Shiver me timbres
New songs streaming in the player. The theme: music to thaw the winter chill. I have several thousand CDs from which to choose selections, so this time I made an effort to not include artists I've already featured. But how could I leave out Katatonia and Blind Guardian, my two favorite bands in the world right now, when both have plenty of songs invoking coldness, snow and ice? Thankfully, side projects are a common metal phenomenon. Lots of metal and instrumentals or near-instrumentals here. For some reason, there is also an inordinate number of tunes from 2005. Here are some comments, the volume of which should suffice for today's review.
1. Explosions in the Sky: "Snow & Lights" (How Strange, Innocence, Temporary Residence, 2005) - I think EitS' claim to greater fame comes from the work the Austin, TX instrumentalists did for the "Friday Night Lights" movie soundtrack. This track is from their debut recording, originally sold as a CD-R on tour but properly reissued in 2005 to feed their growing cult. They've definitely developed a lot since this was done, with a more assured grasp of dynamics and more powerful squalls of guitar melody. The comparatively brittle nature of "Snow & Lights" makes me think of icicles shattering as they melt off a tree.
2. Bal-Sagoth: "In Search of the Lost Cities of Antarctica" (Atlantis Ascendant, Nuclear Blast, 2001) - The headliners of this year's Heathen Crusade usually make their songs sound like what the lyrics describe, but this one doesn't sound too "Antarctic." It's from the Brits' worst album, but it's one of the better songs on it. As usual, Johnny Maudling's keyboards are a highlight, and Byron Roberts' vocalizations are pretty decent, although I prefer him when he's using his bigger, more booming narrator voice.
3. Demons & Wizards: "Winter of Souls" (Demons & Wizards, SPV, 2000) - Blind Guardian singer Hansi Kürsch and Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer have been friends for a long time, and they'd both hinted that they wanted to do a project together for years before Demons & Wizards' debut finally appeared. This is a typical number for them, sounding like a fine blend of their main bands - Guardian's elaborate German vocal arrangements meet IE's meat-and-potatoes American headbanging. The lyrics are about King Arthur's bastard Mordred, one of Hansi's favorite subjects.
4. October Tide: "All Painted Cold" (Rain Without End, VIC, 1997) - The earliest Katatonia-esque band was probably Sweden's October Tide, a two-albums-and-done '90s project of Katatonia members Jonas Renske and Fred Norrman. Written during a time Katatonia was temporarily broken up, the OT debut found them assuming their previous roles (Renske on vocals and drums, Norrman on guitars), with the singer providing additional guitar and the guitarist playing bass. And, boy, does it ever sound like a mix of the first two Katatonia albums - melodic, cold, cavernous and tragic.
5. The Arcade Fire: "Winter for a Year" (The So-Called 2001 Demos, n/a, 2001) - This is not from a real album, but a collection of early recordings by Arcade Fire husband-and-wife leaders Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, along with some pals who may or may not be in the band now. These are widely circulated on the internet, and The Arcade Fire says they're really pissed about these recordings being out there because they don't really represent where the band is today. They should quit their bitching. Although they're miles away from the elaborate sounds of the Montreal outfit's about-to-blow-the-fuck-up Neon Bible (in stores Tuesday), these demos contain a number of pleasant little stripped-down ditties that aren't on any of the albums, such as the one at hand.
6. Nest: "Harbinger of a Greater Winter" (Hidden Stream [split with Isafjord], Thundra, 2001) - I know of the Finnish outfit Nest for the same reason most people who have heard of them do. The brainchild of kantele player A. Tolonen, Nest did a split 10" with Agalloch in 2004, exposing their brand of ambient neofolk to the sort of oak-worshipping metalheads who might appreciate it. This track gives a good idea of their sound: repetitive acoustic strings mixed with industrial percussion, whispered spoken vocals and studio fuckery. From my limited experience, this is pretty much what most neofolk sounds like.
7. Immortal: "Against the Tide (In the Arctic World)" (Damned in Black, Osmose, 2000) - The corpsepainted Norwegian battle machine known as Immortal wrote so many songs about snow, winter, blizzards and the like that it was like a running joke. I knew I had to include them in this playlist, but it was tough to pick just one track. This underappreciated number from their penultimate platter got the nod because I love its monstrous groove. This was a major quality of the later Immortal records, rhythmic hooks that supplanted the ludicrous speed of their earlier stuff once guitarist Demonaz left due to irreparable tendonitis, and is largely overlooked when people mention the band today.
