High School Album #1
We finally got to this....the number 1 album for my high school years. There were a lot of albums that almost made the top five, and I'll hopefully get around to posting them soon, but this one, this one takes the cake. One member of this band has appeared multiple times on this site, but no....it's not The Rentals....no, it's not The Decemberists....it's:
Retreat From The Sun is....well, it's that album that I throw on for my happy days, my sad days, my lonely days, my big days and my small days. It is my favorite album. Period. The best way to describe the album? I'll quote Stephen Thomas Erlewine: "Producer Brad Wood helps form these songs into shiny alterna-pop nuggets, making Retreat from the Sun into the best album Liz Phair never made." If Liz Phair had released this instead of....well, Liz Phair, she would still be atop the indie world's throne as their Queen.
Let's set the timeframe for this album. It was the winter of my Sophomore year. I was dating a girl name Kat and my infatuation for indie rock was growing. I had downloaded all of that dog.'s album Totally Crushed Out and I needed more. Me and Kat (and my mom, I was still 16 and without a license) were out shopping. We stopped at a used record store that no longer exists and went browsing. And there it was, sitting in the middle of a row of used CDs like it didn't matter. And it didn't, at the time. But after a few listens, two songs were played over and over. After a few more listens, four songs were played over and over. I kept playing it till every song was played over and over. I've probably listened to the album close to 1000 times, and that's a lot if you think about it.
What Anna, Petra, Rachel and Tony did for this album, it's just inspiring. If I ever had my own band (my pipe dream, for I need to learn an instrument), I'd play this whole album as my encore set. So instead of just posting a few songs, I'm giving you guys something extra: the whole album. It's long been out of print, and the band is no longer together, so I see no reason as not to give you the whole shebang!
Part 1 (save file as a .rar file)
Part 1 includes the songs: "I'm Gonna See You", "Never Say Never", "Being With You", "Gagged & Tied", "Retreat From The Sun" and "Minneapolis".
What's great about this album is that it does mix the nice slow pop songs with....well, what is the best example of 60's pop meets 90's alternative rock. "I'm Gonna See You" and "Being With You" take a slow approach, using the girls harmonies like never before on their previous records. You could definitely see them playing these two songs on the beach infront of friends. With "Retreat From The Sun", the same thing, only in front of tourists for pocket change, for this has to be the suniest song ever, the rays are so damn bright on this thing. "Gagged & Tied" has the most incommon with Liz Phair, mostly songs where she's a bit more domineering. Then you have "Never Say Never" and "Minneapolis which are that dog. at their best. "Never Say Never" was the first song where I really noticed the bass line in a song so damn much....I still play air bass every time I hear it (check out the bass solo of sorts towards the end of the song). Then....there's "Minneapolis", which is my favorite song about long distance relationships. I've never really had one, but if I did, I would hope that the romance would be like this. When I sent this to my friend Sarah, we both agreed it sounded like her romance with her then boyfriend Andy (they're both musicians).
Part 2
Part 2 includes the songs: "Annie", "Every Time I Try", "Long Island", "Hawthorne", "Did You Ever", "Cowboy Hat" and "Until The Day I Die".
This is actually the...well, not quieter, but the calmer side of the album, with the exception of "Long Island", which is a quick burst of popity....goodness. "Annie" and "Did You Ever" are great mid-tempo songs, while "Every Time I Try", "Cowboy Hat" and "Until The Day I Die" are the slowest songs on the album, allowing Anna Waronker to stretch her voice a bit. But it's "Hawthorne", a song about high school life that still sticks with me for a long time. About seeing your friends play in their garages. Driving around California. I just love it.
Overall, this is thing will continue to be played over and over again. Probably till I wear the damn thing out. This is one of those CDs that I hope to pass down to my kids some day, because it's influenced me so much.
Bonus:
While Petra and Anna have been proficient in providing post that dog. music, Rachel hasn't. She produced one song (Poems, Prayers & Promises) for a John Denver tribute album, and that's about it. She's guested on many other band's albums (most notably Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American, which I loved and bought the day it came out due to her....way before those idiots saw them on MTV....how sad am I?) But now, with the internet being the way it is, it allows people to much more freely distribute their music, so I find out that Rachel has a Myspace site.
I have to check this out. This girl is in my Top 5 favorite bass players (others include Sarah Saturday, Manda Marble, Matt Sharp and Chris Cain....three who are friends, weird). And her voice, her damn angelic voice, her harmonies with her sister Petra and Tanya, man, can't go wrong. So I downloaded one of her songs:
Devil's In Me
Holy shit, wow this is good. As good as Petra. Damn you Rachel, release more songs! Do an interview with me! Something, please! You can download more of her stuff at her site. Check them out.
