Burl Veneer’s Music Blog

The 80s are coming back

2008-05-13T02:50:27Z

They've been coming back for quite some time now (since 1990), of course, but now my 1980s are coming back. Since my recent post on Slab!, band member Stephen Dray has announced their imminent reformation (in the comments on this blog post), or r...

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I'm still listening to Nine Inch Nails (and Peter Hope)

2008-05-09T23:03:47Z

Here I am saying The Slip is the best Nine Inch Nails album since the first one when I haven't really listened to any of them since Broken. So I've been trying to catch up, going from recent to older; Year Zero and With Teeth are actually better ...

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Hold all calls, I'm listening to Nine Inch Nails

2008-05-06T22:48:38Z

I'm a Nine Inch Nails fan from way back. I was hanging out with my pal $ean at the original Kemp Mill Records where he was assistant manager the day Pretty Hate Machine came out; I bought one right out of the shipping box. I listened to it and k...

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The Iggy Pop-Peter Murphy connection redux

2008-05-06T02:35:39Z

Several weeks ago I wrote about Iggy Pop and Peter Murphy sounding nearly the same; just yesterday I discovered the live radio performances that Peter Murphy and Trent Reznor gave during the joint Nine Inch Nails/Bauhaus tour of 2006. Lo and beho...

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Ghostland Observatory: sometimes the hype is right

2008-05-03T13:14:33Z

Ghostland Observatory seem poised to be this year's Big Thing, leading to overexposure and backlash, but a month after listening to their new album, Robotique Majestique, I still have several of the melodies and choruses running through my head. ...

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Anti-War: Ted Leo

2008-05-03T12:08:20Z

I don't often listen to so-called "Indie Rock," because when I do I usually find it boring, precious, excessively wordy, and lacking any rock'n'roll gusto, and then I remember why I don't listen to Indie Rock. Sasha Frere-Jones ignited a big deba...

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Back to the funk: Brownout

2008-04-29T02:55:02Z

I've been spending a lot of my listening time lately back in the 80s and neglecting the funk, so I sought to remedy that today. I started listening to Brownout, the Latin funk band from Austin, and as soon as I heard "African Battle" I was hooked...

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Medeski Scofield Martin and Wood give me goosebumps

2008-04-26T16:00:13Z

I've liked Medeski Martin and Wood ever since I first heard them on the Get Shorty soundtrack (one of the grooviest soundtracks to a mainstream movie since the 70s), but I only ever got a couple of their albums. One that I bought was their first ...

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S Convergence: Sakamoto, Satie, Stewart, Sylvian

2008-04-25T02:29:27Z

Item 1: Mrs. Veneer buys Ryuichi Sakamoto's CD of solo piano pieces, BTTB. It's quite beautiful and Sakamoto mostly avoids the New Age clichés that plague so many piano CDs. Some of the pieces are obvious homages to classical works, such as "Opu...

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The Doors, funky?

2008-03-28T03:11:05Z

The Doors were accused of a lot of things, but being funky wasn't one of them. So I am naturally surprised when I hear Doors influences in contemporary funk; who'd'a thunk it? Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators (she's from Brooklyn, they'r...

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