8. Swallow the Sun: "Descending Winters" (Ghosts of Loss, Firebox, 2005) - One of the finest ensembles in Finland's fertile doom scene, Swallow the Sun lives up to their name by devouring any warm fuzzies you might be feeling. The big draw comes from the riffs - hulking, mournful things that ooze longing and suffering in the manner of early Anathema - and the slick sheen of keyboards seals the atmosphere. I am greatly looking forward to their new disc Hope, which just came out in Finland and features vocal cameos by Katatonia's Jonas Renske and Amorphis' Tomi Joutsen. StS shot a video for this tune... hee hee, the singer's wearing a Katatonia shirt!
9. M83: "In the Cold I'm Standing" (Before the Dawn Heals Us, Mute, 2005) - The French duo M83 applies shoegazer aesthetics to electronic music, and the result is an amazingly textured collision of computers and human instruments. The track at hand, a new agey/soundtracky job with no beat to speak of whatsoever, is one of the least overwhelming on their third album. However, its celestial synths, submerged vocals and soaring swells certainly evoke standing in the cold, trying not to let your clothes touch your skin as you do whatever you're doing out there.
10. Wintersun: "Winter Madness" (Wintersun, Nuclear Blast, 2004) - Former Ensiferum/Arthemesia guitarist Jari Mäenpää started Wintersun as a side project, but when he left Ensiferum so he could record the self-titled Wintersun debut, it became his main gig. His effort was well-received, as it should have been. The disc is a very addictive, very Finnish blend of symphonic power metal, black/thrash tempos and vocals, folkloric melodies a la classic Amorphis and Viking-ish grandeur. Jam-packed with Mäenpää's diddly-doos, this is one of the fastest tracks on it. Wintersun's supposedly dropping a second disc sometime this summer.
11. Cave In: "Seafrost" (Antenna, RCA, 2003) - Here is a relic of Massachusetts chameleons Cave In's brief flirtation with major label stardom. They had already made the transition from roiling progressive metalcore to psychedelic emo, but Antenna and the financial platform that came with it signaled the band's most radio-friendly set ever. There are some catchy numbers that sound like the offspring of Weezer and Foo Fighters, but this track is the only one that approaches the space-rock zeniths of their previous masterwork, Jupiter. The stars here, as far as I'm concerned, are the Cave In members who generally get less attention - bassist Caleb Scofield and drummer Ben Koller (also of Converge). Wikipedia says the band is on hiatus, which is too bad and probably RCA's fault.
12. Laura Veirs: "Icebound Stream" (Carbon Glacier, Nonesuch, 2004) - I got this record by Oregonian Laura Veirs in the mail, and although I'd never heard of her before, the cover artwork made me pop it in the player. On first listen, I wasn't sure what I made of her experimental folk, but it was weird enough to file in the "maybe" pile for a second chance. I didn't listen to it again for more than a year, until I was cleaning out stuff before moving, and by then Veirs' starry-eyed backwoods poeticism clicked. Winter is the dominant motif on the album, and this spooky mantra is the sort of thing that sounds amazing when you're driving around town during a blizzard, when the silence outside amplifies the music's intimacy. Veirs is now a regular critics' darling, and she cameos on the new album by Colbert nemeses The Decemberists.
13. Cenotaph: "Crying Frost" (Epic Rites: 9 Epic Tales & Death Rites, Oz, 1996) - Even back in the mid-'90s, melodic death metal was not just a Swedish concept. Behold Cenotaph, one of Mexico's most storied death metal acts, who went through several phases, lineups and sounds during their decade-plus in the trenches. This track found them sounding very In Flames-y, one of the guitarists being none other than Julio Viterbo of The Chasm, aka the best fucking metal band in Chicago. Viterbo was apparently unhappy playing such power metal-style riffs, as he left Cenotaph soon afterward to join ex-Cenotaph guitarist Daniel Corchado in The Chasm, but he sure plays his ass off convincingly here.