Retreat From The Sun is....well, it's that album that I throw on for my happy days, my sad days, my lonely days, my big days and my small days. It is my favorite album. Period. The best way to describe the album? I'll quote Stephen Thomas Erlewine: "Producer Brad Wood helps form these songs into shiny alterna-pop nuggets, making Retreat from the Sun into the best album Liz Phair never made." If Liz Phair had released this instead of....well, Liz Phair, she would still be atop the indie world's throne as their Queen.
Let's set the timeframe for this album. It was the winter of my Sophomore year. I was dating a girl name Kat and my infatuation for indie rock was growing. I had downloaded all of that dog.'s album Totally Crushed Out and I needed more. Me and Kat (and my mom, I was still 16 and without a license) were out shopping. We stopped at a used record store that no longer exists and went browsing. And there it was, sitting in the middle of a row of used CDs like it didn't matter. And it didn't, at the time. But after a few listens, two songs were played over and over. After a few more listens, four songs were played over and over. I kept playing it till every song was played over and over. I've probably listened to the album close to 1000 times, and that's a lot if you think about it.
What Anna, Petra, Rachel and Tony did for this album, it's just inspiring. If I ever had my own band (my pipe dream, for I need to learn an instrument), I'd play this whole album as my encore set. So instead of just posting a few songs, I'm giving you guys something extra: the whole album. It's long been out of print, and the band is no longer together, so I see no reason as not to give you the whole shebang!
Part 1 (save file as a .rar file)
Part 1 includes the songs: "I'm Gonna See You", "Never Say Never", "Being With You", "Gagged & Tied", "Retreat From The Sun" and "Minneapolis".
What's great about this album is that it does mix the nice slow pop songs with....well, what is the best example of 60's pop meets 90's alternative rock. "I'm Gonna See You" and "Being With You" take a slow approach, using the girls harmonies like never before on their previous records. You could definitely see them playing these two songs on the beach infront of friends. With "Retreat From The Sun", the same thing, only in front of tourists for pocket change, for this has to be the suniest song ever, the rays are so damn bright on this thing. "Gagged & Tied" has the most incommon with Liz Phair, mostly songs where she's a bit more domineering. Then you have "Never Say Never" and "Minneapolis which are that dog. at their best. "Never Say Never" was the first song where I really noticed the bass line in a song so damn much....I still play air bass every time I hear it (check out the bass solo of sorts towards the end of the song). Then....there's "Minneapolis", which is my favorite song about long distance relationships. I've never really had one, but if I did, I would hope that the romance would be like this. When I sent this to my friend Sarah, we both agreed it sounded like her romance with her then boyfriend Andy (they're both musicians).
Part 2
Part 2 includes the songs: "Annie", "Every Time I Try", "Long Island", "Hawthorne", "Did You Ever", "Cowboy Hat" and "Until The Day I Die".
This is actually the...well, not quieter, but the calmer side of the album, with the exception of "Long Island", which is a quick burst of popity....goodness. "Annie" and "Did You Ever" are great mid-tempo songs, while "Every Time I Try", "Cowboy Hat" and "Until The Day I Die" are the slowest songs on the album, allowing Anna Waronker to stretch her voice a bit. But it's "Hawthorne", a song about high school life that still sticks with me for a long time. About seeing your friends play in their garages. Driving around California. I just love it.
Overall, this is thing will continue to be played over and over again. Probably till I wear the damn thing out. This is one of those CDs that I hope to pass down to my kids some day, because it's influenced me so much.
Bonus:
While Petra and Anna have been proficient in providing post that dog. music, Rachel hasn't. She produced one song (Poems, Prayers & Promises) for a John Denver tribute album, and that's about it. She's guested on many other band's albums (most notably Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American, which I loved and bought the day it came out due to her....way before those idiots saw them on MTV....how sad am I?) But now, with the internet being the way it is, it allows people to much more freely distribute their music, so I find out that Rachel has a Myspace site.
I have to check this out. This girl is in my Top 5 favorite bass players (others include Sarah Saturday, Manda Marble, Matt Sharp and Chris Cain....three who are friends, weird). And her voice, her damn angelic voice, her harmonies with her sister Petra and Tanya, man, can't go wrong. So I downloaded one of her songs:
Devil's In Me
Holy shit, wow this is good. As good as Petra. Damn you Rachel, release more songs! Do an interview with me! Something, please! You can download more of her stuff at her site. Check them out.
posted by Bubba Da Cat at 2:55 AM
2 Comments:
Yay Haden sisters!
I thought I mention, in case anyone else is having trouble, I seem unable to download any of the files. I'm not sure what the deal is, but they're not working. They said (after the the 15 second wait) that an error occured and I should report it, but I couldn't tell to whom, so I'm lettin' you know!
Love the post... love that dog. All good things....
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