Thursday, January 15, 2009

I'm a sucker for a a man or woman strumming electric rhythm, espousing a certain kind of twinkle-eyed caddishness. Favorites: Ray Parker, Jr.'s "The Other Woman," the Go-Betweens' "Man O'Sand to Girl O'Sea," Lou Reed's "Don't Talk To Me About Work," Liz Phair's "6'1," Lloyd Cole's "She's a Girl and I'm a Man," Luna's "Rhythm King," the Silver Jews' "Random Rules." Reed of course invented this shit in the Velvet Underground, and the ethos flowered in mid nineties indie rock (the only strand of mid nineties indie rock I can listen to now).

The last seven or eight years have been rather slack, though; hip-hop, I suspect, has contributed most of the players. Any candidates? Franz Ferdinand comes to mind.

3 comments:

s woods said...

hmmm... trying to wrap my head around what you mean by this exactly. do the guitars in these records all sound alike? is the velvets rhythm you're referring to the one from "what goes on"? Intrigued by the inclusion of Ray Parker Jr. in this company.

Alfred Soto said...

It's a combination of an electric strum, languid vocal, and pussychaser lyrics.

s woods said...

heh, well that explains the inclusion of Parker and Lloyd Cole!