14. Running Wild: "Siberian Winter" (The Brotherhood, G.U.N., 2002) - Poor "Rock 'n' Rolf" Kasparek is the Rodney Dangerfield of German power metal, getting no respect because he's been plying the same schtick for decades, despite it being a very good one. "Pirate metal" is perhaps the loneliest rock subgenre in the world, yet Rolf and whomever he's assembled as Running Wild this year continue to ride the raging seas, with liberty against all tyranny and baronial riffs for all. This track is from a recent, lesser RW album, which is still not a terrible thing. Although Rolf's still trying to trick listeners into believing that's a not a drum machine, the flurry of Russian folk-inspired guitars on this fantastic instrumental is all his.
15. Solefald: "White Frost Queen" (Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey Part I, Season of Mist, 2005) - Once bizarre symphonic black metal pranksters and now some sort of progressive art-thrash combo, Solefald has built a legacy of gleeful contradiction and intellectual distinction without hopping completely outside the genre as compatriots Ulver did. The enigmatic duo of Lazare and Cornelius are headbangers at heart, but they went to college, and I can relate. This moody, velvety number is from the first in a two-album set which was inspired by a trip the Norwegians took to Iceland after winning a cultural grant. Pretty nice treatment for a band who truly deserves to be celebrated for their artistry.
16. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: "Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow" (No More Shall We Part, Mute, 2001) - Here's one from my favorite Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds record in recent memory. Their previous platter, The Boatman's Call, had its moments but was overall unspectacular to me, since it's mostly just Nick crooning niceties over a piano. I prefer their tunes where the band creeps in and builds to a cathartic crescendo of crashing percussion and strings and voices, such as this one. The lanky Aussie got off drugs and booze before he made this album, so it is widely speculated that the "snow" of the song title may actually be a reference to narcotics rather than precipitation, but, hey.
17. Sodom: "Nuclear Winter" (Persecution Mania, Steamhammer, 1987) - Put on your gas masks! This German thrash classic is not as well known as some of Slayer's greatest hits, but if you play it to a room full of metalheads of a certain age and taste, they will go just as apeshit as they would had "Raining Blood" come out of the speakers. This was the first track on the first album where the delightfully-named trio of Tom Angelripper, Frank Blackfire and Chris Witchhunter stood up straight, tightened their grip and got their shit together. The sloppy Satanic howling that preceded it was blown away by this vintage '80s-era vision of atomic annihilation, a deadly statement that Sodom suddenly took this thrash shit seriously.
18. Octavia Sperati: "Icebound" (Winter Enclosure, Candlelight, 2005) - Unjustly slagged as a novelty, the nearly-all-female band Octavia Sperati's debut of progressive gothic doom was a real grower. I'm sure the configuration of attractive Norwegian women (I particularly like the guitarists) didn't hurt when marketing themselves to labels, but their music isn't as poppy as that of many lady-fronted metal bands. I believe some joker tried to mask this fact on their album by mixing the vocals way up and the guitars way down, but on beguiling tracks like this, the weight of the riffs rumbles through anyway. The Bergen-based band is currently preparing the follow-up, Grace Submerged, which has a song entitled "As Fire Swept Clean the Earth" - the same title as a song by Octavia's hometown pals Enslaved. I hope it's a cover!
19. :Of the Wand and the Moon:: "Winter Solstice" (Sonnenheim, Tesco, 2005) - More metal-associated neofolk, this time from a guy who used to play with Dutch doom/death gods Saturnus. Kim Larsen's haunting acoustic soundscapes disguise the dark nature of his lyrics, which are your typical misanthropic neofolk stuff involving runes and flames and blood and what have you. This track is from the most recent :Of the Wand and the Moon: album, the better of the two that I've heard. The recording is bright and cold yet suffused with passion, evoking a fire crackling on a crisp winter evening.
20. Pelican: "Last Day of Winter" (The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw, Hydra Head, 2005) - At one time, this instrumental quartet (from Chicago, now transplanted to L.A.) was considered a metal band. Like High on Fire, they somehow got co-opted by the indie rock scene, or maybe they just nudged those disparate camps together. Their second LP showed them drifting away from hypnotic post-rock-influenced doom and toward the less brooding spectrum of bands like Explosions in the Sky or Mogwai. This opening track is the perfect soundtrack for that day when winter loses the battle to spring, all four members radiating enough sunlight to evaporate every ugly pile of hard, dirty snow that has ever denied you a parking space.
