Death Cab For Cutie

cross-posted on ben's mog page

hey ya’ll,

sorry i’ve been slacking on the posts over the last month and a half. i’d like to claim it’s because i’ve been busy, but the reality is that the sun recently made its annual appearance here in the northwest and i’ve been blowing off almost all my responsibilities. woopsy…

the early to mid 60’s were a golden age for music here in the pacific northwest. while the Kingsmen, The Wailers and The Sonics are certainly our most widely recognized exports, they don’t begin to represent the sheer volume of great music being made during that period.

this is one my favs from that era, performed by Rocky and His Friends and recorded by legendary northwest producer Kearney Barton. if you enjoy this track, should pick up any of the ‘Northwest Killers” comps on Norton Records and get yer NW garage on!

Enjoy!

xo

ben

cross-posted on ben's mog page

yo,

first off, thanks so much to everyone who came out to my solo shows this past month! i had a blast and i hope you guys did, too…

those of you who came early to the DCFC /Franz Ferdinand dates last spring got to see a fantastic band from Wakefield, England called the Cribs. over the course of those six weeks, the brothers Cribs drove over 10,000 miles and a van accross the US and Canada killing it every night. plus, they always seemed to have smiles on their faces when they got to the next gig no matter how long the drive or how much whiskey was consumed the previous night. even in my younger years, i never could have withstood what they weathered. :)

we’ve been friends ever since and it pleases me to no end to tell you that their new album, ‘men’s needs, women’s needs, whatever’ FUCKING SLAYS !!! pick it up and support the hardest working band from the hardest working class town in the UK.

xo

ben

cross-posted on ben's mog page

hello all,

since my friend Zach first played me the music of Popol Vuh i’ve been kinda obsessed with it. as a cast of musicians that revolved around one Florian Fricke (pictured above) throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s they made some of the most hauntingly beautiful music i’ve ever heard.

if you’ve seen any of Werner Herzog’s films you’ve probably already heard Popol Vuh. he composed the soundtracks for ‘Aguirre, Wrath of God,’ ‘Fitzcarraldo,’ and this track from ‘Cobra Verde’ amoungst many others. if you like this you should pick my two favorite Popol Vuh albums: Die Nacht Der Seele: Tantric Songs’ and ‘Letzte Tage – Letzte Nächte.’

hopefully i’ll see some of you out on the road in may…

xo

ben

cross-posted on ben's mog page

...and here’s the second. i’m very fond of this song and sometimes play it when i do solo shows. while the way his voice cracks up is admittedly pretty funny, i find it incredibly endearing. it sounds like a late night drunken one-taker in the best of ways…enjoy! bye bye now, ben

cross-posted on ben's mog page 

hi all,

three or four years ago i bought this record for 3 bucks because the cover was crazy looking. while this tactic usually fails miserably, it was one of less than ten such successes i’ve have in my record buying career.

Alan Hull was a member of the english folk/rock group Lindisfarne who put out records in the mid-60’s to mid-70’s. this was his first (and best) solo effort. i re-bought it on CD last year so you should be able to find it relatively easily.

since i can’t add two tracks to one post, here’s the first… 

cross-posted at ben's mog page

hey kids,

while moving is a giant pain in the ass, it does allow you to come across pieces of your life you otherwise wouldn’t. in the process of my current cross-town move, i’ve rediscovered everything from old photos to embarrassing things i had on my wall in high school to (thankfully) some albums i hadn’t listened to in years. the rock-a-teens, ‘baby, a little rain must fall’ being the highlight.

i first saw these guys opening for superchunk in the summer of ‘97 in seattle and they blew me away. i was instantly a huge fan. thankfully, death cab had the good fortune of playing with them in the fall of 2001 on what i assume must have been one of they’re last tours. if they were still around today they’d undoubtedly be giving the arcade fire a run for their money as they most epic band in indie rock.

for those interested, chris lopez now fronts a band called tenement halls. they’re great and you can get their record and the rock-a-teens catalog from lovely lovely merge records.

bye bye,

ben

...for better or worse. my girlfriend is really sick of me filling dead spaces in conversation with ‘ohhhh, lil’ girl PSYCHOTIC REACTION !’

While this was the only hit the Count Five ever had (a regional one, at that) it has proven to live on thanks to it’s inclusion on Lenny Kaye’s infamous Nuggets compilation. Those not familiar with Nuggets, i strongly suggest you run out and buy the box set at your local independent record store.

toodles!

xo

ben

cross-posted at ben's mog page

this x-mas, i got one of the best presents ever: an Ion turntable with a USB interface. since that morning i’ve been busy converting a shit ton of my vinyl into a virtual shit ton mp3s. what was once just a beautiful dream is now a reality…

through the rediscovery of my vinyl collection, i’ve fallen back in love with the music of Tom Verlaine. Best known as the frontman for Television, he went on to make some stellar solo records in the late 70’s/early 80’s. My fav is ‘Words from the Front’ which is pictured above. while the production is pretty dated in a way only that from the early 80’s could be, the songs are great and still sound exiting and inspired 20 years later. enjoy!

xo

ben

cross-posted on ben's mog page 

hey all,

when we played in birmingham this past fall, my friend ryan russell passed on this compilation of birmingham soul that he did the art direction and photos for and it’s been blowing my mind. all tracks were recorded at a studio called ‘Sound of Birmingham’ which was opened and operated by a plumber named Neal Hemphill. employing a handfull of staff writers and musicians, the studio basically had an open door policy to whoever wanted to come in and record a track. the result as presented here is some of the best soul music you’ve most likely never heard (‘specify’ by little lois barber and ‘train to tampa’ by sam dees especially).

also, i really appreciate all the mogmail you guys have been sending me. while i make sure to read them all, the sheer volume is unfortunately too much for me to respond to, so please don’t take it the wrong way if you don’t hear back.

take care,

ben

cross-posted on ben's mog page   

12/24/06

happy holidays y’all,

man, it feels good to be back in the pacific northwest! we just wrapped up 15 months of touring the world on ‘Plans’ and i couldn’t be happier to settle in, stay in one place and write some songs for the next album(s). true, we’ve got short days and shitty weather in the winter, but the amazing coffee (cafe ladro, goddamn!) and warm bars never fails to carry me through to the spring…

my friend jay hipped me to emitt rhodes a couple years ago and i’ve found myself listening to his eponymous 1970 debut at least once a week since then. he fronted a band called the Merry-Go-Round in the mid-sixties and upon their break-up recorded this album, playing all the instruments himself. the result was an absolutely flawless McCartney-esque pop record which unfortunately failed to make a dent with the record buying public. hey made 3 albums after this by my count, but this one stands above them all. check it out, kids!

until next time,

ben