 31-Aug 3, New York, Toronto, Chicago, L.A.), and England's
Reading and Leeds Festivals (Aug 23-25; Pulp, Spiritualized, The Breeders, The
Strokes, The White Stripes, ...Trail of Dead).
Finally, we salute a departed giant of 20th century music, the
legendary American musicologist Alan Lomax, who left us last Friday
at age 87. Following in the footsteps of his father, folklorist
John Lomax, Alan Lomax was instrumental in the popularization and
preservation of American blues, folk, and jazz music, discovering
such greats as Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, Woody Guthrie, Jelly Roll
Morton, and Son House. Later in his life he documented the music of
other countries, including Spain, Italy, Britain,
and the Caribbean. Funeral services are scheduled for tomorrow. For
more on the remarkable life of Alan Lomax, visit his official website.
"Manual for a Safe Trip"
by
Bingo Trappers
Holland's Bingo Trappers take '60s Anglo pop, country-rock, and psychedelic folk, mix in some streetwise rock, and give it all the '90s lo-fi indie rock treatment. The results are terrific.
"Car and Driver"
by
The Rock*A*Teens
This Georgian quartet has a really big, burnished Crock-Pot, and in it they've mixed up a whole bunch of different ingredients, including Phil Spectorish '60s pop, garage, punk, and rockabilly and they've spiced up the stew with copious melodrama and rock fuzz. Dinner's going to be a messy, wild, and occasionally dangerous affair, but it's going to be fun and it's sure going to taste good going down.
"The Freeway"
by
The Busy Signals
The Busy Signals is a medium-fi/candy-pop/hip-hop excursion straight out of HWH3's bedroom that sounds like Beck if he still made records at home.
"Caravan Voyager"
by
Blectum from Blechdom
Blectum from Blechdom is San Francisco's purposefully androgynous duo that painfully (and successfully) straddles the expansive gulf between the technocratic aesthetics of electronic music and the art school scruff of indie punk.
"Driving At Night"
by
Arco
Arco is a mesmerizing London trio that trades in fragile euphoria with spare, understated little pop songs whose unique elegance sticks in your memory.
"The Art Of Driving"
by
Black Box Recorder
Featuring onetime members of The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Auteurs, this English trio mixes sinuously lovely melodies and seductive textures with malignant tales of woe.
"Driving Over To Your House"
by
Lenola
Lenola's eerily sweet vocal lines and cascading drunken guitars churn into a swirling, tumultuous storm where analog meets digital. Their liquid music flows from laughter to melancholy, mixing massive bending sounds and guitar acrobatics with soft acoustics and other pleasant surprises.
"Who's Driving This Thing Anyway?"
by
Four Hundred Years
Virginia's Four Hundred Years create electric, beautiful hardcore filled with blistering emotional upheavals inspired by youth and confusion.
"Driving Days"
by
Laughing Stock
Each Laughing Stock song is an adventure. You may not always know where their meandering post-rock compositions are going to take you, but you'll always be glad to go along for the ride.
"Vacations"
by
Rye Coalition
Monster bass sounds and relentless guitars swarm around a new Bohnam. Inspired by bands like Jesus Lizard, Shellac, and AC/DC, Rye Coalition's members make no excuse for their behavior.
"10 Hour Drive"
by
The Poconos
They weren't around long, but while they were, New Jersey duo The Poconos delighted with toe-tapping, heart-skipping lo-fi pop that celebrated young love.
"Born to Drive"
by
Aviso'hara
Aviso'hara mixes up sonic guitars like Chavez and pop sensibilities like the Smoking Popes or Superdrag into a brash and overstated rock and roll rollercoaster.
"Dirty Highway"
by
The Dishes
The Dishes don't mess around. They offer up raw rock and roll -- straight, no chaser. Once you gulp it down you remember how much you missed it and all you want is more.
"Don't Wreck Your Car"
by
Ashley Stove
Warm, friendly, fuzzy indie rock from North Carolina. Usually, the Ashley Stove is as playful as a big sloppy dog, though sometimes they're as sad as a rain cloud blocking the sun, but they're always sure to deliver straightforward songwriting and driving pop hooks.