So, what should the next playlist's theme be? Some ideas already kicking around include soundtrack songs, instrumentals, songs with great guitar riffs, songs with great horn arrangements and songs about disease. I'm taking suggestions, and if I get enough I can put together an all-request program. Of course, the daily review request lines are also open, and your comments are as welcome as ever.
1. Explosions in the Sky: "Snow & Lights" (How Strange, Innocence, Temporary Residence, 2005) - I think EitS' claim to greater fame comes from the work the Austin, TX instrumentalists did for the "Friday Night Lights" movie soundtrack. This track is from their debut recording, originally sold as a CD-R on tour but properly reissued in 2005 to feed their growing cult. They've definitely developed a lot since this was done, with a more assured grasp of dynamics and more powerful squalls of guitar melody. The comparatively brittle nature of "Snow & Lights" makes me think of icicles shattering as they melt off a tree.
2. Bal-Sagoth: "In Search of the Lost Cities of Antarctica" (Atlantis Ascendant, Nuclear Blast, 2001) - The headliners of this year's Heathen Crusade usually make their songs sound like what the lyrics describe, but this one doesn't sound too "Antarctic." It's from the Brits' worst album, but it's one of the better songs on it. As usual, Johnny Maudling's keyboards are a highlight, and Byron Roberts' vocalizations are pretty decent, although I prefer him when he's using his bigger, more booming narrator voice.
3. Demons & Wizards: "Winter of Souls" (Demons & Wizards, SPV, 2000) - Blind Guardian singer Hansi Kürsch and Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer have been friends for a long time, and they'd both hinted that they wanted to do a project together for years before Demons & Wizards' debut finally appeared. This is a typical number for them, sounding like a fine blend of their main bands - Guardian's elaborate German vocal arrangements meet IE's meat-and-potatoes American headbanging. The lyrics are about King Arthur's bastard Mordred, one of Hansi's favorite subjects.
4. October Tide: "All Painted Cold" (Rain Without End, VIC, 1997) - The earliest Katatonia-esque band was probably Sweden's October Tide, a two-albums-and-done '90s project of Katatonia members Jonas Renske and Fred Norrman. Written during a time Katatonia was temporarily broken up, the OT debut found them assuming their previous roles (Renske on vocals and drums, Norrman on guitars), with the singer providing additional guitar and the guitarist playing bass. And, boy, does it ever sound like a mix of the first two Katatonia albums - melodic, cold, cavernous and tragic.
5. The Arcade Fire: "Winter for a Year" (The So-Called 2001 Demos, n/a, 2001) - This is not from a real album, but a collection of early recordings by Arcade Fire husband-and-wife leaders Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, along with some pals who may or may not be in the band now. These are widely circulated on the internet, and The Arcade Fire says they're really pissed about these recordings being out there because they don't really represent where the band is today. They should quit their bitching. Although they're miles away from the elaborate sounds of the Montreal outfit's about-to-blow-the-fuck-up Neon Bible (in stores Tuesday), these demos contain a number of pleasant little stripped-down ditties that aren't on any of the albums, such as the one at hand.
6. Nest: "Harbinger of a Greater Winter" (Hidden Stream [split with Isafjord], Thundra, 2001) - I know of the Finnish outfit Nest for the same reason most people who have heard of them do. The brainchild of kantele player A. Tolonen, Nest did a split 10" with Agalloch in 2004, exposing their brand of ambient neofolk to the sort of oak-worshipping metalheads who might appreciate it. This track gives a good idea of their sound: repetitive acoustic strings mixed with industrial percussion, whispered spoken vocals and studio fuckery. From my limited experience, this is pretty much what most neofolk sounds like.
7. Immortal: "Against the Tide (In the Arctic World)" (Damned in Black, Osmose, 2000) - The corpsepainted Norwegian battle machine known as Immortal wrote so many songs about snow, winter, blizzards and the like that it was like a running joke. I knew I had to include them in this playlist, but it was tough to pick just one track. This underappreciated number from their penultimate platter got the nod because I love its monstrous groove. This was a major quality of the later Immortal records, rhythmic hooks that supplanted the ludicrous speed of their earlier stuff once guitarist Demonaz left due to irreparable tendonitis, and is largely overlooked when people mention the band today.
