Spotify Playlist: We Live in a World of Stuff

We Are the Dead

Paul Kantner - guitarist
March 17, 1941 - January 28, 2016


Prince Be (Atrell Cordes)
May 15, 1970 - June 17, 2016


Leonard Cohen
September 21, 1934 - November 17, 2016


Sharon Jones
May 4, 1956 - November 18, 2016


Dave Swarbrick - multi-instrumentalist
5 April, 1941 - 3 June, 2016


Alan Vega
June 23, 1938 - July 16, 2016


Bernie Worrell - keys
April 19, 1944 - June 24, 2016


George Michael (Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotu)
25 June, 1963 - 25 December, 2016

Phife Dawg (Malik Izaak Taylor)
November 20, 1970 - March 22, 2016


David Bowie (David Robert Jones)
8 January, 1947 - 10 January 2016


Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson)
June 7, 1958 - April 21, 2016

Spotify Playlist: Rap Battle on Mount Olympus

Related:

Laura Cantrell - Laura Cantrell at the BBC
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
RIP Mark Linkous
RIP David Bowie

10 Songs with Awesome Outros

I use the term "outro" loosely because a distinct outro as in a coda is less common than an intro. "Songs that end awesomely", basically.


1. Fairport Convention - Matty Groves


2. Built to Spill - Broken Chairs


3. The Beatles - I Want You (She's So Heavy)


4. Pixies - No. 13 Baby


5. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened


6. Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)


7. The Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knocking


8. Augie March - Brundisium


9. Hunters and Collectors - Run Run Run


10. Sonic Youth - The Diamond Sea

Related:
10 Songs with Awesome Intros

Richard Thompson - Dream Attic

Things haven't changed in the two minutes since I posted that Autolux review; I'm still pissed off about the state of modern rock music. Now a 61 year-old has come along to show all those mediocre practitioners of what passes for rock these days how it's done. They should be fucking embarrassed.

Granted, Richard Thompson is a fucking awesome 61 year-old. As the guitarist for Fairport Convention and a prolific solo artist since, he's made his Stratocaster squeal more times than you've had hot dinners. He's particularly known for transcendent live performances, and while Dream Attic isn't his first live album, it is his first comprised of all new material. I'm making it eligible for my yearly Top 10; right now it's number one and will be tough to budge.

Thompson's albums don't always start auspiciously, and so it is with Dream Attic. "The Money Shuffle" is a decent mid tempo rocker, but little more. Later on, however, the album becomes the best showcase in over a decade of Thompson's serpentine guitar solos. His most popular templates are there: the uptempo rocker ("Demons in Her Dancing Shoes"), the folk throwback ("Sidney Wells"), the mournful, glacially slow dirge ("Crimescene, "If Love Whispers Your Name") and the ridiculously catchy pop song ("Big Sun Falling in the River", which sounds a bit like "Wall of Death"). That is to say that that Thompson doesn't really break any new ground here, but his songwriting and performance are in such fine touch that it doesn't matter.

The deluxe edition comes with guitar and vocal demos of all of the songs - mostly acoustic guitar, vocals and nothing else. It's like having an alternative universe version of the album.

Related:
Richard Thompson - Electric