Burl Veneer’s Music Blog

Obscure covers: the Phenomenauts

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:55:20 -0700

Casting about for new music to listen to I came across the Phenomenauts, and the description sounded all right (something like "pop-punk with some synths"), and sure enough, they're pretty fun (and unlike so many pop-punk bands, they don't sound l...

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The soothing sounds of the Fender Rhodes

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:27:53 -0700

Mrs. V. and I are big fans of Zero 7; that is, of the Zero 7 songs that they did not invite Sia Furler to vandalize with her breathy, pouty, "ghetto twee*" vocal stylings. Verily, she is the Jar Jar Binks of downtempo. We're okay with the other ...

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Gotta wash that snake right out of my head

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:04:00 -0700

Why oh why has Whitesnake's "Fool For Your Loving" been running through my head for the last week? It's not that I have any affinity for the lyrics: "A hard-lovin' woman like you just makes a hard-lovin' man." What the hell does that even mean, ...

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UK Skronk part 2

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:36:52 -0700

I must stop beginning blog entries with "I must"--there's nothing like seeing identical openings stacked up in an RSS reader to point out a rut. My last UK skronk entry covered Clock DVA and Biting Tongues, both from 1981. Now we'll move on to B...

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UK Skronk part 1

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:38:11 -0700

I must come to terms with the fact that a blog entry is not a book, so instead of a definitive history of skronk in the UK, here is a brief survey of it. "Skronk" is a term attributed to Robert Christgau (by Lester Bangs) to refer to a certain ki...

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Filling in the gaps

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:50:54 -0700

Having had access to the college radio station record library during the 80s, not to mention the constant stream of new releases that came in, and then spending all my disposable income (plus future income, once I got a credit card) on imported Br...

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Speaking of breakbeat...

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:13:12 -0700

or just plain "breaks," as I was last time: The Prodigy is generally considered to be the definitive breaks act, and they have been the most visible, thanks to several videos centered around frontman Keith Flint's evil-clown persona. But Prodigy ...

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

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:24:08 -0700

Since I've put up two songs from Peter Hope's post-Box career, I should really put up something from the band that put him on the map. (You know, my map.) The Box was formed by the original ClockDVA instrumental lineup after being fired by bandl...

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Shawn Lee and soundtrack music

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:23:33 -0700

Shawn Lee has just put out yet another new Ping Pong Orchestra album! It's called Miles of Styles and, as the title suggests, it's got the most varied genres of any record in the series (and it's also double the length). The tunes are mostly ins...

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AOR addendum: New England

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:30:22 -0700

There was one more minor AOR hit I wanted to include in my last post, but there was no audio file to go into the Seeqpod player. "Don't Ever Want To Lose You Ya" by New England was one of many songs I taped off the radio in 1979, but never got th...

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