8. Swallow the Sun: "Descending Winters" (Ghosts of Loss, Firebox, 2005) - One of the finest ensembles in Finland's fertile doom scene, Swallow the Sun lives up to their name by devouring any warm fuzzies you might be feeling. The big draw comes from the riffs - hulking, mournful things that ooze longing and suffering in the manner of early Anathema - and the slick sheen of keyboards seals the atmosphere. I am greatly looking forward to their new disc Hope, which just came out in Finland and features vocal cameos by Katatonia's Jonas Renske and Amorphis' Tomi Joutsen. StS shot a video for this tune... hee hee, the singer's wearing a Katatonia shirt!
9. M83: "In the Cold I'm Standing" (Before the Dawn Heals Us, Mute, 2005) - The French duo M83 applies shoegazer aesthetics to electronic music, and the result is an amazingly textured collision of computers and human instruments. The track at hand, a new agey/soundtracky job with no beat to speak of whatsoever, is one of the least overwhelming on their third album. However, its celestial synths, submerged vocals and soaring swells certainly evoke standing in the cold, trying not to let your clothes touch your skin as you do whatever you're doing out there.
10. Wintersun: "Winter Madness" (Wintersun, Nuclear Blast, 2004) - Former Ensiferum/Arthemesia guitarist Jari Mäenpää started Wintersun as a side project, but when he left Ensiferum so he could record the self-titled Wintersun debut, it became his main gig. His effort was well-received, as it should have been. The disc is a very addictive, very Finnish blend of symphonic power metal, black/thrash tempos and vocals, folkloric melodies a la classic Amorphis and Viking-ish grandeur. Jam-packed with Mäenpää's diddly-doos, this is one of the fastest tracks on it. Wintersun's supposedly dropping a second disc sometime this summer.
11. Cave In: "Seafrost" (Antenna, RCA, 2003) - Here is a relic of Massachusetts chameleons Cave In's brief flirtation with major label stardom. They had already made the transition from roiling progressive metalcore to psychedelic emo, but Antenna and the financial platform that came with it signaled the band's most radio-friendly set ever. There are some catchy numbers that sound like the offspring of Weezer and Foo Fighters, but this track is the only one that approaches the space-rock zeniths of their previous masterwork, Jupiter. The stars here, as far as I'm concerned, are the Cave In members who generally get less attention - bassist Caleb Scofield and drummer Ben Koller (also of Converge). Wikipedia says the band is on hiatus, which is too bad and probably RCA's fault.
12. Laura Veirs: "Icebound Stream" (Carbon Glacier, Nonesuch, 2004) - I got this record by Oregonian Laura Veirs in the mail, and although I'd never heard of her before, the cover artwork made me pop it in the player. On first listen, I wasn't sure what I made of her experimental folk, but it was weird enough to file in the "maybe" pile for a second chance. I didn't listen to it again for more than a year, until I was cleaning out stuff before moving, and by then Veirs' starry-eyed backwoods poeticism clicked. Winter is the dominant motif on the album, and this spooky mantra is the sort of thing that sounds amazing when you're driving around town during a blizzard, when the silence outside amplifies the music's intimacy. Veirs is now a regular critics' darling, and she cameos on the new album by Colbert nemeses The Decemberists.
13. Cenotaph: "Crying Frost" (Epic Rites: 9 Epic Tales & Death Rites, Oz, 1996) - Even back in the mid-'90s, melodic death metal was not just a Swedish concept. Behold Cenotaph, one of Mexico's most storied death metal acts, who went through several phases, lineups and sounds during their decade-plus in the trenches. This track found them sounding very In Flames-y, one of the guitarists being none other than Julio Viterbo of The Chasm, aka the best fucking metal band in Chicago. Viterbo was apparently unhappy playing such power metal-style riffs, as he left Cenotaph soon afterward to join ex-Cenotaph guitarist Daniel Corchado in The Chasm, but he sure plays his ass off convincingly here.
14. Running Wild: "Siberian Winter" (The Brotherhood, G.U.N., 2002) - Poor "Rock 'n' Rolf" Kasparek is the Rodney Dangerfield of German power metal, getting no respect because he's been plying the same schtick for decades, despite it being a very good one. "Pirate metal" is perhaps the loneliest rock subgenre in the world, yet Rolf and whomever he's assembled as Running Wild this year continue to ride the raging seas, with liberty against all tyranny and baronial riffs for all. This track is from a recent, lesser RW album, which is still not a terrible thing. Although Rolf's still trying to trick listeners into believing that's a not a drum machine, the flurry of Russian folk-inspired guitars on this fantastic instrumental is all his.
