ARTiST: Grant
TiTLE: Lee Phillips-Nineteeneighties
LABEL: Cooking Vinyl
GENRE: Indie
TiME: 44:00 min
SiZE: 52,2 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Jun-23-2006
RELEASE DATE: Jun-26-2006
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. Wave Of Mutilation 03:36
02. Age Of Consent 03:35
03. The Eternal 05:15
04. I Often Dream Of Trains 03:21
05. The Killing Moon 04:15
06. Love My Way 04:33
07. Under The Milky Way 04:29
08. City Of Refuge 03:36
09. So. Central Train (I'm Sorry) 03:25
10. Boys Don't Cry 03:46
11. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me 04:09
Release Notes:
"A tribute to the songwriters and artists who
influenced his own music, nineteeneighties features
Grant-Lee Phillips' stunning reworking of The
Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation," The Psychedelic Furs'
"Love My Way," REM's "So. Central Rain (Sorry)," and
many more.
Since forging an independent-solo career at the
outset of 2000, the former Grant Lee Buffalo front
man, has gone on to release three critically
acclaimed albums, toured the globe several times
over, composed musical scores for various
independent films, television and has even become a
reoccurring character on the WB's Gilmore Girls.
Appearing as The Town Troubadour, Grant-Lee
Phillips, has stepped into a familiar roll. A
lyrical chronicler, an astute observer whose songs
are at once deeply personal, reflective while ever
the barometer of the larger emotional times we
share. Most striking is the manner in which Phillips
continues to evolve, each album offering a new
flower of growth and confidence.
Phillips greets the spring of 2006 with a new
collection of his favorite cover songs.
"Nineteeneighties" is, as the title suggests, a
reframing of some of the era's most intriguing and
influential music. The result is a thoroughly smooth
listen and an insight into Phillips' creative
evolution, surely a fan's delight. The familiarity
of the song selection, which includes REM, The
Smiths, The Pixies among them, is sure to charm and
to gain new converts to the cult of Grant-Lee. Says
Phillips of "Nineteeeighties"; "It's my personal mix
tape, just as it has reeled around in my head for
decades. The more I got inside of these songs, with
not much more than a guitar or a piano, their
personality came through on new levels and my
appreciation for them deepenedà" Indeed the album is
a reminder of the debt owed to a generation of bands
and artists who labored well before such banners as
"underground", "indie, "alternative" were
commonplace. As Phillips himself puts it, "For every
hokey hair band there was once an alternative - a
parallel universe, existing just below the
conservative, pastel surface." Kicking off with the
single "Love My Way", originally recorded by
post-punk trailblazers, The Psychedelic Furs,
Phillips plans to take his songbook on the road this
summer. Says Phillips, " There's a wide field of
influences that were ingested long ago. Some of it
sticks with you forever. " The "Nineteeneighties"
collection has a personal root for Phillips as these
were the songs that coincided with venturing out on
his own, forming a band, trying on different ideas.
" A lot of us, who were fans, found real purpose in
the search of new music during the early eighties,
the discovery of something that wasn't readily being
delivered over the airwaves. Music that wasn't
yanked off a rack and, for the most part, wasn't
advertised, this was a treasure". MTV was still in
its infancy and the information highway was yet to
be paved. These were simpler times.
Adds Phillips, "Word of mouth was how many of us
found out about bands like The Clash and The
Buzzcocks here in the US. This and flipping through
a quarantined bin at the back of the record shop. If
labeled, it would've read, "Underground". Sorta'
like the record buyers version of that curtained off
section of the video store. The fact that you were
perusing this bin of perversion, said something
about your philosophy at the time, your mistrust of
the mainstream and your idealism that surely there
was more than this." Phillips sums up the spirit of
the era. " You went looking for "Your music". You
went looking for yourself. The same quest for
identity and individuality drove my own generation
into the thrift stores, well before they became
"vintage". Phillips' long adopted home of Los
Angeles was at the epicenter of the '80's
underground revolution. " I left my rural home of
Stockton, CA. in '83, arriving in LA just as bands
like the Dream Syndicate and X were stirring up
serious dust. There was a tangible upsurge of
artists who were releasing great albums on small
labels and this captivated me. The economy of punk
was in tune with the vitality of rock and roll's
origins, something I was equally curious about. Gene
Vincent, Eddie Cochran, and Elvis Costello's "My Aim
Is True" played seamlessly along side one another to
my ears."
A good deal of this selection is drawn from English
bands of the post-punk era, with the exception of
homegrown REM, Pixies and AU exports The Church and
Nick Cave." Phillips reminisces, "I was introduced
to Joy Division and New Order by a now departed
friend and former band mate, one who went too early.
In some ways this music was a means of sustaining
our connection. Songs can become markers in this
way, time capsules of dormant memories."
Nineteenighties is sure to stir memories for those
who came of age with the many tracks Phillips has
lovingly dusted off and given new life".
For The Record,
Richard Ellison