15. Solefald: "White Frost Queen" (Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey Part I, Season of Mist, 2005) - Once bizarre symphonic black metal pranksters and now some sort of progressive art-thrash combo, Solefald has built a legacy of gleeful contradiction and intellectual distinction without hopping completely outside the genre as compatriots Ulver did. The enigmatic duo of Lazare and Cornelius are headbangers at heart, but they went to college, and I can relate. This moody, velvety number is from the first in a two-album set which was inspired by a trip the Norwegians took to Iceland after winning a cultural grant. Pretty nice treatment for a band who truly deserves to be celebrated for their artistry.
16. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: "Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow" (No More Shall We Part, Mute, 2001) - Here's one from my favorite Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds record in recent memory. Their previous platter, The Boatman's Call, had its moments but was overall unspectacular to me, since it's mostly just Nick crooning niceties over a piano. I prefer their tunes where the band creeps in and builds to a cathartic crescendo of crashing percussion and strings and voices, such as this one. The lanky Aussie got off drugs and booze before he made this album, so it is widely speculated that the "snow" of the song title may actually be a reference to narcotics rather than precipitation, but, hey.
17. Sodom: "Nuclear Winter" (Persecution Mania, Steamhammer, 1987) - Put on your gas masks! This German thrash classic is not as well known as some of Slayer's greatest hits, but if you play it to a room full of metalheads of a certain age and taste, they will go just as apeshit as they would had "Raining Blood" come out of the speakers. This was the first track on the first album where the delightfully-named trio of Tom Angelripper, Frank Blackfire and Chris Witchhunter stood up straight, tightened their grip and got their shit together. The sloppy Satanic howling that preceded it was blown away by this vintage '80s-era vision of atomic annihilation, a deadly statement that Sodom suddenly took this thrash shit seriously.
18. Octavia Sperati: "Icebound" (Winter Enclosure, Candlelight, 2005) - Unjustly slagged as a novelty, the nearly-all-female band Octavia Sperati's debut of progressive gothic doom was a real grower. I'm sure the configuration of attractive Norwegian women (I particularly like the guitarists) didn't hurt when marketing themselves to labels, but their music isn't as poppy as that of many lady-fronted metal bands. I believe some joker tried to mask this fact on their album by mixing the vocals way up and the guitars way down, but on beguiling tracks like this, the weight of the riffs rumbles through anyway. The Bergen-based band is currently preparing the follow-up, Grace Submerged, which has a song entitled "As Fire Swept Clean the Earth" - the same title as a song by Octavia's hometown pals Enslaved. I hope it's a cover!
19. :Of the Wand and the Moon:: "Winter Solstice" (Sonnenheim, Tesco, 2005) - More metal-associated neofolk, this time from a guy who used to play with Dutch doom/death gods Saturnus. Kim Larsen's haunting acoustic soundscapes disguise the dark nature of his lyrics, which are your typical misanthropic neofolk stuff involving runes and flames and blood and what have you. This track is from the most recent :Of the Wand and the Moon: album, the better of the two that I've heard. The recording is bright and cold yet suffused with passion, evoking a fire crackling on a crisp winter evening.
20. Pelican: "Last Day of Winter" (The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw, Hydra Head, 2005) - At one time, this instrumental quartet (from Chicago, now transplanted to L.A.) was considered a metal band. Like High on Fire, they somehow got co-opted by the indie rock scene, or maybe they just nudged those disparate camps together. Their second LP showed them drifting away from hypnotic post-rock-influenced doom and toward the less brooding spectrum of bands like Explosions in the Sky or Mogwai. This opening track is the perfect soundtrack for that day when winter loses the battle to spring, all four members radiating enough sunlight to evaporate every ugly pile of hard, dirty snow that has ever denied you a parking space.
So, what should the next playlist's theme be? Some ideas already kicking around include soundtrack songs, instrumentals, songs with great guitar riffs, songs with great horn arrangements and songs about disease. I'm taking suggestions, and if I get enough I can put together an all-request program. Of course, the daily review request lines are also open, and your comments are as welcome as ever.
posted by SoulReaper at 1:32 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home